News Story not available This story has been published on: 2022-10-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. This story is no longer available on our site. Newspaper: October 31 trilateral meeting in Russias Sochi to not be groundbreaking US State Department: Armenia-Azerbaijan direct dialogue is key to resolving issues, reaching lasting peace Armenia MOD: No wounded soldiers in military hospitals who are in severe or critical condition Raisi: Terrorist attack in Shiraz will not go unanswered Turkey arrests doctor who called for investigation into chemical weapons use in northern Iraq Blinken: China has decided that the status quo in Taiwan is no longer acceptable Steven Mnuchin says China will face significant economic downturn that will affect rest of world German government allows Chinese company to buy reduced stake in Hamburg port terminal 'Corridor' between Armenia and Azerbaijan becomes subject of heated debate in European Parliament Awkward lunch: Macron humiliates Scholz in Paris Polish government prepares for 'potential use of nuclear or chemical weapons' by Kremlin Iran: Unknown shoot and kill 2 IRGC members EU calls on defense ministers of bloc countries to coordinate arms purchases What will Israeli defense minister discuss in Turkey Erdogan: We cannot allow 'terrorist organizations' to take the issue of Sweden's membership in NATO hostage KGB: Opponents of authorities will begin to rock situation in country in November-December Finance Ministry: Armenia plans to increase pensions in July next year Terrorist who carried out shooting in Shiraz is foreigner Saudi Arabia slams countries for using emergency oil reserves to manipulate prices Azerbaijani who fought in ranks of AFU killed in Kiev as result of Iranian drone strike Konstantin Zatulin: You don't have to be Armenian to love Armenia and Armenians Biden's approval rating approaches lowest level of his presidency just 2 weeks before election White House tones down its previous optimism about the midterm elections Ford Motor leaves Russian market by selling its stake in Sollers joint venture Council of Lazarev Club considers ban on Konstantin Zatulin to enter Armenia outrageous trick The New York Times: Saudi Arabia pissed off U.S. by derailing a secret deal Samvel Karapetyan: Various forces are pushing Armenia away from Russia, this cannot be allowed Dubai Silicon Oasis interested in cooperation with Armenia in IT sector Jens Stoltenberg announces his intention to visit Turkey Wiktorin: EU observation mission will ease tensions Saudi Aramco: European embargo on Russian oil increases uncertainty in global oil market Commander of Lithuanian Armed Forces against transfer of howitzers and air defense systems to Ukraine Armenian Finance Ministry gives outlook on economic activity and debt ratio Minister: Rehabilitation works after Azerbaijani Armed Forces' invasion continue About 230 kilometers of roads are being built and repaired in Syunik Bloomberg: Europe has more gas than it can use Pashinyan says he would like to sign Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal before end of year 168.am: President of Artsakh leaves for Russian capital Armenia's Pashinyan: I will attend trilateral meeting in Sochi Bloomberg: China's budget deficit since beginning of year approached record trillion dollars PM: There is expectation that CSTO will adopt roadmap to restore Armenias territorial integrity Pope receives Armenian FM Armenia ruling party convention to be closed to media Dollar falls, euro rises in Armenia Kremlin: Russia has information that Ukraine is preparing terrorist attack using 'dirty bomb' Governor underscores EU envoy to Armenias efforts in returning of Shirak Province POWs (PHOTOS) Putin: US is using Ukraine as battering ram against Russia, CSTO, and CIS Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak leaves Russia Russian military practices massive nuclear strike in response to nuclear attack of adversary Germany restricts visas for Iranian passport holders Belarus Foreign Minister visits Iran Iran expands sanctions against EU Zatulin says it is necessary to discuss relations between Russia and Armenia at different levels Ardshinbank is the only company from Armenia with assigned ratings from the big three credit rating agencies Armenia Security Council chief receives OSCE needs assessment mission members Kremlin comments on deployment of American division in Romania Iltalehti: draft bill on Finland's membership in NATO allows deployment of nuclear weapons Kremlin informs about preparation for Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan leaders meeting Armenia envoy briefs Costa Rica president on South Caucasus situation Legislature head on chances of Armenia leaving CSTO: There is very little time left for us to make decision Mercedes confirms intention to leave Russia Armenia parliament speaker: No document on table Air-raid alarm sirens to be installed in Estonia Armenia legislature head: PM will go to Sochi on October 31, meet with Russia, Azerbaijan presidents US State Department: Armenia, Azerbaijan should decide whether Putin's invitation would be useful to them US transfers to Ukraine first 2 NASAMS complexes Armenia National Assembly speaker: Phrase about signing peace treaty by years end is tacit deadline Armenia parliament speaker: We have 240 casualties as result of Azerbaijan attack Armenia FM in Vatican, meets with Substitute for Holy See Secretariat of State for General Affairs Israel president gives US intel on Iran UAVs in Ukraine Copper prices are rising World oil prices falling Armenia MPs approve several changes to laws FM: Armenia has never lost its belief in humanity despite facing many challenges, calamities Canada embassy to soon be opened in Armenia Biden: Russia would be making serious mistake to use tactical nuclear weapon Margarita Simonyan says she is banned from entering Armenia Newspaper: Artsakh Public Council establishment causes concern in political arena First sneakers for horses created in US India fines Google for $113 million Mass dedicated to peace in Armenia is celebrated at Vatican Saudi Arabia decides to be more mature guy in its quarrel with US Biden says Russia would make 'serious mistake' if it deploys tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine Ukrainian media report on Dnipro rocket attack Romania plans to intensify talks on Black Sea and military purchases Karekin II and Aram I refuse to participate in World Armenian Forum IMF Director: Ukraine's need for external financing could reach $5 billion month Turkey continues to beat out gas discount from Russia and payment deferral from Gazprom Alen Simonyan refuses to participate in fifth meeting of Russian-Armenian Lazarev Club New Serbian government plans to invest 12 billion euros in energy projects 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 YEREVAN. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan sent a congratulatory message to President Barack Obama of the United States, on the forthcoming US Independence Day anniversary. Honorable President Obama: Allow me to wholeheartedly congratulate you and the people of the United States on the occasion of Independence Day of the United States of America. Early next year, we will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our nations. Looking back on our journey, I note with great satisfaction that the Armenia-US relations have always been marked by cordiality, mutual trust and respect. We highly value the great support extended by the United States towards the development of Armenia's economy, the implementation of various reforms and the strengthening of our democratic institutions. Building on a strong tradition of fruitful cooperation and on the existing significant potential, Armenia stands ready to further deepen and develop the Armenian-American friendship and the close partnership. We greatly appreciate the US engagement, as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, in the Nagorno-Karabakh peaceful settlement process. The diplomatic efforts that followed the full-fledged military operation of Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh in the early April, 2016, have once again underscored the key role played by the United States in the peace process. Similar to the co-chair countries of the Minsk Group, we are also strongly convinced that the maintenance of the unlimited-in-time trilateral ceasefire agreements of 1994-1995 and the implementation of steps leading to the establishment of an environment conducive to negotiations, would serve as a strong foundation for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through exclusively peaceful means. We expect that the United States, jointly with the other co-chair countries - Russia and France, will continue its active mediation mission towards the establishment of a stable and durable peace in our region. Please allow me to once again congratulate you on Independence Day and to wish you and people of the United States continued progress and prosperity. Please accept, Mr. President, the assurances of my highest consideration, reads the congratulatory message of the President of Armenia, Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned from the Press Office of the President. US Independence Day is celebrated on July 4. Newspaper: October 31 trilateral meeting in Russias Sochi to not be groundbreaking US State Department: Armenia-Azerbaijan direct dialogue is key to resolving issues, reaching lasting peace Armenia MOD: No wounded soldiers in military hospitals who are in severe or critical condition Raisi: Terrorist attack in Shiraz will not go unanswered Turkey arrests doctor who called for investigation into chemical weapons use in northern Iraq Blinken: China has decided that the status quo in Taiwan is no longer acceptable Steven Mnuchin says China will face significant economic downturn that will affect rest of world German government allows Chinese company to buy reduced stake in Hamburg port terminal 'Corridor' between Armenia and Azerbaijan becomes subject of heated debate in European Parliament Awkward lunch: Macron humiliates Scholz in Paris Polish government prepares for 'potential use of nuclear or chemical weapons' by Kremlin Iran: Unknown shoot and kill 2 IRGC members EU calls on defense ministers of bloc countries to coordinate arms purchases What will Israeli defense minister discuss in Turkey Erdogan: We cannot allow 'terrorist organizations' to take the issue of Sweden's membership in NATO hostage KGB: Opponents of authorities will begin to rock situation in country in November-December Finance Ministry: Armenia plans to increase pensions in July next year Terrorist who carried out shooting in Shiraz is foreigner Saudi Arabia slams countries for using emergency oil reserves to manipulate prices Azerbaijani who fought in ranks of AFU killed in Kiev as result of Iranian drone strike Konstantin Zatulin: You don't have to be Armenian to love Armenia and Armenians Biden's approval rating approaches lowest level of his presidency just 2 weeks before election White House tones down its previous optimism about the midterm elections Ford Motor leaves Russian market by selling its stake in Sollers joint venture Council of Lazarev Club considers ban on Konstantin Zatulin to enter Armenia outrageous trick The New York Times: Saudi Arabia pissed off U.S. by derailing a secret deal Samvel Karapetyan: Various forces are pushing Armenia away from Russia, this cannot be allowed Dubai Silicon Oasis interested in cooperation with Armenia in IT sector Jens Stoltenberg announces his intention to visit Turkey Wiktorin: EU observation mission will ease tensions Saudi Aramco: European embargo on Russian oil increases uncertainty in global oil market Commander of Lithuanian Armed Forces against transfer of howitzers and air defense systems to Ukraine Armenian Finance Ministry gives outlook on economic activity and debt ratio Minister: Rehabilitation works after Azerbaijani Armed Forces' invasion continue About 230 kilometers of roads are being built and repaired in Syunik Bloomberg: Europe has more gas than it can use Pashinyan says he would like to sign Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal before end of year 168.am: President of Artsakh leaves for Russian capital Armenia's Pashinyan: I will attend trilateral meeting in Sochi Bloomberg: China's budget deficit since beginning of year approached record trillion dollars PM: There is expectation that CSTO will adopt roadmap to restore Armenias territorial integrity Pope receives Armenian FM Armenia ruling party convention to be closed to media Dollar falls, euro rises in Armenia Kremlin: Russia has information that Ukraine is preparing terrorist attack using 'dirty bomb' Governor underscores EU envoy to Armenias efforts in returning of Shirak Province POWs (PHOTOS) Putin: US is using Ukraine as battering ram against Russia, CSTO, and CIS Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak leaves Russia Russian military practices massive nuclear strike in response to nuclear attack of adversary Germany restricts visas for Iranian passport holders Belarus Foreign Minister visits Iran Iran expands sanctions against EU Zatulin says it is necessary to discuss relations between Russia and Armenia at different levels Ardshinbank is the only company from Armenia with assigned ratings from the big three credit rating agencies Armenia Security Council chief receives OSCE needs assessment mission members Kremlin comments on deployment of American division in Romania Iltalehti: draft bill on Finland's membership in NATO allows deployment of nuclear weapons Kremlin informs about preparation for Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan leaders meeting Armenia envoy briefs Costa Rica president on South Caucasus situation Legislature head on chances of Armenia leaving CSTO: There is very little time left for us to make decision Mercedes confirms intention to leave Russia Armenia parliament speaker: No document on table Air-raid alarm sirens to be installed in Estonia Armenia legislature head: PM will go to Sochi on October 31, meet with Russia, Azerbaijan presidents US State Department: Armenia, Azerbaijan should decide whether Putin's invitation would be useful to them US transfers to Ukraine first 2 NASAMS complexes Armenia National Assembly speaker: Phrase about signing peace treaty by years end is tacit deadline Armenia parliament speaker: We have 240 casualties as result of Azerbaijan attack Armenia FM in Vatican, meets with Substitute for Holy See Secretariat of State for General Affairs Israel president gives US intel on Iran UAVs in Ukraine Copper prices are rising World oil prices falling Armenia MPs approve several changes to laws FM: Armenia has never lost its belief in humanity despite facing many challenges, calamities Canada embassy to soon be opened in Armenia Biden: Russia would be making serious mistake to use tactical nuclear weapon Margarita Simonyan says she is banned from entering Armenia Newspaper: Artsakh Public Council establishment causes concern in political arena First sneakers for horses created in US India fines Google for $113 million YEREVAN. Tajikistan supports only a pacific resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and this is our principled position. Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov, who is visiting Armenia, on Saturday stated the aforementioned during the joint news conference with his Armenian counterpart, Edward Nalbandian, in capital city Yerevan. In Aslovs words, the Karabakh conflict also was among the main topics discussed during his talk with the Armenian FM. I expressed our deep concern by the escalation of the situation [in the conflict zone] this spring, [and] which led to human casualties and great losses, he stressed. Tajikistan continues its principled stance that all conflicts, including that of Nagorno-Karabakh, should be resolved peacefully. Thousands of Londoners gathered in the city center to protest against the Brexit, Reuters reported. As organizers earlier reported, about 40,000 people who were dissatisfied with the results of the June 23 referendum, will go through the entire center of the British capital to the parliament building. The similar action of protest took place in London a few days ago. That meeting on the Trafalgar Square was canceled for security reasons, but the majority intending to take part in it carried out the march. Those who voted on a referendum for preservations of membership in the EU, including officials, politicians, representatives of business and public organizations, participate in today's action which received the name "March for Europe". TBILIISI. With the April events, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev made an attempt to prolong his corrupt power and to distract attention of own society, Armenian delegate to OSCE PA Mikael Melkumayn said. Melkumyan delivered a speech at a meeting of General committee of the OSCE PA on economic problems, science, technology and environment, the special correspondent of Armenian News - NEWS.am reported from Tbilisi. At the meeting, the Committee discussed the report of the Italian parliamentarian Marietta Tidei associated with the problems of refugees, security, energy and garbage. Miqayel Melkumyan devoted the most part of the speech to the fact that as a result of April events real threat of new refugees is created. Armenian MP introduced to the parliamentarians the fascist attack on civilians of Martakert, Madagis, Talysh and other settlements, mockery over bodies of the dead, beheading of the Armenian military personnel all carried out by Aliyev's instructions. I also noted the need to stop the supply of weapons to such country as Azerbaijan. And, the most important, the international organizations, and OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in particular, should give an accurate legal and political assessment of the April events. We should continue the policy of presenting the truth about the events and have show to the international community what Azerbaijan is capable of, Miqayel Melkumyan emphasized. Emory University Statement Emory University has learned that two Emory students, Abinta Kabir and Faraaz Hossain, were among those taken hostage and murdered by terrorists yesterday in the attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Abinta, who was from Miami, was a rising sophomore at Emorys Oxford College. Faraaz, a junior from Dhaka, was a graduate of Oxford College and a student at the universitys Goizueta Business School. The Emory community mourns this tragic and senseless loss of two members of our university family. Our thoughts and prayers go out on behalf of Faraaz and Abinta and their families and friends for strength and peace at this unspeakably sad time. In the wake of this terrible loss, the university is offering support to members of our community through counseling services. 23:53 According to Rukmini Callimachi, The New York Times correspondent who focuses on Al Qaeda and ISIS, the Bangladesh attack claimed by ISIS is proving to be more sophisticated in terms of pre-planning than we have seen in the past. According to Callimachi, 'in keeping with the modus operandi pushed last year by Abdelhamid Abaaoud, planner of the Paris attack, the assailants in Bangladesh created a hostage standoff. The purpose of a hostage standoff was to extend length of operation & thus extend the press coverage, as well as a chance to make demands." "It now appears images of bodies lying in pools of blood next to bakery's ratan chairs were photographed by assailants and sent back to the IS. They may have tried to do this during the November 13 attack on Bataclan concert hall in Paris. Witnesses saw suicide bombers trying to get online," she said on Twitter. While asserting that social media had now made even the smaller, regional acts very effective in spreading the message of terror, Callimachi said: "Survivors (in Paris) reported that suicide bombers seized their phones; tried to surf the net, but the 3G network was out. Two witnesses saw a bomber whip out a laptop. But they did not succeed in getting images out." "But in Dhaka, they not only got images out but also details of the operation (turns out they were right when they said 20 people were killed). The information they fed out went straight to ISIS' core media operation, appearing in close to real time on ISIS' Amaq News Agency. One other aspect of planning: Like Paris attackers, they left behind images of themselves pre-attack. In this case posing next to IS flag." 17:31 Cautioning against expecting too much from central banks, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has said it is wrong on their part also to always claim a 'bazooka' left up their sleeves, even as he asserted that life is "very difficult" in emerging markets. In a panel discussion in Basel, Switzerland on lessons learnt by the central bankers from the global financial crisis, he also took on the industrial nations for expecting the emerging markets to be "orthodox" in their monetary and economic policies at a time when they themselves have "thrown out the orthodoxy out of the window". He was speaking at a panel discussion after the Per Jacobsson Foundation Lecture, delivered by JPMorgan Chase International Chairman Jacob Frenkel, on the occasion of the Bank for International Settlements Annual General Meeting. The lecture took place on June 26, but its content has been made public now only. Those participating in the panel discussion included Bank of Mexico Governor Agustun Carstens and Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau. The lecture took place within days of Rajan making public his decision that he would not opt for a second term as RBI Governor when his current three-year tenure ends on September 4. Referring to Frenkel's lecture that talked about unconventional monetary policies and the central bankers not being the only game in the town, Rajan said the question at the heart of his talk appeared 'why is the populism popular'. "In a way, he was making a desperate plea for orthodoxy and saying let's not abandon orthodox principles and I guess the converse of that is that populism has become popular. "I think if you want to talk about the institutional and environmental situation which supported the orthodoxy, the 80s and 90s, one would guess that it was a society where the elites were respected, where there was a feeling that they could understand and interpret the policies for the masses. "There was broadly a positive sum game... And actions were not interpreted as favouring one constituency versus another. There was a sense of coherence in the society, little more than today," he said. Rajan further said that when there is trust in the elite and there is no common economic paradigm, a lot of competing paradigms come up, some of which contradict the laws of economics and very little trust is left in the institutions. "Well, that's what we call an emerging market," he said. "It's the kind of environment we have worked in the past and we have tried to change that to try and say that there are some broad principles, there are institutions that we should build and yes that some people can be trusted, the experts can be trusted. It takes time to do that. "But my sense is that what the crisis has done is that in the industrial countries, created the kind of conditions that bring you back to the conditions we experienced in the emerging markets," he added. The requested page is currently unavailable on this server. Back to [RTHK News Homepage] NEW DELHI: Targeting the significant Hindi-speaking population in India, search engine giant Google has rolled out a new tab on Google Search for mobilephones that shows results both in English and Hindi at the same time. "Users in India would now be able to search for information online the same way they live: moving between multiple languages depending on the moment or the audience," said Shekhar Sharad, Product Manager, International Search in an official blogpost on Wednesday. Now, one can type a query in English and then flip the tab to read the answer in Hindi. "For example, if you'd like to ask questions about your favourite movies or celebrities, you can type them in English and then flip the tab to read the answer in Hindi," Sharad added. Users can now also look up health-related information and view the results in Hindi. The Google Search app shows up on most browsers, including Android or iOS mobile phone, and will improve over time. However, it is not be available on UCBrowser and Opera Mini, the blogpost said. The feature can be accessed in north Indian states like Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand, besides Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. Read Also: NASA's Juno Spacecraft Enters Jupiter's Magnetic Field Capgemini Sets Up Waste Management Centre In Bengaluru BENGALURU: The Indian Air Force on Friday inducted two home-grown light combat aircraft, forming its first squadron for the Tejas fighter, called the "Flying Daggers". The planes will be initially based in the IAF Sulur base in Coimbatore, allowing air force pilots to fly the single-engine fighter before it is deployed on operational roles. Eighteen more aircrafts, including four trainers would join the squadron by 2018. Air Marshal Jasbir Walia, Air Officer Commanding-in Chief, Southern Air Command, formally inducted the squadron at the Aircraft Systems and Testing Establishment in Bengaluru. Since the first flight of the LCA's technology demonstrator in January 2001, Tejas has flown nearly 3,200 sorties across regions in India, including desert and high altitude in the Himalayas, without any mishap a rarity in new aircraft testing globally. The aircraft has got an initial operational clearance and is expected to get the final operational clearance by 2016 end. The air force expects to raise six squadrons of the homegrown fighter in a decade. Tejas is a light weight, single engine, multi-role supersonic fighter that adopts fly by wire technology, computer controlled cockpit that helps pilots handle the plane better electronically. The aircraft is designed by Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), a unit of India's defence research and development organisation (DRDO). Hindustan Aeronautics, the public sector plane maker, will manufacture the aircraft at its facility in Bengaluru. "It shows the commitment of the IAF for the aircraft," Kota Harinarayana, chief designer and former programme head of the Tejas aircraft had said in January . "In the years to come, Tejas will be the backbone of the IAF. They have committed order for 120 aircraft, it is now for the production agency to deliver." In January, the chief of Indian Air Force Air Marshal Raha's flew on a trainer aircraft, officially signalling the formation of the squadron. In 2001, the then IAF chief Air Chief Marshal AY Tipnis had to be cajoled to be in Bengaluru to witness the first flight of the LCA. The test pilots of IAF's Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE) the elite school that tests and certifies every aircraft type used by the force have flown the single-engine supersonic fighter, according to the Aeronautical Development Agency. The aircraft is powered by a GE-404 engine and an advanced version that will see modifications in the structure. It will have a more powerful GE-414 power plant made by General Electric. Read Also: This Shape-Shifting 'Smart' Material Can Heal Itself Twitter Launches Dashboard App For Small Business Accounts BHUBANESWAR: For the third in two days, India on Friday test fired an Indo-Israeli medium range surface-to-air missile off Odisha's coast. The missile (MR-SAM) was fired from Launch Pad 3 of Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur at 10.26 a.m., defence sources said. On Thursday, the missile was fired from Chandipur twice. While the first test was successful, the second missile failed to hit the target, the sources added. The missile, which can hit targets within a 70 km radius, is designed to take on any airborne threat apart from aircraft and helicopters. It can also intercept supersonic aircraft and missiles. The missile has been jointly developed by Israel Aerospace Industries, India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Israel's Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure. Read Also: Google Rolls Out New Tab To Search In English And Hindi NASA's Juno Spacecraft Enters Jupiter's Magnetic Field A 19-year-old Indian girl, Tarishi Jain, was among the 20 killed by Islamic State terrorists in the siege on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital, the Indian government confirmed, while an Indian doctor who was taken hostage is safe. Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted that Tarishi was among the hostages killed in the Holey Artisan Bakery, a popular hangout for foreigners, in the high-security and affluent Gulshan diplomatic zone of the Bangladesh capital. "Tarishi was 19 years old. She passed out from American School Dhaka. Presently, she was a student at Berkeley," Sushma posted. Earlier, she wrote on Twitter: "I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka." "I have spoken to her father Shri Sanjeev Jain and conveyed our deepest condolences.The country is with them in this hour of grief," she wrote. Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs said Tarishi's father has been running a garment business in Bangladesh for last 15-20 years. "We are assisting family members who are travelling to Bangladesh, the sources said. An Indian doctor was also taken hostage but was among the eight people rescued on Saturday morning. According to the sources, Dr. Satyapal speaks fluent Bengali and came out as one of the Bangladeshis. The others rescued are all Bangladeshis. Besides, the Indian, the other killed included eight italians, some Japanese and South Koreans and some Bangladeshi. Three-four people are undergoing treatment in Dhaka, including two Sri Lankans, a Japanese and an Italian. Around 10-12 Bangladeshi staff of the bakery rescued in the morning have been segregated by police for interrogation. Three people escaped on Friday night, including an italian and a Japanese when the attack started. The 12-hour-long terrorist siege ended on Saturday morning, with the killing of six terrorists, and the capture of one gunman. Thirteen hostages were rescued. --IANS ab/rn/vm ( 332 Words) 2016-07-02-17:10:03 (IANS) EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in a statement also expressed the 28-nation bloc's "solidarity" with the country, bdnews24.com reported. "In this dark hour, we stand in solidarity with the people and the government of Bangladesh, as well as with the authorities and populations of countries who have also suffered in this attack," said the statement. At least 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, and two police officers were killed by seven gunmen who stormed into a restaurant on Friday evening in the diplomatic Gulshan enclave. The overnight hostage crisis ended on Saturday morning after an hour-long operation by army commandos. Six terrorists were killed and another was arrested, according to the army. EU High Representative Mogherini said, "terrorism is a global threat, and as the international community we have to tackle it all together." "Our first thoughts and deepest condolences go to all the victims and injured and their families, including those law enforcement officers who bravely lost their lives while seeking to thwart this awful crime." --IANS lok/bg ( 204 Words) 2016-07-02-22:06:37 (IANS) Valued in a groundbreaking development for the Indian entrepreneurial landscape, Venture Catalysts has secured an undisclosed amount from Zaffiro Ventures. VCats was valued at Rs. 40 crore during the investment process, marking a major landmark in the six months of its operations and underlining its position as the fastest growing seed investment platform in the country. "Our aim, ever since our launch, has been to support and augment the growth of promising start-ups across the country. The investment from Zaffiro will not only help us in expanding to multiple cities across India and promote entrepreneurship beyond the metropolitan and tier-I geographies, but will also allow us to access industry insights and business acumen gained by individuals such as Revathi Roy and Jagdish Gothi. This will add great value to our business approach and allow us to reach newer heights," said Co-founder Venture Catalysts, Dr Apoorv Ranjan Sharma. The latest announcement from VCats will be music to the ears of the country's entrepreneurs, start-ups and investors, as it hints at the establishment of a holistic, end-to-end start-up investment and support ecosystem across the country, including tier-II and tier-III cities. The platform recently expanded its operations into Surat to an extremely positive response and will be looking to establish its physical presence in five cities in 2016 with an aim to expand to five more cities in the next two years. "After interacting with VCats founders, we learnt how building a robust, end-to-end ecosystem to support and nurture new-age tech businesses can help raise the innovation quotient of the country," said Co-founder Zaffiro Ventures, Revathi Roy. "With the company already creating major disruption in the way start-up investment and support in the country is approached, it made more sense to integrate with their effort instead of reinventing the wheel by creating a completely new platform," added Revathi Roy. Having already enabled seven investments into high-value start-ups with the total deal size exceeding USD three million, Venture Catalysts will also be looking to leverage its association with Zaffiro to mobilize local HNIs as mentors and investors by connecting them to global ideas developed by disruptive start-ups under incubation at VCats. The platform already has over 600 angels as a part of its investor network and is looking to add 100 new angels in the next few months. Venture Catalysts will also be looking to leverage the strong industry relationships enabled through Zaffiro to augment its own array of strategic partnerships with the likes of Cox and Kings, HDFC, Plug and Play etc. By giving its investee start-ups access to some of the biggest corporate companies in India, VCats aims to increase their chances of success by enhancing business opportunities. (ANI) With Tripura remaining cut-off from the rest of the country for more than a month, efforts are on to transport foodgrains and fuel to the northeastern state through Bangladesh, a minister said here on Saturday. "The Food Corporation of India and Indian Oil Corporation have taken steps to transport foodgrains, petrol and diesel through Bangladesh. For this, the Guwahati-Dawki-Dharmanagar route and Bangladesh's Ashuganj river port would be used," Tripura Revenue and PWD Minister Badal Chowdhury told IANS. For over a month supply of essential commodities has been hit after the National Highway (NH-8) was badly damaged due to rain and water-logging. Following the Tripura government's appeal and the central government's intervention, IOC and FCI were prompted to take steps to transport foodgrains, petrol and diesel for Tripura through Bangladesh. In 2015, the Bangladesh government had allowed FCI to transport 35,000 tonnes of rice in different phases to Tripura through Bangladesh, using the Ashuganj river port and Bangladesh highways. Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on Friday held an emergency meeting with PWD Minister Chowdhury, officials of IOC, FCI, railways, PWD and transport departments. Chowdhury said: "If the central and Assam governments would have taken steps earlier to repair the NH-8, then Tripura would not have suffered. The Centre should be much more responsible for easing the sufferings of the northeastern states which are affected due to lack of proper surface connectivity." Chowdhury said top officials of the National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation, and PWD departments of Tripura and Assam on Saturday visited the troubled areas. Tripura PWD minister also talked to his Assam counterpart, Parimal Suklabaidya, and sought his personal intervention to overcome the crisis. Meanwhile, in a tweet, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said he has instructed officials to work on a war-footing to restore the NH-8 to improve connectivity with Tripura. Following the shortages caused by the disruption of both rail and road traffic, prices of essential commodities have increased in Tripura. An official of the food and civil supplies department said almost all the 60 petrol pumps in the state are dry for the past several weeks. Over 1,000 tankers carrying fuel from Guwahati are stuck in Assam's Karimganj district, adjoining northern Tripura. Petrol is being sold at Rs 200-250 per litre here. Tripura and other northeastern state are dependent on the highways for supply of essentials from across India. Tripura is badly affected because the 585-km NH-8 -- its only connection with the rest of India through Assam and Meghalaya -- was severely damaged at Lowerpoah in Assam and Churaibari adjoining southern Assam. About a 20-km stretch of the NH-8 has turned into a marshy field after heavy downpour, water-logging and unfavourable soil condition. The situation worsened as the train services between Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and southern Assam and the rest of India were cancelled for about two months due to the damage to railway tracks in mountainous Dima Hasao district in Assam. "We are trying to restore the train services within a week. Our workers and engineers are working round-the-clock to restore rail services," Northeast Frontier Railways Chief Administrative Officer Ajit Pandit told IANS. ---IANS sc/bim/bg ( 534 Words) 2016-07-02-17:44:03 (IANS) McConaughey will take 30 students behind the scenes of "Free State of Jones", through recorded studios, reports aceshowbiz.com. He is expected to make at least one visit to campus for the class. "By studying the movie's source material, script, shot lists, storyboards, shooting schedules, VFX, final cut and even exclusive behind the scenes footage, students will garner insight into the production of a major Hollywood feature," reads the course description. The 46-year-old actor, who is currently filming the adaptation of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower", graduated from the University of Texas in 1993 with a BA in radio, television and film. --IANS ank/nv/bg ( 144 Words) 2016-07-02-15:58:00 (IANS) The accused Ram Kumar is reportedly an engineer. According to reports, Ram Kumar, tried to kill himself when the police surrounded him. Earlier on Friday, last week, the 24-year-old woman employee of Infosys was hacked to death at Chennai's Nungambakkam railway station at 6.30 a.m. Swathi was on her way to work at Mahindra City, about 60 km south of Chennai. The Chennai Police had released a high-resolution image of the suspect in the murder. On Monday, the case was transferred from railway police to the Chennai police after Madras High Court's intervention. The police had discovered that the killer was a young man who was following Swathi since May. Police reportedly took the help of a Hyderabad-based digital forensic firm to take out high-resolution pictures of the accused. (ANI) The National Communist Party (NCP) on Saturday said that Sartaj Aziz, Adviser to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Foreign Affairs, was making false allegations by saying that India is using the Pathankot terror attack as an 'excuse' to delay bilateral talks, adding that there is no question of reluctance and escapism on part of New Delhi to carry forward the dialogue process. Speaking to ANI, NCP leader Majeed Memon said that India has always taken a lead in opening the talks at all levels, be it higher level or lower level. "After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's long interview, in which he touched this part... there was reaction by Sartaj Aziz, who said that India is reluctant to open talks because the Kashmir issue might crop-up, this is not a correct position," Memon said. "To say that we are not willing to talk is a false excuse. In fact we are always willing that let there be a bilateral talk to sort out every issue between the two sides. There is no question of reluctance and escapism... the allegation is totally false," he added. The comments come a day after Sartaj Aziz, stated that New Delhi was using excuses like the Pathankot terror attack to further delay talks with Islamabad on a range of issues crucial to both nations. Speaking in an interview, Aziz said that the priority for Pakistan has always been improved relations with its neighbours including India, and it remains so because without that, Islamabad's economic goals and revivals cannot be achieved. Asserting that Pathankot was no grounds for dialogues to be cancelled, Aziz added that talks also include terrorist related activities and both nations can also exchange progress reports on that basis also. "To that extend, I think we have succeeded. So we will continue to insist and urge that we should resume dialogue on all issues and try to improve out relation both in economic and non economic fields," Aziz said. Following Prime Minister Modi's statement where he placed the onus of stalled talks on Pakistan, Sartaj Aziz has claimed that New Delhi was avoiding dialogue with Islamabad to avoid negotiations on crucial issues such as Kashmir. (ANI) The Union Government has undertaken a review of the preparedness in prevention and control of dengue in the country. At a high-level meeting here yesterday, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J P Nadda said the government has taken all necessary steps to combat dengue in the monsoon season. The ministry has already issued 10 advisories to the state governments for dengue prevention and has held eight review meetings, including two video conferences to sensitise the states, he said. Mr Nadda was briefed on the ongoing preparations of the Health Ministry. The minister, who was taking stock of the situation, was informed that for augmenting diagnostic facility for dengue, the number of Sentinel Surveillance Hospitals (SSHs) has been increased to 527 till date. These are linked with 15 Apex Referral Laboratories with advanced diagnostic facilities. ELISA based IgM test kits are supplied by the Union Government through National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune. He also reviewed the awareness activities of the Ministry and said there was an urgent need to further enhance them for widespread awareness of dengue in the country. The Minister directed the officers to conduct supervisory visits to various hospitals in Delhi for assessing the situation, preparedness and to provide on-the-spot technical guidance to the health authorities. He also directed to organise meeting through video conferencing with state health ministers to review the situation. Mr Nadda will hold meetings with the Delhi Municipal Corporation and New Delhi Municipal Corporation to review the situation in the capital. Health Secretary B P Sharma, Special DGHS B D Athani, and other senior officers of the ministry were present in the meeting, an official statement said.UNI SD SW 1440 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0005-815968.Xml Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Dhaka.In a tweet, Mr Gnadhi, who is currently on a visit abroad, said, "Strongly condemn the #Dhaka attack. My prayers are with the ppl of Dhaka& B'desh.This senseless violence must be fought strongly & unitedly.''Condemning the attack in Dhaka, AICC media incharge Randeep Surjewala said, Another 26/11 like terror attack in Dhaka. Terrorists will never be able to overpower human spirit and resolve by such cowardice.''UNI AR SW 1443 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0092-816005.Xml Condemning the deadly terror attack in Dhaka which killed 20 people including one Indian, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday spoke to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and expressed his condolences. "The attack in Dhaka has pained us beyond words. I spoke to PM Sheikh Hasina & strongly condemned the despicable attack," the Prime Minister said in a series of tweets. Asserting that India stands firmly with its sisters and brothers of Bangladesh in this hour of grief, he added that his thoughts are with the bereaved families. "I pray that those who are injured recover quickly," Prime Minister Modi added. Earlier today, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed that an Indian national had been killed in the deadly attack in Dhaka and expressed her condolences to the family of the victim. "I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka. I have spoken to her father Shri Sanjeev Jain and conveyed our deepest condolences. The country is with them in this hour of grief," Swaraj said in a series of tweets. 20 people were killed by the gunmen who attacked the upscale cafe Holey Artisan and taking the diners in hostage in the diplomatic area of Dhaka last evening. The 12-hour-long hostage crisis at the cafe popular with foreigners ended after a two hour long assault by armed forces' commandos killing six gunmen. One assailant has been held by the security forces. Most of the victims were killed brutally with sharp weapons. Thirteen hostages were rescued in the operation which included two Sri Lankans and a Japanese. Though it was reported that the Islamic State claimed responsibility on the attack, the U.S. State Department has said it cannot yet be confirmed. The Islamic State has claimed a number of past attacks in Bangladesh through its media affiliates, but the government has consistently denied presence of the militant in the country. (ANI) Bereaved family members of 19-year-old Tarishi Jain, mourned her death after she was killed, as she was taken hostage by the gunmen in an upscale cafe Holey Artisan in Dhaka's diplomatic zone last evening. Twenty people including Tarishi were killed with sharp weapons by the gunmen after taking the diners hostage. Sirish Jain, Tarishi's cousin condemned the attack saying that it was a senseless act and said that he had received the news of the tragedy from the media. "You can understand that this is a rough time as we have lost our child. It's a senseless act. What's happening? Of course you hear such stories happening around the world but this menace is coming and hitting us directly and our family getting affected is something that one can never imaging in the wildest of their dreams," he told ANI. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed that 19-year-old Indian, Tarishi was killed during the attack. "Tarishi was 19 years old. She passed out from American School Dhaka. Presently, she was a student at Berkeley," Swaraj tweeted. Jain said that that he along with other relatives are trying to reach Dhaka as early as possible. "We want to reach Dhaka at the earliest. There is no one over there except Tarishi's mother and father. The External Affairs Ministry is quite helpful. They are arranging our visas. So we are trying to reach Dhaka as early as possible," Sirish said. Remembering Tarishi, he added that she went to study in America only last year for her bachelor's degree and was home for her summer vacations when the tragedy struck. He further said that his family is in touch with the Ministry of External Affairs and they are supporting them in every possible way. Meanwhile, Tarishi's family members in Firozabad city, who are still battling with the tragedy, have requested the Indian government to bring her body back to India. "We are trying to get information about her since we heard about attack as she had gone for dinner with her friends at that restaurant. The Government has spoken to Tarishi's father in Dhaka," Annie Jain, Tarishi's relative said. Tarishi's relatives informed that her parents had settled in Dhaka for the past many years and her father has a small business there. Apart from Tarishi, other deceased include eight Italians, some Japanese, South Koreans and some Bangladeshi nations. The 12-hour-long hostage crisis at the cafe popular with foreigners ended after a two hour long assault by armed forces' commandos killing six gunmen this morning. One assailant has been held by the security forces. Following the hostage crises Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reiterated her vow to stop militancy and terrorism in the country and reassured the citizens that her government will do everything to curb militancy and violent extremism in the country. She is scheduled to address the nation this evening. Though it was reported that the Islamic State claimed responsibility on the attack, the U.S. State Department has said it cannot yet be confirmed. The Islamic State has claimed a number of past attacks in Bangladesh through its media affiliates, but the government has consistently denied presence of the militant in the country. (ANI) Ambassadors of Ethiopia, France, Mozambique and Equatorial Guinea presented their credentials to the President at a function here. Diplomatic credentials are documents presented by foreign ambassadors and ministers to the chief of state of the host government. The documents, which follow a standard text, identify the diplomats as representatives of their governments and empowered to speak for them. The envoys who presented their credentials were - Ambassador of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Asfaw Dingamo Kame, Ambassador of France Alexandre Ziegler, High Commissioner of Republic of Mozambique Ermindo Augusto Ferreira and Ambassador of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea Manuel Mbela Bama Ndong. (ANI) After coming from Delhi,Mr Kejriwal will first visit Darbar Sahib and Durgiana Temple to pay obeisance before going to Ranjit Avenue, where he would unveil the Youth Manifesto of AAP, a party release said here today. The Youth Manifesto would not be merely a paper document, but an agreement between Youth and AAP, which the party would implement during five years after coming into power in Punjab. The Poll document is likely to address various problems of youth including Unemployment, Menace of Drugs and Education. The AAP national convener will be on three days visit to Punjab in which he would also visit the districts of Gurdaspur, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Khanna and Malerkotla and will interact with various sections of the people.UNI DB PR 2040 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0137-816836.Xml Gulshan police station duty officer Sayedur Rahman said that the shooting was possibly underway at a restaurant or a hospital. The Dhaka Tribune said at least 20 civilians had been taken hostage. Several gunmen reportedly entered the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe and opened fire. The cafe is described as being popular with expatriates, diplomats and middle-class families. The U.S. Embassy in Dhaka warned of the situation on Twitter, advising people to shelter in place and noting that a hostage situation had been reported. (ANI) Putin described the losses Finland would suffer as a NATO country. He said that NATO would be keen on fighting against Russia "to the last Finnish soldier alive", Xinhua reported. Putin warned that Finnish defence forces would no longer be independent but be part of NATO infrastructure that would reach the Russian borders. Putin made the remarks at a joint press conference after holding talks with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto. He arrived at Niinisto's summer residence in Naantali on Friday afternoon for a one-day working visit. On his part, Niinisto said small steps could be taken to enhance confidence, referring to the situation in Ukraine and the tension in the Baltic Sea area. Niinisto tied the possible dismantling of sanctions against Russia to the progress in peace talks on Ukraine crisis. Putin claimed that Russia never provokes and he said the West created the situation in the Crimea and Ukraine through provocations. He said attempt is also being made to increase tension in the Baltic Sea. --IANS sku/ ( 211 Words) 2016-07-02-06:40:02 (IANS) In a video that has appeared from Karachi, two-three people, claiming themselves to be supporters of Jihad, are seen asking for charity in broad day-light. "Please make strong your Mujahideen brothers by donating money. 'Jihad, Namaz roze ki tarah farz kia gaya hai'," the jihadis can be seen saying when they ask for charity. This development comes in the wake rangers in Karachi launching a crackdown on political outfits especially Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) while Jaish-e -Mohammad and other terror groups are freely operating from their land. This video is a proof against the false claims which the hostile neighbour makes, whenever India demands for concrete action against terror groups. (ANI) A former senator from Balochistan has expressed grave concern about the efficacy and future of the ongoing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, and advised the incumbent "elitist" establishment in Islamabad to forego its controlled policy of discouraging a national debate on the CPEC if it wants Pakistan to achieve prosperity and equality. In an opinion piece for The News, Sanaullah Baloch said that there is an urgent need for Pakistan to resolve some of its basic political problems with regard to the CPEC and its current implementation strategies, which in his view were harming a prestigious national project. "The recent statements from the military and civilian elite in Islamabad and the security forces that control Balochistan leave no room for a logical and positive dialogue on the CPEC and its implementation and long-term effects. And, in particular, representatives of an oppressed province are branded as traitors or as anti-development - which ultimately qualifies such voices to be one of the 'enforced disappeared' or targeted and killed," Sanaullah Baloch said. He further warned that separating politics from economics is a terrible idea, and advised that there is a need for wise policies to be taken to create an environment that generates economic activities, equality and inclusivity. Baloch said that when the people of Balochistan are being treated as "enemies who want to destabilise Pakistan and disturb its economic development", such statements and judgments result in a dangerous trend that "suffocates and stagnates discussion on issues of national importance." He further stated that a "controlled form of democracy" in Pakistan today, which is not at all healthy in both the short and long terms. "The Sindhis, Baloch and Pakhtuns are stakeholders in the CPEC. Their concerns about transparency, inclusivity, benefits, management and even the security aspect of the project must not be treated and translated as attempts to sabotage it. Media houses have been instructed to report 'all-is-well' stories about the CPEC and ignore the very pertinent protests, demands and ideas around this issue. Such policy of 'blackout' will neither help Pakistan nor our Chinese brothers to adjust their risk log and mitigation strategies according to local needs," he said. Sanaullah Baloch further advises Pakistan's military leadership to use its soft power to encourage oppressed, marginalised and exploited masses and groups to come forward openly and raise their concerns through a peaceful and democratic way. He also maintained that the CPEC is engulfed with "countless" corruption scandals related to contracts, a majority of which have been shelved in the name of 'national interest'. "To avoid mistakes and misadventures, it is the duty and constitutional responsibility of state institutions to encourage dialogue on a variety of issues..The CPEC is not a 'free lunch'. The project is structured on the bases of project financing not as an FDI, soft loan or a grant. Project financing has demanding requirements and in the CPEC's case there is no clarity and transparency on these agreements and arrangements," he said. "It must be ensured that the federating units and all the parties' obligations are negotiated and are contractually binding. Moreover, the sharing of risks and benefits brings all four provinces into a close and healthy relationship," he added. He said that the CPEC in its present state lacked transparency and inclusivity, and added that because of Balochistan's geographic location, strategic port and route, the province should have been given top most priority. "The facts indicate otherwise. The CPEC's early-harvest projects are in full swing in Punjab and Sindh. Out of $28.6 billion early-harvest projects, Punjab has the lion's share of $13 billion, Sindh $4.6 billion, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa $1.8 billion, Islamabad $1.5 billion, Gilgit-Baltistan $920 million. Balochistan stands with less than $660 million. Lacking 'economic viability', the $9 billion, 6,600MW Gadani Energy Park launched in 2013 has been shelved. The $360 million, 300MW, Gwadar Coal Power Project has also been shelved," he said. "To address such historical mistakes, the CPEC and any future economic policies and projects need to be inclusive - both in terms of design and implementation. A fearful environment has been created, discouraging any logical and productive discussion on the topic. Political parties are disregarded. The Balochistan National Party's January 2016 APC resolution and recommendations have been totally ignored," he concludes in his article. (ANI) The incident took place around 3:30 a.m. today when nearly seven to eight assailants knocked at the door of the priest's house in Satkhira Sadar Upazila. When the victim opened the door thinking it was the night guard, they stormed into in the house and attacked him with sharp weapons, reports the Daily Star. The police said, Bhabasindhu Bor, priest of local Sree Sree Radha Govinda temple in Brahmarajpur village of Satkhira Sadar Upazila, is undergoing treatment at the Satkhira Sadar Hospital and is in a critical condition. Yesterday, 45-year-old Shaymanonda Das, a Hindu priest at the Radhamadan Gopal Bigraha Math was hacked to death by three motorcycle-borne men in front of the temple in Jhenaidah district. Bangladesh has seen a surge in attacks on liberals and religious minorities in recent times. Islamic extremists are said be behind such attacks, with Islamic State having claimed responsibility for some of the killings. (ANI) Oli expressed condolence to the families of deceased, reports the Himalayan Times. The assailants, believed to be carrying assault rifles and grenades, had exchanged sporadic fire with police outside, hours after the attack began around 9 p.m. The 12-hour-long hostage crisis ended after a two hour long assault by armed forces' commandos killing six gunmen earlier in the day. One assailant has been held by the security forces. The Islamic State had reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack. (ANI) Transcom boss Latifur Rahmans daughter Simeen Hossain's youngest son, Faraaz Hossain was killed in the attack, bdnews24.com reported. Another victim Ishrat Akhond, a former head of a Dhaka art gallery, who worked in different companies as a marketing professional was also killed in the attack. The third victim has been identified as Abinta Kabir, 20, whose father is the son of Manzur and Nilu Murshed of Lavender, a super store in Gulshan. Faraaz had driven to the Holey Artisan Bakery located inside Dhakas diplomatic zone on Friday evening before seven heavily armed attackers stormed it taking the diners hostage. He was the youngest among two brothers, he was a lively youth. He was working as an intern at Transcom group, Syed Md Tahnun Ishtiaque Riyadh, a marketing official for the conglomerate said. Akhond, Human Resources Director at ZXY International FZCO, was also arts provocateur at the Institute of Asian Creatives. She was formerly a marketing director at Westin Hotels and a manager at Grameenphone. Islamic State (IS) militants also killed an Indian with sharp weapons before security forces rescued 13 hostages and gunned down six terrorists on Saturday morning, ending an overnight siege. --IANS ask/rn/bg ( 227 Words) 2016-07-02-19:34:04 (IANS) All the attackers in the assault on a cafe in Dhaka in which Islamic State terrorists slaughtered 20 civilians, mostly foreigners, including an Indian, were Bangladeshi citizens and five of them were wanted by police. Police Inspector General Shahidul Hoque told CNN that police had tried to arrest these five militants previously. Authorities also released the nationalities of the 20 hostages who were found dead inside the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe after Bangladeshi troops stormed the cafe early Saturday morning, ending an overnight siege. According to the country's Joint Force Command, nine of the victims were Italian, seven were Japanese, one was from India, two were Bangladeshi and one was a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin. Eleven of the victims were male and nine were female. Two police officers were also killed in a gunfire exchange earlier in the standoff, authorities said. Security forces rescued 13 hostages and killed six gunmen on Saturday morning, ending the nation's worst hostage crisis, being termed as Bangladesh's '7/16'. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called a two-day state mourning for the victims, who included nine Italians, seven Japanese, three Bangladeshis and an Indian teenager, at the Holey Artisan caf in the diplomatic area of Gulshan in Dhaka. One of the gunmen, injured in the shootout, was captured, while 13 hostages were rescued at the end of the 12-hour siege. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have condemned the attack. Modi called up Sheikh Hasina and condemned the "despicable attack" and said that India "stands firmly with our sisters and brothers of Bangladesh" in this hour of grief. Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed the killing of 19-year-old Tarishi Jain of Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh. "Tarishi was 19 years old. She passed out from American School Dhaka. Presently, she was a student at Berkeley," Sushma posted. In Dhaka, Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury, director of military operations, told reporters that "most of the victims were killed brutally with sharp weapons". The attack began at 8.45 p.m. when around 20-22 guests were at the Holey Artisan Bakery downstairs and the O'Kitchen Restaurant upstairs, a cafe popular with foreigners. The gunmen, shouting "Allahu Akbar" raided the cafe and took hostages, and slaughtered those who were unable to recite the Quran, said rescued hostages. Later, the area was sealed off, and following directives from Prime Minister Hasina, the armed forces along with the Rapid Action Battalion and police launched an assault, codenamed 'Operation Thunderbolt', in the morning. The siege ended at 8.30 a.m. Prime Minister Hasina, condemning the "extremely heinous act", vowed to root out terrorism from the country, which has seen a spate of deadly attacks by Islamic State and Al Qaeda-linked militants on progressive academics, writers, activists and religious minorities in the Muslim majority country. "We'll establish Bangladesh as a peaceful stateNo conspiracy can hinder our advancement," she said in a nationally televised address. "What kind of Muslims are these people? They don`t have any religion. People must resist these terrorists. My government is determined to root out terrorism and militancy from Bangladesh," she said. Officials said the 13 rescued hostages included a Japanese and two Sri Lankans. The Bangladeshi branch of the Islamic State claimed the attack through its mouthpiece, the Amaq news agency, saying 24 people "of different nationalities" were killed and 40 others were injured. The Daily Star reported that hostages were made to recite verses from the Quran and those who could were not harmed. The attack has also been condemned by other countries, including Pakistan and Malaysia, while the European Union has also voiced condemnation. --IANS sku/ ( 628 Words) 2016-07-03-02:10:02 (IANS) The White House on Saturday condemned the terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic State (IS) terrorists in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in which 20 people were killed, including an American and Indian citizen. We remain in contact with Bangladeshi authorities and have offered any assistance necessary, Politico.com quoted White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest as saying. Our deepest condolences go out to the families and loved ones of those killed, and we hope for a speedy recovery for those wounded, a statement from the White House continued. This is a despicable act of terrorism, and the United States stands with Bangladesh and the international community in our resolve to confront terrorism wherever it occurs, the statement added. All the attackers in the assault on a cafe in Dhaka were Bangladeshi citizens and five of them were wanted by police. Police Inspector General Shahidul Hoque told CNN that police had tried to arrest these five militants previously. Authorities also released the nationalities of the 20 hostages who were found dead inside the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe after Bangladeshi troops stormed the cafe early Saturday morning, ending an overnight siege. According to the country's Joint Force Command, nine of the victims were Italian, seven were Japanese, one was from India, two were Bangladeshi and one was a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin. Eleven of the victims were male and nine were female. Two police officers were also killed in a gunfire exchange earlier in the standoff, authorities said. Security forces rescued 13 hostages and killed six gunmen on Saturday morning, ending the nation's worst hostage crisis, being termed as Bangladesh's '7/16'. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called a two-day state mourning for the victims, who included nine Italians, seven Japanese, three Bangladeshis and an Indian teenager, at the Holey Artisan caf in the diplomatic area of Gulshan in Dhaka. One of the gunmen, injured in the shootout, was captured, while 13 hostages were rescued at the end of the 12-hour siege. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have condemned the attack. Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed the killing of 19-year-old Tarishi Jain of Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh. "Tarishi was 19 years old. She passed out from American School Dhaka. Presently, she was a student at Berkeley," Sushma posted. The attack began at 8.45 p.m. when around 20-22 guests were at the Holey Artisan Bakery downstairs and the O'Kitchen Restaurant upstairs, a cafe popular with foreigners. The gunmen, shouting "Allahu Akbar" raided the cafe and took hostages, and slaughtered those who were unable to recite the Quran, said rescued hostages. Officials said the 13 rescued hostages included a Japanese and two Sri Lankans. The Bangladeshi branch of the Islamic State claimed the attack through its mouthpiece, the Amaq news agency, saying 24 people "of different nationalities" were killed and 40 others were injured. The Daily Star reported that hostages were made to recite verses from the Quran and those who could were not harmed. The attack has also been condemned by other countries, including Pakistan and Malaysia, while the European Union has also voiced condemnation. --IANS sku/ ( 542 Words) 2016-07-03-03:20:01 (IANS) PARIS, July 1 (Xinhua) -- French communication leader Publicis announced Friday it signed a strategic partnership agreement with Chinese internet leader Tencent, which operates the most popular social media platform in China, Wechat. Publicis said that through this partnership, the two companies will launch an incubation facility to curate, invest in and cultivate the start-ups of the future. This will provide breakthrough offerings to clients in data and ad technology as well as across new virtual reality augmented reality-enabled platforms. In the data sector, Tencent will offer Publicis access to its online behavioral data, benefiting clients through improved programmatic offerings, cross-screen planning capabilities and conversion performance. According to Publicis, the two companies will also partner on the creation and investment of web native content to drive unique content opportunities and new content models for clients. Publicis chairman Maurice Levy said: "China continues to lead the world in advertising growth especially in digital and mobile and we increasingly see new ideas and technology that leapfrog the West. We are honored to be Tencent's first-ever global partner and look forward to everything we will achieve together for the benefit of our clients." Senior executive vice president of Tencent and president of its Online Media Group Seng Yee Lau said: "In parallel, this collaboration will give brands and organizations around the world a better understanding of China's unique and dynamic mobile internet development, while creating huge business opportunities associated with this new market." Publicis is a leading marketing, communication and digital transformation firm present in over 100 countries with nearly 80,000 professionals. Tencent was founded in Shenzhen in 1998 and its social media application Wechat has more than 700 million users. Enditem BELGRADE, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The steel mill in the Serbian city of Smederevo is officially in ownership of Chinese HeSteel since Friday, and the 46-million-euro (51.6 million U.S. dollars) deal becomes a reality, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic announced here on Friday. Vucic opened a press conference at the government building, announcing the takeover of the steel plant. He stressed that this acquisition is of vital interests for Serbia and its citizens. "I wish them luck and success. Money has been transferred to the account, all 46 million euros. I Congratulate them, and I wish them to increase production at the steel mill, strengthening Smederevo as an industrial city and advancing it into a more prosperous and successful place," he said. The Smederevo steel mill, founded in 1913, experienced difficulties and was acquired by China's HeSteel Group (HBIS) in April this year. The Chinese steel group plans to invest at least 300 million euros (337.6 million dollars) and turn it into one of the most competitive steel mills in Europe. The Chinese company employed all the 5,000 or so workers of the plant. Vucic said that in the hands of HeSteel, the country's sole steel mill who has been in desperate need for a new owner, can now become the motor of the economy for the country, struggling to increase its growth and reduce economic deficit. "I wish that they bring even faster development to our Serbia," Vucic concluded. Enditem WASHINGTON, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The White House announced on Friday that between 64 and 116 civilians were killed in U.S. strikes outside areas of active war zones from 2009 to 2015. In its first public assessment of civilian casualties of U.S. counterterrorism strikes, the White House said in a summary released on Friday that as many as 473 U.S. strikes were conducted in Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and North Africa. Civilian casualties in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria were not included in the summary. Few details were offered about the strikes and the people who were killed, provoking criticism from human rights groups which called for more transparency of the U.S. counterterrorism strikes, especially the U.S. drone program. The drone war initiated in the wake of 9/11 terrorist attacks by former U.S. President George W. Bush, continues to be one of the Obama administration's trump cards. According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a British non-profit, the Obama administration conducted its first drone strikes shortly after Obama began its presidency in 2009. Although there were reports of alleged "militants" killed, said the group, at least 14 civilians were also killed that day. Up till Friday, the U.S. government had kept almost all information relevant to its drone attacks classified. Related: 30 killed in Saudi-led airstrikes and U.S. drone strike in Yemen ADEN, Yemen, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-led military coalition launched airstrikes against the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen's southwestern governorate of Taiz on Tuesday, killing about 20 people, local residents told Xinhua. Missiles from the Saudi-led warplanes mistakenly hit a local fuel-dealing black market in Rahidah district of Taiz, according to the residents. Full story Taliban shadow governor killed in airstrike in E. Afghanistan: police GHAZNI, Afghanistan, June 18 (Xinhua) -- About five Taliban militants, including a Taliban shadow governor, were killed following an airstrike in eastern Afghan Ghazni province overnight, deputy provincial police chief said Saturday. "Based on a confirmed tip-off, the coalition forces carried out a drone strike in Payinda Khil village, Aab Band district last night. As a result Mullah Qasim, Taliban so-called governor for Ghazni, along with four of his men, were killed," Assadullah Shoujahi told Xinhua. Full story Senior leader of al-Shabaab targeted by U.S. airstrike: Pentagon WASHINGTON, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The Pentagon said on Wednesday it had conducted an airstrike against a senior leader of the al-Qaeda-affiliated extremist group al-Shabaab in Somalia. PARIS, July 1, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong speaks during the China-France Healthy Aging Forum in Paris, France on July 1, 2016. Visiting Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong on Friday participated in the China-France Healthy Aging Forum and delivered a speech. (Xinhua/Xu Jinquan) PARIS, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong on Friday participated in the China-France Healthy Aging Forum and delivered a speech. Liu said the exchanges in health between China and France has a long history. France is one of the first western countries to contact, practice and improve traditional Chinese medicine. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations, China and France have opened a new chapter of exchanges in health, and have realized fruitful results in public health, medicine research and development, hospital management, among others. The two countries also conducted positive cooperation in the fight against Ebola in Africa, which highlighted the great potential in third party cooperation between Chin and France, Liu added. The Chinese vice premier said France is the first country in Europe to set up a system of nursing care intervention for the elderly, and sets up an example for the world for its system of elderly care service. According to her, China takes healthy aging as an important part of its national strategy Healthy China, and it is committed to deepen the reform of China's medical and health care system, promote the integration of medical and health care system with the system of elderly care service, and improve the system for elderly health support. The practical cooperation between China and France in health and their joint efforts to promote healthy aging not only can help improve health and well-being of the elderly of the two countries, but also has a global meaning, Liu said. She called on the two sides to strengthen policy dialogues and joint researches, promote mutual learning of each other's policies, and share measures and experience in innovating healthy aging systems. Liu added the two sides should also expand personnel and technical exchanges and cooperation, step up efforts to train nursing care personnel for the elderly, deepen cooperation in geratology between medical universities, and contribute to the technological development of geratology. China and France should also strengthen global health cooperation, deepen third party cooperation, and face the new challenges of global public health, Liu concluded. DHAKA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- A senior police official has been killed in a gunfire exchange between police and gunmen who seized a Spanish restaurant in Bangladesh capital Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on Friday night. At least 30 people including two more senior police officials were injured in the incident. "Salahuddin Ahmed, officer-in-charge of Banani police station in capital Dhaka, was shot dead as the gunmen opened fire at the law enforcers after taking hostages at a Spanish restaurant," a police official told Xinhua but did not like to be named. Several people including foreign nationals are believed to be held hostage after police exchanged fire with the group of criminals. Sources said five to six unidentified miscreants entered one Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant where usually foreigners go for eating food and opened gunfire around 9:20pm. As huge number of policemen cordoned off the restaurant, the miscreants opened fire at the law enforcers. Attackers also hurled bombs at policemen. It is not immediately known whether the injured people included a foreigner. "We're trying to end the hostage crisis peacefully," Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Chief Benzir Ahmed told journalists in his brief comment. He could not tell immediately how many people are caught up inside the restaurant. It is not immediately known whether the injured included a foreigner. It's not known what the gunmen have been demanding to free the hostages. Sources said Islamist militants may have involvement in the attack. Enditem DHAKA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen have shot dead two police officials, police said, in the first attack on a foreign restaurant in Bangladesh claimed by Islamic State (IS) group jihadists. Around five hours into the attack, according to a jihadist threat monitoring portal, SITE Intelligence Group, IS claimed its responsibility of attacking the Spanish restaurant . The gunmen stormed the restaurant in Bangladesh capital Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on Friday night at about 9:00 p.m. local time. The authenticity of the IS claim has not been confirmed by Bangladesh Police. "Salahuddin Khan, officer-in-charge of Banani police station in capital Dhaka, was shot dead as the gunmen opened fire at the law enforcers shortly after taking hostages at the Spanish restaurant," a police official told Xinhua. The official who did not like to be named said around midnight, another senior officer named Robiul succumbed to the injuries he sustained during the fire exchange. At least 40 people including two more senior police officials were injured in the incident. Dozens of people including several foreign nationals are believed to be held hostage after police exchanged fire with the group of criminals. Sources said five to six unidentified miscreants entered the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant where usually foreigners go for eating and opened gunfire around 9:20 p.m.local time. As a huge number of policemen cordoned off the restaurant, the miscreants opened fire at the law enforcers. Attackers also hurled bombs at policemen. It is not immediately known whether the injured people included a foreigner. "We're trying to end the hostage crisis peacefully," Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Chief Benzir Ahmed told journalists in his brief comment. He could not tell immediately how many people are caught up inside the restaurant. Bangladesh have already called in personnel from all of its special forces to end the crisis. Sources said gunmen have been asking to release a leader of banned militant outfit JMB who has recently been arrested. Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh or JMB, campaigning for establishment of Islamic rule in Bangladesh, carried out a series of bombings in 63 out of the country's 64 districts, including capital Dhaka on August 17, 2005, leaving two people dead and 150 others injured. Hundreds of JMB leaders and activists were rounded up while six top leaders of the group, including Shaikh Abdur Rahman, were hanged in 2007. According to the sources, the gunmen are also demanding safe exit for them. Related: Security forces free new areas from IS militants in Iraq BAGHDAD, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces on Thursday freed several areas and villages from the Islamic State (IS) militants in central and northern Iraq, security sources said. In the western province of Anbar, the security forces and allied paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units recaptured the areas of al-Hessi and Albu Eifan in southwest of the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, after clashes with the IS militants, leaving at least 17 militants killed and destroying three of their vehicles, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Full story Lebanese army says foils two planned IS attacks BEIRUT, Jun 30 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese army said Thursday that it had foiled two planned attacks by the Islamic State (IS) aiming at a tourist facility and a densely populated area in Lebanon. "The army managed to thwart a highly dangerous scheme planned by the IS," the Guidance Directorate, the army's intelligence department, said in a statement. Full story Hundreds of IS militants killed in airstrikes near Fallujah BAGHDAD, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Islamic State (IS) militants were killed in a series of airstrikes targeting their convoys early Wednesday when they fled Iraq's Fallujah, a provincial security source said on Thursday. CANBERRA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Polls in Australia's Federal election have opened with voters to cast their votes in what is forecasted to be a tight contest on Saturday. Australian voters will choose between the incumbent center-right Liberal-National Party coalition led by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and Bill Shorten's center-left Labor Party. A two-party poll released by Newspoll on Saturday gave the coalition a slight edge at 50.5 per cent to Labor's 49.5 per cent while a Fairfax poll published on Friday had the two parties locked in a dead heat at 50 per cent each. Over 12 million Australians are expected to cast their votes on Saturday with another million taking advantage of early voting in the week leading up to the election. Both Turnbull and Shorten used the last full day of the campaign to urge voters not to be cavalier with their votes. This is not a time to make a protest vote. This is a time to treat your vote as though that is the single vote that will determine the next government, Turnbull told reporters in Sydney on Friday. Turnbull and Shorten both spent Saturday morning campaigning in marginal electorates in the Western suburbs of Sydney which are considered key to both party's hopes of winning the election. The party that secures 76 of 150 seats in the House of Representatives will form government with all 76 seats in the Senate also up for election for the first time since 1987. The Liberal-National coalition and Labor are also facing significant challenges from minor parties such as the Greens and independents who could win enough Senate seats to hold the balance of power in parliament's upper house. Turnbull set the election date on May 9, prompting an extended eight-week campaign, after independent Senators blocked Liberal-backed legislation from being passed into law. WASHINGTON, July 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday urged Congress to end its deadlock to pass a bill on funding the development of a vaccine for Zika virus. "The problem is right now that money is stuck in Congress," Obama said after meeting with top health officials in the White House. Obama said the United States is "fairly confident" that an effective vaccine for Zika can be developed in "fairly short order" with the proposed funding. Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked a Republican-sponsored 1.1-billion-dollar bill to combat the mosquito-borne Zika virus since it was short of Obama's 1.9-billion-dollar funding request and included procedures that needs funding from other health institutes. Obama criticized Republican lawmakers for playing politics in reducing the funding, citing his proposal was based on the assessment of scientists and experts. "It's been politics as usual rather than responding smartly to a very serious public health request," he said. Obama said he expected Congress to get the funding done before the lawmakers leave for summer recess in August. "So Congress should not leave, should not adjourn until they have this done," Obama said, adding that there is a chance to develop a vaccine quickly as long as Congress passes the funding bill in the next two weeks. Zika virus has aroused concerns across the United States because of the increasing number of infants affected with microcephaly and severe fetal brain abnormalities. Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause a serious birth defect called microcephaly, as well as other severe fetal brain defects. The babies born with microcephaly tend to have small heads and will experience severe developmental problems. So far, no local mosquito-borne Zika virus case has been reported in the continental United States, but there have been 935 imported cases of Zika virus infection, including 287 cases of pregnant women, related to travellers entering the country after contracting the virus abroad. UNITED NATIONS, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council will hold the first of its three secret, non-binding straw polls on selection of the next UN secretary-general on July 21, the panel's president announced here Friday. Ambassador Koro Bessho of Japan, who assumed the rotating Security Council president for July on Friday, announced the date during a briefing with reporters on the program of work for the panel during July. No dates were set for the second and third straw polls. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will retire on Dec. 31 after serving two five-year terms and diplomats are working to make selection of his successor more transparent. "There is an agreement that we would like to move the process along as expeditiously as possible so that we can have a decision at an early date which will make it possible for the chosen candidate to prepare to be the (next) secretary-general," Bessho said. "As far as the date for a second straw poll is concerned, it is not decided at this moment." "The straw poll is done so that the candidates themselves and the countries who are recommending the candidates can make up their minds as to how to proceed from there," he said. "The same for the Security Council members. They need to consider the results of the straw poll and to think about the next step. Some countries will say that they would need some time to consider between the first poll and second poll and third poll." It is up to the 15-member Security Council to recommend a candidate to the 193-member General Assembly to approve appointment of a secretary-general. Already there are 11 announced candidates vying to succeed Ban on Jan. 1, 2017. President Mogens Lykketoft of the UN General Assembly, in a bid to make the choice of secretary-general more transparent, invited announced candidates to appear at hearings before the assembly earlier this year to make mission statements and undergo a round of questions. UNITED NATIONS, July 1 (Xinhua)-- The UN Security Council on Friday expressed "deep alarm at the fighting" in Wau, a town in northwestern South Sudan, which broke out on June 24 and has resulted in the displacement of an estimated 70,000 people, including 12,000 sheltering near the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) base in Wau. The 15-nation council, in a statement issued to the press here, called on all armed actors immediately to cease hostilities and allow UNMISS and humanitarian access to civilians in need, including a school where 9,000 civilians are reportedly sheltering. "The members of the Security Council acknowledged the formation of the investigation committee by the Transitional Government of National Unity and urged the Transitional Government of National Unity to quickly investigate the attack and hold those responsible to account," the statement said. South Sudan has confirmed that at least 43 people were killed in fighting which began last week between armed groups and government forces in Wau. The fighting erupted last week after the dismissal of the incumbent governor of Wau by South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, leading to instability in the town, with fighting breaking out between the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and youth associated with the opposition. "The members of the Security Council expressed deep concern over the ongoing violence throughout the country and demanded that the parties to the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan expedite implementation of all aspects of the Agreement as a means to restoring peace in South Sudan," the statement said. The council members reiterated that attacks against civilians may constitute war crimes and those involved could be potentially subject to sanctions as authorized under resolution 2206 (2015) for actions that threaten the peace, security or stability of South Sudan, it said. Argentina's Environment and Public Space Ministry fumigation brigade members spay insecticide in an area of Saavedra Park, in an effort to control the Aedes aegypti mosquito, in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, on Feb. 11, 2016. (Xinhua/Martin Zabala) WASHINGTON, July 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday urged Congress to end its deadlock to pass a bill on funding the development of a vaccine for Zika virus. "The problem is right now that money is stuck in Congress," Obama said after meeting with top health officials in the White House. Obama said the United States is "fairly confident" that an effective vaccine for Zika can be developed in "fairly short order" with the proposed funding. Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked a Republican-sponsored 1.1-billion-dollar bill to combat the mosquito-borne Zika virus since it was short of Obama's 1.9-billion-dollar funding request and included procedures that needs funding from other health institutes. Obama criticized Republican lawmakers for playing politics in reducing the funding, citing his proposal was based on the assessment of scientists and experts. "It's been politics as usual rather than responding smartly to a very serious public health request," he said. Obama said he expected Congress to get the funding done before the lawmakers leave for summer recess in August. "So Congress should not leave, should not adjourn until they have this done," Obama said, adding that there is a chance to develop a vaccine quickly as long as Congress passes the funding bill in the next two weeks. Zika virus has aroused concerns across the United States because of the increasing number of infants affected with microcephaly and severe fetal brain abnormalities. Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause a serious birth defect called microcephaly, as well as other severe fetal brain defects. The babies born with microcephaly tend to have small heads and will experience severe developmental problems. So far, no local mosquito-borne Zika virus case has been reported in the continental United States, but there have been 935 imported cases of Zika virus infection, including 287 cases of pregnant women, related to travellers entering the country after contracting the virus abroad. Photo taken on Oct. 23, 2015 in New York shows the United Nations headquarters being lit in UN blue as part of the global celebrations of the 70th anniversaryof the United Nations. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) UNITED NATIONS, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council will hold the first of its three secret, non-binding straw polls on selection of the next UN secretary-general on July 21, the panel's president announced here Friday. Ambassador Koro Bessho of Japan, who assumed the rotating Security Council president for July on Friday, announced the date during a briefing with reporters on the program of work for the panel during July. No dates were set for the second and third straw polls. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will retire on Dec. 31 after serving two five-year terms and diplomats are working to make selection of his successor more transparent. "There is an agreement that we would like to move the process along as expeditiously as possible so that we can have a decision at an early date which will make it possible for the chosen candidate to prepare to be the (next) secretary-general," Bessho said. "As far as the date for a second straw poll is concerned, it is not decided at this moment." "The straw poll is done so that the candidates themselves and the countries who are recommending the candidates can make up their minds as to how to proceed from there," he said. "The same for the Security Council members. They need to consider the results of the straw poll and to think about the next step. Some countries will say that they would need some time to consider between the first poll and second poll and third poll." It is up to the 15-member Security Council to recommend a candidate to the 193-member General Assembly to approve appointment of a secretary-general. Already there are 11 announced candidates vying to succeed Ban on Jan. 1, 2017. President Mogens Lykketoft of the UN General Assembly, in a bid to make the choice of secretary-general more transparent, invited announced candidates to appear at hearings before the assembly earlier this year to make mission statements and undergo a round of questions. SAN FRANCISCO, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Researchers at Stanford University in northern California have developed a system using 3 dimensional (3-D) sensing technologies and a computer vision algorithm to acquire detailed building information. Newer buildings often have computerized blueprints and records, including details such as the number of rooms, doors and windows, and the square footage of floors, ceilings and walls. But such information may not exist for older buildings, necessitating the time-consuming and difficult task of collecting these details manually for remodeling or refurbishing purposes. The new system, presented by Stanford researchers at the Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which started Sunday and ended Friday, is designed to automate the process of getting detailed building information, first by using light to measure every feature of a building' s interior, room by room and floor by floor, to create a massive data file that captures the spatial geometry of any building, and then by feeding the raw data file into a new computer vision algorithm. The algorithm identifies structural elements such as walls and columns, as well as desks, filing cabinets and other furnishings. "Renovation projects live and die by the quality of information," according to Martin Fischer, a Stanford professor of civil and environmental engineering. The new process is the brainchild of Stanford doctoral student Iro Armeni, with interdisciplinary oversight from Silvio Savarese, a Stanford assistant professor in computer science who leads the Computational Vision and Geometry Lab, and Fischer, who heads the Center for Integrated Facility Engineering. "People have been trying to do this on a much smaller scale, just a handful of rooms," said Savarese. "This is the first time it's possible to do it at the scale of whole buildings, with hundreds of rooms." Armeni, once an architect on the Greek island of Corfu, used to work on custom renovations on historical buildings hundreds of years old. She and colleagues used tape measures to redraw building plans, a practice that is both time-consuming and often inaccurate. She began by replacing her tape measure with laser scanners and 3-D cameras, which use light to take measurements with up to millimeter accuracy. When placed inside a building, they send out pulses of light in all directions, bathing every interior surface. By recording precisely how long it takes for a beam of light to hit a given point in the room and bounce back, they create a data file consisting of literally millions of measurements, about specific points where beams of light encountered some surface. This massive data file is called a raw point cloud. However, humans had to look at the point cloud on a computer screen to identify building elements such as windows, walls, hallways and furniture and then type that information into software tools. To the computer, the point cloud was an indistinguishable mass of data. The Stanford team's innovation was developing a computer vision system that could analyze the point cloud for a building, distinguish the rooms, and then categorize each element in each room. This automated the second half of the process, the need for humans to annotate the data. While buildings vary in many ways, including room size, purpose and interior decoration, this is where machine learning and computer vision came in. To train their computer vision system, the researchers collected a great amount of 3-D point cloud data that humans had annotated. These annotations specified all sorts of building features. Armeni managed the task of feeding this annotated point cloud data to the algorithm. Through repetition, the system "learned" to recognize different building elements. Ultimately, the researchers created an algorithm that can analyze raw point cloud data from an entire building and, without human assistance, identify the rooms, enter each room, and detail the structural elements and furniture. "This kind of geometric, contextual reasoning is one of the most innovative parts of the project," Savarese was quoted as saying by a news release from Stanford. Armeni hopes to move and project forward and create an algorithm that can track the whole life cycle of a building - through design, construction, occupation and demolition. "As engineers, we shouldn't lose time trying to find the current status of our building," she said. "We should invest this time in doing something creative and making our buildings better." Wu Haitao (front), China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations (UN), addresses on issues concerning the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) at the UN headquarters in New York, June 23, 2016. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) UNITED NATIONS, July 1 (Xinhua) -- All countries must strengthen cooperation on border control and enforcement to effectively stop foreign terrorist fighters from moving across borders, said a Chinese envoy here on Friday. Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, made the remarks at a UN General Assembly meeting on global counter-terrorism strategy. Wu said the international community must also enhance cooperation in cracking down on terrorist financing through illegal trafficking of petroleum, cultural relics and narcotics. In addition, he called for strengthened cyber space regulations to combat and stop terrorist organizations from using the Internet to spread extremist ideas, recruit personnel and plan terrorist activities. In December, China promulgated its Counter-terrorism Law, noted Wu. "China will continue to prevent and combat terrorism in accordance with law and maintain our national security as well as the safety and security of our people and their assets." "China will continue to actively participate in and promote multi-lateral and bilateral counter terrorism cooperation," he added. On Friday at the meeting, the 193-member General Assembly adopted a resolution on UN global counter-terrorism strategy, urging member states to ensure no tolerance for terrorism. The resolution encourages member states to consider better ways to exchange information, assist each other, and prosecute those who use information and communications technologies for terrorist purposes. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the adoption of this resolution symbolizes the strong resolve of the international community to "act in unison and without delay to address terrorism and violent extremism." In this regard, Ban encouraged member states to adopt national and regional plans of action to implement the global counter terrorism strategy in a balanced and comprehensive manner to step up counter-terrorism efforts. RIO DE JANEIRO, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Lazio are preparing an offer to sign Brazil international defender Rodrigo Caio, according to media reports on Friday. Caio has drawn interest from several European clubs but Lazio is leading the race for the center-back's signature, according to the Lance news portal. The 22-year-old has made 178 first-team appearances for Sao Paulo since being promoted from the club's youth academy in 2011. He has previously been linked to Monaco, Atletico Madrid and Valencia. Caio earned his first international cap in Brazil's 2-0 friendly victory over Panama in May, coming on as a 79th-minute replacement for Renato Augusto. He has been included in Brazil's 18-man squad for the Olympic Games in Rio next month. GAZA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Israeli war jets struck on Saturday predawn on targets belong to military groups in the Gaza Strip ruled by Islamic Hamas movement in response to earlier rocket firing from the enclave into Israel, eyewitnesses said. BEIJING, July 2 (Xinhua) -- "What are the essential conditions for pregnancy?" "What is safe sex?" "If you or your partner fell pregnant, what would you do?" In a rural middle school in Yingjiang County, southwest China's Yunnan Province, teacher Nie Yongxian is giving a ninth grade class a sex-ed lesson. The students are not shy and offered straightforward answers. This class -- "Youth Love Cabin," is sponsored by the AIDS Prevention Education Project for Chinese Youth (APEPCY), a non-profit organization established by China Charities Aid Foundation for Children and the Chinese Society of Education, to promote sex education in Chinese schools to help prevent HIV/AIDS transmission among the youths. While the number of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) on the Chinese mainland continues to rise and there is a trend for younger transmissions, there is still no official sex education in schools to teach students to protect themselves. Established in 2006, APEPCY has sponsored 681 AIDS prevention cabins or "Youth Love Cabin" nationwide, exploring a new way to teach AIDS prevention and sex education. YINGJIANG EXPERIENCE In Yingjiang, the China-Myanmar border which is close to the opium-producing "Golden Triangle," the local government has collaborated with APEPCY as the region has a severe drug and HIV/AIDS epidemic. In 2012, APEPCY piloted six cabins in Yingjiang County, and by October 2014, the project was in nearly all of the county's 200 elementary and middle schools. "By the end of 2016, we plan to form a full and systematic program, which unites the government and NGO forces," said Zhang Liming, deputy director of the county's education bureau. Nie Yongxian, a teacher, said she did not know how or what to teach in the beginning. "For our students, information on HIV/AIDS is what they needed most, " Nie said, "and the dangers of drugs." Many people in the region are drug users, Nie sai. "Children have seen people taking drugs and may even been tempted themselves -- they do not know whether it's good or bad." "Therefore, telling them the dangers of drugs is also very important." For sex education, Nie said she conducted a survey to see what the students wanted to learn, and she answered their questions in class. But later when she underwent training, she learned that sex education should be taught systematically. "Now, we teach physical hygiene in seventh grade, and expanded to sex education in the eighth grade," Nie said. "I don't think we should teach about pregnancy and contraception any time later." The third middle school of Yingjiang is the county's biggest rural middle school. Student Mo Guifang, 15, thinks the Youth Love Cabin is interesting as it taught her about puberty and birth control. The classes have the support of parents, said principal Li Kaiji. "As many parents are our students' students," she said, "it meant HIV/AIDS and drug knowledge went beyond the classroom. Chen Zhongdan, UNAIDS strategic information adviser, supports the APEPCY project. "We will consider cooperating with APEPCY to introduce the program to the rest of the country, and even the world," he said. THE BASE Besides sponsoring Youth Love Cabins, APEPCY has also built up 11 Youth Love Bases in the country over the last decade, which offer training and liaison opportunities The first was at Chengdu University, Sichuan Province, in 2009. Gou Ping, director of the Sichuan Base and a psychology professor at Chengdu Normal University, said the base not only trained teachers but has supported teaching and research teams to promote sex education in schools. In 2014, 20 sex education minor students from the university went to Yingjiang to teach classes. The course has recruited six grades of students and trained over 200 professional sex education teachers. "We found that the sex education bias is huge," said Gou, "Therefore, we are thankful that APEPCY gave us a reason to research sex education through the entry point of HIV/AIDS prevention." Wang Zuoshu, vice chairman of the Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Committee of the National People's Congress, said sex education will benefit future generations. He believes there are challenges ahead, such as constraints due to Chinese culture, as well as lack of funds, teachers and text books. But president Zhang Yinjun has a clear vision. She said APEPCY will be more focused, innovative and mobilize more domestic and international forces in the future, to combine the experiences it has accumulated in ten years to better serve schools and institutions who wish to carry out HIV/AIDS prevention and sex education. "APEPCY need more domestic and international support to communicate our ideas, letting more people join the HIV/AIDS prevention drive to ultimately realize the global zero AIDS goal," she said. DHAKA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Bangladeshi security forces stormed a Dhaka restaurant Saturday morning to rescue dozens of people, including foreigners, being held hostage by militants, a police official said. LIMA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- A Peruvian official has warned about the future of Peru's free trade agreement with the European Union (EU) after Britain's exit and urged London to keep the agreement's essence. Peru and Britain may need to sign another bilateral agreement after Britain leaves the EU, Carlos Posada, director for Research and Development of Foreign Trade under the Chamber of Commerce, said Friday. The most rational option for Britain would be to recognize the advantages and keep the essence of the Peru-EU Free Trade Agreement, when it negotiates the new agreement with Peru, he said. In 2012 Peru and EU signed the free trade agreement, which includes eliminating tariffs on Peru's fishery products and allowing free access to 75 percent of Peru's agricultural products on the EU market. by Xinhua writer Luo Jun BEIJING, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The world has seen increasing chaos in recent years -- wars and conflicts, deadly shootings, terrorist attacks, waves of refugees, deteriorating poverty and divided societies. Though we hold our best intentions close to heart, one crisis after another seems to unfold. The so-called South China Sea arbitration, which is expected to produce a verdict on July 12, is yet another global deformity. International law is being exploited and distorted to meet the private interest of certain groups or countries. It is an old trick that has been played time and time again: destructive actions motivated by special interests were carried out disguised in politically correct, justifiable, or even glorified slogans. Guided by the shiny concept of the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," Imperial Japan, in alliance with Nazi Germany, invaded and occupied a dozen Asian countries during the Second World War, costing tens of millions of lives including Japanese. Former U.S. President George W. Bush launched the invasion of Iraq in 2003 to crack down on "weapons of mass destruction," which turned out to be baseless, but cost the Americans several trillion U.S. dollars and half a million lives in Iraq over an eight-year period. The beneficiaries were ambitious politicians, militarists and the military-industrial complex that former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had warned against in 1961 -- all opportunists not working in the interest of the people. Glorified slogans surround territorial disputes in the South China Sea, where tensions created in the name of "freedom of navigation" and "international law" provide self-validation for the presence of U.S. military forces and lubricate the profitable arms business. Meanwhile, tensions or even potential conflict in the Asia-Pacific will bring extra perks to some politicians in Washington and Manila, as it could divert public attention from domestic problems such as gun violence, corruption and poverty. However, any misjudgment that leads to confrontation in the South China Sea will inevitably hurt the friendly relations and the intertwined business ties among the peoples of China, the United States and the Philippines. Special interest groups would be the sole profiteers at the cost of the peoples' wellbeing. The Pentagon could not wait to send two of its aircraft carriers, three guided missile destroyers and more other vessels to the South China Sea, burning American taxpayers' money to serve the interests of the United States. The move by the Philippines to bring its territorial claim to an arbitral tribunal in The Hague reeks of political maneuvering. The temporary court disregarded formal agreements among regional countries to settle disputes through peaceful and direct negotiation. The tribunal's decision to hear the Philippines' case and exercise jurisdiction which it does not hold on territorial issue, is a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and an abuse of power. The result from a court without jurisdiction and impartiality will bear no binding force but instead humiliate international law. The arbitration has disrupted the peaceful dialogue mechanism already in place in the region and aggravated tensions between Beijing and Manila. Even worse, it is creating divisions among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, undermining years of hard-won progress to integrate the region for common development. Despite China's non-participation and unacceptance of the arbitration, it will not give up seeking peaceful negotiation with the directly concerned parties to solve disputes in the South China Sea. It is in everyone's core interests that the Philippines returns to direct consultations with China to jointly address their differences and safeguard regional peace for a win-win future. HOUSTON, July 1 (Xinhua) -- A bomb threat Friday afternoon forced employees and shoppers to evacuate a Walmart store in Houston, the largest city in the U.S. state of Texas. The incident occurred in the Walmart store in northwest Harris county after police received a phone call about the bomb threat around 5 p.m. local time (2300 GMT), according to local TV station ABC13. It is not clear how many people were inside the store, but the Houston police bomb squad is now in the store to search for explosives. No further details were immediately available. Walmart, an American multinational retail corporation headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, has 11,534 stores and clubs in 28 countries and regions. The supermarket chain has received a number of bomb threats and was home to violence in the past. On June 14, police shot and killed an armed hostage-taker at a Walmart store in Amarillo, a city in north Texas. DHAKA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- At least five have been killed, while more than 11 hostages rescued, as joint Bangladesh special operation forces stormed a Dhaka restaurant Saturday morning to free dozens of people from gunmen there, police said. Five to six gunmen stormed the restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on Friday night. The Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attack. "Efforts to negotiate a peaceful end to the crisis are still ongoing though we've started the raid," said a police official who did not like to be named. He said naval commandos have been called in to join personnel from the police, Rapid Action Battalion, and Borders Guard Bangladesh for the raid. Bangladesh army soldiers have also been mobilized, according to the police official. As huge number of policemen cordoned off the area, the miscreants opened fire at the law enforcers. Attackers also hurled bombs at policemen. The police official said the heads of security forces held talks with top policymakers after the situation remained unsolved throughout the night. Seven Italian nationals and an unknown number of Japanese are thought to be among the hostages in the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant, which is popular with foreigners. DHAKA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- At least 18 hostages have been rescued as Bangladeshi commandos stormed a Dhaka restaurant Saturday morning to end a hostage crisis there, said police. A police official who preferred to be unnamed, said at least five attackers were killed as security forces launched the operation to end the siege at the restaurant. Gunshots and heavy sound of explosion rocked the area as joint Bangladeshi security forces kick off the operation to rescue dozens of hostages at about 8:00 a.m. local time Saturday. Naval commandos have been called in to join personnel from the police, Rapid Action Battalion and Borders Guard Bangladesh for the operation. Bangladesh army soldiers have also been mobilized, according to the police official. Five to six gunmen stormed the restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on Friday night, shooting dead two police officials in the first attack. At least 40 people, including two more senior police officials, had been injured in the incident. The Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the authenticity of the claim has not been confirmed by Bangladesh police. Seven Italian nationals, two Sri Lankans and an unknown number of Japanese are thought to be among the hostages in the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant, which is popular with foreigners. Sources said the gunmen demanded release of a leader of banned militant outfit Jama'at-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) who has recently been arrested. JMB, campaigning for the establishment of Islamic rule in Bangladesh, carried out a series of bombings in 63 out of the country's 64 districts, including capital Dhaka on Aug. 17, 2005, leaving two people dead and 150 others injured. Hundreds of JMB leaders and activists were rounded up while six top leaders of the group, including Shaikh Abdur Rahman, were hanged in 2007. WASHINGTON, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The Pentagon confirmed Friday that it has conducted an airstrike recently near Mosul, Iraq that killed two Islamic State military commanders. In a statement, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook identified the two commanders as Basim Muhammad Ahmad Sultan al-Bajari, IS deputy minister of war, and Hatim Talib al-Hamduni, an IS military commander in Mosul. "These deaths are the latest in coalition efforts to systemically eliminate ISIL's cabinet wherever they hide, disrupting their ability to plot external terror attacks and hold onto the territory they use to claim legitimacy," Cook said, using another acronym for IS. "The international coalition fighting ISIL, working with local, capable and motivated forces on the ground in Iraq and Syria, continues to make sustained progress in our campaign to deal ISIL a lasting defeat," he continued. The progress included the liberation of the city of Fallujah, devastating strikes against IS forces fleeing the city, and the completion of the encirclement of Manbij, as well as efforts to clear key terrain south of Mosul of ISIL forces, Cook said. Bajari, a former member with al-Qaida who brought his military skills into IS, oversaw the June 2014 offensive to capture Mosul, and has led the Jaysh al-Dabiq battalion which is known for using vehicle-borne bombs, suicide bombers and mustard gas in its attacks, Cook said. Hamduni was an IS military commander in Mosul and the head of military police for the self-proclaimed Ninawa state. "Removing these terrorist leaders from the battlefield shapes the environment for Iraqi forces to ultimately liberate Mosul with support from the international coalition," Cook said, adding that the "momentum is now on our side, and not on ISIL's." SAO PAULO, July 1 (Xinhua) -- A Brazilian court has ordered more than 6 million U.S. dollars in Facebook funds frozen because the American company's messaging service WhatsApp refused to surrender messages demanded by police. The G1 news site, a Brazilian news site, reported that Brazilian police have repeatedly asked WhatsApp for the messages of suspected drug dealers involved in an international cocaine traffic case. As the American company failed to respond the police order issued early this year, a court in the southern state of Parana on Thursday ordered a freeze of 19.5 million reals (6.1 million U.S. dollars) in Facebook accounts, according to local reports. WhatsApp was cut off in Brazil for 72 hours in May for a similar case.Facebook Inc's Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg posted on his Facebook page calling on Brazilians to protest the suspension. The Facebook founder is yet to react to Brazil's freezing order this time as the latest update on his Facebook page was dated on June 29 at press time. COLOMBO, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Two Sri Lankan nationals who were taken hostage by gunmen in a restaurant in Bangladesh in the early hours on Saturday have been rescued by Bangladeshi security forces, Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry said here. The two Sri Lankans were among dozens of people who were taken hostage by several armed gunmen in a restaurant in a diplomatic area in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. Earlier in the day, Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva said that he was informed by State Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene that there were reports of two Sri Lankans who were among the hostages inside the restaurant in Dhaka. At least five gunmen have been killed and at least 13 people rescued after Bangladeshi security forces stormed the restaurant, according to media reports. It is still unverified as to how many foreign nationals were held hostage inside the restaurant. The Islamic State militants have claimed responsibility for the attack. RIO DE JANEIRO, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian police arrested on Friday a businessman who allegedly served as the moneyman for suspended Lower House speaker Eduardo Cunha. Lucio Funaro was arrested as part of a new phase of Operation Car Wash, also dubbed Operation Sepsis, which aims to dismantle a corruption scheme at state-run oil giant Petrobras. Among the allegations to surface was that Cunha kept the largest share, some 80 percent, of the illicit payouts in bribes or kickbacks. The charges were made by Fabio Cleto, a former executive at Caixa Economica Federal, a state financial institution that would authorize irregular transactions with companies involved in the scheme. Funaro's was one of 19 arrest warrants issued in Operation Sepsis. The Petrobras scandal is regularly in the headlines as many former executives of the oil firm, its subsidiaries or other companies involved in the scheme reveal the names and details of the illicit operations as part of plea deals with authorities. Petrobras recently admitted the corruption scheme bled the company, and state coffers, of at least 2 billion U.S. dollars between 2004 and 2014. Cunha, under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for allegedly squirreling away millions of dollars in undeclared Swiss bank accounts, gained international notoriety as the main proponent of an impeachment drive against Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff. Rousseff was suspended by legislative vote and is to undergo an impeachment trial this summer. Cunha, many believe, pursued the impeachment as a means of derailing the corruption investigation and to exact revenge against Rousseff's Workers' Party, which had refused to shield him from the Ethics Committee probe. ANQING, July 2, 2016 (Xinhua) -- A riverside park is submerged in Yuexi County, east China's Anhui Province, July 2, 2016. China's weather authorities on Friday warned of possible geological disasters in the south and west of the country as heavy rain in the region showed little signs of abating. The National Meteorological Center (NMC) and the Ministry of Water Resources warned of high risks of mountain torrents in parts of Anhui, Hunan, Guizhou and Tibet from Friday evening to Saturday evening, suggesting residents take necessary precautions. (Xinhua/Wu Junqi) BEIJING, July 2 (Xinhua) -- China's meteorological authority on Saturday renewed its orange alert for heavy rain across much of the country in the coming two days. Thunderstorms will hit the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Yunnan, Jiangxi, Jiangsu and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from Saturday morning to Sunday morning, with precipitation reaching 240 millimeters in some areas, the National Meteorological Center said on its website. The center suggested people reduce outdoor activities and take precautions against possible floods and landslides. China has a four-tier color-coded system for severe weather, with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue. TOKYO, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The Japanese government confirmed on Saturday that 12 people, including two foreigners, had been rescued from an armed siege in a cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh, including one Japanese national who was wounded in the gunfight. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda told a press conference that investigations into the attack and the state of the Japanese hostages of which there may have been more than one caught up in the incident were ongoing. Senior government officials also said they were trying to make contact with multiple Japanese nationals who may have been caught up in the attack and a lack of contact so far may indicate that more than one Japanese may have been taken hostage inside the cafe. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference that at least a Japanese citizen might be among the hostages that were being held at gunpoint or otherwise injured in the attack. Responsibility for the attack has been claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, with reports stating that as many as six gunmen entered the popular Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant in the Gulshan region of Bangladeshi's capital Friday night and opened fire indiscriminately on the cafe's mainly foreign customers after detonating explosives. Hundreds of local police along with Bangladesh military forces stormed the cafe and rescued the hostages hours later, local media sources reported. Two police officers were killed during the operation and as many 30 people were wounded after the attack, reports have quoted local media as saying. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has set up an emergency task force at his office and instructed the relevant ministries to coordinate effectively with officials and the government in Bangladesh and other countries involved as necessary. The Japanese government will also dispatch its counter-terrorism intelligence unit to Dhaka, officials here said. The Japanese premier has canceled his election campaign plans for Saturday, his office said. All Japanese living, visiting or planning to visit Bangladesh have been issued with a warning by the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo to remain vigilant in and around government, public transport facilities, popular tourist sites and places that attract a lot of people. The ministry indicted a second wave of terror attacks could be possible as the IS has been increasingly targeting foreigners in Bangladesh since the end of last year. ISLAMABAD, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan on Saturday condemned the "senseless terrorist attack" in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka that has led to the loss of lives and injuries to many innocent people. Gunmen have shot dead two police officials, police said, in the first attack on a foreign restaurant in Bangladesh claimed by the Islamic State (IS) jihadists. The gunmen stormed the restaurant in Bangladesh capital Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on Friday night. "The government and the people of Pakistan extend their heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and the brotherly people and government of Bangladesh over the loss of innocent lives and wish the injured early recovery," the Foreign Ministry said. "Pakistan stands in solidarity with the brotherly people of Bangladesh and is confident that the Government of Bangladesh will effectively counter this cowardly attack," the Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement. The spokesman also said the Pakistani High Commission in Dhaka has informed the Foreign Ministry that all embassy staff is safe. DHAKA, July 2, 2016 (Xinhua) -- An injured policeman is escorted away by his colleague after an attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 2, 2016. Gunmen have shot dead two police officials, police said, in the first attack on a foreign restaurant in Bangladesh claimed by Islamic State (IS) group jihadists. The gunmen stormed the restaurant in Bangladesh capital Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on Friday night at about 9:00 p.m. local time. At least 40 people including two more senior police officials were injured in the incident.(Xinhua) DHAKA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- At least five gunmen have been killed and over a dozen hostages rescued on Saturday after Bangladeshi security forces ended a siege in an upmarket restaurant in the Bangladesh capital. "We've come to know that at least five attackers were killed as security forces launched the offensive to end the crisis at the restaurant," said a police official who declined to be named. The official could not tell whether any foreigners were killed during the operation. However, unconfirmed sources said the gunmen killed 8 to 10 foreigners. Meanwhile, some media reports said six gunmen have been killed and at least 13 hostages, three of them foreigners, freed during the operation. The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said two of its citizens taken hostage in the restaurant have been rescued unharmed, while the Japanese government confirmed one Japanese national was freed with gunshot wounds. Police have earlier said that six gunmen were killed, while 18 hostages rescued during the operation. Five to six gunmen stormed the restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on Friday night, shooting dead two police officials in their first attack. At least 40 people had been injured in the initial incident. Seven Italian nationals, two Sri Lankans and eight Japanese are thought to be among dozens of hostages in the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant, which is popular with foreigners. No formal announcement has so far been made on the rescue operation which lasted for about two hours since 8 a.m. local time (0200 GMT) Saturday. The police official said the Bangladesh army, which was involved in the operation, will brief journalists about the outcome of the operation later in the day. Navy commandos and personnel from the police, Rapid Action Battalion and Borders Guard Bangladesh also participated in the operation. Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attack, a claim whose authenticity has yet to be confirmed by Bangladesh police. Sources said the gunmen demanded release of a leader of banned militant outfit Jama'at-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) who has recently been arrested. JMB, campaigning for the establishment of Islamic rule in Bangladesh, carried out a series of bombings in 63 out of the country's 64 districts, including capital Dhaka on Aug. 17, 2005, leaving two people dead and 150 others injured. Hundreds of JMB leaders and activists were rounded up while six top leaders of the group, including Shaikh Abdur Rahman, were hanged in 2007. Related: 5 gunmen killed, 18 hostages rescued in Bangladesh restaurant siege DHAKA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- At least 18 hostages have been rescued as Bangladeshi commandos stormed a Dhaka restaurant Saturday morning to end a hostage crisis there, said police. A police official who preferred to be unnamed, said at least five attackers were killed as security forces launched the operation to end the siege at the restaurant. Full story Two police officers dead as attackers storm Bangladesh restaurant, take hostages DHAKA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Two senior police officers have been killed in a gunfire exchange between police and gunmen who stormed a Spanish restaurant in Bangladesh capital Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on Friday night to take hostages. MELBOURNE, July 2, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Leader of the Australian Labor Party Bill Shorten and his wife Chloe Shorten arrive at the Moonee Ponds West Public School polling station to cast their votes in Melbourne, Australia, July 2, 2016, on Australia's federal election day. (Xinhua/Bai Xue) by Matt Goss CANBERRA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of both major Australian political parties have continued their campaigns in the marginal seats that were expected to determine the election result. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, leader of the center-right Liberal-National Coalition, and leader of the center-left Labor Party Bill Shorten made last ditch attempts to get their party over the line in Saturday's federal election. Despite telling the travelling media pack that his campaign was over after voting at a school in his electorate on Saturday morning, Turnbull made appearances at voting centers in marginal electorates on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile Shorten spent all morning in Western Sydney before flying to his own seat of Maribyrnong in Melbourne's northwest to cast his own vote and conclude his campaign. Shorten first had to deal with one of the long queues which have plagued election day with voters at centers in inner-Melbourne reportedly facing lines up to two hours to cast their ballot. "Labor has worked on a policy agenda for the Australian people. We are ready to govern, we are ready to implement our policy agenda for the Australian people, and we are ready to serve," Shorten said on Saturday morning. A two-party opinion poll conducted by News Limited in the week leading up to the election gave the coalition a slight 50.5 percent advantage to Labor's 49.5 percent. Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop used her last appearance of the campaign to implore independent members of the new parliament and those from small parties to respect the will of the Australian people if the Turnbull government is re-elected. "The coalition, if we win, will have the support of the Australian people to implement the very positive economic plan that will underpin the future of this country," she told reporters in her Perth seat of Curtin after voting. "The Australian people are making a very serious decision today about the future of our country and I hope the crossbenchers, I hope the independents, I hope the Greens and every other major party listen to the will of the Australian people." Turnbull triggered an election of all 226 seats of Australian parliament following increasing frustration with crossbenchers in the Senate repeatedly blocking coalition legislation. Turnbull's decision to call an early election to secure a coalition majority in both houses looks likely to backfire, however, with the size of the crossbench in the House of Representatives and the Senate set to increase. South Australian senator Nick Xenophon, leader of the recently-formed Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), is shaping as one of the election's major winners with the minor party looking to win multiple seats across both houses of parliament. NXT will be joined on the crossbench in both houses by the Greens who are optimistic of adding to their current tally of one seat in the House of Representatives via the Melbourne electorates of Wills, Batman and Higgins. The tight contest between coalition incumbent Kelly O'Dwyer and Greens hopeful Jason Ball in Higgins escalated on Friday night with Fairfax Media reporting that an unknown man bit a Greens volunteer in the area. While the majority of coalition ministers and prospective Labor ministers face stress-free victories in their own seats, Turnbull's deputy Prime Minister and leader of the National Party Barnaby Joyce is facing stiff competition from independent candidate Tony Windsor. "This campaign I think is going to be tight. I've never thought otherwise. I've always believed these campaigns go down to the wire," Joyce said. "If I get given the great honor of representing the people of New England I will continue on in that role." With both major parties sharing many policy platforms, proposed reforms by the coalition to Medicare, Australia's universal healthcare scheme, has become the centerpiece for the final day of the election. Under the proposition the coalition would freeze rebates paid to doctors until 2020 which could in turn force medical practitioners to increase their prices, prompting fears that the elderly and young families will face considerably more money out of pocket. "If they (voters) want Medicare that's strong, vote Labor," Shorten's deputy leader Tanya Plibersek told reporters after voting in her electorate of Sydney. "If we happen to win today after all our hard work after putting out our 100 positive policies it'll be a sweet victory indeed." Voting booths close at 6 p.m. local time with the counting of ballots to begin immediately afterwards. PUERTO VARAS, July 2, 2016 (Xinhua) -- (L-R) Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto, Peru's President Ollanta Humala, Chile's President Michelle Bachelet and Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos attend the closing ceremony of the 11th Presidential Summit of the Pacific Alliance in Puerto Varas, Chile, on July 1, 2016. The Pacific Alliance, a trade bloc uniting four Latin American nations bordering the Pacific Ocean, announced on Friday its intention to bolster trade relations with the Asia-Pacific region, especially with China. (Xinhua/Jorge Villegas) by Omar Mendoza, Leng Tong PUERTO VARAS, Chile, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The Pacific Alliance, a trade bloc uniting four Latin American nations bordering the Pacific Ocean, announced on Friday its intention to bolster trade relations with the Asia-Pacific region, especially with China. At the group's annual summit, the leaders of Chile, Peru, Mexico and Colombia also forged an integrationist path forward to avoid the emergence of isolationist tendencies such as Britain's recent exit from the European Union. Founded in 2011, the regional bloc accounts for 37 percent of Latin America's gross domestic product. The group has removed tariffs on 92 percent of all goods exported between its members, and aims to eliminate all tariffs within 17 years. BOOSTING TIES WITH CHINA The alliance is also conceived as a means to bolster trade with Pacific Rim nations in Asia, especially China. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, whose country took over the bloc's rotating presidency from Peru at the summit, said she would push to expand into the Asia-Pacific basin markets, as well as the 49 observer countries and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). Peru's president-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who is to take office later this month, indicated on Thursday that his foreign and trade policies would prioritize China. "My first trip abroad as president will probably be to China," Kuczynski told participants at the alliance's business forum held in the southern Chilean resort of Frutillar in the lead to the summit. "We are an economy of immense natural resources that we have to industrialize. That's not easy and to do that we are going to have to collaborate with the great buyers of our exports, which in large part is China," Kuczynski said, cited by the online Peruvian daily Cronica Viva. Kuczynski described the alliance as a "wonderful" initiative that could help South American countries together take up the challenge of promoting trade. "With the exception of Mexico, we are in a corner of the world, far from the markets," said Kuczynski, calling for greater regional integration to better overcome such disadvantages as distance. Relations between China and the Pacific Alliance will continue to expand, Andres Rebolledo, director of international economic relations of the Chilean Foreign Ministry, told Xinhua in a recent interview. The members "are interested in jointly operating in the Asian markets," he said. "That joint activity with China and the rest of Asia will continue to be very important for our government," he added. TOURISM SEES BOOMING Despite the ocean that divides China and the Pacific Alliance, tourism between the two sides appears to be booming recently. Earlier in this month, Peru's tourism and trade promotion agency PromPeru announced the number of Chinese travelers to the Pacific Alliance countries is expected to grow by 15 percent in 2016. "This year, we estimate a growth of more than 15 percent in Chinese tourists to countries of the Pacific Alliance, or more than 170,000 Chinese who will be visiting the four countries combined," Director of PromPeru Maria Soledad Acosta was quoted as saying by the Peruvian daily El Comercio. In the first quarter of 2016, Chinese tourists to the four nations grew by an average of more than 35 percent, according to the report. The increase was most marked in Peru, which had seen a 43 percent jump in Chinese visitors compared with the first quarter in 2015. The alliance countries will continue to promote themselves in the Chinese tourism market, said Acosta. INTEGRATION VS ISOLATION Addressing the business forum on Thursday, Bachelet said greater integration could improve the living standards among member countries, especially in a time marked by increasing protectionism. "When you look at Brexit, when you look at what's going on in the United States with support for Donald Trump, (their popularity comes from) people of modest means from rural areas who have been marginalized by globalization," said Bachelet. "It is obvious that globalization is important and integration is important, but they have to create real opportunities and real rights," said Bachelet, adding "our integration initiative is in full development." The alliance leaders, said Bachelet, play an important role in the integration of the four countries and in creating a better future with progress and opportunities despite the world's poor economic outlook. "We have talked about volatility, we have talked about uncertainty, and I believe we have to learn to live with that," she added. WUHAN, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Thirty years ago, crayfish were little more than a nuisance for the rice farmers of eastern and central China, but the invasive species has become big business for one city. Nearly two of three crayfish eaten in Europe hail from the small town of Qianjiang in Hubei Province. In late May, Qianjiang announced it sold 190 million U.S. dollars' worth of the crustacean to foreign buyers in 2015, up 27 percent year-on-year, becoming the country's largest crayfish export base. To sharpen its edge in the industry, the town set up a research institute dedicated to breeding crayfish in mid-June, shortly after it opened a vocational school to train cooks in preparing crayfish dishes. China is the world's largest producer of crayfish, with annual output accounting for over 70 percent of the world's total. Native to North America, crayfish were brought to east China's Jiangsu Province by a Japanese merchant in the 1920s. They appeared in the Jianghan Plain, where Qianjiang is located, about 30 years ago. With fertile land and a large network of rivers and lakes, the plain is an ideal habitat for the species. They weren't always a welcome addition to the ecosystem, especially for local farmers. "They pinched off rice seedlings in the paddy fields, and made tunnels in ridges that caused water loss," said Liu Zhuquan from Baowan Village in Qianjiang. Later, however, villagers came to find the shellfish tasty and started raising them in the paddies in 2001. Liu said this summer his crayfish have sold for 60 yuan (about 9 U.S. dollars) per kilogram, while his rice goes for 32 yuan a kilogram -- both much higher than prices elsewhere. Farming crayfish and rice simultaneously does not require chemical fertilizers, pesticides or result in contaminated water, ensuring safe products. Green farming methods help improve the quality of both crayfish and rice, according to Jiang Youyu, head of Qianjiang's crayfish farming association. Wang Pinghu from Bao'an Village said he used to earn about 60,000 yuan from his four hectares of rice a year, but his income surged to 250,000 yuan after he started raising crayfish in 2014. Around 80 percent of crayfish produced in Qianjiang were exported to Europe and the United States as pre-cooked food products. Two Qianjiang-based companies, Laker and Huashan, are exempt from local quality checks and may send their crayfish products directly to supermarkets in Europe and the United States. "In the past, we sent technicians abroad to learn about European people's taste. Now we pay top dollar to get European chefs to work in Qianjiang," said Zheng Zhonglong, general manager of Hubei Laker Group. In addition to edible crayfish, Huashan Aquatic Food Company also exports chitin, a versatile substance used in medicine, health food and cosmetics. It is extracted from the exoskeletons of crayfish. The exoskeleton accounts for most of the animal's body, and only 20 percent of it is edible. E-commerce has helped expand the domestic market for Qianjiang crayfish, with revenue from online sales exceeding 100 million yuan last year. Spicy crayfish dishes are popular across the country to pair with beer on summer nights. There is still work to be done to improve the industry. One pressing task is to improve crayfish breeds to prevent inbreeding, said Shu Yaxin with Hubei's fisheries research institute. Photo taken on April 5, 2016 shows the lighthouse on Zhubi Reef of Nansha Islands in the South China Sea, south China. (Xinhua file photo) by Xinhua Writer Zhu Junqing BEIJING, July 2 (Xinhua) -- As an honest and responsible power, China has always abided by international law and basic norms governing international relations, and will continue to do so in the South China Sea issue while safeguarding its territorial sovereignty. As the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague will announce the so-called "award" on July 12, a new smear campaign against China has emerged, this time by veteran Washington attorney Paul Reichler. Though Reichler as an international lawyer enjoys a reputation for representing small countries against big powers, he has no right to depict China as an "outlaw state" for no reason. In an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, the Philippines' chief lawyer said China risks being seen as an "outlaw state" unless it respects the outcome. On the South China Sea arbitration initiated unilaterally by the Philippines, China has reiterated that it does not accept nor is it a participant in the arbitration, and will never recognize the so-called "award" for the following reasons. First, the Arbitral Tribunal has violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and has abused its power at will by hearing the case and exercising jurisdiction. Under UNCLOS, the jurisdiction of an arbitral tribunal is limited to disputes concerning the interpretation or application of the convention. Territorial issues are not subject to UNCLOS, but to general international law. The South China Sea case is in essence about territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation. The Arbitral Tribunal circumvented a declaration under UNCLOS that China made in 2006 to exclude third parties from any dispute involving maritime delimitation. Therefore, the tribunal in The Hague has exceeded its jurisdiction by accepting the Philippines' case. Second, the Arbitral Tribunal has violated UNCLOS by hearing the case. It disregards the fact that China and the Philippines have chosen to settle disputes through their own means, such as negotiation. UNCLOS stipulates that nothing impairs the right of states to settle a dispute through means of their own choosing. Further procedures will only be applied only where no settlement has been reached between parties. Given the fact that China and the Philippines have made a clear choice to settle their dispute through one-on-one negotiations, third-party settlement procedures are unapplicable. Third, the Philippines has broken an understanding reached with China on solving the disputes through negotiations, and its commitments under the Declaration on the Conduct (DOC) of Parties in the South China Sea. "Pacta sunt servanda" - or maintaining agreements - is a basic principle in international law. However, the Philippines' unilateral initiation of the arbitration violates its agreement with China. Fourth, China isn't the first country in the world to claim that a court lacks jurisdiction. In 1986, the International Court of Justice ruled that the United States had violated international law by supporting the Contras rebels against the Nicaraguan government and by mining Nicaragua's harbors. However, the United States refused to participate in the proceedings after the Court rejected its argument that the Court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. China has called on the Philippines to work with China to use the power of negotiation to solve disputes in the South China Sea, and welcomes remarks made by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte of hopefully starting a "conversation" with China to work out a "win-win relationship." China will continue to abide by international law and work with states directly concerned to resolve issues in the South China Sea through negotiation, to help maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea. MANILA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine government on Saturday condemned an attack against a radio commentator in the southern city of Surigao. Presidential Communications Operations Officer Martin Andanar vowed that justice will be served for Saturnino Estanio, and his 12-year-old son, who were both wounded in the ambush Thursday in Rizal village, Surigao City. "We condemn this horrific act of violence. We find comfort in the fact that both father and son have survived to tell their story," he said in a statement. Estanio of Radyo Mo Nationwide is known for his unrelenting tirades against the illegal drug trade and illegal gambling in Surigao City, he noted, adding "these are the same crimes being strongly pursued by the government of President Rodrigo Duterte." Andanar said the country needs journalists who will fight the same crusade as the government. "We need journalists who will not be cowed by threats in order to rid the nation of vices such as illegal drugs and illegal gambling," he said. He assured the public that the Duterte administration stands by the side of good men. "Justice will be served," he said. DHAKA, July 2, 2016 (Xinhua) -- An injured policeman is carried away after an attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 2, 2016. Gunmen have shot dead two police officials, police said, in the first attack on a foreign restaurant in Bangladesh claimed by Islamic State (IS) group jihadists. The gunmen stormed the restaurant in Bangladesh capital Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on Friday night at about 9:00 p.m. local time. At least 40 people including two more senior police officials were injured in the incident.(Xinhua) DHAKA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen killed 20 people by slitting throats soon after they stormed a Spanish restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, a spokesman of the Bangladesh Army said on Saturday. Brigadier General Naim Ashfaq chowdhury did not disclose nationality of the victims, but sources said most of the victims were foreigners. He told a press briefing that most of the victims were killed by slitting throats. Chowdhury said six attackers were killed during an armed raid that ended the 13-hour siege in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan since Friday night. "We've managed to capture one attacker alive," he said. Some 13 hostages, including one Japanese and two Sri Lankans, were rescued. DHAKA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen killed 20 foreigners by slitting throats soon after they stormed a Spanish restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, a spokesman of the Bangladesh Army said on Saturday. Brigadier General Naim Ashfaq Chowdhury did not disclose nationality of the victims, but sources said all of the victims were foreigners. They said seven Italians and seven Japanese were thought to be among 20 victims in the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant which the gunmen attacked on Friday night. He told a press briefing that most of the victims were killed by slitting throats. Chowdhury said six attackers were killed during an armed raid on Saturday morning that ended the 13-hour siege in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan. "We've managed to capture one attacker alive," he said. Some 13 hostages, including one Japanese and two Sri Lankans, were rescued. by Salah Takieddine BEIRUT, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese commerce chief hailed Saturday the Lebanon-China relations particularly in the trade field, calling on China for closer and wider economic ties with Lebanon. "In an open market like Lebanon, you cannot be a businessman if you don't have access to the international market, and today you don't have a real access to the international market unless you have strong connections with China," many businessmen held the view in Lebanon today. Mohammad Choucair, Chairman of the Beirut Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, said in an interview with Xinhua that Lebanon is the gate of the Middle East. Anything you sell in Lebanon is easily sold in the Gulf countries. He hailed the Chinese market "a mature market, and one of the world leading markets." The prominent businessman said that "China is becoming also the major tourist provider in the world. Chinese tourists are everywhere in Europe, in America, and of course in Asia. We suppose it is for security reasons, or rather for wrong information on Lebanon." He urged the press "to study carefully the situation and to tell people what is exactly the security situation. Maybe you will find out that Beirut and the major towns in Lebanon are the most secure places in the world." As for the "Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road" initiative proposed by the China in 2013, Choucair viewed it as "a nice initiative that trade is accompanied by culture." He stressed that "we understand very well the initiative since our elders the Phoenicians visited all the continents. We are proud to be part of the Silk Road as much as of the Phoenician Road, which we think should be complementary in many regions of the world." Choucair encouraged the foreign businesses to invest in Lebanon, particularly the Chinese companies," stressing that "the major opportunities are in the oil and gas sectors." by Nemanja Cabric, Wang Huijuan BELGRADE, July 2 (Xinhua) -- A Serbian scholar and politician has urged the Philippines to settle the South China Sea dispute directly with China, warning failure to solve disputes bilaterally would result in permanent and even armed conflict. Experience in the Balkans has taught us that when two sides fail to settle disputes bilaterally, the disputes would prolong and evolve into permanent conflicts -- even armed conflicts, Zarko Obradovic, an MP and vice president of the Socialist Party of Serbia, told Xinhua in a recent interview. The Philippines should not have initiated its dispute with China over the South China Sea at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, but instead should solve it directly with China, said Obradovic, who is also author of several books on Balkan geopolitics. "We had territorial disputes in the Balkans, and if two countries did not come out with a solution directly, in negotiations, which would satisfy both, then this problem would continue to exist for a long time, and would become a source for permanent conflicts, instability, and sometimes even armed conflicts," he said. There were a number of reasons for the Philippines to call for arbitration over the issue. There was public pressure domestically, and internationally, the country was influenced by the United States, Obradovic said. "Internal reasons might be some upcoming elections for parliament or president, while foreign political reasons are related to a major global power. I think that their move is illogical and will not bring them any benefit," he said. A resolution reached through direct negotiations would abide by the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, signed between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries in 2002, including the Philippines, he said. The Philippines' call for arbitration is neither based on international convention nor on mutual consent, Obradovic said. The Permanent Court of Arbitration is authorized to make decisions on matters where mutual consent exists and if the request is made in accordance with international conventions. In this case, "I think any decision will be unilateral and will not be in the interest of maintaining good neighborhood relations between China and Philippines," he said. Obradovic said the very fact that the United States aligned with the Philippines against China in the case indicates that Washington has some expectations on the upcoming verdict. "I think that the United States should not have interfered in their relations because, by supporting the Philippines it directly demonstrated its interests that the verdict should be in favor of the Philippines," he said. It is against the interest of the whole region to have the U.S. claiming immediate interests in the surrounding area, he warned. Obradovic noted that China and ASEAN, including the Philippines, pledged to resolve all disputes peacefully and bilaterally in the 2002 declaration. "I cannot understand why that after 14 years during which there was at least a readiness to talk, suddenly this issue has reached the level of ...an international arbitration, without attempting to find a solution in bilateral negotiations," he said. "It would be much better to leave this over to China and the Philippines," he said. An injured policeman is carried away after an attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 2, 2016. (Xinhua Photo) DHAKA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen killed 20 foreigners by slitting throats soon after they stormed a Spanish restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, a spokesman of the Bangladesh Army said on Saturday. Brigadier General Naim Ashfaq Chowdhury did not disclose nationality of the victims, but sources said all of the victims were foreigners. They said seven Italians and seven Japanese were thought to be among 20 victims in the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant which the gunmen attacked on Friday night. He told a press briefing that most of the victims were killed by slitting throats. Chowdhury said six attackers were killed during an armed raid on Saturday morning that ended the 13-hour siege in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan. "We've managed to capture one attacker alive," he said. Some 13 hostages, including one Japanese and two Sri Lankans, were rescued. An injured policeman is carried away after an attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 2, 2016. (Xinhua Photo) KABUL, July 2 (Xinhua) -- New Taliban leader Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada on Saturday issued his maiden message as supreme leader, calling on the United States and its allies to withdrawal all its forces from the militancy-plagued country. "Our message to the American invaders and her allies is this: the Afghan Muslim people are afraid of neither your force nor your stratagem ... Admit the realities instead of useless use of force and muscle show and put an end to the occupation," Akhundzada said on the advent of Muslims' upcoming annual religious festival Eid-ul-Fitr. "So it is rational if you come with a reasonable policy for solution (of the issue) instead of the use of force," he said. The NATO and U.S. forces completed their combat mission in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, after 13 years of military presence in the country. Nearly 13,000 foreign forces are currently stationed in Afghanistan within the framework of the NATO-led Resolute Support (RS) mission to help Afghan forces in the field of training and advising and backing Afghan forces in the war on insurgents. Akhundzada become the new Taliban leader on May 25, days after former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Akhtar Mansoor was killed in a U.S. drone strike in a remote area of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. NEW DELHI, July 2 (Xinhua) -- India will soon remove Cyprus from its tax blacklist as a non-cooperative jurisdiction for income tax purposes, local daily Business Line said on Saturday. The proposal followed the finalization of a double taxation avoidance agreement between the two countries, said the newspaper. This would facilitate Indian taxpayers transacting with Cyprus, which faces higher withholding taxes and their consequences of transfer-pricing provision. The Mediterranean island nation is the only country to have been blasted by India as a non-cooperative jurisdiction because of lack of effective exchange of information. India and Cyprus signed a tax treaty in 1994 obliging both sides to exchange information. The Indian Finance Ministry put Cyrus on the blacklist over alleged failed discussions to secure the desired level of cooperation, said the report. by Jamil Bhatti KARACHI, Pakistan, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Two big cooling towers and one lofty white chimney can be seen among a plethora of industrial machinery and hundreds of workers are busy working at Port Qasim Coal-fired power plant under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Pakistan's southern port of Karachi. This 1,320-MW project, which is one of the 21 energy cooperation projects under the CPEC, is the first coal-fired power plant being constructed under the CPEC in Pakistan. The 2.08-billion-U.S. dollar project, located some 37 km in the southeast of Karachi on the coastline of Arabian seas, ranks top among the priority implementation projects or early harvest projects in the energy sector being developed under the CPEC. The Power Construction Corporation of China through its subsidiary PowerChina Resources Limited and Al Mirqab Capital, an investment company controlled by Qatar's royal family, hold 51 percent and 49 percent of the project's shares respectively on a Build-Own-Operate (BOO) basis, that was also partially financed by the Export-Import Bank of China. Once the plant, controlled by the Port Qasim Electric Power Company (Private) Limited, is completed and starts production, it will cut Pakistan's current power shortfall by almost 20 percent and will not only ease daily life but also create hundreds of thousands of jobs by helping restart the industries that were closed due to power shortage. According to statistics from the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), Pakistan is facing a shortfall of 6,000 MW of electricity with an average demand of over 22,000 MW in the summer season. During the peak of summer, the duration of load-shedding in urban areas including the country's capital of Islamabad is 12 to 14 hours while in rural areas the duration is from 16 to 20 hours causing an unrest among the masses who often hit the streets to protest against load shedding. The project's average annual energy output will be around 9,000 Gigawatts which is enough power to support 4 million families' power consumption for a year. The work on the project site began on May 21 last year after Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif performed the ground breaking ceremony. The project was originally planned to be completed over a period of three years, but the first 660-MW unit will be completed by the end of next year and the second 660-MW unit will be finished in March 2018, five and two months ahead of the original deadlines respectively. Around 1,600 Pakistani workers and almost the same number of Chinese engineers and workers, who have been working 24 hours on the site in two shifts, have completed 130 percent of the work that was planned to be completed by the end of June. The project has directly created more than 1,500 job opportunities for Pakistani workers and will employ more during the peak of the construction phase, while it will also employ around 200 Chinese and between 200-300 Pakistani trained professionals during the operational stage. A 35-year-old welder, Nadeem, who hails from the country's eastern city of Lahore, while talking to Xinhua recently, said "I had been doing welding work for last 12 years, but had no permanent income source." "Five months ago, I joined this project and I am delighted now I can earn enough regularly to support my family. I am so happy now and will continue my work here," he said. Both of the production units will be fueled by imported coal from Indonesia, Australia and Africa, for which a company has already been established in Singapore. A pier with a capacity of 50,000 tons coal storage is being built at the site that could be extended to 70,000 tons capacity. "The project adopts the world's leading supercritical thermal technology and will also follow environment-friendly operations including seawater desalination and flue gas desulfurization," said Wu Xianing, assistant to the General Manager of the project. The basic infrastructure work has almost been completed at the 200-acre project and now production equipment is being raised. At least 40 meters out of the 162.6 meters of the first concrete- and steel-made cooling tower and 10-meter of the second cooling tower have been constructed, while 150 meters out of the total 195-meter chimney has also been built. After the approval from NEPRA, the Pakistan government will purchase the electricity from the plants at an upfront tariff of 8.12 U.S. cents per unit for 30 years. Out of the total investment of 46 billion U.S. dollars under the CPEC, China will invest 34 billion U.S. dollars solely in Pakistan's energy sector. In addition to the Port Qasim Coal-fired power plant, many other electricity-producing projects are under construction or being planned in different parts of Pakistan that would add surplus electricity to its national grid in the coming years. MOGADISHU, July 2 (Xinhua) -- At least two civilians were killed and 18 others seriously injured in a mortar shell attack by Al-Shabaab in Baidoa town in southwest Somalia, officials said on Saturday. Baidoa District Commissioner Abdullahi Ali Watin told Xinhua that the incident happened early Saturday when the militants fired rounds of mortar shells targeting civilians who were asleep. "Al-Shabaab militants killed at least 2 people including a young baby girl and injured 18 others in Baidoa town at around 4 am on Saturday. Five of the injured had light injuries and were later discharged from hospital but the rest are hospitalized," Watin said. The commissioner added that the security forces conducted an operation after the incident, but added that no one has been arrested. Al-Shabaab militants claimed responsibility of the latest attack in Baidoa town which is about 250 kilometers southwest of capital Mogadishu. Residents expressed fears the death toll could be more. The military group has increased deadly attacks in the south and central Somalia during the holy month of Ramadan. Somali refugees prepare to get on a bus heading for Somalia at Dadaab in Garissa, Kenya, July 1, 2016. (Xinhua/Stephen Ingati) GARISSA, Kenya, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan government on Friday kicked off voluntary repatriation of Somali refugees at the Dadaab, the world's largest refugee camp in northeast part of the country. A total of 180 refugees drawn from different camps left for Dobley in Somalia aboard buses to the Liboi border point where UN refugee agency and the Somali government will take over their transport home. Northeastern Regional Coordinator Mohmud Saleh said on Friday the government has also started the verification exercise of the refugees at the camps. Saleh said the actual repatriation may take up to one month because of the huge number of refugees that is involved. Somali refugees who have been living at the Dadaab camp for years had decided to voluntarily leave and not wait for the government to repatriate them. "We fear that the exercise might end up being inhuman and that is why we have opted to go by ourselves," said Mohamed Abdi, a refugee from Ifo 2 camp. Those who left were destined to Kismayu, Baidayo and Luuq in Sothern Somalia. They are provided with information about places they are going to resettle. Each family is given a stipend of 2,000 U.S. dollars to start off a new life. Somali refugees prepare to get on a bus heading for Somalia at Dadaab in Garissa, Kenya, July 1, 2016. (Xinhua/Stephen Ingati) Kenya, UNHCR and Somalia have laid down plans to repatriate about 150,000 Somali refugees by the end of 2016. The plan was revealed last week in a statement issued after the Tripartite Commission for the Voluntary Repatriation of Somali refugees in Kenya held a meeting over the weekend. The commission consists of officials from Kenya, Somalia and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). The statement said the voluntary repatriation has seen the return of more than 16,000 Somali refugees to date, and will be implemented with continued support from Kenya, Somalia and the partners. "The parties noted the prospect of the reduction of the population in the Dadaab camps by 150,000 individuals by the end of 2016 as a result of voluntary returns to Somalia, relocation of non-Somali refugees, the de-registration of Kenyan citizens who registered as refugees, and a population verification exercise," they said on June 26. According to a source, the number of refugees who have been going back home voluntarily since the government announced plans to repatriate them has increased. Asha Hussein, 34, who has been living in Ifo 2 camp for the last six years, said she and her husband decided to go back to Somalia since they have been told that the state of security in Somalia has improved. "We also have cattle there, we decided to go back to continue with our normal life although we are not so sure whether the security has really improved, but refugee life is also not good," said the mother of two before she boarded the UN hired buses. Located in northeastern Kenya, Dadaab was set up more than 20 years ago to house people fleeing conflict in Somalia. 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) JOHANNESBURG, July 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. intervention in the South China Sea issue has aimed to serve its purpose to impede China's rise, a well-known South African commentator said on Friday. America's objective is to contain a rising power, which presents itself as a major challenge to US global hegemony, said Shannon Ebrahim in a commentary published in The Star newspaper. She argued that the most effective way for the U.S. was to exert control, through proxies, over China's gateway to the sea. This strategic waterway has turned into a game of chess between China and some of its neighbours along the South China Sea which have made a series of territorial claims and are backed by the US, Ebrahim said. "The US claims its interest in the South China Sea is to protect the freedom of navigation as US trade through this waterway, but China has posed no threat to international navigation in the waters of the South China Sea and also seeks to protect its own trade," she said. Despite the tug of war, the situation was under control prior to 2009 when President Barack Obama took office and announced his keystone foreign policy undertaking as a "strategic pivot to Asia" or rebalancing strategy to the Asia-Pacific, Ebrahim wrote. "A new determination emerged within the US administration to support the territorial claims in the South China Sea of China's neighbours, it was in this way that the US was arguably the invisible hand behind the rising tension in the region since 2009," Ebrahim noted. China maintains that, together with the Philippines, they have reaffirmed settling the South China Sea dispute through bilateral negotiations, which is in keeping with the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, signed between China and the Association of South-east Asian Nations, Ebrahim noted. Her remarks came before an arbitral tribunal with widely contested jurisdiction will issue an award on July 12 on the South China Sea case unilaterally initiated by the Philippines. China has refused to participate in the proceedings and declared that it will never recognize the verdict, stressing that the tribunal has no jurisdiction because the case is in essence related to territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation. Chinese activities in the South China Sea date back to over 2,000 years ago. China was the first country to discover, name, explore and exploit the resources of the South China Sea Islands and the first to continuously exercise sovereign powers over them. Since the 1970s the Philippines has occupied a number of China's Nansha Islands in the South China Sea, including Mahuan Dao, Feixin Dao, Zhongye Dao, Nanyao Dao, Beizi Dao, Xiyue Dao, Shuanghuang Shazhou and Siling Jiao. NEW DELHI, July 2 (Xinhua) -- An Indian girl was among the some 20 foreigners killed in an armed siege at a restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital Friday night, said local media Saturday. DHAKA, July 2, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Bangladeshi army personnel stand guard during a rescue operation after an attack at a Spanish restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan, Bangladesh, July 2, 2016. Gunmen killed 20 foreigners soon after they stormed a Spanish restaurant in Dhaka in Bangladesh's worst hostage crisis, a spokesman of the Bangladesh Army said on Saturday. (Xinhua/Shariful Islam) by Naim-Ul-Karim DHAKA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen killed 20 foreigners soon after they stormed a Spanish restaurant in the capital of Dhaka in Bangladesh's worst hostage crisis, a spokesman of the Bangladesh Army said on Saturday. Director of Military Operations Brigadier General Naim Ashfaq Chowdhury did not disclose nationality of the victims. But sources said all the victims were foreign nationals, mostly Italians and Japanese. Two senior police officers were also killed in the early hours of the attack on Friday night in the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant, a popular destination of foreigners. Chowdhury told a press briefing that most of the victims were killed by slitting throats. He also said six attackers were killed during an armed raid on Saturday morning that ended the 13-hour siege in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan. "We've managed to capture one attacker alive," he said. Some 13 hostages, including one Japanese and two Sri Lankans, were rescued after a two-hour opration by Army commandos. After planning and waiting through the night, Bangladesh Army-led joint forces launched the assault at around 7:40 a.m. local time (0140 GMT) Saturday. More than 1,000 rounds of bullets were reportedly fired and explosions were heard in the first 30 minutes of the raid when army men in armored vehicles tore down a wall of the cafe and the commandos galloped into it through the breach. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called the incident a "militant attack." Speaking at a function on Saturday, she reiterated her commitment to combat militancy and terrorism in the country at any cost and appreciated the law enforcers - Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Navy, police, Rapid Action Battalion and Border Guard Bangladesh. It is the first attack on an establishment in Bangladesh claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group. Around five hours into the attack, according to a jihadist threat monitoring portal, SITE Intelligence Group, IS claimed its responsibility of attacking the upmarket restaurant. The gunmen stormed the restaurant in Bangladesh capital Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on Friday night. The authenticity of the IS claim has not been confirmed by the Bangladesh police. At least 40 people, including senior police officials, were injured in the incident. Sources said the gunmen demanded release of a leader of banned militant outfit Jama'at-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) who has recently been arrested. JMB, campaigning for the establishment of Islamic rule in Bangladesh, carried out a series of bombings in 63 out of the country's 64 districts, including capital Dhaka on Aug. 17, 2005, leaving two people dead and 150 others injured. Hundreds of JMB leaders and activists were rounded up while six top leaders of the group, including Shaikh Abdur Rahman, were hanged in 2007. Muslim-majority Bangladesh has been facing a surge in violent attacks in the recent months in which dozens of secularists and other religious groups have also been targeted. Assailants severely injured a Hindu priest early Saturday in southwestern Satkhira district, a day after the killing of another Hindu priest and a Buddhist man in southeastern Banderban. Earlier two people, including a writer of an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) magazine, were hacked to death by unidentified assailants in Dhaka, days after an English professor was shot dead in a separate incident. CAIRO, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian investigation committee said Saturday that cockpit voice recorder's memory of crashed EgyptAir flight MS804 that plunged into the Mediterranean in May "wasn't damaged." "Extensive examinations on the electronic board components of the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the A320 showed that no one of the memory ships of the electronic board was damaged," the investigators said in a statement. However, some other supportive components associated with communication to and from the memory chips has to be removed or replaced with new ones, the statement added. "Advanced high technology will be used to extract the recordings of these units." If the results of the tests were satisfactory; it will enable the reading of the CVR memory unit, it added. The investigation committee members will return back from France to Cairo soon with the fixed boards to continue reading and analyzing the date, it added. EgyptAir flight MS804 spiralled down into the Mediterranean early on May 19 on its way from Paris to Cairo, killing all 66 people on board. Last week, the investigation committee said the hired vessel, Lethbridge John, located several spots of the wreckage of the doomed plane in the Mediterranean, noting it was provided by the first images of the wreckage from one of the spotted sites. A day later, the committee said the vessel found the crashed jet's CVR yet it was damaged. The recorders arrived in Paris from Cairo last week to remove salt deposits. They will be sent back to a laboratory in Cairo for date analysis at the Central Department for Aviation Accidents of the Ministry of Civil Aviation of Egypt, according to an earlier statement from the committee. HANOI, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative is a strategy of global significance, said a Vietnamese expert. In an interview with Xinhua on the occasion of the 95th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Do Tien Sam, editor-in-chief of the China Research Journal published by the Institute for Chinese Studies at the Vietnam Academy of Social Science, said the global significance of the initiative lies in its feature of connecting the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa. The Belt and Road Initiative, which comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, was introduced in 2013, with the aim of building a trade and infrastructure network along the ancient Silk Road routes. According to Sam, in politics, if successfully implemented, the idea of the Belt and Road will help contribute to realizing China's goals of the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2021 and building a prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious modern socialist country by 2049. "In the economic area, the ideas will help increase connectivity between China and other countries, especially in infrastructure, trade exchanges, people-to-people exchanges, and culture among other areas," the expert told Xinhua. "Externally, when China, as the world's second-largest economy, succeed in implementing the initiative, countries along the Belt and Road will benefit in economic development from infrastructure connectivity, which helps narrow the development gap between regions in a country or between countries," said Sam. Talking about opportunities that China has, the expert said the global economic and financial crisis itself can bring about opportunities for China to contribute to the recovery of the world economy. However, challenges that China is facing include internal difficulties in countries along the Belt and Road, including ethnic and religious conflicts and terrorism. "If China is unable to settle these problems effectively, the implementation of the initiative will be difficult," the expert said. Meanwhile, if the ideas are carried out successfully, "China will make immeasurable contributions to the world," said Sam. "Politically, it will make the world more stable. Economically, China will become the world's development motivation. Culturally, China will help diversify world culture. All in all, the Chinese national image and soft power will be enhanced." BELGRADE, July 2 (Xinhua) -- A husband killed his wife and four others on suspicion of jealousy and injured 20 others in a bloody gunfire in a village in northeastern Serbia on Saturday, according to the country's interior ministry. The ministry said in a press release that the 38-year-old man first killed his wife and her girlfriend with an automatic weapon at a cafe in Zitiste, and continued to shoot at other people present. The suspect was arrested immediately. Two people died on the spot, while three more passed away in hospital in the nearby city of Zrenjanin. Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic arrived at the cafe early Saturday. "Presumable reason for this is jealousy, because the first person shot dead was his wife, although a great number of people were hurt or tragically killed here," he said. The situation was completely unexpected as the suspect did not have a criminal record, the minister added. The tragedy took place during the traditional "Chicken Fest" which is held here every year. TEHRAN, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian state-owned Pertamina company will sign a contract with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) next month to develop two oil and gas blocks in Iran, Press TV reported on Saturday. There are four blocks that will be evaluated based on the initial study, and out of the four, there are two blocks that will be our priority, Pertamina's upstream director Syamsu Alam was quoted as saying. Pertamina hopes to boost production from each block by 30,000 barrels per day as part of its upstream development plans, the report said without specifying the blocks under consideration. The Indonesian company signed a deal with NIOC in May, during the Indonesian energy minister's visit to Tehran, to buy 600,000 tonnes of refrigerated liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from Iran. (Xinhua File Photo) HANGZHOU/BEIJING, July 2 (Xinhua) -- A British man has attracted widespread praise in China after he donated his organs to six Chinese people, passing the hope for life to the country he had come to love. Mark Osborne, 49, lost his 118 day battle for life on Wednesday in China's eastern province of Zhejiang after suffering an acute stroke back in March. Osborne, who worked as an English teacher in the city of Hangzhou, had earlier made the decision to donate his corneas, kidneys, heart and liver to six Chinese people. Osborne is the second foreign donor in Zhejiang province. His death touched the hearts of people in China, triggering an outpouring of sympathy and condolences on Chinese social media with many praising his generosity. "You are a great man," said a post on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter. "You will never leave us, and we can still feel your presence. Thank you for your kindness, Mark!" another netizen said. Organ donation is not very common in China, where there is a traditional belief that the bodies of the dead should remain intact and require a peaceful burial. Mark's widow, a Chinese national whose surname is Wang, said she hopes that Osborne's act will help change people's attitudes towards organ donation in the country. EDINBURGH, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Queen Elizabeth officially opened and extended her best wishes to the fifth session of the Scottish parliament here on Saturday. Addressing the members of the Scottish parliament (MSPs), the Queen said the opening of the new session marked a time for "hope and optimism", noting that "there is certainly a lot to celebrate". She noted that the Scottish parliament will have to implement new tax and welfare powers, wishing the MSPs well in doing so. The Queen also acknowledged the difficulty of "staying calm and collected" in an "increasingly challenging world", stressing the need for political leaders to make "room for quiet thinking and contemplation". "Of course we all live in an increasingly complex and demanding world, where events and developments can, and do, take place at remarkable speed," said the Queen, adding that "Retaining the ability to stay calm and collected can at times be hard." The Queen called for sufficient room for "which can enable deeper consideration of how challenges and opportunities can be best addressed". Later, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the Scottish parliament made collective commitment to the people of Scotland that "we will not shy away from any challenge we face, no matter how difficult or deep-rooted." Sturgeon, who had pledged to do all she can to maintain Scotland's place in the EU, also spoke of the parliament's duty to "enhance and never diminish our place in the world", and said Scotland was determined to remain "open and inclusive". Earlier, the Presiding Officer of the Scottish parliament Ken Macintosh said the parliament "stands ready for the challenges that lie ahead of us" and "every MSP in this chamber is proud to represent the people of Scotland". "In these few short weeks, weeks of unprecedented political turbulence, I have already seen a real willingness to work cooperatively and collaboratively," said Macintosh, referring to the fallout from the EU referendum result. Poems were read and musicians made performance at the opening ceremony, which is followed by thousands of people taking part in the Riding procession down the Royal Mile, as well as "Big Day Out" events including singing, dancing, arts and crafts, falconry and beekeeping. In a historic referendum on June 23, Britain voted to leave the EU after 43 years in the bloc. The Leave campaign received 51.9 percent of the votes, against 48.1 percent for the Remain side. However, Scotland voted 62 percent in favor of remaining in the EU, with the majority in each council of its 32 local authority areas voting to remain. The Scottish National Party won 63 out of the total 129 seats in the fifth Scottish parliamentary election held on May 5, forming a minority Scottish government. NEW DELHI, July 2 (Xinhua) -- India on Saturday strongly condemned the terrorist attack in the Bangladesh capital, in which 20 foreigners, including an Indian girl, were killed. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he spoke to his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina on Saturday and condemned the "despicable attack" in Dhaka. "My thoughts are with the bereaved families. I pray that those who are injured recover quickly," the prime minister said in a series of tweets. "The attack in Dhaka has pained us beyond words. I spoke to PM Sheikh Hasina & strongly condemned the despicable attack," he said, adding that India "stands firmly with our sisters and brothers of Bangladesh" in this hour of grief. An Indian girl, Tarushi Jain, was among the 20 hostages killed by terrorists in the siege on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said. "I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka," Swaraj tweeted. "I have spoken to her father Shri Sanjeev Jain and conveyed our deepest condolences. The country is with them in this hour of grief," she said. India put its border forces on alert Saturday in eastern and northeastern states bordering Bangladesh. The Home Ministry has directed the Border Security Force and other agencies to keep strict vigil along the international borders. India has also expressed concern about the situation in the neighbouring country after a Hindu priest was hacked to death last week by attackers in Bangladesh. India and Bangladesh share a long border where local people can cross visa-free, which has raised security concerns in New Delhi over possible infiltration of terrorists and drug traffickers, among other criminals, into northeastern India. by Tichaona Chifamba HARARE, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean farmers and students are benefiting from the China-Aid Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center (CATDC), 27 km north-west of Harare, where they are getting knowledge on how to improve their yields. CATDC is nestled on a 109-hectare piece of land to the south of Gwebi College and composed of an agricultural production and training base where it merges research, production, education work and a community living together. Employing 70 people, its functions include experimental studies, technical training and promotion of sustainable development. The center carries out research and studies on maize, wheat, potatoes, soybeans, vegetables and other crops and seeks to attract Chinese agricultural enterprises to invest in Zimbabwe. Since 2011, more than 10 experts on agricultural machinery, farming, horticulture and agricultural economy have cooperated with local agriculture extension services and Gwebi College to improve production. About 450 students have been trained at the center so far, with more than 4,000 local and foreign visitors also benefiting. The center earlier this week showcased Chinese agricultural technology at a field day attended by farmer organizations, army and prisons officers and bank officials. Guests witnessed center pivots, disc harrows, tractors and seed drills at work as personnel from Debont Corp, the Chinese agricultural company running the demonstration center, took to the fields with their equipment which has been modified to suit local conditions. Debont is a system integrator specializing in modern agricultural production processes, including providing integrated solutions in agricultural engineering, supplying agricultural equipment, contracting of agricultural projects, and operating agricultural projects. Minister of Agriculture, Mechanization and Irrigation Development Joseph Made applauded the company for ensuring that the equipment suited local conditions, after having raised concerns about their effectiveness and quality in the past. "Machinery and equipment have been modified to suit our conditions. China's conditions are different from ours in terms of soils. We have dry conditions here and their weather is humid and their soils are less firm. So they have modified the equipment according to our standards and conditions," he said. The company is running specials on some of its products, with a 120 horsepower tractor selling for 39,000 U.S. dollars until Nov. 1 instead of 58,000 dollars. Bank facilities are available in some cases with beneficiaries paying a deposit of 30 percent and then settle the balance in 12 to 24 months. Made also appealed to the Chinese government to provide a credit line to the farmers and suggested that the loans would be repayable when the farmers sold their produce. The Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service requires about 52 center pivots for its farms, according to Commissioner-General Paradzai Zimondi. Made said the Cabinet had made a decision for state enterprises with land to utilize it for their own purposes while selling excess produce to settle loans. Deputy general manager of Debont's Overseas Department Wang Xinwei said the center had demonstrated that with the necessary technology, farmers could raise their yields phenomenally. "The data of our agricultural demonstration shows that the center has achieved high yields in maize, wheat, and potatoes, soy beans which are at least 50 to 200 percent more compared with the local production level," she said. She said the center was producing more than 10 tonnes of maize, 30 tonnes of potatoes and between seven and 10 tonnes of wheat per hectare as production increased. "In China we can get up to 40 tonnes of potatoes per hectare, so we have to continue learning about the soil conditions here," she said. Zimbabwe needs about 1.4 million tonnes of maize a year for consumption but yields have often been curtailed by low mechanization and unfavorable weather which usually calls for irrigation development. Wang said the smaller farmers who could not afford the big tractors could benefit from the small hand-drawn ones which cost less than 2,000 dollars. Debont this year signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the government to set up eight satellite agricultural demonstration centres and experimental farms across the country in the next ten years. The centers will be used to share farming expertise and provide training to locals. Debont will also provide scholarships to talented students at these centers. Made said the future of the farming sector lay in the development of mechanization and irrigation, especially in the face of climate change. "Faced with the demand for more food and other agricultural commodities by an increasing population, there is no choice for us but to improve our production systems through mechanization and irrigation development," he said. More than 276,000 Zimbabweans have been given about 12 million hectares, representing about 31 percent of prime agricultural land previously owned by the white minority farmers. However, the reforms did not address the problem of underutilization of land as the majority of the new farmers do not have the necessary farming skills. BEIJING, July 2 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature on Saturday appointed Chen Baosheng as minister of education, replacing Yuan Guiren. The decision was adopted at the closing meeting of the bi-monthly session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, which runs from Monday to Saturday. Chen was Party chief of Chinese Academy of Governance before replacing Yuan. YANGON, July 2 (Xinhua) -- National Socialist Council of Nagaland, one of Myanmar's non-signatory ethnic armed organizations to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), on Saturday confirmed to attend the planned 21st Century Panglong Ethnic Conference, according to the Panglong Conference Preparatory Committee in Yangon. "They are not sure yet to sign the NCA for participating the conference," U Hla Maung Shwe, secretary of the preparatory committee, told Xinhua. Meanwhile, Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi will also meet with non-signatory ethnic groups to the NCA in Yangon in mid-July, according to the meeting between the 21st Century Panglong Conference Preparatory Committee and the United Nationalities Federal Council's (UNFC) Delegation for Political Negotiation (DPN) on Friday. The State Counselor's meeting with the chairman of the UNFC will be held prior to a conference involving all Ethnic Armed Organizations in Mai Ja Yang in Kachin State, the northernmost of Myanmar in July. Khu Oo Reh, who led the DPN, said that the ethnic side understands that it is required for the ethnic groups to work together with the military to achieve peace in the country. The Myanmar government and eight signatory armed groups to the NCA have agreed to hold the Panglong conference by the last week of August. Two of the non-ceasefire signatory groups, the United Wa State Army and the National Democratic Alliance Army, decided to attend the Panglong conference following a meeting in Mongla last week with the Panglong Conference Preparatory Sub-Committee. Photo taken on July 2, 2016 shows campaign ads in front of Old Parliament House in Canberra, Australia. (Xinhua/Justin Qian) CANBERRA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of both major Australianpolitical parties have continued their campaigns in the marginal seats that were expected to determine the election result. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, leader of the center-right Liberal-National Coalition, and leader of the center-left Labor PartyBill Shorten made last ditch attempts to get their party over the line in Saturday's federal election. Despite telling the travelling media pack that his campaign was over after voting at a school in his electorate on Saturday morning, Turnbull made appearances at voting centers in marginal electorates on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile Shorten spent all morning in Western Sydney before flying to his own seat of Maribyrnong in Melbourne's northwest to cast his own vote and conclude his campaign. Shorten first had to deal with one of the long queues which have plagued election day with voters at centers in inner-Melbourne reportedly facing lines up to two hours to cast their ballot. "Labor has worked on a policy agenda for the Australian people. We are ready to govern, we are ready to implement our policy agenda for the Australian people, and we are ready to serve," Shorten said on Saturday morning. A two-party opinion poll conducted by News Limited in the week leading up to the election gave the coalition a slight 50.5 percent advantage to Labor's 49.5 percent. Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop used her last appearance ofthe campaign to implore independent members of the new parliament and those from small parties to respect the will of the Australian people if the Turnbull government is re-elected. "The coalition, if we win, will have the support of theAustralian people to implement the very positive economic plan that will underpin the future of this country," she told reporters in her Perth seat of Curtin after voting. Leader of the Australian Labor Party Bill Shorten and his wife Chloe Shorten cast their votes at the Moonee Ponds West Public School polling station on Australia's federal election day in Melbourne, Australia, July 2, 2016. (Xinhua/AAP Photo) "The Australian people are making a very serious decision today about the future of our country and I hope the crossbenchers, I hopethe independents, I hope the Greens and every other major party listen to the will of the Australian people." Turnbull triggered an election of all 226 seats of Australianparliament following increasing frustration with crossbenchers in theSenate repeatedly blocking coalition legislation. Turnbull's decision to call an early election to secure a coalition majority in both houses looks likely to backfire, however, with the size of the crossbench in the House of Representatives andthe Senate set to increase. South Australian senator Nick Xenophon, leader of the recently-formed Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), is shaping as one of the election's major winners with the minor party looking to win multiple seats across both houses of parliament. NXT will be joined on the crossbench in both houses by the Greens who are optimistic of adding to their current tally of one seat in theHouse of Representatives via the Melbourne electorates of Wills, Batman and Higgins. The tight contest between coalition incumbent Kelly O'Dwyer and Greens hopeful Jason Ball in Higgins escalated on Friday night with Fairfax Media reporting that an unknown man bit a Greens volunteer inthe area. While the majority of coalition ministers and prospective Laborministers face stress-free victories in their own seats, Turnbull's deputy Prime Minister and leader of the National Party Barnaby Joyce is facing stiff competition from independent candidate Tony Windsor. "This campaign I think is going to be tight. I've never thought otherwise. I've always believed these campaigns go down to the wire," Joyce said. "If I get given the great honor of representing the people of New England I will continue on in that role." With both major parties sharing many policy platforms, proposed reforms by the coalition to Medicare, Australia's universal healthcare scheme, has become the centerpiece for the final day of the election. Under the proposition the coalition would freeze rebates paid to doctors until 2020 which could in turn force medical practitioners to increase their prices, prompting fears that the elderly and young families will face considerably more money out of pocket. "If they (voters) want Medicare that's strong, vote Labor,"Shorten's deputy leader Tanya Plibersek told reporters after voting in her electorate of Sydney. "If we happen to win today after all our hard work after putting out our 100 positive policies it'll be a sweet victory indeed." Voting booths close at 6 p.m. local time with the counting ofballots to begin immediately afterwards. A voter lines to cast his vote at the Moonee Ponds West Public School polling station on Australia's federal election day in Melbourne, Australia, July 2, 2016. (Xinhua/Bai Xue) RIYADH, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Saudi police foiled Saturday the trafficking of 14,500 Kalashnikov bullets in Jazan in the border areas with Yemen, Saudi Press Agency reported. The ammunitions were confiscated during police patrolling in the mountains of Jazan. They were found hidden under the lid of the vehicle's boot. The police suspected a driver who tried to escape when he was spotted by the police. He was chased and the bullets were seized after the car was searched. The country has been suffering in recent years with terrorist activities by sleeping cells of the Islamic State (IS) militant group. On June 24, the police announced the death of on-duty traffic officer who was shot dead by anonymous in Saihat in east coast of Saudi Arabia. In November, 2015, two policemen were shot dead when their police jeep was attacked. In October 2015, a gunman opened fire at a Shiite community center, leaving five people dead. BEIJING, July 2 (Xinhua) -- As the farce of arbitration on the South China Sea is to end soon, it is time for the new Philippine government of Rodrigo Duterte to stop the wrong foreign policy of its predecessor, so as to bring China-Philippines ties back to the track of sound development. Since Duterte assumed presidency on Thursday, sparks of hope have arisen for resumption of sound development of relations between China and the Philippines after bilateral ties seriously deteriorated during the rule of former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III. In 2013, the government of Aquino III filed a case of arbitration with the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration over territorial disputes between China and the Philippines on the South China Sea, stoking tensions in the South China Sea region. On June 29 -- just a day before the assumption of presidency by Duterte, the Permanent Court of Arbitration announced that an arbitral award in the case initiated by the Philippines against China will be issued on July 12, meaning that the farce of arbitration started by the government of Aquino III will come to an end in days. Since winning the election, Duterte has made a series of overtures on China-Philippines relations, signaling that improvement of relations with China would be a foreign policy priority of his government, in sharp contrast to the wrong foreign policy pursued by the former government. As whoever started the trouble should be responsible for settling it, any substantial improvement of relations between China and the Philippines under the current situation actually depends on efforts of the Philippine side. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether the new Philippine government will be able to play the role of settling the trouble left over by the former government, how long it will take before the new Philippine government can shake off the burden of wrong diplomacy created by its predecessor, how much efforts it will make in this endeavor, and how it will face the serious harm caused by the farce of arbitration to China-Philippines relations. Today, there do exist chances for the new Philippine government to substantially improve relations with China, and also for it to eliminate negative impacts of the farce of arbitration on China-Philippine relations and even on the regional situation. In a message to congratulate Duterte on his victory in the election more than one month ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China and the Philippines see a long history of friendly exchanges and profound traditional friendship between the two peoples. "A friendly, stable and sound China-Philippines relationship is in the fundamental interest of the two countries and the two peoples," Xi said, adding that he hoped the two sides would work together to get bilateral relations back onto the track of sound development. In response, Duterte said he was "honored" to receive the congratulatory message from the Chinese president, calling him a great leader. "I was honored receiving a congratulatory message from a great president," Duterte reportedly made the remarks when speaking with reporters in Davao City after unveiling the members of his cabinet to the media. The indirect "dialogue" reflected by the two foregoing passages has been interpreted as a positive signal for improvement of relations between China and the Philippines. It is noteworthy that both sides mentioned therein the history of China-Philippines relations, and that both emphasized the existence of a long history of friendly exchange between China and the Philippines and the maintenance of profound traditional friendship between the Chinese and Philippine peoples. Since ancient times, China and the Philippines have maintained friendly exchange and profound traditional friendship between the two peoples, which is just one of the reasons why the two countries can get bilateral ties back onto the track of sound development despite negative impacts of the wrong foreign policy pursued by the government of Aquino III. In history, the South China Sea used to be an important link via which the two countries conducted friendly and equal exchanges. Historical literature "The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898" gave an account of a story about friendly contacts between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea. In 1626 AD, the region of today's Hermosa in the Philippine province of Bataan was facing a severe famine, but the then Manila government was unable to offer aid to the region. Local Catholics had to pray every day that Chinese merchant ships could come as annually scheduled to help them cope with the emergency. Shortly afterwards, when six Chinese ships fully loaded with rice arrived on Hermosa port from the South China Sea, the locals hailed the timely rescue as "a gift from God." Almost at the same time, chronicles of southeast China's Fujian Province known as "The Book of Fujian" also recorded a history of people-to-people contacts between the two countries, saying that sweet potato widely planted in today's China had actually been introduced from Luzon -- today's Philippines. At that time, after seeing that sweet potato was widely grown in Luzon and its growth had gained good harvests, businessmen took sweet potato plants via the South China Sea to Fujian, where they were successfully planted. During the first years of extensive cultivation of sweet potato, it helped local people survive famines. In the long history, the South China Sea mainly played the role as such a link and platform for equal exchanges and common development between China and neighboring countries. However, in the past few years, the government of Aquino III put aside the traditional friendship between the two countries and the needs of the Philippine people's livelihood and development by pursuing a wrong foreign policy that led to serious deterioration of relations between China and the Philippines. Considering oral promises made by some countries outside the region as a security umbrella and economic driving force, Aquino III internationalized the South China Sea issue and was willing to serve as a vanguard for those countries in muddying the waters in the South China Sea. In fact, it is difficult for Manila to find its real security interests from the frequent navigation by foreign military vessels on the South China Sea. In economy, the promises of some Western countries have not helped improve the people's livelihood in the Philippines. Instead, escalation of South China Sea disputes has deprived many Filipinos of their means of survival. Therefore, the cognitive, decision-making and strategic errors the Aquino government committed will finally bring bitter fruit to its people and even undermine regional stability and prosperity. Only enhancing win-win cooperation and developing the economy are in the fundamental interests of the two countries. As is known to all, China has been prudent and tolerant in handling its relations with the Philippines while considering the Philippine people's livelihood. In 2015, bilateral relations were difficult, and the trade between China and other Asian countries as well as between China and countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations went down by 7.8 percent and 1.7 percent respectively. However, the China-Philippines trade hit a record high of 45.65 billion U.S. dollars, up 2.7 percent from a year ago. Now, China has become the Philippines' largest source of imports, second largest trade partner and third largest export market. The two countries are complementary to each other in industry, with the existence of great potential for economic growth and broad prospects for investment cooperation, which makes up a right way for mutually beneficial cooperation compared to the empty promises some countries made to Aquino III. In the 1980s, then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, after meeting then Philippine Vice President Salvador Laurel and then Philippine President Corazon Aquino successively, proposed peacefully solving the South China Sea disputes, and shelving disputes while seeking joint development. The reason why such a constructive consensus was reached was that the two sides realized that hope was far more than difficulties and common interests were far more than differences. Only through cooperation and common development can China-Philippines relations be brought back onto the track of sound development. As long as the Philippines remembers the history, envisages realities and refrains from jumping into traps set by some forces outside the region, it will not be difficult for it to substantially improve relations with China. Related: China calls on Philippines to properly solve maritime disputes via negotiation BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday called on the Philippines to work with China to use the power of negotiation to solve disputes on the South China Sea. ISLAMABAD, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Olson, met with top Pakistani diplomat in Islamabad on Saturday, who "discussed the regional security situation and efforts for peace and stability in Afghanistan," officials said. Ambassador Olson is visiting Pakistan at a time when relations between Pakistan and the United States are tense over the drone strike that killed Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour and the U.S. blockade of the F-16 fighter plane sale. The visit is also seen important at a time when relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan are also tense over recent border skirmishes that had caused casualties on both sides last month. Both sides also had the opportunity to discuss the efforts by the Quadrilateral Coordination Group involving Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the United States to push for the Afghan peace process. Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry while talking to Ambassador Olson reiterated Pakistan's commitment to as an effective forum to facilitate Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliation process. "The Foreign Secretary underlined Pakistan's focus on effective border management on Afghanistan-Pakistan border with a view to enhancing security and counter-terrorism efforts," a Foreign Ministry statement said. After the exchange of firing along the Torkham border, Pakistan and Afghanistan created a high-level consultation mechanism to address border management and related security issues. Ambassador Olson "appreciated Pakistan's efforts for long-term peace and stability in Afghanistan and stated that the US supported Pakistan's efforts on border management," the statement said. He recognized that Pakistan's role in hosting Afghan refugees for more than 35 years should not be forgotten by the international community. In this regard, he underlined the need for creating pull factors for sustainable repatriation of Afghan refugees. On bilateral relations, Ambassador Richard Olson expressed appreciation for continued close cooperation between Pakistan and the United States on issues of mutual interest. He mentioned that Pakistan's successes in counter-terrorism operations and stabilization of the economy were remarkable. He also congratulated Pakistan for significant reduction in polio cases. Both sides agreed on continued constructive engagement between Pakistan and the United States in the areas of trade, investment, education, health and energy, the Foreign Ministry said. MOGADISHU, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Top UN and Africa Union (AU) envoys in Somalia have lauded progress made so far since the country pulled itself out of a prolonged civil war, saying the Horn of Africa nation is on the right path to stability. The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the AU Commission for Somalia, Francisco Madeira and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Somalia Michael Keating also said separately the upcoming elections will help steer the country into prosperity. "I strongly believe that Somalia is on the right path to becoming a peaceful and stable nation, where citizens enjoy freedom and contribute to the nation's prosperity," Madeira said in a statement received on Saturday as Somalia marked 56 years of independence. He said since the establishment of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in 2007, a lot has been achieved with the help of Somalis who want to live in a peaceful and prosperous nation. "The joint operations conducted by AMISOM and Somali security forces, for example, have liberated large swathes of the country, which were hitherto under the control of terrorist militants Al-Shabaab," Madeira said. He said AMISOM, the government and regional states are working closely to stabilize and restore the rule of law in these liberated areas. "To this end, AMISOM has so far trained thousands of police officers, who have since been deployed to various parts of the country to maintain law and order," Madeira said. The envoy said this year's independent celebration which was marked on Friday is special for Somalis as they not only remember the enormous sacrifice made by their forefathers in the independence struggle against colonialism, but also the progress made so far since the country pulled itself out of a prolonged civil war. "I congratulate all Somalis who have continued to work tirelessly to make Somalia great. Those who have sacrificed their lives to ensure that the country is stabilized and that residents enjoy the peace they yearn for," said Madeira. He lauded the Somali leadership for setting clear timeliness for the electoral process during the just concluded National Leadership Forum held in Baidoa. The electoral process agreed upon by the leadership will herald a new dawn in politics as the country moves towards universal suffrage and achieving gender parity in leadership. In his statement, UN envoy Keating praised the entrepreneurship and perseverance of the Somali people as their country emerges from decades of uncertainty and conflict. "The last 56 years have been turbulent for Somalis. Their extraordinary political journey continues. Unfortunately, insecurity remains a major problem. But Somalia continues to make remarkable progress in so many fields, political, security and economic, defying even many Somalis' expectations," Keating said. The UN envoy praised the work of Somalia's security forces and AMISOM to counter the menace of violent extremism and underscored the crucial role they continue to play. "Strengthening the capability of Somali National Security Forces is essential, not only to partner with AMISOM but also as part of Somalia's state building objectives," he said. Keating said the last few years have seen the gradual emergence of a federal state, of national as well as regional institutional capacity, and of laws and plans that provide a basis for meeting Somalis' expectations. "Progress is tangible, and confidence is growing. But it is still vulnerable," said Keating, noting that the overwhelming majority of Somalis have rejected violence as a means of resolving differences, but that Al-Shabaab remains a threat, especially to civilians. An employee fumigates to fight against Zika, Dengue, and Chikungunya, in El Bosque sector of Chaco Township, Caracas, Venezuela, on Feb. 5, 2016. (Xinhua/Boris Vergara) MADRID, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Health authorities in the Madrid Regional Community have confirmed the first sexually transmitted case of the Zika virus in Spain. The announcement was made late on Friday night with the news that a woman resident in the Madrid region has been infected with the virus after maintaining relations with her partner who had recently returned from a trip to Latin America, where the disease is relatively common. The couple are both receiving treatment and are reported to be in good condition, although authorities have reminded anyone visiting Latin America of the need to wait for eight weeks before resuming sexual relations to avoid the risk of possibly transmitting the Zika virus. So far the Spanish Ministry of Health has confirmed 158 cases of Zika in Spain. All of these cases, with the exception of the case mentioned above, involve people who were infected while outside of Spain. A number of 21 of the 158 people infected have been confirmed as pregnant women with two cases of malformed fetuses being detected, one in the Catalan region and one in Galicia, to date. KABUL, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Of late, bazaars and shopping malls in all Afghan cities including the capital city of Kabul are all hustle bustle as faithful Muslim families are busy shopping to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitar, the second annual religious festival to mark the end of Ramadan, the Muslims fasting month. "I am here to buy clothes for my children and dry fruits for the family in preparation for Eid-ul-Fitar," Abdul Wadood, 39, told Xinhua on Friday. With two young children in hand while browsing the shops inside the Gulbahar Center, a shopping Mall in downtown Kabul, Wadood said that he needs high quality garments for his children to wear during Eid. Ramadan, the Muslim holy month began on June 6 and will probably end on Monday. Usually Ramadan, counted on lunar calendar, lasts 28 to 30 days, depending on the sighting the moon. Wadood, while perusing various items, is complaining that the prices have skyrocketed beyond the reach of ordinary people. "One kilogram of almonds was 900 afghanis last Ramadan, but today it costs between 1,500 afghanis (22 U.S. dollars) to 2,000 Afghanis," Wadood lamented. Traditionally Afghans, a few days before Eid-ul-Fitar, begin buying new clothes to wear and purchase dry fruits, sweets and pastries to welcome their guests on during Eid. Eid-ul-Fitar in Afghanistan, however, is being celebrated amid spiraling militancy and growing incidents of violence. In addition to fighting government forces in different provinces, Taliban militants have conducted a series of deadly suicide bombings since the beginning of Ramadan, two of which took place in the capital city of Kabul. Twin suicide attacks against police cadets on the western edge of Kabul were launched by militants on June 30 and claimed 32 lives and injured 79 others, with a previous bombing on June 14 killing 14 people, including 12 Nepalese, and injured nine others. "In fact I have grown up in a war zone and have become accustomed to violent incidents. Bomb blasts, killings and conflicts are routine news in Afghanistan," another shopper, Ahmad Munir, 27, told Xinhua. Waiting in line for his turn to buy dry fruits, cake and cookies, Munir said nervously that he can't feel safe and is scared that a bomb blast may hit the area any second. "I am worried about security incidents, but have no choice but to go about my day," Munir murmured, obviously scared, adding that "living under the threat of death, or leaving the country are both extremely difficult choices." Eid-ul-Fitar, the second annual religious festival, is a three-day public holiday in Afghanistan. The largest annual religious festival or Eidul Adha is observed two months and 10 days after Eidul Fitar. Both state-owned and private media outlets including radio and television channels are airing a variety of entertaining programs including stage shows, musicals, local and foreign serials and movies during the Eid holidays. Despite the entertaining distractions on the TV and radio, Afghans remain concerned that the Taliban militants who have described Ramadan as the month of "Jihad (holy war) and victory" will do their best to disrupt the Eid-ul-Fitar celebrations by organizing deadly acts of terrorism. "I am hopeful of celebrating the Eid holidays in a peaceful environment and I am calling upon the government to put in place all necessary security measures before the Eid celebrations," Mohammad Jawad, a student, declared in talks with Xinhua. Enditem HARARE, July 2 (Xinhua) --Zimbabwe civil servants, mostly teachers and nurses will embark on strike starting Tuesday next week after the government failed to pay them their June salaries. Apex council team leader Cecilia Alexander told a press conference Saturday that the unpaid workers will down tools due to incapacitation. Government offered the workers an advance salary of 100 U.S. dollars for transport but they have refused it demanding their full salaries. "We have unanimously agreed and we have come up with a statement that we as civil servants of Zimbabwe organized under the Apex Council pronounce that owing to incapacitation, our members shall not attend their duties from Tuesday," said Alexander. The Apex Council brings together all civil servants unions. The cash-strapped government only managed to pay members of the security forces last month while teachers and nurses would get their salaries on July 7 and 14, respectively. The Zimbabwe government, which spends 80 percent of the national budget on salaries, has been struggling to pay its workers on time since last year due to dwindling revenue flows. GUANGZHOU, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Israeli international Eran Zahavi shined in his debut to help Guangzhou R&F overcome Shijiazhuang Everbright 4-2 in the 15th round of the Chinese Super League (CSL) here on Saturday. The 29-year-old striker scored a decisive header and made two assists in 30 minutes playing time after joining the Guangzhou side only three days ago from Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv FC on a transfer fee of 6.3 million euro. In the 39th minute, Brazilian striker Renatinho netted his second goal this season to open the scoring for the home side. Shijiazhuang equalized in the 53rd minute as Philippe Mendy scored an easy goal inside Guangzhou's box. Zahavi headed the ball into the far corner of the net in the 75th minute to help R&F to regain the lead after he came as substitute in the 60th minute. Ten minutes later, Zahavi's pinpoint pass from the left flank found Zeng Chao, who easily netted to increase the lead to 3-1 for the home side. The Israeli offered another fine pass to Zhang Yaokun, who sealed the victory by a long drive in the 90th minute. Shijiazhuang managed to score a consolation goal in injury time as Jiang Jihong fired the ball to the bar and deflected into the back of net. BAGHDAD, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry arrived in Baghdad on Saturday on an official visit to meet the Iraqi leaders to bolster bilateral ties and show Egypt's support to Iraq in its fight against the Islamic State (IS) extremist group. Shoukry arrived in Baghdad airport before noon and was received by his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari and the two sides held a meeting in Jaafari's office in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The two ministers discussed bilateral ties and means to enhance cooperation between Baghdad and Cairo, including political and security coordination, according to the statement. "Any Iraqi victory (against terrorism) is a victory to Egypt and, all the Arab countries and the world, noting that Iraq is confronting international terrorism that targets the whole world," the statement quoted Jaafari as saying. Jaafari also asserted on the significance of coordination of the two countries in political stances on all Arab, regional and international levels, in addition to bolster security and intelligence cooperation, the statement said. Shoukry for his part, hailed the latest Iraqi military victories against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, adding that "Egypt supports Iraq's integrity and stability, and is looking forward for further common cooperation between the two countries," according to the statement. Later in the day, a brief statement issued by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's office said that Abadi received in his office the Egyptian minister and the two discussed issues of common interest. Last month, Iraqi foreign minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari visited Egypt for talks aimed to boosting anti-terror coordination. Shoukri's visit came after security forces recaptured Fallujah on June 26, following a month of intense battles, while the troops continued their advance in the northern part of Salahudin province to free the remaining areas from IS militants in the northern the province, before attacking the major IS stronghold in the city of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad. Iraq has witnessed intense violence since the IS took control of parts of its northern and western regions in June 2014. Egypt, meanwhile, is fighting a Sinai-based militant group loyal to IS regional terror group since 2013. A neon sign for the 2016 referendum is attached to the doors of the announcement hall in Manchester Town Hall , northwest England on June 23, 2016. (Xinhua/AFP) MEXICO CITY, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Brexit is a defeat for social pluralism, and this is a serious problem, according to academics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). At a news conference Thursday, experts from the faculty of Political and Social Sciences said that Brexit reflects the existence of a generational gap -- the young ones embrace globalized processes, while the older ones see it an agonizing process. In their view, what happened was a blow to integration not only for the European Union (EU) but also for the UK people. Javier Oliva Posada, professor at Latin America's largest university, said participation during the "Brexit" referendum was a historic figure, with votes from 72 percent of the people on the electoral register. "The British electorate voted, nevertheless, not enough young people did so and about 25 percent of those aged between 18 and 30 didn't even register to vote," added Oliva Posada. The young electorate in London voted for pluralism and integration because many are children of immigrants or from inter-racial, inter-faith or inter-cultural relationships. The academic detailed that 73 percent of the voters aged between 18 and 25 opted for staying in the EU while only 27 percent voted to leave it. In the 35 to 44 age bracket, 52 percent voted to stay and the rest voted to leave while adults older than 45 voted to leave the EU with 62 percent. Photo taken on Jan. 29, 2016 shows the UK and EU flags outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker met with British Prime Minister David Cameron here on Friday. (Xinhua/Ye Pingfan) In light of the referendum results, Oliva Posada considered that not all decisions, mainly those regarding a country's structural character, should be made collectively. "There are provisions that should not be submitted to a vote. Democracy begins to attack itself," said Oliva Posada. "Brexit" is based on a clear perception, if a little racist and exclusive, which came about due to the increase in the number of illegal immigrants arriving from countries such as Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and Mali, according to the UNAM academic. David Cameron's UK government was one of the most reluctant in Europe to the assimilation of immigrants. For Christian Ascencio Martinez, the academic secretary for the faculty's Center for Sociological Studies, "Brexit" is a response that prefers local to global but, this is nothing new which can be seen by the fact that in 1993 the United Kingdom joined the European common market but did not adopt the euro as its currency. "There are references that allow a certain resistance to be seen when it comes to being opened up completely to regional integration," added Ascencio Martinez. "It seems like we are living in two worlds: one of adults and the other of young people, and the democratic model is not able to join these two perspectives. On the contrary, it generates a sort of clash that could have consequences in the future including in inter-personal and family relations," concluded the expert. Image taken on June 30, 2016 shows Julio Roldan, known as Doctor Roldan "the Doll Surgeon," working at his workshop in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Xinhua/Martin Zabala) BUENOS AIRES, July 1 (Xinhua) -- In the age of disposable everything, Argentina's "doll doctor" gives broken toys a second chance of life. Working out of his "clinic" in the traditional Boedo district of the capital Buenos Aires, Julio Roldan, 52, is also helping to keep alive the ancient craft of mending antique or old porcelain dolls. Dressed in a white doctor's lab coat, Roldan told Xinhua his profession is similar to an actual physician's in that he helps his patients "recover," only instead of recovering their health, they recover the "affection" of their owners. "I inherited the trade from my late father," said Roldan, surrounded by a collection of antique dolls. "There must be 400, 500 (dolls), and no two are alike," he said. Many of the porcelain dolls he fixed are between 80 and 130 years old, and were originally manufactured in France or Germany. "I make grandmothers and great grandmothers happy ... because they want to leave their dolls to their grandchildren," Roldan once said in an interview with Argentinian TV. Born in Tulumba, Cordoba, Roldan recalled learning the tricks of the trade at the age of 13 or 14, when he was first brought to Buenos Aires. "I work with celluloid, acetone, toluene, chalk, starch" to make the pastes and parts he needs, said Roldan, adding "all the products, I make, because you can't find them already made." Image taken on June 30, 2016 shows Julio Roldan, known as Doctor Roldan "the Doll Surgeon," working at his workshop in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Xinhua/Martin Zabala) Roldan is one of the few craftsmen left in his field, but he's not lacking for work. "They bring me a lot jobs," he said. One of his favorite "patients" was a French doll dating from the late 19th century. "A lady brought her in," said Roldan. "She was a 140-year-old doll, an automaton, which is what they are called because you wind them up and they move their arms, their hands, and they are musical." "I asked her to leave the doll with me to see if I could fix the problem, and as she was leaving the doll she said she was leaving a part of her life," recalled Roldan. When she came back to pick her up, "she couldn't believe how I had restored her," he said. "Dolls have an incredible affectionate value. They are part of my life, they are my livelihood, they helped me form my family, which I love. I have two children and a grandchild. I love dolls," said Roldan. JAKARTA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia condemned the terror attack in a cafe located in Bangladesh capital of Dhaka on Friday that killed at least 20 civilians, and sought information on possible nationals fallen in the attack. The Indonesian government and its people conveyed the deepest condolences and sympathy to the victims fallen in the attack and their families during this time of grief. "Indonesia stands in solidarity with Bangladesh in its fight against terrorism and reiterated its statement the importance of closer international cooperation for combating terrorism that poses a real threat to the world," a statement released by the foreign affairs ministry said on Saturday. The ministry said that it has yet to receive report on Indonesian national fell victim from the attack. Indonesian embassy is now intensified efforts and coordination between relevant authorities to find out possible nationals impacted by the attacks. Currently, there are 520 Indonesian nationals in Bangladesh. Indonesian nationals staying in Bangladesh were advised to remain alert and take cautious stance while in public spaces, particularly in places possibly targeted by terror attacks. The attackers stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in Gulshan, Dhaka on Friday, took the cafe visitors whom most were foreigners as hostages before the troops came later. The Italian government confirmed that its nationals were among those killed in the attack. Bangladeshi authority said that its apparatus killed six of the attackers and arrested one of them. The attack was claimed by a terror organization affiliated with Islamic State (IS), according to authorities. Enditem TEHRAN, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Iran has shipped a petrochemical consignment to Britain for the first time after the removal of western sanctions, semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Saturday. By importing Iran's petrochemical products in the post-sanction era, Britain will join the three other customers of Iran in Europe, namely, France, Italy and Germany for cooperation in the sector. European countries imported 13 percent of Iran's petrochemical and polymeric products, valued at 2-2.5 billion U.S. dollars, before international sanctions were imposed on Iran, according to Mehr. Competitors like Saudi Arabia and Qatar have seized Iran's share of petrochemical exports to Europe over the past years, and it is possible for Iran to regain the share within next two years, said Fariborz Karimaei, Deputy Director of Iran's Petrochemical Employers Association to Mehr. Since the implementation of nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers and the lift of western sanctions on Iran's energy sector in January, Iran has been ramping up its oil production and relevant industries, expecting to claw back lost market share. (L-R) Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto, Peru's President Ollanta Humala, Chile's President Michelle Bachelet and Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos pose for photos during the 11th Presidential Summit of the Pacific Alliance in Puerto Varas, Chile, on July 1, 2016. (Xinhua/Jorge Villegas) by Omar Mendoza, Leng Tong PUERTO VARAS, Chile, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The Pacific Alliance, a trade bloc uniting four Latin American nations bordering the Pacific Ocean, announced on Friday its intention to bolster trade relations with the Asia-Pacific region, especially with China. At the group's annual summit, the leaders of Chile, Peru, Mexico and Colombia also forged an integrationist path forward to avoid the emergence of isolationist tendencies such as Britain's recent exit from the European Union. Founded in 2011, the regional bloc accounts for 37 percent of Latin America's gross domestic product. The group has removed tariffs on 92 percent of all goods exported between its members, and aims to eliminate all tariffs within 17 years. BOOSTING TIES WITH CHINA The alliance is also conceived as a means to bolster trade with Pacific Rim nations in Asia, especially China. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, whose country took over the bloc's rotating presidency from Peru at the summit, said she would push to expand into the Asia-Pacific basin markets, as well as the 49 observer countries and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). Peru's president-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who is to take office later this month, indicated on Thursday that his foreign and trade policies would prioritize China. Peru's President-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski delivers a speech during the 3rd Pacific Alliance Business Summit in Frutillar City, Chile, on June 30, 2016. (Xinhua/Jorge Villegas) "My first trip abroad as president will probably be to China," Kuczynski told participants at the alliance's business forum held in the southern Chilean resort of Frutillar in the lead to the summit. "We are an economy of immense natural resources that we have to industrialize. That's not easy and to do that we are going to have to collaborate with the great buyers of our exports, which in large part is China," Kuczynski said, cited by the online Peruvian daily Cronica Viva. Kuczynski described the alliance as a "wonderful" initiative that could help South American countries together take up the challenge of promoting trade. "With the exception of Mexico, we are in a corner of the world, far from the markets," said Kuczynski, calling for greater regional integration to better overcome such disadvantages as distance. Relations between China and the Pacific Alliance will continue to expand, Andres Rebolledo, director of international economic relations of the Chilean Foreign Ministry, told Xinhua in a recent interview. The members "are interested in jointly operating in the Asian markets," he said. "That joint activity with China and the rest of Asia will continue to be very important for our government," he added. TOURISM SEES BOOMING Despite the ocean that divides China and the Pacific Alliance, tourism between the two sides appears to be booming recently. Earlier in this month, Peru's tourism and trade promotion agency PromPeru announced the number of Chinese travelers to the Pacific Alliance countries is expected to grow by 15 percent in 2016. "This year, we estimate a growth of more than 15 percent in Chinese tourists to countries of the Pacific Alliance, or more than 170,000 Chinese who will be visiting the four countries combined," Director of PromPeru Maria Soledad Acosta was quoted as saying by the Peruvian daily El Comercio. The session "Future Vision" is held during the 3rd Pacific Alliance Business Summit in Frutillar City, Chile, on June 30, 2016. (Xinhua/Jorge Villegas) In the first quarter of 2016, Chinese tourists to the four nations grew by an average of more than 35 percent, according to the report. The increase was most marked in Peru, which had seen a 43 percent jump in Chinese visitors compared with the first quarter in 2015. The alliance countries will continue to promote themselves in the Chinese tourism market, said Acosta. INTEGRATION VS ISOLATION Addressing the business forum on Thursday, Bachelet said greater integration could improve the living standards among member countries, especially in a time marked by increasing protectionism. "When you look at Brexit, when you look at what's going on in the United States with support for Donald Trump, (their popularity comes from) people of modest means from rural areas who have been marginalized by globalization," said Bachelet. "It is obvious that globalization is important and integration is important, but they have to create real opportunities and real rights," said Bachelet, adding "our integration initiative is in full development." The alliance leaders, said Bachelet, play an important role in the integration of the four countries and in creating a better future with progress and opportunities despite the world's poor economic outlook. "We have talked about volatility, we have talked about uncertainty, and I believe we have to learn to live with that," she added. Chinese Ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming (photo provided by the Chinese embassy) LONDON, July 2 (Xinhua) -- China remains committed to stronger ties and closer cooperation with Britain, hoping to continue to write a new chapter for "Golden Era" of bilateral relations, Chinese Ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming said Thursday. At the Young Icebreakers' Dinner in London, Liu said in his first speech on China-Britain relations after the Brexit Referendum, that "we respect the choice of the British people, we respect Britain's independent choice of its own development path, and we hope the UK and the EU will consult and negotiate and reach an early arrangement that is acceptable to both sides." China values its relations with Britain, and this position remains unchanged, he said. "Whether the UK is in the EU or not, we will take a strategic and long-term perspective when it comes to China-UK ties, as we always have done." "We hope that, regardless of any British domestic political changes, a positive relationship with China will continue to be the consensus for both the UK government and opposition political parties," he stressed. "We also hope that, despite any possible foreign policy adjustments here in the UK, advancing ties with China will continue to be a priority of the UK government," added the ambassador. "Given the immediate market fluctuations and uncertainties, the Chinese businesses will inevitably need to be more prudent and stay cool-headed. But in the long run, there is no way that our bilateral cooperation should be allowed to go down," Liu noted. "We are respectively the world's second and fifth largest economies. That means we have so much to offer for each other and there is huge potential for cooperation," he added. "I am confident that Britain will do all it can to strengthen its economic standing, to attract foreign investors and to keep its door open to Chinese businesses. We hope that the British side will continue to advance cooperation with China on investment and trade in an open and pragmatic manner," he said. Liu said China continues to attach importance to its cooperation with Britain on global issues. This position remains unchanged. "China and the UK are now engaged in a global comprehensive strategic partnership for the 21st century. This is a strategic choice that our two countries have made. It is based on our respective international responsibilities and obligations," the ambassador said. "In the coming September, China will host the G20 summit in Hangzhou. We look to work with all the other member states to boost global growth and improve world economic governance. We also look to Britain's support and contribution to the summit," said the envoy. "It is also our hope that China and the UK will reinforce our cooperation on a series of global issues, including sustainable development, counter-terrorism, anti-corruption, anti-microbial resistance, etc," he said. "China and the UK, working together, have a great deal to contribute to peace and stability of the world and the sustainable development of humanity," he said. The Young Icebreakers is a leading network for young China-Britain business leaders, providing a channel to share ideas, raise awareness and promote the achievements of Chinese and British people. TOKYO, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday labeled the terrorist attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh, that claimed the lives of at least 20 civilians, possibly including 7 Japanese nationals who have yet to be accounted for and left scores more injured in a cafe, as an "inhumane atrocity." "We're doing everything we can to confirm the safety of the seven Japanese nationals, but the circumstances are dire. I feel profound anger that so many innocent people have lost their lives in this savage act of heinous terrorism," Abe told a press briefing on Saturday evening, adding that the siege had culminated in an "inhumane atrocity" that had sparked deep indignation and strong condemnation from the international community. Japan's top government spokesperson, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga reconfirmed that one Japanese hostage was rescued and is being treated in hospital for non-critical gunshot wounds, and that two Sri Lankans were also among the 13 rescued by Bangladesh's elite forces and police personnel who stormed the cafe and finally brought the hostage crisis to an end. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda stated at a press conference earlier in the day that the wounded Japanese national was working on a project for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and said that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had been in touch with Abe about the unfolding situation and said that Abe had been informed that there had been civilian fatalities at the scene. It has yet to be confirmed if any of the deceased include the 7 Japanese nationals that have still not been accounted for, but local media reports have stated that many of those killed were dispatched execution style and at least one of the assailants was carrying a "sharp weapon" leading to speculation about the slain hostages possibly being decapitated by their captives. The wounded Japanese man and the 7 missing Japanese all worked for JICA, according to local media, and were all dining together at the cafe when the attack occurred, but were separated as they all sought refuge independently when the gunmen stormed the building shouting "Allahu akbar!" ("God is great" in Arabic) before opening fire. JICA in a press conference on Saturday confirmed that seven Japanese nationals working as consultants on its development projects in Bangladesh remain unaccounted for in the aftermath of the deadly attack at the cafe, while strongly condemning the attack. "I feel deeply outraged that people working to engineer the development of Bangladesh have been caught up in this," Shinichi Kitaoka, the head of JICA said. Abe while also strongly condemning the attack, has called for the utmost cooperation from the Bangladesh government and relevant officials on the matter as investigations continue through the night and in the upcoming days, while Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and his Bangladesh counterpart Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali have agreed to continue to liaise closely on the crisis. Responsibility for the attack has been claimed by the so-called Islamic State militant group, with reports stating that seven young men wielding guns entered the popular Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant in the upscale Gulshan diplomatic region of Bangladeshi's capital, known for attracting foreigners and located not far from the Japanese Embassy, at around 8:45 p.m. local time on Friday evening and opened fire indiscriminately on the cafe's customers after detonating explosives. Along with Bangladeshi military forces, hundreds of local police stormed the cafe with the crisis coming to an end around 12 hours after the siege began, with 13 hostages being rescued and six of the gunmen being killed while one was captured and detained alive. Several police officers were killed during the operation, Abe heard in a 20-minute teleconference with Hasina earlier in the day, and scores of people were left wounded after the attack although their identities, including their nationalities are as yet unknown, with the killed hostages likely comprising mainly Italians and Japanese, but also Sri Lankans, Indians as well as locals, media here have reported. Abe has set up an emergency task force at his office and instructed the relevant ministries here to coordinate effectively with officials and the government in Bangladesh and other countries involved as necessary. He also convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council here. The Japanese government will also dispatch its counter-terrorism intelligence unit to Dhaka, officials here said, with the team being joined by senior vice foreign minister Seiji Kihara, Hagiuda said. Abe said he has ordered his officials to take whatever means necessary to locate those involved in the hostage situation and ensure that the necessary information reaches Japan as swiftly as possible. The prime minister canceled his election campaign plans for Saturday, his office said and arrangements are being made for the families of the Japanese victims involved to be flown to Dhaka. All Japanese living, visiting or planning to visit Bangladesh have been issued with a warning by the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo to remain vigilant in and around government, public transport facilities, popular tourist sites and places that attract a lot of people in Bangladesh. The ministry indicted that further terror attacks could be possible in the region as the Islamic State militant group has been increasingly targeting religious, secularist and other minority groups as well as foreigners in Bangladesh, although the scale and public nature of the latest attack is unprecedented. BEIJING, July 2, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), presides over the closing meeting of the 21st session of the 12th NPC Standing Committee in Beijing, capital of China, July 2, 2016.(Xinhua/Xie Huanchi) BEIJING, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, concluded a six-day bi-monthly session on Saturday. The closing meeting was presided over by Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee. The legislature adopted the first law governing the country's asset appraisal industry since it emerged three decades ago. The law will take effect on Dec. 1, 2016. The new law allows certified appraisers who have passed national exams, as well as those who have expertise and hands-on experience in asset evaluation, to practice asset appraisal. The law provides that appraisal agencies should supervise and take responsibility for the professional conduct of their practitioners. The legislature adopted a revised law on wild animal protection, which outlaws production and purchase of food made from state protected wild animals. It also strengthens regulation of the use of wild animals and products derived from them. Amendments to six laws were also adopted by the top legislature in a bid to ease administrative approval for enterprises. The six laws include those on energy conservation, water, flood prevention, occupational disease prevention and treatment, environmental impact assessment and navigation routes. National lawmakers ratified an amendment to Annex A to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which lists the chemical hexabromocyclododecane in the annex. The amendment prohibits the production, use, import and export of the chemical, except for specific exemptions. The State Council report on the final accounts for 2015 was also adopted by the top legislature. Reports on nature reserves, pilot program for jurors and supervision over state-owned assets were reviewed by lawmakers during the session. Lawmakers reviewed a report on the law enforcement inspection of revised food safety law, calling for enhanced supervision in food industry, and building high standards for food safety. During the session, lawmakers also reviewed the draft amendment of law on Red Cross Society, calling for enhanced supervision; the draft Cybersecurity Law which has a new article stating that the State must monitor and deal with threats from abroad to protect the information infrastructure from attack, intrusion, disturbance or damage. The legislature adopted a report on the qualification of some NPC deputies. The session saw the first reading of the draft general rules of the civil code, marking that China formally initiated the legislative process of the civil code. Zhang Dejiang said compilation of the civil code is a major legislation that can improve the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics, calling for democratic and open spirit and reflecting rule of law in civil code. He said although food safety situation has been improved, risks and weak links still exist, urging full implementation of the revised food safety law. The asset appraisal law will contribute to the sound development of the industry, as it defines the rights, obligations and legal liabilities of involved parties, regulates appraisal activities, and improves the administration system of the industry, Zhang said. The amended law on wild animal protection will play an important role in protecting biodiversity and ecological equilibrium, as well as coordinating the development of mankind and nature, Zhang noted. The top legislature appointed Chen Baosheng as education minister to replace Yuan Guiren. Qiang Wei, Luo Zhijun and Wang Rulin were appointed deputy heads of NPC's Internal and Judicial Affairs Committee, Environment Protection and Resources Conservation Committee, and Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, respectively. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry speaks to journalists at the UN headquarters in New York, May 11, 2016. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) BAGHDAD, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry arrived in Baghdad on Saturday on an official visit to meet the Iraqi leaders to bolster bilateral ties and show Egypt's support to Iraq in its fight against the Islamic State (IS) extremist group. Shoukry arrived in Baghdad airport before noon and was received by his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari and the two sides held a meeting in Jaafari's office in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The two ministers discussed bilateral ties and means to enhance cooperation between Baghdad and Cairo, including political and security coordination, according to the statement. "Any Iraqi victory (against terrorism) is a victory to Egypt and, all the Arab countries and the world, noting that Iraq is confronting international terrorism that targets the whole world," the statement quoted Jaafari as saying. Jaafari also asserted on the significance of coordination of the two countries in political stances on all Arab, regional and international levels, in addition to bolster security and intelligence cooperation, the statement said. Shoukry for his part, hailed the latest Iraqi military victories against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, adding that "Egypt supports Iraq's integrity and stability, and is looking forward for further common cooperation between the two countries," according to the statement. Later in the day, a brief statement issued by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's office said that Abadi received in his office the Egyptian minister and the two discussed issues of common interest. Last month, Iraqi foreign minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari visited Egypt for talks aimed to boosting anti-terror coordination. Shoukri's visit came after security forces recaptured Fallujah on June 26, following a month of intense battles, while the troops continued their advance in the northern part of Salahudin province to free the remaining areas from IS militants in the northern the province, before attacking the major IS stronghold in the city of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad. Iraq has witnessed intense violence since the IS took control of parts of its northern and western regions in June 2014. Egypt, meanwhile, is fighting a Sinai-based militant group loyal to IS regional terror group since 2013. RABAT, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Morocco will host the first edition of the African Forum of Renewable Energies on July 15-16 in the city of Marrakech, said the Moroccan Ministry of Environment in a statement on Saturday. The forum aims at creating links and synergies among African countries that share the same ambitions and energy concerns, the statement said. It also seeks to be a hub for exchange of experiences on renewable energy, said the statement. The forum will gather 500 participants, including economic and social actors, government officials and experts. The forum offers eight thematic sessions, several panel discussions, workshops, project proposals and testimonials. The forum comes ahead of the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 22) scheduled this November in Marrakesh. Enditem BEIJING, July 2, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), presides over the closing meeting of the 21st session of the 12th NPC Standing Committee in Beijing, capital of China, July 2, 2016.(Xinhua/Xie Huanchi) BEIJING, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese top legislator Zhang Dejiang has urged sound implementation of the Food Safety Law to ensure people's health and security. "Food safety is a big matter concerning the people's vital interests, and is a major project for the people's well-being," said Zhang, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, while presiding over a meeting about the issue on Saturday. In April and May, an NPC Standing Committee delegation led by Zhang conducted a nationwide inspection over the enforcement of the Food Safety Law and formed a report. The law was revised in 2015 with harsher punishment for violators. Zhang asked government departments to study the report and carry out specific measures targeting problems listed in it. He also asked the NPC to strengthen supervision over the government's work. Vice Premier Wang Yang, who is also deputy head of the State Council food safety committee, attended the meeting. Legislators asked Wang some questions, such as how to crack down on food-related crimes and how to regulate unqualified food business. The food safety situation is generally good, but problems in some sectors and places are prominent, Wang said. He said his committee will investigate and solve irregularities uncovered in the inspection and rush to establish a unified and authoritative supervision system. Relevant authorities will strengthen management over the source of food materials and ask food enterprises to shoulder more responsibilities so as to plug loopholes in the food production and sale chain, Wang said. MOSCOW, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Russia said Saturday that it will take action to strengthen flight safety over the Baltic Sea and called for reciprocal moves from NATO. Certain organizational and technical measures will be taken, including the use of transponders by Russian military aircraft, so that they could be identified by air control services in the Baltic region during their flights over the Baltic Sea, said the Russian Defense Ministry. Further interaction with NATO is needed for the alliance to be "reciprocally ready to conduct their air force flights with transponders near Russian borders," the ministry said in a statement. It also suggested that flight safety over the Baltic Sea could be discussed at a Russia-NATO Council meeting at ambassadorial level scheduled for July 13. Russia has been criticizing the United States and NATO for their mounting military deployment near its western borders. Visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a joint press conference after holding talks with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto in Naantali, Finland, on July 1, 2016. Putin said here on Friday that Russia would respect Finland's choice whether to join NATO, but he painted a dire picture for Finland if it would be a NATO member. (Xinhua/Li Jizhi) MOSCOW, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Russia said Saturday that it will take action to strengthen flight safety over the Baltic Sea and called for reciprocal moves from NATO. Certain organizational and technical measures will be taken, including the use of transponders by Russian military aircraft, so that they could be identified by air control services in the Baltic region during their flights over the Baltic Sea, said the Russian Defense Ministry. Further interaction with NATO is needed for the alliance to be "reciprocally ready to conduct their air force flights with transponders near Russian borders," the ministry said in a statement. It also suggested that flight safety over the Baltic Sea could be discussed at a Russia-NATO Council meeting at ambassadorial level scheduled for July 13. Russia has been criticizing the United States and NATO for their mounting military deployment near its western borders. by Matthew Rusling WASHINGTON, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The recent terrorist attack in Turkey has given U.S. presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump ammunition for his presidential campaign, as he promotes the narrative that Americans live in a dangerous world and need a strong leader, experts said. Tuesday's suicide attacks on Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, which left 44 people dead and over 200 others injured, are believed to be carried out by Islamic State (IS). A gunman who killed 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida on June 12 also pledged allegiance to IS. In response to the Istanbul attack, Trump said the United States "must do everything possible" to tackle terrorism, promoting his message that Americans live in a world fraught with danger. Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies of the Brookings Institution, said that the Istanbul attack gives Trump ammunition on why the world is a dangerous place and why America needs a strong leader to defend itself. "It takes the focus off his own contentious comments and refocuses the campaign on terrorism and national security," West told Xinhua. He added that anything that keeps the focus on terrorism will be good for Trump, as it helps him make the argument that the country needs a strong leader. Indeed, the brash billionaire needs to focus on the fight against terror, one of his strong points, in order to overshadow offensive comments he has made against Mexicans and Muslims, which have dramatically hurt his popularity outside his base. Trump has over the past year slammed the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama for what he labels a half-hearted response to the global terror threat, accusing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton of being soft on terror while she was secretary of state under Obama. The bombastic businessman continues to hammer away at Clinton's anti-terror credentials, and this latest horrific attack is being sewn into that narrative, as Trump continues to try to chip away at Clinton in a bid to try and cast doubt on her strength as a leader. For her part, Clinton said the Istanbul attack "only strengthens our resolve to defeat the forces of terrorism and radical jihadism around the world." While Clinton lambasted terrorists after the Florida killings earlier this month, much of her emphasis was on U.S. domestic gun control rather than the threat of global terror. That could muddle her anti-terror message in the minds of some voters, and Trump is eager to exploit this, experts said. Indeed, in the aftermath of the recent attack in Florida, Clinton and Trump are espousing two competing narratives as an explanation for the attacks. In doing so, each hopes to control the agenda in the race for the White House, experts said The Orlando attack is being described by team Clinton as the worst mass shooting in the nation's history, and by team Trump as a terrorist attack. While the gunman, Omar Mateen, had pledged allegiance to IS, he used legally purchased firearms to carry out the attack, highlighting an ongoing argument over gun control. "Clinton needs a forceful response so that voters understand she is tough on terrorism. She has to make sure that people see her as up to the task of dealing with a threatening world," West said. TOKYO, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Japanese government officials said Saturday that seven of its nationals unaccounted for in the wake of a deadly terror attack in Bangladesh have been confirmed dead. One Japanese national was rescued from the violent 12-hour siege staged by suspected Islamic State militants that took place in a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka and killed at least 20 civilians, officials here also confirmed. Prior to receiving the news about the fate of the seven missing Japanese hostages, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had during an earlier press briefing on Saturday evening labeled the terrorist attack as an "inhumane atrocity." "I feel profound anger that so many innocent people have lost their lives in this savage act of heinous terrorism," Abe told a press briefing on Saturday evening, adding that the siege had sparked deep indignation and strong condemnation from the international community. Japan's top government spokesperson, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, reconfirmed that one Japanese hostage was rescued and is being treated in hospital for non-critical gunshot wounds, and that two Sri Lankans were also among the 13 rescued by Bangladesh's elite forces and police personnel who stormed the cafe and finally brought the hostage crisis to an end. The wounded Japanese man and the 7 Japanese nationals who were killed in the siege all worked for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), according to local media, and were dining together at the cafe when the attack occurred. They were separated as they all sought refuge independently when the gunmen stormed the building shouting "Allahu akbar!" ("God is great" in Arabic) before opening fire. JICA in a press conference earlier on Saturday confirmed that seven Japanese nationals working as consultants on its development projects in Bangladesh remained unaccounted for in the aftermath of the deadly attack at the cafe, while strongly condemning the attack. "I feel deeply outraged that people working to engineer the development of Bangladesh have been caught up in this," Shinichi Kitaoka, the head of JICA said. Abe while also strongly condemning the attack, has called for the utmost cooperation from the Bangladesh government and relevant officials on the matter as investigations continue through the night and in the upcoming days, while Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and his Bangladesh counterpart Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali have agreed to continue to liaise closely on the crisis. Responsibility for the attack has been claimed by the Islamic State militant group, with reports stating that seven young men wielding guns entered the popular Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant in the upscale Gulshan diplomatic region of Bangladeshi's capital at around 8:45 p.m. local time on Friday evening. Six of the gunmen were killed while one was captured and detained alive. Several police officers were killed during the operation, and scores of people were left wounded after the attack, although their identities, including their nationalities are as yet unknown, with the killed hostages likely comprising mainly Italians and Japanese, but also Sri Lankans, Indians as well as locals, media here have reported. The Japanese government will dispatch its counter-terrorism intelligence unit to Dhaka, officials here said, with the team being joined by senior vice foreign minister Seiji Kihara. Abe said he has ordered his officials to take whatever means necessary to locate and identify those involved in the hostage situation and ensure that the necessary information reaches Japan as swiftly as possible. All Japanese living, visiting or planning to visit Bangladesh have been issued with a warning by the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo to remain vigilant in and around government, public transport facilities, popular tourist sites and places that attract a lot of people in Bangladesh. The ministry indicted that further terror attacks could be possible in the region as the Islamic State militant group has been increasingly targeting religious, secularist and other minority groups as well as foreigners in Bangladesh, although the scale and public nature of the latest attack is unprecedented. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the audience at the 2016 Western Conservative Summit in Denver, Colorado on July 1, 2016. Trump is in Colorado for the first time since starting his presidential campaign. (AFP/Jason Connolly) by Matthew Rusling WASHINGTON, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The recent terrorist attack in Turkey has given U.S. presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump ammunition for his presidential campaign, as he promotes the narrative that Americans live in a dangerous world and need a strong leader, experts said. Tuesday's suicide attacks on Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, which left 44 people dead and over 200 others injured, are believed to be carried out by Islamic State (IS). A gunman who killed 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida on June 12 also pledged allegiance to IS. Turkish special force police officers stand guard as stewardess walk nearby the explosion site at gnd Ataturk airport International terminal on July 1, 2016 three days after a suicide bombing and gun attack targeted Istanbul's Ataturk airport, killing 44 people. (AFP/OZAN KOSE) In response to the Istanbul attack, Trump said the United States "must do everything possible" to tackle terrorism, promoting his message that Americans live in a world fraught with danger. Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies of the Brookings Institution, said that the Istanbul attack gives Trump ammunition on why the world is a dangerous place and why America needs a strong leader to defend itself. "It takes the focus off his own contentious comments and refocuses the campaign on terrorism and national security," West told Xinhua. He added that anything that keeps the focus on terrorism will be good for Trump, as it helps him make the argument that the country needs a strong leader. Indeed, the brash billionaire needs to focus on the fight against terror, one of his strong points, in order to overshadow offensive comments he has made against Mexicans and Muslims, which have dramatically hurt his popularity outside his base. Trump has over the past year slammed the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama for what he labels a half-hearted response to the global terror threat, accusing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton of being soft on terror while she was secretary of state under Obama. This combination of file photos shows Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton(L)on June 15, 2016 and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on June 13, 2016. (AFP/dsk) The bombastic businessman continues to hammer away at Clinton's anti-terror credentials, and this latest horrific attack is being sewn into that narrative, as Trump continues to try to chip away at Clinton in a bid to try and cast doubt on her strength as a leader. For her part, Clinton said the Istanbul attack "only strengthens our resolve to defeat the forces of terrorism and radical jihadism around the world." While Clinton lambasted terrorists after the Florida killings earlier this month, much of her emphasis was on U.S. domestic gun control rather than the threat of global terror. That could muddle her anti-terror message in the minds of some voters, and Trump is eager to exploit this, experts said. Indeed, in the aftermath of the recent attack in Florida, Clinton and Trump are espousing two competing narratives as an explanation for the attacks. In doing so, each hopes to control the agenda in the race for the White House, experts said. The Orlando attack is being described by team Clinton as the worst mass shooting in the nation's history, and by team Trump as a terrorist attack. While the gunman, Omar Mateen, had pledged allegiance to IS, he used legally purchased firearms to carry out the attack, highlighting an ongoing argument over gun control. "Clinton needs a forceful response so that voters understand she is tough on terrorism. She has to make sure that people see her as up to the task of dealing with a threatening world," West said. Photo taken with mobile phone on June 13, 2016 shows guns for sale at a shop in Orlando, the United States. The American society has been buzzing with measures to prevent further gun-related violence in the United States, after a shooting spree in an Orlando nightclub left 49 dead and 53 wounded on Sunday. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu) LOS ANGELES, July 2 (Xinhua) -- California Governor Jerry Brown has signed six gun-control measures into law, according to local media reports Saturday. His signature on Friday drew criticism from conservatives who complained Sacramento was eroding Second Amendment rights, though the San Bernardino terrorist attack last December killed 14 and injured 22. The six bills signed into law will ban possession of magazines with the capacity to hold more than 10 rounds. They also requires people who already have such magazines to turn them over to authorities. The bills put assault rifles with a feature known as a bullet button into illegal and mandate background checks when a gun is loaned to someone other than a close relative of the owner. Filing false reports of stolen guns will have tougher punishment and there will be stricter regulations for ammunition, including requirements that ammo sellers get a license, purchases be screened and transactions be recorded. California Senate President Kevin de Leon, who was author of one of the signed bills, said he was pleased with the governor's action, though Brown did veto a few other proposed gun laws. "Taken together, these bills will save lives and make our communities, our families and our children safer," de Leon was quoted as saying by local media. However, Assemblyman Jay Obernolte strongly criticized the package of new laws, which he said clearly infringe on the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment. "These new laws will not address the underlying problems of why gun violence occurs and they will do nothing to prevent another terrorist attack like the one that occurred in my county on Dec. 2 (the San Bernardino shooting)," Obernolte said. Senator Jeff Stone said that criminalizing gun ownership instead of prosecuting criminals who use guns to commit crime is not the answer. San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said he anticipates that many gun owners will balk at turning in their high-capacity magazines in response to one of the new laws. An Syrian girl stands next to cooking pots as US-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters advance into the Islamic State (IS) jihadist's group bastion of Manbij, in northern Syria, on June 23, 2016. (Xinhua/AFP) DAMASCUS, July 2 (Xinhua) -- For Syrians who have lived under the rule of the Islamic State (IS) group, there are two choices: either to endure the terror group's brutality, or flee to government-controlled areas, where suspicious eyes, accusatory fingers are all that greet them. As the war on the IS has ramped up from several directions and areas recently, hundreds of Syrian families from the northern province of al-Raqqa, the de facto capital of the IS, and other IS-controlled areas in eastern Syria, have started fleeing their homes to government-controlled areas as of last March. Those families say they can no longer tolerate the practices and brutality of the IS and the life under their stiff, ultra-radial rule, in addition to the escalation of battles against the group, which makes living in their shadow impossible. Families from al-Raqqa, the eastern Deir al-Zour province, and the countryside of Palmyra city in central Syria started fleeing their areas when the IS grip got loosened a bit as a result of the intensified battles. With the help of smugglers, people fled through the deserts for days till they reached areas either in the countryside of the southern province of Swaida, or the area of Dumair, in the countryside of the capital Damascus. When they have got closer to the government-controlled areas, they were stopped by checkpoints, and they were kept in the desert after taking all of their ID documents to run a security background check for fear of being involved with the IS. Some of them stayed for months until the authority finish processing their documents. Muna, a 50-year-old woman who fled the IS and now in Dumair desert, said that "We have fled the IS and we are with the government, some of us have even sons serving in the government army. we need a better treatment and faster processing of our documentations." Muna's husband, Muhammad, said the people who have fled recently have taken advantage of the battles against the IS to flee their rule. A wounded man is treated at a medical centre of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) following reported air strikes on June 11, 2016 in the town of Kfar Batna, on the outskirts of the capital Damascus. (Xinhua/AFP) "We have fled our town in Deir al-Zour for over three months and we reached the Sukhneh town near Palmyra, where we got stuck by the IS in that town, but when the battles raged near Palmyra, we managed to flee by smugglers and we were left in the desert," he said. "We cannot live with the IS anymore, we are fed up with the killings, and gruesome executions and irrational rules they impose on us day and night, we decided to go when we felt the time is right, because leaving their areas was nearly forbidden by them," he said. Syrian journalist have started highlighting the issue lately, with the aim of delivering their voice to the authorities in Syria to find a quick solution to the thousands of stuck people. On Saturday, local media said buses have started moving the displaced Syrians in Dumair to displacement centers in government controlled areas. Aside from the government procedures, many inside government-controlled areas have lost their trust in those coming from under the IS rule. Wissam, a 34-year-old photographer, said the government must thoroughly scrutinize those coming from al-Raqqa, adding that he fears some of them could be sleeper cells, which could foment chaos in government areas. His concept is adopted by the vast majority of those who have maintained their livelihood under the government control. They wonder what took the people five years to flee their areas, or why they didn't flee once the IS swept through. Mayar, a student, said he knows that there are civilians coming and that they should receive proper treatment, but said he believes that those people could be infiltrated. "True that the good goes in the guilt of the bad, and that's probably what it is happening now, but I think we cannot afford to allow people who have lived under the IS for several years to come and live among us like nothing happened. I would surely be unrelaxed," he said. Others, like Samar, a housewife and a mother of two, said the people who come from IS-controlled areas must stay in displacement centers and be provided with all needed help, but without granting them full freedom to leave the centers, until the government and security apparatus get them thoroughly screened. SHIQU, July 2, 2016 (Xinhua) -- A flock of ruddy shelduck fly on the Sun Lake Wetland in Shiqu County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, July 1, 2016. About 1.1 million hectares of wetland in Shiqu attract tens of thousands of birds to rest here in the summer on their migration routes. (Xinhua/Jiang Hongjin) ANQING, July 2, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers evacuate a little girl in Shouquan Village of Huaining County, east China's Anhui Province, July 2, 2016. Due to heavy rainfall, rescuers were sent to Shouquan Village to evacuate more than 60 villagers trapped in flood early Saturday morning. The National Meteorological Center (NMC) and the Ministry of Water Resources warned of high risks of mountain torrents in parts of Anhui, Hunan, Guizhou and Tibet from Friday evening to Saturday evening, suggesting residents take necessary precautions. (Xinhua/Wang Tianxiang) Killer to hang She was stabbed 23 times at the staircase back in 2004 and yesterday, 12 years later, a jury in the San Fernando High Court found Jason Hosten guilty of her murder. Presiding judge, Justice Carla Brown-Antoine sentenced Hosten to death by hanging. Yesterday, after the verdict, the victims mother said that each day for 12 years, she and her husband felt as if they were walking on her body, each time they were about to set foot on the stairs. They lived with their daughter and son, the former been a university graduate in social work. Because in 2004 the magistracy was not well equipped with a computer networking system, mom Jade said, Krysta was allowed to leave the courthouse early on afternoons and take some of her Probation Officers work to home. She had a computer in her room. On that fateful day, Krysta was preparing a Probation Officers report when Hosten knocked on the front door. Justice Brown-Antoine and a 12-member jury, heard that earlier that day, Hosten had gone down to the nearby beach and had taken a smoke Senior State prosecutor Shabaana Shah told the jury that Krysta asked, Mame is that you? When she opened the door, Hosten was standing there. He asked to pick portugals and she obliged, but told him not to raid the tree. Instead, Hosten pushed the door against Krysta so hard that she fell at the foot of the stairs which leads to the upstairs floor of the house. He grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed her repeatedly. Parents Steve and Jade arrived home and oblivious to what had taken place, sat down and discussed what they should cook for dinner. The mother eventually got up and as she walked towards the stairs to go upstairs to the bedroom to change her clothing, she saw her daughter lying in blood. A knife was in her hand. Prosecutor Shah called 12 witnesses. Hosten, represented by attorney Rekha Ramjit, chose to testify and said that the man whom he had taken the smoke with on the beach, threatened to kill him and his brother, if he did not take the rap for the murder. Shah cross-examined Hosten for three days about the eight-page statement and his oral utterances to police, confessing to the murder. Yesterday, after Justice Brown-Antoine summed up the case, the jury retired for an hour and 20 minutes and announced Hosten was guilty. The Judicial Support Officer asked Hosten to stand and whether he had anything to say and he answered, Nothing Sir. Except on one occasion, no relatives of the accused attended the trial which lasted two months. The judge passed the death sentence on him. Prison officers body in river Information received by police officers led them to believe that he was killed, chopped up, and his and his body dumped in the Mitan River, in Mayaro. His neighbour, a 27-year-old man was held for questioning and is in police custody, assisting with investigations. Newsday understands that up to press time, officers of Homicide Region Three, the Anti-Kidnapping Unit and the Eastern Division Task Force led by Assistant Commissioner of Police Surujdeen Persad, Inspector Ken Lutchman and Snr Supt Trim were scouring the area in search of his body. Coast Guard officers were also employed to dive into the Mitan River, but they could not find his body. Investigators are now depending on an aerial search by the air guard, to see if his body has washed out to sea. Sankar of Perseverance, Couva was reported missing last Wednesday, and was last seen at Stone Road, Piparo. Investigators revealed that, after Sankars disappearance, the 27-year-old man was seen driving Sankars white AD Wagon, near Sankars home on Stone Road, Piparo. When police held him for questioning on June 29, he admitted to killing and dismembering the prison officer. He told police that Sankar was in an extra-marital relationship with his wife. Head of the Prison Officers Association, withheld comment on the situation, saying that information was still coming into his office, but he told Newsday that Sankar was last stationed at the Remand prison. Judges dismiss case against customs officers In a ruling on an appeal handed down this week, Justices of Appeal Paula Mae Weekes and Rajendra Narine, dismissed the divisions appeal and affirmed the order of the magistrate who threw out a charge against Bobby Ashram Sanhai and Glen Mulchansingh on a no-case submission. An appeal on the second charge of attempting to evade import duty and taxes on a consignment of computer parts and accessories, for which the two were also charged and discharged, had been abandoned by the divisions attorney Jonathon Soo Hon. The Customs officers were represented by attorneys Jagdeo Singh and Sean Cazabon. The Division had appealed the refusal of the magistrate to convict the officers of the charges which arose from an incident on June 30, 2006. According to the case as argued, a shipment of computer parts and accessories assigned to and belonging to PRW Enterprises arrived at the General Aviation Services bonded warehouse at Piarco International Airport on June 21, 2006. The managing director of PRW paid to Mulchansingh the appropriate sum of duty and VAT to be paid on the shipment but on June 30, the customs clerk went to clear and take delivery of the shipment but forgot to bring the relevant payment. It was customary that goods were only delivered when the relevant duties and taxes had been paid. Mulchansingh requested of Sanhai, the most senior customs officer in the bonded area, to allow the goods to be delivered with the assurance that he would pay the relevant duties and taxes later that day. Sanhai signed the delivery receipt but customs officer Leroy Sealey refused to release the shipment. Mulchansingh had later that day paid in cash the relevant duties and taxes. Manning begins chemo Doctors diagnosed Mannings affliction as Acute Myeloid Leukemia and have also deemed his condition as critical. Manning also had the option of being flown out of Trinidad for chemotherapy, but is reported to have told doctors he preferred to remain at home to have the treatment done. He is also reported to have stated he has undergone many battles in his life and this is just another one and while he is hoping for the best he is prepared to accept his fate. These developments were in stark contrast to the original reports surrounding Mannings admittance to hospital on Monday. Wife Hazel revealed then via the former PMs Facebook page on Tuesday that he was admitted to hospital last evening (Monday) for investigation concerning an aberration in his blood count. He is resting comfortably and is in good spirits. We continue to pray for him. Also his good friend, Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves, described an upbeat Manning when he spoke to the media, even referring to raucous laughter between the two of them when he visited with the former TT Prime Minister on Tuesday. Yesterday however, word emanating from the General Hospital was that Manning was critical, his wife Hazel disclosing the more serious situation in a Facebook page saying: After conducting the appropriate tests, Mr Manning was diagnosed last evening as having Acute Myeloid Leukemia and is being prepared to undergo treatment. We thank everyone for their support and prayers and ask that you continue to pray for him as he undergoes treatment. Health sources told Newsday that the chemo treatment began yesterday and Manning appeared weak and withdrawn. According to reports, Manning began coughing a lot on Monday prompting his wife Hazel to take him to the San Fernando General Hospital where doctors first did a blood test which revealed an unusually low blood count. Consultants decided to do a bone marrow biopsy and the tests revealed the cancer. The results of the test usually takes three days to be given to the patient at the San Fernando General Hospital, but because of the critical situation, the lab technicians worked overtime to present their findings to the team of doctors taking care of Manning. The former Prime Minister was told the dreaded news on Monday by a team of consultants led by Dr Kanta Ramcharan at the High Dependency Unit at the San Fernando General Hospital that the blood tests revealed that he was afflicted with blood cancer. Sources revealed that Manning began praying after being given the bad news and was comforted by his wife Hazel. He was then told that there are several options available to treat the ailment. Newsday understands that Manning has been praying a lot since being informed of his situation and nurses have been offering words of comfort to him. Medical sources revealed that due to Mannings age and because his condition is considered complicated, it is a very touchy situation and due to this he is being monitored round the clock. In January 2012, Manning suffered a stroke causing him to spend several days at hospital. He also sought rehabilitation at the Walter Reed Hospital in Washington DC. Duke lies down in protest Duke said that unless Finance Minister Colm Imbert makes good on his promise to pay the workers, they will not attend work. Today these workers are saying one thing. They want all of their money right now. If yuh see meh lips looking white, its because is hungry ah hungry. He has taken us on a wild goose chase. In November...no money; in December... no money. He say he looking for a loan in March...no money, Duke said. Protesters were seen holding placards with newspaper clippings with relevant headlines, such as Newsdays Rowley: I want my money, the Guardians Debts May Not Be Paid and other placards, one of which read, Government Remember Your Social Responsibility. Meanwhile, a press release from the Ministry of Finance advised that ...it is anticipated that staff at the RHAs will receive their payments of their first instalments of backpay (50 percent of the total) from their respective commercial banks between Tuesday July 5 and Thursday July 7, since Wednesday July 6, is a public holiday. The release explained earlier that Imbert has taken note of the concerns of the RHA staff as it regards the timing of their arrears, and that on Wednesday June 29, the Ministry of Finance received the proceeds of a bond raised from the local banking market in the sum of TT$2 Billion.This financing arrangement was preplanned and initiated at the beginning of June 2016. The Ministry of Finance then released $539 Million to the Ministry of Health, to settle the payments of 50 percent of arrears of salary (backpay) to RHA staff, on Thursday June 30, as previously announced. The Minister of Finance has been advised that the Ministry of Health is expected to deliver the necessary cheques totaling $539 million to the four (4) RHAs in Trinidad, for deposit by the RHAs into their respective accounts at the commercial banks today July 1st, 2016. Speaker warns MPs No steupsing please The warning to all Members of Parliament (MPs) came during Question Time as Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh asked Government to list the money still being spent on a series of PNM projects under former Prime Minister Patrick Manning, including the International Waterfront ($4.3 billion); Government Campus Plaza ($3.8 billion), NAPA (about $1 billion) and the aborted Rapid Rail. As Gopeesingh sought repeatedly to get the Government to repeat figures in relation to NAPA, a MP could be heard steupsing. This triggered the Speakers intervention. Excuse me, the Speaker said, calling the House to order. With respect to that sucking of the tongue that I just heard that steups that is not behaviour that is becoming of this House. The member who has done that, I would ask you to please restrain yourself and such behaviour is not going to be tolerated in this House. She did not name the Government MP who had caused offence. Earlier in the sitting, the Speaker also had cause to instruct Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Minister of Finance Colm Imbert to be silent during the proceedings. Also during Question Time, Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh said the Ministry had ordered 10,000 yellow fever vaccines and 40,000 immunisation cards, but maintained the traveling public is not being adversely affected. He said officials are accepting interim letters of certification. However, the Health Minister urged the public to look for their original immunisation cards. I urge the population before you travel to seek out that immunisation card which is in a backdraw, a safe, wherever, Deyalsingh said. He assured there is no shortage of vaccines, with 46,000 normally ordered per year. The country has no shortage, the Health Minister said. He said the last case in a human was in 1979 and the last death, in 1974. Public Administration Minister Maxie Cuffie, also during Question Time, said there were 5,322 vacancies in the public service. Vendors dissatisfied with rent The rent fee which was $300 a month is being raised to $800 a month. That works out to $9,600 for the year. Between 2014 to 2015, it was increased by $1,200. We thought that last years fee increase was fair, but this large increase is too much for us to bear and we are asking the authorities to reconsider. Permanand said vendors were not consulted on the decision to increase fees and while they understand costs will inevitably increase, such a large jump in current rates could potentially cripple livelihoods, as vendors continue to grapple with the high cost of living and low sales. Other vendors shared similar sentiments, adding that repeated calls for discussion with officials from the Corporation have fallen on deaf ears. We wrote to the Corporation stating that we were willing to increase our rates from $10 a day to $15 dollars a day, which would amount to $450 dollars a month, that is a figure we could manage, we cant get in to contact with them over the phone and they keep telling us that they will get back to us but they never do. They keep saying that the rent increase is to maintain the market, we understand that the rent would have to increase, that is only fair, but such a high rent would do more harm than good, there isnt much sale coming in because we continue to lose out to roadside vendors outside of the market. AG moves on Al-Qaeda funding A notice in the press appeared yesterday in relation to the designation of the group as a terrorist group. Justice Margaret Mohammed has approved the designation, which allows the State to freeze funds and to activate Financial Intelligence Unit measures. I have been taking the charge of designation of terrorism so I have successfully caused the designation of Al-Qaeda, Al-Rawi told reporters before the start of yesterdays sitting of Parliament. The reason is that anybody that is linked to any association that sends money to these institutes as would be internationally recognised in the matrices that apply will be caught by it. One may be invited to ask why Al-Qaeda, do we have positions here, the answer is that from a financial nexus point of view, we certainly can grab people that way. You will see one by one many more designations which are currently afoot. The key is to operationalise the law not just talk about it. On legislation to make TT compliant with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FACTA) of the United States, Al-Rawi said this is well underway. The inter-governmental agreement has been drafted, received, the Attorney General said. That will be in gear. We have certainly been dealing with the bill and we are in consultation on it. You must remember this bill requires a special majority. It is for the Opposition who sat down on it from 2014 to date to indicate their position to support it or not. One can only hope that they will. Valentine welcomes parking meters Valentine said the implementation of parking meters in the city was something they have been discussing in Port-of-Spain for quite some time, and found the PMs disclosure very timely. It was just last Sunday in my City Day address, that I clearly outlined that the implementation of parking meters is the way to go for the capital city, Valentine said. Hearing this from the Prime Minister is music to my ears. I am very excited about it and I am looking forward to its implementation. On Thursday, delivering the feature address at a sod-turning ceremony for a 12-storey car park to be built in the heart of the city by Furness Trinidad Limited, the PM announced the prospect of parking meters being introduced to the streets of the capital as he proposed a tighter enforcement of traffic laws. Valentine said he feels quit confident that when the parking meters come on stream, it will have a positive impact on the traffic crisis in the capital. He explained there has been some ground work completed in the past, and it is only a mater of time before the experts look over all the details. It is all a matter of reviewing and tweaking of the ground work before anything is finalised. I cannot say how it will work or how the payments will be predicted, so I will have to wait until the experts conduct their studies and assessments and then we will take it from there, he said. Faris, Young: CoP wants Bail Bill Supporting Al-Rawi later in the debate, Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs Stuart Young rejected Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessars claim that the Opposition had not been provided with the statistical data it needed to decide whether or not it would support the Bill (which requires a three-fifths majority for passage in the House and Senate). Young countered that the Opposition had that information in its bosom since May, by way of sworn affidavit testimony from Acting Commissioner of Police (CoP) Stephen Williams, in a matter being handled by former AG Anand Ramlogan and attorney Gerald Ramdeen, who was appointed a temporary Opposition senator on Tuesday. Ramdeen was part of the Opposition delegation which met with Al-Rawi and other Government members at Tower D of the Portof- Spain International Waterfront Centre on Wednesday to discuss the Bill. After the meeting, that delegation reported back to the Oppositions caucus at the Opposition Leaders Office in Port-of-Spain, on the same day. Declaring the Bill covered the Anti-Gang Act 2011 and 11 amendments to the Bail Act from 1994 to 2015, Al-Rawi warned that if the Bill does not pass, we are going to rewind the laws of TT, 22 years into the past. As he indicated that out of 2,345 persons in pre-trial detention in TTs prisons, 1,019 are ineligible for bail but 1,326 are eligible for bail, Al-Rawi said, We must look to the impact upon the Judiciary of TT and to how 1,326 persons will be processed in the criminal justice system. He added that should the Bill fail, any advances with respect to crimes such as kidnapping for ransom, drug trafficking and crimes against children under the Children Act, will be lost. All of that goes! Al-Rawi declared. In his contribution, Young questioned whether Ramdeen had withheld key information about the Bill from the Oppositions caucus. As he dismissed Persad- Bissessars claim the Opposition had no statistics about persons jailed as a result of the Bill, Young said Williams provided that information in sworn testimony to the court in March. Indicating there is documentation to show that Ramlogan and Ramdeen are involved in that matter, Young produced a document and declared, We got this last night (Thursday). However Young said this information, has been residing in the bosom of the Opposition since May 2016. He questioned how the Opposition, were in possession of these statistics, which we only got last night. Noting Ramdeen took part in talks with the Government on the Bill, Young charged that Ramdeen, obviously hid the statistics from other Opposition members. Young said Williams clearly indicated that many repeat offenders on firearm crimes, re-offend while out on bail. He added that in his testimony, Williams stressed the need for the Bill to assist the police in keeping criminals charged with the offences it covers, off the streets. Young said while law enforcement seized a total of 691 illegal firearms last year, there were declines in illegal firearm seizures in 2010 and 2012. He appealed to the Opposition to take the politics out, be responsible and support the Bill which had its genesis under the former Peoples Partnership (PP) government that they were members of. We cannot trust the Govt As she did so, the former prime minister declared the Opposition would not support the Miscellaneous Provisions (Anti-Gang and Bail Bill), which requires a three-fifths majority for passage in the House and Senate. As Opposition MPs pounded their desks, Persad-Bissessar declared, We cannot trust this Government. While indicating there were several reasons why the Opposition could not trust the Government, Persad- Bissessar said one of most recent vintage was Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowleys statement earlier in the sitting on the Sir Anthony Colman Report into Clico. In his statement, Rowley said the Ministry of the Attorney General (AG) and Legal Affairs would study the recommendations of the Report and advise the Cabinet accordingly. Claiming it was improper for Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and Minister in the Ministry of the AG and Legal Affairs Stuart Young to handle this matter because they were both implicated in it, Persad-Bissessar insisted this showed the Opposition could not trust the Government. Following protests by Leader of Government Business Camille Robinson-Regis, Persad-Bissessar withdrew her remark and said Al-Rawi and Young were involved in the matter. What you need to know about the Octagon Art Festival on Sunday in Ames news Hindi Movie Julie 2 Bollywood, Sat, 02 Jul 2016 NI Wire null Julie 2 All Set To Mark Rai Laxmi's Debut In Bollywood The film stars Rai Laxmi in the title role and it is produced and directed by Deepak Shivdasani! In the year 2004, the release of Julie gave actress Neha Dhupia's career a high. The film was critically appreciated and Neha was applauded for her strong acting. And now, after 12 years, we'll get to see its sequel in the form of Julie 2 which as per the makers despite being a sequel portrays a fresh story. The film stars Rai Laxmi in the title role and it is produced and directed by Deepak Shivdasani. Raai Laxmi is making her debut in Hindi cinema with Julie 2. It is notable that the first part, Julie was also directed by Shivdasani. Let us tell you more about Julie 2 and what the film has to offer. Plot Makers have not highlighted the plot about Julie 2 but they claim it to be different from that of Julie. However, if we look at the earlier concept, it was about a young girl who hailed from Goa. Dumped by her boyfriend, she comes to Mumbai in search of job. Here she faces sexual abuse at the end of her boss and faces many such encounters. This makes her lose trust in love and she turns into a high profile call girl only to find love and solace in a businessman who's unaware of her real identity. Julie 2 will also be on the same lines of a girl in distress turning to call girl profession. And how her life comes across various struggles would form the crux of it. The movie stars Raai Laxmi, Ravi Kishan and Yuri Suri. First Look & Poster Julie 2 movies first look was released on February 14, 2016 and was appreciated by all. The poster had the lead actress in picture with the caption as BoldBeautifulBlessed. The trailer of the film hasn't been released yet. Film's score and soundtrack have been composed by Viju Shah whereas lyrics have been penned by Sameer Reddy. Julie 2 has been filmed in some beautiful locations of Mumbai, Hyderabad and Dubai. Film's lead actress, Raai Laxmi is a popular name down south. Talking about her meaty role in Julie 2, Raai said, "I'm doing the sequel but it's a completely different story of a simple girl-next-door who goes on to become a huge star. What happens after is the real suspense asserts Raai, adding that she will be wearing a bikini for the first time and is working hard to lose 15 kgs for the role." Julie 2 is also Raai Laxmi's 50th film while also being her first full length Bollywood film. She is very excited about her first Bollywood project and stated, "In fact, I will be seen in 96 different outfits. Also, I was asked to lose and then put on weight for this film. For the first look of the film, I had to lose 10-11 kilos and soon after, I had to gain more than what I had to lose. The film is scheduled for a worldwide release on 12 August 2016. Julie 2 Trailer 2016 Raai Laxmi Ravi Kishan Bollywood Movies releasing in August 2016 null Share This week in the Next Generation Communications Community was very much insight oriented with studies on everything from business operations support software (BSS) trends to why security is becoming a big reason as to why consumers keep or switch their mobile service providers. News The news this week was about industry trends with a little transformation recognition thrown in. In fact, a good place to start is with the findings from BSS software developer Openet (News - Alert). Recent research found that operators are in the midst of a sea change when it comes to how they approach upgrading their BSS. The traditional approach of a "big bang," where everything gets turned up at once but takes years to implement, has given way to smaller projects that slowly fill BSS gaps. For those who have been following my breakout of the more granular reports that are part of the Nokia (News - Alert) 2016 Acquisition and Retention Study, the title of this weeks posting says it all, Security is a Big Reason Why Consumers Switch Mobile Providers. Like it or not, the perception by customers as to whether their mobile service provider can be trusted with personal data really is becoming a significant factor in consumer considerations of who should get their business. The final news item is of note because of the role systems integrators and other types of consultants are playing in providing assistance and services to communication service providers (CSPs). This week Accenture (News - Alert) was placed in the Winner's Circle of HfS Research's Telecom Operations As-a-Service Blueprint Report. Features While the features section also had it share of reports, the diversity of subject matter covered made them reflective of the broad scope of community interests, and provided a lot of food for thought. For example, 5G is still on the near-term horizon, but the interest in subject matter expert views on just how fast it could be adopted is keen. Well, Ovum (News - Alert) is out with its forecasts on 5G subscribership and other 5G related matters, and the good news is that 5G appears to be on time in terms of its availability and the projected numbers for early subscriptions are impressive. The future for 5G residential service uptake may look bright, however, what CSPs and their suppliers should either be concerned about or see as an opportunity is the latest work from Juniper Research (News - Alert) that Most C-Levels Not Ready for Digital Changes. Indeed, it should be noted that this was across a broad spectrum of information technology decision makers (ITDMs) and business decision makers (BDMs). Special guest Gilles Duboue, SBC Product Marketing, Applications & Analytics, Nokia, is not a stranger as a contributor to the community. In fact, his insights into the specifics and value of hackathons have been immensely popular. This week, Gilles provides insight into how and why Network Elements (NE) and Session Border Controllers (SBCs), when unchained from their native home ATCA Hardware, are facilitating moves to the Cloud. Finally, as I pointed out in the feature, Nokia Dynamic Diameter Engine to Handle IoT and VoLTE Signaling Traffic Growth, the data storm on networks is well documented but realities are that in terms of how fast traffic is growing the data storm hitting telecom signaling networks is accelerating even faster thanks to the proliferation of apps. Plus, it is only going to get worse as IoT, VoLTE and VoWiFi put more stress on the signaling networks. It is why the announcement by community host Nokia of its DDE is an attention grabber of significance. Weekend Reading For those readers in the U.S. celebrating the long Fourth of July weekend, enjoy! However, if you have a break, and for those of you from other parts of the globe with time on your hands this weekend, check out the community home page. As we like to remind community members, the site has been designed as your place to navigate to constantly updated news, whitepapers, videos, podcasts and case studies. A few choices I continue to recommend, along with theaforementioned Nokia 2016 Acquisition and Retention Study and the accompanying series of more granular reports, are the following posts on TechZine: Cloud interconnect where network and cloud meet Validated: IP/MPLS QoS for teleprotection Plus, there are links to other outstanding community resources such as the Digital Ideas section, along with links to eBooks and blogs. And, make sure you are signed up for Nokias newsletter, Insight - Networks Perform. Remarks made by senior leaders since 2012 make it clear that the long-term goal is for China to be a leader across all aspects of maritime power; having some of these capabilities means that China has some maritime power but that it is incomplete. Research strongly suggests that China will achieve the goal of being the leading maritime power in all areas except its navy, by 2030. China defines maritime power as a country that could exert its great comprehensive power to develop, utilize, protect, manage, and control oceans. China would not become a maritime power until it could deal with the challenges it faces in defense of its maritime sovereignty, rights, and interests, and could deal with the threat of containment from the sea. The maritime power equation includes a large and effective coast guard; a world-class merchant marine and fishing fleet; a globally recognized shipbuilding capacity; and an ability to harvest or extract economically important maritime resources, especially fish. In a few years China will have the worlds second most capable navy. China is already a world leader in shipbuilding, and it has the worlds largest fishing industry. Its merchant marine ranks either first or second in terms of total number of ships owned by citizens. It already has the worlds largest number of coast guard vessels. For China to satisfy the maritime power objective, it must be able to defend all of Chinas maritime rights and interests in its near seas in spite of U.S. military presence and alliance commitments. In short, it must be able to successfully execute what the latest defense white paper terms offshore waters defense for China to be considered a maritime power. Around 2020, China will have both the largest navy in the world (by combatant, underway replenishment, and submarine ship count) and the second most capable far seas navy in the world. The total far seas capable warships/Underway replenishment/submarines forecast to be in PLANs inventory around 2020 total between 95 and 104 major warships. If one adds this number to the 175-odd warships/submarines the PLAN has commissioned since 2000 that are largely limited to near seas operations and likely will still be in active service through 2020, the total PLAN warship/replenishment/submarine strength circa 2020 is in the range of 265-273, all of which are homeported in China. Chinese projections suggest that by 2030 China will surpass Greece and Japan to have the worlds largest merchant fleet by DWT and that its international shipping capacity will double, to account for 15 percent of the worlds shipping volume. Chinas goal is that 85 percent of crude oil should be carried by Chinese-controlled ships. China will become the largest tanker owner by owner nationality around 2017-18. Shortcomings in the coast guard, maritime militia, and fishing industry are likely to be rectified by around 2025. Chinese experts estimate that the merchant marine objectives will be accomplished by around 2030. China seems determined to move up the value/ship complexity scale in shipbuilding. This is will depend on the success of Chinas attempts to create mega-yards to capitalize on economy of scale. Growth of influence and having more say in the rules The image of a PLAN global navy will over time attenuate perceptions of American power, especially in maritime regions. The image of a modern global navy combined with Chinas leading position in all other aspects of maritime power will make it easy for Beijing to eventually claim it has become the worlds leading maritime power, and argue its views regarding the rules, regulations, and laws that govern the maritime domain must be accommodated. SOURCES- National Interest We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. Morocco Made Huge Strides in Girls Education, U.S. Commits to Help in these Efforts, Michelle Obama U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama who has just paid a two-day visit to Morocco underlined that the North African country has made huge strides in girls education and that nearly all Moroccan girls attend elementary school. Morocco has made huge strides in education, and nearly all girls there attend elementary school, stated the First Lady in a commentary posted on CNN website on Friday, after her return home from a tour that led her to Liberia, Morocco and Spain. Mrs. Obama however deplored the high number of girls in rural areas who drop out of school by the time they turn twelve, because they often live far from the nearest middle and high schools. Right now, only 14 percent of girls in rural Morocco attend high school, wrote the First Lady who visited the country to highlight the Let Girls Learn initiative she is spearheading. She said the United States will be working closely with the Moroccan government to help transform high schools across the country, and will be supporting new school dormitories to allow girls from rural areas to attend school far from home. On the sidelines of the First Ladys visit, the U.S. Government actually announced new programming in Morocco to help address the barriers that prevent girls access to an education. In this vein, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) will earmark nearly $100 million investment in a new model for secondary education in Morocco, to benefit about 100,000 students, including 50,000 adolescent girls. The USAID on its part announced a new $400,000 investment in a local NGO to establish five new girls dorms (known as Dar Talibas) to provide housing and support for rural girls to continue their education, while the White House announced that Morocco will become, in the coming months, Peace Corps 36th Let Girls Learn country. I am so proud that the U.S. is working with the Moroccan Government to make these transformative new investments to educate and empower girls across Morocco, the First Lady had said, according to a White House release. The investments will help these girls succeed in the workforce and fulfill their boundless promise, she said. As she had done during her tour in the region, Mrs. Obama deplored in her commentary that right now, more than 62 million girls worldwide are not in school, a fact she described as such a heartbreaking loss. In her plea for girls education, she wrote that educating girls doesnt just transform their life prospects it transforms the prospects of their families, communities, and nations as well and that sending more girls to school and into the workforce can boost an entire countrys GDP. During her visit to Morocco, the First Lady, who was accompanied by her daughters and by actresses Meryl Streep and Indian Freida Pinto, was guest to an iftar (Ramadan supper) hosted in her honor by King Mohammed VI. The banquet was attended by the Kings Spouse and three sisters. She participated in Marrakesh on June 28 in an exchange with adolescent girls on the issue of girls schooling. In her commentary, Mrs. Obama promised to continue her work on behalf of these girls not just for my final seven months as First Lady, but for the rest of my life. Bangladeshi security personnel assembled outside the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhakas Gulshan area. Photo: AP Twenty hostages and two police officers are dead after Islamist militants attacked an upscale cafe in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka on Friday night. After a 10-hour standoff, more than 100 Bangladeshi commandos stormed the building housing the Holey Artisan Bakery early Saturday morning, killing six of the seven gunmen, and rescuing 13 people, according to The Guardian. ISIS claimed responsibility for, and shared pictures from, the attack through one of its media channels on Friday, but a U.S. official told CNN it was more likely that Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, which has a larger presence in Bangladesh, was responsible. Either way it was clearly a well-organized attack on a chosen target in what was presumed to be one of the safest parts of Dhaka. Most of the the patrons at the bakery at the time of the attack were foreigners, and among the dead were nine Italians, seven Japanese, three Bangladeshis, and a young Indian woman, according to the Daily Star. Three of the hostages killed were U.S. college students. Abinta Kabir, from Miami, and Faraaz Hossain, from Dhaka, were attending Emory University in Atlanta, while the Indian woman, identified as 19-year-old Tarushi Jain, was attending the University of California at Berkley. Two Sri Lankans were among those rescued, and they are currently receiving treatment in a Dhaka hospital. There is also an unconfirmed witness report that non-Muslims were exclusively targeted, and tortured, inside the restaurant during the siege. The attack began around 9:20 p.m., when roughly 25 to 30 customers and as many as 60 staff were inside the restaurant. The assailants reportedly shouted Allahu Akbar as they attacked, detonating small bombs and firing their weapons. Some patrons and staff were able to escape the building in the panic. The militants, reportedly all young men, then moved the buildings second floor where they worked to repel police officers responding to the attack, using guns and bombs. Two officers died a result of that confrontation, and 30 were injured. According to the Bangladeshi military, following the raid by commandos, a huge cache of improvised explosive devices and assault rifles was found inside the restaurant. Witnesses reported that the men were also armed with handguns and swords, and indeed authorities have reported it appears that some of the victims were killed with sharp weapons. The brazen attack, which was conducted on the holiest day of the week just as diners would be preparing to break the Ramadan fast, struck in the neighborhood of Gulshan, a diplomatic zone and one of the most affluent and secure neighborhoods in Dhaka. But while the location, nature, and scale of the attack has shocked Bangladesh, it is but the latest in a series of brutal attacks conducted in the once-moderate Muslim-majority country by Islamist militants. More than 40 people have been killed in Bangladesh by suspected Islamic extremists over the past three years, including 18 in the past year alone. In most of those attacks, groups of assailants have used machetes to brutally murder individual victims, mainly academics, secular bloggers and writers, gay-rights activists, police officers, and members of religious minorities. In fact, earlier on Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death while picking flowers in the southwest part of the country, purportedly by Islamist militants. In a televised address, Bangladeshs prime minister Hasina Sheikh called the Friday night attack an extremely heinous act and insisted, What kind of Muslims are these people? They dont have any religion. She also declared that her government was determined to root out terrorism and militancy from Bangladesh. But as The Guardians Jason Burke points out, so far the Bangladeshi government has mostly downplayed the presence of Islamist terrorist groups in the country, and even sought to blame political opponents for the ongoing violence. Burke argues that Fridays attack was predictable and possibly preventable: Western intelligence have been nervous about a major operation for at least 18 months. Indications of a complex plan to attack a diplomatic ball last year prompted much alarm and pressure from western capitals on Dhaka to move effectively against the militant networks existing in the unstable south Asian nation. This did not happen. The Awami League government of Hasina Sheikh has instead looked to extract political advantage from the situation, either blaming what is left of the political opposition in Bangladesh, or denying outright that militant networks linked to organisations such as Islamic State or al-Qaida even existed in the country, despite their claims of responsibility for successive killings. Instead of cracking down on the hardline groups which encouraged, or even sponsored, the attacks on local bloggers and minorities, the government effectively made concessions to the conservatives, with the prime minister implying those who had insulted religious sensibilities were in part responsible for their fate. Bloggers seeking police protection were ignored. Ali Riaz, a South Asian politics expert at Illinois State University, tells the New York Times that the governments stance will likely change now: The continuous denial of the presence of local militant group connections with international terror groups has not been helpful. What were witnessing cant be small groups coming together. It is clearly a very coordinated attack. If this doesnt convince them to come out of denial, then I dont know what will. This is a developing story. Clinton and the Justice Department seem eager to get the investigation over with. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images The FBI interviewed Hillary Clinton for three-and-half hours on Saturday morning as part of their investigation into whether or not any laws were broken by Clinton or her aides when they set up a private email server for her use while serving as secretary of state. The New York Times reports that the Clinton campaign says it was a voluntary interview, but did not offer any information on the substance of what was discussed, only that Clinton was pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion. The interview was conducted at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. ABC News adds that a source familiar with the investigation told them that the Justice Departments goal is to complete the investigation and make recommendations on whether charges should be filed before the two major party conventions take place toward the latter half of July. Clintons email server, and the investigation into it by federal authorities, recently became even more controversial after it was learned that Bill Clinton had a short conversation with Attorney General Loretta Lynch at the Phoenix airport earlier this week while the former president was in town fund-raising for his wifes campaign. Though all involved have called that conversation an informal, chance meeting in which the email server case was not discussed, on Friday Lynch nonetheless announced that she would be accepting whatever recommendations prosecutors and the FBI recommend in the email server case, though she insisted she had made that decision months before the airport meeting with President Clinton. She also said that she regretted the airport meeting, since it had cast a shadow over the email server investigation. Regardless, presidential nominee Donald Trump and others in the Republican party and conservative media have sought to use the incident, and continuing investigation, to attack Hillary Clintons judgement. As the Washington Post points out, the investigation isnt over: Agents and prosecutors will now have to compare what the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said Saturday to other evidence they have gathered, including from interviews with Clintons aides. But officials familiar with the probe have said meeting with Clinton would be reserved for the end of the investigation. But as Hot Airs Ed Morrissey notes, timing could be everything: Meeting with the target of a probe is usually the final step before deciding on a criminal referral, and the fact that they waited so long for this step at least suggests that investigators saw a real need to stick to best practices. If the FBI doesnt think a criminal referral involving Hillary will be forthcoming, then the timing really doesnt matter; Democrats could hold their convention as planned without any changes. If the FBI thinks that there is a good chance of a criminal referral, however, then the timing becomes extremely important, to Democrats and to the nation as a whole. The convention is the last opportunity Democrats have to replace Hillary as the nominee in an organized and orderly manner. Then again, its also worth emphasizing that the FBI interview was not unexpected, and the meeting having now taken place does not mean Clinton will face prosecution, nor has there been any indication from anyone close to the investigation that she or anyone else involved will. For Clinton to face criminal charges, there would need to be evidence that she didnt just send classified information over an unsecured network, but that she did so deliberately. Clinton has repeatedly indicated that she is confident the probe will clear her of any wrongdoing. This post has been updated to reflect additional information and analysis. If you just scanned your social-media feeds after a long holiday weekend and were left with the impression that Donald Trump accused Microsoft Word of discriminating against Jewish people, allow us to assure you thats not the case though the Trump camps explanation for its latest blunder is almost that absurd. It all started on Saturday, when the presumptive GOP presidential nominee tweeted, then deleted, an image that criticized opponent Hillary Clinton and highlighted her supposed corruption within a Star of David appearing over a pile of money. Photo: Twitter He later retweeted a less anti-Semitic version, which as some eagle-eyed observers noted, just had a new circular most-corrupt badge affixed over the star, the tiny end points of which are still barely visible: Needless to say, using the well-known Jewish symbol in this fashion did not go unnoticed. Many, such as Clintons economic-policy adviser Michael Shapiro, called it an obvious dog whistle. Furthermore, Mic reported that one of the places the original graphic seems to have first appeared was a white-supremacist internet group: [We] discovered that Donald Trumps Twitter wasnt the first place the meme appeared. The image was previously featured on /pol/ an Internet message board for the alt-right, a digital movement of neo-Nazis, anti-Semites, and white supremacists newly emboldened by the success of Donald Trumps rhetoric as early as June 22, 2016, over a week before Donald Trumps team tweeted it. Photo: Screencap However, they also noted that the first known use of the image seems to have been via a Twitter user who regularly tweets, and possibly creates, racist memes. Mic thus provided the following caveat: It is currently unclear as to whether Trumps team found this image from @FishBoneHead1s Twitter account, from /pol/ or from another digital repository for racist, xenophobic and violent imagery. When Trumps team sources memes, images and other forms of media from Twitter, the team has a longstanding pattern of attributing the account from which they found it. Among the many benefits of this practice of attribution is that it creates a desirable distance between the presidential candidate and the images he tweets. This distance can and has proven beneficial when the account tweets something inflammatory and racist. If Trumps team found the controversial meme from Twitter, and not a website like /pol/, it is unclear why the Trump campaign would choose its distribution of this image on Twitter to rupture from its longstanding pattern of attributing Twitter users just when the campaign would seem to need it most. Speaking with CNN on Sunday, Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, remarked that it just boggles the mind that the campaign would use the image, adding that, I get tweeted pictures like this all the time from anti-Semites and racists and white supremacists. The imagery is the classic trope of Jews and money implying that shes raising Jewish money, or something along those lines. Neo-Nazi bloggers sure didnt miss the connection. And, as The Guardians Jamiles Lartey observed, even the corrected tweet contained a dash of anti-Semitism: Unlike the original graphic, the updated image contained the text America First, a phrase the Anti-Defamation League has previously asked Trump to stop using because of antisemitic connotations. The phrase gained currency in the 1930s with Americans who wanted the US to avoid involvement in the second world war; most prominent among them was Charles Lindbergh. The American pilot was welcomed in Nazi Germany several times before the war and in 1939 wrote that racial strength is vital. Trump has a tendency to tweet things that white supremacists like, though it should be noted that his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is an Orthodox Jew, and Trumps daughter, Ivanka, converted before marrying him. According to a New York Times profile published Monday, Mr. Kushner believes that his father-in-laws respect for his Jewish faith is sincere, his friends said, and that the issue is not worth addressing. Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski now a CNN contributor who is legally unable to say anything negative about Trump came to his former bosss defense as well, arguing the controversy is an example of political correctness run amok within the mainstream media, since the six-point star is also the symbol of a sheriffs badge: Unsurprisingly, Trump was all for blaming the media: Dishonest media is trying their absolute best to depict a star in a tweet as the Star of David rather than a Sheriff's Star, or plain star! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 4, 2016 That only angered the Clinton campaign further. Donald Trumps use of a blatantly anti-Semitic image from racist websites to promote his campaign would be disturbing enough, but the fact that its a part of a pattern should give voters major cause for concern, said Sarah Bard, the Clinton campaigns director of Jewish outreach. Now, not only wont he apologize for it, hes peddling lies and blaming others. On Monday night, Dan Scavino, the Trump campaigns social-media director, offered a more detailed explanation in a statement posted on Facebook: The social media graphic used this weekend was not created by the campaign nor was it sourced from an anti-Semitic site. It was lifted from an anti-Hillary Twitter user where countless images appear. The sheriffs badge which is available under Microsofts shapes fit with the theme of corrupt Hillary and that is why I selected it. As the Social Media Director for the campaign, I would never offend anyone and therefore chose to remove the image. As Gawker notes, the anti-Hillary Twitter user also posted this gem before deleting their account: Left: Statement from Trump campaign saying they got star image from Twitter user Right: Another image from that user pic.twitter.com/Eyvv79CeBr Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) July 5, 2016 But according to Scavinos logic, that image cant be anti-Semitic either, as the swastika is made up of a bunch of lines and lines just happen to be featured in Microsoft Words shapes menu, too! This post has been updated throughout. Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty Images The second man charged in the 2014 celeb hacking scandal is planning to plead guilty. Edward Majerczyk phished his way into over 300 Gmail and iCloud accounts, according to Deadline, accessing all sorts of private data belonging to Hollywoods elite. Some of this data turned out to be photos and videos of famous people like Jennifer Lawrence, Kirsten Dunst, and Kate Upton doing private naked stuff, which leaked all over sites like 4Chan and Reddit. Majerczyk is the second man charged in the CelebGate scandal. A few weeks ago, Ryan Collins pleaded guilty to similar charges, although it seems the two werent working together. The feds cant tie either of them directly to circulating the photos, but any way you slice it, illegally accessing data is a federal offense. Both men used fake email addresses that sounded official enough for the recipients to click on a link that would take them to a form where they could enter in their username and password. Its easy to get fooled by these phishing scams, which makes them especially diabolical. white people. Reply Thread Link Horses Reply Parent Thread Expand Link mte Reply Parent Thread Link Obvious plea for relevance. Reply Thread Link Omg omg omg I'm cackling Reply Parent Thread Link lmao stop it right now Reply Parent Thread Link lol Reply Parent Thread Link HA Reply Parent Thread Link lolllll Reply Parent Thread Link Lmao Reply Parent Thread Link dead Reply Parent Thread Link Omg I hope that horse was ok! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link also it doesn't turn out okay it gets ground up by the ship propeller afterward Reply Parent Thread Expand Link LOL Reply Parent Thread Link lol Reply Parent Thread Link kfgnkjfmgsng Reply Parent Thread Link lmao Reply Parent Thread Link LMAO Reply Parent Thread Link lmao fuck you i'm dying Reply Parent Thread Link nnnnnn delete this Reply Parent Thread Link This necessary but cruel attack on horses and horse-faced people everywhere. Reply Parent Thread Link nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn bih Reply Parent Thread Link oooommmg Reply Parent Thread Link yessss the horse jokes are back Reply Parent Thread Link I'm screaming Reply Parent Thread Link took me a second but lol Reply Parent Thread Link I believe the con flag is racist. I don't believe everyone who wears it is, because there are so many who have been sold and bought the bill of goods that it's about history and culture. there are those who genuinely don't realize both it's true history and how it's viewed. There are people who honestly don't know, or don't get it. I'm inclined to question if someone is racist for embracing it, but i know not *EVERYONE* whose worn it is. I'm still down for banning the damn thing though. Reply Thread Link Since it is abundantly clear how offensive it is to black people, not to mention terrorizing to many, at the very least, it shows an attitude of not caring about black people imo. Reply Parent Thread Link bb I'm not entirely disagreeing with you. I'm saying, there are people who legit don't know this. there really are. and it boggles my mind even further that there are black folks in the south who wear it, display it, and marched in support of keeping it when it was up for debate so hotly last summer. some of them didn't know the history behind it or wanted to reclaim it. so personally, i'm willing to have the discussion with someone to see where they are instead of writing them off entirely. as i said, i will instantly lean to they're racist, but there are folks who truly don't get it. there is a real discrepancy with online culture being mostly "woke" and offline culture who've never heard of most issues and arguments. i see it every day. Reply Parent Thread Link I think if this was before the age of the internet I would agree. But now, with BLM and other stuff, not so much. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link If they don't think it's racist, what do they think it is? If you cite history and culture, the history is one of fighting to maintain slaves and the culture is... what is the culture? Celebrating 1850, before they got called on their shit? Exactly what history and culture do they think they're celebrating with that flag? How can you live in the South and be ignorant of what that flag represents? Isn't it taught in elementary school? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Not to mention... like even if you don't think it's racist, it's literally the flag of a traitor country? And if you're so gung-ho about 'MURKA, then why the fuck are you supporting the Confederacy? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I have literally never met a person who had some object with the confederate flag on it who didn't show their ass with some racist bullshit within 30 minutes sooo..... Reply Thread Link i miss my sidekick omg Reply Parent Thread Link omg me too Reply Parent Thread Link jeffree starr is month old smegma, what's your point??? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link That "hahahhahahahahahhaha" straight racist white folk do is something else.. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Alright then, guess who isn't getting any sugar cubes tonight. Reply Thread Link Just makes them foam mouthed and drooling anyway. Reply Parent Thread Link lmfaoooooooo Reply Parent Thread Link Ahahahhahahaha omg Reply Parent Thread Link I lost it at this one lmaoooooo Reply Parent Thread Link lmao Reply Parent Thread Link lololol Reply Parent Thread Link came in here just for the horse jokes, am not disappointed... Reply Parent Thread Link SCREAMING Reply Parent Thread Link she really is this crazy irl to have faked a miscarriage to manipulate trace. that was an iconic ig post lol. Reply Parent Thread Link That was amazing. Reply Parent Thread Link Whaaaaat why Reply Parent Thread Link what makes you think she faked it? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link If you're not racist, then why would you want anything to do with that flag, knowing what it represents? Why would you want to be a ~rebel when rebel in this case means siding with racists? And on top of that, THEY LOST THE WAR! Why would you still want to root for a team who not only lost, but who deserved to lose? Fuck it, I'm tired. Just fall off the face of the earth already. You're an insult to horses, Trace. Reply Thread Link I mean, I'm not defending their half ass excuse but most of them say ~that's not what it means~ hell, a lot of them will argue that the civil was wasn't even about slavery in the first place. Reply Parent Thread Link ~ the war of northern aggression ~ Reply Parent Thread Link Someone turn this mfucker into glue already. Reply Thread Link Are you a closed minded fool, ONTD? Neigh, I say. Neigh Reply Thread Link It's even more idiotic when you consider that the various European institutions they complain about were all a direct product of those two wars and people trying to avoid the toxic nationalism that fueled them. Reply Parent Thread Link THIS! How people do not get this simple thing? Reply Parent Thread Link Youth from WW1 were probably infants back then. I know there aren't any living WW1 veterans. Reply Parent Thread Link That comment is horrifying. Not to mention the youths all DID participate in democracy by voting to stay, and now that their vote's been ignored/overridden they're peacefully protesting this AKA still participating in democracy. Reply Parent Thread Link The UK is in such a mess right now. I wish I could join the protests but I'm out of the country right now. Reply Thread Link This is me too - I'm currently pursuing the freedom of movement within the EU which may soon be taken away from me and millions of others against our will. It's such a mess right now and so frustrating to watch from afar. I'm not sure I want to go back. :/ Edited at 2016-07-02 05:06 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link Same! I'm in Malta right now and there are so many beautiful national heritage sites that have been funded by the EU, and it makes me sad to think that the UK will no longer be able to claim to be a part of something so good and important. People always focus on the negatives, but at the end of the day, the EU does something incredibly good for all of Europe, and I'm livid that I will be removed from this against my will. If Scotland stays in the EU i'm planning to re-locate there, but if not, I may have to start considering other places within the EU to move. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Holy crap that's a lot of people. At first I didn't expect that much but then the camera panned near the end and U was like woahhh. Reply Thread Link And since this is a political post, has anyone seen Donald Trump's latest speeches? In an attempt to appeal to Bernie supporters he has toned down the "build a wall" rhetoric and replaced that with speeches about job creation and deductibles in healthcare, and he's also talking calmly with no crazy hand gestures. Reply Parent Thread Link There was a big pro-corbyn rally in my home city today, too People are not happy in the UK rn Reply Thread Link What are they protesting? Twitter is telling me all different things. Reply Thread Link There's a bit more here: They are protesting to show protest the referendum result that was won by only a small margin, that it is not representative of the nation.There's a bit more here: https://www.buzzfeed.com/laurasilver/tens-of-thousands-of-people-marched-in-london-against-brexit?bffb&utm_term=.dgwNvy3Mp#.lpekx0GnR Reply Parent Thread Link Oh right. So is the desired outcome for this march a second referendum then? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link This whole situation is so surreal. Watching that interview with Nigel Farage the day after Brexit vote where he basically admitted they lied about one of their central arguments for leaving the EU was like something right out of political satire. Reply Thread Link 100% something that would happen on The Thick of It. Reply Parent Thread Link one of the leave politicians said "the promises were just possibilities" when questioned. like what the fuck??? how are they allowed to just tell fucking lies like that Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Farage's attitude was brazen, but at the same time, I have no idea why any voter should have been stupid enough to take the promises of the Leave campaign seriously, but, hello, they don't form the government. Nor, in Farage's case, were they ever going to. If Theresa May becomes PM, for instance, why should she feel bound by the promises made by Johnson, Farage, Gove et al., when she wasn't part of the Leave campaign? Edited at 2016-07-02 07:42 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link this problem should not have been put up to a direct vote, but oh my god the fact that 52% is enough of a majority to actually make it happen is insane. i'm glad people are protesting. Reply Thread Link exactly, it should never have been put to a vote. fucking cameron, the pig fucker. Reply Parent Thread Link OT but I just realised 'pig fucker' would translate beautifully into an insult in Hindi/Urdu. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I'm going to stick to my alternate universe theory: I just don't know if this is the start of a Doctor Who Dystopia or Monty Python. I just can't wrap my mind around how quickly things are falling apart. Reply Thread Link I agree but I think we slipped into the wrong one when Farage survived that plane crash in 2010. Reply Parent Thread Link I am not even British and I personally want to launch Farage into space, he is vile Reply Parent Thread Link Of all the people to survive plane crashes, eh. Reply Parent Thread Link I'm going to start thinking it's an AU Pete's World, which is already another version, but you know. It's just easier that way. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Silly walk off a cliff Reply Parent Thread Link Between Drumpf and this it really does feel like we slipped into an alternate reality somehow Reply Parent Thread Link Teresa May's plans for Europeans currently in the UK not being sure of being allowed to stay what, is she really thinking about repatriation? like is that a real thing that's happening? Reply Thread Link I wish I could find it, would've definitely added to the post, but I think yesterday morning she made claim that the Europeans currently in the UK shouldn't automatically assume they have a right to stay in the country. To that effect. Reply Parent Thread Link Ugh, she is so vile and that's absolutely not helping the situation. Reply Parent Thread Link EU citizens staying in the UK are probably gonna be a bargaining chip when it comes to negotiating with the EU so that makes sense for her to say I guess... Reply Parent Thread Link I thought she was supposed to be pro-EU? At least that's what the papers tell me Reply Parent Thread Expand Link she is SO VILE. her policies as home office secretary are ridiculously xenophobic Reply Parent Thread Link I feel so bad for these people and I really wish remain would've won, but there's no way things like this are actually going to make the UK stay in the EU right? Like in my country when there's a referendum the result can be ignored if our pm doesn't want it to happen, but I thought that in the UK the result is final Reply Thread Link small boring and irrelevant holland Reply Parent Thread Expand Link No you're right this wasn't in anyway a legally binding vote. It's just that the morons in government who let it happen have no idea how to backpedal without destroying their party's credibility with the grey vote. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Legally, this referendum was specifically made to only be advisory (the voting system one that failed a few years ago was a compulsory one), so it could be ignored. But it's widely considered to be political suicide if a PM did ignore it - and none of the Tory PM candidates seem to have the balls to do the right thing and ignore it. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link the whole mess makes me glad that germany does not have referendums on a federal level Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Well, the result is not binding, supposedly. But I doubt they'll let them stay after this circus, Juncker has stated very clearly the EU wants them to leave fast bc that's what they chose to do. Basically with this wave of nationalism they want to make an example out of the UK and I don't blame them, if other countries start leaving it'll be messy and the extreme nationalism could lead to another war...we don't need that shit in Europe. Reply Parent Thread Link Damn that's a lot of people. Impressive. Reply Thread Link But we not suppose to mention that, sis. Reply Parent Thread Link Twitter is depressing on this with most of the hashtag being full of leave voters crowing about how they won. Reply Thread Link 'small margin' my ass. if remain had won and the 'leave' supporters did this, they'd be considered idiots on a pointless mission the problem is the 'leave' voters who now regret it. and the ppl who would have voted 'remain' but didn't bother showing up but it's too late now imo. do they want a do-over? based on what? on the fact ppl were too stupid to vote correctly the first time? if only that was reason enough. Reply Thread Link 'small margin' my ass. if remain had won and the 'leave' supporters did this, they'd be considered idiots on a pointless mission Yes. Because choosing to leave the EU is dumb as fuck. Reply Parent Thread Link ita, and that's why I was fairly confident remain would win. lol @ me. the thing is, the UK voters should have realized that before voting. what changed? the fact they realized their vote has consequences? and now they're all "oop, my bad, let's remain instead"? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link A 'win' of less than 4% is a small margin in my eyes. I do think it is pointless to protest to try and overturn these results, it is not happening, we all know that. However, I do not think it is pointless to protest as the people have that right to do so in a democracy. If Remain had won, it would've been Leave's right to do so as well. More people should've voted, should've done their research and should've trusted experts who have studied this shit for decades. But they didn't and now shit is fucked. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I was at the march and I don't want a second referendum. Some people at the march were calling for that but that was not the entire point of the march. I went because: 1) The Leave campaign told many lies e.g. the nonexistent 350m for the NHS, Turkey joining the EU. Those lies cut through with the public and swung it their way. 2) The vote was badly designed in the first place. No one knows what 'Leave' actually means. Free movement or not? In the single market or not? 3) There has been a massive rise in race hate crimes and immigrants feeling like the UK is hostile to them. This was a side-effect of the Leave campaign's inflammatory rhetoric and we now see Tory PM contenders engaging in a race to the bottom to prove that they are the most anti-immigration candidate. There isn't a mandate for that and it's not the kind of country I want to live in. Edited at 2016-07-03 12:16 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link The fretting in the financial markets after Great Britain's voters narrowly decided to leave the European Union (EU), a move dubbed Brexit, was less about immediate effects--there aren't any since it would take Britain up to two years to withdraw--and more about a foreboding that other countries will want out, too. In addition, some think it likely that Scottish independence will once again be on the agenda. Scots were heavily in favor of remaining in the EU. Centrifugal political forces are bad for business since they spell uncertainty and ultimately disruption if they come to fruition as they did in Britain regarding the EU. And, Britain, of course, isn't the only country in Europe facing breakaway movements. The people of Spain's Catalonia region have for some time sought a referendum on independence from Spain. Only last year Catalan separatists won a majority in the regional government. The movement cites cultural and linguistic reasons for independent statehood, reasons that could be asserted by many groups across Europe and lead to more instability. The larger question is why there is building discontent with global economic and political integration not only in Europe, but also in the United States as evidenced by the candidacies of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. The slim defeat for pro-EU forces has been explained as a vote against EU immigration and business regulation policies and against the loss of national sovereignty. But there is also a feeling afoot that the move toward greater integration through the EU and through global and regional trade agreements is designed primarily to enrich global financial elites--all the while subjecting middle- and lower-class wage earners to stagnant and even falling incomes as they compete against cheap labor in developing countries. In the conversation about the rising revulsion against further integration, one factor is not being discussed: energy. With oil, natural gas and coal, the world's primary energy sources, all far below their high prices of the last decade, all would seem well on the energy front. Related: The US Drives Forward To Become A Player On The World LNG Market Britain, of course, had been reaping the benefits of oil and natural gas deposits in its sector of the North Sea since the 1970s. However, after 2005 the country ceased to be a net exporter of crude oil and natural gas liquids. Imports of natural gas have risen steeply with 2014 imports reaching 19 times what they were in 2000. Both these trends point to the decline of the North Sea fields and Britain's re-entry into the league of oil and gas importers, a sudden reversal of a previous long-term trend and a net negative for the British economy. As you'll see below, this trend combined with the effects of high energy prices on productivity growth had a negative effect on the incomes of middle- and lower-class voters who simultaneously paid a higher proportion of their incomes for increased energy bills. This double whammy has likely contributed to discontent among such voters who were looking for a way to express their frustration and found it in the Brexit vote. Returning to the trends mentioned above, the year 2005 turned out not only to be an inflection point for the North Sea fields, but also for the worldwide oil markets. Prices rose inexorably and spiked in 2008 to their highest ever. After prices dipped to around $35 per barrel in the wake of the financial crash that followed, they rose sharply again regaining $100 by early 2011 and hovered around record average daily prices for more than three and a half years. The high prices were related to rising demand from Asia, but also to a dramatic slowdown in the growth of oil production worldwide. If the cause of our current economic difficulties was, in part, high oil prices which slowed the world economy, then an energy connection comes into view. Current low oil prices become a symptom of economic weakness rather than merely a reflection of excess supply. (Much of the world outside of North America also experienced high natural gas prices during this period in the form of high landed costs for liquefied natural gas in Japan and Europe, far higher than the U.S. pipeline price during this period.) Moreover, high energy prices in general can be linked to slower productivity growth. And, we have seen global productivity growth far below the expected trend since 2005, a year that was as noted an inflection point for oil prices. Now, here's the important part: Productivity growth is the basis for rising wages. With declining productivity growth employers are less likely to raise wages as those raises would eat into profitability. There are other reasons why wage earners may not be receiving wage increases, but lack of productivity growth is an important one. Related: ExxonMobil Backs Carbon Tax For Climate Change So, here's what all this had to do with the Brexit vote: Stagnant or declining living standards breed discontent among a populace used to rising standards. Pro free trade and economic integration forces argue that such integration into larger trading federations leads to greater prosperity. When the prosperity disappeared as it did in Ireland, Spain and Greece, significant political movements arose in the latter two (Podemos in Spain and Syriza in Greece) which question further integration and suggest at least substantial alteration of the terms of EU membership. The effect on British wage earners was more subtle, but found its expression in the Brexit vote. Likewise, real American median wages have been generally slumping since 2007. The long-awaited recovery in wage growth has yet to appear in the United States even as a boom in oil and natural gas related to extraction from shale deposits boosted incomes in states where the boom occurred. As in Europe, American voters have been looking for the reason for their declining prospects, and two candidates for president this year suggested a reason that makes sense to those voters: Global trade agreements have depressed American wages. Donald Trump said he would "renegotiate" the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Bernie Sanders outright opposed NAFTA in 1993 while a congressman and continues to oppose agreements he believes punish domestic labor. While supposedly unfair trade and financial agreements may be a cause for the decline of middle- and lower-class fortunes, they cannot be the sole cause. That's because wage stagnation began long before NAFTA and long before the introduction of the Euro. It's instructive to note that in the United States median hourly wages leveled off in 1973, the year of the Arab Oil Embargo. Energy costs in the United States rose dramatically after that though they returned to lower levels in the 1980s and 1990s. Still, the country was increasingly dependent on foreign oil and sent more and more of its income abroad during this period to pay for that oil. During the recently expired oil and natural gas boom in the United States, high prices enriched those involved while transferring wealth from those who weren't. The effect on overall wages seems to have been slightly negative. None of this definitively proves that stagnant wages are caused by high energy prices, increasing energy imports or skewed trade agreements. But there is strong evidence that all three are implicated. Not surprisingly, energy is the theme that is being neglected in this discussion because energy is currently in a cyclical price trough, one that may very well have resulted from the dampening effect previously high prices had on economic and productivity growth. Such effects are hard to pin down. And, the mythology brought to us by the public relations arm of the fossil fuel industry is that we need not worry about sufficient energy supply--a story they've been touting since the lows in oil prices in 1998. Every step of the way on the path to the price spike of 2008, the industry said big new supplies were just around the corner. When a special kind of hydraulic fracturing made new oil deposits available in the United States, only prices near $100 a barrel made them economical (as we can see by the widespread bankruptcies among those companies reliant on such deposits in the recent low-price environment). It's those high prices which I believe have slowed the economy making oil now seem temporarily plentiful. If we don't go into a major recession or depression, a rise in demand could send prices soaring and put further pressure on overall productivity growth while increasing energy bills for households. That would set the stage for more discontent among those who believe that increased economic global integration is hurting rather than helping them. By Kurt Cobb via Resource Insights More To Reads From Oilprice.com: During the past three months, Reggie Jackson and Fran Kaplan of Americas Black Holocaust Museum brought together people of different races, ages and genders to talk about the role institutional racism plays in peoples lives. The museum recently concluded "White Frame/Black Frame: The Hidden Roots of Racial Realities," a free six-session film and interracial dialogue series. Participants were asked to commit to all six sessions so members could build trust with one another. Fifty people, ranging from teens to senior citizens, participated in the series. They were divided into seven discussion groups, and each was assigned a facilitator. Jackson, head griot, and Kaplan, the virtual museums coordinator, showed a short film clip at each session from "White People," a 2015 documentary about white privilege in the United States, to trigger discussion. The facilitators watched the clips for the first time during the sessions, so they were able to share their immediate reactions. Participants also suggested film clips for Kaplan and Jackson to show during the series. Donte McFaddan, co-founder and co-programmer of the Black Lens Program at the Milwaukee Film Festival, participated in the series and suggested several clips including portions of "Hollywood Shuffle." The film follows an actor limited to stereotypical roles because he is black. "Seeing that there are differences in how we experience life allows us to come together," Jackson said. "We hope people learn that institutional racism plays a role in all of our lives." Troy Freund, a participant in the series, said the clips drove home the reality of how serious racism is. He added that he benefited from hearing his group members reactions. "We all have to learn about ourselves," Freund said. "I love my city, Ive lived here for 20-something years, so I signed up (for the series) thinking, Lets see what I can learn." Addressing how minorities can feel isolated moving into a predominantly white neighborhood, Freund said there will always be people who are close-minded, but the community needs to put forth a bigger effort to make people feel comfortable. Maria Cunningham, a librarian at the Milwaukee Public Library and ABHM volunteer, served as a facilitator and put together a suggested reading list for the participants. One of the selections was "How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?" by Moustafa Bayoumia, which details how young Arab and Muslim Americans are often viewed as the enemy in American society. "White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son" by Tim Wise, an author and educator, also was included on the list. Cunningham said she enjoyed watching participants become more comfortable as the weeks went on. "Programs like this show that people can talk about these problems and that it is safe to do so," Cunningham said. "It is very gratifying to see people of so many different groups come together and have very civil conversations," Jackson said. Nisea Thurman-Wamubu, 15, and Stephania Parrett, 17, were the two youngest facilitators. Both participate in Urban Underground, an organization of young people committed to building safe and sustainable communities. They found out about the opportunity from the programs director and co-founder, Sharlen Moore. The teens both agreed it was difficult at times to explain topics to people older than they are. "I felt so privileged to gain their trust," Thurman-Wamubu said. "I never felt so much joy to share with others." Kaplan and Jackson recently received an Independent Publisher Book Award for contributing materials to the third edition of James Camerons "A Time of Terror: A Survivors Story." Cameron founded ABHM in 1988. "A Time of Terror" is the only lynching account ever written by a survivor. Kaplan also served as the producer and screenwriter for "Fruit of the Tree," a film on Camerons life. In May, city officials announced that Americas Black Holocaust Museum has been offered space in a new building to be constructed at the corner of North Avenue and 4th Street. Federal tax credits from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) will jumpstart the four-story building, in which the museum is expected to be the commercial tenant. The museums original building closed in 2008 due to financial difficulties. "White Frame/Black Frame" was the third yearly film and dialogue series hosted by ABHM. In prior years, full-length films and documentaries were shown, allowing less time for dialogue. "We could see we needed more time to dialogue to take out a deeper meaning," Kaplan said. "Having a place where we could talk so honestly is what made it work so well." Jackson and Kaplan hope to start hosting the film dialogue series more than once a year, since they had a waiting list for "White Frame/Black Frame." "On one hand, I feel really good about (ABHMs anti-racism efforts)," Kaplan said. "On the other hand, I feel disgusted we still have to do this." I was just gobsmacked when I heard you use the phrase "The People's House" in your scolding of the Democrats after their gun control sit-in. Although, I took it as a minor miracle you didn't immediately choke on your words or that lightning didn't strike any where near you. Granted, I didn't check the D.C weather reports for that day, so it's possible the latter happened. How, I wondered, were you able to utter the phrase, "The People's House," especially after criticizing Democrats for doing a sit-in because they wanted to debate what were, after all, fairly mild gun safety regulations with which the majority of Americans agree. According to a CBS News poll taken after Orlando, 57% of Americans now support a ban on assault weapons, a much more substantive proposal than anything the House Democrats were putting forth. One bill the Democrats wanted to debate was universal background checks, which a super majority of 89% of Americans support, including substantial majorities of Democrats and Republicans. How can you call it "The People's House" when no debate is allowed over what the vast majority of people want? To call the present Republican House "The People's House" makes a mockery of the term. As Sean Illing pointed out in Salon in 2015, " the GOP's control of Congress is . . . a scandal." Obama beat Republican candidates twice "with more than 50 percent of the popular vote." Also, "Democratic congressional candidates received 1.4 million more votes than their Republican opponents in 2012. And yet Republicans lost only eight seats that year. In a remotely representative system, such results would not be possible." So what has happened in the world's last best hope? Your party, fueled by dark money, was extraordinarily successful at rigging the system in its favor by gerrymandering at the state level. As Illing explained, "S omething like 55 percent of America's congressional districts have been redrawn to favor the GOP, while a paltry 10 percent have been redrawn to favor Democrats. It's difficult to overstate how anti-Democratic that is. Republicans have essentially short-circuited the Democratic process." And how did your party do that? "They've used advanced technology and algorithms based on the most recent census data to redraw borders and create the safest districts possible." So because of your party's rigging of the system, its influence in Congress is much greater than its support among the actual people of America. Another more interesting way to say it is that all of us have collectively been ratf**ked as Salon editor-in-chief David Daley puts it in his provocatively titled new book, RatF**ked: The True Story Behind The Secret Plan To Steal America's Democracy. Daley points out that because of your party's successful effort to subvert our democracy, blue states like Ohio and Pennsylvania that voted for Obama end up sending super majorities of Republicans to Congress, all because of gerrymandering. In Ohio's case, Republicans have a 12-4 advantage and Pennsylvania's delegation is 13-5 Republican. Of course, your party was only able to pull off this little coup because of dark money. In fact, if it weren't for a handful of right-wing billionaires, the Kochs, the Scaifes, the DeVoses, and a few others, your party's hard right turn over the past few years would never have been possible. They bought off media and universities. They established think tanks and a 24-7 365-days-a-year campaign mode that has transformed our nation for the worse. As described by Jane Mayer in her well-researched Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right , the present-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell once explained to a college class that there are only three ingredients to building a political party: money, money, and money. So according to your counterpart in the Senate, such quaint notions as the people's will or the common good are not ingredients in building a political party. Good to know. After years and years of your party filling its coffers with dark money, while doing nothing, being the Party of No, you have the gall to lecture those who want to do the people's business. And to add insult to injury, you call your bought-and-paid-for House, "The People's House." Given all the above, I don't know whether to call your utterance of the phrase "The People's House" chutzpah, delusional thinking, the meaningless mouthing of political platitudes, or just politics as usual as practiced in the second decade of the 21st century? Yet no matter what I call it, the people, whose well-being should be the primary objective of "The People's House," will continue to be the losers. By Robert Weiner and Gabrielle Snowden House Democrats on the special Benghazi Committee have released a 345 page "Minority Report" accusing Republicans of "political motivations." The majority Republicans, under Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-Greenville), followed by issuing the majority report on on what could have and should have been done to avoid the four deaths before and after the attack. Donald Trump is repeatedly bringing up Benghazi as a key talking point against Hillary Clinton. He recently stated, "Ambassador Stevens and his staff in Libya made hundreds of requests for security. Hillary Clinton's State Department refused them all"... She "lied about a video being the cause of his death"" "When the phone rang at 3 o'clock in the morning, she was sleeping"... "She couldn't wait to rush us off to war in Libya." Since Trump openly says these arguments will be used throughout the election, it is time to defuse myths and call in facts. However, Democrats simply accusing Republicans of partisanship will not be persuasive. Here are five substantive points Clinton could use. 1. Clinton's budget requests for embassy security were rejected by the Republican Congress. Clinton's State Department budget requests for embassy security funding were ignored by congress until after Benghazi. The GOP-led congress cut the State Department's requests for security by $300 over three years, and still place the blame for low security on Clinton. Glenn Kessler, in The Washington Post on October 30, 2015, reported that Paul Ryan's proposed budget for 2013 of $1.94 billion dollars fell short of the Administration's request of $2.15 billion, which followed budget cuts of 2011. Kessler states that "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that Republicans' proposed cuts to her department would be 'detrimental to America's national security." The Benghazi hearing of Oct 22, 2015 did not investigate the poorly funded budget. Cong. Ed Royce, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair, stated in his press release on August 1, 2013, that "this bill " fully funds the Administration's embassy security request" -- a YEAR after the Benghazi attacks. It is clear that the only reason they finally met "full funding" was because they were embarrassed about Benghazi. 2. Hillary didn't lie--The anti-Muslim video released before the attacks was indeed a basis for the terrorist attack. On September 14, 2012 Clinton said, "We've seen rage and violence directed at American Embassies over an awful internet video [Innocence of Muslims]." Despite Republican efforts to delegitimize her claim, the riots and rallies across the Middle East in protest of the video were also occurring in Benghazi. David Kilpatrick found for the New York Times on December 28, 2013, that the "Innocence of Muslims" video was viewed widely by Islamists in Libya and that there were calls to protest. Kilpatrick wrote, "Anger at the video motivated the initial attack. Dozens of people joined in, some of them provoked by the video and others responding to fast-spreading false rumors that guards inside the American compound had shot Libyan protesters." The motivation was BOTH terror and the video. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). I'm writing to ask you to oppose the Roberts-Stabenow compromise language on the GMO labeling bill. This legislation would overrule Vermont's GMO labeling law, and prevent states from passing similar laws. This legislation would create a confusing, misleading and unenforceable national standard for labeling GMOs. Instead of a uniform labeling standard like Vermont's law, the language allows text, symbols, or an electronic code to be used. This is intentionally confusing to consumers, and the information may be entirely inaccessible if the consumer does not have access to the internet. Perhaps most shockingly, this bill imposes no penalties whatsoever for violating the labeling requirement, making the law essentially meaningless. Thus, this is a weak bill, full of loopholes, without any requirement to comply. The overwhelming majority of Americans favor GMO labeling. People have a right to know what is in the food they eat. The Senate shouldn't stop states from passing laws that let that happen. Please oppose the Roberts-Stabenow GMO labeling bill. >>>> From Stephen Fox, who posted this article: My additional comment, which went along with this letter to my two New Mexico US Senators, Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich: You know this is the wrong thing to do at this time, and I am counting on you, as usual, to do the right thing, and vote against this monstrous usurpation of consumer protection. This is a watershed bill, Senator, and if it passes, it opens up the gates to the further complete take-over by massive corporate interests like Monsanto. >>>> More from Bernie Sanders on this subject: In fact, they are moving aggressively now because Vermont's strong law goes into effect today. The corporate interests are at it again. Monsanto, agribusiness and the bio-tech industry have spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to overturn legislation passed by Vermont, Connecticut, Maine and Alaska that calls for the labeling of GMO food. This legislation is important because people have a right to know what is in the food they and their children eat. The more information we have, the better consumers we become. This is not a radical idea. It is why over 60 countries around the world have passed GMO labeling laws. Unfortunately, the major agribusiness and bio-tech companies disagree. They do not believe people have a right to know what's in the food they eat. That is why they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying and campaign contributions to overturn the GMO right-to-know legislation that states have already passed and that many other states are on the verge of passing. A bill in the Senate would overrule Vermont's law, and prevent states from passing similar laws. This bill, introduced by Senators Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) will be coming up for a vote on Wednesday or Thursday of next week. It must be defeated. Can you write to your senators today and ask them to oppose the GMO bill? You can click here and we'll direct you to write your senators immediately. Write to your senators Their goal is to deny states the right to go forward in this area and to pass legislation that is useless and with no value to consumers. And, if we don't stop them, they may just succeed. On Thursday evening, with no hearings and no debate, a corporate-backed bill was introduced on to the floor by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. This legislation would create a confusing, misleading and unenforceable national standard for labeling GMOs. Instead of a uniform labeling standard like Vermont's law, the language allows text, symbols, or an electronic code to be used. This is intentionally confusing to consumers, and the information may be entirely inaccessible if the consumer does not have access to the internet. Perhaps most shockingly, this bill imposes no penalties whatsoever for violating the labeling requirement, making the law essentially meaningless. Thus, this is a weak bill, full of loopholes, without any requirement to comply. The issue of labeling our food isn't controversial. The overwhelming majority of Americans favor GMO labeling. People have a right to know what is in the food they eat. The Senate shouldn't stop states from passing laws that let that happen. Congress must stand up to the demands of Monsanto and other multi-national food industry corporations and reject this outrageous, weak, and confusing bill. I will continue to do my best to defeat it, and take the necessary action to protect Vermont's GMO labeling efforts. But I need you with me in order to ensure its defeat. Articles Listed By Date List By Popularity Search Title Date Between Any 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 Any 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 and Any 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 Any 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Page 1 of 2 First Last Back Next 2 View All (3 comments) SHARE A Holiday from our Political Wars Take an hour, take an evening, hell, why not take a whole day off of the circus that is our modern media landscape? Here's something radical: take a Twitter Holiday. Do not speak of the current occupant of the White House, either positively or negatively. He's not going anywhere. Trust me, he'll still be there when you're ready to check back in. Thursday, April 4, 2019Take an hour, take an evening, hell, why not take a whole day off of the circus that is our modern media landscape? Here's something radical: take a Twitter Holiday. Do not speak of the current occupant of the White House, either positively or negatively. He's not going anywhere. Trust me, he'll still be there when you're ready to check back in. (3 comments) SHARE Just Another Pretty Face No longer content to hide under our beds, Russians are everywhere these days from fake memes and online trolling to NRA galas, Trump Tower and, maybe, even the White House. It takes me back to my year in Moscow, 1988. Gorby and glasnost were in, as was rock, long hair, and dissent. I felt so at home. Friday, January 18, 2019No longer content to hide under our beds, Russians are everywhere these days from fake memes and online trolling to NRA galas, Trump Tower and, maybe, even the White House. It takes me back to my year in Moscow, 1988. Gorby and glasnost were in, as was rock, long hair, and dissent. I felt so at home. (7 comments) SHARE Trump to Refugees: Drop Dead! In the Age of Trump, what has been our response to the refugee crisis? In one word, obscene. The Trump Administration had promised to take in 45,000 refugees during fiscal 2018, a paltry number. Even so, at the halfway mark, we've only admitted a little more than 10,000. So in this respect, the Trump Administration has gone all in for globalization,or, as Pope Francis called it "the globalization of indifference." Friday, April 6, 2018In the Age of Trump, what has been our response to the refugee crisis? In one word, obscene. The Trump Administration had promised to take in 45,000 refugees during fiscal 2018, a paltry number. Even so, at the halfway mark, we've only admitted a little more than 10,000. So in this respect, the Trump Administration has gone all in for globalization,or, as Pope Francis called it "the globalization of indifference." (40 comments) SHARE Believe it or Not, Trump is Not Our Main Problem By the dizzying number of unforced errors, Trump has proven his worst detractors correct. He is spectacularly unsuited to be President. So it is with some sadness I have to admit that Trump is not our main problem. The proximate cause of Trump being in the White is not Russian bots, the mendacious Fox News, or, even, the unpropitious James Comey, but because of the out-dated, convoluted way we pick our Presidents. Friday, March 2, 2018By the dizzying number of unforced errors, Trump has proven his worst detractors correct. He is spectacularly unsuited to be President. So it is with some sadness I have to admit that Trump is not our main problem. The proximate cause of Trump being in the White is not Russian bots, the mendacious Fox News, or, even, the unpropitious James Comey, but because of the out-dated, convoluted way we pick our Presidents. (7 comments) SHARE My Southern Heritage I'm such a son of the south that my great grandfather, a Tennessee farmer, was named after not only one Confederate "hero" but two, Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. Yes, I love my southern heritage, a phrase that's only besmirched, when you package it as an excuse to keep symbols of white supremacy, which in 2017 we should be long past defending. Tuesday, September 12, 2017I'm such a son of the south that my great grandfather, a Tennessee farmer, was named after not only one Confederate "hero" but two, Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. Yes, I love my southern heritage, a phrase that's only besmirched, when you package it as an excuse to keep symbols of white supremacy, which in 2017 we should be long past defending. (14 comments) SHARE Dating in Your Sixties or Beware of Crazy Greek Psychotherapists! Remember how awful junior high was? Well, dating in your sixties is worse. Women complain of hoped-for princes turning out to be frogs, mansplainers, or pervs, but, let me tell you, it's not so easy for men either. After my wife of 30 years died almost 2 years ago, I thought having a long successful marriage, plus still having my hair and being in good shape would bode well for me in the dating world. World-class wrong! Friday, June 9, 2017Remember how awful junior high was? Well, dating in your sixties is worse. Women complain of hoped-for princes turning out to be frogs, mansplainers, or pervs, but, let me tell you, it's not so easy for men either. After my wife of 30 years died almost 2 years ago, I thought having a long successful marriage, plus still having my hair and being in good shape would bode well for me in the dating world. World-class wrong! (38 comments) SHARE The G(OP)rinch that Stole Democracy Reasons abound for the election of Trump, from Russian hacking to FBI Director Comey's unprecedented meddling in the election process, but one reason should really get more attention. That the Republican Party has been involved in a long-term, well-funded project, not to steal Christmas like the Grinch -- that would be small potatoes -- but American democracy, itself. Friday, December 16, 2016Reasons abound for the election of Trump, from Russian hacking to FBI Director Comey's unprecedented meddling in the election process, but one reason should really get more attention. That the Republican Party has been involved in a long-term, well-funded project, not to steal Christmas like the Grinch -- that would be small potatoes -- but American democracy, itself. (12 comments) SHARE 2020: Welcome to Dystopian America: Like Us, But Only Worse It's 2020, and even the most jejune commentators are bored to death of the constant belaboring of the utter irony of 20/20 vision in the American dystopia of 2020. Hillary is facing an impeachment trial in the Senate, while Sean Hannity and Anne Coulter are leading a yuge field of Republican presidential hopefuls. And all because of a computer program called Maptitude. Friday, September 16, 2016It's 2020, and even the most jejune commentators are bored to death of the constant belaboring of the utter irony of 20/20 vision in the American dystopia of 2020. Hillary is facing an impeachment trial in the Senate, while Sean Hannity and Anne Coulter are leading a yuge field of Republican presidential hopefuls. And all because of a computer program called Maptitude. (20 comments) SHARE A Husband's Case for Physician-assisted Suicide Before she died last July, my wife and I were blessed to live for 30 years our own goofy, old-movies, cheap-date life. She was one of the sweetest, most loving and giving people I've ever known. She certainly didn't deserve to suffer as she did her last six months. If my wife had had access to physician-assisted suicide, she'd have used it without hesitation. In Texas she never had that option, but she should have. Wednesday, August 17, 2016Before she died last July, my wife and I were blessed to live for 30 years our own goofy, old-movies, cheap-date life. She was one of the sweetest, most loving and giving people I've ever known. She certainly didn't deserve to suffer as she did her last six months. If my wife had had access to physician-assisted suicide, she'd have used it without hesitation. In Texas she never had that option, but she should have. (15 comments) SHARE Beware the Coming Zombie Republican Apocalypse! After a primary season historical in its tumult, easily the most chaotic convention since 1968, and a smarmy conman, light on specifics and posing as a strong man who can single-handily solve all our problems, as its standard bearer, a real danger exists now that the Republican Party will become a zombie party, the party of the living dead -- too weak to win the presidency but strong enough at the state level and in the House Friday, July 22, 2016After a primary season historical in its tumult, easily the most chaotic convention since 1968, and a smarmy conman, light on specifics and posing as a strong man who can single-handily solve all our problems, as its standard bearer, a real danger exists now that the Republican Party will become a zombie party, the party of the living dead -- too weak to win the presidency but strong enough at the state level and in the House (7 comments) SHARE An Open-Letter to Speaker Ryan: The People's House, Really? After the Democrats staged a sit-in for gun safety, Speaker Ryan had the gall to lecture them, calling his bought-and-paid-for House "The People's House." The fact is Republican control of the House is a national scandal that involves tons of dark money and is obscenely undemocratic. Since the Republican House is very opposite of "The People's House," Ryan has no right to use the phrase. Saturday, July 2, 2016After the Democrats staged a sit-in for gun safety, Speaker Ryan had the gall to lecture them, calling his bought-and-paid-for House "The People's House." The fact is Republican control of the House is a national scandal that involves tons of dark money and is obscenely undemocratic. Since the Republican House is very opposite of "The People's House," Ryan has no right to use the phrase. (3 comments) SHARE Dubya's Glory Days? For some Americans, nostalgic for what some saw as George W. Bush's strong leadership in foreign affairs and straight talk, a Dubya revival of sorts is underway. But if you are nostalgic for those halcyon days of yore, you need to know, really know, what you're nostalgic for: overweening hubris, war, international crimes, torture, the joys of the great recession? Take your pick. Monday, June 16, 2014For some Americans, nostalgic for what some saw as George W. Bush's strong leadership in foreign affairs and straight talk, a Dubya revival of sorts is underway. But if you are nostalgic for those halcyon days of yore, you need to know, really know, what you're nostalgic for: overweening hubris, war, international crimes, torture, the joys of the great recession? Take your pick. (1 comments) SHARE Lighting Up: Fort Worth, Voter-ID Law, and Willie Before the November 5th election, Fort Worth, my hometown, was ground zero for Texas Voter-ID-law news. But what most people don't know is that not only is the law unfair, its implementation was not ready for prime-time. Wednesday, November 27, 2013Before the November 5th election, Fort Worth, my hometown, was ground zero for Texas Voter-ID-law news. But what most people don't know is that not only is the law unfair, its implementation was not ready for prime-time. (4 comments) SHARE The Step Down Revolution of Ted Cruz Barring a small miracle, Texas is fated to be represented by an inexperienced ideologue, Ted Cruz, who's never even been elected dog-catcher and is beholden to a lunatic fringe of the Republican party. It's fitting somehow that Texas is a red state. We all should be red from the sheer embarrassment of it all. Wednesday, August 8, 2012Barring a small miracle, Texas is fated to be represented by an inexperienced ideologue, Ted Cruz, who's never even been elected dog-catcher and is beholden to a lunatic fringe of the Republican party. It's fitting somehow that Texas is a red state. We all should be red from the sheer embarrassment of it all. (1 comments) SHARE Not all Texans are idiots!: A Tribute to Annette Sanford To outsiders,it must seem that Texas is populated by right-wing, gun-toting know-nothings.Yet the truth is Texas is no intellectual backwater. But we don't trumpet our best and brightest, just our dumber and dumberers. A case in point is this past January when one of our best Texas writers Annette Sanford died. I've been surprised that not much has been written to honor this gem of Texas letters, so I decided to write this. Thursday, July 12, 2012To outsiders,it must seem that Texas is populated by right-wing, gun-toting know-nothings.Yet the truth is Texas is no intellectual backwater. But we don't trumpet our best and brightest, just our dumber and dumberers. A case in point is this past January when one of our best Texas writers Annette Sanford died. I've been surprised that not much has been written to honor this gem of Texas letters, so I decided to write this. (3 comments) SHARE Middle-aged Foreplay Sometimes poems come from your imagination. This poem comes from my own personal experience, which I think most middle-aged or older people can identify with. Enjoy! Wednesday, July 4, 2012Sometimes poems come from your imagination. This poem comes from my own personal experience, which I think most middle-aged or older people can identify with. Enjoy! (1 comments) SHARE On Teaching This is Teacher Appreciation Week! Having taught for 24 years in high schools in two states and 5 school districts, I know a thing or two about teaching, which I'm happy to share in this essay, where I'm more concerned about the one that got away, one of the many students that I failed to reach and teach. Monday, May 7, 2012This is Teacher Appreciation Week! Having taught for 24 years in high schools in two states and 5 school districts, I know a thing or two about teaching, which I'm happy to share in this essay, where I'm more concerned about the one that got away, one of the many students that I failed to reach and teach. (1 comments) SHARE Governor Vaginal Probe or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Stupid Laws Our illustrious governor and not ready for primetime former Presidential candidate declared the Be an a**hole to Pregnant Women Bill an emergency despite Texas being in the midst of a several billion dollar shortfall. I think that any governor who would push for women to be raped by a transvaginal ultrasound wand because they wanted to have an abortion should have something done to him. Thursday, March 22, 2012Our illustrious governor and not ready for primetime former Presidential candidate declared the Be an a**hole to Pregnant Women Bill an emergency despite Texas being in the midst of a several billion dollar shortfall. I think that any governor who would push for women to be raped by a transvaginal ultrasound wand because they wanted to have an abortion should have something done to him. (2 comments) SHARE Blowback?: Will 2012 Be Our Year of Living Dangerously ? We've been very fortunate that no huge terrorist attack has occurred in the US since 9/11, but the chance exists that in 2012 our luck might run out. Blowback is a possibility because every year that we bully one group or another is another year we need to understand that we might face another possible terrorist attack. The only solution is that we completely reject empire. But when will we come to our senses? Sunday, January 1, 2012We've been very fortunate that no huge terrorist attack has occurred in the US since 9/11, but the chance exists that in 2012 our luck might run out. Blowback is a possibility because every year that we bully one group or another is another year we need to understand that we might face another possible terrorist attack. The only solution is that we completely reject empire. But when will we come to our senses? (1 comments) SHARE Dubya is Illegal: Full-frontal Hypocrisy with a Texas Twang "Illegals are illegal!" or so the anti-immigrant rant goes. But what really gets me about that is that it supposes that the rest of us, "legals," are so law-abiding that we're shocked that anything illegal is going on in our midst. But think about my neighbor to the east, ex-President George W. Bush. Honored in this area, he is guilty of the supreme international crime of aggression. Law-abiding? Maybe we're really not. Sunday, November 20, 2011"Illegals are illegal!" or so the anti-immigrant rant goes. But what really gets me about that is that it supposes that the rest of us, "legals," are so law-abiding that we're shocked that anything illegal is going on in our midst. But think about my neighbor to the east, ex-President George W. Bush. Honored in this area, he is guilty of the supreme international crime of aggression. Law-abiding? Maybe we're really not. Page 1 of 2 First Last Back Next 2 View All by Chris Bridgens Oregon Senate Bill 856 (2015) should be used to expose and stop the abusive, unsafe and unhealthy cultural agenda promoted and supported by the Oregon Health Authority and Oregon Department of Education (ODE) After years of blurring the lines between Oregon education and Oregon health care, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), partnering with the Oregon Department of Education (ODE), has been incrementally activating an adult cultural agenda of sexually grooming and normalizing no-boundaries sexual behavior for youth. This is being perpetrated through School Based Health Centers, Comprehensive Sexuality Education and through the recently canceled annual Adolescent Sexuality Conference in Seaside, Oregon. With several years of Oregon legislation paving the way, there is now great concern that this has led to an attempt to silence parents and to what can arguably be characterized as child endangerment or child abuse. Senate Bill 856 (2015) was passed as an attempt to train school employees and even students K-12, to recognize signs of sexual abuse or abusive behavior in order to prevent such abuse. This is a noble attempt, but there is concern that it will fall under the purview of the same OHA and ODE specialists who supported or sponsored much of what has been exposed as very objectionable, age inappropriate, developmentally inappropriate, unhealthy and unsafe for our children. ODEs current Sexual Health & School Health Specialist, Ely Sanders (replacing Brad Victor) speaks in support of, and has participated in the inclusion of the adult cultural, sexuality agenda in our Oregon schoolsan agenda which can put our children at serious risk to their health, mental health and their safety. The following are programs, curriculum, agencies or legislation which originated and were sold under the premise that they would promote healthy choices for youth, or would serve to prevent child (sexual) abuse: YEPSA (Youth for the Education and Prevention of Sexual Assault) YEPSA is an organization run by youth, mostly from a Network Charter School in Eugene, OR. They have been a participant in the Adolescent Sexuality Conference in Seaside, and have even led an I Say Porn, You Say Porn workshop at the conference. They also created and displayed a vagina collage which featured female body parts, young female children and was clearly an objectification of women. Sex abuse prevention was certainly not evident in what we witnessed of YEPSA at the conference. workshop at the conference. They also created and displayed a vagina collage which featured female body parts, young female children and was clearly an objectification of women. Sex abuse prevention was certainly not evident in what we witnessed of YEPSA at the conference. Three curriculum examples whose content can put children at risk to their safety and/or health: Making A Difference; Making Proud Choices; Gender Identity & Sexual Orientation (Planned Parenthood Northern California) Lesson plans for each of these, (and ALL Sexuality Ed.) are available and should be thoroughly reviewed by parents and educators before considering exposing minors to their content. Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette (PPCW)This particular PP office in Clackamas, OR was exposed on video for training a 15 yr. old in sadomasochism. PPCW, along with Planned Parenthood Southwest Oregon and Planned Parenthood Greater Northwest, train teens in peer education (Peer Education Institute) who actually go into school classrooms to educate other teens on sexuality. PP was used as reference for Oregons Minors Rights document. To more clearly understand the level and breadth of sexuality education of their peer teaching, see PPs website, www.anakednotion.com Warning!! This has very explicit content. document. To more clearly understand the level and breadth of sexuality education of their peer teaching, see PPs website, www.anakednotion.com This has very explicit content. Oregon School Based Health Centers (SBHCs): Through Oregon legislation, parents are being silenced and prohibited from their legal right to be the primary decision-maker in their childrens education and health care, especially if their children attend a school where there is a SBHC. Communities, parents and school boards are losing local control because there is little or no accountability with a SBHC. (ORS 109.675,.610,.640Minors Rights); (SB 491 (2013); HB 2100 (2011)Health Evidence Review Commission (2014); HB 2307 (2015); HB 2758 (2015);.and more. House Bill 2100 referenced above, allowed then Governor Kitzhaber, in 2011, to appoint the Health Evidence Review Commission (HERC) which, in their August , 2014 meeting voted 8-2 to allow minors to be counseled toward gender reassignmentsex changeas young as 15 yrs. old, (14 yrs. to begin the mental preparation), without parental knowledge or consent. Oregon tax-payers will pay the bill. Dr. Paul R. McHugh, former psychiatrist-in-chief for John Hopkins Hospital has written a great deal about this transgender process, and his professional conclusion is that it is never appropriate for children. Dr. McHugh was instrumental in John Hopkins being the first medical center to do the transgender surgeries for adults. It was discontinued because this process failed to change the quality of life for the better for its patients. In Oregon, minors cannot legally get a tattoo, a piercing or even use a tanning bed without parental permission. Does it seem rational, safe or healthy to allow children to get puberty blockers, chest binders or even genital mutilation surgery without parental consent? Can this be more accurately categorized as abuse? Yet, children can access this health care/mental health care at an Oregon School Based Health Center unbeknownst to parents. for children. Dr. McHugh was instrumental in John Hopkins being the first medical center to do the transgender surgeries for adults. It was discontinued because this process failed to change the quality of life for the better for its patients. In Oregon, minors cannot legally get a tattoo, a piercing or even use a tanning bed without parental permission. Does it seem rational, safe or healthy to allow children to get puberty blockers, chest binders or even genital mutilation surgery without parental consent? Can this be more accurately categorized as abuse? Yet, children can access this health care/mental health care at an Oregon School Based Health Center unbeknownst to parents. Cascade Aids Project (CAP)Touts their service of testing for STDs and HIV Major participant at the ASC, and created zines which encouraged no-boundaries sexual experiences for youth as young as 11suggested use of meth to enhance sexual experience No Universal Right or Wrong Oregon Teen Pregnancy Task Force (OTPTF)Sponsored the Adolescent Sexuality Conference. Their judgment in selecting/hiring keynote speakers is completely untrustworthy with respect to the mission they touted for the ASC: Helping Youth Make Healthy, Safe Choices In the past several years, they have chosen Paul Joannides, author of the hardcore porn book, Guide to Getting It On , www.guide2getting.com This book was available as a raffle prize at the conference, as well as a featured book for perusal and sale for all attendees; Jenn Burleton , CEO of TransActive organization in Portland, www.transactiveonline.org Jenn Burleton, a transgender herself believes even a 3 yr. old is capable of deciding that their gender is fluid and can change by the day, hour or minute; Promotes puberty blockers and chest binders for teens who are counseled to believe they should have a gender reassignmentsex change. Burleton was a major testifier at the 2014 HERC meeting in which they voted to allow minors to undergo sex change without parental permission. Cory Silverberg , co-founder of Come As You Are sex toy shop in Toronto www.comeasyouare.com /toronto ; Al Vernaccio , supported by Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health, CSPH, www.thecsph.org Fortunately, with the ASC being canceled in 2015, Mr. Vernaccio was not able to subject our children to his sex instruction. These are only a few of the choices of the OTPTF. Their mission of Healthy Choices, Abuse Prevention and Safety appear to be totally obscured and replaced with that which can only be considered mental molestation and child endangerment, child abuse. The above examples of what were approved and promoted by the OHA and ODE as programs, curriculum, agencies or laws/policies which would be in the best interest of the health and safety of our children, have instead put children at risk. Our children cannot unsee or unhear what the OHA and the ODE have allowed and promoted in our schools. Senate Bill 856 should first serve to expose these state-supported entities for the reckless endangerment of children which they are. SB 856 should not be placed within the jurisdiction of the OHA and/or the ODE, or the bills noble intention will be lost, and it will become another stepping stone for the adult cultural agenda of the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Dept. of Education. The sponsors of this bill, Representative Mike McLane and Senator Tim Knopp, may have had good intentions, but they should be contacted to let them know of these important concerns in hopes that this bill can be used to protect children, not endanger them further. Attack on Dhaka cafe killed 26 ppl 02 July, 2016 Related News Imran Khan distributed loan cheques under Kamyab Jawan Programme PTI govt to face all challenges coming its way: Imran khan More on this View All Top 2021 Accessories We Know You Will Love Types of Casino Payment Methods Tips for Taking Incredible iPhone Travel Photos Are Slot Developers Important for players? Best Poker Hands ever played on a Casino Hand Wash and Toiletries in Pakistan And the Role of DUPAS in Reshaping the Industry Ways that Players Used to Take Advantage of Slot Sites DHAKA: The attack on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital left 26 people dead including six armed attackers, the Bangladesh army said on Saturday, most killed with sharp weapons. We've recovered 20 bodies. Most them had been brutally hacked to death with sharp weapons, Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury told reporters in Dhaka, without giving the nationality of the victims. Army Brigadier General Naim Asraf Chowdhury told a news conference 13 people were rescued including one Japanese and two Sri Lankans. The army concluded an operation to clear the cafe on Saturday after a 12-hour siege that began when gunmen stormed the restaurant, which was popular with foreigners, on Friday night. Gunmen attacked the upscale cafe in the diplomatic area of Dhaka late on Friday and had been holding about 20 hostages, including foreigners, before police poured into the building to try to free those stuck inside. At least two police were killed, authorities said. The operation is over. The situation is completely under control, army spokesman Colonel Rashidul Hasan told AFP. Tuhin Mohammad Masud, a commander of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) which stormed the cafe, said there had been a number of casualties, including six hostage-takers. We have gunned down six of the terrorists. The main area that they have been occupying has been cleared, Masud told Times Now. A police official earlier said five bodies were seen lying in pools of blood, the Associated Press reported. Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan, a deputy director at the RAB force told Reuters one foreigner, probably Japanese, was among those who escaped after more than 100 commandos launched an operation to secure the upmarket cafe. The militant Islamic State (IS), which has claimed the attacks, posted photos of what it said were dead foreigners killed in the assault on the cafe. Gowher Rizvi, an adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, told Reuters that security forces had tried to negotiate a way out of the crisis. Police said the gunmen attacked the upscale Holey Artisan restaurant in the Gulshan district of Dhaka, popular with expatriates, in an assault that began around 9pm local time on Friday. The assailants exchanged sporadic gunfire with police outside for several hours after the attack but no gunshots had been heard from inside the restaurant since late Friday night, said Bhuiyan. IS said 24 people had died. Bangladesh police denied that, saying two police officers had been killed and at least 20 people wounded. Italian and Indian nationals are among the hostages, said a duty officer at RAB's control room. Italy's ambassador to Bangladesh, Mario Palma, told Italian state TV seven Italians were among the hostages. The hostage crisis marks an escalation from a recent spate of murders claimed by IS and Al Qaeda on liberals, gays, foreigners and religious minorities, and could deal a major blow to the country's vital $25 billion garment sector. Last year, several Western retailers temporarily halted visits to Dhaka following the killing of two foreigners. Rizvi, the Bangladesh prime minister's adviser, said the hostage crisis began when local security guards in the diplomatic enclave noticed several gunmen outside a medical centre. When the guards approached, the gunmen ran into the restaurant, which was packed with people waiting for tables, he added. An employee who escaped told local television about 20 customers were in the restaurant at the time, most of them foreigners. The restaurant has a seating capacity of around 25 people. Some 15 to 20 staff were working at the restaurant at the time, the employee said. A police officer at the scene said that when security forces tried to enter the premises at the beginning of the siege they met a hail of bullets and grenades. Television footage showed a number of police being led away from the site with blood on their faces and clothes. Heavily armed officers were seen milling on the street outside. A resident near the scene of the attack told Reuters he heard sporadic gunfire nearly three hours after the attack began. It is chaos out there. The streets are blocked. There are dozens of police commandos, said Tarique Mir. Italy's Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Twitter he was closely following the situation in Dhaka, adding he was anxious for Italians involved and expressing solidarity with their families. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi abruptly left a ceremony at the Colosseum in Rome on Friday evening to follow the hostage-taking incident, a source at his office said. The US State Department said all Americans working at the US mission there had been accounted for. A spokesman said in Washington the situation was very fluid, very live President Barack Obama has been briefed about the attack, the White House said. Sumon Reza, a kitchen staffer who escaped the attack, told reporters that the attackers were armed with firearms and bombs as they entered the restaurant around 9:20pm (local time) and took customers and staffers hostage at gunpoint. Jamuna Television, quoting Reza, said the attackers chanted Allahu Akbar (God is Great) as they launched the attack. Local TV stations reported that the attackers' identities were not immediately known. Nearly two dozen atheist writers, publishers, members of religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers have been slain in Bangladesh since 2013 by attackers. The frequency of attacks has increased in recent months. On Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death by at least three assailants in southwest Bangladesh. The attacks have raised fears that religious extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions of secularism and tolerance. Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria has said that all Pakistani diplomats and their families in Dhaka are safe. We are in contact with Pakistani diplomatic staff and they are all safe, Zakaria said.. He added that Pakistani diplomatic staff has restricted their movement following the attack. We have confirmed that there is no Pakistan national among the hostages, Zakaria added. Drones attacks breach fundamental rights: Maleeha Lodhi NEW YORK: Pakistan has demanded an immediate cessation of drone strikes that violate the territorial integrity and sovereignty of states, saying such attacks also breach the fundamental rights of the victims and further fuel violence and extremism. Speaking in the UN General Assembly, Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi condemned the continued use of drones and described it as blatant disregard of existing international commitments on the use of remotely piloted aircraft. She was elaborating Pakistan's position after the adoption by the 193-member assembly of a resolution on the UN global counterterrorism strategy. During the negotiations on the resolution spanning over a month, Pakistan is understood to have made strenuous efforts to further strengthen international commitments regarding illegal drone strikes and their impact. Pointing to the progress in this regard, Ambassador Lodhi highlighted recognition by member states of the notion that counterterrorism measures violating territorial integrity and sovereignty of states can be counterproductive and also fuel violent extremism. She emphasised that noting the conclusions and recommendations of the report of the Human Rights Council on the use of drones, was the first step in the right direction. The report raises legal questions on the use of drones, points out their grave impact on fundamental human rights and expresses serious concerns on how their use undermines counterterrorism efforts. The Pakistani envoy welcomed the consensus on the resolution, which she said served as a strong and united signal against the scourge of terrorism. She also appreciated a renewed focus on the preventive approach to terrorism, which included addressing the root causes of terrorism as well as the internal and external drivers of violent extremism. Ambassador Lodhi said that for Pakistan, such an approach was closely linked to promoting a culture of peace. The UN Declaration and Plan of Action, now included in the resolution, at Pakistan's initiative, stresses the need to resolve protracted conflicts, ensure full realisation of the peoples right to self-determination and addressing Xenophobia and all forms of discrimination on the basis of religion, culture and ethnicity. In the resolution, as an active member of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), Pakistan was also able to mobilise support to revive the international community's focus on ending foreign occupation, resolving conflicts and confronting oppression, as well as enhancing intercultural understanding and ensuring respect for all religions and religious values. The Global Counter Terrorism Strategy, adopted in 2006, is considered as the single most comprehensive and consensus-based counterterrorism strategy in the United Nations. It is reviewed every two years by UN Member States, through a resolution that seeks to develop understandings and measures, in particular regarding new challenges and developments. It represents a broad consensus on the mutually shared goals and principles in the global fight against the scourge of terrorism. By the terms of the resolution, the assembly affirmed the importance of integrated and balanced implementation of all four pillars of the strategy: addressing conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism; preventing and combating terrorism; building the capacity of States and strengthening the role of the UN; and ensuring respect for human rights and compliance with the rule of law. Also by the 72-paragraph text, the assembly urged all member states, as well as the UN, to unite against violent extremism, as and when it was conducive to terrorism. It called upon member states to strengthen international, regional, sub-regional and bilateral cooperation in countering the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters, to engage with domestic financial institutions and share information on terrorist financing risks, and to adopt legal measures for the prohibition of incitement to commit terrorist acts. Further, the assembly called for enhanced engagement by member states with the work of the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force, and for greater coordination and coherence among UN entities and with donors and recipients of efforts to build counter-terrorism capacity. The assembly stressed the significance of a sustained and comprehensive approach to addressing conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism. Opening the two-day debate, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the international community to act with unity and resolve to deal with the unprecedented levels of terrorism and violent extremism across the world. "We have an urgent moral duty to do all we can to prevent and end this carnage," the secretary-general said. "Taking collective preventive action against terrorism, in the spirit of our United Nations Charter, is the only way to secure peace and prosperity for succeeding generations," he added. Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. Green Party congressional candidate Matt Funiciello said he has been invited speak at the Green Party National Convention Aug. 4-7 in Houston. "I am a delegate from New York State. I am, of course, a Jill (Stein) delegate," he said, referring to the party's presumptive nominee. Funiciello said his speech likely will be on Aug. 6. The Warren County Green Party is exploring the feasibility of live streaming it for a watch party in Glens Falls. Funiciello is running in the 21st Congressional District against U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro, and Democrat Mike Derrick, a retired Army colonel from Peru, in Clinton County. Funiciello said he was elected as a delegate at the state Green Party convention in Troy in June. "I was offered forth by some of my other cohorts as a reasonable choice," he said in an interview Friday. "In all honesty, many of the same types of requirements are necessary (as becoming a delegate to a major party convention). And one of them is are you going to be able to get a couple of days off work and can you afford the plane ticket." Funiciello said attending the convention is an opportunity to build national support for his campaign. "I really should be going to the national convention to network and speak with a lot of the Greens that I have only been social networking with for three or four years," he said. "It will help spread the message within the Green crowd." BALLSTON SPA -- A Stillwater man who stabbed a fellow bar patron with a knife during an argument was sentenced Friday to 5 years in state prison. Jonathan N. Kerley, 51, was convicted of felony assault and criminal possession of a weapon after a March trial before Saratoga County Judge James Murphy. The trial stemmed from a Dec. 8, 2014 attack in the Almost Saratoga bar on Route 9 in Malta. Evidence showed he attacked the victim from behind with a 3-inch knife, targeting his neck but cutting his hand as he raised it to protect himself. The victim suffered a wound that required hospital treatment. Kerley fled the bar, but was found by police nearby in blood-covered clothes. He will have to serve nearly 4 years before becoming eligible for parole, and will spend 18 months on parole. SOUTH GLENS FALLS Three weeks ago, the Cumberland Farms site was a vacant field. Now theres a full building there, from foundation to roof. The fast pace of the work was no surprise to Dan Sanders, a former South Glens Falls native who returned with Dorrough Construction to build the store. He did it in three weeks with just six workers, including himself, working only daytime hours. Before we did this, we did a 4,600-square-foot house. It took us a week, he said. They give me a date on the calendar and say, Youre finishing it on this day. And so he did. On Tuesday, there wasnt a doubt in his mind that hed be done on time. Even the weather couldnt stop him. We worked in the rain yesterday, he said. It feels nice. Sanders was responsible for everything but the glass in the store. That means he and his five workers framed the entrance, which will be encased in glass. The rest of the exterior is essentially done. Glass installers come next week. Interior work will also begin but wont be as noticeable as the speedy construction that residents and area workers admired from the sidewalk. Mayor Joe Orlow stopped by the site to praise the employees for their quick work. Isnt it amazing they have this done? he said. Its going to be a nice addition to our village. While Dorrough Construction was building the store, others were hard at work building the gas station in front of the building. They also built an underground drainage pond to hold all stormwater runoff from the site, a requirement to keep possible gasoline pollution from contaminating the environment. The pond will be near the next-door McDonalds, under a large meadow. The site will also be surrounded by a wrought-iron fence with stone pillars. Theres an extensive landscaping package, said Mike Ford of Emco Construction, which is overseeing the entire project. Trees will line the fence, and the company will also replace the entire sidewalk along the store, on Hudson Street and Route 9. Work is going so well that Ford said the job could be completed before his Sept. 1 deadline. Thats the day the construction company will turn the building over to Cumberland Farms, but its not going to be opening day. The company will do some training and other work first, likely opening by mid-September. The site has served as a lesson in economic history. It had single-family homes until the 1960s, when Joy Store bought the homes and demolished them to create parking for the department store. The owners sold the store at the start of the economic move away from department stores. Joy eventually went out of business and the new owners demolished it to sell the land. Part of that land was sold to build a McDonalds. Much of the rest is now hosting the new Cumberland Farms. Orlow is thrilled by the turnover. Total rehabilitation, he said. Not only increasing taxes but reusing a vacant piece of land. The Cumberland Farms is part of an influx of development in the village. Over the next two years, $17.3 million in development is expected to be completed in the village. That includes the new Cumberland Farms and many new houses. Those projects will bring in a total of $92,000 in taxes. That could help the villages finances eventually: the village board could increase the tax levy but keep the tax rate flat and use the additional funds to help pay for raises and other annual increases. But the development wont help the village immediately. Since the village uses the towns assessor, the village is assessed on the towns assessment schedule. That means assessments are not updated until after the village passes its budget every April. The village will only get increased taxes from development that was completed by March 1, so Cumberland Farms will only pay taxes on the land, not the next store, until 2018. He said "The security of our judges, and all those who work in the Judiciary, we place a lot of premium on their security. We will not allow anybody to resort to any conduct which will compromise the security of our Justices." Speaking on Newsfile on Accra-based Joy FM on Saturday, he said "They [Judges] owe their position to the Constitution. The Constitution itself sets up the Judiciary and makes then independent to adjudicate over disputes that people will bring before them." His reaction follows comment by two communicators of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) who appeared on Accra-based Montie FM to incite people against the Supreme Court judges for their judgment on the Voters register. However, the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has condemned the statement by the panelists, it is therefore calling for the immediate arrest of some radio panelists for threatening judges in the country. According to a statement signed by (Sgd) Benson Nutsukpui, National President of the Ghana Bar Association, it said "Such gruesome glorification of the bloody and dastardly acts of yesteryears, and current threat to our judiciary cannot be tolerated or allowed under our present democratic dispensation." Read also: GBA fights for judges The two individuals, Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn, appeared on Accra-based Montie FM and tried to incite people against the Supreme Court judges for their judgment. An audio recording of their comments have gone viral on social media. In a statement signed by the Executive Director of the Foundation, Sulemana Braimah, it said "comments by Alistair Nelson on Montie FM on June 29 2016, we decided to treat it as an isolated case. We have since raised our concern with the Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), whose attention has also been drawn to the issue by many other concerned individuals." The statement added that "We plan to pursue the matter further from Monday. We will be submitting the tape of the entire programme to the Commission. We see this as a test case for the NMC and we remain hopeful that the Commission will assert its authority to promote media professionalism as required of it by our National Constitution." It said "We will not relent in our quest to defend and promote press freedom and that requires us to condemn any acts that have the potential to derail the collective efforts at ensuring a strong, pluralistic and professional media environment." Below is the full statement by MFWA: On Wednesday June 29, 2016 one Alistair Nelson made very inciting and threatening comments during the Pampaso programme on Accra-based Montie FM. Despite the seriousness of the said comments, the host of the programme, one Mugabe Maase, allowed them to pass uninterrupted. In the ensuing public condemnation of the said repugnant comments, there have been several references to and attacks on the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) for, what in the view of many, is the MFWAs failure to include the said comments in its recent report issued on June 29. We thank both those who sought to draw our attention to the comments and those who have attacked us. In both instances, we see a recognition of the organisation and its work for which we remain grateful. For purposes of clarification, we wish to state that our recent campaign language monitoring report, which was issued on June 29, was for the period May 16 to 31. Consequently, any comments made on any of the radio stations we monitor after May 31, could not have been part of that report. It is also important to state that we are monitoring several stations across the country. The processes of receiving reports from dozens of monitors, cross-checking and validating facts, processing and consolidating reports, make it impossible for us to issue daily reports. However, given the grievousness of the said comments by Alistair Nelson on Montie FM on June 29, we decided to treat it as an isolated case. We have since raised our concern with the Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), whose attention has also been drawn to the issue by many other concerned individuals. We plan to pursue the matter further from Monday. We will be submitting the tape of the entire programme to the Commission. We see this as a test case for the NMC and we remain hopeful that the Commission will assert its authority to promote media professionalism as required of it by our National Constitution. Our interest in and decision to have the rabble-rousing on Montie FM stopped is based on our conviction that such conduct if unchecked, is detrimental not only to the peace of the country but also to press freedom. We will not relent in our quest to defend and promote press freedom and that requires us to condemn any acts that have the potential to derail the collective efforts at ensuring a strong, pluralistic and professional media environment. Since the beginning of the campaign language monitoring project in mid-April, Montie FM has recorded a total of 40 incidents of indecent expressions, the highest among all the stations being monitored. In our first report, the station recorded 22 incidents, 16 incidents in the second report and 2 in the recent report. It is worth mentioning that for a number of days during the period covered by our recent report, the substantive host of the Pampaso Programme, Mugaabi Maase, who has been cited severally for using abusive language, was coincidentally not the host of the programme. One Samuel Huntor, was a sit-in host of the programme. One of them is reported to have said: I know where the judges live in Accra, I can show you. I know their quarters, the Supreme Court judges. I also know the High Court judges. Yes, Im telling you, God has a way to showIf they like, they should bring it on. It will start in their residences, Im telling you, in their neighborhood. When we finish them, then it will be over. Then we will come and rule our nation because they dont wish the nation well. So they have to go. We will see them off to return to where they came from. So that those of us who wish the nation well will take control of the nation and rule it. So they should sit there, and feel that they are Supreme Court judges soLook, the EC is insulated, article 45. Go and check. You cannot do what you are doing there. You Supreme Court judges sitting there, what do you do for Ghana? Look at your judges accepting bribes, goats and GH100 and others. Are you not ashamed? Senior judges on the bench, by this time all of you should have resigned because of what your juniors were doing. Are you not ashamed? According to the workers, one of their colleagues had gotten into a confrontation with a member of the gang, sparking the bloody retaliation. The gang chased the defenceless workers in darkness and shot two workers and a customer at close range. Margaret was shot in the upper chest, and Kwame in the thigh. One of the victims in an account to the KNUST police said, it was a near-death experience. The Member of Parliament for Assin Central had recently on a campaign platform accused Mrs. Charlotte Osei of having sexual encounters with some bigwigs in the governing NDC to be appointed EC chair. The comments did not go down well with some sections of the public, including many civil society organisations and women groups. The Minister of Gender Children and Social Protection subsequently requested an apology from Mr. Kennedy Agyepong on behalf of the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission. The NACCC also believes that the comments were unfortunate as women in Ghana have contributed immensely to national development by playing various leadership roles in education, politics, business, sports, religion and commerce despite our male dominated social-cultural environment. Below is the full statement from the NACCC: PRESS STATEMENT BY THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CHARISMATICS & CHRISTIAN CHURCHES GHANAIAN WOMEN ARE MORE HONOURABLE The National Association of Charismatics and Christian Churches (NACCC) is shocked by attempts to ridicule the achievements of Ghanaian women in the eye of the public. Ghanaian women since independence have contributed immensely to national development by playing various leadership roles in education, politics, business, sports, religion and commerce despite our male dominated social-cultural environment. These women broke the glass-ceiling without compromising on their values. Against all odds single Ghanaian mothers without the help of men have worked hard whether in the market or in the boardroom to put food on the tables for their children, clothes at their back and shelter over their heads. It is against this background that NACCC calls on Ghanaians to disregard the recent statement allegedly made by Hon. Kennedy Agyapong which seems to suggest that the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission got her job by offering sexual favours. He must retract and apologize to all hard working Ghanaian women in general and Mrs Charlotte Osei in particular without further delay if the statement attributed to him is true. As we prepare towards the upcoming elections, NACCC urges all Ghanaians especially politicians to watch their utterances and admonishes all adhere to the biblical Counselling in Colossians 4:6: [6] Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. Signed: The new Chief of Army Staff was until his appointment the Commandant of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre. President Mahama has also on the recommendations of the Ghana Armed Forces Council, approved the promotion of the following officers: 1. Brigadier General W. A. Ayamdo to the rank of Major General 2. Brigadier General S. K. Adeti to the rank of Major General 3. Commodore S. Amoama to the rank of Rear Admiral 4. Air Commodore G. S. Evans to the rank of Air Vice Marshal The statement said the president has also endorsed the following appointments in the Ghana Armed Forces: 1. Major General W. A. Ayamdo- Commandant of the Military Academy and Training School 2. Air Vice Marshal G. S. Evans- Commandant of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre 3. Rear Admiral S. Amoama- Commandant of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College The following have also been appointed General Officers Commanding: 1. Brigadier General S. B. Alloh- Northern Command 2. Brigadier General C. B. Alhassan- Central Command 3. Brigadier General F. Ofori- Commander, Special Services Bridage Drilling is not expected to recommence on the TEN field until after the resolution of the Cote dIvoire and Ghana border dispute through the ITLOS tribunal whose decision is expected in late 2017, according to Tullows trading and operational update report. The ongoing dispute is digging a huge hole in the revenues of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) in respect to its exploration and equity financing. A Public Interest Accountability Committee (PIAC) report shows that between January and June last year, the GNPC spent $2.11 million on the dispute ongoing in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, representing 25% of the companys total allocation for exploration and equity financing for the year. Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of Tullow Oil PLC, Aiden Heavy said the Ten Oil Fields will start a daily production of 23,000 barrels in the next six weeks. The TEN project showcase is a joint-venture partnership between Tullow, Kosmos Energy, Anadarko Petroleum, Petro SA and the GNPC. It was gathered that Tijani who is said to be very notorious in his area, and his cohorts, abducted the victim around 9pm on Monday, April 4, 2016, while she was returning home from work, and took her to a hotel where he allegedly raped her several times while holding a knife to her throat. The State Commissioner of Police, Leye Oyebade, while parading the suspect, said Tijani and his men threatened to kill the victim if she refused to allow him have his way with her. Having successfully threatened her to submission, she was abducted in the most brazen, commando-like manner and forcibly taken to an hotel where she was drugged and subsequently mercilessly raped till the next day. Tijani has since confessed to the crime. Before his arrest, Tijani was a thorn in the flesh of innocent citizens, especially women whom he raped in the past." 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! Lt. Bature, a 38-year-old Regimental Medical Doctor with the Army indigene of Kebbi State, was found culpable by the court-martial sitting at the Adekunle Fajuyi Cantonment of the 2 Division, Ojo, Ibadan in Oyo State, after he was found guilty of having sex with the wife of a colleague several times. The exclusive report has it that Bature was slammed with a two-count charge of illicit sexual relationship and unprofessional conduct as well as taking advantage of a colleagues wife who was supposed to be his patient. Dr. Bature's offence which were summarised as indecent professional misconduct and having sex with a fellow soldiers wife, contravenes Sections 79 and 93 of the Armed Forces Act CAP A20, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, which prescribes jail term and dismissal from service with dishonour. The officer whose fate would be finally decided by a military council that ratifies such sentences, reportedly confessed to the crime, pleading with military authorities to give him a corrective punishment rather than a terminal one. Military sources within the Cantonment report that the accused, who is married with a child, had a notorious history of sexual indiscipline and in his four years of service, his conduct has brought shame to the military hierarchy at various times. While delivering judgement on the case, the President of the Court Martial, Brigadier General Raji, who is also the Commander of 52 Division Signals, said the court opted for a lesser sentence of dismissing the doctor because the convict was a young officer who got commissioned into the Nigeria Army only in 2012. Revelations at the court-martial sitting showed that Dr. Bature's sexual escapade with the newly-married woman, kicked off when she visited his clinic for consultation on a gynaecological case. After the initial examination, Dr. Bature, who holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees, allegedly insisted on conducting a more detailed examination of her and it was such interactions that led to him having carnal knowledge of the woman. In her testimony, the victim, gave a detailed account of how the doctor sexually stimulated her before they had sex in his office. She told the court that the doctor later invited her in the evening of the same day to his house so she could pick an ointment he earlier prescribed for her treatment and when she went for the appointment, they engaged in another round of intercourse. The woman said she later reported to the barracks chaplain after becoming crushed by the weight of her guilt. In arriving at the verdict, Brigadier General Raji posited: Given the level of treachery and the betrayal of trust you displayed by having sexual relation with your colleagues wife, the court is tempted to award you a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The Court has, however, looked that you were only commissioned to the Nigerian Army in 2012, you may therefore not be well grounded in the traditions of the Nigerian Army. Ignorance, however, does not excuse your despicable behaviour. So therefore, the court sentences you as follows: One of the residents, Oguntuase James, 15, told Punch of his scary encounters living in the area. This has made everyone dread the sight of burials in the environment, as they already know what might follow. James said, It is not easy living near a cemetery, he said, as he closed the door behind him, dragged a sofa and settled into the chair. Once its about late evening, we dont open the door for strangers here unless we know the person, to avoid receiving an unwanted visitor and this is evening time when all kinds of things happen. The evidently worried James, told a Punch reporter to halt their conversation just as an ambulance approached a cemetery during the course of their chat. Im tired of living here, Bros no vex o, I just dont want to see another corpse again today. Ill talk to you when they leave, please, he said. Still petrified, James opened up about the experiences of one of his old neighbours with ghosts from the cemetery. He said, Someone once lived close to us here. He was working in Ikeja, so he used to come back late. But there was one night he came back very late and he was fetching water outside around 1am, when he suddenly ran inside, saying he saw a dead person beckoning to him to come. Initially, people thought he was imagining things in his mind, but he couldnt sleep throughout that night and since he left the following morning, he never came back. People had to help him pack his things and took them to him. And since that day, I have been noticing some strange things anytime Im home alone, like someone opening the door, gentle wind blowing across my room occasionally and some things I cant really explain. These days, I dont sleep alone unless my parents are there. Despite enjoying some peace and quiet, which is rare for people living in the hustling and bustling town of Lagos, James somehow still wishes he wasnt living in the area. Anytime I set my eyes on that place, there is a way my head swells and I want to run away but we are stuck here because my parents dont have money to relocate." "I dont have friends who come here to visit me because of where I live and there is no other way one can describe this house without mentioning cemetery; its like the landmark here. In fact, a friend once told me I live among the dead. Concerning how they things got so bad for him and his family, he said, I was told that when we moved here in 2000, there was no burial site here. There were a few graves but they were scanty and covered with bush. It was after some time that the site started expanding, to what we have today. If not for the bush we deliberately left between us and the graveyard, we used to see them from the comfort of our room without stretching our neck. Im sure if my parents and other people on this street had known that there would be a cemetery here, nobody would have agreed to live here. And that is why once it is 8pm, we all go in and we would never come out again, until the following morning. We all have fears at night. Speaking to Daily Sun, Fasehun said they should ask God to help the President rather than complain. He said Nigerians voted for Buhari. They voted for change. The hardship and suffering they are going through now is part of that change. They should not be complaining. Instead of complaining, they should be praying for Buhari. Nigerians should pray for him, and for Buhari himself Nigerians were cheering him initially but now they are getting despondent. Buhari should not wait until Nigerians start jeering at him as a result of failed promises. Ortom stated this when he paid a courtesy visit to the Commissions headquarters in Abuja. He said the state government would collaborate and support the Commission within its available resources, especially in the area of agriculture. He added that "Benue as the food basket of Nigeria stands to benefit when our farmers go to the Holy Land and learn more from the skill acquisition programme offered by the Commission there. "The states that are agriculturally inclined should encourage their farmers by sending them to Israel on Holy pilgrimage. "This is because the advantages are enormous; the farmers will benefit spiritually by praying for themselves and the country and will acquire knowledge in different farm techniques. On the issue of lottery to perform the pilgrimage, Ortom said it was a good initiative, as it would give the less privileged the opportunity to travel to Israel with ease. He then urged private individuals and government officials to support the Commissions routines to ensure that the challenges of travelling to the Holy Land were tackled. The governor said there was the need for Christians to stop paying mere lip service and get a deeper spiritual understanding with God. He noted that "the only way we can surmount the challenges we are facing now is to go back to God for divine intervention. "Christians must shun all forms of corruption at all levels to move the countrys economy forward. "The economy has brought a lot of hardship to so many Nigerians. The militants said they came to register their displeasure with the way the government was treating them. A source who spoke to Premium Times, said they stormed the Government House on Friday, June 1, 2016 around 10am. The group also accused the state government of withholding their monthly amnesty allowances. They also frowned at the shoddy way they have been treated by the government at the Federal and state level. The militant leader who gave his name as capon, said Our people are dying hopelessly on a daily basis due to minor ailments that could have easily been treated. We have made attempts to dialogue with the governor several times but he would not give us audience and that is why we are here to demand our little stipend. We are from the Bakassi Volunteer Force, who have been neglected by government. Our people are dying yet the government is not doing anything. We decided to come out here today to let the entire world know what is happening so when we apply violence against the government nobody will blame us. Before the Bakassi Peninsula was handed over to Cameron, both the state and the federal governments benefitted from the proceeds of oil and other business activities from that place. After our homes were handed over, we are treated like strangers in our own land. If the federal government has rejected us, we wont allow our own state too to reject us. We will shut down the governors office if nothing is done in the next few days. Daly Post reports that the inmates started the protests late at night on Friday, July 1, 2016. Reports also say some of the inmates were wounded as prison officials tried to arrest the situation. A prison official who spoke to newsmen also said The ring leaders of the protest are complaining that there is a lot of partiality in the prison; they believe some inmates are getting better treatment than them. So, they lured other inmates into staging the protest. However, it has been brought under control; none of them escaped. Recently, there was reports that some inmates escaped from Kuje prisons in Abuja. The leader of the Movement For The Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), Charles Okah, was reportedly among the escapees. Mr Sanni Okanlawon, Special Adviser to Gov. Akinwumi Ambode on Food Security, made the remark in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Lagos. He said about 40 per cent of perishable foods brought to Lagos got spoilt due to inadequate storage facilities in the state. "Looking at the area of food preservation and storage, we have what we call Strategic Food Reserves which we are addressing in this years budget. "We want to put in place silos and food preservation devices like cold rooms and other cooling devices to preserve perishables like tomatoes, onions and other fresh foods. "This is because 40 per cent of what is brought into Lagos as perishables actually get wasted because of lack of preservation. "So, we are fixing two silos of about 3,000 metric tons capacity for a start; so, those are the things we are doing to address food shortages, Okanlawon said. The special adviser, however, said the states Ministry of Agriculture had proposed to the governor to establish Food Security Marshals, to check the influx of contaminated foods to the state. He said if the arrangement pulls through, the marshals would ensure the testing of foods deposited in major markets, to guard against contaminated foods at the retail markets. "Contaminated foods are no longer nutritious. "Also, imported livestock such as poultry products which are preserved with formalin, used for the preservation of the dead, can cause cancer because they are carcinogenic. "The way they ripen banana with carbide these days is harmful to health; which is why we are working to ensure that this does not happen anymore. "We are addressing all of these in collaboration with the Lagos State Safety Commission; also, we have recommended to the governor to have food security marshals. "They will go to the markets where foods are deposited in bulk; once they are tested to be adulterated or contaminated, that food will not find its way to other markets, the governors aide said. With regard to inadequate farming equipment in the state, the official said that the state government would soon introduce leasing through the Lagos State Trading Company, Ibile Holdings Ltd. According to him, that way, farmers will have access to tractors and other farm machines at a much subsidised rate. "Because of the issue of foreign exchange (forex), it is hard to acquire tractors through importation. "What we are doing now is leasing through the Lagos State Trading Company, Ibile Holdings, and pay over time. A statement issued by the Oyo APC Director of Publicity and Strategy, Olawale Sadare, said We received the news of the killing of Hon. Gideon Aremu with utter disbelief and rude shock. This is in view of the fact that such nasty development and political violence have become history in the state since 2011 when the current administration took the mantle of leadership of Oyo State. The statement also said We pray God to grant Aremu eternal rest and give his immediate and political family the fortitude to bear the loss More importantly, we call on the police and other relevant security agencies to conduct thorough investigations into the matter with a view to unmasking the culprits and bringing them to justice as soon as possible. The on Friday, July 1, 2016. Hajiya Maryam Uwais, Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment gave the assurance after an assessment visit to the camp in Bama, headquarters of Bama Local Government Area. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that about 25, 000 IDPs who were rescued from suspected Boko Haram enclaves are staying in the camp. "It is an overwhelming situation for any government to handle; the State Government has done its best. "We came to see things for ourselves. We will go back and make reports and soon there will be some relief, more relief coming this way'', she said. Uwais, who lead a high powered delegation to the area, expressed sadness over the condition of the IDPs. "There are so many dimensions that needed to be addressed. We will go and make a report, submit it and engage the government. "Insha Allah, we will see some outcome that will be more satisfactory'', she said. Uwais commended the military for its gallantry in rescuing the IDPs from the terrorists enclaves. The delegation included officials of the National Emergency Management Agency. Others are the State Emergency Management Agency, representatives of the United Nations and officials of the Borno State Government. The Commissioner for Health in Borno, Dr Haruna Mshelia, said 1,800 of the most vulnerable persons in the camp had been evacuated to Maiduguri for medical attention. "We have evacuated 1,800 of the most vulnerable persons in the camp to Maiduguri for medical attention; most of them have been placed on specialised feeding. "The evacuation is still on going'', Mshelia added. He said a permanent health team had been working in the camp since May and that the existing team still required a lot of support. They also dared the security agency to parade the alleged militants before the press, and allow the boys tell their own story. A statement signed by the militant groups spokesman, Brig.Gen Mudoch Agbinibo, reads: Reports from National dailies that two suspects Mr Christian Oluba alias Sensor, and Selky Kile Torughedi arrested by DSS are alleged members of Niger Delta Avengers is laughable, the fact is they are sleeper agents of the DSS sent after the Niger Delta Avengers. The boys has the right to demand for their money from DSS, why not pay them instead of arresting and labeling them as Niger Delta Avengers members. If DSS are denying this, let them allow the suspects to speak to the press. We (Niger Dleta Avengers) dont have any connection with these boys. We dare the DSS to allow the boys to tell the world their side of the story. DSS and Nigeria Army cant win the Niger Delta war by feeding their President with false information about situation of things in the Region. Its all-good because as it seems the DSS is now having internal crisis with most of their sleeper agents and it a sign that God is on our side. There are problem in the Niger Delta region such as underdevelopment, environmental degradation, lack of infrastructure and the issue of self-determination. These are the areas Mr. President should focus on, not arresting their allies and linking them to Niger Delta Avengers. This is to DSS Director Lawal Daura, this the holy month of Ramadan and as a Muslim you hold it to Allah and the Nigeria people to say the truth. Why not come out with the truth. To the Nigeria press, there is always two sides to a story. Why not try to get the other side of the story by interviewing the boys "The Nigeria army will never get us (Niger Delta Avengers), let them go and settle with their sleeper agents and stop deceiving the general public and their President. A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that trouble started when NCS officers at a checkpoint In the Mowo area of Badagry seized bags of rice from an alleged smuggler at 3:00 a.m. An eyewitness who identified himself as Emeka Ejiofor told NAN that attempts to bribe the customs officials were resisted and the vehicle was impounded. "Officials at the checkpoint stopped the car and after searching it, bags of rice and frozen poultry products were discovered inside the car and they were seized. "The driver of the car tried to bribe the officials of the command but they were resisted so the seizures were being conveyed to the command at Seme. "As they got to the roundabout in Badagry, the smugglers had laid siege and immediately attacked the officers with various dangerous weapons, but they were able to call for re-inforcement. "Before the re-enforcement could arrive, the smugglers had already injured most of the officers and two of them are now in the hospital, with life-threatening injuries," Ejiofor said. He added that the vehicle belonging to officials of the NCS was damaged beyond repairs. An Asst. Comptrollert of the NCS, Mr U.M. Abdulkadir, the officer-in-charge of Operations AT Seme, confirmed the attack to NAN when he visited the scene. "It is unfortunate that this incident happened but it would not stop us from carrying out our duties as every loophole would be blocked to make sure that unauthorized goods do not come through this route. "Smugglers should desist from their nefarious acts or prepared to face the full wrath of the law," he said. Senator Gilbert Emeka Nnaji had approached the court to stop the implementation of the police report of the alleged forgery of the standing order. In his ruling, the Judge said In coming to a decision, I take due cognisance of the defendants IGP and AGF as offices created by the constitution, 1999 as Amended. The 1st defendant (IGP) by virtue of section 215(a) of the constitution is a creation of the constitution and by virtue of section 215(2) of the constitution, shall command the Nigeria Police Force created by section 214(1). By reason of the provisions, it is not out of place, to describe the 1st defendant as the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the Federation. The 2nd defendant (AGF) is a constitutional office created by section 150(1) of the constitution who the constitution describes as The Chief Law Officer of the Federation. The Plaintiffs motion ex parte dated 23/6/16 is one that seeks restraining orders against these two (2) constitutional offices created by the constitution. Both are connected with law enforcement and by extension, due administration of justice. I say this with regard to the provision of section 174(1) (3) of the constitution in relation to the constitutional powers of the 2nd defendant. Section 174(1): The Attorney General of the Federation shall have power- to take over and continue any such criminal proceedings that may have been instituted by any other authority or person; and to discontinue at any stage before judgment is delivered any such criminal proceedings instituted or undertaken by him or any other authority or person. The criminal charge dated 10/6/16 attached as Exhibit B to the plaintiffs motion ex pate is a criminal process filed on behalf of the 2nd defendant by D.E. Kaswe, Esq. who signed the said charge as a Principal State Counsel for The Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice was listed as one of the leading Senior Advocates of Nigeria who filed the motion of notice attached as Exhibit D to the plaintiffs ex parte application and it was an application by which Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi, who until the learned Attorney-General of the Federation was appointed as the Minister of Justice, was his erstwhile client. In the list of witnesses and their addresses, Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi, who wrote the Petition to the 1st defendant on 30/6/15 as the Secretary of The Unity Forum in the Senate is listed as No. 1 of the witnesses to be called by the state on the criminal charge dated 10/6/16 which was filed whilst the instant proceedings are still pending. When I read the provisions of section 174(1) (3) of the constitution, as amended, I am not in any doubt, that by section (174(2) of the constitution, that D.E. Kaswe, Esq. who signed the criminal charge in Exhibit B as principal state counsel did so on the authority of the 2nd defendant. Having regard to these issues, I asked myself what is the appropriate order this court can make given these peculiar facts of the involvement of the current occupant of the office created by Section 150(1) of the constitution who doubled as it were, as one of the leading Counsels to the Petitioner, Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi and fortuitously, was appointed by the President as the Minister of Justice? When I reflected on the Supreme Courts decision in the State and Ilori, my view is that this court is somehow handicapped, in being able to query the 2nd defendants decision and the power he exercised pursuant to section 174(1)(a) of the constitution to initiate the criminal charge attached as Exhibit B to the Plaintiffs motion ex parte as any issue which this court may raise as regards the propriety or otherwise of his doing so, will eventually, when shorn of all legal niceties, border on moral considerations. But, I am not in any doubt, that when the provision of section 174(3) of the constitution is carefully read and construed vis-a-vis the peculiar facts of this case, it may not be too far-fetched to reason that the filing of the said criminal charge in the long run, constitutes an abuse of legal process which is one of the limiting considerations to the exercise of the constitutional powers conferred on the 2nd defendant by virtue of section 174(1)(a) (c) when read with its section 174(3) of constitution. Although, when this section is read communally with section 174(3), it is arguable that Section 174(1)(c) is to be read with the need to prevent abuse of legal process in section 174(3) of the constitution. The converse situation, which the drafters of the constitution, perhaps never envisaged appears to have occurred in this case as the 2nd defendant who is required, by section 174(3) of the constitution, to discontinue at any stage before judgment is delivered on any such criminal proceedings instituted or undertaken by him or any other authority or person where such proceedings constitute abuse of legal process, is in fact the very person who initiated a criminal proceedings in a matter in which he had, as a private legal practitioner, acted for the one of the interested Senators who had petitioned the 1st defendant on 30/6/15. Regardless of whichever way it is looked at, I will still hold the view, that constitutional powers conferred on all persons and authorities, including arms and agencies of government are required to be exercised in good faith and where as in this instance, it relates to the institution of criminal proceedings, it must be seen to have been properly exercised strictly in public interest. But, having regard to the peculiar facts which I have analysed, the said criminal charge dated 10/6/16 and attached as exhibit B to the plaintiffs motion ex parte dated 23/6/16, given the course of these proceedings as I had in detail, highlighted, can only be seen as one that constitutes an abuse of legal process to use the very words in section 174(3) of the constitution. In all of these facts and issues, having regard to the pendency of this suit in which the defendants have both filed processes, one question that did not cease to resonate in my thoughts is why this desperate haste to prefer the criminal indictments in exhibit B the investigation of which is at the heart of this suit and of the parallel suit in exhibit E, and which indictments, by law are not time barred as the substantive suit before this court, had by consent of both the Plaintiffs Counsel and the 1st defendants Counsel, been scheduled for 6/7/16 for hearing. It is the event of the steps taken by the defendants in utter defiance of this pending suit, that in my view, unobtrusively betrayed the possible genuineness of the defendants intention and of the 2nd defendants motives as steps taken which are beyond serving the public interest by the commencement of a criminal trial in the FCT High Court in order to subvert the pending suits in the Federal High Court one of which has been fixed for 6/7/16. By the extant Supreme Courts decisions, once a court comes to the decision that a particular process before it constitutes abuse of judicial or legal process, the appropriate orders it can make, is to put an end to the continuation of such proceeding. Do I proceed and make such order? I probably would have done so if the criminal charge dated 10/6/16 was pending before this court. But as it is, it is pending before my learned brother, the Hon. Justice Yusuf Halilu of the FCT High court, which is a court of co-ordinate jurisdiction and who has become seized of the charge as at 21/6/16 when he adjourned it to 27/6/16 for the arraignment of the defendants listed in Exhibit B attached to the Plaintiffs Motion Ex parte. Saraki and Ekweremadu arrived at the High court premises on Monday, June 27, 2016, for the commencement of their trial. According to him, the state government has commenced the payment of the outstanding salaries to the workers. "I came to thank the President for approving the balance of bail out of N5billion for Plateau. "I kept on drumming it politicians were saying no we do not have any money outstanding. "Mr President approved the money on the eve of his departure to London. "I got an approval for the balance of N5billion for plateau which has been drawn for the payment of their balance of arrears. "What we have is balance of arrears on the plateau. "I have paid and we have about three months and right now, yesterday and today the workers are being paid the balance of their salaries. "So, after salary for a Plateau man, he is no longer annoyed with anything. He would allow government to run unhindered. "So, that was what they were trying to use during the grazing reserve because people were hungry because of lack of salaries. "They first drummed the issue of salaries that we will not be able to pay the arrears but today, we have the (monies) balance and we are paying them the arrears of salaries. "They jumped to issue of grazing reserves but by Gods grace, that will not be a problem to Plateau. On the reported protest by some youths over the issue of grazing reserve, the governor said that the state government had no plan to establish grazing reserve. He, however, disclosed that arrangements had reached an advanced stage to establish ranches for modern animal husbandry in the state. According to him, the state government consulted a cross section of people including traditional and religious leaders as well as youth organisations before arriving at the decision to establish the ranches in the state. He accused his predecessor of instigating the youths to embark on the protest. "Well that protest is just by a few ethnic groups. We have done a lot of consultations from traditional rulers to religious leaders to youth organizations; they all accepted that we should adopt ranching in Plateau State. "What they are protesting is grazing reserve but we are not talking about grazing reserves. "What we are talking about is ranches. So, those who attended the workshop knew what was done. "This is the Presidency let me say it and Im going to publish it, the man who introduced and is causing that confusion is Jonah Jang who incidentally was the one who introduced grazing reserves on the Plateau with a gazette in 2009, that is the gazette I am going to publish. "If we have to bring peace in Plateau you have to introduce grazing reserves and grazing routes why is he turning round again and instigating people against what is being done. Reports say Uzoukwu went into hiding following pressures from different quarters to swear in Ogah. The Governor was issued a certificate of return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), following a court ruling ordering Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to vacate office. Ogah said the refusal of the state Chief Judge to swear him in, is an insult on the rule of law, adding that her action was capable of causing instability in Abia. The Governor elect also described the court injunction which Governor Ikpeazu obtained, as a black market injunction. Ogah, in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Public Communications, Monday Onyekachi Ubani, said: I am not ignorant of the black market injunction allegedly obtained by Dr Ikpeazu at Osisioma Ngwa High court restraining the Chief Judge of Abia state from swearing in Dr Ogah. That interim order was premised on Section 143 of the Electoral Act which is only applicable to judgements obtained in Election Tribunals, but not in pre-election matters. It is a laughable ruling not worth the paper it was written. For Gods sake, a High Court in Abia is a court of coordinate jurisdiction with a Federal High Court and so any order given by such court to contradict an earlier order of the same court is ipso facto null and void. It is only a higher court that has the legal capacity to reverse the earlier order or judgement. In a pre-election matter the enforceability of a court judgement is immediate as the losing side in the legal argument, in this case, Dr Ikpeazu, was never adjudged to have been qualified to contest the election in the first place while in a post-election matter the mandate enjoyed by an incumbent subsists until the tribunal or appellate courts rule otherwise. Failure or delay to swear Dr Ogah in as the duly elected Governor of Abia state is an unqualified affront to the rule of law and constitutional governance in a true democracy, and an act that is capable of undermining the peace and stability of the state. Dr Ikpeazu has been duly removed as Abia state Governor and not amount of legal shenanigans and illegal public holidays will derail the law of the land taking full effect. Dr Ogah will be sworn-in in due course so as to avoid the dangerous power vacuum that currently exists in Abia state, and for him to begin the urgent task of empowering Abians with his laudable developmental programmes already lined up. Premium Times reports that Uche Ogahs aide, Peter Kalu revealed that his boss has gone into hiding for his safety. Kalu also added that Ogah has been receiving death threats from different quarters. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) issued a certificate of return to Ogah on Thursday, June 30, 2016. The electoral bodys action was based on an Abuja High court ruling ordering the Abia Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu to vacate office. Ikpeazu has since asked residents of Abia to be calm, adding that he has gotten an injunction to stop any judicial officer in Nigeria from swearing in Ogah. Al-Yolawi gave the advice while delivering Jumaat sermon entitled: ``Eid Preparation and Zakatil-Fitr'' on Friday in Abuja. The cleric said that the poor and needy were the most deserving beneficiaries of zakatil-fitr ``because Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said the purpose is providing food for the needy.'' He explained that zakatil-fitr was an obligatory charity on every Muslim at the end of the month of Ramadan, adding that the Holy Prophet had enjoined every Muslim, young and old, male and female, free and slave to give zakatil-fitr. He added that the purpose of zakatil-fitr was to purify the one who had fasted from any type of indecent act or speech he or she might have committed while fasting. "The Messenger of Allah said zakatil-fitr is mandatory on the one who fasts to shield him or her from any indecent act or speech and for the purpose of providing food for the needy. "Abu Saeed said we used to give out zakatil-fitr on behalf of every child, aged person, free man or slave during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah.'' The cleric said that the Prophet had ordered Muslims to pay zakatil-fitr before they go out to perform the Eid prayer. He emphasised that if the zakat was given out after the Eid prayer; it would be considered as just regular charity and not zakatil-fitr. He cautioned that "Prophet Muhammad said if one gives out zakatil-fitr before the Eid salat, it is considered an accepted zakat but if given after the salat then it is just an ordinary charity.'' He said "we have been ordered to go to the Eid ground with even the single and menstruating women in order to witness the good and the supplications of the Imam and Muslims. "Menstruating women are, however, advised to stay away from the prayer area. Al-Yolawi also advised Muslims to listen to the sermon of the Imam at the Eid prayer ground as it was regarded as a time to remember Allahs blessings and to be thankful to be present in such an assembly. The National Coordinator of the group, Mr Hassan Soweto, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos. He said that candidates should be granted direct access to institutions of their choice on presentation of their qualifying certificates and proof of having sat for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). "I think government has done the right thing by cancelling this post-UTME. "t was exploitative and therefore, a kind of financial burden on the parents. "However, I think the development is also a wake-up call for the Federal Government to address identified lapses in the conduct of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in organising UTME. "This will ensure that results from such examination will be held in high esteem, he said. Soweto said that there was an urgent need for government to provide more tertiary institutions, provide necessary facilities as well as upgrade the existing ones. "Actually the major challenge facing most of our tertiary institutions today is the issue of carrying capacity. "The argument, therefore, is that there might not be enough space to accommodate majority of candidates that qualified at the UTME and that for me, is one major reason for the post-UTME. "So for this cancellation of the post-UTME to be effective, government must wake up to its responsibility in providing quality access to tertiary education, he said. NAN reports that the Federal Government had announced cancellation of the conduct of post-UTME at the recent Joint Policy meeting to decide cut off marks for candidates seeking placements into tertiary institutions, The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, however advised that institutions were at liberty to conduct screening to select their candidates. The minister also warned that institutions that go against the directive would be sanctioned. Adamu also urged all institutions that had already collected fees from candidates for the conduct of the examination under any guise, to return same to such students with immediate effect. As we celebrate the birth of our nation this weekend, it seems fitting to point out a few Quad-City employers and community leaders who have shown their support of our military in different ways. Bettendorf Mayor Robert Gallagher and A.J. Loss, president and CEO of Bush Construction, Davenport, participated in the U.S. Army War College's 62nd annual National Security Seminar earlier this month in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. They were among 160 business, government, academic and community leaders involved in the week-long seminar alongside the Army War College students. The National Security seminar was the capstone event for the college's 10-month course, which ended in the graduation of 380 military officers, federal employees and foreign officers. "It was such an honor," Loss said. "This was a course for these military students to get to interact with business leaders and to share ideas on how the military can learn in war planning and strategy from the businesses." Likewise, it was an opportunity for the seminar participants to get a better understanding of the intensive study behind war planning, he said. Gallagher said they spent four days learning from the colonels and lieutenant colonels. "These are the military leaders who now will be leading large numbers of troops...and we got a look at how they make decisions and the influences on their decisions," he said. "We learned what kind of things they could do before we get to the military card." After daily presentations on national security issues, the seminar participants had candid discussions with the next generation of senior military leaders. ''They want to get the American public to understand all the training they go through," Loss said. The college's 2016 class also included 79 international officers from 73 different countries. The bonus for the seminar students, Gallagher said "was to learn about how national security decisions are made and to develop or enhance our strategic leadership skills." Founded in 1901, the U.S. Army War College educates and develops more than 1,500 leaders and strategists for service each year. ESGR salutes Farmers Insurance The Iowa Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, or ESGR, has honored Chris Bandy and Farmers Insurance with its latest ESGR Patriotic Employer Award. Bandy, a district manager from Hiawatha, Iowa, and Farmers were recognized for their extraordinary support of Nicholas Grant, an employee in the Davenport office. In addition to his day job, Grant is a Petty Officer First Class with the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve assigned to the Marine Safety Detachment in Peoria. Iowa ESGR Area Chair Harry Cockrell said the Patriotic Employer Award honors those employers whose support help to maintain the strength and readiness of the nation's National Guard and Military Reserve units. In nominating Bandy, Grant wrote that he never is questioned when he has a drill weekend, his annual two-week training or is called up for disaster duty. "Chris is a true patriot and believes that duty to our country is as important as our day-to-day operations at the office," Grant wrote. HR group backs employing military Active military and veterans in the workplace also is subject of an upcoming event, Serving Others Recruiting and Employing Active Military and Veterans. The event, presented by Great River Human Resource Association, will be July 19 at Modern Woodmen Park, Davenport. The association joins the Society for Human Resource Management Foundation, Home Base Iowa and others to help educate employers on creating a workplace inviting to active and transitioning service members. The event is open to the public. The cost is $15. The seminar runs from check-in at 2:30 p.m. to an after-meeting mixer from 4:30-6:30 p.m. To register, visit www.grhra.org. After a fatal shooting rocked their Davenport neighborhood, residents got some reassurances Saturday that the city is taking steps to keep their traditionally quiet neighborhood safe. More than 150 people packed the Koning Chapel at Ridgecrest Village as Davenport police and city officials provided an update on the investigation into the death of 15-year-old Ayana Culbreath. The Davenport girl was shot a week ago at a party in the 4200 block of Warren Street. An arrest has not yet been made. "The investigation is progressing. It is not stagnate," Davenport Police Chief Paul Sikorski told the standing-room-only crowd. "While you are sleeping at night, we have detectives working on this. While we are in here now, we have detectives working on this." He added that police have stepped up patrols in the neighborhood, which is adjacent to the Ridgecrest retirement center. While he could not get into specifics of the investigation, he said, "The police department looks at it from many different perspectives. We want to find out who did it and bring justice to the family and the neighborhood." Davenport Alderman Mike Matson, 7th Ward, who helped organize the event with the neighborhood's Kimberly Village Homes Association, said it was important the residents realize all the resources being focused on the effort. "We are doing everything we can to handle this situation," Matson said. With officials on hand representing various city departments, including police, city administration and public works, neighbors had a chance to ask about safety in the neighborhood as well as what they should do to help. Officials repeatedly told them that if they spot trouble in their neighborhood, call 911. "There are probably people out there we haven't talked to and need to," Sikorski said, telling the residents to speak to the officers "if you think there is something you saw or heard and we have not talked to you." Melissa Fowler, president of the neighborhood association, was stunned by the meeting's turnout, which included dozens of residents from both the neighborhood and Ridgecrest Village. "The people asked for it," she said. "Nothing like this has happened in this neighborhood before. I think they want to know their neighborhood is safe again. I don't think there is any place that is safe now." Mike McGee, the city's building inspection manger, told the crowd the landlord/owner of the home where the shooting occurred has now served the tenant with an eviction notice for nonpayment of rent. Throughout the 90-minute meeting, residents also shared complaints about the residence. Sikorski said that if police thought there were other immediate safety issues for the neighborhood, "we would be doing some different things." One woman, who declined to give her name, asked, "How can we as a community help the police keep guns out of the hands of young people?" After saying he did not have an answer for that, Sikorski did say, "I'll tell you an active neighborhood is normally a safer neighborhood. If you have things that happen that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, don't ignore it." Alderman Kyle Gripp, at-large, added that he gets many calls about gun violence and violence with youth. "It's not an easy answer, and it's not just a Davenport problem," he said. "The chief is working with other chiefs across the state to try to figure this out. Unfortunately, it's a complicated socio-economical issue here." Sgt. Mark Berger, who leads the Crime Prevention Department, said the city works with landlords to encourage background checks of their tenants and offers an eight-hour course through its Landlord Education Assistance Program, or LEAP. But the police urged neighbors to always call 911 about problems, because each call helps create a record, Sikorski said. One resident criticized the lack of information released about the case. "My biggest concern in the past week is I haven't known if I'm safe in my own yard," he said. But Sikorski said, "Sometimes, we don't give enough information. Sometimes in the past, we have given too much." He called it a "balancing act" between releasing information to the public and "trying to keep the integrity of the investigation so we don't have people skipping town." No one calls him Little Dog anymore. It was an ignominious nickname for Tyrone Orr, a quiet gentleman who most everyone in the Quad-Cities seems to know. He is proud that he has been honored for his 40th year as an undertaker in Iowa and Illinois. Tyrone is politely called Mr. Orr at his Rock Island mortuary. But that name Little Dog has stuck in his mind after nearly 50 years. It is a grim name that the guys of the 24th Infantry Division gave him in the jungles of Vietnam. In 1967, in the sweaty Central Highlands, Orr would typically hear a shout: Hey, hey, Little Dog! The sergeants dead, a mortar. Little Dog was an undertaker in the war that took the lives of 58,000 Americans. It was his assignment to gather up the dead with dignity. Recently, we sat and talked. Orr, looking much younger than 69 years, folded and unfolded his hands to explain that sobriquet of Little Dog. I was assigned to retrieve bodies and bones. Some were new victims who had been dead only a few hours, or a day. Some were bones of the dead after they had been missing for a long time. Thats why they called me a dog after the bones. I was short, so they called me Little Dog. Orr has never talked much about his duties in Vietnam. The stories are grim. He says, My duty was raw, blood and bones. I got to think psychologically about my job, finding the dead. After a while, I tried to push what I was doing out of my mind. But retrieving the dead was something I had to do. "I think I was born to be an undertaker. When I was 10 years old, I would see George Nicholson, a Rock Island mortician, all dressed up in a necktie and fine black suit and driving a shiny car. I told my daddy, Jack, 'I want to grow up and be just like him.' On this eve of the celebration of our country's independence, Tyrone Orr wants to talk about Vietnam, to remind the current generation what a bitter war it was. He fingers three brass bracelets given him as a friendship token by the Montagnards, an indigenous tribe in the Highlands that his outfit had befriended. He tells tales of war as if they were only months or weeks ago. One was my closest call. A small spotter plane had gone down, three men aboard. It was the monsoon season; everything was wet and muddy. We couldnt find the men; always, the Cong would leave them and sometimes cut off their ears to hang on their belts as trophies. In the mud we found a mound, and figured the Cong had, for some unusual reason, buried the men. We dug into the deep mound and I jumped in to pull out one victim. Then, I saw the cruel reason for the burial. Under the first victim they had put three grenades, set to go off and kill us. The mud stopped the grenades from firing. Orr was so shaken by that gruesome find that as soon as he was able, he called his mother, Berniece, to tell her he was safe. I dont know why it affected me like that. I was jittery, so close to death. As close as I ever was over there. Orr graduated from Worsham Mortuary College in Wheeling, Illinois, and was a junior at Hiram Scott College in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, when he was drafted in 1967. He told an Army assignments officer that he was a mortician; that was enough. He was assigned to a base in Vietnam and was told, They come here alive, and you will bring them back dead. He was quick to learn his dismal duties. There is a certain smell in death, whenever you are searching out casualties in the jungles. America never leaves its dead behind, and the smell of death will lead you to them. I can still sense the Vietnam death smell, Orr said. He shakes his head in sympathy for the dead, mostly young men. Our conversation led to how his crew would identify the bodies, how guys would tie their dog tags (metal identification tabs) to their shoestrings. It was more certain than hanging them around their necks, in case they would be blown up. War is horror, horrible, Orr said. "Vietnam was so ridiculous. We would take a village one day and return the next to find the Cong had retaken it. Death was a systematic thing. We would find the dead and take them out in chopper. I remember going into a hangar in Saigon that had 400 bodies. Out in the field, we kept bodies as briefly as possible. We put them in big refrigerators until they could fly them out. Our conversation was so grim, so solemn, and after 50 years, it is still a litany of tragedy for Orr. Yet, he breaks out in smiles to talk about his pets in Vietnam. He had a big Labrador and a tiny monkey. I found that baby monkey on a plant leaf and adopted him. He was with me much of the time, a mean little sucker who could bite. Going on 70, Tyrone Orr is still spritely in a perky brim hat. At Central High in Davenport, he was a repeat Iowa state wrestling champion and credits all of his successes to his wife, Leslie, and his mother. They are two strong women. Every man will do well in life if he has a strong mother and strong wife, he said. Vietnam was just one of his chapters. Recognition of his 40-year career as a mortician adds a special pride to his talk and his stride. To the many who know him, the forgotten nickname Little Dog doesnt fit. Many call him Hizzoner. NATION Enterprise founder Taylor dies at 94 Jack Taylor, who started a leasing company with seven cars and built it into Enterprise Rent-A-Car, died Saturday. He was 94. Enterprise said in a statement that Taylor died in St. Louis after a brief illness. In 1957, Taylor founded a company called Executive Leasing at a Cadillac dealership in St. Louis where he was a salesman. The chain differed from competitors by allowing people to pick up and drop off cars away from airports. An Enterprise employee would drive to the customer's house or office. The company bought the Alamo and National brands in 2007 to compete against other airport-based rentals. It changed its name to Enterprise Holdings Inc. two years later. The privately held company said it had revenue of $19.4 billion and more than 1.7 million vehicles in 2015. Enterprise's reported revenue is more than twice that of either of its two main U.S. competitors, Hertz and Avis. Forbes magazine listed Taylor as the 248th richest person, with wealth of $5.3 billion in the magazine's 2016 ranking. 5 die, 25 hurt in Florida crash Five people were killed and 25 were injured when a bus carrying farmworkers collided with a tractor trailer causing both vehicles to burst into flames Saturday on a highway in the Panhandle, sheriff's officials said. The Blue Bird bus from Georgia was carrying roughly 34 adults and children when it ran a flashing red light before hitting the tractor trailer, then spun around and hit the semi again. One of the bus passengers killed was a small child. The driver of the semi-truck, Gordon Sheets, 55 of Copiague, New York, also died, said Wakulla County Sheriff Charlie Creel. Deputies responded to a gruesome and chaotic scene as the front and the back of the bus was on fire when they arrived. "Our deputies are heroes ... our deputies got on the bus and started pulling people off, people that were not able to get off by themselves. They pulled out two deceased victims," said Creel. He said deputies continued to rescue victims until the bus was fully engulfed in flames and they were forced to stop. WORLD EU supporters march through London Tens of thousands of European Union supporters sang, danced and marched their way down the streets of London on Saturday to protest the United Kingdom's vote to leave the EU. Many participants in the celebrity-peppered 2-mile (3-kilometer) "March for Europe" from Hyde Park to Parliament said they expect the government and British lawmakers to balk on leaving the 28-nation bloc despite 52 percent voter support for the move in the June 23 referendum. One organizer, comedian Mark Thomas, said British lawmakers should not legislate for an exit based on a result driven by anti-EU campaigners' exaggerations and distortions on immigration and EU spending. "We would accept the result of the referendum if it was fought on a level playing field. But it was full of misinformation," Thomas said. "No goodbyes based on lies," read one placard behind him. Many protesters offered signs punning the EU as "you." One referencing the one-hit wonder of Rick Astley noted: "Never gonna give EU up, never gonna let EU down." 52 still in hospital after airport attack Fifty-two people are still in the hospital four days after suicide bombers attacked Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, killing at least 44 others, the city's governor said Saturday. The governorate said 184 airport victims have been discharged from hospitals so far, including 13 people released Saturday. It said 20 people were still in intensive care. Three militants armed with assault rifles and suicide bombs attacked one of the world's busiest airports on Tuesday night. Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Turkish officials say they believe it was the work of the Islamic State group. Turkish authorities have detained at least 24 people in raids in several Istanbul neighborhoods over possible connections to the attack. Seventeen other people were detained in the province of Gaziantep, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid an unannounced visit to the airport on Saturday. He said a prayer in front of a memorial set up for the victims, which features the pictures of airport employees who were killed in the rampage. Prosecutors have established the identity of two of the three airport attackers giving their names as Rakim Bulgarov and Vadim Osmanov and were trying to identify the third, Anadolu said. Other media reports have given different versions of Osmanov's name. Investigators' attentions have reportedly focused on whether a Chechen extremist known to be a top lieutenant in the Islamic State group masterminded the attack. Growing up in Wyoming, Dan May didnt have much exposure to cultural diversity. However, he gained a deep interest in hip-hop music in which artists use poetic rhymes to relay messages about their daily lives, their passion and pain. May realized that many of the artists not only rapped about social, economic, racial and political concerns, some of them incorporated religious references, which is still popular among these secular artists today. If you remember Arrested Development back in the 1990s a pretty famous rap group I was pretty young at the time that they were famous," May said. "I kind of noticed a lot of religious imagery and lyrics that came across like prayers almost. If you look at some of their songs, like in particular Im thinking about Tennessee, and that song is specifically addressed to the Lord the first word in that song is Lord. Hes actually speaking this song as if it were a prayer. Because of Mays fascination with hip-hop over the years, and the relevancy of social and racial matters that have been making headlines lately, May, an assistant professor of mathematics at Black Hills State University, recently gave a presentation titled God Show Me the Way: Religion and Hip Hop, in which he discussed the intersection of rap music and religion during one of the universitys Geek Speak Lecture series. I tried to talk about how it is particularly relevant today because two of the biggest and most important rappers that are active right now are Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar," May said. "Both of these guys really use a lot of religious imagery and symbolism and references to the church and Bible throughout their work, so I thought this is a relevant topic now." Bret Saunders, Ph.D, assistant professor of humanities at John Witherspoon College, said religion can be relevant in lyrics because it "touches on the deepest things. Though Saunders does not listen to hip-hop, he said people may find the music convincing and gripping when it speaks truth about reality. People relate to lyrics or any kind of poetry whether sung or not," Saunders said. "They relate to it because they say, Wow thats talking about something I know or thats like my life.'" Though some of the songs have positive lyrics with prayers and thankfulness to God, May also presented lyrics that were controversial and highly critical of religion. A lot of the songs were critiques of religion, May said. I think rap music is an effective platform for that ... a rapper may be talking about religion in a way that makes us uncomfortable, but ultimately thats a good thing. We should feel a little uncomfortable about these issues and think about them in a positive way. Some of the lyrics are about struggles and hardships. When a person is suffering, theyre feeling broken and they feel deeply crushed and hurting as a human being ... and when people feel that way, then religious language and imagery often comes into the music or to the lyrics, Saunders said. In a hip-hop song, someone may be feeling that way and thats why the religious dimension enters in." Even with nonbelievers, "they know that the religious dimension is out there ... they draw on it, even though they dont believe necessarily that God exists," he added. May agrees and says many of the lyrics stem from daily lives of rappers and their environment. Though May says hes not an expert in this area, he presented this topic from a fans perspective, and says that he draws from many religion and African-American studies professors and musicologists, such as Georgetown Sociology Professor Michael Eric Dyson and Monica R. Miller, professor of religion and Africana studies at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, who has conducted extensive research on this topic. May says he is a fan and appreciates hip-hop and religion. I love music of all types and, in particular, Ive been a fan of rap music for a pretty long time, so I guess in the course of listening to hip-hop I kind of tended to notice that religion shows up in a lot of different ways. Summer arrived last Monday, but its been so hot, windy and dry around here that about the only folks who are out in it are working or fighting fire. There were several fires down in the Hills and over in northeast Wyoming and southwest Montana. Sunday morning there was so much smoke in the air from those fires that it made your eyes burn. The South Dakota Republican convention was in Aberdeen this weekend, and since I wasnt going to be able to go as originally planned, I spent a lot of time on the telephone talking to fellow legislators who were going to be there. Sen. Ried Holien from Watertown called me Tuesday to see if I would be willing to nominate him for National Committeeman to replace Dana Randall, who wasnt running again. I would have loved to give the nominating speech for Ried, but since I had to be in Bismarck for surgery to remove the pins from my thumb that day, I recommended Rep. Elizabeth May to do the honors. Liz was on the Resolutions Committee at the convention, so I knew she would be there. Then I had to call Liz to let her know so she could write her speech. This was Lizs first time as a voting member at the convention, and she had some questions about the Resolutions Committee I couldnt answer, so I called Rep. Lance Russell because he knows the answer to her questions and he was going to be at the convention too. Rep. Sam Marty was also planning to go to the convention as a first time voting member, but our old friend Jennings Floden passed away on Fathers Day and Sam was a pallbearer at Jennings funeral in Sturgis on Saturday, so he wouldnt be in Aberdeen either. Jennings was buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery at Zeona Monday afternoon. We also lost several other locals. Frances (Poseley) Almen, 91, formerly of Bison, died Friday, June 17 at Sturgis. Frankie was buried Tuesday at the Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis. Shirley (Bracewell) Miller, 92, of Lodgepole, passed away on June 18 at the nursing home in Mott. Shirleys funeral was Monday in Hettinger with burial in the Hettinger Cemetery. David Stenersons daughter, Sabrina Marie Haigler, 42, of Mount Pleasant, N.C., was murdered by her husband in a murder/suicide on Fathers Day. Her funeral was Thursday in North Carolina. She is survived by her father, David Stenerson of Buffalo; her daughter, Lily Lefler of Mount Pleasant, NC; and her sister, Dulcey Forman of Salisbury, N.C. There will be a funeral for one whole Giannonatti family on Saturday. Mass of Christian Burial for Beverly (Goeres) Giannonatti, her husband, William "Bill" Giannonatti and their two sons, Gregory and Darrell Giannonatti will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 2, at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Lemmon. Father Tony Grossenburg will officiate with burial of their ashes in the Greenhill Cemetery. Following the burial, a time of fellowship and refreshments will be available at the Community Hall in Watauga, S.D. Darrell passed away in 2013, Bill passed away August 31, 2015, and Beverly and Gregory were murdered by a robber in Deer Lodge, Mont., in October of 2015. Bill was born to Carlos and Rosella Giannonatti on April 28, 1930 at the family ranch near Buffalo. The family moved to Portland, Ore., during the war, and Bill graduated from high school in Portland. At the time of his death, they were living in Deer Lodge. Reub and I went to Hettinger Thursday for his appointment with Mary Eggebo, and Casey went to Belle Fourche that evening for the Multi-County Predator Control annual meeting. Saturday, Reub went with me to Bismarck for the surgery to remove four pins from my thumb that nasty Rambouillet buck smashed back in April. The hospital wanted a responsible adult along to drive me home after I woke up from the surgery. On the way to Bismarck we dropped a cylinder off the backhoe at Stelters in New Leipzig to be rebuilt and they had it done when we stopped to pick it up on our way home. Casey and Trig went to the rodeo in Rhame on Saturday. They didnt place, but Sterling Lee won the steer wrestling, and Jeremy Stadheim took second. They all went to the rodeo in Broadus, Mont., Sunday, and Sterling Lee was the only one to get a steer down, even though it took him three tries to get it done. Thats what happens when they take the horn wraps off the roping steers so they can use them in the bull dogging. Last year my cousin Pat John sent these ponderings: *I had amnesia once...maybe twice. *I went to San Francisco. I found someone's heart. Now what? *Protons have mass? I didn't even know they were Catholic. *All I ask is a chance to prove that money can't make me happy. *If the world were a logical place, men would be the ones who ride horses sidesaddle. *What is a "free" gift? Aren't all gifts free? *They told me I was gullible...and I believed them. *Teach a child to be polite and courteous in the home and, when he grows up, he'll never be able to merge his car onto the freeway. *Experience is the thing you have left when everything else is gone. *One nice thing about egotists: They don't talk about other people. *My weight is perfect for my height which varies. *I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure. *How can there be self-help "groups?" *If swimming is so good for your figure, how do you explain whales? *Show me a man with both feet firmly on the ground, and I'll show you a man who can't get his pants off. *Is it just me, or do buffalo wings taste like chicken? SIOUX FALLS | An education program whose name became synonymous with scandal in South Dakota last year is attempting a fresh start under new leadership. GEAR UP, a national program aimed at helping low-income students get to college, was run in the state by Mid-Central Education Cooperative until a murder-suicide last September left six people dead and spurred an investigation that uncovered more than $1 million in embezzled funds. While three former program administrators await criminal trials, Black Hills State University in Spearfish is working to reboot the program, which focuses on Native American students. GEAR UP concluded a three-week high school summer program Friday after accepting close to 100 students, including 15-year-old Kianna Whirlwind Horse. "Not only did I get to learn new things, but I got to meet new people, and they're becoming more of a family than they are friends," Whirlwind Horse said. GEAR UP is looking to expand its reach in the state before students return to school in the fall by hiring coordinators at each of South Dakota's public universities. "For the most part, we're trying to put what happened in the past behind us," GEAR UP co-director June Apaza said. "We're trying to let people know that it's not a new program, but the program is under new management. It has a new structure." South Dakota first received federal funds for GEAR UP in 2005. In 2011, the state again received a federal grant for the program for $24 million over seven years, according to Brett Arenz, federal liaison, GEAR UP director and registered project director with the U.S. Department of Education. Arenz took over the program late last fall, and after establishing a partnership with the South Dakota Board of Regents, BHSU was named the lead institution in December. Since then, the college has worked to restructure the program with a new staff and supports for the program throughout the state. Twenty-three schools have signed partnership agreements with GEAR UP, and another eight schools have made verbal commitments to the program. Overcoming the negative connotations with GEAR UP has been a "little bit of an obstacle," Apaza said. "We've had a few schools who've said to us, 'We want to wait a year and see how you do managing this program, and we'll come on with you next year,'" Apaza said. The restructured GEAR UP program has structures in place to prevent future financial scandals. All funds are handled through the university's sponsored program office. "The sponsored program office is sort of the watchdog ... in order for us to spend GEAR UP funds, we have to run every expense through the grants office," Apaza said, noting that the office is well-versed in complying with federal finance laws. In the first summer under new leadership, GEAR UP's three-week summer program at BHSU had a retention of 81 percent. GEAR UP has also held two of its four planned summer camps for middle school students, which so far have had a combined attendance of around 50 students. New GEAR UP leaders are happy with the response they've seen, according to co-director Urla Marcus. "We've gotten a lot of support and a lot of people wanting to help make sure that this continued," Marcus said. Continuing the program does not come without challenges, Marcus added, especially as new developments in the GEAR UP cases surfaces. "It seems like every time we have something so positive happening ... something negative comes back in," she said. "We've got to remember why we're doing this. It's up to us to keep this moving." Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy Trumpistas have their reasons for reflexively cheering Brexit and its apocalyptic potential for re-defining and possibly undoing the European Union, but a more circumspect approach would better suit most South Dakotans, who need to consider the effect this explosion of xenophobic outrage will have on our state's largest industry. Farmers and livestock producers have every reason to be concerned about the way global markets reacted to the news in recent days. Having spent a couple of decades, from the late '70s to the late '90s, trading and brokering securities and commodities, both on the trading floors in Chicago and in my brokerage firm based here in Rapid City, I recall that one of the most consistent indicators we followed was the value of the U.S. dollar. A relatively cheap greenback is good news for American businesses that depend on exports for a significant chunk of their revenues. An expensive dollar is anathema to them, because it raises the prices of American goods sold overseas. This is why the sharp spike to the upside on currency markets that the U.S. dollar made immediately after the Brexit vote bears some consideration and concern. As the Brexit vote was nearing last week, American Farm Bureau Federation Chief Economist Bob Young said "the biggest concern is market uncertainty." As you might expect, when times are uncertain, world traders typically convert assets into U.S. dollars, which are still regarded as the ultimate safe haven currency on world markets. The greenback's 4 percent upside spike massive by trading standards after the Brexit vote reflected the very uncertainty that Young called attention to. If this keeps up, the trend will only be a negative one for South Dakotans. As a state, we exported $5.3 billion in goods and services in 2014, $3.8 billion of which were agricultural products. According to the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, 124,000 of our jobs (22 percent of the state's total jobs) are export-dependent. The organization also notes that in 2013, 939 South Dakota companies, 75 percent of them small- and medium-sized enterprises that hired 500 or fewer workers, exported goods. They accounted for slightly more than $1 billion in exports. These are enterprises that will find world markets turning much more competitive as the U.S. dollar gains in value during the turbulent aftermath of the Brexit vote. Chicago-based commodities broker and AgWeb commentator Andrew Schissler also argues that the agricultural commodities markets themselves could come under some "nasty trading volatility" as owners of those products liquidate and turn their assets into cash positions. I wouldn't be so quick to celebrate the UK's rash departure from its decadeslong economic relationship with the rest of Europe. Nor would I view it as some triumphant prelude to the pseudo-nationalistic urgency that motivates the campaign of Donald Trump, who believes that antagonizing America's most significant trading partners, Canada, Mexico and China, is the way to move this country forward into some ephemeral "greatness" that he believes we've lost. South Dakotans have a long-standing interdependence with our foreign customers, who've created much wealth for this state. High-fiving British petulance is no substitute for pondering its outcomes. WASHINGTON | Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's campaign manager, had a message to deliver. "Hillary Clinton is the epitome of the establishment; she's been in power for 25 years," he informed Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press" last Sunday. When Trump, Manafort added, "says he's going to bring real change to the country, voters believe him unlike Mrs. Clinton, who has been saying that for 25 years and in those 25 years, the only changes that have happened have made people's lives worse." But then, at the tail end of the interview, Manafort slipped when discussing evangelicals' support for Trump. "In my 40 years in politics, I have never seen such a broad-based base of support within that community for one candidate." Forty years in politics? But it's Clinton's 25 years that make her the "establishment"? If that weren't enough, Manafort was giving the interview from the Hamptons playground of the Eastern elite. This is the hypocrisy at the heart of the Trump campaign, now under Manafort's undisputed control. Manafort's inspiration, which Trump has embraced, is to portray Clinton as the embodiment of the establishment. But Manafort (not unlike Trump) has been the voice of the wealthy and the well-connected for four decades, building a fortune by making common cause with the world's most avaricious. Among Manafort's boasts: representing kleptocrats Ferdinand Marcos, Mobutu Sese Seko and Kenya's Daniel arap Moi, defending Saudi Arabia's interests against Israel's and Pakistan's against India's, and making the case for a Nigerian dictator, a Lebanese arms dealer and various and sundry Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs. He successfully lobbied to arm a Maoist rebel in Angola, needlessly extending fighting that killed thousands. It's Manafort's right to represent dictators and thugs and regimes that torture. He has, for decades, helped autocrats who battle human rights and democracy. But now this man is setting up a general-election campaign that portrays Trump as a man of the people and Clinton as the captive of special interests. Manafort has been widely credited with last week's speech by Trump laying out his general-election theme: that Clinton is the defender of the big-money interests and the "rigged" economy. "Hillary Clinton has perfected the politics of personal profit and even theft. She ran the State Department like her own personal hedge fund, doing favors for oppressive regimes," Trump argued. "Hillary Clinton wants to bring in people who believe women should be enslaved and gays put to death. ... Hillary Clinton may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency of the United States." And the man who led Trump to deliver such accusations? Here's what my Washington Post colleagues Steven Mufson and Tom Hamburger reported in April: "In one case, Manafort tried unsuccessfully to build a luxury high-rise in Manhattan with money from a billionaire backer of a Ukrainian president whom he had advised. "In another deal, real estate records show that Manafort took out and later repaid a $250,000 loan from a Middle Eastern arms dealer at the center of a French inquiry into whether kickbacks were paid ... ." "And in another business venture, a Russian aluminum magnate has accused Manafort in a Cayman Islands court of taking nearly $19 million intended for investments, then failing to account for the funds ... ." Manafort has been a paragon of the Washington Republican establishment for two generations, working on Gerald Ford's re-election in 1976 before helping Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole. He started two lobbying firms, and he has used his contacts in attempts to enrich himself. His lobbying firm recruited veterans of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, then lobbied for $43 million in subsidies for a housing project, while holding an option to buy a stake in the project. Manafort is steeped in the racial politics Trump has exploited. As Franklin Foer writes for Slate, Manafort ran Reagan's Southern operation in 1980; the candidate kicked off his general-election campaign outside Philadelphia, Mississippi, scene of the murder of civil rights activists in 1964. Manafort later became a business partner of Lee Atwater, who gained fame for Bush's Willie Horton campaign in 1988. Introduced to Trump by Roy Cohn, lawyer to Joe McCarthy, Manafort helped Trump fight Indian casinos by alleging that the Native Americans had a crime problem; Trump and his associates paid a $250,000 fine after secretly funding advertisements besmirching the Indians. Now Trump is engaged in a general-election campaign to portray Clinton as the candidate of the establishment. Fair enough. But the man leading this effort spent a much longer career benefiting the wealthy and powerful, including Trump, at the expense of the poor and weak. That's rich. Just when you thought congressional misfeasance couldnt get any worse, along comes political gamesmanship to sink funding to fight a public health menace. Somewhere today, probably in Florida, are pregnant women whove been bitten by mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus. In coming months, theyll give birth to babies with severe birth defects. And theyll have Congress to thank. Women in Missouri and Illinois shouldnt relax. By the time Congress returns from its Fourth of July recess and takes another shot at a bill President Barack Obama asked them to pass in February, the risk in the lower Midwest will be moderate to high, scientists say. On Tuesday, when the Senate took up a badly contaminated House-passed bill that contained $1.1 billion in funding to fight the epidemic, the focus was on affixing blame, not protecting public health. As for senators sworn duty to protect the American public, forget about it. If theres a Zika epidemic in the United States this year, it wont just be the mosquitoes fault. When last we wrote about Congress and Zika 25 days ago, we quoted Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Three months in an epidemic is an eternity. Had the CDC gotten its money in February, the nation would have been better prepared. Work on vaccines would have been funded fully. Public health agencies in the southern states, where mosquito season starts in May, would have had the tools they needed. But the request had Obamas name on it, and there is no issue too urgent not even babies with birth defects that it can divert GOP lawmakers from their primary target. The presidents $1.6 billion request was cut in half in the House and by $500 million in the Senate. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that handles health agency budgets, acted responsibly enough in crafting a $1.1 billion compromise that the CDC said it could live with. Irresponsibly, Blunt didnt craft a bill that could pass. The bill robbed money from fighting Ebola. It raided some Affordable Care Act funding. House Republicans passed it in the middle of the Democrats 25-hour gun-control sit-in June 22 after loading it up with poison pills no money for Planned Parenthood (God forbid they hand out contraceptives to poor women at risk of a dangerous pregnancy) and protecting the sacred right to fly the Confederate flag at federal cemeteries. Yes, the Confederate flag. Shame is not a strong enough word. On Tuesday, Senate Democrats refused to swallow the pills. Democrats vowed that Republicans would pay a price in November. No, itll be on you, said Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas. Mosquitoes, unimpressed with the worlds greatest deliberative body, just kept breeding. St. Louis Post-Dispatch Hamilton resident, Nick Lenier Wilson, 50, faces felony charges for theft and forgery after allegedly cashing and attempting to cash fraudulent coin deposit receipts. Hamilton Police Detective Dan Altschwager met with Super One Foods manager Michael Sherman about a male entering the store to cash a Coin Star receipt during the noon hour on May 26, according to charging documents. Coin Star is a coin machine that prints a receipt for the amount of coins deposited. Super One gives cash less a 10 percent service fee. The receipt presented was for $552.43, the man was given $500.04 in cash. According to the charging documents, the receipt was fraudulent and printed at Super One Foods in Stevensville. Altschwager reviewed the surveillance footage from Hamilton Super One Foods to obtain a description of the man and the vehicle he was driving as he left the store. Later the same day, Stevensville Police Chief James Marble met with Stevensville Super One Foods manager Barry Lemon about someone attempting to cash a fraudulent Coin Star receipt for the same amount. The individual was taken into custody, identified as the same man who cashed the receipt at the Hamilton Super One, and later identified as Wilson. Marble also noted that James Stanley Patterson was with Wilson but not taken into custody. Lemon reviewed the Stevensville surveillance video and noted that two days earlier an individual received a receipt at the Coin Star machine without depositing any coins. Altschwager was able to identify the individual as Patterson, according to court records. Wilson said he was willing to explain all the details in the investigation if he would be released. When officers said he wouldnt be released, Wilson opted to remain silent. Wilson had $800 cash and $500 was seized as evidence. Wilson said he would have returned the money to the store if he had been released. On May 27, Altschwager viewed surveillance footage from May 25 and confirmed Wilson attempted to cash the receipt for $552.43 at Hamilton Super One Foods. Wilson appeared before Justice Jim Bailey, who set the bail at $5,000 bond Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Saturday that 13 hostages were rescued from a besieged cafe in Dhaka on Saturday, but some had been killed. In a television broadcast, Hasina said six gunman had also been killed and one had been captured alive in a dawn raid on the cafe by Bangladeshi commandos. An injured member of the police personnel is carried away by his colleagues, after gunmen stormed a restaurant popular with expatriates in the diplomatic quarter of the Bangladeshi capital, in Dhaka July 1, 2016. REUTERS Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack on a cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Friday, where gunmen were holding hostages as police laid siege to the building, news agency Amaq said. Amaq also said 24 people had been killed and 40 injured, some of them foreigners, in the attack. Bangladeshi police, however, reported that only two police had been shot dead and at least 15 people were injured and said they were trying to free the hostages peacefully. In the latest flare-up of Islamist militant violence to hit the South Asian nation, police said eight to nine gunmen attacked the Holey Artisan restaurant in the upscale Gulshan area of Dhaka. The assailants, believed to be carrying assault rifles and grenades, exchanged sporadic fire with police outside, hours after the attack began around 9 p.m. local time. Bangladesh has seen an increase in militant violence in the last year-and-a-half, with a series of deadly attacks targeting atheists, gays, liberals, foreigners and members of religious minorities in the mostly Muslim country of 160 million people. The violence has tended to be assaults on individuals, often using machetes, and the raid on the restaurant was a rare instance of a more coordinated operation. Both Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for many of the killings, although local authorities say there are no operational links between Bangladeshi militants and international jihadi networks. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli Kathmandu, Nepal: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has condemned the terrorist attack in Dhaka of Bangladesh. Prime Minister Oli has expressed condolence to the families of deceased through his twitter account on Monday. At least 24 people were killed and 40 were injured with some of them foreigners in the attack. A group of assailant had stormed a popular restaurant taking scores of people hostage on Friday night. Islamic state had claimed the responsibility of the attack. I give my consent to Sakshi Post to be in touch with me via email for the purpose of event marketing and corporate communications. Privacy Policy Here's who is on the ballot in Saline County Advance, in-office voting is underway in Saline County, as voters in the 2022 general election have several options on who and what to vote for. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. As Connie Clancy looks back on the time that her husband was first diagnosed with Alzheimers disease about nine years ago, she acknowledges t 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. Robin Hardy, director of one of the all time great horror films, The Wicker Man has passed on at the age of 86. Born in Surrey, England, Hardy started his career with the National Film Board of Canada, before going on to direct many TV commercials in the UK. At the request of Peter Snell's British Lion Productions, he came on board to direct the 1973 film which starred Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee. Notably, before his own recent passing, Lee described The Wicker Man (known in much of Europe as The Wickerman) as the best film he was ever involved in - this from a man with nearly 300 film and TV credits including many entries in the Hammer Films oeuvre, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, a 007 picture, and the Star Wars prequels. The influence of The Wicker Man cannot be overstated, from the recent Radiohead homage to the overall structure of Edgar Wright's Hot Fuzz (which features a brief cameo from Woodward) to various musicians quoting dialogue and musical elements in their work. It played a significant role in bringing paganism back to Britain in a big way, and this from one of the most tortured releases in the UK and the United States. In the UK it played as the B-side to one of the greatest horror double features ever (Nic Roeg's Don't Look Now was the "A" film on the bill), and in the US, it was a severely truncated drive-in movie, that still somehow managed to spawn a cult of viewers while it crawled its way to horror-classic. The oft quoted phrase, "The Citizen Kane of Horror films," comes from one Bay Area magazine, Cinefantastique, which was the first to recognize and trumpet its greatness. Even to this day, there are several edits of the film that still remain confusing as to what is the definitive one. The writing, acting and direction are all working in sync despite being such a troubled production and release. "Should a juvenile sex offender be locked up indefinitely?" | Main | "Couriers Not Kingpins: Toward a More Just Federal Sentencing Regime for Defendants Who Deliver Drugs" The question in the title of this post is prompted by this intriging Wired piece headlined "The White House Is on a Mission to Shrink US Prisons With Data." Here are excerpts: The Obama administration believes better data within the criminal justice system could [help address mass incarceration. Last week,] the White House announced its new Data-Driven Justice Initiative, through which 67 cities and states will work with each other, as well as with leading tech companies like Amazon and Palantir, to find new ways to use data to shrink the size of their local prison populations. What weve seen as weve engaged with state and local leaders across the country is that there are people who simply do not need to be in our jails, Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to the President, said on a call with journalists today. Taking a closer look at the data, she said, can help identify who those people are. In some cities, thats already starting to happen. The White House pointed to one example in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, which began diving into its own data back in 2014 to find low-risk people in jail who could be released early. That intervention led to a 40 percent reduction in the county jail population. Thats 40 percent, and they have had no increase in reported crime, Jarrett said. Pretty amazing. Of course, data mining is not the forte of most local law enforcement, which is why the White House is also asking for the tech industrys help. As part of the announcement, Amazon is convening a consortium on data interventions in criminal justice that will be attended by companies like Palantir and organizations like Code for America. The goal of the summit, according to Lynn Overmann, senior policy advisor to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer, is to convene the countrys top data scientists, technologists, and developers together with local governments to figure out the solutions most likely to work as broadly as possible. Some tech companies are donating their existing tools to the member cities and states. For instance, RapidSOS, a company that allows people to submit their exact location data to emergency personnel, is offering its product to five cities for free for the next 10 years. Several research institutions like New York University and the University of Chicago are also partnering with cities and states to research their data strategies. In a time when Republicans and Democrats cant seem to agree on anything, prison reform has become an unlikely unifier. Recently, House speaker Paul Ryan has become an outspoken advocate for sentencing reform. That type of across-the-aisle support could help these data efforts spread more quickly. Already, among the seven states that signed on to the Data-Driven Justice Initiative, three have Republican governors. As part of the commitment, they promise to merge criminal justice and health system data to identify people who are most at risk, create new protocols for first responders dealing with mental health issues, and inform pre-trial release decisions. Of course, using technology to decide whether someone stays behind bars or not is sure to be fraught with controversy as these programs roll out all over the country. After all, if people are concerned about algorithms deciding the news they see, what happens when algorithms decide a persons freedom? With SRCA now "officially" dead ... send your "thanks" to (failings of) Prez Obama and bipartisan bungling | Main | Can and will big data help reduce mass incarceration? July 2, 2016 "Should a juvenile sex offender be locked up indefinitely?" The question in the title of this post is the headline of this PBS Newshour segment, which is focused on Minnesota's experiences with indefinite commitment of sex offenders. Here is a segment of the segment: Elizabeth Letourneau is one of the nations leading experts on juvenile sex offenders. She directs the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at John Hopkins University. She says civilly committing juvenile sex offenders makes little sense, first because its incredibly costly. Minnesota spends about $125,000 per offender per year, which is roughly triple the cost of regular prison. But, most importantly, she says it doesnt make sense because juvenile offenders are likely not lifetime offenders. "Among youth who are adjudicated for a sexual offense, so they have been arrested, processed, 97 percent to 98 percent will not reoffend sexually. So, truly, the vast majority ... if they are caught committing a sexual offense, will not do it again." Emily Piper is the commissioner of Minnesotas Department of Human Services, which oversees the states sex offender program. She says only 4 percent of Minnesotas registered sex offenders are currently civilly committed, and she argues the state is rightly incarcerating the most troubling of those.... In 2011, a class-action lawsuit was brought against the state by a group of offenders in Minnesotas program, including Craig Bolte, arguing they were not getting any meaningful treatment and were instead being held indefinitely. And, last year, federal district judge in St. Paul sided with them, saying that Minnesotas sex offender program was unconstitutional, ruling Its a punitive system that segregates and indefinitely detains a class of potentially dangerous individuals without the safeguards of the criminal justice system. The state has appealed the decision, and a ruling is expected this fall. In the meantime, state officials say they have already started making changes. Five offenders have been moved into less restrictive settings, and new reviews are being done of all offenders to determine whos a potential candidate for release and who isnt. Even Dru Sjodins mother, Linda Walker, admits that maybe some juvenile cases should be reexamined, but she hopes that, in all its reforms, Minnesota will err on the side of caution before releasing anyone. July 2, 2016 at 11:06 AM | Permalink Comments Somewhat unfortunate last name. Posted by: Joe | Jul 2, 2016 12:47:15 PM It's a wonder that the detainees at Moose Lake, MN, have not staged any major uprisings like inmates at Attica did almost fifty years ago. Where is the incentive for these detainees to behave themselves towards staff and guards when there is no hope for release or any other positive reinforcements? What would they have to lose if these detainees should one day rise up in mutiny against Moose Lake? Posted by: william r. delzell | Jul 2, 2016 1:09:33 PM "Minnesota will err on the side of caution before releasing anyone." ?? Mass killer Mateen was questioned by the FBI at least 3 times and found to be not a threat. When will our societal witch hunt of so called sex offenders end? Posted by: tommyc | Jul 2, 2016 2:01:40 PM Tommyc: It won't ever end. It's the perfect storm. The media perpetrates the myths, law enforcement's only complaint seems to be over housing restrictions, and DA's have an almost 100% conviction rate (Unless you're in Oklahoma - where it's 100%). It's ironic, isn't it, that the percentage of juvenile sex offenders who reoffend is almost the same as adult sex offenders who reoffend? Posted by: itllneverend | Jul 2, 2016 9:43:25 PM Unless someone is a violent sexual predator with no chance or rehabilitation ,there is no reason to lock them up indefinitely, juvenile or adult. Let them serve their time and then be FREE, that means NO REGISTRY. I'm glad the judge in St. Paul sided with the offenders, however, his comment that "it's a punitive system that segregates and indefinitely detains a class of potentially dangerous individuals without the safeguards of the criminal justice system" is alittle troubling in that ANYONE is potentially dangerous, not just sex offenders. Infact, sex offenders, adult and juvenile, have a very low rate of recidivism. Past offences shouldn't be automatic predictablity of future offending. Posted by: kat | Jul 3, 2016 10:05:43 AM Post a comment 19-year-old Indian national Tarishi Jain, a student at UC Berkeley who had just finished her sophomore year at the school, was one of the dead in a brutal mass shooting and hostage situation in Dhaka, Bangladesh Friday night. The killings took place in a business called Holey Bakery at nearly 11 p.m. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack. Per Bay City News: Jain was inside the bakery when a group of gunmen reportedly stormed the business, taking patrons hostage. After about 10 hours, Bangladeshi authorities were able to free the surviving hostages and reportedly killed six of the gunmen. Via Twitter, we have a statement from Indias Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj I am extremely pained to share that the terrorist have killed [Tarishi], an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka. I have spoken to her father Shri Sanjeev Jain and conveyed our deepest condolences. The country is with them in this hour of grief. I have spoken to her father Shri Sanjeev Jain and conveyed our deepest condolences.The country is with them in this hour of grief. Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 2, 2016 The Chronicle spoke to a friend of Jain's, 20-year-old Cal student Rebecca Dharmapalan, who said she met Jain in a South Asian studies class in the fall of 2015. Whats hitting me hard is that she wanted to see so much happen [in Bangladesh]," Dharmapalan said. "She was so passionate about creating change there. That was really my impression of her she wanted to do change, she wanted to do everything she could for the people." HONEY CREEK, Iowa | When a dairy farmer feels down, she goes out to pasture. Janna Feldman, 66, sits in the grass surrounded by her loving, loyal goats. Theres Truffles and Snickers and Skittles. They stand alongside a bunch of new nameless critters that go by numbers instead of candies since the herd has grown. They dont know the difference. As soon as they hear her voice, they answer in bleats. She greets them, Hi girlies. A few of the goats always give her kisses. They all come up to me and theyll all talk to me, she said. They have personalities. They really do. Not so much the sheep but the goats, definitely. Theyre the stars of Does and Divas Dairy, a pastoral farmstead nestled in the Loess Hills about 20 miles north of Omaha. The goats and sheep produce sweet, creamy milk that is handcrafted into cheeses, soaps and lotions. The artisan goods are sold at regional farmers markets, including Sioux Citys for the first time. Most people dont set out to do a dairy, Feldman said. There are no vacations, no days off and youve got to love doing dishes. For the first time in three years, Feldman finally hired outside help. Otherwise, her husband Tom, who works full-time at the University of Nebraska, and their son Matthew, Mr. GQ, got roped in to helping on the farm. This summer, she found two pre-veterinary students to milk and package cheese since Matthew got a job at a bank, where he happily wears a tie every day. On Tuesday morning, she put the college girls to work, mixing up batches of combined milk products. Feldman rolled a dab of fresh chevre between her thumb and forefinger for the official taste test. The garlic is good, but I think it needs more basil. Use the rest of this basil, she said, picking up a tube of green paste. Oh, thats dill. Dont use that. She instructed them to pack at least 5 ounces in each plastic container. I always give the customer a little bit more, she said. The dairy began with one goat. Her youngest daughter, whos about to turn 21, wishes her mother would stop telling this story, but the fact remains that Feldman bought the doe over 10 years ago in hopes of relieving her daughters digestive issues. She discovered that goat milk can be easier to stomach because it contains less lactose than cows milk and the fat globules are smaller. But still, she knew nothing about goats. Neither she nor her husband grew up on a farm. It was a learning experience all around for the goat and for us, she said. I didnt know that they were seasonal. Tom, remember when Id sit and milk and put the milk into a jar and put it in the snowbank to chill it? They will milk all year long. Its just that, as the year goes by, the milk gets less and less. There comes a time when youre getting like a cup of milk. Feldman retired from working in corporate administration and could have gone out to pasture, but instead, she opened a dairy with a neighbor in 2010. They began making cheese for the commercial market. The partnership ended abruptly within three years, leaving Feldman with a trip of goats. Bless his heart. This man is incredible, Feldman said, motioning to her husband who was washing dishes by the three-basin sink. I come home. Im devastated. Im crying and he goes, Well, lets just build our own. Perhaps little did he know that would mean milking, shoveling manure and mending fences, among other chores. Her days have gotten more hectic, too. She rises with the sun to feed a litter of puppies. Then, she goes over to the parlor to milk 25 goats and a dozen sheep. The does and divas get rounded up again in the afternoon. A good goat will produce at least 1 gallon of milk a day, which makes about 1 pound of cheese. Her sheep produce about half as much milk, but once she has a gallon, it can be processed into 3 pounds of cheese because of its dense, creamy texture. It is the best milk ever, she said. If I had known about sheep before I had goats, I would have done sheep 100 percent. Watching her out in the pen, nuzzling the affectionate animals, its doubtful shed ever give up her kids. SIOUX CITY | With the lowest Fourth of July gas prices in over a decade, AAA predicts it will encourage a record number of people to travel over the holiday weekend. Rebecca Steiger, 21, is one of those travelers. Although, the Dordt College student's trip to Pella, Iowa, this weekend for the fireworks is family motivated, the low gas prices are a bonus. "Cheap gas is always good, right?" she said while filling her 2002 Acura EL at the Kum & Go at 3808 Dakota Ave. in South Sioux City on Thursday. AAA on Monday said that during the Independence Day weekend -- Thursday to Monday, July 4 -- more than 43 million Americans are expected to travel, which is 5 million more than for Memorial Day weekend. AAA expects most U.S. drivers will pay the lowest Independence Day gas prices since 2005. Despite recent seasonal increases gas prices remain well below recent years for the summer months. Last year's national average at this time was $2.77 per gallon. As of Friday, the national average was $2.28. It's a nationwide drop where refiners are reportedly increasing output and gasoline supply has more than kept pace with growing demand, AAA said. Siouxland states are middle of the road compared to the national average. South Carolina is paying the lowest for gas, averaging $1.98 per gallon, while the West Coast states were shelling out close to $3 for a gallon, as of Friday. "I'm from Washington, and I look at the prices out there," Steiger said. "The Midwest should not be complaining." Sioux City is averaging $2.24 per gallon for regular fuel, which is less than Iowa's $2.28 average. One year ago, Iowa was at $2.70. South Dakota has the highest average of the Siouxland states at $2.35, but is much lower than it was a year ago, $2.73. Nebraska is averaging $2.30 per gallon for regular fuel, which is more than 30 cents lower than a year ago. To Steiger's point, the average price for a gallon of regular gas in Washington is $2.65. Nebraska also on July 1 lowered its fuel tax by a penny to 25.8 cents per gallon. The Cornhusker State conducts its gas tax calculation differently where it fluctuates every six months depending on the wholesale price of fuel. "Of course it would drop lower the day after I fill up," Janet Fett said while filling up her minivan at the same Kum and Go in South Sioux City Thursday. Fett plans on spending her long holiday weekend by driving to Lake Madison, South Dakota, which is about a two-hour drive, she said. "I've had worse (gas prices)... I remember when it was less than a dollar, and I remember when it was more than $4," the South Sioux City resident said. "A little more than $2? I can live with these prices." WASHINGTON -- Watching Hillary Clinton beaming sidewise on stage as Elizabeth Warren took her text on Donald Trump brought the Wrigley twin ditty to mind: Double your pleasure, double your fun, with double good, double good, Doublemint gum. Instead of two happy twins riding a tandem bicycle to celebrate chewing gum, the Clinton-Warren sixties sister-clones -- wearing blond bobs and shades of blue -- rode Trump with a gobsmacking double-punch. Railed the petite senator from Massachusetts: "Now, Donald Trump says he'll make America great again. ... It's stamped on the front of his goofy hat. You want to see goofy? Look at him in that hat." This was her way of topping Trump's repeated use of "goofy" to insult her. And: "When Donald Trump says 'great,' I ask: 'great for who, exactly?'" she said. "When Donald says he'll make America great, he means make it even greater for rich guys just like Donald Trump. ... That's who Donald Trump is. ... And watch out, because he will crush you into the dirt." And so the Twitter wars between a non-candidate and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee will likely continue. Doesn't Trump realize that he's the one running for president? Clinton's rally, the first to feature Warren, was followed by a sisterhood hug that only women can exchange. That simple embrace signified a new benchmark in women's and American history and changed the political narrative for all time. Not only can a woman win a major party's nomination but also it's possible that two women can team up as running mates. The idea that Warren might become Clinton's vice-presidential pick has been floating around for a while and is appealing if only for the prospect that two women could fill an entire presidential ticket. Warren certainly is as qualified as many men who have filled the role. She obviously doesn't mind serving as the attack dog for Clinton. And Warren may be the one grinding Trump into the dirt, invective for invective. In a word, she's fearless to his careless. Warren and Clinton haven't always been so cozy but, for the eternal record, women differ from one another in as many ways as men do. Warren is further to the left than Clinton ever meant to be. And she comes far more naturally to a populist message. While Clinton was being forced leftward by Bernie Sanders, Warren was continuing her years-long, progressive crusade. Her endorsement of Clinton and her new role as a rowdy, crowd-warming act constitute a bridge between Sanders supporters and the presumptive nominee they never wanted. Warren captures the anger and anti-1 percent angst of the liberal left and lays it like a wreath at the feet of the woman who would become the first female president. Warren is a peace offering who aims to wage war on Trump. And she's on to his greatest weakness. He can't take a ribbing and he can't stand being challenged by a woman. It gets under his skin like nothing else. Thus, when Warren says he looks goofy in a hat, he calls her Pocahontas (for her having said she has Native American blood.) Really, who cares? What's clear is that Warren won't back down no matter what Trump tosses her way. Speaking strictly as an observer, it seems that Trump may be losing his ranking as top draw in the political circus. If Warren stays on the stage, it's nearly assured that all eyes will be on her -- which might cause Clintonites some concern. Like Trump, Warren has that certain something that fills arenas and draws people to their feet. That's where the similarities end. A Harvard law professor before she ran for the U.S. Senate, Warren is smart, eloquent on consumer protection issues, and passionately committed to well-defined principles. One needn't agree with her to appreciate her vigor, as well as a steely-eyed softness that comes across in person. Unlike Trump, she's in possession of an agreeable personality. Even when yelling across a surging crowd, she manages to avoid sounding strident. Close up, she's warm, engaging and nonthreatening. Most important, she allows Clinton to step back from the fray and gives everyone a chance to imagine what a two-woman ticket could look like. Too much the same? Too soon for two? For whom? It may be true, as someone wrote me, that Clinton's greatest virtue is her opponent. But it's also plain that Warren is her greatest asset. Talk about a twofer. Cayuga Community College will host College for Kids and Teens, a series of educational classes for those ages 8 to 14 from July 11 through Aug. 5. A total of 38 classes will be offered on the college's Auburn and Fulton campuses. Each class is one week long, and new ones begin every Monday. Classes include The Girl Gamers Club, "Minecraft" Modders, SciExplorers, Food for Power and more. For more information, call (315) 294-8841 or visit cayuga-cc.edu/communityed. When learning how to build a successful business, many tips offer ways to find success, but not as much in the way of sustaining that success. So here are some tips from members of our small business community about how to build business success that actually lasts. Use Networking That Works Developing relationships and networking in your industry are both critical when growing a successful business. But not all networking opportunities are created equal. This OPEN Forum guide includes insights from various authors about networking that actually works. Learn What to Automate and What Not to Automate Automation can save you a lot of time in running your business. But taking those shortcuts dont always lead to sustainable business success. In this ilos Videos post, Jesse Bouman discusses some of the business tasks you can easily automate and others you might want to handle yourself. Avoid Attacks on Your Website Online attacks can really derail business success. To avoid those attacks and keep your businesss growth on track, check out this Tech.co post by Diogo Costa. And then see what members of the BizSugar community are saying here. Take a Successful Working Vacation Summer is a time for many people to take vacations. But for small business owners, leaving work behind entirely isnt always possible. Still, vacations can help in keeping you refreshed and ready to grow your business, especially if you use these tips from Lee Wilson in Search Engine Journal. Use Outsourcing to Grow Your Business When you first start a business, you might have to do pretty much everything yourself. But that isnt usually sustainable as your business grows. So you can choose to hire or outsource some of the tasks you need accomplished. Experts discuss the power of outsourcing in this CorpNet post by Felix Tarcomnicu. Avoid These Common Leadership Development Mistakes Strong leadership is an essential part of any successful business. But no one is automatically born a strong leader. When developing leadership qualities, you need to avoid some of the common mistakes that plague other leaders, like the ones listed in this PI Consulting Group post by Bob Clark. Increase Income from your Home Business Starting a business from home isnt just for brand new entrepreneurs anymore. Many have actually found long-term success while working from home. But if you want to increase your home business income, check out the tips in this post by Dawn Berryman from The Work at Home Woman. And then see what BizSugar members have to say about the post. Use This Visual Format for Link Building Link building doesnt look the same in 2016 as it did several years ago. Today, its more about creating really helpful visuals and creating relationships with other online authorities. Here, David McSweeney of the Ahrefs blog shares a visual technique you can use to improve your link building in 2016. Learn WordPress Before and After Launching Your Blog Blogging can be a great way to boost your content marketing plan. But since its a concept thats always changing, and no one just starts out as an expert blogger, you have to learn as you go. In this post, Neil Patel shares some resources you can use to learn about WordPress before and after youve launched your blog. Create a Content Marketing Strategy from Scratch Content marketing isnt a one-size-fits all approach. If you want a marketing strategy thats going to get sustainable results, you need to create your own content marketing strategy from scratch. This ExitBee post by Vanhishikha Bhargava includes some steps you can take to do just that. And BizSugar members discuss the post further here. 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 Success Photo via Shutterstock Get the latest headlines from Small Business Trends. Follow us on Google News. Zonta International is a leading global organization of professionals empowering women worldwide through service and advocacy. At the international level, Zonta is able to help educate thousands of women and men around the world on the importance of womens equality and nonviolence. There are several Sustainable Development Goals that we are trying to meet by 2030 with the United Nations, with whom we work closely. We hope to: End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere. Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation. Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage, and female genital mutilation. Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws. Can you even imagine living in a country where you may be born into a culture that not only condones, but makes female genital mutilation their custom? We have been very fortunate in the past, however, sex trade is no longer only in other countries. It is now here in the states and seems to be getting closer to home. Its not as interesting to read and then forget when it's right in your backyard. The Zonta Club of Auburn hosts several activates, year-round, to help with service projects locally. I want to talk a little about the advocacy we do here in Auburn, and how we partner with others in our community and how important each donation helps each organization. We have seen a great increase of domestic violence in Cayuga County in recent years. Thankfully, we are able to get support and direction from local organizations to assist women and families when this happens to one of us. Cayuga/Seneca Community Action Agency has been around since 1965 with programs, many more than I can list, but its domestic violence program has really touched many people in our community, from victims to the women in your local Zonta group who try to help. Not only do they have a 24-hour confidential hotline for all domestic violence calls, but many emergency safety services a person may need. Did you know they also have a 24-hour shelter that is staffed for women and children? They will help you find a safe place to stay, inform you of all your legal rights, and give you one-on-one and group support. There are medical and financial advocacies, transportation help and, of course, legal and court assistance. Domestic violence has been a growing headline story for many years. At last, help is at hand. CSCAA is there to assist people in need with the help of many people. For example, Zonta Club of Auburn recently donated funds last month to help assist mothers with their childrens needs. So, if a child needs a haircut, a new pair a sneakers or a week at camp, these funds are available. Auburn has an amazing group that, unfortunately, has come together for the past five years to raise money for the Socci Stiletto Stampede. This group has also donated funds to the CSCAA. The reason I say "unfortunately" is because we lost a young mother to domestic violence in order for this group to form and support her memory each year. An upcoming event, the Punishers, Cayuga & Guardian Belles of Wayne County Bike Run July 9, benefits CSCAA. Again, it's a group coming together to help families who have been affected in some way by domestic violence. There is also an intervention program, a transitional housing program, and visitation and safe exchange center. One thing you can learn from any service group in Auburn is knowing that working together as a group big or small any sort of help can make a huge difference in someones life. You may think a few cents in your purse doesnt go very far. Imagine 30 women sitting at five tables one evening, collecting all the loose change from the bottoms of their purses and adding it up. How much do you think it comes up to? $253.82. Not bad if you ask me. Not bad if you need to buy food for a family that just lost their home in a fire. What about new sheets or locks for a new home? Even formula for a newborn child. Little things in life add up, and so does change from the bottom of your purse. Giving is a choice, helping is a privilege. This week at NASA: Space launch booster test, Juno at Jupiter and more. NASA On June 28, the booster for NASAs Space Launch System (SLS) rocket was fired up for a major two-minute full-duration qualification ground test at Orbital ATK Propulsion Systems test facilities in Promontory, Utah. Engineers will evaluate test data on the motors performance using cold propellant, the steering operation of its redesigned nozzle, and other operational data to help qualify the booster for flight. This is the last time the booster will be fired in a test environment before its used for the first uncrewed test flight of SLS with NASAs Orion spacecraft, known as Exploration Mission-1, in late 2018. Also, SLS Test Hardware Arrives at Marshall, Juno Arrives at Jupiter July 4th, Test Lab Launched to Streamline Air Travel, Russian Docking System Tested on ISS, and NASA 2016 Agency Honor Award Distinguished Honorees. Presumed to be a portion of the body of the founder of Buddhism, the remains consist of a parietal bone from a skull recovered, along with the remains of other monks, in Nanjing, China, according to a report in the Chinese Cultural Relics journal. The discovery was made during a 2007-2010 crypt excavation under the ancient Grand Baoen Temple. In its new writings, the Chinese cultural media outlet stated that the parietal bone was found inside a golden casket that had, in turn, been placed inside a silver casket. The arrangement of caskets was said to have been stored in a larger case modeled on the design of a stupa, a structure that normally serves as a reliquary or meditation chamber. A skull bone that may have belonged to the Buddha discovered inside model stupa in China https://t.co/ryQxQx3VdL pic.twitter.com/o8gJ4FFZX2 Archaeology Magazine (@archaeologymag) July 1, 2016 The four-foot by foot-and-a-half stupa-shaped sandalwood box, as well as the silver and gold caskets, are reportedly decorated with engraved images of birds and gemstones, including agate and lapis lazuli. Researchers said the stupa-shaped container had been placed inside a metal box hidden in a stone chest. TOKYO (Sputnik) Japanese citizens are likely to be among hostages taken by armed men inside a popular cafe in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Saturday. "Citizens of Japan may be among the hostages taken in Bangladesh. We are checking information," Suga said at an emergency press conference in Tokyo. On Friday, Daesh terrorist group outlawed in Russia reportedly claimed responsibility for hostage taking inside the cafe located in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter, which also reportedly left up to 40 people injured and two police officers dead. Earlier it has been reported that Japaneze or Italian citizens were likely among the hostages. According to the Japanese foreign minister, a group of experts representing the center on countering international terrorism established in December at the country's foreign ministry has already headed for Bangladesh. TOKYO (Sputnik) Earlier, Japan's Foreign Ministry sent anti-terror experts to Bangladesh over fears that Japanese nationals may be among hostages taken in Dhaka. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) reportedly said it had not been able to contact eight of the Japanese 68 staff it employs in the Bangladeshi capital. The Japanese citizen rescued from the restaurant has received a gunshot wound, while the remaining seven are still being contacted, according to Hagiuda. On Friday, Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for hostage taking inside a cafe located in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter. He added that most of the victims were Japanese and Italian. Earlier it was reported that a group of armed people have attacked a restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka and taken hostages. ROME (Sputnik) On Friday, Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for taking hostages inside a cafe located in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter. The attackers killed 20 people with sharp objects, Bangladeshi army spokesman Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said, as quoted by the Dhaka Tribune newspaper. A special police operation to free the hostages has finished, according to local media reports. A total of 13 people have been rescued, while six attackers were killed and one captured, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, as quoted by the Dhaka Tribune newspaper. The Bangladeshi police lost two officers during the operation, according to reports. ROME (Sputnik) On Friday, Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for taking hostages inside a cafe located in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter. Some media outlets quoted the Bangladeshi army as saying that all of those killed were foreigners, mainly Italian and Japanese citizens. "Minister Mahmud Ali took on the responsibility to provide minister Gentiloni with information about the fate of the Italian citizens as soon as possible," the ministry said in a statement. ROME (Sputnik) According to the Askanews agency, one Italian national managed to escape from the restaurant. Earlier it was reported that seven Italians were taken hostage in Dhaka. MOSCOW (Sputnik) On Friday, Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for taking hostages inside a cafe located in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter. Some media outlets quoted the Bangladeshi army as saying that almost all of those killed were foreigners, mostly Italian and Japanese citizens. "According to the Russian Embassy in Bangladesh, there are no Russian citizens among the victims We express our sincere condolences to the victims' families and wish speedy recovery to the injured," the ministry said. WASHINGTON Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos is convinced that his department might have prevented the 2011 shooting of then-Rep. Gabby Giffords if it had the mental health resources it does now. We learned after the fact that he (shooter Jared Loughner) had been standing there in his house talking to a blank wall, Nanos said. Maybe that MHST (Mental Health Support Team) team would have been able to divert him and get him the help he needed before anything happened. Thats why Nanos is excited about the Data-Driven Justice Initiative unveiled Thursday by the White House, which includes a focus on mental health as one of three prongs of an effort to reduce local jail populations. Nanos department is one of three Arizona police agencies along with the Flagstaff Police Department and Coconino County Sheriffs Department that have committed to the program, along with 64 other agencies around the nation. Coconino Superior Court Judge Dan Slayton, head of the county's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, said Friday he is excited about another of the program's tools -- developing and sharing data on the most effective intervention and diversion strategies. He and Flagstaff City Court Administrator Don Jacobson said the mental health courts already in place will gain access to previously restricted medical information and have more complete case histories -- pre- and post-treatment -- analyzed by researchers at NAU and elsewhere. That will allow police and the courts to identify patterns of behavior in offenders with mental health and substance abuse problems that could lead to diverting them from jail early in the process into treatment that would lead to less recidivism -- and lower cost to taxpayers. The White House program calls on agencies to train officers to handle mental health crises, urges police and health officials to share data on people who have crossed their paths recently, and encourages use of data-based tools to assess risk and release low-risk people awaiting trial in jail simply because they cant make bail. White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett said on a press call Thursday that she hopes to have more than 100 police agencies committed to the program by the end of the year, calling criminal justice reform a top priority for the Obama administration. The White House said scores of private tech firms, large and small, have already committed to assist with data elements of the program. Knoxville, Tennessee, Police Chief David Rausch welcomed the programs focus on changing the way police handle mental health issues. We cant arrest ourselves out of these problems, Rausch said on the White House call. But Nanos said hes already seen the benefits in his county. After the Loughner attack which killed six people and injured 13 the Pima sheriffs office created the Mental Health Support Team. It aims to divert mentally ill people who are in crisis to behavioral health or social services, rather than arresting them. A lot of these people need nothing more than just some medical attention, Nanos said of those the team helps. Nanos cited one young man in particular as a success story for the mental health team. We were receiving almost daily (911) calls from him for three to four weeks, Nanos said. MHST got involved and found out the issue was with his case worker. The team called local mental health authorities, who switched out his case manager. Nanos said the man never called again. Nanos said Pimas program is different from most in that, in addition to the support team, mental health training is included in police academy training for officers coming into the department. They need to be prepared coming out of the academy, Nanos said. I have an academy of 40 young men and women. None of them wanted to become psychiatrists, but theyre going to have to deal with mental illness on the job. The Pima County department is also trying to reduce the number of inmates by working with local mental health service agencies to intervene before mentally ill people end up in jail. We see too many that come in here for nothing more than substance abuse problems or minor misdemeanors, Nanos said. This really is a medical problem, not a criminal one. Nanos said the program is an innovative, but also extremely simple, solution to an important problem. I can either ask my taxpayers for another quarter of a million dollars to build another jail, or I can look and say, Huh, whos in my jail? Nanos said. But above all, he said the program is about protecting public safety. This is about the safety of the public as a whole, Nanos said. The majority of mass shootings have an element of mental illness. VATICAN (Sputnik) The letter was sent by Vatican's Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin in the name of Pope Francis who deemed the Dhaka terrorist attack "mad violence against innocent victims." "With all my heart I express my condolences and denounce these barbaric acts as an insult to God and humanity," the letter read. On Friday, Daesh, banned in Russia, claimed responsibility for taking hostages inside a cafe located in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter. According to the latest data, the attack has left 20 people dead, while 13 hostages have been rescued by the country's security forces. Most of the victims are foreigners, according to reports. ROME (Sputnik) Gentiloni told reporters that no data had been received yet over the tenth Italian, who had been in the restaurant during the attack. On Friday, Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for taking hostages inside a cafe located in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter. Some media outlets quoted the Bangladeshi army as saying that almost all of those killed were foreigners, mostly Italian and Japanese citizens. Earlier, the Bangladeshi army said that at least 20 people had been killed by the hostage takers before the Bangladeshi security forces began their operation to free hostages. People marry cows too (sometimes) In 2013, a man in India made up his mind to marry a cow and even videotaped the whole ceremony where the fiancee wore a simple flower garland and a blanket. The bridegroom who had secured prior agreement to wed an animal by his grandmother, apparently opted for a bovine spouse after failing to find the right woman to marry. Would you kill me? Killing a cow in India is a crime, which carries a prison term of up to five years. Exporting cows for the purpose of slaughter is also a crime. An estimated 2 million cows are annually smuggled into neighboring Bangladesh each year and about 1,000 cow smugglers have been killed by Indian border guards during the past decade alone. So why put your life on the line when you can simply cuddle these adorable animals? Drink cow urine and stay healthy! Cow urine is widely used in Indian Ayurvedic medicine and drinking it is believed to purify the body, slow down aging, destroy harmful cells, repair damaged DNA and even cure cancer. And it is a potent antibiotic too! Cow dung festivals Cow dung is widely used in India as fertilizer and as a source of bio-gas energy for households. No wonder that cow dung festivals are so popular there. Bovine crap is called gobar, which has prompted some to say India has a gobar economy. Minister of cows India has recently appointed Otaram Devasi as the countrys first Minister of Cows in a bid to protect the sacred animals. With the countrys once 100-strong herd of indigenous cows now down to just 36 and the Indian Desi breed almost extinct, one can only wish the Minister of Cows luck in preserving this holy animal. KIEV (Sputnik) In June, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said that the country expects to receive a total of $1.7 billion from the IMF in 2016. "We had a year-long break in cooperation with the IMF. And my main task as an authorized negotiator is to return to active cooperation with the IMF. The prime minister and the president fully support me in this. We have resumed cooperating, this is a clear signal from the IMF indicating that they support our plans and actions. We will further proceed in accordance with the timetable agreed on with the IMFOur chief concern is to implement our reform program and to finally bolster the country's economy. So we will receive three tranches by the end of the year," Danylyuk said in an interview with Ukraine's Zerkalo Nedeli newspaper, published on Saturday. On March 11, the IMF approved a four-year program of financial aid to Ukraine, which stipulates a $17.5 billion loan over the next four years. The Ukrainian government has to implement new economic policies for the IMF to disburse the funds. "The bottom line is that very few investors were positioned for the vote we got," Nicholas Colas, chief markets strategist at Convergex, told the newspaper. The S&P Global Broad Market Index (BMI) fell nearly 6.9 percent, the worst two-day decline since the 2008 housing crisis and 12th worst on record, the article read. Moreover, the S&P 500 lost nearly $1 trillion. Developed markets lost a total of $2.8 trillion in the two post-Brexit days while emerging markets lost $179 billion. "The momentous UK Brexit vote to leave the European Union has led to a spike in global financial market volatility and a flight to safety due largely to concerns about the durability of the European Union and the euro, and US stocks have suffered from the resulting 'risk-off' environment," Michael Reilly, chief investment officer for equities at TCW, was quoted as saying by The Financial Times. Analysts and investors noted that due to instability it was hard to predict when the markets would rebound. One of the main Brexit consequences for the market is that investors will get rid of risky assets and will flock to gold and other safe havens, Peter Oppenheimer, a Goldman Sachs analyst, told Forbes. "Political instability is likely to remain and will affect the market. This uncertainty may undermine the weak recovering of the eurozone economy," Neil MacKinnon, a strategist at VTB Capital, was quoted as saying by RBK. At the same time, Brexit has had limited impact on Russian markets. "The intention of the UK to exit the European Union (Brexit) has so far had limited impact on Russian markets As a result of Brexit, Russian financial markets are running the risk of stronger volatility," the Russian Central Banks Research and Forecasting Department said in a bulletin. According to the news agency DHA, the terrorist attack on the airport that left 44 people dead and over 200 injured, was carried out by three suicide bombers from Uzbekistan, Chechnya (Russia) and Kirgizia. The terrorist from Dagestan reportedly arrived in Turkey about a month ago. Sputnik has learned that after a series of operations by Turkish security forces, Daesh, which had earlier used Turkish nationals in its terror attacks in Ankara, Diyarbakir, Suruc and Gaziantep, started using foreigners who were either unknown to or were not being watched by Turkish intelligence. Turkish police shadowed Daesh militants but did not interfere In an interview with Radio Sputnik Mahmut Togrul, a parliamentary deputy from the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party, said that the Turksh authorities were lagging behind in the fight against Daesh which now has a base in the countrys western Gaziantep province. We kept warning [the authorities] that their failure to secure the Djerablus-Aazaz line and sever the terrorists links to the outside world was fraught with big problems, Mahmut Togrul said. According to official information, the Turkish security agencies have been watching Daesh terrorists every step since 2012 but have never interfered. They also listened to all of their communications, for example the Daesh commander overseeing the jihadists cross-border movements, but did nothing to prevent this happening, he added. Turkey supports Daesh against Kurdish YPG forces Mahmut Togrul accused Turkey of providing assistance to Daesh terrorists in their fight against Kurdish self-defense forces in Syria. Turkish police never tried to stand up to Daesh terrorists. Moreover, they helped them fight the Kurdish self-defense units. The Turks have since changed their tactic, but those who shadowed the terrorists but never interfered are also responsible for what happened in Istanbul, Mahmut Togrul said. Daesh supporters fall victim to jihadist attacks Russias fight against Daesh is absolutely justified. The world must stand up the Daesh. Those who are turning a blind eye to the terrorists actions today will become their victims tomorrow. The international community can effectively fight Daesh only by helping the Syrian people and their armed forces, Mahmut Togrul said. Daesh cells in Turkey could have been destroyed Eren Erdem, an MP representing the opposition Republican Peoples Party, said that the attack on Ataturk airport in Istanbul was the result of the Ankaras open doors policy towards the jihadists. This policy poses a serious threat to our people. Our fraction proposed setting up a commission to look into the details of the terrorist act in Istanbul, but it was turned down by the ruling Justice and Development Party, he said. Turkey needs to join the fight against Daesh because if it does not we will have to pay a high price. Daesh is a threat to all Turkey. Russias fight against Daesh is a fight against barbarity In September 2015, President Vladimir Putin said that terrorists from Russia and some other former Soviet republics going to fight in Syria posed a serious security threat to Russian citizens. Instead of waiting for them to come back, we need to destroy them before they do, Putin emphasized. Commenting on the Russian Presidents words and on the Russian aerial campaign in Syria, Eren Erdem said: Russia is bombing Daesh positions in Syria. This is a fight against barbarity and, therefore, is fully justified and necessary, he said. US tries to redraw the regional map under the pretext of the war on terror Fighting terrorism is a global imperative, but this war should have its boundaries. Under the pretext of fighting terrorists the US is trying to redraw the regional map. This is an inadmissible policy, we should support the international coalitions fight against terrorism, nothing more. We need Turkish airstrikes on Daesh positions in Syria and Turkish cross-border operations against terrorists. With the current normalization between Russia and Turkey, our concerted effort would help restore people in the region. It is the duty of every modern country to fight jihadists and destroy their positions, because Daesh is a threat to the whole world, Eren Erdem emphasized. Im sure that our process of normalization will be fast and productive. Britains decision to exit the EU, Russias relations with Germany and the US, their contacts with Turkey all this has set the stage for our rapprochement with Russia. Im optimistic about the future of our bilateral contacts, Huseyin Sahin emphasized. Speaking about the impact this normalization of ties could have on the energy cooperation between the two countries, he mentioned such major projects as the Turkish Stream and the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline Russia is a country with vast natural resources, while Turkey is a bridge connecting Europe with Africa and the Middle East. We want to benefit from this. Im certain that by restoring ties our two countries will be able to gain much by promoting our mutually-beneficial energy cooperation, Huseyin Sahin noted. He said that he expected work on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline to resume shortly because every such joint project cemented economic ties and mutual trust between its participants. I believe that the shared desire for a compromise demonstrated by Presidents Erdogan and Putin will result in a more efficient cooperation between our two countries which, in turn, will have a positive impact on relations between other nations as well, Huseyin Sahin said in conclusion. TBILISI (Sputnik) Sweden along with Finland were invited to the upcoming July 8-9 NATO summit in Poland as non-aligned states. "We already have close ties with NATO through exercises. I believe that the level that we are now is quite good and we will continue on that path but as It looks like today, I don't think the Sweden's NATO application is in the near future," Peter Jeppsson said. In May and earlier in June, Finland and Swedens foreign and defense ministers took part, for the first time ever, in NATO ministerial talks in Brussels. Since the 1960s, the UN has been deploying its police forces in different peace operations. Now, the UN Police acts a corrective power with domestic police and other law enforcement agencies. The UN Police acts at a mandate of the UN, thus by agreement of a certain UN member state. The UN does not have its own police and military forces, and member states contribute their forces to the UN Police. It can operate in any UN member state. Police officers of any member state can be deployed to the UN Police. Frontex Currently, Frontex, a European border security agency, is undergoing major reforms. Previously it relied on coast guards provided by the EU members but now it will have a permanent corps of border guards. It will be deployed to help countries which have difficulties securing their borders. The corps will operate across the EU and will be able to act even without authorization of a certain country in the event of a serious crisis. Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization is an intergovernmental organization facilitating cooperation between national police forces. It involved the police forces of 190 countries. Interpol coordinated national police forces, including in fighting cybercrimes, terrorism, and organized crime. Interpol does not have own forces. Police officers of any country members can be sent to the organization. Europol The European Police Office is the law enforcement agency of the European Union. It handles criminal intelligence and combats serious organized crime by coordinating actions of the relevant authorities of the member states. Europol also does not have own forces. Personnel of national law enforcement agencies are seconded to work in the organization. UN peacekeepers (Blue Helmets) The UN peacekeeping forces comprise civil and military personnel seconded by UN country members. But Blue Berets usually refers to military forces. Currently, nearly 120,000 personnel from 114 countries, including 18,000 civil personnel, are involved in 16 UN peacekeeping missions around the world. The Blue Helmets are deployed at a mandate from the UN, thus by agreement of the certain country. NATO Originally established as a defense military alliance of the United States and Western Europe, NATO has been conducting military operations with and without UN authorization. NATO does not have its own forces. Its capabilities depend on contribution of the member states. European Union Force (EUFOR) EUFOR is the closest to a European army. In fact, it is a staff coordinating forces seconded by its main country members, including France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg, and Poland. The decision to deploy forces is made by the five main country members. The decision may be independent or at the request from the EU, UN, NATO, and OSCE. EUFOR does not have its own forces. Its personnel can be deployed around the world. The terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels give enough reasons for concerns. The Istanbul massacre also raises a lot of questions. "So far it remains unknown who committed the massacre at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport. No one has claimed responsibility. But the attack in the Turkish capital resembles the handwriting of the terrorist organization Islamic State [Daesh]," the newspaper wrote. On Tuesday evening, three suicide blasts rocked the international terminal of Istanbul's Ataturk international airport killing over 40 people. Initial indications suggest that Daesh is responsible for the terrorist attack, though the investigation is still underway. "[The choice] of the scene corresponds to the current tactics of the IS. The attack on the third largest airport on the continent, which millions of Europeans know as a transit node, causes fear far beyond the borders of Turkey, and thus attracts even more attention," the newspaper wrote. Earlier, German media reported that Germany is one of the main targets of Daesh terrorists. The attacks in Paris and Brussels have demonstrated that the terrorists are capable of conducting complex operations and have high-level planning skills, Frankfurter Rundschau wrote. "The so-called Islamic State has been weakened in Syria and Iraq," Holger Munch, president of the Federal Criminal Police (BKA) said, cited by the newspaper. "The terror group is thus under pressure and needs spectacular actions to attract attention and demonstrate power," he added. Nevertheless, despite the unresolved armed conflict in the east of the country and serious economic problems Ukraine sees itself in the European Union in ten years. That was said by the new head of the Kiev government, Vladimir Groisman, in an interview with German media group Funke Mediengruppe. "I am convinced that Ukraine will be in the EU in ten years," Groisman said. "We go the European way, and it means for us: freedom, human rights and a strong economy." Groisman referred to the Association Agreement with the EU as a driving force for reforms in his country. "We need to align our standards with those of the EU," he said. "There already happened a lot especially in the fight against corruption," Groisman added. According to the politician, Ukraine has managed to reach a high level of transparency in government spending. However, the former Soviet republic is still classified by Transparency International as the most corrupt country in Europe. Another issue hampering Ukraine's accession talks with the EU are the results of a referendum in the Netherlands during which over 61 percent of Dutch voters rejected the EU-Ukraine association deal. TBILISI (Sputnik) On Thursday, May launched her campaign to head the Conservative Party, and as a result become the new UK prime minister. "My support would [be] for the current Home Secretary Theresa May. The procedures may be shortened if we have one strong candidate. It would clearly be very good for the party and the country if we have pass times of uncertainty sooner rather than later," Lord Peter Bowness said on the sidelines of the ongoing OSCE PA annual meeting in Tbilisi. According to the recent Sky Data Snap Poll opinion poll, May is the most preferred candidate for Tory leadership and the prime minister's office, as she potentially has 47 percent of Tory votes. No matter what happens, nothing will change for Kosovo. After Brexit some people are now inventing all kinds of scenarios to sell the public on, but the hard fact is that Britains exit from the EU is bad for Kosovo since London was one of the main supporters of Kosovos bid to join the EU. He said that if London agrees to let Scotland go, then Serbia will recognize Scotland. Conversely, if Catalonia votes to leave without a greenlight from Madrid, then Serbia will not recognize this. Even before announcing its referendum on leaving the EU, Britain said it was against Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro joining the EU warning that their admission would do more harm than good. The day after Brexit the General Secretary of the European Movement International Petros Fassoulas said that it would slow down EU enlargement as the bloc would have to sort out its own problems first. BERLIN (Sputnik) Maassen stressed, however, that most of them were killed or arrested. "There is strong evidence that17 people have arrived under Daesh's instructions," Maassen told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. In Ovakent, 90 percent populated by Uzbeks who settled down in Turkey in the early 1980s, there is a number of madrassas once opened by Abdullah Buhari, the founder of the Society of Religious Assistance and Solidarity, who was later killed. Abdullah Buhari came here from Pakistan and spent five or six years living in Ovakent where he served as an imam in the local mosque and taught a Koranic school. Before very long many people from Uzbekiatan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan staretd coming in. Many of us here became suspicious and Abdullah said he would move to Istanbul where he would feel free to teach those who kept coming to him, Abdulsukur Mert told Sputnik. He added that after spending a couple of days in Ovakent, the new arrivals from Uzbekiatan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan then left for Syria to study at the local religious schools in Damascus. Soon after Buhari left town the war broke out in Syria. We later learned that many of those who had arrived here from Uzbekiatan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan were heading to Syria to join the ranks of either the opposition or Daesh, Abdulsukur Mert said. VATICAN (Sputnik) The Pope's video was sent to participants of the Christian manifestation titled 'Together for Europe' which was held in Munich from June 30 to July 1, and was closed with the Outdoor Rally event held in Munichs Karlsplatz earlier today. "We need to change! Europe is called upon to reflect and to ask itself whether its enormous heritage should go to the museum, or it is still capable to inspire culture and give its treasure to humanity," the Pope said. He added that Europe is a part of a difficult and highly-paced world, which is getting more globalized and less Euro-centric. KIEV (Sputnik) Valentyn Lykholit, the founder and ex-commander of volunteer Aidar group, was earlier arrested and sentenced to two month in prison. The protesters brought a tent to Khreschatyk, where the Pechersky District Court is located, and promised to block the traffic. Lykholit is suspected of creating a gang and multiple cases of robberies. Lykholit himself considers his case to be biased. "Law enforcement officers are carrying out a pre-investigation check over the fact of blocking of traffic on the central street of the capital People, dissatisfied with the court decision, have blocked the vehicular traffic in both directions of the Khreschatyk street at about 11:30 a.m. [08:30 GMT]," the police said in a statement. TBILISI (Sputnik) On Tuesday evening, three suicide blasts rocked the Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport, leaving 44 people dead and more than 200 injured. Turkish media citing sources in the prosecutor's office reported that the terrorist act was masterminded by Russian citizen of Chechen origin Ahmed Chatayev who was long wanted by the Russian authorities for terrorism-related offenses but has escaped to Europe and avoided extradition to Russia after being granted political asylum. "Everyone is currently expressing condolences to Turkey for the terrorist attack that occurred, and that is duly. We also sympathize as what happened was terrible. But let's look at what is objectively happening Russia has been requesting extradition of the terrorist attack organizer for some 13 years. We had all the opportunities to prevent the terrorist attack in Istanbul. The only thing needed was to cooperate," Kovalev said. According to Kovalev, Chatayev received political asylum in Austria after claiming that he had lost an arm as a result of torture in Russian camps. Kovalev also said that Chatayev was detained with arms on the Ukrainian territory but was found not guilty and was handed over to Georgia. Replying to the question of whether Brexit had an effect on the court's decision, the expert said the consequences of the British referendum for Austria could be ambivalent. On the one hand, Britain's decision could influence the majority of Austrians who are in favor of staying in the EU and make them even more "pro-EU." But on the other hand, the referendum could be beneficial for Austria's Freedom Party "which is very much anti-EU and which has already called for an Austrian referendum." Following the victory of the Eurosceptics during the British referendum, many EU critics started rapidly gaining popularity across Europe. Austria is not the only EU member state which is leaning toward a right-wing course. According to the expert, the popularity of right-wing parties across Europe can be explained by two factors. YEREVAN (Sputnik) On Friday, lower house of the French Parliament approved an amendment to the bill titled "Equality and Citizenship" initiated by the French government, which stipulates a punishment for the Armenian Genocide denial. "According to the document, the law "Equality and Citizenship" will be amended to provide for the criminalization of denial of genocides and crimes against humanity, including the denial of the Armenian genocide. We hope that the Senate will also approve the bill and that it will become a law. Thus, France will make another important and significant step in the prevention of genocide and crimes against humanity," Nalbandian said. Pine Forest Charter Schools Cedar Avenue campus became a center of cultural exchange Friday when 25 young African leaders visited the campus for a day of community service. The African visitors are recipients of the Mandela Washington Fellowship, part of President Barack Obamas Young African Leadership Initiative. The program selects 1,000 applicants, between ages 25 and 35 from various countries in Africa to attend a seven-week program in the United States, Dana Newell, the Assistant Dean of the College of Public Service and Community Solutions at Arizona State University said. The fellows are already leaders in their fields in Africa, including engineers, civil servants, teachers and entrepreneurs. Newell said the program began in 2014, and this year 52,000 people applied for the 1,000 slots. In the group of 50 fellows at ASU, 30 countries were represented. The fellows will spend six weeks in the ASU residential program and the seventh week is spent in Washington, D.C., where they will listen to the President and First Lady speak and attend other events and conferences there. Newell said the program requires fellows to complete five days of community service. As a Flagstaff native, she has chosen to bring them up north each year, and this year they volunteered to work on the new Pine Forest campus. The fellows teamed up with teachers, parents and students from Pine Forest to pull weeds and plant trees at the campus, and after lunch, the groups pulled out some traditional drums to have a jam session together. We take instruments wherever we go, Newell said. Music is a big part of the program and their culture. Josephine Marie Godwyll, one of the fellows from Ghana, is an engineer and social entrepreneur in her home country. Godwyll said she realized a need for digital and technological training in rural areas in her country, so she founded Young at Heart Ghana, which takes heritage elements from rural areas, like storytelling, and creates educational software to improve childrens digital literacy. We organized volunteers to teach basic computer skills, she said. We learned rural communities have a rich culture through stories, so we complied the stories and formed software. We have sessions on reading comprehension, we have math sessions, and children learn to interact with the software. Godwyll said it was enlightening to see the teaching philosophies and parent and community involvement at Pine Forest. When you involve the community in teaching and learning, the students learn more, she said. The parents are in touch with what the child is learning, so they can easily pick it up if the child needs help at home. Godwyll said the whole fellowship was an opportunity for her to understand other cultures, even those of other African communities. Its been a wonderful opportunity, she said. You cant underestimate how much you can learn from cultural interaction. Ive learned so much from the other people, even though I am from an African country myself. Pine Forest Principal Michael Heffernan said the group pulled up weeds on the school grounds and planted three trees, which will stay on the campus as a reminder of the experience for the students, families and fellows. Heffernan said he invited members of the Pine Forest community to attend through social media, and said some people even without students at the school showed up to help with the community service. After the planting, fellows taught community members some traditional songs and dances. I was so excited, the first thing that popped into my head was to pull out the drums and do some music together, Heffernan said. The kids and the adults and the visitors will always remember this. VILNIUS (Sputnik) According to Olekas, the details of the Netherlands' contribution and other countries' joining the alliance's battalions may become clear at the next NATO Summit in Warsaw, due to take place on July 8-9. "The Netherlands sent us a clear message that it is ready to join us. It was clearly stated at the meeting of NATO Defense Ministers [held on June 14-15, 2016 in Brussels]," Olekas told BNS news agency. Olekas added that "Germany will lead the battalion in Lithuania, Canada in Latvia, the Great Britain in Estonia and the United States in Poland." According to Pofalla, the relations between NATO and Russia develop in a spiral manner. The expert was referring to the never-ending circle "of reactions, responses and new responses" that lead to further alienation between the two parties. In an interview with the magazine, Pofalla suggested NATO countries should "accompany their decision to strengthen the forces of the alliance in Poland and the Baltics by a number of conditions." "NATO could initially limit the term of its military buildup to one year. If the ceasefire in the east of Ukraine is implemented and a legally binding truce comes into force, the alliance could again weaken its military presence," the expert said. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Earlier in the day, Russian Defense Ministry announced that the next NATO-Russia Council at permanent representatives level is scheduled for July 13, 2016 after NATO's summit in the Polish capital of Warsaw, scheduled for July 8-9. "I personally do not expect any concrete results from the NATO-Russia Council meeting. In this case, we are heading to it with not a very good luggage. It is obvious that Russia can not be not disturbed with, to put it mildly, unfriendly gestures of the alliance in the former Warsaw Pact states," Franz Klintsevich said. Klintsevich added that the upcoming NATO-Russia Council is "unlikely to reach any concrete decisions capable of preventing incidents in the Mediterranean and the Baltic region," but noted that the contact on this level should be maintained and developed. KIEV (Sputnik) Earlier in the day, Poroshenko said that Kiev and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will prepare a comprehensive package of assistance to Ukraine at the NATO summit in Warsaw scheduled for July 8-9. "335 million dollars from the United States are directed towards the allocation of this aid. This step is important in the context of the ongoing US Congress review of the bill for the additional allocation of 500 million dollars from the US. We sincerely look forward to further strengthening our cooperation," Poroshenko said. Since 2014, the United States has been providing training and defensive military equipment to Ukraines security forces, and in late 2015 began training the countrys special forces. BEIRUT (Sputnik) Syria's government forces have been repulsing numerous attacks of the Jaish al-Fatah militant group outlawed in Russia in Aleppo's northern suburbs for two days in a row, a Sputnik correspondent reported. An officer of the Syrian army told Sputnik that the terrorists were bearing significant losses. According to the Syrian military, the army has managed to regain control over part of the territory seized by the terrorists. Foreign militants, including citizens of Turkey, Arab countries and other states, have been taking part in the offensive that started on Wednesday. SUQAYLABIYAH (Sputnik) The delivery had been organized in coordination with local authorities, he added, noting that priority was given to families of those killed in fighting, as well as disabled people, the elderly, women and children. "The center has delivered five and a half tonnes of food, which include the most essential items, flour, rice, food rations," reconciliation center representative Ruslan Tokarev told reporters. "As a peacekeeping country, we are first and foremost helping the population to help them survive the war and reach victory," Tokarev said. MOSCOW (Sputnik) On Friday, a rocket launched from Gaza landed inside Sderot, damaging an empty kindergarten building. No casualties were reported and no one has claimed responsibility for the attack. "In response to the rocket attack that hit Sderot last night IAF targeted 4 sites in Gaza, components of #Hamas' operational infrastructure," IDF spokesman Peter Lerner said in his official Twitter account. Sderot is one of the closest Israeli towns to the Israeli-Gaza border, and lies within a 15-second grad rocket range from the enclave. MOSCOW (Sputnik) A senior military commander of the Islamic State (Daesh) terrorist group was killed during the operation launched by the Iraqi army near the city of Khaldiya in the Iraqi province of Anbar, commander of the Iraqi army's operations in Anbar Ismail Mahlavi said Saturday. "[Iraqi army] with the support of the international coalition's aircraft and the [Iraqi] Air Forces managed to kill ten Daesh militants in Khaldiya province, including one of the Daesh leaders, known as Abu Safha Libi," Mahlavi told Alsumaria broadcaster. On Saturday, Iraqi army launched a military operation to liberate province of Khaldiya from Daesh terrorists. The expert suggested that the initiative would force the US to strengthen its naval force in the Pacific. "The Americans see that when an airfield is built on Matua Russias long-range aviation would significantly increase its capabilities in the region. I think there will be some response from the US. For example, it may strengthen its military force in the region. Washington may also intensify military cooperation with Japan and South Korea," he said. Konovalov assumed that a new military alliance in the Pacific may be established. "The military and political situation would change, taking into account standoff between Japan and China and tensions between the US and China. A new military alliance may be established, including Australia. It would comprise Washingtons allies, but not members of NATO. This scenario is possible," he suggested. The fifth-generation stealth fighter jet arrived at an air force base in Gloucestershire on Wednesday night to great national fanfare. The multi-function jet comes replete with both vertical and standard take off options allowing it to conduct missions in various terrain environments. The fighter jet has come under scrutiny in recent years as the budget for the fighter jet continues to creep perilously higher. The F-35 comes in at a cost of $150 million ( 100 million) per aircraft, but has been saddled with continuous delays, system malfunctions, and safety issues. On Saturday, the US State Department issued a statement that at least one US citizen has been identified among the 20 victims killed in the terror attack at a Bangladesh restaurant. "We can confirm that a US citizen was also among those senselessly murdered in this attack," the department said in the statement. No other details have been provided on the US citizen or their purpose of business in the country. The Daesh terror network claimed responsibility for the attacks as they were unfolding releasing sensitive images from of the deceased inside the restaurant. Those images have been authenticated by national press outlets. The initial vote by the Brazilian lower house was led by Eduardo Cunha, a notoriously corrupt politician exposed in the Panama Papers for using offshore accounts to mask massive kickbacks from the countrys industrial sector and who is believed to have dozens of Swiss Bank accounts for the same purpose. Indications inside of Brazil are that Cunha bribed his fellow legislators to secure a vote in favor of referring the impeachment proceedings to the Brazilian Senate into the caring arms of PMDB Party ally Renan Calheiros. This bid was nearly trounced at the last hour when, only days before the Brazilian Senate was set to vote on whether to suspend Dilma Rousseff for 180 days, the Brazilian Supreme Court ousted Eduardo Cunha from his post as leader of the lower house citing pending corruption charges. Cunhas replacement, Eduardo Maranhao, moved immediately to annul the lower house impeachment vote which he argued was devastated by procedural irregularities that rendered the vote invalid. Brazilian Senate leader Renan Calheiros pushed back saying the chamber would vote on whether to suspend Dilma Rousseff two days later questioning Maranhaos jurisdiction to annul an earlier vote. Maranhao quickly rescinded his call to annul the prior vote for fear of tipping the country into a constitutional crisis and the vote proceeded following a lengthy and absurd debate with 55 senators voting for suspending Dilma Rousseff and 22 voting against sending Brazilians into an uproar. Leaked Tapes Prove Nefarious Plot to Replace Dilma with Temer In his first 30 days in office, Michel Temer lost three of his chosen minister to corruption charges including his close ally and President of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) Romero Juca. A shocking new poll indicates that 13% of American voters would prefer a giant meteor causing an apocalyptic firestorm over the planet over supporting either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton for president. This means that a flying space rock is more likely reach the 15% threshold to participate in general election debates than Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein. That is according to a poll by left-leaning Public Policy Polling (PPP) which included the Giant Meteor option in its latest survey. 43% of respondents favored Hillary Clinton, 38% selected Donald Trump and 13% threw up their arms to welcome the Giant Meteor as the countrys new head of state. 7% of voters stated that they were undecided between Hillary, Trump, and an apocalyptic meteor. The Giant Meteor enjoys support across the partisan spectrum securing a 23% favorability rating among liberal voters, a 21% positive rating among conservative voters, and viewed as a potential option by 16% of moderate voters indicating that the space rocks support may grow in the coming months. Freeman also suggested that the government of Australia, a major US ally, could be in the forefront of holding secret negotiations with Damascus. "The Australians are admirable practitioners of realistic foreign policy. They understand the imperative of a peace process in Syria that includes all forces with claims to legitimacy however these may be disputed by others. That category inevitably includes the Assad government," he stated. Such secret negotiations would not be unprecedented or even unusual as there was a long history of US allies circumventing "the often doctrinaire and inflexible stances struck by Washington" in order to pursue realistic diplomacy, Freeman recalled. "One thinks of the Norwegian role in promoting the Oslo accords behind the backs of Americas ever self-important and studiedly ineffectual peace processors, and the Israeli dealings with Iran over US opposition that ultimately gave way to the Iran-Contra scandal. So there may be something to this," he said. However, the United States still seemed to remain focused on punishing Syria with bombing and weapons supplies to insurgents with highly questionable pedigrees, Freeman cautioned. Nevertheless, Brussels has extended sanctions against Moscow by another six months. "Given the diversification of our economic policy, the EU risks permanently losing in the long term a number of Russian market segments important to it," the Russian Foreign Ministry commented on the extension. Exclusion of Britain from the EU decision making could help Moscow renegotiate the terms, Holmes wrote. "However, theres mounting pressure among individual EU member states to drop or at least soften sanctions, and with Britain, the blocs strongest supporter of restrictions, voting to leave, an opportunity to revisit terms could surface sooner than expected," the article read. However, it will take London two years to officially complete the withdrawal procedure so sanctions against Russia will not be lifted immediately, the author noted. Former NATO official and senior associate of the consultancy group Rasmussen Global Fabrice Pothier said that the sanctions policy against Russia will weaken because of Brexit. "The biggest blow is on the Russian sanctions Sanctions policy is going to be weakened, because the UKs voice will not be as big as we hoped," he told The Wall Street Journal. "The leak suggests a serious effort in Moscow and Washington to find some greater common ground on targeting the terrorists," he said, referring to unconfirmed media reports that the Obama Administration proposed a new deal with Russia on Syria. Under the agreement, the United States and Russia will join forces to improve targeting and conduct an "expanded" bombing campaign against al-Nusra Front, the Washington Post reported earlier this week, citing an unnamed official. Both countries consider al-Qaeda's offshoot in Syria to be a terrorist organization. But they differ on some other rebel groups, who coordinate their attacks with al-Nusra Front. Washington views some of them as "moderate" and does not want Russian aircraft to launch airstrikes against them. For its part, Moscow has repeatedly asked the US to convince such groups to leave territories where al-Nusra Front is active. Last month, President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow welcomed Ottawa's efforts to restore relations between the two countries " in full " and was ready to "work together" on this task. Canada's former prime minister, Stephen Harper, was extremely critical of Russia, blaming the country for the Ukrainian crisis, although Moscow is not a party to this conflict. "I think that we will tell [the Canadians] everything [on NATO's battalion] through diplomatic channels," the analyst noted. "When it comes to the desire to mend [bilateral] relations, it will remain in place. The two [processes] are not and cannot be mutually exclusive." Earlier this year, the North Atlantic Alliance announced that it will deploy four multinational battle groups to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the US will be tasked with providing the bulk of personnel for each battalion. Thank you, Canada. All four battalions for #NATO's east now have a lead nation.Thanks also to GER, UK & US. Strong transatlantic commitment. Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) 30 2016 . "Thank you, Canada. All four battalions for NATO's east now have a lead nation. Thanks also to Germany, the UK and the US," the bloc's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg tweeted, praising the four nations for their "strong transatlantic commitment." The measure will be formally approved at NATO's upcoming landmark summit in Warsaw on June 8-9. It is part of a series of steps aimed at enhancing the bloc's military capabilities on its eastern flank in response to what NATO officials view as a threat emanating from Russia. MOSCOW (Sputnik) On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree lifting restrictions on travel by Russians to Turkey, specifically a ban on charter flights to the country and a recommendation for Russian travel agencies to stop selling tour packages to Turkey. However, the ban on a number of Turkish exports remains in place. "This process of resuming trade and economic cooperation and resolving a number of associated political issues, including visas and so on, will be divided into stages. Let's not rush things, we are prepared to hold all these discussions with our Turkish colleagues[But Russia] will not change its economy to suit the needs of any country, including a major trade partner such as Turkey," Medvedev said during the Vesti v Subbotu television program. MOSCOW (Sputnik) The ministers have also discussed promoting the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the light of Steinmeier's recent visit to Azerbaijan and Armenia, the statement added. "The ministers discussed [in a telephone conversation] certain aspects of Russian-German relations and exchanged opinions on key international issues. Special attention was given to work in the Normandy format on implementing the Minsk accords and on ways of overcoming the Ukrainian crisis," the ministry said in a statement. In February 2015, a peace agreement was signed between Ukraines conflicting sides in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, after talks of the Normandy Four countries, comprising Russia, Germany, Ukraine and France. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, an all-for-all prisoner exchange and constitutional reforms, which would give a special status to the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk peoples republics. Washington has offered Russia a groundbreaking deal on cooperation in Syria. The offer, which was sent to Moscow on Monday, proposes to share targets and coordinate in an extended bombing campaign against al-Nusra Front, The Washington Post newspaper reported, citing a source in the Obama administration. Thus, the US is ready to take steps which Moscow has been long waiting for. However, Washington has proposed its own conditions for cooperation. The US has requested Russia to pressure the Syrian government to stop carrying out strikes against pro-Western rebels. "The United States "squeezed two carrier strike groups (CSG) into a relatively narrow maritime space of the Mediterranean. Each of them has up to ten escorting ships and submarines," he said, adding that it is a cramped space right now. This is why the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer harassed Russia's Yaroslav Mudry frigate that could have led to a collision. The analyst referred to the incident that took place on June 17 in the international waters of the eastern Mediterranean Sea as "flagrant provocation." Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry released a video of USS Gravely's dangerous maneuver, describing it as a "gross violation" of bilateral and international agreements. MOSCOW (Sputnik) According to the ABC broadcaster, with the 68.1 percent of votes counted, the Liberal-National coalition received 74 of the 150 seats in the lower house of parliament or 42 percent of votes, while the Labour Party received 67 seats and 34.9 percent of votes counted. 76 seats are needed to form a government without the need of post-election coalition. The parliamentary elections are being held every three years in Australia. The voters regularly elect 150 legislators of the lower chamber and 38 out of 76 lawmakers of the upper chamber. After the upper chamber legislators dismissed two draft bills proposed by the government, incumbent Prime Minister Turnbull dissolved both chambers, thus making all 226 seats in parliament eligible for election. In Vollmer's opinion, Germany is prone to a one-sided coverage of Putin's policy and does not take into account the fact that the majority of Russians support him. The politician has accused his own party of presenting Russian President Vladimir Putin as an evil and blindly repeating NATO slogans, thus exacerbating tensions between Berlin and Moscow. In May, journalist Robert Parry wrote for German website Propagandaschau that major media sources in the West always portray Russia as an aggressor, while Putin is presented as a bad guy and dictator. "If an intelligent person reads a report on Russia or Putin in the New York Times these days, then should it expect an objective and balanced coverage? Or will it contain predictable scorn and ridicule?," Parry asked in his publication. According to Parry, instead of considering all evidence objectively and fairly analyzing various opinions, Western media publish propaganda messages and accuse Russia and other "unpopular" countries of all possible sins. "Just because you might not like someone, does not mean that one should let his feelings out or look at the facts through a unilateral spectacle," the journalist wrote. MOSCOW (Sputnik) The State Department said the United States imposed sanctions on 38 foreign entities and individuals from 10 countries, including Russia, China and other countries on June 28, 2016 over breaching the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act. The measures will remain in effect for a period of two years. "Deciding to once again try to put pressure on a number of organizations of our military-industrial complex under the pretext of their cooperation with other countries, particularly Syria, the United States demonstrated the essence of their policy. How can the desire of the White House to punish the Russian companies that help the Syrian people to deal with Daesh [banned in Russia] and other terrorist groups be interpreted? What is it, if not an indirect support for terrorists?" Ryabkov said. The Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act allows the United States to sanction foreign governments, companies and individuals engaging in proliferation activities. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the settlement of the Syrian conflict, including the cooperation between the two countries in the fight against terrorism, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday. "The ways to overcome the Syrian conflict, including the possibility of Russian-American cooperation in the fight against the terrorist groups operating in Syria have been discussed," the foreign ministry said. The ministry added that Lavrov and Kerry also discussed during a telephone conversation further steps to be taken in order to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. TBILISI (Sputnik) Earlier in the day, Russian Defense Ministry announced that the next NATO-Russia Council at permanent representatives level is scheduled for July 13, 2016 after NATO's summit in the Polish capital of Warsaw, scheduled for July 8-9. "These meetings, certainly, is a necessary part of the dialogue between us. However, taking into the consideration a common negative perception of Russia and attempts 'to give us lectures', to tell us where and how say things and react, these meetings may become meaningless. Russia should be treated as an equitable dialogue partner," Nikolay Kovalev said on the sidelines of the ongoing OSCE PA annual meeting in Tbilisi. Since 2014, NATO has been building up its military presence in Eastern Europe, using Moscow's alleged interference in Ukraine as a pretext for the move. Moscow has repeatedly denied the claims and warned NATO that the military buildup near Russias borders is provocative and threatens the existing strategic balance of power. TBILISI (Sputnik) Ukrainian delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA), currently held in Tbilisi, protested on Saturday Switzerland's Filippo Lombardi-proposed draft resolution, which stipulates a general lifting of international sanctions, imposed on lawmakers, including on 20 Russian parliamentarians. "We demand that restrictions on entry into the European Union to 20 members of the Russian State Duma be extended If it will be decided to lift the sanctions, it would mean deviation from the principles of territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine. Therefore, we oppose lifting sanctions from the Russian Federation," Ukrainian lawmaker Anton Gerashchenko, who is a member of Ukrainian delegation to OSCE PA, told reporters. Relations between Russia and the West deteriorated in 2014, when Brussels joined Washington in accusing Moscow of fueling the Ukrainian crisis. European Union leaders summit meeting in Brussels, held on the heels of Brexit referendum proved to be the most tense in the whole history of 28-member block, struggling to preserve its unity and to work out a deal with one of its members which has decided not to be the part of what was once described as a great European family of nations. While European leaders pressed the UK government hard to start negotiations on Britains departure hinting that a long period of uncertainty will only harm the union, outgoing Prime Minister David Cameron argued that the deal should be clinched only by his successor. As result of grueling negotiating process embattled Cameron reluctantly agreed to accelerate the divorce process by shifting the date of selecting the new British leader in September rather than October. However, European leaders made themselves clear that the relations with Britain had already passed the point of no return and there will be no more business as usual. Triple suicide attack at the Istanbul Ataturk airport was followed by Turkish leaders desperate moves to restore his tarnished image abroad and win back the support of the leading powers which he once lost. In a late apology to Moscow over shooting down Russian bomber jet and killing its pilot Oleg Peshkov in November incident that sent bilateral relations to the historic low President Erdogan has sent a letter to President Putin expressing his will to end the crisis. The move was shortly followed by a phone conversation between the two leaders. The latest Ankara initiative was made hand in hand with signing of the reconciliation agreement between Turkey and Israel to end six-year period of unprecedented chill in bilateral relations following May, 2010 incident in Mediterranean sea. It is not clear whether two moves of Turkish leadership came as a coordinated effort to reveal a new tendency or was the initiative a mere coincidence. Shortly before his visit to Brussels to meet president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, European Council President Donald Tusk and other top EU officials President Poroshenko responded to Brexit results by making a comment on a Facebook in which he downplayed the growing influence of Eurosceptics and voiced his confidence in the European Union project. However, the true motive of Poroshenkos appeal was summarized in the wrap up note which described Russia as aggressor and called on the extension of Western sanctions against Moscow. In the meantime, Mr. Poroshenkos visit to Brussels proved to be lacking substance as the European leaders were preoccupied with their own Brexit agenda and hardly found time to fit the meetings with Ukrainian leader into their busy schedule. As it turned out, Brexit dealt a fresh blow to Ukraines troubled integration process with the EU which was seen as a brainchild of Mr. Poroshenko. Bangladeshi forces stormed an upscale Dhaka restaurant to end a hostage-taking by heavily armed militants early Saturday, killing six of the attackers and rescuing 13 captives including foreigners. The military said 20 hostages were killed during the 10-hour standoff, and a survivor's father said the attackers spared people who could recite verses from the Quran. 20 hostages were killed, 13 rescued in the restaurant attack Bangladeshi forces stormed the restaurant after a 10-hour standoff Six attackers were killed Italian foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni said nine Italians were killed, and India's government confirmed an Indian woman was killed. The overall toll of 28 dead included two police officers who were killed at the start of the attack. The hostage-taking marked a sharp escalation of the militant violence that has hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation with increasing frequency in recent months. Previous attacks involved machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities. About 35 people were taken hostage Friday night when gunmen stormed the popular Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area, a diplomatic zone, during the Ramadan holy month. Paramilitary troops who mounted the rescue operations in the morning killed six attackers and recovered explosive devices and sharp weapons from the scene, Brig. Gen. Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said. He did not identify the hostages. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, and she said security officials arrested one of the militants. "Because of the effort of the joint force, the terrorists could not flee," Hasina said in a nationally televised speech, vowing to fight militant attacks in the country and urged people to come forward. "Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such act," Hasina said. "They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism." In Rome, Gentiloni said the bodies of nine Italians have been identified among the dead. There was another, unidentified body in the military morgue of Bangladesh, but its nationality had not been determined, Gentiloni told reporters Saturday. Italian news reports had said about 10 Italians were inside the restaurant when it was attacked by militants on Friday night. Japan's government said a Japanese hostage was rescued with a gunshot wound but seven others are unaccounted for. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said the eight were together at the restaurant during the attack. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters in Tokyo the situation for the others was "dire." India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed that a young Indian woman was among those killed in the attack. "Extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka," Swaraj tweeted, adding that she had spoken with the girl's father. Indian officials said Tarushi Jain, 18, was a student at University of California, Berkeley, who was visiting her businessman father in Bangladesh. Two Sri Lankans also were rescued, said Lt. Col. Tuhin Mohammad Masud, commander of the Rapid Action Battalion that conducted the rescue operations. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activity online. The Amaq news agency, affiliated with IS, also posted photos purportedly showing hostages' bodies. The authenticity of the images could not be confirmed. With the sound of gunfire and explosions, local TV stations reported that the rescue operation began at 7:40 a.m. It included army personnel with automatic weapons and at least seven armored vehicles and ambulances. The attackers did not respond to authorities' calls for negotiation, Masud said. The attack came during Ramadan, when devout Muslims fast during the day and eat after dark. On Friday evening, many people headed to the popular bakery and restaurant that serves Spanish food and is patronized by residents of Gulshan, an affluent neighborhood where most of the foreign embassies are located. The restaurant overlooks a lake and on pleasant evenings, diners often chose to eat outdoors. Kitchen staffer Sumon Reza, who escaped, said the attackers chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) as they assaulted around 9:20 p.m. Friday, initially opening fire with blanks. Another survivor said the gunmen ordered bakery workers to switch off the lights in the restaurant. The militants then covered close-circuit cameras with black cloth. The bakery worker, who was not identified, told ATN News, a Bangladesh television channel, that when the first attacker entered the gate he thought it was someone taking shelter in the restaurant's doorway. "Then I saw that he had weapons. On seeing that, I ran toward the back of the restaurant. He fired while I was running but I was not sure if he was targeting me because I did not look back," the survivor said. He said he ran and told everyone working inside the bakery, and many people ran out using the back door. "Those who could not hear me, or understand me, did not leave because this happened in a short span of time," he said. Rezaul Karim, the father of a Bangladeshi businessman who was rescued along with his family, said the attackers did not harm any hostage who could recite verses from the Islamic holy book, Quran. Karim said his son, Hasnat, had gone to the restaurant along with his wife and two children to celebrate the birthday of his elder daughter when the attack happened. "He told me, 'Please save us, please!' And he hung up," he said. Karim said his son told him that the attackers "did not hit people who could recite verses from the Quran. The others were tortured," he said. "The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Quran. Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night," Karim said. He said detectives were questioning his son and his family as part of the investigation. Police said the two officers died at a hospital after being wounded in the initial gunfire. Ten of 26 people, who were wounded when the militants opened fire, were in critical condition, and six were on life support, according to hospital staff. The injuries ranged from broken bones to gunshot wounds. Only one civilian was among the wounded. The government did not directly comment on the IS claim of responsibility but has denied in the past that the extremist group based in Syria and Iraq has a presence in Bangladesh, instead blaming the recent attacks on its political enemies. In Washington, a White House official said President Barack Obama was briefed on the attack by his chief counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco. The president asked to be kept informed as the situation develops, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the president's meetings. State Department spokesman John Kirby says the U.S. is in contact with the Bangladesh government and has offered its assistance to bring those responsible to justice. The recent attacks in Bangladesh have raised fears that religious extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions of secularism and tolerance. About two dozen atheist writers, publishers, members of religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers have been slain since 2013. On Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death by at least three assailants in southwest Bangladesh. IS and and al-Qaida affiliates have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks. Hasina's government has cracked down on domestic radical Islamists by making scores of arrests. It has accused local terrorists and opposition political parties - especially the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami - of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilize the nation, which both parties deny. --- Associated Press writers Katy Daigle in New Delhi, Matthew Pennington in Washington and Ken Moritsugu in Tokyo contributed to this report. . If you do not agree with the blocking, please use the Access to the chat has been blocked for violating the rules . You will be able to participate again through:. If you do not agree with the blocking, please use the feedback form The discussion is closed. You can participate in the discussion within 24 hours after the publication of the article. Participants of the Forum will have a unique opportunity to experience an integrated presentation in a dynamic program at the Russian Armed Forces Alabino range and Kubunka airfield near Moscow. The dynamic demonstration will show off military robots, all designed and made in Russia, engaging in demining operations and demonstrating their speed and maneuverability in modern warfare. The list of state-of-the-art robotic systems on display will feature, among others, the Nerechta robot system, the Avtorobot unmanned transporter and the Shershen unmanned aerial vehicle. The case of Adnan Syed, now 35, gained international exposure following the airing of the podcast, which saw downloads in the millions and sent the internet into a frenzy collecting information on the two-decade old murder case. Syed was sentenced to life in prison 16 years ago for kidnapping and strangling ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, who was 18 at the time of her death. Her body was discovered in a Baltimore Park in 1999, by a classmate. While there was no physical evidence tying Syed to the crime or to the scene, an acquaintance of Syed, Jay Wilds, for reasons unknown struck a deal with the attorney generals office and testified that he had helped to bury Lees body. Phone records also indicated that Syeds mobile phone was picked up by AT&T towers in the area surrounding the park, but a company memo was posted raising questions about the reliability of location pinpointing at the time. The central problem is discriminating combatants from civilians from a great distance with few intelligence resources on the ground, he explained. Persistent civilian casualties from US drone strikes are inevitable because of the overreliance on drones and uncritical trust in their effectiveness, Spinney argued. The whole theory of drone warfare has been based on the idea that we can find, identify, and kill critical leadership targets while minimizing risk to civilians, he said. US military planners projected their own false assumptions onto their adversaries and then measured their imagined success according to a rationale reflecting those assumptions, Spinney observed. The US obsession with quantitative analysis made these assumptions even more arbitrary, Spinney continued. Inevitably, success is measured by inputs [such as] the number of sorties flown, bombs dropped and aim points claimed to be destroyed, he said. However, in reality there was no linkage between such measures and the will and the mind of the enemy, Spinney concluded. Research conducted by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that over 3,000 people, including nearly 500 civilians, have been killed by drones under the Obama administration The Hill newspaper, for instance, which is funding events at both presidential conventions, offers sponsors special treats such as an opportunity to mingle with "a list of participants from politics, government, media, and industry," at what they term a "Thought-Leader Luncheon." Full-day partners who pay $200,000, apart from joining policy discussions at a Policy Brunch or enjoying the company of political influentials and media personalities at a Primetime Watch Party, can count on convention interviews with The Hill's editorial staff, for "up to three named executives or organization representatives of your choice." "These interviews are pieces of earned media and will be hosted on a dedicated page on thehill.com and promoted across The Hill's digital and social media channels," a brochure, obtained by The Intercept, reads. According to US military ordinance, the release of confidential data at the risk of torture is not treason. But, nevertheless, after the investigation, two officers were dismissed; three sailors are facing a disciplinary hearing. According to military analyst and head of the military unit of Izborsk Club, Vladislav Shurygin, moral and psychological training has never been a strong point of the US military. The American army as a system is indeed one of the best, but its soldiers have never had high spirits. Moral and psychological training for the Americans has been an eternal problem. He further said that the US Army is contract-based hence only volunteers join it and in the contract there was never an obligation, unlike in the Soviet Army, to protect military and state secrets under a holy oath. Ever since the Vietnam War it has been a known fact that a downed aircrafts pilot will immediately give out all of the information. Incidents when Americans have behaved in captivity rock solid are extremely rare. Of course, being a prisoner is a state beyond reality and often it becomes a biological struggle for life, but if we talk about a specific situation, it greatly tarnishes the Americans image because it is obvious that they were not threatened, they were not been tortured. Iran and the United States are not at war so such behavior by the Americans makes one wonder, the military analyst said. The two US Navy vessels sailing from Kuwait to Bahrain were detained on January 18 by Iran for unlawfully sailing into Iranian territorial waters. Among the ten arrested crew members there were nine men and one woman. Iran released a recording in which the US sailors are seen on their knees with their hands behind their heads, some of them were crying. The sailors were released after 15 hours of detention. The incident created a diplomatic row between the two countries, nearly extinguishing the US-Iran nuclear deal at the final moment. At the time of the 9/11 Commission, former President George W. Bush moved to classify the 28-page tome of Saudi terror secrets claiming it was necessary to protect intelligence sources and methods. Two years ago, after years of outcry by the families of those killed or injured in the September 11 terror attacks, President Barack Obama ordered a declassification review of the 28 pages. It remains unclear when or if the complete congressional committee report will be made available to the public. The Obama administration has been forced to walk a tightrope with Saudi Arabia whose foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir recently threatened that Riyadh would pull its entire $750 billion holding in US Treasury bonds if the report saw the light of day and if the 9/11 victims were allowed to sue the Kingdom. Quoting Bill Clinton in the midst of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Adel al-Jubeir recently said that "there is no there there" and that there was no concerted scheme by the Saudi royal family to bring about the most deadly attack on the US mainland in the countrys history. London Heathrow, LAX and New York's JFK are said to be targeted by Daesh in the upcoming days, SITE Intelligence group, a non-governmental organization specialized in tracking jihadi networks activities revealed, citing a pro-Daesh twitter account. According to the account, jihadists may either mount an explosive device in one of the three airports or directly attack planes en route from the United Kingdom to the United States. The threat comes amid the preparations to July Fourth weekend in the US, considered to be one of the busiest periods for American airports during a year. This year authorities expect that up to 43 million of Americans will be traveling across the country, most of which by plane. GROZNY (Chechen Republic) (Sputnik) Chechen man Akhmed Chatayev, who has allegedly masterminded the recent suicide bombing attack on the Istanbul Ataturk International Airport in Turkey, lived in Georgia, received the country's citizenship, and left for Syria in 2015, the Russian Interior Ministry said. Three blasts hit the Ataturk Airport on Tuesday, leaving 44 people dead and 239 injured. Turkish media reported on Friday that two of the three suicide bombers were believed to have Russian passports. "We have information that he [Chatayev] has been detained several times in Europe, Austria, Ukraine. From Ukraine he has been transferred to Georgia, where he lived and received the Georgian citizenship. In 2015, he traveled to Syria," Abufet Mukhadinov, the deputy head of the Russian interior ministry's department in the Chechen Veden District, told reporters. MOSCOW (Sputnik) The Joint Investigation Team (JIT), dealing with the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 crash in Ukraine in 2014, is expected to arrive in Moscow to establish contacts with Russian representatives, Nikolay Kovalev, the Russian lawmaker heading the Russian delegation at the OSCE, said Saturday. "There was a meeting with the Dutch delegation on the sidelines of the [OSCE] Parliamentary Assembly. [The Dutch side] repeatedly speaks about the need for a tribunal to deal with the MH17 issue. The international commission [including Dutch experts] is expected to arrive in Moscow in a week or two in order to establish direct contact with the Russian representatives, who are expected to be brought to the investigation of this incident," Kovalev told reporters. According to Kovalev, the head of the Dutch delegation reported about this upcoming visit. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Three blasts hit the Ataturk Airport on Tuesday, leaving 44 people dead and 239 injured. Turkish media reported on Friday that two of the three suicide bombers were believed to have Russian passports. According to the US official, US intelligence services have informed Turkey that Chatayev was behind the triple bombing. However, Turkish authorities have not yet confirmed Chatayev's involvement. Chechen man Chatayev, lived in Georgia where he received country's citizenship before leaving for Syria in 2015. UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) On Friday, Daesh, banned in Russia, claimed responsibility for taking hostages inside a cafe located in a diplomatic quarter of the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka. According to the latest data, the attack has left 20 people dead, while 13 hostages have been rescued by the country's security forces. Most of victims are foreigners, according to reports. "The Secretary General assures the Government of Bangladesh that the United Nations is prepared to assist in efforts to prevent violent extremism in all its forms," the UN press service said. According to the press service, the UN chief expressed hope that those behind this attack would be identified and brought to justice. Ban stressed the need to intensify regional and international efforts to prevent and combat terrorism, according to the statement. The Prime Minister said in an interview with German media that he doesn't think NATO is "saber rattling". "Russia is the one doing that close to NATO borders" He told Funke media group, adding that "A door to NATO should stay open for Ukraine." Groysman's position echoes German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble's infamous criticism of Berlin's policy towards Russia. According to Schauble, even the signals of de-escalating tensions should include elements of intimidation when it comes to dealing with Moscow. On paper, Ahoskie, North Carolina and Delaware, Ohio are very different. Delaware sits in one of the wealthiest counties in Ohio and hosts the Little Brown Jug, arguably the most prestigious three-year-old harness race in the sport. The races at Ahoskies Atlantic District Fairgrounds are not even recognized by the U.S. Trotting Association, and the median family income is less than half of Delawares. But when horses are involved, none of that matters. Last week, the two had something in common. The Harness Horse Youth Foundation was spreading the gospel of getting youngsters involved in racing at both locations. From June 18 to 22, five youngsters at Delaware got an in-depth harness racing experience, working long hours each day learning to groom, harness and drive the HHYF Trottingbreds. That camp culminated with a driving exhibition won by Hannah Hassan. Cammie Lange was selected to represent the Delaware camp at The Meadowlands on Hambletonian Day. She will take a part in a driving exhibition with participants from other multi-day HHYF camps. After camp ended Wednesday, the HHYF crew -- Executive Director Ellen Taylor, Summer Instructor John Reames, Summer Intern Travis Ceppaluni and alum Marcella Riddick -- loaded up the gear and the horses, and early Thursday morning, they shipped 600 miles to Ahoskie. On Saturday, June 25, 11 youngsters got an introductory course in harness racing, as well as the chance to drive a Trottingbred. Sunday afternoon, HHYF took part in an open house at the Atlantic District Fairgrounds, sponsored by the Ahoskie Chamber of Commerce. Sometimes, HHYF finds itself in a wonderful environment reminiscent of yesteryear and Ahoskie was delightful. From meeting the iconic Charlie Red Eye Williams to providing our support for the community effort to provide positive opportunities for kids. Honestly, this may have been one of the most successful HHYF events in our 40-year history and definitely one of the most inspiring, explained Ellen Taylor, HHYF Executive Director. Both programs were made possible through the support of the local community; in Ohio, the camp was sponsored by OHHA, and in Ahoskie, the town partnered for the event. Also on Sunday, June 26, another team of HHYF volunteers were greeting the public at the Fair Winds Open House in Cream Ridge, New Jersey. Ambassador Sweet Karen, HHYF vice president Nicola Abrams, and Shannon and Riley Ceppaluni provided information to the 300 attendees of that event. The HHYF travelling harness racing school then moved on to Ocean Downs and Rosecroft Raceway in Maryland this week, before heading to historic Goshen, New York for its annual Leadership camp from July 5 to 9. Celebrating 40 years of youth education and service to harness racing, the Harness Horse Youth Foundation is a charitable 501(c)3 organization dedicated to providing young people and their families educational opportunities with harness horses, in order to foster the next generation of participants and fans. The Foundation makes a difference in young peoples lives through interactive learning experiences with these versatile animals, scholarship programs, and creation and distribution of educational materials. For more information on opportunities through HHYF, or to support its mission, go to hhyf.org. (With files from HHYF) Super Soph ($15.40) vaulted off cover in upper stretch and sprinted off to a 1:52 victory in Friday (July 1) evening's $8,000 Miracle Mile/Open Mares Handicap Pace at Vernon Downs. Brett Derue took the six-year-old Admirals Galley mare to last of the quartet as All Charged Up (John MacDonald) controlled the terms through splits of :26.3 and :56.3. On the far turn, Derue angled Super Soph second-over to track live cover behind Southern Girl (Truman Gale) through a :27.2 third quarter before fanning wide off the corner. Despite All Charged Up's best efforts to stave off a second foe, Super Soph pushed clear in mid-stretch to prevail by a widening one and three-quarter lengths. All Charged Up held second, while Southern Girl faded to third. Love You Bye (Jimmy Whittemore) gapped the pocket off the far turn, finishing last of the four. Jackie Rousse trains Super Soph for owner Mark Wamp. John MacDonald enjoyed a banner Canada Day in the States, leading all drivers with three wins on the nine-race card. "The Prime Minister" recorded a natural hat trick with a trio of favourites: Kesons Silhouette ($3.20, 1:55.2) in the fourth, Capriccio Hanover ($4.30, 1:57.4) in the fifth, and I Saw Red ($3.30, 1:55.4) in the sixth. (Vernon Downs) While there has been no betting at Goshen Historic Track for decades, Royal Bachelor, racing from post seven in the $15,000 Excelsior Trot for three-year-olds on Saturday (July 2), might otherwise be the Bet of the Day. The gelded son of RC Royalty and the mare Becca J has won three of his last four starts, one of them a career-best 1:55.2 in an overnight event at Vernon Downs on June 18. A trip to Buffalo Raceway on June 26 for a New York Sire Stake race put an end to the winning streak, but trainer Dan Daley believes the fourth-place finish was a matter of footwear. He wears flip flops [shoes] up front and he really didnt get a hold of [the track] real good, said Daley. He was just kind of flat. But hes an alright horse, he got hurt this winter [suspensory ligament in his right hind] and came back a little late, but hes holding up and he seems to be showing up, so I think hell be alright. Daley is not concerned about the outside post for the horse co-owned by his wife Ann-Mari with Michael White and James Crawford IV. Hes pretty quick off the switch if I decide to send him out of there, Daley said. But hes nice and ratable, too; you can haul him back and go whenever you want to go. While Royal Bachelor had no wins last season as a two-year-old, he did win $36,864 in eight starts on his $16,000 purchase price as a yearling at the Morrisville Sale with help from some impressive second-place finishes. He came around the end of last year [with second-place finishes in a New York Sire Stakes consolation and also in the Simpson Stakes], said Daley. We spent the winter sounding him up and now we baby him. He never gets heavy work, but hes not the kind of horse that needs it anyway, so thats OK. Knock on wood, its holding. Hes very manageable, as much as hes quick out of the gate, hes not stupid about it. Hes good to drive, sits in a hole perfect, does anything you ask him to do. Hall of Fame drivers will also compete on Sunday (July 3) in the annual tribute race to the late Mr. and Mrs. Elbridge Gerry, whose leadership and dedication to both Historic Track and the adjacent Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame have helped those venues endure and thrive. The race is sponsored by their sons, Elbridge and Peter. This year, the race takes a twist as amateur driver Hannah Miller will be living the dream when she lines up to compete against the likes of John Campbell, Bill ODonnell and David Miller this weekend. Its not the Hambletonian or Little Brown Jug -- yet -- but the driving talent is world class. The race features all Hall of Fame drivers, with Hannah Miller subbing for Dave Palone, who had to scratch because of travel limitations from the Cleveland Trotting Classic at Northfield Park on Saturday (July 2) night. Miller will be honoured Sunday (July 3) night as the Harness Racing Museums and Hall of Fames top amateur driver by virtue of being the top contributor to the Museum, waiving her driving fees to maintain her amateur status. Its an honour just to be asked. It was absolutely not expected and its a great feeling, said the 24-year-old graduate of the University of Central Florida. Ive driven in some qualifiers and some regular races, but nothing like this. It is a great feeling to be out there with these types of drivers. Ive driven mostly in amateur races, but with this race, you know youre safe, they are complete professionals. The daughter of former Trainer of the Year Erv Miller and sister of top driver Marcus Miller, Hannah has been watching the drivers shell be competing against for a very long time and also hopes to meet some horse crazy girls who may have visions of driving racehorses. Ive been watching them all compete since I was born and now to be able to go out there is just an honor," she said. "Definitely, I hope I can inspire some girls out there, wouldnt that be great? The race will go off at about 2:45 p.m. as race seven. Drivers will greet fans and sign photos behind the grandstand after the race. Post time for the race card is 1 p.m. Racing concludes on Monday (July 4) with New York County fair races. There will be special gift card drawings for neighbours within walking distance of Historic Track who received entry cards delivered to their homes on a door tag with the help of a U.S. Trotting Association Fair Marketing grant. Post time is 1 p.m. The Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame, adjacent to Historic Track at 240 Main Street in Goshen, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. all weekend; admission is always free. Induction ceremonies for the Hall of Fame will take place Sunday (July 3) evening. Limited tickets are still available, please call (845) 294-6330 before noon on Saturday (July 2) to make arrangements. This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com In this week's edition of Rewind Robert Smith recalls a number of events and personalities from the decade of the 1930s in the ongoing monthly feature Years Ago. 1931 - Melbourne, Ont. Fair This small town just west of London, Ont. has staged a fall fair since 1910. Each year an important part of the annual get together involves the harness racing program and a recent decision will surely elevate the race day's status. A major step was taken by the Fair Board in 1931 when the decision was made to join the "Canadian National Racing Association" which at the time was one of the three governing and regulating bodies in Canadian harness racing. It meant that the Fair organizers wanted to have 'first class' racing, held under proper guidelines and also where the results and times would be properly recorded. In the 1930's races were held each year as part of the Fair and attracted some of the best racing stock available at the time. For many years the standard purse of $100 for a three-heat race was the annual offering. One notable entrant in many of those years was the famed Clint Hodgins of Clandeboye, Ont. and his horse Miss Belwins Boy. He of course later went on to national prominence. A couple of interesting tidbits were gleaned from the Fair's website: - In 1930, the mother of the largest family on the grounds received a new pair of shoes - value: $5.00. - Best roast chicken, bread, biscuits, cake and pie received a kitchen table and six chairs - to win you had to live within five miles of Melbourne. (Now that was a nice prize!) Another interesting item showed that at one time the person who was responsible for the upkeep of the grounds received "free pasture and the hay crop" as his payment for services rendered. That lucky gentleman was Malcolm McGugan. 1937 - Fredericton, N.B. Races Driver Earle Avery is shown with an outstanding 1930's performer and track record holder Ray Henley 2:05 Driver Earle Avery is shown with an outstanding 1930's performer and track record holder Ray Henley 2:05 July 28-29, 1937 - For the first time in several seasons, midsummer races were held at the Fredericton Trotting Park. Despite a shortage of horses, two days of well-contested races were held in front of an enthusiastic crowd each afternoon. The most impressive performance of the two-day session was turned in by Tracey Hanover, owned and driven to a two-heat victory by local reinsman and potato farmer Earle Avery of Woodstock, N.B. This horse is just five years old and raced last season on the tough Grand Circuit, appearing at numerous U.S. tracks. On day two Tracey Hanover toured the Fredericton track in a blazing 2:05 1/4 opening heat, just a second off the current track record. Certainly another highlight occurred when veteran horseman John N. Willard of Presque Isle, Me., who turned 80 last year, scored a two-heat victory with his own horse Spud Braden. Well-known local horseman Johnny Conroy had several trips to the winner's circle, much to the delight of the large crowds. The summaries showed that once a horse won the first two heats they were "ruled out" of the third heat shown as r.o. From here the horses move on to various parts of Eastern Maine and New Brunswick for late summer meetings and various fall fairs before coming back to this track for the Fredericton Exhibition meet. 1937 - Peterborough Industrial Exhibition Race Programme Scheduled Horsemen in the Peterborough area are asked to contact Mr. S.A. Lowe at the Royal Hotel in Marmora (Telephone 44) regarding the upcoming race days to be held Thursday through Saturday, August 20-22, 1937. The race program will be part of the Peterborough Industrial Exhibition and it is expected the best horses in the area will be in competition. It should be noted that the entry fee will be $5.00 and the rules of The Canadian National Harness Horse Association will be in effect. Also noteworthy is that the barn has been moved and new stalls have been built. Free hay and straw will be provided to all entrants. Undoubtedly the highlight of the meeting will be the FREE FOR ALL on Saturday afternoon. 1938 - The Flemings at Syracuse The Fleming Family in a morning training session at Syracuse, N.Y. The Fleming Family in a morning training session at Syracuse, N.Y. A piece in the June 1938 issue of Hoof Beats read "Rarely does it occur that four members of the two minute list are grouped in speed alignment, and when such a quartet is found with a father and three sons as drivers, the occasion is novel, indeed. Such a situation is presented above, where the famous reinsman, Vic Fleming, with three of his sons, are presented up behind four horses of the select two minute roster. The place is the wet-weather track at Syracuse, N. Y., where the Fleming stable is in training, and the identity, reading from left to right, is as follows: Peter Song 2.00, Charles Fleming up; Dillon Hall, p, 2.00, Jimmy Fleming up; Calumet Evelyn 1.59 1/2 (p, 1.59 1/4), Vic Fleming up; Billy Direct, p, 3, 1.58, 'Bill' Fleming up." The Fleming family, headed up by father Vic, hailed from Dundas, Ont., for many years their stable raced at several U.S. tracks and usually sent out some of the best performers on the Grand Circuit. At times Canadian owners sent top horses to the Fleming stable, one notable example being Grattan Bars who was the sport's top horse in 1928. 1939 - Houghton Sulky Co. Advertises Top Products An ad from the 1938 Hoof Beats An ad from the 1938 Hoof Beats Located in Marion, Ohio and known throughout the land as manufacturers of fine racing and show vehicles since 1904, The Houghton Sulky Co. offers the new "Greyhound Special" sulky to its customers. The Houghton line of sulkies now boast of being used in the attainment of all current world records. The Company offers not only brand new equipment but they also carry a sizable inventory of rebuilt sulkies which are being offered at reduced prices. This Company has been very instrumental in promoting local racing and each year presents high quality racing bikes to winners at the Marion Fair. It is interesting to note that some of the scenes from the 1940's movie "Home In Indiana" were filmed at the Marion County Fairgrounds near the Houghton headquarters. For many years the Houghton sulky was the standard by which all others were judged. It's Election season and our editor's mailbox is overflowing. Who do your neighbors support? Read about it here. The Oregon Medical Examiners office has determined that Longview longshoreman Jimmie Meadows Jr. died from injuries caused by his fall, not a heart attack, a spokesperson for the office said Friday. Meadows, 48, died at Oregon Health and Science University Hospital about 2:30 p.m. June 25, four days after falling on a ship docked at Weyerhaeuser Co.s log yard in Longview. The Multnomah County Medical Examiners office did not conduct an autopsy, but medical records led the office to call it an accidental death. Born in Longview, Meadows was a logger and commercial fisherman before joining International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union Local 21 and Local 91, according to an obituary submitted to The Daily News. Last Tuesday, Meadows was loading logs for S.S.A. Pacific on behalf of a Weyerhaeuser customer when he fell. The U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) is investigating the incident. The office said it could take up to six months to complete the investigation. Longview police are investigating an armed robbery reported at 10:15 p.m. Thursday at Columbia Heights Elementary School in Longview. The victim said he was sitting in his car with his girlfriend when a suspect walked up with a gun and tapped on the window. The suspect reportedly took his $20 and wallet, then walked away. However, the victim waited an hour before reporting the incident because he said he thought nothing could be done about it. Instead, it was the victims mother who later called and reported the incident to authorities. Longview police said Friday afternoon that no arrest had been made so far. The suspect, who has not been identified, was described as a white male, about 30 years old, with brown hair. He was wearing a black shirt with a collar, black Carhartt pants, a Confederate flag belt buckle and a Winchester ball cap. The Washington State Department of Health has taken disciplinary action against three professionals in Cowlitz County and reinstated the practitioner license of a fourth, according to a department new release. In March, the Unlicensed Practice Program ordered Jorge Trujillo Brito to cease and desist from practicing as a home care aide without a license and pay a $1,000 fine. Brito had been providing home care aide without having a license. That same month, the UPP notified Bethanie S. Stamps of its intent to issue a cease-and-desist order for allegedly advertising and offering massages without a license. She was convicted of operating a massage business without a business license. The Chemical Dependency Professional Program charged chemical dependency professional trainee and chemical dependency professional Brandi Michelle Olney in March with unprofessional conduct. The charges say Olney didnt respond to an inquiry about allegations of current use of controlled substances. In April, the secretary of health reinstated the massage practitioner license of Diana D. Lawson. Lawson had her license suspended in 2009 because she didnt comply with a 2007 stipulation that was issued after she practiced massage for about two years with an invalid credential. Tim Sutinen is one of several candidates challenging J.D. Rossetti for his 19th District House seat, and like Rossetti hes running as a Democrat. A Democrat, Tim Sutinen, really? Its beyond me, said state Sen. Dean Takko, D-Longview. Almost anybody in the local political scene knows that he is no Democrat. ... Hes kind of a political gadfly. Sutinen, 45, has had a history of switching parties since he first ran as a Republican against Takko for his House seat in 2006. He has run twice against state Rep. Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen, once under the Lower Taxes Party in 2010 and as an independent in 2012. I have been told by the long-time residents and people who know him that they do not consider him a Democrat, said Paul McClain, chair of the Cowlitz County Democratic Central Committee. More like an opportunist, I guess. Sutinen, a Longview resident, said he has a broad range of values that align with the current Democratic legislators voting records in the district, such as protecting gun rights. The people of this district definitely align with my values, and when you look at my representatives Blake and Takko, a lot of the work that they have done is in perfect alignment with my values, too, Sutinen said. I dont believe my philosophical values necessarily represent the Republican Party or any party. ... Im not your party type of guy. Sutinen said as a small business owner and a father of 12 kids, he wants to stand up for the little guy. He added, Labels change. I dont mind changing labels, but he declined to elaborate on why he chose the Democratic label this year. Jim Walsh, chair of the Grays Harbor County Republican Central Committee who also is challenging Rossetti, said Sutinen attended a Republican function as recently as two years ago. Sutinens son, Joshua Sutinen, also is involved in the Cowlitz County Republican Party. Nothing about Tim is a surprise, Walsh said. Hes always been a very unconventional candidate. The race features a crowded field with five candidates Sutinen, Rossetti, Walsh, Longview Democrat Teresa Purcell and Castle Rock Republican Val Tinney. The Aug. 2 primary will reduce the race to the top two candidates, who will square off in the November general election. Walsh said he doesnt know whether Sutinens party label gives him (Walsh) an edge on the Republican ticket, or whether Sutinens Republican supporters would follow him in his race. I think its kind of a wash. Maybe theres a slight advantage, Walsh said. Its not something I would have planned. Sutinen had reported raising only $50 for his campaign as of Friday, according to the state Public Disclosure Commission. Toby Nixon, president of the Washington Coalition of Open Government, said there are a number of reasons a candidate would choose to switch parties. He said Sutinen may have thought there was an advantage to running as a Democrat. No Republican has been elected to a 19th District legislative seat in decades. The district encompasses all of Pacific and Wahkiakum counties and parts of Cowlitz, Lewis and Grays Harbor counties. But the incumbent threesome Blake, Takko and Rossetti and considerably more conservative than their Puget Sound party brethren. Its so easy to change your political label now, Nixon said. The parties have no say in it. Its just text on a ballot. Like almost all other candidates, Sutinen said his priority is reviving the economy. He said wants to see the logging industry thrive in the district. He also wants fewer regulations on youth employment and occupational licenses, which he said are hurting the districts ability to put unemployed people at work. We have legislated ourselves into a jobs abyss, he said. Sutinen said hes also in favor of requiring two-thirds legislative majorities to raise taxes, an initiative that passed in 2010 but was ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court in 2013. Both Takko and Blake opposed the initiative. Walsh said he doesnt think Sutinen is doing anything wrong, but that the preferred party filing system for candidates is ultimately meaningless and unhelpful to voters. I dont think it does voters any favors if someone whos Republican can suddenly decide theyre a Democrat, he said. I dont think it helps voters understand who stands for what and what theyre likely to do. 20 bodies recovered from Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka 6 militants killed in commando operation EPA Image caption Troops raided the cafe 12 hours after the siege began Staff Reporter: Inter Service Public Relations Directorate (ISPR] on Saturday said that 20 bodies of the hostages were recovered from the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant at Gulshan-2 in Dhaka's diplomatic zone which was attacked by armed gunmen on Friday night. They were all foreign hostages, hacked to death with sharp weapons by the Islamist terrorists, known as ISIL. The victims had severe wounds to their necks and throats. Earlier, six of the attackers were shot dead during the 50-minute operation by the special commando unit of Bangladesh Army in the morning. A back-up team comprising members of Naval Commando Unit, BGB, SWAT, RAB and Police took position around the restaurant at that time. The Operation Thunderbolt was lasted from 7.40am to 8.30am. Sources said the majority of the victims were from Italy and Japan. No Americans or Britons have yet been confirmed among the casualties. Brig-Gen Nayeen Ashfaq Chowdhury, at a press conference held at the Bangladesh army headquarters, confirmed that 20 people were found killed using locally made sharp weapons. Two Sri Lankans and one Japanese hostage were rescued, along with around a dozen Bangladeshis. 5 killed in Munshiganj road crash Five people were killed and 30 others injured as a bus crashed into a tree by Dhaka-Mawa highway in Sreenagar upazila on Saturday. Three of the deceased were identified as Lion Master, 30, of Tongipara in Gopalganj district, Khalilur Rahman, 33, of Uttar Khanpur of Bagerhat district, and Moin Khan, 28, an officer of Balasur branch of Bangladesh Krishi Bank in Sreenagar upazila and son Jalil Khan of Brahmankhola of the upazila. Officer-in-charge of Sreenagar Police Station Sahidur Rahman said the Mawa-bound bus of Tongipara Express from Dhaka hit the roadside tree at Kewatkhali in the afternoon as its driver lost control over the steering, leaving five people dead on the spot and 30 others injured. On information, a fire brigade team rushed in and fished out the bodies from the bus.-- Munshiganj, July 2 (UNB) Hillary`s lead over Trump narrows to 9 points: Polls Hillary Clinton is more popular among men and women, young people and minorities, college graduates, and people who live on low incomes. Reuters, New York : Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton's lead over Republican Donald Trump has dipped into the single digits among likely US voters for the first time in nearly two weeks, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday. The June 27-July 1 poll showed a 9.4 percentage point lead for the former secretary of state over the New York businessman, down slightly from an 11.2 point lead in a previous five-day poll that ended on June 28. Clinton had maintained a double-digit lead in the rolling poll since June 20, as she recovered from a brief boost in Trump's numbers in the wake of the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, when he renewed a call for a ban on Muslim immigration. Among likely voters, 43.9 percent now support Clinton, compared with 34.5 percent for Trump. Another 21.7 percent of likely voters wouldn't support either candidate. Clinton is more popular among men and women, young people and minorities, college graduates, and people who live on incomes that are both lower and higher than the national average. Trump has an edge among whites, people with lower levels of education, older Americans and retirees, and he leads among people who frequently attend church. Overall, voters have increasingly sided with Clinton since mid-May, when the two were about even in the poll. Trump is expected officially to become the Republican presidential nominee when the party holds its convention in another 2-1/2 weeks. Clinton is expected to become the Democratic nominee when the Democrats hold their convention a week later. The poll, which included responses from 1,080 likely voters, has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3.5 percentage points. Clinton's lead had widened to as much as 14 percentage points in the past two weeks as Republican leaders criticized Trump for his opposition to international trade agreements and a string of nativist comments about Hipsanics and Muslims. Clinton's campaign, meanwhile, has been dogged by allegations that she mishandled classified emails and failed to protect US diplomats in Libya while secretary of state in Obama's first administration. She denies wrongdoing. A day dream for tokai M M Jasim : Eid brings celebration and glee in the life of the Muslim community. The Muslims of this country like the rest of the world celebrate it with much enthusiasm every year. New dresses are bought in most of the houses and rich foods are prepared, which the family members consume with relatives and guests. Even those who are unable to do it do not lag behind to share joys among themselves. But the story of millions of street children is different. They cannot even dream to wear new dresses on the Eid day nor can they consume rich foods. The guardians along with their sons and daughters buy the new dresses for the Eid celebration. This is a common scenario at almost every shopping mall in the city and other parts of the country. When a child of a able family is busy to buy the new cloth, the street children stare only in their faces. Imdad, a 12-year street child living in the Dhaka University area told The New Nation on Saturday, "I have a shirt and a pant. I wear it every day. Sometimes I wash it, sometimes I cannot. New dress is a dream to me. I want but how shall I get it?. There is no answer with me." "Everyone including my father and mother left me. Eid festival is not for me. It is for them who have parents and money. Eid day and other day are equal to me," Imdad, who came from Rangpur to survive narrated the story of his distress wailing. "My father died in an accident two years ago and my mother left me for her happiness. My stepfather did not agree to bear my burden. My relatives also had no kindness for me. So, I decided to come to Dhaka. Till then I have been fighting against the harsh realities," he said. Hossain, another 13-year-old homeless child living near the Sadarghat, told this correspondent, "I have to wear dirty uniform because there is no room for me to wash. The people in the city do not take me easily. They called me 'tokai' and sometimes they beat me. I become melancholy when I see the children buy new dresses on he occasions of he Eid and national days. I feel to wear new dress but how shall I manage it or who will give me?. So, Eid is for the affluent people, not for the unfortunate like me." Hossain used to live with his family in a village of Comilla district. Circumstances changed when his father married another woman and left them. His mother was unable to take care of him. Like Imdad and Hossain, there are about 12 million street children in the country. The most vulnerable children (MVC) are those who orphans, destitute, abandoned, homeless, shelterless, ill-fed, ill-clothed and devoid of parental care. They sometimes run away to avoid domestic violence, family conflict, poverty, over population, unemployment, family feud, divorced parents (either father or mother alive), river erosion, rural-urban migration, chronic poverty, floods, drought, cyclones, rosy dreams and lofty hopes of better job opportunities in the city centers. Most of the street children take rice once or twice a day if they have money. Otherwise, they have to starve or remain satisfied with what they find around them through begging or any such mean. Chairperson of Transparency International Bangladesh Sultana Kamal said, it is very sad that the street children are still deprived of their basic rights in the country. "The street children are our sons and daughters. It is our duty to save their life and to ensure their bright future. The government should take many initiatives to provide all the facilities to make them assets of the country," Sultana Kamal said. The human rights activist also called upon the government as well as the countrymen to work together to improve the condition of the street children and to protect them from the uncertainty. US, Australia, S Korea alert their citizens in BD The United States, Australia and South Korea have urged their citizens to avoid the area around the restaurant at road 79 in Gulshan-2 in the city. The US citizens have also been advised to remain vigilant in their movements and activities, inside the diplomatic enclave and anywhere else in Bangladesh. The US Embassy reminded US citizens that US government personnel are not permitted to visit many public places, travel on foot, motorcycle, bicycle, rickshaws or other uncovered means on public thoroughfares and sidewalks. They are also not permitted to attend large gatherings in Bangladesh, including events at international hotels. "The US Embassy encourages US citizens to adopt similar security measures," the Embassy said in a notice after the hostage situation at Holey Bakery in Gulshan-2, Dhaka has ended. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the government of Australia, in its updated travel alert urged its all citizens to exercise a high degree of caution. A hostage taking incident in the Gulshan 2 area of Dhaka on July 1-2 has been resolved, it said mentioning that the area is still under investigation with movement restrictions in place. "You should continue to avoid the Gulshan 2 area for the time being, remain vigilant and follow the advice of local authorities," said travel advice read. Australian officials in Bangladesh continue to be advised to exercise particular caution, including in public places, locations frequented by foreigners, and during gatherings, it said. "Officials have also been advised to travel only by vehicle. We recommend that Australians adopt similar security measures," said the Australian government adding that "You should exercise a high degree of caution in Bangladesh." The South Korean Embassy in Dhaka has issued a travel advisory for its citizen living in Bangladesh. "We've maintained the travel advisory that they should maintain their vigilance and avoid the public places like hotels, restaurants and so on," said a senior diplomat at the Korean Embassy. Meanwhile, Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), which was scheduled to be held on Sunday, has been cancelled, according to Japanese Embassy in Dhaka. Another Hindu priest chopped in Satkhira Staff Reporter : A Hindu priest of Brahmorajpur Radhagobinda Temple of Satkhira Sadar Upazila came under the machete attack of unknown miscreants early Saturday. The injured victim was identified as Bhabosindhu Bor, son of Hazarinam Bor and an inhabitant of Bajuadanga village. He was first admitted to Satkhira Sadar Hospital for treatment. When his condition deteriorated, he was shifted to the National Chest Diseases Hospital in Dhaka by a helicopter. Locals said, Bhabosindhu resides in the temple with his wife and son. A gang of miscreants numbering six to seven attacked the temple at midnight and tied two guards before attacking the priest. Then they stabbed Bhabosindhu indiscriminately, leaving him critically injured. Local people rushed to the spot hearing his scream and admitted him to Satkhira Sadar Hospital, said Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Sadar Police Station Emdadul Haque Sheikh. He said that the miscreants committed robbery in the residence of one Abdul Majid at Kalerdangamor in the same upazila one hour before this incident. He said, the assailants wore black pants and their faces were covered with black clothes. The priest's wife Sumitra also gave the same description about the assailants. The OC said that the police have started operations to arrest the miscreants. Deputy Inspector General of Police, Khulna Range, Md. Moniruzzaman, said, the attack on Jhenaidah temple and the attack on the Satkhira temple appeared identical. Those who have been trying to make the country a failed state since 2013, were behind the attack. Army commandos end deadly siege 20 hostages, 6 militants, 2 cops among 28 killed in Gulshan attack: 13 rescued alive Sagar Biswas :The 12-hour Islamist militants-led hostage crisis at a Spanish restaurant in Dhaka ended in a bloodbath after a full-scale military operation conducted by the para commando unit of the Bangladesh Army on Saturday morning. Twenty bodies of local and foreign hostages, slaughtered by the militants, were recovered from the restaurant by the commandos after the operation. Among the victims, nine were identified as Italians, seven Japanese, three Bangladeshis and one Indian.A back-up team comprising members of Navy, Air Force, BGB, SWAT, RAB and Police took position around the restaurant at that time. The 'Operation Thunderbolt' lasted from 7.40am to 8.13am.Six of the attackers, claimed to be members of Islamic State, were shot dead during the 33-minute operation. An alleged militant was caught during the raid. A number of 13 hostages, including Bangladeshis, were rescued alive from the restaurant.In the three-dimensional rescue operation, the army commandos used armoured personnel carriers, sound grenades, sub-machineguns, assault rifles and sniper rifles. Besides, the navy commandos boarding speed boats were patrolling the adjacent lake while military choppers were roaming in the sky.When effort to communicate with militants went futile, the government high-ups decided to launch a pre-dawn assault to end the siege. But it took time to evacuate several establishments, including Embassies and international organizations, surrounding the restaurant. For that reason, the operation was started behind schedule. At 7:24am, the commando unit of army came to the spot boarding nine armoured personnel vehicles, eight jeeps and three lorries. Apart from it, over a dozen ambulances also kept park near the spot. At 8:15, Chief of Army Staff General Abu Belal Muhammad Shafiul Huq and Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Mohammad Nizamuddin Ahmed came to the spot. Besides, Director General of Rapid Action Battalion Benjir Ahmed and Director General of Fire Service and Civil Defence Brigadier General Ali Ahmed Khan were also seen there. The four-square kilometer area was cordoned by the law enforcement agencies putting blockades at different strategic points. The commandos took full-fledged control of the area at 8:30 am, officials said.The commandos recovered several pistols, folded butts, AK-22 rifles, unexploded IED [improvised explosive device] and sharp weapons from there. After completion of operation, a team of Forensic DNA laboratories of CID [Criminal Investigation Department] came to the spot at about 10:20am to collect evidence. The Inter Service Public Relations Directorate [ISPR] said that 20 bodies of the hostages were recovered from the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant at Gulshan-2 in the city's Diplomatic Zone which was attacked by armed Islamist militants on Friday night.Brig-Gen Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury, Director of Military Operations, Bangladesh Army, at a press conference held at the Army Headquarters yesterday afternoon, confirmed that 20 people were found killed using locally made sharp weapons.Confusion aroused over the number of death when reports of death of several Bangladeshi nationals were coming from different quarters.Of them, youngest son of Transcom Group Chairman Latifur Rahman's grandson Faraz Hossain, former head of Dhaka Art Gallery Ishrat Akhond and Abinta Kabir, whose father is son of Manzur and Nilu Murshed of Lavender, a super store in Gulshan, were reportedly killed. When asked about the death of local hostages, Nayeem Ashfaq said, "They were all not foreign hostages. They were hacked to death with sharp weapons by the Islamist terrorists, known as ISIS. The victims had severe wounds to their necks and throats.""The head of government ordered the army to conduct operation to tackle the situation. In this backdrop, the 'operation thunderbolt' was launched," he said. Sources said the majority of the victims were from Italy and Japan. No Americans or Britons have yet been confirmed among the casualties. Two Sri Lankans and one Japanese hostage were rescued, along with around a dozen Bangladeshis.A resident of Diplomatic Zone said that he saw snipers firing shots taking position on the rooftops of adjacent buildings. At the same time, heavy shells were also fired from armoured vehicles. At one stage, the armoured vehicles stormed the compound of Holey Artisan Bakery demolishing the boundary walls. A small shop, Piza Corner, adjacent to the restaurant, was also destructed. The entire area was rocked when commandos started operation blasting sound grenades and firing shots from assault rifles.After nine hours of operation, the bodies of slain foreigners and militants carrying in 13 ambulances were taken to Combined Military Hospital [CMH] in Dhaka for postmortem at about 4:00pm.Home Minister Asaduzzamn Khan Kamal said: "The militants took part in the attack in a pre-planned way. It was a blue print for creating anarchy in the country. Five of the six militants, killed in the gun attack, were earlier wanted by the police." Earlier on Friday night, at least 50 persons, including Additional Police Commissioner Sheikh Md Maruf Hassan among 25 police personnel, were injured when a gang of seven armed militants blasted grenades and opened sporadic fire inside the restaurant.Of the injured, Assistant Police Commissioner of Detective Branch Rabiul Karim and Officer-in-Charge of Banani Police Station Salauddin Ahmed Khan succumbed to their injuries. The militants held hostage several people, including 20 foreigners. Members of the law enforcement agencies, including police, RAB, BGB and Ansar kept cordoned the spot till the operation started next morning.The Islamic State [Indian Subcontinent] claimed responsibility of the attack a few hours after the incident. Khaleda calls for nat'l unity to face extremism Staff Reporter :BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia on Saturday called for national unity irrespective of political outlook to eliminate extremism from Bangladesh. "If the extremists cannot be eliminated immediately through united efforts, they would make peace, stability and security of the country far from the reality," she said in a statement.The former prime minister condemned theGulshan restaurant holocaust that took place on Friday night to Saturday morning and claimed lives of 26 people, including 20 foreigners. She said that the storming of the Holey Artisan Bakery at Gulshan in Dhaka on Friday night by six to seven misguided gunmen raising their slogans was the outcome of the misrule prevailing in the country. "We urged, over and again, the government to take measures to root out the evil design of the extremists, who have no philosophy and no doctrine, before it was too late. But the government neglected our call and remained busy in targeting the BNP and the other opposition parties," Khaleda said.The former prime minister alleged that the government helped flourish extremism by blaming the BNP and the other parties for any mishap whatsoever took place. Such attitude was dangerous and a threat to national harmony.She said, earlier the government operated countrywide crackdown only to oppress BNP men. "Their target was to oppress BNP only. They arrested around 16 thousand people in one week only. Of them, the number of the activists was four thousand. All of them were innocent. But the government did not arrest the militant activities. On Friday, miscreants killed a Hindu temple attendant at Jhenaidah. The same day night a group of the misguided gunmen attacked the Gulshan restaurant and killed innocent people. All these proved that the government's crackdown was only to oppress the opposition political parties," she added. She however, demanded necessary steps to maintain security in the diplomatic zone. Textile mill employee shot, robbed of Tk 20 lakh UNB, Dhaka :Muggers looted Tk 20 lakh from a textile mill employee after shooting him in front of the Jatiya Press Club in the capital on Saturday.The injured was identified as M Sobhan, 45, supervisor of Al Hazrat Textile Mill situated at Demra.Sub-inspector Bachchu Miah, camp in-charge of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), said a gang of eight miscreants riding four motorcycles intercepted a private car carrying Sobhan and mill owners Rajib and Shakil in front of the Jatiya Press Club in the afternoon on their way to Demra from Chawkbazar. At one stage, one of the miscreants opened fire on Sobhan and snatched a briefcase containing Tk 20 lakh from him and fled the scene, said SI Bachchu Miah.Later, Sobhan was taken to the DMCH. Intelligence failure blamed Staff Reporter :Security experts have blamed the intelligence's 'failure' for the unprecedented militant attack at a Dhaka restaurant that left over 28 persons dead and 50 others injured.On Friday night, a group of seven gunmen shouting "Allahu Akbar" stormed into the Holey Artisan Bakery, frequented by foreigners, and opened indiscriminate fire and exploded grenades taking hostages and engaging security forces in a deadly gun battle.At least two police officers were killed and several dozen were woundedinstantly in the gun battle. The Islamic State (IS) claims responsibility of the shooting. The attackers were later killed in commando operation. "So far the militants have targeted bloggers, intellectuals, individuals, members of minority community and sometimes security forces. But attack storming a restaurant in a heavily guarded diplomatic zone is unprecedented and a dramatic escalation in violence," Major General Abdur Rashid (retd), a security analyst, told The New Nation on Saturday.He said the incident renewed security concern and raised question about the efficiency of the intelligence agencies. The attack also exposes a big hole in intelligence gathering and security system in Bangladesh. "It's a matter of concern how such a crime took place in a diplomatic zone and the government and state agencies have been caught unaware of it," he commented. "Though there have been a number of killings focusing on academics, activists and member of religious minorities, attacks on foreigners are rare in Bangladesh," Major General (retd) Syed Mohammad Ibrahim, told The New Nation yesterday. "Local militant groups inspired by IS ideology carried out the deadly attack in a high security diplomatic enclave which is unprecedented in Bangladesh. It poses a potential threat to state security," he added. General Ibrahim, a security analyst, said recently Bangladesh witnessed a wave of militant attacks but the security agencies have failed to come up with intelligence gathering prior to such attacks raising various questions among people. "People are concern over intelligence lapses of the concerned agencies raising questions about whether the security agencies are equipped enough to stop escalating militant threats in the digital age," he said. When asked, General Ibrahim said there was no organisational structure of IS in Bangladesh. But IS-minded local militant groups were getting reorganised in absence of democracy and freedom of expression. Brushing aside the intelligence lapses, a senior Detective Branch (DB) official told The New Nation yesterday that they have perfect track record in combating militancy and terrorism by intelligence gathering. "One cannot defame our good name presenting a particular example. No doubt, militancy is a new threat here and the challenge is to find every needle in the haystack. That's an incredibly difficult task. But we are sincerely working to collect information regarding militant operatives to combat militancy," he added. Seven killed in Munshiganj road crash UNB, Munshiganj :Seven people were killed and 35 others injured as a bus hit a tree beside Dhaka-Mawa highway in Shreenagar upazila on Saturday. The identities of deceased could not be known immediately.Officer-in-Charge of Shreenagar Police Station Sahidur Rahman said a Mawa-bound bus of 'Tongipara Express' from Dhaka hit the roadside tree at Kewatkhali in the afternoon as its driver lost control over the steering, leaving three people dead on the spot and 22 others injured.The injured were taken to Shreenagar Health Complex where two more people died, he said. Militants attack in city restaurant THE militants' attack on Spanish Restaurant in the capital's Gulshan area in Friday evening that ended in the killing of 20 hostages, mainly foreigners and six attackers has left the nation devastated with the shock of a tragedy we have never seen before. It is true that Bangladesh is facing rising militancy and target killings but the Friday's attack by Islamist militants appears so massive and terrific equipped with grenades and assault rifles at a popular city eatery invariably indicates a major shift in their strategy to kill more and more people that they identify as their enemy at public places and send panic at all levels. We believe that none should be blamed for the tragedy but ourselves. We are fighting ourselves, killing ourselves and started killing more foreigners now when the sharp political divide in the country is forcing a section of young people to become extremists in absence of democratic space. So many lives were lost and so many more left injured in this attack by Islamist fanatics that we have not enough words to condemn the barbaric killings and condole the families of the victims at home and abroad. We express our solidarity with the bereaved families but we are really at a loss how the nation will be able to defeat the militants when the government is moving with its own politics to eliminate militants by force. We believe that the Prime Minister should stop her blame game now when the risk to state security is further deteriorating. We believe that it is a political issue that needs political solution. Bangladesh's friends in the West and other countries also should not fail to understand they can't much help Bangladesh to fight militants by giving more material help to the government in this fight. They can rather help isolate militants by promoting the rapprochement between the government and the opposition to deny militants the advantage of the political division. We see Italian national Cesar Tavella was killed in another militant attack last year at the same area. Had the police maintained strict security measures that they had put in place after that killing, yesterday's mayhem in the same diplomatic area could not have happened and two police officers may not lost lives. The attack has made global headlines and it is unfortunate that such killing is only giving wrong signals about Bangladesh abroad that it is not a good place for visit and business. The damage may be too big to sustain. Bangladesh had never been a country of religious extremists but the situation has dangerously escalated recently with growing target killing. On Friday a Hindu priest was hacked to death at Jhenaidah after two more such murders last month at temples. Muslim clerics were similarly killed along with bloggers. But every killing is not the act of militants either. Police are carrying out extra-judicial killing while political groups are killing their rivals.It is in fact a severe lawless situation, which is taking the nation to the brink. The problem is that the government is not capable to give protection to people and not taking the responsibility as well. Sending patients home from hospitals during Eid holidays PUBLIC HOSPITALs in the capital and other districts discharged many patients in the last couple of days. Cause of these discharges is that most physicians and nurses would be on leave during the nine-day Eid-ul-Fitr holidays that began on Friday. Since there would be scarcity of physicians to attend patients those who can go home were asked to go. An English daily on Saturday made the disclosure quoting relatives of several patients who said ten days are enough for a patient to go without treatment. Worse may happen by this time. But patients were given discharge slips and asked to report after the Eid holidays were over. Hospital authorities, however said most patients feeling better left hospital on their own to celebrate the Eid festival with their families and friends. But whatever they say it seems to be a total anarchic situation in our view that physicians are creating to enjoy long holidays. A responsible hospital management can't think of such arrangement. We would ask the authorities concerned to run public hospitals in patients' treatment interest, not as per convenience of physicians When festival knocks at the door, doctors and nurses become restive to enjoy vacation in a mass scale, patients also get quick recovery then to leave hospital to come back after the vacation is over! This is a surprising practice that even sickness will respect. But normal mind cannot accept this explanation as trustworthy. Hospital is not rest house. Patients come to a hospital with various complaints about physical illness. If it is said that their illness has gone or reduced to create convenient environment to enjoy Eid festival for doctors and nurses, it should not be a public case to be acceptable to people. It is no secret that doctors and nurses in public hospitals are mostly remain absent from regular duty. Patients do not get proper treatment and care from government hospitals which are however mandatory on the parts of hospital doctors. Scarcity of doctors, nurses and other staff in public hospitals at the time of Eid festival is not a new phenomenon. This year it has taken an acute shape because the length of public holidays extended all time limits. It is a long period if we keep in our mind the seriousness of emergency medicare service. Illness can attack any person at any time. So, round the clock vigilance is a part of treatment admitting patients in the hospitals. Casual attitude in this sector should not be allowed. This malpractice should be stopped where proper health care is genuine need to all sick persons in need of treatment. Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now. Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market. In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender. India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex. Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted. But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted? Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner. If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems. I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now. I want more variation in masturbation I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own. If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end. What is sex toys for Indian? Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation. It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms. They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable. Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner. The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner. It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past. In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping. Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order. In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing. Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome. Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own. But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance. More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around. Sextoy situation in India Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years. In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India. Mumbai Kolkata Bangalore Delhi Chennai Hyderabad These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India. In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well. If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too. If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it. What are Sextoys for beginner? Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms. Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy. I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion. I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy. If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma. Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it. Advantages of using sextoy for Indians There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways. Can have stimulating sex Can develop new sexual zones If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern. However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways. You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation. Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever. There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure. This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it. When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems. It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms). For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles [Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou... Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India. Sextoy for beginner men in India So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners. For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men! The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men Masturbator Cock rings Love Doll Sex Lubricants Toys for the prostate Lets check each one in detail. Masturbator The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products. It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands. Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands. They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.) Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much. Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! ! Made in Japan is a wonderful kinky toy.#sextoysindia #SexToyIndia #Japanhttps://t.co/4k70QGzoTP pic.twitter.com/tRVdxTKPpa SEXToys India PR (@SextoysIndia) November 12, 2018 Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood. If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ... [For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien... Cock Ring A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis. It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow. It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber. In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection. Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction. It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it. Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time. Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function. Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy. You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect. [Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat... Love Doll Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex. There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women. Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price. The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true. You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste. There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice. You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls. If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to... Sex lubricants Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules. It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution. Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse. There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent. Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent. If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here. What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many... Toys for the Prostate Another sextoy for men is prostate toys. The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line. Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men. Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men. What is the prostate? The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm. You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus. By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms. Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.) The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation. Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure. sextoy for beinner women in India The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy. The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy. Vibrator. Dildo Electric Masserger Lets check out what each one is in detail. If you want to check out womens toys, click here. [BEST25]Sex Toys for Women in IndiaThat Can Help You Have an Orgasm There are many women who pretend to feel orgasm during sex. But don't worry, you don't have to pretend to feel orgasm... Vibrators A vibrator is a sextoy that vibrates with an Egg-Vibrator to provide stimulation and is often referred to simply as a vibrator. Some vibrate as well as rotate, and there are many variations of sextoy. It is quite a popular sextoy, and is well recognized by people who do not know much about sextoy. Its usage is similar to that of a massager, but it is more compact and easier to carry than a massager, and many of them look as cute as a lipstick or a macaroon, so they are popular among women. For a while, a famous influencer on twitter said, This is good! You may have heard of the topic of this article by introducing the recommended vibrators. Vibrators are great for women to use on their own, but they are also recommended for men who have difficulty satisfying women with sex. Since it is powered by electricity, it is far less tiring than moving your hands by yourself. This makes it easier to satisfy a woman with sex because you can caress her for longer than usual. Vibrators are mainly used on the female side, but they can also be used on men. When used on men, they are used to attack the nipples and glans, and in both cases it is recommended to wear a condom for hygiene reasons. Introducing how to use the vibrator, its purpose, and how to choose it! Vibrator uses the vibrations caused by the rotation of the motor to provide stimulation. It is one or two of the most... Dildo A dildo is a model sextoy made to mimic a male penis. It can be made of silicone, elastomer (think of it as a material similar to PVC), metal or glass. A dildo can be used by a man for his female partner during sex, or by a woman for masturbation to get pleasure from it. They are mainly inserted into women, but some can be used in the male anus as well. It is sometimes used synonymously with vibrators, but the vibrator is not the same thing as a vibrating device. A model of a penis that does not vibrate is a dildo. Some of them have suction cups that can be attached to the floor or wall so that you can enjoy realistic masturbation without using your hands. For fun, there is a dildo made in the shape of your partners penis. This one is also popular as a gift, and if youve been together for a long time and are having trouble finding a gift for your partner, you might want to pick one. To learn more about dildo, please click here. What is Dildo: Orgasms with Dildos for Men and Women A dildo is a model of a male organ that is used by women for masturbation and by men to stimulate the prostate gland. Th... Electric Masserger A Electric Masserger is a hand-held electric massager, also known as a handheld massager, and can usually be purchased at electronics stores. It was originally designed to relieve stiff shoulders and back pain, so the hurdle of buying one in a physical store is quite low. Many people may have seen or used it in some form or another, as it is often installed in leisure hotels. Such a massager is highly recommended for beginners because it is easy for women to get pleasure from it when they use it during masturbation. It is larger than Egg-Vibrator and vibrations are stronger than those of Egg-Vibrators and vibrators, so even just hitting the clitoris can give you a great deal of pleasure. For those women who have never had an orgasm during sex with their man, the massager may be a good way to get a feel for what it feels like to have an orgasm. It looks and feels like an electric massager, so you wont have to feel awkward if your roommate finds out. If you are in a rut of having sex with your partner, if you want to feel an orgasm through masturbation, or if you are thinking of using a sextoy, why dont you try it from a simple massager? To learn more about Electric Masserger, click here. What is a massager? Introducing types, selection methods, and usage Originally, the Magic-wand vibrator and the massage machine were sold as a home massage machine used for the back and th... How to choose a sextoy for Indian Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one. Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points: Does the size fit you (the partner)? Does the size fit you (your partner)? Is the environment able to produce sound without problems? Price range First of all, the choice of size is quite important. Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women. For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage. Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems. Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise. If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level. Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it. Finally, there is the price range. The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest. Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy. Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy? I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance. For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics. If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out. How to buy sextoys in India The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping. For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below. Sextoy is one of them. Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping. SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India. They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry. Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card. To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy. ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal. Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on. Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture. Cautions for Indians using sextoy When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind Keep sex toys clean Watch out for electrical leakage Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone. Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there. It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case. In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness. Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful. If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it. You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly. Summary What did you think? In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India. The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future. As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values. However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health. If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try? Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women. I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it. CARBONDALE The changes that President Barack Obama authorized to relax some restrictions against Cuba were helpful, but still not enough, said one activist who plans to visit the area in the next few days. He is Manolo De Los Santos, who is coming to Carbondale as part of the Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba; that mission's organizers have long challenged the U.S. embargo of Cuba. The Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba is part of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, created in 1988 to provide humanitarian aid to Latin American and Caribbean countries. Santos said he joined the group as a 16-year-old and made his first trip to Cuba when he was 17. Community members can meet him and fellow travelers at 5 p.m. Tuesday, July 12, at the Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship, 105 N. Parrish Lane. This event is co-sponsored by the Peace Coalition of Southern Illinois and the Social Action Committee of the Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship. Members of the Latin band Hot! Sauce are expected to perform at the event. A Cuban-inspired dinner will be served at 6 p.m., followed by Santos giving an update on Cuba. The dinner is free, but donations will be accepted. This is the 16th year the Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba has come through Southern Illinois. In years past, local hosts contributed materials and other goods for the travelers to take to Cuba with them. This caravan comes here from Chicago and will move on to St. Louis. This entourage is one of three groups making the trek from the north to the south, where they plan to meet up in Mexico City to travel to Cuba. "Ill be speaking mostly on the urgency that we feel now to change for once and for all, our relationship toward Cuba," Santos said. "President Obama has taken many important (actions), but it is not enough. Congress must now act." The Dominican Republic-born Santos grew up in New York; these days, he lives in Cuba, where he is studying theology and philosophy at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Matanza. He also works coordinating "solidarity, community organizing and political education projects in Haiti, Cuba and Central America," according to his bio. The group wants all economic sanctions and travel bans to Cuba lifted, so that Americans and Cubans can travel freely back and forth between countries, without the scrutiny of indicating where they are going and with whom they plan to interact, Santos said. The group has protested the stipulations on travel to Cuba, resisting them "ethically and morally," he said. But we still feel the need to sort of defy the injustice of being told how and why you can travel to Cuba, he said. "So we go without permission." He also wants to call attention to how the embargo impacts Cubans, in their health care and access to various medicines, he said. The Pastors for Peace Caravan travelers have been threatened with fines and threatened with arrest when they returned to the United States, he said. Conditions have improved, but the group is still pushing for the members of Congress to fully relax travel restrictions. Its not explicitly forbidden, but they request that you fill out paperwork in order to do so," he said. "And that is the point that is the one that we are still working to overcome. One of the local organizers, Georgeann Hartzog, said the push is on now to lobby area representatives. She said a meeting has been set up with a representative from U.S. Rep. Mike Bost's office. "One of our goals is to bring these issues to our local congressional representatives to move forward on legislation to lift the embargo and travel bans," Hartzog said. Donations will be accepted to help the Caravan make its journey to Cuba. VIENNA Johnson County is torn between restoring its past and building for its future. The Johnson County Board voted to purchase a piece of property in the county's Industrial Park from the nonprofit economic development group Johnson County 2000, Inc. in May. County officials say the property is intended to be the site for a new county administration building. Although the board voted to purchase the property, there has been no paperwork signed as of this week, Larry Mizell, chairman of Johnson County 2000 said. Residents of Vienna would like to see the new county administration building near the location of the current one on or near the Vienna Town Square. The county recently passed a 1 percent sales tax in March to generate the funds to pay for a new building. Mike McMahan, a resident who helped lead the charge for placing the tax referendum on the ballot in March, said there were about 30 people at the June 28 meeting, and nobody wanted to see the building placed at the industrial park. The courthouse we have right now is the oldest continuous operating courthouse in the state, and people feel like the square has some intrinsic value to the county, McMahan said. Moving the county buildings away from here would essentially destroy the square. He is putting together a group of organizations in the county to sign a statement saying they are expressing strong support for any county buildings to be on or near the square. Phil Stewart, chairman of the Johnson County Board, said the expense would be too much to construct a new building on the square. It is much cheaper to just to go a new, clean site and build, he said. He recognizes the opposition, and says there are some that support the building move. That is typical, he said. You cant please everybody. Mizell said the deal at the industrial park includes five acres at a $500,000 price tag. The land was obtained through a USDA Rural Development grant in 2000 by the nonprofit group. Mizell said there are covenants in that grant that require the organization to repay the USDA for any land that it sells at the current appraised value. He said land near the property has been recently sold at $59,000, so the nonprofit group expects to reimburse the UDSA probably somewhere around $275,000 and $300,000. We would utilize funds above that what we would have to pay the UDSA for further development of the industrial park, he said. If nothing else, it gives us some leverage money that we can use to apply for matching grant funds or do some projects within the industrial park. He said that may include a frontage road between the park and Illinois 146, infrastructure work, or reinvesting the money to bring some additional business to the county. The $500,000 number, Mizell said, is the minimum price the nonprofit organization was willing to price the property. He said the county was originally approached with a higher number, but a commissioner told them $500,000 was as high as it would go, and that matched the minimum offer from the organization. Mizell said the nonprofit organization voted unanimously to support the county office building staying on the square in Vienna, but the county inquired about a price on the land, so it provided one. The commissioners were split on the decision to vote for the purchase of the land. Commissioner Ernie Henshaw said he has never wavered about his position, saying that it should stay near the square. Our courthouse is going to stay in operation at the present time, so our office annex needs to be located as close to that as possible, he said. He is not a fan of the site in the industrial park, saying that the land was not developed for government offices. That industrial park was developed for light industry, or something to promote business, he said. When we build a government building on what I think is the best five acres in that industrial park, we take it off the market forever. He said moving the building to the park could be going against the residents who voted for the 1 percent sales tax increase to have the ability to pay for the building. Then, we turn around and totally go against their will about where they want that building placed, Henshaw said. That is a slippery slope when you -- the very people who supported you now we are potentially going totally against their desires. However, things are not set in stone, he said. The vote was only to accept the purchase price, and there are more steps before the county takes possession of the land. There is still a long way to go before its official, he said. Miss Carival 2016 contestants (L-R:) Yvana David (St Lucia), Chelsey Hughes (Anguilla), Tabeanna Tutt (Monsterrat), Tasia Floissac (Dominica), Djennicia Francis (Trinidad and Tobago), Sheryl Forde (Barbados), Michelle Sinmues (Venezuela). Nyanka Samuel Robinson (Grenada), Orngel Erskine (St Kitts/Nevis) and Nikianna Williams (St. Vincent and the Grenadines). by Dayle da Silva Nikianna Williams, the reigning Miss SVG, will be looking to become the seventh Vincentian to do the double Miss SVG and Miss Carival - when she takes to the stage tonight. But she would first have to overcome some competition from the other contestants in this years edition of the Miss Carival Pageant, scheduled to take place tonight, Friday 1st July, 2016, Victoria Park. She said that she knows that she has "to remain consistent throughout her performances, and that she is very mindful that there is some pressure to keep the crown home. Williams comes up against Chelsey Hughes (Anguilla), Sheryl Forde (Barbados), Tasia Floissac (Dominica), Nyanka Samuel Robinson (Grenada), Tabeanna Tutt (Monsterrat), Orngel Erskine (St Kitts/Nevis), Yvana David (St Lucia), Djennicia Francis (Trinidad and Tobago) and Michelle Sinmues (Venezuela). It is a preferred prerequisite that contestants are reigning national winners of their respective countries, or selected from recognised pageants in their home country. According to Cheryl Rodriguez, Chairperson of the CDCs Beauty Shows Committee, this years show will feature a number of National Queens and as such, therefore, she expects a high standard from all those taking part. From the contestants point of view, they have all stated that they are quite ready for tonights event. There are some nerves: "I am a bit nervous, but I think that that is obvious for any delegate coming into such a pageant, Sheryl Forde, Miss Barbados told THE VINCENTIAN during last Tuesdays Meet the Media session at Young Island. The other young ladies, for the most part, say that they are ready, and that the patrons can expect a good showing from all the contestants. "I know that Vincentians say that they dont back down from nobody, but Grenadians dont back down, Nyanka Samuel Robinson said. All in all, Ms. Rodriguez promised patrons a good show. She admitted that there were some unfortunate occurrences at this years Miss SVG show which carried the crowning into the early hours of the morning. This time around, she is promising patrons a tightly packed show. "We are going to make sure that the Miss Carival show flows smoothly, and that it is a tight production, she said. Rodriguez is hopeful that all the judged categories would be completed by 11:30pm, so that the shows featured performer, Marlon Roudette, will be able to begin his set on time. The Miss Carival Show was introduced as a part of the annual Vincy Mas programme in 1985. Vincentian Ms. Donna Young of revered memory was the first winner. Miss Yonte Mayers of St. Vincent and the Grenadines is the reigning Miss Carival. Left: PM: Why dont you say what the payments were for, Mr. Eustace? Right: Mr Eustace smiled and moved on. Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Dr Ralph Gonsalves has denied allegations that he authorized for moneys to be used from the PetroCaribe Fund, to hire a funeral home to take care of the remains of a German tourist who was killed here earlier this year. Gonsalves told a Sitting of parliament last week Thursday, that he authorised funding for the purpose very swiftly, because it was a case where he had to do so. He, however, never disclosed where the funding for that purpose originated. In his presentation during the debate of the PetroCaribe (Special Purpose) Fund Bill, Dr. Gonsalves confirmed that EC$72.6 milion was owed to the International Airport Development Company (IADC), and just over EC$100 million to other state agencies/facilities and government projects. Among those were: the Accountant General budget support; border security management; specific sums for the passport system; moneys for BRAGSA, the Housing and Land Development Corporation (HLDC) and reconstruction and rehabilitation; LIAT re-fleeting programme; the Ministry of Health; Black Sigatoka programme; the purchase of Ds Services building; the purchase of material from the Jamaican company Tankweld; the relocation of the Mental Health Centre; the SET programme; and the farmers support programme. Further into the debate, Leader of the Opposition Arnhim Eustace said that he was not in support of the Bill. He referred to being criticised for being opposed to the PetroCaribe arrangement, and argued that the parliament was discussing a Bill to set up a machinery to regularize the spending, something that ought to have been done a long time ago. "But I look at that document itself, I still have some reservations about its ability to achieve what we say it could, he said. "I see this as an effort to try and come closer to what should have been from the beginning of the arrangement [but] it has come very late, and where we are now is looking for some consolidation in trying to reduce the debt burden, although the terms were very generous. Eustace then proceeded to produce information in relation to PetroCaribe St Vincent Ltd, saying that he was able to tell the House that in 2015, there were 65 cheques issued to pay for services amounting to EC$24,533,330. "I not suggesting that this is a matter of corruption, but is a reality of what was paid, Eustace said. He went on to say that some of the cheques were issued to institutions, while others were made out to individuals, and that he was seeing things that raised questions and made him sceptical. "And even if you put the Accountant General to be signatorywhen a board approves something, she has no choice, or if cabinet approves something, she has no choice but to sign the cheque, Eustace said. He demanded to know what the payments were for then went on to provide further information to the effect that in April 2013 the Prime Minister, Sir Vincent Beache, the then National Security Advisor, and Godfred Pompey, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, received equal payments of EC$5,365.88 under the PetroCaribe fund. Gonsalves, upon asking Eustace to give way, challenged him to tell the people what the payment was for. "Dont let it be a mystery .. if not there would be an insinuation that there is something improper, Gonsalves said. Eustace then responded by giving the date and the amount saying that if the information had been published, the public would have known. He, however, did not disclose what was the purpose for the payments. (DD) Caribbean students in Venezuela are not immuned to the economic crisis that is affecting that country. (Credit: www. opendemocracy.net Inset: Esther Brathwaite, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, confirmed that the students will return home. (Credit: education.govt.lc) Twenty-two (22) St. Lucian students pusuing studies in medicine in Venezuela will be returned home within the week. The Ministry in that Caribbean counrty, a member of the Vernezuela-driven Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) and Petrocaribe, under which member countries benefit from concessionary oil arrangements and other technical forms of assistance from Venezuela, said on June 23, that the government had decided to return the 22 medical students home. According to St. Lucia News Online, Esther Brathwaite, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, in announcing the decision, said that the welfare of the students was a top priority of St Lucia and it was therefore, imperative that the students be returned home. The Permanent Secretary however, assured that the students will be allowed to continue their studies, as alternative arrangements are being put in place. "Once the students satisfy the matriculation requirements of an accredited university, the students will be able to pursue higher education, St. Lucia news Online quoted her as saying. At whose expense the students will continue their studies was not made explicitly clear, but it is assumed that the St. Lucia Government would play a major role in this regard. The St. Lucian students, like many other students from English-speaking Caribbean countries, had accepted the generous offer of scholarship by the Venezuelan Government. They are now facing the challenging economic times including a food crisis which the socialist-driven Venezuela economy is experiencing. Reports are that there exists a shortage of basic staples (food) like pasta, rice and milk. The Nicolas Maduroled government has been making every effort to curb this crisis, and a number of Caribbean islands, including Jamaica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, have agreed to make quantities of staple (food) available to Venezuela. In addition to the food crisis, there have been reports of Caribbean (CARICOM) students in Venezuela being the victims of robberies. Luzette King Host and Producer, Global Highlights "As a father, I am trying to help her; trying not to be too hard on her; trying to get her to bounce back. It is really a traumatic time for her. Not to condemn her in anyway because I understand the pain she is going through. According to one of our news outlets, this is the cry of a father whose 14-year-old daughter was gang-raped last Wednesday (June 22) by 5 males, ages 15 to 21, inclusive, it is reported, of three students. Sadly, too, this father is among hundreds of parents going through this pain. SVGs rape epidemic was highlighted at a 2015 New Democratic Party (NDP) Consultative Conference on Women. Using information gleaned from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the NDP leader , Arnhim Eustace, lamented that among the records of sexual offences against children in 92 countries, SVG averaged "7th of those countries between 2004 and 2011. More specifically, the 2011 record showed that SVG ranked 1st,- with a rate of 151.8 per 100,000, roughly doubling second place Sweden with 76.5. The trauma Eustace, known to be a devoted husband, father and grandfather, could hardly hide the hurt as he bellowed, "It appears that our nation preys upon our most vulnerable children. According to news reports, the father referred to above validates Eustaces remark as he re-counts " this is too common in the village. This thing has been happening for a while now. I know at least three or more incidents like this happening. We must be cognizant of the reality that even though figures can raise alarms and stir emotions, the human catastrophe can never be captured by them. We can only imagine what the father mentioned above is going through. Even less imaginable are the victims trauma. All too often, the communitys response compounds this traumatic experience, to the point where the victims very personality changes. For example, the world renowned author and activist, the late Maya Angelou, was a child rape victim at age 7. She told on him to a male relative, and that relative killed her rapist. Her own guilt and shame for her being raped and causing this mans death rendered her mute for five years. She learned by reading and listening (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969). A local reminder that child rape has been with us for a while, as can be gleaned from Kates (Keturah Cupid) experience as a child rape victim. Kate, who was the featured speaker at the NDPs conference on women, recalled then, "I was molested when I was about 10, 11 years old from my neighbor who was married and had two little girls. I used to go and sleep at their house on a Friday evening. Sometime that image, no matter how much I try, sometimes just flash across my face.. molested by a man who had two little girls my age . The local lead Not so well-known as Maya Angelou is the police woman who brought a charge of rape in 2008, against the prime minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves. Seemingly as a form of punishment for telling tales, her identity was disclosed to the media, and this gave rise to further ridicule on radio and in cyberspace. In response to this police-womans coming-out, the Unity Labour Party (ULP) organized a rape rally in support of their leader. Of more significance, this rally was led by prominent women of the party, including two parliamentarians. As a result, Gonsalves, a husband, father and grandfather, was able to avoid a day in court when the Director of Public Prosecution dismissed (nolle pross) the charges. Effectively, this woman was denied the basic protections guaranteed to victims of rape under the laws of SVG. Is it any wonder that while Gonsalves continues living a life of grandeur, this woman has become a walking time bomb, emotionally and physically? The ULP government is also criticized in a Shadow Report that was submitted to the 61st session (November 2014) of United Nations Committee on the Elimination of discrimination against Women. Among several failings and shortcomings in its policy, the UQAMs International Clinic for the Defense of Human Right cited the ULP government for its failure to properly collect data on domestic violence complaints, and to make this information accessible to the public. More alarmingly, Mr. Eustace informed the 2015 conference that "In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines there are no requirements for police to record every report of sexual offence received. The real impact of the treatment meted out to the police woman by Gonsalves and his political entourage is captured by the much acclaimed womens rights activist, Dr. Peggy Antrobus. She observed that, "People are afraid to come forward. The message hes sending is, we will discredit you. In fact, Antrobus concern is highlighted by various other women expressing similar experiences but are afraid to take action of any sort. The picture paints a sad impression. We do, it seems, have a long way to go as a people under one God. St. Clair Leacock, MO for central Kingstown, confirmed that his party raised the issue of the situation affecting local traffickers with the new ECCB Governor. Some relief may be coming soon for traffickers who have complained about high tariffs on certain goods that are imported into the country . However, it is still too early to determine what type of action, if any, will be taken. St Clair Major Leacock, Opposition Parliamentarian for Central Kingstown, said on Monday that he and members of the New Democratic Party (NDP) met with the newly appointed Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), Timothy Antoine, who promised to put the issue on the agenda when he meets with Dr Alvin Hilaire, Governor of the Central bank of Trinidad and Tobago. According to Leacock, traffickers were an important group of people as they assisted in the sale of farmers produce, contributed to trade and kept the boating sector alive. "But nobody seemed to be looking in the direction of those people, he said. Traffickers take the produce of local farmers to Trinidad and then purchase goods for re-sale in SVG, the proceeds of which go to paying the traffickers for their produce. Back in January, THE VINCENTIAN published a story featuring one of the countrys more prominent traffickers, Monica Ross, who complained that tariffs being levied on them were too high. She explained that they are charged a levy on bottled drinks and are charged 70 percent on goods that are imported from the more developed countries of CARICOM. Leacock explained that there was a previous attempt to have the issue put forward at the OECS level, "but it may not have reached the proper quarters. Leader of the Opposition, Arnhim Eustace said that it appeared as though the Governor was unaware of the situation, but that he promised to follow up, seeing that the matter deals with foreign exchange. "I think he has taken it on board, and I am looking forward to seeing some action taken on that matter, Eustace said. "I dont think people are taking this thing seriously, he said. (DD) Embassy of the United States to Azerbaijan gave an official reception on the occasion of the United States Independence Day. Addressing the participants, U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Robert Cekuta informed about the history of his country's independence. He recalled that, the Declaration of Independence was signed on July on July 4, 1776. He underlined that there is diverse and strategic partnership between the USA and Azerbaijan. Emphasizing the support of US to the independence and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, the Ambassador noted the strong partnership between the two countries. Minister of Finance Samir Sharifov congratulated the American people on behalf of the Government of Azerbaijan. Speaking about the diplomatic relations between the two countries, the Minister told that, over the past few years in the bilateral relations developed in many areas. He praised the bilateral relations in the political, economic and humanitarian fields. The minister lauded the role of national leader Heydar Aliyev in developing the relations between the two countries to today`s level. Sharifov said successful foreign policy carried out by President Ilham Aliyev contributed to further expanding these ties, as well as to developing democracy, strengthening joint efforts in combating terrorism and deepening the cooperation in the fields of energy and security. He stressed that, there is close cooperation between Azerbaijan and US in global, regional security field and fight against terrorism. Touching upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the minister said Azerbaijan put trust in the US and had big expectations from Washington in settlement of the conflict as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group. /By Azertac/ A trainer plane of aviation training centre of Irans flag carrier Iran Air crashed in the northern province of Alborz on July 2, Fars news agency reported. There were two people onboard the plane a student pilot and an instructor, Iran Civil Aviation Organizations Public Relations Director Reza Jafarzadeh said, adding the student was killed in the incident. He further said the Civil Aviation Organization sent an incident investigation team to the crash location to investigate the issue. Earlier, on June 5 a PC-7 light trainer aircraft of an air force base near the city of Isfahan crashed due to technical problems. The aircraft's pilot and co-pilot were injured in the accident. On April 27, an F-7 jet trainer of Iran's army crashed in a desert near the city of Naein in Isfahan province. However, the aircraft's pilot and co-pilot managed to bail out in safety. Egypt has returned to Qatar $1 billion deposited by the Gulf state to help prop up the Egyptian central bank's hard currency reserves after the 2011 uprising, the central bank governor said on Friday. Cairo's relations with Qatar deteriorated after. Qatar had been a firm backer of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood and lent or gave Egypt $7.5 billion during the year he was in power. Central bank governor Tarek Amer told Reuters in a text message replying to a question about whether Egypt had paid $1 billion to Qatar, "Yes, definitely," but he did not elaborate. The $1 billion Qatar received is the last of Egypt's debts to the wealthy Gulf Arab country, according to the Egyptian state news agency MENA. Qatar asked that the central bank deposits be paid back after the fall of Egyptian army deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013 following mass unrest against his rule. Egypt has been struggling economically since a 2011 uprising drove away tourists and foreign investors, putting pressure on foreign reserves which halved to $17.5 billion in May. Reuters Dulsco, a regional leader in human resource solutions and waste management services, has in association with Dubai Industrial Park, inaugurated the first medical clinic within the park to address the needs of over 42,000 workers across three labour villages. The clinic is also listed with all major insurance companies in the UAE to extend maximum support and convenience to the significant workforce in the community. The new health facility provides end-to-end medical services including outpatient consultation, pre-employment and occupational health checkup, health counselling, radiology and pharmacy services, said a statement from Dulsco. It includes an independent pharmacy that enables easy access and availability to medication and treatments as well as general medical practitioners that are on call to attend to the patients. In addition, it boasts a well-equipped laboratory to cater to any follow-up diagnostic tests that need to be scheduled. Saud Abu Alshawareb, the chief operating officer, Dubai Industrial Park and S Balakumar, the managing director of Dulsco officially inaugurated the hitech facility in the presence of officials from Dubai Industrial Park and other industry officials. Speaking at the launch, Alshawareb, said: "We are delighted to partner with Dulsco to launch this healthcare facility at Dubai Industrial Park. It will offer high quality medical care and serve as an important value addition to our community." "The health and safety of our communities and workforce are a core priority for us and this new clinic will ensure the workforce across the industrial park start to take their health more seriously," stated the official. "We are glad to leverage Dulscos considerable expertise in establishing the clinic that in addition to delivering improved healthcare facilities will entail shorter traveling and waiting times for our residents at the park," he added. Prakash Parab, the director of HR Solutions at Dulsco, said: "Giving back to the community is one of our core values at Dulsco. We highly prioritise our corporate social responsibility mandate and consider health a cornerstone of workplace efficiency." "Through this initiative, Dulsco is pleased to guide workers towards a healthy lifestyle through educating them about the importance of regular health check-ups and medical consultations," stated Parab. Dulsco also has another fully equipped clinic in Al Quoz that caters to over 10,000 of its employees. "Dulsco, along with Dubai Industrial Park, aims to highlight the importance of preventive and timely health check-ups among residents - especially workers who quite often slip below the radar when we speak of providing healthcare for all," he added. According to Parab, Dulsco was recently acknowledged as one of the Top 20 Companies to Work For by the Great Places To Work For Institute, a global research and management consultancy. Dulsco, he stated, was also the only waste management company and among very few HR solution providers in the region to be awarded the Superbrand status consecutively for 2015 and 2016.-TradeArabia News Service Bentley Systems, a leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing infrastructure, has announced a new global framework agreement with energy giant Shell. The agreement serves to improve Shells capital project construction execution through automated 4D/5D construction management solutions provided by Bentley as a managed service. The solution, based on Bentleys ProjectWise ConstructSim, will be deployed as part of Shells ProjectVantage program. This innovative offering, which simplifies work packaging for engineering, construction, and installation, adheres to the Construction Industry Institutes (CIIs) Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) methodology. The agreement with Bentley underlies Shells ProjectVantage program, a multi-vendor integrated data-centric approach to capital project delivery. This industry-leading program is aimed at delivering safer and better projects faster by: improving cross-discipline and supplier collaboration; controlling data throughout the capital project lifecycle; and applying standards and enabling replication. Shell said it had selected ProjectWise ConstructSim as the foundation of its construction management solution to mainly: enhance its ability to visually plan and execute work safely, avoiding premature mobilization and downtime and removing constraints that can impact safety, logistics, materials, labor availability, permits, and documentation; ensure more effective engineering readiness through the application of advanced work packaging to improve constructability; and improve field productivity, which optimizes schedule reliability, maximizes time on tools, increases safety, and mitigates risk, resulting in substantial cost savings. Greg Bentley, the Bentley Systems CEO and executive sponsor of the companys Shell relationship, said: "Shell deserves credit for leading the energy industry to find innovative ways to continue to improve the affordability of capital projects, through the efficiency and predictability achievable through CIIs Advanced Work Packaging playbook." "By championing AWP through ProjectVantage for its own projects, Shell is also helping their EPCs toward project delivery performance breakthroughs - leveraging software technologies and cloud services, for the benefit of every project," stated Bentley. "Shells experience to date in applying 4D and 5D initiatives on major projects corroborates both CIIs findings about productivity gains attainable through AWP, as well as ProjectWise ConstructSims contribution," he added. Martin Swaine, Shell 4D/5D programme manager, said: "We are pleased with the trend of benefits seen during our projects increasing use of ProjectWise ConstructSim. Together with Bentley, we look to build on these improvements with our supply chain to collectively deliver safer and better projects.-TradeArabia News Service United Parcel Service (UPS), a global leader in logistics, has announced plans to build a new package sorting and delivery facility in Paris, France at an investment of over $100 million. The new facility, set to open in the first quarter of 2018, will replace two smaller facilities and will create more than 100 new jobs, said a statement from UPS. The site will be a showcase for the companys automated package sorting technology which minimises time in transit to final delivery, it said. The French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, mayor of Corbeil-Essonnes Jean-Pierre Bechter, mayor of Evry Francois Chouat and several other dignitaries attended the ground breaking ceremony, it added. Addressing the gathering, Valls said: "The new UPS hub will allow French businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to take advantage of more efficient logistics, as well as export more easily and conquer new markets." The new South Paris sorting and delivery facility will replace smaller buildings in Chilly-Mazarin and Savigny for small packages and larger freight shipments. It will have an operating area of more than 320,000 sq ft and 950 employees, said a statement. The new facilitys advanced technology will make it possible to sort up to 37,000 packages per hour, using 124 loading and unloading bays, with 125 parking positions for UPS delivery trucks, it said. Mike Harrell, managing director, UPS France, said: "France is a key market for UPS and building this new facility south of Paris shows our commitment to the French and European economies." Corbeil-Essonnes and Evry are two economic centres in the Essonnes region, with more than 2,000 businesses of all sizes. By using our integrated network we will help these companies grow by giving them fast access to markets beyond their region, he said. Nando Cesarone, president of UPS Europe, said: We are bullish on Europes growth potential and this investment in France - UPSs largest for the country is part of our $2 billion investment programme currently underway in Europe. With e-commerce and cross-border business on the rise, we are making our most economical cross-border service up to two days faster in 19 European countries, including France. Our customers rely on our network to help them be successful in todays global economy where cross-border trade represents real growth opportunities, he added. TradeArabia News Service Gunmen stormed a restaurant popular with expatriates in the diplomatic quarter of the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka on Friday night and took around 20 people hostage, including several foreigners, in an attack claimed by Islamic State. Security officials said two police officers had been killed, but denied a report by Islamic State that 24 people were dead in the assault. Italian and Indian nationals are among the hostages, said a duty officer at the Rapid Action Battalion's (RAB) control room, adding that gun battles had stopped. The hostage crisis, which continued into early hours of Saturday, marks an escalation from a recent spate of murders claimed by Islamic State and al Qaeda on liberals, gays, foreigners and religious minorities, and could deal a major blow to the country's vital $25 billion garment sector. Last year, several Western retailers temporarily halted visits to Dhaka following the killing of two foreigners. Police said eight to nine gunmen attacked the Holey Artisan restaurant in the upscale Gulshan area of Dhaka. A SPIKE IN MILITANT ATTACKS The assailants, believed to be carrying assault rifles and grenades, exchanged sporadic gun fire with police outside for several hours after the attack began around 9 p.m. local time. At least 15 people were injured, police said. RAB official Khalid Ibn-Hossain said police were trying to speak with the gunmen but had not been able to. "We are discussing ways to rescue the people, including foreigners, who are inside the cafe," police official Mohammad Habibur Rahman said. "Our priority is to rescue them peacefully without the loss of any life." Bangladesh has seen a spike in militant violence in the last 18 months. Attacks have tended to be on individuals, often using machetes, and the raid on the restaurant was a rare instance of a more coordinated operation. Earlier on Friday, a Hindu priest was hacked to death at a temple in Jhinaidah district, 300 kms (188 miles) south west of Dhaka. Both Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for many of the killings, although local authorities say there are no operational links between Bangladeshi militants and international jihadi networks. Bangladesh security officials say two local militant groups, Ansar-al-Islam and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, are behind the violence. Ansar pledges allegiance to al Qaeda, while Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen claims it represents Islamic State. "The bottom line is Bangladesh has plenty of local, (often unaffiliated), militants and radicals happy to stage attacks in ISIS's name," said Michael Kugelman, South Asia associate at The Wilson Centre in Washington D.C., using an acronym commonly used for Islamic State. He added that Islamic State had claimed more attacks in Bangladesh than in Pakistan or Afghanistan. SPORADIC GUNFIRE, CHAOS Benjir Ahmed, chief of Bangladesh's special police force, said police were preparing to launch an operation to rescue those being held captive. Ahmed said the attackers had hurled bombs at police. A police officer at the scene said that when security forces tried to enter the premises at the beginning of the siege they met a hail of bullets and grenades. Television footage showed a number of police being led away from the site with blood on their faces and clothes. Heavily armed officers could be seen milling on the street outside. A resident near the scene of the attack told Reuters he could hear sporadic gunfire nearly three hours after the attack began. "It is chaos out there. The streets are blocked. There are dozens of police commandos," said Tarique Mir. Italy's Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Twitter he was closely following the situation in Dhaka, adding he was "anxious for Italians involved" and expressing solidarity with their families. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi abruptly left a ceremony at the Colosseum in Rome on Friday evening to follow the hostage-taking incident, a source at his office said. The U.S. State Department said all Americans working at the U.S. mission there had been accounted for. A spokesman said in Washington the situation was "very fluid, very live". President Barack Obama has also been briefed about the attack, the White House said. Reuters A Russian warship carried out aggressive and erratic maneuvers close to a U.S. Navy ship in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the second such Cold War-style incident there in a matter of weeks, the US military said on Saturday. The US European Command said the Russian frigate, Yaroslav Mudry, came unnecessarily close to the guided-missile cruiser USS San Jacinto on June 30 and maneuvered in its wake. In a statement, Eucom said the US ship had not been threatened and it maintained course and speed. "But the closing distance by Yaroslav Mudry before the ship turned away from San Jacinto is considered a high risk maneuver, highly unprofessional, and contrary to international maritime regulations." Referring to the Yaroslav Mudry's close "aggressive, erratic maneuvers", Eucom Said: "These actions can unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries, and could result in dangerous miscalculations or accidents." There have been several similar incidents - reminiscent of Cold War confrontations between the rival superpowers - at sea and in the air in recent months, with the U.S. and Russian militaries accusing each other of dangerous approaches in international waters and airspace. US officials said earlier this month that on June 17, the Yaroslav Mudry came within 315 yards (288 meters) of the USS Gravely. They termed that incident "unsafe and unprofessional." The Russian Defense Ministry disputed this. At the time of the incident, the San Jacinto was carrying out operations against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria with the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. In another incident in April, the US military said Russian SU-24 bombers had simulated attack passes near the USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said at the time that the behavior of the Russian pilots was provocative and dangerous, adding that "under the rules of engagement that could have been a shoot-down".-Reuters Nile Air, one of the largest private schedule airline in Egypt, has extended its contract with travel industry technology partner Amadeus to expand the scope of the airline's IT services. The airline is now the first in the Middle East to use Amadeus complete Airline IT portfolio, which provides end-to-end IT solutions for carriers of all sizes, including small to mid-size airlines. Apart from Amadeus complete Altea Suite and the Amadeus Digital Solutions, Nile Air has now gained access to four key new features revenue management, revenue accounting, mobile web and loyalty management that will boost operational efficiency and save the airline money: Altea Segment Revenue Management tool will give Nile Air recommendations on the best price and packaging for flights and allow the airline to apply dynamic pricing, fare families and ancillary services to better package their fare offers. With Amadeus Revenue Accounting solutions real-time transactional model, Nile Air can track all passenger sales revenues as they happen to increase productivity and data accuracy. The Amadeus Loyalty Management system helps Nile Air personalize offers so that they can retain loyal passengers and boost revenues. Finally, Amadeus Mobile Web solution ensures that Nile Airs website is mobile friendly so the airline can achieve brand consistency, smooth customer service and accuracy on all digital platforms. The new multi-year agreement gives Nile Air access to a fully integrated IT system with instant communication, so the airline can make revenue decisions in real time. The system is also scalable, which allows Nile Air to quickly respond to the needs of a growing airline. Successful airlines need to be top-of-mind for passengers and travel agents at the time of booking. With the Amadeus Airline IT portfolio, we are able to improve our operational efficiency and offer a differentiated experience to all of our customers whether travelling internationally or domestically, for business or leisure, said Ahmed Aly, the CEO of Nile Air. Nile Air operates in a very competitive environment and has found a unique niche in which to build their success. With the latest Amadeus suite of IT solutions, Nile Air will have access to a real time fully-integrated, cutting-edge platform which will help them improve their revenue management so that they can better personalize their offers, said Maher Koubaa, vice president, Middle East and Africa, Airline IT & Distribution, Amadeus IT Group. Nile Air continued growth and expansion further emphasizes the need for a robust, reliable IT platform that will allow it to cater to future growth requirements, customer base while providing the scalability to grow further, said Khaled Gad, general manager at Amadeus Egypt. - TradeArabia News Service Taiwanese low-cost carrier V Air launched its first flight to Okinawa from Taipei today. The maiden flight took off with 100 per cent load factor from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, and marks another expansion in its network for this year 2016. We at V Air are delighted to witness the new scheduled service from the Taipei-Okinawa route. Recently, V Airs accumulated passengers have just surpassed 500,000. We have confidence to become the preferred airline of traveling Japanese on a budget. Besides, our operations in Okinawa will be significant in securing a strong foothold in Japan, shares V Air chief executive officer, Eleni Lung. To mark this inaugural flight, celebrations are arranged in both Taiwan Taoyuan and Okinawa Airport. Cabin crew decorated their uniform with Okinawa island-style accessories to welcome the first herd of guests from Taiwan. V Airs Taipei-Okinawa service will operate three flights weekly, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The flight time locates in the afternoon enabling passengers to travel without hassle and bustle. - TradeArabia News Service TORRINGTON Peak Wellness Center announced last week it will eliminate 16 staff positions in response to budget cuts at the Wyoming Department of Health. For over 50 years, Peak Wellness has provided mental health services to Albany, Laramie, Platte and Goshen counties. However, the majority of the cuts will affect Laramie County and, according to Peaks chief clinical officer Linda Goodman, the company is not anticipating any layoffs in Goshen County. We will be closing two of our specialized programs, the Haven in Laramie County and the Chrysalis House in Pine Bluffs, also Laramie County, explained Goodman in a phone interview. Unfortunately, we are also closing our peer-specialized program and our satellite offices in Pine Bluffs and Guernsey. The Haven program houses Peak clients suffering from co-occurring disorders, and the Chrysalis House is a residential site for women with dependent children. Peer specialists are available to work with any Peak clientele. These programs are very specialized to meet the needs of a prioritized specialized population, Goodman added. These specialized programs require 24-hour, awake staff and we have struggled to keep Chrysalis House open for a few years. Besides the loss of jobs, another impact of the layoffs is the loss of services to clients. The Haven program had a client capacity of eight, and the capacity of Chrysalis House was 15, not including children. However, neither program was operating at capacity. Closing the offices in Pine Bluffs and Guernsey will displace approximately 80 clients each, who will have to travel to Cheyenne, Wheatland or Torrington for services. According to Peak Wellness Executive Director Carl Cline, the budget cuts facing the organization are significant and could not be absorbed by the company without prioritizing services and making some difficult personnel decisions. The Department of Health was ordered to cut another 9 percent from their 2016-17 budget, explained Cline. The effect on us will be almost a million dollars $992,000. We needed to pull back and preserve the greatest good, our core service areas that include services for the persistently mentally ill, substance abuse and youth. Peak will also preserve the mens residential program in Cheyenne, a 34-bed facility that also works with clients going through detox. There wont be any layoffs in (Goshen) County, assured Cline. The Peak Wellness office in Torrington is strategic and very important to us and to the community. In the future, Peak hopes to diversify its funding streams, possibly creating a foundation and increasing fundraising efforts. We will be maximizing our payer sources like Medicaid and private insurance, said Cline about expanding funding sources. We are streaming how we bill and do business functions, and we are looking at maybe joining with other agencies for purchasing group health insurance. Everything is on the table. Although the layoffs account for about 9 percent of the companys total staff, Peak CEO Kortnie Mendoza said the overall effect may be less than expected. We have openings in other program areas (that are being maintained), she said, and we are encouraging any of those staff in positions being eliminated to pursue those openings. Free Wednesday lectures at fort Fort Caspar Museum is pleased to announce its annual free summer lecture series for 2016. The lectures will be held on seven consecutive Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm, through July 20. Each presentation will focus on a different Impression on Wyoming, from past to present and from east to west. These free programs are funded in part by the Fort Caspar Museum Association and the Wyoming Humanities Council. Each lecture will take place in the Multi-Use Room at Fort Caspar Museum. The programs are adult focused and will last approximately 60 minutes, including the lecture and a discussion opportunity. Most of the talks will feature a PowerPoint presentation, and if the speaker has published on a relevant topic, the lecture will conclude with a book signing. Here are the dates, speakers, and their topics for the other free summer lectures: July 6, Tom Rea will talk about Wyoming Bone Wars. He will discuss his 2001 book on dinosaur digs in Wyoming at the turn of the 20th century titled Bone Wars: The Excavation and Celebrity of Andrew Carnegies Dinosaur (Pittsburgh Press). Bone Wars is the story of how a fossil unearthed in the badlands of Wyoming helped give birth to the publics fascination with prehistoric beasts. Rea traces the evolution of scientific thought regarding dinosaurs and reveals the double-crosses and behind-the-scenes deals that marked the early years of bone hunting. July 13, Phil Roberts will explore Wyoming Prohibition; and finally, July 20, John Farr will present Wyoming: Sheepherders State. For more information, contact the museum at 235-8462 or check the Fort Caspar Museum website, www.fortcasparwyoming.com. Fort Caspar Museum is located at 4001 Fort Caspar Road. New displays at senior center What is Zentangle? Zentangle is a fun, relaxing ,easy method of drawing that creates structured images. Visit the Senior Center at 1831 E. 4th St. to view this fascinating display of amazing drawings by local artists. Also featured is a collection of Japanese collectibles including pottery, clothing, dishes and more. For more information, call 265-4678. Veteran Cigar Night Every Wednesday from 5:30 to 7 p.m., all veterans are invited to Veteran Cigar Night at the Casper Cigar Company, 4717 W. Yellowstone Highway, sponsored by Casper Cigar Company. There is no cost to attend. This is a time and place for our communitys combat veterans to relax and share their stories with other combat veterans while enjoying a good cigar. Veterans receive 20 percent off cigars. For more information, call Josh Cruse at 307-337-4400 or josh@caspercigar.com Downtown walking tours Casper Theater Company will present two downtown walking tours this summer. All tours are $25 per person and reservations are required. The Casper Ghost Tour will begin at 8:30 p.m., on Thursdays and Fridays, July 15 through July 29. The Ghost Tour guide will provide you with information on downtown hauntings in buildings, alleys, and businesses. She will take you on a 90-minute tour through the alleys of downtown talking about strange phenomenon seen by citizens, business owners and employees of several locations in the downtown area. You will learn about some locations such as Eggingtons, Wonder Bar, Wolfords, Lou Tauberts, the Downtown Parking Garage, the two movie theaters and much more. Tickets are $25 per person and a reservation is needed by calling 267-7243. The Sand Bar Tour will be a murder mystery walking tour. The tour guide will take you for a walk on the Sand Bar at 7:30 p.m., where you will come upon a victim of the times. There will be characters to will meet all of which had a motive. Each character will talk with you and tell you about their life on the Sand Bar, businesses, painted ladies, bootleggers, and gamblers. All will culminate at the end to find out Who Dun It? Tickets are $25 and the tour runs two weekends, Friday and Saturday, September 9-10 and 16-17. Reservations are required by calling 267-7243. If you have any questions about either tours please call Casper Theater Company at the above number, or email us at caspertheatercompany@gmail.com Our website is www.caspertheatercompany.net Southeast Nebraska needs rain, and it needs it now. After coming out of the third driest and warmest June on record in some areas, any moisture will be welcomed, Nebraska Associate Climatologist Al Dutcher said Friday. The U.S. Drought Monitor puts Southeast Nebraska in the abnormally dry category. If July is as dry, Dutcher said, Nebraska will start seeing patterns that ultimately will affect crops. Precipitation is expected this weekend, and that could help. "The bottom line is, will it be enough to make a significant improvement?" Dutcher asked. June also tied second place for the most 90-degree days. More than half of the days in the month hit 90 or higher, something that hasnt happened since 2002. Rain should cool off the area Saturday, but temperatures will creep back into the 90s and all the way up to 100 by Thursday before easing off for a somewhat cooler weekend. As far as June's heat, "it's just the way the pattern worked," National Weather Service Meteorologist Dave Forbert said. "It was kind of hit or miss as far as your location." For instance, Norfolk had an average June as far as heat and rainfall, but Lincoln had just over a half an inch of precipitation. "It's hard to say what causes that on such a small scale," Forbert said. "In general, it's basically just the pattern." The hot, dry weather was a factor in the number of tornadoes, too. So far this year, about 14 have been reported, which is fewer than normal. The National Weather Service in Omaha reported seven in its coverage area, four in April and three in May. Dutcher said the answers lay as far back as December. "We had a very aggressive wet pattern in December that gave us near records for rainfall," he said. But the wetness set up problems for spring. "Everything came to a standstill," Dutcher said. "We saw this ridging pattern moving into the southwest and that was able to block the movement of significant moisture in our region. ... There are signs recently that were starting to see signs of precipitation in portions of the state." Meanwhile, people who are tired of the heat should enjoy the next few days. The weather service predicts thunderstorms and a high of 68 degrees for Beatrice on Saturday, a high near 70 on Sunday and a partly sunny Independence Day with a high near 81 degrees. Then it's back to the 90s. A $9.1 million combination of projects to repair and improve overlooks, trails and parking lots along the rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River has started. The work was prompted in part by the 2014 death of an 8-year-old California girl, who fell after stepping off the trail to the Brink of the Lower Falls and slipping. In 2012, an 18-year-old Yellowstone concession employee fell to her death near Inspiration Point after walking off the canyons North Rim Trail. As the first part of that work, the North Rim Trail has been closed until July 23. Because there are so many projects proposed, the work will take four years to complete. The work will include rerouting trails away from dangerous areas with stone barriers; connecting historic overlooks with new walkways; creating safe, accessible viewing areas with new informational signage; and using natural materials to integrate the infrastructure into the canyons spires and cliffs. Current closures include: Inspiration Point until fall 2016. A section of the North Rim Trail between the Brink of Upper Falls and the Brink of Lower Falls until July 23. The Brink of Upper Falls and Brink of Lower Falls are still accessible from the trailheads. Areas affected over the four-year period include: Brink of Upper Falls, Brink of Lower Falls, Uncle Toms trails and overlooks, Inspiration Point, Red Rock Point, Crystal Falls and sections of the North Rim Trail that connect these areas. Parking areas at the Brink of Upper Falls and the Uncle Toms area are being reconfigured to increase capacity and the flow of pedestrian traffic. This project will be funded by the Yellowstone Park Foundation through private donations and federal fee dollars. Construction will be managed and contracted by the Federal Highways Administration, with oversight by Yellowstone National Park. A crew of students from the Montana Conservation Corps is assisting the National Park Service trail crew with work on the North Rim Trail. Every weekday at 2 p.m., men in orange jumpsuits file into a Casper courtroom for their first appearance before a judge. Some of the men face charges for violent crimes such as domestic abuse, assault, rape and, on a rare occasion, murder. Most, however, are there for nonviolent crimes: drunken driving, drug possession, shoplifting or burglary. Some of the inmates, both violent and nonviolent offenders, will eventually serve probation or spend time at a local halfway house, called the Casper Re-Entry Center. But statistics show many of them, however, will spend time behind bars. Similar scenes play out in other courtrooms across the state. Wyoming is one of few in the country with an increasing incarceration rate, which is driving up prison costs at a time when the state is experiencing a budget shortfall. The state is left with two choices: reform criminal sentencing laws or spend nearly $20 million to update and expand prisons. Wyoming crime and incarceration rates Wyomings imprisonment rate grew faster than all but four other states between 2009 and 2014, according to a study released by the Pew Charitable Trusts in September. During those five years, Wyomings crime rate dropped 24 percent, while the states incarceration rate grew by 7 percent. This means fewer crimes are being reported, but more people are being locked up. In 2010, Wyoming incarcerated three times the number of inmates as North Dakota, a state that was home to about 100,000 more people at the time, according to Pews Prison Count 2010. Nationally, crime rates are about half of what they were in 1991, when they reached their highest, according to the September Pew study. Crime has fallen to levels not seen since the late 1960s. Experts attribute the low crime rates to better policing, the fading of the crack cocaine epidemic, reduced use of cash in favor of electronic payment methods and the spread of anti-crime technologies, such as car theft prevention devices. Pew concedes increased imprisonment of dangerous offenders has played a role in decreasing crime. However, its research has found no clear correlation between higher incarceration and lower crime. Instead, 30 states reduced their imprisonment and crime rates from 2009 to 2014. Theres isnt agreement on why Wyomings trends differ with so many other states. Some attorneys say the state is locking up people who would be better served in probation or treatment programs. Linda Burt, the former director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Wyoming, said it was politically popular for decades to get tough on crime. Because such laws were easy to pass, lawmakers put more crimes on the books and enacted longer sentences for already existing crimes. Were putting people in jail that were mad at, not people we need to be safe from, Burt said. Cheyenne attorney Casandra Craven, who has studied the issue of sentencing reform, said the War on Drugs led to a large number of drug offenders behind bars. A lot of the mentality of the war on drugs is that consequences need to be instilled, Craven said. But, she said, the punishment doesnt often fit the crime. Natrona County District Attorney Michael Blonigen disagreed. He said prison inmates tend to be violent and repeat offenders who have been given multiple chances on probation. Our crime rate is down because repeat and violent offenders are locked up and they receive treatment in the facilities, Blonigen said. He also said sex offenders are receiving more substantial prison sentences. Sentence reform Wyoming Department of Corrections officials say they will need $13.5 million to add 144 new beds to the Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution in Torrington and to update the facility. It would cost an additional $5 million a year to operate the space. Department Director Bob Lampert has said the state wouldnt have to spend the money if it changes the way offenders are sentenced. The department has recommended more residential drug rehab programs outside of prison, giving more first-time nonviolent offenders probation instead of time behind bars and offering inmates incentives to be released early on good behavior. The Joint Judiciary Committee last year sponsored a bill with many of the departments recommended reforms. However, the bill was not approved for introduction. Rep. Charles Pelkey, D-Laramie and a member of the Judiciary, said he would oppose further funding for prisons until the legislature addresses sentence reform. Its unclear whether the committee would agree with such a move. Judiciary Chairman David Miller nor Sen. Leland Christensen, another prominent member of the committee, responded to a message seeking comment. The committee has been tasked with reviewing sentencing and alternatives to prison this year. Alternative sentencing methods, such as probation and treatment options, are viewed as being soft on crime, Pelkey said. However, those programs often have a higher success rate than incarceration, the legislator said. Wyoming has the second-lowest recidivism rate in the country. According to an academic paper authored by Craven, the Cheyenne attorney, a merit-based system used by probation and parole agents should receive credit. The Positive Reinforcements, Incentives, and Sanctions Matrix program (PRISM) provides positive reinforcement and sanctions for certain behavior. Craven suggests a similar program be enacted in prisons, which could allow inmates to qualify for early release if they participate in programming and have good behavior. This would lower the prison population by letting out inmates who have demonstrated rehabilitation. Its about people and what these people need, Craven said. Do they really need to sit in jail for months on end? No, they need treatment and they need jobs. They need something positive in their life. The Department of Corrections announced recently it would have to trim $17.9 million from its budget due to the states financial downturn. One way the agency plans to do this is by reducing the number of beds available in prison for substance abuse treatment. Pelkey worries this will cost the state more in the long run because inmates with drug and alcohol problems will be released without treatment and will likely get in more trouble. Blonigen called the supervision parolees and probationers receive questionable due to cuts that have been made to counseling programs and a lack of enough probation and parole agents. If supervised release is to be an alternative to incarceration, in whole or part, it has to be meaningful, he said. Federal agents were trying to apprehend a fugitive from Colorado when a U.S. marshal shot and killed him outside a Douglas church, authorities said Friday. Jasen Scott Ramirez, 44, died Thursday after being shot in the parking lot of St. James Catholic Church. Agents were attempting to arrest Ramirez, who was was wanted on drug charges. Authorities released more information about the incident on Friday, but several questions remain unanswered, including whether Ramirez was armed and what led to the shooting. Local and state authorities referred most questions to the U.S. Marshals Service, which released a one-paragraph statement and said it could not provide further comment. The Marshals Service said it would not be releasing the names of the deputy marshals involved in the shooting until all investigations into the incident are concluded, as a matter of the agencys policies. Sheriff deputies and Douglas Police Department officers responded to the church at 2:43 p.m. Thursday and found Ramirez lying unconscious on the ground, the sheriffs office said. Emergency personnel took him to Memorial Hospital of Converse County, where he later died. A witness told the Star-Tribune he saw people who had been attending a funeral leave the church shortly after the shooting. Multiple local agencies were called to the scene Thursday afternoon to create a security perimeter while the shooting was investigated. An unconfirmed threat made against law enforcement prompted the Converse County Courthouse, Douglas City Hall and the hospital to be placed on lockdown until the threat was investigated, the sheriffs office said in a statement. The statement did not specify the nature of the threat. The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation is looking into the shooting, said Frosty Williams, its deputy director of operations. Williams referred additional questions to the Converse County Attorneys Office. A message left at the office Friday morning wasnt returned. A reporter at the shooting saw officers with shirts with the acronyms HSI and ICE. Those acronyms typically refer to Homeland Security Investigations and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, respectively. ICE officers and HSI special agents routinely assist in law enforcement operations as requested, said Carl Rusnok, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Rusnok did not say how the officers and special agents assisted in Douglas. Ramirez faced federal charges for possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, possession of a firearm in the furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to federal court documents. He faced life in prison. An indictment was filed against Ramirez on May 18 in the U.S. District Court of Wyoming. An arrest warrant was issued the next day. A Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper was injured while responding to the shooting. He was flown by helicopter to Wyoming Medical Center and was expected to be released from the hospital sometime Friday. The patrol on Friday identified the trooper as Joel Eldred, a 12-year veteran based in Glenrock. He was driving with lights and sirens to Douglas when he attempted to pass a Jeep SUV on U.S. Highway 20-26 just east of Glenrock. The SUV turned left into a driveway in front of Eldreds patrol car, and the trooper steered into a ditch to avoid a crash, according to the patrol. The two vehicles still collided, and Eldreds patrol car rolled at least four times. Investigators credit Eldreds seat belt, bulletproof vest, the patrol cars design and its prisoner cage for minimizing his injuries. Robin Belgrad, a Louisiana woman driving the SUV, was treated for her injuries and released Thursday from the hospital. No citations have been issued related to the crash, the patrol said. A woman who witnessed the crash told the Star-Tribune the patrol car came out of nowhere, giving Belgrad no time to react. Michelle Lambert was driving a pickup just in front of Belgrads Jeep and said Belgrad was trying to turn into a commercial yard and had used her signal. I didnt see him at all, Michelle Lambert said. SHERIDAN Wyoming kids are the most economically well-off in the nation, according to a recent report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. But report authors caution its a mixed bag, and the data does not reflect major changes in Wyomings fiscal outlook, which will have ripple effects on child education, health and family well-being. The Casey Foundation, a national philanthropic organization devoted to at-risk youth, released its annual report on child well-being this week. It gives state-by-state comparisons in four categories. Wyoming ranked first in the country for economic well-being, as measured by children in poverty, children whose parents lack secure employment, children living in households that spend more than 30 percent of pre-tax income on housing, and teens not in school and not working. Samin Dadelahi is the chief operating officer of Wyoming Community Foundation, which is the Annie E. Casey Foundations Wyoming contact and compiled the states data for the report. Dadelahi said its notable that oil-producing Wyoming and North Dakota came in at No.1 and No. 2 for economic well-being. But because the report uses data from 2014, its likely a different picture now. Dadelahi pointed to the drastic drop in oil prices since then. Despite strong showings on economic stability, Wyoming kids fared poorly in health, coming in at No. 48 in the nation. Dadelahi said Wyomings high youth suicide rate was a major factor in this ranking. And low birthweight babies, which often come from pregnant mothers smoking, is another big driver in Wyomings low health ranking. The report measured two other categories: education, and family and community. Wyoming ranked seventh nationally for family and community well-being, which measured the following indicators: children in single-parent families, children in families where the household head lacks a high school diploma, children living in high-poverty areas and teen births per 1,000. Wyoming made gains in reducing teen pregnancies in 2014, the data shows, with 47 births per 1,000 teens in 2008 to 30 births per 1,000 teens in 2014. (The report used 2008 as the comparison year to assess how children have fared since the Great Recession.) Dadelahi applauded this improvement, saying delaying pregnancies influences areas like education and economic well-being, since it means teens can stay in school longer and hold a job more easily. On education, the Cowboy State ranked No. 18. This category measured young children not in school, fourth-graders not proficient in reading, eighth-graders not proficient in math and high school students not graduating on time. Wyoming made gains in reducing teen drug use, as well as improving on-time graduation for high schoolers and reading proficiency among fourth-graders. Dadelahi said she expects Wyoming to drop in its rankings when next years report is issued. I think that were going to start trending downwards, she said. All you have to do is pick up a newspaper and see that weve got tremendous budget cuts. Rising unemployment puts financial strain on families, Dadelahi added, and on a state level, budget cuts means less money for education and early childhood programs. Dadelahi said Tuesdays news that more than 600 private sector jobs would likely be eliminated due to state budgets cuts, along with the elimination of a family literacy program earlier this year, put downward pressure on resources that support child well-being. The Wyoming Community Foundation wished the legislature would have passed Medicaid expansion this year, but said the state does well in other areas, such as providing free early childhood screenings and full-day kindergarten. Dadelahi said during times of economic strain, its important to continue investing in child development. (We need to) make sure that we dont start backpedaling because were panicked, she said. STAR-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL BOARD Fracking rules The court got it right, said Gov. Matt Mead of Federal Judge Scott Skavdahls ruling this week that the Interior Department overstepped the bounds of its legal authority with its proposed hydraulic fracturing rules. Skavdahl blocked the department from enforcing the proposed rules which was good news to many Wyoming industry and government officials alike. Let river fishing begin! The North Platte River, swollen with spring runoff for most of June has begun to recede back into its normal river channel. Casperites were lucky that flooding was limited to portions of the river trails, causing inconvenience rather than damage to homes. As river flow ebbs, let the fishing begin! Be careful of wildfire After a wet spring, wildfire season has begun! Several dangerous fires are already burning around Wyoming and the Natrona County Fire Department responded to four reports of smoke in one day recently. Be careful. Be aware. Construction schedule Major construction on both Kelly Walsh High School and the new Pathways Innovation Center are on schedule and nearly complete. And the third of five phases of construction is on schedule at Natrona County High School. This is good news for students and staff scheduled to begin classes there in the fall. Construction money And while completion of two high school construction projects is good for students, the local economy will miss the construction spending. Including the NCHS project, which will be completed in 2018, the three high school construction projects injected some $330 million into Caspers economy, helping to soften the blow of a severe energy downturn. Thank you King Coal. Nic Fest For the 11th year in a row, Casper celebrated art, food and music at the Nic Fest in downtown Casper last weekend. This event generates not only goodwill for the Nic, but a broad stage for Casper and regional artists, musicians, small businesses, classic auto enthusiasts and nonprofits. And it gives attendees the opportunity to know more about the community we share. Its a well-run and much appreciated event. Thank you to the board, staff and volunteers of the Nic for the mountain of work you do to produce this free event for the rest of us! Editor: The number one question of the day: When Egyptian Aircraft 804 went down in the Mediterranean Sea: U.S. presidential candidates responded. Clinton said, "wait and see what the cause was." Trump said, "It looks like terror." He would pause visas. The French government isn't "waiting to see" they are scouring the Paris airport and questioning airport workers. The wait and see approach of the former Secretary of State was disastrous to the Benghazi victims. The EU in destroying borders has invited the refugee influx into Europe instead of promoting sanctuary in the Mid-East. NATO's requirement of members to aid other member nations in distress has stationed U.S. soldiers in South Korea for 50 years. The U.S. has barely escaped obligation to intervene in the Ukraine civil war (in which 40,000 Ukrainians returned to Russia for refuge). U.S. media have sat on the news that this administration has established a huge naval Base in Singapore and recently sent missiles to Romania, shifting the focus to the 'far East' and to the China islands in the South Seas. As the U.S. President goes to G7 Summit in Japan, U.S. TV airs a documentary on "Jimmy Doolittle" World War II airborne squadrons which bombed Japan after the Pearl Harbor attack. They knew as they flew they would not have fuel enough to return to their aircraft carrier. They would have to set down in Japanese occupied China. Chinese people flocked to their rescue despite the fear that 230,00 of them (suspected of aiding U.S. airmen) would be exterminated. Let's remember the role China played in U.S. aid back then. It is time to bring U.S. foreign aid home, rebuild our USAF planes and send food packages to Venezuela where people are surviving on bugs and leaves in our own hemisphere. 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 of 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 has filed a civil-rights lawsuit against the Tucson Police Department, alleging excessive force and false imprisonment by officers, documents show. Michael Kurt Hughes filed a lawsuit in Pima County Superior Court, stemming from a May 2015 incident during which he was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault of a police officer, according to court records. Last week, his lawsuit was moved to federal court. A judge dismissed the assault charge against Hughes in November, ruling police violated his Fourth Amendment rights when they entered his apartment without cause, according to court documents. Hughes suit against TPD and the city also names two individual officers, one of whom resigned from the department in January after a different incident involving excessive force. On May 20, 2015, Tucson police responded to a domestic-violence call at Hughes residence, where he was reported to be a victim, court records show. Hughes left his apartment before police arrived, but his girlfriend was subsequently arrested for breaking a window. One of the officers named in the suit, Jacob Fraley a two-year veteran of the department stayed at the residence while the city sent an employee to board up the window, according to court documents. While Fraley was waiting, Hughes returned home and the two spoke outside the residence. Hughes girlfriend had told police that he took a kitchen knife when he left, and Fraley asked Hughes to take his hands out of his pockets, assuming thats where the knife was, according to the court documents. Fraley, who was wearing his body camera, told Hughes that he wasnt under arrest, but he needed to speak to him, at which point Hughes entered his residence and tried to close the door behind him, court records show. Fraley said in the police report that he followed Hughes inside, believing him to be a danger to himself, and for officer safety reasons, according to the documents. A struggle ensued and Fraley pulled Hughes outside of the residence, at which point both men fell and the body camera stopped recording. After they were on the ground, Fraley struck Hughes in the face several times, court documents show. Both men stood up, and Fraley called for backup, before tackling Hughes to the ground. Hughes was placed in handcuffs, which he didnt resist, hog tied and fully restrained, according to court records. One of the officers who arrived as backup, Arick Martino, saw Hughes rolling on the ground pulling against his restraints. The court documents say that Martino saw Hughes kick another officer in the shins, after which he proceeded to kick (Hughes) in the back. As a result of the altercations with Fraley and Martino, Hughes suffered injuries to his face, back, shoulder, neck and ribs, court records show. He was taken to the Pima County jail after the incident and charged with aggravated assault of a peace officer. Because he was unable to pay the $10,000 bond, Hughes remained in jail until the case was dismissed six months later, said his attorney, Adam Page. Hughes is suing for false arrest, excessive force, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution. My position has been that the police officers violated the Constitution, Page said. These cases are important. I have the highest respect for law enforcement and what they do, but its not acceptable to violate citizens constitutional rights. Fraley is still employed, but his position in the department is unclear. Police didnt respond to a request for comment on his status. A three-year TPD veteran, Martino resigned in January after he was investigated by internal affairs for an incident involving excessive force, according to documents from the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training board, obtained through a records request. Last July, Martino responded to a call of a disturbance, during which time he kicked a man who was restrained on the ground, after Martino called the man a jackass. Martino continued to restrain the man by dropping his knees to the suspects upper back. Two other officers pushed Martino away from the suspect, according to board documents. Martino told internal-affairs detectives he used that amount of force because the suspect was attempting to self-mutilate, but interviews with other officers and body-camera footage show no evidence of Martinos claims, the documents say. Investigators determined that because Martino called the man a derogatory name before applying force, that showed the intent to insult or provoke a restrained suspect. During a March meeting, the board voted to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Martino, who is now facing the loss of his peace-officer certification. The standards and training board will make a decision on Martinos case in upcoming months. A Cochise County grand jury has indicted a former Douglas police officer on theft charges. Theodore Kulkens is accused of stealing nearly $15,000 in cash that had been placed into the Douglas Police Department's property and evidence section, the Arizona Attorney General's Office says . Kulkens was the department's former property and evidence section sergeant. He was fired in September 2013 for unrelated reasons. In January 2015, Douglas police discovered money was missing from an evidence safe. Douglas' police chief asked the AG's Office for outside assistance to investigate. Agents from the Special Investigations Section working with Douglas police detectives and discovered Kulkens allegedly stole money from at least five different cases between 2007 and 2013. An 18-year-old man was arrested Friday afternoon in connection with terrorism charges, officials said. Mahin Khan was taken into custody following a joint operation between the Arizona Attorney General's Office and FBI, said Mia Garcia, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General's office. "Khan allegedly conspired to commit acts of terror against government buildings in Pima and Maricopa County," Garcia said. He's being held in the Maricopa County jail with no bond on one count of conspiracy to commit terrorism and one count of terrorism, she said. Khan appeared before a judge Saturday morning. It's unclear if he has an attorney yet. All records relating to the case have been sealed, so no details are currently available, Garcia said. The crowds chatter quieted down as the music began. And one by one, young adults fashioning black gowns, caps and yellow tassels marched toward the stage. Then came the applause, whistling and cheering. These are the graduates of the Las Artes Arts & Education Center, a Pima County alternative education program. After having overcome obstacles, whether its homelessness or substance abuse, the 17 graduates completed the program and received their GEDs. The ceremony was held Friday at Pima Community College downtown. Im just so proud of them, said Arnold Palacios, the schools head. Theyre taking a transitional step we all need to take to participate in the community. Las Artes typically serves students between 17 and 22 years old, he said. Its students are often those who are identified as disconnected or at risk and confronting hardships. The program combines classroom instruction with art activities, including painting murals all over Pima County. Creating art together is intended to teach the young people about starting something and finishing it, accountability and responsibility, he said. It also teaches them to work with one another. Its to develop employability skills, Palacios said. Natatasha Natasha Jones came to the school nine months ago after having left three traditional public high schools. Regular high school just wasnt for her, she said. She transferred from Desert View High School to Sunnyside High School. She dropped out from Sunnyside and got kicked out of her next school, Cholla Magnet, for fighting. Now, shes one of Las Artes valedictorians. It was a really amazing experience, she said of the program. It taught her how to be a grown up, and the teachers there really showed that they care. And her favorite part was painting the murals. Jones said she is pregnant, so she will wait about a year until she pursues higher education, but she eventually wants to get into cosmetology, caregiving or nursing. Its not just myself that I have to take care of, she said. An alumna of the school spoke at the ceremony. Giavanna Miller, who received her GED in 2007, spoke of her teen days, working at a fast food restaurant and having issues with alcohol and run-ins with police. After getting her GED through Las Artes, she joined the Army, which took her around the world, including Germany. Now shes going for her bachelors degree at Arizona State University. She wants to pursue a career in advocating for children. Miller said she wanted to remind the students to embrace and accept the support from their family and friends, which is a skill that she said she learned from Las Artes. I just really hope that they dont feel restricted from whats in front of them, whether thats the neighborhoods they grew up in or their financial situation, she said. Jones, the valedictorian, broke out into tears as she read a list of names of people she wanted to thank. The list included family members, friends and staff members of Las Artes. She also thanked those who told her she would never make it. I will continue to prove you wrong. Help India! Patna : A group of ABVP and Bajrang Dal activists in Bihars Begusarai district washed the statue of renowned poet Dinkar with gangajal on Friday to protest against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, who garlanded and paid floral tributes there. ABVP and Bajrang Dal members also organized a hawan puja and sprinkled gangjal on the ground in Begusarai where Kanhaiya Kumar addressed a public meeting of Communist Party of India on Thursday. Support TwoCircles ABVP activists shouted slogans that the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union president, who has been charged with sedition , has made this ground impure by his presence. However,after a long time, there is a festive mood in Bihat village in Begusarai on Friday as a famous son of the soil is visiting his home for first time after arrested on the charge of sedition and later released on the bail. Kanhaiyas parents, other family members, relatives, neighbours and villagers have been celeberating Kanhaiyas visit to his native village. It is time of celeberation not only for us but entire village as Kanhaiya has finally arrived after a long wait, said Kanhaiyas father Jaishankar Singh, who is in his early 60s and paralysed on one side of his body. Kanhaiya was welcomed by villagers when he arrived at his native village on Thursday night. Kanhaiyas mother Meena Devi is not hiding her happiness after her son is at home. I am cooking some special desi-dishes for him, said Meena, an angaanwadi worker who earns Rs 3,000 a month. According to her, Kanhaiya will also attend a marriage of a family member during his two day stay in the village. In view of threat perception to Kanhaiya, tough security arrangements have been made in Bihat and around his home during his stay, district police official Ranjit Kumar Mishra said. In April, Kanhaiya visited Patna but did not visit his native village during two-day visit. Kanhaiya arrived in Patna on Wednesday and participated in Pratirodh march here to support the ongoing agitation at college of arts and crafts here. Kanhaiya also addressed a public meeting of CPI in Begusarai on Thursday,where he was given rousing welcome. Kanhaiya, who was arrested on the charge of sedition in February in connection with an event on JNU campus against hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised, was released on bail in March. House Bill 630 would alter Coal Ash Commission, allow reprocessing of coal ash for construction, and require Duke Energy to ensure clean drinking water near ponds Image of Belews Creek coal ash pond (Graphic from N.C. Department of Environmental Quality website) A coal ash cleanup bill moved quickly through the state Senate on Tuesday. House Bill 630 would repeal all provisions in state law related to a Coal Ash Management Commission that was struck down by the N.C. Supreme Court. Instead, coal ash cleanup will come under the supervision of the state's Department of Environmental Quality.It also would require Duke Energy, which owns the coal ash ponds, to provide permanent alternative water supplies for residents surrounding the ponds. In addition, Duke would be required to identify three sites to process coal ash for commercial use, such as by concrete companies.The bill cleared the Senate Rules Committee Tuesday afternoon, and was later approved by the full Senate by a 44-4 vote. It now goes to the House for a final vote.DEQ Secretary Don van der Vaart told the Senate Rules Committee.The move comes after a 2014 coal ash spill into the Dan River near Eden. Following the spill, the General Assembly created a coal ash commission to oversee the cleanup. However, the Supreme Court said the makeup of the commission violated the constitutional separation of powers doctrine. Gov. Pat McCrory also vetoed a bill earlier this year that modified appointments to the coal ash commission.Connie Wilson, a lobbyist representing the Carolinas Ready Mix Concrete Association, said the bill is good news for concrete companies, which use refined coal ash as a strengthening agent in their product.Wilson said.Some concrete operators said they previously had considered importing coal ash products because they were unable to obtain enough if it locally.Jeff Brooks, a Duke Energy spokesman, said the electricity company supports the "beneficial use" provision of the bill.Brooks said.The N.C. League of Conservation Voters was not happy with the Senate action.said Dan Crawford, a lobbyist for the NCLCV.The bill requires Duke Energy to provide a permanent source of safe drinking water by the fall of 2018 to every residence within a one-half mile radius of a coal ash pond, and to any other areas affected by the ponds.Brooks said that Duke is concerned about people living near the coal ash sites.Brooks said.Brooks said Duke Energy is already providing bottled water to some residents.Brooks said.Brooks said the bill gives Duke more flexibility in ways to close the coal ash ponds Help India! By Amit Kumar, TwoCircles.net Imphal, Manipur: Anil Kumar Gupta, 56, runs a tea stall in Imphal. Although his roots go back to Samastipur, Bihar, he has never been there. His father moved to Imphal long before Anil was born, and Imphal has always been home for him and his family. He speaks chaste Bhojpuri with hundreds of Biharis who visit his shop, but is equally, if not more, fluent in Manipuri. He subscribes to a Manipuri newspaper and the music system in his shop plays mostly Manipuri music. I am more Manipuri than the guy who works in my shop, he says laughingly. He has been to Delhi; I have never been beyond Guwahati, he adds. Support TwoCircles Anil Kumar Gupta, a resident of Imphal in his tea shop. He insists that he has never been discriminated by the Meiteis living in the area and that the entire debate over the Inner Line Permit issue has not impacted his life in any possible way. However, he adds that it is not as if he is not worried; just that he knows he can do little about it.This is not the first time that Meyangs (Manipuri term for outsiders) have been targeted in Manipur. Similar incidents have happened in the early 80s and 90s too. We survived all that, we will survive this too, he says. The three Bills: The Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms (Seventh) Amendment Bill 2015 (MLRLR Bill 2015), The Protection of Manipur People Bill, 2015 and The Manipur Shops and Establishments Act (Second) Amendment Bill 2015, are being presented by the Government of Manipur as a solution to long pending demand for implementation of Inner Line Permit system by the Meitei organizations to protect them from the high rate of influx of outsiders.The Inner Line Permit is a special permit required to enter certain restricted areas in the country, and currently such a system exists in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram. The Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS) has been spearheading the movement for legislation to protect the indigenous population from migrants.The reaction to these Bills have varied in the state, with immense support for passing them in the four valley districts of the regionImphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal and Bishnupurwhile the Hill districts are opposing them completely. However, in all these debates, the outsiders, much like the Manipuri Muslims, have mostly been left out. But Anil believes this is understandable given that at least in the valley districts, the main agitation is against the huge influx of non-Manipuris. However, he adds that outsiders who are now residents of the region and have voting rights in the districts must be discussed and spoken to. It is common to see videos of outsiders being attacked in the Imphal region. Every once in a while, such a video pops up on WhatsApp. This worries us a lot, but we are not in a position to do much, he says. About 110 kms from Imphal, in Moreh too, the Biharis are worried over the ILP issue. However, the equation in Moreh, Chandel district, is slightly different in this border town. Despite being a small town, Moreh has a cosmopolitan society, with Meiteis, Kukis, Biharis, Tamils and Punjabis all living as residents in the region, and Biharis form a majority of the labour force in the town. Ramkali Devi, who is from Bihar, runs a small hotel in the town and as a resident, has witnessed a lot of confrontations over the ILP issue. While she has never been attacked, she is well aware of the dangers.The main stakeholders in this fight are the Kukis and Meiteis in this region. We have mostly been mute spectators, but we are not out of danger. About six months ago, Meiteis took out a rally in support of ILP and a number of shops, including mine, were damaged, she says. I am not even sure what the ILP means. I have a shop here and voting rights too. Will my rights be taken away once ILP comes into place? Will we be asked to leave? she asks. Lack of clarity over ILP the biggest concern for migrants Whether it is in Imphal, Moreh or Churachandpur, migrants across the state are confused and worried about what the ILP issue entails. Rumours and lies spread by various people have not helped matters, says Pradip Phanjoubam, editor, Imphal Free Press. Lets clear one thing: even if ILP comes into place, no outsider will be thrown out of the state or asked to leave. Similarly, no one will be disenfranchised. The biggest impact, at least in the near future, will be that it will become difficult, if not impossible, for outsiders to buy land in the region. But fears that ILP will bring a mass exodus from the region, are unfounded, he says. Ramkali Devi in her hotel in Moreh Then, there is the issue of using 1951 as the base year for defining who the residents of Manipur are. Even Anil, who is 56 years old and has spent all his life in the state does not qualify as a Manipuri as per the base year. The base year, says Phanjoubam, has been the biggest point of debate and clearly must be addressed. Instead of using 1951 as a base year, residency should be defined like domicile status. If you meet the requirements for domicile status in the state, you must also qualify as a Manipuri, he says. Outsiders need not fear, says JCILPS According to BK Moirangcha, Convener in charge, JCILPS, the demand for ILP is an attempt to preserve the Manipuri ethnic population. Some people are looking at it as Meiteis against everyone else, he told Twocircles.net. We are not against people from outside, but at the same time, we believe that we must be allowed to protect ourselves from the huge influx of outsiders in the state. Bringing in ILP will not mean you (an outsider) cannot come and stay; it is simply an attempt to keep a check on how many people arrive in the state, and to stop them from acquiring land in the region, he says. He added that people who had been living in the state as per the base year are Manipuris irrespective of whether they are ethnic people or not. He refused to answer clearly on the issue of the base year itself, saying that this was up to the state government to decide after consulting all the concerned parties. However, one of the members of the committee told Twocircles.net on the condition of anonymity that there was a good chance that the base year might be shifted to a later period to make the Bills more inclusive. Our main demand has always been, and remains, the need to introduce ILP. We are ready to discuss other points but there is no way we will let this demand go, he said. People have lost lives fighting for this issue and there is no way we will let their sacrifices go in vain, he said pointing to the burial site of Sapam Robin Hood, where he had met this correspondent. On July 8, 2015, 16-year-old Robin died after a tear gas shell hit his neck. Currently, a road is being constructed near his burial site in Loumai Ching Khong, which is a few kms from the Porompat D.C. office. This July, the JCILPS plans to host a program in the memory of Robin on his death anniversary. It is pretty clear that the demand for ILP is unlikely to subside in the valley region, just as there is little chance that the tribal regions will stop opposing the three Bills. However, in the simmering political cauldron that Manipur has become, it will be difficult to predict who gets caught on the wrong side. For now, however, the Biharis can only wait and watch. Related: 294 days and counting: Why Churachandpur refuses to bury its dead Why tribals of Manipur wont accept the controversial Bills pushed by the state government Manipuri Muslims feel left out, sidelined over Inner Line Permit issue For Tamils of Moreh, staying out of the Inner Line Permit debate is the safest option The enormity of the referendum result for Brexit is only now starting to sink in to the British people.A Brexit would have enormous long term impact on the UK.And many people are now asking "Can Brexit be stopped?" andCan the UK remain in the European Union?There are three main possibilities. A legal one, a political one, and an EU one. The legal argument against a Brexit First of all, the referendum is not binding on the UK government. It's merely advisory.A Brexit would represent a major constitutional change for the UK. It could even lead to the break up of the UK. The consensus among many lawyers is that as Parliament is sovereign, it is Parliament which must make the final decision. The political chances of stopping a Brexit Many people claim now that that untruths were told by the Leave campaigners. As the full facts were not known they now have "buyers remorse.' However, distortion, misrepresentation of the facts, or even outright lying is so common at election times that it's practically standard behaviour. It doesn't mean the result is invalid or void. Elections always operate under the adage "buyer beware." The majority for a Brexit is very small. And the conditions for a clear outcome could have been made more stringent. But the UK Prime Minister and Parliament did not specify any requirement other than a simply majority.And the Brexit majority is still a majority, even if only a very small one. Britain's two main political parties are currently in turmoil. New alignments and policy statements may emerge, and also a new party. The Liberal Democrats as pro-Remain could see a sudden growth in popularity.However, all this has yet to work itself out and so the effects on the Brexit issue are at present uncertain. Could the Scottish Government prevent a Brexit? It might be seen as unfair for the UK to proceed with a Brexit which drags along an unwilling Scotland.But the Scottish Assembly is a devolved Parliament within the UK with power to make law in certain specified areas only. It is not a sovereign Parliament by itself.So the Scottish Government has no authority to prevent a Brexit. Can Parliament prevent a Brexit? In Britain Parliament is sovereign and has the last word. If the majority of the nation's MPs consider a "Brexit" not to be in the best interests of the country, and refuse to approve the invoking of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to trigger a withdrawal from the EU, then no Brexit can occur. There would be a political price to pay for MPs and parties for this. But that's another story.Invoking Article 50 would also affect the 1972 European Communities Act, which provides for EU treaties to have effect in UK domestic law. So it's down to Parliament to pass a new law to repeal this act. Could a future Second Referendum stop a Brexit? It can be argued the electorate should have a chance to vote on the proposals that would follow a Brexit.But again, a second referendum can also be considered as advisory, unless the government were to specify otherwise in advance, as it did for the Referendum on Scottish Independence. The EU position on Brexit For now, the attitude of the EU to the UK's proposed Brexit is hard-line. There will be no negotiations before Article 50 is invoked and no compromise on the terms of a future deal. But things could change. Elections are due next year in Germany and France. Dissent towards the EU is rising in many countries.If a week, as Harold Wilson once said, is a long time in politics, then a year is an age in politics.And a lot can happen to Brexit in that time. Ever since announcing his candidacy for president last June, Donald Trump has been surrounded by constant controversy. Whether it's referring to illegal immigrants from Mexico as "rapists" or mocking the disabled, Trump can't seem to hold back on the campaign trail. Trump latest fail With the Republican and Democratic conventions scheduled for later this month, a Trump match-up with Hillary Clinton will follow as the American people get ready to witness one of the most controversial elections in history. Trump and Clinton have no love lost for each other, as the two candidates trade jabs on a daily basis. On Saturday morning, Trump was quickly criticized for going on an anti-Semitic attack against Clinton, as reported by The Hill on July 2. Trump deletes tweet with Star of David on pile of money after backlash https://t.co/gi2tqUInAM pic.twitter.com/zlt9WZ7kYy The Hill (@thehill) July 2, 2016 Using his usual form of attack, Trump went on a Twitter tirade to kick off his weekend, but one Tweet received so much criticism that he was forced to delete it. With an image of Clinton's face in front of a pile of money, a red Star of David was positioned next to her, with "Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!" written inside. 19 minutes after Trump's anti-Semitic dog whistling tweet, and it's still up. #NewTrump (((PatrickRuffini))) (@PatrickRuffini) July 2, 2016 Within minutes, social media exploded, as Twitter users were quick to point out Trump's tweet. "19 minutes after Trump's anti-Semitic dog whistling tweet, and it's still up," one Tweet read. Another tweet, this time from political journalist Ana Marie Cox, stated, "Symbolism here is pretty... unsubtle." Other Twitter users took a more humorous approach. The former host of "The Apprentice" eventually pulled down his Tweet, only to post a similar message, this time replacing the Star of David with a red circle. You KNOW this is coming in 321 pic.twitter.com/tiRm0CNe6D (((Charles Gaba))) (@charles_gaba) July 2, 2016 General election showdown Trump has weathered the storm of controversy for the last 12 months, and while the criticism would have doomed a typical candidate, the billionaire real estate mogul was able to become the last man standing in the GOP primary. According to the Real Clear Politics most recent rolling average, Trump trails Clinton by just under five points, 44.8 percent to 40.3 percent. Trump has inched closer in recent days, but is expected to fall further behind following the official conclusion of the Democratic primary. In South Australia, it is not rare to watch the beautiful majestic stride of the free-roaming, wild horses called Brumbies. The Brumby is a feral horse found all over the world but are said to be overpopulating regions of South Australia. Though the Australian government claims these horses are a nuisance and are damaging the environment, they have yet to point out a specific instance of destruction. The hunt Due to the government's outlook on the Brumbies and their overpopulation, it is currently legal to kill a Brumby in the wild. Recently pictures have been strewn across the internet showing proud hunters holding up the heads of their kill, a sight difficult to take in. Opponents to the killing season for the Brumby seem to be being met with a deaf ear from the government as plans to kill nearly 90% of the Brumby population are being made. A photo has recently gone viral showing "Big John" proudly holding tight to the Brumby he shot with a bow and arrow. If that sight isn't hard enough to comprehend, several days ago another picture surfaced even more devastating than the last. A beautiful Brumby pinto, with a large pregnant belly, is seen dead on the ground next to an unidentified hunter. The shooter is holding a gun that is assumed to the weapon used to kill her. Poachers On top of the inhumane hunting season, Australia is now dealing with poachers as well. Five Brumbies, including one very pregnant female, were found shot to death and left where they fell. Though it is legal to kill these Animals currently, a license is required for any hunting, and proper disposal of the animal is required. Australian governments are currently investigating the situation and if found, the culprits face hefty fines and possible jail time. Saving the Brumby In 2010, the West Australian government proposed capturing, trucking, and sending nearly 5,000 Brumby to slaughter. Outcries from the community and opponents of the hunting season caused the WA government to change their plan from trucking to shooting the animals from helicopters. After even more outpouring of opposition, the government dropped their plans altogether. Unfortunately, due to the rise in numbers of the Brumby again, the WA government has re-established their plans to terminate 90% of the Brumby population. Several groups are intervening on a regular basis with the hunting of these beautiful animals. However, the hunting season has not been postponed or canceled despite the opponents cry for the rights of these horses. The Brumby is such an intelligent animal and is known all over the world for its disposition. Capturing, relocating, and retraining the Brumby is the most popular solution that opposition sees to fix this issue. Until the government can come to terms with those against this atrocity, the hunt is still on for the wild Brumby of Australia. Next Frontier Capital, Montanas homegrown hedge fund, is up and running. Fund managers announced recently that the fund is closed after they had succeeded in raising $21.1 million. Already that money is being invested in Montana companies. We are well positioned to execute on our mission to help build Montana companies of impact, utility and value. The funds focus on investing in Montana technology and health care companies attracted more than 70 limited partners drawn from many of the worlds top technology, investment and venture capital firms, said Will Price and Richard Harjes, general partners for Next Frontier Capital. The fund has already invested in three Montana start-ups. SiteOne Therapeutics of Bozeman is developing innovative treatments that can be used to treat pain without using opioids or non-steroid anti-inflamatory drugs such as ibuprofen. Submittable, a software company based in Missoula, has a cloud-based document management system used by publishers and other organizations in 23 countries. Clearas uses algae and other microorganisms to treat water for municipalities and industrial customers. Price said that several other Montana companies are being considered for potential investment. The next two or three firms we invest in will be equally interesting, he said. Price said hes especially pleased that the University of Montana Foundation is among the funds limited partners. The UM Foundation has agreed to invest $500,000 in Next Frontier Capital, said Jamie Stanton, the foundations chief financial officer. Price said Shane Giese, the foundations president and chief executive, and Mack Clapp, a member of the foundations board of directors and chairman of the investment committee, played an instrumental role in the foundations decision to invest in Next Frontier Capital. Having the foundations interest was a great affirmation for us, Price said. Its a pretty big deal. You may have heard that ploughing money into a hedge fund is inherently risky. Yes, investing in start-up companies carries more risk than investing in U.S. treasury bills, for example. But thats not like saying the foundations trustees have suddenly lost their minds and bought up a bunch of Powerball tickets. Each investment is thoroughly vetted by the investment committee before a final decision is made, Stanton said. Like most professionally managed investment funds, the UM Foundations $160 million endowment has a pre-determined asset allocation formula, which includes a mixture of stocks, bonds and private-equity investments, Stanton said. Money managers often describe a portfolio as a series of buckets, each containing stocks, bonds and other types of investments. The foundations investment in Next Frontier Capital fits into the bucket set aside for the private equity portion of the portfolio, Stanton said. Finding adequate capital has long been one of the biggest roadblocks to Montanans who dream of starting a new company. But things are changing, and Next Frontier Capital gives the UM Foundation an opportunity to invest in its own backyard. Please turn JavaScript on and reload the page. Loading... Checking your browser before accessing the website. This process is automatic. Your browser will redirect to your requested content shortly. Please wait a few seconds. Nose and Hand were sitting in the church pew talking. The morning service, led by Ear and Mouth, had just ended, and Hand was telling Nose that he and his family had decided to look for a different church. "Really?" Nose responded to Hand's news. "Why?" "Oh, I don't know," Hand said, looking down. "I guess because the church doesn't have what Mrs. Hand and I are looking for." "Well, what are you looking for in a church?" Nose asked. Hand had to think before answering. He and Mrs. Hand liked Pastor Mouth and his family. And Minister of Music Ear meant well. "Well, I guess we're looking for a place where people are more like us," Hand stammered. "We tried spending time with the Legs, but we didn't connect with them. Next we joined the small group for all the Toes. But they kept talking about socks and shoes and odors. And that didn't interest us." In addition to all that, Mrs. Hand knew that their daughter Pinkie was not comfortable with the youth group. Everyone was so different from her, she felt out of joint. The copyright permission granted by Crossway to quote Pastor Mark Dever's clever allegory from his book, "What Is A Healthy Church?" leads us into the important question, "What are you looking for in a church?" God-honoring churches are vital to the well-being of our society and our personal souls. No other institution of the three ordained by God (the family, the government and the local church) is positioned to be "the upholder and foundation of the truth." (I Timothy 3:15) For souls at risk, it is paramount to attend a sound local church where God's truth is taught, which can set us free from the ruinous forces of the world system, the sinful heart of man and the very real Satan. Three-time NASCAR cup series champion Darrell Waltrip became a Christian and gave the 2015 National Prayer Breakfast keynote address stating, "If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior ... you are going to hell." This loving warning sprang from the words of Jesus himself in Matthew 10:28: "Fear him (God) who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell." God's "pillar and foundation" of saving truth, the Bible-centered local church, can instruct us in the rescue of our otherwise perishing souls. How wonderful is that? So, what constitutes a sound local church in God's eyes? First, ask if it is scriptural. Is it Bible-based? Are its beliefs aligned with the Bible according to God? This will include belief in the Trinity (One God in three equally-God persons; Father, Son, Holy Spirit); salvation by repentant-trust in God to "save from wrath and make me pure," as in the hymn, Rock of Ages; rejection of rituals, special services, baptism, Communion, repeated prayers or prayers to saints as supposed aids in the forgiveness of sin (Titus 3:5; Romans 11:6); belief in the inerrant (without error) and infallible (not liable to fail) Bible as the final say in what I believe and how I purpose to behave. Second, how is its strategy and spirituality? Is it more spiritual than what Scripture allows when it comes to experiencing supposed supernatural manifestations? (I Corinthians 14:37) Is it less spiritual than what Scripture requires when it comes to purposes and programs? (Revelation 3:15-16; James 1:27). Third, how is its structure? God clearly ordained high-integrity, servant-hearted, male leadership for the local church (I Timothy 2:12; 3:1-2). These men shoulder grave responsibility on judgment day (James 3:1). And finally, while local churches are not created equal, no one denomination has a monopoly on truth. So don't pick a local church solely by its denominational label. We want to be most interested in Christianity and not church-ianity. Martin Luther: "I pray you leave my name alone. Do not call yourselves Lutherans, but Christians." John Wesley: "I wish the name Methodist might never be mentioned again, but lost in eternal oblivion." Charles Spurgeon: "I say of the Baptist name, let it perish, but let Christ's name last forever. I look forward with pleasure to the day when there will not be a Baptist living." Song writer, Keith Green (1954-1982) said before a fatal airplane crash ushered him into God's presence, "When I die, I just want to be remembered as a Christian." Does the selection of a local church sound overly exclusive in some ways and exacting in others? Can't I be a Christian who is pleasing to God while bypassing the matter of faithfully attending a local church? Let me ask one simple question. How important is our society and your own soul? Phu Nhuan Jewellery Company (PNJ), the largest jewelry retailer in Viet Nam, announced total sales revenues of VN4 trillion ($178 million) and a pre-tax profit of VN304.5 billion for the first half of 2016. Photo kinhdoanh.net HCM CITY Phu Nhuan Jewellery Company (PNJ), the largest jewelry retailer in Viet Nam, announced total sales revenues of VN4 trillion ($178 million) and a pre-tax profit of VN304.5 billion for the first half of 2016. These figures represent increases of four and 116 per cent, respectively, over the first half of 2015, said PNJ representative. After the first quarter, the total assets of PNJ stood at VN3.02 trillion, 1.74 per cent higher than on December 31, 2015. PNJ is a jewelry manufacturer with well-established brand names such as PNJ Silver, PNJ Gold, CAO FINE Jewelry and Jemma. PNJ opened 13 additional stores in the first half of 2016, bringing its total number of retail stores to 204 and more than 3,000 wholesalers. Yesterday, PNJ shares ended at 75,000 each on the HCM Stock Exchange. VNS HCM CITY HCM City and Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta provinces should diversify the way they solicit investment from each other and promote trade and tourism, and draft specific plans to improve co-operation, according to the Southwest Steering Committee. Speaking at a conference on investment, trade and tourism between the delta and the city in HCM City yesterday, Son Minh Thang, deputy head of the committee, said the delta plays a very important role in the countrys economy by producing a lot of agricultural products consumed domestically and abroad. It accounts for more than 50 per cent of the countrys rice output and 90 per cent of exports, besides 70 per cent of fruit and 60 per cent of aquatic produce, he said. But investment there, especially foreign, remains modest, he said. Nguyen Thanh Phong, Chairman of the HCM City Peoples Committee, said, "The Comprehensive Economic Co-operation between the Mekong Delta and HCM City aims to create attractive investment opportunities for businesses in Viet Nams largest agricultural region. Many solutions, especially in food production, agricultural and fisheries processing and fruits, have been deployed in past years, yielding positive economic effects for the region. Having long-term links between HCM City and the delta, which accounts for 18.5 per cent of GDP, is the right way to go, he said. Thang said, "Trade co-operation between the delta and HCM City has increased significantly, but remains modest compared to the potential. "In terms of tourism, there are not many tours combining HCM City and the delta. The conference offered a good chance for the two sides to introduce their potentials and strengths to promote trade, investment and tourism co-operation, he said. "Businesses have a chance to raise the difficulties and obstacles they face with respect to administrative and investment procedures and others when investing in the region, so that central and local authorities could take immediate measures to resolve them. Tran Huu Hiep, member of the steering committee, said since the deltas infrastructure and human resources are still underdeveloped compared with other regions in the country, transport infrastructure, irrigation and human resource training are among the promising sectors for investors. Thang called on the city and delta to promote consumption of agricultural products and share experiences in hi-tech agricultural production. They should join hands to develop tourism products and set up tours taking in both the city and delta, he said. HCM CITY IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the Singapore-based Armstrong S.E. Clean Energy Fund announced investments in the Gia Lai Electricity Joint Stock Company (GEC) on June 30. IFC and Armstrong, with a combined stake of 36 per cent, will take a 16 and 20 per cent equity stake in GEC, respectively. For both it is their first investment in Viet Nams power sector. The investment will help the company expand its hydropower portfolio and invest in other renewable energy segments, such as wind and solar power. Based in the Central Highland province of Plei-ku, GEC joined the Thanh Thanh Cong Group in 2013. With charter capital of VN715 billion (US$34 million), GEC was one of the largest private sector hydropower players in Viet Nam, with 84.4 MW of installed capacity across 15 run-of-the-river small-scale hydro power plants. Le An Khang, CEO of GEC, said the investment will help the company become a leader in renewable energy and provide sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel-based power generation in Viet Nam. Khang added that the investment will boost local confidence in the hydropower sectors potential and help attract more international investors. Local electricity consumption has outpaced the countrys economic growth rate two-folds over the past few years. With an expanding renewable energy portfolio, GEC will contribute to the governments goal of increasing Viet Nams installed power capacity by 14 per cent per annum between 2015 and 2030. Andrew Affleck, managing partner of Armstrong, said the fund would share its knowledge and experience of developing and constructing multiple renewable projects in neighbouring South East Asian markets to help GEC build a leading position in Viet Nam. By developing sustainable hydropower and other renewable energy sources, GEC will help the country meet its estimated 10 per cent annual increase in power demand, diversify its energy mix and reduce its reliance on imported fossil fuels. Hyun-Chan Cho, IFC head for Infrastructure and Natural Resources for Asia Pacific said, the IFC investment "is an important step to encourage other investors to tap into the rich potential of Viet Nams green energy sector, where participation by foreign investors is still modest. He added that IFCs global industry knowledge will help transform GEC into a role model for other emerging renewable energy players in Viet Nam by showcasing best industry practices. Hydroelectricity is the worlds largest source of renewable energy and accounts for one-fifth of its electricity supply from all sources. Over the last decade, IFC has invested more than $1 billion in 75 hydropower projects in 25 developing countries. VNS HA NOI The Ministry of Planning and Investment will continue to draft a law designed to overcome difficulties in conducting business in Viet Nam, after a set of new decrees just took effect yesterday. Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung told au tu (Vietnam Investment Review) that a new law regulating future revision of the enterprise and investment laws is expected to be presented to the National Assembly in October. The goal is to create a good legal system to boost business development and attract new investment flows, he said. Experts have recently expressed doubts about the quality of the new decrees, which might have been drafted too hastily as ministries rushed to complete them by the target date. With regard to this matter, CIEM Deputy Director Phan uc Hieu said: They should not be overly doubtful. Hieu said the ministries compiled the documents based on more than 300 suggestions by the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), which represents the domestic business community, and nearly 70 suggestions by the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), an agency advising the Government on economic management policies. Hieu said yesterday was not the dead-end of the Vietnamese business conditions reform. The last legal reviewing period can be considered a practise step for ministries and sectors for a much greater task, required by the Investment Law, to abolish or supplement certain business conditions annually," he said. The latest enterprise and investment laws took effect on July 1, 2015. Some 50 new decrees providing guidelines for their implementation took effect yesterday, making about 3,000 business conditions previously stipulated in ministry circulars null and void. Industry insiders said it will take time to assess exactly how the new decrees change the business environment, and Minister Dung said legal revisions will go on. au Anh Tuan, head of VCCIs legislation department, said yesterdays ending of many unnecessary business conditions will bring about big changes in the rights of enterprises and people in doing business. For example, elimination of requirement regarding office space, number of employees or the contents of equipment will foster equality and competion in the market and remove obstacles to the creativeness of enterprises a factor influencing their product quality and prices, Tuan said. Fewer unnecessary conditions also means less chance for State management agencies to burden companies with business licencing and certifying processes, he said. CIEM Director Nguyen inh Cung said that by erasing the unnecessary business conditions, ministries and sectors have shown a change in their thinking. Civil servants are aware that they cannot sit in airconditioned rooms to give birth to business conditions. They understand that they must work out regulations and standards based on production processes of companies and sectors, he told au tu. VCCI Chairman Vu Tien Loc said the Government now mainly supervises enterprises in post-licensing phases, instead of controlling their establishment with conditions set in advance. This creates conditions for enterprises to mature in terms responsibility and business culture, he said. VNS Viet Nam's retail market is promising, but local businesses must strengthen operations in order to compete with international investors right in the home market. VNA/VNS Photo HCM CITY Viet Nams retail market is promising, but local businesses must strengthen operations in order to compete with international investors right in the home market, experts said during a workshop in HCM City yesterday. Nguyen Anh uc, the deputy general director of Sai Gon Co-op, said the Vietnamese retail market has for long interested international investors, especially after the country joined the World Trade Organisation. The participation of international investors in the retail market has promoted the growth of Vietnamese enterprises, he said. However, Van uc Muoi, the general director of fresh meat company Vissan, said that for a long time many local businesses believed they only needed to make high-quality products for customers to buy. But they should also realise that distribution is one of the most important aspects for every business. Sales will decide output and business activities, he said. Truong Phu Chien, general director of the candy firm Bibica, said: If a company wants to survive and develop, it must have its own retail channel. Besides supermarkets and convenience stores, Vietnamese enterprises should develop more retail channels like restaurants. Nguyen Phu Hoa, the deputy director of the Ministry of Industry and Trades import-export department, said: The business community should think about setting up a retail system for the whole world, not only Viet Nam, with technology and new sale models. Vietnamese retail businesses like Sai Gon Co-op should have applications for smartphones because today the whole world is in your hand with smartphones, Hoa said. Ten years ago, Viet Nam had 368 supermarket outlets, and now the number is 800. The number is expected to reach 1,2001,500 by 2020, along with 180 trade centres and 150 shopping malls, workshop participants were told. VNS The MobiFone Telecommunications Corporation (MobiFone), the second-largest mobile operator in terms of subscribers, has started piloting its 4G and MobiTV services yesterday. Photo sohoa.net HA NOI The MobiFone Telecommunications Corporation (MobiFone), the second-largest mobile operator in terms of subscribers, has started piloting its 4G and MobiTV services yesterday. According to the corporation, its subscribers will be offered a wide range of services, such as LTE Broadcast (eMBMS), LTE Unicast, 4K TV, Robot Vehicle and online games, over high-speed 4G networks. The mobile operator plans to test the service in the three major cities of Ha Noi, a Nang and HCM City. MobiFone Chairman Le Nam Tra said the launch of the new services marked the beginning of a new chapter for the company, in which it aims to provide clients with a full package of services. Before MobiFone, Viettel started offering 4G services in December last year in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, with an average speed of 40-80Mb/s, though it could reach 230Mb/s in certain areas. Meanwhile, Vinaphone piloted the technology on Phu Quoc Island and in HCM City in January this year. VNS MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, Wyo. Theres a community spirit when you camp in Yellowstone National Park, said Kris Yasord as she sat in the shade of her familys RV on a windy June afternoon. People share information about what they saw and where, said the Oregon camper. There are a lot of other places you could go if you want solitude. Popular place Theres no doubt about that. Last year more than 4 million tourists visited Yellowstone, a new record. Of those visitors almost 20 percent or around 811,000 chose to camp out in tents, vans, trailers and RVs, according to Park Service statistics. Thanks to Yellowstones typically cool climate, most of those tourists are crammed into the summer months. Of the folks who chose to camp out, the majority more than 581,000 favored concession operated sites where reservations can be made. Fishing Bridge on Yellowstone Lake is the most popular campground, attracting 101,000 visitors last year where they can plug RVs into electrical outlets. Another 45,000 opted to seek a less crowded option at backcountry campsites accessible only by foot or horseback. In the first five months, the park has topped last years early visitation by more than 75,000 folks. That may be proof that once again Yellowstone faces another record-setting year for tourism. This year has the added attraction of the National Park Services 100th anniversary, which has been widely advertised, assisted by continued low gas prices. Yellowstone has consistently proven to be a draw for people, not only from around the region, but around the world. Stop to chat with campers, and theres no telling who you will meet or the unique tales you may hear. Going south Take Canadian Dale Wiggins, for example. He piloted his 250cc Yamaha motorcycle roughly 8,000 miles across much of the Western United States before reaching Yellowstone last month. Its on my bucket list, he said while relaxing at a picnic table next to his small pitched tent. I wanted to see what was in my neighbors back yard. All Ive been doing is hitting state parks and national parks. Lean, tan and wind-weathered, Wiggins said every place hes visited has its own charm. Yellowstone is different in one significant way, though. Thats one thing I noticed: When people get in the park, their minds turn to jelly, he said, which makes him drive even more defensively than usual. As for the possibility of one of the parks natives a black bear or grizzly wandering through the campground, Wiggins said it was not a concern. They are who they are, he said. I treat nature as the locals. From out West For California campers Marth and Erik Thomson, Yellowstone was a convenient stopover on the way to a marvelous adventure for Erik. Im going to canoe all the way down the Mississippi, he said. The trip would start when he launched a canoe on the nearby Yellowstone River. Its an odyssey he was looking forward to enjoying with his two dogs, who would co-pilot the boat. Ive been wanting to hear that sound of just the wind, no freeway, he said, leaning up against their car in his shorts and a black T-shirt that read Keep Calm and Ask Your Mom. Im going to worry about whats around the next bend and nothing else. Yellowstone holds fond memories for Marth, who lives in Atascadero, Calif. But the park had changed significantly from the last time she was there about 20 years ago namely, there were more people everywhere she went. I remember we just walked right up to one of the main attractions, swam in the river, she said wistfully. It wasnt nearly this crowded or restricted. So what? Even with Yellowstone more crowded than ever, Kris Yasord still loves to return. Yellowstone is my favorite park, she said. Ive been coming here since I was 4, and Ive been back several times. Then Yasords mother poked her head out of the RV and corrected that her daughter had actually been to Yellowstone when she was only a year-and-a-half old. The attraction for the family is the bubbling mud pots and geysers, things that you can see here that you cant see anywhere else, Yasord said. There was one fly in the campground ointment for the family, though. Nowhere on the website could the family find any information about the use of childrens scooters in the campground. So instead of hauling bicycles cross country, they saved space and brought scooters only to find out the campground host wouldnt let the children ride them. They were really bummed, said Jami Yasord, the kids father. So his oldest daughter, Cedar, found another way to entertain herself, climbing in a worn juniper tree next to their RV. Like her mother, Cedar said she enjoys coming to the park because its really cool and there are lots of creatures you cant see anywhere else. While large creatures like bison and elk may attract the majority of tourists attention, Cedar was just as intrigued by the wee ground squirrels scuttling around the campground. Meet Magento 2016 Vietnam, one of the most energetic and rapid-growing markets in Southeast Asia, will be held on October 15, 2016, in HCM City. Photo ictnews.vn HA NOI Meet Magento 2016 Vietnam, one of the most energetic and rapid-growing markets in Southeast Asia, will be held on October 15, 2016, in HCM City. This will be the events second opening in Viet Nam, organised by SmartOSC, a smart open solutions company, and the Meet Magento Association, following the success of the first event in Asia, MM15Vietnam, which attracted more than 500 merchants, service providers, technology partners and Magento enthusiasts, according to SmartOSC. This year, the event is expected to bring together more than 1,000 decision makers, corporate leaders, technical specialists and many of the large retailers within the region to engage in the e-commerce and Magento ecosystem. Many opportunities are arising out of the rapid e-commerce growth in Asia, especially in Southeast Asian markets, which boast a population of over 600 million, twice that of the US, and with 100 million consumers who have made a digital purchase, according to a survey by Bain & Company. Plenty of insightful sessions will be presented, covering the actual trends of e-commerce in general and the Magento ecosystem in particular, such as B2B commerce, digital marketing, payment and shipping methods and the evolution of Magento 2.0. Meet Magento Vietnam is the very first Asian edition of the Meet Magento worldwide series since 2008, after successful runs in Europe and North and South America, as the leading conference for the e-commerce and Magento community. VNS HA NOI A pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City that United States President Barack Obama visited recently has become a very popular place. Many people are now visiting the religious place. People are also visiting a restaurant in Ha Noi at which President Obama ate. They like to order the same food he had for his meal there. by Mathilde Tuyet Tran Luong Huong The recent visit of US President Barrack Obama to Viet Nam has led to a dramatic increase in the number of visitors to the Ngoc Hoang Pagoda in HCM City. The number of bun cha (fresh rice vermicelli and grilled pork) eaters in Ha Noi has also sharply risen. Located on Mai Thi Luu Street in District 1, HCM City, the century-old Ngoc Hoang (Jade Emperor) or Phuoc Hai Pagoda is recognised as a national cultural heritage. It was the first destination the US president visited right after his arrival in the city on May 24. The small pagoda, which is usually thronged with visitors on weekends, appears to be even more overcrowded with people visiting at all times following the US presidents visit. Surprisingly, many of them visit not for spiritual purposes, but because they are curious about why Obama dropped by to see such a small pagoda on a narrow and small street which always witnesses traffic jams. I have heard that the pagoda attracts a lot of visitors, however, only after Obama came here did I make time to visit it. I want to know what is so special that it even attracted the US president. He has travelled thousands miles to visit the pagoda, so I see no reason why I, living right here, shouldnt pay it a visit, Hoang Kim Binh in District 1 said. Tran Thi Mai Huong, a street vendor near the pagoda, can very clearly see the massive increase in the number of visitors. Despite it not being a weekend, many people still flock to the pagoda, which is largely due to Obamas visit, she said. I was also among the people curious about Ngoc Hoang Pagoda. Since it was mid-summer, I tried to arrive at the pagoda early to escape the scorching heat later in the day, but my eagerness soon turned into disappointment. Ngoc Hoang Pagoda has a spectacular atmosphere and features many sophisticated religious structures, designs and Buddha statues, which makes it deserving of the title of national cultural heritage. However, its religious beauty appeared dimmed by the huge number of visitors that day. It was just 10am but all the shrines within the small pagoda were already stuffed with all kinds of fruits and offerings, which would soon be cleared up to make room for new ones. It was a hot summer day but inside the pagoda it was even warmer because of the lamps, the candles and the dense incense smoke that kept spiraling up. The ceiling fans were not strong enough to alleviate the stuffy atmosphere caused by too many people gathered inside. There were security cameras in every corner of Ngoc Hoang Pagoda, capturing every movement of the visitors. There were also huge and sturdy strongboxes used for collection of money donations with guards standing beside them. Like the cameras, the guards also monitored the movement of the people. I was told the pagoda is very holy and pilgrims are often blessed with what they wish for, especially children and money. Despite the crowd, each person patiently and quietly waited for their turn to confess what they longed for. I could hear many people saying they longed for a son, but I like daughters, just like US President Obama. Also witnessing the Obama effect is the Huong Lien restaurant where the US president had bun cha for dinner with renowned US chef Anthony Bourdain. Located on Le Van Huu Street, the restaurant is renowned for the distinctive flavours of its grilled pork and also for its cleanliness, which has attracted many visitors who wish to try this specialty of the city. One set of Obamas bun cha was the new term coined after his visit. As soon as the customer orders one set of Obamas bun cha, the restaurant staff immediately understands the customers order: fresh rice vermicelli with grilled pork, Hanoi beer and one sea crab spring roll. Bun cha is often eaten during lunch, but after Obamas visit, strangely, the restaurant is always crowded with customers right from the morning, which has even taken the restaurant manager by surprise. Most customers are, however, not regulars. Many have paid a visit to the restaurant for the first time to taste the bun cha that the US president ate, to see where he and the renowned chef sat and to check-in on their social network with Obamas bun cha. While the taste of this Ha Noi specialty does not let customers down, they have to struggle to get a place in the restaurant. On peak days, hundreds of people line up in front of the Huong Lien restaurant hoping to try Obamas bun cha. Because of the blazing heat of the hot summer, everyone sweats profusely and many have to regrettably even leave the line following the announcement that the restaurant has run out of Obamas bun cha just after one hour of opening. As soon as someone finishes his food and is about to leave, there is always someone else ready to take his place. It is just like a battle, Nguyen Thuy Hang, who dropped by the restaurant unexpectedly, said. If you want a place, you must arrive before 11am, she added. The staff at the restaurant cannot cope with the sudden high demand due to the large number of customers. I ordered an iced tea and crab spring rolls, but was not served because of the shortage of staff, Hang said. The pagoda will look more beautiful if there is enough leisure time to contemplate its beauty and it is less crowded and noisy. Obamas bun cha will taste much better if we are served faster and do not have to fight for a place. That is why I will visit the Huong Lien restaurant and the Ngoc Hoang Pagoda after some days when the memory of Obamas visit to Viet Nam has dimmed somewhat. VNS GLOSSARY The recent visit of US President Barrack Obama to Viet Nam has led to a dramatic increase in the number of visitors to the Ngoc Hoang Pagoda in HCM City. If there is a dramatic increase in the number of visitors there are very suddenly many more visitors. The number of bun cha (fresh rice vermicelli and grilled pork) eaters in Ha Noi has also sharply risen. If the number of bun cha eaters has sharply risen, there are very suddenly many more people eating that dish. It was the first destination the US president visited right after his arrival in the city on May 24. A destination is a place people travel to. The small pagoda, which is usually thronged with visitors on weekends, appears to be even more overcrowded with people visiting at all times following the US presidents visit. When people throng to a place, they visit it in great numbers. Surprisingly, many of them visit not for spiritual purposes, but because they are curious about why Obama dropped by to see such a small pagoda on a narrow and small street which always witnesses traffic jams. To witness something means to see it. Sometimes it is not just a person, or animal, with eyes that witnesses something. If there are many traffic jams in a place you can also say that the place witnesses the traffic jams. Tran Thi Mai Huong, a street vendor near the pagoda, can very clearly see the massive increase in the number of visitors. A vendor is someone who sells things. Despite it not being a weekend, many people still flock to the pagoda, which is largely due to Obamas visit, she said. Flock is a word very similar to throng. Due to means because of. I was also among the people curious about Ngoc Hoang Pagoda. Since it was mid-summer, I tried to arrive at the pagoda early to escape the scorching heat later in the day, but my eagerness soon turned into disappointment. To be curious means to want to know what is happening. Scorching heat means harsh heat. Eagerness means the state of very strongly wanting to do something. Disappointment happens when something turns out to be not as good as you expected. Ngoc Hoang Pagoda has a spectacular atmosphere and features many sophisticated religious structures, designs and Buddha statues, which makes it deserving of the title of national cultural heritage. A spectacular atmosphere means a beautiful and dramatic mood. Sophisticated means high class. Religious structures are works of art and other things that are to do with religion. If the structures are deserving of a title, they are good enough to earn that title. However, its religious beauty appeared dimmed by the huge number of visitors that day. If the religious beauty is dimmed, it becomes less beautiful. It was just 10am but all the shrines within the small pagoda were already stuffed with all kinds of fruits and offerings, which would soon be cleared up to make room for new ones. A shrine is a holy place. It was a hot summer day but inside the pagoda it was even warmer because of the lamps, the candles and the dense incense smoke that kept spiraling up. Incense is a substance that is burnt to let off a sweet smell. When smoke spirals up, it goes up in tight circles. The ceiling fans were not strong enough to alleviate the stuffy atmosphere caused by too many people gathered inside. A ceiling is the top of the inside of a room that is under a roof. To alleviate the stuffy atmosphere means to make it less stuffy. Atmosphere, in this case, does not mean mood but rather the state of the air. There were also huge and sturdy strongboxes used for collection of money donations with guards standing beside them. Sturdy means strongly built. Donations are gifts. Like the cameras, the guards also monitored the movement of the people. Monitored means closely and carefully watched. I was told the pagoda is very holy and pilgrims are often blessed with what they wish for, especially children and money. A pilgrim is someone who goes on a journey for religious purposes. Despite the crowd, each person patiently and quietly waited for their turn to confess what they longed for. To do something patiently means to not get into a fuss over it taking a long time. To confess means to say something that is the truth, even if you are little ashamed of it. Also witnessing the Obama effect is the Huong Lien restaurant where the US president had bun cha for dinner with renowned US chef Anthony Bourdain. Renowned means famous. Located on Le Van Huu Street, the restaurant is renowned for the distinctive flavours of its grilled pork and also for its cleanliness, which has attracted many visitors who wish to try this specialty of the city. Distinctive flavours are exclusive flavours. A specialty is a dish that is known to be made very well in a certain place, such as at this restaurant. One set of Obamas bun cha was the new term coined after his visit. To coin a term means to invent a term. Most customers are, however, not regulars. Regulars at a restaurant are customers who visit it often. On peak days, hundreds of people line up in front of the Huong Lien restaurant hoping to try Obamas bun cha. Peak days at the restaurant are days when there are many customers and business is good. Because of the blazing heat of the hot summer, everyone sweats profusely and many have to regrettably even leave the line following the announcement that the restaurant has run out of Obamas bun cha just after one hour of opening. The blazing heat is very hot heat. To sweat profusely means to sweat a lot. If you have to regrettably leave the line, it means you leave wishing you did not have to do so. The staff at the restaurant cannot cope with the sudden high demand due to the large number of customers. To cope means to deal with something that is difficult. The pagoda will look more beautiful if there is enough leisure time to contemplate its beauty and it is less crowded and noisy. To contemplate its beauty means to think about its beauty. WORKSHEET Find words that means the following in the Word Search: A type of beer that is also the name of a city. Anthony Bourdains job. A sea creature whose meat can be found in certain spring rolls. Tran Thi Mai Huongs job. President and Mrs Obamas girl children are their _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ j d a u g h t e r s f e r p u j i h e l a s a i e d a l d c a m i e t m a m r e m r e n b d n e n h t e h n i t o r l p o c e f a v e l a i m b r a r p r l l d c b a m a t i n p l u s h r e o b a r l m c e o c h e f y e t j c b l a n i l e ANSWERS: Duncan Guy/Learn the News/ Viet Nam News 2016 1. Hanoi; 2. Chef; 3. Crab; 4. Vendor; 5. Daughters. HA NOI Vietnamese painters at home and abroad are encouraged to create posters for the 70th anniversary of National Resistance Day on December 19. The Ministry of Culture launched the painting contest yesterday in Ha Noi. Both amateur and professional painters can join the contest. Entries will be used to celebrate the anniversary and on exhibition. National Resistance Day marks the call issued by President Ho Chi Minh in 1946, urging the people of Viet Nam to mount national resistance against the French, after the success of the 1945 August Revolution and establishment of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam. "The more concessions we make, the more the French colonialists encroach upon our rights, for they are determined to re-conquer our country," the President said. Answering his appeal, the Vietnamese people united to defend the countrys independence and sovereignty. VNS Livestock husbandry and forestry plantation have maintained good growth, but agricultural production slowed over the last six months. Photo kinhtedothi.vn HA NOI Livestock husbandry and forestry plantation have maintained good growth, but agricultural production slowed over the last six months, a senior official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has said. Nguyen Thi Hong, planning department head, said at a conference held in Ha Noi that the Gross Domestic Product for agriculture, forestry and aquaculture decreased by 0.18 per cent. The growth rate for the whole agricultural industry, for the first time, didnt reach the target, she said on Wednesday . The conference was held to review activities over the first six months and map out goals for the remainder of 2016. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao uc Phat said agricultural production has to face two big challenges: international economic integration and climate change. He said the agricultural sector has to take every effort to achieve results. For the coming months goal, the minister asked agricultural departments to carry out comprehensive measures aimed at enhancing competitive capacity and sustainable development. Provinces must strive to recover and maintain their production growth, as well as effectively implement national programmes on building new rural areas, Phat said. Over the last six months, agricultural-forestry production and aquaculture contended with salinity intrusion, coastal erosion (in the Mekong Delta region), prolonged drought on a large scale (in central and Tay Nguyen regions), mass fish deaths in four central provinces, and a reduction in consumption. Rice crops suffered big losses due to these natural calamities. The country only reaped about 19.4 million tonnes of rice from the winter-spring crop, marking a reduction of 1.3 million tonnes (6.4 per cent) compared to last years harvest. In the Mekong Delta region, the winter-spring crops production fell 10.2 per cent from 2015. Both acreage and production of short-term plants reduced. Long-term industrial crops (coffee, rubber and cashew trees) were mainly grown with the use of intensive cultivation technology on previously reclaimed acreage. However, according to Hong, the agricultural sector has achieved some successes; the business environment improved, and the nations competitive capacity, market research and trade promotion were enhanced. The ministrys agencies have boosted bilateral co-operation to expand export markets. Exports grew in the first six months, gaining US$15.04 billion, an increase of 5.4 per cent year-on-year. Future goals The nation should focus on restructuring the entire agricultural sector in order to recover the growth rate, Hong said at the conference. The agriculture ministry is urged to direct provinces to convert rice acreage into crops such as maize, soybeans, sesame, peanuts and vegetables. These crops will provide big material sources for animals and the cattle feed-processing industry. The ministry also asked farmers to use high-quality seedlings and said it would help them prevent pestilent insects. Solutions will be rolled out to tackle the consequences of drought and saltwater intrusion, increase productivity and the quality of products, and ensure food safety, especially for export products such as dragon fruit, mangos, durians, longans, rambutans, lychees, and bananas, Hong said. The sector would also keep a close watch on supply and demand changes in domestic and foreign markets and devise policies to expand export markets and take full advantage of the free trade agreements that Viet Nam has signed with foreign partners, she added. VNS HA NOI - Students took their first two national high school exams in mathematics and a foreign language. The Ministry of Education and Training reported that the first day of national high school exam went off without a hitch. About 99.11 per cent of the candidates showed up for the math test, according to MET. As many as 14 candidates nationwide were suspended for violating exam regulations. Minster of Education and Training, Phung Xuan Nha, and other officials conducted surprise inspections at exam venues in the Irrigation University, Military Technical Academy and Quang Minh High School in Ha Noi. The Minister praised the preparation of the exam venues, especially the cooperation between the exam councils and the citys Transport Department and local traffic police to manage traffic arriving at testing centres. He said the change that combines high school graduation exams with university entrance exams into one national high school exam makes it easier for students and their relatives. The wide availability of exam venues enables students to take their tests close to home rather than having to travel to larger cities. After the morning math test students said it was hard for those who only get results for high school graduation. Nguyen Thuy Linh, a candidate at oan Ket High School exam venue in Ha Noi, said she could only complete 50 per cent of the test. The last three questions out of ten were quite difficult. Nguyen Tien Lam, a teacher at the Natural Science Gifted High School said that there might not be a lot of ten (maximum) points, but the average score of those getting results for university entrance would be eight. In the afternoon, students took a 90-minute foreign language test. MET statistics indicate that over 887,000 candidates registered for the exam this year. Students are tested on four subjects - three compulsory ones of mathematics, literature and a foreign language - and an optional subject chosen from among physics, chemistry, biology, history and geography. Today the exam continues with literature and physics. - VNS KIEN GIANG The southwestern province of Kien Giang has set up 14 large-scale rice fields for growing crops in accordance with the Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices (VietGAP) standards as part of a four-year programme. The model, first implemented in An Giang Province for the 2010-11 winter-spring rice crop, has been expanded to other provinces. More than 70 per cent of rice grown in large-scale fields is of high-quality varieties. Under the model, farming households whose fields are located near each other sow the same rice varieties on the same day and tend their fields using advanced farming techniques. All rice paddies harvested on a large-scale field is purchased by companies that participate in the programme. The companies supply the farmers with the seeds, fertiliser and other input materials. Large-scale rice fields have a yield 15-20 per cent higher than normal rice fields, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developments Plant Cultivation Department. Large-scale rice fields also create specific rice-growing areas devoted to export, according to the Plant Cultivation Department. Kien Giang, the countrys largest rice producer, produced more than 1.95 million tonnes of paddy for the winter-spring crop and for rice crops grown only once a year in the rainy season. This was down more than 543,000 tonnes compared to the provinces target, according to the provinces Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Prolonged drought and salt water intrusion in the dry season caused the decline in yield. Kien Giang authorities have supported more than VN463 billion (US$21million) for affected farmers to grow the summer-autumn and autumn-winter crops. Kien Giang authorities have also told farmers to grow high-quality, short-term rice crops that are resistant to drought and salt water. More than 840 households have taken part in the large-scale rice field programme in Vinh Thuan, U Minh Thuong, An Bien, Tan Hiep, Chau Thanh, Giang Thanh, Giong Rieng, Go Quao and Hon at districts. VNS HCM CITY HCM City plans to limit vehicles on several downtown streets on weekend evenings in the future, according to the Department of Transport. Vehicles would be banned from ong Khoi, Huynh Thuc Khang, Ham Nghi and other streets in District 1 because these streets will be developed as Nguyen Hue Walking Street. Tran Quang Lam, the departments deputy head, said at a press meeting on Thursday that the proposal was a tentative one. It would proceed only after public transport and underground parking have been built. A report from the department shows that the number of vehicles in the city rose to 7.6 million in the first six months of the year, 1.5 times higher than in 2010. The city has 600,000 cars, an increase of 86 per cent compared to the same period last year.-- VNS Viet Nam has failed to issue a national certificate of quality for organic produce, creating obstacles for local producers pioneering in developing organic agriculture. Photo kinhtedothi.vn HA NOI Viet Nam has failed to issue a national certificate of quality for organic produce, creating obstacles for local producers pioneering in developing organic agriculture. The sector is thought to have high potential due to the growing demand for safe food. Truong Kim Hoa, owner of a 30-ha farm for organic vegetables in Thach That District, said that without a national certificate, it was hard for producer to prove the quality of their organic products to customers. Many stores sell organic produces but customers have no way of knowing what is really organic and what is not. To build customer comfidence, several producers had to apply for certificates from other countries, such as Japan. Others followed a set of criteria promulgated in 2006 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Ha Minh uc, director of CleverFood Company, said adhering to the criteria was only a temporary solution. Pham ong Quang, deputy head of Science, Technology and Environment under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, conceded that the Government still does not know how to manage organic produce in the market. Thus, no agency was established to supervise and fine violations related to producing and trading in organic produce, he said. Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam said the ministry would cooperate with the Ministry of Science and Technology and send teams to organic producers throughout the country in order to listen to their problems with a view to resolving them quickly. The ministry also plans to issue supporting policies to encourage organic producers, he said. Organic agriculture development, new way for Viet Nam Professor Nguyen Quoc Vong from Australia-based RMIT University, said Viet Nam needs to speed up development of organic agriculture and must operate in accordance with regulations on health and environment. The most important thing was ensuring that the country has a prestigious agency to verify the quality of organic produce and build customer confidence, he said. With customer confidence and a trusted regulatory agency, the country would meet the demands on hygiene and safety for local consumption and export, he said. According to the agriculture ministrys Department of Crops Production, the organic agriculture sector has export potential and foreign companies want to work with domestic producers to run organic farms in Viet Nam. For example, Hung Thinh Ltd., based in southern Tay Ninh Province, recently signed a contract with a German company to build a 1,500-ha farm to breed fish and shrimp for export to Germany. A Japanese company has placed an order with a company based in the Central Highland Lam ong Provinces a Lat City to export eight containers of long coriander each week. VNS Unlock 30+ premium stories daily hand-picked by our editors, across devices on browser and app. Full access to our intuitive epaper - clip, save, share articles from any device; newspaper archives from 2006. Curated newsletters on markets, personal finance, policy & politics, start-ups, technology, and more. Pick your 5 favourite companies, get a daily email with all news updates on them. 26 years of website archives. At least 14 bodies have been recovered so far from the debris in villages which were buried in a cloud burst in Uttarakhand, police said on Saturday. As many as 39 people were feared dead on Friday in the incident that occurred in six villages of Chamoli and Pithoragarh districts, the police said. The maximum damage was inflicted on Basted village where at least 30 people were feared to be trapped in the debris. More than 60 houses were flattened due to the cloud burst after incessant rains in the region. As many as 200 cattle have reportedly died in the villages. Officials said more than 100 mm rains were recorded in just two hours, leading to flooding of most of the rivers in the hill state. A senior official of the disaster management team said the rescue operations were hampered due to inclement weather. Several teams of the State Disaster Response Force, para-military forces and Army rescue teams were stranded on way to the disaster-struck areas. All means of communication in the area have also collapsed. Meanwhile, the Gangotri Dham Yatra has been suspended following flooding on the highway leading to the piligrimage spot. The Chamba-Rishikesh Highway-94 has also been blocked in Bemunda due to landslide. Efforts are on to remove debris. After a jury found a man guilty of child molestation, piling on sentencing enhancements that would send him to prison for a 100 years, the judge ruled against taking the man into custody. Edward Levi Keyes, 34, was convicted in Yellowstone County District Judge Michael Moses' court of three felony sex crime charges involving children and a charge of solicitation of a child. The trial started Monday and finished at about 2 p.m. Friday. After the verdict, Senior Deputy Yellowstone County Attorney Mary Barry moved for Keyes to be taken into custody. Moses denied the motion due to the fact that Keyes was out on bond prior to trial and had appeared in court. Keyes has posted a $150,000 bond and is on GPS monitoring. The prosecution included in the verdict sentence enhancements under Jessica's Law, meaning Keyes faces 100 years minimum in the Montana State Prison. He will not be eligible for parole for the first 25 years, and the judge cannot suspend the first 25 years of the sentence. The jury found in favor of the enhancements on each count. Keyes wife, Jaclyn Renae Keyes, 32, was also charged with one count of tampering with witnesses and informants, after she told one of the victims nothing happened to the victim and to stop lying about Keyes, according to charging documents. That case is still pending trial. Keyes was charged for offenses that allegedly took place between 2009 and October 2014. Two underage female victims were identified at trial. According to charging documents, Keyes rubbed himself against one of the victims and touched her breasts and genitals. A second younger victim said Keyes had done the same to her. A third victim said Keyes has asked her for oral sex after showing her a pornographic cartoon. Keyes told her he had a headache and it would help it go away. The third victim refused and was allowed to leave. A sentencing date will be set at a later time. The Maharashtra government is moving to end the compulsion on farmers to sell their produce only at wholesale markets run by Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC). Indias output is estimated to have declined to its lowest in 11 years in the crop year 2015-16 (JulyJune), following two consecutive years of drought that resulted in crop damage and a steep fall in yield. The State Bank of India (SBI) has sold five per cent stake in the the National Stock Exchange (NSE), to Mauritius-based Veracity Investments for Rs 911 crore, valuing the exchange at more than Rs 18,200 crore. The line-up of companies with a healthy show on listing day seems to be increasing. On Friday, Mahanagar Gas (MGL) made its debut at Rs 540 a share on the bourses, a 28 per cent premium over the issue price of Rs 421 a share. Indian stock markets continued their winning streak for a fifth straight session, with Friday seeing the biggest weekly gain in five, buoyed by foreign institutional investor (FII) purchases and strength in global equities.Expectations of a good monsoon supported the rally, especially in consumer and automobile stocks.On Friday, the S&P BSE Sensex gained 145 points to close at 27,145; on the National Stock Exchange, the benchmark Nifty50 advanced 41 points to end at 8,328, after topping 8,350 in intra-day trade.Among the broader markets, both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices, up 1.2 per cent and 0.7 per cent each, performed better than the front-liners.For the week ended Friday, the Nifty50 climbed 2.5 per cent; at the BSE, the Sensex rose 2.8 per cent, their biggest weekly gain since the one ending on May 27, brushing off Brexit concerns completely. Gaurang Shah, vice-president, Geojit BNP Paribas said, "The market continues to traverse an uptrend with the Nifty touching 8350 spot levels. Some profit booking was seen at higher levels on last trading day of week and first trading day of July after the F&O contracts expiry." 04:41 Higgins speaks out after jury discharged over juror misconduct Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins spoke outside the courtroom after the jury was discharged in the rape trial of Bruce Lehrmann. 06:44 Pool of conscripts for Putin to draft getting smaller It is estimated that some 700,000 Russians have fled the country since President Vladimir Putin announced mobilisation orders a couple of months... 09:08 Jury discharged in Higgins case after juror misconduct found The jury has been discharged in the trial of Bruce Lehrmann, after it was found there had been juror misconduct during the week of deliberations.... 04:34 Government has been sitting on their hands as energy prices rise Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley says when the Labor government came into office, no one imagined energy prices might go up 30 to 50... 02:40 Socceroos speak out against Qatars human rights record The Socceroos, backed by the PFA and Football Australia, have released a powerful statement of protest against the hosts of the FIFA World Cup.... Lawmakers have voted against convening a special session to fix flawed campaign finance laws, according to a news release from Secretary of State Linda McCulloch on Friday. A group of 10 Republican legislators requested McCulloch poll all legislators to determine whether a majority were in favor of holding a special legislative session in August. The Republicans include state Sens. Jedediah Hinkle, R-Bozeman; David Howard, R-Park City; Janna Taylor, R-Dayton; Cary Smith, R-Billings; and Nels Swandal, R-Wilsall; and state Reps. Nancy Ballance, R-Hamilton; Theresa Manzella, R-Hamilton; Matthew Monforton, R-Bozeman; Randall Pinocci, R-Sun River; and Daniel Zolnikov, R-Billings. Republicans said the emergency measure was necessary to fix what they call "defects" in Montana law governing campaign contributions and close a "loophole" that allows for cash from political action committees to flow to candidates without limit. Ballots were sent to legislators on June 6. The deadline to return ballots to McCulloch's office was July 1. After tabulating returned ballots, McCulloch determined the poll for a special session was unsuccessful. Of the 94 ballots that were returned, 20 voted for the special session while 74 voted against. For a session to convene, at least 76 of the 150 members of the House and Senate had to approve. Of the 32 special sessions Montana has convened since 1889, only two have been sought by legislators. The governor can also request a special session. Police: Man robs cab, leaves ID DES MOINES (AP) Police arrested a Des Moines man suspected of robbing of a taxi driver after he left his ID card in the cab. Landon Paul Dawson, 34, is charged with second-degree robbery. The cab driver told police he picked up Dawson from a casino around 3:30 a.m. Friday. Dawson said he had hit it big and wanted change for a $100 bill so he could give the driver a big tip. The driver said when he pulled out $50, Dawson grabbed the money and ran. Officers said they found a city bus card with Dawsons name on in the backseat of the cab and promptly arrested him at his home. Dawson remained jailed Saturday and could not be reached for comment. Boat collision injures one COUNCIL BLUFFS A boating collision resulted in one vessel sinking to the bottom of the Missouri River. The collision occurred just after 10 p.m. Friday, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. A 24-foot boat operated by Corey Fuller, 45, of Omaha, Neb., collided with another boat being operated by Anthony Wilson, 43, of Bellevue, Neb., near Council Bluffs. The boat operated by Fuller sank. Fuller and a passenger, Kristine Schwab, 42, also of Omaha, Neb., were rescued from the water by another boat. They had life jackets but were not wearing them. Anthony Wilsons wife, Deanne Wilson, 37, suffered minor injuries and was treated and released from a Council Bluffs hospital. Neither of the Wilsons were thrown in the water. Alcohol was not a factor in the collision. Woman dies in Casey house fire CASEY (AP) A woman died in a central Iowa house fire, authorities said. Firefighters from several departments were called to the fire in Casey on Friday afternoon. The first firefighters to arrive found the house full of smoke. The body of a woman was found inside about 10 feet from the front door. Officials said her husband was outside the home and had suffered significant burns to his head, neck and hands. The couples names have not yet been released. Concrete workers nearby saw the smoke and called 911. The workers tried to get inside the house to help, but the smoke was too thick and the house too hot to enter. Law officers out in full force DES MOINES (AP) This holiday weekend should know that state and local law enforcement agencies are out in full force. The Iowa Department of Transportation says the extra effort began Friday and will continue through Tuesday morning in an attempt to taken drunk drivers and speeders off the roads. Iowa roadway fatalities are up about 25 percent this year from the same time last year. WATERLOO -- The Waterloo Center for the Arts will receive a Cultural Leadership Partner Operating Support Grant from the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. CLP funds are used for bringing in artists and exhibitions as well as artists for classes, workshops and public programs. For information about upcoming exhibitions, events, classes and programs, go online at waterloocenterforthearts.org. COUNCIL BLUFFS A boating collision that resulted in one vessel sinking to the bottom of the Missouri River is being investigated by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The collision occurred just after 10 p.m. Friday when a 24-foot boat operated by Corey Fuller, 45, of Omaha, Neb., collided with another boat being operated by Anthony Wilson, 43, of Bellevue, Neb., on the Missouri River near Council Bluffs. The boat operated by Fuller sunk to the bottom of the river following the collision. Fuller and a passenger, Kristine Schwab, 42, also of Omaha, Neb., were rescued from the water by another boat. They were not wearing life jackets, but did have life jackets with them. Anthony Wilsons wife, Deanne Wilson, 37, suffered minor injuries in the collision and was treated and released from Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs. Neither of the Wilsons were thrown in the water as a result of the collision. Alcohol was not a factor in the collision. The incident remains under investigation by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The Pleasant Valley Community School District school board voted unanimously to appoint Tracey Rivera to serve as school board director for Pleasant Valley's district #6, formerly held by Christina Anderson, who had to vacate her seat as her family is moving out of the district. Rivera will serve in Andersons former seat until the regular school board election scheduled for November 2023. CLAYTON --- A trucker from Wellsburg was hurt when he lost control of his rig in Clayton Friday and drove into the Mississippi River. Dean L. Hinton, 46, was transported to Guttenburg Municipal Hospital following the crash about 11 a.m. Friday. The Iowa State Patrol said Hinton, driving a 1993 Kenworth semi, was eastbound on 228th Street coming into the small town of Clayton when he lost control on a steep hill. Troopers said he was unable to stop and struck an embankment just east of the intersection of Main and Front streets. The vehicle vaulted over the railroad tracks and into the Mississippi River. The front of the truck was fully submerged in 17 feet of the river. It took crews hours to remove the vehicle. Three juveniles charged with robbing same Paducah store twice in one day By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 01, 2016 | 11:01 AM | MARSHALL COUNTY, KY A Marshall County teen faces drug charges, after deputies reportedly found marijuana in his backpack. The Marshall County Sheriff's Office said dispatch received a call Thursday about two juveniles trespassing on a dock. When a deputy arrived, the boys had already fled but left a backpack at the scene. Police said a strong smell of marijuana was coming from the backpack. While the deputy was checking the bag, a cell phone inside the bag rang and he answered it. On the other end of the line was the mother of one of the boys that owned the backpack. The 16-year-old boy was charged with possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was released to his mother as was all recovered property from the scene. past daily news Sep 13 (1) Sep 09 (15) Sep 06 (12) Sep 04 (10) Sep 03 (10) Aug 31 (17) Aug 29 (14) Aug 26 (13) Aug 22 (11) Aug 21 (12) Aug 19 (21) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (10) Aug 10 (10) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (10) Aug 06 (10) Aug 05 (8) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (14) Jul 29 (1) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (10) Jul 22 (11) Jul 19 (16) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (10) Jul 15 (13) Jul 12 (7) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (8) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (8) Jul 04 (11) Jul 03 (8) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (8) Jun 28 (7) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (7) Jun 25 (8) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (9) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (9) Jun 18 (8) Jun 15 (9) Jun 13 (13) Jun 11 (11) Jun 09 (19) Jun 06 (10) Jun 04 (10) Jun 03 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (5) May 30 (5) May 29 (6) May 28 (7) May 27 (7) May 26 (6) May 25 (4) May 23 (6) May 22 (6) May 21 (4) May 20 (7) May 19 (9) May 18 (4) May 17 (6) May 16 (5) May 15 (7) May 14 (3) May 13 (3) May 12 (9) May 10 (3) May 09 (7) May 08 (4) May 07 (3) May 06 (5) May 05 (8) May 03 (9) May 02 (1) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (8) Apr 29 (5) Apr 28 (4) Apr 27 (7) Apr 26 (12) Apr 25 (4) Apr 24 (8) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (5) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (1) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (3) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (6) Apr 15 (5) Apr 14 (2) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (2) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (3) Apr 09 (3) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (5) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (10) Apr 04 (2) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (9) Apr 01 (7) Mar 31 (10) Mar 30 (6) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (10) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (10) Mar 22 (6) Mar 21 (5) Mar 20 (11) Mar 19 (8) Mar 18 (5) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (7) Mar 13 (7) Mar 12 (5) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (6) Mar 07 (8) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (12) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (8) Mar 02 (6) Mar 01 (8) Feb 28 (7) Feb 27 (5) Feb 26 (6) Feb 25 (7) Feb 24 (3) Feb 23 (6) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (3) Feb 20 (1) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (2) Feb 15 (5) Feb 14 (3) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (6) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (6) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (6) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (2) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (1) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (8) Jan 30 (2) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (1) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (4) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (2) Jan 20 (2) Jan 19 (3) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (2) Jan 16 (7) Jan 15 (6) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 05 (5) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (1) Dec 31 (5) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (5) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (2) Dec 17 (1) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (2) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (7) Dec 12 (5) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (2) Dec 08 (2) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (1) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (5) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (5) Nov 29 (10) Nov 28 (6) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (3) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (6) Nov 19 (2) Nov 18 (5) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (2) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (5) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (5) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (5) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (9) Oct 30 (9) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (6) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (6) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (6) Oct 22 (4) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (5) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (4) Oct 12 (7) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (10) Oct 07 (1) Oct 06 (10) Oct 05 (6) Oct 04 (8) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (1) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (6) Sep 26 (5) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (6) Sep 23 (5) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (6) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (5) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (6) Sep 13 (4) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (8) Sep 05 (6) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (5) Aug 31 (8) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (6) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (1) Aug 26 (4) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (7) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (4) Aug 21 (4) Aug 20 (7) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (8) Aug 16 (8) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (2) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (4) Aug 08 (8) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (10) Aug 02 (9) Aug 01 (8) Jul 31 (1) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (2) Jul 28 (11) Jul 27 (10) Jul 26 (10) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (5) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (2) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (8) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (1) Jul 16 (10) Jul 14 (7) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (11) Jul 11 (7) Jul 10 (5) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (8) Jul 06 (4) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (6) Jul 03 (7) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (2) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (5) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (6) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (8) Jun 18 (2) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (4) Jun 15 (3) Jun 14 (7) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (7) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (8) Jun 08 (8) Jun 07 (8) Jun 06 (10) Jun 05 (14) Jun 04 (6) Jun 03 (6) Jun 02 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (7) May 30 (2) May 29 (7) May 28 (7) May 27 (2) May 26 (4) May 25 (5) May 24 (4) May 23 (5) May 22 (5) May 21 (5) May 20 (3) May 19 (10) May 18 (6) May 17 (3) May 16 (6) May 15 (2) May 14 (3) May 13 (5) May 11 (1) May 10 (5) May 09 (3) May 08 (4) May 07 (2) May 06 (4) May 05 (6) May 04 (5) May 03 (5) May 02 (1) May 01 (6) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (7) Apr 28 (8) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (14) Apr 25 (6) Apr 24 (6) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (1) Apr 21 (8) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (1) Apr 15 (8) Apr 14 (1) Apr 13 (7) Apr 12 (10) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (2) Apr 09 (2) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (6) Apr 05 (6) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (5) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (9) Mar 26 (4) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (11) Mar 23 (10) Mar 22 (9) Mar 21 (10) Mar 20 (11) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (3) Mar 16 (7) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (6) Mar 13 (9) Mar 12 (6) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (6) Mar 07 (13) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (7) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (6) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (5) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (9) Feb 22 (6) Feb 21 (7) Feb 20 (8) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (6) Feb 15 (5) Feb 14 (7) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (9) Feb 08 (8) Feb 07 (7) Feb 06 (10) Feb 05 (7) Feb 04 (2) Feb 03 (8) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (5) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (7) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (7) Jan 26 (8) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (6) Jan 23 (5) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (6) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (8) Jan 17 (12) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (8) Jan 12 (6) Jan 11 (6) Jan 10 (7) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (6) Jan 05 (9) Jan 04 (9) Jan 03 (4) Jan 02 (6) Jan 01 (8) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (1) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (8) Dec 26 (4) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (12) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (7) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (5) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (1) Dec 15 (7) Dec 14 (10) Dec 13 (7) Dec 12 (12) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (6) Dec 08 (7) Dec 07 (12) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (13) Dec 04 (6) Dec 02 (8) Dec 01 (8) Nov 30 (6) Nov 29 (7) Nov 28 (7) Nov 27 (4) Nov 26 (8) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (11) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (7) Nov 17 (6) Nov 16 (11) Nov 15 (10) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (5) Nov 11 (12) Nov 10 (4) Nov 09 (14) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (11) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (5) Nov 04 (11) Nov 03 (9) Nov 02 (10) Nov 01 (8) Oct 31 (12) Oct 30 (5) Oct 29 (5) Oct 28 (5) Oct 27 (11) Oct 26 (13) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (10) Oct 23 (8) Oct 22 (5) Oct 21 (11) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (5) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (6) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (9) Oct 13 (10) Oct 12 (11) Oct 11 (9) Oct 10 (10) Oct 09 (7) Oct 08 (5) Oct 07 (10) Oct 06 (9) Oct 05 (14) Oct 04 (9) Oct 03 (12) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (9) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (7) Sep 28 (13) Sep 27 (10) Sep 26 (11) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (7) Sep 22 (10) Sep 21 (12) Sep 20 (12) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (7) Sep 16 (11) Sep 15 (8) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (8) Sep 12 (8) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (10) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (9) Sep 07 (8) Sep 06 (11) Sep 05 (2) Sep 04 (8) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (6) Sep 01 (9) Aug 31 (9) Aug 30 (7) Aug 29 (9) Aug 28 (4) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (5) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (2) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (6) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (6) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (7) Aug 06 (7) Aug 05 (7) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (11) Aug 02 (6) Aug 01 (9) Jul 31 (11) Jul 28 (7) Jul 27 (11) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (1) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (2) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (8) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (7) Jul 15 (4) Jul 14 (2) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (10) Jul 11 (11) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (5) Jul 06 (6) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (6) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (3) Jun 30 (8) Jun 29 (5) Jun 28 (6) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (4) Jun 25 (1) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (11) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (7) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (6) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (6) Jun 09 (8) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (8) Jun 06 (7) Jun 05 (5) Jun 04 (7) Jun 03 (1) Jun 02 (9) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (8) May 30 (7) May 29 (5) May 28 (5) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (4) May 24 (3) May 23 (5) May 22 (2) May 21 (3) May 20 (7) May 19 (11) May 18 (1) May 17 (7) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (3) May 13 (4) May 12 (4) May 11 (11) May 10 (2) May 09 (6) May 08 (6) May 07 (2) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (5) May 03 (8) May 02 (4) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (13) Apr 28 (5) Apr 27 (7) Apr 26 (5) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (2) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (9) Apr 21 (11) Apr 20 (2) Apr 19 (2) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (6) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (2) Apr 12 (9) Apr 11 (10) Apr 10 (6) Apr 09 (5) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (10) Apr 06 (7) Apr 05 (7) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (9) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (4) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (6) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (8) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (10) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (6) Mar 17 (7) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (4) Mar 12 (6) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (9) Mar 08 (10) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (2) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (3) Feb 27 (8) Feb 26 (9) Feb 24 (11) Feb 23 (8) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (8) Feb 20 (7) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (6) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (7) Feb 14 (11) Feb 13 (2) Feb 12 (5) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (10) Feb 08 (9) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (2) Feb 05 (9) Feb 03 (7) Feb 02 (5) Feb 01 (7) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (5) Jan 29 (6) Jan 28 (5) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (7) Jan 24 (8) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (14) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (10) Jan 18 (11) Jan 17 (9) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (7) Jan 10 (2) Jan 09 (7) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (10) Jan 06 (8) Jan 05 (7) Jan 04 (9) Jan 03 (8) Jan 02 (5) Jan 01 (14) Dec 30 (13) Dec 29 (13) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (5) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (7) Dec 24 (4) Dec 23 (5) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (8) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (8) Dec 18 (9) Dec 16 (8) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (5) Dec 13 (8) Dec 12 (4) Dec 11 (17) Dec 09 (8) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (10) Dec 06 (12) Dec 05 (6) Dec 04 (8) Dec 02 (6) Dec 01 (7) Nov 30 (9) Nov 29 (6) Nov 28 (11) Nov 27 (6) Nov 26 (15) Nov 24 (7) Nov 23 (15) Nov 22 (9) Nov 21 (6) Nov 20 (11) Nov 18 (11) Nov 17 (13) Nov 16 (8) Nov 15 (13) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (7) Nov 12 (3) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (13) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (6) Nov 06 (4) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (8) Nov 03 (9) Nov 02 (8) Nov 01 (6) Oct 31 (10) Oct 30 (8) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (8) Oct 27 (15) Oct 26 (10) Oct 25 (10) Oct 24 (13) Oct 23 (9) Oct 21 (8) Oct 20 (13) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (8) Oct 16 (14) Oct 14 (9) Oct 13 (11) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (13) Oct 10 (7) Oct 09 (15) Oct 07 (7) Oct 06 (11) Oct 05 (18) Oct 04 (14) Oct 03 (1) Oct 02 (10) Sep 30 (11) Sep 29 (11) Sep 28 (11) Sep 27 (15) Sep 26 (7) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (11) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (17) Sep 20 (20) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (11) Sep 16 (10) Sep 15 (12) Sep 14 (9) Sep 13 (12) Sep 12 (14) Sep 11 (4) Sep 10 (8) Sep 09 (9) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (13) Sep 06 (15) Sep 05 (8) Sep 04 (11) Sep 03 (10) Sep 02 (12) Sep 01 (12) Aug 31 (14) Aug 30 (14) Aug 29 (8) Aug 28 (8) Aug 27 (9) Aug 26 (12) Aug 25 (6) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (12) Aug 22 (6) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (6) Aug 19 (9) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (7) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (2) Aug 14 (12) Aug 12 (15) Aug 11 (11) Aug 10 (6) Aug 09 (7) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (5) Aug 05 (7) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (4) Aug 02 (5) Aug 01 (5) Jul 31 (7) Jul 30 (5) Jul 29 (9) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (8) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (6) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (6) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (15) Jul 15 (14) Jul 14 (5) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (12) Jul 11 (8) Jul 10 (3) Jul 09 (11) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (7) Jul 06 (10) Jul 05 (4) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (10) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (2) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (7) Jun 20 (3) Jun 19 (7) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (11) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (7) Jun 13 (14) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (8) Jun 09 (9) Jun 08 (11) Jun 07 (14) Jun 06 (16) Jun 03 (8) Jun 02 (12) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (7) May 30 (15) May 28 (7) May 27 (5) May 26 (21) May 25 (14) May 24 (10) May 23 (7) May 22 (8) May 21 (11) May 20 (5) May 19 (4) May 18 (10) May 17 (11) May 16 (5) May 15 (6) May 14 (7) May 13 (12) May 12 (10) May 11 (7) May 10 (13) May 09 (4) May 08 (7) May 07 (3) May 06 (6) May 05 (9) May 04 (14) May 03 (7) May 02 (10) May 01 (10) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (9) Apr 28 (5) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (8) Apr 24 (6) Apr 23 (14) Apr 22 (16) Apr 21 (11) Apr 20 (7) Apr 19 (16) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (10) Apr 15 (8) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (11) Apr 12 (10) Apr 11 (8) Apr 10 (12) Apr 09 (5) Apr 08 (13) Apr 07 (9) Apr 06 (11) Apr 05 (15) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (15) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (11) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (10) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (7) Mar 27 (12) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (8) Mar 24 (7) Mar 23 (15) Mar 22 (17) Mar 21 (9) Mar 20 (8) Mar 19 (4) Mar 18 (16) Mar 17 (8) Mar 16 (19) Mar 15 (13) Mar 14 (7) Mar 13 (20) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (11) Mar 09 (13) Mar 08 (13) Mar 07 (7) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (9) Mar 04 (10) Mar 03 (16) Mar 02 (16) Mar 01 (13) Feb 29 (8) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (16) Feb 26 (10) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (12) Feb 23 (14) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (11) Feb 20 (8) Feb 19 (12) Feb 18 (12) Feb 17 (11) Feb 16 (8) Feb 15 (9) Feb 14 (7) Feb 13 (10) Feb 12 (11) Feb 11 (13) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (13) Feb 05 (10) Feb 04 (11) Feb 03 (7) Feb 02 (19) Jan 31 (21) Jan 29 (11) Jan 28 (10) Jan 27 (13) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (2) Jan 23 (8) Jan 22 (13) Jan 21 (11) Jan 20 (9) Jan 19 (13) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (11) Jan 15 (7) Jan 14 (13) Jan 13 (9) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (5) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (7) Jan 08 (7) Jan 07 (6) Jan 06 (11) Jan 05 (7) Jan 04 (7) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (8) Jan 01 (5) Dec 31 (10) Dec 30 (9) Dec 29 (7) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (1) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (6) Dec 23 (6) Dec 22 (7) Dec 21 (6) Dec 20 (7) Dec 19 (13) Dec 18 (16) Dec 17 (10) Dec 16 (13) Dec 15 (11) Dec 14 (8) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (9) Dec 11 (10) Dec 10 (12) Dec 09 (10) Dec 08 (13) Dec 07 (7) Dec 06 (12) Dec 05 (8) Dec 04 (11) Dec 03 (12) Dec 02 (16) Dec 01 (14) Nov 30 (10) Nov 29 (11) Nov 28 (15) Nov 27 (16) Nov 26 (11) Nov 25 (9) Nov 24 (13) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (1) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (11) Nov 17 (11) Nov 16 (10) Nov 15 (3) Nov 14 (10) Nov 13 (14) Nov 12 (8) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (10) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (11) Nov 06 (12) Nov 05 (17) Nov 04 (12) Nov 03 (11) Nov 02 (5) Nov 01 (12) Oct 31 (11) Oct 30 (11) Oct 29 (10) Oct 28 (18) Oct 27 (16) Oct 26 (11) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (12) Oct 23 (11) Oct 22 (14) Oct 21 (12) Oct 20 (17) Oct 19 (12) Oct 18 (13) Oct 17 (15) Oct 16 (14) Oct 15 (10) Oct 14 (16) Oct 13 (12) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (8) Oct 10 (12) Oct 09 (21) Oct 08 (22) Oct 07 (19) Oct 06 (18) Oct 05 (6) Oct 04 (17) Oct 03 (13) Oct 02 (14) Oct 01 (13) Sep 30 (14) Sep 29 (15) Sep 28 (12) Sep 27 (11) Sep 26 (15) Sep 25 (13) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (10) Sep 22 (12) Sep 21 (8) Sep 20 (4) Sep 19 (12) Sep 18 (12) Sep 17 (16) Sep 16 (21) Sep 15 (14) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (10) Sep 11 (16) Sep 10 (7) Sep 09 (8) Sep 08 (10) Sep 07 (7) Sep 06 (5) Sep 05 (8) Sep 04 (9) Sep 03 (8) Sep 02 (11) Sep 01 (10) Aug 31 (4) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (1) Aug 28 (10) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (8) Aug 25 (14) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (13) Aug 20 (9) Aug 19 (13) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (8) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (12) Aug 11 (9) Aug 10 (8) Aug 09 (14) Aug 08 (6) Aug 07 (1) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (8) Aug 04 (6) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (2) Aug 01 (6) Jul 31 (6) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (6) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (6) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (5) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (5) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (9) Jul 14 (2) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (1) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (8) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (3) Jul 07 (13) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (7) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (1) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (7) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (9) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (3) Jun 19 (4) Jun 18 (7) Jun 17 (7) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (11) Jun 12 (6) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (10) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (2) Jun 05 (9) Jun 04 (8) Jun 03 (9) Jun 02 (6) Jun 01 (4) May 30 (7) May 29 (9) May 28 (13) May 26 (8) May 25 (5) May 24 (2) May 23 (8) May 22 (9) May 21 (7) May 20 (4) May 19 (6) May 18 (7) May 17 (8) May 15 (9) May 14 (5) May 13 (8) May 12 (6) May 11 (6) May 09 (7) May 08 (6) May 07 (11) May 06 (7) May 05 (4) May 04 (11) May 03 (5) May 02 (4) May 01 (9) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (9) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (10) Apr 22 (8) Apr 21 (9) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (4) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (6) Apr 14 (8) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (6) Apr 10 (2) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (5) Apr 07 (5) Apr 06 (2) Apr 05 (2) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (7) Apr 02 (7) Apr 01 (12) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (1) Mar 28 (2) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (2) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (4) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (6) Mar 20 (9) Mar 19 (9) Mar 18 (8) Mar 17 (9) Mar 16 (7) Mar 15 (11) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (12) Mar 11 (9) Mar 10 (12) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (5) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (11) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (8) Feb 27 (9) Feb 26 (9) Feb 25 (8) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (3) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (3) Feb 19 (10) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (7) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (2) Feb 14 (8) Feb 13 (12) Feb 12 (8) Feb 11 (10) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (2) Feb 06 (7) Feb 05 (4) Feb 04 (11) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (8) Jan 29 (12) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (8) Jan 26 (13) Jan 24 (8) Jan 23 (12) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (10) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (9) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (11) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (6) Jan 10 (2) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (6) Jan 06 (4) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (3) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (3) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (5) Dec 18 (8) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (9) Dec 15 (7) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (10) Dec 12 (10) Dec 11 (9) Dec 10 (10) Dec 09 (11) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (9) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (8) Dec 02 (10) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (1) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (9) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (7) Nov 25 (12) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (8) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (6) Nov 18 (10) Nov 17 (12) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (12) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (7) Nov 11 (8) Nov 10 (7) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (6) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (9) Nov 03 (6) Nov 02 (14) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (6) Oct 30 (7) Oct 29 (9) Oct 28 (9) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (8) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (4) Oct 20 (2) Oct 19 (11) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (7) Oct 15 (7) Oct 14 (8) Oct 13 (5) Oct 12 (8) Oct 11 (6) Oct 10 (5) Oct 09 (11) Oct 08 (10) Oct 07 (8) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (8) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (10) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (7) Sep 29 (6) Sep 28 (5) Sep 27 (8) Sep 26 (11) Sep 25 (11) Sep 24 (15) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (9) Sep 21 (4) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (9) Sep 18 (10) Sep 17 (10) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (8) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (7) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (2) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (7) Sep 04 (11) Sep 03 (7) Sep 02 (7) Sep 01 (2) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (1) Aug 29 (10) Aug 28 (5) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (10) Aug 25 (6) Aug 24 (9) Aug 22 (11) Aug 21 (8) Aug 20 (12) Aug 19 (8) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (8) Aug 11 (7) Aug 10 (12) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (6) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (8) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (4) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (6) Jul 30 (12) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (5) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (8) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (8) Jul 20 (6) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (8) Jul 17 (2) Jul 16 (7) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (9) Jul 13 (10) Jul 11 (9) Jul 10 (8) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (7) Jul 07 (7) Jul 06 (7) Jul 05 (10) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (5) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (1) Jun 27 (15) Jun 26 (10) Jun 25 (9) Jun 24 (16) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (12) Jun 20 (6) Jun 19 (8) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (6) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (13) Jun 12 (7) Jun 11 (14) Jun 10 (3) Jun 09 (2) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (7) Jun 06 (16) Jun 05 (7) Jun 04 (18) Jun 03 (12) Jun 02 (8) May 31 (3) May 30 (6) May 29 (6) May 28 (7) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (6) May 23 (4) May 22 (8) May 21 (5) May 20 (6) May 19 (2) May 18 (9) May 17 (1) May 16 (5) May 15 (5) May 14 (7) May 13 (7) May 12 (7) May 11 (4) May 10 (4) May 09 (5) May 08 (10) May 07 (4) May 06 (13) May 05 (4) May 04 (10) May 02 (2) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (9) Apr 29 (6) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (9) Apr 25 (9) Apr 24 (7) Apr 23 (11) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (10) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (6) Apr 15 (7) Apr 14 (11) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (9) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (6) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (6) Apr 05 (10) Apr 03 (9) Apr 02 (9) Apr 01 (12) Mar 31 (4) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (10) Mar 28 (7) Mar 27 (8) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (15) Mar 24 (11) Mar 23 (8) Mar 22 (7) Mar 21 (14) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (11) Mar 18 (11) Mar 17 (12) Mar 16 (8) Mar 15 (8) Mar 14 (13) Mar 13 (8) Mar 12 (10) Mar 11 (8) Mar 10 (7) Mar 09 (3) Mar 08 (12) Mar 07 (15) Mar 06 (16) Mar 05 (9) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (12) Mar 02 (20) Feb 28 (11) Feb 27 (8) Feb 26 (11) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (14) Feb 23 (5) Feb 22 (6) Feb 21 (8) Feb 20 (11) Feb 19 (7) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (8) Feb 16 (11) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (10) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (10) Feb 11 (7) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (6) Feb 07 (5) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (10) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (5) Jan 29 (2) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (3) Jan 26 (2) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (7) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (5) Jan 20 (5) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (7) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (5) Jan 13 (4) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (3) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (1) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (6) Jan 01 (2) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (1) Dec 29 (5) Dec 27 (1) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (8) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (1) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (8) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (4) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (4) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (7) Dec 09 (5) Dec 08 (2) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (10) Dec 04 (9) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (2) Dec 01 (8) Nov 29 (5) Nov 28 (7) Nov 27 (5) Nov 26 (9) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (5) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (12) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (8) Nov 15 (7) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (12) Nov 11 (6) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (5) Nov 05 (9) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (4) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (10) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (11) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (7) Oct 26 (7) Oct 25 (6) Oct 24 (7) Oct 23 (11) Oct 22 (2) Oct 21 (7) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (7) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (8) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (5) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (7) Oct 11 (20) Oct 10 (2) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (21) Oct 07 (20) Oct 06 (34) Oct 04 (24) Oct 03 (21) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (7) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (5) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (5) Sep 26 (6) Sep 25 (5) Sep 24 (2) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (4) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (9) Sep 19 (11) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (7) Sep 16 (6) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (8) Sep 12 (11) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (6) Sep 06 (10) Sep 05 (7) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (5) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (8) Aug 31 (5) Aug 30 (7) Aug 29 (10) Aug 28 (7) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (6) Aug 21 (8) Aug 20 (8) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (2) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (7) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (4) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (6) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (6) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (12) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (4) Aug 01 (10) Jul 31 (3) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (6) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (7) Jul 23 (10) Jul 22 (8) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (7) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (10) Jul 16 (11) Jul 15 (5) Jul 13 (5) Jul 12 (9) Jul 11 (11) Jul 10 (12) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (8) Jul 06 (9) Jul 05 (10) Jul 04 (8) Jul 03 (10) Jul 02 (12) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (5) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (23) Jun 27 (18) Jun 26 (12) Jun 25 (14) Jun 24 (15) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (11) Jun 21 (15) Jun 20 (9) Jun 19 (8) Jun 18 (11) Jun 17 (7) Jun 16 (6) Jun 15 (6) Jun 14 (6) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (6) Jun 11 (9) Jun 10 (10) Jun 09 (9) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (2) Jun 06 (6) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (3) May 30 (5) May 29 (8) May 28 (7) May 27 (2) May 26 (2) May 25 (8) May 24 (7) May 23 (6) May 22 (9) May 21 (6) May 20 (5) May 19 (6) May 18 (9) May 17 (10) May 16 (11) May 15 (5) May 14 (11) May 13 (6) May 12 (7) May 11 (7) May 10 (5) May 09 (3) May 08 (10) May 07 (8) May 06 (11) May 05 (5) May 04 (9) May 03 (3) May 02 (2) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (5) Apr 29 (8) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (9) Apr 25 (11) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (11) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (7) Apr 19 (10) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (10) Apr 16 (8) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (7) Apr 12 (11) Apr 11 (6) Apr 10 (7) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (9) Apr 05 (10) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (2) Apr 02 (6) Apr 01 (4) Mar 31 (3) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (3) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (10) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (6) Mar 21 (9) Mar 20 (5) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (9) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (8) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (10) Mar 12 (10) Mar 11 (2) Mar 10 (1) Mar 09 (6) Mar 08 (4) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (7) Mar 03 (6) Mar 02 (8) Mar 01 (9) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (7) Feb 24 (3) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (7) Feb 20 (4) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (2) Feb 17 (1) Feb 16 (6) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (5) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (7) Feb 11 (2) Feb 10 (2) Feb 09 (5) Feb 08 (5) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (9) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (3) Feb 02 (10) Feb 01 (9) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (8) Jan 29 (5) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (7) Jan 18 (3) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (8) Jan 15 (7) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (1) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (1) Jan 10 (3) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (2) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (4) Jan 02 (4) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (8) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (4) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (7) Dec 21 (5) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (6) Dec 17 (4) Dec 16 (5) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (8) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (6) Dec 11 (8) Dec 10 (5) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (4) Dec 07 (7) Dec 06 (7) Dec 05 (6) Dec 04 (6) Dec 03 (7) Dec 02 (1) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (2) Nov 29 (8) Nov 28 (16) Nov 27 (7) Nov 26 (5) Nov 25 (2) Nov 24 (6) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (15) Nov 19 (8) Nov 18 (2) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (7) Nov 14 (6) Nov 13 (9) Nov 12 (7) Nov 11 (8) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (5) Nov 08 (8) Nov 07 (9) Nov 06 (9) Nov 05 (1) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (8) Nov 02 (6) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (6) Oct 30 (7) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (8) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (1) Oct 22 (6) Oct 21 (1) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (10) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (15) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (5) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (7) Oct 10 (1) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (7) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (8) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (7) Oct 02 (6) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (8) Sep 29 (6) Sep 28 (13) Sep 27 (10) Sep 26 (8) Sep 25 (8) Sep 24 (8) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (9) Sep 20 (7) Sep 19 (8) Sep 18 (4) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (8) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (7) Sep 12 (7) Sep 11 (9) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (10) Sep 08 (4) Sep 07 (12) Sep 06 (13) Sep 05 (15) Sep 04 (5) Sep 03 (4) Sep 02 (6) Sep 01 (9) Aug 31 (7) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (8) Aug 28 (11) Aug 27 (2) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (15) Aug 24 (6) Aug 23 (8) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (6) Aug 20 (7) Aug 19 (2) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (9) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (6) Aug 09 (5) Aug 08 (7) Aug 07 (9) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (9) Aug 01 (10) Jul 31 (11) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (11) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (5) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (6) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (7) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (7) Jul 12 (8) Jul 11 (6) Jul 10 (14) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (4) Jul 06 (9) Jul 05 (8) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (8) Jul 02 (5) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (6) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (8) Jun 25 (3) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (14) Jun 22 (11) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (8) Jun 19 (7) Jun 18 (4) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (12) Jun 15 (12) Jun 14 (10) Jun 13 (10) Jun 12 (9) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (12) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (12) Jun 06 (6) Jun 05 (7) Jun 04 (6) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (4) Jun 01 (8) May 31 (4) May 30 (3) May 29 (8) May 28 (7) May 27 (4) May 26 (3) May 25 (5) May 24 (9) May 23 (16) May 22 (12) May 21 (11) May 20 (7) May 19 (10) May 18 (8) May 17 (8) May 16 (10) May 15 (8) May 14 (5) May 13 (1) May 12 (6) May 11 (9) May 10 (9) May 09 (10) May 08 (9) May 07 (6) May 06 (5) May 05 (7) May 04 (10) May 03 (7) May 02 (9) May 01 (10) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (9) Apr 28 (12) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (9) Apr 23 (4) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (8) Apr 20 (9) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (2) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (10) Apr 14 (7) Apr 13 (5) Apr 12 (7) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (7) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (7) Apr 07 (10) Apr 06 (8) Apr 05 (8) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (6) Apr 02 (4) Apr 01 (4) Mar 31 (11) Mar 30 (12) Mar 29 (16) Mar 28 (8) Mar 27 (10) Mar 26 (12) Mar 25 (6) Mar 24 (9) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (12) Mar 20 (14) Mar 19 (8) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (8) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (9) Mar 12 (6) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (13) Mar 09 (8) Mar 08 (10) Mar 07 (12) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (2) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (12) Mar 01 (8) Feb 29 (11) Feb 28 (5) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (13) Feb 25 (10) Feb 24 (13) Feb 23 (10) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (18) Feb 20 (6) Feb 19 (7) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (5) Feb 16 (9) Feb 15 (7) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (6) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (8) Feb 09 (5) Feb 08 (8) Feb 07 (10) Feb 06 (7) Feb 05 (7) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (11) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (12) Jan 30 (7) Jan 29 (7) Jan 28 (7) Jan 27 (12) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (11) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (6) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (12) Jan 20 (11) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (6) Jan 17 (11) Jan 16 (9) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (9) Jan 10 (10) Jan 09 (5) Jan 08 (10) Jan 07 (5) Jan 06 (6) Jan 05 (8) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (8) Jan 02 (7) Jan 01 (7) Dec 31 (10) Dec 30 (11) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (10) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (7) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (9) Dec 21 (8) Dec 20 (8) Dec 19 (5) Dec 18 (1) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (6) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (13) Dec 13 (8) Dec 12 (7) Dec 11 (9) Dec 10 (12) Dec 09 (7) Dec 08 (11) Dec 07 (9) Dec 06 (11) Dec 05 (10) Dec 04 (6) Dec 03 (8) Dec 02 (6) Dec 01 (14) Nov 30 (7) Nov 29 (8) Nov 28 (8) Nov 27 (6) Nov 26 (9) Nov 25 (10) Nov 24 (12) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (10) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (8) Nov 17 (9) Nov 16 (9) Nov 15 (12) Nov 14 (6) Nov 13 (9) Nov 12 (3) Nov 11 (9) Nov 10 (10) Nov 09 (10) Nov 08 (7) Nov 07 (8) Nov 06 (10) Nov 05 (8) Nov 04 (7) Nov 03 (10) Nov 02 (11) Nov 01 (10) Oct 31 (5) Oct 30 (8) Oct 29 (8) Oct 28 (8) Oct 27 (11) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (10) Oct 23 (5) Oct 22 (14) Oct 21 (10) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (11) Oct 18 (13) Oct 17 (7) Oct 16 (6) Oct 15 (9) Oct 14 (7) Oct 13 (12) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (9) Oct 10 (8) Oct 09 (9) Oct 08 (7) Oct 07 (12) Oct 06 (8) Oct 05 (13) Oct 04 (11) Oct 03 (7) Oct 02 (5) Oct 01 (14) Sep 30 (12) Sep 29 (12) Sep 28 (11) Sep 27 (11) Sep 26 (7) Sep 25 (10) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (7) Sep 22 (8) Sep 21 (8) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (7) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (14) Sep 16 (7) Sep 15 (11) Sep 14 (13) Sep 13 (11) Sep 12 (9) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (13) Sep 08 (11) Sep 07 (11) Sep 06 (16) Sep 05 (1) Sep 04 (10) Sep 03 (8) Sep 02 (8) Sep 01 (7) Aug 31 (1) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (2) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (8) Aug 25 (5) Aug 24 (5) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (7) Aug 21 (6) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (9) Aug 18 (7) Aug 17 (7) Aug 16 (10) Aug 15 (2) Aug 14 (5) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (10) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (5) Aug 06 (12) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (14) Jul 31 (7) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (13) Jul 28 (10) Jul 27 (6) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (12) Jul 22 (14) Jul 21 (6) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (12) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (6) Jul 15 (8) Jul 14 (15) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (10) Jul 11 (6) Jul 10 (6) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (6) Jul 07 (9) Jul 06 (15) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (10) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (11) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (11) Jun 24 (9) Jun 23 (10) Jun 22 (8) Jun 21 (8) Jun 20 (6) Jun 19 (5) Jun 18 (15) Jun 17 (8) Jun 16 (13) Jun 15 (15) Jun 14 (11) Jun 13 (6) Jun 12 (15) Jun 11 (7) Jun 10 (7) Jun 09 (18) Jun 08 (20) Jun 07 (17) Jun 06 (9) Jun 05 (9) Jun 04 (12) Jun 03 (13) Jun 02 (14) Jun 01 (8) May 31 (13) May 30 (8) May 29 (6) May 28 (8) May 27 (17) May 26 (8) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (9) May 22 (4) May 21 (4) May 20 (11) May 19 (14) May 18 (6) May 17 (10) May 16 (4) May 15 (5) May 14 (28) May 12 (9) May 11 (17) May 10 (15) May 09 (12) May 08 (5) May 07 (4) May 06 (10) May 05 (8) May 04 (10) May 03 (5) May 02 (6) May 01 (8) Apr 30 (8) Apr 29 (12) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (11) Apr 26 (12) Apr 25 (6) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (5) Apr 22 (10) Apr 21 (19) Apr 20 (13) Apr 19 (11) Apr 18 (11) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (12) Apr 15 (11) Apr 14 (17) Apr 13 (6) Apr 12 (16) Apr 11 (10) Apr 10 (1) Apr 09 (18) Apr 08 (14) Apr 07 (6) Apr 06 (10) Apr 05 (21) Apr 04 (12) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (13) Apr 01 (8) Mar 31 (10) Mar 30 (11) Mar 29 (10) Mar 28 (8) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (12) Mar 25 (15) Mar 24 (10) Mar 23 (12) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (8) Mar 20 (4) Mar 19 (11) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (7) Mar 16 (9) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (2) Mar 12 (14) Mar 11 (13) Mar 10 (7) Mar 09 (9) Mar 08 (17) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (7) Mar 05 (13) Mar 04 (10) Mar 03 (14) Mar 02 (12) Mar 01 (18) Feb 28 (8) Feb 27 (2) Feb 26 (9) Feb 25 (13) Feb 24 (17) Feb 23 (13) Feb 22 (12) Feb 21 (11) Feb 20 (11) Feb 19 (16) Feb 18 (17) Feb 17 (15) Feb 16 (15) Feb 15 (15) Feb 14 (10) Feb 13 (8) Feb 12 (10) Feb 11 (15) Feb 10 (11) Feb 09 (13) Feb 08 (10) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (6) Feb 05 (15) Feb 04 (15) Feb 03 (11) Feb 02 (14) Feb 01 (15) Jan 31 (11) Jan 30 (9) Jan 29 (19) Jan 28 (9) Jan 27 (9) Jan 26 (16) Jan 25 (19) Jan 24 (17) Jan 23 (8) Jan 22 (15) Jan 21 (9) Jan 20 (11) Jan 19 (7) Jan 18 (9) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (7) Jan 15 (12) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (14) Jan 12 (11) Jan 11 (13) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (8) Jan 08 (20) Jan 07 (11) Jan 06 (11) Jan 05 (8) Jan 04 (14) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (7) Jan 01 (7) Dec 31 (14) Dec 30 (15) Dec 29 (7) Dec 28 (10) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (11) Dec 24 (9) Dec 23 (9) Dec 22 (15) Dec 21 (12) Dec 20 (11) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (16) Dec 17 (6) Dec 16 (12) Dec 15 (14) Dec 14 (11) Dec 13 (10) Dec 12 (6) Dec 11 (10) Dec 10 (17) Dec 09 (11) Dec 08 (12) Dec 07 (16) Dec 06 (11) Dec 05 (5) Dec 04 (12) Dec 03 (15) Dec 02 (15) Dec 01 (12) Nov 30 (16) Nov 29 (7) Nov 28 (11) Nov 27 (13) Nov 26 (13) Nov 25 (16) Nov 24 (15) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (8) Nov 19 (9) Nov 18 (16) Nov 17 (11) Nov 16 (11) Nov 15 (10) Nov 14 (9) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (10) Nov 11 (12) Nov 10 (15) Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (6) Nov 06 (7) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (14) Nov 03 (10) Nov 02 (13) Nov 01 (9) Oct 31 (9) Oct 30 (11) Oct 29 (18) Oct 28 (13) Oct 27 (23) Oct 26 (12) Oct 25 (14) Oct 24 (20) Oct 22 (18) Oct 21 (18) Oct 20 (19) Oct 19 (12) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (18) Oct 15 (8) Oct 14 (11) Oct 13 (9) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (6) Oct 10 (7) Oct 09 (27) Oct 08 (14) Oct 07 (10) Oct 06 (9) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (10) Oct 03 (6) Oct 02 (9) Oct 01 (13) Sep 30 (12) Sep 29 (13) Sep 28 (8) Sep 27 (9) Sep 26 (8) Sep 25 (14) Sep 24 (4) Sep 23 (14) Sep 22 (20) Sep 21 (11) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (9) Sep 18 (14) Sep 17 (8) Sep 16 (17) Sep 15 (6) Sep 14 (11) Sep 13 (9) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (14) Sep 09 (12) Sep 08 (17) Sep 07 (12) Sep 06 (13) Sep 05 (9) Sep 04 (20) Sep 03 (16) Sep 02 (16) Sep 01 (10) Aug 31 (13) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (9) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (11) Aug 25 (10) Aug 24 (14) Aug 23 (12) Aug 22 (13) Aug 21 (10) Aug 20 (13) Aug 19 (15) Aug 18 (8) Aug 17 (10) Aug 16 (8) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (11) Aug 13 (12) Aug 12 (15) Aug 11 (10) Aug 10 (17) Aug 09 (6) Aug 08 (13) Aug 07 (11) Aug 06 (13) Aug 05 (11) Aug 04 (11) Aug 03 (10) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (6) Jul 31 (10) Jul 30 (21) Jul 29 (14) Jul 28 (13) Jul 27 (16) Jul 26 (10) Jul 25 (15) Jul 24 (17) Jul 23 (15) Jul 22 (15) Jul 21 (19) Jul 20 (17) Jul 19 (9) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (26) Jul 16 (18) Jul 15 (20) Jul 14 (16) Jul 13 (19) Jul 12 (11) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (13) Jul 09 (11) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (12) Jul 06 (16) Jul 05 (9) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (15) Jul 02 (11) Jul 01 (14) Jun 30 (13) Jun 29 (19) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (9) Jun 26 (16) Jun 25 (22) Jun 24 (17) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (15) Jun 21 (14) Jun 20 (8) Jun 19 (17) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (10) Jun 16 (17) Jun 15 (13) Jun 14 (14) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (13) Jun 11 (15) Jun 10 (25) Jun 09 (10) Jun 08 (23) Jun 07 (14) Jun 06 (20) Jun 05 (10) Jun 04 (11) Jun 03 (12) Jun 02 (21) Jun 01 (14) May 31 (10) May 30 (14) May 29 (8) May 28 (23) May 27 (20) May 26 (16) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (10) May 22 (18) May 21 (14) May 20 (12) May 19 (18) May 18 (14) May 17 (13) May 16 (4) May 15 (7) May 14 (16) May 13 (13) May 12 (8) May 11 (18) May 10 (8) May 09 (7) May 08 (13) May 07 (11) May 06 (15) May 05 (18) May 04 (17) May 03 (7) May 02 (5) May 01 (11) Apr 30 (19) Apr 29 (21) Apr 28 (18) Apr 27 (16) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (11) Apr 24 (9) Apr 23 (20) Apr 22 (23) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (16) Apr 19 (13) Apr 18 (6) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (16) Apr 15 (18) Apr 14 (13) Apr 13 (14) Apr 12 (9) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (16) Apr 09 (14) Apr 08 (12) Apr 07 (18) Apr 06 (7) Apr 05 (11) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (19) Apr 02 (17) Apr 01 (16) Mar 31 (16) Mar 30 (22) Mar 29 (16) Mar 28 (16) Mar 27 (19) Mar 26 (31) Mar 25 (25) Mar 24 (26) Mar 23 (27) Mar 22 (22) Mar 21 (22) Mar 20 (13) Mar 19 (21) Mar 18 (20) Mar 17 (24) Mar 16 (18) Mar 15 (9) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (29) Mar 12 (15) Mar 11 (11) Mar 10 (11) Mar 09 (20) Mar 08 (12) Mar 07 (6) Mar 06 (21) Mar 05 (22) Mar 04 (19) Mar 03 (9) Mar 02 (20) Mar 01 (11) Feb 28 (11) Feb 27 (27) Feb 26 (15) Feb 25 (18) Feb 24 (17) Feb 23 (19) Feb 22 (24) Feb 21 (10) Feb 20 (14) Feb 19 (25) Feb 18 (16) Feb 17 (19) Feb 16 (23) Feb 15 (8) Feb 14 (11) Feb 13 (25) Feb 12 (16) Feb 11 (12) Feb 10 (18) Feb 09 (12) Feb 08 (14) Feb 07 (8) Feb 06 (27) Feb 05 (28) Feb 04 (24) Feb 03 (17) Feb 02 (20) Feb 01 (23) Jan 31 (16) Jan 30 (20) Jan 29 (26) Jan 28 (17) Jan 27 (21) Jan 26 (24) Jan 25 (16) Jan 24 (14) Jan 23 (16) Jan 22 (17) Jan 21 (19) Jan 20 (21) Jan 19 (17) Jan 18 (13) Jan 17 (14) Jan 16 (10) Jan 15 (21) Jan 14 (16) Jan 13 (19) Jan 12 (30) Jan 11 (14) Jan 10 (11) Jan 09 (8) Jan 08 (23) Jan 07 (13) Jan 06 (21) Jan 05 (15) Jan 04 (18) Jan 03 (9) Jan 02 (12) Jan 01 (15) Dec 31 (18) Dec 30 (7) Dec 29 (13) Dec 28 (11) Dec 27 (8) Dec 26 (6) Dec 25 (8) Dec 24 (28) Dec 23 (12) Dec 22 (12) Dec 21 (17) Dec 20 (19) Dec 19 (19) Dec 18 (22) Dec 17 (24) Dec 16 (17) Dec 15 (29) Dec 14 (22) Dec 13 (12) Dec 12 (22) Dec 11 (24) Dec 10 (25) Dec 09 (18) Dec 08 (15) Dec 07 (21) Dec 06 (24) Dec 05 (30) Dec 04 (28) Dec 03 (26) Dec 02 (22) Dec 01 (33) Nov 30 (23) Nov 29 (9) Nov 28 (18) Nov 27 (25) Nov 26 (17) Nov 25 (23) Nov 24 (27) Nov 23 (12) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (15) Nov 20 (23) Nov 19 (23) Nov 18 (24) Nov 17 (21) Nov 16 (20) Nov 15 (13) Nov 14 (15) Nov 13 (27) Nov 12 (23) Nov 11 (19) Nov 10 (21) Nov 09 (13) Nov 08 (16) Nov 07 (16) Nov 06 (32) Nov 05 (24) Nov 04 (20) Nov 03 (29) Nov 02 (12) Nov 01 (15) Oct 31 (20) Oct 30 (22) Oct 29 (27) Oct 28 (20) Oct 27 (23) Oct 26 (21) Oct 25 (15) Oct 24 (23) Oct 23 (26) Oct 22 (27) Oct 21 (28) Oct 20 (24) Oct 19 (13) Oct 18 (9) Oct 17 (30) Oct 16 (8) Oct 15 (20) Oct 14 (14) Oct 13 (17) Oct 12 (16) Oct 11 (8) Oct 10 (19) Oct 09 (22) Oct 08 (16) Oct 07 (18) Oct 06 (23) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (15) Oct 03 (21) Oct 02 (17) Oct 01 (22) Sep 30 (25) Sep 29 (20) Sep 28 (17) Sep 27 (13) Sep 26 (20) Sep 25 (15) Sep 24 (24) Sep 23 (23) Sep 22 (18) Sep 21 (20) Sep 20 (11) Sep 19 (24) Sep 18 (25) Sep 17 (25) Sep 16 (19) Sep 15 (21) Sep 14 (15) Sep 13 (10) Sep 12 (23) Sep 11 (23) Sep 10 (25) Sep 09 (25) Sep 08 (17) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (17) Sep 05 (14) Sep 04 (24) Sep 03 (16) Sep 02 (11) Sep 01 (19) Aug 31 (20) Aug 30 (11) Aug 29 (24) Aug 28 (24) Aug 27 (16) Aug 26 (26) Aug 25 (21) Aug 24 (15) Aug 23 (19) Aug 22 (15) Aug 21 (25) Aug 20 (27) Aug 19 (19) Aug 18 (24) Aug 17 (14) Aug 16 (10) Aug 15 (15) Aug 14 (16) Aug 13 (21) Aug 12 (30) Aug 11 (19) Aug 10 (8) Aug 09 (12) Aug 08 (17) Aug 07 (21) Aug 06 (26) Aug 05 (23) Aug 04 (21) Aug 03 (12) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (19) Jul 31 (21) Jul 30 (25) Jul 29 (29) Jul 28 (23) Jul 27 (17) Jul 26 (11) Jul 25 (21) Jul 24 (14) Jul 23 (15) Jul 22 (19) Jul 21 (15) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (10) Jul 18 (15) Jul 17 (22) Jul 16 (18) Jul 15 (21) Jul 14 (20) Jul 13 (7) Jul 12 (9) Jul 11 (29) Jul 10 (19) Jul 09 (17) Jul 08 (26) Jul 07 (21) Jul 06 (18) Jul 05 (14) Jul 04 (20) Jul 03 (17) Jul 02 (24) Jul 01 (23) Jun 30 (23) Jun 29 (18) Jun 28 (16) Jun 27 (16) Jun 26 (17) Jun 25 (23) Jun 24 (32) Jun 23 (29) Jun 22 (8) Jun 21 (17) Jun 20 (25) Jun 19 (28) Jun 18 (19) Jun 17 (25) Jun 16 (23) Jun 15 (9) Jun 14 (11) Jun 13 (14) Jun 12 (22) Jun 11 (19) Jun 10 (17) Jun 09 (15) Jun 08 (16) Jun 07 (7) Jun 06 (29) Jun 05 (27) Jun 04 (24) Jun 03 (22) Jun 02 (22) Jun 01 (13) May 31 (9) May 30 (26) May 29 (19) May 28 (15) May 27 (15) May 26 (23) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (24) May 22 (13) May 21 (21) May 20 (18) May 19 (16) May 18 (7) May 17 (12) May 16 (25) May 15 (24) May 14 (23) May 13 (19) May 12 (17) May 11 (8) May 10 (6) May 09 (14) May 08 (21) May 07 (26) May 06 (14) May 05 (14) May 04 (3) May 03 (3) May 02 (24) May 01 (13) Apr 30 (15) Apr 29 (24) Apr 28 (24) Apr 27 (11) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (13) Apr 24 (27) Apr 23 (15) Apr 22 (21) Apr 21 (19) Apr 20 (17) Apr 19 (8) Apr 18 (20) Apr 17 (27) Apr 16 (27) Apr 15 (21) Apr 14 (8) Apr 13 (8) Apr 12 (7) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (22) Apr 09 (15) Apr 08 (15) Apr 07 (17) Apr 06 (14) Apr 05 (5) Apr 04 (12) Apr 03 (19) Apr 02 (17) Apr 01 (19) Mar 31 (25) Mar 30 (13) Mar 29 (9) Mar 28 (16) Mar 27 (23) Mar 26 (22) Mar 25 (17) Mar 24 (25) Mar 23 (16) Mar 22 (13) Mar 21 (24) Mar 20 (27) Mar 19 (20) Mar 18 (24) Mar 17 (17) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (20) Mar 13 (28) Mar 12 (30) Mar 11 (20) Mar 10 (21) Mar 09 (12) Mar 08 (8) Mar 07 (17) Mar 06 (20) Mar 05 (19) Mar 04 (15) Mar 03 (17) Mar 02 (8) Mar 01 (12) Feb 28 (16) Feb 27 (17) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (23) Feb 24 (15) Feb 23 (8) Feb 22 (10) Feb 21 (24) Feb 20 (14) Feb 19 (24) Feb 18 (19) Feb 17 (27) Feb 16 (13) Feb 15 (11) Feb 14 (15) Feb 13 (13) Feb 12 (13) Feb 11 (21) Feb 10 (16) Feb 09 (15) Feb 08 (10) Feb 07 (17) Feb 06 (21) Feb 05 (17) Feb 04 (14) Feb 03 (23) Feb 02 (5) Feb 01 (8) Jan 31 (17) Jan 30 (22) Jan 29 (23) Jan 28 (10) Jan 27 (24) Jan 26 (12) Jan 25 (9) Jan 24 (12) Jan 23 (19) Jan 22 (19) Jan 21 (14) Jan 20 (21) Jan 19 (12) Jan 18 (8) Jan 17 (20) Jan 16 (14) Jan 15 (23) Jan 14 (8) Jan 13 (20) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (7) Jan 10 (18) Jan 09 (11) Jan 08 (18) Jan 07 (13) Jan 06 (12) Jan 05 (12) Jan 04 (11) Jan 03 (10) Jan 02 (9) Jan 01 (9) Dec 31 (12) Dec 30 (11) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (13) Dec 26 (15) Dec 25 (8) Dec 24 (6) Dec 23 (8) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (6) Dec 20 (14) Dec 19 (17) Dec 18 (14) Dec 17 (14) Dec 16 (13) Dec 15 (9) Dec 14 (9) Dec 13 (11) Dec 12 (16) Dec 11 (18) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (24) Dec 08 (11) Dec 07 (19) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (26) Dec 04 (15) Dec 03 (20) Dec 02 (17) Dec 01 (11) Nov 30 (10) Nov 29 (18) Nov 28 (21) Nov 27 (10) Nov 26 (22) Nov 25 (16) Nov 24 (12) Nov 23 (8) Nov 22 (18) Nov 21 (9) Nov 20 (17) Nov 19 (16) Nov 18 (16) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (9) Nov 15 (21) Nov 14 (17) Nov 13 (20) Nov 12 (16) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (9) Nov 09 (10) Nov 08 (16) Nov 07 (15) Nov 06 (18) Nov 05 (19) Nov 04 (16) Nov 03 (11) Nov 02 (5) Nov 01 (17) Oct 31 (17) Oct 30 (21) Oct 29 (9) Oct 28 (16) Oct 27 (6) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (16) Oct 24 (18) Oct 23 (14) Oct 22 (17) Oct 21 (10) Oct 20 (6) Oct 19 (8) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (12) Oct 16 (14) Oct 15 (19) Oct 14 (15) Oct 13 (11) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (10) Oct 10 (23) Oct 09 (13) Oct 08 (15) Oct 07 (20) Oct 06 (13) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (16) Oct 03 (17) Oct 02 (17) Oct 01 (20) Sep 30 (17) Sep 29 (9) Sep 28 (8) Sep 27 (14) Sep 26 (20) Sep 25 (19) Sep 24 (13) Sep 23 (11) Sep 22 (9) Sep 21 (5) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (21) Sep 18 (12) Sep 17 (20) Sep 16 (16) Sep 15 (10) Sep 14 (6) Sep 13 (18) Sep 12 (14) Sep 11 (24) Sep 10 (17) Sep 09 (16) Sep 08 (16) Sep 07 (10) Sep 06 (20) Sep 05 (13) Sep 04 (23) Sep 03 (14) Sep 02 (12) Sep 01 (11) Aug 31 (11) Aug 30 (13) Aug 29 (18) Aug 28 (14) Aug 27 (21) Aug 26 (10) Aug 25 (8) Aug 24 (10) Aug 23 (17) Aug 22 (15) Aug 21 (14) Aug 20 (20) Aug 19 (20) Aug 18 (7) Aug 17 (9) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (12) Aug 14 (14) Aug 13 (19) Aug 12 (14) Aug 11 (6) Aug 10 (12) Aug 09 (7) Aug 08 (18) Aug 07 (16) Aug 06 (16) Aug 05 (20) Aug 04 (12) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (12) Aug 01 (14) Jul 31 (16) Jul 30 (16) Jul 29 (11) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (9) Jul 26 (17) Jul 25 (20) Jul 24 (17) Jul 23 (11) Jul 22 (18) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (14) Jul 18 (11) Jul 17 (15) Jul 16 (12) Jul 15 (10) Jul 14 (8) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (17) Jul 11 (18) Jul 10 (16) Jul 09 (13) Jul 08 (10) Jul 07 (12) Jul 06 (8) Jul 05 (16) Jul 04 (14) Jul 03 (17) Jul 02 (13) Jul 01 (16) Jun 30 (19) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (19) Jun 27 (21) Jun 26 (27) Jun 25 (23) Jun 24 (23) Jun 23 (12) Jun 22 (9) Jun 21 (18) Jun 20 (15) Jun 19 (24) Jun 18 (21) Jun 17 (13) Jun 16 (9) Jun 15 (9) Jun 14 (18) Jun 13 (24) Jun 12 (18) Jun 11 (23) Jun 10 (25) Jun 09 (24) Jun 08 (27) Jun 07 (5) Jun 06 (25) Jun 05 (30) Jun 04 (23) Jun 03 (22) Jun 02 (16) Jun 01 (17) May 31 (18) May 30 (19) May 29 (17) May 28 (23) May 27 (15) May 26 (10) May 25 (19) May 24 (16) May 23 (16) May 22 (27) May 21 (20) May 20 (26) May 19 (6) May 18 (8) May 17 (20) May 16 (8) May 15 (18) May 14 (5) May 13 (21) May 12 (9) May 11 (8) May 10 (12) May 09 (18) May 08 (11) May 07 (27) May 06 (12) May 05 (16) May 04 (19) May 03 (14) May 02 (18) May 01 (18) Apr 30 (25) Apr 29 (27) Apr 28 (11) Apr 27 (10) Apr 26 (18) Apr 25 (10) Apr 24 (29) Apr 23 (29) Apr 22 (14) Apr 21 (15) Apr 20 (20) Apr 19 (22) Apr 18 (16) Apr 17 (32) Apr 16 (12) Apr 15 (21) Apr 14 (21) Apr 13 (15) Apr 12 (13) Apr 11 (14) Apr 10 (16) Apr 09 (20) Apr 08 (36) Apr 07 (22) Apr 06 (11) Apr 05 (28) Apr 04 (20) Apr 03 (29) Apr 02 (32) Apr 01 (18) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (15) Mar 28 (22) Mar 27 (24) Mar 26 (17) Mar 25 (17) Mar 24 (13) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (15) Mar 20 (18) Mar 19 (19) Mar 18 (16) Mar 17 (10) Mar 16 (6) Mar 15 (18) Mar 14 (24) Mar 13 (18) Mar 12 (18) Mar 11 (17) Mar 10 (13) Mar 09 (12) Mar 08 (18) Mar 07 (25) Mar 06 (16) Mar 05 (16) Mar 04 (22) Mar 03 (17) Mar 02 (6) Mar 01 (23) Feb 29 (19) Feb 28 (25) Feb 27 (26) Feb 26 (23) Feb 25 (12) Feb 24 (13) Feb 23 (15) Feb 22 (26) Feb 21 (31) Feb 20 (12) Feb 19 (21) Feb 18 (15) Feb 17 (10) Feb 16 (15) Feb 15 (19) Feb 14 (15) Feb 13 (25) Feb 12 (20) Feb 11 (9) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (28) Feb 08 (20) Feb 07 (22) Feb 06 (20) Feb 05 (19) Feb 04 (14) Feb 03 (16) Feb 02 (28) Feb 01 (37) Jan 31 (27) Jan 30 (31) Jan 29 (18) Jan 28 (14) Jan 27 (10) Jan 26 (18) Jan 25 (26) Jan 24 (34) Jan 23 (21) Jan 22 (21) Jan 21 (18) Jan 20 (18) Jan 19 (18) Jan 18 (26) Jan 17 (24) Jan 16 (23) Jan 15 (30) Jan 14 (20) Jan 13 (18) Jan 12 (24) Jan 11 (11) Jan 10 (23) Jan 09 (22) Jan 08 (17) Jan 07 (17) Jan 06 (9) Jan 05 (18) Jan 04 (15) Jan 03 (19) Jan 02 (14) Jan 01 (6) Dec 31 (12) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (15) Dec 28 (11) Dec 27 (7) Dec 26 (10) Dec 25 (16) Dec 24 (13) Dec 23 (16) Dec 22 (11) Dec 21 (26) Dec 20 (28) Dec 19 (14) Dec 18 (25) Dec 17 (23) Dec 16 (19) Dec 15 (22) Dec 14 (38) Dec 13 (26) Dec 12 (25) Dec 11 (27) Dec 10 (31) Dec 09 (15) Dec 08 (30) Dec 07 (31) Dec 06 (27) Dec 05 (38) Dec 04 (25) Dec 03 (27) Dec 02 (15) Dec 01 (36) Nov 30 (23) Nov 29 (17) Nov 28 (23) Nov 27 (13) Nov 26 (16) Nov 25 (14) Nov 24 (18) Nov 23 (21) Nov 22 (21) Nov 21 (24) Nov 20 (20) Nov 19 (23) Nov 18 (17) Nov 17 (17) Nov 16 (34) Nov 15 (25) Nov 14 (17) Nov 13 (21) Nov 12 (18) Nov 11 (9) Nov 10 (15) Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (12) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (4) Oct 29 (1) Oct 01 (1) Jul 29 (1) May 11 (1) Jul 11 (1) A man wanted in an Oct. 16 fatal shooting on the North Side was arrested Friday outside the Laurel Wal-Mart by members of the Montana Violent Offender Task Force, according to Rod Ostermiller, chief deputy of the U.S. Marshals Service. Garrett Lee Crandell, 28, of Laurel, was arrested at about 5:30 p.m. after Yellowstone County Justice of the Peace David Carter issued an arrest warrant for deliberate homicide for the shooting death of Clinton Old Bull, 25, on Oct. 16. Crandell was unarmed and did not resist the arrest, which was a joint effort between the Marshals Service and the Laurel Police Department, after an investigation by Billings Police Department detectives, Ostermiller said. Billings Police went to 2316 Sixth Ave. N. at about 2 a.m. on Oct. 16, where they found Old Bull shot and lying in front of an apartment complex. He was later pronounced dead at St. Vincent Healthcare. Ostermiller said the warrant carried a $500,000 bond and included nationwide extradition. He said that Crandell is being held in the Yellowstone County Detention Facility. Today was Flora Duffs day. After a good swim in choppy cold water conditions that required wetsuits she exited the swim in the lead group of US athletes Sarah True and Katie Zaferes and then on the bike she made the brave decision to go out alone after the two couldnt stay with at the level she wanted. Advertisement Duffy would have hoped to have had some of the other good cyclists with her like GBs Helen Jenkins but a bad swim for Jenkins where she exited about 40 seconds behind Flora, meant she had to race solo. A very good technical cyclist she made the most of the technical parts of the bike course to extended the lead to a minute before the two chase groups united and started to rein her in, thanks in no part from a staggering performance from the USA triathlete 18 year old Taylor Knibb and Helen Jenkins. Duffy came out of T2 with a 25 seconds lead that she refused to give up on despite her tired legs. About about half-way through the run Helen Jenkins and Andrea Hewitt made a break from the chase group and extended their lead over the second chase group to 35 seconds but there was no danger of catching the Bermudan out in front. It was then a uphill sprint finish for Hewitt and Jenkins for silver and bronze with Hewitt just having the better and fresher legs. Vicky Holland finished about 37 seconds behind Jenkins in 4th. Non Stanford and Jodie Stimpson pulled out. I have been trying and trying to win one of these and today when I was out there on the front of the bike I had no idea how it was going to play out, said Duffy. But I got off and felt strong on the run and just ran as best as I could. But obviously it is a bit scary with Helen and Andrea chasing me. I managed to ride a bit more controlled today, I have learned from Leeds. It is so much more technical here and that is my strength, so I just tried to gain as much time as I could in the technical sections and then ride smooth for any straightaways. It was just how it worked out to ride solo. I came out of the swim with a few girls and I was hoping they would come up behind on my wheel but they didnt and then I was in no-mans land, so there was times where I was questioning what I was doing out there, but I just stuck to my plan and it worked out today. Advertisement I am really happy to get on the podium today. I made life hard for myself, I had a terrible swim, but I felt good on the bike and on the run I just kind of hung in there, but I am really to come away with a podium, said Jenkins. Flora is so strong at the moment. I am actually really happy for her to get the win, I mean obviously I would like to, but she deserves it the way she raced today. Native American girls face the highest rates of incarceration of any ethnic group. They are five times as likely as white girls to be sentenced to do time in a juvenile detention facility. Incarceration rates for Native American women are also disproportionately high. For you this is probably just a startling statistic. For me it hits very close to home. My daughter is in her 12th year of a 20-year sentence for drug possession. Its an all-too-common story on the reservation: our young people making serious mistakes with drugs and being sentenced to lengthy stretches in federal prison. When they go away, they leave behind their families and their culture. Sometimes they leave behind their own children, creating a cycle that is incredibly difficult to break. There is no doubt the drug epidemic on our reservations is one of the greatest challenges we face. But it has also become clear that the main thing weve done to combat that epidemic lock away the people who use drugs for decades has not accomplished what we need it to. Native Americans make up a disproportionate population in our prisons. Because crimes on the reservation are prosecuted in federal court, this is especially true for the percentage of Native Americans in federal prison. Part of the reason Native Americans are so over-represented when it comes to incarceration is due to the mandatory minimum laws that were enacted by Congress in the 1990's. The mandatory minimum movement was intended to bring more consistency to federal sentencing by restricting the discretion of judges and setting rules to guide the appropriate sentence for similar crimes. The majority of criminals behind bars today were sentenced under these mandatory minimum regulations. And most of those are incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses. But the high incarceration rates, especially among minority groups, that resulted from mandatory minimums have also resulted in prison overcrowding and have become very expensive. Those factors have prompted a real bi-partisan movement in Congress to reform judicial sentencing. Thats come in the form of a bill called the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015, which would reduce mandatory minimums for nonviolent drug offenders from 10 to five years, and give more discretion to judges in sentences for first-time offenders. To be clear, the bill would actually increase sentences for serious drug offenders those who are involved in production, distribution, or gang activity related to drug trafficking. We need to continue to be tough on the individuals who have brought the scourge of drugs to our communities. But I believe more leniency is needed for our young people who make the serious mistake of using drugs. The SRCA will allow judges to do what they should be doing judging each case and individuals on their unique circumstances. Sen. Steve Daines recently co-sponsored the SRCA, along with 14 Republican and 19 Democratic colleagues in the Senate. For that, I want to say a heartfelt thank you. With significant and growing bi-partisan support, there is a very good chance for the SRCA to pass into law this year. The only thing holding up a vote is Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. I hope youll join me in encouraging him to put this important measure on the schedule. We have to do something for the thousands of Native American women who are behind bars, away from their families and their communities. Drugs have decimated our reservations, but lengthy prison sentences have not stemmed their impact, and have arguably made the situation worse. Shirin Ebadi in the Wall Street Journal: In advance of a United Nations envoys visit to the country, Burmese officials in June instructed U.N. officials to refer to Burmas Muslim minority as people who believe in Islam in Rakhine state. This is the latest chapter in what has become a tragic campaign to reassure Buddhist nationalists that the government will continue to oppress the Rohingyaeven to the point of denying them their name and citizenship in Burma. Sadly, this campaign is being led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. After decades of defiant activism, house arrest and unimaginable personal sacrifice, Ms. Suu Kyi is finally in a position to bring democracy to her country. Ms. Suu Kyis party won Burmas national elections in November 2015, and this spring, in addition to being named foreign minister, she was appointed state counselor, the de facto prime minister. The new title effectively gives her the power to run Burma. Im sure it is a responsibility that my fellow Nobel peace laureatea woman who was under house arrest off and on for more than two decadestakes very seriously. Yet those of us who spoke up for Aung San Suu Kyi those many years when her human rights were being violatedincluding His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutuare deeply pained that she wont extend the same respect for human rights to Burmas more than one million Rohingya. Like thousands of human-rights defenders around the world, we have also called upon Burma to respect the rights of other political prisoners and minorities in Burmaincluding the Karen, the Shan and the Chin. Global human-rights organizations, along with courageous grass roots organizations in Burma, have documented how the Burmese military and state have suppressed these minorities through religious persecution, killings, rape, disappearances, torture and other crimes against humanity. More here. My sincerest appreciation and gratitude to three businesses in Billings for impeccable customer service and hospitality shown to a group of Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge riders! A rider and his passenger may have had a different story to tell when they get home if it weren't for Josh at Fastenal, Kevin at Air Controls, and Aaron at Beartooth Harley-Davidson. On June 23, I received a call from my husband, Jim Rider, #720, while en route to the Montana checkpoint. Another rider was experiencing difficulties with the tour pack on his motorcycle. A mechanical contractor and welder by trade, Jim had the knowledge to fix it but lacked the materials to do so. Jim called me in Angola, Ind., with a list of sheet metal pieces, bolts and other fasteners, and asked that I miraculously arrange for them to be delivered to the H-D dealer yet that day. My first call was to the Fastenal store where Josh answered the phone. I explained the predicament, and this first angel had all the fasteners and drill bits. Josh put me in contact with Air Controls, where Kevin, another guardian angel, was able to expeditiously fabricate the metal. Josh picked up the material from Air Controls and hand delivered everything to Aaron in the service department at Beartooth Harley-Davidson. I commend these businesses and their superior employees for their efforts. Karen Van Vlerah Angola, Ind. No truth to rumor that schools are putting litter boxes in bathrooms local LAS CRUCES A Dona Ana County jury was unable to reach a verdict Thursday evening in the trial for a former Las Cruces police officer accused of beating a man inside a holding cell in December 2014. Richard Garcia, 34, is charged with aggravated battery resulting in great bodily harm, a third-degree felony, in the alleged beating of Las Cruces resident Ross Flynn. Flynn had been detained in a holding cell at the Las Cruces Police Department on Dec. 23, 2014, when Garcia and another officer, Danny Salcido, used physical force on Flynn. The act was captured on surveillance video and shows Salcido slamming Flynn to the wall and Garcia kneeing him. Flynns skull was fractured in two places and sustained a brain hemorrhage. Garcia and Salcido were fired in May 2015. On Thursday, the fourth day of his trial in Las Cruces District Court, Garcia testified in his defense over a four-hour period. He was questioned by his attorney, Jess Lilley of Las Cruces, during direct examination. During his testimony, Garcia maintained that he had not intended to hurt Flynn and even spoke at length about his 11-year career as an officer at LCPD. He said he graduated from the police academy in 2004 and became a certified officer after completing the field training program. He also told jurors that he received numerous accolades over his career from LCPD and other agencies for outstanding work, and that he eventually became a field training officer. When his testimony turned to the events surrounding Flynns arrest on Dec. 23, 2014, Garcia told jurors that he arrived at the apartment complex on Foster Street after Flynn had been shot with a Taser. When I got out to the scene, everything was done and over, he said. Garcia said he was directed to take a woman who was detained at the same time as Flynn to LCPD. He was not involved with transporting Flynn to the police department, he said. It was unclear who transported Flynn, but, according to Garcias testimony, Salcido and a designated transport officer, Todd Tellez, had escorted Flynn into the holding cell. Garcia suggested that Salcido was largely responsible for supervising Flynn while he was in the holding cell, while he was responsible for the woman. But Garcia testified that after he placed the woman in a separate cell and cuffed her to the bench, he went to the area where Flynn was being held, leaving the woman in the cell unsupervised. Over the course of the trial, it was revealed that the officers violated several department polices when Flynn was placed in the cell. First, Flynn should have been immediately cuffed to the bench, like the woman. He wasnt. And since Salcido had placed Flynn in the cell, it would have been his responsibility to secure him to the bench, Garcia said. Flynn, however, was wearing a belly chain, a type of restraint secured around the waist and locked at the wrists, in front of the abdomen. The belly chain was placed on Flynn in order to accommodate his back pain, according to witness testimony. It was put on by Tellez, who was assisted by Garcia. Jurors later questioned Garcia about why he did not, at that point, secure Flynn to the bench as policy dictates. I thought Mr. Flynn would become compliant after the belly chain was put on, Garcia told jurors, adding that Flynn had been cooperative while the restraint was placed on him. During cross-examination, Garcia admitted that because he has a more senior rank than Salcido, he should have corrected Salcidos mistake by chaining Flynn to the bench. Garcia also maintained that when he entered the cell after Flynn kicked the door, his objective was to chain Flynn to the bench. He said he did not go into the cell to punish Flynn. When Garcia and Salcido entered the cell, they had on their duty belts, which hold weapons and is another violation of the holding cell policy. Officers must take off their belts before entering a cell for the exact reason Garcia said he became concerned during the incident with Flynn. Garcia said he believed Flynn was trying to grab Salcidos belt, so he started to knee-strike Flynn to distract him grabbing at Salcido and his gear. Later, Garcia testified that during the struggle, he felt resistance from Flynn and said he believed Salcido had unintentionally flung Flynn to the wall. After the incident, Garcia said he contacted central dispatch to send emergency medical personnel to LCPD to evaluate Flynn. When Lilley asked why he did took those steps, Garcia said: I wanted him to be checked out and make sure he was OK. When asked if he was happy that Flynn had been injured, Garcia said, No. During closing arguments, the issue of intent was central to the both the prosecution and defense. Pretty much everything the defendant did when he entered that police cell, after Mr. Flynn kicked the door, was intending to injure Ross Flynn, special prosecutor Jason Yamato, of the state Attorney Generals Office, said. Whipping around. The pushing to the wall. The knee strikes. All of it was designed to give Ross Flynn some sort of pain. Yamato told jurors that Garcia felt challenged by Flynn and his attitude, which had been described as obnoxious and disorderly. Garcia was going to shut Ross Flynn up and teach him a lesson and went inside the cell to injure Ross Flynn. But Lilley said the evidence shows otherwise. The evidence does not support an intent to injure, Lilley said, cautioning that jurors should not take Flynn for his word, especially claims of having certain medical conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder. Lilley called that self-diagnosis and pointed out that no expert had testified to Flynn having that condition as a result of the incident. Gesturing to Garcia, Lilley said, Dont take a self-diagnosis to convict that man of any crime. Lilley said jurors should also consider the entire picture, beginning with the incident at the apartment complex, where Flynn was shot with a Taser over allegations of noncompliance. He accused the prosecution of distancing itself from Flynn in that matter and noted that Flynn had been convicted of resisting arrest. Flynn has no respect for law enforcement whatsoever, Lilley said. The jury of 11 women and one man began deliberating around 6:30 p.m. The jurors were still deliberating at 11 p.m. Thursday evening. Jurors have the option of convicting Garcia of aggravated battery resulting in great bodily harm, or on aggravated battery not resulting in great bodily harm, a lesser-included offense. But they may also acquit him. If convicted as charged, Garcia could be sentenced up to three years in prison. Salcido, who is facing the same charge, will stand trial next month. Carlos Andres Lopez can be reached at 575-541-5453, carlopez@lcsun-news.com or @carlopez_los on Twitter. 2016 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) Visit the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) at www.lcsun-news.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. _____ TAIPEI, Taiwan Taiwans military said it mistakenly fired a supersonic anti-ship missile Friday that hit a fishing boat, killing one and injuring three people, on the day rival China was celebrating the Communist Partys anniversary. The 500-ton patrol boat Chinchiang was undergoing an inspection inside a military base when the Hsiung Feng III missile was fired and landed about 40 nautical miles (75 kilometers) away in waters off the islands of Penghu near Taiwan, the official Central News Agency said. The Defense Ministry said the missile penetrated a nearby Taiwanese fishing boat, killing its captain and injuring three crew members. A preliminary investigation showed that missile operators likely failed to follow proper procedures, CNA said. A full investigation was under way, while the navy sent a helicopter and boats to search for the missile, the report said. The firing coincided with Beijings celebrations of the 95th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Communist Party. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also the partys top leader, delivered a speech Friday calling for peaceful development of relations between Beijing and Taipei. Tensions across the strait have escalated since Tsai Ing-wen of a pro-independence party was elected president earlier this year. Tsai has refused to endorse the concept of a single Chinese nation, and Beijing cut off contact with Taiwans liaison office when she was inaugurated in May. Beijing sees Taiwan as a renegade province after a civil war, although the island has functioned as an independent country and does not acknowledge Beijings claim of authority over it. As the Middle East devours itself, leaving behind the worst human devastation since World War II, an international movement seeks to delegitimize Israel, the regions only intact society. Israel alone in the Mideast has an independent judiciary, a free press, universal health care and religious freedom. Yet the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, or BDS, has singled out the Jewish state as the worlds most pressing problem in the early 21st century. BDS is at once immoral and a threat to peace. Immoral, because it perpetuates the lie that Israel is solely or even primarily to blame for the absence of a Palestinian state rather than the repeated rejection by Palestinian leaders of peace plans presented over the decades. Immoral, too, because it ignores the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate education on which generations of Palestinians have been raised, an education that denies any place for a Jewish state in any borders. The BDS movement not only places the entire onus for the conflict on Israel, but it is counterproductive. The primary beneficiary of the attempt to turn Israel into a pariah state is the Israeli hard right. Far-right politicians have long argued that the world hates the Jewish state not because of what it does but because of what it is and therefore Israel should dispense with the niceties of democratic norms in its war against Palestinian terrorism, end the illusion of a negotiated agreement and stake its maximalist claim to the entirety of its ancient homeland. In intensifying the Israeli publics sense of siege and despair, while encouraging Palestinian intransigence, the international movement to isolate and punish Israel undermines a two-state solution. Like a majority of Israelis, I recognize that the ongoing occupation of the Palestinian people is a long-term threat to my countrys well-being. The occupation challenges the integrity of Israeli democracy and threatens its Jewish majority, which is demographically essential for maintaining the only corner of the planet where Jews are sovereign. For these reasons, a majority of Israelis, according to polls, support a two-state solution. But that same majority of moderate Israelis is deeply wary of the ultimate goal of the Palestinian leadership both the nationalist Fatah party and the Islamist militant group Hamas. As the Palestinian media broadcast on a daily basis, the goal isnt two states living in peace but a single Arab-majority state in which Jews would be at best a tolerated minority. And given the fate of minorities throughout the Middle East today, the likely scenario is far more nightmarish. The Palestinian national movement as a whole intends to destroy Jewish sovereignty through the right of return, the demand that descendants of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war a war of aggression initiated by Arab states against Israels creation move to the Jewish state, rather than to a future Palestinian state. That would create an Arab majority in Israel, undermining the states Jewish identity from within. Israel would collapse. Israelis across the political spectrum well understand the chilling implications of the right of return, even if much of the international community does not. The BDS movement whose website endorses the right of return as one of its three core goals promotes that vision of a world without Israel. BDS dupes those of its supporters who genuinely seek a two-state solution into believing that they are working for peace. Indeed the BDS website doesnt even mention two states for two peoples among its goals. BDS activists brand Israel as an illegitimate colonialist state, a European transplant in the Middle East. This historical distortion erases 4,000 years of intimate connection between the Jewish people and the land. It ignores another factor of demography: A majority of Israels Jews dont come from Europe, but from the Arab world, descendants of the nearly 1 million Jews in effect expelled from Arab countries where Jews lived for millennia. Israelis call them the forgotten refugees. As a means of applying economic pressure on Israel, BDS has failed. Despite the boycott, investments in Israel havent diminished. Israel is far too integrated into the global economy and the high-tech sector to be isolated. The real threat of BDS, though, is more subtle than economic pressure. BDS creates an atmosphere in which Israel is solely to blame for the failure of peace between Jews and Arabs, and it negates the very idea of a nation-state for the Jewish people. BDS takes one of the worlds most complex and heartbreaking conflicts between two traumatized peoples and turns it into a morality play between darkness and light. The movement to criminalize Israel is itself a crime. Rather than Israel, it is the BDS movement that must be exposed and ostracized for its bigotry and hatred. Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He is at work on a book about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He wrote this for the Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. At the end of his lengthy press conference Tuesday explaining and defending the House Republicans 800-page Benghazi report, Rep. Trey Gowdy got a little emotional. The South Carolina Republican who led the Houses two-year inquiry into the 2012 attack on Americas diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, choked up while declaring his belief that the families of the four Americans who died there deserve answers about what happened and why. Indeed, they do. Ambassador Chris Stevens and the other men who died in Benghazi Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were serving America honorably and courageously. They deserved better protection from our government when they were sent there. And, after the attack, they deserved a dignified, apolitical inquiry into what went wrong. But Americas leaders in both political parties have let them and their families down on both those counts. They were sent to a dangerously destabilized country with too little intelligence and with no military backup positioned to get there before they were overwhelmed. Marines in a key rescue unit changed into and out of their uniforms four times while waiting to deploy thats how muddled things were. In an ideal world, such revelations would spark decisive bipartisan action to make sure our diplomatic personnel overseas never find themselves in that situation again. But the sharp-elbowed Washington world is hardly an ideal one. The coin of the realm there is political leverage, not dreamy idealism. So, instead of our best, Benghazi touched off Washingtons worst. Instead of a patriotic search for the truth, we got Republicans and Democrats fighting over who could call witnesses before the House Benghazi panel. We got House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthys boastfully truthful gaffe on Fox News in September about how the GOPs inquiry was successfully denting Hillary Clintons poll numbers. We got a televised, 11-hour election-season grilling of Clinton that proved nothing so much as the fact that she and her Republican inquisitors in the House really, really hate each other. We got, in the end, dueling reports from Republicans and Democrats, both of which, despite Gowdys protestations to the contrary, were as much about political futures as they were about the firefight in Benghazi. Republicans fell short of their goal of finding actionable malfeasance by Clinton, but still painted an unflattering picture of a secretary of state who didnt protect the diplomats in her charge and who then told the American people the attack was a spontaneous protest over an anti-Muslim video, even as she privately confessed that it was an act of terror. Democrats, of course, say the public narrative changed as our internal intelligence evolved. They certainly didnt rise above political partisanship, either. Their counter-report somehow managed to mention Donald Trump 23 times while making the case that, despite the security lapses and intelligence flaws, the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton acted honorably. In his letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan announcing the reports completion, Gowdy correctly saluted the four slain Americans, praising the manner in which they conducted their lives and their extraordinary sense of service and devotion to our country and the ideals it stands for. They deserved better in life. Shame on Washington for reducing them to political pawns in death. Eric Frazier is a columnist for the Charlotte Observer. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Perhaps if I went to church more often, I would have realized it sooner. Next year is the 500th anniversary of when priest Martin Luther nailed 95 anti-papal theses to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany. That simple act from a 33-year-old man transformed Western civilization with the rise of Protestant Christianity. My interest was sparked by Andrew Pettegrees new popular history, Brand Luther: 1517, Printing and the Making of the Reformation. I learned a great deal I didnt know, particularly that Luther inspired an approach to schooling that deeply influenced through German, English, Scottish, Dutch and other immigrants how American children, for good or ill, are taught today. Luther set a course for how our schools relate to the economy, to elites, to genders and to religion. The great change he made in history stemmed from his own education. The son of a copper mine investor who could afford to send him to the university, Luther read so deeply and widely that he found, to his shock, that the Bible and thinkers such as St. Augustine did not sanction what the popes of his time were doing with their church. I grew up thinking Luther was a dour scold. That comes from the liberal denomination (United Church of Christ) in which I was raised. Some of Luthers flaws, such as his anti-Semitism, are impossible to defend. But he was also as I learned from Pettegree witty, creative, musical, kind and quite brave. He was also deeply interested in the lives of children, including the five he had with the resourceful runaway nun he married, Katharina von Bora. His major work on education was A Sermon on Keeping Children in School. It was written in 1530, a time when education was largely a prerogative of the church. Schools trained future priests, and the children of the political and economic elite. Pettegrees book describes how Luther revolutionized the infant publishing industry. He was born 44 years after Johannes Gutenberg introduced movable type in Europe. Five years after Luther posted his 95 theses excoriating the Catholic practice of raising money by promising less time in purgatory, he was Europes most published author, Pettegree said. That sermon on education was one of his best sellers. The sermon throbs with his amazement at the technological progress of his era, similar to the way people my age feel about the internet. Knowledge of all kinds is so abundant, what with so many books, and so much reading, Luther wrote. One can learn more in three years than used to be possible in twenty. Christianity could be saved only if there were more schools, he said. I would like to know where we are going to get pastors, schoolteachers and sacristans three years from now if we do nothing about this. Schools had to be public, he said, supported by the German princes who ruled the fractured Holy Roman Empire. He wanted education available to everyone. The next generation needed lessons in literature, history and science if they were to fulfill their destiny. He wanted to include girls. By the late 16th century, rural German schools were gender balanced, Pettegree reported, while Venetian students were nearly all male. Luthers passion for better schooling feels like the impatience of todays educational reformers. Many of his readers might have thought, as many do today, that Luther was pushing reform too hard. Many German parents preferred their children stay home to help make ends meet. But Luther didnt relent. He thought the world would soon end. He wanted his people educated so they would be ready for God. Our rush for better schools has different roots, but we live in a time like his, full of innovation, conflict and anxiety. Like him, we pray that our schools will prepare the next generation to handle all that. Last March, I wrote a column about a brother and sister diagnosed with cancer within days of each other. It was, to my mind, both horrible fluke and uplifting story because of the support the siblings gave each other in their fight against the same deadly foe. Some of you didnt pay as much attention to that because you focused on a photo of the brothers T-shirt, which featured a middle finger and a fanciful facsimile of the F-bomb, both aimed at cancer. Oh, the calls and letters that came in some offended by the T-shirt, others offended by the people who were offended by the T-shirt. Among the latter was Michael Snyder, an Albuquerque man for whom the shirt has personal significance. I find the word cancer offensive, not to mention I find having cancer offensive, he wrote. Snyder, who said he owns a similar T-shirt and I would note, we are not publishing that photo again! has chondrosarcoma, a rare cancer that affects the bones and joints and claims about 600 newly diagnosed patients each year in the United States. The 58-year-old studio engineering manager at KNME-TV has been fighting that cancer for 11 years, and it has been a brutal battle. Years ago, he lost most of his left leg and the use of his right hand, though, thankfully, he is left-handed and able to get around in a wheelchair. Six years ago, the cancer metastasized into his lungs. His doctors told him the battle was over. There were no more surgeries, no more treatments, no more hope left. But like the slogan on that T-shirt, Snyder and wife, Sarah Barton Snyder, had a few choice words for cancer. Sarah and I looked at each other and said not only No, but Hell no, he said. So we kept fighting. That fight took them this week to Washington, D.C., where they were among those invited to the Cancer Moonshot Summit, a daylong conversation headed by Vice President Joe Biden among cancer researchers, patients, providers, oncologists, drugmakers and advocates aimed at speeding up the rate of progress in cancer research. Its a conversation, they said, that is long overdue. It was the first time they had all these major stakeholders in one room listening to one another and learning how out of touch they are from each other and from the cancer patient, said Barton Snyder, a kindergarten teacher. It was like a wake-up call. The Snyders were there not only as people directly affected by cancer but as representatives of Lazarex Cancer Foundation, a national nonprofit that assists cancer patients in finding clinical trials, then helps pay to get them there. Basically, it is what saved my life and saved us from the poorhouse, Snyder said. We are a nation of millions with thousands of towns and cities and clinical trials in just 10 spots, but theres no insurance, no money to cover the cost of getting there or paying for a family member to get there. Travel costs as a hindrance to participating in clinical trials and possibly surviving cancer were an obstacle many in the groups the Snyders spoke with had not considered. They were just more surprised, I think, shocked, Barton Snyder said. Clinical trials are where the cures are. Never had they realized how hard it is for people like us to get to them. Add to that, they said, how hard it is to find the right clinical trial to fit the particular cancer. Information, they said, is not shared among research centers and hospitals. A publicly accessible database, ClinicalTrials.gov, which is run by the National Institutes of Health, is too cumbersome to easily navigate. To a big extent, youre on your own, Snyder said. We were fortunate enough to find a couple of doctors willing to help us, and then we had the foundation, but you have to be tenacious as hell. Moonshot was just the start of a bigger conversation. The Snyders said they met Dr. Cheryl Willman, director and CEO of the University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center, at the summit and spoke to her about helping her patients connect with of out-of-state clinical trials. (The New Mexico Cancer Care Alliance helps patients find clinical trials within the state.) They also said they hope to keep sharing their experiences, telling their story to those who are in the battle against cancer. (Ive included their email in an information box that accompanies this column.) So here is the next chapter in that story: Snyder is nearing his second year in his sixth clinical trial, this one at the University of Colorado Cancer Center Anschutz in Denver. Since he began the experimental drug treatment, his tumors have remained stable with almost no growth or movement and none of the usual side effects of cancer treatment such as hair loss and nausea. Except for the cancer, Im textbook healthy, he said. I hope they brought home souvenir T-shirts from Washington, D.C. I wonder what those shirts say. UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor. More information Lazarex Cancer Foundation: lazarex.org New Mexico Cancer Care Alliance: nmcca.org Cancer Moonshot: www.whitehouse.gov/CancerMoonshot To reach Michael and Sarah Barton Snyder, email mfsnyder@unm.edu SANTA FE The New Mexico Legislative Council Service released previously off-limits records Friday from an internal ethics investigation into former state Sen. Phil Griego, the latest twist in a case that promises to shed light on the Legislatures inner workings. The documents include the original ethics complaint although the identity of the complainant was redacted and correspondence between lawyers that shows a Senate investigative panel was poised to recommend that a formal hearing be held on Griegos conduct. Such a hearing was never held. Griego resigned from the Senate in March 2015 instead of facing possible disciplinary action. He was then charged with fraud, bribery and other criminal counts nearly a year later. The council service, the Legislatures administrative arm, released the ethics documents just days after Attorney General Hector Balderas office had denied a Journal request to obtain them, citing a confidential law enforcement record exemption in the states Inspection of Public Records Act. Previously, a district judge had ordered the Legislative Council Service to hand the ethics probe records over to the AGs Office, which is heading up the prosecution of Griego. In a Friday statement, Raul Burciaga, the council services director, said the records were released after consultation with attorneys and legislators about the judges ruling. The documents show the New Mexico Senates investigation into this matter was thorough and expeditious, Burciaga added. Meanwhile, an Albuquerque freelance reporter will have to testify in the states corruption case against Griego, but only to authenticate the contents of his published articles about Griegos actions and an audio recording of an interview with the disgraced senator. Peter St. Cyr had fought a subpoena to testify issued by the AGs Office, arguing that a state Supreme Court rule protects journalists from having to divulge much of their work. District Judge Brett Loveless ruled late Friday that any unpublished information St. Cyr gathered from his interviews with Griego is confidential and St. Cyr does not have to testify about it when he takes the stand on Tuesday, the first day of a preliminary hearing that scheduled to run four days between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The state has not established by a preponderance of the evidence that any exception applies to overcome the privilege in this case as it relates to the unpublished information, Loveless wrote in his ruling. St. Cyr wrote the first stories on Griegos real estate deal for the Santa Fe Reporter and put the audio recordings on social media as the stories first circulated. In addition to St. Cyr, the list of individuals that the AGs office has indicated that it intends to call to testify in the upcoming preliminary hearing includes several lawmakers Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, and Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle, R-Portales are both on the list and some legislative staffers. Griego, a Democrat from San Miguel County, has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges against him. If convicted of all 10 counts he is facing, Griego could face up to 28 years in prison and more than $40,000 in fines. Copyright 2016 Albuquerque Journal For years, John JT Trujillo harbored a simple wish to honor the nearly 400 New Mexicans who died in the Vietnam War. Having served in that conflict, the Angel Fire resident knows firsthand how poorly Vietnam veterans and even those who died there were received when they returned home from what has arguably been Americas most unpopular war. Instead of the applause, flag lines and cheers that greeted troops returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years, Vietnam veterans often came home to derision and taunts, as if serving their country were shameful. It was hard to see that, Trujillo, who spent three years in the Army one of them in combat in Vietnam said recently. Like many other Vietnam vets, he was eager to put the war, and anything that reminded him of it, behind him. After leaving the military, the former infantry platoon leader and company commander earned a degree at New Mexico Highlands University, and for the next several years he was a college administrator in New Mexico and Texas. He also worked for public schools in Taos and Santa Fe. He later worked in real estate and eventually started his own company, JT Realty, in northern New Mexico. Although he and his wife, Linda, were busy making a living and raising three children, he was never completely free of Vietnam. Just a few years ago Trujillo said hes not sure which year he and his family were watching Eagle Nests Fourth of July Parade when it struck him that there was no specific representation from the Vietnam War era, even though nearby Angel Fire is home to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park. That sort of caused a light bulb to go off in my mind, Trujillo said, and became the seed for a unique project to honor Vietnam veterans. Not long after that parade, Trujillo saw a Journal article about New Mexico being the first state in the nation to collect photos of all 398 of its servicemen who died in Vietnam, thanks in large part to the efforts of Vietnam veterans Art Canales of Santa Fe and Art DeVargas of Albuquerque, along with members of Chapter 996 of the Vietnam Veterans of America. Those efforts are part of a nationwide campaign by the Vietnam Veterans of America to collect and display photos of all U.S. service members who died in the war at the Vietnam Veterans Memorials planned $115 million Education Center in Washington, D.C. The center will complement the memorial wall, the famous black granite slabs etched with the names of the 58,315 who died in the war. Plans call for the photos to be displayed prominently in the Education Center on each servicemans birthday. After contacting Canales and getting the chapters OK to use the photos, Trujillo designed and built a parade float fashioned after the iconic Peace and Brotherhood Chapel at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park. The float also serves as an outdoor theater at which people can view a continuous video showing photos of all 398 New Mexico servicemen who died in Vietnam. During parades and showings, volunteers pass out pamphlets honoring the fallen. Collectively, Trujillo has named the project The Fallen. After its May 20 debut during a stopover of the annual Ride for the Wall in Angel Fire, the float will be featured Monday at Fourth of July parades in Red River at 10 a.m. and in Eagle Nest at 2 p.m. The tribute, Trujillo says, is his way of honoring those who served in Vietnam. You know, I didnt think about Vietnam for years. I sat idle and silent for many years. But its my time to step forward to do a little something to acknowledge those veterans, the 71-year-old veteran said. They deserve this. A state agency has backed away from a plan that would have singled out University of New Mexico Hospital for steeper cuts in Medicaid payments than those at other New Mexico hospitals. The New Mexico Human Services Department issued a revised schedule late Friday that cuts Medicaid payments at the same rate for all hospitals, both for inpatient and outpatient services. The final plan, which took effect Friday, cuts Medicaid payments for hospital inpatient services by 5 percent. The agencys original proposal in April would have cut payments for inpatient services by 8 percent for UNMH, and by 5 percent for other New Mexico hospitals. It also cuts Medicaid payments for outpatient services by 3 percent at all hospitals. The original proposal would have cut those payments by 5 percent for UNMH and by 3 percent for all other hospitals. In its revised plan, the Human Services Department said it backed away from the original plan in response to concerns expressed by tribal leaders and others about access to care for tribal members and others at UNMH due to the higher differential reduction. The revised plan also delays until Aug. 1 the agencys proposal to cut payments to doctors, dentists and other providers. HSD originally proposed cuts of 3 percent for dentists and 2 to 4 percent for doctors, also to take effect Friday. HSD said it delayed the cuts in response to public comments and to allow time for additional analysis of the fee schedule. HSDs proposal in April prompted written responses from hospital officials, health care providers and advocacy groups. Steve McKernan, CEO of University of New Mexico Hospital, said the states plan to single out UNMH for steeper cuts than other hospitals could have the effect of denying Medicaid patients access to specialty services offered only by UNMH, including Level 1 trauma care. The cuts would more severely constrict already limited scarce resources for specialty services, McKernan wrote in a letter to Human Services Secretary Brent Earnest. McKernan also raised a legal issue, saying that federal law requires states to ensure equal access for Medicaid patients as for other patients in the same area. Jeff Dye, president of the New Mexico Hospital Association, expressed similar concerns in a letter to HSD, saying that steeper cuts for UNMH would diminish the hospitals ability to serve Medicaid patients. New Mexico and federal authorities on Thursday debunked a report claiming that an Islamic refugee was apprehended in Luna County with gas pipeline plans in her possession. Judicial Watch a self-described conservative, nonpartisan educational foundation that publishes a news blog cited anonymous authorities and sources with firsthand knowledge in its June 15 report claiming that an undocumented, Middle Eastern woman was pulled over by a sheriffs deputy with pipeline plans for the Deming area on her person. It does not say an arrest was made. Neither the Luna County Sheriffs Office, the FBI nor Border Patrol could substantiate the report. Capt. Jose Martinez, spokesman for the Luna County Sheriffs Office: It didnt occur. I have no idea where it came from. It didnt happen here. Agent Joe Romero, spokesman for the Border Patrol: Nobody in any law enforcement agency had any record of anything even remotely close to that. There is nothing in that report that has any merit to it. FBI spokesman Frank Fisher in Albuquerque: We checked into the claims, and they are not substantiated. A spokeswoman for Judicial Watch, Jill Farrell, declined to make the unnamed authors of the report available for an interview. She said, We have highly placed sources and three reports from direct witnesses that live in the affected area. To back up that claim, Farrell forwarded an email from Zack Taylor, chairman of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers, directed to Members & Friends, saying, I have three reports from either direct witnesses and/or eye witnesses that live in the affected area that say that the Judicial Watch Story is accurate. Judicial Watch is the same organization that published a similarly debunked report a year ago in April claiming that an ISIS camp referring to the Islamic State terrorist group waging war in Syria and Iraq had been discovered in a poor neighborhood in Ciudad Juarez near the U.S. border, citing unnamed Mexican authorities. FBI spokesman Fisher also said that report was unsubstantiated. Attorneys suing the state Human Services Department on behalf of clients whose food benefits were allegedly improperly denied or delayed want a judge to unseal the departments own investigation conducted by the HSD Office of Inspector General. The report was submitted to the court under seal, with the permission of U.S. Magistrate Judge Carmen Garza, on Tuesday and is to be the subject of a hearing next week in Las Cruces. Workers in the Income Support Division testified at previous hearings that they were instructed to falsify records by adding assets that applicants didnt have, and supervisors have invoked Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination during cross-examination. The Center on Law and Poverty says in its motion that the party seeking to seal records must articulate a real and substantial interest that justifies depriving the public of access. In the class action lawsuit involving administration of the food and nutrition program, which was filed in 1988, that burden has not been met, the motion says, and court actions are of great public concern, given New Mexicos consistently high ranking in hunger rates nationwide. The report includes brief summaries of 17 interviews with lower-level employees, three of whom have already testified, and 38 attachments with longer interviews. The report makes no conclusions, and no individual or entity is identified as potentially criminally liable, according to the motion. ARTESIA, N.M. Two New Mexico lawmakers are hoping conversations with ranchers will convince the U.S. Forest Service to rethink federal water restrictions. U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce and state Rep. Jim Townsend, both Republicans, met with Forest Service representatives and ranchers in Cloudcroft this week about water access and its impact on the economy. Im cautiously optimistic about the outcome from it all, Pearce said. I think we will be able to reach an agreement where the ranchers will be given enough flexibility to do their work and stay in business, and also preserve the habitat. Both are supporting ranchers in an ongoing dispute over water restrictions on national forest lands. Townsend, who represents Artesia, recently joined several legislators from the area in drafting a letter directed at Gov. Susana Martinez. In it, the lawmakers call on Martinez and the state engineer to be more aggressive in protecting New Mexicos water rights from federal government overreach. Townsend said water access is key to the agriculture industry, which contributes about $4 billion to New Mexicos economy each year. The issue reached a tipping point with recent closures of parts of Lincoln National Forest to protect the habitat of the endangered New Mexico meadow jumping mouse, Townsend told the Artesia Daily Press (http://bit.ly/29plodu ). If your water rights arent valid and theyre not worth anything, we have real problems. And if the federal government can just come in and take peoples water away without due process, we have real problems in New Mexico, Townsend said. The U.S. Forest Service has repeatedly defended its actions, saying it has responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act to ensure the survival of the rodent. Agency officials reiterated during the meeting Thursday that there had to be limits on livestock and wildlife traffic to allow the mouse species to recover. But they also agreed to seek out a compromise with ranchers. In fact, Pearce said the Forest Service has already agreed to reposition the location of some fences in the coming days. ___ Information from: Artesia Daily Press, http://www.artesianews.com OUTSIDE MONARCH Lily Robertsons dad is deployed in Kuwait as a loadmaster serving in the Air Force. Hes been gone since May and should be home sometime next month. Its hard not knowing exactly when he'll return, but this week was easier than most for the 14-year-old who has been at a camp for family members of Montana Army National Guard members since Sunday. This is a huge help, she said, sitting on the sunny steps of her camp cabin. It gets my mind off the sadness of it. I can hang out with my friends, and we can talk about it and just have fun. This year about 80 kids, 12 with parents deployed like Lilys dad, gathered at Camp Runnamucka in the Little Belt Mountains to do all sorts of summer camp activities learning archery, making tie blankets and performing skits and to connect with their peers who understand what its like to have a parent, sibling or other family member serving somewhere that could be far away and dangerous. Chants about keeping elbows off the table burst out periodically during lunch, where camp volunteer and Guard member Caressa Hewitt served up sandwiches. Hewitt had three of her own children at the camp, along with five other kids from her family. She has spent long periods of time away from her children while on temporary assignment duty all over the country and knows well the struggles of being in a military family; her father served in the Air Force. Kids sacrifice time with parents and parents sacrifice time with kids, she said after offering up submarine sandwiches. This provides support to get connected with other kids. Lily said this is her dads third deployment and it doesnt get any easier, but as a junior counselor this year she was having fun helping other kids make friends and learn new skills. On Wednesday afternoon, campers watched as two helicopters brought in Montana Army National Guard Adjutant General Matt Quinn and Lisa Bullock, the states first lady. Gathered under a big picnic shelter that provided plenty of shade but couldnt stop the horse flies, Quinn and Bullock talked to the kids about what the camp is for and thanked them for their sacrifices. Its harder for the people left behind than those who deploy, Quinn told the kids. He was speaking from experience, having gone through his own sons deployment. I know what its like as a family to have somebody deploy, he said. I understand that. I think thats the harder job. The angst and worry resides here underneath this dome. He encouraged the kids to connect with their peers at the camp, since thats not something thats always easy to do back in their hometowns. Share what youre thinking, share your thoughts. Thats what this togetherness is all about, he said. Here you can talk to someone else and say Did you ever worry, did you ever wonder whats going on? Bullock emphasized that guard families often live in anonymity, which can make it hard for kids to find someone to talk to about their feelings. No one knows these people. Anonymity is what underscores what type of servants they are. They are serving our country but others never know them, Bullock said. They dont need accolades, they dont need to be recognized. They serve because their calling is to serve. Camp director Sara Cease said about 140 kids applied to camp this year. Preference is given to children whose parents are deployed or will deploy within a year or have been deployed in the last year. Most staff are volunteers and service members. Every year theres a different theme this year its "Star Wars" and kids are talking a lot about what kind of force military kids have. Every night they hunt the good stuff, which means they talk about what positives things happen in their days. Its an amazing opportunity for them to get together, Cease said. Quinn said the camp is important to him because it puts the focus on the family of Guard members. I dont know that we thank the family members enough. ein Google-Unternehmen Google-Dienste anzubieten und zu betreiben Ausfalle zu prufen und Manahmen gegen Spam, Betrug und Missbrauch zu ergreifen Daten zu Zielgruppeninteraktionen und Websitestatistiken zu erheben. Mit den gewonnenen Informationen mochten wir verstehen, wie unsere Dienste verwendet werden, und die Qualitat dieser Dienste verbessern. neue Dienste zu entwickeln und zu verbessern Werbung auszuliefern und ihre Wirkung zu messen personalisierte Inhalte anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen personalisierte Werbung anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen Wenn Sie Alle ablehnen auswahlen, verwenden wir Cookies nicht fur diese zusatzlichen Zwecke. Nicht personalisierte Inhalte und Werbung werden u. a. von Inhalten, die Sie sich gerade ansehen, und Ihrem Standort beeinflusst (welche Werbung Sie sehen, basiert auf Ihrem ungefahren Standort). Personalisierte Inhalte und Werbung konnen auch Videoempfehlungen, eine individuelle YouTube-Startseite und individuelle Werbung enthalten, die auf fruheren Aktivitaten wie auf YouTube angesehenen Videos und Suchanfragen auf YouTube beruhen. Sofern relevant, verwenden wir Cookies und Daten auerdem, um Inhalte und Werbung altersgerecht zu gestalten. Wir verwenden Cookies und Daten, umWenn Sie Alle akzeptieren auswahlen, verwenden wir Cookies und Daten auch, umWahlen Sie Weitere Optionen aus, um sich zusatzliche Informationen anzusehen, einschlielich Details zum Verwalten Ihrer Datenschutzeinstellungen. Sie konnen auch jederzeit g.co/privacytools besuchen. Visualizing threats: A decade of threat modeling Dynamic explosions, missile launches and air-to-air dogfights are just a few animations the National Air and Space Intelligence Center threat visualization team create to help communicate potential threats in the world. For the past decade, these types of animations have allowed policymakers at all levels of government to watch a video clip, rather than read a stack of intelligence reports filled with military jargon and technical data. Seeing really is believing when it comes to our job, said Arthur Luke, a contractor from Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. We explain important dangers using visual communications. Since opening their doors in July 2006, the five-person shop -- a mix of civilians and contractors -- has created more than 250 visualizations for customers throughout the Air Force and intelligence community. When an analyst requests a product, we must build off of information in the intelligence analytic report, said team member Greg Sundra. Its the creativity of each individual in this office that builds off that foundation to communicate a critical message which makes our work so special. Most of the products have a security classification and cannot be seen by the general public, but that doesnt stop the team from striving for perfection. I always think something can be improved in our work; its never good enough, said team member Justin Weisbarth, a contractor from Ball Aerospace. Each person on the team has particular skill sets and we use those capabilities to always give the customer greater than what they are asking for. The threat visualization team has more than 100 years of combined experience, with most of their backgrounds including productions related to freelance movies, 2-D graphics, logos and video special effects. According to Steve Vanzant, the NASIC threat visualization team leader, he works with the best of the best and has people he can trust with anything. I have the jokester, the straight-man, the calm soul and the button-pusher, Vanzant said. The diversity of thought helps the creative process, plus all those characters make it enjoyable to come to work. The teams next project includes working with the Air Force Institute of Technology to allow visualization specialists across the intelligence community to use and share 3-D models, textures and other animation elements. Botswana closes border, deploys military and severs ties with Zimbabwe South Africa to follow suit The Botswana government has with effect from Thursday sealed off its Botswana-Zimbabwe border. Zimbabwe immigration sources in Plumtree town confirmed the tough decision. A group of ABVP and Bajrang Dal activists in Bihars Begusarai district washed the statue of renowned poet Dinkar with gangajal on Friday to protest against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, who garlanded and paid floral tributes there. ABVP and Bajrang Dal members also organized a hawan puja and sprinkled gangjal on the ground in Begusarai where Kanhaiya Kumar addressed a public meeting of Communist Party of India on Thursday. ABVP activists shouted slogans that the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union president, who has been charged with sedition , has made this ground impure by his presence. However,after a long time, there is a festive mood in Bihat village in Begusarai on Friday as a famous son of the soil is visiting his home for first time after arrested on the charge of sedition and later released on the bail. Kanhaiyas parents, other family members, relatives, neighbours and villagers have been celebrating Kanhaiyas visit to his native village. It is time of celeberation not only for us but entire village as Kanhaiya has finally arrived after a long wait, said Kanhaiyas father Jaishankar Singh, who is in his early 60s and paralysed on one side of his body. Kanhaiya was welcomed by villagers when he arrived at his native village on Thursday night. Kanhaiyas mother Meena Devi is not hiding her happiness after her son is at home. I am cooking some special desi-dishes for him, said Meena, an angaanwadi worker who earns Rs 3,000 a month. According to her, Kanhaiya will also attend a marriage of a family member during his two day stay in the village. In view of threat perception to Kanhaiya, tough security arrangements have been made in Bihat and around his home during his stay, district police official Ranjit Kumar Mishra said. In April, Kanhaiya visited Patna but did not visit his native village during two-day visit. Kanhaiya arrived in Patna on Wednesday and participated in Pratirodh march here to support the ongoing agitation at college of arts and crafts here. Kanhaiya also addressed a public meeting of CPI in Begusarai on Thursday,where he was given rousing welcome. Kanhaiya, who was arrested on the charge of sedition in February in connection with an event on JNU campus against hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised, was released on bail in March. But we did not find the claim that polio was simply poisoning by pesticides alone to be persuasive. The strong versions of both the virus theory and the pesticide theory that it was entirely one or the other are too simple to explain the pattern of evidence. The strong viral theory cant explain the sudden emergence of poliomyelitis; the strong pesticide theory cant explain the sudden protective effect of poliovirus vaccinations. Rather, we propose that poliomyelitis outbreaks are man-made events that result from the synergy of microbe and toxin. We suggested that a number of other illnesses may follow a similar pattern in which microbes and metals interact, including, in some instances, autism. So the idea that an environmental insult whether a needle stick or surgery or a toxic metals exposure could be at work in outbreaks of poliomyelitis intrigued us. That really got our attention. In our research for The Age of Autism, we investigated a paralytic illness we believe resulted from an unrecognized interaction between a toxin and a microbe. Called general paralysis of the insane, or GPI, it was a gruesome and universally fatal outcome in a percentage of people infected years earlier with the syphilis bacteria. We proposed that a manmade mercury compound -- ironically used to treat syphilis -- allowed syphilis to gain entrance to the brain. When penicillin was developed in the 1940s and actually killed syphilis infections, GPI disappeared because one of the two requirements for the illness the microbe was destroyed. We began to look at the poliomyelitis literature and found that another and much more comprehensive environmental theory of the disease had been put forward almost immediately after the early outbreaks, although it never gained mainstream attention. This theory proposed that what is called polio is not caused by a virus at all, but by poisoning from pesticides. In this theory, lead arsenate triggered the early clusters, and DDT kicked off the large outbreaks after World War II. (The pesticide theory has been championed in recent years by Jim West [vii] and by Janine Roberts [viii] .) Such cases of provocation paralysis, we learned, occurred in Eastern Europe when antibiotics were excessively administered by injection; this practice led to multiple cases of poliomyelitis. [v] Bulbar polio of the throat and respiratory system was recognized as more common after tonsillectomies, again because nerve endings had been exposed. [vi] Outbreaks, then, can unquestionably occur as a result of an environmental injury, in these instances either excessive injection or surgery that led to peripheral nerve damage, in the presence of poliovirus infection. Our attention was drawn to polio during our autism research when a virologist mentioned, in passing, that poliomyelitis could be triggered in some instances by injections. Called provocation poliomyelitis, [iv] this can happen when a needle stick punctures a nerve in the peripheral nervous system. An active poliovirus infection typically, in a child exposed to the virus for the first time and not yet immune -- can gain access to the nervous system through a process called retrograde axonal transport, traveling back to the spinal column and triggering the dreaded paralytic form, poliomyelitis. While we have not written about polio, we have seen this pattern before. In our book, The Age of Autism Mercury, Medicine, and a Man-made Epidemic, we argued that something happened in the 1930s to launch The Age of Autism. [iii] We proposed it was the commercialization of ethyl mercury compounds for use in pesticides seed disinfectants and lumber preservatives and in vaccinations; we offered evidence of those inventions in the family backgrounds of the first autism cases identified in the medical literature, in 1943. Similarly, we proposed that the sharp rise in autism cases beginning around 1990 tracks with the federal government recommending several more mercury-containing shots. There is little question that the poliovirus was endemic in humans for millennia; there may even have been isolated cases of poliomyelitis for much of that period. Yet the poliovirus did not trigger widespread outbreaks of poliomyelitis. Setting aside for now the 1841 Louisiana outbreak, reported retrospectively, something seems to have happened around 1890 to launch The Age of Polio in the United States. And something else must have changed around the end of World War II to create the large modern epidemics seared into the minds of older Americans, thousands of whom are poliomyelitis survivors and almost all of whom know someone who was afflicted. What is most remarkable about this list is that so few outbreaks of paralytic polio were recorded anywhere in the world before the latter 19 th century. Poliomyelitis is considered an ancient scourge, but the evidence supporting that belief is quite threadbare. An oft-cited Egyptian drawing depicts a priest with a withered leg that could have stemmed from paralytic polio, but for most of recorded history there were few observations of the sudden-onset fever and paralysis in infants that characterizes the disease. The earliest well-documented case of infantile paralysis in an individual is widely considered to be Sir Walter Scott, afflicted as an infant in 1773. [ii] The first recorded U.S. outbreak was in 1841 in West Feliciana, Louisiana (10 cases, no deaths). There was a half-century gap until the next cluster, in 1893 in Boston (26 cases, no deaths). Then, in 1894, came what is widely regarded as the first major epidemic, in Rutland and Proctor, Vermont (132 cases, 18 deaths). Thirty more outbreaks from such seemingly disparate locations as Oceana County, Michigan, and Californias Napa Valley -- were reported in the United States through 1909. The worst by far was New York in 1907, with 2,500 cases and a five percent mortality rate, a harbinger of the 1916 epidemic in the Northeast that killed 2,000 in New York City alone. [i] But in 1 or 2 in 100 cases, the virus somehow gets past multiple defenses and into the nervous system, where it finds its way to the anterior horn cells at the top front of the spinal column. There, it preferentially attacks the gray-colored motor neurons (polio means gray in Greek) and causes inflammation of the protective myelin sheath (myelitis). This interferes with nerve signals to the muscles and can lead to temporary or permanent paralysis of the limbs and the respiratory system. A small number of people who contract poliomyelitis -- on the order of 1 percent -- die. There is a profound distinction between poliovirus an enterovirus, one that enters through the mouth and takes up residence in the GI tract and bloodstream and poliomyelitis, the paralytic form of the illness. In the vast majority of cases, the virus causes either a minor illness or an inapparent infection. Polio was a strange illness, never fully understood even by those who devoted their lives to studying and subduing it. It was a summer plague, coming on in late spring and all but vanishing in the fall. Many thought contagion had something to do with water, and Americans kept their children away from swimming pools in droves. This alternative narrative makes better sense of the natural history of polio, and it resolves a number of anomalies that remain to this day. It suggests why poliomyelitis outbreaks emerged, evolved, and exploded the way they did; it probably solves, for the first time, the enduring riddle of why Franklin D. Roosevelt was afflicted 90 years ago this summer on Campobello Island; and it may mean todays billion-dollar-a-year eradication effort is misguided, if not downright quixotic. The reality, we believe, is that the virus itself was just half the epidemic equation -- necessary but not sufficient to create The Age of Polio. Outbreaks were not caused solely by poliovirus the microbe was an ancient and heretofore harmless intestinal bug -- but by its interaction with a new toxin, most often innovative pesticides used to treat fruits and vegetables. But based on our research over the past two years, we believe this narrative is wrong and wrong for reasons that go beyond mere historical interest. The misunderstanding of polio has warped the public health response to modern illnesses in ways that actually make them harder to prevent, control, and treat. Polio is the iconic epidemic, its conquest one of medicines heroic dramas. The narrative is by now familiar: Random, inexplicable outbreaks paralyzed and killed thousands of infants and children and struck raw terror into 20 th century parents, triggering a worldwide race to identify the virus and develop a vaccine. Success ushered in the triumphant era of mass vaccination. Now polios last hideouts amid the poorest of the poor in Asia and Africa are under relentless siege by, among others, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Eradication is just a matter of time, and many more illnesses will soon meet the same fate. (Managing Editor's Note: Below is the 7 part series in full for you to share, FB, Tweet. Thank you.) By Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill -- A threshold question one that requires an answer for our argument to make sense concerns what scientists call biological plausibility. What is the mechanism by which the virus and a toxin could cause such damage? Well look at the particular properties of lead and arsenate shortly, but our fundamental idea is that both the poliovirus and the pesticide enter the body by the same route -- they are ingested -- and both end up in the stomach. There, the toxin could damage the stomach lining in such a way that the virus gains access to peripheral nerves. This kind of virus-toxin interaction (perhaps with arsenic or lead acting alone as the toxin) took place sporadically before 1890 and increased dramatically, we propose, with the invention of more potent insecticides like lead arsenate. With the advent of DDT, the interaction became even more dangerous, dramatically increasing the number of cases. The idea that toxins have played any role in poliomyelitis outbreaks is not widely accepted, to say the least. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1995 book, Polio, Peter Oshinsky dismisses it in a sentence: By 1952, the peak year of the epidemic, the search for answers had grown so desperate that a few blamed the dumping of poisons into the environment, especially the pesticide DDT, he writes.[ix] Yet on the very next page, Oshinsky describes a farm family, frantic about the epidemic sweeping Iowa that awful summer. The parents tested the well water it was fine and used extra DDT to drive away flies. Still, nine of their 11 children were affected, two of them paralyzed. The family had done everything they were told to do, Oshinsky writes, everything they could. Why had it happened to them? Why, indeed? The search for an answer begins in the 1850s in Medford, Massachusetts. 2. A Gypsy Moth Flaps Its Wings. Etienne Leopold Trouvelot arrived in the United States from France in the late 1850s and settled into his brand new house at 27 Myrtle Street in Medford, a suburb of Boston. A self-taught scientist and later an astronomer affiliated with Harvard, his interest alighted first on insects, and he turned the land adjoining his home into a virtual boarding house for bugs. To contain his hordes of larvae he constructed a stupendous barricade to encircle his grounds a wooden fence eight feet high that encompassed his full five acres of shrubs and small trees, writes author Robert J. Spear. Netting was stretched from the perimeter of the fences across the trees and was supported in the middle on posts, making it possible for Trouvelot to walk upright through his specialized insectary.[x] A decade later, he acquired a handful of gypsy moths, probably on a trip back to France there were none in the United States. What happened next can be deduced from the title of Spears book, The Great Gypsy Moth War. Inevitably, insects escaped, not least because birds continually pecked their way into what they viewed as a very large diner. The gypsy moths did not make their presence known outside the stupendous barricade for about a decade, but when they did, the results were apocalyptic. Lacking natural predators, they denuded trees especially fruit trees in what seemed like a single collective gulp. Then they crawled onward and upward. Citizens could only stare in disbelief as the dirt streets became carpeted with millions of larvae across Myrtle Street, writes Spear, turning its surface black with the bodies of fast-moving caterpillars. Horrified residents combed gypsy moth larvae out of their hair, shoveled them off the steps, stomped them underfoot and burned huge clusters in noxious kerosene fires. But humans were simply outmatched. The Hellstrom Chronicles, the 1970s movie that suggested insects would inherit the earth, was coming alive in suburban Boston. Even professional bug-killers were defenseless against the new arrival Paris Green and London Purple, two state-of-theart arsenic compounds that were potent against most pests, didnt work at all. To some, it appeared that the food supply of the United States was at imminent risk. The state put together a Gypsy Moth Commission with an urgent mandate: Kill the bugs dead. Fortunately or so it seemed a scientist working for the commission quickly found a solution. Adding lead to arsenic proved lethal to the larvae, and the new compound was sprayed on trees in and around Boston starting in 1893. It quickly proved its value against not just gypsy moths but all manner of agricultural pests. In fact, it worked better against codling moths, the source of the proverbial worm in the apple. In the case of insects which do not readily yield to Paris Green, a different substance, used with great success by the Gypsy Moth Commission, with which it originated, may be applied, wrote George H. Perkins, state entomologist of Vermont in his annual report for 1893, published in early 1894. This is arsenate of lead; sodic arsenate 29.93%, lead acetate 70.07%, are mixed in water, from which arsenate of lead is soon formed.[xi] -- Something else of note happened in 1893 in the Boston area. Two doctors used to seeing sporadic cases of paralysis in infants became concerned when the small caseload suddenly increased, to 23. There had only been six in the same September-November time span the year before. Is Acute Poliomyelitis Unusually Prevalent This Season? asked Drs. James J. Putnam and Edward Wyllys Taylor in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal for November 23, 1893.[xii] It would not have seemed worthwhile to report these few observations had it not been that the number of cases observed at the Massachusetts General Hospital in September and October of this year is decidedly larger than usual, they wrote. (The comment shows that isolated cases of paralysis were not unusual in Boston, where the Gypsy Moth War had been raging since 1890. It was the number and timing that drew their attention.) While the doctors noted the time of year, they did not notice that September and October were apple-harvesting season. They did ask other physicians who have seen these interesting cases, or may see them in future, to send brief records. The future came quickly. Within seven months, Vermont where George H. Perkins had given the formula for lead arsenate in his annual report was hit hard. The first major polio outbreak to be recognized in the United States did not occur until 1894, writes well-known vaccine developer Samuel Katz. It came in Rutland, Vermont, for reasons I need an epidemiologist to explain to me. There had been scattered individual cases prior to that date, but this was the first recorded outbreak resulting in 18 deaths and 32 individuals with residual paralysis among a total of 132 cases.[xiii] The outbreak was described in a classic report by Dr. C.S. Caverly, a Rutland physician and president of the Vermont Board of Health.[xiv] During the month of June, 1894, there appeared in a portion of the valley of the Otter Creek, in the State of Vermont, an epidemic of nervous disease, in which the distinctive and most common symptom was paralysis. Caverly didnt know what to make of it, but he noted that the cases tended to cluster along Otter Creek and its tributaries. In 1896, in a follow-up report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Caverly noted something strange: During this epidemic and in the same geographical area, an acute nervous disease, paralytic in its nature, affected domestic animals. Horses, dogs and fowls died with these symptoms. A horse died paralyzed in the hind legs, a fowl was paralyzed in its legs and wings. In the horse, the spinal cord showed atrophy of the anterior nerve root; in the fowl, an acute poliomyelitis of the lumbar portion of the cord ...[xv] -- After the Boston and Rutland outbreaks, poliomyelitis clusters were reported in the United States almost every year. Earlier, we mentioned the 33 U.S. outbreaks recorded before 1910. Returning to that list, there appears to be an overlooked association with intensive commercial fruit and vegetable growing. After its introduction in 1893, lead arsenate was soon used on apples, apricots, asparagus, avocados, blackberries, blueberries (huckleberries), boysenberries, celery, cherries, citrus (in Florida), cranberries, currants, dewberries, eggplant, gooseberries, grapes, loganberries, mangoes, nectarines, peaches, pears, peppers, plums, quinces, raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes and youngberries.[xvi] With that in mind, consider these pre-1910 outbreaks: --Boston, 1893. The year lead arsenate was first used there or anywhere. --Rutland, Vermont, 1894. The year the state entomologist gave the formula for making it. -- Cherryfield, Maine, 1896. Commercial blueberry-producing center. -- San Francisco and the Napa Valley, 1896. Home to vineyards and many other crops. -- Dutchess County and Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 1899. Agriculture and especially orchards the countys Web site features a stylized apple. -- San Joaquin Valley, California, 1899. The nations Salad Bowl. -- San Francisco and vicinity, 1901. A reprise of 1896. -- Galesville, Wisconsin, 1907. Apples again. The Chamber of Commerce logo features an apple, and the annual Apple Affair is held the first Saturday in October. Orchards from the area set up stands on the square where visitors can purchase apples and apple treats served up by local growers. Apple pie, apple slices, caramel apples, Apple Normandy, Queen's Apple, apple cider, apple juice -- if it's apple, you'll find it here. -- Oceana County, Michigan, 1907. Self-proclaimed Asparagus Capital of the World, the largest asparagus producer in Michigan and one of the largest in the nation. Home to the National Asparagus Festival held the second week of June. (One of us, born in Chicago in June 1952, spent summers in Pentwater, in Oceana County. His parents wanted to get their children away from the risk of polio in the big city.) These links, we suggest, are far from random, pointing instead to locations where circulating poliovirus strains might combine with the growing use of the new lead arsenate insecticide to disastrous effect. Other locations point more generally to agriculture Central Illinois in 1905, the states of Iowa and Wisconsin in 1908, rural locations in Pennsylvania in 1907 and 1908 or to population centers where produce would be shipped particularly New York City in 1907, a veritable fresh fruit and vegetable market to this day. -- So the convergence of time and place in the early natural history of poliomyelitis outbreaks raises intriguing questions. But what can we say about the toxin itself and its relation to features of poliomyelitis? We can say: Lead and arsenic can kill and paralyze humans. Whether ingested or inhaled, several metals have long been recognized as hazards in the workplace and for miners; in Roman times, work in mercury mines was so lethal that only slaves and prisoners were sent into them. More recently, lead was removed from gasoline and paint because both inhalation and ingestion can stunt the mental development of children; arsenic has been banned from medicine and agricultural use in the United States; small amounts in apple juice, made from apples grown in China, triggered a national controversy this month. That arsenic can produce paralysis was already known in the 14th century, begins the monograph On Arsenical Paralysis, written in 1893 by S.E. Henschen in Sweden. Since then many similar cases have been observed; and at present there are more than 150 cases of arsenical paralysis mentioned in the literature.[xvii] The cases, he said, were comparatively few, and most recovered. He described the case of Maja Lisa Blomster, age 49, who in 1883 took a white tasteless powder on the advice of a traveler who said it would help her epilepsy. After that the patient experienced a prickly sensation or slight pains in the inside of the hands and soles of the feet, and when she walked she thought she felt something like needles between her feet and the floor. The following morning she noticed on waking that the feet refused to do service. She tried in vain to bend and stretch out the foot joints and on trying to stand and walk the feet turned on the sides. Lead is even more toxic to humans. The ancients were unquestionably aware of the dangerous character of lead and knew that it was poisonous when taken internally, wrote H.A. Waldron in Lead Poisoning in the Ancient World.[xviii] The most toxic sources appeared to be lead drinking goblets. And yet shades of mistakes and misjudgments to come the Romans and Greeks continued to expose themselves to the effects of a metal they knew to be harmful through their food and drink. In the seventh century, Paul of Aegina gave the first account of an epidemic of lead colic he described as having taken its rise in the country of Italy, but raging also in many other regions of the Roman empire, like a pestilential contagion, which in many cases terminates in epilepsy, but in others in paralysis of the extremities. of the paralytics the most recovered, as their complaint proved a critical metastasis of the cause of the disorder. In Lead and Lead Poisoning in Antiquity, Jerome R. Nriagu of Environment Canada writes literary classics sparkle with passages on lead poisoning, reflecting, no doubt, the attempts by men of letters to deal with problems of their time.[xix] In The Uncommercial Traveler, Charles Dickens describes a woman who worked in the lead mills because she had no alternative but desperate poverty. What could she do? Better be ulcerated and paralyzed for eighteen pence a day, while it lasted, than see the children starve. In the Book of Minerals, Albertus Magnus wrote in 1262 that care must also be taken lest it [lead] cause paralysis of the lower limbs, and unconsciousness. This, then, is the nature of lead in its constitution and effects. And these, then, were the compounds chemists were mixing beginning in 1893 in Boston. Is it any wonder that Dr. Putnam raised the question the same year whether infantile paralysis was unusually common this season? In fact, just two years before, a speech Putnam gave to the Massachusetts Medical Society was described in a British Medical Journal article titled, The Injuriousness of Arsenic as a Domestic Poison.[xx] Putnam points out that paralysis is only the final and gross symptom of a neuritis which may have been going on for a long time. Arsenic was hard to avoid, he added, because it was still widely used in medicine (a book about the ubiquity of arsenic during the era is titled The Arsenic Century). Lead arsenate can paralyze and kill animals that ingest it. In January 1920, Veterinary Times published an article by J.W. Kalkus, head of Veterinary Science at the State College of Washington Agricultural Experiment Station, titled Orchard Horse Disease. This revealing piece begins: The writer recently had an opportunity of making an investigation of a disease which has been causing considerable loss among horses in certain sections of Washington.[xxi] It went by several names, Kalkus reported, among them orchard horse disease; orchard poisoning; alfalfad horses; arsenate of lead poisoning; mold poisoning. Regardless of the name, the circumstances were the same: The condition occurs in enzootic form in the irrigated apple orchard districts. The disease was little known prior to the last three years. It is now claimed by many that it is practically impossible to keep a horse for any great length of time on an irrigated orchard tract, where orchard-grown hay is fed, without the animal attracting the disease. Present knowledge indicates this disease is confined to the irrigated apple orchard districts where fruit is grown on a commercial basis, and where it is common practice to use arsenate of lead in spraying fruit trees. Alfalfa was grown as a cover crop between orchard trees. Lead arsenate spray was often applied so thickly that it dropped onto the alfalfa, giving it a gray color. While some veterinarians did not believe lead arsenate caused the problems because it did not exactly mimic what was known of lead and arsenic poisoning Kalkus seemed in little doubt. One reason is that such problems had already been reported. Experiments with lead arsenate conducted on pigs, calves, and sheep produced symptoms similar to horse orchard disease, Kalkus wrote. Another researcher fed different amounts of lead arsenate to five cows, all of which died following symptoms of violent purgation, in some cases followed by paralysis. The horses Kalkus describes all became ill with fever, apparent abdominal pain and a cough. Some started to recover, but were then affected by paralysis of the vocal cords. Kalter quotes a veterinarian who was convinced lead arsenate was the cause: As lead and arsenic are contained in the spray material it is highly possible that an idiosyncrasy exists, some individuals being susceptible to lead and acquiring the chronic form and others showing an acute form due to arsenic. In early polio epidemics, both animals and people suffered from paralysis. In May 1912, The Medical Times published an article by Jacolyn Van Vliet Manning titled, The Correlation of Epidemic Paralysis in Animal and Man.[xxii] A close relationship between paralytic cases in man and animal during epidemics of poliomyelitis has been observed in nine Western states of the United States as well as in England and Sweden, he wrote, affecting dogs, cats, sheep, hogs and fowl. One case: On May 27, 1911, a boy contracted poliomyelitis. One week before the boys illness a horse belonging to this lads father had an attack of what is locally known as poke-neck; it is said to have been paralyzed in the neck and forequarters; it fell down in the stable and was unable to rise. In Minnesota in 1909, during an epidemic of 1,000 cases in humans, a state epidemiologist reported that a disease strongly analogous in clinical history and symptoms to the disease in the human had simultaneously afflicted three colts. Wrote Dr. C.S. Shore: In my veterinary practice of the past five or six years I have found a disease appearing among one or two year old colts that shows a line of symptoms corresponding closely to anterior poliomyelitis in children. I have had from five to six cases a year during this time, always occurring during the Summer months, and the majority of them during the month of August.[xxiii] In fact, as Manning notes, C.S. Caverly made the same observation about the first U.S. epidemic in Vermont in 1894. Something was causing polio-like symptoms in both humans and animals at the same time, in the same place. The poliovirus may have been a key co-factor in the human cases of poliomyelitis, but the local presence of lead arsenate is also demonstrated by the paralytic cases of animals. These could not have been caused by the virus, which only produces illness in primates. The simultaneous illness of humans and animals is thus a crucial but overlooked clue to causation. There were concerns lead arsenate caused polio outbreaks. Astonishingly, lead arsenate was proposed as a cause of polio outbreaks early on. In Massachusetts, where the compound was first used, the State Forester reported in 1912, under a section headed Infantile Paralysis: In view of the fact that a feeling has been entertained by some people in the State that infantile paralysis has been caused in some instances by arsenate of lead used in spraying for the gypsy and brown-tail moths, the State Forester has caused a rigid investigation to be made in order to determine if there is any foundation upon which to base such fears.[xxiv] On the other side of the globe, a New Zealand newspaper reported in 1914: The oft-expressed opinion that the arsenate of lead spray on fruit is the cause of the prevalence of infantile paralysis will be discussed at the next meeting of the Upper Clutha Fruit-growers Association at Bannockburn. The association is taking steps to obtain the result of Government experiments regarding this matter.[xxv] (We have not found a follow-up report.) Toxins as a possible factor in outbreaks of paralysis were dismissed by biased investigators. Given these connections and concerns, what happened? Or rather, what didnt happen? Why did such strong clues about the nature of a disease that followed the planting season like clockwork year after year fail to crystallize in the minds of researchers? The simple answer is that right from the start, the wrong people were in charge of connecting the dots. Regarding the fears of Massachusetts residents, the State Forester whose job is to look after trees, not people wrote that as a result of his research he is firmly convinced that the use of arsenate of lead has in no way been responsible for the existence of the disease [infantile paralysis], and apprehends no danger in the future from its use. Any anxiety concerning the danger from the use of arsenate of lead is entirely unwarranted.[xxvi] As for animals, in 1897 A.H. Kirkland, a researcher for the Gypsy Moth Commission in Massachusetts, home to lead arsenate, conducted an experiment with a single horse fed the pesticide. The animal not only remained well and hearty but in better condition [italics in original] than before.[xxvii] That contradicted not only the Washington state report that described horse orchard disease, but several other veterinary studies. A 1917 article in the journal Economic Entomology by and for specialists who make their living controlling pests that threaten profits also examined the risk to livestock and, by extension, people. So far as our experiments with guinea pigs may be relied on, the results indicated that five or even ten times the average maximum per apple found in our analyses could not be expected to constitute a dangerous single dose for a human being.[xxviii] In the 1962 classic Silent Spring, Rachel Carson addressed this kind of convenient blindness and bias when she wrote about the inability of parties with an economic interest to acknowledge the damage pesticides caused to wildlife. "The credibility of the witness is of first importance, she wrote. Compared to a wildlife biologist, the entomologist, whose specialty is insects, is not so qualified by training, and is not psychologically disposed to look for undesirable side effects of his control program. Yet it is the control men in state and federal governments and of course the chemical manufacturers who steadfastly deny the facts reported by the biologists and declare they see little evidence of harm to wildlife. Like the priest and the Levite in the biblical story, they choose to pass by on the other side and to see nothing. Even if we charitably explain their denials as due to the shortsightedness of the specialist and the man with an interest this does not mean we must accept them as qualified witnesses."[xxix] And so poliomyelitis spread unchecked through the first two decades of the 20th century before snaring, in 1921, its most famous victim. 3. Making Sense of Campobello. Despite its name, the town of Cherryfield, Maine, calls itself the Blueberry Capital of the World, and there is no disputing the claim. Ninety-five percent of the worlds commercial blueberries are grown in surrounding Washington County, and Cherryfield is a major processing and shipping center. Machias, the county seat, hosts the annual Blueberry Festival every August. The festival puts on a musical, this year titled Blueberry Fields Forever, and a pie-eating contest blueberry, of course. The area has a couple of other claims to fame. Washington County hugs the Atlantic Coast where the United States meets Canada, the easternmost point in the United States; the city of Eastport is the first to see the sunrise. The region is known as Down East [A Map of Washington County Maine, also known as Sunrise County, with Cherryfield and Campobello circled. Click photo to enlarge.] Two miles offshore is the island of Campobello, part of New Brunswick, Canada, where Franklin D. Roosevelt and his family spent summers. It was on his beloved island in August, 1921 ninety years ago that Roosevelt was afflicted with a paralytic illness diagnosed as poliomyelitis. But this remote and lightly populated area already had a significant history with polio one of the first clusters in the United States occurred in Cherryfield a quarter-century earlier, in 1896 (we cited it in our list of pre-1910 outbreaks with links to fruits and vegetables). Seven children were affected, and one died. In all the discussion and theorizing about Roosevelts illness over the intervening decades, this convergence has been overlooked. -- Roosevelt arrived at Campobello on Sunday afternoon, August 7, on the yacht of a friend who sailed him up from New York City. The previous week, Roosevelt had visited a Boy Scout camporee on Bear Mountain, N.Y., not far from the familys Hudson River home in Hyde Park.[xxx] At the dock, his family was waiting. His children played on the yacht through the adults cocktail hour, then were taken home while Franklin and Eleanor stayed for an elegant dinner on the fantailed aft deck, served by uniformed stewards. Three days later, on Wednesday, August 10, Roosevelt went to bed early in the cranberry-red cottage on Campobello Island, unusually tired and suspecting a slight case of lumbago (lower back pain). He had chills during the night, and in the morning one of his legs was weak; the paralysis had begun. By the next night, both legs were paralyzed. Because of the defining role it played in his life and, inevitably, world history, the days leading up to the attack have been dissected in detail by Roosevelts multiple biographers. Most historians believe he contracted the poliovirus on his visit to the Boy Scouts, which would have multiplied the chances of exposure to a youth with an active infection. Alternatively, he could have come down with the virus sometime between the Bear Mountain trip and his departure for Campobello. After his arrival at Campobello, much has been made of a fall overboard while sailing in the Bay of Fundy; of his typically energetic activities on the day he first felt ill, which included putting out a small forest fire on a nearby island and going for a dip with his children in a freshwater pond near his house. The paralyzingly cold water of the Bay of Fundy became an ominous metaphor for what was about to happen, but was never a serious biological argument. Since most victims were infants or children, the fact that Roosevelt was 39 at the time has also gotten attention. In 2003, a study in The Journal of Medical Biography proposed Roosevelt actually had GuillainBarre syndrome, not poliomyelitis.[xxxi] While interesting, the evidence for such a diagnosis is not strong. Arguing against it is a comment by Elliott Roosevelt, FDRs young son who was present when his father took ill. He and other children went on a previously planned camping trip now without their stricken father -- because Eleanor wanted to keep them away from the risk of infection. On that trip, Elliott wrote, each of us children had some of the same symptoms as Father but in much milder form. We had runny noses, slight temperatures, and, a telltale sign, an odd feeling of stiffness in the neck. These comparatively mild aches and pains got overlooked in the developing crisis which gripped us all.[xxxii] Poliomyelitis remains the likeliest diagnosis: the timeline fits with an exposure at the Boy Scout camp. Estimates of the incubation period typically a week or two, though that can vary considerably in either direction match the Roosevelt scenario, no longer than 13 days. And Roosevelts presence in the worlds commercial blueberry capital at harvest time when his illness struck seems remarkable in light of the lead arsenate theory, which already had been proposed more than once in the decade before his illness. (Next years Blueberry Festival begins August 14.) Eleanor herself did the familys grocery marketing in Eastport, and Roosevelts love of blueberries and other fresh fruit is well documented. His chef in the White House, Henrietta Nesbitt, wrote that he was fond of blueberry and other pies.[xxxiii] In the cafeteria at FDRs presidential library in Hyde Park, the Henrietta Nesbitt Cafe, the most prominent picture is of the broadly grinning president being served a big piece of pie. Before a trip to South America, Nesbitt wrote, I made up a list of his favorite dishes for the ships mess, and it was practically a copy of the list Mrs. Roosevelt had made out and had ready for me on my first day at the White House. That list began with Roast beef pink juice running and includes frozen strawberries, raspberries, and cherries for dessert. Eleanor Roosevelts recipe for Blueberry Pudding has survived.[xxxiv] None of this shows FDR eating a mound of fresh blueberries treated with lead arsenate in August 1921, but it seems more probable than not. -- Roosevelt famously survived polio, turning his personal tragedy into Sunrise at Campobello and leading America through the Great Depression and World War II, though his health flagged in later years as a result of his battle with polio. Some historians believe he was not up to the task of confronting Stalin at the Yalta conference that shaped the post-War world and led to the descent of the Iron Curtain and the Cold War. Roosevelt died in Warm Springs, Ga., in 1945, the retreat where he had worked valiantly to overcome paralysis and help others do the same. In death he became a symbol for the suffering of thousands of polio victims and galvanized the search for a vaccine. Sadly, despite the March of Dimes campaign he helped launch to find the cause and cure, polio outbreaks were about to get worse. Much worse. 4. Post-War Epidemics and the Triumph of Vaccination. Life magazine for August 15, 1949, reflected the booming exuberance of the times. The cover, How to Dress for Hollywood, featured a buxom starlet in suitably sultry attire. There were ads for DeSotos and Nashes and Chevys to mobilize families and their growing broods of children; cigarettes like Pall Mall, whose greater length of traditionally fine, mellow tobaccos serves as a longer, natural filter to screen and cool the smoke on the way to your throat; toothpastes to brush away smokers breath and shine stained teeth, and articles on everything from a new sailboat called the Sunfish to a town in Louisiana that cut its taxes in half by installing slot machines.[xxxv] But twin specters of death and destruction hung over this bright baby-boomer world the anxiety over atomic annihilation if the Cold War turned hot, and every parents most proximate fear for their children, polio. There were two articles on polio in this August issue. One was titled Summer season brings epidemics of this uncontrollable disease and noted that throughout the nation last week the threat of polio was growing. Starting with some spotty outbreaks during May and June the disease had reached near-epidemic proportions during the sultry drought-ridden month of July. By Aug. 1, 8,300 cases had been reported, a 43% increase over last year. Polio seemed more uncontrollable than ever. The peak was still ahead 1952 would bring 58,000 cases -- but the path to prevention had already accelerated faster than any of the cars on display in Lifes pages in 1949. The year before, John Enders research group in Boston had cultivated the poliovirus in human tissue, a Nobel-winning breakthrough that cleared a path for Jonas Salks vaccine, which followed in 1955. Successful field trials among several hundred thousand children known as Polio Pioneers were announced on April 12, 1955 the tenth anniversary of FDRs death. Church bells rang out across the nation. The jubilation was justified in terms of the vaccines effect on the poliovirus by 1961, only 161 cases of poliomyeltis were confirmed in the United States, just 29 more than the first epidemic year of 1894. But with the outbreaks ending, basic research withered. As Life noted, how polio is spread, how the virus enters the body, they do not know. -- In 1949, the same year as the Life article, Drs. Morton S. Biskind and Irving Bieber published DDT Poisoning A New Symptom With Neuropsychiatric Manifestations in the American Journal of Psychotherapy. By far the most disturbing of all the manifestations are the subjective reactions and the extreme muscular weakness, they reported.[xxxvi] In subsequent papers and testimony, Biskind linked DDT directly to cases of poliomyelitis including a Dec. 12, 1950, statement to the Select Committee to Investigate the Use of Chemicals in Food Products, United States House of Representatives.[xxxvii] He quoted another doctor that wherever DDT had been used intensively against polio, not only was there an epidemic of the syndrome I have described but the incidence of polio continued to rise and in fact appeared where it had not been before. This is not surprising since it is known that not only can DDT poisoning produce a condition that may easily be mistaken for polio in an epidemic but also being a nerve poison itself, may damage cells in the spinal cord and thus increase the susceptibility to the virus. Facts are stubborn, Biskind concluded, and refusal to accept them does not avoid their inexorable effects -- the tragic consequences are now upon us. The theory was also advanced by Ralph R. Scobey, who in 1952 gave a statement to the same House committee. Titled The Poison Cause of Poliomyelitis and Obstructions To Its Investigation,[xxxviii] it described associations between harvest seasons, fresh fruit consumption, and polio epidemics. The next year, Biskind made the link even more explicit: In the United States the incidence of polio had been increasing prior to 1945 at a fairly constant rate, but its epidemiologic characteristics remained unchanged. Beginning in 1946 the rate of increase more than doubled. Yet far from looking into a toxic etiology, he said, virtually the entire apparatus of communication, lay and scientific alike, has been devoted to denying, concealing, suppressing, distorting and attempts to convert into its opposite, the overwhelming evidence. Libel, slander and economic boycott have not been overlooked in this campaign.[xxxix] But the idea that the active compounds in pesticides could cause paralysis was hardly farfetched. Pesticides are designed to cause mayhem with the nervous systems of their targets. Lead arsenate was an inorganic pesticide, DDT an organochlorine compound. Both cause neurons to fire randomly, interfering with the ability of the brain to communicate with the rest of the body and leading to paralysis, spasms and death. DDTs unintended impact on other living things was recognized after Silent Spring, though the focus then was on wildlife, not humans. That was enough to get both DDT and lead arsenate banned in the United States. Because DDT required a co-factor the poliovirus to trigger outbreaks of poliomyelitis, the effect on humans was missed. Adding to the complexity may be the fact, observed in horse orchard disease, that living things react with different levels of sensitivity to toxins. So DDT, we believe, succeeded lead arsenate not just as the insecticide of choice, but as an even more potent environmental co-factor in polio outbreaks. Understanding the role these toxins played was a significant insight and deserved serious attention, just as the early concerns about lead arsenate might have ended The Age of Polio almost as soon as it began. The DDT theory, like the lead arsenate observation, failed because it wrongly dismissed the equally important role of the virus itself. It could not account for the prompt collapse of polio in the U.S. after the vaccine was developed. The vaccine clearly eliminated outbreaks in the United States. Subsequent attempts to show that domestic DDT use waned about the same time, or that polio was reclassified as other illnesses in an elaborate scam to hide the vaccines ineffectiveness, dont really stand up against the evidence. The pesticide theory was an important one, and Biskind pointed to the synergy of toxin and virus when he suggested DDT might damage cells in the spinal cord and increase the susceptibility to the virus though that is not the mechanism we believe was at work. But the virus hunters were not about to be distracted as they closed in on a vaccine that could stop the epidemics in their tracks. This meant, as we shall see, that in areas where the vaccination effort was less successful, co-factors could continue to trigger outbreaks. Before addressing that, however, there are two more obvious tests to which we need to put our theory. Infantile paralysis occurred before lead arsenate was invented in 1893. How do we explain that? And what about polio outbreaks that have continued in the absence of either lead arsenate or DDT pesticides? Do they fit our new narrative? 5. Before. Our research on the natural history of autism convinced us that while there may have been a few scattered cases throughout history, the disorder first occurred in appreciable numbers as clusters and ultimately as an epidemic -- only after 1930. Observations at that time about the rarity and novelty of the disorder are far more persuasive than retrospective efforts to claim significant numbers of cases before then. The same holds true for poliovirus. Nowhere is that clearer than in the 1917 book Poliomyelitis In All Its Aspects,[xl] by John Ruhrah and Erwin E. Mayer. It seems to be a disease of comparatively recent origin, they wrote. In the history of most diseases there is a gradual shading off into the older writers until the disease is lost in confusion of inaccurate descriptions. Not so with polio. They continued: The disease is so striking in its symptomatology, so devastating in its results, and produces such a deep impression on the popular mind that it does not seem possible that any very considerable epidemics could have happened in the countries in which there were physicians making records of what occurred. The same point is driven home by John R. Paul in his standard 1971 text on the disease, A History of Poliomyelitis[xli]. There was no idea in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries that poliomyelitis was contagious, wrote Paul, a professor of preventive medicine and epidemiology at Yale who conducted important polio research himself. A half a dozen cases within a half-mile of each other might have escaped notice, but had there been larger outbreaks in the early or mid-19th century it seems highly unlikely that they would have gone unnoticed. But just as arsenic and lead caused instances of paralysis before the invention of lead arsenate, there was also an emerging medical literature of poliomyelitis before recurring outbreaks began in 1893. Beginning just before 1800, theres a history of doctors who took a reasonable cut at identifying the disease. These include, in 1789, Michael Underwood, who used the term debility of the lower extremities[xlii]; and in 1840, Jacob Heine, who is sometimes credited as the first to diagnose poliomyelitis. Several doctors later used the word paralysis in describing a similar condition in infants: West in 1843; Rillet in 1851; Duchesne in 1864. By 1860, Heine had pinpointed the spinal cord as the source of the paralysis, and in 1872, the great French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot called it tephromyelitis anterior acuta parenchymatose. This was a pretty modern description, but his precise nomenclature didnt quite catch hold. In 1874, German doctor Adolph Kussmaul coined the term poliomyelitis anterior acuta, later shortened to poliomyelitis. Going further back, plausible descriptions grow sparse but include the crippled Egyptian priest in a stele dated from 1580-1350 B.C. In 460 B.C., Hippocrates wrote about clubfoot, which may have included some cases of infantile paralysis. And in 200, Galen also discussed clubfoot. But those were vanishingly rare, and when Underwood described debility of the lower extremities in 1789, he clearly thought he was reporting a new phenomenon, just as Ruhrah and Paul asserted with the benefit of much greater epidemiological sophistication. This disorder either is not noticed by any medical writer within the compass of my reading, or is not so described as to ascertain the disease here intended, Underwood wrote. It is not a common disorder anywhere, I believe. -- Outbreaks of more than one case, then, were a distinctly 19th-century phenomenon, and until the 1890s worldwide episodes can be counted on two hands[xliii]: -- In 1835, John Badhams description of 4 cases in Worksop, England. -- In 1830-36, Charles Bells discussion of multiple cases in St. Helena. -- In 1841, George Colmers discussion of 8-10 cases in Feliciana, Louisiana. -- In 1868, Bulls discussion of 14 cases in Odalen, Norway (cited by Leegard, 1914). -- In 1881, Bergenholtzs description of 13 cases in Umea, Sweden. --In 1883, a report of 5 cases in Arenzano, Italy (cited by Hull, 1917). --In 1885, another report of 13 cases in Sainte-Foy LArgentiere, France (cited by Hull, 1917). --In 1886, 9 cases in Mondel, Norway (cited by Hull, 1917). -- In 1887, Oskar Medins discussion of 44 cases in and around Stockholm. This description uses the term poliomyelitis anterior acuta, argues that it is likely to be infectious and gives a pretty clear description of the modern disorder. His piece is considered a classic and polio used to be called Heine-Medin disease in honor of his very contemporary description. Obviously, all these cases were described before the invention of lead arsenate in 1893. So there were undoubtedly other ways to make this pattern occur; a prime suspect would be arsenic in other forms, as well as other toxic metals, since they are well known to cause paralysis in workers and others exposed to them. Interestingly, both Badham and Colmer mention teething, and the latter said it was a likely cause. In fact, teething paralysis was sometimes used as a term for infantile paralysis.[xliv] Teething powders containing calomel mercurous chloride were used beginning around then, and mercury is well-known to cause paralysis. Mercury in medicine was so widespread that it doubtless caused numerous disorders identified as something else, especially by the doctors who prescribed it. (Badham even prescribed calomel in repeated doses for his paralyzed patients.) Teething powders also caused pink disease, a feature of which was sometimes paralysis. In Pink Disease, Charles Rocaz reports that Karl Petren of Lund (Sweden) has suggested that pink disease is due to chronic arsenical intoxication. Nervous manifestations occur in the form of paresis [paralysis] of the lower limbs with pain, tingling and burning of the hands and feet.[xlv] So a number of outbreaks might be explained by exposures to metals, including earlier pesticides and other products and medicines containing arsenic. The arsenic-containing Paris Green was originally a pigment and was used in wallpaper as early as 1814. As for the larger Scandinavian clusters in the later 1880s, northern climes think Campobello Island, Canada are hospitable to berries. Also, apples are grown there and are part of the traditional cuisine. Keeping worms (actually codling moths, not gypsy moths) out of apples was something people were obviously concerned about for a long time before the war on gypsy moths provided the tools to fight codling moths. But none of these reached the scale, or occurred with the frequency, of poliomyelitis outbreaks after 1893 and the invention of lead arsenate. This leads to the second test of our theory once lead arsenate and DDT disappeared from the scene, why did poliomyelitis outbreaks continue, albeit in diminished fashion? 6. After -- The Persistence of Polio. To summarize our theory: Polio is a virus, contagious like all viruses, and generally a harmless enterovirus. When it is introduced into the human body, it has the capacity to enter the nervous system when nerves are damaged. Damage can occur many ways: mechanically through needle puncture or surgery, or, we propose, biochemically via pesticidal or other toxic exposure. Once the virus enters the nervous system, it becomes dangerous in a way nature never allowed before. It spreads through the nervous system via "retrograde axonal transport." The resulting damage can lead to paralysis or death. Two regions of the world continue to experience polio outbreaks, despite hopes the virus would be eradicated by 2000. This persistence has surprised and confused the experts. The eradication campaign has been stalled from about 2002 to 2007 Why is it so difficult to complete the global eradication of wild poliovirus? asked Neal Nathanson of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in a 2008 medical review, The Pathogenesis of Poliomyelitis: What We Dont Know.[xlvi] (What we dont know turns out to be a lot the paper runs to 50 pages.) Currently, there are two epicenters that have resisted virus elimination, one in South Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan, northern India) and one in West Africa (centered in Nigeria). What explains the persistence of wild polioviruses in these two foci? Nathanson cites three possibilities: those are warm climates, so poliovirus doesnt go dormant in the winter as it theoretically did in other countries; the prevalence of other enteroviruses means that the live-virus polio vaccine is not as effective because the other viruses interfere with it; and poor public health infrastructure couple with fears about vaccination made the achievement of herd immunity harder than expected. If one considers the toxin idea, however, another explanation jumps out, especially in South Asia. Erase national borders for a moment. While outbreaks are small and have waxed and waned over the past decade, the primary sites have been directly south of the Himalayan range in a smiley-face arc that runs west from Nepal and Bangladesh, through the Northern India districts of West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, into Pakistan and Afghanistan. This also happens to be the area with the worst mass poisoning from arsenic in human history. This is not ancient history it didnt even begin until the 1980s. It is a story of the single-minded war against microbes gone badly wrong. What happened is beautifully outlined in an American Scientist article, No one checked: Natural Arsenic in Wells.[xlvii] The wells that now supply the people's drinking water are sealed from bacterial contamination; their tight concrete tubes reach down 60 feet or more, past surface contamination, write Phillip and Phylis Morrison. The big investment in concrete wells, originally made by UNICEF and the World Bank, has beaten back diarrheal diseases, making a real contribution to the vigor and quality of life of the people here. But what no one checked was the possibility of another kind of contamination: the wells tapped into the deeper water table and pulled up arsenic that had been swept down the Himalayan watershed by the Ganges and Indus Rivers, both of which drain both slopes of the mighty range. And that proved to be a catastrophic failure. A new calamity as astonishing as it is threatening confronts the country people of the Bengal Basin, the Morrisons write a calamity that has continued to spread through India and westward. The drinking water, though sealed from infection, can hold a chronic dose of invisible, tasteless, odor-free dissolved arsenic. That trace presence is a public poison. In Bangladesh alone, the World Health Organization calls arsenic contamination of drinking water the largest mass poisoning of a population in history (an eerie echo of Biskind calling DDT use the most intensive campaign of mass poisoning in human history). In focusing solely on microbes, in failing understand the ecology they were tapping into, public health experts failed in their due diligence no one checked, and so they simply missed the risk from the toxin. In a deep and disturbing irony, we believe that this arsenic exposure born of a sincere but disastrously conceived effort to protect people from dangerous microbes -- has also led to the persistence of poliomyelitis. -- On May 12, 2010, Bill Gates boarded a boat in the city of Patna, on the Ganges River in the Indian province of Bihar, and traveled 140 miles east to the small village of Guleria. He was there to personally take the Gates Foundations fight against polio into the heart of the beast. Bihar is one of only two Indian States where new cases of polio continue to be reported, according to UNICEF. Uttar Pradesh is the other.[xlviii] This is also arsenic country. The districts on both sides of the Ganges, including Patna and Khagara, are among the 16 worst arsenic-affected districts in Bihar.[xlix] In neighboring Uttar Pradesh, as many as 20 districts have alarmingly high arsenic content in the groundwater and the state government is at its wits end.[l] The consequences include lesions on the hands and feet, intestinal problems, and cancer that can kill. In India, the spread of arsenic contamination in groundwater seems to be assuming gargantuan proportions, reported Current Science in 2005. What is worse is that inhabitants of the affected areas are unaware and the local authorities totally oblivious to this grave problem. It was known that West Bengal (WB) and Bangladesh had high levels of arsenic in the groundwater, but slowly the problem is spreading to other states like Uttar Pradesh. This is confirmed by the reports of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi that people living in the Ballia district of UP also have high levels of arsenic in their blood, hair, nails, etc.[li] This convergence has totally escaped the polio fighters, just as the arsenic risk from deeper wells escaped the planners (ironically, those planners include the same World Health Organization now combating poliomyelitis there). Most parts of India are polio free. Of the 35 states and Union Territories, 33 have stopped indigenous polio virus transmission. Only Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar remain endemic for polio virus because of the uniquely challenging conditions like poor environmental sanitation, high population density, high birth rate which make them the most challenging places on earth to eradicate polio.[lii] But do those factors really make the two areas unique in all India? And why does the polio arc sweep across the same arsenic-poisoned swath of neighboring countries? -- At the proverbial 30,000-foot level Himalayan height, as it happens -- the theory makes sense. But it also holds up on the ground. District by district, city by city, the dots connect. -- In West Bengal, Howrah District was singled out for high arsenic contamination[liii] and polio. A case of poliovirus reported there in April has shocked the World Health Organization, UNICELF, Rotary International and the government itself.[liv] -- In Pakistan, Another polio case in Muzaffargarh[lv] coincides with the fact that arsenic was recently found in Pakistan, in and around Muzaffargarh on the south-western edge of the Punjab.[lvi] -- In Afghanistan, half a million people are potentially at risk from arsenic poisoning, and the country is one of four where poliovirus remains endemic. Why, given the arsenic disaster in Bangladesh, are there no recent polio cases there? It appears the virus has been wiped out. Concerted efforts to eradicate polio in Bangladesh, resulted in the country being declared polio free in August 2000. [lvii] Arsenic abatement also has been attacked most aggressively in Bangladesh, where the problem first surfaced. In Bangladesh and West Bengal, at present less people are drinking arsenic contaminated water due to growing awareness and access to arsenic safe water. But no doubt the problem would not have attained such gravity, if it were not ignored for quite a long time. Unfortunately today similar mistakes are being repeated in Bihar, UP, Jharkhand, and Assam where still the villagers are drinking contaminated water. Non recognition of truth continues.[lviii] Indeed it does. Polio outbreaks, we believe, are persisting today for the same reason they arose. South Asia is simply a place where toxic interactions are triggering outbreaks that highlight the presence of the virus, like Luminol bringing out hidden blood splatters at a crime scene. That would seem to spell trouble for programs guided by the belief that going after polio outbreaks will eradicate the virus despite the vast resources currently being thrown at the effort. On January 31, Bill Gates spoke at the Roosevelt House in Manhattan Bill Gates Channels Franklin Roosevelt, as one news service put it -- where FDR recuperated after being stricken at Campobello. Gates said his foundation is making polio eradication its top priority because it is the thing we can do to most improve the human condition. He set a goal of 2013 but said, Eradication is not guaranteed. It requires campaigns to give polio vaccine to all children under 5 in poor countries, at a cost of almost $1 billion per year. [lix] Polio eradication itself is a controversial priority. Bill Gates own vanity a heroic effort to make as big an impact on the technological destruction of disease as he did on the technology of computer software has driven his poliovirus campaign, but many public health advocates grumble that its a low priority. Millions die every year from preventable diseases ranging from pneumonia to diarrhea. As Bill Gates presses forward in a costly mission to eliminate the disease, some eradication experts and bioethicists ask if its right to keep trying, reported The New York Times in February 2011. As new outbreaks create new setbacks each year, he has given ever more money, not only for research but for the grinding work on the ground. We ought to admit that the best we can achieve is control, argued Arthur L. Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania bioethics center, who had polio as a child. Gates calls his critics cynics who are accepting 100,000 to 200,000 crippled or dead children a year if polio resurges. We believe a more cost-effective way to reduce and contain poliomyelitis outbreaks as well as improve total health outcomes -- would be an all-out effort to reduce arsenic contamination and make sure people in South Asia have safe drinking water. 7. Where was God? -- Lessons learned and lost. What, then, is the natural history of polio telling us? Beyond the lessons for containing polio outbreaks themselves, we suggest that a single-minded focus on germs and an unwillingness to explore novel and potentially uncomfortable ideas from outside medical orthodoxy is an inadequate strategy when it comes to modern diseases. Its hard to overstate the impact the polio experience has had on our modern medical culture, starting with the doctors who watched helplessly as its victims fell. J.R. Paul, in his definitive A History of Poliomyelitis, wrote how the flowering of scientific medicine brought a new point of view, an era of sudden and incredible hope that something might be done after all. For a generation of medical professionals born in the heart of this period, the heroic conquest of poliomyelitis was among the most influential narratives that shaped their beliefs about medicine. These beliefs go far beyond science, as Paul suggests. As the crusade heightened, the world looked on expectantly. Much as our grandparents had contributed during the nineteenth century to missionary societies, our dimes and dollars went to another religious cause, signalized by efforts to stamp out this pestilence and to alleviate the suffering and tragedy it inflicted. Paul leaves no doubt as to the hero of this new religious crusade. [I]n due time, the disease was abruptly scotched by means of vaccination. It was to all intents and purposes finished. The crusade has been described as one of the greatest technical and humanistic triumphs of the age. It was one of those rare achievements which the world greeted as an example of what could be done when science and technology were directed to good use for mankind.[lx] -- But the victory over the epidemics of poliomyelitis means our understanding of polio is essentially frozen in amber, circa 1955. Few diseases have been so completely conquered, at least at home, while being so incompletely understood, and that is not a good outcome. In leaving so many important topics on the table why outbreaks occurred, why the pattern of contagion was so atypical for an infectious disease scientists allowed some weak ideas to become conventional wisdom and some important ones to be missed. The prevailing current explanation for the rise of poliomyelitis outbreaks is the hygiene hypothesis, which posits that such simple steps as clean underwear, better sanitation and good housekeeping, along with less exposure to germs like polio in early infancy, meant the effects of disease became much worse when children were finally exposed. This is not a satisfactory explanation, and it never has been the epicenter of the 1916 epidemic was placed in possibly the filthiest place in Brooklyn, an Italian immigrant community evocatively called Pigtown. And hygiene certainly doesnt work very well to explain polios persistence among the worlds poorest, where sanitation is bad and public health infrastructure is close to nonexistent. (One injection stops smallpox, The Times noted in its article of Gates polio drive, but in countries with open sewers, children need 10 polio (vaccine) drops up to 10 times.) Yet those ideas have spread and now are used to explain other ailments that are likely also mostly environmental, such as asthma (hygiene hypothesis: because children no longer tumble around in the barnyard with farm animals, they are less likely to be exposed etc.). And the connection of other illnesses to pesticides, and environmental toxins in general, has been slow in dawning, though it is now becoming clear that a range of degenerative and neurological diseases are related to such exposures. In a new epidemiological study of Central Valley residents who have been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, researchers found that years of exposure to the combination of two pesticides increased the risk of Parkinson's by 75 percent, reports Science Daily. The Central Valley was also the setting for a study that found women who live near California farm fields sprayed with organochlorine pesticides may be more likely to give birth to children with autism, according to a study by state health officials, reported the Los Angeles Times.[lxi] The rate of autism among the children of 29 women who lived near the fields was extremely high, suggesting that exposure to the insecticides in the womb might have played a role. The findings echoes those from a 2005 study in Italy pesticides known as organophosphates could cause neurological changes that lead to autism. Recall that the San Joaquin Valley, the Southern Half of the Central Valley of California, was the site of an 1890s outbreak of poliomyelitis, along with nearby San Francisco, Napa Valley, and other agricultural hubs. If mainstream scientists had made this connection between polio and pesticides a century ago or even after the great epidemics ended in the 1950s would pesticide use have continued in the same fashion, endangering great-great grandchildren of the first polio generation? Church bells might not have rung for this discovery, but the toll on later generations could have been greatly reduced. -- Nor has the polio vaccine, for all of its efficacy, been a risk-free remedy. There were accidents and deaths from the beginning starting with the Cutter incident in the first weeks of the mass vaccine campaign, in which tainted shots paralyzed dozens of children and killed five.[lxii] There is ongoing debate about whether a cancer-causing monkey virus, SV-40, infected millions of doses of vaccine in the 1960s and may be causing cancers today.[lxiii] There is the theory that mass vaccine trials in Africa in the 1950s gave rise to the AIDS epidemic an idea that has been dismissed and derided by the medical industry with the same religious disregard for inconvenient truths as weve seen in other man-made epidemics.[lxiv] And the live virus vaccine now in use in South Asia and Africa indisputably spreads the virus and, in a small percentage of case, causes poliomyelitis. For that reason alone, vaccination may perpetuate polio in the service of eradicating it. The vaccine strain also can and does mutate. (Polio spreads fast in Nigeria after rare mutation, reads a 2009 headline.)[lxv] The only thing better than ending polio epidemics, in short, would have been not causing them in the first place. The real polio narrative is an American tragedy as much as the triumph of scientific medicine. -- Yet triumphalism is an ongoing legacy of The Age of Polio. Merely invoking the word today can shut down debate over public health, especially concerns over any aspect of vaccination policy. Asked during the presidential campaign of 2008 whether he favored vaccination choice, Barack Obama responded: I believe that it will bring back deadly diseases, like polio."[lxvi] In a similar vein, a commenter on our blog who identified herself as Kim asked, What would you like us to do? Let's stop all immunizations. Guess what will happen? Measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, polio, influenza will all come back. We will now not only have people scarred from the diseases, but so many people dying. People do not remember when people actually died from these diseases because they have been literally obliterated from the industrial nations. I would give just about anything to have a grandmother, but she died from polio when my mother was 17 months old. I have empathy for those with autistic children, but we have gotten so focused on immunizations that we do not look at any other causes. So the next time you hug your child remember my mother who cannot remember any hugs from her mother. Be thankful you have a child to hug. In offering our new narrative, we recognize the very real suffering over a very long time. In 1916, the year of the epochal Northeastern epidemic, a New Jersey nurse named Charlotte Talley wrote an article for The American Journal of Nursing with the antiseptic title, Tracing the Sources and Limiting the Spread of Infantile Paralysis.[lxvii] But her descriptions were deeply empathetic: Blease, blease, do something, pleaded a Polish mother hysterically, clasping her hands in supplication, her mouth quivering. They took my boy to ospital and see, showing the bathtub full of soiled clothing, here are all the clothes from the sickness and no water to wash em. Landlady said she get plumber today. She gets no one. The epidemic turned health workers into bystanders to despair. A little girl of nine had died of paralysis after a few days of great suffering. She had been a beautiful, bright, lovable child, the pride of the household, Talley wrote. Apparently, despite all her parents precautions, she had played with a neighbor child with an inapparent infection and may have been exposed to the virus that way. Where was God? asked Talley. It is difficult to understand how such things are permitted by Providence to occur. Evidently human intelligence is expected to work out this serious problem in order to prevent such disasters. The suffering of polios victims is honored by learning all of its lessons, including the danger of environmental toxins and the perils of ignoring their role in modern disease; the risk of focusing all of our energy on vaccinations as magic bullets, and the fundamental ethical obligation to search for the truth without fear or favor. Only then can we work out the real nature of illnesses that confront us here and now, ranging from autism to Parkinsons to the persistence of poliomyelitis itself. Only then can we begin to prevent such disasters as The Age of Polio. -- Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill are co-authors of The Age of Autism Mercury, Medicine, and a Man-made Epidemic, published in paperback in September by Thomas Dunne Books. Olmsted is Editor, and Blaxill is Editor at Large, of ageofautism.com. Excerpted from the Levi Quackenboss blog: California Kids Strike Back. One year from the day that Californias SB 277 was signed into law by Governor Brown, a dream team of lawyers from across the United States has filed a federal lawsuit against the State of Californias Department of Education and Department of Health for depriving its residents of their constitutional right to an education. Approximately 2.5% of California school-aged children use a personal belief exemption to opt out of vaccinations that violate their parents religious or deeply-held beliefs, or are deemed unnecessary or potentially harmful by their parents and health care providers. The children of the lawsuits plaintiffs have been partially vaccinated or show antibody titers that qualify as proof of immunity to disease, and yet they are among the tens of thousands of healthy, disease-free children whose right to an education will be violated when school starts in the last few days of August. In a beautifully written memo in support of their request for a temporary restraining order and injunction against the state, lawyers argue that SB 277 violates the fundamental rights to education, free exercise of religion, bodily integrity, and equal protection under the law. 45 years ago in a famous case named Serrano vs. Priest, the California court minced no words when it stated that the right to an education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments. That is because an education is crucial for later financial success, it is important for building social relationships, it continues on for 13 years of a childs life, and it impacts a childs psychological and emotional well-being. Education is so important that school attendance is required by law. While some parents are able to make the sacrifices necessary to home school their children, home schooling is not possible for the overwhelming majority of families. This includes families that rely on two incomes to make ends meet, single parent households, those who do not speak English, and parents who dont feel capable enough to teach their children themselves. This means that the impact SB 277 has on poorer families will be felt the greatest. Read more at California Kids Strike Back. We are updating the full series with each installment on our sidebar here. By Dan Olmsted As we prepare to follow the Hawaiian sugar harvest to the U.S. mainland in early 1916, a natural pause suggests itself. Ive now presented the basic hypothesis: that arsenic applied for the first time ever to sugarcane fields anywhere, at the Olaa plantation on the Big Island of Hawaii, led to the first massive poliomyelitis epidemic in the United States. It triggered the Explosion that ushered in the Age of Polio. That kind of claim attracts critics who use words like "laughable." (Of course, laughable things can be true.) Over at Orac, Denice Walter commented: "Although I am often highly entertained by your speculation, I would be much more pleased with you if you took a few life science related courses at your local university." I responded: "Denice, I remain pleased that you are highly entertained. I fear that exposure to actual experts might reduce my ability to amuse you, so Ill avoid it for now." (The claim here is that a non-scientist journalist such as myself has no business tackling a topic like this. I disagree.) So perhaps its time to say a little more about how the theory evolved and where I am heading with it. In 2011, Mark Blaxill and I wrote a series called The Age of Polio: How an Old Virus and New Toxins Triggered a Man-Made Epidemic. In it, we proposed that the invention of lead arsenate pesticide in 1892, interacting with poliovirus infections, kicked off the modern era of polio epidemics. Lead arsenate was created to fight the gypsy moth invasion around Boston that threatened to wreck the entire domestic apple crop. In a literal and metaphoric instance of the butterfly effect seemingly minor and distant events leading to major disruptions -- a few moths escaped their enclosure in a back yard in suburban Medford, and before long turned into teeming masses undulating like black waves across suburban streets to devour fruit trees in one collective gulp. This story almost defies belief, but The Great Gypsy Moth War by Robert J. Spear brings it to creepy-crawly life. Lead arsenate subdued the moth problem, but the association of the pesticide with poliomyelitis is hard for dispassionate observers (meaning those not wedded to virology as the explanation for everything) to dismiss. In 1893, the year after the first use of lead arsenate in Boston, two local doctors wrote a medical journal article, Is Acute Poliomyelitis Unusually Prevalent This Season? and very quickly established that it was unusually prevalent. It would not have seemed worthwhile to report these observations had it not been that the number of cases observed at the Massachusetts General Hospital in September and October of this year [apple harvest time] is decidedly larger than usual. Putting together all the cases from four sources, they came up with six polio cases for the period August-November 1892, and 26 for the same period in 1893. https://books.google.com/books?id=uMAEAAAAYAAJ&dq=boston+medical+surgical+journal+putnam+taylor+poliomyelitis+1893&q=poliomyelitis#v=snippet&q=poliomyelitis&f=false While that was an impressive rise, it could have simply been natural variation; sporadic cases were observed by medical professionals over the past several decades. Hence the question mark. But the very next year, 1894, in the Otter River Valley in Vermont, came the answer an unmistakable poliomyelitis epidemic. The account, a classic of medical literature worth reading in its own right, was provided by Dr. Charles Caverly, a Rutland physician who also happened to be the president of the state medical society and was in the right place at the right time. The beginning is memorable and haunting, given what was to come and the fact that epidemic poliomyelitis was so unfamiliar in the United States that Caverly didnt even call it infantile paralysis or poliomyelitis until later articles. During the month of June, 1894, there appeared in a portion of the valley of the Otter Creek, in the state of Vermont, an epidemic of nervous disease, in which the distinctive and most common symptom was paralysis. The great majority of sufferers were children under six years of age. Hardest hit were the towns of Rutland and Proctor. There were 132 cases and 18 deaths. This was not like Boston the year before. This was big. Web Toolbar by Wibiya Date: 10 September, 1977. Place: Canadian Forces Base (CFB) North Bay, Province of Ontario, Canada. Located in the city of North Bay, about 330 kilometres north of Toronto, the Canadian Forces Base (CFB) North Bay is the most important military installation in Canada. It is home to the North American Aerospace Defence Command, one of the most vital military agreements in the continent. Nevertheless, on 10 September 1977, the bases apparent invulnerability would be put in doubt by a very unusual incident. According to an anonymous report published almost 40 years later, on 29 June 2016, on UFO specialised website MUFON.com, five bright star-like objects were seen moving towards the base. I had been in the Canadian Military for about 10 years, when this happened, begins to relate the witness, upon getting a phone call from a friend who worked as a radar tech, and he told me to go outside and look up in the night sky and look for [an] unidentified aircraft, which he could not identify, he stated. I went outside and observed 5 bright star like objects coming down from different locations that were quite high, he said, but descended when they came together forming a circle. After performing these movements, the objects separated and hovered apart in a parallel line, then they flew further apart and went a little higher. Finally, considering the special conditions of the event, the military personnel decided to make a call to an airbase located in Quebec. My radar friend told me, they were scrambling jets from CFB Bagotville, Quebec. He said they would be there in about 5 minutes. However, as soon as my radar tech friend told me the jets would intercept in less than a minute, the 5 UFO's left, one after the other with such speed, it is hard to describe, the witness stated. Draw your own conclusions For further information: https://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl?req=view_long_desc&id=77351&rnd= Long Description of Sighting Report I had been in the Canadian Military for about 10 years, when this happened. Upon getting a phone call from a friend who worked as a radar tech, and he told me to go outside and look up in the night sky an look for unidentified aircraft, which he could not identify. I went outside and observed 5 bright star like objects coming down from different locations that were quite high, but descended where they came together forming a circle. They then separated and hovered apart in a parallel line. After a minute or so they flew further apart and went a little higher. My radar friend told me, they were scrambling jets from CFB Bagotville, Quebec. He said they would be there in about 5 minutes. I watched the UFO's move all around the night sky, and would not go too far from each other. When my radar tech friend told me the jets would intercept in less than a minute, the 5 UFO's left, one after the other with such speed, it is hard to describe...like with the blink of eye, gone. Whew. A White Sulphur Springs woman has started a petition drive to recall Meagher County Attorney Kimberly Deschene. The petition, filed by Katherine Walter, was filed and approved in June. In a signed statement, Walter claimed professional negligence, failure to prepare for trial, lack of communication and misrepresentation, among other allegations. My main concern is that we have a county attorney who is unwilling to do her job, Walter said. "If somebody breaks the law, they need to be held accountable for it." Deschene, who has been county attorney for six years, said that she's embarrassed by the public attention that the petition has garnered. She said that the claims made by Walter don't have merit. "I'm horrified that this would get any attention at all," she said. "It's ridiculous what she's doing." Deschene said that she plans to file for an injunction to quash the petition. The tipping point for Walter was a criminal case involving her husband, who was assaulted last year. The charge against the suspect was eventually reduced to a misdemeanor. Deschene said that the evidence didn't meet the merits of the more serious charge. Walter said that Deschene failed to examine all the medical evidence in the case. Others have contacted Walter with grievances about the county attorney's performance, which she said prompted her to file the recall petition. One allegation includes claims of conflict of interest in DUI cases because Deschene owns Bar 47 in White Sulphur Springs, Walter said. Walter needs to collect 206 signatures to qualify the recall petition for a vote, said Meagher County Clerk Dayna Ogle. There are 1,372 registered voters in the county. June 30, 2016 As expected, Ankara has begun to take sharp turns in its foreign policy. Following a statement by Prime Minister Binali Yildirim that Turkey will pursue a more realistic foreign policy to decrease enemies and increase friends, the first major turn has appeared in Israel-Turkey relations. Relations between the two countries were radically degraded after May 31, 2010, when the Israeli military raided a Turkish flotilla that was trying to break through the Israeli blockade and deliver humanitarian relief supplies to Gaza. Israeli soldiers killed 10 Turkish nationals in the course of the incident. Ankara withdrew its ambassador from Tel Aviv and asked Israel to apologize, pay indemnity to the families of the victims and lift its blockade on Gaza. When Israel did not respond, Turkey drastically lowered diplomatic relations and suspended its entire gamut of military agreements and defense projects with Israel. The military-security field has definitely suffered the most from the friction between the two countries after the Mavi Marmara incident. Before the flotilla raid, there was truly far-reaching military cooperation between Israel and Turkey that dated back to the 1960s and peaked in the 1990s. With the 1994 Defense Cooperation Agreement and 1996 Military Training Cooperation Agreement, military-security relations between the two became the most intimate in the Middle East. This cooperation was particularly prominent in intelligence sharing, military training and the defense industry. For example, in the early 2000s, in return for Israels technical and intelligence support to Turkey in combating the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Turkey shared with Israel the intelligence on Iran it had collected in Iraq and Turkey. Israels combat pilots participated in the annual Anatolian Eagle exercises held at an airfield in Turkeys central Anatolian province of Konya, where they conducted training over mountainous topography unavailable in Israel. They also conducted regular joint exercises in the eastern Mediterranean until 2010. In return, Turkish pilots received training on surface-to-air missiles in Israel. In the defense industry, the most recent joint projects were the modernization of M60 tanks at a cost of $650 million and F-4E planes for about $1 billion, procurement and operation of armed Heron UAVs for $200 million, electronic reconnaissance and surveillance systems at $200 million, and procurement of missiles and smart ammunition for $150 million. After the Mavi Marmara incident, intelligence sharing between the two countries came to an end, followed by cancelations in military training and cooperation. Some defense industry projects were halted and others became extremely cumbersome processes. For example, take the E-7T Peace Eagle Early Warning and Control aircraft manufactured by the US company Boeing and the Israeli company Elta. When relations broke down, some of those systems had already been delivered. In the end, the rest of the deliveries were completed, but Turkey's defense industry undersecretariat initiated a project to manufacture a substitute for the E-7T in Turkey. The aerial reconnaissance capabilities of the Turkish air force suffered the most. A plan had been made to procure high-definition electro optics and radar pods to be used in RF-4E Phantom planes. When the contract was canceled, Turkey opted to fill the gap by procuring similar pods from the United States. In a project with Israel, 170 Turkish M60 tanks had been modernized. Plans were made to upgrade another batch of 169 tanks and offer them to the international market, but they were shelved when relations cooled. After the downgrading of ties with Turkey, Israel conducted a series of military exercises with the air, sea and ground forces of Greece and the Greek Cypriots. Today, according to corridor whispers in Ankara, pressure from the Turkish armed forces on the political echelons around its needs and projects was the key element in the recent shift in relations with Israel. According to a high-level security bureaucrat who asked not to be identified, Ankara, because of its disturbing isolation in the region and with inadequate support from the United States and NATO, had no choice to but turn back to Israel for regional military-security cooperation. According to Arda Mevlutoglu, a defense industry specialist, though there is definitely a need for cooperation between Israel and Turkey in these fields, it is unlikely that relations will be restored to 1990s levels anytime soon. He told Al-Monitor, Ankara and Tel Aviv have similar perceptions of threats and posturing of forces in the region. This may help the shaping of a new geopolitical equation for the eastern Mediterranean and facilitate their counterbalancing of Iran in the region. Defense researcher Turan Oguz agreed that the growing profile of Iran, the regionalization of the PKK threat and regional developments around Hamas, the Islamic State (IS), Iraq and Syria have laid the ground for Ankara and Tel Aviv to cooperate, even if neither is eager to do so. The shooting down of the Russian plane pushed Turkey into an isolation with consequences we couldnt immediately grasp. We wanted to save ourselves from the situation with the help of NATO. We noted an increase in our requests for air defense systems, UAVs, multiple rocket launchers and joint exercises both from NATO and the US, Turan told Al-Monitor. But then, when the response from NATO was weak, Turkey had to make its way out of the corner it was stuck in. The most suitable candidate was Israel, whose prowess and intimacy with the United States was known. Today, Israel is the country closest to the US and Russia. That is why Israel can play a middle role in preserving Ankaras relations with the US at an appropriate level and also help normalize [relations] with Russia. According to Oguz, if Turkeys relations with Russia begin normalizing with Israels mediation, rapprochement with Syria and Armenia could emerge as a side benefit that Ankara is not likely to reject. The Israeli security establishment also appears to favor normalization with Turkey. Turkey faces serious regional issues with problems in its Syria policy and an unprecedented crisis with Russia. They have tension with Iran. Turkey looks at the Middle East and sees total bankruptcy. The only country that it can establish stable relations, start a dialogue and discuss political options with is Israel, retired Israeli Brig. Gen. Michael Herzog told Al-Monitor. Ankara and Tel Avivs increasing need to share field intelligence seems to have triggered this normalization. Recently, Mossad chief Yossi Cohen visited Ankara and met with the top brass of the intelligence-security bureaucracy led by Turkeys intelligence chief Hakan Fidan. They reportedly focused on combating the PKK and on Turkeys relations with Hamas. Now it's time to ask which actors would be most concerned about this warming atmosphere between Ankara and Tel Aviv. Naturally, the usual suspects will be the PKK, Hamas, Iran, the Syrian regime, IS and Russia. It is almost certain that Israel will play a mediating role between Ankara and Washington and Ankara and Moscow, in return for which Turkey will enable Israel to play a more active role in NATO. Israel could also be a secret player in easing the crisis between Ankara and the Syrian regime. That would leave us with four actors we should be concerned with: Iran, PKK, Hamas and extremists like IS. In sum, field realities make it clear that though it will benefit both parties, rapprochement between Israel and Turkey is likely to be much more expensive for Turkey. July 1, 2016 On June 27, Israel and Turkey declared they reached an agreement to normalize relations. The declaration did not have a positive ring at the Hamas grass-roots level, as the agreement did not stipulate the complete lifting of the Gaza blockade. However, Turkey will be allowed to deliver a 10,000-ton shipment of humanitarian aid, build a 200-bed hospital and establish a new power station and a desalination plant for drinking water. The agreement came six years after the two countries broke off ties following the Mavi Marmara incident, when Israeli naval forces seized the ship on May 31, 2010, killing nine Turkish people onboard. Since then, Hamas and Turkey had strengthened their ties, and Turkey demanded an end to the siege imposed on Gaza after Hamas won the 2006 legislative elections. Hamas believes that under the Turkish-Israeli agreement, Turkey achieved as much as it can to ease the blockade on Gaza, which has been plagued by economic crises," Ahmed Youssef, a former political adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, told Al-Monitor. He said, "Although [Turkey] has worked to lift the blockade completely over the past years, [the agreement] has disappointed some Palestinians. Yet Turkey should not be blamed for failing to lift the siege. Turkey could have reached a deal with Israel in early 2015, but it continued to negotiate on lifting the siege. Eventually, Turkey showed the Hamas leadership the agreement, out of respect, which suggests that Hamas-Turkish ties are at their best. Palestinian reactions to the deal varied, particularly regarding the Gaza situation and Turkey's inability to fulfill its promise that the blockade would be completely lifted. On June 27, Hamas issued an official statement thanking Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the country's efforts to help Gaza and to ease the blockade. Turkey was keen to inform Hamas of the details of its agreement with Israel during a visit June 24 by Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas' political bureau, to Ankara, where he met with Erdogan. Said el-Haj, a Palestinian researcher in Turkish affairs based in Istanbul, told Al-Monitor, Believing that Turkey had the ability to lift the siege completely on Gaza was unrealistic from the beginning. This is given the multiple Israeli, Palestinian and regional parties involved, although Ankara could have reached a compromise solution with Tel Aviv to ease the siege and recognize a larger Turkish role in Gaza by building a sea-lane passage [to Gaza]. Yet during the negotiations, Turkey waived the condition to lift the siege and limited its role to the provision of food aid to Gaza. "The deal may prompt Hamas and Turkey to manage ties behind closed doors. Although Hamas is keen not to anger Turkey, the Turkish-Israeli agreement indicates that Hamas crisis has reached its foreign policy and regional alliances. Hamas is aware that Turkey agreed with Israel without achieving a complete lifting of the siege because of the internal and regional challenges Turkey faces, the latest of which was the June 28 suicide bombing attacks at Istanbul Ataturk Airport. Turkey is also dealing with the widening differences in the region contrary to Turkey's "zero problems" policy announced after the Justice and Development Party rose to power in 2002. While Turkey insisted that the deal with Israel not include a clear reference to driving Hamas leaders and members residing in Turkey out of its territory, the agreement stressed that Hamas will not be allowed to plan and carry out acts of hostility against Israel from Turkey. Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth posted an article June 27 including the names of Hamas leaders active in Turkey. Yahya Moussa, a Hamas leader and chairman of the Palestinian Legislative Council's Oversight Committee, told Al-Monitor, Hamas did not aspire to achieve more advantages from the Israeli-Turkish deal, which was not a bad surprise. The agreement was probably frustrating for some who are hanging by a thread. Yet Hamas decision-making circles are aware of the complex political equations ruling the region, most notably that the blockade on Gaza involves several aspects and parties in control of the region. "Turkey alone does not have the ability to lift the siege. I do not believe that the Turkish-Israeli agreement will negatively affect Hamas-Turkish ties. Hamas does not have a lot of political relations and will be keen to preserve ties with Turkey, even after the Turkish-Israeli deal. Hamas worked to contain the shock of the Turkish-Israeli agreement, which at first seemed to be a complete abandonment of the condition to totally lift the siege on Gaza, particularly since it did not stipulate the establishment of a seaport or sea-lane passage to the outside world. But people close to Hamas tried to defend and justify the Turkish position. These people are probably reflecting Hamas desire not to direct sharp criticism toward Ankara, as it does not have the privilege of multiple regional and international ties, while other posts and reports of people close to Hamas continued to criticize the Turkish-Israeli agreement. Abdullah Abdullah, a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council and head of the Palestinian Legislative Council's Political Committee, told Al-Monitor, The Palestinians and Hamas should not blame Turkey for waiving [its condition] for the deal with Israel. The deal represents a chance for Hamas to feel its extreme vulnerability, because it had great expectations from Turkey and did not realize that bad circumstances are governing Turkeys ties with Russia, Syria, Iran, Israel and Egypt. This has prompted [Turkey] to speed up the signing of the agreement with Israel in a Machiavellian way, contrary to Hamas liking and hopes. Turkey signed the deal with Israel for purely Turkish reasons, regardless of whether Hamas approved or rejected it. The agreement may offer Hamas a chance to manage its foreign political relations based on its interests rather than on ideology. The Turkish-Israeli agreement may maintain the blockade on Gaza until further notice, with some inconclusive solutions. July 1, 2016 AMMAN, Jordan Prior to the month of Ramadan, Islamic State (IS) spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani called for increased attacks worldwide in an audiotape released on May 21. Ramadan, the month of conquest and jihad. Get prepared, be ready to make it a month of calamity everywhere for nonbelievers, he announced. IS executed this threat by launching attacks across the region including a June 21 suicide truck-bomb attack on Jordanian forces, killing seven and injuring 13 in the Rukban border area. On June 26, IS claimed responsibility for the strike and posted a video of the bombing on Amaq, a news agency affiliated with the terrorist group. By publicly claiming this attack, IS intensified its ongoing struggle against the Hashemite kingdom. Why did IS strike Jordan? Amman joined the international coalition against IS in September 2014. After IS brutally burned Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh last year, government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani promised an earth-shaking response. King Abdullah then increased the countrys airstrikes targeting IS stronghold in Raqqa, Syria. Hassan Hassan, co-author of the book ISIS: Inside the Army of terror, told Al-Monitor that IS considers the Hashemite kingdom worse than the Americans because this is an Arab and Muslim country that has declared war against it. Oraib Rantawi, the director of the Amman-based Quds Center for Political Studies, explained that the Rukban bombing should be understood within the larger regional context. IS started losing territory in Iraq and Syria and was being cornered in many fronts, Rantawi explained. This pushed IS to commit such attacks to send messages to all parties concerned that [they] are still strong and have the ability to harm [their] enemies," he added. Hassan believes that the strike was designed to increase IS popularity within certain segments of Jordanian society, especially citizens who view the Hashemite leadership as illegitimate and apostate. Approximately 2,000 Jordanians have left the country to fight with IS, and Islamist expert Mohammed Abu Rumman estimates that there are more than 10,000 jihadi Salafists across the Hashemite kingdom. IS is trying to attract Jordanian jihadi sympathizers, and there are plenty of them, Hassan said, adding, Both IS and al-Qaeda think that Jordan has a massive underground recruitment opportunity that [they] can tap into. The site chosen for the attack appeared deliberate. On the video posted by Amaq, it noted that the operation struck the American-Jordanian Rukban military base. Near this site, American, British and Jordanian special forces have reportedly established an outpost to support Syrian rebel groups. By striking at this sensitive spot, IS appears to be likewise sending a message to Washington about the dangers of actively supporting Syrian opposition militants. Al-Ghad columnist Fahed Khitan told Al-Monitor that although this is the first time IS claimed responsibility for a successful border attack against Jordan, it has repeatedly attempted to strike the Hashemite kingdom in the past. Khitan said the Rukban bombing might have been revenge against Amman for killing seven jihadists in a March raid by Jordanian security forces in the northern city of Irbid. The Hashemite kingdom publicly blamed IS for the firefight, which left one Jordanian security officer dead. Analysts believe that IS ongoing conflict with rebel groups partially motivated the June 21 truck bomb. Just as IS has launched a series of cross-border attacks into Turkey designed to pressure Ankara regarding its policy toward the Syrian war, the recent Rukban killing may have a similar goal. Hassan noted that IS would try to increase its attacks in the border area. This could lead to Jordan closing its border and sabotaging the access Syrian rebels desperately require to continue fighting. Internal developments within IS could have played a role in this attack. In May, three groups that were loyal to IS merged together in Daraa, southern Syria. The National reported that the unified group, called the Khalid bin Walid Army, has been more effectively able to repel attacks by rebel groups in this area. Hassan explained that the new union has led to improved coordination among the group and allowed the leadership to better take advantage of IS members in its operations. Hassan expects additional attacks against Amman given the new changes within IS in this strategic area close to Jordans border. The same day of the June 21 strike, King Abdullah vowed that the country would respond with an iron fist against those who threaten Ammans security. The London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported that Jordan bombed IS-affiliated targets in southern Syria on June 25, which was Ammans first military response after the Rukban bombing. Al-Hayat did not reveal if there were injuries or deaths from the strikes, and the Jordanian military never officially disclosed the attacks. However, Khitan, who is considered close to senior Jordanian decision-makers, confirmed to Al-Monitor the military operation. IS Rukban attack was designed to send a strong message to the Jordanian leadership and security forces. However, immediately after the truck bombing, Amman declared the Rukban area a closed military zone while preventing food and medical supplies for the more than 60,000 refugees. More than half of the trapped refugees are minors, and disease and malnutrition are spreading rapidly in these harsh conditions. Once again, the Syrian refugees who are overwhelmingly Muslim are paying a heavy price for IS military strikes. Editor's note: This article has been updated since its initial publication. July 1, 2016 As part of its reconciliation agreement with Turkey, Israel made a commitment to pay some $20 million to the families of those hurt during the Mavi Marmara flotilla raid. Inevitably, the clause prompted sharp responses in the Israeli political world. HaBayit HaYehudi leader Naftali Bennett said that he and the other ministers from his party will oppose the agreement because "compensation to the perpetrators of a terrorist act is a dangerous precedent Israel will regret in the future. Former Minister Gideon Saar wrote on Facebook, When the Palestinian Authority compensates the families of terrorists, we are outraged, and rightly so. Creating this kind of precedent by compensating aggressors is not only an assault on our national dignity. It is also a serious strategic error by Israel, whose struggle against terrorism is far from over. But Israelis arent the only ones infuriated. The agreement to compensate those injured by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) actions, whether they were terrorist activists, as they are called in Israel, or human rights activists, as they are called in Turkey, has also angered groups in Gaza and the West Bank. For years, human rights organizations have tried to get the Israeli government to take responsibility for harming civilians, but Israel passed a series of laws that prevent Palestinians from suing for damages to body or property. Soon after the second intifada, the Knesset approved amendments to its civil tort law. In Israel, these amendments were nicknamed the intifada law, though human rights activists prefer to call them Israels defensive wall. Amendment 4, which was passed immediately after Operation Defensive Shield, was intended to halt a tidal wave of claims by Palestinians who suffered as a result of IDF activities. We are not even talking about people who conducted terrorist attacks in Israel. We are talking about the most basic and logical thing imaginable: compensating civilians who were injured by Israeli fire over the years, said Mustafa Ariq, a civil rights activist in the Gaza Strip. We cooperated with groups in Israel like Adalah to prompt Israel to recognize its responsibility to civilians who were killed or injured, he added. According to him, not only are there thousands of civilians in the Gaza Strip who suffered injuries as a direct result of IDF assaults, Gaza is also full of people who have paid a steep price over the years for the illogical and inhumane closure that Israel imposed on the territory. Attorney Fadi Qawasmeh of Hebron, who represents Palestinians in Israeli courts, told Al-Monitor that the changes that Israel made to its civil tort laws exempts it from paying compensation even in cases where the injured parties were innocent civilians uninvolved in any aggressive action. The law determines that Israel is not responsible for damages caused to the subjects of a hostile state. Nine human rights organizations appealed to the Supreme Court to annul the amendment. In late 2006, the court accepted some of their arguments, ruling that Palestinians who are not members of terrorist organizations could sue the state. Even after the court's ruling, however, the government continued to deter these kinds of suits. In July 2012, the Knesset approved Amendment 8 to the law. It established a series of obstacles that effectively make it impossible for Palestinians to sue Israel for damages. To highlight the impact of this law, Qawasmeh recalled the recent killing of 15-year-old Palestinian Mahmoud Badran on Highway 443. The IDF admitted that the boy had not committed any crime, and the soldiers who killed him were interrogated by the military police. I can already tell you that the family of the boy, who was killed by accident, will not receive any compensation and the IDF [already] announced that he was shot by mistake, he said. According to him, Israel has barricaded itself with laws and amendments to its tort laws that prevent Palestinians from suing it for damages under almost any circumstances. According to Qadura Fares, a senior member of the Fatah movement, Israels agreement to compensate those injured on the Turkish flotilla is further evidence that Israel only understands force. He claims that the current agreement, reached after a six-year crisis in Israels relationship with Turkey, provides the Palestinians with ideas on how they should act to make Israel take responsibility for its actions. Fares added that the matter requires in-depth study and scrupulous investigation. While this legal "wall" makes it impossible to file lawsuits in Israeli courts, international courts are an entirely different story. Qawasmeh explained that citizens of foreign countries can sue for damages in their own countries, just as Israeli-American victims of terrorism filed suit against Hamas over actions for which the organization claimed responsibility. The suit also named the branch of the French Credit Lyonnais bank where Hamas has an account. The Palestinians realize that the generous compensation that Israel agreed to give those harmed in the Marmara incident was the result of lengthy political bargaining on an agreement that balances the interests of two countries facing an international crisis. Nevertheless, they also believe that this precedent opens a door for Palestinian claims. So far, lawyers representing Palestinians in Israeli courts have attempted to find loopholes in existing tort law, but to no avail. Now that Israel is to compensate people that it defines as terrorists, lawyers believe that a precedent has been set that will help them in international courts. It will be interesting to see how Israel handles these claims and how it explains why it refuses to compensate Palestinians after already compensating Turks, said Fares. If you paid $21 million to the Turks, how much money will you have to pay us? We'll have to wait and see. July 1, 2016 Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud is currently presiding over two hawkish princes he appointed in 2015 to run the kingdom. Since then, many observers have tried to pierce a hole in the iron curtain drawn around Saudi royal succession and rivalries to understand or at least predict the logic of royal succession and the potential competition it generates. The rise to power of Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has already been noted. He apparently has eclipsed his cousin Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, recently reported to be ill and near death. The deputy crown prince is said to be determined to procure more power to secure his position as future king while his father is still alive. The alleged rivalry is fueling a lot of speculation. Saudi succession to the throne is a mystical affair, a prerogative of the king, with only an inner circle of princes and confidants privy to its intrigues. Moreover, while Mohammed has achieved great visibility thanks to his erratic war in Yemen, regular visits to the United States and Europe and economic plan Vision 2030, his cousin Nayef, who is in charge of the kingdom's internal security, is truly the Saudi deep state. Only a foolish junior prince would try to penetrate this deep state, now an empire of intelligence services, police agencies and emergency forces, in addition to a vast number of civil servants, judges, prison officials and Wahhabi loyalist clerics. Perhaps only serious ill health or the death of its master can shift the deep state. Nayef will only abandon that hidden empire when he becomes king. As he has no sons to inherit the job, he would soon have to groom a replacement minister. Saudis are rather stoic about the issue of royal succession. They have always been spectators of a royal drama that is suddenly broadcasted without prior notice or alerts. After the death of every king, they are summoned to swear the oath of allegiance, baya, according to God's law. Royal doors are open to clerics, nobility and commoners to come and swear that they are obedient to whoever happens to be the new king. So in January 2015, Salman was no exception and he immediately received the allegiance of the crowds. But his two promoted princes also expected people to flock to their palaces to announce their submission. Today, Saudis are not only meant to swear allegiance to the king, but to a number of other senior princes, a novelty even in the theology of the Wahhabi loyalists who are dominant among Saudi higher clerics. Saudis are meant to rush to offer their allegiance as quickly as possible, lest someone dies before swearing the oath. If that happens, the person will then die a miserable death, without "the rope of the oath to submit to a legitimate ruler firmly tied around his neck," dubbed a jahiliyya death. No matter how unjust a ruler is, it is better to rush and give him the oath. If he is a thief or abuser who lashes people without reason, you are under obligation to submit and never challenge him. All that relies on disputed sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, but there is no scope for challenge or debate. In Saudi Arabia, loyalist Wahhabis propagate the obligation in support of the political establishment that continues to nourish them and pay their salaries. While most of them have strong connections to Nayef as preachers, judges, educators and religious police, they got seriously upset and probably felt a little less than loyal when the king limited their powers. Salman recently forbade the religious police to arrest people for violating morality. This edict has not been so successful, though, as they recently arrested men with dubious haircuts in Mecca for having "bad, un-Islamic hair." For those who cannot rush to the royal palace for the oath, modern technology provides a solution. There is always an electronic baya and an active Twitter hashtag. You simply register your oath by contributing a line or two of good words and abundant supplications to keep the guardians of the Muslim community in good health and prosperity. When Salman became king, some teachers erected cardboard models of him with a hole around his hand so children could insert their little palms to shake hands and display their allegiance. So modern imagination is juxtaposed on an ancient tradition to enlist very young kids and train them in the art of voluntary submission some would say servitude. No one wants to be the last to know about succession developments. To protect themselves from being in such a position, Saudis have adopted a rather interesting discourse, saying that those who know the secrets of succession don't talk, and those who talk don't know. This is an ingenious way out and a justification for their disenfranchisement, marginalization and redundancy. If ever they comment on succession or royal rivalries to foreign correspondents, they remain "anonymous sources." They are not to be blamed. A Saudi who speculates publicly about the imminent death of the king or the ill health of a senior prince can be jailed. Foreign correspondents who speculate are given 48 hours to get out of the country. Nevertheless, inside Saudi Arabia, speculation about royal succession has never stopped in private conversations. There were so-called rational ways introduced to deal with the unpredictability of Saudi succession. King Fahd, who died in 2005, introduced the Basic Law of Governance in 1992, a sort of co-constitution to be used alongside the Quran, which is considered the Saudi constitution. He consolidated the right of the house of Saud to rule and stipulated that the best and the most senior should become king. But "the best" is rather ambiguous and often involves both marginalizing senior princes and bringing others to the inner circle of power. Seniority is equally ambiguous, with princes expected to interpret it not as the eldest, but as "aslah," most qualified, for the job. This ambiguity has left many disgruntled senior princes without a portfolio. In 2007, King Abdullah invented the Allegiance Committee, consisting of 33 senior princes, to elect a future king. He appointed Salman as crown prince and also invented the post of deputy crown prince. However, he kept changing his mind about who should fill the latter position until he settled on Prince Muqrin as deputy crown prince in the last years of his reign. The king expected the princes to respect his royal orders. But when Salman became king, he immediately jumped on the opportunity to dismiss Muqrin and bring two younger princes to power, thus excluding his own remaining brothers, nephews and his other sons. What conclusions do we draw from this pattern? Saudi succession defies any rule and does not follow any common pattern. The future king cannot be predicted based on seniority or other presumably reliable principles. The king basically sets the rule and he can do this with complete disregard for all the written texts and committees already in place to deal with succession. So, as long as Salman is alive, he will remain the first and final arbiter of Saudi internal politics, including the urgent issue of "the two Mohammeds," as the two most senior princes came to be known after they were appointed. The stakes are too high for the princes to contest each other in public. There is a sort of modus operandi between the two contestants. The king remains the final arbiter. The two princes will not challenge each other openly because this would shake the house of Saud and could eventually lead to their demise. So, in the meantime, the iron curtain remains firmly drawn, while both Saudis and outside observers rush to interpret and speculate on the basis of very limited information, most of which is unattributed. July 1, 2016 GAZIANTEP, Turkey The battle launched May 31 to liberate the city of Manbij in northern Syria has progressed at an accelerated pace. The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) led by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) achieved noticeable progress against the Islamic State (IS) on the ground in the span of a few short weeks, aided by support from international coalition warplanes and the participation of US military consultants. These forces were thus able to liberate all of Manbijs countryside, its western gate, silos, grain mills and the Assadiyeh neighborhood that is considered the gate to Manbij, barely one month after operations began. By June 28, the SDF had gained control of one-third of the city, after the liberation of the traffic police building, southwest Manbij. Manbij is only 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Turkish border and 80 kilometers northeast of Aleppo. Before the latest conflict erupted, it was home to approximately 120,000 people, prior to being overrun by IS on Jan. 23, 2014. With the liberation of Manbij now, IS is losing the only strategic gateway linking its areas of control in Syria and Iraq with the Turkish border, which serves as the main route for jihadis arriving from European countries and other parts of the world. The border crossings between Syria and Turkey represent an important aspect of IS capability to ferry fighters, weapons and supplies from and to its areas of influence inside Syria and Iraq. Concerning the conduct of military operations in Manbij and its environs, the official spokesman for the SDF Manbij military council, Cherfan Darwish, told Al-Monitor that SDF forces were successfully advancing toward the city and tightening the noose around IS militants inside. Our forces have encircled the city from all sides and cut off all lines of communication and supplies. We are tightening the noose around them, he said. Manbij has a special strategic importance due to its being a crossroads linking four of Syrias provinces. To the north, it is bordered by the cities and towns of Aleppos eastern countryside; southward, its administrative border adjoins the central Syrian provinces of Hama and Homs; and to the east, it borders Raqqa, the de facto capital of the IS caliphate. Darwish said IS militants are employing military tactics primarily reliant on the use of tunnels, suicide bombings and explosive-laden car bomb attacks that have hindered the SDF's ability to advance more rapidly. He said, Our troops are fortifying their attacking positions around Manbij a few hundred meters away from the citys center, in preparation for the second phase aimed at securing the city. We expect our advance to be slow inside the city, due to the mines and booby traps planted by IS militants to impede us from taking control of Manbij. Manbij has an added importance to Syrian Kurds in its capacity as the first city to fall under their control recently west of the Euphrates, which opens the road toward the cities of al-Bab and Jarablus. The Kurdish control over Manbij allows, for the first time, a link to be secured between the three pockets (Afrin, Kobani and Jazeera) of Kurdish control in the east and west, thus laying the geographic foundations of a Kurdish province by controlling most of the region bordering southern Turkey. In that regard, Aldar Khalil, an executive committee member of the Movement for a Democratic Society, told Al-Monitor that dealing a decisive blow to IS in that area would contribute not only in destabilizing its existence in Syria but in Iraq as well, and all the areas under its control. He added that IS militants used Syrian lands as a strategic base and gateway for the perpetration of their crimes in the region, Europe and the world. Khalil was candid about the intent of the SDF to wrest control of the areas separating the northern Syrian Kurdish provinces of Afrin and Kobani from the grip of IS. He said, Liberating the areas between Afrin and Kobani would contribute in reaching a settlement to the growing crisis in the country, while permanently drying up the sources of support enjoyed by IS, Jabhat al-Nusra and other such groups and factions associated with the two extremist organizations. He added that liberating those areas would contribute in strengthening relations between the different components and peoples of the region (Kurds, Arabs, Turkmens, Circassians) to draw a road map in which would participate all those seeking to resolve the Syrian crisis. This road map will also be a prelude to ending the state of division among Syrians and a beginning of the end of the tragedy that has befallen us. Controlling Manbij would cross the red line repeatedly drawn by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as the latter had warned about crossing the west side of the Euphrates River. Turkey is suspicious of the YPG, which it accuses of having links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been waging a 30-year rebellion in the Kurdish regions of southeast Turkey. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Turkish author and analyst Mohamed Zahed Kol accused the SDF of being a political and military movement under the control and leadership of the Salih Muslim-led Democratic Union Party [PYD]. He added, Battles waged by these forces during the past two years fall contrary to the actions undertaken by moderate Syrian opposition forces. Kol indicated that from the onset of its military operations, the SDF occupied Arab and Sunni Turkmen villages in an unjustified, sectarian, ethnic and inhumane manner. He stressed that the United States backed the SDF under the pretext of empowering the anti-IS front, though said forces also entered into numerous conflicts with moderate Syrian factions. Kol questioned the actions of the SDF and its lack of political or military decision-making independence, saying, Its actions are dictated by the PYD. The SDF participates in the PYDs terrorist activities and is a danger to the security of Syria and Turkey alike. Kol concluded his remarks by stating, What is important for Turkey is that its national security not be threatened. Turkeys stance vis-a-vis the border is that the identity of those controlling said border is extremely important to its internal security, and Ankara is cooperating with international allies to safeguard its national security interests. Despite the fact that military confrontations are raging in most Syrian territories, the battle to liberate the city of Manbij may redraw alliances between local military forces, and between those forces and regional countries as well as the international coalition, in order to confront IS. July 1, 2016 They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind. For many, this saying applies to the shocking terrorist attack at Istanbuls Ataturk Airport. The usual suspect although it did not declare any formal responsibility is naturally the Islamic State (IS). The three suicide bombers who blew themselves up June 28, inflicting a devastating blow to Turkish public spirits, to the authority of the government and to the weight of the country in the international political scene, have been identified and point toward IS involvement. There have been a series of mini-massacres known to be perpetrated by IS during the last year with hundreds of lives lost and more than 1,000 wounded, but all of these were not sufficient to make IS the No. 1 terrorist threat to Turkey. In the Istanbul airport attack, the culprits belong to the lands, and presumably the Muslim societies, of the former Soviet Union. One is Chechen or Daghestani from the Northern Caucasus, and the other two are from the Turkic republics of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. At the time of this writing, the names of two of the three, Vadim Osmanov and Rakim Bulgarov, both carrying Russian passports, were officially announced by Turkish authorities. Osmanov and Rakim were known to be active IS members. Turkish security officials are not competent in terms of intelligence gathering to thwart such terror attacks, but they are quite efficient in terms of tracking the culprits after the fact. For a few years now, Turkey has been the jihadi highway, and its porous long frontier with Syria has been an easy passage for all sorts of Salafi opposition groups under the support of Ankara, Riyadh and Qatar, including al-Qaedas Syrian branch Jabhat al-Nusra and IS participants. It is an open secret that IS has many sleeper cells in Turkey. Under the favorable umbrella of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) for all sorts of Islamist activities, IS found an affectionate bosom to entrench, expand and stay relatively safe within the territory of Turkey. The Turkish security agencies tasked with supporting anti-Bashar al-Assad Salafi opposition groups consequently established contacts with many Salafists, most of them residing in the refugee camps along the border or in the Turkish border towns. Thus, they accumulated a lot of precious information about who is who in the jihadi highway. Why then is there an intelligence lapse? It is mainly because of the laxity of the AKP political rule in the assessment of terrorism. For a long time, Turkish authorities refrained from affixing the label of terrorist to IS, but it easily stuck the label on the Syrian Kurdish groups fighting the Turkish government. The pro-Sunni Islamist rule of the AKP under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in an increasingly sectarian fight in Syria. Its priority is to thwart Kurdish gains under the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and People's Protection Units (YPG) against IS in the Rojava region, a de facto autonomous region of Syria. Those Kurds under the political flag of the PYD with the YPG turned out to be the most effective fighting force on the ground against IS and proved to be the closest ally for the Americans. This was seen in the very recent campaign to retake the strategic town of Manbij, which is between the Turkish border and Raqqa, IS so-called capital in Syria. Whenever speaking on developments concerning Syria, Erdogan directs his not-very-implicit criticism toward Washington because of its alliance with the PYD and YPG. He has always listed the Kurdistan Workers Party, PYD, YPG and IS in one package of terrorist organizations, sometimes omitting the last one but never forgetting to emphasize the first three. The nuance and the apparent prioritizing of the Syrian Kurdish groups affiliated to the Kurdish terrorists by the Turkish authorities did not go unnoticed by IS. IS, although no longer enjoying its previous freedom in crossing the Turkey-Syria border, not only sees where the priority of the current Turkish government lies when it comes to its Syrian policy, but also recognizes Turkey as the weakest link in the anti-IS coalition. Hitting Turkey devastatingly could have several benefits for IS. One is to deter Ankara from more effective cooperation in the anti-IS coalition, which could also serve as a deterrent for a number of Western countries that might see that IS terror is not waning and therefore would not like to invite it to their own territory. It is also a very strong signal to potential IS recruits all over the world that the organization, despite some losses in Iraq and Syria, is still alive and kicking. Two weeks ago, CIA Director John Brennan said that the campaign against IS has not reduced the groups terrorism capability and global reach. The Istanbul airport attack may have validated that prediction. After the Istanbul attack, Brennan made another assessment carried extensively by Turkish social media that Turkey is vulnerable to more terrorist attacks. A passport policeman at the Istanbul airport, only hours after the attack, looked at me with a sad and a bit puzzled expression, made a reference to that assessment and, fishing for a more optimistic prediction, asked my opinion: Do you think, he asked, there could be a worse terrorist attack than this one? Let us pray, I responded, not to have one like this anymore. The worries are even more augmented with Ankaras new flirtation with Israel and Russia. With those in the helm in Ankara changing the track so dramatically and the public unsure of where Turkey is navigating, the new attempts at rapprochement with Israel and Moscow may serve as a recipe for IS sleeper cells to commit further terrorist attacks in Turkey. The terrorist attack at Istanbuls Ataturk Airport underlines that Turkey is, at this juncture, the most vulnerable country in Eurasia. As long as the Turkish government does not attach priority to the fight against IS, anybody who steps into Ataturk Airport faces an unwritten message: Welcome to the most vulnerable country of the world. Did you hear the one about the film director who got his start in Birmingham, who convinced "Harry Potter's" Daniel Radcliffe to play dead for an entire movie? True: The July 4 weekend has brought the national release of "Swiss Army Man," the oddball story of a castaway who's saved by a dead guy. In it, Paul Dano plays a man who's stranded on an island and decides suicide is his only way out ... until a corpse washes up on the beach. As "Manny," Radcliffe seems to play a role that's part Bernie, from "Weekend at Bernie's;" part Wilson, from "Cast Away;" and part campfire scene from "Blazing Saddles." The whimsical trailer shows Manny serving as a companion with many useful functions, from chopping logs to serving as personal watercraft. Also, despite his zombie-ish appearance, he talks. The trailer doesn't make clear how much of this is supposed to be real and how much is hallucinatory, but that's presumably all part of the fun. Promotional materials describe "Swiss Army Man" as "a film by Daniels." But Daniels isn't a person, it's a plural for the two-man team of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. The Internet Movie Database credits the two as co-writers and co-directors of the project. Daniel Scheinert, center, is shown in a photo from 2003, when he appeared in a local theater production in Birmingham. Also shown are Suzanne Mann, left, and Tam DeBolt. (Mark Almond photo/Birmingham News file) Scheinert has some Alabama history. A 2003 Birmingham News article about the inaugural season of The Little Theater Players described him as a standout in the production of "What I Did Last Summer:" "Daniel Scheinert is front and center as Charlie, and he handles the part with an ease that belies his young age. He's confident when he needs to be, tentative when it's appropriate, and manages to make Charlie, who could come off as a whiny, rebellious teenager, quite likable." A 2004 story described him as a senior at the Jefferson County International Baccalaureate School who'd won a student filmmaking competition with "My Little Princess IX: Best Friends For Never." More recently, in a 2010 interview with the website flux.net, Scheinert said that after a start in theater, "I caught the film bug through the awesome Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival" in Birmingham. The interview also takes a prophetic turn, when the interviewer observes that "Manipulating time and people's bodies and motions are a theme in your work, often to grotesque and/or hilarious effect," and asks what they like about that territory. "I love that we can explore what seems like a ridiculous idea and take it so seriously that, while it becomes grotesque and hilarious, it becomes beautiful at the same time," said Kwan. "Our last two videos have a bunch of people dancing ugly in their underwear (for "Underwear" by FM Belfast) and a drunken hipster chick puking fireworks. It sounds so silly!" "We're very self-aware filmmakers," said Scheinert. "We love beautiful imagery and storytelling, but we have a hard time taking ourselves seriously. (Can you tell?) So the most honest thing to do is to dissect the stories we're telling, show the ugly side, make a joke, and highlight the contradictory moments." In retrospect, it seems they were well on the way to creating a film in which cadaver flatulence would figure prominently. But before that, they created a music video that took the world by storm: The crazed clip for "Turn Down For What," the DJ Snake/Lil John dance tune that became a global hit a couple of years back. That was good for over half a billion views on YouTube alone. In a new interview at www.theverge.com, writer Tasha Robinson says that "Daniels' work tends to be dizzying, because nothing is ever fixed in place for long. That's one reason their strange, melancholy feature debut, Swiss Army Man, is so compelling: It's the first time they've had space to relax and explore their ideas about adaptation, change, and emotions at length." In the interview, Kwan and Scheinert talk at length about the process of developing the ideas in "Swiss Army Man," and bringing them to the screen with Radcliffe's help. Scheinert says that after years of work on the movie, he's included to wait for a compelling new concept before he commits to another large-scale project. "I'm at a point where I want to keep an open mind and look for inspiration. I just don't want to repeat myself," he says. "I want to make sure I'm inspired enough to work on something for three more years. I think it's important to not just be thrilled about our careers being somewhere they've been before, for the sake of opportunities." Movie ticketing sites indicate that "Swiss Army Man" is showing at Carmike's Summit 16 in Birmingham, the AMC Festival Plaza 16 in Montgomery and the Cobb Hollywood 16 in Tuscaloosa. It isn't showing in Huntsville, according to www.fandango.com, but is playing at several locations in Nashville. It's on no screens in the Mobile area, according to the site, but can be seen at the Carmike 18 in Pensacola. Fultondale police detectives are trying to find three suspects who committed an armed robbery at the Hardee's on Decatur Highway. Authorities said the males had handguns and instructed employees and customers to get down on the floor during the robbery at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. One of the suspects took cash from the register, police said. The individual who took the money was wearing black jeans and shirt with "COOGI" written on the back, police said. The subject who held the victims captive had on black T-shirt and black shorts with a gray cap, police said. One more person maybe involved. All three fled in a gray SUV, which could be GMC Envoy. If someone recognizes these suspects or knows anything about the robbery, please call. Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama at 205-254-7777. All tips are anonymous. A black bear was struck by a vehicle near Tuskegee on Friday night, Alabama State Troopers said. Cpl. Jess Thornton said the accident occurred near the 38 mile marker on Interstate 85. The driver was not injured. The black bear may be injured but it ran into the woods after it was hit. Thorton said he wasn't sure if this is the same bear Tuskegee police is trying to find. If anyone sees the animal, stay away from it and call police officers at 334-727-0200. Terri McGuire Mollica, the former nonprofit CFO of Birmingham Health Care and Central Alabama Comprehensive Health in Tuskegee, lost her appeal to reduce her sentence of 28 months in prison. In a bizarre sideshow to a larger health fraud case involving Mollica, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected her argument that the sentence related to drug and witness tampering charges was an unjustifiable and unreasonable departure from sentencing guidelines. Prosecutors charged that Mollica in early 2015 had sent one package containing the statue of a dog that had 76 Valium, 38 Zolpidem (i.e. Ambien) and approximately 100 other as-yet-unidentified pills inside it, according to court records. Another package contained a desk-top clock with 49 Adderall, and 41 Ritalin tablets. She pleaded guilty to charges that she mailed drugs - either as retribution or intimidation -- to a witness and the spouse of a prosecutor involved in the health care fraud investigation. For that, she received 28 months. "The nature of the offense and the need to uphold the law and integrity of judicial proceedings both point in the direction of a large enhancement," according to the appeals court ruling filed Thursday. In a hearing last October, the U.S. Attorney's office had recommended 12 months after she pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful use of a communication facility to commit a felony. The plea was a deal surrounding allegations of drug and witness tampering. But U.S. District Judge Virginia Emerson Hopkins in Birmingham didn't go along with the 12-month recommendation and more than doubled the sentence. "In the 11 years in my job, Mrs. Mollica," the judge said at the hearing. "I've never seen someone so calculating and vindictive." Judges on the court of appeals agreed those observations solidified the justification of the longer sentence. "The district court noted the nature and circumstances of the offense indicated that the offense was conducted in a calculating and sophisticated way, in an attempt either to intimidate or to retaliate against a co-conspirator and a prosecutor trying her case," according to the appeals court ruling. Mollica committed the crime while out on bond in a massive health fraud case. Prosecutors have said Mollica illegally obtained $1.7 million from her part in diverting millions from the federally qualified health centers, Birmingham Health Care and in Tuskegee. She has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing Aug 9. Last month, Jonathan Dunning was convicted on 98 of 112 counts of wire fraud and bank fraud and money laundering in connection with the two community health centers. The body of a 20-year-old Montgomery man reported missing nearly three months ago was found on Thursday, police confirm. Rickem Samuels was found dead in the 300 block of South Hopper Street, Lt. Denise Barnes said. She said the man's death remains under investigation and no other details were being released at this time. Samuels was last seen at around 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 2 in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart on Eastern Boulevard in Montgomery. He was getting into a black Nissan Versa four-door car, according to Central Alabama Crime Stoppers. He may have been heading to the area of Chase Street. Samuels, a graduate of Carver High School, worked at Hyundai Glovis. Samuels' team leader Nanette Thomas went missing eight days after Samuels. Montgomery police said their disappearances weren't related. In an interview with AL.com last week, Samuels' mother Ericka Davis said she was hopeful that her son would be found alive. "(Samuels) was a momma's boy," she said, adding that he has never disappeared or not been in contact with family. "He is a happy kid," Davis said. "He loves family. He is a respectable kid. He has dreams that he wants to accomplish." Samuels was set to start a welding program at Trenholm State Community College in May, his mother said. He was studying for the firefighters' exam. Billings police have no suspects and few leads in a series of seven arson fires that occurred in a span of three days last week along Grand Avenue. The investigation is ongoing, police Detective Brett Lapham said Friday, both by police and the fire marshals office. Given the times of the fires the early morning hours, for the most part and the proximity, police suspect the fires are related, Lapham said. The worst of the fires destroyed a boat and damaged an adjacent former tattoo shop at 1940 Grand Ave., just after 2 a.m. on June 22. The damage to the boat was $5,000, and $50,000-$70,000 to the adjacent building, Lapham said. But most of the arson fires have been much smaller. Theyve been set in Dumpsters, to a stuffed chair sitting in an alleyway, or to wooden pallets, he said. My fear is that most of the fires so far have been small and experimental, Lapham said, and the arsonist has not used an accelerant. He said neighbors can help reduce the chance that the arsonist strikes again by keeping eyes or, better yet, security cameras on their neighborhood. He said he encourages the latter choice, because quality digital security cameras that work well at night can be purchased for $800 or $900. The quality now is so much better than it used to be, he said. The better technology allows for night vision, and we recommend those. One surveillance camera showed one of the seven fires burning, but did not record an image of the person who set the fire. Maybe well get lucky and the next fire, if there is one, will include surveillance footage of the fire-setter, he said. An eighth fire that police suspect was also arson was set several blocks away, at 2063 Hewitt Drive. Police are not sure if the current rash of fires is related to the most destructive arson fire set in recent months the March 31 fire that damaged the Rose Park pool bath house. Lapham said investigators look for patterns in arson fires the time theyre set and the address where they occur being key pieces of evidence. Theyre also searching for evidence left behind, including fingerprints. There has been evidence collected after the most recent fires, he said, and its still being looked at. While residents and business owners neednt necessarily fear the person or people setting these fires, theyre wise to be aware that they may still be at it, Lapham said. He said hes asked officers working each shift to step up patrol in the neighborhood. Were a big city now, one that must deal with property crimes ranging from graffiti to arson. But all itll take is one good camera angle. Anyone with information about the blazes is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 245-6660. All callers will remain anonymous. Curious George, the childrens character, has travelled to many places, and celebrated several holidays in his lifetime Hanukkah, Christmas, even Halloween and St Patricks Day. But this year he is breaking his fast, going to the mosque, and preparing for Eid celebrations. In Its Ramadan, Curious George, written by Hena Khan, the inquisitive monkey and his caretaker, the Man with the Yellow Hat, learn about the month when Muslims eschew food and drink from dawn until dusk. Through his friend, Kareem, George learns about Islamic culture, charity and prayer. The two break their fast together as the sun sets with kabobs, pizza and chocolate-dipped bananas. As Eid, the holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan, approaches, George is given a gift as is customary a vest and the Man with the Yellow Hat swaps his headgear for a fez. Khan, a Maryland-based, Pakistani-American writer, who has already written two Islamic-themed picture books, grew up reading Curious George, and writing the latest in the series was an exciting opportunity to share this classic with her two sons. Our shared love for such a timeless and iconic character made it extra exciting to have the chance to write a Curious George book, she said. But to Khan, the timing of the book is just as important as the content. Im grateful for the chance to tell my stories to help challenge the dangerous and destructive narrative about American Muslims that is being propagated at a time of unfortunate hate-mongering, finger-pointing and fear. READ MORE: In search of the Ramadan moon For some Muslim American parents, the book is a means to have Curious George share their traditions and culture, without forgoing their American identity at a time when Islamophobia is high and even children are feeling the effects of social stigma. When my kids saw that a book about their religion was being made, with their superhero as the main character, it was a really deal for them, said Aseel ElBorno, a teacher and mother of two children living in the Virginia area. I think at a time when Muslims are being made to feel like they are not a part of American society, having a book like Curious George makes us become more mainstream, and I think thats the goal for a lot of Muslim Americans at this day and age, she said. The book has also been a hit with non-Muslim families, according to Khan. Crystal Lander, a Christian mother living in the DC area, said the book is a good primer on Ramadan for those who werent very familiar with it. I think its so important for kids to learn about about other cultures and religions, she said. I have lots of friends who are fasting this month, and Im so happy to know a bit more about their religion. Al Jazeera spoke with Hena Khan about her book, which, due to demand, is currently in its third printing. Al Jazeera: How did the idea come about for Curious George to partake in Ramadan? How difficult was it to introduce Islamic culture in a character thats already established? Khan: The idea for Curious George to celebrate Ramadan with his Muslim friends came from the publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The book is a part of a series in which George celebrates other holidays, and I think it was a wonderful step towards inclusion and diversity for the publisher to decide to include a Muslim holiday. George plays the part of a curious observer in the book. He supports his friend in his fast, joins in the breaking of the fast, visits the mosque to make charity baskets, receives gifts and celebrates the Eid holiday. I tried to weave in major events of the month and to stay true to the idea of George being curious, helpful, and sometimes getting into a little mischief. Al Jazeera: Curious George breaks fast, spots the Ramadan moon, and takes part in Eid celebrations. Where did you draw his experiences from? Khan: The experiences in the book primarily come from my own growing up as an American Muslim, as well as those of friends and family around the country. I wanted to highlight moments during Ramadan that are special to children, like special foods and treats, gathering for parties, and getting gifts. George is such a loveable character and it was a pleasure to have him experience a special time that is so significant to my family. Al Jazeera: Why focus on the Muslim community? And why through a childrens book? Khan : Its important for Muslim children, like all others, to see themselves in the books that they read, and for them to feel represented and included. To have these mirrors helps to foster pride and self-confidence in children. I grew up in America reading a lot, but never seeing characters that reflected my own experiences in the books I read. Its also important for children outside of the faith to be able to learn about their Muslim friends through books, and they can help to foster tolerance and understanding of different cultures. Al Jazeera: How has the book been received by Muslims and non-Muslims? Khan: The reception to the book has been incredible so far. Muslims have expressed so much joy over the book and the fact that it exists. Parents are saying that they wished they had this book while they were growing up, and are thrilled to share it with their children, schools and libraries. And the kids are so excited to have Curious George celebrating their holidays. READ MORE: Make your own fanoos Among non-Muslims, I have received a lot of support and enthusiasm for the book, including from teachers, librarians, booksellers, and parents who are eager for diversity in childrens literature and see this as an important contribution. The wide media coverage has been a nice surprise, but I think people are generally happy to see something positive about Islam, and book sales have been matching the excitement around it. Al Jazeera: Several years ago another book of yours almost got banned from a Georgia book fair because some parents deemed it inappropriate. This was before Donald Trump was running for office and before Islamophobia was rampant. What do you hope readers will take away from the book? Khan: It was unfortunate that the voice of one bigoted man in Georgia made headlines when he protested about my book Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns , but the reactions to his attempts to ban the book were heartwarming as educators, librarians and the publishing industry came out in full support of the book. Today, when anti-Muslim rhetoric is rampant and making life challenging for Muslims, and Muslim children in particular, Im hopeful that this book will help shape a more positive narrative. I would love readers of the book to recognise that American Muslims are friends, neighbours and an important part of our nations social fabric. We share the same values as our fellow Americans family, community, charity and a desire for peaceful coexistence. And I try to underscore those themes in the books I write. Al Jazeera: Are there any more Islamic-themed books you are working on? Khan: Im thrilled to have a middle grade novel entitled Aminas Voice coming out in March 2017 with Simon & Schusters new Muslim-focused imprint, Salaam Reads. The book will highlight the experiences of a shy sixth grader trying to navigate her friendships and family, who must face the vandalism of her mosque and find the confidence to bring her community together. I also have a follow-up book to Golden Domes called Pointed Minarets and Crescent Moons, which will be a shape concept book, due to come out in early 2018. And Im working on new ideas that I hope to be able to share soon. As Bollywood expands to global markets and genres many, unable to connect, seek local alternatives that speak to them. Many of Indias regional language filmmakers fear being swallowed up by the dominant Hindi language film industry, Bollywood. They have, therefore, created their own fan bases and industries. There are Kollywood, the Tamil language film industry, Tollywood, the Telegu film industry, and many other woods. But one film industry is boldly reaching out to the same market as Bollywood and it isnt doing too badly. The Hyderabad Deccan Urdu film industry, also known as Deccanwood, had its first cinema film release in 2005. Since then, many local films have been produced in Hyderabad and released alongside Bollywood productions. The Deccanwood industry caters to the same Hindi-Urdu speaking audience as Bollywood, but it offers a local dialect that seems to appeal. Starting out small Abrar Khan began working in Deccanwood part time when it was just starting. In 2010, I made my first video, Hyderabad Diaries, Khan, who also works as an administrator at a manufacturing plant, told Al Jazeera. The 28-year-old said that after receiving rave reviews from fans, he started the Hyderabad Diaries Channel on YouTube. It features a short weekly comedy video on everyday life in Hyderabad. The number of views were very low but the reviews were mostly positive, Khan said. But soon the views started increasing as did the positive reviews and now its the most subscribed Hyderabad YouTube channel. Khan, who directed a full Hyderabad feature film a few years ago, said that the audience was what motivated him to shoot weekly episodes of Hyderabad Diaries. I love filmmaking, that was the reason I started. But our audience loved our work, that was the reason I continued to do it, he said. Khan is excited about his latest film, Dubai Return, which is scheduled to be released during the Muslim Eid al Fitr holiday. The short film is the story of a young thug and a greedy mother who wants a rich overseas Indian groom for her daughter, but gets more than she bargained for. Khan said that initially it was very difficult to balance work with shooting films, but with time he learned to juggle the two. Movies are not a new passion in the Khan family. Khans father, Adnan Sajid Khan, also known as Gullu Dada, is the most famous Deccanwood hero. Outside audiences Hyderabad films are not only popular in Hyderabad, but with overseas Hyderabadis as well. Salem al Kaseri, an Indian living in Qatar, said that he has been watching Hyderabad films for more than a decade now. Bollywood films fail to capture the Hyderabad Hindi/Urdu dialect and the subtle comedy that is so inherent in this language, said Kaseri, who works as a manager at a motor vehicle company. I am not saying that my passion for Bollywood is dying. Its ever growing. But I feel Hyderabad films are a more humorous and expressive version of Bollywood. Kaseri added that he feels proud to support the Deccanwood industry. The Hyderabad film industry is from my city. When I support it, I feel I am supporting one of my own. Bollywood is so huge that sometimes I fail to identify with it any more. Khan agreed that Bollywood had become too large to cater to the preferences of local audiences. Bollywood cannot provide the essence of Hyderabad, such as the Hyderabadi language. They cannot capture the culture as perfectly as we can Its like a French cook trying to make Bagaara Khaana Daalcha [local Hyderabad dishes]; it just doesnt work, he chuckled. Deccanwood: Is the industry sustainable? But not everyone appreciates the Hyderabad movies. Muznah Madeeha, a social researcher in Qatar, said that she identifies more with Bollywood films than local Hyderabad films. Bollywood films showcase the NRI [non-resident Indian] culture nowadays, and thats who I am, said Madeeha, a mother of two who has been living outside India for more than 20 years. Still, the industry is growing, and Khan is confident that it is sustainable. I believe this industry has a lot of seriously untapped potential. With a healthy budget and some insanely talented directors like Aziz Naser [a noted Hyderabad film director], I think we can give many mainstream movies a run for their money. Khan explained that the average production cost for a Hyderabadi film was between $35,000 and $75,000, and that profits can be big. Revenue always depends on the final product, as we dont get to release our films in a lot of theatres. The opening weekend collection is comparatively very low compared with films from other industries. But if the film is a hit with the public, then let me tell you there are Hyderabad movies which have earned as much as $300,000. For this local Hyderabad film industry, run by part-time actors and producers making films in the same language and genre as Bollywood, the future seems promising. There are still a few indigenous groups existing in voluntary isolation in the Amazon for who knows how much longer. Last year, American anthropologists Robert Walker and Kim Hill of the University of Missouri and Arizona State University respectively took it upon themselves to write an editorial for the weekly journal Science, entitled Protecting isolated tribes. The tribes in question, according to Walker and Hill, are about 50 isolated indigenous societies across lowland South America with limited to no contact with the outside world. According to the prominent human rights group Survival International, there are more than 100 so-called uncontacted tribes living in voluntary isolation in the world, the vast majority of them in the South American Amazon. Walker and Hills strategy for protecting these groups is one of controlled contact, in which governments initiate well-organised and sustained contact with the tribes and gradually integrate them into the official domestic fold, where their rights can allegedly be better protected. As the anthropologists reasoning goes, isolated existence is unviable in the long term given designs on the tribes territory by groups such as miners, loggers, and hunters, and governments should therefore pre-empt the damage. Another genocide But the pro-contact campaign raises some significant issues. For one thing, the anthropologists job is to study human beings and their societies as they actually are, not to actively contribute to the drastic manipulation of the environment and conditions in which these societies exist. Representatives of tribes that have already been contacted in South America have taken the critique a step further, denouncing forcible contact as tantamount to genocide. In a recent video clip, Brazilian indigenous leader Olimpio Santos Iwyramu Guajajara reiterated a commitment to defending indigenous territory in the Amazon and elsewhere against the recommendations of anthropologists from some countries who want, once again, to violate the rights of the uncontacted Indians in the country. Such violations, he emphasised, would constitute yet another genocide. It's difficult to refrain from drawing parallels with other varieties of 'mission civilisatrice' that have long served as masks for profit-driven plunder throughout the globe, from Africa to the Americas and beyond. by Given the historical record, the G-word would hardly seem to be an exaggeration. As Survival Internationals Fiona Watson told the British daily Independent in May: In some of the contacts in the past, up to 90 percent [of indigenous people] have died within the first year Even when it is around 50 percent, that is a huge amount of people to lose. Now consider Walker and Hills claim that we know that soon after peaceful contact with the outside world, surviving indigenous populations rebound quickly from population crashes which is a rather polite and ambiguous way of acknowledging the near-certainty of mass indigenous death. Imagine the reaction if scientists were to advocate administering some noxious treatment to, say, white Americans with the assurance that, hey, the ones that managed to survive were sure to rebound quickly! Civilising missions Obviously, we mustnt jump to conclusions regarding the individual motivations of anthropologists pushing for controlled contact. But it is difficult to refrain from drawing parallels with other varieties of mission civilisatrice that have long served as masks for profit-driven plunder throughout the globe, from Africa to the Americas and beyond. OPINION: Amazon roads The beauty or the beast? These missions are, of course, for ever cast as being for the benefit of the hapless folks on the receiving end of them. As Walker and Hill tell it, forced contact is not only humane and ethical, the alternative is practically a crime: Leaving groups isolated, yet still exposed to dangerous and uncontrolled interactions with the outside world, is a violation of governmental responsibility. And while the authors themselves may indeed have the most charitable of intentions, the fact remains that this is exactly the sort of academic-official justification that is music to the ears of oil companies and like-minded entities eager to fully exploit the Amazons vast resources. In 2009, I was able to observe some of the ramifications of contact while hitchhiking with a friend in Ecuadors Amazon region. There, a tribe called the Huaorani was forced into contact in the 1950s by evangelical Christian missionaries, who did things like drop cooking pots and other gifts from helicopters and graciously assisted in coaxing tribe members into protectorates where they wouldnt interfere with oil operations. Toxic panorama When my friend and I visited, oil facilities saturated much of the landscape, and various international oil companies continued to buy the compliance of the areas Huaorani residents with everything from food to DVD players. A significant degree of indigenous dissatisfaction persists, however, owing to the forcible alteration of the tribes previous way of life and its replacement with one characterised by environmental contamination and disease. There are still a few indigenous groups existing in voluntary isolation in Ecuadors Amazon for who knows how much longer. Various Ecuadorians we spoke to in 2009 had internalised the civilising discourse to a certain extent, referring to the Huaorani as civilised and their uncontacted counterparts as uncivilised although not necessarily in a pejorative sense. Meanwhile, a cursory contemplation of the present panorama of toxic capitalism leaves one with the sneaking suspicion that voluntary isolation is in fact the more civilised option. Belen Fernandez is the author of The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work, published by Verso. She is a contributing editor at Jacobin magazine. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. Marta Ter is the coordinator of an awareness-raising campaign on human rights violations in the North Caucasus. Last January I went to Chechnya. When I was in Moscow airport, I got a call: Marta, Im sorry, you cant stay with me in Grozny like I promised. Ive had to leave Chechnya urgently, my life was in danger. Thats how Chechnya welcomed me once again, with friends who had to flee for questioning the practices of Ramzan Kadyrovs regime. In this case, my friend had denounced how a colleague of his had died after presumably receiving a brutal beating for having posted comments on social media that were not to the liking of Kadyrovs circle. Tough life for dissidents In Chechnya there is no free press. No political opposition. The NGOs know their role and they stick to it. The only place where freedom still exists is on the social media, and those who use it to express disagreement with certain policies know that they are placing themselves and their families in danger. At the very least, they can be beaten up, and in the worst case they can be killed or made to disappear. Other common practices include public shaming, burning down troublemakers homes or imprisonment on trumped-up charges. The last case of public shaming was that of Ramadan Dzhalaldinov, a resident of Kenhi, a village in the Chechen mountains. In April he uploaded a video to YouTube in which he asked Vladimir Putin to help resolve the deplorable situation his village was in and criticising the poor administration of the Chechen authorities. After this, Dzhalaldinov began to receive death threats. He fled to neighbouring Dagestan. On the night of May 12, a group of men forced their way into Dzhalaldinovs house and set fire to it, burning it to the ground. Then Chechen security forces surrounded the village, interrogating everyone about the whereabouts of Dzhalaldinov. They learned that he was in Dagestan and on May 15 there was an attempt to kidnap him from the mosque. Using the method of humiliation, the authorities put pressure on the honour not only of a particular person, but also of his or her family members. Nowadays, there is no way of resolving these offences if they are inflicted by authorities. by Finally, Dzhalaldinov made a public apology to Kadyrov. Without raising his eyes from the ground, Ramadan retracted his YouTube video, declaring that it had been a big mistake. He repeatedly begged the Chechen president to forgive him and warned everybody not to make the same mistake as him. This video was broadcast on Chechen television. Kadyrov accepted Dzhalaldinovs apologies and, in a magnanimous gesture, he allowed him and his family to return to Kenhi. At the same time as this was going on, Kadyrov sent out a warning to all the Chechens who had sought refuge in Europe: I know about all your comments, I know all the Instagram or Facebook profiles you use. We have all your comments saved and we know who you are and sooner or later youll answer for every one of your words. The honour code Honour occupies a fundamental place in the Chechen imagination. Customs and traditions that have always been at the centre of the Chechen way of life are enshrined in Nokhchallah, a code of conduct that brings together all the specific properties of the Chechen character. Hospitality, respect for elders, manliness and preservation of honour are some of the basic pillars on which Nokhchallah is built. By tradition, serious offences of honour were resolved by blood feud. READ MORE: Chechnyas hard-line protector of Muslim rights This honour code provides Chechens with an understanding of how they should live properly and respectfully. Yet, Kadyrov is disrupting it. He often uses public humiliation as punishment for those who dare to criticise him, and these people have no way to answer back to this offence. This was first used against relatives of suspected militants when their parents were forced to confess in front of a video camera how badly they educated their children. But little by little, public shaming has been widely used. OPINION: Chechnya The reality behind appearances In December 2015, Adam Dikayev, a Chechen blogger, disparaged a video shared by Kadyrov in which he was working out in a Putin T-shirt. Shortly after Dikayevs comments, a video was posted on Instagram showing Dikayev in his underpants a particularly painful humiliation in Chechnya recanting his criticism of Kadyrov and expressing his support for Putin: From now on, Putin is my father, my grandfather and everything. That same week, Aishat Inaeva, a social worker, was publicly shamed after circulating an audio clip on WhatsApp, in which she complained about the government. She and her husband were reprimanded by Kadyrov in a face-to-face meeting on Chechen TV. Visibly embarrassed, Inayeva took back everything she had said and her husband apologised for her. Using the method of humiliation, the authorities put pressure on the honour not only of a particular person, but also that of his or her family members. Nowadays, there is no way of resolving these offences if they are inflicted by authorities. By acting in this way, Kadyrov has disturbed the system of ethics that regulated Chechen society for centuries. Honour, dignity and freedom have lost their significance under Kadyrovs rule. His dictate now tries to control the new ways of life. But the humiliation of those who do not obey could have a boomerang effect against Kadyrov and his regime if it ever becomes weaker. Marta Ter is the coordinator of an awareness-raising campaign on human rights violations in the North Caucasus, at the Spain-based NGO Lliga dels Drets dels Pobles. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. DICKINSON -- The Bakken oil boom may be over, but people on the front lines of fighting crime in western North Dakota say drug trafficking is worse than ever. The price of drugs is dropping and an influx of out-of-state gangs are intensifying the problem, a lead agent with the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation says. Because the oil industry has slowed down, people automatically assume the drug world has slowed down. What weve found out is thats absolutely not the case, said Rob Fontenot, a BCI agent and member of the Southwest Narcotics Task Force. Theres more dope here now than there ever has been. Theres been a 75 percent drop in the price drug traffickers are getting for methamphetamine, Fontenot said. Plus, deadly fentanyl-laced heroin has spread from eastern North Dakota to the Bakken. The plummeting price of meth because of its prevalence in western North Dakota has led to it being trafficked and sold in greater quantities. Fontenot said meth that was going for $3,300 an ounce in the height of the oil boom is now worth about $800 an ounce on the street. I never imagined in my law enforcement career -- and Ive been working dope for 14 years -- that I would see meth for $800 an ounce, he said. U.S. Attorney for North Dakota Chris Myers said its obvious by his offices caseload that drug cases in the Bakken arent slowing down. Theres a myth outside of our state, Myers said. People believe that because oil activity has slowed, that the criminal activity has stopped. Thats just not true. It definitely has not slowed down and theres a good argument to be made that its continuing to increase. Gangs at the center Dickinson Police Capt. David Wilkie said the known gang activity in the city isnt stereotypical of what most people think it would be. While there are gang members in Dickinson, he said -- notably, the Country Boy Crips out of Bakersfield, Calif. -- theyre not here in droves. The gang is down in (California) and theyve got a couple guys up here that are accepting packages for when they send dope up here. These guys are using the local guys, or doing it themselves, to sell drugs, Wilkie said. Theyre not out recruiting, theyre not taking up turf and theyre not embezzling or asking for protection money from people. But theyre definitely here. Fontenot said many one-percenter motorcycle gangs -- the clubs who self-identify as outlaws and criminals -- have a presence in western North Dakota as well. He said the Hells Angels have an interest in the state, and the Bandidos and the Outlaws are already here. Wilkie added that the Prairie Rattlers gang has also taken up shop in western North Dakota. The Chicago-based Gangster Disciples street gang is also in the state, Fontenot said. Theyre not out flying their colors, but they are here, Wilkie said. Anytime they are here, they have the potential to do gang activity or be the front for the club. The Country Boy Crips have had a presence in the area since the summer of 2013, according to federal court documents. Many with that gang affiliation were indicted on drug-related crimes during an Bakken Organized Crime Strike Force sweep of 29 defendants in August 2015, Myers said. Gang-related gun crimes also consistently happen in western North Dakota, though they rarely lead to arrests. There was a brief shootout on April 30 between multiple black men with alleged gang ties in a Dickinson mobile home park. The incident left a 59-year-old man, who was in his home during the shootout, injured by stray bullet. Dickinson police say while they continue to investigate and search for the suspects, theyve made no arrests in the case and have encountered several uncooperative witnesses. In November 2015, 30-year-old Roger Falana -- who Minot police say had gang ties in Florida -- was shot and killed. The murder suspect, 26-year-old Johnny Cleveland Norwood Jr., was finally arrested Friday in Las Vegas. The most public gang-related crime in Dickinson history -- the drive-by shooting murder of 37-year-old David Porter outside of Century Apartments on Nov. 16, 2014 -- has still not been solved. A lot of times, this stuff is retaliation over a business dealing they had or a disrespect, Wilkie said. North Dakota Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner, a Dickinson Republican, said hes encouraging local law enforcement and the BCI to be transparent about incidents like these because, he said, the community needs to know. We have to work with the law enforcement to know what we can share with the public, Wardner said. Prosecuting cases Myers, who was appointed as the U.S. Attorney for North Dakota last October, said the Bakken Organized Crime Strike Force -- a collaborative law enforcement program in North Dakota and Montana between federal, state and tribal law enforcement agencies -- has been successful in prosecuting drug traffickers and other crimes in western North Dakota since it was formed last June. Were planning to have meetings this summer in Bismarck and revisit where were at, where were headed and what weve achieved, Myers said. In June alone, three people were sentenced in federal court for crimes involving meth trafficking in western North Dakota. Two Dickinson men -- Rocky Laurence Fowler and Laquan Andre Thomas -- are in the process of being indicted by a federal grand jury after their March arrests for the possession, distribution and intent to distribute heroin containing both fentanyl and furanyl fentanyl, a designer version of the powerful opioid. Myers said every prosecutor in his office -- including himself -- carries a large caseload. The U.S. attorneys office has prosecutors in Minot, Williston and Dickinson -- the Bakkens three largest cities -- as well as in Bismarck. Bakken Strike Force supervisor Rick Volk is the prosecutor in Williston and works alongside the Federal Bureau of Investigation at its office there. Myers said while he doesnt have concrete figures, his office has prosecuted or is currently prosecuting many large-scale, multi-defendant drug trafficking cases. He believes when they compile figures later this summer, theyll see an increase in cases involving transnational organizations doing business in North Dakota. Wilkie said Dickinson police are trying to be more proactive in thwarting drug trafficking alongside the Southwest Narcotics Task Force, but is just trying to keep our head above water with these issues. Wardner said he and other legislators are hoping that despite across-the-board cuts to state agencies, the BCI can maintain its current budget. He and other legislators met with BCI agents on Thursday to discuss funding and learn more about crimes the agency is investigating. Theyre concerned about losing people, Wardner said. They are now finally in a position where they can confront this stuff. So if we can keep the BCI and local (law enforcement) -- and the FBI is here now -- and we can keep all those people working together, its going to help. Analysis: Two writers offer different perspectives on how the recent Turkey-Israel deal could affect the Gaza Strip. Has Turkey abandoned Gaza? Ibrahim Hamami, a British Palestinian writer This week, Israel and Turkey announced a deal to repair and normalise relations after a six-year rift in their diplomatic relationship following the deadly attack on the Mavi Marmara, which left 10 Turkish citizens dead. Although the deal fulfilled almost all of Turkeys conditions regarding the victims of the deadly attack, it fell short of lifting the siege on Gaza, as was promised several times. This has drawn much criticism from the Palestinian side. One of Turkeys original demands for a deal was that Israel end its blockade on Gaza. Israel did not initially want to discuss about the blockade, refusing concessions of any kind. The two extreme positions had to be negotiated in order to find a middle ground. READ MORE: Gazas Palestinians divided over Israel-Turkey deal Ultimately, Turkey backed away from its original demand (as did Israel), but it still appears to have extracted good concessions from Israel over allowing access to Gaza. Turkey is seemingly overwhelmed with a variety of predicaments, including border issues with Syria, the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, the fight against Turkish rebels, and Russian hostility in the Syrian conflict. Despite all of these concerns, Turkey kept Gaza on its negotiating agenda, refusing to drop it as a third condition to strike a deal. Turkey had asked Israel to lift its blockade on Gaza, which is ruled by the Palestinian Islamist organisation, Hamas, but a compromise was reached to allow Turkish aid to reach Gaza through the southern Israeli port of Ashdod. Turkey will transfer materials to build residential buildings, as well as a 200-bed hospital, according to a senior Turkish official. Turkey has also said it will work to invest in Gazas energy and water sectors, which have collapsed after years of Israeli blockades and sporadic conflict. Is it a bad deal for Gaza? Did Turkey abandon Gaza? I dont think so. What is Turkeys motive, apart from being supportive of Palestinians in general, and Gaza in particular? Is there any obligation to do so, apart from a moral, principled position? Why should Turkey bother about Gaza when this is a bilateral deal? Hence, one must ask why there is so much criticism of this deal. One Palestinian official dismissed it as Muslim Brotherhood politics, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan trying to use the Palestinians as a shield to ward off criticism from his own Islamist supporters for making a deal with the Jewish state. Yet, many Palestinian officials are also cooperating with Israel. We should also remember that when news reports spoke about a possible deal earlier this past February a deal that would include a seaport connecting Gaza to Northern Cyprus these same officials promised to thwart any attempt by Turkey to establish a lifeline to Gaza, as they were concerned about Cypriot sovereignty. OPINION: What the Israeli-Turkish reconciliation says about Gaza As a Palestinian, I want to see the end of the blockade and not just easing its conditions but at the same time, I understand and appreciate Turkeys difficulties and its position, being the only regional power that has tried for years to do something about the blockade while others simply stand by or actively take part. I have no doubt in my mind that if Turkey had enough support from the Palestinian Authority and Egypt, it could have succeeded in lifting the blockade entirely, once and for all. At the end of the day, any move to ease the unbearable situation in Gaza and improve the lives of nearly two million Palestinians in need of basic humanitarian aid is welcomed. by Looking at the deal from a different angle, one can see a lot of positive achievements that none of the regional governments managed to match. At the end of the day, any move to ease the unbearable situation in Gaza and improve the lives of nearly two million Palestinians in need of basic humanitarian aid is welcomed. Turkey promised to keep Gaza on the agenda, and it kept that promise. As Adam Michnik put it: Politics is the art of achieving political goals of achieving what is possible in a given situation that is, in a situation that has its conditions and its limits. Turkey has delivered. Ibrahim Hamami is a British Palestinian, one of six million Palestinians in the diaspora. Hes a family physician in the UK. Thanks, Turkey but its freedom, not charity, that Gaza seeks Ramzy Baroud, author and founder of PalestineChronicle.com When Israeli commandos violently raided the Freedom Flotilla in May 2010, something extraordinary happened in Gaza: a deep sense of loss, but also pride. It was the first time that this generation experienced real solidarity emanating from a Muslim country, exhibited with such resolution and willingness to sacrifice. Many Palestinians had finally renewed their faith, not just in humanity, but also in their ummah, their larger Muslim nation. True, the siege that has suffocated Gaza all of these years was not broken; but what broke, and immediately so, was the sense of isolation that Palestinians have felt for too many years. Gaza has been under a perpetual siege since 1967. Over the last nine years, the siege worsened. It morphed into a blockade when Israel decided to treat Gaza as a hostile territory, as if the impoverished and completely sealed tiny coastal strip was a sovereign nation. And for all of those years, Gaza became a ground for massive, extremely violent experimentations: successive, deadly wars operated with the latest weapons technology, along with a carefully counted calorie intake to merely keep the population alive, yet continually malnourished. INTERACTIVE: 24 hours in Gaza Whenever Gaza purportedly weakened, Israel carried out another war, hoping that more firepower would break the spirit of the tenacious territory. Major wars in 2008-09, 2012 and 2014 killed thousands of people. When Israel attacked the Freedom Flotilla in international waters, Palestinians in Gaza marched in large numbers, raised posters adorned by the faces of their Turkish martyrs, and hailed Erdogan as the hero they desperately needed, since their own leadership often betrayed them. Curiously, Turkey was the first Muslim-majority country to recognise Israel in 1949, when more than a million Palestinian refugees lived in squalid refugee camps, while Israel was erecting a brand new country upon the ruins of the refugees homes. Since then, Turkey has played quite a duplicitous role. While gradually normalising relations with Israel, it occasionally protested one Israeli policy or another. Yet peculiarly, every time, the relationship between Israel and Turkey would resume without ever addressing Turkeys grievances, and the re-normalisation fanfare would take place along with massive investments and military contracts. That same scenario was repeated after the Nakba, the 1956 Suez Canal crisis, the 1967 war and the occupation of what remained of historic Palestine, and Israels declaration of Jerusalem (al-Quds) as its eternal capital in 1980. The Turkish-Israeli deal was a blow to Palestinian hopes that their siege was about to end, that they were no longer alone facing Israel's military machine and its powerful western benefactors. by Even when NATO powers, led by the United States, worked diligently to mend the rift resulting from the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara, trade between both countries never ceased. Though political relations had hit rock bottom, both Turkey and Israel knew business must go on, Turkeys TRT World reported. Business and politics were separated by a Chinese-wall like efficiency. Trade not only continued but expanded by 26 percent compared to 2010. 2013 and 2014 were among the busiest years for Turkish Airlines carrying passengers between Turkey and Israel, and in 2015, trade between both countries had risen to $5.6bn, according to the Turkish Statistics Institute, cited in TRT. INTERACTIVE: Gaza, life under siege Diplomatic re-normalisation between Istanbul and Tel Aviv has been afoot for years, although Palestinians were promised that no such rapprochement was possible without lifting the siege on Gaza one of Turkeys three oft-repeated conditions. The others were an Israeli apology for killing the Turkish nationals and a financial compensation package for their families. But a whole different story emerged on June 27, when a normalisation deal was signed one that is not inspired by ending the siege on Gaza, but rather spurred by energy prospects. There was no lifting of the siege, but rather lifting of restrictions that would allow Israel to ship natural gas via Turkey to the rest of Europe, generating billions of dollars in the process. The Israeli Security Cabinet hurriedly approved the reconciliation agreement on June 29, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated what he called an agreement with immense implications for the Israeli economy. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the Israeli embargo on Gaza has been largely lifted' as reported by Al Jazeera. It hasnt. Moreover, embargoes are concerned with food and fuel. It is freedom from a suffocating blockade that Palestinians sought, not Turkish handouts to be delivered via an Israeli seaport. The Turkish-Israeli deal was a blow to Palestinian hopes that their siege was about to end, that they were no longer alone facing Israels military machine and its powerful Western benefactors. Perhaps the deal is also a wake-up call that Palestinians must count on themselves first and foremost, achieve their elusive unity and seek solidarity the world over, not just with Ankara. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for more than 20 years. He is an internationally syndicated columnist, media consultant, author of several books and founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His website is www.ramzybaroud.net. For 15 months, Yemens second largest city has been under siege from Houthi fighters with aid rarely allowed to enter. For almost 15 months, Houthi rebels have besieged Yemens second largest city, only allowing life-saving aid deliveries to enter once every three months. More than 200,000 civilians have been caught up in the fighting in Taiz, a city that has become one of the major front lines in the battle for control of Yemen. For months, aid agencies have warned of a major humanitarian disaster in the city. There are frequent reports of dire food and water shortages, and of hospitals struggling to function without access to fresh medical supplies. At least 37 of the citys 40 hospitals and medical institutions have been forced to close, and the doctors and nurses that are brave enough to remain are forced to operate without essentials such oxygen which doctors require to put patients under general anesthesia. Houthi fighters have repeatedly prevented aid groups from delivering medical supplies to the city, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. Yemen crisis: Immeasurable suffering in Ramadan And with observant Muslims refraining from eating or drinking from dawn to dusk during the holy month of Ramadan, many households are running low on food, medicine, and other necessities. The NGOs are trying to help but the problem is bigger than their capacity. Mohammed al-Gunaid, an NGO coordinator in Taiz told Al Jazeera. They can only provide basic aid to reduce suffering nothing more. When aid does finally reach the city, residents are having to queue under the baking sun where temperatures often exceed 40C to get their share. And while water tankers visit some areas of the city once a week, buying blocks of ice has become the only way to prevent what little food the people of Taiz have from going bad. The city has been without electricity for more than a year. We hide our suffering behind closed doors, Najib Hasan Abdullah, a Taiz resident, told Al Jazeera. No one really knows how much were suffering. But what can we do? Where can we go to escape this situation? Yemens Taiz in catastrophic state as fighting rages Zahra Mahdi, a Taiz resident, spoke of people living in a state of constant war and fear, adding that many just stay at home, frightened of the shelling. Yemen has been torn apart by conflict since 2014, when Houthi rebels, allied with troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, captured large swaths of the country, including the capital Sanaa. A coalition assembled by Saudi Arabia launched an air campaign against the rebels in March 2015. Since then, more than 9,000 people have been killed and 2.8 million driven from their homes. Across the country, at least 14 million people, more than half of the population, are in need of emergency food and life-saving assistance. The 15-month conflict has also taken a horrifying toll on the countrys youth, with UNICEF warning that an estimated 320,000 children face life-threatening malnutrition. Pentagon says ISILs deputy war minister and another military leader were killed in groups Iraqi stronghold on June 25. A US-led coalition air strike in northern Iraq killed two senior figures from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) late last month, including a commander considered to be the groups deputy minister of war, the Pentagon has said. The June 25 air strike near Mosul, ISILs stronghold in Iraq, killed Basim Muhammad Ahmad Sultan al-Bajari, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement. According to the Pentagon, Bajari had overseen ISILs capture of Mosul in 2014. The other ISIL member killed in the raid was Hatim Talib al-Hamduni, a military leader in Mosul, Cook added. READ MORE: Iraq: Kurds increase pressure on ISIL near Mosul Their deaths, along with strikes against other ISIL leaders in the past month, have critically degraded ISILs leadership experience in Mosul and removed two of their most senior military members in northern Iraq, Cook said. In June, Iraqs military claimed victory in a US-backed offensive against ISIL fighters in the city of Fallujah, west of the capital Baghdad, after a month-long operation. After Fallujahs recapture, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Iraqi forces would now set their sights on Mosul, Iraqs second-biggest city and ISILs last remaining major hub in the country. Al Jazeeras Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, DC, said the US-led coalition air strikes were part a strategy to make it easier fo the Iraqi army to launch an offensive against ISIL fighters in Mosul. OPINION: Liberating Mosul will not solve Iraq\s problems She added, however, that such an operation was not imminent. Even though US officials say they have momentum on their side, the strikes that killed these two ISIL leaders does not mean that the offensive to retake Mosul is about to launch. If anything, analysts say it may not happen before 2017 because there is a lot of other territory inside Iraq and neighbouring Syria which the US and local fighters would like to reclaim before they go after the big prizes of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria. Australias general election is too close to call and the final result may not be known for days as counting continues for tightly contested seats, Labor Party leader Bill Shorten has said. With 75.2 percent of the votes counted, the Liberal-National coalition is leading with 72 seats and the Labor Party is close behind with 66, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has reported. Seven seats are not decided and other parties, including independents hold five. For a majority win, 76 seats are needed but if neither party receives enough votes, support will be needed from other parties or independents. Opinion polls have suggested that public frustration with the coalition and Labor may prompt an unusually high number of votes for minor parties, such as the Greens. That raises the prospect that neither the coalition, nor Labor, will have enough seats to win an outright majority, resulting in a hung parliament. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, however has said that he is confident his Liberal/National coalition can form a majority, but opposition challenger Shorten has criticised the incumbent, saying he has lost the peoples mandate for his agenda. Its a very, very close count, Turnball told his supporters in Sydney on Saturday. I can report that based on the advice I have from the party officials, we can have every confidence that we will form a coalition majority government in the next parliament. Still, there were rumblings about Turnbulls future given the closeness of the vote. READ MORE: Why is Australias parliament so white? Peter Hartcher, a political editor at the Sydney Herald, told Al Jazeera: Its more likely that Turnball will hang on to power with a much reduced majority. The country is having a great deal of trouble putting its trust in either of the parties. The incumbent government is portraying it as a question of, almost entirely, economics. Al Jazeeras Andrew Thomas, reporting from a polling station in Sydney, said: It seemed that Turnball had a pretty healthy lead going into the campaign. Since then, however, polls have tightened, Thomas added. Analysts say it is highly unlikely that Labor will gain the 21 seats it needs to form a majority government in the 150-seat House of Representatives Labor currently holds 55 seats, but polls say the race will be tight. There is one thing for sure the Labor party is back, Shorten, who has campaigned hard on health and education, told his supporters in Melbourne Three years after the Liberals came to power in a landslide, they have lost their mandate, he added, pointing to Tuesday as the likely day when a final outcome is known. OPINION: The hypocrisy of Australian democracy Turnballs government has focused much of its campaign on a promise to generate jobs and economic growth through tax cuts to big businesses. Economic growth is a key issue for many Australians, who have seen thousands of jobs vanish from the countrys once-booming resources sector amid Chinas industrial slowdown. Labor has that said it will keep the higher tax rates and use the revenue to better fund schools and hospitals. Same-sex marriage has also emerged as a campaign issue. Turnbull, who personally supports gay marriage despite his partys opposition to it, has promised to hold a national poll known as a plebiscite this year that will ask voters whether the nation should allow same-sex marriage. But governments are not bound by the results of plebiscites, and some conservative politicians have said they will vote down a gay marriage bill even if most Australians supported marriage equality. Labor, which dubbed the plebiscite a waste of taxpayers money, promises that the first legislation the party will introduce to parliament will be a bill legalising same-sex marriage. All of the dead were foreign, army says, most brutally hacked to death at popular restaurant in upscale neighbourhood. Twenty foreign hostages have been killed at a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital, the army has said, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group that ended after a 10-hour siege when commandos stormed the building. Nine Italians, an American, seven Japanese and an Indian were confirmed on Saturday to be among the dead. Most [of] them had been brutally hacked to death with sharp weapons, army spokesman Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said on Saturday. Italys foreign minister said on Saturday that one more Italian citizen was still unaccounted for. He could be hiding himself or could be among wounded people we are looking for him, Paolo Gentiloni, the Italian foreign minister, said. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina earlier said that 13 hostages had been rescued. Hasina said six gunmen had been killed and one captured in the early morning operation at the Holey Artisan Bakery, a cafe in Dhaka. The rescued included two Sri Lankans and a Japanese citizen who was wounded, Lieutenant Colonel Tuhin Mohammad Masud said, adding there were casualties among the other hostages. Bangladesh declared two days of national mourning following the attack. IN PICTURES: Hostage drama in Bangladesh We have gunned down at least six terrorists and the main building is cleared, Masud told the Associated Press news agency. Al Jazeeras Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from Dhaka, said that the cafe was located in one of the most heavily policed parts of the capital, home to several embassies and popular with foreigners. In order to get in here you have to pass through a lot of police checkpoints. Its a highly cordoned-off area, Chowdhury said. So theres going to be a serious question raised: How did they manage to get in there with arms and ammunition, possibly even bombs and hand grenades? Dead foreigners The crisis began at about 9pm local time, police said, when a group of gunmen burst into the cafe, which is popular with foreigners, young people, and middle class Bangladeshis. During the siege, ISIL posted photos of what it said were dead foreigners in the cafe, where police believed the gunmen were holed up armed with assault rifles and grenades. According to Rezaul Karim, the father of a witness, Hasnat, the gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Quran the Islamic holy book. Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night, he said. The others, he said, were tortured. Gowher Rizvi, an adviser to Prime Minister Hasina, told the Reuters news agency that security forces had initially tried to negotiate a way out of the crisis. WATCH: Does Bangladesh have an ISIL problem? Violence has spiked in Bangladesh in the past 18 months with a spate of attacks, often using machetes, against individuals including liberals, gays, foreigners and members of religious minorities. ISIL, which is also known as ISIS, and al-Qaeda claimed many of those killings but the government denied their involvement and instead pointed the finger at local groups. The Bangladesh government continues to deny that ISIL could have any connection or presence in Bangladesh, so if ISIL wants to make a statement that we are in Bangladesh and are with influence and impact then this is probably their perfect opportunity, Talha Ahmed, a commentator on Bangladeshi affairs, told Al Jazeera. Earlier on Friday, a Hindu priest was hacked to death at a temple in Jhinaidah district, 300km southwest of Dhaka. READ MORE: Extremism and a shrinking space for dissent Rizvi said that the hostage crisis began when local security guards in the diplomatic enclave noticed several gunmen outside a medical centre. When the guards approached, the gunmen ran into the restaurant, which was packed with people waiting for tables, he said. An employee who escaped told local television about 20 customers were in the restaurant at the time, most of them foreigners. The restaurant has a seating capacity of about 25 people. Some 15 to 20 staff were working there at the time, the employee said. A police officer at the scene said that when security forces tried to enter the premises at the beginning of the siege they were met with a hail of bullets and grenades. Television footage showed a number of police being quickly led away from the site by police with blood spattered on their faces and clothes. Hebron remains on lockdown as Israeli forces comb the area for assailants connected to an alleged shooting attack. Israeli forces have shot and injured two Palestinians in the village of Dura amid a continued army blockade on the Hebron area of the southern occupied West Bank. All of the villages south of Hebron have been closed off, Issa Amro, director of the Hebron-based Youth Against Settlements activist group, told Al Jazeera by telephone on Saturday night. Weve been under siege for two days now. Amro said all entrances to Hebron the most populous Palestinian city in the West Bank had been closed except for one, which leads to Road 60, a major north-south highway. [Soldiers] have placed a checkpoint at the entrance. They are stopping every car, he said. The entrances of several nearby villages were closed off by the Israeli army as extensive searches of the area continued. The crackdown comes following two deadly days, during which two Palestinians and two Israelis were killed. Last night they were doing house-to-house searches in al-Thahiriyah, al-Fawwar camp, al-Samu, Dura and Hebron city, Amro added. Today in Hebron there were clashes early in the morning, around 4 or 5 am. Israeli forces locked down the Hebron area on Friday after an Israeli family from the Otniel settlement in Hebron was allegedly targeted by unknown gunmen, killing one man and injuring three others. READ MORE: Israels stop-and-frisk law blatant racism As of Saturday night, Israeli troops were still combing the area in search of suspects. Speaking to Al Jazeera, an Israeli army spokesperson said the shootings in Dura took place during routine [army] activity in the area and that troops were still searching for the assailants connected to Fridays shooting attack. The spokesperson said that more than a hundred Palestinians were rioting in Dura when Israeli forces first responded with warning shots and riot dispersal means, including rubber-coated steel bullets. Amro, the activist, said the two were shot with live ammunition as they tried to prevent Israeli army jeeps from entering the village. Settlement threats More than 530,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements considered illegal under international law across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, according to the Israeli rights group BTselem. After a Palestinian teen killed a 13-year-old Israeli girl in the Kiryat Arba settlement near Hebron on Thursday night, several Israeli politicians pledged to build more settlements across the occupied Palestinian territory. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Friday approved the construction of 42 new housing units in Kiyrat Arba. On the outskirts of the West Banks largest city, the settlement is home to a thousands of Israeli settlers who live under heavy army guard. READ MORE: Palestinians learn to make recycled art in prison Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, a member of the ultra-nationalist Jewish Home party, said Israel would build in Sarona and Kiryat Arba, in Jaffa and Jerusalem, in Itamar and Beersheba, referring to areas in the West Bank and present-day Israel. Yehuda Glick, a far-right Israeli politician, called for Israel to annex the West Bank and Jewish-Israelis to increase their excursions into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third holiest site for Muslims. Early Saturday morning, Israeli forces bombed four sites across the besieged Gaza Strip after Palestinian fighters fired a rocket into the southern Israeli city of Sderot. No casualties were reported. An Emirati man may take legal action after a Cleveland hotel clerk called the police fearing that he was ISIL. When Ahmed al-Menhali entered a hotel in one of Ohios Cleveland suburbs, he simply wanted to find an available room. He did not imagine it would end with him having what was possibly a stroke while being accosted by gun-toting police following false accusations that he was a member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS). Its still not clear whether it was a stroke or not, Julia Shearson, director of the Cleveland chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) rights group, told Al Jazeera. READ MORE: US anti-Islamic bills create environment of fear Menhali, a 41-year-old businessman and father of three from the United Arab Emirates, was in Cleveland for medical check-ups following health complications, including a previous stroke. With most of the citys hotels fully booked due to the Republican National Convention, he decided to try his luck at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Avon, lying just outside Cleveland. When the front desk clerk said the hotel was also booked, Menhali, who was wearing a traditional white robe, requested some assistance finding a nearby extended-stay hotel where he could book a room for the duration of his medical procedures. Police responded as if there were weapons She went off and texted her sister and said I pledged my allegiance to ISIS, Menhali told Al Jazeera, speaking through a friend due to his inability to speak properly following a previous stroke. Her sister and father then called the 911 emergency service, and officers from the Avon Police Department arrived at the hotel quickly. Menhali was standing outside the hotel and speaking on the phone in Arabic when at least five police officers approached him. The incident was caught on tape by one of an officers body camera. It shows an officer hop out of his vehicle and load his rifle before running towards Menhali. The officers proceed to yell at him and put him on the ground. He was handcuffed at first, but officers eventually removed them. In the video, the officers ask Menhali about his mobile phones and identification cards several times. He eventually collapses to the ground. Emergency responders then load him on a gurney and take him to hospital. READ MORE: Islamophobia of US candidates hits 9/11 hysteria There was nothing to give you cause to think [Im] a terrorist, he said. They told the police that I was pledging allegiance to ISIS, but [said] nothing about weapons. The police responded as if there were weapons. Menhali added: We are consulting with lawyers and will decide where to go from there. Speaking to the Dubai-based Gulf News news site, the UAEs Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the Emirati government had contacted Menhali. The minister also advised Emiratis to refrain from wearing the national dress when travelling abroad and specifically in public spaces to ensure their safety. The UAEs embassy in Washington DC did not reply to Al Jazeeras emails or phone calls. The Avon Police Department provided Al Jazeera with a press release. Noting that the incident was still under investigation, the press release mentions Menhalis attire several times and describes him as an Arabic-speaking male at one point. After officers handcuffed Menhali and held him on the ground, the statement says, contact was then made with the front desk clerk and it was learned that the male did not in fact make any statements related to ISIS. Near hysteria CAIRs Shearson said the police statement appeared to demonstrate bigotry and cultural unawareness. Its very concerning when they repeat the issue about his head dress they repeat it as if they are justifying theyre response because of the full head dress. Describing the incident as just the latest in a pattern of soaring Islamophobia across the country, Shearson said: This near hysteria [against Muslims] has been created by political candidates. Its irresponsible and dangerous. In a statement to Al Jazeera on Sunday, Shearson said Avon City officials, including the mayor and the police chief met with Menhali in order to apologise to him. They told him that he was 100% blameless in this matter, and that the incident absolutely should never have happened. On Thursday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made his latest comment targeting Muslims when he said he will consider replacing hijab-wearing women who work in airport security with US military veterans. A joint study between the University of California Berkeley and CAIR found that more than $200m was spent by dozens of organisations on promoting fear and hatred of Muslims between 2008 and 2013. OPINION: The belief system of Islamophobes Of the 74 groups identified in the report, 33 are groups whose primary purpose is to promote prejudice against or hatred of Islam and Muslims. Between 2013 and 2015, 10 states passed anti-Islam legislation and a total of 81 similar bills almost exclusively by the right-wing Republican party were proposed in the US. A group of American Muslims and interfaith leaders plan to push back against the rising tide of discrimination by encouraging thousands to march against bigotry, extremism and gun violence in Washington DC on July 23. Both Democrats and Republicans are to blame for the growing anti-Muslim sentiment, Shearson said. The American people need to be reassured that we arent going to turn against strangers or the ordinary tourist and that well treat our guests with dignity and respect. State-owned newspaper says police could not control attackers in Kachin state, the second attack in little over a week. A mob has burned down a mosque in northern Myanmar the second such attack in just over a week in the predominantly Buddhist nation. The state-owned Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported on Saturday that security forces in Hpakant, in Kachin state, were unable to stop the attackers. It said the attack on Friday came after mosque authorities failed to meet a June 30 deadline to tear down the structure to make way for a bridge. No arrests were made, the newspaper said. In a separate incident, a mob on June 23 demolished a mosque in Bago Region, about 60km northeast of the capital Yangon. There has been sporadic but fierce violence against Muslims in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar since rioting in 2012 forced more than 100,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority to flee their homes in western Rakhine State. WATCH Outcast: Adrift with Burmas Rohingya A local NGO worker who visited the town on Saturday told the AFP news agency that security forces had been deployed to maintain order. Police are now controlling the area and it is stable, said Dashi Naw Lawn, from the Kachin Network Development Foundation. Rakhine tensions Tensions have also been running high in western Rakhine, a state scarred by deadly riots in 2012 that left communities almost completely divided along religious lines. The region is home to the stateless Rohingya, a minority largely relegated to destitute displacement camps and subject to a host of restrictions on their movements and access to basic services. Aung San Suu Kyi, a veteran democracy activist who championed her countrys struggle against repressive military rulers and now holds the office of state counsellor, has drawn criticism from rights groups for not taking swifter moves to carve out a solution for the ethnic minority. Her government recently ordered officials to refer to the group as people who believe in Islam in Rakhine State instead of Rohingya a term whose use has set off protests by hardliners, who insist the group are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Sierra Leones deputy high commissioner taken while travelling from capital Abuja to the northern state of Kaduna. Sierra Leones deputy high commissioner has been abducted in Nigeria in the northern state of Kaduna, security sources and an official have said. Government sources said on Friday that Alfred Nelson-Williams was taken as he was travelling by road from the Nigerian capital of Abuja to attend a ceremony in Kaduna, a city some 200km north. Local security officials said they were still investigating how the kidnapping took place. We want to establish whether he had security escorts with him and what happened to them, Yusuf Yakubu Soja, Kaduna state security official, told the AFP news agency. He was kidnapped on his way to Kaduna from Abuja to attend the passing out ceremony of military officers at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Jaji outside Kaduna. Mohamed Bangura, Sierra Leones information minister, said the government was working with Nigerian authorities to secure Nelson-Williams release. Neither he, nor police, confirmed whether the kidnappers had demanded a ransom. An investigator from Nigerias Department of State Security also confirmed the abduction, but did not disclose when the kidnapping took place. We are in touch with the kidnappers. They made some demands and we are trying to see how we can meet it and secure his freedom, the DSS investigator, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the Reuters news agency. Foreign ministry sources in Freetown told AFP that this is the first time that a Sierra Leone diplomat has been kidnapped anywhere on posting since independence in 1961. Frequent abductions Kidnappings for ransom are a common problem in parts of Nigeria. This week, two Indian workers were kidnapped on their way to work in central Benue state. The pair have yet to be released. Last week, three Australians, a New Zealander and a South African were kidnapped along with two Nigerians near the capital of Cross River state in the countrys south. READ MORE: Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram seen in video They were released four days later, but officials did not disclose whether the kidnappers received any ransom. In April 2014, 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped from their classroom in the remote northeastern town of Chibok by Boko Haram fighters. The government of former president Goodluck Jonathan was criticised for its slow response to acknowledge the kidnapping and for its inability to find and recover the girls. The Palestinian refugee camp of Khan Eshieh in the Damascas area has been hit by deadly air strikes amid an escalation of fighting between Syrian government forces and rebels, residents and a local aid group have told Al Jazeera. Early on Thursday, at least six residents, including a seven-year-old child, were killed when warplanes dropped bombs on civilian homes in the camp, said camp resident Abo Muslem. It was the second round of air strikes that night, he told Al Jazeera. Russian jets had hit two houses on the east side of the camp earlier. They returned about five hours later and targeted a three-storey building. The Jafra Foundation, a group working with Palestinian refugees in Syria, said in a statement that military actions and aerial bombardment continued last week on the outskirts of the camp. UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, confirmed the increase in bloodshed in Khan Eshieh. The regime and the Russians have been targeting our area a lot over the past three days. There is no military presence in the camp we have no idea why theyre targeting us, added Abo Muslem. READ MORE: Palestinians of Syria Twice refugees Speaking to Al Jazeera, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said that Khan Eshieh is located in a volatile area in the rural area of southern Damascus, where spikes in violence have caused the death of at least nine Palestine refugees in recent weeks. Running out of hope Khan Eshieh is one of several Palestinian refugee camps across the country. Of the 560,000 Palestinian refugees who were registered in Syria before the conflict, UNRWA estimates that 450,000 remain. The regime has prevented the entry of medicine into the camp for more than two months now, said Abo Muslem. You enter into any pharmacy and you wont even find the most basic medicine. The shelves are empty. Home to some 20,000 registered Palestinian refugees before the civil war, the camps population has dropped to about 14,000 people and now includes many displaced Syrians from across the Damascus suburbs. READ MORE: Beyond Yarmouk, Palestinians in Syria need aid The Syrian conflict started with largely unarmed protests against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, but it quickly turned into a full-on civil war between government forces and rebels. Fighting has also taken place between opposing rebel factions and hardline armed groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS). More than 270,000 people have been killed throughout the five-year conflict, according to the United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. People are scared Salim Salamah of the Palestinian League for Human Rights Syria criticised the international communitys inability to protect Palestinian refugees in Syria. What is happening in Khan Eshieh happened in other camps and is another example of how easy it is to violate the rights of civilians, he told Al Jazeera. People in Khan Eshieh have no involvement in military operations. Yet Russia, a permanent member of UN Security Council, is still bombing this camp, which is supposed to be under the protection of UNRWA, a UN agency. Abo Muslem said that there is no military presence in the camp. Yes, Ahrar al-Sham is fighting in the fields surrounding us, but they have no presence here. There are only civilians here, he said, referring to an armed opposition group. READ MORE: ISIL takeover of Yarmouk a siege within a siege But the increase in air strikes has sparked a growing fear among the camps residents. People are scared. The Russian air strikes have changed everything. Theyve caused more destruction in eight months than the regime caused in four years, said Abo Muslem. The UK-based Action Group for Palestinians in Syria has documented the death of at least 3,274 Palestinians throughout the conflict. At least 1,083 Palestinians are locked up in Syrian government prisons and another 286 missing. Palestinian camps across Syria have been dragged into the ongoing civil war. The Yarmouk camp, in the Damascas area, once home to 200,000 Palestinian refugees, has been placed under long periods of government-imposed siege since 2012. With the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group and the al-Nusra Front the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda vying for control of the camp, the population is believed to have dropped to between 5,000 and 8,000 civilians. Elsewhere, the Deraa camp in southern Syria is reportedly 60 percent destroyed, while the Sbeineh camp near Damascus is 80 percent demolished, according to Jafra. The Palestinian Leagues Salamah said: The only conclusion I can draw from this is that their endgame is the total destruction of all Palestinian camps. Its outrageous, extremely sad, and we are running out of both words and hope. Peace Corps vets share experiences Three former members of the Peace Corps will speak at 10:30 a.m. Sunday on their experiences serving in Ethiopia. The service, "How Peace Corps Experiences Made Us Different People," presented by Derek Lowstuter, Claire Lowstuter and Don Morrison takes place at Bismarck-Mandan Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and Church, 818 E. Divide Ave. From 2010 to 2012, the Lowstuters worked on conservation and natural resource management in the Simien Mountains National Park. Today, Derek Lowstuter is a forest restoration specialist with the North Dakota Forest Service and Claire Lowstuter is office manager at Welcome House. Morrison was a school teacher and coordinator for two school repair projects in Ethiopia from 1974 to 1976 and today is director of the Dakota Resource Council. Service explores individual spark Shay MacKay will lead the service "Be Filled with Light and Shine" at 10:30 a.m. July 10 at Bismarck-Mandan Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and Church, 818 E. Divide Ave. MacKay, a recent graduate of Starr King School for the Ministry, will explore ways in which connections to the outside world can help each person recognize the beauty within. MacKay just finished her internship at Unity ChurchUnitarian in St. Paul, Minn. She is a candidate for parish ministry and will soon serve as interfaith chaplain in Burnsville, Minn. Summer picnic set at Sertoma Park The Charity Women in Mission for Christ is hosting "Bounty and Soul," a summer picnic for women, at 6:30 p.m. July 20 for food, fellowship and music. Learn about the new BisMan Food Co-op and Deli from guest speaker Heidi Demars at Sertoma Park, Shelter 6, 300 Riverside Park Road in Bismarck. Tickets are $15 and must be purchased by 5 p.m. July 15. Tickets are available at the Rainbow Shop-Parable Christian Store, 551 S. Seventh St.; and at the Charity Lutheran Church office, 120 Aspen Ave., during regular business hours and between church services. Call 258-1228 or visit www.charitylutheran.org for more information. Trial set for S.C. church shooting COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) A hearing has been set for next month to sort out jury selection details for the federal trial of a man accused of gunning down nine parishioners at a historic South Carolina church. U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel on Thursday set a July 18 hearing in the federal case against Dylann Roof. Prosecutors and Roof's attorneys agree on most jury selection details for the case set for Nov. 7, like summoning between 1,200 and 1,500 potential jurors. But they disagree about whether they should come from across South Carolina or just from the Charleston area. Gergel's order also says the July 18 hearing will address how evidence about Roof's mental health will be presented during his federal trial. Roof, 22, faces charges including hate crimes in the shooting deaths of nine black parishioners during a Wednesday night Bible study at Charleston's Emanuel AME Church in June 2015. Both state and federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Berlin court upholds student headscarves BERLIN (AP) A court in Bavaria has ruled against restrictions on wearing headscarves for law students who are undergoing practical training in the justice system in the German state. The Augsburg administrative court upheld a complaint by a 25-year-old Muslim student who was told that, under Bavaria's 8-year-old rules, she wasn't allowed to wear a headscarf when doing work that involves public appearances for example, in a courtroom. It found Thursday there was no legal basis for such an intrusion into freedom of religion and education, news agency dpa reported. Send church briefs to kimberly.wynn@bismarcktribune.com. In statement, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada says ending occupation is a prerequisite for peace in Afghanistan. The new Taliban leader has called for an end to the foreign occupation of Afghanistan as a first step to a settlement based on Islamic law that he said would bring unity to a country hit by decades of war. In one of his first public statements, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada said agreement was possible if the government in Kabul renounced its foreign allies. Your support and siding with invaders is like the work of those abhorrent faces who in our past history supported the Britons and the Soviets, he said in a message before next weeks celebration of Eid. READ MORE: Who is new Taliban leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhunzada? Akhundzada was named Taliban leader after the death of his predecessor Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour in a US drone strike in May. Doors of forgiveness He said the Taliban had a programme aimed at creating an independent and united country under Islamic law and told the Western-backed government in Kabul that the doors of forgiveness and tolerance are open. Our clear message is that we do not want a monopoly of power, he said. All Afghan tribes and races need each other. The statement came two days after a suicide attack that killed more than 30 newly graduated police cadets, and less than two weeks after more than 20 people died in separate attacks in Kabul and the northern province of Badakhshan. READ MORE: 14 Nepali security guards killed in Kabul NATO leaders meeting at a Warsaw summit later in July are expected to approve maintaining support for the Kabul government up to 2020. The Taliban now controls more territory than at any time since 2001, but the fighting with come at a heavy cost, with 11,000 civilian casualties last year alone. Failed peace efforts Peace talks broke down last year after it was revealed that Mansour had covered up the death of the Talibans founder Mullah Mohammad Omar two years earlier. Efforts to revive them in a framework backed by Pakistan, the United States and China have so far failed. The Talibans political office in Qatar, which has been a key point of contact in behind-the-scenes exchanges, would continue its efforts with a view to resolving the Afghan issue, Akhundzada said. Thousands of mostly young protesters march in London against the UKs referendum to leave the European Union. Thousands have protested in London against British voters decision last week to leave the European Union, which has left the country deeply polarised. Most protesters who gathered on Saturday were young adults, and many were draped in EU flags, while others waved banners in support of continued British membership in the bloc. Marching through the Westminster political district, they chanted: What do we want to do? Stay in the EU. I was genuinely stunned on the morning after the vote, Nathaniel Samson, a 25-year-old marcher from Hertfordshire, north of London, told the Reuters news agency. I feel deeply uncertain about my future, he added. Im on the march to voice my discontentment. I am accepting the result, but its to show that we wont accept it quietly. London voted 60 percent in favour of remaining in the EU in last Thursdays referendum, with younger voters widely backing staying in the bloc, but 52 percent of Britons overall cast ballots in support of leaving. Al Jazeeras Barnaby Phillips, reporting from London, said some people are calling for a second referendum at such a time in the future, while others say there should be a general election later this year. READ MORE: Beyond Brexit The consequences of Britains great exit Although parliament has the final say on the exit, our correspondent said that Britain would enter very uncharted and potentially unstable territory if the referendums results were not respected. The vote to leave has prompted a battle within the ruling Conservative party over the successor of Prime Minister David Cameron who said he would resign following the referendums result. The campaign to leave the EU promised to halt immigration, blaming much of the countrys economic woes on foreigners coming to live in the UK. Following the referendum, the UK saw an increase in racist attacks targeting Muslims, Southeast Asians, Poles and Romanians, among others. Speaking to Al Jazeeras UpFront, London mayor Sadiq Khan said: Those responsible for orchestrating [the Leave] campaign need to now explain this rise in racial violence, this rise in racial abuse [and] this rise in racial tension. Opposition divided The main opposition Labour Party has also turned on itself, with most of its members in parliament having voted to withdraw support for leader Jeremy Corbyn after what they saw as his lacklustre contribution to the referendum campaign. Dozens have resigned en masse from Labours leadership bench. Corbyn didnt make a convincing case for remaining in the EU, and he deserves some of the blame for that, Oz Katerji, a journalist and political analyst, told Al Jazeera by telephone. There has been speculation that a number of Labour MPs, among them Angela Eagle, may challenge his leadership but Corbyn remains adamant that he will not step down following a vote of no confidence by MPs. READ MORE: Brexit rhetoric and the consequences of Project Fear The Labour leader still enjoys widespread support among party members and supporters. A majority of new Labour members who have joined since May 2015 disapprove of Labour MPs efforts to oust Corbyn. At least 55 percent of new members support deselecting Labour MPs who consistently challenge the leadership, according to a new study by academics from the Queen Mary University of London and Sussex University. At least 60,000 people have joined Labour in the past week amid the ongoing attempts to oust Corbyn, reported The Independent. A new survey conducted by the YouGov polling group found that there is not enough support for Corbyns challengers to topple him. Has the tone of UK media coverage shifted since the EU referendum? Plus, the coverage of solitary confinement in the US. On The Listening Post this week: Did the British media do their job before the European Union vote? Has the tone of the coverage shifted since? Plus, the coverage of solitary confinement in the United States. Did British media show Brexit bias? It has been more than a week since the UK voted to leave the EU and the story continues to dominate the headlines. But did the British media do their job before the vote? Were the facts sufficiently covered and were broadcasters as impartial as they are required to be? And has the tone shifted now that Brexit is a reality? Talking us through the story are: Justin Lewis, a professor of Communications, Cardiff University; Natalie Fenton, vice chairwoman of Hacked Off and professor of Communications, Goldsmiths University; Toby Young, a journalist for Spectator; and Craig Murray, author and blogger. On our radar In South Africa, the state-owned broadcaster has replaced its chief executive for the tenth time since President Jacob Zuma took power seven years ago. Liliane Daoud one of Egypts few remaining critical broadcasters has been taken off the air, arrested and deported. Arrests at Algerias KBC TV after two satirical shows were taken off the air by the authorities. Letters from the inside: Reporting on solitary confinement in the US Its been called one of the biggest human rights issues Americans have never heard of. More than 80,000 people in the US are held in solitary confinement on any given day and the media rarely get access. Popular culture demonises them, but some journalists are bringing their stories to light. Talking us through the story are: James Ridgeway, cofounder, Solitary Watch; Johnny Perez, Urban Justice Centre; Ricky Jones, radio host, Unlocked; and David Fathi, National Prison Project, American Civil Liberties Union. Dr Marc Lamont Hill is an award-winning journalist and author and is the Steve Charles Professor of Media, Cities, and Solutions at Temple University. Hill is known for his work addressing the intersections of race, justice, politics and culture. His latest best-selling book is We Still Here: Pandemics, Policing, Protest and Possibility which follows on the success of Nobody: Casualties of Americas War on the Vulnerable from Flint to Ferguson. Hill has received numerous prestigious awards from the US National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Eyebrows have never been bigger: Consider Glossier's 10,000-person Boy Brow waitlist. With emerging trends like semipermanent microblading and the "Instagram brow" phenomenon, it's clear that bushy is the new black. The quest for fuller brows has made eyebrow transplants a thing. RealSelf.com, a forum for cosmetic surgery where visitors share experiences and rate doctors and procedures, reports that there has been a 140 percent increase in eyebrow-transplant searches on the site in the last year. Similar to regular hair transplants, the process involves removing either individual groups or a strip of skin with active follicles from one area of the body to another. (The back of the head is the most common harvesting site.) The follicles are then trimmed to fit the preferred brow shape and transplanted into the brow area. "Overplucked eyebrows are the most common cause of people who seek out transplants," says New York City and Miami plastic surgeon Jeffrey Epstein who performs about four such procedures per week. About 70 percent of his patients are women in their 30s and 40s, since that is the time when overzealous plucking in earlier years often begins to show up as thinning and bald spots. The healing process is similar to the one that follows getting a tattoo, with light bruising and some crusting of the skin. "Most patients look fine three days later, and within eight days the eyebrows look great," says Epstein. It takes about four months for the new hairs to begin to grow, and you can expect your results to reach maximum fullness after a year. Most of Epstein's patients maintain their new brows not by tweezing them but by trimming every couple of weeks. For most, the price of admission is a serious investment. It may vary by region, but RealSelf estimates a median cost of $7,500 for the average eyebrow transplant nationwide. (It may cost less if fewer follicles are needed to get your desired result.) The ideal candidate is someone who has overtweezed or who has genetically thin brows. However, Epstein says, it won't work for those who have medical conditions like alopecia. Brow expert Tonya Crooks, who has shaped the arches of Megan Fox and Julia Roberts, cautions that permanent procedures, like eyebrow transplants, and semipermanent ones, like microblading, should be considered far more soberly and seriously than simply going in for a shaping or buying brow products. She is also wary of transplants in general, having worked with clients who have had the procedure. "The hairs are usually taken from your head, which is really a different type of hair compared to the texture of your natural eyebrows," says Crooks. "These hairs grow incredibly fast and more often than not can look unnatural, in my experience." Other possible complications include lasting redness and scarring of the donor site if performed incorrectly, according to Epstein. 2005 .. Every part of writing an icon has meaning. The base, made of clay, represents Adam just as the gold leaf embodies divine life. The four layers move from dark to light, just as Christians go from an unredeemed world to communion with God. Linseed oil, added months later, soaks in and binds the layers and oxidizes, changing the icon just as confirmation changes a person. Each step has a technical and a spiritual significance, said Nicholas Markell, a liturgical artist who teaches iconography. Part of it is time for lecture and prayer and theological discussions. Many people find it to be a very powerful experience, he said. Spirit of Life Roman Catholic Community will host an iconography workshop July 18-22 in which participants will learn the ancient method of egg-tempera painting and 24-karat gold leafing while exploring the spiritual symbolism of the icon writing process. Markell will direct each person to complete the icon of Mother Teresa, who will be canonized as a saint in September. Anyone with any Christian belief can come away and be enriched by the whole experience, said Cheryl Hansen, business and finance administrator at Spirit of Life. Markell has taught Byzantine iconography workshops at the church for several years and has completed several icons that are on display in the church. Hansen has participated in two of Markell's past workshops, creating icons of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha and Saint Teresa of Avila. With Saint Kateri, the process focused on her rejection from her people and how she gave her life to God at a very early age. With Saint Teresa, the participants used more scripture throughout the process. They were very different in the whole process of who they were, and the icons obviously were different, Hansen said. The memories of it go far deeper in terms of the spiritual side of what was going on inside of me while I was doing it. She explained that an icon is written, rather than painted or drawn, because ancient writers would tell stories with icons. The literal translation of iconography is image writing. The pigments, made from things like vinegar, distilled water and duck eggs, have meaning that tells the story, Hansen said. It always references a written piece of work, she said. The Catholic Church and other western Christian denominations are undergoing a revival in the recognition of the importance of spiritual art, Markell said. Its making a comeback, he said. Each person at the workshop will follow the same directions and use the same materials, but the result will not be the same for everyone. Characteristics of each saint will be written differently, perhaps as a mirror of the person writing the icon, Hansen said. It is amazing how some peoples colors are more brilliant, which says a lot about their personalities, she said. It sort of gives you an in-depth look at yourself. Participants keep the icons they create and can use them in their prayer. Hansen said that involves meditating on what the saint was willing to do for God. Most participants will have some knowledge of Mother Teresas life since she is a modern saint who lived recently. The workshop offers participants a deeper connection to her, according to Markell. Its an opportunity to revisit her life, to revisit her commitment, to revisit her writings, her quotes, the effects shes had on the world, he said. There also is another meaning to writing an icon of Mother Teresa this year, Markell said. She was known as the Angel of Mercy, and Pope Francis declared 2016 the Year of Mercy. Participants will be able to celebrate Gods mercy through their reflections during the icon writing process, he said. Markell called the workshops a communal experience, because even though each participant writes his own icon, everyone accomplishes it together. Youre part of the body of Christ as part of this experience, he said. Food and all materials are provided for the workshop. Hansen said it is like a guided retreat. People just come and are cared for spiritually all day for five days, she said. She said the workshops, which cost $395, usually fill up. They are open to anyone, and scholarships are available for some situations. Call the church at 701-663-1660 for more details. On 4 July, the press is invited to the opening ceremony of the EMPRETEC Entrepreneurship Training as part of UNDPs new Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development Programme. A highly-competitive selection of 80 South Sudanese entrepreneurs (50% women) will attend the training from 4 July to 16 July. The overall objective of the Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric... Will NATO survive? It should comfort us to realize that fifty years ago, we were asking the same question. President Charles de Gaulle pulled France out of the NATO military organization on June 30, 1966. France, which had a modern army and navy and also an independent nuclear force, now would determine when and how to honor its NATO treaty obligations and, while the treaty obligation remained, the decisions now to honor that obligation now rested with France. Charles de Gaulle, the symbol of French resistance in the Second World War; the French colonel who had developed the Blitzkrieg system, which the German Army studied before that war began; the general who ended the Fourth Republic and created the Fifth Republic, the French governmental system that has lasted longer than any other, could be infuriating and exasperating, but no one doubted his intelligence, courage, or patriotism. If America and other nations in NATO needed other reasons to worry, the French Communist Party routinely gained about a quarter of the vote in French national elections. Unlike the other major NATO ally with a large communist party, Italy, the French Communist Party was Stalinist through and through. If we could not count on France, then the future of NATO looked pretty grim. In retrospect, what de Gaulle did fifty years ago did not hurt the security of the West at all. France worked out informal understandings about its role if the Warsaw Pact invaded West Germany through the Fulda Gap. French military spending did not drop, nor did French military resolve melt. Indeed, if anything, what happened may have stiffened French support for NATO. Whatever the Kremlin may have thought initially, over time, the reality that France was prepared to defend itself with land, air, naval, and nuclear weapons and that its actions would be determined by the French government and not a NATO bureaucracy complicated any Soviet military plans. Moreover, the action by de Gaulle removed from the French Communist Party the argument that France had become an American puppet. NATO survived, and, indeed, NATO ended up winning the Cold War when the Berlin Wall fell, the Warsaw Pact nations threw off communist rule, and finally when the Soviet Empire itself collapsed and then dissolved into constituent nationalities. France has remained over the last half-century a formal NATO ally, although it was not until April 4, 2009 that President Sarkozy formally rejoined the command structure of NATO. NATO survived and remained the most importance alliance in human history because it remained in the national interest of all the signatories to the treaty to preserve the alliance and to present a common front against any potential aggressor. France stayed committed to that treaty because it was in Frances interest to do so. Today, the real worry is not that France may withdraw again from the NATO structure out of a sense of nationalism, but rather that France will not resolutely assert French nationalism and French cultural and moral identity. The problem with NATO is not that its members may leave, but rather that its members may stop standing for anything beyond a nebulous idea of alliance. The Western world, which is the only hope this world has, emerged from the miracle of a bloodless victory in a global war against Soviet imperialism not confident of the rightness of its values, but rather as a menagerie of states that has been mashed into the bland, agnostic mush of politically correct haplessness. We need, of course, another Reagan and another Churchill, but even more than that, we need another de Gaulle a leader who can defend the character of his people, the greatness of his culture, and the nobility of his nations values. If the war we are in today were a question of military power, we would win in a few weeks. The war, instead, is within us. Do we believe that our civilization stands for something great and that this civilization is worth defending and dying to protect? No one ever wondered whether Charles de Gaulle could answer those questions. If NATO survives, it will not be in spite of men like de Gaulle, but because of them. There is such a great number of partisan authors who tell you whose fiscal policies are the best, and many make valid points. However, one lesson we take from history is that there are viable elements in both political ideologies. Many times, policies offer greater insight than a candidate's own words in the context of a political race. Rather than judging candidates solely on rhetoric, voters should also critically look at the policies offered by the candidates to achieve a more realistic image of the future. Tax plans and economic proposals are excellent places to begin this quest. For instance, the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, has a proposal that includes a reduction of income taxes across the wide spectrum of earners. Trump compares this to Reagan's economic policies of the 1980s. We should remember that Trump's and Reagan's plans are not identical in terms of tax policy changes throughout Reagan's administration. In addition to large and significant decreases, the high earners being leading recipients in those years, also present were increases. The corporate tax rate would be substantially lowered to 15% under Trump's fiscal plan. Tax on long-term capital gains earnings does not surpass 20%. Trump is also promoting an end to corporate loopholes, such as on corporate deferral, the prediction being this would potentially reduce not eliminate, mind you the incentive for corporations to have subsidiaries residing overseas. Under this plan, tax credits will stay in place for what is paid in foreign countries where profits are seen. One may ponder the scope of impact on the U.S. economy as a whole. The reduced interference in the economy is meant to create the proper environment for the economy to thrive. The analogy would be that one does not grow a plant rather, he puts it in the ground and creates the proper environment for it to grow itself. According to Alan Cole's work for the Tax Foundation, Trump's proposal would culminate in an 11% increase in GDP, implying that more jobs, 5.3 million, would possibly be available. Though an increased potential for investment and discretionary spending as a result of tax cuts is an important factor, there is the thought of theory vs. the realization of those outcomes. Elements of Trump's plan allow for an opportunity to look at the effects of Reagan's policies for some indication of Trump's plan's vitality. Illustrated by research analysts William A. Niskanen and Stephen Moore at the Cato Institute, GDP rose to a higher percentage during Reagan's terms than during the administrations of his predecessor and successor. Also cited is the unemployment rate, which consistently decreased from the time the conservative president took office. Yet these are statistics that speak of relative success from a wide scope. How does this approach affect the lower to middle socioeconomic classes, by far the largest demographic in America? That should be the aim of any political leader: to reach the masses. An article in The Fiscal Times questioning the potential of Trump's proposals quoted G. William Hoagland from the Bipartisan Policy Center, stating, "[C]oncern that such a tax plan if enacted would further increase tension and unrest over income distribution issues, while not specifically addressing lower income poverty issue." Essentially, a rejuvenation in the economy does not necessarily mean all groups takes part in the success. In the Democratic Party's point of view, this is a legitimate concern. Despite Trump's assertion of an increase in tax revenue from growth in the economy, most analysts, including the Tax Foundation, agree that it will not come close to offsetting the imbalance between what is taken in by the federal government and what is spent. Trump has pledged not to use entitlement programs such as Social Security to compensate for the discrepancy. While this is not a new challenge, the deficit and national debt would undoubtedly need to be addressed. Conversely, Hilary Clinton promotes tax increases on the wealthy, raising the top rate to 43.6%, and proposing the Buffet Tax, which is becoming widely known for setting 30% as the lowest rate for those making over 1 million dollars. Capital gains earnings that are not considered long-term under Clinton's plan (held for six years) will be taxed at higher rates for those in the top tax bracket. The Tax Foundation's analysis suggests that GDP will decrease by 1% over multiple years. Despite increased revenue, which is a relevant topic in discussion of the deficit and national debt, the forecast is a decrease in wages by 0.8% and jobs by 311,000. While these numbers may not appear devastating from a simple numerical value, one should consider the real human lives that make up these numbers as well as any ripple effects. The Democratic candidate promises not to increase taxes on incomes under $250,000 and to improve social programs. Data from the Tax Policy Center, cited by The Observer, points to the fact that households surpassing $200,000 consist of a mere 4% of the population. In that article, Michael Sainato questions if Clinton truly understands who makes up the middle class based on those figures. Clinton argues that Social Security benefits should be expanded, especially for those in the poverty range. An additional aspect of her plan is to raise the limit on income that may be taxed for Social Security a simple necessity as the population increases and has a longer life expectancy. The current economy would still need be re-energized, regardless of who takes office. Clinton's focus, including a national increase in minimum wage to $12 an hour, is on investing in industries and people, funneling money into what one may refer to as a modern economy. Funds as well as policies are to be directed toward science, eco-friendly industries, infrastructure, and higher education. For instance, the call for clean energy has been echoed for long period of time, specifically among liberals, with little success compared to forecasts. While the incentive for these new energy markets is not limited to creating jobs and consumption, how do we balance true market demand with environmental needs? One does have to question what amount of our federal dollars should be allocated to what industries. Nevertheless, spending is a bipartisan issue, where political ideology will dictate where federal revenue is invested and to what extent. While Trump suggests tax cuts as well as addressing our trade deficit, Clinton's focus is on a more active federal role in emerging industries and personal financial security. History proves that there are advantages and disadvantages in both. Republicans have many times created a context that allows for bubbles through deregulation and a simultaneous increase in available capital, which burden the masses. Democrats have many times passed too far-reaching regulation and policies that have no real effect but to create stagnation. As noted by C.R. Cambridge in The Economist, John Maynard Keynes (whose theories became referred to as Keynesian economics) subscribed to the belief that economic policies need to be relevant and therefore must change based on the economy's needs. To that point, both candidates' proposals have elements of merit in them. One should consider the powerful role Congress plays in tax plans and federal budgets, in conjunction with the executive branch's own submitted proposals as well as the potential veto of bills. The president is not the sole factor. As in my classes at Palo Alto College, I try to raise questions from a non-partisan and objective standpoint. The quest for knowledge is the true message here. The Federalist Papers demonstrate what it was to be a student of political theory, offering us in-depth understanding and view of our Founding Father's political experimentation. The fact that these pragmatic individuals continuously questioned the political structure lends itself well to suggestion that we should all follow suit. Therefore, let us critically analyze the candidates' economic policies, not only the words in their speeches. Dale Schlundt holds a master's degree in adult education with a concentration in American history from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Dale has taught at Northwest Vista College and Our Lady of the Lake University and is currently a faculty member at Palo Alto College. This week the United States Supreme Court handed another victory to abortion supporters in Whole Womans Health Et Al. V. Hellerstedt, Commissioner, Texas Department of State Health Services, Et Al. Women were celebrating on the steps of the Supreme Court even though the justices basically said womens health was secondary to abortion access. Every pro-abortion law or judicial ruling is only for the supposed benefit of the woman, at least one baby is killed during every successful abortion. The biggest benefactor by far though is the abortion industry. When Roe v Wade became the law of the land on that fateful day in 1973, many abortion supporters argued that it was not a baby being aborted, it was a clump of cells or a blob of tissue. In fact, Justice Harry Blackmun, writing for the majority, perhaps understood the magnitude of the decision being based on the leanings of the day when he wrote: The appellee [Henry Wade] and certain amici argue that the fetus is a "person" within the language and meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. In support of this, they outline at length and in detail the well-known facts of fetal development. If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant's [Jane Roes] case, of course, collapses, [410 U.S. 113, 157] for the fetus' right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the Amendment. Even with the advent of 4-D ultrasound images of the womb and the fact that from the moment of conception the zygote has unique DNA, the personhood of the fetus is still not recognized and Roe v Wade stands. More than 58.5 million babies have been aborted since 1973. For pro-abortion advocates though, it is only about a womans right to choose abortion, safe, legal and rare was just a slogan. So, do pro-abortionists want every safety measure available put into place to protect women having abortions? Abortions involve risk and some of the physical harms women suffer during surgical abortions include: infection; sepsis; endometritis; cervical lacerations; uterine, bladder, or bowel perforations; Pelvic Inflammatory Disease; incomplete abortion and retained tissue. In chemical abortions, they include: severe pain; hemorrhage; infection; or rupture of undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy. Many of these complications require hospitalization. The abortion industry, not women themselves, mind you, sued and won their case to strike down the two Texas provisions designed to help women having complications during an abortion receive hospital care quickly and to protect them from untrained, incompetent and frankly, dangerous abortionists. In the Whole Womens Health v. Hellerstedt decision Justice Breyers opinion summarized the law: In 2013, the Texas Legislature enacted House Bill 2 (H. B. 2), which contains the two provisions challenged here. The admitting privileges requirement provides that a physician performing or inducing an abortion . . . must, on the date [of service], have active admitting privileges at a hospital . . . located not further than 30 miles from the abortion facility. The surgical-center requirement requires an abortion facility to meet the minimum standards . . . for ambulatory surgical centers under Texas law. Why wouldnt the abortion industry want to protect women from butchers like Kermit Gosnell, LeRoy Carhart, James Scott Pendergraft IV, and Douglas Karpen with commonsense laws comparable to the one from Texas? If you are not familiar with how these abortionists mutilated womens bodies, you may read about their stories in a report I wrote in 2014. Gosnell and Carhart killed women while performing abortions. Karpens story is gruesome: While many abortion supporters claim Dr. Gosnells house of horrors is an aberration in the abortion industry, abortion clinics are not the safe havens portrayed in the media and by abortion supporters. Just as the Gosnell trial ended and sentencing was taking place, Douglas Karpen was exposed as Gosnell 2. A videotape of three former abortion clinic workers from his Aaron Womens Clinic in Houston, Texas, contained claims that he performed illegal late-term abortions (after 24 weeks in Texas) and that he murdered babies born alive in ways similar to Gosnell. One of the methods he used to kill the babies born alive was by twisting the head off the neck. The accusations against him also include severing the spines of babies born alive, plunging instruments into the soft spots on a babys head to kill the baby, and aborting babies so large they had to be dismembered alive inside the womb instead of delivered (the clinic worker assisting said she would be drenched in blood from the procedure); workers claimed Karpen would sometimes insert instruments through womens stomachs to make it easier for him to kill the babies and that he would not tell victims of botched abortions that he had lacerated their cervix or uterus. Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the majority (joined by Ginsburg, Kagan, Kennedy and Sotomayor), sought to assure women that the Texas law would not have protected them from doctors like Gosnell, and by inference, Karpen. Breyer opined: Gosnells behavior was terribly wrong. But there is no reason to believe that an extra layer of regulation would have affected that behavior. Determined wrongdoers, already ignoring existing statutes and safety measures, are unlikely to be convinced to adopt safe practices by a new overlay of regulations. One wonders, will Justice Breyer apply the same argument to future gun-control cases? According to the CDC, there are approximately 33,600 gun-related deaths a year in the U.S. and of those approximately 11,000 are homicides. Justice Breyers opinion cites a Texas statistic that estimates there are between 60,000-72,000 legal abortions a year -- just in Texas. Adding more regulations to legal gun buyers will not stop determined wrongdoers -- criminals by definition ignore laws and can obtain guns without purchasing at a store or gun show. Adding clinic regulations however, will add to the likelihood these abortionists who are determined wrongdoers will be identified and prevented from practicing altogether and put a stop to other abortionists performing abortions in unsanitary conditions while ensuring these doctors have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals for the times they do injure women. If the state of Texas could prevent even one woman from getting injured during an abortion, wouldnt the law have been worth it? Having a clean and sterile environment for women undergoing abortions is too onerous a burden for the abortion industry evidently. According to Whole Womens Health v Hellerstedt, the District Court in Texas found in part: The cost of coming into compliance with the surgical-center requirement for existing clinics is significant, undisputedly approach[ing] 1 million dollars, and most likely exceed[ing] 1.5 million dollars, with [s]ome . . . clinics unable to comply due to physical size limitations of their sites. 46 F. Supp. 3d, at 682. The cost of acquiring land and constructing a new compliant clinic will likely exceed three million dollars. Planned Parenthood, the nations largest abortion provider, receives more than half a billion dollars in taxpayer money every year. Perhaps they could chip in money for all abortion clinics, many of which belong to them or their affiliates, to meet minimum standards for ambulatory surgical centers. According to Operation Rescue, at the end of 2015 there were 517 surgical abortion clinics and 213 medication abortion clinics remaining active in the U.S. Just one year of government funding diverted from Planned Parenthoods haul would get all those surgical clinics up to minimum standards. With about one million abortions performed in the U.S. each year, they represent a big money-maker for these clinics. Sorry ladies, the abortion industry, backed by the Supreme Court, thinks your health and well-being just arent as important as your right to abort babies and their right to profit from your choice. The difficult electoral map is an inconvenient reality faced by the GOP presidential nominee of any election year since 1992. Increased government dependency, declining religiosity, and demographic changes have altered the political disposition of several former Republican strongholds like California, Colorado, and Florida, to name a few. Looking over this years map, not much has changed. The GOP will certainly focus heavily on the dozen or so swing states, but they are making a critical mistake. There exists an opportunity for the GOP to pick off what strategists have written off as three automatic electoral votes for Democrats a little place called Vermont. Vermont is ripe for a GOP takeover. The last census estimated that over 94 percent of the states population is non-Hispanic white. For nearly three decades now, those pesky Vermonters have not given their electoral votes to Republicans. If only someone would tell them that their demographics, if set equal to Mitt Romneys 59 percent share of the white vote in 2012, afford the GOP an easy majority, then the state would flip overnight. In fact, it would turn so hard to the right that it would skip right past Battleground Vermont status. Unfortunately for my fantasy scenario, Vermonters are increasingly leftist in political persuasion, and have been trending that way since the 1960s when New Yorkers and Bostonians started getting fed up with urban rat race. President Obamas 67-31 re-election victory in the state puts to rest the notion that political ideology is always or should be determined by skin pigmentation or ethnic heritage. This begs the question -- why do we tolerate this sort of behavior from leftists? Every two years, I listen to the bleating of those who wish to Turn Texas Blue. In fact, so-called Democratic operatives, as if straight out of a spy movie, function under an organization called Battleground Texas. This group contends that, due to changing demographics, Texas is going to reverse course and stop supporting Republicans, leaving no hope at all for a future GOP White House victory. Battleground Texass musings about changing demographics are nothing but politically correct references to how the state is becoming less and less non-Hispanic white, even though Texas has always been a state with vast ethnic diversity. Their efforts in driving Hispanic voter turnout in their favor were so successful in 2014s gubernatorial election that Greg Abbott barely snuck by Wendy Davis by a margin of 20.3 points and nearly a million votes, making Texas redder than it has been at any point since 1998. Abbott received approximately 44 percent of the Hispanic vote, while other white conservatives on the ticket actually beat their Hispanic Democratic counterparts for it. The rise of the Sanders ideology in the Democratic Party will push more Hispanics to the GOP on the national level. Many are weary of socialism and are repulsed by the cultural left that has turned societal order upside down. My state representative has told me personally that social conservatism resonates deeply with the Texas Hispanic population, and that Lt. Governor Dan Patrick has made significant inroads in the Rio Grande Valley by repudiating the aggressive push by the left on social issues. So why do Democrats feel that a growing Hispanic population guarantees them political victory in Texas as time goes by, regardless of the facts that Texas is filling up with conservative exiles and growing fastest in the deeply conservative suburbs? It is because they feel entitled to the vote, which should deeply anger any minority voter that is paying even the slightest level of attention to political affairs. Hillary Clinton expects minority voters to vote for her because they are supposed to fall in line and vote against their oppressors. Once again, this sort of foolishness and hubris involves discarding the fact that most Hispanics, especially Texas Hispanics, are socially conservative, and Hispanics across America tend to vote for the GOP in greater numbers once they reach middle class status. Abortion, cultural upheaval, socialism, and illegal immigration are not appealing to those who would vote for Clinton. They are merely exhibiting the voting behavior of the poor. Clinton is not alone in this type of behavior. The leftist punditry constantly echoes the statements that elections are forever bound to be simply a mathematical formula with race or ethnicity being the only variables that matter. If this is truly the case, and race or skin color is indicative of underlying ideology, then we can all save ourselves the trouble and give up now. Assigning attributes to human beings based solely on race or ethnicity is the very epitome of the racism conservatives are accused of harboring just because minorities have heavily favored Democrats nationwide for most of the recent past. As if playing a game of conquest, the leftist media snickers with delight in imagining that states that go blue will stay as such forever, as if minority voters have no thoughts of their own and would not eventually change political persuasions if left alone indefinitely. Ironically, a recent Rasmussen poll showed Donald Trump outperforming Clinton for the votes of non-black minority voters. It is a fact that 12 red states from 1988 that turned blue in 1992 have not turned red since. In addition to those, there are several that have only resurfaced favorably for Republicans a time or two. Some of these trouble states, like Florida or those in the Rust Belt, regularly vote in GOP governors and legislatures and would be ripe for the GOP in presidential elections if conservatives would engage the minority populations in the same way the Texas GOP does. I have personally had great success engaging minority voters on current issues and receiving positive feedback, especially when I inform them of the grave damage done to their economic prospects by unrelenting illegal immigration. We need to remember that we dont have to take the entirety of the vote. A slight uptick in the GOP share of black voters would spell doom for Democrats in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. Texas-style engagement of the Hispanic community would have the same result in Florida, Colorado, Nevada, Virginia, and possibly New Mexico, while bolstering Arizona. The GOP loses the minority vote not because fiscal or social conservatism fails to appeal, but because the engagement of these groups is severely lacking. Far too often, we sit out in the suburbs and allow ourselves to be beaten by the racial outrage machine instead of facing the issue head on and pointing out the leftist hypocrisy present in every campaign. Seth Keshel, former Army Captain and Afghanistan veteran, is a district captain for the Convention of States Project Texas. World War I had been raging for nearly two years, and the western front had devolved into a stalemate. To break the impasse, the British hatched a battle plan they thought would break the German lines and bring them victory. They chose a narrow front along the river Somme to make the attack. What transpired next was maddening incompetence bordering on criminal negligence by the British army. Every officer and noncom in the army knew that frontal assaults on prepared positions resulted in slaughter. But the British general in command, Douglas Haig, believed that the key to victory was in a massive artillery bombardment that lasted a full week. But the shells had little effect on the German defenders, who, once the fire slackened, came out of their bunkers to man thousands of machine guns. The results were predictable: Journalist and cartoonist Joe Sacco, who illustrated a massive panorama of the first day of the battle, spoke to NPR in 2013. Here's what we wrote then: "The battle began on 7:30 a.m., July 1, 1916, on the river Somme in France. There had already been a series of bombardments; British generals unloaded a week's worth of artillery, thinking it would decimate the Germans and allow British troops to move in easily. "But while the bombardment was so loud that it could be heard in London, it hadn't been very effective; many of the shells were duds, and others just hadn't done the job. Then the barrage lifted, and the troops started to move. " 'When all that noise quieted down, the Germans realized, OK, the shelling has stopped; let's get out of our dugouts and man our machine gun posts,' Sacco says. 'The British were marching towards them in a line, and the Germans just started firing on these troops.' " It was a test of new battle tactics, and it was a devastating failure. More than 19,000 British soldiers were killed in the first day alone the deadliest day in the history of the British military. Nearly 40,000 more were injured. The "tactics" were essentially the same as those that had been used for two years. An entire regiment from Newfoundland was butchered in the first day. So-called "pals regiments" made up of chums from neighborhoods and schools around Great Britain were slaughtered, leaving many communities devastated. If there is a battle that defined the useless slaughter of World War I, the 117-day bloodletting by the British army at the Somme river to advance a measly ten miles is it. But for voter fraud in Minnesota, we would not have Obamacare. That is the scenario of a case being heard by the Supreme Court of Minnesota, over likely voter fraud that made the difference in the 2008 election of Senator Al Franken, whose vote was absolutely necessary for the passage of Obamacare. John Hinderaker of Powerline explains: Here in Minnesota, a case is pending in our Supreme Court that challenges same day registration and various actions by our Democratic Secretary of State that have enabled illegal voting. I havent yet had time to evaluate the plaintiffs legal arguments, but the factual allegations are explosive: A new voter fraud case before the Minnesota Supreme Court claims 1,366 ineligible felons have cast at least 1,670 fraudulent votes in recent statewide elections, possibly tipping the outcome of close contests, including the 2008 U.S. Senate race. The lawyers representing plaintiffs in the case have done a great deal of digging, and have come up with names, dates and placesillegal votes that likely swung Minnesota elections toward Democratic candidates. The illegal votes that plaintiffs have been able to document are only a small fraction of the actual total: Court papers demonstrate how the incomplete list of ineligible voters provided to local election officials routinely allows felons, wards of the state, immigrants [who are not citizens] and other ineligible persons to register and vote. The 1,366 identified felons who have been permitted to vote is believed to be only a fraction of the true total, the 110 page court petition filed by MVA and former Rep. Kirk Stensrud states. Cooperation from the Secretary of State would have allowed for a more complete accounting of the number of ineligible persons who have been permitted to vote. I heard this New York Times take on the Benghazi report mentioned on a noontime political discussion show on Fox News yesterday and found it so absurd that I had to check for myself. Here it is: The New York Times front-page article following the issuance of the report of the House Select Committee on Benghazi included the following paragraph. At a news conference at the Capitol on Tuesday, Mr. Gowdy praised as heroes the Americans who died in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2012. They included Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and Sean Smith, a State Department information officer, who were killed at the main American diplomatic compound in Benghazi by a mob of militia fighters who had been incited by an American-made video deriding the Prophet Muhammad. The fighters were apparently further inflamed by news of an assault on the American Embassy in Cairo. One thing the Select Committees report makes 100% clear in 172 pages of evidence constituting section II (and which not even the White House or State Department would now dispute) is that the attack in Benghazi had absolutely nothing to do with the video cited by the Times. The report details numerous firsthand communications from our agents on the ground that made their way to Secretary Clintons office from multiple channels during the attacks and consistently used the term attack, and none of the information mentioned anything about a video or protest. Nevertheless, Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration made and stuck with public statements blaming the attack on the video for weeks afterward. While she certainly should have known from the reports she received during the attacks, we know with certainty that it was clear to Hillary at least by September 12 that the video had nothing to do with it. From page II-45 and II-46 of the report: The Secretary also had a phone call with an Egyptian leader, Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, on the afternoon of September 12. According to the call notes, the Secretary told the Prime Minister the following: "We know that the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attacknot a protest. . . . Your [sic] not kidding. Based on the information we saw today we believe the group that claimed responsibility for this was affiliated with al Qaeda.103" Not only did the Secretary tell the Prime Minister the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film, she strengthened the statement by prefacing it with we know.104 Such a definitive declaration made privately to another world leader stands in stark contrast to her speech earlier in the day to the American people where she mentioned the attackthis vicious behaviorin the same breath as the videoinflammatory material posted on the internet.105 We know that The New York Times is highly partisan in its news coverage. But this weeks front-page story hanging on to the completely discredited Obama administration position that the four Americans were killed in Benghazi due to a mob incited by an American-made video is one more illustration of how dishonest and irresponsible this publication is. Judge Jeanine Pirro is a tough cookie, well versed in hardball politics, New York-style. As district attorney for Westchester County, just north of New York City, she no doubt crossed paths many times with then-U.S. attorney for the Eastern District Loretta Lynch. The home-brew server of the Clinton email and bribery scheme was located in her turf, in Chappaqua. So when the former judge makes clear her opinion on what lies ahead for Hillary, I pay attention. Yesterday, she appeared on Fox and Friends and let us all know why she thinks Hillary will skate: Pirro said that Clinton is not going to be indicted in the email case because of the series of events that the charges would trigger. "The reason she will not be indicted is because her first witness as a defendant in a criminal case is the President of the United States. Why? Because Hillary Clinton emailed President Barack Obama. He knew she had a private email server. So he is complicit. And they will not allow a constitutional crisis where the President of the United States knew about the risking of security of the United States," said Pirro. The judge said Clinton "threw a shot across the bow" recently when she said publicly that "everyone" in Washington knew she was using a private email. "Translation? Mr. President, this isn't happening because you're my first witness," said Pirro, explaining that this investigation is a "charade and a dance" at this point. Underlying this perspective is the reality that there is no time and even less inclination to hold President Obama politically responsible via impeachment by Congress. That is, assuming he would be directly implicated in the scheme, if only by negligence. Would Hillary Clinton call President Obama as a witness? That might well be something that was discussed on the tarmac in Phoenix. If so, it would be a classic Clinton maneuver, relying on the reverence of others for the office of POTUS while simultaneously abusing and disgracing it. Bismarck and Mandan residents can don their red, white and blue for three days of Independence Day activities. In Mandan, activities have long gravitated around its historic rodeo, Fourth of July Parade and Art in the Park amid a carnival setting. The 137th annual rodeo returns to Mandan today through Monday at Dacotah Centennial Park, just south of Memorial Highway, with rodeo action beginning 7:30 p.m. all three nights. Art in the Park will return to Dykshoorn and Heritage parks today through Monday, with about 15,000 expected to attend. It will be open from 3 to 9 p.m. today, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday. A classic car parade begins Monday's parade festivities at 10:30 a.m. on Main Street, followed by the July 4 Independence Day Parade at 10:45 a.m. As many as 25,000 people settle in at the grounds of the North Dakota State Capitol building every Independence Day for the event informally known as the Fourth of July at the Capitol Steps, with performances by Shawn Oban on guitar, a quartet from the musical group the Brethren, and the Bismarck Symphony Orchestra. At 9 p.m., the patriotic concert begins with the Brethren and the orchestra performing "The Star Spangled Banner," "Nothing Like a Dame," "Over the Rainbow" and pieces from "The Music Man," with a special performance by Lindsay Peterson. The pyrotechnic show tentatively starts at 9:45 p.m., and the orchestra will accompany the fireworks. News that 170,000 criminal illegal aliens have avoided deportation has consequences beyond mere statistics. An illegal alien in Oregon, deported six times since 2003, has been charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in a quadruple-shooting at a rural blueberry farm. Associated Press: Bonifacio Oseguera-Gonzalez, 29, has no significant prior criminal convictions, but ICE asked Oregon authorities to turn him over to them if he's released from custody in the current case, the agency said in a statement to The Associated Press on Friday. Oseguera-Gonzalez pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated murder and one count of attempted murder Tuesday in Marion County Superior Court. His attorney, Deborah Burdzik, did not immediately return a call seeking comment about his immigration status. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tweeted about the case Friday, saying the suspect "should have never been here." Two men who lived at the blueberry farm in the Willamette Valley town of Woodburn, in northwest Oregon, died at the scene of Monday's shooting. The third victim, the girlfriend of another resident who was not home at the time, was pronounced dead at a hospital. A third man was seriously wounded but survived and is able to speak with investigators. The Oregon State Police arrested Oseguera-Gonzalez a few hours later on Interstate 84 in the Columbia River Gorge, about 100 miles northeast of Woodburn. He acknowledged to authorities in an interview that he shot four people, according to a probable cause statement. The victims were identified as Ruben Rigoberto-Reyes, 60; Edmundo Amaro-Bajonero, 26; and Katie Gildersleeve, 30, of Logsden. The commander in charge of the naval vessels that strayed into Iranian waters and were captured last January surrendered his command because he thought his sailors would be safe because Iran "wanted the nuclear deal to go through." This is only one of several revelations found in the 170-page report issued by the Pentagon about the incident. The commander's name was redacted from the report. Washington Times: In an interview with investigators looking into the January incident, the commander said he surrendered the vessels after calculating that his sailors would not be in danger because Iran wants this nuke deal to go through. The interview was one of several stunning revelations in the often scathing 170-page report compiled by Navyinvestigators, chronicling the chain of events that led to the apprehension and detention of the 10 American sailors by the Iranian military after a pair of U.S. patrol boats drifted into the countrys sovereign waters in the Persian Gulf. The incident, which played out as President Obama was preparing his State of the Union address, proved deeply embarrassing to the U.S. military and roiled diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington as they were trying to implement key measures in the deal to curb Irans suspect nuclear programs. Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, said Thursday that the mishandling of the incident resulted from the accumulation of a number of small problems created by the U.S. sailors who strayed into Iranian waters all the way up to the senior commanders who led the Navy squadron and task force under which the unit served. While contending Iran also violated international law with rough handling of its American captives, this incident did not live up to our expectations of our Navy, Adm. Richardson said. America has been at war with Iran since 1979 at least, Tehran thinks so. The commander put a childlike faith in the thinking that the nuclear deal would protect his personnel. He also didn't want to "start a war" despite the fact that Iran has been ordering terrorist attacks against American military personnel for more than a decade. Heavily outgunned and outnumbered by members of Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Navy commander whose name was redacted from the report told investigators he calculated that Tehrans desire to keep the nuclear deal with the U.S. alive would also protect the 10 American sailors if they surrendered. I didnt want to start a war with Iran. I didnt want to start a war that would get people killed, the commander said. I guess this was a gamble on my part. I made the gamble that they were not going to kill us. I made the gamble they were not going to parade us around like prisoners of war because they want this nuke deal to go through. His act of surrender could have easily resulted in what he claims he was trying to avoid a war. As it is, his skewed thinking handed the Iranians their biggest propaganda victory ever. I hope this commander was one of the nine officers cashiered as a result of this humiliation. The administration is fond of defending its immigration record by pointing to the record number of deportation orders issued by ICE. What they're not telling you is that most illegals ignore those deportation orders, and ICE has no way to detain them until they can be sent back. Washington Times: Nearly 1 million immigrants are ignoring deportation orders to remain in the U.S. including more than 170,000 convicted criminals, according to a new report Thursday that suggests the governments deportation efforts are still falling short. Only a small fraction of the immigrants are even being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), meaning most of them remain free on the streets, where they can commit crimes and continue living in the shadows, according to the study by Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies. The fact that almost 10 percent of the illegal resident population has already been ordered removed and is still here illustrates just how dysfunctional our immigration enforcement system is. It also should be of great concern that 20 percent of them are conviction criminals, and that most of these are at large in our communities, Ms. Vaughan said. She said the 925,193 aliens who were still here despite a deportation order break down into three categories. In some cases their home countries refuse to take them back, and U.S. officials feel constrained by law to release them; other times they are released by sanctuary cities, who help thwart deportations; and still others abscond on their own. Mexicans account for the most aliens, with nearly 200,000 ignoring deportation orders. About a third of those are convicted criminals, Ms. Vaughan said. El Salvador accounts for more than 150,000 of the aliens, but just 10,000 of them are convicted criminals. Perhaps most troubling is that the population is steadily growing, with the Obama administration tracking down fewer than 10,000 fugitives a year on the streets. Even when criminals snagged by checking local prisons and jails are included, the number of those deported from the interior of the U.S. is far less than 100,000. We can't lay the entire blame on the administration. The way immigration law has been interpreted over the years lays equal blame at the feet of the federal judiciary. They simply won't allow long-term incarceration of illegal immigrants. And if the illegal's country of origin refuses to take him back, there is very little that ICE can do to get him to leave. But a better effort can be made to keep track of those who have been issued deportation orders. At present, ICE doesn't even try. That situation has to change if a dent can ever be made in reducing the number of illegals and especially illegal alien convicts from remaining in the U.S. President Obama took his "climate change" show the same one that Democrat majorities would not pass and the anti-Trump rants to Ottawa. He stood beside Canadian P.M. Justin Trudeau and Mexican president Enrique Pena-Nieto: Mr. Obama deplored the anti-immigrant remarks of Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, particularly his statements about Mexican immigrants. Though he never mentioned Mr. Trump by name, Mr. Obama said the next American president would have a strong interest in having a solid relationship with our good neighbor to the south. Speaking at a news conference with the Canadian and Mexican leaders after their meeting, the president said that anti-immigrant appeals had a long history in the United States, but that they had never permanently curtailed the flow of people into the country. We should take some of this rhetoric seriously and answer it boldly and clearly, Mr. Obama said, answering a question from a Mexican journalist, but you shouldnt think it is representative of how the American people think. Mr. Obama said he rejected the argument that the harsh tone in the American presidential campaign, or in Britains recent referendum on leaving the European Union, was populist. He ridiculed the notion that a candidate who worked to preserve the interests of wealthy people could be a populist. They dont suddenly become populist because they say something controversial in order to win votes, Mr. Obama said. Thats not the measure of populism; thats nativism or xenophobia or worse. Or its just cynicism. Mr. Pena Nieto, for his part, put Mr. Trump in a line of populist demagogues, including Hitler and Mussolini, though he, like Mr. Obama, did not use the candidates name. Those political actors, by using populism and demagoguery, they choose the easiest way to solve the challenges of todays world, he said. No one asked President Pena-Nieto about Mexico's immigration laws or the anti-American rants that one hears in the Mexican Congress. Is that demagoguery, too? No one asked. I guess they are too obsessed with Trump! No one asked P.M. Trudeau about President Obama refusing to go along with the Keystone Pipeline. Also, it is likely that a future U.S. president will have to send troops to the Middle East. Will Canada support a NATO mission again? And finally, no one in the media reminded President Obama that candidate Obama once wanted to renegotiate NAFTA, too. It would have been more appropriate if President Obama had focused on terrorism, since I am not familiar with any "climate change" blowing up airports or discos. Of course, we are talking about President Obama, the man who told us that he ended wars and the enemy was on the run. Quite true the enemy is running after us! Last, but not least, a group of Canadians stood up and chanted, "Four more years." Four more years of what? A GDP under 3%? Weak foreign policy? Are some Canadians that silly, or what? P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter. If you begin to read an article thats based primarily on poll results, my advice is to stop reading and go on to something else. My reasoning is based on the now irrefutable evidence that political public opinion polls in competitive or controversial contests in virtually all major Western nations, particularly in the U.S. and Great Britain, have been chronically wrong for some time. Dramatic poll numbers in the U.S. presidential primaries, and now in the match-up between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, flip-flop in a matter of days or a few weeks, and thats assuming the dubious premise that these results are in any way accurate at the time they are taken. Even exit polls have been wrong. Public polling has been an honorable profession when the pollsters have maintained high standards, as many have. But the rise of the use of the cell phone, internet, and social media has introduced a new level, if you will, of Heisenbergs uncertainty principle (the measuring device alters the measure), and the disinclination of the millions of angry voters to disclose their true feelings to pollsters has reached epidemic levels. In normal times, when political rules and traditions dominate the political environment, polling errors exist but are relatively infrequent. Usually, those errors are caused by the pollsters themselves i.e., by some bias, by flawed questions, by flawed samples. In a time such as we are now in, specifically the 2016 presidential campaign season, the flaws in public opinion polling might be well beyond the pollsters' best efforts and intentions. A portent of this phenomenon came in the 2014 U.S. national elections and the two most recent British parliamentary elections. There is now a full-blown mutiny taking place among the mass of voters in virtually all Western nations, with election after election in the U.S., Spain, France, Italy, Iceland, Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, and elsewhere seeing anti-establishment candidates either upsetting major party candidates or almost doing so. These voters seem to be wary of candidly responding to traditional poll-takers or participating in most public polls. This voter reluctance exists among voters of the left, right, and center. Not only are they angry and frustrated, as most analysts now concede, but they seem determined to upset the political apple cart of candidates and policies put forward by the major political parties. With the discarded litter of the polls for both the Democratic and Republican presidential nomination contests still visible, and the erratic behavior of recent polls of the November contest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump recently published, and so much turbulence ahead at both national conventions, why should anyone pay any attention to polls about this race? The Colorado Republican Party has just nominated an unknown black military veteran, Darryl Glenn, to be its candidate against incumbent Democratic senator Michael Bennett. The initial media comments have been that Democrats should breathe a sigh of relief for this race, which was previously considered potentially competitive. The black veteran is also an outspoken conservative and was not favored by most in the state party establishment. Mr. Glenn might indeed lose, but it is early to make pronouncements about this race, especially in the year of Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, and Brexit. Polls will now no doubt come out heavily favoring Mr. Bennett. They might, however, bear no resemblance to the final poll in early November. This will also be a political season in which the two largest third-party candidates for president might well receive very large numbers of votes. The Green Party on the left and the Libertarians on the sort of right could complicate both polling and elections. Both these parties tickets will be on almost all state presidential ballots. No doubt, by mid-October and later, the polls will become more and more accurate not only in the presidential race, but also in many down-ballot races. Even so, in 2016 they might not predict outcomes. Dont count on opinion polls and analyses based primarily on them to tell you much about what is going to happen on election day, 2016. Religious Liberty TV has an alarming story about the California government discriminating against Christian schools that refuse to violate their religious convictions and conscience and beliefs. This is a summary of the proposed law: First, SB 1146 will require religious colleges and universities to adopt policies of non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in order for students to receive state-funded scholarships under the Cal Grant program. Secondly, SB 1146 will require these institutions to give notice if they have requested an exemption to Title IX. Thirdly, SB 1146 will permit lawsuits against institutions that are perceived to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation regardless of whether they accept the Cal-Grant scholarships. The bill will not apply to programs designed for students who want to become members of the clergy or other specifically religious careers. In other words, the school's freedom to follow its conscience will endanger monetary benefits for students. Also, schools have to inform the state if they apply for a federal exemption. Finally, students can sue if they believe they have been discriminated against, tying up valuable resources to reply to the suits. I see nothing wrong with admitting students to a Christian school who adopt a lifestyle that runs counter to the moral law as spelled out in the Scriptures. It's all about outreach. However, if a school declines to accept these students or does not place them in leadership positions (and I understand that one point), then this bill would endanger religious liberty as the ever-growing state absorbs more of our private and institutional religious lives. What could motivate these lawmakers? The magazine Christianity Today offers this possibility: There is a commonly held -- and erroneous -- belief that Christian colleges and universities are backward scientifically, repressive sexually, and inept socially. That such institutions are academically weak, Bible-thumping, 17th century good-old-boys clubs full of bigots and legalists. For those who hold such views, cutting off state or federal aid to these institutions, or to force them to shed some of their strongly-held Christian convictions, would be no great loss. Anti-Christian bigotry is perhaps the main motive. The Religious Liberty TV article goes on to point out ways to oppose the new law. It may simply go into litigation, as Christians have to fight and scrap to keep their way of life in the public square: If passed, SB 1146 will face litigation as religious institutions contend that the state is unconstitutionally imposing a condition on religious institutions with the intent of pressuring them to compromise their free exercise of religion. The state could make a determination to only fund public schools with the grant programs, but when they open the program up to religious and secular private schools, the state cannot use this leverage to punish now grant-dependent religious schools that refuse to abandon their free exercise of religion. Sue away, if need be; sue away. The fight is ongoing. James Arlandson's website is Live as Free People, where he has posted Slavery and freedom in the Bible, The law teaches virtue and restrains vice, The Biblical case for limited government and low taxes, and The biblical norm for marriage. The opportunities for corruption insider trading of the worst kind were obvious and deeply disturbing when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state and her son-in-law went into a very specific kind of investing. And the fact that neer-do-well husband of Chelsea and father of two grandkids Mark Mezvinsky ended up botching his hedge fund and losing his investors money does not prove innocence. In a long article at Foxnews.com, Peter Byrne lays out the tangled web of influence behind the big financial stakes swirling around Hillarys actions as secretary of state in 2012. Mezvinsky, who in earlier years had abandoned work and his wife to go be a ski bum for a number of months, returned to Wall Street and set up a hedge fund that was a kind of satellite operation for Goldman Sachs, the key player on Wall Street; supplier of many top executives to the Treasury Department; and, of course, mega-donor and speech honorarium payer to the Clintons. In 2012, Mezvinski, the husband of Chelsea Clinton, created a $325 million basket of offshore funds under the Eaglevale Partners banner through a special arrangement with investment bank Goldman Sachs. The funds have lost tens of millions of dollars predicting that bailouts of the Greek banking system would pump up the value of the countrys distressed bonds. One fund, exclusively dedicated to Greek debt, suffered near-total losses. Clinton stepped down as secretary of state in 2013 to run for president. But newly released emails from 2012 show that she and Clinton Foundation consultant, Sidney Blumenthal, shared classified information about how German leadership viewed the prospects for a Greek bailout. Clinton also shared protected State Department information about Greek bonds with her husband at the same time that her son-in-law aimed his hedge fund at Greece. That Americas top diplomat kept a sharp eye on intelligence assessing the chances of a bailout of the Greek central bank is not a problem. However, sharing such sensitive information with friends and family would have been highly improper. Federal regulations prohibit the use of nonpublic information to further private interests or the interests of others. The mere perception of a conflict of interest is unacceptable. Germany was the country that would pay the greatest amount to bail out Greece, so insight into Germanys plans could pay off big for holders of government bonds bought at fire sale prices. This inevitably leads to a perception of a conflict of interest for Hillary Clinton, even if she never breathed a word to her son-in-law. But she might not even have had to: The same month that Eaglevale incorporated its offshore arm, Gary Gensler, the head of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which polices hedge funds, emailed Clinton that a bailout by the European Central Bank could turn market sentiment in favor of Greek bonds. Gensler had previously worked as co-head of finance at Goldman Sachs; he is now the financial director of Clintons election campaign. Goldman Sachs has donated up to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation and $860,000 to Hillary Clintons political campaigns. Shortly after Clinton resigned, Goldman Sachs paid her $675,000 in speaking fees. So the guy currently in charge of raising big bucks for Hillary also has his fingerprints all over this hedge fund and seeking information relevant to the bailout. Can you say culture of corruption? Can you say rigged system? The fact that Mezvinsky chose a field of investing directly affected by the diplomacy of the United States while his mother-in-law was in charge of that is damning. In a way, it is too bad that Mezvinsky lost his investors money, because at least that way there is no smoking gun for Hillarys corrupt influence. Whether you live in the UK or not, the chances are good that developments in the UK have hit your news feeds. This is largely due a monumental decision taken by the UK public to cease to be a member of the European Union. The so-called Brexit decision has had immense repercussions on financial markets across the globe and has effected companies across the board including the major tech companies and has seen analysts, advisers and just about everyone else trying to predict and mitigate against the effects of changes that a British exit could bring. As part of that mitigating, various big-name companies have been coming out and declaring their own Brexit of sorts. This is in relation to whether those companies feel they can continue to host operations within the UK. When the UK officially leaves the EU, there is the possibility that they will lose access to the single market. A possibility which has meant companies are evaluating whether they should up and move any UK bases to another European company, as a means to remain within the single market. Needless to say, Google is one of those companies as they do have an operating base within the UK, as well as elsewhere in Europe. However, it is this widespread number of locations that leads Googles Eric Schmidt to believe that it is unlikely to force Google to change their current UK base setup. As Schmidt is reported to have noted during a tech conference in Paris, We have large operations in Ireland, in Britain, France, Germany and so forth. As a result and while Schmidt does note that you never know Schmidt does also state that it would be hard for me to imagine that wed make much of a change. Advertisement Of course, with such a wide spreading of bases across Europe, as well as the rest of the world, it stands to reason that Google is not as concerned about the Brexit issue as others. Companies who make use of less spread out locations and are more central to bases in the UK will be the ones who need to consider their position more carefully. As will smaller companies who although not based in the UK, do provide goods to the UK and rely on much smaller profit margins, like OnePlus. Although, this is of course all dependent on whether the UK loses unrestricted access to the single market, which is something that is unlikely to be known for some time. "So many of them did with nothing. I feel like their last home should be their best home. It's gorgeous here." Richardton Health Center Board President Clare Messmer, on the new 24-bed nursing home. q q q "It's a sad deal today. It's a bummer that they lost the contract and it's sad to see the (coal miners') union go away." Jim Wagner, of Mandan, during an auction of equipment at the Dakota Westmoreland mine near Beulah. The mine is downsizing after losing its primary coal contract. q q q "Ooh, pop-up store, perfect. It's a different way to utilize the mall as the hub of Bismarck." Jennifer Wilson, specialty leasing manager for Kirkwood Mall, on her reaction when Chappy Windsor, owner of Dakota Chappy women's clothing store in Minot, asked to do a pop-up store at the mall. q q q "The contracts are done. We're not going anywhere. FiveSouth will be built." Don Cardon, of Cardon Development Group, announcing the FiveSouth project in downtown Bismarck will move forward. Groundbreaking is planned in March. q q q "We have already identified plans to drive substantial improvements, and we are prepared to execute on these plans in 2016. This includes systemwide commercial and feedstock optimization, increased efficiencies in distribution and reduced transportation and refining costs. As a result, we expect to generate more than $20 million in annual operating income from this business even if the current economic conditions continue." Tesoro CEO Greg Goff, on the companys plans after purchasing the Dakota Prairie Refinery near Dickinson from MDU Resources Group Inc. q q q "We can handle all that. They're alive." Dr. Melissa Henke, medical director at Heartview Foundation, on the use of naloxone to help addicts. The drug forces people into immediate and very uncomfortable withdrawal, often making them vomit or lash out. q q q "What I did was horrible. What I did was reckless. I'm scared of myself for ever allowing myself to think that is OK." Nicholas Alexander, 22, admitting at a court hearing that he tried to arrange a meeting with a minor girl who turned out to be an undercover police officer. He was sentenced to serve one year on electronic monitoring. q q q "He's doing everything he should be doing. It's been good, and it'll get better." North Dakota Republican Party Chairman Kelly Armstrong, on how Doug Burgum has been working with party members since winning the GOP gubernatorial nomination in the primary. q q q "I am very pleased. Eventually that will bring the restaurants and the retail the city needs. We are growing at a nice pace, a manageable pace." Mayor Tim Helbling, reacting to news that Mandans population has topped 21,000. q q q "I'm super excited to take on the public safety role. There has been heightened interest in it. We'll take a look at some of the things going on in town and try to get a better handle on them. They have been doing a fantastic job, but we'll see what additional supports we can give. It's a new challenge for me and something different." Bismarck City Commissioner Josh Askvig, on being assigned the public safety portfolios of police and fire. GRAND FORKS -- The University of North Dakotas new president has a message for the universitys community and fans: The Fighting Hawks name and logo are here to stay. Mark Kennedy, who began his tenure as UNDs president Friday, said in an interview that the debate over the schools nickname and logo have distracted officials from focusing on academic priorities. When asked if he plans to stick with the Fighting Hawks name and logo, Kennedy said yes and yes. The Fighting Hawks name was approved in November by the universitys stakeholders, and the logo was released in late June. After the logo was released, many took to social media to express their displeasure with it. A Change.org petition was created asking for the logo to be changed, and for a local artist to create a new one. As of midday Friday, that online petition had more than 5,700 signatures. The Fighting Hawks nickname replaced UNDs longtime Fighting Sioux name, which was retired after the NCAA threatened sanctions. I appreciate that the alumni and fans are very invested in the Sioux nickname, Kennedy said. Thats an affection thats acquired over many decades and countless hours cheering for your team. Im a seven-time letterman of the Pequot Lakes (High School) Indians. I understand that can be an affection where youre proud to be associated with the Sioux or the Indians, and I certainly was. But the fact remains that UND has paid a great price by being distracted from addressing other priorities with an endless debate on the nickname," he continued. "I have no problem for those who wish to hold on to the prior nickname, but my duty as the president is to make sure were focused on priorities that are essential. UND unveiled its logo to a crowd of supporters June 22. The new graphic identity, designed by New York-based SME Inc., features a determined hawk embedded in a Kelly green ND, along with a distinctive wordmark for the name North Dakota Fighting Hawks. WILLISTON -- Efforts to find a Williams County man whos been missing for nearly a week intensified Friday as a Minnesota-based search and rescue group arrived in Williston to help. Volunteers, coordinated by United Legacy, fanned out across rural areas west of Williston that Zackary Baldwin was known to frequent on his motorcycle, searching on foot and on ATVs for any sign of him. A command center is set up at the Williston Area Recreation Center, where volunteers are outfitted with neon vests and assigned routes. Efforts were expected to last through the weekend or until Baldwin is found. The group is seeking more help from the public, said United Legacy founder Deanna Villella, who was among those who left Minneapolis on Thursday evening and drove all night to reach Williston. Volunteers can come when theyre available and leave when they have to leave, she said. Were looking for any broken debris, any marks on the gravel, anything that looks out of place. Baldwin, 30, left home last Sunday evening to go for a motorcycle ride before dinner. He was reported missing the next day. The Williams County Sheriffs Office, with help from the state Highway Patrol and other agencies in the region, has combed routes Baldwin is known to ride, and launched an aerial search this week. A submersible camera was used to search bodies of water along roads that Baldwin frequented, but so far theres been no sign of the motorcyclist. Authorities are also trying to confirm whether Baldwin's credit cards or cellphone have been used since he disappeared. Were just trying to exhaust every option that we can, said Capt. Verlan Kvande of the Williams County Sheriffs Office, adding that there is no suspicion that Baldwin was a victim of a crime. As of right now, we dont have anything that gives us that indication, he said. On Saturday, organizers hoped to include horseback riders in search efforts. Kim Opsahl of Montana was among the volunteers who scoured ditches and trudged through deep grass along county roads west of Williston on Friday. She covered about 8 miles of terrain on foot and plans to continue in coming days. Opsahl said it was her experience with United Legacy last year, when her 22-year-old son went missing in Minnesota, that drew her to try to help find Baldwin. My son hasnt been found, but theres a chance we can find this man. Im certainly not going to sit at home and light off fireworks when I know I can possibly help, she said during a midday break on Friday. It might seem like a huge area, but theres just no reason we cant cover the space and bring him home. Manchester United sign Mkhitaryan and cash in on fans More Manchester Untied news now. Having been graced with a year-long audience with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Red Devils have secured the services of Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The Armenian will complete his move from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester United today, says the Daily Mail. Sky says the deal has already been done. Man United have posted pictures on the club website with Henrikh Mkhitaryan name on away shirts. An accident, asks the Star. No. Its marketing, of course. The United site crashed amid the interest. Unfortunately an error has occurred on the page you were trying to view, the website told fans. The Store Technicians have been informed of this error and will deal with it as soon as possible, in the meantime please use the menu at the top of this screen to navigate to other areas of the site. As United buy the message from the clubs owners continues: spend! spend! spend! Anorak Posted: 2nd, July 2016 | In: Back pages, manchester united, Reviews, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink North Dakota cities are wrestling with a steep decline in state funding as they craft their budgets for next year, with some experiencing a double whammy because of a change in how population is used to calculate the payments. The head of the North Dakota League of Cities said hes concerned the substantial drop in state aid and highway tax revenue could put added pressure on local property taxes. Because cities have fixed costs, and you have to be able to pay for those fixed costs, said Executive Director Blake Crosby. And one of the downsides to the oil boom was fixed costs got extremely high. When comparing January through May with the same period last year, state aid payments to individual cities decreased by 28 to 49 percent, with an average drop of about 35 percent. We want the citizens to understand that the reduction in revenue coming through the state has an effect on communities, said North Dakota Treasurer Kelly Schmidt, whose office distributes state aid. Slump cuts into aid State aid is paid to cities and counties on a varied schedule and comes from revenue from sales taxes and motor vehicle excise taxes. Currently, 8.7 percent of that revenue goes into the State Aid Distribution Fund, while the states general fund receives the rest, according to the treasurers office. From the distribution fund, 53.7 percent goes to counties and the rest goes to cities, based proportionately on population. The League of Cities projects state aid will drop from about $59.3 million last year to $44 million in both 2016 and 2017, according to a memo based on state data and sent to member cities last week. Payments from the Highway Tax Distribution Fund, which is supported by fuel taxes and motor vehicle registration fees, are projected to decrease by about 17 percent this year and 19 percent next year. The downturn reflects a continued slump in North Dakotas oil and agriculture sectors brought on by low prices for crude and farm commodities. During the first 11 months of the biennium that began July 1, 2015, revenue from sales and motor vehicle excise taxes was down $266 million, or nearly 22 percent, from the same period last biennium, meaning less money flowing into the state aid fund. This isnt just oil. This is agriculture, and this is sales tax, Schmidt said. Farmers arent out buying a half-million-dollar combine. Population basis changes But many cities also saw an additional decrease in state aid because the 2015 Legislature passed a bill requiring the state treasurer to use the most recent U.S. Census data available when calculating state aid distributions. That benefited cities such as Williston and Watford City, where the oil boom has spurred unprecedented growth since the last 10-year census was taken in 2010. But it dealt a blow to dozens of other cities that have lost residents since then. Some really got the double whammy, Schmidt said. In the northeastern corner of the state, Cavalier saw its population of 1,302 residents in 2010 drop to an estimated 1,244 as of July 2015. That contributed to a 40 percent year-over-year decrease in state aid for the January-May time frame, from $83,131 to $49,775. Crosby said cities with large budgets such as Bismarck, Grand Forks and Fargo are better able to absorb the loss of state aid. Does it hurt? Yes, but not to the same extent that it might for a smaller city with a smaller budget, he said. In the oil hub city of Williston, City Auditor John Kautzman said using annual census estimates to determine state aid is a much better approach, much better system and, I would argue, a much fairer approach. Willistons state aid for January-May was up about 4.2 percent from last year. This years census estimates havent been released yet, but Kautzman said based on sewage flow, the city estimates its current population is about 29,500 people, down from a peak of about 33,000 in 2014. I believe its a whole lot more accurate than what used to be done particularly in our situation, with our wild swings up and then even during the down cycle, he said. Smarter, better The city of Wahpeton, with a $3.5 million general fund budget and $12.1 million total budget for this year, is a good example of how the state aid changes have played out. In 2015, Wahpeton received $890,792 in state aid. Based on the Legislatures decision to use census estimates, the city reduced its projected state aid to $869,330 for this year, said Darcie Huwe, the citys auditor and finance director. In April, after seeing a sizable dip in its first two state aid payments of 2016 because of plunging tax revenues, Wahpeton further lowered its state aid projection to $629,899 -- a decrease of 7 percent of its general fund. Huwe said the city went through its budget line by line looking for savings. Two full-time positions are being held vacant -- one in public works and the other in public utilities -- and lower-than-expected fuel prices and some uncommitted reserves have helped soften the blow, she said. When you look at the mix and sources of our revenue, we were probably getting too dependent on state revenue, so I guess I would consider this as sort of a financial correction, she said. Huwe said Wahpeton is considered to have a high property tax, and while theres been pressure in recent years to find alternative revenue sources, now theres also pressure to find alternatives to state aid. We will be smarter, better with the resources we have, she said. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. The French National Assembly has unanimously voted in favor of the bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide, submitted to the National Assembly by the French Government, chairman of the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France Murad Papazian told Armenpress. The MPs of the French National Assembly unanimously voted in favor of the bill submitted by the Government which offers to criminalize the denial of the Armenian Genocide. The bill will be discussed at the Senate and after being confirmed, will be submitted back to the National Assembly for reconfirmation, Papazian said, adding that all the 21 MPs have voted in favor of the bill. The French Government and the lawyers of French-Armenian organizations prepared the text of the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide which goes in line with the French Constitution and is acceptable for the Armenian community. The text of the bill Criminalizing the denial of genocides and crimes against humanity was published on June 29 and envisages imprisonment of one year or a fine amounting 45.000 euros for the denial of the Armenian Genocide. Papazian added that now the Armenian community has much to do so that the bill is confirmed by the Senate as well, noting that naturally, Turkey will spare no efforts during this period to prevent the bill from being confirmed by the Senate. Indeed, Turkey could not expect that the National Assembly would take such a decision in such a speedy way. They tried to exert pressure on the Government and demanded President Hollande to withdraw the bill, but it did not happen and I have no doubts that we will win, Papazian said. Papazian also mentioned that the Armenian and Rwandan Genocides are mentioned in the bill as examples of genocide. YEREVAN, JULY 2, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan on July 2 visited the US Ambassadors residence in Armenia on the occasion of the US Independence Day, the Presidential administration informed Armenpress. The Armenian President congratulated Ambassador Richard Mills, his whole staff and the entire people of the US on this day, wished success on the continuous development and strengthening of the Armenian-American relations. President Sargsyan highly appreciated the US input on the development of Armenias economy, the strengthening of democracy, the establishment of civil society since the independence of the country and expressed hope that after the US Presidential elections the bilateral inter-state relations will continue to dynamically develop. Ambassador Mills expressed gratitude to the President for the visit and congratulations. He said during the past 25 years he carefully followed Armenias developments and agrees with President Sargsyan over the issue of Armenias achievements during that period. Ambassador Mills stated that the Armenian citizens can be proud of the Armenias economic, social, as well as political progress achieved in the last quarter of the century, and he is happy that the US Government and people contributed to that process to some extent. President Sargsyan sent a congratulatory letter to US President Barack Obama on the Independence Day. Honorable President Obama, Allow me to wholeheartedly congratulate you and the people of the United States on the occasion of Independence Day of the United States of America. Early next year, we will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our nations. Looking back on our journey, I note with great satisfaction that the Armenia-US relations have always been marked by cordiality, mutual trust and respect. We highly value the great support extended by the United States towards the development of Armenia's economy, the implementation of various reforms and the strengthening of our democratic institutions. Building on a strong tradition of fruitful cooperation and on the existing significant potential, Armenia stands ready to further deepen and develop the Armenian-American friendship and the close partnership. We greatly appreciate the US engagement, as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, in the Nagorno Karabakh peaceful settlement process. The diplomatic efforts that followed the full-fledged military operation of Azerbaijan against Nagorno Karabakh in the early April, 2016, have once again underscored the key role played by the United States in the peace process. Similar to the co-chair countries of the Minsk Group, we are also strongly convinced that the maintenance of the unlimited-in-time trilateral ceasefire agreements of 1994-1995 and the implementation of steps leading to the establishment of an environment conducive to negotiations, would serve as a strong foundation for the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict through exclusively peaceful means. We expect that the United States, jointly with the other co-chair countries - Russia and France, will continue its active mediation mission towards the establishment of a stable and durable peace in our region. Please allow me to once again congratulate you on Independence Day and to wish you and people of the United States continued progress and prosperity. Please accept, Mr. President, the assurances of my highest consideration, the Armenian President's congratulatory letter reads. YEREVAN, JULY 2, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian welcomes the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial adopted by the French National Assembly, reports Armenpress. Nalbandian hopes the bill will also be adopted by the French Senate. Responding to the question of the Armenian Public TV, the Minister said: We welcome the bill initiated by the French Government which was unanimously adopted by the National Assembly. According to this bill amendments are being made in the French law on Equality and Citizenship criminalizing the denial of genocides, the crimes against humanity, and, accordingly, the denial of the Armenian Genocide as well. We hope that the French Senate will approve this bill, and it will have a force of law, and by this step France will make another important and valuable step towards the prevention of the genocides and the crimes against humanity. The French National Assembly on July 1 unanimously adopted the draft submitted by the Government which proposes to criminalize the denial of the Armenian Genocide. All the 21 MPs voted in favor of the bill. YEREVAN, JULY 2, ARMENPRESS. Pope Francis denounced the July 1 terrorist attack committed in the capital of Bangladesh and expressed his deep condolences for the death of many innocent people, in a letter sent to the Archdiocese of Dhaka on July 2, reports Sputnik News. The letter was sent by Vatican's Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin in the name of Pope Francis who deemed the Dhaka terrorist attack "mad violence against innocent victims." "With all my heart I express my condolences and denounce these barbaric acts as an insult to God and humanity," the letter read. On July 1 the ISIS claimed responsibility for taking hostages inside a cafe located in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter. According to the latest data, the attack has left 20 people dead, while 13 hostages have been rescued by the country's security forces. Most of the victims are foreigners, according to reports. Rocket hits kindergarten in Sderot. Israeli planes hit targets in Gaza and Beit Lahia. No one was reported killed or wounded. Extremist violence, settlements and Palestinians divisions threaten peace hopes. Jerusalem (AsiaNews/Agencies) Israeli planes struck four sites in Gaza early Saturday in response to a rocket attack that hit a kindergarten in the Israeli border town of Sderot. No one was injured in either. Israeli military said its airstrikes targeted a metal workshop, two Hamas positions and an Islamic Jihad training ground. Two locations were in Gaza; the other two, in Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the strip. No one was killed or wounded; only damage to buildings was reported. So far no one has claimed responsibility for the rocket attack or other action in the Gaza Strip. The latest violence tops a violent week that includes four Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilian targets that left two people dead. Since last October, violent incidents in Israel and the Palestinian territories followed provocations by ultra-Orthodox Jews praying at Temple Mount, as part of what came to be known as the knife intifada. The death tool so far includes 209 Palestinians, 35 Israelis, two Americans, a Sudanese and one Eritrean. A recent report by the Quartet, a foursome (United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia) set up in 2002 to promote peace and Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, warned of a perpetual conflict. In a report released yesterday, the group said that ongoing violence, Israeli settlement-building and Palestinian divisions were undermining peace hopes. About 570,000 Israelis live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The settlements are considered illegal under international law. Israel disputes this and continues an expansionist settlement policy. by Nirmala Carvalho Telangana, Karnataka and Haryana are the scene of violent incidents. In Hyderabad, the authorities tore down a church, but later allow it to be rebuilt. In Haveri, a congregation lost its place of worship. In Panchkula, 100 Hindu radicals harass worshippers. Mumbai (AsiaNews) Three Christian places of worship have been the object of attacks recently in India. In Hyderabad (Telangana), municipal authorities ordered the demolition of the Heason Church in Malakpet, one of the citys oldest neighborhoods. Responding to the action, the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) held a protest in front of the administration building. On 16 June, the Protestant church, led by Pastor Jaipal, was torn down. The congregation gathered to protest against the desecration of their place of prayer. However, the Protestant church is currently undergoing reconstruction. GCIC president Sajan K George, president of the GCIC, is happy about the turn of events, but he told AsiaNews that poverty and insecurity prevail among local Christians. In fact, in Malakpet, local Christians tend to be at the bottom of the socio-economic scale, and the church brought them, solace, tranquillity and hope. Unlike Hyderabad, no happy ending for the El Shaddai Assembly of God Church in Haveri, Karnataka. The church had just been dedicated on 12 May by Rev Basavaraj Marudi, but on 19 June a mob of right-wing Hindu extremists stormed the structure and interrupted the Sunday mass. Unprovoked, Hindus accused the clergyman of forced conversion, chased out the faithful, and told the pastor to stop ministering in the area. The same evening, the GCIC president, "the mob went back to church, broke through the front door and placed a statue of a Hindu deity and hoisted a flag." The following Sunday, prayers were held, but no Mass. The third violent anti-Christian incident was reported in the city of Panchkula, Haryana. Independent pastor Vicky was scheduled to hold a conference, but at the last moment the local administration denied permission. The next day, as the clergyman and his fellow Christians were about to hold an evening prayer service, about 100 Hindu radicals wielding sticks attacked them. The wounded required medical treatment, including women and children. "All this is unacceptable, said Sajan K George. Christians are a tiny minority. We're not doing anything unconstitutional or criminal. Attacks in various states by criminals who remain unpunished because of a saffronised mind-set are a blight on secular India, he added. Since they are affiliated with the government, they feel free to terrorise and harass Christians. Despite fears, the 1 July rally went off without a hitch, except for minor scuffles and three arrests. During the rally, participants highlighted the missing booksellers affair and criticised government policies. Pro-democracy activists wonder marchs effectiveness as young people turn towards more subversive methods. Hong Kong (AsiaNews/Agencies) Tens of thousands took to the streets of Hong Kong for the annual 1 July protest march marking the 19th anniversary of the citys return to China. Fears of orchestrated violence by breakaway radicals proved unfounded. Apart from some scuffles at Government House that prompted police to use pepper spray against protesters, and the arrests of three people accused of carrying offensive weapons outside Beijings liaison office, the mass rally was peaceful. The march started off at Victoria Park and ended in front of Beijings liaison office. Like each year since 1997, the event provided Hong Kongers with an opportunity to express their frustrations with social and political issues. Unlike the annual rally to mark the Tiananmen Square massacre, in Beijing Hong Kongs pro-democracy demands are deemed more dangerous. The annual march was organised by the Civil Human Rights Front, which includes a number of groups, including some Catholic organisations. Their demands include universal suffrage to elect Hong Kongs chief executive and Legislative Council, an end to functional representation and the distortion it generates, and more policy independence from Beijing. Organisers said that at least 110,000 people took part in the march, up from 48,000 last year. The authorities said only 20,000 people attended. During yesterday march, many were motivated by the case of the missing booksellers. Government policies and management also came in for criticism. Lam Wing-kee, the bookseller who caused a storm by detailing his eight-month detention on the mainland, was supposed to lead the march, but pulled out at the last minute citing a serious threat to his safety. An ongoing discussion is taking place among intellectuals and activists about the marchs effectiveness. Increasingly, young people have been turning away, moving towards more unconventional and subversive methods. Others are so frustrated that they consider all protest against Hong Kong and mainland authorities as useless. By contrast, Hong Kongs chief executive marked the end of British rule by promising more economic development. Leading muted official celebrations as a mark of respect for two firefighters who were killed in an industrial building blaze last month, Mr Leung Chun-ying vowed to uphold the citys core values. In a statement, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the central government would support the citys leader and continue to thoroughly implement the principles of one country, two systems and Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong. 20 Killed In Bangladesh Terrorist Attack, Including 2 U.S. College Students Trending News: Terrorists Kill 20 Hostages At Popular Bakery In Bangladesh Why Is This Important? Because the impact of this heinous attack are being felt around the world. Long Story Short Armed gunman attacked a bakery popular with foreigners in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 20 foreigners and two police officers. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility, but the U.S. State Department is saying it's more likely to have been carried out by a regional branch of al Qaeda. Long Story Another day, another horrific terrorist attack. This one was carried out at a bakery cafe popular with foreigners in an affluent district of Dhaka. The siege began on Friday when six to eight armed gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery with guns, explosives and other, sharp weapons, according to CNN. The siege turned into an 11-hour hostage crisis, that ended when six of the gunmen being killed and one being taken into custody. But before Bangladeshi forces could take back the cafe, the gunmen had killed 20 foreigners, including 2 U.S. college students, 19-year-old Tarushi Jain who attended the University of California at Berkeley and Abinta Kabir who went to Emory University. "The Emory community mourns this tragic and senseless loss of one of our university family. Our thoughts and prayers go out on behalf of Abinta and her family and friends for strength and peace at this unspeakably sad time," Emory university said, according to CNN. Also killed were seven Japanese nationals and nine Italians, which prompted Pope Francis to condemn the attack as an "offence against God and humanity." Two police officers were also killed and at least 26 were wounded in a gun battle, as reported by the The Associated Press. According to the father of someone who survived the hostage crisis, the attackers focused solely on the foreigners, sparing the Bangladeshi locals and even feeding them during the night. The gunmen were doing a background check on religion by asking everyone to recite from the Quran," said Rezaul Karim to The Daily Star. "Those who could recite a verse or two were spared. The others were tortured. The Islamic State claimed on its propaganda branch Amaq that the attack was carried out by followers of its extremist group, but a U.S. official told CNN it was more likely carried out by al Qaeda in South Asia. Particularly shocking was the time and location of the attack. The attackers launched the attack on the holiest day of the week and during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan right when practicing Muslims would be breaking their daily fast. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has declared two days of national mourning in response. Own The Conversation Ask The Big Question Can we please at least go a month without another terrorist attack being carried out? Disrupt Your Feed These murderers shame their religion by doing such a terrible act, let alone on such a holy day. Drop This Fact The tiny South Asian nation of Bangladesh is home to over 150 million people, the majority of them Muslims. Majority Of Post-Recession Jobs Go To College-Educated People Trending News: Why Going To College Is Definitely Worth It Why Is This Important? Because this explains a lot of the frustration from people inclined to vote for Donald Trump. Long Story Short A new report says that the vast majority of jobs acquired after the 2008 recession went to people who attended college. Blue collar jobs like manufacturing, construction and natural resources have all been on the decline. Long Story Straight up, college is not for everyone. But in today's ever-changing economy, those who can afford a higher education do get the jobs. A report by the Georgetown University Center on Education tallied up how jobs were distributed since the recession and found that of the 11.6 million jobs created in the post-recession economy, 11.5 million went to people with at least some college education. Wow. Of those jobs, just 80,000 jobs went to people with a high school education or lower, while 8.4 million went to workers with a bachelors degree or higher. This is grim news for those hardworking Americans in blue collar industries like manufacturing, construction and natural resources. Back in 1947, those jobs represented nearly half of all American jobs, now they're at just 19%. Lead author of the report Anthony P. Carnevale told The Washington Post that these jobs numbers explain the frustration of a certain presidential nominee's voting base (hint: the one who banned The Post from covering his campaign). [The report] reaffirms the trend that continues to leave Donald Trump voters behind. They tend to be in specific industries, high school educated and remembering that in the 1970s they were the dominant workforce. This is a new world. The industries that added the most jobs to the economy were in consulting, business services, healthcare, finance, education and government services. So, why don't we all just go to college? There's one big, obvious boundary to that the wee little price thing. College students today are faced with an inflating cost of tuition, which prices many Americans out. And because of the insanely high cost of tuition, that means many not born into wealth are sadly left out. Our higher education system is basically a $500 billion machine with no operating system from the point of view of the economy, Carnevale said to WaPo. There is more leaning toward employability as the ultimate standard for college in America, and that always means, in the end, the more affluent families get both education and training, while the less affluent just get training. Own The Conversation Ask The Big Question Should we finally start subsidizing education like the rest of the Western world? Disrupt Your Feed Soon enough robots will take all our jobs anyway. Drop This Fact Currently, the workforce is comprised of 36% with a Bachelor's degree, 34% with no college education and 30% for those who've taken some college classes. Kevin Hart Interview On Fitness You Know Kevin Hart's Hilarious, But Did You Know He's A Major Fitness Buff? Page 1 of 2 Ask around Hollywood whos most committed to living an active lifestyle and many will argue its none other than the hilariously charismatic Kevin Hart. When hes not busy on promotional tours creating motivational videos with Dwayne The Rock Johnson, the comedic legend lives up to his self-described full-fledged workout guy persona by killing it at gym, while also serving as a fitness ambassador for digital consumer-centric platforms such as Rally Health, Inc. When it comes to health and educating individuals on what the dos and donts are, what puts you in the best position to maintain a high level of physical accomplishmentsI like the fact [Rally Health] really pride themselves in being about the consumer, says Hart. The Rally Health initiative fits Harts character to a T, as hes making it a life mission to spread health awareness, taking part of spontaneous 5K runs all over America, which millions have witnessed on Snapchat and Twitter, using his social channels as motivational gateways to encourage others to stay fit: I think anything you do on a grand scale to be watched, you put people in a position to be motivated and inspired. Doing what it is Im doing, when you go on my Twitter page and people are talking about how they got their workout in, saying thank you for making me realize how much more I can do in a day, you dont understand how much your actions touch others. Youre blown away from the responses because its real. So if any celeb knows about prepping for a 5K run, take Chocolate Drop at his word. AskMen already got the lowdown on Harts core and biceps/triceps workout routine from his personal trainer Ron Boss Everline. Now, in preparation for his hosting duties at the New York Rally HealthFest on July 30, we got the gifted comedian to share some of his personal 5K training tips. Pick up the pace, fellas! Photo courtesy of Rally Health Use The Treadmill To Boost Endurance First and foremost, my days on the treadmill are longer days. I try to put 45-minute sessions on the treadmill, broken down between sprints and 5-minute-long runs. What I do is I raise my speed up to between 10 and 12, and Ill sprint for about a good minute. When Im done with that, bring it down and walk for 30 seconds. Then you can put it back up to around 8.5 and try and run for about 5 minutes. I think thats how you build your lungs and endurance by constantly pushing yourself when youre tired. What I try to do is challenge myself when my heart is beating the most and continue. In doing that, Ill build up a higher level of lung capacity where Im not bothered as much as I used to be. Build Mental Fortitude For me, with the 5K run, its not something you can do overnight. It takes time. Running for me is therapy. It acts as a quiet place between you and simply whatever path you decide to run, on whether its a street or treadmill. Its a great thinking space to clear your head. Make The Environment Your Track Push yourself when youre at your most fatigued point, and the best way to do that is by running outside. Put yourself in position to run uphill instead of flat land all the time, even go to the beach and run on the sand. You have to mix it up. What helps you out is the environment. A lot of times, the environment plays a key factor in what youre doing because it can motivate you. Sometimes the scenery is whats needed other than the mundane setting of a treadmill or a window to look out of. You got places to go and you keep passing stuff, its a building factor and feels like youre doing something. It helps with the overall goal of accomplishment whether its mileage or time. In my case, its always adding on mileage. Making legal news this week, a Supreme Court judge was appointed in Victoria; Tim Carmody has lost a bid to keep recordings of an explosive conversation between judges private and Brisbane firm Barry.Nilsson. announced its expansion plans.Judge Maree Kennedy has been appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria. Kennedy, currently a County Court judge, was praised for her leadership in a statement issued by attorney-general Martin Pakula this week.Judge Kennedy has shown exceptional leadership as a County Court judge and she will bring a wealth of experience to her new role, he said of the appointment.Former Queensland chief justice Tim Carmody has lost a battle to keep explosive recordings of a conversation from during his controversial term, private. The recording and other documents are expected to be made public, after the Courier Mail successfully appealed a right of information request.It would provide the public with a more complete picture of the relevant events and the background to the conflict and disharmony within the court around the issues as well as giving context to the information that has already been disclosed, Right to Information Commissioner Clare Smith said in her decision to overturn the bid to keep it hidden.Brisbane firm Barry.Nilsson. has announced it will expand its footprint nationally , opening offices in Adelaide and Hobart in coming months, following a merger with Winter Hilditch & Fotheringham. The firm will also be expanding its Sydney operation.Notably, we have expanded carefully and selectively by only recruiting staff who are attracted to our values and client-focused service, said managing partner Don Leembruggen. We submitted complete bank statements. It shows the financial commitment so if you have a joint account why would you not submit everything to show what you are using it for? Not submitting everything can make it look like you have something to hide. There is no need to highlight things in a joint statement. Coles, Woolworths etc are self explanatory. Individual accounts are different you just submit what is part of the relationship. dear members, bout employment and unemployment question, what is the best approach to answer this question in my case where i started my employments while i was still student during summer holidays at university? in other words, there is overlapping between university and employment in some casual jobs, should i include education between these jobs as un emplyment? or gap? for instance during summer 2008 , i was a salesman then after holidays i was back to uni as a student then summer 2009 i worked as a customer service then after summer iam back to university as a student... they were 2 jobs each of a one month length , the question is are summer holidays considered unemployment part or part of ur education? thanks for ur help Unmanned aircraft capabilities took a big leap forward when an expert fighter pilot found he was no match for ALPHA. The artificial intelligence system was developed by Psibernetix, founded by a University of Cincinnati graduate. Gene Lee, a retired Air Force colonel taking part in the research, told UC Magazine this week that ALPHA is unprecedented. I was surprised at how aware and reactive it was, he said. An expert in aerial combat who has flown simulated scenarios for years, Lee found that when he went up against the program in the sim, he couldnt put a scratch on his target. It seemed to be aware of my intentions and reacting instantly to my changes in flight and my missile deployment, he said. Lees simulator flights were part of recent research trials by Psibernetix to test its newest version of the system. Its findings were published (PDF) in the current issue of the Journal of Defense Management. Company founder and CEO Nicholas Ernest developed ALPHA with what he calls a Genetic Fuzzy Tree system that allows the program to make the quick, complex decisions required for aerial combat. The goal is to continue developing ALPHA, to push and extend its capabilities, and perform additional testing against other trained pilots, Ernest told the magazine. Fidelity also needs to be increased, which will come in the form of even more realistic aerodynamic and sensor models. 2 July 2016 11:05 (UTC+04:00) The OSCE Minsk Groups co-chairs continue to work to bring together the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict sides, the US Ambassador Robert Cekuta said in Baku July 1 at a reception on the occasion of the US Independence Day. He said the time of the next meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia has to be agreed. Cekuta also said that on June 30, US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in phone talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. The US is working very hard to help resolve the conflict and does this at the very high level, Cekuta noted. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 2 July 2016 11:33 (UTC+04:00) Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mohsen Pak Ayeen has described unity among Muslims as a way for putting an end to the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied Muslim lands. Addressing a ceremony in Baku, he highlighted the need for unity among Muslims and condemned extremism, Trend correspondent reported. Mohsen Pak Ayeen further touched upon a recent terror attack on an airport in Turkish city of Istanbul and expressed sympathy with the victims. The envoy made the remarks during a fast breaking ceremony (iftar) on the occasion of the last Friday of holy month of Ramadan marking Quds Day. Chairman of Caucasus Muslims Office Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade, Chairman of Azerbaijan's State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations Mubariz Gurbanli, several Azerbaijani lawmakers as well as a number of Muslim countries' envoys and diplomats from various Muslim countries attended the ceremony that was hosted by Iranian embassy July 1. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 2 July 2016 15:38 (UTC+04:00) Relations between the US and Azerbaijan are probably better in recent years than they were in 1992 when the US formally punished Azerbaijan for defending itself from Armenia, says Raoul Lowery Contreras, author of the Murder in the Mountains: War Crime in Khojaly and the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict book. Contreras is working closely with such authoritative agencies as FOX News Latino and The Hill and is the analyst of some leading US TV channels. Back then at the behest of the notorious Armenian lobby, the US Congress passed a bill (Section 907 to Freedom Support Act) banning all US government aid to Azerbaijan, he said in an interview with Trend. That was one of the most absurd bills ever passed by US Congress. The bill punished Azerbaijan, which was a victim of military aggression and occupation, and rewarded Armenia, the very country that was behind that aggression, occupation and ethnic cleansing, said Contreras. Apart from the lack of moral justification for this absurdity, the bill was totally harmful to US national interests, he said. It punished Azerbaijan, a pro-Western US ally, all the while rewarding Armenia, the most significant ally of Russia and Iran in the region. The situation changed when Azerbaijan responded to the US and President Bushs You are with us or you are against us. Azerbaijan chose to be with the US. It still is with us, and the US has been waiving the Section 907 since 2002, he said. Contreras added that the US should continue to more fervently support Azerbaijan's independent foreign policy and its efforts to help Americas allies in Europe and Israel to achieve energy independence. The US Congress passed the Freedom Support Act in October 1992, to regulate provision of state aid to former Soviet Republics. According to Section 907, the US government was forbidden to assist Azerbaijans official organizations. The Armenian community in the US, protecting Armenias aggression against Azerbaijan, had a great influence on adoption of Section 907. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 2 July 2016 16:08 (UTC+04:00) Russian and German Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and Frank-Walter Steinmeier talked over phone and discussed the prospects for advancing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, as well as the work in the Normandy format for the implementation of the Minsk agreements, said the Russian foreign ministry, RIA Novosti reported July 2. "The ministers discussed some aspects of the Russian-German agenda and exchanged views on key international problems, the document said. Special attention was paid to the work in the Normandy format for the implementation of the Minsk agreements on the ways of overcoming the Ukrainian crisis. Special attention was also paid to the prospects for advancing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement taking into account the outcome of the visit of the German minister as the OSCE chairman to Yerevan and Baku," the document said. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 2 July 2016 17:29 (UTC+04:00) A meeting of the Standing Committee has been held in Tbilisi as part of the 25th Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Azertac reported. Head of the Azerbaijani delegation to the OSCE PA, Deputy Speaker of the Milli Majlis Bahar Muradova made a speech on the issues discussed at the meeting, particularly the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In an interview with journalists, Muradova said: "As the Azerbaijani delegation we have always paid attention to the issues discussed at committee meetings and sessions and clarified all the issues related to Azerbaijan. And today, at the committee meeting the OSCE Chairman-Rapporteur briefed the participants on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and recent April events on the line of contact between the troops. However, I consider it necessary to inform the committee members on the issue and gave detailed information about the causes and consequences of the April events and some details on the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks." "I stated that the current status quo satisfies no one except Armenia. Azerbaijan is continuing its efforts towards liberating its lands and ensuring a peaceful resolution of the problem," she said. Muradova underlined the importance of coordination of the steps to be taken by all the institutions of OSCE. She hailed Azerbaijan's support for a peaceful resolution of the problem: "I once again drew the audience's attention to Azerbaijan's fair stance, saying we are in favor of though stage-by-stage liberation of our territories. But rejecting this unequivocally, Armenia impedes the negotiation process," she said. Milli Majlis Deputy Speaker hailed the importance of equal and effective functioning of the OSCE institutions for eliminating all these problems and giving impetus to the process. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 2 July 2016 10:00 (UTC+04:00) According to the plan of bilateral cooperation between the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the delegation led by the commander of 160th Brigade, Brigadier General Martin Gumbel pays a working visit to our country, the Defense Ministry said. During the meetings held within the framework of the Operational Capabilities Concept (OCC) and in peacekeeping battalions of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, the British delegation was fully informed about the interoperability achieved between our Armed Forces and various armies of the world, as well as the contribution made by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces into the peacekeeping operations, the Ministry noted. The sides discussed prospects of cooperation between Azerbaijani Armed Forces and the 160th Brigade of the British Army within the OCC and peacekeeping operations. The British delegation got acquainted with the social, living, educational and training conditions created for OCC and peacekeeping battalions. Expressing satisfaction with the visit to Azerbaijan, General Martin Gumbel noted the great potential for strengthening cooperation between the Armed Forces of the two countries, the Defense Ministry added. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 2 July 2016 10:47 (UTC+04:00) The US and Azerbaijan continue to develop cooperation in all the areas, US Ambassador Robert Cekuta said in Baku July 1 at a reception on the occasion of the US Independence Day. The US supports energy sectors development in Azerbaijan, the ambassador said, adding his country appreciates Azerbaijan's participation in the peacekeeping missions in Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan. The diplomat noted that the US highly appreciates the multicultural history of Azerbaijan and is building strong relations with the country in all the spheres. The ambassador also spoke about the establishment of the US, noting that in 2016 the US celebrates not only the 240th anniversary of independence, but also the 25th anniversary of establishment of relations with Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani Finance Minister Samir Sharifov, who also addressed the event, expressed hope that the US, as an OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing country, will double efforts to settle the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Cooperation between the US and Azerbaijan has reached a strategic level, the minister said. We appreciate active continuation of the political dialogue between the sides. This year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of establishment of relations between the parties. Development of economic relations between our countries is a priority. Cooperation in the energy sector is also a priority. Sharifov added that Azerbaijan is ready to further cooperate with the US in the fight against terrorism. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 2 July 2016 14:34 (UTC+04:00) Iraqs President Muhammad Fuad Masum sent a letter to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev July 1. President Muhammad Fuad Masum asked President Ilham Aliyev to provide support for inclusion of a number of monuments of the Mesopotamian civilization, located in the territory of Iraq, into the UNESCO World Heritage list. The letter reads that the Iraqi government requested the inclusion of its seven territories into the UNESCO World Heritage list. Inclusion of the Ur, Eridu, Uruk monuments in the list is considered appropriate in view of their cultural and archaeological significance. Meanwhile, inclusion of the eastern and western parts of the Huwaiza Marsh, the Central Marshes and Hammar Marshes into the UNESCO World Heritage list is considered appropriate due to their significant nature and cultural peculiarity. These areas, along with being a home to hundreds of animals and plants, have been listed in the Ramsar Convention as the present-day remains of the ancient Sumer civilization. A voting on inclusion of these monuments in the UNESCO World Heritage list will take place July 10-20 in the Turkish city of Istanbul at the 40th session of the World Heritage Committee. The appeal said that Azerbaijan plays an important role in protection of the world cultural heritage and therefore was elected to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. The appeal also reads that the Iraqi government considers Azerbaijans support as a great moral aid and assistance to achieve permanent stability and development in the fight against terrorism and extremism. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 2 July 2016 15:13 (UTC+04:00) Azerbaijan`s Deputy Premier, Chairman of the State Committee for Refugees and IDPs Ali Hasanov has met with U.S. Ambassador to the country Robert Cekuta, Azertac reported. Hasanov recalled President Ilham Aliyev`s trip to the U.S. and his meetings there. This visit will contribute to the expansion of cooperation between the two countries. He touched upon the April clashes on the contact line between the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops. The Deputy Premier said he visited Fuzuli, Aghdam and Tartar regions to see the consequences of the Armenian provocation. 17 IDPs were killed, 452 houses were damaged, 15 of them were completely destroyed. Cekuta said that he has visited Yevlakh, Barda, Goranboy and Tartar regions where he met with IDPs. He hailed the Azerbaijani government`s efforts to improve living conditions of refugees and IDPs. The Ambassador also underlined the opportunities for deepening U.S.-Azerbaijani ties in a variety of fields. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 2 July 2016 10:33 (UTC+04:00) Turkmenistan and Iran discussed the diversification of cooperation in trade and economic, energy and transportation sectors, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said July 1. Irans Deputy Foreign Minister Ebrahim Rahimpour is on a working visit in Ashgabat, capital of Turkmenistan. Rahimpour had a meeting in the Turkmen Foreign Ministry, where the sides had discussions on the development of cooperation in tourism and support for entrepreneurship. Regional and international issues of common interest were also discussed during the meeting. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Eleven U.S. states have joined the crusade to stop the cruel practice of hacking the fins off the sharks, often while theyre still alive, and throwing the bleeding, injured animals back into the water to slowly die. Photo by Vanessa Mignon 7.3K shares In the midst of Shark Week, theres some reason for hope for these much-battered species. In Texas, a law banning the sale of shark fins takes effect today, and thats especially significant because Texas is the first of the Gulf Coast states to adopt a shark-protection policy with teeth that would make a Great White envious. Just prior to the implementation of this law in the biggest state in the lower 48, the smallest of our states, Rhode Island, did its part enacting its own ban on the sale of fins. Now 11 states have these policies collectively representing the heart of the movement to stop the cruel practice of hacking the fins off the sharks, often while theyre still alive, and throwing the bleeding, injured animals back into the water to languish and die. But were not satisfied, and those actions, while critical, are not enough. We are taking the case to other jurisdictions. In New Jersey, a shark fin ban has just passed the state senate, and a bill is now under consideration in Pennsylvania. Outside the United States, Humane Society International, our international arm, continues to advocate for greater protection for vulnerable shark species at key international conventions, and will press forward with ongoing public awareness campaigns in China and other parts of Asia to reduce demand for shark fins. Shark fins are considered a delicacy in Asia where they are used mostly in shark fin soup to showcase ones wealth and honor ones guests. A bowl of shark fin soup can cost as much as $100, which provides plenty of incentive for profiteers to engage in finning. All of these domestic and foreign actions are positioning us for success at the national level reminding our federal government that it must be a leader on this animal welfare, conservation, and economic development issue (as I write in The Humane Economy, there is a booming ecotourism industry built around shark diving and watching, and coastal nations are generating tens of millions of dollars in revenues by keeping sharks alive). Earlier this week, the Obama administration announced a final rule to implement the Shark Conservation Act of 2010 which prohibits any person from removing the fins of a shark at sea, possessing detached fins on board a fishing vessel, transferring detached fins between vessels at sea, or landing a shark without its fins naturally attached anywhere along the U.S. coastline. This act closes several loopholes and fortifies the ban on shark finning in U.S. waters. In Congress, U.S. Senators Cory Booker, D-NJ, and Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, and U.S. Reps. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, D-Northern Mariana Islands, and Ed Royce, R-Calif., along with a bipartisan group of original cosponsors, have introduced the Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act that would largely prohibit the shark fin trade, including imports into and exports from the United States, transport in interstate commerce, and sales. The popularity of Shark Week demonstrates how deeply fascinated we are with these marine animals. But fascination isnt sufficient to turn around the problems. We have to be active protectors of sharks. It is estimated that as many as 100 million sharks are killed each year to supply the global market for shark products, including upwards of 73 million for their fins alone. The United States is the largest market for shark fins outside Asia and a top shark-catching country. Were excited about the prospects of success at the state, federal, and international levels, and we need your help. Sharks are in crisis, and were treating the problem as dire and urgent. Sharks have been on Earth for more than 400 million years. We dont want to be the generation that liquidated them, caused such cruelty, and removed a keystone species from our ocean ecosystems. 9 5,2% 1 2022 5,2% 699 553 . Indianas Republican party has called for an ethics investigation of a former state education official who now works for a company that had received $573,000 from the state for building an app. The Associated Press revealed that within months of leaving his position as communications director and IT manager of the states education department, David Galvin took a job with N2N Services , a company the department had worked with to develop the app INschool , which tracks school data and distributes department news. David Buskill, executive director of the states Republican party, said that he wants Galvin, who served under current Democratic state superintendent Glenda Ritz, investigated for ethics violations. From day one her office has put politics and self-interest before the needs of children. We are calling for a full ethics investigation from the Inspector General on this matter, Buskill said in a statement to the AP. In 2015, N2N and AT&T were paid a total of $573,000 in two installments to develop the INschool app, with the last payment delivered that August. Galvin started at the systems integration company as their director of communications that October, according to the AP. Indiana ethics law states that an official must wait a year before taking a job with a company they had worked with while in office, unless cleared by a formal advisory opinion from the state Inspector General. Galvin, who declined to comment in an e-mail to Education Week, served as the campaign spokesperson for Ritz before starting at the state education department following her election in 2012 . According to the AP, there is no record of Galvin requesting a formal advisory opinion, though an official from the inspector generals office advised for the move since N2N was a subcontractor for AT&T. The official also suggested that Galvin get a formal opinion because of his extensive interaction with N2N. In a statement to Education Week, Ritzs office said that after Galvin received a job offer from N2N last year, steps were taken to ensure that all state ethics laws and procedures were being followed, including requesting an advisory opinion from the Office of the Inspector General. The advisory opinion made it clear that the employee could take the position. Ritz faces re-election this November. Photo: Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz address attendees during a rally to support public education at the Statehouse in Indianapolis in 2015 -- AJ Mast/AP-File See also: School districts in rural Indiana are cutting teachers and closing buildings as enrollment numbers and funding continues to decline, Indiana Public Broadcasting reports. The rural Argos Community Schools district in northern Indiana is profiled in the piece, which dives into the many cuts the districts superintendent has made as students have left the district. Because funding is heavily based on student numbers in Indiana, rural schools are often hit hard from losing just a few students. In an attempt to save money, the Argos Community Schools superintendent has also taken on the job of the elementary school principal, moved the central office into a school building, and has frozen salaries. Many staff members have retired early or been laid off. Nearly 40 percent of schools in Indiana are rural and these schools serve a high percentage of students with disabilities. Rural schools in the state are also seeing an increase in English-learners , according to Indiana Public Media. Many rural districts dont have the teachers needed to educate these students and dont have the funds to buy resources or pay for more teachers. Rural districts in other states like Iowa and Wisconsin are facing similar problems with dropping enrollment numbers and budgets. A report released earlier this year by a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that rural school districts in the state have seen the greatest increase in costs per pupil than districts in other locales but are not receiving additional funds to cover these expenses. In Iowa, several school districts are consolidating or closing this year due to drops in enrollment numbers. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate GALVESTON A Lake Jackson man is at least the fourth victim of "flesh-eating" bacteria on the Texas coast this year to be reported by the media. Vince Chappell, 53, contracted vibriosis, an infection by the vibrio bacteria, after wading into the water at Aransas Pass to go fishing, his wife, Janie Chappell, told KTRK. RELATED: Beach communities try to calm 'flesh eating' bacteria fears Health officials say the vibrio bacteria usually affects only those with weakened immune systems who have a wound that comes into contact with saltwater or brackish water, but Janie Chappell said her husband did not have a weakened immune system. Her husband cut his foot as he waded into the water, she told KTRK. Janie Chappell took her husband to a walk-in emergency room in Lake Jackson after he developed a rash on his leg and became ill, the television station reported. An ambulance took him to Pearland Medical Center. A hospital spokeswoman told the Houston Chronicle that Vince Chappell was in critical condition but his outlook was favorable. GOING HOME: 'Flesh eating' bacteria victim discharged from hospital Another case of vibriosis was reportedly contracted by an Austin man near Port Aransas on Mustang Island, about 10 miles south of Aransas Pass on a route that includes a ferry boat. The Port Aransas South Jetty newspaper, after interviewing a family member about the location, said the man was in Corpus Christi and not Port Aransas. The most widely reported case was a Jacinto City man whose leg was amputated after he contracted vibriosis while swimming on Galveston Island. The man had diabetes, which weakens the immune system. A Greenville woman who was on a medication that weakened her immune system contracted vibriosis while fishing at McFaddin Beach in Jefferson County. In addition to Chappell, the other three victims are recovering. Despite the wide coverage, health officials say the bacterial infections are common in Texas and other states with beaches, but chances of contracting an infection are slight. A Galveston Health District spokesman said Galveston Island has about 6 million visitors a year but typically only about eight cases are reported. There have been 28 cases reported so far this year in Texas, 13 of them involving contact with water, said Christine Mann, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services. Last year, 102 cases were reported, 46 involving contact with water. "There is nothing unusual," Mann said. "Last year we had the highest number since we began tracking it. This year seems more like a typical year." Nationally, vibriosis causes about 80,000 illnesses annually, 500 hospitalizations and 100 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 52,000 of these illnesses are believed to be caused by eating contaminated food. Does Rising Heat Lead to Summer Crime Spikes? The summer heat has various effects on different people. Some become lazy and want to lie in the shade all day, and some get hot and bothered, all riled up, which may be why crime rates rise with the temperatures during the summer season. Scientists have found a connection between high temperatures and higher crime rates. But it's not clear why crime rises in the summer. No one knows the reason for the phenomenon but there is evidence that it happens, as well as two competing theories circulating. Wired examined the different studies of the climate crime connection and called the link between heat and violence hazy. Let's consider. Hot in the City Heat and agitation are associated with one another and Wired noted that violence does seem to go up as temperatures rise. People become more aggressive as they grow uncomfortable is one theory. But this is only true up to a point. After a certain level of heat is reached, people stop becoming more aggressive and just want relief. Reportedly, they want to flee rather than lash out when the heat's really on. This theory sounds reasonable enough, but there is an alternative to consider, based on the Routine Activities Theory, which considers violent crime a function of social opportunity. Under that theory, crime rises when more people are hanging around outside in the heat but falls again when the heat reaches intolerable levels. When everyone stays home, there are fewer people around against whom to commit crimes. So, both of the above theories might explain the connection between rising crime rates and rising temperatures. But correlation is not causation, which is to say that the fact that the things happen in a connected fashion doesn't mean that one is caused by the other. Rising heat is not necessarily causing rising crime even if it seems likely that it is a factor contributing to higher crime rates in summer than in other seasons. The Summer Months Other factors to consider are that teens and kids are out of school and hanging around, often unsupervised. That happens less during the school year, which may also explain lower crime rates when school is in session. The summer days are long and law enforcement perpetually short-staffed, so some cities -- like Albuquerque, New Mexico -- plan to address summer crime rates with mobile surveillance cameras. They hope these will help thwart the expected crime spike. Accused? If you have been accused of a crime, don't delay. Speak to a lawyer today. Many criminal defense attorneys consult for free or a minimal fee and will be happy to assess your case. Related Resources: To continue following the latest news and information for Bedfordshire and surrounding areas, simply enter your full postcode below Graffiti attacks on two Orange halls in the Banbridge area are the latest in a series of attempts to incite sectarian tensions in the community, it has been claimed. In the early hours of yesterday morning, republican slogans were daubed and paint splashed on Tanvally and Corbet Orange Halls in Co Down. The Orange Order said the incidents at the buildings, which are just under five miles apart, were coordinated. There have now been 12 recorded attacks on Orange halls this year. Just last weekend, a case of arson was reported on Muckery Orange Hall in Co Armagh. An Orange Order spokesman said: "These were clearly coordinated and deliberate criminal acts against the Orange Institution and what it stands for. The mindless morons responsible for such callous sectarianism ought to be ashamed of their actions and must be held accountable." "Their sinister exploits are in no way reflective of the excellent community relations in the Banbridge area - the members of both lodges are particularly active in their locality. "The entire community must now unite in condemnation of these incidents. "This double attack is particularly sickening, coming on the centenary of the Battle of the Somme. "Such cowardly crime is in stark contrast to the gallant bravery shown by those who paid the supreme sacrifice 100 years ago." South Down Ulster Unionist MLA Harold McKee said the perpetrators of the sectarian attacks must not be allowed to stoke community tensions. "It is particularly sad that as we pause today to commemorate the centenary of the sacrifice of thousands of Ulstermen and Irishmen at the Somme, we have people in our society who use that hard-won freedom to create fear and division," Mr McKee added. "The people responsible for this have one agenda - to whip up community tensions and create divisions, which they can then exploit further." DUP MLA Jim Wells said: "To have graffiti daubed on the walls stating slogans like 'CIRA' is sinister and deeply upsetting for the whole community and those people who use the halls on a regular basis. "It is particularly sickening to see this type of attack on a day in which we remember and commemorate those who paid the supreme sacrifice and fought at the Somme 100 years ago for our freedom. "People from both sides of the community fought together, side-by-side, and today we should be uniting together in remembrance." Seamus Doyle, an SDLP councillor for the area, told the Belfast Telegraph the vandalism stood in stark contrast to the normally strong cross-community relations in Banbridge. "I very much condemn the attacks," he added. "They don't really represent the people because it's a good, mixed community that enjoys good relations, and the people of the area would be against anything like this. "Even throughout the Troubles, people here lived together in peace and respected each other's identity." Police officers in riot gear deal with overnight disturbances in the Woodburn and the Castlemara estates in Carrickfergus on July 02, 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) Police officers in riot gear deal with overnight disturbances in the Woodburn and the Castlemara estates in Carrickfergus on July 02, 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) Police officers in riot gear deal with overnight disturbances in the Woodburn and the Castlemara estates in Carrickfergus on July 02, 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) Police officers in riot gear deal with overnight disturbances in the Woodburn and the Castlemara estates in Carrickfergus on July 02, 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) Police officers in riot gear deal with overnight disturbances in the Woodburn and the Castlemara estates in Carrickfergus on July 02, 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) Police officers in riot gear deal with overnight disturbances in the Woodburn and the Castlemara estates in Carrickfergus on July 02, 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) Police officers in riot gear deal with overnight disturbances in the Woodburn and the Castlemara estates in Carrickfergus on July 02, 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) Two men have been charged after disturbances in the Castlemara estate in Carrickfergus on Friday night. A 36-year-old man has been charged with causing a dangerous vehicle to be on the road. While another man (36) was charged with riotous behaviour. Police said they responded to reports that a large crowd of males, some masked and carrying weapons, had gathered in the area. The Fire Service dealt with at least one large blaze in the town. Superintendent Emma Bond said: "Reports suggested some of the males were masked and may have been armed with weapons such as hammers. "Officers attended and dispersed the crowd seizing a number of items including a crossbow." Both men are to appear before Belfast Magistrates Court on July 28. An equality watchdog has made a U-turn over its decision to accept a council review into the naming of a children's play park in Newry after IRA hunger striker Raymond McCreesh. The Equality Commission had previously accepted that the review carried out by Newry and Mourne District Council had complied with its recommendation. However, it has now backtracked and called for the council to debate and vote again on the naming of the play park. The commission said that after the granting of leave to apply for judicial review proceedings by 88-year old Bea Worton in April, it had given further consideration to the case. The grandmother took legal action when she learned that McCreesh had reportedly been caught with a weapon used in the Kingsmills massacre. Mrs Worton's son Kenneth was one of 10 Protestant workmen who died when their minibus was ambushed by the Provisional IRA in January 1976. Mrs Worton welcomed the new decision by the commission, saying she hoped it would put an end to the long-running dispute. She added: "I would love to see that name removed from the play park. "I am sure there are plenty of other people in Newry who are entitled to it being named after them other than a terrorist." It is now understood that the legal action will be suspended in light of the latest recommendation. In March 2014 the Equality Commission, after an investigation under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act, recommended the council review the decision to name the play park after McCreesh, who died in 1981 during the republican hunger strike in the Maze. But the council voted not to make the change. The following March the commission, while expressing its disappointment, accepted the review had complied with its recommendation. It has now rescinded that verdict. But it said that the new review should be transparent and take proper account of the legal obligations to promote equality of opportunity and regard to the desirability of promoting good relations. Mrs Worton's son Colin welcomed the move but added it was a "pity" it only came after his mother launched legal action. "It's nerve-racking for anyone to take a case against a Government body," he said. "I would hope that the council would come to their senses and use their grown-up thinking and change the name so that it's suitable to everybody, as using an IRA man's name on a children's play park is sickening." Newry, Mourne and Down District Council said: "The council has noted the letter from the Equality Commission but feel it would be inappropriate for council to comment at this time as this matter is presently before the High Court." Will Tesla Motors Be Liable for First Autopilot Death? Yesterday Tesla Motors announced the first death associated with one of its cars in Autopilot mode. The accident occurred in Florida in May and was made public by the car's manufacturer only when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an official investigation of the self-driving car's Autopilot system. This first self-driving car death raises questions about the safety and future of automated highways at a critical time when authorities are attempting to figure out regulations. Tesla Motors did its best to reassure the public that the incident was not cause for concern, but it is certain that enthusiasm about self-driving cars is at least temporarily tempered. As for liability, Tesla Motors may be sued but not necessarily by the deceased's family. Autopilot Enthusiast According to USA Today, Joshua Brown, 40, of Canton, Ohio, died from injuries he sustained when a tractor-trailer made a left turn in front of his 2015 Tesla on a highway in Florida in May. The Tesla was in Autopilot mode, which is supposed to allow the car to cruise, maintain a lane, and stop suddenly if traffic appears ahead. But the Tesla and its driver failed to note the truck passing perpendicular and slid underneath, then crashed into a pole down the road. The trucker, who survived, told reporters that the autopiloted car was playing a "Harry Potter" movie and that he could hear it running after the accident. Meanwhile, Tesla Motors denies that it's even possible to play movies on the car's touch screen and is trying to minimize the gravity of the accident. The company wrote, "This is the first known fatality in just over 130 million miles where Autopilot was activated. Among all vehicles in the US, there is a fatality every 94 million miles." Liability Issues Although the family of the driver who died in his Tesla could theoretically sue the manufacturer if Autopilot malfunctioned, the company pointed out in its blog post that Brown was a technology and Tesla enthusiast. In fact, Brown had previously filmed himself in the Tesla on Autopilot and said the feature saved his life. Tesla Motors also explained in its blog post that when a car is put on Autopilot, the driver must acknowledge a warning onscreen that the program is still experimental. In other words, Tesla disclaimed liability while announcing the tragedy. But even if Jason Brown's family does not sue Tesla for wrongful death, it is possible that the trucker who was in the accident with Brown will sue if he was injured. Frank Baressi, 62, told the Associated Press that the Tesla driver was driving so quickly that "he went so fast through my trailer I didn't see him." Injured? If you have been injured in accident, talk to a lawyer. Many personal injury attorneys consult for free or a minimal fee and will be happy to assess your case. Related Resources: Northern Ireland farmers may have backed Brexit in a "knee-jerk reaction", a farming leader has claimed Northern Ireland farmers may have backed Brexit in a "knee-jerk reaction", a farming leader has claimed. Ulster Farmers Union chief Barclay Bell said the result may well have been different if last week's poll had been held a few years ago. He was answering MLAs' questions at the Assembly's agriculture committee yesterday, which has decided to hold monthly briefings on the uncertainty over the UK's departure from the European Union. The session was told that around 87% of farmers' income depended on EU subsidies - which may not be guaranteed by Westminster. Mr Bell said the farming industry had "been in a crisis for the past 18 months". "A lot of people have decided that the system isn't working and last week's vote may have been a knee-jerk reaction at the time," he said. It had taken place in the context of "the uncertainty at the present time", and had the referendum happened a few years ago the result may have been different. SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone said farmers were "shocked" at what had happened, and now a large part of their income "is no longer secured". "I don't know how this is going to be resolved," he added. The DUP's William Irwin asked whether the union - which remained neutral on Brexit and did not advise members to vote Leave or Remain - saw any new opportunities arising from last Thursday's result. Mr Bell agreed there would be opportunities, but added the "biggest threat is what direct support will look like". Michael Clarke of the Northern Ireland Agricultural Producers Association said "87% of our income is made up of subsidies" and added that this will not be guaranteed by the Government in London. Sydney Anderson of the DUP enquired whether the vast majority of farmers "would see this as an opportunity to re-establish farming as an industry". Mr Bell replied there was a very diverse range of views within the UFU but "farmers accept all-round that change was needed". Mr Bell added that farmers and others needed patience for discussions which would result in many fears and frustrations for farming families. "In an uncertain agricultural world they want reassurance and certainty - but for now the only certainty is that the existing CAP support measures and trading arrangements will remain in place until a new system is agreed," he said. "Given that the process of leaving the European Union will take at least two years, and represents uncharted waters, the UFU says its aim is to set priorities for the outcome and to then make sure they are achieved. "This will involve negotiations here, in London and in Brussels. "We do not underestimate the scale of the task. "But continued financial support and access to markets is key to the survival of the farming industry here, and indeed the many thousands of jobs in food processing." The nurse's story left Myleene Klass looking stunned. "I was asked to look after a critically injured soldier, to stay with him until he died - and then I tended to a young man who had blown himself up making a bomb," said Jean. "He didn't have long left.." Northern Ireland woman Jean certainly had a rapt listener as she recalled her first few months working in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast during the darkest days of the Troubles. The soldier had been caught up in a bomb explosion nearby and taken to theatre, but nothing could be done. Jean had never been around anybody who was dying, but she sat beside that seriously injuried patient as the screens were pulled around them - and did the only thing she could. "I just tried to make him aware that I was there, and wash off the dust from the bomb," she recalled. "He looked physically strong but obviously had devastating internal injuries." A short time later, in another ward, she watched over the young bomb-maker as he drew his final breath. "There I was, with two very different sets of circumstances, but knowing in my mind that there is no opt-out clause in nursing; you do what you're asked to do," she explained. It's a poignant story that Jean shares in a TV programme looking back at decades of nursing in the National Health Service. In Monday morning's episode, presenter Myleene travels to the RVH to learn about its recent history and the role it played in the Troubles. She also talks to staff on the front line about the ethos of treating the bombers and the bombed, regardless of politics. Experienced nurses Kay and Lorna were health visitors at the time, while Jean and Horace had only started out as trainees. So what was it like for them? "You were in a war zone, so right outside the walls the shooting and the bombing was going on close to the hospital, and all too often that war would spill into the hospital," said Horace. Jean recalled: "Most of us were 18 and 19 years of age, and going back to the nurses' homes and getting into a room together with a cup of coffee we really debriefed each other. We didn't realise what we were doing in those days. We just talked to each other and that was really what helped us to cope." Looking back, Kay said: "I think that, as ward sisters, we weren't feeling enough of how young people of 18 felt with handling of limbs, serious injuries, maybe being handed, as one nurse was, a dead baby..." During the 1970s and 1980s the Royal Victoria Hospital was at the centre of a conflict that tested the nurses' caring to the limit. It played a crucial role in the Troubles, when more than 3,500 people were killed and many more were injured and in need of urgent treatment. In the second of a five-part series, Myleene, whose Filipina mother Magdalena was a nurse in the UK in the 1970s, asks what part the NHS ethos played in the neutrality of how patients were treated back then. "The neutrality came automotically; you didn't think about it," Horace replied. "We had the full range of political feelings among the nursing workforce and, actually, nurses from both those traditions recently have gone on the record to say that when they came to hospital they left their politics at the hospital door." Kay said: "They just accepted that you are a nurse and you are on their side whatever it is and you are on their side in terms of health, because that's what we were trying to deliver." And Lorna added: "That's something of which I think our profession can be really proud, because you saw the results of a bomb and yet you had to keep how you felt about that to yourself and get on and do the job and look after the people who really needed you." Classical pianist Myleene begins her stint at the RVH - which was already well-established when the NHS started but has grown extensively - by pulling on some scrubs and helping the nurses on Ward 4A. It's the fracture unit and, as with the early NHS, an estimated 10% of the workforce comes from overseas, including The Philippines - and she's delighted that many of them know her mum. At lunchtime Myleene serves up grub to Noreena, Hugh and Ray, three of the patients at the west Belfast hospital, which is Northern Ireland's busiest. One of the Filipina nurses employed by the Belfast Trust, whose hospitals and services care for over a million people, is Leonara, who tells Myleene why she came to Belfast 13 years ago. "I just tried to take a chance to widen the horizon of my nursing profession," Leonara said. During Matron, Medicine And Me: 70 Years Of The NHS filmed in the RVH with Myleene, which was made by BBC Northern Ireland for BBC One, the 38-year-old model learns about the hospital's Victorian origins. Former surgeon Richard Clark explains that the Royal was "the first purpose-built, air-conditioned hospital in the world", and she visits the basement to see the fan in action. She also talks to the head sister about modern patient care, which began with a massive period of investment and expansion in the 1960s. By the time her mum went to work at Northgate Hospital in Great Yarmouth, nursing and hospitals were changing rapidly, and Myleene travels to Londonderry to visit Altnagelvin, the first completely new hospital to be built by the NHS. Opened in 1962, its multi-storey design was revolutionary at the time, and the mother-of-two meets nurses who were there the day it opened and they chat about getting to grips with the new technology. Back at the RVH, Myleene meets Dr Paul Robinson, who has just started his round on ward 4A. It's his job to make sure sick and elderly patients are fit to go to theatre and she "can't help thinking about the incredible breakthroughs in surgery that have happened because of the NHS" - especially from the 1960s onwards when, she says, "some real medical firsts took place". That was when the inaugural modern hip replacement was carried out and the first liver and kidney transplant took place, while 1971 saw the first clinical use of a CAT scan. Venturing back onto the ward itself, Myleene pays a visit to people who she describes as "some of the same type of patients" her mother would have looked after back in her day, including Northern Ireland man Walter, who explains that he slipped on grass and fell and broke his ankle. "I'm an old soldier here," he said. "I've had a liver transplant here and I've been about the wards for a fair while. I'm on first name terms with most of the staff." Matron, Medicine And Me: 70 Years Of The NHS filmed in Royal Victoria Hospital with Myleene Klass, will be aired on BBC One on Monday, 9.15am. A Dublin drug dealer was shot dead in a ruthless double-cross by gangland thugs yesterday. Father-of-one David 'Daithi' Douglas was approached by a lone male gunman and blasted in the head and chest on Bridgefoot Street, in the Liberties area of the south inner city, a short time after 4pm. The 55-year-old was from Killala Road, Cabra, was shot up to six times outside the entrance to his wife's shop. It is believed that Douglas was targeted as he walked to his wife Yumei's store, Shoestown, after attending a family funeral earlier in the day. He was taken to St James's Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Gardai are investigating whether the murder is linked to the bitter feud between the Kinahan and Hutch crime gangs. It was claimed yesterday that the chief suspects for organising the shooting had recently assured that they no longer had a problem with him. Sources revealed that Douglas, who was loosely associated with the Hutch gang, received a phone call from one of the criminals - a hitman for the Kinahan cartel - stating the gangsters "no longer had an issue" with him. Douglas, the father of a teenage daughter, had previously survived an assassination attempt near his Cabra home last November. The suspects for this botched hit are also being investigated over the murder. Douglas became a target for the Kinahan mob after he was wrongly blamed for being involved in an attempted murder on cartel associate Liam Roe outside Dublin's Red Cow Hotel on November 6. However, detailed garda investigations later revealed that the murdered man was not at the Red Cow on that night. After he survived the assassination attempt, his wife Yumei said that her husband was a "strong man". "I don't care about whatever his history is, but he's on the good way now," she said. Superintendent Patrick McMenamin, of Kevin Street Garda Station, said that investigating officers were looking for two individuals as part of the murder probe - the shooter and the getaway driver. A Mercedes Benz car, which is believed to have been used in the killing, was discovered burnt out a short distance from the scene at Spitalfields, close to Carman's Hall, in the city. A handgun was discovered at the scene of the crime. Locals said that the shooting happened just few feet away from the door of a children's recreation and homework club named Busy Bees. One of the added: "I heard a shot, but I thought that it was just banging from a local building site. "But then I heard a lot of screeching of car brakes." A 38-year-old man standing at the garda cordon said he had family members living nearby. He added: "When I was young, if anyone had a dispute, they'd sort it out with a fistfight -but now it's solved with the barrel of a gun." Gardai said the victim was hit a number of times A man who was shot in central Dublin has died , Gardai said. The victim, in his mid 50s, was shot a number of times by a lone gunman as he walked along Bridgefoot Street in the Liberties area of Dublin just after 4pm on Friday. He was rushed to Saint James' Hospital where he was later pronounced dead. A gun was recovered close to the scene, Gardai said. The gunman is believed to have left the scene in a stolen silver or grey Mercedes Benz CLA driven by a second man with the registration number 161D26702. The car, which was stolen from Navan Road area on June 23, was later found burnt out at Spitalfields, close to Carman's Hall. Detectives at Kevin Street Station are investigating and they appealed for anyone with information to contact them. The scene of the shooting was sealed off for a technical examination. Caroline Aherne has died at the age of 52 after a battle with cancer, her publicist has said. Neil Reading said on Saturday: "Caroline Aherne has sadly passed away, after a brave battle with cancer. "The Bafta award-winning writer and comedy actor died earlier today at her home in Timperley, Greater Manchester. She was 52. "The family ask for privacy at this very sad time." The actress and writer, whose comedy creations have included the Royle Family and her spoof chat host Mrs Merton, was born in London, but her parents are from Ireland. Earlier this year it was reported that Aherne was recovering from lung cancer and she returned to work on Gogglebox. The star had been narrating the hit television show since it began in 2013, apart from a brief break when her writing partner Craig Cash took over for her as she underwent treatment. She had previously battled cancer of the retina, which she and her twin brother were both diagnosed with, and bladder. Her illness came to light after she agreed to take part in an appeal in her home city of Manchester that was asking patients and carers to help improve standards of care. In pledging her support, she said: "I've had cancer and my brother's had cancer and we know how it affects people." Aherne had largely withdrawn from the public eye, but she recently took part as one of the cast of an animated children's series for the BBC. She played a range of characters in CBBC's 'Strange Hill High', along with her former co-star from 'The Fast Show' John Thomson. Aherne, who was a smoker, had struggled with health problems for years. She also fought depression and drink problems and spent time in the Priory Clinic following a suicide attempt, before moving to Australia to avoid the glare of publicity. The star was once married to former New Order guitarist Peter Hook, and she then began a romance with TV researcher Matt Bowers. They split but she was devastated when he died of cancer at the age of 28. Expand Close Caroline Aherne was born in London, but her parents are from Ireland PA Archive/Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Caroline Aherne was born in London, but her parents are from Ireland Aherne admitted alcohol was an attempt to block out her problems. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is hoping to secure Scotland's place in the EU Nicola Sturgeon has called for "immediate guarantees" on the residency status and rights of European Union nationals living in Scotland. The First Minister made the demand in letters to Prime Minister David Cameron and the five candidates bidding to replace him following last week's vote for Brexit. Ms Sturgeon said it was "imperative" that the UK Government respected the rights of Scotland's 173,000 EU citizens. The plea was made before a meeting with consuls-general of EU member states and diplomats at her official residence, Bute House in Edinburgh, on Tuesday. The summit follows a series of talks in Brussels with European political leaders aimed at securing Scotland's place in the EU, after voters north of the border backed remain by 62%. Ms Sturgeon said: "Scotland voted overwhelmingly to stay in Europe, yet citizens of EU countries who live, work and contribute to our country are understandably anxious and uncertain about what the UK referendum result means for them and their families. "People from EU countries are an important part of Scotland's future. I am therefore seeking immediate guarantees from the Prime Minister, and all Conservative leadership candidates, that the residency status and the other existing rights of the 173,000 EU nationals living in Scotland will remain unchanged, now or in the future. This is a commitment that can and should be made and enforced now. "It is imperative that the UK Government respects those who have exercised their treaty rights and chosen to make a life in Scotland. "Scotland is still firmly in the EU and we are pursuing all options to maintain our EU status - something that I underlined in my meetings in Brussels in the last few days. "Through the consular network I want to get the message out as far and as wide that we are an inclusive and outward-looking society that recognises the immense contribution EU citizens make to Scotland's economy, society and culture." Ms Sturgeon said she would listen to suggestions on how the Scottish Government could provide further reassurance to EU citizens in Scotland. Those studying or starting a course this year have already been told they will receive free tuition in Scotland for the duration of their studies despite the Brexit vote. Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie called for a joint EU, UK and Scottish Government statement to reassure universities and research institutions about the future of EU funding. He said: "EU funding is vital to the research many of our universities, including those in Scotland, carry out. "Research can be years in the planning. Already there has been speculation that researchers from the UK will be sidelined or excluded from taking part in new projects. "To maintain confidence and avoid any confusion we need a joint statement from the EU, UK and Scottish governments to be issued immediately to all funding bodies, research institutions and universities. This would provide immediate and valuable reassurance." He added: "The UK and Scottish governments need to step in to guarantee the future of research and researchers, underwriting the sector to ensure we can continue to take part in European projects." The UK Government said David Cameron has moved to reassure European citizens living in the UK that there will be no immediate changes in their circumstances. Speaking in the House of Commons last week the Prime Minister said : "Leave campaigners were fairly clear that they wanted to protect the rights of people who are already here who have come to live, work and study, but obviously the final clarification of that and of the rights of British people living in other parts of the European Union will have to wait for the complex negotiations." Jeremy Corbyn has insisted he is "ready to reach out" to his enemies in the party but warned he would stand for re-election if they staged a challenge for the top job. The Labour leader said MPs who have set their face against his tenure must "respect" the views of the members who elected him. Top priority must be opposing the Conservatives and giving voters a real alternative, he said. In an article for the Sunday Mirror, he wrote: " I am ready to reach out to Labour MPs who didn't accept my election and oppose my leadership - and work with the whole party to provide the alternative the country needs. " But they also need to respect the democracy of our party and the views of Labour's membership, which has increased by more than 60,000 in the past week alone. " Our priority must be to mobilise this incredible force to oppose the Tories, and ensure people in Britain have a real political alternative. " That is my priority and always will be as leader of our party. "Those who want to challenge my leadership are free to do so in a democratic contest, in which I will be a candidate." The plea for calm comes at the end of a tumultuous week that saw most of his front bench team walk out and 172 of his MPs back a motion of no confidence in his leadership. Mr Corbyn's aides are reportedly keeping Tom Watson away from him, fearing he will try to "bully" the 67-year-old leader into quitting. The deputy leader has been trying to seek a meeting to find a way of negotiating a settlement as the crisis engulfing the party shows no sign of abating. Mr Corbyn's team said it had a "duty of care" to the leader and highlighted his age, according to the Observer. A spokesman for Mr Watson said: " Tom and Jeremy have always had a good working relationship and a friendly personal relationship. They have never even raised their voices to one another." Mr Corbyn's team said the claims were nonsense from an anonymous source. "Jeremy has met Tom on a couple of occasions this week," a spokesman said. Angela Eagle, who is tipped as a potential challenger to Mr Corbyn, renewed her call for him to do the "right thing for the party and the country". Hostages who failed an instruction to recite verses from the Koran were tortured and killed while those who passed the test were allowed to eat in the Bangladesh restaurant siege where at least 28 lost their lives. The 10-hour hostage crisis that gripped the diplomatic zone in the capital Dhaka ended on Saturday morning with the death toll including six of the attackers. The victims included 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, and two Bangladeshi police officers. The attack marks an escalation in militant violence that has hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation with increasing frequency in recent months, with the extremists demanding the secular government revert to Islamic rule. Most previous attacks have involved machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities. But Friday night's attack was different, more coordinated, with the attackers brandishing assault rifles as they shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) and stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area while dozens of foreigners and Bangladeshis were dining out during the Ramadan holy month. The gunmen, initially firing blanks, ordered restaurant workers to switch off the lights, and they draped black cloths over closed-circuit cameras, according to a survivor, who spoke with local TV channel ATN News. He and others, including kitchen staff, managed to escape by running to the rooftop or out the back door. But about 35 were trapped inside, their fate depending on whether they could prove themselves to be Muslims, according to the father of a Bangladeshi businessman who was rescued on Saturday morning along with his family. "The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Koran," the Islamic holy book, according to Rezaul Karim, describing what his son, Hasnat, had witnessed inside. "Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night." The others, he said, "were tortured". Detectives were questioning his son and his family along with other survivors as part of the investigation on Saturday, as scattered details of the siege emerged. Authorities were also interrogating one of the attackers captured by commandos in a dramatic morning rescue. It was not immediately clear whether the attackers had a specific goal, and Bangladesh authorities would not say if they had made any demands. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility, saying it targeted the citizens of "Crusader countries" in the attack, warning that citizens of such countries would not be safe "as long as their warplanes kill Muslims". The statement was circulated on Friday by IS supporters on the Telegram messaging service and resembled previous statements by IS. The Amaq news agency, affiliated with IS, also posted photos purportedly showing hostages' bodies, though the authenticity of the images could not be confirmed. The government did not directly comment on the IS claim but has denied in the past that the extremist group has a presence in Bangladesh. The government of prime minister Sheikh Hasina instead has accused her political enemies of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilise the nation - which the opposition denies. On Saturday, Amaq published photos of five smiling young men each holding what appear to be assault rifles and posing in front of a black IS flags whom the agency identified as the attackers, according to the Site Intelligence Service, which monitors jihadi online activity. They were identified by noms de guerre indicating they were all Bangladeshis. Amaq said the fighters used "knives, cleavers, assault rifles and hand grenades". Amaq said the attackers "verified" the hostages identities, sparing the Muslims and killing the foreigners. The 20 hostages killed included nine Italians, seven Japanese, three Bangladeshis and one Indian, government sources said, as details of the bloodshed began trickling from other capitals worldwide. The White House confirmed Saturday that a US citizen was among the hostages killed, but did not release any further identification. "All the hostages were killed last night. The terrorists used sharp weapons to kill them brutally," said Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury of the Army Headquarters in a news conference. Two Bangladeshi police officers also died from injuries sustained while exchanging gunfire with the attackers. A Roman Catholic priest in southern Italy, whose 33-year-old sister Simona Monti, a textile firm employee, was killed in the attack expressed hope that her death could contribute toward making a more just world. Father Luca Monti said he hopes "this experience of martyrdom for my family and the blood of my sister Simona can help contribute to building a more just and brotherly world". In New Delhi, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said she was "extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka." Emory University in Oxford, Georgia, said two of its students were killed in the attack: Abinta Kabir, of Miami, Florida, who was visiting family and friends in Bangladesh, and Faraaz Hossain, of Dhaka, who had completed his second year on the Oxford campus. Ten of 26 people who were wounded when the militants opened fire were in critical condition, and six were on life support, according to hospital staff. The injuries ranged from broken bones to gunshot wounds. Most of them were police officers, but one was a civilian. In the end, paramilitary troops managed to rescue 13 hostages, including one Argentinian, two Sri Lankans and two Bangladeshis, according to Lieutenant Colonel Tuhin Mohammad Masud, commander of the Rapid Action Battalion that conducted the rescue operations. Japan's government said one Japanese hostage was also rescued with a gunshot wound. "Because of the effort of the joint force, the terrorists could not flee," the prime minister Sheikh Hasina said in a nationally televised speech, vowing to fight militant attacks in the country and urged people to come forward. The audacious attack came during Ramadan, when devout Muslims fast during the day and eat after dark. Many left the city of more than 10 million people for a nine-day public holiday with families to celebrate Eid al Fitr festival with families. "Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such an act," the prime minister, said. "They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism." She announced two days of national mourning for the dead. The government has cracked down on domestic radical Islamists by making scores of arrests. It has blamed local terrorists and opposition political parties - especially the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami. But the attacks have continued, with about two dozen atheist writers, publishers, members of religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers slain since 2013. Earlier on Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death by at least three assailants in southwest Bangladesh. IS and and al-Qaida affiliates have claimed responsibility for many of those attacks. The escalating violence leading up to the unprecedented hostage crisis has raised fears that religious extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions of secularism and tolerance. That the attackers targeted a popular restaurant in the heart of the diplomatic quarter of Bangladesh's capital signalled a change in tactics. The restaurant overlooking a lake serves Spanish food and is patronised by residents of Gulshan, an affluent neighbourhood where most of the foreign embassies are located. AP This weekend is one of the most sombre in our calendar, as we remember those who fought and died or were injured, in the Battle of the Somme, which began on July 1, 1916. Many commemoration services are being held in churches all over Northern Ireland, and yesterday the leaders of the four main churches here attended a special service in France. Prior to travelling there, the Presbyterian Moderator, the Rt Rev Dr Frank Sellar, said: "For us today, 100 years on, it is difficult to imagine, or even contemp late, the scale of the loss of life and the impact which that would have had on local communities back home; especially close-knit local congregations across Ulster, and other parts of Ireland too." It is indeed very difficult to grasp the immensity of the suffering. By the end of the first day at the Somme, the 36th (Ulster) Division had over 5,000 casualties, including 2,000 dead. Around 75% of the division's fatalities have no known graves, and their names are recorded at the Thiepval Memorial and the Ulster Memorial Tower in France. Even when you visit the Somme battlefield, as I have done on two occasions, it is difficult to imagine the horror of those days when virtually a generation of Ulster's young men died, like those from other parts of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. The silence and the stark beauty of the well-maintained Allied war graves are more eloquent than any words. On this particular week when politics in the UK are in such turmoil and the future of the EU is also so uncertain, those endless graves in Europe are a blunt warning about what can happen when politics fails, and when nationalistic and sectarian passions take over. I find it impossible to comprehend the fact that more than one million men from the UK, France and Germany died in the Battle of the Somme from July to November in 1916. In times such as these, I think of my grandfather Tommy McCreary who took part in the Battle of the Somme. He had joined the Royal Irish Fusiliers in south Armagh to take the place of young brother Sandy who had fibbed about his age when joining up. My grandfather was a stretcher bearer, bringing the wounded across the battlefield and along the trenches. This was one of the most dangerous roles on the Western Front, but he rarely, if ever, talked about it. Sometimes when he felt like reminiscing, he would tell me about being captured by the Germans and being forced to work in a salt mine. However, there was no sense of abiding bitterness. He felt that it was part of the life he had to live in those days. Perhaps the horrific experiences helped him to put things in perspective later on. He rarely worried about anything, and one of his favourite phrases was: "It won't signify." I think of him with the utmost respect and affection as an ordinary, and yet extraordinary, Ulsterman who did what he had to do, who then got on with life, and who never asked for sympathy. He was typical of so many brave men of his generation. This year I won't be at the Somme or at any of the major commemorations, but I will look even more thoughtfully at my grandfather's war medals which are displayed on a wall in our living room, together with the new poppy which I place on them each Remembrance Day. It's hard now to believe that I knew and talked to a man who fought at the Somme a century ago. Tommy McCreary has long passed on, but I will remember him with pride for the rest of my life. A man sits behind the wheel of a Tesla Model S electric car on display at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (AP) The first person to die in a US crash involving a car in self-driving mode was the tech-savvy 40-year-old owner of a Tesla Model S who nicknamed his car "Tessy" and praised its sophisticated "Autopilot" system. Joshua Brown, of Canton, Ohio, died in the May 7 crash in Williston, Florida, when his car's cameras failed to distinguish the white side of a turning tractor-trailer rig from a brightly-lit sky and did not automatically activate its brakes, according to US government records and a Tesla statement. Just one month earlier Mr Brown, who owned a technology company, credited his 2015 Tesla with preventing a crash on an interstate highway. The government said it was investigating the design and performance of the Tesla system. Frank Baressi, 62, the driver of the tractor-trailer and owner of Okemah Express, said the Tesla driver was "playing Harry Potter on the TV screen" and driving so quickly that "he went so fast through my trailer I didn't see him". "It was still playing when he died and snapped a telephone pole a quarter mile down the road," Mr Baressi said from his home in Palm Harbour, Florida. He acknowledged he could not see the movie, only heard it, but Tesla Motors said it was not possible to watch videos on the Model S touchscreen. Brown's published obituary described him as a member of the Navy SEALs for 11 years and founder of a wireless Internet network and camera system company. In Washington, the Pentagon confirmed Brown's work with the SEALs and said he left the service in 2008. In April, Mr Brown said his car avoided a crash when a commercial truck swerved into his lane. He published a video of the incident online. Tesla noted that drivers must manually enable the Autopilot system, saying: "Autopilot is getting better all the time, but it is not perfect and still requires the driver to remain alert." As the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation, Tesla founder Elon Musk expressed condolences in a tweet for the "tragic loss". Preliminary reports indicate the crash occurred when Mr Baressi's rig turned left in front of Mr Brown at a junction of a divided highway where there were no traffic lights, the NHTSA said. Mr Brown died at the scene just south west of Gainesville. By the time firefighters arrived, the Tesla wreckage - with its roof sheared off - had come to rest hundreds of feet from the crash site. Tesla said in a statement that this was the first known death in more than 130 million miles of Autopilot operation. Before Autopilot can be used, drivers have to acknowledge that the system is an "assist feature" that requires both hands on the wheel. Drivers are told they need must be prepared to take over controls, the statement said. Autopilot checks to make sure a driver's hands are on the wheel, and it gives visual and audible alerts if they are not. It also will gradually slow the car until the driver responds, the statement said. The system allows the Model S to steer itself within a lane, change lanes and speed up or slow down based on surrounding traffic or the driver's set speed. It can automatically apply brakes and slow the vehicle. Tesla said Autopilot "results in a statistically significant improvement in safety". Mr Brown's death comes as the NHTSA is taking steps to ease self-driving cars on to US roads, an anticipated sea-change in driving where Tesla has been a leader. Self-driving cars are expected to eliminate human errors that are responsible for 94% of crashes. It is not the first time automatic braking systems have malfunctioned and several have been recalled to fix problems. Last year Ford recalled 37,000 F-150 pick-ups because they braked with nothing in the way. The company said the radar could become confused when passing a large, reflective truck. The technology relies on multiple cameras, radar, laser and computers to sense objects and determine if they are in the car's way. Systems like Tesla's, which rely heavily on cameras, "aren't sophisticated enough to overcome blindness from bright or low contrast light," said Mike Harley, an analyst at Kelley Blue Book. Mr Harley said more deaths could be expected as the autonomous technology was refined. Karl Brauer, a senior analyst with Kelley Blue Book, said the crash was a huge blow to Tesla's reputation. "They have been touting their safety and they have been touting their advanced technology," he said. "This situation flies in the face of both." AP An RCSS/SSA official who requested anonymity told Shan Herald that a unit under Division 33 of the Tatmadaw [Burma Army] launched an offensive on RCSS/SSA forces in the Namtu sub-township areas of Mong Tat and Mong Maw in northern Shan States Kyaukme Township. He said that the offensive led to casualties on both sides. The Tatmadaw knew that the RCSS/SSA troops were in the area, a source close to the RCSS/SSA said on condition of anonymity. The RCSS troops were unaware that the government unit would attack them, so there were a few casualties on their side. He added: Fighting lasted a while before both groups reached a compromise. On the same day, the RCSS/SSA also clashed in a nearby area with the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an ethnic armed group who were denied status to sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement by the government in October last year. The RCSS/SSA is a signatory to the NCA, and was the first ethnic armed group to sign a bilateral truce with the government, in November 2011. Fighting between TNLA and RCSS/SSA first broke out in November last year, only a month after the signing of the so-called NCA between eight ethnic armed groups and the government led by President Thein Sein. The Burmese military has announced that the TNLA must disarm before joining the peace process. A Russian home-buyer pulled out of a "agreed offer" of 6.95m for a six bedroom Kensington flat, now it's listed for 6.75m; a three-bedroom in Swiss Cottage is down to 1.05m from 1.5m; a 1.1m 2-bedroom in Whitechapel is now 720,000; a 2bm maisonette in Notting Hill fell from 1.59m to 1.35mk; a 1.3m 5br in St. Reatham is down to 850,000 and estate agents have mutually agreed to go back to calling it Streatham. The Evening Standard's reporting on London's overheated property bubble is thin on stats, long on individual cases, leading me to wonder about cherry-picking, but they do quote an estate agent who sounds near-suicidal ("There's no end to how far prices could fall") and cite unnamed "foreigners" who have stopped bidding on London property because they're afraid of mounting xenophobia and racism. They do cite one plausible sounding stat: 1 in 6 listings of the "reduced" listings on Zoopla were cut since the Brexit vote (it's not clear whether this is unusual, though). There's also the undeniable fact that a lot of City bankers will be leaving the country, relocated at employer expense, and their houses will go on the market. Even without a sound statistical footing, these stories are important, because the London property market is one of the most overinflated bubbles in real-estate history, and like all bubbles, it is liable to panicked stampedes. Everyone who lauded their own financial brilliance for having bought into the market (or took out second and third mortgages to buy rental property) has also heard a nervous voice in the back of their heads, asking how long it could all last, and whether it would have a "soft landing" when it was over, or explode like Mr Creosote. If even a few speculators decide to cut their losses and list their properties now, it will increase supply, suppress prices, and cause more people to sell. Then there are the new investors who were vital to keeping the Ponzi scheme going. The story of the London property market was that it was special because the crazy demand imparted a never-seen liquidity to real-estate, giving you the best of both worlds: an investment with intrinsic value and solidity ("safe as houses, they're not making more London you know, ho ho ho") but that you could turn into cash virtually overnight just by calling up a smarm-merchant from Foxton's and instructing it to summon Prince Lucifer, kill a goat, and magically flog your "investment" to some other wise offshore millionaire by morning. But London has the highest ratio of bedrooms to residents in the city's 2,000+ year history, and half the bedrooms in the southeast are empty on any given night. The "demand" for London property isn't driven by the density of people seeking to live there, it's driven by the hordes who want to treat shelter as a tradeable asset class. When housing is optimised for financialisation, it is de-optimised for use as shelter. A case of collywobbles by those financialising investors could tip the market, eliminate the liquidity that makes it viable, and turn London property into something you buy to live in, rather than something you park your money in. Given that 40% of the UK's national wealth is in the form of southeastern property, this will take a massive bite out of the country's economy. As ever, this crash will be more of a hardship for regular people than for 1 percenters, who will take steps to cushion themselves (if you live in Vancouver, New York, LA or Seattle, get ready for an all-out assault on your housing stock!). But it will be an especially hard landing, thanks to all the special measures and conjuring tricks pulled by successive governments to keep the bubble inflating: cheap capital gains tax, no disclosure requirement for beneficial owners of properties, cash subsidies to "get on the housing ladder," the virtual elimination of tenant protections, inheritance holidays for property bequests, and so on. Stuart Law, chief executive of investment company Assetz Property [ed: seriously, that's what the company is called] said "We still expect prime London prices to continue falling and many of the tens of thousands of luxury homes in the pipeline to be mothballed as demand from all over the world fails to meet that potential level of supply. "The rest of London will definitely be hit by a perfect storm of several factors hitting house prices which is great news for house-buyers but not for investors and homeowners. "We know that the City is going to relocate large numbers of highly paid bankers to Paris, Dublin and the rest of Europe and the loss of these highly paid house buyers and renters can only have a negative effect." Louisa Brodie, head of search & acquisitions at Banda Property, said: "Finally sellers are accepting they need to absorb higher buying costs and stop holding out for prices last seen 12 months ago. "I expect to see more price reductions over the coming weeks and months, which will undoubtedly drive up transaction levels." London house prices slashed after Brexit vote [Jonathan Prynn and Tom Powell/Evening Standard] Relatives of a hostage walk away from a restaurant in Dhaka on July 2, 2016. Updated at 1:03 p.m. ET on 2016-07-02 Terrorists killed 20 mostly foreign hostages at a restaurant in Dhakas diplomatic quarter before Bangladeshi security forces stormed the place early Saturday to end a 10-hour standoff, officials said. Nine Italians, seven Japanese, an Indian national and a U.S. citizen were among the 28 people who died in the overnight onslaught, statements issued by authorities in those countries said. The death toll included two Bangladeshi policemen and six attackers. Thirteen people were rescued from the cafe during an operation mounted by army commandoes at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhakas Gulshan 2 area on Saturday morning. The Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activity online. In a televised address, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina directed angry words at extremists in her country. "Islam is a religion of peace. Stop killing in the name of the religionPlease stop tarnishing our noble religion, Hasina said, according to AFP. She asked her nation to increase vigilance against terrorism, and said those behind the attacks were trying to destroy Bangladesh. "By holding innocent civilians hostage at gunpoint, they want to turn our nation into a failed state," she said. International toll Nations directly impacted by the attack confirmed their losses and expressed grief. "The terrorists want to rip away the daily fabric of our lives. Our duty is to reply with even greater force, by affirming our values, the values of freedom of which we are proud, and which are stronger than hatred or terror," Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said, according to AFP. Five of the Italian victims were women. An Indian teenager named as 19-year-old Tarishi Jain was among those killed, according to reports. "I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarishi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka," India's Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj posted on Twitter. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed condolences via a series of tweets. "India stands firmly with our brothers and sisters in Bangladesh in this hour of grief," he added. The United States condemns in the strongest terms the horrific terrorist attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh on July 1-2, the White House said in a statement. This heinous attack resulted in as many as 20 deaths, including an American citizen, Bangladeshi law enforcement personnel, and citizens of several other nations, it said. This is a despicable act of terrorism, and the United States stands with Bangladesh and the international community in our resolve to confront terrorism wherever it occurs. Brutally killed Hasina ordered the army to carry out a rescue operation at the Holey Artisan Bakery Saturday morning, about 10 hours after heavily armed men shouting Allahu Akbar stormed the place and took hostages Friday night, Brig. Gen. Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury told reporters in Dhaka. In this operation, six terrorists were killed and one of the suspected terrorists captured alive. Besides, dead bodies of 20 foreigners were recovered most of them were hacked to death in the search after the operation, he said. All of the 20 hostages were brutally killed by sharp weapons the previous night, Chowdhury, the armys director of military operations, said at a press briefing. Two Sri Lankan and one Japanese national were among the 13 people rescued in the army-led operation, which was launched at 7:40 a.m. and ended 50 minutes later, Chowdhury said. The twenty dead may include some Bangladesh nationals, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) director Rashidul Hasan later told BenarNews, in an update of earlier information. Suicide attack Hours earlier, the news agency of the so-called Islamic State, announced that IS had carried out the attack and that at least 24 people had been killed. Amaq posted pictures showing what it said were dead and bloodied bodies inside the cafe. Italy's ambassador to Bangladesh, Mario Palma, told Italian state TV that seven Italians were among the hostages. "It is a suicide attack. They want to carry out a powerful and bloody operation and there is no room for negotiation," Palma said, according to Reuters. They will kill us if police open fire on them, hostage Hasnat Karim told his uncle by phone from inside the bakery at around 10:41 p.m, according to Prothom Alo. Two policemen were killed and at least 25 other people were injured as police attempted to respond to the hostage-taking, officials said. A police officer in riot gear told reporters to stay back as attackers fired shots and hurled explosives whenever law enforcement agents approached the restaurant. The two slain policemen were identified as Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, an officer-in-charge of the Banani police station, and Robiul Islam, an assistant commissioner, said Sheikh Nazrul Alam, deputy commissioner of the detective branch The attackers had four pistols, one Romanian-made AK-22 rifle, four unexploded improvised explosive devices (IEDs), one walkie-talkie and sharp weapons, Chowdhury, the army spokesman, said Saturday. Men assist an injured policeman after gunmen holding hostages in a Dhaka restaurant hurled grenades at law enforcement officials, July 2, 2016. [AFP] Foolproof Late Friday, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Director General Benazir Ahmed said authorities would attempt to negotiate with the assailants. We want to resolve the hostage crisis in peaceful manner. We want to talk to the attackers, too. Every life is important for us, he said. The majority Muslim nation of 160 million people has experienced a surge of extremist violence that claimed at least 37 lives since 2013. Suspected militants have targeted religious minorities, intellectuals, writers, gay-rights activists and foreigners. A modern video surveillance system was recently put in place at Gulshan-2, Asian News Network reported on May 24. 700 cameras had been installed and 500 more were set to be added, it said. "The whole diplomatic area is now under the foolproof surveillance system," Rafiqul Islam, assistant commissioner of Gulshan Zone, was quoted as saying. 150 million taka (US$1.87 million) had been spent on the system thus far, the report said. Shahriar Sharif in Dhaka, Rohit Wadhwaney in Rambha, India and Imran Vittachi in Washington contributed to this report. Jem's Birding & Ringing Exploits in the Eastern Province and elsewhere in Saudi Arabia June 27, 2016 (GIN) Karim Wade, son of ex-president Abdoulaye Wade, has been pardoned and freed from jail by the current Senegalese president, despite a campaign pledge to fight corruption. Karim was serving a six year term for corruption and "illegal enrichment," having amassed a fortune of $1.4 billion which he stashed offshore, according to testimonies in court. Yet he was freed and flown out of the country to Qatar after serving only half the term. President Macky Sall defeated the Karim's father by promising to end impunity for financial crimes in 2012. Karim was also fined $230,000 for illegal enrichment during his fathers 12 year rule. He was jailed in April 2013. Karim Wade was a senior minister in his father's government, and was in charge of major infrastructure and energy projects. His large portfolio led to him being dubbed "the minister of the earth and the sky". He was recently chosen as the presidential candidate of the main opposition party, the Senegalese Democratic Party, which is still led by his father. He was also chosen to head the National Agency for the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (ANOCI), which successfully oversaw the transformation of Dakar in time to host the 11th Islamic summit of 57 Muslim countries in 2008, but was also criticised for a lack of financial transparency. Backed by his father, Wade was also selected to oversee the construction of a new international airport in Dakar, the restructuring of Senegals chemical industry and the creation of a special economic zone. Disparaged for living in Europe for many years, he is seen by many voters as more toubab, or white European, than Senegalese. Anti-corruption activists are deploring the pardon, calling it politically influenced. What happened is pure politics. Because he was released at midnight and after he left Senegal and nobody was aware, thats unusual. Karim Wade stole this countrys money. We must condemn his acts, he should have served his sentence, Moustapha Dieye, a Senegalese citizen told the French news agency AFP. The civil society group Y en a Marre, which translates as were sick of it, and had campaigned against Wades fathers attempt at a third term, said prior to the pardon: If Karim Wade, who was charged with graft, is freed, that would send out a very negative message to all the people who might be tempted to embezzle public funds. It would say yes, get rich and we will release you. Alternative views were expressed by Karims supporters. I say he did nothing. If he had done any wrong he would not have been the freed. I cannot condemn him for being freed, three years later, said a man only identified as Racine. Another supporter of Karim added: If we must probe into the wealth of most people now, then everyone would be in prison. So I find his release totally normal and I dont even agree with the fact that he had been locked up, said Diakhite, another Senegalese resident. A press release from the presidency said that payment of the fine was not covered by the pardon. June 27, 2016 (GIN) Writing on the blogpost This Is Africa, Malawi journalist Levi Kabwato tackled the much-reported story of Brexit - the vote by the UK to withdraw from the EU - from his own unique perspective. European Union policies towards Africa and the rest of the Global South are unhelpful to the ordinary African, he began. It is against this backdrop that we must see Britains referendum on the EU and use what we have already seen the EU do to its poorer member countries to craft more critical and useful thoughts on how Africa can respond to developments such as Brexit. Kabwato noted the near uniformity of news reports on Brexit which bemoaned a weakened South African rand, and prophesizing an apocalypse as vital trade agreements implode. This is the same EU that, earlier in June 2016, signed an Economic Partnership Agreement in Gaborone, Botswana that included a bilateral protocol between the EU and South Africa on the protection of geographical indications and on trade in wines and spirits, noted Kabwato. But What would this actually mean for a homeless person? Or a struggling black farmer, marginalized and not empowered? The absence of an alternative narrative regarding this main news story should worry Africans who have been made to believe that they are facing imminent problems should Britain leave the EU," he observed. Is a weak Britain necessarily bad for the continent because it threatens the Empire? Is it not an opportunity for Africa to negotiate future trade and cultural deals from a position of strength? If Brexit must point Africans to anything, it is the pace at which democracy is being threatened in Europe, how poor countries like Greece are being further impoverished via their association with the EU and how the EU itself has become an anti-democratic institution, often meddling in domestic policies of member states. This means that the organic (local) hopes, dreams and aspirations of ordinary European citizens are routinely dismissed or ignored altogether. Is this why Africans are concerned about Brexit and mourning? Or is it the myth of British exceptionalism, with its painful links to colonialism? Perhaps it is the trade agreements most of them kept in secret? Maybe it is to stand in solidarity with the working class of Britain, which has borne the brunt of EU-imposed policies that have impacted negatively on their income and quality of life. In a lighter vein, the website OkayAfrica posed the question on Twitter: WhatifDavidCameronwasAfrican?regarding the just-resigned Prime Minister. Patrick Nkusi gtweeted back: We would still be counting the votes and only God knows till when June 27, 2016 (GIN) A leading opposition figure in the Gambia has been found dead in a jail cell shortly after his arrest for taking part in a protest, according to local reports. The cause of death of Solo Sandeng was listed as shock and respiratory failure, according to a medical certificate of death. Ebrima Solo Sandeng, the National Organizing Secretary of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), had been taking part in a protest demanding electoral reforms ahead of Decembers presidential polls. Amnesty International has called for an independent probe into Sandengs death. The tragic death in detention of Solo Sandeng must leave no space for impunity. The authorities must conduct an immediate, thorough and independent investigation, said Amnestys Sabrina Mahtani. Gambia must uphold the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, especially in advance of the elections. All of the peaceful protesters arrested by the authorities should be immediately and unconditionally released. Any who are injured must receive medical treatment, Amnestys West Africa researcher added. The April 14 protest led to the arrest of some five members of the UDF after police dispersed the crowd. The arrested activists were taken to Mile 2 Prison and later to the National Intelligence Agency for interrogation. Solo Sandeng was a long-time activist in Gambia. He was previously arrested in 2013 for his political activities. The current president, Yahya Jammeh, is seeking re-election. The 50-year-old former military ruler has been in power since 1994 and has said he will rule for a billion years in response to proponents of term limits. He sharply criticised suggestions that his tenure should be limited and pledged to continue being at the service of Gambians. This is a democracy and yet they speak of term limitations. Whichever western head of state or other leader wants to speak about term limitations let them come to Gambia to talk to me, Jammeh is quoted to have said to western leaders and rights groups. The presidential election will take place on December 1, followed by general elections on April 6, 2017. w/pix of Gambians at Amnesty protest Each review score is between 1-10. To get the overall score that you see, we add up all the review scores weve received and divide that total by the number of review scores weve received. In addition, guests can give separate subscores in crucial areas, such as location, cleanliness, staff, comfort, facilities, value for money and free Wi-Fi. Note that guests submit their subscores and their overall scores independently, so theres no direct link between them. You can review an Accommodation that you booked through our Platform if you stayed there or if you arrived at the property but didnt actually stay there. To edit a review youve already submitted, please contact our Customer Service team. We have people and automated systems that specialise in detecting fake reviews submitted to our Platform. If we find any, we delete them and, if necessary, take action against whoever is responsible. Anyone else who spots something suspicious can always report it to our Customer Service team, so our Fraud team can investigate. Ideally, we would publish every review we receive, whether positive or negative. However, we wont display any review that includes or refers to (among other things): Politically sensitive comments Promotional content Illegal activities Personal or sensitive information (e.g. emails, phone numbers or credit card info) Swear words, sexual references, hate speech, discriminatory remarks, threats, or references to violence Spam and fake content Animal cruelty Impersonation (e.g. if the writer is claiming to be someone else) Any violation of our review guidelines. To make sure reviews are relevant, we may only accept reviews that are submitted within 3 months of checking out, and we may stop showing reviews once theyre 36 months old or if the Accommodation has a change of ownership. An Accommodation may choose to reply to a review. When you see multiple reviews, the most recent ones will be at the top, subject to a few other factors (what language a review is in, whether its just a rating or contains comments as well, etc.). If you like, you can sort and/or filter them (by time of year, review score, etc.). We sometimes show external review scores from other well-known travel websites. We make it clear when weve done this. Guidelines and standards for Reviews These guidelines and standards aim to keep the content on Booking.com relevant and family-friendly without limiting expression of strong opinions. They are also applicable regardless of the sentiment of the comment. Contributions should be travel related. The most helpful contributions are detailed and help others make better decisions. Please dont include personal, political, ethical, or religious commentary. Promotional content will be removed and issues concerning Booking.coms services should be routed to our Customer Service or Accommodation Service teams. Contributions should be appropriate for a global audience. Please avoid using profanity or attempts to approximate profanity with creative spelling, in any language. Comments and media that include 'hate speech', discriminatory remarks, threats, sexually explicit remarks, violence, and the promotion of illegal activity are not permitted. All content should be genuine and unique to the guest. Reviews are most valuable when they are original and unbiased. Your contribution should be yours. Booking.com property partners should not post on behalf of guests or offer incentives in exchange for reviews. Attempts to bring down the rating of a competitor by submitting a negative review will not be tolerated. Respect the privacy of others. Booking.com will make an effort to obscure email addresses, telephone numbers, website addresses, social media accounts, and similar details. The opinions expressed in contributions are those of Booking.com customers and properties and not of Booking.com. Booking.com does not accept responsibility or liability for any reviews or responses. Booking.com is a distributor (without any obligation to verify) and not a publisher of these comments and responses. By default, reviews are sorted based on the date of the review and on additional criteria to display the most relevant reviews, including but not limited to: your language, reviews with text, and non-anonymous reviews. Additional sorting options may be available (by type of traveller, by score, etc.). Translations disclaimer This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, express or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. News / National by Staff reporter PROPHETIC Healing and Deliverance (PHD) Ministries leader Walter Magaya (pictured) has warned that Southern Africa will be hit by a wave of political violence anytime soon, and urged politicians not to resort to brutality to crush the uprisings.PHD ministries leader Walter Magaya speaking to church members and visitors who came to witness the official launch of the Yadah Villa housing project on SaturdayPHD ministries leader Walter Magaya speaking to church members and visitors who came to witness the official launch of the Yadah Villa housing project on SaturdayIn an interview with South African broadcaster Africa News Network7 (ANN7) on Wednesday night, Magaya claimed he had made the prophecies two weeks ago and urged the region's political leaders, Zimbabwe included, not to take his predictions lightly."If you listen to our prophets, our lives will change. I strongly believe that as prophets and men of God in the countries and in this world, we are not being given a chance to be listened to," he said."I gave a prophecy two weeks ago about things happening in South Africa right now. I said more violence would happen in Southern Africa than at any other time. The leaders must use their church leaders to calm down the violence."Magaya's warnings come as Zimbabweans have become increasingly restive and taken to the streets and other platforms to demand good governance, an end to corruption and improvement in the economy.South Africa holds crucial local government elections next month, while a Renamo insurgency is brewing in Mozambique, with some of that country's citizens reportedly seeking refuge in Zimbabwe."So there is going to be more violence everywhere," Magaya said ominously."There is going to be more violence, everywhere in Sadc. The devil is angry, saying Sadc has been at peace for so long. So there will be violence. What I will advise the leaders, who are listening, is to engage the nearest church to speak about peace."If you are correcting any politics, let's do it in peace so that we maintain the little we have."Asked to clarify if the prophecy was directed at Zimbabwe, Magaya curtly responded: "I said Sadc."Earlier, Magaya had said if leaders listened and implemented his suggestions, Zimbabwe would be back on its feet within six months and have a prosperous future."The future of Zimbabwe is bright. Sometimes, when you go through hard times, it teaches you a lesson."Everyone has passed through what we are going through and may be even worse than us. But their future is now bright," he said, giving an example of Japan, the world's third biggest economy, which had two of its cities obliterated by atomic bombs at the end of the Second World War in 1945."It's about your approach after the crisis that changes your nation. So to me, the future is bright if proper policies are implemented and what we are discussing with them is implemented. It's just a tough moment, but it doesn't mean it is the end."Magaya also spoke about his meeting with Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya over the introduction of bond notes.He said he felt the announcement was prematurely made and that bond notes should be treated as a monetary issue and not a political one. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 02/07/2016 (2308 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. An man who sparked an attempt by more than a dozen fellow inmates to break out of the Brandon jail has been sentenced to 30 months in prison. The inmate tried to lure guards into a cell and held a homemade shank to the neck of an inmate who was in on the act to convince guards he meant business. This case highlights the dangerous circumstances in which correctional officers work, Judge Shana Hewitt-Michta said during sentencing in Brandon provincial court Thursday. Crown attorney Ron Toews said that jail staff called the Brandon Police Service for help on the afternoon of Dec. 17. Police were told that 13 inmates were trying to break out of the east side of the jail. Toews said police were informed that the second floor of Unit B had been broken out and requested that police guard the perimeter in case any inmates were able to escape. As police assembled to respond, they received notice from the jail that the prisoners had been secured and police help was no longer needed. Police investigated and learned that 26-year-old inmate Kevin Curtis Edwards, who was pending on charges out of his hometown of Winnipeg, was the instigator of the revolt. Seemingly upset that the TV was broken and that hed had phone privileges taken away, Edwards banged a garbage can in an attempt to lure guards into a cell. When that failed, agitated Edwards emerged holding a pair of homemade shanks. He then placed one of them to the neck of another inmate, who was in on the ruse, as a way of getting staff to comply with his demands. Inmates used toothpaste to stick paper to a window and the lens of a camera to stop corrections officers from seeing what they were doing. They also masked their faces to make it harder for authorities to figure out who was doing what. The situation was defused and no injuries were reported. ihitchen@brandonsun.com Twitter: @IanHitchen Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 02/07/2016 (2308 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Between Fridays sunshine and the smell of barbecue surfing on the breeze, it wasnt hard for the people of Westman to set aside their differences and celebrate the one thing held in common: the nation they all call home. Decked out in red and white, thousands from the Wheat City area gathered for a countrywide birthday party July 1. Some of the flag-waving visitors were lifelong citizens, others have just started to call the country home. Alex Antoneshyn/Brandon Sun This year, 476 people helped form a living Canadian flag to celebrate the country's 149th birthday at the Riverbank Discovery Centre. Karen Cuadros family, who was celebrating at the Riverbank Discovery Centre, moved to Canada from Colombia when she was nine. Now 16, Cuadros has been a citizen for two years and come to call herself both Colombian and Canadian. I have changed. Since Ive been here for seven years, I have grown to live the Canadian life, too, the teenager said. According to Cuadros, her family has been coming to the celebrations for as long as she can remember. It means celebrating how great this country is, how there is so much safety and a great community that is very respectful, Cuadros said. The community atmosphere was evident at the Riverbank Discovery Centre, where an estimated 5,000 people roamed the grounds throughout the day. Visitors gathered at noon to form a live Canadian flag visible from 600 feet above then spent the rest of the afternoon entertained by live performances, fresh food and rides from Prairie Helicopters. CFB Shilo also featured a similar itinerary, preparing for Canadas 150th birthday next year with their fullest lineup yet. Other years, the base has seen a Canada Day turnout of approximately 1,200 people, the large majority of which live on base. This year, however, visitors came from Canadas East and West Coast to celebrate with family, and joined those who had grown up on CFB Shilo for the festivities. Colin Corneau/Brandon Sun Karen Elves snacks on some poutine with family on Canada Day at Wasagaming. The park featured a citizenship ceremony as well as live music and fireworks to celebrate Canada's 149th birthday. My dad was in the military all his life (and) my grandfather, my uncles, my brother-in-laws military, so Canada Day, to us, is supporting the military, said Kim Villeneuve. Both she and her mother have worked at CFB Shilo over the years. Canada Day is an opportunity to show pride in their heritage, said Kims mother, Helen. Canada is a free country and we need to respect that and remember it, and this is a good day to do it. We should remember it every day but Canada Day is the best day to go and celebrate it. aantoneshyn@brandonsun.com Twitter: @AAntoneshyn Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 02/07/2016 (2308 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. CFB SHILO Troops from Shilo will make up more than half of the 200 soldiers crossing the Atlantic this summer for a six-month deployment to train Ukrainian troops. The deployment, comprised of more than 100 soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry, some from 1st Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, as well as Edmonton-based soldiers and a variety of specialists from around the country, is the second Canadian rotation of Operation Unifier. Now a year old, Unifier is a response by Canada, the United Kingdom, United States, Lithuania and Poland to a request from the Ukrainian government to assist in its work to maintain sovereignty, security and stability. Its scheduled to be complete in March 2017. Tom Bateman/Brandon Sun Soldiers from 2nd Battalion Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry run through a simulation where soldiers attend to casualties of an improvised explosive device attack at CFB Shilo on Thursday. The soldiers are some of the more than 100 from Shilo who are deploying to Ukraine as part of Operation Unifier this summer. Its all along the lines of assisting the Ukrainians in their ultimate goal, which is to achieve NATO interoperability, said Lt.-Col. Wayne Niven, commanding officer of 2PPCLI. The Canadians will travel to Yavoriv Training Centre, near the city of Lviv, close to the Polish border in the west of the country. Unifier will be Nivens first deployment as 2PPCLIs commanding officer. Theyre transitioning from a Soviet state-style infrastructure and training system to try and transition to a NATO standard. It will take a bit of work, but in conjunction with our international partners and our Ukrainian forces, were already starting to see significant progress in certain lines of operation. The Canadians are carrying out infantry-based small team training, focused on skills such as marksmanship, moving, communication, survival and ethics training. Additional training will include improvised explosive device disposal, military police work, casualty evacuation and combat first aid training and flight safety. On Thursday, preparations meant brushing up on combat first aid and causality evacuation skills on the Shilo Range for local troops. Soldiers worked through four scenarios, similar to simulations they will oversee in Ukraine. One saw a group of Canadian soldiers trigger an improvised explosive device. We had a number of casualties they had to extract. They also had a number of enemy casualties that, under our obligation to the Geneva Convention, we also had to treat and deal with, Niven said. Those who were able had to secure the area a series of sea can containers arranged to create a courtyard-style setting while simultaneously attending to the wounded, watching out for more enemies, and preparing their patients for helicopter evacuation. Niven said how his soldiers deal with such a situation has been honed by previous combat experience: 2PPCLI includes veterans of combat in Afghanistan and Bosnia. If you hit or contact an IED, it might not be only one, there may be secondary devices, there could be other threats it could be an ambush, so security is the first thing we need to worry about as well as making sure the person assisting the casualty doesnt become a secondary casualty by a secondary device. But the mission itself is considerably different to previous 2PPCLI deployments to places like Afghanistan and Bosnia. For Unifier, the Canadians will arrive and, for the most part, reside in barracks in Yavoriv. Its a training base, its got training infrastructure much like youd see here or in Wainwright, so our troops will be housed in barracks. There is a large training area much like (Shilo). Its not nearly as austere as what we would find in Afghanistan, he said. But it wont be without challenges. We are in a country where there is an ongoing civil war, Niven said. Theres not a direct threat against the Canadian Armed Forces, however, we know that there is a potential threat for espionage and cyber-threats that our folks could find themselves against. The troops have been busy of late, many arriving back in Manitoba in June after deploying to Wainwright, Alta., as part of Maple Resolve, a major, complex training exercise that brought the 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group (of which 2PPCLI and 1RCHA are a part) to a state of high-readiness. Meanwhile, members of the Ukrainian military have been in Manitoba twice since February, helping to prepare soldiers via cultural awareness and language training. This, Nevin says, is vital for when his troops start their work. Most of these soldiers were training are combat veterans from the eastern part of their country. They have experience in combat operations were there to assist them in developing their skills and bring them to a more NATO standard. They are proud soldiers. Establishing that trust and relationship is the key. If you can open that door, then everything becomes smoother. We like to say soldiers speak a universal experience everyones got a war story. If you know how to open that door and make that connection, then things become much easier. tbateman@brandonsun.com Twitter: @tombatemann Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 02/07/2016 (2308 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Last week was the 14th annual Flatlanders Beer Festival in Winnipeg Manitobas largest beer festival and it featured a host of new breweries, including Barn Hammer, Torque, One Great City, Nonsuch and Brazen Hall. Thats five new breweries and that doesnt take into account the many others that are planning to open up in the next year. My best of show for all the new brewery beers I tried was Brasserie Nonsuchs saison. When I asked about it, they told me that they were tired of the same old saisons so they created one for those who arent big fans of the ever common barnyard funk taste. To me, their saison was a nice carbonated light brew with a bit of a bubble gum sweetness to it, very easy to drink and perfect for a hot summer afternoon. Other great beers I loved were Torques Diesel Fitter Stout and Barn Hammers Saturday Night Lumberjack Double IPA which was way too smooth for being a double IPA, but sure enough, it is. While at Flatlanders I overheard a few people talking about the popular Belgian beer Delirium Tremens. Apparently the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission received a complaint regarding the beers name. Delirium tremens is a psychotic condition, typical of withdrawal in chronic alcoholics, involving tremors, hallucinations, anxiety, and disorientation. So you can see why someone would be upset over a beer with a name about an illness relating to alcohol withdrawal But at what point should alcoholic beverages be regulated for their name? In Ontario, Flying Monkeys Smashbomb Atomic IPA was pulled from shelves several years back for artwork that showcased an explosion and artwork that was appealing to children. Also, Dan Aykroyds famous Skull vodka wasnt sold in Ontario for a very long time on the grounds that children would spend $80 just for a bottle of vodka that happens to be in a crystal bottle that looks like a skull. Some liquor commission decisions dont make sense to me, but thats bureaucracy for you. I had a chat with the rep at the Delirium Tremens table the other day and he confirmed that the MLCC was no longer stocking it, but it will still be available until the last remaining product sells out. Thereafter, only beer vendors will have access to Delirium Tremens. Since Im a bit ticked off, I decided it was time for me to review Delirium Tremens and its sister beer, Delirium Nocturnum. Delirium Tremens is a Belgian Strong Ale that tops out at 8.7 per cent ABV. What I like about it is that the bottle pops out immediately its ceramic bottle with blue foil on top. The beer pours a cloudy, yet straw golden ale with a good amount of carbonation and a thick, frothy white head on top. The beer was overflowing the second I opened the bottle but thankfully it wasnt gushing like a typical Unibroue. This beer has living yeast thats constantly evolving and fermenting in the bottle, so it will taste completely different after four years compared to two years. The aroma comes off a bit boozy, with notes of lemon, bananas, clove and a breadiness from the Belgian yeasts. The flavour has a blunt bitterness as I take my first sip, but as I continue to savour the beer, Im noticing the taste while still mildly bitter also has sweet notes of lemon peel, clove and Belgian yeast. The breadiness is somewhat reminiscent of sour dough. The aftertaste to me is apple peels. You can find Delirium Tremens at the Brandon Liquor Marts (Corral Centre and 10th and Victoria) locations until its gone. Its easily one of my favourite Belgian Strong Ales after Unibroues La Fin du Monde. It costs $4.19 per 330ml bottle. 4.5/5 Pints Next up, Delirium Nocturnum, the Belgian Strong Dark Ale sister of Tremens. Nocturnum is fairly new to Manitoba, making its first appearance in Christmas gift sets at Liquor Marts back in December 2014. Nocturnum pours a rich, dark brown ale with a ruby red hue. It gives off a liberal amount of beige foam that diminishes almost instantly, leaving behind a lot of foamy residue on the side of the glassware. The aroma is a bit heavier than Tremens as Im noticing more notes of clove, dark fruit like plums and raisins, black licorice, a hint of brown sugar and just a smidge of bubble gum so for the most part, its quite sweet for a strong dark ale. The taste, on the other hand, is more roasted. Im getting notes of roasted malt, which immediately gives off a hint of burnt brown sugar meeting an earthy light coffee. There are also notes of dark chocolate, clove, dark fruit yet again (plums and raisins) and a bit of an earthy, yet metallic, aftertaste that lingers on the palate for quite a while. It has a creamy and smooth mouthfeel and is very easy to drink highly reminiscent of a Unibroue Maudite, but without the burn. Im surprised by the lack of booze burn in this instance. Id recommend this more for those who like darker ales like Fort Garry Dark or, especially, Unibroues Maudite. You can find this at only the 10th and Victoria Liquor Mart for $4.29 per 330ml bottle. It packs 8.5 per cent ABV. 4/5 Pints FYI: The next flight of Coast to Coaster beers made their way to Liquor Marts, beer vendors, rural Manitoba grocery stores and the Dock on Princess on Canada Day. This flight includes my favourite apricot wheat ale in the world St Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale from Quebec as well as Yukon Brewings Youd Be Surprised Raspberry Citrus Ale, Barkerville White Gold Witbier, Picaroons Blonde Ale and many others. Hope you had a great Canada Day, folks! Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 02/07/2016 (2308 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Some 30 years ago, sitting in a Brandon University economics class taught by the late Errol Black, my fellow student Kevin Chambers and I mulled the coming developments in the then-termed European Union/European Common Market. Obviously this was long before the credit crunch of 2008, or Greeces economic collapse, or similar almost-crashes in Spain and Italy. The conversation, as best I recall, rotated around the concept of how nations that had long despised each other, and battled in countless wars, could dismiss historical hatreds in some neo-liberal iteration of a brave new world in which intellectualism triumphs all. Could the Germans and French, the bitterest of foes only decades before, surrender their economic sovereignty to the European headquarters in Brussels? Could Belgium trust the Germans? Likewise, Greece. Likewise, Poland. You get the idea. Would nations give up control over fiscal and monetary policy? In fact, it appears they didnt. Greece, as a case in point, simply lied about their fiscal straits to the EU in a bid to join. The EU, to its everlasting detriment, failed to do its basic due diligence. The rest is history. How would nations with generous social safety nets deal with the free movement of immigrants throughout the EU? After all, if free movement is a central tenet of eliminating borders, then sensibly those in need would seek more generous living conditions. This would undoubtedly overwhelm the host nations. As we saw last week in England, by and large rural voters, perhaps less sophisticated in the medias eyes, supported the notion of leaving the European Union. The result was tumultuous markets and currencies were roiled. The very future of the EU, and perhaps other multinational trade agreements, is now in jeopardy. Thirty years ago, those two university students didnt foresee the future they were simply questioning whether human nature evolves in the long-term. The United Nations hasnt put a stop to all wars. It hasnt even stopped genocides. Can education, negotiation and enlightenment, or so we think, lead us away from human emotions such as anger, greed, tribalism and conflict? It appears humans havent evolved much since we started walking the Earth upright. So what happens from here? My hope is that we educate ourselves about the price of both cheap and globalization. That is, our desire to claim the benefits of globalization, and there are many, has led us to forgo the benefits of having our own diversified domestic economy. High-paying manufacturing jobs have migrated to lower cost jurisdictions and we have not benefited to a promised degree from advances in technology. In real terms, too few people have enjoyed economic gains for decades while tremendous wealth is accruing to the privileged in our society. This type of anger was behind the Tea Partys surge in 2008, and behind the popularity of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in 2016. In a complicated time, facing the cutting edge of globalization, higher taxes, and failing to benefit from technological advances, the middle and working classes are being squeezed like never before, and there is tangible anger in the voting public. Is it unreasonable to expect voters to distrust the same politicians who gave them the EU, with its wide open immigration, higher taxes and falling quality of life? While the EU didnt cause all of these issues, it existed at a time in which these trends exploded. This doesnt imply cause and effect, but the overlapping of globalization and stagnant job growth/wealth creation doesnt auger well for politicians telling commoners how simplistic they are and that their opinions dont matter. The same is true of the North American Free Trade Agreement. It promised wealth but has only delivered on this promise to some. Is it so difficult to believe voters out there, fearing for their own survival, are willing to embrace angry, jingoistic buffoonery rather than talk seriously about issues in a constructive manner? This is particularly true when the very people who got us here are telling us to stay the course with only their highly-priced credentials to justify these arguments. My philosophy is that open markets and technological innovation will ultimately resolve many issues currently troubling us but to simply dismiss the reasonable fears expressed by those not participating in this new economy is to fail them. It is my hope this Brexit referendum will help voters focus, understand the importance of their rights and obligations in a free society, and to take their franchise seriously. Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 02/07/2016 (2308 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Thank you, Patmore Nurseries You would not believe the number of customers who showed up at Patmore Nurseries for their closing out sale with 50-75 per cent off all products. The parking lot was full (and some cars were actually blocked in); they were parked on both sides of the street in front of Kelleher Ford, Mockingbird Drive, and some were on 18th Street. One of the reasons Patmore closed was they were slowly being forced out of business by the big box retailers who sold horticultural products at rock bottom prices as loss leaders to get customers into the store! And here were the same people who would not support Patmore because they could save as little as $2 on a bag of topsoil elsewhere lined up at the door like vultures circling their prey because they could now save 50-75 per cent. Talk about loyal customers! Where were they when Patmore needed them so they could survive? They came out when Patmore was practically giving product away. How very sad. Thank you, Patmore Nurseries! Valdy concert appreciated Although late in sending this, I just want to say that the Princess in the Park concert (moved to McDiarmid Drive Alliance Church) featuring Valdy was absolutely wonderful. Valdys voice is still strong and true. He capably and joyfully played his beloved guitar and enraptured us all with his story-telling songs and delightful banter. A fantastic start to the concert series. Many thanks to all the sponsors! Census not making much sense There was an issue about two years ago where the Manitoba counting and Ottawas had a difference of more than 18,000 people. (Manitoba was being short-changed.) Was this situation ever resolved? Was Ottawa cutting corners in citizen counting in this matter too? News / Regional by Ndou Paul RIOT police today reportedly forced innocent residents from the troubled Beitbridge border town to clean up a trail of debris left by angry demonstrators on Friday(yesterday).The protests, which had not been authorised by the police, left Beitbridge streets barricaded with stones and burning tyres.Sources told Bulawayo24 today (Saturday) that police had coerced residents and some travellers to clean up the mess."It's calm today," a source who chose not to be named said."But heavily armed police and soldiers forced residents to join the police clean up of litter."This followed the deployment of army helicopters and canons to calm angry protesters at the border.Streets in Dulivhadzimu suburb, the main residential area and all roads leading to the border post were on Friday barricaded with stones and burning tyres following a calculated protests by travellers and residents on the recent Zimra imports policy. France's prime minister said Britain's vote to leave the European Union is a business opportunity for Paris. Manuel Valls said the government is working on enhancing the French capital's attractiveness, especially measures regarding taxes and expatriates' status. Update 2.10pm: The organiser of todays protest against rising car insurance premiums has said that the situation is now past breaking point for hard-pressed motorists. Its been getting out of hand for quite a while now, said Cian Griffin, from the motoring blog Ireland Underground. I know all young drivers have been paying quite a bit for a number of years, but its starting to affect the entire demographic of Ireland [now] so everyones insurance costs are going up, and its getting very frustrating, especially trying to afford it, along with all the other bills we have to afford with rent and tax and all the rest. Its kind of gone past breaking point now, and we decided to do something about it, and thats why were here today. Earlier: A demonstration in Dublin is expected to bring traffic to a standstill in the city centre this afternoon, in protest at the rising cost of car insurance premiums. Around 6,000 cars are expected to take part in a protest around Leinster House and Merrion Square from 2pm today. DUBLIN: Merrion Square South will be closed today for a demonstration between 10am and 3pm. https://t.co/qvBPcgxUj8 AA Ireland (@aaroadwatch) July 2, 2016 Car insurance premiums have increased by up to 60% for some drivers over the past three years. Opposition TDs are due to address the rally. Gardai have issued a renewed appeal for the publics help in efforts to find missing man Patrick Wright. The 39-year-old was last seen in the Blanchardstown area last Monday at around 10.30am. He failed to return to his home in Portmarnock, Co Dublin. Update 10.48am: It has now been confirmed that 20 hostages have been killed during a siege in a cafe in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka. Earlier: At least six militants have been killed and 13 hostages rescued after Bangladeshi security forces stormed a Dhaka restaurant popular with foreigners to end a 10-hour stand-off. Lt Col Tuhin Mohammad Masud, head of the Rapid Action Battalion, said some militants were captured in Saturday's operation. "We have gunned down at least six terrorists and the main building is cleared, but the operation is still going on," he said. About 35 people were taken hostage, including about 20 foreigners, when gunmen stormed the the Holey Artisan Bakery in the capital's Gulshan area on Friday night. Lt Col Masud said the rescued include a Japanese, who was injured, and two Sri Lankans. He said there were casualties among other hostages, but did not provide details. A news agency affiliated with IS claimed 24 people had been killed and 40 wounded, including foreigners, according to Site. The figures could not be independently confirmed. The Amaq news agency also posted photos purportedly showing the bodies of hostages. Police said two officers died in hospital after being wounded in the initial gunfire with as many as nine attackers, who also hurled bombs. Ten of the 26 wounded were in a critical condition, six of whom were on life support, according to hospital staff, who said the injuries ranged from broken bones to gunshot wounds. One civilian was among the wounded. A Japanese government spokesman said a Japanese hostage has been rescued but seven others are unaccounted for. Deputy chief cabinet secretary Koichi Hagiuda said that the eight were together at the restaurant during the attack. Mr Hagiuda said the Japanese man who was rescued was shot and is still being treated. He said the eight people were from different companies involved in the same project led by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The so-called Islamic State group said it carried out the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist activity online. With the sound of gunfire and explosions, TV stations reported that the rescue operation began at 7.40am. It included troops with automatic weapons and at least seven armoured vehicles. Reports said an Argentine and two Bangladeshis were rescued from the restaurant early today. Commandos storming the restaurant discovered five bodies lying in blood, the police official told Channel 24 TV station. The attack marks an escalation in the growing drumbeat of militant violence to hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation in the past three years, but with increasing frequency in recent months. Most attacks have been by machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities. Bangladesh did not immediately respond to the claim of responsibility by IS, but in the past has denied that the extremist group has a presence in the country. The US State Department said it had seen the IS claim, but could not confirm its authenticity. Restaurant kitchen staffer Sumon Reza, was among more than 10 people who managed to run to the rooftop and escape when the militants moved in on Friday night. He said the attackers chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) as they launched the attack at around 9.20pm, initially opening fire with blanks. A huge contingent of security forces cordoned off the area around the bakery. Benazir Ahmed, head of the Rapid Action Battalion, said earlier: "Some derailed youths have entered the restaurant and launched the attack." "We have talked to some of the people who fled the restaurant after the attack. We want to resolve this peacefully. We are trying to talk to the attackers, we want to listen to them about what they want. "Our first priority is to save the lives of the people trapped inside." Among the hostages was a businessman and his wife and two children, according to his uncle Anwarul Karim. "My nephew Hasnat Karim called me and said he was inside with his family. He told me, 'Please save us, please!' And he hung up," he said. In Washington, a White House official said US president Barack Obama was briefed on the attack by his chief counter-terrorism adviser Lisa Monaco. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the US was in contact with the Bangladesh government and had offered help to bring those responsible to justice. He said all official American staff were accounted for with no injuries reported. The spree of recent attacks in Bangladesh have raised fears that religious extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions of secularism and tolerance. About two dozen atheist writers, publishers, members of religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers have been killed since 2013. On Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death by at least three assailants in south-west Bangladesh. IS and and al Qaida affiliates have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks. Prime minister Sheikh Hasina's government has cracked down on domestic radical Islamists. It has accused local terrorists and opposition political parties - especially the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami - of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilise the nation, which both parties deny. A co-owner of the restaurant, Nasirul Alam Porag, said he was not able to communicate with his staff. Mr Porag was in Bangkok, Thailand, when news of the siege reached him. "Up until five minutes ago I didn't know anything. There is no one on the ground we can communicate with, not even the staff," he said. He said the restaurant employed about 50 staff and 20 were present at the time of the attack. The Dhaka restaurant opened two years ago and Mr Porag, one of three owners, is now managing the trio's new eatery in Bangkok. Thousands of people have gathered in central London to protest against plans to leave the European Union. Demonstrators wearing EU flags as capes and with homemade banners saying "Bremain" and "We Love EU" gathered on the streets around Park Lane for the March for Europe rally. Protesters taking part in the event, which was organised on social media, were due to march through London to Parliament Square. Comedian and satirist Mark Thomas organised the march to address his "anger, frustration and need to do something". He estimated between 20,000 and 40,000 people would be at the event. He said: "We would accept the result of the referendum if it was fought on a level playing field. But it was full of misinformation and people need to do something with their frustration." A cheer went up from the crowd at 11.30am as the marchers set off. Father and daughter Bill Baker, 59, and Jess Baker, 22, from Islington, north London, had made a banner for the march which read: "I will always love EU." Ms Baker said: "We didn't want to leave but if you respect the decision of the referendum, which we should, we still want Britain to be EU orientated, outward looking and inclusive." Philippa Griffin, 40, from Hertfordshire, brought a French stick to celebrate Europe as her alternative to a protest banner. She said: "I'm absolutely outraged at the way people voted, the lies the referendum was based on and the divide in the country because of it. My ideal outcome from this march is that MPs realise that leaving the EU is not what people truly want. It feels like our country has already changed." The Met Police said there would be officers at the event to provide "flexible and appropriate" policing. Marie Sansford, 66, from Brighton, said she was against joining the European Union in the 1970s. She said: "I feared that joining the EU would allow global companies to take over, which has happened to an extent. But being in the EU we can group together with other countries, be friends with our neighbours. I don't want to see the whole of Europe fall apart. I'm just very worried for future generations." The March for Europe supporters launched into an impromptu rendition of John Lennon's Imagine, led by a man in the centre of the crowd with an EU flag painted on his forehead, armed with a megaphone and bouncing on a friend's shoulders. William Dramard, 36, moved from France to Manchester to study 16 years ago. A homemade placard represented his French roots, his Finnish wife, their English bull mastiff dog and the European Union. The engineer, who travelled to London alone for Saturday's rally, said: "My family exists thanks to the EU. One of the reasons my wife and I came here was because of freedom of movement. We met here and started our life together here. This is what we consider to be our home now." Genevieve Parke, 34, who is seven months pregnant, marched carrying an EU flag with her two-year-old son Ernest, who was blowing his own crocodile-shaped trumpet. Mrs Parke, who lives in London but is originally from Fermanagh close to the border in Northern Ireland, said: "Leaving the EU will have a polarising effect on communities at home again. I don't want to go back to a border with guns and checkpoints. That will bring back a lot of horrible memories for people, if nothing else." Her friend and mother-of-three India Lovett, dressed in a gold sequinned jacket and carrying an EU flag, is also from Northern Ireland. The 34-year-old said: "The referendum result was absolutely terrifying for Northern Ireland. "My eldest is 14 and he's really good at French. We had dreams for him to go to university in France. I fear that his future may now be really limited." Her husband, Dorian Lovett, 34, said: "If Remain had won, Leave would still be campaigning. I think leaving the EU needs more discussion - this was an advisory referendum. "There needs to be pressure on the Government so they remember that a large number of people don't want to take this course of action." Mathilda Fell, 14, is marching with her parents. The budding human rights lawyer from London fears her dreams of studying at university in Belgium or Holland might be thwarted by an EU exit. She said: "I feel really let down that my voice, and the voice of young people, hasn't been heard in the referendum. It's my future that's going to be affected." SINGAPORE: Palm oil may retest a support of 4,114 ringgit per tonne, a break below which could open the way towards... MANILA: The use of LNG imports for power generation in the Philippines next year should not be a disincentive for... Opinion / Columnist We as PDP Harare Province have received with shock, the news of the arrest of the mayor of Harare Clr. Bernard Manyenyeni soon after the High Court dismissed his dismal as mayor by the Minister of Local Government and Housing Mr. Saviour Kasukuwere.As PDP, we would like to put it on record that we do not condone corruption in any form and by whosoever.If indeed Manyenyeni is guilty of any misdemeanor indeed the law must take its course.However, we become very suspicious at the timing of the arrest; one that seems deliberately and maliciously meant to cut short any celebration of his legal victory and also to make sure that he does not assume his duties as mayor consequent to that.May it be noted that while we have issues with the MDC-T led council due to the deteriorating standards in the City we nevertheless recognize the present Council as the legitimate gubernatorial authority of Harare until such a time that it's constitutional mandate expires.As PDP we have the highest regard for the electorate of Harare and any attempt to tamper with the Council they put in place is the highest disregard for them. We are well aware that whilst the minister concerned may cite genuine sounding reasons for the persecution of the Mayor, the real reasons are political.We remember a similar persecution of former Mayor Elias Mudziri, which culminated in the wresting of the City from the constitutionally elected MDC-T council into the hands of ZANU-PF, and it's quisling in the shameful name of Sekesai Makwavarara.We know that the ill-named Saviour is under pressure from ZANU-PF Harare Province to deliver the Council into ZANU-PF hands in preparation for 2018.Under a ZANU-PF commission residential and business stands, both formal and informal, will be distributed along partisan lines; jobs, part-time or otherwise, will be created for ZANU-PF faithfuls and Council coffers will be drained dry to finance the financially ailing ruling party.To suppose that the minister is concerned with the plight of Hararians is a great insult in the light of the debilitating quagmire, him and his heartless party have plunged the once beautiful country into. It is equally absurd to surmise that the monstrous minister is concerned to stamp out corruption as his party and government are the lair and den of corruption.Just a few days one of the most ridiculous excuses for a minister in the post-deluvian period openly agreed to corruption and admitted that he is not alone in that boat. Today, he is walking free. No follow up was ever made to that admission.One wonders if Bernard Manyenyeni is the culprit that siphoned away US$15 billion worth of diamonds from the country. One wonders if he is the one who licked our ailing parastatals dry or if he is the one defiantly blowing away millions of dollars in a posh hotel while civil servants have trouble getting their pay.It is painful when the first prosecution of the euphemistically named Anti-corruption Commission is mired in such controversy and confusion. One wonders if the Commission is not displaying the very corruption it claims to fight, for unlike Clown Prince Joseph Chinotimba who believes that laughing is corruption we believe that partisanship is.It is also ironic that a government that believes that its (disputed) mandate is sancrosanct and needs not be tampered with till kingdom come does not respect the same sacrosanct in another elected body.It is paradoxical that the most ill-performing president this side of doomsday is showered with lofty accolades and given the nod to continue his ruinous reign while a simple mayor whose crimes are not wholly his but in a way attributable to the same monster government is persecuted.The actions by Kasukuwere are a sinister example of how he and his monster government are prepared to go to any lengths even if it means manipulating the legal system to cling to their ruinous rule.We do hope that in the end justice will prevail and that the courts will uphold their sacred duty by acting in a way that is above reproach.We also hope that the people of Harare and the nation at large will not continue to sit idly and watch while their rights are trampled underfoot.If anything the actions by Kasukuwere and the government have proved to all and sundry, the callous nature of this vampire government.Let's band together to say no to this outrage!Another Zimbabwe is possible!Time for change is now!Khumalo: Cde. Nqobizitha Khumalo.PDP Harare Provincial SpokespersonVince MuseweMobile: +263 776 917 440 OTTAWA: The Bank of Canada announced a smaller-than-expected interest rate hike on Wednesday and said it was getting... Opinion / Columnist "When Zanu-PF rolled over MDC in 2013 and gave Mr. Mugabe another 5 year term they could never have anticipated the immediate consequences," you said.For umpteenth time, Eddie, Zanu-PF did not care about the consequences of their rigging the elections and getting back into power. All Mugabe cared about is getting back into power so he and his cronies can continue with the looting, which had, at best, slowed down during the GNU. You, MP Cross, were certainly aware of the looting in Marange during the GNU because you raise the subject yourself. Mugabe in March this year has shed some light as to the extent of the looting when he told the nation that $15 billion of Marange diamonds were looted between 2010 and 2015! So the nation has to take you claim of local and international confidence in Zimbabwe with a pitch of salt."After 4 years of growth and recovery and rising confidence in local and international circles, the country went into mourning and markets crashed. In six months $3,5 billion dollars fled the economy and a third of all Banks closed their doors," you claimed. Nonsense!The local and international community expected MDC to implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu-PF dictatorship and watched with growing panic and disbelief the five years of the GNU rolled by and no meaningful reforms were implemented. Not even one reform in five years!Indeed long before the six months from elections day which saw "$3,5 billion dollars fled the economy, etc." SADC leaders and MDC's donors had all deserted you lot before the July 2013 elections according to former MDC Minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo."We failed to secure critical reforms before participating in the elections. The whole world advised us not to get into the elections without reforms, and so in everything that we have been saying we have failed to acknowledge that we also made a mistake," Nkomo told the Independent newspaper."It is common knowledge that Lindiwe Zulu (President Jacob Zuma's international relations adviser) advised us. Zuma also advised us and even the Sadc Heads of State meeting in Maputo (Mozambique) also advised not to participate in the elections without electoral, media and security sector reforms, among others."We were ill-prepared. Zanu-PF gave its parliamentary candidates as much as US$15 000 each, a car, tee-shirts and campaign posters. But we gave our own parliamentary candidates only US$700 each, the councillors US$100 all of which simply demonstrated a lack of seriousness. We were also misled by the numbers that came to our rallies particularly in Bulawayo, and the cross-over rally in Harare where people were told that (party leader Morgan) Tsvangirai would be crossing over into State House."MDC had only $700 for its parliamentary candidate because the party's donors deserted the party and turned off the funds in sheer exasperation at the breath-taking incompetence MDC leaders had shown throughout the GNU years.MP Cross do you realize that it is now two years before the next elections in 2018 and still not even one meaningful reform has been implemented? So it is clear that Zanu-PF will once again rig the elections and you will, no doubt, be writing more of your articles and asking the same stupid question whether the party "anticipated the immediate consequences" of another five years of Zanu-PF in power; as if that is all that really matters.MP Cross do you realize that it is MDC leaders like you, Morgan Tsvangirai, etc. who have refused to accept that MDC made a serious mistake in failing to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU who, by being in denial, have stopped something being done to implement the reforms since the rigged July 2013 elections and thus land us back in the same situation as in 2013 when it was certain Zanu-PF will rig the elections!"I am afraid that the days of trying to whitewash this Leopard and to persuade it to change its ways are over. We have no choice but to take matters into our own hands and effect real change in our Country," admitted MP Cross."The best solution would be an internationally supervised election without a voters roll as soon as possible. If this is not facilitated by the region, then the streets will have to make the required decisions. We the citizens of this country, really have no choice."So instead of implementing the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu-PF dictatorship you wasted five years of the GNU trying to whitewashing it in the vain hope that was enough to transform the dictator into a democrat. How naive and characteristically MDC foolish was that!The solution is for the country to implement the democratic reforms that MDC failed to get even one reform implemented in five years; the international community can assist in making sure the task in completed and not another foolish attempt to whitewash to leopard!MP Cross please tell me because I really want to know; why are you always writing about the economy, Zanu-PF abuse of power, etc. but has never ever written about the subject that really matters to every thinking Zimbabwean out there implementing the democratic reforms and deliver the democratic change MDC promised but has never delivered ever since its formation in 1999? Whose side are you on; it is certainly not that of the long suffering povo because all of your actions so far have delayed the day of their deliverance from this Zanu-PF dictatorship although they all disguised to give the impression you care about povo!--------------Nomusa Garikai KYIV, Ukraine: Seven civilians have been killed and three injured in the Ukraine city of Bakhmut in the eastern... RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Saturday announced $400 million in humanitarian aid for Ukraine, the official SPA news... Vale SA and BHP Billiton's Brazilian mining joint venture is seeking capital injections from its owners as it runs out of cash after a deadly accident halted output, people with knowledge of the matter said. The iron-ore company's cash will expire by August and it needs contributions from Vale and BHP to stay afloat, two people said, asking not to be identified because talks are private. Samarco, as the venture is known, has already started exploring ways to restructure about $US1.6 billion in bank loans and may seek to put off bond payments until it can resume operations, the people said. Mining has been halted since November, when a tailings dam collapse killed as many as 19 people and contaminated waterways. Credit:AP Mining has been halted since November, when a tailings dam collapse killed as many as 19 people and contaminated waterways. After reaching a multibillion-dollar settlement with the government in March, the company hoped to secure licensing to resume operations this year, but probably will have to wait until 2017. Meanwhile, stockpiled ore has run out and the venture is fighting civil claims and prosecutors' efforts to overturn the March settlement. Samarco declined to comment on any discussions with its owners. BHP declined to comment on Samarco's financial position and Vale referred to comments made by investor relations director Rogerio Nogueira on June 16 that it would only inject money if there's a prospect for Samarco to restart. Wal Pywell (Letters, June 26) looks enviously at all the deductions available to the investor but he doesn't mention what will happen when the renter defaults or trashes the place. Home owners usually don't default or trash their place. Negative gearing is not much good if you lose your job! Negative gearing is used to save for your future so you don't rely on future taxpayers for your future lifestyle. What assistance you might get from the government now in negative gearing, you save the taxpayer later when you are not eligible for a pension or healthcare card. Looking back on all the worry and weekend work to maintain the property, supervise the sometimes disrespectful renters as well as your family doing without to pay the property bills, you might think twice about the strategy. How will you afford to repair the shoddy building on new units costing some $30,000 and keep the family's home. If negative gearing goes and repairs are no longer deductible, then owners may find maintenance all too hard. Some suburbs may look even more dishevelled. Renting when I first came to Canberra, I appreciated the landlord might redirect some family income to do repairs. S. Homan, Greenway "This is a disgrace, for what he's done to Tony Abbott. This is all he's got left? The man should resign," Bolt said. Conservative columnist and broadcaster Andrew Bolt has demanded Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull resign. "He's got no authority within the party. He's trashed the brand, he's got no mandate for change. You think the Liberals will just say that's fine? This is just a disgrace, it is absolutely a disgrace." Bolt said his friend Mr Abbott should be a contender for the Liberal Party leadership. He even called on Liberal Party scrutineers to go back through people's ballot papers and count the number of ballots on which people had written Mr Abbott's name. As the results continued to get worse for the Turnbull government, Ms Credlin refused to join Bolt in calling for Mr Turnbull's resignation, but said she would have backed Mr Abbott to win more seats. "I would have backed him in this time round. Because he knows how to campaign, he resonates in those regional seats, he resonates in western Sydney, and in the places where Labor has made ground tonight," she said. "But you'll never know because he's not in the race. "One thing that can be said is no one can blame this result on Tony Abbott, who played I think a very fair, a very dignified team game," Ms Credlin said. Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger singled out for criticism the Coalition's topsy-turvy approach to tax reform, whereby ideas such as a GST hike and state-based income taxes were floated and then junked. "Turnbull came in with great credibility [but] we let that leadership drain away," he said. "In retrospect we shouldn't have let that debate go on for eight months." Maverick right-wing senator Cory Bernardi took top Liberal strategist Mark Textor to task for a recent declaration that conservative voters, according to qualitative evidence, "don't matter" and that the centre is more important. "Hey Tex, I'm thinking that conservatives actually do matter," Senator Bernardi said on Twitter as the underwhelming performance of the Coalition became clear. Cabinet Secretary Arthur Sinodinos, a key backroom player in Mr Turnbull's rise, hit back at colleagues' suggestions that the result is no better than what Mr Abbott could have achieved. "At this stage I have to say anybody in the Liberal Party who thinks they faced a better future under different circumstances is not living in the same planet as the rest of us were last year," he told Channel Nine. "That is the reality and we spent nine months clawing back, trying to get the trust of the Australian people after some of the events of the early part of the term. That is the truth." The crowd at the Moonee Valley Racing Club went - and there is no other word for it - wild. Bill Shorten with his family and niece at Labor's election night function. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen These were the faithful, and Shorten's moment was theirs. After all those years when their party was accused of disarray, of more years when, vanquished, they had to watch Tony Abbott as prime minister, then Malcolm Turnbull, and then, an eight-week election campaign when they were told there was no serious hope of victory, and some of them wondered who they might find to replace Shorten if it all went to hell. Opposition leader Bill Shorten with daughter Clementine depart Labor's election night function on Saturday night. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen No more. He was untouchable now. They might not have actually achieved victory, but to be so close they could taste it...and to hear that there might be no way to tell who had won for days... Why, it was as good as it was going to get, and they were going to listen to Shorten's every word and cheer his every sentence. Sensing their need to be part of this, whatever it was, Shorten moved fast to include them. "All of you, every single one of you," he declared, "And thousands and thousands of our supporters and members right across this marvellous country, you should have great pride in what we have accomplished. "In the past three years we have united as a party. In the past eight weeks we have run a magnificent campaign." The ceiling almost lifted to accommodate the cheers. "We have argued for our positive plans, and three years after the Liberals came to power in a landslide, they have lost their mandate." Shorten had to stop to make space for the roar of approval. "... And Mr Turnbull's economic program, such as it was...[the faithful booed fit to burst] has been rejected by the people of Australia!" A large fellow in a red Labor t-shirt actually danced across the room, a bottle of beer held high, as if it were the spear of a warrior. "Friends," Shorten resumed, his arms wide, as if gathering them to him. "Whatever happens next week, whether we are in Government or in Opposition, the Labor Party is re-energised, it is unified and it is more determined than ever." He said much else, of course, and declared he stood by what he called the party's mandate, as if it had won the election and he could make it all happen now: "Jobs with fair pay and penalty rates. Education and Gonski. Fibre NBN. Affordable housing and reform of negative gearing. Real action on climate change. And protecting our great national institution, and one of the greatest Labor achievements - Medicare." Yes, and he congratulated the clutch of cross-benchers and promised he'd work with them, which was as good as opening the bidding if the parliament proved to be hung. And in a bid to head off growing criticism of the failure of his double dissolution to deliver a more workable Parliament, he said it had only ever had the objective of restoring law and order on the nation's building sites. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and wife Lucy after casting their votes in Sydney on Saturday. Credit:Edwina Pickles Minutes before midnight on Saturday, a triumphant Mr Shorten declared the Coalition had "lost their mandate" and said Mr Turnbull would "never again be able to promise the stability which he has completely failed to deliver tonight". "Whatever happens next week, whether we are in government or in opposition, the Labor Party is re-energised, it is unified and it is more determined than ever," he said. Adam Bandt addresses supportersat an election night party. Credit:Luis Ascui With swings across the country to Labor, the Greens and in particular a raft of independents led by the high-profile Nick Xenophon and his new NXT party, the government's hopes for passing industrial relations legislation in a joint sitting is all but dead, while a significantly expanded Senate crossbench is also likely. Five hours after polls closed on Saturday night, Labor was on track to pick up 12 seats net, taking it to 67 seats in the lower house. The Liberal Party election night function in Sydney. Credit:Andrew Meares The Coalition looked set to secure 74 seats - short of the 76 seats needed for a majority. Five independents looked set to be elected, and at least four Liberal seats were in doubt - the Liberal seats of Forde and Capricornia in Queensland, in SA Hindmarsh and in WA, Cowan. Nationals Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby at Wests Tamworth Leagues Club. Credit:James Brickwood But the Coalition had its nose in front, courtesy of the thumping majority secured by Tony Abbott in 2013 and late on Saturday night, it was the only party that could form a majority government, depending on where a handful of undecided seats fell. This is despite Mr Turnbull repeatedly urging voters to deliver him a strong majority in the lower house, and declaring during the campaign of a hung parliament: "I have made it very clear before, and I am surprised that you would imagine it possible, that we would be doing deals with the Greens or independents". Tasmania emerged as the early surprise packet on the night, with three seats Bass, Braddon and Lyons set to return to the ALP, while Solomon in the Northern Territory also looked set to fall to Labor. In NSW, another seven seats Barton, Dobell, Macarthur, Paterson, Lindsay, Eden-Monaro and Macquarie were counted in Labor's column and in Queensland another two Coalition seats - Herbert and Longman - looked gone. In Western Australia, the new seat of Burt looked set to go to the ALP, and in South Australia, Nick Xenophon's NXT picked up the Liberal jewel of Mayo, held by dumped junior minister Jamie Briggs. Going against the trend, a possible break-out result could see the Labor-held seat of Chisholm - vacated by retiring former speaker Anna Burke - changing hands and falling to the Liberals. In Victoria, the Melbourne seat of Batman, held by embattled Labor frontbencher David Feeney, was projected to go to the Greens' Alex Bhathal and in country Victoria, the Nationals were poised to snatch Murray from their senior Coalition partners. In a surprisingly strong repudiation of Mr Turnbull's government, voters expressed dissatisfaction with the Coalition's policy program, which had as its centrepiece a 10-year company tax cut plan but few other specific pledges that would affect voters in the next three years. That plan allowed Mr Turnbull to pivot and run a campaign that focused heavily on the traditional Liberal strengths of economic management, but said less about national security. But the claimed long-term benefits of those changes appear to have been outweighed by Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's fierce campaign against the supposed privatisation of Medicare. In addition, Mr Shorten's promise to scale back negative gearing and capital gains tax breaks, as well as spend more money on health and education, appeared to have struck a chord with middle Australia. However, soon after polls closed, strategists from both sides were still predicting a narrow Coalition win as the most likely outcome. In an early sign of the Coalition's concerns, Treasurer Scott Morrison told the ABC soon after polls closed that "first-term governments always have a swing against them". And as Liberal seats fell across the country, Mr Morrison said - reflecting on Labor's "Mediscare" campaign suggesting the Coalition would privatise Medicare - that "I don't know what's more audacious, the size of the lie told or the boast made on the back of it about how it's been able to fool and trick people". A fuming Julie Bishop lashed out, claiming "Labor are boasting about the number of people they've deceived with this monstrous lie" about Medicare. "Labor concocted a lie, ran with it, they weren't ever stopped by anyone within the Labor Party. Bill Shorten encouraged it." Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek said it had been a "pretty good night for us". "Whether it's good enough we won't know for some time. We've seen very strong results in NSW. A number of very strong swings towards us, seats that we will definitely pick up in NSW," she said. "In Tasmania it looks like we'll probably pick up more than one seat as well. Victoria looks like it's holding steady. Queensland I think will flow towards us." A close result, in which the Coalition is reduced to a razor-thin majority, could see Mr Turnbull face severe internal pressure almost immediately, especially given internal Liberal party friction over sweeping superannuation changes contained in the budget that hit high-income earners. A same-sex marriage plebiscite, promised for this year, also threatens to embolden conservative MPs still bruised after the dumping of Mr Abbott last year. Australia has not dumped a first-term government in 85 years, but with a record number of voters flirting with third-party independents, no side was confident of the outcome early on Saturday night and a clutch of Senate and lower house crossbenchers could become kingmakers in the 45th Parliament. The two leaders spent election day scrounging for every last vote, with Mr Turnbull and his wife Lucy voting in his electorate of Wentworth in the morning before giving the media pack the slip and heading out to the battleground western Sydney seats of Lindsay and Parramatta In a sign that both sides regarded Lindsay as still in play, Mr Shorten also visited, in a bid to win back the linchpin seat before flying home to Melbourne and a function in his electorate of Maribyrnong at the Moonee Valley race course. Heading into the poll, Labor required a 4.1 per cent uniform swing to win 19 seats and claim the 76 seats in the lower house needed to form majority government. The Coalition held 90 seats in the 44th Parliament, though that figure was reduced to a notional 88 seats after electoral redistributions, while Labor had held 55, which rose to 57 after the boundary changes. An average of a plethora of public polls conducted in the last week of the campaign showed Labor's support had peaked and a late drift towards the Coalition had begun, with a uniform swing away from Mr Turnbull's government of 2.9 per cent enough to see the Coalition reduced to about 82 seats and Labor claim 64, with four on the crossbench. Western Australia also offered the potential for Labor gains, energised by the unpopularity of the Barnett government, with the new seat of Burt expected to land in the Labor column and the potential for Cowan and Hasluck to fall. Even if Mr Feeney retains the seat, it will be with a badly eroded margin. Greens candidate for Batman Alex Bhathal. Credit:Facebook Greens MP Adam Bandt also appeared to have retained his seat of Melbourne. About 9pm he had snared about 57 per cent of the two-candidate vote ahead of Labor candidate Sophie Ismail, representing a swing of more than 1 per cent. However despite swings towards the Greens, victory was elusive in a host of other seats in which the party had talked up their chances, including the inner west Sydney seat of Grayndler, which was retained by Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese. David Feeney says Labor remains very confident he will retain Batman. Credit:Phil Hearne At 9pm Mr Albanese had won a comfortable 67 per cent of the two-candidate vote, ahead of the Greens' Jim Casey. About 9pm, the Greens' national primary vote was at 10.2 per cent, according to the ABC - up from 8.6 per cent in 2013, but lower than the high of 11.8 per cent in 2010. Greens leader Richard Di Natale had said his party could bring its total lower house seats to nine if not at this election, then in the next decade - by targeting both Liberal MPs and traditional Labor strongholds in inner Melbourne and Sydney. Aside from Batman, the Greens liked their chances in Wills, Melbourne Ports, and Higgins, where Greens candidate Jason Ball is challenging Assistant Treasurer Kelly O'Dwyer. The Greens had also concentrated efforts in the northern NSW seat of Richmond which includes Ballina and Byron Bay, and Senator Di Natale had indicated Fremantle in Western Australia, currently held by Labor, could be within reach. However victories in those seats appeared unlikely. On Saturday night, Senator Di Natale told jubilant supporters the party was in the running for a second senator in Queensland and had enjoyed "big swings ... in so many seats", including Higgins, Wills, Melbourne Ports and Batman. Of the win in Melbourne, he said: "when people elect a Greens member to the Parliament, they like it and they want them back, and that's why Adam Bandt's been elected!" Speaking on the ABC during early counting, Labor Senator Penny Wong said Batman was "a very tough seat for us." "It's a seat where the Greens have really focused their campaign in Victoria. There have been a few issues in the campaign. But let's see what happens on the vote. Certainly David's worked very, very hard, and it's a seat that we really want to hold," she said. Senator Di Natale has spruiked his party's influence in a potential hung parliament and claimed the Greens could serve in cabinet in a future coalition with Labor. The Coalition seized on this possible scenario. However Labor has vehemently ruled out any power-sharing deal with the Greens, which continues to challenge Labor for the so-called progressive vote. As another hung Parliament looms, five cross-benchers with varying degrees of experience are shaping up as those most likely to hold the balance of power and determine the legislative agenda of the government. As seat-counting continued late into the night, it remained unclear whether the Coalition would amass enough seats to govern in their own right. Three incumbents - Greens MP Adam Bandt and independents Andrew Wilkie and Bob Katter - were re-elected on Saturday night with strong majorities. Federal Election 2016 in Canberra and the ACT: Live coverage, polls and results Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Were working to restore it. Please try again later. Dismiss It's said that when 'it's on', it's on in Queensland. But pundits from both major parties were looking at the sunshine state's results with tilted heads and puzzled expressions on Saturday night as the Queensland results rolled in showing swings against incumbents in Herbert, Longman and Dickson, but more confusing movement in what were expected to be Labor gains. Labor went into polling on Saturday expecting to pick up Capricornia and Flynn neither of which, at time of publishing, looked definitive either way. The Coalition was confident it would retain Brisbane an optimism which was rewarded with Trevor Evans decisively keeping the seat blue, but had expressed a little doubt as voters headed towards the polls. A north Queensland banana farm where a rapidly spreading-fungus was found last year has been purchased in an attempt to protect the state's banana industry. The Australian Banana Growers' Council (ABGC) signed a conditional sales agreement with the Tully banana farm where the first case of Panama Tropical Race 4 (TR4) was detected in Queensland in March 2015. 90 per cent of Australia's $600 million crop is grown in Queensland. The soil-borne fungus is considered to be the most destructive disease of bananas in modern times and has spread rapidly throughout south-east Asia. TR4 was first detected in Australia in the Northern Territory in 1997 where it remains under strict quarantine. The Tully farm was the second and last property in Australia where the disease was detected. A fearful and urine-soaked small dog was caught on Thursday at a Sunshine Coast plantation after she, along with a group of dogs and puppies believed to be linked to puppy farms, was dumped in the area. Safe Haven Animal Rescue Inc, a south-east Queensland rescue group that rehabilitates and rehomes abandoned dogs, put out traps earlier in the week to catch the dumped dogs. The black dog pictured was still at the plantation. Credit:Safe Haven Animal Rescue Inc./Facebook SHARI President Jess Ryan said while the puppies had been rescued by staff at HQPlantations at Beerburrum, traps had to be put out for the older dogs who had become too feral. "According to posts that were initially made on Facebook, people thought they have been out for a year," Ms Ryan said. Voters arriving at polling booths in key electorates across inner-Melbourne are finding their way awash in green. A "Green Army" of volunteers has swooped in to capture much of the prime real estate in and around voting locations in hot battlegrounds such as Batman, Wills, Melbourne Ports and Higgins, with scores of Greens party faithful braving the overnight chill to keep the posters up and safe. The "greenwash" appears to have caught the two major parties napping and triggered a number of incidents of vandalism and posters being torn down. Volunteer Lily King and a friend spent the night camped out in a station wagon outside Brunswick South West Primary School to keep an eye on posters left up around the school. Dave McClung's uncertainty over who he was going to vote for only hours before he headed to a polling booth in south-eastern suburbs of Perth is reflective of how close the seat of Burt will be. The new seat is notionally held by the Liberals with a tick more than a six per cent margin, but internal polling by the Coalition is tipping a six per cent swing towards Labor - so Burt is expected to be a cliff hanger. WAtoday's straw poll at polling booths in Kelmscott and Harrisdale did little to dismiss the notion that the seat will go down to the wire. Mr McClung, who was one of only a handful of voters who braved the cold to vote early at Kelmscott Senior High School, said he decided in the end to vote for Labor candidate Matt Keogh because of his support for gay marriage. Around 800,000 are workers and their dependents. The rest include the retirees who pack the Costa del Sol Spain has the biggest British expat community on the continent. A recent paper by the European Council on Foreign Relations outlined how Brexit could hurt expats. They could lose their right to work without a visa, and also find it harder to get work as many countries require companies to prefer EU and European Economic Area job applicants. Michael Gove, UK justice secretary, is surrounded by photographers as he arrives for a news conference to announce his Conservative party leadership bid in London on Friday. Credit:Bloomberg They might be bound by national laws that add red tape to property ownership, they would have to pay higher education fees, they could lose their rights to healthcare and pensions. It's all down to the deal Britain does with the rest of Europe a Foreign Office research paper earlier this year said the status and entitlements of the UK citizens living abroad would be part of the pre-Brexit negotiations and it may have to sacrifice its expats in order to win other concessions. Protests against Brexit: Investors fear London office prices will fall. Credit:Getty Images "They all currently enjoy a range of specific rights to live, to work and access to pensions, health care and public services that are only guaranteed because of EU law," the paper said. "There would be no requirement under EU law for these rights to be maintained if the UK left the EU." Bunting holds out hope for a last-minute change of heart in Britain, a reversing of the referendum decision. The Union Jack hangs between a EU flag and a bust of Justus Lipsius, Flemish philologist and humanist, at the headquarters of the Council of the European Union in Brussels. Credit:Bloomberg She also wonders if Scotland could secede from the UK and stay in the EU. "I was very supportive of the No campaign (in the Scottish independence referendum in 2014) but now I would fully support Scottish independence so they can remain in the EU," she says. While she has options on the citizenship front, she's had to track the Brexit negotiations closely for business reasons and she's worried about the effect on her new home of the rise of xenophobic nationalism. Briton Paul Meller, who lives in Brussels with his Polish wife and their multilingual children, is a classic case study in modern British European engagement. "We're all in a bit of shell-shock here," he says, of his family and the wider British expat community. "I didn't even have a say in the matter, I was denied a vote. This is a travesty of democracy ... this referendum should be annulled. This is the loony fringe that's managed to get 52 per cent of the vote." Friends and colleagues have already rushed out to apply for European passports. Meller's children have Polish passports, and Meller plans to get a Belgian one. But he anticipates some long-term work problems. "I'm a communications director for a Europe-wide trade association," he says. "How long is it going to be before they say 'well Paul we actually need a European to be our communications director'? And the same goes for my boss, he's a Brit and he's probably asking himself the same question, should the head of a Europe-wide association come from a non-European country?" Self-described "web developer, drummer and jazz fan" Darren Brierton, a Londoner living in Paris, says he hasn't felt any concrete impact from the referendum result yet. "But I now feel much more self-conscious about being British, and worry that people might have negative attitudes towards me if they know I am," he says. "I don't really believe that they will, and have experienced nothing that would justify that feeling, but I have it nonetheless. In part it is an expression of my own shame at what the UK has done." He doesn't know what's going to happen, and he doesn't know what his options are. Federal authorities investigating Bob Menendez, reports and adviser say The investigation by New York prosecutors is reportedly connected to the 2017 trial in which the senior U.S. senator was acquitted. Being the most visited amusement park in the world, you have to hold your standards high. WDW definitely does that. Now let's move on to World Showcase which is located in a circle around World Showcase Lake. I will mention each pavilion, and the things I remember from them, working my way clockwise. I can not possibly mention everything. To be honest I haven't seen everything each pavilion has to offer. Mexico: Being from New Mexico this country feels like home. The main hub is located in an Aztec temple. Inside is a marketplace filled with everything from hats to dolls. A restaurant, San Angel Inn is a bit dark but has a fun atmosphere. Also there's a boat ride that takes you through the story of Donald and the Three Caballeros. Outside are two restaurants and a bar, all looking over the lake. La Cantina de San Angel is the only one I've eaten at but I've seen all of them, also La Cantina de San Angel is the cheapest. Don't miss the nachos! Next is La Hacienda de San Angel. Definitely the most expensive, but it has more of a restaurant feeling. The bar is La Cava del Tequila but I won't discuss it because we aren't quite old enough for it yet ??. Some of the pavilions I don't recommend spending a whole lot of time in, but this one is one of the better ones and there's nothing like eating nachos and listening to the lively music. Norway: Rated the most popular Epcot country, Norway is truly unique. The buildings, like all pavilions, make you feel right in Norway. In the shops you can find gear for winter and troll themed merchandise. I even have a picture of my mom kissing one of the troll statues! Frozen Ever After, the new Frozen ride replacing Malestrom, will be in place soon. Food options include a character meal restaurant called Akershus. Here you can dine with princesses! The only other food option is Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe. So put your Viking hat on and come try Norway. China: Dragons, dragons everywhere. Here I didn't spend as much time as I did at some of the others. There are some gorgeous architecturally designed buildings and unlike the other pavilions it isn't run by Disney, but by a Chinese company. Two restaurants, Nine Dragons and Lotus Blossom Cafe, are here. I'm not a Chinese food lover so I did not eat at either. But from other reliable sources they get negative reviews. Acrobats are often performing and are very fun and interesting to watch. The shops have a variety of China products and my sister still has a hand-painted fan from there. Germany: This is my favorite pavilion. The eight stores and their main products are Kaufhaus (mostly apparel), Der Teddybar (children's items), Die Weihnachts Ecke (Christmas decorations), Kunstarbeit in Kristall (glassware), Stein Haus (beer steins), Volskunst (clocks), and Glaskunts (glass figures). The architecture is stunning with beautiful carvings and vibrant colors. Snow White can often be found here and if you go during flower and garden festival you can see topiaries of her and the seven dwarfs. For food there's Biergarten, a buffet with exhilarating entertainment. The fast food option is Sommerfest and they have food such as sandwiches. Karamell-Kuche is a bakery. Several beer options can be found also. Don't miss the pretzels! Italy: This one is on the smaller side, but is definitely something special. The courtyard is stunning and the street performers offer delightful entertainment. As far as food goes there are three restaurants. The smallest is Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar. The portions are small which makes it a good place if you aren't hungry. But if you're looking for a big meal the next two might be more to your liking. Tutto Italia is said to be the most satisfying Italian food restaurant in Disney property. It's the most expensive, but yet the most elegant. Finally, my favorite, Via Napoli. I'm a little obsessed with pizza and Via Napoli sure knows how to do it. With giant ovens that look like a man opening his mouth, to being able to watch them prepare the pizza, it's very entertaining. There are two shops. First is Il Bel Cristallo which sells clothes, jewelry, and even makes carnival masks for you. La Bottega offers mainly wine and Christmas ornaments. Don't miss Italy! The American Adventure: America, the land of the free. It's time to take a minute to step back into its history. The main attraction is the American Adventure show. Using animatronics it depicts America through the years. It's an educational show I can't get enough of. It's not boring, trust me. Don't miss it. In the same building as the show a cappella group called the Voices of Liberty are beautiful. They perform American classics in their colonial American costumes. As far as food goes there aren't many options. Let's be honest in all the other parks you're eating American good food anyway. Liberty Inn offers decent BQB with reasonable prices. Funnel Cakes has the best funnel cake I've ever had. All in all it was a very messy meal! Heritage Manor Gifts provides colonial gifts. I recommend definitely seeing the show but especially if you're from the states I would move on after that. Japan: I would say the most impressive thing here are the gardens. Bridges connect trails winding up next to the beautiful ponds and stream. Japanese architectural towers climb to the sky and it's a very relaxing atmosphere. At least it is until you enter the department store. Mitsukoshi department store is 10,000 square-foot. They have everything you could possibly want and more. But the really special thing comes when you pick a pearl. You select your own oyster and get to keep whatever is inside. It's a very personal experience and the cast members are awsome. Eating options are Katsura Grill or Teppan Edo. For faster meals Katsura Grill is best. Teppan Edo is more of a show with a tableside chef. Over all, do the gardens, do the store, maybe do the food. Morocco: Do you like Aladdin? Good. This pavilion is exactly like stepping into his marketplace. You can even meet the charming prince and princess in their own character spot. Check times because sometimes it's hard to find them. There are beautiful tiled fountains and small shop stands, each offering their own array of products. Camel merchandise seems to be their biggest seller. Moroccan dancers (belly dancers) and musicians can be found along the promenade. Restaurants include Restaurant Marrakesh, Spice Road Table, and Tangerine Cafe. Restaurant Marrakesh is not as authentic but does have a show and if you have picky eaters this may be a good option. With windows overlooking the lagoon Spice Road Table is very bright and airy. For fast and cheap go withTangerine Cafe, best for just wanting to try something new. See the streets and take a bit to just wander and see everything. France: Every time I've ever been to Epcot it's during flower and garden festival. And France has the best topiaries. There's mainly princesses and my favorite is one of Beauty and the Beast. Speaking of princesses I've never been to the France pavilion and not seen Belle. With the Eiffel Tower standing proud in the background this is the most magical pavilion. There are four food options but I'm only going to discuss one. Halle's Boulangerie and Patisserie has some of the best pasteries I've tasted. They are not only delicious but beautiful. It's the only counter service restaurant located in world showcase that opens before 11 a.m. The shops are a bit overpriced but fun to look around. The show Impressions de France is a show I hear is stunning. I've never personally seen it, but from what others say it's a must see. Hopefully I can try it next time I go down there. United Kingdom: What's not to like about this pavilion? There's so much to see and do here I don't even know where to start. Being a hard core Alice in Wonderland fan I'm in love with her little spot. There's a place to meet her, giant tea cups, and ever a hedge maze. Guess what? I'm also a hard core Pooh Bear fan. His meet and greet is absolutely magical. You enter a room just like Christopher Robin's bedroom. There Pooh and a friend (usually Tigger) wait to hug, jump, and take a pic with you. They are very sweet and one of my favorites to meet. Of all the street performers I feel United Kingdom has the best. They are Celtic and fun to dance along with. Would you like a spot of tea? Good because the shops here have a lot of tea cups. Rose and Crown Dining Room has food such as soup and shepherds pie. The patio is relaxing and if you eat late enough you may enjoy watching Illuminations. Besides Rose and Crown, Yorkshire County Fish Shop is the only other eating choice. It's a window service seafood stand with limited menu. But I hear (I don't eat seafood) the food is good. Canada: Oh Canada! We've reached our final spot and what a way to end. I've developed a love for Canada through this pavilion. The totem poles and water features are its real charm on the outside. My favorite show in World Showcase is Oh Canada. Martin Short hosts this 360 view video of all the famous spots located in the country. With beautiful music the only downside is that it does require you stand. And after a long day I know it can be tiring. For beautiful photos make sure to stop by Canada! Notes: We finally finished. I hope this was enough to make you want to visit Epcot. If you were already going maybe it gave you some helpful information. There's one last World Showcase thing I want to mention. At each pavilion they have a stand set up called Kidcot. For free you can take a Duffy (the Disney bear) stick puppet. It has a color in Duffy picture attached to a stick, so when you go to each pavilion they will stamp something from their country on it. These can be found at the Kidcot. Another thing is the passport. This you do have to purchase and we found mine at the store right before you enter World Showcase. The package comes with stickers of each country, a pin, and a booklet. At the Kidcot stands they will write your name in their language in your book. It's a great souvenir and the cast members are very eager and happy to interact with you. Visit The Traveling Teen website at: http://www.thetravelingteen.com Travel experiences of other teens are welcomed and will be featured on The Traveling Teen as well as Chattanoogan.com. Email to news@chattanoogan.com. Industrialist Jamshyd Godrej, chairman, Godrej & Boyce, believes that Britain's historic vote last week to opt out of the European Union (EU) will not change anything for his company and business. Gurgaon-based start-up Shuttl has said it was awaiting policy clarity to apply for permission to operate in Delhi under the bus aggregator policy notified by the state government recently. The company, which has been drawn into to the controversy surrounding exit of Delhi transport minister Gopal Rai, has denied being part of any exclusive consultation with the state government. NovaPlay, a platform developed by Nova Ventures, hopes to capitalise on the fast-growing market, and is is conducting a gaming carnival in Bengaluru to expand its reach. Nova Gaming Ventures has been into building platforms for multiplayer gaming communities, for professional and emerging gamers, in various gadgets with social features that could be customised. It has tied up with various game publishers and offers games and related products to customers. The platform is in beta stage, said Amitesh Rao, chief executive officer, NovaPlay. Private equity (PE) entities invested $3,602 million across 129 deals during the quarter ended June, as against $4,278 million across 169 transactions in the same period last year, about 16 per cent less. The biggest boating weekend of the year is among us and TWRA officers are already busy investigating too many serious injuries and fatal boating accidents. At least eight of the fatal accidents that have occurred on Tennessee waters resulted in drownings and in most cases if not all, a properly-worn personal flotation device would have saved lives. Officials said, "Lets take a lesson from the kids and see why thankfully we dont lose many of them to drowning while boating." The answer is simple In Tennessee and in most other states, children ages 12 and under are required by law to wear a Coast Guard approved life jacket while on the open deck of a recreational boat except while anchored, moored or aground. Take a look at nationwide boating statistics from 2015. The USCG reports that out of 428 drownings that occurred last year, 352 of the victims were not wearing a life jacket. Thankfully, out of the 428 drownings, only 12 of them were ages 0-12. The remaining 416 drownings were ages 13 and older further indicating that life jackets can and will save lives if worn properly. Recently, the chairman of the Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission, Harold Cannon, along his wife Angie, were enjoying a meal at Choto Marina on Ft. Loudon Lake and met Tom Werkema and his family leaving their boat and heading up the dock. Mr. Cannon was ecstatic to see everyone onboard the boat from grandfather to infant grandsons wearing a life jacket. I saw the entire family in life jackets and said, these people get what boating safety means. They are really setting the example for what TWRA is looking for on the water. Mr. Werkema and his family relocated to east Tennessee from Southern California and are avid boaters. His daughter Trina has five-month-old twins and is so concerned about their safety on the water that she says they have tried five different life jackets before finding models she felt like were safe enough for her babies. I found two that I really liked but after inspecting them, I realized they were only approved by the Canadian Coast Guard and not the United States Coast Guard, said Trina. The ones we are using now are a bit bulky but they will float the children face up if they were to go in the water. If only TWRA could get others to follow suit, wed investigate less drownings in our boating accidents. In addition, TWRA urges all boaters to remember the basics: *Have a wearable life jacket for every person onboard *If your boat is 16 feet or longer, there must be a Type IV throwable device onboard *Have onboard a fire extinguisher if you have enclosed fuel compartments or cabins *Anyone under the age of 13 must wear a life jacket at all times while the boat is underway drifting is considered underway *Any boat operator born after Jan. 1, 1989, must have onboard the TWRA-issued wallet Boating Safety Education Certificate * Choose a designated boat operator and keep alcohol to a minimum *Make sure there is a current boat registration Boat Operation Basics: *Keep a proper lookout at all times *Maintain a safe speed *Cut the engine off while boarding or entering the water *Be aware of the carbon monoxide hazards that exist and keep fresh air flowing *No wake means idle speed *Take a boating safety course log onto www.tnwildlife.org for information. Earlier this week, the World Economic Forum released the human capital index where India was ranked at a lowly 105. The index measures countries' ability to nurture, develop and deploy talent for economic growth. Despite the much-improved quality of education, this index was critical of India utilising only 57 per cent of its human capital. Manish Sabharwal, chairman and co-founder, Teamlease Services, spoke to Shakya Mitra about the deeper malaise that India's low ranking could be pointing towards, and what could be done to make things better. Edited excerpts: Is this abysmally low ranking a wake-up call for India to better utilise its workforce? With the caveat that large countries will always be disadvantaged in all such rankings, it is clear that India has long had a big unfinished agenda around human capital. But for me this report was useful in highlighting that labour surplus and young countries like India have very different human capital issues than rich countries which are rapidly ageing (the sale of adult diapers recently crossed baby diapers in Japan). Poverty is about productivity; within a month of landing in the US for my MBA, I was asking myself that these Americans are not smarter than us, why are they richer than us? And productivity is about the 3Es of education, employment and employability. The government is organized vertically but this report reminds us that this problem is horizontal. Paper mills in India are likely to see a turnaround in the near term, on account of a revival in demand from consumer industries and softening of raw materials prices, including pulp and coal. Thus, the worst is over for paper manufacturers in India. Militants killed 20 people inside an upmarket restaurant in Dhaka, before security forces stormed the building and ended a 12-hour stand-off on Saturday. It marked an escalation in a campaign by militants over the past 18 months that targeted mostly liberals and minorities Hours after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee warned the North 24 Parganas administration on infiltration, one of Bangladeshs worst terror attacks occurred, killing 20 foreigners. An 18-year-old Indian girl holidaying in Dhaka was among 20 foreigners who were hacked to death by Islamic State militants in a terror attack at a restaurant in Bangladesh capital's high-security diplomatic zone. The girl, Tarushi Jain, a student at UC Berkeley, was on vacation in Dhaka. Her father runs a garment business in Bangladesh for the last 15-20 years, according to officials here. Another Indian, a doctor by profession, had a narrow escape, as he spoke fluent Bengali and the terrorists mistook him for a Bangladeshi, they said. In a series of tweets, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said,"I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka." I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka. Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 2, 2016 "I have spoken to her father Sanjeev Jain and conveyed our deepest condolences. The country is with them in this hour of grief," she said, adding, "We are arranging visa for the family. My officers are on the job." I have spoken to her father Shri Sanjeev Jain and conveyed our deepest condolences. The country is with them in this hour of grief. Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 2, 2016 We are arranging visa for the family. My officers are on the job. https://t.co/dwfPsoxutG Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 2, 2016 Twenty foreigners, including eight Italians, were brutally murdered by the militants inside the restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic zone before commandos launched an assault today, killing six attackers and capturing one alive, ending Bangladesh's worst terror attack. Director of Military Operations Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said the militants slaughtered 20 hostages before the joint operation led by the armed forces began. Most of those killed were found with their throats slit, he added. He said the bodies of the victims were recovered during a search in the Holey Artisan Bakery compound after the operation. The bodies were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital morgue for autopsy to confirm their identity. An 18-year-old Indian girl was among 20 people hacked to death by suspected Islamic State (IS) militants inside a cafe in Dhakas diplomatic zone on Friday night. According to government sources, Tarushi Jain was a student at University of California, Berkeley in the United States and was on vacation in Dhaka. She was taken hostage and was killed, along with eight Italians and several Japanese nationals at the Holey Artisan Bakery, a popular hangout for foreigners in the high security Gulshan diplomatic zone. Tarushis father Sanjeev Jain runs a garment business in Bangladesh. Another Indian who was taken hostage, a doctor, was released by the militants as he spoke fluent Bengali. Reports from Dhaka, quoting eyewitness accounts of those spared, said that heavily armed militants chanting Allahu Akbar asked hostages to recite Quranic verses and those who couldnt were killed. Dr Satyapal was spared and kept as a hostage, along with some others, as he spoke fluent Bengali and was taken to be a Bangladeshi. Other hostages had been killed by 11 pm on Friday night itself, eyewitnesses said. While the bodies of the victims were yet to be identified, Bangladesh security agencies suspected 18 of them were foreigners. ALSO READ: BJP sets about delivering poll promise on Bangladesh immigrants influx will provide financial and other help as well as a job to K P Aswathi, the Dalit girl who fell seriously ill after being allegedly ragged at a nursing college in Karnataka, a minister said on Saturday. "We have given her Rs two lakh. We will meet all her medical expenses and ensure she continues her studies in a nursing college here," Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes A K Balan said. "Once she passes, will give her a job too," said Balan after visiting Aswathi at a state-run hospital here. Aswathi, 19, and the four girls who allegedly ragged her hail from and were studying in Al Qamar College of Nursing at Gulbarga in Karnataka. The Karnataka Police has so far arrested three girls -- Lakshmi, Athira and Krishnapriya -- who have been accused of forcing Aswathi to drink a disinfectant on May 9 in their college hostel, resulting in damage to her internal organs. Another accused, Shilpa Jose, is absconding and her plea for anticipatory bail is posted for hearing on July 8 by the High Court. Meanwhile, the relatives of the arrested students have told the media that their children are innocent. They said Aswathi drank the liquid on her own to take her own life as a result of issues other than her relationship with the accused. The administration of the nursing college also reportedly said that ragging was not the cause of Aswathi's illness and that the accused actually who took her to a hospital in Karnataka and took care of her. Aswathi was admitted in the hospital here on June 2. The FIR in the case was filed in Kozhikode on June 22. The police in Kozhikode then sought Karnataka Police's help in acting on the FIR. A nine-member team of Karnataka Police officials took the victim's statement and has presented the report to a court in Gulbarga. President on Saturday extended his greetings and felicitations to the government and people of the Republic of Belarus on the eve of their Independence Day. In a message to the Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, Mukherjee said, "On behalf of the government and the people of India and on my own behalf, it is with pleasure that I extend warm greetings and felicitations to you and to the friendly people of Belarus on the occasion of your Independence Day." "It is a matter of satisfaction that the mutually beneficial cooperation between India and Belarus has assumed new vigour and substance in recent times and we have agreed to take our partnership to greater heights in the diverse areas identified by us," Mukherjee said. "I recall with satisfaction my visit to Belarus in 2015 and our fruitful discussions on the full range of issues on our bilateral agenda." He said: "I take this opportunity to convey my best wishes for your excellency's (Lukashenko) good health and well-being and for the continued progress and prosperity of the friendly people of Belarus." Belarus, a landlocked country in eastern Europe celebrates Independence Day on July 3. President on Saturday inaugurated a smart model village pilot project at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and asserted that it were the representatives of the villages, who can transform this country. Speaking on the occasion, the President said that in the last nearly four years of his Presidency this was the first time that he was having the privilege of interacting with Sarpanches and village level functionaries in Rashtrapati Bhavan. He also said that since assuming office, he had been emphasizing on the opening of the Rashtrapati Bhavan to the people, however, today he felt that Rashtrapati Bhavan had been truly opened to the public since the village representatives were present there. "Our progress and development can be achieved at the desirable speed only in partnership with these decision makers in the villages. We also need to empower our women and youth. He expressed confidence that this initiative would not remain confined to these five villages but would spread to the entire country," the President said. President Mukherjee also said that this is a landmark initiative for the nation, as it seeks to replicate the experience in transforming the President's Estate into a smart model township, in five selected villages in Haryana. The five villages which will be developed into the smart villages under this pilot project are Dhaula, Alipur, Harichandpur and Taj Nagar from Gurgaon district and Rojka Meo from Mewat district of Haryana. The President had announced this pilot project on the occasion of inauguration of the Intelligent Operations Centre (IOC) in Rashtrapati Bhavan and launching of a Mobile App 'Monitor' for transformation of President's Estate into a smart township on May 19, 2016. Tamil Nadu police have arrested a youth Ramkumar (22), who allegedly killed 24-year old Infosys software engineer . It was stated that the youth is from Tirunelveli district, south of Tamil Nadu and was infatuated with the girl. Police sources said that they have got the information from the investigating team and picked him up from his house in Tirunelveli. He was arrested on Friday mid-night, said the Chennai City Police Commissioner T K Rajendran. Hamilton County Commissioners Geno Shipley and Chip Baker, thank you so much. I am so grateful to yall for restoring Mowbray Mountain back to the city of Soddy Daisy and Sale Creek District 1. The recent redistricting stripped Mowbray Mountain from District 1, and moved us to District 2. I never thought in a million years it would be possible to restore Mowbray Mountain and ... (click for more) 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) Reversing the stand of his subordinates, and existing regulations, the secretary, tribal affairs ministry, has said forest land can be diverted for mining and other industrial purposes if no claims have so far been lodged for community ownership by tribals and other forest dwellers under the Forest Rights Act (FRA). Cyprus will not receive a two-year transitional benefit of concessional tax in a reworked bilateral treaty, unlike Mauritius, which will emerge as the preferred destination for debt funds as well, due to a lower withholding tax. As State Bank of India (SBI) pitches for merger of five regional rural banks (RRBs) in the North-East, state governments of the five states are not on the same page. This is the first time an inter-state merger of RRBs is being proposed. So far, merger of RRBs has been limited to within a state. South Korea has identified organic farming, tourism and as sectors where companies from that country could partner Assam. Cho Hyun, ambassador of the Republic of Korea, said here on Thursday that small- and medium-sized companies from his country could look Assam as a potential destination for tie-ups and investments and be partner in the states growth story. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan told a parliamentary panel that a three-year term for a central bank governor was not enough and it should be made in line with other global central bank heads' tenure. Although the RBI governor's stint is renewable, the minimum allotted period of three years is the lowest among all major central banks. State Bank of India has inked agreements with the World Bank for a $625 million (around Rs 4,200 crore) facility to support grid connected rooftop solar programme in the country. This will help in financing grid connected rooftop solar photovoltaic (GRPV) projects at very competitive rates, the country's largest lender said in a statement today. "This in turn will catalyse the market and support the government to faster achieve its target to generate 40 GW of electricity from widespread installation of rooftop solar photo-voltaic panels," it said. The eligible beneficiaries under the facility would be developers, aggregators and end-users, who wish to set up solar PV projects mainly on commercial, industrial and institutional rooftops. Through this initiative, at least 400 MW solar capacity will be created across the country. The programme also aims at improving the investment climate for solar PV, and increase the 'ease of doing rooftop business' through technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of key institutions, and support development of the overall solar rooftop PV market, the statement said. The agreements were signed by Karnam Sekar, Deputy Managing Director, and Onno Ruhl, Country Director, World Bank India. Minister Arun Jaitley, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das were also present. Capital Markets was the advisor for structuring and setting up the facility. The steel mill in the Serbian city of Smederevo is officially in ownership of Chinese HeSteel since Friday, and the 46-million-euro (51.6 million U.S. dollars) deal becomes a reality, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic announced on Friday. Vucic opened a press conference at the government building, announcing the takeover of the steel plant. He stressed that this acquisition is of vital interests for Serbia and its citizens. "I wish them luck and success. Money has been transferred to the account, all 46 million euros. I Congratulate them, and I wish them to increase production at the steel mill, strengthening Smederevo as an industrial city and advancing it into a more prosperous and successful place," he said. The Smederevo steel mill, founded in 1913, experienced difficulties and was acquired by China's HeSteel Group (HBIS) in April this year. The Chinese steel group plans to invest at least 300 million euros (337.6 million dollars) and turn it into one of the most competitive steel mills in Europe. The Chinese company employed all the 5,000 or so workers of the plant. Vucic said that in the hands of HeSteel, the country's sole steel mill who has been in desperate need for a new owner, can now become the motor of the economy for the country, struggling to increase its growth and reduce economic deficit. "I wish that they bring even faster development to our Serbia," Vucic concluded. Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs and Sports, MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said in Kolkata today that this is possibly the best of times happening for the Indian student community and now, it is up to us to ensure how to make the best of this opportunity. . . In his convocation address at the reputed Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Dr Jitendra Singh said, there was a time till few decades ago when Indian students and scholars going abroad had to struggle hard to earn recognition. So much so that, even in case of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, many foreign writers including William Butler Yeats came forward to translate Gitanjali into English only after Tagore had been awarded a Nobel Prize. . . But, the world has come a full circle today, said Dr Jitendra Singh, and Indian students and scholars going abroad are immediately absorbed by the best of the institutions because their caliber and diligence stand fully proven. Not only this, most of the IT Companies and prestigious economic fora across the world are today being manned by Indians,he said. . . Emphasizing the importance of blending tradition with modernity, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Vivekananda University run by Ramakrishna Mission has set the most remarkable example of achieving this. He said, the hallmark of Vivekananda's doctrine is that while it is deeply embedded in India's past heritage, at the same time, it envisages the vision of future India several decades ahead. . . To meet the contemporary challenges faced in India, however, Dr Jitendra Singh suggested the need to revisit some of the areas in education sector. Just as science without religion is incomplete and religion without science is inadequate, similarly, he said, education without vocational skill does not serve its full purpose, while vocational skill without education fails to live up to its desired objective. . . Referring to a number of youth related and student oriented programmes initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during last two years, Dr Jitendra Singh said, whether it is "Startup India" or "Digital India", all these are aimed at raising the capacity potential of Indian youth to a level where they can lead the rest of the world. . . Earlier, Vice Chancellor Swami Atmapriyananda, while welcoming Dr Jitendra Singh to the University, said that the student community was keen to listen to his original ideas and appreciated the academic interaction between him and the faculty members of the University. . . A sum of Rs. 1 crore has been pledged for the renovation, development and upkeep of Rangers Ground in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. A letter to the effect was handed over to Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javadekar by Shri Tarun Vijay, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, from Uttarakhand here today. Shri Vijay has donated the sum from MPLADS for the construction of stadium for the benefit of young sportspersons of Uttarakhand. Expressing his gratitude, Shri Javadekar assured Shri Vijay that full use of the funds will be made. Director of Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), Dr, Savita and senior officials of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change were present on the occasion. . . Later, expressing grief over the loss of lives in recent incidents of cloudburst in Uttarakhand, Shri Javadekar said that the frequency of such incidents is increasing because of climate change. He said that the government has been making preparations to tackle such natural eventualities. . . At least three Bangladeshi nationals were reportedly among the 20 hostages killed by terrorists who attacked a cafe popular with foreign nationals. Transcom boss Latifur Rahman's daughter Simeen Hossain's youngest son, Faraaz Hossain was killed in the attack, bdnews24.com reported. Another victim Ishrat Akhond, a former head of a Dhaka art gallery, who worked in different companies as a marketing professional was also killed in the attack. The third victim has been identified as Abinta Kabir, 20, whose father is the son of Manzur and Nilu Murshed of Lavender, a super store in Gulshan. Faraaz had driven to the Holey Artisan Bakery located inside Dhaka's diplomatic zone on Friday evening before seven heavily armed attackers stormed it taking the diners hostage. "He was the youngest among two brothers, he was a lively youth. He was working as an intern at Transcom group," Syed Md Tahnun Ishtiaque Riyadh, a marketing official for the conglomerate said. Akhond, Human Resources Director at ZXY FZCO, was also arts provocateur at the Institute of Asian Creatives. She was formerly a marketing director at Westin Hotels and a manager at Grameenphone. Islamic State (IS) militants also killed an Indian with sharp weapons before security forces rescued 13 hostages and gunned down six terrorists on Saturday morning, ending an overnight siege. Attorney General Loretta Lynch is expressing regret that she sat down with while his wife is under federal criminal investigation. A chance encounter she acknowledges "cast a shadow" on the public's perception of a case bound to influence the presidential campaign. "I certainly wouldn't do it again," Lynch said about the meeting. For Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, the episode raised the risk that voters will see her anew as half of a power couple that makes its own rules. Lynch hastened to add that she intended to follow the recommendations of career prosecutors on whether to file criminal charges at the close of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, indicating that she would accept whatever decision is presented to her. The attorney general's remarks at a conference in Colorado were aimed at tamping down concerns that the investigation could be politically tainted or that Lynch, an Obama administration appointee, might overrule the findings of agents and prosecutors who have spent months looking into the possible mishandling of classified information on the private email server Clinton used as secretary of state. Lynch said she understood that her private meeting with Clinton aboard her plane in Phoenix might be seen as compromising the neutrality of the investigation, even though she said the chat was largely social and her department's probe of Hillary Clinton was not discussed. Asked what she was thinking in permitting the meeting to occur, Lynch said: "I completely get that question, and I think it is the question of the day." The outcome of the investigation is likely to shape the presidential campaign, whether to Clinton's benefit if she emerges unscathed or to Republican rival Donald Trump's advantage in the event that she or anyone close to her winds up prosecuted. Bill Clinton's approach of the attorney general also could aggravate questions of trust that already hang over Hillary Clinton in the minds of some voters, even if she's never charged. She has struggled through the campaign to overcome unease about her honesty even while she asserts that she is more trustworthy than Trump on issues that matter most to voters. Twenty foreigners were brutally hacked to death by ISIS militants inside a restaurant popular with expatriates here in the high-security diplomatic zone before commandos launched an assault today killing six attackers and capturing one alive, ending Bangladesh's worst terror attack. Director of Military Operations Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said the militants slaughtered 20 hostages before the joint operation led by the armed forces began. Most of those killed were found with their throat slit, he added. "Army Para commando Unit-1 led the operation and killed six terrorists within 13 minutes," Chowdhury told reporters. The mission codenamed 'Operation Thunderbolt' was launched after the Prime Minister ordered the army to intervene to end the hostage crisis, he said. All 20 hostages killed were foreigners, with most being Italian or Japanese. Two senior police officers were also killed in the gunbattle that began last night. He said the bodies of the victims were recovered during a search in the Holey Artisan Bakery compound after the operation. The bodies were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital morgue for autopsy to confirm their identity. Gunshots and sounds of explosion rocked the area at 7:40 a.m. (local time) as security forces launched the final assault to end the siege. Minutes later, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced the end of siege and said security forces "successfully" wrapped up their operation, freeing 13 hostages after killing six terrorists and capturing one militant at the Spanish cafe. "It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these people? They don't have any religion," she said in a televised speech, referring to the terrorists. "They (gunmen) defied the call of Ramadan's tarabi (special evening) prayers and went to kill people...The way they killed people is intolerable. They don't have any religion...Terrorism is their religion," said Hasina, with Army chief General Abu Belal Muhammad Shafiul Huq by her side. "I thank Allah as we could destroy the terrorists and rescue the hostages," Hasina said, adding that "none of the terrorists could flee the scene, six of them were killed on the spot and one was captured alive." Hasina vowed to do everything to "uproot the militants and violent extremists" from Bangladesh. Among those rescued were Indian, Sri Lankan and Japanese nationals, media reports said. Hasina said around 30 people were injured in the attack. Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack through its Amaq news agency, nearly four hours after the hostage crisis unfolded, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence group, which monitors jihadist activity online. It later issued a number of photographs of what it said were scenes from inside the restaurant. The pictures showed what appeared to be a number of bodies lying in pools of blood. The nature of terrorism, including the increased radicalisation of individuals through social media, has changed over the last decade and violent extremism can only be eradicated by including preventive measures, the United Nations chief said in a report to the 193-member General Assembly. Ban Ki-moon's study calls on member states to employ conflict resolution, empower youth, develop educational opportunities and embrace human rights in the battle against . The report is part of the General Assembly's two-year review that ends yesterday of the UN's 10-year-old global counter- strategy. "We need to pay more attention to why individuals are attracted to violent extremist groups," Ban wrote. In September 2006, the General Assembly adopted a strategy to support national, regional and efforts to battle . Its basic tenets included prevention, the building up of countries' capacities to fight terrorism, strengthening the UN's role, as well as ensuring the rule of law. Members adopted by consensus a resolution yesterday incorporating many of Ban's suggestions as the world body seeks to adapt to developments in terrorism and violent extremism over the past decade. Ban noted that in recent years terrorist groups such as the Islamic State, Al-Qaida and Boko Haram "have shaped our image of violent extremism and the debate on how to address the threat." He said in recent years these groups have effectively used social media to communicate their "ideas and exploits." Catherine Calothy, an anti-terrorism official in France's ministry of foreign affairs, welcomed the recommendations for preventing radicalisation. She said she hoped for a swift military defeat of (the Islamic State), but said the phenomenon of radicalization would continue. "Prevention is an issue that no state can ignore," she said. Ban said young people should be empowered by supporting their participation in activities that prevent violent extremism and engage them in decision making at national and levels, especially those from under-represented groups. He also pointed to the importance of education and jobs and called on member nations to develop communications strategies to counter the social media messages of violent extremists. Britain's Ambassador to the United Nations Matthew Rycroft applauded the resolution and said it raises the "global ambition to do more together" to fight terrorism after a decade in which the UN as a whole could have been more effective. "Collectively we could have done more," he said. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Saturday condemned the terror attack at a cafe in Dhaka as he confirmed that Italians were among the 20 killed by Islamic State gunmen. Renzi said he would not disclose any more details until the families of the dead are notified, itv news reported. "Facing the tragedy of radical Islam, Italy is united and will not back-track in the face of the madness of those who want to destroy the life we live everyday," Renzi is quoted as telling a news conference in Rome. According to reports, eight Italians were among those killed in the Holey Artisan cafe in the Bangladeshi capital. Islamic State (IS) militants slaughtered at least 20 foreigners, including an Indian girl, with sharp weapons before security forces rescued 13 hostages and gunned down six terrorists on Saturday morning, ending a long drawn-out overnight siege. A week after Britons voted themselves out of the European Union (EU), many London-based bankers and their employers face two options if they are to secure their futures: lobby or leave. Some investment banks, anxious not to stir speculation of an exodus from the historic City of London and its modern counterpart at Canary Wharf, have given out "business as usual" messages since last week's shock referendum result. But beyond the soothing words the wider industry is hastily organising a lobbying effort in the hope London can keep selling financial services across Europe, a right to which it has become accustomed but may lapse, when Britain finally exits the 28-nation bloc. The alternative for banks and bankers, growing increasingly insecure in an information vacuum that has developed since the June 23 vote, is to get out. Headhunters report a level of anxious calls they haven't seen since the 2008 global crisis, with bankers asking about prospects in rival financial centres that remain in the EU, or those in Asia and the US . Banks and other financial firms have rallied together, forming a group to devise a strategy for protecting the turf of an industry that is Britain's biggest exporter and accounts for more than 10% of its tax revenues. Even Britain's biggest lenders are relying on the group - led by Shriti Vadera, chairperson of the UK arm of Spain's Banco Santander, who is also a former business minister for guidance in such uncertain times. "We are looking to them to have an intelligent response," Barclays, Chairperson, John McFarlane told an industry event on Thursday. "We neither know the shape or direction of things to come. It's far from certain what we might be able to secure from discussions with the EU." With the British government in disarray, European politicians are threatening to clip the wings of the London financial centre that is home to more than 250 foreign banks and more than three-quarters of the EU's capital markets activity. French President Francois Hollande has backed calls for London, the world's biggest currency trading centre, to lose its right to clear deals denominated in euros. Likewise, the right of banks based in Britain to operate across the EU under the bloc's financial "passporting" arrangement could also go if it loses access to the single European market. Distant September Britain has yet even to say when it will formally inform the EU of its intention to leave, a move that will start two years of divorce negotiations. Prime Minister David Cameron has said he will resign, but left the formal exit notification to his successor, who is unlikely to be installed until September. Leading "Leave" campaigners have also yet to say precisely what they want, beyond stating their desire to control the right of EU citizens to work in Britain - something Brussels says is impossible if the country wants to stay in the single market. So while the financial sector is poised to lobby, it has little idea of whom it must present its case to on the British side. "We are ready to talk, but we don't know who we should be talking to," said a senior banking industry source involved in the discussions. "No-one has defined 'leave', so we don't know what it is that we're dealing with ... September feels a very long way off." Bankers said their message to European officials is that keeping Britain in the single market would be better for economic growth and jobs across the bloc. Fights over where banks do their business and forcing them into major overhauls of their operations would damage the broader financial system, they argue. Some dislike being told what to do, such as HSBC, Chairperson, Douglas Flint, whose bank decided only earlier this year against moving its headquarters from London. "Politicians can't dictate where things are done," he told Thursday's TheCityUK annual conference. Sometimes the relationships needed for lobbying are only now being established. The benefits of passporting have meant that US investment banks in particular have rarely discussed broad market access issues with European officials, meaning they are starting their charm offensive from scratch. Where to go next Rumours are swirling that banks and other financial firms, which together employ more than 2 million people across Britain, will move staff to the likes of Frankfurt, Paris or Dublin. Investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have moved quickly to quell speculation they are about to do so. But some bankers, especially those involved in mergers and acquisitions, fear a repeat of the heavy job cuts, tumbling salaries and sky-high stress levels during the 2008-09 crisis. "People in UK M&A know they aren't getting paid bonuses this year ... But that's just one of their troubles," said THS Partners Portfolio Manager Xavier Van Hove. "They know banks are going to have to fire people so they are very conscious of that. And the Europeans among them are wondering where they go next." Stephane Rambosson, managing partner for the UK and head of financial services at headhunter DHR International, said he had taken more than a dozen calls from senior London-based investment, M&A and equity capital markets bankers in the past week. The questions they asked were all the same: how safe is my job? Where will I need to move my family? "The last time it happened was during the crisis, when people were equally concerned about job prospects and the direction of their careers," Rambosson said. "People know this is something they have to plan for but there's little for them to go on right now." Escape routes Some in the industry are contemplating leaving Europe altogether. "We are getting more resumes every day from London," said Matthew Hoyle, who runs a financial services headhunting firm in Hong Kong. "I don't think many people in London are very keen to move to Paris, Frankfurt ... English is a problem there and it's really very different from London." Uday Singh, a New York-based partner with consulting firm A T Kearney, said he believes London-based financial executives will give serious thought to moving to the US. "The US actually has a pretty permissive immigration regime where qualified company executives are concerned. It's a matter of a couple of months of visa processing and the job can certainly be done from here," he said. Leaders of British banking remain hopeful that the next government will negotiate continued access to the single market. For that reason, they say they are not yet ready to spend billions beefing up or launching subsidiaries in the EU. "We are all working on multiple scenarios. For many firms, it would be premature to activate all that pre-referendum planning," said Clare Woodman, global chief operating officer for institutional securities at Morgan Stanley. But others worry whether the industry - still tainted by the bank failures of 2008-09, 'fat cat' bonuses and a magnet for public scorn - can secure the backing it needs. "We won't gain much from trying to remind the electorate how important we are to them, we need to get other advocates for our industry," David Sproul, chief executive of Deloitte told the TheCityUK conference. Meanwhile, London's rivals are moving aggressively to capitalise on its limbo by wooing bankers. "Finance ministries are getting in touch. I won't say who we're talking to but, well, French-speaking, German-speaking, Spanish-speaking, Dutch-speaking, English-speaking countries are all interested," the senior banking source said. "It's very much on the lines of 'we are sorry you got divorced, would you like to go on a date?" Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), delivers a speech at a rally marking the 95th anniversary of the founding of the CPC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, July 1, 2016. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing) Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Friday called on his comrades to "stay true to the mission" taken up by the CPC 95 years ago. "One who wants to stride ahead should not forget the path that was trodden. No matter how far we will travel and how bright a future we will have, we should not forget what we have experienced and why we set out," said Xi, at an event marking the 95th founding anniversary of the CPC in Beijing. In the speech, Xi lauded past CPC leaders including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun, those who died for New China, and outstanding CPC members. He called on CPC members to "uphold the fighting spirit" of the Party's founding members and their commitment to the people. The CPC was founded amid a time of upheaval. It set out to liberate the country from foreign invasion and domestic chaotic situation. In its 95-year history, the Party and the country have overcome numerous difficulties thanks to the three generations of the CPC leadership -- Mao, Deng and Jiang Zemin as "the core" -- as well as the CPC Central Committee led by Hu Jintao as the general secretary. Without the leadership of a committed Party armed with advanced theories, the Chinese people would not have been able to change their fate and the country would not have become united and prosperous, he said. China should, therefore, "adhere to and never stray from the leadership of the CPC and socialism with Chinese characteristics," according to Xi. The event was presided over by Premier Li Keqiang and attended by other senior leaders Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli. Xi's call to "stay true to the mission" resonated with Qin Lan, curator of a memorial park in Guangdong that honors the late general Ye Ting. "One reason why some cadres fall nowadays is that they have lost their faith and forgot what motivated them to join the CPC in the first place," said Qin. CONFIDENCE IN CHINA PATH Xi stressed the Party's continued devotion to Marxism. "If we deviated from or abandoned Marxism -- the fundamental guiding theory for both the Party and the country -- our Party would lose its soul and direction," he said. However, he noted, the CPC should adapt Marxist principles to the current realities in China, and be innovative in theory and practice. "The changes in the times and the range and depth of China's development are far beyond the imagination of writers of Marxist classics," he said. Xi urged the whole Party to strengthen confidence in "the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics." Socialism with Chinese characteristics should be evaluated not by "people with tainted glasses," but by the Chinese, based on facts, he said. "CPC members and the Chinese people are confident in providing a Chinese solution to mankind's exploration of better social systems," he said. Xu Yaotong, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, said Xi's speech displayed self-confidence and self-reflection, adding the "confidence in culture" showed that the CPC leadership is committed to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. By mentioning the Party's contribution to mankind, President Xi is signaling that the Party is preparing for issues that may be of great importance in the future, Xu said. FIRM COMMITMENT TO REFORM, OPENING UP "Reform and opening up is key to deciding the fate of modern China," Xi said. The general objective of reform is to improve the socialist system and modernize and improve governance. The main focus is reform of the economic system, followed by political, cultural, social, environmental and Party building reforms, he said. Authorities should dare to "conduct surgeries for chronic, stubborn diseases," "break the shelters of vested interests" and "sweep out obstacles hampering development," according to Xi. In his speech, Xi stressed the Party's commitment to the rule of law and improvement of people's wellbeing. Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation. An elaborate structure put in place to preserve Hershey's ties to its local community has been roiled by scandal, creating an opening that Mondelez International seized on to launch a $23-billion bid for the chocolate giant. One in eight women and one in ten men have experienced infertility, yet nearly half of them have not sought medical help, according to a new study of over 15,000 people in the UK. The study found that, of those who reported experiencing (defined as unsuccessfully trying to become pregnant for a year or longer), 42.7% of women and 46.8% of men did not seek medical help for the problem. Those who did seek help were more likely to have higher educational qualifications, better jobs and, among those who had a child, to have become parents later, compared with those who did not seek help. "We were surprised that almost half of the people in our study who had experienced had not sought help," said Jessica Datta, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who led the research. The researchers analysed data from 15,162 women and men aged between 16 and 74 years who took part in Britain's third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles between 2010 and 2012. They found that the prevalence of was highest among women aged 35-44 years and among men aged 35-54. More than a third of women who became mothers aged 35 or older had experienced a period of infertility compared to fewer than one in ten women who had their first child before the age of 25. Experience of infertility was more common among people with higher socio-economic status, including women who had a university degree and both women and men in managerial, professional or technical employment, compared to people in lower status, routine occupations. "One of the important and concerning findings in our study is the difference in educational attainment and job status between people who sought help for infertility and those who did not," said Datta. "Studies of infertility have tended to recruit research participants from medical settings such as general practice, so our population-based survey sample provides a rare insight into those people who, despite having failed to get pregnant after a year of trying, did not seek help from health services," she said. "The existence of inequalities in access to healthcare is well established but this is one of few analyses to explore uptake of services for infertility," Datta added. Drawing on findings from other studies, the researchers suggest that possible reasons for the inequalities between those who did and did not seek help for infertility include not understanding or acknowledging that a problem exists, fear of being labelled infertile, concerns about the cost of treatment, the physical and psychological burden of treatment, or simply not wanting to get pregnant. The study was published in the journal Human Reproduction. Pakistan on Saturday condemned the terror attack on a restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital that left at least two senior police officers dead and 40 people injured, terming it as "senseless terrorist attack." "Pakistan condemns the senseless terrorist attack in Dhaka that has led to the loss of precious lives and injuries to many innocent people," Foreign Office said in a statement. It said the government and the people of Pakistan extend their heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and the brotherly people and government of over the loss of innocent lives and wish the injured early recovery. "Pakistan stands in solidarity with the brotherly people of and is confident that the Government of will effectively counter this cowardly attack," it said. Pakistan also reiterated its condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. A pro-Islamic State (ISIS) Twitter account has threatened to attack Los Angeles International, John F Kennedy and Heathrow airport as the US prepares to celebrate July 4 Independence Day weekend, the media reported on Saturday. The attacks will be carried out on planes "flying from Heathrow to the US" and warned that "there will be a device placed in either [sic] Heathrow, LAX or JFK airports," Telegraph reported, citing the Twitter account. The terror attack warning was revealed by the Site Intelligence Group, an organisation that tracks the online activity of terrorist groups. "We all need to be vigilant to the global threat of terrorism -- in Britain we keep all aspects of aviation security under constant review and work closely with our partners to mitigate risks," Transport Minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon was quoted as saying. Security has already been beefed up across the US airports. The threat comes in the wake of a deadly attack on Istanbul's Ataturk airport where three Islamic State suicide bombers killed 41 persons injured over 239 . At least five persons were killed and 18 rescued as Bangladeshi forces on Saturday started an operation to free up to 40 hostages held by about eight to nine gunmen -- claimed to be affiliated to the militant group -- who attacked a restaurant in the diplomatic quarter of Dhaka late on Friday. UK Home Secretary Theresa May is ahead in the race to be the next British prime minister, as speculation grows that it may be an all-female contest pitting her against the Energy Minister and prominent Brexiteer Andrea Leadsom. May has 86 endorsements from fellow Tory lawmakers in her bid to take the helm of the party and the country, well ahead of her challengers, according to a tally on the Conservative Home website late Friday. Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb has 21, Justice Secretary Michael Gove and Leadsom each have 17, and former Defense Secretary Liam Fox has seven. The ... Russian President said here on Friday that Russia would respect Finland's choice whether to join NATO but he painted a dire picture for Finland, if it would be a NATO member. Putin described the losses Finland would suffer as a NATO country. He said that NATO would be keen on fighting against Russia "to the last Finnish soldier alive", Xinhua reported. Putin warned that Finnish defence forces would no longer be independent but be part of NATO infrastructure that would reach the Russian borders. Putin made the remarks at a joint press conference after holding talks with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto. He arrived at Niinisto's summer residence in Naantali on Friday afternoon for a one-day working visit. On his part, Niinisto said small steps could be taken to enhance confidence, referring to the situation in Ukraine and the tension in the Baltic Sea area. Niinisto tied the possible dismantling of sanctions against Russia to the progress in peace talks on Ukraine crisis. Putin claimed that Russia never provokes and he said the West created the situation in the Crimea and Ukraine through provocations. He said attempt is also being made to increase tension in the Baltic Sea. It's only been a week since Britain voted to break up with the European Union, and it probably won't walk out for at least two years -- but the EU is already moving on. In a symbolic move, London was missing from a list of all the EU's national capitals read out by Slovak President Andrej Kiska at a lavish ceremony Friday to mark the start of his country's six-month term chairing meetings of the bloc's governments. "We will strengthen the sense that we all together are responsible for a Europe of peace, democracy, solidarity," Kiska said in front of an audience ... At least 225 Daesh fighters were killed in Afghanistan's Nangarhar offensives over the past week. Local officials said most of the casualties incurred to the insurgents by air raids by foreign troops that targeted the militants' hideouts in Kot district, reports Tolo News. The clash between the Daesh rebels and the security forces started when the rebel group attacked security forces' outposts in the district. Nearly 500 families have been reportedly displaced in Kot battle following the attack by the militant group. Nangarhar governor Salim Kunduzi said that Daesh militants had torched nearly 90 houses in the district and the government will provide all facilities and assistance to the displaced families. Flash Morocco started on Friday enforcing a ban on plastic bags nationwide. Last October, the Moroccan parliament passed a landmark bill banning the production, import, sale and distribution of plastic bags across the North African kingdom. The bill, which became law on July 1, is part of a larger environmentally conscious effort across the country to go green. Having engaged in large-scale renewable energy projects, Morocco has launched the more challenging task of warning Moroccans against the use of plastic bags, which take hundreds of years to degrade. The law seems timely since the kingdom is ranked as the largest consumer of plastic bags in Africa and the second in the world after the United States. Green campaigners say the country's consumers may need years to fully comply with the new law, the Moroccan Minister of Industry, however, clarified in a statement that there was going to be several alternatives made available in the wake of the ban, citing the use of paper and fabric. Morocco ranks alongside Costa Rica, Bhutan and Ethiopia as one of the world's greenest countries, a fact partially due to its ambitious goals to crackdown on carbon emissions. The Moroccan city of Marrakesh is due to host the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 22) in this November. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr. Raman Singh on Saturday inaugurated country's first commercial dispute resolution centre and commercial court in the state capital. Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Singh said, "I am hopeful that this place will serve as a milestone for resolving law related problems and improving the law functionary in the state." "I remember the day in New Delhi when the Supreme Court judge had expressed desire of having a commercial court in Chhattisgarh. It was then that I said that it is possible through joint efforts," he added. The commercial court is located in Naya Raipur area of the city. The court also consists of arbitration centre and a mediation centre. With the 'sexism' controversy still swirling over the upcoming female-led 'Ghostbusters' reboot, producer Ivan Reitman, who also produced and directed the original film, is speaking out about the cause of the movie's backlash, explaining that it is simply down to annoyance with the franchise being rebooted at all. "I think there's way too much talk about gender [when it comes to this film]," he said, reports the Independent. "I think that many of the people who were complaining were actually lovers of the [original] movie, not haters of women," added Reitman. Reitman went on to confess that, given the fondness for the 1984 Bill Murray-starring original, a new version was always going to be an uphill struggle. "I think the lovers of the original movie felt there was some kind of sacrilege to re-do it, because it was a seminal part of their moviegoing experience as a 7- or 8-year-old. That's something that can't be minimized, and I totally respect that love," he said. Ghostbusters, which stars a new ghostbusting team of Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones, opens in UK cinemas on 11 July. Britain's decision to leave the European Union has created significant uncertainty in the global economy, the International Monetary Fund has warned. The Brexit was likely to cause a dampening of growth in the near term, and urged policy makers to act decisively while dealing with the situation, said IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice. According to Rice, "Brexit has created significant uncertainty, and we believe this is likely to dampen growth in the near term, particularly in the UK, but with repercussions also for Europe and the global economy." The IMF said policy makers needed to stand ready to act if the impact of financial market turbulence and higher uncertainty threaten to materially weaken the global outlook. It added that it strongly supports the commitments made, and steps taken by major central banks, including the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the US Fed and the Bank of Japan, among others, to provide liquidity and curtail excess financial volatility. The IMF has encouraged both the UK and the EU to work collaboratively toward a smooth and predictable transition. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Saturday asked former Maharashtra revenue minister Eknath Khadse to speak up and reveal the facts known to him after the latter stirred a row, saying country would "shake" if he opened his mouth. "Khadse has said that if he opens the mouth, country will shake. I think he must open his mouth, the country will not shake, there will be problems within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)," NCP leader Nawab Malik told ANI. "Have you (Khadse) talked to Dawood whether he gave you some information about your party members? You must reveal the facts that you know," he added. The comments from the NCP came after Khadse stirred a row, saying the whole country would "shake" if he opened his mouth. Khadse, while addressing a group of supporters in his home constituency in Jalgaon said, "Though I have resigned in the wake of allegations against me, if I opened my mouth, the entire country will shake." Khadse, who was holding several key portfolios, including Revenue, in the state cabinet, resigned earlier this month over a series of allegations including irregularities in a land deal and allegedly receiving calls on his mobile from a landline number of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Pakistan. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated body the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM) is set to hold an 'international Roza Iftar' party on Saturday. The function is likely to see participation of representatives from various countries barring Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit. The MRM decided not to invite Basit to its iftar party post his "insensitive" remarks on the Pampore attack in which eight CRPF jawans were martyred. Meanwhile, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has rubbished rumours of conducting Iftar party and dubbed them to be'factually incorrect'. "Media reports on RSS conducting Iftar party are factually incorrect. RSS is not organising any such party," the RSS said in a tweet. The RSS further said the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), which is organising the Iftar party, is an independent Muslim organisation that aims at creating awareness. "RSS shares views of MRM on issues & supports awareness programs of MRM as any national cause. Indreshji, senior RSS functionary, keeps contact with MRM. He doesn't hold formal position in MRM," the RSS said in a series of tweets. The MRM was formed in 2002 at the RSS' initiative to bridge the divide between Hindus and Muslims and bring the two communities together. Maulawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, the latest supreme leader of the Taliban, today called on the United States to end its "occupation" of Afghanistan. "Admit the realities instead of useless use of force and muscle show and put an end to the occupation," the Express Tribune quoted Akhundzada, as saying while delivering a speech on the eve of Eid-ul- Fitr. "Our message to the American invaders and her allies is this: the Afghan Muslim people neither fear from your force nor your stratagem. They consider martyrdom in confrontation with you as a cherished goal of their life," he added. The new Taliban leader said that U.S. would not be able to affect the militant group's determination to counter it. "You will not be able to frustrate the determination and our Jihadic struggle, by your resorting to extending the time of presence of your soldiers or of increasing military rule of engagement in Afghanistan," Akhundzada said. He added, "You are facing not a group or faction but a nation. You are not going to be a winner." This is the first message by the new Taliban chief since his predecessor Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed during a U.S. drone strike in neighbouring Pakistan in May. His remark come days after twin Taliban bomb blasts killed at least 32 Afghan policemen and wounded 78 others on the edge of Kabul. He also took a jibe at Washington for supporting Kabul. "Our message to the supporters of the invaders is that it might have been dawned on you during the past 15 years that you are being used for realisation of American goals," he said, adding that "your support and siding with invaders is like the work of those abhorrent faces who in our past history supported the Britons and the Soviets. The war between Ola and Uber has moved from roads into courtrooms and now onto online forums. Not many would have missed the most recent blog battle between these two companies that has stoked so many conversations in our newspapers, on social media, on blogs and online portals. Pitched battles between large competitors is not entirely new to us - Flipkart, SnapDeal and Amazon have been at it for a while, and globally, the Apple and Samsung saga caught everyone's attention. However, the current battle is unique because of obvious flaws in Uber's approach. It is one thing to take on your competitor's market practices, but to debate national identity while consciously contravening the law of the land reeks of arrogance. State governments across the country are reportedly considering plans to implement regulations that will make the taxi segment a more level playing field for incumbents as well as on-demand players. At the same time, these regulations will hopefully ensure that contentious practices like peak pricing do not affect customers. India, being a relatively open economy, these moves by the government can be challenged or debated. For example,the Karnataka On Demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules, 2016, is being vociferously debated in the Karnataka High Court by all players, but till a verdict is announced, it is the duty of all involved to follow regulations. So why should Uber operate outside the rules that apply to everyone else? Unfortunately, this has reportedly been Uber's strategy in every market that it is presently in - ignore the laws and spend money indiscriminately to build massive market share. Technological disruptions and innovations have a way of overturning status quo, but organisations need to give due consideration to regulations and will take time to keep pace with change. Till such time it is imperative that all players respect the law and use the correct means to get their points across. It will be interesting to see how this new phase in public transportation in India plays out. Taking a strong exception to Adviser to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz's statement wherein he accused India of using the Pathankot terror attack as an 'excuse' to delay bilateral talks, Defence Expert P.K Sehgal on Saturday asserted that Pakistan wants to continue dialogue with a gun pointed on India's forehead. "Sartaj Aziz says that dialogue must continue between India and Pakistan despite Mumbai attack, Pathankot attack, cross border terrorism and cross border firing. In other words, they want us to continue to talk with a gun pointed on our forehead," Sehgal told ANI. "Obviously this cannot be accepted. An appropriate climate, conducive to talks, must be created. India has been desperately trying to do that," he added. The comments come a day after Sartaj Aziz, stated that New Delhi was using excuses like the Pathankot terror attack to further delay talks with Islamabad on a range of issues crucial to both nations. Speaking in an interview, Aziz said that the priority for Pakistan has always been improved relations with its neighbours including India, and it remains so because without that, Islamabad's economic goals and revivals cannot be achieved. "But of course, it takes two to achieve that objective and India so far has not responded. In one excuse or other, they delay dialogue. In the first case, after Prime Minister Modi's inaugural ceremony, the two Foreign Secretaries could not meet because the High Commissioner met Kashmiri leaders, and they have been meeting for 20 years, so that was hardly an excuse," Aziz stated. Asserting that Pathankot was no grounds for dialogues to be cancelled, Aziz added that talks also include terrorist related activities and both nations can also exchange progress reports on that basis also. "To that extend, I think we have succeeded. So we will continue to insist and urge that we should resume dialogue on all issues and try to improve out relation both in economic and non economic fields," Aziz said. However India today, flatly refused Aziz's statements saying that it has never shied away from any engagement with the hostile neighbour and is prepared to discuss any issue in an atmosphere free from terror and violence. "As far as the comments of Sartaj Aziz are concerned, I would say that India has never ever shied away from any engagement with Pakistan and is prepared to discuss all outstanding issues with Pakistan bilaterally, in an atmosphere free from terror and violence," Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Vikas Swarup told the media. "After that incident of Pathankot, it was a natural and legitimate acceptation of both the governments and the people of India, that there should be concrete action from Pakistan which has not denied of the involvement of its nationals in the attack," Swarup added. Following Prime Minister Modi's statement where he placed the onus of stalled talks on Pakistan, Sartaj Aziz has claimed that New Delhi was avoiding dialogue with Islamabad to avoid negotiations on crucial issues such as Kashmir. President Pranab Mukherjee has conferred the President conferred the Dr. B.C. Roy National Award for Best Talents on Dr. A.K. Kriplani, Director and HOD, Minimal Access, Bariatric and GI Surgery at Fortis Memorial Research Institute for his contribution in the field of medicine. The Dr.B.C. Roy National Award is given by Medical Council of India to recognize the merit of an eminent doctor. Dr. Kriplani has been involved in the specialty of minimal access, bariatric and G I surgery for 35 years. Post his master's degree in surgery in 1981, Dr.Kriplani served the Department of Surgery, All India Institute of Medical Sciences as Asst Professor to Additional Professor. He is amongst the first few surgeons in the country who has not only embraced, but also propagated and taught the skills of minimal access surgery to other surgeons. He was the President of the Indian Association of Gastrointestinal Endosurgeons for the years 2008-2010 and fellowship courses started by him are extremely popular till date and form the main academic activity of the association. Dr.Kriplani is the first surgeon in India to perform laparoscopic adrenalectomy and the first laparoscopic Whipple's pancreatico-dudodenectomy in North India. Dr. Kriplani has the honour of being invited as a faculty for 455 Live demonstrations, Guest lectures , Orations , keynote addresses in conferences in various Indian cities and outside India/ His teaching videos on laparoscopic procedures are very popular and so far over 2,00,000 surgeons from all over the world have visited his channel and benefitted by watching his techniques with current average of 350 per day. The Bidhan Chandra (B C) Roy Award was instituted in 1976 in memory of B. C. Roy by Medical Council of India. The award is presented by the President of India in New Delhi on July 1, the National Doctors' Day. Saif Ali Khan, who recently underwent a minor thumb surgery, is back on his feet and has resumed shooting of his upcoming comedy film 'Kala Kanti'. The Mumbai Mirror quoted the movie's director Akshat Verma, as saying, "We are shooting, Saif is back on the sets. We are still trying to figure out our schedule but things are on as planned." Last week, Saif, 45, was rushed to Kokilaben Hospital in Mumbai after suffering a thumb injury on the sets of his upcoming production 'Kala Kanti'. This is not the first time when the 'Phantom' actor got injured on his film shoot. He had earlier suffered a hand injury while shooting for Vishal Bhardwaj's 'Rangoon'. He had also reportedly inflicted injuries while shooting a sequence for the 2012 movie, 'Agent Vinod. Flash Ambassador Masood Khalid, Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali, Chinese Assistant Minister Kong Xuanyou of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, President of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Jin Liqun, senior representatives of the People's Liberation Army, President of China Pakistan Friendship Association Sha Zukang standing on stage as national anthems play at the 65th Pak-China diplomatic relations anniversary reception in Beijing on June 30, 2016. [China.org.cn] The Embassy of Pakistan held a reception on June 30 at a local Hotel in Beijing to celebrate the 65th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Pakistan and China. H.E. Mr. Kong Xuanyou, Assistant Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peoples Republic of China was the chief guest on the occasion. Ambassador Masood Khalid gave a key note speech and highlighted the importance of Pak-China relations. He underscored the need to adopt a win-win strategy to reinvigorate our relations in the political, economic, cultural, commerce & trade, education and science & technology domains under the aegis of China Pakistan Economic Corridor. Mr. Kong Xuanyou in his speech acknowledged selfless support of Pakistan, during the hour of need, to China. He appreciated momentous launch of CPEC and reassured that Chinese government will extend all out support for successful realization of the initiative. He reiterated the need to further strengthen our bilateral relations and emphasized to work in unison to achieve developmental targets of regional connectivity, energy security and socio-economic uplift of the people of two countries. He expressed his resolve to consolidate our traditional friendship, deepen win-win cooperation, strengthen people to people exchanges and write a new chapter of friendship in our history. The President of China-Pakistan Friendship Association Ambassador Sha Zukang, speaking on the occasion highlighted the need to ensure smooth implementation of CPEC initiative for realizing Chinese Dream. He said friendship between Pakistan and China is based on trust and mutual support and his Association would leave no stone unturned to further strengthen this trust and confidence so as to develop better understanding through effective communications and diversified linkages between the people of Pakistan and China. Mr. Jin Liqun, President, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and senior representatives of PLA also attended the ceremony besides a number of influential figures from business and academic circles. They admired the growing relations and reaffirmed their commitment to raise our bilateral relations to new heights. Mr. Abid Sher Ali, Minister of State for Water & Power, who is leading Pakistans delegation at the G-20 Energy Ministers Conference, also attended the event. A group of persons with disabilities from the Beijing Shanshui Orchestra also played Pakistani and Chinese songs. Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation. Syrian President Bashar Assad has alleged that Western nations opposing his regime, secretly send security officials to collaborate with his government President Assad's in an interview on Friday said "This is the double standard of the West in general: They attack us politically and they send us their officials to deal with us under the table, especially the security, including your government." "They all do the same. They don't want to upset the United States. Actually, most of the Western officials, they only repeat what the United States wants them to say. This is the reality," he added. Assad also said that while he had no dialogue directly with the U.S., there was indirect communication between the countries through back channels, including "businessmen going (and) traveling around the and meeting with the officials in the United States and in Europe," reports Tolo News. "But there's nothing serious because we don't think the American administration, is serious about solving the problem in Syria," Assad added. He also said he has no opposition to working with the U.S., but criticized America for creating problems that it fails to solve. "(Former President George W.) Bush invaded Iraq; in a few weeks, he could occupy Iraq. But then what's next? It's not about occupying. This is a great power. We're not a great power," Assad said. "So, it's not about America occupying Syria. What's next? What do they want to achieve? They haven't achieved anything. They have failed in Libya, in Iraq, in Yemen, in Syria, everywhere. They only created chaos. So, if the United States wants to create more chaos, it can ... but can they solve the problem? No." Assad said he wasn't concerned about a recent internal memo from more than 50 U.S. State Department officials urging U.S. military action against Syria's government. The diplomats who signed the "dissent channel cable" said that targeted U.S. attacks could increase leverage over Assad in diplomatic negotiations that have repeatedly failed. "Warmongers in every American administration always exist," Assad said. Tribal youths in Tripura staged a protest against the alleged atrocities being committed on Hindus and tribals by Muslim fundamentalists in Bangladesh Habiganj district, which adjoins Tripura. Hundreds of tribal youths under the banner of 'Bangladesh Visa Office Abhiyan' organised Youth IPFT (Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura) took to the streets here raising slogan against the shameful communal attack on Tripuris in Bangladesh. On June 25 in the India-Bangladesh bordering Khowai area more than 200 Hindu tribal population of Hobiganj district of Bangladesh due to the atrocity by the Muslim fundamentalist were compelled to take shelter in the border. In protest against this, on June 29 a six members committee of Youth IPFT had meet the Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner at Agartala the Youth IPFT is protesting against this jointly along with the students unions," said Kashiram Tripura, one of the protesters. He also said that they have written to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina requesting for assuring the safety and security of two lakh Tripuri community people along with the Chakma and minority Hindu people in Bangladesh. The protest rally started from the stable ground here and went through the streets of Agartala. It may be recalled that on 25 June around 168 Bangladeshis, most of them women and children from a minority tribal community, has taken shelter in the Tripura-Bangladesh border fleeing alleged atrocities back home. The incident took place at Champahowar village (under Khowai district), around 110 km west of Tripura state capital Agartala. Last year, in a similar incident, more than 250 Chakma tribal families tried to enter Tripura from the southern side close to the Chittagong Hill Tracts but later returned. Expressing surprise over media reports that Beijing blocked India's bid for entry in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), Minister of State for External Affairs General V.K. Singh disapprovingly said that the plenary meeting in Seoul did not discuss accession of any specific country. "NSG meet happens in closed quarters, so we don't know what happened inside. So why speculate? The facts are only known to the people who are inside the room. We have been trying to become a part of NSG from 2008. We believe that our nation should be granted membership," Singh said on the sidelines of a function. Meanwhile, the NSG will meet yet again this year to discuss the process of inclusion of countries like India, who have not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). A special plenary session of the NSG can be called by the year end. According to sources, there is possibility of India's inclusion in the NSG, while New Delhi will continue to discuss the issue with China. The NSG had earlier failed to reach a consensus on New Delhi's membership application after several members of the 48-member group insisted on adhering to NPT conditions for admission. Scheme not be extended beyond September 30: Revenue Secretary The Government has assured complete confidentiality to those declaring their income under the Income Declaration Scheme 2016. The Revenue Secretary, Government of India Shri Hasmukh Adhia said no source will be asked and no further proceedings will be initiated against those availing of the opportunity to declare their hitherto undisclosed income under the scheme. Shri Adhia also reassured that the information contained in the declaration will not be shared with any other law enforcement agency. The Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) 2016, which was announced by the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley in the Union Budget 2016-17, opened from June 1. The IDS provides a four month compliance window up to September 30, to people with undisclosed income in the country to come clean by paying tax, penalty and surcharge of 45 per cent of fair market value latest by November 30, 2016. Shri Adhia made it amply clear that this is a one time opportunity and the window will not be extended beyond the four month period , ending on September 30. He said this is a last chance for people to declare their unaccounted income, following which, the Income Tax Department would initiate its own action. The Secretary informed that the Government has received many requests and suggestions with respect to the scheme including a demand to extend the deadline for paying tax and a provision to pay tax in instalments. These suggestions are being examined by the government and an appropriate decision would be taken in due course of time Shri Adhia added. To a query on whether undisclosed income can be passed on as current income and tax paid at a lower 33% rate, the Revenue Secretary replied that it would amount to false verification and the assessee would be required to explain the source of income. Shri Adhia said that the Central Board of Direct Taxes, CBDT has posted a fresh set of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) on the disclosure scheme on its website www.incometaxindia.gov.in He said CBDT has also launched a massive outreach programme to create awareness about the scheme. Replying to a query on Indian black money in the Swiss banks, Shri Adhia said India and Switzerland have agreed to conclude a pact on automatic exchange of information by the end of this year. Once the agreement is signed, it will enable India to receive all financial information about its residents, including bank accounts and balances, dividends and interest income from Switzerland from 2018. Powered by Capital Market - Live News As terrorists struck a massive blow in the region on Friday, India called for quick action to adopt the long-stalled Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) and expressed disappointment that the General Assembly failed to push for its early adoption. Speaking at the General Assembly while Islamic State terrorists were carrying out an attack in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave, India's Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin said, " The perpetrators of terrorist attacks as well as the States that support and sponsor or provide safe havens to terrorists or terrorist groups must be made accountable." Urging all nations to adopt the CCIT by the next session, he said that India was disappointed that the resolution on Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy adopted by the Assembly failed to advance its early enactment. "Adopting it, would show that the international community is determined and pledges to take concrete actions on counter-terrorism by filling in the gaps that are there in the existing regime," he said. The resolution lacked a sense of urgency as it merely called upon "all States to make every effort to conclude a comprehensive convention on international terrorism." Akbaruddin later explained to IANS that India's "disappointment was that we would have preferred stronger language" in the resolution about the CCIT, "basically setting a finite time frame for adoption of CCIT." The convention was originally proposed by India 20 years ago and its draft has been deadlocked since 2012 because of differences on defining terrorism and terrorists. Certain countries claim they are "liberation movements" and "freedom fighters" and try to exempt those that they favour. "No belief, justification, political cause or argument can be used to justify the acts of terrorism," Akbaruddin said in his speech to the Assembly. The failure to adopt the convention, Akbaruddin said, "signals that the exponential rise in terrorist activities around the world has left us untouched." He reiterated India's suggestion to create a counter-terrorism czar at the UN to oversee the fight against terror across the organisation and "convey a clear signal that counter terrorism has a significant place on the UN agenda." "Currently there are nearly 40 entities involved in different ways in the fight against terrorism," Akbaruddin said. "It would, therefore, be useful to have a senior official or an entity to coordinate the entire range of activities and bring more focus to such activities." In working towards an international framework to fight terrorism, he said that India has concluded more than 40 bilateral treaties on extradition and mutual legal assistance and has set up joint mechanisms to discuss counter-terrorism with more than 25 countries. The Assembly resolution urged nations "that have not done so to consider becoming parties in a timely manner to the existing international conventions and protocols against terrorism." , Masud Bin Momen, the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh, noted that at that very moment a situation involving "armed assailants" was unfolding in his country. He called for making adequate funds available for implementing counter-terrorism initiatives. The Assembly resolution asked member nations "to prevent the abuse of non-governmental, non-profit and charitable organisations by and for terrorists." It urged these organisations to prevent attempts by terrorists to take advantage of their status. The French under-secretary in charge of counter-terrorism, Catherine Calothy, also called for efficient coordination in UN's efforts and avoiding duplication. She added, "There can be no effectiveness without coordination." Russian diplomat Vladimir Andreev also denounced the attempts to legitimise some terrorists. He said, "Politically driven practices in dividing terrorists into the 'bad guys' and the 'not-so-bad guys' had seen the destabilisation of the Middle East and North Africa." FC Barcelona announced on Friday that Brazilian striker Neymar has signed a new contract with the club to keep him at the Camp Nou Stadium until the end of June 2021. The contact comes just 24 hours after club President, Josep Maria Bartomeu told the press the deal would be signed in the coming days, Xinhua reported. The new deal, as well as quite possibly making Neymar the "best paid" player in the world, according to his lawyer, Marcos Motta, also raises his buyout clause to 200 million euros for the coming season ($220 million), rising to 222 million euros for the following season and 250 million for the final three years. Neymar and the club will officially present the new agreement on July 15, before he joins up with the Brazil squad for the 2016 Olympic Games. The Brazilian's previous three years with Barca have seen him score 85 goals, while he has won eight titles. --IANS sku/ Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain on Saturday addressed members of the Scottish parliament as she formally opened the chamber's fifth session. The monarch spoke in the Holyrood Chamber as part of an opening ceremony that will also include music, poetry and speeches, the BBC reported. She said the opening of the new session marked a "time for hope and optimism" and a "real sense of renewal". She said Holyrood had "grown in maturity in skill" since being established in 1999. "Of course we all live in an increasingly complex and demanding world, where events and developments can, and do, take place at remarkable speed. "Retaining the ability to stay calm and collected can at times be hard." About 2,500 people are due to take part in the historic Riding Procession down the Royal Mile following the ceremony. The Queen was welcomed by Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Macintosh told the Queen that parliament "stands ready for the challenges that lie ahead of us" and that "every MSP in this chamber is proud to represent the people of Scotland." Referring to the fallout from the EU referendum result, The presiding officer added: "In these few short weeks, weeks of unprecedented political turbulence, I have already seen a real willingness to work cooperatively and collaboratively. "I have seen the emergence of a shared agenda to clarify the identity and role of the Scottish parliament and a shared recognition that it is more important than ever that the parliament finds its own voice -- a voice of hope, to echo Donald Dewar, a voice for the future." The fifth term of the Scottish parliament began after May's Holyrood elections, and MSPs had their final session before the summer break on Thursday. --IANS py/bg A mob of Buddhists set fire to a Muslim prayer hall in on Friday, the day that UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee appealed to the government to put an end to sectarian violence, the media reported on Saturday. An eyewitness said the incident took place in Hpakant town, 652 km north of the capital Nay Pyi Taw, Efe news reported. "Buddhist nationalists" demanded the Muslim prayer hall be demolished, saying it had been illegally constructed. The Muslim community said it would do so only on official orders from authorities, but failed to deter the mob made up of hundreds of people mostly from other towns who bore knives and sticks. Firefighters attempted to put out the fire but were prevented from doing so by the mob, the source said. Lee, the UN special rapporteur for Myanmar, on Friday wrapping up a 12-day visit to the country, called on the government, the first democratic one in over half a century, to end institutional discrimination against the Muslim minority. "The government must demonstrate that instigating and committing violence against an ethnic or religious minority community has no place in Myanmar," said Lee, an expert in human rights, in Yangon. Sectarian violence in broke out in 2012 following the gangrape and murder of a Buddhist woman by three Muslim men. Dozens of people have since died, and around 140,000 Muslims, mostly minority Rohingyas who are not recognised by authorities, who term them Bangladeshis, remain displaced in difficult conditions in camps in western . The Border Security Force (BSF) on Saturday intensified vigil along the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal in the wake of the terror attack in Dhaka after the government sounded a high alert in bordering states. Official sources said in Delhi that the Union Home Ministry has directed the Border Security Force (BSF) and other agencies to keep strict vigil along the international borders. "Adequate security measures need to be taken in border areas of West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya," an informed source said. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was briefed by senior officials in the ministry and security agencies on the situation in Bangladesh. Meanwhile, the BSF intensified vigil across the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal. "The vigil across the frontier has been intensified. An alert has been sounded and we are doing the needful," said a BSF officer in Kolkata. In coordination with the police, the BSF troopers are also conducting search operations in villages near the Bangladesh border. Security has also been beefed up in the state's major installations, including airports and railway stations. Reports received so far said personnel of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka were safe, sources said. Bangladesh has lately seen an increase in militant Islamist violence. Home to about 150 million Muslims, Bangladesh has for long been able to ward off Islamic radicalism and the Sheikh Hasina government in particular has been widely considered to be committed to secularism. However, Islamic fundamentalism of the Wahabi and Talibani variety has of late "plagued" a section of the Bangladeshi society as manifested in attacks on secular writers, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians, say Indian intelligence agencies. "Apparently it all moved according to a set pattern," an informed source told IANS. Official sources said the Tripura and Assam governments have reported to the central government in the recent past the activities of a few Bangladesh-based Islamic organisations which "could have also aligned to the ISIS" mainly in terms of getting funds and identifying "raw recruits". The government has advised the media to exercise self-restraint in reporting on the situation in Bangladesh as "sensationalising" things would not help fight terrorism. "We have always considered Bangladesh a friendly country, and the administration and the security forces there would do its best to fight terrorism," the source added. Bangladeshi security forces on Saturday morning rescued 13 hostages and gunned down six terrorists, ending the siege at a cafe in Dhaka that began on Friday, officials said. Twenty hostages were also killed in the terror attack. Bangladeshis living in Kolkata as well as eminent personalities in the state have condemned the attack. --IANS bns/bim/bg There were around 20-22 guests, including foreigners, at the popular Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in Gulshan area when a group of gunmen shouting "Allahu Akbar" raided the cafe at 8.45 p.m. Police moved in soon. But they pulled back after two officers - Assistant Commissioner Rabiul Islam of the Detective Branch, and Banani police Officer-in-Charge Salahuddin - were killed in the first exchange of fire. After that, the law enforcement agencies sealed off the area. After waiting through the night, following directives from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, armed forces joined the Rapid Action Battalion and police in the morning to launch the assault, codenamed 'Operation Thunderbolt', along with the other security agencies. Around 7.40 a.m., security forces stormed the cafe in the Gulshan diplomatic zone and several hostages were freed minutes after the offensive began, a witness told bdnews24.com. Heavy firing and explosions continued for at least an hour after the operation had begun to free the hostages. A witness who saw the assault from an adjacent building said armymen in two armoured personnel carriers (APCs) tore down the wall of the cafe and the commandos entered the cafe through the breach. More than 1,000 rounds were fired and nearly 1,000 explosions were reported in the 30 minutes of the raid. A resident at a building, just 50 yards from the scene, reported spotting snipers on the roof of another building, firing from their guns. At a media call later in the afternoon, Bangladesh Army's Brig Gen Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said that 'Operation Thunderbolt' ended around 8.30 a.m. He said they had found 20 bodies of foreign nationals, but did not disclose their identities. He said all of them were killed late Friday night with sharp weapons. Brigadier Chowdhury, director of military operations in the Bangladesh Army, said that 13 people, including a Japanese and two Sri Lankans, were rescued from the restaurant. The commandos took less than 15 minutes to complete the operation. Within 12 to 13 minutes our men were able to take out the terrorists and took total control, he said. Chowdhury said that there were seven attackers, one of whom was captured alive, and the rest killed during the assault. Fire-fighters also rushed to the spot with extinguishers and hosepipes, though no fire could be spotted. A medical team was also seen rushing to the scene with stretchers. After a while, a loud bang rocked the area, but the security personnel in the cafe were indifferent to it, suggesting these were controlled explosions of the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) recovered from the scene. Around the same time, members of different forces who had taken position in various buildings in the area before and during the raid came out and were seen embracing each other. Blood was seen in front of the gate of the cafe's main building when security officials were leaving it. A police official was shot at that spot Friday night. Around 9.40 a.m., another loud bang was heard as the bomb disposal unit continued to explode the seized bombs in a controlled environment. After the operation ended, several youths, who appeared to be handcuffed, were seen lying in the garage of a high-rise building beside the cafe. But they could not be identified. Since 8.15 a.m., hostages, including women and children, were seen rushing out of the eatery one after another. They were taken to hospitals in ambulances. After the operation, IGP A.K.M. Shahidul Hoque said that 18 people were rescued alive. But he left without answering how many died. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said later in the morning that 13 hostages had been rescued alive. She added that one of the seven gunmen was captured alive and the rest were killed during the operation. Calling the incident a 'militant attack', Hasina said, "We have rescued 13 people alive, but some have been killed. Some of the injured have been admitted to CMH (Combined Military Hospital). --IANS ss/rn/bg Flash The UN Security Council will hold the first of its three secret, non-binding straw polls on selection of the next UN secretary-general on July 21, the panel's president announced Friday. Ambassador Koro Bessho of Japan, who assumed the rotating Security Council president for July on Friday, announced the date during a briefing with reporters on the program of work for the panel during July. No dates were set for the second and third straw polls. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will retire on Dec. 31 after serving two five-year terms and diplomats are working to make selection of his successor more transparent. "There is an agreement that we would like to move the process along as expeditiously as possible so that we can have a decision at an early date which will make it possible for the chosen candidate to prepare to be the (next) secretary-general," Bessho said. "As far as the date for a second straw poll is concerned, it is not decided at this moment." "The straw poll is done so that the candidates themselves and the countries who are recommending the candidates can make up their minds as to how to proceed from there," he said. It is up to the 15-member Security Council to recommend a candidate to the 193-member General Assembly to approve appointment of a secretary-general. Already there are 11 announced candidates vying to succeed Ban on Jan. 1, 2017. President Mogens Lykketoft of the UN General Assembly, in a bid to make the choice of secretary-general more transparent, invited announced candidates to appear at hearings before the assembly earlier this year to make mission statements and undergo a round of questions. A 19-year-old Indian girl, Tarishi Jain, was among the 20 killed by Islamic State terrorists in the siege on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital, the Indian government confirmed, while an Indian doctor who was taken hostage is safe. Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted that Tarishi was among the hostages killed in the Holey Artisan Bakery, a popular hangout for foreigners, in the high-security and affluent Gulshan diplomatic zone of the Bangladesh capital. "Tarishi was 19 years old. She passed out from American School Dhaka. Presently, she was a student at Berkeley," Sushma posted. Earlier, she wrote on Twitter: "I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka." "I have spoken to her father Shri Sanjeev Jain and conveyed our deepest condolences.The country is with them in this hour of grief," she wrote. Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs said Tarishi's father has been running a garment business in Bangladesh for last 15-20 years. "We are assisting family members who are travelling to Bangladesh," the sources said. An Indian doctor was also taken hostage but was among the eight people rescued on Saturday morning. According to the sources, Dr. Satyapal speaks fluent Bengali and came out as one of the Bangladeshis. The others rescued are all Bangladeshis. Besides, the Indian, the other killed included eight italians, some Japanese and South Koreans and some Bangladeshi. Three-four people are undergoing treatment in Dhaka, including two Sri Lankans, a Japanese and an Italian. Around 10-12 Bangladeshi staff of the bakery rescued in the morning have been segregated by police for interrogation. Three people escaped on Friday night, including an italian and a Japanese when the attack started. The 12-hour-long terrorist siege ended on Saturday morning, with the killing of six terrorists, and the capture of one gunman. Thirteen hostages were rescued. --IANS ab/rn/vm Pakistani filmmaker Sabiha Sumar, best known for directing films like "Khamosh Pani", "Good Morning Karachia and "Chotay Shah", feels the evolution of the digital media has brought the people of India and Pakistan closer. Sumar, whose film "Chotay Shah" was the opening film of the 7th Jagran Film Festival along with Ketan Mehta's "Toba Tek Singh", feels India's Bollywood has a "huge impact" on the entire sub-continent and many Pakistanis have learned Hindi language by seeing Bollywood films. While speaking at a panel discussion, titled "Cinema Beyond Borders", on Saturday, she said: "Internet has brought India and Pakistan together. Even when I went to college at the Cambridge University, I met students of my age from India. They were just like us. "I remember going to one of my friends home and she started playing Begum Akhtar's song and I was like 'You also listen to her songs'. I feel with internet, now the connectivity is even stronger." About the demand of Indian films across the border, Sumar said: "Bollywood has definitely had a huge impact on the entire subcontinent. Even many people have learned Hindi by watching Bollywood films. When I went a village in Sindh, people there talk about Govinda. Even when I go to Thar Desert, people there say that we see everything on our phones only." She said that "Indians and Pakistanis connect with each other through music and stories as they are an important part of our culture". "I don't think a nation can survive or thrive without storytelling." Apart from Sumar, the panel also included Indian filmmakers Sudhir Mishra and Bejoy Nambiar, and veteran Pakistani actor-director Khalid Ahmed. Asked why Pakistani cinema didn't get chance to evolve, Ahmed said: "It's difficult to tell this. I think it was because of two factors. Firstly the tradition of Bollywood films has been going on since the pre-Partition era and it continues to do so. "When the film industry was setup in Lahore, it was a new beginning. A lot of people from here went there and started a new thing. Also talent, expertise and technology were always there in Mumbai which was not available on that side of the border. Even the market is small there." The five-day Delhi leg of the Jagran Film Festival, which is taking place here at the Siri Fort Auditorium, will next showcase films like "Aligarh", "Airlift", "Natsamrat", "Talvar" and "Sarbjit" among others. After its Delhi leg, which will conclude on July 5, the festival will travel to different cities like Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varansi, Agra, Meerut, Dehradun, Hisar, Ludhiana, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Raipur, Indore, and Bhopal. The final leg of the festival will take place in Mumbai. --IANS sas/vd Terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed that its gunmen have killed 24 people and wounded 40 of them in the attack at a restaurant in the diplomatic quarter of the Bangladeshi capital late Friday. A forth message from the ISIS reportedly claimed that 24 people have been killed and 40 wounded so far "including foreigners," according to SITE Intelligence. Meanwhile, security forces in Dhaka clarified that only two police officers had been killed and at least 15 other people were injured while they attempt to free the hostages. Bangladeshi Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) is preparing an operation to free hostages from the Dhaka restaurant. ISIS took the responsibility of the attack and announced it on group affiliated wire Amaq Agency. US President Barack Obama has been briefed on the hostage situation in Dhaka, White House officials said. Chief of the Rapid Action Battalion, Benjir Ahmed said "derailed youths" entered the restaurant and launched the attack. "One of the attackers was armed with a sword, the carried guns," an employee of a nearby cafe told RT. Some witnesses said they heard shooting noise and bomb blasts. At least four police officials were injured earlier after police exchanged fire with the gunmen attacked the restaurant popular with foreigners. Security forces have not yet entered the premisis of the restaurant, known as the Holey Artisan Bakery but are planning a rescue operation shortly. "Bangladesh plans to start operation soon to rescue hostages from Dhaka restaurant, held by 8-9 gunmen," a police officer was quoted as saying. The Japanese government on Saturday said that seven of its nationals were killed in the terror strike in the Bangladesh capital, local media reported. The victims were identified through photographs and belongings, Japan's Kyodo News reported, citing Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. At least eight Japanese citizens were among the hostages taken by about seven Islamic State gunmen late on Friday in the Holey Artisan Bakery in the high-security Gulshan diplomatic zone in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka. At least 20 civilians, mostly foreigners, were killed in the attack. --IANS lok/rn/bg West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday condemned the deadly terror attack in Dhaka which at least 20 foreigners, including an Indian girl, were killed. Condolences to families of those who lost lives in Bangladesh. We are with you. We pray for peace and harmony in holy month of Ramadan. We condemn terror," Banerjee said in a tweet. "Terrorism has no boundaries. Terrorism has no religion. So let us fight and defeat the inhuman terrorists together, so that humanity wins," she said in another tweet. An Indian girl, Tarushi Jain, was among the 20 hostages killed by Islamic State terrorists in the siege on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital. --IANS and/vd More than a third of voters do not think Britain will definitely leave the European Union, despite the referendum result, a poll has found. Of 1,077 people polled by Ipsos MORI for BBC Newsnight, 22% said they did not know whether would actually happen, and 16% said they believed Britain would remain a member of the EU, Independent online reported on Saturday. The same poll revealed that almost half of the voters believe there should be a general election before Britain begins negotiations, so the public can vote on policies for life outside the EU. More than half of voters, including 67% of people who voted Leave, say the current government and MPs do not reflect the views of the British public towards the EU. Nine in 10 said they would not change their vote if there were to be a second EU referendum, with only 5% of Leave voters and 2% of Remain voters saying they would vote differently. Another recent survey showed up to 7% of Leave voters, around 1.2 million people, now regret their choice, but a spokesperson for the Prime Minister said a second referendum was "not remotely on the cards." The Pentagon has confirmed that it killed two Islamic State (IS) military commanders in an airstrike near Mosul in Iraq. The two commanders were identified as Basim Muhammad Ahmad Sultan al-Bajari, IS deputy minister of war, and Hatim Talib al-Hamduni, an IS military commander in Mosul, Xinhua news agency cited Pentagon as saying on Friday. "These deaths are the latest in coalition efforts to systemically eliminate the IS cabinet wherever they hide, disrupting their ability to plot external terror attacks and hold onto the territory they use to claim legitimacy," Pentagon Spokesperson Peter Cook said. "The international coalition fighting the IS terrorist group, working with local, capable and motivated forces on the ground in Iraq and Syria, continues to make sustained progress in our campaign to deal the IS a lasting defeat," he added. The progress included the liberation of Fallujah, devastating strikes against the IS forces fleeing the city, and the completion of the encirclement of Manbij, as well as efforts to clear key terrain south of Mosul. Bajari, a former member with Al-Qaeda militant group, who brought his military skills into the IS, oversaw the June 2014 offensive to capture Mosul, and has led the Jaysh Al-Dabiq battalion which is known for using vehicle-borne bombs, suicide bombers and mustard gas in its attacks, Cook said. Hamduni was an IS military commander in Mosul and the head of military police for the self-proclaimed Ninawa state. "Removing these terrorist leaders from the battlefield shapes the environment for Iraqi forces to ultimately liberate Mosul with support from the international coalition," Cook said, adding that the "momentum is now on our side, and not on the IS". --IANS ask/py/vm Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he spoke to his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina on Saturday and condemned the "despicable attack" in Dhaka. "My thoughts are with the bereaved families. I pray that those who are injured recover quickly," the Prime Minister said in a series of tweets. "The attack in Dhaka has pained us beyond words. I spoke to PM Sheikh Hasina & strongly condemned the despicable attack," he said in another tweet. Modi asserted that India "stands firmly with our sisters and brothers of Bangladesh" in this hour of grief. An Indian girl, Tarushi Jain, was among the 20 hostages killed by Islamic State terrorists in the siege on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had earlier revealed in a tweet. --IANS nd/vd/bg Film: "The Legend of Tarzan"; Director: David Yates; Cast: Alexander Skarsgard, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L Jackson, Margot Robbie, Djimon Hounsou, Rory J. Saper, Christian Stevens; Rating: ** Director David Yates' "The Legend of Tarzan", has showcased the origin of Tarzan, wrapped in a tale of revenge and greed. Here the director reinvents Edgar Rice Burroughs' classic character, from a monosyllabic wild man to a talkative sophisticated human being, who has spent his formative years in the jungle. His approach of spinning Tarzan's story in a different direction like having him return home and to his animalistic ways is definitely revolutionary, but it is unconvincing. Simply because the story of Tarzan is so ingrained in the minds of the audience that it is difficult to erase. In this version, Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgard) leads a normal life, as the aristocratic Lord John Clayton, Earl of Greystoke, living with his wife Jane (Margot Robbie), in London. The script, written by Adam Cozad and Craig Brewer, borrows liberally from history and from certain real life characters. It begins with a verbose exposition informing us that the Congo Forest is ruled by the Belgian King Leopold II, who on the verge of bankruptcy has handed over the reins of the region to his Captain, Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz). The plot begins with the corrupt and diamond greedy, Captain Leon making a deal with tribal Chieftain Mbongo (Djimon Hounsou), who is seeking Tarzan to avenge the death of his son. A reluctant Tarzan, invited as the trade emissary, is coaxed by an American visitor, George Washington Williams (Samuel Jackson) to accept the invitation and he follows Tarzan. Apparently, Williams is investigating the slave trade and other abuses in the Belgian-held Congo region of 1890 Africa. Feeling nostalgic about the jungle, Jane insists on accompanying Tarzan on the trip. During their journey, Leon enslaves a tribe and captures Jane, in order to force Tarzan into surrendering. What follows is Tarzan's journey of rescuing Jane and leading a happy life. But what actually gets you hooked is Tarzan's life in the jungle. His back story which includes his love story with Jane and his ever-changing relationship with his family of apes. The plot narrated in a non-linear manner is not stimulating. The characters are well etched and the performances are fairly balanced. Alexander Skarsgard and Margot Robbie shine in their respective roles but their on-screen chemistry is far from perfect. Christoph Waltz and Samuel Jackson do not offer anything exceptional. Visually, it is the Congo terrain with the tribes and animals that makes for exciting viewing. Henry Braham's cinematography has a mix blend of good and bad visuals. Some of the frames, especially the ones that capture the landscape which include the waterfalls, are outstanding. The mist-filled thickets with poor lighting in tight close-ups, are an eyesore. Also the computer generated images of the animals that complement the live action, especially the ostriches, the hippopotamuses, and the flight of the animals in the climactic scene which was extensively used in the trailers, are not up to the mark. The action sequences too are loud, spectacular and cheesy, especially Tarzan and his friends' dash to the train. Also the famous vine-swinging scenes, performed in a perfunctory manner lack a certain punch. Overall, "The Legend of Tarzan" is a poorly paced film that is light on adventure and far from becoming legendary. --IANS troy/nv/bg Flash Rodrigo Duterte delivers his inaugural speech after taking oath at the Malacanang presidential palace in Manila, the Philippines, on June 30, 2016.[Xinhua] Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte wanted a "conversation" with China on the South China Sea in a bid to work out a "win-win relationship" with the country, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said on Friday. "Basically he's being friendly toward China. I think it's an indication on how he wants to handle the relationship, not to be adversarial but to really work out a relationship that will be win-win for both," Abella said in an interview with the television ANC. "I think the point of the president is ... we are not in a position to engage military operations and stuff like that. So, it really makes common sense," he said. A few hours after taking office as the country's 16th president Thursday, Duterte told a cabinet meeting at the presidential palace not to "flaunt" a possibly favorable ruling in a case filed by the Philippines at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. The tribunal has said that it would be handing down the ruling on July 12. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Wednesday that the tribunal, "established on the basis of illegal conduct and claims of the Philippines," has no jurisdiction over the case and the relevant subject matter, and should not have heard the case or render any award. Duterte brought up the issue during the televised meeting. While the decision on the arbitration case might be favorable to the Philippines, "it would also put the country in an awkward position especially with China (in terms of relations)," Duterte said. "God knows I really do not want to declare any fighting with anybody. And if we can have peace by just talking, I would be very happy," he added. Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay also informed Duterte during the meeting that he was "averse" to issuing a "strong" statement in case of a favorable ruling, rejecting suggestions by foreign representatives. At least two civilians were killed and 17 persons were injured on Saturday when a suicide bomber hit the vehicle of a local leader in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, an official said. "The attacker detonated his explosive jacket near the bomb-proof vehicle of Hajji Hayat Khan who escaped the blast unhurt. The explosion killed two passersby in Jalalabad city," Xinhua news agency quoted an official as saying. Khan leads militiamen in fighting the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Kot district of the province. "The injured were shifted to a government-run hospital where two of them remain in critical condition," the official added. The province has been the scene of heavy clashes between security forces, pro-government militiamen and the IS fighters since the emergence of the IS in early 2015. The civilians considered to be supporting government, civilian government employees, religious leaders, tribal elders and persons involved in peace and reconciliation efforts have come under attack in targeted killings. The tiff between Kozhikode Congress Lok Sabha member M.K. Raghavan and district collector Prasanth Nair over the MP local area development fund has escalated, with the former demanding action against the latter. Nair and Raghavan have been at loggerheads over the manner of utilisation of the MP local area fund. However, matters came to a head when Raghavan approached Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan demanding action be taken against Nair for his rude and curt behaviour. "I have officially complained to the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary S.M. Vijayanand and now its for them to take action for the way he has behaved," Raghavan told reporters here on Saturday. What irked Raghavan was when he demanded that Nair apologise for his rude behaviour, Nair who is quite active on social media, posted a map of Kunnamkulam (a town in Thrissur district). The Malayalam word for apologise is 'mappu' and in a hugely popular yesteryear Malayalam film there is a dialogue that mentions the map of Kunnamkulam. "I will definitely take this up at all levels that I can as this is tantamount to demeaning lakhs of people who elected me," added Raghavan, a two time Lok Sabha member. Nair however says that he has only followed the rules and regulations while sanctioning funds for MP projects. The Kozhikode district Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) secretary P. Mohanan told reporters that they feel that Raghavan, in order to play down his ineffectiveness as a lawmaker, is trying to blame others. Last year Nair came under fire from the Kozhikode district Congress president K.C. Abu. But Nair got away unscathed because of his proximity to then State Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala. This time it remains to be seen who will have the last laugh. --IANS sg/rn/bg Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao on Saturday rejected two separate petitions filed by Opposition YSR Congress seeking disqualification of 13 of its MLAs, who defected to the ruling TDP in recent months. "The petitions did not comply with the relevant rules seeking disqualification of the legislators. As such I have dismissed them," the Speaker told reporters. While the first petition was filed by the then YSRC whip N Amarnath Reddy, seeking disqualification of 11 defectors, the second was filed by MLA Mustafa Sheik against two other legislators who subsequently switched sides. Both these petitions were rejected. In all 20 of YSRC defected to the Telugu Desam Party since February 22 this year. Interestingly, Amarnath Reddy too jumped over to the TDP last month. Checking infiltration from Bangladesh was the main poll promise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2016 Assam Assembly election. Soon after assuming charge as chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal declared the Bangladesh border would be sealed in two years. Influx of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants is an emotive issue in the state. Besides the fear of loss of identity, pressure on land and resources has fuelled anti-Bangladeshi sentiments in Assam. The Assamese want the influx ended once and for all. The Assam agitation of the 1980s, led by the All Assam Students Union, was centred on the issue. The agitation culminated with the signing of the Assam Accord, whereby the Centre, among other promises, agreed to seal the border. The sealing is still incomplete. Assam shares 263 km of international boundary with Bangladesh. Securing the riverine boundary, which is approximately 100 km, has become an uphill task for the BSF. ALSO READ: Dhaka hostage crisis: Indian student killed, doctor rescued Condemning the deadly terror attack in Dhaka which killed 20 people including one Indian, Prime Minister on Saturday spoke to Bangladesh Prime Minister and expressed his condolences. He tweeted: The attack in Dhaka has pained us beyond words. I spoke to PM & strongly condemned the despicable attack. (@narendramodi) July 2, 2016 Asserting that India stands firmly with its sisters and brothers of Bangladesh in this hour of grief, he added that his thoughts are with the bereaved families. India stands firmly with our sisters & brothers of Bangladesh in this hour of grief. (@narendramodi) July 2, 2016 My thoughts are with the bereaved families. I pray that those who are injured recover quickly. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 2, 2016 Earlier today, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed that an Indian had been killed in the deadly attack in Dhaka and expressed her condolences to the family of the victim. "I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka. I have spoken to her father Shri Sanjeev Jain and conveyed our deepest condolences. The country is with them in this hour of grief," Swaraj said in a series of tweets. 20 people were killed by the gunmen who attacked the upscale cafe Holey Artisan and taking the diners in hostage in the diplomatic area of Dhaka last evening. The 12-hour-long hostage crisis at the cafe popular with foreigners ended after a two hour long assault by armed forces' commandos killing six gunmen. One assailant has been held by the security forces. Most of the victims were killed brutally with sharp weapons. Thirteen hostages were rescued in the operation which included two Sri Lankans and a Japanese. Though it was reported that the Islamic State claimed responsibility on the attack, the US State Department has said it cannot yet be confirmed. The Islamic State has claimed a number of past attacks in Bangladesh through its media affiliates, but the government has consistently denied presence of the militant in the country. At least 17 people were killed today in a multi-vehicle accident on a Uganda highway, one of the worst crashes of its kind in this East African country. National police spokeswoman Polly Namaye said five vehicles, including two passenger minibuses, were involved in the accident today evening in Mpigi district, about 50 kilometres from the capital, Kampala. Initial investigations showed that a private vehicle attempted to overtake another at a sharp corner, hitting a trailer which swerved and hit other vehicles, she said. "We believe this was reckless driving," she said. She said 12 other people were injured in the accident. Philip Mukasa, a regional police spokesman in charge of the area where the accident occurred, described a gruesome scene, with officials still trying to make sense of what happened. He said the 15 people died instantly. Deadly motor accidents are frequent in Uganda, where roads and highways are narrow and often littered with potholes. Head-on collisions involving heavy vehicles are common. The highway where today's accident occurred usually has heavy traffic including trucks carrying imports from the Indian Ocean coast to Rwanda through western Uganda. An 18-year-old Indian girl holidaying in Dhaka was among 20 foreigners who were hacked to death by ISIS militants in a terror attack at a restaurant in Bangladesh capital's high-security diplomatic zone. The girl, Tarushi Jain, a student at UC Berkeley, was on vacation in Dhaka. Her father runs a garment business in Bangladesh for the last 15-20 years, according to officials here. Another Indian, a doctor by profession, had a narrow escape, as he spoke fluent Bengali and the terrorists mistook him for a Bangladeshi, they said. In a series of tweets, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said,"I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka. "I have spoken to her father Sanjeev Jain and conveyed our deepest condolences. The country is with them in this hour of grief. "We are arranging visa for the family. My officers are on the job," she said. Twenty foreigners, including eight Italians, were brutally murdered by the militants inside the restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic zone before commandos launched an assault today, killing six attackers and capturing one alive, ending Bangladesh's worst terror attack. Director of Military Operations Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said the militants slaughtered 20 hostages before the joint operation led by the armed forces began. Most of those killed were found with their throat slit, he added. He said the bodies of the victims were recovered during a search in the Holey Artisan Bakery compound after the operation. The bodies were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital morgue for autopsy to confirm their identity. (Reopens DEL 19) Later, Swaraj again tweeted, calling the death of Tarushi a "brutal killing". "It is a case of brutal killing - an unnatural death. Some legal precedure has (to) be completed. This will be done by tomorrow," she said. She said that the mortal remains of Tarushi will reach Delhi on Monday 4th July. "This is with concurrence of Tarushi's father." "The family will take the mortal remains to Ferozabad (UP)," she added. Two medics were among at least 20 people killed today in Syrian government shelling of a rebel-held town northeast of the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The bombardment struck the town of Jayrud, 60 kilometres (35 miles) from Damascus, where the army says Islamist rebels killed a pilot they captured after he was forced to eject yesterday. In its statement yesterday about the incident, the military said the attack "will not go unpunished". Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said it was the first bombardment of the town in at least two years. "Prominent figures in Jayrud have had a local truce with the regime for at least two years, and neither fired on each other," Abdel Rahman told AFP. He could not specify how many of the 20 killed were civilians but said at least two were medical staff. Rebel groups in Jayrud include the Saudi-backed Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam), the hardline Ahrar al-Sham, and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front. Jaish al-Islam spokesman Islam Alloush said on Friday that Al-Nusra Front had executed the air force pilot. Several government aircraft have been shot down by rebels or crashed because of technical faults since the civil war erupted five years ago. The conflict has killed more than 280,000 people and displaced millions. Syrian government shelling of a rebel- held town killed 31 people, including two medics today, as a two-year local truce broke down after suspected Al-Qaeda militants killed a captured regime pilot. The bombardment struck the town of Jayrud, 60 kilometres northeast of Damascus, where the army says Islamist rebels killed the pilot after he was forced to eject yesterday. In its statement about the incident, the military said the attack "will not go unpunished." The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said today's attack was the first bombardment of the town in at least two years. "Prominent figures in Jayrud have had a local truce with the regime for at least two years, and neither fired on each other," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. He said at least 31 people were killed, including two medics. It was not immediately clear how many of the rest were civilians. Activists in the town said the head of the local medical centre and several colleagues were killed. "There have been at least 45 air strikes today. The town's medical centre was hit and its director Amjad al-Danaf was killed," activist Abu Malek al-Jayrudi told AFP via the Internet. He said the town is home to some 60,000 people and that the bombardment had not stopped since early today. Rebel groups in Jayrud include the Saudi-backed Jaish al- Islam (Army of Islam), the hardline Ahrar al-Sham, and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front. Jaish al-Islam spokesman Islam Alloush said yesterday that Al-Nusra Front had executed the air force pilot. Several government aircraft have been shot down by rebels or crashed because of technical faults since the civil war erupted five years ago. According to the Observatory, three Syrian officers were killed yesterday when their helicopter crashed in the south, near territory held by the Islamic State jihadist group. Abdel Rahman said government forces had managed to recover the bodies of the victims of the crash, the cause of which remained unclear. "We don't know if it was a technical issue or not, but the bodies are with the regime," Abdel Rahman said. Dozens of local truces have been brokered between the myriad of armed groups fighting in Syria's increasingly complex civil war. But a nationwide ceasefire between government forces and non-jihadist rebels brokered by Moscow and Washington in February has been repeatedly violated by both sides. US officials have accused Russia of not doing enough to rein in its ally President Bashar al-Assad. At least 26 people were killed when a bus veered out of an expressway and fell into a ditch due to flat tyre in north China's Tianjin City, local officials said. The accident occurred yesterday when the bus carrying 30 people broke the guardrail at the Baodi section of the Tianjin-Jixian expressway and fell into a ditch, a statement from the city's emergency response office said. The driver lost control of the vehicle due to the flat tyre, it said. The four survivors, including a ticket seller and two passengers, sustained slight injuries, state-run Xinhua agency reported. The bus was en route to Shenyang, capital city of northeast China's Liaoning Province, from Xingtai City of north China's Hebei Province. The bus was pulled out of the water and bodies of the victims were retrieved, the report said. You are here: Home Flash An injured policeman is escorted away by his colleague after an attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 2, 2016. (Xinhua) Gunmen killed 20 people by slitting throats soon after they stormed a Spanish restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, a spokesman of the Bangladesh Army said on Saturday. Brigadier General Naim Ashfaq Chowdhury did not disclose the nationality of the victims, but sources said most of the victims were foreigners. He told a press briefing that most of the victims were killed by slitting throats. Chowdhury said six attackers were killed during an armed raid that ended the 13-hour siege in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan since Friday night. "We've managed to capture one attacker alive," he said. Some 13 hostages, including one Japanese and two Sri Lankans, were rescued. Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation. Three persons of a family, including a bank manager, were killed when the car in which they were travelling collided with a dumper in Achalganj area here today, police said. Chief Manager of SBI in Kanpur M K Singh (58), his wife Beena Singh (56) and daughter-in-law Puvy Singh (26) died in the mishap on Lucknow-Kanpur Highway, they said. The incident occurred when Singh along with other family members was returning to Kanpur after leaving his daughter and son-in-law at Lucknow airport this morning, police said. The bodies have been sent for postmortem. Three workers were today killed and five others injured in a boiler blast at the Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers (RCF) plant in suburban Chembur. "Three people died and five were injured in a boiler explosion. The injured were shifted to a nearby hospital," a senior official, who inspected the spot, told PTI. The deceased were identified as Dilip Pawar, Govind Kumar and Mehmood Alam Noormohmad, he said. Mumbai police spokesperson Ashoke Dhude said, "As per preliminary information, maintenance work was on when the incident took place." Police said as per one of the injured, the maintenance work was given to a private firm and the explosion occurred when the welding was going on. Despite repeated attempts, RCF officials could not be reached for comments. (Reopens BOM 7) Fertiliser Minister Ananth Kumar has announced compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to families of the deceased persons and Rs 50,000 to the injured. Besides this, RCF will also bear all the treatment expenses of the injured persons. RCF Managing Director Manoj Mishra, who is holding additional charge of the company, said the blast took place at the boiler which was undergoing maintenance work. Mishra added that an investigation is on to find out the cause of the explosion. Meanwhile, the other two boilers and all other plants are fully safe and are in operation. He assured that there will be no impact on production of fertilisers. Three workers were today killed and as many injured in a boiler blast at the Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers (RCF) plant in suburban Chembur. "Three people died and three were injured in a boiler blast. The injured were shifted to a nearby hospital," a senior official, who inspected the spot, told PTI. Mumbai police spokesperson Ashoke Dhude said the explosion occurred during the maintenance work. "As per preliminary information, maintenance work was on when the incident took place," he said. Despite repeated attempts, RCF officials could not be reached for comments. Four persons, including two women, were booked here for allegedly striping a minor girl, police said today. The incident occurred on June 29 at around 11 PM in Western Park locality in Bhayander, where the accused caught hold of the victim with whom they had some previous scuffle, assistant police inspector of Kashimira Police Station Govind Borade told PTI. The four abused the victim, aged around 17, in her neighbourhood and then allegedly disrobed her in full public view, the officer said quoting the complaint filed by the girl yesterday. All the accused are in the age group of 25-30 years and no arrest has been made so far in connection with the incident. The victim is stated to be under extreme fear, he said. A case under IPC sections 354 (criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The Aam Aadmi Party government is facing "obstacles" in governing as it has not entered into any "setting" unlike the previous dispensations in the national capital, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said today. Kejriwal took on BJP and Congress, alleging both the parties have "similar characters" in terms of being "corrupt and exploitative". He said that the task taken up during the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement was continuing. "Some people wonder as to why the previous Delhi governments did not face any such trouble. We too would have had a smooth ride had we not tried to shake the prevailing system. Previous governments had entered into settings. "For example, we could have entered into a setting with power companies. But our stance is of zero corruption. We took suo motu action against our minister based on an SMS by throwing him out of the Cabinet," he said. The AAP chief was speaking at the launch of 'Bhagat Singh's Jail Notebook' at an event here. The Delhi government will make the book available in school libraries, he said. Kejriwal termed as "futile" the change of ruling parties at the Centre, saying the two parties were "equally corrupt, exploitative and unequal in their attitude towards the poor". "The more AAP is experimenting with new ideas, the more trouble it is facing. If we had not done anything and enjoyed power then our stint would have been smooth like others. But we will have to continue our struggle. The movement that was started during Anna's time continues," he said. Recounting his decision to form a political party and its subsequent stunning electoral debut which he described as a "milestone", Kejriwal said he now has to struggle "ten times" more as compared to the movement days. "During our first 49-day government, bribery across departments had stopped. We took similar action during the first four months of our present term but then the ACB was taken over by the Centre through paramilitary forces," Kejriwal alleged. On the legacy of Bhagat Singh, Kejriwal said the young revolutionary might not have foreseen that his ideas would continue to "haunt" the current ruling class like it had troubled the British. "His ideas continue to inspire but the important question is whether even 10 per cent of his dreams have been fulfilled. Those dreams of justice and equality enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution," he said. AAP will contest the 2017 Assembly polls in Punjab. The third poster of Ajay Devgn's directorial venture "Shivaay" is out and for the first time it introduced one of the female leads Erika Kaar. Kaar, a Polish actress, will be making her Bollywood debut with the action-thriller. Devgn took to Twitter to unveil the new poster. "Hang on for your life for a mid air Romantic Adventure @6928mts #BeShivaay," he tweeted. The poster reveals Devgn reaching out to the falling actress from a railing, hinting that the film has been shot in freezing snow-laden peaks of Bulgaria. The movie also features, actress Saira Banu's grand niece Sayyeshaa Saigal. The film is set to release on October 28. Condemning the terror attack in Bangladesh capital in which 20 people were killed, spiritual head of Ajmer Dargah Zainul Abedin Ali Khan today said a global force is needed to fight ISIS which is running a campaign to defame Islam by killing innocent people. "A world level joint force is needed to be formed against ISIS which is running a campaign to defame Islam by killing innocent people. Attack at Istanbul airport in the month of Ramzan is highly condemnable and it shows that the attackers had no concern for this," Khan said in a statement here. "ISIS, Taliban and such organizations and outfits use the name of religion but they have no connection with the principles of Islam. Their actions has only created problems for Muslims," he said. The international community should come together and form a joint force and government of India should initiate for this," he added. Millions of Australians began voting today in national elections that pits Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull against Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten who is vying to become the country's fifth premier in three years, with opinion polls predicting a close race. Thousands of voters queued up to cast their votes at the polling stations that opened at 8:00 a.m. (local time). Over 15 million voters are expected to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of over 1,600 candidates, including five of Indian-origin, contesting from over 55 political parities. The polls will elect all 226 members including 150 members for the lower house of the 45th Parliament after an eight-week official campaign period following the double dissolution announced by Prime Minister Turnbull in April. In the 150-seat House of Representatives, Labor currently holds 55 seats, the coalition 90 and five seats are held by minor parties or independents. The main contest is between Turnbull and his conservative coalition against a Labor opposition led by Shorten. A Newspoll published in The Australian showed Turnbull's Liberal/National coalition 50.5 to 49.5% in front on a two-party basis. The UK's decision to leave the European Union appears to have benefited Turnbull. Australian Election Commission said it had 75,000 people working around the country in about 7000 polling stations. Meanwhile, four men were reportedly arrested overnight and later released for allegedly damaging polling booths in St Kilda area in Melbourne. Victoria police said a number of people had damaged signs and posters at polling booths in the area and elsewhere. In Sydney, 61-year-old Turnbull voted along with his wife Lucy at the Double Bay Public Schoolin his seat of Wentworth. He repeated his call for voters to choose the Coalition and avoid a hung parliament. "As I said there's never been a more exciting time to vote for a stable majority Coalition government, an economic plan that secures our future," he said. Shorten, 49, continued his last minute campaign in the key marginal seats of Reid, Lindsay and Macquariein western Sydney. He is expected tofly to Melbourne this afternoon to cast his vote in his electorate of Maribyrnong. Shorten said he was confident Labor could win. "Labor is very competitive," he said, adding"I know that some of the conservative political papers have run their drum beat and whatever happens, the Liberals will win. The fact of the matter is that Labor's agenda has been speaking to the daily lives and experiences of Australians." In May, Turnbull announced double dissolution of Parliament which led to two months of election campaign filled with slogans and promises. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will inaugurate the famous Kolkata Rathayatra organised by for the second consecutive year on July 6, the religious group said on Saturday. Over lakhs of devotees are expected to pull the chariots of deities Lord Jagannath, Balaram and Subhadra on the occasion when the yatra will move through important thoroughfares of the city starting from Hungerford Street opposite the temple at Albert Road. is celebrating its Golden Jubilee this year. Banerjee will reach the temple at around 10AM and after a 'darshan' flag off the annual journey of the three deities, ISKCON spokesman said. The Rath will move through Minto Park, Sarat Bose Road, Hazra Road, Hazra crossing, SP Mukherjee Road, ATM Road, Exide Crossing, JL Nehru Road, Outram Road to Brigade Parade Ground, where daily special darshan of Lord Jagananth from July 7 to 14 has been arranged. Prasad will also be distributed, he said. Cultural programmes, special contests for empowerment, youth festival and performances by Russian dancers, Dona Ganguly dance troop will be held during the festival. IIT Kharagpur students will hold classes on reducing stress and mental fatigue, he said. The 'ultarathayatra' will start on July 14 noon, when the rathas will return to Albert Road temple. On the return journey, the chariots will go through JL Nehru Road, Esplande, SN Banerjee Road, CIT Road, Suhrawardy Avenue, Shakespeare Sarani and Hungerford street, he added. Bangladesh's worst hostage crisis ended today with heavily-armed commandos storming a restaurant popular with expatriates here in the diplomatic enclave and killing six ISIS militants who had been holding many people, including foreigners, captive for more than 12 hours. Gunshots and sounds of explosion rocked the area at 7:40 AM (local time) as security forces launched an offensive to end the siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan diplomatic zone. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said security forces "successfully" wrapped up their operation, freeing 13 hostages after killing six terrorists and capturing one militant at the Spanish restaurant. "I thank Allah as we were able to eliminate the terrorists and rescue the hostages," she said at a function, an hour after army commandos, joined by other security and law enforcement agencies, freed the hostages. "We could rescue 13 of the hostages, some with wounds... but none of the terrorists could flee the scene, six of them were killed on the spot and one was captured alive," Hasina said, without specifying the exact number of casualties in the hostage drama. The Premier also did not elaborate as to how many hostages were inside the restaurant. Earlier reports had suggested that over 30 people were held hostage, 20 of them being foreigners. Among those rescued were Indian, Sri Lankan and Japanese nationals, media reports said. Hasina reaffirmed her commitment to eradicate militancy and terrorism saying, "Our government will do everything to uproot the militants and violent extremists in the country". She also questioned the terrorists' identity as Muslims, saying, "What sort of Muslims are they?". "They (gunmen) defied the call of Ramadan's (special) prayers and went to kill people...The way they killed people is intolerable. They don't have any religion...Terrorism is their religion," Hasina said. An RAB official said at least five bodies were recovered during the raid, but did not confirm whether they were of hostages or gunmen. The hostage crisis followed a Friday night gun-battle with police that left at least two senior officers dead and 40 people injured. Fire-fighters rushed to the scene after the raid this morning with extinguishers, probably to put out flames from explosions. A medical team also rushed to the scene with stretchers. Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack through its Amaq agency, nearly four hours after the hostage crisis unfolded, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence group, which monitors jihadist activity online. It later issued a number of photographs of what it said were scenes from inside the restaurant. The pictures showed what appeared to be a number of bodies lying in pools of blood. : The rift in Congress-led UDF in Kerala over the bar bribery scandal today came out in the open today with youth wing of Kerala Congress(M) directly accusing senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala of hatching a conspiracy to bring discredit to its leader K M Mani during UDF rule. Kerala Youth Front, the frontal organisation of Kerala Congress (M), today wrote to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, seeking an impartial and honest enquiry into the factors that led to UDF's electoral debacle in the May 16 Assembly polls.. The outfit alleged that Congress leaders, including then Home Minister Chennithala and his colleague Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash had played a role in targeting Mani, who was Finance Minister in the Oommen Chandy-led Cabinet, in the bar bribery scandal that led to the downfall of the UDF regime. Chennithala, leader of the opposition in Kerala Assembly, was recently appointed as chairman of UDF, in which Kerala Congress (M) is a key partner. The letter claimed that in the election debacle scenario, the conspiracy theory is slowly unravelling with fingers pointing to many leaders and various factions of the Congress party having been involved in the conspiracy. "Many senior Congress leaders,including the then Cabinet ministers/Central leaders were actively engaged directly or through their proxies and political minions to bring discredit to our leader K M Mani," the letter alleged. "They include Congress bigwigs like Adoor Prakash, Ramesh Chennithala, the then state Home Minister," it said. "Even the role of then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is now in doubt," said the letter, signed by Saji Manjakkadambil, president of the Kerala Youth Front. Describing Mani as the most seasoned and experienced administrator, it claimed there was a demand among public at large that he be made Chief Minister. "The media too reverberated with the demand. CPI(M) had invited Mani to its Palakkad plenary session to inaugurate the seminar on Kerala Economy. There was a murmur among Congress leaders that Mani was a political threat to their game plan." "In this backdrop was hatched the bar bribery scandal with the help of some bar owners and Congress leaders which they dropped on October 30 last year," it said. (REOPEN MDS7) The letter said UDF and the ministry 'shuddered' at the devastating impact of the political bomb."But certain Congress leaders were laughing in their heart of hearts," it alleged. It also accused Chennithala and Chandy of attending the betrothal ceremony of the daughter of controversial hotelier Biju Ramesh, who had levelled bribery charges on former ministers Mani and K Babu in the alleged bar bribery scam. It said Kerala PCC chief V M Sudheeran had come out openly against both Chennithala and Chandy for attending the ceremony. "Being instrumental in the collapse of UDF in Kerala, the Congress party owes an unconditional apology to its allies who were victims of the undermining and subotaging by Congress factions and as an act of remorse and penance, should initiate an enquiry about the group feuds and other topmost leaders involved in the Bar scam conspiracy to save UDF from self-destruction," the letter said. on Saturday asked Taiwan to provide a "responsible explanation" a day after the Taiwanese navy mistakenly fired a missile that hit a fishing boat killing one person coinciding with the ruling Communist Party of China's 95th anniversary celebrations. A Taiwanese warship had accidentally fired a supersonic anti-ship missile towards mainland . One fisherman was killed and three others injured after the missile, with a range of 300 kilometres, flew about 75 kilometres before plunging into waters off Penghu, a Taiwanese -administered island in the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan military authorities had apologised for the casualties caused by the "missile blunder", state-run Xinhua news agency reported. "The incident occurred and caused severe impact at a time when the mainland has repeatedly emphasised safeguarding peaceful development of cross-Strait relations based on the political foundation of the 1992 Consensus," Zhang, head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said. Zhang told media that "the Taiwan side should offer a responsible explanation of the matter". The missile launch caused ripples as on Friday observed the 95th anniversary of the CPC with grand celebrations marked by a tough speech by President Xi Jinping during which he firmly ruled out independence for Taiwan. "We firmly oppose the 'Taiwan independence' secessionist activities," Xi said at the ceremony marking the 95th founding anniversary of the CPC. "More than 1.3 billion Chinese people and the whole Chinese nation will by no means tolerate secessionist activities by any person, at any time and in any form," he said. China claims Taiwan as part of the mainland and never recognised Taiwan's estrangement in 1949. Taiwan, which enjoys close ties with US has been carrying out military buildup to deter any threat from China. Relations between the two sides which showed significant improvement in recent years took a hit after election of Tsai Ing-wen as president who defeated Ma Ying-Jeou who had promoted normalisation of ties between the two sides in the recent poll. China has scaled down the normalisation process since then. For its part Taiwan quickly moved to clarify that the missile launch was a mistake and ordered investigation into how it was misfired into the Taiwan Strait. The Taiwan navy said seven officers including the petty officer who fired the missile and navy commander Huang Shu-kuang would be disciplined, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. Normal life was hit today in eight Odisha districts in backward KBK region during a bandh called by Congress which dubbed the BJP government as anti-tribal and demanded halt to alleged exploitation of tribals and implementation of Forest Rights Act. The bandh was by and large peaceful as tight security arrangements were made to prevent any untoward incident, police said. Shops and business establishments in tribal-dominated districts like Kalahandi, Balangir, Koraput, Sonepur, Nuapada, Nabarangpur, Rayagada and Malkangiri remained closed during the dawn-to-dusk bandh. Vehicular movement was also disrupted in the Kalahandi- Balangir-Koraput region as Congress workers blocked roads at different places, police said. Private as well as government buses, trucks and other vehicles remained off the roads leaving a large number of commuters stranded at several places. Essential services and educational institutions were kept out of the purview of the shutdown. A report from Kalahandi district said the bandh disrupted normal life at Bhawanipatna, Kesinga, Junagarh and other urban centres. The bandh also protested against the arrest of Congress leader Pradip Majhi, who was released on bail yesterday. Claiming that the bandh was a complete success, Odisha PCC president Prasad Harichandan said it evoked "overwhelming support" from the people as they are "against atrocities perpetrated against poor tribals and forest dwellers under the BJD regime." The PCC chief dubbed the NDA government at the Centre and BJD regime in Odisha as "anti-tribal" and claimed that Congress leaders including Majhi had been arrested on false charges in Nabarangpur district. Alleging that government officials were exploiting the tribals, particularly in undivided KBK districts in the name of land giving pattas, he said false cases are being slapped against them and arrested when they protest. He also alleged that huge amounts had been taken by forest officials at Raighar in Nabarangpur district from tribals for years to give them land pattas. When tribals along with Congress leaders staged protests and demanded pattas, they were arrested on false charges, Harichandan alleged and claimed that the government was shielding the culprits. The tribals and forest dwellers are also being deprived of their rights over forest produces like kendu leaves, he added. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday alleged the Delhi Police did not take action in a clash between two students' groups at Deshbandhu College in which one person was injured as one of the groups was led by "son of a BJP MP". "The accused is son of an MP and police are under political pressure which is why no action has been taken," party's Delhi unit convenor Dilip Pandey alleged. MLA from Laxmi Nagar Nitin Tyagi claimed, "BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri's son Himanshu Bidhuri thrashed a student identified as Abhinav. He is now admitted at a trauma centre. The police have not registered an FIR as he is son of a BJP MP." Ramesh, however, dismissed the charge, saying the leaders were naming his son to "create hype and seek media publicity". "My son is a law student of Delhi University and an activist of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). leaders are simply trying to create hype and seek media publicity by naming him," he said. "Himanshu reached the college after the argument between the two groups had ended. But his name was dragged into it to attract media attention," Ramesh said. Pandey alleged police took no action when AAP councillor Rajesh Kumar was beaten up by BJP councillors during a joint meeting of the three municipal corporations and when a professor of SRCC was attacked by an ABVP leader. "Is BJP giving a message to its members that nothing will happen to them even if they attacked others and indulged in hooliganism?" he asked and demanded that police take action against the accused in all cases. The All India Students Association (AISA) had on Friday alleged that one of its activists was attacked by the members of BJP's student wing ABVP. ABVP, however, had denied the charge. "Abhinav Kumar, an AISA leader and last year's DUSU candidate was assisting DU Aspirants in the admission process when half a dozen youths led by ABVP leader Rajat Chaudhary started assaulting Abhinav. He was rushed to AIIMS," AISA's President Sucheta De had said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Madras High Court has directed Tamil Nadu government to consider creating trained full-time counsellors in schools as a long-time measure. The first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan, said closing a PIL: "The suggestion of the petitioner that each school should have a child counsellor, though desirable, possibly is not feasible at the moment because of lack of sufficient number of qualified persons." Petitioner E Ranganayaki, an advocate, prayed for a direction to the Union and state governments to have trained and professional full-time counsellors experienced in child psychology in schools. "We consider it appropriate to put to the Additional Advocate General P H Arvind Pandian that the creation of requisite trained personnel should be a long-term measure by creating sufficient seats in educational institutions for the subject, especially as there is potential of employability," the court said. If the petitioner had any grievance over the matter, she could approach the Tamil Nadu Commission for Protection of Child Rights as well, the court said. The petitioner underscored the need for such counsellors to address childrens' needs. Among other things, she highlighted that sexual abuse could have serious short- and long-term problems for a child. "Many of these children have never told anyone about what happened to them," the petitioner submitted in her plea. She pointed out that children could learn about sexual abuse, adolescence, puberty and personal safety from such counsellors. People using Idea mobile connection in some parts of Kerala were severely hit today as they experienced connectivity problems for several hours due to power outage. Customers in large numbers gathered outside the main Idea office in Kochi questioning the delay in restoring connectivity. Later in the evening the service provider's PR firm emailed a statement to the media, saying it has managed to resolve the problem and network was restored. "We at Idea constantly endeavour to ensure seamless connectivity for our customers, however at times due unavoidable circumstances, connectivity can be hampered. We regret the inconvenience caused to our customers," it said. Nine persons were today airlifted after they got stranded on a rock in the middle of Damanganga river in the district as its water level rose suddenly due to rains in neighbouring Maharashtra. Police said an Indian Coast Guard (ICG) helicopter airlifted them after they remained stranded on the rock for several hours in the middle of the overflowing river near Bari Kachigam village at Umargam tehsil. "These persons were searching for the body of a boy from the same village who drowned in it a day ago. However, as the rains continued, the water level increased in the river even before they could come out, and were thus left stranded there," Valsad Superintendent of Police Prem Vir Singh said. "They climbed on a rock in the middle of the river and stayed there for hours before police arrived. When police called local fire department team, they said they will not be able to rescue them, upon which the ICG was asked to provide a helicopter to bring them out," Singh added. According to the officer, the rescue operation involving the helicopter went on for nearly an hour. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today handed over compensation cheques of Rs one crore each to the families of slain NDMC officer M M Khan and NIA officer Tanzil Ahmed. He paid floral tributes to Khan, NDMC estate officer, and Ahmed, NIA deputy superintendent of police (DSP), at a condolence meeting held at the Delhi Secretariat here. "We have heard stories of Tanzil Ahmed's bravery in several cases. He sacrificed his life serving the country. On the other side, NDMC estate officer M M Khan was murdered for refusing to accept a bribe of Rs 3 crore. "Khan was an honest officer and it is impossible to find such officers," the Delhi Chief Minister told a gathering here. The solatium cheque was handed over to the daughters of Khan as per the policy of the Delhi government. Another cheque of same amount was given by the CM to Ahmed's children who are studying in school. Motorcycle-borne assailants had killed 45-year-old NIA officer Ahmed by pumping 24 bullets into his body and his wife Farzana Khatoon at a village in Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh this April. NDMC estate officer Khan was shot dead in May. Delhi Police has arrested a hotelier in connection with his murder. Noting that the solatium amount was "nothing" compared to the bravery shown by the two officers and cannot compensate for the lives lost, Kejriwal added that the relief money given by the government is a mark of respect for Khan and Ahmed. "In view of the atmosphere of 'corruption' in the country today, he (Khan) could have taken the bribe owing to poor financial condition of his family, but he refused. I want to request you (family members of both Khan and Ahmed) to approach me if you face any difficulty. We will continue our fight to ensure justice to you," he said. AAP Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan, who is also Chairman of Delhi Waqf Board, requested Kejriwal that the Board be given permission to bear all expenditures on education of the three daughters of the NDMC estate officer and a daughter and a son of Ahmed. The ruling Aam Aadmi Party headed by Kejriwal has been alleging involvement of BJP MP Maheish Girri and NDMC vice-chairman Karan Singh Tanwar in the murder of Khan. Last month, Girri, the East Delhi MP, had staged a sit-in outside Kejriwal's residence calling for a debate with him over the allegations. Dr Shashikala Wanjari has been appointed as the new Vice Chancellor of SNDT Women's University which is celebrating its centenary this year, Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao announced here today. Wanjari is presently serving as Professor and Head, Department of Education, Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU). She succeeds Professor Vasudha Kamat whose term ended on May 13. Mumbai University Vice Chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh was officiating as the vice chancellor after the completion of Kamat's tenure. Wanjari secured her MSc degree in Biochemistry and further took her M A in English and M.Ed from RTMNU. She later obtained PhD in Education. "Dr Wanjari has vast experience in teaching, research and administration," an official from the Raj Bhavan said. The Governor had set up a search committee under the chairmanship of retired Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court Justice Jagdish Bhalla to select the new vice chancellor for the university in April this year. Dr S Parasuraman, Director of Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Valsa Nair, Secretary of the Tourism and Cultural Affairs of Maharashtra government were members of the committee. "The Governor announced the selection of Wanjari after interviewing all the candidates recommended by the Search Committee on Friday," the official said. Edible oils extended gains for yet another week at the wholesale oils and oilseeds market during the week on the back of increased demand from retailers coupled with increased offtake by vanaspati millers. Castor oil in the non-edible section, also strengthened on persistent demand from consuming industries. Marketmen said sustained buying by retailers and vanaspati units to meet rising demand, mainly kept edible oil prices higher. In the national capital, groundnut mill delivery (Gujarat) oil advanced by Rs 200 to Rs 12,400 per quintal, while groundnut solvent refined held steady at Rs 1,910-1,960 per tin. Mustard expeller (Dadri) and cottonseed mill delivery (Haryana) oils rose by Rs 100 and Rs 50 to Rs 8,400 and Rs 6,450 per quintal, respectively. Mustard pakki and kachi ghani oils traded also higher by Rs 20 each to Rs 1,320-1,370 and Rs 1,370-1,470 per tin respectively. Palmolein (RBD) and palmolein (Kandla) oils too went up by Rs 50 each to Rs 5,850 and Rs 5,900 per quintal, respectively. Soyabean refined mill delivery (Indore) and soyabean degum (Kandla) oils followed suit and strengthened by a similar margin to Rs 6,800 and Rs 6,500 per quintal, respectively. Among non-edible oils, castor oil rose by Rs 50 to Rs 9,550-9,650 per quintal, while linsed oil held steady at Rs 9,750 per quintal. Grains: Wheat prices edged higher at the wholesale grains market during the week largely supported by increased offtake by flour mills against tight supplies in the market. Maize also strengthened on pick up in demand from consuming industries. Traders said besides increased offtake by flour mills, tight stocks in the market on fall in arrivals from producing belts, mainly led to rise in wheat prices. In the national capital, wheat dara (for mills) and wheat (desi) edged up to Rs 1,810-1,815 and Rs 2,300-2,850 from previous weeks's close of Rs 1,795-1,800 and Rs 2,285-2,835 per quintal respectively. Atta chakki delivery followed suit and traded higher at Rs 1,815-1,820 against last level of Rs 1,800-1,805 per quintal. Other bold grains like, maize also finished higher at Rs 1,650-1,660 as compared to previous week's level of Rs 1,625-1,635 per quintal. However, rice basmati common and Pusa-1121 variety moved in a narrow range in limied deals and settled around previous levels of Rs 5,800-6,000 and Rs 4,700-5,650 per quintal respectively. Pulses: The wholesale pulses market depicted a firm trend during the week with prices of select commodities led by gram, soaring on speculative buying by stockists, driven by rising demand from retailers amid tight stocks positions despite government measures to curb rising prices. Traders said speculative buying by stockists, triggered by paucity of stocks in the markets and increased demand from retailers, mainly pushed up gram and other pulses prices. The government has recently decided to enhance the buffer stock limit of pulses to 8 lakh tonnes from 1.5 lakh tonnes for making market intervention when prices firm up in retail markets. It is also importing pulses to boost domestic supply. The government has procured 1.19 lakh tonnes of pulses so far from farmers for creating buffer stock and also contracted to import 46,000 tonnes as part of its effort to cool prices. The Centre will also ask state governments to expedite lifting of pulses from the buffer stock for sale at subsidised rate not more than Rs 120 per kg. To relieve consumers from skyrocketing prices of pulses, the Centre on Thursday directed National Consumer Cooperative Federation (NCCF) to sell chana (gram) dal at a subsidised rate of Rs 60/kg in the national capital. NCCF is already selling tur and urad at a subsidised rate of Rs 120/kg along with Mother Dairy and Kendriya Bhandar. The government also decided to import 7,500 tonnes of chana and masoor dal in the coming days to boost domestic supply and curb prices. In the national capital, gram, gramdal local and best settled notably higher at Rs 7,600-8100, Rs 7,900-8,200 and Rs 8,300-8,400 as compared to previous week's levels of Rs 6,900-7,400, Rs 7,200-7,500 and Rs 7,600-7,700 per quintal respectively. Kabli gram small variety followed suit and rose by Rs 200 to Rs 8,200-9,500 per quintal. Besin Shaktibhog and Rajdhani quoted higher at Rs 3,350 each instead of Rs 3,120 per 35 kg bag in line with gram trend. Urad and its dal chilka local also went up by a whopping Rs 400 each to Rs 10,800-12,300 and Rs 11,100-12,200 per quintal respectively. Its dal best quality and dhoya followed suit and enquired higher by a similar margin to to Rs 11,200-11,700 and Rs 11,600-11,900 per quintal respectively. Arhar and its dal dara variety ended higher at Rs 9,150 and Rs 12,000-13,700 against last levels of Rs 8,900 and Rs 11,700-13,400 per quintal, respectively. Masoor small and bold rose by Rs 100 each to Rs 6,050-6,350 and Rs 6,100-6,400 per quintal respectively. Its dal local and best quality traded higher by the same margin to Rs 6,600-7,100 and Rs 6,700-7,200 per quintal. Malka local and best quality too finished higher by Rs 100 each to Rs 7,100-7,400 and Rs 7,200-7,500 per quintal respectively. In line with overall trend, peas white and green moved up by Rs 200 each to Rs 3,600-3,625 and Rs 3,800-3,900 per quintal. However, moong and its dal chilka local moved in a narrow range in scattered deals and settled steady at Rs 6,100-6,700 and Rs 6,650-7,050 per quintal respectively. Its dal dhoya local and best quality traded at previous levels of Rs 7,050-7,550 and Rs 7,550-7,750 per quintal respectively. Moth also unaltered at Rs 5,500-5,900 per quintal. SUGAR: Powered by strong demand from bulk consumers and retailers, sugar prices spurted by up to Rs 70 per quintal at the wholesale sugar market in the national capital during the week under review. Marketmen attributed rise in sweetener prices to robust demand from bulk consumers such as soft-drink and ice-cream makers, driven by ongoing summer season. Moreover, reports of a firming trend in overseas markets also influenced sugar prices, they said. Sugar ready M-30 and S-30 prices were up by Rs 20 each to settle the week at Rs 3,810-3,880 and Rs 3,800-3,870 per quintal. Mill delivery M-30 and S-30 too enquired higher by Rs 40 each to end at Rs 3,480-3,580 and Rs 3,470-3,570. In the millgate section, sugar Budhana and Thanabhavan rose by Rs 70 each to Rs 3,560 and Rs 3,550 per quintal. Also, Dorala, Dhanora and Chandpur by Rs 60 each to conclue at Rs 3,570, Rs 3,550 and Rs 3,540 per quintal. Sugar Mawana, Asmoli, Dhampur and Sakoti rose by Rs 50 each to finish at Rs 3,570, Rs 3,550, Rs 3,540 and Rs 3,540, while Kinnoni and Khatuli up by Rs 40 each to Rs 3,580 and Rs 3,570 per quintal respectively. Prices of Simbholi and Nazibabad increased by Rs 30 each to Rs 3,570 and Rs 3,560, while Ramala, Anupshaher and Baghpat gained by Rs 20 each to Rs 3,550, Rs 3,540 and Rs 3,560 per quintal. Sugar Morana also inched up by Rs 10 to settle at Rs 3,560 per quintal. JAGGERY: Weak conditions prevailed at the wholesale gur (Jaggery) market in the national capital during the week under review with prices of some varieties falling by up to Rs 100 per quintal on increase arrivals from growing regions amid selective buying by retailers and stockists. On the other hand, Muzaffarnagar and Muradnagar gur markets depicted a mixed trend as prices of some gur varieties rose,while others decline on sluggish demand. In Delhi, gur pedi declined from previous week's closing levels of Rs 3,900-4,000 to settle at Rs 3,800-4,000, persisting a net fall of Rs 100 per quintal. Similarly, gur Dhayya prices dropped by Rs 100 to end the week at Rs 4,000-4,100 per quintal. While, gur Chakku and Shakkar prices ruled flat throughout the week at Rs 3,600-3,700 and Rs 4,100-4,200 per quintal respectively. At Muzaffarnagar, gur Raskat registered a rise of Rs 100 to close at Rs 2,900-2,950 per quintal due to shortage of stocks along with brisk demand from beer makers but prices of gur chakku fell by Rs 100 during the week at Rs 3,200-3,300 per quintal. At Muradnagar, prices of gur pedi advanced from previous week's closing levels of Rs 3,500-3,550 to finish at Rs 3,500-3,600. However, trading in gur Khurpa and Laddoo in Muzaffarnagar, while Dhayya in Muradnagar could not take place due to unavalability of ready stocks. Dryfruits: Almond and walnut prices declined at the wholesale dry fruits market in the national capital during the week as demand from retailers and stockists receded. Sufficient stocks following increased arrivals from producing belts also put pressure on the prices, traders said. Almond California prices fell by Rs 500 to end the week at Rs 15,800-16,000 per 40 kg, while its kernel traded lower by Rs 25 at Rs 555-565 per kg. Almond gurbani and girdhi prices fell by up to Rs 200 to conclude at Rs 10,500-11,200 and 5,200-5,400 per 40 kg, respectively. Cashew kernel (No 180, 210, 240 and 230) prices were down by Rs 5 each per kg to finish at Rs 895-925, Rs 835-845, Rs 745-755 and Rs 670-695 and its broken (2, 4 and 8 pieces) also declined Rs 5 each to conclude at Rs 570-650, Rs 540-640 and Rs 530-610 per kg, respectively. Copra fell up to Rs 500 to finish at Rs 9,000-11,000 per quintal. Kishmish Indian yellow and green traded lower at Rs 2,700-4,400 and Rs 4,900-8,900 per 40 kg bag. Pistachio hairati and peshawari also eased up to Rs 10 to finish at Rs 1,140-1,200 and Rs 1,350-1,425 per kg, respectively. Walnut and its kernel prices also drifted down by Rs 10 each to ended at Rs 290-390 and Rs 790-1,040 per kg. The Madras High Court has directed Tamil Nadu government to examine the feasibility of introducing LKG and UKG sections in state-run schools and arrive at a decision, while complying with the guidelines of the Muthukumaran Committee report, in four months. Disposing of a petition by Parents Union for Students Educational Rights (PUSER), Cuddalore district, the first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan said that "the question would be whether LKG and UKG classes are to be provided in Government Schools. "In our view, the aforesaid is a policy decision to be taken by the government which may examine the stand of the petitioner, whether it is feasible and desirable that government schools should have also LKG and UKG Classes." "A decision in this behalf should be taken one way or the other within a maximum period of four months by keeping in mind the recommendation of the Muthukumaran Committee," it said. PUSER had sought a direction to the state government to implement pre-school by introducing LKG and UKG classes in all government primary and elementary schools. The petitioner referred to Section 11 of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Act, 2009 and prayed that the government be directed to implement it as per the guidelines enumerated in Muthukumaran Committee Report, 2006. PUSER contended that parents are keen to admit their wards in private schools, which have LKG classes, while the government schools lack the same. Earlier, when the matter came up before the bench, the Special Government Pleader (Education) T N Rajagopalan had submitted that anganwadi schools were available for the benefit of younger children. The Muthukumaran Committee was constituted by the DMK government in 2006 on implementation of the concept of uniform educational system. A Gay Pride march in Paris today has caused a row in France's hard Right National Front (FN), with some student supporters backing an event decried by a party vice-chairman. "More than ever necessary after the homophobic attack in Orlando, we wish a good #MarcheDesFiertes (Gay Pride) to all," tweeted the association of FN students at the Paris Institute of Political Studies. The tweet, just as the march started in the capital, was met with consternation however from other FN supporters -- not least vice-president Louis Aliot, who took to Twitter to give an entirely different line. "The FN does not support the Gay Pride March, an exhibitionist and anti-FN symbol of militant communitarianism," Aliot said in a message retweeted by FN lawmaker Marion Marechal-Le Pen, niece of party FN president Marine Le Pen. Another party vice-president, Marie-Christine Arnautu, as well as the leader of the party's youth wing Gaetan Dussausaye, also disapproved of the pro-march message from the Sciences Po grouping. Dussausaye said it was "out of the question... To support the Gay Pride march". Arnautu also expressed astonishment while FN regional councillor Axel Loustau indicated that "hoisting aloft one's sexuality as a standard is as indecent and measly as homophobia." There was no immediate reaction from another party vice-president Florian Philippot -- outed two years ago by a French magazine, Closer, as gay. At the time, decrying an attack on his private life by the magazine, Philippot insisted that "the FN is not gay friendly, (but) it is not the opposite either. It is French friendly." Former FN leader Jean-Marie Le Pen once indicated he saw homosexuality as a "biological and social anomaly" although Marine Le Pen, his daughter, has sought to soften the party line in advocating, for instance, civil partnerships for same-sex couples. Thousands of people took to the streets for today's march amid tight if discreet security three weeks after the attack on a Florida nightclub which killed 49 people. "Three weeks on from the LGBT-phobic and racist attack in Orlando, to march is an act of resistance. We must not give in to fear," insisted Amandine Miguel, spokesperson for organisers Inter-LGBT association. On Paris's Place de la Bastille, marchers stopped to observe a minute's silence in memory of the Florida victims. Some 1,000 police were on hand along the 4.6 kilometre route, reduced by a third from the normal route eight months on from the Paris attacks. The march usually takes place one week earlier but was put back with France still hosting the group phase of Euro 2016. Palestinian militants fired a rocket from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, causing material damage but no injuries, the army said. "A rocket was launched from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel and hit in the city of Sderot, causing damage to a building," a statement from the military read. "No injuries have been reported." Israeli media said the rocket had hit a kindergarten. Medics said they treated two people for shock. No group in Gaza claimed responsibility for the attack, which came hours after Israel announced a lockdown on the West Bank city of Hebron and cuts in monthly tax payments made to the Palestinian Authority, following a wave of deadly attacks on Israelis. Yesterday's rocket is the thirteenth projectile fired from the Gaza Strip -- which is run by the Islamist movement Hamas -- to have hit Israel since the start of 2016. Smaller, more radical Islamist groups have often been blamed, with Hamas forces either unwilling or unable to prevent the rocket fire. Israel categorically holds Hamas responsible for rocket attacks from Gaza. Earlier yesterday, the Middle East diplomatic quartet said that the "lack of control of Gaza by the Palestinian Authority, and the dire humanitarian situation" were among the factors that "feed instability and ultimately impede efforts to achieve a negotiated solution." "Preventing the use of territory for attacks against Israel is a key committment that is essential to long-term peace and security," the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- which comprise the quartet -- said in a report. An organisation working for today accused the Jammu and Kashmir government of failing to provide jobs to 221 youths under the prime minister's rehabilitation package for the community. In a memorandum to Governor N N Vohra, the Youth All India Kashmir Samaj (YAIKS) alleged that the government was "discouraging" Kashmiri Pandit youths who were ready to serve in the Valley. "You are requested to direct the authorities concerned to implement the high court order for appointment of 221 youths who are ready to serve in Kashmir Valley under the Prime Minister's Return and Rehabilitation Package," YAIKS President R K Bhat said. "The Jammu and Kashmir government is discouraging who are ready to serve in Kashmir Valley," he said. "It is quite unfortunate that the appointment of Kashmiri Pandit youths is still kept pending for unknown reasons, which implies highest degree of negligence and callous attitude of recruiting agencies," he said. Bhat said the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had in 2015 ruled that the 221 candidates are "legally justified and deserved" the posts. He said YAIKS, which is spearheading a movement on the employment issue, will ensure that jobs are provided to 6,000 youths as promised in the prime minister's package. Guinea-Bissau has recorded three cases of Zika, becoming the second country in West Africa where the dangerous viral disease has been detected, the government said today. "Three cases of contamination by Zika virus have been confirmed," a statement quoted Health Minister Domingos Malu as saying. The cases occurred in the Bijagos archipelago, a group of 88 islands of which 23 are inhabited, Malu told a cabinet meeting yesterday. The communique gave no further detail about the three cases, their location or how the disease may have arrived on the Bijagos. A hospital source told AFP that investigations were underway but the first case may have occurred early last month on Bubaque, one of the Bijagos islands. A former Portuguese colony of 1.6 million people, Guinea-Bissau suffers from chronic poverty and instability. Previously, the only other country in West Africa where Zika had been detected was Cape Verde, an archipelago in the Atlantic, where 7,500 cases have been recorded since October 2015. Today's statement said the authorities were taking steps to prevent further spread of the mosquito-borne virus. It announced that an anti-Zika commission had been set up, comprising several ministers under the authority of Prime Minister Baciro Dja. Zika is benign in most people but has been linked to microcephaly -- a shrinking of the brain and skull -- in babies, and to rare adult-onset neurological problems such as Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which can result in paralysis and death. In an outbreak that started last year, about 1.5 million people have been infected with Zika in Brazil, and more than 1,600 babies born with abnormally small heads and brains. Expressing displeasure over the progress in investigation, the Bombay High Court has asked the investigating police officer to appear on July 13 in a case filed against two doctors of Shirdi Saibaba Sansthan hospital for alleged malpractices. The high court, hearing a petition, warned yesterday that if the investigating officer does not respond to inform the progress of probe done so far, then on the next occasion it would consider initiating contempt proceedings against him. "This court will consider on the next date of hearing for need to proceed against the investigating officer under the provisions of the Contempt of Courts Act for not extending cooperation in deciding matters, which in my opinion, amounts to interference in process of administration of justice," said Justice N W Sambre of the Aurangabad bench of the high court. Meanwhile, the court continued till July 13 the interim protection from arrest granted earlier to the two doctors namely Harish Bajaj and Gaurav Verma. "Prima facie, this court finds that the investigating officer is not cooperating in deciding the present application. In my opinion, it will be appropriate to direct the investigating officer to attend this court, with complete instructions and entire record, on July, 13 2016, at 2.30 PM," said the judge. Shirdi Saibaba Sansthan had filed an affidavit in the Bombay High Court on a PIL filed by activist Sanjay Kale saying disciplinary inquiry is being conducted against two doctors of its hospital for alleged malpractices. The affidavit was filed recently on a PIL alleging malpractices committed by doctors and demanding action against them. The trust had also assured that if found guilty, civil and criminal action would be taken against the doctors. The PIL claimed that the two doctors had allegedly obtained illegal gratification in purchase of cardiological materials like stents, balloons and other devices supplied by Heart Beat Pvt Ltd. In the affidavit, Sansthan's Chief Executive Officer Bajirao Shinde, in response to the allegations, said it had come to the notice of authorities that both the doctors were allegedly following unlawful practise of taking bribe in the form of commission from Heart Beat Pvt Ltd. "Both the doctors had allegedly acted contrary to the decision of the Sansthan taken in a meeting held on April 17, 2013, for financial gains," the affidavit alleged. The Maharashtra government also said in an affidavit that on November 27 last year, the Deputy CEO of Sansthan had informed Shirdi police station that on departmental inquiry, prima facie it was found that both the doctors had committed misconduct, misappropriation and medical negligence. Later, the Sansthan filed FIR in this case in Shirdi police station which began an inquiry. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah says it has killed the Islamic State military commander for the Qaa border area in Lebanon, where a series of suicide bombings and other attacks killed five people earlier this week. Hezbollah's media outlet Al-Manar said the group, which shares security responsibilities with the Lebanese army in areas along the eastern border with Syria, killed a commander known as Abu Khatab in a rocket attack. The army did not release any comment. Hezbollah, which also participates in Lebanon's government, has blamed the Qaa attacks on IS. Violence from neighboring Syria's civil war has spilled across the border in the past. Islamic State and al-Qaida militants briefly seized the Lebanese border town of Arsal in 2014, before security forces pushed them back across the frontier. An ice-cream vendor was today allegedly beaten to death by a group of youths at Maharajpur village here for not giving them a discount of two rupees, police said. Rashid, along with his friends, had gone to ice cream seller Islam and asked him for "a discount of two rupees" on each ice-cream, which he denied, SHO, Link road police station, Upendra Yadav said. The matter turned serious and a heated argument broke out between Rashid and Islam, who was then badly thrashed by the accused and his friends, Yadav said. Islam was then rushed by the locals to a nearby hospital, where he succumbed to the injuries, the SHO said. An FIR has been registered under section 304 of Indian Penal Code, he said, adding the prime accused, Rashid, has been arrested, while hunt is on for others. Twenty hostages, including an Indian girl and others mostly foreigners, were hacked to death by suspected ISIS militants inside a cafe popular with expats in the diplomatic zone here in the worst terror attack in Bangladesh before commandos launched an assault today killing six attackers and capturing one alive. Director of Military Operations Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said the militants slaughtered the hostages, most of them foreigners, before the joint operation led by the armed forces began. Most of those killed were found with their throats slit, he added. Indian girl Tarushi, 19, who was taken hostage was killed by the attackers. "I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka," External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted. Of the 20 hostages slain 9 were Italian, 7 Japanese, one American of Bangladeshi origin, and two were locals, the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. It added the victims comprised 10 men and as many women who were done to death during the 12-hour siege. Two senior police officers were also killed in the gunbattle that began last night. Italy's Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said one Italian was still unaccounted for. Brigadier Chowdhury said the bodies of the victims were recovered during a search in the Holey Artisan Bakery compound after the operation. "Army Para commando Unit-1 led the operation and killed six terrorists within 13 minutes," Chowdhury told reporters. The mission codenamed 'Operation Thunderbolt' was launched after the Prime Minister ordered the army to intervene to end the hostage crisis, he said. Gunshots and sounds of explosion rocked the area at 7:40 AM (local time) as security forces launched the final assault. Minutes later, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced the end of siege and said security forces "successfully" wrapped up their operation, freeing 13 hostages after killing six terrorists and capturing one militant at the Spanish cafe. "It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these people? They don't have any religion," she said in a televised speech, referring to the terrorists. "They don't have any religion...Terrorism is their religion," said Hasina, with Army chief General Abu Belal Muhammad Shafiul Huq by her side. "I thank Allah as we could destroy the terrorists and rescue the hostages," Hasina said, vowing to do everything to "uproot the militants and violent extremists" from Bangladesh. Later Hasina asked extremists to stop killing in the name of religion and urged unity among countrymen. She declared two days of mourning for the victims. Among those rescued were Indian, Sri Lankan and Japanese nationals, media reports said. Around 30 people were injured. Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack through its Amaq agency, nearly four hours after the hostage crisis unfolded, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence group, which monitors jihadist activity online. Israeli troops locked down the occupied West Bank's most populous city Hebron and surrounding villages today after two Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks nearby. The crackdown comes amid a flare-up in nine months of deadly violence as the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan looms, and after key diplomatic players called for urgent steps by both sides to revive the moribund peace process. Troops had closed all exit roads from Hebron except for the main northern one, an AFP correspondent reported. Palestinian security said the army had opened entrances to the villages of Sair and Halhul, but an Israeli military spokeswoman said they had been partially open from the beginning. The army yesterday said it would also deploy two additional battalions to the area. The measures were described as the "most substantial steps on the ground" since 2014, when Israeli forces carried out a huge search operation in the southern West Bank for three young hitchhikers abducted and later found murdered by Palestinian militants. At least 214 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese have been killed in a wave of violence that has rocked Israel and the Palestinian territories since October. The army has said that around 80 of the attacks on Israelis have been carried out by Palestinians from the Hebron area. Several hundred Jewish settlers live in a tightly guarded enclave in the heart of the city of more than 200,000 Palestinians, a persistent source of tensions. On Thursday, 19-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Nasser Tarayra broke into the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba on the outskirts of Hebron and killed 13-year-old Israeli-American Hallel Yaffa Ariel in her bedroom before being shot dead by a security guard. Yesterday, 48-year-old Michael Mark was killed after his car was fired on by a suspected Palestinian gunman south of Hebron. The army was conducting searches for the gunman today. An army spokesman said the closure was "intended to break the chain of lethal attacks." "The physical presence will also disrupt, prevent and foil additional attacks, inspired by the attackers of the last 48 hours," Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told AFP. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to make his first trip as premier to Africa, seeking new trade partners and marking the 40th anniversary of a hostage rescue in which his brother died. He is the first sitting Israeli prime minister to travel to Africa since Yitzhak Rabin visited Casablanca in 1994. While no official itinerary has been announced, Netanyahu is expected to visit Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda. Israel's cabinet approved a proposal on June 25 to open offices of Israel's Agency for International Development in the four countries. Netanyahu told the cabinet that his visit "is part of a major effort on our part to return to Africa in a big way". "This is important for Israeli companies and for the state of Israel. It is also important for the countries of Africa," he said. The trip comes at a time when Israel is launching a USD 13 million aid package to strengthen economic ties and cooperation with African countries, said Netanyahu's office. Israel would also provide African states with training in "domestic security" and health, it said. "Israel's comparative advantage in these fields has created great interest in African countries seeking training from Israel," it said. "The African continent constitutes vast potential for Israel in very many areas." Netanyahu has publicly accepted an invitation from Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. He said he wants to make the trip close to the anniversary of the July 4, 1976 Israeli hostage rescue in Uganda, in which his brother died. Israel's dealings with Africa currently constitutes only two per cent of its foreign trade, leaving plenty of room for growth with its defence expertise and products in demand. But it also sees African countries as potential allies, particularly at the United Nations and other international bodies, where it is regularly condemned over its occupation of the West Bank and blockade of the Gaza Strip. Some African countries are keen to obtain Israeli agricultural and water technology, which the country has been promoting, say officials. Netanyahu's trip follows years of efforts to improve ties. The Arab-Israeli conflict drove a wedge between African countries and the Jewish state in the 1960s. After wars between Israel and its neighbours in 1967 and 1973, North African nations led by Egypt put pressure on sub-Saharan African states to cut ties with Israel, which many did. Relations were not helped by Israel's friendship with the apartheid regime in South Africa before it fell in 1994. Beyond diplomacy and trade, the trip will have deep personal meaning for Netanyahu. His brother Yonatan was killed in July 1976 as he led a commando raid in Entebbe, Uganda, to free passengers aboard an Air France plane hijacked by two Palestinians and two Germans. The death of a Jordanian child brought the toll from this week's Istanbul airport attack to 45, media reported today, as a scare sparked fresh jitters in Turkey's biggest city. Ankara has pointed blame at the Islamic State group for Tuesday's gun and suicide bomb rampage at Ataturk international airport. Dogan agency reported that four-year-old Jordanian national Rayyan Mohammed, one of more than 200 people injured in the attacks, had died in hospital. The Istanbul governor's office said 52 people were still in hospital, including 20 in intensive care. The child's death came as a man sparked chaos by shouting "Suicide bomber!" in a crowded Istanbul market on Saturday, with the city still reeling from the attacks. One woman was lightly injured in the panic in Umraniye, a working-class neighbourhood on Istanbul's Asian side. Police were called to the scene. The airport carnage was the latest in a string of deadly attacks to hit Turkey in the past year blamed on either IS jihadists or Kurdish rebels. There has been no claim of responsibility, but officials and analysts say the evidence points to an IS strike. "It is clear that this was Daesh," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late Friday, using another name for IS. "Their place is in hell," he added. Istanbul police have arrested 24 people in connection with the attack including 15 foreigners, state-run agency Anadolu said. Authorities have said they believe the three attackers were a Russian, an Uzbek and a Kyrgyz national. Anadolu named two of them Friday as Rakim Bulgarov and Vadim Osmanov, without giving their nationalities. Central Asia's former Soviet republics have been a major source of foreign jihadists travelling to fight with IS and other extremist groups in Iraq and Syria. Turkish media have identified a Chechen, Akhmed Chatayev, as the mastermind of the attacks, describing him as the head of an IS cell in Istanbul. He is accused of planning two bombings in the city earlier this year in the Sultanahmet tourist district and the Istiklal shopping street, both of which killed foreigners. A complaint was lodged today against ruling BJP's Jharkhand unit chief Tala Marandi and his son Munna after the latter reportedly married a 11-year-old girl. Following direction of Godda Deputy Commissioner Rahul Sinha, the complaint was also lodged against the girl's father Bhagan Baski in the case related to Child Marriage Prohibition Act, an official release said. Biarizor block development-cum-child marriage prohibition officer lodged the complaint with the Judicial Magistrate (First Class) in Godda following preliminary investigation that Munna married the minor girl on June 27 in Godda, the release said. Munna Marandi was also accused of sexually exploiting another girl on alleged promise of marriage. Actor Johnny Depp hosted a memorial dinner for his mother, Betty Sue Palmer in Los Angeles earlier this week. The 53-year-old actor was joined by his daughter, Lily-Rose, 17, and his son, John Christopher, 14, as he paid tribute to Betty Sue Palmer at Ago Restaurant in Los Angeles, reported Contactmusic. "A small group of close family and friends came in to have dinner and laugh and share memories of Johnny's mom. People in his party referred to it as 'a celebration of her life," a source said. Depp's sisters, a housekeeper and his mother's nail technician joined then at the event. Betty died at the age of 81 following a long illness.Y divorced his first wife. The judicial commission on the police firing at Bagha in 2013, in which six Tharu tribals were killed and 25 policemen injured, today submitted its report to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar here. The probe panel's chairman Justice Rajendra Prasad (retd) submitted the report at the official residence of the Chief Minister. Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary Home Amir Subhani and Atish Chandra, Secretary to the CM were also present, an official statement said. The commission was set up by the state government on June 24, 2013. The contents of the report submitted were not disclosed. Prima facie, the violent agitation by the tribals was triggered as the Station House Officer of Navrangia Police Station allegedly did not register a missing case of a tribal youth and did not initiate action to arrest the accused. The state government had suspended the SHO on June 25 that year and transferred the policemen involved in the firing. Based on the report of the then Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) and the Inspector General of Prison, the state Home department constituted a one-member judicial panel headed by Justice Prasad (retd) to probe the incident. Gujarat state Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki today handed over a condolence letter from party president Sonia Gandhi to the daughter of the renowned artist K G Subramanyan here. Subramanyan passed away here on June 29. Solanki met the late artist's daughter Uma Padmanabhan and handed her the letter. In the letter, Gandhi described Subramanyan as a "brilliant and versatile artist". "He was a many-splendoured personality: freedom fighter, scholar and creative genius, inspirational teacher to generations of young artists, and a man of boundless warmth, generosity and joie de vivre," she said. Meanwhile, at a condolence meeting held here today, Shubhanginidevi Raje, chancellor of the Maharaja Sayajirao University, paid tributes to Subramanyan. One of the pioneers of Indian modern art, his death left a big void, she said. About one thousand people from across the country attended the condolence meeting held on the Fine Arts faculty premises here. In a career spanning over six decades, the multifaceted artist, who lived in Vadodara, had been a painter, sculptor, muralist and print-maker besides writer of children's books. He was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 2012. A court here was on Saturday told that Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Government had spent over Rs 42 lakh by giving advertisements in 20 newspapers which allegedly misled people by claiming that municipal corporations are not under state's control. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Munish Markan was informed by the petitioner that in an RTI reply, Delhi government has admitted that a total expense of Rs 42,01,405 was incurred in giving advertisements to the newspapers on October 30, 2015. The counsel for complainant Brijesh Shukla argued that public money was wasted for "spreading lies" and people were "misled". The court fixed October 18 for hearing further arguments on the complaint. The complainant has sought direction to the SHO of Karawal Nagar police station in North East Delhi to register an FIR against Kejriwal under Section 406 (criminal breach of trust) of IPC. The complaint has claimed that Kejriwal had come out with full-page advertisements in newspapers in October last saying there were misunderstandings regarding a strike by MCD employees and he wanted to make it clear that it was wrong to say that the corporations come under the Delhi government. "In November 2015, I filed an RTI with Delhi government which in its reply has said that the corporations are under its control. Action should be initiated against him (Kejriwal) for misleading people and spending public money for spreading lies," the complainant has said. Shukla claimed he had also filed complaints to the Deputy Commissioner of Police and the Lieutenant Governor seeking lodging of FIR against Kejriwal for allegedly misappropriating public fund. He claimed that no action was taken by the police on his complaint. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will visit Somnath Temple to offer prayers during his one-day Gujarat visit next week. "(Chief Minister) Anandiben (Patel) got my Surat trip cancelled. But Lord Shiva has called me. Will go to Somnath to offer prayer. That programme remains as it is," Kejriwal tweeted today. On his visit next Saturday, Kejriwal will also hold a meeting with farmers from nearby villages, AAP spokesperson Harshil Nayak said. On Wednesday, AAP had alleged that Kejriwal had to cancel his Gujarat visit because a trade body which had organised his meeting in Surat backed off under pressure from government. Surat Vehapari Mahamandal withdrew its invite to Kejriwal after the South Gujarat University cancelled booking of a hall on its premises where the meeting was to be held. As per the earlier schedule, Kejriwal was to kick-start AAP's campaign for the 2017 Assembly elections in Gujarat after seeking blessings of Lord Somnath and addressing a gathering in Surat. AAP also came out with an alleged sting video to "prove" the university authorities were pressurised by the Government, the claim the state BJP denied. With an eye on Assembly elections in Gujarat next year, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal will be on a one-day visit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state on July 9 and pay obeisance at Somnath temple. The Delhi Chief Minister accused his Gujarat counterpart Anandiben Patel of cancelling his Surat visit. "Anandiben ji has cancelled my Surat visit, but as Lord Shiva has called me, I will visit Somnath on July 9, a programme for which is in place," Kejriwal tweeted. Sources said details of his Gujarat visit are being finalized. Kejriwal's scheduled visit to Surat on July 10 had to be cancelled after a trade body withdrew its invitation, which AAP alleged was at the behest of state BJP government and came out with a "sting operation" to back its claim. AAP had earlier announced that it will fight elections of 182 Assembly seats in Gujarat scheduled to be held next year. Kerala today requested the Union government to ensure an "independent and just" investigation into the recent incident of a 14-year-old school boy, hailing from the state, beaten to death in Delhi. A letter in this regard was sent to Union Home minister Rajnath Singh by state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today. He said there had been reports from the beginning that the police probe in this regard was not effective. "The Home minister should sincerely intervene in the matter so as to raise the confidence of Delhi Malayalee community in the national capital," he said. Rajat Menon, a class IX student, was found dead after a scuffle with a group of teenagers near his house in east Delhi's Mayur Vihar area on June 30. on Saturday appointed a new central bank governor after protests by the opposition against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's handpicked nominee for the post. "We welcome the appointment of a well respected professional," joint opposition leader Dinesh Gunawardena said. Indrajith Coomaraswamy, 66, was appointed by President Maithripala Sirisena after weeks of protests by civil society activists and the opposition against the incumbent Arjuna Mahendran. Mahendran, also a Tamil like his successor, was brought in from Singapore to head the central bank with the victory of Sirisena in January 2015. He was soon accused of conflict of interest as a firm linked to his son-in-law was involved in an alleged scam in the sale of central bank bonds. Mahendran was suspected of handing him inside information in bond sales. Wickremesinghe had defended his nominee against accusations and said he could not be removed without a proper investigation. Mahendran was under fire for bad management of the local economy and there were growing calls for his sacking. Coomaraswamy is a former national rugby captain who had served in the central bank previously in addition to being attached to the Commonwealth Secretariat. "Manipulative messages" of extremists on social media have achieved considerable success in luring people, UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said and called on the international community to counter violent extremism with preventive measures. UN Secretary-General Ban presented his 'Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism' to the UN General Assembly as the 193-member body adopted a resolution on the UN Global Counter Terrorism Strategy, with the aim of security peace and prosperity for succeeding generations. Ban stressed that he has consistently called for the balanced implementation of the United Nations Global Counter- Terrorism Strategy. "While we need to continue our concerted efforts to counter violent extremism, we have to broaden our responses, engage earlier and address the drivers of violent extremism. We need to complement the countering of violent extremism with preventive measures. "Making prevention an integral part of our comprehensive approach will help us tackle many of the underlying conditions that drive individuals to join violent extremist groups," he said, adding that violent extremism undermines peace and security, human rights and sustainable development and no country or region is immune from its impacts. "Violent extremism is a diverse phenomenon, without clear definition. It is neither new nor exclusive to any region, nationality or system of belief. Nevertheless, in recent years, terrorist groups such as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), al-Qaida and Boko Haram have shaped our image of violent extremism and the debate on how to address this threat," he said in the plan. The UN chief stressed that these terror groups' message of intolerance - religious, cultural, social - has had drastic consequences for many regions of the world. "Holding territory and using social media for the global and real-time communication of their ideas and exploits, they seek to challenge our shared values of peace, justice and human dignity," the UN Chief said. Spread of violent extremism has further aggravated an already unprecedented humanitarian crisis which surpasses the boundaries of any one region. Millions of people have fled the territory controlled by terrorist and violent extremist groups, he said. The "manipulative messages" of violent extremists on social media have achieved considerable success in luring people especially young women and men into their ranks, Ban said. Migratory flows have increased both away from and towards the conflict zones, involving those seeking safety and those lured into the conflict as foreign terrorist fighters, further destabilising the regions concerned, Ban said. While the Plan of Action has been developed within this context, it is intended to address violent extremism in all its forms and wherever it occurs, he said. "While violent extremists have demonstrated some sophistication in their use of old and new media tools, it is equally true that we who reject their message have largely failed to communicate to those who are disillusioned and disenfranchised a vision of the future that captures their imagination and offers the prospect of tangible change," he said. He asked UN member states to develop and implement national communications strategies, in close cooperation with social media companies and the private sector that are tailored to local contexts, gender sensitive and based on international human rights standards to challenge the narratives associated with violent extremism. The 15-page resolution adopted by the UNGA by consensus "calls upon Member States, the United Nations and other appropriate international, regional and subregional organisations to step up their efforts" to implement, in an integrated and balanced manner, the UN Global Counter- Terrorism Strategy, an instrument adopted by the Assembly in 2006 to enhance national, regional and international efforts to counter terrorism. The text also "reiterates its strong and unequivocal condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes". The Assembly reviews the Strategy every two years, and the adoption of a new resolution came on the second and last day of the fifth review held at UN Headquarters in New York, on the tenth anniversary of the Strategy. Ban welcomed the adoption of the resolution, saying it symbolises the international community's "strong resolve to act in unison and without delay to address terrorism and violent extremism". "Terrorism and violent extremism pose a major threat to international peace and security, as well as to sustainable development, human rights and humanitarian action at the global, regional and national levels," Ban added. Ministries of External Affairs, and and Entrepreneurship formalised an agreement on Saturday to implement Pravasi Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PKVY), a scheme designed to offer to Indians seeking jobs overseas. The MoU will institutionalise a framework to provide skill training to lakhs of Indians who go abroad to work every year. On the occasion, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said Indian emigrant workers, especially those who went to the Gulf through recruitment agents, were exploited due to lack of requisite skills. She termed the Pravasi Kaushal Vikas Yojana as a "milestone" for Indian workforce seeking employment overseas, adding that acquiring skills raises employability and earning potential. PKVY is a initiative of the MEA in partnership with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), which is aimed at training and certification of Indian workforce in select sectors and job roles, in line with international standards, to facilitate overseas employment opportunities, a statement said. "There are approximately 7-8 lakh emigrant workers going abroad every year. However, most going to the Gulf are not appropriately empowered in terms of rules, language, culture of that country or even the finesse that is required for a particular trade," said Additional Secretary, MEA, Dnyaneshwar M Mulay. "PKVY is an important aspect of Ministry of External Affairs' mandate to train these workers as part of the five year planned programme. However, it has not been given effect and through this MoU, we will be implementing our commitment for the 12th Plan." As part of the MoU, potential emigrant workers may avail work-related skill training under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) or any other similar government skill programme, which will adopt transnational standards. The skill development ministry through the Skill Development Corporation India (NSDC) proposes to establish customised International Skill Centres to operationalise this initiative. "On 15 July, on the occasion of World Skills Day, we will establish training sectors for overseas skills for the first time in the country. We aim to open 50 such centres in the country this year," Secretary in the Ministry of Skills Development and Entrepreneurship Rohit Nandan said. MEA's role will be to support Pre-Departure Orientation Training, which includes language and soft skills training modules. Training offered will be backed by an internationally recognised assessment and certification system. Swaraj hoped that the collaboration will enhance overseas employment opportunities for Indian workers and boost Skill India, saying it is an important step towards the realisation of Prime Minister's vision of transforming India into the skill capital of the world. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday cautioned people of Jammu to be vigilant against elements "trying to communalise" the state's situation even as she hit out at separatists for their frequent strike calls in the Valley, saying it is affecting the economy. "While there is a problem of militancy in Kashmir, many elements in Jammu are trying to communalise the situation. I want to tell our people in Jammu that communal tension is as dangerous as militancy and it causes same damage as the militancy," she said during her conclusion remarks of the five-week-long budget session. Mehbooba urged people not give a chance to communal elements to vitiate the atmosphere. "We took a big decision to have this alliance (with BJP) because of the Hindu-Muslim brotherhood in Jammu since ages," she said. The Chief Minister said situation in the region was fragile and asked legislators, including Opposition, to play their part for creating a peaceful environment. "From last 20-25 years we have faced many challenges. The people sitting here in the legislature and their families have rendered sacrifices to tread this path. The prime responsibility that we have is to consolidate the peace," she said. Taking a dig at separatists, Mehbooba said their frequent strike calls on one issue or the other was affecting state's economy. "Every day, they call for a strike on one thing or the other. If by God's mercy no civilian is killed in retaliation by security forces when they are attacked, they then call strikes on Sainik Colony or Pandit Colony issues. It is affecting our economy," Mehbooba said, without naming the separatists. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today appealed to the employees of the state government to defer their demand for implementing the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations by at least two years in view of the state's "very bad financial position". "I want to request our unions, our employees that the economic condition of our state is very bad," she said, adding the state government was facing numerous liabilities. "Around Rs 20,000 crore is missing from our provident fund. We cannot find it and while we were looking to fill the gaps, the Seventh Pay Commission awards have been announced," she said. "I request our employees that it is your state and you run it," the Chief Minister said, adding that the government was thinking about how to make 61,000 casual labourers permanent. If we have to give them employment, then I request the employees to defer their demand for implementing the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations for at least two years, she said speaking at the conclusion of the over month-long Budget Session in the Legislative Council. Mehbooba asked the employees for some time for the government to "sort out the financial mismanagement". "Let us first fight our problems and the financial mismanagement that has taken place. Till we are able to stand up on our legs, I request the leaders of our employees to give us some time. We have done it (implementing pay commission recommendations) in the past and we will do it," she said. The Chief Minister said the government was working towards addressing issues concerning the youth, particularly that of unemployment. "I understand the aspirations of the youth of Jammu and Kashmir. I have a vision for them and I want to assure them that my government, together with the Government of India, is working to address their issues, particularly that of unemployment, to the best of our collective abilities," she said, adding that this was "not a personal commitment but a pledge". The Chief Minister, apparently referring to the alleged suicide bid by an IAS officer, also asked officials, legislators and ministers to separate their personal life from public life. "Be it a legislator, minister or any officer, he should separate his personal life from his public life," she said, adding that this will not be tolerated in the future as it makes the whole system look bad. "I am not pointing towards an officer. I am talking generally because we get many complaints about legislators. I do not want to take names but this has happened and is wrong," said Mehbooba. "We should control our actions and should not do anything due to which our respect among the people is lowered," she added. People of Bihar may get respite from humid conditions prevailing in the state since past one week or so as the MeT department on Saturday predicted moderate to heavy rainfall in the state from Sunday. "There will be moderate rainfall in Bihar on Sunday while the state is likely to witness heavy rains for next three days from day after tomorrow (i.e. from Monday)," Patna MeT Department Director Ashish Sen told PTI. It may be noted that the had weakened in Bihar for a week as the troughline had gone down towards south i.e. towards Odisha. This resulted in negligible to light rainfall in the past one week in the state. But now the troughline, which had gone down towards south, has come up once again, Sen said adding that this would result in heavy rains in the state. In its forecast for next 24 hours, MeT department said that Patna and Gaya are likely to witness generally cloudy sky with possibility of rain or thunderstorm. While Bhagalpur and Purnea are likely to witness generally cloudy sky with one or two spells of rain or thundershowers tomorrow, the MeT official said. Patna recorded the maximum temperature of 35.5 degrees Celsius while Gaya registered 36 degree Celsius. Purnea registered maximum temperature of 32.4 degrees Celsius while Bhagalpur was the hottest place in Bihar which recorded 36.4 degrees Celsius, it said. Patna recorded 75% of humidity both in the morning and evening while Gaya had a humidity level of 66% in the morning while 55% in the evening. Bhagalpur had a maximum humidity of 79% and a minimum of 81%. Purnea recorded the maximum level of humidity of 79% and 92%. Purnea recorded a rainfall of 8 mm till 5:30 pm on Saturday while Bhagalpur received a rainfall of 0.8 mm. Gaya had nil rainfall and Patna, the capital, reported traces, the MeT department said. Joint Secretary (North East) of Ministry of Home Affairs, Satyendra Garg today visited Damdiai village in Mamit district on Mizoram-Tripura-Bangladesh border and met leaders and other members of the Bru community who have been repatriated to Mizoram from Tripura. Additional Secretary for the state Home department Lalbiakzama, who accompanied the MHA official said that Garg gave a patient hearing to the issues raised by the leaders of the Bru community saying the government would try to solve their problems. Bru Coordination Committee (BCC) Chairman Elvis Chorkhy told PTI over phone from Damdiai that Garg said that a Monitoring Committee in which repatriated Bru leaders would also be represented, would be constituted to monitor the problems faced by the resettled Brus and find ways to solve them. Chorkhy said that the BCC submitted a memorandum to the Centre demanding establishment of the Special Development Program as envisaged in an agreement signed between the Mizoram government and the erstwhile underground Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF) in 2005. The BCC also urged the Centre to increase rehabilitation and resettlement package for each repatriated Bru family from Rs 80,000 and also temporary shelter for the repatriated Bru family be upgraded to semi-permanent shelter. "We suggested measures for solution to land problems for the Brus who left Mizoram in 1997 and also asked for establishment of Central Schools in the Bru inhabited areas as the community lagged behind in education," Chorkhy said. State-owned NMDC on Saturday said it will buy back over 8,008 million shares worth Rs 7,527.76 crore, most of which will go to the government. It provided this information to BSE in its Postal Ballot Notice, which "seeks approval of the members (shareholders) by way of special resolution through postal ballot for buyback of not exceeding 8,008 million equity shares of the company through a tender offer route at a price of Rs 94 equity share of face value of Re 1 each in cash for an aggregate consideration not exceeding Rs 7,527.76 crore". A major portion of the buyback will go to the government, which owns 80 per cent in the Hyderabad-based minerals explorer. The move will help the government in realising its disinvestment target of Rs 56,500 crore for the financial year. Further, the company said the buyback shall not be exceeding 25 per cent of the aggregate of fully paid up share capital and free reserves of the company. The mining firm said to the extent legally permissible, it will buyback shares by way of acquiring the shares through stock exchange. Share buyback is a process of acquisition by a company of its own shares. It is done with the objective of returning surplus cash to the holder of equity shares of the company. Other public sector units -- MOIL and Nalco have also announced about share buyback plans. The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), previously known as Department of Disinvestment, has been asking such cash-rich PSUs to utilise surplus cash in either capex or buy back. NMDC stock closed 0.59 per cent at Rs 94.35 on BSE, last Friday. A mob wielding weapons razed a mosque in northern Myanmar, state media reported today, the second attack of its kind in just over a week as anti-Muslim sentiment swells in the Buddhist majority nation. Myanmar has struggled to contain bouts of deadly religious bloodshed in recent years, with bristling sectarian tensions and rising Buddhist nationalism posing a steep challenge to the new government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Yesterday villagers in Hpakant, a jade-mining town in northern Kachin state, ransacked a mosque "wielding sticks, knives and other weapons" before burning it down, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar. "The mob was unresponsive and entirely beyond control. The building was razed by the riotous crowd," the paper reported, adding that the rampage was sparked by a dispute over the mosque's construction. No arrests have been made, it said. A local NGO worker who visited the town today told AFP security forces had been deployed to maintain order. "Police are now controlling the area and it is stable," said Dashi Naw Lawn, from the Kachin Network Development Foundation. The riot came eight days after a Buddhist mob destroyed a mosque in central Bago, forcing the Muslim community to seek refuge in a neighbouring town. Tensions are also rising in western Rakhine, a state scarred by deadly riots in 2012 that have left communities almost completely divided along religious lines. The region is home to the stateless Rohingya, a Muslim minority largely relegated to destitute displacement camps and subject to host of restrictions on their movements and access to basic services. Suu Kyi, a veteran democracy activist who championed her country's struggle against repressive military rulers, has drawn criticism from rights groups for not taking swifter moves to carve out a solution for the ethnic minority. Her government recently ordered officials to refer to the group as "people who believe in Islam in Rakhine State" instead of Rohingya - a term whose use has set off protests by hardliners who insist the group are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Yet the government's broad phrase has failed to placate local Rakhine Buddhists, who demand the group be referred to only as "Bengalis" and say they are preparing to rally in protest at the order tomorrow. After a 12-day visit across the country, including troubled Rakhine, a UN rights investigator warned Friday that "tensions along religious lines remain pervasive across Myanmar society". Yanghee Lee urged the country's new civilian government to make "ending institutionalised discrimination against the Muslim communities in Rakhine State...An urgent priority". Nigeria's Shiite movement and journalists say more than a million Shiites have marched to demand freedom for their detained leader and Israeli-occupied parts of Palestine. Spokesman Ibrahim Musa of the Shiite Islamic Movement said millions marched yesterday on International Quds Day in a dozen northern cities and towns. Independent journalists reported more than a million people participated in the ancient Islamic city of Zaria that is the organisation's headquarters. Human rights groups say Nigeria's army killed hundreds of Shiites in raids in December. Shiite leader Ibraheem al-Zakzakhy was hit by seven bullets and has been detained ever since. The army says the raids came after Shiites tried to assassinate Nigeria's army chief, a charge the movement denies. Musa's statement demanded Zakzakhy's unconditional release and the "the complete and unconditional withdrawal from all Israeli-occupied territories. The civic body's suggestion to implement for vehicular traffic in Mumbai has invited criticism from the Opposition, which said it was an attempt by the municipal corporation to "hide its sins" and admission of failure of public transport system. A report prepared by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) has suggested implementation of odd-even road-rationing scheme in the financial capital to keep vehicular pollution under check and reduce congestion on roads. Opposition Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) said the suggestion only proves failure of public transport system operated by BMC, which is ruled by the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance. "The BMC is tactfully resorting to a sin hiding measure. Public modes of transport have failed miserably and the civic body's failure to do something about it has resulted in this suggestion. The citizens have to pay huge taxes while buying a car in Mumbai. They first need to be reimbursed with their money before an odd-even measure can be implemented," NCP legislator Kiran Pawaskar said on Saturday. Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said before implementing the scheme, the BMC should complete the pending infrastructure projects. "Corruption in the BMC is at its peak. In the last three years, Rs 9,343 crore has been spent on constructing roads that have a defect liability period. "Before the period is completed we see potholes and the BMC is now floating new tenders to repair them. The BMC should focus on curbing corruption rather than rushing with this scheme," he said. Social activist Shadaab Patel, who had moved the Bombay High Court seeking implementation of the scheme in Mumbai, has welcomed the BMC's move. Acting on Patel's petition, the HC had in January issued notices to the State Government, BMC and sought their response on introducing the odd-even plan for private cars in Mumbai on lines of the pattern adopted in Delhi. "It is a very positive move by the BMC. We welcome the stand taken by it and hope the state government also considers the suggestion in a positive manner... Air pollution levels in Mumbai are not very different from Delhi. In Mumbai, private vehicles constitute 80% of the road traffic. Implementing the scheme will ensure emergency services like ambulances, fire brigade and police vehicles are able to reach at the required spots on time," Patel said. Under the scheme in the capital, cars with odd and even-numbered license plates ply on alternate days. The rapidly growing pharmaceutical market in India is expected to be worth USD 55 billion by 2020, becoming the sixth largest market globally in absolute size, an Indian envoy has said here. Inaugurating the 34th annual convention of American Association of Physicians of Indian-Origin (AAPI) here yesterday, India's ambassador to the US Arun Singh said the Indian pharmaceuticals market is growing rapidly, from USD 6 billion in 2005 to USD 55 billion by 2020. He said by 2020, India is likely to be among the top three pharmaceutical markets by incremental growth and sixth largest market globally in absolute size. "Branded generics dominate the pharmaceuticals market, constituting nearly 70 to 80 per cent of the market. India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally with the Indian generics accounting for 20 per cent of global exports in terms of volume," Singh said. India's cost of production is significantly lower than that of the US and almost half of that of Europe and that gives a competitive edge to India over others. Praising the contributions of AAPI members in the US and India, Singh said they have made significant contributions through hard work, commitment and dedication to the profession and the people. Nearly 1,500 AAPI delegates from across the nation attended the convention. AAPI President Seema Jain called on the delegates to "step up to a new era of innovation through a new age of digital healthcare that transcends biological and chemical medicine into the future." "As physicians we must be equipped to tackle the next generations unique set of challenges and opportunities in healthcare," Jain said. Congressman Lee Zeldin said Physicians of Indian-origin are well known around the world for their compassion, passion for patient care, medical skills, research, and leadership. Indian-Americans constitute about one per cent of the country's population, but you account for nine per cent of the American doctors and physicians, serving one out of seven patients being treated across the nation. Philippine police have killed 10 people with suspected links to drugs since President Rodrigo Duterte took office, authorities said today, in a brutal start to his controversial war on crime. Duterte was sworn into office on Thursday after a landslide win built largely on a pledge to kill thousands of suspected criminals in a relentless law-and-order crackdown he said was needed to stop the Philippines becoming a narco-state. Police in Bulacan province neighbouring Manila said they launched an anti-drug trafficking blitz on Thursday, the day Duterte took office, that claimed nine lives. "We are just following the marching orders of our new chief of the Philippine National Police," Bulacan police spokeswoman Senior Inspector Linel Solomon said. She said the nine died in seven encounters, insisting police were forced to kill them because the suspects fought back. Another drug suspect was also shot dead after he used a gun during a raid on his home in the central city of Dumaguete on yesterday, local police desk officer Mark Tikling told AFP. With Duterte encouraging them, police had already killed dozens of suspected criminals between his election victory and being sworn into office. Duterte, who has been accused of links to vigilante death squads that killed more than 1,000 people during his nearly two decades as mayor of southern Davao city, insisted during his inauguration speech that he would not break the law during his war on crime. But in a series of speeches afterwards he urged communist rebels and ordinary citizens to kill suspected criminals and drug addicts. He also promised to use his presidential powers to protect police who faced legal charges for mass killings. "If in the process you kill 1,000 persons because you were doing your duty, then I will protect you," he said in a speech to install the country's new chief of police, Ronald Dela Rosa. Dela Rosa also warned yesterday that police officers linked to drug trafficking to surrender by tomorrow or be killed. Spokesmen for the new president could not be contacted for comment on the new killings. Wilnor Papa, the local coordinator for human rights group Amnesty International, warned Duterte was inciting extrajudicial killings. Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the Dhaka attack has "pained us beyond words" as he spoke to his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina, conveying that India stands firmly with the country in this hour of grief. "The attack in Dhaka has pained us beyond words," he tweeted about the terror strike at a restaurant popular with foreigners in which 24 people were killed during over 12-hour hostage situation. Modi said he spoke to Hasina and "strongly condemned the despicable attack". In a series of tweets, he said, "India stands firmly with our sisters & brothers of Bangladesh in this hour of grief.. My thoughts are with the bereaved families. I pray that those who are injured recover quickly." The ISIS terrorists struck at the restaurant located in high-security diplomatic area last night and the hostage crisis ended this morning with army commandos storming the place and killing all the six attackers. Police today arrested a 20-year-old man for his alleged involvement in the murder of a private telecom company employee in Rajouri district here. Rajan Sharma took Jisietho, a native of Nagaland, to a cremation ground in Sunderbani area on the pretext to provide alcohol to him and allegedly attacked him there with a heavy stone and fled away with his mobile and cash, a police officer said. Investigations were started after police found the body on June 23. It came to fore that Jisietho was last seen with Sharma in an inebriated state and subsequently the latter was arrested, he said, adding the accused, who worked in an ice factory, has confessed his crime. He has been booked under various sections of the Ranbir Penal code (RPC), he added. President Pranab Mukherjee today appreciated Haryana government for undertaking various initiatives for rural development, including fixing of minimum educational qualification for representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions. The President said with the fixing of educational qualifications for representatives of PRIs, those elected would understand their responsibilities, a Haryana government statement claimed. The President was speaking at Rashtrapati Bhavan at the inauguration of a smart model village pilot project under which five villages of Haryana adopted by him - namely Dhaula, Alipur, Harichandpur and Taj Nagar in district Gurgaon and Rojka-Meo in district Mewat- would be developed as Adarsh Gram. He thanked the Haryana government for taking many initiatives, including establishment of 'Gram Sachivalaya' in 619 villages and stressed every village should have a separate Sachivalaya to run the government at village level, instead of one secretariat at state headquarters. He also commended the state government for providing all amenities to 1,000 villages and for making efforts to cover the remaining villages at the earliest, it said. Appreciating the election of women representatives, he said they could solve all problems and run panchayats, Vidhan Sabhas and the Lok Sabha. The President, who also interacted with Sarpanches and other Panchayat Members of these villages, said in nearly four years of his Presidency, it was for the first time that he had the privilege of interacting with Sarpanches and village-level functionaries at Rashtrapati Bhavan. He said since assuming office, he had been emphasising on opening the Rashtrapati Bhavan to the people and said he felt the Presidential Residence had been truly opened to the public since the village representatives were present there. He said only the representatives of the villages could transform this country, which has more than six lakh villages. Progress and development could be achieved at desirable speed only in partnership with decision-makers in the villages. There was also a need to empower women and youth, he said and expressed confidence that the initiative would not remain confined to the five villages but would spread to the entire country. The President termed it a landmark initiative and said it sought to replicate the experience in transforming the President's Estate into a smart model township, in five selected villages. The President had earlier announced this pilot project on the occasion of inauguration of the Intelligent Operations Centre (IOC) in Rashtrapati Bhavan and launching of a Mobile App 'Monitor' for transformation of President's Estate into a smart township. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said it had been decided that several new schemes, including 'Haryana Swarna Jayanti Gramin Vikas Yojana', would be launched during the Golden Jubilee year of the state fromNovember 1. He said a sum of Rs 275 crore has been proposed for 2016-17 for Haryana Swarna Jayanti Gramin Vikas Yojana which to accelerate the pace of rural development in the state. Similarly, 'Swarna Jayanti Mahagram Vikas Yojana' has been launched with an aim of planned and regulated development of villages, having population of more than 10,000, with provision of facilities similar to urban areas. This scheme would be implemented for three years. He said the devolution of assured package of funds to all Panchayats would be made annually on the basis of population under 'Swaran Jayanti Vikas Nidhi scheme'. Rural Development Minister Birender Singh said the President's decision to adopt the villages and develop them as model villages had brought cheer to the villagers. He said the 14th Finance Commission had made provision of Rs 2,00,292 crore for rural development, which would provide share of Rs 80 lakh to each village. Union Home Minister and Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra on Saturday joined a group of devotees to offer prayers at the cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas, marking the beginning of the annual pilgrimage. The Governor, who is also Chairman of Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) which manages the 48-day-long pilgrimage, participated in 'Pratham Puja' and paid obeisance at the 3,880-metre high cave shrine housing the naturally-formed ice-shivlingam, officials said. The Home Minister was among the first devotees to pay obeisance at the shrine. Singh had visited the Amarnath shrine on the first day of the pilgrimage last year as well. Singh arrived here on Friday and reviewed the security situation at a high-level meeting in view of the recent spurt in militant attacks in the Valley. The security for the pilgrimage, which is being held in the shadow of recent terror attacks in the state, was also discussed in detail at the meeting. Amid a multi-tier security ring, comprising police, CRPF, BSF and Army, the yatra commenced from the twin routes, 42-km traditional Pahalgam route in Anantnag district in south Kashmir and shorter 12-km Baltal route in Ganderbal district of central Kashmir. The Baltal route is preferred by pilgrims who want to complete the yatra in a day's time. As many as 12,576 pilgrims left the base camps at Nunwan along Pahalgam route and Baltal in the wee hours on Saturday chanting religious slogans and by noon. Around 2,430 pilgrims offered their prayers to the Shivlingam at the cave shrine, the officials said. They said while 7,486 pilgrims, including 1,130 women, 71 children and 18 sadhus, left Baltal before dawn, the first batch comprising 5,090 pilgrims including dozens of sadhus left Nunwan to offer their prayers at the cave shrine. The authorities have made unprecedented security arrangements to foil any bid to sabotage the yatra and to ensure peaceful pilgrimage, the officials said. They said special rescue teams have also been deployed at vulnerable spots along the tracks to meet any eventuality. Meanwhile, a 53-year-old pilgrim from Delhi was found dead inside a camp at Dumail in Baltal area this morning. The pilgrim, Vinod Kumar, had reached the Baltal base camp on Friday to join the first batch of pilgrims to offer prayers at the cave shrine but had apparently suffered heart attack and died, the officials said. The yatra is scheduled to end on August 18, coinciding with 'Shravan Purnima' and 'Raksha Bandhan' festivals. Delhi University has asked all colleges to not refuse admission to candidates from reserved categories in the unreserved category as long as the applicant meets the desired cutoff criteria. Dean of Students' Welfare (DSW) in a letter to all colleges said, "It is reiterated that no applicant, including OBC/SC/ST categories, shall be refused admissions in the Unreserved (UR) category as long as the applicant satisfies the cutoff criteria of the UR category, subject to the verification of the documents." The notice comes a day after some students alleged that they were refused admission in the unreserved category even though they were meeting the cutoff for unreserved category. DSW also asked colleges to allow students to get printout of their admission forms from the college. "This is to request you to please provide facility of printing of 'Admissions Forms' in your college of those candidates, who were eligible to take admissions in your college," the university said. The letter also asked colleges to consider all the eligible candidates who report for admission during the time duration of 9 A.M - 1 P.M. "The colleges are supposed to consider all the eligible candidates who report for admission during the time duration of 9 AM - 1 P.M as the time for submission of online admission fee payment is up to 12 noon (3rd July,'16)," said JM Khurana, Dean students' Welfare in the letter. He also requested all the colleges to adopt a student-friendly approach for admission and to activate the grievance committees in their respective colleges. The Principals have been requested to consider all the candidates for admission whose marks have changed during re-evaluation. The colleges will be further required to update all the information on the University Portal after the admissions have been closed to avoid any confusion. Two masked robbers today threw chilly powder in the eyes of a man and looted Rs 10 lakh carried by him near Shastri Nagar Metro station in north Delhi's Saray Rohilla area. Police said that Vijaypal who is employee of a trading company in Shastri Nagar was waiting for his colleague near Metro station when he was looted at around 12 noon. Vijaypal had gone to deposit Rs 10 lakh in a bank and was waiting for his colleague Naresh when two bike borne, masked robbers reached him and snatched his money bag after spraying his eyes with chilly powder, said a police officer. The duo escaped from the spot by threatening the onlookers brandishing pistols. Police reached the spot after receiving a call and admitted Vijaypal to a hospital for treatment. A case has been registered at Saray Rohilla police station and investigation has been taken up, said the officer. The CCTV grabs of the nearby area are being examined and the employees of the trading company have also been questioned for leads in the case, he added. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today claimed that the SAD-BJP government has taken "unprecedented" steps in the state for the welfare of farmers during its nine-year rule so far. On the sidelines of a Sangat Darshan programme in Dirbha Assembly segment here, he said in a "major" pro-farmers move, the government has framed the Settlement of Agricultural Indebtedness Act 2016 which aims to provide a framework for expeditious determination and settlement of non-institutional agricultural debt. The Chief Minister said as per the provisions of the Act, the process of establishing district-level agricultural debt settlement forums and a state-level Agricultural Debt Settlement Tribunal was being expedited. He said the Act would play "a pivotal role" in alleviating difficulties of farmers in getting their non-institutional debts reconciled and settled. Badal said as far as the debt of the banking sector was concerned, it was the prerogative of the Centre and the state hardly had any role to play in it. He claimed he had always been "keen" to solve the problems of the farming community and every step has been taken to "bail" them out, adding that his government has launched a first-of-its-kind scheme to provide interest-free crop loans worth Rs 50,000 to farmers and it was also providing free electricity worth Rs 5,000 crore annually to them. Reiterating the commitment of his government to saving every single drop of water, the Chief Minister said the construction of Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal "would not be allowed at any cost". Badal also said in another historic decision, it has been decided that all farmers in the state would be provided a health insurance cover of Rs 50,000 and an insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh in case of accidental death or incapacitation of the head of the family. Asked to comment on the proposed visit of Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal to Punjab, the Chief Minister said in democracy, every party was free to carry on its political activities. Scanty rainfall during the month of June in catchment area of major irrigation dams in has left the state administration worried. The dams in Thane, Aurangabad, Amravati and Pune regions have received paltry downpour in June. Director of State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) Suhas Diwase said the redeeming feature of this year's monsoon has been that it has rained heavily surpassing the annual average for June in drought prone Latur and Nanded districts and in Akola, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg and Sangli. "Out of the 37 major irrigation dams in the state, rainfall in catchment areas of some of the dams is as scanty as 4 mm in Surya Dhamni, Bhatsa 34 mm, Vaitarna (all in Thane district), Jayakwadi 0 mm (Aurangabad), Khadakwasla 5 mm (Pune district)," he said. The current rainfall and available water stock in the catchment areas of six major dams supplying water to Mumbai is - Modak Sagar 10% with 16 mm rainfall, Tansa 15% with 24 mm, Vihar 28% with 143 mm, Tulshi 54% with 180 mm, Barvi MIDC 9% with 34 mm and Middle Vaitarna 14% with 21 mm rainfall. Meanwhile, Diwase said the government has identified 23 spots in Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Pune, Satara and Raigad districts, out of which five villages in Khed and Ambegaon tehsils in Pune have been identified as vulnerable. He added that the list of villages and hamlets include those in Ambegaon tehsil where a landslide in Malin on July 30, 2014 had claimed over 100 lives. Diwase sounded a warning that even some hilly spots in Mumbai like Kurla, Vikhroli Parksite and other areas have been identified as 'vulnerable to landslides'. He said this year the BMC in joint coordination with the Army, Navy and NDRF have been closely monitoring the vulnerable hotspots identified in the city. The official further said that the government has now put in place village disaster management plans wherein five teams dealing with seeking information, search operations, searching habitation, medical relief and sanitation have been given training in the tasks they have been entrusted. Security was today beefed up in the city following Bangladesh's worst terror attack by suspected ISIS militants at a cafe popular with expats. "Police in the city have been sensitised following the terrorist attack in Dhaka," a senior Kolkata Police officer told PTI. He, however, said no alert has been sounded in the city. "Our force is always alert and there is no system to issue high alert. We have sensitised the policemen and they are extra cautious now." Security checks at various entry/exit points of the city were increased and every vehicle is being examined. "This is being done not because of the terror attack in Bangladesh but as always, we are keeping a close watch on everything in and around the city to avoid any untoward incident," he said. Twenty foreigners, including an Indian teenaged girl, were hacked to death by suspected ISIS militants inside a popular cafe in the diplomatic zone in Dhaka in the worst terror attack in Bangladesh before commandos launched an assault today killing six attackers and capturing one alive. Continuing his tirade against the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh, BJP president on Saturday said only the saffron party can dislodge the Samajwadi Party regime in the state. "SP and BSP have taken turns to rule Uttar Pradesh which has only brought poverty and backwardness," he said at a convention of the party's booth-level workers at Tilakdhari degree college here. Mounting attack on the SP government, Shah said Akhilesh had promised to give unemployment allowance to the youth before the 2012 Assembly elections in the state. "He (Akhilesh) will have to answer where that allowance is. He has betrayed the youth by misleading them," he added. The BJP chief said the time has come to dislodge the SP government in Uttar Pradesh and give the mandate to his party so that the state gets the benefits of the central schemes. He alleged that farmers of the state could not get the benefits of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana due to laxity on part of the Akhilesh government. "A new scheme has been launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi but the Akhilesh government failed to invite tenders on time. As a result, farmers (of Uttar Pradesh) will not get the benefits," he said. Taking a dig at Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for his barb on two years of the NDA rule, Shah said, "I want to ask Rahul 'baba', what did he do during the 10 years of the UPA regime. At least, we gave a Prime Minister who speaks. The people of the country had not heard the voice of the previous Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) for 10 years." "We gave a Prime Minister who understands the problems of the people, listens to them and resolves their issues," he said, adding that Modi has taken several steps to alleviate poverty. BJP president Amit Shah today attacked Rahul Gandhi after the Congress Vice President questioned the NDA government's achievements, saying it was no mean feat that even the opposition has been unable to level any corruption charges against it. "I want to tell you Rahul Baba what has the (Narendra) Modi government achieved in the last two years. It has not engaged in even a single instance of corruption like your previous government which carried out corruption everywhere," he said. "The Congress government indulged in the 2G scam, AgustaWestland Helicopter scam, scam in purchasing Air India planes, CWG and Adarsh society scam, besides a scam in purchasing submarines and coal scam. "From land to sky, they were only involved in corruption and scams," Shah said addressing to the Jan Swabhiman rally here. "I want to tell you (Rahul) that in these two years, even the opposition has been unable to level any corruption charges against our government. This is our achievement," he said responding to Rahul's remark at a press conference where he wondered what has the Modi government done in its last two years. Shah also said while Pakistan beheaded Indian soldiers under the Congress government, India is now giving a befitting reply. "Under your government, Pakistan was beheading our soldiers and taking their heads to their country, but now this has stopped. If a firing starts from the Pakistani side, it is India which fires the last bullet bringing an end to the exchange of fire. "Wahah se goli chalti hai to yaha se gola chalta hai (If a bullet is fired from there, then a bomb is set off from here). This has been achieved in the last two years," Shah said. He accused the SP government of not properly implementing the central welfare schemes in the state and said "If UP wants better development, it must help NDA form government in the state too." He hailed schemes such as 'Stand Up India', Startup India and Skill India launched by the Prime Minister "to empower our youths". Praising the Jan Dhan Yojana, Shah said the recent Mudra scheme has benefited small businessmen in the country. He said the SP and BSP governments were responsible for poverty and unemployment in the state and the youth were forced to migrate to other states for employment. "We want to develop UP and generate employment here so that people may not have to go anywhere else in search of job but this can only be achieved when our government is formed in UP," he said. Uttar Pradesh will become the best state after NDA comes into power, he added. Shah said in order to curb corruption, the NDA government has done away with interview for in class 3 and 4 central government jobs. Alleging that one could land government jobs in Uttar Pradesh only after paying bribe, Shah accused the SP dispensation of indulging in corruption. Shah also targeted BSP chief Mayawati, saying her partymen were leaving and she would be left alone as the 2017 assembly polls near. He said only BJP can defeat SP and the people of the state need to lend their full support to NDA to form the next government. A Sierra Leone diplomat was kidnapped in Nigeria, a security official said, confirming the latest high-profile kidnapping in the West African country. Sierra Leone's deputy high commissioner to Nigeria Alfred Nelson-Williams was kidnapped as he was travelling by road from the Nigerian capital of Abuja north to Kaduna, a city some 200 kilometres away. "He was kidnapped on his way to Kaduna from Abuja to attend the passing out ceremony of military officers at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Jaji outside Kaduna," said Kaduna state security official Yusuf Yakubu Soja to AFP. "We are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the kidnap. We want to establish whether he had security escorts with him and what happened to them," Soja said, adding: "I'm not aware of any ransom demand." Kidnappings are common in Nigeria, where the rich and powerful drive bulletproof cars and hire military and police chaperones as protection from highway bandits. The most sensational kidnapping in the country's recent history saw 276 schoolgirls snatched from their classroom in the remote northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014 by Boko Haram jihadists. But in the south, where wealthy Nigerians and expatriate workers are usually the target, abductions are often for financial gain. This week, two Indian workers were kidnapped on their way to work in central Benue state. The pair have yet to be released. Last week, three Australians, a New Zealander and a South African were kidnapped along with two Nigerians near the capital of Cross River state in the country's south. They were released four days later, but officials did not say whether the kidnappers received any ransom. In a possible hate crime, the horse of a Sikh man in the US State of Tennessee has been shot dead from a close range. Devinder Sandhu said the horse, named Misty Blue, was apparently shot dead on Tuesday, according to local media reports. "Sandhu is Sikh and wears a turban. He fears someone may have targeted him, but hopes that wasn't the case," a local channel said, adding that the police is investigating it as a possible hate crime. "So that we couldn't hide or blend into the crowd, so we could stand for our beliefs which was protecting the innocent," 61-year-old Singh said. "Misty Blue was born on our property and was our household pet. For 20 years the farm has been a place of delight and sanctuary for those who have visited. Since this happened it's all be horrible," Susan Eslick, wife of Sandhu, was quoted as saying by The Tennessean. The Sikh community has condemned the incident. "We condemn this barbaric action by a misguided individual who took this step of harming an innocent animal to scare the family and the community. We are shocked by this savagery," said Sikh Council on Religion and Education's Chairman, Rajwant Singh. Calling high cut-offs as "anomalies" in admission process of Delhi University, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has written to HRD Minister Smriti Irani suggesting an entrance test and seeking extra weightage for city students in government colleges. "Due to anomalies in admission process of DU which is based on cut-offs, lakhs of Delhi students are suffering as applicants from state boards have more marks than them. Recently the scams behind Gujarat and Bihar toppers have also come to light and because of such practices students here are suffering," he said in his letter to Irani. Sisodia, who is also the Delhi Education minister, suggested that an entrance test should replace the cut-offs method for enrollment of students in DU. "This will ensure that students from all areas get equal opportunity of admission in DU," he said. "Delhi Government is giving Rs 300 crore annually for 28 DU colleges run by it. So at least in these colleges, Delhi students should get weightage of five marks from the current session to ensure no injustice is done to city students," Sisodia further said. The process for admission to 54,000 seats in 63 DU colleges is underway. The Centre and state governments are on the same page and are working in "full coordination" to ensure peace and development of Jammu and Kashmir, Union Minister of Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan said on Saturday. On the issue of talks with separatists, Paswan said they need to realise that Kashmir is an integral part of India and any demand they raise should be within the ambit of the Indian Constitution. "There is no confrontation between Centre and the state as seen in the past. It has decreased. Leadership at the Centre and state are in more coordination this time for working for the peace, progress and development of Jammu and Kashmir," Paswan said. "Earlier, there were differences between Centre and state. They were not working in coordination with each other but the governments at Centre and the state are (now) on one page and are in full coordination with each other," he added. On the issue of implementation of Food Security Act, Paswan said the state government has implemented Food Security Act and also Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Food Entitlement Scheme (MMSFES) in the state. "The state government has given additional quota of food to its people under MMSFES. We will provide them whatever extra food quantity they need under the scheme," he said. "Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) has also said that the only aim of the government is to ensure development of the state and the Prime Minister has open-heartedly helped when floods devastated it," he said. The minister further said that "whatever is in the interest of Kashmir, the central government will fully help and support it but as far as the international policy is concerned, the stand of India is clear that is an integral part of India". "Kashmir is a head of India. It is the jewel of India but after the emergence of terrorism, the normal life was crippled, tourism was hit. It is returning back to its normalcy after decades-long militancy. Entire country is with and separatists should now understand this... That Kashmir is integral part of India," he said. "I have met separatists, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, and told them that any demand that they raise, should be within the Constitution of India as the Government of India's stand is clear that J&K is an integral part of India," he added. Hitesh Dalpat Ramavat, the alleged serial killer who had murdered three persons in the city since April, apparently had sex with two of the victims before stoning them to death, police said today. Ramavat, arrested from Jamnagar yesterday, had earned the sobriquet "stone-killer" as he killed the victims by hitting them on head with a stone. Sagar Mewada, his first victim, was killed on April 20, followed by Pravin Barad (May 23) and Vallabh Rangani (June 2). "We have found trace of semen on the bodies of two victims, which showed he had sexual intercourse with them before killing them," city police commissioner Anupamsinh Gehlot said. "He was planning to kill more people with the intention of robbing them," said Gehlot. "Some 12 years ago, an unidentified person sexually abused Ramavat and offered him money for it. Following this, he started indulging in homosexual activity, primarily for earning money," Gehlot said at a press conference here. "When he could not get enough money any longer this way, he started looting his targets and killed them. "He informed the family members of the victim (using the victim's mobile phone) about the murder," the commissioner said, adding that (information) helped police in tracing his movements. Ramavat did not suffer from any mental disorder and was "mentally fit," Gehlot said. "He was brought up in Rajkot and knew the areas from where to pick up a victim and how to persuade him to go to a deserted place with him. He would then kill the person by hitting on head with a stone and looted cash, mobile, etc," the commissioner said. Police tracked his movement after each killing from the mobile phone record, which led them to Rajkot railway station. According to police, he lived in Jamnagar, but came to Rajkot for committing the crime and went back. Further probe is on, Gehlot said. A 24-year-old engineering graduate was arrested in Tirunelveli in connection with the sensational murder of a woman IT professional here last week and when surrounded by police, he attempted suicide by slashing his neck. "The accused Ram Kumar was arrested in Tirunelveli late last night. When police went into his house, he hid in the backyard and inflicted an injury on his neck by using a knife when surrounded by police," Chennai Police Commissioner T K Rajendran told reporters here today. He said Ram Kumar was rushed to Tirunelveli Medical College hospital for treatment. A special probe team from here had left for that city to take him into custody, he said. 24-year-old Swathi, employed with software giant Infosys, was hacked to death around 6.30 AM on June 24 while waiting to board a train at Nungambakkam Railway Station to her workplace on the city outskirts. The Commissioner said Ram Kumar came to Chennai just three months back from his native T Meenkakshipuram village near Shencottah in Tirunelveli district. He stayed in a private lodging house in Choolaimedu. The residence of the victim, Swathi, was also in this neighbourhood. "He came to know that Swathi uses the suburban train to go to her workplace near Chengelpet and he was stalking her," he said, adding the pursuit eventually ended in her murder. Asked what was the motive behind the murder and if Ram Kumar had tried to befriend Swathi, he said a probe is on and that the assailant's efforts to befriend her did not succeed. He said police sifted through CCTV footage in and around the scene of crime - Nungambakkam Railway Station - and went door to door in Choolaimedu area to zero in on the culprit. Giving a background to the arrest, a police release said Kumar's image recorded on CCTV tallied with a photo found in the register of inmates in a lodge in the same neighbourhood. "Details in the register, including photograph matched the description of the culprit. It was found that he was Ram Kumar, a native of T Meenakshipuram, in Tirunelveli district," the Commissioner said. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa lauded Rajendran for quickly cracking the case. "She lauded him and the department for apprehending the culprit by quickly conducting the probe," a government release said, adding it proved yet again the capabilities Tamil Nadu police. With no CCTV camera in the station, police had a tough job in obtaining clues and managed to get visuals of the suspect from a CCTV installed at a house in the neighbourhood. They had also released footage and his sketch. The case was transferred from the railway police to city police, which formed several special teams for the probe, headed by an Assistant Commissioner. The murder gave a tough time to police, who came in for flak from the Madras High Court for its handling of the case. The court had pulled them up for leaving her body for nearly two hours on the platform and had warned of suo motu intervention if there was slackness in the probe. Delhi Water Minister Kapil Mishra on Saturday sought a copy of the FIR in connection with the alleged Rs 400-crore water tanker scam linking former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit from the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB). Mishra is scheduled to appear before the anti-graft body of Delhi government, which recently summoned him, on Monday. In his letter to investigation officer Brij Mohan, Mishra sought to know in which case he has been summoned by the probe agency as it has not mentioned any case in its notice served on him last month, calling it "defective". "Though, the notice does not mention the case regarding which I have been called to appear and is therefore defective, I understand that it might be pertaining to the investigation into the tanker scam for which I had written to the Lieutenant Governor. "Further, as a complainant in the aforesaid case, I am entitled to a copy of the FIR which I have not received. It is, therefore, requested that a copy of the FIR filed in this case may be furnished to me. I shall in any case be attending the hearing on July 4," Mishra said. Last month, a case was registered by ACB in connection with the alleged 400-crore water tanker scam linking Dikshit. After registration of FIR, ACB chief M K Meena had said two complaints were received with regard to the scam and those named in the complaints include Dikshit and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. He had also said both Dikshit and Kejriwal would soon be quizzed. In June, AAP government had sent a report of a fact-finding committee on the scam to Lt Governor Najeeb Jung. Delhi BJP leader Vijender Gupta had also filed a complaint with Jung accusing Kejriwal of "suppressing" the committee's report for 11 months. The Lt Governor had then forwarded the committee's report as well as Gupta's complaint to ACB. "The report of the committee suggests that the acts of omission and commissions by the Delhi Jal Board under Dikshit has resulted in loss of approximately Rs 400 crore to the exchequer," Mishra had said in a letter to Jung asking him to order ACB probe in the case. Two students were killed and another was injured in an accident near Penjendra village of Gudlavalleru mandal in Krishna district this evening. The victims, students of Gudlavalleru Engineering College, were riding a bike from Gudlavalleru to Addada when a truck hit them, assistant sub-inspector N Subba Rao said. Syed Moulali (20) and P Krishna Sai (20) died on the spot. The Border Security Force (BSF) has seized two Pakistani fishing boats from creek area at Haraminala along the Indo-Pak border even as fishermen aboard managed to escape, officials said. "During patrolling last evening, we seized two unclaimed boats belonging to Pakistani fishermen that had entered 400 metres into the Indian territory of the Indo-Pak maritime border in Kutch district," a BSF official said. Two small-sized wooden fishing boats were seized along with fishing nets, ice box and freshly caught fish, he said. "The fishermen on the boat, it appeared, managed to escape before the BSF patrolling team arrived at the spot. The place from where the boats were apprehended is situated some 13 kilometres from the border out-post," he said. Early in May, the BSF team had apprehended 18 Pakistani fishermen near Koteshwar in Kutch along with two boats while they were found fishing in Indian waters. Condemning the terrorist attack in Bangladesh as "despicable", the United States today offered to assist Bangladeshi authorities in bringing to justice those responsible for the death of 20 people, including foreigners, at a restaurant in Dhaka's high-security diplomatic zone. "We remain in contact with Bangladeshi authorities and have offered any assistance necessary," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said. The "heinous" attack resulted in the death of an American citizen, Bangladeshi law enforcement personnel and citizens of several other nations, Earnest said. "This is a despicable act of terrorism, and the US stands with Bangladesh and the international community in our resolve to confront terrorism wherever it occurs," he said. State Department spokesman John Kirby said: "We remain in close contact with the Government of Bangladesh and have offered our assistance in their efforts to bring to justice those responsible for these attacks." The US has not disclosed the name of the American killed in the attack. "Out of respect for the family, we have no further comment. At this time, we are not aware of any other US citizens among those held hostage," State Department said. The spokesman said the threat that "terrorist ideologies" pose to the world does not require physical presence in a country. He said the US is troubled by recent attacks on secular bloggers, activists and minorities in Bangladesh. He, however, added that these attacks do not represent the views of the overwhelming majority of Bangladeshis. "These attacks are being carried out by those who seek to stifle those who disagree with them," the spokesperson said. "Bangladesh has a proud tradition of being a pluralistic society that values diversity and welcomes the free exchange of ideas. These are the values that the violent extremists are ultimately attacking," the official said. The US is working with members of civil society and the media to support their efforts to counter the violent, hateful ideologies and to reinforce the great majority of Bangladeshi society that values diversity, freedom to peacefully practice religion, freedom of expression, and rule of law, he said. The official said that counter-terrorism assistance to Bangladesh is designed to improve the government's ability to address terrorism threats from domestic and transnational terrorist organisations by building capacity to impede the efforts of these groups to plan and conduct attacks. "We support the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), of which Bangladesh is a pilot country. This funding supports grassroots projects to strengthen communities' resilience to violent extremism," he said. US is also working with Bangladeshi police on community policing projects, with madrassa students to increase the economic opportunities for vulnerable youth, and with community leaders on conflict mitigation, he added. 20 foreigners, including an Indian girl, were hacked to death by suspected ISIS militants inside the cafe in the worst terror attack in Bangladesh yesterday. Peeling back some of the secrecy of America's drone strikes on suspected terrorists, the Obama administration has said it has killed up to 116 civilians in counterterror attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and other places where the US is not engaged in active, on-the-ground warfare. The first-ever public assessment is a response to mounting pressure for more information about lethal US operations overseas. Human rights and other groups quickly complained that the administration undercounted civilian casualties and called on the White House to release far more information. The report by National Intelligence Director James Clapper said the US conducted 473 counterterror strikes, including those by unmanned drones, between January 2009 and December 2015. He did not mention where the strikes occurred, but the Defense Department and CIA have pursued targets in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya. The data didn't include strikes in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, which the US considers areas of active hostilities. The attacks killed an estimated 2,372 to 2,581 combatants in those seven years, the report said. Between 64 and 116 non- combatants were killed. The administration noted the much higher estimates by non-governmental organisations, which go as high as 900 for the same timeframe. Senior US officials cited several reasons for the discrepancy, including the government's access to sensitive intelligence that helps it more accurately identify the deceased. Groups that have been tracking US drone operations for years weren't convinced. "The numbers reported by the White House today simply don't add up, and we're disappointed by that," said Federico Borello, executive director of Center for Civilians in Conflict in Washington. "We're concerned that as more countries gain access to armed drone technology, it's more likely that drones will be used as a first response in conflicts and more likely civilians will pay the price." The Bureau of Investigative Journalism said the administration's number is a fraction of the 380 to 801 civilian deaths it has tallied. It records such deaths on the basis local and international journalists' reports, advocacy organizations, leaked government documents, court papers and field investigations. The London-based group credited the administration's release as a welcome step toward greater transparency, but said more information on specific strikes was needed to reconcile different assessments. A 27-year-old UK woman named Isis was denied access to her account and asked to send an identity proof by the social networking site as part of its stringent policy to erase all traces of ISIS terror outfit. Isis Thomas, a resident of Bristol in Britain, was asked to change her name after logging on to the site on June 27. "I just tried to log in and when I did, the password went through and this box came up asking me something about changing my name. I was on as Isis Worcester, because when I first signed up years ago I didn't use my real name, which is Isis Thomas, because of where I worked at the time," Isis said. "I thought it was about the surname, so I just changed it to Isis Thomas. But that didn't work and I realised they had a problem with me being called Isis," she said. Isis's mother had named her after the ancient Egyptian goddess worshipped as the ideal mother, wife and the patron of nature and magic. "They sent a message saying Isis wasn't allowed, it didn't comply with the policy. They asked me to send in proof of identity, which I did. That was on Monday and I haven't been let on the site since," Isis was quoted as saying by The Sun. has recently launched a crackdown on ISIS extremists who had used the network for propaganda purposes. "Things have definitely changed for me and my name...It frustrates me that people still use 'Isis', especially when I see newspaper reports and they've written it 'Isis' instead of at least using capitals, like ISIS, because it's an acronym," the Bristol University worker said. "I have no plans to change my name, though, I love it. I just want Facebook to realise it's my real name," she said. "It's as though she has never existed. I have found Facebook impossible to contact and I'm furious," said Sian, mother of Isis. After an RSS affiliate withdrew the invitation to Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi for an iftar, senior Sangh leader Indresh Kumar today told Pakistan to worry about calls for freedom emerging within that country and stop interfering in Kashmir. He also hoped that a day will come when better sense would prevail upon Pakistan and it would stop spreading hatred, animosity and violence and embrace peace and brotherhood. Kumar was speaking at the iftar party hosted by RSS affiliate Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), which revoked its invite to Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit after his "insensitive" remarks on the Pampore encounter in Kashmir in which 8 CRPF jawans lost their lives. Indresh Kumar mentors the outfit. The RSS leader said he hoped a day will come when Muslim women of India and the world would be free from the 'gunah' (crime) of 'talaq' (divorce), apparently referring to the ongoing debate over triple talaq. He said, according to the holy Quran, it is not acceptable to God. "That is why Muslim Rrashtriya Manch said there should be no hatred or animosity. I will pray let better sense prevail on all countries who spread hatred, animosity and violence, let them prosper and help others also prosper. "I told some people from Pakistan who came to see me a few months ago why you cannot hold a dialogue on how you are helping the smaller countries around you and what schemes you have to help your poor and downtrodden people. In Pakistan there are calls for freedom from Pakhtuns, Baloch, Sindh, Baltistan, Gilgit, Muzaffarbad....There are seven freedom movements which want to break away from you," he said. The RSS leader said, "India never tried to cheat like you did on Kashmir. The day will come when it (Pakistan) will improve. Let peace and brotherhood prevail in the world. India should be strong and the world should be free from violence and riots." The MRM had invited diplomats of around 61 countries, including Islamic nations. Diplomats and representatives of Syria, Kyrgyzstan, Iran and Montenegro, besides some other countries, apart from vice chancellors of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and Jamia Millia Islamia were also present. Union Ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Jammu and Kashmir Ministers Abdul Gani Koli and Lal Singh were also present, besides a large number of people from the Muslim community. "Quran Sharif says 'talaq' is not acceptable to Allah and you are debating on how to carry out this 'gunah' (crime). You should also debate on how the women of India and the world should be free of this," Indresh Kumar said. The RSS leader said, "I was asked why you have not invited Pakistan, but I said I will ask Muslim Rashtriya Manch." Talking about the condition of Muslim women in Pakistan, he said if a woman from the community gave testimony in a court case before partition, she was considered as one witness. "Today in Pakistan, when two women give their testimony, it is counted as one," he said. "That is why I tell them whatever you have got after India's partition, why don't you enjoy it peacefully. Why you can't be a better neighbour. "It is like we will not prosper and not allow anyone else to prosper, we will neither smile and not let anyone laugh, too. This will not work," he said. He added the purpose of holding iftar was to promote the spirit of peace, brotherhood and non-violence and make the world riots and violence-free. "If the heart, mind and soul turns impure, they are full of hatred, they cannot be cleaned up by anything. It is not possible to clean them up. External dirt can be cleaned but not internal. The basic need is goodwill and harmony. Education without human values, professionalism without patriotism gives makes bad people," he said. On the controversy over remarks of AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi and clerics of Deoband that chanting 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' amounted to idol worship, he said, "I told them now the second treatment is needed to remove fundamentalism from your mind." "One who is not loyal to one's mother or motherland, cannot be loyal to anyone in the world," he said. He lamented that terror organisations were using pious words from Islam and giving their religion a bad name by killing innocent people. The iftar party at Parliament House annexe was apparently organised to shed the 'anti-Muslim' tag of RSS. Facing intensifying discontent in the party over his style of functioning, BJP Karnataka unit President today sought to quell it with a warning against "anti-party" activities by anyone, "however big they are". The appointment of office-bearers and presidents of district units has triggered discontent against Yeddyurappa, with several party functionaries under the leadership of former Deputy Chief Minister K S Eshwarappa openly questioning his "unilateral" decisions. They are demanding a rollback of appointments, stating that it was not discussed in the core committee (the highest decision-making body), but Yeddyurappa has refused to yield. Stiffening his stand, Yeddyurappa while speaking at the party's state office bearers meeting here said without naming anyone, that those involved in anti-party activities, "however big they are", would not be tolerated. "Anti-party activities will not be tolerated. For this purpose, I will be announcing a disciplinary committee," he said. "Anyone, however big they are or whatever the reason may be, if they involve in any anti-party activities will not be pardoned. If you have any problem, come let us sit together anddiscuss it. Instead of that if statements are issued it will create confusion," he added. Eshwarappa skipped today's meeting, attended by party's state in-charge P Muralidhara Rao, Union Ministers Ananth Kumar, Sadananda Gowda and Siddeshwara, besides former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Jagadish Shettar. Blaming the media for glorifying "small issues" within the party, Yeddyurappa said "when there is infighting within Congress and JD(S), we will have to work together." "We have a responsibility on us, so we have to be together and cooperate," he added. Eshwarappa has held a series of meetings of like-minded leaders in the last couple of days, during which criticism was expressed over Yeddyurappa's style of functioning, the "high handedness" of his loyalists in party affairs and prominence given to those in his erstwhile outfit Karnataka Janata Party (KJP). After one such meeting yesterday, Eshwarappa said his intention was to protect the interests of loyal party workers 'who are in pain' and safeguard the system that has been in place for long. "Let Yeddyurappa say that he has made appointments after discussing with state core committee, I will surrender today itself," he said. Yeddyurappa was forced to resign as chief minister in 2011over graft charges, following which he quit the party to form KJP. He returned to BJP following the announcement of Narendra Modi as party's prime ministerial candidate ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha polls and was recently appointed state party chief. Stressing "zero-tolerance" in crimes against women, Harayana Police chief K P Singh today said any laxity on part of policemen in registering such cases would result in action against them. The Director General of Police (DGP) also instructed the officials to deal sternly with people registering false cases "in the garb" of crimes against women. The remarks came while he was informing the police personnel here about the newly launched Key Performance Indicators (KPI). Commissioner of Police Hanif Qureshi, on the occasion, informed the DGP about the internship programme offered to students enabling them to work with the district police. The DGP has directed for emulation of the internship programme across all districts in the state. The DGP also directed for extending by a month several police programmes, including operation 'Muskaan' and the reinforcement drives under the NDPS Act and Arms Act, among others. Several senior police officials from Faridabad zone were present during the meeting with the DIG. SHARE King graduate earns degree from Wells Valerie Schweigert, of Corpus Christi, earned a bachelor's degree from Wells College in Aurora, New York. Schweigert majored in sociology and anthropology and minored in business and Spanish, graduating summa cum laude with distinction. She earned the Carter A. Woods Prize and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. She is a graduate of Richard King High School. Henry earns Juris Doctor of Law Thomas Henry, of Corpus Christi, graduated from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a news release stated. Henry earned a Juris Doctor in Law, the release stated. He was one of about 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students who received their diplomas May 22 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. Marcum on Spring Law dean's list Amanda Marcum, of Corpus Christi, made the 2016 Spring Law dean's list at the University of Arkansas, officials said. Compiled by Natalia Contreras The Big Wigs in the advertising industry, announced at Corpus Christi's American Advertising Federation Awards in February, competed June 16 to raise money for a charity of their choice. Habitat for Humanity won first place. SHARE Kathy Najimy (center) was in Corpus Christi for her appearance at the Women's Shelter Great Expectations Luncheon on June 22. Francisco Villa (left), owner of Francisco's Salon, styled her hair, officials said. Dionicio Zamora, stylist at Francisco's Salon, designed her makeup application. The Hi-Fairnessee Girls Club celebrated 85 years on June 18 during its annual ball presentation at the congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center. Abryna DeLuna (from left), Claudia Leal, Dominique Robles, sponsor Lori Galan Garcia, Corina Alegria, Hailie Rocha, Alexis Cervantes and Jamie Flores attended. Vivek Saroha, MD (from left); Associate Program Director Daniel Vijjeswarapu, MD; Erin Brennan Treemarki, DO; Anis Nourani, MD; Ayesha Mohiuddin, MD; Jeffrey Salomon, MD; Christine Krier, DO; Sai Surapa Raju, MD; Chief Resident Nadin Mansour, MD; Cheriya Akizimana, MD; Umair Abbas, MD; Stephanie Ghaleb, MD; Program Director William Dirksen, MD; Jhody-Ann Hendricks, MD; Associate Program Director Eric Baggerman, MD; Marjorie Cua, MD; Chief Resident Eric Purifoy, MD; Veronica Goitia, MD; Zachary Madson, DO; and Marcial Oquendo, MD, celebrated 15 residents' graduation June 17. Advertising Big Wigs benefit charities The Big Wigs in the advertising industry, announced at Corpus Christi's American Advertising Federation Awards in February, competed June 16 to raise money for a charity of their choice, officials said. Competitors showcased their charities in creative ways, including theatrical performances, music videos, catwalk fashion shows, and plenty of wild wigs, officials said. The event was held at the congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center, the event's partner location. The event raised about $40,000 for the eight chosen local charities. Three competitors took home the top honors and raised the most funds for their charities. First place went to Habitat for Humanity of Corpus Christi, which was represented by David Olds, the 2016 Big Wig for Best Photographer. Second place went to Corpus Christi Metro Ministries, which was represented by Lorie Garcia (iHeart Media), the 2016 Big Wig for Best Radio Sales Representative. Third place went to Gulf Coast Humane Society, which was represented by Amanda Leal (KIII TV), the 2016 Big Wig for Best TV/Cable Sales Representative. 15 graduate Driscoll Pediatric Residency Fifteen physicians graduated from the Driscoll Children's Hospital Pediatric Residency Training Program on June 17. The residents have plans across the United States after graduation. Dr. Umair Abbas, MD: Fellowship in Pediatric Cardiology at Advocate Children's Hospital in Chicago. Dr. Cheriya Akizimana, MD: Driscoll Chief Resident July through September, then Hospitalist at Mercy Children's Hospital in Toledo, Ohio. Dr. Erin Brennan Treemarki, DO: Fellowship in Pediatric Rheumatology at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center and Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. Dr. Marjorie Cua, MD: Driscoll Chief Resident, July through September, then Outpatient Pediatrics in Hillsboro, Texas. Dr. Stephanie Galeb, MD: Fellowship in Pediatric Cardiology at Cincinnati Children's Medical Center in Ohio. Dr. Veronica Goitia, MD: Driscoll Chief Resident, 2016-2017. Dr. Jhody-Ann Hendricks, MD: Fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. Dr. Christine Krier, DO: Emergency Room/Hospitalist Pediatrician at West Florida Hospital. Dr. Zachary Madson, DO: Fellowship in Pediatric Hospital Medicine at Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA in California. Dr. Ayesha Mohiuddin, MD: General Pediatrician with Children's Hospital of San Antonio Physician Group. Dr. Anis Nourani, MD: Fellowship in Sleep Medicine at University of Alabama, Birmingham. Dr. Marcial Oquendo, MD: Private practice in North Dallas; will pursue Pediatric Dermatology fellowship in the future. Dr. Jeffrey Salomon, MD: Fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis. Dr. Vivek Saroha, MD: Fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. Dr. Sai Surapa Raju, MD: Fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care at Children's Hospital of Alabama. Compiled by Natalia Contreras Contributed photo Rear Adm. Dell Bull (second from right), Chief of Naval Air Training, arrives in the official party for Training Air Wing Four's change-of-command ceremony. SHARE Contributed photo Ensign Deion Lemelle (right) presents Mrs. Cathy Kelsey, wife of former Commodore Capt. John Kelsey, with a bouquet in appreciation of her years of support and service. Contributed photo Rear Adm. Dell Bull (from left) congratulates Capt. John Kelsey (right) as he transfers command of Training Wing Four to Capt. Trey Hayden. Contributed photo Capt. Trey Hayden (right) is joined by his son Chad (left), and wife, Brandie, as he receives his command pin. Training Air Wing Four held a change-of-command ceremony June 10 at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi. Capt. Trey "Tex" Hayden relieved Capt. John "Chip" Kelsey as commodore of Training Wing Four at Wings Auditorium. The change of command was followed by a winging ceremony and concluded with Kelsey's retirement ceremony. Rear Adm. Dell "Snapper" Bull was the guest speaker for the change of command ceremony. Bull is the Chief of Naval Air Training at NAS Corpus Christi. He oversees all Navy training commands, including operations by the Blue Angels. Rear Adm. Scott "Jonser" Jones was the guest speaker at Kelsey's retirement ceremony. Training Air Wing Four, established in March 1972, houses all training squadrons at NAS Corpus Christi, including VT-27, VT-28, VT-31, and VT-35, providing training for half of all naval aviators in the fleet. Platforms include the T-44C Pegasus, the T-6B Texan II and the C-12 Huron. Kelsey received his commission in 1991 from the United States Naval Academy and began his career at NAS Agana, Guam. He deployed in support of Operations Southern Watch, Desert Strike and Vigilant Sentinel. He later supported Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom during a tour at the Joint Chiefs of Staff as Officer in Charge for several joint and interagency detachments to the Middle East. His duties as Commodore of Training Air Wing Four began in June 2014. Hayden, born in Houston and raised in Richmond, received his commission in 1992. He has deployed with the USS Underwood and USS Hawes in support of Operation Southern Watch. He deployed onboard the USS Harry Truman to again support Operation Southern Watch as well as Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. He served aboard the USS Nimitz as the ship's Air Boss and has most recently served as the Assistant Chief of Staff for Training for the Chief of Naval Air Training. SHARE By Matt Woolbright of the Caller-Times The summer blockbuster season is in full swing, and Corpus Christi's premier movie theater is looking to make some upgrades before the holiday season. Developers for the Century 16 and Imax, a Cinemark theater, on South Padre Island Drive near Nile Drive are proposing more than $2 million in upgrades for the facility. Details on the renovation and when it will be completed were not immediately available. The theater project is the largest on the weekly list of new and updated proposals for development, but it's dwarfed by the largest project approved for construction. That project is a $23.9-million assisted living/independent living center slated for 3010 Airline Road. The 179,000-square-foot project was OK'd for the intersection of Airline Road and Saratoga Boulevard. Its approval comes on the heels of developers proposing Elan Corpus Christi Assisted Living on Lipes Boulevard, near South Staples Street. That project is expected to cost about $9.8 million, and include 99 units for residents. The two locations are about 3 miles apart. The Corpus Christi Cancer Center on Rodd Field Road is also expected to undergo $200,000 in renovations. Twitter: @reportermatt IN THE WORKS Here are the actions at the Corpus Christi Development Services Department for the last two weeks, with a brief description, location and estimated project cost: NEW PROJECTS Walmart, new construction, $212,288, 1250 Flour Bluff Drive IBFIT Gym, tenant finish out, $28,800, 5809 Patton St. Century 16 Theater, remodel, $2.1 million, 6685 S. Padre Island Drive Hooten Industrial, new construction, $420,000, 1226 N. Padre Island Drive T-Mobile tower, remodel, $30,000, 10427 Harrington Drive Verizon tower, remodel, $6,500, 6721 Kram Road Verizon tower, remodel, $6,500, 6527 Yorktown Blvd. La Javita, addition, $15,000, 9440 S. Padre Island Drive Carmel Village, new construction, $48,000, 4116 S. Padre Island Drive Vantage at Corpus Christi, new construction, $750,000, 10113 Up River Road Oyolo medical office, new construction, $1.2 million, 6813 Everhart Road CC Pet Memorial Center, new construction, $300,000, 1534 Holly Road Metroville, new construction, $440,830, 6202 Dunbarton Oak Drive Corpus Christi Cancer Center, remodel, $190,000, 1625 Rodd Field Road Verizon tower, remodel, $6,500, 1922 Lynhurst Drive Walmart canopy, new construction, $200,000, 3829 U.S. Highway 77 Brandt Field Office, tenant finishing out, $20,100, PERMITS Everitt DDS, new construction, $72,796, 3217 Leopard St. Corpus Christi Assisted Living, new construction, $23.9 million, 3010 Airline Road Il Espazio Dicasa, tenant finishing out, $55,000, 6122 Kostoryz Road By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times Corpus Christi police are looking for a 28-year-old woman who has not been seen by any family or friends for several days. Carina Castellanos was reported missing by her mother Thursday after the mother was unable to make contact with her, according to a news release from the police department's website. Castellanos, a San Antonio woman whose last known address is in central Corpus Christi in the 1000 block of Herndon Street, was the victim of a violent crime in June. Senior Officer Kirk Stowers said police could not elaborate on the incident, but he did say she was not a victim of sexual assault. Castellanos is employed at the McDonald's near Staples and Weber streets, police said. Officers learned she has not been to work in several days even though she left valuable belongings at the restaurant. Police are asking anyone with information on Castellanos' whereabouts to call them at 361-886-2600. Twitter: @Caller_Fares SHARE In striking down the Obama administration's hydraulic fracturing rule that would have put more regulations on "fracking" on federal lands, Judge Scott Skavdahl in the U.S. District Court of Wyoming got it right for the environment. When it comes to oil and gas production, each state is different because the geology, regulatory frameworks, infrastructure, economics, industries, tax laws and political climate are different. One size does not fit all. State regulators and policymakers have more experience, expertise and local knowledge than the federal government does. Thus, states are better at ensuring that industry, government and other stakeholders work together to produce oil and gas; protect the land, water and air; disclose the composition of frack fluids; and provide a local tax base that allows for further environmental protection in the state. State primacy is the best solution for the environment in this case and other issues as well. Should agricultural practices in Florida follow the exact standards as those in Oregon? Should Colorado be told it cannot sell marijuana? Should New York be required to allow fracking in the Marcellus Shale? Are there cases where federal regulation makes sense? Of course. For example particulate pollution, or safety standards for food, which cross state boundaries. Is the state oil and gas regulatory process perfect? Of course not. That is why state regulators share best practices and experiences and are always improving. Are all states prepared today to regulate oil and gas? No. But does that justify the Interior Department's statement that Judge Skavdahl's ruling "prevents regulators from using 21st century standards to ensure that oil and gas operations are conducted safely and responsibly on public and tribal lands?" No, it does not. There are local, and mostly temporary, effects of drilling, such as increased noise, dust, roads and lights. On rare occasion, wells can leak methane through surface casing designed to protect groundwater; valves can leak methane; and surface storage pits can leak water. Also on rare occasion, pressure from disposal of produced water deep in the earth can cause a natural fault to shift sooner than it would have on its own, creating a low-magnitude earthquake. Are these environmental impacts acceptable? No. The industry must continue to improve, and it does. Are the impacts large-scale and systemic? No. They are local, and they are the exception. Of course, understanding the rarity doesn't help if such an event happens in your backyard, any more than would occurrences of contamination from an industrial-scale chicken farm or a chemical battery, fertilizer, or solar-panel manufacturing plant. Do we have energy options better than oil and natural gas that can be deployed immediately? Some say yes, but that is mostly a political answer. Thermodynamics are less definitive. To replace 50 percent of baseload coal, natural gas and nuclear-generated electricity with intermittent solar and wind power is a massive undertaking, because these alternatives are very low-density sources of energy. Collecting and converting them into dense, useful energy will result in environmental impacts on a major scale, including construction, mining, land use, power lines, shipping and transport, chemical-battery manufacturing, waste disposal, bird kills, and other forms of heavy industry. Unfortunately, scale matters. No form of energy is environmentally perfect. As we consider energy, the economy and the environment, and how to improve all three, it is best to remain objective, fact-based and educated. Balanced research funding from government, nongovernment, and, yes, industry sources helps to ensure that the most complete data are used, that the results do not stray too deeply into the potentially biased worlds of any particular group, and that rigorous and thoughtful exchange and peer review among experts goes on throughout the process. When dealing with topics that we are passionate about, we all migrate toward results and outcomes that confirm our biases, even when faced with objective, measurable, repeatable results that may not agree. In environmental regulation, the road to green is not always a federal highway. Scott W. Tinker is the state geologist of Texas, the director of the Bureau of Economic Geology, and the Allday Endowed Chair in the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin. A stone placement ceremony took place June 11 at The Highground Veterans Memorial Park near Neillsville. An honor stone was placed on the Walkway wall in the Korea Veterans Memorial to recognize the sacrifice of Wayne Paulsen of Holcombe. Paulsen was killed in action on July 17, 1951, while performing combat duties in North Korea. Born June 10, 1928, Wayne was the son of Herman and Fern Paulsen and the grandson of Anton and Anna Paulsen, all of Holcombe. He is survived by a brother, Ivan, of Holcombe. Ivan described Wayne by simply stating he was a real good boy. Like so many with dairy farming roots in Chippewa County, Wayne was known to be ambitious, hard working and not afraid of a challenge. Members of Waynes extended family contributed to his memorial. Many were present at The Highground to witness its dedication. A great talking circle gave way to many friends, family and visitors to speak up words of thanks for the stone recipients and what The Highground has become over the years. The Chippewa Falls School Board agreed Thursday night to survey district residents on two facilities plans, one calling for a new elementary school and the other for a new high school. The estimated cost for both plans will be comparable and come in at around $115 million. That is over $50 million less than the $167 million proposal a Facilities Planning Committee arrived at in December. It is also substantially less than three plans the board looked at in its previous meeting, that ranged from $145-$173 million. However, both plans also come with a second phase 10 or more years down the road that would address what the first phase lacks. So the plan calling for a new elementary school would include a new high school in phase 2, while building a new high school initially would include a phase 2 plan for a new elementary school. The latest proposals are an attempt to address the districts current and future building needs that solve the overcrowding that exists at several schools, and are part of a months-long effort to arrive at a solution that is supported by the public. Were trying to find that sweet spot where we can balance meeting our needs and finding what our community will support, said Superintendent Heidi Taylor-Eliopoulos. She along with board members referenced indications from community leaders that an acceptable figure might be in the $100 million range, providing the district can make a strong case for its plan. That is why the proposals from a June 2 work session, once they were priced out, were quickly discarded as being impractical. Dean Beeninga, an architect and partner in ATS&R, the architectural firm the district hired, wondered if the public would react differently to the $115 million pricetag than it would to $100 million. You hate to see it not happen because of an extra $15 million, he said. For a $100 million referendum, which would equate to an increase of two in the mill rate, taxes would rise $270 on a $135,000 home, which Taylor-Eliopoulos said is the average price of a home in the district. Coming up with two options The board looked at three plans Thursday night, two of which involved building a new high school. Those two were almost identical, but the plan that was rejected bypassed about $22 million in heating/air conditioning and window improvements. Taylor-Eliopoulos saidd that the district spends roughly $1 million a year on maintenance, but it hasnt been enough. As the buildings have aged the need for maintenance has increased. School funding combined with aging facilities hasnt allowed us to keep up, she said. When board members preferred including the extra maintenance work but also expressed interest in having the two remaining proposals be close to the same cost, Taylor-Eliopoulos volunteered to make $8 million in cuts to get them both into the $115 million range. That left two plans that addressed different situations. By building the elementary school first, it tackles the oldest of the six elementary schools. Stillson dates back to 1930, and has more structural issues than the others. When a student flushes in the bathroom and the kitchen loses water pressure, youve got problems, said board member Staish Buchner. The first proposal from the Facilities Planning Committee that was rejected 6-1 by the School Board Jan. 18 called for closing two elementary schools. One of those was Stillson, so the boards support for replacing it with a new facility represents a substantial shift in priorities. This spring the school district surveyed residents to find what was most important to them. The 10 most important issues were: safety; space; 21st century learning space; traffic/dropoff; career exploration space; energy efficiency; neighborhood schools; arts space; climate control; and playground/greenspace. The elementary school-first option met many fewer of those needs than did the plan to build a new high school first, and did less to address the schools space needs. Even though Option A doesnt meet the community needs very well, I like starting out with an elementary school and projecting a high school down the road, said board member Pat Allen. We caught so much flak about a new high school. Option A also includes $15.8 million to build a field house on purchased land. The fieldhouse is something that is going to meet the biggest resistance, said board member Kathy Strecker. It isnt an academic priority. It would be nice, but its something a lot of people would vote no. Board member Dave Czech said that was especially true if the fieldhouse was on a different site from the high school. The current gym is not large enough to house all-student gatherings, and going off-site for those would not be practical. Option B called for a new high school, relocates the middle school to the current high school and Hillcrest Elementary into the current middle school building. The district office and alternative school would move to Hillcrest, the Pupil Services and Korger-Chestnut buildings would be sold, and additions would go onto Halmstad and Jim Falls. Chad Trowbridge, business services and finance director, laid out options for a new high school. They included: 86 acres in the Wissota Green/Industrial Park area; 71 acres along County N, north of the middle school; 80 acres in Lake Hallie along Highway 53; and 70 acres on Chippewa Crossing, near Highway 29. He said the proximity of the Chippewa Crossing site to the Chippewa Valley Correctional Treatment Facility is a concern for that site. The Hallie site is across a four-lane commercial boulevard and would be the most expensive. "This provides the opportunity of inspectors to talk directly to the resident to cover issues such as a description of the odour, when they smelt it and any other matters they noticed. A registered complaint can be compared against other data held by the EPA, such as prevailing weather conditions, any other complaints or unusual activities undertaken at the Mugga Lane site, in order to assist with the location of the source of the odour." "In those days the TV technicians were going out across the country retuning television sets because digital TVs didn't exist, and it wasn't all an electronic upgrade, so they all had to be manually retuned from memory," she said. "He said, 'We will need you to move because we need to test the sprinkler system' and I said, 'I think you just did'," Mr Miziner said. The man is appearing in court later this year for a committal hearing on a charge of committing an act of indecency without consent, which the prosecution said also allegedly involved a complainant with some "vulnerability" compared to the defendant. This election was the second time that Old Parliament House had been a polling centre. There was a far greater level of interest in casting a ballot in Canberra's original halls of democracy this time compared with the 2013 poll. LAKE HALLIE Greetings to you on Independence Day! No, it is not Monday, July 4. Yes, it is Saturday, July 2. And today is the day that the second Continental Congress voted to declare our independence from Great Britain. July 4th is when the same congress voted to accept the draft of the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson. Of all the institutions in America, the press now more often referred to as the media has kept quiet watch over America for 240 years. Well, lets be frank: not-so-quiet watch. The freedom of the press is given in the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. I would believe that every president of the United States, every congressman or senator has wished that a mighty bolt of lightning comes from up above and dispatches members of the media to heaven. Even George Washington suffered the slings and arrows of the press. Consider this: Benjamin Franklins grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache, edited the Aurora newspaper of Philadelphia. Bache delighted in zinging President Washington and once labeling him the source of all the misfortunes of our country and declaring him utterly incapable. So much for the father of our country. We owe much of our liberty to the media. Besides Ben Franklin, one of the best authors of the 18th century was Thomas Paine. You may remember Paine from his pamphlet, Common Sense, or more likely these words from his pamphlet, The American Crisis. These are the times that try mens souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman, he wrote. Tom turned out to be quite the rebel rouser. He left America after the Revolutionary War to go to France. There he backed the French Revolution, but made so many enemies that he almost lost his head over the matter. He was just another pesky journalist. The New York Evening Post noted after his death on June 8, 1809: He had lived long, did some good, and much harm. Only six mourners came to his funeral, two of whom were black, most likely freedmen. Thomas Paine even had problems being buried. He wished to be buried in a Quaker graveyard but his long-remembered comment on religion All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit got him booted out of that churchyard. So in the end he was buried under a walnut tree at his farm in 1819, 10 years after his death. We know America by what we have been able to read, see and hear. The media in word, song and electronic means gives us our freedom. It is no coincidence the first things politicians do when they are caught in any manner of foolishness is to say they were misquoted and blame the media. It is no coincidence that the first thing dictators do is try and silence the media. It is step 1 for the Dictators 101 Class. This weekend you and I will be celebrating our independence. Yet across the country hundreds of media people will be on the job. Yes, it is the folks that bring you biased coverage, those folks that routinely misquote people, those folks that cant get the story straight and those folks who hold all citizens accountable who will be working. They will be working so that on Tuesday morning you will know what happened over the weekend. You will know what all the politicians said. You will know about fires, floods, car accidents and all the things that reflect the human condition. So no matter what you call the media they will be there watching, recording and telling us the things that we all need to know. The media will keep the United States of America the country it has become, warts and all. Thomas Paine gets the last word: The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Our media allows freedom to flourish. The government's loss of three seats in Tasmania emerged as one of the shocks of federal election, as key Tony Abbott loyalist and former army officer Andrew Nikolic conceded defeat in his seat of Bass early in the night. "The direct election on the light rail will take place at the next ACT election, and I've doorknocked a lot of Canberrans and there's the occasional people in favour, but their voice is completely drowned out by the numbers of people against it and the intensity against it," he said. While President Barack Obama ordered flags lowered nationwide after such attacks as the terror strikes in Parisand San Bernardino , California, governors also recognized victims of mass killings and casualties including the shootings of nine black Charleston, South Carolina, churchgoers in what authorities say was a racially motivated massacre; the deaths of 33 mariners when the freighter El Faro sank off the Bahamas in a hurricane; and an assault by radicals on a luxury hotel in Bamako, Mali, in which an aid worker from New Jersey was among the 19 people killed. The Charleston shootings also led to a different kind of flag lowering: the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina Statehouse. Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact. Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here. Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing. You are our people. You Care. We Care2. The Karnataka State Open University had lost its validity a year ago as it did not comply with the rules and regulations of the UGC and had signed educational agreement without permission from the UGC. July seems to bring silver lining for KSOU as it has submitted all the necessary documents to UGC on June 7 according to Vishwawani. The external educational agreement has been cancelled by UGC and the process of renewing the grant has resumed. Hence the authorities of the open university have crossed their fingers and await the good news by end of this month. However, the issue over the recognition of the KSOU seems to have ended. Apparently, the UGC has asked the KSOU to submit a report to consider its appeal for recognition. Now, all the students and concerned authorities have a reason to smile as the Vice Chancellor D Shivalingaiah is going to meet the Chairman of UGC on Wednesday. About KSOU The Karnataka State Open University was established on June 1, 1996. It is considered to be a reputed Open UNiveristy amongst the open learning institutions in the country. Keeping in view the educational needs of our country, in general, and state in particular the policies and programmes have been geared to cater to the needy. Karnataka State Open University is a recognised University of Distance Education Council (DEC), New Delhi, regular member of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Delhi, permanent member of Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), London, UK, Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU), Beijing, China, and also has association with Commonwealth of Learning (COL). Karnataka State Open University is situated at the North-Western end of the Manasagangotri campus, Mysore. The campus, which is about 5 Kms, from the city centre, has a serene atmosphere ideally suited for academic pursuits. The University houses at present the Administrative Office, Academic Block, Lecture Halls, a well-equipped Library, Guest House Cottages, a Moderate Canteen, Girls Hostel and a few cottages providing limited accommodation to students coming to Mysore for attending the Contact Programmes or Term-end examinations. Obama Appointed Former ACLU Judge Blocks Mississippi Religious Liberty Law JACKSON, Miss., July 1, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- An Obama appointed, former ACLU, federal district court judge, Carlton Reeves, blocked the Mississippi law, known as "Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act," moments before it would have gone into effect today. Reeves, who served on the board of the ACLU of Mississippi before he was appointed by President Obama, issued an opinion in which he described the Mississippi law as "state-sanctioned discrimination." The judge-strained opinion also states the law gives preference to religions regarding beliefs about marriage and "gender identity." HB 1523 would have protected natural persons, pastors, and closely-held corporations from discrimination and legal action by the state or state agencies, due to sincerely held religious beliefs or convictions. Marriage-related industries, adoptions, churches and pastors, businesses with private facilities like restrooms and lockers, employer grooming standards, expressive activity of state employees, and clerks and others who perform marriages or issue licenses were also included. This Act was overwhelmingly passed 31-17 by the Mississippi Senate and signed into law by Governor Phil Bryant as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 same-sex marriage ruling. It was one of many similar measures enacted in the United States in the year following that landmark decision. "What do you expect from a former ACLU attorney appointed to the bench by President Obama? Judges need to put aside their ideology and be impartial, but many judges today pass off their personal opinions in place of the Constitution," said Mat Staver (photo), Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "Religious liberty must be protected and is the reason for the founding of America," said Staver. Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics. Well, that didnt take long, did it ? Just as the regular, new VW Tiguan went on sale in Europe, the upcoming, stretched version with an additional row of seats was nabbed completely undisguised. While these images appear to have been taken in China where the Tiguan Long Wheelbase or LWB will be built for the local market, the same car will also be manufactured at VWs Mexican plant for global markets, including the USA and Canada, with production to start during the first quarter of 2017, as the German brand recently informed us. The new Tiguan LWB that will go on sale in the States as either a 2017MY or a 2018MY (depending on the launch date), will come with a wheelbase stretched by 110 mm / 4.3 in. over the already larger and more spacious second generation model that rides on a 2,681mm / 105.6 in. wheelbase, as well as an extended rear overhang. A portion of that extra space will go to the addition of a retractable third seat bench, most likely aimed at accommodating two children, as in other cars in this class. Admittedly, these arent the best pictures, but the front quarter image suggests that the LWB model wont look as composed as the regular wheelbase Tiguan. The longer version of VWs SUV will get the same mix of turbocharged diesel and gasoline engines, and possibly a hybrid variant, as the short Tiguan. This wont be the last member of the Tiguan series, as after the presentation of the LWB model, VW plans to introduce a five-door coupe variant of the compact SUV, with a similar styling philosophy to the BMW X4 and Mercedes-Benz GLC Coupe, in a smaller and more affordable package. Thanks to Evan for the heads up! Pics via Autohome, Sohu Photo Gallery BMW Group, Intel and Mobileye will work together with the sole purpose of bringing solutions for highly and fully automated driving into production by the year 2021. All three companies have agreed to a set of milestones that should help them deliver fully autonomous vehicles based on a common reference architecture. The BMW iNext model will represent the foundation of the automakers autonomous strategy, as it will set the basis for multiple types of self-driving scenarios. BMW believes that as the technology gets perfected, drivers will be able to not only take their hands off the wheel, but also reach the so called eyes off level (or level 3) before ultimately taking things a step further to the mind off level (4) where you no longer need to do anything in order to reach your destination. The final stage of autonomous driving is called driver off (level 5), which basically means there is no human driver inside of the car, in turn leading to entirely new business models, including automated ride-sharing solutions. Today marks an important milestone for the automotive industry as we enter a world of new mobility. Together with BMW Group and Intel, Mobileye is laying the groundwork for the technology of future mobility that enables fully autonomous driving to become a reality within the next few years, said Mobileye Co-Founder Professor Amnon Shashua. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich stated that highly autonomous cars and everything they connect to will require powerful and reliable electronic brains to make them smart enough to navigate traffic and avoid accidents. This means relying on Intels Atom and Xeon processors, delivering up to a total of 100 teraflops of performance without having to rewrite code. The three partners were all present at BMWs headquarters in Munich on July 1st, expressing their commitment for a platform that will address level 3 to level 5 automated driving. PHOTO GALLERY The challenging Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, which celebrated its 100th birthday this year, ended last weekend, but videos continue to pop up. The latest is about the 2017 Acura NSX; in particular an example was tweaked for the 12.42-mile (20 km) long course and its 156 turns, using a lightened chassis and a custom high-flow racing exhaust, while taking power from the same Sport Hybrid Super-Handling All-Wheel Drive unit. Behind the wheel of the Japanese supercar was Acuras North American Research and Development team member, Nick Robinson, who was also the engineer responsible for the vehicles dynamic performance. He had no trouble in stopping the clock at 10:28.820 at the end of his run, in the Time Attack 2 class, as demonstrated by the manufacturers official footage. Acuras display of horsepower on the Race to the Clouds included another tweaked NSX, driven in the Time Attack 1 class by James Robinson, Nicks brother, and the NSX EV Concept, which made quite a fuzz when it was unveiled almost two weeks ago. The zero-emission exotic nabbed the bronze medal with a third place scored in the Electric Modified class. VIDEO Photo: Contributed The most interesting character to emerge from 2003s blockbuster Finding Nemo was Dory, the blue Tang fish with chronic memory loss, voiced by Ellen Degeneres. Despite her obvious disability, Dory is able to make and keep friends, achieve her goals and help others see their potential, qualities that make her one of the most likeable and unique heroines to emerge in recent years. The story picks up one year after Finding Nemo ends. Dory is living happily with Nemo (Hayden Rolence) and his father Marlin (Albert Brooks) when a hit on the head causes her to start having flash backs of her childhood and her parents (Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy). The memories are fragmented, but she becomes compelled to return to her home and find her family. As she simply puts it, I miss em." Yet, another trans-ocean adventure ensues with apparent lightning speed (who knew sea turtles could swim so fast?) and the three friends find themselves in front of the jewel of Morro Bay, Marine Life Institute where Dory was born (watch for an amusing recurring bit about Sigourney Weaver). Of course, a Disney story cant possibly be that simple; Nemo and Marlin get separated from Dory as soon as they reach their destination. She gets tangled in a plastic six-pack ring, is scooped up by marine rescue workers and is whisked away into the facility for presumed rehabilitation. The film now earns its title as Nemo and Marlin attempt to find Dory as she attempts to find her lost parents. Once inside the facility, we are introduced to an escaped octopus, Hank (brilliantly voiced by Ed ONeill), who happens to be missing one leg (making him technically a septopus as Dory cogently observes). Hank has one goal and one goal only a life of leisure at the Cleveland Aquarium where selected rehabilitated marine life are sent. Dory has been tagged to go on to Cleveland, so, in exchange for her coveted yellow tag, Hank grudgingly agrees to help her find her parents. Fortunately for Dory, Hank is not only a dextrous escape artist, but is also a chameleon who can change colour to blend into any background and can even drive a truck when required. All of the voices are exceptionally well cast but Degeneres is nothing short of brilliant in this role and the character she has created is the glue that holds everything together. Dory is an innocent and Degeneres delivery is endearing and absolutely spot-on. One can only hope that she will resume her acting career at some point. Some additional characters are on hand to help Dory, Nemo and Marlin end well: Destiny (Kaitlin Olson), the whale shark with terrible vision; Bailey (Ty Burrell), the beluga whale with defective sonar abilities; and Fluke and Rudder (Idris Elba and Dominic West), two hilariously cantankerous sea lions. Despite a rather preposterous chase scene climax that stretches even a cartoon-level willingness to disbelieve, Finding Dory is a lovely film. It's full amazing animation and great belly laughs, but also contains touching messages of enduring familial love and dogged determination. In a sharp contrast to Finding Nemo, there are a few fairly heavy messages in this film regarding feelings of inadequacy, loss and fear. One striking moment occurs in a series of flashbacks where Dory is seen as a child apologizing repeatedly for various mistakes and blunders that really drive home the notion that she is fully aware she is not quite right and believes that everything that goes wrong is her fault. Despite her cheerful and lighthearted approach to life, we learn that she is riddled with guilt that she didnt listen to her parents and allowed herself to get too close to the undertow that took her away from her home in the first place. Most characters in this movie are damaged in some way and suffer from feelings of inadequacy and anxiety, which can open up a great topic of conversation with children after about the various challenges they faced and how they were able to overcome them. Be sure to come early as there is a phenomenal six-minute short film you dont want to miss about a baby sand piper and his fledgling attempts in the ocean. Piper is a remarkable piece of animation and is reminiscent of the 1986 short Luxo Jr. (the first short Pixar did with the lamp). The message is rich and lovely and makes one hope that the studio will spend more of its time creating new worlds rather than endless sequels entertaining though they may be. There is a terrific version of Unforgettable over the end credits sung by artist Sia (really the only music in the movie and surprisingly adult). If you stay right until the end of the long and actually quite boring credits, you will be rewarded with another little bit of amusement, but if you have kids and they are getting cranky, skip it. There is some blatant pulling at heart strings, but some strings need pulling every now and then; Finding Dory is worth the journey. I give this film four out of five hearts. This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet. Photo: Getty Images Whether you're a single parent of one or parents of four the struggle to keep a roof over your head in Kelowna is a constant uphill battle. Two different parents contacted Castanet this week sharing their absolute exasperation at the state of the rental market in the Central Okanagan and their inability to find a home for their families. Shane, who asked to keep his last name private, has up to four kids living with him and his fiancee in a one-bedroom basement suite with their dog. It is not a suitable place for a family of that size, but they cannot find anything else. The rental market here is just awful, says Shane. We've been looking since last November really. It is just ridiculous there is nothing there. He says they are responsible and respectful, don't drink, smoke or do drugs and yet they are struggling. With every new rental we see, the price keeps going up. There is just no break for anyone, says Shane. Anyone making less than $30 an hour, I don't know how they are living here. I don't know how anyone can afford a house here. It is just unbelievable. While Shane understands that property owners are charging rent prices reflective of the current market, he doesn't think prices should be so unattainable for families. Where is the morality? Who wants to rent their house for $4,000 a month to some drug dealer that is probably not going to live there for the whole year-lease term without getting arrested or destroying the house partying. There is nothing for families. He says the family is willing to pay $1,700 a month with utilities, but there is nothing out there for them. If you're paying $2,000, plus utilities, you are barely scraping by to get groceries in the house, you're barely scraping by to feed your dog, your kids and you have to sell everything you own to make ends meet. Michele Blake is a single mother of a nine-year-old boy and told Castanet, through tears, that she cannot find a single home for her small family, and she is running out of time. It has been really tough, holy cow, says Blake. Some one bedrooms are coming in at $1,500, I had to stop looking at two bedrooms because they were $1,400 to $1,600, which is not for me. She moved back to Kelowna last June to enrol in a medical office administration program for single parents and she couldn't find anywhere to live. Fortunately friends allowed them to move into a spare bedroom, but now they have to move out by June 30 and they can't find anywhere to go. I starting looking in March and I just cannot believe ... it is the end of June and there is nothing. It's been brutal, says Blake who adds they have no pets and she does not smoke. I don't think I am going to make it here. I cannot afford $1,250 plus utilities. I don't know how people are doing it? I don't know how single parents can do it. She says the competition for the few semi-affordable places she has found is so intense she often doesn't even get a chance to go see the unit before it is taken. It's crazy, says Blake. I can't be the only one in this situation. Ryan Smith, community planning manager for the City of Kelowna, says city staff and council are well aware of the issue and they are taking steps to improve the situation. One of the causes is that Kelowna is a very desirable place to be. It is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country right now, so challenges like this are inevitable, but I think there is some good news on the rental front on the horizon, says Smith. We've permitted, in the last seven or eight months now, more than 1,000 units of new rental housing. He says those units are already under construction or about to begin construction. Smith says the influx of supply should help with the upward pressure of rental costs, on top of incentives from the city for developers that build rental-housing units. There is definitely a supply challenge and it is going to be tough for awhile, but I think as some of the new supply makes it on to the market it will change the market a bit, says Smith. Unfortunately it is not a problem we can solve immediately, but the good news is the local markets are responding to this cycle and we are beginning to see that supply build. While change may be coming, there are not a lot of solutions for families right now. It is tough for everybody, tough for any kind of working family that isn't making $30 an hour and working 14 hours a day, adds Shane. Photo: CTV Those looking to secure a camping spot in a provincial park over the long weekend may have been out of luck, if they weren't quick on the draw several months ago. Bear Creek Provincial Campground in West Kelowna has been fully booked for the Canada Day long weekend since reservations were first made available three months ago. Demand has become so high that some people have begun scalping reservation spots like concert tickets, forcing campgrounds to ask for ID when campers arrive. "Its busy, busy, busy, said Patrick Lacey, Bear Creek Provincial Campground manager. If (campsites) are being sold off and you show up with someone else's name and the incorrect ID we're going to have to turn you away at the gate." One couple from Salmon Arm who have made their business out of helping Europeans book Canadian campsites say they have been accused of scalping campsites, and have even received threats over it. They threaten that they know where to find us, and they will come to Salmon Arm and it won't end well, said Carla Van der Kraats, co-owner of Canadian Camping Adventures. The next two long weekends, August long weekend and Labour Day long weekend, are fully booked up at Bear Creek Provincial campground. - With files from CTV Vancouver Fireworks exploded over Kelowna Friday night, in celebration of Canada's 149th birthday. People of all ages packed local parks, backyards, and street corners to catch a glimpse of the pyrotechnic performance high above Okanagan Lake. The fireworks kicked off at 10:30 p.m. and lasted for about 10 minutes. Castanet readers sent in dozens of their own picture of the impressive display. Photo: Nicholas Johansen UPDATED: 4:57 p.m. The Kelowna RCMP is continuing to secure the scene of a death being treated as suspicious in Kelowna's downtown. On Saturday at 1:45 a.m., a 911 emergency call was made and the Kelowna RCMP responded to a report of a sudden death at a residence in the 800 block of Cawston Avenue. Upon arriving at the scene, officers discovered a deceased 48-year-old woman. The circumstances surrounding the woman's death are unclear at this time and police are treating her death as suspicious in nature. A 53-year-old Kelowna man has been detained for investigation and remains in police custody. RCMP have reason to believe that this was an isolated incident and the public is not at risk. The investigation, which has been handed over to the Kelowna RCMP Serious Crime Unit (SCU), is in its infancy. The RCMP continues to work closely with the BC Coroners Service. The scene has been secured by investigators, who are now awaiting a search warrant for the property. Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Kelowna RCMP Serious Crime Unit (SCU) at 250-762-3300. Remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477, leaving a tip online at www.crimestoppers.net or by texting your tip to CRIMES (274637) ktown. Further information will be provided as it becomes available. Police tape is blocking off the alley in the 700 block, between Cawston Avenue and Coronation Avenue, as the RCMP secure the area for a search warrant. Little information has been released as to the nature of the incident, but Const. Reg Sahay of the Kelowna RCMP says the call came in at 2 a.m. Saturday morning. A neighbour called the police asking for police assistance, and it came in as a man down complaint, Sahay said. While Sahay says the investigation is still in the preliminary stages, he says it doesnt appear to be related to drugs. Sahay couldnt confirm if anyone had been taken into custody, but said there was one person currently talking to police. A neighbour two doors down from the house in question said they hadn't heard anything out of the ordinary the night before, and wasn't even aware of the police presence. Another neighbour said there are rarely police incidents on their block. This story will be updated as more information becomes available. Court upholds trustee ruling OMAHA (AP) A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court's dismissal of the Nebraska State College Board of Trustees from a lawsuit over the 2010 disappearance of a 19-year-old Peru State student. The mother of Tyler "Ty" Thomas sued the board, saying it violated Title IX, the 1972 law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools, by failing to protect Ty Thomas from harm. Thomas disappeared after encountering Joshua Keadle, a fellow Peru State student now in prison for raping another teen. Thomas has since been declared dead. A federal judge dismissed the college board from the lawsuit last year, saying that while officials could have done more to protect Thomas, attorneys for Thomas failed to show deliberate indifference by college officials. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed on Friday. Whiteclay issues consume budget LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) A tiny Nebraska village that sells millions of cans of beer each year near a South Dakota Indian reservation is consuming a sizeable chunk of the surrounding county's budget. Sheridan County Commissioner James Krotz says law enforcement accounts for roughly 35 percent of the county's budget, largely because of Whiteclay on the border of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. His comments were disclosed Friday in documents obtained through an open-records request by activists who want to shutter Whiteclay's four beer stores. The stores sold the equivalent of 3.5 million cans of beer last year despite having only a dozen residents. Local residents, officials and business owners have been meeting at Gov. Pete Ricketts' urging to try to address panhandling and violence in the village, but they haven't reached an agreement. Health alerts issued for lakes LINCOLN (AP) State health and environment officials have issued health alerts for toxic blue-green algae at Iron Horse Trail Lake in Pawnee County and Kirkman's Cove in Richardson County. Officials say in a news release Friday that the alerts were issued following tests of the lake water. An alert has ended at Harlan County Reservoir. Skin exposed to the toxin from certain strains of blue-green algae can develop rashes and blisters. Someone who drinks water containing the toxin is at risk for headaches, nausea and muscular pain. Children safe after abduction OMAHA (AP) Authorities say two children are safe after being abducted from a home in northwest Omaha. Omaha police say the children's mother and three other people barged into the home a little before 6 p.m. Thursday and took the 5- and 7-year-old kids. Police soon shared information with other agencies about a minivan involved, and a Nebraska state trooper later spotted the vehicle on Interstate 80 near Waverly and pulled it over. The children were found inside, unhurt. Authorities say four adults were arrested. The names of those involved haven't been released. Authorities say the children's mother isn't supposed to have contact with the children. COLUMBUS Its the busy season for Midwest Pyrotechnics. The Stromsburg-area business will awe onlookers with nearly 30 different fireworks shows this summer. Around 20 of those dazzling displays of light are planned within a week of the Fourth of July. Theyre busy, but this is what they love doing. The folks at Midwest Pyrotechnics are into fireworks. What little kid isnt? Brian Buller said with a smile while explaining their passion for things that go boom. Buller has been with Midwest Pyrotechnics since 2002, one year after Ryan Peterson started the enterprise with his late uncle. We wanted to know what you had to do to get bigger fireworks than what you could get at the fireworks stand, said Buller, a Clarks resident who works at Crescent Electric Supply when hes not electrifying audiences with colorful displays. The plan started small with a family show at a gun club near Clay Center. Although the men had the proper permits and licenses to launch the large artillery shells, the Aurora Fire Department had to be present to make things legal. When the firefighters half-jokingly suggested they take on the Aurora show, things got rolling. Thats how it all got started, said Peterson, who farms near Stromsburg. The hobby-turned-business has come a long ways since then. Midwest Pyrotechnics handles the fireworks for shows at private lakes, small-town celebrations and large public events from Oshkosh to Hebron to Columbus. Planning starts the previous year, when Peterson attends a Pyrotechnics Guild International convention to check out new products and tricks, and continues into January and February when items for the upcoming summer are ordered. This years season of shows started in early June and continues into September. Every year were kind of happy where were at, and we keep adding more (shows) and it still works out. We couldnt do it if we didnt keep getting people to help us, Peterson said, referencing the 20 or so family members and friends who lend a hand to make each event a success. Peterson said the business has grown about 25 percent each year over the past decade, with their biggest break coming when they landed the local Red, White, KaBoom event. I think the chamber gave us a chance because were local, and so far, so good, Peterson said of the annual Independence Day celebration organized by the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce. Midwest Pyrotechnics will be lighting up the nighttime sky for the fourth consecutive year during the event set for Sunday at Platte County Agricultural Park. And theyre promising a never-before-seen spectacle for those in attendance. Weve got a couple things were trying this year, Peterson said. Were always going to bring something new. Different colors are continuously added to the show, new shells will be incorporated this year and the fireballs introduced in 2015 are back to bring the flair. It takes two weeks for Midwest Pyrotechnics to prepare for Red, White, KaBoom not including the half-dozen meetings with chamber officials with 200 to 300 man hours spent designing the show on a computer, sorting product and setting up the display. The roughly 18-minute show synchronized to music includes approximately 2,600 shots at a cost of about $30,000. This is a big show, Peterson said. Its one of the biggest in the state of Nebraska. For the Midwest Pyrotechnics crew, the payoff will come Sunday night when they sit back and watch their hard work go up in spectacular displays of color and smoke, then listen for the crowd reaction. Its something I enjoy doing, Peterson said. This show is my favorite by a long ways. Hopefully it gives people something to go home and say, Hey, did you see that? Im excited to see it. Many Nebraska agricultural producers hire custom operators to perform machinery services for their farms and ranches across the state. The 2016 Nebraska Custom Rates Survey summarizes the current rates charged for specific machinery operations. Prices paid for these services become more critical as profit margins tighten because of lower commodity prices. The survey divides the custom operations performed in Nebraska into two sections. Part I includes spring and summer operations such as tillage, planting and harvesting of small grains. Part II includes information about fall and miscellaneous operations. Custom rates reported include charges for the use of necessary equipment, fuel, labor and supplies such as baling wire or twine provided by the custom operator. Seed, fertilizer and chemical costs are not included. Full summaries from this survey, including district as well as state data, are published as University of NebraskaLincoln Extension Circular (EC) 823 for Part I and EC 826 for Part II. They can be found online at http://farm.unl.edu/customrates. Our office keeps several copies of both parts printed and available to anyone that wants the copies. Contact us for the latest survey information. This survey is conducted every two years, so the last data was from 2014. Reminders: The downtown office will be closed Wednesday through June 11 (until 1 p.m.) for the Platte County Fair. You can reach staff during Fair week by coming to Platte County Agricultural Park or by calling the office at 402-564-7712, which is the line to the 4-H Fair office. The office resumes normal downtown business hours July 12. Announcement: On Aug. 18, we will be conducting ag land leasing workshops in Columbus. The 9-11:45 a.m. program will be on land values, cash rents, lease provisions, communications and land business arrangements. The afternoon portion from 1:30-3:30 p.m. will be on flexible cash lease provisions for farmland. The workshops will be free, and you can contact the office to register if youd like to attend one or both workshops. More information coming over the next couple of weeks. This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact The Chanute Tribune office at 620-431-4100 if you have any questions Each of Tennessees 95 counties has a board of education (school board) and superintendent. This wasnt just a good idea which began in one county and spread to others. The oversight of public education across the state is something which was mandated by state legislation. The requirement that every Tennessee county have a board of education and school superintendent can be traced to the work of Governor Austin Peay, Tennessees governor between 1923 and 1927, and the Sixty-Fourth Tennessee General Assembly in 1925. By the early 1900s, availability of education depended greatly on where the student and his/her family lived. Urban Tennessee counties were able to make a greater investment in public education than rural counties. The inequity in education was considerable, with many rural Tennessee counties not even having public elementary schools. Some counties still had all grades in the proverbial one room school house like where Tennessees famous citizen, Sam Houston, held classes at Maryville, TN. According to Paving the Way for Progress: The Governorship of Austin Peay (http://www.teachtnhistory.org/file/Paving%20the%20Way%20for%20Progress-%20Austin%20Peay.pdf), While education had been improved slightly by such governors as James B. Frazier and Malcolm Patterson, Tennessee continued to lag far behind national standards. Few rural legislators thought it affordable, thanks in large part to the states antiquated tax system which continued to place an unfair burden on these communities, to establish elementary schools in every county. In his second inaugural address on January 6, 1925 Gov. Austin Peay made a commitment to improve availability and quality of public education. He said, Children must be educated. Poverty is no crime in this country...The American child needs no inheritance of wealth, nor station to reach success in life. He does need, and he is entitled to be free from the handicap of ignorance. The Public Acts of 1925, Chapter 115 included a section sometimes known as the General Education Act. There was a requirement for a board of education in each county. Be it further enacted, That in each county of the State there shall be a County Board of Education composed of seven members elected by the County Court at its July term, one each year, to succeed members now in office as their respective terms expire, each member to serve for a term of seven years; ... Members of the board were required to reside in the county in which they served and to have a practical education. Compensation was set at a maximum of $4.00 per day. Duties of the County of Board of Education included holding quarterly meetings, electing one of its members as chairman, and preparing budgets. The Public Acts also mandated that each county have a school superintendent. The County Superintendent was required to file with the State Commissioner of Education a copy of the school systems budget as approved by the Quarterly County Court. The superintendent was also charged with filing a list of teachers employed by the school system. Tuberculosis was prevalent across Tennessee in 1925. The Public Acts mandated that the Superintendent and all members of the Board of Education be free of tuberculosis, and stated that they should be removed from office after contracting the disease. Mention was also made of the requirement to maintain a tuberculosis-free student enrollment. Since some larger counties and cities in the state already had school boards, the Public Acts made exceptions so as not to change what those governments were already doing. Hamilton County and Chattanooga already operated their own school systems with oversight by a superintendent and school board. The records available at the Public Library do not indicate when the local board and superintendent began meeting nor what the original mission was. However, the Public Library does have excellent books containing the required annual reports on Hamilton County schools which were presented to the Hamilton County Court. The books include detailed statistics on the system as a whole as well as on each school, often accompanied by photographs. Since 1925, public education in each county of Tennessee has been guided by the administrative roles prescribed in the Public Acts. Unfortunately, Gov. Austin Peay did not live long enough to see the outcome of his education reforms. He became the only governor of Tennessee so far to die while in office, having succumbed to a cerebral hemorrhage on October 2, 1927. For his role in leading education reforms, Gov. Austin Peay was honored by his name being given to Austin Peay Normal University (now Austin Peay State University) located in his home town of Clarksville, TN. If you have additional information on the early history of boards of education and school superintendents in Tennessee, please e-mail me at jolleyh@bellsouth.net. Ill update this article with some of your comments. Also, if you have ideas for similar origin of articles, please e-mail those to me. There are many things that we have today which are often taken for granted as to their origin. The most important information the American public learned from the Benghazi Committee Report is not actually in the report. True to his word that the report would not be a partisan attack on Hillary Clinton or President Obama, Rep. Trey Gowdy's (R-S.C.) committee reported on organizational deficits that led to the destruction of the CIA station in Benghazi, Libya. The gist of the report is that the State Department failed to plan for attacks on the Americans stationed in Benghazi and the resulting dysfunction. Even the Democrats' "CYA" pre-emptive report reads, "...security measures in Benghazi were woefully inadequate." Requests for more security in Benghazi leading up to the attacks were refused, ignored or not received., It should be of no surprise that hindsight is 20-20, but the CIA should have increased security after previous RPG attacks on the facility. On top of that, the British and the International Red Cross had left Benghazi in anticipation of more attacks. This is certainly not new information and a lesson for future asset deployment.These kinds of mistakes will also likely be made again by many administrations. The fact that the military rescue was delayed by arguments over what clothing the Marines would wear is also not new. However, we now know that the 3-hour delay... yes, 3-hour delay... to deploy Marines in their rescue operation was due to arguments between Hillary's State Department and Leon Panetta's Department of Defense over whether the troops should wear their uniforms (Panetta) or civilian clothes (Hillary). They reportedly changed their clothes four times, causing the 3-hour delay. Perhaps one thing we learned here is that Hillary should not have any say in military operations. Amusingly, you can readily determine who the Hillary supporters are in the media by simply reading the phrase, "nothing new" in their stories. Nothing new? Yes, there certainly are new revelations from the report gleaned from over 100 government officials and 75,000 pages of documents. Surprisingly, the committee learned that it was not the Libyans assigned to protect Americans who actually fought to protect them. The February 17 Martyr's Brigade ran away. It was former members of Moammar Ghaddfi's military who fought to protect the Americans. This is no small factoid. A year before the 9/11 attack in Benghazi, Nobel Peace Prizewinner Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton decided to lead from behind with the U.N. and kill Moammar Gadhafi, who had already been tamed by President Bush. Leaving Libya in a state of civil war, one would presume Gaddafi's military would prefer Americans to be dragged in the streets. Instead, they fought to protect them. This might be a lesson for the current or future administration to apply when rebuilding relations with Libya. For Americans, these are not the most important pieces of information learned from the Benghazi report. Important is the fact that Hillary told her daughter on Sep. 11 and the Egyptian Prime Minister on Sep 12 that the attackers were "terrorists," then three days later lied to the families that their sons were killed by "rioters" inspired by some "video." The most important information we learned is how the presumptive Democratic Party nominee responds to truths that are revealed from the investigation. Sadly, her response has not been, "Yes, we failed to build effective communications between agency silos and, as your President, I will learn from these lessons and hire people who are expert in creating effective policies." Her response has not been, "Yes, we made mistakes planning for the obvious need for overt and covert protection of our people on the ground in an area where we should be fully aware of potential attacks.We are learning from this experience and improving plans for such potential operations in every location in the world where Americans are at risk." Instead, her response is to scream, "Lies!" and "A Partisan Sham!" "Discredited Conspiracy Theories!" We learned that Hillary Clinton continues to prove she is not the person America wants to "answer the phone," as she said, "at 3 a.m." In fact, she is not the person America wants to answer the phone at 3:45 p.m. Clickbait. Nobody likes it, and yet it's strangely irresistible. You kind of hate yourself after indulging in it, the Internet equivalent of being force-fed melted Jolly Ranchers by the spoonful. But as much as clickbait's trickster headlines inspire self-loathing, it hardly compares to the amount of ill-will it engenders toward traffic-hungry, trigger-happy media outlets that think firing off lots of popcorny articles, shotgun-style, will net them a few extra ad impressions. Well, Facebook users are fed up with clickbait headlines, and they're fighting back with one of the only tools at their disposal: the like button. For a while now, users have told Facebook in surveys they prefer headlines that spell out what's contained in the story. That doesn't stop them from clicking on stories that leave the news out of the title, though and that's reflected in the data Facebook gathers on its users, said Adam Mosseri, vice president of product management. "If you measure just clicks, no, they'll click more on things where you're actually withholding things in the title," he said. "But they'll spend less time actually reading it once they click." That makes some amount of sense. But Mosseri continued: "Another pattern we see is that they'll like a story, click on it, and come back immediately because they feel deceived and un-like it. We do see that reflected in behavior." It's unclear how widespread this practice is, and Facebook declined to elaborate. But given the incredible importance that likes and engagement can have on the performance of a given article, it does suggest that there's a limit to the traction publishers may get from clickbait. Researchers who've investigated clickbait seem to have settled on a few theories as to why it works. The key finding is that clickbait headlines generate an emotional response that in many ways is out of our control. In one recent paper, computer scientists concluded after analyzing tens of thousands of headlines that the more intensely aligned a headline was toward a positive or negative emotion, the more likely it would be to produce a click. Clickbait also exploits the reward centers of our brains. As Wired wrote last year, you can "think of that clickbait headline as a signal, an imminent sign you're about to see some super-adorbz animal buddies. . . . You might assume our brains get that wonderful squirt of dopamine after we get the reward (the pics), but it turns out dopamine levels go up much sooner." In fact, the mere sight of a clickbait headline is enough to trigger the release of happy chemicals, psychologists have found. In light of that research, it makes total sense why you might be outraged by an article that didn't produce the expected reward. The feeling, too, that you've been manipulated or cheated by some process you're helpless to resist only heightens the resentment. And to hear that some users are taking back their likes shows how little power they have to express themselves and force the system to change. Facebook has periodically taken steps to address clickbait. In 2014, it tweaked its algorithm over concerns that those types of articles could "drown out" other types of content. It did so again earlier this year to prioritize stories that the company thought people actually wanted to read. In both moves, an important metric Facebook considered was the amount of time users spent, or were expected to spend, on a given story the idea being that the longer you take before coming back to Facebook, the likelier it is that you found the content meaningful and worth your time. This week's News Feed tweak seems consistent with that approach. Although it doesn't single out clickbait by name, Facebook is saying it doesn't want publishers to basically take over the News Feed with their many, many attempts at attracting readers. Everyone's definition of clickbait is a little different. Here's how The Washington Post's executive editor, Marty Baron, described it to New York Magazine: "The way I would define it is, it has a headline that tries to trick you to read the story and when you get to the story there's nothing of any substance." Of course, many substantive news stories now are written with webby, social-media-friendly headlines, too. That's by design, in a world where even actual news is forced to compete with cat listicles and Disney-princess personality quizzes. The results are clear: Clicky headlines attract readers. The responsibility of journalists is to make sure there's something worth reading on the other side. The Cinemark Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colo., was the site of a mass shooting in 2012. In reaction, victims and relatives of those who were killed filed lawsuits. (Brennan Linsley / AP) Movie theater chain Cinemark is facing a bit of backlash for seeking almost $700,000 from a group of victims and parents of those killed in the 2012 deadly mass shooting at its complex in Aurora, Colo. It seems people are take your pick appalled/irate/offended/saddened/flabbergasted. Advertisement Can you imagine? Well, of course, you can imagine. You're a sentient, warmblooded human. Cinemark either failed to anticipate public sentiment or simply doesn't care how it looks to be going after the plaintiffs in an unsuccessful lawsuit attempting to pin partial blame for the massacre on the company. Either way, it's stupid, insensitive and shortsighted. Advertisement This isn't about whether Cinemark has a legal right to do what it's doing or a rationale for doing it. It does and it probably does, as I'll explain later. Doesn't matter. This is about an ongoing business concern in which it is almost certainly helpful that the public not have cause to wince and get queasy at the mere thought of putting money in the chain's coffers. There are many other places to go see whatever blockbuster sequel or reboot is out in a given week and pay too much for popcorn and soda. Consumers uneasy about what Cinemark's lawyers are doing will find them. They will practically feel it's their duty. Believe me, I had no desire to write about how idiotic Cinemark is being here. Cinemark, which is the nation's third-largest exhibitor and has eight multiplexes in Illinois, gave me no choice. I'm mad about that, too. This all started with the horrifying turn of events at Aurora's Century 16 on July 20, 2012. An armored gunman, 24, deployed canisters of tear gas, then opened fire with an assault rifle, a shotgun and a semi-automatic pistol during a packed midnight screening of the Batman flick "The Dark Knight Rises," killing 12 and wounding 70. James Holmes was spared the death penalty but was sentenced last year to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Cinemark, meanwhile, has had to defend multiple civil suits. Advertisement One in a Colorado state court had more than 20 victims and parents of those killed alleging Cinemark didn't do enough to prevent the attack. The plaintiffs cited what they deemed security lapses, such as a lack of guards and the absence of an alarm on an emergency door Holmes used, but a jury in May rejected that that played a significant role in the shootings. Colorado law says the victor in a civil suit has the right to recover the cost of litigation from the losers. Cinemark's lawyers last month submitted a $699,187.13 "bill of costs," telling a judge they need the money to preserve evidence and cover other expenses. There has been no ruling on the request yet, and in most cases this might be a formality for plaintiff attorneys. But this is no mere nuisance suit, and most cases don't involve going after people who have already sacrificed so much. It's doesn't look good and it feels worse. Even if Cinemark views the lawsuits as a nuisance, one would think the last thing a theater chain would want to do is to be seen compounding these people's grief. The second to last thing it should want is to remind everyone else there's little it can do to stop this kind of nightmare. A federal judge last month dismissed a similar case filed by a different group of victims for similar reasons and said Cinemark also has a right to recover reasonable costs from those plaintiffs. The company has not yet made public how much those costs were and what, if anything, it plans to do. The Denver Post reported that more than half of the victims involved in the federal lawsuit settled with Cinemark for an undisclosed amount before the judge's order. Advertisement One of those who settled told the newspaper that "the possibility of having to pay the company's legal fees was a factor" in his agreeing to a settlement. Seeing as how the state plaintiffs are considering an appeal, a desire for continued leverage to discourage more litigation is as good an explanation as any as to why the company might be compelled to play hardball. But at what cost? Balance the ill will it stands to stir up with a hard line stance against $700,000. Then balance the $700,000 against the $184.6 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization Cinemark racked up in just the first quarter of this year. The hashtag #BoycottCinemark is already making the rounds in social media circles. Advertisement Among those registering disgust has been California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who deemed the company's action "Shameful!" in one tweet. In another tweet, Newsom conceded the company "may have right to collect legal fees" but, he added, "These folks have already faced the horror of gun violence, move on." Although this is a story that can't have a happy ending, it shouldn't get worse. A request to Cinemark for comment remained unanswered at deadline. But really, what can it say? philrosenthal@tribpub.com Twitter @phil_rosenthal Akenya Seymour, who performs as Akenya, studied jazz but the singer-songwriter's music is also influenced by rhythm and blues, hip-hop, soul, world music and rock. (Desmond Owusu) Akenya Seymour is young, but she's lived a full life. For one, she spent the majority of her childhood bouncing between Chicago neighborhoods. Seymour (who performs as Akenya) said she mostly spent time on the North Side in neighborhoods from Uptown, Rogers Park and Andersonville to Ravenswood. If the city was too expensive or her family fell on hard times, they moved to the south suburbs with family. In some ways, this nomadic experience shaped her pursuits in music. A trained jazz musician, Seymour absorbs the world around her type of music. She studied jazz for eight years, attending the Chicago Academy for the Performing Arts, earning a degree in jazz voice. Advertisement "That kind of influenced a lot of the direction I ended up going in for my future," she said. But her music is not quite rhythm and blues, which has become something of a catch-all term for soulful music. Instead, a quick listen reveals a host of other influences, from hip-hop to soul to rock to world music. As a performer, Akenya is not easy to read. There's a strange, yet pleasant wobble in her voice that sounds rooted in earlier musical forms, too. Halfway through her single "Disappear," a whistle floats along the top. It's at first unusual sounding, then cheeky. Advertisement Music has been a longtime goal for Seymour. Although she excelled on piano as a child, she couldn't sustain her lessons because her family couldn't afford it. Eventually her schooling became an outlet for musical expression. She decided in middle school that she wanted to do it for the rest of her life after getting encouragement from a teacher. MOST READ ENTERTAINMENT NEWS THIS HOUR Throughout her childhood and young adulthood, she used her first love writing as the base for the music she wanted to create. She journaled as a child, and continues the practice today. She uses her journals for lyrics, concepts, poems and songs. "I reflect upon life through my writing and my music," Seymour said. "Some of it comes from a very internal place, like a very intrinsic place of examining myself and my emotions and feelings. And some of it is me looking from the inside out from the world around me and my environment and how it affects me." In addition to serving as an outlet for her thoughts and struggles, journaling also helps Seymour channel her musical interests into the poignant, even heavy lyrics that pepper her music. "Some people sit down at a piano first or come up with a melody by just singing it, but it's difficult and it's more natural for me to start off from a lyrical standpoint for a lot of stuff," she said. "It's 100 percent important." On her Bandcamp page, Seymour typically includes her lyrics. In an increasingly digitized music world where anyone can purchase a song with one click (or never even purchase it at all), studying the lyrics of an artist no longer feels important. And yet for Seymour, her intentions and stories and frustrations line each verse and chorus. They inform the music more than just the melody, and deserve a second glance. "I'm insecure in the measure of time/ Days just betray me and muddle my mind/ I fall behind/ I can't rewind the consequences of settling my senses," she croons on "Disappear." Her interior world built from a rich and complicated childhood, an infectious interest in music, her thoughts and concerns informs how she approaches the world and in turn, how she approaches her music. Britt Julious is a freelancer. Advertisement onthetown@tribpub.com Twitter @chitribent When: 9:30 p.m. Sunday Where: California Clipper, 1002 N. California Ave. Tickets: 21+; www.californiaclipper.com RELATED STORIES: Advertisement Fantastic Negrito, his tunes and 'The Claw' Steve Miller rejuvenated despite Rock Hall of Fame dust-up Riot Fest completes lineup with Flaming Lips, Sleater-Kinney, Julian Marley Watch the latest movie trailers. 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) Carlos Kalmar, conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival, shown June 15, 2016, led the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus in the Midwest premiere of Bohuslav Martinus The Epic of Gilgamesh on July 1 at the Pritzker Pavilion. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune) Some of my British colleagues have advanced the notion that the 1955 oratorio "The Epic of Gilgamesh," one of the final works by the hugely prolific Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu, is his masterpiece. That it is less than a masterpiece but far from musically negligible was made clear by the stirring Midwest premiere by the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus over the weekend at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion. Carlos Kalmar likes to introduce the Grant Park Music Festival public to super-rarities such as this, big pieces that are unlikely to be performed at any other summer classical festival, or, for that matter, more than once during the average listener's lifetime. Advertisement With one of the nation's superior symphony choruses at his disposal, along with a capable orchestra and a strong team of vocal soloists and narrator, the orchestra's principal conductor argued the merits of "Gilgamesh" with a fervor and urgency that carried considerable impact in the great outdoors of Millennium Park. MOST READ ENTERTAINMENT NEWS THIS HOUR Advertisement "Gilgamesh" is the oldest work of literature known to humankind, dating from the third millennium B.C., some 1,500 years before Homer. The epic survives in only fragmentary form, from which Martinu drew short sections to make up his three-part oratorio. The work originally was composed to an English text, a rather archaic and stilted 1928 translation by a British scholar, Reginald Campbell Thompson, that is very seldom performed. Following Martinu's death in 1959, the oratorio was outfitted with a Czech translation of the poem that is more commonly heard in concert and on recordings. Kalmar opted for the English-language original. Martinu's version of the Babylonian epic tells of Gilgamesh, the legendary demigod-king of Uruk, a headstrong tyrant to whom the gods wish to teach humility by creating Enkidu, a Tarzan-like primitive who lives among the animals. The gods send a courtesan to seduce Enkidu, who loses his virginity and is later befriended by Gilgamesh. They quarrel and engage in a fight that neither wins. Further adventures ensue in Parts 2 and 3, which concern, in turn, Enkidu's death, Gilgamesh's grief, the king's plea to the gods to restore his lover to life and his own search for immortality. These are the more musically interesting sections, in which Martinu's music takes on a mysterious, atmospheric power equal to the text. Otherwise, the music, like so much of Martinu's vast output, is uneven. The expository first part is austere to the point of drabness. At the Friday night performance (a repeat was scheduled for Saturday evening), not every subtlety of scoring managed to emerge from the sound system. That said, the final invocation of the dead Enkidu built powerfully, with the anguished king crying out to the unfeeling heavens, his pleas intercut with the voices of the other vocal soloists, narrator and chorus, the whole undergirded by tense rhythmic pulsing in the orchestra. The work winds down to a quiet, ambiguous, unresolved close in which Gilgamesh's questions about the afterlife go unanswered. If Martinu's variable music cannot save "The Epic of Gilgamesh" from dramatic incoherence, the composer rose to some of his finest choral-orchestral invention in the closing sections of all three parts, most notably the martial clash of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, punctuated by ferocious brass and percussion. Eerie string glissandos accompany the choral entreaty, "Enkidu, rise from the earth." Choice moments such as these make the work worth hearing, on occasion. Diligently prepared by director Christopher Bell, the Grant Park Chorus, numbering slightly more than 100 voices, sang beautifully. Absolute technical security, careful balance, lucid diction and keen attention to what the words express were always in evidence. Of the soloists, Gidon Saks stood out with his firm, powerful bass and superbly dramatic declamation of text. David John Pike displayed a potent baritone in the spiritual torments of Gilgamesh. Angela Meade's plush dramatic soprano was made to order for the courtesan's seductive solo. Dane Thomas brought a bright timbre to the tenor solo. The eloquent narrator was Bernard Jacobson, a distinguished former Chicago music critic (at the old Chicago Daily News), in more recent years a respected author, poet, lecturer, program annotator and concert narrator. Advertisement Kalmar began the program with another festival first by a Czech composer, Dvorak's symphonic poem "The Golden Spinning Wheel." However gruesome the folk tale on which the music is based, its irresistible melodic charm and folkish orchestral color make it a welcome change from the Dvorak orchestral bits that turn up with depressing regularity. The merry chirping of the Pritzker's resident avian population brought a touch of the Bohemian forest to Friday's performance. Performances at the Grant Park Music Festival continue this week with the annual Independence Day Salute, Christopher Bell and Allen Tinkham leading the National Youth Choir of Scotland and Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, 6:30 p.m. Monday; and the Grant Park Orchestra accompanying a screening of the classic Buster Keaton silent "The General," 8 p.m. Wednesday. Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, Michigan Avenue and Randolph Street; free in lawn and unreserved seating areas; 312-742-7647, www.gpmf.org. John von Rhein is a Tribune critic. jvonrhein@tribpub.com Twitter @jvonrhein Watch the latest movie trailers. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox) George Lucas picked an architect who does look-at-me, iconic buildings. Barack and Michelle Obama picked a pair of architects who would no more drop a spaceship on the lakefront than the president would endorse Donald Trump. Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, wanted to stick their twin-peaked volcano of a museum on the Museum Campus, within walking distance of Chicago's glittering downtown. The Obamas will build their presidential library and museum, the building's form as yet undecided, on the South Side, steps from poor and predominantly African-American neighborhoods. Advertisement Friends of the Parks took the Lucas Museum to federal court, arguing that it would usurp lakefront land that the state is supposed to hold in trust for the public. But Friends backed off from a threatened legal challenge to the Obama Presidential Center, saying it apparently won't be built on public trust land. By sheer coincidence, Chicago's most high-profile cultural endeavors made front-page headlines in the past 10 days the Lucas Museum for bolting to a still-to-be-named city in California, the Obama Presidential Center by choosing New York's Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects from a stellar field of seven designers. The sharply drawn contrasts between the two projects spelled out the promise of the Obama venture and the painful lessons that should be learned from the Lucas debacle. Advertisement In selecting the renowned, husband-wife team of Williams and Tsien, the Obamas cast a vote in favor of architecture that values craft over computer-driven blobs, subtle experience over the sugar high of eye candy, and quiet clusters of buildings over singular structures that scream for attention. "We're not interested in making a building that is an object," Tsien once told an interviewer. "By making separate buildings, it becomes more of a place than thing." The architects have demonstrated their talents in such acclaimed designs as the Barnes Foundation art museum in Philadelphia and the Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. Yet the one that sticks in my mind is their natatorium at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in suburban Detroit. Inside its carefully crafted brick facade, a nod to the Cranbrook buildings of Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, is an indoor pool that makes you feel like you're swimming outdoors. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 15 A draft rendering of the Lucas Museum on McCormick Place's Lakeside Center site near Chicago's lakefront. (Lucas Museum of Narrative Art) Walls and ceilings open, bringing in fresh air and the scent of an adjoining pine forest. A deep-blue ceiling, with huge circular skylights, evokes stars in the night sky. On occasion, the pool doubles as an indoor movie house, with students floating on inner tubes while they watch films. "It's kind of like a drive-in movie, except it's a float-in movie," Tsien once told me. If the architects can bring this sort of magic to the stuffy, Pharaonic world of presidential libraries, Chicago could be in for a treat. While Williams and Tsien face myriad challenges, like how to integrate the center with the historic park landscapes of Frederick Law Olmsted, it's encouraging that they'll have a voice in the crucial decision of whether the center should be built in Jackson Park or Washington Park. So there is reason for cautious optimism. We'll know whether it was justified in a year or two when the architects unveil their designs. Already, though, there are stark differences between the upbeat Obama center prologue and the bitter tenor of the Lucas Museum aftermath. To Mayor Rahm Emanuel, chief pitchman for the ill-defined "narrative arts museum" that emerged from the studio of Chinese architect Ma Yansong, the takeaway is clear: Friends of the Parks is an obstructionist monster that destroyed a once-in-a-generation opportunity for jobs and investment. It's all their fault! Has the mayor learned nothing? If Steven Spielberg showed up in Chicago tomorrow and proposed erecting Spaceship Steve on the rim of Lake Michigan's azure waters, you get the sense that the unrepentant Rahmbo would drop down on bended knee, swear fealty to the lords of Hollywood and fight the same fight all over again. Advertisement Yet that would ignore the real force that did in the Lucas Museum: the public trust doctrine, which holds that governments are obligated to protect certain natural resources, such as the formerly submerged lands along Lake Michigan, for the public's use. A privately controlled museum, even one built on what is now a surface parking lot, does not comport with that idea. It charges admission. Admission fees limit access. In response to the invariable question about other lakefront museums What about the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium? they were built long before the 1970s, when the public trust doctrine took on new meaning as a weapon against environmental degradation. Here's the real takeaway: The doctrine's growing robustness should give pause to anyone who wants to privatize the public space of the lakefront. But there are also good urban planning reasons to oppose the kind of over-development that the Lucas Museum promised to bring to the Museum Campus. If we keep building museums there, then the Museum Campus eventually will become more "museum" than "campus." Traffic jams will mount, parking lots will gobble up more land, and the lakefront's prized openness will be replaced by architectural clutter. Far better to convert the mayor's least favorite parking lot into parkland think Meigs Field, your honor and to emulate what the Obamas are doing: spread the cultural wealth; create new clusters of vitality along the lakefront or the inland parks; spur development that both inspire children and raise the economic fortunes of poor, minority families. That's the noble art of city-building. If it's good enough for the president and first lady, it should have been good enough for Lucas. bkamin@tribpub.com Advertisement Twitter @BlairKamin Chicago police officers investigate where two men and one woman were shot on the 3300 block of W. Ohio St. in the East Garfield Park neighborhood early July 5, 2016. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune) After the first two nights of the July 4 weekend, Chicago's toll is two dead and at least 20 wounded -- relatively low numbers for a holiday that is often among the city's most violent. As the weekend began, Chicago police announced the arrest of 88 suspects, most of whom were on their "Strategic Subject List" of people believed to be most prone to violence. Police also said thousands more officers are on patrol this weekend. Concerns about violence this weekend have been especially high because of an alarming spike in shootings this year: Through June, homicides stood at 315, a 49 percent increase over the first half of 2015. The police preparations for the July 4 weekend reflect how violent the holiday has often been in Chicago. Last year, at least 10 people were killed and 55 others were wounded during the Fourth of July weekend, according to Tribune data. Most of that time was quiet, but during an eight-hour spasm of violence, 30 people were shot, three of them fatally, including a 7-year-old boy. The July 4 weekend of 2014 left 16 killed and 66 injured. This weekend's two homicides -- both early Saturday -- were a shooting in the driveway of a West Side auto repair shop and a South Side incident in which a man stabbed his brother. From Saturday afternoon into Sunday evening, at least 10 people were wounded, but no deaths were reported, police said. Advertisement Earlier, a 16-year-old boy wounded in Lawndale. He was in the 2800 block of West Polk Street at 6:10 a.m. when someone shot him in both legs. He went to Mount Sinai Hospital for treatment, and his condition was stabilized. A woman was wounded on the South Side early Sunday. She told police she was shot near 123rd and Halsted streets about 4:50 a.m., but it's not clear whether that was true. She did suffer a gunshot wound to the leg and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center. Additional details were not immediately available. Advertisement A shooting in the Longwood Manor neighborhood left a 36-year-old woman with a graze wound to her arm. She's in good condition and was taken to Little Company of Mary Hospital, police said. The shooting happened in the 1000 block of West 97th Street about 3:50 a.m. She was in a car when a black SUV drove by and someone inside opened fire. Someone shot a 25-year-old man in the hand on the 3600 block of West Grand Avenue in the Humboldt Park neighborhood about 3 a.m. He walked into Norwegian American Hospital seeking treatment for the wound. He told police he heard shots and felt pain. A 38-year-old man was shot in the Little Village neighborhood about 2:20 a.m. He was shot in the chest, arm and leg in the 2500 block of South Spaulding Avenue. Police said he's in serious condition at Mount Sinai Hospital. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > Earlier, about 7:40 p.m., a 24-year-old man was shot and critically wounded in the Morgan Park neighborhood. He was shot in the stomach in what police described as a domestic-related attack on the 11800 block of South Oakley Avenue. Police took one person in custody in connection with the incident, and charges are pending. The wounded man went to Advocate Christ Medical Center in critical condition. About 4:10 p.m., a 36-year-old man was shot in the 300 block of West Root Street in the Fuller Park neighborhood. He was shot in the leg and went to Provident Hospital, where he was listed in good condition. Police described him as "uncooperative" and details about the circumstances of the shooting were unavailable. A 54-year-old woman was shot about 3:25 p.m. in the 6400 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue in the Woodlawn neighborhood, said Officer Kevin Quaid, a police spokesman. She was on the street in front of a store when a group of male attackers began shooting in her direction, hitting her in the knee, Quaid said. She was taken to Stroger Hospital, and her condition was stabilized. The woman was not believed to be the intended target of the shooting. Earlier, an 18-year-old man was shot in the leg just after 3 p.m. in the 7200 block of South Spaulding Avenue in the Marquette Park neighborhood, said Officer Michelle Tannehill, a police spokeswoman. The man went to Holy Cross Hospital for treatment, Tannehill said. Police were releasing no detailed information about the shooting. Advertisement In the Englewood neighborhood, a 29-year-old man was shot in the leg in the 1200 block of West 71st Street about 2 p.m., Tannehill said. The man also went to Holy Cross, where his condition was stabilized. Check back for updates. Caution tape surrounds a car that crashed into a storefront on the 300 block of West North Avenue on July 2, 2016, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) Two people suffered minor injuries Saturday morning when a car crashed into a building on the North Side in the city's Old Town Triangle neighborhood. According to preliminary reports, the accident happened about 11 a.m. in the 300 block of West North Avenue, said Officer Bari Lemmon, a Chicago police spokeswoman. Advertisement Details were scarce, but two people were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where they were expected to be treated and released. Police were investigating. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. An Aurora man has been charged with habitually dumping trash into a Kendall County creek. Back in April, Kendall County Sheriff's deputies took a report about garbage dumped into a creek on East Beecher Road south of Galena Road, in Bristol Township, according to a statement from the sheriff's office. Advertisement Bristol Township Highway Department officials said that on three separate dates, they had to clean up black plastic trash bags containing household garbage that had been dumped in the creek, according to the sheriff's office. The trash included pieces of mail, license plates, used motor oil and a used oil filter. The creek where it was dumped feeds into the Rob Roy Creek, which flows into the Fox River, according to officials. Advertisement Community Policing deputies with the sheriff's office started investigating the matter, and while the investigation was ongoing, more trash, including pieces of mail, were reportedly dumped in the same creek. On June 22, officials charged Eugene Brock, 55, who lives on Church Road in Aurora, with littering, a class B misdemeanor, in connection with the trash dumping. Brock is scheduled to appear in court July 14. The investigation also involved the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and Kendall County Building and Zoning Department. hleone@tribpub.com Twitter @hannahmleone An attack on a Sugar Grove resident by a dog has led to a tightening of the village's so-called "Leash Law" ordinance. According to Village President P. Sean Michels, the catalyst for the revision occurred in early May when a woman accompanied by a 5-year-old child was attacked by a dog, resulting in injuries to the woman that had to be treated at a hospital. Advertisement "The whole incident could have been worse, given that the woman and not the child was attacked," Michels said. "The woman required a number of stitches and was on crutches for a few days and then had to go back into the hospital because of an infection." Michels said the woman reported the incident to the Village Board, which had staff review the matter over the past six weeks before approving the revised ordinance. Advertisement The basic language of the ordinance, which spells out requirements for keeping pets both on and off the owner's property, remains basically unchanged, Michels said. Village Administrator Brent Eichelberger said the revision addresses a deficiency in the prior code. "The village is fortunate to have responsible pet owners, so it was a rare incident in the village," Eichelberger said. "But that said, the board was very concerned and directed staff and the village's attorneys to review the existing code, and suggest any warranted changes. Following a full review they clarified the animal owner's responsibility to control their pet, and provide a mechanism for an animal to be declared dangerous if necessary." Michels said in his 16 years of serving the village, "there has never been an incident like this" that he is aware of, and echoed Eichelberger's thoughts that "the animal owner has been put on notice" in terms of being responsible for a pet. "We're not looking to go after owners punitively, but in the past, there was no real mechanism for controlling animals," he said. "If we determine the animal is dangerous, or if there have been multiple occasions of incidents, we can now ask the animal be removed from the village or possibly put down. "I've recently read where another village in the area has passed changes to their ordinance as well," Michels added. "I think it's unfortunate, and we're not here to stereotype any breed, but we are putting owners on notice." David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News A memorial on the site of a triple homicide in the 2400 block of Crescent Drive in Hazel Crest on July 7, 2016. The victims were identified as Dionus M. Neely, 39, Elle Neely, 10, and Endia Neely, 3, their mother is Erin Ross. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune) A man and two children are dead following a shooting Saturday morning in Hazel Crest, police said. Few details have been released by the Hazel Crest Police Department other than officers responded to a 2:20 a.m. call of shots fired at a home in the 2400 block of Crescent Drive and found "a father and two children" injured, according to a department news release. All three were taken to area hospitals, where they later died. Advertisement The victims were identified as Dionus M. Neely, 39, Elle Neely, 10, and Endia Neely, 3, by the Cook County medical examiner's office. Police have not said how or if the children were related to Dionus Neely. The South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force is working with Hazel Crest on the investigation. On Saturday afternoon, officers brought K-9 dogs to the single-family home at 2405 Crescent Drive, which was cordoned off with yellow police tape. They also removed several items, including a couch. Advertisement It's not known if the dogs picked up any scent as they circled the house and walked down the block. Neighbors said they were familiar with the family who lived in the house, describing the residents as a man and woman and five children. They said they believed the woman to be the mother of the children and that she often worked nights; the man stayed home with the children, they said. Dionus Neely has an arrest record dating to at least 1994, according to court records. He was convicted of felony drug charges in cases originating in 1998 and 2008, receiving a four-year prison sentence in the latter case, records show. He was found not guilty in a 2014 felony drug case. Cindy Kebr, a Jesse White Learning Center teacher, said Elle Neely was a student in her third-grade class last year. "Her smile would just light up the room," Kebr said. While the 10-year-old girl could sometimes be a "handful," she often looked up and smiled at her teacher. "She fought to find her way," said Kebr, who heard of the deaths from a teacher's aide who lives in the same neighborhood as the victims. "Kids shouldn't have to go through this," she said. Advertisement Trisha Stallworth said her kids often played with the girls and the other children who lived at the house, which is next to hers. "My heart is broken because those babies are gone," she said. Gunshots were fired at the home about 11/2 months ago, Stallworth said, but no one was injured. The following day, the woman who lived next door asked if she heard the shots, Stallworth said. "The mom said, 'I don't want to be over here anymore,'" Stallworth said. Another neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said they were awakened Saturday morning by the sound of gunfire and heard a woman screaming, "My babies, my babies!" Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > "It's a shame," the neighbor said. Advertisement Stallworth said she was grateful she and her children spent Friday night at her mother's home. When she returned Saturday, she found a large bullet hole in her bedroom window. "Thank God I wasn't (home)," she said. Other neighbors gathered in each other's yards Saturday afternoon and fondly recalled the children, whom they said often played with other neighborhood kids. Some noted, however, the area had seen its share of problems. "In this neighborhood, there's always problems," said one woman, noting earlier this year someone tried to kick her door in. Hazel Crest police have asked that anyone with information about the case to call them at 708-335-9640, Ext. 1. Alicia Fabbre is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown. Just days before the Fourth of July at Uncle Sam's Fireworks in Hammond, fireworks were flying off the shelves. It's a madhouse this time of year, store manager Matt Bugos said with a smirk. It's like a candy store for pyros. From floor to ceiling, there's Roman candles wrapped in bright pastel wrapping paper, snakes that leap from the ground in a spew of ash when lit and sputtering spark fountains in gold, green, red, white and blue. For $675, there's "The Godfather," a 100-pound box of explosives with a scowling cartoon image of Al Capone, guns pointed forward. Advertisement The image is pure Americana, which is ironic given the obvious "Made in China" label on the front of the box. Also made in China: the "Star Spangled Banner" and "5 American Super Shells: Because in America We Do Everything Big." Bugos said that's true of the entire store. In fact, almost everything that whizzes, fizzes, bangs and booms in America this time of year was imported from China. Advertisement Much like the general trend of manufacturing in the U.S., industry professionals said, domestic fireworks production can't compete with the low prices and lax regulations of the Chinese market. When cities and towns want to put on a patriotic spectacle, Chinese-made fireworks give them more bang for their buck. The American appetite for fireworks is insatiable and growing. Last year, Americans bought more than $1 billion, or 285.3 million pounds, in backyard consumer and professional display fireworks, according to the American Pyrotechnics Association, a trade group for the industry. Since 1998, the industry has more than doubled its profits. Of those fireworks, China produces 99 percent of consumer fireworks bought in the U.S. and at least 75 percent of shells used in professional displays here. Last year, one large U.S. company imported 2,600 40-foot shipping containers of fireworks to the United States, according to Terry Winkle, an agent for fireworks companies. In 2004, after four years in the fireworks business, Winkle moved to Liuyang, China, where black powder and firecrackers were invented in the 12th century to fend off evil spirits. Today, Liuyang is the world's manufacturing hub for them. His company, Liuyang Flying Dragon Fireworks, acts as a go-between for the factories and companies around the world. Many of his employees speak more than three languages. Cheaper labor from people living in rural areas allows the Chinese companies to cheaply assemble fireworks by hand. Many of the city's 1.2 million people are employed at factories on the outskirts of town, he said. APA Executive Director Julie Heckman said U.S. fireworks manufacturing began to peter out in the latter half of the 20th century, "because it is so labor intensive." Phil Grucci saw the decline firsthand. President of Fireworks by Grucci, a venerated U.S. fireworks maker, he represents the fifth generation of his family to operate the company founded by his Italian immigrant great-great-grandfather more than 150 years ago. Advertisement "When I was young, manufacturing was very popular," he said. "Almost every display company also manufactured, and they only sold their own products." In the 1970s, he said, his grandfather, then president of the company, began importing a small number of fireworks from Japan. It wasn't just the low price, Japanese fireworks were extraordinarily well-made and had a unique aesthetic. When prices soared there, Taiwan became a cheaper, better option. Eventually, China caught up, and eventually became the industry standard. Today, just 40 years later, the company imports about 65 percent of its product from Asia. The story's the same for other companies, he said. Where there were once hundreds of display fireworks manufactures in the U.S., there are now only a handful, Grucci said. That's why Grucci still employs 165 workers and skilled technicians at its factory in Virginia. He wants to keep as much manufacturing in the U.S. as possible and still stay competitive. But because of the significance fireworks play on Independence Day, it's a disappointing reality. "It's kind of sad," he said. "It's not that I'm anti-Chinese, because we have a long relationship with the factories over there. It's more from a pride and patriotism perspective." Grucci would like to see that trend turn around, as long as the U.S. maintains sturdy trade with China. With many younger Chinese workers desiring education, skilled jobs and higher wages, it's possible that change could eventually come, he said. Advertisement For Garry Hanson, the owner of Precocious Pyrotechnics in Belgrade, Minn., the economic realities of the industry have made the job less fun than it used to be. His company had to shut down consumer fireworks manufacturing in 1993, but still produces fireworks for larger shows. He said his company is "one of the dinosaurs," one of the last to make fireworks here. His main grievance is regulation. Hanson said 31 branches of state, federal and local governments "have their fingers" in his business. "Everyone you can think of," including the Environmental Protection Agency; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Department of Transportation; the Occupational Safety Administration and others perform background checks on employees, determine the conditions under which fireworks are made, transported and distributed and test and certify individual products. Hanson thinks regulations have done little to make the industry safer, instead tying the hands of U.S. companies in a market already stacked against them. "You see what rules and regulations do," he said. "They don't help." Grucci doesn't bow to excessive regulation, but views it as necessary and reasonable. His only frustration is with redundant policies. For example, his employees must undergo background checks and fingerprinting from several agencies to work in the factories. Why that information is not shared between departments, Grucci doesn't know. "This industry is transporting and manufacturing explosives," he said. "You can't expect that there will be no regulation. Learn how to be good at it; try to make it manageable. Monitor regulations and push back against the ones that don't make sense." Advertisement Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > At local stores like Uncle Sam's, most customers don't care much that the fireworks are made on the other side of the world. Bugos said. In 16 years, he's only seen 12 dud fireworks, and only a handful of customers have ever asked if the fireworks were made outside the U.S. People are more worried about kicking back, spending time with family and blowing something up, he said. "It'll keep going as a pastime for families to celebrate," he said. Bugos tells a customer named Mike, who would not give his last name, that the Excalibur mortar, which shoots exploding shells as high as 400 feet in the air, is one of the best fireworks he's got. Mike didn't ask where it was made. Another customer plucks Excalibur from the wall. "Yeah, it's really good," he said, beaming, walking quickly to the cashier. He didn't ask about China, either. Mmccall@tribpub.com Advertisement @MatthewMcCall_ Vietnam Army veterans Roscoe Bunn and Carl Jackson are among 10 local veterans working on a Medal of Honor project they hope to bring into local schools next fall. (John Smierciak/Chicago Tribune Media Group) (JOHN SMIERCIAK / Daily Southtown) Carl Jackson's unwavering definition of patriotism is rooted in service, honor and perspective. "America will always be first," he said. Advertisement After serving in Vietnam, Jackson, who is African-American, returned to a volatile and divided homeland. Across Chicago and across the nation, people were protesting the war, arguing over civil rights and taking out much of their anger on members of the military. Yet Jackson, who served with the U.S. Army some 60 miles south of Da Nang, said he was happy and proud to be home. Advertisement "I never criticize my country because being in Vietnam showed me that there is not a better country on this planet," he said. Despite all that was going on, "I would still much rather be here than someplace else," said Jackson, who today lives in Richton Park. His friend and fellow Vietnam War veteran Roscoe Bunn agreed. "People may have issues with how things are done in this country, but I don't know any vet that served who will disrespect that flag," Bunn said. Bunn and Jackson, along with eight other members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 311 in Richton Park, believe in sharing that sentiment, so last year they began what they call the Medal of Honor Project. The vets are researching the stories of the nation's nearly 3,500 Medal of Honor recipients, with a specific eye toward those of African-American and Hispanic descent. "Not to take anything away from the total (pool) of recipients," Bunn said. "Our goal was to take the information that was out there and make it better, more complete, and then share it with people who should know about this." Growing up, Bunn said, he learned very little about the contributions of minorities in the building of this country. Advertisement Specifically, he said, he wants to make it relevant to kids growing up in Robbins and Harvey and other south suburban towns that have contributed greatly to U.S. military service. Harvey, for example, suffered the most casualties of all the south suburbs, a total of 15, during the Vietnam War. But Bunn said most people don't know that. He believes if kids are given the opportunity to know about real heroes, they may better understand history and take greater pride in both their country and their own citizenship. "I'm most concerned that when we talk about our country, we talk about everybody, all of the contributions military, civic and social heroes, as well as athletes and celebrities," Bunn said. Still in the works, the unfunded volunteer project so far consists of a coloring book, booklets, bookmarks and a presentation they hope to bring into schools around Veterans Day. "Our goal is to provide a source of education for grade school and high school kids about the contributions and achievements of men and women of color in the success of this country," said Bunn, who lives in Matteson. Jackson said the most prominent African-American recipient of the Medal of Honor from this area was Milton Olive, a Chicago resident who served in the Army during the Vietnam War. During a jungle battle with the Viet Cong, Olive threw himself on a grenade to protect the lives of the other soldiers in the 3rd platoon of Company B. Advertisement Today, a park adjacent to Ohio Street Beach and Olive Harvey Community College on the city's South Side are named for him. The first African-American to receive such distinguished honors was Civil War veteran William Carney, for his efforts to keep the American flag from touching the ground during battle, Jackson said. Behind every recipient's name, Jackson said, is a story, a tale heroism, patriotism and service. Behind every recipient's name, Bunn added, is a real hero, someone kids and adults should know about and celebrate. "Most people probably don't know these stories," Bunn said. "Carl and I are learning new things all the time." For instance, Bunn, a fan of Western movies, only recently learned the role of African-Americans in this nation's westward expansion. Advertisement "My dad was part (Native American). I was always curious about the buffalo soldiers. I recently found out that not only did they have an active role during the Civil War, but they served in the American-Indian war." Jackson said, "After the Civil War, soldiers of color were not allowed to serve east of the Mississippi. They could only serve west." Both men said they also recently learned the story of Joseph Noil, a Medal of Honor recipient who saved a fellow boatswain from drowning while serving in the U.S. Navy in 1872. At the time of his death, Noil was believed to be Caucasian. "No one knew then that he was African-American," Bunn said. "They just renamed and rededicated the medal to him at his gravesite this year." Among the Hispanic recipients, Bunn said, was a soldier named Humber Versace, who received his honor while a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. And then there were the civilian recipients. Among them was Mary Edwards Walker, a surgeon and prisoner of war who received a medal after serving in the Civil War. That honor, along with 910 others, was rescinded in 1917. Jackson said a descendant lobbied to have it restored, and in 1977, President Jimmy Carter did the honors. Advertisement The stories are not only compelling, they're true, Bunn said. And there are thousands more, of men and women of all races who died serving this country. Maybe they aren't all Medal of Honor recipients, but their contributions matter, Bunn said. He recalled two local men, in particular: Teddy Williams and Joseph Picket. Williams, of Robbins, ran track with Bunn at Eisenhower High School. "He broad-jumped; I high-jumped. I can still picture him running; he was very fast. His girlfriend and my girlfriend were good friends, so we did things together," Bunn said. After high school, both went into the military. Advertisement "And then he was just gone," he said. "He had been in Vietnam less than six months when he was killed in action." That is a story that the village of Robbins needs to know, Bunn said. Picket and Bunn grew up together. "We used to play cowboys and Indians. We pretended to save each other and be each other's hero. His car was called the Thriller and my car was called the Fugitive," Bunn recalled. Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > "He became a Marine and was killed in action in Vietnam," Bunn said. "When he came home, I went to the funeral with my dad, and that was the first time I'd ever heard the term 'closed casket.' "He had just gotten married when he went to Vietnam. I just wonder what his life might have been like if he'd lived." Advertisement Jackson said such stories need to be told. Bunn said he hopes for a day when kids share the different stories of military heroism the way they share information about athletes and celebrities. "Kids today have all kinds of superheroes," Bunn said. "Why not honor the real heroes, the people who served this country, who died for this country?" dvickroy@tribpub.com Twitter @dvickroy Whats going through Tyrones mind when Fiz and Tyrone read the first extract from The Gazette? After feeling like he has just got through e... Elgin resident and historian Ernie Broadnax and Elgin History Museum Director Elizabeth Marston received an Elgin Image Award in March for the release of Project 2-3-1: Two Boxcars, Three Blocks, One City. (Gloria Casas, The Courier-News) "Project 2-3-1, Two Boxcars, Three Blocks, One City: A Story of Elgin's African American Heritage," a documentary exploring the origins of the city's African American community, won a prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history. The American Association for State and Local History announced the Elgin History Museum/Grindstone Productions and Ernie Broadnax as the recipients of an Award of Merit for "Project 2-3-1." The AASLH Leadership in History Awards, now in its 71st year, is the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history, according to an Elgin History Museum news release. Advertisement "I feel it is an honor for me and the History Museum and the city of Elgin," Broadnax said. The American Association for State and Local History is a national organization and Project 2,3,1 was "lucky to be selected out of the whole country," Elgin History Museum Director Liz Marston said. "There were only four awards in the state of Illinois given out. We are just bowled over they would give us this recognition for a job well done," she said. Advertisement "Project 2-3-1" is a 75-minute film that begins with Civil War "contrabands," who were among the first African Americans to come to Elgin, and continues to the present day, according to the release. Phil Broxham, of Grindstone Products, worked with Broadnax for more than two years on the project. He was thrilled about the award. "It was such a community effort, really, with so many people willing to come on camera and share their story and share their pictures and different memorability," Broxham said. He was especially excited for Broadnax, "whose dream was to have this story told," he said, adding "to see it come to fruition and then be recognized as a significant piece by an organization like this is fulfilling." "It's always great to get recognized, I am happiest for Ernie," Broxham said. "It was his passion and his dream. The story would have never been told or shared if not for his efforts and determination." Broadnax conceived the story and spent years wanting to develop it. He originally wanted it to be told as a drama, but he and Broxham realized it worked best as a documentary. The Elgin History Museum then got involved in the project, he said. Broxham worked with the museum on the 2002 documentary "Circle of Time" about Elgin's Watch Factory. "Project 2-3-1" developed into a documentary exploring how 110 "contrabands," or ex-slaves, arrived in Elgin in the 1860s in two box cars and what the country was like at that time, he said. The story followed the lives of the slaves and generations of African Americans who were forced to live in a three block radius on the city's east side told through the oral history of 50 to 60 people, he said. It also explores what race relations are like in one city, Elgin, and what is happening around the country, he said. "It seemed like it was very, very timely to have that discussion," Broxham said. What struck Broxham while filming the documentary was Ernie's story and those of the people he grew up with, he said. "I was struck by what was life like," Broxham said. "As we dug down into it, people spoke honestly about it. It was kind of 'Jim Crow light,' which most of the north was at that point in time. To hear people talk about it, they couldn't try on clothes in the store in the 1940s and had to take the clothes home. If someone saw them trying on the clothing, a white person wouldn't want to try them on." Advertisement Broxham grew up in Wheeling, a town that was not very integrated so he did not have African American friends growing up. Through Broadnax, he meet and made friends with many African Americans who have enriched his life, he said. "I know I am a better person for it," he said of filming the documentary. "Project 2-3-1" is now available at every academic and public library in the state, Marston said. The museum has toured with an exhibit about the documentary to 13 venues around town and 15,000 people have seen it, she said. The video is also available for sale on the museum's website. Broadnax felt getting the documentary into state libraries was a godsend. "I think that is a very big thing and it made me feel very, very good," he said. He hopes "Project 2-3-1" impacts Elgin's youth, especially black youths, because so many do not know African American history in the city, he said. "I want them to become aware of this history and take pride in the results we have today," Broadnax said. The documentary also received the Midwestern History Association's Alice Smith Prize for best public history project, the release stated. The Midwestern History Association's award is judged by people who research and teach history so it is an honor to receive it, Marston said. Prize committee members were impressed with the project's multimedia approach, community engagement and overall response to the film and exhibit from visitors and viewers, according to the release. Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News. Jerry De Vita, 74, of Streamwood, gets his blood pressure checked by RN Kristen Smith at the Hanover Township Office of Community Health. (Janelle Walker, The Courier-News) Daniel O'Malley's inspiration, "Marcus Welby, M.D." on TV in the 1970s, is long-gone in today's health care system, he says, but he got as close as he could in becoming medical director for Hanover Township's Office of Community Health. That level of care and O'Malley's volunteer service to it is celebrating its 10th year. The program began as a way to help township residents who were struggling with various medical issues, said Hanover Township Supervior Brian McGuire. Advertisement "It was a two-year pilot program to hire a community health nurse to cover all of that to help [residents] see primary care-givers, manage chronic diseases and to eliminate calls to emergency responders" when those diseases were not being managed, McGuire said. Those involved quickly realized that they needed a medical director as well as the nurse who was hired, he said. Advertisement "We budgeted for a nurse, not for the medical director," McGuire said, adding that a salary could be larger than the entire program's budget. Trish Simon, the former township director of community health who died in 2012, reached out to O'Malley, who agreed to take on the role as a volunteer. The program "was a great idea," said O'Malley, and volunteering "seemed like the right thing to do." A board-certified family practitioner, O'Malley grew up in Hoffman Estates and now has a practice, affiliated with Northwestern University, in Bartlett. He says he spent about 10 hours a month on administration of the health center. "We couldn't provide any of the services without Dr. O'Malley," including preventative screenings, injections and home visits to residents, said Kristen Smith, program director and a registered nurse. "We have 1,500 visits a year that we wouldn't be able to do without having a medical director." Those visits are only the residents who come into the center, not the hundreds more who take health education classes or get flu shots or other services. She emphasized that while the center, located in the basement of the township senior center, is not a clinic or primary care office, it's a godsend to residents, she said. Jerry De Vita, 74, of Streamwood, is in every two weeks for injections that he cannot do himself. He brings the medicine with him and also stops in for health care education classes. Advertisement "It is a very valuable service for the community," he said. Pat Kasper, 85, of Bartlett, gets blood drawn at the center to monitor the blood-thinning drug she takes. The community health program operates on an annual budget of $237,868 2.2 percent of the overall township budget. There are Cook County health offices that residents could use, McGuire said, but most are in Chicago. Janelle Walker is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News. A statue depicting a police officer talking to children was unveiled July 1 outside the Mundelein Police Department. Named "The Protector," the statue is visible from Route 45. (Rick Kambic, Pioneer Press) Mundelein officials July 1 unveiled a new police statue located along the Route 45 side of the police station. Jack Forshaw, chairman of the police statue fund committee, said the statue cost $40,000 and was paid for completely through fundraising. Advertisement Named "The Protector," the life-size statue depicts a police officer talking with two young children. It stands on a brick base previously used for the police station monument sign. "We know that when we contacted some of these businesses and corporations we weren't the first people to ask for donations, but they still said 'yes' and here were are," Forshaw said. "I'm not artistically inclined, but I do notice it in other towns and I'm glad we can bring some to Mundelein." Advertisement The fundraising committee was created on July 8, 2013, according to Village Administrator John Lobaito. He said the village did donate $10,000 toward bricks and landscaping around the statue. Forshaw said he first suggested the idea in late 2011. Mayor Steve Lentz spoke during the ceremony and said being a police officer is more challenging now that so many officers are worried about being in the next news headline. Rep. Bob Dold told the crowd that law enforcement is evolving and officers these days put much more effort into preventing crime by working with the community. He said they also counsel the mentally ill and victims of crimes more than ever before. "Mundelein is on the cutting edge," Dold said. "This statue is a testament to the character of the people in this community, that they donate their time, their resources and their effort to recognizing the heroes among us." rkambic@pioneerlocal.com Twitter @Rick_Kambic Randy Mathieu, of Aurora, was found guilty in the 1995 shooting death of Fernando Roman, an innocent man who was mistaken for a rival gang member. Mathieu says he has turned his life around, although he is requred to register as a murderer on a state registry. (Hannah Leone, The Beacon-News) During his nearly 14 1/2 years behind bars, Randy Mathieu said he saw a lot of repeat offenders in the prison system. If he hadn't been caught when he was 15, he thinks he might have become one of them. Advertisement Now 36, he has been out of prison seven years. He works in construction and lives with his wife and two kids in a neat cul-de-sac on the west side of Aurora. A gang tattoo is now covered by a colorful dragon. And the events that put him in a downstate prison feel far away from where he is now, he said. Advertisement "It's like a whole other world," he said. But a few strategic keystrokes will lead anyone with internet access to information about Mathieu's murder conviction, his current address and a recent photo. His is among more than 3,600 names on the Illinois State Police Murderer and Violent Offender Against Youth Registry, a tool established in 2012 by state lawmakers at the urging of families of victims. "When you have a loved one murdered, you really do have to know about things like early release. And you need to know if somebody dangerous is living next to you because of the constant fear and the trauma you are in," said Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins, director of IllinoisVictims.org. But for Mathieu, a database that makes it easy for neighbors to label him with a dark past is troubling. "You know it affects my kids, if they ever find out sooner than I'd like them to," Mathieu said, "or if people judge them because of my actions ... when I was a juvenile myself." Mathieu grew up on the East Side of Aurora and got involved with a gang when he was 14, he said. He was 15 the day he rode into an Aurora neighborhood with two others to kill Fernando Roman because they mistakenly believed he was a high-ranking member of a rival gang, according to news reports at the time. Sentenced to 30 years, Mathieu got out of prison in 2009. Public safety vs. privacy rights Naperville resident Vincent Brumley is in a similar situation. Advertisement The 46-year-old lives with his sister following his release from the downstate Lawrence Correctional Center in 2015 after serving 27 1/2 years behind bars. Brumley was 16 on June 13, 1986, when he got in a car with two acquaintances who kidnapped and killed a man named Allen Cypin. Brumley did not pull the trigger but was tried as an adult and convicted under an Illinois accountability law, according to news reports. He was sentenced to 55 years in prison, according to state records. After spending nearly all of his adult life locked up, Brumley said he has had some difficulty adjusting to life outside prison. "I've been trying to get on track right now, trying to find jobs, is what I'm doing," said Brumley, who works for a temp agency. He said the registry rules, which mandate he register with Naperville police and remain on the website for 10 years, are "very unfair." "As a juvenile, I never had a record," Brumley said. "I'd never been in juvenile detention." Advertisement Bishop-Jenkins said she recognizes the potential the registry has for making life difficult for those who are truly contrite and trying to get or keep their lives on track. "This is tough because I'm progressive and against the death penalty and (sympathize with) people starting their lives over. But I do think that there are some offenses where offenders are of a higher risk and where public safety has to take precedent over their right to privacy," she said. Relatives of Fernando Roman and Allen Cypin could not be reached for this story. Arthur Lurigio, a professor of psychology and criminal justice at Loyola University in Chicago, said it is difficult to strike a balance between public safety and the constitutional rights of every individual. But he noted those on the registry were already punished. "It's a perpetual punishment," Lurigio said. "It's a continuation of the punishment along different lines, a social punishment in which you're locked in a category." Registry created after Batavia woman's murder Advertisement The Child Murderer and Violent Offender Against Youth Registry came into being in June 2006. It evolved into the Murderer and Violent Offender Against Youth Registry in January 2012. That happened largely through the work of Batavia resident Patricia Rosenberg. She campaigned for passage of "Andrea's Law," named for her daughter, Andrea Will, who was strangled in 1998 by Justin Boulay, her former boyfriend, at Eastern Illinois University. Illinois and four other states Indiana, Kansas, Montana and Oklahoma have murderer registries. Illinois' website includes information such as a murderer's or violent offender's address, birth date and physical description, as well as the nature of the criminal conviction. A recent photograph also accompanies each entry. The registry website also includes a reminder that anyone who uses information to commit a criminal act can be prosecuted. Nineteen convicted murderers and 31 people classified as violent offenders make their homes in Aurora, according to the registry. Elgin is home to 12 murderers and 19 violent offenders, while Naperville has three murderers and six violent offenders living within its city limits, the registry showed. Murderers, violent offenders and sex offenders "register with the local police department or county sheriff," whose responsibility it is to enter that personal information into the Law Enforcement Agencies Data System, or LEADS, said Tracie Newton, who oversees the sex offender and murderer registries as head of the Illinois State Police offender registration unit in Springfield. Advertisement There are 3,633 people registered in the murderer and violent offender database. Newton said 3,145, or 87 percent, are men, while 488, or 13 percent, are women. "Juvenile delinquents" also are required to register, although their personal information is not posted to the registry, Newton said. There are 28 such offenders, she said. The compliance rate is 89.6 percent, and the age of registered offenders ranges from 16 to 85, she said. Printouts from both the murderer and sex offender registries, showing a criminal's photograph and vital information, are sometimes posted in the lobbies of local police departments. Neighbors are not notified by mail or telephone when a murderer or sex offender moves into a neighborhood. Elgin police Sgt. Jim Lalley, who heads the unit responsible for maintaining the city's offender registries, said he believes creating the statewide database was a good idea. Lalley said he expected to see more names on the list but speculates defendants plead to lesser crimes that do not require registering on the murderer list. Advertisement "It is definitely not as well-known as the sex offender registry," Lalley said. "From a law enforcement perspective, these are people who should require a little bit more attention. You definitely, I would think, want to know if a murderer is living next door or in the area." DuPage County State's Attorney Robert B. Berlin said he is not aware of violations and has not heard complaints about it. But he would like to see the registry promoted more than it is. "I think the public has a right to know when there's a convicted murderer living in the community," Berlin said. Kane County sheriff's office Lt. Patrick Gengler said the registry helps law enforcement officials stay aware of where offenders live. They don't necessarily monitor homes of offenders, but if a violent crime occurs in a neighborhood where there are otherwise no suspects, it helps to know if a previous offender lives there, he said. People perhaps pay more attention to the sex offender registry because people worry about recidivism and their children, Gengler said. Advertisement According to a Department of Justice report, sex offenders released from state prisons were four times more likely to be re-arrested for a sex crime within three years compared to non-sex offenders. The recidivism rate for sex offenders was 5.3 percent. The rate for all others was 1.3 percent, according to the 2003 study. "Murderers have low recidivism rates. I'm not talking about serial killers, I'm talking about more run-of-the-mill," one-time offenders, Lurigio said. Sex offenders are more likely to offend again because sex crimes are highly compulsive, Lurigio said. "We're registering people because we believe they are at an enhanced, specific risk of reoffending, although that kind of (psychological) assessment is never done," Lurigio said. "We don't predict really well who's going to reoffend (or know) what kinds of triggers" might cause them to do so, he said. Older people, for example, "are less likely to reoffend in any criminal category than younger people." Brumley said friends have seen his name on the murderer registry and confused it with the Illinois Sex Offender Registry, which tracks people who have been convicted of sexual abuse, possession of child pornography or similar crimes. He said he wants his neighbors to know they have nothing to fear from him. Advertisement "I've had comments on that already, where people think you're a sex offender," Brumley said. "I'm not a registered sex offender." But because of the similarity between the two registries, "it's like I'm being treated like one." Deputy Chief Keefe Jackson of the Aurora Police Department said he sees mixed responses to how the department should promote the registry. Having the ability to know the criminal history of someone's neighbors can be a good thing, as long as people keep an open mind and recognize that the circumstances surrounding each case are different, he said. "Having the ability to know the criminal history of members of your community/neighbors can be a good thing, as long as one keeps an open mind and realizes that each registrant carries its own set of circumstances surrounding the qualifying offense," Jackson said in an email. Dan Levey, executive director of the National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children Inc., applauds "Andrea's Law" and calls it "a small imposition, compared to what murder victims and their families have endured." For Lurigio, however, the online listing is not fair to people who have served their sentences. "We put people in this one category, and we think they're monolithic and that is absolutely not true," he said. Advertisement Bill Bird is a Naperville Sun reporter. Hannah Leone is a Beacon-News reporter. Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News. hleone@tribpub.com wbird@tribpub.com Books, Brushes and Bands for Education volunteers ready for their trip through a south Hammond neighborhood. (Sue Ellen Ross / Post-Tribune) Little red wagons aren't only used by children out to play. The recent third annual Books, Brushes and Bands for Education's program called Book Brigade - A Call to Action recently found dozens of volunteers pulling wagons loaded with children's books to be distributed in Hammond neighborhoods. "This year, we collected almost 6,000 new and gently-used books from every Midwest Bank in northwest Indiana and select Centier Banks," said BBB4E administrative assistant Shelley Lohr, who headed this year's program. "Every book has been labeled with a BOOK BRIGADE sticker and is waiting to be distributed by volunteers, also know as brigadiers." Advertisement Elizabeth and Agustino Cortes of Hammond were among this year's first Brigade. The daughter/dad duo also has volunteered for past give-aways. "I wanted to be here again because I remember so many of the happy faces I saw when we delivered the books," Elizabeth said. "This is a fun experience for everyone." Hammond resident Alex Duarte has volunteered with the BBB4E's brigade for the past three years, since its inception. And when he arrived for the first trip this year, he was excited to join with the others for a trek through a Hessville neighborhood. Advertisement "Some kids don't grow up with a lot of books in their home so this (give-away) is very much needed," he said, as he loaded up his wagon. "I love what this organization does for the kids and the community." Hammond College Bound students Laurel Demkovish, 19, Camryn Fary, 18, Bess Fary, 20, and Dakotah Hasselgren, 19, also were among those manning the little red wagons. "This is a great event for the kids," Dakotah said. "And it's good exercise for us." BBB4E is a non-profit organization that connects families to educational opportunities through the arts. Opportunities are offered through their band, choir and orchestra. The basic belief is that experience, exposure and enrichment available through the visual, musical, and literacy arts are essential to the potential of every child. To that end, the focus of the Book Brigade was to offer literacy awareness through the give-a-way. Volunteers approached homeowners, explaining the Book Brigade, and, if there were children in the home, they were invited to come out to the wagons and choose a book. If no one was home, a door hanger was left, with instructions to bring it to the BBB4E office in Hammond for a free book. Advertisement Evelyn Guiertez, 8, and Brian Arriaga, 9, were at home and pleasantly surprised when the wagons rolled into Evelyn's front yard. They took their time as they perused the mountain of selections. "I've been reading for a couple of years, I love books," Evelyn said. "I don't have a lot, but I'm starting to collect some." Her companion agreed with the affinity for the written word and added, as he held up his new book chosen from the wagon, "My favorite is, The Diary of a Wimpy Kid and look, I found one." In addition to residential areas, the Book Brigade will continue through the summer until September with stops at various Hammond churches, Purdue University Northwest, and some Hammond parks during the free lunch activities. For more information about Books, Brushes and Bands for Education and their Book Brigade, call (219) 932-3232. Sue Ellen Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune. An Indiana State Police car shows the damage that occurred when it was struck by a motorcyclist as a state trooper was making a U-turn on Interstate 90 near the Portage exit Friday night. The cyclist was killed in the accident. (Indiana State Police) A Highland man was killed Friday night when he drove his motorcycle into the side of an Indiana State Police car. The victim, identified as Michael M. Damore, 28, by Porter County Coroner Chuck Harris, was westbound on Interstate 90 at about 9:30 p.m. when he struck the front passenger door of a marked state squad car making a U-turn just west of the Portage Toll Plaza, a state police news release said. Advertisement Trooper Jathan Rose, who was driving the squad that was struck, did CPR on Damore until Portage emergency medical personnel could transport Damore to Portage Community Hospital, where he later died, the release said. Damore was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, but an initial investigation shows Damore's driver's license was suspended and his motorcycle was not registered, the release said. Advertisement An autopsy and toxicology screening will be performed Sunday, Harris said. Toxicology results will take six to eight weeks to come back. Westbound lanes of I-90 were closed from 10:30 p.m. Friday until 2:25 a.m. Saturday so investigators could reconstruction the crash, the release said. Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune. You are here: Home Zhang Zhijun, the Chinese mainland's Taiwan affairs chief, has urged Taiwan authorities to give a "responsible explanation" for its military's fatal missile misfire. The island's authorities confirmed on Friday afternoon that the navy fired a missile in error on Friday morning and hit a Taiwan fishing boat in waters off the island, killing one and injuring three. Authorities blamed the misfire on failure by personnel to follow procedures during a test. "The incident occurred and caused severe impact at a time when the mainland has repeatedly emphasized safeguarding peaceful development of cross-Strait relations based on the political foundation of the 1992 Consensus," said Zhang, head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, later on Friday. Responding to media questions, Zhang said "the Taiwan side should offer a responsible explanation of the matter." Villagers, wearing red shirts and carrying a commemorative plaque with glorified words in support of the new Filipino vice president, take to the street in an old traditional procedure to "bring the good news to their ancestors" on June 30. [Photo: mnw.cn] Local villagers of Jinjiang in China's southeastern province of Fujian organized a grand celebration to congratulate the inauguration of the new Filipino vice president, the widow of a descendent of the village, on June 30. Gathering in a clan hall walled with newly-fixed commemorative plaques, villagers watched the live TV broadcast as their heroine, Leni Robredo, was sworn into office. They also took to the village street carrying the plaques in an old traditional procedure to "bring the good news to their ancestors." The glorified words on the plaques included "vice president" and "excellent woman". The second most powerful leader in the archipelago is the widow of Jesse Robredo, or Lim Pieng Ti, a person of ethnic Chinese descent by means of his paternal grandfather who immigrated to the Philippines from Fujian Province at the beginning of the 20th Century. Mr. Robredo was the former secretary of the Interior and Local Government and was killed in a plane crash in 2012. As a fourth generation Chinese Filipino, he was keen to seek his roots back in China and very much cared for the development and education of his hometown. "On hearing the news of Mrs. Robredo's victory, we were very excited," said Lin Kangqing, the village chief. He said that the local people couldn't fly to the Philippines to support the vice president-elect in such a short time notice, but that they'll present the video footage of their celebrations to her later in a gesture of encouragement. Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation. Flash A leading legal academic specializing in European Union (EU) law said Friday untold damage has been done to the quality of Britain's democracy by the Brexit campaign in last month's referendum. Professor Michael Dougan from the University of Liverpool Law School said that in the wake of the leave result the British government "has a constitutional responsibility to protect the national interest". Dougan, one of Britain's most experienced lawyers on EU law, carried out an assessment of the Leave campaign prior to the June 23 national referendum, criticizing the campaign for what he described as its "industry dishonesty". He also assessed the Remain camp's claims, and has now assessed Britain's position following the vote to leave the EU. Dougan, an advisor to the government on EU matters has spent his career studying EU law as it relates to Britain. He repeated his criticism that the Leave campaign was "one of the most dishonest campaigns this country has ever seen", potentially resulting in "untold damage to the quality of our national democracy". Dougan looked at Brexit allegations relating to the power held by the European Commission, the volume of law coming out of the EU, the likelihood of a European Army, Turkey's accession to the EU as well as immigration. "Because most of the campaign was based on constitutional and legal issues it was therefore "relatively easy for a constitutional lawyer like me to investigate and evaluate the main planks of what the Leave campaign had to say," commented Dougan. Dougan is highly critical of the actions of Vote Leave's most prominent members in the days after the vote. He said it quickly emerged that no plan was in place and their pre-referendum claims rapidly unraveled. He also expressed concerns that Leave voters will "not get the things they were falsely promised and that this could leave them feeling "more disenfranchised, more marginalized and more angry". Dougan concluded: "This is now a political crisis that needs a political solution. The government has a constitutional responsibility to protect the national interest, with parliament the ultimate decision-maker on whether the UK follows through and leaves the European Union." The front pages of London's national newspapers Friday were dominated by Boris Johnson's decision not to fight in the contest to replace Prime Minister David Cameron. The former London Mayor had been favorite to win the keys to 10 Downing Street, but he changed his mind at the last minute after his close colleague in the Leave camp, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, announced he would bid for the top job. "Brexecuted" splashed the Sun newspaper, with a sub-heading saying "Gove Knifes Boris and bids to be leader". "Tory Day of Treachery" headlined the Daily Mail, adding "most savage day of blood letting since fall of Thatcher as Gove knifes Boris in battle to be PM". Most of the daily papers prominently reported on the fallout from Gove's decision to stand in the race for leadership of the Conservatives. Formerly announcing his candidacy Friday Gove said his leadership bid was driven by conviction about what was right for the country, not personal ambition. He pledged to cut immigration by blocking EU free movement and spend an extra 100 million pounds a week (132.70 million U.S. dollars) on the National Health Service if he wins the race to become Prime Minister in September. With five candidates in the race for the leadership, Home Secretary Theresa May remains favorite to win. The high selling "middle England" national newspaper, the Daily Mail, announced Friday it was backing May to be Britain's next Prime Minister. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn may have to wait until next week to learn if there is to be a challenge to his leadership on the opposition benches at Westminster. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said in a speech in Manchester Friday that he had abandoned his target to restore government finances to surplus by 2020, the year of the next general election. You are here: Home Flash Gunmen have shot dead two police officials, police said, in the first attack on a foreign restaurant in Bangladesh claimed by Islamic State (IS) group jihadists. Around five hours into the attack, according to a jihadist threat monitoring portal, SITE Intelligence Group, IS claimed its responsibility of attacking the Spanish restaurant . The gunmen stormed the restaurant in Bangladesh capital Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on Friday night at about 9:00 p.m. local time. The authenticity of the IS claim has not been confirmed by Bangladesh Police. "Salahuddin Khan, officer-in-charge of Banani police station in capital Dhaka, was shot dead as the gunmen opened fire at the law enforcers shortly after taking hostages at the Spanish restaurant," a police official told Xinhua. The official who did not like to be named said around midnight, another senior officer named Robiul succumbed to the injuries he sustained during the fire exchange. At least 40 people including two more senior police officials were injured in the incident. Dozens of people including several foreign nationals are believed to be held hostage after police exchanged fire with the group of criminals. Sources said five to six unidentified miscreants entered the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant where usually foreigners go for eating and opened gunfire around 9:20 p.m.local time. As a huge number of policemen cordoned off the restaurant, the miscreants opened fire at the law enforcers. Attackers also hurled bombs at policemen. It is not immediately known whether the injured people included a foreigner. "We're trying to end the hostage crisis peacefully," Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Chief Benzir Ahmed told journalists in his brief comment. He could not tell immediately how many people are caught up inside the restaurant. Bangladesh have already called in personnel from all of its special forces to end the crisis. Sources said gunmen have been asking to release a leader of banned militant outfit JMB who has recently been arrested. Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh or JMB, campaigning for establishment of Islamic rule in Bangladesh, carried out a series of bombings in 63 out of the country's 64 districts, including capital Dhaka on August 17, 2005, leaving two people dead and 150 others injured. Hundreds of JMB leaders and activists were rounded up while six top leaders of the group, including Shaikh Abdur Rahman, were hanged in 2007. According to the sources, the gunmen are also demanding safe exit for them. Flash Russian President Vladimir Putin said here on Friday that Russia would respect Finland's choice whether to join NATO, but he painted a dire picture for Finland if it would be a NATO member. Putin described the losses Finland would suffer as a NATO country. He said that NATO would be keen on fighting against Russia "to the last Finnish soldier alive". Putin warned that Finnish defence forces would no longer be independent but be part of NATO infrastructure that would reach the Russian borders. Putin made the remarks at a joint press conference after holding talks with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto. He arrived at Niinisto's summer residence in Naantali on Friday afternoon for a one-day working visit. On his part, Niinisto said small steps could be taken to enhance confidence, referring to the situation in Ukraine and the tension in the Baltic Sea area. Niinisto tied the possible dismantling of sanctions against Russia to the progress in peace talks on Ukraine crisis. Putin claimed that Russia never provokes, and he said the West created the situation in the Crimea and Ukraine through provocations. He said attempt is also being made to increase tension in the Baltic Sea. When asked about revitalizing trade between Russia and the West, Putin said western companies should invest in Russia and thus compensate the decline in exports. The talks continued late over the dinner, in which Finnish and Russian ministers responsible for economic development and environment issues also took part. Mike Bixler knows his company is on the smaller end of the spectrum, but that doesnt mean the job is any easier. Bixler owns Bixler Pyrotechnics Inc., out of Schuylkill County. With the help of family and friends, Bixlers company produces fireworks displays, usually in a two- to three-hour radius of where hes located. Hell be handling the fireworks display at Kipona on Labor Day in Harrisburg, and will again be in the city for the New Years Eve celebration. Before that, however, hell be dealing with the customers looking for those Fourth of July fireworks. Even as he was talking, a shipment of a few hundred cases of shells were delivered to the business to be readied for the big weekend. Overall, he estimated that his company produces about 32 fireworks displays a year. Its just something we like to do for fun, he said. There are some companies that do more than a thousand, but theyre nationwide. Among the companies that stay that busy is Celebration Fireworks, based in Lehigh County. Owner John Kemps said his business pushes about 115 fireworks displays a year, with about 30 to 35 falling around this time frame alone. Unfortunately too many of them are in June and July, he laughed. Thats not that high compared to some other companies, but its certainly stressful for some. Zambelli Fireworks out of New Castle, Pennsylvania, is one of the companies that provides fireworks displays nationwide, with human resources director Sandy McStay estimating they perform about 1,700 displays a year. We do displays all over the country. We do about 30 states over the Fourth of July, she said. Preparation Though the displays themselves are over within minutes, planning and preparing the fireworks can take hours or days, depending on the size of the show. It all depends on the size of the show and the guys I have who are available, Bixler said. For a smaller show, we can do that in three hours. For a larger show, we can do it in 12 hours. For the displays that Celebration Fireworks handles, setting up often requires days. Setting up is time-consuming, Kemps said. Every device has to be wired. It could take six, seven to 10 guys eight to 10 man hours to set up a display. Many displays go up to two days (to set up). That was the case last weekend when the company set up on a barge in New Jersey for a fireworks display. And though setting each of the fireworks and wiring them to a computer for electronic firing takes time on-site, preparation also starts much earlier in the office. Kemps is one of two full-time designers at his company who work on choreographing the fireworks display. Kemps, who trained as an electrical engineer and became a fireworks technician after selling the company he co-owned at age 49, explained that he works with a rather involved computer system that sends signals to thousands of devices. For somebody coming in from scratch, it would be difficult, he said. Designing a display is made a little easier when it comes to a relatively newer type of display pyromusicals. Kemps said the music dictates what they do for a display, in terms of when they fire the fireworks and at what angle. The difficulty for these, however, is the sound system and the associated costs. We have our own large sound system. If the DJ or band has theirs, we can use that, or we can add to the DJ system, Kemps said. The sound is important. If (the music) cant exceed the level of the fireworks, the sponsor is wasting money. Bixler, who also offers pyro musicals as an option for customers, suggests that most people should forget about the option. You need a very expensive sound system to reach everyone who is watching the fireworks, he said, noting that the sponsor or the municipality that hires them for the display would have to have the sound system themselves. We suggest against that. You have to try to hit every note. For a lot of townships, its just not feasible. A pyromusical will increase the cost of the display, which already varies depending on the number of shells fired, and how big those fireworks shells are. We typically start shows around $3,000 and go to the sky, Bixler said. Sometimes we do smaller ones for weddings if theyre local. Safety and rules Just as important as producing the best show is making sure everyone is safe during it. Bixler and Kemps noted that their companies have only ever used computers to fire the shells for the shows, both citing that hand-fired fireworks would be risks to those firing them. I never handled a shell and dont want to, Kemps said. McStay said the majority of Zambelli Fireworks shows are handled through a computer system, but there are some remaining displays that are hand-fired. Zambelli has been in business for more than 100 years, and she said the company started using computers about 28 years ago. Hand-fired is not substantially any more dangerous, other than the technicians will be closer, she said. All three companies said they follow the standards for crowd safety, which are set by the National Fire Protection Association. Kemps added that he often exceeds those standards by doubling the amount of space considered a safe distance between the firing area and the crowd. What Kemps wishes would be as uniform as the standards are the rules regarding display fireworks across the country. Celebration Fireworks operates within a 100- to 200-mile radius of Allentown, which means it hits a number of states, and more than a few municipalities. We wish the law was uniform, but it isnt, Kemps said of laws regarding who can display fireworks and what requirements they must fulfill to do so. It also varies from township to township. There is one state law, but a township can write its own ordinance. The (Pennsylvania) state law is only a paragraph, so the townships can add to that. In Pennsylvania, the state does not issue permits for display fireworks. Rather, a municipality is the governing authority with control over to whom it will issue permits and how much of a bond or insurance is required for the company or individual putting on the display. Some townships also require a small bond of $100. We ask why our $10 million liability insurance policy isnt enough, but they still require the bond, Kemps said. Some require $1 million or $5 million or $10 million (insurance). It can be a headache. We carry $10 million, not only to cover it, but also have enough protection. As a large company, Zambelli Fireworks handles the differing rules by having project managers that oversee geographical regions. Since Zambelli is based in Pennsylvania, there is a project manager for the state alone. Our various project managers are in charge of geographic territories, McStay said. They become experts in local regulations in various places. Despite the challenges in adhering to various local regulations, the owners say they are always reminded of why they started in the first place. Ive always enjoyed fireworks, and Im fascinated by the chemistry and production of it, Kemps said, noting that he later saw a pyromusical at a convention of the Pyrotechnics Guild International. It was absolutely drop-dead fascinating. Nobody in my part of the world was doing it. I never looked back. Heavily armed militants struck at the heart of Bangladeshs diplomatic zone on Friday night, taking dozens of hostages at a restaurant popular with foreigners. Two police officers were killed and at least 26 people wounded in a gunbattle as security forces cordoned off the area and sought to end the standoff. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery in the capital city Dhakas Gulshan area, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadis activity online. At least 35 people, including about 20 foreigners, were still trapped inside the restaurant, said kitchen staffer Sumon Reza, who was among more than 10 people who managed to run to the rooftop and escape. The attack marks an escalation in the growing drumbeat of militant violence to hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation in the past three years, but with increasing frequency in recent months. Most attacks have been by machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities. Bangladesh did not immediately respond to the claim of responsibility by IS, but in the past have denied that the extremist group has a presence in the country. The U.S. State Department said it had seen the IS claim, but could not confirm its authenticity. More than eight hours after the hostage crisis began, a standoff had developed with little sign of any resolution. The attackers have not responded to authorities calls for negotiation, said a member of the elite anti-crime force, Rapid Action Battalion, identifying himself as Lt. Col. Masood, during an interview with the Indian TV channel Times Now. He said authorities were planning to launch a coordinated response at dawn, and that the security cordon would prevent any of the attackers from escaping. Authorities also ordered internet services to be blocked across the country, according to internet service provider Aamra. Police said the two officers died at a hospital after being wounded in the gunfire with as many as nine attackers, who also hurled bombs. Ten of the 26 wounded were listed in critical condition, six of whom were on life support, according to hospital staff, who said the injuries ranged from broken bones to gunshot wounds. Only one civilian was among the wounded. Reza said the attackers chanted Allahu Akbar (God is Great) as they launched the attack around 9:20 p.m. Friday, initially opening fire with blanks. A huge contingent of security forces cordoned off the area around the bakery. Resident Lutful Amin told The Associated Press he heard several explosions, the last of which went off around 10:45 p.m. The head of the Rapid Action Battalion told reporters Friday night that they were working to save the lives of the people trapped inside the restaurant. The hostages included an unknown number of foreigners. Their nationalities were not immediately clear. On Saturday, Japans top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said at a hastily called news conference in Tokyo that the government is trying to confirm that Japanese were among the hostages. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters that saving lives is the top priority. Some derailed youths have entered the restaurant and launched the attack, Benazir Ahmed said. We have talked to some of the people who fled the restaurant after the attack. We want to resolve this peacefully. We are trying to talk to the attackers, we want to listen to them about what they want. Our first priority is to save the lives of the people trapped inside, Ahmed said. He would not say how many people were being held hostage. Among the hostages was a businessman and his wife and two children, according to his uncle Anwarul Karim. My nephew Hasnat Karim called me and said he was inside with his family. He told me, Please save us, please! And he hung up, he said. We do not know what is going on there. A worker with the China Harbor Engineering Co at a port construction site in Cote d'Ivoire. [Photo/Xinhua] More than 1 million vehicles have been recorded traveling on Jamaica's costliest construction project, the North-South Expressway, since the end of March following its completion, according to a leading executive at China Harbor Engineering Co, the company that built most of it. Lin Yichong, chairman of State-owned CHEC, a unit of China Communications Construction Co, said that as the Caribbean nation has only 1.2 million vehicles, this figure indicated the highway has worked well to improve regional connectivity in Jamaica, as well as creating more than 2,000 jobs in the services sector for local residents. The four-lane, 65-kilometer and $732-million highway is CHEC's first overseas infrastructure project using the "build, operate and transfer" model. The Chinese company's share of total contract value was $540 million. The highway took three years to build and connects Caymanas in the Saint Catherine region - a town about 11 km west of the capital Kingston - with Ocho Rios, in the parish of Saint Ann on Jamaica's north coast. "The majority of countries and regions in the Caribbean rely on trade in commodities, agricultural and mining products," said Lin. "Countries with better infrastructure facilities such as roads, airports, bridges and container ports, have more chances to increase government revenues and their standard of living." CHEC's business in Jamaica has also included building a main road to the country's airport and other road-improvement projects, while regionally it has taken part in Costa Rica's No 32 highway reconstruction and expansion project, and the third phase of Colon container terminal project, in nearby Panama. The company also signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract for a loading facility at a power station in Pakistan's Balochistan province, with Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Ltd earlier this month. The project, when completed, will handle 4.4 million metric tons of coal annually. Fang Qiuchen, president of the China International Contractors Association in Beijing, which helps Chinese companies facilitate new business in overseas markets, said Chinese companies are capable of coordinating finance for projects through Chinese institutions such as the Export-Import Bank of China, China Development Bank or even their cash-rich mother companies. "They do not generally seek sovereign guarantees when working with local partners, especially in regional markets such as Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and East Europe," he said. Customs officers inspect imported Korean ginseng chicken soup in Rongcheng, Shandong province, July 1, 2016. [Ju Chuanjiang/China Daily] Chinese customs began inspecting 1,200 packs of ginseng chicken soup from South Korea on Friday in Rongcheng, Shandong province, marking the beginning of trade of the traditional Korean cuisine in the Chinese market. The first batch of products arrived at Shidao Port in Shandong on Thursday, and more will be delivered to ports in Shanghai and Shandong in following days. "Both China and South Korea made great efforts to implement the first trade of ginseng chicken soup. We overcame a series of technical difficulties and it is an important movement toward improving the bilateral food trade and security," said Liu Jian, deputy director of division one at the Import and Export Food Safety Bureau under the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. Five South Korean producers have been registered at the administration and several Chinese companies in Shanghai, Weihai, Qingdao and Guangzhou obtained a trading license on the specific product. "Weihai is the closest Chinese city to South Korea, and the Korean favorite food landing in China from Weihai is a meaningful thing. I believe more Chinese people will enjoy the ginseng chicken soup," said Lee Yun-dong, food and drug counselor from the South Korean embassy to China. The traditional soup is an important part of the Korean culture. However, due to issues like the presence of bird flu in South Korea and difficulties in determining the nature of ingredients, the soup could not enter the Chinese market for a long time. In October, during Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Seoul, Li promised to create mechanisms for South Korea to export its traditional dishes of kimchi and ginseng chicken soup to China. Korean cuisine is popular among Chinese people, and more than 30,000 Korean restaurants have registered in China. The imported ginseng chicken soup will be distributed to Korean restaurants, Korean food shops and supermarkets. Yu Jianyang, chairman of Taixiang Food, which is the Chinese importer of the first chicken soup deal, said he sees a great market potential for the Korean soup and is confident that Taixiang will become the biggest importer of ginseng chicken soup in China. A village official (center) inquires about loan services with two bank employees at a Postal Savings Bank of China Co branch in Fengxin county, Jiangxi province. [Photo/Xinhua] The Postal Savings Bank of China Co filed a listing application with the Hong Kong stock exchange, people with knowledge of the matter said, as it prepares for an $8 billion initial public offering that could be the world's biggest this year. The bank, which has the most branches of any Chinese lender, aims to list as early as September, two people said on Thursday, asking not to be identified as the information is private. An $8 billion IPO would be the largest since e-commerce billionaire Jack Ma's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd priced its $25 billion New York share sale in September 2014, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Postal Savings Bank is seeking to list at one of the most turbulent times for investors in years. Britain's vote to exit the European Union roiled global equity markets and caused the pound to plunge to its lowest in more than 30 years. The amount raised from first-time share sales globally was $52.3 billion in the first half, the slowest pace in seven years, Bloomberg-compiled data show. A Hong Kong-based external spokeswoman for the Postal Savings Bank declined to comment. IFR reported the submission earlier Thursday in Hong Kong, citing unidentified people. Postal Savings Bank hired Bank of America Corp, China International Capital Corp, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley to arrange the sale, people with knowledge of the matter said in January. The lender raised 45 billion yuan ($6.8 billion) in December selling a 17 percent stake to investors including the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Singapore state investment company Temasek Holdings Pte and UBS Group AG. Regulator's move on tougher code also made to prevent illegal fundraising by listed companies China's top securities watchdog on Friday tightened regulations on reverse mergers to curb rampant speculation by shell companies and illegal fundraising. Listed companies involved in reverse mergers must hold a news conference and accept public supervision before the resumption the share trading, the regulator said. The regulator will also carry out on-site inspections on all companies that have disclosed their draft plans for a reverse merger. Reverse mergers, or back-door listings, allow a private company to acquire a public shell company so that it can bypass the usually lengthy and complex process of going public. "The regulator will impose strict regulations on reverse mergers with the focus on complete information disclosure by public companies," said Zhang Xiaojun, a spokesman for the China Securities Regulatory Commission. The regulator's statement came after it revised the rules for major asset restructuring by listed companies last month, to better regulate back-door listings and to curb speculation surrounding shell companies. The regulator is soliciting public opinion on the revised rules. The rules will ban listed companies from raising funds for asset restructuring and prevent those with a record of law and rule violations within the past three years from selling assets. On Friday, the regulator also reiterated its regulations for listed companies about environmental issues. Companies that violated rules and regulations on environmental protection over the past 36 months will be banned from selling shares through initial public offerings, Zhang said. The regulator also stepped up the requirement for information disclosure of public companies in polluting industries. In the first half of this year, the regulator levied fines totaling 2.55 billion yuan ($383 million) for market wrongdoings, including insider trading, market manipulation, violation of information disclosure rules and fabrication of information. On Friday, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.1 percent, taking this week's advance to 2.7 percent and erasing losses sparked by the United Kingdom referendum to leave the European Union. Chinese stocks managed to cap their biggest weekly gain in a month after official manufacturing data matched forecasts and a gauge of China's services activity perked up. Bloomberg contributed to this story. Customs authorities in Shenzhen inspect products at a factory. [Photo provided to China Daily] BEIJING - China on Friday unveiled a decision to amend regulations on customs inspections in response to greater need for convenient customs clearance. The amendment includes measures to facilitate inspections, optimize inspection procedures and punish violations, according to the decision by the State Council posted on the official website of the Chinese government. Customs inspections are intended to supervise the authenticity and legitimacy of exports and imports after customs clearance. China first unveiled regulations on customs inspections in 1997. The amendment showed that customs authorities have the right to collect goods from industry associations, government organs and companies, as well as information on foreign trade activities from associations. Authorities can set the focus of an inspection based on a company's credit and risk level. The amendment raised the penalty amount for violations discovered during the inspection. The decision also restricted the conditions of inspection without prior notice to certain emergency situations, such as highly suspicious targets, and when goods and related documents could be transferred, hidden or destroyed. The amendment will become effective on Oct 1, 2016. Foreign observers voice praise By Xinhua (China Daily) Updated: 2016-07-02 08:04 CPC success due to its drawing from practical experience, experts say As the Communist Party of China celebrated its 95th birthday on Thursday, international observers marveled at its sustained vigor and its glorious achievements in the country's development. Since the Party was founded in 1921, it has kept up with the times, steering the country in the right direction, and it has thoroughly changed Chinese society. Some observers said it is enjoyable to see that the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government have made such tremendous achievements. Italian Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso recently told Xinhua about the pleasure he took in seeing the progress made. "I was quite impressed by what I saw when I visited China as senate speaker last October. Things there were completely different from 15 years before, when I had visited the country as a tourist," he said. Susumu Yabuki, honorary professor of China studies at Japan's Yokohama City University, said: "After its birth, the Party led China in driving out the imperialists and in the struggle to gain independence in 1949. It then devoted itself to developing the economy and has made China a major economic power." Experts attribute the Party's sustained success to the special attention it gives to updating its theories and guidelines by drawing on practical experience. Nguyen Vinh Quang, a former minister at the Vietnamese embassy to China, said the Party has developed a socialist theoretical system with Chinese characteristics, which has guided the country's reform and opening-up and economic development. Vichian Piakhong, vice-president of the Thai Young Chinese Chamber of Commerce, said the Party has repeatedly surpassed its former successes by adopting new notions and strategies as powerful tools, uniting and leading Chinese of all ethnic groups. Ronnie Lins, director of China Studies Center in Brazil, noted that the Party has adopted the "new normal" economic theory and reset the pace and model of China's development. By shifting the focus from a high growth rate to more balanced, down-to-earth development goals, it will help China to advance steadily toward realizing the Chinese Dream. Experts say the Communist Party of China has special advantages as a ruling party. First, it is down-to-earth and ready to correct its mistakes. The Party has made mistakes, but it has realized and corrected them, said Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club, a commercial group that has played a tremendous role in trade between China and Britain. Second, the Party draws upon all useful opinions and keeps up with the times. Perry spoke highly of its democratic centralism, noting that this has yielded great achievements, especially since 1978. The Party listens to the people so its policies can reflect their minds, thus earning support from the public, Lins said. Bambang Suryono, chief editor of Inhua Daily in Indonesia, said the Party is brave enough to embrace new things and evolve with the times. The Party's successful guidance of China has not only helped change the country's destiny, but also advanced the common development of mankind, observers noted. They laud China's leading role in pushing forward global trade, economic and investment cooperation, especially that among developing countries, which has benefited all countries. Hans Hendrischke, a professor at the University of Sydney, said China is now widely participating in global value chains and is carrying out trade and investment cooperation with many countries. It has helped many countries overcome financial shortages and provided a huge market for its trade partners. In recent years, the Party has put forward the concept of "the community of common destiny for all mankind" and the Belt and Road Initiative, with a view to seeking common development and benefiting the world. If the initiative is carried out successfully, the countries involved will gain from the interconnection of infrastructure, bringing prosperity to the region. The miracle of China's economic growth has become a model in development. With its rich experience, China can help other developing countries shake off poverty, Hendrischke said. (China Daily 07/02/2016 page3) Firefighters fight against the flood in Chaohu city, Anhui province on July 2, 2016. Average rainfall exceeds 270 mm in Chaohu city and it exceeds 300 mm in certain counties in Anhui province due to the flood triggered by a heavy storm since June 30, 2016. Thirty-five reservoirs overflowed in Chaohu city. All government officials canceled their holidays and joined the flood relief efforts during the weekend. [Photo by Li Tinghe and Ma Fengcheng/chinadaily.com.cn] As of 9 am, July 2, 2016, the heavy rainfall has affected 1.26 million residents in six cities including Liu'an, Hefei, and Anqing since June 26, 2016, in East China's Anhui province. Around 46,000 residents have been evacuated and relocated on an emergency basis. The heavy storm hit 114,000 hectares of crops and collapsed 596 houses and caused a direct economic loss of 1.11 billion yuan ($166 million), according to preliminary statistics. Highlights of rainstorms across China * China on orange alert for rainstorms * Death toll from SW China landslide rises to 20 * 10,000 villagers evacuated as floods hit Yangtze River reaches * Massive landslide kills 21 in SW China * Trains delayed *Eight dead after rain topples wall in central China Individuals and organizations are not allowed to release animals freely into the wild, according in to a law adopted by China's top legislative body on Saturday. People and organizations should select species that can adapt to the places where they plan to set them free, in a move to avoid disturbing local residents' production and life, as well as not to destroy the local ecological system, according to the Law on Protection of Wildlife. Those who harm local ecology and bring personal or property damages to others through the release of wildlife will face legal liabilities, said the law. Yan Xun, chief engineer at the Department of Wildlife Conservation and Nature Reserve Management under the State Forestry Administration, said that people's release of wildlife should be conducted under the guidance of professional institutes. Yan gave the answer during a press conference after the law was approved by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. "People who release alien species and bring damages to others or to the local environment will face criminal liabilities in line with the Criminal Law," he said. Those who release local species, such as snakes, and harm others, will be also blamed under the new law, which will be effective since January 2017, he added. The law takes wildlife protection as priority, and also stipulates that the government will regulate the use of wild animals as well as improve stricter supervision in the industry. Rescuers evacuate a woman and her child in Chaohu city, Anhui province on July 2, 2016. [Photo by Li Tinghe and Ma Fengcheng/chinadaily.com.cn] BEIJING -- China's meteorological authority on Sunday renewed its orange alert for heavy rain across much of the southern regions in the coming 24 hours. Thunderstorms will hit the provinces of Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guizhou and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous Rregion from Sunday morning to Monday morning, with precipitation reaching up to 220 millimeters in some areas, the National Meteorological Center said on its website. The center suggested people reduce outdoor activities and take precautions against possible floods and landslides. China has a four-tier color-coded system for severe weather, with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue. China issues warning on geological disasters China's weather authorities on Saturday evening warned of possible geological disasters in the south and southwest of the country as heavy rain offers no respite for the region. The National Meteorological Center (NMC) and the Ministry of Water Resources warned of high risks of mountain torrents in parts of Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Yunnan and Tibet from Saturday evening to Sunday evening, suggesting residents take necessary precautions. The NMC on Saturday evening renewed its orange alert, the second highest of the four-tier warning system, for storms, forecasting torrential rain in parts of Anhui, Jiangsu, Hubei, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and Guangxi from Saturday evening to Sunday evening, with precipitation reaching 280 millimeters in some areas. China has a four-tier color-coded warning system for severe weather, with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue. French retailer Carrefour SA launches a branch of the Communist Party of China on June 26, 2012, becoming the first foreign retailer in China that builds a CPC branch. The photo shows members of the branch. [Photo/VCG] BEIJING - In the HR department at Jabil Huangpu, a cubicle is marked with a sign that reads "demonstration post of Party member" to honor a star employee. The Communist Party of China (CPC), which celebrated its 95th birthday on Friday, is the world's largest political party, boasting 87 million members. CPC branches at foreign companies are not common, although the Party constitution stipulates that organizations of more than three members should have one. However, their numbers are growing. Guangzhou-based Jabil Huangpu, established in 2001, is the first China subsidiary of Jabil, a global electronic parts supplier headquartered in the United States. The company has 16,000 workers and six CPC branches, with a general branch in charge of them. Huang Lu, a manager in the company's HR department, is secretary of the company's general Party branch. According to Huang, there are 106 members in the Jabil Huangpu general CPC branch, most in their mid-twenties. One third of them work in management, another third are key technicians, and the others are line workers. STAR EMPLOYEES "Although there are not many demonstration Party member posts, those who have them have played a role as star employees," Huang said of employees like the one with the sign in the HR department. "We have set up three such posts, which have been recognized by our U.S. bosses," she said, adding Party members are competing for the honor, and non-Party-member employees strive to keep pace with them. Those who earn the honor must be recommended by the Party branch and reviewed by the general branch. They may hold the title for a year, then undergo further evaluation to retain the recognition. Over the past 19 years at the company, Mei Lianzhen has ascended through the ranks from assembly worker to manager of the manufacturing department. She is also a probationary CPC member at one of the company's party branches. To join the CPC, a prospective member must send an application letter as well as recommendations from two Party members. After approval, he or she must complete a year-long probation period before becoming an official Party member. "My recommenders and the Party branch leaders say I need to improve myself more because a CPC member has to be excellent in both work and life," she said. The company's general Party branch is under the direct leadership of the CPC Guangzhou Development District Committee. In addition to organizing CPC training and meetings, the committee helps Party branches of private companies establish member archives and release CPC documents for study. Companies from nearly 60 countries have investments in the Guangzhou Development District, contributing 95 percent of the district's economic output. According to an official from the district's Party affairs, more than 300 CPC committees, general branches and branches, consisting of more than 6,500 Party members, have been established. All private companies in the district, including foreign ones, now have branches. At Mitsubishi Electric (Guangzhou) Compressor Co., Ltd., the number of CPC members exceeds 100, and nearly half of the managers above the team leader level are CPC members at the Japanese company. "The star employees show the excellence of Party members, and they are also recognized by the Japanese management," said Li Hui, deputy director of general affairs and also head of the company's Party committee. The committee also leads the company's union to bring workers' complaints and claims to management. "The Japanese managers respect our proposals very much, and usually will respond to us in a timely manner," she said. Chen Kailong with the Party School of the CPC Central Committee said foreign companies are increasingly supportive of establishing Party branches because they help with the enforcement of Chinese laws and regulations and mediation in labor disputes. Chen advised local Party organizations to help develop CPC branches in foreign companies by sending cadres to the branches and addressing their demands. Kerala Government bans e-cigarettes Published: July 2, 2016 Kerala Government has banned electronic cigarette alias e-cigarette as its use can cause various health issues, including cancer and heart ailments. In this regard, an order was issued that banned the production, sale and advertisement of e-cigarettes in the state. With this, Kerala becomes fourth state in India to ban e-cigarette. Punjab was the first state to ban e-cigarettes in November 2014 under the provisions of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2003. It was followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka. What are e-cigarettes? e-cigarettes are handy battery-powered devices that emit doses of vaporised nicotine. It produces the feel of tobacco smoking. Unlike regular cigarette, e-cigarettes do not produce smoke but produces an aerosol (mist), which is inaccurately referred to as vapor. e-cigarettes have a heating element that atomizes a liquid solution known as e-liquid which usually is a mixture of propylene glycol, glycerin, nicotine, and flavorings. Ill effects: A series of studies conducted in Japan and United States (US) had proved that the usage of e-cigarette can cause cancer and heart ailments. Month: Current Affairs - July, 2016 Topics: Kerala States Latest E-Books An exhibition of paintings at the China National Art Gallery in Beijing has been arranged by the Ministry of Culture to mark the 95th anniversary of the Communist Party of China.[Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily] CPC success due to its drawing from practical experience, experts say As the Communist Party of China celebrated its 95th birthday on Thursday, international observers marveled at its sustained vigor and its glorious achievements in the country's development. Since the Party was founded in 1921, it has kept up with the times, steering the country in the right direction, and it has thoroughly changed Chinese society. Some observers said it is enjoyable to see that the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government have made such tremendous achievements. Italian Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso recently told Xinhua about the pleasure he took in seeing the progress made. "I was quite impressed by what I saw when I visited China as senate speaker last October. Things there were completely different from 15 years before, when I had visited the country as a tourist," he said. Susumu Yabuki, honorary professor of China studies at Japan's Yokohama City University, said: "After its birth, the Party led China in driving out the imperialists and in the struggle to gain independence in 1949. It then devoted itself to developing the economy and has made China a major economic power." Experts attribute the Party's sustained success to the special attention it gives to updating its theories and guidelines by drawing on practical experience. Nguyen Vinh Quang, a former minister at the Vietnamese embassy to China, said the Party has developed a socialist theoretical system with Chinese characteristics, which has guided the country's reform and opening-up and economic development. Vichian Piakhong, vice-president of the Thai Young Chinese Chamber of Commerce, said the Party has repeatedly surpassed its former successes by adopting new notions and strategies as powerful tools, uniting and leading Chinese of all ethnic groups. Ronnie Lins, director of China Studies Center in Brazil, noted that the Party has adopted the "new normal" economic theory and reset the pace and model of China's development. By shifting the focus from a high growth rate to more balanced, down-to-earth development goals, it will help China to advance steadily toward realizing the Chinese Dream. Experts say the Communist Party of China has special advantages as a ruling party. First, it is down-to-earth and ready to correct its mistakes. The Party has made mistakes, but it has realized and corrected them, said Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club, a commercial group that has played a tremendous role in trade between China and Britain. Second, the Party draws upon all useful opinions and keeps up with the times. Perry spoke highly of its democratic centralism, noting that this has yielded great achievements, especially since 1978. The Party listens to the people so its policies can reflect their minds, thus earning support from the public, Lins said. Bambang Suryono, chief editor of Inhua Daily in Indonesia, said the Party is brave enough to embrace new things and evolve with the times. The Party's successful guidance of China has not only helped change the country's destiny, but also advanced the common development of mankind, observers noted. They laud China's leading role in pushing forward global trade, economic and investment cooperation, especially that among developing countries, which has benefited all countries. Hans Hendrischke, a professor at the University of Sydney, said China is now widely participating in global value chains and is carrying out trade and investment cooperation with many countries. It has helped many countries overcome financial shortages and provided a huge market for its trade partners. In recent years, the Party has put forward the concept of "the community of common destiny for all mankind" and the Belt and Road Initiative, with a view to seeking common development and benefiting the world. If the initiative is carried out successfully, the countries involved will gain from the interconnection of infrastructure, bringing prosperity to the region. The miracle of China's economic growth has become a model in development. With its rich experience, China can help other developing countries shake off poverty, Hendrischke said. Xinhua It was a moment in history - a time to look forward, a time to look back. That is, to reflect, in every sense. The reality it reflects is that the Communist Party of China has remained true to its mission - to improve people's lives. It was an instant of gazing out from within - and seeing the words spoken by CPC Central Committee General Secretary Xi Jinping reflected as realities not only inside but also outside the Great Hall of the People. The 95th anniversary of the Party's founding was more than a celebration. It was also a reflection on how far it has come and how it should navigate the future. That is, by remaining faithful to its origins. Xi's words resonate with what I've witnessed over my decade of traveling throughout China, often to far-flung destinations. I've watched remote communities in geologically hazardous areas transform to the point they're barely recognizable in just a few years. That's not to mention drastic urban development. Xi also addressed corruption - another challenge in which progress is conspicuous. The anti-graft campaign is palpable. It's felt not only by officials but also by ordinary people, who celebrate it with genuine gratitude. It's not an abstraction or slogan but something material and tangible. It stays true to the mission. The Party has changed with China and the world. But it also has, in turn, transformed the country and its global position. It has done this through adjustment, experimentation and innovation. The very fact several foreigners were invited to the anniversary testifies to the CPC's openness and inclusiveness. It shows the Party is looking outward and well as inward. It's another reflection of how Xi's words inside the Great Hall of the People resonate with realities outside the venue. That is, throughout the country and the world. Attending was an honor. But the greatest joy is knowing the words spoken in the venue ring true outside its doors, from Shanghai's Bund to the most isolated village on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. And that reflects how the Party is staying true to its mission. Contact the writer at erik_nilsson@chinadaily.com.cn (China Daily 07/02/2016 page3) More than 1 million vehicles have been recorded traveling on Jamaica's costliest construction project, the North-South Expressway, since the end of March following its completion, according to a leading executive at China Harbor Engineering Co, the company that built most of it. Lin Yichong, chairman of State-owned CHEC, a unit of China Communications Construction Co, said that as the Caribbean nation has only 1.2 million vehicles, this figure indicated the highway has worked well to improve regional connectivity in Jamaica, as well as creating more than 2,000 jobs in the services sector for local residents. The four-lane, 65-kilometer and $732-million highway is CHEC's first overseas infrastructure project using the "build, operate and transfer" model. The Chinese company's share of total contract value was $540 million. Chinese customs began inspecting 1,200 packs of ginseng chicken soup from South Korea on Friday in Rongcheng, Shandong province, marking the beginning of trade of the traditional Korean cuisine in the Chinese market. The first batch of products arrived at Shidao Port in Shandong on Thursday, and more will be delivered to ports in Shanghai and Shandong in following days. "Both China and South Korea made great efforts to implement the first trade of ginseng chicken soup. We overcame a series of technical difficulties and it is an important movement toward improving the bilateral food trade and security," said Liu Jian, deputy director of division one at the Import and Export Food Safety Bureau under the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. Students of the IMA course at Shanghai NYU explain to their peers how their end-of-semester projects work. [Photo provided to China Daily] Shanghai NYU's interactive media arts course has animation in its syllabus. Using just four triangular acrylic sheets which she had created using a laser cutter, Sun Yue makes a simple but elegant prism which is able to project a hologram of an animation being played on an iPad. The project is part of the end-of-semester show for students of Shanghai New York University's Interactive Media Arts (IMA) course, which has for the first time included animation in its syllabus. The course also encourages students to apply simple tools and materials to create their own unique animations. "I was inspired by an online post to create an innovative projector to reflect simple animations as a hologram. This is an example of a unique visual effect coming from simple ideas and easy tools," says Sun, a second year student who is majoring in Mathematics. The showcase, which is held twice a year, is an opportunity for students enrolled in the IMA course to showcase their final assignments and share their ideas with other students. There are around 150 students enrolled in the course at NYU Shanghai this year. In contrast, the project by a team of four students, led by freshman Justin Amoafo from the United States, is more elaborate. Using aerial drones and a 7-minute documentary titled "Breath" that shows the before and after scenes of air pollution in five places around Shanghai, the team's aim is to educate Westerners on the remediation efforts being made. "This event gives students the chance to explain and talk to people who might not know anything about a particular topic and it is also a great way for them to get to know new people," says Marianne Petit, associate arts professor and director of IMA. True to its liberal arts core, students at NYU Shanghai are exposed to an ever-evolving project-based curriculum which is designed to facilitate the acquisition of both the conceptual insights and practical skills needed to build the innovative human-centered design projects imagined by the students. "Our students are challenged to create interactive systems that connect people, facilitate participation, convey information, communicate stories, enhance experiences and bring both meaning and delight to people's lives," says Petit. Located in Lujiazui amid a cluster of skyscrapers that tower over a bend in the Huangpu River, NYU Shanghai has 50 percent of foreigners among its students. Most courses are taught in English. All students, regardless of nationality, receive double diplomas - one from the US and another certified by China's education ministry. Full-timers at the university spend two years in Shanghai and three semesters on exchange at one of NYU's many campuses around the world. NYU Shanghai's student body numbers in the hundreds but is expected to peak at 2,000 by 2020. yuran@chinadaily.com.cn An injured member of the police personnel is carried away by his colleagues, after gunmen stormed a restaurant popular with expatriates in the diplomatic quarter of the Bangladeshi capital, in Dhaka July 1, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] DHAKA - Gunmen killed 20 people by slitting throats soon after they stormed a Spanish restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, a spokesman of the Bangladesh Army said on Saturday. Brigadier General Naim Ashfaq chowdhury did not disclose nationality of the victims, but sources said most of the victims were foreigners. He told a press briefing that most of the victims were killed by slitting throats. Chowdhury said six attackers were killed during an armed raid that ended the 13-hour siege in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan since Friday night. "We've managed to capture one attacker alive," he said. Some 13 hostages, including one Japanese and two Sri Lankans, were rescued. Previous report from agencies: * Islamic State claims responsibility for attack * 8-9 gunmen attacked restaurant in Dhaka's Gulshan area * Two police dead; 20 people injured * About 20 hostages, including foreigners, in restaurant RIL, SBI ink Subscription and Shareholders' Agreement for payments bank JV Published: July 2, 2016 Telecom-to-energy conglomerate Reliance Industries (RIL) and Indias largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) have signed Subscription and Shareholders Agreement to set up payments bank. As per the agreement, RIL will be the promoter with a 70 per cent equity contribution in the payments bank and SBI as joint venture will have 30 per cent equity contribution. Background RIL-SBI combine was among the 11 entities So far two of these Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Co and Sun Pharma, IDFC Bank and telecom operator Telenor have decided to shelve plans of launching payments bank. About Payments banks Payments banks are small deposit-taking institutions that can accept deposits (initially up to 1 lakh rupees per individual). Besides, they will offer Internet banking, facilitate money transfers and sell insurance and mutual funds by piggy-backing on existing retail or other networks. They can also issue ATM/debit cards, but not credit cards. However, they are also not allowed to lend. Instead, they can invest 75% of their deposits in short-term government bonds. Month: Current Affairs - July, 2016 Topics: Banking Business Financial inclusion RIL SBI Latest E-Books : ; - CM ?; - (Photo : Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoo) Chinese President Xi Jinping makes a speech at the celebration of the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, July 1, 2016. Advertisement The Communist Party of China (CPC) celebrated its 95th anniversary on Friday, July 1, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The occasion was marked by a speech from President Xi Jinping, which came at the end of a week-long series of events, ceremonies, and concerts; attended by elite businessmen, politicians and celebrities. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The CPC came into being in 1921 after a Congress. The 12 delegates who attended the Congress called for the establishment of a communist party as a branch of the Communist International and elected Chen Duxiu as its leader. For party members, the 95th anniversary of the CPC is an occasion of great pride and celebration as it commemorates the struggles and sacrifices of all who fought for the country's Independence and later worked to strengthen China into a world super power. President Xi's speech which was telecast live on TV and was also streamed online on websites like YouTube, which is otherwise unavailable in China. The speech focused on Marxism as the "guiding principle" of the party and the core of its identity. President Xi also touched on the issue of corruption as the biggest threat to the party. "As the ruling party, the biggest danger we face is corruption," Xi said. "We must have staunch will, not let up on zero tolerance attitude, investigate all cases and punish those who are corrupt, to give corrupt elements no place to hide in the party." Although he did not make any direct reference to the South China Sea, Xi sent a clear warning that although Beijing does not intend to create any trouble, it would not allow others undermine its interests. Advertisement TagsCPC, Chinese Communist Party, President Xi Jinping, Marxism, Karl Marx, china, China politics, Beijing, Great Hall of the People, National Museum of China, South China Sea, Wang Tieniu, Lio Shaoqui, Lenin, Leninism, Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, CPC 95 anniversary, May Forth Movement 1919, 1919, 1921 (Photo : Youtube Video) Chinese scientists have discovered a 100-million-year old amber-encased dinosaur wings. Advertisement Chinese paleontologists have announced the discovery of dinosaur-era winged birds. The fossil nicknamed "angel" was found encased in Burmese amber and is believed to be a hundred million years old, the National Geographic reported. Scientists have described this unique specimen as the nearest thing to finding the "flesh" of an ancient bird or bird-like creature. The remains are one of the first specimens to show the depth and details of feathers in wings of the enantiornithes, a species of extinct avian dinosaurs which are said to be the ancestors of modern birds, but had teeth and claws at the end of their wings. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Dr. Xing Lida from the China University of Geo-sciences in Beijing, who headed the team of researchers, retrieved the rare specimen from northeastern Myanmar. "We have skin, bones, claws, not only feathers. This provides us a unique opportunity to observe these animals frozen in time with a new level of detail," he told The Telegraph. The preservation of the details of the feather has thrilled the scientists working on this project, who have described the amber as a sort of time capsule. Close examination of the plumage of the bird has revealed startling similarities between modern birds and the extinct breed. "These specimens demonstrate that the plumage types associated with modern birds were present within single individuals of enantiornithes," a report of the study published in Nature Communications said Amber, which is solidified tree resin, is commonly mined and sold as jewelery. In this case, the ancient creature would have been stuck in the sticky tree resin at the start of their fossilisation process which then would have encapsulated and preserved them till now. The discovery had been groundbreaking in proving that some dinosaurs were warm-blooded like birds. Advertisement TagsDinosaurs, Dinosaur Fossils, Southern China Dinosaur, enantiornithes, Amber, Fossils, palaeontologist, palaeontology, myanmar amber, sleeping dinosaur, Myanmar, China Scientists, china (Photo : Chinese Cultural Relics) Gold box in which the Buddha's skull bone was found Advertisement A Buddhist temple in Nanjing, China has yielded a parietal bone believed to be that of the sage Siddhartha Gautama Buddha who died either in 544 or 545 BCE. Archaeologists said the bone was discovered inside a gold chest in a 1,000 year-old Buddhist meditation shrine beneath the Grand Bao'en Temple in Nanjing. Engravings say the skull belonged to Siddhartha Gautama. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement When they opened the stone chest, archaeologists discovered an ornate shrine called a stupa. Inscriptions carved into the stone chest explain how Buddha's skull bone came to lie in the golden chest. Stupas are mound-like structures containing relics, usually the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns. They are also used as places of meditation. Archaeologists describe the box as 117 cm tall and 45 cm wide. The box is made from sandalwood and is encased in gold and silver on which jewels are embedded. It is almost certain the skull fragment might be that of the Buddha who was cremated upon his death. There are, however, conflicting accounts as to the fate of the Buddha's cremated remains. One account claims the Buddha was cremated at the Hirannavati River and his remains were divided into thousands of portions by the ruling king of the time. At least 19 of the Buddha's remains are believed to have found their way to China. One of these fragments is apparently the parietal bone in Nanjing. Another account says Buddha's cremated remains were divided among eight royal families and his disciples. These remains were enshrined by the Indian emperor Ashoka into 84,000 stupas centuries later. Buddhism originated in India and from here spread throughout much of Asia. There are an estimated 530 million Buddhists worldwide, making Buddhism one of the world's major religions. Advertisement TagsBuddha, Nanjing, Grand Bao'en Temple, Siddhartha Gautama Buddha (Photo : Kokichi Sugihara) Ambiguous Cylinder Illusion Advertisement A viral optical illusion making waves on the internet again proves our brains aren't big enough to grasp physical reality as we perceive it to be. The illusion was developed by Prof. Kokichi Sugihara, a Doctor of Engineering at the Meiji Institute for Advanced Study of Mathematical Sciences in Japan. It won second place at the annual Best Illusion of the Year contest hosted by the Neural Correlate Society in the United States. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement First place in the Best Illusion of the Year contest went to Mathew Harrison and Gideon Caplovitz of the University of Nevada Reno in the U.S. for their "Motion Integration Unleashed: New Tricks for an Old Dog." Second place was won by Christine Veras of the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore for her "Silhouette Zoetrope." In his "Ambiguous Cylinder Illusion," Prof. Sugihara is shown holding various square-shaped objects that become circle-shaped objects when reflected on a mirror. The objects also change shape as they're rotated. No magic here, just intricate shapes produced by a 3D printer that don't all have straight edges. The objects aren't exactly squares. Some of the sides are slightly rounded while the others are pinched. The top edge of the squares are serrated. Viewing these shapes that aren't truly square or truly round forces your mind to take a shortcut so it can understand what it sees. The result is you see the squares as circles reflected in the mirror. An optical illusion fools our minds because it tricks our mind into making sense of something it sees but can quite understand. The result is our mind takes a "shortcut," which is the optical illusion. We see anything because light bounces off that object and enters our eyes. This image is converted by the brain into electrical signals. This process takes about a tenth of second. Our eyes, however, sees a lot and it's really tough for our brains to try to focus on everything all at once. To compensate, our brains take shortcuts by simplifying what we see to help us concentrate on what's important. That compensates for our brain's tenth-of-a-second processing lag. You can view Prof. Sugihara's YouTube video here. You can also view the explanation as to how one YouTuber did the same thing here. Advertisement TagsProf. Kokichi Sugihara, Best Illusion of the Year, Neural Correlate Society Fire workers attempt rescue trapped people at a landslide site on May 10, 2016 in Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China. A landslide happened on Tuesday morning which trapped and killed four people, two grandparents and two boys aged eight and nine years old. (Photo by VCG/Getty Images) Advertisement At least 11 persons were pronounced dead at the scene of a landslide, triggered by heavy downpour, that hit a village in Guizhou Province southwest China Friday morning. Rescuers were still looking for at least a dozen people reported missing when intense rain triggered a landslide in Pianpo Village, Dafang County, Bijie City at 5:30 a.m. Friday. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement According to the county government, rescuers were able to pull seven people alive from the debris, although 11 others were confirmed dead at the scene. The landslide was triggered by intense rain and involved more than 95,000 cubic meters of mud flow, authorities said. The government has deployed at least 800 soldiers and rescuers to help locate those who were still missing as of this posting. Sources said the debris buried houses, catching residents off-guard as most of them were fast asleep when the incident took place. "It happened so fast. All I heard was thundering sound and then I noticed that the houses of my neighbors were already covered by mud," said one of the residents who survived the landslide. On Friday night, at total of 120,000 people were displaced when floods, landslides, and mud flows hit 133 counties in 11 provincial-level regions. According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, more than 3,600 homes collapsed and 19,900 hectares of crops destroyed. Since 27 June, at least 34 people were reported dead or missing nationwide due to rain and storms. The ministry said the floods, landslide and mudflows have already resulted to direct economic losses worth Rmb3.14 billion, or about US$471.6 million. The figure is expected to substantially increase in the coming days as heavy downpour is expected to continue. China's weather experts warned of heavy rain and severe floods from Friday night through Saturday in parts of Guizhou, Hunan, Anhui, and Tibet. Advertisement TagsChina Landslide, china storm, China Rain, landslide, Downpour (Photo : YouTube Screenshot) China has issued an orange alert amid heavy rains, warning people to watch out for possible geological disasters. Advertisement Chinese meteorologists issued a warning on Friday about potential geological disasters in the western and southern parts of the county as heavy rain is set to hit the region. The National Meteorological Center (NMC) and the Ministry of Water Resources cautioned people living in Anhui, Hunan, Guizhou, and Tibet about high risks of mountain torrents between Friday evening and Saturday evening. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The weather center also renewed its orange alert on Friday night for possible torrential rain and thunderstorms in several regions including Anhui, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, and Yunnan between Saturday morning and Sunday morning. Precipitation is forecasted to reach up to 240 millimeters in certain areas, according to the National Meteorological Center. While the orange alert stands, the center is discouraging people from outdoor activities and has warned possible floods and landslides. According to AccuWeather, heavy rainfall up to 22 inches is expected in some cities as shown both by the GFS and European weather forecast satellite. China has a four-tier weather warning system with red being the most serious, then orange, yellow and blue. According to China.org, a village in Guizhou Province, southwestern part of China, experienced heavy rains that resulted in a landslide. Some 11 individuals were killed during the landslide, while around 12 have been reported missing. In related news, around a hundred people were left dead after a powerful tornado and hailstorm hit Jiangsu Province's Yangcheng City. Advertisement TagsOrange alert, weather station, National Meteorological Center, rain season Dr. James Dobson on the U. S. Supreme Court's Abortion Decision Contact: Paul Hetrick, 719-531-9415; drjamesdobson.org COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., July 1, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- Dr. James C. Dobson (photo), broadcaster, author, family counselor and founder of Family Talk, has expressed his concern about the decision handed down this week by the U. S. Supreme Court on Texas H.B. 2 and abortion. In response to many inquiries and requests Dr. James Dobson comments: "I am appalled by the U.S. Supreme Courts decision on Monday this week to strike down H.B. 2 in Texas which will essentially remove even basic safeguards in abortion clinics for pregnant women and their unborn babies. The people of this great country must speak-up, otherwise our nation is headed toward a point of no-return. This judicial overreach ratchets-up the importance of the presidential election this November. Indeed, SCOTUS, President Barack Obama, and the CA legislature (as evidenced by the recent bill moving through the CA State Senate which would in-effect make Christian Colleges in CA no different than their secular counterparts) are doing everything within their power to snuff-out any remaining remnant of morals and Christian influence from American culture." Dr. Dobson's comment may also be seen online here. James Dobson's Family Talk, Colorado Springs, CO 80907, Phone: 877.732.6825 website: drjamesdobson.org home Faith Christian pastor in China jailed; Tells wife to never stop praying - 'God never makes a mistake' An imprisoned pastor in China advised his wife in a letter to keep praying because God "never makes a mistake," despite facing torture and false accusations. "It is best to remain peaceful and wait for God," wrote house church pastor Li Guozhi aka Yang Hua to his wife as he spends more than six months in jail. "God is omniscient. I believe that he never makes a mistake," the pastor said. The authorities arrested Yang in January after protecting a church-owned hard drive that the state wanted to confiscate. In its ongoing clampdown against churches, the state also arrested four other members of Huoshi Church, the largest house church in Guiyang. The pastor tried to appease his wife's worries when he claimed that he's no longer suffering from lower back pain, attributing divine intervention for his healing. He also cited Isaiah 30:15 which reads, "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength." "It's also a kind of rest, staying inside," wrote Yang. Mindful of his role, Yang shared his thoughts on how his wife should deal with their sons. He also encouraged her to use their credit cards with some financial tips. More than a husband, Yang's most important advice to his wife reflected his pastoral role. "Never stop praying," he encouraged her. "Be grateful, because that's God's will conveyed through Jesus Christ." China Aid, a human rights and religious persecution watchdog in China, published Wednesday, June 29 the letter Yang wrote on June 6 from Nanming District Detention Center. Earlier, the publication also released a transcript of the interview between Yang and his human rights lawyer Chen Jiangang. The pastor revealed in his sworn testimony that state prosecutors tortured to extort him to confess, threatened to hurt his family and have him fed to pigs, as well as orchestrated a manipulated videotaped cross-examination. China Aid is currently leading the campaign #FreeYangHua. Bangladesh seige: 20 hostages dead, Islamic State claims attack Islamic gunmen shouting "Allahu Akbar" attacked an upscale cafe in the Bangladeshi capital, killing 20 people inside, before police stormed the building on Saturday and rescued 13 hostages, officials said. The attack, claimed by Islamic State, marks a major escalation in a campaign by Islamic militants over the past 18 months that had targeted mostly individuals advocating a secular or liberal approach in mostly Muslim Bangladesh. Six gunmen were killed during the police operation and one was captured, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in a TV broadcast. "Most of [the hostages] were killed mercilessly by sharp weapons last night," before the siege began, Army Brigadier General Naim Asraf Chowdhury said. The army concluded an operation to clear the cafe after a 12-hour siege that began when gunmen stormed the restaurant on Friday night. Two police were killed in the initial assault. The 13 hostages that were rescued included one Japanese and two Sri Lankans, Chowdhury told a news conference. Police said earlier the gunmen were holding about 20 hostages. One Japanese man was among those rescued and taken to a Dhaka hospital with a gunshot wound, a Japanese government spokesman said. Seven Japanese were unaccounted for. Italy's ambassador to Bangladesh, Mario Palma, told Italian state TV seven Italians were among the hostages. Islamic State posted photos of what it said were dead foreigners killed in the assault, which could deal a major blow to the country's vital $25 billion garment sector. Police said they believed about eight to nine gunmen had been holed up in the cafe, armed with assault rifles and grenades. Gowher Rizvi, an adviser to Hasina, told Reuters security forces had tried to negotiate with the gunmen. SPORADIC GUNFIRE The hostage crisis began when security guards in the Gulshan district of Dhaka, popular with expatriates, noticed several gunmen outside a medical centre, Rizvi said. When the guards approached, the gunmen ran into the Holey Artisan cafe, which was packed with people waiting for tables, he said. Ali Arsalan, co-owner of the restaurant, said that his staff told him the attackers yelled "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) as they stormed the building Police said the assailants exchanged sporadic gunfire with police outside for several hours after the gunmen attacked the restaurant around 9 pm on Friday. A police officer at the scene said that when security forces tried to enter the premises at the beginning of the siege they were met with a hail of bullets and grenades that killed at least two of them. Television footage showed a number of police being led away from the site with blood on their faces and clothes. A cafe employee who escaped told local television about 20 customers were in the restaurant at the time, most of them foreigners. Some 15 to 20 staff were working at the restaurant, the employee said. The rescued Japanese man was eating dinner with seven other Japanese, all of whom were consultants for Japan's foreign aid agency, the Japanese government spokesman said. He did not know what happened to the others. SPATE OF MURDERS The hostage crisis marks an escalation from a recent spate of murders claimed by Islamic State and al Qaeda on liberals, gays, foreigners and religious minorities. A Hindu priest was hacked to death on Friday at a temple in Jhinaidah district, 300 km (188 miles) southwest of Dhaka. Both Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for many of the killings, although local authorities say no operational links exist between Bangladeshi militants and international jihadi networks. Bangladesh security officials say two local militant groups, Ansar-al-Islam and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, have been behind the spate of violence over the past 18 months. Ansar pledges allegiance to al Qaeda, while Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen claims it represents Islamic State. "The bottom line is Bangladesh has plenty of local, often unaffiliated, militants and radicals happy to stage attacks in ISIS's name," said Michael Kugelman, South Asia associate at The Wilson Centre in Washington DC, using an acronym commonly used for Islamic State. Islamic State had claimed more attacks in Bangladesh than in Pakistan or Afghanistan, he said. The restaurant assault also comes after Bangladesh hanged an Islamist party leader, Motiur Rahman Nizami, on May 11 for genocide and other crimes committed during a 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. That has drawn an angry reaction and some scattered violence from supporters. Nizami, 73, was a former legislator and minister during opposition leader Khaleda Zia's last term as prime minister. Foreign diplomats and human rights groups have warned that Bangladesh's ongoing war crime tribunals and the government's pressure on the Bangladesh Nationalist Party have created a backlash domestically, according to Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "They need to maintain legal political space for Jamaat and the BNP so that they don't drive people into the shadows and violence," Adams said in a telephone interview, cautioning that it's not known whether that dynamic and the bloodshed in Dhaka were related. Bible memorisation secrets revealed: Man who can recite 20 books of Scripture shows his techniques In Proverbs 7:2, Jesus says, "Guard my words as your most precious possession. Write them down and also keep them deep within your heart." Perhaps the man who can best follow this instruction today is Tom Meyer, a member of Wordsower International Ministries and a professor at Shasta Bible College in California. Why? It's because Meyer holds the record for being able to recite at least 20 of the 66 books of the Bible from memory. How is he able to do that? Meyer has said in an interview that he has included in his book titled "The Memorization Study Bible", secrets on how he is able to memorise verses and even entire chapters of the Bible. "This Study Bible had its origin in my increasing conviction from many years of memorising the scriptures as a student, lecturer, and now professor that all of the many excellent and useful editions of the scriptures left much to be desired in regards to fostering memorisation," Meyer said. He said there are many techniques in Bible memorisation, but the three essential elements are: Reading aloud the text continuously while using the format of the page to help photograph the page on your mind; Listening to the text being read aloud in a dramatic fashion; and Writing out the verse numerous times while speaking the verse at the same time. In an earlier interview, Meyer said that he was able to learn some of the ancient mnemonic techniques from his relationships with "Greek Orthodox monks as well as rabbis, and Yeshiva students." Meyer said he's hopeful that readers of his book will be able to master Bible memorisation just as he has. "This method has helped me accomplish memorising to date some 20 complete books of the Bible and hopefully a testimony similar to mine can be yours with a lot of prayer, hard work," he said. But why memorise the Bible in the first place when you just can read it? This question was answered by Saddleback Church senior pastor Rick Warren in a blog post he wrote in 2014. Warren said memorising verses in the Bible is one of the most powerful ways to transform one's spiritual life. He said memorising God's Word is the best way to resist temptation. "When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, his only defence against this attack was the Word of God. If Jesus knew a better way to fight temptation, believe me, he would have used it," he said. Another good reason for memorising the Scripture is that it helps in making wise decision, he said. "I can't count how many times I've asked God for guidance about something very specific, and he has brought a Scripture I've memorised back to mind, showing me what to do. The Bible says, 'Your word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path' (Psalm 119:105 GNB). The more you know what God says, the more you are going to know how God thinks, because the will of God is found in the Word of God. The more you fill your mind with the Word of God, the more you will know the will of God," Warren said. 'Sense8' season 2 release date, spoilers: filming takes place in Germany Filming continues for the sophomore season of Netflix Originals' sci-fi drama "Sense8," as the cast and crew continue to travel around the world to shoot the scenes for the upcoming season. Based on the updates shared via the show's official social media accounts, the production just wrapped up in Mexico. They are currently in Germany to shoot the scenes featuring Wolfgang Bogdanow (Max Riemelt). Gracias por todo, Mexico City. Next stop on the #Road2Sense8... A photo posted by Sense8 (@sense8) on Jun 26, 2016 at 9:31am PDT The series is known for shooting in several locations all over the world, including London, Chicago, San Francisco, Mexico, Seoul, Nairobi, and Mumbai. Series co-creator J. Michael Straczynski explained in a webcam interview with Gold Derby the significance of the show's plot in terms of the current events around the world. "At a time when politics and culture seem to be dividing us ... a show talking about the fact that we are better together than we are apart, that we are strengthened and not diminished by a multitude of voices, might be a good message to pass along," said Straczynski. "Hopefully with time, as we become more and more one world, the empathy will extend beyond national borders." For season 2, the eight sensates who are separated by distance will still fight against Whisper (Terrence Mann), the leader of an organization that is determined to hunt and kill all the other sensates like him. The original cast members will reprise their roles in the series, including Riemelt, Tuppence Middleton as the DJ from Iceland named Riley Blue, Doona Bae as the underground kickboxer from Seoul named Sun Bak, Brian J. Smith as the Chicago police officer named Will Gorski, Tina Desai as Hindi pharmacist Kala Dandekar, Miguel Angel Silvestre as the closeted gay actor from Mexico named Lito Rodriguez and Jamie Clayton as the transgender woman hacktivist from San Francisco named Nomi Marks. Meanwhile, former season 1 cast member Aml Ameen reportedly left the show due to creative conflicts with series co-creator Lana Wachowski. While Netflix has yet to announce the official release date for the series, "Sense8" season 2 is expected to air in time for Christmas this year. Serbia shooting: 5 dead, 22 injured after man opens fire in cafe Five people were killed and another 22 were wounded early on Saturday when a man entered a cafe in northern Serbia and opened fire with an assault rifle, police said. Police arrested the suspect, a man in his late 30s identified only as ZS, immediately after the shooting during a local festival in the village of Zitiste, around 80 kilometers north of Belgrade. Nebojsa Stefanovic, the interior minister, told Belgrade's B92 TV that ZS killed his estranged wife and a another woman, before firing at others in the cafe with an assault rifle he illegally owned. "Jealousy could be a motive," he said. "He was a quiet man; he had no criminal record." Gordana Kozlovacki, the director of the hospital in the nearby town of Zrenjanin, said 22 people were treated after the shooting. Seven remained in a serious condition. Serbia and most of the western Balkans are awash with hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons following wars and unrest in the 1990s. In a bid to reduce the number, Serbian police on Friday offered an amnesty over surrendering or registering illegal weapons until November. Saturday's killings follow a number of mass shootings in Serbia in recent years. Three years ago, 13 people died in a shooting spree in a village near Belgrade, and last year six people were killed in a dispute over a wedding in Serbia's north. Taliban leader says foreigners must leave Afghanistan for peace The new leader of the Taliban called for an end to foreign forces' "occupation" of Afghanistan as a preliminary step to a settlement based on Islamic law that he said would bring unity to a country riven by decades of war. In one of his first public statements, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, who was named leader of the movement after the death of his predecessor Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour in a US drone strike in May, said agreement was possible if the government in Kabul renounced its foreign allies. "Your support and siding with invaders is like the work of those abhorrent faces who in our past history supported the Britons and the Soviets," he said in a message ahead of next week's celebration of Eid, one of the major festivals in the Islamic calendar. He said the Taliban had a program aimed at creating an independent and united country under Islamic law and told the Western-backed government in Kabul that "the doors of forgiveness and tolerance are open". "Our clear message is that we do not want a monopoly of power," he said "All Afghan tribes and races need each other." The statement came two days after a suicide attack that killed more than 30 newly graduated police cadets and wounded dozens more and less than two weeks after more than 20 people were killed in separate attacks in Kabul and the northern province of Badakhshan. NATO leaders meet at a summit in Warsaw on July 8-9 where they are expected to approve maintaining support for the Kabul government up to 2020. The Taliban scored a series of military successes last year after the withdrawal of most international combat forces and now controls more territory than at any time since 2001. But the fighting has come at a heavy cost, with 11,000 civilian casualties last year alone. Peace talks broke down last year after it was revealed that Mansour had covered up the death of the Taliban's founder Mullah Mohammad Omar two years earlier. Efforts to revive them in a framework backed by Pakistan, the United States and China have so far failed. The Taliban's political office in Qatar, which has been a key point of contact in behind-the-scenes exchanges, would "continue its efforts with a view to resolving the Afghan issue," he said. Pledging to continue on the course set by Mullah Mansour, he promised to strengthen justice, help the injured and the poor and guarantee the rights of women under Sharia law. He also told Taliban fighters not to harm Muslims or public facilities including hospitals, schools, bridges and public utilities and not to oppress areas under their control. Having clarinetist Juan Esteban Martinez at the Houston Chronicle this week for an interview was fascinating. The Colombian-born 20-year-old, who grew up in the Dominican Republic, had just won first place in the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Young Artist Competition at the 27th annual Immanuel and Helen Olshan Texas Music Festival 2016. We learned about his unlikely story: Though he's currently on his way "to the top of the mountain," just a few years ago, he had to travel six hours twice a week to take lessons from the only professional clarinetist available in the Dominican Republic. The La Porte mother of an autistic son who had child endangerment charges dismissed twice last year was charged again after the 5-year-old was found wandering last week. Emilia Aguilar, 41, faces a felony count of endangering a child filed on June 27 by the La Porte Police Department. Aguilar has surrendered to authorities on the third charge and was released on $2,000 bail early Saturday. The status of the current case is unclear, however, and was marked "inactive" in the Harris County District Clerk's records early Saturday afternoon. Previous charges in August 2015 were thrown out. The latest case involved the boy being found in the 3800 block of Driftwood in La Porte about 10:30 a.m. on June 25. The woman who called authorities discovered the child walking unsupervised down a sidewalk toward a four-lane highway. The probable cause statement on the criminal complaint states that the child was placed "in imminent danger of bodily injury or death." The police officer also wrote that the boy was "dirty, walking barefoot on hot cement" and had special needs. The child, who was known to police as autistic, was less than one mile from his home. Police contacted child welfare authorities and the boy was transported to a Houston CPS office. The complaint states that officers went to the boy's home and spoke to Aguilar, his mother, who said "she was asleep and has no idea her son had left the residence." In an interview on Friday with KTRK-TV, Aguilar said she is a single mother of five children. "I'm not a bad mom," she told the television station, adding that the boy has special needs, but is smart and independent. "It's exhausting, but it's my job and it's OK. But to be ridiculed like I have been, being made to feel I don't care about my kid, is wrong. Nobody knows unless you are in my shoes." According to the TV report, Aguilar was required by CPS to install locks on her house and garage doors as a condition of her continued custody of the boy. She also placed a lock on her bedroom door. The first charge, filed Aug. 29, 2015, involved the boy being found wandering and barefoot the day before less than one mile from home. That case was dismissed, then refiled on August 31 to include an additional lack of supervision allegation from August 19. The second charge was dismissed for insufficient evidence on November 12. That motion includes a prosecutor's handwritten explanation that there was "no evidence to suggest intentional or reckless endangerment" and that "CPS ruled out abuse." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Texas can be a complicated place. Luckily, Dylan Baddour is here to help explain it. See more answers to your burning questions about the Lone Star State on HoustonChronicle.com. Don't get a ticket. Know the rules before you set explosions this weekend. The nation's first Independence Day celebration featured a fireworks show. Now, 239 years later, the rockets' red glare and bombs bursting in air still give proof every Fourth of July that our flag is still there. Somewhere along the way a retail pyrotechnic market emerged, and celebrating citizens with easy access to explosives in urban hubs proved a recipe for trouble. So here in the City of Houston, we've got rules. Rule number one: no fireworks inside the Houston city limits. The Houston Police Department will up its enforcement efforts across the board this holiday weekend, and that includes firework laws. Anything with a fuse is forbidden. Violators will face fines between $500 and $2,000 for each individual firework. Warnings are not issued for these violations. Outside the city limits, fireworks are allowed in most cases, said Lt. Todd Mitchell of the Harris County Fire Marshall's Office, depending on local ordinances. With no burn bans this year, fireworks are fair game in unincorporated parts of the county. But rules still apply. They can't be launched within 600 feet of a hospital, gas station, fireworks stand, school or church (except with written permission, in some cases). They may not be set off in a moving vehicle. Even in legal locations, fireworks can cause severe injury when improperly used. "A lot of time what people are doing is trying to hold those mortars, the launching tubes," Mitchell said. "Those should not be held." A slight squeeze on the cardboard tube can trap the mortar inside, he said, so it explodes in someone's hand. RELATED: Fireworks-related incidents that hurt, killed Americans in 2015 Other common injuries result from using fireworks while intoxicated or letting children use them unsupervised, he said. The Fire Marshall's office has been out inspecting about 425 fireworks stands in the county and about 25 indoor stores, making sure they have adults behind the counter, safe storage methods and that they are not selling to children under 16. They will also be out enforcing firework rules across the county over the weekend. Mitchell said the office encourages revelers to attend public displays instead of launching on their own. Here's a list of those public displays in the county this Fourth of July: "Freedom over Texas" at Elanor Tinsley Park 9:30 PM Fireworks in the Woodlands in the Woodlands 9:30 PM Fireworks in Katy 9:00 PM Fireworks in Baytown 9:30 PM Fireworks in Pearland 9:30 PM Fireworks in Sugar Land 9:30 PM Fireworks in Tomball 9:00 PM Fireworks at the Kemah Boardwalk 9:30 PM Fireworks in Kingwood 9:00 PM Fireworks in Pasadena 9:30 PM Other shows at private venues: The Overlook 8:45 PM Bridgeland 9:00 PM Crosby Church 9:00 PM Faithbridge United Methodist Church 9:00 PM Pine Forest Country Club 9:00 PM Splashtown 9:00 PM Gleannloch Farm Sports Complex 9:15 PM Towne Lake 9:30 PM GALVESTON The La Marque school district officially became part of the Texas City ISD on Friday, concluding a bitter struggle between the deposed La Marque school board and the former Texas education commissioner. The transition went unheralded on a summer day before the July 4 holiday weekend. Officials at the Texas City school district could not be reached for comment. Former Commissioner Michael Williams last year decreed the annexation after finding that the Ka Marque district had failed to meet financial standards, a charge that the former school board adamantly denied. The end came this week when a Texas appeals court dismissed a lawsuit brought by the former La Marque school board challenging the annexation. A board of managers appointed by former Education Commissioner Michael Williams had overseen the La Marque ISD until the Texas City ISD took control Friday. "We ceded control to them last night at midnight," Texas Education Agency spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said. The transition is a difficult moment for members of the former school board, who argued that the district was wrested from their control just as it was making a significant recovery from years of poor academic performance and financial woes. "I can justly say that the commissioner had no justification for what he did," former La Marque school board member Richard Hooker said. "It was something he needed to do as a political favor for somebody." "Our program had been improving every year." Hooker said. "We did not have financial problems and our kids were demonstrating major growth." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Leonor Villegas de Magnon was a heroine on both sides of the border. A native of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, she was visiting family in Laredo, Texas, when the Mexican Revolution erupted in 1910. Eager to support the revolutionaries fighting against dictator Porfirio Diaz, she mobilized a group of women to pull the wounded from the battlefield and get them to local hospitals, ultimately founding La Cruz Blanca (The White Cross). She also helped wounded revolutionaries cross the Rio Grande to Texas, where her family's Laredo home had been converted into a makeshift hospital. Although Villegas de Magnon wrote at length about her war experiences in both English and Spanish, she died in 1955 without ever finding a publisher for them. Houston's Arte Publico Press recovered her stories and published her autobiography, "La Rebelde," or "The Rebel," in 1994 and 2004. More Information "I went down into Mexico with the exclusive mission of researching my parents' past - of questioning everything that I'd been told - and see if once and for all it was possible for me to believe enough in my ancestral past so I could write about it. I went by plane, by bus, by truck, by burro, by foot. It took me two days to climb the mountains of La Barranca del Cobre where my mother was born. One morning, I saw Indians so shy that when I waved hello to them they froze like deer, then ran away from me with the agility and speed of young antelope. I saw swarms of butterflies so vast that they filled the entire sky like a dancing tapestry. I saw skies so clear and full of stars that I felt close to God." - from the foreword to "Rain of Gold" by Victor Villasenor See More Collapse "Her dream finally came true, two generations later," says Nicolas Kanellos, founder of the nonprofit press. When Kanellos launched Arte Publico in 1979, books by and about Latinos in the United States were still finding - still fighting - their way into the curriculum. Today, Arte Publico Press, housed at the University of Houston, is the oldest and largest publisher of U.S. Hispanic literature in the country, with more than 600 titles and counting. "I go to bookstores and I watch Anglo mothers buy our bilingual books to help their kids learn Spanish," said Kanellos, 71, the Brown Foundation Professor of Hispanic Studies at UH. Initially, most of Arte Publico's titles were aimed at educators and academics. But in 1984, the press published a debut novel - a novel in stories, really - about a young Chicana who moves with her parents to a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago. "The House on Mango Street," written by Sandra Cisneros, wasn't an instant hit. But it grew deep roots and became a contemporary classic. "The early '80s was the beginning of the multicultural movement," Kanellos explains. "Both Stanford and Harvard democratized their curriculum for basic freshman courses. They included 'The House on Mango Street' and other books by Hispanics, African-Americans, Asians. We started getting orders from bookstores when previously our books were only in universities." In 1991, the press landed its biggest hit to date with "Rain of Gold," Victor Villasenor's family memoir about his parents' migration from Mexico to California. Originally, Villasenor signed on with Putnam publishers, but he pulled out of the deal when he saw the proofs and realized how Putnam planned to market the book. "They changed the name to 'Rio Grande' and they called it fiction," said Villasenor, who spent 12 years researching his parents' story. After much difficulty and borrowing of money, Villasenor bought back the rights to "Rain of Gold" from Putnam, contacted Arte Publico Press and convinced Kanellos to publish it. It was a huge risk for the small nonprofit, but Kanellos and Villasenor trumpeted the David and Goliath backstory to anyone who would listen, including Publishers Weekly, which ran an article about Villasenor buying back the rights to his memoir. Before long, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times ran stories and then the Mellon Foundation gave Arte Publico $50,000 to print more copies of the book. "Rain of Gold" took off and become a national bestseller. Despite the success of "Rain of Gold," Arte Publico's bread and butter was still books for university classrooms. In addition, the press was ignoring the very group that held the key to the future of U.S. Hispanic literature. "Hispanic growth really revolves around a very young population," Kanellos explains. "The majority is in elementary and high school." To promote literacy and expand its reach, Arte Publico launched Pinata Books in 1994. Dedicated to children's and young adult titles - including bilingual picture and flip books for younger readers - the imprint proved a game-changer. In the U.S., bilingual books bridge the English spoken at school and the Spanish spoken at home. Today, Pinata Books draws about 60 percent of overall sales. By the 2000s, Arte Publico was pulling in about $1.5 million annually from book sales and earning additional money from the interest of various endowments. Then the recession hit in 2008. "The endowments went underwater, and since then we haven't gotten a penny from interest," Kanellos said. At the same time, the state legislatures in Arte Publico's biggest markets - California and Texas - cut the budgets of public schools and libraries. Since then, the press has slowly regained ground. Last year, book sales and permissions drew about $1.2 million. Social media is helping promote books and authors in a less expensive way. And e-book sales have broadened Arte Publico's reach, to places as far-flung as India and Serbia. For the past quarter century, a special Arte Publico venture close to Kanellos' heart has been the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project, which aims to gather, preserve and share all written culture related to Hispanicsin the U.S. - diaries, cookbooks, pamphlets, ephemera - from the 16th century up to 1960. "It's an archival program," Kanellos says. "We have a lot of stuff in-house, but we also try to preserve the documents because a lot are in danger of falling apart. We microfilm them and then we digitize the documents from microfilm or paper. The ultimate goal is the material being incorporated into the curriculum - from kindergarten through graduate school via textbooks, anthologies and all that kind of stuff." The autobiography of Leonor Villegas de Magnon is among the recovered stories. With this weekend being the Fourth of July weekend, many people will be traveling and boating or swimming on the waterways. The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch, which is in effect from Saturday through Monday morning, with rain moving into central Missouri Saturday morning. The rain should then overspread the rest of the area through the day and waves of showers and thunderstorms will continue through Sunday evening before coming to an end on Monday. The Missouri State Highway Patrol Colonel J. Bret Johnson urges the public to make smart decisions regarding flash flooding. The weather forecasts indicate heavy rains may cover much of Missouri which may affect safety on both the waterways and roadways. Flooding, especially flash flooding, has proven to be extremely dangerous and can be fatal. The patrol has placed additional assets and manpower on call in areas expected to be most affected. According to the National Weather Service, St. Francois County is expected to see 2 to 3 inches of rain over the weekend, but a widespread rainfall can be expected with higher amounts possible by the time the rain comes to an end. On Saturday there will be an 80 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 4 p.m. with a high of 71. That evening there will be a 60 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 a.m. with a low of 62. Sunday will be cloudy with a 70 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms with a high of 84 and that evening there will be an 80 percent chance of precipitation with a low around 67. On Independence Day, showers and thunderstorms are likely before 1 p.m. and it will be cloudy with a high near 80 and the evening will have a low around 67 with a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. For those traveling, locations along Interstate 70 appear to be the target for the heaviest rainfall with widespread amounts of 3 to 5 inches likely with higher totals possible by the time the rain comes to an end Monday. There is also a chance for a few strong to severe thunderstorms along and south of interstate 70 Sunday afternoon and evening. The patrol stresses to never drive through fast-moving waters, even a small amount of fast-moving water can sweep a slow-moving vehicle off the roadway. If your vehicle becomes stuck in rising water, get out quickly and move to higher ground. Flooding earlier this year resulted in several deaths as well as many water rescues. Drivers are reminded to stay alert while driving in areas known to flood. Barricades closing a roadway are there to protect you. Drivers must respect barriers or barricades put in place by MoDOT. It is extremely dangerous and a violation of state law to drive around them. For information regarding road closures please visit the Missouri Department of Transportations (MoDOT) road condition map at the Missouri State Highway Patrols website www.mshp.dps.mo.gov. Drivers should slow down and turn on their headlights in these types of conditions. Weather conditions requiring the use of windshield wipers are usually those that affect visibility. Motorists are reminded that state law requires them to turn on their vehicles headlights any time they are using the windshield wipers. Your vehicles headlights can make you more visible to other drivers and prevent a traffic crash. The patrol also asks boaters across the state to take extra precautions when boating in flooded areas. Large amounts of rainfall can cause rivers and lakes to become swollen. Many times the right decision is to stay off the water. In areas where lakes or rivers spill over the banks, erosion and damage can occur to flooded structures, docks, or water laden levees by boat wakes. Boaters should avoid operating in these areas. If operation in these areas is necessary, boaters should operate at idle speed so as to avoid causing a wake. Flooded rivers and streams with moving currents present some of the most dangerous situations a boater can encounter. Fast moving water can easily capsize or flip a boator personal watercraft especially when combined with fixed objects such as trees and buildings. Boaters should avoid any operations in these swift flowing waters. During the trial of Jesus Christ, Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?" (John 18:38) He had the one who claimed to be "the truth" (John 14:6) sitting in front of him, but his frustration over the situation caused Pilate to rush out without an answer. When I was a kid, I loved watching the old Perry Mason show. I was the only ten-year-old I know that would have told you he wanted to be a lawyer when he grew up. Before I attained adulthood I came to my senses and never became an attorney, however, courtroom drama still fascinates me. People who sit on a jury need to answer the question Pilate asked, "What is truth." Witnesses will testify the fellow is guilty; others will claim the accused innocent. The parade of physical evidence pointing toward guilt and innocence will march before the jury. They must decide, "What is truth?" All over the world, in just about every situation, the world is asking, "What is truth?" Is a baby a baby at conception or not until birth? Will making guns illegal stop senseless killings or cause more violence by placing us in a situation where only the bad guys have the weaponry? Is it a person's choice or their physical characteristics that determine their gender? Brexit makes us wonder - Is a nation a stand-alone sovereign or part of a global community? Is Hilary a crook or the answer to America's woes? Is Donald Trump the greatest thing that's happened to America since George Washington or the worst choice we've ever had running for President? Regardless of which answers you give to the questions above; you believe your opinion is correct, or else you wouldn't hold that view. About two generations ago in America, the Bible was considered the truth by the majority of people. Even non-Christian, individuals who pledged no allegiance to Christ whatsoever, tended to believe that at least, the Bible's moral compass was correct. They (the majority of non-religious, non-Christian people) thought that it was wrong to lie, cheat on your spouse, steal, murder, live with someone before marriage among other things were wrong. They believed this because the Bible said so. Someplace along the way, the truth became relative. A person's life situation or circumstances became the standard for right and wrong - the standard for of truth. It has now progressed even further. Now the truth is determined only by a person's opinion. If the walls in my living room are white, and I can convince myself the walls are brown and believe it with all my heart that the walls are brown, the truth remains - the walls are white. When it comes to truth, opinion does not matter. If my walls are white and, I start telling people, my walls are brown and 90% believe me, it does not change the truth that my walls are white. When it comes to truth, opinion does not matter. As mentioned earlier, Jesus said He is the truth. The Bible also says of Him, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8). If Jesus is the truth and He never changes, then truth never changes. Regardless of my circumstance or opinion, it is still wrong to lie, cheat on my spouse, steal and so on. Many of the world's problems and the social turmoil we are witnessing, many of the changes taking place are because people have rejected the truth - Jesus Christ. Some have even reached the point of, "If the Bible says it, I can't believe it." Bring up the phrase, "The Bible says . . ." in conversation and watch; a growing number of people won't listen to another word you have to say. To the Christians - it is one thing to say you believe the truth and another thing to know the truth and apply it to your life; in other words, act like you believe it. How often do you study the Scripture? Along with the study, how well do you live it (2 Timothy 2:15)? Do the people around you see "The Truth" when they see you? "What is truth?" The answer was sitting directly in front of Pilate. Pick up a Bible and you will have Him, the Truth, in your hands (John 1:1,14). A motorist involved in a single-car accident on the Gulf Freeway early Saturday morning survived the crash, but was killed when he got out of his vehicle on the interstate. The incident started around 2:30 a.m. in the 4800 block of I-45 in southeast Houston. The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p. Warriors end season with win over Rebels SIOUX RAPIDS - The Alta-Aurelia football team traveled to face Sioux Central for their final game of the season and... Cherokee takes down Generals to finish season CHEROKEE - The Cherokee football team hosted Sibley-Ocheyedan on Friday and won 35-28 to finish out their season. The... Warriors suffer heartbreaking end to season ALTA - The Alta-Aurelia volleyball team hosted Lawton-Bronson last Wednesday and suffered a nail-biting 3-2 loss to end their season.... Unity ends Cherokee volleyball season ORANGE CITY - Out of sync early, Cherokee's volleyball squad fell hard in the first set 25-8 to ranked Unity... BNM anunta concurs pentru postul vacant de expert principal expert consultant responsabil de dezvoltarea procesului de raportare catre BNM Cleveland police tape Cleveland police are investigating a fatal shooting on East 98th street. (File photo) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 56-year-old man died early Friday after someone shot him in the head in his driveway. Jermone Fullilove was shot about 12:40 a.m. at his home in the 9900 block of Orleans Avenue, police said. Fullilove and another man argued in his driveway, according to police reports. Witnesses told police the men had a loud argument and heard three or four gunshots. Fullilove stumbled to the middle of the intersection of East 98th Street and collapsed, according to police. He was pronounced dead at the scene. No arrests have been made. To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments section. Ambulance Alcohol and drugs are believed to be factors in a crash that claimed the life of a Sandusky County man Friday night, the State Patrol said. (File Photo) BALLVILLE TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Alcohol and drugs are believed to be factors in a crash that claimed the life of a Sandusky County man Friday night, the State Patrol said. The two-vehicle crash happened at 8:40 p.m. on Hayes Avenue near Third Street in Ballville Township, south of Fremont, according to a State Highway Patrol news release issued Saturday morning. Richard Black, 58, of Flat Rock was westbound on Hayes in a 2008 Chevy Aveo. Black was attempting to turn left into a driveway when a 2012 Chevy Silverado pick-up driven by John Wynn, 72, of Indianapolis came from behind and struck the Aveo in its side, the release says. Black was pronounced dead at the scene. Wynn was transported to Fremont Memorial Hospital with minor injuries. Kim Davidson, 61, of Fremont was a passenger in the car Black was driving. She suffered non life-threatening injuries, and was taken to St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center in Toledo. All were wearing seat belts. Both vehicles sustained severe damage and were towed from the scene. The Fremont Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating the crash. If you wish to discuss or comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments section. Like Chanda Neely on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter: MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Mayor Gary Starr calls Ward 1 Councilman Bill Meany's quest a crusade, but to Meany, his efforts to bring highway noise relief to one of his neighborhoods is simply the right thing to do. Meany presented legislation during the June 28 Middleburg Heights City Council meeting on behalf of residents who live on Buckingham Court, next to Interstate 71. It urges the Ohio Department of Transportation to preserve "tranquil community life" by implementing sound barriers to remedy incessant traffic noise. Council unanimously passed the resolution. "It's a serious health threat to those living there ... and the quality of life has been degraded," Meany explained about the 200- to 300-foot gap in the current I-71 sound barrier. "We've tried numerous attempts with ODOT to get some relief there." The legislation indicates highway traffic noise has created "untenable living conditions" and devalued properties. It also says homeowners experience a "violation of residential privacy by passing motorists." He hopes to collaborate with Rep. Jim Renacci of Ohio's 16th Congressional District to secure funding for noise barriers. Meany said in an interview the issue has existed more than 20 years. "They have maybe a 12-foot backyard," Meany said about some Buckingham Court residents. "They're literally about 50 feet from the highway, and it's unbearable. ODOT's rules say they will not put up any new walls unless you have a new lane. We would like either an earthen berm or a wall." He and the mayor drove through ODOT District 12, he said, and "have yet to find houses that are this close (to the highway) that are not protected." "I'm going to do everything I can ... to get brand new sound barrier walls on both sides of I-71, the full length of our city," Starr said. "The state found the money for Brunswick, Macedonia and near West 150th Street in Cleveland. I apply the 'me, too' rule. If they're obtaining the money, we want it, too." Meany said he is optimistic and hopes to have an update for residents sometime this fall after Congress returns from recess. City council also is on break until September. MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Middleburg Heights Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Cindy Peck announced to city council June 28 the need for a temporary walkway to be constructed as part of the American Veterans Traveling Tribute exhibit that will be arriving July 18. An 80-percent scale version of the Vietnam War Memorial will be assembled by volunteers at Middleburg Commons and displayed from July 18-24. It is 360 feet long and 8 feet tall at its peak. "We need a safe walkway to provide access to the wall for anyone using wheelchairs, walkers, canes and crutches," Peck told council members and city administrators. "We have discovered the ground area at the wall site is uneven and extremely difficult to navigate on foot, let alone on wheelchairs, walkers and crutches." She explained that a 3- to 4-inch trench will need to be created and filled with asphalt grindings. "We are expecting many veterans and top-ranking military figures coming from Washington, D.C., to attend our event," Peck said. "We want to put our best foot forward as we will be in the limelight." Mayor Gary Starr assured her the city will do just that. "We will be addressing it, correcting it and making sure it's done properly," Starr responded, adding in an interview June 29 that the cost is already covered. He was asked during that interview about parking. "We're going to do our best to accommodate everyone," Starr said. "We will have shuttle buses. From what I've heard, there could be tens of thousands of people visiting, especially in light of the Republican National Convention coming in." For more information about the exhibit and the city's efforts, go to www.middleburgheightschamber.com. olmsted falls ohio flags of honor salute photo Joanne Berger DuMound .jpg U.S. Army Maj. Christopher Zurawski of Olmsted Township salutes the flag he placed in the ground at Friday's Ohio Flags of Honor opening ceremony in Olmsted Falls. Zurawski is holding his son, Xander, 10 months. HIs wife Melissa is standing next to him. (Joanne Berger DuMound/Special to cleveland.com.) OLMSTED FALLS, Ohio -U.S Army Maj. Christopher Zurawski was honored to memorialize a friendship at Friday's Ohio Flags of Honor opening ceremony outside the Olmsted Falls City Hall. He and his 10-month-old son Xander carried a flag that bore the name Sgt. 1st Class Daniel B. Crabtree, a soldier Zurawski trained with in Special Forces. Crabtree, an Ohioan, died in 2006 from a roadside bomb in Iraq. His name was on one of the more than 300 flags that were placed in the ground during the ceremony. "It was an honor, a sense of privilege, to be part of this today and remember him in this way," said Zurawski of Olmsted Township. Kim Pearson helps son Colton, 5, place a flag during the Ohio Flags of Honor in Olmsted Falls. Husband Cale, left, also is a volunteer during the opening ceremony to honor Ohioans who died overseas and during the war on terrorism. Cale Pearson of North Ridgeville attended the ceremony with his wife Kim and son Colton, 5. Like Zurawski, they lined up several times to carry and place flags for Ohio men and women who died fighting for their country in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the war on terrorism. Pearson said he was carrying the flag to honor his father-in-law, David Kleinpeter, a military veteran, who now lives in Olmsted Falls. It was a very solemn ceremony, as each name that was called also received one sharp bell toll for their selfless act, a show of support and respect for them and their families. Keynote speaker U. S. Coast Guard Capt. John Little said the ceremony was a "stirring" salute. While monuments and statues show their respect in a "quiet way," he said this "shouts out our story." He quoted Thomas Jefferson from one of his letters. "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." The quote concludes, "It is its natural manure." This riderless horse symbolizes fallen soldiers during the Ohio Flags of Honor's opening ceremony in Olmsted Falls. Why not stop by the Ohio Flags of Honor that wave silently in the wind, but shout the story of so many Ohioans who died fighting terrorism. Theirs is but a part of what this nation endures to remain free. The exhibit stands along Bagley Road through the July 4 parade. It will then be removed at the display's closing ceremony. A special thanks to the city and all those involved in bringing this exhibit again to our community. Bulldog in Olympic Trials - Katie Nageotte, a 2009 Olmsted Falls High grad, will compete in the pole vault Olympic Trials July 8 in Oregon. If she places in the top 12, she will then compete in the July 10 finals. NBCsports.com will show the Women's Pole Vault finals live at 4:45 p.m. that day. The top three finishers head to Rio in August for The Olympics to represent the U.S. Katie Nageotte Katie was the Ohio Division 1 girls state pole vault champion in 2009. She was a three-time All-American at Ashland University and was 2013 indoor and 2013 Outdoor Division II National Champion. She has competed throughout the U.S. and in Innsbruck, Austria; Rome, Italy; Manchester and Birmingham, England; Taipei, Taiwan; Jamaica; Brazil; Puerto Rico; Costa Rico and Qatar. Best of luck, Katie. Show that Bulldog spirit! Food pantry time - The Olmsted Township police department invites all to stop by Shaker's MarketPlace from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 16. It is sponsoring Christmas in July to support our local Christians in Action food pantry. A special treat will be a dunk tank with "guests of honor" sitting on that chair. They include Olmsted Township Police Chief Matt Vanyo, Olmsted Township Fire Chief Pat Kelly, Olmsted Falls School Superintendent Jim Lloyd and a "mystery" guest. The event also is showcasing businesses in that specific area that are encouraging the community to stop in and shop. Those attending may purchase a bag of non-perishable items from Shaker's for $10. Stop by, help the local food pantry and try your luck at the dunk tank. State board - Gov. John R. Kasich appointed Michael R. Coury, a local resident, to the Board of Executives of Long-term Services and Supports. The term ends May 2u, 2019. Congratulations, Mike. To include news, tidbits, honors and activities in Olmsted Falls and Olmsted Township, contact Joanne DuMound at jdumound@yahoo.com. She also is available on Twitter @JoanneDuMound. The column's online version is at cleveland.com/olmsted, which has direct links for many news items. Westlake police cruiser new.JPG Westlake police investigate the armed robbery of the KFC restaurant. (Patrick Cooley/cleveland.com) Robbery, Detroit Road: Two masked men robbed KFC June 27. They entered through an open back door and displayed a silver handgun. They took an undetermined amount of money and fled, possibly in a blue car that went eastbound on Detroit. Thefts from cars: Three unlocked cars parked at homes on Prince Charles had items including phone chargers, coins, CDs, and sunglasses were stolen on June 28. A 2013 GMC Yukon was stolen from the owner's garage a block over on Kingsway that same morning; the keys had been left in it. It was recovered in Brook Park later that day. Theft, Detroit Road: Police report $40 and two credit cards were stolen June 24 from a church employee. A man asked to speak with a clergyman, then committed the theft when the female employee stepped away from her desk. Underage purchase, Crocker Road: A 19-year-old Avon woman bought wine and alcoholic lemonade with a fake ID June 24 at a gas station. A patrolman inside the building overheard the clerk comment on the buyer's youthfulness and did some checking. He discovered her car was registered to a 19-year-old woman who looked incredibly like the buyer. She was arrested for certain acts prohibited, underage purchase, drug paraphernalia for having a pot pipe, and expired plates. Disorderly conduct, Detroit Road: Two intoxicated Westlake men, ages 44 and 33, got into an argument over the older man's attentions toward the younger man's lady friend outside a tavern on June 25. A passing patrolman broke it up. Both were arrested for disorderly conduct by intoxication. Disorderly conduct, Center Ridge Road: Two men were found passed out in a car at a gas station June 25. The 24-year-old and 25-year-old Wisconsin men were arrested for disorderly conduct by intoxication. The older man also had a warrant from the Ohio State Patrol. Disorderly conduct by intoxication, Detroit Road: An intoxicated 35-year-old Westlake woman got her drink on and her shoes off June 26. A passing motorist reported that she had been lying on a tree lawn. She was found walking nearby and was arrested for disorderly conduct by intoxication. Complaint, Cahoon Road: A resident was startled when a man pounded on his back door June 26. The resident yelled at the suspect, who ran without gaining entry. Carrying weapons, Detroit Road: A homeless garbage picker was arrested at a Detroit Rd. apartment complex June 27. The 29-year-old man was seen walking around the parked cars and garages. He was carrying a knife and was arrested for carrying various weapons. Theft, Center Ridge Road: A Cleveland woman's purse was found June 27 in some bushes outside her Center Ridge Road workplace. Shortly thereafter, she reported that it had been stolen. The unknown suspect took her $500 cell phone. Felonious Assault, Sperry Drive: A 50-year-old Cleveland woman had bruises on her head and neck when an officer spoke with her June 27. She had been staying with her 32-year-old fiance, of Cleveland, on Sperry Drive when he beat her, according to police. A warrant for felonious assault has been issued for him. Theft, Primrose Drive: Books, a tablet, a suitcase, a purse, and sunglasses were stolen from a woman's 2007 Toyota Corolla. There was no forced entry to the car. The theft likely took place on the night of June 25. Theft, Detroit Road: Two mirrors worth $260 were stolen June 27 from a store a man with a long white beard and a heavyset woman with dark hair. Suspicious incident: A Sturbridge Lane woman reported her bank account was peppered with attempts to transfer funds on June 20. She attributed the 15 failed attempts to a suspicious email she opened. The bank did not release any money and she reported the attempts June 27. Criminal mischief, First Street: A 34-year-old First Street man threw rocks at a passing car, denting the roof and cracking the windshield on a Fairview Park man's 2004 Mitsubishi Eclipse. The suspect was arrested for criminal mischief. Theft, Detroit Road: A man stole a bottle of liquor from a June 27 by putting it down his pants and walking out. It dawned on somebody to tell management about it June 30. Theft, Market Street: A North Olmsted man's wallet was taken from his 2013 Nissan Altima on June 30 while he worked out at a Market Street gym. It contained $780 cash and credit and debit cards. There were no signs of forced entry. Theft, Hilliard Boulevard: A 34-year-old North Ridgeville woman stole jewelry worth $17,000 from the home of a Hilliard Boulevard woman she was working for June 30. She turned herself in later that night and was arrested for theft. Car theft, Canterbury Road: A 2002 Honda Civic was stolen from a home on the night of June 30. It turned up the next morning in North Olmsted. The keys were not left in it when it was stolen. If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page. A bidding war with Salesforce.com forced Microsoft to pay nearly $6 billion extra to seal its planned takeover of LinkedIn last month, according to new details released on Friday. The contest eventually led Salesforce to offer $500 million more than Microsoft, at least on paper, though its cash-and-stock offer was heavily dependent on its own share price, in contrast to the all-cash bid from the software company. A month-long back-and-forth between the two rivals pushed the value of the all-cash deal to $26bn, making it the third-largest acquisition in the tech industry. Details of the frenzied bidding were revealed in a regulatory filing that LinkedIn made with the Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of a shareholder vote to approve the deal. The high price that Microsoft ended up paying could now lead to deeper cost-cutting at LinkedIn after the deal is completed. Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella warned Jeff Weiner, his counterpart at LinkedIn, during the bidding that "a discussion of cost synergies in the transaction would be necessary" as Microsoft pushed its offer higher. The seeds of Microsoft's giant bid were sown on 16 February, only 12 days after the professional networking site shocked Wall Street with a disappointing earnings report that wiped more than 50 per cent off its stock price. The idea of an acquisition was raised in a meeting between Mr Weiner and Mr Nadella, according to the report, though it did not disclose who broached the idea. New York City's white-hot residential prices have found a new target: Downtown Brooklyn. If there was ever any doubt about the frothy prices of the borough's real estate, a recent condominium sale at 101 Willoughby Street confirmed it. A penthouse unit there recently sold for $3.4 million, which appears to be a record for the immediate vicinity. The 3 bedroom, 3 full bath duplex boasts 15 foot ceilings and a private elevator, is part of a residence building in a 1929 art deco office building that used to belong to NY Telephone Company before it was converted into luxury condos back in 2008, according to real estate directory Streeteasy. The Willoughby St. unit had been on the market since the building was converted, according to Douglas Elliman, the real estate firm that brokered the sale. The sale price of the unit, located in a Belltel Lofts luxury development, is notable for its location. Although Brooklyn's residential market is one of the city's most torrid, the downtown area was mainly defined by commercial and retail properties. Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was questioned by the FBI in a long-awaited interview Saturday over the use of her private email server, an aide said. The interview's purpose was to delve into whether Clinton mishandled classified information submitted on her private email system while she served as secretary of state. Her top staffers have already given testimony. The interview happened at the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. It lasted approximately three and a half hours. "Secretary Clinton gave a voluntary interview this morning about her email arrangements while she was Secretary. She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion. Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview," Nick Merrill, a Clinton spokesman, said in a statement. More from NBC News: Lynch Won't Recuse Herself From Clinton Case Istanbul Airport Attack Death Toll Rises to 45 Tourist Plunges to Death Posing at Maccu Piccu Clinton has no public events scheduled for the July 4th weekend. Rumors that the FBI interview was to take place Saturday, first reported by The Daily Caller, emerged as the Clinton campaign was mired in controversy over a meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton. The two met on Lynch's airplane on a tarmac in Phoenix on Monday. The attorney general insisted their talk was purely "social" and said they didn't talk about the emails that the Justice Department are currently reviewing. But she expressed regret Friday for the meeting. "I certainly wouldn't do it again because I think it has cast a shadow over how this case will be perceived," Lynch said. Meanwhile, presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump was spending the weekend vetting potential running mates, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. Trump was incredulous over Bill Clinton's meeting with Lynch, saying in a speech Friday, "He opened up a Pandora's box." Senior leaders of U.K.'s opposition Labour party are drawing plans to force leader Jeremy Corbyn out, BBC reported Saturday. Members of the shadow cabinet want to work out a compromise with Corbyn that would see some of his policy proposals being retained if he agrees to step down from his position. Doubts over Corbyn's leadership of the U.K.'s second-largest party have risen after a wave of resignations from members of his shadow cabinet following last month's referendum in which U.K. voters opted to leave the European Union. (EU). Silver didnt totally disappear from American coinage during the 1970s, since the silver-copper clad (40 percent) versions of Bicentennial coinage offered some semblance of silver currency. Canadas 30-coin program for the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games included 14 silver $5 and 14 silver $10 coins, each celebrating sports or aspects of the Games history and host country. These pieces met considerable demand from silver seekers. Austria issued several denominations of silver commemorative coins in the 1960s and 1970s following removal of silver from its circulating coins, including the 1976 100-schilling marking the Olympics. After silver was removed from the circulating 5-mark coins, West Germany continued issuing silver 5-mark commemorative coins at face value, like the 1968 coin celebrating Johannes Gutenberg. Britains gradual removal of silver from circulating coins continued until 1947, the first year that all four previously silver denominations (such as this 1945 silver sixpence) were made instead from copper-nickel. Switzerland changed neither the design nor silver content of its half-franc and franc coins from 1875 to 1967, before removing the silver entirely. Mexicos erosion of silver fineness in circulating coins is epitomized by the 1-peso coin, which in the last years of its existence was made of .100 fine silver. Editor's note: this is the second part of a feature about the rise of silver bullion coins. The story originally appears in the July issue of Coin World Monthly: Silver began disappearing at an accelerated rate during the 1960s, but commemorative coins helped fill the gap nicely before there was bullion. Circulating silver coins were widely used until World War II or shortly after, depending on the nation. Gradual elimination of precious metal from circulating coinage was accomplished over decades in Great Britain, as the fineness of silver halfcrowns, shillings, sixpences and threepences and the like was subtly changed, culminating in complete elimination of the metal after 1946. Connect with Coin World: Mexicos use of silver dwindled so low that, among nations whose circulating coins contained silver, Mexican coins famously feature the lowest fineness, .100 fine silver, which was employed for the 1-peso coins from 1957 to 1967. European countries like Austria, West Germany and Switzerland began abandoning silver for circulation coins about the same time as Mexico. Silver stayed in circulating coins longest in German-speaking or predominantly German-speaking areas. Switzerlands reputation for stability remained true for its half- and 1-franc coins, which were issued in the same designs from 1875 to 1967 and in the same fineness (.835) of silver, before the Swiss abruptly said so long to the shiny metal. The final year for Austrias .640 fine silver 5-schilling coin was 1968, but the 10-schilling (struck in the same .640 fineness) lasted until 1973. West Germany outlasted them both, though, issuing a silver 5-mark coin for circulation through 1974. Austrian, German commems With silver gone from circulating coins, what were collectors to do to get an investment fix? Older historic issues were popular and in many countries the only option, but some mints kept cranking out the silver, in the form of commemorative coins. The largest outpouring of silver coins at affordable prices came from two of those German-speaking lands, Austria and West Germany (East Germany also issued silver coins, but those did not penetrate the market in the West because of political considerations). Even after dropping silver from circulating coinage, Austrias and Germanys commemorative programs in the 1970s and 1980s were at the vanguard of an worldwide commemorative coin explosion, though that long-ago market pales in comparison to todays issues. In a sense, these 50-schilling and 5-mark coins were issued for circulation, as, like their euro counterparts today, they were issued at face value in post offices. They were, however, totally directed toward a collecting market, which might be the largest per capita anywhere. After a few years the 50-schilling coin was mostly abandoned in favor of a heavier, larger 100-schilling coin, which remained in use for commemorative themes through 1979 before a 12-year hiatus. The 1970s editions of the .900 fine silver 100-schilling coin celebrated a range of topics in generally enormous mintages, ranging from 1.5 million to 2 million pieces per design, indicating their target market was interested more in silver than in rarity. Targeting changed when the denomination was revived in 1991, minted in a Proof finish only, in mintages limited to no more than 100,000 coins per design. Germany also ended its commemorative silver 5-mark coins in 1979 but brought back a silver 5-mark commem eight years later, in 1987. There were a few other way stations on the road to world silver bullion, however. Canadas Olympian collection Voluminously produced during the gulf of time preceding the rise of silver bullion coins were the 28 silver coins from Canada honoring the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. The coins 14 silver $5 coins and 14 silver $10 pieces were part of a 30-coin program (the other two, in gold, were then illegal for Americans to own) raising money for the event. The coins, issued during a four-year period, represent different aspects of the games, including various sports and the host nation itself. Proof and Brilliant Uncirculated examples were issued, generally several million per design, and the program is by far one of the best known Royal Canadian Mint issues. It was extensively promoted both in Canada and abroad, and these pieces have traded mostly as bullion and at bullion-related prices for many years. Presidential, bicentennial silver Americans looking for silver in the nations coins didnt have to wait long after its removal from general circulation. Of course, the 1965 to 1969 Kennedy half dollars contained 40 percent of silver, but the slain presidents popularity meant many of these coins were saved out as mementos. The death of a different American president, Eisenhower, prompted another new coin, and the Ike dollar was born in 1971. Its mintages include a 40 percent silver version (like the 1965 to 1970 half dollars, made of a silver-copper clad composition) for collectors, issued every year from 1971 to 1976. The 1976 Eisenhower dollar marked a departure of sorts, as the design was modified in a broader coin program marking the American Bicentennial. Besides the dollar, designs for the 25- and 50-cent coins were modified for the national party, and silver-copper clad versions of these were issued, though again for collectors only. The event marked the closest Americans would get for a while longer to holding silver coins with circulating designs. None of the aforementioned silver coins, in their varying finenesses and weights, provided any simple, easy way to buy world silver coins an ounce at a time. Bars and rounds from private producers were suitable for some, but lacked the cachet of an official government imprimatur and denomination. A few more years would pass before the veritable silver smorgasbord would be arrayed for todays collectors to choose from. Hello, I'm a reporter for summer 2016. I'm a dual major in journalism and English, a Californian and a lover of desserts. I look forward to covering a variety of topics, and would love to hear from you. Email me at kelseyhurwitz@mail.missouri.edu. Follow this search 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 Eli Drinkwitz revealed the condition that's sidelined Chance Luper Drinkwtz said that Luper is currently on blood thinners and that he will be reevaluated in three months. He will miss the rest of the regular season. It is now all but official. The dysfunctional political family otherwise known as the Shelby County Democratic Party has managed itself into complete irrelevance. After resembling a circular firing squad for the past few years, local party leaders have finally turned the once highly effective and highly diverse group into a laughingstock. Because of the constant turmoil, Democrats who hold elected offices in Memphis and Shelby County no longer look to the local party for anything. Most of them refuse to even associate with the SCDP. "I've just removed myself completely" from local party activity, said state Rep. Johnnie Turner, who is seeking re-election against two other Democratic opponents, Felicia Irons and Keith Williams, in the Aug. 4 state primary. "I don't have time to waste with a lot of bickering. It's not a Democratic Party, it's a fractured party. It's almost like you need to throw the baby and the bathwater out and start over." In effect, that is what's happening. Allegations of financial mismanagement by former party chairman Bryan Carson has put SCDP's executive committee on a collision course with state party leaders. And it couldn't come a worst time when the party should be gearing up to help presumptive presidential nominee Hillary Clinton make a respectable showing in Tennessee in November. Instead, the executive committee is scheduled to meet later this week to decide whether to defy a directive from state party chairwoman Mary Mancini to stop pursuing criminal charges against Carson and agree to a $6,000 settlement. The committee last month accused Carson of embezzling about $26,000 in party funds while he served as chairman. Carson denies the charges, but has admitted to shoddy record keeping. He is more than happy to agree to the $6,000 settlement, which requires him to make monthly payments of $100 for the next five years. Based on the original charges, who wouldn't want that sweetheart deal? I'll tell you who. Executive committee member Del Gill. Gill has been a local party gadfly for years. He has never gotten along with top party leaders and most elected Democrats. But he does have allies on the executive committee and he knows the party rules. In mid-June, he filed a criminal complaint against Carson with Memphis police and it's clear he intends to fight the proposed settlement, saying Mancini "can go to hell." And you thought national Republicans were in disarray. Whether Mancini is pulling strings to help Carson out of a legal jam is debatable. Both Carson and his mother, Gale Jones Carson, are members of the party's state executive committee. But what does it matter when your influence is over a sinking ship? The local party bickering is particularly bad news for General Sessions Court clerk Ed Stanton Jr., a Democrat, who is being challenged by Republican Richard Morton and Independent candidate William Chism in the Aug 4 election. A hotly contested Republican race for the 8th District congressional seat will create a heavy GOP turnout in Shelby County, which will hurt Stanton's chances for re-election. Most elected Democrats in Memphis and Shelby County in recent years have waged their campaigns without much involvement from the local party. And one former party official told me that if Hillary Clinton's campaign decides to mount a serious get-out-the-vote effort in Shelby County this fall, it will do so without any input from local party leaders. Which more than explains how far into the abyss the SCDP has fallen. Gone are the days when top elected Democrats Harold Ford Sr. and Bill Morris immediately come mind wielded considerable influence over who chaired the local party. Gone also is any sway with the national Democratic Party, which is not about to involve itself with infighting and charges of embezzlement. Still, thanks to Memphis voters, Shelby County remains loyal to Democrats in national elections. But if Tennessee is ever to become a blue state again, the local Democratic Party must undergo a total makeover. Or as Johnnie Turner put it, both the baby and the bathwater must go. SHARE By David Royer of The Commercial Appeal Authorities located the body of a child who fell in a lake in northeast Memphis on Friday night, police said. The boy, 6, was reported missing at 7:44 p.m. near Shelby Oaks and Shelby View, Memphis police spokeswoman Karen Rudolph said. Officers were advised at the scene that the child had fallen in a lake, she said. In an email Saturday morning, Rudolph said the child was fishing at the lake with his mother and three others two adults and an 8-year-old. While walking alongside the lake, the child jumped in the water. Search teams from several agencies remained on the scene until late Friday night. Photo courtesy Bill Dunn July 1953 Danny Thomas signs the cast of Bill Dunn, a patient at St. Joseph Hospital, in July 1953. Bill was born with spina bifida and was recovering from tendon surgery at St. Joseph Hospital when Thomas came visiting. Thomas was laying ground work for St. Jude Children's Hospital, which opened nine years later in 1962. SHARE July 2 25 years ago: 1991 KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine President Bush Monday picked conservative federal Judge Clarence Thomas to replace retiring liberal Justice Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court. Bush praised the 43-year-old Judge Thomas as "a fiercely independent thinker with an excellent legal mind, who believes passionately in equal opportunity for all Americans." Yet, civil rights groups have opposed Judge Thomas on grounds he was insensitive to the concerns of minorities and the elderly as chairman of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for nearly eight years under President Reagan. Judge Thomas's nomination must be confirmed by the Democratic-controlled Senate, where he is certain to face sharp questioning on abortion, privacy, school prayer and desegregation. 50 years ago: 1966 Memphis, which received its first nonstop jet airline service to Washington National Airport, will lose it next month under a Federal Aviation Agency ruling issued yesterday. But not without a fight, said Representative George W. Grider (D, Tenn.) and Fred James, chairman of the Memphis Air Service Commission. The FAA ruling said that starting Aug. 7, scheduled nonstop flights between Washington and cities more than 500 miles away may not use Washington National Airport, as they have been allowed to do since April 24. The ruling was the result of increased traffic congestion, the FAA said. 75 years ago: 1941 Sgt. Alvin C. York, outstanding AEF hero of World War I, said in an interview today: "If we bust up all of old man Hitler's ships and submarines, and get our material to England, she can and will do the rest." 100 years ago: 1916 British Headquarters in France The British today launched their long-expected offensive, and by night they had pierced the German line on a seven-mile front to a depth of more than five miles and had captured four towns and two woods behind the German lines. 125 years ago: 1891 It is proposed that Southern writers and speakers should always refer to the Civil War as the "War for Southern Independence." A very good idea. It was nothing more or less than that. June 30, 2016 - Sam Searcy, a third-year student at University of Tennessee Health Science Center who recently purchased a home in Memphis, hopes to stay in the area after graduation. Mayor Jim Strickland recently talked of the importance of keeping millennials in Memphis. (Mark Weber/The Commercial Appeal) SHARE By Sydney Neely, sydney.neely@commercialappeal.com Emeka Nwaneri felt nothing but excitement when, at age 17, he boarded a plane going from Abuja, Nigeria, to America in 2008. Now at 25, he's a third-year medical student at the University of Tennessee medical school in Memphis. Nwaneri, whose father was a prominent governor in Nigeria in the '90s, said he could have been a doctor in Nigeria and opened his own hospital or clinic, but instead he thought it would be more exciting to study medicine in America. Whether it is school, the need for a change of scenery, aspirations of opening a business or a thriving night life, millennials are coming to the Bluff City. And that's good for job growth, said Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland. "If we want to bring other companies to Memphis, we need to continue to make our city better for young people," Strickland said. Just last month, millennials were a front-and-center issue for Strickland and other city leaders until ServiceMaster Global Holdings completed a national site search. The home services company disclosed it would keep its 1,200-employee head office in Memphis. The city was on edge because ServiceMaster executives had declared it wanted its headquarters in a city appealing to the up-and-coming generation of 20- and 30-year-olds known as the millennials. "Memphis is small enough that one person can get involved in whatever lights their fire and make a difference," Strickland said. "But we're large enough to have the resources to really make a difference." Nwaneri is one of 80 million millennials in the United States and the 370,000 living in metropolitan Memphis, where about 28.5 percent of the residents are in their 20s and 30s, compared to about 27.5 percent throughout the nation, U.S. Census reports show. "I think a lot of immigrants, we don't really mind where we stay, we'll just make it work," Nwaneri said. "I don't mind staying in Memphis. If it happens, it happens." Sam Searcy, 25, applied to 20 medical schools, but decided to attend the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine in Memphis because of how welcoming the city felt. "Coming from Birmingham I can appreciate a city that has a rich history of music, food and culture that really runs deep in the people," Searcy said. "It's palpable, you can feel it." One favorable aspect is the ability to volunteer and feel part of the city fabric. Searcy mentors younger teens in the city as a member of the Student National Medical Association at the medical school. "I know that Memphis needs some positive African-American male influence, especially with the next generation," Searcy said. Although Searcy said he misses his family in Alabama, he has established his roots in Memphis and is making new memories. "I would like to stay here," Searcy said. In 2015, Memphis ranked eighth among the top 10 best cities for millennial job seekers, according to NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Memphis also ranked third as the most popular city for millennials to purchase a home in 2016 with a median listing price of $164,000, according to research from Realtor.com. Despite Memphis making several top ten lists for millennials, it is sometimes difficult to keep the young people who come here from eventually leaving. Strickland said for four decades Memphis has had a hard time retaining people, much less young people. "Now more than ever, Memphis needs talent," said Nancy Coffee, president of the New Memphis Institute, an organization that encourages men and women in their 20s and 30s to launch their careers in Memphis. "Businesses need talent to thrive. Our government needs talent to innovate and solve problems." The millennials are more ethnically and racially diverse, educated and slower to settle down compared to previous generations according to a report released by the Pew Research Center. Organizations similar to the New Memphis Institute aim to attract and keep millennials in Memphis. "If we want great leaders between 2020 and 2040 we've got to recruit them now," said John Carroll, founder of City Leadership, a local nonprofit that works to recruit and retain millennials with engaging, community-building programs such as Choose901, Teach901 and Serve901. Carroll said if Memphis wants more jobs and companies to move here, there needs to be talent in Memphis to attract them. "If we don't have the talent to fill jobs, companies aren't going to come here," Carroll said. "We want as many people possible in that demographic to move here and talented people to stay here so we can have them investing in our city when they're in their 30s, 40s, and 50s," Carroll said. U.S. President Barack Obama (left) and Buchenwald survivor Elie Wiesel (right) visit the memorial site for the 'Kleines Lager' (Little Camp) inside Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany, Friday, June 5, 2009. Wiesel, whose classic "Night" became a landmark testament to the Nazis' crimes, died Saturday at age 87. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, Pool) SHARE By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press NEW YORK Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, the Romanian-born Holocaust survivor whose classic "Night" became a landmark testament to the Nazis' crimes and launched Wiesel's long career as one of the world's foremost witnesses and humanitarians, has died at age 87. His death was announced Saturday by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. No other details were immediately available. The short, sad-eyed Wiesel, his face an ongoing reminder of one man's endurance of a shattering past, summed up his mission in 1986 when accepting the Nobel Peace Prize: "Whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." For more than a half-century, he voiced his passionate beliefs to world leaders, celebrities and general audiences in the name of victims of violence and oppression. He wrote more than 40 books, but his most influential by far was "Night," a classic ranked with Anne Frank's diary as standard reading about the Holocaust. "Night" was his first book, and its journey to publication crossed both time and language. It began in the mid-1950s as an 800-page story in Yiddish, was trimmed to under 300 pages for an edition released in Argentina, cut again to under 200 pages for the French market and finally published in the United States, in 1960, at just over 100 pages. "'Night' is the most devastating account of the Holocaust that I have ever read," wrote Ruth Franklin, a literary critic and author of "A Thousand Darknesses," a study of Holocaust literature that was published in 2010. "There are no epiphanies in 'Night. There is no extraneous detail, no analysis, no speculation. There is only a story: Eliezer's account of what happened, spoken in his voice." Wiesel began working on "Night" just a decade after the end of World War II, when memories were too raw for many survivors to even try telling their stories. Frank's diary had been an accidental success, a book discovered after her death, and its entries end before Frank and her family was captured and deported. Wiesel's book was among the first popular accounts written by a witness to the very worst, and it documented what Frank could hardly have imagined. "Night" was so bleak that publishers doubted it would appeal to readers. In a 2002 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Wiesel recalled that the book attracted little notice at first. "The English translation came out in 1960, and the first printing was 3,000 copies. And it took three years to sell them. Now, I get 100 letters a month from children about the book. And there are many, many million copies in print." In one especially haunting passage, Wiesel sums up his feelings upon arrival in Auschwitz: "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. ... Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." "Night" was based directly on his experiences, but structured like a novel, leading to an ongoing debate over how to categorize it. Alfred Kazin was among the critics who expressed early doubts about the book's accuracy, doubts that Wiesel denounced as "a mortal sin in the historical sense." Wiesel's publisher called the book a memoir even as some reviewers called it fiction. An Amazon editorial review labeled the book "technically a novel," albeit so close to Wiesel's life that "it's generally and not inaccurately read as an autobiography." In 2006, a new translation returned "Night" to the best-seller lists after it was selected for Oprah Winfrey's book club. But the choice also revived questions about how to categorize the book. Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, both of which had listed "Night" as fiction, switched it to nonfiction. Wiesel, meanwhile, acknowledged in a new introduction that he had changed the narrator's age from "not quite 15" to Wiesel's real age at the time, 15. "Unfortunately, 'Night' is an imperfect ambassador for the infallibility of the memoir," Franklin wrote, "owing to the fact that it has been treated very often as a novel." Wiesel's prolific stream of speeches, essays and books, including two sequels to "Night" and more than 40 books overall of fiction and nonfiction, emerged from the helplessness of a teenager deported from Hungary, which had annexed his native Romanian town of Sighet, to Auschwitz. Tattooed with the number A-7713, he was freed in 1945 but only after his mother, father and one sister had all died in Nazi camps. Two other sisters survived. After the liberation of Buchenwald, in April 1945, Wiesel spent a few years in a French orphanage, then landed in Paris. He studied literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne, and then became a journalist, writing for the French newspaper L'Arche and Israel's Yediot Ahronot. French author Francois Mauriac, winner of the 1952 Nobel in literature, encouraged Wiesel to break his vowed silence about the concentration camps and start sharing his experiences. In 1956, Wiesel traveled on a journalistic assignment to New York to cover the United Nations. While there, he was struck by a car and confined to a wheelchair for a year. He became a lifetime New Yorker, continuing in journalism writing for the Yiddish-language newspaper, the Forward. His contact with the city's many Holocaust survivors shored up Wiesel's resolve to keep telling their stories. Wiesel became a U.S. citizen in 1963. Six years later, he married Marion Rose, a fellow Holocaust survivor who translated some of his books into English. They had a son, Shlomo. Based in New York, Wiesel commuted to Boston University for almost three decades, teaching philosophy, literature and Judaic studies and giving a popular lecture series in the fall. Wiesel also taught at Yale University and the City University of New York. In 1978, he was chosen by President Jimmy Carter to head the President's Commission on the Holocaust, and plan an American memorial museum to Holocaust victims. Wiesel wrote in a report to the president that the museum must include denying the Nazis a posthumous victory, honoring the victims' last wishes to tell their stories. He said that although all the victims of the Holocaust were not Jewish, all Jews were victims. Wiesel advocated that the museum emphasize the annihilation of the Jews, while still remembering the others; today the exhibits and archives reflects that. Among his most memorable spoken words came in 1985, when he received a Congressional Gold Medal from President Ronald Reagan and asked the president not to make a planned trip to a cemetery in Germany that contained graves of Adolf Hitler's personal guards. "We have met four or five times, and each time I came away enriched, for I know of your commitment to humanity," Wiesel said, as Reagan looked on. "May I, Mr. President, if it's possible at all, implore you to do something else, to find a way, to find another way, another site. That place, Mr. President, is not your place. Your place is with the victims." Reagan visited the cemetery, in Bitburg, despite international protests. Wiesel also spoke at the dedication of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in 1993. His words are now carved in stone at its entrance: "For the dead and the living, we must bear witness." Wiesel, the National Civil Rights Museum's 1995 Freedom Award winner, defended Soviet Jews, Nicaragua's Miskito Indians, Cambodian refugees, the Kurds, victims of African famine and victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Wiesel was a longtime supporter of Israel although he was criticized at times for his closeness to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu. When Netanhayu gave a highly controversial address to Congress in 2015, denouncing President Barack Obama's efforts to reach a nuclear treaty with Iran, Wiesel was among the guests of honor. "What were you doing there, Elie Wiesel?" Haaretz columnist Roger Alpher wrote at the time. "Netanyahu is my prime minister. You are not an Israeli citizen. You do not live here. The Iranian threat to destroy Israel does not apply to you. You are a Jew who lives in America. This is not your problem." The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, which he established in 1988, explored the problems of hatred and ethnic conflicts around the world. But like a number of other well-known charities in the Jewish community, the foundation fell victim to Bernard Madoff, the financier who was arrested in late 2008 and accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Wiesel said he ended up losing $15.2 million in foundation funds, plus his and his wife's own personal investments. At a panel discussion in February 2009, Wiesel admitted he bought into the Madoff mystique, "a myth that he created around him that everything was so special, so unique, that it had to be secret." He called Madoff "a crook, a thief, a scoundrel." Despite Wiesel's mission to remind the world of past mistakes, the greatest disappointment of his life was that "nothing changed," he said in an interview. "Human nature remained what it was. Society remained what it was. Too much indifference in the world, to the Other, his pain, and anguish, and hope." But personally, he never gave up as reflected in his novel "The Town Beyond the Wall." Wiesel's Jewish protagonist, Michael, returns to his native town in now-communist Hungary to find out why his neighbors had given him up to the Nazis. Suspected as a Western spy, he lands in prison along with a young man whose insanity has left him catatonic. The protagonist takes on the challenge of "awakening" the youth by any means, from talking to forcing his mouth open a task as wrenching as Wiesel's humanitarian missions. "The day when the boy suddenly began sketching arabesques in the air was one of the happiest of Michael's life. ... Now he talked more, as if wishing to store ideas and values in the boy for his moments of awakening. Michael compared himself to a farmer: months separated the planting from the harvest. For the moment, he was planting." AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report. Does $150 million Astoria Square signal a new era for Millington? The Astoria Square project in Millington will feature luxury townhomes, apartments and cottages, a microbrewery, town square, walking trails and more. SHARE Fortunately for the children of Shelby County and, indeed, the community itself, momentum seems to be building for more growth of the county's prekindergarten program. And it is building despite a Vanderbilt University study released last fall that showed diminishing benefits from prekindergarten in succeeding grades. A year ago, a federal grant made an additional $8 million available to Shelby County, making it possible to add 27 pre-K classrooms serving hundreds of previously unserved children in Shelby County Schools, the state-run Achievement School District, Bartlett City Schools and Millington Municipal Schools. We applaud the PeopleFirst Partnership for forging ahead in its mission to make prekindergarten classes available to more children in Shelby County, a vital part of the organization's five-year, 23-point Shelby County Early Childhood Education Plan, one of whose goals is to raise the number of 5-year-olds who are ready for kindergarten from 32 percent to 90 percent by 2025. Enthusiasm for further expansion was evident as government and educational leaders from across Shelby County met last week at the Kroc Center to discuss the state of preschool programs in districts targeted for pre-K expansion. Critics in the General Assembly and elsewhere, labeling prekindergarten as little more than taxpayer funded baby-sitting, have seized on the results of the Vanderbilt study as evidence that the state has better ways to spend the more than $85 million Tennessee devotes to pre-K programs. The study by Vanderbilt's Peabody College of Education, in conjunction with the state Department of Education, began in 2009 and followed students who attended pre-K as they advanced through school. It demonstrated clearly that Tennessee's pre-K program raises the levels at which economically disadvantaged children are prepared for kindergarten, both academically and in terms of their behavior. It demonstrated that those children showed greater gains on a range of early achievement measures than peers who qualified for pre-K but did not attend because of space limitations. But in an additional finding that diverged from what we know from decades of previous research, it also showed that the effects tend to fade in the early elementary grades. But where would those children be without the socialization and academic preparation provided by prekindergarten? A recent report by the Southern Regional Education Board Commission, which consulted with national experts who study early childhood issues and children's brain development, concluded that investments during a child's critical early education years can increase the child's prospects for high school graduation, college attainment and readiness for the workforce. Rather than questioning the clearly demonstrated value of prekindergarten, what education researchers should be asking is what may be happening in prekindergarten classes and in subsequent grades that could be the cause of any losses among children who have attended prekindergarten. Third-graders in Tennessee who attended prekindergarten aren't the only third-graders in Tennessee who are behind the average American third-grader in literacy. Many of the children affected by the program are from homes with little support for their educational achievement, socialization or emotional development. Rather than leaving them behind, we must find ways to help them overcome the socioeconomic hurdles in front of them. Otherwise, we won't succeed as a community in which opportunities are available to everyone, whatever their status. Among 14,000 4-year-olds in Shelby County, 10,000 qualify for free preschool programs because their parents cannot afford to pay, according to Lora Jobe, executive director of PeopleFirst Partnership. The most recent expansion grant, combined with help from the Shelby County government, leaves just 2,000 of those children unserved. It should remain a goal of educators, government and the philanthropic community to reduce that figure to zero, not allow it to grow. SHARE By Eli Lake Whoever said crime doesn't pay hasn't talked to the family of a Palestinian terrorist. For the Palestine Liberation Organization and the related Palestinian Authority, the killers of Jewish Israelis are considered "martyrs." And as such, their families are paid for the service these murderers have done for the Palestinian cause. This has come to light this week after a Palestinian, Mohammed Tarayra, stabbed Hallel Yaffa Ariel, a 13-year-old Israeli girl, as she was sleeping in her bed. The stabbing was part of a wave of attacks by Palestinians who have for nearly eight months been shooting, stabbing and running down Jews with the encouragement of social media and popular songs. According to the latest report of the Russian, European, U.S. and U.N. group known as the Quartet, there have been 250 of these kinds of attacks since October. It says, "These terrorist attacks, which have been carried out mostly by young, unaffiliated individuals, contribute to the sense among Israelis of living under constant threat." But this misses important context. The Quartet's report, which is even-handed to a fault, makes no mention of the "martyr's fund," through which the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization pay the families of all Palestinian prisoners and the families of martyrs. So while there is no evidence that the Palestinian government plans these killing sprees, it encourages them as a legitimate act of resistance. As Commentary's Evelyn Gordon wrote this week, the prisoners and the families of the prisoners themselves are paid a higher wage than what most Palestinians earn for nonviolent work. The origins of these payments goes back a long way. Before the Palestinian Authority was established in the 1990s through the Oslo peace process, the Palestine Liberation Organization paid the families of "martyrs" and prisoners detained by Israel. That practice became standardized during the Second Intifadah of 2000 to 2005. The Israelis even found documents in the late Yasser Arafat's compound that showed payments to families of suicide bombers. For years, the Israelis and the Americans didn't do much on this issue. The Israel Defense Forces work closely with Palestinian security services to keep the peace in the West Bank. Meanwhile, the Bush and Obama administrations have pressed both sides to restart negotiations over a final status. This is starting to change. On Friday, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that he would begin withholding part of the tax revenue Israel sends to the Palestinian Authority equal to the amount paid to "martyrs." Frank Lowenstein, the U.S. special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, told me the U.S. government has recently started withholding funding for the same reason. "We have robustly complied with legislation passed in 2014 that requires us to deduct from development assistance to the Palestinian Authority for Palestinian payments to individuals imprisoned for acts of terrorism," he said. The amount of development assistance that has been withheld is classified. The Palestinian Authority seems to be aware of this and has figured out ways to hide these payments to the families of murderers, by creating new accounts. Sen. Dan Coates (R-Ind.) has introduced new legislation aimed at closing this loophole. One problem is that the payments to terrorists' families are exceedingly popular these days. Ziad Asali, the president and founder of the American Task Force on Palestine, told me that in recent years the media and politicians have elevated these payments to something "sacred in Palestinian politics." Asali said the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, and others are too weak to stop it. "This is where we find ourselves now. The vast majority understand there has to be an end to violence; it's not serving the Palestinians in any way," Asali said. "But I think nobody really has the stature and clout to confront these issues publicly." Asali is getting at one of the many tragedies today for the Palestinians. Abbas came to power initially after he condemned suicide bombing and terrorism during the Second Intifadah. His bravery at the time to confront Arafat earned him a reputation as a peacemaker and is one reason President Barack Obama has never publicly criticized him with the same ferocity he reserves for Netanyahu. But today Abbas is in the 11th year of a four-year term as president. He has made some vague statements opposing the recent wave of violence. But he never condemns the murderers by name. Meanwhile, his own Fatah Party glorified Tarayra on its official Facebook page. No wonder the killer's family is so proud of him. His mother told a local news outlet: "My son is a hero. He made me proud. My son died as a martyr defending Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque," according to a translation from Palestinian Media Watch. Israel's alleged peace partner appears to agree. If the past is precedent, she will receive a steady check to honor her son's murder of a 13-year-old Jewish girl in her sleep. Eli Lake is a Bloomberg View columnist. SHARE By George Koehn Liberal Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, led by aging activist John Lewis of Georgia, have now resorted to the same whiny, childish behavior exhibited by college freshmen in the 1960s with their recent 26-hour sit-in publicity stunt on the floor of the House. This was in clear contravention of the rules of order. The hypocrisy here is overwhelming. They blame Republicans for standing in the way of passage of more stringent gun-control laws; however, when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency, they didn't get it done, mainly because most American people didn't want it then and don't want it now. Instead, they chose to ram home a $787 billion "stimulus" plan that included shovel-ready projects that mostly didn't materialize and the so-called Affordable Care Act, which is anything but. When will these politicians realize that law-abiding American people cherish their constitutional freedoms, including their Second Amendment right to own guns to protect themselves from any and all threats, including the potential for a tyrannical government? They talk about "common-sense gun laws," but as usual, the devil is in the details. Local, state and federal government agencies need to figure out how to communicate with one another and stop known dangerous people from buying guns. Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas last week introduced a bill that would go a long way toward doing that, but it got shot down. The FBI knew all about Omar Mateen's terrorist leanings three years before his horrific act June 12 at an Orlando nightclub. More laws limiting the sale of specific firearms to good citizens won't do one thing to stop people who have no intention to obey the law in the first place. With more than 300 million guns already in the hands of the public, bad people will simply buy their guns in the very active black market, which doesn't perform background checks. All weapons, regardless of their configuration, are built to inflict damage on the intended target. A kitchen knife, a pressure cooker, a fertilizer truck, a Boeing 767 or a Smith & Wesson .44 magnum revolver used to terrorize us will be every bit as lethal as any .223 AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle. Enough of this "assault weapon" blather. It's time to focus on the real problem, which is a liberal government bureaucracy egged on by a politically correct and biased mainstream press. Unlike the elites in Washington with their Capitol Police, Secret Service and myriad government agency military-style SWAT teams, we have no choice but to protect ourselves. Our local police usually come on the scene after the shooting starts. As Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel put it so eloquently, "I think we (in Congress) deserve I think we need to be protected." What about the rest of us, Charlie? Another wake up call, America. George Koehn, a retired banker, is a member of the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Advisory Board. SHARE By Jennifer Rubin Despite sneers from the Republican National Committee leadership, the number of players and the amount of activity associated with the #NeverTrump forces organizing a delegate revolt at the GOP convention suggest a fulsome effort is underway to dislodge Donald Trump. As The Hill reports, "A coalition of delegates, lawyers, rules experts and PACs has formed in what participants say is the most coordinated effort to date to dump Trump from the Republican ticket." Kendal Unruh, a Colorado delegate, is organizing at the rules committee, trying to drum up support to include a "conscience" clause allowing delegates to withhold votes for Trump on the first ballot. She's far from the only one: "Colorado conservative activist Regina Thomson, who runs a PAC called Free the Delegates, is organizing a floor fight irrespective of the rules committee's decision. ... Another group called Delegates Unbound, led by GOP strategist Dane Waters, is overseeing a national lobbying campaign focused on contacting delegates before they arrive in Cleveland to urge them to vote with their conscience. "His group has raised $2.5 million and has already run a $150,000 spot on Fox News Channel. Waters said he will have a staff of 15 regional and state directors manning his national whip operation. "Those three groups (Unruh, Thomson and Waters) are now strategizing together and sharing data. They claim to have secured enough money to launch a legal defense fund and invest in communications technologies that will keep them in contact with one another on the convention floor." They will have a presence at the convention. ("They say they started bringing volunteers on as full-time employees this week and that they will have lawyers and convention experts on the ground in Cleveland. Thomson says 350 to 400 delegates and alternates have already inquired about how they can help.") The RNC is placing faith in Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who is supposed to be experienced in such matters. In fact, he has not had a substantial role in presidential campaigns for decades. Manafort, of course, has yet to organize competent fundraising, data collection and ground game operations, so the RNC's reliance on him seems foolish. The RNC's arrogance and dismissive tone toward its own delegates only increase the latter's feistiness and determination. It is they who now are battling the party "establishment." "Every day that passes where Trump isn't raising money, isn't able to match (Hillary) Clinton on TV and isn't making his long-promised pivot is another day for nervous delegates to continue to organize," says veteran GOP consultant Rick Wilson. "It's always been a game of long odds, but he keeps them alive, and his soft polling numbers continue to keep wind in their sails." The absence of a big-name Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., or one of the 2016 contenders is a blessing and a curse. On one hand, there is no specific candidate for delegates to embrace as Trump's replacement. On the other hand, the rebels cannot be accused of being a stalking horse for any candidate, who would quickly be pummeled by pro-Trump groups. The big question mark is Mitt Romney. He has declined to run as a third candidate, positing such a figure would have little chance to beat the GOP nominee. But we are now past that point. This is about whether he would be the nominee if Trump gets booted. Sure enough, he has popped up to let it be known that his family still wants him to run. CNN reports, "Mitt Romney's family is still pleading for him to mount an independent bid for the presidency, the 2012 Republican nominee said Wednesday. Romney, speaking to CBS News' John Dickerson at the Aspen Ideas Festival, said a son asked him as recently as Tuesday to do so." At the very least, Romney should publicly endorse the delegate effort and indicate he'd stand behind whomever the delegates support. That might get the ball rolling, and encourage others to do the same. In any event, anyone who says definitively what will occur at the convention is engaged in wishful thinking. The Trump revolt has taken on a life of its own. Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Washington Post. SHARE By Jonathan Bernstein Let's stop and figure out what the presidential polls are telling us and what they can't tell us. Right now, Hillary Clinton has a solid lead. This is according to four constantly updated "poll of polls" sites that is, compilers of polling averages. HuffPollster's current estimate has Clinton's lead at 6.0 percentage points. The RealClearPolitics average gives her an edge of 4.8 points. The New York Times has her leading by 5 points, and FiveThirtyEight's "nowcast," which looks at the polls to date rather than projecting to November, has her up by 4.7 points. So is it over? Absolutely not. It's still very early. Both candidates are still consolidating support from voters within their own parties who opposed them in the nomination stage. The conventions usually play a prominent role in this process. So far, Donald Trump isn't doing quite as well among Republicans as Clinton is among Democrats. With a normal candidate, we could expect that gap to even up soon. But with Trump, who knows? It's plausible that the GOP convention will successfully persuade the party's Trump skeptics to get on board with the ticket. It's also possible that many in this group just can't be won over or that the convention Trump is planning (which appears to be in some disarray so far) will fail to achieve what it could achieve. It's also possible that outside events could affect the election in November. But nothing that has happened recently seems likely to. Britain's vote to withdraw from the European Union may or may not have an impact on the U.S. economy, but this appears unlikely to be felt as a sudden cataclysm in the next few months. (Recall, though, that the beginnings of the slowdown that became the 2001 recession may have cost Al Gore some votes in 2000.) Other events might have a more immediate impact on voter reaction, but we can't predict what form that will take. Basically, if Clinton still leads by 5 or 6 percentage points or more by Labor Day and if we trust those polls, it's unlikely Trump would win. But it's not Labor Day yet. Could the polls be incorrect? The Upshot's Nate Cohn has an excellent overview of how individual polls can be wrong. That is why everyone recommends using the polling averages. For the averages to be wrong, something systematic would have to be happening that standard practices miss. Since both candidates are unusual (Trump for lots of reasons, Clinton as the first female major-party nominee), the chance that pollsters will miss something is even larger than usual. There's talk about hidden Trump voters, who supposedly will not admit they support a candidate campaigning on bigotry. This is plausible, even if there's no evidence so far that such a hidden pool of voters exists. Trump generally did a bit worse than polls predicted during the primaries. Still, it's possible these voters will show up in the general election. Some people may tell pollsters they support Clinton even though they secretly don't want to vote for a woman as president. There just as easily might be some who say they support Trump, but really want to take advantage of the opportunity to vote for a woman. Differences in the quality of the two campaigns might also play a role. With Trump so far behind in putting together an organized campaign, Clinton might have a bigger advantage than one party's presidential candidate usually has in getting voters to the polls. It's less clear how that would show up in polling: Would Clinton's total be better than polls predict because her turnout would be higher? Or would frequently contacted Clinton backers appear to be more likely to vote, perhaps more likely than they really are? Other factors include the decline in polling response rates, a long-term trend that has continued during this cycle. At some point this problem might prove insurmountable for even excellent pollsters to work around. It's also possible that something about 2016 will mess with normal turnout estimates in ways that systematically cause the polls to be biased. It's highly unlikely that any of these things would move the polls by more than 2 or 3 percentage points. Nor can we know whether any of them are real until the actual votes are counted: If we did, pollsters could adjust for them. So while it's good to remember that polls can be wrong, beware of any assertions that they are definitely wrong. Once again: The polls were pretty good during the primaries this year. Most likely, Trump really does trail by 5 or 6 points or so right now, with one big chance to catch up by using the convention period to rally Republicans behind him. Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg View columnist. SUBSCRIBE Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates straight in your inbox. Close The much-awaited iOS 9.3.3 Jailbreak from Pangu team might be launched in one week. The jailbreak team recently revealed their work on iOS 10 jailbreak, which indicates an iOS 10 jailbreak is in the works, and iOS 9.3.3 jailbreak is just around the corner. At the end of Mobile Security Conference (MOSEC), held in Shanghai, Chinese Pangu Jailbreak Team share a "One More Thing"--the highly anticipated jailbreak on iOS 10 beta. On Weibo, MOSEC released a series of photos showing the working jailbreak on iOS 10 beta. The conference is co-hosted by Pangu Jailbreak Team and Korean hacker group PoC. #MOSEC2016 Pangu Team has just shown demo about iOS10 jailbreak!!! vangelis (@vangelis_at_POC) July 1, 2016 From the photos, we can see Cydia is working normally on iOS 10, which could be released to Apple users sometime this fall. According to Pangu Members, it is more difficult to jailbreak as Apple has increased iOS security level. However, Pangu has obtained several important vulnerabilities in iOS 10 beta 1, which are still available. BREAKING: @PanguTeam also stated that we will have a new jailbreak within a week!!!! Get HYPE!! pic.twitter.com/YYtntTx3v2 Jailbreak Busters (@jailbreakbuster) July 1, 2016 A recent rumor on Twitter said Pangu will release iOS 9.3.2 jailbreak within one week. But the Jailbreak team still have not commented on the rumor. Some reports also claimed that Pangu is working on the iOS 9.3.3 jailbreak, which has been jailbroken in beta version 1 and version 2. However, iOS 9.3.3 has not been released to the public. It's been 4 months since last public jailbreak released in March. Hopefully, we could see the next jailbreak tool this week. See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare Well-known farmers leader from Punjab Bhupinder Singh Mann has said that the proposal of the Narendra Modi government, to impose income tax on agriculture, will bury the already dying agriculture, saying it exposes the anti-farmer mindset of the Government of India. Calling it a deeprooted conspiracy to finish the agriculture, in a media statement, Mann, who is national president of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), one of Indias biggest farmers organizations, said, already the move has become nonviable with large number of farmers committing suicides, calling agriculture a tyrant vocation.Mann, who is ex-member of Rajya Sabha, said the move suggests the Modi government has backed out on its promise made in manifesto to implement the Swaminathan commission recommendations.Among important recommendations, the Swaminathan commission report, given to the Government of India a decade ago but remaining unimplemented, had said that the minimum support price (MSP) should be the total cost of production plus 50 per cent, even as the a UPA panel had recommended a margin of about 10 per cent more than the cost of production.The report had said that there is no other profession which has such low return, calling farming as the riskiest profession in the world due to uncertain weather conditions arising from climate change.Insisting that agriculture is the major livelihood source in India, the report had particularly wanted to bring small farmers out of the poverty trap for ensuring sustainable food security."Policy makers under the NDA government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, have been insisting that the nations progress lies in migration of the rural population to urban areas by developing industry and service sector, which have a much higher rate of growth than agriculture (click HERE ).According to Mann, farmers are the already victims of a very high indirect tax. He adds, As per the data of Ministry of Commerce report published in 1995, farmers are subjected to indirect tax of Rs 9,872 crore per year.Quoting another report, prepared by the task force on agriculture under Sharad Joshi in 2001, Mann said, farmers are subjected to indirect tax of Rs 1,13,000 crores due to different restrictions imposed on agriculture.Making his own estimation, Mann said, Indirect taxation is increasing every year and is estimated to have reached Rs. 2,00,000 crore per year in 2015. This indirect tax or negative aggregate measure of support to agriculture, is the primary reason for high indebtedness of agriculture which is forcing the farmers to commit suicides.Instead of waiving the loan on farmers, this government is planning to impose income tax on agriculture which will completely kill the agriculture sector, Mann said, adding, Farmers are not paid appropriate price of their produce and the same time they are forced to by the input materials at the market price.He added, Restrictions imposed on agriculture are like sanctions imposed by hostile countries like US imposed on Iraq and Iran in the past. This is shocking. The government has imposed sanctions on farmers who feed the entire nation. SHARE By Cathy Eichele, Special to the Courier & Press Last Saturday my husband told me that there was a call on the answering machine that he was sure was for me. The caller stated their name was chief deputy something and told me to immediately call the number they left because an armed escort was coming to arrest me in the next two hours at my house. The number to call to stop this action was repeated a few more times. They were coming because there were five felonies connected to my name (no name given of course). Their parting words on the message: If I chose not to call them for help, all they could offer was "good luck." Besides the fact that my husband jokingly implied that I was a potential felon by stating the message was for me, there was little else to laugh about. Folks who haven't heard about the IRS scam wouldn't recognize this as a new twist on those calls and would be especially concerned. Formerly these scams were only phony IRS or Social Security calls. Now we are getting calls from people pretending to be our local police and sheriff's departments. Some folks that are getting these calls, like me, know they have not had any criminal activity, yet are still frightened enough or concerned that their name is associated with this type of behavior. They will call the number back to try to "straighten out" this error. However, upon calling, they will find out the only way they can fix the issue is to provide funding of some type. Regarding the IRS calls, they have not slowed down; my mother receives these quite regularly. Recently upon checking her phone, she recognized the number of a missed call as that of the phony IRS scammers. She did what we at the BBB would never advise anyone to do, she called them back. When the man at the end of the line answered, she asked, "Who is this?" He replied that he was chief so and so at the Internal Revenue Service. She said, "I don't think so." When he insisted he was, she said, "you are not chief anybody and this is not the IRS. The IRS does not call you without sending out a letter first. You are just trying to scam us older people. Shame on you! Shame on you!" Then she hung up. She thought maybe it would make them think about what they are doing. Probably not, but it made her feel better. Bottom line: If you receive a call or a message from anyone purporting to be from a local or national government agency telling you that you will be carted away, convicted, etc., and must call them back, do not call! If you are concerned that you do owe funds or need to take care of some issue related to what was stated, contact your local office, but under no circumstances, call back the number left for you. We hope everyone is having a great and safe summer. For more information, contact the BBB at 812-473-0202 or contact@evansville.bbb.org. SHARE By Thomas B. Langhorne of the Courier and Press Alerted by local and state disability rights activists, Vanderburgh County elections officials this week will begin a series of public inspection visits aimed at ensuring vote centers are accessible. Two visits are scheduled, with at least three more planned. The inspection tour kicks off at 9 a.m., Friday at Methodist Temple United Methodist Church, 2109 Lincoln Ave. in Evansville. The other visit begins at 9 a.m., July 12, at Nativity Catholic Church at 3635 Pollack Ave., also in Evansville. County Clerk Debbie Stucki, Vanderburgh County's highest-ranking elections official, said she will participate in the inspections. Stucki will invite members of the county Election Board, local disabilities rights activists and chairmen of the two major local political parties. The public also is invited to attend. "It's important that everybody who wants to vote can get out and vote," Stucki said. Stucki said she will schedule more visits to vote centers Grace Baptist Church, Pleasant Chapel General Baptist Church and Albright United Methodist Church. She will report to the election board on July 25 and ask board members whether they want additional visits. The election board urged Stucki's office last month to connect with local disability groups after several people complained about access at polling places on primary election day, May 3. At least one vote center wasn't accessible to people with disabilities, and voters questioned if other sites were compliant with the American with Disabilities Act. State law requires that counties certify in their vote center plans that the facilities comply with polling place accessibility requirements found elsewhere in state law. The Indiana Election Division asserts that all vote center locations must meet the polling place accessibility standards. During the May 3 primary, disabled voters at Nativity Catholic Church were effectively turned away. "Hi Handicapped Voters! ... Go to Washington Square" a sign at the vote center stated. The polling place's inspector, Ellen Sprepski, later said she was told three days before the primary that an elevator wasn't working at the site. Voting machines were set up in the basement, meaning the elevator was needed if any voter visited the center with a wheelchair. Sprepski took responsibility for the sign, telling the election board she was trying to save disabled voters the trouble of exiting their vehicles only to be compelled to go elsewhere. Stucki, who visited Nativity after the primary, said the voting machines will be placed on the first floor for the Nov. 8 general election. There are some steps local elections officials can take without conducting a series of inspection visits to vote centers, the clerk said. "More (poll worker) training and sensitivity, and we're going to purchase signs to point people to the door that is accessible for people with disabilities," she said. "Some places have two different doors one might have steps, the other might have a ramp. So (disabled voters) won't have to wander around, going from door to door trying to figure that out. "We want to make sure it's as easy as possible for everyone to vote." Fireworks explode over Downtown Indianapolis as seen from the rooftop of the Old National Centre on Saturday, July 4, 2015. (Photo: Jenna Watson / The Star) SHARE WalletHub ranks Indiana 35th in its list of most patriotic states. By Holly Hays, IndyStar / USA TODAY Network Brace yourself for some Fourth of July fighting words: Only 15 states are less patriotic than Indiana. That is, at least, according to WalletHub, a personal finance website that uses various measurements to compile all kinds of rankings, including its recently released "Most Patriotic States" list. Could Indiana really be only the 35th most patriotic state? Seriously? Indiana, after all, is the only state in the country with a city named Patriot. Add that to the list of places such as Liberty, Libertyville and Freedom, and the 18 counties that have Liberty townships. More proof? Indianapolis is second only to Washington, D.C. in the number of war memorials and dedicated acreage to honor its fallen. Indiana also is where President Abraham Lincoln grew up, and it's the birthplace of Samuel Woodfill, one of the most-decorated American soldiers in World War I. And could there be a more all-American building material than Indiana limestone? You will find it in some of the nation's most iconic structures, including the Pentagon, Lincoln Memorial, Washington National Cathedral and on Ellis Island. Stephanie Hodgin, deputy press secretary for Gov. Mike Pence, said WalletHub's ranking doesn't reflect Hoosier patriotism. "If this organization spent any time in Indiana," she said, "it would know that Hoosiers from our smallest towns to our biggest cities celebrate what it is to be an American each and every day." Besides, if one were to truly measure patriotism wouldn't, you want to look at such things as military and civil engagement? Except that's exactly what WalletHub set out to measure. And the results didn't exactly come up red, white and Hoosier. The company determined military and civil engagement by looking at 12 metrics: things such as active military personnel per capita, veterans per capita, voter turnout and various measurements of volunteerism. Virginia was ranked as the most patriotic state in the union, followed by Alaska, South Carolina, Colorado and Georgia. Indiana ranked 34th for military engagement and 32nd for civic engagement. More specifically, Indiana ranked: 29th in volunteer rate. 40th in volunteer hours per resident. 40th in number of AmeriCorps volunteers per capita. 45th in number of active military personnel per capita. 37th in voter turnout for the 2012 general election. Indiana did, however, crack the Top 10 in two categories. The state ranked sixth in the nation for the frequency of Google searches for "American flags," and eighth in voter turnout for the 2016 primary election. Data for the study was retrieved from the Corporation for National & Community Service, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Peace Corps, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Census Bureau and other sources, according to WalletHub. Still, while 35th is not exactly reason to set off fireworks, it could have been worse. We could be Illinois (46th), Rhode Island (47th), New York (48th), Connecticut (49th) or the absolute least patriotic state in the nation: New Jersey. Students work with a teacher at IPS #84, Indianapolis, Wednesday, May 18, 2016. Ethnically, the Center for Inquiry School 84 is one of the least diverse in the IPS system, and enrollment priority is given to kids living near its Meridian-Kessler location. (Photo: Robert Scheer/IndyStar) SHARE By Stephanie Wang/ USA TODAY NETWORK/ The Indianapolis Star One of the best, most sought-after public schools in Indiana is nestled in a failing urban school district. This school, Center for Inquiry School 84, stands above the tumultuous reputation of Indianapolis Public Schools. It boasts an intensely rigorous curriculum. Experienced teachers. National awards for excellence. Not all IPS students have an equal shot at this bright spot in urban education. School 84 is a rare haven of excellence carved out primarily to attract the children of white, wealthy families. District officials defend School 84 as a critical piece of a plan to keep affluent whites from leaving IPS, a problem faced by urban districts across the United States. They blame societys self-segregation for creating a school of 331 white students and 22 black students in a district that is 80 percent nonwhite. We cant change how society organizes itself, said School Board member Sam Odle. But specific choices by IPS helped create that racial imbalance. When School 84 was launched, the district changed the enrollment policies governing Center for Inquiry magnet schools. Neighborhood kids were given preference. And, at that time, the two existing CFI schools were in predominantly white or gentrifying areas. That put affluent white populations at an advantage. What's more, within the district, only CFI schools offer the prestigious International Baccalaureate program. As a result, the people in some of the district's most exclusive neighborhoods have special access to its best-performing schools. It seems that some folks are being left out, and that is disconcerting and problematic, said Brian L. Fife, chair of the public policy department at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. Thats disgraceful. It contributes to what Fife and many other civil rights experts see as a regression of school desegregation since Brown v. Board of Education, the critical 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled racial separation in schools to be unconstitutional. One of the frustrating things about school desegregation is its not discussed anymore in the public or in the societal vernacular and discourse. Its discussed as if its already done, and our work is over, Fife said. And its not. Policy change preceded shift in enrollment Ten years ago, many Meridian-Kessler neighborhood families shunned School 84, which was then a school like any other in IPS. Wanting a better education for their children, they often chose Washington Township schools or private schools over IPS. They paid for their children to go to the parochial school across the street from School 84, or they paid for their children to attend prestigious schools such as Park Tudor, Orchard and International. At School 84, at East 57th Street and Central Avenue, empty desks were filled instead with African-American children bused in from the east side. IPS revenue was falling as students sought alternatives. To woo Meridian-Kessler families, IPS overhauled School 84 in 2006. The district duplicated an elite and successful magnet program, the Center for Inquiry, which already had attracted a hefty waiting list Downtown at School 2. The Center for Inquiry schools allow children to learn by following where their questions lead them. They teach Spanish and Mandarin, and they are the only elementary and middle schools in IPS to offer the rigor of an International Baccalaureate program, which is widely recognized at the high school level for its advanced courses that can net college credit. In first grade, students are articulating strategies for solving math problems. In second grade, theyre writing their own books. In third grade, theyre learning about different architectural styles of bridges and the physics of how each one holds up. Unlike other IPS schools, the Center for Inquiry schools dont suffer from the burnout and turnover of low-paid teachers who work in classrooms filled with at-risk students in chronically struggling schools. The schools hire mostly experienced teachers who tend to stay at the school for years, School 84 Principal Christine Collier said. The model had worked so well that the original Center for Inquiry blossomed from one wing of a school into its own Downtown building. It was nestled off Massachusetts Avenue, near posh Chatham Arch and Lockerbie Square neighborhoods, but the magnet school drew students from across the district. Black students, who comprised a little more than half the school, often came from northeast-side neighborhoods. White students, who made up a little more than a third of the school, often came from Irvington. Sixty percent of students qualified for free or reduced-price meals still better than the district as a whole. Magnet schools, a school choice option within traditional public school districts, are supposed to lead naturally to integration by drawing students based on interest and learning style rather than by neighborhood. But IPS rules have created an opposite effect. When School 84 opened, the district put into place a new policy: CFI schools would let in students who lived closest within about a one-mile radius before opening up available seats to all students through a lottery. In the 10 years since the rule change, School 2 transformed into a majority-white school. Nearly 70 percent of students are white; just 11 percent are black. In a district where 70 percent of students receive free or reduced-price meals, only one-quarter of School 2's students qualify for the federal lunch program. At School 84, the white student population has more than quintupled since it opened. Less than 5 percent of its students are low-income. For Anne Mills, talking about the lack of diversity at School 84 is an uncomfortable topic because the policy that favored her family is the very reason why her children enrolled in IPS. If we wouldnt have gotten in, we wouldnt be in IPS, said Mills, president of School 84's Parent Teacher Student Association. We probably wouldve been private, or we wouldve moved. The fact that theyre neighborhood schools drawing from the neighborhood is keeping families in that neighborhood." The three soon to be four Center for Inquiry schools now hold a lofty status within IPS, fast-growing and so high in demand that 300 students were on a waiting list last year. Rumors used to fly over how influential families seemed to leapfrog waiting lists for the schools. Families try to increase their childrens chances of getting in by buying houses within a one-mile radius of the schools. Sometimes so many apply that once the district gives priority to siblings and neighborhood kids, few seats are left for others and sometimes, even those who live within a mile of the school land on the waiting list. If you just plop down a school in a very segregated area with a very stratified class structure, the most privileged kids will be in the most privileged school, said Gary Orfield, director of The Civil Rights Project at UCLA. Theyre the ones who are going to figure it out. Giving preference in other ways School 84 is the most obvious example of how the districts policies have catered to affluent white families. But with the program so coveted by those families, and with the rules on their side, the other Center for Inquiry schools also have tracked similar trends. On the north side, School 27 is the most diverse of all the CFI schools, because its in a much more diverse neighborhood, next to Martin Luther King Memorial Park. But even here, IPS gave an upper hand to families from Meridian-Kessler, where median household incomes rank highest in the district. The new school took in students who had been wait-listed from the other Center for Inquiry schools. Once they enrolled, their siblings got first dibs in their class of applicants to go to the same school. Black students outnumber white students at School 27, but that margin is thinning. While there were once twice as many black students as white students, they are now within 5 percentage points of being even. The proportion of middle-class students has doubled, so that now fewer than half of students receive free or reduced-price meals. Where you put a school matters. Thats why so many people worried about where the district placed the newest CFI school, opening in the upcoming school year. School 70 is on the southern edge of Meridian-Kessler. District officials said they picked it for the fourth CFI site to accommodate the neighborhood demand. The school first accepted students off CFI waiting lists and students whose schools were closing such as Key Learning Community and then by open lottery across the city. A map of the Center for Inquiry waiting lists showed that students in neighborhoods across the district are interested in the program. But many who didn't get in are clustered in Meridian-Kessler. To many, it seems IPS 'favored' programs, or the ones 'favored' by whites, are deliberately being moved into the Meridian-Kessler, Broad Ripple and Butler-Tarkington areas, Amos Brown, the late local radio personality, wrote in an Indianapolis Recorder column last fall. These blatant moves have raised suspicions that IPS is trying to bolster educational programs on the backs of Blacks and Hispanics for the benefit of north-side whites. Unlike the other CFI schools, however, School 70 didn't give preference to students based on where they live, Collier said. We expect a pretty balanced population there, both economically and racially, said Collier, a longtime leader in Center for Inquiry schools who will be principal of School 70. But some, such as School Board member Gayle Cosby, say the Center for Inquiry schools arent the only ones that cater to affluent white families. She noted that IPS/Butler Laboratory School 60 similarly has evolved into a majority white school, after the once-failing school was overhauled into a magnet program in partnership with Butler University. IPS gives priority to children of Butler University employees, which is likely to favor white, middle-class families. The demographics of the school flipped. Gone was the School 60 filled with hundreds of black students and so few white students that some years they were recorded in single digits. In its place is a fast-growing academy where middle-class students are on the rise, and 3 out of 5 students are white. Cosby, who represents the east side, fears the district focuses too much on retaining white students, at the expense of the black children and other students in the district. Its a misplaced focus, she said. Our focus needs to be on offering the best educational opportunities we can. Whoever shows up to take advantage of those are who we serve. Other forces also contribute to imbalance Its hard to say exactly how many students benefit from the district prioritizing neighborhood families and how many are blocked out from attending the magnet programs they want. IPS declined to provide data on the magnet lottery system, including how many students get priority to attend schools based on where they live, or through other preferences such as having a sibling attend the school. The district also did not provide data on how many students are assigned based on a random lottery draw, or how many remain on waiting lists for magnet programs. Having problems getting this information prompted us to change the way we collect our data and require annual reports on magnet programs, IPS magnet coordinator Greg Newlin wrote in an email. The district canceled and did not reschedule an IndyStar interview with Newlin. Fostering school diversity can get complicated. The way the city has developed, for example, has affected school dynamics. Affluent couples often used to move out of the urban core to start families. But now Downtown, as evidenced by the residential surge, has become a desirable place to live close to a desirable school for well-off young families. IPS Superintendent Lewis Ferebee also suggested that the underrepresentation of black students at magnet schools such as School 84 could be due to families not being aware of their magnet options. He said he hopes the annual Showcase of Schools and the district's upcoming move to a common enrollment system will help lay out choices more clearly. The district has tried to remove some obstacles to make magnet applications a more equitable process, such as eliminating a requirement for families to tour the school before an application is processed and, this year, giving special consideration to students who have applied to magnet programs for several years without getting in. The process, Im very confident, doesnt weed any students out from access to those opportunities, Ferebee told IndyStar. But I also think its a call to action for us to continue to think about how we can replicate our best programs in other neighborhoods. District acknowledges diversity problem Education experts, even those focused on equity, say its worth attracting affluent white families to urban districts, because they net more funding for the district, win political clout for public schools and add diversity to schools overall. It makes sense, too, for any child to be able to go to school close to where they live. But Collier, the School 84 principal, knows her school has a problem with diversity. With students coming from mostly white, mostly rich families, theyll miss out on the well-documented academic and social benefits of learning from different backgrounds. She said she would support having the School Board re-examine its rules if it can make access to the Center for Inquiry schools more equitable. The piece that magnets and districts have to be careful of is making sure everybody has an equal opportunity to understand what the choice is and how to access the choice, Collier said. Ferebee said the district may consider rethinking the preference that benefits better-off families not eliminating the policy, but possibly shrinking the radius of the neighborhood that receives priority, so that fewer families would get an advantage in school assignments. He also emphasizes IPS' lofty, but imperative, goal to make sure great schools exist in every neighborhood, so all students have access to different kinds of high-quality education. That doesn't necessarily have to be a CFI school, he pointed out, if that doesn't fit a student's style of learning. Good schools can come in a variety of forms, whether that's through a traditional neighborhood school, one of IPS' new "innovation" schools or a magnet program. Plus, cultivating diverse schools may actually support the districts efforts to entice affluent white families, said IPS board President Mary Ann Sullivan particularly millennials and younger families. I think that they literally actively seek that as a quality in their school, that they are attracted to schools that look like the world their children will be working in and living in, Sullivan said. Integration won't happen without a plan Across the nation, some schools grapple with similar problems of racial imbalance and are coming up with ways to remedy them. Boston Latin School, a prestigious public magnet school that admits students based on test scores, recently came under criticism for its disproportionately low numbers of black and Hispanic students, which many say contribute to tense race relations within the school. And earlier this year, a New York Times headline read: New York Schools Wonder: How White Is Too White? Courts have ruled that race alone cannot be the determining factor in school assignments. But schools could cap how many students they draw from the immediate neighborhood. To balance magnet schools that middle-class families flock to, and schools in gentrifying neighborhoods, some New York principals set aside a certain proportion of seats for low-income students, English-language learners, students in the child welfare system or students with an incarcerated family member. Integration has to be purposeful, argues Orfield which is exactly why the courts ordered the desegregation of schools. Schools should have diversity goals, reach out to underrepresented populations and provide transportation. Theres no magic number to what a diverse school looks like. Orfield describes it as a healthy mix of two or more demographic groups. A predominantly African-American school in a predominantly African-American district, for example, may not necessarily be considered diverse. Diversity is supposed to be a key mission of magnet schools. And it can be a particularly "difficult sell" to suburban parents, acknowledged John Laughner, legislative and communications director for Magnet Schools of America. Districts have experienced backlash when they try to shift school assignment policies in an effort to promote diversity, if families once funneled into a higher-performing school lose their priority status, Laughner said. And many parents may be reluctant to send their children to schools in low-income urban neighborhoods, or to racially isolated schools. Achieving diversity is a big lift, Laughner said, but that doesnt mean it shouldnt be sought after. Call IndyStar reporter Stephanie Wang at (317) 444-6184. Follow her on Twitter: @stephaniewang. Sussex News Story Saved You can find this story in My Bookmarks. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. Follow The Money June was a busy month in the world of up-and-coming IT companies, with a number of venture capital funding rounds in storage, networking, virtualization and high-performance computing. While these companies are not necessarily among the biggest names in the IT infrastructure world, they could join those ranks soon. Their investors -- including Sequoia Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Microsoft Ventures and Cisco Systems -- certainly think so. We've selected 10 promising IT companies that raised major funding in June. Halloween activities for 2022 See what all goes bump in the night around Somerset County this Halloween season. I-75 crash kills three in south Marion County First responders said multiple vehicles were involved in the crash, which killed three people on I-75 near the Marion County and Sumter County line. 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. Mrs Tighe is raising awareness and funds for stillbirth and miscarriage They welcomed their daughter Isabelle on December 20 last year The couple tried for another baby, but had three subsequent miscarriages Jack was the couple's third child, and his stillbirth was unexplained Alex Tighe and her husband Ben lost their son Jack through stillbirth Nothing prepares you for having a baby. Nothing prepares you for losing a baby. Alex Tighe and her husband Ben had two beautiful children when they fell pregnant with their son, Jack. The Melbourne couple experienced a smooth pregnancy, but devastatingly and without explanation, little Jack was stillborn. Scroll down for video 'Nothing prepares you for having a baby': Alex Tighe and her husband Ben had two beautiful children when they fell pregnant with their son, Jack... but devastatingly and without explanation, little Jack was stillborn Determined: The Tighes knew they would try for another baby and they had the green light from their doctors who said there was no explanation for what happened The heartache that followed was almost beyond words. There were feelings of grief and guilt. The Tighes knew they would try for another baby. They had the green light from their doctors who said there was no explanation for what happened. Having another baby was always a matter of when, not if. The couple subsequently lost three babies to miscarriage, before Mrs Tighe gave birth to their baby girl Isabelle on December 20 last year. But Mrs Tighe, 40, told Daily Mail Australia that trying again would be an incredibly heartbreaking journey. Youre in disbelief, we had no warning, she said of losing Jack. Everything was fine, I had two healthy kids, I was completely blindsided. The couple subsequently lost three babies to miscarriage, before Mrs Tighe gave birth to their baby girl Isabelle on December 20 last year. The couple welcomed Isabelle with the help of Mercy Perinatal, and Mrs Tighe said it was important for her to share their story. 'Someone's got to say let's tackle these numbers': Having another baby was always a matter of when, not if I thought this has happened way too often, the numbers are too high, she said. In the year we lost our baby 50 babies were lost from SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), over 2,000 were stillborn. Someones got to say lets tackle these numbers. Mrs Tighe will take part in Run Melbourne with a team from Mercy Perinatal to raise funds and awareness for the cause. She wants other parents going through the same thing to know they are not alone. Pure joy: The couple subsequently lost three babies to miscarriage, before Mrs Tighe gave birth to their baby girl Isabelle (pictured) on December 20 last year Heartbreaking: In the year we lost our baby 50 babies were lost from SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), over 2,000 were stillborn,' she said In a video for Mercy Perinatal Mrs Tighe said losing Jack was by far the worst, but each subsequent miscarriage was incredibly tough. Their pregnancy with Isabelle was also not without complications. For the first time Mrs Tighe was trying a steroid treatment and the medication left her puffy, she couldnt sleep and she got daily nosebleeds. Early in the pregnancy she started to hemorrhage, and she believed she was going to lose her baby. They admitted me and I spent a few days in hospital, all you can do is watch and wait, she said. In a video for Mercy Perinatal Mrs Tighe said losing Jack was by far the worst, but each subsequent miscarriage was incredibly tough (little Isa A scan showed Mrs Tighe had a blood clot and her obstetrician Dr Sue Walker said either the clot, or the baby, would go. But this time the blood clot started shrinking and the baby started growing and eventually the baby was bigger than the clot and the clot was gone, Mrs Tighe said. It was like watching a miracle, I couldnt believe it. Dr Walker said when little Isabelle was born five weeks early she is not sure whether she, or the Tighes, cried first. She said as a perinatal unit they aimed to help families like the Tighes, and make a difference to the Alex and Isabelles' all around the world. Still unsure: Doctors dont know whether the steroid treatment is what made the pregnancy with Isabelle successful, and that is why more funding for research is needed Mrs Tighe said while she had blood clots in the pregnancies where she miscarried, she did not when she was pregnant with Jack. Doctors dont know whether the steroid treatment is what made the pregnancy with Isabelle successful, and that is why more funding for research is needed. There are conditions that cause blood clothing during pregnancy, but I dont have them, she said. Again its research. Maybe theres a new condition out there which is treatable. Growing family: Ill always have that pain and nothing can bring him [Jack] back, but maybe we can help other families,' she said Nobody has done anything wrong when it [stillbirth] happens, you do feel so guilty and you blame yourself but its been happening for a long time. We need to find a better way to predict and treat it. Ill always have that pain and nothing can bring him [Jack] back, but maybe we can help other families. Mrs Tighe and the Mercy Perinatal team will take part in Run Melbourne on July 25. This zinger unleashes the fragrance of orange blossom with fabulous refreshment If the weather is warm enough to consider actually sitting outside for more than 30 seconds, I want to sip from the font of liquid jewellery, which is to say lower-alcohol whites, referred to by the French as vin de soif thats thirst quenchers to you and me. Thankfully, there are plenty of gems to sort from the junk. Where best to rummage? Coastal vineyards with a maritime influence are great places to start. Spanish Albarino from Galicia, Portuguese vinho verde and southern French Picpoul de Pinet are fountains of thirst-quenching splendour. New Zealands Marlborough is also blessed with a cooling coastline and higher hills inland that temper the regions sunny days. The influence of rivers can unlock nimble thirst-quenching whites around the world, such as Muscadet from Frances Loire or Riesling from Germanys Mosel. Tanners Mosel Riesling 2014 is just 10.5 per cent and a splendidly pulpy peachy affair from 9.95 that belongs in your glass for a fruit-fuelled romp. Mountains, hills and lakes also create cool conditions fit for pristine whites of crystal elegance, and Austrian Gruner Veltliner is a fabulous ambassador. For a widely available zinger, grab Sainsburys Taste the Difference Gruner Veltliner 2015 (12 per cent) for 8, or spoil yourself with treats via specialists such as alpinewines.co.uk and newcomerwines.com. As for specific grapes, Greek Malagousia is a peachy summer favourite of mine, or for something fruity pop a sparkling Moscato such as Innocent Bystander Pink Moscato (5.5 per cent), 8.95 from slurp.co.uk, which is the best with fresh strawberries. VW Tiguan SEL 2.0TDI Rating: Blimey, that really was the week that was. After booking Monday morning off work to recover from a weekend of high jinks in a teepee with Paul McCartney, Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott, Dawn French, Seasick Steve, Mel C, Sharleen Spiteri, James Martin, Tom Kerridge, Giorgio Locatelli, Mark Sargeant and Events very own Olly Smith, I arrived at work on Tuesday to be confronted by a pile of newspapers with such a plethora of domestic fallout to write about they didnt know what to splash left, right or centre, back pages, front pages, leader columns or pull-out sections. Notwithstanding the breakout of war, its hard to remember a news day like it. Who would have thought that David Cameron would be waking up three days after losing the EU referendum (not to mention the office of Prime Minister) thinking, Well it could be worse at least Im not Jeremy Corbyn or Roy Hodgson. The VW Tiguan SEL 2.0TDI is good value for money and very versatile, the blind stopping anywhere you ask it to between fully closed and fully retracted I expected to see the three of them out at The Ivy for the inaugural thank Christ were out of that lunch. But of course Cameron was having fun rediscovering his mojo at the dispatch box. Imagine those Tory supporters and MPs who witnessed the PM back on top form all week wondering, Er, can someone please remind us why we have just effectively kicked this bloke into oblivion? The same goes for George Osborne: hes barely stopped smiling. Its amazing what a release of pressure can do for a persons inner flow. Keep an eye on Dave and George from now until October and see how their joie de vivre compares with the cardiovascular status of the new boys in town, Boris and his blusterers. With the last Top Gear of our first post-you-know-who series due to be aired tonight, I too feel a little demob-happy. Theres plenty of space in the front and rear, but whats with the really cheap-looking, flimsy plastic fold-down lap trays? Especially since England lost to Iceland, meaning TG no longer had to be rescheduled to 6.30pm tonight so as not to clash with us playing France at 8pm. Ha! OK, whats got 1,900,000 wheels and costs more than $10 billion? Answer: the 475,000 cars Volkswagen has offered to buy back in the US following the diesel emissions scandal. Thats on top of the $5,100 (at least!) compensation theyve agreed to pay anyone who owns a 2009-2015 VW. A massive total of $14.7 billion in CASH. Ouch! All of which, I suppose, means they could do with selling as many of the brand-new 2016 Tiguans as possible. As a former Tiguan owner (2009 model), I might be expected to be something of an expert. However, seeing as mine is the only Tiguan Ive ever heard of in which the engine blew up, I can assure you I am most certainly not. And because of that experience I have subconsciously banished all memories of what the thing was actually like to drive. Onwards, then, with this new one. The car is impressive when you read about whats going on behind the scenes. And it cannot stop itself from telling you how little fuel youre using and how and when and why To look at, it is little more than another SUV box on wheels, save for the front grille and light clusters, which are mildly attractive. Inside is a similar story of pragmatism over flair (which I think will leave Tiguan owners feeling a little short-changed). Theres plenty of space in the front and rear, but whats with the really cheap- looking, flimsy plastic fold-down lap trays? Maybe VW had no cash left for any more glitter after whatever it cost to animate their logo, which upon ignition splits into two in front of your eyes before morphing into the rpm and speedo gauges. Whatever it did cost, the ankle-biters loved it. Almost as much as I loved the sky roof. This is good value for money and very versatile, the blind stopping anywhere you ask it to between fully closed and fully retracted. The two-litre engine is quite soft for a diesel. Which is good. But then there is only 150PS available to pull a car that already feels bulky and heavy. Which is bad The front section of the glass tilts up, sliding back and again, like the blind, happy to pause anywhere you fancy. The luggage compartment is reasonably large, although the boot floor is quite high, making it difficult to stow anything of any depth. That said, check out the natty handles on the side panels, which release the automatic fold-down rear seats. No effort required whatsoever. Right: time to talk about what the Tiguan is like to drive. Although the jury is out on who will fall asleep first at this point, you or me. Zzzzzzzz. Oops, sorry I can only apologise, I win that one. The luggage compartment is reasonably large, although the boot floor is quite high, making it difficult to stow anything of any depth All I can do here is report a few simple facts. The two-litre engine is quite soft for a diesel. Which is good. But then there is only 150PS available to pull a car that already feels bulky and heavy. Which is bad. TECH SPEC Price 32,810 Engine 2.0-litre diesel Gearbox Seven-speed auto Power 148hp 0-60mph 9.3 secs Top speed 124mph Fuel economy 49.6mpg Annual road tax 145 Advertisement If you dare put your foot down its like stepping on a sodden patch of grass after a downpour, hoping it wont sink. It does, after which nothing much happens at all. A bag of marshmallows would provide more feedback. The only thing on board likely to be less awake than the driver is reverse gear, which literally has to be woken up into action and jolted into remembering what its there for. The precise opposite of how the cars Eco stop/start system feels about life. It cant wait to kick in and shut everything down. Almost too keen at times. The car, however, is impressive when you read about whats going on behind the scenes. And it cannot stop itself from telling you how little fuel youre using and how and when and why. Which I guess is supposed to help you feel better about yourself. Didnt work for me though, Im afraid. DRIVE TALKING With Nick Bagot AHOY THERE! Its a clash of two Italian icons: the Fiat 500 and the Riva Speedboat and it could be the most elegant Italian city car yet. The Fiat 500 Riva comes in exclusive sera blue with a nautical-themed interior including ivory leather seats, a mahogany dashboard and panoramic glass roof as standard. Its out at the end of August, with prices due soon RIGHT ON Q The comic is a huge Third Man fan, wont ever forget a 1983 Bowie gig and loved Life On Mars until his telly went on the blink... four years ago Mark Steel has long been a hero of mine. For Mark Steels In Town on Radio 4 hed head to places and find eccentric locals to show him round, then create a show for them. It was very funny and very British My movie magic Ive always loved The Third Man. Once I was doing shows in Vienna and there was a new attraction there where you go down into the sewers and they take you round to where they shot the film Ive always loved The Third Man. Once I was doing shows in Vienna and there was a new attraction there where you go down into the sewers and they take you round to where they shot the film, then screen part of it on the wall of the sewer. Ive just seen We Are Many, the documentary about the Iraq war protests. All the tawdry ego, testosterone and warmongering nonsense has leeched out over the years so it was tricky to make the film interesting and relevant, but I think they did it brilliantly. Words of wonder The book I go back to is John Kennedy Tooles A Confederacy Of Dunces, a wonderful and poignant read, while for pure escapist fun I read the Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbo When my father cleared out his attic he found letters from the First World War trenches that his father had left him. He had the dangerous job of taking messages up and down the lines, but the sang-froid with which theyre written is unbelievable. Hed say things like, I was caught in the barbed wire and taking a lot of fire, I felt a bit of a fool. Since then Ive re-read All Quiet On The Western Front, and Ernst Juengers Storm Of Steel, a simple but visceral account from the German perspective, and Max Hastings Catastrophe, about the build-up to war. The book I go back to is John Kennedy Tooles A Confederacy Of Dunces, a wonderful and poignant read, while for pure escapist fun I read the Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbo. The art in my heart Weve got quite a few Frida Kahlo [4] paintings, because my wife found a website where Chinese students will copy great works of art for about 50 quid. Theyre brilliant. Theyre so vivid and they make me smile. I also love the pastoral element of British art, people such as Thomas Gainsborough and George Stubbs and his horses. My TV gold If Im on tour I sometimes download and watch an entire series. Back when the TV worked I loved Life On Mars. It was a great concept that brilliantly gave licence for a Seventies cop show Something went wrong with our TV four years ago and weve never got round to fixing it. But if Im on tour I sometimes download and watch an entire series. Back when the TV worked I loved Life On Mars. It was a great concept that brilliantly gave licence for a Seventies cop show. The plays my thing Mark Rylance as Johnny Rooster Byron in Jerusalem was one of those moments when you think, Im glad I was there. He has an amazing ability to disappear into a part The adaptation of Mark Haddons The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time was done with great imagination. I took my son, 13, to see Peter Pan Goes Wrong and we both loved it. Its not often that a show appeals to young and old alike. Mark Rylance as Johnny Rooster Byron in Jerusalem was one of those moments when you think, Im glad I was there. He has an amazing ability to disappear into a part. Music to my ears The best gig Ive been to would be David Bowie at the Milton Keynes Bowl in 1983. When he appeared the place went crazy Pulp at Glastonbury in 2011 were brilliant, and Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook doing Squeeze songs in the acoustic tent in 1995 while everyone sang along was a lovely moment. But the best gig Ive been to would be David Bowie at the Milton Keynes Bowl in 1983. When he appeared the place went crazy. Dont touch that dial Mark Steel has long been a hero of mine. For Mark Steels In Town on Radio 4 hed head to places and find eccentric locals to show him round, then create a show for them. It was very funny and very British. Looking back, Morrissey on Desert Island Discs was a particular highlight. She won the nations hearts as a 17-year-old when she became the youngest ever contestant on The Great British Bake Off. But the 16-hour days in the Bake Off tent, combined with the pressure of studying for her AS levels, left Martha Collison almost delirious. Her hectic schedule led to tears when judge Mary Berry criticised the soggy bottom of one of her tarts. In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sundays You magazine, Martha, now 19, says: I was determined not to cry because I wanted to show that young people are resilient, but I did eventually break down. Martha has since baked for the Queens 90th birthday celebrations and is now hoping for success with her first book called Twist: Creative Ideas To Reinvent Your Baking. Martha Collison wears DRESS, Sister Jane. SHOES, Topshop A chance application to avoid doing her homework led MARTHA COLLISON to become The Great British Bake Offs youngest ever contestant and, now, to write her first cookbook. She tells Judith Woods about crying over soggy bottoms and baking for the Queen When Martha Collison became the youngest ever contestant on The Great British Bake Off at the tender age of 17, in 2014, seasoned viewers wondered whether she had genuinely earned her place on the programme. They need not have worried: Martha, charming, bright and mature beyond her years, was the very opposite of a token teenager brought in to shake things up and boost the youth ratings. Her mini lemon and thyme drizzle cakes and key lime pie baked alaska wowed, and within a few weeks she had not only impressed the judges, but won the nations heart for her sunny good grace. This was all the more admirable because the Berkshire-born schoolgirl was sitting her AS levels slap-bang in the middle of filming. It was all a bit mad, reflects Martha. There were times I was almost delirious with the pressure of it; up to 16-hour days in the Bake Off tent, then weekdays practising my bakes and revising for my exams. 'I was determined not to cry on screen because I wanted to show that young people are resilient, but I did eventually break down. Her first tears came when judge Mary Berry tutted over her tarts soggy bottom, but week seven saw a real deluge when her experimental maple syrup and bacon eclairs went awry. Martha wears DRESS, Orla Kiely. SHOES, Topshop I think it was exhaustion as much as anything else, she shrugs. I felt silly, but everyone was very nice to me. Martha survived, however, and managed to get as far as the quarter finals. When she was finally voted off, she left with her head held high. I was happy with my final bakes spiced-plum iced bread, and two kinds of doughnuts: glazed lemon and poppy seed, and chocolate and passionfruit because they were good, just not as good as some of the others! But by then I was keenly aware I was on borrowed time because the standard was so high. She smiles with characteristic equanimity, and its not hard to see why she was the clear choice for head girl at her school. The world may still think of her as a jejune 17-year-old, but Martha is now 19, with the poise of someone a decade older. Nor is it an exaggeration to say that since the programme ended, she has crammed in a good ten years worth of experiences. The quiet girl with a Saturday job on the cheese counter at her local Waitrose is now a columnist for Waitrose Weekend newspaper. Instead of going straight to university to study food science, she has followed the classic Bake Off trajectory and written a book, and has become an active ambassador for Tearfund, a Christian relief and development charity. Martha wears DRESS, Goat. BOW BROOCH (in hair), Abbie Walsh. SHOES, Topshop She has even baked for the Queens 90th birthday, although she rather sweetly admits that meeting Her Majesty wasnt nearly as nerve-racking as her initial audience with Mary. But let us begin with her book. Twist: Creative Ideas to Reinvent Your Baking is a wonderful guide to rustling up Marthas tried-and-trusted favourites, from cupcakes and chocolate cakes to foolproof cookies, pastries and meringues. It is engaging, well-written and reflects her interest in the science underpinning baking. Advice such as, When making dough never put salt directly on to yeast or it may kill it, which will stop the dough from rising, will, I daresay, stay with rookie bakers for life. In a crowded marketplace, Martha already looks to have found her niche. The twist in the title refers to tweaks that can elevate a dainty macaron into a boozy, mojito-filled mouthful (thanks to mint, lime curd and a dash of white rum); a chilli-chocolate dip that adds zing to homemade pretzels; or a few tart berries hidden inside individual chocolate puddings. Ive written all the recipes myself, she says (non-professional cooks often draw upon the skills of a nutritionist or professional to hone their recipes). Sometimes Ill turn up at church with six different trays of chocolate brownies made with tiny variations and ask people to give their verdict. Church plays a central role in Marthas life. Her management-consultant father Chris is an elder at her church, which she describes as modern, lively and full of young people. Her mother Louise, a primary school teacher, and younger sister Hannah, 15, a talented musician, are also active members of the congregation. Our parents were very reluctant to impose their religious beliefs on us, so we werent christened until we were 13 or 14, by which time we had chosen the church ourselves, says Martha. There is something so wonderful and life-affirming about being part of a church where the emphasis is on love and being loving. 'During Bake Off, my faith was a huge source of comfort and confidence, especially when I was being criticised on social media for my appearance, which was really horrible. Martha wears SHIRT, Coco Fennell. DRESS , Topshop. BROOCH (in hair), Abbie Walsh Sadly, Marthas experience mirrors that of many young women who find themselves in the public eye these days. Her hair, looks and clothes were scrutinised and dissected by unseen trolls. My faith gives me a sense of perspective, smiles Martha. I am well aware there are more important things in life than baking a perfect ciabatta, and theres nothing to be gained in reading vile abuse on social media. 'Just because I live in Ascot and speak a certain way, people thought I was posh. Im not, as it happens, but so what if I were? Why should that matter to anyone? As a child, Martha loved not just baking but cooking, too. Aged eight, she made rock cakes in the family kitchen, which her parents dutifully ate and did their best to compliment. There are good reasons why rock cakes have gone out of fashion they are horrible! exclaims Martha. But once I started cooking, that was it. Being eight, I wasnt able to buy my own ingredients so I experimented with whatever I could find. While her school friends watched The Story of Tracy Beaker, Martha was tuning into MasterChef, Lorraine Pascale and Heston Blumenthal. I was a real cookery geek. I wasnt just interested in how to make things, but the chemistry behind the recipe: why bread rises, why slow-cooking makes lamb delicious By her mid-teens, Martha was cooking for the family every evening and baking at weekends, and had decided to study food science at university. My mum and dad are really supportive and they could see how seriously I took it all. 'When I was little and asked for a mixer or an ice-cream maker, they would buy me the adult version and just put bright stickers on it. Martha entered The Great British Bake Off on a whim. I had homework to do and to be honest I was just procrastinating, she says. Nadiya and I were presented to the Queen and we think shes probably watched the programme because she turned and said to Prince Philip, This is the woman who won the baking competition",' said Martha She never imagined she would make it on to the show and was astonished to be invited to audition, which involved bringing along some of her bakes. I told my parents, but quite reluctantly because I thought they might be cross that I was getting distracted from my schoolwork. Happily, they were absolutely thrilled for her. As the whittling-down process continued, the programmes producers carried out background checks and interviews with her family to ensure Martha would be able to cope with the rigours of baking against the clock and in front of cameras. The crew came to my house for a whole day and filmed everyone it was hilarious because when they eventually settled down to watch the series when it was broadcast, my parents were gutted to discover our labradoodle Alfie got more airtime than they did! During the filming, Martha stayed at a hotel along with the other contestants. It was her first time away from home and a steep learning curve as she learned to socialise with people shed never met before who were all much older. Her series was won by retired GP practice manager Nancy Birtwhistle, and other notable characters included fashion designer Chetna Makan, builder Richard Burr and graphic designer Luis Troyano. Fortunately they gelled beautifully as a group: We got on really well. After every round we would taste each others bakes and have really nerdy conversations about which is the best baking powder or the nicest canned cherries. Even now we still keep in touch most days on WhatsApp. For judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood she has the highest praise, and reveals that far from swanning in at the end of filming to taste each bake and give their verdict, they are on their feet all day. Moreover the judging segment, which is condensed into a few minutes on-screen, takes several arduous hours to film as the pair comprehensively analyse each bake. At first Paul and Mary kept their distance, but as the series went on and the group got smaller they were more sociable, she says. There was one afternoon when it was really hot and I found myself sitting outside the tent with Mary, eating rocket ice lollies. It was so surreal and special, the highlight of my time on the show. After Martha left the programme, she went back to school, but it was difficult to resume ordinary life. When she returned to her Saturday job at Waitrose, little crowds would gather to talk to her, which was flattering and fun, but wasnt selling much cheese. Just as Martha decided to leave, she was offered a weekly column in the supermarkets newspaper, entitled Marthas Bakes. With her parents Chris and Louise. My mum and dad are really supportive and they could see how seriously I took it all,' she said Negotiations with the school to space out her A-levels led to her sitting two last year, gaining an A* in food technology and gratefully scraping a C in maths. She will sit her third A-level, chemistry, this year. My head teacher has been so understanding. I just want to make the most of the opportunities that are happening now, she says. I may go to university further down the line, or perhaps to cookery school, so I have an actual qualification. Either way, Im saving any money I make to fund myself. Meanwhile, she is promoting her book and, as well as appearing on Blue Peter, was asked to bake for guests at the Queens 90th birthday celebrations in Windsor in April. While Nadiya Hussain, last years Bake Off winner, made a rather unconventional, showstopping cake, Martha created mini coffee and walnut cakes, and lemon and elderflower drizzle cake. It was a huge honour and I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasnt dreaming, says Martha. The cakes went down well and there were some inspirational 90-year-olds who had worked with the Queen during the war [she was part of the Auxiliary Territorial Service during the Second World War], driving military tanks, and I spent ages listening to them, Martha says. Its the sort of scene that would make any mother proud who wouldnt wish for a daughter who, amid the pomp and circumstance of a royal reception, takes time to show respect for and interest in the elderly? Nadiya and I were presented to the Queen and we think shes probably watched the programme because she turned and said to Prince Philip, This is the woman who won the baking competition, and he said, I know, recalls Martha, giggling. But its not all work and no play. Martha has a boyfriend, Michael, also 19, who is studying economics at the University of Sussex. Theyve been together for just over a year and a half, having met years before when she made his brothers wedding cake. Michael is really sporty and eats a lot so hes happy to be the major recipient of my food. I drive to see him every fortnight and bring bakes with me. Hes lovely and thoughtful. We go for walks on the beach, out for meals or rock climbing. So far, so carefree. It would be easy for any teenager to lose herself in the excitement of a fledgling career, but Martha hasnt turned her back on her core values quite the opposite. She travelled to Cambodia with Tearfund, where she taught women and girls how to make simple funnel cakes that can be sold to bring in valuable income and to help keep children out of the hands of traffickers. It was humbling and moving to see how this skill can make a difference to peoples lives. Thats what Im proudest of, says Martha. Ive also been touring churches and, of course, baking as part of Tearfunds Cakes, Bakes and Faith fundraising campaign. So much has happened in my life already that I feel I have a lot to live up to now, she says, only half joking. Perhaps she should relax a little; I think we can all agree that just being inspirational Martha from Bake Off is aspiration enough. Get 25 per cent off Marthas new book Twist: Creative Ideas to Reinvent your Baking by Martha Collison will be published by HarperCollins on 14 July, price 16.99. As well as Marthas introduction, chapters cover equipment, ingredients, cakes, biscuits, bars and brownies, sweet dough, pastry and desserts, as well as homemade confectionery, jams and curds. Adopted at six days old, Hollie and Heathers childhood was overshadowed by their abusive father, who had served time for manslaughter. But, as Hollie explains here, their incredible twin bond ensured they survived and thrived Hollie Overton (left) on her wedding day with Heather in 2014. 'Having a twin is a relationship like no other, carbon copies intrinsically linked by cells, an indefinable connection,' she said 'Whatever you do, dont wake Daddy. Our mothers hushed whispers were gentle, but we knew the smallest thing could set our father off. Holding hands, my twin sister Heather and I tiptoed through the living room, past Daddy, his body splayed out on the sofa, a lit Marlboro burning in his fingers, empty whiskey bottles by his side. On his best days, our father was a giant teddy bear, offering piggyback rides and bedtime stories. On his worst, he morphed into a monstrous stranger, a man whose fists preferred to do the talking. We had a front row seat to the physical and verbal abuse our mother endured. While Daddy slept off his hangovers, our games of hide and seek were abandoned in favour of story time, our chosen form of escape. When the shouting grew to unbearable decibels, wed comfort one another with a look or the squeeze of a hand. We were twins, after all. We didnt need words to convey what we were thinking. Having a twin is a relationship like no other, carbon copies intrinsically linked by cells, an indefinable connection. Hollie (left) with twin Heather at six months It is this bond that inspired my first novel Baby Doll, a thriller that explores the relationship between identical twins Abby and Lily Riser. When 16-year-old Lily vanishes, Abby is left devastated, half of a whole. Eight years later, Lily returns home with a six-year-old daughter and a horrifying tale of abuse and terror. Baby Doll isnt about captivity, its about what happens next to the family, to these sisters. It may be fiction but the Riser twins fierce love and devotion to one another is purely autobiographical. Identical in every way, with bright red hair and sky blue eyes, Heather and I were born on 15 December 1983 in Chicago, Illinois. Six days later, we were adopted. Our new parents, Betty and Darrell Overton, had spent years trying to have children. When the call came that we needed a family, they were thrilled. We were carried home in red Christmas stockings our holiday miracles, our mother always called us. We later moved to Texas when we were three. Despite Daddys desire to settle down, escaping his past proved difficult. Years before Heather and I were born, Daddy ran with the Overton Gang, a group of outlaws led by Timmy Overton, his eldest brother. Hollie (right) aged six with Heather, their father Darrell and Tiffany the dog in Texas. 'On his best days, our father was a giant teddy bear... On his worst, he morphed into a monstrous stranger,' said Hollie The boys flaunted their power, stealing cars, running drugs, girls and guns throughout the Lone Star State, their crimes earning several members spots on the FBIs Ten Most Wanted list. Daddy ended up in the state penitentiary serving time for manslaughter, an act of self-defence but a killing nonetheless. His brother Timmy, a gangster till the end, finally crossed the wrong people and wound up dead, his bullet-riddled body discovered in a park in Dallas. I imagine working nine to five and changing nappies paled in comparison to the adrenalin rush of Daddys previous life. As his addictions worsened and his moods became more volatile, Mum had to choose her husband or her girls. In the end, her decision was simple. Mum filed for divorce and the three of us began a new life in Kingsville, her hometown. She returned to college at 44, and earned her nursing degree. Daddy remained on the periphery, his presence in our lives sporadic. Sometimes hed arrive bearing gifts, doling out hugs and fatherly advice. Other times hed promise to visit and never show, our mother bearing the responsibility of telling her heartbroken girls. On the few occasions that Mum caved and allowed Heather and me unsupervised visits to see Daddy (we were very persuasive), his temper flared yet again. This time, his new wife Pat was his punch bag, enduring his violent mood swings and visits from the police. We were his co-conspirators, sworn to secrecy. The twins aged one with their mother Betty in Chicago Daddy didnt mean to get upset. Lets keep this between us, hed say, bribing Heather and me with McDonalds Egg McMuffins. We kept our promise but Mum discovered Daddys deceit. When she realised we were once again witnesses to his uncontrollable temper, she promptly ended any solo visits. By the time we turned 14, Daddy had suffered a bipolar episode that left him heavily medicated and almost noncommunicative. Our visits grew less and less frequent, his phone calls now reserved for birthdays and Christmas holidays. Fortunately, Mum filled the void, never letting us forget how much we were loved. She worked tirelessly, encouraging us to dream big. It was on her advice that Heather and I headed to New York City at 18 with stars in our eyes, and enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Struggling to make it as an actress in one of the most expensive cities in the world is utterly soul-sucking; juggling full-time jobs with acting school took its toll. But having your best friend along for the ride makes things easier. If I was battling homesickness or career doubts, Heather knew how to cheer me up, and vice versa. Wed assumed that in a big city like New York, twins were commonplace. We were wrong. We didnt dress alike (at least not on purpose) but, even in completely different outfits, we were inundated with twin attention. We landed waitressing jobs on our third day in town (with the stipulation that we always worked together); strangers stopped us on the street; drinks were often free as were the endless seeing double jokes. Aged 12 with Darrell and Betty. 'As his addictions worsened and his moods became more volatile, Mum had to choose her husband or her girls. In the end, her decision was simple,' said Hollie No relationship is perfect, though. The desire to establish ones unique identity is complicated enough, without everyone asking, Which one are you? Still sharing a room in our early 20s, Heather and I squabbled over everything, from who lost my favourite black sweater to who made more tip money. Daily life turned into a pseudo reality competition. But in our professional lives, our paths began to diverge. Heather realised acting was not her calling and returned to college to study English, while continuing to audition and take private classes. When we were 22, Daddys health deteriorated, his kidneys and liver failing. Wed visited sporadically over the years but now returned to Texas to say our goodbyes. There were so many things we wanted to say. Why couldnt you stop drinking? Why werent we enough? Instead, tears falling, we told him that we loved him. Through his morphine haze, he tried to make things right. I should have been a better father, he whispered. His apology could not erase his failures but it offered a small measure of closure. We returned home to New York but Heather and I both found ourselves at a crossroads. Losing someone you love at a young age makes you question your path, re-evaluate all your life choices. Since I am tone deaf with two left feet, Broadway seemed unlikely and waitressing was taking its toll. My mother, unwavering in her belief in my talents, urged me to pack my bags and head to Hollywood. The twins with Betty in New York in 2003. 'Mum filled the void, never letting us forget how much we were loved. She worked tirelessly, encouraging us to dream big,' said Hollie Heather, meanwhile, had a job she loved in talent management and her love affair with New York was still in full bloom. We had never spent more than a week apart. Could we really break up the dynamic Overton duo? It didnt seem possible. A full nine minutes older, Heather had always taken the lead. Would I be able to make it on my own without my best friend? The discussions were endless, often resulting in tears but we knew we had to cut the cord. Im still not sure what was more difficult: living 3,000 miles apart or dividing up our wardrobes. For the next few years, Heather and I saw each other only during holidays. We talked on the phone at least five (OK, ten) times a day, consulting one another on everything from clothing to careers to our love lives. I didnt just want Heathers advice I relied on it. Wed been through so much together; her opinion was all that mattered. Distance was no match for the all-powerful twin bond. As much as we were grateful for one another, dating wasnt easy. When youre born with a ready-made soulmate, a significant other must be extra-special to compete. Heather and I had our share of bad dates and worse relationships. Sometimes men would play down her importance, other times they were outright jealous of me. Youre not calling your sister again, one of Heathers boyfriends once said. And dont get me started on the guys whose pick-up lines began with, Youre much prettier than your sister. Luckily, I won a role in a Shakespeare play where I met an Englishman (a Geordie to be exact) who understood the twin thing. David wasnt fazed when I cut him off mid-sentence to take Heathers phone calls. He didnt even blink when I told him Heather was moving to Los Angeles to pursue career opportunities and would be moving in with us. He accepted that my twin always comes first, a fact that earned a mention in both our wedding vows! 'The desire to establish ones unique identity is complicated enough, without everyone asking, "Which one are you?",' said Hollie (pictured left with Heather in California, 2014) Despite my best efforts and Heathers emotional (and at times financial) support, I eventually gave up acting (or, more accurately, acting gave me up). Having secretly written for years my own version of therapy I began studying screenwriting, while doing many more soul-sucking jobs. I realised writing fulfilled me creatively in a way acting never had. I landed a coveted TV fellowship at Warner Bros and went on to write for Cold Case, The Client List and Shadowhunters. There was a sense that Id finally made it, that I could relax which is usually when things fall apart. I was devastated when The Client List was cancelled. Now jobless, supporting my mother and in the midst of wedding planning, I did what every unemployed bride-to-be does: I watched countless hours of nightly news and Dateline NBC. While I was drowning my sorrows in true-crime narratives, the Ariel Castro case broke. The horrifying story of three young Cleveland women held hostage by Castro for years made international headlines. The media focused on the details of their captivity, but I couldnt stop thinking about the girls, their families and what life was like when they returned home. By now, Heather had relocated to LA, and we had picked up where we left off finishing each others sentences and confusing strangers. I found myself considering what my life would be like if Heather simply vanished how different would I be without my best friend? The idea gnawed at me until finally I gave in. I wrote the first 90 pages of Baby Doll in less than a week. Convinced it was terrible, I made Heather promise not to read it but she ignored me. The twins in Santa Barbara with Stevie the dog, 2014. 'I want readers to know that twins are more than identical novelties theyre deeply complicated, messy and beautiful individuals,' said Hollie Her first comment (classic twin, by the way) was, You b****. You stole my life. It was true. Theres a lot of Heather in Abby. But her annoyance quickly faded. She saw the potential. She said that I had to tell Abby and Lilys story which is in so many ways our story; one of survival and the lengths well go to for the people we love. Heather insisted I keep writing, which is also classic twin. Even when you dont believe in yourself, your other half always does. I buckled down, determined to write a thriller with endless twists and turns, a book you couldnt put down. I didnt even realise how much of my own history was woven into the DNA of the story until Id written the final chapter. Its not just the twin relationship. From the dark nature of Rick, one of the main characters (unwittingly born from the violence Id witnessed myself), to the girls mother Eve and her incredibly close relationship with her daughters, I somehow managed to write a deeply personal novel. This forced me to re-examine my own relationships in a way I hadnt expected. Ive made peace with my fathers failures and Im grateful to my mother for her sacrifices. In countless ways, she is our miracle. There arent enough adjectives to describe my excitement at finally seeing Baby Doll in print. But I also know that now this story is no longer mine. There is so much of me and Heather in it that I want everyone to love it as much as I do. I want readers to know that twins are more than identical novelties theyre deeply complicated, messy and beautiful individuals. In an ideal world, my novel would be a smashing success, but no matter what happens I know that, just like Abby has Lily, Ill always have Heather, my other half, by my side. Hollie Overtons novel Baby Doll is published by Century, price 12.99. To order a copy for 9.74 until 17 July, visit you-bookshop.co.uk or call 0844 571 0640; p&p is free on orders over 15 THE POWER OF TWO Angela and Maria Eagle, 55, are the first twins to sit in Parliament together. Maria, who won her seat in the House of Commons in 1997 and is younger by 15 minutes, says of her sister (an MP since 1992), I can say anything to her. She will understand and back me up. It has been a huge strength, having her here [at Westminster]. I really dont think Id have been as happy without her Model Karen Elson, 37, has a twin sister Kate, a filmmaker. She says, There is something very special between us. I know what shes thinking. That kind of bond gives you an incredible feeling of strength. It helps you through the ups and downs of life. When our parents divorced, Karen knew exactly what I was going through. If I have a problem, shes the first person I talk to You dont just need to be mega-rich to join fashions most exclusive club its all about the right connections. As Paris Couture Week begins today, Richard Dennen profiles the women wholl be sitting front row 1950s: Actress and style icon Grace Kelly The couture club is private. You cannot phone to make an appointment. You may have the money (a gown, each one custom-made and unique, can take anything from 100 to 1,000 hours to make at a cost of around 100,000), but do you have the right introductions? Without them its impossible to get an invitation to a show or even to get acquainted with the fashion house vendeuses, who are, quite simply, the greatest snobs in Europe. Chanel might make just 150 couture dresses a year, Dior 20 bridal gowns. 1970s: Nan Kempner posing for Vogue in 1974 When Yves Saint Laurent reopened its couture house last year, its first collection since 2002, invitations sold for 2,000 on the black market. They say this club the super-rich ladies who sit front row and buy season after season has just 100 members, the same number as when it began in the 17th century. In the 1950s it was the New York swans who were buying: society princesses such as Babe Paley, a style icon who married oil money; Marella Agnelli, an Italian princess married to Italys richest man, and Grace Kelly, who, of course, married Prince Rainier of Monaco. 1990s: Couture leader Suzanne Saperstein with Christian Lacroix In the 70s and 80s, American socialites Nan Kempner and Lynn Wyatt were customers and, in the 90s, Vanity Fair said that Suzanne Saperstein, the former model and wife of Texan billionaire David, was probably the worlds number-one consumer of haute couture. More recently, Becca Cason Thrash, the Houston socialite nicknamed Tribecca because she once wore three outfits to one party, was on the exclusive list. As today sees the start of Paris Couture Week, where the worlds elite bespoke designers are showing their autumn/winter 2016/17 collections, we meet their most-coveted customers. MEET THE MOST COVETED CUSTOMERS VALENTINO HAUTE COUTURE Aleksandra Melnichenko, 39 A Serbian model turned pop star, Aleksandra is married to Russian businessman Andrey Melnichenko, who is worth 7 billion. They live in Moscow and Ascot in Berkshire. COUTURE HABIT On her 30th birthday Aleksandra wore a Japanese-inspired Dior gown by John Galliano that weighed more than 80lb. The Tunisian-born couturier Azzedine Alaia calls her one of his daughters. She was also one of Riccardo Tiscis first couture clients at Givenchy. Entry to her wardrobe on the couples Philippe Starck-designed yacht requires fingerprint recognition at the bedroom door. DIOR HAUTE COUTURE Myriam Ullens, 63 Myriam sold her own successful salad delivery business at 28 and ten years later married fellow Belgian, the industrialist Baron Guy Ullens de Schooten (now 81). They live in Verbier, Switzerland. COUTURE HABIT Myriam is a frequent front row figure at the Chanel couture show and a big client of Christian Dior couture. She also has her own knitwear label (she loves cashmere), Maison Ullens, and a shop near the Champs-Elysees in Paris. JEAN PAUL GAULTIER HAUTE COUTURE Mouna Ayoub, 59 Kuwait-born Mouna was married to Nasser Al-Rashid, the billionaire advisor to the late King of Saudi Arabia, and received a reported 17.5 million divorce settlement. She owned the Mouna diamond, the largest yellow diamond ever graded, but sold it to do up her yacht. COUTURE HABIT She is said to own 1,600 items of couture the largest collection in the world and has never worn the same piece twice. The top couture houses keep a Mouna mannequin so they can do fittings in her absence. She has a second apartment in Monaco just for the couture, and in 2014 donated the most expensive dress ever made (gold, Chanel, 240,000) to the Musee de la Mode in Paris. CHANEL HAUTE COUTURE Marie-Josee Kravis, 66 A Canadian economist, journalist and philanthropist and very successful in her own right Marie-Josee is married to billionaire financier Henry Kravis. They live on New Yorks Park Avenue. The DJ on pound shop bargains, berry smoothies and being a pushover Guilty pleasure? The TV programme Mob Wives Im addicted. When I was last in New York I went on a pilgrimage to Big Angs bar, which appears in the show. Where is home? North London, halfway between Finsbury Park and Crouch End. Career plan B? I was lucky enough to get into radio presenting when I was 16, so Ive never thought of one. Who would play you in a movie of your life? Ryan Reynolds I think hes hilarious. 'I was lucky enough to get into radio presenting when I was 16,' says Scott, 'so Ive never had to think of a plan B.' Biggest bugbear? How Im late for absolutely everything. I dont do it on purpose, but sometimes the world is against me getting somewhere on time. Earliest memory? This is such a cliche, but pretending to be on Radio 1 in my house as a child. Your best quality? I always try to help others. I like to think Im a kind person. And your worst? I still bite my nails. Its so old-school! Advice to teenage self? Have more confidence I was a shy kid. Last meal on earth? A supermarket lasagne its good comfort food! Dream dinner party guest? Lady Gaga. Im fascinated by her. Funniest person? I think Kristen Wiig is brilliant. She makes me laugh so hard my insides hurt. Secret skill? Well, its not dancing! Im really good at planning peoples holidays. Starstruck moment? The first time I met Rihanna, after filling in on air for 90 minutes. She came out of her trailer, sprayed some expensive perfume and said, Im ready. I thought, God, youre amazing. Career highlight? The fact that I have been presenting on Radio 1 for so long. Im still having a great time. Favourite tipple? Currently vodka, but it used to be white wine so much so that my listeners would get it ready for me at events! Hangover cure? Lots of water and a massive fry-up. What did you have for breakfast today? A berry smoothie as Im on a health kick. Top of your bucket list? To explore South America Id like to go to Argentina, Brazil and Peru. Biggest inspiration? Self-motivation. Doing a substandard job irritates me I always try to do the best that I can. One thing that would make your life better? An electric shock collar to stop me being late. Perfect day? Brunch with my friends. Last film that made you cry? I was close to tears of anger when watching Making a Murderer on Netflix. Worst job youve ever done? Presenting on Homebase FM. I had to talk about things I knew nothing about I was so out of my depth. Where would you time travel to? The 60s to see the formulation of pop music as we know it. First record you bought? Michael Jacksons Thriller. I had to buy several copies, because I listened to it so much. Favourite book? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Most extravagant purchases? Holidays, but I also love a pound shop. Nothing beats a good deal on pens or washing-up liquid. Biggest regret? I was a pushover when I was young. I wish Id been able to say no more easily. Happiness is Life right now. Ive got a great boyfriend, a nice home and the job Ive wanted since I was eight. Xenophobia is a state of paranoia, a perceived threat, when humans revert to primitive insecurities fearing a scarcity of food, finance or resources. It is precisely such a world we live in post 2008. No country has really fully recovered from the US inflicted mortgage crisis - and now nations are being forced to close-down their borders, having lived for years in a world which thrived on the free-flow of ideas, finance, technology and travel. With Islamaphobia on the rise in India, we should resist the social perils of Britain's 'Brexit', Donald Trump's attitude to Mexico and the growing xenophobia throughout the so-called 'first world' As a consequence, stunted growth, decline, disintegration and de-globalisation define the economic zeitgeist of nations in 2016. Connect Let's know for a fact that the 'American Dream' was killed by the nation itself in 2008. And now, in the absence of recovery, Central Banks are contemplating resorting to printing more money, as economies become addicted to quantitative easing; after which depreciation of currencies and decline of purchasing power will continue, as the futurist of gloom and doom, investor Marc Faber predicts. The point here is that both First World countries that were proponents of free-trade across borders and who enjoyed decades of growth from it, the U.K. And US, now cry "foul" as Trump just did on job losses, promising to re-negotiate previous trade pacts. Ukip's leader Nigel Farage was instrumental in uniting public opinion behind the 'leave' movement "They've taken our jobs, they've stolen our wealth...", peddling fear more than he sells hope, Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump strikes a connection with 46 million Americans with incomes below the poverty line. Trumps's populist rancour appeals to 65 per cent of voters who want curbs on imported goods, because gains from economic recovery have only benefited the already wealthy. He emerges as a cutting-edge alternative to his relatively elitist opponent Hillary, resonating with the working classes who stare at poverty rates which are at a 20 year high in US. Secondly, across Europe, US or India, extreme nationalism and xenophobia is also fuelled as a consequence of productive immigrants perceived and braced with the same scepticism as Muslim refugees, who historically have never integrated culturally with the country they domiciled in. Scarcity Islamaphobia rose 326 per cent rise in 2015, making it difficult at the point of entry to differentiate a 'good Muslim', one who is liberal and productive, from one who has arrived in a new country to kill, spread venom and sabotage peace. In a world of plenty, people are generous and don't mind sharing the boom times; but in a world of scarcity and shrinkage, people and nations are inclined towards self-preservation in a 'fight- or- flight' syndrome. The 'leave' vote does not signify irrational exuberance of voters for independence from EU as much as it points to a rational paranoia about immigration and consequent job losses for its citizens. United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage reacts as he meets European Union Commission President Jean Claude Juncker ahead of a plenary session at the EU headquarters in Brussels The poor and middle classes in most countries, First World or Emerging World economies, are responding to hyper-nationalist demagoguery of leaders for closing down borders because the vox populi favours protectionism, having seen no major gains for the '99 per cent' since 2008. Luddites During the Great Depression of 1930, the predictable recourse was towards protectionism by raising import barriers, hoping to encourage exports. But shutting imports has a damaging and retaliatory effect from interdependent trading partners, as the entire chain of trade then halts because of locked-in economies. How fair is a unilateral call for protectionism by the West? Especially just as India is beginning to open up, so are other Emerging Nations who are equally dependent on trade for recovery. Give us a kiss: Nigel Farage embraces European Union Commission President Jean Claude Juncker In that, Brexit is a historic a geo-politic event, no less significant in magnitude than the 2008 crash. It sets in motion a second round of disintegration of a comity of nations after World War II, the Soviet Union being the first. In such a world of compounding scarcity and inequity, let me throw in an alarmist eventuality that is going to be the black-swan of all events possibly a decade from now: robots replacing humans, a faceless enemy of all working classes. What sounds sci-fi of today, as did water- scarcity and climate change years back when futurists predicted it, this disruption will sound the death-knell for Labour, shaving off jobs. The Bank of England believes machines might replace 80 million American and 15 million British jobs over the next 10 to 20 years, as CNN Money reports, or 50 per cent of the workforce in each of the two countries. Luddites will then rise in an even bigger revolt as the reaction to the fifth wave of change begins. When Salman Khan compared the physical demands of filming wrestling movie Sultan to the plight of a raped woman he not only brought shame on himself, but he may well have damaged the box-office prospects of his latest picture. Strictly from the commercial point of view, Sultan is Bollywoods most crucial film of the year. It is Salmans only release of 2016 and it opens on Eid, the superstars lucky weekend when he habitually breaks records. When Salman Khan compared the physical demands of filming Sultan to the plight of a raped woman, he not only shamed himself but damaged the prospects of his upcoming movie If the reaction to the early promos is anything to go by, Salman's teeming fan base is eager to watch him wrestle. Producers Yash Raj Films, it would seem, have a sure-shot blockbuster on their hands. The aftermath of Salmans rape analogy has boiled over into social media castigation and demands of an apology from the National Commission for Women, all of which does not paint a happy picture for Bollywood in a year when the industry is yet to see a clear-cut blockbuster. Indeed, 2016 has not been kind to Bollywood so far. The biggest grosser at the domestic market in the first six months is a Hollywood film - The Jungle Book. Stop talking: Strictly from the commerce point of view, Sultan is Bollywoods most crucial film of the year Shah Rukh Khans only release this year, Fan, was a niche urban affair that failed to woo the masses. Akshay Kumars biggest hit of the year so far is Airlift, which managed just Rs 127-odd crore. Akshays other release so far - Housefull 3, which was supposed to be a mass entertainer - actually ended up making less at the box-office. Bollywood is banking big on Sultan, besides the Aamir Khanstarrer Dangal that coincidentally has the PK star also playing a wrestler. The fact does not suit the film trade that Sultan and Dangal apart all other major upcoming releases this year will clash with each other. Ashutosh Gowarikers Hrithik Roshan-starrer Mohenjo Daro is scheduled for the Independence Day weekend, but so is Akshay Kumars Rustom. Ajay Devgns self-directed ambitious project Shivaay and Karan Johars Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, starring Ranbir Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan, are slated to clash on Diwali. The much-hyped Dangal was initially rumoured to face a clash with Ayan Mukerjis untitled Ranbir Kapoor-Alia Bhatt-Amitabh Bachchan film on Christmas, but the latter has been averted. The Centre is planning a crack-down at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on a number of traditions that have given the campus its long history of Left-leaning activism and student politics. The assistance booths that student unions - often affiliated to various political parties - set up during the admission season are said to be in danger of being prohibited. Sources told Mail Today that these political 'camps' or booths could be stopped as early as this year. The Centre is planning a crack-down at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on a number of traditions that have given the campus its long history of Left-dominated activism and student politics The varsity administration has reportedly decided to dedicate its own staff to help students and do the necessary 'hand-holding'. JNUSU joint secretary Saurabh Sharma has hit back at these suggestions: If the administration wants to join us in making the admission process easy and to assist us in helping the freshers, they are welcome. But scrapping our booths is no solution. The assistance camps set up by students from parties such as the All India Students Association (AISA), Students' Federation of India (SFI), and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) set up shop in front of the administrative block just underneath the vice-chancellors office, helping anxious candidates complete the admission formalities. JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar was at the centre of controversy over an commemorative event held for the hanging of Mohammed Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri separatist in 2013 While the newcomers are offered help, the hidden agenda is to enrol and enlist them into political camps and turn them into cadres for the respective political parties, said a PhD student. The admission assistance, or the hunt for prospective votes, begins far before the booths. Cadre from different parties are stationed at bus stops, not just within the campus, but also around the varsity. The Left has perpetuated these practices as a mode of dominating the campus politics. While the students camps must be allowed, better facilities should be given by the administration such as accommodation to freshers so that they do not fall prey to politics, a right-wing student leader said. Organised crime syndicates in India are exploiting the misery of parents desperately trying to find their lost children. By using the adverts found in newspapers and on social media, criminals are extracting money from parents in exchange for bogus information. The father of a missing 13- year-old boy in the Capital was last month flooded with fake ransom calls on the day he posted an announcement in a Hindi daily. Organised crime syndicates in India are exploiting the misery of parents desperately trying to find their lost children Aayush Kumar, a student of Balwant Rai Mehta Vidya Bhawan in Greater Kailash-II, disappeared on June 6 from his residence in Devli area of south Delhi. Police have not been able to trace the teenager, but the family started receiving suspicious calls asking for money in exchange for information about the child. My son went missing from our residence and since then we have no information about his location. We registered a missing person FIR at Neb Sarai police station but despite several attempts he could not be traced, said Subhash Kumar Choudhary. The day we advertised about my son, I started getting calls on the number provided in the ad. The caller said that he knew where my son was and demanded money from me. The family agreed to pay the amount but said they wanted to speak to Aayush. They heard a kids voice on the phone which was weak and could not be identified. Aayush Kumar, disappeared on June 6 from his residence in Devli area of south Delhi We asked him to show my son and in exchange we agreed to pay the money. He called me to Laxmi Nagar metro station. I kept waiting for two hours but he didnt turn up and insisted that I transfer the money to his bank account, Subhash said. The family contacted the police who said the caller was a cheat and had switched off his mobile phone. We are trying to identify him using his mobile phone number and account details, a senior officer said. According to Delhi police data, out of 2,252 missing children in 2016, it has successfully traced 1,293. A recent report by the department submitted before the Delhi High Court said that in 2011, a total of 5,111 children went missing, 4,602 were traced and 509 are yet to be found. The government last year launched the Khoya Paya, or Lost and Found, website to help families trace the tens of thousands of children in India who go missing every year, often snatched for forced labour or sexual exploitation. Activists say that cases of fake kidnappings are on the rise. Rishi Kant, a member of the Delhi-based NGO Shakti Vahini told Mail Today: It is extremely sad that some people have found profit in exploiting peoples emotions. "Organised gangs are active which are taking contact details of relatives of missing children and as per their financial status they demand money. They give sketchy details of the kid and try to trap the parents. He also cited the example of a Ranchi-based family, which started getting calls from a man asking for ransom money after a child went missing. Police found that the calls were coming from Chennai and the same person had contact other parents of missing children. NGOs are also advising families not to disclose the details of missing children through advertisements or via social media. The Kailash Satyarthi Childrens Foundation has also blown the lid off several such cases. Rakesh Sengar, director, victim assistance and campaign at Kailash Satyarthi Childrens Foundation told Mail Today: There are instances where parents are asked to deposit money or keep valuables at isolated places and later they are told that their kid is at some faraway location. "After paying money it is found that all the information was false. Defence lawyers in the ongoing Sheena Bora murder case have received the statement of Shyamvar Rai, former driver of the victim's mother Indrani Mukerjea, who is accused of her murder. Rai gave the statement to the magistrate under Section 164 after the Bombay High Court directed the CBI court (trying the case) to present a copy of the confession. Rai has alleged that in the car, he placed his hands on Sheenas mouth while Indrani Mukerjea strangled her own daughter. Indrani Mukerjea (pictured) was arrested for the murder of her daughter Sheena Bora in 2015 He alleged that Indranis ex-husband, and Sheena's stepfather Sanjeev Khanna, pulled Sheenas hair from the back. The driver hired by Indrani has also claimed that Indrani planned the murder well in advance, visiting the site a day before the alleged murder, after having rejected two places on the Lonavala Khopoli route. On the day of disposing Sheenas body, Indrani and Khanna are said to have strategically made Indranis murder look like suicide by immolation. On reaching the spot of murder, Indrani and Khanna are alleged to have brought Sheena's body out of the car as Indrani threw gloves and a saree on her daughters body. Rai claims that Khanna sprinkled petrol over Sheenas body and Indrani took the charge of setting the body on fire. Sheena Bora (pictured) went missing in 2012 her mother Indrani Mukerjea, her stepfather Sanjeev Khanna, and her driver, Shyamvar Pinturam Rai are accused of abducting and killing Bora and subsequently burning her corpse Rai lifted the lid of the murder after he was arrested in connection with a totally separate arms allegation. The trial court recently allowed Rai to turn approver in the Sheena Bora case and become a prosecution witness. The CBI had refused to part with the statement; however, defence advocates challenged this in the high court, and it was only after the court had ordered that the statement was handed over. According to the prosecution, Sheena was murdered on April 24, 2012, but the crime came to light in 2015 after the arrest of Rai in another case. According to the prosecution, Sheena was murdered on April 24, 2012, but the crime only came to light in 2015 after the arrest of Rai in another case Last year, Rai had recorded his confessional statement before the Magistrate under the provisions of Section 164, which - unlike the police statement - is admissible in the trial. In a separate statement, Peter Mukerjeas lawyers have claimed that there is no evidence against their client. No reference to Peter for the incident of murder, planning, execution and disposal of body. Nothing about the phone calls etc, said advocate Mihir Gheewala. Islamists in Bangladesh may assume new identities and take new names, but they stick to their signature. They prefer to kill with machetes, a medieval weapon with a wide, heavy head which gives it axe-like force. In Fridays terror attack in Dhaka, foreign hostages were hacked, not shot, most likely with machetes. Dhaka attack is part of waves of wanton violence and genocide lashing the region for a century While ISIS trumpeted the handiwork of its south Asian franchise, the cold local statement was unmistakable. It is also a reminder that violent Islamism runs deeper than the rivers in Bangladesh. An Al Qaeda or ISIS have just discovered a perfectly ready, functioning laboratory for terror. Genocide has struck Bangladesh in waves of blood. It pre-dates 1971 Mukti Juddho or war for liberation from Pakistan, in which an estimated 30 million, mostly from the Hindu minority, were killed, 200,000 to 400,000 of their women raped as trophies. It competes shoulder-to-shoulder with the Nazi Holocaust, the massacre of Soviet prisoners of war, the Indonesian killings of 1965-66, and the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The countrys Islamist violence pre-dates the 1950 Barisal riots in which 750 Hindu homes were set on fire on Vijaya Dashami. It pre-dates even the 1946 Noakhali riots, which started on October 10, the day of Kojagari Lakshmi Puja, led by local leader Gholam Sarwar Husseini. His private army, Miyar Fauj, attacked the house of Rajendralal Chowdhury, president of the Noakhali Bar Association. They killed 22 in his family and burnt his house down. They presented Rajendralals head on a dish to their master, Gholam Sarwar. Two of his daughters were presented to Gholam's trusted generals. While a section - both Hindus and Muslims - were touched by the Bengal Renaissance and formed the progressive, intellectual class, a large section of Muslims remained in the shadow of a cloistered ideology. Throughout the last more than 100 years, this section has repeatedly raised its head, trying to defeat the progressive strain in bloodiest way possible. What was Miyar Fauj of 46 were the foot soldiers of Operation Searchlight in 71 and are todays Al Qaeda-backed Ansarullah Bangla Team and ISIS Bangla branch. The ideology is not new. Nor is the weapon of choice. The killing machetes continue to etch the signature of the forces which want to take the country back to a primeval, violent existence. Those who witnessed Noakhali riots or the 1971 genocide recall little children being lifted by their hair, head chopped off with machetes, and dumped in village wells. Fleeing Hindu families would stop their boats in the middle of the Padma, and drop sacks containing valuables one by one in the river, so that at least Islamists on the border do not get to enjoy their lives earnings, savings, and belongings. Their land, of course, they couldnt bring or drown. Beneath the delicate muslin of intermittent democracy since 1971, there has been simmering Islamist blood lust in Bangladesh. Novelist Taslima Nasreen, who so evocatively described the trauma of a Hindu family in Bangladesh, now lives in exile and under the constant shadow of death threats. Nearly a dozen bloggers have been butchered for criticising Islam. What should really alarm India is that in 34 years of Left rule and now under Mamata Banerjee, millions of radical elements from Bangladesh have found sanctuary in Bengal in the name of secular politics to bolster vote banks. They have rioted in Malda and other places, run amok in Kolkata, blocked progressive writers from attending literary festivals and certain serials from being beamed on TV. Terrorists usually do not create trouble in places where they can lie low and launch attacks elsewhere. But eventually, the monster comes back burn its home down, as is evident in Pakistan, and in a smaller but telling way in parts of Europe like Belgium. So, while blood flows in Bangladesh, West Bengal faces clear and present danger. It is accentuated by the irony that while Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and a progressive citizenry fights a grim, gritty battle to quell and drive out Islamists, Bengal is indifferent - if not downright welcoming - towards those troublemakers. Hasina is the best bet we have to pull the country out of an Islamist cesspool and put it on the path of modernity and progressiveness. Tarishi Jain, a 19-year-old Indian girl studying in the University of California Berkeley, accompanied her two friends to the cafe in Dhakas diplomatic zone that was attacked by ISIS terrorists where she was hacked to death. The girls got together after the Iftar (breaking of fast during ramzan) when terrorists stormed the place picking up people who could not quote the Quran, a Bangladeshi publication reported. She was on a holiday visiting her family in Dhaka. Tarishi Jain had accompanied her two friends to the cafe on Friday A Bangladeshi armoured military tank makes its way past onlookers near an upmarket restaurant in Dhaka following a bloody siege by armed attackers. Another Indian- a doctor by profession had a narrow escape as he spoke fluent Bengali and the terrorists mistook him for a Bangladeshi, but young Tarishi did not have the advantage of speaking the language. Her father runs a garment business in Bangladesh for the last 15-20 years, according to officials. Officials said her family is from Ferozabad in UP. After graduating from the American School, Dhaka she had moved to the US for higher studies. Quoting a rescued hostage, the Daily Star, a Bangladesh daily reported those who could recite a verse from the Quran were spared and the others were tortured before being killed. In a series of tweets, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said,I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarishi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka. I have spoken to her father Sanjeev Jain and conveyed our deepest condolences. The country is with them in this hour of grief. We are arranging visa for the family. My officers are on the job, she said. I monitored this personally the whole night. Our Dy High Commnr in Dhaka Adarsh Swaika is with family since yesterday. Twenty foreigners, including eight Italians, were brutally murdered by the militants inside the restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic zone before commandos launched an assault killing six attackers and capturing one alive, ending Bangladesh's worst terror attack. Director of Military Operations Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said the militants slaughtered 20 hostages before the joint operation led by the armed forces began. Most of those killed were found with their throat slit, he added. He said the bodies of the victims were recovered during a search in the Holey Artisan Bakery compound after the operation. The bodies were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital morgue for autopsy to confirm their identity. Online magazine worries India post-Dhaka bloodbath By Jugal R Purohit An old edition of an online magazine has found its way into the top offices of the country's anti-terror set-up. Its contents are being read and circulated. Named after a small town in northern Syria, located in close proximity to the city of Allepo, the magazine Dabiq -a known online propaganda tool of the Islamic State - has an interview which has attracted the Indian attention. Apprehensive and inconsolable family members gathered near the Artisan restaurant after the attack With the fog on what took place in Dhaka gradually lifting, the degree of scrutiny is only going to increase. Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, the Amir of Khilafahs soldiers in Bengal in an interview to the magazine elaborated upon the groups plans. In unambiguous terms, he mentioned how Bangladesh would be used by the group to launch raids into India from the eastern periphery. This move would be timed with attacks launched from the Wilayat Khurasan located on Indias western side. Thus having a strong jihad base in Bengal will facilitate performing guerrilla attacks inside India simultaneously from both the sides, it was mentioned. The eventual plan it said was to launch conventional army raid to liberate the region after first getting rid of the Pakistani and Afghani regimes. The jihad in Bengal was also a stepping-stone for jihad in Burma. Speaking to India Today TV, a senior source said: The reason we worry is because the space for expressing dissent is shrinking in Bangladesh. That the hardliners are facing action for the war crimes has also been woven as yet another sign of stifling the voice of the opposition. All of this is making the job of radicalising impressionable minds easier than it was. He added: The IS could occupy a space vacated by failed governments and administrations of Iraq and Syria. Bangladesh has to be very careful especially in areas where its administration is weak. Terming the prospects as frightening, another source said: We know that the IS in Bangladesh is attracting talent. And our borders with Bangladesh are porous. Now add to that the fact that IS has made its intention about India clear. Naturally the emerging picture is a very serious one. It was informed that top functionaries of the government have been alerted about the threat. Based on the data released by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) last year, there are reasons to worry. While there exists a sanction for fencing 3326.14km of the Indo-Bangladesh border spread across five states, in reality only 2827.922 km has been fenced. The border also needs better flood-lighting to enable detection of intruders. Retired Border Security Force Additional Director General (ADG) SK Sood claimed that the troops were on the defensive'. Carnage shakes expats and diplomats By Reuters With the Holey Artisan Bakery downstairs and the OKitchen Restaurant upstairs, the Dhaka eatery with large windows looking out at a lush lawn suggested an oasis in an increasingly dangerous city. That illusion ended at about 9 pm on Friday, as gunmen burst through the door of an establishment that sells profiteroles and pizzas to Dhaka's elite. It is an elegant place: diplomats, successful businessmen, and politicians meet here, said Agnese Barolo, wife of the international affairs adviser to Bangladeshs prime minister. An injured being assisted by officials Business deals were decided, political discussions would take place here. In Bangladesh, where the news has recently been of competing jihadi groups hacking liberals, religious minorities and others to death, it was, she said, a special spot. It is not yet clear what broader impact the rampage will have on life and business in the South Asian nation that depends heavily on foreigner sentiment and a $26 billion garment export sector. The World Bank had warned previously that militancy could derail Bangladeshs path to becoming a middle-income country. Most of the 20 people killed by the militants at the restaurant were foreign nationals, according to an army spokesman. An interior ministry official quoted survivors as saying the militants told locals to stay out of the way. One of the attackers cursed a diner for sitting with non-Muslims during Ramadan and proclaimed that the nation would now be seen as an Islamic state, according to another Bangladeshi official briefed on the police investigation. Bangladesh has never seen such a horrific incident. It is a strong slap on our image, said Mohammad Siddiqur Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. A country manager of a France-based garment-buying house in Dhaka said his business could now suffer a deep slump. We fear they might take a decision to narrow the volume or they may even wind up the business entirely, he said, asking to speak on the condition of anonymity to avoid harming his business ties. To many, the restaurant and bakery were a symbol of the possibility of a more cosmopolitan future. It's been raining in Dhaka. For some its raining grief, shock or numbness. Others hope that the showers will wash away their tears as they mourn the loss of the loved ones. That terror could pay a visit in such a coordinated and yet maniacal form to one of the most exclusive neighbourhoods in the upmarket Gulshan 2 area of Bangladeshs capital city is difficult to digest for people on the street as well as for the local administrators and the intelligence officials. Annisul Haq, a businessman and mayor of Dhaka North City Corporation, who took the political plunge, just a year ago and spent most of his life here, says Fridays deadly attack claimed by Islamic State has been a rude wake-up call. A man wounded during the terror attack on an upmarket Dhaka restaurant in the citys diplomatic area is being taken to a nearby hospital. Twenty people were killed and dozens injured during the night-long siege. Haq had to cut short a Moscow trip where he was joined by his family for a vacation, as he rushed back home on Saturday after a conversation with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The fact that so much ammunition was loaded up shows some things have gone gravely wrong. We must do something, he said. Civil society must work together and fight this together. And we will do so. But for Syed Salam Chowdhury, who moved from this locality to the countrys north a few years ago, this incident has been traumatic. A Bangladeshi policeman (pictured) was injured in the attack He was in Dhaka, strolling past the Holey Artisan Bakery co-owned by his niece, when chaos ran free. Chowdhury thinks these are ominous signs that the government has chosen not to see. This is the start of something horrific. The government can only deal with it if it has an iron resolve, he says. Road number 79 on Gulshan 2 is dimly lit. The shadows from the street lamps crisscross in the falling rain. Media persons are advised to stay on one side of the road, while Dhaka Metropolitan Police and Rapid Action Battalion guard the barricaded alley that witnessed the hostage horror for 11-grueling hours. Twenty civilians including seven Japanese, nine Italians, three Bangladeshis and one Indian were murdered in cold blood by the assailants. They were not just shot but, according to reports, were also hacked by machetes - an imagery that has come to haunt the country frequently. Local plain-clothes cops say the two brave security personnel who were killed while leading from the front mis-calculated the number of assailants and the weapons stockpile they had. Salahuddin Ahmed, officer-in-charge of Banani police station, and Rabiul Islam, ACP of the detective branch, were laid to rest on Saturday. One is survived by a six-year-old child and a pregnant wife while the others eight-year-old son still doesnt know what really happened to his father. But intelligence sleuths say they are not demoralised by the losses. They appreciate Prime Minister Hasina for having issued clear instructions. "No compromise. Move in. Secure hostages. And minimise casualties," she had ordered after the RAB chief tried establishing contact with the terrorists for hours to seek their demands. Though rumours are abuzz that at one point a demand was made for the release of terrorist mastermind Khalid Saifullah, languishing in Dhaka jail for hacking a Hindu college teacher to death, in Madaripur district. But, this news remains unconfirmed. For Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government, that has constantly denied the presence of ISIS in the country and blamed a series of murders on local radical outfits patronised by the opposition BNP and the Jamaat, it is important to find more concrete answers. In the wake of the executions of the war criminals of 1971, and a crackdown on radicals, the country is a fertile breeding ground for the Islamic State recruits. Police hope that the one terrorist who was nabbed other than the six neutralised, will stabilise soon and his interrogation will reveal crucial details to the operation. The Supreme Courts courtroom No. 1, presided over by Chief Justice TS Thakur, was witness to a gripping drama during a high-voltage hearing on the triple talaq issue when a Muslim woman advocate, who also works for the protection of rights of women in the community, made an emotional appeal. At times, she even broke down, pleading the court not to accept All India Muslim Personal Law Boards support to the practice and its contentions as the final word. AIMPLB is only a registered society and what its members say cannot be taken as a final word. They have self-drafted aims and objectives. They have no right to decide on the personal laws of the community. They are not the guardians of the Muslims in this country, Farah Faiz, president, Rashtrawadi Muslim Mahila Sangh, told the CJI during the hearing on Friday. The advocate pleaded with the court not to accept All India Muslim Personal Law Boards support to the practice of divorce Farah Faiz, President, Rashtrawadi Muslim Mahila Sangh says AIMPLB is 'not the final word'. A bench headed by CJI is at present examining the effect of triple talaq and polygamy on the fundamental rights of Muslim women and inspecting if these practices are ending up in gender discrimination. Ever since the court began the exercise, several Muslim womens organisations have jumped on the bandwagon to attack the practices. Slamming the affidavit filed by the AIMPLB which stated that the Supreme Court cannot interfere with the personal laws of religions, Faiz said: The Supreme Court is the actual guardian of the constitution. If they cannot interfere when gross violation of laws and individual rights is happening in the society, who can? She added: The sharia courts and Qazis supported by the AIMPLB do not allow women to enforce their rights. The board is also trying to give a religious colour to the debate on triple talaq by terming it a practice prescribed by the Quran. She urged the court to restrain the AIMPLB from airing their views in the media and apprehended that during the month of Ramzan, Muslim people gather for Taraweeh (to listen to the holy Quran) and they could be easily misled by such statements, which could be a danger to the society. But the bench retorted: This is a very serious matter so there could be strong views. Let their be debate. We will keep your application pending. We will not restrain anybody at this stage. If we feel the issue is going out of hand, we will decide then. In its affidavit, the AIMPLB has submitted that the issue of Muslim personal law is a cultural issue, and it is inextricably interwoven with Islam. It has argued that it is the issue of freedom of conscience, guaranteed under Article 25 and 26 read with Article 29 of the Constitution. Voters are digging into the revered democracy sausage sizzles across the country, none the wiser that politicians were once accused of bribery for offering free sausages during elections. #DemocracySausage is trending on Twitter, with helpful account @AusPolling directing voters to their nearest food stalls on Election Day and a temporary sausage emoji that pops up with the #ausvotes hashtag. SnapChat has also launched a temporary sausage sizzle filter. And just as you can type in your postcode to find your nearest polling booth, so too can you type in your postcode online to find your nearest sausage sizzle. Scroll down for video A voter shares an image of three democracy sausages at Old Parliament House in Canberra on Election Day Dogs across the country have excitedly taken part in democracy by enjoying the sausage sizzles at polling booths But the simple sausage wasn't always so welcome at the polls, with then-West Australian Premier Peter Dowding accused of bribing voters with free sausages in 1989. As Barbara Santich wrote in Bold Palates: Australia's Gastronomic Heritage in 2012: 'Even political parties see barbeques as a means to boost the coffers, and on election days the location of voting booths can often be sniffed out, literally, by following the aroma of the sausage sizzle.' But the sausage sizzle has taken its time to become custom on Election Day since the term was first reported in newspapers in the 1940s. You can find your nearest sausage sizzle by tweeting at @AusPolling or typing your postcode into an election sausage sizzle website #DemocracySausage is trending on Twitter as voters share pictures and selfies with the Election Day custom And in 1989, Mr Dowding was forced to deny accusations the Labor Party was bribing voters with free sausages and drinks before the state election in February that year. Police investigated whether a 'free family sausage sizzle' held a week before the election breached the Electoral Act. The sausage saga continued when Mr Dowding accused state Liberal Party leader, Barry MacKinnon, of being photographed during the campaign wearing a barbeque hat and apron 'being involved in the dissemination of sausages'. Voters will be relieved to hear that electoral bribery 'does not include the general provision of food and drink at sausage sizzles'. Some of the sausage sizzles have grown less humble since their beginnings in the mid-1900s Vegetarian, vegan and gluten free homemade organic vegetable soup was sold for $3 and one polling booth Turnbull is pictured manning the barbecue with principal Kerrie Beeby at Penrith South Public School in western Sydney The iconic Australian event is now a staple on any election campaign and in recent years the likes of Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard have all manned the barbecue. This campaign trail is no different, with Malcolm Turnbull spotted helping turn the sausages at Penrith South Public School on Election Day in western Sydney. The Coalition's Christopher Pyne also shared a snap of himself on Twitter 'lending a hand to the parents of Marryatville Primary sausage sizzle'. Meanwhile, Bill Shorten was photographed hoeing down on a sausage sizzle. Some have outgrown their humble beginnings, with more lavish options including haloumi, relish and rocket. Dogs were commonly featured in social media photos posted by voters sharing their democracy sausages. Bill Shorten was photographed tucking into a sausage sizzle on Saturday on the Election Day trail The Coalition's Christopher Pyne also shared a snap of himself on Twitter 'lending a hand to the parents of Marryatville Primary sausage sizzle' In 1989 the WA Premier Peter Dowding (pictured) was accused of bribing voters with free sausages. The sausage sizzle has grown to be an iconic and vital part of the Australian voting process A voter holds up their democracy sausage in front of the Old Parliament House in Canberra Voters spent Saturday sharing pictures of the humble Election Day tradition #DemocracySausage was trending on Twitter on Saturday during the election Polls close at 6pm on Saturday, as voters spend their time talking about the #DemocracySausage The sausage sizzle has taken its time to become custom on Election Day since the term was first reported in newspapers in the 1940 A volunteer is pictured cooking a sausage sizzle at Kingswood Park Public School in Penrith in Sydney's west on Saturday A sausage sizzle quenches hungry voters as they queue up at a polling station at Mount Alexander College in Flemington, Melbourne SnapChat launched temporary filters, including one for the Election Day and one for sausage sizzles Sausage dogs stare eagerly at a sausage on Election Day, with Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten neck-and-neck Supporters of Gonski education reform are pictured running a sausage sizzle on Election Day The sausage sizzle has become an Australian tradition during elections The sausage sizzle has taken its time to become custom on Election Day since the term was first reported in newspapers in the 1940s Tony Abbott is pictured helping a sausage sizzle at a surf club at the August 2010 election Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam getting involved on the barbeque in 1975 Julia Gillard pictured cooking sausages during her visit to the flood ravaged community of Toowoomba in 2011 UKIP MP: 'There is a real danger that the Sir Humphreys will derail Brexit' It warns that the decision to leave European Union is in danger of being 'watered down' by 'incompetent civil servants who are fanatically pro-EU' The Leave campaign has launched a stinging attack on the Foreign Office, warning that Britain's decision to leave the European Union is in danger of being 'watered down' by 'incompetent civil servants who are fanatically pro-EU'. Douglas Carswell, the Ukip MP, said: 'There is a real danger that the Sir Humphreys will derail Brexit, which represents the will of the people.' Insiders believe that the Government's new 'Brexit unit', responsible for negotiating Britain's withdrawal from the EU, will be staffed by the same pro-EU civil servants who produced David Cameron's disastrous renegotiation package. Douglas Carswell, the Ukip MP (left), said 'there is a real danger that the Sir Humphreys will derail Brexit' while Daniel Hannan MEP (right) said the 'Sir Humphreys aren't going to try to get the best deal for the UK' Daniel Hannan MEP, one of the most prominent voices of the Leave campaign, told MailOnline: 'This is the whole reason we're in this mess. The Sir Humphreys aren't going to try to get the best deal for the UK. 'They are incurable Europhiles, and all they want is to try to keep the EU project together. After the palpable failure of the supposed renegotiation with Brussels, it's beyond ludicrous to put the same people in charge of our Brexit negotiations.' These fears are shared by many Eurosceptics, who worry that the UK's future lies in the hands of unelected 'Brexit blockers'. Some have compared the staffing plans to 'putting the drunks in charge of the bar'. David Cambell Bannerman, a Conservative Eurosceptic MEP, said: 'I fear the civil service has become an agency of the EU. Many officials regard their jobs as enabling the EU in the UK, rather than representing the UK in Europe. 'We will have to have radical surgery of certain civil servants who are too much part of the European project.' David Cambell Bannerman, a Conservative Eurosceptic MEP (pictured above), said: 'Many officials regard their jobs as enabling the EU in the UK, rather than representing the UK in Europe' Leave campaigners are demanding rigorous parliamentary scrutiny of the Brexit unit by a Eurosceptic MP, to prevent civil servants from 'having their own way'. Currently, the unit is due to be headed by Oliver Letwin, a Remain campaigner. The Brexit unit lineup is expected to be announced within the next few days. So far, the only official who has been officially appointed is Oliver Robbins, 40, formerly in charge of immigration policy at the Home Office. Earlier this year, Robbins courted controversy when he was thrown out of a home affairs select committee for refusing to respond to questions about the UK Border Force's budget. According to Douglas Carswell, the expected appointment of pro-EU mandarins illustrates how 'Project Fear is giving way to Project Backsliding'. 'Clearly, the establishment is doing everything it can to dilute what Leave means,' he told MailOnline. 'The Foreign Office is irredeemably federalist. Their main agenda is not to get the best deal for the UK, but to get themselves back to the top table in Brussels. 'We can't possibly entrust this process to the same civil servants that have been tangled up in this mess for the last 40 years.' One of the officials tipped to join is Sir Ivan Rogers, 55, the UK's ambassador to the EU, who was formerly private secretary to prominent pro-Europeans Kenneth Clarke and Tony Blair. Although the highly respected Sir Ivan has a reputation for being fair-minded, his track record has caused alarm among some Eurosceptic MPs and campaigners. His key role in David Cameron's discredited renegotiation with Europe which dramatically failed to convince the British public has undermined his reputation in the eyes of Vote Leave. 'The problem wasn't that his demands were rebuffed by hostile Continental governments, but that he didn't ask for anything meaningful in the first place,' Hannan told MailOnline. Derek Fowlds as Bernard Wooley, Nigel Hawthorne as Sir Humphrey Appleby and Paul Eddington as James Hacker, the cast of Yes Minister. Leave campaigners have warned of the 'Sir Humphrey-type Brexit blockers' 'I know Ivan Rogers, and enthusiasm for the European project permeates his entire mentality. He and other civil servants are clever, technically brilliant and, in their own fashion, moral people. But they are simply playing for a different team.' Bannerman, who also knows Sir Ivan personally, added: 'People like Ivan Rogers have been heavily involved with the EU and have valuable experience, but there is a question mark over whether they can negotiate something that goes against their life's work. 'They will now start arguing for a sort of EU-lite, which isn't what the country voted for.' Another civil service mandarin said to be joining the Brexit unit is Tom Scholar, 47, a former aide to Gordon Brown. As David Cameron's principal adviser on the EU, Scholar also played an important role in delivering the failed renegotiation deal. Before the referendum, he was rewarded by being appointed permanent secretary to the Treasury, making him one of the most powerful men in the civil service. It is now understood that he is in line for a senior position in the Brexit unit, further enraging Eurosceptics. 'Staff of the British Foreign Office must implement the democratic wish of the people,' Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, told MailOnline. 'If the old guard in Brussels are unable or unwilling to do so, they should be changed. 'We can't have self-interested civil servants obscuring the clear vision of what the people voted for.' Veteran Eurosceptic William Cash MP, the conservative Chair of the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee which will monitor the Brexit negotiations dismissed the Leave campaign's concerns. Leave campaigners are demanding rigorous parliamentary scrutiny of the Brexit unit by a Eurosceptic MP, to prevent civil servants from 'having their own way'. Currently, the unit is due to be headed by Oliver Letwin, a Remain campaigner. Pictured: European Union flags in front of the Berlaymont Building in Brussels, Belgium 'A lot of people want to obstruct the democratic will of the British people, but the civil servants are duty-bound to carry out the will of Government,' he said. 'We are assuming that leave means leave, and expect whatever arrangements are made to be based on repealing the 1972 European Communities Act. 'Once repealed, that will carry away every treaty and every piece of European legislation that has ever been passed. 'I am confident that the civil servants will do their jobs. It is important that nobody is misled by a lot of political mutterings off-stage.' While Australians could wake up on Sunday morning with a new government, some big names in politics could wake up without a job. They include ministers, senior opposition figures and long-standing MPs - all of whom could lose their cushy allowances, staff and six-figure salaries. Usually heavyweights like these are in safe blue-ribbon seats but either through scandal, redistricting or a popular challenger they are now staring down the barrel of a humbling loss. Scroll down for video Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce (pictured), is in serious danger of becoming the first ever Deputy Prime Minister to lose their seat in a Federal election BARNABY JOYCE The Nationals leader is in serious danger of becoming the first ever Deputy Prime Minister to lose their seat in a Federal election. The jovial former senator won the country NSW seat of New England in 2013 after longtime independent Tony Windsor stood down. Now Mr Windsor wants the seat he held for two decades back and has taken the contest to the wire on the strength of his immense local profile. Polls have Mr Joyce ahead 51 to 49 but it is the first time he has been in the lead since Mr Windsor declared he was running in March. The jovial former senator (pictured) won the country NSW seat of New England in 2013 after longtime independent Tony Windsor stood down Polls have Mr Joyce ahead 51 to 49 but it is the first time he has been in the lead since Mr Windsor declared he was running in March JAMIE BRIGGS The former frontbencher is in big trouble for two reasons: His high-profile sexual harassment scandal and the rise of Nick Xenophon's party in South Australia. Support for Mr Briggs has crashed almost six per cent since the 2013 election and he now looks likely to lose his seat of Mayo, trailing Xenophon Team candidate Rebekha Sharkie 48 to 52. His woes began late last year when he allegedly tried to kiss a female public servant on the neck and complimented her 'piercing eyes' while on a junket to Hong Kong. After resigning from the ministry and apologising he promised not to name the woman, but sent a photo of her to 'a few people' and it was leaked to the press. The episode came just after he showed up to parliament in a wheelchair after shattering a marble table trying to crash-tackle Tony Abbott at a wild party the night the former PM was deposed. Former frontbencher Jamie Briggs, pictured after shattering a marble table trying to crash-tackle Tony Abbott at a wild party the night the former PM was deposed, is in trouble after his high profile sexual harrassment scandal and the rise of Nick Xenophon's party in South Australia Briggs (left) was accused of sending around this photo of the female public servant (right) with his chief of staff, Stuart Eaton. The woman accused him of inappropriate behaviour during a trip in Hong Kong ANTHONY ALBANESE The prominent Labor frontbencher is unexpectedly in a tough fight for his own Western Sydney electorate after redistricting and the rampant gentrification of the area. Greens candidate Jim Casey, 46, a firefighter and union figure, is mounting a fierce challenge that at the least has taken steam out of the national campaign. Western Sydney progressives are staunchly opposed to the WestConnex motorway project, which the Greens have vowed to block, and Mr Albanese has been forced to promise to deny it Federal funding. His primary vote has taken an almost eight per cent dive, but was still nudging 40 per cent, which would likely be enough to get over the line, at least this time around. Prominent Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese (pictured) is unexpectedly in a tough fight for his own Western Sydney electorate after redistricting and the rampant gentrification of the area Western Sydney progressives are staunchly opposed to the WestConnex motorway project (pictured, which the Greens have vowed to block, and Mr Albanese has been forced to promise to deny it Federal funding KELLY O'DWYER Last election the Greens won their first lower house seat in Melbourne and they are closing in on another in the Assistant Treasurer's electorate of Higgins. A recent poll puts Ms O'Dwyer's support at only 44.1 per cent with other parties doing preference deals in a bid to unseat her. Her missteps include being the face of unpopular superannuation changes and her infamous $6,000 toaster gaffe on Q&A. She still has a small two party preferred lead over the Greens' Jason Ball, but unions and the Greens have thrown money at the race and forced the Liberals to divert resources from other contests. A recent poll puts Ms O'Dwyer's support at only 44.1 per cent with other parties doing preference deals in a bid to unseat her She still has a small two party preferred lead over the Greens' Jason Ball, but unions and the Greens have thrown money at the race and forced the Liberals to divert resources from other contests A recent poll puts Ms O'Dwyer's support at only 44.1 per cent with other parties doing preference deals in a bid to unseat her. Her missteps include being the face of unpopular superannuation changes and her infamous $6,000 toaster gaffe on Q&A (pictured) Ms O'Dwyer (pictured) still has a small two party preferred lead over the Greens' Jason Ball but unions and the Greens have thrown money at the race and forced the Liberals to divert resources from other contests The Liberal member for Higgins is pictured at a pre-polling booth in Malvern, Melbourne on Friday TONY ABBOTT The Former Prime Minister will likely retain his safe Liberal seat in Warringah and would need a 15.32 per cent swing against him to lose it - but the margin could determine his long term future. Mr Abbott's main challenger is the independent candidate and former Australian Idol co-host James Mathison who stands behind the campaign motto 'Warringah deserves better'. Reports have said that Mr Abbott is worried that the nine candidates running would likely cut into this primary vote and his two-party preferred vote as well. He told the Manly Daily:'I think it will be hard to hold the kind of vote I held last time.' His main contender Mr Mathison claimed that he does not hold the view of anyone in Warringah under the age of 30. Former Prime Minister (pictured), Tony Abbott, will likely retain his safe Liberal seat in Warringah and would need a 15.32 per cent swing against him to lose it - but the margin could determine his long term future Reports have said that Mr Abbott is worried that the nine candidates running would likely cut into this primary vote and his two-party preferred vote as well MALCOLM TURNBULL This one is more of a longshot than the others and would certainly be a huge upset but, on paper at least, is not entirely impossible. The Prime Minister won his seat of Wentworth with a massive 63.3 per cent of the vote last election on the back of his positions on gay marriage and climate change. But since he has had to make compromises to stay leader, much of his support from the trendy crowd on Sydney's eastern beaches has collapsed and his primary vote sits at 41.5 per cent. Labor and the Greens hold about half the vote between them, so the race could become tight if most of their preferences flow to each other. The Prime Minister (pictured) won his seat of Wentworth with a massive 63.3 per cent of the vote last election on the back of his positions on gay marriage and climate change But since he has had to make compromises to stay leader, much of his support from the trendy crowd on Sydney's eastern beaches has collapsed and his primary vote sits at 41.5 per cent BILL SHORTEN While he is in no danger of losing his seat, Mr Shorten could lose his job as Opposition Leader if he fails to win government on Saturday. The rumblings that this election could be make-or-break for the former union boss are getting louder, with Labor sources saying Albanese will challenge for the leadership. Mr Shorten on Thursday dodged questions about a potential challenge, while it is believed a powerful NSW faction could back the left-leaning Mr Albanese if the ALP doesn't snatch at least 10 seats from the government. While he is in no danger of losing his seat, Bill Shorten (pictured) could lose his job as Opposition Leader if he fails to win government on Saturday A 14-year-old boy made $10,000 in a week and is on track to buy his first house before he turns 18. Queensland teenager Will Deeth made his fortune by travelling to China and bringing cheap goods home to sell at the local markets. Many of Wills friends did not believe his success, until he took them to the bank and had the teller read out his statement, the family told Daily Mail Australia in a statement Will Deeth made $10,000 in one week selling toys in a pop-up store that he bought in bulk in China His mother lisa is his biggest supporter but says anyone can be a entrepreneur This picture shows Will in China on a buying trip - he went with his mother to find things for his stall Will started his business last Christmas on the advice of his parents, who run their own business importing goods from China. He travelled to China with his parents, who gave him a hand making contacts and picking out the right products to buy. He said: Anyone can do it. Weve got translators and guides and they show us round and tell us all the places to go. The trip wasn't all work and no play, Will and his mother took a trip to the Great Wall of China They also had a foot massage and treated the visit like a working holiday Will sold toys that many teenagers his age would buy, such as catching mitts and remote control drones. The Toowoomba Christian College student is returning to China in August to test-drive his next batch of toys. Mother Lisa said: Hes always been entrepreneurial. Hes always selling online. Hes a very big user of e-Bay. Grisly details of the murder of a Canberra woman have come to light as her ex-boyfriend faces sentencing. Daniela D'Addario, 35, was found in the back of her own car on the NSW south coast in April 2015 after her 29-year-old ex-boyfriend Josaia Vosikata strangled her to death before having sex with her body and then returning home to have lunch with his mother. Vosikata appeared in the ACT Supreme Court on Friday after he previously pleaded guilty to her murder. Friday's hearing dealt with issues over the facts of the case, the ABC reported. The first issue dealt with whether Vosikata entered Ms D'Addario's apartment without permission. Another issue was if he intended to use 'rapid fixer' photographic fluid to render her unconscious. Scroll down for video Daniela D'Addario (right), 35, was murdered in April 2015 by ex-boyfriend Josaia Vosikata, 29, (left) The ACT Supreme Court heard Vosikata strangled her and had sex with her body before returning the next day and driving to the NSW south coast in Ms D'Addario's car (pictured) with her in the boot to dispose of the body Court documents revealed Ms D'Addario called it quits on their three-month relationship in early 2015. But her former boyfriend allegedly became infatuated with her and would sit outside her apartment in the suburb of Bruce. He would also bombard her with text messages and emails. The documents included an email Ms D'Addario had sent to Vosikata after he broke in to her apartment with a spare key just days before her murder and tried to sexually assault her. 'Joey Please listen to me ... I do not want to be your friend, I do not want to ever see you again, I do not want to talk to you. Do not send me emails or texts or try to call me. Do not come to my house,' the email read, according to the Canberra Times. After their breakup, it is reported Vosikata became obsessed with Ms D'Addario's body and would sit outside her Canberra apartment Days before her brutal murder, Ms D'Addario sent Vosikata an email asking him to 'please stay away' Nine days later on April 19, Vosikata broke in again and choked her to death. He then recorded footage of himself having intercourse with Ms D'Addario's corpse. After her murder, Vosikata tried to drive Ms D'Addario's blue Hyandai Getz into the ocean on NSW's south coast near Bermagui. But the wheels got trapped in the sand and he was forced to spend the night before council workers helped him liberate the car the next morning. Vosikata was caught by police two days later after he fled into the nearby bushland when officers spotted the car. It was previously believed the two were travelling together before the relationship had soured and that Ms D'Addario had been murdered during a romantic getaway, not at her Canberra home. Justice John Burns reserved judgement on the disputed facts hearing. He will hand down his ruling before Vosikata is sentenced next month. Her body was recovered by police in the boot of her own car on the NSW south coast A New Jersey firefighter who collected a state disability pension while teaching jiu jitsu and participating in competitive mixed martial arts is going to prison. Shane Streater was sentenced Friday to seven years in prison and ordered to repay $82,488. He was convicted of second-degree theft by deception in April. The 41-year-old Camden resident is also permanently barred from public employment in New Jersey. Streater filed for disability in 2009, claiming he had been injured on the job. Scroll down for video Shane Streater, a New Jersey firefighter who collected a state disability pension while teaching jiu jitsu and participating in competitive mixed martial arts, is going to prison The New Jersey Attorney General's Office said in a release: 'In February 2009, Streater applied for an accidental disability pension, asserting that he was disabled as the result of two accidents while on duty: one in December 2007, when a car struck the fire truck he was riding, and a second in March 2008, when his fire truck hit a pothole. 'In each incident, he claimed to have injured his back and/or neck. 'Based largely on statements from Streater regarding his inability to engage in physical activity, an independent doctor found he had a total and permanent disability. 'The doctor concluded, however, that his disability was from a preexisting condition and not work related.' According to the office, 'The [Police and Firemen's Retirement System] Board awarded Streater an ordinary disability pension on January 9, 2010. Streater filed for disability in 2009, claiming he had been injured on the job. The New Jersey Attorney General's Office said Streater was collecting disability when he got a black belt in jiu jitsu in 2020 Streater posted this message on his Facebook profile back in May 'Streater appealed to the Office of Administrative Law, insisting his disability was work-related and he was entitled to an accidental disability pension, which is untaxed and pays two-thirds of the beneficiary's salary, while an ordinary disability pension pays 40 per cent of salary and is taxed.' Investigators later learned he was teaching jiu jitsu two or more times a week. They also found a YouTube video of him participating in a mixed martial arts tournament where he won a bronze medal. The New Jersey Attorney General's Office said: 'Further investigation revealed that Streater was awarded his black belt in jiu jitsu in 2010, while collecting the PFRS disability pension.' The office said that he'd collected $82,488 by the time his pension was revoked in April 2012. Streater wrote in a May 17 Facebook post: 'How is it you pay into the pension system for 12 years Im pretty sure I have over 50,000 dollars vested yet instill they say I owe 82,000. The reeking carcass of a humpback was towed back out to sea near Los Angeles Friday, not long after three other whales were found dead in Alaska. The 46-foot-long whale surfaced onto Dockweiler beach, near the west end of Los Angeles International Airport, just before 8pm Thursday - and authorities had to remove it before beachgoers arrived this Fourth Of July weekend. They tried to push it back into the water with a bulldozer around midday but failed because of the low tide. Lifeguards ended up tying the whale's tail to boats to pull it off the sand during the evening high tide, taking it far out to sea. Scroll down for video The carcass of a 46-foot-long whale was removed from Dockweiler Beach, near LAX airport, on Friday. Lifeguards (pictured) tied ropes to its tale to attach it to boats and pull it off the sand and into the ocean Authorities first tried to push the whale back into the water Friday using a bulldozer (pictured) but failed because of the low tide. It could have died as recently as Thursday morning Whale watchers had spotted the humpback three times off Southern California between June and August last year and had nicknamed it Wally, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County whale researche associate Alisa Schulman-Janiger said. It was covered with whale lice at the time, which usually means a whale is in poor physical condition, but it was also actively feeding and breaching, Schulman-Janiger added. Wally was identified thanks to its tail markings, which were compared with previous photos. It had healed entanglement scars on its tail, indicating it had been snarled in some sort of fishing line in the past, Schulman-Janiger said. The carcass was in relatively good condition, which meant the whale could have died as recently as Thursday morning, she added. The whale (pictured) had been spotted three times off Southern California between June and August last year, earning the nickname Wally. It was identified thanks to markings on its tail Experts had hoped to open up the whale more extensively but authorities decided to get it off the beach as soon as possible due to the holiday weekend. Pictured, beachgoers cover their faces from the stench Friday Wally was about 46 feet long and at least 15 years old, meaning it had reached maturity, said stranding coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service Justin Greenman. Skin and blubber samples were taken for DNA testing along with fecal matter to be tested for biotoxins. The experts had hoped to open up the whale more extensively but authorities decided to get it off the beach as soon as possible due to the holiday weekend, Greenman said. North Pacific humpbacks feed along the West Coast from California to Alaska during summer, according to the Marine Mammal Center, an ocean conservation organization based in Sausalito. The species' numbers are extensively depleted, but humpbacks have been seen with increasing frequency off California in recent years, the center's website said. Humpbacks, familiar to whale watchers for their habits of breaching and slapping the water, are filter feeders that consume up to 3,000 pounds of krill, plankton and tiny fish per day, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The whale that washed up is not the same one spotted earlier in the week off Southern California tangled in crab pot lines. That animal was identified as a blue whale. Efforts by a rescue crew in a small boat to cut away the line failed, and it disappeared. California has seen a number of whales on beaches this year. A humpback carcass that appeared off Santa Cruz in May had to be towed out to sea, while a massive gray whale that ended up on San Onofre State Beach in April had to be chopped up and hauled to a landfill. The same month, a distressed humpback was freed from crabbing gear in Monterey Bay. A dead gray was removed from Torrey Pines State Beach in March. Wally (pictured) was about 46 feet long and at least 15 years old, meaning it had reached maturity. Skin and blubber samples were taken for DNA testing along with fecal matter to be tested for biotoxins Humpbacks like Wally (pictured), familiar to whale watchers for their habits of breaching and slapping the water, are filter feeders that consume up to 3,000 pounds of krill, plankton and tiny fish per day Meanwhile scientists are investigating the deaths of three whales found near Anchorage, Juneau and Hope between June 22 and June 28. The first one was found dead in Knik Arm, near Anchorage, on June 22, the Alaska Dispatch News reported at the time. It had been reported stranded two days prior. A dead humpback was spotted floating four days later, on June 26, at Glacier Bay National Park near Juneau. Biologists found that it was an adult male, which was approximately 40 feet long. The whale, nicknamed Festus, had first been spotted in 1972, making it the humpback with the longest sighting history. The third whale was found on June 26 in Turnagain Arm, near Hope, KTVA reported at the time. Researchers have taken samples from all three Alaska whales and are hoping to find out what caused their deaths, Alaska Public Media said. Investigators conducted a full autopsy on Festus, which means he could provide the most information out of the three. Festus wasn't healthy at the time of his death, veterinary pathologist Steven Raverty, who led the autopsy, told Alaska Public Media. He had the highest amount of whale lice seen in animals stranded in the area, which could be a sign of immunosuppression or could indicate that Festus was weakened in some way, Raverty said. Festus' also had diminished fat reserves, meaning he wasn't eating enough. Investigators have yet to determine whether the recent string of whale deaths is linked to the dozens of similar occurrences that unfolded last year in the Gulf Of Alaska. Authorities said the 2015 whale deaths were an 'unusual mortality event'. The cause remains under investigation. The parents of an American held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan have revealed that she has had a second child in captivity. Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle went missing in 2012 while touring the region. Caitlan was 28 years old and pregnant at the time and gave birth to a son while in captivity, with Jim and Lyn Coleman last hearing from their daughter in July 2013, when she and her husband were filmed pleading for the U.S. government to free them. Her parents told Circa they received a letter from their daughter in November in which she told them she had another baby in captivity. Scroll down for video Caitlan Coleman (pictured with her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle in a video released by the Taliban in 2013) has had a second child in captivity, her parents have revealed She wrote saying she and Mr Boyle had another son together, and also spoke of her desire to be freed. 'I pray to hear from you again, to hear how everybody is doing,' the letter said. Addressing Caitlan's younger sister Claire directly, the letter continued: 'Give my love to each member of the family, and share this letter with everyone. 'Claire, as silly as it sounds, I wish you were here with me. Mom, I'd love to hear about all your cooking in delicious detail.' After receiving the new letter, Caitlan's parents recorded a video message to the Taliban's chief, Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, asking him to show their daughter mercy. 'Thank you for sharing such wonderful news. These blessings brought us great joy,' Mr Coleman said. 'Such news has also brought us great sorrow. We desperately want to be with our daughter and hold our grandsons, who we long to meet and care for. Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle went missing in 2012 while touring Afghanistan Caitlan and her husband were filmed pleading for the U.S. government to free them in a video in 2013 Caitlan wrote saying she and Mr Boyle had another son together, and also spoke of her desire to be freed 'As a man, father and now grandfather, I am asking you to show mercy and release my daughter, her husband, and our beautiful grandchildren. 'Please grant them an opportunity to continue their lives with us, and bring peace to their families.' Mrs Coleman, who was wearing a headscarf in the video message, said: 'I really need to see my grandsons. I imagine them all the time, I imagine them and Caity all the time... Every day is so hard, every day is so hard to get through. 'What an amazing thing. I have two grandsons, she says. I really, really need them home.' Caitlan and Mr Boyle set off in the summer of 2012 for a journey that took them to Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and then to Afghanistan. The Colemans last heard from their son-in-law in October 2012, from an internet cafe in what he described as an 'unsafe' part of Afghanistan. In the videos taken of them in captivity, both Caitlan and her husband look frail and thin. A subdued Caitlan - dressed in a conservative black garment that covers all but her face - appeals to 'my president, Barack Obama' for help. 'I am prisoner of the Taliban. I would ask that my family and my government do everything that they can to bring my husband, child and I to safety and freedom,' she said. 'We request the American government do what is necessary to bring our family together in safety and freedom,' Mr Boyle added. An 80-year-old man who gained fame riding horses around the country and saying he's a cowboy helping hungry children has pleaded not guilty to animal cruelty charges in New York City. Tod 'Doc' Mishler was released without bail after his arraignment Friday on two counts of torturing or injuring animals. Police say his two horses suffered from dehydration and bleeding saddle sores. Court papers say the horses had been tied to trees and had no access to water. Mishler says the horses are in 'great shape' and the wounds were 'superficial'. He says he'll fight the charges. Mishler had been issued a separate court summons Monday for blocking traffic and trespassing after riding his horse across the Outerbridge Crossing linking New Jersey with Staten Island. Scroll down for video Tod Mishler, an 80-year-old man who gained fame riding horses around the country saying he's a cowboy helping hungry children, has pleaded not guilty to animal cruelty charges in New York City Mishler had been issued a separate court summons Monday for blocking traffic and trespassing after riding his horse across the Outerbridge Crossing linking New Jersey with Staten Island Drivers were so stunned, that they stopped to take pictures and send Tweets, holding up traffic Police say his two horses suffered from dehydration and bleeding saddle sores. Court papers say the horses had been tied to trees and had no access to water Mishler says the horses are in 'great shape' and the wounds were 'superficial.' He says he'll fight the charges God-loving cowboy Mishler gained national fame galloping into communities. He was arrested three days after riding over the Outerbridge Crossing linking the city's Staten Island borough with New Jersey. Veterinarians who examined his two horses said they suffered from malnourishment, dehydration and open sores. On Monday, Mishler stalled bridge traffic as motorists stopped to stare. He was issued court summonses for blocking traffic and trespassing. Veterinarians who examined his two horses said they suffered from malnourishment, dehydration and open sores On Thursday, police announced more serious charges: two counts of animal cruelty based on examinations of the horses by veterinarians of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Delaware-based animal advocate Christine Whaley, who started a group with a Facebook page called Stop Doc Mishler, applauded the arrest. 'We want people to understand that this man is not who he says he is,' Whaley said. Stop Doc Mishler members described Mishler as a homeless man who had for years abused the animals that took him on what he calls his God-sent mission, carrying a Bible and quoting scriptures. Two horses were seized Tuesday outside the motel where Mishler was taken after crossing the bridge. A Port Authority Police Officer tends to a horse owned by Mishler in this Monday photograph Tod 'Doc' Mishler, second right, and supporters try to get his horses back in Ocean Breeze in the Staten Island borough of New York in this Wednesday photograph He told the Staten Island Advance he was in his room when authorities showed up to see whether the animals outside had been properly cared for. 'I'm in the room and I'm resting up and I get a knock on the door and one of the tenants says, "They're taking your horses."' Mishler told the Advance. Mishler's equestrian trek started about two decades ago in Choteau, Montana, where he sold everything he owned on his 40-acre property, said David Pennington, whose family runs a diner in Manchester, Tennessee, and met Mishler while he was riding through 'on a horse that had some 20,000 miles on him, I'd guess'. After a childhood in Indiana, Mishler worked for a printing company, then as a bail bondsman before attending Western Michigan University for several years, studying philosophy, according to Pennington and others who met him along his routes. The man, wearing a cowboy hat and red kerchief, was riding on one horse while another one trotted along behind him Tod L. Mishler of Ulster Park, N.Y., was seen riding over the Outerbridge Crossing on Monday In 2011 in Madison, Wisconsin, police charged Mishler with animal neglect when his horses appeared dehydrated and underfed,, it's been reported. The charges were eventually dropped, and he agreed to take care of them It's not the first time he's had run-ins with the law. In 2011 in Madison, Wisconsin, police charged him with animal neglect when his horses appeared dehydrated and underfed, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. The charges were eventually dropped, and he agreed to take care of them. People along Mishler's routes provided him with food and sometimes shelter. Last fall, while riding through Tennessee, Mishler suffered a heart attack, said Pennington, a former mayor of Coffee County whose family took him in for a month after he was released from the hospital. Lucky Knott, a spokesman for the Coffee County sheriff, said Mishler didn't collect money for child hunger directly but asked people to send funds to charities. After a childhood in Indiana, Mishler worked for a printing company, then as a bail bondsman before attending Western Michigan University for several years, studying philosophy, according to David Pennington and others who met him along his routes (file) Sir Jackie and Lady Stewart have always had a dashing air about them, and when they took their places in the Royal Box at Wimbledon this week it seemed that nothing had changed. Lady Stewart was the picture of elegance in a red, ruffled blouse and designer sunglasses, her blonde hair immaculate. She is 75 but looks very much younger than her years. Yet how cruelly can appearances deceive. Behind the smiles and apparently relaxed demeanour, the couple have been adjusting to a profoundly painful new reality. Sir Jackie and Lady Helen Stewart attending a wedding in Romsey, Hampshire, last month Two years ago, Sir Jackie reveals to the Daily Mail today, Helen was diagnosed with dementia and since then Sir Jackie has watched with a sense of helplessness as his wifes condition has deteriorated. Today, Helens short-term memory is shot and her mobility is impaired. Even climbing the stairs is a challenge, and she has round-the-clock carers to help her with day-to-day tasks. Sir Jackie, like thousands of others in similar situations, has been experiencing the anguish, bewilderment and frustration of living with a spouse who looks the same, but is profoundly different. A person who acts differently and speaks differently, who can seem clumsy and be difficult or even embarrassing. It has been deeply painful for Sir Jackie to witness this decline in his childhood sweetheart, the woman to whom he has been happily married for nearly 54 years. But, at 77, he remains one of lifes doers. Never one to think small, today he is launching Race Against Dementia a global charity to raise money for research with the aim of ultimately eradicating this cruel disease, which historically has been woefully underfunded. Thats quite a challenge, but it is one Sir Jackie is rising to, aided by his fortune, indefatigable energy and a gold-plated contacts book. In the three months since he came up with the idea, he has persuaded major names including Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of advertising giant WPP, philanthropist Dame Vivien Duffield and Edsel Ford II, great-grandson of Ford motor car pioneer Henry, to become trustees. During our interview at the Royal Automobile Club, of which he is a patron, in Londons Pall Mall, he is wearing the dementia campaigns motif a broken D, dreamt up by Sir Martin on the lapel of his smart blue blazer. Sir Jackie and Lady Helen after he was conferred at Stirling University in Scotland in 2001 Sir Jackie has also amassed a variety of experts in medicine and pharmaceutical research who want to help, and tells me he has given 1 million of his own money to start off the charity, which this week is due to launch a website, raceagainstdementia.com. Clearly, he is now a man on a mission. My wife was the original pit lane girl, my professional stopwatch timing my laps to the millisecond, says Sir Jackie. But I have watched her change before my eyes over the past two years. Her razor-sharp mind was one of the things I fell in love with, and its her mind that is vanishing. Her short-term memory is shot. When I have to travel somewhere, she will ask me ten times in a day where I am going. He adds sadly: Somehow I knew there was a problem when Helen stopped putting on her watch. It sounds silly but she put on the same watch every day, and all of a sudden she didnt. When she went to check the time and the watch wasnt there, she would think shed lost it or that it had fallen off. At first I thought she was being forgetful, but then she started to forget lots of little things that turned into bigger things. Since her diagnosis Ive felt powerless and I knew that I had to do something. Before he started the Race Against Dementia campaign, only the couples closest friends and family knew about Helens dementia. Helen said to me before this interview, Youre not going to tell them I have dementia, are you? says Sir Jackie. Shes a proud woman. But I told her that I had to. There was no choice if Im going to do this. Sir Jackie and Lady Stewart. The motor racing legend has revealed his love was diagnosed with dementia two years ago and he has had to watch as her condition deteriorated Lennon said there are no problems, only solutions. There are breakthroughs in medicine. Think how many people can now be cured of cancer, how many people can live with HIV. When youre dyslexic, as I am, you think out of the box. I want to look at different ways of doing research to find a cure. Crucially, Sir Jackie and his backers have money to help bring that about. I spoke to a friend the other day no names and he said, Jackie, Im sorry, I cant help as much as Id like to but heres 100,000. Isnt that incredible? I am very fortunate to be in this position. Sir Jackie and Helen have two grown-up children, Mark and Paul, and nine grandchildren eight boys and one girl. They divide their time between their estate in Buckinghamshire, close to Chequers, the Prime Ministers country residence, and a house in Switzerland. For most of the marriage, theirs has been a gilded lifestyle with lots of travel, luxury and hobnobbing with celebrities and royals Princess Anne has been a close friend for 40 years. Back in the early days, Sir Jackie and Helen were the poster boy and girl of Formula 1 racing. He won 27 races out of 99 starts and was world champion three times. In 2001, he was knighted. After retiring in 1973, Sir Jackie cut a series of commercial deals (being the first driver to spray a bottle of champagne on the podium brought him a contract with Moet Hennessy) and today he has an estimated fortune of 42 million. Lady Helen has sometimes seemed like a different personality, said her husband Jackie. He said: 'Sometimes if she disagrees with what someone is saying, shell say, Oh, youre stupid,' But there have been dark periods, such as in 2000 when their son Paul had a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma diagnosed. Not long after that, Helen learned she had breast cancer, and Sir Jackie had to have a pre-cancerous lump removed from his face. It was a terrible time, we nearly lost Paul and then Helen got breast cancer. We learnt then that early diagnosis is crucial. His wife and sons cancer treatment was, of course, gruelling but at least it was available. One of the shocks and frustrations of Helens dementia diagnosis was Jackies discovery that there is no treatment for the condition, despite dementia affecting some 850,000 people in Britain alone. The type Helen has is called frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a relatively rare form of the disease that is thought to account for less than 5 per cent of cases. It most often affects people between the ages of 45 and 64, but three out of every ten people with FTD develop it at an older age. It is caused by damage to cells in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, which regulate our personality, emotions and behaviour. The main trouble in Helens case is that FTD has severely affected her short-term memory. She forgets stuff, says Sir Jackie. She wont remember that I phoned her, for instance, or what I was doing last night. Before she was diagnosed, I would sometimes get a bit annoyed, thinking, how could you forget that? There were lots of missing umbrellas, lots of missing things. Helen used to be a brilliant cook, she would cook for 20 people. But she couldnt do that now. Lady Helen is described as frail by her husband, who said: 'She wont remember that I phoned her, for instance, or what I was doing last night' Physically, she is frail. Her mobility isnt as good as it was and that is depressing for her. Well manage to go for walks with the dogs but she gets tired. Were in the fortunate position of being able to afford carers. There are two of them. She has 24-hour care and wears a special bracelet. If theres a problem, if she falls or something, she presses the bracelet and theyll be there just like that. Weve had to think about things. Helens bathroom is now non-slip. Were very privileged that we can afford to do this. I know others in our situation arent so fortunate. One of the symptoms of Helens type of dementia can be a change in personality. Jackie says this has not been especially marked, but there have been some signs. He explains: Sometimes if she disagrees with what someone is saying, shell say, Oh, youre stupid. For whatever reason, the filter in her mind is not stopping her saying something which in normal circumstances shed know would be embarrassing to the person. Sir Jackie says his wife struggles to accept her diagnosis. Its frustrating. It is so difficult to explain. I have in front of me my wife, my partner, who still has this feisty willpower but is not accepting that she has dementia. She knows there isnt a cure, and that may be a reason why she doesnt accept she has the illness but she is beginning to come to terms with it, I think. She phoned our son Mark the other day, and she said, Ive got dementia. That was the first time I had heard her say that. Before then, she had only told a couple of her closest friends. He believes it is important for Helen, and others with dementia, to come out of the closet so friends and family can understand why their behaviour has changed. He compares dementia with his own dyslexia, which went undiagnosed as he grew up in the village of Milton in Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Theres frustration and embarrassment, he says. Its like dyslexia. I was 42 when I told Helen I was dyslexic. At school I was perceived to be stupid I had to believe it because my teacher told me thats what I was. But you have to come out of the closet. I cant read or write and I cant say the alphabet. I cant recite the Lords Prayer, but I know now Im not stupid. Similarly, Helen is forgetful but in other ways her mind is still sharp, and thankfully she still has her long-term memory. Racing driver Jackie in his car in 1964. He competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973 During the half century that Helen has spent with Sir Jackie, she has filled 18 large scrapbooks with treasured mementos of their life together photographs, invitations, telegrams and newspaper clippings. There are pit passes, theatre tickets, menus from Monte Carlo signed by all the fancy folk, telegrams that shows how old I am. Helen loves looking at them, she hasnt forgotten those times. Sir Jackie now intends to devote all his energy to fundraising around the world. He says: When I was a racing driver I had to have the best mechanics, designers and management teams. Now Im in touch with the most eminent doctors to accelerate global research into this disease. We want to work towards prevention and cure. Sir Jackie is desperate to find a cure for Helen but accepts in his heart that it might be too late for her. Yet this, he says, wont stop him trying his damned hardest. Meanwhile, doctors cannot tell him what her prognosis is. All they can say is it wont get any better. Thats where I step in Id give anything to find a cure. Im facing one of the biggest personal challenges of my life. I want to do all I can to help millions of people around the world avoid this heartache. And Im focusing on Helen. I want to help Helen feel comfortable in the long term. Life has changed for Sir Jackie and Lady Stewart, the former golden couple of Formula 1. But they still get out and Sir Jackie says their friends were pleased to see Helen at Wimbledon. She enjoyed herself, he says. Helen is looking very well, she is still an enormously attractive lady and she likes to dress well. We still go out for dinner every Saturday. Helen loves doing that. Were carrying on. And were hoping its going to get better that were going to unlock the puzzle. For further information and to make a donation please go to www.raceagainstdementia.com Country Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Canada Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cuba, Republic of Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Dominican Republic Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Haiti, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Jamaica Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Mexico, United Mexican States Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu US Virgin Islands Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland United States Minor Outlying Islands United States of America Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe Schaquana Spears was arrested June 20 in Baton Rouge and charged with two counts of cruelty to juveniles A 30-year-old mother who was jailed for whipping her three sons after they were suspected burglary will not be charged, says a Louisiana district attorney. Schaquana Spears was arrested June 20 in Baton Rouge and charged with two counts of cruelty to juveniles, which are felony charges. A sheriff's report said she allegedly whipped her 13, 12 and 10-year-old boys. The lacerations broke the skin of the 12 and 13-year-olds' arms and caused them to bleed, according to a police report. Spears whipped the boys June 17 after she found out they had stolen a hoverboard and other items from a neighbor's house, Brenden Craig, her lawyer, said. But East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III told The Advocate: 'At this time I have no intention to prosecute. It would take something significant to change my opinion.' After her arrest in June, she was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, where her bond was set at $2,500. Spears found herself in the national spotlight after her jail time but was later held up as a model parent by high-ranking state officials. After her release, Spears spoke out to say that she couldn't understand how she could have been arrested and jailed for what she did. Everything I do is for my kids, she told WBRZ. I didnt want them to commit another crime. But the 30-year-old mother who was jailed for whipping her three sons (pictured in 2012) for suspected burglary will not be charged She was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, where her bond was set at $2,500. Speaking after her release, she said: Everything I do is for my kids. I didnt want them to commit another crime. She said in other interviews that the children's father was in prison and that she didn't want them to end up there, too. She added: Its been hell. I never could imagine that trying to be a good mother would end me up in jail with a criminal record like Im a predator out to hurt my kids. I dont think it is right at all. I really love my children. But Louisiana State Treasurer John Kennedy, a Republican running for a U.S. Senate seat, said 'sparing the rod leads to an imprisoned child.' His sentiment was echoed by Jeff Landry, the Louisiana attorney general. And many fellow parents took to social media at the time to voice their support. Louisiana State Treasurer John Kennedy (right), a Republican running for a U.S. Senate seat, said 'sparing the rod leads to an imprisoned child'. His sentiment was echoed by Jeff Landry, the Louisiana attorney general (left) Since her release from prison, Spears has spoken out to say that she cant understand how she could be arrested and jailed for what she did Patricia Williams wrote on Facebook: She shouldnt be arrested. She should be given a medal. I bet these boys think twice before burglarizing another house. While another mother, Kimberly Cox said: I applaud this mother. She was doing what a parent does, disciplining her children. They didnt skip school or tell a lie they broke into someones home and stole. Her lawyer, Craig said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that he was pleased with District Attorney Moore's statements. 'It was perfectly justified, reasonable discipline of her children,' Craig said. He said Spears' actions never rose 'to the level of what you could call abuse or any criminal behavior.' Advertisement Justin Trudeau celebrated his first Canada Day in office with a dance. The fresh-faced 44-year-old was all smiles watching a band perform at the official ceremony on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, to mark the country's 149th anniversary. But halfway through the song he burst into an impromptu line dance with his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, their daughter Ella-Grace, the Heritage Minister Melanie Joly, and Canada's Governor General David Johnston. Like the thousands of screaming people gathered in the square, Trudeau was sporting Canadian colors. He wore red-and-white socks with a maple leaf pattern under his blue suit for the occasion, and a red-and-white polka dot tie. Time to celebrate! Justin Trudeau was all smiles on Friday as he danced with Canada's Governor General David Johnston (left), Heritage Minister Melanie Joly (second right), and his wife Sophie Gregoire (right) Patriotic: Trudeau opted for some zany maple leaf socks while Sophie donned some red stilettos Screaming crowds: The prime minister seemed just as excited as the people waiting to shake his hands He took part in a smudging ceremony with Heritage Minister Melanie Joly and Elder Dominique Rankin Sophie opted for an edgy red suit with red stilettos and a white hat. The couple danced on the red carpet with Heritage Minister Melanie Joly and Governor General David Johnston before going to greet the crowds. They also held a ceremony with Elder Dominique Rankin of Canada's indigenous community. But first, Trudeau gave a speech celebrating Canada's diversity and urging Canadians to unite in the face of global unrest and terror. 'Happy birthday, Canada,' he told the crowds. 'On this day 149 years ago, the people of this great land came together. There would no longer be an upper Canada or a lower Canada, a Canada west or a Canada east. Instead, there would be one nation, one country, one Canada. Ritual: The First Family - Justin Trudeau, his son Xavier, wife Sophie, and daughter Ella-Grace - stood with Melanie Joly (R - L) to watch the Royal Canadian Air Force show team perform the diamond formation pass Airs and graces: Ella-Grace giggled as she wore her mother's formal hat and showed off her red manicure Sophie Gregoire Trudeau (right) and her daughter Ella-Grace watch performers at the event Happy: The country has embraced Sophie and her husband Justin since the landslide election in November The family danced after Justin gave a speech celebrating Canada's diversity in the face of global unrest Trudeau shakes hands with a Syrian refugee during Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill 'From the outset, Canada was formed not in spite of differences, but because of them. Today, as we celebrate our nation's birthday, let us also celebrate our diversity.' Trudeau has gone from strength to strength since his election in November, rocketing to global fame with his pro-diversity speeches - and suave good looks. On Friday he thanked the Canadian people for their support. 'Before I get started I have to say, like so many of you here, I've been coming to Parliament Hill since I was a little kid for Canada Day,' Trudeau, son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, said. It is believed she caught the illness from an international traveller Health authorities are worried she passed on the illness to the public The woman travelled from Melbourne to Brisbane while infected A woman who travelled interstate while infected with measles has prompted a widespread measles warning in Queensland and Victoria. It is believed the Victorian woman was infectious in Shepparton, Melbourne, and travelled to Brisbane after having contracted the contagious illness from someone who had travelled overseas. Health authorities are now concerned the woman has passed the illness to members of the public. woman prompts measles alert in Queensland and Victoria after she travelled between the two states while infected with the contagious illness The woman was in Shepparton from June 21 to 25, travelled by train to Southern Cross Station on June 25 and attended Melbourne Airport via Jetstar on June 25 before returning on the 28th. While in Brisbane she caught the Beenleigh train from the airport and visited the Beaudesert Fair Shopping Centre during her stay. 'We are concerned that people may have been infected after contact with the person in that period,' Dr Romanes said. 'Measles has an incubation period of up to 18 days so illness acquired from contact could still be coming through, and subsequent cases could still remain infectious for many days.' The disease is now uncommon in Australia because of the widespread use of the measles vaccine but cases still arise as travellers may bring the infection from overseas. Symptoms include fever, runny nose, red eyes and a cough followed by a blotchy rash that spreads but is not itchy. The rash usually begins three to seven days after the common cold symptoms, generally starting on the face and then spreading to the rest of the body. scare for 'over 100 people' at The Championships Chef Albert Roux, Britain's first celebrity chef, was preparing the three-course meal as part of The Gatsby Club's exclusive packages Oysters are no longer being served at Wimbledon after a bout of food poisoning at a luxury hospitality tent chefed by the Roux family. The Gatsby Clubs exclusive clientele pay up to 5,000 for corporate packages which include a champagne reception and a three-course meal prepared by Britain s first celebrity chef, Albert Roux, 80. And with such steep prices, guests are also offered a complimentary bar and oysters upon arrival. But customers may no longer be getting their moneys worth after organisers were forced to suspend serving the delicacy when a number of guests reported falling sick. One customer, who did not want to be named, said he was warned about the bout of sickness after dining there this week. He said: A friend of mine who is a steward rang me up to find out if we were okay. He said over 100 people had been poisoned and they reckoned it was the oysters. We ate at the Gatsby Club last year and it was excellent, but people need to know if theyre spending this much money. A Wimbledon spokesperson would not confirm the exact number of people that were effected but said it was less than half of 100. The spokesperson added: We were notified by our hospitality partner of an incidence of illness reported by a small number of guests from Monday. Our preliminary investigation has shown that all the necessary food safety procedures have been followed however we have notified the local environmental health officials to continue our investigation. We dont yet know for sure what the cause was but as a precautionary measure, until the outcome is known, we have suspended serving oysters. There has been action both on and off the court at Wimbledon this week. The tournament said 'less than 50' people were struck down with food poisoning in a luxury corporate tent chefed by the Roux family They added that oysters were not widely available but have been removed across the whole site as a precaution. Celebrity chef Michel Roux Jr, Albert Rouxs son, also made an appearance at the Gatsby Club this week. The 56-year-old tweeted: Great day at The Gatsby Club @Wimbledon couldnt do it without the team of smiling runners and washers up, thanks. The clubs restaurant menu includes starters of baked scallop with mussels and cold roast Cambrian mountain spring lamb. Celebrity chef Michel Roux Jr, Albert Rouxs son, also made an appearance at the Gatsby Club Mains on offer include a dish dubbed the Gatsby Club Seafood Platter where guests can enjoy a mix of lobster, prawn, oyster, mussels, dressed crab, potted shrimps, potato salad, shallot vinegar, sauce Bois Boudran, sauce Marie-Rose, lemon and tabasco. Some customers appeared impressed with the restaurants service and posted about their experiences online. Stephanie Turner posted: Such a lovely way to come to #Wimbledon #GatsbyClub. Another added: Wish I was going to the gatsby club at Wimbledon again this year was such a good day. In 2011, Wimbledon bosses were forced to deny that food poisoning had hit a group of players at SW19. After former world number four Robin Soderling was knocked out in the third round by Australian Bernard Tomic he blamed it on maybe something I ate. And after Andy beat Richard Gasquet that same year, he tweeted: I think I just threw up... And Marion Bartoli had to call out the trainer during her match with Spains Lourdes Dominguez because she was on the verge of vomiting. Concerned tournament chiefs asked environmental health officers to check the players restaurant. A Wimbledon spokesperson said they investigated and gave the area the all clear. A hard-left activist who left a Jewish MP in tears at an anti-Semitism event was seen laughing with Jeremy Corbyn soon afterwards. Marc Wadsworth, who accused Ruth Smeeth of being part of a Right-wing media conspiracy, was yesterday expelled from the party. Footage showed Mr Corbyn laughing with the grassroots supporter moments after the incident. Scroll down for video Jeremy Corbyn, centre, pictured with Marc Wadsworth, right, whom he was seen joking with moments after Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth left an event attempting to address anti-Semitism in tears The Labour leader subsequently apologised twice to Mr Wadsworth, who replied: I outed Smeeth, bloody talking to the Torygraph [a reference to the Daily Telegraph]. In footage posted online, Mr Corbyn revealed he was close enough with Mr Wadsworth to have his phone number, saying: I sent you a text. The dialogue emerged after Labours attempt to address anti-Semitism in its ranks descended into farce on Thursday. Before a meeting on the issue, activists from the Corbyn-supporting group Momentum handed out leaflets calling for traitor MPs to be deselected. Mr Wadsworth, who runs Momentum Black Connexions, refused to hand Mrs Smeeth a leaflet when he found out she was an MP. As he accused her of being part of a conspiracy, Mr Corbyn stood by. Mrs Smeeth, a previously loyal MP, then stormed out and demanded that Mr Corbyn resign, saying under him Labour cannot be a safe space for British Jews. Mrs Smeeth, pictured at the event, was accused of being part of an 'anti-Corbyn conspiracy' by Mr Wadsworth Mrs Smeeth, pictured, stormed out and later demanded Mr Corbyn resign, stating Labour was 'not safe for British Jews' under his leadership Yesterday Mr Wadsworth told LBC: Ive received a letter from this very shadowy unit called the constitutional unit and they have summarily expelled me. Previously unseen video footage released yesterday showed the activist laughing and joking with the Labour leader. Mr Corbyn was being ushered away by aides when Mr Wadsworth said to him: I hope I dont get knocked over by the police this time. The leader replied: Im sorry about that. Brexit may have been a blow for Europhile former PM Tony Blair, but his wife Cherie is coming to terms with an infinitely more personal loss. I can reveal she is mourning the death of her beloved mother Gale Booth who has died aged 83 after a long battle with Alzheimers. Gale had been living in a nursing home near the Blairs country home in the Chilterns for the past year. Her husband, Scouse actor Tony Booth, walked out on her when Cherie and her sister Lyndsey were just seven and five. Gale (pictured left) was not just Cherie Blair's mother, she was also her heroine Gale had been an actress but abandoned her career to support her daughters first by working in a Liverpool fish and chip shop and then in the travel department of Littlewoods. Cherie is devastated, says a friend of the barrister. Gale was a strong woman who taught her she could be anything wanted. In many ways she was not just Cheries mother, but her heroine. Tony Booth went on to marry three more times and has a total of eight daughters from five different relationships. Before going into a care home, Gale lived in a modest house in Oxford. But last year Cherie and Lyndsey went to police after 80,000 went missing from Gales bank account. The finger of suspicion pointed at a friend who disappeared to Australia around the same time, having bought a first-class airline ticket. She is the poster girl for female pilots the world over and renowned for re-creating the solo exploits of the intrepid Amy Johnson. But it has emerged Tracey Curtis-Taylor, 54, the self-styled Bird in a bi-plane, honoured for flying across the globe single-handedly, may have had a co-pilot. The man who planned one of her journeys said she embellished the truth about her flights, and flew just four of 36 legs alone. Vital assistance: Ewald Gritsch in the front seat of the plane with adventurer Tracey Curtis-Taylor In the forward cockpit was co-pilot Ewald Gritsch, 50, a highly experienced pilot known as the Neil Armstrong of vintage aircraft. But in a statement Miss Curtis-Taylor said: For the avoidance of doubt, I have always been the sole pilot, despite Mr Gritsch saying it was not a solo flight. She claims Mr Gritsch was simply a passenger but Sam Rutherford, her logistics manager, said the airman gave her vital flight instruction and helped with engineering. On the surface the former waitresss trips mirrored some of historys greatest exploits by flying women. The trip from Cape Town, South Africa, to Goodwood, West Sussex, in 2013 was first completed solo by Lady Mary Heath in 1928. Miss Curtis-Taylor even received an award from the Light Aircraft Association for the 10,000-mile-flight. And Mr Gritsch was on board for parts of a trip from Farnborough to Sydney, where she arrived in January after a flight covering 23 countries in 50 legs, recreating Amy Johnsons 1930 flight. The Honourable Company of Air Pilots awarded her its Masters Medal for 2016 for the flight. 'Betrayal': Tracey Curtis-Taylor, 54, in front of the Spirit of Artemis But Mr Rutherford has now said the many awards she has won are a betrayal of the great solo flights and expeditions she has sought to re-trace. He watched her receive the accolades but kept quiet about his concerns until May this year when his former employer crashed in Arizona. Mr Gritsch was seen to crawl out of the wreckage with her, triggering a social media storm of speculation about the solo nature of her flights. At that point Mr Rutherford, 44, decided to go public, realising that the deceit had become common knowledge in the flying community. He said: I kept quiet for a couple of years out of professionalism. But it troubled me. Then I saw her being lauded and the more awards I saw being given to her the more I realised I had to speak out. It is a betrayal of the great solo flights and expeditions because there has been nothing solo about any of this. Miss Curtis-Taylor also faces questions about why Mr Gritsch appears to have been edited out of BBC4 documentary The Woman Who Flew Africa: The Aviatrix, aired on BBC4 in March 2015 about her first big flight from Cape Town to Goodwood. Plane truth? Mr Gritsch was seen crawling from the wreckage His only brief appearance in the film comes when the plane breaks down and he is seen trying to fix it. But he is not named or introduced and we dont hear him speak. Other than that, the back of his head can be partially glimpsed in the front cockpit. The film introduced the Cape Town journey as ten thousand miles with no modern technology, just a joystick and pedals. But Mr Rutherford pointed out the vintage plane was equipped with the latest navigational devices and GPS. He added: Ewald Gritsch not only helped fly the plane, he owned it, rebuilt it in preparation for her flights and having him on board is like having the Neil Armstrong of vintage aircraft with you. He is a hugely accomplished pilot. Miss Curtis-Taylors website posted: For the avoidance of doubt, I have always been the sole pilot of Spirit of Artemis. In planning the expedition through Africa in 2013 there was an initial hope of a solo flight in the beautiful & original 1942 Boeing Stearman. However, in the early stages of the flight this concept was intentionally and officially dropped. Mr Gritsch admits he was in the forward cockpit for the majority of the flights from Cape Town to Goodwood and Farnborough to Sydney. He said: The situation was that it was not a solo flight. Australians are queuing up to refuse how to vote cards, look at the Senate ballot paper with bewilderment and eat a sausage sizzle as one of the longest election campaigns comes to a close. Polling booths opened at 8am and will close at 6pm sharp across the country. But what do the senate voting reforms mean, where can I vote and does any of it matter anyway? Scroll down for video Australians are heading to the polls after booths opened nationally at 8am. Booths close at 6pm sharp. You'll be given to pieces of paper when you sign off your name to vote. The smaller, green piece of paper is for the House of Representatives and the large white piece of paper is for the Senate Pictured: sample Senate ballot paper. The AEC recommends you number at least six boxes if you vote above the line. You can number as many or as few as you like To find a polling booth in your area, type your postcode into the search bar at the Australian Electoral Commission homepage. You can also find a list of candidates running in your electorate on the AEC website. Voters can head to the polls at any booth in your state. If you aren't in your state on Election Day, you can vote at an interstate voting centre. Volunteers for political parties will be handing out how to vote cards at booths, which will inform voters how that party wants you to vote. Pictured: sample Senate ballot paper. You can vote below the line if you number at least 12 boxes Meanwhile, sausage sizzles are heating up and rank so highly in people's minds that Twitter has launched a temporary sausage emoji Many polling places across the country also have sausage sizzles or cake stalls Pictured: sample ballot paper for the House of Representatives You can follow your preferred party's directions on how to vote or you can ignore it completely. Those how to vote cards will also have information about the party's major policies and hot-button issues. You'll be given to pieces of paper when you sign off your name to vote. The smaller, green piece of paper is for the House of Representatives and the large white piece of paper is for the Senate. Your vote in the House of Representatives will help decide who your local MP is and who becomes Prime Minister. You'll need to number each candidate from your favourite to least favourite on the green voting form. Recent reforms have changed the way you fill out the Senate ballot paper. Previously, voters could place a '1' for their preferred party or person above the line or number each box below the line. In that system, preferences flowed according to the deals parties and candidates made between one another. The AEC now recommends voters number at least six candidates 'above the line'. You can number as few or as many as you like. But if none of the candidates you vote for are elected, your vote will be 'exhausted' and won't be counted any further. To vote below the line you merely need to number at least 12 candidates. While lead pencils will be provided in the booths, it is not against the law to take your own pen to vote with, the AEC said. Pictured: voters head to the polls on Saturday for the Double Dissolution federal election Voters line up at a polling station in Albert Park in Melbourne. All polling places close at 6pm sharp Australians line up to vote at Old Parliament House in Canberra on Saturday, Election Day Voters line up as one of the longest election campaigns comes to an end The AEC also confirmed on Twitter at the last federal election that your vote will be counted so long as it is numbered correctly - even if you draw on the ballot paper. And if you don't vote? You'll be sent a 'non-voter notice', requiring you to either pay a $20 fine or provide a valid reason why you couldn't vote. But the polls are tight with the possibility either the Liberal or the Labor party could form government - so every vote counts. This year, 2.98 million Australians voted at pre-polling booths ahead of Election Day, compared to 2.31 million at the 2013 federal election. Meanwhile, sausage sizzles are heating up and rank so highly in people's minds that Twitter has launched a temporary sausage emoji. You can find your nearest democracy sausage here, or tweet @AusPolling to find directions to your nearest stall. Pictured: Bill Shorten eating a sausage sizzle at a polling place on Election Day Pictured: Malcolm Turnbull casting his vote in his electorate of Wentworth in Sydney on July 2 The AEC also confirmed on Twitter at the last federal election that your vote will be counted so long as it is numbered correctly - even if you draw on the ballot paper Parents with children at an elite Manhattan school are furious about a diversity program that segregates pupils by race and claims that 'even white babies are capable of racism'. Bank Street School for Children on the Upper West Side has said the approach is intended to 'fight discrimination' by creating a 'dedicated space' in the school for kids of color. But one parent whose children currently attend the school told the New York Post: 'Ever since Ferguson, the school has been increasing anti-white propaganda in its curriculum.' Parents with children at Bank Street School for Children (pictured) on the Upper West Side are furious about a diversity program that segregates pupils by race and claims that 'even white babies are capable of racism'. Bank Street School for Children on the Upper West Side has said the approach is intended to 'fight discrimination' by creating a 'dedicated space' in the school for kids of color A slide from the school program obtained by the Post, reveals that children in the KOC Affinity group - meaning children of color - will 'feel embraced', 'explore risks' and 'share experiences about being a kid of color'. While children in the Advocacy Group - meaning white children - are taught to 'raise awareness of the prevalence of Whiteness and privilege', 'challenge the notion of colorblindness' and of 'normal', 'good' and 'American' and 'learn models of White anti-racist advocates'. Another parent said that the children of color are rewarded with treats and other privileges while the white children are 'made to feel awful about their 'whiteness'. While another said: 'One hundred per cent of the curriculum is what whites have done to other races. They offer nothing that would balance the story.' But despite parents' concern, administrators at the school claim that several other New York private schools, such as Riverdale Country School, Brooklyn Friends School and Little Red School House, are teaching a similar thing. The teaching is applied to the K-8 school of 430 kids but parents say it 'deliberately instills in white children a strong sense of guilt', with some children reportedly coming home in tears saying they feel like a 'bad person'. The extreme program is run by Bank Street's director of diversity, Anshu Wahi (pictured) She told The Post that the answer to racism is for white kids to see the 'race in everything' and that the program merely empowers children of color who may otherwise feel 'alienated' and 'devalued in a 'dominant white culture'. Pictured: A classroom at Bank Street The extreme program is run by Bank Street's director of diversity, Anshu Wahi, who said that even babies display signs of racism and encourages parents to make children as young as kindergarten age to talk about race, according to The Post. She added that the answer to racism is for white kids to see the 'race in everything' and that the program merely empowers children of color who may otherwise feel 'alienated' and 'devalued in a 'dominant white culture'. Segregating the children of color, she says, gives them a 'safe place' where they can share their 'ouch moments.' There have also been concerns over the school screening of Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, which depicts Panthers founder Huey Newton as a martyr. A strip club bartender has been arrested for faking her own kidnapping so that her husband would not know she had gone home with another man. Karla Vasquez, 32, called her husband David Pacheco while he worked a nightshift at 4.30am on Thursday. She said two men were sat in her car outside their home. Pacheco rushed home at 6am to find the car and his wife missing. He called Vasquez, who told him she had been kidnapped and was held hostage. Scroll down for video This was the appeal Miami police issued to find Karla Vasquez (pictured) after she told her husband she had been kidnapped on Thursday. Police later found her in her car unharmed with a man she'd gone home with Panicked, he called 911 to report a kidnapping. But after hours of searching, police spotted Vasquez driving her car through Miami at 3pm that day with the man she had met. Under interrogation, Vasquez admitted to police that she had gone straight from work to spend the night at another man's house, and that she had not been mistreated or harmed. The man, who was also taken in for questioning, said he met Vasquez at Styx bar - her place of work - then bar-hopped through the night before going back to his. He showed police photographs they had taken on their bar crawl looking happy and excited. Vasquez was charged with faking a crime, which is punishable with up to a year in jail and/or a $1,000 fine. Pauline Hanson is very confident she will be on her way to Canberra after Saturday's poll - but has been too busy to pack her bags. The One Nation Leader believes she will win her Senate seat and be catapulted back into parliament almost 20 years after leaving. Ms Hanson believes failure to trust the two major political parties is why people are now supporting her. Scroll down for video Queensland Senate candidate, One Nation's Pauline Hanson votes hands out how-to-vote cards outside a polling booth in Brisbane 'I'm very confident and that's the feedback I'm getting everywhere I go,' she told AAP. 'They (voters) are just fed up with the two major political parties ... they want someone who will be straightforward. They do not trust them anymore.' Political watchers say support for Ms Hanson may be strong enough for her to secure a Senate spot in her own right. When asked whether she'd packed her bags for Canberra, Ms Hanson said she had been too busy. 'I haven't had a chance,' she said. Ms Hanson is also confident her party will win a second Queensland Senate spot and believes it has a chance of snaring other lower and upper house seats. 'Whether it's the younger generation, the older generation, even migrants are voting for me as well,' she said. Ms Hanson said her top priorities as a Senator would be to rein in government debt, call for a royal commission into the banking sector and push for an inquiry into Islam. 'If we rein in the debt and get that under control then we would have money to put into infrastructure,' she said, adding the money being spent on the NBN needed review. And if Labor won, she said, border protection would also be a priority. Ms Hanson was first elected to federal parliament in 1996 and was defeated in 1998. She lost a bid for the Queensland seat of Lockyer in 2015 - the 12th election campaign of her controversial career. Advertisement After months of campaigning and endless debate, Australians turned out in their droves on Saturday to cast their ballots for the 2016 federal election. But the lengthy road to election day appeared to have taken its toll on the major party leaders who found themselves fumbling their way through awkward appearances at polling stations across the country. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull bashfully folded his senate ballot paper the wrong way in Sydney while Labor MP Anthony Albanese turned DJ for the day in a last ditch bid to win favour. Opposition leader Bill Shorten suffered the most fatal faux pas - attracting an onslaught of ridicule after struggling his way through a large sausage sandwich. Scroll down for video Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull folded his senate ballot paper the wrong way and chose to vote above the line - one of two ways on the newly formatted paper The Labor leader was at Strathfield North Public School polling station in inner-west Sydney where a handful of cheery voters had set up a BBQ station. No doubt hungry after a week of tireless campaigning, he gladly accepted the sandwich after exchanging niceties with local Labor candidate Angelo Tsirekas. Tucking in to the sandwich from the side, he struggled to fit the bun in his mouth to the amusement of onlookers. Social media was abuzz with criticism of his style of eating later, with many poking fun at Mr Shorten's sideways approach. Anthony 'Albo' Albanese danced away any pre-election nerves with a bizarre DJ set at another school in Sydney. The Labor MP, who has been named as the candidate likely to replace Bill Shorten should he step down in the event of a Coalition victory, jived with a group of children at the polling station. Elsewhere Foreign Minister Julie Bishop struggled to get to grips with her senate ballot paper. The large paper has been 1metre long in some electorates with candidates below the line listed horizontally. Sporting a fresh hot pink manicure, Ms Bishop grinned as she folded her paper at a polling station in Perth. Earlier she embraced an overzealous supporter who leaped in for a hug as she arrived to cast her vote. The simpler House of Representatives ballot paper was an easier undertaking for Mr Turnbull who wore the same grin for photographers as when dropping his larger Senate votes in to the ballot box Opposition leader Bill Shorten (pictured) was criticised for eating his sausage in a bun the wrong way around, while in Sydney's west on Saturday morning with Labor candidate for Reid Angelo Tsirekas The Labor leader was glad to accept the sandwich after greeting local candidate Angelo Tsirekas at Strathfield North Public School in inner-west Sydney At West Moonee Ponds Primary School in Sydney Mr Shorten downed a coffee as his election day appearances continued Casting his ballots with his wife Chloe, Mr Shorten appeared a little hot under the collar Labor Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Member for Granydler Anthony Albanese DJs after voting at Annandale Public School in Sydney Mr Albanese was seen wearing headphones and waving his fingers around while dancing to his DJ set (pictured) Foreign Minister Julie Bishop struggles with her large senate ballot paper at Swanbourne Primary School in Perth on Saturday Ms Bishop embraced an overzealous supporter at her polling station in Curtin as she arrived to cast her vote among fans Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce braved the blazing winter sun in Tamworth, New England, in a khaki hat as he emerged to cast his vote. The National Party leader was joined by his wife Natalie and his parents as he voted at Woodbrook Public School After eight weeks on the hustings, a Newspoll in The Australian early on Saturday morning put the Liberal/National Coalition ahead by 50.5 per cent to Labor's 49.5 per cent in front on a two-party basis. The poll represents a three per cent swing against the government since the 2013 election. If this is repeated on Saturday with a uniform swing we would see the Coalition lose nine seats but retain a narrow majority. The Newspoll of 4,135 people taken from Tuesday to Friday - with 60 per cent of the survey conducted in the final 24 hours - reveals the Coalition's primary vote has dropped one point since the start of the week to 42 per cent, a 3.6-point drop since the last election. Support for minor parties and independents is poised to reach the biggest share of the vote since 1934. Their preferences loom as critical to the outcome in a cluster of close seats, leaving the result unpredictable. The Labor party reportedly needs to pick up an estimated 19 seats in the 150-seat parliament to secure the 76 it needs to govern in its own right. Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce braved the blazing winter sun in Tamworth, New England, in a khaki hat as he emerged to cast his vote Mr Joyce offered a wry smile as he arrived at Woodbrook Public School with his parents and wife. He is seen above with his father, James Bob Katter, leader of Katter's Australian Party which holds one seat in Queensland also struggled with his large ballot paper Sydney Labor candidate Tanya Plibersek (left) appeared to be overawed by the selection of sweet election treats on offer at her polling station Senator Nick Xenophon arrived on a motorised trike to cast his vote in the Adelaide suburb of Glynde on Saturday The only Greens MP Adam Bandt played with his daughter Wren in Melbourne (above) after casting his vote Turnbull called an election early because crossbenchers hold the balance of power in the upper house Senate. They have failed to pass deadlocked legislation to overhaul unions which provided the trigger for a double dissolution of parliament, where all seats in the upper and lower houses are contested. The government currently has 33 upper house Senate seats and needs six more to pass legislation without having to negotiate with minor parties or independents. But some experts are suggesting the upper house could end up with more crossbenchers after the election than before, as voters who fed up with traditional politicians look for alternatives. The surfer casts his vote in a ballot box at Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club in Sydney while still wearing his wetsuit (pictured) A surfer is seen lining up to vote at Bondi Beach in Sydney with his surfboard under one arm and his vote likely in the other A sausage with 'VOTE' written in tomato sauce is seen at St Josephs the Worker Primary School in Reservoir, Melbourne. People have taken to social media to compare notes on sausage sizzles at polling booths around the country A child rests patiently on his pet dog as he waits for his parents to cast their votes in Edmonton, south of Cairns, on election day One for me? A hopeful dog admires its owners sausage roll at a polling station in Sydney Dozens of minor parties and niche candidates are standing with polls suggesting they will attract significant support. A Labor election victory would be comparable to Paul Keating's 'sweetest victory of all' in 1993, according to deputy leader Tanya Plibersek. Ms Plibersek cast her ballot at Darlinghurst Primary School on Saturday morning, saying only Labor could provide strong health, education and workplace policies. She was also seen in jaw-dropping excitment over a selection of sweets on offer at a cake stall at the primary school in a picture which emerged from the polling booths. Ms Plibersek said that the election remained neck and neck, with many voters still to make up their minds. A woman is seen walking past a volunteer supporting the Australian Sex Party outside a polling station at Mount Alexander College in Flemington in Melbourne Osher Gunsberg has supported his former Australian Idol co-host and independent candidate James Mathison by taunting his rival Tony Abbott. Mathison is Mr Abbott's main challenger for the Sydney seat of Warringah, but the former Prime Minister doesn't appear to know who his independent rival is. 'Are you worried about James?' Gunsberg asked Mr Abbott in a video he posted to Instagram. Osher Gunsberg (pictured) has supported his former Australian Idol co-host and independent candidate James Mathison by taunting his rival Tony Abbott 'I worry about all my constituents,' Mr Abbott responded. 'He's not a constituent, he's going up against you!' Gunsberg said. Mr Abbott is expected to retain the blue-ribbon Liberal seat comfortably, but faces a challenge from the former Australian Idol host. Mr Abbott voted on Saturday morning with wife Margie, encouraging his constituents to 'vote Liberal for a stronger economy', but he conceded a swing against him in the seat he has held since 1994 is more than likely. Mr Abbott told the Manly Daily the large number of candidates would likely slash his primary vote. 'I think it will be hard to hold the kind of vote I held last time,' he said. Mr Abbott is expected to retain the blue-ribbon Liberal seat comfortably, but faces a challenge from the former Australian Idol host Mathison, who has appealed to the youth vote through a rigorous social media campaign, predicts the result will be closer than expected Mathison (pictured) is Mr Abbott's main challenger for the Sydney seat of Warringah, but the former Prime Minister doesn't appear to know who his independent rival is Mathison, who has appealed to the youth vote through a rigorous social media campaign, predicts the result will be closer than expected. 'If it goes to preferences we have won,' he said as he prepared to cast his vote in Dee Why, according to News Corp. 'We will have made (Mr Abbott) pay attention to the electorate for the first time.' Speaking to Alan Jones on the Seven Network, Mr Abbott denied taking a backseat in the electoral race, saying politicians had to roll with the ups and downs of public life. 'Every political career ends and most political careers end in disappointment one way or another,' he said. Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his wife Margie Abbott has casting his vote in the seat of Warringah 'If it goes to preferences we have won,' Mathison said as he prepared to cast his vote in Dee Why, according to News Corp A stylish grandfather from Texas has caused the internet to go into a frenzy after his good looks were shared on social media. Photos of 54-year-old Irvin Randle, an elementary school teacher from Houston, started surfacing on social media with the hashtag 'MrStealYourGrandma' this week. In the images, the dapper grandfather sported a peppered beard and appeared in stylish outfits, and some even showed off his fit body. A suave and stylish 54-year-old grandfather Irvin Randle from Texas has caused the Internet to go into a frenzy after his good looks were shared on social media Photos of Randle, an elementary school teacher from Houston, started surfacing on social media with the hashtag 'MrStealYourGrandma' this week Randle, who has two grandchildren, quickly garnered internet fame as the photos went viral, and now he says he is managing to cope with all the attention, the AJC reported. The grandfather had learned about his photos going viral through his friends and family, including his daughter Jessica who lives in Los Angeles, according to the Houston Chronicle. 'She called and said, "Dad, you're trending on Twitter." I told her I'm not on Twitter, and I don't know what trending means,' Randle told the Chronicle. He said he also received a call from a friend in Nigeria who told him his photos had garnered seven million likes there. 'I was amazed at first. Now, I'm overwhelmed. I appreciate all the great comments,' he told the Chronicle. 'I've always dressed like this. I've just been wearing things a little tighter that's all.' The grandfather pictured left while relaxing in the sun and right while out on the town. He had learned about his photos going viral through his friends and family, including his daughter Jessica who lives in Los Angeles Randle out running errands with one of his grandchildren. He has two grandchildren, a six-month-old grandson and a four-year-old granddaughter Randle explained in an interview with podcast Ice Cream Convos that this all started after a guy reached out to him on Facebook last week, saying he liked the way the grandfather dressed and was a fan. He then asked if he could share some photos of Randle on his own social media pages, to which the grandfather gave him the green light. But on Wednesday morning, he was shocked to receive a call from the fan who told him within an hour of posting a picture of Randle, the image had garnered 37,000 likes. Randle has been a teacher for 22 years and currently teaches at Dogan Elementary School As for how he manages to stay so fit, he shared advice on his Facebook page to those who are curious, which included drinking water, eating healthy foods and exercising Randle, who has a six-month-old grandson and a four-year-old granddaughter, has been a teacher for 22 years and currently teaches at Dogan Elementary School. As for how he manages to stay so fit, he shared advice on his Facebook page to those who are curious, which included drinking water and natural juice, eating a lot of vegetables and healthy food and exercising. He also showed the girl, who was mentally unstable, image of his genitals The former hospital security guard with blue eyes and light brown hair that molested a 15-year-old patient with mental health issues will serve four years and six months in prison. Shaun David Fairfield was working at Western Australia's Peel Health Campus in May 2014 when he lured the teenage patient for a walk outside before sexually assaulting her. The 37-year-old denied the charges of indecently dealing and sexually assaulting the girl but was convicted of four counts in the trial at WA District Court. Shaun David Fairfield was jailed on Friday for four years and six months after he molested a mentally unstable teenage girl in 2014 Shaun David Fairfield was working at Peel Health Campus (pictured) when he lured the teenage patient outside and sexually assaulted her Judge Michael Bowden said there was a need to protect vulnerable victims seeking treatment in public hospital from being preyed on. Fairfield also started a sexual conversation with the girl, who had been admitted after self-harming, a photograph of his genitals that he took in the toilets of the hospital. District Court of WA Judge Michael Bowden said an element of grooming occurred on the night and Fairfield, then aged 35, also deliberately took the girl to an area not covered by CCTV. 'You did in fact initiate the sexual banter, you did in fact take her outside,' Judge Bowden said in sentencing on Friday. 'The only inference I can draw I think is that you were in fact attracted to the victim.' Judge Bowden said no force, threats or promises were used, but Fairfield befriended a vulnerable victim and took advantage of her from his position of trust. 'You knew that the victim was a child, you knew that the victim was vulnerable,' he said. WA District Court Judge Michael Bowden declared the need to protect vulnerable victims seeking treatment in public hospital from being preyed on 'Members of the public are entitled to resort to a hospital, particularly children, without the fear that they're ... going to be the subject of sexual assaults by hospital employees.' 'There is a need to protect vulnerable victims who are seeking medical treatment in a public hospital from behaviour of this sort.' He was charged with five counts of indecent dealing with a child, and two counts of sexual penetration of a child. Police in New York City nabbed the grandson of late mobster John Gotti for drug possession this week, it's been revealed. On Thursday, they pulled over 22-year-old John Gotti in Howard Beach, Queens, for tinted windows and discovered he had a suspended driver's license, according to the New York Daily News. Citing a criminal complaint, the newspaper reported that police looked through the vehicle, discovering 18 methadone pills, marijuana, a testosterone bottle, and 205 Oxycodone pills. Police in New York City nabbed the grandson of late mobster John Gotti for drug possession this week. Pictured is 22-year-old John Gotti The drugs were reportedly in the vehicle's center console, inside a Gucci bag. Authorities have charged Gotti and 36-year-old Shaine Hack, who was also in the car, with felony drug possession charges, with Gotti held on bond, the Daily News reported. Gerard Marrone is Gotti's attorney and told the outlet he believed the 22-year-old would make bail Friday evening. Marrone said: 'He maintains his innocence, and were going to fight these charges.' Gotti's Instagram account says he is the co-owner of Rebel Ink Tattoo in Ozone Park, Queens. The 22-year-old is the son of Peter Gotti. His grandfather was the boss of the Gambino crime family and died in June 2002 in prison at age 61. Gotti's Instagram account says he is the co-owner of Rebel Ink Tattoo in Ozone Park, Queens A Texas couple has been indicted on capital murder charges in the February death of the woman's 18-year-old daughter. A Lubbock County grand jury returned the murder indictments on Friday against Holli Jeffcoat's 38-year-old mother, Debi Bryant Holland, and her 39-year-old stepfather, James Holland. Before she died, the special-needs high school student had told school and police officials that her stepfather had been sexually abusing her and impregnated her. Scroll down for video A Lubbock County grand jury returned the murder indictments on Friday against Holli Jeffcoat's 38-year-old mother, Debi Bryant Holland (right), and her 39-year-old stepfather, James Holland (left) Investigators said on February 10, Jeffcoat was found dead at a rural house with multiple stab wounds, a slashed throat and her womb and uterus cut from her. Authorities said there also were indications the killer attempted to cover up the crime by starting a fire and tried to burn her body. James Holland, who was arrested in March on three counts of sexual abuse, is also accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl over the course of six years. Debi Holland was arrested on April 29 on a charge of aggravated sexual assault. She is accused of having covered up her husband's alleged crimes. According to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Debi Holland's arrest warrant offered harrowing details about the alleged abuse. Investigators believed Holland had 'first hand knowledge' of her husband's abuse and was 'allowing' it to continue. Abuse of the teenager was suspected as early as 2010, when the youngster tested positive for an STD in a blood sample taken following a car crash. No charges were brought against her abuser. Holli Jeffcoat (pictured) had her throat slit and uterus removed in a brutal killing in February. Her death came soon after she accused her stepfather of sexually assaulting her However, in January this year the special needs teenager - who had the mental age of a seven-year-old - told school officials that she didn't want to go home with her stepfather because the 'sex hurt'. She also said participating in her PE class was painful because she could feel the baby moving inside her - but her mother had told her they could not afford to get rid of the unwanted pregnancy. In interviews with investigating authorities, Debi Holland initially denied her husband was a drug or alcohol user. Video courtesy: KCBD However, she later admitted he had been intravenously using methamphetamine for a long period of time. Last month, a protective order for Jeffcoat's younger sibling was granted, which prevents Holland from having contact with her, according to KCBD. In this case, officials have been unable to comment after a judge issued a media gag order in May. A Buddhist mob burned down a mosque in northern Myanmar during the holy month of Ramadan as anti-Muslim sentiment boiled over in the Southeast Asian nation, formerly known as Burma. Around 100 police officers were brought in today to guard Muslims living in Hpakant, a jade-mining town in Kachin state. In recent years Myanmar has struggled to contain sectarian tensions between the Buddhist majority and the Muslim minority which have posed a major challenge to the government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi. The attack came eight days after a Buddhist mob destroyed a mosque in Bago state (pictured), forcing Muslim villagers to seek sanctuary in a nearby town The mosque was stormed and set it ablaze shortly after Friday prayers. A police officer, Moe Lwin, said: 'The problem started because the mosque was built near a (Buddhist) pagoda. The Muslim people refused to destroy the building when the Buddhists discovered it.' He said no arrests had been made and dozens of police officers were now stationed in the village, where the situation has calmed down. Yanghee Lee, special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar (pictured), finished a 12-day visit to the country on Friday and warned about 'pervasive tensions' The riot came eight days after a crowd of Buddhists destroyed another mosque in the village of Thayethamin in Bago state in central Myanmar, forcing the Muslim community to seek refuge in a neighbouring town. Tensions are also simmering in western Rakhine, a state scarred by deadly riots in 2012 that left communities almost completely divided along religious lines. The region is home to the stateless Rohingya, a Muslim minority largely relegated to destitute displacement camps and subject to host of restrictions on their movements and access to basic services. Suu Kyi, a veteran democracy activist who championed her country's struggle against repressive military rulers, has drawn criticism from human rights groups for not taking swifter moves to protect the Rohingya. Aung Sang Suu Kyi (left) has been criticised for failing to speak out in defence of the Muslim minority. Although Rangoon (pictured right) is largely quiet, western and northern Myanmar has seen a rise in sectarian tensions Her government recently ordered officials to refer to the group as 'people who believe in Islam in Rakhine State' instead of Rohingya - a term whose use has set off protests by hardline Buddhists who insist the group are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Many Rakhine Buddhists demand the group be referred to only as 'Bengalis' and say they are preparing to rally in protest at the order tomorrow. After a 12-day visit to troubled Rakhine and other conflict sites in Myanmar, UN rights investigator Yanghee Lee warned Friday: 'Tensions along religious lines remain pervasive across Myanmar society'. Jailed for 15 years 8 months on Friday, attorney had asked for 10 months She handed her account to federal agents, they caught him Told a responding mother in Tijuana that he wanted to rape the baby He had posted an ad on Craigslist offering $150 to babysit an infant An Ohio priest-in-training who tried to travel to Mexico to have sex with infants has been sentenced to 16 years in jail. Joel Wright, 23, pleaded guilty in April to attempted enticement of a minor, admitting he posted an ad to Craigslist seeking children as young as one year old to molest. He offered any willing family $150 to babysit their child in 2014. When a mother in Tijuana, Mexico, responded, he told her wanted to adopt and have sex with her baby. He added that he had bought an outfit for the child to wear and infant pain relief medication. In February 2016, Wright, a former student at Franciscan University, then traveled to meet the mother - who had alerted authorities and handed over her Craigslist account to federal agents. When he landed in San Diego he was arrested. And on Friday, he was sentenced to 15 years and eight months in prison - a stretch from the 10-month sentence his attorney recommended. Jailed: Joel Wright, 23, had been jailed for 16 years. He pleaded guilty in April to attempted enticement of a minor, admitting he posted an ad to Craigslist seeking children as young as one year old to molest U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw said Wright, who was born severely disabled and has a litany of health problems including blindness, accomplished many things in life but for whatever reason, over the past few years, pursued children, according to KSWB-TV. 'The circumstances of this case were unspeakable, but today's sentence assures this individual won't pose a threat to children any time in the near future,' Dave Wright, a special ops agent for Homeland Security, told the LA Times after the sentencing. Wright waived his right to a detention hearing and declined to seek bail after he was arrested in February, the Times of San Diego reported. After the Tijuana mother reported Wright to Homeland Security investigators via CyberTipline in November last year, an agent took over her account. Emailing back and forth with the undercover agent, Wright allegedly admitted that he sought to 'buy' children in Tijuana to commit sex acts against. The complaint reveals horrifying details of Wright's plans. In one email, Wright allegedly wrote that he hoped a child he believed he was about to rape would resist. 'If she is angry at me she will be even more fun because she will probably try to get away and it is so much more fun when it is a bit of a struggle - what do you think?' Wright allegedly wrote on December 6 last year. Wright, who studied to be a priest at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, initally planned to travel to Mexico on December 11, but got cold feet, stayed home, and stopped emailing with the undercover agent. But on December 28, he posted another Craigslist ad seeking a 'female tour guide' to help him navigate Tijuana. 'Looking for a female who can help me when I visit and show me local attractions and good food along with places to have fun and introduce me to good people. Please respond with your email and contact information and a pic,' the ad read. The same person who originally reported Wright contacted the ad's sender, and realized the would-be pedophile had resumed his malicious plans. Again, undercover agents took over the communication. After Wright wrote to the agent saying he had purchased a ticket to San Diego, the plan was set up to arrest him upon arrival in California. This picture shows the Craigslist ad Wright allegedly posted on December 28, 2015 The #democracysausage wasn't the only food getting attention in Saturday's federal election, with bake stalls at polling booths offering a range of sweet treats with unique names. Voters eagerly snapped up cakes, slices and biscuits named after politicians and even their various policies. Labor took out the biscuits category, offering two types of Bill Shorten-themed shortbread - the Bill Shortenbread and Almond Shortenbread. Scroll down for video This selection of treats was for sale at Camdenville Public School in Newtown, Sydney and featured Jim Cakesby chocolate fudge cupcakes and Jacqui Lamingtons The quirky bake stall also featured large chocolate chip Tanya Plibiscuits and Alba-cheesy cakes The Opposition Leader also appeared in cupcake form in Sydney, with one voter posting a photo of her Bubble 'O' Bill Shorten cake on a plate with a fork. The deputy Labor leader also got a look in, appearing as large chocolate chip biscuits named Tanya Plibiscuits and as Tanya Pliberslice. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister made an appearance both as a Malcolm Turnover, filled with apples, sugar and cinnamon, and as a Malcolm Turnballs, available to purchase as just one, or three in a 'ballsack'. The Alexandria Park Community School bake sale was selling Malcolm Turnovers, pink and yellow iced Bill Shortbread and Tanya Pliberslice Meanwhile, Tasmanian senator Jacquie Lamby was recreated at Jacqui Lamingtons. Greens candidate for Graylander Jim Casey also appeared as Jim Cakesly chocolate fudge cupcakes. Labor's Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Member for Granydler, Anthony Albanese, had cheesecakes named after him called Alba-cheesy Cakes. ABC TV's Kitchen Cabinet host Annabel Crabb also got in on the bake stall action, producing A Flan for Jobs and Growth, Richard Di Nutella brownies, Bill Shortenbread and Malcolm Turnovers. One person also cheekily suggested she should have also made a Souffle Mirabella. As well as Malcolm Turnovers, A Flan for Jobs and Growth and Richard Di Nutella brownies made an appearance Voters have been warned about anti-Liberal Party text messages claiming to be from Medicare which have been deemed fake. Dozens of people have taken to social media to slam the last minute text campaign and share screen shots of the fraudulent messages sent under the name 'Medicare.' The Health Minister's office has warned voters to beware of the 'desperate and deceitful' messages and called on Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to confirm he was not behind the campaign. Scroll down for video The Government has called on Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to confirm he was not behind an anti-Liberal Party text message campaign 'Mr Turnbull's plans to privatise Medicare will take us down the road of no return,' the message reads. 'Time is running out to save Medicare.' Minister for Health Sussan Ley urged voters to unsubscribe from what she branded a Labor Medi-scare campaign in a statement to news.com.au. 'Australians can spot a fake when they see one and Labor's Medi-scare campaign is the biggest fake of all,' she said. Others took to social media to slam the campaign and said 'Has anyone else received this text message? Is Labor pretending to be Medicare?' Dozens of people have taken to social media to slam the last minute text campaign Some social media users have questioned the legality of the campaign Minister for Health Sussan Ley urged voters to unsubscribe from what she branded a Labor Medi-scare campaign The Health Minister's office has warned voters to beware of the 'desperate and deceitful' messages The messages are in agreement with Labor's campaign slogan that voting Labor is voting to 'save Medicare' 'Got this text from 'Medicare' today. Clearly from ALP. Deceit of the highest order. How is this legal?' 'Tempted to vote for the person who didn't text spam me' wrote another. A spokesperson from the Labor campaign denied any knowledge of the spam message campaign. The Medicare issue has been a pivotal campaign Labor party has been arguing a Coalition proposal to look into privatising Medicare back-room payments systems will lead to full-scale privitisation. The message was so pivotal to the campaign Labor later adopted the slogan: 'save Medicare, vote Labor'. Advertisement While bats might not normally be considered cute and cuddly, it's hard not to be drawn to dozens of rugged-up babies that needed help at a wildlife hospital in Queensland. A group of 28 red flying fox pups were taken into the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital on the Sunshine Coast last week to be treated for hypothermia. The pups, found on the ground at Mount Ommaney in the south west of Brisbane, were thought to have fallen out of their tree roost after struggling with the colder weather. 'When the pups arrived, it was all hands on deck with the three vets and six vet nurses on duty quickly tending to each patient,' veterinarian Dr Rebecca Millers said. 'We administered warm electrolyte fluids, wrapped them in special `bat wraps' and kept them in a cosy environment to bring their temperature back up. 'Bat pups are soothed by dummies similar to human children so each of the 28 patients received their own comforting pacifier too.' The bats were then sent to a specialist care facility on the Gold Coast. More pups were arriving at the hospital on Saturday after being found on the ground at the same site, which will now be monitored. Flying fox pups suffering from hypothermia were found on the ground at Mount Ommaney in south west Brisbane last week Vets and nurses at Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast have been nursing them back to health for a week The baby bats have been given special bat wraps to increase their temperature and pacifiers similar to those given to children for comfort Advertisement Malcolm Turnbull was confident he would still be able to form a Coalition government as the results of the federal election hung in the balance of seven undeclared seats on Sunday morning. The Prime Minister addressed supporters at the Liberal Party's headquarters at around 12.30am on Sunday to optimistically tell them he would be re-elected but warned the final outcome may not emerge until Tuesday with the results too close to call on election day. Around an hour earlier Opposition leader Bill Shorten gave a gushing speech to followers in Melbourne after seeing his hopes of a Labor government evaporate. As of 6.30am on Sunday the Coalition held 68 seats and Labor had 66, with 72.9 per cent of the vote counted. Seven remained undeclared and others swayed after the knife-edge election which came at the end of a marathon two-month campaign. While Mr Turnbull remained set on victory, others pointed to the likelihood of a hung parliament which will leave Australians with yet more political uncertainty. Scroll down for video Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he had 'every confidence' the federal election would return a Coalition majority as the results hung on a knife-edge in the early hours of Sunday AUSTRALIA DECIDES: FEDERAL ELECTION 2016 RESULTS - 76 SEATS NEEDED FOR A MAJORITY WIN COALITION LABOR GREENS OTHER UNDECLARED 68 66 1 3 7 Describing it as a 'very, very close count' as he addressed followers at his party's HQ on Sunday morning, Mr Turnbull shied away from the possibility of a hung parliament. 'Tonight, my friends, I can report that based on the advice I have from the party officials, we can have every confidence that we will form a Coalition majority Government in the next parliament. 'It is a very, very close count. It is a very close count, as you know. And right now, right now, right now nearly 30% of the votes are yet to be counted,' he said. 'The pre-poll will continue to be counted until 2am. But I don't suggest we should wait around for that. UNDECLARED SEATS WHICH WILL DECIDE THE ELECTION Barker, SA (Liberal) Cowper, NSW (The Nationals) Durack, WA (Liberal) Grayndler, NSW (Australian Labor Party) Grey, SA (Liberal) Higgins, VIC (Liberal) O'Connor, WA (Liberal) Advertisement 'And then the commissioner advises us there will be no more carding tomorrow or on Monday and they will count the postal votes on Tuesday. 'And we may, the final results in terms of seats may not be known until then.' He went on to accuse Labor of spreading 'extraordinary' lies in a bid to win the election, namely a text message sent to voters on election day which warned Medicare would become privatised under Liberal leadership. 'The Labor Party, the Labor Party ran some of the most systematic, well-funded lies ever peddled in Australia. 'Telling vulnerable Australians that Medicare was going to be privatised or sold, frightening people in their bed and even today, even today, as voters went to the polls, there were text messages being sent to thousands of people saying that Medicare was about to be privatised by the Liberal Party. 'An extraordinary act of dishonesty,' he fumed. In Melbourne Mr Shorten said the election results demonstrated the Prime Minister had been 'rejected' by the people of Australia as he celebrated the return of his party. 'Friends, we will not know the outcome of this election tonight. Indeed we may not know it for some days to come. There is one thing that is for sure - the Labor party is back!' he said proudly. The Prime Minister said it had been a 'very close' election but remained optimistic his Coalition would triumph After giving his impassioned speech Mr Turnbull was rewarded with a kiss from his wife Lucy while their adult children Daisy and Alex applauded The Prime Minister said he had been advised by the Electoral Commission a result may not be returned until Tuesday but said he was optimistic Mr Turnbull told followers the Labor Party had run a campaign based on 'dishonesty', describing its tactics as 'well-peddled lies' Thanking his followers for their support, he encouraged Labor voters to take 'great pride' in the results delivered across the country. 'In the past three years we have united as a party. In the past eight weeks we have run a magnificent campaign. We have argued for our positive plans and three years after the Liberals came to power in a landslide, they have lost their fan base. 'Mr Turnbull's economic program, such as it was, has been rejected by the people of Australia. 'Whatever happens next week, Mr Turnbull will never be able to claim that the people of Australia have adopted his ideological agenda. He will never again be able to promise the stability which he has completely failed to deliver tonight.' He went on to thank his wife Chloe for her support throughout the lengthy campaign, noting that it had been the longest in Australia for 30 years. 'Chloe, wherever you went in this campaign, you brought the sunshine with you. And I guess the secret is out - you all know how lucky I am.' Labor collected eleven more seats than it did at the last federal election. At the time of Mr Turnbull's speech seven of the 150 Lower House seats remained undeclared. Treasurer Scott Morrison said he believed the party would still be able to storm to victory in a last minute win, declaring: 'I believe we'll be able to form a majority government.' Earlier Labor leader Bill Shorten used his speech at the party's function in Melbourne to congratulate his volunteers for a 'magnificent campaign' Mr Shorten thanked his wife Chloe and their children (above at the Labor Party function) for their support throughout the lengthy campaign The Labor leader led his youngest daughter Clementine with his wife Chloe and the rest of their family through adoring supporters at the party Clementine stole the attention of her older siblings and mother as she hid behind them during her father's speech The Opposition leader's six-year-old daughter seemed a little overwhelmed by the cheering crowds at the Liberal Party's HQ HOW IT HAPPENED: ELECTION 2016 SEAT COUNT WITH 70 PER CENT OF VOTE COUNTED COALITION: 74 LABOR: 66 GREENS: 1 INDEPENDENT: 3 UNDECLARED: 5 TWO-PARTY PREFERRED VOTE COALITION: 49.56 per cent LABOR: 50.44 per cent STATE SWINGS AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT NSW: 3.5 per cent Victoria: 1.8 per cent Queensland: 2.6 per cent Western Australia: 2 per cent South Australia: 3.9 per cent Tasmania: 8.8 per cent Advertisement Earlier in the night former Treasurer Peter Costello said it was not 'inconceivable' neither would be able to secure a win while ABC political expert Barrie Cassidy described it as 'more likely than not' Australia would be left with a hung parliament. After half the vote was counted the Coalition held a narrow lead with 50.2 per cent of the vote to Labor's 49.8 per cent. As the results came in through the night the possibility of a Labor-majority house evaporated while the Coalition's chances grew slimmer. Mr Costello was among the first to point to the likelihood of a hung parliament, telling Channel 9 News: 'This election is getting very, very close. 'Ive got to say its not inconceivable that we could have a hung parliament. He later swayed his prediction towards the Coalition, ruling out a Labor victory by saying: 'I don't think that Labor can win this election.' Mr Cassidy pointed to the possibility of a hung parliament earlier in the night in his coverage for the ABC. 'Now there's the potential for the Labor Party to win seats in Queensland, six at least in New South Wales, three in Tasmania, Solomon they're claiming. 'Mayo falls to Xenophon and you've got Western Australia at this stage of the night. It's more likely than not now that the country will have a hung parliament,' he said. His colleague Antony Green shared the same view and predicted there would not be a clear result at the end of the night. 'We won't know who's won tonight. At the moment on the numbers I'm seeing it's not clear. At this stage the modelling we're doing, the projections we're doing we have the government on 75 seats. 'I don't think we'll have a clearer picture by the end of tonight,' he said. Bill Shorten has ruled out forming a post-election coalition with other senior Labor figures in the past insisting the party would govern alone or not at all. Voters have been left with yet more uncertainty with the outcome of the election still hanging in the balance. Above, Liberal Party supporters at its election night function in Sydney Labor supporters at a party in Melbourne (above) were full of cheers as they gradually collected seats as the first of the results were announced The mood fell more somber when the party was ruled out of leading its own majority government after failing to secure a lead Some Labor voters stifled tears as they watched their chances of seeing Bill Shorten lead a majority government evaporate Bill Shorten was offered a sympathetic pat on the back by a supporter as he was seen arriving at the Labor Party's function in Melbourne It was a disastrous election day for the Opposition leader who earlier attracted a barrage of ridicule for eating a sausage sandwich sideways The Labor leader shared this note with followers on Saturday night thanking them for their support Among prominent victories of the night was Labor MP Linda Burney's win in Barton, NSW. She is the first Aboriginal woman to ever become elected in the House of Representatives. WHAT HAPPENS IN THE EVENT OF A HUNG PARLIAMENT If neither of the major parties secures a majority in the federal election the country will be left with a hung parliament. It will be up to them to negotiate with independent MPs and form the next government. While the politicians themselves will have to draw up arrangements, their efforts are overseen by the Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove. The 2010 federal election returned a hung parliament. The then Labor leader Julie Gillard formed a coalition with independent and Greens MPs in its wake. If the parties cannot agree on terms for a coalition another election will be called as a last resort. Both Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull have ruled out forming a coalition with the Greens. Advertisement Malcolm Turnbull held his seat of Wentworth in NSW with 67 per cent of the vote while Bill Shorten won 61 per cent of the vote in his seat of Maribyrnong, Victoria. Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce held his seat of New England with 63 per cent of the vote, putting on a raucous display of cheer as he arrived at his victory party. He thanked Hollywood star Johnny Depp who he said had given him 'advertising' in the lead-up to the campaign. Mr Joyce publicly lambasted the actor and his now estranged wife Amber Heard for not declaring her two puppies when they flew into Australia on a private jet last year. His tough stance on bio-security laws became a talking point for Depp in interviews around the world. Celebrating his win on Saturday, Mr Joyce said: 'Thanks for the advertising, Johnny.' He also shared his support for Malcolm Turnbull, insisting the Prime Minister would be re-elected because Australians do not want 'a revolving door' of leaders. 'I get along very well with Malcolm Turnbull and had a number of conversations with him tonight. He is most definitely the best person to lead our nation in a time of uncertainty and we're seeing that through Brexit,' he told the ABC. Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott also held his seat of Warringah in NSW with 64.5 per cent. As the first of the results poured in on Saturday night he appeared in an interview with Alan Jones to take a swipe at Malcolm Turnbull. Mr Abbott, who was ousted in September, said the Liberal Party's campaign would have been 'different' if he had been at the helm in the interview. Elsewhere independent candidate Andrew Wilkie was one of few independents to be elected, retaining his seat of Denison in Tasmania. Bob Katter of Katter's Australian Party retained the seat of Kennedy in Queensland. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton was re-elected as was Labor MP Tanya Plibersek in Sydney. Jamie Briggs, a former federal government minister, lost the seat of Mayo in Adelaide to Rebekah Sharkey of the Nick Xenophon Team Party. The federal election results were too close to call throughout Saturday night with the possibility of a hung parliament increasing. Above Malcolm Turnbull casts his vote during the day There was still no sign of Mr Turnbull at the Liberal Party's function in Sydney at midnight as supporters gathered excitedly Liberal Party supporters watched with baited breath as the results trickled through at its function in Sydney 'After a tough fight tonight hasn't been our night, thanks to those who supported me and my best to the new member, it's a great electorate,' he said on Twitter. WHAT THE POLLS PREDICTED Sky News exit poll: 62% of voters predict Coalition victory Galaxy poll of 25 marginal seats: 50% Coalition - 50% Labor Fairfax & Ipsos: 50% Coalition - 50% Labor Essential: 50.5% Coalition - 49.5% Labor Advertisement Former Prime Minister John Howard commiserated with the MPs who had lost their seats and implored any supporters of ousted Tony Abbott to give their backing to Mr Turnbull. 'As far as Tony Abbott is concerned, yes he was, is and will always be a good friend of mine but the party room made a decision and I accept that decision. 'I encourage all Liberals, particularly people who were especially attached to Tony Abbott to... out of respect for his own wishes, to vote for the Turnbull Coalition,' he said at the party's Sydney function. A Sky News poll released on Saturday afternoon revealed 62 per cent of voters believed the Coalition would be re-elected despite earlier predictions failing to put forward a clear winner. It also showed which issues most held close when casting their ballots. Liberal voters prioritised the economy, with 70 per cent listing the budget among their chief concerns. Turnbull supporters talked among themselves as Mr Shorten gave his speech at the Labor Party's function in Melbourne Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce celebrated with his wife and daughters after being re-elected in the seat of New England Let's party! The Nationals leader could barely contain his joy or his dance moves as he celebrated in Tamworth, NSW Mr Joyce delighted in the affection of supporters in his seat of Tamworth in New England on Saturday after retaining his seat Former Prime Minister John Howard addresses the media at the Liberal Party function at the Sofitel Wentworth hotel in Sydney on Saturday night Mr Howard was joined by his wife Janette at the event in Sydney. He implored Tony Abbott fans to give their full support to the Turnbull coalition One Nation's Pauline Hanson was greeted by supporters in Brisbane as she awaited the results. The controversial senator is expected to retain her seat in the Senate The flame-haired senator was surrounded by supporters at a party in Ipswich, west of Brisbane Greens MP Adam Bandt retained his seat of Melbourne, making him the party's only elected member. He celebrated above at its party Mr Bandt celebrated his re-election with a kiss from his wife Claudia at the Greens party celebration on Saturday night Greens leader Richard Di Natale led crowds at the party's election night event in Melbourne after retaining its seat in the Lower House Linda Burney became the first Aboriginal woman to be elected after winning the seat of Barton, NSW Tony Abbott retained his seat of Warringah in NSW. Hours before celebrating his victory the former Prime Minister was seen in an interview with Alan Jones on Channel 7 taking aim at Mr Turnbull's campaign Labor MP Tanya Plibersek was re-elected in Sydney (left) while Foreign Minister Julie Bishop (right) was expected to retain her seat of Curtin in WA At the Greens election night party in Melbourne Senator Janet Rice (above) celebrated after Adam Bandt was re-elected in his seat of Melbourne Property driven issues including negative gearing and building unions were of little matter to them with less than 30 per cent naming it as of importance. Medicare, which has been Bill Shorten's most prominent policy throughout the campaign, drove 83 per cent of Labor votes. They also listed education as a key issue. Liberal voters valued budget and economy as one of the most important issues, with 70 per cent highlighting it, compared with 36 per cent of Labor voters. The Galaxy poll of 25 marginal seats showed the election was merely too close to call, with both the Coaltiion and Labor predicted to win 50 per cent of the vote. Labor needed a 4.5 per cent swing to win - 19 more seats than they won at the 2013 election. Former Treasurer Peter Costello (left) said it was not 'inconceivable' the country would be left with a hung parliament while ABC's political expert Barrie Cassidy (right) said it was 'more likely than not' there would be no clear winner by the end of the night Registered voters who did not show up at the election booth on Saturday could be taken to court, the Australian Electoral Commission warns. The AEC has issued the stern warning to missing voters, who have two options once they are issued with a 'non-voter notice'. Voters can either cop a small fine on the chin or try their luck providing a worthy excuse for their absence. Scroll down for video Voters who do not show up to cast their ballots on election day could be taken to court The AEC will issue notices to each registered voter who failed to show up and vote on Saturday. The notices will demand the voter pay a $20 fine for their absence or write back with a reason for why they could not make it. If the voter chooses neither option they could be taken to court. A spokesman for the AEC told News.com.au: 'If somebody says they didn't feel like it, it's not a valid reason.' To avoid paying a fine or going to court, voters must provide a worthy excuse for their absence The AEC will read each excuse and decide whether they believe it is legitimate or not. If the excuse does not cut the mustard, voters can be taken to court where they face the prospect of a heftier $180 fine. 'If, within the time period specified on the notice, you fail to reply, cannot provide a valid and sufficient reason or decline to pay the $20 penalty, then the matter may be referred to a court,' the AEC's website reads. 'If the matter is dealt with in court and you are found guilty, you may be fined up to $180 plus court costs and a criminal conviction may be recorded against you.' A spokesman for the Australian Electoral Commission said: 'Why wouldn't you vote? It's kind of fun seeing the atmosphere' An AEC spokesman told News.com.au it was 'baffling' voters would choose to ignore the election. 'Above and beyond, the question is why wouldn't you vote? It's kind of fun seeing the atmosphere,' he said. Benefits, welfare and Bill Shorten headed up Australia's most talked about topics on social media as people voted in the federal election. Analysis conducted as the polls closed on Saturday afternoon has shown which election topics Australians were bantering about on Facebook. The revealing charts show Australia's most discussed issues, the most popular leaders and the most politically engaged states and territories. Scroll down for video Bill Shorten was the most talked about Australian politician on Facebook (left) followed by Malcolm Turnbull and Pauline Hanson (right) Bill Shorten surprisingly led the list of Australia's most-talked about politicians, following his resurgence to tie Malcolm Turnbull in the polls A chart of the 'most discussed leaders' surprisingly begins with Bill Shorten, not his favoured rival Malcolm Turnbull. Mr Shorten was written off by many pundits come election day but his resurgence to a 50-50 dead heat in the polls obviously has many talking about his prospects. Mr Turnbull was the second most talked about leader followed by the polarising and often controversial One Nation leader Pauline Hanson. Independent Senator Nick Xenophon and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce rounded out the list. The word 'sausage' featured three times in the list of Australia's most talked about topics Hungry Australians were keen to mix their trip to the polls with a bite to eat - with 'sausages' featuring three times in the list of most talked about topics The 'most popular words' list was an interesting mix of the serious and the bizarre. Serious 'need to know' terms such as 'election day', 'polling booth', 'double dissolution' and 'ballot paper' were all ranked in the top ten. However, these were mixed with three separate listings for 'sausages', with 'sausage sizzle' the second most talked about topic of the day. The list of most-discussed issues made for more sobering reading, highlighting Australians' concerns about welfare cuts and social issues The home of parliament in Australia, the ACT, unsurprisingly had the most engaged residents on social media Australia's home of parliament, The ACT, had the most people talking about the election, with a heat map of the country showing residents were the most politically engaged on Facebook. South Australia and Western Australia were the second and third most engaged, followed by New South Wales in fourth. Rounding out the list was Victoria. Australians put the environment way down the list at number six, just ahead of governance and terrorism The 'most discussed issues' list revealed which policy topics were of most importance to Australians. A contentious issue in any election, it was of no surprise that benefits and welfare shared the top spot. Foreign policy, economic issues and the Federal Budget were all more talked about than the environment, which was in turn more talked about than terrorism and state surveillance. Voters were left frustrated as some polling stations after waiting in long lines only to be told there were no ballot papers left. And in the blue-ribbon Liberal seat of Higgins in Melbourne's east, voters were handed ballot papers for a neighbouring seat. About 100 people were reportedly queuing for 45 minutes when Opposition Leader Bill Shorten skipped the line at Moonee Ponds West Primary School in his seat of Maribynong to cast his vote on Saturday, according to Adelaide Now. Upon seeing the size of the queue, one voter reportedly said: 'this is bulls***'. The polling station ran out of Melbourne ballot papers for a short period of time, according to the report. Scroll down for video About 100 people were reportedly queuing for 45 minutes when Opposition Leader Bill Shorten (pictured with wife Chloe) skipped the line at Moonee Ponds West Primary School in his seat of Maribynong AEC reportedly underestimated number of voters expected to arrive at Moonee Ponds West Primary School after low pre-polling. People are pictured queuing at a polling station at Albert Park Primary, Melbourne Voters were turned away from two Gold Coast polling booths after reportedly running out of ballot papers an hours before the polls closed The AEC reportedly underestimated the number of voters expected to arrive the primary school after low pre-polling numbers. Voters were turned away from two Gold Coast polling booths after reportedly running out of ballot papers an hours before the polls closed. People were reportedly 'going nuts' after being told Coombabah and Runaway Bay polling stations in the north Gold Coast seat of Eden were closed, according to The Courier-Mail. 'It's a major stuff-up by the AEC (Australian Electoral Commission),' an LNP official reportedly. 'The booths have effectively closed an hour early and voters are being re-directed to other booths.' The official suggested nearby polling booths could also be forced to close early. Voters endured long queues across the country, as seen here at the East Gosford Public School, NSW One Brisbane woman claimed to have waited over an hour in line with her 88-year-old grandmother Lengthy queues at polling stations were seen across the country. Dozens of people are seen lining up at Leichhardt Town Hall in Sydney One Brisbane woman claimed to have waited over an hour in line with her 88-year-old grandmother. Voters in the Melbourne Liberal-held seat of Higgins were given the wrong ballot paper on Saturday morning for a short period of time, the Herald Sun reported. Ballot papers from the neighbouring Melbourne Ports electorate were reportedly handed out instead. Heart-racing footage shows they were unaware of the police around them Assailants brought down after they robbed female Armed robbers got an instant dose of justice when plain-clothed policemen pounced on them after they attacked tourists in San Francisco. In heart-racing footage that would not look out of place in a movie officers brought down the three assailants immediately after they robbed Argentinian tourists in broad daylight. The crooks were caught on Russian Hill, just a few blocks away from the famous 'crooked' Lombard Street where thousands of holidaymakers flock each year. Instant justice! The moment undercover policemen wearing plain clothes take down three armed robbers On Russian Hill near the famous 'crooked' Lombard Street in San Francisco the robbers were seen reversing Police have now charged Kordell Carter, 20, of Santa Rosa, Pravin Lal, 20, of Marin City, and Lamar Fontenot, 19, of Antioch, with various offences. The footage shows that just after 1pm on Saturday 25 June the group of men backed into a space in their Chrysler on the 1000 block of Filbert Street. Little did they know they were in full view of officers from the plainclothes team who were working a vehicle theft assignment. The trio then attacked Argentinian tourists whom they overpowered and stole their cameras and bags Two of the suspects left the Chrysler and walked down to confront their female victims. One of the men took out a gun before one of the women ran off screaming for help. Despite the other two's attempts to fend off the robbers they were overpowered. The robbers stole their bags and cameras before fleeing back to the car. It was then the officers pounced and apprehended the suspects, recovering the equipment as well as a loaded handgun, which it transpires had been reported stolen in Louisiana. The female victims suffered minor injuries and the men were taken to San Francisco County Jail. A police statement said the trio were charged with: robbery, conspiracy, possession of stolen property, and firearms charges. Foiled: The robbers have been named as Kordell Jamal Carter, Pravin Kevin Lal, and Lamar Akeli Fontenot One of the tourists screams and runs down the hill to alert the officers during the broad daylight attack Police block off the Chrysler and swarm in on the men who have now been charged with multiple offences Lamar was also charged with possession of a burglary tool, reports Kron 4. On YouTube the video was posted by user 'Some One', and it has now gained over one million views. The user wrote: 'We've had a large uptick in tourist theft recently, though mostly 'smash and grab' out of parked cars. Really glad the cops were so vigilant this afternoon.' In a statement Mayor Ed Lee said: 'Our officers work hard every day to keep our City safe and put their own lives at risk to protect our residents. An angry Jeremy Corbyn had to be restrained after he confronted a female reporter who asked if he was 'running away' from questions about his future. The under strain Labour leader was held back by aides when he turned around and approached the journalist in north London. Mr Corbyn was walking across a field after he gave a speech at a 'Love Islington, Say No to Hate Crime' rally. The under strain Labour leader (pictured) had just given a speech at an anti-hate crime rally in north London Mr Corbyn was held back by his aides (pictured right) when he reacted to a journalist who claimed he was 'walking away from the media...' Members of Mr Corbyn's team pleaded with him to turn round and carry on walking after he reacted Mr Corbyn approached the female journalist (pictured centre) after he was followed across the field The embattled Labour eventually left the reporter and said if she wants to arrange an interview to 'get in touch with my office' A group of reporters and photographers followed him and his team, with one journalist asking: 'Mr Corbyn, when are you going to stand down?' and 'How much longer can you stay [as leader]?'. Mr Corbyn kept walking until he turned around when another female reporter, who works for ITN, claimed he was 'running away from the media'. At least two of the hard-left leader's aides held him back and pleaded with him to keep walking. Photographer Julian Andrews told The Telegraph: 'There were three or four camera crews and a handful of photographers. Everyone had been told that he wasn't answering questions. Mr Corbyn outside his north Islington home earlier 'He was walking backing to his car when it happened. 'The reporter asked him if he was running away and he completely fired up. He swung around and made his way to confront her but two or three aides carried him away. He was really p***** off. 'At the end he put his game face back on and said "get in touch with my office".' At the end of the confrontation, Mr Corbyn can be heard saying: 'If you want to arrange an interview speak to my press office, thank you.' Earlier today Mr Corbyn came under pressure again to resign after retirement plans were drawn up by his own shadow cabinet were revealed. A timetable to let the 67-year-old embattled leader resign 'with dignity' has been prepared. Mr Corbyn's tumultuous week included the resignation of 60 senior and junior shadow ministers and losing a no-confidence vote. His team have strongly maintained he will continue whilst he has grassroots support. But his shadow team is working on a compromise to retain some of his polices if he departs now. The group of shadow cabinet members were snubbed when they tried to meet Mr Corbyn on Thursday to discuss the plan, according to the BBC. James Schneider, of grassroots Labour movement Momentum, has rubbished the proposal as Mr Corbyn has 'enormous' support. 'If they are unhappy with Jeremy Corbyn's leadership or the policies which he is standing for, they need to get 51 signatures, they need to find a candidate, they need to find a platform and they need to go for it,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. 'But they don't have a candidate who can beat Jeremy Corbyn.' Policies like tackling inequality and promoting democracy within the party would be kept under Mr Corbyn's retirement plan. Former Labour leaders Ed Miliband, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and Neil Kinnock have all called on the Islington North MP to stand down. Lord Kinnock said: 'I totally understand and I completely support the members of Parliament who voted in the no-confidence motion,' he told Radio 5 Live. 'They were doing the clear, honest thing when they are so fundamentally alarmed by the prospects for the party.' Many critics believe Labour is facing its biggest ever crisis. It has been claimed that Mr Corbyn's inner circle of advisers and allies are preventing him from standing down. Mr Schneider said that Mr Corbyn had shown 'incredible steel' in facing opposition in and outside his party. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaking at a Momentum event at the School of Oriental and African Studies in central London on Wednesday Supporters of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn during Momentum's 'Keep Corbyn' rally outside the Houses of Parliament on Monday Mr Corbyn vowed to lead a Labour 'fightback' against the governing Tory party after his unexpected leadership win in September. He got almost 60% of more than 400,000 votes cast, and beat fancied rivals like Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper. This week thousands of Jeremy Corbyn supporters flooded central London to protest against calls for him to resign. Today Angela Eagle, who is expected to be a candidate to replace Mr Corbyn, called on him to do the 'right thing for the party and the country' and resign. 'Let's face it the country is in a crisis and we need strong opposition,' she told ITV News. Theresa May should be made leader of the Tory party without members having to vote, according to some senior MPs and ministers. Mrs May is currently the front-runner to take over the Premiership when David Cameron departs in September. She currently has the formal support of 97 MPs including Michael Fallon and Jeremy Hunt, out-stripping her nearest contender Stephen Crabb, who has 43 supporters, by 54. Front-runner: Theresa May should be made leader of the Tory party without members having to vote, according to some senior MPs and ministers Popular: Mrs May is currently the front-runner to take over the Premiership when David Cameron departs in September Business minister Anna Soubry told LBC radio yesterday: 'It would be best if the candidates among themselves could just back one person and then we can get on with it. This uncertainty - for this to drag on til September - is not great for our country.' According to The Times other contenders for the leadership, including Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom, could be persuaded to stand down should Mrs May become the overwhelming front-runner. But there are warnings that the lack of leadership election would prove unpopular with both party members and the public. Business minister Anna Soubry told LBC radio yesterday: 'It would be best if the candidates among themselves could just back one person and then we can get on with it.' Not holding an election would run the risk of having a Prime Minister with no mandate, a problem that dogged Gordon Brown when he took over the premiership in 2007 from Tony Blair. The Home Secretary, gifted front runner status after Boris Johnson's campaign exploded after Michael Gove announced his bid for the leadership, was endorsed by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon and Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin. Michael Gove has secured 18 endorsements, Andrea Leadsom 17 and Liam Fox just nine - but more than half of Tory MPs are yet to declare a preference ahead of the first ballot on Tuesday. One Conservative MP told The Times: 'I think there will be strong pressure [if Mrs May looks to have overwhelming support] for opponents to start conceding, particularly given what's happening with the Labour Party. 'You can't have a leader who does not have the support of the parliamentary party, like they have in Labour, at a time when we need to get through such important legislation.' Other runners in the Tory leadership race include Michael Gove (left) and Stephen Crabb (right) Deciding on a new leader sooner rather than later would have certain benefits for the Tories: they would be able to go on holiday in August rather than being embroiled in the leadership debate. Mrs May appeared at Henley Royal Regatta in Oxfordshire yesterday as Mr Gove laid out his claim to take the reins of the party Mrs May appeared at Henley Royal Regatta in Oxfordshire yesterday as Mr Gove laid out his claim to take the reins of the party. In a bizarre speech, Mr Gove insisted he was uncharismatic and had tried his hardest not to run - but in the face of the 'hinge of history' he was obliged to stand. Asked for her thoughts on Mr Gove's decision to stand as a candidate, the Home Secretary replied: 'I think it is important to have an open contest.' Former mayor of London Mr Johnson, who had spearheaded the campaign to leave Europe, suffered a crushing blow to his designs on power after Mr Gove withdrew his support. Earlier in the day the Home Secretary had made her pitch for taking the party forward, saying she would help navigate the country through its break with Europe. She added she was 'ready and able to do the job from day one'. Mrs May put out her claim to the leadership two days ago. In a speech setting out a 'one nation' vision focusing heavily on improving the life chances of ordinary people, the Home Secretary took several swipes at her former rival for the Conservative leadership, Boris Johnson - as well as the surprise addition to the race, Michael Gove. While some politicians were driven by 'ideological fervour' or 'ambition and glory', she was the unshowy daughter of a vicar who had public service at the heart of her beliefs, she said. In a jibe clearly directed at the flamboyant former mayor of London, Mrs May said politics was not a 'game'. 'If you are from an ordinary working class family, life is just much harder than many people in politics realise,' she said. 'Frankly, not everybody in Westminster understands what it's like to live like this and some need to be told that it isn't a game. It's a serious business that has real consequences for people's lives.' Boris Johnson leaving his home yesterday as Michael Gove made a speech in defence of his bid for leadership A veiled attack on Mrs May was launched by Michael Gove on Friday, when he claimed he was the 'candidate for change'. He said the country needed someone with 'not just a cool head, but a heart burning with the desire for change'. Rival leadership contender Liam Fox said the feuding between Gove and Johnson was a 'distraction' and that the country needed 'Brexit for grown-ups' in the wake of last week's referendum vote to leave the EU. And veteran former chancellor Ken Clarke told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I do think Michael Gove would do us all a favour if he were to stand down now.' A man allegedly robbed an Adelaide supermarket wearing a pillowcase over his head while wielding a large knife. At about 7pm on Friday, the thief entered Foodworks supermarket on Desmond Street in Pooraka with his face concealed and dressed in all black. Shopkeeper Ben Rosenthal, 21, told 9News the incident was 'really scary'. Scroll down for video CCTV footage shows a man using a pillowcase to cover his face while he robs an Adelaide supermarket The thief was holding a large knife and used it to threaten a young shop worker as he gave the robber cash and cigarettes 'Seeing that knife as well, it was awful,' he said. He claimed the man had threatened him with the knife, and banged it on the counter while demanding cigarettes and cash. Mr Rosenthal claimed the thief yelled at him to 'give me the money, give me the cigarettes - hurry up or I'll stab you'. Police are investigating the alleged incident and running forensic tests on items of clothing found in a nearby alley. They described the man as being about 175cm tall and thin. He was wearing a dark jumper, tracksuit pants and white shoes at the time. Anyone with information is encouraged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Ben Rosenthal, 21, was working at Foodworks in Pooraka when the thief came in. He told 9News the masked man had threatened to stab him The event at Altitude 360, the 'premier sky venue' inside Millbank Tower, central London (pictured), saw a man brandish a knife and resulted in one party-goer being 'violently stamped on' by eight others A venue popular with A-list stars including the likes of Princess Beatrice, Idris Elba and Tamara Ecclestone could lose its licence after a brawl at one of its club nights descended into 'total carnage'. The event at Altitude 360, the 'premier sky venue' inside Millbank Tower, London, saw a man brandish a knife and resulted in one party-goer being 'violently stamped on' by eight others. Several people were said to have been seriously injured in the brawl, which also saw men fighting with knives and bottles and was described by one officer as 'the most serious incident' ever seen. The Metropolitan Police has now reportedly asked for the venue's licence to be revoked in the interests of public safety following the incident in the Westminster skyscraper on Easter Monday. Licensing officer PC Toby Janes, who described it as the 'most serious incident of crime and disorder' he had dealt with, said the nasty fight occurred when a man suddenly brandished a knife. He said the man confronted a group of party-goers who then beat him to the ground and stamped on him, leaving him with a broken leg, before more revellers joined in and began fighting each other. Another man, armed with a 'larger knife', was also then seen chasing someone through the club. PC Janes told the Evening Standard: 'A blood trail down stairs from the 28th floor was later found by police and suggesting an unknown victim has sustained serious injuries, possibly a stab wound.' The newspaper reported that the brawl also resulted in one man being hit over the head with a full bottle of vodka, which smashed upon impact, while another was allegedly punched. It also claims to have seen police documents from the night which claim three men hit a female security guard, someone urinated on a table and a man wandered around 'dripping with blood'. The incident occurred in the early hours of April 17 during a sold-out club night hosted by Paravana Project. The venue, on the 28th floor of the Grade II listed skyscraper, boasts 360 degree views across London and is often attended by celebrities including popstars Pixie Lott and Eliza Doolittle, Lily Allen, Lindsay Lohan, Kate Moss, David Walliams and the Duchess of York. The venue, which is popular with A-list stars including the likes of Princess Beatrice (right), actor Idris Elba (left) and Tamara Ecclestone, could now lose its licence after the police announced plans to review it The venue, on the 28th floor of Millbank Tower, boasts 360 degree views across London (file picture, posed) The Conservative Party also has its headquarters in the same building. On the night in question, around 670 people are said to have turned up to the party venue despite only a maximum of 550 guests having been expected. Altitude 360 confirmed it has received an application for its premises licence to be reviewed. A spokesman said: 'Altitude London is a professional and well-run corporate hospitality venue and we are naturally disappointed with the decision to review our licence. 'We are liaising with our neighbours, the council and the police and we will continue to collaborate with the relevant authorities throughout the review process.' Police are to hold a meeting on Monday, where the fate of the venue's licence will be decided. MailOnline has contacted the Met Police for comment. A Moroccan man who murdered former British Olympic diver David Tarsey and his wife Jean at their expat home in Spain, has been sentenced to 31 years in jail. Painter Driss Drizi, 63, was jailed after striking a deal with prosecutors by confessing to his crimes during a pre-trial court hearing. He was facing a 42-year prison sentence if convicted killing the couple after a trial. Driss Drizi, 63, has been jailed for 31 years after being convicted of killing British couple David Tarsey and his wife Jean Tragic: David Tarsey and his wife Jean were murdered at their home in Spain by Driss Drizi in March last year Judge Jose Daniel Mira Perceval ended up jailing him for 15 years for each murder plus another year for illegal possession of a firearm after his plea bargain deal. The British couple, both 77, were found in each other's arms on their sofa in March last year at their home in Xalo near Benidorm. Both were killed by a single bullet to the head. Mother-of-two Mrs Tarsey was shot first before her husband, a former engineer who competed in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics as well as the 1954 and 1958 Commonwealth Games, was murdered. Drizi was arrested last September after an exhaustive police investigation. Reports at the time said the immigrant, an acquaintance of David's, had confessed during questioning to killing the couple, originally from west London, after a row. Driss Drizi was led into court by police officers. He was sentenced to 31 years in prison after striking a bargain with prosecutors Murdered: The British couple, both 77, were found in each other's arms on their sofa in March last year at their home in Xalo near Benidorm. Both were killed by a single bullet to the head. The horrific nature of the shootings was laid bare in an indictment released by local state prosecutors in May when they revealed they were seeking a 42-year-prison sentence for Drizi. They said he stormed back to the caravan where he lived after an argument with David to fetch an ORTGIES 7.65mm Browning pistol he kept hidden there before returning to the Tarseys' home 'with the intention of ending the couple's lives.' Revealing Mrs Tarsey was shot first in the face, local state prosecutors said in the indictment: 'She was sat on the sofa and taking no part in the argument and had no way of reacting. It resulted in her husband Peter David immediately turning towards her to try to protect her. 'Whilst deprived of any possibility of defence, the accused shot him in the neck, causing the instantaneous deaths of both.' Their bodies were discovered three days later when friends they were due to have Sunday lunch with raised the alarm. It was never made clear why the killer had argued with Mr Tarsey. Couple: The pair, pictured together the day before they married in February 1960, met at a local diving club Drizi, who was due to be tried by a jury later this month, struck his deal during a pre-trial hearing at a court in Alicante on Wednesday. He had been expected to plead guilty to manslaughter but not murder at the trial if it had gone ahead. The written sentence confirming his 31-year jail term is understood to have been released yesterday. As well as being sentenced to more than three decades in prison, Drizi has also been ordered to pay 150,000 euros to each of the Tarseys' grown-up sons Alexei and Sascha. Mr Tarsey competed in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, coming 16th in the springboard and 14th in the platform event Alexei, 50, a chef on a private yacht, revealed just before Drizi's arrest how he was working in the Caribbean when he heard the news of his parents' murder. His brother called the boat and the call was put through to the kitchen. Recalling the moment he was told the terrible news, he said: 'I just knew something was up because my brother would very rarely call me on a satellite phone. 'I was shocked, I didn't know what to think or do. I wouldn't have been 100 per cent surprised if my father had died of natural causes, but to find out they had been murdered at home was extremely shocking. It was very, very unexpected. Police were alerted when friends went round to the house for their regular Sunday dinner and discovered their bodies 'That was a Sunday evening. When I finally got to Spain on the Wednesday, my brother was already there and the investigation was apparently well under way. 'I don't know if it's properly sunk in even now. I think it will take quite a long time before we can digest what the hell has happened, and find out why.' Expat Susan Keightley, 72, a friend of the couple who brought their Spanish villa in 1990, described them at the time as 'lovely.' The alleged incident occurred in Meekatharra, 750km northwest of Perth Laverton man, 32, has been charged with three counts of rape A man has been charged after a woman was allegedly raped in the shower of a campsite toilet block. Police say a woman, 61, was showering in the toilet block of a caravan park in Meekatharra, 750km north-west of Perth, at 11.45pm on Thursday. They allege a man went into the shower cubicle and sexually assaulted her. Police say a woman, 61, was showering in the toilet block of a caravan park in Meekatharra (pictured), 750km northwest of Perth, at 11.45pm A 32-year-old man from Laverton, 950km east of Perth, was charged with three counts of sexual penetration without consent. The man appeared in Carnarvon Magistrates Court on Saturday morning. He was remanded to appear before Meekatharra Magistrates Court on July 13. Police are asking anyone with information to come forward. An incredibly ornate statue of a horse head encrusted with diamante was the unlikely choice of container for would-be drug smugglers trying to get a record amount of cocaine into New Zealand. In May, Customs officers became suspicious about a 400kg horse sculpture covered in black diamante chips after it was air-freighted into the country from Mexico. Investigations revealed there were 35 kilo bricks of high-grade cocaine inside the horse's head, with a street value of $14million dollars. On Friday the New Zealand Police arrested two men at Auckland International Airport - a 44 year-old Mexican national and a 56 year-old US national - attempting to board a flight to Hawaii. The men have been charged with importing and possession of a Class A drug, and appeared in the Manukau District Court on Saturday morning. Pictured: The 400kg diamante encrusted horses head air freighted from Mexico with 35kgs of cocaine inside Customs officers found 35 kilo bricks of the Class A drug inside. The drugs have a street value of $14million Importing a Class A drug in New Zealand usually attracts a life prison sentence. Customs officers used tools to extract 35 kilograms of the drug from the horse, and Stuff.co noted the massive difference in that haul and the 1.5 kilograms of cocaine that had been seized through the whole of 2015. Detective Superintendent Virginia Le Bas told Stuff at a press conference that police were still investigating where the drugs were supposed to have gone. 'There is a significant organised crime group offshore who will be responsible for this and who have lost a whole lot of money,' she said. Detective Senior Sergeant Colin Parmenter, Officer in Charge at Organised Crime Auckland, said the average amount of cocaine seized by police each year was around 250 grams. 'What this find tells us though is that there is obviously a demand for it,' he said. 'While it's possible that this statue may have been sent on to another country, there's every possibility that the cocaine was destined for the New Zealand market and we would be naive to think otherwise.' A 29-year-old Mexican man was also arrested in Christchurch on Saturday morning. He will face similar charges of importing and possessing a Class A drug. The man remains in police custody until he faces the Christchurch District Court on Monday. Police are not ruling out further arrests, and are continuing to investigate. Police are hunting for a man who allegedly masturbated in a cafe as he stared at two female customers. The man entered the Revesby cafe, in Sydney's west, on Wednesday and sat near the women at a table before committing the lewd act and leaving 30 minutes later. The offender remains at large but investigators have issued CCTV images of a man they believe may be able to assist with inquiries. The man wanted by police for allegedly masturbating in a cafe while staring at two female customers A spokesperson from NSW Police Media confirmed to Daily Mail Australia the man was performing the act on himself while staring at the women'. Officers from Bankstown Local Area Command are continuing inquiries into the incident, which happened at about 9.25am. The man is described as being of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern appearance, aged in his 20s, approximately 180cm-185cm tall, of slim build, with dark brown short hair, and dark facial stubble. He is depicted wearing a navy blue hooded jumper with white Puma motif, grey tracksuit pants and white and grey sneakers. Advertisement The Queen today said now is a time for 'hope and optimism' as she reminded political leaders around the world to make 'room for quiet thinking and contemplation' to deal with developments in a 'fast-moving world'. Opening the fifth session of Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh today, Her Majesty used her address to refer to 'increasingly complex and demanding' times where events and developments 'can and do take place at remarkable speed'. The opening ceremony was held just over a week after the UK voted to leave the European Union - but Scotland's vote to stay prompted fresh fears over the future of the Union, with a second Scottish independence referendum now a real possibility. Scroll down for video Opening the fifth session of Scottish Parliament today, Her Majesty used her address to refer to 'increasingly complex and demanding' times where events and developments 'can and do take place at remarkable speed'. The Queen said now is a time for 'hope and optimism'. The Queen meets First Minister and Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon, as she attends the opening of the fifth session of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. Her Majesty urged political leaders around the world to make 'room for quiet thinking and contemplation' After the Queen's speech, Nicola Sturgeon wished her Majesty a 'very happy 90th birthday year' before saying that now is the time to 'come together and to look forward' as she promised to not 'shy away from any challenge we face, no matter how difficult or deep-rooted' Agatha King, five, presents the Queen with flowers as she leaves the fifth session of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh this afternoon Addressing the congregation today, the Queen said: 'Occasions such as today are rightly a time for hope and optimism. The beginning of this new session in particular brings with it a real sense of renewal, with your largest intake of new members since 1999. 'For me, it also brings an echo of the excitement and enthusiasm I encountered that year, when many of the then MSPs and I am pleased to note that quite a number are still serving today - set out on a collective journey in Scottish public service. Seventeen years, the Scottish Parliament has grown in maturity and skill. Of course, we all live in an increasingly complex and demanding world, where events and developments can and do take place at remarkable speed and retaining the ability to stay calm and collected can at times be hard. 'As this Parliament has successfully demonstrated over the years, one hallmark of leadership in such a fast moving world is allowing sufficient room for quiet thinking and contemplation, which can enable deeper, cooler consideration of how challenges and opportunities can be best addressed. 'I am sure also you will continue to draw inspiration from the founding principles of Parliament and the key values of wisdom, justice, compassion and integrity that are engraved on the mace. These principles and values have already served the Scottish Parliament well and they will continue to guide new and returning members in the coming years ahead.' After the Queen's speech, Nicola Sturgeon wished her Majesty a 'very happy 90th birthday year'. The First Minister of Scotland said now is the time to 'come together, to look forward' as she promised to not 'shy away from any challenge we face, no matter how difficult or deep-rooted'. She reminded her Parliament that 'we must always remember our duty to lead by example'. The Duke of Edinburgh and Ken Macintosh (left), Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, look on as the Queen meets Nicola Sturgeon (third right), Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson (second right) and Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale (right) in Edinburgh The Queen looked resplendent in a peppermint jacket and floral dress as she arrived at Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh today The Queen arrives at Scottish Parliament with Ken Macintosh, Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, as the Duke of Edinburgh follows behind. Her Majesty used her address in opening the fifth session to refer to 'increasingly complex and demanding' times Top left to right: The Queen, Ken Macintosh, Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, and the Duke of Edinburgh listen as First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon speaks during the opening of the fifth session of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh earlier today The SNP leader used her address to celebrate the country's diversity, highlighting the role of immigrants in Scotland past and present. She also stressed Scotland's determination to 'play our part in a stronger Europe'. At the ceremony, held to mark the new parliamentary session that is beginning after May's Holyrood election, she said that while MSPs come from 'a diverse variety of backgrounds all of us have been given the precious opportunity to contribute to building a better country and build it we will'. Ms Sturgeon added: 'To do so we must be bold and ambitious, we must show courage and determination. Our collective commitment to the people of Scotland today is that we will not shy away from any challenge we face, no matter how difficult or deep rooted.' She recalled that at the opening of the first Scottish Parliament in 1999, the late first minister Donald Dewar said the Holyrood institution 'is about more than our politics and our laws, this is about who we are, how we carry ourselves'. The First Minister continued: 'So allow me to reflect on who we are in Scotland today. We are more than five million men and women, adults, young people and children, each with our own life story and family history, and our own hopes and dreams. 'We are the grandchildren and the great grandchildren of the thousands who came from Ireland to work in our shipyards and in our factories 'We are the 80,000 Polish people, the 8,000 Lithuanians, the 7,000 each from France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Latvia. We are among the many from countries beyound our shores that we are so privileged to have living here amongst us. Ken Macintosh (left), Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament looks on as the Queen meets Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie The Queen inspects the Crown of Scotland in the Black and White Corridor as she leaves Scottish Parliament with the Presiding Officer The SNP leader (left) used her address to celebrate the country's diversity, highlighting the role of immigrants in Scotland past and present, while the Queen called upon political leaders to remind political leaders to make 'room for quiet thinking and contemplation' Her Majesty arrives in the Garden Lobby as she attends the opening of the fifth session of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh today The Band of The Royal Regiment of Scotland march down to the Scottish Parliament from the Royal Mile to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon 'We are the more than half a million people born in England, Wales and Northern Ireland who have chosen to live here in Scotland. We are the thousands of European students studying at our universities and our colleges. We are the doctors and nurses from all across our continent and beyond who care for us daily in our National Health Service. 'Whether we have lived here for generations or are new Scots, from Europe, India, Pakistan, Africa and countries across the globe we are all of this and more. We are so much stronger for the diversity that shapes us. 'We are one Scotland and we are simply home to all of those who have chosen to live here, that is who and what we are.' As a nation Ms Sturgeon said 'we carry ourselves with dignity, we treat others with respect, we celebrate our differences'. The First Minister added: 'We are not perfect, far from it, and we do make mistakes. But every day, especially in adversity or sadness, we should seek to offer a hand to our neighbour.' At the end of Australias longest election campaign in 50 years the nation is facing the very real prospect of a hung parliament - with a cynical electorate seemingly not impressed enough with either party to give them the power to govern in their own right. Senior political figures - including senior Labor shadow minister Penny Wong and ABC commentator Barrie Cassidy - have said they believe the nation is heading for a hung parliament. After a swag of pre-poll votes were added to running totals in 150 lower house seats in the early hours of Sunday morning, the coalition and Labor had each won 67 seats, the Greens one and independents four - leaving 11 in contention. Scroll down for video Labor leader Bill Shorten said the result of the federal election would not be delivered on Saturday night, pointing further to the likelihood of a hung parliament Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten (centre) arriving at the Moonee Valley Racecourse before addressing party members during the Labor party election night At the end of Australias longest election campaign in 50 years the nation is facing the very real prospect of a hung parliament- Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (pictured) casts his vote on Saturday Barrie Cassidy pointed to the possibility of a hung parliament earlier in the night in his coverage for the ABC Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten (pictured) Political expert Barrie Cassidy described it as 'more likely than not' Australia would be left without a clear winner at the end of the night. The major parties chased after one another's lead on Saturday, with the Coalition creeping ahead with 50.2 per cent of the votes counted at around 8.30pm. The Labor party followed closely with 49.8 per cent. Mr Cassidy pointed to the possibility of a hung parliament earlier in the night in his coverage for the ABC. 'Now there's the potential for the Labor Party to win seats in Queensland, six at least in New South Wales, three in Tasmania, Solomon they're claiming.' 'Mayo falls to Xenophon and you've got Western Australia at this stage of the night. It's more likely than not now that the country will have a hung parliament,' he said. Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten and Chloe Shorten arrive to vote at Moonee Ponds West Public School polling booth Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is expected to address party members at the Liberal Party election night event at the Sofitel Wentworth Hotel in Sydney WHAT IS A HUNG PARLIAMENT? A hung parliament in Australia occurs when no one party has more than half the MPs in the 150-seat House of Representatives. This means no party is able to pass laws without having support from independent MPs or MPs from other parties. To avoid a hung parliament Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten will need to negotiate with a group of independents to form government. Australia dodged a hung parliament in 2010, with Labor leader Julia Gillard (pictured) forming an alliance with the Greens and Independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakshott Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard (pictured) In the lead up to the election, Malcolm Turnbull ruled out doing any deals with any other parties or independent candidates. Bill Shorten has also ruled out forming a post-election coalition with other senior Labor figures in the past, insisting the party would govern alone or not at all. The independent MPs that the parties could negotiate with following the election include Rebekha Sharkie for the Xenophon party, who is on track to defeat disgraced from minister Jamie Briggs in the South Australian seat of Mayo. Greens Leader Senator Richard Di Natale at the Greens 2016 election night party at the Forum Theatre in Melbourne Greens Member for Melbourne Adam Bandt (pictured) The independent MPs that the parties could negotiate with following the election include Rebekha Sharkie for the Xenophon party- Nick Xenophon (centre) poses with supporters at the post-election party at the Palace Nova Cinema in Adelaide A new election will likely be announced if neither side can negotiate a deal for support in the House of Representatives. Australia dodged a hung parliament in 2010, with Labor leader Julia Gillard forming an alliance with the Greens and Independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakshott. WHAT IT COULD MEAN FOR AUSTRALIA If neither side reaches a majority the country could face weeks of uncertainty, as the rules governing a hung parliament are not set down in the constitution or Australian law. If Australia faces a hung parliament, Malcolm Turnbull would continue in office as he would be the last person to have the majority in the House of Representatives. He would continue to maintain power if he could get support from enough independent and minor parties to reach 76 seats. The crossbenchers could otherwise choose to vote against government proposals including the Prime Ministers proposed plebiscite for gay marriage under a hung parliament- Pictured is marriage equality labor supporter Brian Lau They would need to agree to side with the Mr Turnbull in the event of a no-confidence motion and agree to budget measures. The crossbenchers could otherwise choose to vote against government proposals including the Prime Ministers proposed plebiscite for gay marriage. A hung parliament could block plebiscite legislation. It could also mean that procedural votes go through and a vote is held in Parliament on ordinary legislation for gay marriage, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Advertisement Thousands of people have gathered in central London again to protest against plans for Britain to leave the European Union. Demonstrators wearing EU flags as capes and with homemade banners saying 'Bremain' and 'We Love EU' gathered on the streets around Park Lane for the March for Europe rally. Around 40,000 protesters are taking part in the event, which was organised on social media. They marched through the streets of London, from Park Lane to Parliament Square. A smoke bomb was let off at Parliament Square and one person held a placard with a characateur mocking the candidate for Prime Minister, Michael Gove. Scroll down for video Tens of thousands of people gather in Parliament Square after marching through central London in a 'March for Europe' event Remain supporters near Park Lane in London, as they march to Parliament Square to show their support for the European Union in the wake of Brexit Most protestors were young adults, and many were draped in EU flags while others waved banners proclaiming slogans like 'I'm with EU' or simply 'Wrexit' Demonstrators wearing EU flags as capes and with homemade banners saying 'Bremain' and 'We Love EU' gathered on the streets around Park Lane for the March for Europe rally A man holds a banner during a demonstration against Britain's decision to leave the European Union, in central London Bob Geldof speaks as tens of thousands of people gather in Parliament Square to listen to speakers after marching through central London in a 'March For Europe Event' Bob Geldof (pictured) was among a group of people to speak to the crowds at today's march as it came to a stop in Parliament Square Irish singer Bob Geldof speaks to crowds as thousands of people flood the streets of London to protest against Britain's plans to leave the European Union A man holds up a placard depicting Michael Gove, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson as liars as thousands of protesters take part in a March for Europe A smoke bomb was let off at Parliament Square and one person held a placard with a characateur mocking the candidate for Prime Minister, Michael Gove People hold up placards with caricatures mocking Prime Ministerial candidate Michael Gove and UKIP leader Nigel Farage Plenty of colourful placards and posters could be seen scattered throughout the crowds with messages such as 'Want Eu back for good' There were believed to be between 20,000 and 40,000 protesters taking part in the event, which was organised on social media People of all ages attended the 'March for Europe Event', many of which were wrapped in flags as they strolled through London today Comedian and satirist Mark Thomas organised the march to address his 'anger, frustration and need to do something'. He estimated between 20,000 and 40,000 people would be at the event. He said: 'We would accept the result of the referendum if it was fought on a level playing field. But it was full of misinformation and people need to do something with their frustration.' A cheer went up from the crowd at 11.30am as the marchers set off. Most protestors were young adults, and many were draped in EU flags while others waved banners proclaiming slogans like 'I'm with EU' or simply 'Wrexit.' They chanted 'what do we want to do? Stay in the EU,' as they set off for the Westminster political district. 'I was genuinely stunned on the morning after the vote,' said one marcher, Nathaniel Samson, 25, from Hertfordshire north of London. 'I feel deeply uncertain about my future,' he added. 'I'm on the march to voice my discontentment. I am accepting the result, but it's to show that we won't accept it quietly.' People take photos of a European Union flag in front of Big Ben as the march arrives at Parliament Square in Westminster, London A European Union flag blows in the wind as thousands of protesters take part in a March for Europe, through the centre of London Protesters from a variety of movements march from Park Lane to Parliament Square to show solidarity with those looking to create a more positive, inclusive kinder Britain in Europe People hold up pro-Europe placards as thousands of protesters take part in a March for Europe, through the centre of London European Union flags fly above Remain supporters near Park Lane in London, as they march to Parliament Square to show their support for the EU in the wake of Brexit Demonstrators wearing EU flags as capes and with homemade banners saying 'Bremain' and 'We Love EU' gathered for the rally A little girl holds a banner saying: 'Just because I find myself in this story, it doesn't mean that everything is written for me' Thousands of people gathered for a march from Park Lane to the Houses of Parliament to protest against the referendum result London voted 60 per cent in favour of remaining in the EU in last Thursday's referendum, with younger voters widely in favour of staying in the EU, but 52 per cent of Britons overall cast ballots in favour of leaving One of the rally organisers, King's College graduate Kieran MacDermott, said: 'We can prevent Brexit by refusing to accept the referendum as the final say and take our finger off the self-destruct button' Younger voters were likelier to vote Remain - many of whom worried about their right to travel and work in the EU - while their Baby Boomer elders were likelier to vote Leave A smoke bomb was let off at Parliament Square as part of the pro-EU protest, as crowds held posters mocking politicians such as Boris Johnson and Michael Gove Tens of thousands of protesters marched along Piccadilly protesting against Great Britain's decision to leave the European Union London voted 60 per cent in favour of remaining in the EU in last Thursday's referendum, with younger voters widely in favour of staying T-shirts and badges such as the above were worn by protesters who want Britain to remain a part of the European Union London voted 60 per cent in favour of remaining in the EU in last Thursday's referendum, with younger voters widely in favour of staying in the EU, but 52 per cent of Britons overall cast ballots in favour of leaving. Father and daughter Bill Baker, 59, and Jess Baker, 22, from Islington, north London, had made a banner for the march which read: 'I will always love EU.' Ms Baker said: 'We didn't want to leave but if you respect the decision of the referendum, which we should, we still want Britain to be EU orientated, outward looking and inclusive.' One of the rally organisers, King's College graduate Kieran MacDermott, said: 'We can prevent Brexit by refusing to accept the referendum as the final say and take our finger off the self-destruct button.' Parliament should have the final say on whether Britain should leave, he told the BBC. Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron addresses Remain supporters on Park Lane, before a march to Parliament Square in London Pro-EU campaigners protest against Britain leaving the European Union in central London during a march from Park Lane to Parliament Square Children waved handmade placards as they watched thousands of people make their way towards Parliament Square to listen to pro-EU speakers Three young girls with painted faces and placards join the tens of thousands of people in central London for the 'March For Europe Event' Youngsters clutching signs and placards calling for a second EU referendum and slating last week's result made up part of the crowd Philippa Griffin, 40, from Hertfordshire, brought a French stick to celebrate Europe as her alternative to a protest banner. She said: 'I'm absolutely outraged at the way people voted, the lies the referendum was based on and the divide in the country because of it. My ideal outcome from this march is that MPs realise that leaving the EU is not what people truly want. It feels like our country has already changed.' The Metropolitan Police said there would be officers at the event to provide 'flexible and appropriate' policing. The vote to leave the EU was deeply split. Voters in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the capital London backed remaining, while those that chose to leave were largely from less affluent areas in England and Wales. But there was also a rough generational split. Balloons, stickers and t-shirts were all bought for today's anti-Brexit march which set off from Park Lane and ended in Parliament Square There were plenty of young people at the march today after a large majority voted for Britain to remain in the European Union last week A young boy writes a poster reading 'Peace needs unity. Brits for the EU' during today's protest as thousands travel from all over to attend the march in London The sun shone down on London today as an estimated 40,000 people came together to protest against last week's referendum result Messages such as 'your mistake, our future' were plastered across placards that were waved by protesters in the pro-EU march A poll for BBC's Newsnight programme found that 16 percent of voters think Britain will stay in the bloc, and 22 percent said they do not know if it will leave Susan, from South Wales, poses for a photo with a homemade European Union flag, as she marches through the streets of London A man with the flag of the European Union painted on his face for the march through London in protest against the Brexit vote Younger voters were likelier to vote Remain - many of whom worried about their right to travel and work in the EU - while their Baby Boomer elders were likelier to vote Leave. The narrow victory has triggered anger in Britain among those who wanted to remain in the EU and more than four million people have signed a petition calling for a second referendum. A poll for BBC's Newsnight programme found that 16 percent of voters think Britain will stay in the bloc, and 22 percent said they do not know if it will leave. A Remain supporter on Park Lane in London, as protesters march to Parliament Square to show their support for the European Union in the wake of Brexit Many protesters had their faces painted blue and yellow in the design of the European Flag to show their support for the European Union In the coming days, meanwhile, Conservative MPs will whittle down the party leadership candidates to two in a series of votes and the rivals will then tour the country to appeal to some 150,000 party members for their vote The narrow victory has triggered anger in Britain among those who wanted to remain in the EU, and led to today's march in London Protesters were plastered in stickers and held placards reading 'Dumbledore wouldn't let this happen' and 'British & Broken Hearted' This angry protester held up a handmade placard with the faces of David Cameron, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage plastered on the front An inflatable EU balloon is hung on the Churchill statue in Parliament Square as protesters gather after marching through central London In the coming days, meanwhile, Conservative MPs will whittle down the party leadership candidates to two in a series of votes and the rivals will then tour the country to appeal to some 150,000 party members for their vote. It was reported today that energy minister and Brexit backer Angela Leadsom has become the favourite to face Theresa May on the ballot paper. Gove, who torpedoed fellow anti-EU campaigner Boris Johnson's leadership hopes on Thursday, cast doubt on whether May could lead the country out of the EU after supporting a 'Remain' vote. Curtis has not publicly commented about the issues related to the home or when she will complete the renovations She hosted a fundraiser at the home to raise money for a friend with cancer and charged people $5 to see what it looked like before it's renovated One neighbor said: 'Piles of rocks, foundation everything was left as if time stood still and the earth stopped' Her neighbors have also complained that nothing has been done and are fed up with the home's appearance Years later, the home is not finished and city officials may seize it It's been more than four years since reality TV home renovator star Nicole Curtis purchased a dilapidated home in north Minneapolis with the promise to fix it up. But now the city is looking into seizing the home from HGTV's 'Rehab Addict' star after neighbors have complained about the slow progress of renovations and it's appearance. In November 2012, Curtis purchased the fixer-upper in the Jordan neighborhood of the city for only $2. There were specific requirements that came along with the sale and contract about Curtis needing to 'substantially complete construction' on the home within a year, the Star Tribune reported. In addition, the 38-year-old TV star was also supposed to provide the city with regular updates about the progress on the home. Scroll down for video Reality TV home renovator star Nicole Curtis (above) may lose a dilapidated home that she owns in north Minneapolis because of slow progress on the repairs Curtis, who stars on HGTV's 'Rehab Addict,' purchased the home pictured above in 2012 from the city of Minneapolis for the cheap price $2 With purchasing the home, Curtis signed a contract with the city to make much needed renovations on the home (above) within a certain time frame However, the repairs on the home have been slow and neighbors have complained about its appearance. She is pictured above outside of a home in Ohio with LeBron James and his sons More than two years have passed after the year deadline to complete the renovations and now the city might take legal action against Curtis and seize the house. In late June, Council Member Blong Yang, city staff members and an appraiser took a tour of the property. The city is currently waiting for a formal appraisal to be completed. Casper Hill, a spokesman for the city, told the Star Tribune that Curtis, who is a mother-of-two, has performed some work on the dilapidated property. However, he said 'the issue is the time of performance, as she was given a year to complete improvements.' Curtis had a meeting with Yang and other city officials on June 25 about the issues with the home. There were specific requirements that came along with the sale and contract about Curtis needing to 'substantially complete construction' on the home (pictured right) within a year and provide updates to the city More than two years have passed after the year deadline to complete the renovations and now the city might take legal action against Curtis (above) and seize the house Neighbors have reportedly complained for months to officials about safety issues connected with the property as she has dismissed questions on her Facebook page about the home's progress and not publicly commented Yang stated that a specific timeline on when all of the renovations on the home would be finished was not established. 'She didn't say much,' Yang said. 'I don't know what the plan is. I think we as a city have to figure out what to do at this point, because it has been a burden on the neighbors who live there.' Neighbors have repeatedly complained for months to officials about safety issues connected with the property. Curtis has posted several times on her Facebook page about the issue of the home and said that she hired a contractor to finish working on the home by December 2014. However, she said that the contractor 'kept pushing back and then left two of our sites in shambles.' Last year, she fought with two separate contracting companies that filed liens for unpaid work totaling $36,000. In addition, the property that the city is considering seizing from Curtis has delinquent taxes from 2015 Of the situation with Curtis and the home, Council Member Blong Yang (above) said: 'The neighbors don't deserve this' In addition, the property that the city is considering taking back from Curtis has delinquent taxes from 2015. She dismissed questions on Facebook about why she has not met the deadlines of the contract she signed with the city for the home and said that she is in 'constant contact' with officials. She has not publicly commented about the issues related to the home or when she will complete the renovations. On June 26, she hosted an event on the property offering tours of the house for $5 in an effort to raise money for a friend with cancer. 'Here's the story that was true Nicole Curtis and her crew of volunteers threw together a last minute event to raise money for Sean Boeckmann a couple hundred people raised a lot of $ and brought positive energy to support a great guy fighting cancer done,' she wrote. Yang told WCCO that he thought hosting the event at the Hillside Avenue home was 'inappropriate.' 'We need to be better at not allowing something like this to ever happen again,' Yang said. 'The neighbors don't deserve this.' On June 26, she hosted an event on the property (above) offering tours of the house for $5 in an effort to raise money for a friend with cancer One of her neighbors, Jon Lundberg (above), is upset that nothing has been done to the house. He said that 'this is a charade and a lie.' One of her neighbors, Jon Lundberg, attended the event because he is fed up with the appearance of the house. 'We decided to come down to the event today not to distract from the money going to a good cause but to point out the fact that this is a charade and a lie,' Lundberg said. Another neighbor, Julie Oden, who lives across the street from the property said no progress has been made on the house since Curtis bought in 2012. 'Piles of rocks, foundation everything was left as if time stood still and the earth stopped,' Oden said. Yang said that it doesn't appear that Curtis cares about fixing up the neighborhood, as she promised to do so. 'If she did, her actions would have proven it,' Yang said. Newly-formed Nick Xenophon Team has taken out three SA senate seats The seat of Mayo has been a Liberal seat since inception in 1984 Former federal government minister Jamie Briggs has conceded his Adelaide seat of Mayo to the newly formed Nick Xenophon Team, with the seat leaving Liberal hands for the first since it was formed in 1984. 'After a tough fight tonight, it hasn't been our night, thanks to those who supported me and my best to the new member, it's a great electorate,' the outgoing MP wrote on Twitter. Nick Xenophon Team candidate Rebekha Sharkey was voted in as Member of Parliament for Mayo. She is the only lower house candidate so far for the newly formed party, however three of her colleagues will join outspoken politicians Derryn Hinch, Jacqui Lambie and Pauline Hanson. Scroll down for video New MP for Mayo Rebekha Sharkey poses with Nick Xenophon at the post election party in Adelaide Ms Sharkey has taken out a traditionally safe Liberal seat for the first time since its creation in 1984 Former Liberal MP Jamie Briggs conceded defeat to the NXT candidate on Saturday night. It is believed recent scandals involving a public servant in Hong Kong The Nick Xenophon Team, which was formed in 2013, secured three senate seats along with a seat in the House of Representatives on Saturday. The party could also take two more Liberal seats if successful on the two-party preferred basis in South Australia. According to a recent Longreach poll commissioned by the Xenophon Team, the new party could pick up 24 per cent of the overall vote in South Australia. Nick Xenophon arrives at a Polling Booth on a motor bike trike in the Adelaide suburb of Glynde on Saturday Ms Sharkey briefly worked for Jamie Briggs in 2008 when he first won the seat from Alexander Downer Mr Briggs lost the seat of Mayo after he was forced to quit as a federal minister late last year following allegations of misconduct towards a public servant in Hong Kong. He also sent a photograph to colleagues identifying the public servant who lodged a confidential complaint about his behaviour. He was confronted as he cast his ballot at Stirling on Saturday. 'Do you regret sending that photo of that lady to everybody Mr Briggs. Do you wish you didn't do it?' a woman asked him. Members of the Nick Xenophon team could hold a significant amount of power in the senate, if the election results in a hung parliament. The candidates will be just some in what is expected to be an interesting senate, with three famously opinionated colleagues joining them. Jacqui Lambie formed her own party for this election, and could take out a second senate seat, while One Nation, Pauline Hanson's party, is also in the running for Senate seats in NSW, Western Australia and Victoria. Former media personality Derryn Hinch is also expected to reach the number of votes necessary for a senate seat. Pauline Hanson, leader of far right party One Nation has won herself a senate seat, and is also running in NSW, WA and Victoria Media personality Derryn Hinch has said he's won a senate seat but is still just short of the numbers needed Former MP Jamie Briggs cast his vote on Saturday at a polling booth in the suburb of Stirling in Adelaide WHAT DOES THE NICK XENOPHON TEAM STAND FOR? Some of the major policies of the Nick Xenophon Team are: A $1 maximum bet per spin on pokie machines Increasing the childcare rebate from $7,500 to $10,000 per child per year 50 per cent renewable electricity by 2020 Changing the Marriage Act to allow same sex marriage Fully funding Gonski education reforms Keeping offshore detention centres but increasing Australia's humanitarian intake to 27,000 a year Changes to negative gearing to create more affordable housing stock Acknowledging Indigenous Australians in the constitution Advertisement When a police officer tried to stop a 16-year-old on her way to carry out a suicide pact with her friend, she intentionally rammed her car into another vehicle at 100mph, killing two victims before ran off, court documents state. Marilee Patricia Gardner was charged as an adult facing two counts of murder for the deaths of Maddison Haan, 20, and Tyler Christianson, 19, after she crashed into their vehicle in Roy, Utah. Haan was killed instantaneously at 1.10am on Thursday, while Christianson later died at McKay-Dee Hospital after family members decided to take him off life support. Gardner was on her way to pick up an unnamed 17-year-old so they could buy drugs, take them and crash her mother's car with both of them inside, charging documents cited by KSL reveal. Scroll down for video Marilee Patricia Gardner (pictured) was on her way to pick up an unnamed 17-year-old so they could buy drugs, take them and crash her mother's car with both of them inside, charging documents state When a Clinton, Utah police officer tried to pull her over because she was dragging a plastic garbage can along, she 'purposely crashed' her car into another vehicle Maddison Haan, 20, (left) was killed instantaneously at 1.10am on Thursday, while Tyler Christianson, 19 (right) later died at McKay-Dee Hospital. Gardner appeared at the 2nd District Court in Ogden on Friday and faces additional charges for not stopping at the command of an officer and failing to remain at the scene of an accident involving death. The 16-year-old 'attempted to disable her parents' home alarm, escaped their home and stole their vehicle with the intent of killing herself and a friend in a suicide pact,' the charging document states. Gardner was on her way to picking up a friend to carry out the double suicide when a police officer noticed she was dragging a plastic garbage can under the Chevrolet Tahoe. When the officer tried to pull her over, Gardner accelerated and tried to commit suicide by crashing into the back of a Hyundai with Haan and Christianson inside, according to the documents. Investigators believe Gardner was traveling at 98mph, and Haan died on the scene. Christianson, who was Haan's friend and former co-worker at the Lagoon Amusement Park, was taken off life support less than three hours later, according to a crowdfunding page set up for his funeral costs. Gardner kept driving for another 100 yards after she crashed into the victims, and slammed into another vehicle, fence and trailer before she ended up in a field, Roy police officer Matthew Gwynn told KSL. Gardner appeared at the 2nd District Court in Ogden on Friday and faces additional charges for not stopping at the command of an officer and failing to remain at the scene of an accident involving death Investigators believe Gardner was traveling at 98mph (pictured, the Hyundai after Haan and Christianson were struck by Gardner's SUV) The 16-year-old (pictured) tried to flee on foot and told her dad that she 'might have hurt someone' over the phone, according to the charging documents. She was eventually found and taken into custody The 16-year-old tried to flee on foot and told her dad that she 'might have hurt someone' over the phone, according to the charging documents. She was eventually found and taken into custody. Gardner had run away several times, and had a history of being suicidal, documents state. Friends and family mourned Haan and Christianson's deaths at a memorial on Friday, where balloons were released to commemorate the two. Haan, who still worked at Lagoon at the time of her death, was described as a positive, genuine and hardworking person. Christianson's girlfriend, Courtney Schantz, told KSL: 'Every person he met had something to like about him. He could make you smile. He was always cracking jokes. 'I just find it cruel that the only person out of three who didn't want to [live] had her life spared,' she added. Haan's family members have also created a crowdfunding page to raise money. Lucero is in a heavily sedated state and suffering from a punctured lung He may also have been responsible for stabbing homeless man to death Adam Lucero was stabbed at the Roxy Stadium 14 theater in Santa Rosa The California college graduate who was stabbed repeatedly in the neck in a 'random' cinema attack tried to fight off his assailant, his brother has revealed. Adam Lucero, 21, or Pasadena, California, was watching The Shallows at the Roxy Theater when the man sitting behind him began stabbing him with a chef's knife. Lucero - was left with a punctured lung and injuries to his neck, arm and ear - is in a heavily sedated state in hospital following a lengthy surgery. His attacker Delonte Hart, 23, who is also suspected to have stabbed a homeless man to death this week, was arrested minutes after the assault and has since been charged with attempted murder. California college graduate Adam Lucero (pictured), 21, was stabbed repeatedly in the neck in a 'random' cinema attack Lucero (left) was watching The Shallows at the Roxy Theater when the man sitting behind him began stabbing him with a chef's knife Lucero's brother Michael told of how he fought back as Hart repeatedly thrust the blade into his throat around 30 minutes into the movie, starring Blake Lively. 'Doctors said all his major arteries were missed and his voice box wasnt hit,' Michael told the Press Democrat. He added: 'When youre watching a movie, youre so vulnerable. I think he hit the guy and caused him to run off. 'To continue to fight the guy, which I think he did, thats incredible.' Hart walked out of the theater lobby after throwing a knife in a trash can outside the auditorium. People in the nearly empty theater rushed to help the victim, who was conscious but taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Authorities said the stabbing appeared to be unprovoked and it has been classified as 'random'. A weapon, which Navarro described as a 'large kitchen knife', was recovered from the scene. Hart appeared 'calm and nonchalant' at the time of his arrest, according to Sgt Josh Ludtke. Delonte Anthony Hart, 23, was arrested for allegedly stabbing Adam Lucero, 21, at a Santa Rosa theater In court on Friday, Hart was charged with felony attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, and ordered to return for a formal arraignment on July 8. His bail was doubled to $2million because of the 'public safety risk that he poses', the judge said. Hart is homeless and has only been in the Santa Rosa area for about four months, police said. He is originally from Baltimore, Maryland. Chief Deputy District Attorney Spencer Brady refused to say if he would be charged with the murder of another homeless man Cirak Tesfazgi, 32. Tesfazgi, a Santa Rosa High School graduate, was found dead in a doorway in Riley Street, Santa Rosa, where he sometimes slept rough. Police thought Hart as a 'person of interest' in his killing but he has not been arrested in connection to the death. Authorities said Hart had recently been arrested for being drunk in public.It is not yet known if he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the theater stabbing. Detectives are now asking the public to help learn more about Hart's recent activities and whereabouts to see if he was involved in any other violent crimes, Navarro told Daily Mail Online. Lucero was watching the thriller at the Roxy Stadium 14 (pictured) when Hart allegedly came up behind him and began to stab him multiple times before throwing the 'large kitchen knife' in the trash Lucero is fighting for his life after he was brutally stabbed in the throat and chest while watching Blake Lively's new film The Shallows on Wednesday 'Based on the randomness of the act, the brutality of the act, certainly he's a person we're looking into as a suspect,' Ludtke said of the 23-year-old. The two-story movie theater's entire upstairs was closed for the rest of the night on Wednesday so that police could collect evidence. Former Liberal Amanda Vanstone has been dubbed a 'bully' after attempting to silence journalist Maxine McKew during election coverage by thrusting her hand in front of her face. Ms Vanstone was discussing foreign investment with the Nine News panel on Saturday night, including former diplomat Kim Beazley and former treasurer Peter Costello, when Ms McKew tried to get a word in. 'Hold on, you had your go and I didn't interrupt,' Ms Vanstone fired back and then pushed her palm toward Ms McKew. 'Talk to the hand, the face doesn't want to listen'. Scroll down for video Former politician Amanda Vanstone has been dubbed a 'bully' after attempting to silence journalist Maxine McKew during election coverage by thrusting her hand in front of her face (pictured) Ms Vanstone was discussing foreign investment with the Nine News panel on Saturday night when Ms McKew tried to get a word in Ms Vanstone then took aim at Tanya Plibersek just after she secured the seat of Sydney. During a live cross, the former politician asked Ms Plibersek if she was 'proud of the swing to Labor based on a lies campaign about Medicare'. Ms Plibersek slammed Ms Vanstone for trying to interrupt as she attempted to answer the question. 'No, let me speak. You asked the question,' Ms Plibersek said. 'You tried to introduce a $7 GP co-payment. You tried to increase the cost of medicines by $5. You cut tens of billions of dollars of funding from hospitals. 'You have got $600 million from diagnostic imaging and pathology. If you want an American style health system, Amanda, most of Australia doesn't. They don't want it'. Ms Vanstone then again asked if Ms Plibersek was 'happy to win seats on a lie,' before Mr Beazley interrupted to offer his congratulations. Her comment to Ms McKew triggered a collective groan from the panel, but Ms Vanstone said she stood by her comment. She said she hadn't interrupted anybody else, unlike Ms McKew and continued on making her 'point' about Labor's foreign investment policy. Ms Vanstone then took aim at Tanya Plibersek just after she secured the seat of Sydney Ms Plibersek slammed Ms Vanstone for trying to interrupt as she attempted to answer the question 'Hold on, you had your go and I didn't interrupt,' Ms Vanstone fired back and then pushed her palm toward Ms McKew and told her to 'talk to the hand' Twitter users were divided on whether the comment was inappropriate, with some calling it the 'best comment of the election,' and others calling Ms Vanstone a 'disgrace' Ms Vanstone stood by the comment, saying hadn't interrupted anybody else, unlike Ms McKew As she spoke, a shocked Ms Mckew sat and stared at Ms Vanstone. Twitter users were divided on whether the comment was inappropriate, with some calling it the 'best comment of the election,' and others calling Ms Vanstone a 'disgrace'. 'What are we, in 6th grade?' one woman wrote in response to the hand gesture. 'Amanda Vanstone is a f***ing disgrace. Put her in the naughty corner,' another wrote. Hundreds of journalists in Iran have received an anonymous text message warning against contact with 'hostile' organisations outside the country, the ISNA news agency reported. 'All contact and collaboration with hostile elements based abroad, by mail or other methods of communication, is a crime and will be brought to justice. This SMS is the last warning,' the message said Iranian media reported that as many as 700 journalists and public figures received the SMS on Friday evening. Over 700 journalists and public figures received the SMS warning, according to Iranian media Indranil Mukherjee (AFP/File) Lawmaker Ali Motahari said the message had 'created worry among journalists.' 'The intelligence ministry cyber-police must find the origin of this SMS and inform the public, and the judiciary must act against those responsible,' he said. 'The Press Supervisory Board is responsible for the media and other bodies must not interfere.' Some journalists who received the message said on social media that they would lodge complaints. Iran bans its citizens from having any contact with Persian-language media based overseas, including the BBC's Persian service and Voice of America. In April, an Iranian court sentenced four journalists arrested in November 2015 to between five and 10 years in prison for 'colluding' with foreign governments and harming 'national security'. The journalists, some of whom work for reformist media outlets, were part of a group arrested by the elite Revolutionary Guard, which accused them of being 'members of a network of infiltrators linked to Western governments' it said were hostile to the Islamic republic. Iran last month accused a British-Iranian woman, an employee of the Thomson Reuters Foundation which supports journalists around the world, of seeking to overthrow the government. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was accused of being 'involved in the soft overthrow of the Islamic republic through... her membership in foreign companies and institutions,' the Mizan news agency, which is close to the judiciary, reported. She is one of the most iconic sculptures anywhere in the world, the lifted lamp beside the golden door that symbolizes the hope and promise of America. But while millions of people across the globe may think they know everything about the Statue of Liberty, author Elizabeth Mitchell begs to differ. Despite being 130 years old, Mitchell tells Discovery show Secrets of America's Favorite Places that the statue still has its hidden gems, starting with the fact that she might not be a woman at all. Scroll down for video While many believe the Statue of Liberty's face was modeled after sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi's mother, one author believes it was actually created in the image of his brother Elizabeth Mitchell says that Bartholdi's mother Augusta (left) has more arched brows, and a narrower nose and lips than the statue, while brother Jean-Charles (right) is actually the better look-alike It is commonly believed that French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi used the face of his mother, Augusta, as the inspiration for Lady Liberty's features. While researching her book, Liberty's Torch: The Great Adventure To Build The Statue Of Liberty, Mitchell theorizes that Bartholdi may have modeled the statue's face after his brother. She says: 'As I was looking at it more carefully, the structure of the face isn't really the same. '[His mother] has a more arched eyebrow, has a thinner nose, has thinner lips, even in her youth. [Bartholdi] was a bust-maker... and he was known for his accuracy. 'Going through photos he had in files of his brother, I started to look at the face more carefully, and it really did look like Liberty.' In fact, Bratholdi's brother - Jean-Charles Bartholdi - had gone mad in his later life and Bartholdi visited him once a week to take care of him, Mitchell says. Mitchell argues that because Bartholdi (second left) cared for his brother during his later mental illness, while he was mute, he would have had plenty of time to study his features as he sat with him in silence Another lesser-known fact is that the statue was given by the French government to America, when in fact its construction and shipping was entirely crowd-funded in order to spite the ruling class of the day While the statue was funded in France, Americans paid for the pedestal, with the arm and torch shipped over to help raise cash before the other parts were transported later This would have provided the opportune time for Bartholdi to study his face, Mitchell says, because Jean-Charles was mute, and so the pair would often sit for hours, simply looking at each other. The program also challenges the notion that the statue was the gift of the French government, when it was actually a crowd-funded project by activist Edouard de Laboulaye. Laboulaye was a believer in the freedom and liberty that the statue represented, but the French government of the time was actually an autocratic regime who opposed it. The statue, therefore, was Laboulaye's way of protesting against his own leaders while the country transitioned to a more democratic system. While the French raised money for the statue itself, it was down to Americans to raise cash for the pedestal, with pieces of the sculpture transported to America and displayed to help with the effort. The arm and torch were initially displayed at an exposition in Philadelphia before the pieces were taken to New York and laid out in Madison Square Park. But despite their impressive size, fundraising fell short and it was only after newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer stepped up that the cash was raised. Karl Stefanovic ribbed his co-host after the testy exchange The question prompted a furious reply from the One Nation leader Host Lisa Wilkinson asked what she had learnt in her time out of politics Controversial politician Pauline Hanson lashed out at her interviewers on Channel Nine, prompting a hilarious response from Karl Stefanovic. Hanson appeared on the network's election night coverage where she spoke about her likely return to the Queensland Senate after 20 years in the political wilderness. Surrounded by supporters, the interview was business as usual until host Lisa Wilkinson asked the One Nation leader what she had learnt since being in the 'wilderness' since being voted out of parliament in 1998. Scroll down for video Pauline Hansen fired up when Channel Nine host Lisa Wilkinson asked her about her time in the political wilderness Hanson was voted out of the House of Representatives in 1998 and has spent 18 years trying to return to government. Wilkinson asked her: 'While you have been in the political wilderness, have you learnt any lessons and will you do anything different this time around?' The question prompted Hanson's full fury. Hanson replied: 'You have got to be kidding... hold on a minute. Has the Liberal, Labor or Greens learnt anything? Surrounded by supporters, a furious Pauline Hanson said: 'Start listening to grassroots Australians. I don't have to listen to anything' The tirade prompted a hilarious exchange between hosts Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson 'Start listening to grassroots Australians. I don't need to listen to anything. 'I know what the people are thinking and how they are feeling. So let's get this country on track.' Karl Stefanovic was quick to rib his co-host after the testy exchange. 'She learned you. Pauline is all over you. Pauline is all over you like a cheap suit,' he joked. Wilkinson attempted to explain the misunderstanding but Stefanovic was having none of it. 'No, she didn't [mishear you]. She heard you good and proper,' he grinned. Gunmen then held security services in 12-hour standoff before elite troops moved in and shot them dead I slamist radicals slaughtered 20 people after the failed to recite the Koran before taking another 13 hostage Three were stabbed to death after seven ISIS terrorists stormed cafe in Dhaka armed with guns and knives Fellow Emory student Faraaz Hossain, who was born in Bangladesh, also identified among 20 victims of attack Advertisement At least three American students have been identified among 20 people killed during an ISIS attack on a cafe in Bangladesh yesterday. Abinta Kabir, a student at Emory University who was from Miami, Florida, died when terrorists attacked the largely foreign crowd inside the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka last night. Fellow Emory student Faraaz Hossain, who attended the college's business school, was also identified as being among the dead by a spokesman today. Tarushi Jain, 19, who studied at University of California Berkeley campus, was also killed. WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Abinta Kabir, an American student from Miami, Florida, has been identified as one of the 20 foreigners killed during the ISIS attack on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka last night Kabir (far right), an undergraduate student at Emory University, Georgia, was visiting family and friends in Bangladesh at the time of the attack, a university spokesman said Ruba Ahmed, Kabir's mother, weeps as she arrives to identify the body of her daughter in Dhaka today after she was killed by ISIS Kabir died alongside Faraaz Hossain (right) who was originally from Bangladesh but had also been studying at Emory University, attending the college's business school Hossain (center) had studied at Emory's Oxford campus, the same one attended by Kabir, then joined the business school after graduating Kabir, a sophomore at Emory's Oxford campus, was an American citizen, while Hossain was born in Bangladesh and Jain was of Indian origin. A spokesman said: 'Emory University has learned that two Emory students, Abinta Kabir and Faraaz Hossain, were among those taken hostage and murdered by terrorists yesterday in the attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh. 'Abinta, who was from Miami, was a rising sophomore at Emory's Oxford College. 'Faraaz, who was from Dhaka, was a graduate of Oxford College and a student at the university's Goizueta Business School. 'The Emory community mourns this tragic and senseless loss of two members of our university family. 'Our thoughts and prayers go out on behalf of Faraaz and Abinta and their families and friends for strength and peace at this unspeakably sad time.' Meanwhile UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas B. Dirks issued a statement on Jain's death, saying: 'We have been in contact with her family to provide assistance in any way that we can and are working closely with our other students there to assist them in staying safe and determining whether they leave the area. 'On behalf of our entire campus, we send our deepest condolences to her family and friends and to all the other families who have suffered such a devastating loss.' A graduate of the American International School in Dhaka, Jain came to UC Berkeley in 2014 and was intending to major in economics. Jain and seven other students were completing internships with UC Berkeley's Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies, according to statement from the university. According to witnesses a group of seven Islamist radicals stormed the cafe yesterday evening armed with assault weapons, pistols and 'sharp objects' before taking more than 30 people hostage. Tarushi Jain, 19, an Indian native who was studying at University of California, Berkeley, has also been identified among the dead Sushma Swaraj, India's minister of external affairs, confirmed Jain's death today. She is believed to have been on holiday to Bangladesh at the time of the attack, where her father owns a textiles business Gruesome: This is one of the images that was released by ISIS' media agency Amar, purportedly showing victims inside the Dhaka restaurant which was taken siege by Islamist militants on Friday night Witnesses said that ISIS attackers split the group inside the cafe, keeping Bangladeshis downstairs where they were fed and looked after, but taking foreigners upstairs where they were tortured ISIS has also released images purporting to show four of the attackers online, though has not revealed their identities The terror group's media arm released images of the grinning gunmen along with a message saying: 'Let the people of the crusader countries know that there is no safety for them as long as their aircraft are killing Muslims' The terrorists then hacked 20 people to death, sparing only those who could recite the Koran, before engaging police in a 12-hour standoff. The cafe was eventually stormed by elite Bangladeshi commandos who killed the attackers and freed the remaining hostages. Among those killed are nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian, two Bangladeshi, and an American citizen of Bangladeshi origin. The Italian foreign ministry confirmed the dead as: Adele Puglisi, Marco Tondat, Claudia Maria D'Antona, Nadia Benedetti, Vincenzo D'Allestro, Maria Rivoli, Cristian Rossi, Claudio Cappelli, and Simona Monti. Most of the Italian victims were understood to work in the fashion industry, buying fabrics from Bangladesh. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe confirmed that five men and two women died worked for the country's foreign aid agency and said they 'were giving their all for the development of Bangladesh'. All the attackers were from Bangladesh, Police Inspector General Shahidul Hoque told CNN, as ISIS released their grinning pictures online Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed declared two days of mourning for the victims to take place on Sunday and Monday. She also thanked all those who had expressed their solidarity with Bangladesh, and vowed that terrorism would be exterminated at all costs. She added: 'Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such act. They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism.' Army Brigadier General Naim Asraf Chowdhury said: 'Most of (the hostages) were killed mercilessly by sharp weapons last night.' On Friday night, Bangladeshi resident Hasnat Karim said he brought his family to the cafe in order to celebrate his daughter's birthday. Hasnat was too traumatised to say more than a few words about his ordeal, saying only that the hostage-takers 'did not misbehave with us'. But he detailed to his father Rezaul how the gunmen - who were armed with automatic weapons, bombs and makeshift machetes - had split the diners into two groups. Rezaul said: '(The foreigners) were taken to the upper floor and the Bangladeshis were kept around a table.' He said his son told him the terrorists 'did not hit people who could recite verses from the Koran. The others were tortured'. He added: 'The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Koran. Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night.' Elite Bangladeshi commandos stormed the building after siege of more than 12 hours, freeing some 13 hostages, in addition to another eight who manged to flee during the siege. Six of the terrorists were shot dead and one was arrested at the scene. The ISIS media wing has claimed responsibility for the attack which was launched on the final Friday of Ramadan, as millions of Muslims prepare to celebrate the Eid holiday. The final ten days of Ramadan are the most solemn in the Islamic calendar. Amaq News Agency, ISIS's media wing, claimed responsibility for the attack while releasing a gruesome series of images online purporting to show victims inside the cafe. Distraught relatives of those killed covered their faces as they were taken to identify the bodies of their loves ones following the attack Meanwhile members of the military and police remained on the streets in force today in the hopes of preventing another attack Armed police officers and soldiers took up positions around the cafe today as Dhaka remained on edge following the attack yesterday Armored troop carriers rolled through Dhaka's streets today as the military took a no-nonsense approach to preventing more attacks Troops took up strategic positions across Dhaka to discourage any further terrorist attacks Two marksmen stood holding their high-powered Dragunov sniper rifles after last night's rescue mission Meanwhile in Kolkata, India, demonstrators held a candlelit vigil for the victims of Dhaka, demanding an end to terrorist violence It is thought that at least some of the victims of the Bangladesh attack were Indian, including student Tarushi Jain The pictures show a number of bodies piled together next to a table still covered with plates of half-eaten food, while in others bodies lie in twisted shapes on floors that are covered in blood. Two police officers were killed, including a local police station chief, Mohammed Salahuddin, who was earlier injured in the shoot-out. According to a local photojournalist, Mr Salahuddin was asked by his colleagues not to cross the cordon as he was not wearing a bullet-proof vest. Just moments after he crossed the line, according to the Daily Star in Dhaka, he was shot. A second policeman, Robiul Islam, assistant commissioner of Uttara zone Detective Branch, has also died in the shooting, top police officials confirmed. Another 25 officers and one civilian are being treated for injuries from gunshots and shrapnel, with 10 people in a critical condition, according to hospital authorities. Speaking after the raid, Lieutenant Colonel Tuhin Mohammed Masud, commander of the Rapid Action Battalion said: 'We have gunned down at least six terrorists and the main building is cleared but the operation is still going on.' A Japanese government spokesman said that a Japanese hostage was rescued with a gunshot wound but seven others are unaccounted for. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said that the eight were together at the restaurant at the time of the attack. Kitchen staffer Sumon Reza, who escaped, said the attackers chanted 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Great) as they assaulted around 9:20 p.m. Friday, initially opening fire with blanks. Another survivor said the gunmen ordered bakery workers to switch off the lights in the restaurant. The militants then covered close-circuit cameras with black cloth. The bakery worker, who was not identified, told ATN News, a Bangladesh television channel, that when the first attacker entered the gate he thought it was someone taking shelter in the restaurant's doorway. 'Then I saw that he had weapons. On seeing that, I ran toward the back of the restaurant. He fired while I was running but I was not sure if he was targeting me because I did not look back,' the survivor said. An injured policeman is carried away after the attack in Dhaka on Friday night Police have stormed a restaurant after being locked in a shoot-out with gunmen at a restaurant in the diplomatic quarter of the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, that is popular with foreigners Casualties were evacuated from the scene in the back of army trucks and ambulance People help an unidentified injured person after a group of gunmen attacked a restaurant popular with foreigners in a diplomatic zone of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka A staff member who managed to escape said the gunmen shouted 'Allahu Akbar' as they attacked the restaurant, shooting and throwing bombs He said he ran and told everyone working inside the bakery, and many people ran out using the back door. 'Those who could not hear me, or understand me, did not leave because this happened in a short span of time,' he said. ISIS claimed 24 people had been killed and a further 40 were wounded in the attack. Images of the carnage were distributed on social media channels with links to the jihadi terror organisation. Bangladeshi officials have said 20 have died with a number of others in a critical condition in hospital. Hospital staff dealing with casualties said of the 26 people they are currently treating, ten are in a critical condition with six on life support. Victims suffered broken bones and gunshot wounds. In Washington, a White House official said President Barack Obama was briefed on the attack by his chief counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco. The president asked to be kept informed as the situation develops, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the president's meetings. State Department spokesman John Kirby says the U.S. is in contact with the Bangladesh government and has offered its assistance to bring those responsible to justice. The recent attacks in Bangladesh have raised fears that religious extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions of secularism and tolerance. About two dozen atheist writers, publishers, members of religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers have been slain since 2013. On Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death by at least three assailants in southwest Bangladesh. IS and and al-Qaida affiliates have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks. Hasina's government has cracked down on domestic radical Islamists by making scores of arrests. It has accused local terrorists and opposition political parties - especially the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami - of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilize the nation, which both parties deny. Victims: Police officers Mohammed Salahuddin (right) and Robiul Islam (left) have been named as the two reported fatalities in the hostage situation in Dhaka, according to local news site The Daily Star A police officer assists an injured colleague outside the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe, currently under a hostage siege by armed gunmen Two police officers injured earlier in the shoot-out have been confirmed dead, according to local media reports Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have surrounded the Spanish restaurant, as communications are believed to be underway in an attempt to save their lives of those inside Bangladeshi security personnel stand guard after gunmen stormed a restaurant in Dhaka's high-security diplomatic district A 'dying cat' which was rushed in to a veterinary clinic by a worried animal lover turned out to be a hand puppet. Vets and nurses sprang into action when they were told the 'cat' was in a critical condition. But when staff opened up the box they discovered it was just a wet and muddy cuddly toy for children. Vets and nurses sprung into action when they were told the 'cat' was in a critical condition. When staff opened up the box they discovered it was just a wet and muddy cuddly toy for children The 'very sad' animal lover had even wrapped up what they thought was an animal in a blanket. Steve Byrne, manager of the animal shelter on the island of Guernsey, told The Huffington Post: 'When I returned to say what it was, first there was disbelief and then we had a very light hearted moment and joked about it and was extremely relieved to find that they had worried over a cuddly toy.' The shelter staff now hope to reunite the, now cleaned up puppet, with its owner. A sacred tree in Thailand which bears fruit in the shape of young women appears to have been captured on camera. Footage of the suggestively shaped green fruits has divided social media, leaving some shocked but others less convinced. Details on the story are scarce, but some have suggested the clip depicts a Nariphon, a holy Buddhist tree which grows the fruit of young female creatures. Scroll down for video A sacred tree in Thailand which bears fruit in the shape of young women appears to have been captured on camera Footage appearing to show the suggestively shaped green fruits has divided social media According to Thai folklore, a god named Indra planted the trees in a forest called Himaphan so the creatures could protect his wife. There are said to be a number of Nariphon pods stored in Luang Pho Jarun at Wat Ampawan In Singburi Buddhist temple near Bangkok. Images from the temple show what appears to be the bodies of two small black creatures stored on a shrine in the sanctuary. But interest in the Nariphon has led to a number of hoaxes, leading many to deem the latest vision is fake. According to Thai folklore, a god named Indra planted the trees in a forest called Himaphan to protect his wife There are said to be a number of Nariphon pods stored in Luang Pho Jarun at Wat Ampawan In Singburi Buddhist temple near Bangkok Virginia Murray (pictured) of Chicago, Illinois, was riding a Divvy bike, the city's bike sharing program, when she collided with a flat-bed truck A 25-year-old woman is believed to be the first person in the United States to die while using a bike sharing program. Virginia Murray of Chicago, Illinois, was riding a Divvy bike, the city's bike sharing program, when she collided with a flat-bed truck. The morning crash happened around 9am, police spokesman Jose Estrada told the Chicago Tribune. Both Murray and the truck were driving northbound when they collided while turning east. Murray was transported to Illinois Masonic Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 9:58am. Bike sharing began in 2007 when the first program was launched in Tulsa, Oklahoma, according to Paul DeMaio, principal of Washington, D.C.-based MetroBike, a bike-share consulting business. 'This is really unfortunate. My heart goes out to the family members and friends of the person who was killed. 'Hopefully this will lead to the hastening and the growth of networks of bike infrastructure not only in Chicago but throughout North America,' DeMaio said. Murray is thought to be the first person in the United States to die while using a bike sharing program (Divvy bikes, pictured A study released in March had shown bike sharing in the United States had a perfect record with zero fatalities. Eight million rides have been taken on Divvy bikes in Chicago. The company released a statement about Murray's death saying in part: 'Divvy and the City of Chicago express our deepest condolences to the riders family and loved ones.' One other rider is reported as being struck and critically injured but there was no report that that man had died. A Liberal source said: 'Look we can still win but it'll be a bee's dick margin' When the count was suspended Labor was leading in 72 seats, Turnbull's coalition in 66, and minor parties or independents in five Australia appeared to be heading for a hung parliament or a minority government with half the votes counted in a national poll on Saturday, potentially blocking Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's ability to enact major economic reforms. Official electoral data halfway through the count for the House of Representatives showed a 3 percent swing away from the current Liberal-led coalition government. On the current count, the coalition was projected to hold 69 seats, against the opposition Labor Party's 70 seats and five to independents and the Greens Party. Hours after the polls closed, Mr Turnbull sounded a confident tone despite early results showing his conservative Liberal Party-led coalition in a virtual tie with the opposition center-left Labor Party. 'Based on the advice I have from the party officials, we can have every confidence that we will form a coalition majority government in the next parliament,' Turnbull said in a speech to cheering supporters early Sunday morning. But Opposition leader Bill Shorten celebrated the strong swing to his party just three years after it was convincingly dumped from power in the last election. 'There is one thing for sure. The Labor Party is back,' he said in a speech to supporters. The federal election results were too close to call throughout Saturday night with the possibility of a hung parliament increasing. Above Malcolm Turnbull casts his vote during the day Labor leader Bill Shorten said the result of the federal election would not be delivered on Saturday night, pointing further to the likelihood of a hung parliament AUSTRALIA DECIDES: FEDERAL ELECTION 2016 RESULTS COALITION LABOR GREENS OTHER 74 67 1 3 WHAT HAPPENS IN THE EVENT OF A HUNG PARLIAMENT If neither of the major parties secures a majority in the federal election the country will be left with a hung parliament. It will be up to them to negotiate with independent MPs and form the next government. While the politicians themselves will have to draw up arrangements, their efforts are overseen by the Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove. The 2010 federal election returned a hung parliament. The then Labor leader Julie Gillard formed a coalition with independent and Greens MPs in its wake. If the parties cannot agree on terms for a coalition another election will be called as a last resort. Both Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull have ruled out forming a coalition with the Greens. Advertisement The only two remaining possibilities are a hung Parliament or a tiny coalition win. A NSW Liberal executive member told BuzzFeed News if the Coalition wins tonight it'll 'be a bee's dick margin'. The coalition is expected to win several of the remaining 16 seats to be determined, but it is unclear if it will be enough to form a government without an alliance with small parties and independents to get a majority. The result was so close, Australia's Attorney-General George Brandis said it would not be called on Saturday evening with just a couple of hours before counting officials clock-off. There is no counting scheduled for Sunday, with counting for the Senate to resume on Monday and the House of Representatives on Tuesday. Former prime minister Tony Abbott, who retained his Sydney seat, told Liberal Party followers in his electorate it was a 'difficult night'. At the coalition headquarters in central Sydney, the mood was nervous and quiet as the crowd thinned. 'It's a nightmare, it's a disaster,' said Rene Licarta, a Liberal Party member. 'It looks like it might be a hung parliament, with the Greens and the independents running the show. It's scary.' Such a result would mean that Turnbull's gamble of dissolving both houses of parliament in May to trigger the election has backfired, given that was a bid to oust intransigent independents in the upper house Senate who had blocked his agenda. Turnbull had called for Australians to vote for the coalition and political stability, invoking the global economic and political fallout from Britain's vote to leave the European Union. Minor parties, possibly in a coalition with centre-left Labor, he argued, could not be trusted to manage an economy hampered by the first mining downturn in a century and balance public finances after years of deficits. Labor supporters at a party in Melbourne (above) were full of cheers as they gradually collected seats as the first of the results were announced With half the vote counted, Labor was benefiting from a 3.3 percent swing in its favour on a two-party basis, short of the 4 percent it needs to win government but potentially enough to leave the coalition with a minority government. At the Labor Party's federal election headquarters at the Moonee Valley Racecourse in Melbourne, the mood was initially subdued but cheers began to ring out as Labor pulled ahead in key seats. The votes tallied on Saturday evening only gave limited results for the 76 seats of the upper house Senate, where independents including the centrist Nick Xenophon Team are expected to win several seats. Some Labor voters stifled tears as they watched their chances of seeing Bill Shorten lead a majority government evaporate Pauline Hanson's One Nation party was polling strongly in Queensland according to an early Senate vote count, raising the prospect that the far right politician, who campaigned on anti-immigration, anti-Muslim agendas, will be back in the federal parliament after an almost 20 year absence. Xenophon has vowed to block the Coalition's cornerstone A$50 billion ($37 billion) corporate tax cuts if his party holds the balance of power in the senate. Xenophon's party had an early win stealing a House of Representatives seat for the electorate of Mayo from the coalition for the first time in its 115-year history and giving the party its first ever lower house position. Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce celebrated with his wife and daughters after being re-elected in the seat of New England Linda Burney became the first Aboriginal woman to be elected after winning the seat of Barton, NSW Among prominent victories of the night was Labor MP Linda Burney's win in Barton, NSW. She is the first Aboriginal woman to ever become elected in the House of Representatives. Malcolm Turnbull held his seat of Wentworth in NSW with 67 per cent of the vote while Bill Shorten won 61 per cent of the vote in his seat of Maribyrnong, Victoria. Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce held his seat of New England with 63 per cent of the vote, putting on a raucous display of cheer as he arrived at his victory party. He thanked Hollywood star Johnny Depp who he said had given him 'advertising' in the lead-up to the campaign. Mr Joyce publicly lambasted the actor and his now estranged wife Amber Heard for not declaring her two puppies when they flew into Australia on a private jet last year. His tough stance on bio-security laws became a talking point for Depp in interviews around the world. Celebrating his win on Saturday, Mr Joyce said: 'Thanks for the advertising, Johnny.' He also shared his support for Malcolm Turnbull, insisting the Prime Minister would be re-elected because Australians do not want 'a revolving door' of leaders. 'I get along very well with Malcolm Turnbull and had a number of conversations with him tonight. He is most definitely the best person to lead our nation in a time of uncertainty and we're seeing that through Brexit,' he told the ABC. Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott also held his seat of Warringah in NSW with 64.5 per cent. A Detroit judge who made international headlines after sending three siblings to a juvenile detention center for refusing to have lunch with their estranged father has been found guilty of misconduct. Oakland County Judge Lisa Gorcyca had presided over Omer Tsimhoni and his ex-wife Maya Eibschitz-Tsimhoni's bitter custody dispute for five years when she made the decision in June 2015. But now a special master appointed by the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission has found that Gorcyca 'made disparaging comments' to Liam, 14, Roee, 11, and 10-year-old Natalie and showed 'inappropriate demeanor on the bench' when she held them in contempt of court. Detroit Judge Lisa Gorcyca, who made international headlines after sending three siblings to a juvenile detention center for refusing to have lunch with their estranged father, has been found guilty of misconduct A special master appointed by the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission found that Gorcyca committed several acts of misconduct when she held Liam, 14, Roee, 11, and Natalie, 10, (pictured) in contempt of court The three siblings were shipped off to Children's Village, a local facility for troubled youth, and barred from contacting their mother - who Gorcyca accused of alienating the children from their dad. Retired Judge Daniel Ryan accused Gorcyca of speaking to the children with anger and sarcasm. He also found that she misrepresented the facts when she told the children they would be locked up in jail cells inside the center and forced to use the bathroom in front of others, according to the Detroit Free Press. Ryan said Gorcyca threatened that the children, who refused to meet with their father, could be held at the center until they were possibly 18. She also told Liam she doubted his high IQ and accused him of acting like a follower of the infamous cult led by mass murderer Charles Manson as she twirled her finger around the side of her head. Gorcyca ultimately transferred the three children to a summer camp a few days after sending them to Children's Village, and they were allowed to go home after two weeks. The Tsimhoni children were kept away from youths who had committed crimes during their stay at the juvenile facility. Ryan said Gorcyca failed to 'observe high standards of conduct so that the independence of the judiciary may be preserved'. Retired Judge Daniel Ryan accused Gorcyca (pictured during her misconduct hearing) of speaking to the children with anger and sarcasm and said she made 'disparaging comments' toward them The three siblings were shipped off to Children's Village, a local facility for troubled youth, and barred from contacting their mother - who Gorcyca accused of alienating the children from father Omer Tsimhoni (right) She also accused one of the children of acting like a follower of the infamous cult led by mass murderer Charles Manson (pictured is their mother Maya Eibschitz-Tsimhoni) Gorcyca had warned the children that a finding of contempt was a 'tool' in her 'toolbox' if they didn't have contact with their father. Ryan wrote in his ruling that although there's nothing wrong with a judge using 'stern language' in contentious cases, he believes Gorcyca went too far. 'If a judge is going to use the inherent power of contempt, the ultimate "tool in the toolbox" after years of "frustration", the judge may wish to consult the owner's manual to make sure that she or he are using the tool properly, before employing...a contempt finding to deprive any individual, or children in this case, of their liberty.' The report now goes to the full Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission, a watchdog agency that filed the ethics complaint. The commission will decide whether to accept the findings and will then submit them to the Michigan Supreme Court with a recommendation for discipline. Gorcyca denies any misconduct, and about 200 Detroit-area lawyers have signed a letter supporting her. 'We were both surprised and disappointed with the master's report,' said Thomas Cranmer, Gorcyca's attorney. Gorcyca ultimately transferred the three children to a summer camp a few days after sending them to Children's Village (pictured), and they were allowed to go home after two weeks Cranmer has pledged to contest it at the commission and, if necessary, the state Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the three children moved in with Tsimhoni in August after undergoing an intensive five-day parental alienation therapy treatment, according to court documents obtained by the Detroit Free Press. The custody case stems from a messy divorce that began back in 2009 after Tsimhoni got a job with GM and moved to Israel. At the time, Eibschitz-Tsimhoni, who is from Israel like her husband, refused to move back with him. She then filed for divorce and stopped him from seeing or speaking to their children, Tsimhoni told the Observer earlier this year. However, a few months later, she moved out to Israel with Liam, Roee and Natalie, he said. 'She moved to Israel, we moved all of our belongings here and then one day she suddenly disappeared and took the kids. Next I heard from her she was in Michigan,' Tsimhoni said. Tsimhoni subsequently moved back to Michigan to be 'near his children' and 'mend his relationship' with them. He had been seeing them on a 'regular basis' under supervision. He said his ex-wife had 'poisoned' his children's brains - and that he would 'do anything' for the trio to have a good relationship with him. The father, who is an internationally renowned traffic safety researcher and GM engineer, added that his ex-spouse had been previously reprimanded for not bringing her children to visitations. 'She was reprimanded a month or two before this happened for contempt of court,' he said. A Russian warship has once again carried out aggressive and erratic maneuvers close to a US Navy ship in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the US military said on Saturday. This is the the second such Cold War-style incident there in a matter of weeks. The US European Command said the Russian frigate, Yaroslav Mudry, came unnecessarily close to the guided-missile cruiser USS San Jacinto on Thursday and maneuvered in its wake. A Russian warship, Yaroslav Mudry (pictured) has once again carried out aggressive and erratic maneuvers close to a US Navy ship in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the US military said on Saturday. The ship came within 150 yards of the guided missile cruiser USS San Jacinto on Thursday (pictured) The ship came within 150 yards of the guided missile, just two weeks after the same ship came within 315 yards of the USS Gravely on June 17. US officials termed that incident 'unsafe and unprofessional.' The Russian Defense Ministry disputed this. The United States European Command (EUCOM) said in a statement the USS San Jacinto had not been threatened and had maintained its course and speed. But added: 'The closing distance by Yaroslav Mudry before the ship turned away from San Jacinto is considered a high risk maneuver, highly unprofessional, and contrary to international maritime regulations.' Referring to the Yaroslav Mudry's close 'aggressive, erratic maneuvers', EUCOM said: 'These actions can unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries, and could result in dangerous miscalculations or accidents.' Russian SU-24 bombers simulated attack passes near the USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea in April, which U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (pictured) said was provocative and dangerous The Yaroslav Mudry also came within 315 yards of the USS Gravely (pictured) on June 17 There have been several similar incidents - reminiscent of Cold War confrontations between the rival superpowers - at sea and in the air in recent months, with the U.S. and Russian militaries accusing each other of dangerous approaches in international waters and airspace. At the time of the June 30 incident, the San Jacinto was carrying out operations against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria with the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. In another incident in April, the U.S. military said Russian SU-24 bombers had simulated attack passes near the USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea. Bonifacio Oseguera-Gonzalez, 29, was deported six times. He was arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated murder and one of attempted aggravated murder An illegal immigrant from Mexican who was charged with aggravated murder in the shooting deaths of three people at a rural Oregon blueberry farm had been deported six times. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Bonifacio Oseguera-Gonzalez, 29, was most recently deported in 2013 and had no significant prior criminal convictions. Oseguera-Gonzalez pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated murder and one count of attempted murder Tuesday in Marion County Superior Court. However, he acknowledged to authorities in an interview that he shot four people, according to a probable cause statement. The victims were identified as Ruben Rigoberto-Reyes, 60; Edmundo Amaro-Bajonero, 26; and Katie Gildersleeve, 30, of Logsden. Authorities have released few details about the case, including the relationship between Oseguera-Gonzalez and the victims, and have declined to specify a motive. On June 27, police were alerted to the shooting at 11.05am and on arrival 15 minutes later, found the wounded victims: Rigoberto-Reyes and Amaro-Bajonero were pronounced dead at the scene, while Gildersleeve died in a hospital later. Another man who was injured is in critical condition, but is able to speak with investigators. His name has not been released as of yet. The Oregon State Police arrested Oseguera-Gonzalez a few hours later on Interstate 84 in the Columbia River Gorge, about 100 miles northeast of Woodburn. 'He definitely was trying to make a getaway,' Marion County Lt Chris Baldridge, told the channel. 'Luckily we were able to stop him and take him into custody without incident.' Scroll down for video Officials say Oseguera-Gonzalez (above) was most recently deported in 2013. He pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated murder and one count of attempted murder Tuesday in Marion County Superior Court Three people died and one was critically injured at this licensed marijuana and blueberry farm outside Portland, Oregon on June 27. A neighbor said they heard shouting followed by gunfire Courtesy KOIN As the shooting took place a terrified witness, 19-year-old Ricardo Bajonero, kept in contact with his brother Carlos, 26, The Portland Tribune reported. 'Brother, help I'm afraid. I heard many gunshots outside and many men,' the teen, who lives next door to the farm texted. He told his brother that he heard men arguing, followed by gunshots. 'He kept saying he didn't know what to do,' Carlos told the site. Carlos told his brother to alert police, who arrived around 15 minutes later. They questioned Ricardo before reuniting him with his brother. Another neighbor, Doug Mosely, said that he only heard one gunshot, which he thought was due to hunters that are common in the area, before he saw police cars converging on the location. Police found one of the men dead outside a farmhouse on the farm, which is located at 13436 Killiam Road Northeast. Another was found dead inside. In addition, police said they had been called out to the farm on a number of occasions to deal with complaints about large parties there. The farm primarily grows blueberries, but also has a legal marijuana growing operation. However, police say they believe that is not connected to the shootings. The victims were identified as Ruben Rigoberto-Reyes, 60; Edmundo Amaro-Bajonero, 26; and Katie Gildersleeve, 30, of Logsden. Another man who was injured is in critical condition Linda Patt, the mother of Katie Gildersleeve (above), is heartbroken about her daughter's tragic death. Patt said: 'She's gone. She's gone and I can't bring her back' Courtesy KOIN ICE asked Oregon authorities to turn Oseguera-Gonzalez over to them if he's released from custody in the current case, the agency said in a statement to The Associated Press on Friday. His attorney, Deborah Burdzik, did not immediately return a call seeking comment about his immigration status. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tweeted about the case Friday, saying the suspect 'should have never been here.' It's unclear how Oseguera-Gonzalez returned to the Unites States and traveled to Oregon. Authorities say he had frequented the home where the horrific shooting took place. The family of Gildersleeve have set up a GoFund Me page with hopes to raise money for her funeral expenses. Police say that she was the girlfriend of a man who lived at the farm, but was not present at the time of the shooting. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tweeted about the case Friday, saying the suspect 'should have never been here.' Her mother, Linda Patt, is heartbroken about her daughter's tragic death. 'She's gone. She's gone and I can't bring her back,' Patt told KOIN. 'There's nothing I can do to bring her back. 'Everyone will remember Katie for her sweet disposition and her beautiful smile and her ability to make you laugh and think everything's going to be alright and to give you hope that life can be good,' Patt is hoping that she can come face-to-face with Oseguera-Gonzalez in court. Advertisement Hundreds of animals are spending their last days in a 140-year-old zoo in Argentina before being released. The Palermo zoo in Buenos Aires is being transformed into a part, meaning that nearly all its 1,500 animals are finding new homes. Many are destined for reserves in Argentina and abroad as their old home is transformed An orangutan named Sandra sits in her cage at the Palermo Zoo in Buenos Aires, which is closing soon to become an ecological park A forlorn-looking group of three black bears peer out of their grubby enclosure at the former Buenos Aires Zoo A tiny baby moneky at the zoo in Buenos Aires. The city government announced last week it will transform the city's zoo into an ecological park for a limited number of species Among the first to leave will be birds of prey like owls and chimangos, destined for a reserve along the shores of the Rio de la Plata south of the capital. They will be placed there in larger confines that will give them room to stretch and strengthen their winds before they're ready for the wild. Some animals will have to stay due to age or illness, including a lion cub with hypothyroidism, an elderly anteater and a snow leopard. Javier Goldschtein of Forest Bank Foundation, a member of the commission overseeing the transformation of the zoo, said Sandra the orangutan will also have to stay, but in a larger, better enclosure than the one she now endures. Pupi and Kuki the elephants are apparently headed for greater freedom. Goldschtein said experts are still determining if they can move a third elephant, Maria, who was rescued from a circus where she was mistreated. Among other animals still housed in the cages at the otherwise abandoned zoo are llamas, hippopotamuses, lions, mandrills, a zebra, lions, and a forlorn baby monkey that holds the wire mesh with both hands. A duck waddles along an empty path and ticket booths are closed, with no one waiting in line. This majestic male lion will be moved to a new home in the coming weeks after the zoo is gradually closed to become an ecological park The tiny baby monkey peers out of his cage with his hands clinging over the bars, but he will soon be free of his cage in his new home Distino the owl will be one of the first animals to be freed from the Buenos Aires Zoo. The birds of prey are all being moved to natural reserves Pupi the elephant throws dirt over herself at the zoo. The mayor of the Argentine capital, Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, said the zoo will gradually relocate most of its 1,500 animals to sanctuaries at home and abroad because they are not living in adequate conditions Pupi and her friend Kuki will be moved to better conditions than the dusty old enclosure they are forced to share at the zoo The zoo was a favorite haunt of novelist Jorge Luis Borges as a boy. It was inaugurated in 1875 on what was then the outskirts of Buenos Aires but is now encircled by noisy neighborhoods, with bleating buses passing a few yards from the giraffe cage. Many of the enclosures are considered inhumane by modern standards. The mayor of the Argentine capital, Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, said the zoo will gradually relocate most of its 1,500 animals to sanctuaries at home and abroad because they are not living in adequate conditions. He wants Argentina to follow the global trend of turning zoos into parks and sanctuaries and believes that animals should live in their natural habitats. Pupi and Kuki the elephants are apparently headed for greater freedom. Goldschtein said experts are still determining if they can move a third elephant, Maria, who was rescued from a circus where she was mistreated A mandrill sits inside his cage at the zoo The zoo was a favorite haunt of novelist Jorge Luis Borges as a boy. It was inaugurated in 1875 on what was then the outskirts of Buenos Aires but is now encircled by noisy neighborhoods Animal rights lawyer Gerardo Biglia, who has long wanted the zoo to close, said: 'The most important thing is breaking with the model of captivity and exhibition. He said: 'This situation of captivity is degrading for the animals, its not the way to take care of them.' The new eco park will provide a safe haven for animals rescued from illegal trafficking. The mayor called it 'a place where children can learn how to take care of and relate with the different species. Monkeys stand inside a cage as they stare out of the zoo The plan to also transform the site into a conservation and research facility will take years while veterinarians decide which animals can be transferred to reserves, locally and abroad. Those who stay at the ecological park will live in what officials describe as much better conditions The white tiger looks out from behind a window inside its enclosure at the former Buenos Aires Zoo An owl peers from inside its cage before being set free 'What we have to value is the animals. The way they live here is definitely not the way to do that.' Animal rights lawyer Gerardo Biglia, who has long wanted the zoo to close, said: 'The most important thing is breaking with the model of captivity and exhibition. 'I think there is a change coming for which we are already prepared because kids nowadays consider it obvious that its wrong for animals to be caged.' The zoo made headlines two years ago when a local court declared one orangutan Sandra to be a 'non-human person' deserving rights. Four years ago the last remaining polar bear at Buenos Aires Zoo died after overheating in soaring summer temperatures. Ticket booths stand shuttered and abandoned by visitors Jaroslaw Kaczynski said it was vital to head off the 'break-up' of the EU as he addressed a congress of his conservative Law and Justice party in Warsaw Poland's rightwing leader has become the latest political figure to wade into the Brexit row calling on the European Union to 'reach out' to Britain and 'give it a chance, a chance of returning'. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who has a strong reputation as a eurosceptic, said it was vital to head off the 'break-up' of the EU as he addressed a congress of his conservative Law and Justice party. He said: 'We have to reach out (to Britain). We have to give it a chance, a chance of returning.' Kaczynski, 67, who was speaking in in Warsaw, did not give any details about what he meant but insisted his ideas were gaining traction elsewhere, particularly among Germany's Social Democrats. The rightwing chief had earlier proposed holding a second in-out referendum in Britain to try to encourage the country to stay. Britons voted on June 23 by around 52 to 48 per cent to pull out of the EU - a decision that has unleashed a deep domestic political crisis and what experts fear will be the start of a recession. Speaking today, Kaczynski also attacked proposals from leading EU countries that have taken a firm line with Britain and told it to start the exit process as soon as possible. 'The initial proposals from these big countries encourage the break-up of the Union. 'We cannot stand idly by and let the most powerful ones carry on like this... We cannot allow the Union to fall apart,' Kaczynski said. 'Britain is being treated arrogantly today, which is a hysterical reaction,' he added. Kaczynski holds no cabinet post but as a former prime minister and co-founder of the PiS has a reputation of powerbroker. Around 800,000 Poles live in Britain, where they headed after the EU's 2004 'Big Bang' expansion to former Communist states in eastern and central Europe. Poland's government swept to power in elections last October on an anti-migrant and populist spending platform. Like Britain, it is opposed to European federalism, although surveys say the country's population is very strongly pro-EU. On May 7, around a quarter of a million people attended a rally in Warsaw in support of the EU and in protest at perceived attempts by the government to undermine democracy, according to estimates from city hall. Slovakia's prime minister Robert Fico (pictured at a government meeting on June 30) earlier claimed that nobody had the right to be angry with the UK for opting for Brexit, blaming European policy for the Leave vote Kaczynski is the latest political figure in Europe to come out in support of Britain. Slovakia's prime minister earlier said nobody had the right to be angry with the UK for opting for Brexit, blaming European policy for the Leave vote. Robert Fico criticised both France and Germany saying the EU's future cannot be decided by just one or two countries as Slovakia took control of the rotating presidency of the bloc. Mr Fico admitted there are elements of the bloc that make it unattractive to some countries. He said: 'The British people have reacted to European policy. Nobody has the right to be angry with the British voters.' Meanwhile, Slovakian foreign minister Miroslav Lajcak added: 'There's a feeling among member states that sometimes they agree something and then the Commission comes up with the proposals that don't reflect that. A Pennsylvania man burned his own mobile home down because he refused to sell it in order to pay for his mounting medical bills and taxes, according to charging documents. Keith Allen Izer, 48, caused about $30,000 in damage after he set his Dover home alight with thousands of rounds of ammunition inside and left it burning as he went to a convenience store one mile away. Izer has been charged with arson, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief. The fire also damaged the siding on two adjacent homes, but no one was injured. Scroll down for video Keith Allen Izer, 48, (left) set his Dover, Pennsylvania, home alight with thousands of rounds of ammunition inside (right) He walked away from the fire and caused a total of $30,000 in damage (pictured, his home on the 3000 block of Claremont Road). The fire also damaged the siding on two adjacent homes as well Izer has been charged with arson, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief. No one was injured (pictured, his home before the fire) Izer said he had 'had enough' and did not want to sell his mobile home to someone else in order to pay for his unpaid bills, according to charging documents cited by York Dispatch. Firefighters arrived at his home on the 3000 block of Claremont Road at 2.30am on Friday to find his mobile home blazing while thousands of rounds of ammunition exploded, the documents state. The fire, which had been burning for under an hour, was put out in less than 10 minutes by a group of 11 firefighters, the Dover Township Deputy Fire Chief Brian Widmayer said. Authorities stayed on the scene for several hours to clean up the remains of Izer's home. Police could not find Izer, but a clerk at the convenience store Turkey Hill Minit Market a mile away from his home called 911 saying the 48-year-old wanted to turn himself in. Izer later confessed to police officer Jeffrey Sierotowicz and said he crumpled up paper in the bedroom and living room in addition to dousing his couch with gasoline. He was overwhelmed by his medical bills and his water, phone and gas had been shut off because he had fallen behind on his property taxes for several years. No one was injured in the fire, and residents in the two adjacent homes were not displaced, York Dispatch reported. Police could not find Izer, but a clerk at the convenience store Turkey Hill Minit Market a mile away from his home (pictured before and after) called 911 saying the 48-year-old wanted to turn himself in The victims of James Austin Hancock (pictured), who opened fire at his high school cafeteria when he was 14 years old, are suing the Hancock family for negligence Three students and their families are suing the family of the teenager who opened fire in an Ohio school cafeteria. Students Cameron Smith, Brant Murray and his sister, Genna, and their parents filed the lawsuit last month, alleging that negligence and recklessness by James Austin Hancock's family led to the shooting by the 15-year-old boy at Madison Local Schools in February. He was 14 at the time, and last month was sentenced to spend six years in a juvenile facility after pleading guilty to charges brought against him. The teenager pleaded guilty to four counts of attempted murder and one count of inducing panic. Smith was shot and Murray was injured by shrapnel in the shooting. Genna claimed she suffered emotional distress after witnessing the shooting. Hancock's family 'exhibited a total disregard for the life and safety of the public,' the lawsuit alleged. The lawsuit also named Hancock's grandparents, the owners of the handgun, as defendants for allowing Hancock to obtain the weapon, according to the suit. Charlie Rittgers, who was Hancock's attorney in his criminal case, told The Cincinnati Enquirer he's confident the family members won't be found to have done anything for which they can be held responsible. Scroll down for video Hancock's family (pictured at his sentencing) 'exhibited a total disregard for the life and safety of the public,' the lawsuit alleged The lawsuit also named the grandparents of Hancock (pictured at his sentencing with his attorney), the owners of the handgun, as defendants for allowing Hancock to obtain the weapon, according to the suit It's unclear if he will represent the family in the civil case. 'I found many factual inaccuracies (in the lawsuit) which surprised me based on the fact that the investigative file from the sheriff's office has been distributed in the public domain,' Rittgers said. The lawsuit is seeking a jury trial and asks for more than $350,000 from Hancock, his parents and grandparents. The lawsuit is seeking a jury trial and asks for more than $350,000 from Hancock, his parents and grandparents (Hancock, pictured with his mother Kristi Blevins on June 6) At the time of his sentencing, Hancock was ordered to have no contact with the victims and to pay restitution for some medical expenses for one of them, said Rob Clevenger, the county's juvenile court director. Hancock has been in custody in the Butler County Juvenile Detention Center since the shooting. He will be free at 21 unless he causes problems in juvenile custody, which could lead to possible time in the adult prison system, Butler County Juvenile Court Judge Ronald Craft said Monday. School is less than two miles from site of 2012 Sandy Hook shooting Has a valid permit but state law prohibits possession of firearms in schools Adams is accused of carrying a loaded .45-caliber pistol on school grounds Was arrested in April after police said he was seen with a handgun Science teacher Jason Adams (pictured) resigned from Newtown Middle School in Connecticut A teacher in Newtown, Connecticut has resigned after being accused of carrying a loaded gun inside the school. Jason Adams, who taught science at Newtown Middle School, stepped down at the end of the school year, Superintendent Joseph Erardi confirmed Saturday. Adams was arrested on April 6 after he was seen with the gun and detained by school security, police said. He was accused of carrying a loaded .45-caliber pistol in a holster while at the school. Adams has a valid pistol permit, authorities said, but Connecticut state law prohibits possession of firearms on school grounds. He had been placed on administrative leave. Adams didn't immediately return a message Saturday seeking comment. Newtown Middle School is located less than two miles from the site of the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting rampage, which left 20 first-graders and six educators dead. Two senior Islamic State group commanders were killed in a US airstrike in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on June 25, the Pentagon has revealed. The strike killed ISIS's deputy war minister, Basim Muhammad Ahmad Sultan al-Bajari, and a military commander named Hatim Talib al-Hamduni, the Petagon said in a statement. Al-Bajari is suspected of organizing mustard gas attacks and leading the group's takeover of Mosul in 2014. Scroll down for video Two senior Islamic State group commanders were killed in a US airstrike in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Deputy war minister Basim Muhammad Ahmad Sultan al-Bajari led takeover of the city in 2014 (pictured) 'These deaths are the latest in coalition efforts to systematically eleiminate ISIL's cabinet wherever they hide,' Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. 'Disrupting their ability to plot external terror attacks and hold onto the territory they use to claim legitimacy.' Cook said Al-Bajari was an experienced terrorist and a former member of Al-Qaeda, according to Military.com. Al-Hamduni was also the head of military police in the region. Both men were killed as they rode in a car together, a senior defense official told NBC News. They were the only two people inside the vehicle. The announcement comes less than a week after Iraqi ground forces backed by coalition airstrikes retook the city of Fallujah from ISIS and launched strikes against forces fleeing the city. Their deaths come less than a week after Iraqi ground forces backed by coalition airstrikes retook the city of Fallujah from ISIS (pictured are Iraqi security forces and civilians celebrating after pushing ISIS out) This image made from video released by Iraq's Ministry of Defense on July 2, 2016, shows aerial images of purported air strikes on an Islamic State group convoy and militants near Fallujah The fall of Fallujah means that Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, is ISIS's only remaining urban stronghold in Iraq. It has become the terror group's capital An American-led coalition aircraft waged a series of deadly strikes against Islamic State around the city, killing at least 250 ISIS fighters The strikes came less than 24 hours after a triple suicide bombing at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul killed 42 people and wounded hundreds more. The fall of Fallujah means that Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, is ISIS's only remaining urban stronghold in Iraq. It has become the terror group's capital. ISIS has suffered a string of territorial losses in Iraq but the group continues to carry out large-scale militant attacks in the capital Baghdad and other territory far from the front-lines. Cook said the elimination of Al-Bajari and al-Hamduni has set up the battle to free the city from the terror group's forces in the new few months. 'Removing these terrorist leaders from the battlefield shapes the environment for Iraqi forces to ultimately liberate Mosul with support from the international coalition.' She was pictured with mum Chloe, cupping her ears as the crowd cheered His adorable daughter Clementine, 6, stole the show during the speech As Bill Shorten paid tribute to his wife Chloe it was his gorgeous daughter that stole the show during his election night speech. The Opposition Leader's youngest child, Clementine, was overwhelmed by the applause of her father's supporters as she plugged her ears during his speech. The adorable six-year-old stood in front of her mother Chloe and held her hands while her father Bill addressed his supporters on Saturday evening in Melbourne. Scroll down for video The Opposition Leader's youngest child, Clementine, was overwhelmed by the applause of her father's supporters as she plugged her ears during his speech The adorable six-year-old stood in front of her mother Chloe and held her hands while her father Bill addressed his supporters on Saturday evening in Melbourne As Bill Shorten paid tribute to his wife Chloe (pictured second from left) it was his gorgeous daughter that stole the show during his election night speech She also managed to steal the attention of her older siblings and mother as she hid behind them during the Opposition Leader's speech. Mr Shorten made a doting tribute to his wife Chloe for her support throughout the lengthy campaign, remarking that it had been the longest in Australia for 30 years. 'Chloe, wherever you went in this campaign, you brought the sunshine with you. And I guess the secret is out - you all know how lucky I am.' Mr Shorten's triumphant speech said the election results demonstrated the Prime Minister had been 'rejected' by the people of Australia as he celebrated the return of his party. 'There is one thing for sure, the Labor party is back,' an impassioned Mr Shorten said. Clementine (centre) stole the attention of her older siblings and mother as she hid behind them during her father's speech Mr Shorten made a doting tribute to his wife Chloe (left) for her support throughout the lengthy campaign, remarking that it had been the longest in Australia for 30 years Thanking his followers and friends for their support, Mr Shorten encouraged Labor voters to take 'great pride' in the results delivered across the country. 'In the past three years we have united as a party. In the past eight weeks we have run a magnificent campaign. We have argued for our positive plans and three years after the Liberals came to power in a landslide, they have lost their fan base. 'Mr Turnbull's economic program, such as it was, has been rejected by the people of Australia. 'Whatever happens next week, Mr Turnbull will never be able to claim that the people of Australia have adopted his ideological agenda. He will never again be able to promise the stability which he has completely failed to deliver tonight.' Bill Shorten smiles as he arrives with daughter Clementine (centre) and wife Chloe (right) to give a speech about the success of the Labor Party North Korean despot Kim Jong-un hosted Cuban officials at the beginning of a month of solidarity between the Hermit State and the communist island. Kim met with Salvador Antonio Valdes Mesa, vice-president of the Council of State of Cuba and a special envoy of president Raul Castro. Not to be out done in the title stakes, Kim was given a new title - chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK. Kim Jong-un, left, met with Cuban emissary Salvador Antonio Valdes Mesa in Pyongyang, North Korea Kim, pictured, praised the Cubans claiming they both were 'fighting in the same trench against imperialism' Kim was granted a new title ahead of the meeting with the Cubans to the delight of crowds outside The official North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun described Kim as 'chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army', In one of the most bizarre examples of international diplomacy, the Cubans praised their hosts for the 'hard-fought Korean War ignited by the U.S. imperialists against the DPRK on June 25, 1950'. According to the Cubans, 'Korea will be certainly reunified thanks to supreme leader Kim Jong Un who is successfully carrying forward the revolutionary cause of the great leaders. Kim is now officially chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea 'We will always extend invariable support and solidarity to the Korean people in their struggle for reunifying the country.' In response to the Cuban praise Kim showed his guests two North Korean films about the 1950-51 conflict 'Who Drew the 38th Parallel?' and 'Chieftain of the Korean War.' Spy chiefs at the time of the Iraq invasion will be 'fed to the wolves' in next week's long-awaited Chilcot Report, says a well-placed source. Former MI6 head Sir Richard Dearlove will be slammed for intelligence given to Tony Blair that laid the groundwork for the 'dodgy dossier' claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. It is understood the former Prime Minister will also be challenged for 'sidelining experts and the Cabinet' as he prepared for war in 2003, in the 2.6million-word report which will be published on Wednesday. Scroll down for video Former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove (left) will be grilled for intelligence given to Tony Blair that laid the groundwork for the 'dodgy dossier' claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. The former Prime Minister will also be challenged for how he 'sidelined experts and the Cabinet' as he prepared for war Sir Dearlove will allegedly be 'thrown to the wolves' for allowing agency chiefs to provide information 'without any supportive detail' for the dossier, The Mirror reported. The information formed the basis of the infamous '45-minute' dossier that claimed Hussein could deploy weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes. The 12-volume document examining the build-up to the invasion and military action during the war will be published seven years after the inquiry began. Sir John Chilcott, a former senior civil servant, will criticise Mr Blair for his style of 'sofa government', how he took Britain to war and the failures that took place during the reconstruction of Iraq. The report will also scrutinise how British embassy staff in Washington did not communicate to Downing Street the doubts that the CIA had about the military action. The long-awaited report by Sir John Chilcot, pictured, into the Iraq war will be published on Wednesday The source close to the inquiry said: 'CIA experts were warning how complex the Middle East was. The Embassy must been privy to how Dick Cheney (the Vice President) was sidelining the State Department and the CIA.' 'We didn't have enough trained people to go in and sent a lot of inexperienced people. There were very junior people taking responsibility for administrative roles,' said the former minister. Leader of the Lib Dems Tim Farron said: 'As well as politicians, spy chiefs and generals should be in for severe criticism in the Chilcot report.' The report will compare the American efforts to bring stability against those of the British. It will also draw attention to the lack of Arab experts and senior civil servants in the Foreign Office. The 12-volume document examining the build-up to the invasion and military action during the war (pictured British soldiers in Basra in 2003) will be published seven years after the inquiry It comes as a dramatic attempt to impeach Mr Blair for misleading Parliament over the Iraq war could be launched in the wake of the long-awaited Chilcot report into the conflict. MPs have begun to build support for an attempted prosecution of the former Labour Prime Minister after the report is published. A cross-party group is considering using an ancient Parliamentary mechanism to bring him to trial in Westminster. They say Mr Blair should be forced to answer claims he duped the Commons over the war, which cost the lives of 179 British troops. The MPs believe they can argue that the ex-Labour leader should be impeached over allegations he breached his constitutional duties as Premier. The power has not been used since 1806 when Lord Melville, a Tory minister, was charged with misappropriating official funds by the Commons. He was acquitted. Mr Blair will be criticised for his style of 'sofa government', how he took Britain to war and the failures that took place during reconstruction (pictured: oil pipelines burning near Nasiriya in South Iraq in March 2003) Mr Blair, who made claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction that were contradicted by his own intelligence assessments, is expected to be heavily criticised in the report. One Westminster source said: 'Impeachment is on our minds but we will need to digest the report. There is definitely a feeling that Blair must be properly held to account for his actions in the run-up to what was a disastrous war.' One MP can trigger the process by proposing a motion. He or she would need to present evidence to support their case and this would form the basis of a document called the Article of Impeachment, drawn up by a committee of MPs. Taylor Mazzanti, 25, was arrested for battery A Muslim man was beaten outside the Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen's mosque after a 25-year-old man spouted racial slurs, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) claimed. But the St Lucie County Sheriff's Office said the suspect Taylor Anthony Mazzanti, 25, had punched the unnamed victim several times in a burglary attempt, shooting down claims that the assault was racially motivated. Mazzanti was arrested just minutes after a 911 call was made Saturday morning, and the victim was taken to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center after losing a tooth and suffering trauma to the head, CAIR stated. The incident occurred around 4.15am outside the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, where mass shooter Omar Mateen was a regular attendee. According to the statement issued by CAIR, Mazzanti used racial slurs and said, 'You Muslims need to get back to your country' before he beat him. . Sheriff Ken Mascara said the victim had been standing next to his vehicle when Mazzanti approached him, asked him what he was doing and then punched him several times in the face and head. 'Interviews by the deputies and supervisors on scene and a written witness statement completed by the victim do not indicate any racially-motivated comments were made by the suspect prior to, during or after the incident,' added Mascara. Mazzanti's vehicle was spotted at an intersection about five miles away from the mosque, and the 25-year old was arrested and charged with felony battery. CAIR communications director Wilfredo Amr Ruiz said the group would file a complaint with Florida Governor Rick Scott as well as the US Department of Justice. 'This should not have happened. For over two weeks we have been emphasizing that the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce needs to be offered security from the Sheriff's Office,' said Ruiz. 'Unfortunately, our requests were repeatedly ignored. Will someone have to be killed for the Sheriff to provide Safety and Security to this Mosque? 'Muslims are part of the community just like everyone else. It is his duty and responsibility to ensure the safety of all his citizens.' Scroll down for video A Muslim man was beaten outside the mosque that Omar Mateen attended after a 25-year-old man spouted racial slurs at him around 4.15am on Saturday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) claimed (pictured, sheriff cars outside the mosque) The incident occurred around 4.15am outside the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce (pictured), but police argued they found no evidence of 'racially motivated comments' and accused CAIR of 'untruthful rhetoric to bring empathy to their cause' Sheriff Mascara called CAIR's portrayal of the incident an 'untruthful rhetoric...to bring empathy to their cause.' Sheriff's spokesman Bryan Beaty told The Palm Beach Post last week that the department could not provide additional security to the mosque due to 'pre-existing obligations and insufficient manpower.' Mascara said: 'My office, including myself and our agency Chaplain, have repeatedly attempted to communicate with the mosque to explore options of working together and there has been no response.' It was widely reported after gunman Omar Mateen killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando that he regularly attended the mosque in Fort Pierce. Volunteer Bedar Bakht said the mosque has been subject to negative attention since the mass shooting on June 12. 'When you're standing outside, people will drive by. They will curse you, they will show you fingers,' he told WPTV. Bakht also said a group of bikers circled the mosque in a 'Patriotic Ride' on June 26, adding: 'It makes us nervous, basically. You never know who's going to do what.' Mazzanti was booked into St Lucie County Jail and held on $3740 bond. An investigation is ongoing. Advertisement A tiny New Zealand town that offered property for bargain prices in a bid to attract more people has been swamped with more than 5,000 inquiries from around the world. Clutha District Mayor Bryan Cadogan said the South Island township of Kaitangata had more jobs than people, with a population of 800 but up to 1,000 vacancies, mostly in the thriving agricultural sector. To boost its population, the town has been offering house-and-land packages for 124,000 - a good deal considering the national average is 311,000, rising to 516,000 in Auckland. The only downside for those moving to the area that it is only approximately 1,500 miles from the Antarctic and its about a five hour drive from Christchurch, which is approximately 30 hours flight time from London. Residents from Kaitangata (pictured) have launched a recruitment drive to get city-dwellers to relocate to the rural town The scheme offers house and land packages at around 124,000 as well as an abundance of jobs Kaitangata is only 1,500 miles from Antarctica and is a 30-hour flight from London - after a five hour drive to the airport Cadogan said the response had been overwhelming, with global interest from people enquiring about moving to the town, which is set in a lush valley about an hour's drive from Dunedin which is about 50 miles away. 'We've been smashed,' he told TV3. 'I think my PA's going to throttle me... there's over 5,000 messages on my phone, the council website's full. It's just phenomenal.' The town has a coal mine, sawmills and processing factories for the dairy industry. 'We've got so many jobs in the district, jobs aren't a problem,' Cadogan said. 'We've got the jobs, we've got the affordable housing, we've got the beautiful lifestyle. We're pretty lucky.' He said the town had been searching for ways to attract new people for years. 'We did speed dating and a jobs fair last year,' he said, admitting the latest promotion had overshadowed them all. Cadogan said the initial offering of eight land and house packages looked set to be snapped up and the town 'will just keep finding them' if interest warrants it. 'It's a neat wee town with some really positive people and I think it's a hoot of a story,' he said. The scheme has seen the town swamped with more than 5,000 enquiries from around the world The town has a coal mine, sawmills and processing factories for the dairy industry The town also has some picturesque attractions such as Clutha River (pictured) 'We've got the jobs, we've got the affordable housing, we've got the beautiful lifestyle. We're pretty lucky.' He said the town had been searching for ways to attract new people for years. 'We did speed dating and a jobs fair last year,' he said, admitting the latest promotion had overshadowed them all. Cadogan said the initial offering of eight land and house packages looked set to be snapped up and the town 'will just keep finding them' if interest warrants it. She claimed she was 'eager' to speak to investigators about email scandal Hillary Clinton is set to be cleared of breaking secrecy laws following her email server scandal, sources have said. The presidential candidate, who was grilled by the FBI for three-and-a-half hours on Saturday, told MSNBC that she offered to speak to investigators at the height of the scandal in August last year. Clinton refused to be drawn on the probe itself or charges that could be brought against her, but said her chat with investigators on Saturday morning was both 'civil and business-like'. She also reiterated her claim that she never sent or received classified material using her family's private email server. Donald Trump said his sources had told him that Clinton was set to be cleared. Scroll down for video Hillary Clinton (pictured) has given a 'voluntary interview' to the FBI over her long-running email scandal Donald Trump said his sources had told him that Clinton was set to be cleared, but still called her 'crooked' He had earlier tweeted that it should be 'impossible for the FBI not to recommend criminal charges' 'It was just announced - by sources - that no charges will be brought against Crooked Hillary Clinton. Like I said, the system is totally rigged,' Trump tweeted on Saturday evening. CNN also reported that its sources believe Clinton will be cleared by the FBI in the next two weeks. Speaking of her interview with the FBI, Clinton said: 'It was something I had offered to do since last August. I've been eager to do it, and I was pleased to have the opportunity to assist the department in bringing its review to a conclusion.' Asked whether she had broken the law, she added: 'I never received nor sent any material that was marked classified and there is a process for the review of material before it is released to the public and there were decisions made that material should be classified. 'I do call that retroactively classifying. So therefore it would not be publically released. But that doesn't chance the fact as I've explained many times.' The former Secretary of State refused to comment on whether she would be charged following the investigation, which looks unlikely. Investigators have been probing if Clinton violated secrecy laws since her unusual home server came to light in March 2015 (pictured, an SUV leaving her home earlier today) 'I'm not going to go into any more detail then I already have in public many times, as you certainly know, out of respect for the process that the department is conducting. So, I'm not going to comment any further on the review but I've been answering questions now for over a year,' she said. 'I've released more than 55,000 pages of my emails for the public to read for themselves. I will continue to be as forthcoming as I can and my answer that I first gave more than a year ago, I stand by.' Daily Mail Online understands that Clinton was not under oath during the interview. Clinton's campaign spokesman confirmed that interview took place on Saturday morning. He added: 'She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion. 'Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview.' Her meeting at FBI headquarters in Washington DC, which lasted three-and-a-half hours, largely focused on whether she was legally equipped to handle classified information, a campaign aide said. Eight FBI and DoJ officials carried out the interview which was described as 'civil and businesslike', the New York Times reported. Clinton was accompanied by her lawyer David E Kendall, aides Cheryl D Mills and Heather Samuelson, and two lawyers from Mr Kendalls firm. The FBI has already spoken to another one of her longtime aides, Huma Abedin, who was familiar with her email procedures. Abedin received several of the emails that Clinton sent to the State Department after her unusual home server was made public in March 2015. Former Clinton chief of staff in the State Department Cheryl Mills was also cooperating with the investigation. 'Secretary Clinton gave a voluntary interview this morning about her email arrangements while she was Secretary,' her campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said today (pictured, Secret Service outside her home) Clinton's meeting at FBI headquarters in Washington DC lasted more than three hours (pictured, a Secret Service vehicle leaving her home today) Republicans have pounced on the probe into the controversial email server to belittle Clinton's bid to become president, saying it shows a lack of good judgement. Donald Trump, the Republican's presumptive nominee, has repeatedly hit out at Clinton over the emails. It is standard procedure for the FBI to question a person at the center of an investigation last, with all available facts at hand. 'With a person like Secretary Clinton, the FBI probably assumes they are going to get one chance to interview her,' former Justice Department prosecutor David Deitch told the Chicago Tribune in May. He said it would be difficult 'not only because she is a prominent person, but because she is very busy right now with the presidential campaign,' Clinton has maintained an openness to speaking with authorities and expressed hope that the matter would conclude quickly. The Democratic National Convention is just three weeks away. The FBI has insisted there is no timeline to the investigation. News of the potential interview came on a day when Attorney General Loretta Lynch said she 'fully' expects to accept the recommendation of the career professionals as to how to proceed on the case, although she left herself some wiggle room. 'The recommendations will be reviewed by career supervisors in the Department of Justice and in the FBI, and by the FBI director, and then as is the common process, they present it to me and I fully expect to accept their recommendations,' Lynch said at a panel in Aspen Friday. Former State Department chief of staff Cheryl Mills is cooperating Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Friday she would 'fully' expect to defer to career supervisors in the FBI and Justice Department about how to proceed in the case Lynch said she would be accepting those recommendations, although she notably said she was not rescuing herself from the matter entirely, giving herself an opportunity to steer the process. 'And while I don't have a role in those findings, in coming up with those findings or making those recommendations on how to move forward, I'll be briefed on it and I will be accepting their recommendations,' she said. Lynch was under fire for holding an impromptu 30-minute meeting with Bill Clinton aboard her government aircraft in Phoenix this week. Hillary firmly denied her husband and the Attorney General discussed the investigation, saying it was 'a short, chance meeting at an airport tarmac'. 'As I understand it, were landing on the same tarmac at about the same time and the Attorney General's husband was there,' the presidential candidate said. 'They said hello. They talked about grandkids, which is very much on our minds these days, golf, their mutual friend and former attorney general Janet Reno. It was purely social. They did not veer off of speaking about those kinds of, you know, very common exchanges. 'It was a short, chance meeting that occurred, and they did not discuss the Department of Justices review.' Donald Trump is under fire for a tweet he sent of a photo-shopped graphic that accuses his rival Hillary Clinton of being the most corrupt politician ever alongside what appears to be a Star of David and $100 bills. The billionaire businessman tweeted the graphic Saturday morning at 8.47am and wrote: 'Crooked Hillary - - Makes History!' The graphic, which appears to be a photo shop creation with various different elements, included a Fox News poll that found 58 per cent of voters believing the former first lady to be 'corrupt.' Scroll down for video Donald Trump is under fire for a tweet (above) he sent of a photo-shopped graphic that accuses his rival Hillary Clinton of being the most corrupt politician ever alongside what appears to be a red Star of David and $100 bills The real estate mogul sent out another tweet (above) that replaced the star with a circle instead and used the same text as before The billionaire businessman tweeted the graphic Saturday morning at 8.47am, but deleted it about two hours later It's juxtaposed against a black and white image of Clinton with a riff from her own presidential campaign statement about how she would make history as the first female nominee of a major political party. Next to her image is what appears to be a red, six-pointed Star of David, which is a well-known Jewish symbol. Over the star, the text reads: 'Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!' Behind Clinton's photo there are $100 bills scattered around in piles. Around two hours later, the real estate mogul sent out another tweet that replaced the star with a circle instead and used the same text as before. He has since deleted the original post, but not before many users on Twitter were shocked and outraged about the first graphic that appeared to imply to some that Clinton's fundraising comes from corrupt Jews. A communications staffer for Clinton's campaign, Josh Schwerin, tweeted and asked why a Star of David was used on the image. Political columnist Ana Marie Cox wrote the 'Symbolism here is pretty... unsubtle.' Trump has not released a statement about the now-deleted tweet about the former New York senator. For years, Trump has been known for using his Twitter account that has more than nine million followers to insult and attack his rivals. And during this intense presidential campaign Trump has received criticism for retweeting others including messages from white supremacists. In addition, the presumptive Republican nominee has fought accusations in the past of anti-Semitism and racism. Twitter users, pictured above, expressed their outrage over the ad by the presidential hopeful In March, while speaking to the largest pro-Israel lobby in the United States, AIPAC, Trump declared his love for Jewish people and Israel. 'I love the people in this room,' Trump told AIPAC attendees. 'I love Israel. I've been with Israel so long in terms of - I've received some of my greatest honors from Israel. 'My father before me. Incredible. My daughter Ivanka, is about to have a beautiful Jewish baby. 'In fact, it could be happening right now, which would be very nice as far as I'm concerned.' They will have another wedding in A bride and groom were shocked to see their 15,000 wedding cancelled 30 minutes before the ceremony after council workers lost their paperwork. John Canning, 47, and Kirsty Slone, 42, of Paisley, Scotland, had travelled to Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria to get married in front of 60 friends and family. But they were stunned when the registrar informed them their documents had gone missing, and after waiting two hours they were then told blunders by Cumbria County Council meant the paperwork was not valid. John Canning and Kirsty Slone, picture left and right, had their 15,000 dream wedding cancelled moments before the ceremony after council staff in Cumbria lost their paperwork Mr Canning, a driving instructor, said the couple chose the location because Miss Slone's late father came from Barrow and they wanted to remember him. He said he thought the problem was a joke at first but that his bride-to-be, who was already wearing her dress, was 'left devastated' and their party of 60 made a 400-mile round trip for nothing. But they went ahead with a wedding party to ensure their guests enjoyed some good memories of the day. He told the Daily Record: 'The registrar, Louise McKenna, was very apologetic but it was small comfort. Kirsty was devastated. We had been planning our wedding for some time and it was completely ruined. 'We're still not husband and wife and our honeymoon is now a holiday we have to take otherwise we'd lose even more money.' Mr Canning said the registrar wrote them a letter of apology and said their wedding would be a 'special moment' regardless of the location. The couple, from Scotland, invited 60 guests on the 400-mile round trip, and were 'devastated' at having to call off the ceremony, but went ahead with a party to ensure it was not a wasted journey But he added they were 'struggling to recover emotionally' from the ruined event and emphasised how important it was to marry in Barrow due to the Miss Slone's family connection. The couple have booked another ceremony for Paisley later in July attended only by close family. They have asked Cumbria County Council to pay for it due to the 'unacceptable' mistake. ISIS said nationals from 'crusader countries' were not safe 'as long as their aircraft are killing Muslims' Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has declared two days of national mourning after the massacre Gunmen then held security services in 12-hour standoff before elite troops moved in and shot them dead Advertisement Jihadist extremists hacked 20 people to death in a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka - sparing only those who could recite from the Koran - before they were gunned down by commandos. Witnesses said seven Islamist radicals stormed the Holey Artisan bakery and cafe last night armed with assault weapons, pistols and 'sharp objects' before taking more than 30 people hostage. They killed nine Italians, seven Japanese, an Indian, an American and two local men before elite commandos ended the 12-hour standoff by storming the cafe. Six of the hostage-takers were killed and one was arrested. WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Abinta Kabir, an American student from Miami, Florida, has been identified as one of the 20 foreigners killed during the ISIS attack on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka last night Kabir (far right), an undergraduate student at Emory University, Georgia, was visiting family and friends in Bangladesh at the time of the attack, a university spokesman said Kabir died alongside Faraaz Hossain (right) who was originally from Bangladesh but had also been studying at Emory University, attending the college's business school Hossain (center) had studied at Emory's campus in Oxford, Georgia, the same one attended by Kabir, then joined the business school after graduating Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has declared two days of national mourning after the massacre in the upmarket Gulshan district of the city. In a statement on television she said: 'It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these people? They don't have any religion.' Most of the Italian victims were understood to work in the fashion industry, buying fabrics from Bangladesh. Italy's footballers are wearing black armbands in memory of the victims when they play Germany tonight in their Euro 2016 quarter final in France. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the five men and two women who died worked for the country's foreign aid agency and 'were giving their all for the development of Bangladesh'. ISIS posted pictures of five of the attackers online along with a statement: 'Let the people of the crusader countries know that there is no safety for them as long as their aircraft are killing Muslims.' The statement is believed to be aimed at British and American air strikes in Syria and Iraq, although neither Italy or Japan are involved in that campaign. The terrorists posed, with wide grins, in front of ISIS banners before committing the 'heinous' massacre Bangladesh has seen an increased amount of Islamist terrorism in recent years with attacks on non-Muslims, bloggers, atheists, secular activists and even LGBT campaigners. But this is the first concerted attack on foreigners. The American victim has been named as Abinta Kabir, from Miami, Florida. Also among the dead were Faraaz Hossain, who attended business school at Emory University in Atlanta, and Tarushi Jain, 19, who studied at University of California's Berkeley campus. Kabir, a sophomore at Emory's Oxford campus, was an American citizen, while Hossain was born in Bangladesh and Jain was of Indian origin. A spokesman said: 'Emory University has learned that two Emory students, Abinta Kabir and Faraaz Hossain, were among those taken hostage and murdered by terrorists yesterday in the attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh. 'Abinta, who was from Miami, was a rising sophomore at Emorys Oxford College. 'Faraaz, who was from Dhaka, was a graduate of Oxford College and a student at the universitys Goizueta Business School. 'The Emory community mourns this tragic and senseless loss of two members of our university family. 'Our thoughts and prayers go out on behalf of Faraaz and Abinta and their families and friends for strength and peace at this unspeakably sad time.' Gianluigi Buffon (centre) and his Italian team-mates are wearing black armbands tonight - in memory of the dead - in their Euro 2016 quarter final against Germany in Bordeaux and there was a minute's applause before the game in honour of the victims in Dhaka Tarushi Jain, 19, an Indian native who was studying at University of California, Berkeley, has also been identified among the dead Sushma Swaraj, India's minister of external affairs, confirmed Jain's death today. She is believed to have been on holiday to Bangladesh at the time of the attack, where her father owns a textiles business Gruesome: This is one of the images that was released by ISIS' media agency Amar, purportedly showing victims inside the Dhaka restaurant which was taken siege by Islamist militants on Friday night Rita Katz, director of SITE Intelligence Group, told Mail Online she believes the images to be authentic The trendy Holey Artisan Bakery and cafe (pictured) in the upmarket area of Gulshan was the target of the attack. It was popular with foreigners, many of whom worked for aid agencies or as garment buyers for the fashion industry The Italian foreign ministry confirmed the dead as: Adele Puglisi, Marco Tondat, Claudia Maria D'Antona, Nadia Benedetti, Vincenzo D'Allestro, Maria Rivoli, Cristian Rossi, Claudio Cappelli, and Simona Monti. Ms Monti's brother, Father Luca Monti, a priest in southern Italy, said he hoped 'this experience of martyrdom for my family and the blood of my sister Simona can help contribute to building a more just and brotherly world.' Agnese Barolo, who lives in Dhaka, said one of the dead was the wife of an Italian businessman, who was killed by a machete. She was found by her husband after he spent all night hiding behind a tree outside the cafe while the gunmen were inside. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed declared two days of mourning for the victims to take place on Sunday and Monday. Islam is a religion of peace. Stop killing in the name of the religion Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh PM She also thanked all those who had expressed their solidarity with Bangladesh, and vowed that terrorism would be exterminated at all costs. Sheikh Hasina added: 'Islam is a religion of peace. Stop killing in the name of the religion. Please stop tarnishing our noble religion...I implore you to come back to the rightful path and uphold the pride of Islam.' Army Brigadier General Naim Asraf Chowdhury said: 'Most of (the hostages) were killed mercilessly by sharp weapons last night.' On Friday night, Bangladeshi resident Hasnat Karim said he brought his family to the cafe in order to celebrate his daughter's birthday. Hasnat was too traumatised to say more than a few words about his ordeal, saying only that the hostage-takers 'did not misbehave with us'. But he detailed to his father Rezaul how the gunmen - who were armed with automatic weapons, bombs and makeshift machetes - had split the diners into two groups. Rezaul said: '(The foreigners) were taken to the upper floor and the Bangladeshis were kept around a table.' He said his son told him the terrorists 'did not hit people who could recite verses from the Koran. The others were tortured'. He added: 'The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Koran. Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night.' Ruba Ahmed (centre), whose daughter Abinta Kabir was one of those killed last night, is pictured in Dhaka. Her daughter was studying in America but was visiting her family An injured policeman is carried away after the attack in Dhaka on Friday night Soldiers took up positions around the restaurant in case there were any further attacks The Bangladeshi military positioned armoured personnel carriers on the streets to increase security Troops took up strategic positions across Dhaka to discourage any further terrorist attacks Relatives of some of those inside the restaurant gathered at the edge of the police cordon for news Two marksmen stood holding their high-powered Dragunov sniper rifles after last night's rescue mission Troops boarded Armoured Personnel Carriers after rescuing 13 hostages who here being held by ISIS Elite Bangladeshi commandos stormed the building after siege of more than 12 hours, freeing some 13 hostages, in addition to another eight who manged to flee during the siege. Six of the terrorists were shot dead and one was arrested at the scene. The ISIS media wing has claimed responsibility for the attack which was launched on the final Friday of Ramadan, as millions of Muslims prepare to celebrate the Eid holiday. The final ten days of Ramadan are the most solemn in the Islamic calendar. Two police officers were killed, including a local police station chief, Mohammed Salahuddin, who was earlier injured in the shoot-out. According to a local photojournalist, Mr Salahuddin was asked by his colleagues not to cross the cordon as he was not wearing a bullet-proof vest. Just moments after he crossed the line, according to the Daily Star in Dhaka, he was shot. A second policeman, Robiul Islam, assistant commissioner of Uttara zone Detective Branch, has also died in the shooting, top police officials confirmed. Another 25 officers and one civilian are being treated for injuries from gunshots and shrapnel, with 10 people in a critical condition, according to hospital authorities. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activity. SITE said ISIS' Amaq News Agency reported ISIS terrorists had carried out the attack. Police stormed the cafe after being locked in a shoot-out with gunmen at a restaurant in the diplomatic quarter of the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, that is popular with foreigners Casualties were evacuated from the scene in the back of army trucks and ambulance People help an unidentified injured person after a group of gunmen attacked a cafe popular with foreigners in a diplomatic zone of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka A staff member who managed to escape said the gunmen shouted 'Allahu Akbar' as they attacked the cafe, shooting and throwing bombs Speaking after the raid, Lieutenant Colonel Tuhin Mohammed Masud, commander of the Rapid Action Battalion said: 'We have gunned down at least six terrorists and the main building is cleared but the operation is still going on.' A Japanese government spokesman said that a Japanese hostage was rescued with a gunshot wound but seven others are unaccounted for. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said the eight were together at the restaurant at the time of the attack. One member of staff from the restaurant who managed to escape, Sumon Reza, told Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star: 'They blasted several crude bombs, causing wide-scale panic among everyone. I managed to flee during this confusion.' He added: 'They came armed with pistols, swords and bombs. They shouted Allahu Akbar [God is great] before blasting the bombs.' ISIS claimed 24 people had been killed and a further 40 were wounded in the attack. Images of the carnage were distributed on social media channels with links to the jihadi terror organisation. Bangladeshi officials have said 20 have died with a number of others in a critical condition in hospital. Hospital staff dealing with casualties said of the 26 people they are currently treating, ten are in a critical condition with six on life support. Victims suffered broken bones and gunshot wounds. Victims: Robiul Islam (left) and Mohammed Salahuddin (right) were named as the two police officers who died in a shootout with the attackers in Dhaka, according to local news site The Daily Star A police officer assists an injured colleague outside the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe, before the siege developed Two police officers injured earlier in the shoot-out were later confirmed dead, according to local media reports Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) surrounded the cafe and police negotiators tried to talk to the attackers but they were hell-bent on bloodshed, even if it meant their own deaths Bangladeshi security personnel stand guard after gunmen stormed a restaurant in Dhaka's high-security diplomatic district The ship's captain was killed and three other fishermen were injured Taiwanese warship fired the missile in the direction of rival country China Minister apologized for the misfire and promised to probe the incident This is the fisherman who survived his trawler being hit by the Taiwan navy's supersonic 'aircraft carrier killer' missile which was fired by a sailor showing off to his comrades. The man was injured when the missile mistakenly launched by a Taiwanese warship struck his fishing boat in the waters off Penghu on Friday, killing the ship's captain Huang Wen-Chung. He was visited by Taiwan Defense Minister Feng Shih-kuan, who apologized for the misfire and promised to probe the incident, in hospital in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan on Saturday. Scroll down for video This is the fisherman who lay in hospital after being injured when a missile mistakenly launched by a Taiwanese warship struck his fishing boat in the waters off Penghu on Friday. He was visited by Taiwan Defense Minister Feng Shih-kuan (second from left), who apologized for the misfire Mr Feng also promised the man, who was pictured with a bandaged leg, he would tighten discipline and boost troop training to avoid similar incidents. The minister was later pictured consoling the tearful widow of fishing boat captain Huang Wen-chung at her home in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan. On Friday Taiwan's Chinchiang-class corvette fired a Hsiung Feng III (HF3, Brave Wind III) by mistake towards China during a drill at the Tsoying naval base in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan. The missile, which has a range of 200 miles, flew for some 46 miles and fell near the Penghu Islands in the Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan from mainland China. The Navy said the launch was caused by a soldier who wanted to show off. The missile hit a Taiwan fishing boat, killing the Taiwanese captain and injuring a Taiwanese, a Filipino and a Vietnamese fisherman. Chang Zhijun, head of China's Taiwan Affairs Council, called it a serious incident and demanded that Taiwan make a 'responsible explanation'. President Tsai Ing-wen held a national security meeting on Friday to discuss the misfire and its repercussions. Mr Feng (left), who promised to tighten discipline and boost troop training to avoid similar incidents, was later seen consoling the tearful wife of fishing boat captain Huang Wen-chung who was killed by the missile On Friday, the navy had said it was not immediately clear how the missile had come to be launched, but suggested it could have been due to human error. 'Our initial investigation found that the operation was not done in accordance with normal procedure,' Vice Admiral Mei Chia-shu had told reporters, adding that an investigation was under way. The missile was fired during a drill at around 8:10 am from a 500-tonne missile ship docked at a naval base in the southern city of Tsoying and flew in the direction of China. Helicopters and navy ships were sent to search for the missile, Mei said, adding that the military had reported the gaffe to the island's top security body, the National Security Conference. A Taiwanese warship mistakenly launched a supersonic 'aircraft carrier killer' missile towards China, killing the Taiwanese captain and injuring a Taiwanese, a Filipino and a Vietnamese fisherman (file picture) Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, which handles China policy, declined to say whether the incident had been reported to Beijing. Ties between Taipei and Beijing have deteriorated noticeably since President Tsai Ing-wen of the China-sceptic Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was elected in January. China still insists that self-ruling Taiwan is part of its territory, even though the two sides split in 1949 after a civil war, and has not ruled out using force to bring about reunification. However, earlier in the week Taiwan's government said it will continue to look for ways to maintain dialogue with China. A model of a home-grown supersonic Hsiung-feng III (Brave Wind) ship-to-ship missile which was fired towards China by mistake 'No matter what party is in government in Taiwan, we always have a single, common objective: to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,' Tsai told reporters during a visit to Paraguay, Taiwan's sole diplomatic ally in South America. 'We will continue the dialogue with mainland China, as even though, probably at this moment official negotiation channels have been temporarily interrupted, there still exist other options for communication and dialogue,' she said, speaking through an interpreter. On Wednesday, Taiwan Premier Lin Chuan said the government's approach was for positive interactions with China to continue, based on existing foundations. Both the bus and truck were completely destroyed after the crash Officers called this accident the 'worst in the history of the county' At least five people are dead, including one child, and 25 others have been injured after a bus collided with a semi truck in Wakulla County, Florida. Four people were confirmed dead on the scene and the fifth died in a Wakulla County hospital, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. Elie Dupiche, 56, of Belle Glade, Florida, was driving a 1979 Blue Bird bus and Gordon A. Sheets, 55, of Copiague, New York, was driving a 2005 Freightliner semi truck. At least five people are dead, including one child, and 25 others have been injured after a bus collided with a semi truck Wakulla County Sheriff said 25 people were taken to nearby hospitals. At least 16 people had been taken to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Dupiche is currently in critical condition at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and Sheets died as a result of his injuries, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. Sheets had one passenger, 21-year-old Rafael Nieves of Sound Beach, New York, who was uninjured. Dupiche's bus was full of adults and children, at least 25 of whom were injured in the crash. One person was airlifted from the scene. The accident happened this morning when the bus was traveling southbound on Woodville Highway when it ran a flashing red light at the intersection of U.S. Highway 98 and collided with the semi truck as it drove westbound, according to Wakulla County Sheriff Charlie Creel. One family member of the people on board the bus, Saintervil Amilcar, told the Tallahassee Democrat that the people on board the bus were Haitian migrant workers Wakulla County Sheriff said 25 people were taken to nearby hospitals. At least 16 people had been taken to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare. Twelve people, deemed the most injured, were taken to the hospital's Bixler Emergency and Trauma Center. A spokesman for the hospital said four other patients had either been discharged or were about to be discharged. 'There are seven to ten that are in very serious condition. Two have been intubated and the rest vary from minor injuries to walking wounded,' Creel told DailyMail.com About 30 to 35 people were on board the bus at the time of the accident. It was coming from Georgia but officers have not officially determined where it was headed. Sheriff's said some passengers ran away from the scene following the accident. The bus crashed in Wakulla County, Florida, while on it's way to Belle Glade. It was bringing farm workers to the city for two weeks One family member of the people on board the bus, Saintervil Amilcar, told the Tallahassee Democrat that the people on board the bus were Haitian migrant workers, who were on their way from Bainbridge to Belle Glade, where they would work for two weeks. Amilcar said his aunt was on the bus and he does not know if she is dead or alive. Creel confirmed to DailyMail.com the passengers were farm workers headed for Belle Glade, in the state's central-southeast. The accident is the 'worst' Creel 'has ever seen in the county', he told the Tallahassee Democrat. The semi truck caught fire and disintegrated in the crash, which knocked down a power line. All that remains of the truck is an engine block. The bus also caught fire and was completely destroyed. The American Red Cross is working to match families with victims. The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating the crash. Team GB weren't present this year as they are busy training across Europe for the upcoming Olympic Games and knee-length dresses, some fans dressed up as Elvis Advertisement Spectators thronged the banks of the River Thames and took to dinghies with cans of beer on the fourth day of Henley regatta today. Considered one of the key events of the English social season, Henley is one of the oldest events on the British summer calendar and has been held every year since 1839, apart from during the First and Second World Wars. The five-day event celebrate its 177th year this year - and the sun came out for its penultimate day of the 2016 race. Rowing fans lined the grassy banks to watch races which are head-to-head knock out competitions, raced over a course of 1 mile, 550 yards (2,112 m) which regularly attracts international crews to race. Team GB could not be present this year as they were busy training across Europe for the upcoming Olympic Games, but the festival still saw its record number of entrants with 629 teams competing for medals. The regatta has seen more than 200 rowing races over the five days, with teams from as far as New Zealand and Japan competing. Originally envisaged by the mayor of Henley as regatta-funfair hybrid, the first event, which was staged over the course of a single afternoon, proved such a hit, it was extended to two days the following year. Royal patronage came in 1851, when Prince Albert agreed to become the regatta's first royal patron. After his death, the patronage passed to Queen Victoria and then Edward VII. The current royal patron is the Queen. Messing about in boats: Rowing fans float in dinghies on the River Thames on day four of the Henley Royal Regatta It's the King(s): Fans took their love of Elvis to a new level by dressing up as him and taking to a boat complete with a US flag Rocking out: The Elvis impersonators wave to crowds on the bank as they display their impressive outfits of white trousers and shirt and a red cape - and of course sunglasses and the hair to match Never too old to row: The Shrewsbury Schools 55th anniversary team after winning The Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup It's the weekend! Young people enjoy cans of cider as they dangle their feet in the river and enjoy the sunshine Prime spot: Some groups were right in on the action while others stuck to the numerous pop-up bars along the banks Dressed up: Home Secretary Theresa May donned a striking white hat featuring a large orange bloom as she arrived on day three of the regatta yesterday All aboard: Theresa May (front right) joined a group in boat named the Argonaut - wearing a protective coat over her glad-rags Taking a nap: A bearded man with a straw boater hat reclines in wooden boat as he takes a break from the festivities Crowded: The banks were lined with excited spectators of all ages while the bars just back from the river also attracted numerous hoards flocking down the path in search of a spot to sit Moment of reflection: Smartly dressed spectators observe a two-minute silence to mark the 100th anniversary Battle of the Somme Mark of respect: A man dressed in a traditional rowing blazer joins others for a moment of seriousness to remember the fallen soldiers Rain, rain go away: Spectators shelter under umbrellas as intermittent showers fall during a day of mixed weather An uncontrolled wildfire has spread to 1,800 acres in central California, threatening 300 homes. The blaze began Friday afternoon near Bear Valley Springs, a gated community of 7,500 in the Tehachapi Mountains. It has since grown to 2.8 square miles, threatening several hundred additional homes in the Hart Flat community. The fire remained at zero per cent containment Saturday afternoon, according to an update by the Kern County Fire Department. Scroll down for video An uncontrolled wildfire (pictured) has spread to 1,800 acres in central California, threatening 300 homes and prompting evacuations The blaze (pictured) began Friday afternoon near Bear Valley Springs, a gated community of 7,500 in the Tehachapi Mountains Firefighters focused on keeping the fire from climbing over a ridge and potentially threatening 1,000 homes. But the rough, inaccessible terrain, 20 mph winds and the hot, dry weather hampered their efforts. 'It if blows over the ridge, it can cause damage,' Kern County Fire Department spokesman Phil Neufeld said. Authorities urged residents in the Bear Valley Springs area to evacuate on Friday. They have asked those in the Hart Flat community to prepare for a potential relocation. 'Assemble family members and pets, pack necessities, and park vehicles for an easy escape as soon as advised to evacuate,' the fire department said in a notice. The blaze, known as the Deer Fire, came 'dangerously close' to several homes Friday night, authorities said. Firefighters focused on keeping the fire (pictured) from climbing over a ridge and potentially threatening 1,000 homes but the rough, inaccessible terrain, 20 mph winds and the hot, dry weather hampered their efforts Authorities urged residents in the Bear Valley Springs area to evacuate on Friday after the fire (picture) began. They have asked those in the Hart Flat community to prepare for a potential relocation As of Saturday, 519 personnel were fighting the fire, some of them dropping retardant (pictured) to keep it from spreading and enable firefighters to contain it The blaze (pictured), known as the Deer Fire, came 'dangerously close' to several homes Friday night, authorities said. It is among 12 wildfires burning in California As of Saturday, 519 personnel were fighting the fire, some of them dropping retardant to keep it from spreading. They used helicopters to drop water on the blaze and assist firefighters on the ground. The blaze is among 12 wildfires burning in California. It is located about 60 miles south of a deadly 75-square-mile blaze that broke out near Lake Isabella last week. That fire is 85 per cent contained, and resources from it are being diverted to fight the new fire. Meanwhile firefighters made significant progress in containing a wildfire in southern Utah, where a voluntary evacuation order has been partially lifted. The blaze near Pine Valley, north of Saint George, was 42 per cent contained Saturday, fire officials said. The fire, which has torched 2.5 square miles of rugged terrain since it started in June 13, had previously forced evacuations. Comedian Caroline Aherne has joined the growing list of famous people who have died so far in 2016. The tragic deaths of some of Britain's best-loved celebrities this year has seen some music and TV fans brand 2016 'the worst year ever'. The passing of famous faces including David Bowie, Ronnie Corbett, Terry Wogan and Alan Rickman have robbed the country of some of its most cherished cultural icons and entertainers. As well as appearing on The Fast Show and The Royle Family, Aherne also starred in an advert for PG Tips Now it has been confirmed that more celebrities are dying than ever, according to a study of BBC obituaries. The corporation said it broadcast double the number of obituaries that it had done by this time last year, Radio Four's More or Less programme found. Whereas it only needed to air five obituaries in the first three months of 2012, that number has risen steadily each year to 24 during January, February and March 2016. The figure is more than the number broadcast in 2014 and 2015 combined, the programme revealed. Obituaries editor Nick Serpell said the figures are due to a boom in the number of people who became famous in the late 1950s and 1960s. David Bowie and Ronnie Corbett are among the most high-profile of those who have died so far this year He told the programme: 'We are beginning to see people reaching their seventies and eighties who came to fame during the late 50s and 60s and when you look back, before television arrived in the early 1950s, the only really famous people that people came across all the time were movie stars, because they went to the cinema. 'But through the 50s we had television, that brought more famous people in people's rooms, music in particular, we had the growth of rock and roll music, The Who sung about my generation and hoping they'd die before they got old, but while some of them did, the majority of them didn't. 'All these people, and the rise and growth of celebrity if you like, are reaching that period in their seventies and eighties where they are going to start to die and I think that is what's causing this.' Musician David Bowie died in Manhattan on January 10 before actor Alan Rickman passed away in London less than a week later. Both had been suffering from cancer. Terry Wogan and Alan Rickman have also passed away. The BBC says it broadcast 24 obituaries in the first three months of 2106 Broadcaster Terry Wogan passed away at his home in Taplow, Buckinghamshire later that month and Ronnie Corbett, whose funeral was held today, died on March 31. A number of other famous people have also died this year, including Paul Daniels, George Martin, Howard Marks, Zaha Hadid, Harper Lee, Cecil Parkinson, Johan Cryff and David Gest. Gizmodo UK journalist James O'Malley looked at the data from Wikipedia, showing how many celebrities have died so far this year compared to the same 121-day period over the previous six years. The celebrities were classified by whether or not they were 'notable' enough to have their own Wikipedia page. TV magician Paul Daniels and Beatles producer George Martin are among the much-loved figures no longer with us The results showed that, although more celebrities had died during the same period in 2010, the celebrities who died this year were much more famous than any of the other years. Alexander McQueen, Corey Haim, Dixie Carter and J.D. Salinger are among the big names who died in the same period in 2010. Based on the number of hits each individual's Wikipedia page receive, Gizmodo UK calculated scores to reflect how many 'more famous' celebrities died in the first 90 days of the year. Of the high-scoring celebrities that died in the same time frame, those who died this year had a much higher score, meaning the famous deaths have been much more famous this year in particular. This could be why it seems like more celebrities are dying. A Scottish women has added her own humorous touch to the Brexit fallout by creating a video offering men 'the chance of a lifetime' and remain in the EU - by marrying her. Actress and comedian Rachel Loughran - also known as Ray-Lo -posted the comical video online with the hashtag #MakeMeScottish in which she makes a sound - and hilarious - argument for taking her hand in marriage. The footage comes as record numbers of people enquire about moving north of the border following last week's vote to leave the EU. Actress and comedian Rachel Loughran posted the comical video online with the hashtag #MakeMeScottish in which she makes a sound - and hilarious - argument for taking her hand in marriage 'In a gesture of unification between myself and my fellow reluctant Brexiting brethren from outside the Scottish borders' she announces, 'I'm offering the chance of a lifetime' Sitting in a diner as she is served a portion of deep-fried haggis the brunette addresses the camera: 'In a gesture of unification between myself and my fellow reluctant Brexiting brethren from outside the Scottish borders' she announces, 'I'm offering the chance of a lifetime.' And in dramatic tones worthy of a film trailer she elaborates on this exciting statement in breathy tones: 'The potential opportunity of obtaining a Scottish passport by making me your wife.' The tongue-in-cheek proposal continues: 'I appeal to all eligible, and eager, bachelors - of which I am sure there are many - to send me a video proposal, stating in no uncertain terms why I should make you my Scottish husband... or wife, not that fussed'. 'Go on, the bagpipes are calling you,' she cries - and right on cue the traditional Scottish wind instrument begins to sound in the background with a film-like rendition of Amazing Grace. 'Your Tunnock teacakes await,' she adds, referring to the popular Scottish sweet treat with all the impressive delivery of a war general rousing his troops. 'Take a bite of my deep fried haggis and let me make you... Scottish.' To drive home just how great Scottish life could be for this lucky man (or woman), Loughran picks up the piece of deep-fried haggis and bites off a large mouthful as the bagpipes blow energetically and stares intensely at the camera. And in dramatic tones worthy of a film trailer she elaborates on this exciting statement in breathy tones: 'The potential opportunity of obtaining a Scottish passport by making me your wife' She continues: 'I appeal to all eligible, and eager, bachelors - of which I am sure there are many - to send me a video proposal, stating in no uncertain terms why I should make you my Scottish husband But, ever the comedian, the beauty quickly brings an end to the Hollywood-esque scene .'Lovely Jean, really nice,' she interrupts, suddenly bringing the music to a halt and turning to the waiter to compliment him on the dish. Loughran, who was raised in Glasgow but now lives in North London, told The Sun, 'It is a joke, but with a serious message.' In a longer version of the video she says: 'Scotland. Land of the free, country of the brave, birthplace of the deep-fried Mars bar and home to 1,661,191 people who want to part of the EU, including me.' While the jokey video is unlikely to result in actual marriage Ray-Lo has said she may well go for a night out with someone if they caught her eye with their e-proposal. 'Your Tunnock teacakes await,' she adds with all the impressive delivery of a war general rousing his troops. 'Take a bite of my deep fried haggis and let me make you... Scottish' To drive home just how great Scottish life could be for this lucky man, Loughran picks up the deep-fried haggis and bites off a large mouthful as the bagpipes blow energetically and stares intensely at the camera Nancy Byrd-Wilkins will not face charges in the death of her nine-month-old son Jefferson Wilkins after she accidentally left him inside a hot car A North Carolina mother whose 9-month-old son died when she accidentally left him in a hot car will not face charges, prosecutors have revealed. Nancy Byrd-Wilkins discovered her son Jefferson Wilkins was still inside the car when she went to his daycare to pick him up - and found out she had never dropped him off that day. New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David said Jefferson's death was an accident that came from the 'perfect storm' of a change of routine, sleep deprivation and 'outright forgetfulness'. Byrd-Wilkins had first woken up with her baby at 3.30am that fateful morning on May 25 before going back to sleep. She then had to take him to an early doctor's appointment that morning and her husband, Jeremy Wilkins, dropped off the couple's four-year-old son at the Pax Natura daycare. After the doctor's appointment Byrd-Wilkins headed to her regular Starbucks drive-through coffee shop, where she goes every morning. And that's when she slipped into her daily routine. Instead of dropping off Jefferson at Pax Natura to join his brother, Byrd-Wilkins headed directly to work. She clocked in at the Ivy Cottage, a consignment shop in Wilmington, at 9.36am. Jefferson was left in his mother's black SUV for eight hours. Temperatures that day reached 86 degrees F, according to the Wilmington Star News. The internal temperature of a vehicle can rise 19 degrees within the first 10 minutes and 34 degrees within just half an hour, according to experts. Byrd-Wilkins clocked out at 5.17pm and drove 2.2 miles to the Pax Natura daycare center. When daycare workers told her they didn't have her baby, she at first thought he'd been kidnapped. 'She then ran out to her car and discovered that the child was still in the vehicle,' David said. What followed was a horrific and tragic scene. Nearby bystanders tried to help, breaking the back window of the SUV so they could open the door and retrieve Jefferson's lifeless body. New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David said Jefferson's death was an accident that came from the 'perfect storm' of a change of routine, sleep deprivation and 'outright forgetfulness' A daycare worker, who like Byrd-Wilkins had called 911, tried to perform CPR. When she realized it was hopeless, she began to cry with Jefferson's mother. David said it was a scene that brought 'even hardened career professionals to tears'. Jefferson's cause of death was hyperthermia due to environment exposure/accident. David said the investigation included analyses of Byrd-Wilkins' cell phone and surveillance videos, blood tests that ruled she was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and interviews with coworkers and witnesses. 'An innocent baby is dead,' David said. 'Filing criminal charges will not make us safer, balm our hurt or bring him back. We should not elevate a tragedy to a crime merely to say that grave accidents cannot happen and must be the result of something more sinister.' 'Sometimes accidents do happen, and they break our hearts.' Cometh the hour, cometh the woman. I dont mean Theresa May. She will make a fine Prime Minister, though shes far too much of a closet Brexiteer/reluctant Remainer for my taste. She will do the job in front of her, and is not a showy politician as I saw a few months ago. We were chatting, and it was going quite well until a stranger came up and asked if she could take a selfie with us. I cant resist ticking the self-publicity box most of the time, but I do know my place. I glanced at the Home Secretary for permission. Mrs May gave an almost imperceptible shake of the head. It was a no. Cometh the woman, then? I mean Sarah Vine, of course. Michael Gove is the man who has said many times that he is prepared to put his principles before his friends, that he will sacrifice anything and anyone on the high altar of his ideology. But he must see, after what he has done, that he is now cast in the public mind not as a heroic man of conviction, but as a sort of Westminster suicide bomber, whose deadly belt of explosives has been detonated not by his own hand, but by his own wife Michael Gove (left) and Boris Johnson holding a press conference at Brexit HQ last month before the split It was funny ha-ha at first when she wrote in her column that she and her hubby Michael Gove would be running the country on a joint mandate. Given Michaels high-profile in the Leave campaign, she wrote, that means he we are now charged with implementing the instructions of 17 million people. And that is an awesome responsibility. That royal we between dashes was borderline bonkers enough, but it was followed by a leaked private email that ended up on the front pages because in it, Vine urged Gove to be his stubborn best, as he deployed his leverage with his Brexit buddy Boris. Vine entreated her husband to be sure to win specific assurances before he signed on the dotted line and handed his support and the assumed backing of two newspaper barons, Dacre/Murdoch, on a plate to the triumphant blonde, Londons former mayor, who had come on board and delivered them such an unexpected and stunning victory. Journalist Sarah Vine and her husband Michael Gove arrive at Conservative Party's Black & White Ball (pictured left) and Rachel Johnson with brother Boris, the former London Mayor, in 2012 (right) Nobody knew whether it had been leaked, or had misfired, but it was a bit whiffy and rum. Even at that stage only the most crackpot conspiracy theorists could have guessed what was to come next in this multi-act, rolling, live-blogged Shakespearean tragedy. Michael Gove knifed Boris Johnson in the back and in the front, pushed him under a bus, ran over him several times (thank you Piers Morgan for this image) and then declared he was running for the leadership himself. This, coupled with the new arithmetic in terms of supportive MPs, meant that Goves co-skipper was holed below the waterline and forced to abandon ship at his own launch. Now we are where we are, as everyone keeps saying, and we know a bit more about where that is. Brexit means Brexit. At some point Article 50 will be invoked. And never again listen to what a politician says. Watch what he or she does. Gove was well known to be an ideological ninja, with his posters of Che Guevara and Chairman Mao on his wall, but when it came to the top job he was an avowed cleanskin. He had no leadership ambitions. After all, hed said so many times: If anyone wants me to sign a piece of parchment in my own blood saying I dont want to be PM Im happy to do that. Im not equipped to be PM. I dont want to be PM. I am an inconceivable choice. I dont want to do it. I wouldnt do it. It wouldnt matter how many people asked me to do it, etc, etc And then, on Thursday, he executed the most egregious reverse ferret and act of treachery in modern political history since well, lets just say since Michael Gove backed Brexit against the wishes of his good friend David Cameron. Vine entreated her husband to be sure to win specific assurances before he signed on the dotted line and handed his support and the assumed backing of two newspaper barons on a plate to Boris He did a lap of honour of the studios, saying to interviewers that friends had been begging him to do it and telling him: Michael, youd be marvellous. Ill explain to anyone who asks why I think I am the right person to be PM, he said. Then on Friday he delivered a substantial 5,000-word manifesto that hed obviously prepared earlier, to be acclaimed on his new home, Twitter (he has come aboard with the handle @gove2016, so far following no one). How could he not see that he was wasting his breath, and that to many it was already over before it had begun, and the delivery of any number of orotund Oxford Union paragraphs would never make his leadership happen? Vine urged Gove to be his stubborn best, as he deployed his leverage with his Brexit buddy Boris The historians of this bloodbath on the anniversary of the Somme will be kept busy for years to come, but all I could think at the end of last week was this: Michael Gove is the man who has said many times that he is prepared to put his principles before his friends, that he will sacrifice anything and anyone on the high altar of his ideology. But he must see, after what he has done, that he is now cast in the public mind not as a heroic man of conviction, but as a sort of Westminster suicide bomber, whose deadly belt of explosives has been detonated not by his own hand, but by his own wife. OK, I accept that it was more likely detonated by the combined agency of his wife; his former adviser, Dominic Cummings; and also of course George Osborne, with whom the Goves maintain close contact. They are, indeed, due to go on family holiday ensemble this summer. So of course it was inevitable, given this domestic scenario, for the Goves to dump a chap who is very much not numero uno assoluto with the Osbornes either. Think of the pressure from the wives to stick the knife in, get the job done, before the two families had to break bread over the prosecco and antipasti in Italy. As it happens, Westminster suicide bomber is not a good look for anybody, which explains why many former Govistas even one of the newspaper barons who supported him as recently as last week are leaping on to the TM4PM (Theresa May for PM) bandwagon so fast. As Michael Heseltine warned: I personally would keep an eye open for Gove. First he abandoned his friend David Cameron now Johnson has felt the blade. Ken Clarke has told Gove to fall on his sword and fast. The classical quotation that comes to mind in all this is not so much Et tu, Brute but Those whom the Gods want to destroy, first they make mad. However much Gove tries to remind us what a nice, caring guy he is in his long leadership pitch, the signalling around this personable and civilised candidate is, Im afraid, that hes acted like a political psychopath run by his wife (Vine), an acknowledged sociopath (Cummings) and a lame duck Chancellor. And this Machiavelli still wants us to want him to be Prime Minister. However much Gove tries to remind us what a nice, caring guy he is in his long leadership pitch, the signalling around this personable and civilised candidate is, Im afraid, that hes acted like a political psychopath run by his wife (Vine), an acknowledged sociopath (Cummings) and a lame duck Chancellor And yet, having said all that, and knowing them a bit, its hard to imagine they mean any harm. I like them. They are both lively company and huge fun. Indeed, we sometimes say that we must have supper soon, and perhaps we will, when the bleeding bodies of the fallen are removed from the smoking battlefield of this campaign. After all, they did what they felt they had to do. We all do what we have to do. We will survive and, as the Queen replied when asked (by a former IRA terrorist, it turns out) how she was: Well, Im alive. Goves actions are not so much out of the House Of Cards or Game Of Thrones playbook, but straight outta Homeland, even though he insists he only did what he did because it was the right thing to do What distresses me about all this is not the Lady Macbething, the betrayal, any pain they might have visited on people I love. It is that the referendum continues to destroy so much in its path. Goves actions are not so much out of the House Of Cards or Game Of Thrones playbook, but straight outta Homeland, even though he insists he only did what he did because it was the right thing to do. As Ive said before, I dont think it was the right thing to do. I believe in Europe, our place in Europe, and our role in Europe. What happens as we leave the EU, and the critical terms of our eventual demerger, is inexpressibly more important than who runs the Tory Party, or the Labour Party. It will have an impact and reach for generations to come, in a way that personnel changes at the top whether its Gove or May or Crabb or Leadsom or Eagle or Corbyn will not. This leadership campaign is a distraction and displacement activity that takes us all away from the war we have lost as the ambitious power-addicted grimly bash on with their personal battles and vendettas. It has clouded in cordite the real contours of the post-referendum landscape. Decades of careful thought, of planning, of diplomacy, of negotiation, of deals, of co-operation, of partnership, of collaboration, of shared goals, by sophisticated British men and women across Europe have been undone blown up partly if not largely by the passion of conviction of one Scot goaded on by a Daily Mail columnist I happen to quite like. At his leadership launch, Michael denied his wife had urged him to run, denied he was giving Dom Cummings a job, but I dont necessarily take everything the most polite man in Parliament says on trust any more. However she made repeated calls for Brexit in the run up to the referendum Vote Leave campaigner Andrea Leadsom previously claimed that breaking ties with Brussels would be a 'disaster' Tory leadership candidate Andrea Leadsom has been branded a hypocrite after dramatically changing her stance on Brexit. The Energy Minister campaigned for a Leave vote in the EU referendum but previously claimed that breaking ties with Brussels would be a disaster, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Three years ago, Mrs Leadsom the leading rival to Theresa Mays bid to become the next Prime Minister said: Im going to nail my colours to the mast here: I dont think the UK should leave the EU. I think it would be a disaster for our economy and it would lead to a decade of economic and political uncertainty at a time when the tectonic plates of global success are moving. Economic success is the vital underpinning of every happy nation. The wellbeing we all crave goes hand in hand with economic success. Mrs Leadsom has been using her more recent support for the Leave campaign to bolster her bid for the Tory crown, saying the party should be led by a Brexiteer as the UK negotiates with Brussels. She made repeated calls for Britain to leave the European Union during the referendum campaign, when she dismissed David Camerons predictions of economic disaster outside the EU as Project Fear. Yet that stance seems at odds with the dire warnings she issued at the Hansard Societys Annual Parliamentary Affairs Lecture on April 23, 2013. A prominent Remain campaigner said last night: Mrs Leadsom must answer the charge of double standards. However a spokesman for Mrs Leadsom denied she was guilty of hypocrisy. She said: These remarks have been taken completely out of context. Andrea Leadsom campaigned for a Leave vote in the EU referendum - but three years ago said leaving would lead to 'economic and political uncertainty' Andreas position is and has always been that without fundamental reform, the UK could not remain in the EU. The controversy is another extraordinary twist in the bitter Tory leadership contest. Mrs Leadsom has been tipped to go head-to-head with Home Secretary Theresa May for the next Tory leader although there is a growing mood in the party that other candidates could stand aside to allow Mrs May to become Prime Minister as early as this week to avoid opening up deeper divisions. The Energy Secretarys warnings about Brexit emerged 24 hours after she took a swipe at Mrs May, arguing: If we want to make a go of it, then we need somebody who believes in it. She opened her 2013 lecture by stating: The EU without Britain is like fish without chips but warned that the body needed major reforms, for Britains continued membership to be sustainable. She said democratic consent for the EU in Britain was wafer thin and had to be improved, then listed a series of complaints from red tape to laws that meant edible fish were thrown back in the sea. Mrs Leadsom is the leading rival to Theresa May (pictured) in the battle to become the next Prime Minister However, nine minutes into her speech she made it clear she believed leaving would be an economic disaster for the UK and at no point did she contradict her grave warning. The speech was disclosed as: A Mail on Sunday Survation poll showed Mrs May on course for a clear victory; Boris Johnson told allies he had been a fool to trust fellow anti-EU campaigner Michael Gove before his betrayal; Mrs May spoke for the first time of her and husband Philips heartbreak at not being to have children telling The Mail on Sunday how they sought help with the problem, but in vain. Tory MPs are set to whittle down the contenders Mrs May, Mrs Leadsom, Mr Gove, former Defence Secretary Liam Fox and Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb to a final two in votes on Tuesday and Thursday. The partys 125,000 members will then choose between the final two. Is Andrea Leadsom another casualty of Brexit, asks IAN BIRRELL They came together in common cause to pull Britain out of Europe. But one by one they stumbled in their attempts to seize the Tory crown. First Boris Johnson saw long-held ambitions dashed by back-stabbing fellow Brexiteer Michael Gove. Then the Justice Secretary, making his own bid for power, discovered Westminster colleagues distrusted him after the brutality of his betrayal. So internal party critics of David Cameron, many of whom had long sought his ousting, suddenly coalesced around a new champion, Andrea Leadsom. Brexiteers such as Chris Grayling (pictured) are backing Mrs May as the next Tory leader Never mind that Leadsom was a little-known Energy Minister whose claim to running the country seemed based largely on one assured performance in a Brexit debate. For the hard Right, that was enough. They are determined to stop Theresa May who quietly backed Remain from seizing power. So they promoted this former banker as the tough-talking inheritor of Margaret Thatchers mantle. She shared their social conservatism, failing to support gay marriage, and is a fierce supporter of the free market. Thatcher did not stand for the leadership in fury at failing to get written assurances of a top job from a bumbling colleague such as Boris. Yet this snub seems to have been enough to persuade Leadsom to shoot for the nations highest office. Aged 53, this committed Christian has only been in Parliament since 2010 after 25 years in finance, although she first developed her political ambitions 40 years earlier. Now it emerges that having campaigned with passion about the opportunities offered by Brexit, she may have taken a rather different tack in the past and admitted it would be a disaster for the economy. One more unedifying twist is a depressing saga that has put another stain on the soiled image of Westminster, with deception, hypocrisy and lies. Behind Brexit lay the desire of some Tory malcontents to reclaim their party from Camerons moderate wing. Little wonder it has been called a Right-wing coup; Europe was merely the means to achieve their aims. One of those involved told me they planned to call for Cameron to resign in the event of last years General Election resulting in another Coalition. Their plot was postponed after his shock victory. Its no surprise to see that Leadsoms backers include Iain Duncan Smith, the worst Tory leader in modern memory, whose embittered Cabinet resignation three months ago effectively fired the starting gun on this crisis. More emollient Brexiteers such as Chris Grayling are backing Mrs May. The Leader of the House argued publicly and privately for Cameron to stay regardless of the referendum result, to ensure stability. World events have shown how civil wars spiral out of control. As these people play a self-serving game of thrones, the countrys stability lies in ruins. Hundreds of laminated hate cards were placed on doormats of Polish homes in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. Headteacher Kristina Rutkowska (left) and factory worker Magda (right) spoke of their horrified reactions It is a quiet bastion of Middle England, and perhaps the last place you might expect to find expressions of racial hatred. But there has been shock and growing fear in the migrant community in the Cambridgeshire market town of Huntingdon since Britain opted for Brexit. Eight days ago, several hundred laminated cards were shoved through the letter boxes of Polish homes and under the wipers of their cars in the town saying, in English, Leave the EU. No more Polish Vermin, and Go home Polish scum on the reverse in Polish. The horrified reaction among the community is still palpable. The question I have is, how did these people know where Polish people live? said Dlawar Kadir, who owns the Grosik supermarket on the pedestrianised High Street, a thriving business that specialises in Polish food. It means we were targeted, and thats why people are scared. Everyone is talking about it. Life goes on, but for the first time since I came to England 15 years ago, I am wondering if one day, I will leave. The cards were also left at the entrances of three local schools with large numbers of children with Polish parents Huntingdon and Stukeley Meadows primaries, and St Peters, an academy comprehensive. My daughter came home and asked me: Mummy, why do I have to go to Poland? said one woman, who asked not to be named. She was born here: she is British. What can I say to her? Many Poles used the same word to describe their reaction: sad. Anna Adamczak, 24, a logistics expert for a hospital equipment firm, said: I dont think most English people feel like this. I think its just one incident. Thats what I hope. Huntingdon was the constituency of former prime minister and Remain campaigner John Major. Home to some 25,000 people, its heart is a handsome square with fine stone buildings. On its outskirts lie the sources of Huntingdons prosperity factories making everything from precision engineering products to luxury chocolate. Huntingdon voted to Leave by 54 to 46 per cent, and as elsewhere, the principal reason seems to have been migration. On the High Street yesterday, most Leave voters only concern was whether Theresa May would, as a former Remainer, carry Brexit through if she becomes PM. The cards were shoved through the letter boxes of Polish homes and under the wipers of their cars in the town saying, in English, Leave the EU. No more Polish Vermin The shocking laminated cards read Go home Polish scum on the reverse in Polish We need a really big change, said masseur Barry Clayton, 57. I know a lot of people who work for the Border Agency in Dover. They all say that at the moment we basically have no immigration control at all. But he had no hesitation condemning the cards: I dont object to migrants at all. Ive worked with loads of them theyre great. I voted Leave and Im happy with my decision, said Andy Hazelden, a council waste supervisor. We have to control our borders, but we cant be racist. Someone is trying to cause trouble. The towns Polish population has grown from a handful ten years ago to more than 2,000. Besides the Grosik and other shops, there is a mass with a Polish priest and on Saturdays a school for British-born children with Polish parents to learn their ancestral culture and language. Its founder, Kate Chechinska, who came to Britain in 2005, said everyone she knew was trying to carry on as normal. But she admitted: For the first time now we have this thought: Oh my goodness, they dont want us here. It is as if the referendum has made these people free to speak. And I keep asking, why here? Huntingdon is a small town. I dont know how someone could do this. Saturday school headteacher Kristina Rutkowska added: It isnt so bad for the children here because they are still at primary school, but I know that some who are at comprehensive have been told to their face by other kids: Go back to Poland. The cards were also left at the entrances of three local schools with large numbers of children with Polish parents Huntingdon and Stukeley Meadows primaries, and St Peters, an academy comprehensive (File photo of Huntingdon) The identity of the person who made the cards remains unknown. But some Poles hint at a motive: envy of their intense work ethic. Magda, who asked us not to use her surname, has a masters degree from a Polish university and works at the chocolate factory for just 1,000 a month. She said: Our factory would not exist without Polish people. We are working, paying our contributions, and we are not trying to create a separate community but be part of yours. Thats why I am shocked. Back at the Grosik, Mr Kadir said: I have built up two shops and other businesses. You know how this is: I work from 7am to midnight. Meanwhile, the cards have acted as a catalyst for the anxiety triggered by the Brexit result. Mr Kadir added: British people have the right to vote how they like. But putting a card through your letter box its really something. A shattered Boris Johnson was close to tears as he told his Tory leadership campaign staff he bitterly regretted ever having trusted political assassin Michael Gove. Shortly after Goves shock decision to stand in the race to succeed David Cameron forced Johnson to withdraw, the former London Mayor, with wife Marina at his side, told his supporters: I was a fool to trust him. Some of you told me I should never have done so and I am sorry I didnt listen. Less than two hours after he quit the contest, Johnson sent a text to a friend who had warned him Gove was a duplicitous b****** reading: So sorry for being naive about Gove. Now therell be a Remain leader. Scroll down for videos Speaking about Michael Gove, former London Mayor Boris Johnson said: 'I was a fool to trust him' His words reveal his belief that the vicious infighting in the Brexit camp will hand the keys to No 10 to Theresa May, a low-key Remain supporter. Johnson learned that Gove was standing as he arrived at his campaign HQ in Greycoat Place, Westminster on Thursday, round the corner from the St Ermins Hotel where the launch of his leadership campaign was scheduled for 11.30am. His immediate reaction was: Ill have to pull out. Some aides urged him to carry on, assuring him he would easily get enough nominations to mount a challenge, despite several key MP supporters like Nick Boles and Dominic Raab defecting to Gove. Boris said it would end up in a dirty war between his and Michaels camps and he didnt want to go down that road, said one insider. Astonishingly, another source said Johnsons team feared that Goves team would launch a smear campaign against him. Boris is very unguarded with people close to him and had shared all manner of confidences with Michael during the campaign and there were fears Goves people are so ruthless it would be dripped out to the media to damage him, said the source. Relations between Gove and Johnson deteriorated rapidly in the aftermath of the referendum victory on June 23. Relations between Gove (pictured before he announced bid to become Tory leader) and Johnson deteriorated rapidly in the aftermath of the referendum victory on June 23 Johnsons team were taken aback when Gove demanded that he was given a triple crown role in a Boris-led Government with the titles of Chancellor, Deputy Prime Minister and chief Brexit negotiator. It would have put Michaels hands round Boriss Prime Ministerial throat, there was no way we could agree to it, said one pro-Boris MP. The anger in the Johnson camp was all the greater because they knew Gove had betrayed Johnson before, but the silver tongued Justice Secretary had won him round again. The first knifing came in a drunken outburst over dinner with media baron Rupert Murdoch, which was revealed by The Mail on Sunday two years ago. Gove told Murdoch that Johnson was incapable of focusing on serious issues, has no gravitas and plays to the gallery. The whole Boris routine will wear thin very quickly if he became PM. And he cant make tough decisions. George Osborne would make a much better PM, argued Gove. Boris Johnson and Michael Gove had both campaigned for the UK to exit the EU in the run up to the referendum Some aides urged Johnson to go up against Gove in the leadership challenge, assuring him he would easily get enough nominations to mount a challenge Within 24 hours, Murdochs executives gleefully repeated Goves withering assessment word for word over dinner with their next Tory guest: Johnson. He was visibly shaken and gave a robust reply to Goves criticisms. Boris was hurt and shocked by Goves remarks, said a friend of the former London Mayor. We told him never to trust Michael again but he wouldnt listen. Gove gloried in baiting Johnson in his City Hall days, texting him in February 2012: Why am I still stuck in traffic and Bob Crow is still leader of the RMT [the train drivers union] when there is a Tory Mayor of London? An irritated Boris texted back: Get out of your bloody car and take a Tube or bus. When Johnson withdrew from the Tory leadership contest on Thursday, Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, one of his most loyal fans, wept openly. She berated Gove in the Commons later in the day: Why did you do that, why Michael, why? As Gove repeated his claim that he had decided overnight that Boris was unfit to be PM, Dorries said: No one believes you! An insider said Boris Johnson is 'very unguarded' with people close to him Goves campaign chief, Tory MP Nick Boles, who until as late as Thursday morning had been Johnsons lieutenant, pulled Gove away to avoid a scene. There was further outrage in the Johnson camp over claims that Gove used private research commissioned by Johnson on how to beat Theresa May for his launch speech. The information had been intended for Johnsons campaign, but he had shared it with Gove before he knew of his leadership ambitions. On a visit to Tiverton, Devon, on Friday, Johnson tried to shrug off more abuse from members of the public over the Brexit vote. One told him he should be ashamed and another said Why have you done this to this country? One friend said he had taken it to heart, adding: My impression is that part of him wishes he had gone through with his leadership challenge. Better stand and lose than be called a chicken. Another ally of Johnson said he would soon bounce back: I wouldnt be surprised if he washed up in New York and ran for Mayor there after all, hes got a US passport and has run London. Or maybe become Britains Ambassador to Washington or Master of Balliol College in Oxford, where he was a student. Hell be back. He was the victim and Gove the villain and everyone likes Boris and few like Michael. Nothing sums up Michael Goves wicked sense of intrigue better than the large framed newspaper headline on the wall of his Commons office, stating: PM: GOVE IS NUTS, BORIS IS AFTER MY JOB. The headline was from this newspaper earlier this year as we revealed how Cameron had complained privately: Michael has gone a bit nuts he is a Maoist outrageous, wants to be the darling of the Tory Right and that Johnson was desperate to be Prime Minister. The framed words were visible to Goves stunned MP supporters when he told them in his office on Thursday morning, with not a word of warning, that he planned to run for PM. After recent events, perhaps the headline should be updated to: PM: GOVE IS NUTS AND HE IS THE ONE AFTER MY JOB NOT BORIS. imaginethat said: Innocence of Muslims is the title attributed to a controversial anti-Islamic movie "trailer" that was written and produced by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. Two versions of the 14-minute video were uploaded to YouTube in July 2012, under the titles The Real Life of Muhammad and Muhammad Movie Trailer. Videos dubbed in Arabic were uploaded during early September 2012.... Please don't try the "wiki escape." If you've got information showing the airing of the video in Arabic had no effect on the planned meeting, please post it. Otherwise admit: The video damn well could have turned up the fire, and did over half the planet. Such cocksureness.Please don't try the "wiki escape." If you've got information showing the airing of the video in Arabic had no effect on the planned meeting, please post it.Otherwise admit: The video damn well could have turned up the fire, and did over half the planet. Click to expand... The video could have done a lot of things. But the event was already planned by a whos who of American hating jihadists.The protest was created by several terrorists groups and terrorists: Salafist Gamaa Islamiyys, Egyptian Islamic Jihad (al Qaeda), Rifai Ahmed Taha Musa, Mohammed al Zawahiri, and Sheikh Adel Shehato to name a few. This is a whos who of peaceful protestors and they certainly were not planning on violence at the American embassy.The Al Faroq tape created from the event with highlights of Osama bin Laden in the video declaring jihad on America and Zawahiri declaring that the protest was an al Qaeda event most certainly was not meant to be a premeditated violent attack because we all know how civil and gentle this entire group behind the protest are.The Cairo video excuse was a diversion to move blame away from Obamas foreign policy because the election in less than two months. Rice was prepped by Obamas campaign manager before the TV interviews, and Rice had no idea why Plouffe was involved in the preparation. A bald eagle was freed from a tree by a patriotic Army veteran, who spent 90 minutes firing 150 shots into three branches ahead of the Fourth of July holiday. Jason Galvin, who did two tours in Afghanistan, was on a bait run on Thursday when he spotted the eagle dangling upside down from a rope it got tangled in, according to KARE 11. Galvin estimated the bird was hanging from the tree about 75 feet off the ground. It had been there for more than two days. A bald eagle (pictured) was freed from a tree by a patriotic Army veteran, who spent 90 minutes firing 150 shots into three tree branches Jason Galvin (pictured), who did two tours in Afghanistan, was on a bait run when he spotted the eagle dangling upside down from a rope caught in a 75-foot tree The eagle had been hanging in the tree for more than two days as neighbors called the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the local police and fire department but were told there was nothing the agencies could do Neighbors called the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Rush City police and fire departments, but were told there was nothing the agencies could do because of how high the eagle was in the tree. At one point Galvin joked that he might have to shoot the eagle down and his wife responded by telling him 'that's what you're going to do', according to KARE 11. Galvin then spent 90 minutes taking nearly 150 shots from a .22 caliber rifle 'while mowing down three branches, and finally the rope, holding up the eagle'. He told the station that because it was windy he had to wait 'for the right shot'. Before Galvin started shooting he ran the idea by Minnesota DNR conservation officer, Phil Mohs, who gave him the go-ahead after realizing the eagle would surely die if left in the tree anyway. As Galvin's last shot hit the branch, the underbrush below the tree helped break the eagle's fall. Mohs placed the bird in a kennel and took it to a rehabilitation center. 'It rode in the front seat with me and the whole time his head was up and he was alert. It looked good considering it had been hanging there for two days,' Mohs told the station. Galvin then spent 90 minutes taking nearly 150 shots from a .22 caliber rifle 'while mowing down three branches, and finally the rope, holding up the eagle' (pictured). The underbrush below the tree broke the eagle's fall Before Galvin started shooting he ran the idea by Minnesota DNR conservation officer, Phil Mohs, who gave him the go-ahead after realizing the eagle would surely die if left in the tree anyway. Mohs placed the bird (pictured) in a kennel and took it to a rehabilitation center A veterinarian at the University of Minnesota Raptor Center said the eagle (pictured) was eating and drinking, while its long-term prognosis was still being assessed. The eagle, now named Freedom, is estimated to be younger than five years old as it still has a mostly dark head and tail Galvin told KARE 11 that 'it was a good weekend for it to happen'. 'Fourth of July, you know, that's our bird. I can't let it sit there.' The bird was taken to University of Minnesota Raptor Center, a rehabilitation center that specializes in medical care for eagles and other large birds, where he's recovering. The eagle was named Freedom by the Galvins and their neighbors. Galvin said the eagle's rescue was an emotional experience, telling the station that there were 'a lot of tears'. 'When it finally came down, it was breathtaking. It was a beautiful moment.' A veterinarian said the eagle was eating and drinking, while its long-term prognosis was still being assessed. Adult bald eagles have white heads and tails with dark brown bodies and wings. Excavating toilets might not seem like glamorous work. But this team of archaeologists were not complaining when they unearthed 87,000 artifacts dating back to the American Revolution while digging up 250-year-old outhouses in Philadelphia. The Commonwealth Heritage Group made the fascinating find on a dig at the site of the new Museum of the American Revolution, which opens next year. Archaeologists have unearthed 87,000 artifacts dating back to the American Revolution while digging up 250-year-old toilets in Philadelphia The Commonwealth Heritage Group made the fascinating find on a dig at the site of the new Museum of the American Revolution, which opens next year Twelve of the brick bathrooms were uncovered during the dig just two blocks away from Philadelphia's Independence Hall Among the most interesting discoveries is a punch bowl showing the ship Tryphena, which sailed from Philadelphia to Liverpool, in England, in 1765 Twelve of the brick bathrooms were uncovered during the dig just two blocks away from Philadelphia's Independence Hall, the Huffington Post reported. Intricate crockery, finely detailed jugs, wig curlers and an array of beads were found during the excavation. The dig started in 2014 and is still ongoing as the archaeologists continue to look for long-lost artifacts dating as far back as the American Revolution. Most of the items appear to come from a tavern that stood on the same Philadelphia street in the 1700s, the archaeologists wrote in a report. Intricate crockery, finely detailed jugs, wig curlers and an array of beads were found during the excavation Most of the items appear to come from a tavern that stood on the same Philadelphia street in the 1700s Some of the treasures appear to have come from local business, including printers' type and seashells from a button shop The dig started in 2014 and is still ongoing as the archaeologists continue to look for long-lost artifacts dating as far back as the American Revolution Among the most interesting discoveries is a punch bowl showing the ship Tryphena, which sailed from Philadelphia to Liverpool, in England, in 1765. Some of the treasures appear to have come from local business, including printers' type and seashells from a button shop. More than 1,400 fruit pits were found, as well as scores of bottles that once contained alcohol. A large number of animal carcasses were also found, including 66 birds, fish and two whole raccoons. Many of the discoveries will be displayed in the museum when it opens next April. Many of the discoveries (such as these, above) will be displayed in the museum when it opens next April Lead archaeologist Rebecca Yamin said the excavation gave an interesting insight into the lives of the city's residents in the 18th century A collection of plates were among the 87,000 artifacts found during the excavation in central Philadelphia Lead archaeologist Rebecca Yamin told Philadelphia Magazine that the excavation gave an interesting insight into the lives of the city's residents in the 18th century. 'Cities are constantly rebuilding themselves, and the construction of this new museum - right in the heart of the oldest part of Philadelphia - provided us with a rare opportunity to examine the things left behind by the people who lived and worked there, in order to learn about how the city began and how it changed,' she said. 'This buried record of the past touches on many significant changes in the citys development, essentially creating a microcosm of Philadelphia from its very beginning to the present'. Advertisement Malcolm Turnbull is 'quietly confident' he will be able to form a majority government however the prime minister has opened his phone book of crossbenchers as the prospect of a hung parliament still looms. After a swag of pre-poll votes were added to running totals in 150 lower house seats in the early hours of Sunday morning, the coalition and Labor had each won 67 seats, the Greens one and independents four - leaving 11 in contention. Labor leader Bill Shorten could reportedly face a leadership contest against Anthony Albanese, but said he had 'never been more certain of his leadership' after emphatically declaring his party was 'back' on Saturday night and then describing Mr Turnbull as 'seriously out of touch' on Sunday. 'His agenda was out of touch and a lot of Australians made that clear yesterday in the ballot booths right across Australia,' Mr Shorten said. Like former prime minister Julia Gillard before him, Mr Turnbull has started to reach out to the crossbenchers who could ultimately decide his fate if a clear winner can not be determined by the public's vote. If the final result is 75 coalition MPs to Labor's 70 with five crossbenchers, the ball will be in Mr Turnbull's court to convince one extra MP to back his government on budget supply and confidence. Scroll down for video Malcolm Turnbull is 'quietly confident' he will be able to form a majority government however the prime minister has opened his phone book of crossbenchers as the prospect of a hung parliament still looms However he'll need to convince more than one, given the tenuous nature of a 76-seat government and the fact that a Speaker will be needed - effectively taking one number off the government from the get-go. Once the prime minister is satisfied he has the numbers, he can go to the parliament, elect a Speaker and get on with business. A Labor deal with all six crossbenchers to add to its 70 appears a much less likely scenario. Mr Turnbull - who has made a career of negotiating big business deals - has already reached out to Cathy McGowan, Andrew Wilkie and the Nick Xenophon Team's Rebekha Sharkie Ms McGowan and Mr Wilkie confirmed the prime minister had rung them on Sunday morning with congratulations on retaining their seats. 'The fact that he took the time this morning to have a short conversation with me this morning suggests he feels the need to have an open channel of communication,' Mr Wilkie told reporters in Hobart. Mr Turnbull - who has made a career of negotiating big deals - has already reached out to Cathy McGowan (right) and Andrew Wilkie (left) Ms McGowan said she had a good working relationship with Mr Turnbull who indicated he was confident of forming a majority government. 'We have agreed to stay in contact over the next few days as the national situation becomes clearer,' she said. The Indi MP, who was returned with a bigger majority in her northern Victorian regional seat, wouldn't make deals with any party. Similarly, Mr Wilkie said he wouldn't do any deals - formal or informal - but instead consider every move in parliament on its merit, including budget bills and confidence motions. The Tasmanian MP knows from experience about the fickle nature of such deals - he was burned by the Gillard government over his pokies reforms. He hadn't heard from Labor leader Bill Shorten, nor had anyone discussed a possible offer of the Speaker's role, which he would reject. Independent senator Nick Xenophon, whose team has won the lower house seat of Mayo, promised to sit down with both sides if there was a hung parliament. Mr Turnbull has also reached out to the Nick Xenophon Team's Rebekha Sharkie (left) but Xenophon has promised to sit down with both sides if there was a hung parliament Greens leader Richard Di Natale said neither side had rung him - but his phone was fully charged But he said the number of seats each party won would be a big factor in his thinking, saying: 'You would be silly to ignore the weight of arithmetic.' HUNG PARLIAMENT The last hung parliament was in 2010, which was the first of its kind since the 1940 election. At that time, Labor and the coalition won 72 seats each in the 150-seat House of Representatives. Six crossbench MPs held the balance of power, four of whom sided with Labor leader Julia Gillard to form minority government based on written formal agreements. Two of the queenmakers remain in parliament after Saturday's election - independent Andrew Wilkie and Greens MP Adam Bandt. Advertisement Greens leader Richard Di Natale said neither side had rung him - but his phone was fully charged. Prior to the election the Greens rejected the notion of any deal being done with the coalition, but a written deal with Labor is not beyond contemplation. He told reporters in Melbourne he hoped to have talks with Mr Shorten in coming days. Veteran Queensland MP Bob Katter has a long-standing commitment that he would not support any party that did not back his 20-point plan for Australia His plan includes protectionism and other unpalatable measures for both Labor and the coalition. A final result may not be known until well into next week. If the Turnbull government secured 74 seats, two short of an absolute majority, it will need the support of two independents to govern. Labor would probably need all four independents if, as it pledged during the election campaign, it refused to enter into any arrangement with the Greens. Another election also cannot be ruled out. With 10 million two-party preferred votes counted, the coalition has won 50.11 per cent to Labor's 49.89 - a swing of 3.4 per cent against the coalition on the 2013 election. Veteran Queensland MP Bob Katter has a long-standing commitment that he would not support any party that did not back his 20-point plan for Australia POST ELECTION SCENARIOS Hung parliament with Coalition ahead Malcolm Turnbull will be in the box seat to negotiate with crossbenchers to get to the magical number of 76 in the lower house. Indi MP Cathy McGowan won't sign a formal agreement but wants government action on support for universities and students, broadband, transport, renewable energy and jobs in regional Victoria. The Nick Xenophon Team wants more schools funding, an emissions trading scheme, preferential treatment of Australian businesses in government contracts, better labelling of Australian-made products, lower foreign investment review thresholds and tougher anti-gambling laws. The Greens won't negotiate. Bob Katter has a 20-point plan no one will agree to. Andrew Wilkie is open to talks, but won't sign a formal agreement. He wants pokies reform, better support for aged and disabled pensioners, a ban on the live cattle trade, better broadband and means testing of the private health insurance rebate. Turnbull will get kudos in his party room for winning over the crossbenchers, but conservatives will keep the pressure on him. Slim majority for Coalition Turnbull may still need support from a few crossbenchers in order to put a Speaker in the chair without jeopardising his majority. The prime minister will face pressure in the party room to ditch unpopular election promises, such as superannuation changes and cuts to health budget savings. There will be leadership speculation and pressure to call a lower house election as soon as the government's popularity recovers. Hung parliament with Labor ahead Unlikely scenario, given Bill Shorten would probably need the support of the entire crossbench. Labor would seek to kick some big policy goals early in the piece, delivering on its first 100 days plan including same-same marriage and a revised budget based on protecting Medicare, jobs and education. Liberal leadership instability would be the likely scenario for an early House election Advertisement Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he had 'every confidence' the federal election would return a Coalition majority as the results hung on a knife-edge in the early hours of Sunday Earlier Labor leader Bill Shorten used his speech at the party's function in Melbourne to congratulate his volunteers for a 'magnificent campaign' WHAT HAPPENS NEXT WITH THE ELECTION COUNT? Saturday More than 11 million House of Representatives votes cast on election day and in pre-poll centres counted First preference Senate votes cast on election day counted Sunday Absent, interstate, postal and other declaration votes are sorted and packaged to send to home electorates. These can't be counted until received in the home electorates Votes collected by mobile polling teams counted Monday Continue verifying postal votes Senate pre-poll votes and any remaining House of Representatives pre-poll votes counted Tuesday Full count of votes from all sources resumes (Source: Australian Electoral Commission) Advertisement Early on Sunday morning, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told the party faithful he expected the coalition could form a majority government. 'We are the only parties that have the ability or the possibility of doing that,' Mr Turnbull said. 'In the meantime, I want to say to all Australians those that voted for us, those that voted for other parties or candidates, this is a time when we must come together, we must stick together.' However, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was not giving up on forming government, telling his supporters Mr Turnbull had 'failed miserably'. 'Whatever happens next week, Mr Turnbull will never be able to claim that the people of Australia have adopted his ideological agenda,' he said in Melbourne. 'He will never again be able to promise the stability which he has completely failed to deliver tonight.' 'What I'm very sure of is that, while we don't know who the winner was, there is clearly one loser: Malcolm Turnbull's agenda for Australia and his efforts to cut Medicare. We want to make the 45th parliament work.' This comes after Mr Turnbull said he was confident the Coalition could form a majority government. The Prime Minister addressed supporters at the Liberal Party's headquarters at around 12.30am on Sunday to optimistically tell them he would be re-elected but warned the final outcome may not emerge until Tuesday with the results too close to call on election day. Around an hour earlier Opposition leader Bill Shorten gave a gushing speech to followers in Melbourne after seeing his hopes of a Labor government evaporate. Describing it as a 'very, very close count' as he addressed followers at his party's HQ on Sunday morning, Mr Turnbull shied away from the possibility of a hung parliament. 'Tonight, my friends, I can report that based on the advice I have from the party officials, we can have every confidence that we will form a Coalition majority Government in the next parliament. 'It is a very, very close count. It is a very close count, as you know. And right now, right now, right now nearly 30% of the votes are yet to be counted,' he said. 'The pre-poll will continue to be counted until 2am. But I don't suggest we should wait around for that. 'And then the commissioner advises us there will be no more carding tomorrow or on Monday and they will count the postal votes on Tuesday. 'And we may, the final results in terms of seats may not be known until then.' The Prime Minister addressed supporters at the Liberal Party's headquarters at around 12.30am on Sunday to optimistically tell them he would be re-elected but warned the final outcome may not emerge until Tuesday with the results too close to call on election day AUSTRALIA DECIDES: FEDERAL ELECTION 2016 RESULTS - 76 SEATS NEEDED FOR A MAJORITY WIN COALITION LABOR GREENS OTHER UNDECLARED 67 67 1 4 11 UNDECLARED SEATS WHICH WILL DECIDE THE ELECTION Barker, SA (Liberal) Cowper, NSW (The Nationals) Durack, WA (Liberal) Grayndler, NSW (Australian Labor Party) Grey, SA (Liberal) Higgins, VIC (Liberal) O'Connor, WA (Liberal) Advertisement He went on to accuse Labor of spreading 'extraordinary' lies in a bid to win the election, namely a text message sent to voters on election day which warned Medicare would become privatised under Liberal leadership. 'The Labor Party, the Labor Party ran some of the most systematic, well-funded lies ever peddled in Australia. 'Telling vulnerable Australians that Medicare was going to be privatised or sold, frightening people in their bed and even today, even today, as voters went to the polls, there were text messages being sent to thousands of people saying that Medicare was about to be privatised by the Liberal Party. 'An extraordinary act of dishonesty,' he fumed. In Melbourne Mr Shorten said the election results demonstrated the Prime Minister had been 'rejected' by the people of Australia as he celebrated the return of his party. 'Friends, we will not know the outcome of this election tonight. Indeed we may not know it for some days to come. There is one thing that is for sure - the Labor party is back!' he said proudly. After giving his impassioned speech Mr Turnbull was rewarded with a kiss from his wife Lucy while their adult children Daisy and Alex applauded The Prime Minister said he had been advised by the Electoral Commission a result may not be returned until Tuesday but said he was optimistic Mr Turnbull told followers the Labor Party had run a campaign based on 'dishonesty', describing its tactics as 'well-peddled lies' Thanking his followers for their support, he encouraged Labor voters to take 'great pride' in the results delivered across the country. 'In the past three years we have united as a party. In the past eight weeks we have run a magnificent campaign. We have argued for our positive plans and three years after the Liberals came to power in a landslide, they have lost their fan base. 'Mr Turnbull's economic program, such as it was, has been rejected by the people of Australia. 'Whatever happens next week, Mr Turnbull will never be able to claim that the people of Australia have adopted his ideological agenda. He will never again be able to promise the stability which he has completely failed to deliver tonight.' He went on to thank his wife Chloe for her support throughout the lengthy campaign, noting that it had been the longest in Australia for 30 years. 'Chloe, wherever you went in this campaign, you brought the sunshine with you. And I guess the secret is out - you all know how lucky I am.' Labor collected eleven more seats than it did at the last federal election. At the time of Mr Turnbull's speech seven of the 150 Lower House seats remained undeclared. Treasurer Scott Morrison said he believed the party would still be able to storm to victory in a last minute win, declaring: 'I believe we'll be able to form a majority government.' Mr Shorten thanked his wife Chloe and their children (above at the Labor Party function) for their support throughout the lengthy campaign The Labor leader led his youngest daughter Clementine with his wife Chloe and the rest of their family through adoring supporters at the party Clementine stole the attention of her older siblings and mother as she hid behind them during her father's speech The Opposition leader's six-year-old daughter seemed a little overwhelmed by the cheering crowds at the Liberal Party's HQ Earlier in the night former Treasurer Peter Costello said it was not 'inconceivable' neither would be able to secure a win while ABC political expert Barrie Cassidy described it as 'more likely than not' Australia would be left with a hung parliament. After half the vote was counted the Coalition held a narrow lead with 50.2 per cent of the vote to Labor's 49.8 per cent. As the results came in through the night the possibility of a Labor-majority house evaporated while the Coalition's chances grew slimmer. Mr Costello was among the first to point to the likelihood of a hung parliament, telling Channel 9 News: 'This election is getting very, very close. 'I've got to say it's not inconceivable that we could have a hung parliament. He later swayed his prediction towards the Coalition, ruling out a Labor victory by saying: 'I don't think that Labor can win this election.' Mr Cassidy pointed to the possibility of a hung parliament earlier in the night in his coverage for the ABC. 'Now there's the potential for the Labor Party to win seats in Queensland, six at least in New South Wales, three in Tasmania, Solomon they're claiming. 'Mayo falls to Xenophon and you've got Western Australia at this stage of the night. It's more likely than not now that the country will have a hung parliament,' he said. His colleague Antony Green shared the same view and predicted there would not be a clear result at the end of the night. 'We won't know who's won tonight. At the moment on the numbers I'm seeing it's not clear. At this stage the modelling we're doing, the projections we're doing we have the government on 75 seats. 'I don't think we'll have a clearer picture by the end of tonight,' he said. Bill Shorten has ruled out forming a post-election coalition with other senior Labor figures in the past insisting the party would govern alone or not at all. Voters have been left with yet more uncertainty with the outcome of the election still hanging in the balance. Above, Liberal Party supporters at its election night function in Sydney Labor supporters at a party in Melbourne (above) were full of cheers as they gradually collected seats as the first of the results were announced The mood fell more somber when the party was ruled out of leading its own majority government after failing to secure a lead Some Labor voters stifled tears as they watched their chances of seeing Bill Shorten lead a majority government evaporate Bill Shorten was offered a sympathetic pat on the back by a supporter as he was seen arriving at the Labor Party's function in Melbourne It was a disastrous election day for the Opposition leader who earlier attracted a barrage of ridicule for eating a sausage sandwich sideways The Labor leader shared this note with followers on Saturday night thanking them for their support Among prominent victories of the night was Labor MP Linda Burney's win in Barton, NSW. She is the first Aboriginal woman to ever become elected in the House of Representatives. WHAT HAPPENS IN THE EVENT OF A HUNG PARLIAMENT If neither of the major parties secures a majority in the federal election the country will be left with a hung parliament. It will be up to them to negotiate with independent MPs and form the next government. While the politicians themselves will have to draw up arrangements, their efforts are overseen by the Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove. The 2010 federal election returned a hung parliament. The then Labor leader Julie Gillard formed a coalition with independent and Greens MPs in its wake. If the parties cannot agree on terms for a coalition another election will be called as a last resort. Both Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull have ruled out forming a coalition with the Greens. Advertisement Malcolm Turnbull held his seat of Wentworth in NSW with 67 per cent of the vote while Bill Shorten won 61 per cent of the vote in his seat of Maribyrnong, Victoria. Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce held his seat of New England with 63 per cent of the vote, putting on a raucous display of cheer as he arrived at his victory party. He thanked Hollywood star Johnny Depp who he said had given him 'advertising' in the lead-up to the campaign. Mr Joyce publicly lambasted the actor and his now estranged wife Amber Heard for not declaring her two puppies when they flew into Australia on a private jet last year. His tough stance on bio-security laws became a talking point for Depp in interviews around the world. Celebrating his win on Saturday, Mr Joyce said: 'Thanks for the advertising, Johnny.' He also shared his support for Malcolm Turnbull, insisting the Prime Minister would be re-elected because Australians do not want 'a revolving door' of leaders. 'I get along very well with Malcolm Turnbull and had a number of conversations with him tonight. He is most definitely the best person to lead our nation in a time of uncertainty and we're seeing that through Brexit,' he told the ABC. Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott also held his seat of Warringah in NSW with 64.5 per cent. As the first of the results poured in on Saturday night he appeared in an interview with Alan Jones to take a swipe at Malcolm Turnbull. Mr Abbott, who was ousted in September, said the Liberal Party's campaign would have been 'different' if he had been at the helm in the interview. Elsewhere independent candidate Andrew Wilkie was one of few independents to be elected, retaining his seat of Denison in Tasmania. Bob Katter of Katter's Australian Party retained the seat of Kennedy in Queensland. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton was re-elected as was Labor MP Tanya Plibersek in Sydney. Jamie Briggs, a former federal government minister, lost the seat of Mayo in Adelaide to Rebekah Sharkey of the Nick Xenophon Team Party. The federal election results were too close to call throughout Saturday night with the possibility of a hung parliament increasing. Above Malcolm Turnbull casts his vote during the day There was still no sign of Mr Turnbull at the Liberal Party's function in Sydney at midnight as supporters gathered excitedly Liberal Party supporters watched with baited breath as the results trickled through at its function in Sydney 'After a tough fight tonight hasn't been our night, thanks to those who supported me and my best to the new member, it's a great electorate,' he said on Twitter. WHAT THE POLLS PREDICTED Sky News exit poll: 62% of voters predict Coalition victory Galaxy poll of 25 marginal seats: 50% Coalition - 50% Labor Fairfax & Ipsos: 50% Coalition - 50% Labor Essential: 50.5% Coalition - 49.5% Labor Advertisement Former Prime Minister John Howard commiserated with the MPs who had lost their seats and implored any supporters of ousted Tony Abbott to give their backing to Mr Turnbull. 'As far as Tony Abbott is concerned, yes he was, is and will always be a good friend of mine but the party room made a decision and I accept that decision. 'I encourage all Liberals, particularly people who were especially attached to Tony Abbott to... out of respect for his own wishes, to vote for the Turnbull Coalition,' he said at the party's Sydney function. A Sky News poll released on Saturday afternoon revealed 62 per cent of voters believed the Coalition would be re-elected despite earlier predictions failing to put forward a clear winner. It also showed which issues most held close when casting their ballots. Liberal voters prioritised the economy, with 70 per cent listing the budget among their chief concerns. Turnbull supporters talked among themselves as Mr Shorten gave his speech at the Labor Party's function in Melbourne Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce celebrated with his wife and daughters after being re-elected in the seat of New England Let's party! The Nationals leader could barely contain his joy or his dance moves as he celebrated in Tamworth, NSW Mr Joyce delighted in the affection of supporters in his seat of Tamworth in New England on Saturday after retaining his seat Former Prime Minister John Howard addresses the media at the Liberal Party function at the Sofitel Wentworth hotel in Sydney on Saturday night Mr Howard was joined by his wife Janette at the event in Sydney. He implored Tony Abbott fans to give their full support to the Turnbull coalition One Nation's Pauline Hanson was greeted by supporters in Brisbane as she awaited the results. The controversial senator is expected to retain her seat in the Senate The flame-haired senator was surrounded by supporters at a party in Ipswich, west of Brisbane Greens MP Adam Bandt retained his seat of Melbourne, making him the party's only elected member. He celebrated above at its party Mr Bandt celebrated his re-election with a kiss from his wife Claudia at the Greens party celebration on Saturday night Greens leader Richard Di Natale led crowds at the party's election night event in Melbourne after retaining its seat in the Lower House Linda Burney became the first Aboriginal woman to be elected after winning the seat of Barton, NSW Tony Abbott retained his seat of Warringah in NSW. Hours before celebrating his victory the former Prime Minister was seen in an interview with Alan Jones on Channel 7 taking aim at Mr Turnbull's campaign Labor MP Tanya Plibersek was re-elected in Sydney (left) while Foreign Minister Julie Bishop (right) was expected to retain her seat of Curtin in WA At the Greens election night party in Melbourne Senator Janet Rice (above) celebrated after Adam Bandt was re-elected in his seat of Melbourne Property driven issues including negative gearing and building unions were of little matter to them with less than 30 per cent naming it as of importance. Medicare, which has been Bill Shorten's most prominent policy throughout the campaign, drove 83 per cent of Labor votes. They also listed education as a key issue. Liberal voters valued budget and economy as one of the most important issues, with 70 per cent highlighting it, compared with 36 per cent of Labor voters. The Galaxy poll of 25 marginal seats showed the election was merely too close to call, with both the Coaltiion and Labor predicted to win 50 per cent of the vote. Labor needed a 4.5 per cent swing to win - 19 more seats than they won at the 2013 election. Former Treasurer Peter Costello (left) said it was not 'inconceivable' the country would be left with a hung parliament while ABC's political expert Barrie Cassidy (right) said it was 'more likely than not' there would be no clear winner by the end of the night What demeaning scenes greeted the downfall last week of Boris Johnson. Grown men rushed to dance on his political grave. With priggish glee, newspaper columnists rejoiced at the withdrawal of this dangerous charlatan from the Tory leadership race. Mr Johnson has his faults who doesnt? Many of them were enumerated, to his discomfort, in my biography of him. But is the contest to lead our country so rich in talent that we should celebrate the elimination of one of our most gifted and resourceful politicians? On Thursday, Michael Gove announced that he had come, reluctantly, to the conclusion that Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead. On Thursday, Michael Gove announced that he had come, reluctantly, to the conclusion that Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead Since Mr Gove has known Mr Johnson for more than 30 years, it is somewhat mysterious that he discovered only last week that his friend was unfit for high office. At the same time, Mr Gove made a second, even more startling discovery. He had stated over and over again, in the most categorical terms, that he himself was not up to the job of Prime Minister. He then found, to his surprise, that he was in fact sufficiently qualified for that office. What an amazing coincidence that he did so at the very moment his treacherous attack had knocked his old friend out of the race. The accusation flung at Mr Johnson was that he had not expected to win the referendum and so had made no plans. This is perfectly true, but it is rather unfair to blame Mr Johnson more than his rivals. Brexit is sometimes discussed, both by pundits and members of the public, as if having a plan is the essential thing. In some world of perfect efficiency, that might be true. But European politics is staggeringly inefficient, and in key respects highly unpredictable. So even the best-laid plan would need extensive modifications as the process unfolded. No amount of preparation can obviate the need to spot, in the midst of tortuous negotiations, the way through and the best moment to settle a moment which will almost certainly never recur. Mr Johnson is better prepared for being unprepared than his rivals because this is his usual way of going about things. He is not just intellectually equipped to understand what is going on: he possesses the news sense to see when the story has changed. Indeed, his enemies blame him for persuading the country to vote Leave. Since the result became known, a wave of hatred has broken over Mr Johnsons head Indeed, his enemies blame him for persuading the country to vote Leave. Since the result became known, a wave of hatred has broken over Mr Johnsons head. He stands accused of recklessly stirring up hatred of foreigners, in order to promote a cause in which he did not believe, so he could defenestrate David Cameron and take over as Prime Minister. It is true racists felt emboldened by the result to pour out their repulsive bile. This is horrible. But does it mean there were no respectable grounds on which to campaign to leave the EU? Even before the referendum, Mr Johnson dissociated himself from the xenophobes by calling for an amnesty for illegal immigrants who had lived here for 12 years. He made it clear that on this issue, he is at one with moderate, centrist opinion. These reminders of his liberal outlook may have been too forceful for his own good. They may have suggested to some on the Leave side that he was, from their point of view, not reliable. Many now imagine that from a political standpoint, Mr Johnson is dead and buried. I hope they are wrong. He has suffered, certainly, a knockdown blow. Those cannot be avoided in politics, especially if you decline to play the cautious, unspeakably dull percentage game in which so many dreary careerists engage. But I trust he will stick around, for he may very soon be needed. Matthew Barzun (pictured) will say on BBC Radio 4s Desert Island Discs that President Obama was right to warn Britain it would be at 'the back of queue' as a result of Brexit The American ambassador to Britain will today warn that Britains decision to leave the European Union could have serious economic consequences for the country. Matthew Barzun will say on BBC Radio 4s Desert Island Discs that President Obama was right to warn Britain in April that it would end up at the back of queue as a result of Brexit. In an interview recorded after the referendum, Mr Barzun says it is naive to think that the UK could now somehow jump further ahead of its trade rivals. He adds: The tone in which it was said, there was nothing punitive about it. The point was, you are at the front of the queue right now he was saying back in April because we are doing this big trade deal with the European Union, of which you are a member. But if you step out of the front of the queue, by definition you are no longer at the front and some notion that you can jump further ahead; you just want to say that is not the trend for the types of big deals we are doing these days. Mr Barzun, 45, says President Obama felt the need to offer up the warning precisely because of the close relationship between Britain and the US. He adds: I think we did what best friends do. So before the referendum when we were asked and President Obama said it probably most forcibly of course, its up to you but if you ask us, we will tell you what we think which was we value a strong UK in a strong EU. Mr Barzun insists, however, that the UKs Special Relationship with the US will not be affected by Brexit. It sure is still special, he tells presenter Kirsty Young. I think we are best friends, as it were, as countries. You think about the cultural, the commercial, the emotional and the intellectual connections between our countries. Those are unbreakable. Not unbreakable because they are some rigid thing. The opposite. They are unbreakable because they are flexible. Mr Barzun, whose wife Brooke is heiress to the Brown-Forman Corporation distilling empire, says people and countries should be honest and open with each other. What friends should do to each other is to be honest, he says. My wife and I are in couples therapy and she is a therapist herself and I am a son of a therapist and it is really important to think about what you said and to be honest. Mr Barzun, says President Obama felt the need to offer up the warning precisely because of the close relationship between Britain and the US Mr Barzun also touches on the issue of gun crime in the United States and the inability of people in Britain to understand US gun laws. He says: Its hard for British people to understand. Our notions of freedom; how we won our freedom from this country; guns are part of it from the beginning. Mr Barzun, whose song selections include Princes Delirious and The State I Am In by Belle and Sebastian, is expected to stand down in January when Mr Obamas presidency ends. Fancy a serious road trip? Check out the North Coast 500, a spectacular route that goes up the north-west coast of Scotland, along the top and down the east side. Its about 500 miles long, takes three days to complete, and is just about the most fantastic drive in these isles. I should know Ive been doing it, off and on, for the past 20 years. Twists and turns: The UKs highest road, Bealach na Ba (pictured), is one of the highlights of the route The official advice is to start at Inverness and go up the east coast first. But Id start in the west as thats by far the best bit. Our departure point is always the serene West Highland village of Lochcarron, near Kyle of Lochalsh, where we rent a holiday cottage each year on the gorgeous Attadale Estate. From here, within half an hour, the NC500 reaches the top of the Applecross peninsula and the summit of whats officially the UKs highest road, the Bealach na Ba, or Pass of the Cattle. Next is Torridon, a mass of pinkish-grey bare mountains reflected in silver lochs. Some 80 miles north, the town of Ullapool appears like a distant vision at the end of Loch Broom. Its not an especially big place, but in this landscape of huge hills and lonely lengths of loch it seems a thrilling metropolis with pubs, bookshop, leisure centre, and hotels for an overnight stay. Wendy at John OGroats. The landmark provides a great photo-opportunity for visitors on the route Day Two starts with the amazing mountains of Assynt, just beyond Ullapool. Stac Pollaidhs crazy shape looms and disappears as the road twists and turns. Celebrate reaching the top of the British Isles with lunch at Durness, where youll find beaches with sand as white as those in Antigua. Travel along the Caithness coast to Thurso, a town whose severe grey appearance belies its friendly welcome. If you have time, the Castle of Mey once the home of the Queen Mother is nearby. On Day Three, John OGroats provides a photo-opportunity and its fun to turn the corner at Duncansby Head. Further down the coast is Inverness, and just east of the city is the battlefield of Culloden. It was a bad day for the clans there in 1746, but whats best about Scotland is still very much with us. As someone who is lucky enough to travel a lot, I am constantly asked which country is the best to visit. It is one of the hardest questions to answer, because the world is such a diverse place and plenty of countries have so many highlights. However, ask me which is the most beautiful location in the world and Ill give you an immediate answer: the Maldives. Its the only place on Earth where when you look down you see paradise, and when you look up you see heaven. Presenter Laura Hamilton has been to the Maldives several times before and thinks it's the most beautiful place in the world Love island: Laura and Alex during their stay on Mirihi, which boasts palm-fringed beaches and sand that is as soft as talcum powder I have been lucky enough to visit the Maldives a handful of times in 2010, I was stranded there when the Icelandic ash cloud forced the cancellation of flights to Britain. It wasnt exactly a hardship to be marooned in such a wonderful spot, and Ive been addicted ever since. The Maldives is made up of more than 1,200 tiny islands the majority of them are uninhabited but about ten per cent are used by the tourism industry. For my latest trip, I stayed with my husband Alex at Mirihi, which boasts palm-fringed beaches and sand that is as soft as talcum powder. Leave your shoes at home because when you step off the seaplane and on to the jetty after your 30-minute transfer from the capital Male, you will realise there is nowhere else like this picturesque island. And for someone who seldom sits still, I wasnt bored at all. At just 1,200ft long and 160ft wide, this privately owned island located in the heart of the South Ari Atoll is one of the lesser known to the UK market. There are a total of 37 palm-thatched villas six on the beach come with outdoor bathrooms, and 30 water villas that have steps straight into the lagoon at Mirihi And the smattering of British guests I met there were are quick to tell me they want to keep Mirihi a secret. Staying here is like living on your own private island. It is classy yet understated and not at all stuffy. Mirihi has been voted by the French publication Voyages De Reve as one of the top ten hotels in the world for honeymooners, but Id say its the perfect place for anyone looking for rest, relaxation and rejuvenation, or those who want to try some of the best diving in the world. Alternatively, if you are a foodie, you wont be disappointed either. The 160 members of staff constantly polishing the bifolding doors of the Anba bar or grooming and sifting the fine white sand look impeccable in their brightly coloured uniforms. They are a credit to Guenther Kofler, the resorts manager. Much like him, they are polite, efficient and informative and they all smell amazing, as if they have bathed in the islands zesty fresh cologne. Majestic: Laura and Alex took a half-day trip where they swam with dolphins, manta rays and turtles During the same excursion, the couple also went to see whale sharks, which can sometimes be seen in the nearby waters Guenther and his right-hand woman Jasmin are the perfect hosts for such an intimate place. Every inch of the resort is pristine and the staff so attentive that you feel every bit as relaxed as one of the petals of the flower Mirihi is named after. The accommodation is Maldivian with a Swiss twist luxurious bathrooms, designer furnishings, a sitting area with a sound system, and a Nespresso coffee machine with complimentary pods each day. There are a total of 37 palm-thatched villas six on the beach come with outdoor bathrooms, and 30 water villas that have steps straight into the lagoon. Staff outnumber guests by two to one, but even when the hotel is at full capacity, Mirihi never feels overcrowded. You only ever really see 20 members of the team the rest are behind the scenes running this well-oiled machine. During our seven-night stay we picked out a few favourites the English- and German-speaking mixologist J. C. Perera, and Adam and Malaz, two of our regular waiters. Laura recommends leaving your shoes at home because when you step off the seaplane after your 30-minute transfer from the capital Male, you will realise there is nowhere else like this picturesque island As you relax on your sunbed watching the crystal-clear waters ripple against the shore, you can expect to meet Shahula and Sithura each day. They will offer you a cold towel and a slice of thirst-quenching watermelon. When it comes to catering, the food is outstanding. There may be only two restaurants the culinary delights from the a la carte menu in Muraka or the buffet dining experience in Dhonveli but the selection on offer is like no other, rivalling that of the world-famous Sandy Lane buffet in Barbados. You can help yourself to fresh lobster or oysters on seafood night, or head for the incredible display of sushi on Asian night. The food looks almost too good to eat. Felix, the head chef, is one the most passionate people I have ever met, and he is proud to give guests a tour of Dhonveli restaurant each evening to show off his creations. My tastebuds certainly got a workout, but I wish I could say the same for my body. I did visit the islands gym three times but Im sure I returned to the UK carrying a few extra pounds. I think I took comfort from Felixs words of wisdom. Laura, you are on holiday, he told me. Its fine! Staff outnumber guests by two to one, but even when the hotel is at full capacity, Mirihi never feels overcrowded Although relaxation at Mirihi is key, should you wish to participate in any excursions or activities, the team are happy to book them on your behalf. We took a half-day trip to watch whale sharks, and we also got to swim with dolphins, manta rays and turtles. An unforgettable experience. We enjoyed wine-tasting with Alexander, who is not officially the islands sommelier but might as well have been. There is the option of rum-tasting, too Mirihi has the biggest collection in the Maldives, with 130 varieties but I was happy to stick with the wine, otherwise I think I would have been out cold for the remainder of our stay. What you wont find on Mirihi is a swimming pool, but why would you need one when you have a clear-water lagoon less than 15ft from your bedroom? The resort had the option of building a pool when the site was renovated back in late 2014, but opted against it as the thought of individuals fighting for sunbeds was not in their remit. Having visited islands with and without a pool, I think they made the right decision. We didnt miss having one. Sleek and spacious: The interior of one of the water villas, with views of the ocean, where Laura and her husband stayed However, one thing I cant live without when Im on holiday is a spa, and the therapists at the Duniye Spa on the island are some of the best. In a place that could warrant charging more, the treatments were well priced and good value. Needless to say, I visited every other day. Throughout the day at Mirihi, you can use the complimentary kayaks, try your hand at windsurfing or snorkel in the reef to spot the spectacularly coloured fish. I was happy to kick back, relax and enjoy a caipirinha while watching the sunset in the bar at Muraka, and sit and read my book something I wanted to make the most of before boarding the flight home to look after my two gorgeous babies and get back to work. Laura Hamilton presents A Place In The Sun Summer Sun, on Saturdays at 4.30pm, and A Place In The Sun Winter Sun, on Sundays at 5.30pm, both on Channel 4. She makes no secret of her healthy lifestyle and regularly flaunts the results of her hard work through a variety of scantily-clad modelling snaps. And model actress Phoebe Tonkin shared a stunning selfie while standing in a secluded patch of sand in a tropical paradise. The 26-year-old was wearing a floaty red dress by Rouje that fell to her calves and she pulled one side of the hemline up towards her hips, uncovering her trim and toned pins. Scroll down for video Beach vibes: Actress and model Phoebe Tonkin looks gorgeous in a floaty red dress on a secluded beach in a tropical paradise The dress was unbuttoned at the top, revealing a hint of her decolletage and her brown locks were worn loosely as they framed her beautiful face. The ensemble was made to look casual as Phoebe opted to go barefoot in the sand. The sun appeared to be rising behind her as she basked in the sunlight although she did not reveal her holiday location on Instagram. Finding fame: The Sydney-born model, who is now based in the US, stars in CW's spin-off series of the Vampire Diaries - The Originals The Sydney-born model, who is now based in the US, stars in CW's spin-off series of the Vampire Diaries - The Originals. She has been dating her Vampire Diaries co-star, Paul Wesley, 33, since 2013. The couple formed a close bond after meeting on set in 2012 when Phoebe made her Vampire Diaries debut as Hayley Marshall. Loved-up: She has been dating her Vampire Diaries co-star Paul Wesley, 33, since 2013, after the pair met on set of The Vampire Diaries They began dating the following year and have been seemingly inseparable ever since. In 2013, Paul began directing the popular series while continuing to star in it. Phoebe began her acting career as a mermaid on the series H20: Just Add Water and she launched a healthy living and eating website called Your Zen Life with close friend, Adelaide-born actress Teresa Palmer. Making it in Hollywood! Phoebe made her Vampire Diaries debut as Hayley Marshall in 2012 She has a pair of the world's most enviable legs. And on Friday, Coco Rocha put them on display as she stepped out in barely-there shorts and knee-high stiletto boots. The 27-year-old supermodel and her lithe runway pins were hard to miss on the set of a photo shoot in New York City. Scroll down for video Enviable legs! Coco Rocha put her very long lithe limbs on display as she took part in a photo shoot in NYC on Friday Coco flaunted her lean figure in a pair of black micro-shorts on the hot summer day. The five-foot-ten-inch stunner further accentuated her long legs with black lace-up peep-toe heels which extended all the way to her knees. She teamed the sexy look with a plunging black blouse which featured a deep V-neckline which was outlined in purple. The Canadian beauty wore her reddish-brown ombre locks in a middle part in voluminous waves which cascaded past her shoulders. On set: The 27-year-old supermodel flaunted her lean figure in a pair of black micro-shorts. The five-foot-ten-inch stunner further accentuated her long legs with over-the-knee lace-up peep-toe heels knees At one point, Coco's long tresses had tissue and clips holding her hair back as she was probably on her way to get touch ups from her glam squad. She looked glamorous with a smokey eye and a matte pink pout. The model accessorized with bold black earrings and a large cuff on right wrist. The mother-of-one fueled up on caffeine as she was spotted on set with a large Starbucks to-go cup. Glamorous at work: The Canadian beauty wore her reddish-brown locks with a middle parting and cascading past her shoulders This comes just as Coco has taken on an ownership and management role at Nomad Management, the same modeling agency that represents her. Meanwhile, Coco and her husband James Conran recently celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary in June. The model and her longtime love have a one-year-old daughter, Ioni. With or without make-up Claire Danes is a stunner. The Homeland star showed off her natural beauty as she stepped out in New York City on Thursday. The 37-year-old actress also put her fashion prowess on display as she took to the streets in the Soho neighborhood wearing a stylish green and gold frock. Scroll down for video Summertime chic: Claire Danes showed off her natural beauty and her fashion prowess as she stepped out in New York City on Thursday Claire looked summertime chic in the bold colored cap-sleeved dress. The feminine frock featured a square neckline and a high waistline. The modest silhouette's hemline fell to her knees showing off the A-lister's trim calf muscles. Claire teamed the polished look with a pair of nude-colored strappy sandals. Stylish outing: The 37-year-old actress donned a feminine green and gold cap-sleeved frock which fell to her knees. She teamed the polished look with a pair of nude sandals, and accessorized with large earrings A large pair of gold earrings dangled from her ears, and a silver watch graced her left wrist. The New York native accessorized with a chic black leather backpack purse and kept her sleek tresses down and straight. The thespian, who recently starred in the off-Broadway play Dry Powder, is keeping busy as season six of Homeland will return in January 2017. Meanwhile, Claire has been married to Hugh Dancy since 2009. The couple have a three-year-old son named Cyrus. ALBANY POLICE Stolen car arrest 7:40 p.m. Wednesday, Linn County Jail. Charles Anthony Lewis, 42, of Lebanon, was booked, cited and released on charges of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and possession of methamphetamine. He was scheduled to appear in court on July 13. Sex offense report 8:49 p.m. Thursday, 200 block 30th Place S.E. A 15-year-old girl came to a residents door saying that she got into a red SUV because a man grabbed her and pulled her in. She said she was sexually abused. Little information was available about the incident, which remains under investigation. Meth dealing arrest 11:34 p.m. Thursday, Linn County Jail. Wyatt Lee Phillips, 42, of Albany, was arrested on charges of delivery of methamphetamine and possession of methamphetamine. His initial bail was set at $26,000. Porn shop robbery 6:28 a.m. Friday, the Adult Shop, Spicer Road. A white male wearing a black hoodie and grey or black jeans robbed the Adult Shop at gunpoint. He took cash and items from the store. The man reportedly had bandages on his face. The case remains under investigation. She's the Australian actress best known for her role as beach babe and police officer Charlie Buckton on Home And Away. And Esther Anderson proved she's still got it as she took to Instagram on Friday, flaunting her toned figure in a bright barely-there bikini in a smouldering snap. The 36-year-old beauty snapped a selfie, which she captioned: 'Long weekend has arrived!! All set for the BBQ's, pool parties and some much needed r&r!!' Scroll down for video 'Long weekend has arrived!' Esther Anderson proved she's still got it as she took to Instagram on Friday to flaunt her toned figure in a brightly coloured bikini Celebrating Fourth of July in the States, Esther flaunted her golden tan and showcased her ample assets in the black and red bandeau style bikini, which featured a palm tree print. The U.S. based actress appeared to be makeup free for the snap and wore her dark chocolate locks loose around her shoulders under a black felted hat. Adding to the caption she gushed about her fiance writing: 'And thx @moggsie1 for replacing my lost @ragandbone hat'. Loving life: The 36-year-old beauty relocated to the U.S. and appears to be relishing settling into her new home Esther and her English Executive partner, Howard Moggs, got engaged back in February. She first revealed the news to New Idea magazine, saying he popped the question at their new house on Valentine's Day. At the time, the couple had been dating for 15 months and the proposal was unexpected. Exciting: Esther and her English Executive partner, Howard Moggs, got engaged back in February What a sparkler: He popped the question at their new house on Valentine's Day and at the time, they had been dating for 15 months and the proposal was unexpected 'I didn't see it coming at... I was speechless until I realised I hadn't said "yes",' she explained as she also admitted the pair were keen to start a family. Last month, the brunette beauty told The Daily Telegraph she and Howard were permanently moving to the US. The lovebirds recently enjoyed a trip to New York together to celebrate Howard's 35th birthday and are in the process of planning their upcoming nuptials. It seems like Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green really are ready to reconcile. Like one big happy family, the pregnant star and her husband were seen with their sons Noah, three, and Bodhi, two, in Los Angeles on Friday as news broke that they are calling off their divorce. A source close to the 42-year-old actor told People, that day: 'Brian and Megan are living together in Malibu with their boys. They have been getting along and seem very happy. They are just waiting for the baby to arrive.' Scroll down for video Taking it in her stride: A very pregnant Megan Fox is said to be calling off her divorce to Brian Austin Green as the couple enjoyed a family lunch with their sons Noah, three, and Bodhi, two, in Los Angeles on Friday The 30-year-old is expecting their third child, a sibling for their boys Noah, three, and Bodhi, two. 'During their separation, Brian always hoped Megan would change her mind about the divorce and he is very happy that she did,' the source shared with People. 'They both worked hard to figure out their marriage and things seem great.' Megan, Brian and their boys were spotted out together enjoying lunch in the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Studio City on Friday. Practical matters: They also did a bit of shopping with the 42-year-old actor carrying a blue plastic bin back to their car. A source told People that 'Brian and Megan are living together in Malibu with their boys' Family outing: Megan carried a drink while Brian carried three-year-old son Noah Caring for the little ones: Younger son Bodhi was also carried by burly dad Brian later that day Looking good! The actress dressed down for the occasion in a pair of leggings and a vest teamed with flip flops The beautiful brunette covered her baby bump under a tight blue vest and black leggings. They also did a bit a shopping with Brian carrying a blue plastic container. The couple had remained close for the sakes of their sons even after the split last August. But the news of the Transformers star's 'unplanned' pregnancy was a bombshell that hit the couple this April, although Megan said at the time she wasn't going to halt the divorce. Holding hands: Noah spent time holding mum's hand as they enjoyed their family day out Happy families: They formed one big happy family on the group outing Eating for two: The beautiful brunette, 30, covered her baby bump under a tight blue vest and black leggings Proud papa: During their separation, Brian always hoped Megan would change her mind about the divorce and he is very happy that she did,' according to an insider Since then the pair, who had been married for five years, have enjoyed a family vacation at the Four Seasons Hualalai in Hawaii. At the time another insider told People that Megan and Brian were 'reconsidering the divorce' because 'they don't want their kids to grow up in a broken home.' Brian began dating Megan in 2004, after they met on the set of Hope & Faith when he was 30 and she was 18. They tied the knot on June 24, 2010. Megan is also a step-mum to Brian's 14-year-old son Kassius from his previous relationship with Vanessa Marcil. Drinks on me! Brian showed off his impressive inking on his arms as he carried drinks on the hot day Taking it in her stride: With two kids under three and one of the way, Megan was taking things in her stride Family outing: Doting dad Brian had plenty of cuddles for his son She found fame at the tender age of 13 with her breakout role in The Sixth Sense. And Mischa Barton has revealed how she maintained her successful career, by not allowing herself to be lead astray by the industry. Speaking exclusively to the MailOnline at the Stylight Awards in Berlin on Tuesday, the 30-year-old actress explained: 'You just have to be really tough.' Scroll down for video Teenage dreams: She found fame at the tender age of 13. And speaking exclusively to the MailOnline, Mischa Barton has revealed how she managed to maintain a successful career later in life Confessing how she managed to avoid the 'child actor curse' and continue working, she said: 'You really have to have your wits about you and stay with what you love to do. 'And you have to work with people you love to work with!' Mischa rocketed to stardom after she landed a leading role in the 2003 teen drama series The O.C, but shortly afterwards she began to struggle with the weight of fame. Bouncing back: In 2007 Mischa was arrested for driving under the influence but has bounced back from her troubled past and revealed she felt a responsibility to her fans to share her past with them Worrying: After being placed on a 5150 psychiatric hold in 2009, Mischa worried fans with her dramatic weight loss and then her weight gain in 2014, but has since kept her weight under control In 2007 she was arrested for driving under the influence and was placed on a 5150 psychiatric hold in 2009. Asked if she felt a responsibility to share her troubles with her impressionable young fans, the starlet admitted that she wanted to share her experiences firsthand with them. 'I do love my fans,' she explained: 'I have some amazing fans, some very loyal ones. I suppose so.' Shooting star: Mischa rocketed to stardom after she landed a leading role in the 2003 teen drama series The O.C playing Marissa Cooper (pictured with Ben McKenzie and Peter Gallagher) Finding fame: Mischa's career began at the tender age of 13 with her breakout role in The Sixth Sense Highs and lows: Mischa has lived her life in the public eye, and has spoken candidly about her history of mental health problems, and previously described her psychiatric hold as like a 'full-on breakdown' Mischa has spoken candidly about her history of mental health problems, and previously described her psychiatric hold as like a 'full-on breakdown'. Elaborating to People, she explained: 'It was terrifying, straight out of Girl, Interrupted. Story of my life.' I was never suicidal,' she added: 'I was just overworked and depressed. But one slip of the tongue in a heightened moment and you find yourself in that situation.' The star also struggled with her weight, and shocked fans when she sported a painfully thin looking frame in 2009, followed by an uncharacteristically fuller figure just months later. Back on track: Mischa was a vision of health and beauty at the Stylight Awards held at the Admiralspalast in Germany on Tuesday where she sat on the jury and presented the fashion award But Mischa was a vision of health and beauty at the Stylight Awards held at the Admiralspalast in Germany onTuesday. Dazzling in a black beaded Blumarine gown, the blonde beauty turned heads as she paraded her tanned and toned pins down the red carpet. As an esteemed style icon, it came as no surprise to see Mischa had been chosen to sit on the jury at the awards, and was given the task of presenting the fashion award on the night. Lily Collins is super slender these days. The 27-year-old actress was spotted grabbing a green health drink from Kreation Kafe & Juicery in Beverly Hills on Friday. The Last Tycoon star looked bohemian chic in the colorful romper which appeared to swallow her petite five-foot-five frame. Scroll down for video Bohemian chic: Lily Collins was spotted grabbing a green health drink from Kreation Kafe & Juicery in Beverly Hills on Friday Lily teamed the patterned playsuit with taupe colored gladiator sandals. She also had a beige suede tote with a fringe accessory slung over her shoulder, and a shopping bag from the cafe on her arm. Topping off the look, Lily donned a pair of over sized sunglasses. Lily must have been feeling nostalgic that day - the actress shared a photo of herself for flashback Friday, getting a back tattoo during her recent trip to South Korea. Grab and go: She also had a beige suede tote with a fringe accessory slung over her shoulder, and a shopping bag from the cafe on her arm In the image, the actress lays flat on her belly as the tattoo artist carefully etched in her new ink. 'No pain, no gain. Battling the needle with @tattooist_doy and @agentoh #KrazyinKorea #sillylily #permanentandpriceless #fbf...', read the caption. Lily also shared an image of the final product, which was located right in between her shoulder blades. Tatt's enough! Lily must have been feeling nostalgic that day - in honour of flashback Friday, the actress Instagrammed a snap of herself getting a tattoo during her recent trip to South Korea 'Flashing some back for #fbf,' she captioned the image. 'A beautiful keepsake from an incredibly memorable Korean adventure. Thank you @tattooist_doy for adding your artistry to my personal collection. Self love is the most important kind #LoveAlwaysandForever #lilypadinbloom #KrazyinKorea...' The post comes as Lily's career continues to soar, with the pilot of the show in which she stars in, The Last Tycoon, hitting Amazon Prime earlier this month. The actress also has a lead role in the currently filming sci-fi horror movie Okja portraying a character named Red. Lily can next be seen in the Warren Beatty written and directed film Rules Don't Apply, due out on November 11. Shes won two Oscars and earns millions for each film she appears in. But Cate Blanchett is so dissatisfied with her work and constantly racked with self-doubt that she never watches herself on film. I am filled with regret whenever I watch anything I do, which is why I tend not to watch them, she told the Irish Sunday Independent. Scroll down for video Perfectionist: Cate Blanchett is so restless and unsatisfied with her work and constantly racked with self-doubt that she never watches herself on film The Australian star blamed her creative spirit for her divine restlessness and that being constantly dissatisfied with her work was made her keep acting. The 47-year-old is famous for beating herself up between takes when she doesnt think shes nailed a scene, according to director Todd Haynes in an interview with Variety last year. There are days when she's frustrated by her own work. We don't know what she's talking about, but she'll say, I need to take an acting pill today. It's not working, he said. Work ethic: The Australian star blamed her creative spirit for her divine restlessness and that being constantly dissatisfied with her work was made her keep acting. Pictured in Oscar-winning Blue Jasmine Instead of being overwhelmed by her perfectionism and self-doubt, Cate said she used them as fuel and inspiration to perform better. I am full of doubt, and fear, which can sound negative, but, in fact, if you identify that, then you can find a solution in that. Why am I frightened of that? That's the very reason why I need to do this job, even if I fall on my face. That's the job I have to do, she said. The Blue Jasmine star joked that she felt like she was having a difficult time that she needed to push through every second Wednesday. One perceives that there are no challenges or problems. And that is kind of a fruitless and chronic useless story to tell and kind of untruthful, because every single time I start a job, I have no idea how to begin, she said. To improve her performance, Cate said she would beg, borrow and steal from anything to find inspiration and insight into her character and the film that would immerse her more. Inspiration: Instead of being overwhelmed by her perfectionism and self-doubt, Cate said she used them as fuel and inspiration to perform better. Pictured in Carol earlier this year Immersive practice: To improve her performance, Cate said she would beg, borrow and steal from anything to find inspiration and insight into her character and the film that would immerse her more This included being turned off by the cologne another actor was wearing to get in character himself, and thinking how her character would react to it. In addition to being a Hollywood megastar, Cate is also mother to sons Dashiell, 14, Roman, 12, and Ignatius, 7, and toddler daughter Edith, the face of Gorgio Armarni, and an ambassador for the UNHCR. Its a good thing she likes being restless and constantly challenged, as the busy personality admitted she struggled to fit it all in. I don't manage at all. Ever! Chaos! she said. His latest movie has him voicing a talking hot dog in Sausage Party. But a new trailer reveals Jonah Hill's next film will raise the stakes just slightly, as he and Miles Teller portray two 20-something friends who become successful international arms dealers. In the opening scene of the trailer, Miles, who plays David, is sitting in a truck near Fallujah, Iraq. Scroll down for video Interesting career track: A new trailer reveals Jonah Hill's next film will raise the stakes just slightly, as he and Miles Teller portray two 20-something friends who become successful international arms dealers As trucks of angry militants stream toward him, he calls for his partner, Efraim, played by Jonah, who looks befuddled until he sees what's happening, prompting him to get in the truck and flee. David then introduces himself in voiceover, proclaiming: 'I'm 22-years-old and I'm an international arms dealer,' before revealing that he started out as a pot-smoking massage therapist in Miami beach. The clip then rapidly shows how the duo built up an arms dealing empire by dealing with the United States government. Not a hot spot: In the opening scene of the trailer, Miles, who plays David, is sitting in a truck near Fallujah, Iraq Trouble coming: As trucks of angry militants stream toward him, he calls for his partner No problem: Efraim, played by Jonah, looks befuddled until he sees what's happening, prompting him to get in the truck and flee When David has ethical concerns, Efraim quickly silences them by explaining, that 'this isnt about being pro war, this is about being pro money. Of course they start meeting unsavory characters, including a mysterious man, played by Bradley Cooper, who's apparently barred from doing business with the American government and is on a terrorist watch list. David again starts to get cold feet, when Efraim reminds him that 'This is the job: To do business with the people the U.S. government can't do business with directly.' Banal: David then introduces himself in voiceover, proclaiming 'I'm 22-years-old and I'm an international arms dealer,' before revealing that he started out as a pot=smoking massage therapist in Miami beach Dismissive but rational: When David has ethical concerns, Efraim quickly silences them by explaining, that 'this isnt about being pro war, this is about being pro money Whatever it takes: The clip then rapidly shows how the duo built up an arms dealing empire by dealing with the United States government Starting small: The duo have to start with low level deals Handsome stranger: Of course they start meeting unsavory characters, including a mysterious man, played by Bradley Cooper, who's apparently barred from doing business with the American government and is on a terrorist watch list Real talk: David again starts to get cold feet, when Efraim reminds him that 'This is the job: To do business with the people the U.S. government can't do business with directly' The trailer ends with the duo in a truck headed for Baghdad driven by what looks to be an Iraqi native. When asked how safe the trip is, the haggard driver only responds 'about 50/50.' Todd Phillips, who directed The Hangover trilogy, is directing the war comedy, which is scheduled for an August 19th release. She enjoyed some quality family time with her future in-laws earlier this week. And now the pregnant former exotic dancer will soon join fiance Rob Kardashian and the rest of the clan on the celebrity family's reality show. The 28-year-old, who became engaged to Rob in April, is finally being accepted by the reality stars and was filmed for the E! series for the first time at Khloe's 32nd birthday party on Monday, according to Us Weekly. Scroll down for video Here she comes! Blac Chyna, pictured at Khloe Kardashian's 32nd birthday in Hollywood this week, has shot her first scenes for Keeping Up With The Kardashians as reality family finally accepts her engagement to Rob Chyna, who has a three-year-old son King Cairo with her ex Tyga, went with Rob to his sister's bash at Dave & Buster's in Hollywood. And it seems the stage has already been set to incorporate the model into the show, with recent episodes already heavily highlighting Rob's surprise engagement to the model. Meanwhile, Rob and Chyna are also working on their own show for E! which follows them as they prepare for the arrival of their baby. Aww! Chyna Instagrammed a snap of herself with her beau as she was welcomed by his celebrity family at the get-together for Khloe on Monday night So in love: The couple cuddled up for the photo booth camera at Khloe's birthday bash where iut's reported Chyna shot her first scenes for Keeping Up With The Kardashians Rob proposed to his girlfriend in April after dating for just three months. A couple of weeks later it was revealed the couple were expecting a child together. The proposal and the pregnancy came out of the blue for Rob's sisters and mom Kris Jenner and was not initially welcomed. The development was further complicated by the fact that his younger half-sister Kylie Jenner, 18, has been in a longtime on/off relationship with Chyna's rapper ex. Sweet dreams: Chyna shared a bare faced snap of herself on Friday revealing she's spending a lot of time inside sleeping as her pregnancy progresses Kris Jenner revealed on a recent episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians that she learned of her son's engagement when the rest of the world did. 'To hear that Rob got engaged through social media is a bit disappointing, to say the least,' she complained. 'He should have told me first or at least spoke to the family about it or mentioned it to his sisters but I had no idea,' Kris said. The family matriarch also described the news as coming 'out of left field.' Yet when confronted by his family, Rob defended his actions, telling them they couldn't expect him to tell them because 'you hate this girl.' Kissed and made up: Kim Kardashian and the 28-year-old had some fun inside a photo booth at Khloe's birthday party posing with cutout lips Meanwhile, Chyna is experiencing plenty of food cravings as her pregnancy develops. On Friday she shared a Snapchat video showing a brightly-colored popsicle she was enjoying. She then showed off a Rice Krispies treat she was snacking on followed by a selfie of her 'pale skin,' the result of spending a lot of time indoors sleeping. Chill out! Chyna showed off her ice cold Popsicle on Snapchat on Friday Yum! She also snacked on a tasty Rice Krispies Treat Roxy Jacenko's life was turned upside-down last week when her husband Oliver Curtis was sent to jail. But while her situation at home may have drastically changed, there's one that that has remained a constant in Roxy's life- her love for designer clothing. The PR guru, 36, showcased her expensive taste when she took to Instagram on Saturday with an image of herself posing inside an elevator wearing an outfit thought to be worth more than $5,000 Scroll down for video Glamour girl: Roxy Jacenko, 36, showcased her expensive taste when she took to Instagram on Saturday with an image of herself posing inside an elevator wearing an outfit thought to be worth more than $5,000 She was clad in a Scanlan Theodore coat (worth $1,800), Goyard handbag (worth over $3,000), Ray Ban sunglasses (worth over $200) and The Daily Edited phone case (worth $49.45). The post comes after Roxy's husband Oliver was jailed for two years on Friday after a lengthy trial in Sydney where he was found guilty of conspiring to commit insider trading in 2007 and 2008. Roxy was by his side throughout court proceedings, arriving at court on her husband's arm dressed in a parade of designer outfits. Past week: The post comes after their father, Oliver Curtis, was jailed for two years on Friday after a lengthy trial in Sydney where he was found guilty of conspiring to commit insider trading in 2007 and 2008 Before his sentence was handed down last week, she pleaded with the court not to jail him, giving an emotional character reference in which she described him as their children's 'primary carer'. 'Pixie and Hunter adore their dad. He's fun, tolerant, uncomplaining and loving. They screech with excitement as soon as they see him and no one else matters to them not even me. 'Because of my work hours, I would describe Oli as the primary carer of Pixie and Hunter. Loving wife: Roxy was by his side throughout court proceedings, arriving at court on her husband's arm dressed in a parade of designer outfits 'Oli is a kind, considerate and reliable man. I have no doubt that he will never be involved in anything like this again,' she said. On Friday, Roxy returned to work after her husband's sentence was handed down. Oliver handed her his wedding ring, watch and a wad of $50 notes before being led away from the dock. Australian model Annalise Braakensiek has opened up about her battle with depression. Taking to Instagram on Saturday morning, the 43-year-old runway sensation shared a candid snap of herself while revealing 'sometimes I feel pain so deeply I'm immobilised by it'. In the image, Annalise wore a double denim ensemble teamed with country-style accessories, while the accompanying caption began: 'Even cowgirls get the blues'. Scroll down for video Candid: Australian model Annalise Braakensiek has opened up about her battle with depression in an Instagram post, which was shared on Saturday The blonde media personality seemed adamant to inform her followers that despite the glamorous life many believes she leads, there is still a darkness lurking behind closed doors. She wrote: 'Being such a sensitive soul, sometimes the way of the world, the way people can act with such hatred and thoughtlessness to each other, our beautiful planet and animals just breaks my heart'. 'Mostly my heart sings with joy but I, as so many of us, have suffered incredible losses and have had people do me wrong, and sometimes I feel pain so deeply I'm immobilised by it. 'Depression is something so misunderstood and has such stigma attached to it'. 'I am a sensitive soul': The blonde media personality seemed adamant to inform her followers that despite the glamorous life many believes she leads, there is still a darkness lurking behind closed doors Annalise explained she strives to take steps to help eliminate the negative stereotypes surrounding mental illness. 'I want to try and help take away that stigma,' she wrote. 'It's something so many of us suffer in silence. I'm giving a huge shout out to everyone who experiences the dark clouds. You're not alone. And it too shall pass.' Annalise has previously opened up about her battle with anorexia in her younger days, and how she has since approached body image with a positive outlook. She told The Daily Telegraph last year: 'When I was younger and modelling was my whole world, it was easy to be taken up with my own physicality especially when you are being judged by your looks. It was a job in itself not to let that run the story of who I really am'. 'I want to try and help take away that stigma': The 43-year-old explained she strives to take steps to help eliminate the negative stereotypes surrounding mental illness Speaking to The Daily Edition in September last year, the model who was discovered as a 16-year-old on Bondi Beach, confessed if she had any advice for her younger self, it would be more confidence in herself and not to get caught up on her looks. Annalise said her advice would be: 'To know that you're beautiful in your own way no matter what shape or size you are, 'That it's more important to look after yourself,' she said. The actress and designer, who has previously stripped down for magazine, also revealed she has no regrets about her racy past, but isn't keen on getting in front of the lens in that way again. For confidential help, call Lifeline at 13 11 14 or visit https://www.lifeline.org.au/ It appears both Richie girls had pretty sweet starts to the weekend. Nicole spent Friday checking out a honey farm, while younger sister Sofia spent the day chilling at the pool after a night of clubbing. Lionel Richie's eldest daughter posted several videos on social media of her visit with her kids to The Valley Hive, north of LA in Simi Valley. Scroll down for video What's the buzz? Nicole Richie spent Friday checking out a honey farm Unusually for a celeb Snapchat, the clips actually contained something interesting and not just someone staring at themselves. In the clips, the 34-year-old films as a delicious slab of honey is sliced from the comb, stirred and poured into a tiny jar ready to eat, as her children Sparrow and Harlow looked on. Then donning her protective beekeeping suit, the reality star heads up to the hives where thousands upon thousands of the insects are hard at work. She also posted a pic on Instagram, joking: 'Took my son to his first Beyonce concert.' Yumm: In the clips the 34-year-old films as a delicious slab of honey is sliced from the comb Fresh: It's then stirred and poured into a tiny jar ready to eat, as her children Sparrow and Harlow looked on Safety first: Then donning her protective beekeeping suit, the reality star heads up to the hives where thousands upon thousands of the insects are hard at work She also posted a video on Instagram, joking: 'Took my son to his first Beyonce concert.' With full confidence in her clothing, she even gets up close and personal with one colony without showing any fear of getting stung. Meanwhile her little sis was uploading snaps of her own as she danced Thursday night away at a club. She followed those up with more videos of her friends lounging by the pool. Shopping: Meanwhile her little sis Sofia was spotted out and about in LA on Friday Busy bee: The 17-year-old spent Friday uploading snaps of her own as she danced Thursday night away at a club Day off: She followed those up with more videos of her friends lounging by the pool Just looking: She stopped into Fred Segal on Friday but didn't appear to buy anything Perhaps in solidarity with the turmoil the Brexiting British are going through, a Union Jack followed the 17-year-old and her pals around through most of the snaps. Meanwhile Nicole and Sofia's dad Lionel was picking up the prestigious Silver Clef Award at a ceremony in London, which he attended with model girlfriend Lisa Parigi. The 67-year-old, who is currently on the UK leg of his world tour, was presented the award by Barry Gibb for his outstanding contribution to music. Mind the gap: Sofia, who is Lionel's biological daughter, is exactly half Nicole's age, who was adopted United we stand: Perhaps in solidarity with the turmoil the Brexiting British are going through, a Union Jack followed the 17-year-old and her pals around through most of the snaps She is one of 22 single ladies who will compete for Richie Strahan's heart on The Bachelor this year. And West Australian communications officer Natalie Nazzari, 28, has spoken about her experience meeting the hunky oil rig worker, revealing that he was just as nervous as she was. 'It was all a bit of a blur to be honest, because I was so nervous and it was a unique setting, but he was charismatic and genuine,' she told The West Australian this week. Scroll down for video 'I expected to be incredibly intimidated': The Bachelor contestant Natalie Nazzari, 28, has spoken about her experience meeting Richie Strahan on the show, revealing that he was just as nervous as she was 'I expected to be incredibly intimidated but I wasn't entirely. I think that's because he was down-to-earth and just as nervous as I was,' she revealed. 'It was all a bit of a blur to be honest, because I was so nervous and it was a unique setting, but he was charismatic and genuine,' she added. In an article published by The Herald Sun, Natalie also revealed that she had never had a boyfriend. Some things never change! It wouldn't be out of character for the 'cool bananas'- loving hunk, who stuttered his way through last year's season of The Bachelorette 'I'm almost 28 and have never had a boyfriend. I'm at the stage where I would love to share my life with someone,' she admitted. It wouldn't be out of character for the 'cool bananas'- loving hunk, who stuttered his way through last year's season of The Bachelorette. He is believed to have undergone media, acting and dialogue training to 'combat his nerves' for the upcoming series. Meet the ladies! The list of 22 women vying for the attention of Richie Strahan on the upcoming fourth season of The Bachelor Australia has been unveiled It seems that this season will boast some of the most colourful contestants yet; with the likes of a massage therapist, children's entertainer and a former athlete entering the fray. Ages of the women range from 23 to 34, with contestants flying in from across Australia to try their luck at impressing Richie. The final rose ceremony was filmed in Bali earlier this month, with Channel 10 implementing extreme measures to ensure spoilers were not leaked. Charlotte McKinney took advantage of her Guess girl status while grabbing Pressed Juicery in Los Angeles on Friday. The Wilhelmina Model - who turns 23 next month - looked lovely in the denim brand's $128 'Ella Apron' dress with chrome court shoes. The buttons on the clingy belted frock were practically popping off the Joe Dirt 2 starlet's impossibly large bust. Scroll down for video Thigh's the limit! Charlotte McKinney took advantage of her Guess girl status while grabbing Pressed Juicery in Los Angeles on Friday As usual, Charlotte sported full make-up, peachy lipstick, kohl-rimmed eyes, and wore her natural blonde locks in coiffed waves. The Florida-born beauty later shared a beachside snap of herself sipping on a bottle of Freixenet Cava, captioned: 'Weekend essentials for the 4th!' On Wednesday, photographer Tatiana Greusova shared a video of McKinney goofing around inside a suitcase while shooting the latest Guess Lingerie campaign. The Punching Bag video vixen - who's romancing 42-year-old actor Stephen Dorff - has been fronting the Marciano-made label for over a year now. Representing: The Wilhelmina Model - who turns 23 next month - looked lovely in the denim brand's $128 'Ella Apron' dress with chrome court shoes 'I'm a curvier, more bombshell kind of girl': The buttons on the clingy belted frock were practically popping off the Joe Dirt 2 starlet's impossibly large bust Carl's Jr. alum: As usual, Charlotte sported full make-up, peachy lipstick, kohl-rimmed eyes, and wore her natural blonde locks in coiffed waves The Florida-born beauty later shared a beachside snap of herself sipping on a bottle of Freixenet Cava, captioned: 'Weekend essentials for the 4th!' 'For me, [Guess] was huge just because it's been so iconic my whole life. You know, I'm a curvier, more bombshell kind of girl and Guess has just always had that beautiful curvy girl and when I was part of that it was huge to me,' Charlotte told Fox News Magazine in March. 'Usually with any brands and stuff they really want to tone down, you know, your curves and your chest. And with Guess, I could just really be myself and show my curves, and show my chest more, and feeling more comfortable. It was great! It really helped me shine more than hiding it, you know?' McKinney followed in the famous footsteps of Guess girls Anna Nicole Smith, Drew Barrymore, Claudia Schiffer, Eva Herzigova, Kate Upton, and Laetitia Casta. Carry-on luggage: On Wednesday, photographer Tatiana Greusova shared a video of McKinney goofing around inside a suitcase while shooting the latest Guess Lingerie campaign Exercising with @charlottemckinney for @guess styling by @veroniquedroulez A video posted by TATIANA GERUSOVA (@tatianagigi) on Jun 29, 2016 at 3:19pm PDT 'With Guess, I can really be myself and show my curves': The Punching Bag video vixen - who's romancing 42-year-old actor Stephen Dorff - has been fronting the Marciano-made label for over a year now 'It's been so iconic my whole life': Charlotte followed in the famous footsteps of Guess girls Anna Nicole Smith, Drew Barrymore, Claudia Schiffer, Eva Herzigova, Kate Upton, and Laetitia Casta The high school drop-out has been hard at work on the set of Ryan Eggold's feature directorial debut Literally Right Before Aaron with Lea Thompson, Justin Long, and Kristen Schaal. Next year, audiences can catch a bikini-clad Charlotte in Paramount Pictures' Baywatch remake alongside Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Pamela Anderson, and David Hasselhoff. But first, the former Dancing With the Stars contestant will play a patient in Kevin Pollak's feature directorial debut The Late Bloomer - hitting theaters this fall - alongside J.K. Simmons, Jane Lynch, and Maria Bello. 'Non stop laughing on set': The high school drop-out has been hard at work on Ryan Eggold's feature directorial debut Literally Right Before Aaron with Lea Thompson, Justin Long, and Kristen Schaal Solid as a Rock: Next year, audiences can catch a bikini-clad Charlotte in Paramount Pictures' Baywatch remake alongside Dwayne Johnson (M), Zac Efron, Pamela Anderson, and David Hasselhoff Roxy Jacenko's life was turned upside-down last week when her husband Oliver Curtis was sent to jail. But the Australian PR guru has been putting on a brave front, especially for the sake of her young children. Taking to Instagram on Saturday, the 36-year-old shared a photo of herself in Sydney's beachside suburb of Bondi, choosing to spend time with four-year-old daughter Pixie and one-year-old son Hunter, instead of visiting her husband in prison. Scroll down for video Looking on the bright side: On Saturday Australian PR guru Roxy Jacenko shared a photo of her and children Pixie and Hunter enjoying some time together in Bondi after her husband Oliver Curtis was sent to jail 'What a team !!! @huntercurtis14 @pixiecurtis (sic),' the blonde beauty captioned the outdoor snap. The image showed the trio sitting on a balcony, with Hunter's lunch box of sandwiches and a drink bottle in sight. Moments earlier, the mother-of-two shared a few more snaps. Delicious spread: Earlier on she shared a photo of some freshly cooked prawns being served at celebrity chef Matt Moran's restaurant called North Bondi Fish What a view: Another photo showed the picturesque waterfront scenery the family had the pleasure of enjoying One was of a plate of fresh prawns, served at celebrity cheff Matt Moran's North Bondi Fish restaurant, while another showed the picturesque waterfront scenery the family had the pleasure of enjoying. Earlier that morning, Roxy shared an image of herself posing inside an elevator wearing an outfit thought to be worth more than $5,000. She was clad in a Scanlan Theodore coat (worth $1,800), Goyard handbag (worth over $3,000), Ray Ban sunglasses (worth over $200) and The Daily Edited phone case (worth $49.45). The post comes after Roxy's husband Oliver was jailed for two years on Friday after a lengthy trial in Sydney where he was found guilty of conspiring to commit insider trading in 2007 and 2008. Roxy was by his side throughout court proceedings, arriving at court on her husband's arm dressed in a parade of designer outfits. Mother and son: Roxy also shared this snap of her one-year-old son Hunter holding a toy hair dryer Fashionista: Earlier that morning, Roxy shared an image of herself posing inside an elevator wearing an outfit thought to be worth more than $5,000 Before his sentence was handed down last week, she pleaded with the court not to jail him, giving an emotional character reference in which she described him as their children's 'primary carer'. 'Pixie and Hunter adore their dad. He's fun, tolerant, uncomplaining and loving. They screech with excitement as soon as they see him and no one else matters to them not even me. 'Because of my work hours, I would describe Oli as the primary carer of Pixie and Hunter. 'Oli is a kind, considerate and reliable man. I have no doubt that he will never be involved in anything like this again,' she said. On Friday, Roxy returned to work after her husband's sentence was handed down. Oliver handed her his wedding ring, watch and a wad of $50 notes before being led away from the dock. She has generously documented her growing baby bump with Instagram followers. And Candice Swanepoel expressed her gratitude at her pregnancy as she showed off her burgeoning belly on Friday. The 27-year-old Victoria's Secrets model shared a picture in profile, against a glowing sunset. Glowing: Candice Swanepoel expressed her gratitude at her pregnancy as she showed off her burgeoning belly on Friday She captioned: 'Abencoada por deus. #blessed ' - which means 'blessed by God.' The beauty is seen lifting her red shirt to give a better view of her bare tummy, and she's wearing simple black leggings. She looks serene as her blonde locks are loose and in beach waves. Pregnant: The star recently Candice posted another beautiful snapshot of her pregnant body while walking through a magical-looking forest It is just another of Candice's collection of artistic shots which she shares on social media. The star recently Candice posted another beautiful snapshot of her pregnant body while walking through a magical-looking forest. She also posted pictures from the beach, displaying her bump - which she captioned: 'Officially can't see my bikini bottoms'. Neat bump! She also posted pictures from the beach, which she captioned: 'Officially can't see my bikini bottoms' Arty pictures: She captioned this: 'Magical mornings' Sexy mamma: The star gave away the gender of her child - she captioned this: 'My Not so little boy'(sic) The South African beauty became public with her announcement in March of this year - which she has revealed will be a baby boy. This will be her first little angel whom she'll raise with 33-year-old fiance Hermann Nicoli. They seem to rarely spend time apart. And Friday was more of the same for Paris Jackson, who was quite literally attached at the hip with her beau Michael Snoddy. The 18-year-old posted a snap of herself nuzzled up to her boyfriend as they laid down, hand-in-hand. Scroll down for video Young love! Paris Jackson shared a snap of herself holding hands with her boyfriend Michael Snoddy on Instagram on Friday 'My batman pajamas are better than yours,' Paris captioned the image. Michael was shirtless as he wore faded trousers, while Paris donned a cosy pair of pajama pants with the comic book hero on them. Paris also shared a sweet video of them shopping together earlier this week. In the video, Paris played with a toy piano as her boyfriend encouraged her, 'This is how we shop! Turn it!' A video posted by Paris-Michael K. Jackson (@parisjackson) on Jun 28, 2016 at 10:15pm PDT Shop 'til you drop! Paris also shared a sweet video of them shopping together earlier this week Noteworthy! In the video, the teen played with a toy piano as her boyfriend encouraged her, 'This is how we shop! Turn it!' Riding in a cart pushed by Michael, Paris sang to the camera as Michael nuzzled up to her cheek. 'No! No tilting!' Paris instructed suddenly when Michael started playing around with the angle of the cart. Paris also took a cigarette break in Malibu on Friday, during which time she posed with a painting of a cat, pretending to pet it. A video posted by Paris-Michael K. Jackson (@parisjackson) on Jun 28, 2016 at 10:12pm PDT Sing it! Riding in a cart pushed by Michael, Paris sang to the camera as Michael nuzzled up to her cheek The teen also shared a bare faced selfie of herself that same day, giving it the caption, 'same.' The posts come after Paris remembered her father Michael Jackson on the seven year anniversary of his death last weekend. The teen shared a touching, black-and-white photo collage to her Instagram account on Saturday, which included two old images of herself with the pop star. Natural beauty: The teen also shared a bare faced selfie of herself on Friday, giving it the caption, 'same' The cat's meow: The 18-year-old also took a cigarette break in Malibu on Friday, during which time she posed with a painting of a cat, pretending to pet it In one, Michael cradled baby Paris in his arms, and in a second the youngster cuddled up in his embrace. In Paris' moving caption, she referred to her father as her 'best friend', and thanked him for 'touching millions of hearts', including her own. '7 years, rest in peace, my best friend in the entire universe,' she wrote. 'i love you more than anything. things may be a little sh*tty in the press right now but everyone knows it's all bull and i swear on the family name i will protect you for as long as i live. 'there's no one like you, and there never will be. thank you for touching millions of hearts, but especially my own.' The King Of Pop tragically passed away at the age of 50 on June 25, 2009 of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication, and his personal doctor was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served two years in prison. He hasn't had much to smile about recently. But Johnny Depp managed a grin nonetheless as he arrived in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to play a gig on Friday night. The 53-year-old looked cheery as he and bandmate Joe Perry made their way into the Sands Casino where the Hollywood Vampires were set to perform. Scroll down for video There's a smile! Johnny Depp managed a grin as he arrived Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to play a gig on Friday night The troubled actor wore a typically Johnny Depp outfit of dark jeans and boots coupled with a black waistcoat and button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the biceps. He was laden with the usual plethora of accessories, including rings, earrings, bracelets, neckchains, wallet chains, scarves and random strips of material. The Pirates Of The Caribbean star is currently in the middle of a messy divorce from his wife of 15 months Amber Heard, who has accused him of domestic violence. Moving on: The 53-year-old looked cheery as he and bandmate Joe Perry made their way into the Sands Casino where the Hollywood Vampires were set to perform The couple did not have a prenuptial agreement which entitles her to half the money he made over the course of their relationship, which looks to be somewhere between $20 and $30million. Heard, 30, had also asked a judge for spousal support and her legal fees to be covered during the divorce, but that was rejected by the court. Luckily for Johnny - who is worth an estimated $400million - he made a good chunk of that possible payoff this week by selling two of his prized Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings for $11.5 million this week. Unmistakable: The troubled actor wore a typically Johnny Depp outfit of dark jeans and boots coupled with a black waistcoat and button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the biceps Turmoil: The Pirates Of The Caribbean star is currently in the middle of a messy divorce from his wife of 15 months Amber Heard, who has accused him of domestic violence A 1981 three-paneled piece titled Self Portrait was expected to land $1.9 million. It was snapped up by New York gallery owner Bill Acquavella for $4.7 million. The second, another 1981 piece painted on the back of a door titled Pork, had an estimated price tag of $3-5 million. It sold to an anonymous phone bidder for $6.8 million. Depp spent 25 years collecting eight of the Brooklyn artist's groundbreaking pieces, and now intends selling the other six. Nicole Kidman is continuing to enjoy some quality time with her daughters Faith Margaret and Sunday Rose in Sydney. Out and about on Saturday, the 49-year-old wife of Keith Urban was spotted with her little girls, as well as sister Antonia and her children at a public school. It happened to be election day, and Nicole opted for a casual chic ensemble. Scroll down for video Spotted: Nicole Kidman is continuing to enjoy some quality time with her daughters Faith Margaret and Sunday Rose in Sydney, the actress spotted with her girls in a public school on Saturday The Hollywood actress sported a sleek black sweater on the day, layered with a charcoal coloured coat. Her golden locks were pulled back in a relaxed ponytail, while she sported relatively little makeup on the day. With a pair of dark sunglasses covering her eyes, Nicole appeared to be in high spirits as she waded through the local crowds. Sister act: Nicole's sister Antonia and her children were also present for the outing Blonde beauty: Nicole wore her golden locks in a loose ponytail on the day Her daughter Sunday Rose, seven, was seen wearing a warm black jacket and a cute white floral clip in her hair. Meanwhile younger daughter Faith Margaret, five, wore a lighter ensemble and a blue hair accessory. A day earlier Nicole was spotted enjoying the Sydney Winter Festival with her lookalike daughters. And the night before, it was a true family affair when Nicole and husband Keith stepped out with their little girls to celebrate the couple's 10th wedding anniversary. Sweet treats: Antonia and Nicole's daughters enjoyed some delicious items from the election day cake stall Earlier this week Nicole revealed their love is stronger than ever, telling Who magazine: 'It's so beautiful to be celebrating our 10-year anniversary in Sydney, where we got married. We just remember the love and warmth from so many people on that day'. 'Ten years on, we're having more fun than ever with each other, and with our kids. What a blessing', the Eyes Wide Shut actress told the publication. Keith jetted into Sydney from the US to usher in the occasion with Nicole last week, immediately after he completed a gig in Boston. Accessoriser: A pair of dark sunglasses covered the Hollywood star's eyes Keeping warm: She sported a dark coat to shield herself from the chilly Sydney weather He spoke about his fiery-haired wife at the Boston show, telling the audience: 'We booked the tour at the beginning of the year and June 25th was going to happen in Boston. So I said to Nic, 'I can't work on our anniversary so maybe we'll play Boston another time'. 'And she said, "what if I come up to Boston? You'll play that night, it will be fun and the next day we'll just hang out in Boston and have a great time." That was the plan,' he explained. He went on to add that Nicole's shooting schedule in Sydney for Top Of The Lake changed to June so it meant she couldn't be in Boston. Cool and casual: Antonia (L) wore a black coat and baby blue coloured scarf Very cute: Sunday Rose wore a dark jacket and a white floral hair accessory in her hair 'So after the gig tonight I am flying to Australia to celebrate our anniversary,' he announced. The pair certainly made their mutual affection known during their loved-up Sydney celebrations, with Keith taking to Instagram on Saturday to share the couple's first ever photo together, which was taken at the G'Day LA Hollywood event in 2005. 'Our very first photo together 2005, minutes after being introduced to each other. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BABY. LOOOVE YOU!!!' wrote the country music hit-maker in the caption. The happy couple tied the knot in June 2006 during a lavish Sydney wedding and share two children, seven-year-old Sunday Rose and five-year-old Faith. Nicole and her ex-husband Tom Cruise also share daughter Isabella, 23, and son Connor, 21. They're two of ITV's biggest stars, co-hosting the likes of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and Britain's Got Talent. So it was no surprise to see Ant McPartlin, 40, and Declan Donnelly, 40, on the guestlist for Clare Fincham's birthday party, on Friday. The popular Geordie duo were joined by their wives Lisa, 39, and Ali for the star-studded bash at the London home of ITV producer Peter Fincham's wife. Scroll down for video Let's celebrate! Ant McPartlin, 40, and Declan Donnelly, 40, attended Clare Fincham's birthday party, on Friday, with their wives Lisa and Ali The quartet were all smiles as they posed for a picture on the pavement before heading into the party. Ant looked dapper in a grey blazer which he wore over a white shirt and teamed with black trousers and navy shoes. Lisa looked great in a knee-length black dress with a pair of chunky matching heels. On her left, a grinning Dec cut a smart figure in a navy blazer worn over a navy tee which worked well with his jeans and black shoes. Meanwhile, Ali looked sophisticated in a black bandeau top and loose-fitting trousers teamed with a striking pair of ruby red heels. Happy! The quartet were all smiles as they posed for a picture on the pavement before heading into the party The group arrived together in a blacked out people carrier and bore gifts for the birthday girl. Also in attendance on the day were Pier Morgan, Jeremy Clarkson, Amanda Holden and Gary Barlow to name but a few. Dec recently revealed that his relationship with wife Ali, who he has known for ten years as she acts as his manager, is better than ever after they tied the knot last summer. Speaking to the Daily Mail, the presenter said: 'I'm not sure it's still in the honeymoon period, but I love it. Dressed to impress: Ant looked dapper in a grey blazer which he wore over a white shirt and teamed with black trousers and navy shoes Making an entrance: The group arrived together in a blacked out people carrier and bore gifts for the birthday girl 'Before we got married Ant said to me, "Married life isn't that different; it's just better", and that's exactly it. It's that security, I guess. 'When you have your soulmate by your side, you just feel so much more... complete. There's nothing better.' Dec married Ali in his home town of Newcastle on August 1, in front of their nearest and dearest - which included several famous faces - at St Michael's Roman Catholic Church, with Ant serving as best man. Ant and Lisa have been married for ten years. The pair met when they were both performing at a concert in Newcastle in 1994, where Ant was there as part of the group PJ & Duncan AKA, whilst Armstrong was in the pop band Deuce. They spend their lives skipping queues and avoiding life's other mundane tasks. But on Election Day celebrities fronted polling booths around Australia to do their civic duty, helping themselves to sausages and cupcakes or even helping hand out how to vote cards. Nicole Kidman was photographed out with daughters Faith Margaret, seven, and Sunday Rose, five, at their school's fair, which also hosted a busy polling place. Scroll down for video Nice day out: Nicole Kidman was photographed out with daughters Faith Margaret, seven, and Sunday Rose, five, at their school's fair, which also hosted a busy polling place The Hollywood star opted for a casual chic ensemble as she made her way past the cake stalls, sausage sizzle stands and raffle sellers. It was not clear if Nicole voted on the spot, chose a quieter booth earlier in the day, or avoided it altogether by postal voting as she rubbed shoulders with those waiting in line. Channel Nine presenter, Rebecca Judd, took her daughter Billie to her local polling booth in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton and even bought her a cupcake. Best dressed voter: The Hollywood star opted for a casual chic ensemble as she made her way past the cake stalls, sausage sizzle stands and raffle sellers The former model posted a snap of the two-year-old happily holding her colourful treat that used marshmallows to make it look like a bunny's face with ears and a nose. 'Polling booth treats to be had in Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighton darl,' she wrote next to the shot shared with her 499,000 Instagram followers. Actor Sam Neill was snapped in Double Bay helping out Labor candidate for Wentworth, Evan Hughes, by handing out 'how to vote' cards. Polling booth treats: Rebecca Judd posted a snap of her two-year-old daughter Billie happily holding her colourful treat that used marshmallows to make it look like a bunny's face with ears and a nose The 68-year-old was photographed by passers-by posing with other volunteers with a stack of pamphlets in his hands. The Kiwi-born star gave a big smile behind his greying beard and in another photo engaged in some playful banter with a Malcolm Turnbull supporter. Weekend Today Host, Deborah Knight, got up earlier that even the most keen 8am voter, sharing a post of herself and colleagues Jayne Azzopardi and Natalaia Cooper in the studio. Helping out: Actor Sam Neill was snapped in Double Bay helping out Labor candidate for Wentworth Evan Hughes by handing out how to vote cards Showing his colours: The Kiwi-born star gave a big smile behind his greying beard and in another photo engaged in some playful banter with a Malcolm Turnbull supporter 'Happy Election Day to you! @jayneazzo @sjweather and I on a coffee high. Bring on the Election Day snags,' she wrote next to the picture. Weathergirl Natalia soon got in on the act herself, filmed enthusiastically chomping into a sausage in a bun on the morning show as the polls opened. The 31-year-old was later snapped holding what appeared to be a blue and pink sherbet in an ice-cream cone with a stick in protruding from it attached to a sticker of a unicorn. Early start: Weekend Today Host Deborah Knight got up earlier that even the most keen 8am voter, sharing a post of herself and colleagues Jayne Azzopardi and Natalaia Cooper in the studio Favourite part of Election Day! Weathergirl Natalia soon got in on the act herself, filmed enthusiastically chomping into a sausage in a bun on the morning show as the polls opened #unicornpoop: The 31-year-old was later snapped holding what appeared to be a blue and pink sherbet in an ice-cream cone with a stick in protruding from it attached to a sticker of a unicorn 'Apparently this will be the hottest item at Election Day cake stalls. #unicornpoop,' she wrote on her Twitter. Comedian Chas Licciardello of Chaser fame was accosted by a volunteer for micro party Drug Law Reform Australia, likely between filming for The Chaser's Election Desk. Sporting a sheepish look with a backpack full of gear on his back, the ABC funnyman was photographed outside a busy polling place in the trendy Sydney suburb of Newtown. TV gold: Comedian Chas Licciardello of Chaser fame was accosted by a volunteer for micro party Drug Law Reform Australia, likely between filming for The Chaser's Election Desk 'Handing out how-to-vote cards late this federal Election Day in #Newtown and we got the support of the ever-wonderful Chas from the #Chaser on @abctv,' the party wrote. 'We even let him shred one of our cards for some television gold!' Nova 96.9 host Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli got in on the great Australian tradition of the Election Day sausage sizzle, photographed with a mouthful of meat. 'Someone loves #ausvotes': Nova 96.9 host Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli got in on the great Australian tradition of the Election Day sausage sizzle, photographed with a mouthful of meat The radio presenter had just taken the first bite of his sausage in a roll with onion and tomato sauce and did not look like he was ready to have his picture taken. 'Someone love #ausvotes!' the radio station wrote next to the image uploaded to the station's official Instagram. TV presenter Phoebe Burgess took her new pet dog Floyd with her to cast her vote in the NSW town of Bowral. The wife of rugby league player Sam Burgess dressed down in track pants and a grey jumper with 'Homeboy' written on the back and the adorable black cavoodle peeking over her shoulder. 'Placed my vote in B-town with my HOMEBOY,' she wrote on Instagram. 'Placed my vote in B-town': TV presenter Phoebe Burgess took her new pet dog Floyd with her to cast her vote in the NSW town of Bowral Radio host Mel Grieg was less than impressed with having to get up and do her civic duty as she was feeling a bit worse for wear after a big Friday night. Wearing heavy makeup and sporting a plaid shirt, she stared wide-eyed at the camera without smiling in the pic uploaded to Instagram. 'When you're hungover and people make you do stuff. well if I'm going to vote I'm doing it in my bogan shirt and there better be a god damn sausage there,' she wrote. A couple more media personalities weren't photographed but did make comments on their Twitter accounts. 'There better be a god damn sausage': Radio host Mel Grieg was less than impressed with having to get up and do her civic duty as she was feeling a bit worse for wear after a big Friday night The ever-pithy SBS newsreader Lee Lin Chin made a joke about the time-honoured practice of informal voting by writing an extra name with a box as your number one preference. 'If you're disenfranchised with tomorrows options just draw in an extra box titled #PrimeChinister, I'm sure it's legally binding,' she wrote. Meanwhile former The Project presenter Charlie Pickering faced to all-too-common disappointment of the sausage sizzle stall being out of stock at his poll. 'About to vote. But the sausage sizzle has already shut down. I mean, what's the point? Democracy is dead,' he wrote. PrimeChinister: The ever-pithy SBS newsreader Lee Lin Chin made a joke about the time-honoured practice of informal voting by writing an extra name with a box as your number one preference It's been just over one week since her husband, Oliver Curtis, was convicted of conspiracy to commit insider trading and sentenced to two years in jail. And on Saturday, PR maven, Roxy Jacenko, was spotted looking slightly dishevelled as she soaked up some afternoon sun in Sydney's Bondi. The 36-year-old was seen cutting a casual figure as she frolicked around on a balcony in the iconic beachside suburb. Scroll down for video Feeling relaxed? Roxy wasn't looking her usual polished self as she soaked up some sun on a balcony in Sydney's Bondi on Saturday, just over one week after her husband Oliver Curtis was sent to prison The fashionable mother-of-two, who consistently dressed to the nines for each day of her husband's trial, sported black leather pants which hugged trim pins. She completed her laid-back look with a simple yet stylish white Louis Vuitton T-shirt. While her usually neatly styled mane appeared shiny and full, her blonde locks looked frizzy and slightly unkempt as she moved about on the sun-drenched balcony. Laid back: The 36-year-old cut a casual figure in a pair of tight black pants and a simple white T-shirt Frolicking around: The hard-working mother-of-two seemed to be in her own world on the balcony as she cleaned up after her children The PR queen donned her favourite pair of Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses and she accessorised with a chunky gold watch on her wrist. Roxy shared various snaps from her relaxing Saturday spent with her children - four-year-old Pixie Curtis and one-year-old Hunter Curtis - on the balcony overlooking sunny Bondi Beach. 'What a team !!! @huntercurtis14 @pixiecurtis (sic),' the blonde beauty captioned one outdoor snap. Slightly dishevelled: The blonde beauty appeared less put-together compared to a snap she shared earlier in the day on the same balcony The image showed the trio sitting on the balcony with picturesque ocean views in the background and Hunter's lunch box of sandwiches on the table. She was enjoying spending some quality time with her children, instead of visiting Oliver in prison. The family are adjusting to life without their beloved husband and father as he gets used to life behind bars. Roxy's 30-year-old husband of four years was jailed for two years after a lengthy trial as he was found guilty of conspiring to commit insider trading in 2007 and 2008. Quality time: The doting mother shared this photo of herself with her two children Pixie and Hunter Curtis, as they tried to enjoy their second weekend without husband and father Oliver Oliver has been moved to Parklea Correctional Centre, after spending a week in police cells. The investment banker was moved to Parklea on Friday between mid-morning and afternoon, Daily Mail Australia can reveal. A source says it's likely he is currently in the maximum security centre of the jail, home to some members of Sydney bikie gang Brothers 4 Life and recently convicted murderer Glen McNamara. She was by his side throughout court proceedings, arriving at court on her husband's arm dressed in a parade of designer outfits. Dark days: Oliver Curtis was jailed for two years after a lengthy trial where he was found guilty of conspiring to commit insider trading in 2007 and 2008 Before his sentence was handed down, she pleaded with the court not to jail him, giving an emotional character reference in which she described him as their children's 'primary carer'. 'Pixie and Hunter adore their dad. He's fun, tolerant, uncomplaining and loving. They screech with excitement as soon as they see him and no one else matters to them not even me. 'Because of my work hours, I would describe Oli as the primary carer of Pixie and Hunter. 'Oli is a kind, considerate and reliable man. I have no doubt that he will never be involved in anything like this again,' she said. Missing someone? Roxy is clearly feeling nostalgic, sharing a collection of images of Oliver with their children to Instagram on Friday Roxy returned to work days after her husband's sentence was handed down and has been active again on social media since. On Friday, she uploaded a series of touching photos to Instagram of her husband and their children. She captioned the collection of photos: 'We you'. In a collage of several images, Oliver is shown enjoying precious 'daddy time' with Hunter and Pixie. Happy days: One holiday snap shared by Roxy features the married couple wearing matching sunglasses as they enjoy a sunny trip He cradles both his adorable children in his arms in one photo, and is shown riding in a vehicle with smiling Hunter in another. A third holiday snap features Oliver and his wife Roxy wearing matching sunglasses as they enjoy a sunny trip. And just an hour before, the Sydney socialite shared a flashback photo of her and Oliver's wedding day on Instagram. She posted an image of a bouquet of flowers beside a framed photo of herself, Oliver and baby Pixie taken at their nuptials four years ago. Flashback: Oliver can be seen cradling his youngest child Hunter in a happy holiday photo American presidential candidates are turning their backs on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and pushing to rewrite the deal. Japan has become the first country member to make a firm stand against renegotiating the trade pact. Australia and other pact participants are roughly on the same page with Japan. Japan insists it will not renegotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership, even as U.S. presidential candidates have threatened to block the deal, the Asian Nikkei Review reported. When Western investors visiting Japan's office for TPP affairs in late June asked about renegotiating the deal, Tokyo's answer was crystal clear. "A renegotiation would shatter the glass-like agreement between the 12 countries," the Nikkei quoted a Japanese official as saying. "The U.S. stands to lose the most. It's impossible." "The prime minister [Shinzo Abe] is already prepared for the TPP to not take effect if the U.S. insists on renegotiating the deal," an official said. The Japanese TPP office has informed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of every comment by U.S. presidential candidates related to the agreement. Photo by The Nikkei Asian Review. Some U.S. Congressmen, who are taking a harsher tone on the TPP, have been inspired by successful experience in blocking a trade pact. The U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement was signed in 2007 but did not enter into force until March 2012 due to congressional opposition. South Korea was forced to revisit the terms and accept a major delay on eliminating tariffs for car exports to the U.S. For the pact to take effect as soon as possible, other countries need to ratify the TPP prior to the U.S. Congress reconvening after the November presidential election. But New Zealand and Australia are among the few countries to make progress. New Zealand's parliament narrowly voted 62-59 for the pact in May, with two more rounds of voting before ratification there is complete. But the country had to make concessions over its mainstay dairy products under the TPP. New Zealand piggybacking on the push for renegotiation is not completely out of the question, according to a source familiar with the matter. Australia's parliament halted all proceedings ahead of the general election Saturday. Mexico and Peru have made no notable moves. Malaysia already ratified the TPP, and monarchical Brunei requires no parliamentary approval to enact the deal. But other members face major obstacles in turning the regional trade bloc into a reality. Vietnam has confirmed that the newly-elected lawmakers intend to ratify the trade deal at their first plenary session from July 20 to August 9. Related news: > Vietnam to ratify TPP trade deal by August 9 > Vietnam to shake up supporting industries to seize TPP opportunities > Vietnam's textiles: Low productivity could eat up TPP benefits > Vietnam the biggest beneficiary if Obama can pass TPP She recently signed a deal to star as the Fairy Godmother in this year's panto at the Palladium. And Amanda Holden still appeared to be on cloud nine after the news broke, as she attended a party with TV stars in London on Saturday. Ignoring the unseasonably chilly July weather, the 45-year-old presenter went braless in a white minidress, which was perfect for the summer bash. Scroll down for video Elegant: Amanda Holden appeared to be on cloud nine after the news broke she would star in the Palladium's Cinderella, as she attended a party with TV stars in London on Saturday She arrived at the event, thrown by ITV's director of television Peter Fincham, with popular host Piers Morgan, who wore a dark suit and open necked white shirt. Amanda completed her outfit with a pair of metallic gold strappy stilettos and a matching rigid clutch, to add a touch of glamour. Her blonde highlighted tresses were worn in a relaxed tousled style, framing her glowing complexion. The Britain's Got Talent judge was in high spirits and beamed at photographers as she made her way to the house. Glamorous: The 45-year-old presenter was pretty as a picture in an elegant white dress - perfect for the summer bash Friends: She arrived at the event, thrown by ITV's director of television Peter Fincham, with popular host Piers Morgan, who wore a dark suit and open necked white shirt All smiles: Her blonde highlighted tresses were worn in a relaxed tousled style, framing her glowing complexion Other stars at the gathering included Ant and Dec, Jeremy Clarkson, Courteney Cox, Garry Barlow and Kirsty Alsop. Amanda's demure white dress was a contrast to the figure flaunting creations she has been wearing on BGT. Following her decision to don racy frocks for the show's semi-final on May 23 - along with co-host Alesha Dixon - a number of viewers complained. Refined: Amanda completed her outfit with a pair of metallic gold strappy stilettos and a matching rigid clutch, to add a touch of glamour Having fun: The Britain's Got Talent judge was in high spirits and beamed at photographers as she made her way to the house Get back: Piers jokes with the cameraman as he attempts to block him from taking a photograph Looking good: The pair were all smiles as they posed for pictures in front of Peter Fincham's London home Suave in suede: Jeremy Clarkson sported a lavish dark green suede blazer for the occasion Sharp! Angus Deayton put on a very smart display in a beige pinstripe suit with a brown leather satchel Pedal power: Alan Yentob rocked a pair of baggy pants as he pushed his bicycle Comic genius: Harry Enfield chose to arrive alone instead of with his chums Livewire: Michael McIntyre was his usual chirpy self as he arrived with a grin on his face Bold! Jason Donovan couldn't be missed in his pristine white jeans and pink t-shirt Loved-up: Gary Barlow arrived hand in hand with his wife Dawn, wearing a jazzy shirt Wild side: Claudia Winkleman showed off her wild side in a pair of leopard print jeans Flower power: Andrew Lloyd Webber wore a funky floral shirt to the party All-black: Mariella Frostrup sported a knee-length black dress and a leather jacket Partytime: Tom Hollander wore a military style coat with a loose-fitting pair of grey trousers A white good look: Griff Rhys Jones donned an immaculate white blazer which matched his finely groomed goatee But media watchdog Ofcom has decided to not pursue an investigation over viewer complaints after assessing the matter. Speaking to MailOnline a spokesperson from the watchdog said: 'We assessed a number of complaints about the suitability of clothing worn by two female judges before the watershed, but wont be taking the matter forward for investigation. 'The dresses worn by the judges did not raise issues under our rules on nudity, and the judges were not portrayed in a sexualised way.' Out and about: On Friday evening ITV presenter Holly Willoughby attended a birthday party in London which ITV producer Peter Finchman was throwing for his wife Clare Prepared: Ready to enjoy outdoor drinks as the sun set, she also carried a black blazer, which she could throw over her delicate shoulders to banish the wind Black beauty: Staying true to her chosen colour scheme, she was literally on point in a pair of pointy black heels, which helped elongate her 5ft 8in frame Dressed to impress: Holly slipped into a black and white Bardot top and spray-on black trousers Let's celebrate! Ant McPartlin, 40, and Declan Donnelly, 40, attended Clare Fincham's birthday party, on Friday, with their wives Lisa and Ali Coordinated: Dec cut a smart figure in a navy blazer worn over a navy tee which worked well with his jeans and black shoes Making an entrance: The group arrived together in a blacked out people carrier and bore gifts for the birthday girl Dressed to impress: Ant looked dapper in a grey blazer which he wore over a white shirt and teamed with black trousers and navy shoes He recently auctioned off some of his art collection to help fund his bitter and expensive divorce from Amber Heard, his wife of 15 months. And now actor Johnny Depp appears to have turned to self-expression to help him cope with the unpleasantness of it all, reportedly altering a tattoo on his right hand to read 'Scum'. According to TMZ, the 53-year-old actor inked his knuckles with the word SLIM - Amber's nickname - shortly after they married last year, but, as a series of photos show, he has now tweaked the inking to spell SCUM. Scroll down for video Tat-too far: On Saturday TMZ reported that actor Johnny Depp has altered the tattoos on his right knuckles, changing them from SLIM - Amber Heard's nickname - to SCUM MailOnline has reached out to Johnny's spokespeople for comment and await a response. The Pirates Of The Caribbean actor was recording a video message for 95.5 KLOS with a microphone in his right hand when eagle-eyed fans spotted a change in his knuckle dedication. Johnny has plenty of experience using body art to cope with relationship woes. During his four-year partnership with actress Winona Ryder in the early 90s, Johnny tattooed the phrase Winona Forever on his upper right arm. Following their highly publicised split he altered it to read 'Wino Forever.' Eagle-eyed: Fans of the star spotted that the 'L' in his tattoo tribute appeared more curved like a 'C' when he filmed and interview on the radio KLOS From SLIM to SCUM? The new images (left) appear to show his dedication was altered from when it was pictured in May (right, at the Alice Through the Looking Glass premiere) There's a smile! Johnny managed a grin as he arrived Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to play a gig on Friday night Despite his ongoing drama, he managed a grin as he arrived in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to play a gig on Friday night, along with fellow Hollywood Vampires bandmate Joe Perry. Johnny wore dark jeans and boots coupled with a black waistcoat and button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the biceps. He was laden with the usual plethora of accessories, including rings, earrings, bracelets, neckchains, wallet chains, scarves and random strips of material. Johnny and Amber did not have a prenuptial agreement which entitles her to half the money he made over the course of their relationship, which looks to be somewhere between $20 and $30million. Heard, 30, had also asked a judge for spousal support and her legal fees to be covered during the divorce, but that was rejected by the court. Unmistakable: The troubled actor wore dark jeans and boots coupled with a black waistcoat and button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the biceps Turmoil: The Pirates Of The Caribbean star is currently in the middle of a messy divorce from his wife of 15 months Amber Heard (here in January 2015) who has accused him of domestic violence Luckily for Johnny - who is worth an estimated $400million - he made a good chunk of that possible payoff this week by selling two of his prized Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings for $11.5 million. A 1981 three-paneled piece titled Self Portrait was expected to land $1.9 million. It was snapped up by New York gallery owner Bill Acquavella for $4.7 million. The second, another 1981 piece painted on the back of a door titled Pork, had an estimated price tag of $3-5 million. It sold to an anonymous phone bidder for $6.8 million. Depp spent 25 years collecting eight of the Brooklyn artist's groundbreaking pieces, and now intends selling the other six. 'Rock 'n' roll': The Hollywood Vampires Instagram page shared this photo of Johnny on Saturday She recently enjoyed a picturesque family getaway in New Zealand with husband Lee and their five-year-old daughter Kitty. And on Saturday, Jackie 'O' Henderson and her brood embarked on the next step of their vacation as they touched down on Laucala Island in Fiji. Sharing a family photo to Instagram, the 41-year-old wrote: 'We've landed (in paradise).' Beautiful family: Jackie 'O' Henderson shared yet another adorable selfie to social media as she arrived in Fiji with husband Lee and daughter Kitty The beaming beauty had a smile on her face as she clutched young Kitty in her arms. Her handsome husband stood close to the pair, striking a confident pose like a male model. A plane could be seen behind the trio, indicating that radio DJ Jackie may have possibly purchased a private plane to take her to the island. Downtime: Jackie 'O' Henderson jetted off to New Zealand over the weekend for some quality family time with her husband Lee and five-year-old daughter Kitty Last week the fun-loving family arrived in New Zealand to spend some quality time together. Taking to social media on Tuesday, Jackie shared an adorable family snap as they huddled closely together against the cold. Jackie hid her blonde hair underneath a grey knitted beanie while her lookalike daughter also opted for one. The family-of-three all displayed different facial expressions for the self-taken shot, with Kitty looking less than impressed by her mother's efforts. Lee sat tall between his two girls while wrapping his arms around his daughter's waist. Eye spy: On Tuesday the 41-year-old shared a shot of herself and Kitty to social media which displayed only a small portion of their foreheads and their identical blue eyes Jackie captioned the adorable image 'Kitty hasn't quite perfected her camera ready face haha. #cutie.' Hours earlier the media personality shared a shot of herself and Kitty which displayed only a small portion of their foreheads and their identical blue eyes. She followed on by sharing a photo of the pair cuddling up to one another while still rocking their beanies and scarfs. In the mother-daughter picture, they rested their heads closely together and edited the wording 'love' across the bottom. Mini-Jackie: The breakfast radio host followed on by sharing a photo of the mother-daughter duo cuddling up to one another while rocking their beanies and scarfs She's known for her polished fashion sense. And Alicia Vikander proved she knew how to dress well as she lunched with friends in Sydney on Saturday. The 27-year-old actress worked a contrasting smart casual ensemble as she left the Three Blue Ducks restaurant in the Bronte neighbourhood. Scroll down for video Chic: Alicia Vikander proved she knew how to dress well as she lunched with friends in Sydney on Saturday She teamed a smart cream coat over a dark top with gym leggings and a pair of fashionable grey trainers. Completing her look was a black leather bag worn casually over her shoulder and oversized brown sunglasses to keep out the glare. Her long brunette hair was pulled back in a relaxed ponytail - highlighting her glowing complexion. The actress appeared in high spirits as she made her way down the street and blended in with members of the public. Out with friends! The 27-year-old actress worked a contrasting smart casual ensemble as she left the Three Blue Ducks restaurant in the Bronte neighbourhood One notable absence from the party was the actress' boyfriend, Irish actor Michael Fassbender, who was last seen with Alicia early last month after a bowling session in Australia's biggest city. The couple took their romance public when they shared a kiss at the Oscars this spring and have been frequently seen out and about together over the past few months. Michael is currently working on Alien, a sequel to 2012's Prometheus, which will eventually become a trilogy, with Michael reprising his Prometheus role as the android David 8. While it was announced in April that Alicia is set to strap on her gun holsters and lave-up her hiking boots for the new Tomb Raider movie. Currently in pre-production, the movie - directed by Roar Uthaug - will be a re-boot for the franchise which previously starred Angelina Jolie in the lead role. Although little is know about the plot, it is thought the film will stick closely to Square-Enix's video game re-start, which tells the origin story of a young Lara Croft. He's been praised for his on-screen romances on the hit medical drama Grey's Anatomy. Unfortunately it didn't seem to mirror Kevin McKidd's real life as according to TMZ reports his wife Jane has filed for divorce just weeks before their 17th anniversary. The 42-year-old actors long-term partner is said to be asking for 'joint custody of their teenage kids, and she wants spousal support.' Scroll down for video Failure to revive: According to TMZ reports, Kevin McKidd's wife Jane has filed for divorce just weeks before their 17th anniversary The couple wed in 1999 and went on to have two children Joseph,16, and Iona, 14. As of last year, they are all American citizens. Across the years, Kevin also seemed to balance his acting career alongside his family duties and bagged roles in films such as Hannibal Rising and The Last Legion. The Scotsman's efforts were rewarded and he joined the cast of ABC's mega-hit television series Grey's Anatomy in 2008 as a recurring role but was quickly promoted to series regular. His time on the show has seen him enjoy a passionate romance with Dr.Christina Yang (Sandra Oh) as the new head of trauma surgery and eventually, chief of surgery. All over: Despite being praised for his on-screen romances on the hit medical drama Grey's Anatomy, McKidd is reportedly unable to save his real life marriage Parting ways: Jane, who wed Kevin in 1999, is said to be asking for 'joint custody of their teenage kids, and she wants spousal support' Oh quit the series in 2014 after critics praised their romantic pairing as 'electrifying' and left Kevin wondering if he'd be out of a job as well. However, the show's creator Shonda Rhimes believed in the strength of his character and kept him immersed in the series. His character went on to find love with Derek Shepherd's (McDreamy) younger sister Amelia and the end of season 12 saw them tie the knot. Speaking about the new on-screen union, McKidd revealed to Melty: 'Owen went through a lot with Christina. She didn't want to give him a baby, they had a lot of struggles, and then she left essentially. So I think he deserves to be happy, don't you?' On-screen sizzler: His time on the show has seen him enjoy a passionate romance with Dr.Christina Yang (Sandra Oh) which critics called 'electrifying' Moving on: His character went on to find love with Derek Shepherd's (McDreamy) younger sister Amelia and the end of season 12 saw them tie the knot. McKidd, who has also directed a few episodes of Grey's Anatomy, also gushed about Shonda's writing instincts, stating: 'She seems to have her finger on the pulse of what fans really want to see. It's like a sixth sense or inner voice where she trusts her own instincts and does things sometimes where you think, 'Amelia and Owen getting married it seems rushed,' and all these things that happen, but usually her instincts are always dead on and they make for great television.' He also appeared in the acclaimed 1996 flick Trainspotting which is now being resurrected for release next year. His character died in the initial film, thus ruling him out of the sequel's cast. She's a fashionista whose designs are championed in the celebrity world. And Victoria Beckham, 42, showed she's not afraid to be bold when it comes to her own wardrobe as she stepped out in Notting Hill, London, on Thursday wearing a cute navy boilersuit. The Spice Girl made the adapted garment, which is more commonly associated with workmen, look stylish, and there's no doubt it will have separated her from the crowd. Scroll down for video Eye for fashion: Victoria Beckham, 42, showed he's not afraid to be bold when it comes to her own wardrobe as she stepped out in Notting Hill, London, on Thursday wearing a cute navy boilersuit She accessorised with a pristine white handbag and a pair of her trademark oversized shades as she left the popular Argentinian eatery Casa Cruz. The mother-of-four held her phone in its personalised VB case in her hand as she climbed into the back of a waiting vehicle. She was accompanied to the car by a male aide and fortunately only had a few steps to take out in the rain. Quirky: The Spice Girl made the adapted garment, which is more commonly associated with workmen, look stylish and there's no doubt it will have separated her from the crowd Time to go: She accessorised with a pristine white handbag and a pair of her trademark oversized shades as she left the popular Argentinian eatery Casa Cruz A helping hand: She was accompanied to the car by a male aide and fortunately only had a few steps to take out in the rain Style queen: Victoria wore the suit zipped down to reveal a glimpse of chest The designer is usually spotted out and about with her family, but it looked like Thursday evening was a chance for her to enjoy some me time. Just days before the outing, Victoria enjoyed the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the Victoria Miro Gallery in North London. She was enthralled by the Japanese artist's pumpkin sculptures and the immersive mirror rooms and couldn't wait to share her experience with her Instagram following. Sitting comfortably? The mother-of-four held her phone in its personalised VB case in her hand and she climbed into the back of a waiting vehicle Tight squeeze: Victoria looked like she could do with a bit more leg room as she adjusted her position in the car Travelling in style: Her car looked to have a plush interior with what appeared to be screens in the backs of the headrests Enjoying the capital: Her night in Notting Hill came just days after she visited the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the Victoria Miro Gallery in North London Victoria, who launched her own fashion label in 2008, has previously spoken openly about her sense of style. She once told Vogue Australia: I never try to follow a trend or fashion. I just do what feels right. 'Everything I make, from glasses to a handbag to a dress, is something I would wear and carry myself. She noted: 'I think people saw the real me when I came out [at the end of her fashion show] in a pair of mens trousers, a roll-neck and trainers.' Brunette beauty: Victoria's brunette tresses fell loosely, coming to rest just over her shoulders Me time: Often spotted enjoying time with her family, it looked like Victoria travelled alone for Thursday night's outing She recently penned a moving Instagram post about the struggles she has overcome in the past. And Paris Jackson couldn't have looked happier on Friday during a shopping trip with boyfriend Michael Snoddy. The happy couple have been practically inseparable since they started dating earlier this year. Kiss me quick: Paris Jackson shared a smooch with boyfriend Michael Snoddy in Malibu, California on Friday Paris was spotted planting a passionate kiss on Michael as they paused for a moment after entering a mall. The 18-year-old daughter of Michael Jackson then pulled her 26-year-old beau into a hug before sweetly placing her head on his shoulder and nuzzling his neck. Paris and Michael were holding hands and both puffed on cigarettes as they explored the shops during their casual daytime date. The teen was keeping cool on a hot LA day in a black tank top and denim hotpants, along with black boots and spectacles. PDA alert: The happy couple put on a passionate display during a shopping trip The look of love: Paris and Michael have been practically inseparable since they started dating earlier this year So cute: The 18-year-old daughter of Michael Jackson then pulled her 26-year-old beau into a hug Meanwhile Michael, who is in a band called Street Drum Corps, wore a colourful tank top with cut-off grey shorts and black slip-on shoes. Paris started dating the drummer after splitting from Chester Castellaw in December. The star recently unveiled her 23rd tattoo - after getting her first when she turned 18 in April - and explained via a touching Instagram post what the body art meant to her. Just can't get enough: Paris was also seen sweetly placing her head on his shoulder and nuzzling his neck The shops can wait: The pair entered a shopping mall but paused for a moment to cuddle and kiss Smoke break: Paris and Michael also puffed on cigarettes as they explored the shops at the mall Paris - who attempted to take her own life in 2013 - said the tattoos have covered the scars on her arms and reminded her that she is 'a fighter'. 'The craftsmanship of tattoos will always be a controversy. some people like them, some people absolutely hate them,' she wrote. 'i appreciate art, i always have. especially when that art means something to me. 'Today i can look at my inner forearms and see art that has meaning for me, i don't see a dark past anymore. my scars and past of self-hatred have been covered by loving marks, creativity, ingenuity.. and depth.' Hand-in-hand is the only way to land: Their fingers were intertwined for most of the casual daytime date Come here: Michael was seen reaching out his hands to pull Paris in for a kiss Summer style: The teenager was keeping cool on a hot LA day in her laid-back outfit Paris said that she knows her troubled past will always be a part of her, but the inkings serve as reminders that she can overcome anything. 'Sure i will always carry my past with me, but i see ink as a way of changing for the better, always improving. they represent strength for me,' she wrote. 'I look back at my old self and then i look in the mirror, and i see a fighter looking back at me. i'll always keep fighting, and encouraging others to stay strong. we all go through hell every now and then but it makes us the warriors of love we were meant to be.' Keeping it casual: Paris was clad in a black tank top and denim hotpants, along with black boots and spectacles Simple style: Meanwhile Michael wore a colourful tank top with cut-off grey shorts and black slip-on shoes Drummer love: The 26-year-old is a drummer in a band called Street Drum Corps The teen concluded: 'So to anyone struggling, it gets better. you're not alone.' Paris was pictured with what appeared to be self-harm scars six weeks before she tried to take her own life on June 5, 2013. The King of Pop's only daughter, who was 15 at the time, was admitted to a psychiatric ward after she cut her wrists and took painkillers. Paris remembered her father Michael Jackson on the seven year anniversary of his death last weekend. Still going strong: Paris started dating Michael after splitting from Chester Castellaw in December Impressive collection: The King of Pop's only daughter also showed off her many tattoos during the outing That was fast: Paris recently unveiled her 23rd tattoo - after getting her first when she turned 18 in April The teen shared a touching, black-and-white photo collage to her Instagram account on Saturday, which included two old images of herself with the pop star. In one, Michael cradled baby Paris in his arms, and in a second the youngster cuddled up in his embrace. In Paris' moving caption, she referred to her father as her 'best friend', and thanked him for 'touching millions of hearts', including her own. Not just body art: The teen explained in a moving Instagram post that the inkings cover her 'scars and self-hatred' Meaningful: Paris said the tattoos have covered the scars on her arms and reminded her that she is 'a fighter' '7 years, rest in peace, my best friend in the entire universe,' she wrote. 'i love you more than anything. things may be a little sh*tty in the press right now but everyone knows it's all bull and i swear on the family name i will protect you for as long as i live. 'There's no one like you, and there never will be. thank you for touching millions of hearts, but especially my own.' Michael tragically passed away at the age of 50 on June 25, 2009 of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication, and his personal doctor was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served two years in prison. Overcoming her struggles: The 18-year-old attempted to take her own life in 2013, when she was 15 A teenage Leonardo DiCaprio was almost cast in Baywatch, the show's producers have revealed. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, producers Michael Berk and Douglas Schwartz said they wanted to cast a then-15-year-old Leo as David Hasselhoff's son on the iconic 1990s lifeguard series. But David pulled the plug on the idea because he thought Leo would make him look old, they said. Early days: Leonardo DiCaprio almost played David Hasselhoff's son in Baywatch, the 1990s show's producers have said The future Oscar-winner, now 41, auditioned to play Hobie. The part was eventually played by Brandon Call for the first season, before he was replaced by a nine-year-old Jeremy Jackson. 'We actually had DiCaprio ready to be cast,' Michael told THR. 'But David thought he was too old to play his son. David thought it would make him look older. He had a lot of concerns of that type.' Leo was later cast on sitcom Growing Pains - which he joined in 1991- before going on to Titanic and movie stardom. Iconic hit: David Hasselhoff, center with the cast of Baywatch, worried a then 15-year-old Leo would make him seem too old TV role: After missing out on Baywatch, Leo went on to play Luke on sitcom Growing Pains, above The Hoff was also concerned about Pamela Anderson's show-stopping figure and sexy past when she joined the show in season two, the producers said. At the time, Pamela was best known for her Playboy days and as Home Improvement's 'Tool Time girl.' 'David said, 'I don't want a girl that's been in Playboy,'' Michael said. 'He said, 'Children watch this show.' But Douglas claimed David was worried Pamela's curves would take attention away from him. Distraction? David also worried about Pamela Anderson's Playboy past - but her sex tape with Tommy Lee ended up being great for ratings, producers said 'She had these enormous breasts, and David thought he would be upstaged by everyone looking at her breasts, Which is what happened,' he said. When Pamela and then-husband Tommy Lee's sex tape went public in 1995, broadcasters considered cutting her from the show over the scandal, they said. 'We had to figure out how to deal with it. So we just kept going,' said Douglas. Update: The Rock and Zac Efron filming the upcoming Baywatch movie in Georgia earlier this year 'The ratings doubled. That was a big thing for Baywatch.' The lifeguard show - which was a huge hit and was syndicated around the world - is now being made into a movie starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Zac Efron. And 26-year-old model Kelly Rorhbach - who previously dated Leonardo - is stepping into Pamela's red one-piece to play C.J. Parker. He was forced to cancel his DJ slot at Glastonbury Festival due to his hectic filming schedule. But Idris Elba seemed to be at peace with his decision as he shot scenes for The Dark Tower in Midtown Manhattan on Friday. Striding across the set, the Luther star, 43, cut an imposing figure in his gunslinger costume, which consisted of a sweeping black leather coat. Scroll down for video Facing the music: He was forced to cancel his DJ slot at Glastonbury due to his hectic filming schedule. But Idris Elba seemed to be at peace with his decision as he filmed The Dark Tower in Manhattan on Friday Layered up in a grey waistcoat with chunky buckles, Idris also wore a pair of black cargo pants and brown leather boots. He finished off the look with a rust coloured neckerchief and a holster for his pistols - fitting considering he will play the role of Roland, a frontiersman knight who descends from a line of notorious gunslingers. Idris cut a solitary figure on set and was not joined by co-star Matthew McConaughey who plays Randall Flagg in the film - which was adapted from the series of books written by Stephen King. Jumping the gun: Striding across the set, the Luther star, 43, cut an imposing figure in his gunslinger costume, which consisted of a sweeping black leather coat Back in black: Layered up in a grey waistcoat with chunky buckles, Idris also wore a pair of black cargo pants and brown leather boots, whilst he finished off the look with a rust coloured neckerchief Billed as a science-fiction fantasy horror, The Dark Tower - directed by Nikolaj Arcel - follows the story of Roland as he goes head-to-head with the villainous Walter. The movie - set for release in 2017 - will be based on the first in legendary writer King's eight-book series, entitled The Gunslinger: there will also reportedly be a TV spin-off series based on the saga. The first book is set in a parallel universe to the Old West and while Roland is travelling across the desert on a mule he meets Jack Chambers, who died in his own universe. The pair then continue journeying together before finding the Man in Black, who tells them their fate, before sending Roland back to another universe to show him insignificance. Idris get your gun: The star's costume also contained a holster for his pistols, fitting considering he will play the role of Roland, a frontiersman knight who descends from a line of notorious gunslingers Star-studded cast: Idris was not joined by co-star Matthew McConaughey who plays Randall Flagg in the film - which was adapted from the series of books written by Stephen King Bringing Idris and Matthew on board was a relief for fans, who have been waiting for an on-screen adaptation of the novels since plans were set in place for a film back in 2007. However, Idris was forced to sacrifice one of the biggest gigs of his life for the role, after he announced he would be cancelling his set at Glastonbury music festival. In a video to his fans, the star said: 'Glastonbury, it is with a very heavy heart that I let you know that I can't make it this year. I have to cancel my gig at the very last minute. It's not my fault. My film schedule changed at the last minute.' Making sacrifices: Idris was forced to sacrifice one of the biggest gigs of his life for the role, after he announced he had to cancel his set at Glastonbury music festival due to a change in filming He left Top Gear last year after a dispute with a producer turned nasty. But Jeremy Clarkson looked in high spirits as he attended a birthday party at ITV producer Peter Finchman's London home on Friday. Dressed in a casual jeans, a shirt and black blazer ensemble, the 56-year-old presenter smiled for the cameras as he arrived alongside a host of stars including Amanda Holden, Piers Morgan and Ant & Dec. Scroll down for video Party mode: Jeremy Clarkson looked in high spirits as he attended a birthday party at ITV producer Peter Finchman's London home on Friday The British presenter was there to attend the birthday party of ITV Producer Peter's wife Clare. And the rest of the brigade put on a glamorous display, with Amanda Holden look chic in a white shift dress and gold sandals, alongside fellow blonde Holly Willoughby who wore a stylish monochrome jumpsuit. Ant and Dec also looked in party mode as they arrived with their other halves Lisa Armstrong and Ali Astall. Smart: Dressed in a casual jeans, shirt and black blazer ensemble, the 56-year-old presenter smiled for the cameras as he arrived alongside Amanda Holden, Piers Morgan and Ant & Dec Onto the next show: Jeremy is currently filming new car show 'The Grand Tour', alongside original Top Gear presenters Richard Hammond and James May Jeremy is currently filming new car show 'The Grand Tour', alongside original Top Gear presenters Richard Hammond and James May, due for release on Amazon Prime this autumn. Last month they appeared to poke fun at new presenters Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc, when they performed a stunt that landed Chris and Matt in hot water. LeBlanc enraged the public by doing wheel spins around the Cenotaph, but Jeremy and co risked the same furore, when they were filmed doing a controversial doughnut trick. ITV brigade: Amanda Holden look chic in a white shift dress and gold sandals Foursome: Ant and Dec also looked in party mode as they arrived with their other halves Lisa Armstrong and Ali Astall Meanwhile, Top Gear is reportedly in crisis talks, after the revamped show received a lukewarm response with falling audience numbers. Additionally Chris' co-host Matt LeBlanc has allegedly threatened to quit the new-look programme unless the red-haired funnyman is sacked. Reports released on Sunday suggested that the former Friends actor is becoming increasingly frustrated with how rude his co-presenter is with the staff on set and has told producers that they can no longer work together. The fourth episode of the revamped BBC Two motoring show was broadcast last Sunday, with overnight ratings slumping to a new record low of just 2.3million. The final episode of the current series will air on BBC 2 this Sunday. Britain's vote to leave the European Union, or Brexit, has sent ripples across the financial market in Vietnam, but overall there appears to have been no immediate hit on the countrys economy. The unprecedented decision by the United Kingdom (U.K.) to withdraw from the European Union (E.U.) slammed Vietnamese stock market last Friday, virtually wiping out $1.15 billion in market value. Vietnams benchmark VN Index dropped 11.5 points or 1.85 percent to 620.77, mainly dragged by bank stocks. The decline on Friday was the largest since the beginning of this year. Alongside volatilities on the stock market was a rush to safe haven investments such as gold. Gold prices hit a 10-month high at VND35.2 million ($1,570) VND35.9 million ($1,601) per tael. One tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams. Those spillover effects, experts said, were mainly caused by psychological factors. And it seems safe to say that at the moment no one really knows what the impact of Brexit will be. We have carried out preliminary analysis of the impacts that Brexit is going to have on the world and Vietnam. We are positive that Brexit is yet to have any considerable impact on Vietnam, said Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung at a seminar on investment policies on Tuesday. Investors sit watching share prices at an Asia Commercial Bank's securities trading floor in Hanoi, Vietnam. Photo by AFP/Hoang Dinh Nam. Brexit makes Vietnamese exporters sweat Official statistics released by the Ministry of Industry and Trade show that Vietnams exports to the U.K. are currently estimated at roughly 2.5 percent of the Southeast Asian countrys total export value, reaching $4.65 billion last year. Vietnams key exports to the U.K. include seafood, textiles and garments, footwear, furniture and other wooden products, and mobile phones. Even though Vietnams exports to the U.K. have grown steadily at an annual average rate of 22.5 percent over the past five years, the U.K. still remains a relatively minor trading partner with Vietnam. Experts said that Vietnams exports may be harmed as Brexit hits currency moves, battering the British pound. With a plunging pound, we should expect that the U.K. will become a less attractive market for Vietnamese exporters, said leading financial firm Saigon Securities Inc. in a report on Brexits potential impacts on Vietnam. The Vietnamese dong/U.S. dollar exchange rate has greatly fluctuated in the past few days. Brexit has created certain impacts on the foreign exchange market and the stock market. The dong has slightly declined against the U.S. dollar over the past few days due mainly to psychological factors after Britain voted to leave the E.U., however, [the decline] is still within the allowed trading band, said Minister Nguyen Chi Dung at a government cabinet meeting yesterday. However, economists fear a domino effect as a plunging pound would affect the yuan. Vietnam relies quite heavily on neighboring China. If the yuan is going to devaluate, the Vietnamese dong will hardly hold up. If it comes to that, market regulators will have to calculate the depreciation of the dong as a move to keep Vietnamese exports competitive [in the international market], economist Nguyen Tri Hieu said in an exclusive interview with VnExpress. Deputy Foreign Minister Dang Dinh Quy considered the possibility that a plunging pound will put huge pressure on the Chinese yuan. If China devaluates its currency, the Vietnamese dong will follow suit. More importantly, these currency moves could place a heavy burden on Vietnams public debt. In April, the World Bank forecast Vietnams public debt will increase from 63.8 percent of its gross domestic product in 2015 to 64.4 percent in 2017 and 64.7 percent in 2018. Adding up to the above-mentioned hindrances, Vietnams exports to the U.K. are likely to face technical hurdles, said Dang Hoang Hai, head of the European Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Hai said shipments from Vietnam to the U.K. are normally transited through the Netherlands, Belgium or Germany. After Brexit, Vietnamese exports will have to go through customs clearance, food hygiene and quarantine procedures twice before entering the British market. More technical hurdles will cost Vietnamese exporters time and money, he added. Vietnamese manufacturing could be onto a winner after Brexit Concerns have been raised about foreign direct investment inflows into Vietnam as a weaker British pound could have negative impacts on the U.K.s economic growth. Brexit will not have a great impact on foreign investment inflows into Vietnam, and the negative impact on U.K.s growth will not translate into British investment in Vietnam," said Dang Duc Anh from the National Socio-Economic Forecast and Information Center, under the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment. British investors currently have more than 200 projects worth a total of $4.4 billion in Vietnam, mainly in the real estate and manufacturing sectors. Last year, the U.K.s economy expanded at 2.2 percent, and its directed investments in Vietnam hit $1.2 billion. Nguyen Bich Lam, Head of the General Statistics Office (GSO), told a press conference on Tuesday that GSO would take a good look at British investment projects in Vietnam. The statistics office will assess possible changes in investment policies following Brexit and review relevant import and export taxes, he added. Labourers work at a garment factory in Bac Giang province, near Hanoi October 21, 2015. Photo by Reuters/ Nguyen Huy Kham. As most countries in Southeast Asia have made little progress in their ongoing trade talks with the E.U., Vietnams manufacturing sector could be a big winner after Brexit. Dezan Shira & Associates, a Hong Kong-based consulting firm, believes the political chaos of Brexit will give Vietnam a key advantage as an attractive manufacturing location, since it already has a pending free trade agreement with the European Union. Vietnam is the second country in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) after Singapore that the E.U. has concluded a free trade pact with. Vietnam accounted for 19.1 percent of the 201.4 billion euros (nearly $230 billion) in total trade between the E.U. and ASEAN members last year. That figure is up from 15.8 percent in 2014, global news provider Bloomberg cited data from the E.U. delegation in Singapore as saying. Given its unique position in low cost manufacturing, Vietnam will likely be more competitive than ever among European consumers, the firm said. Free trade pacts post Brexit Concerning the European Union Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), senior banking expert Can Van Luc said it is likely to slow down as the E.U. and Vietnam will have to review agreement terms and make necessary changes should the U.K. leave the trade pact. Vietnam may negotiate a free trade agreement with the U.K. alone, said Luc. "The trade and investment relationship between Vietnam and the U.K. is a key pillar of our bilateral strategic partnership," said Lesley Craig, British Charge dAffaires in Hanoi. The U.K. will continue to be engaged in Southeast Asia, the most dynamic region in the global economy. Vietnam matters to the U.K. We want to keep growing our bilateral relationship including through trade and investment, British Charge dAffaires in Hanoi Lesley Craig told VnExpress International in an email. There will be no immediate changes to the ways we do business. The process over the next couples of years to work out the U.K.s new relationship with the E.U. will help us understand what the changes means across a spectrum of areas, including free trade agreements, the British official said. Related News: >Vietnam's exports face hurdles after Brexit vote >Asian factories struggle, Brexit throws up new threats Most people opt for comfort for long-haul flights, but Bella Hadid was determined to look her best. The 19-year-old cut a stylish figure as she showed off her flat and toned stomach in an all-white outfit after landing in Paris, France on Saturday. Bella showed some skin in a long-sleeved crop top, which she teamed with matching loose-fitting trousers. Scroll down for video Top of the crops: Bella Hadid showed off her flat stomach on Saturday as she landed in Paris, France The model added inches to her already statuesque 5ft 9in frame with a pair of black trainers which boasted a chunky white heel. Bella wore her glossy brunette hair down and covered her minimally made-up face with oversized mirrored aviator sunglasses. The younger sister of Gigi Hadid appeared to be travelling light, and carried just a black handbag as she strolled through the airport with a friend. Bella had jetted in from New York City, where she was taking part in a photo shoot which ran over the course of a few days. She's got the white stuff: The 19-year-old looked stunning in a white crop top with matching trousers In fine form: Bella's toned tummy was on display in the all-white outfit, which she paired with heeled trainers The beauty has seen her modelling career go from strength to strength over the past year, having made her runway debut in a Chanel show in December. While Bella's big sister was first to find success as a model, she is now stepping out of Gigi's shadow. And one of the ways the star decided to separate herself from Gigi is by dyeing her naturally blonde hair brunette. Picture perfect: The model wore her brunette hair down and covered her minimally made-up face with oversized sunglasses Travelling in style: Bella arrived in Paris with a female friend, having jetted into France from New York City 'I just have a darker personality,' she told Allure magazine recently. 'And my sister being blonde and me being brunette, it's a good separation. 'I put a blonde wig on and think it would be fun to go back, but I'm happy with my hair. Blondes are so angelic. My sister can get away with anything.' Photogenic looks run in the family - Gigi and Bella's mother Yolanda was a model in the 1980s, and their younger brother Anwar signed to IMG Models (the agency which also represents the two girls) earlier this year. Star on the rise: The brunette has seen her modelling career go from strength to strength over the past year, having made her runway debut in December It wasn't her birthday they were celebrating but Kourtney Kardashian still managed to steal the spotlight. Kourtney, 37, lent her star appeal in a 'wild' ensemble as she hit up Komodo in Miami, Florida on Friday night in honor of the restaurant's owner Dave Grutman. She stood out in the crowd in a tiny tank dress that featured an eye-catching pattern of a pride of lions. Wild about the dress: Kourtney Kardashian displayed her frisky sense of fashion in a lion print mini-dress while attending Dave Grutman's birthday bash at his restaurant Kimodo in Miami, FL on Friday Kourtney oped for a natural look, wearing minimal make-up with light brown shadow that made her eyes even more luminous, pale pink lip gloss and a subtle blend of rouge on cheeks. She wore her dark hair pulled up in an I Dream Of Jeannie ponytail that suited her understated facial appearance. And clear-strapped plexiglass high heels from brother-in-law Kanye West's Yeezy Spring/Summer 2016 collection finished off the hot look. Among friends: The 37-year-old reality star mingled with Real Housewives of Miami star Larsa Pippen and Dave Grutman's wife Isabela Grutman Let's party: Kourtney enjoyed the company of friends and good food at this bash Dave Grutman, the Miami nightclub mogul-turned-restaurant owner, made sure Kourtney felt real special at his birthday party. The pals were pictured arm-in-arm and at one point he leaned in to kiss Kourtney on the cheek as the cameras snapped away. Kourtney had fun catching up with Kardashian friend Larsa Pippen, who stars on Real Housewives Of Miami. Line up: Kourtney was pleased to take a photo with, L to R, Yami Alvarado, Isabela Grutman, Cedric Gervais, Larsa Pippen, Erick Morillo and the birthday boy Dave Grutman Ah, thanks: Dave Grutman seemed grateful as he planted a kiss on Kourtney's head She made a point to lavish praise and attention on Dave's new wife, model Isabela Rangel and now Grutman. Kourtney, being the social media butterfly that she is, got together with the girls for a Snapchat share. The mother-of-three, meanwhile, has been dividing much of her time between workouts and caring for her brood, Mason, six, Penelope, three, and Reign, one and a half. You're on candid camera: Everybody put on a subtle smile for Kourtney's Snapchat Kourtney was spotted on June 30 enjoying a cosy outing with just her youngest son. She was comfortably clad in workout gear including clingy dark leggings and a white tank top. Her social calender also appears to be filling up for on Tuesday she was seen having a good time with sister Kim and mom Kris Jenner at GQ's party at The Nice Guy in West Hollywood. Kourtney's ex, Scott Disick, has been firmly welcomed back into the Kardashian family fold since coming out of rehab following their split last year. He was spotted with Kendall Jenner, Kourtney's half-sister, having lunch in Beverly Hills on Saturday. Lords that lunch: Scott Disick was spotted with Kendall Jenner, Kourtney's half-sister, having lunch in Beverly Hills on Saturday Looking ripped: Kourtney's ex has been firmly welcomed back into the Kardashian family fold since coming out of rehab following their split last year She was seen shielding her face as she arrived back in LAX on Friday. But Kendall Jenner was less camera shy as she posted a scantily-clad picture to Instagram on Saturday. The 19-year-old model flaunted a lot of flesh in the selfie, which she captioned: 'weekend'. On show: Kendall Jenner flaunted a lot of flesh while posing in a cut-out khaki bikini for an Instagram photo on Saturday The reality television star is sprawled across a bed, in what appears to be a khaki bikini, which features split straps across her derriere. The pert beauty appeared to be make-up free as she showed off her natural beauty. Kendall's chestnut tresses were in a centre parting, and had a small half bun at the crown. Removal truck: No doubt she was grateful of a relaxing day after she was spotted apparently moving to her new house on Friday On the move: A removal van was spotted pulling up to her Beverly Hills apartment No doubt she was grateful of a relaxing day after she was spotted apparently moving house on Friday. A removal van was spotted pulling up to her Beverly Hills apartment, before she enlisted help from her boyfriend Jordan Clarkson - who appeared to be going shoeless. Kendall and Jordan then drove in separate vehicles to her new property - apparently moving in already. Get your socks off: She enlisted help from her boyfriend Jordan Clarkson - who appeared to be going shoeless On board: Kendall got into her vehicle as they went to the new abode Property mogul: They drove in separate vehicles to her new property - as she was apparently moving in already The second youngest of Kris Jenner's daughters recently bought a renovated Hollywood Hills home previously owned by John Krasinski and Emily Blunt for $6.5 million, according to TMZ. The home's nestled above the Sunset Trip and right above the iconic Chateau Marmont Hotel and features six bedrooms and five full bathrooms. It also includes a swimming pool, three floors and a spacious outdoor patio. The luxurious living space also comes with hardwood floors, exposed brick walls, and a rooftop patio. 'Lazy': The reality star also shared a picture to Snapchat while flashing her flat tomach in an all-white outfit At age 18, she bought a two-bedroom condo in the Westwood area of Los Angeles for $1.39 million. The leggy Victoria's Secret star seems to have sensibly picked the three day holiday weekend to make the move - with July 4th falling on Monday. That same day, Kendall also flashed her flat stomach in a Snapchat photo, while sporting a white crop top and matching trousers. Crash pad: The second youngest of Kris Jenner's daughters recently bought a renovated Hollywood Hills home previously owned by John Krasinski and Emily Blunt for $6.5 million, according to TMZ Jennifer Garner was smiling with glee as she landed at Charles-de-Gaulle airport in Paris the day before. The 44-year-old actress carried on that theme as she hit up the high-end fashion house Lanvin in the City Of Lights on Saturday. Jennifer found a few things she liked judging by the dimpled smile on her face and the two large blue bags carried out of the store by a handy helper. City of glee: Jennifer Garner was a happy American in Paris as she enjoyed a retail splurge at high-end store Lanvin on Saturday The mother-of-three was comfortably clad in tight black jeans, a peach blouse and trailored black blazer with delicate detailing along the edges. She wore her auburn-tinged hair pulled back in a tousled ponytail while a light blending of rouge, eye shadow and lip gloss brought out her features. While Lanvin at Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore is certainly known for its designer clothes, the shop also boasts home accessories and decor. Follow me s'il vous plait: The 44-year-old actress led the way as she was trailed by a handy helper carrying her two packages Casual customer: Jennifer looked hip and comfortable in black jeans, peach blouse and a stylish black blazer with braid details Jennifer was seen landing in Paris on Friday, bustling through the airport with a vividly coloured scarf wound around her neck and a stylish handbag looped over her arm. Just one year ago, Jennifer and Ben Affleck announced they intended to divorce. The Dallas Buyers Club star seemed to be in a joyful mood despite reports that she and Ben have not signed the divorce papers yet. Welcome to the City of Lights: The mother-of-three was smiling as she landed at Charles-de-Gaulle airport on Friday although neither she nor Ben Affleck have finalized the divorce According to a People report published Thursday, that's because the 43-year-old Argo director and star does not want out of the union. He was, however, the one who cheated on her with the family's nanny at the time Christine Ouzounian. 'Ben still doesn't want the divorce,' a source told People. During an interview on HBO's Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons a week ago, the Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice star called Jennifer his 'wife' - not his 'ex-wife,' not Jen. It is also believed that the two still live in the same home in Los Angeles' Pacific Palisades area. During an interview with Vanity Fair, Jennifer even admitted that they sleep in bedrooms right next to each other. Hindu priest stabbed, critically wounded in Bangladesh Unidentified attackers stabbed and critically wounded a Hindu priest in southwest Bangladesh Saturday, just a day after a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in an attack by suspected Islamist militants. Police said 48-year-old priest Bhabasindhu Roy of the Sri Sri Radha Gobinda Temple in Satkhira district was attacked inside the temple compound as he slept. "They stabbed him in his chest and back. His condition is critical and we're trying to send him to a hospital in Dhaka," deputy chief of Satkhira police Atqul Haq told AFP. Police in western Bangladesh said they have armed villagers with bamboo sticks and whistles in an effort to deter Islamist militants from attacking people of minority faiths He said it bore the hallmarks of recent attacks on minorities by suspected Islamist militants. The attack came just hours after gunmen stormed a restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital and took dozens of people hostage including several foreigners. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack Friday night on the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant in Dhaka's upmarket Gulshan diplomatic quarter in which two police officers were killed. On Friday a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in the western Bangladesh district of Jhenaidah. Three men on a motorcycle attacked Shyamananda Das as he walked along a road near the temple early in the morning, police said. Last month a Hindu priest, 70-year-old Ananda Gopal Ganguly, was hacked to death in the same district. Bangladesh is reeling from a wave of murders of secular and liberal activists and religious minorities that have left some 50 people dead in the last three years. Victims of the attacks by suspected Islamists have included secular bloggers, gay rights activists and followers of minority religions including Hindus, Christians and Muslim Sufis and Shiites. Since April, more than a dozen people have been hacked to death amid a sharp spike in the targeted killings. Most of the recent attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State organisation or the South Asian branch of Al-Qaeda. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government, however, has blamed homegrown Islamists for the attacks. Experts say a government crackdown on opponents, including a ban on the largest Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami following a protracted political crisis, has pushed many towards extremism. Last month police arrested more than 11,000 people, including nearly 200 suspected militants, in an anti-Islamist drive criticised by the opposition and some rights groups, which said it was used as an excuse to clamp down on dissent. Israel bombs Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire Israeli air strikes hit four sites in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, causing damage but no injuries, officials said, after Palestinian militants fired a rocket that struck a building in southern Israel. The four sites included a workshop, two locations for Hamas's armed wing and a military training site for militant group Islamic Jihad, the security official said on condition of anonymity. Two of the sites were in Gaza City while the other two were in Beit Lahia, in the north of the enclave, run by Islamist movement Hamas. All of the sites have been previously targeted by Israel, the official said. Israeli air strikes hit four sites in the Gaza Strip including a workshop, two locations for Hamas's armed wing and a military training site for militant group Islamic Jihad Jack Guez (AFP/File) Israel's military said in a statement it had "targeted four locations that were components of Hamas's operational infrastructure in the northern and central Gaza Strip" in response to the rocket. A rocket launched from the strip hit a building in the southern Israeli city of Sderot late Friday, damaging it but causing no injuries, the military said. Israeli media said the rocket had hit a kindergarten, but the military had not provided further details. Medics said they treated two people for shock. No group in Gaza claimed responsibility for firing the rocket, which came hours after Israel announced a lockdown on the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank and cuts in monthly tax payments to the Palestinian Authority in response to attacks. In one of several attacks in recent days, a 19-year-old Palestinian fatally stabbed a 13-year-old US-Israeli national in her home at the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba on the outskirts of Hebron. Friday's rocket is the 13th projectile fired from the Gaza Strip to have hit Israel since the start of 2016. Smaller, more radical Islamist groups have often been blamed, with Hamas forces either unwilling or unable to prevent the rocket fire. Israel holds Hamas responsible for all rocket attacks from Gaza. Palestinian militants in Gaza and Israel have fought three wars since 2008. On Friday, the Middle East diplomatic quartet said that the "lack of control of Gaza by the Palestinian Authority, and the dire humanitarian situation" were feeding "instability and ultimately impede efforts to achieve a negotiated solution". "Preventing the use of territory for attacks against Israel is a key committment that is essential to long-term peace and security," said the group, which incudes the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations. Sierra Leone diplomat kidnapped in Nigeria Sierra Leone's deputy high commissioner has been snatched in Nigeria, government sources said Friday, the first kidnapping of a diplomat from the west African country in more than half a century. Alfred Nelson-Williams was taken as he was travelling by road from the Nigerian capital of Abuja north to attend a ceremony in Kaduna, a city some 200 kilometres (125 miles) away. Local security officials said they were still investigating how the kidnapping took place. The most sensational kidnapping in Nigeria's recent history saw 276 schoolgirls snatched from their classroom in the remote northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014 by Boko Haram jihadists Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP/File) "We want to establish whether he had security escorts with him and what happened to them," Kaduna state security official Yusuf Yakubu Soja told AFP. "He was kidnapped on his way to Kaduna from Abuja to attend the passing out ceremony of military officers at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Jaji outside Kaduna." Sierra Leone's information minister Mohamed Bangura said the government was working with Nigerian authorities to secure Nelson-Williams' release. Neither he nor police could confirm whether the kidnappers had demanded a ransom. Kidnappings are common in Nigeria, where the rich and powerful drive bulletproof cars and even hire military and police chaperones as protection from highway bandits. Foreign ministry sources in Freetown told AFP that "this is the first time that a Sierra Leone diplomat has been kidnapped anywhere on posting since independence in 1961". The most sensational kidnapping in Nigeria's recent history saw 276 schoolgirls snatched from their classroom in the remote northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014 by Boko Haram jihadists. The government of former president Goodluck Jonathan was criticised for its slow response to acknowledge the kidnapping and for its inability to find and recover the girls. Late last month, popular musician Ado Dahiru Daukaka was also kidnapped in Nigeria's northeast Adamawa state and then freed days later, after releasing a scathing anti-graft song. But in the oil-producing delta region in the south, where wealthy Nigerians and expatriate workers are usually the target, abductions are often for financial gain. This week, two Indian workers were kidnapped on their way to work in central Benue state. The pair have yet to be released. Last week, three Australians, a New Zealander and a South African were kidnapped along with two Nigerians near the capital of Cross River state in the country's south. India's ruling party courts isolated northeast Ranjiv Kumar Sharma says his home state of Assam in India's isolated northeast is experiencing a "silent invasion" of Muslims from neighbouring Bangladesh that only Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party can stop. For years Sharma has been working with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a hardline Hindu group, to pave the way for Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to take power in the tribal-dominated region, where it won its first state election last month. Analysts say the victory in Assam, an ethnically diverse state with a large Muslim minority where the BJP's brand of religious nationalism had previously held little sway, is a sign that the party is becoming a truly national force. Schoolchildren take part in morning prayers at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-run Sankardev Sishu Nikatan School in Guwahati Biju Boro (AFP) It has done so by adapting its Hindu nationalist message to local concerns -- in Assam, a perceived influx of Muslim migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh that the BJP's campaign promised to tackle. Impoverished Assam has a history of violent conflict between indigenous tribes and settlers, and although many have been there for generations, fears persist that they could threaten the region's distinctive culture. But long before campaigning began, the RSS had been quietly preparing the ground, setting up hundreds of schools and medical facilities in poor communities -- whatever their religion. "We knew the BJP would win," Sharma told AFP at one such school in the state capital Guwahati as hundreds of smartly-uniformed children lined up to begin the school day with a traditional Sanskrit prayer to the Hindu goddess of knowledge Saraswati. "For the last four years, we have worked hard here." The BJP's promise of economic development won support across religious lines in Assam, one of India's poorest states, where the centre-left Congress party has traditionally held sway. Mohammad Abdul Matin campaigned for the party in his home district of Nellie, scene of one of contemporary India's bloodiest massacres in 1983 when around 2,000 suspected migrants were butchered in a single day. Nearly all were Muslim, and many were children. Matin is a Muslim, but was undeterred by the BJP's aggressive stance on settlers, whom the party has been careful to distinguish from what it calls "Assamese" Muslims. "The main thing with the BJP is not Hindu or Muslim. Modi-ji sees everyone as equal," the 52-year-old rice seller told AFP. "Look at this road. Still after 15 years (of Congress government) this road is not built," he said, pointing in disgust at the dirt track that leads to his village. - Sealing the border - The RSS, seen as the BJP's ideological fountainhead, styles itself as an organisation devoted to protecting India's Hindu culture. But critics say it has a history of fuelling religious tensions, particularly with the country's large Muslim minority. That has raised concerns in a state that suffered deadly communal violence as recently as 2014 and in 2012, when rioting forced thousands to flee their homes. The new state government has moved quickly to make good on its promises of tackling immigration -- even if many experts doubt that Bangladeshis are currently crossing the border in large numbers. Earlier this month it announced it would seal Assam's porous border with Bangladesh, a virtual impossibility given that large sections of it are on a river that frequently changes course. Authorities are also working to determine which of its 31 million inhabitants are there illegally, an exhaustive process that began under the previous administration. Himanta Biswa Sarma, a senior minister in the new BJP-led state government, said he expected the final number to be "big -- a lot more than a million", and anyone found living in Assam illegally would be deprived of a vote. But he rejected suggestions the party's focus on migrants could exacerbate tensions in the state. "If someone is detected, we'll release them from the voter list. Then we'll think what else we can do," he told AFP in Guwahati. "But there'll be no social unrest, there'll be no provocation... because our society has evolved." - 'Stage set to expand' - The BJP now hopes to replicate that success across the northeast starting with Manipur, an insurgency-wracked state on the border with Myanmar that will hold elections early next year. The task of coordinating the fight has been given to Sarma, who defected from Congress only a year ago and is credited with helping win the election for the BJP. "Now the stage is really set for the BJP to expand to other northeastern states," he said, expressing confidence the party could also win control of Meghalaya and Mizoram, both majority-Christian states. The BJP needs to win support in areas outside its traditional heartland in India's Hindi-speaking north and west to consolidate its grip on power in the world's largest democracy, a hugely diverse country where myriad regional parties compete for power. That means finding leaders with local appeal and forming alliances with regional parties with established support bases -- a move political analyst Satish Misra warns could backfire. "When you bring in too many leaders from non-RSS background, then there's a conflict inbuilt," he said of the party. "The person who's coming from the other party into the BJP finds it often alien, because the RSS calls the shots." Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during the swearing-in ceremony of Sarbananda Sonowal as the Chief Minister of Assam Biju Boro (AFP) A schoolteacher prepares for morning prayers at Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-run Sankardev Sishu Nikatan School in Guwahati Biju Boro (AFP) The BJP's promise of economic development won support across religious lines in Assam, one of India's poorest states, where the centre-left Congress party has traditionally held sway Biju Boro (AFP) Saudi Arabias state-owned oil and gas company, Saudi Aramco, has decided to withdraw from the development of a refinery and petrochemical complex in Vietnam with Thai PTT, global news provider ICIS quoted its source from the Thai energy firm as saying on July 1. The two companies had jointly submitted a feasibility study for the $22 billion world-scale fully integrated refining and petrochemical complex, called Victory project, in Binh Dinh Province to the Vietnamese government in December 2014. At the time, they were planning to have an equal stake of 40 percent each in the Vietnam project, which will be able to process 400,000 barrels/day of crude oil. Saudi Aramco has decided to withdraw from further development of Victory project with effective date of July 1, 2016, the PTT source said. Oil tanks seen at the Saudi Aramco headquarters during a media tour at Damam City in this file photo dated November 11, 2007. Photo by Reuters/Ali Jarekji The Saudi Arabian energy firm could not be reached for comment at the time of writing. PTT and Saudi Aramco have sought for a capable Vietnamese company to be a partner of the project but it has not been successful so far, the PTT source said. However, PTT still views Vietnam as a strategic location for investment and will continue to develop the project by transferring it to its 38.5 percent-owned affiliate IRPC, the source said, adding that PTT will support IRPCs decisions on this project such as project size, scope of investment and potential partner. IRPC is the first fully integrated petrochemical complex in Southeast Asia. The Thailand-based company runs a 215,000 barrel/day refinery and a 350,000 tons/year naphtha cracker, and a host of downstream units in the kingdom, according to its website. Chansin Treechuchagron, PTT's Senior Executive Vice President for petrochemicals and refining, said the company will delay the Victory project and review the investment at the end of the year, Reuters reported earlier this week. Related news: > Thailand's PTT delays $20 billion Vietnam refinery and petrochemical complex Sri Lanka replaces controversial central bank chief Sri Lanka's president on Saturday bowed to pressure from activists and replaced the country's controversial central bank chief, appointing a respected economist to the top job. President Maithripala Sirisena announced that Indrajit Coomaraswamy, 66, had been appointed as the new governor of the central bank, effective immediately. Coomaraswamy was previously a director of economic affairs at the Commonwealth Secretariat, an intergovernmental agency of Commonwealth countries in London. Outgoing Sri Lankan Central Bank governor Arjuna Mahendran was accused last year of leaking inside information to his son-in-law's firm Lakruwan Wanniarachchi (AFP/File) "After consulting all parties concerned, I appointed top economist Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy to lead the Central Bank of Sri Lanka," the president posted on Twitter. The announcement ended any prospect of outgoing governor Arjuna Mahendran being reappointed after his tenure ended on Thursday. He had indicated he was prepared to complete another term. Sirisena had come under intense pressure not to reappoint Mahendran, who had faced allegations of insider trading. A group of Sri Lankan academics and professionals had gone to court to demand action against Mahendran, a Singapore national of Sri Lankan origin. Activists had threatened to take to the streets unless the president replaced him. He was accused last year of leaking inside information to his son-in-law's firm, allegedly allowing it to make millions of dollars in profits from a central bank bond auction. Mahendran has consistently maintained his innocence. Israel seeks to raise profile in Africa with Netanyahu trip Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to make his first trip as premier to sub-Saharan Africa, seeking new trade partners and marking the 40th anniversary of a hostage rescue in which his brother died. It will mark a rare visit by a sitting Israeli prime minister to sub-Saharan African nations. While no official itinerary has been announced, Netanyahu is expected to visit Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to become the first sitting Israeli prime minister to travel to Africa since Yitzhak Rabin visited Casablanca in 1994 Sebastian Scheiner (POOL/AFP/File) Israel's cabinet approved a proposal on June 25 to open offices of Israel's Agency for International Development in the four countries. Netanyahu told the cabinet that his visit "is part of a major effort on our part to return to Africa in a big way". "This is important for Israeli companies and for the state of Israel. It is also important for the countries of Africa," he said. The trip comes at a time when Israel is launching a $13 million aid package to strengthen economic ties and cooperation with African countries, said Netanyahu's office. Israel would also provide African states with training in "domestic security" and health, it said. "Israel's comparative advantage in these fields has created great interest in African countries seeking training from Israel," it said. "The African continent constitutes vast potential for Israel in very many areas." Netanyahu has publicly accepted an invitation from Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. He said he wants to make the trip close to the anniversary of the July 4, 1976 Israeli hostage rescue in Uganda, in which his brother died. - 'Great personal consequence' - Israel's dealings with Africa currently constitutes only two percent of its foreign trade, leaving plenty of room for growth. Demand is rising for its defence expertise and products. But it also sees African countries as potential allies, particularly at the United Nations and other international bodies, where it is regularly condemned over its occupation of the West Bank and blockade of the Gaza Strip. Some African countries are keen to obtain Israeli agricultural and water technology, which the country has been promoting, say officials. Netanyahu's trip follows years of efforts to improve ties. The Arab-Israeli conflict drove a wedge between African countries and the Jewish state in the 1960s. Following wars between Israel and its neighbours in 1967 and 1973, North African nations led by Egypt put pressure on sub-Saharan African states to cut ties with Israel, which many did. Relations were not helped by Israel's friendship with the apartheid regime in South Africa before it fell in 1994. Beyond diplomacy and trade, the trip will have deep personal meaning for Netanyahu. His brother Yonatan was killed in July 1976 as he led a commando raid in Entebbe, Uganda, to free passengers aboard an Air France plane hijacked by two Palestinians and two Germans. About 100 Israeli and Jewish hostages were freed in the raid but 20 Ugandan soldiers and seven hijackers were killed, along with several Ugandan civilians. Yonatan Netanyahu was the lone casualty among the Israeli assault team. US Supreme Court ends eventful term with a bang US conservatives were expecting some major wins at the Supreme Court this year, but several dramatic twists -- including the death of a justice -- reconfigured the bench and liberals ended up scoring the most influential victories. The high court's 2015-2016 term ended with a bang this week when it struck down a Texas law restricting access to abortion -- the most important ruling in a generation on the hot-button issue, and a big win for "pro-choice" activists. The 5-3 decision by a short-handed court -- down one justice since the death of veteran conservative Antonin Scalia in February -- marked a major setback for evangelical Christians and conservatives opposed to abortion. The death of US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in February marked a major setback for evangelical Christians and conservatives opposed to abortion Nicholas Kamm (AFP/File) Just a few days before, the top court made a surprise ruling in favor of an affirmative action program at the University of Texas, meaning that race and ethnicity can be taken into account when deciding college admissions. Once again, the country's liberals cried victory. And in March, a 4-4 deadlock effectively affirmed the right of public sector unions to collect fees from non-members, in a setback for conservatives. Lee Epstein, a Supreme Court expert based at Washington University in St Louis, said Scalia's death played a major role in some of the term's key decisions. On affirmative action, a narrow 4-3 ruling would instead have been a 4-4 deadlock, leaving in place lower court rulings upholding the plan -- but setting no legal precedent. In the unions case, Scalia would likely have turned the tables against them. But she said his death was not the only explanation for the court's shift to the left. "The move to the left started a few years ago, not this term," Epstein told AFP. "Our data show that the 2014 term and now the 2015 term were the most liberal since the 1960s." The Obama administration however did not emerge from the court's term unscathed, including big defeats for the Democratic president's sweeping immigration plan and his efforts to curb carbon emissions. - Problematic tie votes - Scalia, who died unexpectedly in February, espoused deeply conservative views during his three decades at the court. A staunch defender of gun rights and the death penalty, the Roman Catholic justice was also openly opposed to abortion, gay marriage and affirmative action. Without him, the court is now evenly split between conservatives (Chief Justice John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito) and progressives (Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan). That distribution dramatically increases the chances of deadlocks on the court. Kennedy, a key swing voter between the bench's conservatives and progressives on social issues, has become even more crucial in a court with just eight of the nine seats filled, sometimes joining the liberal wing. Worried that a court once dominated by conservatives under Scalia could tip in the liberals' favor, President Barack Obama's Republican foes in the Senate have refused to vote on his nominee to replace Scalia, Merrick Garland, and insisted the decision wait until after voters choose Obama's successor in November. But conservatives nevertheless paid the price, suffering a series of defeats on key rulings. - Impartial or politicized? - Some analysts say the court is on a definite leftward trajectory, but others disagree. "Rather than a turn leftward, I think what we are seeing is how much the Supreme Court, especially Justice Kennedy who is still the swing justice, wants the court to be seen as a non-partisan institution in a very partisan election year," said Thomas Lee of Fordham University School of Law. Breyer himself insisted the court was "functioning" in an AFP interview in May, dismissing criticism that the court was politicized or hampered with one justice short. A guardian of the US Constitution, the Supreme Court has the last word on the most salient issues impacting American life, and makes rulings in contentious cases pitting the legislative branch of the government against the executive branch. Of an average of roughly 8,000 petitions it receives each term, the court only grants and hears oral arguments about one percent of the time. The US Supreme Court's 2015-2016 term ended with a bang this week when it struck down a Texas law restricting access to abortion Saul Loeb (AFP/File) Australia's ruling conservatives struggle to form government Australia's ruling conservatives were struggling to win enough seats Sunday to form a government in a too close-to-call election, raising the prospect of a hung parliament. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he was confident his Liberal/National coalition could form a majority, but opposition Labor leader Bill Shorten said his opponent had lost the people's mandate for his agenda. Seventy-six seats are needed to rule outright in the 150-seat House of Representatives, but there was a swing against the government, results showed, as vote counting went deep into the night with a final outcome not expected until next week. Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his wife cast their votes at a polling station in Sydney, on July 2, 2016 William West (AFP/File) National broadcaster ABC forecast the Labor opposition would hold 70 seats or less and the government could fall short of a majority by one seat, with 75, despite being backed by the nation's media. Some seven hours after most polling booths closed, the Australian Electoral Commission had Turnbull's coalition on 71 seats to 68 for Labor, with crossbenchers -- politicians who are independent or from minor parties -- winning five. It could mean a parliament where no side commands a lower house majority, as voters fed up with traditional politicians look for alternatives, meaning the crossbenchers would play an important role in forming government. Despite this, Turnbull, a multi-millionaire former banker who was looking to bolster his power after ousting fellow Liberal Tony Abbott in a party coup last September, insisted that with millions of postal votes still to be counted, he could still get over the line. "I can report that based on the advice I have from the party officials, we can have every confidence that we will form a coalition majority government in the next parliament," said the 61-year-old. "Certainly we are the only parties that have the ability or the possibility of doing that." The government went into the election with a large majority of seats, with Turnbull calling the polls early because crossbenchers hold the balance of power in the upper house Senate. The crossbenchers had failed to pass deadlocked legislation to overhaul unions, which provided the trigger for a double dissolution of parliament, where all seats in the upper and lower houses are contested. - 'Lost their mandate' - It is highly unlikely Labor can form a government, but ex-union chief Shorten was buoyant following such a close call as his party bounced back strongly after being thumped by the conservatives at the last election in 2013. "There is one thing for sure -- the Labor party is back," he said, as election officials pointed to Tuesday as the likely day when a final outcome is known. "Three years after the Liberals came to power in a landslide, they have lost their mandate," added the 49-year-old to cheering supporters in Melbourne after he campaigned hard on health and education. "Mr Turnbull will never be able to claim that the people of Australia have adopted his ideological agenda." The vote culminated in a marathon race where economic management became a key issue in the wake of the Brexit verdict. Turnbull had campaigned on tough asylum-seeker policies, a plan to hold a plebiscite on gay marriage, and his economic credentials as the country transitions from a mining investment boom and focuses on job creation and diversifying the economy. He also channelled the instability sparked by Britain's shock vote to leave the European Union, warning Australia must "have the plan that meets the nature of our times, a time of opportunity and of challenge". According to the official #ausvotes Twitter feed, the most tweeted issues during the campaign were healthcare, the economy, education and housing affordability. Frank Mosca, a Liberal supporter at the party's election function in Sydney, said he was a "little disappointed" at the results so far. "I think the scare campaign (that the government would cut the public healthcare service Medicare) obviously worked," Mosca told AFP. "Obviously it resonated with a lot of people more than the Liberals thought. I think Mr Turnbull needed to get out on the front foot and not let that happen (it's) not the best campaign." The leader of the Australian Labor Party Bill Shorten waves to party faithful as he arrives to speak about the success of the Labor Party in the Australian Federal Election in Melbourne on July 2, 2016 Paul Crock (AFP) Israel locks down flashpoint Hebron after deadly attacks Israeli troops locked down the occupied West Bank's most populous city Hebron and surrounding villages on Saturday after two Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks nearby. The crackdown comes amid a flare-up in nine months of deadly violence as the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan looms, and after key diplomatic players called for urgent steps by both sides to revive the moribund peace process. Troops had closed all exit roads from Hebron except for the main northern one, an AFP correspondent reported. An Israeli soldier guards a barrier blocking a road at the southern entrance of Hebron, on July 2, 2016 Hazem Bader (AFP) Palestinian security said the army had opened entrances to the villages of Sair and Halhul, but an Israeli military spokeswoman said they had been partially open from the beginning. The army on Friday said it would also deploy two additional battalions to the area. The measures were described as the "most substantial steps on the ground" since 2014, when Israeli forces carried out a huge search operation in the southern West Bank for three young hitchhikers abducted and later found murdered by Palestinian militants. At least 214 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese have been killed in a wave of violence that has rocked Israel and the Palestinian territories since October. The army has said that around 80 of the attacks on Israelis have been carried out by Palestinians from the Hebron area. Several hundred Jewish settlers live in a tightly guarded enclave in the heart of the city of more than 200,000 Palestinians, a persistent source of tensions. On Thursday, 19-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Nasser Tarayra broke into the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba on the outskirts of Hebron and killed 13-year-old Israeli-American Hallel Yaffa Ariel in her bedroom before being shot dead by a security guard. On Friday, 48-year-old Michael Mark was killed after his car was fired on by a suspected Palestinian gunman south of Hebron. The army was conducting searches for the gunman on Saturday. An army spokesman said the closure was "intended to break the chain of lethal attacks." "The physical presence will also disrupt, prevent and foil additional attacks, inspired by the attackers of the last 48 hours," Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told AFP. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to convene the security cabinet late Saturday following the latest violence, an Israeli official said. - Facebook's 'responsibility' - On Friday, Sarah Tarayra, 27, was shot dead after drawing a knife on Israeli forces in Hebron. She was a relative of the Kiryat Arba attacker, and both were from Bani Naim, a village just outside Hebron. Lerner said the army had revoked the Israeli work permits of all residents of the village. Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan meanwhile said Facebook bore "some responsibility" for the Palestinian violence. Erdan told Channel 2 television that all the "discourse, incitemement and lies" of young Palestinians before deadly attacks take place "happens on Facebook's platform." He accused Facebook of "sabotaging" the work of the Israeli police by not removing content from West Bank users, and called on the Internet giant to "monitor" its content. In a report released Friday, the Middle East diplomatic Quartet said Israel's expansion of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories was "steadily eroding the viability of the two-state solution". The Quartet -- comprising of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- called on Israel to halt its demolition of Palestinian homes and confiscation of Palestinian land. But it also urged the Palestinian Authority to act "to cease incitement to violence and strengthen ongoing efforts to combat terrorism, including by clearly condemning all acts of terrorism". The Quartet's recommendations are to serve as the basis for push to revive the Middle East peace process which has been comatose since US-brokered talks collapsed in April 2014. The group also said the Palestinian Authority's lack of control over the Gaza Strip, which is run by the Islamists of Hamas, was another major obstacle to peace. A rocket launched from Gaza hit the southern Israeli city of Sderot on Friday, causing damage to a building but no casualties. Israel responded with air strikes early on Saturday against four facilities run by Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group. They were empty at the time and there were no reports of casualties. A group of Israeli settlers (back) are guarded by soldiers and border police as they march through the West Bank city of Hebron, on July 1, 2016 Hazem Bader (AFP) Israeli security forces inspect the scene after a suspected Palestinian gunman opened fire on a settler's car near the West Bank city of Hebron on July 1, 2016 Hazem Bader (AFP) EgyptAir voice recorder memory chips intact: probe The memory chips of EgyptAir 804's black box voice recorder are intact and investigators should be able to access it, a committee probing the plane disaster said on Saturday. The other black box, a data recorder that had also been retrieved from the bottom of the Mediterranean after the aircraft plunged into the sea, has already been accessed. It had confirmed that smoke alarms had sounded in the Airbus A320 before it went down on May 19, while flying from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board. EgyptAir's 804, an Airbus A320, went down on May 19 while flying from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board Khaled Desouki (AFP/File) The voice recorder is being repaired at the French accident investigation agency. "None of the memory chips of the electronic board was damaged," the Egyptian-led probe said in a statement. Other circuitry had to be replaced, however. "After the replacement of the... board components, test results were satisfactory and it enabled the reading of the recorders," the statement said. Investigators said last week that the plane's wreckage showed signs of fire while the data recorder confirmed smoke alarms had been activated. They had previously announced that the plane's automated Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) sent signals indicating smoke alarms on board the plane before it went down. Iran salary scandal takes down development fund bosses The entire management of Iran's development fund was forced to resign on Saturday as part of a mounting scandal over lavish executive salaries, the ISNA news agency reported. Iran has been gripped by the scandal ever since the payslips of executives at several public companies were leaked two months ago, showing salaries more than 100 times that of their average workers. It has provided ammunition for hardline opponents of moderate President Hassan Rouhani less than a year before he faces re-election. Iran has been gripped by a scandal ever since the payslips of executives at several public companies were leaked two months ago, showing salaries more than 100 times that of their average workers Ali Al-Saadi (AFP/File) Seyed Safdar Hosseini, a former reformist minister who was hand picked by Rouhani to head the development fund, had been particularly targeted by Iran's conservative media. His leaked payslip showed he was paid 580 million rials ($17,000) per month. Hosseini resigned along with the rest of the development fund's management, which oversees investment in infrastucture. Media reports said he had agreed to repay some $140,000 to the state. Hosseini was labour and economy minister under reformist president Mohammad Khatami, who was in power from 1997 to 2005, and his daughter was elected to parliament in this year's legislative elections. The news came just two days after Economy Minister Ali Tayebnia sacked the directors of four banks "for receiving unconventional salaries and loans". The conservative media have also accused Hossein Fereydoun, the president's brother and special advisor, of influencing the appointment of the head of Refah bank, who was among those fired on Thursday after it emerged he earned some $60,000 a month. Fereydoun has denied playing any role in the appointment. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei renewed calls on Saturday for the government to crack down on exorbitant salaries. The economy minister has set a salary cap of $5,500 a month for bank directors, local media reported, with wider regulations for public companies to follow. Nine Italians killed, one missing in Bangladesh attack Nine Italians were killed and a 10th was listed as missing after militants attacked a restaurant in the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka and took hostages, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Saturday. The nine fatalities comprised four men and five women, Gentiloni told the press, adding that relatives had been notified. A tenth Italian was in the restaurant when the attack unfolded but was not among the 20 listed as dead, he said. Bangladeshi soldiers and police walk along a street leading to an upscale restaurant in Dhaka on July 2, 2016, following a bloody siege there by armed attackers that began on July 1 STR (AFP) Local media said the Italian dead included a 33-year-woman who had been in Bangladesh for 18 months for work, a 52-year-old woman textile exective and a 47-year-old entrepreneur who was the father of three-year-old twins. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had earlier prepared the nation for bad news, saying the country was "like a family which has suffered a painful loss." The attackers who believed they were "destroying our values" would not get a drop of encouragement from Italy, he said. "We are stronger," Renzi said. "The terrorists want to rip away the daily fabric of our lives. Our duty is to reply with even greater force, by affirming our values, the values of freedom of which we are proud, and which are stronger than hatred or terror." The attackers, moving at the start of the Eid holiday, took foreigners hostage at a restaurant, killing 20 before troops moved in Saturday. Many of the victims were hacked to death. The Bangladesh military said most of the fatalities were either Italian or Japanese. Thirteen hostages were rescued. Stop killing in name of religion: Bangladesh PM Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina pleaded with Islamist extremists to stop killing in the name of religion Saturday after 20 hostages were killed in a siege at a Dhaka restaurant. "Islam is a religion of peace. Stop killing in the name of the religion," Hasina said in a televised address to the nation in which she declared two days of mourning. "Please stop tarnishing our noble religion... I implore you to come back to the rightful path and uphold the pride of Islam." A Bangladeshi soldier stands guard during a rescue operation after jihadists attacked a restaurant in Dhaka, on July 2, 2016 The prime minister, whose government has been unable to stop a growing wave of attacks on foreigners and religious minorities, urged a nationwide effort to combat extremism. She asked people to set up "anti-terrorism committees" in districts and sub-districts across the mainly Muslim but officially secular country. The 68-year-old premier said the people behind the attacks were trying to ruin Bangladesh. "By holding innocent civilians hostage at gunpoint, they want to turn our nation into a failed state," she said. US citizen killed in Bangladesh attack: State Dept An American citizen was among those killed in a deadly attack on a restaurant packed with foreigners in Bangladesh, US officials said Saturday, pledging support to the government in Dhaka. The White House and the State Department announced the death, but did not identify the US national. "We can confirm that a US citizen was also among those senselessly murdered in this attack," State Department spokesman John Kirby said. Ambulances believed to be carrying the bodies of some hostages that were killed in an attack on an upscale restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka leave the site on July 2, 2016 "Today, as always, we stand with the people of Bangladesh and in our shared efforts to combat terrorism and violent extremism." Heavily armed militants murdered 20 hostages in Bangladesh, hacking many of their victims to death, before six of the attackers were gunned down at the end of a siege Saturday. Most of the dead were from Italy and Japan. "We remain in contact with Bangladeshi authorities and have offered any assistance necessary," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. Emory University, located in the southern US state of Georgia, confirmed that two students had been killed in the carnage. Abinta Kabir, from Miami in the state of Florida, was in Bangladesh to visit family and friends, university president James Wagner said in statement. Kabir was due to begin her second year of study in the autumn. Faraaz Hossain, from Dhaka, was a student at Emory's business school. "The Emory community mourns this tragic and senseless loss of two members of our university family," Wagner said. "Our thoughts and prayers go out on behalf of Faraaz and Abinta and their families and friends for strength and peace at this unspeakably sad time." Also killed was 19-year-old Tarushi Jain, an Indian national who was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed. Swaraj said she had spoken to the girl's grief-stricken father and conveyed her condolences. "The country is with them in this hour of grief," she tweeted. Jain was a graduate of the American International School of Dhaka. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack on a Western-style cafe in the capital's diplomatic quarter. Vietnam on June 30 has voted in favor of a new resolution on protection of homosexual, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community put forward by the United Nations (U.N.) during a meeting session in Geneva, Switzerland. Vietnam is among 23 members of the 47-seat council that voted in favor of the resolution. It is one of the only three supporters from Asia, together with Mongolia and South Korea. The new LGBT resolution of the General Council of the United Nations was passed after receiving 23 positive votes, 18 negatives and six blank votes in total. It is considered a significant effort by the international community to protect the rights of gay and transgender people around the world. Following the resolution, an independent monitor will be appointed and charged with identifying the root causes of violence and discrimination against LGBT people and discussing with governments ways to protect them. Human Rights Campaign Global Director Ty Cobb described in a statement the resolutions passage as a significant milestone in the global effort for LGBTQ equality. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power took to Twitter to celebrate the vote. Historic day: @UN Human Rights Council just created 1st-ever position at @UN to fight LGBTI discrimination & violence. #ArcOfHistory Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) June 30, 2016 Human rights activists said the recent mass shooting in Orlando (U.S.) played a role in pushing the decision forward. The U.N. Security Council in a June 13 statement condemned the massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando and specifically denounced anti-LGBT violence for the first time. By saying yes to the resolution, Vietnam has shown its consistent support for equal rights of the LGBT. On November 2015, the country passed a law to recognize gender reassignment and had earlier lifted a ban on same-sex marriage. Same-sex couples, however, have not been granted legal marital status. Related news: > Tens of thousands take to London's streets for annual gay pride parade > Obama to LGBT community: Change is possible but not inevitable > A bar as a national monument? New York's LGBT landmark vies for honor > Gay Pride prouder and louder after Orlando attacks Seven Japanese dead in Dhaka attack: government Seven Japanese nationals were killed after militants stormed a restaurant in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, Japan's government confirmed late Saturday. The Japanese were among twenty people, mostly foreigners, killed in the attack on the restaurant in an upmarket neighbourhood on Friday night that was claimed by the Islamic State group. "Embassy officials confirmed that seven Japanese were included in the bodies sent to hospital by the Bangladesh government," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference in Tokyo. Indian social activists light candles during a protest in Kolkata on July 2, 2016, against a fatal attack on a restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka Dibyangshu Sarkar (AFP) The seven victims included five men and two women, Suga said, adding that they had been engaged in development projects in the poor South Asian country with the government-run Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The victims were identified by Japanese embassy officials through photographs and belongings in the hospital, said Suga, who did not release their names. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his grief over the attack saying: "I feel profound anger that so many innocent people have lost their lives in the cruel and nefarious terrorism." "I strongly protest because it is a challenge against the universal values shared by the international community," added Abe, who held telephone talks with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina earlier in the day. Thirteen hostages were rescued when troops stormed the restaurant hours after the attack. Many of those killed were hacked to death. Yemeni government casts doubt on UN peace talks Yemen's government has expressed doubts over UN-backed efforts to end its conflict with Shiite Huthi rebels who have seized control of large parts of the country. The government still has "fundamental differences" with the Huthis over "their rejection... of measures that are necessary to put an end to their plot", it said in a statement late on Friday. Yemen's warring parties are taking a two-week break from peace talks in Kuwait that have made little headway since they began on April 21. Yemeni supporters of the Shiite Huthi movement raise their weapons during a rally to mark the Quds International day, in support of Palestinians on July 1, 2016 in the capital Sanaa Mohammed Huwais (AFP/File) The government, supported by a Sunni coalition headed by Saudi Arabia, demands that the Iran-backed rebels withdraw from cities including the capital, Sanaa, and give back arms they have seized. It wants to re-establish its authority across the entire country and restart a political transition that was interrupted when the Huthis ousted President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and seized Sanaa in 2014. The rebels have conditioned their withdrawal on both sides agreeing on a new president to manage the transition. "Due to the stubbornness (of the rebels) and their procrastination, it was not possible to agree on any item on the agenda" of the Kuwait talks, the government delegation said. The negotiators will spend the next two weeks discussing their positions before reconvening on July 15, UN mediator Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said on Wednesday. He said they would then return to Kuwait "with practical recommendations on how to implement the necessary mechanisms that will enable them to sign a peace accord". Ould Cheikh Ahmed has urged both sides to make concessions to end the conflict, which has cost more than 6,400 lives since March 2015, when the Saudi-led coalition intervened to push back the Huthis. On Thursday, the UN envoy said the two sides had "established the main principles that will guide the next phase of Yemen talks". He has put forward a peace roadmap that would see the formation of a unity government and the withdrawal and disarmament of the rebels. He said the negotiators had welcomed his proposal but had not agreed a timetable or the steps needed to implement it. Yemen's Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher told the rebels and their allies, supporters of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, that they had no choice other than to make peace. "Peace will be imposed by all means, even by force," he said in a statement published by Yemen's government-controlled Saba news agency. "Everyone without exception will have to submit to the authority of the state." Istanbul airport attack death toll rises to 45 The death of a Jordanian child brought the toll from this week's Istanbul airport attack to 45, media reported Saturday, as a scare sparked fresh jitters in Turkey's biggest city. Ankara has pointed blame at the Islamic State group for Tuesday's gun and suicide bomb rampage at Ataturk international airport. Dogan news agency reported that four-year-old Jordanian national Rayyan Mohammed, one of more than 200 people injured in the attacks, had died in hospital. People carry the coffin of Hamidullah Safar covered in a Turkish national flag on June 30, 2016 in Istanbul, two days after a suicide bombing and gun attack targeted Istanbul airport Ozan Kose (AFP/File) The Istanbul governor's office said 52 people were still in hospital, including 20 in intensive care. The child's death came as a man sparked chaos by shouting "Suicide bomber!" in a crowded Istanbul market on Saturday, with the city still reeling from the attacks. One woman was lightly injured in the panic in Umraniye, a working-class neighbourhood on Istanbul's Asian side. Police were called to the scene. The airport carnage was the latest in a string of deadly attacks to hit Turkey in the past year blamed on either IS jihadists or Kurdish rebels. There has been no claim of responsibility, but officials and analysts say the evidence points to an IS strike. "It is clear that this was Daesh," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late Friday, using another name for IS. "Their place is in hell," he added. Istanbul police have arrested 24 people in connection with the attack including 15 foreigners, state-run news agency Anadolu said. Authorities have said they believe the three attackers were a Russian, an Uzbek and a Kyrgyz national. Anadolu named two of them Friday as Rakim Bulgarov and Vadim Osmanov, without giving their nationalities. Central Asia's former Soviet republics have been a major source of foreign jihadists travelling to fight with IS and other extremist groups in Iraq and Syria. Turkish media have identified a Chechen, Akhmed Chatayev, as the mastermind of the attacks, describing him as the head of an IS cell in Istanbul. He is accused of planning two bombings in the city earlier this year in the Sultanahmet tourist district and the Istiklal shopping street, both of which killed foreigners. Clinton interviewed by FBI over private email use The FBI interviewed Hillary Clinton on Saturday about her use of personal email while serving as secretary of state, an issue that has dogged her campaign to become America's first female president. Questions over Clinton's use of a private account and homebrew server during her time as America's top diplomat have fueled voter concerns that she is not trustworthy. An aide said the interview at FBI headquarters in Washington lasted about 3.5 hours, following previous such interviews with Clinton aides, including close confidante Huma Abedin. US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a campaign rally in Balboa Park on June 2, 2016 in San Diego, California David McNew (AFP/File) It comes about three weeks before the Democratic National Convention is set to crown Clinton as the party's official White House nominee. The interview signals that the FBI's protracted criminal investigation could be entering its final phase, with a long-awaited decision nearing. "Secretary Clinton gave a voluntary interview this morning about her email arrangements while she was secretary," spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement. His use of the word "voluntary" indicates that Clinton was not subpoenaed for the interview. "She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion," Merrill said. "Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview." Clinton, aiming to become the nation's first female commander-in-chief, has apologized for exclusively using a private email account and her own server during her time as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Opponents argue that this breached rules about protecting classified documents from cyber attack and may have amounted to a crime. Her use of private email for official correspondence first came to light in 2015 during Republican-led congressional investigations into her handling of a militant attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya. The assault in 2012 left the US ambassador and three other Americans dead. Clinton turned over some 30,000 emails to State Department officials after she stepped down from the job three years ago. But she also said she deleted more than 30,000 other emails that were of a personal nature and not related to her work as secretary of state. A starkly critical report by the State Department's inspector general found she had not sought permission to conduct official business on her personal account. - Lynch-Clinton meeting - The FBI interview came amid revelations that US Attorney General Loretta Lynch held an impromptu meeting with Clinton's husband, former president Bill Clinton, at the airport in Phoenix, Arizona this week. The exchange touched off a political firestorm. On Friday, Lynch vowed to respect the decisions of the FBI and prosecutors on whether to charge Hillary Clinton. The top US law enforcement official admitted that the private encounter with Bill Clinton had "cast a shadow" over the investigation into the emails in the run-up to the November general election. But Lynch insisted that she, as a political appointee, will not overrule investigators or otherwise interfere in the legal process regarding the probe, and that the integrity of the Justice Department will be upheld. Hillary Clinton's Republican rival in the White House race, Donald Trump, tweeted on Saturday that it was "impossible for the FBI not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton. What she did was wrong! What Bill did was stupid!" He accused her on Friday of having "initiated and demanded" her husband's meeting with Lynch. Bill Clinton has known Lynch for years. He nominated her in 1999 to serve as US attorney for the eastern district of New York. Former US President Bill Clinton (L) has known US Attorney General Loretta Lynch for years, having nominated her in 1999 to serve as US attorney for the eastern district of New York Timothy A. Clary (AFP/File) Big names in spotlight at action-packed US swimming trials US swimming's biggest names were in the spotlight on the penultimate day of the Olympic trials on Saturday, with Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky and Missy Franklin gunning for Rio Games berths. Madison Kennedy topped the heat times in the women's 50m free in 24.52sec. Connor Jaeger, Rio-bound as the winner of the 400m free, topped the 1,500m free heats in 14min 58.59sec in a curtain-raiser for an action-packed evening session. Phelps, whose 22 Olympic medals include a remarkable 18 gold, had work to do to punch his ticket in the 100m butterfly after posting just the sixth-fastest semi-final time on Friday. Missy Franklin and Elizabeth Beisel of the United States compete in a semi-final heat for the women's 200m backstroke during the 2016 US Olympic swimming trials Tom Pennington (Getty/AFP) "Lane two or seven? First time in that lane so that should be fun," said Phelps, whose legs were aching after swimming the 100m fly semis less than half an hour after winning the 200m individual medley final. Such doubles were commonplace in Phelps's heyday -- a necessary challenge in the multiple medal campaigns of which his eight-gold performance at Beijing in 2008 was the zenith. With a milestone fifth trip to the Olympics secured by wins in the 200m fly as well as medley, Phelps will be trying to overcome his lowly seeding and give himself a chance at a fourth consecutive 100m fly Olympic gold. Ledecky, who booked 200m and 400m freestyle berths in Rio with victories this week, signaled her intentions in the 800m free heats with a time of 8:10.91 -- the third fastest time in history. "It felt really easy," said Ledecky, whose world record of 8:06.68 could be under threat on Saturday. "Bodes well for (Saturday)." Franklin is vying for a chance to defend the 200m backstroke title she won in London. The golden girl of 2012 has endured an up-and-down trials, earning an individual Rio berth with a runner-up finish in the 200m free but faltering with a seventh-placed finish in the 100m back -- one of two individual titles she lifted in London. The men's 50m free final is also on tap Saturday with 35-year-old Anthony Ervin topping the times with a sizzling semi-final swim of 21.55. Reigning Olympic 100m free gold medalist Nathan Adrian was second-quickest in 21.60. Guinea-Bissau records first three cases of Zika Guinea-Bissau has recorded three cases of Zika, becoming the second country in West Africa where the dangerous viral disease has been detected, the government said on Saturday. "Three cases of contamination by Zika virus have been confirmed," a statement quoted Health Minister Domingos Malu as saying. The cases occurred in the Bijagos archipelago, a group of 88 islands of which 23 are inhabited, Malu told a cabinet meeting on Friday. Zika is benign in most people but has been linked to microcephaly -- a shrinking of the brain and skull -- in babies, and to rare adult-onset neurological problems Marvin Recinos (AFP/File) The communique gave no further detail about the three cases, their location or how the disease may have arrived on the Bijagos. A hospital source told AFP that investigations were underway but the first case may have occurred early last month on Bubaque, one of the Bijagos islands. A former Portuguese colony of 1.6 million people, Guinea-Bissau suffers from chronic poverty and instability. Previously, the only other country in West Africa where Zika had been detected was Cape Verde, an archipelago in the Atlantic, where 7,500 cases have been recorded since October 2015. Saturday's statement said the authorities were taking steps to prevent further spread of the mosquito-borne virus. It announced that an anti-Zika commission had been set up, comprising several ministers under the authority of Prime Minister Baciro Dja. Zika is benign in most people but has been linked to microcephaly -- a shrinking of the brain and skull -- in babies, and to rare adult-onset neurological problems such as Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which can result in paralysis and death. Mourners say farewell to Elie Wiesel in New York Mourners gathered in New York on Sunday to bid farewell to Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel peace laureate hailed for his life's work of keeping alive the memory of Jews slaughtered during World War II. Wiesel, who died in New York on Saturday at age 87, was honored at private services at a synagogue, as tributes poured in from around the world to the man who warned that "to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time." His wife Marion, in a wheelchair, was among those who arrived in a stream of black cars on the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan. The hourlong service ended around 12:00 pm (1600 GMT). Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, renowned writer and Nobel peace laureate, has died at 87 Jewel Samad (AFP/File) The burial was set to take place in the afternoon in the Jewish sector of a cemetery in Westchester County further upstate, a source close to funeral organizers told AFP. "It was extremely moving, especially when Elie Wiesel's son and grandson spoke," film producer and critic Annette Insdorf said after the funeral. "It made very personal the loss of a man with such huge public stature." Beatrice Malovany, wife of Fifth Avenue Synagogue cantor Joseph Malovany, praised the "very dignified service." "They really brought out the true character of Elie," she said. "He was an absolutely decent human being. He respected humanity. He respected people. No matter what situation they were in. He respected the soul of the person. He was deeply religious." New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered the top of One World Trade Center lit in the blue and white colors of the Israeli flag later Sunday in honor of Wiesel. The Romanian-born Wiesel, a US citizen once known as "the world's leading spokesman on the Holocaust," was perhaps best known for his memoir "Night" detailing his experiences in Nazi death camps. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, when he was described as having "made it his life's work to bear witness to the genocide committed by the Nazis during World War II." In his Nobel acceptance speech, he said the award "both frightens and pleases me." "It frightens me because I wonder: Do I have the right to represent the multitudes who have perished? Do I have the right to accept this great honor on their behalf?" Wiesel said. "I do not. That would be presumptuous. No one may speak for the dead, no one may interpret their mutilated dreams and visions." - 'Exemplar of humanity' - Tributes poured in from world leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who reportedly tried to convince Wiesel to run for president in 2014. "In the darkness of the Holocaust, in which six million of our brothers and sisters perished, Elie Wiesel was a beacon of light and an exemplar of humanity that believes in man's good," Netanyahu said in a statement. US President Barack Obama hailed Wiesel as "one of the great moral voices of our time, and in many ways, the conscience of the world." At the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, which Wiesel helped to create, the facility's chairman Tom Bernstein said the world "feels incomplete" after Wiesel's death. "He was a transformative figure who exemplified the very ideals that the Museum encourages all to aspire to -- that memory calls us to action. We all bear the tremendous responsibility to carry on his legacy," he said. - 'Living memorial' - Eliezer Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928 and grew up in a small town in Romania. His parents raised him and his three sisters in a Jewish community, until they were all detained during the Holocaust when he was a teenager. His mother and younger sister were killed in the gas chamber at Auschwitz, according to his biography. His father died of dysentery and starvation at Buchenwald, where Wiesel was freed by US soldiers at the age of 17. He was reunited with his two older sisters in France, and eventually studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. Wiesel traveled back to Auschwitz in 2006 with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey. He also accompanied Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on a tour of the Buchenwald camp. "After we walked together among the barbed wire and guard towers of Buchenwald... Elie spoke words I've never forgotten -- 'Memory has become a sacred duty of all people of goodwill,'" Obama said Saturday. "Elie was not just the world's most prominent Holocaust survivor, he was a living memorial," he added. Merkel said "a voice of morality and humanity has been silenced" with the death of Wiesel, whom she praised as a "big-hearted reconciler." "Elie Wiesel has offered the hand of friendship to us Germans and worked tirelessly with us to make a better world." - Writer, scholar, activist - Wiesel's internationally acclaimed "Night" was published in 1956 and has been translated into more than 30 languages. It was later expanded into a trilogy with "Dawn" and "Day." While Wiesel's focus was the Holocaust and the plight of the Jewish people, he was also a rights activist and a professor of Judaic studies and the humanities. Soon after he won the Nobel Prize, Wiesel and his wife founded The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity with a mission to "combat indifference, intolerance and injustice through international dialogue and youth-focused programs." A procession exits the Fifth Avenue Synagogue during the funeral for Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel on July 3, 2016 in New York Kena Betancur (AFP) US President Barack Obama (R) embraces Elie Wiesel as they visit the camp at Buchenwald near the eastern German city of Weimar on June 5, 2009 Mandel Ngan (AFP/File) Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel (L) receives the US Congressional Medal of Honor from former US president Ronald Reagan at the White House on October 14, 1986 in Washington, DC Richard Wells (AFP/File) Elie Wiesel Laurence Saubadu (AFP) IS claims deadly Baghdad shopping street bombing Islamic State jihadists claimed a bomb attack in central Baghdad that officials said killed at least six people as it ripped through a busy shopping district early on Sunday, setting stores ablaze. The blast in the Karrada area, where many people go to shop ahead of the holiday marking the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, also wounded at least 20 people, the officials said. Interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan said the killer had planted a car bomb near a restaurant. A member of Iraqi security forces stands guard on March 26, 2016 south of the capital Baghdad Haidar Hamdani (AFP/File) The Islamic State group claimed one of its suicide bombers had launched the attack targeting a gathering of Shiites, giving a far higher toll of 40 dead and 80 wounded, according to the SITE monitoring group. Nigerian Shiites march to demand release of leader LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) Nigeria's Shiite movement and journalists say more than a million Shiites have marched to demand freedom for their detained leader and Israeli-occupied parts of Palestine. Spokesman Ibrahim Musa of the Shiite Islamic Movement said millions marched Friday on International Quds Day in a dozen northern cities and towns. Independent journalists reported more than a million people participated in the ancient Islamic city of Zaria that is the organization's headquarters. Human rights groups say Nigeria's army killed hundreds of Shiites in raids in December. Shiite leader Ibraheem al-Zakzakhy was hit by seven bullets and has been detained ever since. The army says the raids came after Shiites tried to assassinate Nigeria's army chief a charge the movement denies. PICTURED: Animals head for freedom as Argentina closes zoo BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) Animals by the hundreds are being set free as Buenos Aires closes its 140-year-old Palermo zoo. Among the first to leave will be birds of prey like owls and chimangos, destined for a reserve along the shores of the Rio de la Plata south of the capital. They will be placed there in larger confines that will give them room to stretch and strengthen their winds before they're ready for the wild. Others among the 1,500 animals at the zoo are destined for reserves in Argentina and abroad as their old home is transformed into a park. An owl named "Distinto" flies to her trainer inside a park as part of the birds exercise routine outside a cage at the former Buenos Aires Zoo, Argentina, Friday, July 1, 2016. The city government announced last week it will transform the city's zoo into an ecological park for a limited number of species, and begin with the transfer of birds of prey to natural reserves. Their plan to also transform the site into a conservation and research facility will take years while veterinarians decide which animals can be transferred to reserves, locally and abroad. Those who stay at the ecological park will live in what officials describe as much better conditions. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) Some animals will have to stay due to age or illness, including a lion cub with hypothyroidism, an elderly anteater and a snow leopard. Javier Goldschtein of Forest Bank Foundation, a member of the commission overseeing the transformation of the zoo, said Sandra the orangutan will also have to stay, but in a larger, better enclosure than the one she now endures. Pupi and Kuki the elephants are apparently headed for greater freedom. Goldschtein said experts are still determining if they can move a third elephant, Maria, who was rescued from a circus where she was mistreated. Among other animals still housed in the cages at the otherwise abandoned zoo are llamas, hippopotamuses, lions, mandrills, a zebra, lions, and a forlorn baby monkey that holds the wire mesh with both hands. A duck waddles along an empty path and ticket booths are closed, with no one waiting in line. The zoo was a favorite haunt of novelist Jorge Luis Borges as a boy. It was inaugurated in 1875 on what was then the outskirts of Buenos Aires but is now encircled by noisy neighborhoods, with bleating buses passing a few yards from the giraffe cage. Many of the enclosures are considered inhumane by modern standards. A baby monkey stands inside a cage at the former Buenos Aires Zoo in Argentina, Friday, July 1, 2016. The city government announced last week it will transform the city's zoo into an ecological park for a limited number of species, and begin with the transfer of birds of prey to natural reserves. Their plan to also transform the site into a conservation and research facility will take years while veterinarians decide which animals can be transferred to reserves, locally and abroad. Those who stay at the ecological park will live in what officials describe as much better conditions. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) An elephant named "Pupi" throws dirt on her body inside the former Buenos Aires Zoo in Argentina, Friday, July 1, 2016. The city government announced last week it will transform the city's zoo into an ecological park for a limited number of species, and begin with the transfer of birds of prey to natural reserves. Their plan to also transform the site into a conservation and research facility will take years while veterinarians decide which animals can be transferred to reserves, locally and abroad. Those who stay at the ecological park will live in what officials describe as much better conditions. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) Ticket booths stand shuttered at the former Buenos Aires Zoo in Argentina, Friday, July 1, 2016. The city government announced last week it will transform the city's zoo into an ecological park for a limited number of species, and begin with the transfer of birds of prey to natural reserves. Their plan to also transform the site into a conservation and research facility will take years while veterinarians decide which animals can be transferred to reserves, locally and abroad. Those who stay at the ecological park will live in what officials describe as much better conditions. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) An orangutan named "Sandra," photographed through a window, sits inside a cage at the former Buenos Aires Zoo in Argentina, Friday, July 1, 2016. The city government announced last week it will transform the city's zoo into an ecological park for a limited number of species, and begin with the transfer of birds of prey to natural reserves. Their plan to also transform the site into a conservation and research facility will take years while veterinarians decide which animals can be transferred to reserves, locally and abroad. But Sandra wont be going with them. Shell stay in a larger, better enclosure than the one she now endures, said Javier Goldschtein of Forest Bank Foundation, a member of the commission overseeing transformation of the zoo. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) Bears roam inside their enclosed environment at the former Buenos Aires Zoo in Argentina, Friday, July 1, 2016. The city government announced last week it will transform the city's zoo into an ecological park for a limited number of species, and will begin with the transfer of birds of prey to natural reserves. Their plan to also transform the site into a conservation and research facility will take years while veterinarians decide which animals can be transferred to local reserves and abroad. Those who stay at the ecological park will live in what officials describe as much better conditions. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) A hippo swims inside the former Buenos Aires Zoo in Argentina, Friday, July 1, 2016. The city government announced last week it will transform the city's zoo into an ecological park for a limited number of species, and begin with the transfer of birds of prey to natural reserves. Their plan to also transform the site into a conservation and research facility will take years while veterinarians decide which animals can be transferred to reserves, locally and abroad. Those who stay at the ecological park will live in what officials describe as much better conditions. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) A peacock stands on a fence outside a souvenir shop inside the former Buenos Aires Zoo, Argentina, Friday, July 1, 2016. The city government announced last week it will transform the city's zoo into an ecological park for a limited number of species, and begin with the transfer of birds of prey to natural reserves. Their plan to also transform the site into a conservation and research facility will take years while veterinarians decide which animals can be transferred to reserves, locally and abroad. Those who stay at the ecological park will live in what officials describe as much better conditions. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) A bear sits on a branch inside the former Buenos Aires Zoo in Argentina, Friday, July 1, 2016. The city government announced last week it will transform the city's zoo into an ecological park for a limited number of species, and begin with the transfer of birds of prey to natural reserves. Their plan to also transform the site into a conservation and research facility will take years while veterinarians decide which animals can be transferred to reserves, locally and abroad. Those who stay at the ecological park will live in what officials describe as much better conditions. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) A mandrill sits inside his cage at the former Buenos Aires Zoo in Argentina, Friday, July 1, 2016. The city government announced last week it will transform the city's zoo into an ecological park for a limited number of species, and begin with the transfer of birds of prey to natural reserves. Their plan to also transform the site into a conservation and research facility will take years while veterinarians decide which animals can be transferred to reserves, locally and abroad. Those who stay at the ecological park will live in what officials describe as much better conditions. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) The white tiger looks out from behind a window inside its enclosure at the former Buenos Aires Zoo in Argentina, Friday, July 1, 2016. The city government announced last week it will transform the city's zoo into an ecological park for a limited number of species, and begin with the transfer of birds of prey to natural reserves. Their plan to also transform the site into a conservation and research facility will take years while veterinarians decide which animals can be transferred to reserves, locally and abroad. Those who stay at the ecological park will live in what officials describe as much better conditions. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) An owl peers from inside its cage at the former Buenos Aires Zoo in Argentina, Friday, July 1, 2016. The city government announced last week it will transform the city's zoo into an ecological park for a limited number of species, and begin with the transfer of birds of prey to natural reserves. Their plan to also transform the site into a conservation and research facility will take years while veterinarians decide which animals can be transferred to reserves, locally and abroad. Those who stay at the ecological park will live in what officials describe as much better conditions. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) Monkeys stand inside a cage at the former Buenos Aires Zoo in Argentina, Friday, July 1, 2016. The city government announced last week it will transform the city's zoo into an ecological park for a limited number of species, and begin with the transfer of birds of prey to natural reserves. Their plan to also transform the site into a conservation and research facility will take years while veterinarians decide which animals can be transferred to reserves, locally and abroad. Those who stay at the ecological park will live in what officials describe as much better conditions. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) A shop that sold food for visitors to feed animals stands closed inside the former Buenos Aires Zoo inside the Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, July 1, 2016. The city government has announced it will transform the city's zoo into an ecological park, for a limited number of species, and will begin with the transfer of birds of prey to natural reserves. Their plan to also transform the current site into a conservation and research site will take years while veterinarians decide which animals can be transferred to local reserves and abroad. Some will stay at the ecological park, but in what officials describe as much better conditions. Officials said the food carts will be removed. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) A lion sits inside a cage at the former Buenos Aires Zoo in Argentina, Friday, July 1, 2016. The city government announced last week it will transform the city's zoo into an ecological park for a limited number of species, and begin with the transfer of birds of prey to natural reserves. Their plan to also transform the current site into a conservation and research facility will take years while veterinarians decide which animals can be transferred to local reserves and abroad. Those who stay at the ecological park will live in what officials describe as much better conditions. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) Vietnam Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh on July 1 has ordered a probe into the evaluation and approval process of Formosa Ha Tinh Steel the culprit responsible for the mass fish deaths in central Vietnam. Binh has asked relevant government agencies at a meeting yesterday to examine the evaluation, approval and planning of Formosa. Any form of corruption discovered would be subject to treated according to law. The Deputy Prime Minister also requested to review national institutions, standards and regulations to manage polluting businesses and producers to ensure proper law enforcement. He urged all parties to draw lessons from the incident to better respond to similar future events. The $500 million compensation agreed by Formosa must be used correctly and distributed to the right people, said Binh while urging ministries to focus on supporting affected fishermen, cleaning up the sea and installing environment monitoring equipment. "It's costly but in return, there will be more jobs," he said. The mass fish deaths started in April in the central province of Ha Tinh, about 400 kilometers south of Hanoi. Farmers began to find fish dead on April 6 at aquatic farms near Ha Tinh Provinces Vung Ang Port. More dead fish were subsequently found washed up on nearby beaches. The problem quickly spread to the provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue along a 200km stretch of coast. The mass fish deaths have reportedly devastated local fisheries, disrupted peoples lives and hit local tourism in the area. Formosa Ha Tinh Steel belongs to Formosa Plastics Group (Taiwan) and is expected to be completed in 2017 with total investment of nearly $1 billion. The project features a steel mill complex designed to produce 15 million tons of steel annually. The steel factory on Thursday apologized to Vietnam and pledged to pay $500 million in compensation for one of the biggest environmental disasters to have struck the country. Related news: > Vietnam threatens to shut down Formosa > How Formosas $500 mln compensation will be distributed > Ha Tinh forms council to assess damage caused by Formosa Hostage crisis leaves 28 dead in Bangladesh diplomatic zone DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) The hostages were given a test: recite verses from the Quran, or be punished, according to a witness. Those who passed were allowed to eat. Those who failed were tortured and slain. The dramatic, 10-hour hostage crisis that gripped Bangladesh's diplomatic zone ended Saturday morning with at least 28 dead, including six of the attackers, as commandos raided the popular restaurant where heavily armed attackers were holding dozens of foreigners and Bangladeshis prisoner while hurling bombs and engaging in a gunbattle with security forces. The victims included 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, and two Bangladeshi police officers. The attack marks an escalation in militant violence that has hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation with increasing frequency in recent months, with the extremists demanding the secular government set up Islamic rule. Most previous attacks have involved machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities. Hosne Ara Karim, whose son and daughter-in-law were rescued from the restaurant that was attacked by heavily armed militants, wait for them in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Bangladesh forces stormed the restaurant where militants held dozens of people hostage for 10 hours Saturday morning. (AP Photo) But Friday night's attack was different, more coordinated, with the attackers brandishing assault rifles as they shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) and stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area while dozens of foreigners and Bangladeshis were dining out during the Ramadan holy month. The gunmen, initially firing blanks, ordered restaurant workers to switch off the lights, and they draped black cloths over closed-circuit cameras, according to a survivor, who spoke with local TV channel ATN News. He and others, including kitchen staff, managed to escape by running to the rooftop or out the back door. But about 35 were trapped inside, their fate depending on whether they could prove themselves to be Muslims, according to the father of a Bangladeshi businessman who was rescued Saturday morning along with his family. "The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Quran," the Islamic holy book, according to Rezaul Karim, describing what his son, Hasnat, had witnessed inside. "Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night." The others, he said, "were tortured." Detectives were questioning his son and his family along with other survivors as part of the investigation on Saturday, as scattered details of the siege emerged. Authorities were also interrogating one of the attackers captured by commandos in the dramatic morning rescue. It was not immediately clear whether the attackers had a specific goal, and Bangladesh authorities would not say if they had made any demands. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility, saying it targeted the citizens of "Crusader countries" in the attack, warning that citizens of such countries would not be safe "as long as their warplanes kill Muslims." The statement was circulated Friday by IS supporters on the Telegram messaging service and resembled previous statements by IS. It was not immediately clear if its leadership in Syria and Iraq was involved in planning the attack. The Amaq news agency, affiliated with IS, also posted photos purportedly showing hostages' bodies, though the authenticity of the images could not be confirmed. The government did not directly comment on the IS claim but has denied in the past that the extremist group has a presence in Bangladesh. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina instead has accused her political enemies of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilize the nation which the opposition denies. On Saturday, Amaq published photos of five smiling young men each holding what appear to be assault rifles and posing in front of a black IS flags whom the agency identified as the attackers, according to the SITE Intelligence Service, which monitors jihadi online activity. They were identified by noms de guerre indicating they were all Bangladeshis. Amaq said the fighters used "knives, cleavers, assault rifles and hand grenades." Amaq said the attackers "verified" the identities of the hostages, sparing the Muslims and killing the foreigners. The 20 hostages killed included nine Italians, seven Japanese, three Bangladeshis and one Indian, government sources said, as details of the bloodshed began trickling from other capitals worldwide. The White House confirmed Saturday that a U.S. citizen was among the hostages killed, but did not release any further identification. "All the hostages were killed last night. The terrorists used sharp weapons to kill them brutally," said Brig. Gen. Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury of the Army Headquarters in a news conference Saturday night. Two Bangladeshi police officers also died from injuries sustained while exchanging gunfire with the attackers Friday night. Italian President Sergio Mattarella cut short a visit to Latin America because of the massacre, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. Italy's soccer players wore black armbands in a sign of mourning during Saturday's European Championship quarterfinals match against Germany. A Roman Catholic priest in southern Italy, whose 33-year-old sister Simona Monti, a textile firm employee, was killed in the attack expressed hope that her death could contribute toward making a more just world. Rev. Luca Monti said he hopes "this experience of martyrdom for my family and the blood of my sister Simona can help contribute to building a more just and brotherly world." In New Delhi, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said she was "extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka." Nineteen-year-old Tarushi Jain had been on holiday from her studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She was in Dhaka visiting her father, who has run a garment business in the country for the past 15 or 20 years, according to Indian government sources, who were not authorized to speak with media and so requested anonymity. But another Indian citizen, a doctor who spoke Bengali and could pass himself as a Bangladeshi, was released unharmed, a government source said. A Bangladeshi woman Ishrat Akhond was also among the dead. She had been holding a dinner meeting with Italian businessmen when she was killed in the siege, according to three of her friends who did want to be named for fear of reprisal. One told The Associated Press, "She was such a loving person, such a good friend." Others posted photographs and messages of disbelief and condolences on her Facebook page. Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, said two of its students were killed in the attack: Abinta Kabir, of Miami, Florida, a sophomore at the school's Oxford, Georgia, campus who was visiting family and friends in Bangladesh, and Faraaz Hossain, of Dhaka, a junior at the university's Goizueta Business School. Ten of the 26 people who were wounded Friday night when the militants opened fire were in critical condition, and six were on life support, according to hospital staff. The injuries ranged from broken bones to gunshot wounds. Most of them were police officers, but one was a civilian. Two foreign chefs working in the kitchen, Argentine Diego Rossini and Italian Jacopo Bioni, described how they made a dramatic escape during the initial attack by rushing to the rooftop terrace and then jumping down two stories onto a nearby building as the attackers chased them, firing their weapons and hurling grenades. "They were very well prepared with bombs, guns, machine guns, it was horrible", Rossini said in an interview with Argentine TV newscast C5N. "I still can't believe this happened, it was like a movie, they pointed with their guns to me and I could hear shots passing by. I was very, very afraid, like never before in my whole life ... It was one of the worst moments of my life." Another Italian, businessman Gianni Boschetti, was dining with his wife but had just stepped into the restaurant garden to take a phone call when the attack began. Italian state TV said Boschetti threw himself into bushes and escaped. His sister-in-law, Patrizia D'Antona, said that he "wandered all night" from hospital to hospital in hopes of finding his wife, 56-year-old Claudia Maria D'Antona. She was later identified as among the nine Italians found slain in the restaurant. In the end, paramilitary troops managed to rescue 13 hostages, including one Argentine, two Sri Lankans and two Bangladeshis, according to Lt. Col. Tuhin Mohammad Masud, commander of the Rapid Action Battalion that conducted the rescue. Japan's government said one Japanese hostage was also rescued with a gunshot wound. The commandos went in after the attackers did not respond to calls for negotiation, Masud said. As the troops, wearing flak jackets and helmets and armed with automatic weapons, moved in on the restaurant at 7:40 a.m., local TV stations reported the sound of gunfire and explosions. At least seven armored vehicles and ambulances stood by. The commandos killed six of the attackers and recovered explosive devices and sharp weapons from the scene, said Chowdhury of the Army Headquarters. "Because of the effort of the joint force, the terrorists could not flee," the prime minister said in a nationally televised speech, vowing to fight militant attacks in the country and urged people to come forward. The audacious attack came during Ramadan, when devout Muslims fast during the day and eat after dark. Many left the city of more than 10 million people for a nine-day public holiday with families to celebrate Eid al Fitr festival with families. "Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such an act," Hasina, the prime minister, said. "They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism." She announced two days of national mourning for the dead. The government has cracked down on domestic radical Islamists by making scores of arrests. It has blamed local terrorists and opposition political parties especially the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami. But the attacks have continued, with about two dozen atheist writers, publishers, members of religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers slain since 2013. Earlier on Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death by at least three assailants in southwest Bangladesh. IS and and al-Qaida affiliates have claimed responsibility for many of those attacks. The escalating violence leading up to the unprecedented hostage crisis has raised fears that religious extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions of secularism and tolerance. That the attackers targeted a popular restaurant in the heart of the diplomatic quarter of Bangladesh's capital signaled a change in tactics. The restaurant overlooking a lake serves Spanish food and is patronized by residents of Gulshan, an affluent neighborhood where most of the foreign embassies are located. ___ Associated Press writers Katy Daigle and Nirmala George in New Delhi, Ken Moritsugu in Tokyo, Frances D'Emilio in Rome, Jonathan Landrum in Atlanta and Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report. ___ This story has been corrected to fix the age of Indian victim Tarushi Jain to 19, instead of 18, fix the location of Emory University to Atlanta, Georgia, and clarify that one of the students killed was enrolled at the school's Oxford, Georgia, campus. Bangladeshi soldiers and security personnel sit on top of armored vehicles as they cordon off an area near a restaurant popular with foreigners after heavily armed militants took dozens of hostages, in a diplomatic zone of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Bangladesh forces stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area Saturday morning, triggering explosions and finding bodies lying in pools of blood. (AP Photo) An ambulance transports bodies found at a restaurant popular with foreigners after heavily armed militants attacked it on Friday night in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Bangladesh forces stormed the restaurant where heavily armed militants held dozens of people hostage for 10 hours Saturday morning. (AP Photo) Razaul Karim, whose son and daughter-in-law were rescued from the restaurant that was attacked by heavily armed militants, waits for them in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Bangladesh forces stormed the restaurant where heavily armed militants held dozens of people hostage for 10 hours Saturday morning. (AP Photo) In this Friday, July 1, 2016, image made from video, an injured security officer, reacts as he sits in the back of a truck after a gunfight with militants who took hostages at a restaurant popular with foreigners in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Bangladesh forces stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area Saturday morning, triggering explosions and finding bodies lying in pools of blood. (AP Photo) Bangladeshi policemen clear out an area to facilitate action against heavily armed militants who struck at the heart of Bangladesh's diplomatic zone on Friday night, taking dozens of hostages at a restaurant popular with foreigners, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Police sustained casualties and dozens of people were wounded in a gun battle as security forces cordoned off the area and sought to end the standoff. (AP Photo) Bangladeshi soldiers come out of an area housing a restaurant popular with foreigners after heavily armed militants attacked it on Friday night and took dozens of hostages, in a diplomatic zone of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, July 2, 2016. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadis activity online. (AP Photo) People help an unidentified injured person after a group of gunmen attacked a restaurant popular with foreigners in a diplomatic zone of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, July 1, 2016. A group of gunmen attacked a restaurant popular with foreigners in a diplomatic zone of the Bangladeshi capital on Friday night, taking hostages and exchanging gunfire with security forces, according to a restaurant staff member and local media reports. (AP Photo) A relative tries to console Semin Rahman, covering face, whose son is missing after militants took hostages in a restaurant popular with foreigners in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Bangladeshi forces stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area where heavily armed militants held dozens of people hostage Saturday morning, rescuing some captives including foreigners at the end of the 10-hour standoff. (AP Photo) In this image made from video provided by ATN News, Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina makes a nationally televised speech regarding the militant hostage-taking at a restaurant popular with foreigners in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Hasina condemned the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, and she said security officials arrested one of the militants. Bangladeshi forces stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area where heavily armed militants held dozens of people hostage Saturday morning, rescuing some captives including foreigners at the end of the 10-hour standoff. (ATN News via AP Video) The Italian and European Union flags fly at half-mast on the facade of Chigi Palace government's office in Rome, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Italys foreign minister said the bodies of nine Italians have been identified in the Dhaka restaurant attack by extremists. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) Johura Begum shows a photograph of her brother-in-law Saidul Islam, who works at the Holey Artisan Bakery and currently missing, at the site of an attack by heavily armed militants, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, July 2, 2016. The dramatic, 10-hour hostage crisis that gripped the Bangladesh's diplomatic zone ended Saturday morning as commandos raided the popular restaurant where dozens of foreigners and Bangladeshis were dining out during the Ramadan holy month. (AP Photo) Armored vehicles arrive after militants took hostages at a restaurant popular with foreigners in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Bangladeshi forces stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area where heavily armed militants held dozens of people hostage Saturday morning, rescuing some captives including foreigners at the end of an hours long standoff. (AP Photo) Armored vehicles arrive after militants took hostages at a restaurant popular with foreigners in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Bangladeshi forces stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area where heavily armed militants held dozens of people hostage Saturday morning, rescuing some captives including foreigners at the end of an hours long standoff. (AP Photo) The facade of Rome's Campidoglio Capitol Hill is lit with the colors of the Italian flag, in Rome, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Italy's foreign minister said the bodies of nine Italians have been identified after a group of armed extremists stormed a restaurant in Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) Israel strikes Hamas sites in Gaza after rocket attack JERUSALEM (AP) The Israeli military says it struck several militant sites in Gaza early Saturday in response to a Palestinian rocket attack that hit a kindergarten in the Israeli border town of Sderot. No injuries were reported on either side but damage was caused to buildings. The exchange comes amid an escalation of violence in the West Bank following a pair of fatal attacks against Jewish settlers that has sparked Israel's largest military surge in two years. The military said airstrikes targeted four training sites run by Gaza's militant Hamas rulers. Late Friday, a rocket from Gaza struck an empty kindergarten, marking a rare successful hit of a civilian target in Israel. Rocket attacks have been sporadic since Israel and Hamas waged a 50-day war in the summer of 2014. A Palestinian boy walks next to a destroyed workshop that was hit by an early morning Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, Saturday, July 2, 2016. The Israeli military struck a series of militant sites in Gaza early Saturday in response to a rocket attack that hit a kindergarten in the Israeli border town of Sderot. No injuries were reported on either side but damage was caused to buildings. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the rocket attack was "a horrific reminder of the intentions of terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip to target communities, people, men, women and children." "Over the past two days Israeli civilians have witnessed and experienced the devastating effects of incitement-fueled terrorism based on hatred and radical beliefs," he said. "In our efforts to ensure stability, we continue to defend against those who put innocent lives in harm's way." On Friday, a Palestinian gunman ambushed a family traveling in a car in the southern West Bank, killing an Israeli man and wounding his wife and two teenage children. The previous day a Palestinian teen stabbed a 13-year-old Israeli-American girl to death as she slept in her bedroom in a West Bank settlement. The attacks prompted Israel to send hundreds of troops to the area and impose a closure on the Hebron district, where many of the recent attacks have originated. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will reduce the amount of tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians each month, saying that some of the money was being given to families of attackers. His Cabinet will convene late Saturday to discuss further measures. Visiting the site of Friday's deadly shooting, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel would be taking unprecedented steps to track down the killers of Miki Mark, a 48-year-old father of 10. Lieberman said the approval of 42 new housing units in the settlement of Kiryat Arba, where the 13-year-old girl was stabbed to death, would send a message that every attack would only strengthen Israeli settlements. Over the past nine months Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbings, shootings and attacks using cars against civilians and security forces, killing 34 Israelis and two visiting Americans. Israeli troops as well as some armed civilians have killed about 200 Palestinians during this period, most said by Israel to be attackers. Israel says the violence is fueled by a Palestinian campaign of lies and incitement, compounded on social media sites that glorify attacks. Palestinians say it stems from frustration at nearly five decades of Israeli rule in territory they claim for a state. A Palestinian man inspects a damaged artesian well drilling truck after an early morning Israeli airstrike hit a workshop in Gaza City, Saturday, July 2, 2016. The Israeli military struck a series of militant sites in Gaza early Saturday in response to a rocket attack that hit a kindergarten in the Israeli border town of Sderot. No injuries were reported on either side but damage was caused to buildings. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) Palestinians walk next to a destroyed workshop was hit by an early morning Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, Saturday, July 2, 2016. The Israeli military struck a series of militant sites in Gaza early Saturday in response to a rocket attack that hit a kindergarten in the Israeli border town of Sderot. No injuries were reported on either side but damage was caused to buildings. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) Israeli soldiers block entrance to the West Bank village of Yatta, near Hebron, Saturday, July 2, 2016. On Friday, a Palestinian gunman ambushed a family traveling in a car in the southern West Bank, killing an Israeli man and wounding his wife and two teenage children. The previous day a Palestinian teen stabbed a 13-year-old Israeli-American girl to death as she slept in her bedroom. The attacks prompted Israel's military to send hundreds of troops to the area and impose a closure on the Hebron district, a flashpoint area where many of the recent attacks have stemmed from. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi) Known for crime videos, 'Cajun John Wayne' seeks House seat OPELOUSAS, La. (AP) Body-armored and gripping a high-powered rifle, former Sheriff's Capt. Clay Higgins looks at the camera and leaves no doubt what he thinks of the young men alleged to be members of a violent Louisiana gang called the Gremlins. "Thugs." "Animals." In this June 2, 2016, photo, Clay Higgins, a former Captain for the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's office, and candidate for Congress, poses for a photograph in Lafayette, La. His wristband is printed with the word "redemption." The man dubbed the Cajun John Wayne has set his sights on a congressional seat. Higgins, a Republican, is one of seven candidates vying for the seat in Louisianas southwestern district, which is being vacated by Republican Rep. Charles Boustany, who is running for Senate. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill) "Heathens." On-camera, Higgins, who is white, refers to the law enforcement officers arrayed behind him, along with several black community leaders. "Men like us?" he says. "Son, we do dumbbell presses with weights bigger than you." Higgins' boss, St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz, told Higgins to tone down the rhetoric. Instead, the man dubbed by the media as the "Cajun John Wayne" resigned and now he's running for Congress. Higgins, a Republican, is one of seven candidates vying for the seat in Louisiana's southwestern district, which is being vacated by Republican Rep. Charles Boustany, who is running for Senate. Also in the race: former gubernatorial candidate Scott Angelle, the fundraising leader so far. What Higgins, 54, lacks in money he makes up with fame. His over-the-top Crime Stoppers videos have been growing in popularity since last summer and even made it onto "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," where Fallon jokingly suggested Higgins should run for president. Higgins who says he's of Irish, not Acadian, descent is counting on his straight talk to boost his candidacy. One popular video features his recounting of an otherwise unremarkable break-in at Stelly's Supermarket and Restaurant, a pit stop near fields of corn and sugar cane. "Look at me, son," Higgins says, addressing the unknown burglar with a touch of menace in his Louisiana drawl. "The sheriff likes Stelly's restaurant. And so do I." Reaction has run the gamut from praise to amusement to ire. The Gremlins video, in particular, drew criticism from the Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which said, "nothing that Mr. Higgins said will make his community safer." Higgins sought to pre-empt any accusation of racial motivation. In the video, he tells viewers to look at the black community leaders arrayed behind him, side-by-side with law enforcement officers. "This is not about race," he says. New Orleans black activist Raymond Brown argued otherwise. "He knew ... his name was going to go big by interjecting race," Brown said. Clarence Lazard, a black Baptist pastor who took part in the Gremlins video, supports Higgins. He says that, beneath Higgins' "country bumpkin" drill-sergeant persona is "a unique gentleman who's not scared to say what he thinks." Guidroz issued a statement that he supported the "overall message" of the Gremlins video, but that earlier videos sometimes crossed the line with comments he called unprofessional. He also said Higgins violated policy for instance, by using the sheriff's office address to register a business selling mugs, T-shirts and other "Captain Higgins" trinkets. Higgins may also face another issue in the campaign: a recently unearthed 1991 divorce record in which his first wife, now deceased, said he once put a gun to her head. "I fell out of my chair," Higgins said in a recent interview of the moment he was contacted by a reporter about the record. He said he had not contested the divorce and knew nothing of the allegation. He said the marriage fell apart after the death of their 6-month-old daughter. But, he insisted, there was no violence, no threats. Now married to his fourth wife, Higgins is a New Orleans native. He grew up on a horse farm north of the city, achieved financial success in the automobile business and served in the National Guard. He says he began turning around an admittedly raucous lifestyle "I worked too much, I drank too much, I didn't honor my wedding vows" after a divorce from his second wife and the resulting separation from their children. He slips Bible references into some of his videos and wears wrist bands with the words "Redemption" and tiny crosses. If politics doesn't work out, he's still in law enforcement, now a deputy marshal in the city of Lafayette. One campaign selling point: He says his fame means he won't be just another freshman when he walks into the Capitol. "When I show up representing Louisiana, they're going to have to pay attention," he said. ___ Follow Kevin McGill on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mcgill56 Obama backtracks on UK trade warning to limit Brexit fallout WASHINGTON (AP) President Barack Obama is backtracking on his warning that Britain would go to the "back of the queue" for a U.S. trade deal, as he tries to contain the fallout of the U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union. The shift in tone illustrates how Britain's vote has abruptly scrambled Obama's reality. Where the president had tried to encourage the U.K. not to rashly abandon the European bloc, he now must reassure Britain that its decision to do so won't mean its demise. His priority of locking in trade deals before leaving office now becomes a distant second, behind the more urgent task of restoring confidence in the financial markets and in Europe's future. "The Obama administration and a number of leaders in Europe as well is trying to calm the waters. At this point, there are more questions than answers," said Miriam Sapiro, Obama's former acting trade representative and now an adviser at the strategy firm Finsbury. FILE - In this June 3, 2016, file photo, President Barack Obama walks out of the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. When Britain was considering leaving the European Union, Obama urged its citizens to consider the full ramifications, including going to the back of the queue for a U.S. trade deal. Now that Britain is on its way out, Obama is walking back from that warning. As he tries to contain the fallout, hes insisting the relationship with Britain will be no worse off. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) Obama's attempt to show support for a struggling ally casts him in the role of forceful free-trade advocate at a time when all of the major presidential candidates running to replace him are vocally opposed. Yet current and former Obama administration officials are operating under the assumption that Democrat Hillary Clinton, if elected, would come around to supporting Obama's trade deals after finding ways to reconcile specific concerns she's raised about jobs, wages and national security. Before Britain's exit vote, or Brexit, Obama's administration was deep in negotiations toward a sweeping free trade deal with the 28-nation EU. Supporters of the Brexit had argued the U.K. wouldn't lose out on U.S. commerce because it could easily broker a one-on-one deal with the U.S. So during a visit to London in April, Obama sought to correct the record, arguing that wouldn't "happen any time soon." Obama's warning reflected his broader belief that separate trade deals with individual countries are too laborious, given the countless regulations, laws and standards that must be aligned to create a free trade zone. Instead, Obama has sought to broker broad deals with universal requirements, so that any country that agrees to the conditions can join. His 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership with Asia, awaiting ratification in Congress, is a prime example of that multi-member approach. So it took many by surprise when, after Britain's referendum, the White House said the U.S. might still pursue a one-off deal with Britain, but it simply might take longer given the legwork that's already been done on the broader EU deal. Secretary of State John Kerry even said that Obama planned to pursue both deals "at the same time." "He knows how to multitask," Kerry said this week. In reality, neither is likely to happen before Obama leaves office. Reeling from a decision many British leaders are already starting to regret, the U.K. will be too preoccupied with negotiating its EU exit to pursue complex trade talks with the U.S. Europe, already distracted by a migrant crisis and a growing nationalist movement, is likely to remain steeped in chaos and confusion for many months. The fact that Britain technically remains in the EU until the divorce is complete further muddies the picture. "There's a bandwidth issue: Britain's overwhelming priority is and has to be renegotiating their relationship with the European union," U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in an interview. "We certainly want to reassure the British that the relationship is going to remain special, that we're going to find a way to deepen our trade and investment relationship at the appropriate time, in the appropriate way." Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, are urging Obama to start talks on a U.S.-U.K. deal right away. In addition to that option, American officials have also discussed letting Britain simply join the U.S.-EU deal at a later date despite no longer being an EU member. An out-of-the-box option being discussed is for Britain to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, even though it's nowhere near the Pacific Ocean. For the Obama administration, pulling back on his trade warning is just one piece of a broader attempt to alleviate concerns about a breakdown in trans-Atlantic unity that has unsettled the global financial system. White House officials have said they expect no change in Britain's partnership in NATO or in the fight against the Islamic State group, while CIA Director John Brennan insists intelligence cooperation will continue unabated. At the same time, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European power-brokers have pressured Britain to pull out sooner than later, Obama has adopted the opposite position. Meeting with other North American leaders on Wednesday, he said "everyone should catch their breath" before pursuing an orderly, measured withdrawal. U.S. officials say it makes little sense to punish Britain by denying it a trade deal. In addition to helping stem global economic anxieties, a free-trade agreement could help Britain continue meeting its NATO pledge to devote 2 percent of GDP to military spending. And it would enable the U.K. to contribute significantly to stabilizing Afghanistan and fighting terrorism in Syria and Iraq critical security efforts with no clear end in sight. ___ Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper contributed to this report. ___ Lynch meeting latest episode to strain Clinton trust WASHINGTON (AP) An impromptu meeting between Bill Clinton and the nation's top cop could further undermine Hillary Clinton's efforts to convince voters to place their trust in her, highlighting perhaps her biggest vulnerability. Attorney General Loretta Lynch expressed regret on Friday that she met with the former president earlier in the week at the Phoenix airport while the Justice Department's investigation into Hillary Clinton's email practices nears a conclusion. Lynch acknowledged that it "cast a shadow" on the public's perception of the case. "I certainly wouldn't do it again," Lynch said of the meeting with the former president, who nominated her to serve as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York in 1999. FILE - In this March 12, 2012 file photo, then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton checks her mobile phone after her address to the Security Council at United Nations headquarters. An impromptu meeting between Bill Clinton and the nation's top cop could further undermine Hillary Clintons efforts to convince voters to place their trust in her, highlighting perhaps her biggest vulnerability. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) She added that she would follow the recommendations of career prosecutors on whether to file criminal charges at the close of the investigation, indicating that she would accept whatever decision was presented to her. The attorney general's remarks at a Colorado conference were aimed at tamping down concerns that the investigation could be politically tainted or that Lynch, an Obama administration appointee, might overrule the findings of agents and prosecutors. They have spent months looking into the possible mishandling of classified information on the private email server Clinton used when she was secretary of state. For Clinton, about four weeks shy of becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, the episode raises the risk that voters will see her again as part of an enduring power couple that doesn't play by the normal set of rules. Confronted by questions about her email use, Clinton has struggled to overcome questions about her honesty during the campaign. The Phoenix meeting involving her husband could only compound the dilemma. The former first lady and New York senator has argued that she is more trustworthy than Donald Trump on handling the issues that matter to most Americans: foreign policy, national security and running the economy. But the email investigation has continued to hang over her campaign and the meeting plays into Trump's argument that she showed poor judgment and will receive leniency from a Democratic administration. "Oh, just a coincidence. He just happened to be at the airport at this time," Trump said with a dose of sarcasm while campaigning Friday in Colorado. Speaking of the former president, Trump added: "He opened up a Pandora's Box. And it shows what's going on. And it shows what's happening with our laws and with our government." While Democrats privately expressed angst about the meeting, others suggested it was more indicative of a gregarious former president. John Morgan, a top Democratic fundraiser in Florida, said if the ex-president is at an airport and knows an acquaintance is close by, he's likely to stop by for a quick hello. "It doesn't matter if it's Loretta Lynch or Loretta Lynn. He's coming over if he knows you," Morgan said. Congressional Republicans seized on the meeting between the former president and the attorney general. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the third-ranking House Republican, said Lynch should recuse herself entirely from the case and appoint a special prosecutor. Lynch had said she would still be briefed on the investigation and review the results, but let the career officials make the call on whether a prosecution should go ahead. "The notion that the prosecutor, the person who runs the Justice Department, would spend 30 minutes in a private conversation with the spouse of someone her department is investigating raises all sorts of red flags and even Democrats have admitted it," GOP Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida told Miami 610 WIOD Radio. Lynch says the meeting was unplanned and happened while the former president was waiting to depart on another plane. She said he walked over and boarded her plane after she landed. She said Clinton talked about his grandchildren and they discussed former Attorney General Janet Reno, whom they both know. "We basically said hello, and I congratulated him on his grandchildren as people tend to do," she said Friday. "It really was a social meeting," she added. "He spoke to me, he spoke to my husband." The outcome of the investigation is likely to shape the presidential campaign, whether to Clinton's benefit if she is cleared or to Trump's advantage if she or anyone close to her winds up being prosecuted. It comes as Clinton is entering a new phase of her campaign, considering a potential vice president choice and holding her first public events with Obama on Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina, and with Vice President Joe Biden in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Friday. Clinton has been hammering Trump's business record and expects to make a high-profile case against the Republican mogul in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Wednesday. Democrats hope that the Phoenix incident is quickly forgotten. "It's not worrisome," said former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a Clinton supporter. "It's a kerfuffle that will go away in another day as soon as Trump says something outrageous." __ Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, Stephen Braun, Kathleen Hennessey and Catherine Lucey contributed to this report. ___ This story corrects spelling of contributor's name to Hennessey, not Hennessy. FILE - In this June 14, 2016 file photo, Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks in Washington. Former President Bill Clinton spoke with Lynch during an impromptu meeting in Phoenix, but Lynch says the discussion did not involve the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email use as secretary of state. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File) Trump and Clinton looking for different things in a VP WASHINGTON (AP) Donald Trump wants a running mate who has what he lacks political experience. Hillary Clinton is putting a premium on diversity as she searches for a No. 2. Yet the presidential rivals are running strikingly similar processes for tapping their vice presidential picks: relying on prominent Washington lawyers to comb through the background of top contenders, seeking guidance from a small circle of trusted advisers and family members, and weighing their personal chemistry with prospects. Trump, a wealthy businessman who has never held public office, is mulling a small number of political veterans. He's seriously considering former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, according to people with direct knowledge of the vetting process. FILE - In this June 10, 2016, file photo, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., departs the Washington home of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in Washington. Donald Trump wants a running mate who has what he lacks political experience. Clinton is putting a premium on diversity as she searches for a No. 2. Yet the presidential rivals are running strikingly similar processes for tapping their vice presidential pick. Warren is thought to be a top contender for Clinton. (AP Photo/Paul Holston, File) "We're vetting a lot of good people and we have a lot of interest in people that want to leave high positions and do this," Trump said Thursday. The presumptive Republican nominee appears less concerned about diversity. His campaign chairman has said publicly that Trump is not interested in choosing a woman or minority for the sake of appealing to a particular segment of the electorate. The confirmed contenders are all white men over age 50. Clinton has said she wants a running mate who is well-prepared to become president. But Democrats say she's also giving priority to diversity and has been weighing women, Hispanic and black candidates a nod to the voting blocs Democrats need to win in presidential elections. Top contenders for the Democratic ticket include Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of Washington's most prominent female lawmakers; Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, a telegenic 41-year-old Hispanic politician; and Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, one of two black senators, was also being considered, though it's unclear whether he is still in the running. It's rare that a running mate dramatically shifts the trajectory of a presidential race. Yet it's still among the most important decisions nominees face during the general election and their choice is viewed as a reflection of their priorities and values. Clinton has veteran Democratic lawyer James Hamilton overseeing her selection process, with input from longtime confidants John Podesta and Cheryl Mills. Clinton is expected to begin meeting with candidates herself next week, according to two Democrats with knowledge of the process. Given Clinton's decades in the public eye, her advisers don't expect her selection of a running mate to change her electoral prospects significantly. But one Clinton aide said it was important that her running mate help tell the "story" of her candidacy. Clinton has increasingly said her campaign is about Americans being "stronger together" a phrase intended to convey the importance of a diverse country fighting for common goals. Aides who have worked in senior White House posts under President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton have also been emphasizing the need for personal chemistry, noting that a strained relationship between a president and vice president can be destructive in the West Wing. Clinton and Trump face fast-approaching deadlines as they evaluate their choices. Trump has said he plans to announce his running mate at the Republican National Convention, which kicks off in Cleveland in just over two weeks but the campaign has also considered pushing up the date. A person familiar with Trump's decision-making process said the one-time reality television star is weighing how to maximize the suspense of his choice. He might do it showbiz-style at the convention. Trump has spent weeks discussing his options with his adult children, business associates and even friends from his country clubs. A.B. Culvahouse, a lawyer who has overseen vice presidential vetting for previous GOP nominees, sent vetting paperwork to top contenders late this week. While the businessman has made clear he'll tap a political veteran for the post, those close to him say that's not the only element. "He's not going to pick someone he doesn't personally like," according to one person with knowledge of the process. Like others who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, they were not authorized to discuss the vice presidential process publicly. The businessman has a close relationship with most of vice presidential finalists. He's less familiar with Pence, though the two plan to meet this weekend, according to Marc Lotter, a spokesman for the Indiana governor. In choosing a political veteran, Trump would not be sending a message only to voters, but to the numerous GOP leaders who are wary of his candidacy. "That would soothe some concerns but not all of them," said Kevin Madden, a former adviser to Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee. Clinton is expected to wait until after the Republican convention to announce her running mate, allowing her to use her pick to distract from any boost Trump receives from the GOP gathering. She and her running mate will be nominated at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia the last week in July. ___ Lemire reported from Erie, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writer Steve Peoples contributed to this report. ___ Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC, Jonathan Lemire at http://twitter.com/JonLemire and Jill Colvin at http://twitter.com/colvinj. In this May 11, 2016, file photo, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence launches his campaign for re-election during an event in Indianapolis. Pence will meet with presumed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump over the weekend, a top aide to the governor said Friday, July 1, 2016, after it was confirmed that Pence is under consideration as a vice presidential running-mate. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File) Afghan officials: at least 9 civilians killed in 2 attacks KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) At least nine civilians have been killed in separate attacks in Afghanistan, including a suicide bombing and a mass shooting, Afghan officials said Saturday. At least two civilians were killed after a suicide bomber on a motorbike targeted a local tribal elder in eastern Nangarhar province, according to the deputy spokesman for the provincial governor. Noor Ahmad Habibi said that 11 others were wounded in the attack, which took place in Jalalabad, the provincial capital. The bomber was targeting local tribal elder Hayatullah Khan, who escaped unhurt, Habibi said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The Taliban are known to be active in the province. In southern Kandahar province unknown gunmen shot and killed seven civilians, said Zia Durani, spokesman for the provincial police chief. He said the victims included four men and three women, and a police investigation was underway. Taliban insurgents attacked Afghan local police check points in Kandahar province late Friday night, killing five policemen, Durani said. Four insurgents were killed in the battle, which took place in Maiwand district, he added. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Kandahar province. EU's new crises raise questions about what more can be done BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) Europe in turmoil. Britain dealing the European Union a heavy blow. People power causing the EU great angst over what its mission should be. Terror strikes in a major capital. "We cannot continue as if nothing had happened ... Europe's crisis is deep," warned EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker. "A period for reflection, clarification and discussion is called for." Those comments and events ring true today but they are actually from June 2005. Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico, right, speaks, during an informal meeting with President of the European commission Jean-Claude Juncker, left, prior to a dinner hosted by Robert Fico at Bratislava Castle, Slovakia, Thursday, June 30, 2016. Slovakia takes over the European Unions presidency on Friday determined to help reconnect the EU with its citizens and put decision-making back in the hands of Europes nations as the bloc reels from Britains vote to leave. (AP Photo/Bundas Engler) At the time, Juncker's Luxembourg held the EU's rotating presidency. A Tony Blair-led Britain had just destroyed his blueprint for a long-term EU budget by insisting on getting its money back. Weeks earlier, Dutch and French voters had rejected a draft EU constitution, ending two years of behind-the-scenes work. In early July 2005, the London transport system was attacked by extremists who killed 52 people. So much has changed since then, yet so little appears different except perhaps that Europe rallied to Britain's side after the July 7 bombings. Today, the U.K. appears to be in virtual quarantine out of fear that its anti-European streak might be contagious. Though the crises today may be different Europe's failure to manage a surge of refugee arrivals, Greece's debt mountain and future in the shared euro currency they raise the same questions about how to make the EU relevant to people, whether they be in Malta or Finland or Germany. Even to many in the 28-nation bloc, Europe seems remote. There are no "European nationals," and the citizens of Europe distrust distant Brussels even more than their own governments. Indeed it's unclear what Europe might do now that it could not have done a decade ago, as far-right parties cry victory in the wake of Brexit and shout for others to follow the U.K. lead. "The challenge for Europe's leadership is to address the legitimate grievances of people dissatisfied with Europe, without kowtowing to the ideologies of the extreme left or right," said Etienne Davignon, president of the Friends of Europe think tank. "We must not use the current crisis as an excuse to push endlessly for 'more Europe,'" he said. "The answer is responding quickly to specific questions from citizens who want a better and more secure life." Stefano Micossi at the Centre for European Policy Studies said European leaders "need to think about tangible and achievable goals, even if they are not easy, which would show the world that the EU will not only survive, it will grow stronger." To judge by Juncker's remarks Friday, the EU's executive Commission he leads is already enacting some deep reforms that Britain itself has asked for but will not budge on core beliefs. "I will not say that nothing has to change, but things moving in the right direction will not change," he told reporters in Bratislava as Slovakia took over the EU's rotating presidency from the Netherlands. Juncker said the Commission has significantly cut red tape and is proposing less legislation than its predecessors so that Europe acts mostly where it's needed. He wants to plow ahead with deepening Europe's single market and connecting up its energy markets. But on migration not the challenge of refugees, but on the key issue of whether citizens of EU nations should be allowed U.K. social benefits like payments to families or unemployment he is intransigent. "I will not change," Juncker said, repeating the EU mantra that there can be no free movement of capital, goods or services without the free movement of people. Prime Minister Robert Fico, leading a right-leaning Slovak government that has felt dictated to from Brussels over the refugee emergency, has called for "a new balance" between Europe's institutions and its member states, with nations having more say. Fico will host an informal summit of EU leaders in Bratislava on Sept. 16, and he believes that breaking with the past and doing things outside of Brussels is the way to go. "We can't keep on with business as usual," he said. Slovakia in particular wants to keep Europe's door open to aspiring nations, particularly in the Balkans. The prospect of EU membership there has driven reform and prevented countries from falling back into war. For Camino Mortera-Martinez, a research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, the old continent needs "outsiders strong, clear-minded leaders and thinkers, with a vision for the continent who were not born and bred within the European bubble." "Europeans are scared, they are wary of migration, many have lost their jobs. Brussels cannot counter-attack with yet another round of good-for-nothing summits and empty political declarations," she said. Mob burns down mosque in 2nd such recent attack in Myanmar YANGON, Myanmar (AP) A mob has burned down a mosque in northern Myanmar in the second such attack in just over a week in the predominantly Buddhist nation, a newspaper reported Saturday. The state-owned Global New Light of Myanmar said security forces in Hpakant in Kachin state were unable to control Friday's attackers, who were armed with sticks, knives and other weapons. It said the mosque's leaders had failed to meet a June 30 deadline set by local authorities to tear down the structure to make way for construction of a bridge. On June 23, a mob demolished a mosque and a Muslim cemetery in a village in Bago Region, about 60 kilometers (36 miles) northeast of Yangon, reportedly as a consequence of a personal dispute. Sporadic but fierce violence against Muslims in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar has occurred since rioting in 2012 forced more than 100,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority to flee their homes in western Rakhine State. Discrimination against the Rohingya is widespread and the government refuses to recognize most as citizens, treating even long-term residents as illegal immigrants. The U.N. special human rights envoy to Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, ended a 12-day tour of the country urging that the recently seated government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi clamp down on such attacks. "It is clear that tensions along religious lines remain pervasive across Myanmar society. Incidents of hate speech, incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence, and of religious intolerance continue to be a cause for concern," Lee said in a statement Friday. She expressed specific concern over attacks on religious properties. "It is vital that the government take prompt action, including by conducting thorough investigations and holding perpetrators to account. I am therefore concerned by reports that the government will not pursue action in the most recent case due to fears of fueling greater tensions and provoking more conflict. This is precisely the wrong signal to send," she said, referring to the June 23 incident. No one has been arrested for the destruction of the mosques, though the Global New Light of Myanmar said authorities were investigating the attack in Hpakant. File 17 is glimpse into still-secret 28 pages about 9/11 WASHINGTON (AP) Amid the clamor a year ago to release 28 still-secret pages of a congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks, the government quietly declassified a little-known report listing more than three dozen people who piqued the interest of investigators probing possible Saudi connections to the hijackers. The document, known as "File 17," offers clues to what might be in the missing pages of the bipartisan report about 9/11. "Much of the information upon which File 17 was written was based on what's in the 28 pages," said former Democratic Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, co-chairman of the congressional inquiry. He believes the hijackers had an extensive Saudi support system while they were in the United States. FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2001, file photo, firefighters work beneath the destroyed mullions, the vertical struts which once faced the soaring outer walls of the World Trade Center towers, after a terrorist attack on the twin towers in New York. White House and intelligence officials are deciding whether to declassify 28 pages of a congressional investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks. The still-secret chapter could answer or raise new questions about possible Saudi links to the attackers. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) "File 17 said, 'Here are some additional unanswered questions and here is how we think the 9/11 Commission, the FBI and the CIA should go about finding the answers,'" Graham said. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir denies any allegations of Saudi complicity, telling reporters in Washington earlier this month that there is "no there there." Former President George W. Bush classified the 28-page chapter to protect intelligence sources and methods, although he also probably did not want to upset U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally. Two years ago, under pressure from the families of those killed or injured on Sept. 11, and others, President Barack Obama ordered a declassification review of the 28 pages. It's unclear when all or some may be released. The report by the two researchers, one of several commission documents the National Archives has reviewed and released, lists possible leads the commission could follow, the names of people who could be interviewed and documents the commission might want to request in looking deeper into the attacks. File 17, first disclosed by 28pages.org, an advocacy website, names people the hijackers were in contact with in the United States before the attacks. Some were Saudi diplomats, raising questions about whether Saudi officials knew about the plot. The 9/11 Commission's final report stated that it found "no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded" al-Qaida. "This conclusion does not exclude the likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to al-Qaida," the report said. Releasing the 28 pages might answer some questions, but the disclosure also could lead to more speculation about the key Saudi figures investigated by the U.S. after the attacks. A look at some of those named in the declassified report and what the 9/11 Commission concluded: ___ FAHAD AL-THUMAIRY An imam at the King Fahad Mosque in Culver City, California, al-Thumairy was suspected of helping two of the hijackers after they arrived in Los Angeles. He was an accredited diplomat at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Los Angeles from 1996 to 2003. The 9/11 Commission said al-Thumairy reportedly led an extremist faction at the mosque. He has denied promoting jihad and told U.S. investigators that he never helped the hijackers. The commission said al-Thumairy met at the consulate with Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national, in February 2000 just before al-Bayoumi met the two hijackers at a restaurant. Al-Thumairy denied knowing al-Bayoumi even though the two talked on the phone numerous times as early as 1998, including more than 11 calls between Dec. 3-20, 2000. Al-Bayoumi told investigators those conversations were about religious matters. The 9/11 Commission said that despite the circumstantial evidence, "We have not found evidence that al-Thumairy provided assistance to the two operatives." A CIA document dated March 19, 2004, said Khallad bin Attash, an al-Qaida operative and suspected planner of the USS Cole bombing in Yemen in October 2000, was in Los Angeles for two weeks in June 2000 and was seen in the company of "Los Angeles-based Sunni extremists (redacted section) Fahad al-Thumairy." On May 6, 2003, al-Thumairy tried to return to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia, but was refused entry on suspicion he might be connected with terrorist activity. ___ OMAR AL-BAYOUMI A Saudi national who helped the two hijackers in California. Al-Bayoumi told investigators that he and another man drove to Los Angeles from San Diego so that he could address a visa issue and collect papers at the Saudi consulate. Afterward they went to the restaurant in Culver City where he heard the two hijackers speaking in what he recognized to be Gulf Arabic and struck up a conversation with them. The hijackers told him they didn't like Los Angeles, and al-Bayoumi invited them to move to San Diego. He helped them find and lease an apartment. The congressional researchers' report said: "Al-Bayoumi has extensive ties to the Saudi government and many in the local Muslim community in San Diego believed that he was a Saudi intelligence officer." The 9/11 Commission said al-Bayoumi was officially employed by Ercan, a subsidiary of a contractor for the Saudi Civil Aviation Administration. The commission also said that a fellow employee described al-Bayoumi as a "ghost employee," noting that he was one of many Saudis on the payroll who was not required to work. He left the United States in August 2001, weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks. The 9/11 Commission said it did not "know whether the lunch encounter occurred by chance or by design." The commission said its investigators who spoke with him and studied his background found him to be an "unlikely candidate for clandestine involvement" with Islamic extremists. ___ OSAMA BASSNAN A close associate of al-Bayoumi who was in frequent contact with the hijackers and lived in an apartment complex across the street from them in San Diego. Bassnan vocally supported Osama bin Laden. The staffers' found that Bassnan, a former employee of the Saudi government's educational mission in Washington, received considerable funding from Princess Haifa al-Faisal, wife of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, former intelligence chief in Saudi Arabia and the kingdom's U.S. ambassador from 1983 to 2005. The money was supposedly for Bassnan's wife's medical treatments, and the 9/11 Commission said there was no evidence the money was redirected toward terrorism. ___ MOHDHAR ABDULLAH The staffers' report said Abdullah translated for the two hijackers and helped them open bank accounts and contact flight schools. Interviewed many times by the FBI, Abdullah said he knew of the two hijackers' extremist views but said he did not know what they were planning. The 9/11 Commission said: "During a post 9/11 search of his possessions, the FBI found a notebook (belonging to someone else) with references to planes falling from the sky, mass killing and hijacking. Further, when detained as a material witness following the 9/11 attacks, Abdullah expressed hatred for the U.S. government and stated that the U.S. brought 'this' on themselves." The commission also learned of reports that Abdullah bragged to other inmates at a California prison in the fall of 2003 that he knew the hijackers were planning an attack reports the commission nor the FBI were not able to verify. He was deported to Yemen in May 2004 after the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California declined to prosecute him on charges arriving out alleged comments made in prison. The fact that Vietnamese have let Chinese purchase houses or work as illegal tour guides comes from poor management by the authorities, said Duong Trung Quoc, a historian and a National Assembly deputy. Quoc said that a wave of illegal Chines tour guides, who enter Vietnam through tourist visas and spread lies about Vietnams history, has swept over the central city of Da Nang, the southern coastal city of Nha Trang as well as many other provinces. Hstorian Duong Trung Quoc, Nationl Assembly member over four consecutive terms. To handle the problem, Quoc said that the government should penalize not only illegal tour guides but also leaders as well as officials working on the tourism departments, who have yet to introduce feasible solutions. They can set a rule that only Vietnamese tour guides, who know Chinese, are responsible for Chinese visitors. If visitors are not accompanied by Vietnamese guides, then they wont be allowed to enter our tourist attractions. Thats it, Quoc said. Mentioning the fact that many Vietnamese tour guides act as sitting guides to help Chinese guides go around the authorities, the historian admitted: Its very difficult to handle as Vietnamese guides will present their own license and claim the others in the group are visitors. However, Quoc said that management officials should find ways to handle this; it's their responsibility. If they cant, then they should penalize themselves. Nguyen Su, former Party Secretary of Hoi An, an ancient town near Da Nang popular among tourists, echoed Quoc. He added that local travel agents often aim to draw as many tourists as possible. However, its impossible for Vietnam to promote tourism industry in such an arbitrary way. Loose management in tourism has resulted in serious consequences. I think Chinese people entering Vietnam and distorting its history is like confronting the whole country, not any specific city. Su added that in order to control Chinese tourists, the first priority is raising foreign language skills of local guides and authorities. We must improve Chinese of state officials. This will enable them to remind or penalize Chinese tour guides in case they distort our history. Previously on June 28, Da Nang's Tourism Department received photos and videos showing Chinese tour guides using yuan rather than Vietnamese dong to purchase goods. In addition, there was footage of a Chinese tour guide named Xue Chun Zhe distorting Vietnams history and culture. The Vietnamese authorities in June also revoked the business license of a Nha Trang-based Chinese tourism agency for using fake documents to register the company and illegally employing Chinese workers. Related news: > Illegal Chinese tour guides spread lies about Vietnamese history > Tourism agency shut down in Vietnam for employing Chinese illegally News Guide: The secret files from the 9/11 investigation WASHINGTON (AP) White House and intelligence officials are deciding whether to declassify 28 pages of a congressional investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks. The still-secret chapter could answer or raise new questions about possible Saudi links to the attackers. The documents, kept in a secure room in the basement of the Capitol, contain information about possible sources of foreign support for some of the hijackers while they were in the United States. Former Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., co-chairman of the joint congressional inquiry, has said the pages "point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier." One of the redacted pages in the "Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of Sept. 11, 2001" report is photographed in the Assocaited Press Washington bureau, Friday, July 1, 2016. There's been much clamor about releasing 28 still-secret pages of a congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks. But drawing less notice is the fact that the government quietly declassified a report listing more than three dozen individuals who piqued the interest of investigators probing possible Saudi connections to the hijackers. (AP Photo/J. David Ake) Saudi officials say there's nothing to the allegations. Relatives of the 9/11 victims say Saudi Arabia's relationship to al-Qaida has never been fully investigated by anyone before or since the attacks. A look at the varying viewpoints about possible Saudi links to 9/11 and the missing 28 pages: ___ THE 9/11 COMMISSION The commission, led by former Gov. Tom Kean, R-N.J., and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., was created partly to continue the work done by the bipartisan congressional inquiry, whose report minus the 28 pages came out in December 2002. "The 28 pages were based almost entirely on raw, unvetted material that came to the FBI," Kean and Hamilton said this year. "The material was then written up in FBI files as possible leads for further investigation. ... The congressional panel never had a chance to check out any of these leads." They said the commission and its staff spent 18 months investigating "all the leads contained in the 28 pages, and many more." The 567-page report was released in July 2004. The commission report stated that it found "no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded" al-Qaida. "This conclusion does not exclude the likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to al-Qaida." Some critics of the commission's work don't think the commission ran down every Saudi lead and say various agencies obstructed its work. Kean and Hamilton complained that various government agencies withheld relevant information. ___ WHAT DOES THE CIA SAY? CIA Director John Brennan says the 28 pages contain preliminary information about possible Saudi links to the attackers that, at the time, had not been corroborated or checked out. He said the commission looked "very thoroughly" into allegations of Saudi government involvement and concluded that there was no evidence to indicate that the Saudi government as an institution or Saudi senior officials individually had supported the Sept. 11 attacks. A CIA inspector general report in June 2015 also said there had been no reliable information confirming Saudi government "involvement with and financial support for terrorism prior to 9/11." But it also said that people in the CIA's Near East Division and Counterterrorism Center "speculated that dissident sympathizers within the government may have aided al-Qaida." ___ WHAT DO THE SAUDIS SAY? Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said in Washington: "I believe that if people looked at the 28 pages and looked at the results of the investigations (into the attacks), they will come to the conclusion that these allegations are unsubstantiated, unproven and nobody should make a big deal out of them." "There is no there there," Jubeir said. He noted that in 2002, Saudi Arabia called for the release of the 28 pages so the government can respond to any allegations and punish any Saudis who may have been involved in the attacks. "We cannot ... respond to blank pages," he said. ___ WHAT DOES THE FBI SAY? In 2015, Congress created the 9/11 Review Commission to look at evidence gathered in recent years. This commission interviewed key FBI personnel to identify any new information that had surfaced about 9/11. In its March 2015 report, the commission stated that "there is no new information to date that would alter the original findings of the 9/11 Commission regarding the individuals responsible for the 9/11 attacks or for supporting those responsible for the attacks." ___ THE 9/11 FAMILIES "What needs to be understood by anyone who looks at just these facts surrounding the Saudi connection to the 9/11 attacks and the USS Cole bombing is that the Saudis and their relationship to bin Laden and al-Qaida have never been fully investigated by anyone either before or after 9/11," Kristen Breitweiser, a 9/11 widow and activist, wrote in a recent column. Bill Clinton and his loose-cannon episodes WASHINGTON (AP) Long regarded as having one of the shrewdest political minds among recent presidents, Bill Clinton has at times angered and alienated Democrats and Republicans alike while campaigning for his wife, Hillary Clinton. His apparently spur-of-the moment decision to chat this week with Attorney General Loretta Lynch even as her agency is overseeing a sensitive investigation of his wife's use of a private email server as secretary of state was only the latest in a series of loose-cannon episodes. In 2008: In this photo taken May 5, 2016, former President Bill Clint speaks in Portland, Ore. while campaigning for his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The former president spoke with Attorney General Loretta Lynch during an impromptu meeting in Phoenix, but Lynch says the discussion did not involve the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email use as secretary of state. (AP Photo/Don Ryan) In remarks that struck some as racial politics, Bill Clinton equated Barack Obama's win in the South Carolina Democratic primary in January 2008 with Jesse Jackson's victories in the state in 1984 and 1988. He touched off a furor about whether he was diminishing Obama's achievement in a state where African-Americans make up a significant bloc of the Democratic electorate by citing past victories by another black candidate. Days before the New Hampshire primary, Bill Clinton infuriated some Democrats when he dismissed Obama's opposition to the Iraq war. "Give me a break," Clinton said. "This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen." As a New York senator, Hillary Clinton voted to give President George W. Bush the authority to use military force, an issue that dogged her through the campaign. In 2016: Contrasting his wife's campaign with Sen. Bernie Sanders', Bill Clinton ticked off Sanders supporters on Feb. 15 in Riviera Beach, Florida, by comparing them to GOP tea party activists. Both groups, Clinton said, were falling for unfulfillable promises. In the GOP, "they just tell people what they want to hear, move them to the right and we'll be rewarded except they didn't get anything done," he said, adding: "That's going on now in our party." Clinton urged voters in March in Spokane, Washington, to "put the awful legacy of the last eight years behind us." He was apparently referring to Republican intransigence in Congress, but the line appeared to tar the Obama administration, too. He said people should vote for his wife "because she's the only person who basically has good ideas." Clinton sparred strenuously with Black Lives Matters protesters who interrupted his campaign speech in Philadelphia in April. He said, on one hand, that "black youth are not super predators," a reference to his wife's 1996 speech about violent crimes committed by young people. Yet, in defending his administration's backing of a contentious federal crime bill that stiffened penalties, he also said his wife's phrase was correct. "Maybe you thought they were good citizens," he said. "She didn't." In May, in Kokomo, Indiana, he dismissed the flap over his wife's use of a private email server as secretary of state as no more than "a game" this, despite the FBI's continuing criminal investigation of the matter. The Latest: Official: Give young Britons German citizenship LONDON (AP) The Latest on Britain's vote to leave the 28-nation European Union (all times local): 3:45 p.m. Germany's vice chancellor says Britons living in the European Union should be given dual citizenship so they can stay when their country leaves the bloc. Sigmar Gabriel said Saturday at a meeting of his center-left Social Democratic Party in Berlin that Britain's referendum decision to quit the EU was a further reason to campaign to relax the rules on dual citizenship in Germany. Pope Francis salutes as he leaves St. Peter's Square at the end of a jubilee audience, at the Vatican, Thursday, June 30, 2016. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) He says "let us offer it to young Britons who live in Germany, Italy or France, so they can remain European Union citizens in this country." German law normally requires that anyone applying for citizenship has to relinquish their old citizenship. Gabriel, who is also the economy minister, told party members that "Europe is the best place in the world for freedom, democracy and the chance of social progress." 3:15 p.m. About 50 people have protested in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate against the British referendum to leave the European Union. Participants chiefly from Britain held EU flags and home-made placards Saturday bearing such slogans as "We love EU," ''We're not leaving" and "Brown Sauce." The latter referred jokingly to a condiment much loved by Britons at home and abroad. One demonstrator, artist Daniel Belasco Rogers, says he fears that a British exit could make him a migrant in Germany after 15 years' residency. Belasco Rogers says he and his family might apply for German citizenship "but I'm hoping they find a loophole and this whole thing doesn't happen." ___ 2:55 p.m. Pope Francis is lamenting what he calls "invisible walls" of fear that he says are dividing the European continent. Francis is blaming these walls of "fear and aggression" on a "failure to understand people of different backgrounds or faith." He calls them "walls of political and economic selfishness." The pope made no direct reference to Britain's recent vote to leave the European Union as he delivered his observations in a video message Saturday to a meeting of Christian movements in Munich, Germany. ___ 1:25 p.m. France's prime minister says Britain's vote to leave the European Union is a business opportunity for Paris. Prime Minister Manuel Valls says the government is working on enhancing the French capital's attractiveness, especially measures regarding taxes and expatriates' status. He spoke to the Le Parisien newspaper in an interview published Saturday. Valls tells international companies: "Welcome in Paris! Come and invest in France!" Due to the British vote to leave the EU, some businesses based in London are considering leaving for other cities like Dublin, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris to benefit from the large EU common market. ___ 1 p.m. Thousands of European Union supporters are singing, dancing and marching through the streets of London to protest the United Kingdom's vote to leave the EU. Saturday's 2-mile (3-kilometer) "March for Europe" from Hyde Park to Parliament was organized on social media. Many of the marchers say they hope U.K. lawmakers will block any moves to leave the 28-nation bloc. Some 48 percent of voters in the June 23 referendum wanted to remain in the EU. One organizer, comedian Mark Thomas, says British lawmakers should not work for an exit based on a result driven by anti-EU campaigners' exaggerations and distortions about immigration and EU spending. Thomas said: "We would accept the result of the referendum if it was fought on a level playing field. But it was full of misinformation." "Remain" supporters gather on Park Lane in London, before marching to Parliament Square to show their support for the European Union in the wake of the referendum decision for Britain to leave the EU, known as "Brexit", Saturday July 2, 2016. Demonstrators wearing EU flags as capes and with homemade banners saying "Bremain" and "We Love EU" gathered on the streets around Park Lane for the March for Europe rally. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA via AP) "Remain" supporters near Park Lane in London, before marching to Parliament Square to show their support for the European Union in the wake of the referendum decision for Britain to leave the EU, known as "Brexit", Saturday July 2, 2016. Demonstrators wearing EU flags as capes and with homemade banners saying "Bremain" and "We Love EU" gathered on the streets around Park Lane for the March for Europe rally. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA via AP) "Remain" supporters gather on Park Lane in London, before marching to Parliament Square to show their support for the European Union in the wake of the referendum decision for Britain to leave the EU, known as "Brexit", Saturday July 2, 2016. Demonstrators wearing EU flags as capes and with homemade banners saying "Bremain" and "We Love EU" gathered on the streets around Park Lane for the March for Europe rally. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA via AP) European Union flags fly above "Remain" supporters as they gather on Park Lane in London, before marching to Parliament Square to show their support for the European Union in the wake of the referendum decision for Britain to leave the EU, known as "Brexit", Saturday July 2, 2016. Demonstrators wearing EU flags as capes and with homemade banners saying "Bremain" and "We Love EU" gathered on the streets around Park Lane for the March for Europe rally. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA via AP) A "Remain" supporter, her face painted to resemble the EU flag, walks on Park Lane in London, as protesters marched to Parliament Square to show their support for the European Union in the wake of last weeks referendum decision for Britain to leave the EU, known as "Brexit", Saturday July 2, 2016. Demonstrators wearing EU flags as capes and with homemade banners saying "Bremain" and "We Love EU" gathered on the streets around Park Lane for the March for Europe rally. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP) A "Remain" supporter walks near Park Lane in London, as protesters marched to Parliament Square to show their support for the European Union in the wake of last weeks referendum decision for Britain to leave the EU, known as "Brexit", Saturday July 2, 2016. Demonstrators wearing EU flags as capes and with homemade banners saying "Bremain" and "We Love EU" gathered on the streets around Park Lane for the March for Europe rally. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP) Women hold posters during a protest opposing Britain's exit from the European Union in Berlin, Saturday, July 2, 2016. About 50 people staged a protest Saturday in front of Berlins Brandenburg Gate against the recent British referendum to leave the European Union. (AP Photo /Markus Schreiber) A demonstrator opposing Britain's exit from the European Union holds a poster in Berlin, Saturday, July 2, 2016. About 50 people staged a protest Saturday in front of Berlins Brandenburg Gate against the recent British referendum to leave the European Union. (AP Photo /Markus Schreiber) Women hold posters during a protest opposing Britain's exit from the European Union in Berlin, Saturday, July 2, 2016. About 50 people staged a protest Saturday in front of Berlins Brandenburg Gate against the recent British referendum to leave the European Union. (AP Photo /Markus Schreiber) Clinton's choice for first event with Obama: North Carolina WASHINGTON (AP) President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaign together next week for the first time this year, and their decision to meet up in Charlotte says a lot about how her campaign views her path to replace him in the White House. Democrats see North Carolina as a prime place to expand into Republican territory against Donald Trump, building upon one of Obama's biggest triumphs in 2008 and his narrow loss four years ago. The state's electorate has become more diverse since Obama's first presidential campaign. Women play an increasingly influential role in the state's politics, giving Clinton an opportunity to play up her potential to become the first woman to win the White House. FILE - In this Dec. 1, 2008, file photo, then-President-elect Barack Obama, left, stands with then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., after announcing that she is his choice as Secretary of State during a news conference in Chicago. President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaign together next week for the first time this year, and their decision to meet up in Charlotte says a lot about how her campaign views her path to replace him in the White House. North Carolina is a prime spot for the party to expand into Republican territory against Donald Trump and build upon one of Obama's biggest triumphs in 2008. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) And contentious moves by the GOP-controlled state legislature to exclude sexual orientation and gender identity from statewide anti-discrimination protections and to require transgender people to use restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate in public buildings has touched a nerve in the battleground state. "I told her that the state is winnable. I think she believes that in her core," said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, a former Charlotte mayor, describing a recent conversation with Clinton. "North Carolina is a classic battleground state. It's a state with people who are hungry for progressive change." Foxx added: "There's been a lot of things at the state level that have reminded people that North Carolina's proud progressive tradition is under assault right now." The Obama-Clinton event comes three days after Clinton gave a voluntary 3 hour interview at FBI headquarters about her use of a private, homebrew email server. While the interview was expected and some legal experts view prosecution as exceedingly unlikely, the ongoing investigation represents a major risk for Democrats and poses as an unwelcome distraction. Clinton's campaign is targeting about a dozen battleground states that were fiercely contested by Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney in 2012. Like Obama, she enters the summer with a number of pathways to reach 270 electoral votes, with large states such as Florida, Ohio and North Carolina potentially to put her over the top on Election Day. Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, had planned to appear with Obama in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in mid-June, but the rally was postponed after the deadly Orlando nightclub shooting. Campaign officials said Democrats feel they have largely consolidated support for Clinton in Wisconsin in the weeks since, prompting them to shift their splashy kickoff in the city that held Obama's 2012 Democratic convention. Taylor Griffin, a Republican former aide to President George W. Bush who unsuccessfully sought a seat in Congress this year, said Trump has been effective in building support among tea party activists, who have played an important role in GOP elections since 2010, and conservatives longing for an outsider. "His support is stronger and his base is more unified," Griffin said, comparing Trump to Clinton's Democratic base. "You hear a lot more about wailing and gnashing of teeth about Trump in D.C. than in North Carolina." Voter registration statistics underscore a competitive state: North Carolina has about 2.6 million registered Democrats, compared with 2 million registered Republicans and 1.9 million unaffiliated registered voters. Women make up about 53 percent of registered voters. Much of Clinton's focus will center on registering new voters in the Triangle the cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill and mobilizing black voters throughout the state. In 2012, Obama trailed Romney in North Carolina for much of the election but was able to keep the contest competitive because of the support of black voters, who turned out in large numbers. Democrats reported registering about 340,000 voters in 2012 and black voters accounted for about 23 percent of the electorate that year, slightly more than in 2008. At least for now, Clinton has the airwaves largely to herself. Her campaign plans to spend more than $4 million on ads in North Carolina before the Democratic National Convention in late July her third largest investment behind battleground heavyweights Florida and Ohio. Priorities USA, a super PAC backing Clinton, is similarly focused on the state. The group plans to spend at least $12 million in North Carolina by the November election, according to Kantar Media's CMAG advertising tracker. Trump's campaign has not begun advertising in the general election anywhere in the country. And none of the groups supporting him has put up commercials in North Carolina. "She could do what (Obama) did eight years ago," said Gary Pearce, a Democratic strategist and adviser to former Gov. Jim Hunt, a Clinton supporter. "It's hard to see a way that a Republican gets to the White House without winning North Carolina." ___ Follow Ken Thomas and Lisa Lerer on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/KThomasDC and http://twitter.com/llerer ___ Dortmund accepts Man United bid for Henrikh Mkhitaryan DORTMUND, Germany (AP) Borussia Dortmund has accepted a bid from Manchester United for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, with the midfielder set to become Jose Mourinho's third signing. Dortmund said it was agreeing to sell the 27-year-old Armenia international to the 20-time English champions as he had only one year remaining on his Dortmund contract. Mkhitaryan has not yet agreed on personal terms, passed a medical examination or received a British work permit. FILE - In this July 9, 2013 file picture Dortmund's player Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Armenia poses at a media event of Borussia Dortmund in Dortmund, Germany, Borussia Dortmund says Saturday July 2, 2016 midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan is joining Manchester United, becoming Jose Mourinho's third signing as manager. The 27-year-old Armenia international has been sold to the 20-time English champions as he had only one year remaining on his Dortmund contract. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner,file) Dortmund paid 27.5 million euros (now about $31 million) to Shakhtar Donetsk for Mkhitaryan in 2013. He had a promising first season with nine goals and nine assists in the Bundesliga but a disappointing second season as Dortmund flirted with relegation. Last season saw a renaissance under new coach Thomas Tuchel, with Mkhitaryan contributing 11 goals and setting up 20 more. "United made us a very attractive offer," Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke said, without providing details. "Had we refused it, the player would have left us on a free transfer in 2017 and we would only have delayed the matter of a replacement for a year." Mkhitaryan is the third key player to leave Dortmund in the off-season after the team sold Mats Hummels to Bundesliga rival Bayern Munich and Ilkay Gundogan to Manchester City. The club will generate more than $100 million by selling the trio. Bangladesh siege highlights Japan's development aid overseas TOKYO (AP) The militant attack at an upscale restaurant in Bangladesh's capital, where Japanese and other foreign diners were taken hostage, highlights Japan's major role in development work overseas, particularly in Asia. Eight outside consultants for Japan's development agency were eating together at Holey Artisan Bakery in a diplomatic zone in Dhaka when the attack began around 9:20 p.m. Friday. One, who had been shot, was among 13 hostages rescued after security forces stormed the restaurant Saturday morning. Before the fates of the others were confirmed, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described the situation as dire. "These people are those who worked hard for the development of Bangladesh, and so this is the utmost sorrow," he said in a brief statement to reporters after nightfall in Tokyo. "Those innocent lives were taken by this cruel and atrocious terrorism, and I feel strong indignation." Japan International Cooperation Agency President Shinichi Kitaoka arrives for a press conference following the incident at Bangladesh restaurant in Tokyo, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Shinichi Kitaoka said one Japanese hostage has been hospitalized, and the fate of seven others remains unknown. They were outside consultants working for Japan's development agency on an infrastructure project. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara) Bangladesh Brig. Gen. Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said 20 hostages were killed, along with two police officers and six of the attackers. He did not identify the hostages' nationalities. The Japanese were working on an infrastructure project for the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The development agency disburses about $1.4 billion a year in grants, $1.2 billion in technical assistance and $8.8 billion in low-interest development loans. Japan's overseas development assistance has shrunk since its peak as the country wrestles with budget deficits and its own economic stagnation. But its aid remains large, and Abe has pushed to increase and refocus it as part of his effort to increase Japan's role internationally. The top recipients are in Asia, but Japan also is a sizeable donor in Africa. The president of JICA, Shinichi Kitaoka, said his agency would strengthen security precautions while continuing to contribute to the development of Bangladesh. JICA had warned of possible attacks during the month of Ramadan, particularly after the killing of a Japanese man in northern Bangladesh last October, but Kitaoka said that the restaurant was believed to be relatively safe. He noted, though, that it also may have been a soft target for militants. In October, a Japanese farmer who was growing high-yield cattle feed in Bangladesh was shot and killed by masked assailants riding a motorbike. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the killing of Kunio Hoshi, as well as other recent targeted killings of foreigners and the restaurant attack. Bangladesh's government previously has denied IS had a presence in the country. Japanese were also killed by militants in two other attacks in early 2015, though neither involved development workers: In January 2015, the Islamic State group killed two Japanese men in a hostage drama in Syria that gripped Japan for 11 days. The militants had captured Haruna Yukawa, a 42-year-old adventurer, in the summer of 2014, and Kenji Goto, a freelance journalist, after he went to Syria to try to rescue Yukawa in October of that year. IS demanded $200 million for their release, setting off round-the-clock crisis meetings from Japan to Amman, Jordan. It then beheaded the men. Another Japanese freelance journalist, Jumpei Yasuda, went missing last June and is reportedly being held by a militant group in Syria. In March 2015, three Japanese tourists were among 22 people killed when gunmen opened fire at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis. Three other Japanese were injured. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility, though experts also suspected other militant groups. The victims were cruise ship passengers. Japan International Cooperation Agency President Shinichi Kitaoka answers reporters questions during a press conference following the incident at a Bangladesh restaurant, in Tokyo, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Shinichi Kitaoka said one Japanese hostage has been hospitalized, and the fate of seven others remains unknown. They were outside consultants working for Japan's development agency on an infrastructure project. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara) Dry weather bringing people, bears together in New England PORTLAND, Maine (AP) New England's bears are pawing through the region's birdfeeders, garbage cans and backyard grills because of dry weather that has caused a scarcity of the berries and other plants they like to eat in the woods. Maine has the largest black bear population in the eastern U.S., and complaints of nuisance bears have shot up. The Maine Warden Service reported in mid-June that it had already received more than 200 complaints, a year after it received about 400 in all of 2015. Wildlife officials in New Hampshire and Vermont have also advised residents to take precautions, and bear sightings are on the rise in Connecticut. In this June 22, 2016 photo provided by Theodore L. Hatch, a black bear rests in his backyard in Scarborough, Maine. Complaints of nuisance bears have increased this year as dry weather conditions and the early emergence of spring conspired to bring humans into more contact with black bears in New England. (Theodore L. Hatch via AP) Brian Fauth, of South Portland, one of Maine's most densely populated cities, is in the market for a new backyard shepherd's hook after a bear bent his in half to get a better angle into his birdfeeder a week ago. He said he's happy to share birdseed, but would rather not have a 300-pound animal in his backyard. "It was definitely cool to see, but not something I want sticking around," said Fauth, who has not refilled his birdfeeder since. "We're used to seeing woodchucks and squirrels in the yard." June is typically the busiest month for nuisance bear complaints, and residents need to be wary until more rainfall arrives and helps grow natural food, Maine's wildlife department said. In New Hampshire, wildlife biologist Mark Ellingwood said the same scenario is playing out. "This is shaping up to be a high year in terms of bear activity, particularly in comparison to last year," Ellingwood said. "If we have poor food production, then we have bears in communities looking for food." In Vermont, the Department of Fish and Wildlife has received 142 bear complaints so far, compared with 51 for all of last year. The department is continuing to urge people to take down bird feeders. Birds don't need feeding during the summer and the feeders can create problem bears that then have to be destroyed, said Vermont bear Biologist Forrest Hammond. "It's not a ton of bears that are causing the problems," said Hammond. "What it is, is a number of bears, a small percentage of our bears, that are trying to get human foods and they are continuing to do that." Connecticut bear sightings since July 2015 total nearly 5,500 about 1,000 more than were reported in the 2015 calendar year. New England's bears can't get too comfortable. Maine's hunting season starts Aug. 29, and hunters will start laying bait for the animals in about a month. State wildlife biologists have said the use of bait is necessary so hunters can help prevent the bear population from growing out of control. But some animal welfare advocates have said the use of baiting for bears with human food, such as doughnuts, has habituated them to human food and human smells. Use of bear bait is legal in at least 13 states, including Maine and New Hampshire, according to the Humane Society of the United States. "Stop feeding bears human foods, and bears will be less inclined to come around human places," said Daryl DeJoy, of the Wildlife Alliance of Maine. "Where there's food is where bears go." ___ No buyers for home of founding father, TV ancestor Bartlett CONCORD, N.H. (AP) Apparently, being a signer of the Declaration of Independence doesn't carry that much clout these days. The 242-year-old home of Josiah Bartlett, of Kingston, New Hampshire, a doctor who signed the document after John Hancock and later became governor, is still available two years after it was put up for sale by his great-great-great-great granddaughter. The name might ring familiar to fans of the TV series "The West Wing." Martin Sheen played President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet from New Hampshire, a fictional (and differently spelled) descendant. FILE In this Wednesday July 16, 2014 file photo an historic marker is seen in front of the home once owned by Josiah Bartlett, in Kingston, N.H. The home of New Hampshire Declaration of Independence signer, Bartlett, is up for sale after being in the family for seven generations. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, file) Ruth Albert, who has spent much of her life in the house in the town of Kingston, wants to downsize and hopes that the home can stay in her family. She has no children, and she has exhausted her list of cousins. She got excited last year when she was suddenly approached by a fellow seventh-generation Bartlett descendant who lives in Florida, but that didn't work out. "I held on and held on," the 65-year-old retired postal worker said. She said the descendant was considering moving to New Hampshire to pursue a doctorate. "I guess at one point in time she was thinking it would be kind of cool to go to Dartmouth, because that's where a lot of our ancestors got their doctorate degrees. And then I think she decided it was just a little too cold up there." Albert took the property, about 10 miles from Massachusetts, off the market for the winter and advertised it again this spring. The 4,600-square-foot, four-bedroom Colonial farmhouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and is selling for $549,900. It has a linden tree that Bartlett brought back from Philadelphia as a sapling after signing the Declaration of Independence. Little has changed beyond kitchen and bathroom renovations and mechanical upgrades. Bartlett's medical instruments are displayed in the parlor. One end of the second floor still has an outhouse and tin bathtub with a pump. Additional land near the house can be bought, bringing the price to $849,900. "People have been coming to look at it, but I haven't had any serious offers," Albert said. Ben Wilson, director of New Hampshire's Bureau of Historic Sites, says the state can't afford to buy and operate the house without an endowment. "Historic buildings, landscapes and monuments take an extra level of care, so the bureau tries very hard to make the most of the resources it has," he said. "Taking on a new property that is not endowed would place an extra burden on the services and experiences we currently provide to our thousands of visitors." Plan New Hampshire, a group that evaluates communities' strengths, said that the house is "uniquely important to the town, the state and the country" and that it could be used as a restaurant, brewery or bed and breakfast. Erdogan calls Assad a 'more advanced terrorist' than IS ISTANBUL (AP) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared Saturday that Syrian President Bashar Assad was a "more advanced terrorist" than the Islamic State group, despite the deadly attack on Istanbul's Ataturk Airport that Turkish officials blame on IS. Speaking in the town of Kilis near the border with Syria, Erdogan said the Syrian leader was responsible for the deaths of some 600,000 of his own citizens and was the root cause of the war in Syria. "He is a more advanced terrorist than a terrorist from the PYD or the YPG," Erdogan said. "He is a more advanced terrorist than Daesh." Erdogan was referring to Syrian Kurdish militia, which Ankara accuses of being a terror organization because of their affiliation with Turkey's Kurdish rebels, and to the IS group by its Arabic name. In this Thursday, June 30, 2016 photo, family members, colleagues and friends of the victims of Tuesday blasts gather for a memorial ceremony at the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul. A Chechen extremist masterminded the triple suicide bombing at Istanbul's busiest airport that killed dozens, a U.S. congressman has said. U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, told CNN that Akhmed Chatayev directed Tuesday night's gun-and-bomb attack at Ataturk Airport, one of the world's busiest, which also wounded over 200 other people. Turkish authorities have banned distribution of images relating to the Ataturk airport attack within Turkey.(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel) Three militants armed with assault rifles and suicide bombs attacked one of the world's busiest airports on Tuesday night, killing at least 44 people. Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Turkish officials say they believe it was the work of IS. Turkish authorities have detained at least 24 people in raids in several Istanbul neighborhoods over possible connections to the attack. Seventeen other people were detained in the province of Gaziantep, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Erdogan paid an unannounced visit to the airport on Saturday, saying a prayer in front of a memorial set up for the victims, which features the pictures of airport employees killed in the rampage. He later flew to Kilis, where the number of Syrian refugees is higher than the local Turkish population. IS militants have also attacked the town with cross-border rocket fire, killing 21 people there since January. Erdogan said countries he did not name were supporting the Syrian Kurdish militia and the IS in a bid to prevent democracy in Syria and for their "dirty calculations" in the region. He also announced that his government would allow Syrian refugees in Turkey to take on Turkish citizenship. Turkey has been accused of long turning a blind eye to jihadi fighters who crossed into Syria from Turkish territory in the hope that they would hasten Assad's downfall. Turkey has also been accused of not doing enough to fight IS, despite allowing the U.S.-led coalition to use a key air base to conduct air strikes against jihadists. Turkey denies the accusations but such statements from Erdogan help reinforce beliefs that fighting IS is not a priority for Ankara despite the extremist groups' attacks on Turkish territory. Earlier, the Istanbul governor's office said 52 people were still in the hospital 20 of them in intensive care four days after the devastating airport attack. It said 184 airport victims had been discharged from hospitals so far, including 13 people released Saturday. Prosecutors have established the identity of two of the three airport attackers giving their names as Rakim Bulgarov and Vadim Osmanov and were trying to identify the third, Anadolu said. Other media reports have given different versions of Osmanov's name. Investigators' attentions have reportedly focused on whether a Chechen extremist known to be a top lieutenant in the Islamic State group masterminded the attack. U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, told CNN that Akhmed Chatayev directed the attack. The CIA and White House declined to comment on McCaul's assertion and officials said the investigation into the airport bombings is still ongoing. McCaul could not be reached for further comment. Turkish officials also were not able to confirm Chatayev's possible role in the deadly attack. The Sabah newspaper, which is close to the Turkish government, said police had launched a manhunt for him. The Islamic State group, which has used the porous border with Turkey to establish itself in neighboring Syria and Iraq, has repeatedly threatened Turkey. In turn, Turkey has blamed IS for several major bombings in the past year in Ankara and Istanbul. __ Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. THIS IS A RECROPPED VERSION OF XLP801 TRANSMITTED THURSDAY JUNE 30, 2016 n this framegrab from CCTV video, made available by the Turkish Haberturk newspaper on Thursday, June 30, 2016, people believed to be the attackers walk in Istanbul's Ataturk airport, Tuesday June 28, 2016. Three attackers carried out a gun-and-suicide bomb attack, killing dozens and wounding scores of others. at the busy airport late Tuesday, the latest in a series of bombings to strike Turkey in recent months. Turkish authorities have banned distribution of images relating to the Ataturk airport attack within Turkey. (Haberturk newspaper via AP Photo) THIS ADDS THAT THE MAN WEARING WHITE IN THE BACKGROUND UNRELATED TO THE ATTACK In this framegrab from CCTV video, made available by the Turkish Haberturk newspaper on Thursday, June 30, 2016, 3 people in foreground believed to be the attackers as man unrelated to the attack passes in the background, walk in Istanbul's Ataturk airport, Tuesday June 28, 2016. Three attackers carried out a gun-and-suicide bomb attack, killing dozens and wounding scores of others. at the busy airport late Tuesday, the latest in a series of bombings to strike Turkey in recent months. Turkish authorities have banned distribution of images relating to the Ataturk airport attack within Turkey. (Haberturk newspaper via AP Photo) In this frame grab taken from Rustavi2 footage dated 2012, Akhmed Chatayev speaks to the media in Tbilisi, Georgia. The Chechen extremist Chatayev is identified as the mastermind behind the triple suicide bombing at Turkey's Istanbul airport that killed at least 44 people, according to U.S. congressman Michael McCaul, while noting Chatayev's whereabouts is unclear. (Georgian broadcasting company Rustavi2, AP video via AP) New cigarette taxes could be on ballot in hesitant states JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) An entire generation has come of age since the last time Missouri raised its cigarette tax, from 13 cents a pack to 17 cents, in 1993. Today, it's the lowest tax in the nation. And Missouri is one of just three states along with North Dakota and California that has held cigarette taxes flat since the turn of century. In that time, other states have increasingly tapped smokers to fill budget gaps and raise money for services such as health care and education. That could soon change. Petitions are seeking to put higher cigarette taxes on the fall ballot in all three of those holdout states, as well as Colorado. In this June 23, 2016 photo, Kenneth Houser takes a puff on an electronic cigarette at the We B Smokin store where he works in Jefferson City, Mo. Houser says he has smoked traditional cigarettes since age 13 but is trying to quit, partly because of the potential for prices to rise under a pair of tobacco tax initiatives proposed for the Missouri ballot. (AP Photo/David A. Lieb) Victories by anti-tobacco advocates would add to a surge that has already raised tens of billions of dollars for states while helping drive down the nation's smoking rate, from about a quarter of adults in 1990 to fewer than 17 percent in the most recent surveys. From 2000 through 2014, states raised their cigarette taxes nearly 120 times, helping generate more than $85 billion of additional revenue, according to an Associated Press analysis of state-by-state figures compiled by the economic consulting firm Orzechowski and Walker, which is funded by the tobacco industry. More than a dozen additional cigarette tax hikes have been enacted since then. They include July 1 increases that will raise West Virginia's tax to $1.20 a pack and Connecticut's to $3.90, the second highest nationally behind New York's $4.35. In June, California became only the second state behind Hawaii to raise the legal smoking age from 18 to 21 under a new law that also regulates electronic cigarettes. Advocates believe the timing is right for people in even the most historically hesitant states to embrace higher tobacco taxes. "What we've seen is momentum, and I think voters are ready to take the next step," said Mike Roth, a spokesman for the Save Lives California coalition backing the ballot initiative. Yet even in a society that has increasingly turned against tobacco, the cigarette tax initiatives are no sure thing to pass. California voters narrowly rejected two previous tobacco tax measures, in 2012 and 2006. Missouri voters did the same to three tobacco tax initiatives over the past 14 years. Charlie Hake, a nonsmoker who owns the We B Smokin chain of tobacco shops based in Jefferson City, said he opposes the latest proposals. "I think that our government needs to live within its means, and any tax increase is just simply unnecessary," Hake said. Two separate initiative petitions have been submitted in Missouri one seeking a 23-cent-a-pack increase, the other a 60-cent hike. A petition being circulated in North Dakota would raise the cigarette tax from 44 cents a pack to $2.20. A California initiative seeks a $2 increase to the current 87-cent-a-pack tax. The Colorado proposal would ask voters to raise the cigarette tax by $1.75 a pack to a total of $2.59. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids estimates that every 10 percent increase in cigarette prices leads to a 4 percent decline in cigarette consumption. It says smaller tax increases often have little effect, because the tax is more easily absorbed into the overall price or offset with discounts. The potential financial hit from Missouri's proposed tax hikes has already helped persuade We B Smokin clerk Kenneth Houser, 32, to give up the cigarettes that he first started smoking at age 13. "I've scraped by as it is," Houser explained. "More money out of the pocket, I can't afford." Even with declining sales, states that have raised cigarette taxes have seen an increase in revenue. But in many states, that revenue surge has diminished over time, and some have failed to realize the windfall predicted. Tobacco sellers argue that significant tax hikes ultimately drive customers elsewhere. "People find a way to get these cigarettes via the internet or via counterfeit or via the black market or off the (Native American) reservations at a discounted price," said Mike Rud, president of the North Dakota retail and petroleum marketers associations, which oppose a potential ballot measure. Supporters of the North Dakota initiative hope to fare better with voters than they did with lawmakers, who defeated higher cigarette taxes last year. In 2008, voters approved an initiative earmarking part of the state's tobacco settlement proceeds toward anti-tobacco programs. Four years later, they banned smoking in most workplaces. A recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found two-thirds of likely voters favor increasing the state's cigarette tax to fund health care. But pre-election polls also found similar levels of general support for tobacco tax increases in California in 2006 and 2012 before the measures were narrowly defeated. Opponents led by big tobacco companies outspent supporters 4-to-1 to help turn public opinion against the measures. Supporters had sought a $1 a pack tax hike to fund cancer research in 2012 and a $2.60 increase in 2006 to benefit health care, anti-tobacco efforts and other programs. The task for tax opponents is to "convince voters that there's some fatal flaw, that it's not doing what they had intended or hoped for it to do, or that there's some reason to question the people who are supporting it," said Mark Baldassare, president and survey director for the institute. Such strategies already are at work in Missouri, where big tobacco and smaller cigarette manufacturers are squaring off over two potential November ballot proposals. One initiative would phase in a 60-cent-a-pack tax hike while also imposing a 67-cent-a-pack surcharge on cigarettes from companies that did not participate in a 1998 legal settlement with states. Many of those comparatively smaller companies currently sell lower-priced cigarettes. The campaign for the tax hike has been largely financed by Reynolds American Inc. the parent company for Camel, Newport and Pall Mall cigarettes because it could end the price advantage of smaller companies. A separate initiative proposing a phased-in 23-cent-a-pack increase is backed by discount cigarette makers and retailers, who hope it will satisfy calls for higher taxes without significantly affecting sales. If voters approve both initiatives, Missouri's tax would gradually climb to $1 a pack. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids opposes both measures, asserting they don't go far enough. It would be better to leave the tax unchanged, spokesman John Schachter said, because doing so would "improve the chances of a significant increase in the future." ___ Follow David A. Lieb at: http://twitter.com/DavidALieb . In this June 23, 2016 photo, Charlie Hake, owner of We B Smokin in Jefferson City, Mo., reaches for a pack of cigarettes at his store. Hake opposes a pair of proposed Missouri ballot initiatives seeking to raise the state's lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax. (AP Photo/David A. Lieb) A Philippine woman was found dead yesterday evening in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City. Upon hearing a strange, loud noise, residents in the apartment came out and saw a dead body by the slope leading to the apartment's parking lot. The woman lived on the eighth floor with her husband and child. The site where the woman was found dead. Photo by VnExpress/A.X The couple had a fight before her death. Her personal legal documents had been burned. "We have yet to detect any sign of criminal acts here. We do not rule out the possibility that the woman had committed suicide," a police officer said. The case is under investigation. Officials blame collision for mountain biker killed by bear HELENA, Mont. (AP) Montana wildlife officials say a 38-year-old mountain biker who was killed by a bear riding just outside Glacier National Park likely collided with the bear before he was attacked, and they have called off the search for the bear. Wildlife response team investigator Brian Sommers said in a statement Saturday that he believes Treat was riding at a high rate of speed along a narrow trail and hit the bear. Visibility was limited and investigators believe the collision was unavoidable. Brad Treat, who was a law enforcement officer with the U.S. Forest Service, was found dead Wednesday by officers at the scene of the mauling. Treat's riding companion reported the incident and was not attacked. This undated photo provided by Miles Mason shows Mason, left, with friend, Brad Treat, a victim of fatal grizzly bear mauling in Montana's Flathead National Forest outside Glacier National Park, as they pose for a photo during Treat's wedding in West Glacier, Mont. Treat, 38, was knocked off his bike Wednesday, June 29, 2016, after he and another rider apparently surprised the bear, a grizzly, according to initial and still-unconfirmed accounts, in the Flathead National Forest, authorities said. (Courtesy of Miles Mason via AP) Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim said it was a tragic accident. Investigators are still trying to determine if it was a black bear or a grizzly, and whether it might have been a female bear trying to protect her cubs. Investigators have removed cameras that were being used to find the bear, along with traps that were placed in the area. "This is an area of pretty high density of bears, and the bear didn't return," Aasheim said. "It was just a horrible accident. The bear was in a defensive mode responding." Authorities are still awaiting DNA tests that will show if the bear was male or female, and whether records show it might have been responsible for previous attacks. National Forest spokeswoman Janette Turk said the attack occurred in a heavily forested area, and the area has been closed off. An autopsy on Treat could help determine the size, age and sex of the bear, Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said. Treat became a Forest Service law enforcement officer in 2004. He spent the last 12 years stationed at the remote Hungry Horse District in the Flathead National Forest, where the territory stretches into the untamed Great Bear Wilderness. This 1994 photo provided by Miles Mason shows Mason, left, with friend, Brad Treat, a victim of fatal grizzly bear mauling in Montana's Flathead National Forest outside Glacier National Park, as they pose in Kalispell, Mont. Treat, 38, was knocked off his bike Wednesday, June 29, 2016, after he and another rider apparently surprised the bear, a grizzly, according to initial and still-unconfirmed accounts, in the Flathead National Forest, authorities said. The other rider, whose name was not released, went to get help and was not hurt. (Courtesy of Miles Mason via AP) FILE-- This undated photo provided by the National Park Service shows a grizzly bear walking along a ridge in Montana. Grizzly bears have rebounded from widespread extermination across the Northern Rockies over the past several decades. But conflicts with humans have been on the rise, and the death of a Montana man on Wednesday,June 29, 2016, brings to at least seven the number of people fatally mauled by bears in the region since 2010. (National Park Service via AP) Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks game warden Perry Brown prepares to hunt for a grizzly bear that killed Forest Service law enforcement officer Brad Treat near West Glacier, Mont. on Wednesday, June 29, 2016. Treat was off duty-riding his bicycle on a popular trail network near the town when the attack occurred. (Chris Peterson/The Daily Inter Lake via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT FILE--In this Sept. 25, 2013 photo, a grizzly bear cub rests near a cabin a few miles from the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park in Gardiner, Mont. Grizzly bears have rebounded from widespread extermination across the Northern Rockies over the past several decades. But conflicts with humans have been on the rise, and the death of a Montana man on Wednesday,June 29, 2016, brings to at least seven the number of people fatally mauled by bears in the region since 2010. (Alan Rogers/Casper Star-Tribune via AP, file) Q&A: Chicago park defender unapologetic on Lucas Museum fray CHICAGO (AP) The head of a small nonprofit that stood its ground and blocked "Star Wars" creator George Lucas' private museum from being built on Chicago's prized lakefront is unapologetic in the face of attacks that its campaign merely protected an existing parking lot. The preservationist group was vilified after going up against a billionaire Hollywood mogul and a mayor who was once a White House chief of staff. Lucas' wife accused them of denying "black and brown children" opportunities and a prominent Catholic priest even compared them to a street gang. But as crowds fill the ribbon of green along Lake Michigan this Fourth of July, Friends of the Parks Director Juanita Irizarry urges people not to take for granted the dazzling open spaces that generations of activists have fought to preserve. Here are excerpts from an Associated Press interview Thursday with Irizarry: In this photo taken Thursday, June 30, 2016, Friends of the Parks Director Juanita Irizarry poses for a portrait in Chicago's Millennium Park after an interview with the Associated in Chicago. Irizarry heads the obscure nonprofit that stood its ground and blocked Star Wars creator George Lucas' private museum from being built on Chicago's prized lakefront. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) ___ Q: Friends of the Parks' fight with Lucas, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other powerful interests has been cast by some as a David vs. Goliath story. Some cheered you as "lakefront-loving idealists," while the Rev. Michael Pfleger compared your group to the Gangster Disciples gang. Who is the Friends of the Parks? A: "When we got started (in 1975) really Chicago's parks all across the city ... were not very well invested in. And so there was actually a call for a watchdog group to be created to kind of keep the city accountable. Then, around 1980, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the Chicago Park District for discrimination against minority communities. And we were brought in as part of the implementation team to do the things that the consent decree called for. ... Folks have called us elitist and a bunch of rich white people, but the history of the organization actually is very much connected to this effort to make sure that brown and black folks on the West and South sides got better served." ___ Q: The site is currently a parking lot for Soldier Field, yet you say leaving it as such is preferable to allowing construction of a private museum even one that adds acres of new parkland around it because it would violate the public trust doctrine meant to guard public land. Emanuel, meanwhile, says your lawsuit and Lucas' departure last week cost the city thousands of jobs, millions of dollars in economic investment and countless educational opportunities. Why was this fight so important to you? A: "All of those jobs and economic development benefits could just as easily have been brought to Chicago by a Lucas Museum built on the other side of Lake Shore Drive. So it was really the Lucases who would only accept an East Lake Shore Drive site who decided that Chicago should not have those benefits. Period. "... Now the (Emanuel) administration is blaming us for there being a parking lot there when the city has chosen the revenue (it brings) over living up to a previous commitment to turn it into parkland." ___ Q: Your predecessor as director, in announcing the lawsuit in November 2014, said Lucas' plan was "an assault to the shores of Lake Michigan" and noted Chicago's lakefront is the envy of waterfront cities throughout the world. What are some examples of cities striking the right balance, and what cities have failed? A: "I think you can look at any lakefront city and find that you don't have anywhere near the access that we do. I recently read an article with somebody talking about how Toronto has screwed up their access to the lake. ... The legislature in Puerto Rico (recently) voted to sell eight public beaches to billionaires to address their economic problems. And Puerto Rico for many years had been unusual in the Caribbean for keeping most of its beachfront open to Puerto Ricans." ___ Q: Reflecting on his own 20-year lakefront crusade, Montgomery Ward told the Chicago Tribune, "Had I known in 1890 how long it would take me to preserve a park for the people against their will, I doubt if I would have undertaken it." Why, a century later, is Chicago still fighting these battles? A: "There's always (going to be) folks who care about the environment who think that open space should be open space and real estate developer people who think open space is space to be built on. ... In Chicago, I think we probably need a renewed effort ... of educating people about the history of why they have this lakefront to enjoy. ... Most Chicagoans probably (don't) even have a clue that this is even special." In this photo taken Wednesday, June 29, 2016, tourists walk along Chicago's Lake Michigan waterfront and near the site where George Lucas wanted to build his Star Wars museum in Chicago. Friends of the Parks Director Juanita Irizarry led the obscure nonprofit that stood its ground and blocked Lucas' private museum from being built on Chicago's prized lakefront. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) In this photo taken Wednesday, June 29, 2016, sailing enthusiasts maneuver their boats near Navy Pier along Chicago's Lake Michigan waterfront and near the site where George Lucas wanted to build his Star Wars museum in Chicago. Friends of the Parks Director Juanita Irizarry led the obscure nonprofit that stood its ground and blocked Lucas' private museum from being built on Chicago's prized lakefront. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) In this photo taken Wednesday, June 29, 2016, people take advantage of the warm temperatures at the 12th Street beach near the site where George Lucas wanted to build his Star Wars museum in Chicago. Friends of the Parks Director Juanita Irizarry led the obscure nonprofit that stood its ground and blocked Lucas' private museum from being built on Chicago's prized lakefront. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) In this photo taken Thursday, June 30, 2016, Friends of the Parks Director Juanita Irizarry, right, poses for a portrait in Chicago's Millennium Park after an interview with the Associated in Chicago. Irizarry heads the obscure nonprofit that stood its ground and blocked Star Wars creator George Lucas' private museum from being built on Chicago's prized lakefront. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) In this photo taken Thursday, June 30, 2016, Friends of the Parks Director Juanita Irizarry responds to a question during an interview with the Associated in Chicago. Irizarry heads the obscure nonprofit that stood its ground and blocked Star Wars creator George Lucas' private museum from being built on Chicago's prized lakefront. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) In this photo taken Wednesday, June 29, 2016, people take advantage of the warm temperatures at the 12th Street beach near the site where George Lucas wanted to build his Star Wars museum in Chicago. Friends of the Parks Director Juanita Irizarry led the obscure nonprofit that stood its ground and blocked Lucas' private museum from being built on Chicago's prized lakefront. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) In this photo taken Wednesday, June 29, 2016, tourists walk around Chicago's Buckingham Fountain along the Lake Michigan waterfront and near the site where George Lucas wanted to build his Star Wars museum in Chicago. Friends of the Parks Director Juanita Irizarry led the obscure nonprofit that stood its ground and blocked Lucas' private museum from being built on Chicago's prized lakefront. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) In this photo taken Wednesday, June 29, 2016, tourists bike along Lake Michigan near the site where George Lucas wanted to build his Star Wars museum in Chicago. Friends of the Parks Director Juanita Irizarry led the obscure nonprofit that stood its ground and blocked Lucas' private museum from being built on Chicago's prized lakefront. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) Identities, nationalities of dead in Dhaka restaurant attack A partial list of nationalities and identities of those reported slain in the Dhaka restaurant attack, and some details on their lives, as reported by local media. ___ Italians confirmed dead by the Italian Foreign Ministry (9): Johura Begum shows a photograph of her brother-in-law Saidul Islam, who works at the Holey Artisan Bakery and currently missing, at the site of an attack by heavily armed militants, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, July 2, 2016. The dramatic, 10-hour hostage crisis that gripped the Bangladesh's diplomatic zone ended Saturday morning as commandos raided the popular restaurant where dozens of foreigners and Bangladeshis were dining out during the Ramadan holy month. (AP Photo) Nadia Benedetti: 52, a managing director for a Bangladeshi branch of a British firm, friend of Italian victim Adele Puglisi. Claudio Cappelli: 45, lived in Vedano al Lambro, near Monza. Vincenzo D'Allestro: 46, Swiss-born, lived in Accera, southern Italy. Claudia Maria D'Antona: 56, worked in clothing and textiles business. Her husband, Gianni Boschetti survived the attack because he was in the restaurant garden talking on the phone. When she lived in Italy, in the early 1980s, she served as a volunteer helping disaster victims. Simona Monti: 33, worked in a textiles firm. State TV quoted her brother, an Italian priest, as saying she was 5-months pregnant with a boy she planned to name Michelangelo and was to return soon to Italy for a medical checkup. She was from the Rieti area. Adele Puglisi: 54, a quality control manager from Catania, Sicily, who was due to head back to Italy any day. Maria Rivoli: 34, from the Bergamo area of northern Italy, mother of 3-year-old, traveling in Bangladesh for textile business Cristian Rossi: 47, business manager for Feletto Umberto, married father of 3-year-old twin girls. He had previously worked as a buyer for an Italian textile company, then worked in his own import business involving clothing made in a Dhaka factory. State TV said he was supposed to have headed back to Italy on Thursday, but delayed his departure to sign business contracts. Marco Tondat: 39, had been in Bangladesh for about a year, worked in textiles industry, was about to return home. ___ Japanese confirmed dead by the Japanese government (7): Five men and two women, all working on a Japanese government aid project in Dhaka, who were dining together at the restaurant under siege. They were working for three Tokyo-based consulting companies. Four of the seven have been identified: Koyo Ogasawara, Katahira & Engineers International Makoto Okamura, ALMEC Corp. Yuko Sakai, ALMEC Corp. Rui Shimodaira, ALMEC Corp. The other three were working for Oriental Consultants Global. ___ Indian confirmed dead by India (1): Tarushi Jain: 19, a student at University of California-Berkeley who was visiting her businessman father in Bangladesh ___ Bangladeshis, not immediately identified, confirmed dead (3): In addition, two police officers died at a hospital after being wounded in the gunfire, according to Bangladesh police. ___ Nationalities not immediately available, confirmed dead by Emory University (2): Abinta Kabir: a second-year student at Emory University, Georgia, from Miami Faraaz Hossain: a student at Emory University, Georgia, from Dhaka ___ This story has been corrected to fix the age of Indian victim Tarushi Jain. Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi speaks during a press conference on the Dhaka attack, in Rome, Saturday, July 2, 2016. He said that Italians are among the victims of the Dhaka attack, but he won't give details or the toll until families are notified. Italian news reports say about 10 or 11 Italians were inside the cafe when attack began. (Claudio Peri/ANSA via AP Photo) Unidentified Bangladeshis wait for news of relatives, who had been taken hostage, near the site of the attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Bangladeshi forces stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area where heavily armed militants held dozens of people hostage Saturday morning, rescuing some captives including foreigners. (AP Photo) Former Trinidad & Tobago prime minster Manning dies at 69 PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago (AP) Patrick Manning, a geologist who led the resource-rich Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago as prime minister through a boom in its petrochemical sector until his party was defeated amid rising crime and corruption, has died. He was 69. Manning died Saturday morning at the San Fernando General Hospital after battling acute myeloid leukemia, his family said in a statement on his official Facebook page. He was prime minister of the twin-island country from 1991-95 and from 2001-10. FILE - In this Thursday Nov 26, 2009 file photo, Trinidad and Tobago former Prime Minister Patrick Manning attends a news conference ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, CHOGM, in Port-of-Spain Trinidad. Mannings family said on his official Facebook page that the three-time prime minister died on Saturday, July 2, 2016, after battling acute myeloid leukemia. (AP Photo/Martin Cleaver, File) Born to poor parents in 1946 in San Fernando, the country's industrial capital, Manning was a child when Trinidad and Tobago moved toward independence from Britain in 1962. Manning had said his family was so poor that he regularly wore shirts sewn from flour sacks. In July 2009 comments to the Trinidad & Tobago Express, he recalled his mother making him wear one of his sister's frilled blouses one day when he no longer had any shirts for school. He excelled as a student and earned a degree in geology at Jamaica's campus of the University of the West Indies, then worked as a refinery operator and later a geologist in Trinidad for the U.S. oil company Texaco. Trinidad began producing petrochemicals for export in 1959, three years before independence from Britain and the industry has blossomed in the ensuing decades and natural gas and petroleum products have been the leading exports in recent years. Manning decided to change his career track to politics in 1971 under the tutelage of black nationalist Eric Williams, who was the country's first prime minister and founded the People's National Movement. Williams attempted to create a national movement, but the party never attracted support from the descendants of migrants from India, who make up more than 30 percent of the population. Manning was a junior minister in Williams' governments before he was named minister of energy in 1981. The People's National Movement lost power in 1986 amid economic decline and accusations of corruption as oil prices fell and the currency was devalued. Manning emerged as political leader of the party in 1986, taking one of only three seats its candidates won in the general elections that year. He was credited with rejuvenating the party, especially after the black Muslim Jamaat al Muslimeen staged a violent coup attempt, killing 24 people and briefly holding the Cabinet hostage before surrendering. In 1991 elections, Manning led the People's National Movement to a drubbing of then-Prime Minister Arthur N.R. Robinson's National Alliance for Reconstruction. Manning's first government stabilized the currency and further developed the gas sector, fueling strong growth in the economy. His administration also was hit by accusations of public corruption. He lost power in 1995 to rival Basdeo Panday, ending decades of political power wielded by black Trinidadians as the country's first leader of Indian descent took control. In December 2001, Manning was selected as prime minister by Robinson, then the ceremonial president of Trinidad and Tobago, after his party and the United National Congress each won 18 seats in the 36-member House of Representatives. But unable to gain a majority to elect a speaker of the house, Manning was forced to hold fresh elections after nine months. His party won 2002 elections and he continued as prime minister. Manning repeatedly pledged to bring unity to the country, but many of the country's roughly 1.3 million people remain deeply divided along ethnic lines. Manning's popularity fell during his final years as prime minister amid a series scandals and rising crime. His People's National Movement lost general elections in May 2010. Manning kept his seat in the House of Representatives but was ousted as party leader. He was hospitalized in January 2012 after suffering a stroke. Manning is survived by his wife, Hazel-Ann, and their two sons. The family said funeral arrangements were pending. ___ Dead whale towed off Los Angeles beach ahead of holiday LOS ANGELES (AP) The reeking carcass of a dead humpback whale was towed back out to sea some 24 hours after washing up at a popular Los Angeles County beach Friday. Authorities used boats pulling ropes attached to the tail to pull it off the sand during the evening high tide, taking the whale far out to sea and avoiding a foul stench and grim scene on the beach as Fourth of July weekend crowds began arriving. Authorities had earlier attempted the procedure at midday, with a bulldozer pushing, but it was unsuccessful because of the low tide. Lifeguards tie a dead humpback whale's tail after it washed ashore at Dockweiler Beach along the Los Angeles coastline on Friday, July 1, 2016. The whale floated in Thursday evening. It is approximately 40 feet long and is believed to have been between 10 to 30 years old. Marine animal authorities will try to determine why the animal died. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) The huge whale washed onto Dockweiler Beach, a long stretch of sand near the west end of Los Angeles International Airport, just before 8 p.m. Thursday and holiday beachgoers began arriving in the morning. Lifeguards posted yellow caution tape to keep people away and biologists took samples to determine what caused the death of the humpback, an endangered species. Beachgoers watching from a distance covered their noses. Tail markings were compared with a photo database and found that the same whale had been spotted three times previously off Southern California between June and August of last year by whale watchers who gave it the nickname Wally, said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a whale research associate with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. At the time of the prior sightings the humpback was covered with whale lice, which usually means a whale is in poor physical condition, but it was also actively feeding and breaching, she said. Schulman-Janiger said she noticed healed entanglement scars on its tail indicating that in the past it been snarled in some sort of fishing line. The carcass was in relatively good condition which meant the whale could have died as recently as Thursday morning, she said. The whale was about 46 feet long and at least 15 years old, meaning it had reached maturity, said Justin Greenman, stranding coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service. Skin and blubber samples were taken for DNA testing along with fecal matter to be tested for biotoxins. The experts had hoped to more extensively open up the whale but due to the holiday weekend authorities decided to get it off the beach as soon as possible, Greenman said. North Pacific humpbacks feed along the West Coast from California to Alaska during summer, according to the Marine Mammal Center, a Sausalito-based ocean conservation organization. Although the species' numbers are extensively depleted, humpbacks have been seen with increasing frequency off California in recent years, the center's website said. Humpbacks, familiar to whale watchers for their habits of breaching and slapping the water, are filter feeders that consume up to 3,000 pounds of krill, plankton and tiny fish per day, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The whale that washed up is not the same one spotted earlier in the week off Southern California tangled in crab pot lines. That animal was identified as a blue whale. Efforts by a rescue crew in a small boat to cut away the line failed, and it disappeared. California has seen a number of whales on beaches this year. A humpback carcass that appeared off Santa Cruz in May had to be towed out to sea, while a massive gray whale that ended up on San Onofre State Beach in April had to be chopped up and hauled to a landfill. The same month, a distressed humpback was freed from crabbing gear in Monterey Bay. In March, a dead gray was removed from Torrey Pines State Beach. Beach goers from Manhattan Beach, Calif., cover their faces from the smell of a dead humpback whale washed ashore at Dockweiler Beach in Los Angeles on Friday, July 1, 2016. The whale floated in Thursday evening. It is approximately 40 feet long and is believed to have been between 10 to 30 years old. Marine animal authorities will try to determine why the animal died. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) A bulldozer pushes a dead humpback whale that washed ashore at Dockweiler Beach back into the ocean along the Los Angeles coastline on Friday, July 1, 2016. The whale floated in Thursday evening. It is approximately 40 feet long and is believed to have been between 10 to 30 years old. Marine animal authorities will try to determine why the animal died. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) People observe a dead humpback whale washed ashore at Dockweiler Beach in Los Angeles on Friday, July 1, 2016. The whale floated in Thursday evening. It is approximately 40 feet long and is believed to have been between 10 to 30 years old. Marine animal authorities will try to determine why the animal died. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) A dead humpback whale lies washed ashore at Dockweiler Beach in Los Angeles on Friday, July 1, 2016. The whale floated in Thursday evening. It is approximately 40 feet long and is believed to have been between 10 to 30 years old. Marine animal authorities will try to determine why the animal died. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) Activists troubled by Houston's history of police shootings HOUSTON (AP) There's a concerning pattern in Houston that's lasted more than a decade, activists and attorneys say: Nearly every officer-involved shooting is deemed justified by the law enforcement agency, and grand juries tend to concur. They point to, among others, the August 2015 shooting of a 27-year-old man who had been suffering a mental health crisis and was stumbling around naked and unarmed in a Houston hospital, saying such incidents are not thoroughly scrutinized and demonstrate a lack of officer training. Houston police say its training and policies make it clear the use of unnecessary or excessive force isn't tolerated, that such incidents are carefully reviewed and that its training program on how to deal with individuals with mental illness and de-escalate dangerous situations is considered a model program nationally. FILE - In this Nov. 3, 2015 file photo, Mayoral candidate Sylvester Turner, center, raises hands with his daughter, Ashley Turner, left, after speaking at an election night watch party in Houston. There's a concerning pattern in Houston that's lasted more than a decade, activists and attorneys say: Nearly every officer-involved shooting is deemed justified by the law enforcement agency, and grand juries tend to concur.(Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT "If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. It's important for people to be aware that these things happen," said Alan Pean, who survived the hospital shooting and filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the city of Houston, the two officers involved, the hospital and others. Neither officer was disciplined. A grand jury in March declined to indict Pean, who now lives in New York, on two counts of aggravated assault of a police officer, and a third charge of reckless driving was dropped. Pean's attorneys say there are similar cases that show a pattern of excessive force, including the 2012 death of 38-year-old Kenny Releford, who was fatally shot by an officer who went to his home after Releford had suffered a psychotic episode. The officer was cleared in the shooting. Releford's family also sued the city, and the case is set for trial in October; Pean's attorneys also represent Releford's family. While some local community leaders and activists remain critical of what they see as the Houston Police Department's recurring issues with use of deadly force, the incidents haven't sparked large-scale protests like those seen in other parts of the U.S. that have dealt in recent years with high-profile shootings involving officers. Community leaders have credited the recently retired police chief's public outreach efforts with helping maintain calm. Between 2005 and 2012, nearly all shootings by Houston police were deemed justified, including 99 incidents from 2009 to 2012, according to court records and evidence gathered as part of the Releford lawsuit and a 2011 lawsuit. And the Houston Chronicle reported in March that the Police Department has declared every intentional officer-involved shooting since 2010 more than 150 justified. "Innocent people in this city, including innocent people with mental health issues, are going to continue to be shot and killed by HPD officers until there is a cultural change in HPD," said Walt Cubberly, one of Pean's attorneys. Houston police spokesman Kese Smith referred questions to city officials. Houston city spokeswoman Janice Evans said she couldn't comment due to the pending litigation. But as part of the Releford lawsuit, several Houston police officials have given statements about department policies related to the use of deadly force. Assistant Police Chief Mattie Provost said external and internal reviews of officer-involved shootings are "not cursory investigations designed to cover up any officer misconduct." Officer Frank Webb, who provides mental health training within the department, said the agency goes above state standards in providing crisis intervention training to officers. "However, I do not know of any (crisis intervention training) standard that would prohibit an officer from taking reasonable actions to protect him/herself or another from the risk of serious bodily injury or death posed by the actions of a person simply because that person is suffering from mental illness," he said. Johnny Mata, a longtime activist with the Greater Houston Coalition for Justice, said shootings like Pean's, Releford's and a 2012 fatal shooting of a wheelchair-bound double amputee with mental health issues foster distrust from many in the public. His organization is meeting with Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Interim Police Chief Martha Montalvo to figure out how to "move forward and prevent such tragedies." Ray Hunt, president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, said people jump to conclusions about these shootings without knowing all the facts. "This is not something that an officer wakes up in the morning and says, 'Oh, I hope I get involved in a shooting today.' People ... who claim that's the mentality of police officers are just showing their ignorance," he said. Houston is among many police departments around the U.S. taking a hard look at deadly force guidelines, according to Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. His Washington, D.C.-based research and policy organization has issued a report detailing 30 guiding principles for use of force. "I think we are at a point in this country where after several years of watching a number of very unfortunate situations unfold, we are beginning to see real change in terms of best practices in use of force," he said. ___ The Latest: Emory students among Bangladesh attack victims ATLANTA (AP) The Latest on Emory University students who died in a militant attack in Bangladesh (all times local): 3:30 p.m. A classmate of the two Emory University students who were killed in an extremist attack in Bangladesh remembered them as genuine and intelligent people who had no enemies. Kereisha Harrell told The Associated Press on Saturday that she worked with both Faraaz Hossain and Abinta Kabir on a committee at Emory's Oxford College that planned school-wide events. Hossain and Kabir were among at least 28 people dead in an attack in the South Asian nation's capital of Dhaka that began Friday. Militants stormed a restaurant and held hostages for 10 hours before paramilitary forces ended the siege. The 20-year-old Harrell says she and Hossain were event chairs of the committee before he graduated from Oxford College in December and became a student at the university's Goizueta Business School in Atlanta. Harrell says she trained Kabir to replace Hossain when he left the Student Activities Committee executive board. ___ 10:50 a.m. Emory University says two of its students were among 20 victims of an extremist attack in Bangladesh. University president James Wagner said in emails to employees that Faraaz Hossain and Abinta Kabir were among 20 victims killed when militants took hostages at a restaurant in the South Asian nation's capital of Dhaka on Friday. Kabir was entering Emory's Oxford College as a sophomore. She was visiting family and friends in Bangladesh at the time of the attack. Hossain was a graduate of Oxford College and a student at the university's Goizueta Business School in Atlanta. School spokeswoman Elaine Justice says Kabir was a sophomore from Miami, Florida; and Hossain was from Dhaka. ___ A student at Emory University has been identified by the school as one of the victims of an attack in Bangladesh that left 20 people dead. University president James Wagner said in an email to employees that Abinta Kabir was among those killed when militants took hostages at a restaurant in the South Asian nation's capital of Dhaka on Friday. Kabir was a student at the school's campus in Oxford. She was visiting family and friends in Bangladesh when she was taken hostage and killed in the Dhaka attack. Wagner said he had been in touch with Abinta's mother and that she was in "unspeakable pain" over her daughter's death. Wagner urged employees to direct their thoughts and prayers to Abinta's mother and family. ___ The Latest: Officials blame bear collision for man's death HELENA, Mont. (AP) The Latest on the investigation of mountain biker killed by a bear (all times local): 10:30 a.m. Montana wildlife authorities are still trying to determine why a 38-year-old mountain biker was killed by a bear while the biker was riding just outside Glacier National Park. They say the biker likely collided with the bear before he was attacked. This undated photo provided by Miles Mason shows Mason, left, with friend, Brad Treat, a victim of fatal grizzly bear mauling in Montana's Flathead National Forest outside Glacier National Park, as they pose for a photo during Treat's wedding in West Glacier, Mont. Treat, 38, was knocked off his bike Wednesday, June 29, 2016, after he and another rider apparently surprised the bear, a grizzly, according to initial and still-unconfirmed accounts, in the Flathead National Forest, authorities said. (Courtesy of Miles Mason via AP) Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim said Saturday it was a tragic accident and the search for the bear has been called off. Investigators are still trying to determine if it was a black bear or a grizzly, and whether it might have been a female bear trying to protect her cubs. Brad Treat, who was a law enforcement officer with the U.S. Forest Service, was found dead Wednesday by officers at the scene of the mauling. Treat's riding companion reported the incident and was not attacked. ___ 9:30 a.m. Montana wildlife officials say a 38-year-old mountain biker who was killed by a bear while riding just outside Glacier National Park likely collided with the bear before he was attacked. Following an investigation, they have removed bear traps and cameras used to find the bear, and they called off the search. Brad Treat, who was a law enforcement officer with the U.S. Forest Service, was found dead Wednesday by officers at the scene of the mauling. Treat's riding companion reported the incident and was not attacked. Wildlife response team investigator Brian Sommers says he believes Treat was riding at a high rate of speed along a narrow trail and hit the bear. Authorities say visibility was limited and they believe the collision was unavoidable. This 1994 photo provided by Miles Mason shows Mason, left, with friend, Brad Treat, a victim of fatal grizzly bear mauling in Montana's Flathead National Forest outside Glacier National Park, as they pose in Kalispell, Mont. Treat, 38, was knocked off his bike Wednesday, June 29, 2016, after he and another rider apparently surprised the bear, a grizzly, according to initial and still-unconfirmed accounts, in the Flathead National Forest, authorities said. The other rider, whose name was not released, went to get help and was not hurt. (Courtesy of Miles Mason via AP) FILE-- This undated photo provided by the National Park Service shows a grizzly bear walking along a ridge in Montana. Grizzly bears have rebounded from widespread extermination across the Northern Rockies over the past several decades. But conflicts with humans have been on the rise, and the death of a Montana man on Wednesday,June 29, 2016, brings to at least seven the number of people fatally mauled by bears in the region since 2010. (National Park Service via AP) Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks game warden Perry Brown prepares to hunt for a grizzly bear that killed Forest Service law enforcement officer Brad Treat near West Glacier, Mont. on Wednesday, June 29, 2016. Treat was off duty-riding his bicycle on a popular trail network near the town when the attack occurred. (Chris Peterson/The Daily Inter Lake via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT FILE--In this Sept. 25, 2013 photo, a grizzly bear cub rests near a cabin a few miles from the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park in Gardiner, Mont. Grizzly bears have rebounded from widespread extermination across the Northern Rockies over the past several decades. But conflicts with humans have been on the rise, and the death of a Montana man on Wednesday,June 29, 2016, brings to at least seven the number of people fatally mauled by bears in the region since 2010. (Alan Rogers/Casper Star-Tribune via AP, file) Paris gay pride parade goes ahead under tight security PARIS (AP) Thousands of people marched Saturday in a gay pride parade in Paris amid tight police security, three weeks after the massacre at a Florida gay nightclub. Some participants at the Paris parade were wearing black armbands to pay tribute to the Orlando victims. France itself is still under state of emergency following last year's deadly extremist attacks. A reveler parades during the annual Gay Pride march in Paris, France, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Three weeks after the massacre at a Florida gay nightclub, people celebrate gay rights movement. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) The U.S. embassy in France was officially represented in the parade. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and Culture Minister Audrey Azoulay also joined the march, which was reduced to a short 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) in the city center to ensure better security. French President Francois Hollande tweeted "let's keep fighting for freedom and equality," with the French pride parade's hashtag #MarchedesFiertes. As the joyful crowd carried rainbow flags and danced to the sound of loud techno music, some were still worried. "There are a lot of things happening that are not good for us," said Jordan Kupelian, 25, of Paris. "There is still a death sentence in some countries (for gays), that is very dangerous." Gwenaelle Lecoidic, 30, who lives in the suburbs of Paris, said security measures on Saturday allowed people to march "without fearing attacks or aggressions." ___ Milos Krivokapic contributed. Revelers dance during the annual Gay Pride march in Paris, France, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Three weeks after the massacre at a Florida gay nightclub, people celebrated the gay rights movement. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) A reveler parades during the annual Gay Pride march in Paris, France, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Three weeks after the massacre at a Florida gay nightclub, people celebrated the gay rights movement. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) A reveler holds a placard during the annual Gay Pride march in Paris, France, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Three weeks after the massacre at a Florida gay nightclub, people celebrate gay rights movement. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) A reveler dances during the annual Gay Pride march in Paris, France, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Three weeks after the massacre at a Florida gay nightclub, people celebrated the gay rights movement. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) A reveler smokes during the annual Gay Pride march in Paris, France, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Three weeks after the massacre at a Florida gay nightclub, people celebrated the gay rights movement. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) A reveler dances during the annual Gay Pride march in Paris, France, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Three weeks after the massacre at a Florida gay nightclub, people celebrated the gay rights movement. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) Revelers hug during the annual Gay Pride march in Paris, France, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Three weeks after the massacre at a Florida gay nightclub, people celebrated the gay rights movement. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) Vietnam said it hopes the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague will issue a fair and objective judgment on a petition filed by the Philippines contesting Chinas claims to disputed waters in the East Sea. Vietnamese Foreign Ministrys Spokesman Le Hai Binh made the statement while answering a question about the PCAs ruling, which is expected to be announced on July 12, the government portal reported Saturday. Vietnam has already been informed of the PCAs schedule. As a country directly involving in the disputes and a member state of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS), the country has been monitoring the case closely, Binh said. Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Le Hai Binh. Photo by VnExpress/Quy Doan He reiterated that Vietnam supports the settlement of disputes in the East Sea by peaceful measures, on the basis of international law, especially the 1982 UNCLOS. Though Vietnam is not part of the Hague case, it stands to benefit from a positive ruling for Manila and has echoed its opposition to China's fortification of artificial islands, the conduct of its coastguard and perceived intrusions into Vietnam's exclusive economic zone, according to Reuters. China has said at least 47 countries have offered support for its refusal to recognise the high-profile case brought by the Philippines in 2013. However, a senior U.S. official has voiced scepticism about that claim. China claims nearly all of the South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea) despite competing partial claims by ASEAN members the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan. Related news: > Vietnam condemns Taiwans violation of sovereignty over Ba Binh Island > China risks "outlaw" status if it rejects South China Sea ruling The Latest: Taj Mahal strike enters 2nd day over benefits ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) The Latest on the strike against Atlantic City's Trump Taj Mahal casino (all times local): 12:40 p.m. Several hundred picketers are demonstrating outside the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City as a strike against the gambling hall enters its second day. Atlantic City N.J. Mayor Don Guardian rides his bicycle past picketers at the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City on Friday July 1, 2016. Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union went on strike against the casino, unable to reach a new contract with it. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry) About 1,000 members of Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union walked off the job Friday against the casino, which is owned by billionaire investor Carl Icahn. The demonstrations are continuing Saturday. The union was unable to reach a new contract with the casino, which terminated its union members' health insurance and pension benefits in bankruptcy court in October 2014. The Taj Mahal offered to restore some health care, but the union deemed it insufficient. 12:30 a.m. A top manager for billionaire Carl Icahn says Atlantic City's main casino workers' union appears "hell-bent" on trying to shut down the Trump Taj Mahal casino as a strike against the struggling gambling hall enters its second day. Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union went on strike Friday against the Taj Mahal, the casino opened by Donald Trump in 1990 but now owned by his friend, Icahn. The main sticking point is the union's demand that health care and pension plans for the casino's 1,000 unionized workers that were terminated in bankruptcy court be restored. Icahn has offered to restore health care, but not to a level the union deems acceptable. ___ Follow Wayne Parry at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC Union members picket outside the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City N.J. on Friday July 1, moments after they began a strike against the casino. Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union says it was unable to reach a new contract with the casino, which is owned by billionaire investor Carl Icahn. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry) Union members picket outside the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City N.J. on Friday July 1, 2016, moments after they began a strike against the casino. Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union says it was unable to reach a new contract with the casino, which is owned by billionaire investor Carl Icahn. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry) Striking union members walk a picket line outside the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, N.J. on Friday July 1, 2016. Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union went on strike against the casino, which is owned by billionaire investor Carl Icahn. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry) Striking union members walk a picket line outside the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, N.J. on Friday July 1, 2016. Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union went on strike against the casino, which is owned by billionaire investor Carl Icahn. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry) A Trump Taj Mahal worker takes a T shirt indicating he is on strike against the casino on Friday July 1, 2016. Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union went on strike against the Taj Mahal, unable to reach a new contract with it. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry) Union members picket outside the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City N.J. on Friday July 1, 2016, moments after they began a strike against the casino. Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union says it was unable to reach a new contract with the casino, which is owned by billionaire investor Carl Icahn. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry) This June 30, 2016 photo shows the exterior of the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, N.J. Still seething from the cancellation of its members' health insurance and pension benefits nearly two years ago, Local 54 of the Unite-HERE, Atlantic City's main casino workers union, said early Friday it will go on strike against the Trump Taj Mahal casino. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry) This June 30, 2016 photo shows the exterior of the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, N.J. Still seething from the cancellation of its members' health insurance and pension benefits nearly two years ago, Local 54 of the Unite-HERE, Atlantic City's main casino workers union, said early Friday it will go on strike against the Trump Taj Mahal casino. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry) A union organizer registers a striker outside the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, N.J. on Friday July 1, 2016. Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union went on strike against the casino Friday, unable to reach a new contract with it.(AP Photo/Wayne Parry) Hezbollah says it killed IS commander in Lebanon BEIRUT (AP) The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah says it has killed the Islamic State military commander for the Qaa border area in Lebanon, where a series of suicide bombings and other attacks killed five people earlier this week. Hezbollah's media outlet Al-Manar said the group, which shares security responsibilities with the Lebanese army in areas along the eastern border with Syria, killed a commander known as Abu Khatab in a rocket attack. The army did not release any comment. Hezbollah, which also participates in Lebanon's government, has blamed the Qaa attacks on IS. Jaidee goes 2 shots clear of McIlroy and Wang at French Open SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France (AP) Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand posted a 3-under round of 68 on Saturday to move 8-under and take a two-shot lead heading into the final round of the French Open. Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy and South Korea's Wang Jeung-hun posted 1-under 70s, having been level with Jaidee and two other players overnight. Jaidee played consistently with three birdies. "I had a good game plan today ... hit a lot of fairway," the 46-year-old Jaidee said. "Three-under is an amazing round with the conditions and the wind gusting." By contrast, McIlroy's third round was hugely erratic as the four-time major winner had six birdies, three bogeys and one double-bogey. McIlroy recovered to make five birdies on the back nine. Wang's round was the opposite, featuring three bogeys on his way back to the clubhouse after he had set out with four birdies on the front nine. Defending champion Bernd Wiesberger of Austria posted 70 and is one shot behind at 5-under, followed by South African Brandon Stone and four other players at 3-under. Wiesberger is looking to become the sixth player to successfully defend the title at the Le Golf National course, which is hosting the 2018 Ryder Cup. "I'm right up there," said Wiesberger, who recovered from a bogey-bogey start to make three birdies. "I have played well on Sundays here, so everything is in place." Stone shared the overnight lead, but fell away with a 2-over 73 including double bogey on the 18th hole. Mikko Ilonen, the other overnight co-leader, fared even more badly. The Finn hit a 4-over 75 including a quadruple bogey on the fifth hole to fall seven shots behind Jaidee and way out of contention. Authorities closed both sides of the interstate temporarily amid Fourth Of July weekend traffic Nolden escaped with minor injuries and no one else was hurt in the landing Pilot Leonard Nolden of Isanti, Minnesota, told authorities he couldn't find the airport and had little fuel left SportCruiser landed on I-35 near Wyoming, Minnesota on Friday night A small plane landed on a busy Minnesota interstate Friday night amid Fourth Of July weekend traffic. The single-engine SportCruiser plane landed in the southbound lanes of Interstate 35 near Wyoming, 40 miles northeast of St Paul, shortly after 10 pm Friday. The plane, registered to 79-year-old Leonard Nolden of Isanti, Minnesota, clipped a light pole and went into the median cable barrier, Kare11 reported. Nolden told authorities he couldn't find the Cambridge municipal airport and was running low on fuel. Scroll down for video A small plane (pictured) landed on Interstate 35 near Wyoming, Minnesota, 40 miles northeast of St Paul, shortly after 10 pm Friday The single-engine SportCruiser (pictured) was registered in 2007 to 79-year-old Leonard Nolden of Isanti, Minnesota, who escaped with minor injuries Images shot by CBS Minnesota showed the damaged plane on the roadway as crews worked to remove it. Authorities were still investigating the causes of the landing as of Saturday. Nolden escaped with minor injuries, police said. He later told the Star Tribune he was doing all right. No one else was hurt and no vehicles were hit. It is unclear whether the plane crashed or made an emergency landing, according to a spokesman for the Minnesota State Patrol. Some fuel leaked onto the road before authorities removed the plane around midnight. Lanes in both directions remained closed for a couple of hours after the landing. 'It's just fortunate nobody else was involved,' State Patrol Sergeant Troy Christianson told the Star Tribune. 'Traffic was delayed for a little bit, but that's pretty minimal for what could have happened.' Federal Aviation Administration records show the plane was registered to Nolden in 2007. It is unclear whether the plane (pictured) crashed or made an emergency landing. It clipped a light pole and went into the median cable barrier before landing on the interstate Families of victims file lawsuit against school shooter HAMILTON, Ohio (AP) Three students and their families are suing the family of the teenager who opened fire in an Ohio school cafeteria. Students Cameron Smith, Brant Murray and his sister, Genna, and their parents filed the lawsuit last month, alleging that negligence and recklessness by James Austin Hancock's family led to the shooting by the 15-year-old boy at Madison Local Schools in February. He was 14 at the time, and last month was sentenced to spend six years in a juvenile facility after pleading guilty to charges including attempted murder. FILE - In this April 28, 2016, file photo, James Austin Hancock, a teen charged in a school cafeteria shooting that took place Feb. 29, 2016, sits next to his attorney Charlie Rittgers Sr. before Judge Ronald Craft in Butler County Juvenile Court in Hamilton, Ohio. Three students and their families are suing the family of the teenager who opened fire in an Ohio school cafeteria. The lawsuit alleges that negligence by James Austin Hancock's family led to the February shooting at Madison Local Schools near Middletown in February. (Greg Lynch/Journal-News via AP, File) MANDATORY CREDIT Smith was shot and Murray was injured by shrapnel in the shooting. Genna claimed she suffered emotional distress after witnessing the shooting. Hancock's family "exhibited a total disregard for the life and safety of the public," the lawsuit alleged. The lawsuit also named Hancock's grandparents, the owners of the handgun, as defendants for allowing Hancock to obtain the weapon, according to the suit. Charlie Rittgers, who was Hancock's attorney in his criminal case, told The Cincinnati Enquirer he's confident the family members won't be found to have done anything for which they can be held responsible. It's unclear if he will represent the family in the civil case. "I found many factual inaccuracies (in the lawsuit) which surprised me based on the fact that the investigative file from the sheriff's office has been distributed in the public domain," Rittgers said. Teachers block roads as Mexican rights agency urges calm MEXICO CITY (AP) Protesting teachers and their supporters once again blocked at least half a dozen highways in southern Mexico, hours after the government demanded an end to the highway blockades. The federal police reported that blockades had been re-installed Saturday on roads in the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas. Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said late Friday the blockades had hurt millions and "must end," adding "time is up." Teachers protesting mandatory evaluations had loosened the highway blockades to allow gasoline tanker trucks through. But food and other basic necessities were in short supply. Memberships have more than doubled in a national LGBT pro-gun rights organization since a gunman opened fire at a gay nightclub in Florida, killing 49 people. Pink Pistols Utah chapter President Matt Schlentz said Pink Pistols membership has grown from 1,500 to 4,000 since Omar Mateen's June 12 rampage, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. 'It's really sad that something on this scale had to happen for people to realize this is a need for our community,' Schlentz said. 'But the reality is we still get attacked for kissing our partners or holding hands in public. 'We get windows smashed for having an equality sticker on them.' Matt Schlentz (pictured) is the Pink Pistols Utah chapter President and said Pink Pistols, a national LGBT pro-gun rights organization, membership has grown from 1,500 to 4,000 since Omar Mateen's June 12 rampage in Orlando, Florida Schlentz owns semi-automatic rifles similar to the Sig Sauer MCX that Mateen used, and he said he gets mixed reactions from people who learn he's a gun rights advocate. 'Obviously, as a gay man, I have to have some liberal views socially,' he said. 'But on this one point, I have very conservative views. 'The reality is what it is the world is a violent, terrible, scary place, and people do wish me harm based on who I love.' Pink Pistols organized in 2000 in response to a series of violent incidents like the murder in Wyoming of gay college student Matthew Shepard. Some early slogans were 'Queers bash back' and 'Pick on someone your own caliber.' Stonewall Shooting Sports of Utah is another pro-gun LGBT group. Pink Pistols organized in 2000 in response to a series of violent incidents like the murder in Wyoming of gay college student Matthew Shepard. Some early slogans were 'Queers bash back' and 'Pick on someone your own caliber' Orlando gunman Omar Mateen is pictured left and right in these images Attendees are seen at a June 13 vigil for the Orlando victims in Orlando, Florida 'As awful as Orlando is, I feel like this is a huge eye-opener for a lot of people that the world is not a perfect place, especially for a group that's at risk for this kind of violence,' said Scott Mogilefsky, the group's president and an Army veteran. There was an increase in people inquiring with the group after Orlando, he said. 'Security should be armed at all gay nightclubs, and all employees should run through a defensive shooting course once a year,' Mogilefsky said. 'When you think about supremacist groups, a gay bar is an easy target. Caribbean community to discuss US banks at Guyana meeting GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) The Caribbean Community says regional heads of government gathering for a three-day meeting will study moves by U.S. banks to sever or reduce ties to Caribbean banks. The community known as CARICOM said in a Saturday statement that the moves by American banks will affect transfers of remittances, credit card settlements and other basic financial transactions. The Caribbean community meeting opens Monday. U.S. bank regulators consider the Caribbean to be a high-risk area for suspicious transactions. The Latest: Greece arrests 5 aiming to smuggle in 87 Syrians SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) The Latest on Europe's migration issues. (all times local): 11:10 p.m. Greek police say they have arrested five individuals ready to smuggle 87 Syrian migrants, including 46 children, through the border with Albania. In this Thursday, June 30, 2016, handout photo provided by the International Rescue Committee, actress Maisie Williams, center, poses for a photo with refugee girls in the Cherso refugee camp, northern Greece. Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams traveled to Greece with co-stars in the TV fantasy drama Liam Cunningham and Lena Headey to visit refugee camps with the relief organization, the International Rescue Committee. ( International Rescue Committee via AP) The five one Greek, one Iraqi and three Syrians were arrested in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki as they were ready to board the 87 onto a bus with Bulgarian license plates. Each adult migrant had to pay $5,000 in stages until they reached central Europe, the migrants told police. Police say the migrants' final destination, as well as the exact travel arrangements, were not yet known. Migrant trafficking has increased since Balkan countries closed their borders to migrants last March. This is the first known case of using Albania instead of the usual route through Macedonia. ___ 5:20 p.m. Macedonian police say they have discovered 73 illegal migrants in a truck during a routine check early Saturday near Macedonia's border with Serbia. The migrants are from Syria, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Most of them are women with children, police said. The 35-year-old truck driver, a Macedonian, has been detained. He had charged the migrants an undisclosed amount for the expected transfer across the border. Macedonia, a tiny Balkan country wedged between Greece to the south and Serbia to the north, lies on a main travel route for migrants who want to reach wealthier European countries. People smuggling has been on the rise since Balkan countries closed their borders to migrants in March. In this Thursday, June 30, 2016 handout photo provided by the International Rescue Committee, Lena Headey, right, talks with young Syrian children at Cherso refugee camp in northern Greece. Game of Thrones star Lena Headey traveled to Greece with co-stars in the TV fantasy drama Liam Cunningham and Maisie Williams to visit refugee camps with the relief organization, the International Rescue Committee. (International Rescue Committee via AP) The Ievoli Ivory ship arrives at the port of Melilli, Sicily, Italy, Thursday, June n30, 2016, carrying the wreck of the migrant ship that sank off Sicily on April 18, 2015, with an estimated 700 people onboard. The Italian Navy, that conducted the operations, says it's raised the boat toward the surface from a depth of more than 1200 feet. The wreck is being kept in a refrigerated transport structure for the trip back to land, where forensic experts will begin trying to identify the victims. (Domenico Trovato/ANSA via AP) The Latest: Clinton says she has been 'eager' to talk to FBI WASHINGTON (AP) The Latest on the 2016 presidential campaign (all times local): 8:10 p.m. Hillary Clinton says she has been eager to have her interview with the FBI about her handling of email. The FBI interviewed her for 3 1/2 hours Saturday about her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. FILE - In this June 7, 2016, file photo, former President Bill Clinton, left, stands on stage with his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, after she spoke during a presidential primary election night rally in New York. His popularity among Democrats is off the charts, he's a fundraising powerhouse and his administration is hailed by many as a high-water mark of economic prosperity. Without question, one of the key assets in Hillary Clinton's second campaign for the White House is her husband, Bill. And yet, there are still times when the former president can step in it. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File) Clinton says in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" that she is pleased to have the opportunity to assist the department bringing its review to a conclusion. She says the tone of the FBI session was civil and business-like. Clinton says she has no knowledge of any timeline for the review and will not comment on whether she was given an indication that charges would not be filed. For Clinton, the interview indicates that the Justice Department's yearlong probe is drawing to a close only four weeks before she is set to be formally nominated as the Democrats' choice to succeed President Barack Obama. The interview with NBC's Chuck Todd was conducted Saturday and will be aired Sunday. ___ 5:45 p.m. Former President Bill Clinton is reflecting on his controversial meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch and concluding that he wouldn't do it again, either. On Monday, the former president met with Lynch on an airport tarmac in Phoenix when their travel schedules coincided. Lynch later said their discussion didn't include the Justice Department investigation of Hillary Clinton's email server. She also said she understood why a controversy erupted over her talking to Bill Clinton and allowed that she wouldn't do it again. On Saturday, an aide to the former president said in a statement that Clinton's conversation with Lynch was unplanned and entirely social in nature. But Clinton now recognizes how others could take another view and agrees with Lynch that he wouldn't do it again. The aide wasn't authorized to be named and spoke about Bill Clinton's reaction to the controversy on condition of anonymity. The FBI interviewed Hillary Clinton on Saturday as part of its investigation of the email server. ___ 4:50 p.m. Donald Trump is weighing in on word that the FBI has interviewed Hillary Clinton as part of its probe of her email server. In a tweet posted Saturday, Trump says "it is impossible for the FBI not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton. What she did was wrong!" Clinton used a private email server for her government and personal emails rather than the State Department's email system during her tenure as secretary of state. The FBI has been investigating whether sensitive information was mishandled. ___ 4:15 p.m. Republican Donald Trump has created a stir on social media by posting online an image of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton with what appears to be a Star of David and a background of dollar bills. Trump took Clinton's old Twitter avatar celebrating her status as the first presumptive female presidential nominee and added a background of dollar bills along with the words "Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!" written over a six-point star. The image posted Saturday quickly drew scrutiny online, raising accusations of anti-Semitism. Trump deleted the tweet later in the day and replaced it with a version that uses a circle in place of the star. A Trump campaign spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ___ 4:10 p.m. The chairman of the Republican National Committee says Hillary Clinton's FBI interview is an "unprecedented step" and makes her the first major party presidential candidate to be interviewed by the FBI "as part of a criminal investigation surrounding her reckless conduct." During her four years as secretary of state, Clinton used a private email server for her government and personal emails rather than the State Department's email system. The FBI is investigating the potential mishandling of sensitive information. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus (PREE-bus) says Clinton's FBI interview "reinforces her central role in deliberately creating a culture which put her own political ambitions above State Department rules and jeopardized our national security." Priebus says the American people need to have confidence that President Barack Obama's Justice Department is conducting a fair and impartial investigation. And he says when Attorney General Loretta Lynch "meets secretly" with former President Bill Clinton just days before the interview, it "raises serious concerns about special treatment." Earlier this week, Bill Clinton and Lynch met when their planes were at an airport in Phoenix. Lynch says the email investigation was not discussed but that she regrets having chatted with the former president. ___ 4:05 p.m. Hillary Clinton will have some company in North Carolina next week when she makes her first joint campaign appearance with President Barack Obama. Clinton's likely Republican rival, Donald Trump, has scheduled his own rally in the state the same day. On Tuesday afternoon, Obama and Clinton plan to appear in Charlotte. That night, across the state in Raleigh, Trump will have an event of his own. Obama and Clinton were originally scheduled to appear together last month in Green Bay, Wisconsin, but they postponed the event because of the shootings in Orland, Florida. ___ 4 p.m. Hillary Clinton has been interviewed Saturday by the FBI about her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill says in a statement the voluntary interview with federal agents took place Saturday. The interview was not unexpected and does not suggest that Clinton or anyone else is likely to face prosecution. Legal experts view criminal prosecution as exceedingly unlikely. The interview may indicate that the Justice Department's yearlong probe is drawing to a close. Still, it's awkward for Democrats to have FBI agents question Clinton mere weeks before their party formally nominates her for president. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump points to supporters during the opening session of the Western Conservative Summit, Friday, July 1, 2016, in Denver. The summit, which brings together Republicans from across the West, runs through Sunday. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) FILE - In this March 12, 2012 file photo, then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton checks her mobile phone after her address to the Security Council at United Nations headquarters. An impromptu meeting between Bill Clinton and the nation's top cop could further undermine Hillary Clintons efforts to convince voters to place their trust in her, highlighting perhaps her biggest vulnerability. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) FILE - In this Dec. 1, 2008, file photo, then-President-elect Barack Obama, left, stands with then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., after announcing that she is his choice as Secretary of State during a news conference in Chicago. President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaign together next week for the first time this year, and their decision to meet up in Charlotte says a lot about how her campaign views her path to replace him in the White House. North Carolina is a prime spot for the party to expand into Republican territory against Donald Trump and build upon one of Obama's biggest triumphs in 2008. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) The Vietnamese government has warned Taiwanese steel maker Formosa not to ever again leak toxic waste into the sea, otherwise, the plant shutdown would be inevitable, said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at a government cabinet meeting yesterday. Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, a subsidiary of Formosa Plastics, has admitted that it had caused massive fish deaths along a 200 kilometer stretch of coastline in central Vietnam last April. The steel factory on Thursday offered a public apology to people who have been either directly or indirectly affected by one of the biggest environmental disasters to have struck the country. In a video message, the chairman of the $10.6 billion steel plant asked for forgiveness. "We deeply hope Vietnamese people can be generous," Tran Nguyen Thanh said. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized that if Formosa will ever again leak toxic waste into the sea, it will definitely be shut down, the Vietnam News Agency reported today. We have put up a fight methodically and scientifically with concrete proof so Formosa had no choice but to take responsibility [for the mass fish deaths] and accept to pay the compensation, said the Prime Minister. A video clip shows Formosa Ha Tinh Steel president Chen Yuan-cheng offering an apology to the Vietnamese Government and people at a press conference on the recent situation of fish deaths in Vietnam's central province, in Hanoi, Vietnam June 30, 2016. Photo by Reuters/Nguyen Huy Kham The Vietnamese government is pondering how it will use $500 million that Taiwanese steel maker Formosa has promised to pay. The Prime Minister said that the government will use the money to help people in affected central provinces to find new jobs and earn a living. Fishermen will find it easier to get access to bank loans at low annual rates of between 1 percent and 1.5 percent, said the Prime Minister, so that they can build boats for offshore fishing. In addition, the authorities will assess how the disaster has affected local people in four coastal provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue to calculate total damage to be compensated. Earlier this week, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has asked the government to help fishermen receive vocational training so that they can find new jobs or go overseas to work under labor export programs. The mass fish deaths started in April in the central province of Ha Tinh, about 400 kilometers south of Hanoi. Farmers began to find fish dead on April 6 at aquatic farms near Ha Tinh Provinces Vung Ang Port. More dead fish were subsequently found washed up on nearby beaches. The problem quickly spread to the provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue along a 200km stretch of coast. The mass fish deaths have reportedly devastated local fisheries, disrupted peoples lives and hit local tourism in the area. Related News: > Formosa responsible for mass fish deaths: Vietnamese government > How Formosas $500 mln compensation will be distributed > Formosa apologizes for mass fish deaths, pledges compensation and changes Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and author, dead at 87 NEW YORK (AP) Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, the Romanian-born Holocaust survivor whose classic "Night" became a landmark testament to the Nazis' crimes and launched Wiesel's long career as one of the world's foremost witnesses and humanitarians, has died at age 87. His death was announced Saturday by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. No other details were immediately available. The short, sad-eyed Wiesel, his face an ongoing reminder of one man's endurance of a shattering past, summed up his mission in 1986 when accepting the Nobel Peace Prize: "Whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." FILE - In this Sept. 12, 2012, photo Elie Wiesel is photographed in his office in New York. Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial says Elie Wiesel has died at 87. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) President Barack Obama said of Wiesel on Saturday, "As a writer, a speaker, an activist, and a thinker, he was one of those people who changed the world more as a citizen of the world than those who hold office or traditional positions of power. His life, and the power of his example, urges us to be better." Wiesel's wife, Marion, described her husband as "a fighter" in a statement Saturday night. "He fought for the memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, and he fought for Israel," she said. "He waged countless battles for innocent victims regardless of ethnicity or creed." For more than a half-century, Wiesel voiced his passionate beliefs to world leaders, celebrities and general audiences in the name of victims of violence and oppression. He wrote more than 40 books, but his most influential by far was "Night," a classic ranked with Anne Frank's diary as standard reading about the Holocaust. "Night" was his first book, and its journey to publication crossed both time and language. It began in the mid-1950s as an 800-page story in Yiddish, was trimmed to under 300 pages for an edition released in Argentina, cut again to under 200 pages for the French market and finally published in the United States, in 1960, at just over 100 pages. "'Night' is the most devastating account of the Holocaust that I have ever read," wrote Ruth Franklin, a literary critic and author of "A Thousand Darknesses," a study of Holocaust literature that was published in 2010. "There are no epiphanies in 'Night. There is no extraneous detail, no analysis, no speculation. There is only a story: Eliezer's account of what happened, spoken in his voice." Wiesel began working on "Night" just a decade after the end of World War II, when memories were too raw for many survivors to even try telling their stories. Frank's diary had been an accidental success, a book discovered after her death, and its entries end before Frank and her family was captured and deported. Wiesel's book was among the first popular accounts written by a witness to the very worst, and it documented what Frank could hardly have imagined. "Night" was so bleak that publishers doubted it would appeal to readers. In a 2002 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Wiesel recalled that the book attracted little notice at first. "The English translation came out in 1960, and the first printing was 3,000 copies. And it took three years to sell them. Now, I get 100 letters a month from children about the book. And there are many, many million copies in print." In one especially haunting passage, Wiesel sums up his feelings upon arrival in Auschwitz: "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. ... Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." "Night" was based directly on his experiences, but structured like a novel, leading to an ongoing debate over how to categorize it. Alfred Kazin was among the critics who expressed early doubts about the book's accuracy, doubts that Wiesel denounced as "a mortal sin in the historical sense." Wiesel's publisher called the book a memoir even as some reviewers called it fiction. An Amazon editorial review labeled the book "technically a novel," albeit so close to Wiesel's life that "it's generally and not inaccurately read as an autobiography." In 2006, a new translation returned "Night" to the best-seller lists after it was selected for Oprah Winfrey's book club. But the choice also revived questions about how to categorize the book. Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, both of which had listed "Night" as fiction, switched it to nonfiction. Wiesel, meanwhile, acknowledged in a new introduction that he had changed the narrator's age from "not quite 15" to Wiesel's real age at the time, 15. "Unfortunately, 'Night' is an imperfect ambassador for the infallibility of the memoir," Franklin wrote, "owing to the fact that it has been treated very often as a novel." Wiesel's prolific stream of speeches, essays and books, including two sequels to "Night" and more than 40 books overall of fiction and nonfiction, emerged from the helplessness of a teenager deported from Hungary, which had annexed his native Romanian town of Sighet, to Auschwitz. Tattooed with the number A-7713, he was freed in 1945 but only after his mother, father and one sister had all died in Nazi camps. Two other sisters survived. After the liberation of Buchenwald, in April 1945, Wiesel spent a few years in a French orphanage, then landed in Paris. He studied literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne, and then became a journalist, writing for the French newspaper L'Arche and Israel's Yediot Ahronot. French author Francois Mauriac, winner of the 1952 Nobel in literature, encouraged Wiesel to break his vowed silence about the concentration camps and start sharing his experiences. In 1956, Wiesel traveled on a journalistic assignment to New York to cover the United Nations. While there, he was struck by a car and confined to a wheelchair for a year. He became a lifetime New Yorker, continuing in journalism writing for the Yiddish-language newspaper, the Forward. His contact with the city's many Holocaust survivors shored up Wiesel's resolve to keep telling their stories. Wiesel became a U.S. citizen in 1963. Six years later, he married Marion Rose, a fellow Holocaust survivor who translated some of his books into English. They had a son, Shlomo. Based in New York, Wiesel commuted to Boston University for almost three decades, teaching philosophy, literature and Judaic studies and giving a popular lecture series in the fall. Wiesel also taught at Yale University and the City University of New York. In 1978, he was chosen by President Carter to head the President's Commission on the Holocaust, and plan an American memorial museum to Holocaust victims. Wiesel wrote in a report to the president that the museum must include denying the Nazis a posthumous victory, honoring the victims' last wishes to tell their stories. He said that although all the victims of the Holocaust were not Jewish, all Jews were victims. Wiesel advocated that the museum emphasize the annihilation of the Jews, while still remembering the others; today the exhibits and archives reflects that. Among his most memorable spoken words came in 1985, when he received a Congressional Gold Medal from President Ronald Reagan and asked the president not to make a planned trip to a cemetery in Germany that contained graves of Adolf Hitler's personal guards. "We have met four or five times, and each time I came away enriched, for I know of your commitment to humanity," Wiesel said, as Reagan looked on. "May I, Mr. President, if it's possible at all, implore you to do something else, to find a way, to find another way, another site. That place, Mr. President, is not your place. Your place is with the victims." Reagan visited the cemetery, in Bitburg, despite international protests. Wiesel also spoke at the dedication of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in 1993. His words are now carved in stone at its entrance: "For the dead and the living, we must bear witness." Wiesel defended Soviet Jews, Nicaragua's Miskito Indians, Cambodian refugees, the Kurds, victims of African famine and victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Wiesel was a longtime supporter of Israel although he was criticized at times for his closeness to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu. When Netanhayu gave a highly controversial address to Congress in 2015, denouncing President Obama's efforts to reach a nuclear treaty with Iran, Wiesel was among the guests of honor. "What were you doing there, Elie Wiesel?" Haaretz columnist Roger Alpher wrote at the time. "Netanyahu is my prime minister. You are not an Israeli citizen. You do not live here. The Iranian threat to destroy Israel does not apply to you. You are a Jew who lives in America. This is not your problem." The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, which he established in 1988, explored the problems of hatred and ethnic conflicts around the world. But like a number of other well-known charities in the Jewish community, the foundation fell victim to Bernard Madoff, the financier who was arrested in late 2008 and accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Wiesel said he ended up losing $15.2 million in foundation funds, plus his and his wife's own personal investments. At a panel discussion in February 2009, Wiesel admitted he bought into the Madoff mystique, "a myth that he created around him that everything was so special, so unique, that it had to be secret." He called Madoff "a crook, a thief, a scoundrel." Despite Wiesel's mission to remind the world of past mistakes, the greatest disappointment of his life was that "nothing changed," he said in an interview. "Human nature remained what it was. Society remained what it was. Too much indifference in the world, to the Other, his pain, and anguish, and hope." But personally, he never gave up as reflected in his novel "The Town Beyond the Wall." Wiesel's Jewish protagonist, Michael, returns to his native town in now-communist Hungary to find out why his neighbors had given him up to the Nazis. Suspected as a Western spy, he lands in prison along with a young man whose insanity has left him catatonic. The protagonist takes on the challenge of "awakening" the youth by any means, from talking to forcing his mouth open a task as wrenching as Wiesel's humanitarian missions. "The day when the boy suddenly began sketching arabesques in the air was one of the happiest of Michael's life. ... Now he talked more, as if wishing to store ideas and values in the boy for his moments of awakening. Michael compared himself to a farmer: months separated the planting from the harvest. For the moment, he was planting." ____ AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report. FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2009 file photo, Elie Wiesel smiles during a news conference in Budapest, Hungary. Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor has died. His death was announced Saturday, July 2, 2016 by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky, file) FILE - In this April 29, 2013 file photo, Elie Wiesel speaks at the 20th anniversary of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor has died. His death was announced Saturday, July 2, 2016 by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, file) FILE - In this Sept. 12, 2012, photo Elie Wiesel is photographed in his office in New York. Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor has died. His death was announced Saturday, July 2, 2016 by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2009 file photo, Elie Wiesel listens during an interview with The Associated Press in Budapest, Hungary. Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor has died. His death was announced Saturday, July 2, 2016 by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky) FILE - In this Dec. 9, 2009 file photo, Elie Wiesel arrives in the Hungarian Parliament building in Budapest, Hungary. Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor has died. His death was announced Saturday, July 2, 2016 by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky, file) CORRECTS THE YEAR PHOTO WAS TAKEN TO 2010 - FILE - In this Feb. 25, 2010 file photo, President Barack Obama presents the 2009 National Humanities Medal to Elie Wiesel, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor has died. His death was announced Saturday, July 2, 2016 by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) FILE - In this June 5, 2009 file photo, U.S. President Barack Obama tours the Buchenwald concentration camp in Buchenwald, Germany. From left are, Holocaust survivor Bertrand Herz, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the president and Elie Wiesel. Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor has died. His death was announced Saturday, July 2, 2016 by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2009 file photo, Elie Wiesel lights a candle for Holocaust victims on a memorial wall, which identifies tens of thousands of Hungarian Holocaust victims, in the Holocaust Memorial Center in Budapest, Hungary, Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor has died. His death was announced Saturday, July 2, 2016 by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky) FILE - In this Feb. 25, 2010 file photo, Elie Wiesel is congratulated by first lady Michelle Obama, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, after President Barack Obama, left, presented him with the National Humanities Medal. Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor has died. His death was announced Saturday, July 2, 2016 by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) FILE - This April 16, 1945 file photo provided by the U.S. Army, shows inmates of the German KZ Buchenwald inside their barrack, a few days after U.S troops liberated this concentration camp near Weimar. The young man seventh from left in the middle row bunk is Elie Wiesel, who would later become an author and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Wiesel, the Romanian-born Holocaust survivor whose classic "Night" became a landmark testament to the Nazis' crimes and launched Wiesel's long career as one of the world's foremost witnesses and humanitarians, has died at age 87. His death was announced Saturday, June 2, 2016, by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. (U.S. Army via AP, File) FILE - In this Jan. 17, 1988 file photo, Nobel Peace Prize winners Lech Walesa, left, and american Jewish writer Elie Wiesel, right, arrive at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland. Wiesel was a prisoner 43 years ago. Wiesel, the Romanian-born Holocaust survivor whose classic "Night" became a landmark testament to the Nazis' crimes and launched Wiesel's long career as one of the world's foremost witnesses and humanitarians, has died at age 87. His death was announced Saturday, June 2, 2016, by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. (AP Photo/Sokolowski, File) FILE - This April 1945 file photo shows children and other prisoners liberated by the 3rd U.S. Army marching from the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany. The freed prisoners are walking to an American hospital to receive treatment. The tall youth in the line at left, fourth from the front, is Elie Wiesel. Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor has died. His death was announced Saturday, July 2, 2016 by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. He was 87. (AP Photo/Byron H. Rollins, file) Reaction to death of Holocaust survivor, author Elie Wiesel Reaction to the death of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, 87, author of "Night." His death was announced Saturday by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. "The state of Israel and the Jewish people express sorrow over the death of Elie Wiesel. Elie, a master of words, gave expression to the victory of the human spirit over cruelty and evil with his unusual personality and captivating stories. In the darkness of the Holocaust when our brothers and sisters perished the six million Elie Wiesel served as a ray of light and an example of humanity that believes in the goodness of man. Elie's prolific creations do not just reflect the Holocaust but also the hope and optimism against the darkness of Auschwitz. Jerusalem the eternal capital of Israel represented to him our ability to rise from the bottom and reach new heights." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ___ "Tonight we bid farewell to a hero of the Jewish People, and a giant of all humanity. Elie Wiesel, of blessed memory, embodied the determination of the human spirit to overcome the darkest of evils, and survive against all the odds. His life was dedicated to the fight against all hatred, and for the sake of man as created in the image of God he was a guide for us all. One of the Jewish people's greatest sons, who touched the hearts of so many, and helped us to believe in forgiveness, in life, and in the eternal bond of the Jewish people. May his memory be a blessing, everlastingly engraved in the heart of the nation." Israeli President Reuven Rivlin ___ "Wiesel left his mark on humanity through preserving and upholding the legacy of the Holocaust and delivering a message of peace and respect between people worldwide. He endured the most serious atrocities of mankind survived them and dedicated his life to conveying the message of 'Never Again.' I had the honor and privilege to personally thank him for his numerous years of work and for saving the world from apathy when I gave him the Presidential Medal on behalf of the State of Israel. May his memory be a blessing to us all." Former Israeli President Shimon Peres ___ "Elie (Wiesel) was not just the world's most prominent Holocaust survivor, he was a living memorial. After we walked together among the barbed wire and guard towers of Buchenwald where he was held as a teenager and where his father perished, Elie spoke words I've never forgotten 'Memory has become a sacred duty of all people of goodwill.' Upholding that sacred duty was the purpose of Elie's life. Along with his beloved wife Marion and the foundation that bears his name, he raised his voice, not just against anti-Semitism, but against hatred, bigotry and intolerance in all its forms. He implored each of us, as nations and as human beings, to do the same, to see ourselves in each other and to make real that pledge of 'never again.'" President Barack Obama ___ "Elie Wiesel was a loyal son of the Jewish people. He did much in his life to strengthen the continued existence of the Jewish people and the development of the Jewish creation. As a Holocaust survivor he dedicated his life to bearing witness to it and he did so through his extraordinary talent as a writer and speaker. Elie believed till his final day that the Holocaust must be studied and remembered as a unique event to the Jewish people that has a universal message to the entire world." Chairman of the Yad Vashem Avner Shalev ___ "Elie (Wiesel) shouldered the blessing and the burden of survival. In words and deeds, he bore witness and built a monument to memory to teach the living and generations to come the perils of human indifference. As he often said, one person of integrity can make a difference. For so many, he was that difference_including at the dedication of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1993 when he urged me to stop the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia; at the White House Millennium Lecture Hillary invited him to give; and in all his wonderful books and lectures." Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ___ "Elie Wiesel spent his life in service to humanity, keeping the memory of the Holocaust's horror alive. It is for us all to carry this torch." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ___ "Sadness over the death of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel. Witness of the Holocaust and chronicler of the indescribable." German Justice Minister Heiko Maas ___ "Deeply saddened by the passing of Elie Wiesel, who remained optimistic in the darkest days and pushed us to see beauty in humanity." Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Co-Chair Melinda Gates ___ "So sorry to hear of Elie Wiesel's passing. I knew him well. He was a great man and a wonderful writer. Rest in peace." Television and radio host Larry King ___ "We have lost the most articulate witness to history's greatest crime. Without Elie Wiesel in the world, it is up to every one of us now to stand up to the deniers. With his passing, we will all have to work a little harder because we will no longer have Elie to remind us of what happens when the world is silent and indifferent to evil. It is now our job, and that of our children and grandchildren, to pick up the baton and to relay Elie's message of hope and peace to the world." World Jewish Congress' Ronald S. Lauder ___ "This universal man had a special relationship with France, where he studied after the war, where he published the first edition of 'The Night' thanks to Jerome Lindon, where he created the Universal Academy of Cultures in 1992. France honors the memory of a grand humanist, tireless defender of peace." French President Francois Hollande ___ "We had a champion who carried our pain, our guilt and our responsibility on his shoulders for generations. Now he's gone. It's hard to fathom. So I guess it's up to us now. To fight for the disenfranchised. To speak truth to power and to never forget how cruel man can be to man. In memory of Elie (Wiesel) it's the least we can do." Actor and filmmaker George Clooney ___ Elie Wiesel was a witness to evil and a symbol of endurance NEW YORK (AP) The frail, dapper man who sometimes greeted reporters in his Madison Avenue office spoke in an almost hushed voice, but with urgency, his hands gesturing gently for emphasis. Elie Wiesel's smile was wry, diffident, a thin facade over the sadness imprinted in the weary eyes and deep creases of a face that mirrored his brutal past. The Auschwitz survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has died at age 87, was an ongoing reminder of one man's endurance of the Nazi Holocaust. His words, destined to last far into the future, are a testament to some of the most unfathomable atrocities in recorded history. "Whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented," he said in 1986, upon accepting the Nobel. FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2009 file photo, Elie Wiesel smiles during a news conference in Budapest, Hungary. Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor has died. His death was announced Saturday, July 2, 2016 by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky, file) Wiesel's death was announced Saturday by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. No other details were immediately available. "The state of Israel and the Jewish people bitterly mourn the death of Elie Wiesel," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. "Elie, a master of words, expressed in his unique personality and fascinating books the victory of human spirit over cruelty and evil." One of the world's foremost witnesses and humanitarians, Wiesel for more than a half-century voiced his passionate beliefs to world leaders, celebrities and general audiences in the name of victims of violence and oppression. He wrote more than 40 books, but his most influential by far was "Night," a classic ranked with Anne Frank's diary as standard reading about the Holocaust. "Night" was his first book, and its journey to publication crossed both time and language. It began in the mid-1950s as an 800-page story in Yiddish, was trimmed to under 300 pages for an edition released in Argentina, cut again to under 200 pages for the French market and finally published in the United States, in 1960, at just over 100 pages. "'Night' is the most devastating account of the Holocaust that I have ever read," wrote Ruth Franklin, a literary critic and author of "A Thousand Darknesses," a study of Holocaust literature that was published in 2010. "There are no epiphanies in 'Night. There is no extraneous detail, no analysis, no speculation. There is only a story: Eliezer's account of what happened, spoken in his voice." Wiesel began working on "Night" just a decade after the end of World War II, when memories were too raw for many survivors to even try telling their stories. Frank's diary had been an accidental success, a book discovered after her death, and its entries end before Frank and her family was captured and deported. Wiesel's book was among the first popular accounts written by a witness to the very worst, and it documented what Frank could hardly have imagined. "Night" was so bleak that publishers doubted it would appeal to readers. In a 2002 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Wiesel recalled that the book attracted little notice at first. "The English translation came out in 1960, and the first printing was 3,000 copies. And it took three years to sell them. Now, I get 100 letters a month from children about the book. And there are many, many million copies in print." In one especially haunting passage, Wiesel sums up his feelings upon arrival in Auschwitz: "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. ... Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." "Night" was based directly on his experiences, but structured like a novel, leading to an ongoing debate over how to categorize it. Alfred Kazin was among the critics who expressed early doubts about the book's accuracy, doubts that Wiesel denounced as "a mortal sin in the historical sense." Wiesel's publisher called the book a memoir even as some reviewers called it fiction. An Amazon editorial review labeled the book "technically a novel," albeit so close to Wiesel's life that "it's generally and not inaccurately read as an autobiography." In 2006, a new translation returned "Night" to the best-seller lists after it was selected for Oprah Winfrey's book club. But the choice also revived questions about how to categorize the book. Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, both of which had listed "Night" as fiction, switched it to nonfiction. Wiesel, meanwhile, acknowledged in a new introduction that he had changed the narrator's age from "not quite 15" to Wiesel's real age at the time, 15. "Unfortunately, 'Night' is an imperfect ambassador for the infallibility of the memoir," Franklin wrote, "owing to the fact that it has been treated very often as a novel." Wiesel's prolific stream of speeches, essays and books, including two sequels to "Night" and more than 40 books overall of fiction and nonfiction, emerged from the helplessness of a teenager deported from Hungary, which had annexed his native Romanian town of Sighet, to Auschwitz. Tattooed with the number A-7713, he was freed in 1945 but only after his mother, father and one sister had all died in Nazi camps. Two other sisters survived. After the liberation of Buchenwald, in April 1945, Wiesel spent a few years in a French orphanage, then landed in Paris. He studied literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne, and then became a journalist, writing for the French newspaper L'Arche and Israel's Yediot Ahronot. French author Francois Mauriac, winner of the 1952 Nobel in literature, encouraged Wiesel to break his vowed silence about the concentration camps and start sharing his experiences. In 1956, Wiesel traveled on a journalistic assignment to New York to cover the United Nations. While there, he was struck by a car and confined to a wheelchair for a year. He became a lifetime New Yorker, continuing in journalism writing for the Yiddish-language newspaper, the Forward. His contact with the city's many Holocaust survivors shored up Wiesel's resolve to keep telling their stories. Wiesel became a U.S. citizen in 1963. Six years later, he married Marion Rose, a fellow Holocaust survivor who translated some of his books into English. They had a son, Shlomo. Based in New York, Wiesel commuted to Boston University for almost three decades, teaching philosophy, literature and Judaic studies and giving a popular lecture series in the fall. Wiesel also taught at Yale University and the City University of New York. In 1978, he was chosen by President Carter to head the President's Commission on the Holocaust, and plan an American memorial museum to Holocaust victims. Wiesel wrote in a report to the president that the museum must include denying the Nazis a posthumous victory, honoring the victims' last wishes to tell their stories. He said that although all the victims of the Holocaust were not Jewish, all Jews were victims. Wiesel advocated that the museum emphasize the annihilation of the Jews, while still remembering the others; today the exhibits and archives reflects that. Among his most memorable spoken words came in 1985, when he received a Congressional Gold Medal from President Ronald Reagan and asked the president not to make a planned trip to a cemetery in Germany that contained graves of Adolf Hitler's personal guards. "We have met four or five times, and each time I came away enriched, for I know of your commitment to humanity," Wiesel said, as Reagan looked on. "May I, Mr. President, if it's possible at all, implore you to do something else, to find a way, to find another way, another site. That place, Mr. President, is not your place. Your place is with the victims." Reagan visited the cemetery, in Bitburg, despite international protests. Wiesel also spoke at the dedication of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in 1993. His words are now carved in stone at its entrance: "For the dead and the living, we must bear witness." Wiesel defended Soviet Jews, Nicaragua's Miskito Indians, Cambodian refugees, the Kurds, victims of African famine and victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Wiesel was a longtime supporter of Israel although he was criticized at times for his closeness to Netanhayu. When Netanhayu gave a highly controversial address to Congress in 2015, denouncing President Obama's efforts to reach a nuclear treaty with Iran, Wiesel was among the guests of honor. "What were you doing there, Elie Wiesel?" Haaretz columnist Roger Alpher wrote at the time. "Netanyahu is my prime minister. You are not an Israeli citizen. You do not live here. The Iranian threat to destroy Israel does not apply to you. You are a Jew who lives in America. This is not your problem." The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, which he established in 1988, explored the problems of hatred and ethnic conflicts around the world. But like a number of other well-known charities in the Jewish community, the foundation fell victim to Bernard Madoff, the financier who was arrested in late 2008 and accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Wiesel said he ended up losing $15.2 million in foundation funds, plus his and his wife's own personal investments. At a panel discussion in February 2009, Wiesel admitted he bought into the Madoff mystique, "a myth that he created around him that everything was so special, so unique, that it had to be secret." He called Madoff "a crook, a thief, a scoundrel." Despite Wiesel's mission to remind the world of past mistakes, the greatest disappointment of his life was that "nothing changed," he said in an interview. "Human nature remained what it was. Society remained what it was. Too much indifference in the world, to the Other, his pain, and anguish, and hope." But personally, he never gave up as reflected in his novel "The Town Beyond the Wall." Wiesel's Jewish protagonist, Michael, returns to his native town in now-communist Hungary to find out why his neighbors had given him up to the Nazis. Suspected as a Western spy, he lands in prison along with a young man whose insanity has left him catatonic. The protagonist takes on the challenge of "awakening" the youth by any means, from talking to forcing his mouth open a task as wrenching as Wiesel's humanitarian missions. "The day when the boy suddenly began sketching arabesques in the air was one of the happiest of Michael's life. ... Now he talked more, as if wishing to store ideas and values in the boy for his moments of awakening. Michael compared himself to a farmer: months separated the planting from the harvest. For the moment, he was planting." ____ Advertisement This horrifying first-hand video shows the deadly inferno that ripped through a packed Baghdad shopping centre - moments after an ISIS suicide bomb attack rocked the building. More than 125 are feared dead after a truck laden with explosives was detonated outside the mall in the Karada district of the Iraqi capital which was rammed with shoppers preparing for Eid festival. Most of the victims were inside the multi-story shopping and amusement mall, where dozens burned to death or suffocated in thick black smoke. Shocking footage taken inside the shopping centre shows huge flames engulfing the building as a panic-stricken man behind the camera screams out. At least 15 children were among those killed in the atrocity while more than 200 were injured. It was followed shortly after by a second blast in the east of the city which killed five more. The bombings, which came near the end of the holy month of Ramadan, demonstrated the extremists' ability to mount significant attacks despite major battlefield losses, including the city of Fallujah, which was declared 'fully liberated' from ISIS just over a week ago. Scroll down for video Inferno: Video captured the horrifying moment shoppers were trapped inside a Baghdad shopping centre as an inferno ripped through the building moments after a devastating ISIS suicide bomb attack Iraqi firefighters and civilians evacuate bodies of victims killed during the ca car bomb at a commercial area in Karada in Baghdad, Iraq Devastating: Pictures of the bomb site show the power of the explosion as firefighters and rescuers work at the scene Iraqi men carry a coffin in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf on July 3, 2016, during a funeral procession for the victims of a suicide bombing that ripped through Baghdad's busy shopping district of Karrada Iraqi men mourn over bodies after they lost five members of their family in a suicide bombing that ripped through Baghdad's Karrada Iraqi security forces and civilians gather at the site after a suicide car bomb occurred in the Karrada shopping area in Baghdad Mourners pray near the coffins of their relatives, who were killed in a suicide vehicle bomb in the Karrada shopping area in Baghdad Emergency: Firefighters rush to put out the blaze as civilians gather at the scene of the terror attack in the early hours of this morning Iraqi firefighters extinguish a fire as civilians gather after a car bomb at a commercial area in Baghdad's Karada neighborhood early Sunday UN Iraq envoy Jan Kubich condemned the 'cowardly and heinous act of unparallelled proportions,' calling on authorities to bring those responsible to justice. A police officer at the scene said the first attack killed 15 children, 10 women and six policemen. The suicide bomber struck shortly after midnight, when families and young people were out on the streets after breaking their daylight fast for the holy month of Ramadan. Most of the victims were inside a multi-story shopping and amusement mall, where dozens burned to death or suffocated, officials said. 'It was like an earthquake,' said Karim Sami, a 35-year-old street vendor. 'I wrapped up my goods and was heading home when I saw a fire ball with a thunderous bombing. I was so scared to go back and started to make phone calls to my friends, but none answered,' the father of three added. He said that one of his friends had been killed, another was wounded and one was still missing. 'I knew all of them; they are all my friends,' said Sami Kadhim, one of those digging through the remains of the shop. Kadhim said he brought his friend Mustafa some juice from a nearby vendor moments before the blast, then went home to sleep. 'After the explosion, there was nothing there except fire. I couldn't see Mustafa because his place' was ablaze, Kadhim said. Baghdad has been hit by a number of bombings this year, but none as deadly as this attack which combined explosives and shrapnel with raging flames. Identifying all of the victims who are found will also be an enormous challenge. Civil defence members found a body near where Kadhim was searching, but it was burned beyond recognition and may require DNA testing to be identified. 'It is not possible to know who this body belongs to,' one of them said. A list of victims posted at a nearby hospital listed some as 'unknown'. Black banners bearing the names of victims hang from some shops in the area, which has been closed off by security forces. While dozens died in the bombing and subsequent fires, some made narrow escapes. 'A number jumped off the roofs of buildings despite the height,' sustaining injuries including broken feet, said shop owner Sari Mohammed. And 'three people hid inside a refrigerator on the first floor, and after the fire was extinguished, they came out alive,' Mohammed said. Terror: Hundreds were injured when the blast rocked the commercial area in the Karada district of the Iraqi capital while the streets were filled with young people and families The bombings, which came near the end of the holy month of Ramadan, demonstrated the extremists' ability to mount significant attacks despite major battlefield losses, including the city of Fallujah, which was declared 'fully liberated' from IS just over a week ago Over the last year, Iraq forces have racked up territorial gains against ISIS, retaking the city of Ramadi and the towns of Hit and Rutba, all in Iraq's vast Anbar province west of Baghdad The suicide bomber struck shortly after midnight, when families and young people were out on the streets after breaking their daylight fast for the holy month of Ramadan. At the height of the extremist group's power in 2014, ISIS rendered nearly a third of the country out of government control The explosion was so fierce that it blasted the side off the shopping centre and completely destroyed vehicles nearby Within hours, ISIS claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement posted online, saying they had deliberately targeted Shiite Muslims. The authenticity of the statement has not been verified, but it was posted on a militant website commonly used by the extremists. At the scene, firefighters and civilians were seen carrying the dead away, their bodies wrapped in blankets and sheets. Smoke billowed from the shopping center, which was surrounded by the twisted and burned wreckage of cars and market stalls. A group of women were sitting on the pavement, crying for their loved ones. In the second attack, an improvised explosive device went off in Baghdad's northern Shaab area, killing five people and wounding 16, another police officer said. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of ISIS militants who often target commercial districts and Shiite areas. A weeping Zainab Mustafa brought a photo of her husband to the still-smouldering site, seeking word of him and their two missing children. The three had gone out the night before to buy clothes for the upcoming holiday marking the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, and Mustafa has not heard from them since. 'We have looked everywhere; members of my family are looking for them,' said Mustafa. The street in the Karrada area is littered with rubble, and the search for victims within the burned buildings could take days. 'The lists of victims I saw included whole families - the father and his sons, the mother and her daughters - whole families were wiped out by this explosion,' a member of the civil defence forces said. 'We need a number of days to be able to recover the bodies of victims. It is a difficult task,' he said. Fadhel Salem is missing two of his brothers who were in the family's shop. 'I think they are still there inside the store, but I can't see anything because of the heavy smoke,' he said. Five people worked with shovels to try to find their friends at another shop where the ceiling had collapsed. Now, ISIS is estimated to control only 14 percent of Iraqi territory, according to the office of Iraq's prime minister Most of the victims were inside a multi-story shopping and amusement mall, where dozens burned to death or suffocated, officials said Within hours, ISIS claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement posted online, saying they had deliberately targeted Shiite Muslims Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorised to release information to the press Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorised to release information to the press. The high death toll made it the second deadliest attack in the capital this year. On May 11, ISIS militants carried out three car bombings in Baghdad, killing 93 people. Hours after the bombing, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and senior politicians visited the blast site. Video footage uploaded to social media showed an angry crowd, with people calling al-Abadi a 'thief' and shouting at his convoy. Eyewitness said the crowd pelted the al-Abadi's car with rocks, shoes and cans. Until the government launched its Fallujah operation, the prime minister had faced growing social unrest and anti-government protests sparked, in part, by popular anger at the lack of security in the capital. In one month, Baghdad's highly-fortified Green Zone - which houses government buildings and diplomatic missions - was stormed twice by anti-government protesters. Iraqi firefighters and civilians carry the bodies of victims killed in a car bomb at a commercial area in Karada neighborhood ISIS still controls Iraq's second largest city of Mosul as well as significant patches of territory in the country's north and west. A man comforts a woman in the aftermath of the devastating attack, which has claimed dozens of lives in Baghdad Rescuers have been looking for survivors in the burnt out shell of the shopping centre. Dramatic pictures show how fire ripped through the building A fireman hoses down a burning building after the suicide car bomb in the Karrada shopping area in Baghdad, Iraq HOW A DEADLY WAVE OF ISIS BOMBINGS HAS KILLED HUNDREDS OF CIVILIANS IN IRAQ SINCE JANUARY June 9: Two ISIS-claimed suicide bomb attacks near the entrance of a military base in Taji, north of Baghdad, and close to a market in the Iraqi capital kill at least 18 people. May 17: A series of attacks including suicide bombings claimed by ISIS kill at least 48 people in Baghdad. The deadliest bombing hit the frequently targeted Sadr City, a Shiite district in northern Baghdad, killing at least 24. May 12: At least 16 people are killed when gunmen attack a cafe with gunfire and grenades north of Baghdad then detonate suicide belts against security forces in pursuit. ISIS claims the attack on the cafe in the town of Balad popular with fans of Real Madrid football club. May 11: ISIS claims three car bombs in Baghdad, including a huge blast at a market in a Shiite area, that kill at least 94 people, in the bloodiest day in the Iraqi capital since the start of the year. The worst bombing hits Sadr City, killing at least 64 people. Another suicide car bomb attack kills at least 17 people at the entrance to the northwestern neighbourhood of Kadhimiya, which is home to an important Shiite shrine. In the Jamiyah district of western Baghdad, another car bomb kills at least 13 people. May 1: ISIS carries out rare attacks in mainly Shiite southern Iraq, killing at least 33 people with twin suicide car bomb blasts in the city of Samawa. April 30: A car bombing targets Shiite pilgrims in an area near Baghdad, killing at least 23 people. The bomb is left on a road in the Nahrawan area used by Shiite pilgrims walking to the shrine of an imam in northern Baghdad for annual commemorations. March 25: In an attack claimed by ISIS, a suicide bomber blows himself up during a trophy ceremony after a local football tournament near Iskandiriyah, killing at least 32 people, many of them teenagers and children. March 6: At least 61 people are killed when a massive truck bomb claimed by ISIS explodes at a crowded checkpoint at one of the entrances to the city of Hilla. February 28: Bombings claimed by the jihadist group kill at least 33 people near a market in the Sadr City area. January 11: In two attacks claimed by ISIS, jihadist gunmen and bombers kill at least 12 people in a busy market area of Baghdad, while a double blast at a cafe claims another 20 lives. Suicide blasts, gunfights and hostage-taking kill at least 12 people in Baghdad Jadida. And dual bombings kill at least 20 people at the cafe in the town of Muqdadiyah, northeast of Baghdad. Advertisement In Karada civilians expressed their frustration at the government's failure to secure the capital. 'We are in a state of war, and these places are targeted. The security can't focus on the war (against ISIS) and forget Baghdad,' Sami, the street vendor, said. The U.N. envoy for Iraq, Jan Kubis, described the Karada attack as 'a cowardly and heinous act of unparalleled proportions' and urged the Iraqi government to redouble its security efforts to protect Iraqis during celebrations for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan. ISIS militants who 'have suffered defeats at the battlefront are seeking to avenge their losses by targeting vulnerable civilians,' Kubis added. ISIS still controls Iraq's second largest city of Mosul as well as significant patches of territory in the country's north and west. At the height of the extremist group's power in 2014, ISIS rendered nearly a third of the country out of government control. Now, the militants are estimated to control only 14 percent of Iraqi territory, according to the office of Iraq's prime minister. Mourners carry the Iraqi flag-draped coffins of bomb victims, Talib Hassan, 35, and Hamza Jabbar, 37, during their funeral procession at the holy shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq Iraqi security forces and civilians gather at the site after a car bomb hit Karada, a busy shopping district in the center of Baghdad, Iraq People gather at the site of a suicide car bomb in the Karada shopping area, in Baghdad. Dozens were killed in the atrocity Man accused of planning terrorism acts in Phoenix, Tucson PHOENIX (AP) A Tucson man has been arrested by the FBI and the Arizona Attorney General's Office for threatening to commit acts of terrorism on Arizona government buildings. The Attorney General's Office says 18-year-old Mahin Khan appeared before a Phoenix judge Saturday morning. He was ordered held without bond in Maricopa County Jail. This mugshot taken Friday, July 1, 2016 and provided by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office shows Mahin Khan, of Tucson, Ariz. Khan has been arrested by the FBI and the Arizona Attorney General's Office for threatening to commit acts of terrorism on government buildings in Tucson and Phoenix. (Maricopa County Sheriff's Office via AP) Khan faces two counts of conspiracy to commit terrorism and terrorism. Arizona Attorney General spokeswoman Mia Garcia says Khan is accused of conspiring to carry out terrorism acts on government buildings in Phoenix and Tucson. Garcia declined to give further details, saying Khan's court records are currently sealed. However, she says authorities are not aware of any threats Khan made that involved the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Garcia did not know if Khan had retained an attorney. Pro-EU protesters call for action to maintain UK's place in Europe Musician Jarvis Cocker recorded a video message in solidarity with pro-EU supporters on the March For Europe rally in London. An estimated 35,000 demonstrators at the pro-EU event watched the film, which was played alongside speeches from musician and activist Bob Geldof, journalist and TV presenter Billie JD Porter, MPs and impassioned protesters. In the film the Pulp frontman held up a world map and said: "You cannot deny geography. The UK is in Europe." Mark Thomas organised the march to address his "anger" Geldof urged Remain campaigners to log out of social media and instead take to the streets to stop the UK's exit from the EU. "Let's get real," he said. "Going online and tweeting your indignation is only venting into the ether. It achieves nothing. "Come out. Take action amongst your friends, work colleagues and in your neighbourhoods." Labour peer Michael Cashman told the crowd: "We need to uphold the values of democracy and inclusiveness which are at the heart of the EU and this country. Decent British values are also the values of the European Union." Porter said: "We're all angry and we're all scared and, quite frankly, some of us are ashamed. We have been eager to show the rest of the world that the decision does not speak for all of us." Demonstrators wearing flags as capes and wielding home-made placards saying "Bremain" and "We Love the EU" squeezed into Parliament Square and spilled into neighbouring streets. Father and daughter Bill Baker, 59, and Jess Baker, 22, from Islington, north London, had made a banner for the march which read: "I will always love EU." Ms Baker said: "We didn't want to leave, but if you respect the decision of the referendum, which we should, we still want Britain to be EU orientated, outward looking and inclusive." A naked woman on a balcony in Park Lane was cheered by the crowds when she flashed at marchers as they walked from Hyde Park to Westminster. The rally was the idea of remain voters Keiran MacDermott and activist Mark Thomas, who said he felt "anger, frustration and need to do something". They worked with Secret Cinema, a company which stages live film presentations, and Pride to put on the march. Mr MacDermott said: "I was hoping there would be a clear message to come out of today, a political edge, and I think we succeeded. People want politicians to reconsider Brexit and want the UK to remain with the EU." A statement released after the rally said: "Today we joined thousands of people backing March For Europe and we called for the country to come together in a positive democratic discussion over the new partnership with Europe. "We condemn the misinformation over Brexit and believe we need a properly informed debate on the way forward. We cannot pull up the drawbridge to Europe and call on our politicians to set out a clear route map for this partnership. "Politicians must be prepared to put to the British people their prospectus for the new way forward through a general election or second referendum." Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron addresses Remain supporters A man with the flag of the European Union painted on his face Remain supporters marching to Parliament Square Susan from South Wales poses for a photo with a home-made European Union flag Remain supporters near Park Lane in London European Union flags fly above Remain supporters There has been widespread anger over the referendum result Remain supporters gather on Park Lane in London A Remain supporter has the European Union flag reflected in her sunglasses Remain supporters demonstrate in Parliament Square Thousands of Remain supporters set for the march A Remain supporter on Park Lane in London Remain supporters demonstrate in Parliament Square A Remain supporter wearing face paint and European flags Remain supporters demonstrate during the March for Europe rally Two Remain supporters on Park Lane Remain supporters make their frustrations known A European Union flag in front of Big Ben Game of Thrones stars urge EU leaders to help Syrian refugees Game of Thrones stars Lena Headey, Maisie Williams and Liam Cunningham have called on EU leaders to do more to help Syrian refugees as they visited people stranded in Greece. The actors visited refugee programmes just days after the show's dramatic series six finale and called for the EU to reconsider its March agreement with Turkey which forces migrants to apply for asylum in the "safe third country" before they are allowed to travel to the EU. Headey, who plays Cersei Lannister, Williams, who plays Arya Stark, and Cunningham, who plays Davos Seaworth, toured International Rescue Committee (IRC) camps and met some of the 57,000 refugees affected by the deal. Game of Thrones cast members Liam Cunningham, Maisie Williams and Lena Headey visiting IRC programmes at Diavata refugee site in northern Greece Headey, who spoke to a young Syrian woman alone in Lesbos with three children, said: "These smart, hard-working people want to go home. They want to return to their communities and to their neighbourhoods. "They want their children to continue their education. They want to continue their university and they are stuck. They're stuck. And they're unbelievably sad, understandably. We can do better for them. We must do better for them." Williams met a young aspiring Syrian actor at Cherso in northern Greece, where she said: "For me it is about the children ... children with so much potential, so many hopes and dreams. Where is the humanity that makes it acceptable for them to languish in refugee camps - in Europe?" Cunningham heard about the fear felt by Afghan and Syrian fathers and said: " This is not an earthquake, this is not a tidal wave. This is a man-made crisis - 57,000 stranded in Greece. Refugee camps in Europe? Is this truly the standard EU leaders want to set as the way to respond to the global refugee crisis?" The trio also appeared in a video on the IRC's Twitter page, in which Cunningham spoke about the "beautiful people" they had met on their trip. Williams added: "We now feel like it is our responsibility to take their stories and change the perception of these people." Headey said the visit had been "life changing" and promised it would not be the last the public hears from them on the subject. Panos Navrozidis, country director of IRC Greece, said: "The truth about this crisis is that there are options for the family members Lena, Maisie and Liam met in Greece. There is no reason why 57,000 people should be forced to put their lives on hold." Jeremy Corbyn: Party enemies must respect democracy Jeremy Corbyn has insisted he is "ready to reach out" to his enemies in the party but warned he would stand for re-election if they staged a challenge for the top job. The Labour leader said MPs who have set their face against his tenure must "respect" the views of the members who elected him. Top priority must be opposing the Conservatives and giving voters a real alternative, he said. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is under further pressure to quit In an article for the Sunday Mirror, he wrote: " I am ready to reach out to Labour MPs who didn't accept my election and oppose my leadership - and work with the whole party to provide the alternative the country needs. " But they also need to respect the democracy of our party and the views of Labour's membership, which has increased by more than 60,000 in the past week alone. " Our priority must be to mobilise this incredible force to oppose the Tories, and ensure people in Britain have a real political alternative. " That is my priority and always will be as leader of our party. "Those who want to challenge my leadership are free to do so in a democratic contest, in which I will be a candidate." The plea for calm comes at the end of a tumultuous week that saw most of his front bench team walk out and 172 of his MPs back a motion of no confidence in his leadership. Mr Corbyn's aides are reportedly keeping Tom Watson away from him, fearing he will try to "bully" the 67-year-old leader into quitting. The deputy leader has been trying to seek a meeting to find a way of negotiating a settlement as the crisis engulfing the party shows no sign of abating. Mr Corbyn's team said it had a "duty of care" to the leader and highlighted his age, according to the Observer. A spokesman for Mr Watson said: " Tom and Jeremy have always had a good working relationship and a friendly personal relationship. They have never even raised their voices to one another." Mr Corbyn's team said the claims were nonsense from an anonymous source. "Jeremy has met Tom on a couple of occasions this week," a spokesman said. Mrs Merton and The Royle Family put Caroline Aherne among the comedy greats Caroline Aherne was one of TV's brightest comic talents, whose character Mrs Merton and northern sitcom The Royle Family became instant classics. The award winning TV writer and actress, who also narrated Channel 4's Gogglebox, was the co-creator of the acclaimed sitcom. The former star of the Mrs Merton Show, who beautifully mimicked a blue-rinse granny in the chat show which first aired on BBC Two in 1995, was voted best female performer at the British Comedy Awards the following year. Caroline Aherne, in her Mrs Merton guise, with Irish crooner Daniel O'Donnell The daughter of a railwayman and a school dinner lady, Aherne split with husband Peter Hook, guitarist with pop group New Order and house musician on the Mrs Merton Show, in April 1996. She had a relationship with TV colleague Matt Bowers, but they broke up before he died of cancer the following year, aged 28. The Royle Family was born after she and friend Craig Cash, who played gormless Dave Best in the show, threw themselves into their work after a suicide attempt, which she described as her lowest ebb. The creator of Cracker, Jimmy McGovern, said he was "gobsmacked" when he first saw a preview tape of his friend Aherne's new sit-com. "I hadn't been that impressed with a comedy since Fawlty Towers," he said. The Royle Family was the toast of 1999's British Comedy Awards, scooping four trophies including best actress for Aherne. Denise Royle, mother Barbara (Sue Johnston) and father Jim (Ricky Tomlinson) - catchphrase "my arse!" - quickly entered the British sit-com hall of fame. Its success quickly began to obscure exactly how daring the format had been at the beginning - 25 minutes of comedy based largely in one working class living room. The BBC show even had one episode based entirely around the Royles watching rival ITV's big hit, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? It was truly a bold move. Aherne was born to her Irish immigrant parents in London, and the family moved to Wythenshawe, Manchester, when she was two. She was diagnosed with a rare cancer of the retina, like her older brother Patrick before her, and the local Catholic church raised funds to send her to Lourdes in search of a miracle cure. For the rest of her life the actress was left with severely impaired sight in one eye. Very bright - nine straight As in O-levels from her convent school and an IQ of 176 - she studied drama at Liverpool Polytechnic then took a job as a BBC secretary in Manchester. She met Cash and fellow Royle Family collaborator Henry Normal in 1990 and they encouraged her to develop her repertoire of comedy characters, including Mrs Merton. Before long celebrities were queueing up to be insulted in Mrs Merton's unique way on primetime TV. In the guise of the squeaky-voiced pensioner with an elaborate coiffure, Aherne was able to ask Debbie McGee: "What was it that first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?" and "Were you breast-fed, Carol Thatcher?" Aherne, who also starred in BBC comedy sketch series The Fast Show, had struggled with health problems for a number of years. She was admitted to hospital in July 1998 after overdosing on sleeping pills at her home in Notting Hill, west London. And she was treated for alcohol dependency and depression at The Priory, the London psychiatric clinic for the rich and famous. Aherne then moved to Sydney in Australia, the setting for her 2002 sitcom Dossa And Joe. She starred in Royle Family specials in 2006 and 2010 before becoming the voice of Gogglebox in 2013. She suffered a bout of bladder cancer, and in 2014 she started treatment for lung cancer. "My brother and I were born with cancer of the eyes, the retina, my mum told us only special people get cancer. I must be very special because I have had it in my lungs and bladder as well," Aherne said at the time. Aherne gave a typically irreverent speech about her treatment and condition in Manchester in June that year at the launch of the Macmillan Cancer Improvement Partnership in the city. Mark Cavendish 'incredibly proud' after earning right to wear the yellow jersey Mark Cavendish added the missing piece to his collection of cycling's most prestigious jerseys as victory on the opening stage of the Tour de France put him in yellow. Having been put in the shade by rival sprinters Marcel Kittel and Andre Greipel in recent Tours, the Manxman was considered an outsider for victory at Utah Beach. But he silenced his critics as he burst past world champion Peter Sagan in the final metres to collect one of the most satisfying of his 27 Tour stage wins to date - and the famous maillot jaune. Mark Cavendish will wear the Tour de France's yellow jersey for the first time in his career (AP) "Winning any stage of the Tour de France is a life-changing moment but this is the first time I've had the honour of wearing the most iconic symbol in cycling - the yellow jersey," said Cavendish, who was keen to use the moment to highlight the Qhubeka charity supported by his team. "I'm incredibly proud to do it and to do it for Team Dimension Data. We ride for more than a sponsor, we ride for a cause, for a charity and to put 5,000 kids on bikes and there's no better way to highlight that cause than to wear this beautiful jersey." The 31-year-old had worn the world champion's rainbow jersey, the race leader's jersey in the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana, and the points leader's jersey in all three Grand Tours, but yellow eluded him until now. He had opportunities in 2013 and 2014, but a puncture cost him in Corsica three years ago and, even more painfully, he crashed in his mother's home town of Harrogate during Yorkshire's Grand Depart 12 months later. This time there was no mistake as Cavendish used his years of experience to time his move in changing winds on the Normandy coast. Cavendish's former team Etixx-QuickStep, now riding for Kittel, and Greipel's Lotto-Soudal squad had led the peloton throughout a nervous day , hoovering up the day's break six kilometres before the end of the 188km stage from Mont St Michel and jockeying for position on the straight run towards the coast. But it was disorganised and chaotic at the front, giving Cavendish his chance. Tinkoff's Sagan made his move first but Cavendish grabbed his wheel and waited as Kittel drew alongside. "Fortunately Sagan left a gap on the left," Cavendish said. "When Kittel reached maximum speed I knew I had something left and I carried it to the line. I was hoping no one would slingshot around me and when I saw the line coming it felt great." It came at the end of an often nervous stage, which saw general classification hopeful Alberto Contador hit the deck on the exit of a roundabout, collecting some nasty-looking injuries which required treatment from the race doctor once he had executed a deft manoeuvre to change a shoe without stopping. "It's not the best way to start," Contador said. "I'm bruised all down along my right side from my ankle up but at least I don't have to go home. Hopefully I can get through the coming days and recover before the mountains." Sky's Luke Rowe was caught in that incident but emerged unscathed, as did Geraint Thomas who fell in a crash on the home straight. Irish sprinter Sam Bennett was not so lucky as he was taken to hospital for x-rays after being caught in the same incident. Cavendish's win leaves him only one behind five-time Tour winner Bernard Hinault for second on the all-time list. Where victories once came in bunches for Cavendish - who won 16 Tour stages between 2009 and 2011 - they have been harder to come by lately. He won twice in 2013, crashed out on the opening stage of 2014, and raised his arms in victory only once last year as German duo Kittel and Greipel took over as the dominant forces. But if anyone felt it was time to write Cavendish off, the nature of his victory here proved otherwise. "This is my 10th Tour de France," he said. "Since the beginning I've had pressure to win. I don't know anything different. Ever since 2008 it's supposedly been the end of me. It's just something to talk about." If anything, there were extra questions over Cavendish's form this time around as he has spent much of the season preparing to race on the track at the Rio Olympics next month - with few, including Cavendish, sure how it would affect his performance in the Tour. The early results are promising. "We'll have to see," he said. "The track builds your strength but not your endurance and the Tour de France is a 3,500 kilometre race. I might burn up and be the first to be dropped tomorrow, but we'll see." July 1, 2016 | 10:43 pm PT Earlier this month, I met the chairman of the fishery association of a central province which had suffered from mass fish deaths. I asked if he dared to eat the fish. He said a couple of days ago, his friends brought a few kilos of fish. But he did not dare to eat it right away. He gave the fish to the dog as a test. Only when the dog seemed alright did his family eat the fish. The man is just an ordinary citizen with ordinary worries about his family's health. But the fact that he is chairman of a fishery association makes the story "hilarious". I visited a fishing port. A vendor told me business in the port went down. I also asked a wholesaler (she knew I was a journalist) about her business. "The business goes on as normal," she said and then went silent. It seemed that she did not want to carry on talking. Is this normal? I have met many people like her, those who no longer believe that the press could help them. To speak up or to keep quiet; it's all the same to them now. I stood next to her for a little while and then reluctantly said goodbye. I didn't interview anyone else later that day. Silence reigned. I felt as if everybody was suffocating. I felt anger and strain, which overwhelmed everything people talked about, all the fishing boats and the entire port since the mass fish deaths stroke. Clearly, a lot has been lost that dollars, no matter how plenty, could never bring back. The strain is not only on affected fishing ports. At a press conference to announce the cause of mass fish deaths in Hanoi, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha was carrying only a comb and a pen with him as he shuffled from one meeting to another. He could not even remember where his cell phone was. Many didn't seem to approve the constant presence of the comb. Struggling to bring the killer to light, the Minister must have been exhausted. He represents Vietnam in a fight for justice against a Taiwanese corporation. But I think he shouldn't look exhausted, even though he himself admitted that his heart was full of worries and strain. He is in a prolonged and exhausting fight with an experienced company. It is the biggest environmental investigation Vietnam has ever faced while the Government also admitted they had been "slow" and "inexperienced." In the dining room of the Government's Office, the Minister took time answering journalists and then had a meeting with foreign guests. Suddenly, he came back to the journalists just to say this was the first time we had to deal with such big problem, both government and companies had learnt a hard lesson from this - "a precedent" - it took him some time to find the word. It set a precedent for future actions. The chairman of the association now no longer buys fish from the locals. He only eats salmon bought from supermarkets. And the wholesaler still shies away from talking to journalists. The pain remains. But we've got one thing: a precedent of experts, ministries and local authorities joining hands in the struggle against such a disaster; a precedent of dealing with large and experienced corporations like Formosa in the context of globalization, a process which will bring us even "harder-to-deal-with" guests; a precedent of balancing economic benefits and environmental protection. "Sometimes in order to win something, you have to lose something. Its impossible to build a steel plant here and keep fish stocks in the surrounding area high at the same time." This remark by Formosa's former executive Chou Chun Fan will leave a lasting value. What is the precedent's real value? It depends on us. Will the precedent help us avoid another environmental disaster or will it repeat itself in the future? Will it make us more alert when receiving FDI and monitoring the environment or is it simply an experience in demanding compensation after a disaster strikes? Time will tell. This is not just about fish. It's also about monitoring, accountability, scientific approach, inter-ministerial coordination and people's right to participate in public affairs. The fishermen's loss is not only about the $500 million compensation from Formosa. It is a precedent, which value depends on how we will use it. Michy Batshuayi tells fans: My Marseille exit will be confirmed tomorrow Reported Chelsea target Michy Batshuayi has written an open letter to Marseille supporters in which he says his departure from the club will be confirmed on Sunday. The Belgium striker, 22, has been linked with a 33million move to Stamford Bridge after two successful years at the Stade Velodrome. Without confirming his destination, he wrote in a post on his Twitter feed on Saturday evening: "It will be made official tomorrow, I will be leaving Olympique Marseille this summer." Michy Batshuayi has said his farewells to Marseille Batshuayi began his career at Standard Liege and joined OM in the summer of 2014, scoring 15 goals in his first season with the club. He took a step forward last season with 26 goals, including 17 in Ligue 1 even as Marseille struggled to 13th in the table - just nine points clear of the relegation zone. His performances earned him a place in Belgium's European Championship squad and he immediately announced himself on his tournament debut, scoring within two minutes of his introduction as a substitute against Hungary in the last 16. Batshuayi wrote: "Above all, I particularly want to thank all the supporters of OM: during my two years with the club I have loved since I was young, you have shown me your affection and support. "It's a big honour for me to have worn this jersey at the Velodrome, a stadium which you have made magnificent with an atmosphere which is unique in France. "I thank the directors of Olympique de Marseille for having confidence in me and the coaching staff who have helped me progress. "Having developed for a season under coach (Marcelo) Bielsa was a privilege and I would love to achieve what he has wished for me in the remainder of my career. "Thanks also to coach Franck Passi for having supported and advised me since my arrival at Marseille, and my team-mates for these two seasons. "I hope I can keep making you proud with my new club, and will continue to follow closely the results of OM. I hope the club can recover the results they deserve." Marseille's struggles last season came after the departure of a number of first-team players in the summer, and the pattern looks to be repeating this time around. George Osborne planning corporation tax cuts to provide post-Brexit vote boost George Osborne is planning to cut corporation tax to less than 15% as part of a plan to give Britain a post-Brexit vote boost. The Chancellor said the UK must show it is "still open for business" following the decision to leave the EU as he set out plans to create a "super competitive economy". Slicing more than 5% off the current rate would see Britain close in on the Republic of Ireland's 12.5% levy and make the country one of the most competitive global economies. George Osborne is planning to cut corporation tax to less than 15% as part of a plan to give Britain a post-Brexit vote boost Mr Osborne told the Financial Times: "We must focus on the horizon and the journey ahead and make the most of the hand we've been dealt." The Chancellor wants to focus on generating investment from China as well as ensuring support for bank lending, bolstering the Northern powerhouse and maintaining the UK's fiscal credibility to shore up the economy following the shock referendum vote . Mr Osborne, who had threatened tax and spending cuts through an emergency budget if Britain voted to leave, said he will wait for official forecasts before announcing any new measures. He said Britain faced a "very challenging time" and urged the Bank of England to use its powers to avoid "a contraction of credit in the economy". Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "The Chancellor is absolutely right to be considering a big cut to corporation tax, as it would show that the UK is ready to seize new opportunities in the global economy. "But Mr Osborne must be bold and cut the rate to 10% as soon as possible to really demonstrate that we are open for business, with competitive conditions to match our talented workforce. It's crucial that our politicians have a positive vision for British taxpayers outside the EU, and meaningful tax cuts to boost growth and prosperity are an excellent first step." It comes after Tony Blair said Britain should keep its "options open" over leaving the EU because the "will of the people" could change. The Government should delay triggering Article 50, the two-year process for formally quitting the bloc, "for as long as it takes to get an idea of how the other side looks", according to the former prime minister. A downturn in economic fortunes could lead to a change in attitudes about the country's future outside the EU, he suggested. Mr Blair told Murnaghan on Sky News: "One of the reasons why we should keep our options open is that yes, the referendum expressed the will of the people, but the will of the people is entitled to change. "Right now, over the next two months, even while this psycho drama within the Conservative party is going on, we've got to have the national interest protected by trying to set the scene for any negotiation." He added: "I don't think you can override the settled will of the people but it's 52 to 48. Supposing some weeks or months down the line, as it becomes clear what we are moving to, as that becomes clear, if it becomes clear these terms are bad for us, if people start to worry about their jobs, we should just keep our options open. "I'm not saying we should have another referendum, I'm not saying you can revisit this. I'm simply saying there's no rule about this - we're a sovereign people we can do what we want to do." Tony Blair said Britain should keep its options open Nicola Sturgeon seeks guarantees on rights of EU nationals in Scotland Nicola Sturgeon has called for "immediate guarantees" on the residency status and rights of European Union nationals living in Scotland. The First Minister made the demand in letters to Prime Minister David Cameron and the five candidates bidding to replace him following last week's vote for Brexit. Ms Sturgeon said it was "imperative" that the UK Government respected the rights of Scotland's 173,000 EU citizens. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is hoping to secure Scotland's place in the EU The plea was made before a meeting with consuls-general of EU member states and diplomats at her official residence, Bute House in Edinburgh, on Tuesday. The summit follows a series of talks in Brussels with European political leaders aimed at securing Scotland's place in the EU, after voters north of the border backed remain by 62%. Ms Sturgeon said: "Scotland voted overwhelmingly to stay in Europe, yet citizens of EU countries who live, work and contribute to our country are understandably anxious and uncertain about what the UK referendum result means for them and their families. "People from EU countries are an important part of Scotland's future. I am therefore seeking immediate guarantees from the Prime Minister, and all Conservative leadership candidates, that the residency status and the other existing rights of the 173,000 EU nationals living in Scotland will remain unchanged, now or in the future. This is a commitment that can and should be made and enforced now. "It is imperative that the UK Government respects those who have exercised their treaty rights and chosen to make a life in Scotland. "Scotland is still firmly in the EU and we are pursuing all options to maintain our EU status - something that I underlined in my meetings in Brussels in the last few days. "Through the consular network I want to get the message out as far and as wide that we are an inclusive and outward-looking society that recognises the immense contribution EU citizens make to Scotland's economy, society and culture." Ms Sturgeon said she would listen to suggestions on how the Scottish Government could provide further reassurance to EU citizens in Scotland. Those studying or starting a course this year have already been told they will receive free tuition in Scotland for the duration of their studies despite the Brexit vote. Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie called for a joint EU, UK and Scottish Government statement to reassure universities and research institutions about the future of EU funding. He said: "EU funding is vital to the research many of our universities, including those in Scotland, carry out. "Research can be years in the planning. Already there has been speculation that researchers from the UK will be sidelined or excluded from taking part in new projects. "To maintain confidence and avoid any confusion we need a joint statement from the EU, UK and Scottish governments to be issued immediately to all funding bodies, research institutions and universities. This would provide immediate and valuable reassurance." He added: "The UK and Scottish governments need to step in to guarantee the future of research and researchers, underwriting the sector to ensure we can continue to take part in European projects." The UK Government said David Cameron has moved to reassure European citizens living in the UK that there will be no immediate changes in their circumstances. Cambodian opposition leader promises return from exile By John Chalmers MANILA, June 29 (Reuters) - Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Hun Sen of using the judiciary to crush the opposition and guarantee his own victory in 2018 elections while the country goes "down the drain" amid rampant corruption. Speaking to Reuters in Manila, where he spends some of his time since he went into his latest period of self-imposed exile, Rainsy said he still hopes to strike a political deal with his nemesis. He said he will definitely return home just before local elections in June next year. "Hun Sen himself realises that he is losing ground, that the popular support the opposition enjoys is growing," Rainsy said during a break from a meeting with nearly 60 key members of his Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), most of whom had flown into the Philippines' capital overnight. "So he wants to disrupt the election process by creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation ... This is just intimidation and an attempt to frighten the whole population not to support the opposition." Government spokesman Phay Siphan could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. The spokesman for Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party denied that the government or the party uses the judiciary for political ends. "The cases against people at the CNRP are criminal wrongdoings, and they must be held responsible before the law," said Sok Eysan, adding that Rainsy should not hope for a political deal before the 2017 vote. Rainsy, 67, has gone into exile four times, the latest coming last November when a warrant for his arrest was issued. He flew to Paris, where he has lived for considerable periods of his adult life. He said that since then Hun Sen, who has led the country for three decades altogether, has used the judiciary to hound opposition politicians to avoid a rerun of the 2013 poll. The CNRP says it won and that the result was fixed to keep it out of power. "The judiciary in Cambodia is just a political tool for the ruling party to ensure impunity for themselves and to crack down on the opposition," said Rainsy, wearing a garland of jasmine flowers presented to him for the party meeting. "CULTURE OF VIOLENCE" Rainsy's deputy, Kem Sokha, has been holed up in the CNRP's headquarters in Phnom Penh for more than a month to avoid arrest. Rainsy said that two of his party's lawmakers are behind bars while others face threats and live in danger. Hun Sen, who is 63 and has said he will rule Cambodia into his seventies, portrays himself as the man who saved Cambodia from the terror and chaos of the Khmer Rouge years in the 1970s and the civil war that followed. However, his authoritarian rule and widespread corruption have alienated young people who did not live through that era. Rainsy said 70 percent of the country's population are under the age of 30, and for the vast majority of them there are no jobs. Kem Sokha told Reuters at the weekend there must be "national reconciliation" talks to end a crisis that both he and Hun Sen have warned could nudge the Southeast Asian nation from political tension into conflict. Rainsy echoed his deputy, calling for "a culture of dialogue" to replace a "culture of violence" that he said was a legacy of the Khmer Rouge. Nevertheless, he said he was confident that Hun Sen would allow him to return and lead the opposition party in the 2017 local communes election and general election the following year. Otherwise, the polls would not be seen by the international community as legitimate, Rainsy said. If the opposition wins the 2018 election, Hun Sen would have no choice but to stand aside, he said. IMF mission lowers Portugal growth forecast further LISBON, June 30 (Reuters) - The International Monetary fund lowered Portugal's economic growth forecast to just 1 percent this year from 1.4 percent it predicted earlier and said the slowdown and other risks will probbaly require additional spending control measures. In a concluding statement of its fourth monitoring mission after Portugal's 2011-2014 bailout, the IMF staff said the country risked failing to meet its European commitment of cutting the budget deficit to 2.2 percent of GDP this year from 2015's 4.4 percent, citing risks to revenues amid slower growth. "On account of these risks, further measures to support spending restraint will likely be needed to ensure that this year's fiscal target of 2.2 percent of GDP is achieved. In the absence of additional steps, staff projects a deficit of close to 3 percent of GDP," it said. The left-leaning government, which has been reversing austerity policies of the previous administration, still expects growth to reach 1.8 percent this year after 1.5 percent in 2015, which was Portugal's second year of growth after its worst recession in decades. Still, Finance Minister Mario Centeno, said in a newspaper interview this week the government may lower the forecast, pinning the blame largely on Britain's decision to leave the European Union. The finance ministry said that it "takes good note of the issues raised by the IMF" but will stick to the budget execution, which it insists will allow the country to reduce the deficit below the European threshold of 3 percent. "In a more adverse external context, the ministry reinforces the determination to rigorously implement the budget, under which Portugal will reach a deficit clearly compatible with the European rules and exit the excessive deficit procedure," it said. Orangutans rescued from Indonesian forest fires released back into wild JAKARTA, July 1 (Reuters) - Three orangutans rescued when forest fires destroyed their Indonesian rainforest habitats were returned to the wild on Borneo island last week. Karmele Llano Sanche, International Animal Rescue programme director in Indonesia, made a three-day journey by car, boat and through the forest to release the animals in Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park. "You know, it's amazing to see a big orangutan like that moving across the forest, this is home, home, back home," Sanche said. Sabtu, 25, was saved in March 2015 from a village near the IAR sanctuary in Ketapang, West Kalimantan province, one of the areas most affected by the fires last year. Butan and Marsela, both around seven and eight years old, were also rescued by IAR when their home was destroyed by fires. Deforestation and land clearing for pulp paper and palm oil plantations has depleted the habitat of Bornean and Sumatran orangutans. Fires are often set by companies to clear the land. Orangutans, which means "person of the forest" in Malay, are endangered animals. There are only about 60,000 left in the wild, down from around 230,000 a century ago. Geneva airport withdraws from bidding for Lyon airport stake PARIS, July 1 (Reuters) - Geneva airport has withdrawn from bidding for a 60 percent stake in Lyon Saint-Exupery airport, Geneva's local authorities said. "Changes in financial partners that were made by the management of the consortium during the past weeks were not such as to convince the State Council of the viability of the project," the canton of Geneva said in a statement. Sources close to the matter told Reuters on Tuesday that Turkish conglomerate Limak was in talks to join a consortium comprising the Cube fund and Geneva airport in the bidding for a 60 percent stake in Lyon Saint-Exupery airport. The French airports of Nice and Lyon have attracted at least 16 bidders ahead of a July 4 deadline for firm offers, sources have said. Dutch bonus ceiling has "flexibility" for foreigners - PM AMSTERDAM, July 1 (Reuters) - Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Friday that a strict 20 percent cap imposed last year on bonuses in the financial sector last year had "some flexibility" for foreigners. The comment was made in response to questions about what the Netherlands can do to attract businesses in the wake of Britain's decision to leave the European Union. The Netherlands is considered by some as a possible alternative to London because of its advanced infrastructure, strategic location, good schools and high level of English proficiency. It has Europe's largest port and fourth largest airport. The vote by Britain to exit the bloc has prompted companies in London to reconsider where they are headquartered in Europe, due to the possibility that their access to the single European market might be restricted once the vote is implemented. The European Union has capped bankers' bonuses at 100 percent of annual salary, but the Netherlands opted to impose a much lower limit. ECB calls for urgent roadmap on Britain's plans to leave EU By Marc Jones and Ingrid Melander LONDON/PARIS, July 1 (Reuters) - Two of the European Central Bank's top policymakers pressed Britain on Friday to provide a clear-cut plan for leaving the European Union, to prevent more economic damage. In what appeared to be co-ordinated statements, ECB chief economist Peter Praet and financial markets head Benoit Coeure both warned of the potential consequences of dragging out the Brexit negotiations. "We urgently need clarification on the process," Praet told a financial industry conference hosted in London by the Financial Times. "It is very important that we - central banks and all the public - get very quickly a sort of roadmap .... Whatever the outcome will be, there must be an orderly process." Europe has been thrown into turmoil by Britain's vote last week to quit the EU. Lack of clarity over Brexit plans following the vote is now exacerbating the uncertainty. No one knows when the British government will invoke Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, which begins an automatic two-year exit process. And the candidates to become British prime minister appear to be in no rush to start that process. For Britain, there is an advantage to delaying, if it can establish its negotiating position and make informal overtures to countries before the two-year begins. The rest of the EU fears prolonging the uncertainty will do more damage to their economies and weaken their position in talks. Couere - like Praet, a member of the ECB's Executive Board, told the French newspaper Le Monde that any pick-up in growth in the euro zone would "inevitably suffer from the 'uncertainty shock' that is created by the British referendum. "What is urgent today is to clarify the calendar and method, because prolonged uncertainty would have an economic cost, first of all for Britain but also for the European Union," he said. RED TAPE RISK Praet said that while some politicians might hope to gain at Britain's expense, a bigger risk was an increase in red tape, damaging business efficiency and the long-run growth rate of the British and euro zone economies. Both men said the ECB was closely monitoring the reaction of markets to the events and reiterated that the ECB stood ready to intervene if financial stability appeared threatened. That could take the form of injecting cash, Coeure said, adding that so far markets had continued to function normally despite huge adjustments. Britain's decision to leave did not endanger the EU, but steps needed to be taken to protect the euro, Coeure said. "The euro is a reality, but it must be protected. This requires moving towards more integration in financial and budget matters, around joint euro zone institutions that will be accountable to citizens," he said. "Experience from the crisis has convinced me that an intergovernmental Europe, where budgetary and financial decisions would be taken only by governments, would condemn the euro to lasting fragility," he said. In London, Praet said the euro zone needed to complete its banking union, which is designed to provide more backstops for the financial sector and the public. "What is the destination of the banking union," he said. "What are the next things to do - I think here about the deposit guarantee." He appeared also to back the idea that governments might still need to use taxpayer money if the turmoil put unmanageable pressure on banks. Italian banks especially have been under strain this year, both from the Brexit vote and from worries about their financial health. "It is urgent that we address these problems, and if necessary the flexibility of the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) would have to be used." All U.S. diplomatic staff accounted for in Dhaka - State Department WASHINGTON, July 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Friday it had accounted for all diplomatic staff at its mission in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka following an attack by gunmen on a restaurant in the city's diplomatic quarter, and had offered U.S. assistance to help bring those responsible to justice. Spokesman John Kirby, however, could not confirm whether private U.S. citizens were caught up in a "hostage situation." It was too early to say who was behind the attack or the motivation of the attackers, Kirby said. "We have accounted for all Americans working for the chief of mission authority" in Dhaka, Kirby told a press briefing. He said the situation was "very fluid, very live." In a statement later, he added: "We are working with the local authorities to determine if any U.S. citizens and locally-employed staff were affected." "On learning of the attack our embassy issued a shelter-in-place order," he said, "This order was issued out of caution, but at no time was the embassy compound itself under immediate threat from this attack." Benjir Ahmed, the chief of Bangladesh's special police, said several foreigners were among a number of people taken hostage in the restaurant, which is located in a suburb frequented by foreigners and diplomats. Eight to nine gunmen attacked the restaurant in the Gulshan area of the capital. "We have offered our assistance in their efforts to bring to justice those responsible for these attacks and to combat terrorism and violent extremism," Kirby said. The attack comes a day after the State Department designated al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, known as AQIS, as a foreign terrorist organization. The move would freeze any known assets the organization, or its leader, Asum Umar, may have in the United States. Pacific Alliance nations eye exporting fish products as unified bloc By Anthony Esposito and Antonio De la Jara PUERTO VARAS, Chile, July 1 (Reuters) - As part of efforts to boost integration, member nations of the Pacific Alliance trade bloc committed on Friday to developing a unified business strategy for their respective fishing industries. The United Nation's Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac) told the presidents of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru that their nations could export fish products with the Pacific Alliance "brand," a business model that could be replicated in other economic sectors. The Pacific Alliance is one of two large trade blocs in Latin America. Its member nations have moved to reduce trade tariffs between them since forming the bloc in 2011. "We're going to see if we can create a business vehicle for the fishing industry of the four countries. It's something that has great potential," Colombian President Jose Manuel Santos said at the closing ceremony of the Pacific Alliance summit in the Chilean town of Puerto Varas. Between them, the four member nations account for 7 percent of global fish exports, according to Eclac figures. Air strike kills two Islamic State military commanders -Pentagon WASHINGTON, July 1 (Reuters) - A U.S.-led coalition air strike killed Islamic State's deputy minister of war and a military commander in Mosul on June 25, a Pentagon official said on Friday. "Their deaths, along with strikes against other ISIL leaders in the past month, have critically degraded ISIL's leadership experience in Mosul and removed two of their most senior military members in Northern Iraq," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement, using an acronym for the militant group that is also known as ISIS and Daesh. The strike near Mosul killed Basim Muhammad Ahmad Sultan al-Bajari, the deputy minister of war, who oversaw the militant group's capture of Mosul in 2014, Cook said. The other Islamic State member killed in the strike was Hatim Talib al-Hamduni, a military commander in Mosul, Cook added. Three killed as Libya forces close on central Sirte against Islamic State By Patrick Markey MISRATA, Libya, July 2 (Reuters) - Libyan forces fighting to free the city of Sirte from Islamic State forces have surrounded a conference hall in the area still held by militants after air strikes and clashes that killed at least three pro-government fighters, senior officials said. Forces allied with Libya's unity government began a campaign two months ago to free Sirte from Islamic State, after militants took advantage of fighting between rival factions to gain territory and control the coastal city last year. Three fighters were killed and more than 30 injured during fighting on Friday after Islamic State militants were driven out of the residential 700 district in fierce clashes involving rockets, mortars and gun battles, a senior commander and hospital officials said. Commanders of the forces, who are mainly from the nearby port city of Misrata, say remaining Islamic State fighters are in an area around Sirte's Ouagadougou conference complex and a nearby hospital. But snipers and landmines have slowed progress. "Residential area 700 has been liberated and as of 6 p.m. the Ouagadougou centre and the hospital are surrounded," Mohamed Gnaidy, intelligence chief for Misrata forces told Reuters. "Our forces carried out air strikes on Ouagadougou." He said Misrata forces had also hit a house where several Islamic State commanders were hiding, but it was unclear how many casualties they suffered or how long it would take to clear out remaining militants in Sirte. Misrata forces back the UN-supported unity government in Tripoli that is meant to replace two rival administrations and overcome the divisions among Libya's various armed factions that slowly emerged after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The battle in Sirte has been slowed by snipers and explosives as Misrata forces say they lacked the equipment and tactics to flush out militant gunmen among the villas and streets of central Sirte. Any eventual fall of Sirte would be a huge blow to Islamic State in Libya, especially as the militant group is also facing setbacks in Iraq, where it has lost the city of Falluja and other territory to Iraqi forces. Venezuela's Maduro ends power rationing as drought eases CARACAS, July 1 (Reuters) - Venezuela as of Monday will end an electricity rationing program launched in April in response to a severe drought that crimped the operations of the OPEC nation's hydroelectric generators, President Nicolas Maduro on Friday. Maduro's government had rationed electricity in the provinces, cut the work week for public employees to two days per week, and canceled school on Fridays to save power as the country's massive Guri dam dried up. "As of Monday we can say that the power administration plan will stop and electrical service will function normally throughout the country," Maduro said in a televised broadcast. "Today we can say that Guri has recovered and we have the conditions under which power service can function normally." Heavily subsidized electricity has spurred one of the region's highest rates of power consumption and left the state-run utilities with limited revenue. Opposition critics say the government has failed to invest in generation and transmission facilities, leaving the system prone to blackouts and unable to maintain service during periods of limited rainfall. Biden expresses concerns about developments in Bahrain in call to king WASHINGTON, July 1 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, in a phone call with Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, expressed "strong concerns regarding recent negative developments in Bahrain," the White House said in a statement on Friday. 1-Islamist militants in Bangladesh kill 20 foreigners before commandos end siege By Serajul Quadir DHAKA, July 2 (Reuters) - Islamist militants shouting "Allahu Akbar" attacked an upscale cafe in the Bangladeshi capital, killing 20 foreigners inside, before police stormed the building on Saturday and rescued 13 hostages, officials said. The attack, claimed by Islamic State, marks a major escalation in a campaign by militants over the past 18 months that had targeted mostly individuals advocating a secular or liberal lifestyle in mostly Muslim Bangladesh. Six gunmen were killed during the police operation and one was captured, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in a TV broadcast. All 20 victims were foreigners, the spokesman for the Bangladesh army said. Colonel Rashidul Hasan said he could not yet confirm the nationalities of those who had died, most of whom were killed by "sharp weapons". Many people in the expatriate community in Bangladesh work in the country's $25 billion garment sector. The army concluded an operation to clear the cafe after a 12-hour siege that began when gunmen stormed the restaurant on Friday night. Two police were killed in the initial assault. The 13 hostages that were rescued included one Japanese and two Sri Lankans, the army said. One Japanese man was among those rescued and taken to a Dhaka hospital with a gunshot wound, a Japanese government spokesman said. Seven Japanese were unaccounted for. An unknown number of Italians were among the hostages who were killed, a source at Italy's foreign ministry said on Saturday. Seven Italians were in the cafe when the attack started, including several working in the garment industry, Italian media have reported. Islamic State posted photos of what it said were dead foreigners killed in the assault. Gowher Rizvi, an adviser to Hasina, told Reuters security forces had tried to negotiate with the gunmen. SPORADIC GUNFIRE The hostage crisis began when security guards in the Gulshan district of Dhaka, popular with expatriates, noticed several gunmen outsde a medical centre, Rizvi said. When the guards approached, the gunmen ran into a building housing the restaurant, packed with people waiting for tables, he said. Ali Arsalan, co-owner of the restaurant, said that his staff told him the attackers yelled "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) as they stormed the building that is split between a bakery and the O'Kitchen Restaurant. Police said the assailants exchanged sporadic gunfire with police outside for several hours after the gunmen attacked the restaurant around 9 p.m. on Friday. A police officer at the scene said that when security forces tried to enter the premises at the beginning of the siege they were met with a hail of bullets and grenades that killed at least two of them. Television footage showed a number of police being led away from the site with blood on their faces and clothes. A cafe employee who escaped told local television about 20 customers were in the restaurant at the time, most of them foreigners. Some 15 to 20 staff were working at the restaurant, the employee said. The rescued Japanese man was eating dinner with seven other Japanese, all of whom were consultants for Japan's foreign aid agency, the Japanese government spokesman said. He did not know what happened to the others. SPATE OF MURDERS The hostage crisis marks an escalation from a recent spate of murders claimed by Islamic State and al Qaeda on liberals, gays, foreigners and religious minorities. A Hindu priest was hacked to death on Friday at a temple in Jhinaidah district, 300 km (188 miles) southwest of Dhaka. Both Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for many of the killings, although local authorities say no operational links exist between Bangladeshi militants and international jihadi networks. Bangladesh security officials say two local militant groups, Ansar-al-Islam and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, have been behind the spate of violence over the past 18 months. Ansar pledges allegiance to al Qaeda, while Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen claims it represents Islamic State. "The bottom line is Bangladesh has plenty of local, often unaffiliated, militants and radicals happy to stage attacks in ISIS's name," said Michael Kugelman, South Asia associate at The Wilson Centre in Washington D.C., using an acronym commonly used for Islamic State. Islamic State had claimed more attacks in Bangladesh than in Pakistan or Afghanistan, he said. The restaurant assault also comes after Bangladesh hanged an Islamist party leader, Motiur Rahman Nizami, on May 11 for genocide and other crimes committed during a 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. That has drawn an angry reaction and some scattered violence from supporters. Nizami, 73, was a former legislator and minister during opposition leader Khaleda Zia's last term as prime minister. Foreign diplomats and human rights groups have warned that Bangladesh's ongoing war crime tribunals and the government's pressure on the Bangladesh Nationalist Party have created a backlash domestically, according to Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. Mexico air lifts food into villages as teacher blockades spread MEXICO CITY, July 1 (Reuters) - Mexico's air force flew tons of grain to the southern state of Oaxaca on Friday as protests by teachers opposed to education reform spread across the country and road blocks led to dwindling food supplies in some remote regions. Tension in the state intensified after eight people died last month in clashes between police and the protesting teachers, and unrest has flared throughout Mexico. Local media reported protests by factions of Mexico's CNTE teachers union on Friday in the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Michoacan, Chiapas, Nuevo Leon and in Mexico City. The union has blockaded 11 highways in Oaxaca, a hotbed of dissent for protesters opposing President Enrique Pena Nieto's education reform that allows the federal government to remove teachers who fail evaluation exams. The protests have prevented food trucks from reaching remote coastal villages in Oaxaca, where some of Mexico's poorest people live, the country's federal food distribution chief Juan Manuel Valle said. Valle said 108 tons of corn would be flown in on a Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft by the end of the weekend, with additional provisions on standby in case the situation deteriorated. Araceli Hernandez Ramirez, manager of a grocery store in Puente de Coyula, a small town of some 500 inhabitants close to the beach resort of Huatulco, and located about 146 miles (235 km) from the state capital, said she had no rice, corn or flour. "There are no products," said Hernandez, waiting for a shipment from Diconsa to supply customers. "They go home empty-handed." Fifty tons of corn were also sent from the neighboring state of Guerrero by truck, in addition to regular shipments of beans, and rice. On Friday, Mexico's Secretary of the Interior promised action against the blockades in Oaxaca, saying dialogue with teachers' unions could not continue without respect for citizens' rights. "Blockades and public damage must end," Miguel Osorio Chong said. "Therefore, soon, we will be taking necessary decisions to allow traffic on strategic routes and supplies for communities." He did not specify what action the government would take. Osorio said the protests affected thousands of families, forcing businesses in Oaxaca and neighboring Chiapas to close and impeding shipments of medicine. A spokesperson for the CNTE union could not be immediately reached for comment. The protests have affected fuel distribution in parts of Oaxaca, but a Pemex official said operations at Salina Cruz, the company's largest refinery, had not been affected. Germany, Turkey at odds over Incirlik base visits ANKARA, July 1 (Reuters) - Germany is pressing Turkey to allow German lawmakers to visit 250 German soldiers stationed at Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday, after meeting her Turkish counterpart. Germany sent troops, six Tornado surveillance jets and a tanker aircraft to Incirlik late last year as part of the U.S-led fight against Islamic State militants. Germany is also working with Turkey in the Aegean Sea to stop illegal migrant flows. Von der Leyen met Turkish Defence Minister Fikri Isik on Friday in Ankara after visiting the base and said they would continue to try to resolve their disagreements on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Warsaw next week. Turkey's prime minister this week approved von der Leyen's visit, reversing an apparent effort to block the trip that angered German lawmakers and prompted some to suggest an end to German deployments to Turkey. Von der Leyen, who travelled to the base without media or parliamentarians, said she told Isik how important it was to give German lawmakers responsible for military matters access to their troops in Turkey. "We agreed to continue discussions about our many common interests, as well as difficult topics," von der Leyen said. Some German politicians called on the government to press their case more forcefully with Ankara. Hans-Peter Bartels, the German military's ombudsman in parliament, told the German newspaper Passauer Neue Presse it was "absolutely unacceptable" that von der Leyen's deputy and German lawmakers were banned from visiting the base. Von der Leyen said she conveyed her condolences to Isik after suicide bombers killed 44 people in Istanbul this week. She pledged to continue to fight extremism. "We stand at Turkey's side," she said. Strained relations between Turkey and Germany took a turn for the worse in May after the German parliament passed a resolution declaring the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces was genocide. Norway oil workers agree wage deal, avoid strike OSLO, July 2 (Reuters) - Norwegian offshore oil workers and employers signed a new wage deal on Saturday, avoiding a strike that would have cut the output from western Europe's top oil and gas producer by about six percent, employers and unions said. Some 755 workers at fields operated by Statoil, ExxonMobil and Engie had threatened to strike if the talks had failed. A conflict would initially have capped Norway's daily oil and natural gas output by 229,000 barrels of oil equivalents. "We've beaten back all attempts at weakening our terms," Safe union leader Hilde-Marit Rysst told Reuters. "On pay, we got a deal we can live with for this year," she added. Unions were seeking pay increases in line with other industries while producers wanted workers to refrain from seeking such increases and to accept more flexible work practices, citing still weak oil prices. Japan says one of its citizens wounded but rescued from Dhaka restaurant TOKYO, July 2 (Reuters) - Japan said on Saturday that one of its citizens had been shot and wounded in an attack on a restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital and then rescued. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said the injuries were not life threatening. Seven other Japanese were eating together at the restaurant, but Japan's government has not been able to contact them, Hagiuda said. Australian democracy smells like barbecued sausage By Colin Packham and Melanie Burton SYDNEY/MELBOURNE, July 2 (Reuters) - The Australian election may be too close to call but voters on Saturday were united in their pursuit of their democratic right to a sausage sandwich. The traditional sausage grill is as big an attraction as the polling booth in Australia, where voting is compulsory for the country's 15.6 million registered citizens. With the polls taking place on a weekend, local charities and schools take advantage by manning the hot plates to serve up a simple sausage in a slice of white bread or bun - give or take tomato sauce. "Australian democracy is not complete without the aromas of a sausage sizzle," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said as he cast his vote in his Sydney electorate. So powerful is the pull of the humble sausage, locally known as a snag, a website is devoted solely to tracking the location of polling stations around the country with so-called sausage sizzles. Snagvotes, which registered a record number of food stalls for the 2016 election, includes listings for sausage sizzles at diplomatic missions in the Netherlands, India and Singapore. "My husband was so disappointed that there was no sausage sizzle at the polling station he went to that he had to go to Bunnings," said Rebekah Smyth at a polling booth in Melbourne, a reference to a hardware store chain known for its weekend charity barbecues. The hashtag #DemocracySausage was the top trending topic on twitter in Australia and opposition leader Bill Shorten caused consternation on social media by daring to eat his sandwich sideways. For many charities, the election day barbecue represents their most profitable fundraising day of the year. Vietnam urges "fair" ruling from court handling South China Sea case HANOI, July 2 (Reuters) - Vietnam has called for an international tribunal in The Hague to deliver a "fair and objective" ruling in an arbitration case lodged by the Philippines that challenges China's expansive claims in the South China Sea. In a carefully worded statement two days after the court announced July 12 as the verdict date, Vietnam's foreign ministry said it hoped the ruling would provide a basis for peacefully resolving rows. Vietnam is not a direct party to the case but stands to gain if the verdict favours Manila. Like the Philippines, it is also at odds with China, although it is wary not to push too far against a major trade partner. "Vietnam has always been observing the development of the case and wants the arbitration court to deliver a fair and objective decision, creating a basis to peacefully resolve disputes in the (South China Sea)," Vietnam's foreign ministry spokesman, Le Hai Binh, said in a statement late on Friday. Though the wording was similar to those used by numerous countries, Vietnam's statement stopped short of calling for the ruling to be respected. China has gone to great efforts to show the Permanent Court of Arbitration has no jurisdiction on the case, and Beijing will therefore not recognise it. China's official Xinhua news agency called it a "law-abusing tribunal". The case seeks an interpretation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to which Beijing is a signatory. Swedish government to approve Vattenfall sale of German lignite assets STOCKHOLM, July 2 (Reuters) - Sweden's centre-left government has decided to approve state-owned utility Vattenfall's sale of its loss-making lignite mines and power plants in Germany to Czech investor EPH, Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lovin said on Saturday. Vattenfall said in April it had agreed a sale of the assets to EPH, which teamed up with Czech private equity group PPF Investments, for an undisclosed prize. Bangladesh army says 26 killed in Dhaka cafe, most by sharp weapons DHAKA, July 2 (Reuters) - The attack on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital left 26 people dead including six armed attackers, the Bangladesh army said on Saturday, most killed with sharp weapons. Army Brigadier General Naim Asraf Chowdhury told a news conference 13 people were rescued including one Japanese and two Sri Lankans. The army concluded an operation to clear the cafe on Saturday after a 12-hour siege that began when gunmen stormed the restaurant, which was popular with foreigners, on Friday night. Serbian man kills 5, injures more than 20, in cafe shooting BELGRADE, July 2 (Reuters) - Five people were killed and more than 20 were wounded early on Saturday when a man entered a cafe in northern Serbia and opened fire with a machine gun, police said. Police arrested the suspect, a man in his late 30s identified only as Z.S., immediately after the shooting in the village of Zitiste, around 80 kilometres north of Belgrade. Nebojsa Stefanovic, the interior minister, told Belgrade's B92 TV that Z.S. killed his estranged wife and a another woman, before firing at others in the cafe with an illegal weapon. "Jealousy could be a motive," he said. "He was a quiet man; he had no criminal record." Serbia and most of the western Balkans are awash with hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons following wars and unrest in the 1990s. Italians among those killed in Dhaka attack - Italian govt source MILAN, July 2 (Reuters) - An unknown number of Italians were among hostages who were killed after suspected Islamist militants attacked an upmarket cafe in the Bangladeshi capital on Friday night, a source at Italy's foreign ministry said on Saturday. The gunmen, shouting "Allahu Akbar", attacked the Dhaka cafe and killed 20 people inside before police stormed the building on Saturday and rescued 13 hostages, Bangladesh officials said. RWE, Qatargas sign 7.5 year deal for LNG deliveries to Europe BERLIN, July 2 (Reuters) - RWE has signed a seven and a half year deal with Qatargas for liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries into Europe, the German utility said on Saturday. Under the deal, financial details of which were not given, Qatargas will deliver up to 1.1 million tonnes of LNG a year to RWE Supply & Trading (RWEST). Taliban leader says foreigners must quit Afghanistan for peace KABUL, July 2 (Reuters) - The new leader of the Taliban called for an end to foreign forces' "occupation" of Afghanistan as a preliminary step to a settlement based on Islamic law that he said would bring unity to a country riven by decades of war. In one of his first public statements, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, who was named leader of the movement after the death of his predecessor Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour in a U.S. drone strike in May, said agreement was possible if the government in Kabul renounced its foreign allies. "Your support and siding with invaders is like the work of those abhorrent faces who in our past history supported the Britons and the Soviets," he said in a message ahead of next week's celebration of Eid, one of the major festivals in the Islamic calendar. He said the Taliban had a programme aimed at creating an independent and united country under Islamic law and told the Western-backed government in Kabul that "the doors of forgiveness and tolerance are open". "Our clear message is that we do not want a monopoly of power," he said "All Afghan tribes and races need each other." The statement came two days after a suicide attack that killed more than 30 newly graduated police cadets and wounded dozens more and less than two weeks after more than 20 people were killed in separate attacks in Kabul and the northern province of Badakhshan. NATO leaders meet at a summit in Warsaw on July 8-9 where they are expected to approve maintaining support for the Kabul government up to 2020. The Taliban scored a series of military successes last year after the withdrawal of most international combat forces and now controls more territory than at any time since 2001. But the fighting has come at a heavy cost, with 11,000 civilian casualties last year alone. Peace talks broke down last year after it was revealed that Mansour had covered up the death of the Taliban's founder Mullah Mohammad Omar two years earlier. Efforts to revive them in a framework backed by Pakistan, the United States and China have so far failed. The Taliban's political office in Qatar, which has been a key point of contact in behind-the-scenes exchanges, would "continue its efforts with a view to resolving the Afghan issue," he said. Pledging to continue on the course set by Mullah Mansour, he promised to strengthen justice, help the injured and the poor and guarantee the rights of women under Sharia law. Serbian man kills 5, injures 22, in cafe shooting BELGRADE, July 2 (Reuters) - Five people were killed and another 22 were wounded early on Saturday when a man entered a cafe in northern Serbia and opened fire with an assault rifle, police said. Police arrested the suspect, a man in his late 30s identified only as Z.S., immediately after the shooting during a local festival in the village of Zitiste, around 80 kilometres north of Belgrade. Nebojsa Stefanovic, the interior minister, told Belgrade's B92 TV that Z.S. killed his estranged wife and a another woman, before firing at others in the cafe with an assault rifle he illegally owned. "Jealousy could be a motive," he said. "He was a quiet man; he had no criminal record." Gordana Kozlovacki, the director of the hospital in the nearby town of Zrenjanin, said 22 people were treated after the shooting. Seven remained in a serious condition. Serbia and most of the western Balkans are awash with hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons following wars and unrest in the 1990s. In a bid to reduce the number, Serbian police on Friday offered an amnesty over surrendering or registering illegal weapons until November. Saturday's killings follow a number of mass shootings in Serbia in recent years. Bystanders killed, injured in attack on commander in eastern Afghanistan By Ahmad Sultan KABUL, July 2 (Reuters) - At least two people were killed and 17 injured on Saturday when a suicide bomber attacked a local commander in eastern Afghanistan, officials said. The attacker targeted the vehicle of Haji Hayat Khan, a leader in a local movement opposing Islamic State militants in Nangarhar province, as he traveled in Jalalabad city, said Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor. Khan's body guards saw a suspicious man on a motorbike approaching, but when the man failed to heed their warnings to stop, the guards opened fire, hitting the rider, Khogyani said. The attacker was nevertheless able to detonate explosives, which killed at least two civilians, including a small boy, and wounded 17 others, he said. Khan and his escorts were unharmed by the blast. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Khan's home district in Nangarhar has recently been the scene of fighting between government forces and militants claiming allegiance to Islamic State. Gas flows to Poland from Gazprom back to normal after disruption WARSAW, July 2 (Reuters) - Gas flows from Russia's Gazprom via Ukraine to Poland were back to normal after falling 20 percent between Thursday and Friday, Polish gas pipeline operator Gaz-System said on Saturday. Gaz-System spokesman Tomasz Pietrasienski said the operator had received no explanation from Gazprom or from Ukraine's Ukrtransgaz. Gazprom said it had no comment. Gaz-System said in a statement the disruption had posed no threat to gas deliveries or system stability due to low gas demand at this time of the year and other supplies routes. Similar shortages occurred two years ago, when Poland was at odds with Russia - its former communist master and dominant gas supplier - over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis. Poland buys the bulk of its gas from Gazprom but has built a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at on the Baltic Sea and plans to build a pipeline to Norway to diversify its imports. It also aims to become a regional gas trading hub. Reuters Health News Summary Following is a summary of current health news briefs. People eat less when wearing 'bite counters' People who wear "bite counters" on their wrists while eating tend to cut down on how much they consume during a meal, a study suggests. Several years ago, Eric Muth and colleagues at Clemson University in South Carolina developed a way to track how much people eat based on their wrist motion. Girls less likely to get pregnant if a friend has a baby Girls whose friends have experienced teen childbirth are less likely to get pregnant themselves, a new study suggests. The researchers compared two groups of teen girls: those with a similarly-aged friend who'd given birth, and those with a friend who'd had an early miscarriage. More U.S. babies with Zika-related birth defects reported by health agency Three more babies have been born in the United States with birth defects likely linked to Zika virus infections, while another lost pregnancy was linked to the virus, according to figures updated by health officials on Thursday. That brings the U.S. totals, as of June 23, to seven babies with microcephaly or other Zika-related birth defects such as serious brain abnormalities, and five lost pregnancies from either miscarriage, stillbirth or termination. Q&A: How health-boosting crops could benefit 1 billion people Food economist Howarth Bouis is a man with a very big mission: to get staple foods fortified with health-improving vitamins and minerals to 1 billion people in the developing world by 2030. U.S.-based HarvestPlus, the program he founded to kickstart that process in 2003, has so far reached an estimated 20 million people in poor farming families in its eight target countries in Africa and Asia - an achievement that won Bouis the World Food Prize this week. UK drugs regulator to halt approvals for Indian clinical trials firm The UK's healthcare regulator has decided to suspended marketing approval for a widely used antibiotic that had won clearance based on clinical trials conducted by India's Quest Life Sciences, due to concerns over the integrity of trial data. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) might also deny other pending drug approval requests that rely on studies conducted by Quest, the UK agency said in a letter dated June 22, a copy of which was seen by Reuters. Spain records first case of sexually transmitted Zika virus Spain has recorded its first known case of the Zika virus being sexually transmitted, after a woman contracted it from her partner after he returned from a Latin American country, health authorities in Madrid said on Friday. The mosquito-borne Zika virus has been linked to thousands of cases of the microcephaly birth defect in countries such as Brazil, which has declared a public health emergency over the disease. The birth defect is marked by babies born with brain abnormalities and undersized heads. Obama says Congress must end deadlock on Zika funding U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday said Congress must end its deadlock on funding to combat the Zika virus before lawmakers head out to recess later this summer. "The good news is we feel fairly confident that we can develop an effective vaccine for Zika," Obama said after a meeting with U.S. health officials in the Oval Office. "The problem is right now that money is stuck in Congress." Federal judge blocks Florida law to end abortion clinic funding A federal judge has blocked parts of a new Florida law aiming to cut off state funding for preventive health services at clinics that also provide abortions, acting shortly before the restrictions took effect on Friday. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued a preliminary injunction late on Thursday after state Planned Parenthood affiliates challenged certain provisions as unconstitutional. J&J's Janssen hit with $70 million verdict in Risperdal trial A U.S. jury on Friday awarded $70 million to the family of a boy who developed breasts after taking Johnson & Johnson unit Janssen Pharmaceuticals' antipsychotic drug Risperdal. The jury in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas found that the company failed to warn the boy's healthcare providers about the risk of gynecomastia, which is breast growth in men or boys caused by a hormonal imbalance, and that it intentionally falsified, destroyed or concealed evidence in the case, according to a copy of the verdict form provided by a spokesman for the law firm Arnold & Itkin. Health officials race to prevent Congo yellow fever disaster Thirty killed in Syrian strikes on Damascan suburb town - monitor AMMAN, July 2 (Reuters) - Intensive Syrian air strikes on Saturday killed at least 30 civilians in a Damascan suburb town northeast of the city a day after the reported execution of a Syrian air force pilot, a monitor and rebels said. They said the raids targeted a medical centre, a school and a residential area in Jayrud town, a heavily populated area that struck a local truce with the army that had spared it the heavy bombing on other rebel held areas. It had made it a sanctuary for thousands of civilians fleeing heavy battles nearby. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said scores were also injured in the aerial strikes as well as shelling from army posts in the area. A rebel spokesman said the strikes seemed to be in revenge for the killing of a Syrian air force pilot who parachuted down near the town after his plane crashed on Friday. "The strikes against civilians are in retaliation against the execution of the pilot by Nusra Front," said Said Seif al Qalamoni from the Free Syrian Army's (FSA) Shahid Ahmad Abdo brigade that operates in Jayrud alongside the al Qaeda's Nusra Front and other groups. Rebels in a joint operations room targeted a main army base in the region with Russian-made surface to surface missiles after the aerial strikes, al Qalamoni said. Syrian state media said the crash was due to a technical fault and the pilot had ejected, while the rebel group Jaish al-Islam said it had shot down the plane, but did not say how. Jaish al Islam said the pilot was arrested and was subsequently killed by a fighter from the Nusra Front while being held at a joint command centre. The army had warned of a strong response after the execution of the pilot was reported shortly after he was shown on a rebel video circulated on social media giving details of his mission. Slovenian PM to decide on foreign minister's resignation by Tuesday By Marja Novak LJUBLJANA, July 2 (Reuters) - Slovenia's Prime Minister Miro Cerar said on Saturday he would decide by Tuesday on whether to accept the resignation of Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec. Erjavec offered to resign on Thursday over a scandal involving a leaked tape that led to a breakdown in the country's international border arbitration with neighbouring Croatia. Cerar told reporters he was surprised by the offer of resignation, which came at an "inappropriate time" and said "there are no clear reasons to dismiss the minister". Erjavec was not personally involved in the scandal but as foreign minister at the time of the scandal he felt he should offer to resign. He tendered his resignation a few hours after the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague decided on Thursday to continue with its work on reaching a decision on the border line between Slovenia and Croatia. Twenty five years after the break-up of federal Yugoslavia, Slovenia and Croatia still disagree over their land and sea border. Croatia withdrew from the arbitration last year after a leak of a tape showed that a Slovenian judge on the arbitration panel had exchanged confidential information with an official at Slovenia's foreign ministry. Analysts expect that Cerar will reject the resignation offer from Erjavec, who is also the head of the minor coalition party Desus. Cerar also urged the management of the company that runs Slovenia's only port, state-owned Luka Koper, to ensure that the port starts operating again after employees have halted operations since Friday, demanding the resignation of Infrastructure Minister Peter Gaspersic. They claim Gaspersic poses an obstacle to the port's development by not supporting an expansion of the railway line from the port. Their protests led to the resignation on Friday of Marko Jazbec, head of Slovenian Sovereign Holding which has overall supervision of state firms. Australians swing against ruling coalition in knife-edge election By Jane Wardell and Jonathan Barrett SYDNEY, July 2 (Reuters) - Australia was headed for a hung parliament or a minority government with more than half the votes counted in a national poll on Saturday, potentially blocking Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's ability to enact key economic reforms. Official electoral data for the House of Representatives showed a 3.2 percent swing away from the Liberal-led coalition government as officials clocked off for the evening with almost 10 million votes counted. The tight vote is a major blow for Turnbull whose gamble on a risky double dissolution of parliament in a bid to oust intransigent independents in the upper house Senate blocking his agenda appears to have backfired. "Friends, we will not know the outcome of this election tonight, indeed, we may not know it for some days to come," a jubilant Bill Shorten, leader of the opposition Labor Party, told supporters in Melbourne just before midnight. "But there is one thing for sure - the Labor Party is back." Opinion polls heading into Saturday's vote had showed a potentially tight vote after the landslide victory that brought the coalition to power in 2013; but just how tight still caught many by surprise. Former prime minister Tony Abbott told Liberal Party followers it was a "difficult night" after he successfully retained his Sydney seat. On official projections issued as counting was wound up early Sunday morning, the coalition was expected to hold 68 seats, against the opposition Labor Party's 70 seats and five to independents and the Greens Party. With just seven seats left to be determined in the House of Representatives, it was unclear if the coalition would win enough to form a government without an alliance with small parties and independents to get a majority. "It is a very, very close count," Turnbull told the party faithful at coalition headquarters in Sydney after Shorten spoke. "I can report that based on the advice I have from the party officials, we can have every confidence that we will form a coalition majority government in the next parliament." Still, there were early rumblings about Turnbull's future given the closeness of the vote. Turnbull had some of the highest poll ratings of an Australian leader on record shortly after he snatched the top job from Abbott last year. But that popularity soured as he appeared to bend his centre-right values on issues like climate change and same sex marriage to the right-wing powerbrokers in his party. XENOPHON ON TRACK The vote in the 76-seat Senate was also looking troublesome for the coalition with the independent centrist Nick Xenophon Team on track to win several seats. Pauline Hanson's One Nation party is also on track to win several Senate positions, bringing the Far Right politician back into parliament after an almost 20-year absence. "I believe that we need maturity in the parliament to start passing legislation that is right for the people and our future generations," said Hanson, who campaigned on an anti-immigration, anti-Muslim platform. Turnbull had said a vote for the coalition was a vote for political stability, invoking the global economic and political fallout from Britain's decision to leave the European Union. Minor parties, possibly in a coalition with centre-left Labor, he argued, could not be trusted to manage an economy hampered by a mining downturn and balance public finances after years of deficits. Xenophon, whose party won its first lower house seat, has vowed to block the coalition's cornerstone A$50 billion ($37 billion) corporate tax cuts if his party holds the balance of power in the Senate. "We've broken the duopoly," Xenophon said to cheers from supporters at a campaign event in Adelaide. "There's only been one of me in 226 seats; there'll be at least four of us and that'll be huge." Lavrov, Kerry have fresh exchange on ways of ending Syrian conflict By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Lidia Kelly AMMAN/MOSCOW, July 2 (Reuters) - Russia and the United States held fresh talks on Saturday on ways of cooperating to end the five-year conflict in Syria as intensive Syrian government air strikes killed at least 40 civilians in a town northeast of Damascus. Moscow and Washington are seeking ways of brokering an end to a conflict that has killed more than 400,000 people, according to the United Nations, and has sent a wave of refugees streaming towards Europe. In the latest diplomatic contact between the two powers, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke by phone on Saturday, Russia's foreign ministry said. "They discussed ... the possibility of Russian-American cooperation in the fight against terrorist groups in Syria," the statement said. The statement did not identify the groups more closely. Russia, which supports President Bashar al-Assad, is conducting airstrikes against various armed groups that are opposed to his rule including Nusra Front - an offshoot of al Qaeda - and Islamic State which the Americans also oppose. But Washington says Moscow is also targetting moderate rebel groups which are ideologically opposed to al Qaeda and which are supported by the United States. Fighting continued unabated in Syria with intensive strikes by the Syrian air force on Jayrud, northeast of Damascus, which killed 43 civilians a day after the reported execution of a Syrian air force pilot, a monitor and rebels said. They said the raids targeted a medical centre, a school and a residential area in Jayrud, a heavily populated town that had been earlier spared heavy bombing after striking a local truce with the army. It had become in that time a sanctuary for thousands of civilians fleeing heavy battles nearby. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said scores were also injured in the aerial strikes as well as by shelling from army posts in the area. A rebel spokesman said the strikes seemed to be in revenge for the killing of the air force pilot who parachuted near the town after his plane crashed on Friday. "The strikes against civilians are in retaliation against the execution of the pilot by Nusra Front," said Said Seif al Qalamoni from the Free Syrian Army's (FSA) Shahid Ahmad Abdo brigade that operates in Jayrud alongside the al Qaeda's Nusra Front and other groups. Rebels targeted a main army base in the region with Russian-made surface to surface missiles after the aerial strikes, al Qalamoni said. Syrian state media said the crash was due to a technical fault and the pilot had ejected, while the rebel group Jaish al-Islam said it had shot down the plane, but did not say how. Jaish al Islam said the pilot was arrested and was subsequently killed by a fighter from the Nusra Front while being held at a joint command centre. Separately, Russian and Syrian planes intensified bombing on Saturday of a strategic rebel-held area of Aleppo that is near the only route into opposition-held parts of the northern city. If the Malah area were to fall to the army and its allies they would succeed in laying siege to areas where over 400,000 people live under rebel control. In northern Syria, Islamic State fighters who are encircled in the town of Manbij launched a major offensive that pushed back U.S.-backed forces for the first from areas inside the city they had secured during a month-long campaign to capture the strategic city from the militants. In the western coastal province of Latakia, rebels who include al Nusra, consolidated gains in the strategic area just days after they retook Kansaba which overlooks much of the mountainous Jabal Akrad area close to the Turkish border . Unions to launch 3-day strike at Brazil's Eletrobras on Monday BRASILIA, July 2 (Reuters) - Workers at Brazil's electricity holding Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA will launch a three-day strike on Monday to demand higher salaries and protest plans to privatize part of the company, unions said on Saturday. Eletrobras, as the state-controlled company is commonly known, said in a statement it would respect workers' right to strike but added they should reflect about the company's crisis after years of massive losses. A downsizing at Eletrobras is essential because the company's current financial situation is "unsustainable," Brazil's energy minister said last month. In recent years, Eletrobras has been forced by the government to take over money-losing distribution utilities in sparsely populated states. At the same time the government crimped its revenue by forcing Eletrobras to slash power rates. The government hopes asset sales will boost efficiency and cut operational losses, allowing it to boost cash for investments and to pay 40 billion reais ($12.3 billion) of debt. Libya's rival oil company leaders reach deal to unify sector By Libby George and Ahmad Ghaddar LONDON, July 2 (Reuters) - Once-rival leaders of Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) have agreed on a structure for the group that aims to put to rest squabbles over who has the right to export the country's oil, according to a statement. Oil industry leaders in OPEC-member Libya have said they could quickly double production to over 700,000 bpd if conditions stabilized. Before a 2011 revolution, Libya was producing 1.6 million bpd. The rival oil officials agreed in principle to unify the oil sector in May, but the agreement on the structure and leadership of a joint group took weeks of meetings to iron out. (http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL5N18D4JT) Mustafa Sanalla, who led the Tripoli-based NOC, will remain chairman of the group, while the head of the eastern-backed NOC, Naji al-Maghrabi, will serve as a board member, according to a statement seen by Reuters. A UN-backed unity government that arrived in Tripoli in March is seeking to replace two rival governments that were set up in Tripoli and the east, and to unite Libya's many political and armed factions. A united oil sector would be a key support for the unity government. Libya relies heavily on oil exports as a source of income and hard currency. "This agreement will send a very strong signal to the Libyan people and to the international community that the Presidency Council is able to deliver consensus and reconciliation," Sanalla said in the statement. Al-Maghrabi said both men "made a strategic choice to put our divisions behind us" as there is "no other way forward". Oil production sank to around 200,000 bpd in May after a political dispute between the eastern and western factions blocked loadings at Marsa al Hariga for more than three weeks. A unified NOC structure could also smooth negotiations to reopen the El Sharara and El Feel fiels, which are closed due to disagreements with local groups. The two sides also agreed a budget for the remainder of the year, taking steps to "address any imbalances resulting from the period of division", they said. They also identified infrastructure rehabilitation as a big goal, particularly in the eastern city of Benghazi, "in preparation for the relocation of NOC's headquarters". NOC aims to hold meetings of its board of directors meetings in Benghazi "if security conditions permit". Germany should give expatriate young Britons citizenship - minister BERLIN, July 2 (Reuters) - Germany should offer citizenship to young Britons living in Germany given that it was largely older voters in England and Wales who voted for 'Brexit' in last month's referendum, German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Saturday. Britain voted 52 to 48 percent on June 23 in favour of quitting the European Union, with the referendum splitting the country along several lines such old versus young, England and Wales versus Scotland and Northern Ireland. "That's why we shouldn't just pull up the drawbridge," Gabriel said at a European conference of his Social Democrat (SPD) party in Berlin. Gabriel, who is also Vice Chancellor, said Germany should think about what it could offer young Britons and added the SPD had always been in favour of allowing people dual citizenship. "Let's offer it to the young Brits who live in Germany, Italy or France so that they can remain EU citizens in this country," he said. The opposition Greens party has also called for Germany to make it easy for Britons living in Germany to get a German passport. ELKO The dancers who will perform at this weekends National Basque Festival are hoping to impress their audience in Elko but are also planning to take their talents to the nations capitol next week. Dance instructor Kiaya Memeo said she is proud of the progress her group has made in their months of practice and for the creativity they have shown in the way the dancers have mixed modern and traditional dance styles. Theyre an awesome blend of traditional and modern and its really neat to see together, she said. We do let them have a little creative control here and there. Blending modern and traditional styles into the dance routine is important to Memeo. Not only does it allow the dancers to insert some of their own personality into these dances, Memeo thinks it helps keep an important aspect of Basque culture alive. There are some dances we like to keep as traditional as possible, she said But, my personal opinion is that if we keep that creative flare, we can keep this going. The only way our culture is going to keep going is if we adapt to our youth. The dancers in the group also see the importance of exhibiting the Basque culture to those who may not be familiar with it. Dancer Franci Mendive has been working with the dance group for 14 years and is excited about making the trip to Washington, D.C. Im overjoyed to be able to go to D.C., she said. To be able to expose our personal history to demographic of people whove never seen it before is an awesome opportunity, and I feel like everybody here is a strong representation of everything that the Basque people stand for. The performances will feature traditional Basque music played live on accordion, snare drum, guitar and tambourine that will give the audience a taste of Basque music as well. Memeo was excited for the way the entire program has come together heading into their first big performance at the Basque festival before their July 6 trip to Washington but emphasized that the hard work of her dancers would make for a good show. I am really, really proud of the dancers, she said. Those are the girls that are going to make the show. Its not instructors or musicians. Its going to be those dancers. The National Basque Festival began Friday and continues through Sunday. The festival became a two-day event in 1964, now known as the National Basque Festival, the Elko Basque Club states on its website. The weekend festivities were scheduled around the 4th of July weekend, to celebrate with this great Country and to thank them for accepting Basques and their heritage so freely. A 5K Run/Walk will begin Saturdays festivities. Registration begins at 6:15 a.m. and the race stars at 7 a.m. from the Elko Basque Clubhouse, 1601 Flagview Drive. Participants pay $20 and receive a T-shirt. For more information contact Cody Krenka at 775-738-6479. The parade begins at 11 a.m. Saturday downtown, and the route ends at the Elko County Fairgrounds. Games and dancing begin at 1 p.m. Multiple dance groups and athletes from across the country will perform. A dance at the Elko Basque Clubhouse will begin at 9 p.m. Saturday. Admission is $12. The festival will wind down Sunday, beginning with the Sheepherders Bread Contest at 10:30 a.m. followed by the auction after the 11 a.m. Mass. The always-popular Basque Picnic will be from 12:30 p.m. until 2 p.m. Spend the day enjoying a picnic of delicious Basque cuisine while watching dance and Basque sport exhibitions, the club states on its website. Sunday will also include our Jota and Irrintzi contest. Free Press writer Marianne Kobak McKown contributed to this article. This week geochemist scientists from Durhram University presented evidence at the Goldschmidt Conference in Yokohama, Japan of a new source of helium gas located in the African country of Tanzania. Using a new technique that relies on understanding how helium is trapped in the rock strata and what driving force allows its release, the gas fields discovered in Tanzania may hold as much as 10 percent helium, a huge proportion compared with most other sources. The researchers say the reservoir might contain as much as 54 billion cubic feet of the gas, or more than twice the amount currently in the Federal Helium Reserve, near Amarillo, Texas which supplies about 40 percent of the helium used in the United States. The new source could alleviate recurrent shortages of helium that have plagued users of scientific instruments and medical imaging equipment for the last two decades. When helium is trapped by underground formations, usually the same kind of mechanisms that can trap natural gas, it can be recovered the same way natural gas is by drilling a well. The small Norwegian start-up company called Helium One funding the research prospected in a part of Tanzania where studies from the 1960s suggested helium might be seeping from the ground. The area is within the East African Rift, a region where one of Earths tectonic plates is fractured and has created many volcanoes. The researchers theorize that intense heat from volcanic activity in the Rift Valley releases helium in ancient crustal rock. The gas then accumulated in underground reservoirs. The United States has the largest source of helium in the world, most of it located around the Texas Panhandle region, and was discovered quite accidentally. When drilling for oil in 1903 state geologist Erasmus Haworth became disappointed because his well in Dexter, Kansas, produced a gas geyser that would not burn. Taking the samples hew collecting to the University of Kansas he discovered that the gas consisted of 72 percent nitrogen, 15 percent methane (not enough to openly burn), hydrogen, other hydrocarbons and almost 2 percent helium. With more wells finding helium in the Great Plains the United States became the worlds leading supplier of helium and we still are. By 1925 the United States government set up a National Helium Reserve at Amarillo with the goal of supplying military airships (blimps) in time of war and commercial airships (dirigibles) in peacetime with the gas. The fact that helium was the safer gas to use over the flammable hydrogen was underscored with the 1937 explosion of the Hindenburg zeppelin when docking at Lakehurst, New Jersey. In all cases helium is created as a result of radioactive decay from materials deep within the earth. Elements such as uranium and thorium release alpha particles when they radioactively decay. Because an alpha particle contains two protons and two neutrons it is the basis of a helium nucleus. When the particle stops moving after being ejected from a radioactive atom the charges present grab local electrons from the surrounding rock and a helium atom is instantly formed. Because this capture process produces a lower energy state the helium atom formed is inert and bonded together forever. It will eventually make its way to the stars as it escapes our planets gravitational pull. Helium has a number of physical properties that make it well suited for certain uses. In the health field helium is used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines that assess injuries and diagnose illness. The huge magnetic field of an MRI machine can only be produced by a liquid helium cooled superconducting magnet. Because helium has the lowest boiling point of any element there is no substitute for helium in this very important use. Since it is inert and does not react with any other element even at high temperatures, helium is used as a shield gas for welding aluminum. Because of its low viscosity helium finds great use as a leak detector gas; it will squeeze out of the tiniest openings. Helium is also used as a purging gas to displace liquid hydrogen and oxygen from rocket propulsion systems. Large amounts of helium are used by NASA and the Department of Defense for this purpose. Although helium is continually being produced by radioactive mineral decay in Earths crust, its rate of natural production and accumulation is so slow that it must be considered a nonrenewable resource. As the rate of use increases so does its price. In 1995, Congress decided that the United States Helium Reserve was not essential and initiated an auction type program to sell the helium stockpiled there. Under current law, the National Helium Reserve will be sold out by 2021. ELKO -- Congressman Mark Amodei, R-Nevada, discussed items related to Elko and Union Pacific Corp., resources, sage grouse, and rounded off the conversation with gun control in a public meeting Tuesday. The government official spoke to the Elko City Council to update the government entity on current issues and inquired about the concerns of the council members. Amodei represents Nevadas second congressional district. Over the amount of time Ive been here, which I think Im on my 56th month, but whos counting -- too long to be a new guy and long enough to be part of the problem now,'" he said,gesturing air quotes and thanking the City Manager Curtis Calder and City staff for their support when his office conducts projects related to the community. Initial discussion ensued concerning the railroad which is looking into potential downtown redevelopment and property acquisition. In this context we are here as a customer service outfit for dealings with folks that if we can be helpful with, then we want to be helpful, he said, discussing the railroad. While it is not a usual duty of his office, in a statement he said was not against the railroad, he would generally feel better if the City controls its own downtown instead of offices in Omaha, Nebraska. However, according to the latest report, there are environmental concerns related to the downtown parcel being discussed at this time: one may possibly take a year to clean up, and the other is reportable to the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection concerning petroleum leakage and could take three to four years to remediate. Rice said, to nods of approval from council members, he would prefer to be updated quarterly. Councilman John Patrick Rice asked if acquisition could be accomplished in phases, in reference to environmental clean-up. Rices concern stems from what he called a warranty in that if the land is not transferred at a specific time after the cleaning process. Amodei said this could result in subsequent meetings be it monthly or quarterly. When it comes to resources, Amodei said he had a meeting planned Wednesday concerning land transfer pertaining to the Northern Nevada Land Conservation and Economic Development Act. There were motocross dealings within City limits he said, explaining it is his understanding the National Environmental Policy Act review process has dragged on. This meeting will allow him to receive an update from the Elko Motorcycle Club to see what level the roadblocks are occurring at, including state or district, to act accordingly. Nobody here cares anything about sage hen. So, I wont talk about that, other than the fact that this county is probably the sage hen crossroads of the nation, said Amodei. He discussed the path of legislation concerning the subject, calling the process interesting, and also highlighted how there is language in the bill stating if the state plan conflicts with the adopted resource management plans, the state plans take priority. Those sagebrush focal areas, unless theyre in the state plan, theyre not in effect, he said. If this issue is truly about Nevadas resources and sage hen, because this started out as habitat loss and fragmentation as the key problems, looking at available data from the last 20 years between 6 and 7 million acres have been burned. In addition, approximately 150,000 acres have been permitted for mining purposes in the same timeframe. If the issue was truly focused on the resource, fire is what should be dealt with, he said considering current technology. The U.S. Department of the Interior received $65 million in the last appropriations cycle for sage grouse habitat. Although, preliminary indications are about half of that is going to stay in D.C. and half of it is going to go to the field, no good, he said. Thats why we do oversight. The conversation turned to gun violence. I can say this, nobody is for people who shouldnt have guns having guns. Its not a Republican Democrat thing. As a matter of fact, in this state we have an example, if you get convicted of domestic violence you cant have a gun, he said, citing an example of an appropriate restriction of Second Amendment rights. However, he also discussed how the no fly list does not resemble due process, including common names being placed on it. Amodei said to get off the list can require the use of lawyers. His suggestion was to speak to all members of law enforcement and security agencies to develop a greater understanding of what is needed. When you talk about one of those things thats in that big ten called the Bill of Rights you need to have some pretty good well thought out due process types of reasons. In regards to the gun bills, you have to do something, said Rice. Eighty-five percent of Americans favor focused, reasonable regulations like no fly, no buy. Amodei did not disagree with the councilman, but expressed his frustrations, Something has to be done about health care, something has to be done about immigration, something has to be done about the bad people having guns and when you sit there all those issues become uber politicized for political gain, said Amodei, explaining a perpetrator does not usually obtain something such as a concealed carry permit. The NRA (National Rifle Association) has America by the throat and I represent people who want something to be done, and Im hoping you can help us do it, Rice said, discussing those sentiments were easy to say. ELKO Authorities continue to search for the 17-year-old Elko male, who escaped from the Nevada Youth Training Center around midnight Monday, meanwhile the State released security recommendations for the facility. We dont believe hes in the area now, said acting Undersheriff Kevin McKinney, explaining the warrant remains active on the juvenile. The runaway is described as 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighing 126 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. He is missing the tip of his right-hand index finger. The teen was committed to NYTC in January because of a parole violation. NYTC Superintendent Greg Thornton reported the escape to media at 1:30 a.m. Monday, according to Free Press files. The Division of Child and Family Services was not allowed to release criminal information on the escapee due to him being a juvenile. He is not believed to be a violent risk to the community. However, DCFS had an unconfirmed suspicion Monday the escapee was helped by a community member as he is from the area, said Karla Navarro, DCFS systems advocate. Anyone with information on the teens whereabouts should call Elko Central Dispatch at 777-7300. The above youth constitutes this years sixth escapee from NYTC. Caliente Youth Center and NYTC received security recommendations from the State on Thursday. From January to March, NYTC and Caliente had 15 youths escape, which prompted the report. According to the memorandum, in March of this year the facility experienced four escapes by five youth during a ten-day period. Because of those events, DCFS identified four details necessary to identify intervention standards to alleviate the risk of escapes. These observations included two of the juveniles attempting to escape multiple times, always with a different partner one attempt was successful; two escapes and one attempted escape occurred after the sun had set; and escape attempts did not involve more than two youths. Reform admissions process to use evidence based elopement risk assessment and to not place highest risk youth at Nevada Youth Training Center, stated the recommendation of the task force. Essentially this assessment determines improvement is needed to assess the risk the youth poses, and if he would be appropriately placed in a staff secure or the secure facility Summit View Youth Center. Sometimes the least amount of intervention has proven to be effective with troubled youth. This leads to the juvenile attempting a staff secure setting first, even when he has been categorized for a secure setting. While this prioritizes the rehabilitation of the youth, it does not necessarily prioritize the safety of youth, staff or community when placed at a staff secure location close to a community, stated the memorandum. Three of the juveniles in the evaluated escapes from NYTC were from the highest risk; two were moderate risk. The report states for youth with the highest run risk, the safety risk to the youth and the community surrounding the facility should outweigh the programming benefits at the staff secure facilities. Because of its proximity to a large community, with transportation access, the youth should not be admitted to NYTC. It was also recommended for enhanced and continuous training to guarantee staff always follow policies and procedures. There are continuous efforts to standardize these policies and procedures across the Nevada Juvenile Justice Facilities, including reviewing escape risk policies and procedures that mandate training geared toward the risks of escape and its prevention. ELKO Firefighters battled two lightning-caused blazes in the region, including one that burned an estimated 50-100 acres north of Wells. The other fire near Pilot Peak north of Wendover is on the Utah side of the state line. According to the Nevada Interagency Fire Management office, the Deer Creek Fire in eastern Elko County is near the north end of the Snake Range, east of the Gilmer Ranch. It was listed as 20 percent contained late Friday night. Air Attack and 2 SEATs (single-engine air tankers) were released from incident prior to sundown due to storms in area, stated incident commander Craig Cunningham. The fire burned in a Sagebrush Focal Area of greater sage grouse habitat. Rain helped keep the fire in check, and Elko Interagency Dispatch Center listed the fire as fully contained at 7 a.m. Saturday. The agency also received a report of a fire near White Rock Road on Friday afternoon, but it turned out to be a false alarm. No information was available on the Pilot Peak fire. RICHMOND The office of Attorney General Mark R. Herring is asking a federal court to reject a lawsuit filed by a Virginia delegate to the Republican National Convention who wants legal permission to break party rules and vote against Donald Trump. The state's response, filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, argues Winchester attorney Carroll Correll Jr. lacks standing and waited too long to file the suit with the national convention in Cleveland just weeks away. "Before his election as a delegate, Correll knew the partys rules and knew the primary results," Assistant Attorney General Anna T. Birkenheier wrote in the state's response. "He stood for election anyway, yet now seeks to undo the partys and the voters choices." In the lawsuit filed last week, Correll, a Republican activist elected in April as a convention delegate from the 10th Congressional District, claims his constitutional rights are violated by a Virginia law binding convention delegates to cast their votes based on the results of the party primary. Correll said he's concerned he could face legal action by Trump or his allies if he votes his conscience and supports someone other than Trump. With many Republicans still reluctant to embrace Trump as the party's standard-bearer, some are holding out hope to outmaneuver Trump's forces and nominate an alternative presidential candidate. All of Virginia's 49 delegates are bound to vote according to primary results on the convention's first ballot. Trumps first-place finish in Virginia's March 1 primary entitles him to 17 delegate votes, with the rest of the votes distributed proportionately among other candidates who have dropped out. After narrowly losing to Trump in Virginia, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida has 16 delegates on the first ballot. Correll filed the suit as a class action on behalf of other Virginia delegates to the Republican convention. Eight other Republican delegates, including some of Trump's most vocal Virginia supporters such as conservative radio host John Fredericks and former Rep. Virgil Goode, have filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit, calling it an "eleventh-hour attack" on longstanding election law. "Plaintiff asserts the state is burdening his constitutional rights by requiring him to vote in accord with the will of the people," the opposing delegates said in their motion, which the state is not opposing. "But it is plaintiff who is attempting to disenfranchise the good people of Virginia." Correll is asking the court to declare the convention voting law unconstitutional and issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction preventing any punitive action against him for casting a vote against Trump, whom Correll has called "unfit to serve." Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for next Thursday. Elko Assembly of God is partnering with Andrew Wommack Ministries in an effort to take a stand against government laws that oppose our Christian beliefs as set forth by Gods Holy Bible. We are looking for others to stand with us to petition local and national governments for moral legislation by signing a Declaration of Dependence upon God and His Holy Bible. Your signature on this Declaration allows you to stand with us as the body of Christ in a personal commitment to the Word of God. Many Americans want to force Christians to accept and fund abortions and accept the redefining of marriage as set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court. With this Declaration of Dependence on God and His Holy Bible we decree that we have the constitutional right, not only as Christians, but as Americans to conduct our churches, ministries, businesses, and personal lives in accordance with our Christian faith. If you want to take a stand against legislation that forces you to fund abortion, support same-sex marriage, or go against your Christian values, but dont know exactly how, we would like to offer you this opportunity to join together with us for a brighter future by signing this petition. All you have to do is go to DependenceOnGod.com and sign the document. Moreover, please invite your friends and family members to join the commitment with you. In unity, our voices will be heard that we choose to obey God, rather than man. As this declaration gains momentum and as we continue this effort, Andrew Wommack ministries will undertake a full media blitz that will include major press and media coverage; television broadcasts; news programs; full-page ads in national newspapers, inclusive of website addresses for millions of people like you, to sign this declaration. This declaration is currently being shared by churches and ministries throughout the nation. At present, over 6,000 churches have joined this pronouncement including Elko Assembly of God, to present and influence state and federal legislators that as Americans we decree that we have the constitutional right to conduct our churches, ministries, businesses, and personal lives in accordance with our Christian faith. Again, if you would like to help support this effort, please go to DependenceOnGod.com and sign the Declaration of Dependence upon God and His Holy Bible. Liberty Counsel Founder Mat Staver was quoted as saying, Our highest respect for the rule of law requires that we not respect an unjust law that directly conflicts with higher law. As people of faith, we pledge obedience to our Creator when the state directly conflicts with higher law, Staver continued to say, Now is the time for each of us to stand up and be counted. We are calling upon pastors to Declare Dependence upon God. If you are interested in signing or furthering your understanding of this petition, or would like to access materials regarding this declaration, please feel free to contact www.dependenceongod.com. Declaration of Dependence upon God and His Holy Bible We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Since our Creator gave us these rights, we declare that no government has the right to take them away. Among these rights is the right to exercise our Christian beliefs as put forth in Gods Holy Bible. We therefore declare that God grants life at conception and no one has the right to take that life unless it is a direct threat to the life of the mother. Marriage was instituted by God between one man and one woman. The Lord gave only this family unit the responsibility to have children and raise them in the fear of the Lord. We therefore respectfully reserve the right to refuse any mandate by the government that forces us to fund or support abortion. We also oppose same sex-marriage, polygamy, bestiality, and all other forms of sexual perversion prohibited by Holy Scripture. We proclaim that Jesus has provided the cure for all sin and therefore reach out to the sinner in love, but do not embrace the sin, knowing its destructive nature. Therefore, we the undersigned not only as Christians but also believing we have the constitutional right as Americans to follow these time honored Christian beliefs commit to conducting our churches, ministries, businesses, and personal lives in accordance with our Christian faith and choose to obey God rather than man. SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan Google Ad Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol Armenia and Azerbaijan to do so without delay An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan". UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022 Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully Google Ad The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces LEVEL UP ONLY FOR STUDENTS: UCOM OFFERS X2 AND X3 MORE INTERNET STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments Delegation by Nancy Pelosi Accompanied by Alen Simonyan Visits Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi Arrives in Yerevan Armenian Revytech, global technology leader SAP and financial services software specialist SAP Fioneer sign a cooperation agreement With 120 million drams donated by Mikael Vardanyan, the defenders of the homeland will be treated in a new building OSCE Chairman-in-Office and OSCE Secretary General call for immediate cessation of hostilities along Armenia-Azerbaijan border Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh USA Embassy Message for U.S. Citizens ANCA Issues National Call to Action to Stop Taxpayer Funding of Aliyevs Aggression Turkey will try to influence the NK issue through Russia (video) Russia will gradually remove the trade and economic sanctions used against Turkey. Vladimir Putin has already instructed the Government to take steps in that direction. This instruction was preceded by the message of Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Vladimir Putin, by which Turkeys President apologized to the family of the pilot of the Russian helicopter shot down in November. Political expert Stepan Grigoryan notes, Russia is in serious blockade, it is obvious that it isnt beneficial for Russia to continue Turkeys blockade, Russia wants to get out of that isolation. Turkologist Ruben Safrastyan adds, Turkey faces difficult geopolitical situation, it is isolation, and the current authorities of Turkey are trying to refrain from that situation. The Russian-Turkish relations, we can say, again return to a phase, when two countries dont fire at each other, there is no acute conflict, but in strategic regard the conflict is maintained, says Turkologist. What will be the influence of another change in the Russian-Turkish relations on Armenia? Stepan Grigoryan notes. I dont think that Russias improvement in the economic sphere with Turkey is against our interest, in the end, this tense situation isnt beneficial for us. Whether it will be followed by political rapprochement in political issues, not only in the issue of Karabakh, but also in Syrian issue, here we must follow. According to the political expert, after the improvement of the relations, Turkey will try to have influence on the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict through Russia. We can draw this conclusion taking into account the lessons of history. The rapprochement in the 20s resulted in the territorial losses by the Armenian side; the same risk exists at present. Everything can happen in the Russian-Turkish relations, for a very short period they can have mutual interests and there is always a risk, says the political expert. Stepan Grigoryan states that we shouldnt worry about another rapprochement between Russia and Turkey, but about not seeing the dangers of that rapprochement and not taking steps by the Armenian authorities. Salespeople arent allowed to trade in Vernissage I have come here to earn my daily bread, but I am forced to leave. I have no means to go to Hrazdan stadium, complained 70-year-old Gohar Gasparyan in Yerevan Vernissage. She has been engaged in trade in Vernissage for 15 years. About 300 salespeople today in the morning werent allowed to sell their items. The people have been even provided money to move to Hrazdan stadium by taxis. The salespeople note that many people were forcibly put into taxis and sent to Hrazdan stadium. Earlier Yerevan Municipality declared that starting from July 1st the section of Vernissage, where clothes, household utensils and second hand items were sold, will be closed. Ara Mkrtchyan, representative of Department of Trade and Services of Staff of Yerevan Municipality, is sure that the people are offered normal conditions, There are good conditions, there is sheeting, there are storehouses and toilets. The salespeople, who dont want to leave the territory of Vernissage, say that tomorrow they will again try to sell their items. We have our customers, who will never go to Hrazdan stadium, say the salespeople. The rupee had dropped by 120 paise or 1.80 per cent in previous two weeks. The rupee snapped its last 2-week losing streak against the American currency, recovered by 64 paise to close at 67.32 per dollar on fresh selling of green currency in view of strong foreign capital inflows amid sharp rise in equities. The rupee resumed lower at nearly 4-month low at 68.00 per dollar against the last weekend's level of 67.96 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) and fell further to 68.08 per dollar on initial dollar demand from banks and importers on the back of higher dollar on concerns over the UK leaving the European Union. The rupee had last traded at 68.27 per dollar on March 1, 2016. However, it recovered afterwards to 67.31 per dollar on fag-end selling of dollars by banks and exporters on the back of sharp recovery in equities before ending at 67.32, showing a gain of 64 paise or 0.94 per cent. The rupee had dropped by 120 paise or 1.80 per cent in previous two weeks. The domestic unit hovered in a range of 68.08 and 67.31 per dollar during the week. At overseas, the US dollar traded mostly up initially against its major rivals in the Asian trade, while the pound remained under siege, sliding back toward a 31-year low, reflecting the deeply bearish mood of investors after Britain opted to exit the European Union, triggering shockwaves across global markets. The British pound fell against the US dollar on Friday, still reeling from Bank of England chief Mark Carneys Brexit-inspired warning that the central bank could enact further monetary easing as soon as August. Paris: Google pays taxes in every country where it has a presence, the multinational tech giant's Europe vice president Carlo d'Asaro Biondo said Friday as the company faces a raft of fiscal probes across the continent "The taxes are paid overwhelming where the value is created. And Google creates most of tis value in the United States," D'Asaro Biondo told radio France Info. He was speaking the day after Google's offices in Madrid were searched in a tax probe, just over a month after police raided the Internet giant in Paris in a similar investigation. "We have an overall tax rate of approximately 20 percent. This is within the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) average," the Google executive said. In January, the company agreed to pay ?130 million (157 million euros, $175 million) in back taxes in Britain after a government inquiry sparked by a public outcry. Italy has also demanded more than 200 million euros from Google, which is accused of perpetrating tax fraud there. Like other US-based online multinationals, such as Amazon and Facebook, Google is regularly accused of not paying its fair share of tax both in Europe and in the United States, registering instead in low tax havens. In Ireland, where the corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent is among the lowest in the European Union, Google has over 5,000 employees.The company has also invested over 10 billion euros there, said D'Asaro Biondo. "The choices regarding fiscal laws in each country were made by the European Commission... today we apply them," he argued, while urging a change in the rules in order to adapt to the increasing globalisation of large companies. Google faces fresh EU anti-competition charges, this time targeting the search engine giant's advertising business, sources close to the matter told AFP on Tuesday. "It's normal that there are controls on a company of our size," said D'Asaro Biondo, adding that Google would continue to "collaborate" with the European Commission on the matter. The MHRA said it is in contact with the involved parties, who have the right to appeal and submit new data to prove that the drugs in question meet the required standards.(Photo: Representational image) Mumbai: The UK's healthcare regulator has decided to suspended marketing approval for a widely used antibiotic that had won clearance based on clinical trials conducted by India's Quest Life Sciences, due to concerns over the integrity of trial data. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) might also deny other pending drug approval requests that rely on studies conducted by Quest, the UK agency said in a letter dated June 22, a copy of which was seen by Reuters. The MHRA's decision bars the sale of a generic version of erythromycin that is being sold in the UK by Dawa Ltd, a Kenyan drugmaker, an MHRA spokesman said. The MHRA said it is in contact with the involved parties, who have the right to appeal and submit new data to prove that the drugs in question meet the required standards. The agency added that it does not believe there to be any risk to public health and that its decision to suspend marketing approval is purely a precautionary measure. Quest's President Yati Chugh told Reuters the company plans to appeal the suspension as he believes the agency relied on a two-year-old study and the following inspection report to reach its decision, and that it did not review the company's latest quality management systems. He said Quest had significantly improved its quality systems since 2014, and would ask the MHRA to re-inspect its site, as MHRA's move means four other drugs Quest performed trials on that are awaiting approval with the UK regulator will not be approved until the agency clears its facility. These drugs include the antibiotics doxycycline and cephalexin, and the diabetes drug metformin, on which Quest had conducted trials on behalf of UK drugmaker Strandhaven and India's Kopran, said Chugh. Strandhaven, Kopran and Dawa did not respond to requests for comment on the matter. Latest Setback The MHRA's move is the latest blow to India's drug industry, whose reputation has been tainted in recent years as foreign regulators have criticised manufacturing standards and questioned the reliability of clinical data produced by some of the sector's biggest names. Chennai-based Quest is a contract research firm that conducts clinical trials on generic drugs on behalf of local, as well as multinational drugmakers. Drugmakers in turn use clinical data produced by companies like Quest to seek approval to sell their drugs in various countries. Data from Quest has been used to support drug approvals in the United States, Europe, Australia and elsewhere, according to its website. The MHRA said that during an inspection of Quest's facility in February, it found several issues with data integrity in a clinical trial Quest had conducted, including discrepancies in Quest's patient records and instances where electrocardiogram (ECG) data of patients had been deleted or manipulated. The World Health Organisation told Quest in July last year about similar ECG data manipulation issues in another drug study. The MHRA said it believed its findings meant that the safety or wellbeing of patients had been jeopardised in the trial. "The MHRA inspectors identified a large number of issues which indicated that there were very serious concerns with many aspects of the company's quality system," the MHRA spokesman said, adding the problems cast "serious doubt on the integrity of any data produced." Similar issues around data at Quest's larger rival GVK Biosciences led to a recall of about 700 drugs across Europe last year. Mumbai: After several months of speculations and denial, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena have finally gone on record with the big news. The two are expecting their first child in December this year and the actor has thanked his well-wishers for their blessings. Watch: Kareena's UNICEF outing fuels pregnancy rumours An elated Saif Ali Khan said, "My wife and I would like to announce that we are expecting our first child in December. We would like to thank our well wishers for their blessings and support and also the press for their discretion and patience." This will be Kareenas first child and Saifs third. He has two children- Ibrahim and Sara, from his earlier marriage to Amrita Singh. Read: Would like to start a family, can't give up everything: Kareena on Hollywood Kareenas recent London trip with doting husband sparked off rumours that the actress left for a quick getaway in the wake of an impending motherhood. At a recent event, Kareena had neither accepted nor denied the rumours. The actress had said, "God willing hopefully. I am a woman. But right now there is nothing to say about it. The fact that you all are talking about it is making me super excited." On the work front, Kareena who was last seen in 'Udta Punjab', recently gave a nod to 'Veere Di Wedding' which also stars Sonam Kapoor. However, she will make sure to complete her portions of the film before September. Congratulatory message on the occasion of Independence Day of the USA Today, on the occasion of Independence Day of the United States of America, President Serzh Sargsyan visited the residence of the US Ambassador to Armenia. On the occasion of the holiday, President Serzh Sargsyan congratulated Ambassador Richard Mills and in his person the staff of the Embassy and the people of the United States, and wished success in the continuous development and strengthening of the Armenian-American relations. The President of Armenia highly valued the input of the United States to our countrys economic development since independence, strengthening of democracy, maturing of the civil society and underscored that he was hopeful that after the presidential elections in the US, the bilateral relations will continue to develop dynamically. Ambassador Richard Mills thanked the President of Armenia for the visit and congratulations. He noted that for the last twenty-five years he has been following closely developments in Armenia and agreed with President Sargsyan on the issue of the achievements registered in the country in the mentioned period of time. The US Ambassador underlined that the citizens of Armenia can rightfully take pride in progress achieved by Armenia in the last quarter of the century in the economic, social as well as political areas. He said that he was glad that the people and Government of the United States have played their part in that advancement. The President of Armenia also sent a congratulatory message to the President of the United States Barack Obama: Honorable President Obama, Allow me to wholeheartedly congratulate you and the people of the United States on the occasion of Independence Day of the United States of America. Early next year, we will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our nations. Looking back on our journey, I note with great satisfaction that the Armenia-US relations have always been marked by cordiality, mutual trust and respect. We highly value the great support extended by the United States towards the development of Armenia's economy, the implementation of various reforms and the strengthening of our democratic institutions. Building on a strong tradition of fruitful cooperation and on the existing significant potential, Armenia stands ready to further deepen and develop the Armenian-American friendship and the close partnership. We greatly appreciate the US engagement, as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, in the Nagorno-Karabakh peaceful settlement process. The diplomatic efforts that followed the full-fledged military operation of Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh in the early April, 2016, have once again underscored the key role played by the United States in the peace process. Similar to the co-chair countries of the Minsk Group, we are also strongly convinced that the maintenance of the unlimited-in-time trilateral ceasefire agreements of 1994-1995 and the implementation of steps leading to the establishment of an environment conducive to negotiations, would serve as a strong foundation for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through exclusively peaceful means. We expect that the United States, jointly with the other co-chair countries - Russia and France, will continue its active mediation mission towards the establishment of a stable and durable peace in our region. Please allow me to once again congratulate you on Independence Day and to wish you and people of the United States continued progress and prosperity. Please accept, Mr. President, the assurances of my highest consideration, reads the congratulatory message of the President of Armenia. For the climax of the historic film Gautamiputra Satakarni, the 100th film of Nandamuri Balakrishna, the unit will leave shortly for Georgia to film the scene where the protagonist Satakarni will fight it out with Greek soldiers. Directed by National award-winning director Krish Jagarlamudi, there is intense anticipation about how the director will bring to screen the life of the Telugu warrior. It is reported that nearly 1,000 soldiers, 300 horses and 20 chariots will be used to shoot the sequence. This will be the major episode for the film, after which the crew will focus on regular scenes. We had planned the schedules accordingly. The first schedule included the war scene that appears before the interval and was shot in Morocco. In the second schedule, we shot the war scene that opens the movie in Hyderabad, in an expensive navy vessel setting. Now, with this third war scene in Georgia, we will complete the climax, said director Krish. He added that a lot of computer graphics have been used for the film, which has music composed by Devi Sri Prasad. Compared to girls whose friends had miscarried, those whose friends became teen mothers were less likely to have sex as teens. (Photo: Pixabay) Girls whose friends have experienced teen childbirth are less likely to get pregnant themselves, a new study suggests. The researchers compared two groups of teen girls: those with a similarly-aged friend whod given birth, and those with a friend whod had an early miscarriage. They wanted to see whether these events affected the girls choices in having sex, getting pregnant, having a child, and getting married as teens or their choices regarding school, marriage and family as adults. Altogether, the investigators studied 595 young women from across the U.S., interviewing them multiple times over the years, starting in 1994-1995 when they were in their early teens. Compared to girls whose friends had miscarried, those whose friends became teen mothers were less likely to have sex as teens, get pregnant or get married and more likely to attain their college degree. Teens learn from their friends mistakes, study co-author Dr. Olga Yakusheva of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor told Reuters Health by phone. Its common sense, really we obviously know few people would follow their friends jumping off the proverbial cliff, but thats how we used to think about peer influences among teens, she said But the study, published June 16 in the Journal of Adolescent Health, suggests that teens learn from their friends mistakes. Furthermore, girls in the teen birth group were 5 percentage points less likely to have a baby themselves as a teen, compared to those in the miscarriage group. Sixteen of every 100 girls whose friend had a miscarriage had a teen childbirth themselves, whereas in (girls whose friends had babies) group, the number was lower, with only 11 girls having a teen birth, Yakusheva said. In 2000-2001 - the fifth year after the start of the study - girls whose friends had given birth had about 25 fewer sexual intercourse encounters, on average, than girls whose friends had miscarried. Odds of getting married before age 20 were about 6 percentage points lower for the teen birth group versus the miscarriage group. Moreover, women in the teen birth group were 8 percent more likely to complete a four-year degree. No long-term effects were found in income earnings, possibly because the college-educated women in the study were just starting out in their career, the study authors write. By having sex less frequently, teens were more successful at not getting pregnant. Stigma might be one reason why the teens who were friends with a teen mom chose not to get pregnant, said Jane Champion of the University of Texas at Austin, who was not involved with the study. Pregnant teens often drop out of school or go to alternative schools, which can have an impact on their social lives, said Champion, who specializes in behavioral intervention in teen pregnancy. Theyre often ostracized by their community and no longer accepted by their circle of friends, she said. That can be a huge wake up call for teens. Preventing early teen pregnancies is what matters, Yakusheva noted. What our work shows is that, in addition to teaching kids how not to become pregnant, we should also teach them why, she said. She recommends exposing teens to the realities of pregnancy. Kids have to see it for themselves, she said, not read it in books, not have an adult tell them, because thats already being done and it doesnt work very well. Mahouts bathe an elephant as Buddhist monks watch at a temple in Colombo on June 17. (Photo: AFP) Colombo: Expensive and high-maintenance, baby elephants have become the ultimate status symbol for Sri Lankas wealthy elite a trend that has horrified conservationists and prompted a government crackdown. Elephants are venerated in mainly Buddhist Sri Lanka and capturing them is illegal. Yet authorities say more than 40 have been stolen from national parks over the last decade and are being kept as pets. The new rich wannabes want an elephant at home for prestige, said Asian elephant expert Jayantha Jayewardene, recalling an old Sri Lankan aristocratic tradition of keeping herds of the wild beasts. This is for social climbing. Earlier this year, the gift of a baby elephant to visiting New Zealand Prime Minister John Key sparked anger from animal rights activists who said it was cruel to separate her from her family, and the incident has not been repeated. Worse, Jayewardene says elephants are almost certainly dying to fuel the illegal trade. The maternal instinct in elephants is very, very strong, he said. Poachers cant get at a baby without the mother putting up a fight, and it usually ends with the death of the mother. Guns are used to scare off the mothers, and sometimes to kill them, Jayewardene said. Elephant calves have also been known to be killed by the tranquilizer drugs used to make them more docile for capture. Pubudu Weerarathna, the head of the Species Conservation Center wildlife group, has been involved in a number of rescues and remembers one young elephant succumbing to an overdose of tranquilizers. Another story had a happier ending in 2014 he confronted a group of men transporting a baby elephant on the back of a tractor trailer near a wildlife park. The calf had been sedated, but it made a good recovery. Intentionally killing an elephant is considered such a serious crime in Sri Lanka it is punishable by death though no one has been prosecuted in decades. Two years ago a group of activists reported catching rustlers red-handed with a baby elephant, but no action was ever taken. In 2013, wildlife activists raised suspicions of a cover-up by some in the administration of former leader Mahinda Rajapakse after a registry of domesticated elephants disappeared. The document later re-appeared with entries doctored . The case is being investigated by police. Rustlers are prepared to take such risks because of the huge sums involved the Species Conservation Center says baby elephants sell for as much as $125,000. Some of the countrys most powerful have been implicated. In May, Judge Thilina Gamage was arrested following intense pressure from wildlife activists, who accused him of illegally keeping a baby elephant as a pet. He is now on bail awaiting trial, and has been suspended by the Judicial Service Commission. That followed the arrest in March of Buddhist monk Uduwe Dhammaloka for keeping a 2-year-old elephant at his temple in Colombo, though he says he was unaware he was acting illegally. I did not capture the elephant, it was left at my temple, he told the court during a preliminary hearing. I treated it like any cat or dog people leave at temples when they cant afford to feed those pets. Now out on bail, Dhammaloka faces charges of stealing state property, which carries a possible jail sentence of three years. Wildlife Minister Gamini Jayawickrama Perera has told parliament he is determined to stop the illegal trade. The government has stopped the tradition of gifting animals from its elephant orphanage in Pinnawala to Buddhist temples after activists raised concerns. But it faces pressure from the countrys top Buddhist temple, which says the crackdown on keeping the animals has created a shortage of tame elephants for its annual religious pageant. The chief custodian of the Temple of the Tooth Nilanga Dela said that at least 80 elephants are required for the event in the historic city of Kandy, in which relics said to be from the Buddha are paraded on the animals backs. We are facing a crisis situation, said Dela, who put the number of domesticated elephants at fewer than 125 though wildlife officials say the number is closer to 200. We may not get the elephants we need. Mosha, who weighed only 600 kg when she was given her first artificial limb, now weighs over 2,000 kg. (Credit: YouTube) Mosha the elephant, who stepped on a landmine along the Thai-Myanmar border 10 years ago, received her ninth prosthetic leg on Wednesday. Mosha was just seven months old when the accident happened and she was rushed to an elephant hospital run by the Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation in Lampang province in northern Thailand. Two years later, surgeon Therdchai Jivacate gave her a new leg and a new life. As she has grown, he has designed new, longer and stronger legs for her. "The way she walked was unbalanced and her spine was going to bend," Therdchai, 72, said of Mosha before receiving her latest leg. "She would have died." Mosha, who weighed only 600 kg when she was given her first artificial limb, now weighs over 2,000 kg. Founded in 1993, the Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation hospital was the world's first elephant hospital and currently has 17 patients. The Thai-Myanmar border is still dotted with landmines left over from clashes between ethnic-minority rebels and the Myanmar army dating back decades. Swathi was left bleeding to death on the railway platform with several cut injuries on her face and neck. (Photo: Facebook) Chennai: An engineering graduate was arrested in connection with the sensational murder of a 24-year-old woman IT professional at a railway station here last week and allegedly attempted suicide when surrounded by the police. Ram Kumar was apprehended on Friday in his native Tirunelveli district in south Tamil Nadu by police, which had been pulled by the Madras high court earlier over its handling of the case. He allegedly attempted suicide when police went to arrest him. He is undergoing treatment at a government hospital, police said. Kumar was staying near victim Swathi's residence in Choolaimedu area here and had stalked her for months before allegedly murdering her with a sickle at the Nungambakkam railway station on June 24, they said. Police late last night announced the arrest of the murder suspect, a native of Shencottah in Tirunelveli district. The motive of the killing was being investigated, police said. Swathi, employed with software giant Infosys, was hacked to death around 6.30 am on June 24 while waiting to board a train to her work place on the city outskirts. Pulling up the police for leaving her body for nearly two hours at the platform, the Madras high court had warned of suo motu intervention if there was slackness in the probe. The case was transferred from railway police to the city police, which formed several special teams for the probe headed by an assistant commissioner. With no CCTV camera in the railway station, police faced a tough job in obtaining clues and managed to get visuals of a man, suspected to be the assailant, from a CCTV installed at a house in the neighbourhood. They had also released the footage and also a sketch of the suspect. A report from Tirunelveli quoting a top official of the local Medical College Hospital, where Kumar is being treated, said he is out of danger. Hospital Dean Sithi Athyia Munavara told reporters that Kumar was brought with a bleeding injury in his neck and in a semi conscious state around 1.40 am. An emergency medical team immediately treated him and carried out a 45-minute long procedure at the operation theatre during which 16 stitches were made. The man was later shifted to a ward in "good condition" and doctors are treating him, she said. It would take seven days for the wound to heal and it would be difficult for him to speak for the next two days. Police said a special police team from Chennai along with local police personnel surrounded Ram Kumar's house in Meenakshipuram village late last night. On seeing the police personnel, the accused, who was sleeping in a shed in front of the house, ran inside and inflicted an injury in his throat region with a blade. Police rushed him to the government hospital in Tenkasi and after first aid shifted him to the Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital. Thane: A man allegedly threw his six-year-old step-daughter into a river in the district in a fit of rage, but the minor miraculously survived through the rainy night as she fell on water hyacinth floating on the water, before she was rescued by locals next morning, police said on Friday. The incident took place in the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday. The accused, Tulsiram Saini, 48-year-old man, had married the girl's mother and three of them lived at Lokmanya Nagar in Thane. On Wednesday night, following a dispute at home, the accused took Ekta along with him on motorcycle and pushed her into Ulhas river from a bridge at Badlapur in the district. Thinking that the girl has drowned, he escaped from the spot, police said. "However, the minor landed on the carpet of water hyacinth floating on the river water and hence was saved from drowning. But the girl remained on the hyacinth through the rainy night," said police inspector N M Satdive of Vartak Nagar police station. "The next morning, when the passersby spotted the girl after hearing her cries for help. The local people immediately called the fire brigade. Local people and fire brigade personnel then rescued the girl," he said. The minor, who suffered severe mosquito bites through the night, has been admitted to Thane Civil Hospital for treatment. The girl's mother had seen Saini taking the girl along with him on Wednesday night. However, since both of them did not return home, she filed a case of kidnapping against her husband, who is still at large. According to police, the couple used to quarrel frequently and the man wanted to get rid of the child and hence he threw her into the water. A manhunt has been launched to trace the accused and further probe is on. The police have registered a case of attempt to murder against the woman, and booked Manjhi for rape. (Photo: Representational Image) Bhopal: A 28-year-old woman tried to cut off the private parts of her ex-boyfriend, alleging that he had attempted to rape her, in Anuppur district of West Bengal on Friday. According to a report, Ajay Manjhi (32) knew the woman since the last 10 years, and the two were in a relationship though they were married to other people. On Friday, the woman called Ajay to pick her up from Kotma town. They travelled on a motorcycle. While they were passing a jungle, they got into an altercation following which the woman attacked Manjhi with a knife. She then went to Balumara police station and informed the cops about the attack claiming that the man had been raping her for several years. However, Manjhi claimed that the woman wanted to continue the relationship and attacked him after he refused to do so. The police have registered a case of attempt to murder against the woman, and booked Manjhi for rape. SP Anuppur, Anurag Sharma, was quoted as saying that Manjhis private parts have not been chopped off but are seriously injured. He has also sustained injuries on his chin and is in a serious condition. Chennai: The Madras high court has transferred to the CBI from CB-CID the investigation into the death of DSP Vishnupriya, who was found dead allegedly under mysterious circumstances on September 18, 2015 at her residence in Tiruchengode Taluk, Namakkal district. Allowing an appeal from M. Ravi, the father of Vishnupriya, challenging an order of a single judge, which refused to transfer the investigation of the case to the CBI, a division bench comprising Justices Huluvadi G Ramesh and M.V.Muralidaran directed the CBI to conduct investigation afresh and file a final report within three months. The bench directed the CB-CID, which was probing the case, to hand over the entire records pertaining to the case to the CBI. The details of the order were not made available as the order was not ready on Friday. Senior Counsel P.Wilson, appearing for the appellant submitted that the appellant's daughter Vishnupriya was found dead under mysterious circumstances and the death of his daughter was not known whether it was a homicide or suicide. However the conduct and circumstances which clearly nail the involvement of two senior police officers. Appellant's daughter was handling various sensitive cases apart from Gokul Raj murder case and she faced threats during her investigation in these cases. Appellant's daughter had confided these facts with his wife and despite his wife bringing it to the notice of the investigating officer, to his knowledge no enquiry was conducted relating to the same. Some of the sensitive cases handled by Vishnupriya were informed to the investigating officer. She was reprimanded by the SP for taking lawful action. This had led to confrontation with the SP, Wilson added. He said certain police officers who were colleagues and were working along with appellant's daughter had informed the appellant that they were fearing to depose against high level police officers as two police officers against whom serious allegations were made were still in the helm of affairs in the same jurisdiction. Since highly placed police officers, against whom allegations have been made were still functioning in the same jurisdiction, there were chances of their interfering with the investigation , tampering with witnesses and screening of the evidence. The investigation was found to be tainted with bias and was made only to protect and shied the real offenders. The transfer of investigation was imminent and necessary to discover the truth. The accusation being against state police, it would be desirable to transfer the investigation to CBI, he added. Chennai: There is now some light at the end of what seemed a blind alley in techie Swathi's murder at the Nungambakkam railway station. Teacher D. Tamilarasan, who told the police he witnessed the June 24 slaying from just 40 metres away on the railway platform, had also made a startling revelation - Swathi was slapped by a man in the first week of June at almost the same spot where she was killed. If this is true, it would not be difficult for the police to identify the man from the photographs of Swathi's friends and acquaintances with help from Tamilarasan and other witnesses. Tamilarasan also told the police - and later to some media persons too - that the man who had slapped Swathi seemed to be different from the one who hacked her to death. The 'slapper' was taller and fairer, said Tamilarasan, who teaches at a private college in Vandalur and uses the electric train to commute from his house in Choolaimedu near the Nungambakkam railway station to the place of work. Obviously, he had been seeing Swathi regularly at the station as she too lived in Choolaimedu. "We are verifying if the slapper is linked to the slayer. There is a strong possibility", said a police officer involved in the investigation of the sensational murder. He said the police was probing if the killer had been contracted for the gruesome job by the slapper who might have had some personal problem with the girl. "The problem could have been serious, otherwise why would he slap the girl in a crowded public place in broad daylight despite the risk of being challenged by the girl and pulled up by the onlookers on the train platform? And if he had hired a killer, he was willing to spend a lot of money on settling scores, assuming it was a revenge murder. Public display of such anger could sometimes mean breaking up of a relationship", said the officer, requesting anonymity. He said it was possible that the contract killer could be from outside Tamil Nadu, since the murder weapon was unusual and nowhere resembled the 'aruval' familiar in this part of the country. It had a long wooden handle fitted to a long iron blade with the end portion bent and sharp like the farm sickle. "It is a deadly piece; light enough for carrying and swinging, and heavy enough to cut deep. The victim was hacked from behind, giving her no time to react and the deep cut on the right side of the neck appears to have been fatal, delivered by a professional hand", the officer said. If the police investigators - there are ten teams working under the supervision of additional commissioner (south) K Shankar - think they have stumbled on a terrific lead, there is a small hitch as well. Swathi's sister has debunked the 'slap' claim by witness Tamilarasan, insisting that she was very close to her sister and she had seldom kept anything away from her. But Tamilararasan insists he is speaking the truth. "There were others on the platform who witnessed the slapping, not just me. And I am willing to come anywhere to testify", he told some media persons. Investigators are working round-the-clock to announce the cracking of the murder that has not just created media headlines but also caused huge embarrassment to the police and the government. The 'slap' lead could turn out to be critically vital as that might lead them to the 'motive' for the crime and its 'author' who could have engaged a contract killer to execute it. Or it may just be a flash that ended up in smoke. Ethnographer: People dont understand meaning of Vardavar The real rite of Vardavar today isnt maintained in Armenia, as people dont understand its meaning, says ethnographer Lusik Aguletsi. She doesnt admit that in other way Vardavar is called Jrotsi (feast of pouring water at one another), When they call it jrotsi, it turns into a game, but that feast isnt a game; that is a ceremony of being poured with divine water, it is the Feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus. The ethnographer tells that in the past during Vardavar lamb was slaughtered in the morning and then people went to church for mass, In the past the young, the elderly and the children knew what to do. Formerly during any rite each family member has his responsibility. If a daughter-in-law had no right to speak to her father-in-law, during this feast she could pour water at her father-in-law as a symbol of the day. Children should learn about rites at school, says Aguletsi and adds, But first of all the teachers should learn, examine them so that they can teach. According to Lusik Aguletsi, our church celebrates its holidays better than the people, Our people are rich in their culture, the church- in rites and spiritual world; we are not able to combine them. If we are able to combine them, we will become a spiritually rich nation. The proposed world class new capital Amaravati which is likely to select as Smart City by the Smart City Mission of the Union Government. (Photo: DC) Amaravati: The new capital Amaravati is in the race for Smart City. The CRDA sent proposals to Smart Cities Mission of the Union urban development department in this regard. Amaravati was primarily selected in the second phase of Smart City programme. The CRDA sent proposals of City Smart Vision-Targets, Area-Based Proposals and Pan City Solutions. Amaravati city will get Rs 500 crore funds if it is selected for Smart City project. The CRDA is hopeful about selection of Amaravati as Smart City and using the funds of Smart City Mission for its development. Union minister for urban development M. Venkaiah Naidu, during his recent visit to AP, had assured about working towards providing Smart City status to Amaravati. So, the government and the CRDA are hopeful of Amaravati getting Smart City status. The public who pooled their lands with the CRDA under Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) are happy over the submission of proposals for Smart City Challenge and are hoping getting the status. The CRDA officials said that Amaravati was included in the list of 11 new cities selected for participating in Stage-2 of the Smart Cities Challenge. The challenge requires that the competing cities have to identify and propose broadly three areas of smart development Citys Smart Vision-Goals, Area-Based proposal and Pan City solution. The officials explained that the area-based proposal would consist of plan to develop a contiguous area of minimum 250 acres into a fully Smart locality with efficient systems and services to the people who would reside in the area. Pan City solution consists of plan to develop a city wide infrastructure asset for efficient service delivery throughout the city. The CRDA officials said that based on public consultation and wishes, opinion from social media platforms like https://www.facebook.com/PrajaRajadhani and https://twitter.com/prajarajadhani, development of proposed government complex with state-of- the-art Smart features was selected as the important area-based proposal of the Smart City challenge. For the Pan City Solution, the water supply, flood management, employing smart technologies has been proposed. The total cost of the Smart Component of the proposal is estimated to be Rs 1,736 crore out of which, Rs 500 crore would be funded through Smart Cities Mission and AP government would support with a matching grant of Rs 500 crore. The balance funds would be sourced from other government schemes and funding agencies. Amaravati Development Authority chairman J. Veeranjaneyulu said that all the MPs, MLAs, ministers and leaders should lobby for Smart City status for Amaravati. He opined that the new capital is facing financial difficulties and selection of Smart City will be helpful for the construction of a world-class new capital according to the wishes of the public. She also forwarded her complaint to the Chief Minister Raman Singh, state women commission and national women commission demanding action against the police officer. (Photo: Representational Image) Raipur: A woman constable in a Chhattisgarh district accused the local inspector general of police (IGP) of sexually harassing her. The lady cop lodged a complaint with the Chakrabhatta police station in Bilaspur district along with audio clips in which the local IG, 1992 batch IPS officer Pawan Dev, was heard purportedly calling her on phone at unearthly hours asking her to visit him in his house. She released the audio clips before the media persons at Raipur in Chhattisgarh while she was going to meet the state director general of police (DGP) AN Upadhyay to seek justice. She also forwarded her complaint to the Chief Minister Raman Singh, state women commission and national women commission demanding action against the police officer. State women commission chairperson Harshita Pandey said she has ordered a probe into the matter. The police officer however dismissed the charges describing it as conspiracy against him. I had earlier ordered dismissal of an assistant sub-inspector of police (ASI) Ashish Wasnik. The woman constable who has hurled charges against me is close to him. Hence, a conspiracy was hatched to avenge the action taken by me against the ASI, he said. The audio clips purportedly recorded the police officers voice while he was calling the lady cop on her cell phone on the intervening night of June 17-18 when she was in Bilaspur town on VIP duty. In the complaint, she alleged that the police officer wanted her to be posted in the IG office. You are beautiful and you have a good figure. I have started liking you. I want you to be in IG office so that I can meet you daily, the police officer was quoted as saying by the complainant. (This story originally appeared in the Asian Age) Geeta will be invited by the railway ministry as a guest for the journey during which there will be an assistant and interpreter with her, says Vikas Swarup. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Government will arrange for Geeta, the deaf and mute girl who returned to India last October after accidentally landing in Pakistan several years ago, to undertake a train journey after the summer to help search her parents. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had initiated an effort in cooperation with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar under which Geeta's photograph was sent to all police stations in the state, after which some communications had come from there but the girl had rejected them seeing the photographs, MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. He said Geeta has suggested that she could travel to Bihar and Jharkhand by train so that she could identify her native place through rail stations as she remembers the station that was nearby to her residence. "The external affairs minister has taken up the issue with the railway minister and we expect that after this summer season, we will be able to arrange for her travel. We hope she will be invited by the railway ministry as a guest for the journey during which there will be an assistant and interpreter with her," the Spokesperson said. Meanwhile, he said Geeta was very happy in an Indore institution where she was learning skills to be self-reliant. "She is very happy with the skill development training," he said. A newly build apartment offering flats on rent on the main road to Velagapudi making good use of the demand for rented houses at Undavalli. (Photo: DC) Amaravati: The demand for rented houses in Mangalagiri, Undavalli, Velagapudi, Mandadam and other nearby areas increased largely in the past few days. The Secretariat employees are searching for rented houses and they are preferring nearby areas to Velagapudi. Many employees are preferring Mangalagiri due to good road and rail connectivity to go to Hyderabad and other areas. The house owners are hanging ToLet boards offering the vacant flats and houses on rent making good use of the dema-nd. Mangalagiri is situated 14 km away from Velagapudi and Undavalli is situated 10 km away from Velagapudi. Manga-lagiri and Undavalli are connected with Vijayawada-Chennai National Highway and Vijayawada-Guntur-Nadikudi-Secun-derabad, Vijayawada-Tenali-Chennai and Vijayawada-Markapu-ram-Tirupati-Bengaluru railway lines. Schools and colleges are available in Mangalagiri and for Undavalli, educational institutions are in nearby Vijayawada, a distance of 2 km. All the basic amenities are available in the two places. So, the government employees are giving first preference to Mangalagiri and Undavalli and then for Guntur and Vijayawada. Employees N. Sankar and others said that the rents at Mangalagiri are little less compared to Vijayawada and Guntur cities. They said that the rents are ranging from Rs 6,000 to Rs 12,000 at Guntur and Rs 7,000 to Rs 15,000 at Vijayawada according to the facilities, but the rents are lesser at Mangalagiri, ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000. So, they are searching for the rented house in and around Mangalagiri. Locals of Undavalli, J. Bhaskar Rao and others said that there is huge demand for apartments as the government employees are habituated to urban life and are preferring two/three bedroom flats. They stated that the flat owners are getting Rs 7,500 to Rs 12,000 per flat according to bedrooms and facilities. They rented houses and flats and everyday, they are seeing employees searching for rented houses. They expressed happiness that the shifting of the Secretariat employees increased demand for rented houses. Realtor and promoter K. Anjaneya Reddy said that farmers are constructing new portions in their big houses and giving them to the government employees for rent. He added that this is giving extra income to the locals and fulfilling the needs of Secretariat employees who have shited from Hyderabad. CHENNAI: The Madras high court has declined to transfer Gokul Raj murder case from CB-CID to CBI. Closing a petition from Chitra, mother of Gokul Raj, which sought to transfer investigation into the murder of Gokul Raj from CB-CID to the central agency, Justice P.N. Prakash said, "This court finds that the CB-CID has proceeded with the investigation in the right lines and therefore, there is no necessity to transfer the case to the CBI". The judge said, "Today, the matter is specifically posted for orders. On account of boycott of courts, there is no representation on the side of the petitioner. However, in Harish Uppal Vs Union of India, the Supreme Court has held that boycott of courts is illegal and therefore, this court heard the Additional public prosecutor, went through the records and passed the order". It was the case of the petitioner that her son Gokul Raj was brutally murdered by one Yuvaraj and other henchmen on June 23, 2015. The petitioner's son went missing pursuant to which, a case in Thiruchengode police station was registered initially on June 24, last year. Thereafter, the dead body was found between Erode and Aanangoor, in which a case was registered by Erode Railway police. Thereafter the case was altered to an offence under section 302 IPC on July 1. On the orders of DGP, on September 19, 2015, the case was transferred to CB-CID, Namakkal and investigation was conducted by ADSP of the agency, Coimbatore. While so, the petitioner filed the present petition for transferring investigation to CBI on the ground that the accused Yuvaraj was threatening Vishnu Priya, DSP, who later was said to have committed suicide. It was further alleged that Yuvaraj was influential in the locality and was scuttling investigation, the judge added. The judge said it was seen that the test identification parade was conducted for identification of accused Kumar and Yuvaraj. The JM-II has also recorded the statements of several crucial witnesses. Thereafter, the ADSP has completed investigation and has filed a final report, which was taken on file on February 3, 2016 for offences under various provisions of IPC against 17 accused, the judge said. The judge said, "This court carefully perused the final report and the accompanying documents, including the case diary, and found that there is no serious infirmity in investigation. It is seen that the main witness is Swathi and her statement under section 164 Cr.P.C has also been recorded by the Judicial Magistrate-II, Namakkal. Under such circumstances, this court does not find any serious infirmity warranting transfer of the case from CB-CID to CBI, as prayed for by the petitioner". CHENNAI: Pointing out that Palar is an inter-state river and unilateral constructions across it cannot be accepted, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J Jayalalithaa, on Friday asked her Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu not to go ahead with increasing the height of a check dam across the river that flows in both states. Ms Jayalalithaa brought to his notice in a letter that the work of increasing the height of a check dam from the existing height of to 12 ft. across Palar river at Perumballam village, in Chittoor District near the Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border by Andhra Pradeshs irrigation department is unacceptable to TN. Palar is already deficit with water supply and supports an ayacut of about 4.20 lakh acres in Tamil Nadu, the Chief Minister said, adding that farmers in the northern districts of Tamil Nadu solely depend upon this river for irrigation. The Palar river with its sand strata is the only major source for drinking water supply to several towns and villages in the Northern districts of Tamil Nadu. Further, water from Palar is also supplied to the atomic power station at Kalpakkam, she said in her letter. She also pointed out that as per clause II of the Madras-Mysore Agreement, 1892, the upstream State should not, without the previous consent of the downstream State of TN, build any anaicut or any structure to obstruct, divert or store the waters of the river across any part of the 15 main rivers. In the circumstances, the Government of Tamil Nadu lodges its strong protest against the action of the Government of Andhra Pradesh in having unilaterally increased the height of the existing check dam at Perumballam village, Kuppam Revenue Mandal in Chithoor District, in violation of the Madras-Mysore Agreement, 1892, she said. She asked Mr Naidu to immediately intervene in the matter and issue instructions to the officials concerned to take urgent steps to reduce the level of the check dam to its original level and not to store water additionally and ensure the natural flows to TN. New Delhi: India will impress upon China, which had torpedoed its NSG membership bid at the Seoul plenary, that taking care of each other's "interests and priorities" was the basis for forward movement in bilateral ties. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup also dismissed suggestions that India, which has become a full member of Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) earlier this week, will block China's entry into the 35-nation grouping as a quid pro quo. In an oblique reference to China, he said only "one country" opposed India's bid while some other nations raised "process-related" issues which did not mean that they were against India. They just had a different solution about India's entry into NSG, he added. However, he said India would continue "impress upon that country that a relationship moves forward on the basis of mutual accommodation of each other's interests, concerns and priority. This is a matter (NSG membership) which we have been discussing and we will continue to discuss because it is an important priority for India." He also said that India's objective is to enlarge areas of convergence and reduce area of divergence. Asked if India, which has become a full member of MTCR earlier this week, will block China's entry into the 35-nation grouping as quid pro quo, Swarup said India does not believe in such "deal making" approach. Asserting that India granted the membership based on its impeccable non-proliferation record, he said any other country's application will also be assessed on its own merits. He said India's MTCR membership is expected to facilitate high technology tie-ups with Indian industry and ease access to high-tech items for our space and defence programmes. "While membership of the regime would not automatically entail any preferential treatment from other MTCR Partners, it would create the grounds for realignment of India in the export control policy framework of other MTCR Partners," he said, asserting that membership of MTCR will not pose any restrictions on our national security programmes. Further, India has formal space cooperation with 35 countries including several MTCR Partners even prior to joining the MTCR and in the coming days, India can be expected to play an even bigger role as a provider of space applications to the global community, he added. Supreme Court had deprecated the practice of educational institutions admitting the students without requisite recognition or affiliation. New Delhi: Private colleges cannot admit students to various courses awaiting affiliation from the university concerned and putting the career of students in jeopardy, the Supreme Court has held. Giving this ruling a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh said this kind of admitting students pending affiliation has become a disease, and when the conduct becomes a disaster, it is a disastrous phenomenon. Time and again, this Court had deprecated the practice of educational institutions admitting the students without requisite recognition or affiliation. Writing the judgment Justice Misra said in all such cases the usual plea is the career of innocent students who have fallen in the hands of the mischievous authorities. Though the ultimate victims are innocent students that cannot be a ground for granting relief to the college. After half the pyre had burnt, the family members and other left the cremation ground for other rituals. (Representationla image) Jaipur: A mentally disturbed woman allegedly committed suicide by jumping into his burning pyre in Dungarpur district of Rajasthan. According to the police, Durga (28), a mother of three, was living with her brother Velaram Manat (35) for the last two to three years. Her husband refused to take her back after she was diagnosed with the psychiatric problem, the police said. Velaram was returning from Dungarpur city to his village, Satirampur, when he met with an accident in front of the Dungarpur railway station, he died on the spot. But, the body could be identified on Friday and was handed over to his family was the postmortem. They took it for cremation, about half a kilometer from their house. After half the pyre had burnt, the family members and other left the cremation ground for other rituals. During this time, the woman reached the cremation ground where the pyre was still burning and reportedly jumped into it. A man spotted her and informed the family members, police said, adding by the time her family members reached the spot, she had died. When we reached, her body was mostly burnt, said Vinod Kumar Laxkar, SHO of Dungarpur Sadar police station. Bengaluru: In a subtle warning to former ministers rebelling against being dropped from the Cabinet during the recent reshuffle, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president, Dr G. Parameshwar on Friday stressed there were limits to such expressions of discontent. It is natural for such heartburn (among some ministers) after a Cabinet reshuffle. But there is a limit to how far they can go in expressing their displeasure. The Congress is a national party and no one should cross the line in matters of discipline, he underlined, speaking to reporters here. Noting that the Chief Minister had tried to talk to the disgruntled leaders, he said he too intended to speak to senior leaders like Mr Srinivasprasad and Mr Ambarish, who had raised the flag of dissidence after being dropped from the Cabinet. I am confident that things will settle down soon in the party. The Cabinet was reshuffled on the orders of the party high command and according to the wishes of Congress president, Sonia Gandhi and vice president, Rahul Gandhi," he said, assuring, I will personally talk to Mr Srinivas Prasad and Mr Ambarish. Even when touring abroad, I spoke to them over the telephone." Asked if Mr Prasad was dropped because he was considered inefficient, Dr Parameshwar replied in the negative. Mr Prasad is our senior most leader and is most efficient. There is no question of anyone being dropped for inefficiency. There are compulsions and there was a need to accommodate a few people in the Cabinet. The CM, in consultation with the high command, acted accordingly, he said. Refusing to comment on Mr Prasads statement that Congress Parliamentary Party leader, Mallikarjun Kharge, had sacrificed the interests of the party to promote his son, he observed that Both are tall leaders of our party. Miffed Ambareesh: Wont issue statement backing Siddaramaiah The Congress partys efforts to make Mandya strongman and former housing minister, M.H. Ambareesh fall in line, seem to have failed. Hectic parleys initiated by All India Congress Committee secretary (Karnataka in-charge), Dr A. Chellakumar in the last two days, to make Mr Ambareesh hold a press conference and announce his support for Mr Siddaramaiah, did not yield results with Dr Kumar forced to return empty handed. M.H. Ambareesh Mr Ambareesh had hit out at the Chief Minister after he was dropped from the Siddaramaiah ministry during the recent reshuffle. He had even declared that he was resigning his MLA seat and had submitted his resignation from the House. His exit had lead to widespread dissatisfaction in the Vokkaliga community as he was one of the few ministers from the community. Sources said that Dr Kumar tried to pacify Mr Ambareesh, who was dropped during the recent reshuffle, by offering him party posts but the actor-politician refused to accept any of them. Mr Ambareesh also politely declined Dr Kumars request to praise the leadership of Mr Siddaramaiah as part of the party strategy. Instead, he told Dr Kumar that the Chief Minister should hold a press conference and praise him after which he would consider the request put forth by Dr Kumar. The Mandya strongman, who once served as Union minister, neither disclosed his future plans nor responded to Dr Kumars suggestions, the sources added. Edward Nalbandian on the results of the meeting with Foreign Minister of Tajikistan (video) Press statement of Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian on the results of the meeting with Foreign Minister of Tajikistan Sirodjidin Aslov Dear friends, I am glad to welcome in Yerevan my good friend and colleague, Foreign Minister of Tajikistan Sirodjidin Aslov, who is paying an official visit to Armenia. Relations between Armenia and Tajikistan are based on centuries-old mutual respect and sympathy between our peoples, which has served as a basis for the establishment of friendly relations between our states since the independence. Arrangement on undertaking practical steps to give a new dynamics and substance to bilateral relations was reached during the meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Tajikistan, Serzh Sargsyan and Emomali Rahmon, respectively, on September 14, 2015, in Dushanbe. Hence, within this context we value Mr. Aslovs visit the first visit of the Foreign Minister of Tajikistan to Armenia, as well as the recent accreditation of the first Ambassador of Tajikistan to Armenia. My colleague and I discussed in details the preparatory works of forthcoming visit of the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon to Armenia, which is scheduled for Autumn, and issues on the expansion of cooperation between Armenia and Tajikistan in bilateral and multilateral frameworks. Particularly, we exchanged thoughts on the development of cooperation in political, economic, cultural and educational fields, as well as the possibilities of implementing mutually beneficial projects. We attached importance to the holding of regular consultations between the Foreign Ministries of the two countries, the enhancement of cooperation within international organizations and the expansion of legal framework. In this regard, we highly value todays signing of 2016-2018 Program of Consultations between the MFAs of two countries. The Armenia-Tajikistan Inter-Governmental Committee operates since 2004, and the issue of intensifying the Committees activity was also on the agenda of our meeting. We expect the next session of the Committee to be held in the near future. Mr. Aslov and I exchanged thoughts on ways to promote the trade and economic cooperation between our countries. We emphasized the importance of parliamentary format of cooperation. The representatives of our legislative bodies actively cooperate, particularly within the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly. As you know, in two days Yerevan will host the session of Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. In this context, I would like to express gratitude to our Tajik partners for support to the implementation of priorities of the Armenian Chairmanship in the CSTO. I presented to Mr. Aslov efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs for the creation of relevant conditions for the resumption of negotiations on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, steps undertaken towards the implementation of arrangements reached at Summits in Vienna and St. Petersburg. In this regard, I would add that we value Tajikistans balanced stance in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue and its support to the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. Since the Oped page of The Asian Age allows for a democratic dialogue, I thought I would pen a rejoinder to Padma Rao Sundarjis article, NSG: Its no failure, published yesterday in the newspaper. The making of foreign policy is a continuum. It should not, normally, be the subject of partisan political divide where acrimony substitutes reasoned discussion and name-calling replaces rational debate. But democratic nations can, and must, analyse the direction and substance of the countrys foreign policy and provide more that one perspective to any initiative. Should India attempt to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group? The answer, to my mind, is a conditional yes. Was Indias recent bid to become a member the right way to pursue this goal? The answer, in my view, is a categorical no. Why do I say so? If membership of the NSG was likely to come Indias way on the basis of an objective assessment preceded by hardnosed backroom diplomacy, Prime Minister Narendra Modis frenetic trip around the world, pleading at the chancelleries of countries like Ireland, Mexico and Switzerland would have been worth the effort. But if such an outcome was ab initio substantially in doubt, what compelled our PM to act as though NSG membership was, at this juncture, a matter of utmost national prestige? After all, the NSG waiver provided to India in 2008 following the signing of the Civil Nuclear Agreement with the United States, allows us to participate in trade in civilian nuclear technology and equipment even though all our nuclear facilities are not under nuclear safeguards. A hurriedly planned bid, where success was far from ensured, has another flip side: Endangering the benefits already obtained under the earlier waiver by pushing NSG countries to revisit the criteria adopted to make this exception to India in 2008. Considering how we went about the NSG merry-go-around, I have serious reservations on the timing, the assumptions, and the methodology. The timing was wrong because nothing indicated that China would play ball or sever its collusion with Pakistan. Whatever the velocity of the swinging jhoola on which Mr Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping enjoyed a view of the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad, in September 2014, our recent relations with China have been far from zingy. While Mr Xi was still our guest in India, we witnessed one of the biggest Chinese invasions into our territory. China still persists with stapled visas for people from Arunachal Pradesh. It blocks action at the UN against dreaded terrorists like Masood Azhar. And, it persists with its massive investments in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), both in infrastructure and in building the one belt, one road project through PoK to Gwadar port. Then why did we think that China would accede to Indias request for NSG membership when Pakistan was vociferously opposing such a move and wanted the same membership for itself? The assumption that the US would swing the deal in our favour was equally flawed. During US President Barack Obamas visit to India in January 2015, Mr Modi may have affectionately addressed him by his first name, Barack, a record 19 times during a half an hour interaction, but this should not have prevented our esteemed PM from realising that Mr Obama is in the last few months of his presidency. There are limitations to what a lame duck President can do, and it certainly does appear that Mr Obamas exertions in our interest were far less than those of George W. Bush in 2008. Goodwill apart, smart nations make a coldly clinical assessment of the potency of a countrys intervention in their favour. Did Mr Modis exuberance about his so-called personal rapport with Barack influence our foreign office to believe what the US could do for us on NSG? The assumption that China will be isolated in its opposition to us was also wrong. As many as seven (nine according to China) countries of the 48-member group expressed reservations on our candidature, including countries like Switzerland that Mr Modi had just visited. The NSG is a club. It has its rules for membership, one of which is that a country must be a signatory to the discriminatory Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Since there is no question of India signing it, our application required members to re-examine the criteria for membership and devise an exception for India that would keep Pakistan out. Achieving such an outcome required months of quiet backroom diplomacy. Did this precede our Prime Ministers last minute and hurried summitry? From the evidence available, it would appear not. And, this brings me to the question of methodology. Judged by the number of visits he has made abroad, Mr Modi has shown unprecedented activism in foreign policy. But is mere activism a substitute for careful, calibrated strategic planning? However much the adulation our Prime Minister may have received abroad in NRI forums, ultimately, foreign policy cannot be an event management exercise and has to be judged by results, not the pageantry, pomp and frequency of visits abroad. In the specific case of the NSG imbroglio, no country would normally put its Prime Minister forward before ensuring that the outcome is commensurate with this exposure. I do not believe that India needs to kow tow before China. Other countries respect those countries that respect themselves and if China resents our growing closeness to the US and Japan, calling us spoiled a golden boy in the eyes of the West international adulation of India makes the country a bit smug in international affairs so be it. But if India wants to look China in the eye (aankh mein aankh dal kar baat karna, as Mr Modi put it in his first interview to a TV channel recently), then let us do it with better strategic planning and anticipation. At present, far from isolating China, we have isolated ourselves. More worryingly, we may have just opened up the way for Pakistans entry into the NSG. This was a risk we need not have invited since there was no immediate hurry for this unprepared bid for our own membership. And, finally, as Shyam Saran has warned, I do hope that what we have done now does not prompt NSG to revisit the terms and conditions of the India-specific 2008 waiver. The appointment of senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kamal Nath as general secretaries has resulted in fresh allocation of rooms at the Congress headquarters. This is touchy as a leaders standing in the pecking order is determined by the office space s/he occupies. Since it is the norm to accommodate the seniors in the main office building, Congress general secretary Mukul Wasniks room has been allotted to Mr Azad while Mr Nath has been given the room occupied by the partys communications department chief Randeep Singh Surjewala who has been moved to a room in the rear. While the scramble for rooms continues, nobody is able to understand how Mr Wasnik, who never visits the party headquarters and is perceived to be the most lackadaisical general secretary, has been housed in a set of four rooms in the main building, once occupied by the all-powerful Congress presidents political secretary Ahmed Patel. This obviously means Mr Wasnik continues to be the leaderships favourite despite his failures. Meanwhile, the relatively junior party secretary Asha Kumari, who was recently given charge of Punjab, got carried away by her new appointment and wanted Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmeds spacious room. When her request was turned down, she argued that she needed a large room since Punjab was an important state and it was imperative to win the Assembly election. Unmoved by her request, party treasurer Motilal Vora told her, If you want to win Punjab, camp in Chandigarh. When MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan declared his intention to create an Anand Mantralaya or happiness ministry way back in March, several ministers in his government notably Yashodhra Raje and Maya Singh set their eyes on this unusual portfolio. They were particularly keen to take on this assignment as it was perceived as a novelty. More importantly, all the popular welfare schemes like Kanyadan Yojana, Teerth Darshan and Ladli Laxmi are expected to be administered by the new ministry, which will automatically make the minister the face of populist programmes. However, they could be in for a disappointment as Mr Chouhan has been advised by his aides to head the ministry himself, since the welfare programmes were initiated at his behest and the creation of a Happiness ministry was his brainchild. Having to live in the shadow of charismatic Prime Minister Modi, Mr Chouhan is constantly thinking of new and ways to establish his popularity. He wants to be the first minister to head the countrys first Happiness ministry. The Presidential election is not due till next July, but the RSS is learnt to have started shortlisting possible candidates. It is said to be keen on RSS loyalist Murli Manohar Joshi and has apparently sought feedback from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. The Prime Minister will not be happy with this choice as Mr Joshi, along with senior leaders L.K. Advani and Yashwant Sinha, has publicly criticised the Modi government on several occasions though he has maintained a low profile for some time now. While the race for Rashtrapati Bhavan is going to heat up in the coming months, President Pranab Mukherjee, who completes four years in office on July 25, is oblivious to the swirling speculation about his successor. He is now planning a three-day sojourn in Darjeeling at the insistence of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee who is planning to join Mr Mukherjee on this holiday. The iftar party hosted by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav last week was attended by a host of Opposition leaders, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi. While attendance by leaders from the Congress and Left parties was expected, the presence of minister of state for parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi as the sole representative of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, created a buzz at the party. Mr Naqvi usually seeks to play down his Muslim identity and goes out of his way to speak out on his partys pet subjects like love jihad and the beef ban. Nobody can forget his public outburst when he angrily declared that those who wish to eat beef should go to Pakistan. But Mr Naqvi was seen in a new avatar at the iftar party as he appeared eager to highlight his minority status. He even donned the traditional Muslim skull cap nobody can forget how Prime Minister Narendra Modi had once refused to do so. Maybe this change of heart has something to do with the widespread speculation that he could be given charge of the minority affairs ministry in place of Najma Heptulla in the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle. Dr S. Christopher, secretary, department of defence R&D, MoD, New Delhi, says that homegrown fighter jet Tejas is not only combat-ready, but future-ready. In an interview to B.R. Srikanth, Dr Christopher attributes the cost and time overruns to indigenous development of several cutting-edge technologies, the role of one too many inspection and certification agencies, and an unrealistic delivery schedule set by the Defence Research and Development Organisation. Excerpts: What is the significance of commissioning of the first squadron of Tejas combat jets by the IAF? We are very happy that our aircraft has been accepted by the IAF, and this gives us the confidence and encouragement to design more modern aircraft. It (Tejas) is not only combat-ready, but future-ready. The IAF is happy because we have told them that it will match parameters of initial operational clearance (IOC). We will work with pilots of the Air Force to improve the capabilities of this aircraft further based on their feedback. The active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar is being developed by Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE), Bengaluru, and the beyond visual range (BVR) missile will be integrated without further delay because the aircraft has been configured for this missile. We are happy as the efforts of my predecessors, beginning with Dr V.S. Arunachalam, have been recognised by top leaders and we will continue to do our best for the IAF. Tejas is the best example of the catchphrase design in India and Made in India. But the project has missed many deadlines. Tejas ought to have been delivered to the IAF earlier? Of course, we own responsibility for the delay, but first, we inadvertently promised an early delivery date without realising that we had to develop technologies and design the fighter simultaneously. We also had to get approvals from one too many inspection and certification agencies, but in reality it took us 23 years from the time the project was formally approved in 1993, and it is on par with the time taken for design and development across the world. Even in the case of advanced version of airborne warning and control system (AWACS) of the US, there were delays. In the case of our airborne early warning (AEW), for which we acquired Embraer aircraft from Brazil, the agency within the aerospace company issues a certificate for the first flight, but in our country we have to wait for inspection and approval from many agencies before we fly the first sortie. So going forward we will ensure that we do not repeat these mistakes and also adopt the model in vogue now across the world to constantly update and make changes to the aircraft required by the IAF so that the jet is future ready. Nobody, however, acknowledges that we took only nine years to design and fly the naval variant of Tejas. For the next project, we will have the technology ready and then design the aircraft. Was IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Rahas decision to test fly Tejas a turning point in formation of the first squadron? Yes, two deputy chiefs of the IAF had flown Tejas earlier, but after Air Chief Marshal Raha flew and made a very positive statement about the feel and capabilities, the Air Force decided it was time to commission the first squadron. So, his flight was certainly the turning point. The credit must go to defence minister Manohar Parrikar who has been giving us advise and care, which proved an enormous push to formation of the squadron. Will it be possible to meet all combat parameters set by the IAF and deliver the remaining jets on time? The IAF will demand the best, and we will meet the challenge in terms of modern technology and systems. Besides, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is ready to source big systems rather then components from private industries to meet the delivery schedule and later set up an additional production line to match the orders of the IAF. We will complete modifications for air-to-air refuelling, improve the accuracy of weapons, and firing of guns and missiles to meet the requirements set for final operational clearance (FOC) by March 2017. With the lessons learnt so far and the confidence gained in the Tejas project, will the DRDO design another combat aircraft? Yes, we are not going to rest on our laurels. The Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) will be our next mission. The defence minister has approved it in principle. A twin-engine fighter jet with stealth technology but slightly lesser in weight than the US F-35, AMCA will be designed and manufactured for use after 2020. We have already carried out an analysis on the gap in technologies so that we do not end up repeating the mistakes committed while working on Tejas, and also have a clear idea of how our industries could provide advanced systems, subassemblies and components. The IAF has to take a call on whether the engines should be developed here for AMCA or import ones which meet the requirements for this advanced combat aircraft. Meanwhile, discussions are also on with potential collaborators for design and manufacture of these engines in the country. Apple's entry into the field sparked concerns from music streaming companies such as Spotify, which have argued that the 30 percent cut Apple takes of subscriptions in its App Store give its own service an unfair advantage Apple fought back on Friday against Spotify's claims that the US tech giant had hampered competition in music streaming by rejecting an update to the Swedish service's iPhone app. The two companies have gone head to head in the battle for music streaming customers since Apple Music was launched in more than 100 countries last year. Apple's entry into the field sparked concerns from music streaming companies such as Spotify, which have argued that the 30 percent cut Apple takes of subscriptions in its App Store give its own service an unfair advantage. Spotify General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez reiterated those concerns in a letter to Apple first reported on Thursday as he protested the rejection of the latest version of the Spotify app. But Apple General Counsel Bruce Sewell countered that the company deserves a cut of transactions in the App Store for its work operating the marketplace, according to a copy of a letter to Gutierrez seen by Reuters. Sewell insisted that Apple was treating Spotify as it would any other app maker, in keeping with antitrust law. We understand that you want special treatment and protections from competition, but we simply will not do that because we firmly adhere to the principle of treating all developers fairly and equitably, Sewell wrote. Gutierrez claimed Apple's rejection of Spotify's app raised serious concerns under competition law in the United States and Europe and the move was causing grave harm to Spotify and its customers, according to technology publication Recode. A Spotify spokeswoman confirmed the accuracy of the report. A spokesman for Apple declined to comment. Launched a decade ago, Spotify is the world's biggest paid music streaming service with about 30 million paying users in 59 markets while Apple Music has some 13 million. Companies such as Spotify have sought to sidestep Apple's App Store cut by encouraging consumers to sign up for their services online. Apple forbids developers from promoting alternative payment methods within their apps. In late May, Spotify submitted a version of its app that removed the in-app purchase feature, which triggers Apple's cut, and included an account sign-up feature that violated Apple's rules, Sewell wrote. Apple rejected the app and asked Spotify to submit again, but the new version had the same problems, Sewell said. Music streaming is a crowded field. Alphabet's Google Music and YouTube also compete with Spotify and Apple Music to attract users prepared to pay for music, as does Pandora Media Inc and rapper Jay Z's Tidal. Amazon.com is also preparing a standalone streaming service, sources told. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Last year Ross copyrighted his concept drawings, and his lawsuit contends that Apple products and packaging violate that copyright and his intellectual property. San Francisco: A Florida man who claims Apple made a killing with his iPhone idea is suing the technology giant seeking billions of dollars. A lawsuit filed in a federal court in Florida this week by Thomas Ross argued that Apple "hijacked and exploited" a design he came up with in 1992 for an "electronic reading device." He is demanding damages of no less than $11 billion and another $10 billion in restitution, as well as at least 1.5 percent of Apple's worldwide gross sales going forward "as a reasonable royalty," according to the complaint. Ross, who is representing himself in the suit, outlined his vision in several diagrams. He used the drawings in a patent application that the US Patent and Trade Office declared abandoned in 1995 for failure to pay required fees. Last year Ross copyrighted his concept drawings, and his lawsuit contends that Apple products and packaging violate that copyright and his intellectual property. In court paperwork, Ross accused Apple of adopting a culture of "dumpster diving" instead of creating its own ideas and argued that the invention pictured in his abandoned patent application was "sucked into" the company's product line in a move he equated with identity theft. Apple launched the iPod MP3 player in 2001, and the first iPhone was introduced six years later. Ross said in the filing that Apple did not comply with a cease-and-desist order he sent the company. Apple hasnt made any comment, but the California company was quoted in media reports as saying that the suit is without merit. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. The ruling came after religious leaders, including an Episcopal priest and a Jewish rabbi, last week testified that the law did not reflect their religious views. (Photo: file) Washington: A federal judge has blocked a Mississippi law intended to allow people who object on religious grounds to refuse wedding and other services to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. US District Judge Carlton Reeves, in a ruling late on Thursday, said that the wide-ranging law adopted this spring unconstitutionally allowed "arbitrary discrimination" against the LGBT community, unmarried people and others who do not share such views. "The state has put its thumb on the scale to favour some religious beliefs over others," wrote Reeves, who issued a preliminary injunction halting the law that was to take effect on Friday. Mississippi is among a handful of southern US states on the front lines of legal battles over equality, privacy and religious freedom after the US Supreme Court last year legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states. Mississippi's "Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act" sought to shield those who believe that marriage involves a man and a woman and that sexual relations should occur within such marriages. The law also protected the belief that gender is defined by sex at birth. By citing those three religious grounds, the law would have allowed people to refuse to provide a wide range of services, from baking a wedding cake for a same-sex couple to counseling and fertility services. It also permitted dress code and bathroom restrictions to be imposed on transgender people. Reeves, a judge in US District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, said the law violated the guarantee of religious neutrality and the promise of equal protection under the law by granting special rights to citizens holding certain beliefs. The law "favors Southern Baptist over Unitarian doctrine, Catholic over Episcopalian doctrine, and Orthodox Judaism over Reform Judaism doctrine," he said. Legal battle continues Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, a Republican, signed the measure into law in April. The state has defended it as a reasonable accommodation intended to protect businesses and individuals seeking to exercise their religious views. "I look forward to an aggressive appeal," the governor said in a statement on Friday. But state Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat named as a defendant in the lawsuit, issued a strongly worded statement in which he said he would have to "think long and hard" about whether to spend taxpayer money on an appeal. "The fact is that the church-going public was duped," Hood said, noting that Mississippi already has a law to protect those seeking to exercise religious freedoms. "There will be a case in the future in which the US Supreme Court will better define our religious rights," he added. "This case, however, is not that vehicle." An appeal would bring the case before the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, said Roberta Kaplan, an attorney for the Campaign for Southern Equality, one of the plaintiffs. Critics say the Mississippi law is so broad that it could apply to nearly anyone in a sexual relationship outside of heterosexual marriage, including single mothers. Several legal challenges were filed against various aspects of the law. Earlier this week, Reeves addressed a provision allowing clerks to recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples based on religious beliefs, saying they had to fulfill their duties under the Supreme Court ruling. His ruling on Thursday came after religious leaders, including an Episcopal priest and a Jewish rabbi, last week testified that the law did not reflect their religious views. The judge also heard about its harmful potential from members of the gay community. "As a member of the LGBT community and as minister of the Gospel, I am thankful that justice prevailed," said plaintiff Susan Hrostowski, an Episcopal priest. Bill Shorten, still out on the hustings, meeting with voters and eating a sausage. (Photo: AP) Sydney: The Australian election is on a knife-edge, but there is one concept uniting voters -- the prospect of a sizzling sausage sandwich at the polling station on Saturday. With voting compulsory in Australia, schools and church halls throw open their doors for the ballot boxes on polling day -- providing a willing market for those looking for a snack. Such is the importance of the humble "snag", in the 24 hours leading up to the polls, Twitter changed its emoji for #ausvotes from a ballot box to a sausage lying on a slice of white bread topped with sauce. "I came for the sausage and bacon and egg," joked Jaice Pardy, as he tucked into a fresh sandwich for breakfast at a polling station in the Sydney beach suburb of Coogee. Elections in Australia are held on Saturdays, meaning voters generally have time to indulge in a treat after voting rather than having to rush off to work. "Australian democracy is not complete without the aromas of the sausage sizzle," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said as he voted near his upmarket Sydney home, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Juliana Vera agreed that the sausage sizzle was part of the nation's voting tradition. "It gives you something to look forward to," she said after casting her vote in the election which follows a protracted and lacklustre eight-week campaign. The website Snagvotes, which was set up to track the location of sausage sizzles, cake stalls and other fundraising activities at polling stations, has registered a record number of food stalls for the 2016 election. At the last election in 2013, Snagvotes noted 1,470 sausage and cake counters (19 percent of all polling booths) but by Saturday morning there were at least 1,790 serving the voting public. "The underlying aim of Snagvotes is to celebrate our democracy and support the hard working volunteers who run sausage sizzles and stalls on election day," said creator Grant Castner. "For many it's the biggest fundraising day of the year." Some stalls offer gourmet sausages, others have vegetarian options or coffee. And for many the choice is much simpler than deciding how to vote given there are dozens of parties to choose from on the ballot papers. "The big choice -- tomato sauce or bbq sauce? Onions or no? Sausage or hamburger? I love democracy!," tweeted Andrew Hogan. Nearly 2,900 migrants have died trying to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea. (Photo: AP) London: Nearly 2,900 migrants have died trying to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea, making the first six months of 2016 the deadliest on record, according to figures published on Friday by an international migration group. Between the months of January and June, there were 2,899 recorded deaths at sea, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported, around a 50 percent increase in the number of deaths when compared with the same period in 2015, when 1,838 migrants went missing or drowned at sea. In 2014, there were 743 deaths at sea by mid-year. "We've had almost 3,000 people dead which is really alarming," said Joel Millman, spokesman for the IOM. "Europe has done a remarkable job, they've saved thousands of lives this year alone. But almost 3,000 people dead means they're not doing everything that needs to be done." Millman said he was not expecting migrant arrivals to decrease as insecurity in Libya, Syria and other war-torn countries is not likely to improve in the coming months. In first six months of this year, 225,665 migrants arrived in Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Spain by sea, with the central Mediterranean route to Italy claiming the most lives, accounting for nearly 2,500 deaths. This time last year, the number of arrivals by sea was just over 146,000, the IOM said. On Thursday, 10 women died in a sinking rubber boat off the coast of Libya and an Italian ship rescued hundreds of other migrants, the Italian coastguard said. The latest deaths came as Italy raised the wreck of a fishing boat that sank in April last year. The disaster is feared to have killed up to 800 people, making it one of the deadliest shipwrecks in decades of seaborne migration from North Africa towards Europe. Baghdad: The Pentagon says two senior Islamic State group commanders were killed in a U.S. airstrike in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on June 25. In a statement late on Thursday, the Pentagon said that the strike killed IS's deputy war minister, Basim Muhammad Ahmad Sultan al-Bajari, and a military commander named Hatim Talib al-Hamduni. The announcement comes less than a week after Iraqi ground forces backed by coalition airstrikes retook the city of Fallujah from IS. The fall of Fallujah means that Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, is IS's only remaining urban stronghold in Iraq. IS has suffered a string of territorial losses in Iraq but the group continues to carry out large-scale militant attacks in the capital, Baghdad, and other territory far from the front lines. Gunmen stormed a restaurant in the diplomatic quarter of Dhaka and took about 20 people hostage, including several foreigners. (Photo: AFP) Milan: Seven Italian nationals are thought to be among the hostages taken by gunmen who stormed a cafe popular with foreigners in the capital of Bangladesh on Friday, Italian state television said quoting the Italian ambassador to Bangladesh. Gunmen stormed a restaurant in the diplomatic quarter of Dhaka and took about 20 people hostage, including several foreigners, in an attack claimed by ISIS. State TV RAI quoted the Italian ambassador in Dhaka, Mario Palma, as saying the seven Italians were businessmen. An Italian foreign ministry source said one Italian hostage had escaped. Italian media said the escaped man told police there were seven Italians still inside. Edward Nalbandian meets with Foreign Minister of Tajikistan (video) On July 2, Edward Nalbandian, Foreign Minister of Armenia, had a meeting with Sirodjidin Aslov, Foreign Minister of Tajikistan, who is paying an official visit to Yerevan. The meeting started in a tete-a-tete format, and proceeded with the participation of the delegations. Welcoming the guest, Foreign Minister of Armenia attached importance to the first official visit of the Foreign Minister of Tajikistan. He outlined that the Armenian side considers this visit, as well as the recent accreditation of the first Ambassador of Tajikistan to Armenia amid the agreements on giving a new impetus to bilateral relations, reached during the meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Tajikistan, Serzh Sargsyan and Emomali Rahmon, respectively, on September 14, 2015, in Dushanbe. Expressing gratitude for the invitation to visit Yerevan and the warm reception, Foreign Minister of Tajikistan stressed, that his country highly appreciates friendly relations with Armenia and is determined to further develop the cooperation. During the meeting, the sides discussed the details of preparatory works of the forthcoming visit of President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon to Armenia, issues related to the expansion of cooperation between Armenia and Tajikistan within bilateral and multilateral frameworks. The Ministers exchanged thoughts on the development of cooperation in political, economic, cultural, educational, scientific fields, as well as the possibilities of implementing mutually beneficial projects. Edward Nalbandian and Sirodjidin Aslov attached importance to the holding of regular consultations between the Foreign Ministries, the enhancement of cooperation within the international organizations, the expansion of the legal field. During the negotiations, a reference was made to the Armenia-Tajikistan Inter-Governmental Committee established in 2004. The sides stressed the necessity to intensify its activity. In this regard, it was agreed to hold the next session of the Committee in the near future. The interlocutors emphasized the importance of the parliamentary format of cooperation. They commended the effective cooperation between the legislative bodies of the two countries within the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly framework. At the meeting, thoughts were exchanged on ways to promote trade and economic cooperation between Armenia and Tajikistan, by outlining the fields of light industry, high technology, jewelry and tourism as the perspective areas. The Ministers reflected on the expansion of cooperation in the areas of education, science and culture. In this regard, the Tajik side expressed interest in the establishment of contacts with Matenadaran, as well as in facilitating cooperation between the universities of the two countries. Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Tajikistan discussed issues of interaction within the frameworks of the UN, the OSCE, the CIS. Sirodjidin Aslov expressed gratitude for support to the candidacy of Tajikistan in the elections for the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The interlocutors touched upon the CSTO agenda issues, the implementation of priorities of Armenian Chairmanship in the CSTO. Edward Nalbandian presented to the guest the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs aimed at the creation of relevant conditions for the resumption of negotiations on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, steps undertaken towards the implementation of agreements reached at Summits in Vienna and St. Petersburg. In this context Mr. Aslov expressed concern over the escalation of situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone in April and reaffirmed principled position of his country on the necessity of exclusively peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. Sirodjidin Aslov presented the situation along the borders between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, his countrys fight against illegal drug trafficking and extremism. Foreign Minister of Tajikistan expressed gratitude to Armenia for its support to Tajikistan within the CSTO regarding the abovementioned issues. At the end of the meeting, the Ministers signed the 2016-2018 Program of Consultations between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Tajikistan. The Ministers delivered press statements following the meeting. Bangladeshi security personnel cordon off the area after a group of gunmen attacked a restaurant popular with foreigners in a diplomatic zone of Dhaka. (Photo: AP) Dhaka: Bangladesh forces stormed a restaurant where heavily armed terrorists held dozens of people hostage for 10 hours, triggering explosions and finding at least five bodies lying in pools of blood. Japan government said that 13 people were rescued. The ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadis activity online. At least 35 people, including about 20 foreigners, were trapped inside the restaurant, said kitchen staffer Sumon Reza, who was among more than 10 people who managed to run to the rooftop and escape when the terrorists moved in Friday night. With the sound of gunfire and explosions, local TV stations reported that the rescue operation began at 7:40 am. It included army personnel with automatic weapons and at least seven armored vehicles. Several ambulances were on standby. Local media reported that an Argentine and two Bangladeshis were rescued from the restaurant early Saturday, but details about their condition were not immediately available. Commandos storming the restaurant discovered five bodies lying in blood, a police official who was not identified told Channel 24 TV station. In Tokyo, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said that 12 people were rescued in the raid, including two foreigners, but he couldn't say if they were Japanese. His information was based on Dhaka police. A news agency affiliated with the ISIS claimed that 24 people had been killed and 40 wounded, including foreigners, according to SITE. The figures could not be independently confirmed. The Amaq news agency also posted photos purportedly showing the bodies of hostages. The authenticity of the pictures could not be confirmed either. The attack marks an escalation in the growing drumbeat of terrorist violence to hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation in the past three years, but with increasing frequency in recent months. Most attacks have been by machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities. Bangladesh did not immediately respond to the claim of responsibility by ISIS, but in the past have denied that the terrorist group has a presence in the country. The US State Department said it had seen the ISIS claim, but could not confirm its authenticity. The attackers "have not responded to authorities' calls for negotiation," said a member of the elite anti-crime force, Rapid Action Battalion, identifying himself as Lt. Col. Masood said in a news report. He said that the security cordon would prevent any of the attackers from escaping. Authorities also ordered internet services to be blocked across the country, according to internet service provider Aamra. Police said the two officers died at a hospital after being wounded in the initial gunfire with as many as nine attackers, who also hurled bombs. Ten of the 26 wounded were listed in critical condition, six of whom were on life support, according to hospital staff, who said the injuries ranged from broken bones to gunshot wounds. Only one civilian was among the wounded. Reza said the attackers chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) as they launched the attack around 9:20 pm on Friday, initially opening fire with blanks. A huge contingent of security forces cordoned off the area around the bakery. The nationalities of the hostages were not immediately clear. On Saturday, Japan's top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said at a hastily called news conference in Tokyo that the government is trying to confirm that Japanese were among the hostages. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters that saving lives is the top priority. "Some derailed youths have entered the restaurant and launched the attack," Benazir Ahmed said. "We have talked to some of the people who fled the restaurant after the attack. We want to resolve this peacefully. We are trying to talk to the attackers, we want to listen to them about what they want." "Our first priority is to save the lives of the people trapped inside," Ahmed said. He would not say how many people were being held hostage. Among the hostages was a businessman and his wife and two children, according to his uncle Anwarul Karim. "My nephew Hasnat Karim called me and said he was inside with his family. He told me, 'Please save us, please!' And he hung up," he said. "We do not know what is going on there." In Washington, a White House official said President Barack Obama was briefed on the attack by his chief counter-terrorism adviser Lisa Monaco. The President asked to be kept informed as the situation develops, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the President's meetings. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the US is in contact with the Bangladesh government and has offered its assistance to bring those responsible to justice. He said all official American personnel are accounted for with no injuries reported, and the department is working with local authorities to determine if any US citizens and locally-employed staff were affected. The spree of recent attacks in Bangladesh have raised fears that religious extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions of secularism and tolerance. About two dozen atheist writers, publishers, members of religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers have been killed since 2013. On Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death by at least three assailants in southwest Bangladesh. ISIS and and al-Qaida affiliates have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks. Judges staging protest demonstrations on the streets and going on mass casual leave mark a new low in judicial conduct in India. The over 200 subordinate court judges of Telangana who made public protests against the provisional allotment of judges between the state and Andhra Pradesh by the high court lowered the standards of the judiciary and demeaned their positions. The protests are still continuing even after the high court suspended 11 of the judges. Their complaint is that in the allocation of judges between the two states, those from Andhra Pradesh have got a favourable treatment. It is cited that among 102 provisional appointments in the subordinate judiciary, 72 are of persons who have their roots in Andhra Pradesh. The appointments were made by the high court. It is also unfairly pointed out that the high court bench is dominated by persons from Andhra Pradesh. There is no regional reservation in judicial postings and appointments. It would be wrong to allege that the high number of those from Andhra Pradesh in the appointments was the result of a deliberate bias. Parochial sentiments and identity politics should not be introduced into the thinking and working of the judiciary. There is even a view that judges from a different region or state may help to ensure that the judiciary is not subjected to local political pressures and interests. This does not mean that different regions should not get fair representation, especially in the lower judiciary. The point is that it is not right for judges to launch a public agitation even over a matter which they consider wrong and unfair and in which their perceived personal or collective interests are involved. The greater public interest imposes a mandate of silence and strict abstinence from public action on them, and they should exercise self-control and self-regulation in their words and deeds. The high standards of judicial conduct demand them. The Telangana judges actions are in violation of the best norms and the protocol laid down by the Bangalore principles of judicial conduct accepted the world over as guiding ideas of judicial behaviour. The division of the composite Andhra Pradesh was in rancour, and the bitterness is still lingering. The bifurcation legislation provided for a common high court, though the legislature and the executive were separated. The present unfortunate situation would not have arisen if expeditious steps had been taken to set up a separate high court for Andhra Pradesh. Both the Centre and the Andhra Pradesh government should take immediate steps for that. The agitating judges should withdraw their protest action which is causing inconvenience to the public. They should not obstruct justice. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said he would speak to former minister V Srinivas Prasad who has openly expressed discontent after being dropped from the Cabinet. On his way to Ranebennur, Siddaramaiah told reporters at the Hubballi Airport on Friday that disappointment was natural as some ministers had to be dropped from the Cabinet, so that others could get a chance. I have spoken to some leaders who expressed discontent, and the confusion has been cleared. I will also speak to Srinivas Prasad, he said. Priyank Kharge is the only first-time MLA to be made a minister. Responding to Prasads claim that he had helped build Siddaramaiahs political career, the chief minister said, Helping each other is common in political life. Meanwhile, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president G Parameshwara strongly defended the Cabinet reshuffle and warned disgruntled MLAs against crossing the limit while expressing their displeasure. Difference of opinion is bound to arise when the Cabinet is reshuffled. But there is a limit to it. Nobody should cross that limit. The reshuffle was done after obtaining the approval of the high command, he told reporters in Bengaluru. The chief minister has made all efforts to pacify the disgruntled MLAs. Nobody should do anything that is against the partys interest, he said. Though I was away in Germany, I spoke to a few disgruntled leaders over phone and tried to pacify them. I will soon personally hold a meeting with Srinivas Prasad and M H Ambareesh, said Parameshwara, who is also Home Minister. New president Parameshwara said the high command had appointed Dinesh Gundu Rao the KPCC working president and would name a new president soon. Upper house leader The chief minister appointed Parameshwara leader of the ruling party in the Legislative Council in place of S R Patil, who was dropped from the Cabinet in the recent reshuffle. Winter session in Belagavi The winter session of the state legislature will be held at the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi in November, the chief minister said. The monsoon session will be held in Bengaluru where department-wise demands will be discussed. The budget has to be approved in both the houses, he added. Answering a query on the Kalasa-Banduri issue, the chief minister stated that an application for interim award had been filed before the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal, and prime ministers intervention sought. On government employees demands, he said talks would be held with them. The High Court has reserved its orders on the bail applications filed by M V Rudrappa, K S Ranganath and Obalaraju who were arrested in the II PUC Chemistry question paper leak, reports DHNS from Bengaluru. State Public Prosecutor P M Nawaz argued that though the High Court had stayed the investigation under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act, 2000, for 8 weeks, that did not mean the suspects could not be tried in other offences as they were abettors in the crime under the Act. The counsel for the suspects, however, argued that if investigation was stayed under the said Act, the charge sheet for other offences must be filed within 60 days. The suspects have been in judicial custody for the past 87 days and the CID is yet to file charge sheet against them, the counsel said and sought bail for them. Besides the KCOC Act, the men have been booked under the IPC and the Karnataka Education Act. Justice K N Phaneendra reserved his orders. Bengaluru and other cities in Karnataka will get a German model of policing and traffic management, Home Minister G Parameshwara said here on Friday. The German state of Bavaria uses latest technology for effective management of traffic. The same model will be adopted in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru and other major cities where traffic management has become a challenge, he told reporters. Parameshwara and a team of senior police officers from Karnataka recently toured Germany to study the policing system in Bavaria whose capital is Munich. The minister signed a memorandum of understanding with Bavarian officials for mutual co-operation in traffic management and policing. Bavarian model Parameshwara said Munich was one of the safestt cities in the world. A detailed study of the Bavarian system of policing was conducted during the visit. In Bavaria, top priority is given to the safety of women, children and senior citizens. They have successfully implemented a people-friendly policing system. Over 82% of the population in Bavaria is happy with the system. The same model will be implemented in Bengaluru, he said. As per the MoU, police personnel from Bengaluru will be sent to Bavaria for training. Bavarian officials will also visit Bengaluru for this purpose. Awareness will be raised among schoolchildren on traffic and law and order with the help of Bavarian officials, he said. Coastal police academy The Home Minister said a coastal police training academy would be set up on 25 acres of land in Udupi with a financial assistance of Rs 100 crore from the Centre. Automatic identification system, distress roaming system, boat collar coding system, etc will be used for patrolling the entire coastline in the state, he added. At least 300 people had a close shave after an Air India (AI) aircraft dashed an aerobridge at the Mumbai airport on Friday afternoon. However, all the passengers, crew and the ground staff escaped unhurt. The AI-922 flight a Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft -- had arrived in Mumbai from Riyadh. The incident did not have any bearing on the operations at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, one of the busiest airports of the country. The mishap led to a blame game between AI and Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL). AI claimed that while parking the aircraft at the arrival bay, the MIAL displayed wrong information, which was not compatible with the particular model, and the left engine banged into the aerobridge. The aircraft was being marshaled by AI staff during which it collided with the aerobridge. No one was injured. The aircraft suffered minor damage, an MIAL spokesperson said. The incident happened along the bay of Terminal 2. The aircraft was towed away for repairs. Sorry, the page you are looking is no longer available. Click here to go to Home The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a fresh notice to a company linked to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra. The notice was issued in connection with EDs probe into a land grab case in Rajasthan's Bikaner. The fresh summons for production of documents came as the ED dismissed as "unauthorised" the appearance of a lawyer in response to the notices first sent last month. A lawyer claiming to represent M/s Skylight Hospitality had last week appeared before ED in response to its notice. However, he was not carrying any authorisation letter from the company following which the ED decided to issue the second notice. The company has been given two weeks time to furnish financial statements and other documents before the Investigating Officer. On May 6, the ED searched eight locations in Rajasthan in connection with a money laundering probe arising out of the land grab case. The case is related to the purchase of 275 bigha land by the company of Vadra in Kolayat of Bikaner district. The ED registered a money laundering case in connection with the case based on 18 FIRs filed by Rajasthan Police in August last year, after the local tehsildar filed a complaint. The ED action came after it suspected that money was laundered in connection with the case of transfer of government land in 34 villages of Bikaner, to be used for expanding the army's firing range in the area, to private persons using "forged and fabricated documents". In January last year, Rajasthan government had cancelled the mutation (transfer of land) of 374.44 hectares of land following a Land Department probe. Though the ED did not name Vadra or his company in the FIR, it had taken note of media reports that claimed that a firm linked to Vadra had also purchased a portion of these lands. Congress targets judge probing deal Cornered on Robert Vadras land deals, the Congress has launched a two-pronged counter-attack by questioning the integrity of the retired judge probing it, DHNS reports from New Delhi. The Congress dubbed the Justice S N Dhingra Commission, probing the dodgy land deals in Gurgaon in Haryana, as a political tool for malicious witch-hunt by the BJP government in the state. The partys chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala also accused Justice Dhingra of compromising his position as an independent and neutral player by accepting favours from the Haryana government for a trust headed by him Surjewala claimed that Justice Dhingra himself proposed to expand the ambit of the terms of reference of the commission headed by him, an action unheard of in Independent India. He also questioned Justice Dhingras sudden decision to seek extension for the commission to examine further documents related to some benami land deals. The work in courts across Telangana came to a grinding halt on Friday with over 8,000 employees launching an indefinite strike demanding bifurcation of the high court and cancellation of the provisional allotment of judges for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states. All categories of employees in courts across ten districts in the state have joined the stir by holding demonstrations. This is a fight by judicial staff for justice, said B Lakshma Reddy, general secretary of the All India Judicial Employees Association. We demand immediate rollback of the provisional allocation of judges for AP and Telangana. We also demand that the High Court should be bifurcated. The strike will continue till our demands are met, said Reddy, who along with eight other members of the Association, was suspended by the High Court for violating code of conduct. Over the last four days, the High Court has suspended 11 judicial officers on disciplinary grounds. The legal fraternity in Telangana has been on the warpath, demanding cancellation of provisional allotment of judges on the ground that officers from AP were posted in Telangana. Addressing the Maha dharna at Indira Park here, Telangana-Joint Action Committee chief Prof Kodandaram has expressed solidarity with the agitating legal fraternity and said that the fight for free Telangana will not be complete without a separate High Court. The respect for the court makes the court supreme. So the Chief Justice must take back the order posting AP judges in Telangana and restore the glory of the High Court, he said lauding the advocates for their efforts to protect the interests of Telangana. Acting Chief Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale and judges of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad appealed to the agitating employees and judicial officers to immediately withdraw the "illegal" strike and resume work in public interest. A release issued by the High Court Registrar General also warned that if the strike was not called off immediately, it may have to consider other options to ensure that the litigants do not suffer. In a related development, judicial officers from Andhra Pradesh met the CJ and sought protection from attacks by the Telangana advocates, citing the alleged attack on a judge of AP origin in Warangal district court. Bengaluru-based Quess Corp on Friday created history in the national stock exchange by receiving a runaway response to its initial public offering (IPO) with the issue being subscribed 144.34 times on the closing day (at the time of going to press). According to the company release, this makes Quess Corp IPO the most oversubscribed IPO in the country in the past nine years and the second most oversubscribed IPO in India since 2000. The firm, promoted by Ajit Isaac and Thomas Cook (India), expects to raise Rs 400 crore through IPO to fund its businesses as well as pay off its debts. The total value of bids received totalled almost Rs 33,000 crore ($5 billion). Set up in 2007, Quess Corp (formerly known as Ikya Human Capital Solutions) offers comprehensive solutions, including recruitment, temporary staffing, technology staffing as well as IT products and solutions. It has over 1.2 lakh employees with a pan-India presence of 47 offices across 26 cities, as well as operations in North America, West and South East Asia, and serves over 1,300 customers. According to cumulative demand data available on the National Stock Exchange, the company got total bids for 102 crore shares against the issue size of 70.96 lakh shares. Bids for 3.64 crore shares were received at the cut-off price. The retail portion was subscribed 33.62 times at the upper end of the price band and 33.2 times at the lower end. The institutional portion was subscribed 60.86 times at the upper end and 59.03 times at the lower end, while the non-institutional portion was subscribed 397.08 times at the upper end and 392.21 times at the lower end. It is heartening to note the response from investors to our IPO and the faith they have reposed in our company, Quess Corp chairman and managing director Ajit Isaac said. He made everyone happy: fundraising for soldier (video) Fundraising has been organized in North Avenue to support 19-year-old Arman Lazgiyan, who is receiving treatment in Germany. To remind, 19 year-old soldier received a severe wound during the start of hostilities early in April. The enemys bullet hit him in the throat. Classmates of Arman and those, who know him from the university, have decided to help the soldier in this way. We got acquainted in the university and after his deed we are struggling so that our friend is treated. Lecturers say that Arman is one of the most active students, Hasmik Panosyan told A1+. In reply to the question what she knows about Armans deed, she noted, I know that he threw back the enemy, but not during the hostilities, but during the ceasefire. We expect the support of our people. Another initiator of the fundraising is Araks Davtyan, who was Armans classmate. What was Arman like at school? She answered, We always think about Arman with a smile. He used to sit at the back and make everyone happy. He is very joyful and positive person. Araks highlighted that Arman has been transferred to Germany for treatment with the help of donations and aids. Rita Sargsyan has also promised her financial, moral and psychological support, but we said that we will stand by Arman and continue what we have begun, she highlighted. Real estate major Unitech Ltd was on Friday directed by the Supreme Court to deposit Rs 5 crore in its Registry over its failure to hand over apartments to the buyers even after three years of the promised date. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and C Nagappan gave August 12 as deadline to the developer for depositing the amount, warning that after that its directors would be sent to judicial custody. The court issued its order while hearing a plea by Unitech against National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions (NCDRC) October 12, 2015, order. The apex consumer panel had directed the firm to pay compensation and litigation costs for delay in handing over three flats in Project Burgandy in Sector 96 at Noida in the National Capital Region. The apex consumer commission had also directed Unitech to hand over possession of the flats booked by Diwakar Mishra and others on or before October 31, 2017. The flat buyers had approached the consumer commission alleging that despite having paid more than 95% of the agreed sale consideration, the flats have not been handed over to them and the construction was still far from complete. Advocate Ashwarya Sinha, appearing for the consumers, said the builder had failed to hand over the possession of the apartment which was due to be given on April 16, 2013. Each apartment was priced at Rs 3.8 crore. The apex court had on May 9 directed Unitech to deposit the amount by June 10. The firm later sought extension of time. If Health and Family Welfare Minister K R Ramesh Kumar keeps his words, patients suffering from dengue and chikungunya may get timely treatment in future. Speaking to mediapersons during a surprise visit to the district hospital here on Friday, he termed the existing system of confirming dengue and chikungunya as a lengthy process. The minister felt that if there are any symptoms that may help in early detection of mosquito borne diseases, the district hospitals should confirm them. The patients should not be made to wait for weeks for laboratory reports, he added. Taking cognisance of a circular issued by the joint director of department of health and family welfare that prevents doctors at district-level from confirming the disease in spite of sufficient symptoms, the minister said, The doctors have to mandatorily wait for report after sending blood samples to laboratories. It is a laborious process that takes maximum of 15 to 20 days to obtain the report. Till then, what would be the condition of patients? questioned Kumar. In a mocking tone, the minister said, If a patient is being treated in Chikkamagaluru, the confirmation of his or her type of disease is made in Bengaluru. The minister, who called it as nothing but a big crime at administration level, said the departments personnel are making false claims on succeeding in controlling the spread of virus, only to impress the government. It is not a lapse at the district-level, but at the state-level that needs to be corrected, he added. The minister paid a surprise visit to the hospital in the wake of spurt in dengue and chikungunya cases in the district. The minister, for whom it was also a first such visit to the district after taking charge of the health and family welfare portfolio recently, interacted with patients and enquired about their health, to gather first hand information from them. He also wanted to know the efficiency of doctors, besides various other services provided at the hospital. However, the minister lost his cool, when it came to his notice that the hospital is lagging behind in basic facilities, especially seating for visitors, unhygienic surroundings and unkempt toilets. He took District Surgeon Dr Kumar Nayak to task and directed the latter to fix commodes (western toilet) at toilets for the benefit of people suffering from joint pains. He also directed the local body president to make use of MLA local area development funds to provide seating facility. When it was brought to ministers notice that most of the medicines prescribed for dengue and chikungunya patients have proved ineffective, the minister collected samples of medicines to be sent for quality test at laboratory. If the medicines are found to be of substandard quality, action will be initiated against companies supplying the same, he stated. The minister also directed authorities to shift maternity hospital and childrens wards to main complex of the district hospital. In the case of space constraints, additional building should be constructed and necessary action should be initiated. The patients should not be made to run from pillar to post and swindling money from patients ferried in ambulances should be stopped, he said. Ramesh Kumar said that the reply of medical officer of the district hospital on the supply of medicines was unsatisfactory. He said adequate measures will be taken to check supply of unwanted and expired medicines if the district hospitals, community health centres and primary health centres provide action plan on requirment of medicines. City Municipal Council president M R Devaraj was categorically told the officials to maintain cleanliness in Shankarapura, Tipu Nagar and other localities and also undertake timely fogging to control mosquito menace. The minister said the hospital will be upgraded with required facilities. He also said that the government is committed to fulfil its pending promise on setting up medical colleges in remaining eight districts in the state including Chikkamagaluru, before completing five years in office. If it becomes a reality, all the district hospitals will be upgraded to super speciality hospitals, thus benefitting people from the region, he added. The minister also lamented that not many MBBS graduates are evincing interest in taking up rural assignments. To another question, the minister said, Generic drug stores will be soon set up in all the district headquarters. It is intended to check the supply of substandard medicines and problems being faced by the government hospitals. I opposed the system, not govt Health and Family Welfare Minister K R Ramesh Kumar on Friday exuded confidence that the differences that have erupted in Congress party, especially after the Cabinet reshuffle, will fade away soon. The minister told mediapersons that the partys highcommand is capable in quelling dissident activities. The minister claimed that he never raised his voice against the government, but opposed the system as an MLA earlier. In order to minimise pollution in Delhi, the NHAI will utilise solid waste from Ghazipur landfill in the national capital in the construction of highways, said Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday. The famous Ghazipur mandi, which supplies vegetables and fruits to a large portion of Delhi and adjoining areas, is known as a major contributor to air pollution in the region because of gases from the garbage dump from the market. The NHAI is already utilising fly-ash up to 30 per cent of earth filling in the Eastern Peripheral Expressway and using other slag materials elsewhere. Technical verification The Minister said the government had entrusted the assignment of technically verifying whether solid waste material generated from municipal/city waste can be utilised for highway construction to Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Central Road Research Institute (CRRI). The Minister said that the report suggests that it can be utilised by segregating the waste. Our department has taken a good initiative in Ghazipur. Plastic, glass, bottle, garbage these all will be segregated. I had a a talk with Delhi Chief Minister and sought Delhi governments cooperation, he said. Study conducted Earlier, CSIR and CRRI had conducted a study by collecting 70 tonnes of municipal solid waste from different locations of Ghazipur landfill site of Municipal Corporation of Delhi. It recommended that the municipal solid waste contains about 65 to 70 per cent of soil components which can be used in embankment construction after segregation. The Minister also said that the Eastern and Western bypasses, which the government plans to build in 400 days will be the first pilot projects and architects will design beautification of the bypasses. This will involve landscaping and other works. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone of these two projects last year with a combined length of 271 km last year. Gadkari also asked the Haryana government to come forward for the venture saying that the projects will be implemented in such a fashion that driving will be a pleasure through these roads as is the case in various countries. The Minister said the projects when complete will ease congestion in Delhi and reduce its pollution by at least 50 per cent. The Eastern Peripheral Expressway will be 135 km long and cost Rs 5,763 crore while the 136 km Western Peripheral Expressway will cost Rs 2,274 crore. DH News Service More seats were filled under the reserved categories in the more popular courses on the second day of admissions in DU as applicants from the general category waited for the cut-offs to drop. The Delhi University website failed on Friday as well. But compared to the first day, the disruption was for only two hours. All admissions, this year are online. There was more rush on the campus than on Thursday with students now having a clearer idea on which courses to pick. Ramjas College, which has announced the highest cut-off in DU so far 99.25 per cent for BCom (Honours) has filled 10 seats in the subject so far. A maximum of 50 seats in that college were filled in BSc Zoology. Altogether, 178 students took admission there. A college official said the numbers were lower than last year after the first list. On day one this time, there were no admissions for BCom (H) at Ramjas. For BCom (Programme), with a 98.75 per cent cut-off in the first list released on Wednesday, 20 seats were filled at Ramjas. By 1 pm when 13 students had taken admission for the course, 6 were under People with Disabilities (PWD) category, three Other Backward Classes (OBC), three Scheduled Tribe (ST) and none in the general category. Shri Ram College of Commerce, which set its cut-off at 98 per cent for BCom (H), admitted 303 students in that course 167 in the general category, 58 in OBC, 38 in SC, 20 in ST. Out of the 29 students admitted so far in the BA Economics (H) course at SRCC, only six were from the general category. The college set 98.25 as the cut-ff for this course in the first list. At Kirori Mal College, popular courses like BA Political Science and Economics (H) filled fewer seats than courses like Sanskrit (H), which has accommodated the most candidates so far. In Economics (H), only two students took admission, both under the OBC category, at that college. Many students faced issues submitting their fees online, which is mandatory before the second list comes out. There was also confusion regarding the documents required for admission. The last day of admissions under the first cut-off list is Saturday. Days before the Delhi government was to launch the first 55 of the 110-fleet CATS ambulances, two ambulances were destroyed in a fire on Friday here. The fire started from one of the ambulances parked on the campus of the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS). The Delhi government had decided to launch 55 Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS) ambulance on July 3 at Connaught Place. Senior officials said the government is most likely to go ahead with the decision to launch these ambulances. The ambulances were awaiting the approval of the Committee for Registration of Ambulances (CRA) for the registration of the vehicles. The CRA was present at the spot when the fire started from one of the ambulances. The CRA checks for the fabrication and medical equipment of the ambulance. The ignition of the vehicle was not on. While the rest of the vehicles could be immediately parked away, the vehicle next to it immediately caught fire, said a senior administrative officer, CATS. The vehicles together cost Rs 23 lakh, said the official. According to the fire department, there was a call at 3pm for fire tenders to be sent to the spot. Four fire tenders were sent to the spot by 3.15 pm. The fire was doused by 3.30 pm. The cause of the fire is being investigated, said a fire department official. The Delhi government had awarded the contract to Bafna Healthcare Pvt Ltd and Tata Motors. Teams from both Bafna Healthcare Pvt Ltd and Tata Motors who were responsible for putting together the ambulances are investigating the issue. Both the companies are trying to ascertain if there was an internal fault of the vehicle or there was an external cause of fire, said the official. This is a one-off incident and all the necessary steps to check safety measures have been taken, the official added. CATS staff union demands safety check The CATS staff union demanded that the ambulances be checked for safety before the fleet is launched. Even before the vehicles were launched, these vehicles have been found to be faulty through todays incident. The government should first conduct intensive checks to ensure patients safety and not hurry to launch the fleet, said Narender Lakra, president, CATS staff unionCATS staff union. The government is also ready with its upgraded control room with new facilities. This has provisions for enabling location of emergency caller, send messages of confirmation and enable callers to track the ambulance. A 52-year-old woman has filed a complaint of sexual harassment with the DCW against former Delhi Chief Secretary and President of Panchshila club Omesh Saigal. The alleged incident took place on June 18 when the woman went for swimming in the society's pool. "He came into my lane and blocked my way. I was already there but he started swimming and also hit me while taking a turn. When I confronted him, he asked me to swim in another lane. It is not the first time he has done it," the woman, who is a member of the club, told Deccan Herald. She alleged that Saigal's actions were deliberate and reeked of sexual harassment. She mentioned that the president has on earlier occasions also deliberately blocked her way while swimming which led her into arguments with him. She approached the Delhi Commission for Women on July 23 after which the commission forwarded it to the concerned SHO for registration of an FIR against Saigal. Saigal, a retired IAS officer, has served as chief secretary of Delhi. The Commission also took strong note of the manner in which the complaint has been handled by the Panch Shila Club. "Instead of forwarding the complaint to the Local Complaints Committee under the Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Work Place Act, 2013, the complaint was heard by a sub committee set up by the management committee of the club. Also, subsequently, in blatant disregard of the act, the club membership of the complainant and her husband was suspended," the commission said, in a notice to the club. Meanwhile, Saigal has filed a defamation case against the woman in Saket court. Denying all allegations, he said, "I am a senior citizen and advised not to swim in the sun. So, I chose that lane but she asked me move to another lane which I denied and instead asked her to do so. It is a general pool and not reserved for women only. I have two grandchildren and these allegations are absurd". Saying that the sexual harassment is being used as a ploy, Saigal said, "It is a case of ego. It can also be a deep-rooted conspiracy but I am not taking any names because I don't know that". A member of the managing committee of the club, who did not wish to be identified, said that the allegations are baseless and that the woman is being "ill-advised" to malign Saigal. Gautam Adani-controlled conglomerate Adani Enterprises (ADEL.NS) plans to build a copper smelter with an eye to furthering its ambitions in the solar sector, said a source familiar with the plan. The company recently sought environmental approval to set up a 1-million-tonne-per-year copper smelter in the western state of Gujarat, according to an application submitted by the company which was reviewed early this month by the Environment Ministry. The smelter is expected to cost 100 billion rupees ($1.47 billion) and will source copper concentrate through imports, the application stated, without providing the reasoning behind the new foray. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the smelter however, is expected to feed into its proposed solar panel manufacturing capacity, fueling the company's ambitions of becoming an integrated solar power company. The project will not be an entry into the commercial copper business for Adani, also India's biggest coal importer, but will be primarily for ensuring secure supply of raw material for the group's proposed venture into solar photovoltaic equipment manufacturing, said the source. The company did not respond to requests for comment on the plans. A second source from an international trading firm familiar with the smelter project said the first stage of 300,000 tonnes is expected be completed within the next two years. Adani Enterprises, which has interests in coal mining, oil & gas and logistics, has bet big on solar power riding on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's solar mission that targets setting up of 100 gigawatts of solar power generation capacity by the end of 2022. As part of the push, the government has also incentivised setting up of exclusive parks for domestic manufacturing of solar PV modules. That would equate to around 600,000 tonnes of additional copper demand based on the thumb rule of 6 tonnes of copper required for one megawatt of solar cell capacity. Adani plans to have a share of 10 percent of the national target by the same time and has said it plans to set up a solar PV module plant in Gujarat. The gamble could also get a boost from the $1 billion loan promised Thursday by the World Bank for India's solar energy programme as Modi sought climate change funds from the international lender. A man shot dead five people, including his wife, and injured another 20 in a cafe in northern Serbia early today, police said, with jealousy the suspected motive. The man "entered the cafe and opened fire with an automatic rifle, killing his wife and another woman, then he continued to shoot at other citizens in the cafe," a police statement said. Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic visited the scene and was quoted by N1 television channel as saying that the weapon was illegal and jealousy was believed to be the motive. It is the third mass shooting in recent years in Serbia, which has tried to shrink the number of illegal weapons in circulation since the 1990s Balkan wars. The latest incident happened at about 1:40 am (2340 GMT Friday) in the town of Zitiste, around 80 kilometres north of Belgrade. Police arrested the alleged shooter, born in 1978 and named only by his initials ZS, and opened a probe into the killings. Stefanovic said the attacker tried to flee the scene, but police stopped and arrested him. "We are all shocked that something like this could happen, since this was a very quiet man who had no police record," he said according to the state-run Tanjug news agency. N1 channel reported that the attacker argued with his wife in the cafe, left the building and returned with a Kalashnikov-type rifle with which he opened fire. Two people were killed instantly, while three died after being taken to hospital in the nearby city of Zrenjanin, the channel's report said. The others wounded, some of them severely, were taken to various Serbian hospitals but were not in critical condition, reports said. Illegal gun ownership is widespread in Serbia and the rest of the former Yugoslavia. Police have previously said there could be several hundred thousand unregistered weapons in the country, including guns and grenades, remaining from the 1990s Balkan wars. The shooting spree came a day after the interior ministry launched a new drive to encourage owners of illegal weapons to hand them in to their local police stations. Such people "will not be held accountable for unauthorised buying and holding of weapons," the police announcement said yesterday. 20 foreigners, including an Indian girl, were hacked to death by suspected ISIS militants inside a cafe popular with expats in the diplomatic zone here in the worst terror attack in Bangladesh before commandos launched an assault today killing six attackers and capturing one alive. Director of Military Operations Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said the militants slaughtered 20 hostages before the joint operation led by the armed forces began. Most of those killed were found with their throat slit, he added. Indian girl Tarushi, 19, who was taken hostage was killed by the attackers. "I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka," External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted. Nine Italian, 7 Japanese and one American were also killed in the attack. Two senior police officers were also killed in the gunbattle that began last night. Italy's Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said one Italian was still unaccounted for. However, the identity of two others killed in the attack was still unclear. Some reports said three Bangladeshis were among the dead. Brigadier Chowdhury said the bodies of the victims were recovered during a search in the Holey Artisan Bakery compound after the operation. "Army Para commando Unit-1 led the operation and killed six terrorists within 13 minutes," Chowdhury told reporters. The mission codenamed 'Operation Thunderbolt' was launched after the Prime Minister ordered the army to intervene to end the hostage crisis, he said. Gunshots and sounds of explosion rocked the area at 7:40 AM (local time) as security forces launched the final assault. Minutes later, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced the end of siege and said security forces "successfully" wrapped up their operation, freeing 13 hostages after killing six terrorists and capturing one militant at the Spanish cafe. "It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these people? They don't have any religion," she said in a televised speech, referring to the terrorists. "They don't have any religion...terrorism is their religion," said Hasina, with Army chief General Abu Belal Muhammad Shafiul Huq by her side. "I thank Allah as we could destroy the terrorists and rescue the hostages," Hasina said, vowing to do everything to "uproot the militants and violent extremists" from Bangladesh. Later Hasina asked extremists to stop killing in the name of religion and urged unity among countrymen. She declared two days of mourning for the victims. Among those rescued were Indian, Sri Lankan and Japanese nationals, media reports said. Around 30 people were injured. Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack through its Amaq news agency, nearly four hours after the hostage crisis unfolded, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence group, which monitors jihadist activity online. The agency issued a number of photographs of what it said were scenes from inside the restaurant. The pictures showed what appeared to be a number of bodies lying in pools of blood. Amaq claimed that 24 people had been killed in the attack carried out by what it described as "ISIS commandos". Heavy firing and explosions continued at least for an hour after the operation began this morning. A resident of a building, just 50 yards from the scene, reported spotting snipers firing from their guns. Shots were also fired from armoured personnel carriers (APCs). Grenades were also apparently exploded. Later, the APCs broke through the walls and entered the restaurant premises. The gunmen did a background check on religion of the captives by asking them to recite Quranic verses and tortured those who could not do so, the family of an eyewitness said. After hours of quiet at the Holey Artisan Bakery where terrorists were holding hostages, a fresh round of heavy gunfire rang out in the morning. "Our law enforcement agencies responded promptly soon after the terrorists raided the restaurant...as they were about to take action, two police officers were killed by the terrorists," Hasina said. She said the situation prompted the authorities to call out army commandos from cantonments in north-eastern Sylhet, suburban Savar and the Dhaka garrison overnight. "At around 4 in the morning, the operational plan was laid out and the security forces launched the assault," she said. Army men in armoured personnel carriers (APCs) had moved in with commandos. Over 1,000 rounds of gunshots were fired and almost 100 blasts were heard in the first half an hour of the raid, media reports said. Last night, terrorists shouting "Allahu Akbar" barged into the cafe, frequented by diplomats and expatriates, and opened indiscriminate fire at around 9:20 PM (local time). The military-led rescue operation today was launched jointly by a navy commando squad, paramilitary BGB, elite anti-crime RAB along with special police units. The deceased policemen have been identified as officer in-charge of nearby Banani police station, Salahuddin Ahmed and Additional Commissioner of Police Rabiul. An Argentine national and a local escaped after taking refuge in a nearby house when the gunmen entered the restaurant. Police said they have detained two employees of the eatery for questioning. The Muslim-majority Bangladesh has witnessed a wave of deadly attacks on religious minorities and secular bloggers by suspected Islamist militants. A 48-year-old Hindu priest was today stabbed and critically injured by unknown assailants in Satkhira district. A Hindu priest and a Buddhist leader were brutally hacked to death by machete-wielding ISIS militants in the last two days while another Hindu man survived a bid on his life. Hitesh Dalpat Ramavat, the alleged serial killer who had murdered three persons in the city since April, apparently had sex with two of the victims before stoning them to death, police said today. Ramavat, arrested from Jamnagar yesterday, had earned the sobriquet "stone-killer" as he killed the victims by hitting them on head with a stone. Sagar Mewada, his first victim, was killed on April 20, followed by Pravin Barad (May 23) and Vallabh Rangani (June 2). "We have found trace of semen on the bodies of two victims, which showed he had sexual intercourse with them before killing them," city police commissioner Anupamsinh Gehlot said. "He was planning to kill more people with the intention of robbing them," said Gehlot. "Some 12 years ago, an unidentified person sexually abused Ramavat and offered him money for it. Following this, he started indulging in homosexual activity, primarily for earning money," Gehlot said at a press conference here. "When he could not get enough money any longer this way, he started looting his targets and killed them. "He informed the family members of the victim (using the victim's mobile phone) about the murder," the commissioner said, adding that (information) helped police in tracing his movements. Ramavat did not suffer from any mental disorder and was "mentally fit," Gehlot said. "He was brought up in Rajkot and knew the areas from where to pick up a victim and how to persuade him to go to a deserted place with him. He would then kill the person by hitting on head with a stone and looted cash, mobile, etc," the commissioner said. Police tracked his movement after each killing from the mobile phone record, which led them to Rajkot railway station. According to police, he lived in Jamnagar, but came to Rajkot for committing the crime and went back. Further probe is on, Gehlot said. BJP president Amit Shah today attacked Rahul Gandhi after the Congress Vice President questioned the NDA government's achievements, saying it was no mean feat that even the opposition has been unable to level any corruption charges against it. "I want to tell you Rahul Baba what has the (Narendra) Modi government achieved in the last two years. It has not engaged in even a single instance of corruption like your previous government which carried out corruption everywhere," he said. "The Congress government indulged in the 2G scam, AgustaWestland Helicopter scam, scam in purchasing Air India planes, CWG and Adarsh society scam, besides a scam in purchasing submarines and coal scam. "From land to sky, they were only involved in corruption and scams," Shah said addressing to the Jan Swabhiman rally here. "I want to tell you (Rahul) that in these two years, even the opposition has been unable to level any corruption charges against our government. This is our achievement," he said responding to Rahul's remark at a press conference where he wondered what has the Modi government done in its last two years. Shah also said while Pakistan beheaded Indian soldiers under the Congress government, India is now giving a befitting reply. "Under your government, Pakistan was beheading our soldiers and taking their heads to their country, but now this has stopped. If a firing starts from the Pakistani side, it is India which fires the last bullet bringing an end to the exchange of fire. "Wahah se goli chalti hai to yaha se gola chalta hai (If a bullet is fired from there, then a bomb is set off from here). This has been achieved in the last two years," Shah said. He accused the SP government of not properly implementing the central welfare schemes in the state and said "If UP wants better development, it must help NDA form government in the state too." He hailed schemes such as 'Stand Up India', Startup India and Skill India launched by the Prime Minister "to empower our youths". Praising the Jan Dhan Yojana, Shah said the recent Mudra scheme has benefited small businessmen in the country. He said the SP and BSP governments were responsible for poverty and unemployment in the state and the youth were forced to migrate to other states for employment. "We want to develop UP and generate employment here so that people may not have to go anywhere else in search of job but this can only be achieved when our government is formed in UP," he said. Uttar Pradesh will become the best state after NDA comes into power, he added.Shah said in order to curb corruption, the NDA government has done away with interview for in class 3 and 4 central government jobs. Alleging that one could land government jobs in Uttar Pradesh only after paying bribe, Shah accused the SP dispensation of indulging in corruption. Shah also targeted BSP chief Mayawati, saying her partymen were leaving and she would be left alone as the 2017 assembly polls near. He said only BJP can defeat SP and the people of the state need to lend their full support to NDA to form the next government. Three teenage school boys were stripped naked and mercilessly beaten up by a group of men for allegedly stealing money from a shop near Hoskote in Bengaluru rural district, a video of which went viral today. Police said four persons were arrested today in connection with the Thursday's incident. The video shows a group of men repeatedly beating three boys with a stick and chasing them all across a deserted area even as they cry out in pain. "They beat them, accused them of stealing from the shop; there are bruises all over their body...After getting to know about the incident we took him to Hospital for treatment and then gave a complaint," father of one of the victims said. "The boys were picked up after school by the group and taken to a nearby deserted area to be tortured. They are 8th standard students and were on fast (Ramzan),"a relative of one of the victims said. Parents alleged that the boys were even given shock treatment by the men, one of whom was the shopkeeper's son. Police said they are on the lookout for some other men, includng the shopkeeper's son. Families of the boys had earlier charged the police with inaction over the case.Karnataka State Child Rights Commission is also seized of the matter. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), in laymens terms, allows foreign companies to establish their businesses in the host country. This can be done either through wholly-owned subsidiaries or joint ventures with host-country companies. In India, foreign investors with ownership of at least 10% equity in an Indian company qualify as FDI. With this provision, investors also get voting rights and thereby have a say in management. In an economy like India, where the saving-investment ratio is low, inflow of FDI is expected to raise the level of investment in popular sectors, such as retail and even the in not-so-popular sectors like animal husbandry, security services and broadcasting carriages. This investment will in turn spur growth and employment through capital building, but, more importantly provide access to modern technology for making quality products. In addition, it will promote the Make in India initiative to give a boost to the manufacturing sector. Opening doors The norms for FDI in single-brand retail have been relaxed such that local sourcing requirements can be bypassed by high-tech foreign companies with cutting edge technology. The revised norms would open the doors for foreign companies such as Cupertino-based Apple and Chinese smartphone maker LeEco. However, cutting edge technology remains open to different interpretations. A three-year delay to start local sourcing sounds fair enough for foreign brands. This way, local technology and manufacturing will not be adversely affected and at the same time, it will not hamper its own growth. The impact of this change is likely to be minimal as single-brand retailers wont generate any jobs in the SME sector, which employs 40% of Indias workforce. It is expected to boost consumption-based growth. FDI norms have been relaxed in animal husbandry by doing away with the clause of controlled conditions in pisciculture, acquaculture and apiculture. With the removal of this restricting clause, foreign genetic companies would be willing to set up base in the country that would help in increasing yields and improve animal breeds. This paves the way for 100% FDI through the automatic route for foreign research and development (R&D) agencies that were hitherto unwilling to bring in new technology sans investments. For instance, aquaculture, whose produce is mostly for foreign markets, technology dissemination from foreign firms would not only aid domestic players in lowering production costs, but also make their products globally competitive. The bulk of seafood exports consist of frozen aquaculture shrimps. While the shrimp farms are mostly located in the coastal states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, they procure the brood stock for seeds from the firms in the US. If these foreign firms are allowed to set up shop, they will be able to establish brood stock multiplication centres in the country, which will bring down the import bill of the domestic shrimp farms. Similarly, for milch animals, by allowing foreign players to become investors, it is likely that they will be willing to share technology that will help milk producers and farmers. For example, milk production could be increased manifold if we could get technology, whereby only female calf is produced. Other relaxations As part of a broader plan, the FDI norms have been liberalised in broadcast carriage services like teleports, cable TV, DTH, HITS and mobile TV. The government had raised the foreign investment limit for DTH, cable networks and HITS to 100% from 74%, noting that only 49% FDI was allowed through the automatic route. This implies that direct-to-home (DTH) operators, cable network companies, headend-in-the sky (HITS) operators and mobile television operators can now raise 100% FDI without seeking approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). This decision will help several new international players to enter the country through the automatic route. This will also make it easier for international investors to make an entry into these sectors and help attract investments quicker. The new FDI policy is expected to open up fiscal and tax incentives for cable networks and would bring relief to cable industry which is struggling under the process of digitisation as pushed by the government in the last few years. Most importantly, the government should address real operational and regulatory concerns as well as the proper valuation of cable and DTH to attract more FDI inflows into this sector. For private security services, the FDI cap has been increased from 49% to 74%. These agencies can bring in 49% FDI under the automatic route. Beyond 49% and up to 74% would require government approval. This is a remarkable change from the existing policy. However, for implementing the changes would require amendments to the PSAR Act (2005). The proposal will, however, bring in investment into areas such as training, equipment and even ownerships. The governments move to liberalise foreign investment will improve investor sentiment and attract and promote FDI for accelerated economic growth in the longer run. While the initiative of the government needs to be applauded, certain clarifications are still required to be provided with respect to the some amendments to the FDI policy. For example, what would constitute cutting edge for single brand traders remain to be seen, as the terms have not been defined yet and clarity with respect to the same needs to be provided. (The author is an Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Indian Institute of Management -Tiruchirappalli) In the third week of June 2016, the government tweaked the norms for FDI in the defence sector to encourage multi-national corporations (MNCs) to invest in the production of weapons systems and defence equipment in India through joint ventures (JVs) with Indian companies. Earlier, in July 2014, the government had permitted FDI in the defence sector up to 49% without prior approval known as the automatic route and beyond 49% after prior approval, provided the MNC brought in or agreed to transfer state-of-the-art defence technology. This requirement has now been relaxed to permit FDI beyond 49% even if modern technology is transferred. The government has also brought the manufacture of small arms and ammunition under the FDI in defence rules. Together, both these moves are expected to encourage the manufacture of weapons systems and defence equipment in India. No country that is not substantially self-reliant in defence production can aspire to become a dominant military power in its region and, in due course, on the world stage. Make in India is a key feature of the NDA governments policy for economic development. It was realised by the Modi government that it is necessary to undertake major reform of its defence procurement policies to promote indigenisation. Failing transformational changes, the import content of defence acquisitions will continue to remain between 70 and 80%. Modernisation and upgradation Plans for military modernisation must simultaneously lead to a transformative upgradation in the defence technology base and manufacturing prowess, or else, defence procurement will remain mired in disadvantageous buyer-seller, patron-client relationships like that with the erstwhile Soviet Union and now Russia. While India has been manufacturing Russian fighter aircraft, tanks and other equipment under licence for long, the Russians never actually transferred technology to India. New weapons acquisitions must take place with a transfer of technology (ToT) clause being built into the contract, even if it means having to pay a higher price. The government continues to retain its monopoly on research and development and defence production through the DRDO, the ordnance factories and the defence PSUs (DPSUs). Though the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) was amended in March 2016, to reflect the new thinking on making and buying Indian, the changes were not far reaching enough and the process still favours the defence PSUs over the private sector. No country will give India strategic technologies, such as nuclear warhead and ballistic missile technologies, know-how on building nuclear-powered submarines and ballistic missile defence (BMD) technology. It will remain the responsibility of the DRDO to conduct original R&D into strategic technologies. For the development of hi-tech weapons platforms like fighter-bomber aircraft and sophisticated defence equipment like over-the-horizon (OTH) radars, there should be no need to reinvent the wheel. These should be developed jointly in conjunction with Indias strategic partners by forming JVs with defence MNCs that are willing to transfer modern technology. Prioritise privatisation The privatisation of most of the ordnance factories and some of the defence PSUs should be considered on priority. The private sector has shown its readiness and technological proficiency to take up the production of weapons and equipment designed and developed by the DRDO and must be trusted to deliver. Though FDI in defence manufacture has been increased from 26 to 49% through the automatic route, this is not considered attractive enough by defence MNCs as it is 74% for many non-defence sectors. Given the time and effort that goes into locating a joint venture partner, the risks involved and the fact that they are expected to bring in proprietary technology, the MNCs prefer to have a controlling stake. In FY 2015-16, FDI in the defence sector was limited to Rs 64 lakh. Streamlining the procedures Just like the government had not defined state-of-the-art technology in specific terms, it has not defined modern technology that would be eligible for FDI beyond 49% with prior approval. Broadly speaking, modern technology would be mature third-generation technology bordering on fourth generation for example, Hellfire air-to-surface missiles and OTH radars. While exports of defence equipment have been permitted, the procedures for according the approvals that are necessary and the regulatory framework need to be streamlined. The offsets policy has not worked to Indias advantage. The defence industrys ability to absorb hi-tech offsets 50 or even 30% is limited at present. It may be more prudent to consider offsets only in cases where the benefits expected to accrue will outweigh the additional costs and Indian JV partners can absorb the technology that is brought in. In November 2015, the government restored services as eligible offsets for defence contracts, opening up a business potential of over $3 billion in immediate projects. The government also added the development of software and engineering design to the list of eligible offsets, but limited it to 20% of the project cost. This will bring some relief to the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) and software industries, as also companies involved in the upgradation of military systems and life extension projects of defence equipment. Defence Economic Zones The government should examine the feasibility of establishing Defence Economic Zones (DEZs) to provide incentives for indigenous defence manufacture. There is an inescapable need to establish an Institute of Defence Acquisition under the Chiefs of Staff Committee. The US has a Defence Acquisition University where all officers nominated for posts dealing with defence procurement are trained. The life cycle concept of evaluating defence equipment for acquisition was completely alien to the armed forces till very recently. Military modernisation has two major facets the replacement of obsolete and obsolescent weapons and equipment with modern ones, which results in increasing combat effectiveness; and, the qualitative upgradation of combat capabilities through the acquisition and induction of force multipliers. As the defence budget is invariably much smaller than the requirement, military planners face a major dilemma how to improve operational preparedness while simultaneously making concerted efforts to modernise. Logically, operational preparedness must take precedence over modernisation. The art of leadership lies in finding an optimum balance so that all efforts that are made to enhance operational preparedness also contribute substantively to modernisation. As the largest importer of arms and equipment in the world, India has the advantage of buyers clout. This clout must be exploited fully to further Indias quest for self-sufficiency in the indigenous production of weapons and equipment. In 10-15 years India must begin to acquire most of its defence equipment needs from Indian companies under the new category Buy (Indian Designed, Developed and Manufactured) introduced in DPP 2016. Only then will the era of self-reliance in defence acquisition truly dawn on the country. It will be a difficult quest, but not one that a great nation cannot realise. (The writer is Distinguished Fellow, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) and former Director, Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), New Delhi) The Central Governments decision to allow up to 74% FDI as brownfield investment in pharmaceutical companies through the automatic route has serious implications for the industry as well as the people. With this change in FDI policy, the government has opened up for powerful multinationals and investors the easy route of acquisition of domestic pharmaceutical companies. The target of the multinationals will be large and medium scale family owned or individual controlled pharmaceutical companies. Multinationals and foreign investors have been campaigning for the brownfield FDI option to be put on automatic approval route. It takes time and effort to set up a new manufacturing company in pharmaceuticals. The better option is to acquire an established business. Even when the current government policy already allows 100% FDI in greenfield projects through automatic approval route, the industry has failed to attract much FDI inflows under this route. The brownfield FDI allows them to capture the market and dominate the sector at a lesser cost with good returns. Today, foreign firms are very keen to take over the domestic companies to move into the domestic market and to utilise the production base which the nation nurtured to take care of the domestic public health needs. Foreign firms, big pharma in particular, are known for their neglect of the needs of the poor in the developing countries. Foreign firms did not take interest in serving the goals of affordable quality medicine when they dominated the sector in India. Experience shows that domestic firms have been more responsive to the incentives and discipline of the Indian government. It was and would be possible to align far better the economic considerations of domestic firms with the goals of public health and industrial development of the country. R&D productivity crisis Foreign firms are interested to kill the problem of potential competition from the domestic firms from the roots. Their profitability has been falling due to the growing R&D productivity crisis emerging from their faulty business model and strong intellectual property driven R&D organisation. Their generic business takeovers are not resulting in the infusion of additional necessary capital into the acquired companies. The foreign owners are only leveraging the built up reserves of the Indian companies. The inflows on account of acquisition often go into the personal accounts of Indian promoters whose re-entry is prohibited by the takeover agreements. When the acquired companies had foreign private equity (PE) investors already among the major shareholders, the desire to additional stable foreign inflows was not met as part of the takeover proceeds (on account of buyout of foreign PE investors) flew out. This was evident in the case of acquisition of Paras Pharma and Matrix Labs. In the normal course, it is logical to suggest that, had the companies not been taken over, the Indian companies would have deployed the resources for furthering the operations of the companies. The changes made in the FDI policy do not provide a corrective for the acquired companies to convert these reserves into production and innovation related investments. The enabling policy framework is missing to make them strategically competitive. In fact, there is evidence that the barriers to entry are growing due to the rising concentration and control of the MNCs in many important therapeutic segments relating to non-communicable diseases. High and medium level of market concentration is already the case in close to 50% of the domestic market. Consequences of growing market concentration is showing up in either import dependence or availability and affordability of medicines, and change in the control of generic business (including exports). Policymakers need to address such anti-competitive conduct, it can be done by adding conditions with regard to these practices on the investor through the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) at the time of the approval. Attempt to impose the non-compete agreements by Mylan on Agila Specialities and Onco Therapies of Strides Acrolab will illustrate the danger. Although the Competition Commission of India managed to dilute in part the restrictions that aimed at killing the competition from Indian promoters, but one can imagine that when the foreign acquirer has the power what all it can imply for pricing and supply of critical medicines in India. Transparent conditionality The FDI policy does not address the expected adverse impact of changing market structure and strategic control on the prospects of local production and innovation and the access to essential medicines. The FDI policy should introduce a clear and transparent conditionality that will compulsorily all the brownfield investors to undertake greenfield foreign investment of a matching amount for the purpose of expansion of activities of production and innovation to be undertaken from the basic stage in concerned company. The policy of 74% share of FDI to the foreign investor and the remaining with locals does not attend to the issue of participation of the local investors in the company operations. The FDI policy should ensure the presence of a local promoter by checking the articles of association, shareholder agreement, collaboration/technology licensing agreements for the qualifications of local partners to be provided for before granting approval to a foreign invested joint venture. The local partner should be an existing player in the industry holding relevant licenses, skilled personnel and having a minimum paid up capital to justify its effective stake in the company and the ability to carry on in case the foreign investor wishes to quit / not to cooperate at any point of time in the future. The FDI policy should provide for the imposition of additional specific obligations on the investor seeking remedies against anti-competitive behaviour. The investor can be made to divest the business if it is observed that the investor is contributing to import dependence and is not willing to take steps to manufacture the drug locally. The investor can be made to part with the control of intellectual property if the market concentration and import dependence is found to be growing on account of the business acquired from the domestic market. Finally, the FDI policy needs to stipulate the obligation of the investees to report on the activities to be undertaken within the stipulated period. The FDI policy needs to introduce the review clause which will allow the government to throw out any conditions inimical to the autonomous development and the anomalies in the socially responsible functioning of the Indian entity. Violations can be dealt with thereon under FEMA appropriately. (The author is Professor, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), New Delhi) The New Civil Aviation Policy, 2016, has been finally cleared by the Cabinet. The acrimonious 5/20 rule controversy between airlines has been resolved as the period of five year wait has been done away with while retaining requirement of 20 aircraft by an airline before they fly abroad. Also the requirement of 20% of total capacity of an airline to be kept for domestic aviation has been introduced to ensure that domestic connectivity is not sacrificed, as was contended by one airline. The fact that the domestic sector is not as profitable as international routes has been accepted and to that extent, there is a need for introspection by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Another major aspect of the new policy is laying down a policy for Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) for unserved locations, which is excellent. This will become the basis of a much needed aviation infrastructure for the country as the present aviation density is largely between metros. It has been stated that ticket prices under RCS will be only Rs 2,500 for one hour flight for airports under RCS. Subsidy from a new fund yet to be created, along with concessions from the state governments will be needed for a route to qualify under RCS. Along with this, opening of about 50 remote unserved airports is expected. In order to meet the likely loss due to fixing of ticket price for remote connectivity, it has been proposed to provide Viability Gap Funding by a small levy per departure on all major domestic routes. This will go a long way in making RCS at unserved airports viable. Such a policy will lead to economic development of remote regions through industrial growth and tourism. Many developed countries like the US, Canada, Finland etc, have such schemes, and it is high time that we start such a scheme in India now. The existing Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDG) has been retained with some tweaking. The RDG is meant to assist Northeast, Jammu & Kashmir and island territories. Uttarakhand and Himachal have also been added to this list. So we have now two subsidised schemes in the new civil aviation policyRCS and RDG. While RCS will be subsidised by the government directly, RDG will continue to be subsidised by the airlines. However, eventually, it is the passenger who will pay for both. Nevertheless, I consider this as a positive development as aviation is a catalyst for growth and remote regions will get the incentive they deserve. With over 10% growth in the domestic sector, this is acceptable. The mechanism for RGD is already well established. For RCS a new mechanism will need to be put in place. Normally, this is done by reverse auction, that is, the airlines are asked to bid for remote routes and the one asking for the lowest subsidy gets it. If it is ensured that the frequency of flights to such remote airports under RCS is maintained throughout the year, the economics of the remote airport also becomes viable. Some enlightened administrations in Madhya Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar islands have already introduced similar schemes and meet the subsidy out of their own budget. The other main feature of the new aviation policy is with regard to bilateral rights for international routes in which the concept of open skies has been introduced for South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) countries and countries beyond 5,000 km from Delhi on reciprocal basis. This will ensure that while the open sky policy is introduced internationally, the Gulf countries and Singapore are kept out. This is necessary as during the UPA-II rule, far too many flying rights were given to the Gulf nations, at the detriment of our airlines, while retaining the 5/20 policy. This scandal is yet to be exposed. This imbalance has been corrected in this policy. With this, one hopes that one or two of our airports would become an international hub like Dubai or Singapore. This is a good policy as it will give a major boost to inbound tourism. Another major feature of this policy is giving a positive direction towards viability of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) services. The unnecessary negative custom and fiscal policies towards it has become a drain on the country as airlines have been sending their aircraft abroad for maintenance and repair-related works. Clarity needed Apart from the above, the creation of an independent corporate entity for Air Navigation Services or modifying the policy on construction of an airport within 150 km of the existing airports has been discussed. The new Ground Handling Policy of three ground handlers with self-handling by airlines needs more clarification. The policy falls short of replacing the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) with an independent authority, but promises to give the DGCA more independence. The policy has projected that India will have 300 million domestic passengers by 2022, that is in six years. While the basis of this projection has not been given, there is no reason to doubt that India is poised for a major jump in domestic aviation if our current GDP growth continues to remain over 7% annually, along with the policies of RDG and RCS. However, less than a week after the Cabinet cleared the Civil Aviation Policy came the announcement that there will be 100% FDI in airlines with the rider that foreign airlines will not be permitted over 49% equity. This means the traditional concept of Cabotage (meaning domestic air services will be run by nationally-owned airlines) existing all over the world has been done away with. This will also impact the internationally accepted concept that an airline registered in a country should be substantially owned and effectively controlled by nationals of that country. This may attract FDI but can kill the national airline industry when big international airlines with deep pockets start running on our domestic routes, as any foreigner airline can then set up an airline in India with 49% of its own equity and the balance 51% from a fund of their choice. Are we looking forward to this? We need to introspect on this issue. (The writer was a joint secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, and is chairman, International Foundation for Aviation, Aerospace and Development -India Chapter) For the first time in the history of Indian civil aviation, a policy document covering all aspects of civil aviation has been approved by the Cabinet. The Ministry of Civil aviation has gone through an extensive consultation process with all stakeholders and the policy is a positive move and will benefit the passenger, along with the anticipated growth. The National Civil Aviation Policy, 2016, keeps in mind the passenger and paves the way for long-term growth of the sector. If the 2015-16 fiscal saw 80 million domestic passengers, the target is to touch 300 million by 2022. The vision is to have a long-term policy which will achieve domestic passenger traffic of 500 million by 2027 and international traffic of 200 million. The document also emphasises on safe, secure and affordable air travel in the years to come. The scrapping of 5/20 rule and making it a simple 0/20 is an excellent policy directive. This will enable Indian carriers both low cost and full service airlines to fly overseas and offer very competitive fares. This will also improve connectivity as most of the domestic airlines have a vast network across India. The domestic carriers will require wide-bodied aircraft to compete with the existing international carriers. This will make overseas travel affordable and simple as the connectivity issue will automatically get resolved. This will also enable passengers from all operating airports to fly overseas, and that too with less hassles. The Indian carriers will now be free to enter into code-share agreements with foreign carriers for any destination within India on a reciprocal basis. International code-share agreements between Indian and foreign carriers will also be completely liberalised, subject to air services agreement, which India has with 109 countries spread across the world. India has 132 airports supporting all operational facilities but the airlines are unable to fly to all the operating airports. If this is facilitated, it will lead to better connectivity, simply because they do not have sufficient load factors. Keeping this in mind, the government will promote the growth of scheduled commuter airlines (SCAs). The SCAs shall have aircraft with capacity of less than 100 seats. There will be no restrictions on the number of aircraft for operating an SCA but will only need to operate a minimum number of movements per week. This will enable activating several ghost airports which number to 25% of the operational airports, thus increasing connectivity. The best part of the policy is the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS). It is gratifying to note that passengers flying from an airport which takes less than 30 minutes to reach can fly at a very reasonable cost of Rs 1,200, and for a flight of 60 minutes, the maximum airfare will be Rs 2,500. Both these fares are capped. The Central government will fund 80% of the airlines losses for making the RCS popular and practical. This will bring in a multiplier effect in the growth of air travel. The recent announcement by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) allowing airlines to import aircraft which are around 18 years old, but with certain conditions, is a welcome sign for boosting RCS, and this will bring in several new players and open up opportunities for better connectivity in Tier II and III cities. The RCS is a highlight of the policy and will certainly enable large sections of the population to take to flying. To make the scheme a bigger success and a reality, the Centre must insist on the states to provide connectivity by road, as only then can passengers from remote areas find flying affordable, safe and convenient. The government deserves to be complimented for giving importance to RCS and for also offering several incentives to ensure that it becomes a success within 12 to 15 months. Single-window system The policy mandates that the DGCA create a single-window system for all aviation-related transactions, queries and complaints. It is important to ensure that the system works real-time and on a 24/7 basis, thus relieving passengers of their agony, distress and disillusionment whenever they encounter a difficulty. There is an urgent need to bring in this single-window system into operation on top priority. One of the most important factors that needs immediate attention is development of airport infrastructure across the country, especially the no-frills airports to ensure that traffic growth goes hand in hand with growth of infrastructure. The Centre must act in real quick time in creating new airports in all the metros as most of the existing airports are going to handle more passengers than what they are capable of right now with the existing facilities. This is particularly applicable to New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. The government must keep in mind the fact that land acquisition, bidding process, infrastructure creation and the time for real operations will take 5-7 years. A detailed study is required with regard to the top 25 airports and the expansion plan must be drawn up to the levels of anticipated passenger traffic growth. The FDI in aviation as announced recently, particularly with regard to greenfield and brownfield airports, is laudable. The Centre, in collaboration with states, must attract FDI in the airport sector on an urgent basis, as otherwise the targets laid down for passenger traffic cannot be achieved within the time frame mentioned in the policy. (The writer is founder & national president, Air Passengers Association of India, Chennai) Australia appeared to be heading for a hung parliament as half the votes counted in a national poll today showed a neck-and-neck contest between Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's conservative coalition and Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten. More than 10 million people cast ballots, on top of four million who voted early to decide the fate of over 1,600 candidates, including five of Indian-origin, contesting from over 55 political parities. In Sydney, 61-year-old Turnbull voted along with his wife Lucy at the Double Bay Public School in his seat of Wentworth. The polls will elect all 226 members including 150 members for the lower house of the 45th parliament after an eight-week official campaign period following the double dissolution announced by Prime Minister Turnbull in April. In the 150-seat House of Representatives, Labor currently holds 55 seats, the coalition 90 and five seats are held by minor parties or independents. The Coalition has faced a swing against it nationally of 3.6 per cent, with seats set to fall in New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania. With more than 70 per cent of the vote counted, the Coalition was on track to win 73 seats, while Labor was set to claim 66. Shorten told party faithful at a function in Victoria that the close result was a vindication of Labor's policies. "There is one thing for sure - the Labor Party is back," he said. "Three years after the Liberals came to power in a landslide they have lost their mandate. And Mr Turnbull's economic program, such as it was, has been rejected by the people of Australia, whatever happens next week," he said. Shorten is vying to become the country's fifth premier in three years. Labor was decimated at the 2013 election, when Tony Abbott led the party. Meanwhile Turnbull said he was confident of forming the government again. Pre-poll and postal votes will now be crucial to determining the final result. If the Coalition finishes with less than 76 votes, it would need to negotiate with independents and minor parties to stay in power. It would likely negotiate with Nick Xenophon's new MP Rebecca Sharkie, Victorian independent Cathy McGowan and Queenslander Bob Katter to secure its position. The main contest is between Turnbull and his conservative coalition against a Labor opposition led by Shorten. Early results from east coast and south Australian polling booths indicate a neck-and-neck race between the two major parties. The Australian Electoral Commission reported a 3 per cent swing to the Labor Party with around 20 per cent of the vote counted. It projected 63 seats to the coalition and 62 to Labor. Minor party candidates are also taking seats and a hung parliament is possible, media reports said. Shorten's claims that the government intended to dismantle Australia's public health system, Medicare, was widely being credited with creating a late swing to Labor. He said he was confident Labor could win. "Labor is very competitive," he said, adding "I know that some of the conservative political papers have run their drum beat and whatever happens, the Liberals will win. The fact of the matter is that Labor's agenda has been speaking to the daily lives and experiences of Australians." Turnbull, who called an early election partly to establish a new mandate for his government after ousting the unpopular Tony Abbott as conservative leader 10 months ago, repeated his call for voters to choose the Coalition and avoid a hung parliament. "As I said there's never been a more exciting time to vote for a stable majority Coalition government, an economic plan that secures our future," he said. A Newspoll published in The Australian showed Turnbull's Liberal/National coalition 50.5 to 49.5 per cent in front on a two-party basis. Meanwhile, four men were reportedly arrested overnight and later released for allegedly damaging polling booths in St Kilda area in Melbourne. Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers Ananth Kumar has said that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has endorsed the BJPs contention that there is rampant corruption and maladministration in Karnataka. Addressing a meeting of BJP leaders and workers here on Saturday, Kumar said that Siddaramaiah while addressing top bureaucrats at the Vidhana Soudha recently had wondered whether there was a semblance of governance in the state. The union minister said, Siddaramaiah himself had said that the Centres funds for supplying drinking water in drought-hit districts went unutilised. The districts included Mysuru, Hassan, Chitradurga, Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural. Out of the Rs 141 crore released, just Rs 28 crore has been spent. Deputy commissioners would be held responsible for such lapses, he had said. Siddaramaiah, according to Kumar, also noted that sub-registrar offices have turned into a den of corruption. Even to effect a small change in a persons name, bribe has to be paid. Out of 140 letters written to officials from his (chief ministers) office, hardly 19 received replies, Kumar quoted the chief minister as saying. The Union minister then sardonically remarked that it was not the BJP talking about lapses in administration but the chief minister himself. The prime minister released Rs 2,500 crore in two instalments as crop loan relief but the funds remain unused, Kumar suggested. He stressed that the chief ministers comments on his own government should be conveyed to the people so that they could judge his performance. State BJP president B S Yeddyurappa on Saturday warned that there is no room for pardoning those who indulge in anti-party activities and issue statements to the media against the partys unity. He was addressing a special session of the BJPs newly-appointed office bearers, organisational heads, legislators and MPs in Bengaluru. The day-long meeting gained significance in view of a section of the party leaders including Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council K S Eshwarappa questioning the appointments made by Yeddyurappa after he took over as state president recently. Except Eshwarappa, all the senior leaders including Union ministers Ananth Kumar, D V Sadananda Gowda and G M Siddesh and the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Jagadish Shettar were present. Eshwarappa, it is said, was in Bengaluru but remained incommunicado. The meeting consciously skipped discussion on the controversial statements being issued by Eshwarappa against Yeddyurappa. Supporters of Eshwarappa did not speak out at the meeting. Chikkamagaluru MLA C T Ravi, who is also not happy with some of the appointments, made it to the meeting. Eshwarappa is cut up as Yeddyurappa has appointed S Rudre Gowda as the president of Shivamogga unit of the party. Gowda had contested against Eshwarappa as the KJP candidate in the last Assembly elections from Shivamogga. Though both of them lost, Gowda had secured more votes than Eshwarappa. At the meeting, Yeddyurappa mentioned that a function held in Shivamogga on Friday to mark Gowdas appointment as district president went off very well. Disciplinary panel I will immediately constitute a disciplinary committee. There is no question of tolerating anti-party activities. Whoever they may be, they will have to face action if they go against the party. Do not give statements in the media which will be against the partys unity. When there is infighting in the Congress and the JD (S), we have a huge responsibility of going together, Yeddyurappa told the meeting. Addressing the media later, BJP spokesman S Suresh Kumar said there is nothing new about the party having a disciplinary committee. As per the partys constitution, such a committee should be formed. As a new state president has been appointed, he would be reconstituting the committee, he added. Yeddyurappa said the aim of the party is to win 150 seats in the next elections and oust the Congress from power. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah himself has spoken about his governments failures. The same should be printed and circulated among the public to expose the Congress government, he said. He directed the legislators to compulsorily attend the legislature commencing from July 4. Legislature session Suresh Kumar told the media that during the legislature session, the BJP would raise controversies regarding the alternative site allotments by the Bangalore Development Authority, irregularities in sand mining, forest land act violation by minister Rudrappa Lamani among others. Asked why Eshwarappa did not make it to the meeting, Kumar said he was unaware of the reasons. Eshwarappa and Yeddyurappa are good friends and they belong to same district, he added. A signal-free corridor ought to be created to ease the movement of ambulances ferrying patients who may have suffered myocardial infarction, said Dr K S Ravindranath, vice chancellor, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS). Speaking at the STEMI India 2016 conference, he said even though one 108 ambulance was stationed at the taluk level, it was not enough. Transport is an important issue when it comes to heart attacks. In places with heavy traffic density such as Bengaluru, a green corridor becomes necessary for heart attack patients as well, Dr Ravindranath added. Meanwhile, Dr C N Manjunath, Director, Jayadeva Institute of Cardio Vascular Sciences and Research said it is important to reach out to the rural masses. This can be done through STEMI Karnataka, a non-profit organisation, which has tied up with major hospitals such as Jayadeva Hospital, Narayana Hrudayalaya and Vikram Hospitals, he said. To begin with, a connect would be established between these hospitals and the taluks or hoblis in four zones Bengaluru, Mysuru, Kalaburagi and Mangaluru. Dr Manjunath said for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), commonly known as coronary angioplasty, hospitals need not do just PCI. They can do a thrombolysis instead. It is a crime if someone is forced to undergo angioplasty just because there is no thrombolysis, he added. Thrombolysis is a process of dissolving clots instead of opting for surgical intervention. He also sought that RGUHS give a grant of Rs 75 lakh towards STEMI to help reach out to the masses. The suggestions put forth by the panel of experts who took part in the conference would later be compiled and sent to the Department of Health and Family Welfare and Department of Medical Education for clearance. A 24-year-old engineering graduate from Tirunelveli killed Infosys techie S Swathi after she spurned his advances, police revealed on Saturday. They said P Ramkumar, who moved to Chennai three months ago in search of a job, got obsessed with Swathi and stalked her for several weeks. In a midnight swoop, police in Tirunelveli rounded up Ramkumar at his native Sengottai, as the killer tried to end his life slitting his throat. They rushed him to Tirunelveli government hospital where he underwent a surgery and had 18 stitches on his throat. Doctors said Ramkumar is out of danger and is likely to leave hospital in two or three days. Chennai police commissioner T K Rajendran said police zeroed in on Ramkumar after reviewing several CCTV footages. Several police team were involved in the investigation that lasted for a week. Rajendran also said the available evidences clearly point to Ramkumar, who acted alone without an accomplice. People helped us by sharing information, the commissioner said. We could crack the case based on inputs we received from the public. The Commissioner also said Swathis parents also gave full cooperation to the probe. Ramkumar had been staying at a mansion in Choolaimedu for the past three months after moving to the city, the neighbourhood where Swathis house is also located. The Commissioner said Ramkumar stalked her for several weeks eager to have a relationship with the young techie, but she spurned his interests. Pro tem speaker Shivashankar Reddy on Saturday said that his office was examining the complaint against eight JD(S) MLAs who cross-voted during the recent elections to the Rajya Sabha. Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Reddy said that the Assembly secretariat was in the process of taking legal opinion and action would be taken if needed. The Speakers election will be held on Tuesday, a day after the 19-day legislature session begins. The session will conclude on July 29. Reddy also said that a private bill seeking the abolition of the Legislative Council would be formally withdrawn during the session. To ensure safety of schoolchildren, the enforcement wing of the Transport department on Saturday launched a crackdown against illegal school vehicles in the city. The authorities checked several vehicles and seized 10 belonging to Cambridge School in Vijayanagar as they were operating without permit. Narendra Holkar, Joint Commissioner of Transport (Bangalore Urban & Rural) said private vehicles plying without adopting safety guidelines are considered illegal. He said strict action will be initiated against such vehicles and even their registration can be cancelled. The drive to seize such vehicles would continue for a few more days and special teams have been formed for the purpose. He advised parents to take utmost care while choosing vehicles to send their kids to schools. The Karnataka unit of the Confederation of Central Government Gazetted Officers' Organisation was formed on Saturday to address grievances of its members to the government. S Mohan, general secretary of the organisation said the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission approved by the Cabinet on pay hikes for government employees was highly disappointing and unacceptable. Media projected this as positive news without analysing it. There was only a marginal increase in pay. In the present economic conditions, the proposed pay hike is not adequate, he said. High ranking officials take the maximum share of hike while low ranking officials get nothing. If the Union government does not heed to our pleas, we would have to call for a country-wide protest, he warned. The Food and Civil Supplies Department will carry out surprise checks of multi-brand retail outlets in Bengaluru following complaints that they are selling tur dal at high prices. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting chaired by Food and Civil Supplies Minister U T Khader on Saturday, where representatives of wholesaler associations and trade bodies like the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) participated. At the meeting, it was learnt that multi-brand retail outlets are selling tur dal at Rs 180 to Rs 200 per kilogram with the MRP of Rs 315 being printed on the packs. The retail outlets are supposedly selling the lentil at the said rates on the pretext of giving a Ramzan discount. Khader asked officials of his department to conduct surprise checks of the outlets and issue them notices if they are found to be selling the lentil at such high prices. Other multi-brand retail outlets like Adani and Reliance will also come under the scanner, the minister said. Khader said the association had agreed to sell tur dal at Rs 130 per kg (regular quality) and Rs 145 per kg (premium quality) at select counters in wholesale markets. Tur dal will be sold at these rates for the next three months, so that prices are controlled. Harsh Gupta, principal secretary of the department, said that Karnataka had sought 5,000 metric tonnes of tur dal from the Centre, and the consignment was expected to arrive next week. He said the departments powers to curb hoarding were limited to specifying/restricting stock limits to retail outlets. A trader has brought to the departments notice that the More supermarket chain was selling tur dal at high prices. The price appears to be high. We will examine the matter and if it is found that consumer rights are being affected, then we will refer the matter to the consumer court. According to Gupta, the government cannot dictate terms to independent businesses but can only put restrictions on the stock held. A portion of Pantharapalya near Avalahalli on the Outer Ring Road in west Bengaluru looked ravaged as if has been hit by a powerful tremor as the Bengaluru Urban district authorities on Saturday carried out an extensive anti-encroachment drive to reclaim 25 acres of government land after a legal battle of 57 years. Officials with a contingent of about 300 policemen, 100 gangmen and 20 earthmovers swooped down at Pantharapalya in the morning and bulldozed hundreds of structures including shops, garages, welding shops, a refill gas cylinder distribution agency of Indane, warehouses and a large number of shanties. The open space was used for parking hundreds of private vehicles. There was a strong resistance by shopkeepers and slum dwellers. But they could not muster courage to continue their protest due to the heavy police presence. As the drive extended to the shanties, the slum dwellers stood in front of the earthmovers, preventing the authorities to proceed further. The residents said they have been living there for many years and once their houses are razed, they have to spend the night in the open sky. After reclaiming the land, the authorities put up boards at many places stating that it belongs to the Revenue Department. Hillock plundered The said land in survey number 47 of Pantharapalya used to be a lush green hillock just like the one adjacent to it, which is inhabited by wild creatures. The land grabbers completely ruined the hillock and converted it into plains. Locals say that there were peacocks, a variety of snakes and mongoose in good number on the hillock. Rajanna, a resident of Pantharapalya, said: My father would tell us how scary it used to be to walk on the village road in the night during his childhood due to the forest. Right in front of our eyes we saw the hillock plundered. Assistant Commissioner, Bengaluru South sub-division, L C Nagaraj, said the controversy started in January 1959. Soon after the Inam (gift) Land Abolition Act came into force, the land came under the government control as it was a hillock. However, some people laid claim to the land saying that it was gifted to them. There were no records to prove that, he said. The case was fought in the land tribunal, High Court and Supreme Court. The matter was later referred to the land tribunal again and an order was passed in favour of the state government four days ago. Twenty foreigners, including an Indian girl, were hacked to death by suspected IS militants inside a cafe popular with expats in the diplomatic zone here. The Bangladesh army commandos launched an assault early on Saturday, killing six attackers and capturing one alive. Director of Military Operations Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said the militants slaughtered 20 hostages before the joint operation led by the armed forces began. Most of those killed were found with their throat slit, he added. Indian girl Tarishi Jain (19), who was taken hostage, was also killed by the attackers. Nine Italians, 7 Japanese and an American were also killed in the attack. Two senior police officers lost their lives in the gunbattle which began on Friday night. Italys foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni said one Italian was still unaccounted for. However, the identity of two others killed in the attack was still unclear. Some reports said three Bangladeshis were among the dead. Brigadier Chowdhury said the bodies were recovered during a search in the Holey Artisan Bakery compound after the operation. Army Para commando Unit-1 led the operation and killed six terrorists within 13 minutes, Chowdhury told reporters. The mission codenamed Operation Thunderbolt was launched after prime minister Sheikh Hasina ordered the army to intervene and end the hostage crisis, he said. Gunshots and sounds of explosion rocked the area at 7.40 am (local time) as security forces launched the final assault. Minutes later, Hasina announced the end of the siege and said security forces successfully wrapped up their operation, freeing 13 hostages after killing six terrorists and capturing one militant at the Spanish cafe. It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are they? They dont have any religion, she said in a televised speech. Among those rescued were Indian, Sri Lankan and Japanese nationals, media reports said. Around 30 people were injured. Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack through its Amaq news agency, nearly four hours after the hostage crisis unfolded, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence group, which monitors jihadist activity online. The agency issued a number of photographs of what it said were scenes from inside the restaurant. The pictures showed what appeared to be a number of bodies lying in pools of blood. Amaq claimed that 24 people had been killed in the attack carried out by what it described as ISIS commandos. Heavy firing and explosions continued at least for an hour after the operation began this morning. Shots were also fired from armoured personnel carriers (APCs). Later, the APCs broke through the walls and entered the restaurant premises. After hours of quiet at the Holey Artisan Bakery where terrorists were holding hostages, a fresh round of heavy gunfire rang out in the morning. On Friday night, terrorists shouting Allahu Akbar barged into the cafe, frequented by diplomats and expatriates, and opened indiscriminate fire at around 9.20 pm (local time). The deceased policemen have been identified as officer in-charge of nearby Banani police station, Salahuddin Ahmed and Additional Commissioner of Police Rabiul. An Argentine national and a local escaped after taking refuge in a nearby house when the gunmen entered the restaurant. Police said they have detained two employees of the eatery for questioning. An Indian teenager was among the 20 hostages killed by terrorists in Bangladesh in an overnight attack, which prompted New Delhi to offer all assistance to the neighbouring countrys government to combat religious extremism. Tarishi Jain (19) was confirmed killed by terrorists who stormed into an eatery at upmarket Gulshan area in Dhaka late on Friday. The Bangladesh army commandos found her lying dead among the corpses of other hostages when they entered the restaurant early Saturday morning and gunned down six terrorists and caught another alive. Tarishis father, Sanjeev Jain, has a garment business in Bangladesh. She studied in the American School in Dhaka before joining the University of California, Berkeley. She was on a vacation in Dhaka and was having dinner at Holey Artisan Bakery when the terrorists entered the eatery and took her and many other foreigners hostages. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina soon after the hostage crisis ended. The attack in Dhaka has pained us beyond words. I spoke to PM Sheikh Hasina & (and) strongly condemned the despicable attack, Modi posted on Twitter, adding, India stands firmly with our sisters & (and) brothers of Bangladesh in this hour of grief. New Delhi closely monitored the deadly terror attack in its eastern neighbourhood and was even ready to send its elite National Security Guard commandos to Dhaka to help end the siege should the Bangladesh government make such a request, officials told the DH here. Reports received by New Delhi from Dhaka late on Friday indicated the possibility of at least two Indians being among the hostages held by the terrorists. The Ministry of External Affairs swung into action and asked the High Commission of India in Dhaka to contact the Bangladesh government to verify the authenticity of the reports. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was in touch with the officials of the High Commission of India in Dhaka throughout the night. It was she who finally had to confirm Tarishis death in a tweet on Saturday after the Bangladesh Army commandos took control of the eatery. Three minor boys were stripped and brutally assaulted by seven men who accused them of stealing money from a shop in Hosakote. The incident, which occurred on Thursday, came to light on Saturday after a video showing the men beating up the boys went viral on social media. Television channels, too, repeatedly aired the video. The local police swung into action and detained four men, including a shopkeeper, in connection with the incident. Two of the boys are brothers and the third victim belongs to another family. The video shows the seven men chasing the boys, stripping them and beating them up with a stick. One of them even stood on the hands of one of the boys, while two others thrashed him. The footage also showed the suspects thrashing the children despite pleading with their tormentors for mercy as they were fasting for Ramzan. The boys were assaulted as the shopkeeper believed they stole money from his shop. The incident occurred on June 30 and the police have detained four men. All the seven suspects will be arrested, Bengaluru Rural SP Amit Singh told Deccan Herald. The police have booked the suspects for rioting, abduction and assault, he said. The parents went to the police station late in the night on June 30, but did not lodge a complaint. They returned the next day and lodged a complaint. Action would be taken against the police officers if they had delayed acting against the suspects, the SP said. The incident came to light when one of the suspects recorded the attack on his mobile phone and sent to his friend on WhatsApp. The video was further shared by others and it was picked up by television channels, the police said. The father of one of the victims, employed at a tinkering shop and residing in Qazi Mohalla, said his son was tortured for more than two hours. My son, who is studying in the government school at Hosakote, was sitting in the school ground during lunchbreak, while two other boys were playing. The suspects beat up the boys who were playing and then turned their ire on my son. They took the boys to an electrical shop and accused them of having stolen some valuables at a shop owned by Nooruddin. They even gave electric shocks to the three children, he claimed. They took the boys to an eucalyptus grove on Chintamani-Hoskote road, stripped them and beat them with wooden logs. I rushed there after being informed and spotted the boys being beaten up. Four of them were standing on my sons hands and legs, while one of them beat him. They threatened to assault me when I requested them to stop beating my son and I left the place, he added. He said Nooruddin, Mastan, Ayub, Shamsheer, Zabi and Gandhi were involved in the attack. Meera Saxena, interim chairperson, Karnataka State Human Rights Commission, sought action against the suspects. Its an inhuman and brutal act which is not acceptable. This is not the way to deal with children in conflict with law, and appropriate action should be taken against the suspects, she demanded. Kripa Alva, chairperson, Karnataka State Child Rights Protection Committee, said they have already sent summons to the suspects. We have spoken to the police as well. An FIR has been filed. We have insisted that they be arrested. If not, we will initiate action against them, she added. Normal life in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) was thrown out of gear on Saturday as heavy rain continued, severely disrupting road, rail and air services. Mumbais adjoining districts of Thane, Raigad and Palghar received heavy rainfall throughout Saturday. People were seen wading through knee-deep water in several lowlying areas. More than 100 trees were uprooted in the MMR, and winds lashed the shoreline. Even as huge tidal waves were hitting the coast, a lot of people visited the Marine Drive, Worli Seaface and Gateway of India. The commercial capital has been having its second consecutive wet weekend. Vasai taluka in Palghar, located nearly 60 km away from downtown Mumbai, has recorded a maximum rainfall of around 300mm in the past 36 hours, resulting in flooding in several places. In Fatherwadi area of Vasai-East, two people died when a wall collapsed. Mumbai city and its suburbs, on an average, recorded 80mm to 100 mm rainfall in the past 36 hours. The catchment areas of Mumbai Tulsi and Vihar located inside the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, received 70mm and 100mm, respectively. The Mumbai-based Regional Meteorological Observatory of the IMD has forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall in the Konkan-Goa coast for Sunday. Fishermen have been advised not to venture into the choppy Arabian Sea. In Mumbai, the services of the Western Railway and the Main and Harbour line services of the Central Railway were badly affected, as water flowed above the tracks. A series of technical snags led to delays in the services, ranging from 15 minutes to 45 minutes. While there was waterlogging in Kurla and Wadala on the Harbour line, water gushed onto the tracks in Sion-Matunga on the Main line. Coast guards rescue 10 The Indian Coast Guard on Saturday rescued 10 lives from Daman Ganga River amid the monsoons fury. At about 4.30 pm, Indian Coast Guard Air Station, Daman, received a telephonic information from Valsad Administration (Gujarat) regarding 10 people trapped in the river between Dadra and Naroli, due to rise of water level. 29 South Films Which Have Been Remade In Bollywood! 6 World-Class Directors That Are Working in Bollywood Today Ohio's 6-week abortion ban was a fringe idea. Heres how it became law Ohio led a slow, determined push to steadily weaken and then nearly eliminate abortion rights. It's indicative of what has happened around the U.S. A Taiwanese warship on Friday accidentally fired a supersonic anti-ship missile towards mainland China that hit a fishing boat, killing one and injuring three people, on a day China was busy celebrating the 95th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party. The accidental launch of the domestically developed Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missile from a naval base in Kaohsiung, south of the island, took place as Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen, also commander-in-chief of the armed forces, was overseas. The missile, with a range of 300 kilometres, flew about 75 km before plunging into waters off Penghu, a Taiwanese -administered island in the Taiwan Strait. The Taiwanese defence ministry said the missile hit a Taiwanese fishing boat, killing one person and injuring three crew members. "The missile was launched by operational error. We are investigating the case," Vice-Admiral Mei Chia-hsu of the Taiwanese Navy was quoted as saying by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. Asked if the incident risked a misunderstanding with Beijing, Mei said the navy had reported the incident to the island's defence ministry, which would handle the case accordingly. Meanwhile in Beijing, Taiwan figured prominently in a speech by President Xi Jinping to a rally to mark the 95th anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), where he said China is firmly opposed to Taiwan's independence. Xi, who is also the general secretary of the CPC, stressed the political foundation of adhering to the 1992 Consensus and opposing "Taiwan independence" to ensure the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations. "We firmly oppose the 'Taiwan independence' secessionist activities," Xi said at the ceremony. "More than 1.3 billion Chinese people and the whole Chinese nation will by no means tolerate secessionist activities by any person, at any time and in any form," he said. China claims Taiwan as part of the mainland despite the 1949 estrangement. Relations between the two sides which showed significant improvement in recent years took a hit after election of Tsai, who defeated Ma Ying-Jeou who promoted normalisation of ties between the two sides in recent election. Tsai has also refused to endorse the concept of a single Chinese nation. China has scaled down the normalisation process since then. The Taiwanese missile did not pass the mid-course line of the Taiwan Strait, Mei said, which meant it was not aimed at Fujian province, which lies on the other side of the strait. Mei said the Chinchiang (PCG-610) patrol ship was undergoing a drill inspection when officers failed to follow standard operating procedures and launched the missile by mistake. India, Cyprus finalise DTAA; capital gains to be taxed at source country India and Cyprus have reached an in-principle agreement on all pending issues on Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, including taxation of capital gains, which once implemented would help remove the island-nation from a non-cooperative jurisdiction for income tax purposes. An official level meeting between India and Cyprus in New Delhi last week finalized a new India Cyprus Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, wherein all pending issues, including taxation of capital gains, were discussed, and in-principle agreement was reached on all pending issues. It was agreed to provide for source based taxation of capital gains on transfer of shares. However, a grandfathering clause would be provided for investments made prior to 1 April 2017, in respect of which capital gains would be taxed in the country of which taxpayer is a resident. These provisional agreements will now be placed before the cabinet for its approval, subsequent to which the new tax treaty can be signed by the two countries. Both sides also discussed the issue of notification of Cyprus under section 94A of Income-tax Act, 1961. It was agreed that India will consider rescinding the said notification with effect from 1 November 2013, and will be initiating the process for the same. Both sides expressed satisfaction with the progress achieved at the meeting, and hoped that it would lead to resolution of all pending matters at the earliest. Amman Mineral to buy majority stake in Indonesian copper and gold mine for $2.6 bn Indonesian investor group Amman Mineral Internasional yesterday struck a deal to buy a majority 82.2 per cent of Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT), operator of Indonesia's second-biggest copper and gold mine for $2.6 billion. Under the deal, Amman Mineral Internasional will buy 56 per cent of NNT from US miner Newmont Mining Corp and Japan's Sumitomo Corp and its partners and the remaining 26.2 per cent from local companies. Post closing, Newmont will receive $1.3 billion for its 48.5 per cent stake. Sumitomo will receive $350 million and an additional $202.5 million if certain conditions are met for its 27.56 per cent stake. "Selling our stake in PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara for fair value is aligned with our strategic priorities to lower debt, fund our highest margin projects and create value for shareholders," said Gary Goldberg, president and CEO of Newmont. Batu Hijau is a large, surface mine operation, primarily producing copper and small amounts of gold and silver. Originally discovered in 1990, commercial production began in 2000. The Batu Hijau mine, one of Indonesia's largest copper deposits, is located in the southwest region of the island of Sumbawa, in the West Nusa Tenggara Province. It produces 328,000 ounces of gold annually and 240 million pounds of copper. Miners have been shedding assets due to a continued slump in commodities prices. Earlier this month, mining giant BHP Billiton agreed to sell its 75 per cent stake in IndoMet Coal to local producer PT Alam Tri Abadi. Halloween creatures owls, crows and bats all live at Crossroads, and that makes us very happy, for these scary animals make a positive contribution to the habitats of the preserve. We don't even mind black cats, IF they are kept indoors. Feral and outdoor cats are exceedingly harmful to wildlife ... and that's not a superstition! But to tamp down superstitions, we at Crossroads will spend the week demystifying Halloween creatures. On October 28, 2022, at 6 p.m. will be our Evening with Owls. The Open Door Bird Sanctuary will be at Crossroads, offering a one-hour presentation followed by the opportunity to meet and greet live birds. Learn all about owls and the other incredible birds in the care of the Sanctuary! Down through the centuries, in many cultures throughout the world, owls have been associated with evil and death. Truth is, owls probably are not smart enough to be evil. But researchers agree that owls are about as dim as the nighttime forests in which they hunt. Owls don't need to be smart. They have everything else going for them. They are muscular. They fly silently. Their huge eyes enable them to see in the dark. Their beaks and talons are strong and wickedly sharp. But their sensitive ears are what make owls extraordinary hunters. Most people assume that the plumicorns (a.k.a. "horns) of an owl are its ears. Not so. The actual ears lie under feathers on the sides of the head, and they aren't symmetrical. Because one ear is higher than the other and the ears are unequal in size, sound is different from different directions, helping owls locate prey, which they do almost unfailingly, even in total darkness. Owls do not smell their prey. As with most birds, the sense of smell is insignificant, if it exists are all. Great Horned Owls frequently prey on skunks. Enough said. But well-developed intelligence? Researchers have observed owls beating their wings on bushes to try to flush out little birds. Is this learned behavior? Is it problem-solving? Maybe. For the most part, owls do not have a lot of problems to solve. They appropriate abandoned nests of other birds, so they don't need building skills. They are stealthy by nature, and they pounce on and usually catch anything they hear, so they don't need hunting techniques. In spite of ghost stories, legends of American First People, and superstitions from Europe and India, hooting owls do not foretell impending death, although their nocturnal calls are spooky. We hear them now and then this time of year, but we will regularly hear those eerie calls at Crossroads in January or February. In contrast to owls, crows are noisy all year round and they are amazingly intelligent. They can learn. They can remember. They can solve problems. They can even identify individual humans. And they detest owls, though whether this is innate or learned behavior is not clear. Those curious about crows will want to attend the Crossroads Book Club on Wednesday, October 26, at 10:00 a.m. This month, the book Crow Planet, Essential Wisdom for the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt will explore the fascinating world of these remarkable birds. The program is free and open to all, whether or not they have read the book. So bring the family to our program on owls, learn about crows at the Crossroads Book Club, or learn about bats at our pre-school Junior Nature Club on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. or our Family Science Saturday program at 2:00 p.m. Costumes are encouraged but not required at Junior Nature Club and Science Saturday, and adult visitors are welcome. Larry Castleman, Charlie Walker and Jim Crowe dont believe in leaving fellow veterans behind. The officers with Dothan Chapter 87 Disabled American Veterans and others volunteer at the chapters service office to assist veterans and their families. The office provides help with overdue utilities and rent payments, food and transportation. More importantly, it helps veterans and their families file claims with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for compensation related to illness and injuries caused while serving on active duty. Compensation includes benefits and services earned through military service and provided by the VA and other government agencies. For some veterans it takes years or decades for a physical or mental problem or illness to develop. For me, it was 40 years from when I retired from the military until I filed a claim, said Castleman, who serves as Dothan chapter commander. When I filed a claim they gave me a disability. All of the services provided by the DAV are free of charge, yet many veterans dont know about the office at 545 W. Main St. in the Mixson Business Center. Castleman is one of the service officers who went through training to do the paperwork. He said veterans should always seek assistance in filing claims. The rule I guess is dont ever file a claim directly to the VA, Castleman said. Get a military organization to be your advocate, and then they kind of look out for you. Castleman said the DAV can help any veteran find out about benefits that are available, from rehabilitation and education programs to pensions, death benefits, employment and training programs. According to the organizations national website, in 2015 alone DAV helped veterans and family members obtain more than $4.04 billion in new and retroactive benefits. Records, especially medical records, are often key in filing a disability claim. Documents can help back up claims on anything from Agent Orange and asbestos exposure to the burn pits used in Iraq and Afghanistan to incinerate trash and materiel. Walker, the senior vice commander of the Dothan chapter, said a lot of veterans learn about the office through word of mouth. Theyre complaining to a friend, the friend says go see the DAV, Walker said. Castleman said if the DAV cannot help it directs veterans and family members to organizations that can. He said Wiregrass United Way 2-1-1 is a tremendous source of information on agencies and programs, and often refers callers to the DAV. Crowe, the chapters treasurer, said Dothans Saliba Center for Families donates the space in the Mixson Business Center free of charge because they believe in us that much, they see what we do. Without their support wed be in trouble. The DAV office relies on fundraising projects and donations to operate. While the Dothan chapter has over 700 members and an auxiliary that consists of veterans spouses and family members, relatively few help raise funds or work at the service office. The national DAV is close to 100 years old. The Dothan chapter has been a part of the Dothan market for more than 40 years and has had an active service office for more than 30 years, Crowe said. Some newer service organizations dont cover all veterans. The Wounded Warrior Project, for instance, helps only post-9/11 veterans. Some organizations send care packages and do other things for active duty personnel, but that doesnt take care of the veterans once they leave service, Crowe said. Castleman said Mayor Mike Schmitz is a big supporter of the Dothan chapter and all veterans organizations. Businesses like Golden Corral and Harley-Davidson of Dothan and organizations like the National Peanut Festival and the train and gun shows it hosts help provide ways for the DAV chapter to raise funds to assist veterans and their families. The chapter works with the Wiregrass Area United Way Food Bank to provide food for people who apply. It can always use donations and volunteers. It also needs younger veterans to get involved so the DAV can continue to provide assistance for years to come. The service office operates from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Wednesday. It can be reached at 836-0217, extension 122. So what do those who work in the service office get out of volunteering? Satisfaction in helping someone who needs it, Walker said. I hate to see a veteran out there not making it. Home Four wheelers Are You Ready To Wait For 3 Months For A Toyota Innova Crysta? oi-Ajinkya Toyota Kirloskar Motors introduced the all-new Innova Crysta in the Indian market recently. As always, the demand for Toyota's MPV has only risen, thus, creating a waiting period of approximately three months. Surprisingly, Toyota has received the maximum booking for its top-spec Innova Crysta. Their Z variant Innova Crysta is the most popular model in the Indian market, which costs Rs. 20.39 lakh ex-showroom (Delhi). Innova Crysta is currently the best-selling four-wheeler within Toyota's offering. At this point, Toyota dealers have recorded over 20,000 bookings of the Innova Crysta. Of which, Toyota has managed to deliver 7,295 MPV models since launch. Toyota India witnessed an overall growth of 29 percent during June, thanks to the all-new MPV. Currently, Toyota is not permitted to sell the Innova Crysta in Delhi due to the ban on the sale of diesel vehicles with engines bigger than 2,000cc. On July 11th, Supreme court will be addressing the issue once again. There is a possibility that the ban could be lifted by introducing a one-time environment cess. Innova Crysta sales could be even higher once it is allowed to be sold in Delhi-NCR region. They will soon be introducing a petrol powered Innova Crysta that would gain some traction in the Delhi-NCR region. Stay tuned for more updates and news from Toyota India operations. Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain. Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred. For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here. Blog Archive June 2021 (1) May 2021 (77) April 2021 (77) March 2021 (82) February 2021 (68) January 2021 (64) December 2020 (67) November 2020 (66) October 2020 (66) September 2020 (67) August 2020 (74) July 2020 (83) June 2020 (92) May 2020 (86) April 2020 (104) March 2020 (105) February 2020 (74) January 2020 (75) December 2019 (75) November 2019 (70) October 2019 (89) September 2019 (69) August 2019 (81) July 2019 (77) June 2019 (73) May 2019 (110) April 2019 (110) March 2019 (102) February 2019 (85) January 2019 (123) December 2018 (116) November 2018 (112) October 2018 (121) September 2018 (107) August 2018 (150) July 2018 (163) June 2018 (190) May 2018 (145) April 2018 (112) March 2018 (124) February 2018 (113) January 2018 (164) December 2017 (150) November 2017 (144) October 2017 (169) September 2017 (171) August 2017 (135) July 2017 (131) June 2017 (147) May 2017 (160) April 2017 (138) March 2017 (156) February 2017 (143) January 2017 (203) December 2016 (208) November 2016 (185) October 2016 (173) September 2016 (194) August 2016 (232) July 2016 (225) June 2016 (238) May 2016 (231) April 2016 (215) March 2016 (246) February 2016 (226) January 2016 (252) December 2015 (230) November 2015 (250) October 2015 (234) September 2015 (222) August 2015 (253) July 2015 (275) June 2015 (279) May 2015 (223) April 2015 (226) March 2015 (243) February 2015 (258) January 2015 (281) December 2014 (292) November 2014 (296) October 2014 (413) September 2014 (472) August 2014 (506) July 2014 (483) June 2014 (488) May 2014 (512) April 2014 (497) March 2014 (531) February 2014 (482) January 2014 (535) December 2013 (482) November 2013 (441) October 2013 (416) September 2013 (491) August 2013 (521) July 2013 (491) June 2013 (470) May 2013 (457) April 2013 (426) March 2013 (420) February 2013 (414) January 2013 (489) December 2012 (433) November 2012 (504) October 2012 (469) September 2012 (430) August 2012 (427) July 2012 (360) June 2012 (336) May 2012 (362) April 2012 (322) March 2012 (263) February 2012 (224) January 2012 (291) December 2011 (295) November 2011 (325) October 2011 (330) September 2011 (319) August 2011 (333) July 2011 (318) June 2011 (387) May 2011 (373) April 2011 (389) March 2011 (375) February 2011 (335) January 2011 (400) December 2010 (445) November 2010 (395) October 2010 (312) September 2010 (262) August 2010 (277) July 2010 (323) June 2010 (386) May 2010 (360) April 2010 (333) March 2010 (351) February 2010 (336) January 2010 (384) December 2009 (353) November 2009 (300) October 2009 (308) September 2009 (350) August 2009 (298) July 2009 (255) June 2009 (203) May 2009 (193) April 2009 (186) March 2009 (197) February 2009 (173) January 2009 (148) December 2008 (181) November 2008 (197) October 2008 (236) September 2008 (304) August 2008 (314) July 2008 (273) June 2008 (27) May 2008 (1) April 2008 (6) October 2007 (1) May 2007 (1) April 2007 (6) March 2007 (2) February 2007 (1) October 2006 (1) September 2006 (1) August 2006 (4) July 2006 (4) June 2006 (1) July 2005 (1) May 2005 (2) March 2005 (1) June 2004 (2) May 2004 (1) April 2004 (4) March 2004 (2) February 2004 (2) July 2003 (2) June 2003 (5) (Photo: REUTERS / Gonzalo Fuentes)Nayet (C), wearing a Burqa, and Kenza Drider (L), a French Muslim of North African descent, wearing a niqab, are seen after their release from a police station in Paris April 11, 2011. France's ban on full face veils, a first in Europe, went into force on April 11, 2011, exposing anyone who wears the Muslim niqab or burqa in public to fines of 150 euros (6) and lessons in French citizenship. A law banning face-covering headgear such as the burqa has come into effect in Switzerland's canton of Ticino, and on the first day a Swiss woman, who converted to Islam, was apprehended for breaking the law. The Swiss woman and a French-Algerian businessman are facing fines after defying the law, voted in by a 2013 referendum, in Italian-speaking Ticino, that banned face-covering headgear on its first day, July 1. The two chose the moment to publically oppose the ban in the lakeside city of Locarno. The law forbids burqas in shops, restaurants, or public buildings, with offenders facing a fine of up to 10,000 Swiss francs (around $10,280). Nora Illi is a member of the radical Islamic Central Council Switzerland and she walked through the streets of Locarno wearing a full length burqa before police officers stopped her, Swissinfo reported. She was arrested along with Rachid Nekkaz, who has also openly protested similar bans in Belgium and France. As a foreign national, Nekkaz was immediately fined 200 fine Swiss francs for incitement to break the law, plus 30 francs to cover costs. His eventual fine could rise depending on the verdict of the local authorities. Illi, from Zurich who converted to Islam in 2002 and she faces a fine of between 100 and 10,000 Swiss francs. PAY FINES TO RAISE AWARENESS Nekkaz said he would pay all of the eventual fines out of his own pocket to raise awareness of what he considers a discriminatory law. The Ticino region's Parliament approved a referendum in 2013 banning face-covering headgear, but it was not enforced until now. France, the Netherlands, and Belgium have passed similar laws that in 2014 were upheld by the European Court of Human Rights. Muslim's account for some 5 percent of Switzerland's 8.34 million total population numbering some 420,000. Ticino borders Italy to the south and has some 350,000 residents, or about 4.2 percent of Switzerland's population. Before the law came into effect in Ticino, the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Bern had reminded its citizens that wearing a burqa or niqab would soon be illegal in canton Ticino. The embassy posted its advisory on Twitter: "The embassy wishes to emphasize that the Ticino cantonal authorities in south eastern Switzerland have announced that as of July 1, 2016 they will start to enforce the burqa (niqab) ban in public places in the canton, including in Lugano, Locarno, Magadino, Bellinzona, Ascona and Mendrisio. "As school holidays [in Saudi Arabia] are coming up, the embassy reminds all honorable citizens of the necessity to respect and conform to Swiss rules and regulations in order avoid all problems." The law makes no exceptions for tourists, The Local Ch reported. During the extremely hot summers in the Gulf region a number of residents holiday in the cooler climate of Switzerland. Some 40,000 visitors from the Middle East traveled to Ticino in 2015. First Secretary of the HCM CYU Central Committee Le Quoc Phong (Photo: VNA) Welcoming his guest, the Lao Vice President highlighted the key role of Vietnamese and Lao youths in developing each nation as well as cementing their traditional ties and comprehensive cooperation. The head of the Vietnamese delegation, First Secretary of the HCM CYU Central Committee Le Quoc Phong reported on joint programmes between the youth unions of the two countries. The two unions have exchanged visits and shared experience in youth affairs and training, with more specific plans to strengthen their ties in the future, Phong said. He informed his host that the HCM CYU has six million members, who have been encouraged by the Party and Government to be active in building and protecting the country as well as cooperating with international youths, particularly those from Laos./. Montevideo, Jul 2 (EFE).- The third edition of the Platino Prizes awards gala, to be held later this month in Uruguay, will lend greater visibility to cinema from that nation and the Ibero-American region as a whole, the director of Uruguay's Film and Audiovisual Institute, or Icau, told EFE in an interview. Holding the gala in the southeastern tourist resort of Punta del Este provides an opportunity for the region's actors, who reflect their different homelands through their performances, to champion the region's many advances, Martin Papich said. He said one of the goals of the Platinos - whose July 24 awards show will be broadcast to more than 50 countries - was to attract the "potential audience" for Uruguayan, Latin American and Ibero-American films. The region is attracting a lot of attention and being viewed as "a phenomenon of cultural and cinematic development" and the source of a steady flow of good stories, solid professionals and top-notch talent, Papich said. That is reflected in the fact that proposals for co-productions are being well-received in Europe and the United States, he added. Asked about the current state of Uruguayan cinema, Papich said it was important to consider the process that has taken place over the past 15 or 20 years, both in terms of talent development and services that are enabling that artistic discipline to evolve. "Uruguayan cinema is becoming more firmly established, part of a process that, taken as a whole, is extremely positive. Film is now a part of Uruguayan culture, and that wasn't so apparent 20 years ago," Papich said. The Icau director said Uruguay had gone from often not having a single annual premier prior to 1994 or 1995 to having an average of 15 in recent years. However, the correlation between numbers of films produced and their commercial success has fluctuated and depends, according to Papich, on both the work of film professionals and the effectiveness of public policy. The Icau director added that the hallmark of Uruguayan cinema was its diversity, which he said was a "potent weapon" against uniformity of taste and of "seeing everything in the same way in the movie theaters, on television or on the computer." "This has to do with societal development, the ability to choose on the basis of a varied offering, not always the same and homogenous. (The awards gala is) a great opportunity to keep moving further in that direction" and continue to reach out to the public, Papich added. Along those same lines, he stressed that heterogeneity was not only a strong suit of Uruguayan cinema but also a defining characteristic of the entire Ibero-American and Latin American market, which offers a wide diversity of "stories and languages." In terms of international acclaim for Uruguayan productions, he said, without naming names, that numerous domestically produced films "had been recognized at major international festivals," thus giving a further boost to the local film industry. Regarding the future of Uruguayan cinema, he said the focus was not on avoiding a loss of visibility at the local or international level but on seeing what steps can be taken to improve and strengthen the domestic market. The Platino Prizes, organized by EGEDA, the Spain-based Audiovisual Producers' Rights Management Association, and the Ibero-American Federation of Audiovisual Producers, or FIPCA, are the first to bring together films from the 23 countries that make up the Ibero-American film industry. Los Angeles, Jul 2 (EFE).- Los Angeles Cathedral in California is currently exhibiting a collection of religious relics associated with English martyrs St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher, Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero and the Spanish missionary Fray Junipero Serra. The traveling "Witness to Freedom" exhibition, which includes a tooth and a bone fragment of Thomas More and a ring worn by John Fisher, was organized as part of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Fortnight for Freedom, and since last June 18 has been on display in cities across the country. The Los Angeles Archdiocese has added to the exhibit of 16th century English martyrs of the Catholic Church, for this Saturday only, the microphone used in his sermons by Romero, assassinated in El Salvador in 1980, along with part of a sheet stained with his blood and an autographed photo of the Salvadoran archbishop. After saying Mass, Archbishop Jose Gomez of the Los Angeles Archdiocese inaugurated the exhibit, which in addition to relics of Romero, whom Pope Francis beatified in May 2015, included a stole and a bone fragment of Fray Junipero Serra, the Spaniard who founded the chain of California missions in the 18th century. Romero's relics are on loan from Maria Gonzalez, a Salvadoran immigrant who owns them and keeps them at her home in Los Angeles. "He used this microphone to give all his sermons in the cathedral, and the day he was killed, when they came storming into the church and attacked the congregation with gunfire, they threw away the microphone," Gonzalez said in a statement to EFE. This Saturday is the last day of the exhibition in the cathedral, whose full name is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, after which it will wind up its tour in Washington. Head of the Party Central Committees Commission for External Relations Hoang Binh Quan (Source: VNA) During his stay in Chile on June 27-28, Quan was received by President Michelle Banchelet, who hoped for the further expansion of economic, trade and investment ties between Chile and Vietnam and for the effective implementation of the bilateral free trade agreement. The Vietnamese official also had meetings with President of the Communist Party Guillermo Teillier and Vice President of the ruling Socialist Party Fernando Krauss Ruz, during which they discussed measures to strengthen the parties cooperation through delegation exchanges. As part of his visit to Argentina from June 29th-30th, Quan had talks with General Secretary of the Communist Party Victor Kot. He thanked the support of the Argentinean people for Vietnams national construction and safeguarding, affirming that he will do his utmost to consolidate the friendship, solidarity and cooperation between the two parties and peoples. At a working session between Quan and President of the Republican Proposal Party Humberto Schiavoni, both sides agreed to increase the exchange of delegations and experience in Party building. Schiavoni spoke highly of Vietnams economic achievements and its increasingly important role in Southeast Asia. He confirmed that Argentina pays attention to expanding its collaboration with Vietnam in all fields, especially in economy, trade and investment. The Vietnamese official held working sessions with Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra and Deputy Foreign Minister Maria Cristina Boldorini, during which they stressed the importance of realising bilateral cooperation agreements, and exchanged notes on measures to boost economic, trade and investment ties. He was welcomed by President of the Senate Federico Pinedo and Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies Patricia Gimenez. Quan also chaired a talk at the Communist Party headquarters on Vietnams socio-economic situation, especially its achievements during the 30-year renewal process. He answered party members queries on sovereignty-related disputes in the East Sea, Vietnams sovereignty over Truong Sa (Spratly) and Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelagoes, and its participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. Vietnam is currently Argentinas sixth largest trade partner, with two-way trade exceeding USD2.5 billion in 2015, up 34 percent from the previous year. On June 29th, the Argentinean Foreign Ministry issued a press announcement appreciating the Vietnamese party delegations working visit. The announcement stated that the visit was part of Argentinas process of implementing its global integration policy and intensifying relations with Asian-Pacific nations./. Famous British inventor donates to engineering students The Island's engineering students have received a 'huge boost' to help their training. A Manx resident has donated high-tech equipment worth more than 500,000 to the Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre. Dr John C Taylor is the founder of engineering firm Strix and is considered to be one of the 'greatest inventors in the British Isles'. This week he visited the centre to unveil a plaque to mark the renaming of the computer numerical control workshop after him. Professor Ronald Barr is the Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Education and Children - he tells us what the generous gift means for them: Media Ronald Barr That didnt take long. When Parliament legalized euthanasia for people with medical conditions leading to foreseeable death, many in the media and among the experts yelled that it was too restrictive. And unconstitutional. Based on the Supreme Courts forcing of Belgium-style euthanasia onto the country, they are probably right. Let the lawsuits begin. From the Globe and Mail story: In a test case on the highly charged issue of whether the right to a medically assisted death should belong only to those who are already dying, a 25-year-old woman with a muscle-wasting disease is claiming the constitutional right to be protected from suffering that could last decades. Julia Lamb of Chilliwack, B.C., filed a constitutional challenge to the Liberal governments assisted-dying law in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday, just 10 days after Parliament passed the law. She does not wish to die now, but says the law denies her the peace of mind of knowing that if her suffering becomes intolerable, she has a way out. But heres the thing. If she gets depressed because of a personal loss of some kind unrelated to her disease, she would still be able to be lethally injected, without the bother of being provided suicide prevention. Is it any wonder that disability rights organizations believe correctly in my view that their constituents are now targets? I find it quite interesting that U.S. media are downplaying the coming of lethal injection euthanasia to Canada. Could it be that they know it will prove the lie of the supposed terminal illness limitation? My prediction: The Supreme Court will overrule Parliament. Even if it doesnt, the gravitational force of popularly approved euthanasia will see disabled and mentally ill people killed at the speed of injected muscle paralyzing poison hitting the heart. And the actual reason for wanting to die and the potential that if kept from being killed many would later be glad they are still alive wont matter a whit. Image: Canadian Parliament via Wikicommons. Cross-posted at Human Exceptionalism. Toyota Kirloskar Motor had sold 10,464 units in the domestic market and exported 1,917 units of the Etios series in June 2015. The company registered a 20 per cent overall growth in sales in June 2016 when compared to the corresponding period last year In the month of June 2016, Toyota Kirloskar Motor sold a total 13,502 units in the domestic market thereby registering a 29 per cent growth over its domestic sales in the corresponding period last year. The company exported 1,352 units of the Etios series this month. Toyota Kirloskar Motor had sold 10,464 units in the domestic market and exported 1,917 units of the Etios series in June 2015. The company registered a 20 per cent overall growth in sales in June 2016 when compared to the corresponding period last year. The Toyota Camry continues its growth spree and 90 per cent of it is contributed by the Camry Hybrid. The Toyota Camry has clocked more than 30 per cent growth when compared to the Camry sales in the same period last year. The Etios model registered a 4 per cent growth when compared to the corresponding period last year. Commenting on the monthly sales, N. Raja, Director & Sr. Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, We launched the Innova Crysta last month and have received an overwhelming response from our customers. We would like to thank our customer for their trust in Toyota. The Innova Crysta has a waiting period of 2 to 3 months and we would request our customers to be patient with us so that we can bring the best products to them. He added, We respect the honorable courts judgment regarding cleaning the bad air quality around us. We would fully support the authorities for creating a better environment for our future generations. We are confident that honorable court will consider our submissions during the next hearing in July and hope the matter is suitably resolved at the earliest. Overview of TKM Company name Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited Equity participation TMC: 89%, Kirloskar Group: 11% Number of employees Approx. 7, 000 + Land area Approx. 432 acres (approx.1,700,000 m2) Building area 74,000 m2 Total Installed Production capacity Upto 3,10,000 units Overview of TKM 1st Plant: Established October 1997 (start of production: December 1999) Location Bidadi Products Innova, Fortuner manufactured in India. Prado, Land Cruiser and Prius imported as CBUs. Installed Production capacity Upto 1,00,000 units Overview of TKM 2nd Plant: Start of Production December 2010 Location On the site of Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited, Bidadi Products Corolla Altis, Etios, Etios Liva, Etios Cross, Camry & Camry Hybrid Installed Production capacity Upto 2,10,000 units Read more news about (marketing news, latest marketing news,internet marketing, marketing India, digital marketing India, media marketing India, advertising news) After a brief 2-day post-Brexit rally, the GBP to CAD exchange rate fell back on news that George Osborne had abandoned plans for a 2020 budget surplus. We examine the latest sterling / Canadian dollar forecasts for the coming week and ask what's in store for the GBPCAD near, medium and long term outlooks. Confidence in the sterling complex was somewhat lacking in the wake of a particularly disappointing UK Construction PMI, which unexpectedly plunged into contraction territory in June. This would seem to suggest that the UK economy was in a less than robust state ahead of the EU referendum, a prospect that pushed the GBP/CAD exchange rate lower on Monday morning. Both monetary and fiscal policy combined to undermine the British pound to Canadian dollar exchange rate on Friday, with announcements from Bank of England (BoE) Governor Mark Carney and Chancellor George Osborne concerning investors. Mark Carney strongly suggested that there would be further monetary easing in the near future on Thursday evening, causing investors to price in at least one summer rate cut. Then, on Friday, Osborne announced he was abandoning his target of creating a government budgetary surplus by 2020 in response to Brexit aftershocks, stating; The government must provide fiscal credibility, so we will continue to be tough on the deficit but we must be realistic about achieving a surplus by the end of this decade. This is precisely the flexibility that our rules provide for. Latest Canadian Dollar Exchange Rates On Thursday the Pound to British Pound exchange rate (GBP/GBP) converts at 1 The live inter-bank GBP-GBP spot rate is quoted as 1 today. The live inter-bank GBP-USD spot rate is quoted as 1.16 today. The GBP to AUD exchange rate converts at 1.787 today. Please note: the FX rates above, updated 27th 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. CAD Exchange Rates Boosted by Strong Economic Growth After becoming increasingly decoupled from crude oil prices, the Canadian Dollar (CAD) exchange rate complex was boosted last week thanks to strong economic growth figures. Strong GDP figures helped boost the Canadian Dollar to a fresh 32-month high against Pound Sterling, with figures showing year on year growth accelerated to 1.5% from 1.2%, instead of climbing to 1.4% as predicted. However, Doug Porter, BMO economist, warned that there were dark clouds on the horizon thanks to the Alberta wildfires, stating; looming over this as-expected result is the fact that next month's reading will no doubt show an ugly decline (we suspect of roughly one per cent) due to the wildfire hit to oil output. This medium-term focus on downside growth risks weakened the Canadian Dollar on Friday. Pound Sterling (GBP) Forecast to Decline vs Canadian Dollar (CAD) Say ANZ Market confidence may have caused a couple of attempted Pound Sterling rallies last week, but ANZ forecast the GBP decline will continue. Despite a couple of days of strong recovery this week, ANZ expect that the Pound has further to fall, as investors digest the latest negative headwinds: Despite the sharp fall in GBP so far, we still see it as vulnerable to further declines. The downgrade of the UKs AAA rating to AA (negative) by S&P has added to the negative tone. Markets had overlooked the UKs growing current account deficit (5.2% of GDP in 2015) previously, but this alongside the uncertainty over its future trade relations and the possibility of rate cuts from the BoE, means it is still too soon to call a bottom for Sterling. The UKs construction PMI is due on Monday, although given the uncertain nature of the UKs economy post-Brexit, the chances are that the result will not have much of an impact, just as Fridays strong manufacturing PMI score failed to particularly move GBP. Investors will be paying close attention to Tuesdays BoE financial stability report. MNI GBP/CAD Exchange Rate Forecast: Brexit Brings Higher Uncertainty to Risk Assets According to MNI, the world after Brexit is one of heightened uncertainty with a higher risk of a global recession, which is "bad news" for most commodity-led countries and their currencies. Oil prices show no signs of stabilising after several days of fluctuating wildly between US$46 and $51, suggesting the Canadian dollar exchange rates could be in for significant headwinds. There are multiple medium-impact Canadian data releases throughout the coming week, including Mondays RBC Canadian Manufacturing PMI (source), although investors will be keeping one eye on Fridays headline unemployment stats (source) Friday, July 1, 2016 This is a great story on the Aegis Ashore missile defense system. It takes the Aegis Defense system ashore to Deveselu, Romania. An expansion is planned to Poland. To learn about relevant ATI Defense courses go to http://www.aticourses.com/catalog_of_all_ATI_courses.htm#radar For more information including a video and graphic of the European Missile Defense System go to: https://news.usni.org/2016/07/01/usni-news-video-whats-aegis-ashore USNI News Video: What is Aegis Ashore? Sam LaGrone - July 1, 2016 - USNI In May, the U.S. Navy and the Missile Defense Agency activated a maritime radar about 200 miles away from any saltwater. The Lockheed Martin SPY-1D radar is installed in Deveselu, Romania and is the heart of the Aegis Ashore missile defense system built on systems found on the Navys guided missile cruisers and destroyers. To put it simply, our new missile defense architecture in Europe will provide stronger, smarter, and swifter defenses of American forces and Americas Allies. It is more comprehensive than the previous program; it deploys capabilities that are proven and cost-effective; and it sustains and builds upon our commitment to protect the U.S. homeland against long-range ballistic missile threats; and it ensures and enhances the protection of all our NATO Allies, President Obama said in 2009. Rating 3.00 out of 5 Saturday, July 2, 2016 Yesterday, the New Mexico Supreme Court killed any hopes for a court-approved route for the state to allow physician aid to help terminally ill patients achieve a peaceful death. The next step in the journey is through the state legislature. The headline in the Albuquerque Journal was confusing: New Mexico assisted suicide law affirmed. New Mexicos highest court Thursday said there is no fundamental or even important right under the state Constitution for a terminally ill patient to have assistance from a physician to end pain and choose the time of ones own death. In its ruling, a unanimous New Mexico Supreme Court bucked a growing movement of states allowing the practice, called aid in dying, by upholding New Mexicos Assisted Suicide Act. Aid in dying as a public issue promises not to go gently into that good night. Rep. Bill McCamley, D-Las Cruces, said Thursday he has formed a working group to look at legislation to allow the practice and expects to have a bill ready for the January 60-day session. We started the process of working on a bill, but refrained from doing anything concrete until the Supreme Court ruled, he said. People with a terminal disease shouldnt have to live in pain. (read the entire article) Kevin Diaz, National Director of Legal Advocacy with Compassion and Choices, sent out an email note late today. Here is what he had to say: Four years ago, two oncologists and their patient asked a New Mexico court to authorize medical aid in dying for terminally ill New Mexico residents. But this week the states Supreme Court ruled against a fundamental constitutional right to this end-of-life option. The decision is disappointing. We know it means New Mexicans will continue suffering needlessly at the end of life. However, the court acknowledged the vital significance of the issue saying, We respectfully acknowledge the magnitude and importance of the very personal desire of a terminally ill patient to decide how to safely and peacefully exit a painful and debilitating life. [I]t is clear to us that such a right cannot be defined without comprehensive legislation. So the fight is far from over, and well need the help of supporters like you, and the majority of New Mexicans who support medical aid in dying, as we pivot to a legislative strategy. Sign the pledge to continue working to expand end-of-life options in New Mexico. During the 19 months that a district courts ruling prevailed, physicians in Bernalillo County were authorized to provide medical aid in dying for their eligible patients. Unfortunately this authorization was temporary, and now we must shift our focus to the state legislature to expand end-of-life options in New Mexico. I would like to thank you and the thousands like you who have supported Compassion & Choices, and once again call on you to raise your voice for all those who would prefer a gentle death to unnecessary suffering at lifes end. Let your voice be heard on this important issue! Troubles for San Antonio-based radio and billboard giant iHeartMedia Inc. worsened this week after negotiations with bond investors to restructure the companys debt broke down, the company warned in a securities filing. The closer to 2019, the more power senior debtholders have said Jack Kranefuss, senior director for corporate credit rater Fitch Ratings in New York. It increases the chances of iHeart having to go through some sort of bankruptcy. IHeartMedia is trying to extend the maturity on some of its $20.8 billion in debt due over the next seven years, said Kranefuss, Fitch Ratings senior director. Almost half the companys notes need to be repaid by 2019, according to company securities disclosures. Sarah Gefter, senior analyst at Reorg Research, said iHeartMedias projected cash flow isnt sufficient to repay the companys debt without renegotiating new repayment terms. The companys best strategy would be to refinance maturing bonds and buy back others that are currently trading at a discount on the open market, some at around 70 cents on the dollar, Gefter said. Its going to be pretty tough, given the interest burden, she said. At some point, even selling its 850 radio stations wont be enough to repay the companys crushing debt load under its current terms because the company is too highly leveraged, Kranefuss said. The companys debt-to-assets ratio, which shows how much leverage a company has, is 11.4, Kranefuss said. But senior debtholders wont be comfortable with the company issuing new debt to repay upcoming maturing debts until the multiple is reduced to about six, he added. IHeartMedia has been in talks with bondholders since May, trying to renegotiate the terms of roughly $6.3 billion in debt due over the next 2 years. The lead negotiator for the bondholders, Franklin Resources Inc.s subsidiary Franklin Advisers Inc., is the largest holder of the loans maturing through 2019. On June 22, some bondholders led by Franklin issued a proposal to iHeartMedia that would have reduced interest rates and extended maturities by a year. In exchange, the bondholders sought to be made whole with 100 percent of loans repaid if iHeartMedia did not repay other unsecured bonds, including some with 2018 maturities, the company disclosed in a securities filing this week. IHeartMedia asked the bondholders Monday for additional interest-rate reductions in exchange for a make-whole commitment. IHeartMedia told investors the following day that talks had broken down. Given the significant gap between the proposals, the company is assessing whether it will continue discussions. No agreement has been reached. There can be no assurance that any agreement will be reached, the company said. In a statement released to the media Tuesday, iHeartMedia said, We continue to evaluate various opportunities to strengthen our capital structure for the benefit of our stakeholders, and we remain focused on positioning iHeartMedia for long-term growth. Fitch Ratings is owned by the Hearst Corp., the parent company of the San Antonio Express-News. The company took on a majority of its debt from its 2008 leveraged buyout by Boston-based private-equity firms Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners. The companys future financial health is shaky, Kranefuss said. The company isnt growing fast enough to warrant issuing new debt to refinance whats maturing, he said. 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. I dont see any scenario where they can do that, he said. It would be hard for them to get to that level where senior creditors would be comfortable with iHeart issuing additional debt. Cash flow is improving, he said, but not fast enough. Nicole Green, a convenant analyst with Xtract Research, said its no surprise that creditors arent giving in. I think the company would look to find ways to push out the maturities of its debts, Green said. Other options might be continued purchasing of its debts at discounts on the open market and selling additional assets, similar to iHeartMedias sales of two buildings in San Antonio, including its headquarters at 200 E. Basse Road, and sales of some broadcast towers, Green said. dhendricks@express-news.net Ukraine has sent the draft agreement on establishment of the Baltic Sea-Black Sea-Caspian Sea international transport corridor to the Azerbaijani side. Such was the statement of Hennadiy Zubko, Ukraine's Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Services he made at the meeting of the Ukraine-Azerbaijan intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation in Baku, his ministry's press service said. "This is a big transport corridor that will synchronize several routes and become very much important in strengthening trade and economic ties. It is also planned to create a unified management organ as part of the corridor to form an overarching strategy for development of cargo transportation in the region," he said. Zubko also revealed that Ukraine and Azerbaijan continue to maintain cooperation on the transportation route dubbed the Silk Road since the results of the pilot run of the Ukraine-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan-China container train proved technical and technological opportunities that such a service brings. The rural economy across Scotland is now benefiting from almost 310 million worth of subsidy payments that has been made to farmers. The Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said significant progress has been made over the last few weeks, with 90 million worth of final payments having been made since June 23 - giving a total of 112 million paid out since the end of May. The Scottish Government will shortly provide an update on the timing for payments under the remaining schemes. Mr Ewing said: "I pledged to make CAP payments my absolute priority and that is what I have done. "We have now paid out almost 310 million to more than 17,700 farms, with more than 90 million in final payments having been made in the last week, providing a real boost to the rural economy. "There will be no let up on our efforts as we work hard to process the remaining payments and put the system on a proper footing for 2016 payments. "I would like to pay tribute to our staff who have been pulling out all of the stops for many months to make payments as quickly as possible this progress is testament to their hard work. "Of course, these figures also underline the importance of the CAP payments to Scottish agriculture and that is one of the reasons why this Government is working to protect Scotlands place within the EU." On Thursday 30 June, VIPs from the agricultural, not for profit and education sectors came together to celebrate the achievements of the 2016 Marshal Papworth Short Course and Masters students. The event saw the unveiling of the 2016 African village, built by the students, and provided an opportunity for guests to engage with the students and learn first-hand how the knowledge and skills learnt in the UK will be disseminated in rural communities once the students return home. During the evening Lord Iveagh, Patron of Marshal Papworth, addressed the attendees and presented each student with a certificate for the course they have successfully completed. The students broke into song as a thank you to Marshal Papworth and the opportunity the charity has provided. Commenting on the evening, Lord Iveagh said: "Marshal Papworth delivers agricultural and horticultural scholarships to students from developing countries, helping them to build a more sustainable future for themselves and their communities with new skills and knowledge of effective farming and agricultural practices. "By educating individuals and communities from some of the poorest communities in the world in sustainable farming practices, the charity is empowering them to become more self-sufficient and reduce food insecurity." Marshal Papworth is wholly managed by the East of England Agricultural Society and has already helped improve the lives of over one hundred and forty students from developing countries. In order to continue this work and give more students the opportunity to benefit from the scheme, the charity relies on donations NFU Scotland has given its commitment to put a 'profitable and productive' sector at the core of its negotiations on Britains exit from Europe and the CAP. The Union remains clear that while the outcome of the vote brings a period of significant uncertainty, it also presents an opportunity to negotiate the best possible deal to support our farming and food sectors. In the few short days since the outcome of the vote, the Union has met with the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy Fergus Ewing to discuss Brexit, ahead of the Scottish Government resilience and cabinet meetings that were held last weekend. It has also used its Brussels office to reach out to the European Commission and other European farming unions. In addition, it has written to Defra Secretary of State, Liz Truss about what must be done now to ensure that we build a strong, vibrant and thriving farming sector. Information has been issued to its membership on the mostly likely timeline for the UK to leave the EU and clarified that existing CAP direct payments will not change this scheme year or next scheme year. In the coming days, the Union will finalise a list of the commitments it is seeking from the UK and Scottish Governments. These will provide an anchor of security in uncertain times and ensure that the outcome of this decision results in a profitable and competitive agricultural industry in Scotland. It is writing to retailers demanding that they support Scottish agriculture during this turbulent time and put in place the proper trading relationship to deliver a fair share of the risks and rewards in the supply chain back to the farmgate. At a political level, it will maintain regular contact with the UK and Scottish Governments, as well as opposition parties, ensuring Scotlands concerns and interests are heard in Europe, via its permanent staff in Brussels. It will engage with the supply trade to understand how Brexit may impact on key farm inputs and what agri-suppliers believe is needed to ensure a thriving supply chain to support Scottish agriculture. It is also pulling together information to better understand the best possible trading options, including wider trade deals, that would be in the best interest of Scottish farmers and crofters. 'No sector more directly afffected by outcome than farming' NFU Scotland President Allan Bowie said: "No sector is more directly affected by the outcome of the vote than farming. "While these are uncertain times, we must make the most of any opportunity that Brexit marks for Scottish agriculture. "Our focus will very firmly be on ensuring that the negotiated exit from the European Union and the Common Agricultural Policy, as well as the domestic arrangements that replace them, will result in a profitable and competitive agricultural industry in Scotland. "We want to see a Scottish farming sector that is growing in output and properly valued by existing and new customers for our produce. "Farming and crofting are at the core of rural Scotland and the rural economy. We are fully committed to working in the best interests of all farmers and crofters. "Nnew arrangements will be put in place for our trading relationship with Europe and the rest of the world and when future domestic support arrangements are being settled." The wet spring has provided ideal conditions for Light Leaf Spot (LLS) to flourish in winter oilseed rape crops as the disease is spread by rain splashes, and as LLS comes into the crop from November onwards, it requires treatment into the spring months. However this year some growers may have missed their autumn sprays, normally targeted against phoma but have an effect against LLS, or it was so wet that they could not travel. The implications of these high infection levels for next seasons crops are considerable, as the fungus which causes LLS can continue to cycle in the crop for the whole season providing that weather conditions are conducive. The fungus survives on debris after harvest and then is ready to infect nearby crops emerging in the autumn. Growers are urged to consider the role that genetics can play in helping to defend against the disease which is equated to the septoria tritici of oilseed rape and which experts believe costs growers 140m a year in lost yields. "Left unchecked LLS can depress yield by more than 1t/ha. Fungicides, of course, can play an important role in controlling the disease but inherent, genetic resistance will give an underlying protection that is invaluable when weather conditions are not favourable to spraying the crop, or the disease is not spotted," says Agriis technical seed manager, David Leaper. "Last year we didnt see such an impact on yield from LLS in England in spite of seeing significant disease in crops in early spring. "Last year February and March were cold and dry, so leaves tended to drop off and the levels of infection were reduced. This year with the cold, wet spring, plants have held onto their leaves and it has been easier to see the symptoms develop and get progressively worse." ADAS plant pathology researcher, Julie Smith agrees. "We have seen big yield losses from LLS in recent years particularly when fields have been too wet to travel and fungicide timings have slipped. "Even the strongest products will not perform well in highly curative situations so its important not to let the disease become established early on." "As a rule of thumb, 15% plants affected at stem extension equates to a 5% yield loss and I saw commercial crops in the spring which were close to 50% affected. "LLS will cycle approximately every 4-6 weeks and the wet weather has helped splash spores around and enabled the fungus to progress up the canopy. "In some years we only see disease in the lower mid third of the plant but I have seen several crops this season with actively sporulating lesions on upper leaves. "These crops are particularly at risk of LLS reaching the pods, which, once infected are likely to senesce prematurely and shatter, causing significant seed losses." "I have also had calls from concerned growers reporting LLS infection on the buds which has subsequently affected flowering." With conditions this winter and spring being so suited to the spread of the disease, Mr Leaper expected to see high infections of LLS across the Agrii WOSR national trials sites but in fact levels are much higher than he expected. "You would expect levels of infection to be high in the north and they are, and we know that LLS has been spreading further and further south and west, but its alarming to see just how high the levels of LLS are at both the Kent site and the Agrifocus site in Swindon." "We have five key trials sites; Cambridgeshire, East Yorkshire, Perth & Kinross, our Agriifocus site in Wiltshire to Kent, at which we have plots of all of the main commercial and candidate OSR varieties. "In our trials we have included a wide range of conventional, hybrid and HOLL recommended and candidate varieties, with up to 40 varieties in the ground, which allows us to really pull apart how the resistance ratings are standing up to the current pressure, but also to see if we future varieties are going to offer any more than what we already have," he adds. "We conduct both untreated and treated comparisons, however, its important to note that the fungicide regime that we use on the treated plots is more similar to that of a farm level programme, so we do see different results to the AHDB trials that receive a fully comprehensive fungicide programme." Mr Leaper explains that at the end of March into early April plots across all of the sites were scored for LLS infection on a rating of 1-9 (with 1 being no infection and 9 being severe) and an average across the sites has then been taken for each variety. "The results have been alarming as there were only four varieties that showed up to or less than 2.5 % infection; the conventional variety Nikita stands out with one of the lowest infection levels at 2.3%, taking into account both treated and untreated results. "Looking at this in more detail, at both the Agrifocus and Kent treated sites, only 1% of plants were infected, and this only went up to 3% of plants infected on the untreated plots, clearly demonstrating the robustness of Nikitas 7 for LLS resistance. "Interestingly, varieties with a resistance rating just one lower than Nikitas did not perform nearly as well. "For example, Campus which is rated a 6 for LLS on the RL showed 6% infection in the untreated and 5% in the treated. "None of the candidate varieties offered any better results than current recommended varieties, so there is no new shining star coming through in the immediate future that will offer better resistance to what we currently have." Nikita missed out being recommended for the east/west list last year on the basis of its lower phoma rating. While this was disappointing we know that in an open autumn a vigorous variety like Nikita will grow quickly. The likelihood of phoma developing into the yield robbing phase of the disease, stem canker, is much reduced says Mr Leaper. "With current LLS pressure this disease must take precedence as it is a much more progressive disease and more difficult to control with the sprayer. Having robust LLS resistance is crucial "Its certainly worth considering this wherever you are in the country when planning variety choice for next year as infection levels look high and autumn conditions are always uncertain for spraying." Dr Vasilis Gegas, senior oilseed rape breeder with Limagrain, notes that in years when LLS pressure is high, resistance ratings may come under pressure and therefore theres a distinct advantage in starting with the highest rating possible. "There have been considerable advances in varietal defence to LLS in the last five years and one of the reasons for this comes down to the fact that with increasing levels of infection year on year, breeders have been able to make better selections and that is why we are seeing varieties with better LLS resistance." Data from CropMonitor show that LLS is increasing year on year on a national scale so we are not yet winning the battle adds Miss Smith. "We need to make smarter variety choices and integrate fungicide programmes with varietal resistance. "We have had limited options on the east west RL list because most of the varieties have been susceptible to LLS with resistance ratings of 6 or below but things are changing now. "There are some excellent new varieties coming through and we must start using them if we are to achieve robust disease control whilst minimising the drive toward fungicide insensitivity." Naftogaz to Gazprom: We order and import gas only via GTS points controlled by Ukraine Naftogaz Ukrainy has once said Gazprom's statements on the state holding's debt for gas allegedly delivered by the Russian company to the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions are false. Naftogaz said in recent years purchase of gas from Gazprom has been carried out exclusively on the terms of advance payment. At the same time, Naftogaz since November 2015 has not bought and has not paid for gas from the Russian company, and prior to that imported gas exclusively through the points of the gas transportation system (GTS) located in the territory controlled by Ukraine. Naftogaz does not accept gas under the contract with Gazprom at the gas metering stations of Prokhorivka and Platove. All mutual claims that arisen within economic relations between Naftogaz and Gazprom have to be resolved through arbitration," Naftogaz said. Fort Bragg to be known as Fort Liberty. Here's what to know. When will Fort Bragg be renamed? Why will it be renamed Fort Liberty? How much will it cost? I was born and bred in Birkenhead Despite forever having my head buried in a novel, the dream of authorship never entered my mind growing up. And why would it have done? My favourite writers did not much resemble me: Jane Austen was not expected to work outside the home; Virginia Woolf's annual allowance funded her room of one's own. I have still to discover a fellow novelist born and bred in Birkenhead. Emma Claire Sweeney by Rosalind Hobley One of my sisters has disabilities Lou's cerebral palsy was detected in 1983, and a name put to her autism far later. The doctor who diagnosed her told our parents to focus their love on their other two daughters, Sarah and me. He said to put Lou in an institution, forget there'd ever been three. Sarah and I are profoundly grateful that our parents ignored the doctor, daring instead to share their love and attention between all three of their girls. My sisters are twins Since Sarah is Lou's twin, people assume that I must be the third wheel. Because of Lou's disabilities, she and Sarah were never in the same class at school or part of the same clubs. Perhaps this is why we've always felt like a trio. I tried to relocate my novel to Birkenhead, but my characters insisted on staying in Morecambe The twin sisters in Owl Song at Dawn - one feted as the cleverest girl in town; the other diagnosed as 'severely subnormal' - speak in Lancashire dialects that refused to morph into Scouse. My sister lived in Lancaster for a while, and her college took trips to the seaside. Subconsciously, I must associate Morecambe with my sister: a place that welcomed her. My grandma, although she's been dead for years, still holds sway over my imagination. She lived off the state pension but wore fur coats and paid weekly visits to the hairdresser; treated us to milk loaf and strawberry splits. But her life was irrevocably damaged by events in her past. And so in my novel I created an elderly woman, both proud and brave, and offered her one last chance. I get ideas from trashy TV The Strangest Hotel in Britain - a show about people with learning disabilities, who work at Foxes Hotel - gave me the idea for the guesthouse in my novel, Sea View Lodge. I write best in bursts Vast swathes of Owl Song at Dawn were written in Circle of Misse in the Loire Valley, an enchanting writing retreat where I hibernate from life's distractions and temptations. If in doubt, run When I hit a problem with my writing, I make myself take a run. By the time I return, sweaty and exhausted, I always have a solution. I just wish I enjoyed running! The writers I return to time and again Jane Austen, Jill Dawson, Edward Hogan, Kazuo Ishiguro, Maggie O'Farrell, Elizabeth Strout, Virginia Woolf. When I met my co-writer, both of us were writing in secret My next book is non-fiction about the friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot and Virginia Woolf. I'm co-writing it with my own friend, Emily Midorikawa. We met fifteen years ago in rural Japan, working as English teachers by day and secretly scribbling stories by night. Todd Phillips is set to return to the director's chair this summer with his brand new comedy War Dogs. War Dogs War Dogs is the first film for Phillips since The Hangover Part III back in 2013 and it is based on a incredible true story. The film sees the director team with Jonah Hill and Miles Teller as they take on the central roles of Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz, a pair of twenty-somethings who land a $300 million deal with the U.S. government. Hill and Teller are two of the most exciting actors around and you can see them in action in this great new trailer for the film. Take a look: Bradley Cooper is also set to make an appearance in the film, while Ana de Armas, J.B. Blanc, and Barry Livingston are also on board. Based on a true story, War Dogs follows two friends in their early 20s (Hill and Teller) living in Miami during the first Iraq War who exploit a little-known government initiative that allows small businesses to bid on U.S. Military contracts. Starting small, they begin raking in big money and are living the high life. But the pair gets in over their heads when they land a 300 million dollar deal to arm the Afghan Military - a deal that puts them in business with some very shady people, not the least of which turns out to be the U.S. Government. War Dogs is released 26th August. by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk find me on and follow me on Scarlett Johansson has urged people to "keep asking" for diversity in Hollywood. Scarlett Johansson The 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' star says it is the movies audiences who open up the debate on sexism in the film industry. She told the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper: "It's awesome to have a diverse group of people in an organisation like that [The Academy]. You need to have different points of view and different perspectives. "Of course, it's also the studios who ultimately will make the movies, but I think when the audiences speak loudly and tell the studios what they want to watch, there's an ear there. "The audiences will drive the direction of what is greenlit and put on the fast track. I truly believe that to be true, especially now in the time of social media. The voices cannot be ignored. So I tell people to keep asking, and to keep asking for diversity in Hollywood." Meanwhile, the 31-year-old actress - who was recently named the highest grossing actress of all time - previously admitted she finds talking about the gender pay gap "icky". She said: "There's something icky about me having that conversation unless it applies to a greater whole ... I am very fortunate, I make a really good living, and I'm proud to be an actress who's making as much as many of my male peers at this stage ... "I think every woman has [been underpaid], but unless I'm addressing it as a larger problem, for me to talk about my own personal experience with it feels a little obnoxious. It's part of a larger conversation about feminism in general." Ukraine suggests holding an open debate and discussing the risks of Nord Stream 2 construction for Europe, Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolev said on Channel Five on Thursday evening. "The countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe were opponents of this project. Italy has recently come into line with the countries mentioned above. We hope that it is the position of these countries and open debate and discussion of the risks that this project poses to Europe and the EU will allow us to stop the process," Kobolev said. According to him, a number of European countries are ready to make a concession to Russia for the implementation of the project in exchange for economic and geopolitical benefits, but it carries the risk of destruction of the direct route of gas delivery from Russia to Europe through Ukraine. "The Russian Federation banally offers them political bribes in exchange for permission or cancellation of the confrontation to the Nord Stream 2 construction ... If the pipeline is built, then the direct route of gas supplies from the Russian territory through Ukrainian territory to Europe will be destroyed. It will stop many pipelines in Eastern Europe and create discriminatory conditions not only for Ukraine," the Naftogaz CEO said. Kobolev also stressed that it is very important for Ukraine to demonstrate Europe the execution of the assumed obligations in terms of gas market reform, GTS allocation and willingness to attract a foreign partner for its management. The project foresees the creation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline system with a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year from Russia to Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The participants of the Nord Stream 2 consortium are Gazprom, German BASF and E.ON, French Engie, Austrian OMV and English-Dutch Shell. Instagram and Twitter not giving you enough details about your favourite celebrities? Then add them on Snapchat as well for real-time updates on their jet-setting lives. Just be warned, you might get some serious FOMO in all that stalking. Sonakshi Sinha @AsliSona The actor is known for her cheeky sense of humour and serious selfie game, all of which is evident on her Snapchat account where she reveals everything from behind-the-scenes beauty looks to on-set shenanigans. She also shares the occasional doodle and knows her way around a funny filter. Image: Instagram/AsliSona For the third year in a row, the world's largest retailer, Walmart opened its doors to more than 450 entrepreneurs during the company's Made in the USA Open Call event on Thursday for products made, assembled or grown in the US. The event was part of Walmart's annual US Manufacturing Summit, hosted at the company's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, the company announced on its website.Hundreds of potential and current suppliers representing companies large and small from coast to coast pitched everything from food to toys to apparel, and meeting with hundreds of Walmart's buyers for the chance to sell their US made products at Walmart. The company put every shelf-stable item pitched at Open Call today on Walmart.com. For the third year in a row, the world's largest retailer, Walmart opened its doors to more than 450 entrepreneurs during the company's Made in the USA Open Call event on Thursday for products made, assembled or grown in the US. The event was part of Walmart's annual US Manufacturing Summit, hosted at the company's headquarters in Bentonville, # We are thrilled to put hundreds of new Made in the USA products on Walmart.com, said Michelle Gloeckler, executive vice president, Consumables, Health & Wellness, US Manufacturing Lead. Walmart's $250 billion commitment to buy products supporting American jobs is having a tangible impact on communities across the country as factories expand or open to make products for Walmart stores, Walmart.com and Sam's Club.Landing a deal with Walmart was huge for our small company, said Courtny Squibb with Schultz Laboratories MFR., Inc. in Granger, Iowa. Since last year's Open Call, our white diamond metal polish is now in more than 2,500 Walmart stores and Walmart.com.The 2016 US Manufacturing Summit and Open Call, with companies attending from more than 40 states and nearly 800 meetings taking place, are part of Walmart's commitment to investing in American jobs, having pledged in 2013 to purchase an additional $250 billion in US made products by 2023. (SH) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India Apparel marketer Delta Galil will expand its brands portfolio by acquiring the 7 For All Mankind, Splendid and Ella Moss brands, all of which are owned by VF Corporation.The acquisition is projected to add over $300 million in Delta Galil's top line annual sales and is expected to be accretive to Delta Galil's earnings in 2017. Apparel marketer Delta Galil will expand its brands portfolio by acquiring the 7 For All Mankind, Splendid and Ella Moss brands, all of which are owned by VF Corporation. The acquisition is projected to add over $300 million in Delta Galil's top line annual sales and is expected to be accretive to Delta Galil's earnings in 2017. The newly # The newly acquired brands join Delta Galil's brand portfolio including P.J. Salvage, Schiesser, KN Karen Neuberger, Nearly Nude, Littlemissmatched and Fix.Founded in 2000, 7 For All Mankind now include a full range of denim lifestyle products including sportswear, footwear, eyewear, handbags, belts and kids that complement its core business.Its products are distributed globally through high-end department stores, its own retail locations and a robust e-commerce channel.Splendid is known for its luxury knit products using soft fabrics, sexy fit and modern styling, while Ella Moss is an ultra-feminine knit tops and dresses collection featuring print and pattern-driven products in bright colours.This transaction reflects our strategic efforts to grow Delta Galil's branded business and expand our global footprint, said Isaac Dabah, CEO of Delta Galil.We see tremendous opportunity to expand the brands' platform for growth through continued focus on superior quality, design and innovation, he added. (AR) Fibre2fashion News Desk - India India's textiles and apparel exports are expected to touch $50 billion mark this fiscal from $38 billion in FY16 on the back of the government's special package and marketing plans for textiles and apparels, according to a senior official.Last week, the Union Cabinet approved a Rs 6,000-crore package for the sector with an aim to create one crore new jobs in three years and attract investments of $11 billion while eyeing additional $30 billion in exports. India's textiles and apparel exports are expected to touch $50 billion mark this fiscal from $38 billion in FY16 on the back of the government's special package and marketing plans for textiles and apparels, according to a senior official. Last week, the Union Cabinet approved a Rs 6,000-crore package for the sector with an aim to create one # "The government has announced a special package and taking elaborate marketing plans to boost exports. We are hopeful of achieving $50 billion in exports in the current fiscal as compared to $38 billion exports last year," Textile Secretary Rashmi Verma told reporters in Mumbai on the sidelines of a meeting of industry body Texprocil."We are hopeful that our key markets like Europe and US will continue to grow. We are also looking at exploring new markets such as Iran, Russia and South America to expand reach and diversify products. With the opening of new markets, we are hopeful to achieve our export targets."Verma said the country is ready to make the most of China's falling share in textile exports in the international market.China's market share has slipped to 38 per cent from 40 per cent due to high wages and its entry into high-end tech products.Commenting on Britain's exit from the EU, Verma said, "We export $10 billion worth of textiles and apparels to European Union of which nearly 23 per cent ($ 2.5 billion) goes to Britain.""Now we are focusing on entering into PTA (preferential trade agreement) with Britain and it is right time to negotiate its terms."The draft of new textile policy is ready and the package announced last week was a part of it. The policy will go to the Cabinet next month for approval, Verma said. (SH) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India India intends to begin negotiations with Britain for signing a Preferential Treatment Agreement (PTA) for duty-free garment export after the country voted to leave the European Union.Garment export from India to European countries attracts 9.6 per cent duty, making our shipments uncompetitive in comparison with Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia. These countries have signed PTAs under which they export garments to the entire EU at nil duty. This is the right time to step up our efforts with the United Kingdom for a PTA. The ministry is looking into it, Textiles Secretary Rashmi Verma told reporters in Mumbai. India intends to begin negotiations with Britain for signing a Preferential Treatment Agreement (PTA) for duty-free garment export after the country voted to leave the European Union. Garment export from India to European countries attracts 9.6 per cent duty, making our shipments uncompetitive in comparison with Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar # India's textile export was estimated at $38 billion in 2015-16, a fourth to Europe. The UK imported $2.5 billion, a fourth of the EU consignments. The UK is an important market for us, said Verma.She said the government is also simultaneously making a lot of effort at clinching a free trade agreement with the EU, giving it top priority as it is one of India's biggest markets especially for textiles.The government is also re-negotiating terms with countries such as Japan where there is a free trade agreement but the results haven't been as expected.The government last week announced Rs 6,000 crore of incentive schemes for textiles, which it hopes would create 10 million additional jobs in three years.But an Ernst & Young report , released on Friday, has raised doubts on this. While value addition and exports will continue growth, job creation would contract in the years to come, due to rapid mechanisation and standardisation of factories, the report said. (SH) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India A new womens resource centre in Semo village in Sigatoka is set to promote the socioeconomic empowerment of women in the province of Nadroga and Navosa. The facility which has been built with a funding of $30,720.77 to the Semo Womens Group by the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation was officially opened recently by the Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Hon. Rosy Akbar.Minister Akbar said the Centres strategic location will be a great platform to connect the women to readily available markets.This new development demonstrates the Fijian Governments unprecedented commitment to advance gender equality and economic empowerment of women, wherever they may live or whatever their situation in life. In the new Fiji that we are trying to build, government will ensure that no one is left behind, no one. Such a move is a great encouragement to other rural communities to support the empowerment of women, Minister Akbar said.There are a lot of tourism outlets along the Sigatoka area that you can sell your own handicrafts, attires, seashell crafts and other items to and you can also brand them with the Fijian Made Logo. This will assist you in the journey to becoming a successful woman entrepreneur.Soqosoqo Vakamarama Nadroga and Navosa, Vice President, Lanieta Matavesi thanked the government for the new womens centre.In this province we are encouraging women to learn about their individual culture in their tikina settings. This new Centre provides a wonderful incentive for the women to enhance their skills and generate income for their families. There are a wide range of items that will be produced ranging from handicrafts, pottery and sewing. Apart from the women in Semo and Nabau village, women from the 22 districts in the interior of Nadroga, Navosa will also access this centre for skills and training opportunities, Mrs Matavesi said.It will build their confidence to participate in the National Womens Expo to showcase, quality products that will fetch higher prices. We would like to acknowledge the Honorable Prime Minister and Minister Rosy Akbar for providing us with this new resource centre. We also know that marginalized groups of people like the elderly, disabled persons and women and children are recognized through the 2016-2017 budget.Spokesman for Semo village, Mr Laisenia Waqatabu said that such developments have been made possible through the governments increased reach out programmes to rural communities.This is one of the very first co-joint projects for Semo and Nabau village and it will benefit over 100 families in the 2 communities. Its encouraging to see that Government is recognizing the needs of people at grassroots level and initiatives such as this new centre has the potential to generate employment opportunities for women and youths, Mr Waqatabu said.In the past women in this village didnt have a place to conduct their weekly meetings and activities; but now they have a place that they can call their own; it is an eye opener to the villagers, that men and women are equally important when it comes to developing communities. This project will enable the communities to utilize their skills and develop their resources in efforts to alleviate poverty.-ENDS- Veteran actor Jackie Shroff, who was last seen in superstar Rajinikanth's Kochadaiyaan, wonders why Tamil film-makers are not approaching him often. "I wonder why Tamil film-makers are not approaching me often to act in films here. After 'Aaranya Kaandam', Rajinikanth called me to act in 'Kochadaiiyaan', but that was it," he has said, speaking to a leading daily. Jackie is currently in Chennai, shooting for producer CV Kumar's directorial debut, which has been titled as Mayavan. The film, which has Sundeep Kishan and Lavanya Tripathi in the lead, has Jackie playing an armyman. "I'm an army guy but there is a twist to the role with a lovely shade of grey," the 59-year-old actor has said. It was because of Aaranya Kaandam, the film which had earned him accolades, he managed to bag this particular role. "The makers reached out to me through him (Thiagarajan Kumararaja, director of 'Aaranya Kaandam'), and I took it up because my director had recommended me," Jackie Shroff has said. Also Read: Vignesh Shivan Clarifies Doubts On His 'Remo' Speech, Writes A Letter To Simbu Fans! 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. After months, and then some, of speculation, we finally have the answer to 'Is Kareena Kapoor pregnant?" (the answer is yes). Saif Ali Khan confirms the news in a statement, according to Times of India. "My wife and I would like to announce that we are expecting our first child in December. We would like to thank our well wishers for their blessings and support and also the press for their discretion and patience," reads the statement. This could be the reason why Kareena has chosen smaller roles in ensemble films, such as her previous role in Udta Punjab and her upcoming film Veere Di Wedding, with Sonam Kapoor, which revolves around four women. According to many media reports, Kareena's plan is to wrap up the shoot for this rom-com before her baby bump appears. Sources close to the couple have informed us that Kareena is planning to move to London in time for her delivery, but only time will tell. Meanwhile, Saif Ali Khan's next filmi Rangoon, which incidentally also stars Shahid Kapoor (who is also expecting his first child with wife Mira Rajput), is all set for release on 14 October. Congratulations, you two! Ukraine's Finance Ministry does not plan to support revoking single social security tax and payment of pensions directly from the national budget in Ukraine, Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk has said. "The sense of the proposed option is the following: in our case the deficit of the Pension Fund is more than the half of its expenses, it occurs that the national budget de facto finances pension payments. This is only one of several options. We are stabilizing the joint obligation system and the Pension Fund. If payments are settled directly from the national budget, they will be lost there and diluted. We would not see the full picture, we would not understand if we do the right things. It is better to retain the Pension Fund and stabilize it. This would more help to protect citizens," the minister said in an interview with ZN.UA. "We should achieve the balance of the Pension Fund. For example, there are expenses that are alien to its functions. The fund should get rid of them," Danyliuk said. He pointed out the rule of the State Fiscal Service in accelerating the removal of the economy from the shadows. "Bringing the economy out of the shadows is not proceeding as expected. It is not enough to reduce rates. Conditions benefitting businesses which declare real wages and income should be created . This is our goal," he said. ZN.UA wrote that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is convinced the transfer to the defined contribution pension system requires joint obligation system reform. The IMF insists on increasing pension age. The Social Policy Ministry opposes this. Danyliuk said that Ukraine and the IMF are on the same page regarding the planned UAH 145 billion deficit of the Pension Fund. "The deficit is foreseen in the budget. We are on the same page with the IMF in the issue. Payment pensions in full and social protection of citizens are important for our government, and the Pension Fund would receive required financing," the minister said. Asked about the pension reform, Danyliuk announced the introduction of some changes. "We have started the budget process. The Pension Fund is an integral part of the budget. We will analyze its operation, expenses and take into account many factors. I do not like spot methods A comprehensive approach is required. The system that would make people to feel they are protected. This is important. Populism should be reduced simply sit and start working. We are obliged to give normal pensions to our citizens, not words on the wall. If the system is unstable for the future, whatever spot decisions we make, we will continue financing ineffective expenses, and the deficit will continue to grow. From whom will we take money? From taxpayers. This is not an option," he said. New Delhi - India and Cyprus have "successfully" completed negotiations on the bilateral tax treaty which provides for source-based taxation of capital gains on share sale, the Cyprus Finance Ministry said on Thursday. The double taxation avoidance agreement grand fathers all income prior to 1 April 2017. "On June 29, 2016, the negotiation on the Double Taxation Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to taxes on income between Cyprus and India has been successfully completed, in New Delhi," the Cyprus Finance Ministry said in a statement. Cyprus is a major source of foreign fund flows into the country. From April 2000 until March 2016, India received Foreign Direct Investment worth Rs 42,680.76 crore from Cyprus. "The agreement reached provides for source-based taxation for gains from the alienation of shares; investments undertaken prior to April 1, 2017 are grandfathered with the view that taxation of disposal of such shares at any future date remains with the contracting state of residence of the seller," the statement said. Rajesh Gandhi, Partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP said, "This announcement brings an end to the uncertainty surrounding the India-Cyprus treaty which has impacted foreign investments coming into India from Cyprus over the last 2 years. It is not surprising that the capital gains tax exemption has been removed under the Cyprus treaty which is in line with Indias thinking on treaties with Mauritius and Singapore. A grandfathering benefit which will protect investments till March 31 2017 is certainly welcome and will in fact help existing Cyprus investors which were quite anxious after the blacklisting of Cyprus by India. "In the past, Cyprus was more preferred by debt funds because of the low withholding tax of 10 percent on interest and interestingly Mauritius debt funds will now get a better treatment because of the 7.5 percent withholding tax rate under the revised Mauritius treaty. However any fresh investments from April 1 2017, either in equity or debt will be subject to Indias new GAAR provisions," added Gandhi. The text has been agreed between the two negotiating teams of the contracting states and will contribute to further develop the trade and economic links between Cyprus and India, as well as with other countries. "Upgrading and expanding the network of Double Tax Conventions, is of high economic and political importance and aims to further strengthen and attract foreign investment in Cyprus as its standing an international business centre is elevated," it added. The completion of the negotiation and the agreement reached on all pending issues will pave the way for the removal of Cyprus from the list of notified jurisdictional areas. It has been agreed that, following the entering into force of the amending Agreement the Indian Authorities will proceed with retrospectively rescinding the classification of Cyprus in the 'Notified Jurisdictional Area' as from November 1, 2013," the statement added. Gautam Mehra, Leader - Tax, PwC India said, "The development on the India Cyprus tax treaty is another welcome step towards providing certainty in tax. The intent to grandfather existing investments, which is in line with a similar change proposed in the tax treaty with Mauritius, should provide comfort to existing investors. Further, the proposal to rescind the notification under section 94A with effect from November 1 2013 is another positive resolution." MUMBAI The UK's healthcare regulator has decided to suspended marketing approval for a widely used antibiotic that had won clearance based on clinical trials conducted by India's Quest Life Sciences, due to concerns over the integrity of trial data. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) might also deny other pending drug approval requests that rely on studies conducted by Quest, the UK agency said in a letter dated June 22, a copy of which was seen by Reuters. The MHRA's decision bars the sale of a generic version of erythromycin that is being sold in the UK by Dawa Ltd, a Kenyan drugmaker, an MHRA spokesman said. The MHRA said it is in contact with the involved parties, who have the right to appeal and submit new data to prove that the drugs in question meet the required standards. The agency added that it does not believe there to be any risk to public health and that its decision to suspend marketing approval is purely a precautionary measure. Quest's President Yati Chugh told Reuters the company plans to appeal the suspension as he believes the agency relied on a two-year-old study and the following inspection report to reach its decision, and that it did not review the company's latest quality management systems. He said Quest had significantly improved its quality systems since 2014, and would ask the MHRA to re-inspect its site, as MHRA's move means four other drugs Quest performed trials on that are awaiting approval with the UK regulator will not be approved until the agency clears its facility. These drugs include the antibiotics doxycycline and cephalexin, and the diabetes drug metformin, on which Quest had conducted trials on behalf of UK drugmaker Strandhaven and India's Kopran, said Chugh. Strandhaven, Kopran and Dawa did not respond to requests for comment on the matter. LATEST SETBACK The MHRA's move is the latest blow to India's drug industry, whose reputation has been tainted in recent years as foreign regulators have criticised manufacturing standards and questioned the reliability of clinical data produced by some of the sector's biggest names. Chennai-based Quest is a contract research firm that conducts clinical trials on generic drugs on behalf of local, as well as multinational drugmakers. Drugmakers in turn use clinical data produced by companies like Quest to seek approval to sell their drugs in various countries. Data from Quest has been used to support drug approvals in the United States, Europe, Australia and elsewhere, according to its website. The MHRA said that during an inspection of Quest's facility in February, it found several issues with data integrity in a clinical trial Quest had conducted, including discrepancies in Quest's patient records and instances where electrocardiogram (ECG) data of patients had been deleted or manipulated. The World Health Organisation told Quest in July last year about similar ECG data manipulation issues in another drug study. The MHRA said it believed its findings meant that the safety or wellbeing of patients had been jeopardised in the trial. "The MHRA inspectors identified a large number of issues which indicated that there were very serious concerns with many aspects of the company's quality system," the MHRA spokesman said, adding the problems cast "serious doubt on the integrity of any data produced." Similar issues around data at Quest's larger rival GVK Biosciences led to a recall of about 700 drugs across Europe last year. (reut.rs/29dOFbW) (Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Mumbai; Editing by Euan Rocha, Greg Mahlich) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Two sensational murders that shocked the neighbouring states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the recent weeks seem to have been cracked by the police; but there is something distinctly different in the way the police, the media and politicians went about their jobs in the two states. The murders in focus are that of Jisha, a landless Dalit girl who lived in Ernakulam district of Kerala; and Swathi, a middle-class IT employee in Chennai city. Both had been found murdered in Jishas case, there were no eyewitnesses and in Swathis case, there were some because it happened on a railway platform. In both the cases, the immediate response by the police in Jishas case, the local police and in Swathis case, both the Railway police and the local police had been sloppy. Jishas case took more than a month to investigate, and Swathis, just about a week. And the cases of course have to be proved in a court of law for us to be sure about the culprits. The reported breakthrough in Swathis murder came at around midnight on Friday probably a ploy by Chennai police to keep speculation at bay for at least a few hours. Till the police released the information about the suspect and the way they cracked the case, there was practically nothing worthwhile in the media. Neither her family and relatives nor the police spoke to them and nobody knew what was going on except that the police were in possession of CCTV footage from the locality and that the images they released of the suspect were from the same footage. There were no leaks from the police either. Now that the Commissioner of Chennai police has spoken, whatever little that had appeared in the media seemed to have been cooked up. In comparison, in Jishas case there were leaks and speculation galore right from day one when the media first picked up the story. They had a new angle and new speculation every day, some of them absolutely mindless, on who could have killed her and how the police were investigating the case. One day, it was about screening people using forensic odontology and another day, DNA matching. One day, they said the police and doctors messed up the autopsy, and another day they hailed it for picking up extremely sensitive pieces of evidence. Contradictory reports and police leaks filled up pages and prime time TV discussions as media trial raged for days on end. The victims mother and family were troubled by the media and politicians to such an extent that her sister accused them of spreading falsehood. Nobody knew where the leads were coming from - but there were bizarre stories and conspiracy theories. And there was no solution in sight for a month even as shameless politicians drummed them up. In Swathis case, the police didnt speak. Neither did they leak. And the politicians were guarded even as provocative rumours circulated in social media. While people thought that the police were clueless, they were obviously connecting the available dots. The media said the family wasnt cooperative, that they were more concerned about her character being sullied and the police was groping in the dark with no information from anybody. But when the city police commissioner spoke on Saturday morning, it was clear that the family was indeed cooperating with the police and that the latter were moving with a clear plan that used both conventional and modern methods of investigation. Part of Chennai polices victory is that they kept the media at bay, ensured discipline in their ranks, and ensured that the victims family or friends didnt speak unnecessarily. Obviously, they could take them into confidence. Take a look at Jishas case. Her mother blamed everybody from police, to politicians, to even neighbours because she was so uncared for even in grief. She was a loose cannon that the media indiscreetly relied on. The politicians mostly the CPM exploited the situation so badly that finally the UDF government had to match it with false promises. The pressure by the media and the opportunistic politicians were certainly counterproductive. And there were too many loud mouths in the police. The scenario is strikingly dissimilar even after the arrests. In Jishas case, theres still no official statement on the details that led to the arrest of the suspect except media leaks. In the case of Swathi, the Commissioner met the media within a few hours of the reported breakthrough. Is there a point? Yes, overzealous and irresponsible media and lousy politicians are both injurious to public interest. And the Police should do their job, not talk prematurely. Midnight knocks are not alien to 35-year-old Mohammed Maqueemuddin Yasir. Having spent over four years in Indore jail till September 2012, on charges of having helped a SIMI leader from Karnataka, acquittal from the lower court has not meant freedom from the suspicious gaze of the security agencies. Being the son of Maulana Naseeruddin, a feisty cleric in Hyderabad, means that in the police book, Yasir is a radicalised youth, with many shades of grey, if not black. In his sermons, the 66-year-old Maulana exhorts the Muslims to adopt an eye for an eye approach against aggressive Hindutva. He spent five years between 2004 and 2009 in Sabarmati jail in Gujarat, accused of plotting to kill Haren Pandya and Narendra Modi. "Yeh internet ka dhokha hai," says Yasir. "Some youth out of curiosity search some keywords and the police catches them, accusing them of terrorism." He is referring to the arrest of five youthaccused of being part of an Islamic State terror modulefrom Hyderabad's Old city, the same area he lives in. Many in the Muslim community are understandably worried. They realise that allegation of a Syria connect is a very serious charge, that could inflict collateral damage on every Muslim. One that will push the entire community, especially its youth, under police surveillance. "But if you look back, all conspiracy cases turn out to be false. Moreover, there is no influence of the Islamic State here," says Yasir. For the first time, the feeling is that the arrests are not just about the Old city area, but about Muslims in the entire city. Aamer Javeed, Director of the Mufakkam Jah College of Engineering and Technology, says given the education profile of the accused, it will create problems for educated Muslims when they step into the job market. "Already there is bias against the Muslims. A beard, the attire itself draws suspicion," says Javeed. Of the 11 detained, six were let off after questioning. Among them, 27-year-old Mohammed Irfan. "The police came early morning, held Irfan by the neck and told us to come to the NIA office after two days. But they let him off after a few hours of interrogation," says Mohammed Nasir, brother of Mohammed Irfan, his voice still quivering. But the family is not sure if the worst is behind it because the remand report mentions Irfan as one of the five who "entered into a criminal conspiracy to wage war against the government of India". But Irfan is not among the five arrested. His family members ask if this is the way a professional investigative agency like the NIA is meant to operate. The Yazdani brothers, said to be the kingpins of the alleged terror module, were undone by the electrical wires and tools used by their late father, says their sister. Alena Begum says, "Our late father was an electrical contractor and it is therefore natural for such material to be lying around in our home. To say these were used by my brothers to make bombs is far-fetched." A senior intelligence wing officer calls this the typical minority syndrome. "Their parents would not even know what they are up to on the internet or who they meet outside. There is a tendency to be overprotective," he says. Hindutva groups have jumped in with a 'We told you so' tone. BJP MLA Raja Singh who has the reputation of being a rabble-rouser attacks the madrasas, the Islamic centres of learning, saying, "There they talk of attacking India in the name of Islam. They have converted old city into mini-Pakistan." Muslim politicians bristle at this attempt to label the community. "What do we infer when the same NIA that gave a clean chit to Sadhvi Pragya, who was later charged by ATS for her role in Malegaon blasts. Hundred of youth were arrested after the Mecca Masjid blast of 2007, charged similarly with waging war against the state, tortured in police custody but after no proof was found, they were acquitted," says Amjedullah Khan of the Majlis Bachao Tehreek, a Hyderabad-based political party. An unconvinced community is punching holes in the NIA's Islamic State conspiracy theory. Ehtesham Ahmed Khan at the Maulana Azad Urdu University says, "Reports suggest that the module wanted to create tension between Hindus and Muslims. What little we know of the Islamic State, it is not the kind of terror outfit whose focus is to foment communal trouble?" Others blame the communal approach of the men in uniform for targeting Muslims. Yasir's brother, Mohammed Jaber, who too was thrown into Indore jail, claims the jail superintendent used to speak in `We versus You' terms. He says, "He would call us traitors of the country. He would say, you do not deserve to live. That even if you were hanged fifty times, it would be less." But the community for a change is also asking itself searching questions. Muslim intellectuals ask if there can be smoke without fire. Blaming the very inward-looking approach of religious institutions like the Jamaat-e-Islami, they say the madrasas need to be opened up. "This is an opportunity to clean up the act. Allow outsiders to enter these closed groups. The source of funding of these madrasas also needs to be investigated. Some 20 years back, those who ran these madrasas used to collect small donations from families in lanes and bylanes. Now no one collects funds. Where is the money coming from," says a social activist, requesting not to be identified. The realisation that a few black sheep could harm the entire community is also setting in. The 29-year-old Mohammed Ehsan, who owns a bangle making workshop in the Old city, says it is wrong to accuse the police of having a communal mindset. "The police have a job to do. We have to trust them. After all, six of the 11 men detained were let off," says Ehsan. Realising the pitfalls in letting the youth go undefended, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM)the dominant political party of the Muslims in the cityhas offered to provide legal aid to the accused. This while reiterating that the party is against terrorism. The NIA and the Telangana Police say the arrest of the module is a major breakthrough. They point to the Bangladesh terror attack on Saturday and say that is proof that IS is recruiting homegrown talent. "You no longer have to go to Syria to fight the war for them. We suspect that these youth in Hyderabad were in touch with this foreign terror group and conspired to wage war against the government of India," says a senior officer who is part of the investigation team. The police say in contrast to earlier cases where intel sleuths would snoop around to see who meets who, to establish a conspiracy, now the challenge is to track the virtual connect to the world wide web of terror. As thousands of Muslims converged near the Charminar on Friday afternoon, to offer prayers on the last Friday of the month of Ramzan, the mood was sombre. The community realises it is on test. How the city reacts to the latest development will determine whether it will allow its fault lines to be exposed. Retired High Court judge SN Dhingra, facing allegations of seeking out-of-turn favours towards a Gurugram-based charitable trust headed by him, has refuted the charges against him. He has contended that he doesn't consider seeking construction of roads for villages as accepting bribes. Former Haryana CM BS Hooda had alleged that Justice (Retd) Dhingra made a request to the deputy commissioner, Gurugram, to construct a paver-block road in place of a kachcha road leading to a school for underprivileged children. Justice (Retd) Dhingra is heading a commission to probe into grant of land licences to some companies, including that of Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra in Gurugram Speaking to DNA, the retired justice said that he did not involve himself in any public cause for publicity, and that he did not liken seeking construction of roads for villages to 'accepting a bribe.' He has claimed that he or any of the trustees do not hold any land in the villages where the road was to be constructed, and that the trust does not pay him. "I am merely someone who works to make it more effective for helping the underprivileged," the retired judge was reported to have said. However, according to a Firstpost report, Justice (Retd) Dhingra did indeed make a request to the deputy Commissioner, Gurugram, to construct a paver-block road. According to Shalini Singh, there is no illegality or impropriety in the request as it is the governments mandate to build roads and launch welfare schemes and developmental projects and no rules were bent in this case. While Rs 95,40,000 was sanctioned for the construction of the road, Rs 47,70,000 has been sanctioned so far. Further, according to the article, Justice Dhingra is not the beneficiary of the money released by the state government to build the road. Also, the charitable trust claimed in a media release that it is not a recipient of any government aid. Even as the Enforcement Directorate on Friday issued a fresh notice to a firm linked to Robert Vadra in connection with its probe into alleged money laundering in a land deal in Rajasthan's Bikaner district, neither Vadra nor the wistleblower Ashok Khema have not been summoned. Justice (Retd) Dhingra said it is unnecessary, according to him, to call every one for examination. "I called the officials who were required. I don't call people to see their face," he was quoted as saying by DNA. The retired Delhi High Court judge has sought extension of the deadline by six more weeks to submit the report, as new documents on Vadra's benami transactions have emerged. The Robert Vadra land deal case has been at the centre of political mudslinging ever since the Narendra Modi government came to power. After the BJP swept to power in Haryana, where Vadra's alleged shady dealings took place, a probe commission headed by Justice (Retd) SN Dhingra was constituted in 2015. Chennai: The Madras High Court has directed Tamil Nadu government to consider creating trained full-time counsellors in schools as a long-time measure. The first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan, said closing a PIL: "The suggestion of the petitioner that each school should have a child counsellor, though desirable, possibly is not feasible at the moment because of lack of sufficient number of qualified persons." Petitioner E Ranganayaki, an advocate, prayed for a direction to the Union and state governments to have trained and professional full-time counsellors experienced in child psychology in schools. "We consider it appropriate to put to the Additional Advocate General PH Arvind Pandian that the creation of requisite trained personnel should be a long-term measure by creating sufficient seats in educational institutions for the subject, especially as there is potential of employability," the court said. If the petitioner had any grievance over the matter, she could approach the Tamil Nadu Commission for Protection of Child Rights as well, the court said. The petitioner underscored the need for such counsellors to address childrens' needs. Among other things, she highlighted that sexual abuse could have serious short- and long-term problems for a child. "Many of these children have never told anyone about what happened to them," the petitioner submitted in her plea. She pointed out that children could learn about sexual abuse, adolescence, puberty and personal safety from such counsellors. Dehradun: At least 14 bodies have been recovered so far from the debris in villages which were affected with cloud burst and landslides in Uttarakhand, police said on Saturday. As many as 39 people are feared dead, as heavy rains lashed Pithoragarh and Chamoli districts of Uttarakhand, the police said, according to an IANS report. However, ANI reports say, toll has touched 12 while 18 person remain missing in the area. SDRF, NDRF, Police, ITBP, BSF, Army local unit working in co-ordination. Total 12 casualties so far, 18 persons missing: Santosh Badoni ANI (@ANI_news) July 2, 2016 Officials fear that the toll may rise as several can be still trapped in the debris. Moreover, the residents can expect little respite from the inclement weather as IMD has issued fresh warnings of heavy to very heavy rainfall in 8 districts, in the next 48 hours. Champawat,Almora,Pauri,Dehradun,Tehri,Udham S Nagar,Nainital,Haridwar likely to receive heavy rainfall during next 48 hours:MeT #Uttarakhand ANI (@ANI_news) July 2, 2016 The natural calamity has inflicted maximum damage on the Basted village, where at least 30 people are feared to be still trapped inside the debris. Reports suggest that as many as 60 houses were flattened in the incessant rainfall and villagers have lost over 200 cattle in the resulting floods. #Uttarakhand cloudburst: Visuals of rescue ops being carried out by army in worst-hit Bastadi village of Pithoragarh pic.twitter.com/hQ3MiqtiyJ ANI (@ANI_news) July 1, 2016 Meanwhile, in Uttarkashi, 50 metres of Gangotri Highway has been washed away shutting down the Lata area, whereas in Ramgarh, Koshi river has swollen due to incessant downpour. Alert has been issued in Ramgarh and neighbouring areas while efforts are on to attempt opening the Gangotri highway. Uttarkashi-50 mtrs of Gangotri highway road washed away, Lata area shut down. Border Roads Org attempts opening road pic.twitter.com/PXknQL4WL8 ANI (@ANI_news) July 2, 2016 Ramnagar, Uttarakhand: Heavy rainfall causes water level in Koshi River to rise, alert issued in nearby areas. pic.twitter.com/dl9vgV9rM8 ANI (@ANI_news) July 2, 2016 Traffic on the Nainital National highway is also chocked due to landslide, stranding commuters on the path. Nainital (Uttarakhand): National Highway blocked due to landslides & heavy rain, trucks and buses stranded. pic.twitter.com/mMQBGhvgtS ANI (@ANI_news) July 2, 2016 Following the downpour, all means of communication in the affected area have also collapsed, adding to the woes of the residents. Flooding has been reported in many areas of the state when all major rivers, including the Alaknanda river rose above the danger level-mark after rainfall of over 100 mm was within just hours, leading to floodsin most villages in the state. Recounting the damage done, a senior official of the disaster management team also said that the weather conditions were impeding the rescue operations. Meanwhile, the Gangotri Dham pilgrimage has also been temporarily halted as the highway is flooded due to the cloudburst. Uttarakhand: Gangotri Dham Yatra temporarily halted due to flooding at the highway after heavy rainfall in the region. ANI (@ANI_news) July 2, 2016 Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat have expressed their grief over the loss of life. More than two dozen people remained untraced. NDRF teams have been rushed to the affected areas and additional teams have also been kept on alert. According to ANI, the Uttarakhand Cabinet will meet on Friday to discuss damage caused in the state due to heavy rainfall and cloudbursts. Chief Minister Harish Rawat has asked officials to camp in the affected areas and ensure that there is no dearth of ration. He also said that helicopters will be provided to ferry the injured to the hospitals. "We are saddened by the news of the deaths. A compensation of Rs two lakh has been announced for the kin of each of the deceased," Rawat said. Meanwhile, Home Minister Singh spoke to Rawat and took stock of the situation. "Spoke to CM U'khand Shri Harish Rawat regarding the situation post the cloud burst in the state. Centre is providing all possible assistance," Singh tweeted. He said NDRF teams have been rushed to the areas affected by the cloudburst and additional teams of NDRF were on standby. "I am deeply pained at loss of precious lives in Uttarakhand due to flash floods. My heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families," he said. 108 personnel of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) continue rescue operations in the Pithoragarh area, while a team of 35 officers has been sent to Nolda village, 35 km from Mirthi, Pithoragarh. Rescue ops are on in Chamoli district as well. Uttarakhand rain and cloud burst: Army column of Assam Regt troops come to the rescue of villagers in Pithoragarh. pic.twitter.com/U5BRwQ8cXT ANI (@ANI_news) July 2, 2016 #Uttarakhand: State Disaster Response Force conduct rescue operations in blocked areas from Chamoli to Mathana. pic.twitter.com/fQToBo0991 ANI (@ANI_news) July 2, 2016 Officials said a cloudburst in Pithoragarh led to severe inundation in the region, causing hardship to the people. Large tracts of agricultural fields were inundated in Suva village of Dharchula area and three bridges linking the village were washed away. The Thal-Munsyari road was cut-off and dozens of vehicles remained stranded on both sides. The Rishikesh-Badrinath National Highway was disrupted at many places between Nandprayag and Badrinath due to landslides. The entry of heavy vehicles was halted on the Kedarnath highway following a landslide at Gangolgaon. All major rivers in the hilly tracts were in spate. An alert about heavy rains in the next 72 hours has been issued in Nainital, Udhamsingh Nagar, Champawat, Almora, Pauri, Haridwar, Tehri and Dehradun districts. The communication network has been severely damaged at several places. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday expressed grief over the loss of lives caused by cloudburst and heavy rain in Uttarakhand. I am grieved by the loss of lives caused due to cloudburst and heavy rain in parts of Uttarakhand. Condolences to bereaved families," Modi said in a statement. "My prayers are with those injured. I hope normalcy returns to the rain-affected areas at the earliest, the Prime Minister said. Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday batted for preserving rivers and protecting the Himalayas in the aftermath of the Uttarakhand cloudburst . "Concerned state government and central home ministry... they are already on the job but this is why we need to preserve our rivers and we should not encroach on river belts and also preserve Himalayas," Javadekar told the media. "As we know climate change has increased the frequency of certain events. Narendra Modi government has for the first time after Independence allotted Rs 100 crore to carry on studies of various aspects of Himalayan ecology and we have already started working on 27 projects in which all such disaster resilience and disaster prediction and all such aspects are there," he added. Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday expressed grief at the loss of life and damage caused by a cloudburst in Uttarakhand's Chamoli and Pithoragarh district. "Through the day, grim news of the damage done by flash floods which has killed and greviously hurt many is of great despair and sorrow. Many people are missing is also news of serious disappointment," she said. Expressing solidarity with those who have lost their loved ones, Gandhi added: "Government of Uttarakhand has been asked to provide swift assistance for rescue and rehabilitation. The relatives of those missing should not lose hope and we firmly stand by the people of Chamoli and Pithoragarh, they remain in our prayers". With inputs from IANS Its a Tuesday morning, one of those pleasantly rain-washed ones that make you forget the stifling heat of Mumbai from just a few weeks ago, and which lies in wait again, once the monsoons run their course. On Laburnum Road which true to its name is lined with trees (not flowering at this time of the year), as well as graceful old buildings, there is a quiet that you find in some sections of the city, a sense of being away from the chaos. Step into one of the older wood-framed houses on the street, and the feeling of having stepped back in time intensifies. Here, on the ground floor are glass-fronted shelves packed with books: Many on philosophy, but here and there, some literature as well a Constance Garnett edition of Tolstoys War and Peace, The Arabian Nights. A frayed copy of HG Wells Outline of History. Old-fashioned card catalogues line narrow drawers, presenting an exhaustive index to the tomes. Up the stairs, is a room that has framed sepia photographs on its walls world leaders, figures who shaped modern history. Also on display are letters exchanged among them. A storey above that is a curious room with small box-like cases arranged in sequence; miniature dolls within them establish in exquisite detail, the major events in the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The house is Mani Bhavan, where Gandhi lived during his visits to Bombay. Now preserved as a museum to the Mahatma, its usual visitors include school-children and the curious tourist. On this July day, it is also playing host to five photographers from Pakistan. In Mumbai as part of the Observer Research Foundations Tasveer-e-Karachi, Tasveer-e-Mumbai programme (an exchange programme between Pakistani and Indian photographers; the Indian contingent will visit Pakistan a little later this month), Amean J, Malika Abbas, Farah Abbas, Mobeen Ansari and Matthew Hutcheson have been going around the city for the past 10 days, capturing on their cameras whatever catches their fancy. Mani Bhavan, and its legacy, make for an interesting subject. But during their stay here, each has found a different facet of Mumbai to appreciate. For Malika Abbas, who is a senior photojournalist working with the Dawn group of publications in Karachi, it is the Parsi community that has been interesting to document. While in Mumbai, she has visited the Parsi Colony in Colaba, and has been shooting with families there. She points to the Dadar phool market as another place she enjoyed visiting. All of us (in the group) have our own focus, she explains. So between us, weve got all kinds of subjects, genres covered. Fine art photographer and Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture faculty member Farah Mahbub says the people on the street have made the best subjects for her photos. But two localities she visited here have made for especially wonderful experiences. Just walking around in Bandra (was really nice) because its so different (from the rest of the city), says Farah. Apart from that, Pia Haji Ali that was stunning! The whole walk leading up to it, the flowers The photographers are in the topmost storey of Mani Bhavan at this time, looking around the exhibits. Malcolm Hutcheson who has been shooting elsewhere joins the group now. Hutcheson describes himself as a token Pakistani he has lived and worked in the country for over two decades now. He is also an assistant professor of photographic arts at the National University in Lahore. While in Mumbai, Hutcheson has continued work on a project about polluted rivers; the Mithi certainly fits in with the theme. Previously, he has won the Prix Pictet for his work focussed on sustainability, although Hutchesons oeuvre has expanded to cover the environment and minority rights. As a noted fashion photographer, Amean Js work has a very different focus. In Mumbai, however, he admits hes had a chance to indulge in the kind of photography thats separate from his commercial work. To train his lens on Mumbai has been a curious exercise the city, Amean says, has changed so much since his last visit here, nearly 15 years ago. Mumbai is so much like Karachi, except for how much its grown vertically and the rains of course! says Amean. I was here in 2001, so I can really make out how it has changed. And thats something Im very interested in capturing. When you see something every day whether it is your child, or your city you dont see those changes taking place. Thats why it is so important to document your present, because it becomes your past. Amean finds impressive how people in Mumbai keep going, despite the heavy rains that can bring traffic and most commutes to a grinding halt. They dont let (anything) stop them, he marvels, people continue to buy, sell, bargain, eat, get to work He adds, Any other city in the world you travel to, it takes a few days to acclimatise. You do feel like a foreigner. But here you dont. Its like home. The sentiment is one Islamabad-based Mobeen Ansari, who is also a painter and sculptor (in addition to being a photojournalist) echoes. Mobeen, who has been covering suburbs like Khar and Mahim while here, says he wants to show Mumbaikars their city in a different light; his work in Pakistan too has a similar focus. If I were to describe my experiences here in just three words, theyd be I love Bombay. But thats too cliched, Mobeen says, laughing. Instead, Ill go with: Feels like home. It seems a certain section of the media has forgotten that the concept of innocent until proven guilty is enshrined in our legal system. Asaduddin Owaisi, of the AIMIM, declared on Friday that he will provide legal aid to the five men arrested by NIA in Hyderabad for allegedly being members of an Islamic State module and planning bomb attacks in India. Owaisi said family members of the youth met him and claimed that they are innocent. "If the youths are innocent, we will fight. We will not keep quiet," Owaisi said while addressing a gathering at the historic Makkah Masjid on the occasion of 'Jumatul Vida' or the last Friday of Ramadan. Owaisi claimed that he was the first Muslim leader in India to come out openly against IS. He reiterated that IS has nothing to do with Islam. "We never supported terrorism and we will never do it," he said. Despite Owaisi making it extremely clear that he does not support terrorists, a Times Now anchor focused an entire segment of news questioning how Owaisi could help terror suspects. He seems to be justifying it, he doesnt see anything wrong in providing legal aid to families of terror suspects, those who are allegedly associated with Islamic State, she said at one point. The point being made throughout the segment was that Owaisis actions are politically motivated as he wishes to appeal to the Muslim community. Whether the five arrested youth are members of IS or not is something for the courts to decide. Our judicial system believes in accused being innocent until proven guilty. In fact, thats why even when crimes are reported in the media, it is always with the tag allegedly. And even our judicial system has the provision for giving legal aid to those unable to afford their own lawyers. Article 39A of the Indian Constitution reads: The State shall secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice, on a basis of equal opportunity, and shall, in particular, provide free legal aid, by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities. All Owaisi is doing is providing the suspects with a lawyer. Thats not a crime. Trying five youth in the media before they are tried by a court of law will help no one. Running TV ticker statements like #OwaisiTerrorPolitics to the fore? only stokes anti-Muslim sentiment at a time when the nation needs to unite beyond religious lines to fight terror. With inputs from IANS Like a great many things in India, a white paper is a British legacy. And like in the case of a great many such legacies, India has made the white paper different from what the British meant it to be. By British definition, its a document that a government brings out with the facts of a matter before enacting legislation on the subject. This is different from a green paper which may only have certain ideas that a government wants people to comment on. In India, a white paper is packed with statistics like in the UK. But, as American humourist Evan Esar once said, statistics is the science of producing unreliable facts from reliable figures. So white papers can beand often are in Indiaused as potential political weapons with a ring of menace to them. The one tabled by Keralas new CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government on the states finances is one such. This is not to suggest that what the LDFs white paper says isnt true. Of course, it is. It says the state is flat broke: it hardly has any money to even meet the day-to-day expenditure. Consider these figures: --The states closing balance on 31 March: Rs 1,643.99 crore --Payments blocked at treasury: Rs 1,800 crore --Net cash balance is negative: - Rs 173.46 crore --States immediate liabilities (payments to banks, for social security pensions and land acquisition etc): Rs 6,302 crore --Short-term liabilities (road projects, paddy procurement dues, salary hike arrears etc): Rs 4,326 core. --States public debt: Rs 1.5 lakh crore. Finance Minister Thomas Isaac described the situation as alarming. His alarm then turned into anger against the previous Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government which ruled Kerala from 2011 to 2016 and which, he said, was squarely responsible for this fiscal predicament. Isaacs observation that UDF wrecked the economy is based on facts. Bureaucrats compile white papers, taking figures from official data. But sometimes facts make better sense when they are read with other facts. For these other facts, you need to go back to another white paper that former chief minister Oommen Chandy came up with after he took over in 2011. He too painted a very grim picture of the financial situation which prevailed at that time and which he inherited from the LDF government of Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, which ruled the state from 2006 to 2011. In parts, Isaacs white paper seems like a response to Chandys. Now you understand how a seemingly innocent white paper can be used as a political guided missile. Isaac makes a pointed reference to the fact that Chandy spent Rs 700 crore to Rs 800 crore on his pet mass contact programme. Such expenditure added to the rise in non-plan revenue expenditure, he said. He is right. Chandys own paper had cited a long list of things as examples of unproductive and indiscriminate spending by the earlier LDF regime. He was right too. And when the new finance minister says that Kerala is bankrupt and is living on a financial lie, he is not revealing anything startlingly new. The Chandy government almost said so itself in 2013 and announced austerity measures. Among other things, he curbed foreign travel and insisted that officers used only hired vehicles. At that time, the Left wanted a second White Paper on the states finances, a demand which Chandy flatly rejected. But by 2014, Chandy forgot all about cost-cutting. Succumbing to compulsions of elections, two years away, and to the need for populism, his government went berserk and announced scheme after scheme to grab headlines and win over vote banks, unmindful of the nearly empty treasury. Its true that Chandy was saddled with populist, resources-draining schemes of the previous Left government. He was not only forced to continue with the schemes but, to match them or even outdo them, he announced new ones. In the case of the present government too, as Isaac admits, it would be impossible to totally curb the revenue expenditure that Chandy had committed to the social sector. This has been the story from one government to another in Kerala for a pretty long time, with LDF and UDF alternating as the ruling party. You get a bad economy from your predecessor, make it worse and then pass it on to your successor. The states debt was approximately Rs 24,000 crore in 2001 when LDF Chief Minister EK Nayanar handed the reins to AK Antony of the Congress. And by the time LDFs Achuthanandan took over five years later in 2006, the debt rose to Rs 50,000 crore. When Chandy became the Chief Minister in 2011, it was nearly Rs 75,000 crore, but he managed to double it to the current Rs 1.5 lakh crore in his five-year rule At the very centre of Keralas bankruptcy has been competitive populism. Politics overrode economics. The Left falsely interpreted Marxism to mean reckless announcement of welfare schemes and concessions which, in fact, either ended up serving vested interests or groupsor were cornered by the rich. And the Congress blindly followed suit. The LDF and the UDF competed with each other to push Kerala into a fiscal predicament of a kind seen nowhere else in India. But the people of Kerala are now hoping that CPMS Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will undo or check the damage. Vijayan is no run-of-the-mill politician. His utterances and actions during the one and a half months that he has been the Chief Minister have raised hopes that he will not let himself be guided by conventional Marxism. He is ready to take the path of social democracy laced with capitalism, if it means Keralas development. His finance minister too is not an average politician. Isaac has a doctorate in public finance from the Thiruvananthapuram-based Centre for Development Studies, affiliated to the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Many of Isaacs ideas are driven by a communist perspective, but he means business even if he conducts it in his own style. But to stop Keralas finances from going deeper into the red, you need no ideology. You just need to stop wasting money, raise resources and step up tax collection. Dr Isaac knows that. Author tweets @sprasadindia Ukraine's Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry tentatively assesses grain exports from Ukraine in 2015/16 agricultural year (July-June) at 39.415 million tonnes, which is 13% more than during the previous season. The ministry said in a press release on Saturday that wheat exports reached 17.354 million tonnes, corn 17.396 million tonnes, barley 4.409 million tonnes and other grain crops 256,000 tonnes. The ministry said that grain exports in the 2014/15 farm year totaled 34.805 million tonnes. According to the State Statistics Service, grain harvest in Ukraine in 2015 totaled 59.96 million tonnes, which is 6.1% down year-over-year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) expects grain harvest in Ukraine in 2016 to reach 59 million tonnes, exports at around 32 million tonnes. Varanasi: BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday attacked Rahul Gandhi after the Congress Vice President questioned the NDA government's achievements, saying it was no mean feat that even the opposition has been unable to level any corruption charges against it. "I want to tell you, Rahul Baba, what has the (Narendra) Modi government achieved in the last two years. It has not engaged in even a single instance of corruption like your previous government which carried out corruption everywhere," he said. "The Congress government indulged in the 2G scam, AgustaWestland Helicopter scam, scam in purchasing Air India planes, CWG and Adarsh society scam, besides a scam in purchasing submarines and coal scam...From land to sky, they were only involved in corruption and scams," Shah said addressing to the Jan Swabhiman rally. "I want to tell you (Rahul) that in these two years, even the opposition has been unable to level any corruption charges against our government. This is our achievement," he said responding to Rahul's remark at a press conference where he wondered what has the Modi government done in its last two years. Shah also said while Pakistan beheaded Indian soldiers under the Congress government, India is now giving a befitting reply. "Under your government, Pakistan was beheading our soldiers and taking their heads to their country, but now this has stopped. If a firing starts from the Pakistani side, it is India which fires the last bullet bringing an end to the exchange of fire," Shah said. He accused the SP government of not properly implementing the central welfare schemes in the state and said "If UP wants better development, it must help NDA form government in the state too." He hailed schemes such as 'Stand Up India', Startup India and Skill India launched by the Prime Minister "to empower our youths". Praising the Jan Dhan Yojana, Shah said the recent Mudra scheme has benefited small businessmen in the country. He said the SP and BSP governments were responsible for poverty and unemployment in the state and the youth were forced to migrate to other states for employment. "We want to develop UP and generate employment here so that people may not have to go anywhere else in search of job but this can only be achieved when our government is formed in UP," he said. Uttar Pradesh will become the best state after NDA comes into power, he added. Shah said in order to curb corruption, the NDA government has done away with interview for in class 3 and 4 central government jobs. Alleging that one could land government jobs in Uttar Pradesh only after paying bribe, Shah accused the SP dispensation of indulging in corruption. Shah also targeted BSP chief Mayawati, saying her partymen were leaving and she would be left alone as the 2017 assembly polls near. He said only BJP can defeat SP and the people of the state need to lend their full support to NDA to form the next government. Mumbai: In an apparent conciliatory gesture towards Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said "the tree of friendship planted today" will grow into a "big tree in the future", as the two leaders took part in a mega plantation drive. Thackeray replied, "Wherever there is a need for support, I shall stand shoulder to shoulder." Amidst the recent bitter exchange of words between Sena and BJP, the duo exchanged repartee on Friday at Mahim Nature Park where they planted a sapling to mark the state government's ambitious drive to plant two crore saplings across the state to boost forest cover. On the occasion, Fadnavis said that he has put soil and water to the tree planted by Thackeray and this will convey the "right message". "The tree of friendship planted by us will grow into a big tree like the banyan tree," he said. Thackeray pointed out the perils of global warming and said, "Some cities around the world will be submerged and that list will include Mumbai. I have not come here to play spoil sport. Wherever there is need for support I shall stand shoulder to shoulder. What begins well, ends well." Fadnavis seconded Thackeray's concerns for environment and said, "We have been taking from nature but have never given anything back which is not proper." "If we do not preserve anything for the future generation and do not give anything then nature will not give us anything in return," he added. Kolkata: Border Security Force (BSF) has increased vigil along the Indo-Bangla border in the backdrop of the terror attack in Dhaka and have launched special operations. "As it is the festival season of Id and Rath Yatra, there was a strict vigil on the border. But after the attack in Bangladesh, we have further increased our vigil along the border. We have issued high alerts and special operations are on," IG, BSF, Sandeep Salunke said. BSF is in touch with Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and is keeping a close eye on the situation. "We are constantly in touch with Indian intelligence agencies and also with BGB," he said. Twenty foreigners, including an Indian teenaged girl, were hacked to death by suspected IS militants inside a cafe popular with expats in the diplomatic zone of Dhaka in the worst terror attack in Bangladesh before commandos launched an assault on Saturday killing six attackers and capturing one alive. Beijing: At least 26 people were killed when a bus veered out of an expressway and fell into a ditch due to flat tyre in north China's Tianjin City, local officials said. The accident occurred on Friday when the bus carrying 30 people broke the guardrail at the Baodi section of the Tianjin-Jixian expressway and fell into a ditch, a statement from the city's emergency response office said. The driver lost control of the vehicle due to the flat tyre, it said. The four survivors, including a ticket seller and two passengers, sustained slight injuries, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The bus was en route to Shenyang, capital city of northeast China's Liaoning Province, from Xingtai City of north China's Hebei Province. The bus was pulled out of the water and bodies of the victims were retrieved, the report said. Rome: The death toll from the terrorist attack in Bangladesh, which left 20 civilians, two police officers and six attackers dead, could have been much heavier, one survivor told Italian media on Saturday. Diego Rivera is an Argentine chef who worked in the Dhaka restaurant that was targeted on Friday night. He managed to flee from the attackers, along with other staff, climbing on a roof above the kitchen and then jumping off it. "It was just after 8:30 pm, I was in the kitchen area where plates go out for serving. Luckily there were few customers. It could have been a much bigger tragedy," Rivera was quoted as saying by the La Repubblica newspaper. He said the attackers were aged 20 to 25, shouted "Allah hu Akbar" ("God is Great" in Arabic) and carried "big bags with explosives, bombs and grenades," as well as blades. "I know they killed some Chinese, an Indian and some Bangladeshi. But many of the victims are Italians," he said. Most of the Italian customers were businessmen, Rivera said. One saved himself "because he received a phone call and got out of the restaurant. Then he hid behind a plant. I am not sure that his wife survived." In separate comments to the Italian ANSA news agency, from the compound of the Italian embassy where he was offered refuge, the survivor added: "The attackers were only looking for foreigners." Another cook, Italian Jacopo Bioni, also spoke to La Repubblica. "I was working in the kitchen when a group of Italian friends arrived, all working in the textile sector, frequent customers of the restaurant," Bioni said. "I think they are all dead." "I ran away with Diego and other colleagues in the opposite direction [of the attackers]. From the back of the kitchen there are stairs leading to the roof on the second floor. Then they started shooting and launching grenades at us, so we jumped off." Is the sudden spike in jihadi attacks in Bangladesh a result of turf war between the Al-Qaeda and IS? The Islamic State (IS) was quick to claim responsibility for the gruesome attack on a Dhaka cafe that finally came to an end after a 12-hour siege on Saturday with Bangladesh army's Brig. Gen. Mujibur Rahman telling CNN that the troops have rescued 14 hostages and shot dead six gunmen. At least two senior officers were dead and 40 were left injured. The number of terrorists killed was confirmed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. According to Daily Star, Bangladesh's biggest English daily, Indians and Japanese nationals are among those rescued while two police officers were killed shortly after the crisis began. Witnesses told the newspaper that several bodies were lying on the floor of the cafe after the operation, which ended around 9.30am BST. Reports have suggested that around 9 pm local time on Friday, as many as nine gunmen attacked the upscale Holey Artisan Bakery, which is mostly frequented by foreigners, in the plush Gulshan area bang inside Dhaka's diplomatic zone. The terrorists shouted "Allahu Akbar" as they launched the attack and started firing, according to kitchen staffer Sumon Reza, who was among more than 10 people who managed to run to the rooftop and escape. The terrorists, who according to Reza were armed with pistols, swords and bombs, detonated explosives and took many hostages. Though the exact figure remains unclear, at least 35 people including 20 foreigners were thought to be held at gunpoint before troops and Bangladesh's elite Rapid Action Battalion, backed by armored vehicles, moved in to rescue them early on Saturday. The Islamic State, through its news agency Amaq, issued a statement on Friday that its "commandos have attacked a restaurant frequented by foreigners in the city of Dhaka in Bangladesh", a claim US State Department officials have said they "cannot yet confirm". Amaq also posted photos purportedly showing the bodies of hostages. Though the pictures couldn't be verified as authentic despite a strong resemblance to actual scene of crime, New York Times columnist Rukmini Callimachi who covers Islamist extremism, including Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, pointed out in a series of tweets on Saturday how the attacks bears IS stamp. Callimachi, a three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, whose series of articles on ransoms paid by European governments becoming one of the main sources of funding for Al-Qaeda won her the George Polk Award in International Reporting, drew attention to the pattern of attack in Dhaka which is consistent with IS ideology of targeting only non-Sunni Muslims since Sunnis are 'IS' core audience." 2. This is at least the 19th attack claimed by ISIS in Bangladesh since Sept 2015. Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 1, 2016 5. Bangladesh like Turkey is a Muslim nation, with large Sunni population. This is ISIS' core audience. They can't do random violence here Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 1, 2016 6. So in Bangladesh like in Turkey, the group until today only took credit for targeted assassinations of non-Sunni Muslims. Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 1, 2016 7. First attack claimed by ISIS was in Sept 2015 & was assassination of Italian national. Next was a Japanese national on Oct 3, 2015 Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 1, 2016 8. Third attack claimed by them was Oct 28, 2015 and involved bombing a Shia temple. They went on to kill Hindus, Buddhists, Christians Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 1, 2016 9. See the pattern? It's carefully selected targets, not mass shootings , presumably bc mass shooting in Bangladesh would kill Sunni Muslims Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 1, 2016 According to terror research firm SITE Intelligence Group, a Maryland-based company that focuses on "all dimensions of extremism in the 21st century" led by Israeli analyst Rita Katz (terror analyst and author of Terrorist Hunter, a book on radical Islamic groups operating in the US), Dhaka has become victim to a competition between Ansar al-Islam, the Bangladesh division of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) which claimed responsibility for the killing of LGBT magazine editor Xulhaz Mannan and IS, which claimed credit for the 23 April murder of Rezaul Karim Siddique, an English professor at Rajshahi University. As soon as the Islamic State began carrying out attacks in Bangladesh, we predicted attacks would increase while the group and AQIS competed, Rita Katz was quoted, as saying in the report. This is exactly what we are seeing now as the Islamic State claimed six attacks in 2016 alone. ISIS, says SITE, has taken responsibility for 15 attacks in Bangladesh so far. AQIS and its affiliates, on the other hand, have so far tallied 13 (11 killed and five wounded) since 2013. SITE's argument on increasing competition between AQIS and IS in Bangladesh was also corroborated by newspaper Daily Star. In a recent article, the Bangladesh daily quoted Islamic State magazine Dabiq and wrote how the IS wing in the country is being led by a Bangladeshi-Canadian named Tamim Chowdhury, who identifies himself as Shaykh Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif. While AQIS, which began gaining strength in 2013-14, recruits from Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Ahle Hadith, Hefazat-e Islam, different madrasas and financially vulnerable families, the so-called IS affiliated group apparently recruits from relatively more affluent section of the society including physicians, engineers, technologists, architects and educated people. Targets of the so-called IS, said the report, includes a wide-spectrum of people Hindu, Christian, Buddhist or Baha'i leaders, spiritual leaders or pirs, members of Shia sect, university teachers, religious convert and foreigner, among others. In the last 18 months, militants have killed 47 persons. Responsibility for 28 of these killings was reportedly claimed by so-called IS and eight by Ansar Al Islam, said the report. Bangladesh forces stormed a restaurant where heavily armed militants held dozens of people hostage for 10 hours on Saturday morning, triggering explosions and finding at least five bodies lying in pools of blood. Japan's government said that 12 people were rescued. The commanding officer of Bangladeshi commandos later confirmed that at least six of the militants have been killed and 13 hostages rescued after security forces cleared the main restaurant building at the end of the 10-hour standoff. Lt. Col. Tuhin Mohammad Masud told AP that some militants were captured. "We have gunned down at least six terrorists and the main building is cleared but the operation is still going on," he said. According to some media reports, one terrorist have been captured alive. 1 terrorist captured alive, 6 have been killed: Reports #DhakaAttack pic.twitter.com/qcpLVVcuP0 News18 (@CNNnews18) July 2, 2016 Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Minister congratulated the Bangladesh security forces for carrying out a successful rescue operation. She said that the commandos along with RAB and other security forces have rescued 13 hostages and kill six militants. She also slammed television channels for hampering rescue operations and called for restraint while reporting these kinds of situation. Condemning the attack, she said, "What kind of humans kill during the Holy month of Ramzan." We have been able to save 13 people, 6 gunmen have been killed: Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina #DhakaAttack ANI (@ANI_news) July 2, 2016 What kind of humans are these, who are killing other humans during Ramzan?: Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina ANI (@ANI_news) July 2, 2016 All security agencies did a great job: Bangladesh PM on #DhakaAttack ANI (@ANI_news) July 2, 2016 The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadis activity online. At least 35 people, including about 20 foreigners, were trapped inside the restaurant, said kitchen staffer Sumon Reza, who was among more than 10 people who managed to run to the rooftop and escape when the militants moved in Friday night. The attack took place near the Nordic Club, where expatriates gather, and the Qatari, Italian and Egyptian embassies, as Bangladesh observes the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. French ambassador Sophie Aubert said the restaurant was "very popular" with diplomats and other foreigners in Dhaka. With the sound of gunfire and explosions, local TV stations reported that the rescue operation began at 7:40 am. It included army personnel with automatic weapons and at least seven armored vehicles. Several ambulances were on standby. Local media reported that an Argentine and two Bangladeshis were rescued from the restaurant early on Saturday, but details about their condition were not immediately available. Commandos storming the restaurant discovered five bodies, a police official who was not identified told Channel 24 TV station. In Tokyo, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said that 12 people were rescued in the raid, including two foreigners, but he couldn't say if they were Japanese. His information was based on Dhaka police. A news agency affiliated with the Islamic Group claimed that 24 people had been killed and 40 wounded, including foreigners, according to SITE. The figures could not be independently confirmed. The Amaq news agency also posted photos purportedly showing the bodies of hostages. The authenticity of the pictures could not be confirmed either. The attack marks an escalation in the growing drumbeat of militant violence to hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation in the past three years, but with increasing frequency in recent months. Most attacks have been by machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities. Bangladesh did not immediately respond to the claim of responsibility by Islamic State, but in the past have denied that the extremist group has a presence in the country. The US State Department said it had seen the Islamic State claim, but could not confirm its authenticity. The attackers "have not responded to authorities' calls for negotiation," said a member of the elite anti-crime force, Rapid Action Battalion, identifying himself as Lt. Col. Masood, during an interview with the Indian TV channel Times Now. He said that the security cordon would prevent any of the attackers from escaping. Authorities also ordered internet services to be blocked across the country, according to internet service provider Aamra. Police said the two officers died at a hospital after being wounded in the initial gunfire with as many as nine attackers, who also hurled bombs. Ten of the 26 wounded were listed in critical condition, six of whom were on life support, according to hospital staff, who said the injuries ranged from broken bones to gunshot wounds. Only one civilian was among the wounded. Reza said the attackers chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) as they launched the attack around 9:20 pm on Friday, initially opening fire with blanks. A huge contingent of security forces cordoned off the area around the bakery. Some diners had managed to escape earlier including an Argentine chef and a Bangladeshi man who took refuge in an adjacent building. Some managed to speak to relatives by phone, reporting there were up to 40 people trapped inside, around half of them foreigners, the private Ekattur TV station said. Another had told relatives he feared they would be killed if police tried to storm the restaurant to end the siege. "He is very nervous," the man's uncle, who had spoken to him by phone, told AFP. The restaurant's supervisor Sumon Reza who escaped by jumping from the roof told a local newspaper there were 20 foreigners being held hostage. "I was in the roof. The whole building was shaking when they set off explosives," he said. The nationalities of the hostages were not immediately clear. On Saturday, Japan's top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said at a hastily called news conference in Tokyo that the government is trying to confirm that Japanese were among the hostages. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters that saving lives is the top priority. "Some derailed youths have entered the restaurant and launched the attack," Benazir Ahmed said. "We have talked to some of the people who fled the restaurant after the attack. We want to resolve this peacefully. We are trying to talk to the attackers, we want to listen to them about what they want." "Our first priority is to save the lives of the people trapped inside," Ahmed said. He would not say how many people were being held hostage. Among the hostages was a businessman and his wife and two children, according to his uncle Anwarul Karim. "My nephew Hasnat Karim called me and said he was inside with his family. He told me, 'Please save us, please!' And he hung up," he said. "We do not know what is going on there." In Washington, a White House official said President Barack Obama was briefed on the attack by his chief counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco. The president asked to be kept informed as the situation develops, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the president's meetings. State Department spokesman John Kirby says the U.S. is in contact with the Bangladesh government and has offered its assistance to bring those responsible to justice. He said all official American personnel are accounted for with no injuries reported, and the department is working with local authorities to determine if any U.S. citizens and locally-employed staff were affected. The spree of recent attacks in Bangladesh have raised fears that religious extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions of secularism and tolerance. About two dozen atheist writers, publishers, members of religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers have been slain since 2013. On Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death by at least three assailants in southwest Bangladesh. IS and and al-Qaida affiliates have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government has cracked down on domestic radical Islamists. It has accused local terrorists and opposition political parties especially the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilize the nation, which both parties deny. With inputs from agencies On late Thursday night, terrorists barged into Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant, an upscale eatery in the Gulshan diplomatic zone in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The terrorists took about 20 people hostage as negotiations lasted for over ten hours. Bangladesh security forces stormed into the cafe and freed at least 13 people. The attack was later claimed by the Islamic State. The terror group had recently carried out an attack on Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, killing 38. Naimul Karim, Daily Star reporter from Bangladesh told Firstpost,"This is the first of this kind, very unique and scary. There have been many hackings since 2013. But what makes this terror attack unique is that it happened in the Gulshan diplomatic zone an area where on a daily basis, security is beefed up and citizens are stopped at least once. This is a restaurant that many foreigners go to. It has taken us aback, for something of this scale to happen in the Gulshan area." Friday's attack took place near the Nordic Club, where expatriates gather, as Bangladesh observes the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. French ambassador Sophie Aubert said the restaurant was "very popular" with diplomats and other foreigners in Dhaka. This attack follows a series of killings targeting foreigners in Bangladesh that have been claimed by the Islamic State group. Earlier on Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in western Bangladesh and a Hindu priest was stabbed and critically wounded early on Saturday in the southwest of the country. Police also shot dead two Islamist students suspected in last month's murder of a Hindu priest and arrested a top Islamist militant who masterminded an attack on a Hindu lecturer last month. Sheikh Hasina can't deny it any longer Right after the killing of two foreign nationals in Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh Prime Minister had stated that there were no caliphate cells in Bangladesh. "I can say that no group like the Islamic state is active here. Our intelligence is on alert and have no evidence of any operations by such groups in Bangladesh." Bangladesh, since 2013 has witnessed a sharp spike in murders of secularists, activists and individuals from minority communities all carried out by Islamist militants. The Islamic State has claimed a majority of these attacks, however local authorities blame home-gown militants and continue to deny the presence of the international terror group on Bangladesh soil. In a bid to deter such attacks, Bangladesh police armed villagers against Islamist militants. "We want to change the scenario. We want the people to be cautious, safe and united against militancy and other crimes," said Ehsan Ullah, police chief in the western district of Magura, which has a large Hindu population, to AFP. Naimul Karim, in an earlier article for Firstpost had said that militants have managed to be consistent with their attacks because of the "encouragement they receive from 'confused' statements made by the government." After a spate of killings in the LGBTQI community of Bangladesh, Hasina had released a statement attributing the killings to the writings by those killed and that the government bears no responsibility. Nur Khan, a terrorism expert and researcher based in Dhaka told DW that the "presence of IS in Bangladesh has already been proven...We also know that some Bangladeshis have traveled to Syria to join IS. The police have confirmed this many times in the past." In Islamic State's mouthpiece/editorial, Dabiq, Bangladesh referred to as Bengal makes 68 appearances in the 14th issue. And 'Bengal', according to Dabiq is important because of its "strategic geographic position" that would help in performing attacks in India causing "tawaahhush (chaos)". "The mujahidin in Bengal then resumed their terrorism of the Rafidi mushrikin in the region." In the magazine, there is a long profile of Abu Jandal, who grew up in Dhaka and moved to Syria. Jandal comes from an affluent family with deep connections in the Bangladeshi military. "Abu Jandal was among the first of the mujahiddin in Bengal (Bangladesh) to support the Islamic State and pledge his allegiance to the Khalifah (hafidhahullah)." Dabiq also has seven pages in its last edition dedicated to a long interview with Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif "the amir of the Khilafahs soldiers in Bengal." This itself should be a strong indicator that there is a burgeoning presence of the Islamic State and other terror outfits in Bangladesh. Simon Tisdall writes in The Guardian that one of the reasons for the spike in Arab jihadi ideology in the state is "linked to the increased use of social media" but also that Bangladesh has a "fractured political space" where criticism and debate are restricted and this shows in the Hasina government's reluctance to tackle the recent surge in killings being carried out by the Islamist hardliners. Political divides, lost lives Hasina has focused on avoiding blame for the recent killings of liberals and secularists by Islamist hardliners, blaming the attacks as a "conspiracy" to oust her government by Khaleda Zia's BNP. Hasina has been letting this hate and radicalism simmer and the government's unclear stance is also worrisome for India (which incidentally is also battling Islamic State radicalisation and home-grown militancy). As Seema Guha points out in this Firstpost article, "mushrooming of jihadi groups can have an impact on India's sensitive north-eastern states." According to Sunil Raman, Indian authorities are perplexed by the amount of jihadist literature in circulation in Bangladesh. However, Islamic State has to compete with al-Qaeda's presence in the subcontinent, which only means that the two terror outfits could be in competition in the subcontinent as well. According to VR Raghavan in Internal Conflicts: A Four State Analysis, India-Nepal-Sri Lanka-Myanmar, the silence on the part of the Bangladesh government and its 'confused' statements and repeated finger-pointing have encouraged the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and violence in the State and have pushed "radical Islamists" to make Bangladesh into an Islamist State. "The growth of radical Islam in Bangladesh owes a lot to the failure of parliamentary politics and weakening of civil society," he writes. According to him, 50000 militants belonging to more than 40 groups control large areas of Bangladesh and are funded partly by political parties. Ali Riaz in Islamist Militancy in Bangladesh: A Complex Web, says that Islamists in Bangladesh are not a "homogenous and monolithic entity" and their only agenda is to create an "Islamic revolution" and liberal democracies cannot provide a solution to the "moral crisis" of a nation. Terrorism in Bangladesh, is perhaps both homegrown and externally influenced (by Islamic State or Al-Qaeda), and the state has to address the problem of radicalisation (from within and outside), growing unrest and discontent with the government. Dhaka: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday criticised Bangladeshi TV channels over live telecast of the government's preparations during the country's worst hostage crisis and threatened to revoke their licenses. "When we are taking preparations, channels were telecasting those live. Do they not think that the terrorists are watching this and devising their strategies accordingly? I request the television channel owners to please not do this," Hasina said while announcing the success of the operations carried out at Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan. She criticised the television channels' role during conducting operations. "In the United States, when people were killed, neither CNN nor BBC showed anything to jeopardise the operation. But in our country, there is competition between the television channels. Some television channels do not want to listen. "I can issue the licence and I can revoke it as well. This is not a childish game," the Prime Minister was quoted as saying by Dhaka Tribune. Hasina asked the television owners to telecast the bad side of militancy, "It is the responsibility of all". "People have to be resistant against this. We can not let this impede the development taking place in Bangladesh," Hasina said as she asked people to resist militancy. 20 foreigners, including an Indian girl, were hacked to death by suspected Islamic State militants inside a cafe popular with expats in the diplomatic zone here in the worst terror attack in Bangladesh before commandos launched an assault, killing six attackers and capturing one alive. Director of Military Operations Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said the militants slaughtered 20 hostages before the joint operation led by the armed forces began. Most of those killed were found with their throat slit, he added. Indian girl Tarushi, 18, who was taken hostage was killed by the attackers. Italian and Japanese nationals were among 19 others who were brutally murdered. Two senior police officers were also killed in the gunbattle that began last night. The mission codenamed 'Operation Thunderbolt' was launched after the Prime Minister ordered the army to intervene to end the hostage crisis, Chowdhury said. Hasina announced the end of siege and said security forces "successfully" wrapped up their operation, freeing 13 hostages after killing six terrorists and capturing one militant at the Spanish cafe. She said around 30 people were injured. Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack through its Amaq news agency, nearly four hours after the hostage crisis unfolded, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence group, which monitors jihadist activity online. The massacre in Dhakas diplomatic area on one of the most important days of the holy month of Ramadan should be a wake-up call to Indian intelligence agencies and the government. It is important to realise that there is a group of die-hards across the eastern border for whom the tenets and sanctity of the religion mean little, if anything at all. The border between India and Bangladesh is one of the most porous borders in the world. In comparison, the border between Mexico and the US is much better guarded. Although in recent times, India has upped the surveillance, the wall is very thin and fragile. The Indian mindset does not take the influx from Bangladesh as seriously as it should. The daily influx of illegal migrants is given impetus by the loss of land because of global warming,flooding and blatant stealing licensed under an official legislation. The minority community and the poverty-stricken people are often compelled to surrender their land under this law, which allows for the seizure of the property of anyone assumed to be anti-national. Often, it is misused to usurp land belonging to the Hindu community. But what is equally worrying is the fact that terrorist activities are increasing across the border, and such easy movement into India is now a matter of great concern. Over 10 million Bangladeshis have slipped into the country since its creation in 1971 and more enter every day. The eastern states in India are already concerned about the increasing populations of such ghettos, which have been constantly fed by trafficking. However, not much is said about their presence in other parts of India. Politicians have added to the threat level, and the situation is such that thousands of people without any identification have become legitimate residents. And yet, getting a passport for an Indian is still akin to climbing Everest without oxygen. It is indeed frightening these immigrants get PAN cards, Aadhaar cards and ration cards with consummate ease and become Indian for all it is worth. This means that they become potential vote banks. In fact, in the capital itself, there are enclaves of people from Bangladesh. After yesterday, it is only fair warning that we take this matter more seriously, especially in the light of the fact that global jihadists see Bangladesh as an open market and recruit increasingly from the low income ranks of one of the most high density populations in the world. There are at present five active terror groups in that country excluding splinter and nascent entities that could be innumerable. Clearly, they are also being financed. The Terrorism Research Initiative says: Bangladesh does not attract as much Western attention as some other South Asian countries like Pakistan or Afghanistan. As a result, many important issues and clues end up being overlooked by the international community. It goes on to issue an alert: Another largely overlooked issue involves Bangladeshs terrorist connection to south-east Asia. Prior to being captured in Thailand in August 2003, the former operational planner of the Jemaah Islamiya (JI) terrorist group, Hambali had made a decision to shift JI elements to Bangladesh in response to recent counter-terrorist activity in Southeast Asia. Hambali identified Bangladesh as a safe refuge. Dr. Sajjan Gohel, International Security Director at the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a London-based think-tank, has this to say- The secular and nationalist foundations of moderate Bangladesh are being undermined by a culture of political violence and the rise of Islamist extremists. Although the JEI (Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh) was banned by the government from taking part in the general elections, it still commands a significant and loyal following. It is not about to disappear anytime soon even if the war crime tribunals causes some discomfort for its leadership. Our preoccupation with Pakistan is allowing us to lower our guard with respect to our eastern neighbour. While the majority may be just normal worker bees trying to make a decent living, after yesterday, we have to accept that there is an organised group of hardcore individuals who are seeking to take forward their agenda. Representatives of the Union of Ukrainian Businessmen (SUP) have discussed problematic issues hindering development of business with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman. The SUP said in a press release that at a meeting on Friday taxation, currency restrictions, old regulatory requirements, corruption of official and the shadow economy were discussed. SUP members proposed to introduce the requirement to obligatorily register payment transactions with imported goods in the whole trade chain, adopt a full electronic document turnover between customs agencies and businessmen, open customs statistics to meet international requirements. This would help to hinder the shadow imports. The simplified taxation system for small business should be improved. The SUP representatives proposed setting tax rates for these companies, taking into account the spheres where they work. The founder of 3 Bears company and a board member of SUP Dmytro Ushmayev proposed to increase the term to return currency income from 90 to 180 days and eliminate the requirement to obligatory sell 65% of currency income for producers and exporters. The SUP said in a press release that business representatives said that it is important to create the national export-credit agency. The state would be able to guarantee exports credits and insure them from political and other risks. Groysman said that the government is mulling the possible format of the agency's operation. The problems of construction sector were also discussed at the meeting. The co-owner of Midland Development Ukraine and board member of SUP Olena Shuliak said that the main problems of the sector are the absence of town-planning documents, the long land allocation procedure, complicacy of connecting to utility networks, old design requirements, corruption in issuing permits and the necessity of paying fees to towns. "An agreement to hold a separate meeting of the prime minister with constructors and joint work of the SUP and the government to find mechanisms to re-launch the sector has been reached," the association said. According to a posting on the government's website, this work will include improvement of national construction requirements. At the meeting Groysman announced the soon reloading of the council of businessmen under auspices of Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers. The council should become a real tool for analyzing initiatives, opportunities to reach the government and make proposals. The prime minister announced that the office for accompanying investment would be soon created. "It is planned to create these offices all over the country. This would help to understand problems of business and quickly react to them," Groysman said. He said that the government would not cover up tracks of corruption and seeks to remove pressure of supervision agencies on business. The Union of Ukrainian Businessmen (SUP) was registered on January 29, 2016. Its board consists of top managers of 18 Ukrainian companies: Nova Poshta, UBC Group, Stekloplast, Softserve, Pharmplanet, IMC Group, Horizon Capital, Baker Tilly Ukraine, Spizhenko Cyberclinic, 7 Group, 3 Bears, Fedoriv, MTI, Rozetka.ua, Midland Development Ukraine, TM Cosmo, Arzinger and TMM. Around 50 companies are official SUP members. Washington: Donald Trump wants a running mate who has what he lacks political experience. Hillary Clinton is putting a premium on diversity as she searches for a No. 2. Yet the presidential rivals are running strikingly similar processes for tapping their vice presidential picks: relying on prominent Washington lawyers to comb through the background of top contenders, seeking guidance from a small circle of trusted advisers and family members, and weighing their personal chemistry with prospects. Trump, a wealthy businessman who has never held public office, is mulling a small number of political veterans. He's seriously considering former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, according to people with direct knowledge of the vetting process. "We're vetting a lot of good people and we have a lot of interest in people that want to leave high positions and do this," Trump said Thursday. The presumptive Republican nominee appears less concerned about diversity. His campaign chairman has said publicly that Trump is not interested in choosing a woman or minority for the sake of appealing to a particular segment of the electorate. The confirmed contenders are all white men over age 50. Clinton has said she wants a running mate who is well-prepared to become president. But Democrats say she's also giving priority to diversity and has been weighing women, Hispanic and black candidates a nod to the voting blocs Democrats need to win in presidential elections. Top contenders for the Democratic ticket include Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of Washington's most prominent female lawmakers; Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, a telegenic 41-year-old Hispanic politician; and Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, one of two black senators, was also being considered, though it's unclear whether he is still in the running. It's rare that a running mate dramatically shifts the trajectory of a presidential race. Yet it's still among the most important decisions nominees face during the general election and their choice is viewed as a reflection of their priorities and values. Clinton has veteran Democratic lawyer James Hamilton overseeing her selection process, with input from longtime confidantes John Podesta and Cheryl Mills. Clinton is expected to begin meeting with candidates herself next week, according to two Democrats with knowledge of the process. Given Clinton's decades in the public eye, her advisers don't expect her selection of a running mate to change her electoral prospects significantly. But one Clinton aide said it was important that her running mate help tell the "story" of her candidacy. Clinton has increasingly said her campaign is about Americans being "stronger together" a phrase intended to convey the importance of a diverse country fighting for common goals. Aides who have worked in senior White House posts under President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton have also been emphasising the need for personal chemistry, noting that a strained relationship between a president and vice president can be destructive in the West Wing. Clinton and Trump face fast-approaching deadlines as they evaluate their choices. Trump has said he plans to announce his running mate at the Republican National Convention, which kicks off in Cleveland in just over two weeks but the campaign has also considered pushing up the date. A person familiar with Trump's decision-making process said the one-time reality television star is weighing how to maximise the suspense of his choice. He might do it showbiz-style at the convention. Trump has spent weeks discussing his options with his adult children, business associates and even friends from his country clubs. AB Culvahouse, a lawyer who has overseen vice presidential vetting for previous GOP nominees, sent vetting paperwork to top contenders late this week. While the businessman has made clear he'll tap a political veteran for the post, those close to him say that's not the only element. "He's not going to pick someone he doesn't personally like," according to one person with knowledge of the process. Like others who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, they were not authorised to discuss the vice presidential process publicly. The businessman has a close relationship with most of vice presidential finalists. He's less familiar with Pence, though the two plan to meet this weekend, according to Marc Lotter, a spokesman for the Indiana governor. In choosing a political veteran, Trump would not be sending a message only to voters, but to the numerous GOP leaders who are wary of his candidacy. "That would soothe some concerns but not all of them," said Kevin Madden, a former adviser to Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee. Clinton is expected to wait until after the Republican convention to announce her running mate, allowing her to use her pick to distract from any boost Trump receives from the GOP gathering. She and her running mate will be nominated at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia the last week in July. NEW YORK Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton met with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for three and a half hours on Saturday as part of a probe of her use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state, her campaign said. The interview at FBI headquarters in Washington followed a week of intense public focus on the investigation and on the question of Clinton's viability as a presidential candidate, which her campaign has tried for months to downplay as a distraction. "Secretary Clinton gave a voluntary interview this morning about her email arrangements while she was Secretary," campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement. Clinton would not comment further on her interview, he said. Clinton is expected to be formally nominated as the Democratic candidate for the Nov. 8 presidential election at the party's convention in less than four weeks. She is currently the front-runner for the White House with polls showing her leading presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. "Timing of FBI interview, between primaries and convention, probably good timing for @HillaryClinton," tweeted David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama who served as the chief strategist for his two presidential campaigns. "Best to get it behind her." The FBI is investigating whether anyone in Clinton's operation broke the law as result of a personal email server kept in her Chappaqua, New York, home while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, an issue that has overshadowed her campaign. Clinton and her staff have struggled to respond to accusations that her use of the server in violation of State Department protocol means she is untrustworthy. Trump has said the investigation should disqualify her from being president. Trump's spokeswoman Hope Hicks did not respond to a request for comment. Clinton held a nine-point lead over Trump in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday. Republican lawmakers have called for an independent investigation, saying they do not trust the Justice Department to handle the inquiry with impartiality. Republicans, Trump, intensified their criticism of the process on Thursday after Attorney General Loretta Lynch met privately this week with Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, at an airport. Lynch said the two did not discuss the probe, but that she acknowledged the meeting was inappropriate and would accept whatever recommendations the career prosecutors working on the case made about whether to prosecute Clinton. (Editing by Mary Milliken) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Washington: Praying for the safety of those taken hostage by terrorists in Dhaka, presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton on Saturday said people will never succumb to fear and hate. "Praying for the safety of the hostages in Bangladesh," Clinton tweeted. Praying for the safety of the hostages in Bangladesh. To the terrorists: We will never succumb to fear and hate. -H Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 2, 2016 "To the terrorists: We will never succumb to fear and hate," she said. As Secretary of State, Clinton had visited Bangladesh in May 2012 and had a signed memorandum of understanding with her counterpart to create the US-Bangladesh Partnership Dialogue. The fifth edition of the annual dialogue was held in Washington DC last week. Suspected Islamic State terrorists last night stormed a restaurant in Dhaka's Gulshan diplomatic area and took hostage at least 20 people including foreigners, triggering a fierce gun battle with Bangladesh security forces in which two policemen were killed and 30 injured. Washington: Describing India as an "important Pacific power", the draft election manifesto of the Democratic Party has said it would continue to invest in long-term strategic relationship with the country and "press" Pakistan to deny terrorists sanctuaries on its soil. The Democratic Party Platform akin to election manifesto of political parties in India would be formally adopted at its convention in Philadelphia later this month wherein Hillary Clinton would be nominated as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee for the November general elections. A draft of the platform was released by the Democratic Party on Friday. Among its members include people from both Clinton and the rival Bernie Sanders' campaigns. Indian-American Neera Tanden, who is widely seen as a potential Cabinet member of the Clinton administration, is among its members. "Democrats will continue to invest in a long-term strategic partnership with India the world's largest democracy, a nation of great diversity, and an important Pacific power," the platform said, signalling that a Democratic administration would continue with the India policy of the Obama Administration. The platform said the US will work with its allies and partners to fortify regional institutions and norms as well as protect freedom of the seas in the South China Sea. "We will push back against North Korean aggression and press China to play by the rules. We will stand up to Beijing on unfair trade practices, currency manipulation, and cyber-attacks. And we will promote greater respect for human rights, including the rights of Tibetans," it said. The platform calls for a strong counter-terrorism measure. "Democrats will continue to push for an Afghan-led peace process and press Pakistan to deny all terrorists sanctuary on its soil," the platform said. Cautioning the countrymen that it would be a dangerous mistake for America to abandon its responsibilities, the draft said, "We cannot, as Donald Trump suggests, cede the mantle of leadership for global peace and security to others who will not have our best interests in mind." American leadership is essential to keeping the US safe and economy growing in the years ahead, said the draft platform. "From the Asia Pacific to the Indian Ocean, we will deepen our alliances in the region with Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand," it said. The platform supported Obama's decision to maintain a limited troop presence in Afghanistan and ensure that it never again serves as a haven for terrorists to plan and launch attacks on the US. Rejecting "Donald Trump's vilification of Muslims", the Democratic platform said it will repudiate vile tactics that would do the US harm. "We reject Donald Trump's vilification of Muslims. It violates the religious freedom that is the bedrock of our country, feeds into ISIS' nefarious narrative, and alienates people and countries who are crucial to defeating terrorism," the draft platform said. "We reject Donald Trump's suggestion that our military should engage in war crimes, like murdering civilians related to suspected terrorists or torturing prisoners. These tactics run counter to American principles, undermine our moral standing, cost innocent lives, and endanger Americans," it said. "We also firmly reject Donald Trump's willingness to mire tens of thousands of our combat troops in a misguided ground war in the Middle East. It would embolden ISIS, and there is nothing smart or strong about such an approach," it added. Asserting that climate change poses an urgent and severe threat to the national security, the platform said the Democratic party believes that the United States must lead in forging a robust global solution to the climate crisis. "We will not only meet the goals we set in Paris, we will seek to exceed them and push other countries to do the same by slashing carbon pollution and rapidly driving down emissions of potent greenhouse gases like hydrofluorocarbons," the draft platform said. "We will support developing countries in their efforts to mitigate carbon pollution and other greenhouse gases, deploy more clean energy, and invest in climate resilience and adaptation," it said. On immigration, the platform said people should come to the United States with visas and not through smugglers. "That is why the Democratic Party supports legal immigration, within reasonable limits, that meets the needs of families, communities, and the economy as well as maintains the United States' role as a beacon of hope for people seeking safety, freedom, and security. Immigration is not a problem to be solved, it is a defining aspect of the American character and history," the platform said. Dhaka: The Islamic State group has claimed at an attack on an upscale Bangladesh restaurant in which militants killed 20 hostages, saying it targeted the citizens of "Crusader countries" in the capital, Dhaka. The statement was circulated by supporters of the group on the Telegram messaging service Saturday. It resembled previous statements released by the extremist group. Bangladeshi forces stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka to end a hostage-taking by heavily armed militants early Saturday, killing six of the attackers and rescuing 13 captives including foreigners. The military said 20 hostages were killed during the 10-hour standoff, and a survivor's father said the attackers spared people who could recite verses from the Quran. Italian foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni said nine Italians were killed, and India's government confirmed Tarishi Jain was killed. The overall toll of 28 dead included two police officers who were killed at the start of the attack. It was not immediately clear if the Islamic State leadership in Syria and Iraq was involved in the planning the attack. IS has previously claimed attacks carried out by so-called lone wolf attackers with no known connection to the group. The hostage-taking marked a sharp escalation of the militant violence that has hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation with increasing frequency in recent months. Previous attacks involved machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the attack and said security officials arrested one of the militants. "Because of the effort of the joint force, the terrorists could not flee," Hasina said in a nationally televised speech, vowing to fight militant attacks in the country and urged people to come forward. "Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such act," Hasina said. "They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism." Rome: Nine Italians were killed and a 10th was listed as missing after militants attacked a restaurant in the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka and took hostages, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Saturday. The nine fatalities comprised four men and five women, Gentiloni told the press, adding that relatives had been notified. A 10th Italian was in the restaurant when the attack unfolded but was not among the 20 listed as dead, he said. Local media said the Italian dead included a 33-year-woman who had been in Bangladesh for 18 months for work, a 52-year-old woman textile executive and a 47-year-old entrepreneur who was the father of three-year-old twins. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had earlier prepared the nation for bad news, saying the country was "like a family which has suffered a painful loss." The attackers who believed they were "destroying our values" would not get a drop of encouragement from Italy, he said. "We are stronger," Renzi said. "The terrorists want to rip away the daily fabric of our lives. Our duty is to reply with even greater force, by affirming our values, the values of freedom of which we are proud, and which are stronger than hatred or terror." The attackers, moving at the start of the Eid holiday, took foreigners hostage at a restaurant, killing 20 before troops moved in Saturday. Many of the victims were hacked to death. The Bangladesh military said most of the fatalities were either Italian or Japanese. Thirteen hostages were rescued. Pope Francis sent a message of condolence to Bangladesh, condemning "barbarous acts" that were "offences against God and humanity," the Vatican said. Auto refresh feeds According to CNN-News 18, 20 police officers injured in the gunbattle with terrorists in Dhaka's upscale restaurant. Dhaka hostage crisis: Eyewitnesses to media say 5 gunmen killed, 1 captured, 2 unaccounted for (visuals of security) pic.twitter.com/X8WJaZLhjV Dhaka hostage crisis: Visuals of the security forces from the restaurant location, ambulance also seen at the spot. pic.twitter.com/qMsJDBNIHU Gunbattle has stopped after 100 commandos stormed the restaurant in Dhaka's high-security Gulshan diplomatic area. Eyewitnesses say that several of the hostages have been rescued and taken to the hospital. Unconfirmed reports suggest that five gunmen have been killed in gunbattle. According to witnesses and media reports, ambulances were seen coming out of the Gulshan Road, the scene of the hostage crisis, carrying wounded hostages. Around 13 hostages have been rescued from the restaurant. A police officer, on condition of anonymity, said two of the rescued persons were foreigners. The military-led rescue operation was launched jointly by a navy commando squad, paramilitary BGB, elite anti-crime RAB along with special police units. The sound of two big explosions has been heard from inside the Dhaka restaurant where security forces battled militants holding dozens of hostages, and a police official says five bodies were seen lying in pools of blood. Security forces stormed the restaurant early Saturday to end the 10-hour standoff with militants, according to AP. Lt Col Tuhin Mohammad Masud told Bangladesh media that 13 hostages were rescued some of which were of a foreign nationality. This included Japanese and Indian nationals. Various ambulalance were seen carrying the injured. The gunbattle has ended, but commandos are still present inside the restaurant, reported Indian news channel Times Now. According to US media reports, Islamic State has claimed responsibility of the attack at Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka last night, reported PTI. But according to CNN, senior US officials believe that the attack has been probably carried out by Al Qaeda. The US has said it cannot yet confirm the Islamic State terror group's claim owning responsibility for the hostage crisis in a restaurant in Dhaka's high security diplomatic area. "We have seen Islamic State claims of responsibility, but cannot yet confirm and are assessing the information available to us," State Department spokesman John Kirby said. Cannot yet confirm IS involvement in Dhaka attack After 13-hour seige, the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka has been cleared by the Bangladeshi security forces. Around 13 hostages were rescued from the bakery. Commandos storming the restaurant discovered five bodies lying in blood, a police official who was not identified told Channel 24 TV station. Indians, Italians, Argentine and Bangladeshis among the nationals rescued, according to Bangladesh media. Reports suggest that one terrorist have been captured alive and six have been killed in the gunbattle. Adopting it "would show that the international community is determined and pledges to take concrete actions on counter-terrorism by filling in the gaps that are there in the existing regime," he said. After the terror in Dhaka, India called for quick action to adopt the long-stalled Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) and expressed disappointment that the General Assembly failed to push for its early adoption, according to IANS. Speaking at the General Assembly while Islamic State terrorists were carrying out an attack in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave and taking hostages, India's Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin said, " The perpetrators of terrorist attacks as well as the States that support and sponsor or provide safe havens to terrorists or terrorist groups must be made accountable." Adopting it "would show that the international community is determined and pledges to take concrete actions on counter-terrorism by filling in the gaps that are there in the existing regime," he said. After the terror in Dhaka, India called for quick action to adopt the long-stalled Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) and expressed disappointment that the General Assembly failed to push for its early adoption, according to IANS. Speaking at the General Assembly while Islamic State terrorists were carrying out an attack in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave and taking hostages, India's Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin said, " The perpetrators of terrorist attacks as well as the States that support and sponsor or provide safe havens to terrorists or terrorist groups must be made accountable." A hostage situation is fast developing in the Gulshan diplomatic zone in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka as police is reportedly exchanging fire with suspected gunmen. According to PTI, police said that several foreigners are believed to be taken hostages inside the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant in the diplomatic zone in the Bangladeshi capital. The bakery turns into a Spanish restaurant at night. The casualty is likely to be high as the initial burst of gunfire is believed to have wounded many cops. According to Times Now, at least 30 people are injured. It also said the head of the Banani police station is reportedly dead. A witness who spoke to Reuters said from his house he could hear gunfire and it "looked quite bad". The US. Embassy in Dhaka said on its Twitter feed there were "reports of shooting and hostage situation". https://twitter.com/usembassydhaka/status/748922774614188033 Local newspaper The Daily Star reported that about five assailants entered the restaurant on Road 79 and opened gunfire around 9:20 pm (Bangladeshi time). The authorities have deployed the Rapid Action Battalion and local cops to tackle the evolving the security situation. Footage available with the CNN network but not aired due to editorial concerns on the nature of bloodshed have reportedly showed many people wounded due to gunshots. The Dhaka Tribune, which is running a live blog on the evolving situation, quoted the head of the Rapid Action Battalion on how the authorities are trying to deal with. "Dubbing the ongoing incident a hostage situation, the RAB Director-General Benazir Ahmed told reporters on site: "We would like to resolve the situation peacefully. And I urge everyone to remain calm and not to panic." He declined to provide further information on the development." The newspaper also quoted from the Facebook page of Lori Ann Walsh Imdad, principal of American Standard School. "Terrorists broke in and shot the Italian baker and his wife and took about 20 foreigners hostage. This is a block from my place so I have a front row seat to the police action." There is no confirmation on the exact number of hostages being held inside, though unconfirmed reports suggest 20-60. The US State Department has also confirmed the incident in a tweet. The attackers hurled bombs and were firing intermittently, injuring some policemen and people. A kitchen staff of the bakery, who managed to escape, said several armed men entered the restaurant around 8:45 PM and took the chief chef hostage, local media reported. "They set off several crude bombs triggering panic," he said. Earlier on Friday, a Hindu priest was hacked to death in the country by unidentified machete-wielding assailants, the latest murder in the Muslim-majority nation which has seen a string of brutal attacks on minorities and secular activists by Islamists. Bangladesh has of late seen a series of attacks, mostly using machetes, targeting bloggers, atheists and religious minorities. A gunman killed five people and injured at least 20 others early on Saturday when he opened fire with an automatic weapon in a cafe in northern Serbia, police said. The suspect was arrested. The attack occurred at 01:40 am local time in a village close to the town of Zrenjanin, some 50 kilometres northwest of Belgrade. A police statement says a man identified only as ZS first killed his wife and another woman before randomly shooting at other occupants of the cafe. Witnesses told Serbia's state TV that the attacker came to the cafe and saw his wife there with a group of friends. He then went home and came back with a gun. "He just pulled out a gun and started shooting, first into the air," one of the witnesses, Svetozar Manojlovic, said. "It sounded like firecrackers at first," he said. "Then the guy next to me fell down and others started falling down. It was total chaos." Serbia's Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said that the cafe guests eventually managed to grab the weapon from the man's hands when he tried to run away. Police in the vicinity arrived swiftly and caught the suspect, Stefanovic said. He said that the probable motive was jealousy. Stefanovic said the automatic weapon was illegal. He appealed to citizens to hand over illegal weapons that many people have following the wars in the Balkans in the 1990s. "This was completely unexpected," Stefanovic said, speaking in front of the "Makijato" cafe. "There were no signs at all, people tell us that he was completely calm and normal," he said. The wounded were taken to hospitals in nearby Zrenjanin and Novi Sad. Doctors in Zrenjanin said seven people underwent operation and were in serious condition. The incident was reminiscent of the deadly Orlando shooting from earlier in June, when a man randomly shot down people at a gay night club. While the motives behind the two incidents could be vastly different, such incidents highlight the rise in hate crimes and lax arm control rules. In the wake of the Orlando shooting, debate were triggered that while threat from terror organizations loom at large, such tragedies have become far too common due to easy accessibility of arms. (With inputs from AP) Washington: Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi has urged US President Barack Obama to skip the annual 'Running of the Bulls' spectacle during the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, when he travels to Spain later this month. "The 48 bulls used in the event are struck and terrorised as they slip, fall and injure themselves or human spectators on their way to a violent death in the bullring," Gandhi said in a letter. The letter dated 26 June, was released by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) here yesterday. In the letter, the Union Minister pointed out that bullfighting is an archaic display that has lost favour among Spaniards and has been banned in many parts of Spain and other countries. "In your position of power, taking a stand for compassion for animals and against cruelty would have considerable influence," Gandhi wrote. "Won't you please skip this barbaric event and speak out against such cruelty? This would surely be celebrated by kind people all over the globe," she said. Gandhi said bullfighting is banned in many countries including India, Argentina, Canada, Cuba, Denmark, Italy and the United Kingdom. She said even several Spanish cities have banned the sport. The White House, though, has not confirmed if the US President would be travelling to Pamplona. "I suspect he probably is interested in that. I've not spoken to him about it. But I don't know whether or not the President's itinerary will allow for witnessing that rather interesting event," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters during a news conference last month when he was asked about it. Islamabad: Pakistan on Friday condemned the terror attack on a Holey Artisan Bakery in the Bangladeshi capital that left at least two senior police officers dead and 40 people injured, terming it as "senseless terrorist attack". "Pakistan condemns the senseless terrorist attack in Dhaka that has led to the loss of precious lives and injuries to many innocent people," Foreign Office said in a statement. It said the government and the people of Pakistan extend their heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and the brotherly people and government of Bangladesh over the loss of innocent lives and wish the injured early recovery. "Pakistan stands in solidarity with the brotherly people of Bangladesh and is confident that the Government of Bangladesh will effectively counter this cowardly attack," it said. Pakistan also reiterated its condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Ukraine's negotiations with Russia on the transfer of Ukrainian citizens convicted in Crimea to Ukraine are nearing completion, Ukrainian First Deputy Justice Minister Natalia Sevostyanova said on Channel Five television on Friday. "The negotiations are in the final stage," Sevostyanova said. Asked whether there is any progress in returning Mykola Karpiuk and Stanyslav Klykh convicted in Russia to Ukraine, Sevostyanova said that, while the Justice Ministry is using a legal mechanism to return all Ukrainian citizens convicted in Russia, including Klykh and Karpiuk, by sending requests on their transfer so that they serve their time at home, the political-legal pardon mechanism is quicker and more efficient. "The Justice Ministry has the only tool using which we can return our political prisoners unlawfully convicted in Russia, when we have a sentence and the person's consent to return home to serve time there," Sevostyanova said. "This tool takes a lot of time to employ, because Russia does not have clear timeframes and can drag out the process as long as it wishes," she said. In trying to defend the interests of Ukrainian citizens convicted in Russia, Kyiv has sent requests to Moscow on their transfer under the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, Sevostyanova said. "However, a process is going on simultaneously on the political-legal track, and it is more efficient," she said. Sevostyanova explained that this implies the simultaneous pardon of convicts in both countries and their transfer home. "The pardon tool in both countries is quick and efficient - in fact, political prisoners are in fact simply returned to Ukraine," she said. Kano (Nigeria): A Sierra Leone diplomat was kidnapped in Nigeria, a security official said, confirming the latest high-profile kidnapping in the West African country. Sierra Leone's deputy high commissioner to Nigeria Alfred Nelson-Williams was kidnapped as he was travelling by road from the Nigerian capital of Abuja north to Kaduna, a city some 200 kilometres away. "He was kidnapped on his way to Kaduna from Abuja to attend the passing out ceremony of military officers at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Jaji outside Kaduna," said Kaduna state security official Yusuf Yakubu Soja to AFP. "We are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the kidnap. We want to establish whether he had security escorts with him and what happened to them," Soja said, adding: "I'm not aware of any ransom demand." Kidnappings are common in Nigeria, where the rich and powerful drive bulletproof cars and hire military and police chaperones as protection from highway bandits. The most sensational kidnapping in the country's recent history saw 276 schoolgirls snatched from their classroom in the remote northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014 by Boko Haram jihadists. But in the south, where wealthy Nigerians and expatriate workers are usually the target, abductions are often for financial gain. This week, two Indian workers were kidnapped on their way to work in central Benue state. The pair have yet to be released. Last week, three Australians, a New Zealander and a South African were kidnapped along with two Nigerians near the capital of Cross River state in the country's south. They were released four days later, but officials did not say whether the kidnappers received any ransom. Tunis: A Tunisian was flown home for trial on Saturday after his arrest in Turkey for allegedly joining the Islamic State group, prosecutors said, days after his father was killed in an airport attack while searching for him. "Anouar Bayoudh arrived in Tunis at 00:30 am (2330 GMT Friday) with his girlfriend. They were taken to the investigation unit for terrorist crimes at the National Guard," prosecution spokesman Sofiene Sliti said. Bayoudh was to appear before a magistrate later on Saturday and both he and his girlfriend were to be charged with "joining a terrorist organisation and involvement in terrorist crimes", Sliti said. The 26-year-old has no idea that his father Fathi was buried on Friday after he was among the 44 people killed in a gun and bomb attack at Istanbul's Ataturk airport earlier this week, the spokesman added. The military doctor had been in Turkey looking for Anouar, after he and his wife learned late last year that their son had joined IS in Iraq and then in Syria, like thousands of other young Tunisians. But Anouar had a change of heart after he realised the jihadists were "monsters", his mother has told AFP. The young man turned himself in to the rebel Free Syrian Army after realising that he no longer wanted to be part of IS, and was detained in Turkey. His father was waiting for his wife at the Istanbul airport on Tuesday when the attackers struck, after months of back-and-forth to Turkey to try to find his son. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack, but authorities say evidence points to IS. Tunisia has also been the victim of attacks claimed by IS, and it is thought that thousands of Tunisians have travelled to neighbouring Libya, Iraq or Syria to join IS or its jihadist rival Al-Qaeda. The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Friday adopted a landmark resolution on access to medicines in order to examine the relation between intellectual property rights, trade agreements and access issues sponsored by a group of developing countries, including India. The resolution Access to medicines in the context of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health initiated by Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Senegal, South Africa and Thailand was adopted by consensus. Though not before Switzerland, the UK, the US, the EU, among other countries, reiterated their objections to the parts of the text that they found problematic. The resolution garnered more than 70 co-sponsors eventually. The central tenet of the original text premises itself "on the primacy of human rights over international trade, investment and intellectual property regimes". Switzerland, the US, Japan and the EU are home to giant pharmaceutical companies whose profits are cut down by competition from thriving generic industries, particularly in India. Brazil, when introducing the resolution said that access to medicines in the context of human rights remains an illusive goal for millions of people. The World Health Organization in its World Medicines Situations Report of 2011 states that at least one-third of the world population has no regular access to medicines. The challenges are no longer limited to developing countries or so-called neglected diseases it is affecting people in the global North as well as stretching the health budgets of all governments and impacting treatment to common diseases like hepatitis and cancer, said Ajit Kumar, ambassador of India to the UN office at Geneva. The existing global framework does not allow the fruits of medical innovation to be equitably shared in particular to those most in need of them, he added. This has resulted in skyrocketing prices for life-saving medicines and vaccines promoting discriminatory access to medicines. Increase in health-care cost pushes 150 million people into impoverishment every year. The resolution notes that actual or potential conflicts exist between the WTOs implementation of the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the realization of economic, social and cultural rights in relation to restrictions on access to patented pharmaceuticals and the implications for the enjoyment of the right to health. It urges member states to make full us of TRIPS flexibilities. This paragraph has not go down well with many developed states who see TRIPS flexibilities as a hurdle for their businesses earnings. Barriers to the full use of TRIPS flexibilities have only increased, India told the Council. The adopted text also emphasises strengthening viable financing options, and to promote the use of affordable medicines, including generics, as well as promoting policy coherence in the areas of human rights, intellectual property and international trade and investment when considering access to medicines. Earlier, during informal consultations, Netherlands wanted reference to generics removed altogether but the reference was retained. Netherlands also wanted to replace the word full use of TRIPS flexibilities with appropriate use of TRIPS flexibilities thus watering down the language. That suggestion was also not accepted. The UNHRC resolution further calls on the states to apply the principle of delinking medical research and development from the prices of medicines, diagnostics and vaccines. There would be a panel discussion by the Council on the issues of access to medicines, vaccines and diagnostics in March 2017 where the United Nations High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines (UNHLP) will be invited to present their findings and where countries share their best practices on access, Brazil announced. International objections The UK said that though it is ready to adopt the resolution by consensus, it finds a number of provisions in the text to be problematic. It has a substantial amount of language that has been intricately negotiated by experts from the WHO, WTO and WIPO. Here those individual paragraphs are transplanted out of context and take the resolution well beyond the remit of the UNHRC, UKs ambassador to the UN in Geneva Julian Braithwaite told the Council. The UK also added that the paragraph stressing the responsibility of states to ensure access for all, without discrimination to medicines, in particular essential medicines, that are affordable, safe, efficacious and of quality is untenable by law. It is not the states responsibility to do so. The document that asks for the Council to convene a panel discussion on best practices and challenges to access to medicines is duplicating the efforts already being made by the WHO and UNHLP on Access to Medicine, according to the British diplomat. The UNHLP was not established by consensus, Swiss diplomat Benjamin Muller told the Council. The developed countries, particularly the US, the EU, Japan, the UK object to the reference of UNHLP during most negotiations at the UN. The resolution fails to strike a balance between the protection of intellectual property and patents as incentivising innovation, and the use of TRIPS flexibilities, Muller said. The reference to price of medicines in the resolution is an inadequate simplification of the issue, he added, stating that patents and prices are not directly linked. Switzerland during the informal consultations said that it wants to delete language on "effects on prices". The language, however, was retained. The re-opened dialogue on the European Free Trade Association trade deal, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Switzerland recently, had been stuck since 2008 due to the high ambition of Swiss pharmaceutical industries on patent rights. Additionally, Swiss and American pharmaceutical companies have burnt their fingers fighting for exclusive intellectual property rights in Indian courts. Netherlands speaking on behalf of the EU said it disagrees that there is a misalignment between rights of inventors, international human rights law, trade rules and public health. The EU had earlier said that it rejects the primacy of human rights over international trade. A key finding of a joint WHO-WTO-WIPO trilateral study does away with the assumption that the right of inventors is the main impediment to innovation and access to health, the Netherlands ambassador Roderick Van Schreven said. Brazil, during the informal discussions on the text, had countered this argument by saying that the core group of countries have not taken on board the findings of the trilateral study because the study does not take on board human rights. Implicit in this resolution is the principle that the lack of access to medicines, including through the use of external trade pressure, constitutes a violation of the right to health, said Thiru Balasubramaniam of Knowledge Ecology International, an award-winning non-profit organization that works on advancing public interest in intellectual property policy. While the resolution contained good language calling upon states to make full use of the flexibilities contained in the WTO TRIPS Agreement, it was disappointing to observe the hard-line stance adopted by the European Union (represented by the Netherlands), the United Kingdom and Switzerland in trying to remove references to TRIPS flexibilities in the operative section of the text, he added. Another similar resolution Promoting the rights of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health through enhancing capacity-building in public health sponsored by Algeria, Brazil, China, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, South Africa, among other countries was also adopted without a vote on 1 July. digital and print publisher. digital and print publisher. We are Americas largest We are Americas largest The brands you love. The experiences you want. 2000 - 2022 24 .- . focus-news.net, () . 24 . 24 . . 24 . A group of armed persons headed by the head of the enterprise of power grids created by authorities of self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) on June 30 seized the premises of Donbas Energy System of state-run enterprise Ukrenergo in Horlivka, the company reported on Saturday. "According to the unofficial information this was done to execute the order of occupation authorities to nationalize energy facilities belonged to Ukraine," the company said. On July 1, 2016, managers of Donbas Energy System were not allowed to the workplace. The fulfillment of instructions of the legal managers is being blocked by armed persons. Ukrenergo said that technical staff had to write applications to transfer to the enterprise of power grids created by so-called DPR's authorities and fulfill orders of its managers. "These unlawful actions violate the Minsk agreements, Ukrainian legislation and rights of Ukrainian citizens," Ukrenergo said. The company said that it is taking all required measures to provide for stable operation of Ukrainian power grid. Samsung Galaxy Note7, the companys next flagship smartphone in the Galaxy Note series has finally surfaced in press images ahead of official announcement next month, thanks to @evleaks. Three images of the phone show it in Black Onyx, Silver Titanium and Blue Coral colors. The images also show the phones dual curved-edge screen, as rumored earlier and also the Iris scanner on the top, next to the earpiece. Samsung Galaxy Note7 rumored specifications 5.7-inch Quad HD (25601440 pixels) (518ppi) Super AMOLED curved dual edge display Octa-Core Exynos 8 processor 6GB LPDDR4 RAM, 64GB internal memory, expandable memory with microSD Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) 12MP rear camera with LED Flash, dual-pixel PDAF, Smart OIS 5MP front-facing camera IP68 ratings water and dust resistance S Pen stylus Heart rate sensor, Fingerprint sensor, Iris scanner, Barometer 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac (2X2 MIMO), Bluetooth 4.2 LE, NFC, USB Type-C 3600mAh battery with fast charging (wired and wireless) The Samsung Galaxy Note7 is expected to be announced at its Galaxy Unpacked event on August 2nd. [HTML1] The growth of legal marijuana over the past two decades has been nothing short of phenomenal. Following the lawmaker-led legalization of medical marijuana in Pennsylvania and Ohio, half of all U.S. states now have laws on the books supporting a legal medical marijuana industry. Another four states (Washington, Colorado, Oregon, and Alaska) have also legalized the sale of marijuana for recreational purposes. In the roughly two years since recreational marijuana hit pot shop shelves in Colorado, sales have soared to more than $1 billion on a trailing 12-month basis. In 2015 alone, Colorado wound up raising approximately $135 million via legal marijuana tax revenue and licensing fees. The industry as a whole, according to cannabis market research firm ArcView Market Research, hit an estimated $5.4 billion in sales in 2015 and could grow at an annualized rate of about 30% through 2020. You'd struggle to name other industries with growth potential on par with legal cannabis. This growth has been viewed as an opportunity for small businesses and sole proprietors to get in on the action. While many states have set limits on the number of licenses issued, Oregon has been the best example of a free market for marijuana. Oregon has chosen to implement some restrictions on who can operate a dispensary -- for example, persons with felonies and out-of-state residents can't get a license for the time being -- but otherwise has not set a licensing limit. Presumably, the added competition, in combination with Oregon's robust medical marijuana infrastructure that existed prior to its 2014 vote to legalize recreational marijuana, could make the state the most price-competitive with the cannabis black market. How big business could take over the cannabis industry However, investors and small-business owners aren't the only ones keeping a close eye on the growth of the marijuana industry. Even though big corporations have kept their distance from cannabis thus far and have avoided weighing in on the issue, a 30% CAGR is bound to turn heads. My personal prediction is that the marijuana industry will, at some point in the future, cease to be a small business- and proprietor-based industry and will instead predominantly fall into the hands of big business -- which is what most marijuana supporters don't want to happen. As it stands now, the cannabis industry has three paths it could take, and they essentially all lead to big business taking over. This "path" will largely be determined by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency within the next couple of weeks when it issues a ruling on whether or not to reschedule, or deschedule, marijuana. If marijuana remains illicit, big business probably wins over the long run Should the agency choose to keep marijuana's current schedule 1 status in place -- or, in other words, continue to designate marijuana as an illicit substance with no medical benefits -- then state-level legalizations would continue, but the chances of a federal legalization would be greatly diminished, even with support for legalization growing among the public. Keeping marijuana as a schedule 1 substance would leave in place two inherent disadvantages of operating in the marijuana industry. First, predominantly cannabis-based businesses would be denied the privilege of deducting normal business expenses come tax time. In short, they'd be paying federal income tax on gross profits instead of net profits, thus being brutally overtaxed. The other issue stems from a lack of financial backing. Banks often want nothing to do with the cannabis industry for fear of federal prosecution at a later date. In technical terms, since marijuana is still illegal federally, doing business with the cannabis industry could be construed as money laundering. This means cannabis-based businesses are often forced to deal solely in cash, which leaves them with numerous security concerns and little chance to expand. Big business, however, has tricks up its sleeve to get the marijuana industry booming. Big corporations have the capital to finance expansion and hiring, and they can set up (normal) complementary businesses, such as caregiving, that can allow a percentage of normal business deductions to be taken. By minimizing taxes and providing much-needed capital, big corporations could make legal marijuana work even as a schedule 1 drug. If marijuana is rescheduled to schedule 2 through schedule 5 The clearest path for big business to dominate the cannabis industry is if the DEA takes the middle road and reclassifies marijuana as a schedule 2, 3, 4, or 5 substance. Doing so would make medical marijuana immediately legal throughout the 50 U.S. states, but it would also create a world of regulatory problems that would most likely result in high costs for marijuana-based businesses. Moving marijuana to a schedule 2 substance, for example, would signify that it has medical benefits but is also a highly addictive substance. As such, it would come under the same close scrutiny as opioid-based drugs, turning the marijuana industry into something more like the pharmaceutical industry. With this change comes the likelihood of tight regulations from the Food and Drug Administration, including requirements for packaging and labeling approval, the need to show the FDA that the product being grown is consistent across batches in terms of THC content, and potentially costly clinical trials to demonstrate the efficacy of marijuana in treating select ailments. All of these regulations mean more costs, which could be impossible for small-business owners to absorb. Big business, on the other hand, has the capital and know-how to work with a tight regulatory environment. A rescheduling of marijuana for medical purposes would open the floodgates for big business to use its capital and clout to dominate the industry. If marijuana is de-scheduled Lastly, though most unlikely, the DEA could completely deschedule marijuana and put the plant on par with tobacco and alcohol. Doing so would still place certain regulations on the industry, but costs alone wouldn't push out smaller cannabis-based business owners. Descheduling would create the closest thing to a free market for marijuana. However, this free market would be an open door that would allow big business to again use its deep pockets to outgrow and underprice smaller competitors. Essentially, we'd see big business do to smaller shops what retail giant Wal-Mart does to mom and pop retailers. It's possible that I'm completely wrong here, and we might instead see big corporations deciding to avoid the controversial cannabis industry altogether. This could create the opportunity for small businesses and proprietors to succeed over the long term. But history has shown that fast-growing businesses often attract bigger entrants hungry for a piece of the pie. While we have no clue who those bigger players might be yet, I believe it's a fairly safe assumption that big business could come to dominate the marijuana industry in the intermediate future. For investors, it means that there's still no clear path to safely making money on marijuana over the long term. That could change with the upcoming DEA decision or a possible move from lawmakers on Capitol Hill (although I wouldn't hold your breath on that last one). Until such time as we see federal-level changes, I'd suggest avoiding investment in the cannabis industry altogether. Publicly traded gun companies could make for good investments this election year. Image source: Getty Images. Gun manufacturers sit in the crosshairs of federal regulators once again this election year. Firearms stocks such as Sturm, Ruger , Smith & Wesson , and to a lesser extent Vista Outdoor all face the risk of tightened federal regulations in the wake of this year's Orlando shootings. At the same time, these same firearms companies may be lining up to profit from a run on guns, as gun buyers stock up in anticipation of new federal regulations on gun purchases. Which of the gun companies' stocks will profit the most from heightened fear of regulation? Here are a few to consider: Sturm, Ruger Smith & Wesson Vista Outdoor Stock Ticker NYSE: RGR NASDAQ: SWHC NYSE: VSTO Best-Known for Ruger LCP subcompact, Ruger 10/22 M&P Shield 9mm Savage Axis bolt-action Market Cap $1.2 billion $1.5 billion $2.9 billion P/E Ratio 17.8 16.1 20.2 Data sources: Yahoo! Finance, Gunbroker.com. There are a few things worth highlighting in the chart above. Most of the talk about gun regulation this year centers on assault weapons such as the AR-15 and AK-47 semiautomatic riflesand the high-capacity ammunition magazines that feed them. Only two of the three companies named above (Ruger and S&W) actually manufacture such weapons, though, and these variants are not the best sellers for any of these companies. Facts are stupid things That doesn't change the fact that, as publicly traded gun companies, these three firearms stocks are the only ones investors can bet against in anticipation of new gun regulation. (They're also the only three companies investors can bet on -- all other gun companies being privately owned.) Just because Sturm, Ruger and Smith & Wesson don't make much of their livings from selling AR-15s and AK-47s doesn't mean they won't be punished -- or rewarded -- by investors who generically label them as "firearms companies." Laws and unintended consequences They may be. And in fact, history indicates they will be. In his 2013 book Glock: The Rise of America's Gun, author Paul Barrett described how America's 1994 Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) targeted weapons much like the AR-15s and AK-47s of today. After the initial shock and awe of investors fearing regulation, the AWB actually did wonders for the sales numbers of gun manufacturers like Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger. No sooner had the ban been lifted, though, than sales growth abruptly stalled. Perversely, this means Smith & Wesson, Sturm, Ruger, and maybe even less-gun-intensive Vista Outdoor may benefit from fears of imminent regulation -- and may even benefit more if regulations are put in place. Why to buy firearms stocks -- and which ones to buy Meanwhile, the stocks of these three companies seem "priced to move" for any uptick in sales (and profits). Currently, Sturm, Ruger, Smith & Wesson, and Vista Outdoor sells for a price-to-earnings ratio below the 24.3 P/E ratio of the S&P 500 index of companies. In that sense, firearms stocks are at least relatively cheap. Weighed on their individual merits, Vista Outdoor appears to have the most potential for producing superior profits for investors. According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Vista's projected five-year forward earnings growth rate is 25%, yielding a 0.8 PEG ratio on Vista Outdoor stock. Smith & Wesson comes in second with a 14% projected growth rate and a more expensive PEG ratio of 1.2. Sturm, Ruger, on the other hand, looks like it may be overpriced despite the prospect of a near-term uptick in sales. Sturm stock is expected to ride a strong performance in Q1 to enjoy a nice 18% rise in total profits this year -- but then turn down sharply as 2017 gets under way. Based on its negative projected growth rate, it's the only gun stock I would avoid owning right now. The article 3 Publicly Traded Gun Companies You Can Buy Right Now originally appeared on Fool.com. Fool contributorRich Smithdoes not own shares of, nor is he short, any company named above. You can find him on CAPS, publicly pontificating under the handleTMFDitty, where he's currently ranked No. 278 out of more than 75,000 rated members.The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Image source: Getty Images. Crude's dive into the $20s earlier this year exposed a big problem for a trio of Canadian oil producers. At less than $50 a barrel, Penn West Petroleum , Baytex Energy , and Pengrowth Energy do not make enough money to sustain their operations. So with crude slumping well below that level, each company was forced to turn off wells, suspend dividends, and cut capital expenditures just to try to stay afloat. Because of the cuts, investors worried that these companies would not survive the downturn, which weighed heavily on their stock prices. PWE, BTE, PGH data by YCharts. However, with oil prices improving all three companies are starting to find their footing. Further, if oil keeps rallying, these oil stocks could rocket higher due to their ability to deliver robust growth in an improving oil market. Going into survival mode With crude seeming to fall into a bottomless pit earlier this year, producers were forced to take drastic action. For Baytex Energy, this included turning off wells that had ultralow or negative margins. During the first quarter, the company shut in 7,500 barrels per day of its heavy oil production, which equaled about 9% of its output. Penn West Petroleum and Pengrowth Energy, likewise, shut in uneconomic production during the quarter, though not nearly as much as Baytex. In addition to shutting down unprofitable wells, all three companies have worked this year to improve their stressed balance sheets. Penn West Petroleum, for example, sold $1.3 billion of assets, enabling the company to stave off a looming default under one of its debt covenants. Pengrowth Energy did not go quite that far, instead paying back $173 million in debt with cash flow from operations. Baytex Energy, on the other hand, collaborated with its banks to get some covenant relief, to provide it a bit more breathing room. Ready to restart growth These moves enabled all three companies to stay afloat even as oil prices were sinking. Because of that, all three companies are in a position to rise out of the ashes now that oil prices are improving. Baytex Energy has already started to capture the upside to higher oil prices by turning most of its previously shut-in wells back online. The cash flow from those wells, along with higher cash flow from the rest of its legacy production, should boost the company's cash flow above its expectations. That provides the company with capital that could be used to restart its production growth engine. Furthermore, with oil back in the mid-$40s, all of the company's three development areas are once againeconomic and can deliver even more attractive returns as oil heads higher. Penn West Petroleum, likewise, is now in a position to restart its oil growth engine. Given its current portfolio and drilling economics, the company anticipates that it can grow production by 10% per year at current prices. Production growth, meanwhile, could accelerate to a 15% compound annual growth if oil rises to $60 a barrel. Pengrowth also has the potential to thrive as oil prices rise. The company estimates that it has the potential to invest C$6.6 billion into its Lindbergh thermal oil position to drive future production growth. It has a further C$4.7 billion investment opportunity to grow production out of its Montney gas assets. Investor takeaway Crashing oil prices almost destroyed these Canadian oil producers. However, by taking drastic actions, all three companies survived the downturn, and are now poised to thrive as conditions improve. All these companies need is for oil to move a bit higher so they can restart their growth engines, which could be the catalyst to send their stock prices rocketing higher. The article 3 Oil Stocks That Could Rocket if Crude Keeps Rising originally appeared on Fool.com. Matt DiLallo has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Image source: Getty Images. Investors often overlook energy stocks. The sector is not known for booming growth like tech, nor are energy companies household names like many consumer-facing companies. However, despite their shortcomings, energy stocks have a lot to offer. Here are three reasons to love energy stocks. 1. Owning energy stocks can offset personal energy costs Each month more than $100 gets plucked out of my checking account and deposited into the account of SCANA Corporation subsidiary South Carolina Electric & Gas to pay for my home's energy usage. I am one of over a million customers who routinely pay a SCANA subsidiary to deliver energy. Over the years those recurring income streams have generated substantial wealth for SCANA's investors: SCG data by YCharts. Because of the wealth-generating ability of energy companies, investors canbenefit from owning energy stocks by using them to offset personal energy expenses. By investing in a utility, customers can offset some of their home energy costs via the wealth generated by that entity. The same could be true for offsetting gasoline costs by investing in an oil and gas producer, or a refining and marketing company. 2. Energy stocks provide pretty decent passive income Anotherreason to love energy stocks is the passive income streams these companies often generate. To use SCANA as an example again: It has paid a dividend to its investors for 265 consecutive quarters, growing its payout in 61 of the last 65 years. Further, with plans to expand its earnings stream by 4% to 6% annually over the next three to five years, that payout will likely continue to grow. That's a pretty nice passive income stream. While some investors might loathe the idea of owning a carbon-emitting utility, thereare plenty of green ideas out there for stock portfolios. Brookfield Renewable Partners , for example, is one of the largest pure-play renewable power platforms in the world. Brookfield Renewable Partners generates more than 10,000 megawatts of clean energy from its hydropower plants and wind farms, which is enough energy to power 4 million homes. Those assets not only generate a relatively steady supply of renewable power, but they also provide a steady stream of cash flow to Brookfield Renewable Partners. Furthermore, because of its pass-through corporate structure, the company sends the bulk of that cash flow to investors. It is a pretty nice payout, with the company's distribution currently yielding more than 6%. That passive income stream would make any investor green with envy. 3. The energy industry is still growing Because its roots go back hundreds of years, the energy sector is not viewed as a growth industry. Further, due to the rise of renewables, many investors believe that fossil-fuel demand is on the decline. Those views could not be farther from the truth. It is true that renewable-energy demand growth is expected to be much stronger than demand growth for fossil fuels. According to ExxonMobil's outlook for energy, demand for renewables is expected to grow by 4.8% per year through 2040, compared to just 0.7% annual demand growth for oil and 1.6% annual demand growth for natural gas. That said, the combined growth for those two fossil fuels far outweighs the growth of renewables on an absolute basis: Image source: ExxonMobil. This suggests there is plenty of long-term growth left for investors in the energy sector, even in the fossil-fuel space. Investor takeaway Too many investors miss out by not owning any energy stocks. Not only can these investments offset an investor's personal energy consumption, but energy stocks are also excellent for earning passive income and for capturing the sector's abundant future growth.This is why you should consider having at least one energy stock in your portfolio. The article 3 Reasons to Love Energy Stocks originally appeared on Fool.com. Matt DiLallo has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of ExxonMobil. 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. Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko has discussed with OJSC Motor Sich senior managers the opportunity for modernizing and repairing existing helicopter equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Muzhenko stressed during his working visit to Zaporizhia on June 30 that the Armed Forces of Ukraine together with the manufacturing industry are now giving priority to the modernization of the existing fleet of helicopters. Motor Sich specializes in engines, as the press service of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reported on Friday. "We have seen the potential of Motor Sich. It has a powerful industrial base and its team is able to resolve all the issues, including the construction of Ukrainian helicopters. There are certain pilot projects in this direction and appropriate technical solutions. The company is fully capable to meet the demands for helicopters of the Ukrainian Armed Forces," Muzhenko said. He noted that Ukrainian industry carefully takes into account comments and suggestions on improving helicopters that come from army pilots based on the experience gained during the military operations. Muzhenko said today there is a well-organized cooperation between the Motor Sich company and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In turn, Motor Sich President and Designer General Viacheslav Bohuslayev confirmed the company's technology readiness to fully meet the needs of the armed forces in helicopters. "We are doing a kind of report for the General Staff and demonstrating what we are able to do at present time and in the future. We want to create a precondition for the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, so that our helicopters could fly faster, higher and farther. We need to have good engines for this purpose and that's what we are engaged in now, the company's head Bohuslayev stressed. He recalled that Mi-2 helicopter, which was modernized by the enterprise, can climb 7 km, while the Mi-8 is capable of reaching an altitude of 9 km 155 m in the sky. "This is a world record, which is registered in the Guinness World Records Book," Bohuslayev said. A few weeks back, we took a look at TASER International's big announcement of its first contract to deploy Axon body cameras for police in Canada. At the time, I examined the size of the contract and the size of the Canadian law enforcement market relative to that in the U.S. and concluded that, while TASER's entree into Canada was certainly good news, it wasn't quite good enough to justify investors' overenthusiastic bidding up of TASER stock. At the same time, though, the Canadian venture got me thinking: Forget about Canada for a moment. How big is the market for police body cameras evenhere in the U.S.? That's what we're going to look at today. TASER is totally going to ignore this sign and sell more Axon on-body cameras to police. Image source: Getty Images. How big is this market? Here are the statistics, straight from the U.S. Department of Justice. As of 2008, when the DOJ last conducted a full census, there were 17,985 state and local law enforcement agencies operating in the United States, including: 12,501 local police departments, 3,063 sheriffs' offices, 50 primary state law enforcement agencies (i.e., state police), 1,733 special jurisdiction agencies, and 683 other law enforcement agencies. Collectively, these agencies employed "more than 1.1 million persons on a full-time basis, including about 765,000 sworn personnel ... with general arrest powers" -- those being the folks most likely to need police body cameras. An additional 44,000 sworn officers were employed part-time. In total, that makes upwards of 809,000 "state and local" cops on the beat. Add"approximately 120,000 full-time [federal] law enforcement officers ... authorized to make arrests and carry firearms in the United States," and the U.S. alone has at least929,000 sworn officers -- and maybe more, as the trend in hiring cops has been going up, not down, in recent years. That's a big market for TASER to cater to; let's see how much progress it has made. How well has TASER exploited it already? As of September 30, 2015, TASER counts "more than 3,500 police agencies" in the U.S. as customers of its Axon on-body cameras That's about 20% of the total U.S. market. As of that same date, TASER had sold "154,000 cameras" globally. At first glance, this sounds like 16.5% penetration of the 929,000 potential police customers. But note that these "154,000" include customers outside the U.S. (TASER devices are deployed in 106 countries other than the U.S.). It also includes sales of "TASER Cam recorders," which are not the same as Axon. Result: TASER has so far placed Axon cameras in the hands (on the visors, and on the breast pockets) of something less than 16.5% of all potential U.S. police customers. We don't know precisely how much less, but here's one clue: TASER says it has only issued 75,000 licensesfor EVIDENCE.com storage of data recorded from Axon cameras to date. That implies that penetration per user might be as low as 8% in the U.S. Truth in statistics What does all of this tell us about the prospects for TASER getting bigger? Focusing solely on the market for Axon on-body police cameras (we'll take a look at actual TASER-brand stun guns in a later column), TASER has enjoyed a lot of growth of late -- but it also has plenty of room to keep growing. One conservative way to look at its prospects would be to calculate market penetration at the police department level. Assume that every police department TASER has sold to has already bought all of the Axons it needs. With 20% "department-level penetration," TASER can still grow five times from its present size. A more aggressive way to look at the picture might be to assume that at least some of the agencies where Axons are now present are conducting small trials before rolling out the products to all of their officers. In this case, "officer-level penetration" is only about 8% of the total potential market, and this would imply that TASER's Axon business might grow 12 times in size. Whichever way you look at it, though, TASER's $1.3 billion market cap today still leaves lots of room for future growth. Whether it grows to five times its present size ($6.5 billion), 12 times ($15.6 billion), or something in between, remains to be seen, but TASER is definitely getting bigger. The numbers command it. The article How Big Can TASER Become? originally appeared on Fool.com. Fool contributorRich Smithdoes not own shares of, nor is he short, any company named above. You can find him onMotley Fool CAPS, publicly pontificating under the handleTMFDitty, where he's currently ranked No. 278 out of more than 75,000 rated members.The Motley Fool recommends Taser International. 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: Intel. Microprocessor giant Intel is planning to host an in-depth presentation about its chip manufacturing technology at its developer forum, known as the Intel Developer Forum, in August. In particular, the company will be hosting what it calls a "Technology Insight" session titled "Building Winning Products with Intel Advanced Technologies and Custom Foundry Platforms." The presentation will be hosted by Intel Senior Fellow Mark Bohr and Intel Vice President Zane Ball. The company apparently plans to cover a pretty broad range of topics, many of which should be of interest to some investors. Let's take a closer look at what Intel plans to cover. Intel 10-nanometer tech details Intel says that during this presentation, it will provide "key innovations and Intel's 10nm highlights." The company has been rather mum about its 10-nanometer technology aside from claims around density and relative cost-per-transistor in fairly vague terms. It would seem that Intel is finally ready to spill the beans here. Not only should we learn about the sort of density/area scaling this technology is expected to provide, but the company may even reveal some of the key structural and materials enhancements made to the transistor itself. What's in a name? At various investor events, Intel has tried to make the point to investors that technology names (i.e., "14nm" and "10nm") aren't always useful in trying to gauge the competitiveness of technologies from different manufacturers. During this presentation, Intel apparently intends to provide an analysis of the technology-naming schemes from its competition. Remember that Intel's biggest competitor, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., plans to go into production on its "10-nanometer" technology early next year and its "7-nanometer" technology the year after that. Intel, in contrast, isn't expected to go into production on its own 10-nanometer technology until next year. Its 7-nanometer technology is likely to go into production approximately three years after its 10 nanometer goes into production. From a naming perspective, Intel will clearly be "behind," but the company is almost certainly going to try to show why this won't be the case when it comes to the underlying technology. Intel Custom Foundry apparently isn't dead Intel signaled some time ago that it would like to start manufacturing chips for third-party customers. There have been a few small customers that have signed on to use the company's manufacturing technology, but aside from Altera -- which Intel actually went out and bought -- Intel has yet to announce any really high profile contract chip manufacturing wins. Interestingly, the description of this session on Intel's site indicates that a good amount of time will be dedicated to talking about Intel Custom Foundry. Intel even claims that it will talk about "customer success stories." It would be nice if Intel were to follow this presentation up with a discussion of Intel Custom Foundry at its investor meeting later this year. It's clear that the company has been investing significantly in Intel Custom Foundry, but there are a lot of aspects that remain a mystery to shareholders. For example, when should investors expect to see a material revenue contribution from foundry customers? What types of customers is Intel trying to attract? How large of a revenue opportunity does Intel see from its foundry efforts over the long term? How about potential operating margin targets? The article Intel Corporation to Talk 10-Nanometer Tech in August originally appeared on Fool.com. Ashraf Eassa owns shares of Intel. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. 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. Intel likely won't power the world's top supercomputers anymore, following two stunning announcements from the Chinese government and IBM . The Chinese governmentunveiled Sunway TaihuLight, a supercomputer which has theoretical peak performance of 124.5 petaflops, making it the first supercomputer to break the 100 petaflop barrier. A single petaflop equals about one quadrillion calculations per second. The TaihuLight runs entirely on Chinese hardware, using ShenWei CPUs developed at the Jiangan Computing Research Lab in Wuxi. That means Intel, which previously provided Xeon chips for the country's Tianhe-2 supercomputer, has been cut out of China's supercomputer loop. Image source: Getty Images. Shortly afterwards, IBM revealed details aboutits new supercomputer, Summit, which will be deployed in the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in early 2018. The machine was originally intended to run at 150 petaflops, but IBM now claims that it could achieve peak performance of 200 petaflops. The Summit also doesn't use any Intel silicon -- it runs entirely on IBM's Power9 microprocessors and Nvidia's next-gen Volta GPUs. How did Intel fall behind? Intel's sudden drop in the supercomputer charts occurred for two main reasons. First, the U.S. government blocked Intel fromselling new Xeon chips to Chinese supercomputers last April, citing concerns about their role in nuclear research. The Chinese government had ordered tens of thousands of new Xeon chips from Intel to upgrade Tianhe-2's average speed from 33 petaflops to over 110 petaflops. That interference was controversial, as was Intel's compliance, since the U.S. Department of Energy had run its own nuclear tests sincelive tests were banned in 1992. Sequoia, the weapon-testing supercomputer, had been the fastest in the world until it was dethroned by Tianhe-2 in 2013, so it seemed like the Xeon ban was just a petty way to kneecap China in the supercomputer race. Meanwhile, IBM has been pairing its Power processors with Nvidia's high-end GPUs for a simple reason -- GPUs generally outperform stand-alone CPUs in machine learning. IBM claims that pairing Nvidia's Tesla K80 GPUs with its Power-based chips enables its Watson AI platform to answer questions 1.7 times faster. Nvidia claims that the K80 runs key science applications "two to five times" faster than Intel's Xeon Phi 7120 CPU. The combination of the new Power9 CPUs and Volta GPUs in the Summit could yield even more impressive results. What does this all mean for Intel? Losing the Chinese supercomputer orders last year reportedly cost Intel between $1 billion to $1.3 billion in revenue. That's equivalent to about 6% to 8% of its $16 billion inData Center revenue in fiscal 2015. Losing Xeon sales in China is bad for Intel, which posted just 9% data center revenue growth last quarter. That was well below its prior estimate for 15% annual growth between 2015 and 2019. The arrival of TaihuLight also indicates that Chinese data centers might not need Intel chips for much longer. The Chinese government wants to reduce its dependence onU.S. tech for security reasons, and Xeons could be gradually abandoned as part of that shift. To make matters worse, IBM "open sourced" its server designs to the Chinese vendors that install its Power processors. The Chinese government and companies could favor that approach over buying Xeon processors, causing Intel to lose market share to Big Blue. Qualcomm also recently entered theChinese data center market via a government-owned venture, which suggests that lower-powered ARMbased chips could be more power efficient than Intel's Xeons. But it's not all bad news for Intel All that news sounds dire for Intel, but investors should remember that the chipmaker still controls about99% of the global data center chip market. New ShenWei, IBM, or Qualcomm chips won't likely cause that share to plunge anytime soon, since Intel has a "best in breed" reputation, and completely swapping out processors in existing data centers is costly and impractical. Intel is also still winning supercomputer contracts. Last year, the U.S. government tapped Intel andCrayto build the Aurora supercomputer in the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. That computer is expected to achieve peak performance of 180 petaflops, which would beat TaihuLight but fall short of matching IBM's Summit. Should investors be concerned? Intel investors shouldn't get too worked up over the recent supercomputer headlines. But they should understand how China's shift to homegrown processors could hurt Intel's data center business, and how IBM, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and others could chip away at that pillar of growth. The article Intel's Supercomputer Chips Get KO-ed By China and IBM originally appeared on Fool.com. Leo Sun owns shares of Qualcomm. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Nvidia and Qualcomm. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Image source: Getty Images. What: After initially slumping amid the fallout of the U.K.'s "Brexit" decision to leave the EU, crude bounced off its lows and settled up about 2% this week to around $48.50 a barrel. This volatility, however, led to some unusual moves in the energy sector, with dozens of stocks moving double digits in either direction. According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, the biggest moves this week were made by Denbury Resources , Bristow Group , EP Energy , CONSOL Energy , and Exterran : BRS Price data by YCharts. So what: Of that group, only Denbury Resources had any company-specific news to fuel its double-digit drop. That news came via an SEC filing in which the company detailed two recently completed transactions. First, Denbury Resources announced the sale of its remaining non-core assets in the Williston Basin for $58 million in cash; the company intends to use that money to pay down borrowings under its credit facility. In addition, Denbury announced that it had reached a settlement to end its litigation over the Delhi Field. Under the terms of that agreement, Denbury will pay $27.5 million and convey a 25% interest in a non-producing interval while receiving a 0.2226% overriding royalty interest in a producing interval. This settlement closes the claims and puts this issue in the rearview mirror. Meanwhile, Bristow Group's turbulent week was due to market fears surrounding its direct exposure to the U.K. following the Brexit vote. The bulk of that exposure is from Bristow Group's contract to provide search-and-rescue services in the U.K. The market is concerned that this agreementmight not pay off as expected due to the sinking British pound. Finally, the double-digit gyrations of CONSOL Energy, Exterran, and EP Energy were nothing more than meaningless moves caused by market volatility. That said, CONSOL Energy and Exterran moved higher as the market recovered, with abating Brexit fears lifting a weight off their stock prices. On the other hand, EP Energy went in the opposite direction, in part due to renewed concerns about its balance sheet, now that crude appears to have hit a ceiling at $50 a barrel. Now what: This week was a good reminder that not all big moves are meaningful; sometimes the market overreacts to news or fears. That was certainly the case in the days since the Brexit vote, with the market taking a wild ride and yet not going very far. The article Oil and Gas Stock Roundup: Brexit Volatility Abounds (DNR, BRS, EPE, CNX, EXTN) originally appeared on Fool.com. Matt DiLallo owns shares of Denbury Resources. The Motley Fool owns shares of Denbury Resources. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. A captive fund is a fund that provides investment services to a single group or parent company. Common in private equity and corporate America, a captive fund is defined by the fact its ownership is limited to a select group of people, and is not open to the public. Captive funds can be used as an employee benefit to allow employees and other insiders to invest in funds managed by their employer, or to manage the assets of a corporate entity. Examples of captive funds Captive funds are somewhat common on Wall Street and in corporate America. Perhaps the best example of a captive fund is the Medallion Fund, which is owned by employees and ex-employees of fund manager Renaissance Technologies. The ability to invest in Medallion is one of the most lucrative of employee perks.Records show that from 2001 to 2013, the fund's worst performance was a 21% gain! The fund nearly doubled its investors' wealth in 2008, when U.S. stocks lost nearly 39% of their value. Medallion is obviously an outlier in terms of performance for captive funds, but it is a very good example because it only manages the capital of its employees. Similarly, tech companies often employ captive funds to manage their growing piles of cash. Google Ventures, which makes venture capital investments on behalf of Alphabet, is one such example. The fund has invested in up and coming tech companies like Uber, OnDeck, Periscope, and Slack. Maintaining a captive venture capital fund allows Alphabet to earn a return on its capital, while making strategic investments that may help its core internet business.Because Google Ventures makes investments with the capital of its corporate parent, Alphabet, and not outsiders, it is another example of a captive investment fund. Apple also has a captive fund of its own. A subsidiary known as Braeburn Capital manages a substantial portion of its cash, but unlike Google Ventures, Braeburn Capital is rumored to be more "plain-vanilla" in its investment strategies. Apple reported having more than $233 billion invested in corporate bonds, U.S. Treasuries, certificates of deposits, and other investments as of 2016, which is widely believed to be entrusted to its captive manager, Braeburn Capital. A captive fund allows the company to earn a return on its capital while avoiding California state taxes due to Braeburn's Reno, Nevada operations. Given the sheer size of Apple's investment portfolio, using a captive fund staffed with in-house analysts and portfolio managers is likely more economical than using the services of third-party asset managers. This article is part of The Motley Fool's Knowledge Center, which was created based on the collected wisdom of a fantastic community of investors. We'd love to hear your questions, thoughts, and opinions on the Knowledge Center in general or this page in particular. Your input will help us help the world invest, better! Email us atknowledgecenter@fool.com. Thanks -- and Fool on! The article What is a Captive Fund? originally appeared on Fool.com. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Jordan Wathen has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2018 $90 calls on Apple and short January 2018 $95 calls on Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Image source: Getty Images. Halfway through 2016, shares of NXP Semiconductors have fallen 7.4%. The Dutch maker of analog and mixed-signal chips took the Brexit news particularly hard, and share prices plunged 14% over the next two days. That's the story so far. What should NXP investors expect from the company in the second half of 2016? Earnings and sales NXP has published two quarterly reports this year. These were the first two reports after the $14.8 billion merger with Texas-based peer Freescale Semiconductor. NXP beat analyst expectations across the board in both reports, all without sparking any significant share price rallies. The next report will come later this month or in early August. In that second-quarter presentation, NXP expects to show roughly $2.35 billion in total revenue and adjusted earnings of approximately $1.35 per diluted share. Analysts have aligned their consensus estimates with the official guidance figures. Management has described 2016 as a transitional year for NXP. The company is working through a complex merger, and geopolitical and economic issues have slowed down demand for some of NXP's core products. So this is not a huge growth year, but a time to build the growth platform for the next several years. What management says At a recent industry conference, NXP CEO Rick Clemmer explained that he wants to outgrow the broader semiconductor market by an annual factor of 50% over the next three years. At the end of that period, Clemmer wants to be at least 50% larger than the runner-up company in each of its key focus markets. "We don't want to be No. 1 or No. 2 like many semiconductor companies talk about," Clemmer said. "We want to be the true industry leader, at least 50% larger than the No. 2 player." About 41% of NXP's overall sales come from the automotive sector today. That division got a heavy shot of adrenaline from the Freescale merger, as both companies held individual leading roles in this important market. Together, the new NXP is the largest automotive computing player by a wide margin. Obviously, this is the single most important area of focus for the next few years, where Clemmer hopes to fortify his leadership even further. In a larger sense, even the automotive sector becomes a part of the Internet of Things megatrend. Connecting, controlling, and securing a world full of networked devices is NXP's mission for the next decade. "That's really the purpose of what we did with the combination of Freescale and NXP," Clemmer said. Focus on the far horizon As you've seen, Rick Clemmer's goals are bold and ambitious. They are also reachable from where NXP stands today -- but only in a true long-term sense. None of these audacious goals will be fully reached in 2016, or even 2018. The Freescale integration has flowed smoothly so far but may run into stumbling blocks at any point. Market demand is always lumpy and unpredictable in the short term. And NXP's share prices may not soar anytime soon. The key here is to accept these facts as short-term distractions. NXP is not a "get rich quick" kind of stock, and that's perfectly fine -- those volatile beasts often leave investors deeply disappointed anyway. Clemmer is building a semiconductor giant for the long haul, and that's the mindset investors need to bring to this stock. Don't ask what NXP can do for you in 2016. You should ask where the stock is going to be in 2025, and I think you'll appreciate the answers to that question. The article What To Expect From NXP Semiconductors NV For the Rest of 2016 originally appeared on Fool.com. Anders Bylund has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends NXP Semiconductors. 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. On Monday, June 27, just before the break of day, figures approached the sleepy border village of al-Qaa, a predominantly Christian community in northeast Lebanon. The streets were slowly beginning their morning bustle as residents shook off a lazy weekend and resumed their business. Not far from a group of homes, a blast suddenly shook the town awake. Three more blasts followed shortly after the first. The intruders had detonated themselves, killing five and injuring 15 others. On the evening of the same day, as family members and neighbors gathered outside a historic church to mourn the victims of the mornings attack, two assailants riding a motorcycle threw a grenade at the crowd and then detonated their own suicide vests. Another 13 were wounded. In all there were eight suicide bombings that day alone. While no particular organization has claimed responsibility for the attack, nearly all experts believe it was carried out by ISIS fighters who infiltrated al-Qaa from nearby Syria. It is also a commonly known fact that in Lebanons sprawling refugee camps some ISIS fighters have found refuge for their families. Their jihad -- in effect -- subsidized by the disorganization of the international community. Make no mistake, the targeted village for one reason: it is Christian. This brazen attack demonstrates that ISIS remains particularly attracted to Christian blood. Of all the places they could have targeted, they chose this Christian village. It was as high a priority target to them as the airports in Brussels or Istanbul. This incident is a sober reminder that ISIS, though having lost control of Fallujah in Iraq last Sunday, is still determined to carry on its holy war against Christians. And while ISIS has accrued a horde of enemies along its path of destruction, Christians remain at the top of the terrorist groups hit list. The persecution Christians are facing under ISIS is, simply put, unprecedented, but it also goes far beyond the so-called Islamic State. The largely unreported attacks of the ISIS-affiliated Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria have almost always targeted Christian communities. Boko Haram killed more people than even ISIS in 2014 even as the Islamic State marched victoriously across Iraq and Syria, capturing a contiguous piece of land larger than the United Kingdom. It is becoming impossible for Christians to live without fear in almost all of the Middle East, and now even in the historic, Christian enclave of Lebanon. They now face similar concerns in much of Africa. Governments all around the world have now declared ISIS guilty of a Christian genocide -- unanimously in the U.S. Congress and the UK Parliament -- and pressure is growing for the United Nations to do the same. Yet, we must not let these powerful declarations be confined to symbolism. Now, those governments which have declared genocide must act upon their declarations, and that action begins with providing special assistance to those communities which face a special threat. Is it not more immoral to declare a genocide and then to choose to do nothing than it would have been to not declare it all? Like all Americans, my wife and I watched with horror as the news came about the mass shooting in Orlando by an ISIS-inspired fanatic. It made me realize how Douglas MacArthur, one of Americas greatest military leaders and the subject of the biography I just published, is more relevant than ever for understanding our age. The massacre in Orlando and the attacks this week in Istanbul and Dhaka demonstrate what happens when we disregard the advice MacArthur gave us more than sixty-five years ago: There is no substitute for victory. It reminds us of what happens when the United States fails to use all its means to defeat a vicious and committed enemy, in this case ISIS. Indeed, Douglas MacArthur taught the single important strategic lesson any American president can learn: before starting a war, make sure you are committed to winning it. Thats a lesson President Obama has repeatedly ignored. He has refused to fully commit U.S. strength to crushing ISISs enclaves in Iraq and Libya, and to severing their lines of recruitment and support. He has all but abandoned Afghanistan to the Taliban. He also didnt just ignore MacArthurs warning but mocked it, by throwing away Americas hard-won victory in Iraq. By pulling out all remaining US troops, he opened the door to ISISs explosive upsurge and the atrocities of its murderous followers, including now in this country. Yet Obama hasnt been alone in ignoring MacArthurs warning. From Korea to Iraq and Afghanistan, one administration after another has repeatedly pursued the opposite course, with a cost in American lives, treasure, and prestige thats almost incalculable. The first president to ignore MacArthurs warning was Harry Truman. In fact, MacArthurs declaration that there is no substitute for victory contributed to Trumans decision to fire him as supreme commander of UN forces in Korea in April 1951. MacArthur believed that the only way to win the conflict was to commit to complete defeat of the Chinese forces who had entered the war to support their North Korean allies. Truman worried that would trigger an all-out war with the Soviet Union (we now know from Soviet archives those fears was groundless, as MacArthur believed). Truman and his advisors insisted that stalemate and a divided Korea was the only realistic option. Sixty-five years later, the result is a war that still hasnt officially ended, despite a signed armistice in 1953. If MacArthurs lead had been followed instead, thered be no Kim Jong Un today to threaten his neighbors with nuclear annihilationand possibly no Maoist regime to starve to death millions in the Great Leap Forward. Another president, Lyndon Johnson, repeated the same mistake in Vietnam. That was a conflict specifically MacArthur warned against before his death in 1964, telling President Kennedy that, anyone who embarks on a land war in Asia ought to have his head examined, especially if theres no clear-cut strategy for victory. In fact, there was none. Instead, the United States sent more than half a million men to fight a limited war in South Vietnam while allowing a ruthless, determined enemy to maintain sanctuaries in Cambodia and Laosand without unleashing the full weight of American air power. Vietnam ultimately cost America more than 53,000 lives and nearly broke Americas spirit, even as we ignominiously allowed the collapse of the South Vietnam we were pledged to defenda debacle weve almost seen repeated in Iraq under Obama. As for Iraq and Afghanistan, MacArthur would simply repeat his Congressional testimony in 1951: You have got a war on your hands, and you cant just say, Let that war go on indefinitely while I prepare for some other war Yet thats precisely what both the Bush and Obama administrations did. And even while Obama still wont take strong decisive action against ISIS, our forces engage have grown from a handful to more than 3000 personnel. Its so reminiscent of our initial involvement in Vietnam, its scary. Sixty five years ago, Douglas MacArthur put his finger on the mistake thats haunted us ever since: the failure to use military force without an equal commitment to final victory. When men become locked in battle, he once told Congress, there should be no artifice under the name of politics, which should handicap your own men, decrease their chances for winning, and increase their losses. Yet thats precisely what too many American presidents have done, bringing sorrow to tens of thousands of American families. Weve ignored MacArthurs warning to great loss and peril. Now in the shadow of Orlando, Istanbul and Dhaka maybe its time we paid attention. next Image 1 of 3 prev next Image 2 of 3 prev Image 3 of 3 I live life through a viewfinder. I am a guy who seeks to photograph democracy and the common man, a guy who fell in love with America, first as a history teacher and then as a photographer. I didn't start out in life with the idea that I would photograph democracy, but thats what happened. I grew up in St. Louis dreaming of places Id like to see and photograph the beauty and history of Virginia, the white picket fences of New England and the majesty of Monument Valley in the west. From my Midwestern roots, a love for our founding fathers, and a passion for capturing the great spirit of our nation, I asked myself, what is the central fiber of the American system? The answer for me is democracy. If you can figure out a way to photograph that, in essence, you've captured American civilization. From my Midwestern roots, a love for our founding fathers, and a passion for capturing the great spirit of our nation, I asked myself, what is the central fiber of the American system? The answer for me is democracy. If you can figure out a way to photograph that, in essence, you've captured American civilization. That is what I have tried to do for the last 30 years, as a visual storyteller. My story in many ways is the American story. It takes time to cross all 50 states but doing that is how I have been able to put the pieces together. To create a portrait of an American spirit, you need many different elements themes of the world we live in, like multiculturalism. One thing I've attempted to capture are portraits of all of the world's people living in America, because I think that is one of the things shaping todays America. To tell part of that story, I might go to downtown Los Angeles to shoot the Korean Festival, to a Latin festival in Miami, or to a Chinese New Year celebration wherever I happen to be. Images from those major events combine into a gigantic puzzle, and then a larger mosaic portrait starts to emerge. In the early days, Id drive my RV down open roads. I didn't have a cell phone because they weren't invented. I had paper maps. And I spent about 40 percent of every day being completely, totally lost. I found wonderful accidental pictures that way, along with many that I obsessed over because the themes were so important like the autumn leaves in New England. I didn't know you could have a bad autumn, but New England did. It had five bad autumns in a row. So I had to go a sixth time. Those years reminded me of the fun and serendipity of being a little kid I grew up right off of Route 66 near the banks of the Mississippi River and wed take daylong bicycle rides trying to get lost and how grateful I was to be an adult making a living at what I love. Being an independent photographer is the ultimate bootstrapping endeavor, so my work as a stock photographer for photo agencies such as Shutterstock is critical to me. This year of course my photographic canvas is in large part dominated by the presidential election, which I have been photographing since the Clinton-Gore campaign in 1992. Perhaps more than anything, U.S. presidential elections weave the worlds most diverse country into a national fabric, even at a time of political polarization such as this. A presidential campaign is a technicolor expression of the vibrancy of our nation political theater, across the 50 states. Its then-Senator Obama driving a bumper car at the Iowa State Fair. Its Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton inserting themselves into a strangers wedding picture. Its that large group of Republican Party hopefuls lined up at the presidential debate last September at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, with Reagans presidential plane as a backdrop. When we look at the map as a country of red states and blue states, it's all the more important to experience things that bring us together. When people see my Visions of America multimedia work, they see a mixture of Republicans and Democrats, and the one thing they all appreciate is the beauty of America, the amazing symbolism of all the icons and the memorials. E pluribus unum out of many, one. That motto on our national seal is a fitting reminder of why its so important to capture the American spirit. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump called for charges to be filed against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton Saturday after the former secretary of state met with the FBI regarding the agencys investigation into her use of a private email server for official correspondence. "It is impossible for the FBI not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton," Trump tweeted Saturday afternoon. "What she did was wrong! What Bill did was stupid!" The Clinton campaign said the voluntary meeting lasted about three-and-a-half hours and took place at FBI headquarters in Washington. Clinton is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement. He also said Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, would have no further comment about the interview. The campaign issued the statement Saturday shortly before 12:30 p.m. ET, practically minutes after Clinton returned to her Washington home, then departed again about 30 minutes later. Hillary Clinton has just taken the unprecedented step of becoming the first major party presidential candidate to be interviewed by the FBI as part of a criminal investigation surrounding her reckless conduct, said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. "We must ask ourselves if this is the kind of leadership we want in the White House. There was no immediate comment from the FBI or Justice Department Saturday. Clintons use of a private server and email address -- and whether classified information was mishandled as a result of that setup -- has cast a shadow over her campaign from the start. The FBI investigation is purportedly coming to a close, and the Clinton interview is considered among the final steps in the case. Trump has seized on the email issue and repeatedly said the probe undermines Clinton's fitness for office. Trump has called his opponent "Crooked Hillary" and said she cannot be trusted in the White House. The former first lady and New York senator has argued that she is more trustworthy than Trump on handling the issues that matter to most Americans: foreign policy, national security and running the economy. But the email investigation has lingered throughout her campaign, and Trump has asserted that Clinton will receive leniency from a Democratic administration. Earlier this week, the entire, ongoing email scandal grew when Clintons husband, former President Bill Clinton, initiated an impromptu meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on her airplane in Phoenix. "The American people need to have confidence that the Obama Justice Department is conducting a fair and impartial investigation, but when the attorney general meets secretly with Bill Clinton just days before Hillarys interrogation is conducted discreetly over a holiday weekend, it raises serious concerns about specialtreatment, Priebus also said. There was already speculation about whether an agency under the Obama administration could conduct an unbiased probe, which only intensified after Clinton met with Lynch, a President Obama appointee who decides whether to bring charges in the case. Lynch says she will accept whatever recommendations she receives from the agency's career prosecutors and lawyers. Clinton has said relying on a private server was a mistake but that other secretaries of state had also used a personal email address. The matter was referred for investigation last July by the inspectors general for the State Department and intelligence community following the discovery of emails that they said contained classified information. The State Department's inspector general, the agency's internal watchdog, said in a blistering audit in May that Clinton and her team ignored clear warnings from State Department officials that her email setup violated federal standards and could leave sensitive material vulnerable to hackers. Clinton declined to talk to the inspector general, but the audit reported that Clinton feared "the personal being accessible" if she used a government email account. Agents have already interviewed top Clinton aides including her former State Department chief of staff Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, a longtime aide who is currently the vice chairwoman of Clinton's campaign. The staffer who set up the server, Bryan Pagliano, was granted limited immunity from prosecution by the Justice Department last fall in exchange for his cooperation. The FBI as a matter of course seeks to interview individuals central to an investigation before concluding its work. The emails were routed through a server located in the basement of Clinton's New York home during her tenure as the nation's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013. Dozens of the emails sent or received by Clinton through her private server were later determined to contain classified material. Clinton has repeatedly said that none of the emails were marked classified at the time they were sent or received. As part of the probe, she has turned over the hard drive from her email server to the FBI. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Verkhovna Rada deputy Iryna Gerashchenko on Monday, July 4 will sign the deputy's appeal requesting him to be released on bail. Valentyn Lykholit was the commander of the territorial defense Aidar battalion. His callsign was "Batia" (Pappa). "I was amazed by the decision to remand him to pre-trial confinement. My counterparts and I, who have known Valentyn for about two years, will sign an appeal requesting that he be released on bail," Gerashchenko wrote on her Facebook page on Saturday. The Verkhovna Rada deputy noted that Lykholit is known for the discipline he demanded from his volunteer soldiers. She said he was not rude like many other volunteer battalion commanders. "I know that war is a terrible thing, where anything can happen: looting and violence. For example, if heroes are involved in criminal activities, they should also be brought to justice. Lykholit is an Afghan war veteran, who experienced the worst days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He didn't commit an offense warranting his arrest. This is what I believe and the reason why I will sign a request to release him on bail," Gerashchenko said. . As reported, on July 2 Kyiv's Pechersk District Court arrested the commander of the territorial defense battalion Aidar Valentyn Lykholit for two months without bail. In turn, deputies and activists blocked the entrance of Pechersk district court to prevent transferring Lykholit to a pretrial detention facility. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton could be interviewed by the FBI about her private email system while secretary of state as early as this weekend, according to a published report. The Daily Caller, citing a source close to the investigation, reported Friday that Clinton was scheduled to meet with the FBI Saturday. The source added that the talk could take place at Clinton's Washington D.C. residence. Clinton has no campaign events scheduled over the July 4 holiday weekend, which could make such an interview easier to arrange. Meanwhile, ABC News reported Friday that the Justice Department hopes to complete the investigation before the two major party conventions later this month. The Republican convention begins July 18 in Cleveland while the Democratic convention begins July 25 in Philadelphia. ABC also reported that investigators want ample time to review Clinton's interview and compare her statements to the facts it has gathered in the case. The FBI has previously interviewed several of Clinton's top aides, including her former Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills and former deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin. as part of their investigation into whether Clinton mishandled classified information that passed through her so-called "homebrew" server. The reports emerged on the same day Attorney General Loretta Lynch said she regretted meeting former President Bill Clinton at the Phoenix airport this week, sparking criticism from both parties for creating an apparent conflict of interest. "I certainly wont do it again," Lynch said, admitting the meeting "has cast a shadow over this." An FBI source told Fox News Friday that agents were "livid" about the Phoenix meeting. The source said the agents' issues with the meeting went beyond appearances, since Bill Clinton is a potential target and witness in the investigation, which also deals with Hillary Clinton's ties to the Clinton Foundation while Secretary of State. Lynch said Friday that she would accept the recommendation of investigators about whether to bring charges against Clinton, saying "they are acting independently." Fox News' Matthew Dean and Bret Baier contributed to this report. In Congress, the gavel is but a crude, rudimentary tool. Its simply a wooden mallet, crafted by talented carpenters in the House of Representatives wood shop. The gavel rests inertly on the rostrum of the House chamber. But the gavel quickly mutates from its inanimate state into a powerful tool, symbol or even threat when coaxed by the House speaker from hibernation. A swift rap on the dais indicates something important is happening. The House is coming into session. The House is going out of session. The House is starting a vote. The House is ending a vote. Often a sequence of emphatic, authoritative strikes indicates the House is out of order -- or a member is out of order -- and lawmakers had better get in line or simmer down. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., is now serving time and has his issues. But in an interview some years ago, Hastert underscored the prominence of the gavel in the House. The symbol of power is the gavel, Hastert said. If you have the gavel, you have control of the House. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., faces a conundrum. Democrats abused House rules and decorum when they snatched the chamber for a 26-hour, Civil Rights-era sit-in about firearms last week. Democrats are threatening more guerilla tactics if Ryan doesnt grant them the kind of vote they want on gun legislation soon. On Saturday, the Congressional Black Caucus urged Democrats be as disruptive to Speaker Ryan as possible" on the issue. In a memo to House Democrats, the CBC urged a "day of action on the (House) floor in regards to gun violence." In addition to asking members to give speeches Tuesday upon returning to Capitol Hill, the CBC also wants them to attend a rules meeting that sets up the debate on terrorism-gun legislation slated for action on the floor Wednesday. The memo also states: "During votes -- members are encouraged to have a picture (not poster board, but a printed piece of paper with an image of a constituent killed by a firearm.)" The speaker is in a box, said one Republican lawmaker who is a confidante of Ryan. Some members are really pissed off. GOPers are agitated at Democrats for their floor gambit. And some are mad at leadership for not quashing the rebellion more forcefully. How does Ryan assert authority -- and enforce order in the House -- with such a quotidian, wooden tool? Especially if ornery Democrats are unwilling to acknowledge the emblematic dominion of that tool and continue their unprecedented sit-in or other mischief? Its just a gavel. But then again, its the gavel. Its really the only thing the speaker really has, said one longtime House hand when asked about what Ryan should do. Republicans wont stand for additional Democratic capers. By the same token, an aggressive effort to remove, arrest or sanction Democratic offenders is not the optic the speaker wants. Plus, that plays directly into the Democrats hands. There would indeed be a confrontation, said one senior House source if Democrats perceive efforts to restore order as too heavy handed. Multiple GOP lawmakers told Fox News the last thing they wanted to see was House security officials hauling out (Rep.) John Lewis (D-Ga.) in handcuffs. Lewis is the admired civil rights figure who marched with Martin Luther King. The firearms sit-in was the brainchild of Lewis and Rep. John Larson, D-Conn. Sources close the speaker indicate the Republican leadership continues to evaluate options and insists there will be will action if the Democratic escapades continue. We are not going to handle it the same way, warned Ryan on WISN-TV in Milwaukee. We will not take this. We will not tolerate this. Rep. Steve Israel, a New York Democrat and top lieutenant to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said after Ryans threat. Did he think we would go quietly into night? Israel asked. We will meet him here. Its pretty clear that Democrats violated several House rules en masse. House Rule IV states the Hall of the House shall be used only for the legislative business of the House. Democrats commandeered the floor for hours on end when the House didnt meet. House Rule V governs telecasts from the floor. The speaker controls cameras and microphones in the chamber. A close reading of Rule V implies that telecasts from the chamber are only permitted via the internal House system (which C-SPAN and other media use for news purposes) when the chamber is in session. Thus, those cameras and microphones werent on during most of the Democrats demonstration. But Rule V is vague. The provision governs only how the House and media may use the established TV/audio system. The rule is silent on expressly forbidding auxiliary telecasts from the chamber -- now possible thanks to new technology. That leads to Clause 5 of House Rule XVII, which addresses comportment by members in the House chamber. Rule XVII bars lawmakers from using a mobile electronic device that impairs decorum. This provision is listed right next to directives prohibiting smoking in the chamber or the donning of hats. House Democrats deployed iPhones and iPads to stream their uprising via Periscope and Facebook. Rule XVII asserts that the Sergeant at Arms is charged with the strict enforcement of this clause. Last week, Ryan elected to show deference to the Democrats. House Republican leaders specifically asked the Sergeant at Arms and U.S. Capitol Police to back off. This sparked anger from some Republicans who insisted that House officials demand order. Some Democrats practically begged for an escalation. The House hasnt formally arrested a member on the floor since a dead-of-night, 1858 fracas between Reps. Galusha Grow, R-Pa., and Laurence Keitt, D-S.C. House Speaker James Orr, R-S.C., ordered the Sergeant at Arms to detain combatants as some 30 members joined the melee. However, records about the incident are incomplete at best. During a 2012 floor speech after the killing of Trayvon Martin, Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., wore a hoodie and sunglasses to protest racial profiling. Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss., presided over the House that day and admonished Rush to stop his speech. Rush ignored the order. Harper then banged the gavel 29 times. Assistant to the Sergeant-at-Arms Joyce Hamlett escorted Rush out of the chamber. The House took no other action against the Illinois Democrat. Its a lot easier to handle the alleged transgressions of one member compared to an estimated 170-plus members of the 187-member House Democratic Caucus who seized the floor in protest. But it all comes back to the symbolism of the gavel -- and whether lawmakers respect the authority of the gavel. Security officials are enfeebled if Democrats ignore directives of the speaker. If Democrats are indeed suspected of violating House rules, there could be a direct referral of nearly the entire Democratic Caucus to the Ethics Committee. Theres already a civilian complaint before the quasi-official Office of Congressional Ethics (separate from the House Ethics Committee). The OCE can hand the matter over to the Ethics committee if it determines the allegations hold water. Democrats argue theyll stand down if they at least get a vote on gun issues which they like. The issue here isnt protocol or politesse or decorum, said Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly, said after fellow Democrats staged a brief rumble over guns on the House floor during a 2-minute-and-36-second session Tuesday. We want a simple vote. On Thursday, Ryan announced the House would vote on a bill next week to curb radicalization and also give the U.S. attorney general the opportunity to delay firearm acquisitions by prospective terrorists for up to three days. Democrats immediately derided the effort. Bringing up a bill authored by the NRA just isnt going to cut it, argued Pelosis spokesman, Drew Hammill. But after a Friday conference call, a Democratic aide says Lewis and Larson want to meet with the speaker about two possible amendments to the bill: one provision is on background checks. The other would block those on the no-fly list from purchasing guns. Democrats hope the GOP leadership will at least grant them a vote on those amendments on the floor -- even if they dont pass. If Democrats dont get a vote, Fox News is told they may reconsider extracurriculars. In addition to the gavel, the House possesses an additional, more formal symbol: the mace. The mace is a long, black and silver pole that stands next to the dais. House officials bring the mace onto the floor when the House begins its daily sessions. The Sergeant at Arms is supposed to present the mace and hold it in front of unruly members if they cause trouble on the floor. As far as anyone can tell, the House hasnt deployed the mace in that fashion since a 1994 kerfuffle between Reps. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and Pete King, R-N.Y. Yes, there are House rules. Yes, there is action the speakers Office and Sergeant at Arms Office can take against members. There is the ethics process. But in the end, this is all about the gavel and its distinctive, sharp sound when rapped on the dais. Lawmakers know theyre supposed to respond to the gavel and respect the person swinging it be it Paul Ryan or someone else. Otherwise, the gavel is just a gavel. A rude, brittle mallet, bereft of symbolism. And certainly lacking any power. A mother in Tennessee has been charged with first-degree murder and child abuse and neglect in connection with the stabbing deaths of her four young children, authorities said Saturday. Shanynthia Gardner of Memphis was charged with four counts of first degree murder while committing aggravated child neglect in the deaths of four of her children -- all under the age of 5 -- whose bodies were found after deputies entered her apartment in unincorporated Shelby County. Gardner also faces four counts of first degree murder while committing aggravated child abuse; four counts of aggravated child neglect or endangerment; and four counts of aggravated child abuse. Shelby County Sheriff Bill Oldham says the victims were a 4-year-old boy; a 3-year-old girl; a 2-year-old girl; and a 6-month-old girl. Their names have not been released. A 7-year-old boy escaped the attack, but Oldham said details of how he survived were not being disclosed at this time. All five children were Gardner's. "This is a terrible act, an egregious act that has shocked, I believe, the community, and has shocked our staff to the core," the sheriff said Saturday. He did not release a suspected motive for the attack. Deputies were called to an apartment complex in Shelby County on Friday afternoon. They took Gardner into custody after finding the children's bodies. On Friday, Oldham said the district attorney general's special victims' unit had been called in and Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell has promised all resources necessary for the investigation. "One of the most difficult questions in any investigation is always, `Why did this happen?"' the sheriff said. County Commissioner Mark Billingsley also said the county would work to help the family of the children recover. "It's just a very sad day," he said. "It's really beyond words, quite frankly." Neighbor Sean Ahearn said he didn't know the family by name, but that he often saw the children, who all appeared to be under age 6, playing in the front yard. They liked to pet his dog when he was taking it for a walk, he said. "From what I saw, they were very open and friendly kids," he said. "You never imagine that this kind of thing could happen." The apartment where the stabbing occurred is in a gated community with a golf course called The Greens at Irene. On Friday afternoon, deputies were standing at the gate house questioning motorists as they drove into the neighborhood. Resident Patricia Johnson spoke with reporters from her car. She said she wasn't allowed to leave for two hours as deputies investigated the scene. She has a child, and said she burst into tears when she heard about the killings. "I can't fathom that," she said. "What would babies do to make you do that?" The state Department of Children's Service has offered its assistance to local law enforcement, but has no record of interaction with the slain children, said spokesman Rob Johnson. "We've done an exhaustive search and we are not aware of any contact with this family," he said. Murray Energy Corp., the largest privately held coal miner in the U.S., has warned that it may soon undertake one of the biggest layoffs in the sector during this time of low energy prices. In a notice sent to workers this week, Murray said it could lay off as many as 4,400 employees, or about 80% of its workforce, because of weak coal markets. The company said it anticipates massive workforce reductions in September. The law requires a 60-day waiting period before large layoffs occur. Layoffs 'due to the ongoing destruction of the United States coal industry by President Barack Obama, and his supporters, and the increased utilization of natural gas to generate electricity' company statement The American coal industry, especially in Appalachia, has languished as cheap natural gas replaces coal as fuel for power plants. World-wide demand for coal has also slumped, and new environmental regulations are making many coal mines unprofitable to operate. The Central Appalachian coal price benchmark is $40 a ton, or half its level from five years ago. Almost all of the biggest coal producers in the U.S. have declared bankruptcy in the past 18 months, including Peabody Energy Corp., Arch Coal Inc. and Alpha Natural Resources Inc. Robert Murray, the controlling owner of Murray, is a fierce opponent of President Obama and a supporter of Donald Trump. In a statement, the company said the potential layoffs were due to the ongoing destruction of the United States coal industry by President Barack Obama, and his supporters, and the increased utilization of natural gas to generate electricity. The move came just a day after the United Mine Workers of America said it would reject a proposed new labor deal with Murray. The existing contract expires at the end of this year. Phil Smith, a spokesman for the union, said the rejected deal is just a first step. Hopefully the coal market will come to the point where [the layoffs are] not necessary, he said. Its no secret the coal market is bad right now. The UMWA represents about 3,000 Murray workers, half of whom have already been laid off. Click for more from The Wall Street Journal Parts of a Detroit suburb were evacuated early Saturday after a gas line exploded, causing a massive explosion and fire. Fox 2 Detroit reported the explosion took place just before 3 a.m. local time in Melvindale. The blast could be heard two miles away in Dearborn. Flames from the resulting fire could also be seen that distance away approximately 90 minutes later. WXYZ reported that the explosion was caused by a fire that began when a car struck a nearby power line. The station reported that a natural gas substation near a power plant was on fire. It was not immediately clear how many homes had to be evacuated. WXYZ reported injuries, but it was not clear how many people were hurt. Local police told evacuated residents to take shelter in a high school next to a Baptist church in Allen Park. The Red Cross was responding to assist residents. A Mexican national charged with aggravated murder in the shooting deaths of three people at a rural Oregon blueberry farm had been deported six times, most recently in 2013, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Bonifacio Oseguera-Gonzalez, 29, has no significant prior criminal convictions, but ICE asked Oregon authorities to turn him over to them if he's released from custody in the current case, the agency said in a statement to The Associated Press on Friday. Oseguera-Gonzalez pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated murder and one count of attempted murder Tuesday in Marion County Superior Court. His attorney, Deborah Burdzik, did not immediately return a call seeking comment about his immigration status. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tweeted about the case Friday, saying the suspect "should have never been here." Two men who lived at the blueberry farm in the Willamette Valley town of Woodburn, in northwest Oregon, died at the scene of Monday's shooting. The third victim, the girlfriend of another resident who was not home at the time, was pronounced dead at a hospital. A third man was seriously wounded but survived and is able to speak with investigators. The Oregon State Police arrested Oseguera-Gonzalez a few hours later on Interstate 84 in the Columbia River Gorge, about 100 miles northeast of Woodburn. He acknowledged to authorities in an interview that he shot four people, according to a probable cause statement. The victims were identified as Ruben Rigoberto-Reyes, 60; Edmundo Amaro-Bajonero, 26; and Katie Gildersleeve, 30, of Logsden. Authorities have released few details about the case, including the relationship between Oseguera-Gonzalez and the victims, and have declined to specify a motive. An American was one of the victims in the 10-hour hostage crisis at a Bangladesh cafe that left 22 dead. The State Department confirmed Saturday that a U.S. citizen was among those senselessly murdered when Islamic terrorists stormed the restaurant in the diplomatic quater of the Bangladesh capita, Dhaka. The standoff ended Saturday morning when police stormed the restaurant, killed six attackers and rescued 13 hostages. Three of the hostage victims attended U.S. colleges. Abinta Kabir and Faraaz Hossain were students at Emory University in Georgia; and Tarushi Jain, a 19-year-old Indian national, was a student the University of California at Berkeley. Emory President James Wagner said in a message Saturday on the universitys website that Kabir was from Miami and was in Dhaka visiting family and friends. He said Hossain just graduated and was enrolled in Emorys business school for the fall. "The Emory community mourns this tragic and senseless loss of two members of our university family," Wagner said. "Our thoughts and prayers go out on behalf of Faraaz and Abinta and their families and friends for strength and peace at this unspeakably sad time." Jain was working at a Dhaka bank through a Berkeley internship progam. "We are all very devastated to hear the news about Tarishi Jain. She was a smart and ambitious young woman with a big heart," said Sanchita Saxena, executive director of Berkeley's Institute for South Asia Studies. Bangladeshs Prime Minister vowed at a press conference Saturday to fight terrorism at all costs following the seige at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the attack while pledging to stand up and fight the terror threats that have mushroomed in the country, Reuters reported. We are committed and determined to uphold our freedom, Hasina said, adding that Bangladesh will fight the terror threat at all costs. Hasina also declared the country would observe two days of mourning. At least seven Islamic terrorists attacked the upscale restaurant Friday. The seige ended when Bangladeshi commandoes, supported by armored vehicles, stormed the cafe, killing six attackers and capturing a seventh, while freeing 13 hostages. Two police officers were killed in an earlier gun battle with the militants. The Islamic terror group ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activity online. The ISIS-affiliated Amaq news agency posted photos purportedly showing the bodies of hostages, though their authenticity could not be immediately confirmed. At a news conference, Army Brigadier General Naim Asraf Chowdhury said most of the victims "were killed mercilessly" with sharp weapons on Friday night. Earlier, a police official told AP that that five bodies were seen lying in pools of blood at the restaurant. It was not immediately clear whether they were the remains of militants or hostages. A Bangladeshi army spokesman said all the victims were foreigners. Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said the bodies of nine Italians have been identified among the dead. A Japanese government spokesman said that seven Japanese were among those killed in the siege. The White House issued a statement Saturday condemning the attack. "Our deepest condolences go out to the families and loved ones of those killed, and we hope for a speedy recovery for those wounded," the statement said. "This is a despicable act of terrorism, and the United States stands with Bangladesh and the international community in our resolve to confront terrorism wherever it occurs." A Bangladeshi police official said two Sri Lankans were rescued Saturday, while local media reported that an Argentine and two Bangladeshis escaped prior to the raid. Kitchen staffer Sumon Reza, who escaped via the restaurant's roof, said the attackers chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) as they assaulted around 9:20 p.m. Friday (11:20 a.m. ET), initially opening fire with blanks. Rezaul Karim, the father of a Bangladeshi businessman who was rescued along with his family, said the attackers did not harm any hostage who could recite verses from the Islamic holy book, Koran. Karim said his son, Hasnat, had gone to the restaurant along with his wife and two children to celebrate the birthday of his elder daughter when the attack happened. "He told me, `Please save us, please!' And he hung up," he said. Karim said his son told him that the attackers "did not hit people who could recite verses from the Koran. The others were tortured," he said. "The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Koran. Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night," Karim said. He said detectives were questioning his son and his family as part of the investigation. Ten of 26 people who were wounded when the militants opened fire were in critical condition, and six were on life support, according to hospital staff. The injuries ranged from broken bones to gunshot wounds. Only one civilian was among the wounded. The attack marks an escalation in the growing drumbeat of militant violence to hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation in the past three years, but with increasing frequency in recent months. Most attacks have been by machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities. The spree of recent attacks in Bangladesh have raised fears that religious extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions of secularism and tolerance. About two dozen atheist writers, publishers, members of religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers have been slain since 2013. On Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death by at least three assailants in southwest Bangladesh. ISIS and and Al Qaeda affiliates have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks. Hasina's government has cracked down on domestic radical Islamists. It has accused local terrorists and opposition political parties -- especially the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami -- of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilize the nation, which both parties deny. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko has said he doesn't agree with the court decision to remand Aidar battalion commander Valentyn Lykholit to pre-trial confinement. "I will personally oversee this case. I have reviewed the materials of the case and think the investigation did not consider all the circumstances or the situation of the Aidar battalion when the alleged offenses were committed. When the date for the appeal is set, I will intervene in the case. His lawyers are responsible for the appeal, while the judges of the appeal court are responsible for setting the date of hearing," Lutsenko said in a commentary to 112 Ukraine TV Channel on Saturday. "To my mind, pre-trial confinement is unwarranted," Lutsenko said. According to Lutsenko, Kyiv's Court of Appeals could schedule a hearing as early as Saturday evening or Sunday morning. Elie Wiesel, who documented his experience of the Holocaust in the best-selling memoir "Night" and went on to become an influential author and Nobel Peace Prize winner, died Saturday at the age of 87. Wiesel's death was first reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and confirmed on Twitter by Israel's Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem. No further details were immediately available. President Barack Obama called Wiesel "one of the great moral voices of our time, and in many ways, the conscience of the world." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wiesel was "a powerful force for light, truth and dignity." Born in Romania in 1928, Wiesel wrote extensively about his experiences as a teenager in the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Buna during World War II. He was freed in 1945, but only after his mother, father and one sister had all died in the camps. Two other sisters survived. Wiesel went on to write dozens of books, lecture worldwide and become a living reminder of the Nazis' atrocities. His most influential work by far was "Night," a classic ranked with Anne Frank's diary as standard reading about the Holocaust. "Night" was his first book, and its journey to publication crossed both time and language. It began in the mid-1950s as an 800-page story in Yiddish, was trimmed to under 300 pages for an edition released in Argentina, cut again to under 200 pages for the French market and finally published in the United States, in 1960, at just over 100 pages. "'Night' is the most devastating account of the Holocaust that I have ever read," wrote Ruth Franklin, a literary critic and author of "A Thousand Darknesses," a study of Holocaust literature that was published in 2010. "There are no epiphanies in 'Night'. There is no extraneous detail, no analysis, no speculation. There is only a story: Eliezer's account of what happened, spoken in his voice." Wiesel began working on "Night" just a decade after the end of World War II, when memories were too raw for many survivors to even try telling their stories. Frank's diary had been an accidental success, a book discovered after her death, and its entries end before Frank and her family was captured and deported. Wiesel's book was among the first popular accounts written by a witness to the very worst, and it documented what Frank could hardly have imagined. "Night" was so bleak that publishers doubted it would appeal to readers. In a 2002 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Wiesel recalled that the book attracted little notice at first. "The English translation came out in 1960, and the first printing was 3,000 copies. And it took three years to sell them. Now, I get 100 letters a month from children about the book. And there are many, many million copies in print." In one especially haunting passage, Wiesel sums up his feelings upon arrival in Auschwitz: "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. ... Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." "Night" was based directly on his experiences, but structured like a novel, leading to an ongoing debate over how to categorize it. Alfred Kazin was among the critics who expressed early doubts about the book's accuracy, doubts that Wiesel denounced as "a mortal sin in the historical sense." Wiesel's publisher called the book a memoir even as some reviewers called it fiction. An Amazon editorial review labeled the book "technically a novel," albeit so close to Wiesel's life that "it's generally and not inaccurately read as an autobiography." In 2006, a new translation returned "Night" to the best-seller lists after it was selected for Oprah Winfrey's book club. But the choice also revived questions about how to categorize the book. Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, both of which had listed "Night" as fiction, switched it to nonfiction. Wiesel, meanwhile, acknowledged in a new introduction that he had changed the narrator's age from "not quite 15" to Wiesel's real age at the time, 15. "Unfortunately, 'Night' is an imperfect ambassador for the infallibility of the memoir," Franklin wrote, "owing to the fact that it has been treated very often as a novel." After the liberation of Buchenwald, in April 1945, Wiesel spent a few years in a French orphanage, then landed in Paris. He studied literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne, and then became a journalist, writing for the French newspaper L'Arche and Israel's Yediot Ahronot. French author Francois Mauriac encouraged Wiesel to break his vowed silence about the concentration camps and start sharing his experiences. In 1956, Wiesel traveled on a journalistic assignment to New York to cover the United Nations. While there, he was struck by a car and confined to a wheelchair for a year. He became a lifetime New Yorker, continuing in journalism writing for the Yiddish-language newspaper, the Forward. His contact with the city's many Holocaust survivors shored up Wiesel's resolve to keep telling their stories. Wiesel became a U.S. citizen in 1963. Six years later, he married Marion Rose, a fellow Holocaust survivor who translated some of his books into English. They had a son, Shlomo. Based in New York, Wiesel commuted to Boston University for almost three decades, teaching philosophy, literature and Judaic studies and giving a popular lecture series in the fall. Wiesel also taught at Yale University and the City University of New York. In 1978, he was chosen by President Carter to head the President's Commission on the Holocaust, and plan an American memorial museum to Holocaust victims. Wiesel wrote in a report to the president that the museum must include denying the Nazis a posthumous victory, honoring the victims' last wishes to tell their stories. He said that although all the victims of the Holocaust were not Jewish, all Jews were victims. Wiesel advocated that the museum emphasize the annihilation of the Jews, while still remembering the others; today the exhibits and archives reflects that. Among his most memorable spoken words came in 1985, when he received a Congressional Gold Medal from President Ronald Reagan and asked the president not to make a planned trip to a cemetery in Germany that contained graves of Adolf Hitler's personal guards. "We have met four or five times, and each time I came away enriched, for I know of your commitment to humanity," Wiesel said, as Reagan looked on. "May I, Mr. President, if it's possible at all, implore you to do something else, to find a way, to find another way, another site. That place, Mr. President, is not your place. Your place is with the victims." Reagan visited the cemetery, in Bitburg, despite international protests. Wiesel also spoke at the dedication of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in 1993. His words are now carved in stone at its entrance: "For the dead and the living, we must bear witness." Wiesel defended Soviet Jews, Nicaragua's Miskito Indians, Cambodian refugees, the Kurds, victims of African famine and victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Wiesel was a longtime supporter of Israel although he was criticized at times for his closeness to Netanhayu. When Netanhayu gave a highly controversial address to Congress in 2015, denouncing President Obama's efforts to reach a nuclear treaty with Iran, Wiesel was among the guests of honor. The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, which he established in 1988, explored the problems of hatred and ethnic conflicts around the world. But like a number of other well-known charities in the Jewish community, the foundation fell victim to Bernard Madoff, the financier who was arrested in late 2008 and accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Wiesel said he ended up losing $15.2 million in foundation funds, plus his and his wife's own personal investments. At a panel discussion in February 2009, Wiesel admitted he bought into the Madoff mystique, "a myth that he created around him that everything was so special, so unique, that it had to be secret." He called Madoff "a crook, a thief, a scoundrel." Despite Wiesel's mission to remind the world of past mistakes, the greatest disappointment of his life was that "nothing changed," he said in an interview. "Human nature remained what it was. Society remained what it was. Too much indifference in the world, to the Other, his pain, and anguish, and hope." Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. In his acceptance speech, Wiesel summed up his mission: "Whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." The Associated Press contributed to this report. The Israeli military struck a series of militant sites in Gaza early Saturday in response to a rocket attack that hit a kindergarten in the Israeli border town of Sderot. No injuries were reported on either side but damage was caused to buildings. The exchange comes amid an escalation of violence in the West Bank following a pair of fatal attacks against Jewish settlers that has sparked Israel's largest military surge in two years. The military said its airstrikes targeted four training sites belonging to Gaza's Hamas rulers. Late Friday, a rocket from Gaza struck an empty kindergarten, marking a rare successful hit of a civilian target in Israel. Rocket attacks have been sporadic since Israel and Hamas waged a deadly 50-day war in the summer of 2014. Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the rocket attack was "a horrific reminder of the intentions of terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip to target communities, people, men, women and children." "Over the past two days Israeli civilians have witnessed and experienced the devastating effects of incitement-fueled terrorism based on hatred and radical beliefs," he said. "In our efforts to ensure stability, we continue to defend against those who put innocent lives in harm's way." On Friday, a Palestinian gunman ambushed a family traveling in a car in the southern West Bank, killing an Israeli man and wounding his wife and two teenage children. The previous day a Palestinian teen stabbed a 13-year-old Israeli-American girl to death as she slept in her bedroom. The attacks prompted Israel's military to send hundreds of troops to the area and impose a closure on the Hebron district, a flashpoint area where many of the recent attacks have stemmed from. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will reduce the amount of tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians each month, saying that some of the money was being given to families of attackers. His Cabinet will convene late Saturday to discuss further measures. It's the latest development in nine months of violence in which Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbings, shootings and attacks using cars against civilians and security forces, killing 34 Israelis and two American tourists. Israeli troops as well as some armed civilians have killed about 200 Palestinians during this period, most said by Israel to be attackers. Israel says the violence is fueled by a Palestinian campaign of lies and incitement, compounded on social media sites that glorify and encourage attacks. Palestinians say it stems from frustration at nearly five decades of Israeli rule in territory they claim for a state. BEIJING, July 1 -- Relentless rain across south China since June 27 has resulted in 14 deaths, 20 missing and damaged swathes of farmland, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. As of 9:00 a.m. Friday, 133 counties in 11 provincial-level regions -- including the provinces of Hubei, Jiangsu and Zhejiang-- had reported floods, landslides and mud flows. Some 120,000 people have been displaced and 40,000 were in need of aid. More than 3,600 homes collapsed and 19,900 hectares of crops destroyed. Direct economic losses hit 3.14 billion yuan (about471.6 million U.S. dollars), the ministry said. The weather authority on Friday again forecast heavy rain and warned of severe floods in parts of Anhui, Hunan, Guizhou and Tibet from Friday night through Saturday. The National Meteorological Center (NMC) and the Ministry of Water Resources asked local authorities to monitor weather and take all necessary precautions. The NMC also issued an orange alert for storms. As much as 180mm of rain is expected in parts of Anhui, Jiangsu, Hunan and Guizhou over the next 24 hours. China has a four-tier color-coded system for severe weather, with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue. Raleigh Auto Accident Attorney Celebrates Ten Years In Practice The Law Office of K. Gregory Gunter specializes in car and truck accident representation, as well as work injury counsel. The legal professionals offer bilingual help for Spanish-speaking clients and the initial consultation is free of charge. -- The Law Office of K. Gregory Gunter is pleased to announce that the practice has been providing expert legal services to clients in the Raleigh area since 2006. The law firm focuses on motor vehicle accidents, as well as workers who are injured on the job. The Raleigh auto accident attorney has the knowledge and experience to identify the best path forward for accident victims. The client is able to concentrate on healing and recovery, while the legal team is handling the process of financial recovery. The Raleigh car accident lawyer is able to identify the necessary documentation for the best presentation of the facts of the case. Any damage to the vehicle is just the first step in the financial costs of the accident. Restitution includes costs for medical care and treatment. Accidents can result in time lost from work, physical therapy, home care and other problems. According to the legal team, "At the Law Office of K. Gregory Gunter, we understand that many people who have been hurt on the job or involved in a motor vehicle accident may be seeking the help of a lawyer for the very first time. If so, don't worry. Hiring an experienced attorney cannot only help ease your fears but also assist you on your road to recovery. Our initial consultation is free and confidential." The experienced attorney and friendly staff may ensure that the highest quality legal representation is provided throughout the entire claim process. For clients who are unable to travel due to the injuries, the attorneys will meet with the client at their home or at the hospital. The legal team ensures that clients are informed of their rights and kept up to date on the progress of the case. Attorney Gunter handles all of his cases personally and speaks to each client directly. For more information, please visit http://www.gregorygunterlaw.com Contact Info: Name: Attorney K. Gregory Gunter Organization: The Law Office of K. Gregory Gunter Address: 4940-A Windy Hill Drive, Raleigh NC 27609 Phone: (919) 670-1070 Video URL: https://youtu.be/RpdHhAtXIAI Source: http://www.gregorygunterlaw.com/raleigh-workers-compensation-attorney-2/ Release ID: 121945 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Current State of Acrylic Rubber (ACM) Industry -Professional and In-Depth Study Report by Radiant Insights Radiant Insights has published a new report titled "Global and Chinese Acrylic Rubber (ACM) Industry, 2015 Market Research Report" -- The 'Global and Chinese Acrylic Rubber (ACM) Industry, 2010-2020 Market Research Report' is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Acrylic Rubber (ACM) industrywith a focus on the Chinese market. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Acrylic Rubber (ACM) 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. The report "Global and Chinese Acrylic Rubber (ACM) Industry, 2015 Market Research Report" is available now at http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-and-chinese-acrylic-rubber-acm-industry-2015-market-research-report In this part, the report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and 2010-2015 market shares for each company. Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global and Chinese total market of Acrylic Rubber (ACM) industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and Chinese import/export. The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis. Request a Free Sample Copy of this Report @ http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-and-chinese-acrylic-rubber-acm-industry-2015-market-research-report/request-sample The report then estimates 2015-2020 market development trends of Acrylic Rubber (ACM) 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 Acrylic Rubber (ACM) Industry before evaluating its feasibility. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2010-2020 global and Chinese Acrylic Rubber (ACM) industry covering all important parameters. About Radiant Insight Radiant Insights is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. It assist and facilitate organizations and individuals procure market research reports, helping them in the decision making process. The Organization has a comprehensive collection of reports, covering over 40 key industries and a host of micro markets. For more information, please visit http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-and-chinese-acrylic-rubber-acm-industry-2015-market-research-report Contact Info: Name: Michelle Thoras Email: sales@radiantinsights.com Organization: Radiant Insights, Inc Address: 28 2nd Street, Suite 3036 Phone: (415) 349-0054 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/current-state-of-acrylic-rubber-acm-industry-professional-and-in-depth-study-report-by-radiant-insights/121947 Release ID: 121947 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Techpro Security Products Releases New Guide For Security Startups The guide details how security business owners can earn income through Techpro's Security Dealer Distribution Program, reports http://www.techprosecurity.com/. -- Techpro Security Products, a leading Florida-based retailer of CCTV surveillance and access control products, has recently announced the release of an in-depth guide created specifically for those who would like to start their own security company. The guide aims to show business owners how they can achieve this goal for the least amount of money through Techpro Security Products' Security Dealer Distribution Program. Those who are interested in reading the newly-released security startup guide can find it on the Techpro Security Products website. "Starting a business can be a huge risk, but it's important for aspiring entrepreneurs to know that extremely wealthy and well-connected people aren't the only ones in a position to take that risk," said Brad Besner, a spokesperson for Techpro Security Products. "Our Security Dealer Distribution Program allows people who want to start a security business to be their own boss and control their destiny without having to worry about high start-up costs or outrageous franchise fees. This is a great opportunity that will give them exactly what people have come to expect from Techpro Security Products - top notch service at every turn." The Techpro Security Distribution Program offers exclusive incentives to business owners, such as competitive pricing on all Techpro products, free system design services for all of their business and residential customers, dedicated support service, and private branding services for business owners who are just getting started. The program has a few different tiers depending on a business owner's goals, including Installer, Reseller, and Distributer. As Besner goes on to say, "We are confident that we can offer the best products on the market, the best profit margins in the industry, and the best support of any of our competitors. We have released this guide because we want future security business owners to know that Techpro Security Products can provide them with everything they need to succeed in this thriving industry." Business owners who would like to learn about Techpro Security Products and their Security Dealer Distribution Program should visit http://www.techprosecurity.com/. About Techpro Security Products: Techpro Security Products was founded in 2007 and was one of the first security manufacturers to introduce mobile view DVRs to the USA. They are a team of innovators and technology enthusiasts that have a passion for the security industry. Techpro has locations in Boca Raton, Florida and Wheat Ridge, Colorado. They pride themselves on offering the highest level of tech support in the industry. Service is not just a requirement, it is their first priority. Techpro Security Products places the satisfaction of their customers above all else. For more information, please visit http://www.techprosecurity.com/ Contact Info: Name: Brad Besner Organization: Techpro Security Products Phone: (866) 573-8878 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/techpro-security-products-releases-new-guide-for-security-startups/122003 Release ID: 122003 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Gravity Digital Announces Free Marketing Assessments The Gravity Digital team is offering to assess business owners' websites and show them how to improve their marketing, reports http://gravitydigital.com. -- Gravity Digital, a premier Texas-based full-service advertising, design, and production firm, has recently announced their offer of free marketing assessments for business owners. The marketing assessment is aimed at business owners who are looking to improve their online presence and generate more leads through their website. All marketing assessments are no risk and no obligation, and there is no credit card required to take advantage of this offer. "For many business owners making an attempt to market themselves online, things can get complicated pretty quickly," said Casey O'Quinn, the founder of Gravity Digital. "We know that the world of digital marketing can seem fast-paced, and with so many different elements involved people tend to get overwhelmed. This is why we're offering our free marketing assessment to business owners. In some cases, all a business owner will need is for our experts to point them in the right direction or give them a little practical advice. Others may need a more in-depth evaluation and explanation of what they need to do to succeed online, and we're happy to provide that as well." The free marketing assessment offered by Gravity Digital includes a thorough evaluation of the business owner's website and some practical tips on what they can do to improve traffic, conversion, and lead generation. They will also show business owners how they can better utilize their search engine optimization opportunities, social media profiles, landing pages, and calls to action to beat out their competitors online. Those who would like to schedule their free marketing assessment are encouraged to visit the Gravity Digital website at http://gravitydigital.com/web-design/ to fill out their online contact form. As O'Quinn goes on to say, "Simply put, our team loves to answer questions. We have made it our mission to use our expertise to help business owners succeed in the online arena, and we take that mission seriously. We look forward to connecting with business owners and helping them take their companies to the next level." Visit http://gravitydigital.com/inbound-marketing-agency/ to learn more about Gravity Digital's inbound marketing strategies and how their team can help business owners thrive online. About Gravity Digital: Gravity Digital was founded in May of 2000 by Casey O'Quinn after serving as the Internet Services Director for a Nashville-based advertising agency for four years. Gravity Digital is a full-service advertising, design, and production firm specializing in Advertising & Marketing Strategies, Website Development, Website Marketing, Print Design, Video Production, Media Buying and much more. They've been cranking out the hits for over 12 years, and they love to work on any project that lets them flex their creative muscles. For more information, please visit http://gravitydigital.com Contact Info: Name: Casey O'Quinn Organization: Gravity Digital Phone: (936) 588-2882 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/gravity-digital-announces-free-marketing-assessments/121998 Release ID: 121998 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Plum Goose Adds Two New Product Lines The company has officially welcomed the Elaine Smith and Ashcroft Imports brands to their store, reports http://www.plumgoose.com/. -- Plum Goose, a high-end furniture and home decor store based in Charleston, South Carolina, has recently announced the addition of two new product lines to their store. In the last few weeks, the company has officially welcomed the Elaine Smith and Ashcroft Imports brands to the collection of manufacturers they work with. Each brand brings its own exclusive style, and items from those brands will be available for purchase in the Plum Goose online store as well as in their Charleston showroom. "We are so proud and beyond excited to have the opportunity to carry both the Elaine Smith and Ashcroft Imports brands," said Zach Wheeler, a representative of Plum Goose. "Both brands bring something unique to our store while giving our clients the elements of the high-end flair they've come to expect from us. Elaine takes her inspiration right from the world's hottest runways, while Ashcroft Imports is a newer brand focused on contemporary home design. Both are an asset to Plum Goose, and we believe that our clients will love the pieces they see in our store from each of these new lines." Elaine Smith is a line of luxurious indoor / outdoor pillows with runway-inspired designs that take on the personal style of their designer. The pillows are handcrafted using highly-durable yet sophisticated fabrics that showcase rich colors and intricate patterns. The Ashcroft Imports brand is a new wholesale outfit from Houston, Texas that is providing quality crafted contemporary and mid-century modern furniture with a worldly flair to the U.S. market. As Wheeler goes on to say, "We couldn't think of a better pair of brands to add to our already-extensive list. Each piece we are carrying from these product lines is beautiful in its own right, and we can't wait to see all of the great room designs that our clients are able to create with sophisticated home decor pieces from Elaine Smith and Ashcroft Imports." Those who would like to learn more about these two new lines or get a glimpse of which pieces the store is offering can get more info at Plum Goose at www.plumgoose.com. About Plum Goose: The team at Plum Goose is passionate about design, and they pride themselves in providing an avenue to create a perfectly decorated home. They carry thousands of products from a wide range of high-end manufacturers to give clients an abundance of options when choosing how to aesthetically renovate any room in their home. They recognize that home decor facilitates a homeowner's daily environment, which significantly affects their mood and mindset. Therefore, they strive to make Plum Goose a destination for sophisticated home furnishing pieces that span a range of materials, designs, sizes, and styles to make any room truly unique and special. For more information, please visit http://www.plumgoose.com/ Contact Info: Name: Zach Wheeler Organization: Plum Goose Phone: (888) 604-5514 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/plum-goose-adds-two-new-product-lines/122001 Release ID: 122001 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Vacuum Sealer Zone Launches Latest Reviews in Response to Surging Food Waste Understanding which vacuum sealers offer the greatest value and versatility is crucial to combatting unnecessary spending, publishes vacuumsealerzone.com -- Figures released last year via joint efforts of the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Resources Institute reveal as much as 40 percent of America's food supply is wasted, amounting to an estimated 20 pounds of fruits, vegetables and meats per person each month. Reports indicate a significant portion of this waste stems from over-buying. With this in mind, Allen Martin of Vacuum Sealer Zone (www.vacuumsealerzone.com/) has launched the company's latest product reviews and purchasing guide. Said Martin, "Most everyone enjoys having fresh fruits and vegetables on hand, and when those rare sales on meats at the supermarket present themselves, taking advantage of the savings is difficult to resist. At the same time, a number of Americans have discovered the financial benefits of buying in bulk. The problem lies in finding the time to divide up these items and preserve them properly; as a result, we end up wasting more than we consume. Vacuum sealers are the perfect solution to this dilemma, and we're here to help our readers find the ones best fitting their needs." According to information found at www.vacuumsealerzone.com/, vacuum sealers' capacity to accommodate a range of bag thicknesses is among the most important elements to consider. Overheating has been listed as a common issue faced with this type of equipment; therefore, Vacuum Sealer Zone advises consumers to consider devices suited to their levels of use. Ease of operation is likewise mentioned as a deciding factor. While price has been deemed a primary concern in the eyes of consumers, the company recommends opting for moderately priced brands offering high quality and varied functionality. Though the earliest versions of vacuum sealers provided limited options, certain modern models come with numerous features. Some of these include attachments for removing excess air from wine, oil and vinegar bottles as well as conventional storage containers. Details regarding the company's current top ten models are available through www.vacuumsealerzone.com/. Concluded Martin, "Vacuum sealers give consumers the ability to save a great deal of money while reducing the amount of organic waste making its way to our nation's landfills. These devices have come a long way since first being introduced to the market, and they now come with any number of additional features. Our purpose is to provide honest reviews on specific products as well as in-depth information to help consumers get the most out of their vacuum sealers. We will continue to update our website as new products and developments in the industry arise." About Vacuum Sealer Zone: Dedicated to helping consumers eliminate unnecessary waste and spending, the staff of Vacuum Sealer Zone provides unbiased reviews and purchasing guides for vacuum sealers. For more information, please visit http://www.vacuumsealerzone.com/ Contact Info: Name: Allen Martin Organization: Vacuum Sealer Zone Phone: (973) 575-6080 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/vacuum-sealer-zone-launches-latest-reviews-in-response-to-surging-food-waste/122028 Release ID: 122028 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) CorkCRM Unveils Their Newest Software Feature Clients will now be able to directly integrate CorkCRM with QuickBooks accounting software, reports http://corkcrm.com. -- CorkCRM, a software application designed to help owners and their teams become more organized, has recently announced the addition of a new feature. Soon, painting companies who use CorkCRM will be able to directly integrate it with their QuickBooks accounting software. The addition of this new feature to the painting contractor software application will help business owners further streamline their operations and keep their companies more organized. Michael Henry, the founder of CorkCRM, stated "We are excited for the upcoming release of our newest software feature. Having been in the painting business ourselves, our team knows all too well the daily grind associated with running one. We started CorkCRM because we understood that using technology effectively had the power to revolutionize the way that painters did business. This new QuickBooks integration feature that we'll be releasing soon has the ability to help painting businesses simplify their accounting, as it will be able to handle two of most tedious tasks with blazing speed." The new QuickBooks integration feature that CorkCRM will release in the near future solves a critical problem for painting business owners. Having this capability means that the painter contractor software application can now handle job costing and customer invoicing in a way that is much more streamlined than before. This type of automation gives business owners and their accountant the ability to quickly determine costs associated with a project so that customer invoices will reflect an appropriate quote. As Henry goes on to say, "Our painting business software solved the problem of bringing painting contractors into the 21st century with easy-to-use technology. Doing so helped businesses automate the work that was not directly adding value to their businesses, thereby increasing their productivity and driving up profits. We sincerely believe that the addition of this QuickBooks integration feature will allow CorkCRM to help business owners achieve those goals on an even greater scale." Business owners who would like to get a glimpse of how CorkCRM's feature-rich software can add value to their company should visit http://corkcrm.com. About CorkCRM: CorkCRM is a painting business software application designed to help painting businesses be more organized. Having been in the business themselves, the CorkCRM team designed each feature of the software with the painting business workflow in mind - from the initial inquiry to collecting the final check. They strive to keep things simple while leveraging technology to make the job easier. For more information, please visit http://corkcrm.com Contact Info: Name: Michael Henry Organization: CorkCRM Phone: (877) 222-7488 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/corkcrm-unveils-their-newest-software-feature/122037 Release ID: 122037 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) OC Condo Homes Announces New Updates to Popular Orange County Real Estate Site Upgrades make site more responsive and easier to use, while still delivering all the listings, advice, and tips that have made it such a success, OC Condo Homes reports -- OC Condo Homes announced a number of significant improvements to the company's website, making it even more rewarding than before to search the most extensive database of Orange County Condos, townhouses, and lofts for sale today. The upgraded site provides easy access to MLS listings of homes for sale in Irvine, CA, along with a range of helpful features aimed at making the home buying or selling process more rewarding. With housing prices around Orange County once again reaching record levels, both sellers and buyers are increasingly getting involved. The newly improved OC Condo Homes website is the best way of all to come up to speed with one of the country's most dynamic and desirable real estate markets. "We're always looking for new ways of serving those looking to buy or sell in Orange County," said Francine Anderson, OC Condo Homes founder and active REALTOR, "We've made a number of significant improvements to the site in recent times, and we think these upgrades are really going to be valuable to our many users. We invite all who are interested to stop by occondohomes dot com to view our irvine listings and check out the many useful resources we have made available." Even while it faces its own challenges, California remains an economic powerhouse and the country's most populated state by a large margin. The state is known around the world as a place where real estate is often both especially desirable and expensive, and has been the scene of many of the most momentous such transactions of all over the decades. Just how vital a given area's local market might be, of course, varies widely across the state. With some of the country's wealthiest and most ambitious residents within its borders, Orange County consistently hosts one of the most exciting and fast-moving real estate markets in a state that does not lack for them. Founded by an Orange County resident of over two decades, OC Condo Homes is the top online destination for those who wish to keep up with that market. With a rapidly updated wealth of listings of homes for sale in Irvine CA and elsewhere in Orange County, the site provides everything needed for buyers and sellers alike. Thanks to recent updates to OC Condo Homes, users will find the site even more responsive and useful than before. In addition to making use of the listings search feature and convenient subsections that focus on particular parts of Irvine, visitors can also stay up to date with the latest developments through the site's blog and learn more about buying or selling a home. About OC Condo Homes: With everything from the latest MLS listings to in-depth, locally informed advice about particular parts of Irvine, OC Condo Homes makes it easy to learn about and keep up with Orange County single-family real estate market. For more information, please visit http://occondohomes.com/ Contact Info: Name: Francine Anderson Organization: OC Condo Homes Address: 19800 MacArthur Blvd., Suite 300 Irvine, CA 92612 Phone: 714-469-7849 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/oc-condo-homes-announces-new-updates-to-popular-orange-county-real-estate-site/122035 Release ID: 122035 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Thermalabs Supremasea Working on 3 New Releases This Year Thermalabs Supremasea sub-brand is working on three new releases this year. -- Cosmetics firm Thermalabs has revealed that it's working on at least three new products that will be launched sometimes this year. This is an interesting announcement especially considered that there has only been one product since Supremasea opened its doors. Reportedly, the firm has been working extensively to create formulations that have the potential to take the market by storm. Thermalabs is a premier cosmetics firm based in New York City, but operating a number of production facilities in other parts of the word. Thermalabs has accomplished a lot within the three years that the company has been in existence. The company first opened its doors in 2013, announcing an introductory self-tanner that sold like hot cakes. Thermalabs goal, 'contribute to a skin cancer-free world', was a long-shot. But the firm has been able to accomplish many milestones in that direction. Its pilot tanner featured exclusive ingredients such as Green Tea, Olive Oil and Aloe Vera that made it an effective solution for people who were looking to stop basking for a tan. The product delivered a sexy and attractive tan barely four hours post-application. The tanner's massive success and outstanding market performance helped the little-known startup build a platform that it later used to successfully stage subsequent launches. Thermalabs Supremasea brand was established sometimes last year. According to Thermalabs, its' role would be to take over the company's private collection of skincare products based on Dead Sea salts and minerals. Tan Enhancer is the pilot product by Supremasea. This is a luxurious lotion that moisturizes the skin and protects it from free radicals and other environmental pollutants. Marketed as the perfect product for consumers looking for that after-tan glow, tan Enhancer contains a special blend of Dead Sea salts, Shea Butter, and Vitamin E, among many other ingredients. The product is quickly absorbed into the skin for all-day moisturization. Tan Enhancer has been a top performer on major e-tailing marketplaces such as Amazon.com. The product's ability to deliver an enduring tan has made it a preferred option for people who are concerned about having to re-apply their tan every few hours. Supremasea is probably riding on the success of this initial product in their attempt to manufacture more releases. Kristina Meyers, the brand manager for Supremasea, said, "We are looking to launch at least three more new products sometimes during the year. Our introductory product, Tan Enhancer, has recorded some notable milestones and we are looking at how we can amplify this success. All products under our Supremasea umbrella name are based on Dead Sea mineral salts combined with other ingredients. Our key goal is to come up with formulations that take care of the skin and protect it from harm. Just like Tan Enhancer does a hell of a job at promoting an after-tan glow, moisturizing and protecting the skin, there's all guarantee that our upcoming products will be able to achieve that and much more. Stay tuned form more from Supremasea." For more information, please visit http://www.thermalabs.com/home Contact Info: Name: Jennifer Parker Organization: Thermalabs Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_toClMZ_0M Source: http://marketersmedia.com/thermalabs-supremasea-working-on-3-new-releases-this-year/121804 Release ID: 121804 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Thermalabs Tent World Brand to Launch New Products This Month Thermalabs Tent World sub-brand will have new products available in the market later in the month. -- Thermalabs will have new tents available on the market any time within the month. That's according to a statement made by the company's brand manager in charge of Tent World, Ms. Ann Spencer. It's been quite a long wait for the company's fanatics ever since Thermalabs first mentioned that new, better tents were in the works. But it seems like the company is almost set to deliver on its promise. Thermalabs is an outstanding firm that has made its' name in the self-tanning niche. The company has so far produced at least 8 premium tanning lotions and accessories. Thermalabs was established nearly three years ago during an event held in New York City. Back then, the company had nothing more than a plan and a big goal. Amid reports that millions of people were dying from skin cancer each year around the world, Thermalabs was determined to produce alternative products that helped people look beautiful without exposing their skin to danger. Already, millions of people were still relying on sun-basking to score a tan. One of the ways Thermalabs could reach its goals was to provide healthy, affordable, natural and organic self-tanners that delivered impressive results. Thermalabs had just enough funds to get it right with the first shot, and the company did not disappoint. Following a successful market run, the company sold thousands of units of its pilot product within the first week in the market. This helped attract media attention and lay the stepping stones that the startup needed for successful prospecting of its upcoming launches. Thermalabs Tent World brand was announced earlier this year. According to Thermalabs, its role would be to oversee the production and marketing of the company's extensive range of upcoming beach tents. Thermalabs had already successfully launched its pilot tent, the Mercury Beach Tent. Following a successful market run by this product, the company apparently realized that there were more opportunities to be taken advantage of. The Mercury Beach Tent was designed to be multi-purpose and super-easy to use for fall users. The tent had a protective coating to keep occupant's skin safe from the sun's UV radiation, as well as a kids-friendly bottom that was extra comfortable. Tent World's role would be to take over Mercury Beach Tent and control the production of upcoming products, each of which would be named after a planet in the solar system. Ms. Spencer said, "It's just weeks or even days to go before we have more Tent World in the market. Let's just call it weeks for now. We have been working hard over the last few months to make sure that the dream of Tent World comes to fruition, and everything is just around the corner. Following our top-performing Mercury Beach Tent, we have more products coming your way this month. Each of these will be named after a planet in the solar system, and will serve as the ideal tent for different situations. Keep watching, there's a lot more coming." For more information, please visit http://www.thermalabs.com/home Contact Info: Name: James McCarthy Organization: Thermalabs Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caUCrF18U1A Source: http://marketersmedia.com/thermalabs-tent-world-brand-to-launch-new-products-this-month/121806 Release ID: 121806 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) U.S. strikes kill up to 116 civilians outside active war zone between 2009-2015: White House WASHINGTON, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The White House announced on Friday that between 64 and 116 civilians were killed in U.S. strikes outside areas of active war zones from 2009 to 2015. In its first public assessment of civilian casualties of U.S. counterterrorism strikes, the White House said in a summary released on Friday that as many as 473 U.S. strikes were conducted in Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and North Africa. Civilian casualties in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria were not included in the summary. Few details were offered about the strikes and the people who were killed, provoking criticism from human rights groups which called for more transparency of the U.S. counterterrorism strikes, especially the U.S. drone program. The drone war initiated in the wake of 9/11 terrorist attacks by former U.S. President George W. Bush, continues to be one of the Obama administration's trump cards. According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a British non-profit, the Obama administration conducted its first drone strikes shortly after Obama began its presidency in 2009. Although there were reports of alleged "militants" killed, said the group, at least 14 civilians were also killed that day. Up till Friday, the U.S. government had kept almost all information relevant to its drone attacks classified. Free Freightnet Membership List your company in the Freightnet directory. It's Free, it's Easy and your company can be displayed in front of potential freight buyers within 24 hours. DHAKA, July 2, 2016 (Xinhua) -- An injured policeman is escorted away by his colleague after an attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 2, 2016. Gunmen have shot dead two police officials, police said, in the first attack on a foreign restaurant in Bangladesh claimed by Islamic State (IS) group jihadists. The gunmen stormed the restaurant in Bangladesh capital Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on Friday night at about 9:00 p.m. local time. At least 40 people including two more senior police officials were injured in the incident.(Xinhua) DHAKA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- At least five gunmen have been killed and over a dozen hostages rescued on Saturday after Bangladeshi security forces ended a siege in an upmarket restaurant in the Bangladesh capital. "We've come to know that at least five attackers were killed as security forces launched the offensive to end the crisis at the restaurant," said a police official who declined to be named. The official could not tell whether any foreigners were killed during the operation. However, unconfirmed sources said the gunmen killed 8 to 10 foreigners. Meanwhile, some media reports said six gunmen have been killed and at least 13 hostages, three of them foreigners, freed during the operation. The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said two of its citizens taken hostage in the restaurant have been rescued unharmed, while the Japanese government confirmed one Japanese national was freed with gunshot wounds. Police have earlier said that six gunmen were killed, while 18 hostages rescued during the operation. Five to six gunmen stormed the restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on Friday night, shooting dead two police officials in their first attack. At least 40 people had been injured in the initial incident. Seven Italian nationals, two Sri Lankans and eight Japanese are thought to be among dozens of hostages in the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant, which is popular with foreigners. No formal announcement has so far been made on the rescue operation which lasted for about two hours since 8 a.m. local time (0200 GMT) Saturday. The police official said the Bangladesh army, which was involved in the operation, will brief journalists about the outcome of the operation later in the day. Navy commandos and personnel from the police, Rapid Action Battalion and Borders Guard Bangladesh also participated in the operation. Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attack, a claim whose authenticity has yet to be confirmed by Bangladesh police. Sources said the gunmen demanded release of a leader of banned militant outfit Jama'at-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) who has recently been arrested. JMB, campaigning for the establishment of Islamic rule in Bangladesh, carried out a series of bombings in 63 out of the country's 64 districts, including capital Dhaka on Aug. 17, 2005, leaving two people dead and 150 others injured. Hundreds of JMB leaders and activists were rounded up while six top leaders of the group, including Shaikh Abdur Rahman, were hanged in 2007. A cargo of UK feed wheat is loading at Immingham dock with what is claimed to be the largest shipment of wheat ever exported from the UK. The 70,000t order has been put together by Glencore Grain UK, with the wheat sourced from farms across Lincolnshire, Yorkshire and Humberside. The MV Trade Prosperity will set off from the east coast bound for Vietnam, south-east Asia, and will mark the start of the new-cereal years exports. See also: Brexit how farming sectors will react Grain traders are hoping to have exported more than 3m tonnes of wheat in the 2015-16 cereal year, which ended on 30 June. The latest export data shows by the end of April 2016, 1.9m tonnes of wheat had been exported from the UK to other EU member states, with 400,000t exported to non-EU destinations. In May 2015, a record 66,000t of wheat left Immingham for Thailand, which was then thought to be the largest shipment out of the UK. See the Latest News on the PS4 and Xbox One Cross-Platform Play Feature When Microsoft announced earlier this year that the Xbox One console will launch the cross-platform play feature, some mixed comments from the avid fans did came around. But the one thing that remained positive about this feature is that Microsoft through the Xbox One cross-platform play is reaching out to others in giving players the best gaming experience. Now, Xbox co-creator Ed Fries said during his IGN interview that he would hope, Sony will consider the system and will eventually join the feature. He said "I hope that Sony is going to respond. It's good to see some of the war kind of ramping down; more respect and cooperation between those two groups. I'm very optimistic for the future of both companies." Although Sony has not given any feedback on the said feature, not only is Xbox's Fries who wants to hear it from Sony, but also the millions of players who want diversity in their own respective consoles. Meanwhile, the first game to ever hit the Xbox one cross-platform play is Psyonix's "Rocket League" game. More games are expected to follow and depending on the creator and developer of a certain title, they may opt to join the cross-platform play or make their games exclusive to their chosen system. In a report by the Polygon in March, Microsoft subtly announced Xbox One cross-platform play and hinted on others joining the feature by saying, there's an open invitation for other platforms at a later date. Also, director of ID@Xbox Chris Charla said, the feature is not mandatory and players can still choose to play among their fellow Xbox One users. Get the latest update on the Xbox One cross-platform play and who's the latest to join the cross-platform play by reading on GameNGuide.com. Dropping down into Philomath while heading west on Highway 20/34, a nice view of the community comes into focus with Marys Peak providing a scenic backdrop on the horizon. For the family of Spc. Cody J. Patterson, it was the perfect spot to honor his memory with a roadside sign. I know this is something our dad wanted before he passed and its always something we wanted since Day One, said Letitia Williams, one of Codys six siblings in attendance Friday afternoon for a special gathering at Peace Lutheran Church. The sign was on the back seat for a while and it finally went through. We stuck to our guns and here we are looking at it outside the church. The family believed that they were going to witness the signs installation Friday from a bike path alongside the highway, but some sort of miscommunication with the Oregon Department of Transportation occurred and it could not be immediately arranged. The large brown sign with Codys full name was transported to the church for family and friends to view. Patterson died along with three others Oct. 6, 2013, in a suicide bomb attack during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Patterson was serving with the U.S. Armys 75th Ranger Regiment and was on his second tour in the war-torn region. There have been sad events in the past but today has been an amazing day because its something celebrating the life of Cody, said Kap Wilson, one of Codys two brothers. Its nice we have one of those signs its nice to say hey, that was my brother that served in the military and did amazing things for our country. This past February, the Legislature approved a resolution to recognize Patterson for his military service in an effort thats part of the Heroes Highway Project. The mood was light with all of Codys family in attendance at the special gathering, including his mother, Nancy Wilson and his other three sisters, Nicole Patterson, Taylor Patterson and Mara Wilson, and another brother, Eli Williams. Randy Patterson, Codys father, wanted to see the installation of a highway memorial sign for his son but died unexpectedly last year. Letitia Williams said with a laugh, Dad wanted it at both ends (of town). Sixteen-year-old Mara Wilson wasnt sure what to expect when she first heard about the event to honor her older brother. Now that Im here and I see all these people offer their support and I see the sign, Im just happy, she said. It brings back happy memories. I dont see him as someone who fell in the Army, I just see him as my brother that people cared about. Keeping Codys name in front of the community has been important for the family. The Cody J. Patterson Memorial Scholarship, awarded this year to Dawson Brattain, is one of those ways. And now, the sign will be very visible. I remember talking with my mom a lot and she said that its important to keep his name out there not only as a serviceman but as the person that he was before he went into the service the musician he was, as the good friend he was, as the good son he was, as the good brother he was, Kap Wilson said. We want that whole image of Cody to be out there Beyond family, there was a heavy military presence at the event with several members of the 75th Ranger Regiments 2nd Battalion from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, located near Seattle, in attendance. Alex Green of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, served in the 75ths 3rd Battalion and was friends with Patterson and also Patrick Hawkins, who was killed in the same incident. I would say overall its positive, Green said about the sign event. A lot of the dedication ceremonies where they painted that picture of Cody, those were the sad occasions. I would say todays event was positive for sure. Green was making reference to Pattersons portrait, which was presented to the family during a Lead the Way Fund event last year in New York City and was prominently on display. Brittanie Hawkins, the widow of Patrick Hawkins, was also at the event, along with Maj. Brian Koyn, chaplain for the 75th Ranger Regiment who officiated at Codys funeral and his fathers celebration of life service. I know as with any fallen heros family, the last thing you want is to imagine people forgetting them, Letitia Williams said. Just keeping their name current and up with positive things is definitely big for us. Codys younger sister feels the same way. I originally thought I knew people were going to forget about him and I was OK with it, she said. I did have people tell me, oh, I forgot that your brother died and it made me feel upset. I guess over time, I got more sensitive to it and I would really love to have people remember him. A file photo of Zhang Zhijun, head of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office [Photo: taiwan.cn] Mainland authorities are calling for a "responsible explanation" behind the fatal firing of a missile by a naval vessel from Taiwan on Friday. Zhang Zhijun, head of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, says the incident needs to be addressed properly. "The incident occurred and has caused a severe impact at a time when the mainland has repeatedly emphasized safeguarding the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations based on the political foundation of the 1992 Consensus. The Taiwan side should offer a responsible explanation of the matter." Taiwan authorities have confirmed that one of its naval vessels accidentally fired a missile on Friday morning. The missile hit a fishing boat from Taiwan near the southern end of the island, killing one and injuring three others onboard. 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. Christopher Street Day Parade : 800,000 guests expected in Cologne Cologne Thousands from the LGBT community and their supporters are expected for a big parade on Sunday in Cologne. Those killed in the Orlando night club attack will be remembered. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken The parade always made a critical statement on society, but this Sunday it will be even more political. At the Christopher Street Day (CSD) parade in Cologne, the 49 persons killed in an Orlando gay night club will be remembered. Dozens of rainbow-colored flags will be hung at half mast. During the parade, which will wind through the Cologne inner city Sunday afternoon, the attack will also be a major theme. Colorful costumes and wagons are expected for the parade, which is the culmination and high point of a three-day CSD weekend with concerts, shows, dance and discussion rounds. Organizers are expecting around 800,000 people on Sunday in the streets. The motto of the 25th annual CSD in Cologne is anders.Leben! (live differently). In the German-speaking circles, they speak of self-assuredness for homosexuals and their fight against discrimination; in English circles, parades are referred to with the word , pride. CSD is in memory of an incident that occurred on June 28, 1969 in New York when a police raid resulted in the first big uprising of LGBT people against police assaults. Spokesperson for the City of Cologne, Nils Schmidt, spoke of extra security costs from several 10,000 euro. Save the American Settlement meeting : BIS Chair gives update When the current expansion is completed, a capacity for 950 students will be reached at Bonn International School. Foto: Friese Bonn BIS Board of Trustees Chair gave an update on school expansion at an annual meeting of the American settlement group. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken At the annual meeting of the association, Rettet die Amerikanische Siedlung, (RASP - Save the American settlement) in the Stimson Memorial Chapel, an update was given on plans for Bonn International School (BIS). Eric Voss, Chairman of the BIS Board of Trustees, informed the group of what is in store for the school. When the current expansion is completed, a capacity for 950 students will be reached. This will allow for four classes at every grade level. According to Voss, another expansion is not planned. Also, the school wants to prevent further deterioration of the former American Club, which sits on the property. To renovate that club for future use, for example as an auditorium, at least five million euros would be needed and this funding is currently not available. Many parents bring their children to school and pick them up again, which burdens the traffic situation for residents who live in the area. RASP members learned that BIS students do not have a right to a reduced cost ticket on public transportation as do students of German schools. The reason for this is because BIS is recognized as an Erganzungschule (a supplemental school) and not an official public school. RASP Chairman, Rolf Fischer, suggested that local politicians should look into this issue. The leadership of the association was unanimously re-elected. Other leadership includes Udo Schmitz, Deputy Chair, Stefan Wolter, Secretary and Jeannette Jahn-Dormagen, Treasurer. Bonn City Council : Green light for new shopping center at train station The square area in front of Bonn main station Foto: Westhoff Bonn Despite some opposition, a majority voted to go ahead with a new building project at the Bonn central train station. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken Proposed new building projects Maximilian Center and Urban Soul passed a vote of the city council on Thursday evening with a wide majority. They will be realized at the north end of the Bonn central train station. After decades of discussion, Hartwig Lohmeyer of the Green party says, We cant let the chance get away. He noted that there has never been a real Platz or square area in front of the train station and that this is a decision for the next generation. Lohmeyer also addressed some of the advantages of tearing down the old and building up the new. Only in this way can we address the traffic issues, he said. Members of the political parties, CDU, FDP and SDP also expressed their support for the project, even if small adjustments to the plan were still needed. Frank Thomas of the FDP said, With todays decision, milestones have been set. The FDP has fulfilled a major goal to eliminate a misery of the 70s. Holger Schmidt of the Links (Left) party was against the project, saying it was under the standard of a city like Bonn. Johannes Schott of the activist group, Burger Bund Bonn (BBB) was also against the plans. He said this result had nothing in common with a citizens workshop held on this topic eight years ago and the new building doesnt fit with preservation of the historically protected train station. He also criticizes how the view will look from Poststrae and feels the covered elevator system will disturb the view of the monument. It remains unclear as to whether fashion retailer Primark will move in the building; opposition had been expressed. University of Bonn Graduation : Over a thousand graduates celebrate Fur das Unifest tragen die Absolventen Talar und Barett mit den Farben ihrer Fakultat. Foto: Barbara Frommann Bonn University students in cap and gown could be seen in Bonn city center on Saturday as they took part in graduation festivities. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken It was a big celebration on Saturday as 1,138 students celebrated their graduation from the Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn (University of Bonn). Hats off! A big white tent was erected for the festivities and in the timely tradition, students threw their graduation caps in the air when it was over. Before that, they had received their diplomas while friends, relatives and professors looked on. Their caps and tassels were in the colors of their faculties. More women than men graduated this year. Of the 1,138 graduates, 818 were women, nearly three quarters. In terms of faculties, the biggest group was from Philosophy, followed by the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Medicine, Agriculture, Law and Political Science. Rescuers search for people buried in a rain-triggered landslide in Bijie, Southwest China's Guizhou province on July 1, 2016. [Photo/Weibo] GUIYANG - Eleven people have died and a dozen remain missing after a massive landslide swept through a village in southwest China's Guizhou Province Friday morning. A total of 30 people were buried by debris when intense rain triggered a mud-slide around 5:30 a.m. Friday in Pianpo Village, Dafang County, in the city of Bijie. Seven people were pulled alive from the debris, while 11 were pronounced dead at the scene, according to the county government. More than 800 soldiers and rescuers are working with excavators to find the 12 people who remain missing. The landslide involved more than 95,00 cubic meters of mud flow. Rain and storms have wreaked havoc across south China since June 27, leaving at least 34 people dead or missing nationwide, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Rescuers search for people buried in a rain-triggered landslide in Bijie, Southwest China's Guizhou province on July 1, 2016. [Photo/Weibo] The Yangtze River reported its first flood peak this year on Friday. Around 8:00 p.m. Friday, heavy rain swelled the Jushui River, a 170 km-long tributary of the Yangtze. Floods from swollen rivers forced more than 12,000 people to relocate overnight, the Hubei provincial disaster relief headquarters said. Nationwide, 133 counties in 11 provincial-level regions -- including the provinces of Hubei, Jiangsu and Zhejiang -- have reported floods, landslides or mud flows. Some 120,000 people have been displaced and 40,000 are in need of aid. More than 3,600 homes collapsed and 19,900 hectares of crops destroyed. Direct economic losses hit 3.14 billion yuan (about 471.6 million U.S. dollars), the ministry said. The weather authority on Friday again forecast heavy rain and warned of severe floods in parts of Anhui, Hunan, Guizhou and Tibet from Friday night through Saturday. The National Meteorological Center and the Ministry of Water Resources asked local authorities to monitor weather and take all necessary precautions. BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday called on the Philippines to work with China to use the power of negotiation to solve disputes on the South China Sea. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to remarks made by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte during the first meeting of his cabinet after his inauguration Thursday. "God knows I don't want to declare any fighting with anyone. If we can have peace by just talking I'll be really happy," said Duterte, who had previously said that he was open to talking with China about the maritime disputes. Philippine presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said on Friday that Duterte wanted a "conversation" with China on the South China Sea to work out a "win-win relationship" with the country. Hong said the disputes are ultimately issues between China and the Philippines. The South China Sea arbitration initiated by former President Benigno S. Aquino III is invalid and illegal, he said. "The disputes between China and the Philippines can only be solved via bilateral negotiation on the basis of fully respecting historical facts and in line with international laws," said Hong. "We hope the Philippines can work together with China and meet each other halfway so that the disputes are solved properly," he said. Alberto Encomienda, former secretary-general of the Maritime and Ocean Affairs Center of the Philippine Foreign Affairs Department, said recently in an interview with Xinhua that the Philippine government had been behind the increasing tensions in the South China Sea. "China has championed negotiations all along, but at the beginning we were not," he said. Hong said these facts revealed by the former Philippine diplomat "show once again the Aquino III government lied" for the unilateral initiation of the arbitration on the South China Sea at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. The tribunal said it would issue a ruling on July 12. Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that the Arbitral Tribunal has no jurisdiction over the case and the relevant subject-matter, and that it should not have heard the case or rendered the award. BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Parties and leaders of China's neighboring countries have sent messages of congratulations upon the 95th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The central committees of the Cambodian People's Party, the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and the Communist Party of Vietnam sent messages respectively to the CPC Central Committee, to congratulate the CPC and the Chinese people on their achievements in building socialism with Chinese characteristics. They hailed particularly the achievements made in China's opening-up and reform and its modernization drive, and wished the CPC greater achievements in its cause of building China into a moderately prosperous society and the realization of the "two centenary goals" and the Chinese Dream at an early date. In his message to Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea Kim Jong Un extended warm congratulations to Xi, the CPC Central Committee, all CPC members and the Chinese people on the CPC's 95th founding anniversary. He wished the Chinese people, under the leadership of the CPC, greater achievements in building socialism with Chinese characteristics and in realizing rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Chairman of the Mongolian People's Party Enkhbold Miegombo, in his message, also sent warm greetings and wishes to Xi, the CPC Central Committee and all CPC members. He expressed the belief that the CPC will score greater achievements in leading China into a prosperous future. Panasonic launches full-HD wedding camcorder News oi -GizBot Bureau Panasonic on Friday launched a new full-HD professional camcorder specifically designed to shoot events like weddings, parties and conferences. The new palm-type HC-PV100 camera was unveiled globally by Yosuke Yamane, Head-Imaging Business Group, Panasonic. "Indian weddings represents the colourful culture of India and deserves to be captured in the most beautiful way. Hence, there was no better place to globally launch our new wedding camera," Yamane said in a statement. Especially suited for night-time parties, the new camcorder has a built-in LED video light. It also makes enhanced and low-light shooting possible with a hand-held type camcorder. The device is equipped with three manual rings, and 2-Channel XLR audio input terminals enabling connection to everything, including microphones requiring a phantom power supply, and audio equipment with +4 dB output. LG's VPInput can double your productivity: Everything you need to about this app The 2-Channel XLR audio input terminals enables the use of professional-specification and high-performance microphones for recording high-quality sound. It is also loaded with features like two filters, dual SD card slot and 20x zoom. Source IANS Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Google rolls out new tab to search in English and Hindi News oi -GizBot Bureau Targeting the significant Hindi-speaking population in India, search engine giant Google has rolled out a new tab on Google Search for mobilephones that shows results both in English and Hindi at the same time. "Users in India would now be able to search for information online the same way they live: moving between multiple languages depending on the moment or the audience," said Shekhar Sharad, Product Manager, International Search in an official blogpost on Wednesday. Ghost Phone should be your next smartphone to own: Here's why Now, one can type a query in English and then flip the tab to read the answer in Hindi. "For example, if you'd like to ask questions about your favourite movies or celebrities, you can type them in English and then flip the tab to read the answer in Hindi," Sharad added. Users can now also look up health-related information and view the results in Hindi. The Google Search app shows up on most browsers, including Android or iOS mobile phone, and will improve over time. However, it is not be available on UCBrowser and Opera Mini, the blogpost said. 8 TED Talks to get your creativity juices flowing The feature can be accessed in north Indian states like Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand, besides Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. Source IANS Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Chinese National Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Smuggling High Tech U.S. Military Hardware to China FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, June 29, 2016 Kan Chen, 26, of Ningbo, China, in Zhejiang Province, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release for conspiring to violate the Arms Export Control Act and International Traffic in Arms Regulations; attempting to violate the Arms Export Control Act and International Traffic in Arms Regulations; and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin, U.S. Attorney Charles M. Oberly III of the District of Delaware, Acting Special Agent in Charge Gregory C. Nevano of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) Philadelphia and Special Agent in Charge Nasir Khan of the U.S. Department of Commerce-Bureau of Industry and Security's Office of Export Enforcement Washington Field Office made the announcement. On June 16, 2015, Chen was arrested by HSI agents on the Northern Mariana Island of Saipan following an eight-month long investigation into his illegal conduct and has remained in custody. He pleaded guilty to the offenses listed above on March 2, 2016. "The United States will simply never know the true harm of Chen's conduct because the end users of the rifle scopes and other technology are unknown," said U.S. Attorney Oberly. "No matter their nationality, those individuals who seek to profit by illegally exporting sensitive U.S. military technology will be prosecuted. It is important that we take all necessary steps to prevent our military technology and equipment from being exported and possibly used against our service members and our allies overseas." "These sophisticated technologies are highly sought after by our adversaries," said Acting Special Agent in Charge Nevano. "They were developed to give the United States and its allies a distinct military advantage, which is why HSI will continue to aggressively target the individuals who might illegally procure and sell these items." "Today's sentencing is the result of exceptional investigative work by the Office of Export Enforcement and our law enforcement partners to disrupt an illicit network and prevent sensitive technology from falling into the wrong hands," said Special Agent in Charge Khan. According to court documents, from July 2013 through his arrest in June 2015, Chen caused or attempted to cause the illegal export of over 180 export-controlled items, valued at over $275,000, from the United States to China. Over 40 of those items purchased for more than $190,000 were sophisticated night vision and thermal imaging scopes, which are designated by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations as U.S. Munitions List defense articles and can be mounted on automatic and semi-automatic rifles and used for military purposes at night. Given the sensitivity surrounding these military-grade items, Chen devised a scheme to smuggle these items through Delaware and outside the United States. He purchased the devices via the internet and telephone and had them mailed to several reshipping services in New Castle, Delaware, which provide an American shipping address for customers located in China, accept packages for their customers and then re-ship them to China. In order to further conceal his illegal activity, Chen arranged for the re-shippers to send the devices to several intermediary individuals, who in turn forwarded the devices to Chen in China. Chen then sent the devices to his customers. During the course of this conduct, Chen made numerous false statements in order to knowingly and willfully evade the export control laws of the United States, including by undervaluing the shipments, unlawfully avoiding the filing of export information with the U.S. government, indicating that he was a natural-born U.S. citizen and providing the address of the reshipping service as his own. During the sentencing hearing, the government noted the lethality of these items when combined with weapons designed for use on a battlefield. For example, the ATN ThOR 640-5x, 640x480-Inch Thermal Weapon Scope, 100 mm, which Chen purchased for $8,428.39, is described by the manufacturer as "an ideal product for force protection, border patrol officers, police SWAT and special operations forces providing them the tools they need to be successful in all field operations both day and night. Uncooled thermal imaging cuts through dust, smoke, fog, haze, and other battlefield obscurants." These rifle scopes, therefore, are weapons of war, and Chen's smuggling and subsequent sale of these military-grade items outside of the United States directly undermines our nation's national security interests. As the government further noted, Chen's conduct was particularly harmful because he sold this military technology indiscriminately. Thus, it could have ended up in any number of nefarious hands including agents of foreign governments, bad actors and brokers. Once these rifle scopes were exported to China and distributed by Chen to his customers, the military technology contained inside these items could have been reversed engineered or used anywhere in the world for a variety of purposes by oppressive regimes, terrorists, or others to threaten the United States or its allies' military advantage or to commit human rights abuses. This case was investigated by HSI and U.S. Department of Commerce-Bureau of Industry and Security's Office of Export Enforcement. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jamie M. McCall and Elizabeth L. Van Pelt of the District of Delaware and the National Security Division's Counterintelligence and Export Control Section. 16-764 National Security Division (NSD) USAO - Delaware NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S. Department of Defense Press Operations News Transcript Presenter: Secretary of Defense Ash Carter June 30, 2016 Department of Defense Press Briefing by Secretary Carter on Transgender Service Policies in the Pentagon Briefing Room SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ASH CARTER: Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for being here. I am here today to announce some changes in the Defense Department's policies regarding transgender service members. And before I announce what changes we're making, I want to explain why. There are three main reasons, having to do with their future force, our current force and matters of principle. The first and fundamental reason is that the Defense Department and the military need to avail ourselves of all talent possible in order to remain what we are now, the finest fighting force the world has ever known. Our mission is to defend this country and we don't want barriers unrelated to a person's qualification to serve preventing us from recruiting or retaining the soldier, sailor, airman or Marine who can best accomplish the mission. We have to have access to 100 percent of America's population for our all-volunteer force to be able to recruit from among them the most highly qualified and to retain them. Now, while there isn't definitive data on the number of transgender service members, RAND looked at the existing studies out there, and their best estimate was that about 2,500 people out of approximately 1.3 million active-duty service members, and about 1,500 out of 825,000 reserve service members are transgender, with the upper end of their range of estimates of around 7,000 in the active component and 4,000 in the reserves. Although relatively few in number, we're talking about talented and trained Americans who are serving their country with honor and distinction. We invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to train and develop each individual, and we want to take the opportunity to retain people whose talent we've invested in and who have proven themselves. And this brings me to the second reason, which is that the reality is that we have transgender service members serving in uniform today. And I have a responsibility to them and to their commanders to provide them both with clearer and more consistent guidance than is provided by current policies. We owe commanders better guidance on how to handle questions such as deployment, medical treatment and other matters. And this is particularly true for small unit leaders, like our senior enlisted and junior officers. Also, right now, most of our transgender service members must go outside the military medical system in order to obtain medical care is judged by doctors to be necessary, and they have to pay for it out of their own pockets. This is inconsistent with our promise to all our troops that we will take care of them and pay for necessary medical treat. I, and the Defense Department's other senior leaders who have been studying this issue the past year, have met with some of these transgender service members. They've deployed all over the world, serving on aircraft, submarines, forward operating bases and right here in the Pentagon. And while I learned that in most cases, their peers and local commanders have recognized the value of retaining such high-quality people, I also learned the lack of clear guidelines for how to handle this issue puts the commanders and the service members in a difficult and unfair position. One service member I met with described how some people had urged him to leave the military, because of the challenges he was facing with our policies, and he said he just wouldn't quit. He was too committed to the mission, and this is where he wanted to be. These are the kind of people we want serving in our military. The third and final reason for the change, also important, is a matter of principle. Americans who want to serve and can meet our standards should be afforded the opportunity to compete to do so. After all, our all-volunteer force is built upon having the most qualified Americans, and the profession of arms is based on honor and trust. Army Chief-of-Staff General Milley recently reminded us of this when he said, and I quote him, "The United States Army is open to all Americans who meet the standard, regardless of who they are. Embedded within our Constitution is that very principle, that all Americans are free and equal. And we, as an Army, are sworn to protect and defend that very principle. And we are sworn to even die for that principle. So, if we in uniform are willing to die for that principle, then we in uniform should be willing to live by that principle." That's General Milley. In view of these three reasons to change our policy, last July I directed the commencement of a study to identify the practical issues related to transgender Americans serving openly, and to develop an implementation plan that addresses those issues consistent with military readiness, because our mission -- which is defending the country -- has to come first. I directed the working group to start with the presumption that transgender persons can serve openly without adverse effect -- impact, excuse me, on military effectiveness and readiness, unless and except where objective, practical impediments are identified. I think it's fair to say this has been an educational process for a lot of people here in the department, including me. We had to look carefully and deliberately at medical, legal and policy considerations that have been evolving very rapidly in recent years. And we had to take into account the unique nature of military readiness and make sure we got it right. I'm proud of the thoughtful and deliberate manner in which the department's leadership has pursued this review. I've been guided throughout by one central question. Is someone the best-qualified service member to accomplish our mission? Let me now describe the process we used to study this over the last year. The leadership of the armed services, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the service secretaries, myself, together with personnel, training, readiness and medical specialists from across the Department of Defense, studied all the data available to us. We also had the RAND Corporation analyze relevant data and studies to help us with our review. And we got input from transgender service members, from outside expert groups, and from medical professionals outside of the department. We looked carefully at what lessons could be learned from the outside, including from allied militaries that already allow transgender service members to serve openly. And from the private sector also, because even though we're not a business and are different than a company in important ways, their experience and their practices are still relevant. It's worth noting, for example, that at least 18 countries already allow transgender personnel to serve openly in their militaries. These include close allies such as the United Kingdom, Israel, and Australia. And we were able to study how they dealt with this issue. We also saw that among doctors, employers and insurance companies today, providing medical care for transgender individuals is becoming common and normalized in both public and private sectors alike. Today, over a third of Fortune 500 companies, including companies like Boeing, CVS, and Ford, offer employee health insurance plans with transgender-inclusive coverage. That's up from zero such companies in 2002. Similarly, nondiscrimination policies at two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies now cover gender identity, up from just three percent in 2002. And for the public sector, all civilian federal employees have access today to a health insurance plan that provides comprehensive coverage for transgender-related care and medical treatment. All this represents a sea-change from even just a decade ago. Based on its analysis of allied militaries and the expected rate at which American transgender service members would require medical treatment that would impact their fitness for duty or deployability, RAND's analysis concluded that there would be, quote, "minimal readiness impacts from allowing transgender service members to serve openly," end quote. And in terms of cost, RAND concluded that health care costs would represent, again in their words, "an exceedingly small proportion of DOD's overall health care expenditures." Now, as a result of this year-long study, I'm announcing today that we're ending the ban on transgender Americans in the United States military. Effective immediately, transgender Americans may serve openly and they can no longer be discharged or otherwise separated from the military just for being transgender. Additionally, I have directed that the gender identity of an otherwise qualified individual will not bar them from military service or from any accession program. In taking the steps, we are eliminating policies that can result in transgender members being treated differently from their peers based solely upon their gender identity, rather than upon their ability to serve and we are confirming that going forward we will apply the same general principles, standards and procedures to transgender service members as we do to all service members. What I heard from the transgender service members I met with overwhelmingly was that they don't want special treatment. They want to be held to the same standards and be treated like everybody else. As I directed, the study identified practical issues that arise with respect to transgender service, and it developed an implementation plan to address those issues. Let me briefly describe that implementation plan. I want to emphasize that in this case, as in the department's decisions on Don't Ask, Don't Tell and women in service, simply declaring a change in policy is not effective implementation. That is why we have worked hard on the implementation plan and must continue to do so. These policies will be implemented in stages over the next 12 months, starting most immediately with guidance for current service members and their commanders, followed by training for the entire force and then beginning to access new military service members who are transgender. Implementation will begin today. Starting today, otherwise qualified service members can no longer be involuntarily separated, discharged or denied reenlistment or continuation of service just for being transgender. Then, no later than 90 days from today, the department will complete and issue both a commander's guidebook for leading currently serving - for leaders of currently serving transgender members and medical guidance to doctors for providing transition-related care, if required, to currently serving transgender service members. Our military treatment facilities will begin providing transgender service members with all medically necessary care based on that medical guidance. Also starting on that date, service members will be able to initiate the process to officially change their gender in our personnel management systems. Next, over the nine months that follow, based on detailed guidance and training materials that will be prepared, the services will conduct training of the force and commanders to medical personnel, to the operating force and recruiters. When the training is complete, no later than one year from today, the military services will begin accessing transgender individuals who meet all standards, holding them to the same physical and mental fitness standards as everyone else who wants to join the military. Our initial accession policy will require an individual to have completed any medical treatment that their doctor has determined as necessary in connection with their gender transition and to have been stable in their identified gender for 18 months, as certified by their doctor before they can enter the military. I have directed that this succession standard be reviewed no later than twenty-four months from today to ensure it reflects what we learn over the next two years as this is implemented as well as the most up-to-date medical knowledge. I've discussed the implementation plan with our senior military leaders, including Chairman Dunford. The chief sent specific recommendations about the timeline, and I made adjustments to the implementation plan timeline to incorporate those recommendations. The chairman has indicated the services support the final implementation timeline that I've laid out today. Overall, the policies we are issuing today will allow us to assess -- excuse me, access talent of transgender service members to strengthen accomplishment of our mission, clarify guidance for commanders and military medical providers, and reflect better the department's and our nation's principles. I want to close by emphasizing that deliberate and thoughtful implementation will be key. I, and the senior leaders of the department will therefore be ensuring all issues identified in this study are addressed in implementation. I'm confident they can and will be addressed in implementation. That's why we are taking the step-by-step approach I've described. And I'm 100 percent confident in the ability of our military leaders and all men and women in uniform to implement these changes in a manner that both protects the readiness of the force and also upholds values cherished by the military -- honor, trust and judging every individual on their merits. I'm also confident that we have reason to be proud today of what this will mean for our military, because it is the right thing to do, and it's another step in ensuring that we continue to recruit and retain the most qualified people. And good people are the key to the best military in the world. Our military and the nation it defends will be stronger. Thank you. And now, I'll take some questions. And -- Phil, you want to start? Q: Sure. Mr. Secretary, could you talk a bit about -- I know you spoke about the costs for health care. Are there other costs associated with this implementation plan? And could you elaborate a bit on the timing issue, the adjustments in timing you spoke to? SEC. CARTER: Sure. With respect to cost -- by the way, I will mention that Peter Levine will be here later and will be prepared to answer questions in detail. But the reason that RAND concluded the costs would be minimal is that the medical treatment that service members who are currently transgender requires fairly straightforward, well-understood -- they were able to make those estimates. And that was, as they said, minimal. And with respect to accessing new members as I indicated, they will have already completed and been stable in their transition for a period of not less then 18 months before they can access service, so there will be no medical costs associated with that. And with respect to the timetable for implementation, the -- there's -- as I indicated in the stages, there's the -- the preparation of the medical guidance, that is up to the doctors who need to do that, so that doctors at military treatment facilities all have a standard protocol. I'm giving them 90 days to that. That is what they asked for. The commanders' guidance, the -- as I indicated, the chairman and the chiefs asked for 90 days in that regard -- to prepare that commanders guidance and the training guidance. And I agreed to that. I think that's reasonable. That's the amount of time it will take them to complete the job. Obviously, they've begun some of that. And then, the rest of the time is time to train the force, which is comparable to the time we took to train the force say, in Don't Ask, Don't Tell. We do have some experience in this kind of thing, and we're following that template to successful implementation -- change of this kind. Q: (inaudible) -- on Russia? SEC. CARTER: Sure. Q: On a separate subject -- there's a report today that spoke to a proposal to strengthen coordination -- military coordination with Russia in targeting al-Nusra in Syria. And I'm just wondering is there -- you've been a skeptic in the past about cooperating with Russia militarily in Syria, given that their motives are different than those of the United States. Has something changed? Would you support this proposal? SEC. CARTER: Well, we do have a professional relationship with the Russian military to make sure that there are no incidents and no safety issues as we both operate in neighboring areas of Syria. But I -- I've said before, the Russians got off on the wrong foot in Syria. They said they were coming in to fight ISIL. And that they would assist the political transition in Syria towards a post-Assad government that could run the country and put that terribly broken country back together and give the people the future they deserve. They haven't done either of those things. So I think while I'm still hopeful that they will do both of those things, and I think that's what Secretary Kerry's talks, which are very frequent with the Russians, are all about. But meanwhile, we have a channel which is focused on safety issues, and we maintain that. And that's a very professional working channel between us. Q: Can I follow up on that and ask you something else? It's a follow-on to Phil's question. You're well known to be skeptical of the Russians and some of the things that they have -- their military has done. So, really straight up, are you willing -- are you in favor now of an expanded effort for military cooperation with the Russians inside Syria? Because most people in this town think you are not. SEC. CARTER: If the Russians would do the right thing in Syria, and that's an important condition, as in all cases with Russia, we're willing to work with them. That's what we've been urging them to do since they came in. That's the objective that Secretary Kerry's talks are aimed at. And if we can get them to that point, that's a good thing. Q: But may I follow up on two small items? Are you willing to include an effort for the U.S. to begin airstrikes against al-Nusra? And may I also ask you about Raqqah? As the world has watched what's happened in Istanbul, how urgent now are you, beyond the usual discussion of accelerants, to see the Syrian Arab coalition and the other fighters get to Raqqah? Because -- SEC. CARTER: Oh, very, very eager to get them to Raqqah. This is the same group that we've been working successfully with, that is they have been successful, and we've been enabling and supporting them, in -- to envelop and take, which they will, from ISIL the city of Manbij, which like Raqqah, isn't as well known, but Manbij is a city from which external plotting has been conducted by ISIL into Europe and into the United States as well. And was part of the transit hub from the Turkish border down to ISIL in Syria. So that was an important objective. Those same forces, and that same approach, or really the same approach and some larger forces, actually, are the ones that we plan -- and I just was discussing this with General Votel and General MacFarland the other day, along with General Dunford. Those are the forces that we are going to position to, again, envelop and collapse ISIL's control of Raqqa. And the reason I want to do that, Barbara, as soon as possible is that Raqqa is the self-proclaimed capital of the self-proclaimed caliphate of ISIL. And it's important to destroy the ISIL in Iraq and Syria, because that's absolutely necessary. It's not sufficient to avoid all kinds of radicalization and so forth, but it's necessary in order to eliminate the idea that there can be a state based upon that ideology. That's why we are so intent in our military campaign against ISIL on Iraq and Syria. So we would like to get Raqqah as soon as -- as soon as we possibly can, like everything else. Chris? Q: Mr. Secretary, a couple of questions about what this change will mean for the transgender service members. First, can you verify that the health -- the military health care coverage will cover all aspects of transition-related care, including gender reassignment surgery? And second, will the Pentagon add gender identity or transgender status to the military equal opportunity policy in the event that a transgender service member feels like they're experiencing discrimination? SEC. CARTER: The answer to the first one is the medical standards don't change. The transgender individual, like all other servicemembers, will get all medical care their doctors deem necessary. They will have to do that with their -- subject to, if it's non-urgent medical care, subject to their commanders. Because, you know, if they need to be deployed, they need to be deployed. And it's normal that if you -- if you have, say, a procedure which is not urgent, that you have to defer that if you are being deployed. So we don't have any -- we're not going to have any different medical policy for transgender service members than others. Our doctors will treat them -- give them medically necessary treatment according to the protocols that are determined by the medical profession. Q: (inaudible) -- MEO policy? Will you add transgender status for the MEO? SEC. CARTER: You know, I don't know the specific answer to that. I certainly assume the answer is yes, and Peter is telling me yes, that certainly stands to reason that we would. That makes sense. Let's see. Cory. Cory is not here. How about Paul? Q: I wanted to follow-up on that question. So there's been some debate on whether the military would only cover hormone therapy versus covering full reassignment surgery. So will reassignment surgery be covered? SEC. CARTER: This is for currently serving members. Again, that's going to be a matter that the doctors will determine in accordance with what is medically necessary. That's a decision that they make with their physician. And the timing of it -- of any treatment, of any kind, like any other non-urgent medical care, will be something that their commanders will have a voice in for the very simple reason that we -- we as, in this matter as in all matters, readiness and deployability are critical. Tom? Q: Mr. Secretary, if I could follow-up very quickly. You said a current service member -- SEC. CARTER: Only because -- Q: So incoming service members who are transition would not be eligible for that transitional surgery? SEC. CARTER: It depends, Nick. If someone who is transgender and comes out will need to and be required to have undergone transition and be stable in that state for 18 months before they can enter the military. Q: But the U.S. military will not provide that surgery. Is that what you're saying? SEC. CARTER: They won't be in the U.S. military at that time because they won't have accessed until they have undergone transition. Tom -- Q: Just wondering, if I could -- how many transgender troops have been dismissed under the old policy? And also, I'm wondering why Chairman Dunford isn't here to discuss this policy since it affects the uniformed military -- SEC. CARTER: I'll take the second part first. This is my decision. However, I have, we have arrived at it together, the senior leadership of the department. They support this timetable, this implementation plan, as I indicated, I actually made some adjustments in it specifically to take into account some of the desire by some of the chiefs to have a little more time on the front end, particularly for the commanders in training guidance, and so I agreed to that because I thought that was reasonable. And I have a general principle around here which is very important which is that it's important that the people who have to implement decisions be part of the decision making, and the armed services are the ones that are going to have to implement that, so it's very important that they've been part of this study, but now, they're a critical part of implementation, because they and I all agree, as I said before, that simply declaring the military open to transgender individuals does not constitute effective implementation. We have work to do and we'll do it and we'll do it together. Q: Mr. Secretary, in light of the events this morning at Andrews Air Force Base, are you getting a little fed up about all these false alarms for an active shooter? And why the communications problems this morning? SEC. CARTER: Well, I wouldn't say fed up, because I think we have to take these things seriously when they occur, and I'm sure if a mistake was made here, if somebody inadvertently did, they weren't doing that on purpose, and it also shows a high degree of readiness and rapidity of responses. So it does appear, based on the information that I have at this moment, that this was mistaken, and that this was a drill that was going on that was mistaken for a real event, and a response was made, and that is something -- because it has happened before, that I think we need to pay attention to -- how to minimize the chances of false alarms like that. At the same time, I think it's important to have a reasonable level of awareness of the possibility of this kind of event and what to do, and I thought the response was strong and solid. So that's the good news. The bad news is, it appears to have been a mistake, and we'd like to reduce the number of mistakes made in this way, no question about it. David -- Q: Mr. Secretary, I'm still confused by your answer to Mik's question. Someone who is already in the military, if he is -- he or she is deemed medically -- if sex change surgery is deemed medically necessary, the military will pay for it? SEC. CARTER: That's correct. Q: What happens now -- and then you explained the 18 month stable before you commit, but what happens to a service man or woman who joins -- SEC. CARTER: They'll receive -- (CROSSTALK) Q: They join as a man or woman and then decide at some point after they've joined the service that they need -- SEC. CARTER: Any medical treatment in that instance, that is determined to be medically necessary by their doctors, will be provided like any other medical care. However, and I emphasize this, they're subject to the normal readiness requirements that are imposed upon any military serviceman. Q: So, this is not a one-time -- one-time offer? It -- this is going to -- SEC. CARTER: No, I think our -- our offer in this is an all medical -- because there is no change in medical policy. Medically-necessary policy to serving service -- medically-necessary care to -- as determined by doctors, which is appropriate, will be provided to service members in -- as is part of our promise about medical care in general. Can I -- one -- one more? Q: Reaction to the response from Capitol that's, of course, already come in. This is the way things work and this electronic age as -- Chairman Mac Thornberry of the House Armed Services Committee has already reacted to your announcement, even as you're still making it. And I -- if I could just read a tiny bit of his statement, and just get your response. He says, quote, "This is the latest example of the Pentagon and the president prioritizing politics over policy. Our military readiness, and hence, our national security, is dependent on our troops being medically ready and deployable. The administration seems unwilling or unable to assure the Congress and the American people that transgender individuals will meet these individual readiness requirements." Can you -- SEC. CARTER: Well, the chair -- the chairman is right -- that is Chairman Thornberry -- is right to emphasize readiness. That is a key part of our -- was a key part of our study, and will be a key part of implementation. And the chairman and other members of the committee and I -- committees and -- I've actually heard a variety of opinions on this, some urging us to move even faster than we have moved, and some wanting -- and this is very legitimate -- to understand what the effects on readiness and so forth are. But we have some principles here. We have a necessity here. And we're going to act upon that. We're going to do it in a deliberate, and thoughtful and step-by-step manner. But it's important that we do it. (CROSSTALK) Q: One question. Is that in Afghanistan -- (inaudible)? SEC. CARTER: Thank you very much. -END- http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/822347/ NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Marine-RAF team bring lightning to United Kingdom US Marine Corps News By Sgt. Eric Keenan | June 30, 2016 Marines with Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron One and a Royal Air Force pilot with Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 (VMFAT-501) successfully conducted the first ever trans-Atlantic flight of the F-35B Lightning II, July 29, 2016. Marine Lt. Col. Richard Rusnok and Maj. Jack Cronan, along with Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Hugh Nichols piloted three F-35B's from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina across the Atlantic Ocean, landing at Royal Air Force Base Fairford, Gloucester, England. "Our main focus is supporting the [United Kingdom's] introduction and service of the F-35B," said Rusnok, a pilot with VMX-1. The flight took more than eight hours and required the F-35B's to be refueled by two KC-10 Extenders, an aerial refueling tanker aircraft. "It's always a long day, it's always tiring but it's a great feeling of achievement when you get the [aircraft] to a different country," said Nichols. The F-35B Lightning II is a fifth-generation stealth multi-role fighter aircraft, capable of conducting ground attack and air defense missions, and short-takeoff and vertical landings. "The arrival of Lightning in the UK is an important step toward our delivery of operational capability with the UK's first ever stealth fighter aircraft," said Air Commodore Harvey Smyth, the Royal Air Force's F-35 force commander. This is the first time these aircraft have landed in the United Kingdom, but the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy has been embedded with VMFAT-501 for the past few years, training with the F-35B. "This is an important partnership between United States and the United Kingdom as we move forward," said Rusnok. "The Marine Corps is helping introduce this aircraft to the public and really to the international community." The Royal Navy and Royal Air Force will officially adopt the F-35B in 2018. "Our Lightning Force is developing very quickly and we are well prepared for the arrival of our first operational squadron at [Royal Air Force Base] Marham in 2018," said Smyth. Over the next few weeks, the U.S. Marine Corps, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy team are in the United Kingdom to demonstrate the capabilities of this fifth generation aircraft. They will be flying at the Royal International Air Tattoo and the Farnborough International Air Show. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Coalition leader talks airpower effects By Capt. Sybil Taunton, 380th Air Expeditionary Wing / Published July 01, 2016 SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) -- The head of U.S. Air Forces Central Command took time June 28 to discuss the impact airpower has had in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and throughout the region during a visit with the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing. "Airpower allows us to apply pressure, to execute the mission, and also helps to deter and defend the region from other potential adversaries or contingencies," said Lt. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. Well into the wing's 14th year at its undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, a change of command ceremony in which Brig. Gen. Daniel Orcutt passed the reigns to Brig. Gen. Charles Corcoran presented Brown with an opportunity to highlight the 380th AEW's contributions to the AFCENT mission. "I've got three priorities: deliver airpower, defend the region and develop relationships," Brown said. "Delivering airpower comes in many different forms, and the 380th touches every mission set, whether it's strike, whether it's air refueling, whether it's command and control, or (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance). We really can't do many of the things we do without all those capabilities, and the 380th has all of them and they do great work." With a diverse inventory of fighter, refueling and reconnaissance aircraft, the 380th AEW has flown over 72,000 hours, delivered 253 million pounds of fuel to the air coalition, imaged 142,000 targets, and employed over 4,000 weapons with a 98 percent hit rate since June 2015. The air coalition can deliver a precision strike with multiple weapons inside of 10 feet and roughly 99 percent of the weapons employed in Operation Inherent Resolve are precision guided, according to Brown. This capability enables the coalition to strike more lucrative targets such as logistics, command and control, weapons manufacturing areas, ISIL financial resources, and oil facilities with greater effect. "Precision-guided munitions allow us to do several things. One -- to hit the target we're aiming at, and two -- to minimize civilian casualties. That's something we spend a lot of time and energy on in planning and execution, and by being precise we don't have to employ as many weapons," Brown said. "That's hugely important to moving the campaign forward." Operating daily alongside coalition partners, the 380th AEW achieves U.S. Central Command mission priorities across the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. "The 380th provides AFCENT and CENTCOM with a potent complement of Airmen, joint and coalition partners, that are instrumental to the delivery of precise airpower effects that are not only affecting (ISIL's) capabilities, but are also having an impact in a number of operations across the region," Brown said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address First USAF F-35A takes overseas flight to England By Staff Sgt. Natasha Stannard, Air Combat Command Public Affairs / Published July 01, 2016 ROYAL AIR FORCE FAIRFORD, England (AFNS) -- The Air Combat Command F-35A Heritage Flight team accomplished America's first transatlantic flight in an F-35A Lightning II, with refueling support from a KC-10 Extender, when it touched down here June 30. This historic flight, which brought the team to England from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, was a first for not only the F-35A; it was also the KC-10's first time refueling the fighter jet transcontinentally. "Any time there is a first in the United States Air Force and you get to be a part of it, is a real honor," said Capt. Daniel DeRusha, a 9th Air Refueling Wing KC-10 aircraft commander. "Our crew is just like any other KC-10 crew; they are all more than capable of performing this mission." The fifth-generation fighter traveled to England in support of the Royal International Air Tattoo, the world's largest military air show, which takes place July 14-16 at Royal Air Force Fairford. The event features joint, coalition and civilian flight teams, aerial acts and static displays. While the KC-10 is not staying for RIAT, the F-35 will join a P-51 Mustang and F-22 Raptor in a heritage pass showcasing the past, present and future of airpower. The heritage team will also be on the ground before and after the pass to answer attendees' questions about the U.S. Air Force's newest fighter jet. "(When) we can be a part of something that promotes the capabilities of the Air Force as well as the capabilities of our integration with our foreign allies, is a wonderful opportunity," DeRusha said. "Everyone on the crew understood the importance of that, and we're very thankful that we got to be a part of it." For the lead F-35A pilot, this historic flight and opportunity at RIAT not only showed the jet's airpower but also the strength of the Air Force. "It really shows the teamwork that went into it; not only the logistics support, but the maintainers to the tanker units -- it really was a team effort," said Maj. Will Andreotta, the ACC F-35A Heritage Flight team commander. "Being able to go international with the F-35 is a huge honor. It's something that we can now bring out to people and say, 'This is what the Air Force in the United States is going to offer in the future and this is what your country is going to offer as well." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Coalition Strikes Continue Against ISIL in Iraq, Syria From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release SOUTHWEST ASIA, July 01, 2016 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Iraq and Syria yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today. Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports. Strikes in Syria Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted seven strikes in Syria: -- Near Mara, a strike destroyed an ISIL bulldozer. -- Near Manbij, six strikes struck five separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions. Strikes in Iraq Bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted nine strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government: -- Near Baghdadi, a strike destroyed an ISIL bunker. -- Near Beiji, a strike destroyed an ISIL cave entrance. -- Near Kisik, a strike destroyed four ISIL assembly areas. -- Near Mosul, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed two ISIL assembly areas. -- Near Ramadi, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed 23 ISIL vehicles, five ISIL fighting positions, three ISIL heavy machine guns and three ISIL rocket rails. -- Near Sinjar, a strike suppressed an ISIL tactical unit. -- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL assembly area. Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike. Part of Operation Inherent Resolve The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Baku, Azerbaijan, July 2 Trend: Armenian armed forces have 10 times violated the ceasefire with Azerbaijan on the line of contact over the past 24 hours, said Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry. Azerbaijani positions located in the villages of Gaymagli and Gushchu Ayrim, as well as on the nameless heights of Gazakh district came under fire from the positions located near the village of Barekamavan of Armenias Noyemberyan district, Berkaber village, as well as the nameless heights of Armenias Ijevan district. Azerbaijani positions also came under fire from the positions near the villages of Chilyaburt of the Terter district, Horadiz of the Fizuli district and nameless heights of the Goranboy district. 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. U.S. Department of Defense Press Operations News Release No. NR-250-16 July 01, 2016 Statement by Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook on confirmation of two ISIL senior military commanders Coalition forces conducted an airstrike against two ISIL senior military commanders on June 25 near Mosul, Iraq, resulting in their deaths. The precision strike killed Basim Muhammad Ahmad Sultan al-Bajari, ISIL's deputy minister of war, and Hatim Talib al-Hamduni, an ISIL military commander in Mosul. These deaths are the latest in coalition efforts to systemically eliminate ISIL's cabinet wherever they hide, disrupting their ability to plot external terror attacks and hold onto the territory they use to claim legitimacy. The international coalition fighting ISIL, working with local, capable, and motivated forces on the ground in Iraq and Syria, continues to make sustained progress in our campaign to deal ISIL a lasting defeat. In just recent days, the coalition has freed Fallujah from ISIL's grip; launched devastating strikes against ISIL forces fleeing that city; completed the encirclement of Manbij, a key node in the flow of foreign fighters between Syria and Turkey; and started to clear key terrain south of Mosul of ISIL forces. In addition to making operationally significant strides in our campaign to defeat ISIL, we continue to look for - and seize - every opportunity to hasten it. Al-Bajari was an experienced terrorist, a former member of al Qaeda who brought his military skills into ISIL's terrorist network. He oversaw ISIL's June 2014 offensive to capture Mosul, and has also led the ISIL Jaysh al-Dabiq battalion known for using vehicle-borne IEDs, suicide bombers and mustard gas in its attacks. He used his military experience to consolidate ISIL's control over Mosul, where they have engaged in dictatorial rule and sectarian murder and oppression since 2014. Hatim Talib al-Hamduni was an ISIL military commander in Mosul and the head of military police for self-proclaimed Ninawa state. Their deaths, along with strikes against other ISIL leaders in the past month, have critically degraded ISIL's leadership experience in Mosul and removed two of their most senior military members in Northern Iraq. Removing these terrorist leaders from the battlefield shapes the environment for Iraqi forces to ultimately liberate Mosul with support from the international coalition. Because of our strategy and our determination to accelerate our campaign, momentum is now on our side and not on ISIL's. http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/823506/ NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Senegal, U.S. build partnership through advanced training US Marine Corps News By 1st Lt. Eric Abrams | July 1, 2016 Senegal's Compagnie Fusilier de Marin Commando surpassed new training milestones during a three-week exercise with Marines from Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis ResponseAfrica in Thies, Senegal, June 6-24, 2016. Different from previous iterations, participants in this training exercise included only those in leadership billets from the COFUMACO. Marines taught advanced infantry tactics during this training cycle including combat firing techniques, a machine gun range and a live-fire platoon attack range. "It is extremely important for the COFUMACO to receive this training from the Marines," said Enseigne de Vaisseau 1st class Lucien Malack, the unit commander for the COFUMACO. "By training the leaders in these tactics, we are able to pass along additional knowledge and create new training opportunities." With the ever-changing security environment in Africa, training evolutions such as these foster vital strategic partnerships and serves to reinforce the close ties between the nations. "This engagement strengthens the relationship between the U.S. and Senegal," said 1st Lt. Justin Klein, a team leader with SPMAGTF-CR-AF. "It provides training and resources not normally available to many Senegalese units. Not only does the COFUMACO benefit from the training, but so do our Marines who gain valuable experience instructing and learning to interact with foreign military personnel." By developing a more seamless working environment through this training, these partner nations are better prepared to address future security concerns together. "The cooperation between our two countries has been an excellent thing," said Malack. "You never know what can happen in the future, with training like this we will be more confident working with Marines in the future and they know they can rely on the COFUMACO and other military units from Senegal because they have worked with them before." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address USS Ashland Transits South China Sea Navy News Service Story Number: NNS160701-07 Release Date: 7/1/2016 10:26:00 AM From Commander, Amphibious Force 7th Fleet Public Affairs SOUTH CHINA SEA (NNS) -- Amphibious dock landing ship USS Ashland (LSD 48) completed a multiday transit of the South China Sea as the ship continues to operate in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations, July 1. Routine transits like this, conducted in international waters, demonstrate the U.S. Navy's commitment to protecting the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all countries. "Our transit of the South China Sea highlights our unwavering commitment and capacity to sail in international waters, respecting and safeguarding the rights afforded all mariners," said Cmdr. Dan Duhan, commanding officer of Ashland. The transit followed Ashland's recent port visit to Singapore. Ashland has been deployed to participate in the Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training series in Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand. Ashland is forward-deployed to Sasebo, Japan and operates in the U.S. 7th Fleet to support a full range of theater contingencies, ranging from humanitarian and disaster relief operations, to full combat operations in the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet area of operations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address RIMPAC SoCal 2016 Kicks Off Navy News Service Story Number: NNS160701-05 Release Date: 7/1/2016 10:04:00 AM From Navy Public Affairs Support Element West SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- The multinational exercise Rim of the Pacific Southern California 2016 kicked off June 30, occurring in and around Southern California through Aug. 4. RIMPAC is the world's largest international maritime exercise and provides a unique training opportunity helping participants foster and sustain the cooperative relationships critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RIMPAC SOCAL 2016 participants, Royal Canadian navy's Kingston-class coastal defense vessels HMCS Saskatoon (MM 709) and HMCS Yellowknife (MM 706) and Mexican navy tank landing ship ARM Usumacinta (A-412), arrived at Naval Base San Diego June 28 and 29. RIMPAC SOCAL, helmed for the first time by Naval Surface Mine Warfare Development Center (SMWDC), allows U.S. and partner nation participants to train together with sea and shore based commands. Participants will receive relevant and realistic training in amphibious operations, explosive ordnance disposal, mine warfare countermeasures and dive operations. "This year's evolution is a significant increase from RIMPAC 2014," said Rear Adm. Jim Kilby, SMWDC commander. "This will be the first year that RIMPAC SOCAL will execute amphibious operations within Southern California and the first time that the Mexican navy will participate with an amphibious ship. The intent of RIMPAC SOCAL is to develop capable, adaptive partners and with the work of the Sailors involved, I am confident that they will exceed expectations." Additional training, led by the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, will focus on amphibious assaults, non-combatant evacuation operations, combined-arms training and Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) operations. Partner nations' ships will be joined by U.S. dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbor (LSD 52), littoral combat ship USS Freedom (LCS 1), and mine countermeasures ship USS Champion (MCM 4) to train in a realistic, multinational, operating environment. "The most important thing that the Royal Canadian Navy will gain from having both the Saskatoon and Yellowknife here in San Diego will be the integration with one of our biggest partners, the United States Navy," said Lt. Cmdr. Todd Bacon, commanding officer of HMCS Saskatoon. "It's most important that we continue the practice of complete integration between the U.S., Royal Canadian navy, Mexican navy and our other international partners. Because of these partnerships, we can integrate different teams aboard different vessels and are able to facilitate additional capabilities." Streamlined partnerships are a recognized and valuable product of RIMPAC SoCal. "I'm looking forward to the interoperability with the other partner nations," said Lt. Cmdr. Donald Thompson-Greiff, commanding officer of HMCS Yellowknife. "I look to achieve, with the RIMPAC mission set, to develop proficiency in my command in mine warfare with partner nation ships and ensure that we have a mutual understanding and practice of mine warfare tactics and doctrine." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Navy Awards Contracts for Fleet Replenishment Oiler and Amphibious Assault Ship Navy News Service Story Number: NNS160701-24 Release Date: 7/1/2016 11:11:00 AM From NAVSEA Office of Corporate Communication WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The Navy awarded two contracts key to future amphibious operations and replenishment missions, June 30. The combined total projected contract value of these contracts is approximately $6.3 billion. General Dynamics, National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) was awarded a fixed price incentive firm target (FPIF) block buy contract for the Detail Design and Construction (DD&C) of six T-AO 205 Class Fleet Replenishment Oilers. The award amount is $640,206,756 for the fiscal year 2016 lead ship and, if appropriated, includes line items for five follow-on ships between FY 2018 and FY 2022 and options for associated support efforts. Huntington Ingalls Inc., Ingalls Shipbuilding Division (Ingalls) was awarded a FPIF contract for $272,467,161 for LHA 8 Planning, Advanced Engineering and Procurement of Long Lead Time Material with options for DD&C and the associated support efforts. Additionally, both contracts include options for contract design (CD) support for the Amphibious Warfare Ship Replacement, referred to as LX(R). Options for LX(R) CD support, special studies, engineering and post-delivery industrial services, provisioned items orders, other direct costs and special incentives which, if funding is made available for all ships and all options are exercised, will bring the cumulative value of the contract awards to $3,156,828,444 and $3,133,852,637 to NASSCO and Ingalls, respectively. "This strategy reinforces the Navy's commitment to a culture of affordability that emphasizes competition while maintaining our critical shipbuilding industrial base," said Jay Stefany, executive director for Amphibious, Auxiliary and Sealift Programs in Program Executive Office Ships. "The approach provides best value to the taxpayers, supports our industry partners and provides the foundation for future warfighting capabilities." The acquisition strategy for the limited competition of LHA 8 DD&C, T-AO 205 Class (Ships 1-6) DD&C and LX(R) CD was developed in order to maintain a stable Amphibious and Auxiliary Shipbuilding industrial mobilization base while also ensuring competition for current and future classes of these ships. The Navy used a profit related to offers approach as a means to incentivize competition, whereby the offeror that proposed the lowest total evaluated price for the combination of both proposals received the maximum target profit stipulated in the solicitation and an option for LX(R) CD support, while the offeror that proposed the higher total evaluated price for the combination of both proposals received a target profit relative to the other offer (calculated according to the solicitation) and an option for LX(R) CD support. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Submarine USS Topeka Returns from National Tasking Navy News Service Story Number: NNS160701-26 Release Date: 7/1/2016 11:21:00 AM From Commander, Submarine Squadron 15 Public Affairs SANTA RITA, Guam (NNS) -- Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Topeka (SSN 754) returned to its homeport of Polaris Point, Guam, on July 1 following a two-month forward operating period to the Western Pacific. This is the submarine's first homecoming following national tasking since its homeport shift in May 2015. Topeka, under the command of Cmdr. David Lammers, is returning from the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility where the crew executed the Chief of Naval Operations' Maritime Strategy in supporting national security interests and maritime security operations. "I am incredibly proud of my crew," said Lammers. "In the months leading up to our forward operating period, they trained hard and worked to ensure we were more than prepared for our national tasking. This is our first return to Guam following prolonged operations, and the crew is ready to relax and spend well-earned time with family and friends." Topeka conducted routine patrols throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific region and operated in conjunction with other Navy ships to conduct maritime security operations that promote stability and peace while developing key partnerships with allies across the region. Topeka celebrated the various achievements of its crew members in their professional development. "Topeka has such a remarkable crew, and they did an amazing job," said Master Chief Electronics Technician Matthew Schecter. "We had five Sailors become submarine qualified, 12 crew members frocked and four officers promoted." Topeka was commissioned Oct. 21, 1989, and is the third ship of the U.S. Navy named for the city of Topeka, Kansas. It is the fourth "improved" Los Angeles-class submarine. Measuring more than 360 feet long and displacing more than 6,900 tons, Topeka has a crew of approximately 140 Sailors. Topeka is capable of supporting various missions, including anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface ship warfare, strike warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Topeka is one of four Los Angeles-class attack submarines assigned to Commander, Submarine Squadron (COMSUBRON) 15, located at Polaris Point, Naval Base Guam in Santa Rita, Guam. The COMSUBRON 15 staff is responsible for providing training, material and personnel readiness support to these commands. The U.S. Navy's two submarine tenders, USS Frank Cable (AS 40) and USS Emory S. Land (AS 39), are also based out of Naval Base Guam. The submarines and tenders are maintained as part of the U.S. Navy's forward-deployed submarine force and are readily capable of meeting global operational requirements. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address USS America Arrives in Hawaii for RIMPAC 2016 Navy News Service Story Number: NNS160701-10 Release Date: 7/1/2016 10:38:00 AM By USS America (LHA 6) Public Affairs PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (NNS) -- Sailors and Marines manned the rails of the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) as it pulled pierside in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in preparation for the Rim of the Pacific 2016 Exercise, June 30. This is America's first time participating in the world's largest international maritime exercise, but according to Capt. Michael W. Baze, America's commanding officer, the ship's crew understands the importance of strengthening ties with our partners throughout the globe. "America's maiden voyage around South America during the summer of 2014 was an incredible opportunity to reinforce relationships with our brothers and sisters throughout the continent," said Baze. "Now, during RIMPAC, we have the same opportunity, but with even more partner nations. I know the Sailors and Marines serving aboard America look forward to meeting new friends from foreign navies and military services." During America's time in Hawaii, the ship will host distinguished visitors, participate in community relations projects, explore the Hawaiian culture, and make final preparations for the underway portion of the exercise. "It's exciting to be a part of RIMPAC this year and to visit Hawaii," said Culinary Specialist Seaman Chelsea Milton, assigned to America. "I can't wait to see the island culture, the hiking trails, meet new people, and check out the Hawaiian food scene." Throughout the exercise, America will host members of the Royal New Zealand Navy, Marines from Marine Expeditionary Battalion Hawaii (MEB-HI), and serve as the command and control platform for Amphibious Task Force CTF 176. "America is a very capable and adaptable platform, and serves as the perfect amphibious task force flagship for this comprehensive exercise," said Baze. "As a Marine Corps aviation-centric platform, USS America provides unmatched versatility for our fellow Marines who will be aboard throughout the next month." America's Command Master Chief (SW/AW) Kenneth W. Robertson sees RIMPAC as a once in a lifetime experience for all the Sailors and Marines involved. "I lived in Hawaii for several years and I am happy to come back to the islands to experience RIMPAC on America," said Robertson. "The ship's crew and embarked staffs will learn and grow together. This is a pivotal moment in the ship's history and a memorable one for all participating." Twenty-six nations, 49 ships, six submarines, about 200 aircraft, and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 29 to Aug. 4 in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships between participants critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RIMPAC 2016 is the 25th exercise in the series that began in 1971. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China's Defense Ministry responds on the possibility to tow away the Philippine warship from the Ren'ai Reef People's Daily Online By Huang Jin (People's Daily Online) 13:12, July 01, 2016 Wu Qian, the Defense Ministry spokesman says that the PLA has the determination and ability to safeguard sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the country during a press conference held in Thursday afternoon in Beijing. During the conference, Wu was asked by a reporter that the People's Daily, official newspaper of the CPC, published a commentary Monday which said that China has the ability to tow away the old warship of the Philippines from the Ren'ai Reef. Will the PLA take the actions after the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) issues the award on July 12 on the South China Sea case? Wu said that China has indisputable sovereignty of China's Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters, which the Ren'ai Reef is included. The PLA has the determination and ability to safeguard sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Israel must cease settlement expansion in Palestine: Quartet report Iran Press TV Fri Jul 1, 2016 5:58PM A much-awaited report by the foursome of nations and entities involved in mediating the so-called peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has called on the Tel Aviv regime to put an end to its settlement expansion activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Quartet on the Middle East the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia said in the report on Friday that the Israeli settlements as well as the Tel Aviv regime's demolition of Palestinian homes and expropriation of land were "steadily eroding the viability of the two-state solution." "Israel should cease the policy of settlement construction and expansion, designating land for exclusive Israeli use, and denying Palestinian development," the report added. "This raises legitimate questions about Israel's long-term intentions, which are compounded by the statements of some Israeli ministers that there should never be a Palestinian state," it pointed out. The report also urged Israel to lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has been in place since 2007 and has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty. The apartheid regime of Israel denies about 1.8 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, proper job, and adequate healthcare and education. Netanyahu rejects quartet report as 'myth' Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the Middle East Quartet report, saying that it "perpetuates the myth that Israeli construction in the West Bank is an obstacle to peace." The Quartet report had been written following a meeting of its foreign affairs representatives in Munich, Germany, earlier this year. Its publications had been delayed for several times due to Israeli officials' stiff opposition. The senior Quarter diplomats sought to explore the reasons behind a stalemate in the negotiations between Israel and Palestinians, and the revival of the so-called peace talks between the two sides. The United Nations and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands. The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East. Palestinians want the West Bank as part of their future independent state, with East al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital. More than half a million Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds. Last month, France hosted a gathering of representatives from more than 20 countries as well as UN and EU diplomats in Paris as part of its plan to revive the so-called peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. Neither Palestinians nor Israel attended the conference. The last round of the talks between Israelis and Palestinians collapsed in 2014. Tel Aviv's illegal settlement activities and its refusal to release senior Palestinian prisoners were among major reasons behind the failure of the talks. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China not to compromise on national sovereignty: President Xi Iran Press TV Fri Jul 1, 2016 8:22AM Chinese President Xi Jinping says Beijing will never compromise on its sovereignty ahead of an international court hearing over the territorial dispute with its neighbors. "No foreign country... should expect us to swallow the bitter pill of harm to our national sovereignty, security or development interests," Xi told ranks of top officials during the ruling Communist Party's 95th anniversary on Friday. He noted that the Communist Party should maintain full power all over China, strengthen military and play a greater role in the world. "We will not show up at other people's front doors to flex our muscles. That does not show strength or scare anyone," Xi also said in an apparent reference to US military build-up in the disputed region. The remarks came as a little-known international tribunal based in The Hague has said it would hand down a ruling over the South China Sea on July 12. The case, which was brought by the Philippines, challenges China's maritime claims in the South China Sea. China said the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) does not have jurisdiction over the issue and boycotted the proceedings. Experts say the ruling by the PCA, international tribunal for the peaceful resolution of disputes between nations, risks further inflaming tensions between the Philippines and China. China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement on Wednesday that the Philippines' "unilateral lodging of the South China Sea arbitration case is contrary to international law." He also said that Beijing would not accept any forced dispute resolution. In early 2013, Manila lodged the suit against Beijing contesting China's sweeping claims to most of the South China Sea. However, China has refused to participate in any hearings and says it will not comply with any decisions by the tribunal. Beijing has long-standing disputes over maritime territory in the South China Sea with other regional states such as Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan, which also claim territory in the region. Washington has sided with China's rivals in the territorial dispute, with Beijing accusing the US of meddling in the regional issues and deliberately stirring up tensions in the South China Sea. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed during a telephone conversation further steps to be taken in order to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday, Sputnik reports. "Sides discussed the issues relating to the further steps to be taken by the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution following the outcome of the meeting between the Presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia in St. Petersburg on June 20," the ministry said. The sides also discussed settlement of the Syrian conflict, including the cooperation between the two countries in the fight against terrorism. 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. Canada to send 1,000 soldiers to Latvia for NATO brigade Iran Press TV Fri Jul 1, 2016 6:40AM Canada will send 1,000 troops to Latvia to join one of NATO's battalions that are being assembled in Eastern Europe in a show of force against Russia. The Canadian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that the country will "establish and lead" a high-readiness brigade that will "contribute to NATO's enhanced forward presence in Eastern and Central Europe." The statement also said that further details regarding the deployment will be provided at the upcoming NATO summit in Poland. The Canadian soldiers will be part of a 4,000-strong NATO force that will be deployed to the Baltic States and Poland in order to deter what is claimed to be Russian threats. The US, Germany and Britain will also send soldiers to join NATO's four battalions in Eastern Europe. "As a responsible partner in the world, Canada stands side by side with its NATO allies working to deter aggression and assure peace and stability in Europe," said Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan. Canada's decision reportedly came after US President Barack Obama urged Canada to contribute more to NATO in a speech in the Canadian Parliament on Wednesday. NATO plans to expand its military presence in Eastern Europe amid the conflict in Ukraine and has held numerous war games recently. Some 2,000 NATO forces began a large-scale military exercise in western Ukraine earlier this week and will last on July 8. Last month, NATO held another 10-day military drill, involving some 31,000 troops from Poland, the US and 17 other nations in Poland. Russia, wary of the increased presence of NATO troops close to its borders, threatened to take unspecified measures to respond to the increased activities by the Western military bloc. NATO has stepped up its military build-up near Russia's borders since it suspended all ties with Moscow in April 2014 after the Black Sea Crimean Peninsula re-integrated into the Russian Federation following a referendum. Moscow has repeatedly repudiated NATO's expansion near its borders, saying such a move poses a threat to both regional and international peace. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Obama Releases Numbers on Civilian Casualties Caused by US Drones Sputnik News 20:52 01.07.2016(updated 00:05 02.07.2016) After being pressured for years to release data related to drone-related casualties, US President Barack Obama issued a report on Friday which claims only 116 civilians have been mistakenly killed by since he took office. The figures are markedly lower than those presented by human rights groups. The report claims that since 2009, there have been between 64 and 116 civilians killed in Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and North Africa. "Today's casualty data release and issuance of the executive order is a concrete step in the right direction, but more information is still needed for the public to meaningfully evaluate the lawfulness and effectiveness of the targeted killing program," Human Rights First's Rita Siemion said in a statement. The report comes as part of an executive order that urges the US to act to "reduce the likelihood of civilian casualties" and also directs that the US acknowledge its responsibility for civilian deaths and offer condolences and compensation. The White House has vowed to release civilian casualties data since March, when Lisa Monaco, Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser, pledged to release an "assessment of combatant and non-combatant casualties." Critics have pointed out that any figures released are likely to be lower than have been reported by investigators on the ground. As The Intercept reported, "the military posthumously labels its unknown drone victims as 'Enemies Killed in Action,' unless there is evidence that proves the victim was not a 'combatant.'" Research conducted by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that over "3,000 people, including nearly 500 civilians, have been killed by drones" under the Obama administration. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Putin: NATO Jets Fly Over Baltics Without Turning on Identification Devices Sputnik News 19:17 01.07.2016(updated 19:18 01.07.2016) Russian President Vladimir Putin said that NATO jets fly over the Baltic region without turning on their identification devices more often that Russian military aircraft. TURKU (Sputnik) Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he accepted his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto's proposal to develop aviation security measures in the Baltic region. Putin said he would instruct the foreign and defense ministries to raise at the next Russia-NATO Council. "We agree with the proposal of the President of Finland. Moreover, on return to Moscow, I will instruct the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense to put this issue on the agenda during the forthcoming Russia-NATO Council meeting in Brussels," Putin said at a press conference in the southwestern Finnish city of Turku. He said the Russia-NATO Council will be held after the Western military alliance's summit in the Polish capital of Warsaw, scheduled for July 8-9. "I would remind that not only Russian planes fly over the Baltics without turning on their respective identification devices, but also all NATO countries' aircraft. The number of NATO flights over the Baltics in this mode is twice the efficiency of Russian aircraft flights. This is not our invention, this is statistics," Putin said. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Diplomatic Quartet releases report on advancing two-state solution to Israel-Palestine conflict 1 July 2016 The United Nations and its diplomatic partners in the Middle East peace process today released the first report of its kind, which analysed the impediments to a lasting resolution to the PalestinianIsraeli conflict and offered recommendations on the way forward, urging Israel to stop its settlement policy and Palestine to end incitement to violence. The so-called Middle East Quartet comprising the UN, Russia, the United States and the European Union has been working on the report since February. In it, they call on each side to "independently demonstrate, through policies and actions, a genuine commitment to the two-state solution" and to "refrain from unilateral steps that prejudice the outcome of the final negotiations." In summary, the Quartet reiterated that a negotiated two-state outcome is the only way to achieve an enduring peace that meets Israeli security needs and Palestinian aspirations for statehood and sovereignty, ends the occupation that began in 1967, and resolves all permanent status issues. The report provides recommendations to what it has identified as the major threats to achieving a negotiated peace: continued violence, terrorist attacks against civilians and incitement to violence; settlement construction and expansion; and the Palestinian Authority's lack of control in Gaza. In a statement, the Quartet Principals invite the Israeli and Palestinian Governments to engage with it on implementing its recommendations and creating conditions to resume "meaningful negotiations that resolve all final status issues." Following the release of the report, the UN Secretary-General encouraged the parties to engage with the Quartet to implement the findings "to rebuild hope among Palestinians and Israelis in a political solution and to create the conditions to return to meaningful negotiations." He underscored that there is a strong need for affirmative steps to reverse negative trends on the ground which risk entrenching a one-State reality of "perpetual occupation and conflict" which is incompatible with the national aspirations of both peoples. Diplomatic Quartet's recommendations - Both sides should work to de-escalate tensions by exercising restraint and refraining from provocative actions and rhetoric. - The Palestinian Authority should act decisively and take all steps within its capacity to cease incitement to violence and strengthen ongoing efforts to combat terrorism, including by clearly condemning all acts of terrorism. - Israel should cease the policy of settlement construction and expansion, designating land for exclusive Israeli use, and denying Palestinian development. - Israel should implement positive and significant policy shifts, including transferring powers and responsibilities in Area C, consistent with the transition to greater Palestinian civil authority contemplated by prior agreements. Progress in the areas of housing, water, energy, communications, agriculture, and natural resources, along with significantly easing Palestinian movement restrictions, can be made while respecting Israel's legitimate security needs. - The Palestinian leadership should continue their efforts to strengthen institutions, improve governance, and develop a sustainable economy. Israel should take all necessary steps to enable this process, in line with the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee recommendations. - All sides must continue to respect the ceasefire in Gaza, and the illicit arms buildup and militant activities must be terminated. In addition to these recommendations, the Quartet encouraged the international community to accelerate its efforts to address the "dire" humanitarian, reconstruction and recovery needs of the people in Gaza, including expediting the disbursement of assistance pledges. The Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, briefed the UN Security Council on the report yesterday. He said it is now time for both the Israelis and the Palestinians to rise to the challenge. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Releases Report on Civilians Killed in Drone, Air Strikes by Mary Alice Salinas, Aru Pande July 01, 2016 The White House has released a long-anticipated report on civilians killed in drone strikes outside active conflict zones, saying between 64 to 116 civilians have been killed between 2009 and 2015. White House Spokesman Josh Earnest said the administration's counterterrorism strategy has more credibility when it is transparent as possible, and the president is announcing a new executive order aimed at providing additional information on efforts to avoid civilian casualties and to catalog and disclose those that do occur. "We are now in a position where we are describing the process for making decisions about these kinds of operations and being rather transparent with not just the American public, but with the world about the outcomes of those operations, even when the outcome is not entirely consistent with our intentions," he said. The report covers drone strike deaths that occur in places outside what the administration calls "areas of active hostilities." That includes strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Libya and Somalia, but not ones in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria. The official total is lower than the estimates of outside groups, which have ranged from around 200 to more than 1,000. The report says that the government's lower tally is because it relies on sensitive intelligence and uses methodologies that are unavailable to outside groups, which generally rely on a mix of media reports and some field research. It says the differing methodologies mean that some deaths which are counted as non-combatants by outside groups are considered combatant deaths by the U.S. government. It also says that reporting by outside groups may be complicated by the deliberate spread of misinformation by some actors, which may be inadvertently included in local media reports. The rights group Human Rights Watch criticized the report, saying the United States has failed to explain who it targets and why, making it impossible to corroborate its casualty figures. "Unless details are provided on specific incidents, it's not possible to determine if individuals killed were civilians, and thus whether the U.S. is complying with its own policy and with international law," said Laura Pitter, senior U.S. national security counsel at Human Rights Watch. Full disclosure? The first U.S. drone strike was carried out in October 2001, narrowly missing former Taliban leader Mullah Omar in Kandahar at the beginning of the U.S.-led offensive in Afghanistan. Since then, the weapon has been widely deployed in conflict zones around the world, as well as in other places targeting top terrorist leaders. In Pakistan alone, the U.S. has carried out 392 airstrikes since 2008, according to The Long War Journal. In Yemen, U.S. strikes targeting al-Qaida commanders total 145 since 2002. The figures are based on press reports. Human rights groups have long called for hard numbers when it comes to counterterrorism strikes that until recently the administration refused to even confirm. "Saying 'just trust us, we have high standards, we are doing the best we can' really isn't enough and that they need to be disclosing more," said Rita Siemion of Human Rights First. While the weapon is widely used in combat zones, its use in areas where the U.S. military is not actively involved in fighting has been more controversial. In March this year, the administration announced it would release a report to try to improve transparency on those strikes. "For a decent portion of this administration and the previous one, we wouldn't even acknowledge publicly that these things were taking place," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at the time. "The fact that we're now in a position on a regular, routinized basis to publish the results and to quantify that totals about the impact of these operations I do think represents substantial progress in the direction of transparency." Contradictory counterterror policy? Drones give the military a way to strike at terrorist leaders in places that U.S. forces are unable to access. That has led even some people in areas where they are carried out, such as Mogadish resident Fatuma Ilmi Mus, to support their use. "There are people who are being targeted, these people [al-Shabab] they are also fighting us and they are in the bush and we are not shielding them. These drones must be manned by a professional so that it does not hit our animals, our people and homes but to hit the intended target and where the enemies are," she told VOA. But even when drones do hit their intended target, it can still cause a backlash. In Pakistan, where a strike killed Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor in Pakistan earlier this year, the government expressed outrage because the strike occurred outside of Pakistan's lawless border area with Afghanistan. "The U.S. provides so much funding to Pakistan though USAID and development funds. But then it does something [like the strike against Mansoor] that scuttles all that effort," Islamabad resident Hina Ahmed said. Still others say the administration's use of strikes has undermined intelligence gathering efforts that are key to defeating terror groups. Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Senior Counselor John Hannah served as senior adviser in the Clinton administration and the George W. Bush administration. "The Obama administration has almost completely foregone an effort to capture and detain and get intelligence from these terrorists," he said. "Instead it has universally decided it's going to be the judge, jury and executioner and take the lives of these terrorists, as well as the lives, unfortunately, of a lot of innocent people." Still, Hannah says drone strikes are an effective tactic in countries like Yemen and Pakistan, where the government is either unwilling or unable to go after terrorists while minimizing civilian casualties compared to conventional military conflict. The key, Hannah says, is creating the necessary institutions and safeguards to create accountability, while balancing national security, transparency, and rule of law. "Ensure that we are not crossing that line into becoming a lawless nation," he said. "It's very difficult and challenging, and I think it's a challenge that will continue into the future." VOA's Ayesha Tanzeem in Islamabad and Mohammad Yusuf in Mogadishu contributed to this report. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address FACT SHEET: Executive Order on the US Policy on Pre & Post-Strike Measures to Address Civilian Casualties in the US Operations Involving the Use of Force & the DNI Release of Aggregate Data on Strike Outside Area of Active Hostilities The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release July 01, 2016 Since President Obama took office, he has been clear that, when necessary, the United States will use force abroad to protect the American people consistent with our values and all applicable law, including the law of armed conflict. He has also emphasized the need to be as transparent as possible with the American people about the basis for our counterterrorism operations and the manner in which they are conducted in order to enhance the public's confidence in these activities, set standards for other nations to follow, and counter terrorist propaganda and false accusations about U.S. operations. Additionally, the President has underscored that we will continue to develop a sustainable legal and policy architecture to guide our counterterrorism activities going forward. To these ends, in 2013 the President approved and publicly described policy guidance formalizing and strengthening the rigorous standards and procedures governing our use of lethal force against terrorist targets outside areas of active hostilities. Today, the Administration is taking additional steps to institutionalize and enhance best practices regarding U.S. counterterrorism operations and other U.S. operations involving the use of force, as well as to provide greater transparency and accountability regarding these operations. These steps include promulgating an Executive Order on United States Policy on Pre- and Post-Strike Measures to Address Civilian Casualties in U.S. Operations Involving the Use of Force, as well as releasing aggregate data regarding both the number of strikes undertaken during this Administration by the U.S. Government against terrorist targets located outside areas of active hostilities and the range of assessed combatant and non-combatant deaths resulting from those strikes. The Executive Order provides additional information on best practices and procedures that are already in place for current operations and that will be applied in future operations, regardless of the location. Collectively, these measures demonstrate the professionalism and high standards employed by U.S. Government personnel who help keep Americans safe from terrorist threats overseas, while also underscoring our commitment to constantly refine and strengthen our counterterrorism framework and enhance accountability for our actions. Executive Order to Address Civilian Casualties As President Obama has said, "All armed conflict invites tragedy. But by narrowly targeting our action against those who want to kill us and not the people they hide among, we are choosing the course of action least likely to result in the loss of innocent life." In that spirit, this Executive Order applies to all of our operations, regardless of where they are conducted, and underscores that our legal and policy commitments regarding the protection of civilians are fundamentally consistent with the effective, efficient, and decisive use of force in pursuit of our Nation's interests. First, this Executive Order catalogues the best practices the U.S. Government currently implements to protect civilians in the context of operations involving the use of force inside and outside areas of active hostilities, and it directs relevant departments and agencies to sustain such measures in present and future operations. These measures include conducting training on implementation of best practices that help reduce the likelihood of civilian casualties and dedicating operational resources to mitigate that risk. It also includes, as appropriate, maintaining channels for engagement with the International Committee of the Red Cross and non-governmental organizations that can assist in efforts to distinguish between military objectives and civilians; acknowledging U.S. Government responsibility for civilian casualties and offering condolences, including ex gratia payments, to civilians who are injured, or to the families of civilians who are killed; and, when civilian casualties have occurred, taking steps to minimize the likelihood of future such incidents. Second, to help address challenges associated with assessing the credibility of reports of civilian casualties in non-permissive environments, the Executive Order emphasizes the U.S. Government's consideration of credible reporting provided by non-governmental organizations in its post-strike reviews, including drawing on existing information-sharing arrangements to ensure the availability of such reporting to those conducting post-strike analyses. Third, it directs the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), or such other officials as the President may designate, to release publicly an annual summary of information obtained from relevant departments and agencies about the number of strikes undertaken by the U.S. Government against terrorist targets outside areas of active hostilities and the assessed range of combatant and non-combatant deaths resulting from those strikes, based on relevant and credible post-strike reporting and consistent with the need to protect sources and methods. The annual report will also include information regarding the general sources of information and methodology used to conduct these assessments and address general reasons for discrepancies between post-strike assessments by the U.S. Government and credible reporting from non-governmental organizations. Finally, the Executive Order establishes a mechanism for experts from relevant U.S. Government departments and agencies to convene to consult on civilian casualty trends and consider potential improvements to the U.S. Government's civilian casualty mitigation efforts. Background on Processes and Procedures Taken by the U.S. Government to Mitigate Civilian Casualties In May 2013, President Obama issued Presidential Policy Guidance (PPG) that, among other things, set forth policy standards for U.S. direct action outside the United States and outside areas of active hostilities. These policy standards generally include that the United States will use lethal force only against a target that poses a "continuing, imminent threat to U.S. persons," and that direct action will be taken only if there is "near certainty" that the terrorist target is present and "near certainty" that non-combatants will not be killed or injured. As the President has said, the "near certainty" standard is the "highest standard we can set." Thus, unlike terrorist organizations, which deliberately target civilians and violate the law of armed conflict, the United States takes great care to adhere to the law of armed conflict and, in many circumstances, applies policy standards that offer protections for civilians that exceed the requirements of the law of armed conflict. Moreover, even when the United States is not operating under the PPG for example, when the United States is taking action in "areas of active hostilities," such as it is today in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, or when the United States is acting quickly to defend U.S. or partner forces from attack the United States goes to extraordinary lengths to minimize the risk of civilian casualties. In particular, in dealing with enemy forces that do not wear uniforms or carry their arms openly, the United States goes to great lengths to apply the fundamental law of armed conflict principle of distinction, which, among other things, requires that attacks be directed only against military objectives and not against civilians and civilian objects. The United States considers all available information about a potential target's current and historical activities to inform an assessment of whether the individual is a lawful target. For example, an individual may be targetable if the individual is formally or functionally a member of an armed group against which we are engaged in an armed conflict. As Administration officials have stated publicly, to determine if an individual is a member of an armed group, we may look to, among other things: the extent to which the individual performs functions for the benefit of the group that are analogous to those traditionally performed by members of a country's armed forces; whether that person is carrying out or giving orders to others within the group; or whether that person has undertaken certain acts that reliably connote meaningful integration into the group. Before a strike against a terrorist target is considered in any theater, U.S. Government personnel review all available information to determine whether any of the individuals at the location of the potential strike is a non-combatant. A body of standards, methods, techniques, and computer modeling, supported by weapons testing data and combat observations, informs the analysis as to whether those not specifically targeted would likely be injured or killed in a strike. Releasing Aggregate Data on Strikes Undertaken by the U.S. Government Against Terrorist Targets Outside Areas of Active Hostilities Demonstrating the legitimacy of our counterterrorism efforts requires not only complying with the law of armed conflict and setting policy standards that offer protection that exceeds the law's requirements, but also providing information to the American people about our counterterrorism efforts. As President Obama has said, when we cannot explain our efforts clearly and publicly, we face terrorist propaganda and international suspicion, we erode the legitimacy of our actions in the eyes of our partners and our people, and we undermine accountability in our own government. That is why the President believes it is important to provide the public with as much information as possible regarding the basis for and results of U.S. counterterrorism operations. In keeping with this commitment, today the DNI is releasing a summary of information obtained from relevant departments and agencies about both the number of strikes undertaken by the U.S. Government against terrorist targets outside areas of active hostilities between January 20, 2009, and December 31, 2015, and the best assessed range of combatant and non-combatant deaths resulting from those strikes. Going forward, figures for the preceding year will be released annually on May 1, consistent with the need to protect sources and methods. We recognize that U.S. counterterrorism strikes have killed non-combatants, a reality that exists in all conflicts. As the statement today from the DNI notes, in releasing these figures, the U.S. Government also acknowledges that there are differences between U.S. Government assessments and reporting from non-governmental organizations on non-combatant deaths resulting from U.S. operations. Although the U.S. Government has access to a wide range of information, the figures we are releasing today should be considered in light of the inherent limitations on the ability to determine the precise number of combatant and non-combatant deaths outside areas of active hostilities, including the non-permissive environments in which these strikes often occur. But as the information we are releasing also shows, the rigorous standards and procedures we apply to such strikes have resulted in extraordinarily precise targeting. The U.S. Government remains committed to continually refining, clarifying, and strengthening the standards and procedures that govern our use of force abroad to keep the Nation safe from terrorist threats. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Thai Junta Vows Continued 'Zero Tolerance' After Trafficking List Upgrade by Steve Herman July 01, 2016 Thailand's military government is expressing appreciation for its upgrade on a closely watched index of human trafficking. Meanwhile, officials in Myanmar are lamenting the country being blacklisted in the U.S. State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report. Thailand, moved up from the lowest Tier 3 to the Tier 2 Watchlist, meaning while the country "does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking," it made significant improvements last year, according to the report. "Thailand will by no means be complacent," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. "We remain focused and committed to tackling human trafficking in all forms." Prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, head of the military junta governing the kingdom, told reporters a "zero tolerance" policy will continue and "I will do my job." "Thailand has made some great progress that we should all applaud over the past year," the U.S. ambassador to the kingdom, Glyn Davies, said. A number of organizations, however, are criticizing the U.S. decision to upgrade Thailand. "We are very disappointed at this decision, which does not, in our view, accurately assess the situation on the ground," said Judy Gearhart, executive director of the International Labor Rights Forum. "Migrant workers are still one of the most vulnerable groups in the country to human trafficking, and Thailand has not shown any indication that it intends to allow migrant workers greater access to fundamental rights that would protect them from exploitation." Thailand should have stayed on the blacklist while Malaysia (which remains on the Tier 2 Watchlist) should have been downgraded to the bottom rung, according to Fortify Rights, which said the two countries, along with Myanmar, "failed to sufficiently combat human trafficking and protect survivors last year." Thailand effectively switched places with neighbor Myanmar, the source of an estimated several million laborers in the kingdom, many of them undocumented. About one-fifth of Thai exports are derived from agricultural and fishery exports industries rife with abuse of laborers. Exploitation of migrants has been endemic for decades in the region, with traffickers coordinating with corrupt and complicit officials in government, immigration control, militaries and police forces. The 2016 TIP report characterizes Myanmar (also known as Burma) as "a source country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and for women and children subjected to sex trafficking, both in Burma and abroad." Diplomats have also expressed disappointment with a lack of government attention to the plight of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority mostly residing in Rakhine state, who Myanmar does not recognize as a distinct ethnic group. Since Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy came to power this year succeeding military rulers the government has not shown any flexibility on the Rohingya issue, emphasizing it regards them as Bengalis who illegally migrated from Bangladesh. Although the TIP report covers the period before the change of government, some observers view the downgrade in part as punishment for a continuing hardline on the Rohingya, who annually flee Myanmar in the thousands on rickety boats supplied by traffickers. Myanmar officials on Friday were contrite about being relegated to the TIP blacklist along with Haiti, Sudan and Uzbekistan pledging to continue to battle the traffickers. "We will not change our course of action on this," Foreign Ministry Permanent Secretary Aung Lin told VOA. "We'll continue our effort to take necessary action and to work with all the parties concerned, including the United States." A ministry news release about the TIP report made reference to the Rohingya, but did not mention them by name, stating that it had "saved, sheltered and repatriated voluntarily" those "irregular migrants cast adrift in the Indian Ocean" most of whom "were proven not to have originated from Myanmar." Several non-governmental organizations contend political considerations remain an influence on the State Department list, something diplomats have previously acknowledged in private. The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives panel on human rights supports the stance that the White House continues to insert such considerations into the global grading system. "That violates the spirit and letter of the statute," said Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican. "Tier rankings must be earned, not meted out as gifts to economic and security partners." The congressman, in particular, singled out China's Tier 2 Watch List rating, calling the country "the black hole of human trafficking." The TIP report ranks countries' on efforts to combat human trafficking according to standards set forth in the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protect Act. Tier 1 governments meet the minimum standards; Tier 2 nations are making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards while those on the Tier 2 "Watch List" deserve special scrutiny. Tier 3 countries are deemed to have failed to comply with the minimum U.S. standards and are not making significant efforts to do so. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Twenty Foreign Hostages Killed In Bangladesh Siege July 02, 2016 by RFE/RL A Bangladesh military official says 20 hostages, all foreigners, have been killed during a siege in the capital, Dhaka, where security forces stormed a restaurant and killed six gunmen holding the hostages. "We've recovered 20 bodies. Most them had been brutally hacked to death with sharp weapons," Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury told reporters on July 2 in Dhaka, without giving the nationality of the victims. Italy's foreign minister said nine Italians were among those killed in the July 1 attack. The U.S. State Department said a U.S. citizen was also among those killed in the attack. A student from India was also among the victims, India's foreign minister said on social media. Thirteen survivors were also rescued at the end of the siege in an upmarket neighborhood of Dhaka, including three foreigners. "Three of those who were rescued were foreigners, including one Japanese and two Sri Lankans," said the spokesman. As many as 100 police commandos backed by seven armored vehicles stormed the restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter. Police said that during the raid early on July 2 they also shot and killed six of the gunmen, who had shouted "God is great!" in Arabic as they began the assault. The dramatic raid and rescue followed a 10-hour standoff between police and the heavily armed gunmen, during which police unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate the release of the hostages. At the end of the raid, two big explosions could be heard coming from inside the restaurant. The Islamic State extremist group has claimed responsibility for the attack and said it killed 24 people, posting photos of what it said were victims on the web. The Bangladeshi authorities had earlier dismissed such claims. Police and witnesses said the gunmen attacked the Holey Artisan restaurant in Gulshan, a diplomatic district of Dhaka, around 9 p.m. local time on July 1. The assailants, believed to be carrying assault rifles and grenades, exchanged sporadic gun fire with police outside for several hours after the attack. Italy's ambassador to Bangladesh, Mario Palma, told Italian state TV that seven Italians were among the hostages. "It is a suicide attack. They want to carry out a powerful and bloody operation and there is no room for negotiation," Palma said. The hostage crisis marks an escalation from a recent spate of murders claimed by IS and Al-Qaeda targeting liberals, gays, foreigners, and religious minorities in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has seen a spike in militant violence in the last 18 months. Attacks have tended to be against individuals, often using machetes. The raid on the restaurant was a rare instance of a more coordinated operation. Earlier on July 1, a Hindu priest was hacked to death at a temple in Jhinaidah district, 188 miles southwest of Dhaka. Both IS and Al-Qaeda have claimed responsibility for many of the killings, although local authorities say there are no operational links between Bangladeshi militants and international extremist networks. Bangladesh security officials say two local militant groups, Ansar-al-Islam and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, are behind the violence. Ansar pledges allegiance to Al-Qaeda, while Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen claims it represents IS. Speaking on July 2, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said her country would stand up and fight the "terror threat" that has mushroomed in its backyard. She said the country stood "committed and determined" to uphold its freedom and announced two days of national mourning in the wake of the deadly attack. With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpa Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/bangladesh-terrorism-islamic-state/27833984.html Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China announces successful satellite in-orbit refuelling People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 09:59, July 01, 2016 China has successfully completed the in-space refuelling of orbital satellites following last week's launch of a new-generation carrier rocket, the National University of Defense Technology announced on Thursday. Similar to air refueling for planes, the process involves the refueling of a satellite in orbit in a microgravity environment and will extend a satellite's functional life and considerably boost its maneuverability. Developed by the university, Tianyuan-1 is the country's first in-space refueling system for orbital satellites. It was sent in orbit aboard the Long March-7 carrier rocket on Saturday. A series of core independent processes was tested and verified after the launch, with data and videos recording the full process sent back to earth, the university said in a statement. "The injection process was stable, and measurements and controls were precise," the statement said. It added that the test proved that Tianyuan-1 met design requirements. Though an area of great interest, the process is complicated and only a few countries have began similar experiments. China launched its Long March-7 carrier rocket successfully on Saturday from Wenchang, South China's Hainan Province. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia to Respond to US Missile Defense in Poland - Putin Sputnik News 19:33 01.07.2016(updated 19:35 01.07.2016) Russia will be forced to respond adequately to the deployment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) missile defense system in Poland and the Western alliance's estward military buildup, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday. TURKU (Sputnik) Russia has repeatedly expressed its concern about the creation of a US-designed ballistic missile defense system in Europe, approved at the 2010 NATO summit in Lisbon. Poland and Romania joined Spain and Turkey in agreeing to deploy elements of the system on their territories. "Now they are saying about the deployment of the same system of radars and interceptors in Poland, that is the Baltic Sea region. What are we to do? How are we to stop these threats? We will have to act accordingly," Putin said alongside his Finnish counterpart. Putin addressed a series of confirmations by NATO allies, Canada being the latest this week, to each contribute 4,000 troops in Eastern Europe. "The movement of our troops on our territory is declared as an element of aggressive behavior, while NATO military exercises near our borders for some reason are not declared as such. We believe that this is absolutely not fair and does not correspond to reality," he stressed. The United States' Aegis Ashore system is expected to become operational in Poland in 2018. It is planned to form part of the European missile shield and be armed with land-based Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptors. In recent years, the United States has taken significant steps to deploy ballistic missile defense systems throughout Europe under the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA). The Aegis Ashore facility in Poland marks the third phase of the EPAA. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Baku, Azerbaijan, July 2 Trend: Iraqs President Muhammad Fuad Masum sent a letter to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev July 1. President Muhammad Fuad Masum asked President Ilham Aliyev to provide support for inclusion of a number of monuments of the Mesopotamian civilization, located in the territory of Iraq, into the UNESCO World Heritage list. The letter reads that the Iraqi government requested the inclusion of its seven territories into the UNESCO World Heritage list. Inclusion of the Ur, Eridu, Uruk monuments in the list is considered appropriate in view of their cultural and archaeological significance. Meanwhile, inclusion of the eastern and western parts of the Huwaiza Marsh, the Central Marshes and Hammar Marshes into the UNESCO World Heritage list is considered appropriate due to their significant nature and cultural peculiarity. These areas, along with being a home to hundreds of animals and plants, have been listed in the Ramsar Convention as the present-day remains of the ancient Sumer civilization. A voting on inclusion of these monuments in the UNESCO World Heritage list will take place July 10-20 in the Turkish city of Istanbul at the 40th session of the World Heritage Committee. The appeal said that Azerbaijan plays an important role in protection of the world cultural heritage and therefore was elected to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. The appeal also reads that the Iraqi government considers Azerbaijans support as a great moral aid and assistance to achieve permanent stability and development in the fight against terrorism and extremism. South China Sea arbitration nothing more than a political farce: People's Daily People's Daily Online (People's Daily Online) 11:38, July 01, 2016 Given the lack of legal validity of the arbitral tribunal of the South China Sea case, China does not accept any propositions or actions based on the arbitration, instead, stands ready to safeguard its own territorial sovereignty and maritime interests in the South China Sea through firm and strong actions, read a People's Daily commentary on Thursday. The following is the full translation of the article: The South China Sea arbitral tribunal, which was established under the unilateral request of the Philippines, announced on Wednesday that it will deliver the so-called "final verdict" on July 12. Such propaganda for an arbitral tribunal with no legal validity not only exposes its treacherous intention of willingly being a political tool for certain nations, but shows the embarrassment and panic of this temporary set-up when trampling on the international rule of law. Since the beginning, the tribunal has been sabotaging international order under the banner of international law. The nature of the Philippines' appeal is territorial and maritime delimitation issues. China and the Philippines have already chosen negotiation and consultation as the only approach to settling these disputes. Territorial issues do not fall within the scope of the United Nations Convention of the Law of Sea (UNCLOS). Additionally, as early as 2006, China has excluded compulsory settlement procedures from maritime delimitation disputes in accordance with Article 298 of the UNCLOS. However, the tribunal blatantly disregarded these and violated the protocol stipulated in the UNCLOS for initiating compulsory settlement procedures. Its flagrant expansion, overstepping and illegal execution of jurisdiction is just trying to turn the illegitimate ruling into an "established fact." One would naturally look guilty when doing the wrong thing. In order to cover up its unlawfulness, the tribunal expects some nations to hype up its authority. But this type of action will only make the tribunal's faults more conspicuous. No one can twist right and wrong. The fairness and justice of the international rule of law won't tolerate the defamation of even a small group of people. At present, the voice calling for objectivity and fairness on the international stage is getting louder. More countries and international organizations have expressed their dissatisfaction over the tribunal's distorting of facts and manipulating the law through various channels. Even though the tribunal places high hopes on certain Western countries, many objective and neutral international law experts there have criticized and challenged the case. As a staunch practitioner of the international rule of law and supporter of international and regional rules, China will not change its firm stance of non-participation in and non-acceptance of the verdict, which has been expressed by the Chinese government for several times since the Philippines unilaterally filed for the case on January 22, 2013. A series of documents, including "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" released on December 7, 2014, "Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China on the Award on Jurisdiction and Admissibility of the South China Sea Arbitration by the Arbitral Tribunal Established at the Request of the Republic of the Philippines" published on October 30, 2015 and "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" issued on June 8, 2016, all emphasized China's position of adhering to settling relevant disputes through bilateral negotiation, non-participation and non-acceptance of the arbitration and not acknowledging the verdict. The Chinese government also responded to the information released by the arbitral tribunal. A Foreign Ministry spokesperson reiterated China's solemn stance on the verdict of the tribunal. China's determination to safeguard territory sovereignty and maritime interests is steadfast. Any attempt to encroach on China's sovereignty and maritime rights through unlawful arbitration will be in vain. China stands ready to protect its territory sovereignty and maritime interests in the South China Sea through firm and strong action. This is not only an inevitable choice based on China's will and ability, but a responsibility of China to safeguard regional peace, stability and the current international order. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Chinese Communist Party lauded for strength, achievements on 95th birthday People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 13:23, July 01, 2016 BEIJING, July 1 -- International observers are marvelling at the sustained vigor and vitality of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the glorious achievements it has made in China's development as the party celebrates its 95th birthday Thursday. Since the party was founded in 1921, it has been keeping up with the times, steering China in the right direction and has thoroughly changed the Chinese society. It is enjoyable to see that the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government have made such tremendous achievements in various aspects, Italian Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso told Xinhua in a recent interview. "I was quite impressed by what I saw when I visited China as senate speaker last October. Things there were completely different from 15 years before, when I had visited the country as a tourist," Grasso said. After its birth, the Communist Party of China first led China to drive away the imperialists and gain independence in 1949. Then it devoted itself wholeheartedly to developing the economy and has made China a major economic power today, Susumu Yabuki, honorary professor of China studies at Japan's Yokohama City University, said. Experts attribute the party's sustained success to the fact that it has always paid special attention to updating its theories and guidelines by drawing on past practical experiences. The party has successfully developed a socialist theoretical system with Chinese characteristics, which has helped guide the country's reform and opening-up and economic development, enhance the people's confidence, and strengthen the power of the party, said Nguyen Vinh Quang, a former minister of Vietnamese Embassy to China. The party can always surpass its past successes because it can use new notions, new thoughts and new strategies as powerful ideological weapons, unite and lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups, and vigorously advance its undertakings in various fields, said Vichian Piakhong, vice president of the Thai Young Chinese Chamber of Commerce. Recently, the party has adopted the "new normal" economic theory and reset China's development pace and model, shifting focus from a high growth rate to more balanced and down-to-earth development goals. This will help China make steady advances on the path to realizing the Chinese Dream, said Ronnie Lins, director of China Studies Center in Brazil. Experts say the Chinese Communist Party has the following special advantages as a ruling party. First, it is down-to-earth and always ready to correct its mistakes. "Only a party which takes its mistakes seriously can keep developing," Nguyen Vinh Quang said. The party has made mistakes before, but it realized the mistakes and corrected them in time, said Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club, a commercial group that has played a tremendous role in trade between China and Britain. Second, the party draws upon all useful opinions and keeps up with the times. Perry spoke highly of the party's mechanism of democratic centralism, noting this system has yielded great achievements especially since 1978. The Chinese Communist Party has been keen to listen to Chinese people's voices, so that party policies can reflect people's minds, thus earning support from the public, Lins said. The party is brave enough to embrace new things and evolve with time, Bambang Suryono, chief editor of Inhua Daily in Indonesia, said. Third, the Chinese Communist Party has always been able to carry out its policies with great efficiency. Lins said many countries are impressed with this. The Chinese Communist Party's successful ruling of China has not only helped change the destiny of their country, but also pushed the common development of mankind, observers have also noted. They laud China's leading role in pushing forward global trade, economic and investment cooperation, especially that among developing countries, which has brought real benefits to all countries. China is now widely participating in global value chains and is carrying out trade and investment cooperation with many countries. It has helped many countries overcome financial shortages and provided a huge market for its trade partners, said Hans Hendrischke, a professor at the University of Sydney. In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has put forward the concept of "the community of common destiny for all mankind" and the Belt and Road Initiative, with a view to seeking common development and benefiting the whole world. If the Belt and Road Initiative is carried out successfully, relevant countries will gain a lot from the interconnection of infrastructure, bringing prosperity to the region. The miracle of China's economic growth has become a model in human development. With its rich experiences in economic development, China can help other developing countries shake off poverty, Hendrischke said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Xi Urges Chinese Communist Party to Embrace Marxist Roots by Joyce Huang July 01, 2016 Chinese President Xi Jinping marked the Communist Party's 95th anniversary with a speech that emphasized how Marxism remains core to the party's identity, and analysts saw the remarks as further signs of the leader's intolerance for political liberalization. "There's nothing in the speech that indicates that Xi Jinping has at all decided that he needs to compromise with those elements in the mainland, who are seeking the liberalization of the political system," said Barry Sautman, a professor with the social science division at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. For example, in his address, Xi said, "no one is above the Constitution in China." But that doesn't mean that China will push forward reform to endure an independent judiciary as court judges have long been composed of party members, the professor said. Liberal forces from within Thus, the liberal forces, mostly from within the party and the academic circles, may pose a threat to the party and Xi's rule although Xi and other major leaders may see liberals as unfriendly forces, which they need not to compromise with, Sautman added. "The biggest threat is what might, in earlier times, have been called the bourgeoisification," Sautman said, "That is, the idea that, among the leaders of the party, there would be people who have decided, out of their own interests, that they want to fundamentally change the political system, which would in effect overthrow the Communist Party regime." While stressing the importance of reform and openness, Xi also called upon the nation to fulfill the country's two centenary goals. That is, to build China into a "moderately prosperous society" in all respects by 2021, which will lay a solid foundation for reaching the second centenary goal of building China into a modern socialist country that is richer, stronger and more democratic. By its own statistics, China should have no problem reaching the first centenary goal doubling its 2010 GDP in 2020 shortly before Xi steps down in 2022, said Zhang Lifan, a Beijing-based independent historian and political observer. If achieved, it will also counter-balance any efforts on the part of liberal forces to topple the CCP regime, professor Sautman said. But Zhang argued that, if failing the goal, it may become a convenient excuse for Xi' to extend his terms the biggest fear among those within the party who do not recognize Xi as a capable leader. "He [Xi] may try to look powerful, but his power isn't unwavering given his gang of cadres is inexperienced, lacks clout and has offended many people," Zhang said. Xi's unstable power All in all, the well-known historian said that Xi's speech exposes his and the party's own sense of crisis in terms of ruling legitimacy. "I think, such a high-profile speech has mainly manifested the Chinese Communist Party's lack of confidence in its own future. Hence, he [Xi] has to behave a condescending posture so that everyone would unite around him as the core," said Zhang Lifan, adding that the leader faces a groundswell of discontent, which has cast doubt over his status the core of the party. Despite undercurrents, netizens in China expressed mostly nationalistic views toward the party's celebration although critical thinkers are not in short. A Weibo user, named Mr. OneTwo, complained that "patriotism is once again bundled [mixed] with loyalty toward the CCP." Another user further argued that, with 88 million members, "the CCP has become the world's most expensive party as it has cost a fortune from national coffers to maintain." Unlike the CCP and their counterparts in Pyongyang and Vietnam, most ruling parties in the world raise funds to maintain their own survival, he added. The outspoken user thus urged the CCP to follow suit and not to squander national budget, which he said should be best used to advance the nation's social welfare causes. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China Seeks Western Help to Nab Fleeing Corruption Suspects by Shannon Van Sant July 01, 2016 China is stepping up requests for cooperation in hunting down corruption suspects that have fled overseas. But while the Chinese government has sought to extradite suspects, but many Western countries, including the United States, have been reluctant to sign extradition treaties with China because of alleged human rights abuses. "Quite a large proportion of these corrupt officials had actually left China, and went to the West and many other countries," said Willy Lam, adjunct professor of Chinese politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "So about two years ago the Chinese leaders began to set up a special task force with a view to ensuring these corrupt officials would be extradited back to China." In a statement on its website this week, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said China "must strengthen our coordination and cooperation with the countries where corrupt elements flee, clearly express our ideas, narrow differences, seek support, and reject the provision of havens for corrupt elements." President Xi Jinping has conducted a wide-ranging corruption crackdown, arresting hundreds of suspects and causing many others to flee overseas. Chinese authorities have called the overseas search for suspects "Operation Fox Hunt." So far, the United States has not been willing to aid China in its search for these suspects. Human rights activists and the U.S. government criticize a procedure called "shanggui," where Chinese corruption suspects are held in extra-legal detention. William Nee, a China Researcher with Amnesty International, said shanggui is not done by the official police, but by the Central Commission on Discipline and Inspection, which is the main discipline unit of the Communist Party. "People can be in shanggui for long periods of time without access to family members, without access to lawyers, and there have been stories of people in shanggui being subjected to abuse and torture," he said. Despite concerns and criticism of the corruption crackdown from lawyers and rights activists, China's government has continued to campaign for extradition cooperation. Earlier this month, Huang Shuxian, deputy head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, wrote on extradition in the Communist Party journal Qiushi, calling for a "new international order to fight corruption." "Grasp well the important elements of 'people, money and proof," he wrote, "Speed up the signing of extradition treaties and establish law enforcement cooperation with destination countries for those who have fled abroad." Huang also said state media should better publicize China's anti-corruption story, and that Chinese authorities should develop a more in-depth understanding of other countries' legal systems and how they could support China's corruption crackdown. As long as China's Communist Party oversees its judicial system, authorities' requests for international cooperation will likely do little to allay the concerns of analysts like Maya Wang, China Researcher with Human Rights Watch. "Our concern with China is that it's legal system is under the control of the party, and Human Rights Watch has documented the use of torture, in the criminal procedures in China's detention facility. So there is no guarantee that once a suspect has been extradited back to China, the person will receive a fair trial," she said. China says with some suspects, extradition is not necessary, because they return to China voluntarily. Authorities recently said Zeng Ziheng, a man on China's list of 100 most wanted corruption suspects abroad, returned to China from Canada on his own. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Celebrations, Protests Mark Hong Kong Handover Anniversary by VOA News July 01, 2016 Tens of thousands of protesters filled the streets of Hong Kong Friday, as the city marked the 19th anniversary of its handover from Britain to China. While government officials and nearly 1,000 Hong Kong residents attended a flag-raising ceremony at the Golden Bauhinia Square Friday morning, much larger crowds gathered for a protest march. Many residents oppose the oversight by the Chinese government and believe Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, whose approval rating is at 19 percent according to the most recent public opinion survey, is beholden to Beijing. Huge crowds of those residents protested on the anniversary, giving the march a twin theme: Prevent Leung from getting a second term of office, and demonstrate anger over the erosion of Hong Kong's autonomy. The latter has been highlighted by the case of five local booksellers who were taken into custody by mainland authorities and held inside China for months. One of these booksellers, Lam Wing-kee, who recently managed to return to Hong Kong, described his seven months in virtual solitary confinement and interrogation as "mental torture." He was scheduled to lead the march, but later withdrew, saying he feared for his safety. Meanwhile, at the government-backed flag-raising ceremony, Chef Executive Leung said, "We will continue to implement the policy of one country, two systems, Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong and a high degree of autonomy in accordance with the Basic Law," adding that the government would continue to boost the economy and improve the livelihood of its residents. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Kim Jong Un Meets Special Envoy of First Secretary of CPC Central Committee Korean Central News Agency of DPRK via Korea News Service (KNS) Pyongyang, July 1 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, on Thursday met Salvador Antonio Valdes Mesa, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (CPC) and vice-president of the Council of State of Cuba, and his party on a visit to the DPRK as a special envoy of Raul Castro Ruz, first secretary of the C.C., CPC. Kim Jong Un had a talk with them. Welcoming them to the DPRK, he said their visit marks an important occasion in developing the relations between the two parties and two countries. He noted he was sincerely pleased that the Seventh Congress of the CPC was successfully held and Comrade Raul Castro Ruz was reelected first secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC. He said that as Comrade Salvador Antonio Valdes Mesa informed the WPK in detail of the CPC Seventh Congress, the WPK came to know better about the issues to which the CPC attaches importance and the will of the Cuban party, government and people to invariably hold high the banner of the cause of socialism against imperialism. Noting that the CPC Seventh Congress is of important significance in enhancing the leadership role of the party and advancing the socialist cause, he sent a militant salute and warm hug to the Cuban party and people in their struggle for building socialism in conformity with the actual conditions of Cuba. The DPRK and Cuba are far away from each other geographically, but they are fighting in the same trench of the common struggle against imperialism, and the WPK, government and people of the DPRK are always standing by the side of the Cuban party, government and people, he said, expressing the belief that the traditional relations of friendship and cooperation between the two parties and two countries would grow stronger in the future. Salvador Antonio Valdes Mesa conveyed the warm greetings of Fidel Castro Ruz and Raul Castro Ruz to Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader of the Korean people. Salvador Antonio Valdes Mesa expressed thanks to Kim Jong Un for having paid deep attention to the itinerary of their sojourn in the DPRK and spared his precious time to receive them though he was very busy leading the drive for building a socialist power. He said that he deemed it as a great honor to personally convey the warm congratulations of Raul Castro Ruz to Kim Jong Un, the most creditable successor to the revolutionary cause of Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the great leaders of the Korean people, on his election as chairman of the WPK at its Seventh Congress. Noting that the friendly relations between the two countries provided by Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il together with Fidel Castro Ruz and Raul Castro Ruz have grown strong under the special care of Kim Jong Un and Raul Castro Ruz, he stressed that it is the steadfast policy of the party and government of Cuba to steadily develop the relations of friendship and cooperation with the DPRK. The Seventh Congress of the CPC once again reiterated the will of Cuba never to give up socialism but develop socialism in a sustainable manner and steadily boost the relations of solidarity with all countries including the DRPK which has traditionally and historically supported the Cuban revolution, he added. At the talk the two sides informed each other of the important issues of mutual concern of the WPK and the CPC and the successes and experience gained in party activities and socialist construction in the two countries, had a sincere exchange of opinions on the international situation and shared views on all issues. A gift from Raul Castro Ruz was presented to Kim Jong Un by Salvador Antonio Valdes Mesa. Kim Jong Un thanked for it and had a photo session with the special envoy and his party. -0- (2016.07.01) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China Sea Dispute Drives Interest in India's Anti-ship Missile by Anjana Pasricha July 01, 2016 India's plans to sell advanced missile systems to countries like Vietnam got a boost this week after New Delhi joined an exclusive global club of countries controlling the export of missile technology. Security analysts say membership in the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) will also give India more leverage to overcome Chinese resistance in New Delhi's bid to join another another elite group controlling nuclear commerce; the Nuclear Suppliers Group. One of the main weapons system India is set to export is the supersonic cruise BrahMos missile being produced by an Indo-Russian joint venture. The missile has a range of about 290 km and can be fired from land, sea and submarine. Calling the BrahMos a formidable weapon, strategic affairs analyst Bharat Karnad at New Delhi's Center for Policy Research says "those plans are going to be implemented soon. That is the first order of business." Besides Vietnam, other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia have also expressed interest in the BrahMos missile as they seek to improve their defense preparedness amid growing disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea. Long reluctant to advance military cooperation with Southeast Asian countries for fear of angering China, New Delhi has shed those hesitations as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi embraces a closer strategic partnership with the United States. Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar discussed the BrahMos missile exports on a visit to Hanoi last month. Karnad says "this is an anti-shipping missile that any navy, including the Chinese navy would have to be very wary about." Other markets Besides Southeast Asian countries, New Delhi is also eyeing selling the BrahMos missile to countries like South Africa, Brazil and Chile. A huge arms importer, New Delhi hopes missile exports will add to its tiny basket of defense exports. The BrahMos is one of the few success stories in India's defense production. The country's first locally built combat aircraft, the Tejas, was inducted Friday more than three decades after it was cleared for production. It is being described as the smallest lightweight, single-engine, tactical fighter aircraft in the world. New Delhi, which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was excluded from nuclear commerce until it won a waiver under a 2008 deal with the United States. Indian analysts say the MTCR membership has now put the stamp of legitimacy on New Delhi as a responsible nuclear power. "You are mainstream. The ice is broken. Now you are sitting with important non-proliferation actors of the world," says Rajiv Nayan at New Delhi's Institute of Defense Analyses and Studies, pointing out that India is now part of a global rule-making body for missile technology. Backed by the U.S., India has also set its sights becoming a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. But those hopes suffered a setback at a meeting in Seoul last month when Beijing raised strong objections to opening up the group to a country that has not signed the NPT. Analysts say, however, New Delhi has gained significant leverage with China, which is not a member of the Missile Control Technology Regime, but wants to join it. "At least India and China may talk. India may say I can support you for the MTCR provided you support me in the NSG," says Rajiv Nayan. "The tables have turned a bit," feels Karnad. "We now have a counter leverage against China and it's not a one-way street where they keep vetoing what India wants to do." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address S-300 to go operational in Iran by year-end: Commander Iran Press TV Fri Jul 1, 2016 10:6AM A senior Iranian commander says the S-300 long-range missile defense system is to go operational in Iran by the end of the Iranian calendar year (March 2017). Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili, the commander of the Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base, said on Friday that the strategic defense system will be "monitoring the country's skies alongside tens of other defense systems every minute." Back in May, Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said the country's air defense had been equipped with the Russian S-300. Russia committed to delivering the systems which are used to target tactical and ballistic aircraft and projectiles to Iran under an USD 800-million deal in 2007 but refused to deliver on the commitment, citing UN sanctions against Iran. Following Moscow's refusal to deliver the systems, Iran filed a complaint against the relevant Russian arms manufacturer with the International Court of Arbitration in Geneva. In April 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the Russian self-imposed ban on the delivery of the S-300 and Russia subsequently signed a new contract to supply Iran with the systems by the end of that year. Esmaili said Moscow was to deliver the remaining consignments of the system to Iran as per contractual obligations. Elsewhere in his remarks, he said, "The Zionist regime (Israel) has been claiming that it will invade our country, [something] which Leader [of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei] rightly responded to by saying 'they will not [live to] see such a day." The Islamic Republic maintains that its military might poses no threat to other countries, stating that its defense doctrine is merely based on deterrence. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran's Russian-Made S-300 Systems to Become Operational by March 20 Sputnik News 15:25 01.07.2016 The Russian-made S-300 air defense systems delivered to Iran will become operational by late March 2017, local media reported Friday. MOSCOW (Sputnik) According to Iran's Tasnim news agency, Commander of Iran's Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base Brig. Gen. Farzad Esmaili said that the S-300 systems would be brought into operation by the end of the Iranian year, which ends on March 20, 2017. The $900-million Russia-Iran contract to deliver five Russian S-300 systems to Iran was signed in 2007. It was suspended after the adoption of UN Security Council sanctions on Iran in mid-2010. In April 2015, Russia resumed talks on the S-300 deliveries following a framework agreement on the landmark deal ensuring the peaceful nature of Tehran's nuclear program. Russia and Iran are expected to fulfill the S-300 contracts in 2016, according to the Iranian military officials. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 3.6 million Iraqi children at risk from increasing violence: UN Iran Press TV Fri Jul 1, 2016 12:34PM A UN report has revealed that 3.6 million children in Iraq, meaning one in five, are at the serious risk of death, injury, sexual violence, abduction and recruitment into Takfiri militant groups wreaking havoc in the crisis-hit Arab country. In a Thursday statement titled "A Heavy Price for Children", the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) announced that the number of children in danger of such hazards has soared by 1.3 million in 18 months, describing Iraq as "one of the most dangerous places in the world for children." "Children in Iraq are in the firing line and are being repeatedly and relentlessly targeted," UNICEF's Iraq representative, Peter Hawkins, said, adding, "We must help give children the support they need to recover from the horrors of war and contribute to a more peaceful and prosperous Iraq." The UNICEF report further disclosed that a total of 1,496 children have been kidnapped in Iraq since the past two-and-a-half years, when the foreign-sponsored militancy gripped the country, adding that the number translates to 50 children abducted on a monthly basis, with many forced into militancy or sexual exploitation. "The kidnapping of children from their homes, their schools and from the streets is horrifying. These children are being ripped from their families and are subjected to sickening abuses and exploitation," Hawkins said. The UN children's agency also revealed that more than 1.5 million Iraqi children almost 10 percent of the minor population have been uprooted, often multiple times, since the beginning of 2014. Additionally, almost 3.5 million children growing up in conflict zones are missing out on education, and nearly one in five schools is out of use due to structural damage. The UN agency called for an urgent action to protect children's rights in Iraq, particularly an immediate cessation of killing, maiming and abduction of minors by Takfiri groups. The UN body also demanded an unhindered and unconditional humanitarian access to children all across Iraq, education for out-of-school children through catch-up classes, as well as increased access to learning and educational materials to teachers and children. The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by gruesome violence ever since Daesh terrorists mounted an offensive in the country in June 2014. Iraqi government forces, backed by fighters from allied Popular Mobilization Units, have been pushing the militants out of the country's territory. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Baku, Azerbaijan, July 2 By Elmira Tariverdiyeva Trend: Relations between the US and Azerbaijan are probably better in recent years than they were in 1992 when the US formally punished Azerbaijan for defending itself from Armenia, says Raoul Lowery Contreras, author of the Murder in the Mountains: War Crime in Khojaly and the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict book. Contreras is working closely with such authoritative agencies as FOX News Latino and The Hill and is the analyst of some leading US TV channels. Back then at the behest of the notorious Armenian lobby, the US Congress passed a bill (Section 907 to Freedom Support Act) banning all US government aid to Azerbaijan, he said in an interview with Trend. That was one of the most absurd bills ever passed by US Congress. The bill punished Azerbaijan, which was a victim of military aggression and occupation, and rewarded Armenia, the very country that was behind that aggression, occupation and ethnic cleansing, said Contreras. Apart from the lack of moral justification for this absurdity, the bill was totally harmful to US national interests, he said. It punished Azerbaijan, a pro-Western US ally, all the while rewarding Armenia, the most significant ally of Russia and Iran in the region. The situation changed when Azerbaijan responded to the US and President Bushs You are with us or you are against us. Azerbaijan chose to be with the US. It still is with us, and the US has been waiving the Section 907 since 2002, he said. Contreras added that the US should continue to more fervently support Azerbaijan's independent foreign policy and its efforts to help Americas allies in Europe and Israel to achieve energy independence. The US Congress passed the Freedom Support Act in October 1992, to regulate provision of state aid to former Soviet Republics. According to Section 907, the US government was forbidden to assist Azerbaijans official organizations. The Armenian community in the US, protecting Armenias aggression against Azerbaijan, had a great influence on adoption of Section 907. 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. Libya: UN mission documents 49 civilian casualties in June 1 July 2016 The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) reported today that for the month of June, it documented 49 civilian casualties, including 18 deaths and 31 injuries, as a result of hostilities across the country. Victims included four children killed and eight injured, 12 men killed and 20 injured, and two women killed and three injured from 1 June to 30 June 2016. In its monthly report, UNSMIL noted that the majority of civilian deaths were caused by vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (seven deaths and 19 injured), while the next leading cause of death was air strikes (six deaths and seven injured), followed by shelling (three deaths, two injured), gun shots (two deaths) and explosive remnants of war (three injured). UNSMIL documented 10 deaths and 24 injured in Benghazi, six deaths and seven injured in Derna, and two deaths in Tripoli. The Libyan National Army/Libyan Air Force confirmed that they had carried out the airstrikes in Derna and said that they will conduct an investigation. UNSMIL was unable to determine with certainty which other parties caused civilian casualties in June, according to the report. During the course of the month, medical facilities in Benghazi were targeted four times, on 1, 21, 22 and 24 June. Only the car bomb explosion on 24 June, at the entrance of the Al-Jalla hospital in Benghazi, led to casualties, killing five people and injuring 13, including two children. UNSMIL also received information on the deaths of two men following their abductions. Their bodies showed signs of torture as well as gunshot wounds to the head and other parts of the body. In another case, a man died in custody, several days after detention. His body showed signs of torture and gunshot wounds. The mission also documented the killing of 12 prisoners on 9 June in Tripoli, after a court ordered their release. The circumstances of the killings are unclear. It was also reported that two men, who had been detained by the Central Security Force and accused of criminality, were publicly executed in Gaser Bengashire, on the outskirts of Tripoli. Reports indicated that there was no legal process prior to the killings, according to UNSMIL. In addition, following clashes in Qarabuli, reportedly between Misratan forces and locals, a storage site exploded, reportedly killing dozens of people, UNSMIL said. The monthly figures are based on information UNSMIL gathered and cross-checked from a broad range of sources in Libya, including human rights defenders, civil society, current and former officials, employees of local governments, community leaders and members, witnesses, others directly affected and media reports. Earlier this month, Martin Kobler, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of UNSMIL, reported to the Security Council about the "tragic" humanitarian situation in the country, underlining that "personal tragedies and collective suffering" are the consequence of the continued lack of State authority in most parts of the North African country. On 13 June, the Security Council decided to extend UNSMIL's mandate in Libya until 15 December. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ramzan Kadyrov's Trojan Horse July 01, 2016 by Liz Fuller It is no secret that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has long considered Daghestan's Khasavyurt district that borders on Chechnya part of his bailiwick. Two recent interlinked moves are clearly intended to strengthen his influence not only in Khasavyurt, but elsewhere in Daghestan. Both involve Buvaisar Saitiyev, 41, a Khasavyurt-born Chechen and three-time Olympic freestyle-wrestling champion who for many years was regarded as a possible candidate for the post of mayor of the town of Khasavyurt. Khasavyurt is the second-largest town in Daghestan, with a population of 140,000, of whom some 40,000 are Chechens. Chechens are the ninth-largest of Daghestan's 14 titular ethnic groups; at the time of the 2010 federal census they numbered 93,658. Saitiyev is already an adviser to Kadyrov, whom he described in an extensive interview four years ago as "a genuine Muslim" and "one of the few regional leaders who sincerely loves his people and does all he can to promote their well-being." Kadyrov has been equally unstinting in his praise of Saitiyev, whom he characterized as "an exceptionally devout and decent person with a pure soul and intentions." Saitiyev has now also been named an adviser to Republic of Daghestan head Ramazan Abdulatipov -- even though it is not clear, as one blogger has pointed out, whether Russian law permits one person to serve simultaneously as adviser to two federation-subject heads. In addition, Saitiyev is seventh on the list of candidates from the ruling United Russia party seeking to represent Daghestan in the Russian State Duma elections in September. Saitiyev retired from wrestling in 2009, and subsequently served from 2010-11 as an adviser on sport and youth affairs to Aleksandr Khloponin, whom then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had named in January 2010 as presidential envoy to the North Caucasus Federal District. The two men were already acquainted: Khloponin had previously served for eight years as governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai, where Saitiyev had lived since 1992. Saitiyev has hinted that he found his role on Khloponin's staff frustrating, given that its duties were primarily to monitor and make recommendations; it had no executive power. He admitted that "I realized clearly that I'm not cut out to be a state functionary," and that he did not enjoy having to spend nine hours a day sitting at a desk. It is thus unclear what kind of leverage or incentives underpin Kadyrov's installation of Saitiyev as what amounts to his personal lobbyist within the Republic of Daghestan leadership. Unlucky Laks Saitiyev's initial tasks in that capacity will center on defending the interests of Daghestan's Chechen community. The first is expediting the resettlement from the Novolak district in the extreme northwest of Daghestan of the Laks who were forcibly relocated there following the deportation to Central Asia in 1944 of the district's Chechen population. In 1991, following the adoption by the Russian parliament of legislation on the rehabilitation of those ethnic groups deported or otherwise repressed by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, the Daghestani leadership launched plans to move the unfortunate Laks once again, this time to swampy coastal lowlands north of Makhachkala. That program is way behind schedule, for a combination of reasons, including lack of funding, the abysmal quality of the new housing, and the lack of infrastructure such as schools and medical facilities, and the reluctance of many Laks to abandon a region where they have put down roots and currently derive a decent livelihood from agriculture. The tract of land earmarked for building new homes for the Laks is unsuitable for agriculture and there is no alternative employment. What is more, the Kumyks, Daghestan's third-most-numerous ethnic group, have staked a rival claim to that territory. Rayudin Yusufov, a Daghestani deputy prime minister and himself a Lak, has said the resettlement of the Laks must be completed by 2018. But the 3,341 Chechen families impatient to move into the Laks' vacated homes are increasingly unwilling to wait any longer. In recent years, they have staged repeated mass demonstrations to demand the swifter and more effective implementation by the Daghestani government of the proposed measures to enable them to return to Novolak, which will ultimately revert to its former Chechen name of Aukhovsky district. The Chechens have also successfully demanded the creation of a special working group to investigate their complaints that land plots in four formerly Chechen-populated villages are being sold off illegally. The second priority is to engineer the election as Khasavyurt town mayor of a candidate acceptable to Kadyrov. Longtime Mayor Saygidpasha Umakhanov, whom Kadyrov in 2014 publicly branded "a bandit" and accused of colluding with the North Caucasus insurgency, was forced to step down in August but managed to install Zaynudin Okmazov, one of his loyal supporters, as his successor. Initially Saitiyev was identified as Kadyrov's preferred candidate, but his election as mayor was technically impossible given that he was not a member of the municipal council. Kadyrov's agenda in Daghestan may in addition include a more far-reaching and controversial issue, to which Saitiyev alluded in his interview four years ago. He claimed that in 1991, Avar, Chechen, and Lak clerics had reached agreement that the border between Chechnya and Daghestan's Novolak/Aukhovsky district should be moved to where it ran in the 19th century under Imam Shamil, who spearheaded the Caucasians' resistance to the Tsarist Russian conquest. That would entail handing over a tract of what is currently Daghestani territory to Chechnya. Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/caucasus-report- kadyrovs-trojan-horse/27832926.html Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Putin Hints At Troop Movements If Finland Joins NATO July 01, 2016 by RFE/RL President Vladimir Putin has indicated that Russia would move troops toward its border with Finland if the Scandinavian country became a member of NATO, whose eastward expansion since the fall of the Soviet Union has long angered the Kremlin. "Finnish forces would cease being independent, cease being sovereign in the full sense of that word," Putin said after a July 1 meeting in Finland with President Sauli Niinisto. "They would become part of NATO's military infrastructure, which overnight would be at the borders of the Russian Federation." Putin added: "Do you think that we will continue as before by keeping our troops 1,500 [kilometers] away?" His comments came ahead of next week's NATO summit in Warsaw that Niinisto has been invited to attend. Alliance members are expected to endorse a larger deployment of alliance military forces to Eastern Europe. NATO says the planned increase of forces on its eastern flank is in response to Russian aggression in Eastern Europe, including its 2014 seizure and annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and the ongoing war between Russia-backed separatists and Kyiv's military in eastern Ukraine. Finland has said it will continue to participate in NATO exercises and decide for itself whether or not to join the alliance. With reporting by RIA Novosti, Interfax, Reuters, and Yle.fi Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-finland-nato- troops-movement-if-join/27833336.html Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Top Secret Project 705: Soviet Submarine Still Causing a Stir in the West Sputnik News 20:50 01.07.2016 The Soviet top secret Project 705 is still prompting heated debate: the question remains open whether the superfast elusive Cold War-era Lira-class submarine or its successor will ever enter service again. The Soviet Type 705 Lira (Alfa in NATO's classification) attack submarine is still causing quite a stir in the West although all Lira-class vessels have been out of service since the mid-1990s. A February interview given by an unnamed Russian defense industry source to Lenta.ru and quoted by Sputnik immediately evoked memories of the Cold War-era innovative underwater craft in Western media. "We spent twenty years using the Lira (Project 705) subs during the 1970s through 1990s It was a very promising project but it was eventually shelved due to the abundance of new technological ideas simultaneously implemented in one boat," the defense source told Lenta.ru, adding that now the Russian Navy is considering the creation of new robotic nuclear submarines. However, what Western experts have read between the lines was that Russia is preparing to restart the Soviet-era top secret Project 705. "There was no need for the unnamed source to specify that the Russians are going to revive the controversial Lira-class, as the majority of experts have already got it," Czech journalist Lukas Visingr noted in his March op-ed for Echo24.cz. For his part, Defense Editor of The National Interest Dave Majumdar wrote in late February that Moscow's future underwater fleet is about to continue "a trend that was pioneered in the late 1970s by the Soviet Union's Project 705 Lira-class attack boats," while commenting on the issue. Why all this fuss over the USSR's old Lira-class submarine? "The Soviet Union began the Cold War well behind the United States in submarine technology," American author and academic Robert Farley narrates in his article for The National Interest. However, Soviet engineers and designers certainly deserved credit for making a giant technological leap. "The result was the Type 705 Lira (known as Alfa in NATO), a submarine that the West regarded as a profound, if short-lived, threat to its undersea dominance," the US academic underscores. According to Farley, by designing the Lira class the Soviet military pursued two major goals: firstly, they sought to change the character of naval warfare in the North Atlantic and the Arctic; secondly, they wanted to bolster technological development, by implementing innovations that future underwater craft would incorporate. "The Lira class certainly met the second criterion. Following an interim design (the K-162 'Papa'-class cruise-missile submarine), the Liras had a titanium hull in order to produce tolerances necessary for high speed and for extreme deep diving. To keep the size of the crew small, the Lira class employed advanced techniques for automating key systems, a decision which also enhanced the combat reaction speed of the crew, although it made at-sea repairs and maintenance extremely difficult," the academic underscored. Furthermore, Czech journalist Visingr calls attention to the fact that the Project 705 used a revolutionary liquid-metal-core reactor that allowed the attack submarine to reach the "fantastic" speed of over 41 knots (over 75 km/h) in just one minute. The extremely fast and maneuverable submarine also boasted a very high degree of automation. It is worth mentioning, Visingr notes, that the Lira-class vessel crew always comprised high-professional marine officers. The only exception was a cook. This fact also added to the mystery surrounding the Cold War-era Soviet sub. But that is not all. Since the submarine could operate at the depth of 2,200 feet "far deeper than any NATO submarine of the time, or today" it allowed the Lira to evade most contemporary NATO torpedoes, Farley stresses. He notes that although the Soviet boat carried a relatively small weapons arsenal, it still "could wreak havoc on a NATO group without the means to effectively respond." Predictably, the Alliance took the threat posed by the Lira very seriously: they designed special torpedoes to hunt the elusive boat. They also developed the "Sea Lance" supersonic missile system that was abolished after the end of the Cold War. At the same time the Lira class left service. There is still a lot of controversy surrounding the Cold War-era underwater craft: the Project 705 still receives praise as a breakthrough, while some experts regard the Lira as failure. "But while the Lira was a failure, the technology from those boats paved the way for the later Sierra (Project 945) and Akula-classes (Project 971 Shchuka-B), and ultimately the Project-885 Yasen-class (Severodvinsk-class submarine)," Majumdar noted in his February article. Is the story of the elusive Lira/Alfa really over? "Whether an Alfa successor ever enters service (especially with performance parameters similar to the original class) is an open question," Farley deems. However, the time will show whether the top secret Project 705 will catch a second wind. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia Plans to Sell Over 120 Mi-28NE, Mi-35M Helicopters in 2016-2018 Sputnik News 18:52 01.07.2016(updated 18:53 01.07.2016) Russia's Rostvertol plant, manufacturing military and commercial helicopters, plans to supply domestic and foreign customers with over 120 Mi-28NE attack helicopters and multirole Mi-35M helicopters in 2016-2018, the company said in its annual report for 2015. MOSCOW (Sputnik) According to the report, the Rostvertol plant, which is part of the Russian Helicopters company, delivered 14 Mi-26 heavy cargo helicopters in 2012-2014 and six of these helicopters in 2015, and the plant has foreign orders for upgraded Mi-26T2 helicopters in 2016-2018. "Mi-28NE attack helicopters and multirole Mi-35M helicopters are in constant demand on the internal and external markets: about 140 units were delivered in 2012-2014, and 28 helicopters were delivered in 2015. The expected volume of deliveries for 2016-2018 may amount to over 120 helicopters," the report, obtained by RIA Novosti, reads. The Mi-28NE is a highly effective new-generation helicopter, designed for combat missions in any circumstances. The helicopter is designed to take part in operations against tanks, infantry combat vehicles and armored personnel carriers, among other targets. The Mi-35M is a modern multirole attack helicopter, equipped with the latest navigation and avionics technology and capable of operating in high temperatures and in mountainous terrain. It can be also used for medical and transportation purposes. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia Preparing to Test-Fly Advanced Sarmat ICBMs Sputnik News 12:10 01.07.2016(updated 12:11 01.07.2016) Russia started preparations for flight tests of the country's latest Sarmat silo-based heavy ballistic missiles, local Izvestia newspaper reported Friday, citing military sources. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Russia's Strategic Missile Forces started large-scale preparations to test the Sarmat's maximal range capabilities, the newspaper reported, citing former Chief of Staff of Strategic Missile Forces, Col.Gen. Viktor Esin. The advanced ICBM will become operational in 2018 and will replace the RS-20 Voyevoda series of ballistic missiles, the newspaper added. The Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), with an operational range of no less than 5,500 kilometers, is part of the government plan to modernize the country's nuclear forces by 2020. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Assad: West attacks us politically, deals with us secretly Iran Press TV Fri Jul 1, 2016 7:31AM President Bashar al-Assad says Western countries follow a policy of double standards toward Syria, dealing secretly with his government while aiding militants to topple him at the same time. "They attack us politically and then they send officials to deal with us under the table, especially the security, including your (the Australian) government," Assad told Australia's SBS News in an interview to be aired on Friday. Western countries follow what the US is telling them to do, the president said in remarks that were carried by Syrian state media. "They don't want to upset the United States. Actually most of the western officials they only repeat what the United States want them to say. This is the reality," President Assad said. Western powers have supported militants fighting to overthrow Assad in a war now in its sixth year, which has claimed more than 400,000 Syrian lives, according to the UN special envoy to Syria. The government is fighting militants coming from scores of countries, including Europe, the US and Australia, and has vowed to battle on until Damascus regains control of all of Syria. The West and its regional allies, most notably Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, have been funneling monetary and battleground means to the militants who have been fighting the Syrian government since 2011. Western calls for Assad's ouster have become ever more muted as they become preoccupied with the rise of Daesh and other Takfiri groups striking at the heart of Europe. According to the British daily The Telegraph, independent sources have separately confirmed that President Assad has received visits from government officials. On Thursday, it was reported that the United States is seeking to establish a new military alliance with Russia in Syria that would see the two countries join forces in combating Takfiri groups. The two countries have been supporting opposite sides in Syria, with Russia aiding the Syrian government with airstrikes to push Takfiri militants from several key areas, including the second city of Aleppo. Until now, the US has been hampering a Russian bid to place a number of militant groups, including al-Qaeda-lined Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham, on the UN terror list. In June, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Washington had asked Moscow to stop conducting airstrikes against the al-Nusra Front terrorists in Syria. Al-Nusra and other Takfiri terrorists hold most of the northwestern province of Idlib and parts of neighboring Aleppo province. Last year the Pentagon launched a $500 million "train-and-equip" program to train and arm some 5,400 militants a year as a proxy ground force in Syria, but it yielded only a small cadre of under 200 militants before it was officially pulled. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Loose Interpretation: Russian Military Criticizes Pentagon Remarks on Syria Sputnik News 22:05 01.07.2016(updated 22:21 01.07.2016) The Russian Defense Ministry on Friday strongly criticized recent remarks by US Defense Secretary Ash Carter about Russia's role in the anti-terrorism fight in Syria. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Carter has recently told reporters that the Russians had taken a wrong stand on Syria by announcing the fight against terrorism and the assistance to peace process as goals, but not doing either, which prevented Washington from cooperating with Moscow at a deeper level in Syria. "We were surprised to hear such a loose interpretation of the goals and nature of Russia-US agreements on ceasefire and peace process in Syria," ministry's spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in a statement. "Since the beginning of the Russian operation in Syria, the Russian military has been fighting against international terrorist groups that had been swallowing a UN member-country in front of the whole world, including the US," Konashenkov stressed. According to Konashenkov, similar attempts to stop the spread of terrorism in Syria by the US-led coalition, which had more resources, participants, and time, have not brought any significant results. Meanwhile, continuing violations of the ceasefire regime in Syria are being registered in areas where US-backed armed opposition groups are operating, Konashenkov added. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syrian Militants Whom US Refused to Add to Terror List Shell UN Convoy Sputnik News 17:28 01.07.2016 Jaysh al-Islam, a group that is trying to overthrow Bashar al-Assad and establish a caliphate in Syria, has shelled a UN humanitarian convoy in the province of Damascus, the Russian Defense Ministry reported. Moscow urged the UN to designate the group as a terrorist organization, but the US blocked this initiative. The incident took place in Harasta, a suburb of Damascus, the ministry detailed. The driver of the truck that was distributing humanitarian aid is said to have been badly wounded. In addition, Jaysh al-Islam fighters shelled the Syrian Arab Army in the villages of Arbil and Jaubar. Headquartered in Eastern Ghouta, Jaysh al-Islam has been active in Damascus, the Syrian province of Homs and the Lebanese town of Arsal. It is estimated to have up to 25,000 fighters, making it the largest radical group operating close to the capital. The group is believed to have been supported by Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Jaysh al-Islam has coordinated its activities with al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda's offshoot in Syria that is not part to the nationwide ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia and the US earlier this year. For its part, the militants claim that they are part of the Syrian opposition. Its delegation has taken part in the Geneva peace talks. Russia, Syria, Iran and Egypt have added the group to the list of terrorist organizations. Moscow has made every effort to convince the UN Security Council to designate Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar ash-Sham as terrorists, but the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Ukraine pulled the plug on this initiative. "We have called for this and submitted a relevant proposal to the sanctions committee, so that they [the groups] would be added to the list of terrorist organizations, but so far, our Western partners are not ready for this," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said earlier in June. Russian officials maintain that Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar ash-Sham share the same ideology as Daesh, a brutal group that carved a caliphate out of Iraq and Syria. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Navy ship fires anti-ship missile by mistake ROC Central News Agency 2016/07/01 09:52:52 Taipei, July 1 (CNA) The Republic of China (Taiwan) Navy said that one of its 500-ton corvettes based in southern Taiwan launched a supersonic anti-ship missile by mistake early Friday. The Chinchiang (PGG-610) was undergoing a drill inspection when the missile was launched by mistake, the Navy said. The ship was said to be inside the Zuoying military base when the accident occurred. The missile went into waters off the islands of Penghu and did not cause any injuries, according to the Navy. An investigation is under way to find out the cause of the incident, it said. The Hsiung Feng III reportedly has a range of about 300 kilometers. (By Lu Hsin-hui and Jay Chen) Enditem NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Baku, Azerbaijan, July 2 By Anahanum Idayatova Trend: Following improvement of relations between Russia and Turkey it is quite likely that negotiations will begin on implementation of the Turkish Stream project, Valentin Zemlyansky, director for energy programs at the Center of World Economy and International Relations at Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences, told Trend. He said Russia and Turkey may again voice interest in the project, however, there are no guarantees that Europe will support the initiative. The implementation of the Turkish Stream project may turn Turkey into an energy hub, strengthening the countrys position as a key regional player, said Zemlyansky. Meanwhile, as Zemlyansky said, the EU possibly will want to come back to the South Stream project if the US influence in Europe decreases. Russia suspended the South Stream project, designed to supply Russian gas to Europe bypassing Ukraine, in December 2014. Russia said "the EU's non-constructive position" was the reason for the project's suspension. Then it was decided to build the Turkish Stream through the territory of Turkey, instead of the South Stream. But the project came under threat in late 2015 due to sharp deterioration of relations between Moscow and Ankara when Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber with two pilots on board. Following the incident, Russia's President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on taking measures for ensuring the country's national security and special economic measures against Turkey. On June 27, Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter of condolences to Putin over the death of Russian Su-24 pilot and expressed regret over the incident. He said Turkey "shares the pain of the downed Su-24 pilot's death with his family" and "sees it as Turkey's pain". Putin and Erdogan held phone talks June 29. The last time the two leaders spoke was November 2015 at the G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Anahanum Accidental firing of missile likely due to human error: Navy ROC Central News Agency 2016/07/01 13:57:52 Taipei, July 1 (CNA) The Republic of China (Taiwan) Navy said that the accidental firing of an anti-ship missile from one of its Chinchiang-class corvettes in a Kaohsiung naval base Friday was most likely caused by human error. "Initial information showed that the operator(s) did not follow standard procedure" for testing military equipment during a drill, Navy Chief of Staff Vice Admiral Mei Chia-shu () said at a press conference. He said the Hsiung Feng III supersonic missile was launched by mistake from the Chinchiang (, PGG-610), which was docked at Zuoying Military Harbor in Kaohsiung at the time. The missile landed some 40 nautical miles from the harbor, more than two minutes after its accidental launch during a simulated exercise, Mei said. A chart provided by the navy showed that the simulated target was in the Taiwan Strait, northwest of the harbor and southeast of the offshore county of Penghu. The Navy Command Headquarters said earlier in the day that the missile fell into the sea at 8:40 a.m. After the incident, the navy sent a helicopter to the area to make sure the missile had not caused any harm, he said. Other navy vessels were also dispatched to the area to help with the search, he said. It has been reported, however, that there was an "explosion" on a fishing boat in the Taiwan Strait around the same time as the missile accident Friday, killing its captain and injuring three others. Mei said the incident will be investigated and those found responsible will be penalized. Mei declined to answer questions about the standard operating procedure for simulation of a Hsiung Feng III missile launch, saying he could not disclose classified information. He said the navy did not notify Chinese authorities of the incident as it does not have contacts with the other side of the Taiwan Strait. The navy instead reported the incident to the higher authorities in Taiwan responsible for national security, he said. When asked whether the missile may have been launched intentionally, Mei said the investigation will look at all possibilities. He stressed, however, that Friday's exercise was a regular testing of military equipment. (By Lu Hsin-hui and Christie Chen) ENDITEM/pc NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address No abnormalities detected in Chinese fleets: Taiwan's Navy ROC Central News Agency 2016/07/01 23:49:55 Taipei, July 1 (CNA) No abnormalities have been detected in China's naval or air force fleets after a missile was mistakenly launched by a warship during a testing drill from a military base in southern Taiwan earlier Friday, the Navy said. "No abnormal deployments of China's warships and war planes have been discovered by us following the incident, and all such news reports are far-fetched speculation," Navy Chief of Staff Vice Adm. Mei Chia-shu () said. He was referring to local media reports that said shortly after a Hsiung Feng III supersonic anti-ship missile was fired by mistake from one of the Navy's 500-ton Chinchiang-class corvettes during a testing drill at Zuoying Military Harbor in Kaohsiung at 8:15 a.m., it was immediately detected by China's radars and that in less than one second, Taiwan's radars also screened abnormal radar signals from China's Fujian Province. According to the report, the signals of Chinese radars returned to normal five seconds later only after the Taiwanese missile fell into the sea. Earlier in the day, Mei said the missile did not cross the median line of the Taiwan Strait before sinking into waters off the Penghu archipelago after striking the boat. The strait, which divides Taiwan and China, has an average width of 180 kilometers (97 nautical miles). The missile hit a Taiwanese fishing boat "Hsiang Li Sheng" () about two minutes after it was fired, killing the captain and wounding three others. But it did not immediately explode or cause the vessel to break up. As to a reporter's question on how the military could convince international society and mainland China that the incident was not orchestrated to coincide with the celebrations to mark the founding of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Maj. Gen. Chen Chung-chi () rejected such a link and stressed that it was purely an accident by a soldier who had failed to followed standard operating procedures. He urged the local media to stop making such speculation and reiterated that it was merely an accident, which carried no political motivation or any aim to escalate tensions in the region. The Navy said later Friday that the blunder was caused by a Navy sergeant who set off the missile without following procedures and without any superior officers present while the missile was on the wrong combat and launch mode, instead of on the missile drill simulation mode. (By H.H. Lu and Flor Wang) enditem/cs NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Missile fired by mistake did not cross Taiwan Strait median line: Navy ROC Central News Agency 2016/07/01 14:27:52 Taipei, July 1 (CNA) Taiwan's Navy said Friday that a supersonic anti-ship missile fired by mistake earlier in the day did not cross the median line of the Taiwan Strait when it fell into waters off outlying Penghu County. Vice Adm. Mei Chia-shu (), the Navy's chief of staff, said that the Hsiung Feng III missile was fired by mistake from one of its 500-ton Chinchiang-class corvettes, which was conducting a drill from a harbor at the Zuoying naval base in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan. Responding to reporters' questions at a news conference called in the wake of the incident, he said that the missile, which fell into waters about 40 nautical miles northwest of the military harbor, did not cross the median line of the Taiwan Strait. The missile fell into waters on the Taiwan side of the median line, according to Mei. The strait, which divides Taiwan and China, has an average width of 180 kilometers (97 nautical miles). Coincidentally, the incident occurred on the day when the Communist Party of China held a celebration in Beijing to mark the 95th anniversary of the founding of the party. In response to questions on whether the Navy notified China of the incident and whether Beijing has expressed concerns over the incident, Mei said the Navy has no direct communication channel with China. But the Navy has reported related information to the National Security Council and other higher-up government agencies to deal with follow-up responses, he said. Asked if any Chinese military ships appeared near where the missile fell to collect confidential military intelligence such as electronic parameters of the missile, Mei said there are no Chinese electronic surveillance ships in that area. At the news conference, Mei said that human error is likely to be the reason behind the accidental firing of the missile. Initial information showed that the missile operators did not follow standard procedure when testing equipment during the drill, he added. In a statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that Gen. Yen De-fa (), chief of the general staff, is leading a task force to conduct a further investigation into the incident. Defense Minister Feng Shih-kuan () instructed deputy chiefs of general staff to head to an emergency center to deal with follow-up issues immediately after the incident occurred, it added. The locally developed Hsiung Feng III missile reportedly has a range of up to 300 km. (By Lu Hsin-hui and Elaine Hou) ENDITEM/J NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China asks Taiwan to explain missile blunder ROC Central News Agency 2016/07/01 20:21:54 Beijing, July 1 (CNA) China's top official on Taiwan affairs said Friday that Taiwan should provide a "responsible" explanation for launching a missile accidentally into the Taiwan Strait earlier in the day, calling it a "serious" matter. Zhang Zhijun (), head of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said the incident had "a serious impact," coming at a time when Beijing has stressed the importance of maintaining the peaceful development of the cross-strait relations, with the "1992 consensus" as the political foundation. "This requires Taiwan to provide a responsible explanation on what had happened," Zhang said in response to reporters' questions on the incident on the sidelines of an event promoting cross-strait student exchanges. Asked if Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) had notified the the Taiwan Affairs Office of the incident, he replied that he "had no information." In Taipei, the MAC said in a statement Friday that it had asked the Straits Exchange Foundation, a semi-official organization responsible for cross-strait negotiations, to notify its Chinese counterpart -- the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) -- of the case and ask it to help pass the information to related Chinese government agencies. The locally developed missile was accidentally launched from one of the Navy's 500-ton Chinchiang-class corvettes from Zuoying Military Harbor in Kaohsiung at 8:15 a.m. and hit the fishing boat "Hsiang Li Sheng" () about two minutes later, causing the death of its captain and injuring the other crew members, Taiwan's Navy said. The Navy said earlier in the day that the missile did not cross the median line of the Taiwan Strait before sinking into waters off Penghu after striking the boat. The strait, which divides Taiwan and China, has an average width of 180 kilometers (97 nautical miles). The initial findings have found that the missile blunder, which occurred during a drill, was most likely caused by human error, more specifically by a missile operator not following standard procedure, the Navy said. The investigation is now focused on uncovering more details about the incident and identifying the Navy personnel who should be held accountable and be disciplined. (By Yin Chun-chieh, Kao Chao-feng and Elaine Hou) ENDITEM/ls NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Military apologizes for casualty caused by missile blunder ROC Central News Agency 2016/07/01 18:50:53 Taipei, July 1 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense (MND) apologized Friday after a missile launched from a Taiwanese Navy corvette by mistake earlier in the day slammed into a Taiwanese fishing boat in the Taiwan Strait, killing its captain. "The MND sincerely apologizes for the incident that caused the death of the captain and injured the other crew members," said MND spokesman Maj. Gen. Chen Chung-chi () at a second news conference held Friday by the military after the incident occurred in the morning. The ministry has also asked the Navy to provide compensation and assistance to the families of the victims, Chen said. Navy Chief of Staff Vice Adm. Mei Chia-shu () said at the news conference the Hsiung Feng III supersonic anti-ship missile ripped through the fishing boat, causing the captain's death, but it did not immediately explode or cause the vessel to break up. Citing initial findings, Mei said in response to a reporter's question that "a physical part of the missile passed through the fishing boat, but it was not immediately clear whether it was debris or the missile's warhead." He said the investigation is now focused on uncovering more details about the incident and identifying the Navy personnel who should be held accountable and be disciplined. Mei said the missile blunder, which occurred during a drill, was most likely caused by human error, more specifically by a missile operator not following standard procedure. Asked about the missile operation, Mei said the non-commissioned officer should have been familiar with the procedure, but further investigation was needed to figure out why the missile was fired by mistake, he added. The locally developed missile was accidentally launched from one of the Navy's 500-ton Chinchiang-class corvettes from Zuoying Military Harbor in Kaohsiung at 8:15 a.m. and hit the fishing boat "Hsiang Li Sheng" () about two minutes later, according to the Navy. The fishing boat was an estimated 40 nautical miles from the harbor in southern Taiwan. A chart provided by the Navy showed that the simulated position targeted by the missile was in the Taiwan Strait, northwest of the harbor and southeast of the offshore county of Penghu. Earlier in the day, Mei said the missile did not cross the median line of the Taiwan Strait before sinking into waters off Penghu after striking the boat. The strait, which divides Taiwan and China, has an average width of 180 kilometers (97 nautical miles). Asked if China took any immediate military action in the wake of the missile blunder, Mei said the Navy's radar did not notice any "abnormal actions" by China's military aircraft and vessels. One report, citing an unnamed Navy source, said the Navy's radar noticed some abnormal signals from China's military shortly after the mistaken launch of the missile, but Mei said the report was inaccurate. The fishing boat's captain, Huang Wen-chung (), died in the accident, while his son Huang Ming-chih () and a migrant fisherman from the Philippines and another from Vietnam suffered minor injuries. The damaged boat has been towed to a harbor in Kaohsiung. In response to lawmakers' questions during a legislative floor session Friday, Premier Lin Chuan () expressed sadness over the death of the captain and felt sorry for the incident. He said he has asked his deputy to meet with the victim's family. On behalf of the premier, Vice Premier Lin Hsi-yao () traveled to Kaohsiung to comfort the family of the deceased captain and express his condolences. Deputy Defense Minister Lee Hsi-ming () and Gen. Yen De-fa (), chief of the general staff, were also there to offer sympathy to the captain's family. President Tsai Ing-wen (), who is in Los Angeles after having traveled to Latin America, has received a briefing on the incident, according to Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (). The president has asked related government agencies to get to the bottom of the incident, Huang said. (By Elaine Hou, Justin Su, Sophia Yeh and Cheng Chi-fong) ENDITEM/ls NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Navy unclear why mistakenly fired missile did not self-destruct ROC Central News Agency 2016/07/01 20:49:54 Taipei, July 1 (CNA) The Navy will investigate why the self-destruct mechanism of a missile that was fired by mistake Friday morning was not activated before hitting a fishing boat, said Navy Chief of Staff Vice Admiral Mei Chia-shu (). At a press conference Friday, Mei said the missile was designed to have a self-destruct mechanism that would be triggered when the missile veers off course. But when asked why it was not activated during the two minutes the missile was airborne, Mei indicated the Navy was wondering the same thing and said part of the investigation on the incident would \ focus on that question. The locally developed anti-ship missile, Hsiung Feng III, was accidentally launched from one of the Navy's 500-ton Chinchiang-class corvettes from Zuoying Military Harbor in Kaohsiung at 8:15 a.m. Friday during a drill. It hit the fishing boat "Hsiang Li Sheng" (), which was an estimated 40 nautical miles from the harbor in southern Taiwan, about two minutes later, according to the Navy. A chart provided by the Navy showed that the simulated position targeted by the missile was in the Taiwan Strait, northwest of the harbor and southeast of the offshore county of Penghu. The missile ripped through the fishing boat, causing the captain's death, but it did not immediately explode or cause the vessel to break up. The three other crewmen on the boat were injured but were released from a hospital in Tainan after being treated. Asked why the missile did not explode when it hit the boat, Mei explained that the missile was equipped with a delayed detonation mechanism. The missile cut through the fishing boat, Mei said, because it was flying at high speed, and the fishing boat, which was likely designed to be thin and light, provided little resistance. (By Lu Hsin-hui and Elizabeth Hsu) ENDITEM/ls NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Soldier fires missile without any supervisors present: Navy ROC Central News Agency 2016/07/01 21:06:54 Kaohsiung, July 1 (CNA) The man behind a fatal missile blunder by Taiwan's military on Friday was a Navy sergeant who set off the missile without following procedures or without any superior officers present while the missile was in the wrong launch mode, the Navy said. A locally developed Hsiung Feng III missile was accidentally launched from a Navy 500-ton Chinchiang-class corvette at Zuoying Military Harbor in Kaohsiung at 8:15 a.m. during a missile testing drill. The anti-ship missile ended up hitting a fishing boat about 40 nautical miles away from the harbor in southern Taiwan, ripping through the vessel, killing the skipper and injuring three crewmen on board. At a press conference at the Zuoying military base in Kaohsiung on Friday evening, Navy Commander Huang Shu-kuang () said the missile sergeant did not follow proper procedures in the drill, and performed the testing by himself without any supervisors present. The soldier also selected the wrong mode for the missile drill simulation, setting it on combat and attack mode, which led to its inadvertent launch, Huang said. Seven military officers, including the sergeant and Huang himself, will be disciplined, said Huang, who called the launch a very serious mistake. Meanwhile, four people involved in the accident, including the sergeant who launched the missile and the captain of the military vessel, have been taken to the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office for questioning. (By Chen Chao-fu and Elizabeth Hsu) ENDITEM/ls NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Home countries of migrants injured in missile blunder informed: MOFA ROC Central News Agency 2016/07/01 21:18:54 Taipei, July 1 (CNA) Taiwan has briefed the home countries of the two foreign fishing workers injured when a missile was accidentally fired from a Taiwanese military base Friday morning, hitting the fishing boat carrying the migrants, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said. After the Ministry of National Defense reported that a Philippine fishing worker and another worker from Vietnam were wounded when a naval officer fired an anti-ship missile by mistake during a drill, the foreign ministry immediately called the representative offices of the workers' home countries in Taiwan, the MOFA said. The ministry said it briefed the governments of the Philippines and Vietnam about the conditions of the injured workers and how they have been treated at a hospital. A locally developed Hsiung Feng III missile was accidentally launched from one of the Navy's 500-ton Chinchiang-class corvettes from Zuoying Military Harbor in Kaohsiung City at 8:15 a.m. and hit the fishing boat "Hsiang Li Sheng" () about two minutes later, according to the Navy. The fishing boat was an estimated 40 nautical miles from the harbor in southern Taiwan when the missile struck it. The fishing boat's captain, Huang Wen-chung (), was killed in the accident, while his son Huang Ming-chih (), a migrant fisherman from the Philippines and another from Vietnam suffered minor injuries. The injured have been treated and released from hospital. The damaged boat has been towed to a harbor in Kaohsiung. (By Tang Pei-chun and Elizabeth Hsu) ENDITEM/cs NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Xi Jinping: China Will Oppose Actions Aimed at Taiwanese Independence Sputnik News 08:16 01.07.2016(updated 08:51 01.07.2016) Chinese leader Xi Jinping said that peaceful development between mainland China and Taiwan was the only way toward reunification and warned against separatist sentiments. China will adhere to the "one country, two systems" principle in relations with Hong Kong and Macau, he added. BEIJING (Sputnik) China will strongly oppose any actions aimed at the Taiwanese independence and resist separatist forces, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a speech at a grand gathering in Beijing marking the 95th anniversary of the founding the Communist Party of China (CPC). "Peaceful development of relations between two sides of the Taiwan Strait is a right way; it is the only way to the reunification. To stick to the 1992 consensus and to resist separatism is our political basis," he said adding that China will strongly oppose any actions aimed at the Taiwanese independence. In 1992, representatives of mainland China and Taiwan reached a consensus recognizing both sides as "one China." The consensus, however, remains unrecognized by many political forces in Taiwan. In 1949, the Chinese Nationalist government was defeated by the Communists and had to flee from continental China to Taiwan, where it formed a separate government and declared itself to be the Republic of China. Since then, relations between China and Taiwan have been strained, as China refuses to recognize Taiwan as a separate and independent political and diplomatic entity. China to Abide by 'One Country, Two Systems' Principle for Hong Kong, Macau China will adhere to the "one country, two systems" principle in relations with Hong Kong and Macau, Xi Jinping said. "The policy of 'one country, two systems' has showed its efficiency in practice. Despite any difficulties and challenges we should not lose faith and confidence in this principle and we will firmly stick to this principle so that the Hongkongers rule Hong Kong and the Aomens rule Aomen [another name for Macau]." He noted that China would support special administrative regions so that they developed the country's economy and raised living standards. China gained sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997 and over Macau in 1999. Both administrative regions were granted legal, economic and political autonomy from Beijing under the "one country, two systems" principle formulated by Chairman of the Central Advisory Commission of the Communist Party of China Deng Xiaoping in early 1980s. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Turkish parliament passes law to restructure judiciary Iran Press TV Fri Jul 1, 2016 4:37PM The Turkish parliament has approved legislation to restructure high courts and remove hundreds of top judges in what is regarded as part of government's efforts to weed out the followers of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim cleric and opponent of the Turkish president. Under the new law, all 711 judges at Ankara-based Council of State -- the highest administrative court in Turkey that deals with cases filed by citizens against the government -- and the Supreme Court of Appeals. Some of the judges are expected to be reappointed later, but their number remains unclear. There will also be new appointments by the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors, which serves as the disciplinary body of the Turkish legal system. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will accordingly find the opportunity to appoint a quarter of the judges at the Council of State, and place close allies from his inner circle in one of the country's most significant legal bodies. Critics argue that the judicial review is an attempt by Erdogan to remove opposing judges and tighten his grip over the judiciary. The opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) says it would launch an appeal at the Constitutional Court, even though the chances of success look deem. "This will consolidate all power into one man's hand," Metin Feyzioglu, the head of the Turkish Bars Association (TBB), which is an organization uniting over 60,000 lawyers, said in a statement, describing the judicial changes as dangerous. But Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek has said the aim is to clear bottlenecks in Turkey's legal system. "Justice right now is slow and clearly that is an issue for the business community. We have this system where millions of files end up at the Supreme Court of Appeals and the Council of State, roughly two million files, which means justice certainly needs to be sped up," he said. Last month, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said he would purge the influence of the Gulen movement, which Ankara considers a terrorist organization. Turkish authorities say Gulen is using his network of followers in the judiciary and other institutions to try to oust the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). There have been large-scale purges in the judiciary ever since dozens of government officials and prominent businessmen close to Erdogan, the then prime minister, were arrested in an inquiry on graft charges in December 2013. The scandal, which turned into a very serious challenge to Erdogan's rule, also led to a cabinet reshuffle. Erdogan denounced the corruption scandal and a string of leaks in the media, saying they were engineered by Gulen's supporters to undermine his government. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the US state of Pennsylvania since 1999, strongly denies the charges. On December 19, 2014, an Istanbul court issued an arrest warrant for the US-based cleric. Prosecutors have opened around 2,000 cases against people, including journalists, cartoonists and teenagers, for insulting Erdogan since he became president in 2014. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 2 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: Ahmet Calik, head of the Turkish Calyk Holding, informed Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on the important joint projects, the Turkmen government said July 2. Among these projects are the construction of a carbamide plant in Garabogaz town, Balkan region and a combined steam-gas power plant in the Mary region of Turkmenistan. Calik assured that Turkish Calyk Holding will fulfill its partnership commitments thoroughly. The construction of the power plant with a capacity of 1.155 million tons of carbamide per year was launched in July 2015. The Turkish company is constructing the plant together with Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation. After the plant is commissioned, the products will be exported by sea. The construction of a combined power plant with a capacity of 1,574 megawatts was launched a year ago. The Turkish company is implementing this project with the US General Electric company. After the plant is commissioned, it will be possible to additionally deliver 3 billion kilowatts per hour to the foreign countries. UK High Court to Start Legal Review of Country's Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia Sputnik News 14:41 01.07.2016(updated 14:42 01.07.2016) The High Court of Justice of England and Wales has allowed to start a legal review of country's arms sales to Saudi Arabia. MOSCOW (Sputnik) In March, the Campaign Against Arms Trade group challenged the UK secretary of state for Business, Innovation and Skills' decision about the continuation of issuing licenses for arms exports to Saudi Arabia. The High Court voted in favor of a judicial review into London's arms sales to Riyadh to check their adherence to both UK and EU trade regulations, The Guardian reported Thursday. The hearings on the issue would go ahead by February 1, 2017, the newspaper added. In November 2015, Amnesty International said that civilian infrastructure in Yemen was destroyed by the Saudi-led coalition using a UK-made cruise missile. Later in the month, The Independent reported that the UK government could be prosecuted for war crimes after more evidence emerged of the use of UK weapons sold to Saudi Arabia against civilian targets in Yemen. In March, the UK Parliament's Committees on Arms Export Controls announced that they would carry their own investigation into the use of UK arms in Yemen, as a Saudi-led coalition of Sunni Arab states had been carrying airstrikes against the Houthi rebels in that country. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address SHARE The Standard-Times publishes news of special events and programs. We do not accept items detailing regular weekly sermons or schedules. Items will be run only once. Church news can be submitted by email at Maria.Hagland@gosanangelo.com or by fax to 325-659-8133. Forms also are available in the Standard-Times lobby from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Deadline for submission next week is Wednesday before the date of publication. Dates, times, address and a publication number are required. Aglow International Aglow International, 1100 Martin Luther King Drive, will hold a meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Praise and worship will be led by Rudy Castenada. There will also be a slideshow from the mission trip to Mexico. Call 325-224-4560 for more information. Belmore Baptist Belmore Baptist Church, 1214 S. Bell St. announces the second anniversary of David and Janet Bingham as Belmore's Ministers of Youth. Belmore will observe the Lord's Supper in the 10:50 a.m. worship service Sunday. It will be part of a special patriotic observance of Independence Day. The Belmore Church Office will be closed Monday. Call 325-651-4661 for more information. Christian Breakfast Fellowship Christian Breakfast Fellowship, Kenny Blanek's Village Cafe, 2100 W. Beauregard Ave. will have Ken Rees, retired dentist, as the speaker at 6:30 a.m. Thursday. The title to his talk is "The Other Side of the Tapestry." Call 325-653-6866 for more information. First United Methodist First United Methodist Church, 37 E. Beauregard Ave. will celebrate the freedom of the country and freedom of worship at the 8:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. worship services Sunday. The special service will feature many First Church musicians and vocalists. Members are encouraged to invite friends and to wear red, white and blue. Call 325-655-8981 for more information. First Presbyterian First Presbyterian Church, 32 N. Irving St., will honor the nation's birth with special music during the 11 a.m. combined service on Sunday. Sunday's anthem will be sung by Patti Wetzel and Mark Cooper, accompanied by Pamela Lee. The trumpeters Adam Coffman, Will DeForest and John Irish, accompanied by Michael Yenny on the piano, will also perform a solo during the offertory. Call 325-655-5694 for more information. St. Luke United Methodist St. Luke United Methodist Church, 2781 W. Ave. N, will celebrate its new pastor Charlie Baskin's first worship service Sunday. The first service will be at 9 a.m. followed by a service at 11 a.m. Members are encouraged to come and welcome him and his wife, Heidi, to the congregation. Call 325-949-1545 for more information. Sierra Vista United Methodist Sierra Vista United Methodist Church, 4522 College Hills Blvd., will feature Pastoral Intern Randy Havlak at the 5:30 p.m. July 2 worship service in Chapel Hall. The Senior High Mission team will leave Sunday to learn and work at the Dallas Urban Experience. Tina Glass and Will Felts are sponsors for the group. The Senior Adult Ministry's Fun Fest will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the Life Center. There will be devotionals, games, fellowship and a potluck lunch around 11 a.m. Call 325-944-4041 or visit sierravista.org for more information SHARE By Bill Tinsley Every American schoolchild knows the opening paragraph of the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." In his book, "Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind," (one of Bill Gates' five favorite books for the summer) Yuval Noah Harari argues that the Declaration of Independence would look starkly different if it were rewritten to reflect secular science. According to Harari, if we stripped the foundations of the Christian faith from its wording, and replaced them with evolutionary science, it would read like this: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men evolved differently, that they are born with certain mutable characteristics, and that among them are life and the pursuit of pleasure." Without God, we cannot be "created." Instead we are reduced to the random result of evolution. Neither can we be "endowed by our Creator," since there is no Creator to endow us with self-worth. We are left with an accidental existence unrelated to value. Therefore, no human being has any more inherent worth than the spider or the ape. And regarding liberty, "There is no such thing in biology," Herari contends, "liberty is something that people invented and exists only in their imagination. From a biological viewpoint, it is meaningless to say that humans in democratic societies are free." Since science has not been able to define happiness, we will have to settle with the "pursuit of pleasure." There appears to be a headlong rush to de-Christianize our society. Faith is being pushed from the streets of intellectual commerce and dismissed in the dark alleys of superstition. We may be well on the way to rewriting the Declaration of Independence into the secular terms Harari has proposed. Unless we recapture the "faith of our fathers," our future may look like the forbidding landscape of science fiction movies with human beings consigned to violence and anarchy. Without faith, we could return to a survival of the fittest. Where would we be without the statements of Jesus? "The very hairs of your head are numbered. Love one another as I have loved you. In that you have done it to the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me." Hitler followed secular science to its logical conclusion and implemented a policy of eugenics that eliminated the weak and infirm as "life unworthy of life." Over 400,000 were sterilized against their will. Millions were exterminated. Marriage was strictly controlled to foster eugenic purity. Jesus introduced Himself saying, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4:18-19). Bill Tinsley is former associate executive for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Email him at bill@tinsleycenter.com. Baku, Azerbaijan, July 2 By Maksim Tsurkov Trend: Expenditures of the Southern Gas Corridor JSC within the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) construction project will be $1.2 billion until 2020, a high-ranking representative of Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR told Trend. The Southern Gas Corridor JSC is the operator of the Southern Gas Corridor project, which mainly includes the TAP project worth $6.3 billion. Fourteen percent, or $877 million, of the planned investment has already been spent during TAPs construction, said SOCAR representative. The work on the project has already been fulfilled by 19.5 percent. With TAP to be constructed in 2019, gas from the second phase of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas field development can be delivered to the EU countries in 2020. In particular, the gas will be transported from the Turkish-Greek border through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea and then coming ashore in Italy's south. TAP's initial capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year with the possibility of expanding it to 20 billion cubic meters. TANAP and TAP are integral parts of the Southern Gas Corridor, meant to deliver Azerbaijani gas to Europe. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov Sparklers are not toys. (Fotolia) SHARE By Nicholas Wooten Chicago Tribune (TNS) They might shine brightly and mesmerize, but the handheld fireworks known as sparklers are not toys to hand off to the little ones or to anyone. From June 20 to July 20, 2014, sparklers accounted for an estimated 19 percent of the 7,000 fireworks-related injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms. For children under 5, sparklers accounted for 61 percent of the total estimated injuries, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Mary Lynn Jacobs, a certified hand therapist and vice president of ATI Physical Therapy, said people arent aware of the dangers of sparklers, which burn at around 2,000 degrees hot enough to melt some metals. I just dont think theres a lot of public education around that, she said. I just cant get over how hot sparklers can get and how dangerous that is. Its just crazy. The Pyrotechnic Use Act bans the sale, possession and use of consumer fireworks such as bottle rockets and roman candles in Illinois, though it allows for items like sparklers to be sold. But residents often cross borders into Indiana or Wisconsin to get a fireworks fix. Billie Turner, manager at Dynamite Fireworks in Hammond, Ind., says about 20 percent of the stores customers are from the Chicago area and sparklers are among the most popular items. We go through at least 20 cases a year, and cases are very big. We sell (about) 10,000 sparklers a year, Turner said. She advises those who buy sparklers to opt for a wood core over metal. If its metal, it gets hotter, she says. The wood are always better because theres a plastic covering on the end. Jacobs recommends against having fireworks at home for safety reasons. Being a mother of three children, I would just ask (people) please to watch from afar. Lets go to a fireworks display. Lets not do it in our backyard, she said. My husband is a head and neck surgeon and sees a wide range of people with ear and facial burns, from little kids showing the sparklers to their friend and the kids lose their balance. Jacobs says large bubble wands and pinwheels (not the fireworks kind) are good substitutes for children. But if parents insist on sparklers, Jacobs recommends that they supervise their children and have them wear eye protection and gloves made of leather or lined with Kevlar. Setting rules for the use of sparklers is also important, Jacobs said. Dont have them play kung fu (with the sparkler) or point it at each other, she said. SHARE By The Kansas City Star (Tns) Q. Does the Number 3 hold special significance in Christianity? The Rev. Penny Ellwood, Blue Springs campus pastor, United Methodist Church of the Resurrection: We have a human habit of looking for patterns of three. You hear people say all the time expressions like "three's company" or conversely, "three's a crowd" or "the third time's the charm, "or "bad news always comes in threes." I'm not sure where our habit of thinking that way originated, but when one goes looking for threes, you can certainly find them in Christianity as well. The use of the number three is abundant in the Bible. Noah had three sons (Gen. 6:10). Three visitors appeared to Abraham (Genesis 18:2). Jonah was inside the belly of the fish three days and nights (Jonah 1:17). Jesus answered Satan's threefold temptations with three scriptural references (Matthew 4:1-11). Jesus' ministry lasted three years. Peter denied Jesus three times (Luke 22:54-62), and three times Jesus affirmed his love (John 21:15-17). There are many references to three, but nothing quite as important as the climax of our faith and Jesus' redemptive work, his resurrection on the third day (Luke 24:7). No doubt the biblical authors often employed the number or wrote in patterns of three to provide a special emphasis or a clue that there was more than meets the eye in the events recorded. Christians also see three as symbolic of the Trinity, the triune nature of God: as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three distinct persons who share one divine nature and have existed eternally in community with one another. This threefold relationship forms the basis of the community and relationship we are called to live as Christians. Our task as Christians is to express, transform and extend our world, in accordance with the pattern revealed in the mystery of the Trinity. In our church, we believe this happens in another threefold the use of our head, heart and hands. We study and learn to know who God is with our heads. We engage in relationships of love with our hearts, and we serve with our hands to reshape and build God's kingdom with the hope of complete and full restoration someday. These are but a few of the threes found in our faith. So I guess you might say that three is something of a holy number. The Rev. Jeff Palmer: The quantity of three does hold significant value in the Christian faith, particularly in the context of the Bible narrative. Just to name a few of many examples: There are three persons in the trinity of God the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit. There are three main patriarchs in the Old Testament Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jesus' ministry on Earth lasted three years. The apostle Peter denied knowing Jesus three times following the evening of his arrest. Jesus was resurrected from the grave three days after his death and burial. So why is the quantity of three significant? The number three biblically represents divine wholeness, completeness and perfection. If ever there were a desire to highlight an idea, thought, event or noteworthy figure in the Bible for their prominence, the number three was used to put a divine stamp of completion or fulfillment on the subject. Although there is great biblical meaning to the use of the number within its context, we should avoid applying the same biblical application of the number outside of the text. For example, observing that "bad things in life always happen in threes" is merely an observation of coincidence, not a reflection of completeness as noted in the Bible. Furthermore, the number three should merely be held as a significant number within the Christian faith rather than a holy number. An item that is deemed holy is something dedicated or set apart for God. The number does not fit the category of holiness, but neither should it be overlooked in its biblical importance. Adam Sauceda/Standard-Times Area residents fill the small church during the 25th anniversary celebration of Mount Carmel Hermitage in Christoval on Saturday. SHARE Adam Sauceda/Standard-Times Father Fabian Rosette, founder of Mount Carmel Hermitage, takes part in a procession during Saturday's 25th anniversary celebration. By Adam Sauceda of the San Angelo Standard-Times The Hermits of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel celebrated 25 years at the hermitage near Christoval with a special Mass on Saturday morning. The small church and reception area overflowed with churchgoers eager to worship, buy jellies and baked goods, and visit with the many special guests in attendance, including Bishop Michael Sis, of the Catholic Diocese of San Angelo, and Fernando Romeral, prior general of the Carmelite Order, who was visiting from Rome. The hermitage, tucked away in mesquite-covered hills, was founded in 1991 by Father Fabian Rosette, who said the location was not necessarily a Catholic place, but one for people of all denominations to come and pray. "This place is for the people. We want people to come over and feel God and see the beauty of the place," Father Fabian said. "It makes me very humble to realize I didn't know this was going to be this way." Fabian and the brothers at the Mount Carmel Hermitage hope to build a larger church for concerts so people can enjoy music and praise God. Justice Secretary Michael Gove has states his decision to stand for Conservative leader, a decision driven by conviction about what is right for the United Kingdom rather than personal ambition. SHARE Stefan Rousseau / PA via AP Justice Secretary Michael Gove is the man who would be prime minister of the United Kingdom. Surprising move ruffles Conservatives By Jane Onyanga-Omara, USA TODAY Network LONDON Justice Secretary Michael Gove set out his case to succeed David Cameron as the leader of the Conservative Party and as prime minister Friday, a day after dropping his support for colleague Boris Johnson, the former favorite to lead the United Kingdom. Gove, who declared Thursday that former London mayor Johnson was not up to the leadership job, vowed that as Conservative Party leader and prime minister, he would curb the influx of immigrants into the U.K., a major reason a majority of Britons voted June 23 to leave the European Union. "I never thought that I'd be in this position. I did not want it," Gove told a news conference Friday. "I did almost everything I could not to be a candidate for the leadership of this party. I don't have glamour or charisma. "I am standing not as a result of calculation but because I have a burning desire to transform this country," he said. "The country voted for no more politics as usual, no more business as usual. I am the candidate for change." Thursday, Gove shocked Conservative Party members by abandoning support for Johnson as party leader. "I have come reluctantly to the conclusion that Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead," Gove said. Johnson, known for his blond mop and flamboyant style, announced Thursday that he would not run for the party leadership post. Gove and Johnson worked closely together on the successful drive to leave the E.U. Cameron, who led the campaign to remain in the alliance, announced his resignation after voters chose a Brexit, 52 percent to 48 percent. Johnson's supporters accused Gove, who had been expected to back the former mayor, of treachery. Jake Berry, a Conservative member of Parliament, tweeted, "There is a very deep pit reserved in Hell for such as he. #Gove," the BBC reported. The tweet was deleted later. When a reporter asked Johnson outside his home Friday if he felt betrayed by Gove, he sidestepped a direct answer. "I cannot unfortunately get on with what I wanted to do, so it'll be up to somebody else now," he told The Telegraph. Home Secretary Theresa May is favored to become party leader. Gove said he would end the free movement of E.U. immigrants into the U.K., one of the principles of the alliance, which will have 27 members after Britain's exit. Opposition to a surge of immigrants, particularly from Eastern Europe, was a central theme in the "leave" campaign. Annual legal immigration into the U.K. is 10 times what it was in 1993, as citizens of new E.U. member countries took advantage of the freedom to move to Britain and any other member of the bloc. Gove won't find it so simple to curb immigration even after the U.K. severs its E.U. membership. E.U. leaders, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said the U.K. would not be able to retain favorable trade status with the E.U. and other benefits extended to nonmembers unless it continues to accept immigrants as part of the "four basic European freedoms that of people, goods, services and capital." The winner of the leadership race, who would be in place by September, will finalize Britain's exit from the alliance, a process that could take years. SHARE Besides the invectives, misrepresentations and political calculation, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton recently provided revealing insights into their initial priorities and how each would lead the country. In broad-ranging speeches, the presumptive nominees included what they called their agendas for their first 100 days in office. Their lists illustrated the gulf between an experienced politician developing specific legislative initiatives and a nonpolitician talking in broader terms. In a sense, that contrast also illustrated the preparedness gap between Trump, who speaks mostly in generalities without showing any real sense of details or priorities, and Clinton, who has a clear sense of how she would proceed in tackling the country's principal problems. The first 100 days are crucial in establishing a new president's political leadership and in getting things done. The most productive modern presidents, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, all achieved their initial goals by moving quickly to enact priority proposals to energize the economy. Regardless of any impact from the British vote to quit the European Community, Trump or Clinton will confront a challenge from the slow pace of economic growth next January. Here is what they have said: TRUMP: "Number one, the first 100 days, I'll appoint judges who will uphold the Constitution of the United States," the presumptive GOP nominee said. That's code language to assure conservatives about filling the current Supreme Court vacancy, but an odd initial priority that wouldn't affect most Americans for a long time. "I will change immigration rules to give unemployed Americans an opportunity to fill good, really good-paying jobs," he added. Presumably seeking to tighten current rules, its immediate impact seems questionable, because undocumented immigrants often fill low-paying jobs most Americans don't want. "We'll stand up to countries that cheat on trade, of which there are many. We'll cancel rules and regulations that send jobs overseas and everywhere but our country. We'll lift restrictions on energy production." Executive actions. After vowing to "repeal and replace job-killing Obamacare," (studies say it hasn't cost jobs,) Trump finally focused on job creation, declaring, "We'll pass massive tax reform to create millions of new jobs and lower taxes everyone." (Independent analyses say his plan would primarily benefit wealthy Americans like himself and balloon the deficit.) Finally, what seemed like mainly a gratuitous dig at his opponent, a pledge "to impose tough new ethics rules to restore dignity to the office of secretary of state." Trump's agenda fits the portrait The Wall Street Journal's Joseph Rago painted last weekend of a man who, in the forward to a 2006 manual on Trump-style negotiation, said, "I like to work in broad strokes, deal with the big picture and not the details." CLINTON: The polar opposite, she deals in details, sometimes to a fault. But her 100-day agenda seems far more explicit, focused and relevant. "In my first 100 days as president, I will work with both parties to pass a comprehensive plan to create the next generation of good-paying jobs," she said. "The heart of my plan will be the biggest investment in American infrastructure in decades." That focuses both on the principal economic challenges the need for more, better paid jobs and to upgrade the decaying infrastructure and on the principal political one trying to surmount partisan gridlock. Other priorities fill in additional blanks: "Let's connect every household to broadband by the year 2020. Let's build a cleaner, more resilient power grid with enough renewable energy to power every home in the country. Let's fix failing water systems renovate our public schools." Raise the minimum wage. "Another engine for growth and job creation would be comprehensive immigration reform," she said. "It will bring millions of workers into the formal economy so that you don't have an unlevel playing field" where employers hire undocumented workers at lower wages. Her agenda, more suited for four years than 100 days, continued from there: Make "quality affordable child care and preschool available in every community in the next 10 years," provide "debt-free college available to everyone" including forgiving past debt with national service, require companies to share profits with employees and shift fewer jobs and profits overseas, extend Dodd-Frank securities industry regulatory rules and "make sure all Wall Street corporations and the superrich pay their fair share of taxes." Each would face the same challenges as president. But their prescriptions are quite different, and so too, judging from their words, are their priorities. Carl P. Leubsdorf is a columnist for The Dallas Morning News. Contact him at carl.p.leubsdorf@gmail.com Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 2 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov signed a pardon decree in connection with the Night of Power (Gadyr Gijesi), one of the odd nights of the last 10 days of Islams holy month of Ramadan, the Turkmen government said in a message July 2. The decree pardoning 586 Turkmen citizens and 26 foreign nationals was signed at a meeting of the cabinet of ministers to further strengthen the unity and solidarity in the Turkmen society. Guided by our ancestors principles of mercy and humanism, we regularly carry out campaigns pardoning our citizens and foreign nationals, who had done wrong, repented of what they had done and being ready to start a new life, said Berdimuhamedov. He also instructed the local authorities to deal with employment of those pardoned. The pardoned people are exempt from further serving the main and additional punishment terms, according to the decree. in the Wild 100s of Chicago, an area on the far South Side known for its gang wars, Kurt Summers Jr. is addressing a small crowd gathered inside a once-gleaming 1920s retail building. There used to be a beauty school here; later the building housed a counseling service and a check cashing store. But even those businesses are gone. This community, built by middle- and working-class Dutch families 15 miles from downtown, never recovered from the closing of the South Chicago steel plants in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, its a symbol of violent crime and urban decay.But to Summers, who grew up on the South Side, violence is only a symptom of the communitys real dilemma. We dont have a violence problem in Chicago, we have an economic problem in Chicago, he tells the crowd of about two dozen residents, who applaud in agreement. Normally a deliberate talker, Summers feeds off the crowd, his speech driven by their energy and attention. Its like youre sick and you have a runny nose, he continues. Everybody wants to run and give you a tissue for the runny nose but they dont want to solve the sickness.He tells them he wants to focus policymakers attention on small businesses, the economic building blocks of any community. As the streetlights turn on outside the half-papered-up storefront windows, he outlines his hopes for an investment fund that will give locally owned businesses the financial help that big banks wont. He tells them of his efforts in the legislature in Springfield to make Illinois the first state to go after predatory lending to small businesses.When he works a room, Summers might be taken for a city alderman with well-honed political ambitions. On this night, he happens to be in the neighborhood where Barack Obama got his political start as a young community organizer. But Summers doesnt exactly hold political office; as treasurer he runs a rather obscure outpost of city government, one responsible mainly for managing Chicagos investments and cash flow.Nevertheless, Summers easily connects with this crowd. As an African-American leader in a city where blacks are feeling more and more marginalized, his upbringing in a poor neighborhood in a nontraditional family links him to many poorer Chicagoans, including the ones hes talking to tonight. I lived in [a neighborhood] where everybody was involved in a gang, involved in drugs, on their way to jail or the cemetery, Summers says. And I was lucky I had a hedge of protection around me of elders who said, Were not going to let you go that route.But Summers is equally comfortable with the citys elite. He graduated from high school at 16, from college at 20 and has an MBA from Harvard. At 36, he already has a long resume. Summers worked on Chicagos bid to host the 2016 Olympics and spent time in private capital management. Prior to being tapped by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to fill the vacated city treasurer post in late 2014, he was best known locally for being chief of staff to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.All of us sort of forget how young he is, says John Rogers, chairman of Ariel Investments, who worked with Summers on Chicagos Olympic bid. He has a presence and maturity about him that people just assume hes 10 years older than he is.The city treasurer has traditionally been a backwater job in Chicago. These days, its closer to the center of the citys most glaring problems -- overly burdensome debt, massive pension liabilities and a school system that cant afford to pay for its operations. Even so, Summers has limited influence over policy decisions: The real power belongs to the mayor and his CFO. But Summers is finding ways to make himself heard.Just months into his job as city treasurer in early 2015, Summers had to deal with the matter of actually running for election. He decided to commission a poll. There was no political reason -- he had no opponent. But he wanted to know what his personal starting point was. He asked the citys voters what they knew about their treasurer. Three-quarters of them had no idea Chicago had an elected treasurer.Summers saw that as an opportunity. Previous treasurers in Chicago had typically been bankers or fixtures in the business community. They stuck to managing investments and talking to citizens about financial literacy. Summers didnt want to settle for that. The citys fiscal and economic strength, he says, are directly connected to crime, neighborhood vitality and education. To him, the treasurers office was Chicagos most underused asset when it came to addressing its larger problems.The problems, particularly the financial ones, are complicated. Many feel Chicago is a city that shouldnt be in the financial chokehold it finds itself in today. It is the Midwests only global city, a place with a vibrant, thriving center that draws visitors from all over the world. Its economy continues to grow, if not quite as fast as those of other big cities. It has long touted itself as more affordable and lower in taxation than other cities such as Los Angeles or New York.But Chicago essentially subsidized its growth over several decades by borrowing habitually to pay for its operations. Thats caught up to it, leading to credit rating downgrades, budget deficits and unpopular tax hikes. The city has about $34 billion in outstanding debt, with roughly $20 billion of that coming from its five pension systems. By comparison, its total annual budget is a little more than $9 billion. The pension debt, in combination with state-approved benefit increases, has led to a huge unfunded liability that is now threatening to take over the citys budget.The public school system has similar problems and may be facing a state takeover. The teachers retirement fund is short about $9.6 billion and owes an additional $6 billion to bondholders. The systems outstanding bonds alone exceed its $5.8 billion annual budget, and both the citys and the school systems credit ratings have been downgraded to junk status. In April, the citys teachers went on a one-day strike to protest failed contract negotiations and the overall level of funding.Getting out of this situation will likely require another tax increase. The city imposed a historic 70 percent property tax hike last year, but that half-billion revenue boost is just the opening act to a story that seems destined to end with Chicago giving up its long-held claim to being a low-tax city.In concert with all this are a spike in crime and a deepening racial divide. Murders were up 50 percent during the first four months of this year compared with April 2015. Shootings increased by even more. Dissatisfaction with the citys leadership is common among residents but dramatically greater among residents of color.Summers has strong opinions on all of these issues. He has to choose -- carefully -- where to insert himself in the citys larger problems. Earlier this year on Facebook he praised a post by a local clergyman who slammed Emanuel for the way he handled the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager. The post prompted questions from the local media, and Summers had to walk a fine line that avoided direct criticism of the mayor while responding to public outrage over the administrations slow response. More recently, he urged city pension funds to consider suing banks over money lost from interest-rate swaps, a stance that puts him directly at odds with the mayor.Summers formal distance from the center of power does have advantages: It shields him from direct blame if and when things worsen in any given area. But it also shines a spotlight on the limitations of his position. Some of his work is certainly impressive, says Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation of Chicago. But that work has failed to get much attention, he says, due to the severity of the overall financial crisis, crime and public safety, and the threatened closure of Chicagos public schools from either financial collapse or strike.Take the citys pension funds. As treasurer, Summers sits on five boards that oversee 11 pension funds. His primary influence is on the funds investments, not on the more fundamental issue of how to address their shortfall. But he has made changes that add up. One of his first major moves in office was to tackle the $142 million in annual fees that the plans had been paying to investment managers. Less than a year into his first term as treasurer, most of the funds agreed to join an online database and clearinghouse so they could share information on the fees and work together to reduce their cost. Summers estimates the collaboration could save as much as $50 million a year, or $1 billion over the lifetime of all 11 pension plans.When it comes to areas outside the traditional treasurers role, Summers approaches issues from a financial standpoint and seeks out advocates on his behalf. He is addressing the citys troubled neighborhoods by positioning himself as a small business champion. During his first three months in office, he visited all 77 Chicago neighborhoods in as many days to hear directly from community leaders about their concerns and problems with the city. His office checks in via regular conference calls with those leaders, who have become a surrogate voice for the treasurers agenda across the far reaches of the city. His careful cultivation of neighborhood leaders has served only to heighten speculation about his political ambitions.management tone early on when he closed more than 200 bank accounts and hundreds of dormant funds and seized untapped bond proceeds to net more than $100 million in what he said was essentially found money for Chicago. He decided that the citys nearly $3 billion in short-term cash -- roughly three times what is recommended by the Government Finance Officers Association -- could be put to better use. He took a little more than a billion from that stash and invested it. Last year, the investments under Summers management earned about $58 million, beating the previous years returns of a little less than $50 million. The office has instituted quarterly earnings calls, a practice designed to improve confidence in the citys financial wherewithal at a time when newspaper headlines are creating doubt.Summers office has been leaning hard on banks. In particular, he has demanded that they release information on their neighborhood loans and investments. He wants to track the investments as a way of helping to decide how much of the citys money these municipal depositories will be given to work with. Meanwhile, banks have pushed back on his effort to obtain passage of a statewide law regulating online lending to small businesses. The bill, which seeks the same kind of transparency requirements that have restricted predatory loans to individuals, appears to exempt bank loans. But the banks are concerned the exemption is ambiguous. Business groups including the state chamber of commerce say the proposal would dry up lending to small businesses, rather than facilitate it. Days after the bill was introduced in Springfield, more than a dozen lobbyists were hired to kill it.Then there is the campaign to create an independently run investment fund that would pump money into neighborhood economic development. Its common for major cities to have a revolving loan fund to give local businesses a leg up. But what would basically amount to an economically targeted investment pool run by an independent board is fairly unusual. Summers envisions that founding partners would include various private and institutional investors. He suggests that banks participation in the fund would be a way for them to show the city they are investing in local communities without having to take on the risk of underwriting a loan themselves.Inside his office in city hall, where his power goes a lot further, the cultural change has been swift and fierce. At one time, the treasurers office was a place for money managers who chose to escape the rigors of the private financial world. That is no longer true. Summers believes he can attract the talent he wants by touting his office as a training ground for future investment bankers and fund managers. The investment staff is filled mostly by people in their 20s who are making thousands of trades a year.In 2013, the Chicago Park District agreed to let the treasurers office manage its portfolio. Summers wants to expand on that deal and make the same arrangement with other local agencies. This effort has achieved mixed results. The Public Building Commission agreed to it, but the much larger public school system has yet to take him up on the offer.Summers says the offer to the school system is still on the table, but he also realizes he needs more advocates on his behalf, just as he has done with the neighborhood leaders. During a recent meeting with the parents organization Raise Your Hand, Summers reiterated his desire to manage school system investments, and asked them to bring up the idea during their meetings with school administrators. Here, the limitations of his office are glaring -- Summers has not gotten help from the Emanuel administration on this particular quest. Look, I get it, he says. When youre dealing with a half-billion or a billion-dollar problem and someones saying, Hey I might find $20 million here, its hard to get them to prioritize it. That doesnt mean its not worth pursuing. In fact, its all the more reason you have the obligation to take nickels, dimes and quarters.All this chipping around the edges at billion-dollar problems has another result: It builds goodwill in bite-sized, digestible chunks. The average city resident may not be able to swallow a half-billion savings in, say, pension liabilities. But $20 million, as one Raise Your Hand parent noted to Summers, saves teaching jobs at a time when teachers are feeling overworked and underpaid. A $100,000 loan to a South Side business owner rejected by local banks is a gesture that makes a statement about local government priorities.A poll Summers recently ran provides some tangible proof that this flurry of activity is making an impression. One year after they elected him, he again asked Chicagoans what they knew about their city treasurer. This time, half of them remembered him.The aggressive way in which Summers has approached his role has driven murmurs in Chicago about whether hes priming himself for a mayoral run. When asked, he doesnt answer directly but laughs and says its not the first nor will it be the last time hes asked that question. Then he redirects the focus to his current mission. Hes convinced its the right mission, given his upbringing and his ability to walk between the worlds of high finance and some of Chicagos grimiest streets. A year-and-a-half before, I couldnt have seen this coming, he says. A year-and-a-half from now, who knows? But what I do know is, Im in this role for a reason. And for at least a defined period of time, Im going to have all the impact I can. WASHINGTON, D.C. Operating like a tech startup with tactics such as agile development and user-centered design has become a hallmark in the quest to modernize federal websites, apps and databases, but now government IT vendors worry 18F , the primary digital service enabling such practices, may jeopardize lucrative contracts.At a House subcommittee hearing on June 10, lobbyists from the IT Alliance for Public Sector (ITAPS) and the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) alleged that 18F is hindering profits by acting as both a procurement policymaker and as a tech competitor inside the General Services Administration (GSA). The two groups assert a conflict of interest, and in testimony, have submitted a list of grievances and recommendations intended to curtail 18Fs authority.The hearing was conducted jointly by the House Subcommittees of Government Operations and Information Technology to assess the effectiveness of 18F and the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) a sister tech consultancy within the White House.Many of our members continue to share again because of the opaqueness of the operations that theyre not entirely sure that [18F] isnt directly competing with activities they believe they can deliver, said ITAPS Vice President of Public Sector A.R. Trey Hodgkins.Even so, outsiders might observe industry fears may stem from a shift taking place in government IT, one that emphasizes agility, results and cost effectiveness over established buying procedures requirements traditional tech firms have invested heavily to meet.A report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted that in 2015, U.S. agencies spent more than $80 billion on IT expenditures. Out of this sum, about $60 billion or 75 percent went to maintain outdated IT systems. Since many of these are supported by established vendors, logic seems to dictate that if modernization continues and groups like 18F increase accessibility to federal contracts, agencies may opt for different vendors. Federal tech procurement processes could see bids from new entrants that not only improve the quantity and diversity of offerings, but also come at lower price points.18F has propelled such outcomes through tools like a blanket purchasing agreement that enables open source tech companies to compete for contracts, and a micro-purchasing policy that lets agencies freelance small coding jobs to savvy technologists. Further the group has made significant gains in California where it guided state officials to break down a contract related to its state child welfare system, into smaller and what 18F believes will be much faster and more affordable procurements.Both lobbying groups tout a lengthy list of enterprise technology companies. ITAPS members include longtime government IT vendors like IBM, SAP, Xerox and Microsoft while SIIAs members include an equally diverse group of IT providers with companies like Cisco Systems, Accenture, Adobe and Deloitte, a company holding dual membership in each.At the hearing, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va. who led much of the questioning into 18F and USDS highlighted some the industrys heated feelings, saying that since its start in 2014, some in the private sector have bristled, viewing 18F with palpable trepidation.Transparency, coordination and outreach, I know those are concerns in the private sector which looks at 18F, with maybe, a mixed and jaundiced eye, Connolly said.In their statements to Congress, ITAPS and SIIA recommended 18F be separated from any significant procurement authority and to firmly commit the organization to a buy-first practice of private-sector services. In addition, ITAPS asked Congress for a pause of 18Fs incorporation into GSAs Technology Transformation Service division (TTS), a newly minted section of the GSA that works to modernize government technology. The pause, ITAPS suggested, should last until 18Fs practices and finances become more transparent.To clarify 18Fs work and mission, lawmakers questioned TTS Commissioner Phaedra Chrousos, who recently announced she is stepping down from her position that is also responsible for directing the activities of 18F. Chrousos said at the hearing that while communications could always be improved, the group was not structured to be a competing vendor inside government, nor, by regulation, can 18F consult on an RFP and also provide the requested services.We absolutely take a buy-first approach, Chrousos said. We have one service line that builds out prototypes and light Web services, but thats done not in competition with the private sector, but as a way to showcase modern methodologies and practices with agencies.Chrousos explained that the mission of 18F, now with 185 staff members, is to recruit top private-sector talent technologists, designers and policy analysts and to use their expertise to advance government tech and buying habits. As a contracting consultancy, Chrousos said they do not choose agency and department customers that use their services, nor does the agency intend to be, or have the resources for, the tasks typically taken on by large enterprise IT firms.GSA recruits cutting-edge technologists and designers from industry and the public sector to help drive efficiency and transparency, deliver cost savings, and help federal agencies buy, build and deploy technology the way the private sector does today, Chrousos said.The GAO intends to finalize its official audit of 18F and USDS this month, a report that both subcommittee members and other policymakers will review for next steps.Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story reported savings linked to California's child welfare system at $400 million when official savings estimates are yet to be determined. The place where government interests intersect with community-minded activists who are ready to donate their time and talents best known as civic tech is the public sectors fastest-moving innovation inlet. Tehran, Iran, July 2 By Mehdi Sepahvand Trend: Iran has banned its free zones to import American-made cars. In a directive addressed to the directors of free and economic zones, Secretary of the Supreme Council on Free Zones Akbar Torkan requested that American-made vehicles be banned from Irans free and special economic zones, IRNA news agency reported July 2. In the letter, Torkan cites Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneis guidelines about banning American-made products. In a press conference last year, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli explained the reason behind banning some brands as the fact that they represent the domination of certain powers. Fazli was explaining why the Islamic Republic had disallowed famous American fast food brands such as McDonalds and KFC to open branches in Iran. Felipe Massa has hinted he might take a pay-cut in order to continue his F1 career into 2017. Williams is openly re-thinking its lineup of the veteran Brazilian alongside Finn Valtteri Bottas. Asked in Austria by Brazil's UOL if a cut to his estimated EUR 4 million retainer might be on the cards, Massa replied: "I have never raced thinking about money. "I believe that in the end, if I see that there is a possibility to do a good job on a team, money will not be most important because I've got enough to have a good life." The report claims 35-year-old Massa's manager, Nicolas Todt, has made enquiries with Renault about a potential vacancy at the French works team. "I'm talking not only elsewhere but also here at Williams because they know about my work," said Massa. "The improvement of Williams in the past years has a lot of my work in there. "And in a year in which everything in the rules changes, undoubtedly my experience becomes even more important," he added. (GMM) Despite some early fanfare in Austria, problems on Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari meant the titanium 'Halo 2' did not make its practice debut on Friday. But the FIA has been working on it in the background anyway, it now emerges. Auto Motor und Sport reports that a mechanic was sat at the wheel of the Ferrari, under the cover of the controversial cockpit protection system, to determine how easily marshals could pull him out in the event of a crash. The report said that in one instance, it took marshals 12 minutes to get him out. "It was the first test of its kind and not about speed," insisted Charlie Whiting. "We just wanted to know what difficulties would arise." The test findings will now be forwarded to a meeting of technical chiefs at Silverstone next week, with a decision about whether Halo will be introduced for 2017 now due. (GMM) Pirelli has indicated that the FIA closing a loophole could mean exorbitantly high tyre pressures can be eased in the forthcoming races. F1's governing body has put a stop to teams heating the wheel assembly prior to the tyres being fitted on the grid, which had allowed those tyres to be inflated less but still meet Pirelli's strict pressure minimums. It is believed the very high pressures demanded in Austria this weekend are a direct result of those heating measures, which have been spearheaded by Mercedes and Red Bull. "If the result of the new procedures is the lowering of the starting pressure then we are very happy with it," Sauber team manager Beat Zehnder said at the Red Bull Ring. Indeed, Pirelli chief Mario Isola indicated that he could have good news. "If we find the pressures are now higher whilst driving with the new system, we can once again reduce the initial pressure," he is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport. The drivers will also be relieved, but it seems some would prefer if Pirelli's guidelines were relaxed altogether. "I have my opinion but I'll keep it," Fernando Alonso is quoted by Marca newspaper. "It's the same for everyone, but this is the only category in which you cannot decide how to run your own car," the Spaniard added. (GMM) Baku, Azerbaijan, July 2 By Fatih Karimov Trend: Iran has sent a consignment of two million barrels of crude oil to Poland, Mohsen Ghamsari, director of the International Affairs Department at National Iranian Oil Company, said. Ghamsari said that Tehran has sold the oil consignment to Poland in the form of spot cargo, the oil ministrys SHANA news agency reported July 2. The tanker carrying the consignment left Iran's main oil export terminal Kharg Island last week, he added. The deal is a result of three months of negotiations with Polish Lotos refinery, he said, adding that the talks on oil export which most likely will be fruitful are underway with various countries. Earlier, Reuters quoted trade sources as saying that a supertanker with Iranian crude is heading toward Poland's Baltic Sea port of Gdansk. The Atlantas Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) left Kharg Island on June 27 and is moving to Gdansk, according to report. The cargo is the first Iranian crude oil sold to this part of the Baltic Sea market since January's lifting of sanctions, intensifying the battle for the market share between top producers including Russia and Saudi Arabia, Reuters emphasized. Before sanctions, Iran was exporting about 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd). July exports are expected to be around 2.1 million bpd, up about 70 percent year-on-year. Oops! There was a problem! Sorry, but we can't find what you were looking for right now. The content may have been removed, or is temporarily unavailable. GreatAndhra.com powered by India Brains Infotech, LLC, its owners, associates and employees are not responsible for any errors, omissions or representations on any of our pages or on any links on any of our pages. We do not endorse in anyway any advertisers on our web pages, links to personal pages, official pages, or commercial pages. We have no control of the content of external information. Please verify the veracity of all information on your own before undertaking any reliance. The linked sites are not under our control and we are not responsible for the contents of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site, or any changes or updates to such sites. We are providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by us of the site. We hereby expressly disclaim any implied warranties imputed by the laws of any jurisdiction. We consider ourselves and intend to be subject to the jurisdiction only of the courts of the state of California. Greatandhra.com also contains material in the form of inputs/feedbacks submitted by users and Greatandhra.com accepts no responsibility for the content or accuracy of such content nor does it make any representations by virtue of the contents of Greatandhra.com in respect of the existence or availability of any goods and services advertised in the contributory sections. Greatandhra.com makes no warranty that the site contents are Virus -free or anything else, which has destructive properties and shall have no liability in respect thereof. Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, GreatAndhra.com takes no responsibility for and will not be liable for the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond its control. If you have any questions or concerns about a published article, please send us email at venkat@greatandhra.com . We will review your request and article will be removed immediatly. Tehran, Iran, July 2 By Mehdi Sepahvand Trend: After a wave of revelation of inflated salaries among Iranian banking officials, five top officials of the National Development Fund of Iran (NDFI) resigned. Chairman of NDFI board of directors Safdar Hosseini and four members resigned during their weekly meeting which was attended by Irans President Hassan Rouhani, Tasnim news agency reported July 2. The action was taken after the presidents of four public banks were laid off earlier this week for inflated salaries that were revealed on social media. On June 30, Economy Minister Ali Tayyebnia replaced the heads of Mehr Iran, Mellat, Refah, and Saderat banks at President Rouhanis request because they had received much more money than ordinary Iranians. Collective resignations are rare in Iran. As a result, the new NDFI move has come as a revolutionary act to many Iranians. GREENSBORO The Eastern Music Festival will take its artistry from the concert hall to the ballpark Monday when its professional and student musicians perform at the Greensboro Grasshoppers game. EMF offers a five-week school for young pre-professional musicians and a concert series for the public at Guilford College. Students come from the United States and from as far as Sri Lanka, more than 9,000 miles away. Renowned violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, who is in town to teach and perform at EMF, will play the national anthem at the Grasshoppers game against the West Virginia Power. I had to make my own arrangements, so its got some chords and double stops and runs and something a little virtuosic, she said. Concert pianist and EMF faculty member Awadagin Pratt will show his baseball prowess when he throws out the first pitch. EMF students will perform on the field before the game, then from the stands at times such as the seventh-inning stretch. Its going to be a wonderful event for EMF, especially for our international students who are experiencing their first Fourth of July, said Cathy Weaver, EMF public relations specialist. The Grasshoppers Independence Day game is a popular attraction. The Hoppers have averaged crowds of 9,742 on previous Fourths, in a ballpark with 5,300 chairback seats and an official capacity of 7,499. Seats are sold out for Mondays game. But new ticket-buyers can look for lawn seats or watch from the concourse. Stick around for the post-game fireworks. The downtown Fun Fourth Festival will launch its own fireworks show at about 9:30 p.m. So Hoppers fans could get a double dose. It all feels routine: You come home from work, pick out a nice tie (not the red one, you wore that yesterday) and head out to dinner at that new Thai place your co-worker has been telling you about. You head to the concert venue, and you cant find a parking space. The weather is a bit humid, and on top of all of that, your boss is at the concert, too. Attending a recital can feel routine. Instrumentalist comes out, we clap, she plays, we clap between pieces, intermission, she plays, gets an ovation, and we both call it a day. On Thursday, the recital given by Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg at Dana Auditorium disrupted the conventional standards of a classical recital and set a high bar for EMF recitals to come. With her flexible posture and glowing confidence, Sonnenberg received wildly enthusiastic applause before she began to play. Before opening with Arvo Parts Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in Mirror), she ushered the audience to hold their applause until after the second piece. Were going to play the Part and go immediately into the Faure, she said. It is customary (albeit, polite) to clap after every song in a recital; the forboden rule is clapping after every movement in a suite or symphony. This custom is mentioned because Sonnenberg does not do this once, but twice, at the top of the second half, when she was joined by the EMF string fellows. Opening this half with another Part piece, that went straight into the luscious second movement of the Elgar Serenade for Strings. Both instances of pieces flowing from one to the other worked so flawlessly, they exposed the influences these composers no doubt had on one another. In another vein, this swift, off-the-cusp choice by Sonnenberg exposed an even deeper truth: Chamber music is emotionally intimate. She does not break the rules so much as acknowledge them and make them her own. Over the course of the two hours, Sonnenberg pulled apart everything that surrounds the emotional center of each piece. Even hours after the concert has ended, it is hard to shake the power she has over you. One can only imagine and indeed one does the pain and sorrow she expresses as she plays Parts reflective Spiegel im Spiegel or the joy she emotes toward her accompanist, the incomparable Marika Bournaki, in Faures Violin Sonata No. 1. Sonnenberg feels less of a musician and more of a prophetic artist, bridging her audience between themselves and the music. A messenger between the past and now. The resonance each piece has on her is seen in her face, her posture, her bow, her vibrato, as if playing with her heart on the stage, exposed and vulnerable for everyone. So were the EMF String Fellows in the second half. Following the Part and Elgar pieces, the group, under the direction of Sonnenberg, performed the rarely heard Holberg Suite by Grieg with a hefty power and concluded with Schnittkes Polka, displaying the groups concentrated ability. Sonnenberg conducted each piece from her seat as she played. Her leadership consisted of slight gestures and emotive movements that brought the Fellows playing up to stratospheric proportions. No doubt there will be purists who will turn their noses up at someone who has as much talent, devoted fans and you-had-to-be-there reactions from concertgoers as Sonnenberg. Then again, so have many other artists before her: Glenn Gould, Leonard Bernstein, The Beatles, Lady Gaga. Some will call her choices controversial; others will call them groundbreaking for the future of classical music audiences and artists to come. Given the wild ovations that followed Thursdays concert, youll likely go with the latter. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will be in Raleigh on Tuesday the same day Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton will hold a rally with President Barack Obama in Charlotte, according to the News & Observer of Raleigh. The appearance by both candidates is reaffirmation of the key role the state will play in deciding the next president. North Carolina is one of the few remaining "purple states" ground that could go Democrat or Republican in what's already becoming a hard-fought race for president. As a Republican, and more importantly, as an American, I believe delegates to the Republican National Convention should be free to vote their conscience. The delegates are the last gate through which our nominee must pass, and if Donald Trump doesnt pass muster, the delegates must select a candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton. Goal No. 1 is to win the White House. Trump is falling badly behind in his last fundraising filing, in polling and in campaign organization. Our nominee should be able to easily beat Clinton the most corrupt presidential nominee in decades. Instead, Trump is struggling to even stay on the playing field. Grass-roots Republicans are leaving his failed candidacy in scores, and our delegates should be free to select a new nominee in good conscience. The Harbor Management Commission may have a new chairman, but it continues to act as a political arm of the First Selectmans office, ignoring a mandate to develop a long term harbor plan and aggressively determined to undermine the credibility and effectiveness of the state harbormaster for Greenwich. The newest occupant of the commissions chair is Old Greenwich attorney Bruce Angiolillo, elected this spring after not even First Selectman Peter Tesei could continue to endorse previous chairman Frank Mazzas autocratic style and flouting of basic democratic protocols. A retired litigator, Angiolillo is now general counsel for TK Holdings, the North American subsidiary of Takata Corp., the company that makes exploding air bags for automobiles. Angiolillo recently wrote an email to Ian Macmillan, State Harbormaster for Greenwich, who among other things had asked Angiolillos guidance about how to deal with unpermitted moorings in Greenwich waters. Such illegal moorings can pose navigational and safety hazards, particularly at low tide. The chairmans response shows he has no understanding of the Harbormasters role; or, if he does understand it, he is purposefully discounting it. In the email Angiolillo instructs the harbormaster to communicate in writing with the commissions mooring subcommittee. Fair enough. But then he delivers his own interpretation of Macmillans responsibilities: It should go without saying that you have no public safety responsibilities in the [Greenwich Harbor Area] and in the event of an emergency involving health or safety of persons on the water you should immediately contact the Marine Division of the Police Department and the Coast Guard. The harbormasters actual job description which is posted on the Connecticut Harbormasters Association website reads as follows: In ports and harbors along the Connecticut coast, and especially in the towns where the mix of water uses is most diverse, State Harbormasters and Deputy Harbormasters have a distinct and essential role for ensuring public safety and managing our waterways in the public interest. Theirs is the job of maintaining an orderly haven where all vessels, including commercial fishing boats, tugs and barges, recreational sail and power boats, ferries and excursion vessels, ocean-going ships, and even small, nonmotorized craft such as canoes and kayaks, may coexist in safety and harmony. So it seems the harbormasters job is all about public safety and health. Angiolillo also stood before a public meeting this year and denounced Macmillan, claiming he abused the harbormasters small motorboat and strongly insinuated that Macmillan had been drinking while on the job. His proof? An unopened can of beer in the harbormasters boat. He also asked the question, What does Ian Macmillan do? And then answered that he did essentially nothing. But if Macmillan does nothing, why did Angiolillo direct Macmillan to provide his commission, in writing, the following information: Preliminary Provisional Mooring Permit (PPMP) data; the date PPMP was granted; the name, address, email and telephone number of the mooring applicant; vessel name and registration number; vessel draft/required depth; mooring vendor; mooring tackle inspection information; latitude/longitude location of the mooring; mooring tackle and chain length. Macmillan has this information because he and a few dedicated volunteers have spent their own time and money to map the location of hundreds of moorings in Greenwich Harbor. The task took thousands of man-hours and several years. Also, because the town doesnt require applicant to provide most of this information, Macmillan has to follow up with phone calls to the boat owners. One would think that the secretary in the First Selectmans Office, whose salary is paid in part by mooring application fees, should do that clerical work. Angiolillo and the commission know this, but continue to insult, harangue, and belittle the harbormasters accomplishments. Invisible hand This is just the latest nonsense coming from Teseis Harbor Management Commission 3.0. The first selectman has systematically weeded out commission members who refused to play along with his punishment of Macmillan the unlucky chap caught in the crosshairs of Teseis vendetta against Gov. Dannel Malloy. Such behavior recently prompted Gary Silverberg to resign his seat as an alternate and sharply criticize the commissions work. In a letter to Tesei, Silverberg who was a member of the harbor panels that existed before the Harbor Management Commissions formation wrote: Throughout my service to the Town on this and the two predecessor committees, I was hopeful that with diligent efforts and a forthright approach, we could accomplish something positive for the town, but I now believe that I am sadly mistaken. Everything the town and commission have done in its relation to the harbormaster has been atrocious and contrary to the spirit of cooperation. The town not only violates state statues and flaunts federal anchoring and mooring regulations, it even violates its own town ordinances and the special acts, which it so highly covets. The continued pressure and guidance by the invisible hand in the corner office continues to divert the process from a productive and positive outcome to an attempt at retribution against the Governor for not appointing the chosen harbormaster candidate. The conduct of this commission is reprehensible The letter, provided to me by someone other than Silverberg, goes on at length with criticisms of the proposed Harbor Management Plan and the towns insistence that special acts passed by the state legislature in the late 1940s and early 50s give Greenwich exceptional powers over Greenwich Harbor. Litigator Angiolillo is the strongest proponent of this belief, but Silverberg points out that a statute passed many years later puts the special acts in the context of Connecticut law. The state statute Silverberg cites reads, in part, The powers and duties of all existing harbor boards or boards of harbor commissioners under either the general statues or special acts of this state shall be vested in the (state transportation) commissioner but all such boards shall continue in the department to assist the commissioner in an advisory capacity, and to perform such duties as he may delegate to them. The town spent between $25,000 and $30,000 of mooring fees on an independent law firm hired to interpret that statute. That firms opinion, now several years old, agreed with the dominant role of the state. But that was inconvenient for Tesei, so he has ignored it and continues wasting money that could go toward safety improvements to Greenwich Harbor. bobhorton@yahoo.com Baku, Azerbaijan, July 2 By Fatih Karimov Trend: A trainer plane of aviation training centre of Irans flag carrier Iran Air crashed in the northern province of Alborz on July 2, Fars news agency reported. There were two people onboard the plane a student pilot and an instructor, Iran Civil Aviation Organizations Public Relations Director Reza Jafarzadeh said, adding the student was killed in the incident. He further said the Civil Aviation Organization sent an incident investigation team to the crash location to investigate the issue. Earlier, on June 5 a PC-7 light trainer aircraft of an air force base near the city of Isfahan crashed due to technical problems. The aircraft's pilot and co-pilot were injured in the accident. On April 27, an F-7 jet trainer of Iran's army crashed in a desert near the city of Naein in Isfahan province. However, the aircraft's pilot and co-pilot managed to bail out in safety. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Saying the world has not learned enough from the Holocaust, survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel urged hundreds of Brunswick School students to "think higher and feel deeper" when they wonder how to respond to modern-day atrocities. Wiesel, 81, on Tuesday afternoon addressed eighth-graders through seniors at the private school, many of whom had read the most well-known of the more than 50 books he has written. "Night" is a memoir of Wiesel's experiences in several concentration camps during the Holocaust, where he lost his father, mother and sister. Instead of retelling his story, Wiesel spoke about why he decided it was so important to put it down on paper. Wiesel, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, said he had to wait 10 years after the end of World War II before he could write about his experiences, to be sure he used the right words. But reliving such a horrible experience in places like Auschwitz and Buchenwald, where his father died just months before the camp was liberated in 1945, is a way to preserve the memory, he said. More News Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor delivers powerful... "To forget would give the enemy a posthumous victory," Wiesel said, "and I don't want that enemy to prevail, ever." Wiesel, who was born in the Transylvania region of Romania and lives in New York City today, also spoke about how living through the Holocaust affected his faith. "I cannot say my faith today is as pure as it was at your age," Wiesel said. "It's a wounded faith." One student, senior Gus Rochman, asked Wiesel how to prevent other tragedies, such as the recent genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Wiesel said students should speak out against what is happening, signing petitions and urging politicians to act. "Believe me, this has an impact," Wiesel said, "because then other schools will do the same." Another student asked how Wiesel's experiences have colored his views on the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Wiesel said one of his rules is that he doesn't want his hope to be based on someone else's despair. "Therefore, we cannot avoid realizing that Israel's hope is based on the Palestinian despair," Wiesel said. "But today, we must be honest and say that the real problem there is not between Palestinians and Israel, but between Palestinians and themselves." To laughs, Wiesel admitted if he knew how to solve the conflict "I would get a second Nobel prize." Rochman said after the talk that Wiesel presented a powerful message. "I don't know if it gave me new direction, but I think it gave everyone a feeling of empowerment," Rochman said. "There is so much we can do on an individual level." Brunswick's headmaster, Thomas Philip, said the school had been hoping for a while to have Wiesel speak at the school, and through contacts that parents had, were able to host him. Philip said one of the most important messages Wiesel delivered was about how education does not prevent people from causing harm, and that even in Germany, with a great culture and fine schools, millions of Jews were killed. "Just being well-educated isn't good enough," Philip said. "Even well-educated people have the capacity to do terrible things." Staff Writer Lisa Chamoff can be reached at lisa.chamoff@scni.com or 625-4439. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Amid the luxurious auction items, the hustling waiters with plates of fine hors d'oeuvres and the elegant crowd lingering around adorned tables, was a handmade quilt. The description said the Patient and Family Handmade Quilt was started by Pauline Mac k innon and completed by Barbara Vito on her behalf. Mac k innon died of multiple myeloma this November and left the quilt half-finished. The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation fall gala at Greenwichs Hyatt-Regency on Saturday had moments of luxury and intimacy, empowering messages and bittersweet memories. At the end of the evening, more than $2 million had been raised for cancer research. Actress Bonnie Hunt hosted the gala, and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel was the courage and commitment honoree. Twin sisters and Foundation co-founders Kathy Giusti and Karen Andrews spoke about their experiences with cancer and at the end of the night. Grammy award winner John Legend performed. For the first hour, guests mingled in the silent auction room. The room was immaculate, with trees of lights decorating table center pieces and encircled by iPads listing the nights speakers and live auction bids. The room smelled of perfume, wine and occasional wafts of cubed cheese or antipasti, served on trays by roaming waiters. Attendees affiliated with the foundation, including sponsors Takeda Oncology and Janssen, stayed in a nearby room with a more intimate setting. Cindy Chmielewski decked out in a dark dress and pearl necklace, a glass of wine in hand spent much of her hour in that room, laughing. This is new for Chmielewski, who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2008. I was so afraid of not getting to see my daughter graduate and not getting to see my grandchildren, she said. What could have been a death sentence, she said, turned into a source of empowerment. Chmielewski is a patient speaker for Takeda Oncologys patient advocacy program. I was unhappy to retire and quit teaching, and that with myeloma was so much. Now Im teaching a new community of myeloma patients, Im starting a new life, said Chmielewski, who tours the country to give talks to other cancer patients. Im thinking Ill see a cure in my lifetime, she said. Chmielewski is in recovery, having benefited from new drugs for cancer treatment that were brought to market because of the foundation. Were on the cusp of something. Its all very close, and I think there will be a sense of great hope in the room, said Walter Capone, the CEO and president of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation for the past five years. Finding a cure was the theme of the evenings speeches. At 7 p.m., more than 800 guests found their seats at the dinner table in the Hyatts 21,600-square-foot pavilion. A white tent was erected for the occasion, the words MMRF projected onto the folds of fabric above. The stage had a jumbo screen on each side, and every table had bouquets of flowers in glass vases. As a cancer nurse and a person deeply affected by cancer in the family, I can say that this foundation is definitely making a difference, said Hunt during her opening speech. Hunt was an oncology nurse in Chicago before her career as an actress. This is not about a commitment to a cause, its about a commitment to one another, said Andrews, co-founder of the foundation, who was given the Spirit of Hope award at the gala. Elisha Wiesel spoke for his father, Elie Wiesel, who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. He is a Holocaust survivor, he is a hit-and-run survivor, and now, thanks to you all, hes a multiple myeloma survivor, said Wiesel to the crowd. Thank you for this gift of time. Legend performed after the speakers and awards, telling the crowd, Thank you for all the work youve done to cure cancer. A dance party continued until well after the official end to the gala. Its a hard balance really conveying the message and at the same time providing for the people who so generously contributed to the foundation, said Andrews. Andrews, who has been fighting to help her sister heal from multiple myeloma, was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and endured months of chemotherapy and the loss of her hair. She decided to attend the gala wig-free, which made her son, Tyler Andrews, even more proud of her and her Spirit of Hope award, he said. She is really strong, someone I idolize and someone I aspire to be, he said. Andrews wrapped her arms around her son. Its important that people feel like theyre having an impact because they are, he said. The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation directs 90 percent of its total budget to research-related programming. Though the foundations silent and live auctions closed at the end of the evening, online auctions at Charity Buzz will be open until 3 p.m. Nov. 5. SFoster-Frau@scni.com; @SilviaElenaFF Baku, Azerbaijan, July 2 By Fatih Karimov Trend: Iran's navy repelled pirate attacks against an Iranian oil tank July 2 morning, Irans Tasnim news agency reported July 2. At least 115 pirates in 12 boats launched two attacks on an Iranian oil tank, however, the pirates had to flee after the Iranian Navy's 41st flotilla opened heavy fire. The incident took place in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, a checkpoint between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. The Iranian Navy's 41st flotilla comprising Naghdi destroyer and Lavan logistic warship was dispatched to international waters on June 1. Iran's Navy has been recently increasing its presence in international waters to protect naval routes and ensure security for merchant vessels and tankers. In line with international efforts to combat piracy, the Iranian Navy has also been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008 to safeguard the vessels involved in maritime trade, especially the ships and oil tankers owned or leased by Iran. As you might already know, the US Senate has announced that staffers will no longer be issued BlackBerry devices for their official work. This information was first reported by Bomble, and is based on an internal email accessed by the publication. Curiously, the email - in the very beginning - says, "BlackBerry informed Verizon and AT&T that production of all BlackBerry OS 10 devices (Q10, Z10, Z30, Passport, and Classic) has been discontinued. Future carrier order fulfillment will not be guaranteed due to limited remaining stock." However, when reached out for a comment, the Canadian company flatly denied this, terming the statement on discontinuation of BB OS 10 devices as "incorrect." Here's the complete response from the company: The statement about discontinuation of BlackBerry 10 at AT&T and Verizon is incorrect. BlackBerry's device strategy is based on a cross-platform model where we'll continue to support our BlackBerry 10 platform while expanding our device offering to include Android-based devices. We are focused on software updates for BlackBerry 10, with version 10.3.3 scheduled for next month, and a second update to follow next year. Similar to many other device makers, we are changing the lineup of smartphones as we innovate and advance our portfolio. And, we are updating our smartphone lineup with state of the art devices. As part of this, and after many successful years in the market, we have informed our US carriers that the manufacturing cycle of only our BlackBerry Classic will cease. However, we have informed our customers to check with their respective carrier for device availability or purchase Classic unlocked online. We continue to actively support sales of our BlackBerry 10 smartphones to customers in most markets. And for customers choosing our Android device as their next smartphone, there will be a seamless transition without any compromise to the security of their mobile platform or operations. We believe that being truly cross platform which includes support for BB10, Android, iOS and Windows Phone will allow us to best serve our customers across the world. So, as it stands now, the Classic is being discontinued, while other BB OS 10 phones will still around. Via The US Senate announced that staffers are no longer able to request any BlackBerry 10 devices to use for official work purposes. The alternative phones offered to fill the BlackBerry void are a Samsung Galaxy S6 or an iPhone SE. Current Blackberry users wont be immediately switched out of the BlackBerry ecosystem just yet. These users of the Q10, Z10, Z30, Passport and BlackBerry Classic will continue to be supported until the hardware reaches the end of its life cycle. BlackBerry Z10, released in 2013 Blackberry was used in the US Senate for about a decade. Earlier on, BlackBerries were touted for their secure email, messaging, and closed operating system. The same secure features were not even available with iOS and Android when they were first conceived. For a long time, iOS did not even support Microsoft Exchange accounts. Fast forward to a few short years later, iOS and Android grew exponentially and both operating systems matured, leaving BlackBerry behind as the company who didnt adapt quickly enough. As apps became more popular among iOS and Android users, BlackBerrys hardware limited the App experience and caused them to fall back. Source | Via Pushing the boundaries of what still passes for a phone, the Honor V8 Max has been certified by the Chinese regulator TENAA. This 6.6-inch phablet will compete with the likes of Xiaomi Mi Max, Lenovo Phab2 Pro/Plus, and Asus Zenfone 3 Ultra for the hearts of those who type, browse and watch more than they talk. The Honor V8 Max features a 6.6-inch QuadHD AMOLED display - apparently Huawei's reluctance to go beyond 1080p had to be reconsidered in light of the huge diagonal. In all fairness, the precedent has already been set with one version of the non-Max Honor V8, which does sport a 5.7-inch QHD display. Anyway, the V8 Max is powered by what appears to be the Kirin 950 chipset - the octa-core processor clocked at 2.3GHz points to that, as opposed to the slightly more powerful Kirin 955 and its 2.5GHz CPU clock rate. There are 3GB of RAM on board, as well as 32GB of storage, expandable via microSD. The camera department is represented by a rather mainstream 13MP primary shooter, and an 8MP front-facing unit. There's a fingerprint sensor on the back too - perhaps the only meaningful location on such a large device. The Honor V8 Max comes with a 4,400mAh battery to keep that giant display lit up, and the device weighs a rather reasonable 219g, all things considered. It measures 178.8 x 90.9 x 7.2mm, so it's quite a handful, nonetheless. Naturally, there's no info on price and availability at this point, but if you're looking at going beyond 6 inches, the Honor V8 Max might be worth waiting for. Source | Via While it has been rumored earlier, a new leak - which comes in the form of an image from accessory maker Olixar - has now confirmed the presence of a USB Type-C port on Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Note7 smartphone. The port is located at the bottom of the handset, as is usually the case, with a loudspeaker and S-Pen slot on its one side, and a headphone jack on the other. The image also reveals that the phone will feature an iris scanner, something which has already been confirmed by a separate leak. Coming back to the USB Type-C port, its presence will make the Note7 the first Samsung smartphone of its kind. And this would most likely result in the company releasing a new Gear VR headset given that the current headset connects to Samsung phones via microUSB. Source | Via These are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales. A car bomb exploded in central Baghdad, leaving at least eighteen people dead. A bomb exploded in a crowded shopping area of Baghdad, leaving al least 18 people dead and 45 injured, AP reported, citing the police. There were no immediate reports on whether any group took responsibility. A source from Iraqi police told Sputnik that the blast rocked a busy Karada district in the center of Baghdad. Haiti - FLASH : Haiti on the blacklist of shame On Thursday, the State Department released its annual report on human trafficking in the world, that evaluates how the different countries meet standards to fight against this scourge, established in US law in 2000. The United States have updated their "black list" of countries that do not meet the minimum standards and are not doing enough to fight against the scourge of human trafficking or slavery, adding to this blacklist of shame, 8 new countries : Haiti, Suriname, Myanmar, Djibouti, Papua New Guinea, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan that join the 18 other: Algeria, Belarus, Belize, Burundi, Central African Republic, the Marshall islands and the Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, North Korea , Mauritania, Russia, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. Note that Cuba removed last year, remains in this report but in the "special observation" category because of its "significant efforts" to eliminate forced labor and sexual exploitation, spread on its territory. "When we talk about trafficking, we talk about slavery, modern slavery, which still affects 20 million people [...]" declared at a press conference, John Kerry, Secretary of State during the presentation of the report. The inclusion on the "black list" is not without consequence, it opens the door to the imposition of economic sanctions, freezing of non humanitarian aid and non-commercial and the refusal to grant loans from multilateral institutions. US President Barack Obama now has 90 days to decide whether to apply sanctions on the countries of the "black list". The decision to include Haiti in this list is the result of little effort of successive governments to fight against trafficking and exploitation of people. Haiti, with more than 200,000 "restavek" (about 3% of children in the country) https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-16846-icihaiti-social-over-200-000-domestic-slaves-under-15-years-in-the-country.html practice a form of domestic slavery centenary, disguised as social support, which allows having a cheap workforce. This practice, in many ways, is similar to an exploitation system. As stated by Charles Jean-Jacques, then Minister of Social Affairs, in May 2014 "it is inconceivable to XXI century, in a country that abolished slavery, to have children as slaves." See also : https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-16846-icihaiti-social-over-200-000-domestic-slaves-under-15-years-in-the-country.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-15815-haiti-politic-fight-against-trafficking-of-restavek-in-haiti.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-11583-haiti-politic-the-restaveks-on-the-agenda-of-cidp.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-11263-haiti-social-launch-of-nationwide-study-on-children-restaveks.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-2366-haiti-social-16-million-to-fight-against-the-exploitation-of-the-restaveks.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-2037-haiti-social-father-miguel-the-hope-for-the-children-restavek.html SL / HaitiLibre Haiti - Elections : The CEP met with Political Parties Pursuing its general activities in view of the upcoming elections, the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) met Thursday, June 30, at 10:00 am, then at 4:00 pm, political parties around the deployment of their representatives at the elections of 9 october and 2016 and 8 January 2017. At the beginning of this exchange and informations meeting, the President of the CEP, Leopold Berlanger outlined six working components of CEP for the elections. The 1sr component concerns the identity of the voters. Nobody can vote in polls, if his name is not on the list issued by the CEP. In the 2nd component, the Council focuses on reform of the electoral machine. Of reforms to apply are made from a work schedule. Through the 3rd component, the Commission intends to give the opportunity to citizens and actors of civil society to take ownership of the electoral process, to facilitate the mobilization and citizen vigilance. In the 4th component, the strengthening of Votes Tabulation Center (CTV) to make it more rigorous, more efficient and more reliable, prevails. As for the 5th component, it focuses on maintaining the partnership CEP/Government, while the 6th takes account of the legal and security aspects of operations. The Council attaches great importance to the regulations. In this sense, an electoral code of conduct is being developed in order to solve problems for which the Constitution and the Electoral Decree have nothing planned. Regarding the deployment of representaives, the Council presented to political leaders a plan that allows political parties and groups to register themselves, their representatives on the CEP website safely. By this method, any duplication of mandates will not be possible. The CEP is committed in the same vein, to provide political entities of training tools for their representatives. In addition, the Council made an explicit presentation of the steps already taken in the electoral process and the decisions adopted. Political parties have shown concern about including : electoral violence, CEP's decision to place witnesses at the voting centers, the question of change of address, voter awareness, the national ID cards in circulation without the control of the ONI, the financing of the electoral campaign, the budget of the elections to be held, the local production of ballots, the repatriation of the electoral process, the necessary changes in the electoral machine. HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - NOTICE : SMS, special derogation of CONATEL for CEP The Directorate General of the Executive Body of the National Telecommunications Council (CONATEL) in a notice to operators, recalls that in accordance with Article 4 of the OE-CNT-DEC20140001 regulation sanctioning the sending of unsolicited SMS Article 4. It is forbidden for any, operators or service providers to transmit unsolicited commercial SMS from eight pm to eight am, except in cases of emergency or natural disaster or on request of competent authorities. ; It gave derogation to the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) for sending SMS and robot calls beyond regular hours, to enable it to carry out an awareness campaign in order to encourage citizens to register for the National Identification Office to obtain their National Identification Card (CIN) in anticipation of fulfilling their civic duty. For this purpose, for this service, operators are allowed not to apply Articles of the Regulation for the period June 25 to July 11, 2016 exclusively. Moreover, to the views of the many complaints concerning the receiving unsolicited SMS CONATEL recalls the obligation for mobile operators to comply with the regulatory provisions # OE-CNT-DEC20140001, published in the Official Gazette on Monday, September 8, 2014, No. 70 Among others the following items: Article 5. The phone operator must make available to the subscriber an accessible number by SMS enabling the latter to enter his phone number on an "exception list" containing the telephone numbers on which subscribers do not want to receive unsolicited SMS. Article 6. No call or SMS of advertisement should be routed to the phone numbers of the list of exceptions, except for calls or SMS from the operator providing information enabling the user to better use the services called calls or SMS service. Article 10. Any service provider, marketing company, individual or another that performs a voice call or sending an SMS of solicitation outside the established hours, or against the will of the user will be punished in the following manner after the facts have been gathered and assessed by CONATEL pursuant to Article 146 of the Decree of 12 October 1977 cited above : A fine of 50,000 gourdes per SMS of Call group (made simultaneously for the same text) ; A fine of 100,000 gourdes per group of voice calls of solicitation unsolicited (performed by a single command for the same recording). Article 11. The amount of the fine will be doubled for each new violation of the provisions of this Regulation." The Executive Body of CONATEL reaffirms its determination to enforce the law and regulations for a healthy development of the telecommunications sector. HL/ S/ HaitiLibre Haiti - News : Zapping politics... Ceant wishes a new agreement Me Jean-Henry Ceantpresidential candidate of the party "Ayiti Renmen" wish a new political agreement "in the current political context, the Electoral Decree is not fully applicable. Therefore, we need a political agreement [agreement between the CEP and the political parties]. For example, the mandate of the CEP had been consigned to the Electoral Decree and now the head of state issued a decree to widen it." Meeting of CCC On 5 and 6 July will be held in Santo Domingo the 5th encounters of the Coordination Joint Committee (CCC) of the Binational Cooperation Program. This is an opportunity to present the reports of the last 6 months and above to define the prospects for the next semester. Town hall of Borgne torched Unknown individuals set fire to the town hall of Borgne, in the north, on the night of Thursday, June 30, the building is a total loss. CEP works with ONI The CEP has announced that it works in conjunction with the National Identification Office (ONI), which is administratively act on the CIN 2,500,000 cards that could have disappeared, in order to clarify the situation before the forthcoming elections. Not yet date To know hen the continuation of the session in National Assembly could take place, Francisco Delacruz, a member of the majority in the Senate, indicated "I'm not sure that the discussions continue. So there is still no date for the holding of the session. Especially since we can no longer afford to meet again for the gallery without a prior agreement." Is the State will disburse the funds on time Leopold Berlanger, President of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) recalls that the elections will cost $ 55 million, adding that "It is the responsibility of the State to provide these resources," hoping that the state will disburse funds on time to enable the CEP to fulfill its obligations , also he confirms having had several meetings with the financial authorities in this regard. Temporary staff Regarding the recruitment of temporary staff, the CEP has assured it will be done on competition within a transparent framework. It gave further details on in particular, the functioning of the electoral machinery, the construction of a referential administrative framework. Privert met executives of MSPP On Friday, President ai of the Republic Jocelerme Privert, accompanied by the Minister of Public Health, Dr Daphnee Benoit Delsoin, met different part executives of the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP), at the premises of the Hospital of the State University of Haiti (HUEH) around the crisis in the medical sector. PM participated in Canada Day rime Minister Enex Jean-Charles and his wifeDarnick Irvinn C. Jean Charles, participated in the National Canada Day yesterday July 1. Many personalities were present at the official residence of the Ambassador of Canada accredited to Haiti Caldwell St-Onge to celebrate with Canadian their national holiday. Another prominent figure of the Haitian public life also invited to the celebration, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cults, Pierrot Delienne. HL/ HaitiLibre Heavy rain caused a landslide in southwestern China Friday (Jul 1) that killed at least 11 and left 12 others missing, Channel News Asia reported. The landslide hit early morning and buried 29 people in the village of Pianpo, in the province of Guizhou, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing the county government. Seventeen had been pulled from the rubble as of early Friday evening - 10 of whom were pronounced dead at the scene, it said. Rescue efforts were continuing with some 800 soldiers and relief workers on-site, according a statement from the province's civil affairs department on its official social media account. Pictures posted online showed a deluge of mud had toppled trees and crushed cement buildings, leaving bricks and cinderblocks scattered in heaps of rubble. Rescue workers with hard hats and shovels dug at steep slopes of debris. Flooding is common during the summer monsoon season in southern China, but rainfall has been particularly heavy this year and many areas have been lashed by torrential rains this week. China's national observatory issued an orange alert for storms across the country's south and east on Thursday - the second highest warning in a four-tiered system - and told people to take precautions against possible flash floods and landslides, Xinhua said. As of Friday morning, some 120,000 people in those regions had been displaced by the threat of floods and landslides due to relentless rain, it added, citing the Ministry of Civil Affairs. More than 3,600 homes have collapsed, and direct economic losses tallied at 3.14 billion yuan (US$470 million), it said. Whole villages were levelled and at least 98 killed in the eastern province of Jiangsu last week after the region was hit by a storm with hurricane-force winds and the worst tornado in half a century. Published on 2016/07/02 | Source Park Yoo-chun has returned to his home after responding to the 8 hour police investigation. Advertisement Park Yoo-chun came out around at 2:00 AM on July 1st, after the lengthy investigation at the Gangnam police station. Park Yoo-chun, who looked exhausted clearly, left hurriedly without answering any question from the reporters. Prior to this, Park Yoo-chun arrived at the police station accompanied by his lawyer and two managers at 6:30 PM on June 30th. Park Yoo-chun has returned to the Gangnam District municipal office to continue his mandatory military service as a public service employee next day. The police investigated the case focusing on whether or not force was used and if there was an illegal sex trade during the first summon. The police also took a mouth swab from Park Yoo-chun and will compare the sample with the DNA found on the underwear provided by the first accuser, 'A'. Park Yoo-chun has been accused on four accounts of sexual assaults that four women have filed currently. The police formed an investigation team in charge of Park Yoo-chun's case and also banned four people including the accuser 'A' and 'A's boyfriend, and 'A's cousin from leaving the country in order to speed up the investigation. Published on 2016/07/02 | Source Added the upcoming Korean movie "V.I.P"'s page to HanCinema database Advertisement "V.I.P" (2016) Directed by Park Hoon-jung With Jang Dong-gun, Kim Myung-min, Park Hee-soon, Lee Jong-suk,... Synopsis A son to a high-ranked official in North Korea commits a series of murders going across the countries around the world. The movie depicts the following events as South Korea, North Korea and Interpol start chasing down after him. Release date in Korea : 2016 Baku, Azerbaijan, July 2 Trend: 14:46 (GMT+4) Islamist militants attack on an upscale cafe in the Bangladeshi capital killed 20 foreigners inside, before police stormed the building and rescued 13 hostages, Reuters reports. 07:53 (GMT+4) At least five have been killed, while more than 11 hostages rescued, as joint Bangladesh special operation forces stormed a Dhaka restaurant Saturday morning to free dozens of people from gunmen there, Xinhua reports. Five to six gunmen stormed the restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on Friday night. The Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attack. 07:30 (GMT+4) Gunmen have shot dead two police officials, police said, in the first attack on a foreign restaurant in Bangladesh claimed by Islamic State (IS) group, Xinhua reports. The gunmen stormed the restaurant in Bangladesh capital Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on Friday night at about 9:00 local time. At least 40 people including two more senior police officials were injured in the incident. 07:17 (GMT+4) Heavy gunfire and explosions rang out Saturday morning as Bangladesh security forces backed by armored vehicles moved to end a 10-hour standoff with heavily armed militants holding dozens of people hostage, including foreigners, after storming an upscale restaurant at the heart of Bangladesh's diplomatic zone, AP reports. Two police officers were killed and at least 26 people wounded in an earlier gunbattle. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. At least 35 people, including about 20 foreigners, were trapped inside the restaurant, said kitchen staffer Sumon Reza, who was among more than 10 people who managed to run to the rooftop and escape when the militants moved in Friday night. The Netherlands plans to join NATO battalion in Lithuania under Germany's control, Lithuanian Defense Minister Juozas Olekas said Saturday. According to Olekas, the details of the Netherlands' contribution and other countries' joining the alliance's battalions may become clear at the next NATO Summit in Warsaw, due to take place on July 8-9. "The Netherlands sent us a clear message that it is ready to join us. It was clearly stated at the meeting of NATO Defense Ministers [held on June 14-15, 2016 in Brussels]," Olekas told BNS news agency. Olekas added that "Germany will lead the battalion in Lithuania, Canada in Latvia, the Great Britain in Estonia and the United States in Poland." Following the NATO defense ministers' summit, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that the alliance agreed to deploy four multinational battalions to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. The ministers also agreed on measures to enhance defense and deterrence in the Black Sea region. A Turkish aid ship carrying 11,000 tons of supplies for the Gaza Strip left the southern port of Mersin Friday afternoon, Anadolu reported. The Lady Leyla sailed south for the Israeli port of Ashdod carrying 2,000 tons of rice, 5,000 tons of flour, 3,000 tons of sugar, 500 tons of cooking oil, and 10,000 food packages in addition to 100,000 pieces of clothing, 20,000 shoes, and 10,000 toys from the Turkish Grain Board and the Turkish Red Crescent (Kizilay). The Panamanian-flagged vessel is expected to dock within 30 hours. The humanitarian mission departed Turkey following this weeks reconciliation deal between Ankara and Tel Aviv to end a six-year freeze in relations. The supplies aboard this ship are a sort of present from the Turkish people to their brothers and sisters in Gaza ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Fitr, Development Minister Lutfi Elvan said at a ceremony in Mersin to mark the ships departure. They are a present from our children to Gazan children. Eid al-Fitr is the festival marking the end of Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Elvan thanked Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan for leading the process which led to the restoration of ties between Turkey and Israel, and subsequently the aid being sent today. He also extended his thanks to the Turkish aid agency AFAD, the Turkish Red Crescent, and the Foreign Ministry for their help and coordination. Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said that Turkey would continue to help the Palestinian people in the areas of education, health, development, and information technology. "God willing, all these projects will be completed at the earliest thanks to the [reconciliation] deal, Kaynak said, adding that Palestines largest hospital which is being built by The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) would be opening soon. "The end goal is to ensure that the Palestinians live happily and freely in their own country, and enjoy the same rights as everyone else, he said. Mersin Governor Ozdemir Cakacak said that the aid being sent to the Palestinians was not only a show of support, but an indication that we are always with them. We hope that the pain and tears in Palestine will end soon, he said. Palestinian Ambassador Faed Mustafa praised Turkeys continued help and support to the Palestinian cause since the beginning. "Turkey has given us much support during the establishment of the State of Palestine. And later on the Gaza issue. Turkey continues to be our number one supporter, he said. Diplomatic ties between Turkey and Israel were suspended after Israeli troops stormed a Gaza-bound aid ship, the Mavi Marmara, in international waters in May 2010 and killed 10 Turkish activists. The Mavi Marmara was among six civilian vessels of an international humanitarian aid convoy trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza when Israeli commandos boarded it. In the aftermath of the attack, Turkey demanded a formal apology from Israel, compensation for the families of those killed, and the lifting of Israels Gaza blockade. In 2013, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced regret for the attack, and this week months of talks bore fruit. Under the reconciliation deal, Israel agreed to Turkish humanitarian projects in Gaza as well as the payment of $20 million in compensation to the families of the Mavi Marmara victims. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. A chef is being hailed a hero after he jumped into the River Liffey to rescue a woman who had fallen in. Diarmuid Comerford was walking home from work in Temple Bar along Dublin's Bachelor's Walk when he spotted an argument between a couple and a group of youths. He told the Herald that the couple, who are believed to be from Sardinia off the coast of Italy, ended up in the water. Mr Comerford (27), from Co Kerry, called gardai before stripping off and jumping into the Liffey where he rescued the young woman. Floated "I saw some lad trying to climb out of the river and then he was back in again. "I looked in the water and I could see a woman. She had just floated into a little patch of light. "She was holding her head above the water but she couldn't swim. She wasn't treading water, she was just drifting. "I gave the phone to this other passer-by and I just jumped into the river and brought her over to the Southside wall. "People threw us down a buoy and we climbed up," he said. Mr Comerford said that he and the couple were suffering from shock after the incident. An ambulance arrived and quickly brought them to St James's Hospital. "When they took her to the hospital, she was really, really cold. Her core temperature was very low," he added. The couple had been sitting alone on Bachelor's Walk at around 11.25pm on Tuesday, June 21. Mr Comerford said the youths approached them and started demanding cash and telephones. "They asked them for cigarettes. When the couple didn't have a cigarette, they took the man's phone, his expensive watch, his wallet," he explained. "I think she had tried to hold on to her phone and one of the girls who was in the group grabbed her hair and before either of them knew what was happening they were both in the water." Mr Comerford, who is originally from Lauragh in Co Kerry, is working as a chef in Klaw restaurant in Temple Bar. "My brother and I had lifeguard training lessons when we were in secondary school. I never really had to use them ... but seeing the woman in trouble, it all came back to me very quickly," he said. "I feel overwhelmed by the attention," he told this newspaper. "It's a nice thing to have done. I know for myself the next time I see somebody drowning that I will be able to do it. "Having said that, I hope I never have to do it again," he added. humble A garda spokesman confirmed that they have received a complaint about an incident on June 21 in Dublin's inner city. "We are investigating the circumstances of this incident," the spokesperson told the Herald. Mr Comerford's mother, Oonagh, said she is "extremely proud" of her son's actions. "I'm really proud of him and he's so humble about the whole incident," she said. "I had no idea that he rescued the woman at night, which adds to the whole terror of the incident in a way. "I used to organise the Swim Week years ago and that's where he learned water safety techniques," she added. Celia Larkin last night moved to distance herself from the board of a Console UK charity after she was listed as a trustee of the body in court. A "Celia Larkin" was named as a trustee of a UK charity called Console Suicide Prevention Ltd, which had links to the Irish charity. This prompted the former partner of Bertie Ahern, to clarify the situation. Ms Larkin said that while she agreed to become a member of the board of Console UK, she never attended any board meeting or was invited to do so. The High Court heard yesterday that further investigations into the suicide bereavement counselling charity Console have brought to light transactions between it and its sister organisation in the UK. Linked Information had also emerged about three linked properties around the country, as well as about a Paypal account, the court heard. Freezing orders obtained by the interim CEO of Console in Ireland should be notified to the English bank which handled the transactions, Keith Farry BL for Console said. Mr Farry said since the orders were obtained against Paul Kelly and his wife Patricia Dowling, preventing them accessing its accounts, links with the UK charity which is called "Console Suicide Prevention Ltd" had come to light. It followed further investigations by Mr Hall, who was appointed by the other Console directors and who brought the court proceedings to ensure the charity's services are maintained and to secure its assets. The trustees of the UK body were Kelly and his wife, their son Tim Kelly, and the name of a fourth trustee allegedly appointed on May 7, 2015, was a "Celia Larkin", Mr Farry said. Last night Ms Larkin told RTE News that in May 2015, she was invited to become a member of the board of Console UK and she agreed to become a board member. In October 2015, Ms Larkin said that she attended the launch of Console UK. Shortly afterwards, the friend who had invited her to become a board member resigned from the organisation. Response Ms Larkin said that in January 2016 she resigned from the board of Console UK and wrote to the Companies Registration Office informing them of this. Solicitors for Console told the court that there has been difficulty contacting Kelly and his wife and in serving notices of proceedings personally on the Kellys. Mr Farry said he called to the Kelly address at Alexandra Manor, Clane, Co Kildare, and found the property had electric gates and there was no response when he rang. The postbox was over flowing with letters and it appeared nobody had been there for some time. Turkey's authorities have asked the United States to help capture an alleged mastermind behind the recent suicide bombing attack on the Istanbul Ataturk International Airport in Turkey, Akhmed Chatayev, The Wall Street Journal said Saturday, citing a senior US official. Three blasts hit the Ataturk Airport on Tuesday, leaving 44 people dead and 239 injured. Turkish media reported on Friday that two of the three suicide bombers were believed to have Russian passports. According to the US official, US intelligence services have informed Turkey that Chatayev was behind the triple bombing. However, Turkish authorities have not yet confirmed Chatayev's involvement. Chechen man Chatayev, lived in Georgia where he received country's citizenship before leaving for Syria in 2015. Mr McNamara was taken to the Mater Hospital An elderly man who died of hypothermia didn't use a heater at home because he was afraid of fire, an inquest heard. Thomas McNamara (86), from Church Lane, Drumcondra, Dublin 9, was found collapsed at his home suffering from profound hypothermia on December 20, 2014. His temperature had plummeted to 23.9 degrees, Dublin Coroner's Court heard. His wife, Maire McNamara, had been taken into hospital the previous month. Described as a 'sparky character with a real Dublin wit', Mr McNamara was found lying in his hallway by concerned staff from his local pub. Bernie McGrattan, assistant manager at the Cat and Cage pub in Drumcondra, said Mr McNamara was a regular customer. She called to his house to check on him and bring dinner. She brought him an electric heater that he refused to use. "He was afraid I think, because he thought it was a fire hazard," she said. Collapsed She obtained a house key from Mr McNamara's wife in hospital to keep an eye on him. On December 20, Ms McGrattan and Glen Daly, a DJ at the pub, found the elderly man collapsed in the hall, next to an overturned coat stand. He was rushed to the Mater Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 11.05pm. Tragically, his wife was also in the Mater, but he died before she could see him. "I last saw him around the end of November. He hated hospitals. On December 20 I got a call about Thomas but when I got there he had already died," Maire McNamara said in her deposition. The cause of death was hypothermia and bronchial pneumonia, according to Assistant State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis. Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane returned a verdict of death by misadventure. On behalf of Maire McNamara, solicitor Colm Price praised those who tried to help Mr McNamara for their 'kindness, consideration and wonderful neighbourliness.' "To find someone in this day and age prepared to go to this length to look after a customer is unique," Mr Price said. Broadcaster Gareth O'Callaghan said he is saddened and shocked by revelations of financial mismanagement at the suicide prevention charity Console. He said it has taken him days to gain the courage to speak out about the alleged irregularities at a charity that has been close to his heart for a long time. Console's disgraced director Paul Kelly contacted Mr O'Callaghan 10 years ago asking him to become their new CEO. It came just after Mr O'Callaghan had revealed his own struggles with mental health. Mr O'Callaghan said Kelly, his wife Patricia and their son Tim have a lot to answer for. "Paul Kelly became my hero, like he did for so many people. "His sister Sharon's death by suicide was the seed that saw Console grow into what it quickly became - thanks to its dedicated, tireless staff and volunteers and fundraisers. Shocking "I am sick from what I've been reading in recent days. The charity is front-page news this week for shocking reasons." He said he refused the offer to become CEO but continued to assist the charity when he could. "I had lost two close friends through suicide. I had also struggled for years with severe depression and had felt very suicidal a number of times," said Mr O'Callaghan. "I was very flattered by his offer, but following a chance to consider it, I declined, mainly because I had no experience whatsoever of heading up a charity, let alone one that I knew was destined to quickly become one of Ireland's foremost charities. "I continued to work as a frontline supporter and volunteer for Console for a couple of years, becoming the public face and voice of the charity when asked." He enjoyed the work. "Many people I met during that time had lost loved ones in indescribably tragic circumstances. "I felt so honoured and privileged to be sharing their deeply private pain and loss and anger and love and confusion," he said. He wants Mr Kelly to explain what happened at the charity. "I don't know who exactly will judge you [Paul Kelly], but clearly your conscience will continue to ask you the questions that, for now, you are pretending you are not obliged to answer," he said. Louis Walsh arriving at the Irish auditions of the X Factor in Croke Park. Louis Walsh has said he expects to find the next big thing at Dublin's X Factor auditions as Ireland has the most talented people. Aspiring pop stars and legions of music fans turned out in their droves at Croke Park for the Irish round of the talent show auditions. Music mogul Walsh (63) is joined by Simon Cowell and fellow returning judges Sharon Osbourne and Nicole Scherzinger. The last time Cowell and co came to the capital in 2010, One Direction's Niall Horan was discovered, and Mayo man Louis reckons that this year's batch of Irish hopefuls were "superb". "I always say to Simon, if you want talent, then come to Ireland," Walsh told the Herald. "We are a small island and we have the most talented people here. This is the second-last audition. There is another day in London, but the talent here has been superb." The judging panel has suffered several line-up changes in recent years. This year's series marks his return to the show after a dramatic exit from the series in 2014 after being reportedly sacked by boss Cowell. However, many fans felt the show was not the same without Louis and he has returned, replacing radio DJ Nick Grimshaw. Back in business with Osbourne and Scherzinger, the pop manager reckons this is the best line-up of all. FAVOURITE "I love them. They are my favourite judges in the whole world," he said. "It is the dream team. It's Simon, Sharon, Nicole and me and obviously Dermot O'Leary. We are looking brilliant." Favourite When asked if he's looking for a solo star or the next big boyband, Walsh said all he wants to find is talent. "I don't care as long as they are really good and are prepared to work hard." Despite criticism from some who say the show has not produced enough successful winners, Louis said it all comes down to the exposure that being on The X Factor provides. "We are looking for someone who can represent Ireland. This is a huge platform if you want to get a record deal. It's the best year yet for me." Close pal Osbourne (63) said she was thrilled to be back on the panel. "It is good to be back, it really is," she said. "Working with your good friend, there is nothing like it, is there? I felt the timing was right to come back. The TV veteran was looking forward to seeing what talent Dublin had to offer. She and Walsh have been making the most of their time in each other's company again, with Osbourne joking they enjoyed a wild night before the auditions. "You should have seen us last night," she said. Scherzinger said she was looking forward to seeingthe talent here. "It is so exciting to be here. I can't wait to see the talent Ireland has," she said. Mikaila Ulmer and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speak on stage during We Day at KeyArena on April 20, 2016 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo : Getty Images/Mat Hayward for We Day) Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has decided to write his life story, his company as well as about the future of technology. Harper Collins will release the book, titled "Hit Refresh," in 2017 fall and the proceeds from the book will go to Microsoft Philanthropies. "Hit Refresh" will deal with three core issues, including Nadella's life, the way he has been changing Microsoft, and the manner in which intelligent machines will reshape the society, Harper Collins stated in a press release. "Hit Refresh" will be Nadella's first book, and apparently he would like it to be somewhat different from the archetypal book penned by a business leader. Advertisement Recently, Nadella wrote a lengthy op-ed on the future technology for Slate where he emphasized that we should endeavor to build "inclusive and respectful" technology, wherein artificially intelligent machines would be as important as the inspirations of the people who developed them. According to Nadella, "Hit Refresh" will not be a book on "how to succeed." Neither will it be his memoir, In its press release, Harper Business has repeated the word "transformation" while describing Nadella's forthcoming book. Even the Microsoft executive has clarified that he would focus on how Microsoft is transforming the company into one concentrating on the future. It seems that "Hit Refresh" will be about the significance of doing the same thing elsewhere. Nadella said that he is writing "Hit Refresh" for all team members, partners and customers of Microsoft, which, according to Harper, is rather an unusually specific subset of people. In fact, Nadella probably considers all Windows users to be a Microsoft customer and, therefore, he suggests that his upcoming book is for basically everyone. Considering the numerous projects Nadella currently has as the chief of Microsoft, the book may be considered an unexpected project from him. Born in Hyderabad, India, Nadella has been with Microsoft since 1992. He took charge as the company's CEO from Steve Ballmer in 2014. As the Microsoft CEO, Nadella has been credited with revamping the Redmond tech giant, which had dithered during Ballmer's reign. Nadella has undoubtedly taken Microsoft into new areas, such as launching the company's first proper laptop and artificial intelligence. However, the results have been mixed so far. Watch what Nadella said in his first interview as Microsoft CEO below: A video shows how to downgrade iOS 10 to iOS 9 (Photo : YouTube / EverythingApplePro) UPDATE: Pangu just showed a working iOS 10 jailbreak during the Mobile Security Conference (MOSEC) in Shanghai. The public was stunned to see a quick work of the jailbreaking community as the iOS 10 version isn't even rolled out to the public yet. The iOS 10 beta was shown running the Cydia software, 9 to 5 Mac reported. It shows that they are already prepared for the new line of iOS updates. Advertisement The iOS 9.3.2 and iOS 9.3.3 jailbreaks are not yet forgotten. Pangu answered some questions regarding the topic from the audience and said that they are planning to release the iOS 9.3.2 jailbreak soon but with no release date mentioned. While Apple is busy with their upcoming iOS 10 update, Pangu is currently working on a solution for the much anticipated iOS 9.3.3 jailbreak as it is already in a beta stage. Everyone else is waiting for the iOS 10 major update coming to iPhones and iPads this coming fall. However, there are some who are still expecting an iOS 9.3 jailbreak after several months of what seems to be dead air among the hackers. Pangu is now claiming that they have an unofficial tool to jailbreak the iOS 9.3.3 beta version that Apple rolled out for developers, Mobile & Apps has learned. Users will be able to try out the iOS 9.3.3 jailbreak tool from Pangu on the developer beta versions 1 and 2 from Apple. The Cupertino-based tech giant has made their updates harder to crack which led to the lack of fast updates from the hacking community. There have been a few who claim that they have already cracked the code but no official tools have surfaced yet. Luca Todesco has already hacked the iOS 9.3 versions but he has no history of releasing any tools for jailbreaking in the past. The GSMagic Team also claimed that they are close to launching a jailbreak tool for iOS 9.3 and they could be expected at the upcoming JailbreakCon on July 9 and 10. Pangu has also sent out invites since last week regarding the iOS 9.3.2 and iOS 9.3.3 jailbreak tool which could be expected to be unveiled on July 1, Morning News USA reported. With the upcoming release of iOS 10, hackers could be scrambling to make the iOS 9 jailbreaks to keep up with the updates. The hacking teams are also warning users not to give out any money to anyone who claims they can send the proper hacking tools for their iPhones and iPads. Both GSMagic and Pangu warned that they are not asking for any money and that they will release the tools for free. Pangu, GSMagic and Todesco are all expected to reveal their tools for the iOS 9.3.2 and the iOS 9.3.3 jailbreak in July. Users will just have to wait whether their claims are all true for their iPhones and iPads. In our dual-nationality family we can celebrate both Canada Day on July 1st and our Fourth of July. What a blessing to have our heritage from arguably the two most simultaneously free and wealthy countries in the world. While much of the population in large swaths of the globe must scrabble to survive in pitifully inadequate housing with impure water and severely limited food, we have the breadbaskets of the North American continent, with generally ample clean water, comfortable roofs over our heads and enough food to eat that obesity is a much more severe problem for us than starvation. In addition to freedom from want of lifes necessities, we are also blessed with protection from civil war and piracy. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of our veterans who risked and far too often lost life and limb in defending us from oppressive governments. My dad risked his all in the war in the Pacific during World War II. A dear friend almost lost his life in Vietnam. Their stories combine with volumes of accounts of the sacrifices of men and women at home and abroad over the history of our country. Because of Gods great blessings and the sacrifices of many, we live in relative peace and safety. Even those of us who have traveled extensively can forget how good weve got it. But heres a question: despite all the good things we experience here, do you ever find yourself burdened by a sense of fear? As I grew up I found my dad always able to find something to fret about! I believe there was a subconscious cultural imperative to worry about his loved ones. While I never asked him about it, and while I doubt he was ever really aware of it, he seemed convinced that if he didnt fret about his kids and grandkids and other loved ones that he really didnt love them enough. In fact, Ive seen that in a number of people in a variety of situations here in Appalachia. Does baby have the sniffles? Ooooh, it might turn deadly! Are the kids taking a plane trip? What if theyre in an accident! Was there a case of salmonella in watermelons in California? Maybe we should avoid them and cantaloupes and honeydew while were at it! If you are one of those worrywarts, please dont think Im mocking you! We have long said in our family that everyone has a gift and mine is worry! But over the years I have tried to face fear and worry head-on. Little by little Gods shown me a better way. First, lets acknowledge that there are times and circumstances where fear is healthy. Taking precautions when there is a storm warning, seeking medical advice when there are serious or lingering symptoms, and avoiding peanuts if youre allergic all make sense. But part of human nature is to fret when we hear of danger even if there is no logical reason to anticipate that we might be affected. You may recall an incident quite a few years ago when a family of Scandinavian tourists stopped at a nearby rest area. Some emotionally disturbed teenagers attacked them and killed three while severely injuring the fourth. Shortly after that our group of eighth grade teachers was finalizing plans for a field trip to Knoxville. Two of the teachers raised concerns about stopping at that rest stop. Theirs was a normal human reaction. But upon examining it more closely, they realized that it didnt make sense. That attack was random and our students were no more at risk a few weeks after the attack than they had been beforehand. And how many parents stay up until their high-school-aged driver comes through the door? But does your staying awake protect them? Once they have proved that they are responsible about curfew, get your shut-eye. If a problem does arise youll be better equipped to handle it. One time our younger daughter had provided rides for some other kids. She realized that ferrying them back to their homes would get her back to our home after curfew, so she called us, explained the situation, and got permission to stay out later. As it so happened, she was pulled over for having a tail light out. The officer looked at the time and asked, Do your parents know where you are? Amber replied, Yes, sir. Theyre asleep, but they know where I am. Once she explained the circumstances, he smiled and sent her on her way, telling her to be careful and to repair the tail light. We heard the story the next morning after we got up. You may find that strange. Perhaps you want to stay up to know when the kids get home. But what if youd like to have less worry? How can we get from constantly fretting over things that dont make sense to having peace of mind? Continually seek a close relationship with God. The more we get to know Him, the more we understand the depth of His love for us and the less we worry about some generic bad thing happening, just because. Take the time to consider the chances of the feared event happening. For instance, many people fear flying, but need to think about its relative safety compared to driving to the airport. Take the time to consider what the real result of your fear might be. The number one fear in the U.S. is a fear of public speaking. If you made a speech and bombed it, what would happen? Would the ground open up and swallow you? Would you lose all of your friends? We know that, realistically, neither would happen. So focus on the task at hand instead of all the possible negative outcomes. Once youve sought Gods guidance and blessing, start replacing every worrisome thought with thanks and praise. You cannot avoid worry by trying not to think about it. Thats like trying not to think about an orange. If I tell you not to think about its color, its aroma, the sensation of biting into a section, the lovely taste of the juice well, youre just going to think about it more. Instead, put on some praise music, or read uplifting passages of scripture, or praise and thank God, or read an uplifting book, or well, you get the idea. And never give up. As I said, it took me years to essentially beat worry. One of the reasons it took me so long is that I didnt clearly identify and wholeheartedly attack the problem for a long time. I was so used to worrying that it took a lot of effort to become aware enough of my thoughts to defeat it! This holiday gives us the chance to reflect and thank God for our freedoms. If you have a veteran in your family, prepare some questions that the kids can ask and make sure you record the answers. Let them learn some living history and appreciate the cost of freedom! And all of us can take a while to consider the real source of our worries. Day-to-day irritations arent worth the energy we spend on them. And issues that are truly important will ultimately be resolved in Gods good time. Is your relationship with God secure in your faith in Jesus, Yeshua? Do you trust Him to completely erase your sins and bless you with the gift of salvation? That is ultimately all that counts. I John 4:17-18 instructs us, God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that were free of worry on Judgment Day our standing in the world is identical with Christs. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life fear of death, fear of judgment is one not yet fully formed in love. (MSG) May you be blessed with maturity in faith and a mind wrapped in His peace! American flags, stationed in and just outside the tent, waved in the breezy heat of Thursday afternoon. McCann and his wife, Cookie, were hard at work, selling fireworks to raise money for their church, Abingdon United Pentecostal Church. This is our 13th year, said Cookie McCann. Its been awesome. Down the road in Piney Flats, Tennessee, Poplar Ridge Christian Church senior minister Brad Perry prepared this week for his churchs Fourth of July event, Freedom Fest. This is our second year, said Perry. We are very serious about taking our faith to the people. Abingdon United Pentecostal partnered with TNT Fireworks. Stop by now through July 4 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. to purchase all things that spark and go boom. Twenty percent of all sales benefit the church. Its been very prosperous for us, Cookie McCann said. We bought a new 12-passenger van through the sale of fireworks. We remodeled a room at church. Meanwhile over at Poplar Ridge Christian, they will stage Freedom Fest on July 2 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. We started Freedom Fest last year as a way to invite the community to celebrate the Fourth of July with us in Piney Flats, Perry said. Its family friendly. We do a fireworks show at the end. Oh, but theres an ulterior motive at work in prayer beyond Freedom Fests flag-waving front. Look at the event as a bridge, across which Poplar Ridge Christians leaders hope will come a wave of new folks to Christ. There will be a simple invitation to come to church, Perry said. With Freedom Fest, we want to get them on our front porch and invite them into our foyer. It wont be churchy. We do this evangelistically as a way for people who need a church. Pastors McCann and Perry are working to elevate their churches. McCann, who works fulltime at Eastman in Kingsport, sleeps nightly for a week under a fireworks tent to help his church and by connection, his congregation. Its rockets red glare at the tent and fireworks of another sort within his lively church. I believe in running the aisles, Pastor McCann said. I believe in raising our hands in praise. If you want to sit quietly, thats alright, too. Freedom. We live in a country where we can. Freedom resonates through the Bible like thread in the American flag. One did not lead to the other, but similarities exist. For instance, turn to John 8:32 in the Bible: And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. I served in the Marine Corps, so identify with some sacrifices for freedom, Perry said. We celebrate our freedom. Freedom Fest offers the physical touch. Sunday morning thereafter offers the spiritual touch. Indeed, the public at large are invited to attend Freedom Fest. Likewise, theyre welcome to attend church service at Poplar Ridge the next morning. Saturday celebrates Americas freedom. Sunday heralds freedom as offered by Christ. Jesus offers us spiritual freedom, Perry said. When this life is over, I am assured to what comes next. Amen, McCann and legions of Christians freed from the bondage of sins evils, might say. We have the right to, the privilege and the freedom to be a Christian, right? McCann said. Unequivocally. We have to abide by that word of God, McCann said. If we dont abide by that word, we are in trouble. Be a soldier of the cross. There is a walk we have to walk Each church, Abingdon United Pentecostal and Poplar Ridge Christian and their leaders, walk the Christian walk via this weekends Fourth of July festivities. Although in markedly different fashions, each Godly entity seek to elevate that which they were called to lead. Our vision, we want Poplar Ridge to be a place you can call home, Perry said. Look to the hillside fronting Poplar Ridge Christian. Amid the graves of fallen Americans, an American flag flies today, tonight and all of the foreseeable tomorrows. We have, that flag says, the freedom to worship. The Fourth is about our freedom, and if it gets to where we cant be free to worship, were in trouble, McCann said. We as a nation had better wake up. John tells us we should love our neighbors, Perry said. Its hard to love somebody you havent met. We want to introduce ourselves. Freedom Fest is a part of that process identify, invest, invite. If the liberal wing of Baptists down South started naming saints, one of the first nominees would be former President Jimmy Carter. But its crucial to note that the man who put born again into the American political dictionary is Baptist, but no longer Southern Baptist. His theological views have evolved, leading to his 2000 exit from the Southern Baptist Convention. Take marriage and sex, for example. I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else, and I dont see that gay marriage damages anyone else, Carter told The Huffington Post last year. Plenty of Baptists agree, but have not felt free to be that candid, according to Don Durham, a former leader in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). For 25 years, the CBF has served as a network for Baptists on the losing side of the great Southern Baptist wars of the 1980s. Now, Durham said, the volume has been turned up in behind-closed-doors CBF debates about sexuality. Its time to have substantive and open conversations about the genuinely difficult disagreements we have over how to organize the institutional expressions of how we will relate to sisters and brothers who happen to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or who understand themselves as queer, wrote Durham in an essay circulated by Baptist News Global, an independent website. Im not naive. I know we will never have uniform responses to the many questions such conversations will hold and we dont have to, he wrote. However, lets not be institutionally naive either. ... There are now too many for whom our institutional expressions around LGBTQ topics are no longer tenable for us to pretend any longer that we can distract one another from that topic by focusing on all of the other things on which we agree. Its crucial to understand that membership in the CBF is incredibly flexible and allows great freedom for individual Baptists and congregations that, to one degree or another, support its work, said Durham in an interview. Many congregations in the network openly support gay marriage, in word and deed. Many others do not. The issue is a CBF homosexual behavior policy. This institutional policy no longer linked to its website states in part: As Baptist Christians, we believe that the foundation of a Christian sexual ethic is faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman and celibacy in singleness. ... Because of this organizational value, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship does not allow for the expenditure of funds for organizations or causes that condone, advocate or affirm homosexual practice. Neither does this CBF organizational value allow for the purposeful hiring of a staff person or the sending of a missionary who is a practicing homosexual. Its hard to have an honest, open dialogue with LGBTQ people while were stiff-arming them with this policy that just keeps pushing them away, said Durham. His essay noted that he left a key CBF job after being shouted down in a staff meeting, when he suggested that the network apologize for its stance on gay issues. This CBF struggle is similar to challenges facing many religious flocks in an era of rapid change, including the rising number of Americans who reject all denominational ties, said Baptist historian Nathan Finn, dean of the Union University School of Theology and Missions. The CBF network is especially interesting since it links many who embrace the post-denominational age, others whose beliefs would be right at home in liberal mainline Protestantism and progressive evangelicals who continue to stress evangelism and missions. The era of safe, generic Protestantism is gone, said Finn, a theological conservative. Small-o Christian orthodoxy is now considered weird and offensive in America. ... At this point, you have to decide what you believe and take a stand. Thats the moment of truth the CBF is facing. Indeed, many people are convinced, stressed Durham, that changes on LGBTQ issues will scare lots of people and theyll leave, taking their checkbooks with them. Well, people are already leaving, he said. This issue is so important to many young Baptists that are still in the CBF, as well as to many who have left. We will not be able to avoid this conversation forever. Thousands of tourists and space enthusiasts gather to witness the launch of Long March 7 at the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center. (Photo : Getty Images) Chinas small step toward the Moon has become a giant leap for a citys tourism industry as thousands of space enthusiasts and tourists flood the area to witness the countrys newest rocket launch site. Before June ended, the Middle Kingdom began its long march to colonize the Moon via the launching of the Long March 7 rocket at the new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center. Advertisement Ars Technica believes that until this occurred, China's space exploration industry "was fairly easy to dismiss" considering that the country made no significant leap in the sector in the past. While it may not still be as big and advanced as its predecessors from other countries like the United States, the new launch site proved to be a significant progress in terms of gathering tourists and curious minds together in one place. Long March Based on Ars Technica's analysis of the rocket, the Long March 7 is far from being a major competitor to NASA's Falcon 9 and Atlas V launch vehicles. In fact, the outlet believes that even succeeding launches for the Tiangong-2 space laboratory still cannot compare with the American's. Still, China's long-term target proves to be an awe-inspiring one. "The launch of Long March 7 shows them stepping into the modern era if you will. The message is the same that it's been for some time," former NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao told Ars. "They're making long-term plans to stay in space and expand their presence in space," he added. "For NASA and the United States I'm afraid that we've been resting on our laurels for so long that we're going to lose our leadership in human spaceflight." Of course, having to stay in space for longer periods of time is a common dream. What is uncommon about it is that China is the first to actually take steps to make it happen. Space Tourists Meanwhile, the Global Times said that more than 20,000 enthusiasts were able to witness the historic launch done at the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center. This is a significant progress for the city since Wenchang is the first one to open its launch station to the public and the only one with space and science-themed parks for enthusiasts and scientifically curious minds alike. This means that the people as well as the local government will be able to raise more funds from the tourism industry, which might even be bigger than last year's 1.7 million tourists and around 1.2 billion yuan revenue. ABINGDON, Va. Washington Chapel United Methodist Church in Abingdon will honor its past as the congregation celebrates its 150th anniversary on Sunday, July 10. To help celebrate the churchs 150 years of faithfulness, historian Michael Shaffer will share with the congregation a historical perspective of what was happening in Washington County and throughout the country when the chapel started its ministry as a church family. The service begins at 11:15 a.m. at 25221 Walden Road. Visitors are welcome to attend the hour-long service. According to the Rev. Larry Lusk, pastor at both Washington Chapel United Methodist Church and Washington Springs United Methodist Church in Glade Spring, the Abingdon church was formed shortly after the Civil War in 1865. Church members initially may have met in a school house, but land and lumber from a local saw mill later was donated to construct the original frame building located near the current 1950s brick facility. Shaffer will provide a brief overview of the immediate post-war period, a time when most people throughout the South struggled to rebuild after the ravages of war. His talk, Rising From the Shadow of Appomattox: A New Church in Washington County, will focus on the situation in the Methodist Episcopal Church South, which was the denomination at the time, and how former Civil War soldiers, and others, rallied around the effort to build a church on the hill. Constructing a new house of worship at a time when most folks busied themselves with getting their farms in working order and feeding their families took lots of faith and courage, said Shaffer. The people had emerged from a conflict where both sides prayed to the same God. This bond instilled a sense of conviction in the citizens of Washington County. After Shaffers presentation, the Rev. Lusk will talk about the importance of the anniversary from a scriptural perspective. Members will sing hymns from the Cokesbury Worship Hymnal which contains classics, revival songs, general worship songs and special day favorites. The churchs pipe organ that is nearly 100 years old will accompany the singing. The celebration activities will conclude with a fellowship meal. Shaffer, a native of Bristol, Tennessee, and former resident of Washington County, is a Civil War historian, newspaper columnist, lecturer, instructor and author. He is a member of the Society of Civil War Historians, Historians of the Civil War Western Theater, and Georgia Association of Historians. Shaffer holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in Military HistoryCivil War Studies. He teaches Civil War courses at Kennesaw State Universitys College of Continuing and Professional Education. Hancock-area couple sentenced in huge animal cruelty case A Hancock-area couple was sentenced Wednesday in an animal cruelty case that led to massive animal rescue operation in Western Maryland in June 2021. Chongqing Fake Kidnapping (Photo : Weibo) At the start of 2016, the video of a three-year-old girl kidnapped became viral, thanks to CCTV video, the child was recovered. Kidnapping is a serious crime, whether victims are children or adults, so a court gave a 43-year-old Chongqing woman a 10-day detention sentence for staging her own kidnapping for fun. Advertisement The other reason why Huang, the bored housewife, did it was to test how much her husband loves her, reported What's on Weibo. After she disappeared on June 22, her family became worried because Huang was not answering her mobile phone. On the next evening, someone did answer the phone, but all the worried husband heard was a voice of his wife pleading with kidnappers from Changshou, a district of Chongqing. With a possible location, Huangs family called for help and the local police station deployed 10 cops for the rescue mission. The police team was beefed up with 19 more officers who made up the rescue team that searched for the missing housewife in Chongqing, including house-to-house checks. Using technology, the team zoomed in to a suburban district in Changshou where Huangs former brother-in-laws house was located. But when they called him, the brother-in-law, who works in a remote mine, always hung his phone, so the team went to the mine for the rescue but did not find her. The brother-in-law told investigators Huang was at her house and hang up incoming calls on his phone. When he demanded an explanation from her, Huang left his house on June 23 at night. Upon returning to the family home, the rescue team found Huang there who acted like she was not kidnapped. But she eventually admitted to the investigators the truth. A psychology expert explained what Huang did is what urban empty persons do because of their boring, monotonous and lonely life, despite being happy with her second husband and two children. Netizens who read on Weibo what happened criticized Huang for wasting the time of 29 officers. Another user found the 10-day detention a very light punishment. Because of Chinas gender imbalance, kidnapping of Chinese wives sold to lonely men became the theme of a local movie shown in 2007. China intensifies food safety campaign with new law enforced in October last year. (Photo : Reuters) Around 460 or half of China's food safety testers were found to have not received government certification, the country's top legislature revealed in its inspection report released on Thursday. Currently, there is a total of 921 institutes in China responsible for food testing. According to China Daily, the evaluation initiated by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress was held in 10 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions from April to May. Advertisement The enforcement of the new food safety law took effect in October. The report further said that "redundant testing institutes have been established in some areas, and many different organs may exist in a single district." "While institutes' establishment funds were duplicated, funds for a few testing bodies at universities or academies were wasted," top legislator Zhang Dejiang noted. Sharing the same sentiment, Chinese Academy of Engineering's Chen Junshi also confirmed that there have been difficulties in establishing the said institutes. Chen also pointed out that improvement on this aspect may require some time. "The China Food and Drug Administration was established just three years ago. Institutes under its authority have to be set up and qualified one after another," he said. For researcher Fan Zhihong of the China Agricultural University, rural-based food testing bodies find it hard to get certification, citing that this problem is widespread. "The categories of food needing to be tested have been rising, but the labor force in these areas, including townships and counties, is insufficient," the nutrition and food safety specialist noted. "Plus, food testing requires advanced devices and well-trained institute officers." As a suggestion, she shared that officials should maximize and use currently established food testers at colleges and academies. "We can name some qualified third-party institutes to take charge of the testing in one area," she pointed out. "If residents live in a place that has no institute, or no certified one, he or she can deliver the food to a different one." "If such an institute works and can be asked, as a matter of policy, to pay more attention to testing food for residents, I think it will effectively alleviate the difficulty," Fan said. A man was reported to have allegedly died while he was in the custody of Beijing police officers. (Photo : Getty Images) Beijing prosecutors announced on Thursday that two of the five police officers who are currently under investigation for the death of a man in their custody are already facing charges, Shanghai Daily reported. Advertisement The police figures were charged with dereliction of duty after they were reported to be acting improperly while detaining the man, identified to be Lei Yang, 29. An autopsy showed that Lei's death was caused by asphyxia "due to inhalation of content from stomach into the respiratory system," the article said. Apart from the officers' inappropriate behavior, they are also suspected of obstructing an investigation follow-up. Lei was first caught on May 7 when the police held an anti-prostitution raid at massage parlor in Beijing's Changping District. Police noted that shortly after the incident, he had been violently resisting authorities, leading to a point when he felt already sick. Police added that Lei died in spite of receiving emergency treatment at a hospital. On May 17, Lei's wife demanded an investigation from Beijing prosecutors to check on the police officers who took part in the raid. Some of her accusations included power abuse, faking of evidence and causing of intentional injury. In an online post on Jieman, a news website, it was said that the wife saw her husband's body and face covered in scars and bruises. She also found out that he had a swollen testicle when she went to the hospital where Lei received treatment. Prosecutors from the Chinese capital kicked off the probe into the involved police officers on June 1. Selling of stolen phones has become rampant in China. (Photo : Getty Images) Police authorities have seized a total of 928 stolen mobile phones in the recently held operation targeting a 19-member gang, the biggest of its kind in Shanghai, reported Shanghai Daily. Advertisement The stolen phones reportedly amount to around 4 million yuan. According to the article, there are 13 suspected pickpockets, a man who allegedly buys the gadgets, and five men who operate a stand selling the gadgets near the Shanghai Railway Station. Police recounted that the alleged buyer, surnamed Ma, meets with the pickpockets near the station every 10 o'clock in the morning. At around 3 p.m., he sells the phones to the operators of the stand. Ma buys the stolen gadgets at 1,000 yuan to 3,000 yuan. The said phones are being sold as second-hand merchandise not only to the buyers at the stand, but also to customers over the Internet, according to Huang Hanke, a police officer from the Shanghai Railway Station branch of Shanghai Metro Police. The authorities have already managed to identify the owners of around 250 phones, but only 50 phone owners have been contacted. Huang remarked that they are facing difficulties on this issue. "The job is not easy for us because many of the phones have already been [interfered with] by the suspects." Some of the victims testified that "they were listening to music with earphones plugged into their phone when they were pickpocketed," the article said. Cui Lei, one of victims, said that he was not expecting to recover his phone. "I got a call from the police when I was in Europe on a business trip last month, and I was surprised and grateful," he shared with Shanghai Daily. Police advise other victims to report if their phones were stolen and present their purchase receipt and the 15-digit IMEI number. Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, gave a voluntary interview for 3 1/2 hours on Saturday morning at FBI Headquarters in Washington, her campaign said. "She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion," Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said. "Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview." Spokespeople for the FBI and the Justice Department declined to comment Saturday. The interview was expected and it does not suggest that she or anyone else is likely to face prosecution. Some legal experts view criminal prosecution as exceedingly unlikely. The interview may indicate that the Justice Department's yearlong probe is drawing to a close. But the ongoing investigation represents a major risk for Democrats as Clinton is merely four weeks away from being formally nominated as the party's presidential candidate. Donald Trump, the Republican Party's presumptive nominee, has seized on the email issue and repeatedly said the probe undermines Clinton's fitness for office. Trump has called his opponent "Crooked Hillary" and said she cannot be trusted in the White House. The former first lady and New York senator has argued that she is more trustworthy than Trump on handling the issues that matter to most Americans: foreign policy, national security and running the economy. But the email investigation has lingered throughout her campaign, and Trump has asserted that Clinton will receive leniency from a Democratic administration. The investigation also poses an unwelcome distraction just as Clinton has vanquished her primary rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, holds a huge fundraising advantage over Trump and polls show her well-placed to become America's first female president even as many voters question her trustworthiness. The questioning came a day after Attorney General Loretta Lynch said that she intended to accept the findings and recommendations of career prosecutors who have spent months investigating the case. Lynch came under scrutiny for an impromptu meeting with Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, on Lynch's plane in Phoenix. Critics said the meeting between Lynch and the ex-president was inappropriate given the investigation even though Lynch and a Clinton spokesman said it was social in nature. Trump, reacting to the meeting between Lynch and the former president on Friday, said in Colorado: "He opened up a Pandora's Box. And it shows what's going on. And it shows what's happening with our laws and with our government." While she was President Barack Obama's secretary of state, Clinton exclusively used a private email server for her government and personal emails, rather than the State Department's email system. The Associated Press revealed the existence of the server in March 2015. Clinton has said relying on a private server was a mistake but that other secretaries of state had also used a personal email address. The FBI is investigating the potential mishandling of sensitive information. The matter was referred for investigation last July by the inspectors general for the State Department and intelligence community following the discovery of emails that they said contained classified information. The State Department's inspector general, the agency's internal watchdog, said in a blistering audit in May that Clinton and her team ignored clear warnings from State Department officials that her email setup violated federal standards and could leave sensitive material vulnerable to hackers. Clinton declined to talk to the inspector general, but the audit reported that Clinton feared "the personal being accessible" if she used a government email account. Agents have already interviewed top Clinton aides including her former State Department chief of staff Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, a longtime aide who is currently the vice chairwoman of Clinton's campaign. The staffer who set up the server, Bryan Pagliano, was granted limited immunity from prosecution by the Justice Department last fall in exchange for his cooperation. The FBI as a matter of course seeks to interview individuals central to an investigation before concluding its work. The emails were routed through a server located in the basement of Clinton's New York home during her tenure as the nation's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013. Dozens of the emails sent or received by Clinton through her private server were later determined to contain classified material. Clinton has repeatedly said that none of the emails were marked classified at the time they were sent or received. As part of the probe, she has turned over the hard drive from her email server to the FBI. The FBI interview comes as Clinton is set to embark on a major week of her presidential campaign. She will join Obama for their first joint campaign appearance on Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Clinton will follow it up with an event on Wednesday in Atlantic City, New Jersey, aimed at undercutting Trump's business practices. On Friday, Clinton will campaign for the first time with Vice President Joe Biden in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Clinton is considering potential vice presidential choices and preparing to formally receive the Democratic nomination on July 28 at the party's convention in Philadelphia. Tipster Evan Blass leaked these three images of the purported Samsung Galaxy Note 7 on Twitter recently. (Photo : Twitter/ Evan Blass @evleaks ) Numerous rumors about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 7 have been flooding the Internet, but so far there was no clear photograph of the much-awaited device. Now, reliable tipster Even Blass, better known on Twitter as @evleaks, has posted images of three phones, which he claims to be those of Galaxy Note 7. Advertisement Aside from the photographs, Blass has offered a number of probable features of the upcoming Galaxy Note 7 in his recent Twitter post. According to the tipster, the device will sport a 5.7-inch QHD Super AMOLED display and come with a native memory of 64GB RAM, which can be expanded via a microSD slot, Android Police reported. Samsung Galaxy Note7 in (from l to r) Black Onyx, Silver Titanium, and Blue Coral pic.twitter.com/QiePUEG9GP Evan Blass (@evleaks) July 1, 2016 As far as the other specs of the phone are concerned, it will feature a 12-megapixel primary rear camera, along with a 5-megapixel front-facing snapper for selfies. The device will be IP68 certified, and be available in three colors, black, silver, and blue. It is unlikely that the Galaxy Note 7 will run Google's latest mobile OS Android Nougat or have a removable battery unit. Instead, it is expected that the device will run Android Marshmallow and may accommodate a 4,200mAh battery unit. Meanwhile, the images of the device posted by Blass apparently confirm some of the previous rumors, such as the Note 7 will feature a curved front-screen and come with an iris scanner. Moreover, the device will be available in an additional color, some shade of blue. A close look at the photographs will reveal the nubbin of S Pen stylus at the bottom right of the phone when it is face up. However, the most striking feature of the photos posted by Blass is possibly the device in Blue Coral. While Samsung has already offered devices in brilliant aqua and royal blue colors, this is the first time it will be offering one in Blue Coral, CNet reported. Meanwhile, there are rumors that Samsung may announce more colors for the Galaxy Note 7 next month. However, the existing edition, Galaxy Note 5, was only available in three colors, Black Sapphire, White Pearl and Gold Platinum in the United States. The international-only version of Galaxy Note 5 was also available in silver titanium and Samsung fans are hoping that the Galaxy Note 7 will also be available in this color. As far as the release date of Galaxy Note 7 is concerned, there are rumors that Samsung may launch the device on Aug. 2. Watch the design concept of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 below: The Brexit vote was a triple protest: Against surging immigration, City of London bankers, and European Union institutions, in that order. It will have major consequences. Donald Trumps campaign for the US presidency will receive a huge boost, as will other anti-immigrant populist politicians. Moreover, leaving the EU will wound the British economy, and could well push Scotland to leave the United Kingdom to say nothing of Brexits ramifications for the future of European integration. At its core, Brexit reflects a pervasive phenomenon in the high-income world: Rising support for populist parties campaigning for a clampdown on immigration. Roughly half the population in Europe and the United States, generally working-class voters, believes that immigration is out of control, posing a threat to public order and cultural norms. Read: British PM hopeful Gove says no EU exit talks this year In the middle of the Brexit campaign in May, it was reported that the UK had net immigration of 333,000 persons in 2015, more than triple the governments previously announced target of 100,000. Warnings that Brexit would lower income levels were either dismissed outright, wrongly, as mere fearmongering, or weighed against the Leavers greater interest in border control. A major factor, however, was implicit class warfare. Working-class Leave voters reasoned that most or all of the income losses would in any event be borne by the rich, and especially the despised bankers of the City of London. Americans disdain Wall Street and its greedy and often criminal behaviour at least as much as the British working class disdains the City of London. This, too, suggests a campaign advantage for Trump over his opponent in November, Hillary Clinton, whose candidacy is heavily financed by Wall Street. Clinton should take note and distance herself from Wall Street. Read: Seeking post-Brexit calm, Obama walks back UK trade warning In the UK, these two powerful political currents rejection of immigration and class warfare were joined by the widespread sentiment that EU institutions are dysfunctional. They surely are. One need only cite the last six years of mismanagement of the Greek crisis by self-serving, shortsighted European politicians. The short-run consequences of Brexit are already clear: the pound has plummeted to a 31-year low. In the near term, the City of London will face major uncertainties, job losses, and a collapse of bonuses. Property values in London will cool. The possible longer-run knock-on effects in Europe including likely Scottish independence; possible Catalonian independence; a breakdown of free movement of people in the EU; a surge in anti-immigrant politics (including the possible election of Trump and Frances Marine Le Pen) are enormous. So what should be done? I would suggest several measures, both to reduce the risks of catastrophic feedback loops in the short term and to maximise the benefits of reform in the long term. First, stop the refugee surge by ending the Syrian war immediately. This can be accomplished by ending the CIA-Saudi alliance to overthrow Bashar al-Assad, thereby enabling Assad (with Russian and Iranian backing) to defeat the Islamic State and stabilise Syria (with a similar approach in neighboring Iraq). Americas addiction to regime change (in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria) is the deep cause of Europes refugee crisis. Second, stop NATOs expansion to Ukraine and Georgia. The new Cold War with Russia is another US-contrived blunder with plenty of European naivete attached. Closing the door on NATO expansion would make it possible to ease tensions and normalise relations with Russia, stabilise Ukraine, and restore focus on the European economy and the European project. Third, dont punish Britain. Instead, police national and EU borders to stop illegal migrants. Read: Britain at sea: Week after Brexit, political crisis grips country Fourth, restore a sense of fairness and opportunity for the disaffected working class and those whose livelihoods have been undermined by financial crises and the outsourcing of jobs. This means following the social-democratic ethos of pursuing ample social spending for health, education, training, apprenticeships, and family support, financed by taxing the rich and closing tax havens, which are gutting public revenues and exacerbating economic injustice. It also means finally giving Greece debt relief, thereby ending the long-running eurozone crisis. Fifth, focus resources, including additional aid, on economic development, rather than war, in low-income countries. All of this underscores the need to shift from a strategy of war to one of sustainable development, especially by the US and Europe. Walls and fences wont stop millions of migrants fleeing violence, extreme poverty, hunger, disease, droughts, floods, and other ills. Only global cooperation can do that. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2016. Jeffrey D. Sachs is Professor of Sustainable Development, Professor of Health Policy and Management, and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University The views expressed are personal It has been a year of unusual Islamist violence in Bangladesh, with at least 18 murderous attacks on freethinkers, minority religious preachers and a much-loved English professor at the Rajshahi University. The pattern in the violence is unmistakable: Machete-wielding gangs, sometimes masked, waylay victims and butcher them in the middle of crowded streets, making sure the message of fear and impunity hit home. But Fridays coordinated assault on a restaurant popular with foreigners and locals in Dhakas diplomatic enclave, Gulshan, has the strategic hallmarks of a terrorist operation that Bangladesh may never have seen before. Yet, these attacks are seen as part of a wider struggle for the soul of Bangladesh, where irreverent secularists and intolerant Islamist groups are fighting a blood-soaked ideological battle that may well decide whether the country upholds its founding secularist principles or embraces religious bigotry. Read: Dhaka restaurant siege: 20 hostages, 2 cops killed in IS attack To be sure, the murders of secular bloggers and liberals have sparked mass public protests because much of Bangladeshs secular tradition is still alive and strong. But Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, known to be sympathetic to liberal intellectuals, has done little to publicly defend secularism and free speech. Indeed, Hasinas government has dithered over its response to religious fanaticism for fear of ceding ground to the opposition, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its ally Jamaat-e-Islam. It is clear the ruling party, the Awami League, does not want to be seen as atheists and will, at best, offer lip service to the defence of secularism. Since 2013, it has clamped down on dissent in media and jailed atheist/secular bloggers using a draconian religious law -- just to trump political rivals. Political exigency has also meant that the government has gone soft on radical groups with links to the Taliban including the Hefazat-e-Islam and Ansarullah Bangla Team -- that have spread across Bangladesh in recent years. These groups -- which believe silencing their ideological rivals is better than engaging in any theological debate with them -- want the authorities to legislate a blasphemy law that provides for death punishment for religious dissent, a demand the government has so far resisted. By jailing journalists and activists, and with its radio silence on the killings of young writer-bloggers for nothing more than expressing peaceful opinions about religion, the government is only strengthening the hand of radicals who are hacking freethinking people to death on Bangladeshs streets. This sends the wrong signal to society. Read:Islamic States Bangladesh chief believed to be from Canada In laymans terms, a failing or failed state is categorised by what they do not or cannot do. Such states do not control their borders, allowing non-state actors to move in and out without trouble. Parts of such states can be under the control of rebels and warlords. Failed states do not provide basic services to its citizens, and finally they cannot fulfill international obligations. None of this is true of todays Bangladesh. Yet, with every murder, every attack, the country is edging towards levels of intolerance and lawlessness where the line between a vibrant, prosperous country and a failed state gets blurred. In the wider context of South Asia, such a development would be disastrous, especially for the dominant regional power India, which already remains wary of rising Islamist fundamentalism in its neighbourhood. Strangely, Bangladeshs neighbours have appeared unmoved by this political mess. But such visible disinterest will only embolden the forces seeking to erect an intolerant Salafist rule in that country - a development that will be disastrous, especially for India. As Bangladeshi decides on the role of religion in its polity, the secularists who are now in power must not lose sight of the principles that drove its partition from Pakistan, and must put the dream of a free, progressive and inclusive society above any considerations of political self-preservation. Read: What kind of Muslims are these: Sheikh Hasina on Dhaka attackers (The views expressed by the writer are personal. He tweets as @krittivasm) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON It often happens that a place becomes famous because of the films that have been shot there be it the Chapora Fort in Goa that gained popularity due to a scene in Dil Chahta Hai (2001) or the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai, which has been featured in films such as Bunty Aur Babli (2005) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008). The same is the case with Mandawa, a town situated in the Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan, thanks to Salman Khan and Aamir Khan. The two stars shot for Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (2015) and PK (2014), respectively, in the same city. We are told that Shraddha Kapoor (above) will be following in the footsteps of the Khans and shooting for her next there. Read: Your failures shape your personality: Shraddha Kapoor A source close to the actor says, Shraddha will be travelling to Mandawa within the next three days. The actor will be there for two weeks. But because of her packed schedule, she will not get time to explore any other cities in Rajasthan. The Bollywood stars spokesperson confirmed the news, saying, Shraddha is looking forward to her schedule in Mandawa. This will be the first time she will be shooting there and she is excited about it. Read: There is competition in Bollywood, but its friendly: Shraddha Kapoor Sonakshi Sinha hasnt had a film release for more than a year. Her last movie was Tevar, which released in January, 2015. But during this period, the actor was working on her projects with John Abraham, film-maker Vipul Shah and director AR Murugadoss, respectively. Read: Sonakshi Sinha teases fans with Akira poster A source close to Sonakshi says, In the next few days, she will complete her work on the sequel to Force (2011), in which she is paired opposite John. She will also launch the trailer of her upcoming action film, directed by Murugadoss. Sonakshi is looking forward to this movie, as she has given her blood and sweat to it. Sonakshi will also start shooting for a film, in which she plays a Pakistan-based journalist, this month. In the middle of all this, between all of this, she will also take out time to promote her action film. Sonakshi likes to maintain a work-life balance. But this time, she will have to wait before she can take a break, adds the source. We tried reaching the actor, but she remained unavailable for a comment. Read: Sonakshi Sinha on her birthday plans, film choices and more Actor Hrithik Roshans ex-wife Sussanne Khan has filed a petition before the Goa Bench of Bombay High Court, seeking quashing of the FIR filed against her, in which she was accused of cheating a real estate firm by posing as an architect. In the petition, Sussanne has also sought the courts directions to the investigators (Panaji police) not to initiate any coercive action against her till the final disposal of the petition. Read: Hrithiks ex-wife Sussanne booked for fraud worth Rs 1.87 crore in Goa: Report She has pleaded that the court should stay all the proceedings/investigation in the FIR till the final disposal of the petition. Sussanne said that the present criminal proceeding is manifestly attended with mala fide and has been instituted maliciously with ulterior motive. Read: Sussanne Khan opens up about her divorce with Hrithik Roshan The high court issued notice to Goa government and Panaji police to respond to the petition and fixed the matter for hearing after two weeks. Panaji police had registered an FIR against Sussanne on June 9 after a real estate firm filed a complaint against her for cheating them to the tune of Rs 1.87 crore by posing as an architect. She had been booked under section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of IPC. Real estate firm Emgee Properties managing partner, Mudhit Gupta had, in the complaint before police, alleged that she represented herself as an architect and designer, and in September 2013, the company executed a written contract with her for architectural and designing services. An entrepreneur and designer, Sussanne heads a few companies, including The Charcoal project, a high-end decor store based in Mumbai. (Twitter) The complaint stated that she failed to submit the requisite design in a stipulated period of time and that the designs submitted by her were not of professional standards. However, Sussanne has dubbed the allegations against her as false and defamatory and a pressure tactic by the firm. Sussanne, who is an interior designer, in the petition before the high court, also pleaded that the bench may pass an order calling for the records and proceedings of FIR registered with Panaji police station and quash it (FIR). Sussanne Khan is in the designing business for 15 years. (PTOI Photo) She said that she is the sole proprietor of Sussanne Khan House of Design, previously known as Sussanne Roshan House of Design. She claimed that she has been in the business for the last 15 years and has taken up several projects as a design company. Follow @htshowbiz for more. Bollywood star couple Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan are expecting their first child this year end. My wife and I would like to announce that we are expecting our first child in December. We would like to thank our well wishers for their blessings and support and also the press for their discretion and patience, Saif, 45, said in a statement. Read: Kareena Kapoor reveals her one condition for marrying Saif Ali Khan Read: Kangana Ranaut gives royal gala a miss, bonds with Saif and Kareena Gossip mills were abuzz about the stork visiting the couple when Kareena, 35, and Saif recently went to London. Also some of her pictures were flashed across media apparently showing the baby bump. However, on return from the trip when the media quizzed Kareena about it, she flatly denied. Saif and Kareena married in October, 2012. (PTI Photo) Saif, son of Tiger Pataudi and Sharmila Tagore, tied the knot with Kareena in October 2012 after a five-year courtship. Saif was earlier married to actress Amrita Singh and has two children -- daughter Sara and son Ibrahim. Follow @htshowbiz for more. China is the latest country to join the International Organization for Migration. (Photo : Reuters) Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations, welcomed China's membership to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Global Times reported. Advertisement The U.N. officer believes that China's accession will bring significant contributions to the IOM. "China becoming a member of the IOM is particularly important at this crucial time, when the issue of migrants and refugees needs more attention and action than ever before," Ban remarked in a statement. China's application was approved on Thursday. The country submitted its request to join the Geneva-based organization earlier in June. The announcement of China becoming an IOM member comes a day before the group decided to join the United Nations as a related agency. IOM Director General William Lacy Swing remarked during a meeting: "Today [30 June] has been a watershed moment in the life of this organization, which is celebrating its 65th year." "We expect to soon have a seat and a voice at the U.N. table and the U.N. will soon have a dedicated migration agency," he said. Established in 1951, the IOM was incepted after Western Europe experienced chaos and displacement following World War II. For the past years, it has broadened its scope to cater more issues concerning migration. Currently, the group, which has over 160 members, is the leading global agency that works hand in hand with various governments and civil societies to "advance the understanding of migration issues, encourage social and economic development through migration, and uphold the human dignity and well-being of migrants," the Global Times said. It was in 2001 when China first became an observer of the IOM. Since then, the agency and the government have established intense cooperation on various pressing issues, such as overseas consular protection as well as capacity building of migration management, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang. Lu further stated that with China's membership with the IOM, the nation is expected to play a bigger role in global migration. Additionally, current members of the organization look forward to learn Chinese wisdom on how to foster international cooperation on migration. Forget London. In summer, youll bump into 90 per cent of all the people you wanted to leave behind. Forget Paris, its expensive. Just book a ticket to Budapest. Heres why. 1. You can wallow in a public bath Tell me I can spend the day jumping between 15 indoor and outdoor pools, each one completely temperature controlled, and watch me give in to my inner wallowing buffalo. The baths have saunas, steam rooms and all other luxury spa accessories, but nowhere else have I seen such lavish architecture. Among the many treatments on offer, I chose the red wine bath, but I suspect I drank more red wine than they ever could have filled in my tub. At least thats what I think, because truthfully, I dont remember. 2. You can take a free walking tour (or three) Different companies offer guided walking tours, and theyre all free! Each offers you a glimpse of hidden treasures as you visit neighbourhoods most tourists ignore, giving you the real flavour of Hungary. I said flavour because a walking tour can also give you some serious culinary adventures. If you visit, please eat halaszle, a spicy, paprika-based fish soup that is pure magic. 3. You can wear your underwear over your jeans Nightclubs in Budapest rock. The latest in the city was called Ruin pub culture. Ruin pubs are in buildings that are in ruins. I went to Szimpla Kert, where there was a superhero-themed pub crawl. I wore Versace undies over my jeans, and a stole like a cloak. Thus was born a new superhero Versace Man! 4. Learn to say gyonyoru vagy (but prepare to hear szunj meg) Eastern European girls are stunning! But dont be a douchebag. Be at your charming best. Learn the basic phrase gyonyoru vagy which means youre gorgeous. But do prepare to hear hagyj beken (leave me alone) and szunj meg (get lost). I used gyonyoru vagy just once during the pub crawl, and was told, vicces vagy (youre funny). I dont know if that was because of my face or my Versace Man outfit. Either way, it was fun. 5. You can spend money like its going out of style One Hungarian forint is 0.24 rupees: for the first time, youll feel great about Indian currency. The writer is a model and an actor. From HT Brunch, July 3, 2016 Follow us on twitter.com/HTBrunch Connect with us on facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch Obscure Bollywood and TV actors are being probed by the Mumbai Police for their alleged role in a multi-crore party drug racket which was uncovered recently. A senior Thane police official told PTI a Bollywood personality, who acted in films in the 80s and 90s, a TV actress and other small-time actors are suspected to be part of the drug racket in which former film star Mamta Kulkarni and her partner Vicky Goswami, who is allegedly an international drug lord, are the prime accused. The suspects allegedly attended meetings in Mumbai hotels, where Goswami reportedly discussed the mode of drug supply. . Earlier, Thane Police had told media persons that one of the arrested persons in the case had given investigators details of the modus operandi and about the crucial meetings held in Kenya and Dubai regarding the ephedrine sale. In all, there were 17 accused in the case, of whom seven were still at large. The remaining 10 have been arrested and are now in judicial custody. The arrests were made when police seized around 18.5 tonne of ephedrine, worth approximately Rs 2,000 crore, after raiding the premises of Avon Lifesciences Ltd in Maharashtras Solapur district in April. According to police, ephedrine, which is a controlled drug, was allegedly being diverted from the Solapur unit of Avon Lifesciences and sent abroad after processing. The ephedrine power is used for sniffing and is also used to produce popular party drug methamphetamine. The accused currently in jail are: Sagar Suresh Powle, Mayur Suresh Sukhdhare, Rajendra Jagdambaprasad Dimri, Dhaneshwar Rajaram Swami, Puneet Ramesh Shringi, Manoj Tejraj Jain, Hardipsingh Indersingh Gill, Narendra Dhirajlal Kacha, Babasaheb Shankar Dhotre and Jai Mulji Mukhi. Those on the run include Kishore Rathod, said to be the son of a former politician, and an accused identified only as Dr Abdullah, who is based abroad, as well as two of his associates, police said. The entire drug racket first came to light when Thane Police arrested a Nigerian national in a drug case on April 12. His interrogation led police to Solapur, where they conducted raids in the premises of Avon Lifesciences on April 14. Bless the Brits! Even at the height of their lunacy they retain the wit to laugh at themselves. Two newspaper headlines the morning after the vote to leave the European Union were a hoot: What have you done, Grandma? and What the devil do we do now? Unfortunately, behind the humour is an inescapable truth. Britain has got itself into a frightful mess. Brexiteers sought to control immigration from Europe whilst retaining access to its single market. Theyre about to discover theyve got the first at the cost of losing the second. Read: Brexit referendum: A lot of sighs between leave and left Now heres why this is a dreadful outcome, one that Britain cannot end up with. For if Britain ceases to be part of the single market it will suffer three serious economic consequences. First, its terms of trade could turn adverse and given that exports to Europe matter much more to Britain than exports to Britain matter to the EU this could inflict not inconsiderable costs. Second, investment into Britain could be badly affected. Countries like China, India and Japan view Britain as the gateway to Europe. If thats no longer the case their investments could reduce, cease or, even, start pulling out. Read: No immediate Brexit impact on business talks with US, says EU trade chief Most importantly, the City of London may suffer damaging consequences. If banks based in Britain lose permission to operate in Europe, as the governor of the Bank of France has threatened, many will retrench staff and set up new operations on the continent. When the City shrinks so too will Britains foreign exchange earnings whilst unemployment will, inevitably, grow. So, not surprisingly, Brexiteers are desperate to remain part of the single market. The problem is that to do so theyll have to accept free movement of people, i.e. immigration. The Norwegian model, which some believe is a solution, commits Oslo to accept immigration and all EU regulations whilst also contributing financially to the EU. Now, if Britain were to accept this why did it opt out in the first place? Worse, it would have to accept EU regulations without any say in their making. Surely that would be worse than the situation they faced inside the EU? Unfortunately, the economic consequences are not the only ones Britain has to confront. The political costs could be worse. The threat of a second Scottish independence referendum is real and the new prime ministers power to refuse could provoke rather than resolve the problem. Britains only hope is that Europe will think hard about admitting Scotland for fear that could encourage the Catalans. But thats thin foundation on which to build future hopes. And where Scotland goes Northern Ireland could easily follow! Read: Britain at sea: Week after Brexit, political crisis grips country Alas, Britain is more than just regionally divided. Its also internally fractured. The Brexit vote divided urban and rural, rich and poor, young and old, the educated and not so well-educated. And, remember, all the Kings horses and all the Kings men couldnt put Humpty-Dumpty together again! In these circumstances are you surprised Britain is delaying triggering Article 50 to start the formal process of separation from Europe? The internet petition for a second referendum is unlikely to succeed but dont be surprised if this issue is raised in an autumn election. The Liberals are committed to it. Labour could be too. And now there are Tory voices in support. Read: British PM hopeful Gove says no EU exit talks this year The question is: Can Britain pull itself back from the brink? Or will it slowly but unstoppably topple over? Undoing what youve wilfully done is not easy but what other choice do the Brits have? The views expressed are personal SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Late last year, I wrote in these columns that we were in danger of becoming an elections-only democracy. Once a party or coalition wins an assembly or general election, it considers itself immune from criticism for the next five years. The other instruments of democratic accountability; legislative debate, judicial oversight, a free press (and free speech more generally), and peaceful protest, are neglected or even disparaged. Read: Theres more to democracy than holding elections Indian democracy is based on the Westminster model. So it was with much interest that I picked up a new book by the distinguished British lawyer Anthony Lester. The book is called Five Ideas for Fight For, these ideas being human rights, equality, free speech, privacy, and the rule of law. While largely about the United Kingdom, Lester brings in cases and comparisons from other parts of the world, India not excluded. The book does occasionally lapse into self-promotion; there are perhaps too many references to cases Lester fought, committees he served on, and laws he drafted. Nonetheless, I found the book stimulating, containing at least five lessons for those who fight for these noble ideas in our country Lesson one is that democratic progress is always slow and halting. Lesters book traces the painful, tortuous, two steps forward one step back progress in promoting gender and racial equality in the UK, and so it has been with the promotion of caste and gender equality in India, or with enhancing the rights of the differently abled and of sexual minorities. Complete equality, writes Lester, is an unattainable ideal, but we must come a good deal closer if we are to remain a civilized society. This applies entirely to India, with the caveat that we should substitute the word remain with become. The second lesson is that it is bureaucrats, even more than politicians, who promote secrecy, withhold information, stall the passing of progressive laws, and in other ways violate citizens rights. Reading Lesters account, I was struck by the sheer awfulness of the British state agencies which persecuted homosexuals even as late as the 1980s. Read: Not allowing debate in Parliament bad for democracy: PM Modi The third lesson is that since an independent judiciary is so crucial to democracy, judges must be appointed on merit, not because of their views on controversial matters of the day or their support for a political party. This applies even more strongly in India, because our politicians are more interfering, and because of the carrot of post-retirement jobs that governments can offer judges and chief justices, which may tend to influence verdicts made towards the end of their tenure. The fourth lesson is that while a judiciary must be independent, it should not seek to become an instrument of radical change. The judicial making of, or intervention in, public policies should be resorted to only in exceptional cases. Judges have no competence or expertise, writes Lester, to decide how to create a health service, or tackle poverty, or make the trains run on time. He adds: It is only rarely when democratically elected arms of the state have failed completely to fulfil their obligations to protect economic, social and cultural rights, that the courts may intervene, for example, to prevent starvation or to halt discrimination in providing health care. It is true that the failures of the Indian State in this regard are far greater than that of the British State, and so judicial intervention has been more frequent here than in Britain. Even so, some Indian judges have been too zealous in seeking to frame and direct policies better left under the control of the executive. Read: Happy birthday, George Orwell: 4 reasons for you to pick up 1984 again The fifth lesson is that the Republic of India inherited a series of repressive laws from their colonial laws, and it is past time these were repealed. Although the British have abolished the most obnoxious of these laws, we retain them. Section 377 of the IPC is one obvious example. Another is the notorious law of sedition, which inhibits criticism of politicians and governments. Anthony Lester mentions two celebrated cases where British writers were charged with having brought King and Country into contempt and hatred: one in 1792, when Thomas Paine was convicted for publishing his landmark tract The Rights of Man; the second in 1909, when a Glasgewian anarchist named Guy Aldred was sentenced to ten years for the crime of advocating the end of British colonial rule over India! Seditious libel was finally abolished in Britain in 2009, but the law the Raj introduced into India remains on our statute books, stifling artistic, literary, and political freedom. All democracies are imperfect. Lester is scathing about the deficiencies of British democracy; but in fact their democracy is far less imperfect than ours. For instance, his book does not so much as mention penal reform, a subject of overwhelming importance in our country. Few things shame Indian democracy more than the shocking state of our prisons, the harsh treatment of undertrials, and the venality of our police. The degradation and barbarism of our prisons is made more horrific still by the luxurious conditions offered to VIP prisoners such as mafia dons and politicians, in a complete and utter violation of the basic democratic principle of equality before the law. Anthony Lester writes that human rights are not the gift of governments. They are our birthright. So they are. In India, governments have been even less sensitive to, and even less protective of, human rights and free speech than in Britain. No Indian politician, of any political party, has any serious (or perhaps even superficial) commitment to these basic principles of democratic functioning. Much more so than in the United Kingdom, it is citizens who must fight for these rights themselves. Ramachandra Guhas most recent book is Gandhi Before India Twitter: @Ram_Guha The views expressed are personal SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON At least 15 bodies have been recovered from the debris in villages that were flattened in a cloudburst in Uttarakhand, police said on Saturday. Four bodies were pulled out in two villages of Pithoragarh district and three from Ghat tehsil of Chamoli district on Saturday. Eight bodies were recovered on Friday. As many as 38 people are feared dead in the incident that occurred in six villages of the two districts, police said. About 200 cattle also reportedly died in the villages. Rescue and search operation is still on at the disaster-struck villages of Pithoragarh and Chamoli. An Almora-based 40-member unit of NDRF and 25-member SDRF team from Dharchula along with local police and disaster management department-trained response local teams are engaged in rescue operations, said Shailesh Bagoli, secretary, state disaster management department. More than 60 houses were flattened due to the cloudburst. (HT Photo) The maximum damage was inflicted on Basted village, where at least 30 people are feared to be trapped in the debris. More than 60 houses were flattened due to the cloudburst after incessant rains in the region. Officials said more than 100 mm rainfall was recorded in just two hours, leading to flooding of most of the rivers in the hill state. District administrations of Char Dham routes have been directed by the government to take due care of the pilgrims, wherever they are. So far there are no reports of stranded pilgrims, Bagoli said. My prayers are with those injured. I hope normalcy returns to the rain-affected areas at the earliest, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted. A house flattened by heavy rainfall at Maithana village in Chamoli district. (HT Photo) Congress president Sonia Gandhi too expressed grief at the loss of life. Through the day, grim news of the damage done by flash floods which has killed and grievously hurt many is of great despair and sorrow. Many people are missing is also news of serious disappointment, she said on Friday. Expressing solidarity with those who have lost their loved ones, Gandhi added: The government of Uttarakhand has been asked to provide swift assistance for rescue and rehabilitation. Chief minister Harish Rawat has announced Rs 2 lakh each as ex-gratia to kin of the deceased. Rescue workers used helicopters to shift the injured to hospitals but poor visibility affected operations, officials said. A senior official of the disaster management team said the rescue operations were also hampered due to inclement weather. Several teams of the state disaster response force, paramilitary forces and army rescue teams were stranded on the way to the disaster-struck areas. All means of communication in the area have also collapsed. We have recorded 12 cm rain in 24 hours in Kapkot (Pithoragarh), Vikram Singh, the state metrological department head, said on Friday. The met office also issued a warning for heavy rains in some parts of the state in the next 48 hours. With inputs from agencies Delhi, a medical hub and a referral centre, faces an acute shortage of blood every summer. This is because college students, who donate most of the blood, leave the city during summer vacations. We collect around 2,000-2,500 units of blood every month and 95% of the donations are voluntary. Replacement donors from families who need the blood make the remaining donations. Most of the voluntary donations are made by colleges, said Dr Vanashree Singh, director of the blood bank, Indian Red Cross Society. During scorching summers, the collection goes down by 15-20% at city blood banks. This has prompted them to look for donors elsewhere. We organise around 350 camps every year. During the summer vacation, we focus on donors from multi-national companies to make up for the shortage, said Dr Singh, adding that religious institutions and various other groups also come to their aid. The Rotary Blood Bank uses its mobile vans to collect blood from people at malls or those travelling on the Metro. We organise these mobile camps every summer when we face a shortage, said Raj, manager of the Rotary Blood Bank. These camps are organised to stock blood to meet the high demand during dengue season. We have to maintain a stock of blood and collection kits too. We ask our staff not to take any leaves during the period and the demand for blood and platelets soars during monsoon, said Dr Singh. Delhi faces a shortage of roughly 1 lakh units of blood every year. As many as 6.5 lakh units are needed every year, whereas blood banks across the city only collect 5.5 lakh units. Read: Youngsters lead the way in blood donation in Bhopal The WHO norms state there must be 10 donations per 1,000 people. If there are 2 crore people living in Delhi, there must be 2 lakh donations. More than 5 lakh blood units are donated and yet there is a shortage because blood intensive procedures -- cardiovascular surgeries, cancer treatment -- take place here, said Dr Singh. The shortage is also a result of reduced access. There are many hospitals and nursing homes in Delhi and not all of them have a tie-up with blood banks. The patients have to go from one blood bank to the other in search of the blood or blood component they require, said Dr Rajan. On the World Blood Donor Day on June 14, the Centre announced it would set up a state-of-the-art blood collection and storage centre in Dwarka. The centre will enhance Delhis blood storage capacity by 1 lakh units. The land has already been earmarked and the centre will be built in about two years. It will have the best facility and equipment for collecting, storing and segregating blood components. The blood provided would also be NAT (Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing) screened, the best technology available in the country, said Dr Shobhini Rajan, assistant director general of National AIDS Control Organisation. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A scuffle among a group of drunk teenagers triggered a clash between the Jatav and Valmiki communities in south Delhis Asola village near Fatehpur Beri on Friday. Over a dozen people, including policemen, were injured. A senior officer said the clash broke at around 7 pm on Friday when a group of teenagers from the two communities started fighting over a minor issue, though it is unclear what they were fighting over. Their argument turned into a fight and elders from both communities joined in. Within minutes, the area turned into a battle ground. Rioters pelted bricks, stones and bottles at each other. They damaged each others properties, said police. Rioters threw bricks at the local police when they came to control the situation. Two cops suffered minor injuries and a few police vehicles were also damaged. The injured were taken to AIIMS Trauma Centre from where they were discharged after medical attention. The situation was brought under control by late Friday night, said police. A case of rioting has been registered at the Fatehpur Beri police station and efforts are on to identify those who actually triggered the issue and turned it into a riot, said a senior police officer. He said the two groups had clashed in the past as well. Police detained over two dozen people from both communities. Cops deployed in the area to prevent further clashes remained at the spot on Saturday as well. Additionally, CRPF personnel were also deployed on Saturday to help the police. While police are yet to find out the reason for the clash, residents told police that tension erupted over a recently solemnised inter-caste wedding that was opposed by members of both communities. The southwest monsoon has arrived over the National Capital, the Met department said in an update on Sunday, as frequent downpours cooled temperatures and brought surplus rainfall to northern states. The rains arrived in Delhi three days behind their scheduled date of arrival (June 29), although the city received robust pre-monsoon showers over the weekend following a spell of sultry weather. While it has rained in the whole of Delhi, areas around Safdarjung, Lodhi Road, Morni and Pitampura recorded significant amount of around 2cm of rainfall until Sunday morning, the Met said. Heavy rains are predicted over some places across Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Punjab on Sunday as well. A part of the rain-bearing system had been slow in its progress to Delhi, Haryana and Punjab, while proceeding normally over bordering western Uttar Pradesh. The monsoon has further advanced into remaining parts of West Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand & Himachal Pradesh, most parts of Haryana, entire Chandigarh & Delhi and Punjab and some parts of East Rajasthan a bulletin from the national weather bureau said. The rains, vital for Asias third-largest economy, are predicted to be surplus this year after two years of drought that saw a dire water crisis and brutal heatwaves. Read: Monsoon mayhem: Flashfloods, landslides claim 30 lives in Uttarakhand, Arunachal In next 48 hours, the rains will likely advance over some parts of north Arabian Sea off the Gujarat coast to reach north Gujarat and eastern Rajasthan, the only areas outside the monsoon cover. On Saturday, heavy downpours drenched many northern states, including rice bowl Punjab and Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, apart from Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. The monsoon was sluggish and 11% below normal in June after arriving in Kerala on June 8, a week late. The gap now is steadily narrowing. On Thursday, the monsoon was tracking 9% below normal overall since the beginning of the rainy spell. Across northwest India, however, the rains were 5% surplus. Towards south, the rains have been 21% above normal while in central India they are still 12% deficient. The northeast had the highest rain deficit of 28%. The Met department has said that rainfall in July, the most critical month for farming operation, would be surplus. Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has sought 5% relaxation for students who have passed their Class XII boards from Delhi and seek admission to colleges funded by the Delhi government. In a letter to HRD Minister Smriti Irani, Sisodia also suggested that there should be an entrance exam for admissions to Delhi University. Due to anomalies in the admission process of DU which is based on cutoffs, lakhs of Delhi students suffer as applicants from other state boards have more marks than them. Recently, the scams behind the Gujarat and Bihar board toppers have come to light and because of such practices, students here are suffering, he said in his letter. Sisodia, who is also Delhis education minister, suggested that an entrance test should replace the cutoffs method for enrolment of students in DU. This will ensure students from all areas get equal opportunity, he said. He said that as Delhi government is funding 28 colleges annually, students from the city should be granted a relaxation of 5% while seeking admission to these colleges. He said that 2.5 lakh students pass out from Delhi schools annually and it is unfair if they are not able to get admission in DU colleges. Delhi government is giving `300 crore annually for 28 DU colleges run by it. So at least in these colleges, Delhi students should get relaxation of five marks from the current session, Sisodia said. The admission process for 54,000 seats in 63 DU colleges is currently underway. The admissions under the first cutoff list were completed on Saturday. The university will come out with the second cutoff list on July 4. The governments request to the Law Commission for a report on the uniform civil code comes on the trail of many related developments over the past several years. Last year the Supreme Court had said that divorced Muslim women were legally entitled to maintenance from their former husbands under Indian law. The Supreme Court had also nudged the Centre, asking it to take a quick decision on the code. Before that, in 2011 the Delhi High Court had turned down a Muslim mans appeal that he could not be compelled to pay maintenance to his former wife because the law in question did not apply to the Muslims. Read: The Uniform Civil Code is good but can wait These developments are to be seen in the overall context of the Constitutions Directive Principles of State Policy, which enjoins upon the State to have a uniform civil code. The BJP, which is in power at the Centre now, has been making this demand for nearly 30 years. But there are some issues connected with this. When the Constitution came into force, while separate electorates were abolished in pursuance of the goal of national integration, enough safeguards were kept for protecting religious and linguistic minorities and their religious and cultural rights. With that in view, successive governments at the Centre remained aloof from this. Another thing to be kept in mind is that having the uniform civil code does not concern the largest minority, the Muslims, alone. There are communities that have their own civil laws and customs on marriage, divorce, adoption, maintenance and succession. Read: The fight against triple talaq is a fight for basic dignity But now there are visible signs of change, with advocacy groups of various religious communities asking for a uniform civil code. About 200 Muslim men, including the film personality Resul Pookutty, have lent support to the demand of 50,000 Muslim women that the triple talaq system of divorce be rescinded. In doing so, they have lent support to an organisation called Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, a Muslim womens advocacy group, which is campaigning against triple talaq. This proves that Muslim men and women have entered an area that was the happy hunting ground of public intellectuals. The government, however, should move cautiously in the matter because this is after all a touchy subject and so can be emotive. Samsung Galaxy Tab E 8.0 with the Verizon network is packed and ready for the customers. (Photo : Facebook (Samsung)) Network carrier Verizon is rolling out the Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 update for Samsung Galaxy Tab E 8.0. This update comes packed with the security patch for June as well. The build number of the Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 update is T377VVRU1BPD6,according to SamMobile. The update came quickly for the device as it was launched just four months ago. Advertisement The Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 update is releasing in a gradual manner for all the users. It is expected to hit all the devices in a couple of weeks. However, the Samsung Galaxy Tab E 8.0 users on the Verizon network can check their devices to see if the update is available for them or not, according to 9to5 Google. To do so, they need to go to Settings> About Device> Check for Software Updates. Some Samsung Galaxy Tab E 8.0 users may find that there is no update yet for their device. They need to wait for some time for the Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 update and then download it. On the other hand, the other users of the Samsung Galaxy Tab E 8.0 may find that they are prompted to download the latest Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 update. As the update is almost 1GB so the users need to check the battery levels of their Samsung Galaxy Tab E 8.0. If it is below 50 percent then it is recommended to connect it to a power source before starting the download process. The Samsung Galaxy Tab E 8.0 users on the Verizon network also need to connect their device to a stable and unmetered Wi-Fi network for an uninterrupted download experience. In case the power or Internet connection is interrupted midway then the device may be bricked and lose the local data. In light of the way, Verizon quickly released the Android Marshmallow update for Samsung Galaxy Tab E 8.0, it is expected that other carriers such as T-Mobile, AT&T, US Cellular and Sprint will follow soon. Samsung Galaxy Tab E 8.0 is also expected to get the upcoming operating system Android Nougat, upon its launch. Watch the video to know more about the top-rated and useful features of Android Marshmallow here: Aspirants who couldnt make it in the first cutoff list of Delhi University have something to cheer about. Most colleges of Delhi University, including the most sought after ones, are likely to come out with a second cutoff list on July 4. The cutoffs, however, are likely to see only a marginal dip. The principal of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) on Saturday confirmed that a second list was going to be released as nearly 50% seats were vacant. The college filled only 325 and 34 seats, respectively, so far for its two most sought after courses B.Com (Hons) and Economics (Hons). The cutoff for B.Com(Hons) was 98% in the first list and that for Economics (Honours)was 98.25%. There will for sure be a second cutoff list as we have many seats left for both courses. There are 501 and 123 seats for B.Com (Hons) and Economics (Hons) respectively, said RP Rustagi, officiating principal of SRCC. At Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR), only 201 of the total 730 total seats had been filled after Day Three of the admission process. The cutoffs in most courses, except Hindi and Sanskrit, are between 95%-98%. The college may not come out with a second cutoff list for Sociology. The admission committee meeting is on Monday but we are likely to come with second cutoff list for most of the subjects, said Lady Shri Ram College for Women principal Suman Sharma. Read: DU admissions: 9 essential documents you must have to claim your seat At Indraprastha College for Women almost 320 seats were filled by the end of Saturday, the last day to get admission under the first cutoff list. Out of the total 1,089 seats at Sri Venkateswara College as many as 433 seats were filled by Saturday. At Miranda House as many as 308 seats were filled out of the total 1,001 seats. Some of the colleges, however, are likely to close admissions for a few courses where seats have been filled under the first cutoff. At Kirori Mal College, around 600, of the total 1,308 seats, were filled by Saturday. We may not come out with a second cutoff list for History, Sanskrit and BA (Programme-Physical Sciences). But, other than that all subjects will have a second list, said Principal Dinesh Khattar. At Hindu College there may not be a second cutoff list for Political Science, BA (Programme), Sociology, Zoology, and Botany. The college has filled 380 seats out of the total 752 seats. Off campus colleges have also been able to fill very few seats and they are likely to come with second cutoff list for almost all subjects. For instance, at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College out of the total 708 seats, only about 300 had been filled. There will be second cutoff list in all subjects. The dip will not be more than up to 1 % percentage points, said SK Garg, principal of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Still confused about the efficacy of ayurvedic remedies? Heres something to help you take a call. While many believe that herbal is synonymous with safe, it turns out ayurvedic medicines can in fact be deadly. A 26-year-old student developed lead poisoning from taking Indian ayurvedic herbal medicine, write doctors in the online journal BMJ Case Reports. During a trip to India, he took the herbal medications to treat his low back pain. On returning to the USA, he began to use them regularly, but developed pain in the upper central region of his abdomen, weight loss, dark stools, nausea and vomiting. A blood test showed he was suffering from anaemia and a high level of lead in his blood. Read: Best yoga retreats for an enriching experience No other source of lead exposure was evident, so doctors advised him to discontinue use of his four different types of ayurvedic medications. He was given morphine and medications for nausea and vomiting. Treatment to remove excess iron, known as chelation therapy, was initiated, and within months the patients symptoms resolved. Read: Heres how to stay safe and healthy during monsoon This case follows similar reports in the USA of acute lead toxicity from ayurvedic medications produced in India, wrote Dr Judith Green-McKenzie, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Concern regarding the use of ayurvedic herbal medicines originates from their easy availability, increasingly international use and global reach, lack of focused scientific research and the possibility of abuse in an unregulated industry, she concluded. Bite into Barcodes black cardamom- and Dalle chillies- (from Sikkim) infused chocolate, and the smokiness of the spices hits you first. The soothing tones of Sao Tome Dark (a variety of chocolate) are comforting on the palate. But dont stop here. Travel further down, and savour chocolates infused with Kanchan amlas (grown in Jharkhand) blended with Ghana milk chocolate and Kesar mangoes (from Gujarat) with Java milk chocolate. Six of 29 Indian states find representation in the recently launched first edition of Barcode, artisanal chocolates by Mumbai-based chef Varun Inamdar. When I was at the Cocoa Revolution in Vietnam, I realised that the world looks at India as big consumers of chocolate, but not as producers, says Inamdar, who researched for six years before launching the brand. Six of 29 Indian states find representation in Barcode, an artisanal line of chocolates (Photo: Varun Inamdar) Its true. India is not a major chocolate producer, but certain pockets of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala produce cocoa that is used by the big guys like Mondelez (which now owns Cadbury), and some smaller companies. But after experimenting with local and international cuisines, chefs and chocolatiers are now looking at chocolates made locally. This trend is in line with our growing appetite for gourmet food products. Pegged as a $2,800 million (Rs 18,897 crore) industry in 2015 by Technopak (a Gurgaon-based consultancy firm), Indias gourmet segment which includes chocolates, cheese, cold cuts, sauces, among others is gearing for big growth. The chocolate industry can be divided into two segments: those who make chocolates from cocoa beans, and those who use this chocolate to create variations like pralines, ganache, flavoured bars, among others. Though the bean-to-bar segment is relatively new, it brings together all the different segments of chocolate-making under one roof. Going local Puducherry-based Mason & Co is one such company. Started by husband-wife duo Jane and Fabien Mason two years ago, it makes organic and vegan chocolates from locally sourced cocoa beans. Making chocolates was more of a personal hobby. But I got interested in setting up Mason & Co, when I met the local farmers and started working with them, says Jane. The journey was not an easy one. The duo had to train the farmers in producing high-quality cocoa with stringent quality checks. For instance, the beans found here had about 20 per cent mold, compared to 4 per cent acceptable internationally, says Jane, who worked with the local farmers to make them understand the technicalities of cocoa production. When mold attacks a well-fermented bean, it takes away the aroma leaving it with a foul smell. At Puducherry-based Mason & Co was started by husband-wife duo Jane and Fabien Mason (Photo: Mason & Co) Once the beans are ready to be turned into bars, they are cleaned and sorted, roasted and cracked and finally winnowed (to remove the shells). At this stage, organic sugar is added to the nibs. This process also releases cocoa butter, turning cocoa into a paste, adds Jane. Most mass-produced chocolates have emulsifiers that give it the melt-in-the-mouth feel. But at Mason & Co, pure cacao butter is added to give the chocolates extra richness. Even during an off season, the company produces about 5,000 bars a month. Similarly, when chocolatiers David Belo and Angelica Anagnostou moved to Mysore, they launched Earth Loaf, an artisanal chocolate company. The duo sources its entire cacao requirement from farms in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka. Sourcing global Unlike Earth Loaf and Mason & Co, Gurgaon-based All Things sources beans from Ghana, San Domingo, Ecuador and Madagascar some of the best cocoa-producing regions in the world through an agency. The region where the bean is grown, the climate, and the soil play a large role in determining its value, says Kuhu Kochar, co-founder, All Things about their sourcing plans. Hot chocolate stir-ins by Harsh Chocolates (Photo: Harsh Chocolates) Similarly, Anuja and Ankita Jain of Mumbai-based Harsh Chocolates import raw ingredients for their hot chocolate stir-ins (dip in milk to turn it into hot chocolate) and chocolate rocks from local importers. What sets these companies apart from the mass-produced chocolates is the fact that these are made in small batches, mostly manually, and have quirky packaging. For instance, All Things packages its nuts and maple syrup chocolate called All Things Monday in pinstriped covers. At Earth Loaf, the wrappers and boxes are silk-screen printed by hand, making it a truly artisanal product. We hope with the new Make-in-India enthusiasm, we match the international raw material standards and go completely local, says Anuja. 1. Mason & Co Try: Peanut butter dark chocolate, roasted sesame chocolate bars and espresso dark chocolate (made with coffee from Blue Tokai) Buy: masonchocolate.com/shop, or Natures Basket outlets across the country. Price: Rs 300 onward 2. Earth Loaf Try: Gondhoraj and apricot chocolate bar, smoked salt and almond chocolate bar Buy: earthloaf.co.in/shop Price: Rs 270 onward 3. Barcode Try: Amla, lemon, coriander salt with 54% Ghana milk, figs and cloves with 54% Belgium dark Buy: email on mail@varuninamdar.com Price: Rs 499 (for Volume 1, containing six flavours) 4. Harsh Chocolates Try: Cinnamon chocolate stir-In and masala milk stir-In Buy: to place an order, call 9867080093 Price: Rs 150 for a box of chocolates 5. All Things Try: All Things Summer which infuses Ratnagiri mangoes and All Things Water - 54.6% Belgian dark chocolate paired with Fleur de Sel Buy: theallthingsshop.com Price: Rs 330 onward All Things Summer which infuses Ratnagiri mangoes (Photo: All Things) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Stalking has led to three deaths across India over the past 10 days. On June 27, A Vinupriya, 21, killed herself in Salem, Tamil Nadu, after two morphed pictures showing her face on a bikini-clad body appeared on Facebook. P Suresh, 21, confessed to stalking her online after she refused to marry him. On June 24, Infosys employee S Swati, 24, was hacked to death at a Chennai railway station while she was on her way to work. Her attacker is still untraceable, but the police say it was probably someone known to her because bystanders said the two had a heated argument before the killer attacked her with a machete. On June 23, Hitesh (who goes by only one name) hanged himself in his Indore home after receiving 351 missed calls in a single day, from his girlfriend. She had filed a rape case against him six months earlier and had been calling him 300 to 400 times a day, for weeks. And then there are victims like Snapdeal employee Dipti Saran, 24, who was abducted at knifepoint from outside a Metro station in Ghaziabad on February 10 and held captive for three days. Among the five arrested were Devendra, who obsessively stalked her for more than a year. Stalking, even if does not cause physical injury, can leave deep psychological scars ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to paranoia, withdrawal and sleeplessness. The casualties show how serious the problem really is and what can happen when obsession overrules reason, says psychiatrist Dr Yusuf Matcheswalla of Mumbais Masina Hospital, who treats stalkers and counsels those who have been stalked. Read: The anti-rape bill and its problematic definition of stalking OBSESSIVE FIXATIONS Though the word stalking is increasingly used to describe social voyeurism akin to gossiping looking up someone online before an appointment, tracking partners and frenemies on Facebook or Twitter it has a far darker and more threatening reality. Several cases are not reported because the victims either dont take the threat seriously or are too embarrassed to mention it to friends and family, leave alone the police. Stalker-led abductions and deaths are rare, but stalking defined as wilful, malicious and repeated unwanted attention, harassing, violating or threatening the victim can end in other forms of violence, such as vicious personal attacks on social media, wrecking of property and, in some cases, molestation and assault. Read: Indian man gets 19 years in US jail for stalking former classmate for a decade What makes a person so fixated with someone that he/she cannot stop themselves from intrusively texting, calling or following their victim? Is the obsessive behaviour fuelled by delusion or does narcissism, lack of empathy and an overriding sense of entitlement also play a role? All stalkers are psychologically unstable, either delusional that the person is in love with them or with an undiagnosed psychosis that makes them fixated on somebody, says Dr Samir Parikh, director of mental health and behavioural sciences at Fortis, Gurgaon. Most stalkers are sociopaths who arent discomforted or embarrassed if caught or humiliated publicly and never seek treatment. Much like sex offenders, stalkers can rationalise their behaviour and are indifferent to victims sufferings. People may ask, why did the young man whos ex called him 351 times simply not change his number? He didnt because he knew she wouldnt stop and would find a way to get to him, says Dr Parikh. SEEKING HELP Victims of stalking almost always need therapy. As many as 80% are at risk of PTSD, which causes symptoms like extreme anxiety, sleeplessness, palpitation, flashbacks etc, says Dr Parikh. He recently treated a 22-year-old brought in after she quit her job and turned recluse. Weeks earlier, a stranger had walked up to her to say he had been following her for months and had quit his job for her. The thought of someone shadowing her without her knowledge made her feel insecure, threatened. She needed weeks of counselling to reclaim her life, says Dr Parikh. Read: Why online harassment goes unpunished in India Fear, trauma, paranoia, thoughts of being killed or killing oneself, doubting ones own character and wondering Did I provoke it, are some overbearing thoughts that victims come to us with, adds Dr Matcheswalla. When men are at the receiving end, it can be even more complicated. Last June, Dr Parul Tank, consultant psychiatrist and therapist at Mumbais Fortis Hospital, counselled Arijit*, a 25-year-old stalked by a woman 10 years older. She would show up outside his home and his office building, send him angry or lewd texts on WhatsApp. He didnt know how to deal with it and feared how people might react if he said he was being stalked, says Dr Tank. It was when she threatened suicide that Arijit called her father. They brought her to me, and by then, Arijit too needed counselling, says Dr Tank. RAISING THE ALARM Stalkers are usually people you know an ex, someone you went to school with, a Facebook friend, a colleague, a neighbour and it usually begins innocuously. Trust your instincts and do not downplay a perceived threat, because it usually begins with seemingly harmless gestures. If you got 200 messages in one day youd immediately file a police complaint, but stalking usually doesnt start out like that, says Dr Tank. It starts with small acts that cause a vague sensation of discomfort. So its important to stay alert and communicate with friends and family the minute you feel uncomfortable. (* Name changed to protect identity) Pregnant ladies, take note. Paracetamol, a common drug used extensively during pregnancy, maybe linked with autism spectrum as well as attention-related and hyperactivity symptoms in newborns, a first-of-its-kind study has found. Scientists found an independent association between the use of this drug in pregnancy and autism spectrum symptoms in children. It is also the first study to report different effects on boys and girls. Comparing persistently to non-exposed children, the study has found an increase of 30% in the risk of detriment to some attention functions, and an increase of two clinical symptoms of autism spectrum symptoms in boys. Read: Why we need more general physicians for super-special care Researchers at Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) in Spain recruited 2644 mother-child pairs in a birth cohort study during pregnancy. About 88% were evaluated when the child was one year old, and 79.9% were evaluated when they were five years old. Mothers were asked about their use of paracetamol during pregnancy and the frequency of use was classified as never, sporadic, or persistent. Around 43% of children evaluated at age one and 41% assessed at age five were exposed to any paracetamol at some point during the first 32 weeks of pregnancy. The study warned that the male brain may be more vulnerable to harmful influences during early life. (Shutterstock) When assessed at age five, exposed children were at higher risk of hyperactivity or impulsivity symptoms. Persistently exposed children in particular showed poorer performance on a computerised test measuring inattention, impulsivity and visual speed processing. Boys also showed more autism spectrum symptoms when persistently exposed to paracetamol. Although we measured symptoms and not diagnoses, an increase in the number of symptoms that a child has, can affect him or her, even if they are not severe enough to warrant a clinical diagnosis of a neurodevelopmental disorder, said lead author Claudia Avella-Garcia, researcher at CREAL, an ISGlobal allied centre in Barcelona. Read: Dog lovers, your pet may make you critically ill Paracetamol could be harmful to neurodevelopment for several reasons. First of all, it relieves pain by acting on cannabinoid receptors in the brain, said Jordi Julvez, also a researcher at CREAL. Since these receptors normally help determine how neurons mature and connect with one another, paracetamol could alter these important processes, Julvez said. It can also affect the development of the immune system, or be directly toxic to some foetuses that may not have the same capacity as an adult to metabolise this drug, or by creating oxidative stress, he said. Read: Heres how to stay safe and healthy during monsoon The male brain may be more vulnerable to harmful influences during early life, said Avella-Garcia. The study concluded that the widespread exposure of infants to paracetamol in utero could increase the number of children with ADHD or autism spectrum symptoms. The findings were published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. The first squadron of the Indian Air Forces light combat aircraft (LCA) took flight on Friday morning. However, getting the two Tejas fighters in the air was a long, three decade journey plagued with multiple problems. Read | Tejas takes off as IAF inducts first squadron of home-grown fighter jet The project was sanctioned in 1983 as a replacement for the Soviet-origin MiG-21 fleet. However, the Indian Air Force (IAF)s plan to get the indigenous warplanes airborne in 1994 missed several deadlines due to various factors. The failure to build an engine indigenously was one of them, leading to a domino effect of delays. Over a third of the components used in Tejas, including the current American-built engines, are imported. Sanctions imposed by the US after India conducted nuclear tests in May 1998 nearly brought the project to a grinding halt for it cut off access to certain imported technologies. In an interview in 2013, VK Saraswat, then director general of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), said the sanctions pushed the project development back by over two decades. All suppliers cancelled their agreements and European firms also stopped cooperation. When such a situation occurred, we had to do everything ourselves. This was a major setback, Saraswat, said. This situation continued from 1980 till 2000 when the first aircraft was rolled out. Time was taken to also overcome the blocks created by Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). India became a member of the MTCR only this week. The sanctions led to key design changes and a further delay in setting up production facilities which, according to the DRDO, had to create components from scratch. The deadline stretched further with the Air headquarters involving itself in the project only in 2006, five years after the LCAs first test flight. Read | Tejas deserves one cheer today, maybe two later The longer it took, the more expensive the project became. Initially green-lit at a cost of Rs 560 crore, the development cost of the fighter stood at Rs 13,390 crore last year. A 2015 report by the Comptroller and Auditor General revealed that the delay, aside from the time, set the IAF back by more than Rs 20,000 crore as it had to spend on temporary measures such as upgrading its existing warplanes. Further, the report revealed that Tejas was riddled with 53 significant shortfalls that could compromise its survival in combat. Fixing deficiencies in the limited series meant more time. The delay has upset our calculations but the raising of the LCA squadron is significant for the IAF. We do not have adequate number of fighter squadrons and Tejas will help address that to some degree, said an IAF officer. With this weeks induction, the IAFs 45 Squadron, also known as Flying Daggers, has been resurrected. Previously consisting of MiG-21 Bis jets, it is credited with shooting down a Pakistani Atlantique naval patrol plane in 1999 for violating Indian airspace. Manufactured by Bengaluru-based Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Tejas is in its initial operational clearance (IOC) configuration and comes with limited capabilities. In fact, around 18-19 shortcomings related to maintainability are yet to be sorted out. Future versions the final operational clearance (FOC) model and Tejas Mk1A are expected to pack the powerful punch the air force needs. The IAF eventually plans to induct a total of 120 Tejas jets 20 each of the IOC and FOC configuration and 80 Mk1A models. The original requirement, projected in October 1985, was for 220 light-weight planes. At dawn on Saturday, thousands of pilgrims began their journey to the holy Amarnath shrine in south Kashmir from the Baltal base camp, some 120 km from Srinagar. Its my 18th Yatra and all I will ask Bhole Baba once I reach the cave is to bless all humanity, said Satpal Verma, 53, from Rajasthan, as he began the trek with a wooden walking stick. The 48-day pilgrimage to the holy shrine, located at an altitude of more than 3880 metres, through the two routes of Baltal, around 15km long, and Pahalgam, around 40km long, is expected to be taken by about 400,000 visitors. Speaking to HT, chief executive officer of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board, PK Tripathi said that a total of 12,576 pilgrims started off for the cave on the first day through the two routes 7,486 through Baltal and 5,090 through the other. Inside the cave, a natural ice formation is considered the Shiva Lingam by Hindus. Union home minister Rajnath Singh and Governor NN Vohra also offered prayers at the holy cave on Saturday morning. As cold winds swept the Baltal camp, pilgrims began their trek on foot, horses and palkis, chanting Bum Bum Bholey amidst a massive security set-up comprising personnel from the state police, army, CRPF and BSF. Pilgrims on their way to the Amarnath cave on July 02, 2016 near Dhumal, 120 kilometers northeast of Srinagar. (Waseem Andrabi/HT Photo) Tosha Devi, 50, a pilgrim from Jammu, said she was excited to begin her first trek and determined not to take a horse but walk up to the cave. Since Friday evening, the scene at the Batal base camp was that of exuberance with tents put up for lodging the pilgrims by various religious bodies, multi-coloured lights and devotional songs blaring out of loudspeakers. Hundreds of pilgrims crossed the arduous security checks to enter the camp and the langars put up in a large tent adorned with posters of Shiva serving vegetarian meals. The security arrangement for the annual pilgrimage became a major concern this year following a series of militant attacks in Kashmir in the last few weeks, including a major one on a CRPF convoy in Pampore. Late on Friday night, a CRPF camp was attacked by militants, leaving three personnel injured, hours after Union home minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the security arrangements for the Yatra. Sources said more than 12,500 central paramilitary personnel and 8,000 state police officers were being deployed. The annual pilgrimage to the 3,880 metre high holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir , commenced from Baltal route in Ganderbal district amid tight security. (Waseem Andrabi/HT Photo) But pilgrims with whom HT spoke said although they were aware of the spike in attacks in the Valley, they were not scared because of their faith. We are not scared. For whom we have come this far, will protect us no matter what. The heart says, He is there. We want to come again and again, said Atul Dhir, a clothes trader from Ludhiana who is on his second pilgrimage. Dhirs friend Raghubir Nanda has taken this journey 12 times, every year since 1995. For Nanda, too, the message to go every year comes straight from his heart, and he doesnt care about the security issues. Some pilgrims also said the presence of a large number of troopers and personnel was reassuring. I read about the rise in attacks. I also read about the Friday stone-pelting and know how volatile the Valley is. But the presence of personnel from all security agencies and the cooperation extended by Kashmiris here is reassuring, said Deepak Kumar Dixit, from Alirajpur in Madhya Pradesh, who is on his 15th Yatra. Also, a 53-year-old pilgrim from Delhi was found dead inside a camp in Baltal area on Saturday morning and officials added the probable cause has been diagnosed as a heart-attack. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Indian security set-up will have to step up its vigil to cope with a possible crackdown on militants by Bangladesh after the Dhaka terror attack, security sources and analysts told HT. Some radical elements may try to imitate what their counterparts have done in Dhaka. Besides, the Bangladesh government is likely to launch another intensive crackdown on terror elements in the next few days, said Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute of Conflict Management. Its possible that some extremists may try to flee to India to escape the crackdown. We share a very porous border with Bangladesh. Indian counter-terror officials, who were in touch with their Bangladeshi counterparts, said the six Dhaka attackers belonged to the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). They have been identified as JMB cadres who were wanted by Bangladeshi counter-terror agencies in some earlier cases, said a senior Indian official. Reports have hinted at links between the JMB and the Islamic State, which claimed Fridays attack. We believe the Bangladeshi counter-terror agencies had intelligence about a big attack and had taken precautionary steps, the official said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON On a winter night in 2014, Mukesh took out his camera to film two dead police jawans, the number that usually qualifies as news in Bastar, on the highway. The jawans, on a motorcycle, had apparently bumped into an anti-landmine vehicle that exploded. Soon, cops were all over the place. They asked the young television journalist what business he had there. He recalls the conversation:I said I had come to cover the incident, says Mukesh. When it is necessary, we will call you, they said. What you find unimportant or unnecessary, I should not cover? I asked. Since 2013, the year that began the third term of the Raman Singh-led BJP government in Chhattisgarh, Bastar journalists say they have been given an answer to that question in various ways. By being detained in police stations, with loss of jobs and demotion, and even having FIRs lodged against them but with no action taken, as the first step in intimidation. Watch: Journalist testimonials about daily pressures at work In March 2016, Prabhat Singh of Patrika was arrested and sent to Jagdalpur Central Jail under the IT Act for allegedly posting an obscene message about a senior police officer on WhatsApp groups. He was released last week. The real reason for his harassment, say fellow journalists, is that he was relentless in exposing the loopholes in police work. Stringer Santosh Yadav and newspaper agent Somaru Nag, are also in the same prison since 2015. When we meet the three in jail a few days before Singhs release, they said they had been assaulted in police custody and kept in a cell with hardcore criminals. Rajesh Sahu, a Kondagaon-based stringer, was arrested and held in Jagdalpur Central Jail. I was trapped for exposing a panchayat scam. (Vipin Kumar / HT Photo) Rajesh Sahu, a Kondagaon-based stringer, who was also held in the same jail for exposing a panchayat scam, says he had met 400 farji Naxali and three actual Maoists inside the jail. All, like me, were people who would speak upbut sometimes even that is not necessary; random things are now happening in Chhattisgarh. Nag says, Someone had pointed to me as being part of a group that was burning a crusher plant employed in road construction, and that was enough for the police to pick me up. He has been charged under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Arms Act, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, and the Chhattisgarh Public Security Act (CPSA). Yadav, on the police radar since 2013 for being among the first to reach Darbhagahatti to report the Maoist attack that killed Congress leader and Salwa Judum initiator Mahendra Karma, has been charged under the IPC and the Arms Act. Anwar Sheikh, another journalist, and his wife, Anjali Chouhan, are in Bilaspur Jail since 2012, apparently for his wifes activism. Mukesh is a TV journalist based in south Bastar. (Vipin Kumar / Ht Photo) Three kinds of journalism, they say, are now under attack in Bastar. Journalism that raises the question of human rights of tribals, and the threat to the tribal lands and jungles from state-backed corporates. Second, any critical reporting of security forces, which act as clearing agents for state-driven industrialisation. And, of course, the third: to be neutral in the Maoist-state government conflict. Dinesh Kashyap, BJP MP, Bastar, says those journalists who write in favour of Maoists are the only ones facing problems. our government is not oppressing them. Journalists are supposed to write from two points of view. In Bastar, you are supposed to write from one, says Mukesh. If you can write from the point of view of the government and publish police handouts of arrests, encounters and surrenders as news, its great. If you cant, dont. Dont what? Dont write. What else? he says. Hadnt he just stated the obvious? He leaves us to steer his bike through the broken lanes that fan out from his doorstep to get on to the neat asphalt highway to look for the days news. Has Chhattisgarh become a police state? In Bastar you dont see politicians. Here, the police are doing netagiri, says Devsharan Tiwari, a local journalist. Either join politics and be a politician or remain a policeman and let us be journalists. (Vipin Kumar / HT Photo) New economy, new journalism Since 2013-14, national highways have drilled through Bastar and released petty entrepreneurial energies in the towns they have passed through. Rows of photostat shops, and those vending truck tyres and mobile phones, flank them now in a scene that used to be dominated by the solitary gas station. In these towns the civil contractor is most likely to be the man with a two-storey shop up a flight of stairs. If he owns a newspaper, it is simply his cash cow. The CRPF camp every few kilometres on the highway is also for his security and the security of his road-laying equipment. Kamal Shukla, a senior Chhattisgarh journalist, says the stories a journalist at first does does at these contractor-run low-end operations, is used by the owner to show that he has the arsenal to expose the government. The government then gives the paper ads to stop its critical stories. But when the owner hears that another newspaper, run by another contractor like himself, is also getting government ads, he asks his reporters to be critical of the government again. Yadav, Mukesh and Pushpa Rokde, who do their journalism sustained by this precarious economy, thus find themselves in dangerous situations, if they bark up the wrong tree at the wrong time. But at what point should a journalist curb his or her journalistic instincts and not ask the obvious questions? Pushpa Rokde of Dainik Prakhar Samachar, south Bastar. On every road, theres a paramilitary camp. There is insurgency and counter-insurgecy, there are blasts and firings. We cannot ignore this. Who has got injured? Who shot who? These are not big questions to ask, she says. (Vipin Kumar / HT Photo) This April, I heard there had been a Maoist attack on a CRPF camp. I thought if its a full-fledged attack how come only one person is dead and no explosives recovered? recounts Rokde, who writes and gets ads for her paper, Dainik Prakhar Samachar, in south Bastar. So I went to the village near the camp. Villagers said the sound of gunfire happened from inside the camp. Last year, too, in the Reddy gram panchayat, I got news that a jawan of the CRPF 85 battalion had drowned in the compound tank. From villagers I got to know he had actually died in the village pond. Its a mystery whats happening in these camps. Was it a murder? Rokde says she has had cops at the highest level she wont say who tell her this year that she should cooperate with them. Nitin Rokde, her husband, a former CRPF man who is now a journalist with the same paper his wife works in, says he left the profession because he had seen an officer kill a junior, a startling revelation, after which he clams up. Who has got injured? Who shot whom? These are surely not big questions to ask. These are the only questions to ask, but it is leading us to trouble, says Rokde. In Bastar, the story is in the missing details. Fear dictates how a journalist will tell that story. Or not tell it at all. In 2010, some jawans in Bijapur were kidnapped by Maoists. We searched for them for 15 days in the jungle, says Dantewada journalist Abdul Siddiqui (Vipin Kumar / HT Photo) Kamlesh Painkra, a journalist, who had written about the Salwa Judum, recently left the profession to join an NGO. At present, Im not a journalist, he says, so I cannot speak to you. It sounded like an apology but one couldnt be sure. The two-minute meeting in front of his new office had begun to draw glances. By the time our car revved up, he had disappeared from sight. Even Raman Singh cant sack me Salwa Judum, the counter-insurgency movement started in Chhattisgarh in 2005 to fight Maoism, had been a test for journalists in Bastar to figure out reporting techniques that would keep them impartial. And safe. In a press conference at Raipur, the media had been warned through political fora that the public was angry, journalists should be careful. Shukla, a journalist of over 30 years who has been slapped by an SPO on reporting duty, had his home raided for Naxal literature, and had his family break up due to frequent job losses because of police pressures, was, therefore, well prepared for the following conversation that took place in a room with a top cop in 2014. Arvind Netam, ex Union Minister and one of the most important tribal leaders of Bastar, says the Mission 2016 is about going after Bastars natural resources. Why send the military into the villages? They are not really serious about finishing Maoism. They want to drive adivasis away from their homes. (Vipin Kumar / HT Photo) IG Kalluri called me to his office. Even Raman Singh cant sack me, Im here for three years and Ive to start Raoghat and other incomplete projects, he told me, says Shukla. Over phone he has also been threatened by the IG to either leave Bastar or leave journalism. Read: Iron in the soul, the issue of Raoghat No police officer is above the law, says a senior police officer on condition of anonymity. He (Kalluri) is IG today, he may be removed tomorrowHe was transferred as SSP from Bastar by the Raman Singh government in 2011. Kalluri is on record saying he has time only for patriotic journalists. Subba Rao, head of the vigilante group Samajik Ekta Manch (some say it had been disbanded but continues under other names), which played a major role in hounding out Scroll journalist Malini Subramanium and lawyers Shalini Gera and Isha Khandelwal from Jagdalpur, is a pro-government journalist. Naxal crime has been one of Raos beats. There is no restriction in Bastar for journalists, he says over the phone. On being told that we had experienced that first-hand, he says, few days back I had gone to Orissa and was stopped there. These things happen. Security personnel take photos of Identity cards at a security check point in Chhattisgarh. The HT team was stopped and tailed three times enroute Dantewada. (Vipin Kumar / HT Photo) A police state? In 2016, Shukla was also threatened by Bastar collector Amit Kataria, who said he had not even the status of a fly to be taking the positions he had been taking. According to him, Kalluri and Kataria, are the officers best suited for the plan the government has for Bastar. Shukla has now turned into more of a symbol of Bastars resistance, and the agony uncle of beleaguered journalists. He, has, however, kept up with his journalism by writing for social media. As a security measure, he often changes his name when checking into hotels in Bastar. Every night, hotel staff all across the region, send reports on guests to the police. The staff of Hotel Akanksha, where we stayed while in Jagdalpur, confirmed this; our car was stopped and tailed three times by uniformed police on national highways (even as other cars were allowed to pass), and questioned by a posse of uniformed and plain-clothes cops on the way to Dantewada. Is Chhattisgarh a police state? Not everyone is allowed to say that of course. Bappi Ray, head, South Bastar Journalists Association. I once asked an adivasi why he doesnt want development? He said: What will Essar do for me? If I give up my land and get a lot of compensation, my son w ill take it away. But the tamarind tree on my land will feed me as long as Im alive. (Vipin Kumar / HT Photo) Bappi Ray, a Dantweda journalist, explains the hierarchy: The district journalist is safer than the journalist in the village. So Bappi Ray is safer reporting in Dantewada than Santosh Yadav in Darbha village. And you in Delhi are safer than us. Mission 2016 Not surprisingly, most journalists in Chhattisgarh have taken a stand against Maoist and state violence, and also criticised both when they have interrupted their work. Shukla, Bappi Roy and Abdul Siddiqui have gone on a padyatra to protest Maoist attack on journalists. In 2010, when some jawans in Bijapur were kidnapped, Roy and Siddiqui were part of the team that searched for them in the jungles and persuaded Maoists to release them. But in the name of controlling Maoists, you begin controlling journalists, is that what Mission 2016 is really about?, asks Devsharan Tiwari, bureau chief of the reputed daily Deshbandhu. Anil Mishra, a former Bastar journalist, is now news editor, Nai Dunia. I had filed an article that contradicted the police version of an encounter. An SP called me saying this would create problems for him. Is it a journalists job to make the police look good? he asks. (Vipin Kumar / HT Photo) The other question he poses is: Maovaad ke liye brashtachaar ya brashtachhar ko bachane ke liye Maovaad (Is Maoism a response to corruption or is it being preserved to continue corruption?) There is graft all around. State officials cook their books and show that a road, or a bridge, has been built in Abujhmadh. And because this is Maoist area, no one questions why it has been built with so much money or goes to check if it has actually been built. In 2014, SPs of Janjgir and Korba is said to have asked for funds to control Maoism. These districts, local journalists say have not known Maoist activity. But give it time, it can be discovered, says Shukla. Anil Mishra, news editor at Chhattisgarhs well-known Hindi daily, Nai Dunia, has had a career battling angry cops and ambiguous bureaucrats. (Mishra and Tiwari were recently awarded by PUCL for their journalism). Mishra has done spot stories, page one stories, features on Bastar. As we wrap up our assignment, he gets busy with packaging the nights news. And he says the most generous thing one journalist can say to another: The written word belongs to no one. Bastar needs to be written about over and over again. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Chicago-based Nina Chaubal says she hasnt visited India for a really long time now. Nina, a transwoman in her mid-20s, left Mumbai for the US in 2009. There, while in college, she came out as a transwoman in 2013, and got gender affirmation surgery (GAS) too. Back in Mumbai, however, none of this was possible: Ninas family wasnt supportive of her identity as a transwoman, and it was hard for her to imagine a life she wanted in India. After college, Nina moved to California and worked as a software engineer with Google for a few years. Last year, Nina got married too. About a year and a half ago, she co-founded Trans Lifeline, a helpline for transgender people in the US and Canada, with her partner. The helpline receives calls from all over the world, with a small percentage of the callers being Indians as well. Indian callers are mostly concerned about not being able to find work, and not being comfortable in coming out, she says. The situation of those turning to Ninas helpline needs to be understood in the current context of transgender rights in the country. In 2014, the Supreme Courts (SC) recognition of the legal status of third gender (aka, The National Legal Services Authority judgment) and the right to determine and express ones gender came as a shot in the arm for transgender rights. According to the judgment, the definition of third gender included those who intend to or have undergone sex reassignment surgery or transsexuals. Earlier this week, the SC clarified that third gender does not include lesbians, gays and bisexuals. Claiming their identity For many in the trans community, however, manoeuvring the claims of identity can be tricky. Some such as Nina, for instance, say that they do not want to be categorised as third gender, and instead want to conform to the gender binary, that is, male or female. Theres anger within the community over the fact that in India, the term transgender gets associated with hijras , and the voices of the transmen and women get erased, says Vinay Chandran, executive director of the Bengaluru-based Swabhava Trust, an NGO working with sexual and gender minorities. At times, this association might stall their chances of getting access to surgery or, even a change in their legal documents. The progressive judgement apart, the process of aligning their body with their gender remains a fraught one there are multiple battles to be fought on the medical, social and legal fronts. To begin with, a lack of support from the family ends up limiting the choices that transpersons might have. Many parents will come and threaten us because they find it hard to comprehend why we would need to change their son or daughters gender, says Dr Mahesh Mangal, chairman, department of plastic surgery at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. Read:Transgenders denied access to public toilets Even as Thailand remains one of the most popular destinations for GAS, India is fast progressing towards a destination for both domestic and international clients, confirms Dr Richie Gupta at the Gender Clinic at Fortis, Shalimar Bagh, Delhi. But for many who plan to undergo the arduous process of surgery, lack of support from the family often translates into struggling to keep up with the medical expenses. The cost of aligning the body to suit the gender (including genital surgeries) can go up to Rs 8-10 lakhs at a private hospital in Delhi. While the surgery is free in government hospitals, some such as Manvi Vaishnav, a Baroda-based transgender activist with the Lakshya Trust, say that doctors in government hospitals are either not trained to offer the surgery, tend to refuse it on flimsy grounds, or dilly-dally the right treatment, prolonging a transpersons distress and anxiety. It took me five years to get the complete set of surgeries for my transition. Ultimately, I had to turn to a private hospital, says Manvi. However, some transsexuals feel that, at times, access to doctors who can diagnose Gender Dysphoria and prescribe the right treatment can be challenging too. Advik (he chose to reveal his first name only), a psychologist who is currently in the middle of his transition, says that its important to get to the right doctor. In a moving post on his blog, he writes about his struggle of going from hospital to hospital, doctor to doctor, for not days, not week, not months, but years, to get permission from those strangers, to live as what I am. Battling prejudice Doctors can get prejudiced when it comes to Gender Dysphoria. Both Chandran and Nina feel that since there are different levels of dysphoria some may not want or need surgery, while others may really need it doctors need to be careful in dealing with individual concerns and needs. Doctors need to understand that gender exists out of the binary of a man and a woman, says Vinay, LGBT activist and co-editor of Nothing to Fix: Medicalisation of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. According to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, dysphoric persons and gender non-conforming people (refers to the extent to which a persons gender identity, role, or expression differs from the cultural norms prescribed for people of a particular sex ), are different and the diagnosis has to factor in individual needs. Vinay also points that within the trans community, transmen have a harder time. Doctors will not blink if a woman wants breast enhancement. But they can be very prejudiced when a woman wants to remove her breasts, he says. Read:Banker, model, mayor: Transgenders forge a new identity in India The surgeries required for a female to male operation is more complicated, expensive and hence, many transmen may stop at breast reduction, as it allows them to pass as a man. It is ironical though that our society is prejudiced against a boy showing signs of feminine behaviour, and so, they are easily found out by the family and might even end up getting treatment earlier. However, a woman acting tomboyish is acceptable, and the dysphoria might not be found out that soon, claims Dr Gupta. Changing documents such as passports can be frustrating for transpersons: the term third gender can be confusing for government officials, and for those who may want to opt for the category to claim benefits, it can be an uphill task. For others such as Nina, who dont wish to claim that identity, the hassle of dealing with bureaucracy and having to explain ones gender can be a deterrent. I am a woman. My passport says I am male, but my body and my appearance are that of a woman, says Nina, who holds an Indian passport. Gender is deeply ingrained in you early on in your life. Its traumatic to be denied something that is so integral to you just because for some people, it is hard to understand that others may be different from them. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Reports said that Brexit will be both good and bad for China, but for online shopper's at least, the "leave" verdict only means great news. (Photo : Getty Images) Uncertainties hover in the air following the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union, but there is at least one segment happily browsing behind their computers after the so-called Brexit: overseas online shoppers. The U.K. currency recorded its lowest level in more than 30 years on June 24, Friday, tumbling 13 percent on the back of the U.K.'s referendum vote to quit from the EU. Advertisement The pound's plunge lured many overseas buyers to purchase U.K. products that now come with cheaper price tags. In China, the U.K. currency fell by about 10 percent versus the renminbi. China-based e-commerce site ymatou.com said that its sales of European goods have doubled after the U.K. referendum. "Shopping malls in Europe are now holding their annual summer sales. Combined with the fall in the pound, it couldn't be a better time to buy British products," the company told China Daily in an interview. Luxury products priced between 4,000 and 6,000 yuan have the highest demand on ymatou.com. China Daily noted that roughly 70 percent of online shoppers purchased high-end bags. One standout splurge was a Hermes Kelly bag that costs 98,000 yuan. Chinese buyers are also searching more for cross-border shopping agents amid the fall of the pound. According to the Baidu Index, local searches for "U.K. dai gou" jumped 175 percent within a span of four days starting June 17. It peaked on June 24, just in time to the announcement of the voting's results. "The short-term fall in the pound is attracting more online shoppers to shift their attention from Japanese and Korean products to British ones," analyst Mo Daiqing told China Daily. The situation is the same in other countries. In Abu Dhabi, shoppers are cashing in on the pound's slump, which likewise bodes well for the upcoming Eid holiday. According to Gulf News Society, "shopping and travel websites based in the U.K. are expected to see heavy traffic from the UAE in the coming days as most are trying to cash in on the low exchange rates that have come down to Dh4.88 from around Dh6 per pound." Three teenage school boys were stripped naked and mercilessly beaten up by a group of men for allegedly stealing money from a shop near Hoskote in Bengaluru rural district, a video of which went viral on Saturday. Police said four persons were arrested on Saturday in connection with the incident that happened on Thursday. The video shows a group of men repeatedly beating three boys with a stick and chasing them all across a deserted area even as they cry out in pain. They beat them, accused them of stealing from the shop; there are bruises all over their body...After getting to know about the incident we took him to hospital for treatment and then gave a complaint, father of one of the victims said. The boys were picked up after school by the group and taken to a nearby deserted area to be tortured. They are 8th standard students and were on fast (Ramzan), a relative of one of the victims said. Parents alleged that the boys were even given shock treatment by the men, one of whom was the shopkeepers son. Police said they are on the lookout for some other men, including the shopkeepers son. Families of the boys had earlier charged the police with inaction over the case. Karnataka State Child Rights Commission is also seized of the matter. It was a black Friday for Tarishi Jains relatives in India as they struggled to come to grips with the news that the bubbly teenager was among the people killed in the terror attack on a Dhaka restaurant. The Jain family living in Suhag Nagar neighbourhood of Uttar Pradeshs Firozabad town was waiting for the 19-year-olds body to be flown in for the last rites. Throughout Saturday, a steady stream of people visited the Jain household to offer condolences. Tarishi was in Delhi in July last year to see her grandmother, who was admitted in hospital. She was a lovely girl who was fond of smiling and was loved by the whole family, said her uncle Rajeev Jain. Rajeev, the elder brother of Tarishis father Sanjeev, added, It is hard to believe that she met such an end. Last night, Tarishi informed her father on phone that she was in the cafe to have dinner with her friends but had locked herself in a bathroom to save herself. There was no further communication and the mobile was switched off, Rajeev said. We remained glued to the television all through the night after knowing about the incident, and it was at 2 am on Saturday that we came to know about Tarishis death. Tarishis cousin Sinki Jain was in tears as she recalled their last meeting at a marriage. Holding an album, she pointed to a photo of herself with Tarishi didi. The Jain family is a simple one with brothers Sanjeev, Rajeev, Ajeet and Rakesh Mohan operating different businesses. Sanjeev was involved in the garments business in Bangladesh for almost two decades. The family earlier planned to go to Dhaka but with Sanjeev deciding to return to India, it is staying back. Sanjeev was very close to Firozabad and used to assist anybody asking for help. He gave financial help to a trauma centre built by a social organisation and was the trustee of the organisation, said Rajeev. Shashank Singhal, a childhood friend of Sanjeev Jain, described Tarishi as a brilliant student who had no problems coping with Firozabads frequent power outages despite having lived abroad for most of her life. She mixed with all when she came to Firozabad about five years ago, he said. Singhal said he and Sanjeev had moved to Delhi in 1981 to become chartered accountants. When this didnt materialise, Sanjeev moved to Hong Kong in 1989. Tarishis brother Sanchit, who was studying engineering in Canada, had flown to Dhaka after finding out about his sisters death, he added. Tarishis relatives living in the busy Jail Road area of Bihars Ara town too learnt of her death on Friday night. Tarishis mother Tulika is from the small town located 60 km west of state capital Patna. Her grandmother Sheel Jain was speechless, while her maternal uncle Anshu Jain left for Dhaka on Saturday evening. Her (Tarishis) grandfather owned an electronics shop on Jail Road, recalled local resident Padam Kumar Jain. Abhishek, one of Tarishis cousins, said: She last came to Ara a year-and-a-half back. She won hearts with her behaviour and despite her education outside India, she showed great interest in others work. She stayed in Ara for a week. Relatives recalled that Tulika had married Sanjeev Jain in 1992. Before shifting to Dhaka two years ago, where Sanjeev was in the garments business, the family had lived in Singapore and Hong Kong, they said. It is perhaps not that easy to fill the chair once occupied by former Press Council of India (PCI) chairman, Markandey Katju. Katju was known for his outspoken views and had once famously said that 90 per cent of Indians are idiots. He may not be as blunt as his predecessor but Justice CK Prasad, who took over the chairmanship of PCI in November 2014, has strong opinions about journalism in India. Prasad, retired after serving as a Supreme Court judge for four years. He had served as the chief justice of the Patna and Allahabad High Courts earlier. A large number of people are really fond of coming in the press and electronic media, Prasad tells Furquan Ameen Siddiqui in a web-exclusive interview, Im not one of them. Im not very fond of finding my name in the newspapers or the news channels. Excerpts: Is there a rise in the number of attacks or cases of intimidation on journalists? No. A media person maybe a businessman or involved in pure and simple newsgathering. Therefore, if someone is killed, because he had a dispute with his brother-in-law or related to any property, then it is not an attack on journalists. The Indian press is not making this basic distinction. When a journalist is killed, then there is an attempt to convey that the journalist has been killed for his writing. In many cases, it is not true. In many cases, when journalists are targeted, it is alleged that they were blackmailers and not journalists. Isnt it easy to malign a journalist with these accusations? It is easy and, that is why, we dont approve of it. The first defence is to deny that he/she wasnt a journalist, but a blackmailer. We say that this isnt the issue. We look for whether the journalist was killed for his/her writing or not. Read: Chasing stories to death The Committee to Protect Journalists says that India ranks high in the impunity index and a majority of the cases do not reach their logical conclusion. They are absolutely right. In India, trials are conducted like they are usually done. Ultimately, in a democratic system there has to be some authority to be the final arbitrator. Take for example Jagendras case [the journalist who was burnt alive in Shahjahanpur last year]. After the investigation, now they are saying that it was a case of suicide. Their earlier theory was that it was a case of murder. You say that many journalists have not been killed for their work, but for other reasons. But in many cases, that wasnt even determined. We have this habit; wherever we go we hear that it [attacks on journalists] is increasing. We counter it by asking for statistics. A perception is created and the press plays an important role in that. There are facts. If there is an increase, look at the trend over the years, say figures from 2010 to 2016. Then you analyse that. Members of Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress took out a candle march in New Delhi on July 6 last year to protest the suspicious death of Akshay Singh, the journalist who died while covering Vyapam scam. (Sushil Kumar/HT Photo) In the Vyapam scam case, where one of you [Akshay Singh, a journalist with Aaj Tak] It is difficult to say that everyone got together and said that it was a suicide or said it was an unnatural death. AIIMS report said it was due to an enlarged heart, as was reported. But at that time there was a huge outcry that a journalist has been killed. We tend to lose some objectivity. In my opinion, it is bad even if one journalist is killed, we deprecate that. In another recent case from Uttar Pradesh, it turned out that there was a property dispute between the journalist and his cousin. It was mentioned in the FIR too. He wasnt killed for his journalistic duty. So, we are not making that distinction? Perhaps not. I want to share a general observation on the Indian media. Yahan par hahakar aur jaijaikar ka journalism chal raha hai. (We either have a journalism of outcry or of cheerleading in the country.) If someone is good, then he is even better than God for you and if he is bad, then he is the worst. This outcry or cheerleading only works in creating a perception. This is not sound journalism. But this is the truth. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Acting chief justice of Andhra Pradesh and Telanganas common high court, justice Dilip Bhosale on Saturday met chief justice of India, TS Thakur, in New Delhi even as lawyers and judicial officers in Telangana intensified their protest. Justice Bhosale is believed to have apprised CJI Thakur of the situation in Telangana in the wake of ongoing protest by lawyers and judges of subordinate courts over appointment of Andhra origin judges. The meeting also assumed significance in view of the increasing demand for bifurcation of High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad, which is currently serving both Telugu states. The functioning of courts across the state remained paralysed due to boycott of courts by lawyers and the protest by judges and other judicial staff, who are on mass leave. The judges are protesting the suspension of nine of their colleagues by the high court this week. The high court took the action after the judges took out a rally to Raj Bhavan and submitted en masse resignations. The acting chief justices meeting with Thakur came a day before the lawyers meeting with the latter to demand immediate bifurcation of the high court. The lawyers had also been demanding recall of the acting chief justice for what they call injustice done to Telangana by allotting Andhra origin judges to subordinate courts. According to the agitating lawyers, out of 335 judicial officers allotted to Telangana, about 130 are natives of Andhra Pradesh. Meanwhile, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday met ESL Narasimhan, the joint governor of both the states and discussed the situation in the wake of continuing protest. Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya also called on Narasimhan and called for revoking suspension of judges. The minister later told reporters that the governor promised to discuss the issue with the chief justice. Dattatreya said the central government had no role in bifurcation of the high court. He urged the governor to discuss the issue with the chief ministers of both the states and resolve it. The central minister said Andhra Pradesh should take the initiative for setting up its own high court. Union minister for law Sadananda Gowda has already stated that it was for Andhra Pradesh to provide the infrastructure for the high court and for the chief justice to initiate the process. This copy has been updated. To read the updates, click here: Dhaka attack: Black Friday for Jains as family awaits Tarishis body Dhaka restaurant siege: Indian woman killed by terrorists was visiting family A young Indian woman was among 20 people who were killed after being taken hostage by a group of attackers believed to be from the Islamic State group at a restaurant in Dhaka, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Saturday. Tarishi Jain, 19, was at the Holey Artisan Bakery, a cafe popular with foreigners in the diplomatic quarter of the Bangladesh capital when attackers launched an assault around 9:20pm. I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka, Swaraj posted on Twitter. Read: Dhaka siege: How long before Bangladesh becomes a failed state? The minister said she had spoken to the father, Sanjiv Jain, and conveyed our deepest condolences. The country is with them in this hour of grief, she tweeted, and said government officers were arranging visa for the family. Tarishi finished her schooling from the American School in Dhaka and was studying at the University of California, Berkeley, Swaraj added. Tarishis Facebook profile showed she was a member of the International Students Association at Berkeley. She posted photographs with friends and family, and from past vacations in Switzerland and Turkey. According to her profile, she enrolled in the Berkeley institute in 2011. In a June 24 post last year, she wished her mother happy birthday. She posted a photograph of the mother-daughter duo and wrote: To the most selfless, compassionate, and devoted mother... The intro section of the profile of her father said he was from New Delhi. Tarishi was visiting him in Bangladesh. Sources in the external affairs ministry said Tarishis father had been running a garment business in Bangladesh for the last 15-20 years. Read: Islamic States Bangladesh chief believed to be from Canada Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly condemned the attack in a post on Twitter. The attack in Dhaka has pained us beyond words. I spoke to (Bangladesh) PM Sheikh Hasina and strongly condemned the despicable attack, he tweeted. The attackers in Dhaka slaughtered 20 hostages on Friday night before Bangladeshi troops stormed the restaurant. Two police officers also died in the exchange of fire. Six of the attackers were killed and one was detained, while 13 hostages were rescued. The Bangladesh army said most of the slain civilians were either Italian or Japanese and that many had been hacked to death with sharpened weapons. An Indian doctor was also taken hostage but was rescued on Saturday morning. According to the sources, Dr. Satyapal speaks fluent Bengali and came out as one of the Bangladeshis. Read: Dhakas 26/11-like attack: Why Sheikh Hasina needs to wake up (With agency inputs) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Finance minister Arun Jaitley is the first and the only minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government to make public the details of personal assets and liabilities this year. Jaitleys financial statement, uploaded on the website of the Prime Ministers Office, shows a decline of 8.9 % -- from Rs 67.01 crore to Rs 60.99 crore -- in the value of assets as compared to the last financial year. The value of jewellery has gone up by Rs 9.9 lakh, but his bank balance reduced from Rs 3.52 crore in FY 2014-15 to Rs 1 crore in FY 2015-16. Jaitley owns four -- instead of five cars, and has less money in bank and hand. In a bid to maintain transparency in public life, Union ministers are required to submit their annual declaration of assets and liabilities and their wife and dependents. For the last financial year, however, assets declaration of 13 ministers, including home minister Rajnath Singh and women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi, was not available on the PMO website. Some of the other ministers whose assets declarations were not available were Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Babul Surpiyo, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Sarbananda Sonowal, who recently took charge as the chief minister of Assam. A quick look at Jaitleys declaration shows that he owns six properties across Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat and Punjab. All are jointly held and five of them have his wife, Sangeeta Jaitley, as co-owner. The finance minister has no investment in mutual funds or any other market instruments. He has company deposits of Rs 16 crore in Empro Oils and DCM Shriram Consolidated. Jaitley owns two Mercedes, one Toyota Fortuner and a Honda Accord. In the last finance year, he also had a BMW. All his cars have registration numbers ending with 6666. Jaitley has three savings accounts with HDFC Bank and one with the State Bank of India. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Two years after Telangana was carved from Andhra Pradesh, the bifurcation has thrown the state judiciary in turmoil with lawyers and judges protesting the provisional allocation of judicial officers between the two states. The protest is being spearheaded by the Telangana Judges Association, who played a significant role in the demand for a separate state between 2009 and 2013. What initially started as a silent agitation through court petitions has mushroomed into a mass protest, with lawyers boycotting the Hyderabad high court. On June 29, more than 200 judges from Telangana went on a mass indefinite leave. Angered over the developments, the court suspended two senior judges, K Ravinder Reddy and V Varaprasad, the president and secretary of the Telangana Judges Association. As the protests intensified, nine more judges were suspended for misconduct. A memorandum was submitted to governor ESL Narasimhan seeking his intervention in the matter. What is the issue? Following the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Telangana in 2014, employees from all wings executive, legislature and judiciary had to be divided between the two states. The division of judges and judicial staff was taken up by the full bench of the Hyderabad high court which, as per the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, will remain common for both the states till AP creates infrastructure to set up its own high court. On May 3, 2016, the court released the provisional list of judges being allotted to AP and Telangana, resulting in protests from Telangana judges who contended that the court deviated from the guidelines of the AP Reorganisation Act. According to Telangana Advocates joint action committee convenor, A Sriranga Rao, the high court is dominated by Andhra judges. Out of 21 judges in the court, 18 are from Andhra and only three are from Telangana. This regional imbalance in the high court was reflected in the allotment of subordinate court judges between the two states, as it went by the options given by them, he said. Of the total 827 subordinate judges in the combined state of AP, 497 were allotted to Andhra and 335 to Telangana. However, of those allotted to Telangana, 143 judges were from AP. Apparently, the high court made its decision based on the options given by the judges for allotting them. What are the demands? Telangana judges describe the provisional allotment as arbitrary, as Andhra judges opted for posting in Telangana despite vacancies in their state. Going by the AP Reorganisation Act, this would mean the vacancies in AP will be filled with Andhra judicial officers, while Telangana judges lose out in their state. Thus Telangana judges have called for a fresh allotment list through an independent judicial advisory committee. They also want the system of seeking options from judges be done away with. The protesters also want the Centre take steps to divide the high court at the earliest to avoid a regional imbalance. Telangana judicial officers have categorically said that they do not want to work under Andhra judicial rulers. What is the Andhra side of the argument? Though they have not openly voiced their views, Andhra judicial officers feel attributing a regional bias to the judiciary was not a healthy sign. We have to work wherever we are posted and we never deliver judgements based on the regional status of the parties, some said. According to AP Lawyers Joint Action Committee convenor, Narisetti Srihari, the judicial officers from Andhra have every right to opt for posting in Hyderabad as it is common capital for the two states for a period of 10 years under the AP Reorganisation Act. The high court too is common for the same period, he argued. Further, they condemned the attack on an Andhra judge in a Warangal court by Telangana advocates during one of the protests. What did the Telangana government say? The Telangana government has supported the protest with chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao saying he would take up dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi if necessary. Rao has also written a letter to Union home minister Rajnath Singh pointing out the regional imbalance in the high court and alleged flaws in the allotment procedure. While demanding that the court be divided immediately, the Telangana government said the Andhra high court could continue to operate from Hyderabad till a new building was set up at the new capital of Amaravati. The Telangana government also offered to provide an alternate building to host the AP high court in Hyderabad. What was the AP governments response? Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidus government said it was not against the division of the high court, but would only be able to shift its court proceedings to a new building once Amaravati was ready with the required infrastructure. We are ready to allot land for the construction of high court building and the residential quarters for judges. But it is the responsibility of the Centre to provide all the necessary infrastructure for the court, Union minister YS Chowdary said. How has the Centre responded? The Central government threw the ball back into the Andhra Pradesh court with Union law minister Sadanand Gowda saying it was up to the Andhra government to decide on when to make the move. We are ready to provide all the necessary infrastructure for the AP high court, but the AP government has to provide the land and buildings for the same, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Union minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi has urged US President Barack Obama to skip the annual Running of the Bulls event during the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, when he travels to Spain later this month. The 48 bulls used in the event are struck and terrorised as they slip, fall and injure themselves or human spectators on their way to a violent death in the bullring, Gandhi said in a letter. The letter dated June 26, was released by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on Friday. In the letter, the Union Minister pointed out that bullfighting is an archaic display that has lost favour among Spaniards and has been banned in many parts of Spain and other countries. In your position of power, taking a stand for compassion for animals and against cruelty would have considerable influence, Gandhi wrote. Wont you please skip this barbaric event and speak out against such cruelty? This would surely be celebrated by kind people all over the globe, she said. Gandhi said bullfighting is banned in many countries including India, Argentina, Canada, Cuba, Denmark, Italy and the United Kingdom. She said even several Spanish cities have banned the sport. The White House, though, has not confirmed if the US President would be travelling to Pamplona. I suspect he probably is interested in that. Ive not spoken to him about it. But I dont know whether or not the Presidents itinerary will allow for witnessing that rather interesting event, White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters during a news conference last month when he was asked about it. Two bullets hit Rajdeo Ranjan. One hit his forehead and the other, his neck. He was shot from close range by assailants on a motorcycle, the police said. Ranjan, a journalist with the Hindi daily Hindustan, headed the papers bureau in Siwan, Bihar. A day earlier, on May 12, another journalist, Akhilesh Pratap, in Jharkhands Chatra district, was gunned down by assailants. Pratap was a journalist with Taza TV, a local Hindi news channel. Within 24 hours, two journalists had been killed the deadliest day for journalists in India in recent times. While Pratap might have been a victim of, as per initial reports, organised crime (the reason for his murder is still under investigation), Ranjan as has been widely reported was targeted for his stories. Ranjan had written extensively on the Shrikant Bharti case an aide of BJP MP Om Prakash Yadav who was shot dead in 2014. Read: Chasing stories to death Fingers were pointed towards incarcerated Shahabuddin. In jail since 2005, the two-time MLA and four-time MP from Siwan, Shahabuddin fought on Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal tickets until he was barred from contesting elections. Ranjan was also believed to have created a video clip, which showed Abdul Gafoor, a minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet, meeting Shahabuddin, causing much embarrassment to the government, and also allegedly upsetting the don. Asias Deadliest The two incidents once again triggered the debate on whether or not India is becoming a dangerous place for journalists. International agencies say so. Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) in its 2015 report went as far as to say that India is Asias deadliest country for media personnel, ahead of both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Their ranking puts India right behind Syria and Iraq in the global tally. The extensive data maintained by the Committee for Protection of Journalists (CPJ), shows that 67 journalists have been killed in India since 1992 with 39 killed with confirmed motives. Rajdeo Ranjan is just one of them. Different organisations give different numbers when one looks at the number of deaths in the past one year. RSF lists nine deaths, CPJ maintains that seven journalists have been killed while a recent independent report by media watch website The Hoot, and IndiaSpend, a data journalism website, puts the figure at eight. Members of Press Club of India ( Journalists ) took out a silent protest march in New Delhi last year demanding justice for Jagendra Singh, the scribe who was allegedly set on fire by policemen and Uttar Pradesh minister Ram Murti Verma. (Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times) According to The Hoot, 2013 was the year that witnessed as many as eight killings. But there is a significant increase in the number of deaths reported over the years from 2011. Is there a rising threat? CPJs senior research associate for their Asia Program, Sumit Galhotra, believes there is. Its a combination of increased frequency of attacks as well as more reporting of them. The advent of social media has helped shine a light on anti-press violence even when such attacks are not covered in the mainstream press, he says. The chairman of the Press Council of India, Justice CK Prasad, however, disagrees that there is a rise in attacks on journalists. If anyone is killed because he had animosity with his brother-in-law or in relation with certain property, then this is not attack on a journalist. The Indian press is not making this distinction. When a journalist is killed, then there is an attempt to convey that the journalist has been killed for his writing. In many of the cases, it is not true, says Prasad. Read: Bad news Bastar: Why is objectivity such a risky word in Chhattisgarh? It is not just fatal attacks on scribes that plague Indian media a range of perils mark their work environment, from threats and intimidation, to legal provisions like sedition and defamation laws that are tools used to harass journalists. The attacks have also been associated with the growing intolerance in the country by some commentators. Recently, on February 15, inside Delhis Patiala House court premises, journalists who had gone to cover the sedition case against JNU student union president Kanhaiya Kumar, were called anti-national and attacked by lawyers. A few days later, in Kerala, an Asianet News journalist, Sindhu Sooryakumar received a barrage of calls with threats and abuses from BJP/RSS sympathisers for hosting a debate on Mahishasura Jayanthi. Risks Abound In a recent report titled Stifling Dissent, Human Rights Watch noted that the Tamil Nadu government reportedly filed nearly 200 cases of criminal defamation between 2011 and 2016 against journalists, writers and activists. The Tamil-language magazines Ananda Vikatan and Junior Vikatan, face charges in 34 criminal defamation cases, says the report, including for a series of articles assessing the performance of each cabinet minister. The most recent defamation case was filed on June 3 this year, against the controversial Tamil bi-weekly newspaper Nakkeeran and its editor, RR Gopal, for a story it ran under the headline Containeril Pannam Pathukkal, Marraikapatta Unmaigal, Sikkiya Aavanangal (Money stashed in containers, hidden truths, seized documents) because the article allegedly contained content of a defamatory nature against Jayalalithaa. Uttar Pradesh, on the other hand, accounted for half the journalists deaths across the country in the past one year. In 2014, the state witnessed 63 attacks on journalists, according to the National Crime Records Bureau data quoted in the Lok Sabha in March. Based in Dantewada, journalist PrabhatSingh was arrested by the Chhattisgarh police amid growing incidents of intimidation of scribes critical of the state. Singh was released last week on bail. (Arun Sharma/Hindustan Times) In the central part of India, mining seems to be the prominent reason why a journalist is targeted. The mining mafia and their political nexus have often targeted journalists in the states of UP, MP and Maharashtra. RSF, in its report says, Two of the murders [Jagendra Singh from UP and Sandeep Kothari from MP ]... were linked to illegal mining, a sensitive environmental subject in India. In the state of Chhattisgarh where journalists are caught between the police and Maoists, they are often the target of ire of either side. In the past one year, the state police have thrown four journalists behind bars, including one under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act. (Two of them have been released on bail recently.) Read: Pen or gun: Journos in Chhattisgarh stuck between cops and Maoists In Nagaland, the paramilitary group Assam Rifles accused prominent Naga newspapers including Morung Express and Nagalang Post of providing support to an unlawful association and threatened with UAPA if they continued to publish statements from outlawed National Socialist Council of Nagaland - Khaplang. The newspapers answered by publishing blank editorials in protest on November 16, the National Press Day. Our data shows that states like Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are among the most dangerous for journalists. As you may be aware, several journalists are imprisoned in Chhattisgarh, says Galhotra. PRESS FREEDOM: WHERE INDIA STANDS 133 is Indias rank out of 180 countries in the press freedom index this year. India was ranked 136 in 2015 is Indias rank out of 180 countries in the press freedom index this year. India was ranked 136 in 2015 39 journalists have been killed since 1992 with confirmed motives, while 24 were killed where motive was not confirmed journalists have been killed since 1992 with confirmed motives, while 24 were killed where motive was not confirmed About 70% of those killed worked for the print medium of those killed worked for the print medium In 96% of the cases where journalists are killed, there is complete impunity for the killers while in 4% cases, there is partial justice of the cases where journalists are killed, there is complete impunity for the killers while in 4% cases, there is partial justice Politics was the beat covered by most of the journalists killed. Other beats found to be dangerous were Corruption, Crime and Business Law as Refuge The frequent targeting of journalists in Chhattisgarh led to the media community in the state to demand a law to protect journalists. The Patrakar Suraksha Kanoon Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti was formed by journalists in Bastar after the crackdown. On May 10, the group protested in New Delhi demanding a legal framework and release of the four arrested journalists. A similar demand had been floated in Maharashtra after widespread protests following the killing of Mid-Days J Dey in 2011. Last year, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had said that his government was in favour of a law for the protection of journalists; however, nothing has happened yet. Read: Violence stalks journalists across India as perpetrators roam free Soon after the death of the two journalists in Jharkhand and Bihar, the PCI chairman had raised a demand for a special law to ensure safety of scribes. He also suggested that the cases of attacks be tried by fast-track courts. Although when asked about the journalists demanding such a law, he said, The manner in which they are making a demand, perhaps it will be very difficult for any government to accept it. If journalists ask, then why not lawyers, why not doctors, why not everybody? In a statement earlier, Prasad had also rued that in 96 per cent of the cases, the matter is not taken to its logical conclusion. India has been a constant fixture on CPJs Global Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are frequently murdered and the killers walk free. India has been featured on this list every consecutive year since 2008, when the Index was first published. At all levels of government state and federal there appears to be a pattern of delay, resistance even, to establishing accountability in anti-press violence, says Galhotra. (With inputs from Vijay Swaroop in Patna and Aditya Iyer in Chennai) Read more: An interview with the PCI chairman Justice CK Prasad Timeline | Based on the CPJ report, a list of journalists killed in India between 2006 to 2016: SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Pilloried by the local and national media over deteriorating law and order in Chennai, once considered one of the safest cities for women, police commissioner TK Rajendran said it was unjust to paint such a grim picture on the basis of a few stray incidents. Addressing a press conference on Friday, the Chennai police commissioner announced the capture of the prime suspect Ram Kumar, 22, in the killing of Infosys techie S Swathi from Senkottai in Tiruneveli district. Swathi was hacked to death in public on June 24. We have clear evidence that Ram Kumar was the killer and he had no accomplices, Rajendran said, putting to rest speculation about multiple suspects. The police combed the Chooleimedu area, where the girl lived. Information from eyewitnesses and locals led to Tirunelveli, Ram Kumars hometown. When police went to arrest him, Ram Kumar allegedly attempted suicide. He is being treated at a local hospital in Tirunelveli, where doctors declared him unfit to travel, Rajendran said. It remains unclear when the accused will be brought to Chennai for further investigation. Parents and siblings of Ram Kumar are also being questioned, he said. Regarding the spike in violent crimes in the city over the last month, the police chief said these were stray incidents that had no correlation to the law and order in the city and state. The commissioner also described the Swathi murder as a case of infatuation, wherein a youth stalked a girl for a few days before the attack that claimed her life. In all cases the culprits were arrested promptly, he said. Read| No one came forward to help Swathi, says father of murdered Infosys techie SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Taiwanese Military Perform Drills As Part Of Annual Military Holiday Celebrations (Photo : Getty Images) With relations between Taiwan and China already strained, the accidental firing of a missile on Friday aimed at China only worsened the situation. Notwithstanding the lack of communication between Taipei and Beijing after China cut diplomatic ties, the Asian giant nevertheless asked from Taiwan on Saturday for a "responsible explanation" for the incident, reported Business Standard. The supersonic anti-ship missile killed a Taiwanese fisherman and injured three others when it flew 75 kilometers before it plunged into waters off Penghu. Advertisement Xinhua News Agency reported that military officials from Taiwan had apologized for the missile blunder. Zhang, head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, noted that The incident occurred and caused severe impact at a time when the mainland has repeatedly emphasized safeguarding peaceful development of cross-Strait relations based on the political foundation of the 1992 Consensus. The missiles are part of Taiwans military buildup to deter threats from China. Besides Taiwans seeking independence, its close ties to the U.S. is something that Beijing frowns on. The missile incident happened while Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen stopped over in Los Angeles on her way back after a nine-day official visit to Paraguay and Panama, reported Taiwan Today. It was her first trip overseas as president of Taiwan. While at a banquet in Los Angeles hosted by American officials and Taiwanese expatriates, the president was quoted as saying, Taiwan-U.S. relations continue developing and maturing, and are the most significant friendship for Taiwan in the 21st century. It is a contrast to Taipeis icy diplomatic relations with Beijing. On April 14, two events happening a few kilometres away from each other shaped the destiny of the over 80-year-old Ambedkar Bhavan in Dadar, built by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, which houses a printing press. In Dadar (West), chief minister Devendra Fadnavis laid the foundation of a 17-storey structure. At the same time, in the Bhavan, Radhika and Raja Vemula, the mother and brother of Rohith Vemula the Dalit PhD scholar at Hyderabad University whose suicide sparked outrage across the country bowed before a photograph of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and converted to Buddhism. Read: Demolition of Ambedkar Bhavan: RPI activists protest at Dadar, Bhoiwada Mumbai: Outrage over demolition of Ambedkar Bhavan, FIR against trustees The first was the buildings future foretold, whereas the Vemulas conversion spoke of the ground-plus-one structures continued significance for the Dalit movement. Trustees said the CMs function was held at another place to avoid a clash with the Vemula conversion.Ambedkars grandson Prakash Ambedkar had taken the initiative for the latter. From hosting significant meetings where Ambedkar decided his political stance, to later, becoming a symbol of the larger movement around his teachings, the Bhavan had seen many momentous occasions in its history. The conversion would be the last one. At 3am last Friday, men wearing t-shirts sporting Ambedkar photographs similar to the one the Vemulas bowed to demolished the Bhavan, with instructions from Peoples Improvement Trust (PIT), which owns the land. The demolition has sparked off a bitter war, one which could lead to the mobilisation of the splintered Dalit movement. More urgently, it could mean a fresh headache for the Bharatiya Party (BJP) government. On one side is Ambedkars family, represented by his three grandsons.On the other, is the PIT, founded by Ambedkar himself in the 1940s. Incidentally, both parties allege that the other is trying to usurp land. This plot, spread over 3,000 square metres, is valued at more than Rs30 crore. Once built upon, the property will be worth much more. However, Prakash Ambedkar, a national leader of a local political party called Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh and the grandson of Ambedkar, insists that the family isnt after the land. We only wanted to preserve the structure as it was. Rebuilding the Bhavan would mean erasing the identity of the Dalit struggle, he said. Prakash met chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday, pushing for the arrest of those who were instrumental in getting the structure demolished. I have asked him to order the arrests of chief information commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad, the advisor to the trust, along with Madhukar Kambale and Vijay Ranpise, he said.Prakash said Kambale and Ranpise were pretending to be trustees, even though they are not. Kambale, however, rubbished Prakashs statements. We have all the requisite permissions. In fact, Prakash and the other members of his family had agreed to the project and wanted space in the redeveloped building, he said. Kambale added that the dispute arose out of a deal gone wrong.They wanted to be trustees so that they could control the property, he said. We refused, as Dr Ambedkar had declared in 1944 that none of his family members would be a part of this trust as he was opposed to dynasty, added Kambale. Drug lord Vicky Goswamis sister has received money from a bank account of actor Mamta Kulkarni, his wife, the police said on Friday in connection with the Rs2,000-crore ephedrine haul case. Goswami has been identified as the kingpin in the case and has been on the run. Bharat Shelkhe, additional commissioner of police and investigation officer, Thane crime branch, said the money has been transferred to Goswamis sister over the past four years, but he refused to divulge the exact amount as the police were going through her bank documents, at the time of going to press. Goswamis sister lives in Mumbai.Meanwhile, the family of Kishoresingh Rathod, son of a former Gujarat MLA,was questioned by the Thane anti-narcotics cell in the case. The police claim they have a few leads, which will help them nab Rathod, who is an alleged drug dealer from Gujarat and has been on the run since his name cropped up in the 18,000-kg of drug bust. He contacted his family last on April 14, and since then he has switched off his phone, the police said. A dance bar girl who was known to Rathod was also questioned by the cell, said Bharat Shelkhe. Rathods family has been under the scanner since his name cropped up in the case. The police claim that his family members were not co-operating and kept changing their versions during questioning, a police officer said. We are keeping a vigil on the toll nakas and have alerted our officers, too, Shelkhe said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The overnight attack at an upmarket restaurant in Dhakas diplomatic quarter has put the focus on rising extremism in Bangladesh and the countrys ability to counter increasing attacks. The attack during which gunmen took hostages is worrying not just because it has been claimed by the Islamic State (IS), but also because it is vastly different from the machete-style beheadings of secular bloggers and LGBT community members that have besieged the Sheikh Hasina-led government of late. IS has been taking credit for the beheadings by its affiliates, but the Hasina government has been in denial, dismissing reports that the rustic radicals have any presence in Bangladesh. By claiming credit for the attack on the restaurant frequented by foreigners, the radicals--under pressure in Syria and Iraq--appear to have sent a message that they are expanding their reach to a country which is far away from their strongholds. Dhaka restaurant siege: How long before Bangladesh becomes a failed state? The Hasina government should not only worry about IS (the extremist groups claim for the restaurant attack has to be verified) but also about the fact that Bangladesh is one country in which the al Qaeda and the IS seem to be competing. Security experts point to the linkages between the local jihadist group, the Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and the IS and between Ansarul Bangla Team (ABT) and the al Qaeda. Ajai Sahni, a strategic expert on South Asia, says the restaurant attack marks a significant escalation because Bangladesh has not seen explosions, gunfire and hostage-like situations in living memory. He, however, rules out Islamic States presence in the country saying, There are no operational linkages yet and the brutal and sophisticated terror group is not going to travel from Iraq to Bangladesh just to behead individuals. An injured member of the police personnel is carried away by his colleagues, after gunmen stormed a restaurant popular with expatriates in the diplomatic quarter of Dhaka. (REUTERS) If Bangladesh appears to be collapsing under the weight of militant violence, it is because of the very politically divisive fight against jihadi extremism, Sahni says. The restaurant attack, in fact, comes in the wake of mass arrests by the Hasina government and the number crunching by her government itself points to the politically biased fightback. Of the over 9,000 arrests made by the government, only approximately 150 have been classified as terrorists. The rest are people associated with the Jamaat-e- Islami and the opposition party BNP. The Hasina government, therefore, suffers a crisis of credibility and legitimacy when it comes to its fight against extremism and radicalism which has seen a dramatic rise in the last two years. It will also have to shake itself out of denial even if investigations show that this attack may not have been carried out by the IS. The fact that the IS has an eye on Bangladesh is clear from a recent article in Dabiq, the groups online propaganda magazine in which it said it was planning to increase attacks in a country in which it has claimed credit at least six times in 2006 alone. If the IS has established a foothold in a country with the fourth largest population of Muslims, it means that India needs to worry. We need to learn immediate lessons. The model of storming a restaurant and taking hostages can be copy pasted in India, says strategic expert Lt General Gurmeet Kanwal. It could have a demonstrative effect, says Sahni in agreement. On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a security meeting with his home minister and national security advisor. We dont know the details of what was discussed but what we do know is that India has been devising a strategy to counter rapid radicalisation. Unlike Bangladesh, where there is no established case of its citizens having travelled to Iraq for training, India already has several such cases and several of its citizens are currently under the watch of intelligence agencies. If Islamic State is indeed at India, doorstep, it is clearly a cause for worry. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Former minister of state for external affairs and Patiala MLA Preneet Kaur on Friday attacked Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) led Punjab government for failing to maintain law and order and also asked the party workers and leaders to ensure unity ahead of 2017 assembly polls. Addressing party workers of Bathinda (urban) assembly segment, Preneet Kaur, wife of Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh, said no section of society was satisfied with the Akali-BJP government, since it has failed on all fronts, including law and order. She mentioned the sacrilege incidents and killing of two persons in police firing in Behbal Kalan last year, murder of Chand Kaur, wife of former head of the Namdhari sect late Satguru Jagjit Singh and attack on Sikh religious preacher Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale as evidence that there was no rule of law in the state. Trained guns at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), she said the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi had increased its publicity budget to Rs 526 crore from Rs 25 crore and the amount was being spent on AAP advertisements in poll-bound Punjab. She said Punjabs voters could meet the similar fate, if the AAP is voted to power. On controversy over appointment of Asha Kumari as Punjab Congress affairs in-charge, she said the SAD-BJP and AAP were raking up the issue unnecessarily and Kumaris appointment was good for the Congress state unit. Over the states government using publicity vans for highlighting its works, she said every party had the right to campaign but if the Badal government had worked for people, it wouldnt have needed the vans. The Justice Zora Singh Commission of Inquiry has held the police firing at Behbal Kalan as absolutely unwarranted. Two people were killed when violent protests erupted in Faridkot district over the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in October last year. The commission has also blamed Sikh preachers for the October 14 clash of protesters with the police at Kotkapura in which 40 cops were injured. Sources said the 51-page report attempted to ascertain who was behind the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib. Avoiding a remark on the ticklish issue, the report quotes witnesses saying: there was a general perception amongst the public that the sacrilege incidents took place at the instance of big people. The report doesnt touch the sensitive issue as to who these big people could be. Also, the inquiry panel has held that the investigators didnt investigate into the sensitive matter of June 1, 2015, theft of Guru Granth Sahib from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village gurdwara in Faridkot district and subsequent sacrilege incidents. The panel was tasked to inquire into three incidents Sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in Faridkot, police-public clash at Kotkapura and police firing in Behbal Kalan that killed two protesters. Also read | Faridkot firing: Zora panel wants action against cops BEHBAL KALAN EPISODE The upshot, therefore, is that the police firing killing two people (Gurjeet Singh and Krishan Bhagwan Singh) and injuring six was absolutely unwarranted, the commission said. The victims were killed in sitting position. ...what impelled the police official(s) to fire at them, and that too, from a close range, is beyond comprehension. More so, when the victims were defenceless and unarmed, the report says, recommending action as per law against the erring officials who fired gunshots. Not only the officials who fired the gunshots but also Charanjit Singh Sharma, then Moga senior superintendent of police (SSP) who was indubitably leading/commanding the entire police force... also deserves to be dealt with in accordance with law, the report says. Police told the commission that the protesters were armed with swords, sticks, spears, stones and guns and became violent when asked to disperse. Even the police claim of firing teargas shells is rendered doubtful by its own record, the report says, referring to forensic report that bullet that hit one of the victims was of 7.62mm a rifle bullet. There is no gainsaying that rifles were only with the police and not with any of the protesters... it stands established on the record that as a result of the police firing, two persons died and six persons received injuries, the inquiry has held. Whether the police firing was in self-defence, the commission said: Answer to this is to be found in the negative in view of the evidence on record. Recommending the investigators to identify the erring officials who caused bullet injuries and killed two protesters, the commission has directed to investigate into the complicity of the SSP in the perpetration of the crime. If the evidence to be collected so warrants, include his (SSP) name in the chargesheet, the report says. KOTKAPURA CLASH In what is now known as the Bargari sacrilege incident that took place in the wee hours of October 12, 2015, some angs (torn pages) of Guru Granth Sahib were found strewn in the street near Gurdwara Pathshahi Daswin in Bargari village. Various Sikh organisations started visiting the sacrilege spot and brought the torn angs reverentially to Kotkapura Chowk. Having placed the torn angs in a palanquin and anguished over desecration of Guru Granth Sahib and the police failure to nab the culprits, the protesters led by Sikh religious preachers, including Panthpreet Singh Khalsa and Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale held a protest at Kotkapura (Battian Wala Chowk) on October 12, 2015 and blocked the way leading to various towns, says the report. The protest was called off after officially machinery intervened. But the protesters again started the dharna on October 13. The report says: On the intervening night of October 13 and 14, an understanding was reached between the protesters and the police/civil administration that they will call off the stir in case police arrest them. Thereafter, the police started taking protesters into custody. When police were in the process of making arrests, a misunderstanding developed. Some protesters refused to court arrest, saying arrests were not in accordance with law. The 15-odd Sikh preachers made inflammatory speeches and kept on provoking the protesters who had brought brickbats and stones in tractor-trailers, says the report. The role of Panthpreet Singh Khalsa, a religious preacher, and that of Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale and other religious preachers, who were heading the gathering of protesters, was not appreciable. Had the preachers exhorted the gathering to keep peace when the police was in the process of making preventive detentions, the situation could have been controlled, justice Zora Singh (retd) said in his report. Also read | Zora panel report: Attempt to hide facts, says Capt; Badal promises action Recommendations * File chargesheet against erring officials who opened fire on protesters, killing two persons and injuring others * Investigate into the complicity of SSP Charanjit Singh Sharma in perpetration of the crime and include his name in the chargesheet if evidence so warrants * Pay Rs 10 lakh compensation each to Ajit Singh, who was injured in police firing at Kotkapura, and Beant Singh of Behbal Kalan firing * Rs 25 lakh compensation and regular employment to kin of Gurjeet Singh and Krishan Bhagwan Singh, who were killed in firing, within six months. WHAT PANEL SAID On Sacrilege: Various Sikh organisations who were protesting against the police inaction had suspected six persons...but none of them was interrogated...not to speak of any police endeavour to take them into custody for custodial interrogation, the report states. On Kotkapura episode: Had the Sikh preachers exhorted the gathering to keep peace when the police were making preventive detentions, the situation could well have been prevented from taking a violent turn. Behbal Kalan firing: It stands established on record that as a result of police firing, two persons died...The police firing...was absolutely unwarranted. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The district police, on Friday, busted a gang of contract killers, which was operating on the directions of Sukha Haryanvi and Rajnish Kumar alias Prate Phagwara , who are lodged in the Kapurthala modern jail, with the arrest of seven of its members, who are hardcore criminals. The gangsters were also linked to the notorious Sukha Kahlon gang. Those arrested have been identified as Mandeep Singh of Moha village, Gulshan Kumar of Chak Mehra village, Vijay Kumar of Jaija village and Gurmeet Singh of Maseet Pal Kot in Hoshiarpur district, Jaspal Singh, a resident of Shankar village, Gurpreet Singh of Talwandi Bharo in Nakodar and Rajinder Singh of Narangpur village of Jalandhar district. Acting on a tip-off that some gangsters were coming to Kapurthala to meet Haryanvi and Rajnish Kumar alias Prate Phagwara in the jail, the city police set up a naka on the Jail Road in the morning. Spotting the police, the gangsters in their Mahindra Scorpio and Toyota Qualis cars, attempted to run away from the spot, but after a brief chase, police overpowered them. On search, the police recovered two pistols, one .12 bore gun and 4 cartridges, besides 1.25kg heroin, a Scorpio (PB-08-AX-7567), Qualis (PB-06-A-3547) and sharp-edged weapons from their possession. Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Rajinder Singh said at a press conference that both Preet Phagwara and Sukha Haryanvi were operating the gang from the jail and contacted gang members through mobiles and frequent meetings. The arrested gang members recently came out of the jail on bail and had a long history of crimes, including murder, attempt to murder, robbery cases registered against them at various police stations across the state, the SSP said. The SSP said that they became good friends inside the jail and after these seven came out on bail, they formed a contact killing gang. The Kapurthala jail administration has come under scanner with the arrest of the gangsters, who were in touch with Haryanavi and Rajnish. During interrogation, the accused confessed to the crimes and revealed that, on directions of Preet and Haryanvi, they had taken the contract of killing an Anandpur Sahib-based businessman, a Nakodar teacher, and others in the coming days. Preet Phagwara, a supporter of gangster Sukha Haryanvi, was arrested by the police last year in December on murder charges while four years ago for murdering a woman in Nakodar. A case has been registered against all seven gangsters under sections 399 (making preparation to commit dacoity), 402 (assembling for purpose of committing dacoity), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and various sections of the NDPS Act at Kotwali police station. The accused will be produced in a local court on Saturday and both inmates would also be brought on production warrants on Sunday. There couldnt have been a worst start to a professional career. A grocery delivery start-upGroferswithdrew the job offer to 10 graduates of Punjab Engineering College (PEC) University of Technology two days before the joining date, citing adverse market conditions as the reason. The PEC has blacklisted the company, but the affected students are left high and dry. Grofers had visited PEC campus in August 2015 to hire students as managers and engineers. As per the varsitys policy, the said 10 students were not allowed to sit for interviews by other companies as they had already been offered an annual package of Rs 11 lakh by Grofers. A student, whose job offer stands withdrawn, said, It is disappointing. I had already finalised an accommodation in Gurgaon. (Illustration by Daljeet Kaur Sandhu/HTs) The students received an email from Grofers on June 28, conveying to them that the positions were no longer available owing to changes in market conditions. The company had mailed offer letters to the students on May 11, 2016. Looking forward to your arrival on July 1, 2016 at 9am at the joining location Gurgaon. There will be a training period of 1-3 months, the mail read. The offer letter, however, mentioned Rs 7 lakh as the annual package and not `11 lakh as promised at the time of the interview. The graduates are angry and disheartened over the not-so-pleasant start to their career. One of the selected computer science graduates selected by Grofers, seeking anonymity, said, We received our offer letters only a month ago and didnt get an indication of what was in store. I was planning to move to Gurgaon. He said the placement officers of the varsity were not cooperating in getting them placed somewhere else. We are still hopeful, though the placement time is over and no company will offer jobs at this juncture, he said. Another student, whose job offer too stands withdrawn, said, It is disappointing. I had already finalised an accommodation in Gurgaon. He said he was selected by the Indian Army and even the Navy, but couldnt join for personal reasons. Now the offers coming our way are only about Rs 3-4 lakh per annum, which is depressing. The placement officer at PEC, Umesh Sharma, said, The universitys priority is to assure that the affected students get a job and then initiate appropriate action against the company. We have already written a strong-worded letter to Grofers. We are in touch with other companies and the response is positive. Grofers had come to PEC for the first time, said Sharma. Company cancels 57 appointments According to the affected students, Grofers has withdrawn 57 job offers across the country. The students were from NITs at Allahabad and Surathkal; Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, and its Goa campus; and the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A day after a 28-year-old Sector-52 resident was stabbed to death by four members of a neighbour family over trivial issue, three people, including a juvenile, were arrested on Friday. Krishan succumbed to the stab wounds and his brothersRahul (24) and Ricky (21)were undergoing treatment at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER). As per the police, Rahul is out of danger and Ricky is critical. Police on Friday arrested Jeetu, his wife Rekha and a juvenile, who has been sent to Sector-25 correction home. Another juvenile is absconding. Krishan and Rahul drove auto-rickshaw for a living and Ricky worked at a farmhouse. The deceased is survived by wife and two sons.A case has been registered at the Sector 36 police station. The incident The dispute, according to the police, started when Ricky honked outside his house after returning from work late evening on Thursday. The accused family got irritated with the excessive honking and confronted Ricky. A heated argument ensued and turned ugly. The accused stabbed Krishan with a knife in the stomach. Ricky was stabbed in the back and Rahul sustained injuries on his hand, said the police. The victims were rushed to Sector 16 government hospital, from where they were referred to the PGI. Krishan succumbed to his injuries. Delhi-based businessman Vijay Kumar, main accused in the June 24 incident of sacrilege of the Quran in Malerkotla that had led to violence, claimed in front of the media on Saturday that he did it at the behest of Aam Aadmi Partys (AAP) Delhi MLA Naresh Yadav who was his friend; but Yadav outrightly denied any role. However, Sangrur superintendent of police (SSP) Pritpal Singh said the MLA will be summoned based on Vijays claim, which came on the eve of AAP head and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwals three-day Punjab tour. Yadav, when contacted, said: I know many people named Vijay. But I am learning through the media about such an incident in Malerkotla. Also read | 8 injured as mob clashes with police after Quran sacrilege at Malerkotla Vijay talked to the media when the police took him to Government Rajindra Hospital here for medical examination. However, he denied that he was a worker or member of the AAP. This comes after the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had owned up the two other accused in the case Nand Kishore Goldy, the radical outfits Punjab unit secretary (organisation), and his son Gaurav. The VHP has said they were being framed, though it had distanced itself from Vijay. Also read | Malerkotla Quran sacrilege: One of 3 arrested men is VHP Punjab secy On the day of the arrest, police had claimed that none of three was affiliated to any organisation and that the trio had acted out of hatred for Muslims and Pakistan with the intention to start a riot in Punjabs only Muslim-majority town. The town did see arson but no communal riot. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON As the strike launched by contractual staff of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital completed a month, the staff resorted to shoe polishing in protest on Friday. The employees under the banner of the Punjab Theka Adhar Nursing and Paramedical Employees Association are protesting since June 1and demanding from the state government to regularise them. Ajit Pal Kaur, president of the association said, The director of medical education and research ordered us to resume our services but we will not do so. This our way to protest by polishing shoes of the people. She added, We will take the final call about the protest after consulting with the protesting union in Patiala. Amandeep Singh, a member of the union said, We decided to do this in order to fill the treasures of the government. We demand that we should be regularised as soon as possible. The protesting staff is in no mood to budge even though talks between them and the authorities have failed. It is learnt that the intern medical students and trainees are forced to double up their duties due to the protest. A hospital employee told HT that the vacations are to be adjusted. The present government staff is forced to adjust as the other staff is on protest. In the past, the union blocked the outpatient department as well as the operation theatre of the hospital. They even burnt an effigy of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and protested outside the residence of cabinet minister Bikram Singh Majithia. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani accused Western powers of trying to exploit differences between the world's Sunni and Shia Muslims to divert attention from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, state television reported on Friday. Rouhani's comments came as tens of thousands of Iranians joined anti-Israel rallies across the country to mark the annual al-Quds Day, established by the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The protesters condemned the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America". "The global arrogance (the United States and its allies) wants to create discord among Muslims ... Unity is the only way to restore stability in the region," Rouhani said. "We stand with the dispossessed Palestinian nation." Opposition to Israel, which Tehran refuses to recognise, has been a cornerstone of Iranian policy since its 1979 Islamic revolution. Shia Muslim Iran backs Palestinian and Lebanese militant groups who oppose peace with Israel. "The Zionist regime (Israel) is a regional base for America and the global arrogance ... Disunity and discord among Muslim and terrorist groups in the region ... have diverted us from the important issue of Palestine," Rouhani said. Shia-led Iran has repeatedly called on its Sunni Muslim rival Saudi Arabia to help improve their strained bilateral relations and work for stability in the Middle East. Arch-rivals for regional hegemony, the two oil producers are on opposite sides in proxy battles in the region, where they back competing factions in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Bahrain. Ties have worsened since Riyadh's execution in January of prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr prompted attacks on the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Saudi Arabia subsequently cut all ties with Iran. Earlier in 2015, a landmark nuclear deal was reached between Iran, the United States and five other major powers. *The story was edited by Ahram Online. Search Keywords: Short link: The farmer unions in Punjab have decided to collectively step up agitation in support of their demands and will be staging three days protest on July 27, 28 and 29 at all district headquarters in Punjab. The decision came at a meeting of 12 farmer unions in Moga on Thursday. The meeting was attended by representatives of BKU (Ekta Ugrahan), BKU (Ekta Dakaundha), BKU (Krantikari), Punjab Kisan Sabha, Kisan Sabha Punjab, Kisan Sangharsh Committee Punjab, Punjab Kisan Sangharsha Committee, Kisan Sangharsh Committee (Azad), Jamhuri Kisan Sabha and Kirti Kisan Union. BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) leader Shingara Singh Mann said the strike would build pressure on the state government to accept the farmers demands, and the ongoing protest outside the district administrative complex in Bathinda would continue. The protest entered its 39th day on Friday. Mann said the unions would decide the next course after the three-day protest. The farmers under the banner of BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) had started the protest in Bathinda on May 24 and are at it daily since. The protesting farmers are demanding waiver of debt of farmers and farm labourers, compensation to tune of Rs 5 lakh to the family of farm suicide victims, fresh survey of farm suicide cases to ascertain actual number of farmers suicides due to debt, compensation at rate of Rs 40,000 per acre for the loss of cotton crop due to whitefly attack and legislation of farmer friendly laws. Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, on Friday, said nature had blessed Punjab with enough water and they wont share it with anyone. He said he was ready to sacrifice the government over Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) issue, but would not let anyone give states water to others. Badal was here to hold the Sangat Darshan in five villages of Dirba constituency in Sangrur. Read more: Badal terms Amarinder, Kejriwal misfit for holding public meetings On the sidelines of the event, Badal said all those who were seeking political benefits were supporting the SYL. He said just as Rajasthan was rich in producing marbles and they sale it on their conditions; similarly, Punjab government was owner of the water of Punjab. No other state can take water from Punjab, said Badal, adding, If SYL is being created, then none can stop Punjab from getting ruined. Badal hopes that the Supreme Court would make decision on the SYL within a month, which hopefully would be in favour of Punjab. Permission to SYL will disturb the whole economy of the state in which farmers will suffer the most and it will also have an impact on countrys economy, said Badal. Delhi regrets electing Kejri Talking about the Aam Aadmi Partys (AAP) dreams to grab power in Punjab, Badal said party chief Arvind Kejriwal was from Haryana. He has no past, present or future in Punjab, said Badal. Badal said, Allured by his promises, Delhi elected Kejriwal but are now regretting their decision as he could not fulfill anyone of his promises. In a short political career, Kejriwal has become an expert in fooling people. Moreover, taking a dig at Congresss promise of job for one person in every house, Badal said if Congress could really do this, they would have done that when they were in power in Punjab. He said the Congress should not make lame statements and promises which could not be kept. Meanwhile, during Sangat Darshan when Badal was giving away grants to panchayats, eight people on the venue gate started shouting anti-government slogan and were pushed away by the police. Meanwhile, at Sangat Darshan at Geeta Bhawan, Dirba, when residents of Baazigar Basti reached the venue and came forward to meet the CM, the security stopped them to go further and asked them to go out, because their names were not in the list of people who would meet CM. The resented people started shouting anti government slogans. One of the residents, Rajveer, said, Even on light rain our locality turns into a pond and despite requesting the authorities so many times, none of them has turned up for help. The Sangat Darshan is a planned programme as who would meet the CM and who would not. Only the Akali panchayats are being let to meet the CM whereas other people cannot even go near the CM. Similarly, at Kohrian village, nearly 40 elderly women, who were requesting authorities to let them meet the CM, had to return disappointed. They said the sarpanch of their village called them here with the promise that he would let them meet the CM and would appraise him about their issues. But he had called us here just to increase the attendance of the public, an elder woman Balbir Kaur said, adding, They are not getting old age pension and they have come to meet the CM, but to no avail. Poonam (21), who underwent a surgery, is forced to share a bed with Sheetal and her baby, born on Thursday at Mother-Child Hospital. Similar is the plight of many other patients, who are admitted at postnatal ward of the hospital on the premises of Lord Mahavira Civil Hospital. Ayyali village resident Poonam said, I was shifted to the postnatal ward after my surgery on Friday. I was told that theres no vacant bed, and I will have to share it with another patient, who delivered a baby on Friday. So, we are forced to manage with a single bed and resting on rotation. Sheetal of Amarpura, who is sharing bed with Poonam, said, This morning hospital staff shifted Poonam to the bed allotted to me and my newborn daughter. Three people sharing a bed is sheer harassment. Besides, living in such conditions may lead to infections, and newborns easily acquire infections. Authorities should arrange more beds. During the visit, HT found that all 8 beds in a ward of the hospital, were being shared by two or three patients, even though more than 40 beds were lying unused on the first floor of the hospital. We are facing a shortage of staff at the hospital due to which patients are not being shifted to the first floor that has 48 beds said Hussan Lal, National Rural Health Mission director, who was on an inspection visit at the civil hospital on Friday. We have initiated the process to outsource staff from Baba Farid University, Faridkot, and recruit staff on contract. As soon as we get the staff, rooms on the first floor will be put into use, Lal added. Staff crunch affecting services Besides, staff shortage is affecting services. Against the ideal scenario of one nurse taking care of five patients, one staff nurse has to attend as many as 45 patients at the hospital said a matron, requesting anonymity. The labour room, emergency ward, operation theatres and burns unit, are working with just half the staff of its requirement. She said, The nursing staff performs multiple tasks from checking temperature, pulse and respiration of a patient to maintaining records and going on rounds in the wards. Sometimes, staff even has to perform the job of a pharmacist. We are overburdened and need staff. Lal also inspected de-addiction centre, ART Centre, general wards and integrated counselling and testing centre. Punjab State Aids Control deputy director Manpreet Chhatwal and civil surgeon Dr Renu Chatwal accompanied him. Tamil actor Nassar has been roped in for voiceover in the Tamil dubbed version of Hollywood film, The BFG (Big Friendly Giant), directed by Steven Spielberg. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted to confirm the news along with the films poster in Tamil. The film releases on July 15. Nassar, a veteran in Tamil cinema, garnered nationwide appeal for his portrayal of the crippled Bijjaladeva, father of Bhalladeva, in 2015s superhit Telugu film Baahubali. Read: How celebrity rivalry has spiced up Tamil film association polls Read: Steven Spielberg is back, and this time he has a BFG with him Steven, who has directed many family films in the past, returns to the genre after a gap. His last couple of films has been historicals such as Bridge of Spies and Lincoln. Nassar does voiceover for Tamil version of Steven Spielberg's #TheBFG. 15 July release. Poster in Tamil: pic.twitter.com/yoBjdzVBM1 taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) July 2, 2016 With The BFG, a big screen adaptation of the classic by British author Roald Dahl, Steven returns to making films through the eyes of children. The tale follows young Sophie, played by Ruby Barnhill, who comes across a giant, portrayed by Oscar winner Mark Rylance -- a big friendly giant who, unlike his peers, does not eat children. Watch the trailer of The BFG here: ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop Describing India as an important Pacific power, the draft election manifesto of the Democratic Party has said it would continue to invest in long-term strategic relationship with the country and press Pakistan to deny terrorists sanctuaries on its soil. The Democratic Party Platform -- akin to election manifesto of political parties in India -- would be formally adopted at its convention in Philadelphia later this month wherein Hillary Clinton would be nominated as the Democratic Partys presidential nominee for the November general elections. A draft of the platform was released by the Democratic Party on Friday. Among its members include people from both Clinton and the rival Bernie Sanders campaigns. Indian-American Neera Tanden, who is widely seen as a potential cabinet member of the Clinton administration, is among its members. Democrats will continue to invest in a long-term strategic partnership with India -- the worlds largest democracy, a nation of great diversity, and an important Pacific power, the platform said, signalling that a Democratic administration would continue with the India policy of the Obama administration. The platform said the US will work with its allies and partners to fortify regional institutions and norms as well as protect freedom of the seas in the South China Sea. We will push back against North Korean aggression and press China to play by the rules. We will stand up to Beijing on unfair trade practices, currency manipulation, and cyber-attacks. And we will promote greater respect for human rights, including the rights of Tibetans, it said. The platform calls for a strong counter-terrorism measure. Democrats will continue to push for an Afghan-led peace process and press Pakistan to deny all terrorists sanctuary on its soil, the platform said. Cautioning the countrymen that it would be a dangerous mistake for America to abandon its responsibilities, the draft said, We cannot, as Donald Trump suggests, cede the mantle of leadership for global peace and security to others who will not have our best interests in mind. American leadership is essential to keeping the US safe and economy growing in the years ahead, said the draft platform. From the Asia Pacific to the Indian Ocean, we will deepen our alliances in the region with Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand, it said. The platform supported Obamas decision to maintain a limited troop presence in Afghanistan and ensure that it never again serves as a haven for terrorists to plan and launch attacks on the US. Rejecting Donald Trumps vilification of Muslims, the Democratic platform said it will repudiate vile tactics that would do the US harm. At least nine civilians have been killed in separate attacks in Afghanistan, including a suicide bombing and a mass shooting, Afghan officials said Saturday. At least two civilians were killed after a suicide bomber on a motorbike targeted a local tribal elder in eastern Nangarhar province, according to the deputy spokesman for the provincial governor. Noor Ahmad Habibi said that 11 others were wounded in the attack, which took place in Jalalabad, the provincial capital. The bomber was targeting local tribal elder Hayatullah Khan, who escaped unhurt, Habibi said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The Taliban are known to be active in the province. In southern Kandahar province unknown gunmen shot and killed seven civilians, said Zia Durani, spokesman for the provincial police chief. He said the victims included four men and three women, and a police investigation was underway. Taliban insurgents attacked Afghan local police check points in Kandahar province late Friday night, killing five policemen, Durani said. Four insurgents were killed in the battle, which took place in Maiwand district, he added. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Kandahar province. On Thursday, Taliban twin suicide bombers attacked a convoy of Afghan police cadets outside the Afghan capital, Kabul, killing 37 people mostly policemen and wounding 40 others. Syrian President Bashar Assad says Western nations publicly critical of his regime have been quietly sending security officials to collaborate with his war-ravaged country. Assad told Australia's SBS news channel in an interview broadcast Friday that there is a double standard in the West. He says Western nations attack him politically but send officials to deal with him behind the scenes. President Barack Obama is opposed to armed intervention in Syria's civil war, which has left at least 250,000 people dead and contributed to a global refugee crisis. Though Obama blamed Assad for using chemical weapons in 2013 and threatened military strikes against Syrian forces, he has thus far only authorized strikes against the Islamic State movement and other US-designated terror groups in Syria. Search Keywords: Short link: The leader of the Islamic State in Bangladesh is believed to be originally from Canada and wants to use the group to carry out a two-front attack on India. As the attack on Dhakas Holey Artisan Bakery was underway, Toronto-based terrorism expert Amarnath Amarasingam pointed out on Twitter that the person, identified as Tamim Chowdhury, was from Windsor city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Amarasingam had originally made the identification in the first week of June after a Hindu priest was beheaded in Bangladesh. He was quoted by Vice News as saying at the time that he suspected Chowdhury may have left Canada shortly after harassment from the police as he knew Ahmed Waseem and Mohammed Al Shaer, two men who travelled from Canada to Syria in 2013 to join the IS. Read: Dhaka restaurant siege: 20 hostages, 2 cops killed in IS attack Law enforcement agencies in Canada are believed to have been monitoring Chowdhury at that time due to his association with the two men. Nearly 180 Canadians are believed to have left the country to join extremist groups abroad. Chowdhury, using the nom de guerre of Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, featured in an interview in the IS publication Dabiqs 14th edition, in which he said he saw Bangladesh as a staging ground for carrying out a two-prong assault on India. Described in the as the amir of the Khilafahs soldiers in Bengal, he said, Bengal is an important region for the Khilafah and the global jihad due to its strategic geographic position. Bengal is located on the eastern side of India, whereas Wilayat Khurasan is located on its western side. Thus, having a strong jihad base in Bengal will facilitate performing guerilla attacks inside India simultaneously from both sides and facilitate creating a condition of tawahhush (fear and chaos) in India along with the help of the existing local mujahidin there. Wilayat Khurasan is the name given by the IS to its chapter for Pakistan, Afghanistan and parts of India. As reported originally in Hindustan Times, he also said in the interview that the situation would continue until the soldiers of the Khilafah are able to enter with a conventional army and completely liberate the region from the mushrikin (polytheists), after first getting rid of the Pakistani and Afghani regimes. Chowdhury also said in Dabiq that jihad in Bengal is a stepping-stone for jihad in Burma. His hatred for minority Hindus was clear in the interview and extremists, in recent times, have carried out several attacks on the minority community, including two in the past week. Chowdhury was also critical of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by Khaleda Zia. The attackers in Dhaka slaughtered 20 hostages on Friday night before Bangladeshi troops stormed the restaurant. Two police officers also died in the exchange of fire with the attackers. Six of the attackers were killed and one was detained, while 13 hostages were rescued. Read:What kind of Muslims are these: Sheikh Hasina on Dhaka attackers SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Bangladesh security forces were preparing to free around 20 hostages, including several foreigners, from a restaurant in an upmarket area of the capital Dhaka early on Saturday, after gunmen stormed the building killing at least two policemen. Gowher Rizvi, an adviser to Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina, told Reuters that security forces were trying to negotiate an end to the crisis, failing which they would launch an offensive to end the siege, possibly as soon as daybreak. Police said eight to nine gunmen attacked the Holey Artisan restaurant in the Gulshan district of Dhaka that is popular with expatriates. The assailants, believed to be carrying assault rifles and grenades, exchanged sporadic gun fire with police outside for several hours after the attack, which began around 9 p.m. local time on Friday. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack and said 24 people had died. Bangladesh police denied that assertion, saying that two police officers had been killed and at least 15 people wounded. Italian and Indian nationals are among the hostages, said a duty officer at the Rapid Action Battalions (RAB) control room. Italys ambassador to Bangladesh, Mario Palma, told Italian state TV that seven Italians were among the hostages. Read: Seven Italians among hostages in Dhaka cafe attack It is a suicide attack. They want to carry out a powerful and bloody operation and there is no room for negotiation, Palma said. An injured member of the police personnel is carried away by his colleagues. (REUTERS) The hostage crisis marks an escalation from a recent spate of murders claimed by Islamic State and al Qaeda on liberals, gays, foreigners and religious minorities, and could deal a major blow to the countrys vital $25 billion garment sector. Last year, several Western retailers temporarily halted visits to Dhaka following the killing of two foreigners. Spike in militant attacks Bangladesh has seen a spike in militant violence in the last 18 months. Attacks have tended to be on individuals, often using machetes, and the raid on the restaurant was a rare instance of a more coordinated operation. Earlier on Friday, a Hindu priest was hacked to death at a temple in Jhinaidah district, 300 kms south west of Dhaka. Both Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for many of the killings, although local authorities say there are no operational links between Bangladeshi militants and international jihadi networks. Bangladesh security officials say two local militant groups, Ansar-al-Islam and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, are behind the violence. Ansar pledges allegiance to al Qaeda, while Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen claims it represents Islamic State. The bottom line is Bangladesh has plenty of local, (often unaffiliated), militants and radicals happy to stage attacks in ISISs name, said Michael Kugelman, South Asia associate at The Wilson Centre in Washington D.C., using an acronym commonly used for Islamic State. He added that Islamic State had claimed more attacks in Bangladesh than in Pakistan or Afghanistan. Sporadic gunfire, chaos Rizvi, the adviser to prime minister, said the hostage crisis began when local security guards in the diplomatic enclave noticed several gunmen outside a medical center. When the guards approached, the gunmen ran into the restaurant, which was packed with people waiting for tables, he added. An employee who escaped told local television that there were about 20 customers at the restaurant at the time, and most of them were foreigners. The restaurant has a seating capacity of around 25 people. There were also some 15 to 20 staff working there at the time, the employee said. A police officer at the scene said that when security forces tried to enter the premises at the beginning of the siege they met a hail of bullets and grenades. Security personnel check vehicles after gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan restaurant and took hostages. (REUTERS) Television footage showed a number of police being led away from the site with blood on their faces and clothes. Heavily armed officers could be seen milling on the street outside. A resident near the scene of the attack told Reuters he could hear sporadic gunfire nearly three hours after the attack began. It is chaos out there. The streets are blocked. There are dozens of police commandos, said Tarique Mir. As it happened: Gunmen storm Dhaka cafe, take diners hostage Italys foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Twitter he was closely following the situation in Dhaka, adding he was anxious for Italians involved and expressing solidarity with their families. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi abruptly left a ceremony at the Colosseum in Rome on Friday evening to follow the hostage-taking incident, a source at his office said. The US State Department said all Americans working at the U.S. mission there had been accounted for. A spokesman said in Washington the situation was very fluid, very live. President Barack Obama has also been briefed about the attack, the White House said. A night long siege ended on Saturday morning when Bangladeshi troops gunned down six armed attackers who held a bakery hostage in Dhakas diplomatic zone, in what was probably the biggest assault in the capital city. Thirteen hostages, including three foreigners, were rescued during the operation, a senior security official said. The operation is over. The situation is completely under control, army spokesman Colonel Rashidul Hasan told AFP. Tuhin Mohammad Masud, a commander of the elite Rapid Action Battalion which stormed the cafe, said there had been a number of casualties, including the hostage-takers and two police men, but the main area had been cleared. Read | Islamic State posts photos it says are of foreigners killed in Dhaka attack Troops are combing buildings near the restaurant as it is believed that three to four attackers were holed up in the area, Masud told Hindustan Times. Several people were detained in the restaurant and checks were being conducted to ascertain if any of them were involved in the attack. The Islamic state claimed responsibility for the violence through its Amaq news agency through which it posted photos of dead foreigners allegedly killed in the assault. Hosne Ara Karim, whose son and daughter-in-law were rescued from the restaurant that was attacked. (AP) The Holy Artisan Bakery Cafe in Dhakas Gulshan area, which is popular with locals, diplomats and expatriates alike, was targeted on Friday night at around 9 pm local time. Though it is yet unclear how many attackers were there, it is believed they were around 10 people. Armed with assault rifles, the group open fired and set off explosive devices during the assault and took an unspecified number of people hostage. Read | As it happened : Dhaka restaurant attack Among the rescued hostages were two Sri Lankans and a Japanese national. The Japanese national was injured, Masud said. An Indian national was freed or managed to escape the restaurant before troops launched their final operation, sources told Hindustan Times. However, further details about him were not immediately available. The Indian government said it was closely monitoring the crisis even as officials maintained that all Indian High Commission staffers in Dhaka were reportedly safe. Gowher Rizvi, an adviser to Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina, told Reuters that security forces had tried to negotiate a way out of the crisis, but to no avail. Hours after the siege ended, Hasina said her country will not tolerate terrorism. Read | How long before Bangladesh becomes a failed state? The siege is the latest in a spate of attacks in Bangladesh over the past 18 months, during which militant violence has spiked despite the countrys tradition of secularism and religious tolerance. Though most have been directed on individuals, often using machetes, the raid on the restaurant was a rare instance of a more coordinated operation. Earlier on Friday, a Hindu priest was hacked to death at a temple in Jhinaidah district, 300 kms southwest of Dhaka. Both Islamic State and al Qaeda claimed responsibility for many of the killings, although local authorities say no operational links exist between Bangladeshi militants and international jihadi networks. (With inputs from agencies) Philippine troops on Saturday dug up what they believe is the body of Canadian hostage Robert Hall, who was beheaded by Abu Sayyaf extremists more than two weeks ago in the south after a ransom deadline lapsed. Villagers led the troops to a hinterland near Kamuntayan village in Sulu provinces Talipao town where the militants buried Halls body after killing him on June 13. Halls head was found abandoned outside a Roman Catholic cathedral, regional military spokesperson Maj. Filemon Tan said. Chances were high that it was Halls body, Tan said, citing intelligence reports and help from villagers. Police forensic experts would confirm the identity, he said. Hall was kidnapped with fellow Canadian John Ridsdel, Norwegian Kjartan Sikkengstad and Filipino Marites Flor in September last year in a yacht-berthing resort on Samal Island, also in the south and taken by boat to Sulu, a predominantly Muslim and impoverished province 590 miles (950 kilometers) south of Manila. Ridsdel had also been beheaded, Sikkengstad remains in Abu Sayyaf custody and Flor has been freed. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the killings and called on other nations not to pay ransoms if their citizens are abducted to discourage the militants from carrying out more ransom kidnappings. Philippine troops have been carrying out an offensive that has killed dozens of militants in Sulu. The Abu Sayyaf, which has more than 400 armed fighters, is blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist group for bombings, kidnappings for ransom, beheadings and extortion. The militants have been weakened by years of battle setbacks but remain a national security threat. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said she was determined to eradicate terrorism in Bangladesh Saturday after security forces stormed a cafe where Islamist extremists had taken dozens of diners hostage. There is no place for terrorists or terrorism on Bangladeshs soil, Hasina said. People must resist these terrorists. My government is determined to root out terrorism and militancy from Bangladesh. It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these who kill other people during Ramzan, she said. In an address to the media, Hasina said six gunmen had been killed and one was captured alive during Saturdays operations by a joint force led by military commandos. The prime minister also praised the role of the security officials for saving many lives. Because of the role of the joint force the terrorists could not flee, Hasina said. (With inputs from agencies) A Japanese government spokesman says a Japanese hostage has been rescued but seven others unaccounted for in the restaurant attack in Bangladesh. Deputy chief cabinet secretary Koichi Hagiuda said Saturday that the eight were together at the restaurant during the attack. Hagiuda says the Japanese man who was rescued was shot and is still being treated. He declined to give specifics about the hostages condition but said he is able to talk. He says the eight people were from different companies involved in the same project led by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Islamist militants armed with sharp weapons slaughtered 20 people, including a young Indian woman, at an upscale cafe in Dhaka before government forces stormed the building to end a 12-hour standoff on Saturday. The Islamic State (IS) said it was responsible for the attack, but that claim has yet to be confirmed by Dhaka which has in the past denied the presence of the group on its soil. Hours before the government confirmed the fatalities, IS news agency Amaq said 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, had been killed. It also posted photos of bodies and blood smeared across floors that it said were dead foreigners at the popular Holey Artisan Bakery. Indian and western intelligence agencies told Hindustan Times the attack was carried out by the IS Bangladeshi module. Among those killed was Tarishi Jain, 19, whose family moved to Dhaka about 20 years ago, and who was on a break from classes at University of California, Berkeley. Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted: Extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka, using a different spelling for the victims name. Another Indian national, a doctor identified only as Satyapal, had a lucky escape after he spoke Bengali and posed as a Bangladeshi, sources said. Reports quoted survivors as saying the militants told locals to stay out of the way, and hacked and butchered those who couldnt recite from the Quran. One of the attackers cursed a diner for sitting with non-Muslims during Ramzan. Read | Indian girl killed in Dhaka terror attack: Sushma Swaraj Read| As it happened: Bangladesh restaurant attack Two police officers were killed in the initial exchange of fire that erupted soon after the attackers stormed the building split between a bakery and the OKitchen Restaurant at around 9pm on Friday. Ali Arsalan, co-owner of the restaurant, said his staff told him the attackers yelled Allahu Akbar (God is Great). The attackers exchanged sporadic gunfire with police and troops of the Rapid Action Battalion outside for several hours before the army stormed the building on Saturday morning and ended a 12-hour siege. A relative tries to console Semin Rahman, covering face, whose son is missing after militants took hostages in a restaurant popular with foreigners in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, July 2, 2016. (AP Photo) About 7.40 am Saturday, Bangladeshi troops stormed the bakery, killing six of the attackers and detaining a seventh. Nine Italians, seven Japanese and an US national were among the dead. Thirteen hostages were rescued, including one Japanese national and two Sri Lankans. The Japanese man was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound, a Japanese government spokesman said. Among those dead was the wife of an Italian businessman killed by a machete. She was found by her husband after he spent all night hiding behind a tree outside the cafe while the gunmen were inside, said Agnese Barolo, a friend who lives in Dhaka and spoke to him. Read| What kind of Muslims are these: Sheikh Hasina on Dhaka attackers A wounded police personnel is helped by a colleague, after gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan restaurant and took hostages, in the Gulshan area of Dhaka, Bangladesh July 1, 2016. (Reuters Photo) The hostage crisis began when security guards in the Gulshan district of Dhaka, popular with expatriates, noticed several gunmen outside a medical centre, officials said. When the guards approached, the gunmen ran into a building housing the restaurant, packed with people waiting for tables. Police said the assailants exchanged sporadic gunfire with police outside for several hours. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the attack and vowed to fight the militants. Speaking on television soon after security forces wound up the operation in Dhaka, Hasina said she was determined to eradicate terrorism in Bangladesh, which has seen a spate of Islamist attacks against intellectuals, gays and minority Hindus. It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these people? They dont have any religion? she said while speaking at the inauguration of two newly built highways that was broadcast live by state television. People must resist these terrorists. My government is determined to root out terrorism and militancy from BangladeshThere is no place for terrorism or terrorists on Bangladeshs soil. Hasina praised the security forces for saving many lives. Because of the role of the joint forces, the terrorists could not flee, she said. The attack marks a major escalation in a campaign by militants over the past 18 months that had targeted mostly individuals advocating a secular or liberal lifestyle in majority-Muslim Bangladesh. Earlier on Friday, a Hindu priest was hacked to death near a temple in Jhenaidah district, 300 km southwest of Dhaka. Both Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed most of these killings, although local authorities insist no operational links exist between Bangladeshi militants and international jihadi networks. (With inputs from agencies) Read| Bangladesh hostage siege: What we know so far The US state department has said it cannot yet confirm if the Islamic State was involved with the hostage crisis at a restaurant in Dhaka though the group reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack. It is too early for us to say whos involved, motivation -- any of that stuff. Its all still unfolding right now, department of state spokesperson John Kirby told media personnel on Friday. Kirby said more information could be provided as the situation unfolds. We join with the people of Bangladesh in expressing our outrage at this brutal act of terrorism and offer our condolences to the friends and families of the victims, including Bangladeshi officials killed or injured in the attack, he said. The US embassy in Dhaka has accounted for 100% of American citizens working under the chief of missions authority. Read | Bangladesh hostage siege: What we know so far Islamic State posted photos on Saturday it claimed to be of foreigners killed in an attack on a cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where gunmen were holding hostages as police laid siege to the building, the groups news agency Amaq said. Hours into the standoff, in which Bangladeshi officials said two police officers were killed, the Islamic State issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack. Islamic State commandos attack a restaurant frequented by foreigners in the city of Dhaka in Bangladesh, reported Amaq, an information outlet linked to the Islamic State. The group claims to still be holding a number of hostages inside the cafe. Read | Bangladesh police plan to move soon to end hostage crisis at Dhaka restaurant Eight to 10 armed men entered the restaurant, where 20 foreigners were dining, around 8:45 p.m., according to Sumon Reza, a kitchen worker who escaped and spoke to reporters. The attackers shouted God is great before opening fire and detonating several explosives, Reza said. He said the attackers were armed with pistols, swords and bombs. Amaq later reported, More than 20 individuals of varying nationalities killed after a commando attack on the Artisan restaurant. There was no way to confirm that claim. Fridays attack was the latest in a series of killings by Islamist extremists that have rocked Bangladesh in recent months. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for 18 other attacks in the last year, most perpetrated against religious minorities, including Hindus, Buddhists and Christians. The increase in violence has raised fears that the once-moderate country is in the grip of a wave of fanaticism that the government refuses to acknowledge. Despite months of attacks and subsequent claims of responsibility by the Islamic State and al-Qaida, the government which recently concluded a crackdown on extremists in which 10,000 people were arrested maintains that neither terror group has a presence in the country. Read | IS claims Dhaka restaurant attack, Indians among hostages The continuous denial of the presence of local militant group connections with international terror groups has not been helpful, said Ali Riaz, a professor of politics and government at Illinois State University. What were witnessing cant be small groups coming together. It is clearly a very coordinated attack. If this doesnt convince them to come out of denial, then I dont know what will. As gunfire and explosions rang out across the upscale Gulshan neighborhood Friday, witnesses took to Twitter and posted images of armed paramilitary officers surrounding the restaurant, the Holey Artisan Bakery, which is popular with expatriates, diplomats and middle-class families. Other than the two officers killed in the standoff, 30 were wounded, mostly from shrapnel, officials said. Television stations broadcast video of bloodied officers being carried on stretchers from the scene until officials asked the networks to stop. Several foreigners worked at the restaurant, including an Italian who escaped and an Argentine, whose whereabouts is unknown, local news media reported. Reza, the kitchen worker, said he and another employee were able to escape by jumping from the buildings second floor. They blasted several crude bombs, causing wide-scale panic among everyone, Reza told a Bangladeshi newspaper, The Daily Star. I managed to flee during this confusion. The total number of hostages, including restaurant employees, was not known. Neither were the identities of the attackers. We are requesting the ones who are inside the restaurant to talk to us, relay us your demands, said Benazir Ahmed, the director general of the Rapid Action Battalion, the countrys counterterrorism force, according to The Dhaka Tribune. Five hours into the standoff, however, the police had not made contact with the attackers, according to the newspaper. Instead, a cordon was placed around the restaurant. Family members gathered at the scene, desperate for information. Fazley Rahim Khan, a businessman, waited on the edge of the police line, barely able to see the restaurant. He said he believed his son Tahmid Hasib Khan, 22, was being held hostage. Khan said his son, a student in Canada, had just returned home Friday for Ramadan. The family celebrated the iftar, the evening meal breaking the Ramadan fast, and then the son headed to the restaurant. Im just praying to get back my son, he said. The State Department alerted Americans in the area to the reports of the attack and advised them to shelter in place and monitor news. The situations ongoing, obviously too early for us to say whos involved, motivation, any of that stuff, said John Kirby, the State Department spokesman. Its all still unfolding right now. Kirby said all Americans working for the U.S. mission in Dhaka were safe and accounted for, but officials were still trying to locate Bangladeshi employees. Libya's UN-backed unity government said on Friday that four of its ministers had been sacked just three months after it set up office in the capital Tripoli. Their departure is a new setback in efforts to unify the North African country which has a rival administration in the east. "The dismissed ministers were absent from their work and refused to take up their duties in the Government of National Unity... for over 30 days," the GNA said in a statement on its website. The justice, economy and industry, finance, and national reconciliation ministers -- all easterners -- were dismissed from their posts on Thursday, it added. That is three months to the day since Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, a businessman from Tripoli, sailed into the capital under naval escort. The GNA, the result of UN-backed power-sharing agreement in December, took control of several ministries in April. But it has yet to receive a vote of confidence from the country's elected parliament in the eastern city of Tobruk that would give it authority over the whole country. In March, just over half the parliament's members signed a statement of support for the GNA, but a formal vote of confidence has been repeatedly delayed. Sarraj named a cabinet of 18 ministers in February. He gave several important portfolios to easterners -- including Colonel Al-Mahdi al-Barghathi, a popular military figure who is defence minister. The GNA faces a fearsome set of military, economic and political challenges in a country that has faced chaos since the overthrow of veteran dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. GNA-allied forces have been fighting the Islamic State group in its stronghold of Sirte for the past seven weeks. Libya's oil-dependent economy has also been hit hard by the sharp fall in world prices. Search Keywords: Short link: Nine Italians were killed and a 10th was listed as missing after militants attacked a restaurant in the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka and took hostages, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Saturday. The nine fatalities comprised four men and five women, Gentiloni told the press, adding that relatives had been notified. A tenth Italian was in the restaurant when the attack unfolded but was not among the 20 listed as dead, he said. There were around 20-22 guests, including foreigners, at the popular Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in Gulshan area when a group of gunmen shouting Allahu Akbar raided the cafe around 9 pm on Friday. Police moved in soon. But they pulled back after two officers - assistant commissioner Rabiul Islam of the Detective Branch, and Banani police station in-charge Salahuddin -- were killed in the first exchange of fire. Law enforcement agencies then sealed off the area. After waiting through the night, following directives from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, armed forces joined the Rapid Action Battalion and police in the morning to launch the assault, codenamed Operation Thunderbolt, along with the other security agencies. Read: Dhaka restaurant siege: 20 hostages, two policemen killed in IS attack Around 7.40am, security forces stormed the cafe in the Gulshan diplomatic zone and several hostages were freed minutes after the offensive began, a witness told bdnews24.com. Heavy firing and explosions continued for at least an hour after the operation had begun to free the hostages. A witness who saw the assault from an adjacent building said armymen in two armoured personnel carriers (APCs) tore down the wall of the cafe and the commandos entered the cafe through the breach. More than 1,000 rounds were fired and nearly 1,000 explosions were reported in the 30 minutes of the raid. A resident at a building, just 50 yards from the scene, reported spotting snipers on the roof of another building, firing from their guns. At a media call later in the afternoon, Bangladesh Armys Brig Gen Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said that Operation Thunderbolt ended around 8.30am. Bangladeshi policemen patrol around the site of an attack in Dhaka. (AP) Read: Dhaka attackers spared hostages who could recite Quran verses: Survivor He said they had found 20 bodies of foreign nationals, but did not disclose their identities. He said all of them were killed late Friday night with sharp weapons. Brigadier Chowdhury, director of military operations in the Bangladesh Army, said that 13 people, including a Japanese and two Sri Lankans, were rescued from the restaurant. The commandos took less than 15 minutes to complete the operation. Within 12 to 13 minutes our men were able to take out the terrorists and took total control, he said. Chowdhury said that there were seven attackers, one of whom was captured alive, and the rest killed during the assault. Fire-fighters also rushed to the spot with extinguishers and hosepipes, though no fire could be spotted. A medical team was also seen rushing to the scene with stretchers. After a while, a loud bang rocked the area, but the security personnel in the cafe were indifferent to it, suggesting these were controlled explosions of the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) recovered from the scene. Around the same time, members of different forces who had taken position in various buildings in the area before and during the raid came out and were seen embracing each other. Blood was seen in front of the gate of the cafes main building when security officials were leaving it. A police official was shot at that spot Friday night. Bangladeshi security officers cordon off an area after heavily armed militants attacked a restaurant in Bangladesh's diplomatic zone on Friday night. (AP) Read: Indian national Tarishi Jain killed in Dhaka restaurant attack: Sushma Around 9.40am, another loud bang was heard as the bomb disposal unit continued to explode the seized bombs in a controlled environment. After the operation ended, several youths, who appeared to be handcuffed, were seen lying in the garage of a high-rise building beside the cafe. But they could not be identified. Since 8.15am, hostages, including women and children, were seen rushing out of the eatery one after another. They were taken to hospitals in ambulances. After the operation, IGP AKM Shahidul Hoque said that 18 people were rescued. But he left without answering how many died. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who called the incident a militant attack, said later in the morning that 13 hostages were saved. She added that one of the seven gunmen was captured alive and the rest were killed during the operation. Read: Islamic States Bangladesh chief believed to be from Canada At least three Bangladeshi nationals were reportedly among the 20 hostages killed by terrorists who attacked a cafe popular with foreign nationals. Transcom boss Latifur Rahmans daughter Simeen Hossains youngest son, Faraaz Hossain was killed in the attack, bdnews24.com reported. Another victim Ishrat Akhond, a former head of a Dhaka art gallery, who worked in different companies as a marketing professional was also killed in the attack. The third victim has been identified as Abinta Kabir, 20, whose father is the son of Manzur and Nilu Murshed of Lavender, a super store in Gulshan. Faraaz had driven to the Holey Artisan Bakery located inside Dhakas diplomatic zone on Friday evening before seven heavily armed attackers stormed it taking the diners hostage. He was the youngest among two brothers, he was a lively youth. He was working as an intern at Transcom group, Syed Md Tahnun Ishtiaque Riyadh, a marketing official for the conglomerate said. Akhond, Human Resources Director at ZXY International FZCO, was also arts provocateur at the Institute of Asian Creatives. She was formerly a marketing director at Westin Hotels and a manager at Grameenphone. Islamic State (IS) militants also killed an Indian with sharp weapons before security forces rescued 13 hostages and gunned down six terrorists on Saturday morning, ending an overnight siege. A coalition air strike near the Islamic State (IS) bastion of Mosul in Iraq has killed two of the jihadist groups senior military leaders, the Pentagon said Friday. Coalition forces conducted an air strike against two IS senior military commanders on June 25 near Mosul, Iraq, resulting in their deaths, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. The precision strike killed Basim Muhammad Ahmad Sultan al-Bajari, ISs deputy minister of war, and Hatim Talib al-Hamduni, an IS military commander in Mosul. Cook said al-Bajari was a former al Qaeda member who joined the IS group and oversaw the June 2014 offensive to capture Mosul. He also led the IS Jaysh al-Dabiq battalion known for using vehicle-borne IEDs (homemade bombs), suicide bombers and mustard gas in its attacks. Al-Hamduni was a military commander in Mosul and the head of military police in the region, Cook said. Mosul is Iraqs second-largest city and became the IS groups de facto Iraq capital. Iraqi security forces have in recent weeks made significant progress against the IS group, including the recapture of the city of Fallujah this month. Attention is now shifting to Mosul, where a battle to liberate the city is expected to unfold in the coming months. Removing these terrorist leaders from the battlefield shapes the environment for Iraqi forces to ultimately liberate Mosul with support from the international coalition, Cook said. The UKs healthcare regulator has decided to suspended marketing approval for a widely used antibiotic that had won clearance based on clinical trials conducted by Indias Quest Life Sciences, due to concerns over the integrity of trial data. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) might also deny other pending drug approval requests that rely on studies conducted by Quest, the UK agency said in a letter dated June 22, a copy of which was seen by Reuters. The MHRAs decision bars the sale of a generic version of erythromycin that is being sold in the UK by Dawa Ltd, a Kenyan drugmaker, an MHRA spokesman said. The MHRA said it is in contact with the involved parties, who have the right to appeal and submit new data to prove that the drugs in question meet the required standards. The agency added that it does not believe there to be any risk to public health and that its decision to suspend marketing approval is purely a precautionary measure. Quests President Yati Chugh told Reuters the company plans to appeal the suspension as he believes the agency relied on a two-year-old study and the following inspection report to reach its decision, and that it did not review the companys latest quality management systems. He said Quest had significantly improved its quality systems since 2014, and would ask the MHRA to re-inspect its site, as MHRAs move means four other drugs Quest performed trials on that are awaiting approval with the UK regulator will not be approved until the agency clears its facility. These drugs include the antibiotics doxycycline and cephalexin, and the diabetes drug metformin, on which Quest had conducted trials on behalf of UK drugmaker Strandhaven and Indias Kopran, said Chugh. Strandhaven, Kopran and Dawa did not respond to requests for comment on the matter. The MHRAs move is the latest blow to Indias drug industry, whose reputation has been tainted in recent years as foreign regulators have criticised manufacturing standards and questioned the reliability of clinical data produced by some of the sectors biggest names. Chennai-based Quest is a contract research firm that conducts clinical trials on generic drugs on behalf of local, as well as multinational drugmakers. Drugmakers in turn use clinical data produced by companies like Quest to seek approval to sell their drugs in various countries. Data from Quest has been used to support drug approvals in the United States, Europe, Australia and elsewhere, according to its website. The MHRA said that during an inspection of Quests facility in February, it found several issues with data integrity in a clinical trial Quest had conducted, including discrepancies in Quests patient records and instances where electrocardiogram (ECG) data of patients had been deleted or manipulated. The World Health Organisation told Quest in July last year about similar ECG data manipulation issues in another drug study. The MHRA said it believed its findings meant that the safety or wellbeing of patients had been jeopardised in the trial. The MHRA inspectors identified a large number of issues which indicated that there were very serious concerns with many aspects of the companys quality system, the MHRA spokesman said, adding the problems cast serious doubt on the integrity of any data produced. Similar issues around data at Quests larger rival GVK Biosciences led to a recall of about 700 drugs across Europe last year. An American citizen was among those killed in a deadly attack on a restaurant packed with foreigners in Bangladesh, US officials said Saturday, pledging support to the government in Dhaka. The White House and the State Department announced the death, but did not identify the US national. We can confirm that a US citizen was also among those senselessly murdered in this attack, State Department spokesperson John Kirby said. Today, as always, we stand with the people of Bangladesh and in our shared efforts to combat terrorism and violent extremism. Heavily armed militants murdered 20 hostages in Bangladesh, hacking many of their victims to death, before six of the attackers were gunned down at the end of a siege Saturday. Most of the dead were from Italy and Japan. We remain in contact with Bangladeshi authorities and have offered any assistance necessary, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. Emory University, located in the southern US state of Georgia, confirmed that two students had been killed in the carnage. Abinta Kabir, from Miami in the state of Florida, was in Bangladesh to visit family and friends, university president James Wagner said in statement. Kabir was due to begin her second year of study in the autumn. Faraaz Hossain, from Dhaka, was a student at Emorys business school. The Emory community mourns this tragic and senseless loss of two members of our university family, Wagner said. Our thoughts and prayers go out on behalf of Faraaz and Abinta and their families and friends for strength and peace at this unspeakably sad time. Also killed was 19-year-old Tarishi Jain, an Indian national who was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed. Swaraj said she had spoken to the girls grief-stricken father and conveyed her condolences. The country is with them in this hour of grief, she tweeted. Jain was a graduate of the American International School of Dhaka. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack on a Western-style cafe in the capitals diplomatic quarter. Survivors said the hostage-takers separated locals from the foreigners before embarking on a killing spree that was brought to an end 11 hours later in a fierce gun battle. The US on Friday released figures for the first time that showed that between 64 and 116 civilians were killed in drone strikes outside areas of active hostilities on President Barack Obamas watch. These casualties, the US count of which is significantly lower than that estimated by non-governmental bodies, occurred outside Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, the so-called areas of active hostilities. The release by the Director General of Intelligence (DNI), which oversees the US intelligence community, did not, however, give a location-specific breakdown of these numbers. But Pakistan is likely one of them, especially its northwestern parts where the US has used drones to kill terrorists such as Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour last May. The US has also used drones extensively against al-Shabaab terrorists in Somalia, killing 150 of them in strikes last March, according to an announcement made by the Pentagon then. The DNI said between 2,372 and 2,581 combatants, intended targets, were killed in a total of 473 drone strikes outside areas of active hostilities from January 2009 to December 2015. Figures cited by non-governmental bodies are significantly higher at least 325 by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 219 by New America Foundation and 212 by Long War Journal. Acknowledging these differences between its figures and those of non-governmental bodies, the DNI said the first official count is based on post-strike methodologies that have been refined and honed over the years and that use information that is generally unavailable to non-governmental organisations. And, it added, non-governmental bodies sometimes count combatants as non-combatants because they do not have the kind of follow-up information available to officials. Second, US government post-strike reviews based on multi-source intelligence from before, during and after the strike are unique and not available to non-governmental bodies. Third, finally, non-government counts may have been compromised by deliberate spread of misinformation by some actors, including terrorist organizations, in local media reports. An executive order issued by President Obama along with DNI release makes if incumbent upon the president, those who follow him, to publish these figures every year. And it also enjoins upon the government to offer condolences, including ex gratia payments to civilians killed in such strikes, and coordinate casualty figures with non-government bodies. This is a very deliberate attempt to ensure that the architecture . . . is durable, sustainable and lasting well beyond next seven months, a senior official said, according to Washington Post. President Obama has aggressively pursued the use of drones to hunt terrorists as an alternative to sending in forces, which he has also done as the raid to kill Osama bin Laden. All armed conflict invites tragedy, Obama said in a speech in 2013, explaining his reasons for using drones. But by narrowly targeting our action against those who want to kill us and not the people they hide among, we are choosing the course of action least likely to result in the loss of innocent life. But he has also tried to bring a certain transparency to the process, laying out in the same 2013 speech the standards and procedures followed in carrying out such strikes outside areas of active hostilities. Friday announcements were a step in that direction, the White House said in a statement to provide greater transparency and accountability regarding these operations. Imprisoned soldier Chelsea Manning, the US militarys best-known openly transgender person, said Friday the Pentagons new trans inclusion policy is overly bureaucratic and puts too much power in administrators hands. Writing in an opinion piece in Britains Guardian newspaper, convicted secrets leaker Mannings comments came the day after Pentagon chief Ashton Carter lifted the ban on transgender personnel from openly serving. The new policy will be phased in during a one-year period, but the military can no longer discharge or deny re-enlistment to troops based solely on their gender identity, effective immediately. But new recruits entering the military must be deemed by a doctor to be stable in their preferred gender for 18 months before they can join. I worry that this type of requirement will further entrench the gender binary and further legitimize the control that administrators and medical providers have over our bodies and our identities, Manning wrote. With this policy, the military is essentially saying, You can exist, but only on our terms. What they are doing is taking away the control of our identity. Originally called Bradley, Manning was convicted in August 2013 of espionage and other offenses after admitting to handing classified documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. After sentencing, Manning announced she identified as female and later obtained legal authorization to change names and receive hormone therapy. But she is still in a mens military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she is appealing a 35-year sentence. Manning also raised the question of whether she would qualify for gender-reassignment surgery under the new rules. The Pentagon will now cover medical expenses related to being transgender, including gender reassignment surgeries when these are deemed medically necessary. What does it mean that the military will recognize our gender, unless and until we are arrested, and then what? This core identity is then stripped away and our birth assigned sex is imposed on us? she wrote. A Pentagon spokesman was unable to immediately clarify whether the new transgender rules would apply to military prisoners. Manning has a team of supporters who publish her views via Twitter and elsewhere. Dawn was just starting to break over the Union army camp in southwestern Tennessee on Sunday morning, April 6, 1862. It was an unusually peaceful morning for the young men in Federal blue. Their Army of the Tennessee had recently emerged victorious in engagements with Rebel forces at Forts Donelson and Henry. More than 15,000 Confederates had been taken prisoner in those two actions. All organized Rebel resistance in the area appeared to be shattered; the nearest Confederate force of any size was at Corinth, Mississippi, 20 miles away. So confident were the armys leaders of their safety that no defensive works had been constructed around the Union camp, and their commander, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, was 20 miles away at a meeting with Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, head of the Army of the Ohio. Grant had not even bothered to leave an officer in temporary command during his absence. The Army of the Tennessee awoke that sleepy Sunday morning near the old Shiloh Meeting House, some three miles west of Pittsburg Landing, secure in the knowledge that all the fighting was over for the immediate future. They were wrong. Less than two miles to their south were 40,000 Confederates, organized into four corps of the Army of the Mississippi, under the command of General Albert Sidney Johnston, one of the most respected military minds on either side of the Mason-Dixon Line. Johnston, dispatched to the Western theater of the war by an increasingly alarmed Confederate high command, was faced with both a seriously deteriorating situation, on one hand, and a golden opportunity, on the other. Johnstons situation that April was serious, if not desperate. At the beginning of 1862, the Confederate defense in the West was anchored on the Mississippi River, with a fortress at Columbus, Ky. The center was held by Forts Henry and Donelson on the Cumberland River near the Kentucky-Tennessee border; the right flank was anchored near Bowling Green in central Kentucky. The year opened with a blow on the eastern flank, when Union Brig. Gen. George Thomas shattered a Rebel force under Maj. Gen. George Crittenden at Mill Springs, Ky. Thomas victory was followed shortly by Grants astonishing successes at Forts Henry and Donelson. The Rebel hold on Tennessees state capital at Nashville was effectively broken. With his right flank shattered and his center pierced, Johnston had no choice but to evacuate the heavy fortifications at Columbus and fall back deeper south. At the beginning of April, Grant was following close behind at Pittsburg Landing, with Buell following the eastern bank of the Tennessee and a joint army-navy task force closing in on Memphis. Despite the favorable strategic situation, the Union forces had some serious tactical disadvantages. They lacked a unified command structure, with their forces scattered throughout three separate commandsBuells 25,000-man Army of the Ohio, Grants 42,000-man Army of the Tennessee and Maj. Gen. John Popes joint riverene force moving south along the Mississippi. The three forces were in no position, therefore, to immediately support one another. By evacuating the Columbus forts and the Nashville garrison, as well as stripping seaport garrisons on the eastern seaboard, Johnston succeeded in putting together a force of 40,000 men at Corinth. His nearest foe, the Army of the Tennessee, was a scant 20 miles north, with only 37,000 men (another 5,000 had been left behind at Culps Landing). The Yankees, overconfident and undertrained, were blissfully unaware of the danger they were in. Johnston knew that if he struck quickly, he could engage Grants force with numerical superiority before Buells troops could move to reinforce. Coupled with the elements of luck and surprise, it would be a strong hand to play. If the Union army could be destroyed or routed, its up-to-now highly successful offensive in the West would be stopped cold. Confederate recapture of middle and eastern Tennessee would be a virtual certainty, and an invasion of the North would also be in the cards. Johnston took the gamble; he quickly moved his force toward Shiloh. The Union soldiers waking that morning didnt know it, but within the next 72 hours they would fight what was at that time the largest land battle on the North American continent, involving nearly 100,000 infantrymen from three armies and various naval units. This day would prove to be the costliest day of the entire war in proportion of casualties to numbers of men involvedmore than 23,000 would fall before the last shot was fired on Monday evening. The casualty rate of 24 percent would be exactly the same as suffered by the combatants at Waterloo. Although there had been spirited action between pickets and cavalry for the past several days, no high- ranking Union officer believed there was serious Confederate opposition any closer than Corinth. In fact, Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, commanding the armys 5th Division, notified Grant by dispatch that very morning that he believed the Rebel force consisted of only two regiments of infantry, a battery of artillery and some cavalry. Two officers disagreed with Shermans assessment. One was the commander of the 53rd Ohio Regiment. A badly frightened and seemingly paranoid man, Colonel Jesse J. Appler had sounded so many false alarms during the advance that the regiment was given the derisive nickname, the Long Roll Regiment, by other troops. Sherman was so annoyed by Applers panicking that he sent over a staff officer with the caustic comment, General Sherman says: Take your damned regiment back to Ohio. The other doubter was an insomniac brigade commander in Brig. Gen. Benjamin Prentiss 6th Division. Colonel Everett Peabody, a former railroad engineer and a-by-the-book sort of officer, had complained already about the kind of loose camp life of the army. He had suggested to Prentiss that the division be placed on combat alert, but his cautious suggestion was hooted down by the general and his aides. Still, there were signs of an impending Confederate attack. Several black camp followers had reported seeing Rebel cavalry on the afternoon of April 5, and Prentiss own pickets had reported seeing about a dozen butternuts skulking through the underbrush near their camp. More ominously, captured Rebel skirmishers had taunted, If you aint mighty careful, theyll run you into hell or the river before tomorrow night. Captain Gilbert D. Johnson of the 12th Michigan Infantry, on picket duty, reported that night that he could see long lines of campfires and hear bugles and drums in the distance. He and another officer went to Prentiss with the disturbing news, but Prentiss brusquely told them that everything would be all right. When Peabody heard the same report, however, he sent out five companies of the 25th Missouri and 12th Michigan, saying he did not intend to be taken by surprise. The Union skirmishers moved toward an open cotton field as the first streaks of dawn showed on the horizon. Shortly before 5 a.m., shots rang out and a second lieutenant from the Missouri regiment fellShilohs first casualty. By no means would he be the last. The unlucky patrol had run headlong into the 9,000-man assault corps of Confederate Maj. Gen. William Hardee. For over an hour, the Federal force refused to give ground, even as more and more enemy attackers continued to approach. The sudden increase in the volume of firing at length was noted at 6th Division headquarters, and reinforcements from the 16th Wisconsin and 21st Missouri regiments were dispatched to the patrols aid. Soon, all four regiments were thrown back in great disorder, stumbling back toward Prentiss position, as well as Shermans. (Ironically, the men retreated directly into the camp of the 53rd Ohio, whose panicky colonel had so irritated Sherman the day before.) The eleventh-hour warning, brief though it was, gave other Union forces just enough time to prevent them from being surprised in their bunksall because a brigade commander had been unable to sleep. That alert officer, Colonel Peabody, hearing the firing, had ordered his men to arms. As they were preparing to advance,an angry Prentiss rode up and accused Peabody of bringing on the battle by sending out the ill-fated patrol. Colonel Peabody, he shouted, I will hold you personally responsible for bringing on this engagement! Peabody curtly noted that he was personally responsible for all his actions. Hurrying south of camp, he deployed his brigade along a ridgeline and tried to staunch the armys wound. But exultant Confederates continued pouring through the woods, shouting their high-pitched Rebel yell. Peabody, already bleeding from four wounds, tried one last time to rally his men. Then, as he was shouting an order, a fifth enemy bullet struck him in the face, killing him instantly. With macabre foresight, Peabody had predicted his death earlier that morning, shaking hands with his staff and bidding them farewell. Sherman, racing toward the 53rd Ohios camp, caught a flash of movement in the woods to his right, 50 yards away. Raising his spyglass to scan the movement, he whirled around as an Ohio officer called, General, look to your right! Just then an entire Confederate brigade burst from cover, heading straight at the general and his party. My God, blurted Sherman, we are attacked! A volley of bullets zinged through the air, striking an orderly at Shermans side. At the same time, a load of buckshot struck the general in the hand. Dropping his telescope, Sherman dashed toward the rear, calling back to the Ohioans to hold their position while he brought up more troops. Luckily for the Federals, they were in a position where they could only be directly assaulted from the south. The Tennessee River was on their east, Snake Creek bordered the north and Owl Creek guarded the west. Along the exposed southern front, Shermans badly rattled 5th Division held the forward position, along with Maj. Gen. John McClernands 1st Division and Prentiss 6th Division. They were supported by the divisions of Maj. Gen. W.H.L. Wallace and Brig. Gen. Stephen Hurlbut. Several miles north of the immediate fighting was Maj. Gen. Lew Wallaces 3rd Division, at Crumps Landing. Facing the Union divisions was a Confederate force of four corps, arrayed in three distinct battle lines. The first rank consisted of Hardees 9,000 men. Immediately behind him was Maj. Gen. Braxton Bragg, with 11,000 troops. The third rank consisted of two corps, commanded by Maj. Gens. Leonidas Polk and John Breckinridge. Additionally, the Confederates boasted 4,300 cavalry and more than 60 artillery pieces. This force fell full-bore on the Union position about an hour after the first contact between Prentiss patrol and Hardees advance guard. Johnston hoped initially to sweep up the Union left flank along the Tennessee River and take Pittsburg Landing, thus preventing a linkup with the Army of the Ohio. To perform this maneuver, he had to brush aside the initial Federal resistance and then move a large portion of his force to the river and up toward the landing. In the heat of battle, the experienced Johnston made three serious errors. First, he chose a poor attacking formation. With his corps lined up, one behind the other, he lacked the ability to move in an orderly fashion, and the units soon became intermingled once they had made contact with the enemy. Second, Johnston badly misjudged the road coming up from Corinth; his estimation of the rugged terrain was not much better. The rough countryside and lack of good roads prevented the easy maneuvering of sizable forces toward the river, even if the enemy would allow such a movement. Third, Johnston underestimated the spirited resistance of the Union forces, many of whom were green as grass when the battle opened. Grant, who was nine miles downriver at Savannah awaiting a meeting with Buell, was just sitting down to breakfast when he heard the gunfire coming from Shiloh. He immediately knew that the army was under heavy, if unexpected, attack. He ordered the advance guard of Buells force, Brig. Gen. William Bull Nelsons division, to proceed to Pittsburg Landing and be ferried across to reinforce the Army of the Tennessee. Grant then boarded his dispatch boat, the Tigress, and proceeded upriver to rejoin his forces. Along the way, Grant passed Lew Wallace at Crumps Landing and ordered him to put his 3rd Division on alert to join the main body, seven miles south. Wallace assured Grant that he had already done so. Then, shortly after 9 a.m., four hours after the initial contact had been made and three hours after the battle had begun in earnest, the Union armys commanding general finally arrived on the battlefield. Confederate forces crashed into Shermans and Prentiss divisions. Amid furious fighting, the two Union forces were driven from their encampments with heavy casualties. Many of the soldiers, particularly in Shermans division, broke and ran. Meanwhile, McClernand, seeing a hole open up between Sherman and Prentiss, rushed his 1st Division into the gap. In the rear, W.H.L. Wallace and Hurlbut funneled their forces to the right and left of Prentiss. Grant reached the battlefield about 10 a.m. and held a hurried conference with Sherman, who told him that the battle was going well but that he was worried about running out of ammunition. Grant, wearing his full major generals uniform, complete with formal sword and sash, assured the rumpled Sherman that he had arranged for more ammunition to be brought to the front. Galloping through the woods toward Prentiss position on a sunken wagon road in the center of the line, Grant was nearly killed when a Mississippi battery fired a charge at his group, a piece of shell striking his sword just below the hilt and breaking his scabbard and blade in two. After this, Grant never bothered to carry a sword in battle. Grant told Prentiss to hold his position at all hazardsso long as Union forces held the sunken road, the enemy would not be able to advance to the river and fall on the armys relatively undefended left flank. Prentiss replied that he would try. Grant returned to the landing and sent orders to W.H.L. Wallace and Hurlbut to hurry their divisions to the front. He then sent staff officers in search of Lew Wallaces 3rd Division and Bull Nelsons Ohio troops. While Sherman and McClernand fell back along the left flank, W.H.L. Wallace, Prentiss and Hurlbut held the center. Gunfire was so intense along the sunken road that it was dubbed the Hornets Ness. Again and again, the Confederates charged the formidable Union position, yelling like maddened demons in the words of one Iowa opponent. Major General Braxton Bragg, directing the Southern assault, stubbornly and futilely kept up the doomed frontal assaults, even as they were blown back like scythed wheat by the storm of Union fire. The flag must not go back again Bragg commanded, sending his troops forward againbut never in sufficient numbers to carry the fortified Union line. Meanwhile, off to Prentiss left, Hurlbuts troops took shelter in a 10-acre peach orchard incongruously in full bloom during the terrible battle. Albert Sidney Johnston, seeing his advance floundering along this front, rode into the fray aboard his favorite charger, Fire-eater. Passing along the Confederate battle line, he clinked the mens upraised bayonets with a little tin cup he had picked up earlier that morning. I will lead you he assured the men. The ensuing charge was successful, driving an entire Union brigade from the orchard, but success came at a high cost. Johnston, dashing conspicuously through heavy gunfire, had been struck behind the right knee by a Federal minie bullet. In the excitement of battle, the experienced soldier neglected the wound, calling out at one point, They didnt trip me up that time! But as the charge wound down, Johnston suddenly reeled in his saddle and fell into the arms of Tennessee Governor Isham Harris, who was serving as a volunteer aide during the battle. Frantic efforts were made to save Johnstons life, but they were unavailing. Johnston, do you know me? Johnston, do you know me? Harris repeatedly asked. At about 2:30 p.m., the highest-ranking field general in the Confederacy died, having neglected a wound that almost certainly would not have been fatal with the proper attention. Ironically, Johnston had dispatched his own staff physician a few minutes earlier to look after the Federal wounded. And a field tourniquet that might have staunched the deadly flow of blood was found later in Johnstons pocket. Command of the Southern forces now fell to General P.G.T. Beauregard, who also realized that the Hornets Nest must be taken. He called a brief respite to organize his reserves and allow Brig. Gen. Daniel Ruggles to assemble a force of 6 2 cannonsthe largest concentration of artillery then seen on the continent. This artillery opened a hurricane-like fire on the Union positions at a deadly range of 300 yards. Hurlbuts 4th Division fell back under the onslaught. W.H.L. Wallace tried desperately to lead his 2nd Division away from the deadly fire, but fell mortally wounded with a bullet to the head. With its command structure shattered, the 2nd Division simply fell apart, ceasing to exist as an organized fighting force. This disintegration on his flank left Prentiss alone and sure rounded. Remembering Grants order to hold at all hazards, Prentiss fought on alone for two hours in the face of Ruggles cannons and the massed might of the Confederate army. But at 5:30, realizing further resistance was hopeless, he surrendered what was left of his command. Some 2,200 members of the 6th Division, considerably less than half the divisions original strength, went into Rebel captivity. A lull now fell across the battlefield. It took time to round up all the Federal prisoners, and jubilant Confederates stopped to gawk at the enemy. Many had never seen a Union soldier much less a generalbeing marched off in captivity. Some grabbed regimental flags from the 12th and 14th Iowa regiments and dragged them back and forth in the mud, while officers tried frantically to restore some sort of order. Confederate units had become hopelessly mixed during the fighting at Hornets Nest, and Beauregard was able to rally only portions of two brigades for a final assault on the Federal left at Dill Branch ravine, a quarter-mile from the river. There, the Southerners ran into solid opposition from Hurlbuts troops and the advance guard of Buells Army of the Ohio, led by physically imposing Bull Nelson. The Federals were supported by heavy artillery from the gunboats Tyler and Lexington, which hurled 20-pound shells into the Rebel ranks. The shells did little actual damage, but the horrible shrieking noise demoralized many of the now exhausted Confederates. Beauregard called a halt for the night. After the war, Beauregard was criticized by some Confederates, including the incorrigible Bragg, for missing a golden opportunity to win the battle outright. But Bragg and his supporters failed to point out that their own daylong failure to carry or flank the Union position at Hornets Nest had effectively doomed the Southern offensive. When Beauregard halted, his soldiers had been in battle for 12 straight hours, his units were disorganized and fresh supplies of food and ammunition had not yet arrived from the rear. At any rate, Beauregard believed he would finish off the Federals the next morning. Grant, however, was through retreating. He had lost two full divisions, and the remaining three were down to halfstrength, at best. But 20,000 fresh troops from Buells command were in the process of crossing the Tennessee River on his left flank, and Lew Wallaces 5,000-man 3rd Division, which had mysteriously failed to arrive on the battlefield during the long days fighting, at last arrived from Crumps Landing, five hours behind schedule. With the added support of Union gunboats at their backs, the Union forces were now in a formidable defensive position. When Sherman arrived at Grants headquarters later that evening, he found the generalbroken sword and all chewing on a soggy cigar in the rain, which had begun soaking the battlefield. Well, Grant Sherman said to his friend, weve had the devils own day, havent we? Yes, replied Grant, lick em tomorrow, though. The Confederates, by comparison, were considerably weaker than they had been at the start of the battle. Beauregard still believed he could re-engage the next morning. A dispatch from Colonel Benjamin Hardin Helm led him to believe that Buell was en route to Decatur, Ala., away from Grants army. The report was entirely inaccurate, but Beauregard believed it. One Confederate officer knew better. Cavalry Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest had observed Buells men crossing the river by ferry. He frantically tried to warn Beauregard, but was unable to locate the Confederate commander. Night was a time of reorganization and reappraisal. Grant prepared to renew the battle with an attack by seven divisions, four of them fresh and at full strength. The Confederates tried to find rest and food for the coming day, when they believed they would shatter the Union army, once and for all. Thanks to the enemy gunboats, however, they did not have a restful night. The Tyler and Lexington kept up a harrassing bombardment throughout the night, hurtling shells into the rainy darkness at the rate of two every 15 minutes. When dawn broke on April 7, US. Grant was ready. At 7 a.m., he launched his counterattack, with Wallaces fresh 3rd Division on the right, three fresh divisions of the Army of the Ohio on his left, and two battered divisions in the center. The Confederates, although not expecting a Northern counterattack, resisted stubbornly. Sherman, for one, later commented that the fighting was more intense on the second day than it had been on the first. But gradually the outnumbered Confederates gave ground. By 2 p.m., Beauregard realized he was beaten and gave orders for a fighting withdrawal to Corinth. By 4 p.m., the withdrawal was complete. The Union forces were reluctant to give pursuit, partly because they were as battered and exhausted as the Confederates and partly because Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck, Grants superior, had forbidden spirited pursuit. Despite this, Sherman collected a number of troops the next day and moved down the road toward Corinth. At an abandoned lumber camp called Fallen Timbers, he ran into a rear guard conducted by the brilliant Forrest and broke off contact. The butchers bill was still to be counted. Casualties for the North, including killed, wounded, captured and missing, numbered more than 13,000. For the South, nearly 11,000 men had become casualties, and the much- respected Johnston had been killed. To put the battle into perspective, more men fell in the battle than had fallen in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War combined. The ferocity of the battle stunned both regions. Despite fewer casualties, the South had lost the battle. The Confederates had failed to destroy the Army of the Tennessee, prevent it from linking up with the Army of the Ohio, or hold the territory they had captured during the first days fighting. The loss at Shiloh put Memphis in an untenable position, opening the Mississippi as far south as Vicksburg. The cutting in two of the South became only a matter of time. As critical as the battle had been for the South, it was even more critical for the North. Had the Union lost, western Tennessee and Kentucky would have been recaptured and the vital Mississippi waterway secured. An invasion of the North through southern Illinois or eastern Missouri would not have been out of the question. More important, a Union defeat at Shiloh would have eliminated two of the Norths three best generalsPhil Sheridan was the third. Even if they had avoided death or capture,-Grant and Sherman would have been disgraced for losing at Shiloh and would have had no further impact on the Northern war effort. Thus, in a must-win battle for both sides, the North had prevailed. Small wonder that the Confederate defeat in the woods surrounding an obscure Methodist meeting house in rural Tennessee caused New Orleans writer George Washington Cable to lament, The South never smiled again after Shiloh. This article was written by Christopher Allen and originally appeared in the January 2000 issue of Americas Civil War magazine. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Americas Civil War magazine today! Joseph Wheeler first gained the notice of his superiors as a Confederate lieutenant colonel at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862. After fighting all day, he led his men, who were out of ammunition, in a bayonet attack against Union artillerymen defending Pittsburg Landing. The next day, when the army was forced to retreat, Wheelers regiment was chosen to serve as rear guard. His grit and determination, which had much to do with the safe escape of the Southern army, earned him a promotion to full colonel. Wheeler was then just 25 years old so young that he called himself the War Child. Born in Augusta, Ga., on September 10, 1836, Joseph Wheeler grew up in the North. He went to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, finishing a low 19th in his class of 1859. His worst grades were in cavalry tactics; nevertheless he was assigned to the Mounted Dragoons and fought Indians on the frontier for almost two years. When the Civil War broke out in April 1861, he joined the Confederacy, and family connections won him an appointment as a lieutenant colonel in the 19th Alabama Infantry. When General Braxton Bragg took over the Army of Tennessee shortly after Shiloh, he remembered the young colonels boldness and skill. In spite of his academy grades, Wheeler got the job as Braggs cavalry commander in July 1862. After Shiloh, the Union army was spread out all over Tennessee, and Bragg saw a chance to strike. With Maj. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith in support, he cut through Tennessee and drove deep into Kentucky. Wheelers cavalry screened and scouted for Bragg, fighting more than two dozen battles. When Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell finally reacted to the threat, Wheelers worn-out horsemen could not find the main body of the Union Army of the Ohio. In a daze, Bragg sent Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polks corps out to fight the entire Union army at Perryville on October 8, 1862. Wheeler, who was with Polk, bluffed one Union corps out of the fight with just 1,400 horsemen. Polk fought the rest of the army to a draw, but the invasion of Kentucky was over. Now the question for the Confederates was how to get out of Federal territory. Neither Bragg nor Smith thought they could make the journey with their wagons or cannons. Wheeler again took rear-guard duty. His men fought all day and worked all night, blocking every road the Union army could use. The retirement went on for a long, tense week, but in the end it paid off. The Confederates got out not only their own equipment but also the 30 guns and 400 wagons they had taken from the enemy. Wheeler received the star of a brigadier general. Major General William Starke Rosecrans took over the Union Army of the Cumberland on October 27, absorbing Buells former command. On the day after Christmas, he moved against the new Southern base at Murfreesboro, Tenn. Bragg sent Wheeler to slow the Union force while he gathered his own men. Then on December 29, he turned Wheeler loose in the Union rear. Wheeler led his men completely around the Union army, making it back before the battle started. On the way, he took nearly 1,000 prisoners, captured or killed hundreds of horses and mules and burned four Union wagon trains. Wheeler and his tired men rested during most of the two-day battle, getting in only a little fighting on the last day. Although the South saw the Battle of Murfreesboro as a victory, Rosecrans still had the strongest army, and he stood fast. For two nights Wheeler prodded the Union rear. Hearing wagons moving, he thought Rosecrans was retreating. He was wrong the wagons were only hauling away the wounded. Finally, it was Bragg who retreated. Two weeks later, Wheeler was back behind the Union army. On January 13, 1863, he hit Harpeth Shoals, northwest of Nashville, turning his cannons against the ships on the Cumberland River and stopping traffic for days. In early February 1863, Wheeler struck Dover, Tenn. Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Wizard of the Saddle, was with him on that sortie. The Confederates outnumbered the Union force, but Forrest argued that Union fortifications would give the Federals an edge. He was right. The Rebels were badly shot up. Forrest himself had two horses killed under him. Never a good loser, he turned on his youthful commander with such fury that aides barely prevented a duel. As it was, Forrest swore he would resign if forced to serve under Wheeler again. Wheeler and his troopers next struck a double blow against the Union railroads, shooting up one train and capturing another. Their haul included 70 Union prisoners, 40 freed Confederates and $30,000 in cash. The total human cost for both attacks was one man wounded. When he was not in the field, Wheeler found time to write a new Confederate cavalry manual. Among the first to recognize that the day of the mounted charge was over, he advised troopers to ride to battle but fight on foot. That was a lesson many officers had still not learned 50 years later. Throughout the long summer of 1863, Bragg pulled back before the weight of the Union army. Wheeler watched one flank, Forrest the other. Unable to keep Union raiders at bay, Wheeler was criticized in the Southern press for the first time. The Confederate retreat stopped at Chickamauga Creek. There, on September 19, Bragg hit Rosecrans with everything he had. Wheelers men drove the Union horsemen from the field, then joined Lt. Gen. James Longstreet as he hammered the Union infantry. By nightfall, a beaten Rosecrans was pulling back to Chattanooga. Ten days after the battle, Wheeler hit the Union army from behind again. Crossing the Tennessee River, he burned two depots and 400 wagons before rain slowed his progress and the Federals caught up with him. He fought a running battle back to the Tennessee River, losing half of his cannons and a quarter of his men. The high cost of the raid made it his last under Bragg. Wheeler wasted a month in Knoxville with Longstreet, then rejoined Bragg in Dalton after Braggs whipping at Chatta-nooga at the hands of the new Union commander in the West, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. During the winter, both armies got new leaders. Bragg was replaced by General Joseph Eggleston Johnston. Grant moved east, and Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman stepped into his old command. On May 7, 1864, Sherman moved forward, starting the Confederates on a two-month-long retreat. Each time they made a stand, the Union troops slipped around a flank and it all started again. Wheeler did some of his best work during that period. Time after time his scouting and screening warned Johnston of Union moves before they could spring the trap on him. In spite of that, Wheeler felt the wrath of the Southern press once more. They did not want retreats, no matter how well handled. They wanted victories. And they wanted Wheeler raiding in the Union armys rear, not reconnoitering. The Confederate government, like the press, wanted more action. As the Union army crossed the Chattahoochee River, word came from Richmond that Johnston was being relieved of his command. John Bell Hood, promoted to the temporary rank of general, took his place. Hoods mandate was to attack. Wheelers cavalry and one corps of infantry guarded the right, while the rest of the army hit the left at Peachtree Creek on July 20. When that produced no gain, Hood tried the other side of the Union line on the 22nd, again without success. In support of the second attack, he sent Wheeler on a raid behind the Union forces. That, too, failed. Going on the offensive, Sherman moved on Ezra Church, west of Atlanta, on July 27. At the same time, he sent two cavalry forces against the railroad at Jonesboro. Brigadier General Edward M. McCook, on the right, had 3,500 men, while Maj. Gen. George Stoneman, on the left, had 6,500. Stoneman also hoped to free Union soldiers in prisoner-of-war camps at Macon and Andersonville. He split his force, leading a third against the prison camps and sending the rest, under Brig. Gen. Kenner Garrard, to meet McCook. Wheeler, with less than 7,000 troopers, was ordered to stop them. Wheeler hit Garrard first at Flat Shoals on July 28, turning him back 15 miles from his starting point. Wheeler then split his force, sending half of it after Stoneman. The rest of the troopers he led against McCook, whom he spotted at Lovejoy Station on July 30. Having already done considerable damage, McCook fled at Wheelers approach. In a running battle, McCook lost about 500 men, his entire pack train and two guns. Stonemans column reached Macon on July 30, but the troopers were held on the outskirts of town by the Georgia Militia. Three of Wheelers brigades, under Brig. Gen. Alfred Iverson, arrived the next day and cut Stoneman off at Sunshine Creek. Like McCook, Stoneman ran for it and like McCook, he did not make it. Stoneman made a stand with one brigade at Hillsboro, hoping to slow the Southern horsemen long enough for his other two brigades to get away. He was overrun, and instead of freeing the Union prisoners, he and 700 of his troopers joined them. One of Stonemans other bri-gades was also caught and destroyed. Hood, full of praise for Wheeler, sent the cavalryman forth again in less than a week. At the same time, he sent Forrest in another direction. Hood was hopeful that this combined movement would compel Sherman to retreat for want of supplies, and thus allow me an opportunity to fall upon his rear with our main body. In five days, Wheelers men ripped up 30 miles of railroad track and burned a bridge on the Etowah River. They ordered Union troops in Dalton to surrender on August 14, but Colonel Bernard Laiboldts men held off two assaults in two days. After that, Wheeler headed northeast, almost to Knoxville, burning a second bridge at Strawberry Plains. Then he crossed the Tennessee River and turned southwest. Wheeler tore up more railroad tracks on the way to Tuscumbia, Ala. On his 28th birthday, he crossed back to the south side of the river, saying later that he averaged 25 miles a day, swam or forded 27 rivers and seized 1,000 horses and mules, 200 wagons, 600 prisoners and 1,700 head of beef cattle. Wheelers cavalry force also captured, killed or wounded three times the greatest effective strength it has ever been able to carry into action. He lost 150 men killed and wounded, along with a number of stragglers who were captured. But all of Wheelers efforts were not enough. Hood now learned the same lesson Sherman had: Cavalry raids alone could not compel an enemy to retreat. Worse, while Wheeler and Forrest were away, Hood was driven out of Atlanta on September 1. When Hood marched north, Wheeler was left behind, becoming the only major force opposing Sherman in his March to the Sea. For the most part, he was not strong enough even to make Sherman pay attention to him. But Fightin Joe Wheelers men continued to fight first under Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton, then under Joe Johnston holding off the Federals as best they could until they heard of Lees surrender on April 9, 1865. Wheeler fled for Texas, hoping to keep up the fight from there. It was not to be. His party was caught just east of Atlanta. Wheeler spent two months in prison. After his parole, he married a woman he had met during the war. They moved to Loui-siana and opened a hardware store. Four years later, he sold the store and bought a farm in Alabama, near his wifes family. He then passed the bar and set up a law practice. In 1880 Wheeler ran for a seat in the House of Representatives and lost, but he won in 1883, serving for the next 16 years. The Army remained his first love, and he kept up with it through an appointment to the House Military Affairs Committee. When war with Spain came in 1898, President William McKinley commissioned a number of ex-Confederates, Wheeler among them. Now a major general of U.S. Volunteers, Wheeler commanded the Cavalry Division in the invasion of Cuba. Malaria compelled Wheeler to relinquish command of the division to brevet Brig. Gen. Samuel S. Sumner before the assaults up San Juan Hill and Kettle Hill on July 1, but Wheeler managed to rise from his sick-bed in time to participate in the battle. At the sight of blue-coated Spaniards retreating, he reportedly yelled: Hurrah! Weve got the damn Yankees on the run! After the war, he lost a bid to regain his old House seat and returned to the Army with a regular commission as a brigadier general. After commanding a brigade in the Philippines between August 1899 and January 1900, followed by a brief command of the Department of the Lakes, he retired on September 10, 1900, and spent his last years traveling around the country. The former scourge of the Yankees died in Brooklyn, N.Y., on January 25, 1906. This article was written by David R. Smith and originally published in the June 1998 issue of Military History. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Military History magazine today! Egyptian investigators will fly from Paris to Cairo as soon as possible to start decoding the cockpit voice recorder A number of tests conducted on EgyptAir's MS804 Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) have shown that the contents are undamaged, Egyptian investigators said in a statement Saturday. The black box were undergoing repair in France. Supported components associated with communications to and from the memory chips were replaced, but its memory unit was not damaged, the statement read. The investigation committee said its team in France will travel to Cairo as soon as possible with the repaired black boxes, to start the decoding and analysis process. Last week, the committee announced that the second black box, the Flight Data Recorder (FDR), was repaired at the French Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau. The box was transported to Cairo for analysis. The black boxes from EgyptAir flight MS804, which crashed last month killing all 66 on board, were found at the bottom of the Mediterranean and were sent to France to repair the damage they suffered. Search Keywords: Short link: This years Memorial Day observance at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was highlighted by President Barack Obamas appearance to officially declare the beginning of the national commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, which will run through Nov. 11, 2025. Participants in the ceremony included Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey, former Sen. Chuck Hagel, Jan Scruggs, founder and president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, and actor Tom Selleck, who served as master of ceremonies. Obama laid a wreath at The Wall with Rose Mary Sabo-Brown, the widow of Army Spc. Leslie Sabo, who received the Medal of Honor posthumously in May. The commemoration will last 13 years, roughly the length of the war, though the wars exact dates have been disputed. The United States first sent advisers to Vietnam in 1959, and combat troops were sent in 1964, following the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The year 1962 was chosen for the purpose of the commemoration because thats when the Pentagon first authorized a Vietnam Service Ribbon for troops sent to Southeast Asia, The Boston Globe reported. It was also the year that President John Kennedy increased military advisers from a few hundred to several thousand. The decade-long commemoration is under the direction of retired Army Lt. Gen. Claude Mick Kicklighter, a Vietnam War veteran who emphasizes that the effort will be grassroots in nature. Kicklighter said Memorial Day was to be the first day of a nationwide drive to recruit 7,500 community partners to participate in the commemoration by 2015. See Vietnam magazines interview with General Kicklighter This was the second time a president has attended the Memorial Day service at The Wall. Its here we feel the depth of your sacrifice, Obama said. You did your job. You served with honor. You made us proud and you earned your place among the greatest generations. Welcome Home. For more on the commemoration, visit www.vietnamwar50th.com. On Christmas day, 1864, John Clark Ely shivered against the cold wind that blew through the small prison near Meridian, Mississippi. A sergeant with the 115th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Ely had been captured by forces under Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest twenty days earlier near LaVergne, Tennessee. The weeks following his capture had been difficult for the former school teacher and his fellow prisoners. By Christmas, several had already died of exposure. Ely must have wondered what the future held for him when he wrote in his diary: [C]hristmas Day and such a day for us prisoners. Hungry, dirty, sleepy and lousy. Will another Christmas find us again among friends and loved ones? Ely was transferred to the infamous Andersonville, Georgia, prison camp where he was housed until March 24, 1865. On that date, their Confederate captors finally released Ely and the other half-starved, sickly survivors of his company for exchange. One prisoner later wrote of their exodus: Coming like cattle across an open field were scores of men who were nothing but skin and bones; some hobbling along as best they could, and others being helped by stronger comrades. Every gaunt face with its staring eyes told the story of the suffering and privation they had gone through, and protruding bones showed through their scanty tattered garments. One might have thought that the grave and sea had given up their dead. Sergeant Ely joined approximately 5,500 other prisoners released from Andersonville and Cahaba prisons at Camp Fisk, a parole camp located on the Big Black River four miles east of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Arriving at the camp on March 31, Ely expressed relief at his impending release when he wrote in his diary that he and his fellow prisoners had come to the place we have looked for Oh this is the brightest day of my life long to be remembered. When news that the war was over reached the prisoners at Camp Fisk, they knew that at long last they were out of harms way and would shortly be released. On April 14, Sergeant Ely recorded in his diary: Today Major Anderson again raises the same old flag over Sumter and today the North rejoice over their victories and today came an order from General [Napoleon] Dana for us to be paroled and sent North. Bully, may we soon see our sweethearts. While the men were still at the parole camp, word reached them that President Abraham Lincoln was dead. Since all telegraphic communications between the North and South had been cut off by the order of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, the sad news was brought to Vicksburg by way of the steamboat Sultana. Built in Cincinnati, Ohio, in early 1863 for Captain Preston Lodwick, the 260-foot-long Sultana was reported to be one of the largest and best steamers ever constructed. With a legal carrying capacity of 376, the Sultana, which had a crew of eighty to eighty-five, was permitted to take on only about 290 passengers. Lodwick owned the Sultana until March 1864, when he sold her to three investors, one of whom was J. Cass Mason, the steamers captain and master. However, to off-set his financial problems, Mason had, by mid-April of 1865, sold most of his interest in the Sultana to his first clerk, William J. Gambrel and others. After the Sultana docked at Vicksburg, Mason went into town on a quest for passengers for his boats return trip. General Dana, the Union Commander for the Department of the Mississippi, had ordered that the soon-to-be paroled prisoners at Camp Fisk be sent northward from Vicksburg on privately owned steamboats, with the vessels owners receiving five dollars per enlisted man carried and ten dollars for each officer. Mason, in an effort to get as many of these soldiers as possible for his upriver trip, met with two army officers Brigadier General Morgan L. Smith and Lieutenant Colonel Reuben B. Hatch while the Sultana was stopped at Vicksburg. Because Smith, commander of the post and the District of Vicksburg, was, like Mason, from St. Louis and had been a riverboat captain for several years prior to the war, the two may have been acquainted. In any event, Smith promised Mason a full load of soldiers for his upriver journey. Mason got a similar promise from Hatch, the chief quartermaster for the Department of the Mississippi and a man whose military record was tarnished by evidence of corruption. Early in the war, while serving as an assistant quartermaster at Cairo, Illinois, Hatch had been arrested for taking bribes in the purchase of military supplies. The evidence of his guilt was overwhelming, but thanks to his brother, O. M. Hatch the secretary of state for Illinois and a friend and financial supporter of President Lincoln Reuben Hatch never appeared before the court-martial tribunal that had been ordered to try him. O. M. Hatch, along with Illinois Governor Richard Yates and Jesse K. Dubois, the state auditor, wrote to Lincoln proclaiming Reuben Hatchs innocence and seeking the presidents aid. President Lincoln endorsed their letter and forwarded it to the judge advocate in Cairo who was handling the prosecution, requesting that if the Judge Advocate has the means of doing so I will thank him to give me his opinion of the case. Lincoln also appointed a civilian commission to investigate the charges leveled against Reuben Hatch. Two of the three men on the commission were from Hatchs home state of Illinois, so it was not surprising that the accused was cleared of all charges. Following his exoneration at Cairo, Hatch continued his military career, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In early 1865, a military commission at New Orleans tested Hatch on his knowledge of the duties of an assistant quartermaster general a position he had held for the previous four years and found him totally unfit to discharge the duties of that post. Nonetheless, just ten days after the board released its findings, Hatch was inexplicably made the chief quartermaster for the Department of the Mississippi, stationed at Vicksburg. After receiving assurances from General Smith and Colonel Hatch that he would have a full load of soldiers aboard the Sultana when it headed north from Vicksburg, Mason reboarded his steamer and embarked for New Orleans. The Sultana arrived at the Crescent City on April 19 and remained there for two days before heading back to Vicksburg with approximately 250 passengers and crewmen on board. Despite the conclusion of government inspectors, following an April 12 inspection in St. Louis, that the Sultana may be employed as a steamer upon the waters herein specified, without peril to life from imperfection of form, materials, workmanship, or arrangement of the several parts or from age or use, crew members aboard the vessel soon became concerned about the condition of the steamers massive boilers. One crewman, who disembarked only two hours before the Sultana left New Orleans, later reported that the boilers had been patched or repaired at Natchez, Mississippi, and at Vicksburg on the two previous trips. The crews concerns proved justified when steam was discovered escaping from a crack in one of her four boilers as the Sultana reached a point about ten miles south of Vicksburg, forcing her to continue up the Mississippi at a greatly reduced speed. Fearing that the crack posed a significant threat to the safety of the steamboat, her chief engineer declared that he would not proceed beyond Vicksburg until necessary repairs were made. Meanwhile, Confederate authorities had finally agreed to parole the prisoners waiting at Camp Fisk. General Dana ordered that muster rolls listing the names of the men be prepared as quickly as possible, so that the soldiers could be immediately transported by train to Vicksburg to board steamers tied up at the docks. The officer in nominal command of the prisoner exchange was Captain George Augustus Williams. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Williams was a veteran of more than 13 years of service in the regular army but had never risen above the rank of captain. While serving as the provost-marshal at Memphis, Tennessee, in 1864, he had been dismissed from service because of excessive cruelty to prisoners and gross neglect of duty. He was saved from disgrace by the intervention of Union General Ulysses S. Grant, whose written testimonial helped persuade the army to reverse his dismissal. When military business took Captain Williams away from Vicksburg in mid-April, Captain Frederic Speed, assistant adjutant general for the Department of the Mississippi, volunteered to be his interim replacement. Since Williams was still absent when the Union troops were paroled, Speed began to assemble the rolls and arrange transportation for the war-weary soldiers. The first contingent of 1,300 anxious troops was shipped upriver on the Henry Ames, followed soon after by 700 soldiers aboard the Olive Branch. The Sultana finally docked at Vicksburg early on the evening of April 23. Arriving so soon after the departure of the Olive Branch, the Sultana almost did not get any prisoners to carry north. Captain Speed, aware that the rolls of only three hundred of the remaining soldiers had been prepared, reported to General Dana that no prisoners would be shipped on the Sultana; he could not, he said, complete the remaining paperwork before the steamers scheduled departure on the following day. Furious when he learned that his steamer was to get none of the prisoners promised him, Mason went immediately into Vicksburg and met with Colonel Hatch, General Smith, and Captain Speed. At first, Speed refused to place any of the soldiers on the Sultana until the necessary rolls were completed. During the meeting, however, Captain Williams, who had returned to Vicksburg that afternoon, convinced Speed that there was no need to prepare the rolls before the soldiers boarded the steamer. According to Williams, the men could merely be checked off as they went aboard, and the rolls completed after the departure of the boat. Later that same evening, Speed reported to General Dana that all the prisoners remaining at the parole camp and in the hospital at Vicksburg would be shipped as planned on the Sultana. Dana was also informed that the total number of prisoners to be shipped would be between 1,300 and 1,400, the number of men Speed estimated still awaited transport. Captain Speeds decision to place all of the remaining prisoners on one vessel was expedient rather than prudent. Since the Sultana had a legal carrying capacity of 376 passengers, even his estimate would have been far too many for the steamer to hold. In reality, however, Speed had grossly underestimated. Instead of 1,300 to 1,400 prisoners awaiting transport, there were in excess of two thousand.1 Mason knew that time was critical; if the Sultana did not leave on April 24, some other steamboat would carry the remaining troops from Vicksburg. Thus, the leaking boiler that had slowed her return from New Orleans had to be repaired quickly. R. G. Taylor, a local boilermaker who had been summoned to examine the problem, told Mason that extensive repairs were needed. Mason implored Taylor to settle for patching the leaking boiler so that the steamer could leave Vicksburg on schedule. Although he initially refused, Taylor finally agreed to place a small patch over the area leaking steam. After completing the job, he warned that the repairs were only temporary and was assured by Mason that the work would be completed when the Sultana reached St. Louis. The next morning, Williams and Speed traveled to Camp Fisk. The two officers agreed that Speed would remain at the parole camp to supervise the loading of the men onto the trains, while Williams would ride on the first train back to Vicksburg, where he would keep count as they boarded the Sultana. The tired but excited former prisoners, grouped according to their native states, quickly climbed onto the first train. The confidence that Williams and Speed had in the ability of the Sultana to carry all the remaining prisoners was not shared by Captain William F. Kerns, the quartermaster in charge of river transportation. Kerns had tried in vain to convince Speed to place some of the men on the Lady Gay, a steamboat then docked at Vicksburg that was larger than the Sultana. Speed, refusing to divide the prisoners, continued to maintain that they all could travel on the one vessel. The Lady Gay, therefore, headed north from Vicksburg without a single paroled prisoner on board. A few minutes after the departure of the Lady Gay, Captain Williams and the first trainload of former prisoners an estimated 570 pulled into Vicksburg. These men joined 398 soldiers already on board the Sultana, who probably came from the military hospital. Thus, the Sultana then exceeded her carrying capacity by more than six hundred. Among this first contingent was Sergeant Ely. He noted in his diary that the Sultana [was] a large but not very fine boat. As the day wore on, two more trainloads of men boarded the Sultana. Captain Williams, whose responsibility was to count the soldiers as they went aboard the steamer, was not at the dock when the second group of men walked across the Sultanas gangplank. Consequently, four hundred soldiers were not added to his tally. After this second load of soldiers boarded the Sultana, Captain Kerns warned Colonel Hatch that too many prisoners were being placed on the one steamer and tried to have some men sent north on the recently arrived Pauline Carroll. Hatch sent a telegram to Speed at the parole camp asking if there were more prisoners than could go aboard the Sultana. Speed, still convinced that there were no more than a total of 1,400 to be shipped that day, replied: [No,] they can all go on one boat. With that assurance, Hatch refused to divide the men between the two vessels. Equally certain that his assessment was correct, Captain Kerns approached General Smith, pleading with him to interpose his influence and have part of the prisoners go on the Pauline Carroll. Smith, like Hatch, did nothing. The third and final train arrived at the riverfront late on the afternoon of April 24, carrying approximately eight hundred paroled prisoners. As the long column of soldiers from the train snaked toward the Sultana, Captain Kerns once again implored Speed, who had ridden into Vicksburg on the train, and Williams to reconsider and place some of the men on the Pauline Carroll, which was still docked beside the Sultana. Both officers refused Kernss request. Williams, who had been aboard the Sultana, declared that there was plenty of room on her decks for the men to be comfortable. A little while later, Kerns watched in dismay as the Pauline Carroll steamed away from Vicksburg with a total of 17 passengers. Dr. George S. Kemble, the medical director of the Department of the Mississippi, who visited the Sultana after the second trainload of men had boarded, shared Kernss view. Concluding that the steamboat was too crowded for the comfort and safety of the sick men, Kemble sought and received permission from General Dana to remove 23 men who were confined to cots from the Sultana. He also redirected a column of 278 soldiers who came from the hospital. Major William Fidler of the 6th Kentucky Cavalry, the highest ranking Union prisoner of war, also disagreed with Williamss assessment. As the last detachment of men boarded the steamer, Fidler complained to Mason that there were too many passengers aboard the Sultana. By now, the vessels captain, having received many more troops than even he desired, was growing concerned about the stability of his boat. Although he thought he could carry them through, Mason nevertheless protested any further loading. He too was ignored. While the exact number of people loaded onto the Sultana on April 24 remains unknown, there can be no question that the steamer was grossly overcrowded. The human load was so great that it was necessary for the crew to install extra supports for the upper decks, for fear that the sagging floors might collapse. Captain Speed was shocked when informed by George Williams that he had counted 1,996 men boarding the ship, several hundred more than his estimate. What Speed did not realize was that Williamss figure only included the prisoners from the first and third trains, since the soldiers from the second train boarded the Sultana without being counted. In reality, the steamboat carried as many as 2,100 soldiers, approximately 100 civilian passengers, and 85 crewmen for a possible total of more than 2,300 people, more than six times the vessels legal limit.2 William J. Gambrel, the first clerk and part owner of the Sultana, told one soldier that if we arrived safe at Cairo it would be the greatest trip ever made on the western waters, as there were more people on board than were ever carried on one boat on the Mississippi River. At 9:00 p.m. on April 24, the Sultana slowly backed away from the wharf at Vicksburg and headed north on the flood-swollen Mississippi River. The enormous weight of the passengers and cargo on the decks of the steamer worried her crew. Gambrel warned Major Fidler that any sudden movement by the prisoners could cause the decks to collapse. He also expressed concern that too many men crowding to one side of the deck could result in the boat capsizing. That horrifying scenario almost played out when the Sultana docked briefly at Helena, Arkansas. Word quickly spread among the passengers that a photographer was setting up his camera on the west bank of the river. The excited soldiers, hoping to be caught on film, quickly moved to the port side of the boat, causing the Sultana to list dangerously. The resulting photograph, however, is the last picture taken of the steamer, as well as of many of those on board. The Sultana continued upriver on the morning of April 26. John Clark Elys diary entry for that day his last read: [V]ery fine day, still upward we go. After a four-hour stop at Memphis that evening, the steamer headed across the wide river to Hopefield, Arkansas, where she took on a thousand bushels of coal. At about this time, Captain Mason, who had grown increasingly concerned over the safety of the Sultana and her passengers, told one prisoner that he would give all the interest he had in the boat if it was safely landed in Cairo. By 2:00 a.m. on April 27, the top-heavy Sultana had reached a point seven miles north of Memphis, where the river was nearly four miles wide. Most of the passengers slept on the crowded decks, as stokers shoveled coal to feed the four massive boilers that were located on the main deck between the waterwheels. Rising above the boilers were the upper decks, constructed of light, flimsy wood that was coated with highly combustible paints. Suddenly, three of the huge boilers exploded with a volcanic fury that a witness on the shore described as the thundering noise of a hundred earthquakes. The blast tore instantly through the decks directly above the boilers, flinging live coals and splintered timber into the night sky like fireworks. Scalding water and clouds of steam covered the prisoners who lay sleeping near the boilers. Hundreds were killed in the first moments of the tragedy. The upper decks of the Sultana, already sagging under the weight of her passengers, collapsed when the blast ripped through the steamers superstructure. Many unfortunate souls, trapped in the resulting wreckage, could only wait for certain death as fire quickly spread throughout the hull. Within twenty minutes of the explosion, the entire superstructure of the Sultana was in flames. The burning wreckage began to drift slowly downriver, as those on board fought to survive. With only 76 life preservers and two small lifeboats available, most of those who survived the blast jumped for their lives into the river. In the hours before dawn, hundreds of soldiers and civilians struggled in the river as they awaited rescue. But help did not come until 3:00 a.m., an hour after the explosion. The Bostonia II, plowing downriver, came upon the Sultana engulfed in flames, and immediately began to haul the survivors from the water around the wreckage. In Memphis, sailors stood on the decks of United States Navy gunboats watching the red glow from the dying steamer that lit the northern horizon, yet no rescue effort was launched until approximately 3:20 a.m., by which time cries could be heard from out across the river. As cutters from the gunboats began sweeping the river in front of Memphis for survivors, their crews were directed in the darkness by the victims screams for help. A sailor aboard the USS Tyler wrote in the ships log that of all the sounds and noises I ever heard that was the most sorrowful; some cursing, calling for help; and shrieking. I will never forget those awful sounds. When the sun rose in the eastern sky, more than 1,700 were dead or dying. Among the fatalities were Captain Mason, William Gambrel, Major Fidler, and Sergeant Ely. At daybreak, the survivors commenced the grim and often futile task of searching for comrades. Samuel Pickens of the Third Tennessee Cavalry tried to locate his brother William. The following day Pickens wrote to his mother to give her the grim news of the disaster. [I] must confess, he told her, that to the best of my knowledge William is among the lost. I have not heard of him since the explosion took place and I have no hope of ever hearing from him anymore. More than 500 of those who made it to shore were placed in hospitals; the Soldiers Home at Memphis took another 241. Many of these injured did not live to enjoy the freedom they had so recently won. Sergeant William Fies of the 64th Ohio Infantry, in describing the grim sights in one of the hospital wards, wrote that he was placed in a ward with quite a number who were severely scalded, or otherwise badly injured, and such misery and intense suffering as I witnessed while there is beyond my power to describe. The agonizing cries and groans of the burned and scalded were heartrending and almost unendurable, but in most cases the suffering was of short duration as most of them were relieved by death in a few hours. Because no accurate assessment of the number of passengers had been made, it was impossible to calculate the exact number of dead. Both the militarys estimate of 1,238 and the Customs Departments figure of 1,547 were based strictly on Captain Williamss tally of prisoners placed on the Sultana at Vicksburg and were, therefore, too low. In reality, the death toll stood at more than 1,700. Within hours of the disaster, General C. C. Washburn, the commanding officer at Memphis, appointed a military commission to investigate the tragedy. After weeks of testimony, the commission discounted the crowded conditions aboard the Sultana, concluding that the evidence fully shows that the government has transferred as many or more troops on boats of no greater capacity than the Sultana frequently and with safety. General Dana and Brigadier General William Hoffman, the U.S. Army Commissary General of Prisoners, each conducted investigations. Hoffmans findings were the most critical of the militarys involvement in the Sultana tragedy. He concluded that theshipment of so large a number of troops (1,866) on one boat was, under the circumstances, unnecessary, unjustifiable, and a great outrage on the troops. His report also pointed a finger of guilt at General Smith, noting that although he had nothing officially to do with the shipment of the troops; yet as it was officially reported to him by Captain Kerns that too many men were being put on the Sultana, it was proper that he should have satisfied himself from good authority whether there was sufficient grounds for the report, and if he found it so he should have interfered to have the evil remedied. Had [Smith] done so, the lives of many men would have been saved. The cause of the destruction of the Sultana has always been in dispute. Many Northern newspapers immediately blamed the tragedy on sabotage, a possibility discounted by all of the various military investigations. The Washburn Commission concluded that insufficient water in the boilers precipitated the explosion, despite testimony to the contrary by the Sultanas second engineer, who was on watch at the time of the explosion and who died soon after from the injuries he had received. It was the investigation and report of J. J. Witzig, the supervising inspector of steamboats, that shed the most light on the cause of the tragedy. Witzig contended that the shoddy repair to the middle larboard boiler at Vicksburg had caused the explosion. The small patch, he reasoned, was too thin to stand the excessive pressure in the boiler on the upriver trip. At the conclusion of all the military investigations, Hatch and Speed were ordered to appear before court-martial tribunals. The charges against Hatch stemmed from the fact that he had selected the Sultana to transport the prisoners. Speed, because of his temporary replacement of Williams, was deemed to be the officer in direct command of the prisoner transfer. On November 1, 1865, a court was appointed to try Captain Speed at Vicksburg. Although the government called several witnesses to testify, the prosecution failed to compel the appearance of one key witness, Lieutenant Colonel Hatch. A request by the prosecutor to the Secretary of War to have Hatch arrested and brought to Vicksburg to testify went unanswered. In June 1866, the military court found Speed guilty on all charges and sentenced him to be dismissed from the army. The verdict, however, was later reversed by the judge advocate general, and Captain Speed was honorably mustered out of service. Hatch never stood before a court-martial tribunal. On June 3, 1865, he was relieved of his duties as chief quartermaster of the Department of the Mississippi. A few weeks later, he boarded the northbound steamer Atlantic, carrying $14,490 in government money. During the voyage, the safe of the Atlantic was robbed. The thief was caught before the boat reached St. Louis, and all the money was recovered, except for more than $8,500 in government funds Hatch claimed he had placed in the safe. He was found to have violated military regulations by removing the funds from the Department and was held personally liable for the loss of the money. Thus, Hatchs career ended as it began in controversy. With Speeds exoneration, the military closed the books on the Sultana tragedy. In the end, no one was held responsible for the worst maritime disaster in American waters. Speed stayed in Vicksburg, becoming a criminal court judge and a powerful voice in Mississippi politics. George Williams retired from the military in 1870 as a major; he later served several terms on the school board in Newburgh, New York. General Smith, after resigning from the army, served as second assistant postmaster general during the Grant administration. On December 29, 1874, Smith was thought to have committed suicide after an article appeared in The New York Times accusing him of taking a $50,000 bribe. The horror of the Sultana tragedy was multiplied by its futility. Headlines in the Memphis Daily Appeal screamed: IT WAS MURDER! And the newspaper was correct. There was no military reason requiring or justifying the placement of so many soldiers aboard the Sultana. The real cause of the disaster was not the failure of the patch on the boiler, but the conspiracy of greed at Vicksburg that put the quest for profits above the safety of the weary soldiers who thought the horrors of war were behind them forever. As the years passed, several survivors attempted to persuade the government to erect a monument in memory of their fallen comrades, but to no avail. Shortly before his death, Sultana passenger James H. Kimberlin expressed resentment toward his country when he wrote: The men who had endured the torments of a hell on Earth, starved, famished from thirst, eaten with vermin, having endured all the indignities, insults and abuses possible for an armed bully to bestow upon them, to be so soon forgotten does not speak well for our government or the American people. This article was written by Jerry O. Potter and originally published in the August 1998 issue of American History Magazine. For more great articles, subscribe to American History magazine today! After his 1834 escape to freedom, fugitive slave William Wells Brown used his literary talents for the abolitionist cause and to record the history of Americas blacks. By Marsh Cassady At just after 8 p.m. on February 2, 1857, an air of expectancy gripped the crowd assembled in the town hall in the little village of Salem, Ohio. The audience leaned forward in their seats, eager to catch a glimpse of the middle-aged black man who strode confidently onto the stage. William Wells Brown, the object of their curiosity, cleared his throat and began to recite from Experience, or How to Give a Northern Man a Backbone, the first play authored by an African American. For almost a year, Brown had traveled about the Northeast reading his drama, which dealt with the evils of slavery and urged the abolitionists in attendance to do something about the plight of blacks held in bondage. No copies of this 1856 play have survived, but fortunately, his second such work, The Escape, or A Leap For Freedom, fared better following its 1858 publication. These two playsthe only ones known to have been written by Brown represented only a tiny portion of his literary achievements. Virtually illiterate in his youth, Brown went on to become a historian, an essayist, a journalist, and a lecturer, as well as Americas first black novelist, playwright, and travel-book author. Born near Lexington, Kentucky, sometime between 1813 and 1815, William was the son of Elizabeth, a slave on a farm owned by Dr. John Young. His father was George Higgins, Youngs half-brother or cousin. In 1816, Dr. Young moved to Missouri with his family and slaves, settling in Saint Charles County on the northern shore of the Missouri River. Four years later, Young went off to serve in the states first legislature, leaving his farm in the hands of overseer Grove Cook, a cruel man who made frequent use of the whip. In his autobiography, William described a beating that his mother received, remembering that cold chills ran over me, and I wept aloud. While William was still a boy, the Youngs took an infant nephew into their home. Since his name too was William, they changed the young slaves name to Sanford. The youth did not take losing his only possessionhis namelightly and endured several beatings for persisting in calling himself William. Light skinned, William also found himself at the wrong end of the lash when people mistook him for a member of the Young family, a resemblance that was obviously beyond his control. This question of skin color caused William to suffer the scorn of some fellow slaves as well. As he later wrote, the nearer a slave approaches an Anglo-Saxon in complexion the more he is abused by both owner and fellow-slaves. The owner flogs him to keep him in his place, and the slaves hate him on account of his being whiter than themselves. When Dr. Young moved to St. Louis in 1827, he hired William out to work in a variety of jobs. In his first book, Narrative of William Wells Brown, A Fugitive Slave, William wrote of his treatment at the hands of a tavern keeper named Major Freeland, a drunkard who severely beat the then-teenager. After brief stints working on a steamboat and at the Missouri Hotel in the city, William was hired by Elijah P. Lovejoy, editor of the St. Louis Times. There for only a brief time, William was nonetheless able to acquire the rudiments of an education. In 1832, William was put in the employ of James Walker, a slave trader, for one year and was forced to take part in the transportation of fellow slaves down river for auction. By the time Williams distasteful service to Walker had expired, Dr. Young found himself in financial difficulty. To ease his situation, he made plans to sell William, despite an earlier promise to Higgins that he never would sell his son. Regretful that such a move was necessary, Young gave William a week to find a new owner. Instead, William talked his mother into trying to flee to Canada. Against her better judgement, Elizabeth agreed. Eleven days later the pair was captured in Illinois; Elizabeth was sold into the deep South and never saw her son again. William was sold for $500.00 to a St. Louis tailor, Samuel Willi, who hired him out as a servant on a steamboat. Less than a year later, Willi sold William to a merchant and riverboat owner, Enoch Price. When his new owner, acting as captain, took one of his boats to New Orleans and then to Cincinnati, in the free state of Ohio, he took William along. On January 1, 1834, William carried a passengers trunk ashore in Cincinnati. Seizing this chance to escape, he kept on walking and quickly made his way out of the city. For six days, he wandered by himself during the night hours, ill-clothed for the winter weather and without food. Nearly frozen and sick with a fever, he finally approached a man who had on a broad-brimmed hat and a very long coat, and was obviously walking for exercise. As soon as I saw him, and observed his dress, I thought to myself, You are the man that I have been looking for! Nor was I mistaken. He was the very man! Wells Brown, a Quaker, gave the youth shelter and food, and cared for him until he was well. On learning that William had no family name, he offered his own, and the runaway slave became William Wells Brown. With a new name and a fresh start in a free state, the light-skinned William traveled to Cleveland, where he worked at odd jobs until navigation resumed on the Great Lakes in the spring. When shipping again opened up, William found employment as a steward on a Lake Erie steamer, the Detroit. That same year, he met and married Elizabeth Schooner, whom he called Betsey. The couples first child died not long after birth, but they had two more daughters, Clarissa and Josephine. During the nine years he plied the lakes, William taught himself to read and write, and helped other fugitives escape to freedom in Canada. By 1840, Brown and his family had moved to Buffalo, New York, and made their home a stop on the Underground Railway; 69 runaways made good their escape through Browns efforts during 1842 alone. Soon after his arrival in Buffalo, Brown organized the Union Total Abstinence Society and began his association with the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society. He lectured for the abolitionist cause, using his speeches to attack Americas idea of democracy, which he felt only existed for whites, and the hypocrisy of using religion to ensure the docility of slaves. Although a speech he delivered before the Female Anti-Slavery Society of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1847 was his first published work, his first book was his slave narrative, a popular genre of the period, which was released that same year. In the two years following its publication, the biography went through four editions. While this work did show the influence of previously published slave narratives, Browns was unique in its inclusion of cases other than his own to point up the overwhelming cruelty of slavery. After seeing a copy of Williams slave narrative, Enoch Price, his former owner, wrote in 1848 offering William his freedom for $325.00. Brown refused, firm in his belief that freedom can not be bought or sold but is a divine and moral right. God, he declared, made me as free as he did Enoch Price, and therefore, not a penny would be paid for his freedom with my consent. A year later, he published The Anti-Slavery Harp: A Collection of Songs for Anti-Slavery Meetings, a compilation of 46 pieces to be sung to familiar melodies. He gave a series of anti-slavery presentations throughout New England, illustrating the evils of involuntary servitude by presenting two escaped slaves from Georgia, William and Ellen Craft. And, he traveled to France in August 1849 as the American Peace Societys delegate to the International Peace Congress in Paris. In 1850, the 1793 Fugitive Slave Law was strengthened, making it dangerous for Brown to return home. William, therfore, chose to remain abroad.With England as his base, he spent the next four years traveling throughout Great Britain and to Europe, giving lectures about the slavery question and completing three more books. The firstA Description of William Wells Browns Panoramic Views of the Scenes in the Life of an American Slave, from His Birth in Slavery to His Death or His Escape to His First Home of Freedom on British Soilconsisted of stories and a series of 24 sketches, which were drawn by artists at his direction. Three Years in Europe: or, Places I have Seen and People I have Met, published in 1852, was a compilation of 23 letters Brown had written since his arrival there, comparing the freedom of life in Europe to the tyranny faced by blacks in America. The book was well received, one reviewer noting that Brown wrote with ease and ability, and his intelligent observations upon the great question to which he has devoted, and is devoting, his life, will command influence and respect. Browns novel, Clotel: or, The Presidents Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States, was published in London in 1853. The book took its title from allegations that Thomas Jefferson had fathered several mixed-race children, whom he then abandoned to slavery. Published about a year after Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin, however, Browns work failed to create much of a stir or garner critical acclaim. While abroad, Brown also used his time to become versed in the practice of medicine. In a day when formal training still was not required for doctors, he attended lectures and conducted private study, gradually obtaining sufficient knowledge to become a medical practitioner. Instead of pursuing that profession, however, he continued to devote himself to the anti-slavery cause. In 1854, Brown finally agreed to purchase his freedom so that he might return to the United States and fight more effectively for the abolition of the most cruel system of oppression that ever blackened the character or hardened the heart of man. Soon after he arrived in America, Brown published The American Fugitive in Europe, an enlarged version of his Three Years in Europe. This new edition was the first book written by Brown to be reviewed by a major American newspaper. The New York Daily Tribune declared that the work was a lively and entertaining record of foreign travel and, due to its origins, a worthy novelty in literature. During the Civil War, Brown joined fellow abolitionists Frederick Douglass and T. Morris Chester in recruiting in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey for the all-black 54th Massachusetts Regiment. The war years also saw publication of Browns first historical work, The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements. An anthology of biographical sketches of blacks with significant accomplishments to their credit, this work went through ten editions in just three years. Two years after the war, Brown brought out The Negro in the American Rebellion, His Heroism and His Fidelity. And in 1874, he published his most complete and important historical undertaking, The Rising Son; or, The Antecedents and Advancements of the Colored Race, which traced the roots of Americas blacks from Africa. As he had in his previous histories, Brown strongly refuted the eras belief in the inferiority of the black race. William Wells Brown died in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in 1884. Despite his literary achievements and his many contributions in the struggle for freedom and equality, he was buried in an unmarked grave in the Cambridge, Massachusetts, cemetery. He was eulogized in the Boston newspapers as one of the most intelligent, earnest and active members of the little band of oldtime abolitionists and as a prolific writer, commanding a clear intellect and facile pen . . . . Brown, who spent his last years fighting for improved education for black children, did his utmost throughout his life to combat racial prejudice and its resulting indignities, consistently emphasizing the need for cooperation among people of all races. Freelance writer Marsh Cassady of San Diego, California, is the author of 41 books. [ Top ] [ Cover] Star Wars fans are starting to fear about the rumored death of one the franchise's iconic characters, Luke Skywalker, following Mark Hamill's controversial "out of work" statement that fueled speculations over the Jedi Knight's fate in the upcoming eight sequel. If Hamill's recent statement is of any indication, then he might have accidentally dropped a major spoiler about the purported events in the forthcoming Star Wars: Episode VIII. Fans are still trying to make sense of what happened in "The Force Awakens" after Han Solo's death. The strong emotional reaction to Solo's surprising end is a testament of how fans might react if Luke dies. At a recent London event supporting "The Big Issue," a homeless charity, Hamill reportedly said "I finish Episode VIII, and then I'm out of work" before the crowd fueling speculations of Luke's death in the eight installment. As mentioned by The Hollywood Reporter, The Force Awakens may have started the trend of killing off the original Star Wars cast members one by one with each sequel. But the report also stated that Hamill probably misspoke or intentionally mislead the audience with confusing remarks to keep them in a constant state of suspense. But Hamill quickly to the social media to clarify his statement that got so many fans extremely worried. It appears that they still mourn over Han Solo's death and killing off Luke in the next movie may prove too much for them to take. "I meant 'out of work' because #Ep8 is wrapping soon, OK? #DontOverThinkEVERYTHING #ParsingHamill #WaitForVIII," Hamill tweeted. While many fans struggled to accept Solo's unexpected fate in the "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," the events in Episode 7 seem to suggest a darker undertone in the Episode 8. It was triggered when Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force which led him to kill his father, Han Solo (Harrison Ford). Then Luke made a surprising appearance in the last scene to indicate that Star Wars is far from over. Fans expect to see the last Jedi to train Rey (Daisy Ridley) who is currently rumored as the present incarnation of the Jedi order's founder. As reported by the Collider, Luke may not end up the way Solo did in Episode 7. There is a likelihood that the Jedi Knight may follow Obi-Wan's lead and transform into a Force ghost. So for now, it is best to take speculations with a grain salt and avoid taking every comment so literally. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Parliament is scheduled to vote on cancelling or keeping daylight saving time EgyptAir could lose up to $2 million if parliament votes for cancelling daylight saving time, originally announced to begin 5 July, state news agency MENA quoted the chairman of the public company as saying. In April, the government announced that daylight saving time would be applied by the first week of July until the end of October. However, a parliament subcommittee agreed this month to cancel the practice, putting the decision to a vote in front of the entire parliament. EgyptAir Chairman Safwat Mosallam said, "Either way, cancelled or not, the company would deal flexibly with the parliament's decision." The International Aviation Transport Association (IATA), according to Mosallam, has already been informed that daylight saving would be applied in July. If parliament votes to cancel daylight saving time, this would cause a number of delays in flights and would cause many passengers to miss their connections, Mosallam added. Last week, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Magdy Al-Agati told parliament that the Egyptian government paid $8 million to the IATA after the state did not apply daylight saving time in April. Parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Al said last week that the House of Representatives has not yet set a final date for the end of daylight saving time, as it is awaiting the State Council's final advisory opinion on the matter. The system was first implemented in the country in 1988 as a power-saving measure. It was abolished in April 2011, with the government arguing at the time that the practice was ineffective at curbing power usage. The system was temporarily revived in May 2014 in order to ease power consumption after the country suffered rolling power blackouts. Egypt is normally two hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), leaving it three hours ahead if daylight saving time is applied. Search Keywords: Short link: Tributes have been pouring in to the Mrs. Merton, Fast Show & Royle Family star The very sad breaking news is that comedy actress and writer Caroline Aherne has died aged 52 from cancer. Having achieved career lift-off in the 1990s with her alter ego Mrs. Merton So, what Debbie first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels? she was a regular on The Fast Show and The Royle Family. Married for four years to New Orders Peter Hook, she was diagnosed as suffering from lung cancer in 2014 and was recently the voice behind the UK governments One You health campaign, which urged people to smoke and drink less. Tributes have been flooding in with Matt Lucas saying: Caroline Aherne moved television comedy on to a new place. Her extraordinary work will be cherished by future generations. Those sentiments are echoed by his Little Britain co-star who adds: "Absolutely devastating news about Caroline Aherne. A true comedy genius, her work was equally funny & touching." Nooooo Caroline Aherne !!!!!! Sleep well you absolute genius x, tweets Lily Allen while Philip Schofield messages: So desperately sad to hear of the death of Caroline Aherne. Such a unique and gifted lady. BOSTON - Former Vice President Al Gore's daughter and other activists arrested at a protest of a natural gas pipeline in Boston have pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges. Karenna Gore, activist Tim DeChristopher and nine others were arraigned last week on charges including trespassing, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace. MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Four young children were stabbed to death in suburban Memphis on Friday. Police took their mother into custody for questioning, but has not been charged. Deputies were called to the apartment complex in unincorporated Shelby County shortly before 1 p.m., said county Sheriff Bill Oldham, who did not specifically allege that the mother had stabbed the children. Officials have not released the ages of the children, but sheriff's office spokesman Earle Farrell said deputies responding to the scene called them "babies." "What can you say?" said neighbor Sean Ahearn. "It's just a terrible, terrible thing." Ahearn said he didn't know the family by name, but that he often saw the children, who all appeared to be under age 6, playing in the front yard. "From what I saw, they were very open and friendly kids," he said. "You never imagine that this kind of thing could happen." The investigation is in a very preliminary stage and investigators do not know if the mother had any mental health issues, Oldham said. He said authorities are working to notify the next of kin and won't release names before that. Oldham said the district attorney general's special victims' unit has been called in and Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell has promised all resources necessary for the investigation. County Commissioner Mark Billingsley also said the county would work to help the family of the children recover. Resident Patricia Johnson spoke with reporters from her car. She said she wasn't allowed to leave for two hours as deputies investigated the scene. "I can't fathom that," she said. "What would babies do to make you do that?" The leak occurred minutes after the exam started 9am Saturday and included questions and their answers The Thanaweya Amma applied math (dynamics) exam was leaked Saturday morning for the second time in one week, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported. According to Al-Ahram, the questions and answers were leaked on Facebook pages only minutes after the exam started at 9am. Saturdays applied math final exam was a re-sit after it was voided last week following its leak five hours before the exam began. According to Al-Ahram, the exams were printed and secured by sovereign entities after the education ministry failed to secure examination procedures in the past weeks. On Wednesday, high school students held protests in several parts of the country against a cabinet decision to cancel or postpone a number of year-end exams after several test questions and answers were leaked online. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said in a speech at an iftar celebration following the protests that the leaks would not be repeated, stressing that Egypt was currently reconsidering the system of high school exams. Search Keywords: Short link: JERUSALEM - After two deadly attacks by Palestinians against Israeli civilians in the occupied West Bank in two days, Israel announced sweeping measures Friday to limit the movement of Palestinian residents and punish their government. The moves came as an international report warned both sides that their actions could contribute to a state of "perpetual occupation and conflict." The Israeli military said Friday that it would prevent all Palestinian travel between towns and villages in the southern West Bank, including the major city of Hebron, after an Israeli motorist was shot and killed there Friday. It also ordered in two more battalions to secure the area. The Israeli government, meanwhile, said it would withhold some crucial tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, a tactic it reserves for extreme situations. The closings in the West Bank were the harshest measures imposed on Palestinians since three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and killed in the West Bank in June 2014, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said Friday. The kidnappings were part of a string of events that culminated in a devastating war that summer between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza. "This isn't a normal situation, and that's why we are taking substantial steps on the ground," Lerner said, adding the moves were intended to "disrupt, prevent and foil additional attacks." Late Friday night, Lerner reported on Twitter that a rocket fired from Gaza had hit and damaged a building in the border town of Sderot; Israeli news outlets said it damaged a kindergarten, empty at that hour. The West Bank actions were announced after one or more gunmen fired on a family traveling in a car near Hebron on Friday, killing the father and seriously wounding the mother, the Israeli military reported. Two of their children were also injured when the car overturned along a narrow highway that runs through the southern West Bank. The assailants fled. The shooting came a day after a Palestinian teenager stabbed to death a 13-year-old Israeli-American girl while she slept in her bedroom in the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba. The two episodes suggest the surge in stabbings and shootings that began in October has intensified after waning for months. The violence has left more than 30 Israelis dead. More than 210 Palestinians have also been killed, most while carrying out attacks or when thought to be about to do so. Just hours before the emergency restrictions were enacted around Hebron on Friday, the so-called Quartet for Middle East Peace took both sides to task: Israel for building settlements in the West Bank, Palestinians for inciting deadly attacks. The quartet, which is made up of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, said Israel should cease its policy of building settlements in the occupied West Bank, stop setting aside land for "exclusive Israeli use" and end the practice of denying Palestinians permission to build homes. The report also criticized Palestinian groups for glorifying individuals who carry out deadly attacks, and it pointed to the Palestinian Authority's lack of control on the Gaza Strip, calling on Palestinian leaders to "cease incitement to violence." The report was an attempt to nudge the Israelis and Palestinians to resume negotiations. Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry arrived in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on a one day visit Saturday for several meetings with Iraqi leaders, Egypts foreign ministry said in an official statement. Foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said that Shoukry would hold meetings with his Iraqi counterpart, Ibrahim Gaafari, and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider El-Abadi. He is also set to meet Iraqi Parliament Speaker Amaar Al-Hakim. Abu Zeid added that Shoukrys visit to Baghdad, the third of its kind, aims to provide support to Iraq at an important time when it is confrontating terrorism. He added that the visit also aims to support and promote bilateral relations in several fields of mutual interest, including promoting Iraqs role in the Arab sphere, especially in cases that call for the unity of Arabs in facing challenges surrounding the Arab region. Egypt has repeatedly called for preserving the unity of Iraq by entrenching national unity during the war-torn countrys fight with the Islamic State group, which has been battling Iraqi forces for control of several parts of the country. Egypt has praised steps taken by the Iraqi government and armed forces to fight terrorism, the latest being the retaking of Fallujah in June, once an Islamic State group bastion. Search Keywords: Short link: As climate activists and some aboriginal groups celebrate the Federal Courts decision to revoke approval of the Northern Gateway pipeline, industry observers say the decision throws a big question mark over the future of the oilsands. "Ultimately, it really impacts Canada's oil industry big time," oil and gas analyst Abhishek Deshpande, of Natixis, told CNBC. Advertisement "If rejected, it will affect the ability to send oil to the West Coast, which is crucial to get it to China or other Asian markets. The Federal Court on Thursday said Ottawa had failed in its duty to consult with aboriginal people on Enbridges $7.9-billion pipeline, which got the green light under the previous Conservative government in 2014. The Court said the government's consultations were "brief, hurried and inadequate," and left many relevant subjects off the table. Advertisement Climate activists and some aboriginal groups cheered the move, with some hoping this would mean the end of the 12-year-long saga over the pipeline that would carry oil and gas between Bruderheim, Alberta and the Pacific coast at Kitimat, B.C. "At every turn you're going, you are seeing nails in the coffin of the Enbridge project," Peter Lantin, president of the Council of the Haida Nation, told CBC News. "I don't think there's enough room for another nail in the coffin." The federal Liberal government has 60 days to decide if it wants to appeal the Federal Court's decision. Kitasoo Chief Doug Neasloss called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to scrap the project as a way to make good on his election commitment to renew relations between the federal government and Canada's aboriginal people. Advertisement Pipeline capacity maxed out Despite the oil price collapse, the oilsands industry still sees growth for the oilsands in the years to come. A recent report from its chief lobby group, CAPP, predicts Canadian oil output will grow 28 per cent by 2030. But pipeline capacity is nearly maxed out as it is, so Canada's oil supply will soon greatly exceed its current pipeline capacity," CAPP said. Enbridge still committed In statements to media after the court ruling, Enbridge said it intends to continue with the project and said 31 aboriginal groups support it. "The Aboriginal Equity Partners and our commercial project proponents are fully committed to building this critical Canadian infrastructure project, Enbridge said in a statement emailed to media. Advertisement It added its committed to protecting the environment and the traditional way of life of First Nations and Metis peoples and communities along the project route. Oilsands growth in doubt Some experts doubt that growth will happen if oil prices remain low. They note Canadian oil has some of the highest production costs in the world, and if governments worldwide succeed with policies aimed at reducing oil use, demand for high-cost oil sources could dry up. Business investment has shifted rapidly away from oil and towards renewable energy in recent years -- the result of both the collapse in oil prices and government policies around the world favouring renewables. A recent analysis from Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecast that oil will see US$2.1 trillion in investment worldwide between now and 2040. Renewable energy will see nearly four times that amount, at US$7.8 trillion. Advertisement -- With a file from The Canadian Press Also on HuffPost Jonathan Kozub via Getty Images Winnipeg musician Robb Nash and his band travel across Canada giving talks on suicide, addiction and mental health to youth and sometimes, they give him something of theirs. The band presents at schools, detention centres and reservations. Time and time again, Nash has had audience members approach him and hand over their suicide notes and razors they use for self-harm, according to The Washington Post. He's collected more than 500 suicide notes from students and young people across the country, CBC News reports. Advertisement "I want to show them that they're as much a part of my life as I might be of theirs" Earlier this month, the rock star decided to take 120 of these letters to a tattoo artist, and got the signatures inked down his right arm. He's hoping his arm will now be a tool when youth confide in him. "My hope is that in those moments, I can show them my arm, so they can see the names of tons of other people that once felt the same way and found the strength to get help and keep moving," he wrote in a Facebook post. The tattoos are only from the first 120 letters he's received, Nash wrote, and he'll stop there. He doesn't want teens to present him with suicide letters in hopes of being added to his arm. Advertisement Idea came from fans The idea to get the tattoo partially came from his fans. "So many of these kids have our lyrics or our logo tattooed on them and I want to show them that they're as much a part of my life as I might be of theirs," Nash told the CBC News. Got to see one of the people that has their signature on my arm while on tour this week. She surprised me by showing me that in celebration of being 3 years clean...she got a lyric from one of our songs tattooed on her arm. It's something I learned at an NA meeting (narcotics anonymous). When you try to fight off the addiction or thief that is trying to steal your life....that's how you win the battle....#justfortoday A photo posted by Robb Nash (@robbnash) on Jun 18, 2016 at 8:03pm PDT Weeks after getting his ink, the musician shared a photo of a fan whose name is among the 120 now marked on his arm. In it, she has her own arm extended showing her tattoo of his lyric: "Just for today" from the song "Thief of Colours," which deals with overcoming depression and addiction. Nash himself dealt with thoughts of suicide and depression following a serious car crash when he was 17, where he was initially pronounced dead. Advertisement He recovered, but his injuries kept him from working physical trades and kept him from continuing to play sports, reports the Washington Post. According to the band's website, it was this experience that motivated him to pursue music as a platform to influence and inspire young people. Also on HuffPost: Caroline Aherne has died aged 52. Her publicist confirmed the news of her death on Saturday (2 July) afternoon, following her lengthy battle with cancer. Advertisement Caroline Aherne has died at the age of 52 Neil Reading said in a statement: "Caroline Aherne has sadly passed away, after a brave battle with cancer. "The BAFTA award-winning writer and comedy actor died earlier today at her home in Timperley, Greater Manchester. She was 52. "The family ask for privacy at this very sad time." The BAFTA-winning comedian and writer had been battling cancer since 2014, and one of her rare appearances in the last months of her life was at the launch of Manchesters Macmillan Cancer Improvement Partnership. At the time, she spoke of how her sense of humour had helped her through her illness. Caroline Aherne was one of the countrys most popular comedians, credited with helping bring to the screen a particular form of naturalist humour, poking fun at the ordinary stuff of everyday life. From her first appearances on 'The Fast Show' in 1994, which she also helped write, it was clear that she had a singular talent, honed on the high-quality Manchester comedy circuit of the 1990s. Advertisement For three years from 1994 to 1997, she was married to New Orders bass player Peter Hook, and appeared under her married name. Caroline Aherne made her name as Mrs Merton, the apparently innocent celebrity chat show interviewer The same year as her 'Fast Show' debut, she made her first real mark as faux-naive celebrity interviewer Mrs Merton, a character she had previously debuted on Granada Televisions Upfront programme. Long before Ali G fooled his subjects with his show of innocence, interviewer Mrs Merton was setting up her targets with apparent whimsy, famously asking Debbie McGee, So, what first attracted you to the millionaire, Paul Daniels? The show won Caroline Ahern a BAFTA in 1995. Her most personal work - both poignant and sidesplittingly funny - came with The Royle Family in 1998, which she co-penned with Craig Cash, and starred in herself as Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnstons self-absorbed daughter Denise. The show ran for three series, with the scenario a deceptively simple one - a family stuck in their living room, distracted only by personal comings and goings, various romantic intrigues of the younger folk and, of course, long before 'Gogglebox', whatever happened to be on TV. Advertisement Warm and witty, 'The Royle Family' thrilled audiences across the generations With a fond but forensic eye that the pair might have inherited from Alan Bennett or Mike Leigh, Caroline and Craig captured a sense of sentimental nostalgia for working class habits and closeness, while inviting us to titter at their faux-pas. It was a comedy tightrope boldly walked, and credited for inspiring many comedians, such as Ricky Gervais, who often said that without 'The Royle Family', there would have never been 'The Office'. Despite her huge success, Caroline sometimes struggled away from the screen. She suffered from both depression and alcoholism in the 1990s, and sought treatment at the Priory following a suicide attempt in 1998. She referred to this herself in a speech when she accepted an award for 'The Royle Family', telling her appreciative audience Ricky Tomlinson had told her not to mention it, and earning a round of applause. Caroline Aherne was regarded by her screen peers as a pioneering talent of naturalistic comedy Following the huge success of The Royle Family, Caroline revealed she would be concentrating on writing, not acting, in future. Only rare appearances have followed, including a one-off role as a barmaid in the BBC comedy Sunshine, and a few Royle Family specials. Behind the scenes, she penned Dossa and Joe for the BBC, The Fattest Man in Britain and one-off sitcom The Security Men. Her last on-screen appearance came in 2015s After Hours, directed by her old writing partner Craig Cash. Advertisement More recently, Caroline Aherne gave her unique voice to the narration of Gogglebox, the BAFTA-winning series that explored the everyday joy brought to ordinary people by their engagement with the TV set and its contents. It was a fitting final gig for a very talented woman who had long mastered the art of celebrating the ordinary, and finding lots of special things in it for the rest of us to giggle about. The current political and public dialog--and I'm being generous by calling it that--have centered around undocumented immigrants. But every year, far more legally-admitted immigrants come here than those who enter without legal status (immigration reform, let's get a move on here!). Immigrants now comprise approximately 14% of the U.S. workforce, though the representation varies across industries and geographic regions. Also, immigrants are just as likely (as native born folks) to own their own businesses--thereby creating U.S. jobs for U.S. workers. Among this legal group, 16% are sponsored by U.S. employers to fill in positions for which no U.S. worker is available, and an additional 8% come as refugees or asylees, fleeing persecution and looking for safety and freedom in the U.S. The remainder come for family reasons. Advertisement The Contribution of Undocumented Immigrants They contribute their talents, labor, languages, cultures and outsider insight. Many immigrants risk their lives and dignity and families to come here. They also contribute cold, hard cash. Yep! Contrary to the fact-mangling vitriol I've had to endure at dinner and cocktail parties, undocumented immigrants do, in fact, pay taxes--a whopping 11.64 billion in state and local taxes according to one study. Cumulatively, undocumented immigrant workers pay an estimated 11.2 billion into the U.S. Social Security fund, and an additional 2.6 billion into Medicare--money and benefits that the immigrant workers themselves will never be able to reclaim as benefits. Want to Really Celebrate Independence Day? Debunk Some Myths. Dish Up The Facts About Immigrants in America Advertisement NPR "Here and Now" segment, "Can Immigrants Save Small-Town America?" Op-Ed piece, "Don't Shut the Golden Door" in the New York Times. Test your own knowledge with this quiz from "The New Americans," from the PBS series, 'Independent Lens.' Robin Linley, a grandmother from Del City, Oklahoma, received a terrifying call recently. A caller pretended to be her eldest granddaughter, Tori, and stated that she had just been in a car crash and was in jail because she had been drinking. She needed to be wired money so that she could post bail. Upset, Robin began to panic, but thanks to some quick thinking she noticed that the caller referred to her as "Grandma," when Tori always calls her "Nana." That's when Robin hung up without sharing any financial information, and alerted the rest of her family to the situation. They were quickly able to find Tori at work, unharmed, and completely unaware of what had just happened. The Oklahoma Attorney General issued a warning in the state and also said the grandparent scam is third on the list of top scams that are targeting the people of Oklahoma this year. The scammer used a local Oklahoma phone number, which was then traced back to a caller ID spoofing app - thus making it impossible to find the criminal behind the call. Advertisement It isn't just in Oklahoma that the grandparent phone scam is happening. Sadly, it targets vulnerable seniors all over the country. The calls can be very convincing and can include a network of scammers working together to build a believable story that will con their victim out of money. Often the caller will state that they are traveling in a foreign country and they've lost their passport, or gotten in an accident, and need money wired to them so that they can get themselves out of a situation. Another scammer will join on the call pretending to be a police officer or lawyer confirming the dire situation that the caller is in. Phone scammers continue to target grandparents with this scam because it is very effective and because seniors often lack the resources to report types of scams like this. The FBI has found that senior citizens are less likely to report a fraud because they don't know how to report it, or are too ashamed to admit they've been tricked. They may be especially concerned that relatives will doubt their mental capacity to be independent. How you can protect your loved ones from the grandparent scam The best way to protect your elderly loved ones is to make sure that they are aware of phone scams, and that they know they shouldn't automatically believe what a person says when they receive a call. Let them know that if they get a call stating that a family member is in an emergency they should call another family member to alert them to the situation. Even if the caller instructs them not to tell anyone, it's important that they let others in the family know about the situation. Another way to protect elderly loved ones is by checking what information you're sharing on social media. This will help prevent scammers from finding personal details online that can be used to create a believable story on the phone. Set privacy settings so that you're only sharing information with people you know and trust, and limit the amount of information that you are sharing publicly. Advertisement Siberian Husky, 1 year old, sitting in front of white background Everybody loves Siberian Huskies and Malamutes. Like, literally - everybody. When Bill Clinton came to Dearborn, Mich. during the Michigan primary, he stopped whatever he was doing just to pet two woolly Alaskan Malamutes. I've got photos to prove it: Part of the reason why everybody likes Huskies and Malamutes is because they're sweethearts - they don't guard, they don't growl. They hardly even bark - in fact, they mostly just do some version of howling that sounds more like talking. Advertisement But you know, maybe not everyone loves Huskies. Lansing Republicans, for instance, don't seem to give a howl about them. Why do I say that? Simple: There's been a bill sitting in Lansing for years, called "Logan's Law," that makes it so animal abusers can't adopt new pets. It was started because a husky, Logan, was assaulted with battery acid and later died from his injuries. The owner of Logan decided that we needed a new commandment in Michigan: thou shalt not adopt if you abuse! He wanted to make sure that whoever has a violent history can't continue to adopt a sweetheart like Logan just to abuse them. Logan's Law has the broad support of animal rights activists, law enforcement and pet owners everywhere. The only problem is that Michigan Republican politicians would rather see animals put in the hands of violent criminals, animal abusers and pet rapists then deal with a little controversy. See, a little while back, there was a kerfuffle about Republicans banning anal sex in Michigan. No - I'm not kidding - Logan's Law modified existing laws regarding sexual morality in order to ban people raping their pets. When the Michigan Senate or State House modifies part of the state code, it has to ratify each section in entirety. Advertisement Even though the parts of our state code that banned anal sex between consenting adults have been unconstitutional since Lawrence v. Texas and, thus, unenforceable, some (very stupid) people in the media ran with it and acted like the legislature was banning anal sex (again.) Since Michigan Republicans are more afraid of alienating their anal-anxious constituents then they're concerned with our furry friends being abused, beaten and raped - they've stalled entirely on Logan's Law. And this is where you come into the picture: You see, I've got two huskies. Their names are Leo and Lizzy. They're both total cuddlebugs and they both support Logan's Law. They want you to do something about it, and so, even though I tend to write about other things, they both persuaded me to ask for your help. I mean - just look at those cute bandanas: If you want to help Leo & Lizzy, there's a simple way to do it. Logan's Law is stalled in committee right now, and the head of the committee, Rep. Klint Kesto, has been sitting on it for more than a year. The bills are number 219 & 220. Oh, and if the receptionist says "they're doing something with it soon," remind them that they've been saying that for more than a year. You can call the office at (517) 373-1799. Engraving of young woman reading scary book. The paperback edition of The Joy of Killing was released recently, but I wouldn't recommend taking Harry Maclean's first stab at fiction to the beach. Maclean, lawyer as well as New York Times best selling author, has dedicated much of his life to studying small town killers, reflected in his four non-fiction true crime novels and Edgar Award. His dark, twisted understanding of the human psyche makes this book so chilling, it's known to give people nightmares. The book begins with a shard of a memory of a pretty and provocative young girl on a long, cross country train ride. The story weaves through time seamlessly, while an unsettling uncertainty grows. The line between fantasy and reality is blurred as the main character's mind wanders. Advertisement As you journey through the narrator's memories, you discover violence is always lurking nearby, and you begin to wonder how true that is of your own world. The novel makes you aware that deviant behavior is everywhere, and everyone is capable of different degrees of evil. You start questioning yourself and your own ideas of right and wrong. If provoked strongly enough, am even I capable of horrible things? The unreliable narrator in an eerie, small, American town has a similar feel to HBO's True Detective season one. Especially with its philosophical inquiries into good, evil, and everything justifiable in between. You'll find yourself flipping through pages faster than you could binge watch a series. It's a fascinating and frightening read, but if you were a fan of HBO's The Jinx or Netflix's Making a Murderer, I would absolutely recommend The Joy of Killing. Just like in those true crime docs, you won't be able to tell who's telling the truth, and might find yourself sympathizing with a killer. The novel will give you goosebumps on a hot summer day, like you thought was only possible if you ran into Robert Durst alone on the street. Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist. -- Kenneth Boulding The mantra of classical economists is "growth." So fixated are they on growth that recessions are often referred to as periods of "negative growth." The dominant economic paradigm: If we can keep growing the pie, everyone's piece will get larger. Never mind that, as the pie grows, the greedy cut monstrous pieces for themselves and slivers for the rest of us. The foundational assumption itself is flawed. The empty promise of perpetual growth is based on folly -- and on a fluke of evolutionary history that has allowed humankind to temporarily disregard the laws of physics. ----- For most of the time humans have inhabited the earth, our numbers were small, and the growth rate of our species was nearly zero. In other words, we were more-or-less in equilibrium with the natural world, as were most species. Advertisement The doubling time of the human population just prior to the Industrial Revolution was about 500 years. Following the Industrial Revolution, England's growth rate shot to 1.6 percent, its population doubling every 43 years. What the hell happened? In two words: fossil fuels. Fossil fuels propelled the Industrial Revolution, which in turn gave us mechanization, rapid transportation, the subjugation of nature, and industrial agriculture, all the ingredients for modern, urbanized, high-density societies. Powered first by coal, then oil, and now gas, the world's human population more than tripled between 1950 and 2010. Fossil fuels have been a Faustian bargain. Civilization as we know it has been purchased by mortgaging the future. To understand why we need some physics. Advertisement Thermodynamicists refer to isolated, closed, and open systems. An isolated system is hermetically sealed: it can exchange neither matter nor energy with its surroundings. At the other extreme, an open system can exchange both. With a semi-permeable boundary, a closed system, can exchange energy but not matter. Save for a stray meteorite that might increase our planet's mass by a tiny fraction, the earth's mass is static. However, it's surface is subject daily to an enormous flux of solar radiation (sunlight), most of which is re-radiated back to space. So, for all practical purposes, spaceship earth is a closed system. Mainstream economists tend to think of the economy as an abstract, mathematical automaton independent of the physical world. But economic activity necessarily requires natural resources, which are in finite supply simply because spaceship earth is closed. Fallacy number one: The notion of perpetual economic growth is absurd on face value because it demands an unbounded supply of natural resources and thus an infinitely large earth. Fallacy number two is more subtle and involves the thermodynamic idea of entropy. Entropy is a slippery concept requiring care. Most commonly, entropy is a quantitative measure of disorder within a thermodynamic system. For example, uncork a perfume bottle in a sealed room, and then watch and wait. After several hours the densely concentrated perfume molecules will have diffused and dispersed all throughout the room. They will not then spontaneously reassemble themselves back inside the perfume bottle. The simple vignette illustrates nature's most fundamental law -- the Second Law of Thermodynamics -- which states that entropy tends to increase over time in an isolated system. On spaceship earth, the Second Law implies that the order and structure of the economy are purchased at the price of disorder and degradation of the ecosphere. Fortunately, the earth being a closed system (admitting energy), ecological degradation can be reversed, but only on a time scale that is long relative to a human lifespan. Advertisement With regard to energy, it is useful to think of entropy as quantifying the concentration (or availability) of the form of energy. Highly concentrated energy -- coal, for example -- has low entropy. Low-grade, diffuse energy -- say, waste heat -- has high entropy. Although energy is conserved, according to the Second Law, entropy tends to increase over time. For example, consider burning coal to produce electricity to power lights, stoves, and refrigerators. All the electrical energy used to power those devices eventually winds up as waste heat. Waste energy is not lost, but at high entropy, it is essentially unusable. Think then of fossil fuels as concentrated sunlight, the products of millions of years of photosynthesis during the Carboniferous Period. Such dense, low-entropy energy is a fluke of the earth's evolutionary history. Fossil energy has allowed humans to proliferate and civilizations to sprout at an abnormally fast pace, and for the degradation of the earth's biosphere at a rate far beyond her natural ability to regenerate. Our dependence on fossil energy therefore has us in a double bind. First, fossil fuels are in finite supply. If they run out before sufficient low-entropy replacements are found, civilizations will crash due to energy unavailability. But if we don't soon quit using them, atmospheric CO2 from burning fossils will crash the ecosphere. We're between a rock and a hard place. The current economic paradigm of perpetual growth greatly exacerbates our dilemma. Having originated during the age of fossil fuels -- when abnormal growth was the rule -- classical economics ignores the fundamental role played by entropy in sustainability and suggests that we can simply continue business as usual into the future. Classical economic theory has thus placed on a trajectory toward catastrophe. Fortunately, not all economists are blind to physical laws. As early as 1857, John Stuart Mill developed a non-growth "stationary-state" economic model. More recently, the Quaker economist Kenneth Boulding (1910-1993) proposed a theory of "evolutionary economics," which considers human economy as a subsystem of evolutionary biology. And in 1977, Herman Daly sounded the clarion call for "ecological economics" with the publication of Steady-State Economics. Daly, a 2014 recipient of the Blue Planet Prize, is currently on staff at the Center for the Advancement of the Steady-State Economy (CASSE). Advertisement "Economics for a Full World" -- Daly's 2014 address in Tokyo -- is lucid and accessible. It deserves to be read in entirety for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that he offers concrete and reasonable solutions for both our economic and ecological woes. Here are a few gems from Daly: Because of exponential growth since World War II, we now live in a full world, but we still behave as if it were empty. That richer (more net wealth) is better than poorer is a truism. The relevant question, though, is, does growth still make us richer, or has it begun to make us poorer by increasing "illth" faster than wealth? Examples of "illth" are everywhere, even if they are still unmeasured in national accounts. They include things like nuclear wastes, climate change from excess carbon in the atmosphere, biodiversity loss, depleted mines, deforestation, eroded topsoil, dry wells and rivers, sea level rise, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, gyres of plastic trash in the oceans, and the ozone hole. Their refusal to acknowledge [ecological limits] is why many economists cannot conceive of the possibility that growth in GDP could ever be uneconomic. The economy should not be used as an idiot machine dedicated to maximizing waste. Our vision and policies should be based on the integrated view of the economy as a subsystem of the finite and non-growing ecosphere. And, quoting John Ruskin, "There is no wealth but life." The attack Friday left one woman dead and three children that were accompanying her injured Egypt has condemned "in the strongest terms" Saturday the terrorist attack that took place in a restive district outside the Bahraini capital Manama Friday, killing a woman and injuring three children. In an official statement, the spokesman of the Egyptian foreign ministry said Egypt stands side by side with the Bahraini government and nation against "obnoxious terrorism" of all kinds, adding that Egypt is confident Bahrain will overcome such terrorist attacks aimed at attacking the country's stability and security. The foreign ministry spokesman offered his condolences to the victim's family and expressed hope for a speedy recovery for the injured. On Friday, AFP quoted police as announcing that a woman was killed and three children accompanying her in a car wounded when the car was hit by shrapnel from a bomb attack in the restive Shia-majority district of East Ekar outside Manama. "The general director offered his condolences to the family of the deceased, saying that justice will pursue those responsible," a statement by the Bahraini interior ministry read. Egypt and Bahrain have repeatedly discussed counter-terrorism efforts, with leaders of both countries underlining the importance of strengthening Arab unity to secure Arab countries from threats and respond to attempts at interference in Arab domestic affairs. Search Keywords: Short link: A Northeastern University student choosing not to give his name carries a Palestinian flag during a protest in support of Palestine after a Northeastern University student organization, Students for Justice in Palestine was "temporarily suspended for multiple violations of university policy over an extended period of time," according to a university statement in Boston, Tuesday, March 18, 2014. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia) With ISIS and other Islamic terror groups blowing up innocents in cities all over the world, one would think there would be more concern about groups that support terrorists and are active on American college campuses. One of the principal culprits, Students for Justice in Palestine, a supporter of the terrorist army Hamas, is a presence on approximately 200 college campuses. SJP was founded by UC Berkeley lecturer Hatem Bazian in 2001, during the notorious Second Intifada, infamous because it introduced suicide bombings as a terrorist weapon of choice. At the time, Hatem Bazian achieved his own notoriety when he called for an Intifada in the United States. Despite its name, Students for Justice in Palestine is not concerned with justice for the million Palestinians who suffer under the Hamas terror regime, or with the Hamas theft of hundreds of millions of humanitarian aid dollars diverted to the construction of terrorist tunnels into Israel. Its sole concern is to spread Hamas propaganda to delegitimize the Jewish state and call for its destruction. Among its other activities, SJP is the chief campus sponsor of resolutions to boycott Israel as part of the so-called BDS campaign, which is also funded and orchestrated by Hamas. Among its slanders is SJP's claim that Israel "brutally slaughtered over 2,500 Palestinian civilians" in the Gaza war, ignoring the fact that Hamas started the war with 4,000 unanswered rocket attacks into Israeli cities or that Israel's military policies are the most protective of civilians in the world. SJP's unvarying theme is that Israel's Jews are land-stealers, baby killers and racists - libels that have led to an epidemic of hostile attacks on Jewish students on American campuses. Advertisement Because I have conducted a poster campaign to expose these outrages and confront the perpetrators, I have been attacked by a Huffington Post blogger under the tongue-in-cheek title, "A Special Thanks to David Horowitz From A Student for Justice in Palestine" (7/1/16). The writer, Gabby Aossey, a senior at UC San Diego, describes me as "a self-proclaimed racist and bigot." Who exactly proclaims themselves racists and bigots? As evidence of this preposterous assertion, Aossey, offers my opposition to the Islamic terrorist network. This is the standard trope of Hamas supporters who cynically confuse the opposition to Islamic terrorism with anti-Muslim bigotry. I have written millions of published words, yet neither Aossey nor other apologists for Islamic terror have been able to cite a single sentence of mine that can be construed as anti-Muslim. Not even the premise of Aossey's blog can withstand scrutiny. She claims that my anti-Hamas/anti-SJP posters on her campus created sympathy for her cause. 'The support for SJP, and the named students of San Diego State University (like UCSD one of my target schools), was boosted by the community inside and outside of the college atmosphere; Jewish Voice for Peace and local San Diegan ministers denounced the pro-Zionism and pro-Israel organizations that take part in childish finger-pointing." Aossey doesn't specify which ministers, but Jewish Voice for Peace - a well-known organization of Jewish Israel-haters - is perhaps the oldest and most visible ally of SJP on campuses across the country. I had nothing to do with their support for SJP's anti-Israel agendas. Advertisement My goal in putting up posters targeting SJP on campuses like UC San Diego and San Diego State has three goals: First, to counter the mis-education of students like Gabby Aossey who falsely claims that Israel is a majority Muslim state and illegally occupies Arab land; second, to counter the Jew-hatred that these libels inspire; and third, to question why university funds are being used to support hate groups against Jews. The reaction of members of these Hamas-support organizations has been to accuse me and other critics of being racists and "Islamophobes." President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights Nancy Northup (R) and President and CEO of Whole Women's Health Amy Hagstrom Miller speak to reporters on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court after the court took up a major abortion case focusing on whether a Texas law that imposes strict regulations on abortion doctors and clinic buildings interferes with the constitutional right of a woman to end her pregnancy in Washington March 2, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque It is altogether fitting that the Supreme Court's term-end affirmation of women's constitutional right to abortion access in Whole Women's Health v. Hellerstadt came with a very brief but valuable separate concurring opinion by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In less than two pages, the diminutive but fierce justice, a.k.a. The Notorious RBG, skewered as "beyond rational belief" the bogus health justification Texas proffered for the pair of clinic-closing abortion restrictions the Court rejected 5-3, and warned that similar TRAP laws (for Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) "that do little or nothing for health, but rather strew impediments to abortion" cannot pass judicial muster going forward. Advertisement Beyond providing a useful citation for future cases, and a possible deterrence to red-state politicians contemplating needless new abortion restrictions, Justice Ginsburg's concurrence also had symbolic resonance -- recalling, even without any explicit reference, her own visionary litigation at the ACLU's Women's Rights Project in the 1970s, before joining the bench. In successfully leading the charge to rescue abortion rights in Texas, and even more broadly, from extreme assaults nationwide, the savvy all-out effort helmed by Nancy Northup, head of the Center for Reproductive Rights, was a continuation, too rarely recognized, of Justice Ginsburg's early legacy of fighting for equality. By now, much has been written about the disingenuous and hurtful provisions at issue in Whole Women's Health, and the majority opinion's constructive bolstering of the "undue burden" test for assessing the constitutionality of abortion restrictions, insisting that obstacles to abortion access have an actual, overriding health purpose that is rigorously scrutinized by courts for pretext. My limited purpose here is to salute the lawyers whose collective efforts helped bring about this victory. That legal team, for the record, was led by Stephanie Toti, who ably argued the case in March before the justices, standing up impressively to intense questioning from members of the Court -- much of it unfriendly. She had key support from the Center's David Brown and J. Alexander Lawrence of Morrison & Foerster LLP, a private law firm, as well as from junior attorneys and veteran Center advocates like Janet Crepps, who has been engaged in the legal struggle for women's reproductive freedom for more than 30 years. For her pre-Supreme Court work (which did not involve abortion), Justice Ginsburg has been justly celebrated and is thought of by many as the Thurgood Marshall of women's rights. The intrepid Ms. Northup, the strategic architect of the larger campaign around the Whole Women's Health case, and her cadre of dedicated and talented lawyers who handled the litigation day-by-day, should be recognized as part of that same civil rights and constitutional law tradition. Advertisement Despite sweeping vindication of abortion rights in the dry yet powerful majority opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer, the favorable outcome was no slam-dunk. The abortion limits at issue had already spread to other states and there were sensitive decisions along the way about which terrible restrictions to challenge and at what stage. The positive trial court findings secured by the Center's lawyers had been rejected by a lower federal appeals court, which castigated the trial judge for daring to hold a four-day trial to independently assess the evidence. There were signals going both ways about where the Court's swing justice, Anthony Kennedy, might land when push-came-to-shove. Without his support, the case could not have been won. Ultimately, Justice Kennedy did the right thing, persuaded to buck his conservative colleagues, it seems, by the overwhelming legal, medical, scientific and other evidence the Center for Reproductive Rights meticulously gathered and put before the Court and the public, unmasking the "health" restrictions for the fraud they were, and the physical and dignitary harm to women had they been allowed to take effect. There is a direct correlation to the anti-LGBT theology shared by religious leaders to the violence LGBT people face. This theology -- which dehumanizes, ostracizes, and demonizes LGBT people -- does not happen in a vacuum. Just over a week ago, forty-nine members of the LGBT community, overwhelmingly Latinx, were slaughtered at a gay nightclub. The shooter, as many speculated, had ties to ISIS and it was his radicalized religious ideology that led him to massacre dozens of LGBT people. This ISIS connection, which has been dismissed by the FBI, prompted others to condemn Islam as an inherently violent religion - especially to those in the LGBT community. Indeed, ISIS promotes anti-LGBT ideologies and have targeted the queer community in beheadings and other obscene forms of murder. These acts are extreme representations of what it looks like to take the words in the Quran to the letter of the law. Even those who are not radicalized in their Islamic beliefs perpetuate beliefs against the LGBT community that are harmful. Still Islam is not the only religion that encourages violence against LGBT bodies. Christianity, in its most traditionalist understanding of sexuality, where sexuality is only holy between a man and a woman, can be just as violent. Advertisement Its sermons preached from our pulpits that allow parents to throw their LGBT kids on the streets and their counselors that encourage us to unsuccessfully pray our queerness away. Christians may not be throwing us off buildings but it's their theology that leads us to the bridge. It's their voices on our backs that encourage us it's better to jump than to live life as a proud queer person. In Belgium, a gay man has requested to be euthanized for his sexuality. After 17 years of therapy, and unable to change his sexual orientation, this Belgium gay man is unable to reconcile his sexuality and traditional catholic faith. The messaged he has received from his church has made him believe it is better he die than be a gay man. It's internalizing this anti-LGBT theology that has many LGBT people depressed and suicidal. The harm is not only self-inflicted but also by those around us. This traditional theology creates an environment fertile for violence. The dehumanization of LGBT persons from the pulpit create the very environment in which 17 Trans women, primarily women of color, have been murdered this year alone. LGBT people are most likely to face hate crimes than any other minority group and our chances for violence doubles if we're people of color. Not only is the evangelical right's theology influencing harm on LGBT people in the United States but also abroad. The Christian right's anti-LGBT theology has extended far past our boarders influencing legislation in multiple countries in Africa as well as Russia. These laws, which are motivated by the same evangelical theology here, require hard labor, anal exams, decades in prison, or are sometimes carried out in street justice. Advertisement Recognizing the long reaching effects of this anti-LGBT theology makes the Christian right's response to the Orlando massacre incredibly hypocritical. The statements and tweets, which erased the LGBT community, claiming to grieve with the LGBT community are reprehensible when those same individuals work tirelessly to limit LGBT civil rights. Politician Pam Bondi claimed to be a supporter of the LGBT community only to have Anderson Cooper remind her of her anti-LGBT record. Dr. Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention claimed to grieve for Orlando, without mentioning the LGBT community, and with a history of anti-LGBT statements. The Evangelical right has political capital in the United States that is unparalleled. When those who heavily influence our policies and culture espouse the very rhetoric that causes LGBT people violence, they must be held accountable. They cannot encourage this traditional theology and wash their hands of the harmful, and even deadly, effects. As a bisexual Christian living in the United States, I'm far more concerned with anti-LGBT animus from the evangelical right here at home. That is not to say that I do not mourn with my LGBT siblings abroad whose lives are being taken by ISIS in the most heinous ways. It is atrocious and ISIS must be stopped. But we must also call upon those here at home who do damage to LGBT persons to stop. Teacher: Since we've already dealt with the Greek notion of the Golden Mean as applied to Success, I thought we'd dispense today with the preliminaries and cut right to the chase by discussing another one of our topics. Who would care to begin? Student 1: I'd like to deal with "the Family." I think a balanced view of the family would be that you naturally love your mother and father, sisters and brothers, support and are loyal to them. You owe your parents a lot. They brought you into this world, raised you, cared for you, and love you. They're always there for you, no matter what. You may have your disagreements, and sometimes they may crowd you, and your little brother or sister can be a pain at times, or most of the time, but that's all to be expected when you've been living together in close quarters for years. You're family! What more can I say? The problem comes as you get older, become more independent, and start breaking away as is only natural, a process which most parents understand. Then you meet that "special someone," get serious, marry, and have a life of your own. But some parents, not all of them by any means, but some parents, probably more the mother than the father, still expect you to remain part of their family instead of having your own with your new spouse. Your parents may start resenting that you don't call them more often, like every day, or visit them every Sunday for dinner, when they can pry into your married life, or give you the third degree about what you've been doing or about your spouse's family. They view your keeping them at bay and attempting to live your own life as some kind of betrayal. Advertisement The young couple can't understand why the parents are so insistent about inquiring into their life together, and why they don't seem to grasp the fact that you're married now and want to be left alone with your wife or husband, but they can't accept this and begin putting all kinds of pressure on you. They want you and your spouse to be a satellite that revolves around them, failing to realize that you want to have an independent existence. I hear this all the time from my friends, whose married sisters and brothers have to deal with this constantly, and how this puts a strain on their marriage and creates a lot of hard feelings all around. It finally reaches a point where the couple becomes the "black sheep" of the family because they're always fending off their parents' questions to protect their privacy. This is what I'd consider a balanced view of how to handle parents like this. The extreme way of dealing with this situation would be for the couple to capitulate to the wishes of these parents rather than keeping a healthy distance from them. The son or daughter shows more loyalty to the parents than to their spouse. This is really sad because it shows that something's radically wrong with this couple by their siding with the parents. You have to protect yourself and your spouse from these kinds of parents and their meddling. Maybe someone else could give an example of the opposite extreme. The only possibility I can think of would be rejecting the parents completely. Teacher: Could someone give an example of having no family feeling whatsoever? Student 2: Sure, but before I do, I just wanted to comment on what's been said so far. I can see why someone would think that way about these particular parents, who are still holding on and refuse to let go, but I think you really can't just cut them off like that. Blood is thicker than water, and family is always there for you. With all the divorces today, who knows how long your marriage will last? So I wonder whether it's wise to reject your family because you never know how your marriage is going to work out. I think you have to bend a little and make some concessions. Advertisement Student 1: I'm not saying that you reject your parents, but that you simply refuse to call or visit them as often as they'd like, or let yourself be continually hounded by their interrogations, and learn to deal with the tension this would inevitably entail. I don't think you have any other choice. After all, you married this girl or this guy, and you owe them your total allegiance because, if you don't, the situation will only grow worse. It's simply a matter of standing your ground and setting up boundaries against this intrusive badgering about your personal life, even if it causes hard feelings. You're no longer a child, but an adult, who simply wants a private life with your spouse, and you have to fight to protect this relationship, otherwise it will be destroyed by these parents. The example I gave is the exception, and I doubt very much that most parents are like this, but some parents are, and that's the type I'm talking about. Student 2: But what if you and your spouse don't make it and have to go your separate ways? You'd still have your family to fall back on. They're there for you. I don't know how else to put it, but you need them as insurance in case something goes wrong and you have a break-up or divorce, whereas family's forever! Student 1: If there were a break-up in this particular case, it would undoubtedly be caused by these parents and their continual meddling in the lives of this couple, who finally caved to the parents instead of standing their ground by remaining loyal to each other. Giving in to these parents would show that the son or daughter wasn't worthy of their spouse because the parents came first rather than the spouse, who felt betrayed, and justifiably so! I'd blame the parents first and foremost, and then the son or daughter who was too weak to stand up to the parents and tell them to stop interfering with their lives, and, if they refused, ask them why they were trying to wreck their marriage, because that's precisely what they'd be doing. After all, when you marry someone, it's you and her, or you and him, forever, and if your family can't respect that loyalty, then that's their problem and there's something wrong with them! You have to fight for your spouse to show them that they come first, and not your parents! It's better to have this out with them sooner than later, and if your family doesn't have your happiness at heart, then you walk away from them! Advertisement Student 3: I think you're blowing this way out of proportion. You have to look at this from the parents' perspective. They miss their son or daughter who has been living with them their entire life. They're interested in them even when they're married. Maybe it's a bit of the empty nest syndrome and they're lonely. It's hard for parents to break with their children so quickly, and I don't think they're trying to be controlling, intrusive, or newsy at all, and that this couple may be too sensitive and over-reacting. Just call the parents once a week, and about that Sunday dinner, hey, you're getting a free meal out of it, so what's wrong with that? It's a small price to pay to keep peace in the family. And don't forget, when children come along, you're going to need a baby sitter you can trust and who won't charge anything, and who better than good old Mom and Dad to the rescue. Student 4: I don't agree with that at all. If a couple wants their privacy, they're entitled to it. End of story! It might not bother some couples who wouldn't mind having their life be an open book, but other couples would. I know I would if I were that daughter or daughter-in-law who was losing control of her life by having to check in daily, spend every Sunday visiting them, or run a continual gauntlet of personal questions when seeing them. It's just none of their business, and I don't know what it is about privacy that they wouldn't understand! Real life isn't an Oprah Show! Teacher: Why don't you continue now with your example of the opposite extreme of having no concern for one's family? Student 2: Right. You could have parents who don't deserve any respect. Maybe they're in jail, druggies, abusive, or neglect you and make your home a living hell. In those cases, I could see a kid writing them off. On the other hand, let's say you have two really good parents, and the kid starts rebelling. The parents love their kid and do all the right things, but the kid still acts out, really becoming a problem, almost as if they're punishing the parents. Maybe the kid got in with a bad crowd or is going through a phase. Or maybe it's drugs, or the kid's bored and wants attention, wants to be known as a kid "with issues" for some kind of status thing, or is emotionally or mentally unstable. Beyond that, I'd be at a loss to explain why they'd be acting this way because, clearly, the parents don't deserve this kind of treatment. Advertisement Student 6: And then there are tiger moms or helicopter, snowplow, and bulldozer parents. I hear they're even driving college professors crazy by calling them up and asking for extensions on their kids' term papers, requesting make-up tests, and, if you can believe it, changing grades. We're talking major insanity here with these parents, who have a colossal problem with "letting go" and don't even realize the impression they're making. To be honest, though, some kids like this because it saves them the trouble of having to fight their own battles if Mommy or Daddy does it for them, but I think that most of them would be embarrassed or resentful at being treated like children. It could even do them long-term damage if they bought into what their parents were doing. I mentioned this a while back to my grandfather, a man of few words, who just shook his head and said, "Those parents are creating a ticking time bomb for themselves." Student 7: You can understand when parents do this while their kids are in elementary school, or in rare instances in middle school, but in high school and college? Give me a break! I could easily see a kid rebelling against these parents, who think they're fantastic parents when they're only control freaks or a couple of vampires feeding off the lives of their children. Get a life! Teacher: Anyone else? Nothing? Okay. Well, a take-no-prisoners exchange of views! As with all our discussions, we haven't resolved anything, as that's your job. My job is simply to encourage as many different viewpoints as possible to give you food for thought. Advertisement Calm and understated, I almost walked past Peter Sinkevich at a summer Entrepreneurs' Roundtable Accelerator networking event this past summer. I'm glad I didn't. Aside from the fact that his successes in serial entrepreneurship and venture capital made him an early millionaire at the age of 20 via exit, or that his exploits are more characteristic of people 20 years his senior, Peter has the uncommon virtue of having developed a meta-view of living life through the lens of tech entrepreneurship. Some might call this extreme, but this blogger thinks it's remarkable. I sat down with Peter a few weeks ago to get some added perspective on Peter's view of life and how he infuses startup principles into his daily living. The answers I received to my questions can help not only entrepreneurs, but anyone looking to operationally optimize their day-to-day. Our interview, below: Why choose the startup as a template for better living? Everything is in a startup: time management, relationship-building, finance, sales, marketing, programming, investment banking--the list goes on. It's more than a little like life because when you're building a company you really do have to take everything into account to be successful. So I thought, 'if the startup lifecycle is a microcosm of life, then life itself should reflect the way startups grow.' Both things require most of your energy, if you're at all goal-oriented; both things require you to learn from your failures to find success, both things require a combination of vision and execution to thrive. But while you only have one life, with startups, you can start again if you fail. Yet, even the learning curves and developmental time horizons for both are similar, because both things start, literally and figuratively, as an infant. Both need to be nurtured to grow. So you have a bit of catching up to do in terms of knowledge and such and so I think using the startup as a template for living can give people a sort of operational matrix for understanding when and how best to get over obstacles and optimize their day-to-day. Advertisement Can you give me an example of how this can work for the average person? Sure. I get a lot of requests for help from Millennials seeking jobs at startups, or wanting to start startups themselves. I help them by asking them to test themselves for strengths every entrepreneur needs to succeed--for example, can you sell yourself effectively? Can you get a good understanding of who your audience is, and who you're trying to speak to and appeal to get that job? In startups and in job hunting, selling and marketing are necessary skills, whether in trying to market and successfully sell a product or market and successfully sell yourself for a job offer. Show the employer that you know about their problems, and demonstrate your ability to solve any one (or more) of those problems, and that's how to create value for any team and get hired, regardless of your level of expertise. If you can demonstrate that you can solve a company's problems, you are hirable anywhere. What have been people's reactions to this idea? Fairly positive. It's a very meta-idea, and also very niche to the entrepreneurial community, so the vast majority of people--even within the community--don't think to use these principles on everything. Advertisement Can you give us an idea of how it feeds into your current work? Definitely! An extension of the idea into my current work is ILoveStartup.com, a new brand I've been nurturing under which I've been pursuing various projects intended to help entrepreneurs get the most out of their communities and execute better. One thing I think many entrepreneurs don't get, especially given we're living in a post-financial crisis world, is that startups and startup communities don't have to make their primary focus all about money. Companies doing social good help everybody. How is what you're doing helping people? A while back, I helped Startup Grind, the world's largest entrepreneurial community, powered by Google for Entrepreneurs, build their first chapter in Connecticut in Greenwich, CT. That led CT Governor Dan Malloy to call upon my business partner and I to create what is now ILoveStartup.com's venture fund, Stamford Venture Partners. Although a goal of the fund is to create alpha (returns above and beyond what is expected), its primary goal is to lead surrounding area investors and enrich Fairfield County, a part of the greater New York City region. Connecticut doesn't have a cohesive startup ecosystem like New York City, so we thought we would take a major role in creating one to both support CT-based entrepreneurs and attract high quality entrepreneurs to CT to do business. Also, CT's population has actually been on a continual decline for the past two decades, so we're hoping to attract entrepreneurs to Fairfield County, and then incubate and fund them. We believe that giving life to a thriving startup economy in Connecticut will attract people to do business here, then live here, then move here and raise their families here. We're also focusing on sharing stories of entrepreneurial failure, arguably the most important conversation no one is having. This isn't to glorify screwing up, but rather to promote the reality that accepting failure is a de facto part of starting up (not to mention life), and that handling it in the right way, learning from it and using the learned lessons to pursue greater success makes you a better individual. My good friend Bob Dorf, the co-author of The Startup Owner's Manual, along with Steve Blank of Silicon Valley fame, introduced the concept to me. Dorf's Manual is one of the most important texts an entrepreneur can read, and after discussing this concept at length my team and I have Fuckup Nights, part of a global movement currently represented in 154 cities in over 50 countries and growing. It is receiving amazing attention, already covered in many major news outlets including the Huffington Post, and has enjoyed the participation of several high quality speakers like Y Combinator alum and Emmy Award winning founder Dan Albritton, Shark Tank featured founder Lori Cheek, and General Assembly co-founder Dan Hargreaves. We've been holding the events at Pivotal Labs every first Thursday of each month, but will expand our efforts beyond Chelsea to Brooklyn this fall, and, eventually, to CT. To conclude, what core advice would you give to new entrepreneurs in this imminently more difficult business environment? Rule #1: Remember that everything in life is a transaction. Every transaction has a point of sale. So living life is akin to selling to a buyer--the people you will interact with. But, you have to not only be valuable, but also likable to be able to sell yourself... after all, the number one rule of sales is that no one will buy anything from you if they don't like you first. The measurement of your success is what you can accomplish, which also depends on who you know that can help you achieve your goals, and only by being likable will people want to know you and help you in some capacity to achieve your goals, even if it's something as simple as a reaction, an email intro, or a contact point. Rule #2: Don't sell to a market/demographic you don't understand. Your message and vernacular can be wildly off base from what the audience cares about--like landing a plane blindfolded... Scary. Don't develop ideas in a vacuum. Understand the audience attached to the problem your addressing first. They will clarify the details of the problem and what matters the most to them--the buyer, implicitly or expressly. In a job, while "treading water", meet expectations, and simultaneously take a lay of land regarding the people and the dynamic at hand, and understand what and who you're dealing with, and then make a plan of action of how to excel while navigating everything you discovered. Observe actions and see what everyone else is focusing on to ascertain goals, and then help them fulfill their goals that fall within your capabilities. Rule #3. Execute well. Actions are more important than words. This goes back to a mantra I use to determine people's real intentions: "Your actions speak so loudly I cannot hear what you are saying." Advertisement Vietnamese living in Taiwan display placards and images of dead fish, claimed by protesters to be caused by Taiwan's Formosa group industry waste water, during a demonstration in Taipei on June 18, 2017.Taiwanese lawmakers urged the government on June 16 to investigate local conglomerate Formosa's possible role in mass fish deaths in Vietnam, as activists said industrial pollution from its multi-billion dollar steel plant could have caused the environmental disaster. / AFP / SAM YEH (Photo credit should read SAM YEH/AFP/Getty Images) MELBOURNE, Australia -- The stink from Vietnam's fish kill scandal -- which left some 70 tons of dead fish scattered across the beaches of four of the country's provinces and fishermen out of work -- is symptomatic of something greater than worries about food security and the environment: access to information and the ability to distribute it. On June 30, almost three months since the mass fish deaths began, Vietnam's newspapers all began printing the same story: Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp., a subsidiary of Taiwan's Formosa Plastics Group, blamed by many for the incident, had accepted responsibility for the industrial pollution that had caused the environmental fiasco and would pay $500 million in compensation. The government of Vietnam, which had been silent for much of this, also noted the company was responsible due to a toxic spill. Earlier in the month there was progress towards a verdict but no confirmation, as Tuoi Tre newspaper wrote: Advertisement On June 2, the government held a press meeting to announce that the cause behind the deaths had been identified, but it was being challenged by experts in order to ensure it was based on scientific, legal, and objective grounds before a final conclusion was confirmed. While the public waited for answers and the tourism industry suffered, the press was also curtailed. As the New York Times mentioned in its reporting of the incident: "Officials said that it had been necessary to restrict news coverage of the disaster while the investigation was underway." This wasn't entirely unusual for the country whose journalists often face obstacles while doing their jobs, but it did highlight a situation that doesn't appear to be getting better anytime soon. Vietnam has consistently been ranked poorly for press freedom, and the fish death debacle shows recent changes in the Vietnamese press: environmental journalism is now more tightly watched as the public becomes more aware of problems -- and more likely to organize. In the wake of this scandal, the freedom to report thoroughly on environmental issues might be abating, just as it gains traction in the public commons in Vietnam. In fact the reaction Thursday to the scandal served as a coup, of sorts, and a rarity in governmental response to similar offenses in the past. Going forward, the level of follow up reporting will determine more about how much press freedom will be allowed in these large-scale environmental cases with their mix of government oversight, foreign money and public anger at pollution. But for right now this new government line, and fine of half a billion in compensation, is encouraging in comparison to the wrist-slap fines of the past. Advertisement Protesters in Hanoi demand cleaner water after mass fish deaths. (Nguyen Huy Kham/ Reuters) Up to now environmental and food safety issues have been allowable investigative stalwarts of the press for a while, likely because they're much safer topics than tales of actual, detailed official corruption or government mismanagement. But once somewhat controversial issues get enough public attention, coverage often lessens or is at least more carefully managed. Such was the case with our fish kill story, which made international headlines as well as people took to the streets in protest for the lack of accountability and information for this disaster. But this is nothing new. In fact, those critical of the government can be locked up under three different sections of the criminal code: 88, 79 and 258. Vietnam's press is state-owned, but each news outlet is owned by different government organizations, rather than by the Communist Party directly. Instead, directives are issued and there is also a good measure of self-censorship; editors and journalists tend to know when a story or topic is incendiary. This 2008 paper, written as social media was just taking off, covers how Vietnam's press operates quite well. When Vietnam's fish kill protests began over two months ago, people were angry at the lack of government action, the cavalier response from a spokesman for Taiwanese company Formosa assumed responsible for the pollution and worried for both food security and the livelihoods of those affected. By early May, protesters in Ho Chi Minh City numbered in the many hundreds or more, and were not simply activists but ordinary people, too. What, for journalists, was largely apolitical investigative work now has a stronger political background thanks to a growing number of young activists and a more general unease over both pollution and food security in the population. Before the news of the chemical spill and the fine broke this week, Formosa built a 10.6 billion dollar steel mill in Ha Tinh, a small, poor province south of Hanoi where a large amount of the fish washed up. The building of the plant was a coup for the provincial government that had lobbied hard. Advertisement Back then it was said that the piles of fish washed ashore were apparently the result of a one-time accidental dump of pollution in the sea via an underwater pipeline several miles offshore, according to initial press reports. Formosa spokesman's initial statement at a press conference stating that Vietnam would have to "choose" between a steel plant and catching fish and seafood set off a social media storm of people "choosing" fish. Throughout the ordeal, the government blocked much reporting on the issue, citing its "sensitive nature" and so people turned to other avenues to express their frustration and share information. As Vietnam Right Now wrote on June 11, "With demonstrations banned, and the media firmly under state control, frustration at the government's handling of the mass fish deaths in central provinces has increasingly been restricted to social media." Protester displays picture of the mass of dead fish on the shores of Vietnam. (Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty) In May, about a month after the fish stink began, I wrote on U.S. President Barack Obama's first visit to Vietnam for The WorldPost and Australia's Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based foreign policy think tank. The American leader received a rapturous welcome and the public rancor over the fish saga evaporated at a time when things could have been uncomfortable for the government -- and gave the country a boost in positive press. President Obama's dinnertime trip to eat bun cha, a pork dish with noodles, was the headline of the day. "They've taken a break from choosing fish, but even a president can't be a distraction forever," I wrote in Lowy's Interpreter blog, Sure enough, on June 5, protests and arrests began again. Pham Doan Trang, a longtime journalist-turned-activist, chronicled the events in a group email to journalists and academics. Trang was one of the activists slated to meet Obama during his Vietnam trip, but was prevented from doing so after the car she was covertly traveling in from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi was stopped by police. She wrote that post-Obama protests were more sparsely attended, to the point that in HCMC police outnumbered protesters. She also noted that many protesters were dragged away, beaten and interrogated by police and security forces, who used methods she likened to old Soviet techniques. This social media aspect of journalism can have the effect of distortion: untruths can be propagated in a blogosphere unrestricted by editorial standards. Even so, the reporting feels more honest than the official line printed in the papers. Environmental sagas have made for compelling reporting in Vietnam over the past years, but as discourse moves into the civil society and social media realm, and interest in environmental issues increases, the government attitude towards them is changing and what, for journalists, was largely apolitical investigative work now has a stronger political background thanks to a growing number of young activists and a more general unease over both pollution and food security in the population. Luong Nguyen An Dien, a Vietnamese journalist who recently returned after a stint at Columbia University's school of journalism, told me, "Now social media has boomed in Vietnam, and the authorities are increasingly wary of public sentiment there. To them, any environmental issue could be politicized. The fish kill is just an example." Despite the crackdown from the government, reporters still usually report on sensitive issues until the subject gets too hot via social media. This social media aspect of journalism can have the effect of distortion: untruths can be propagated in a blogosphere unrestricted by editorial standards. Even so, the reporting feels more honest than the official line printed in the papers, which often go through screening and censorship by Ministry of Information and Communications. A boy looks at a dead fish on a beach in Quang Trach district in the central coastal province of Quang Binh. (STR/AFP/Getty) Online environmental organization started to gain traction in Vietnam in 2009, when disparate groups came together to criticize the government's plans for bauxite mines in the ecologically delicate Central Highlands region. That they were Chinese-run only made people angrier. Citizens organized a campaign via Facebook that took the government by surprise and the site was intermittently blocked (though never officially "banned") for some time after. The same year, The Committee to Protect Journalists named Vietnam in the top "10 Worst Countries to Be a Blogger," following the detention of a blogger for her coverage of territorial issues between China and Vietnam. Advertisement In the past few years young activists are doing more than talking but actually criticizing the government. When Hanoi's city government announced a tremendous cull of the city's beautiful old trees -- all made from valuable wood -- young people organized online, and protested. Some protests quickly turned violent. Dien, the Vietnamese journalist, remembers the last Taiwanese environmental scandal, when in 2008, MSG producer Vedan left a 10 kilometer section of the Thi Vai River in Dong Nai province ecologically "dead." There was anger -- and the story was heavily reported by Vietnamese press -- but apart from those affected, there were few protests and not much online organizing. As food safety becomes a strong preoccupation, the environmental movement is going to pick up steam. And the freedom to report on it might be waning -- for now at least. "At the time, the purpose of covering the Vedan case was to sneak through a bigger story -- why the Taiwanese MSG maker could get away with such blatant violations for such a long time.The final outcome fell short of that expectation: Instead it was all about how Vedan finally agreed to compensate Vietnamese farmers out of fear they would face a massive boycott," he said. Dien has reported on environmental issues in the country as well. Writing for Vietnam Express he questioned why Monsanto, the company responsible for Agent Orange, is receiving such a welcome back into Vietnam after the chemical deforested so much land and led to birth defects in subsequent generations of the Vietnamese population. Advertisement This topic has not yet reached the proportions of the fish kill scandal, partly as there are no direct effects: no tons of dead fish. Whether people begin to organize around less immediate threats remains to be seen, but as food safety in general becomes a strong preoccupation, the environmental movement is going to pick up steam. And the freedom to report on it might be waning -- for now at least. Also on WorldPost: By Dawn R Starr, InternationalLiving.com Bringing pets to the European Union (EU) from the U.S. or Canada is much easier than it once was. For dogs and cats, especially, the days of long quarantines are gone, paperwork is standardized, and--once within the EU--a "pet passport" valid throughout the EU can be issued. Harbor Gallipoli, Italy To start with, dogs, cats, and ferrets are the only pets for which EU-wide documentation has been standardized. If your pet is another species, national regulations apply. And in all cases, you'll want to read the pet regulations for the specific EU country you'll be living in. Well in advance of travel, find a vet who is certified and experienced in pet relocation to Europe. (Your local vet may know of one. Alternatively, there is likely one in your state or provincial capital.) Meet with the vet for an initial session to make sure she or he is qualified and experienced in completing all the required steps within the tight timeframes. Make sure the vet has the correct form (ANNEX II) for European travel and has completed it before. Your pet's two main requirements for entry into the EU will be a rabies vaccination and an EU-compatible microchip. Advertisement If your pet is not already microchipped, this initial vet visit is an ideal time to do it. For the EU, the chip must be an ISO 15-digit microchip, either 11784 or 11785. Very important: Your pet must have a rabies vaccination after the chip is placed and at least 21 days before your flight departs. This is the case even if your pet already has a valid rabies vaccination. View of Haute Ville, Carcassonne, France The vet must fill out the ANNEX II form about 12 to 15 days before your departure. That form has to be mailed or taken by hand (make an appointment) to your local USDA office for certification. Then you have to enter the EU country within 10 days of the USDA certification. This is a very tight timeframe. So it's a good idea to schedule the final vet exam and paperwork in the morning, so you can get the completed paperwork to an overnight mail service. Make sure to check the USDA website for your region's mailing address and for the mandatory fees to include. Also be sure to include a self-addressed, return-overnight mailing envelope in the package. Meanwhile-- and again, well in advance of travel-- research your travel arrangements. Most airlines have specific pet-transport policies, which you can find on their websites. Airlines that allow pets in the cabin have specific size and weight limits. Larger pets must travel in the climate-controlled cargo hold. Airlines generally require you to make a flight reservation for your pet. They will also charge you a fee for transport, frequently $200 for one-way travel to Europe. In addition, airlines generally will not accept pets in cargo from May 15 to September 15, due to the hot summer weather. So be sure to take this into account. Granada, Spain Some airlines will not accept certain breeds of dogs for travel. Short-nosed breeds that are prone to breathing problems, such as pugs, English bulldogs, and Boston terriers, may not be accepted. Likewise, many airlines refuse to transport breeds with a reputation for aggression, such as pit bulls and Rottweilers. Advertisement If your pet will be in the cargo hold, make sure his carrier meets the airline's regulations. Carriers or crates must allow the animal to move around, and typically have an absorbent cushion or rug and are well ventilated. A carrier with wheels will make moving your pet through the airport far smoother. The crate should also be equipped with a potty pad, water dish and toy to keep him entertained as you cross the Atlantic. Book your flight as soon as possible to guarantee a spot for your pet. If you will be using other ground transportation once you arrive, such as a train, bus, or car rental, check their pet transport policies. Country Road, Galway, Ireland If your pet is traveling in-cabin, you may want to consider having your vet prescribe a slight sedative. (Pets traveling in cargo should not be sedated.) For instance, since my dog Pepper was flying in the cabin, I felt it would be in his best interest to be sedated, since he would be in his carrier for 12 to 15 hours. Twice I gave him a trial of the sedative before departing to make sure there were no adverse side effects. Arrive at the airport at least three hours before your departure. About four hours before checking in, feed your pet and get him well hydrated for the flight ahead, then play with him to get him tired. At the airport, let the pet relieve himself one more time before putting him in his crate. Make sure the crate door is securely closed. Keep the paperwork handy in the pocket of the in-cabin pet carrier, or for a checked crate, somewhere else easily accessible. Be sure to check the pet-importation guidelines of the European country you'll be moving to early in your planning. If you're coming from the U.S., check the USDA APHIS site. (the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant Health Inspection Service.) For Canadians, see the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website. Advertisement This article comes to us courtesy of InternationalLiving.com, the world's leading authority on how to live, work, invest, travel, and retire better overseas. Earlier on Huff/Post50: He's kidding, right? Pete Writer condemns citizens' right to protest harmful government policies and practices ("Democrats' sit-in was shameful," 6-25-16, http://herald-zeitung.com/opinion/article_7c8bfa44-3b31-11e6-9d16-03c1321b7cc5.html ). This right is as American as apple pie. Will he also condemn singing the Star Spangled Banner and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance? Our Constitution clearly gives us the right to peaceful protest with no punishment. "The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits ...abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble, or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution, accessed 6-29-16). Advertisement Yet we saw this right and others slip from their former revered status when George W. Bush began placing protesters out of sight and out of hearing when he spoke in public. I remember one bold media camera operator traveled several blocks from the motorcade route to photograph protesters roped-off from the President's presence (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/05/27/supreme-court-bush-protest-speech/9172707/). So, how do protesters get their complaints heard? Too often they do not! The Patriot Act was signed 10/26/01. For the first time legislation took away precious rights. These are a few of its provisions Wikipedia lists: law enforcement officers could now search homes and businesses "without the owner's or occupant's consent or knowledge;" the FBI could now "search telephone, e-mail, and financial records without a court order;" and the FBI and law enforcement agencies could now "search business records, including library and financial records." It also states, "several legal challenges have been brought against the act, and federal courts have ruled that a number of provisions are unconstitutional" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act , accessed 6-29-16). Protests are an American institution, starting with the Boston Tea Party when U.S. citizens masqueraded as tribal people and threw a ship's cargo of tea overboard to protest Britain's unfair tea tax. Citizens rallied and fought harder for independence. Protests have continued through the years. In 1965 Civil Rights protesters marched in Selma, Alabama. They were brutalized by 150 armed police officers. Fifty were hospitalized. This is one of many times public officials harmed peaceful protesters. Again, citizens rallied and the 1965 Voting Act was passed (http://www.blackpast.org/aah/bloody-sunday-selma-alabama-march-7-1965 ). When protesters held an Occupy Movement demonstration on the U.C.Davis campus in 2011, two campus police officers pepper-sprayed directly into protesters' eyes. One of the officers was later awarded $38,000 for "his pain and suffering" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UC_Davis_pepper-spray_incident ). HIS? And American citizens' rights dropped another notch. Advertisement John Dunbar reports that the 2011 Supreme Court Citizen's United Ruling gave permission "for corporations and labor unions to spend as much as they want to convince people to vote for or against a candidate" ( "The 'Citizens United' decision and why it matters," 10/18/12, https://www.publicintegrity.org/2012/10/18/11527/citizens-united-decision-and-why-it-matters). This ruling allowed global corporations and the extremely rich to buy elected officials, lessening voters' power to influence "their" representatives. So we arrive at the present time when concerned members of Congress participated in a sit-in to try to force a vote on gun control to protect American citizens. Numerous polls attest to the fact that the great majority of Americans want gun control laws and enforcement. The writer suggests this action "stopped action in the House." Yeah? I understand there has been very little positive action there since Barack Obama took office and Mitch McConnell vowed publicly that Republicans would pass no substantial legislation while he was president ( http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/how-gop-obstructionism-empowered-the-presidency). Excuse me! Congressional representatives have been taking more and more taxpayer money--voting themselves huge automatic pay raises, generous health care, and retirements and voting "their owners" tax breaks and loopholes--while following through on their promises to do nothing. They certainly are not doing the job of governing they were elected to do. What kind of service are they providing citizens? ZERO! Recent obstructionist Congresses have done nothing positive. This is why it is necessary for voters and caring public officials to demonstrate...to bring desperate needs to all citizens' attention so we can vote the slackers out of office! And today in the Herald-Zeitung a man called a courageous demonstration "shameful." It is he who should be ashamed for belittling one of our nation's revered rights! Advertisement The writer compared this one-day sit-in which called attention to the many times the majority Speaker of the House has refused to allow discussion or voting on bills proposed by minority members to the 10 times in history that elected officials of both parties have "shut down our government," costing billions of dollars each time. Apples and oranges. Government officials must negotiate and compromise with each other to better serve ALL of the public. Both the ignorant signers of a promise to an individual Republican member to never raise taxes and the current promise by Republican leaders to conduct no vital business--essentially to keep our democracy from functioning properly --are a waste of our time and money. [At last week's Democratic Party platform drafting meeting, I introduced Bernie Sanders' amendment to the Israel/Palestine section calling for an end to the occupation and settlements. What follows are my comments, speaking for the amendment:] During her opening comments, DNC Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz, spoke about "putting ourselves in others' shoes." That's what we've tried to do with our amendment. We do not often see the Arab Israeli conflict through Palestinian eyes. As Senator Sanders has made clear, there are two peoples in this conflict--who need to be understood and whose pain needs to be recognized. (While the platform calls for a "two state solution") just using language about two states doesn't acknowledge the reality that the Palestinians are living under occupation. Palestinian land is being taken by settlements. Palestinians are enduring check points that daily brings horrific humiliation--denying them freedom of movement, employment, and the opportunity to give their children free space in which to live. That's the situation in West Bank and Jerusalem. Advertisement Gaza is another story entirely with 60% unemployment and even higher youth unemployment. You must understand that in Gaza, if you're a young man under 30, you most likely have never had a job, have no prospect of a job, and therefore no opportunity to have a family or build a decent future. And so death becomes a more desirable option for some. Suicide rates are up, mental illness is up, drug addiction is up. The situation is unsustainable and it must change. If you review our party's past platforms, they have lagged way behind reality. I remember being in this same debate in 1988, when we called for our party's platform to include "mutual recognition, territorial compromise, and self-determination for both peoples." Back then, people reacted as if the sky were going to fall. It didn't, we survived. We did not recognize a Palestinian state in our platform until 2004 after George W. Bush said it. Now we have an opportunity to send a message to the world, to the Arabs, the Israelis, the Palestinians, and to all Americans that we hear the cries of both sides. That America wants to move toward a real peace because it understands that there's suffering here. Suffering that is unsustainable. The term occupation shouldn't be controversial. George W. Bush said that there was an occupation. Ariel Sharon said that there was an occupation. Barack Obama has said there was an occupation. There is an occupation. It denies people freedom. Our President has said that. We have to be able to say in our politics what we say in our policy. We can't think with two brains. If our policy says it's an occupation and settlements are wrong and they inhibit peace, why can't our politics say it? It doesn't make sense. Advertisement The next administration will behave just as the last one, but our politics won't change. And so I urge you to consider passing this amendment because of the message it will send forcefully and clearly. A message of hope to Palestinians, a message of hope to peace forces in Israel, and a message to the American people--that this time we're going to make a difference. And we are actually going to help the parties move toward peace. [The Clinton campaign spokespersons presented their rebuttal. Attempting to make the point that Israel was a tolerant democracy, one Clintonite said that she was proud as a Jewish, lesbian woman that Israel was the only country in the ME where she could walk down the streets of Tel Aviv holding hands with her wife. In my closing argument, I responded:] Now you can walk down the street in Tel Aviv holding the hand of your wife, but I can't get into the airport in Israel without hours of harassment because I'm of Arab descent. And I'm not even Palestinian, but because my father was born in Lebanon, I get stopped. When I was working with vice-president Gore, I almost missed a dinner at the Knesset to which he had invited me because I sat in the airport for hours being grilled by people about why I was there and what I was doing. That was bad enough. But the treatment meted out to the people who live there is so much worse. They suffer horrific discrimination. We have to be able to call it what it is. It is an occupation that humiliates people; that breeds contempt; that breeds anger, and despair and hopelessness that leads to violence. All that we are asking you to do is accept the reality of the situation. There's an Israel; the US accepts it, supports it, wants to do everything for it. But there's also a Palestinian people living under occupation, being drowned by settlements. And recognize what is happening to the people in Gaza. Advertisement There is a dynamic going that we must understand. The Israelis may be insecure about the Palestinians but they are very secure about America. Palestinians are not secure vis-a-vis Israel, and they are not secure vis-a-vis America either. We have never treated them fairly. In 1988 when we tried to call for mutual recognition; we could not get that done. We couldn't even get the word Palestinians in the platform. Reality has moved way beyond just recognizing Palestinians are there. We need to hear their voices, understand their pain, and say that our Democratic Party understands that this is conflict that must be resolved by respecting the rights of both peoples. [When the vote was taken, our amendment lost--8 to 5. The debate will continue when the full platform committee meets in July.] The Mt. Gay rum distillery is the oldest active rum distillery in the world Rum is inexorably bound up in the history of the Caribbean and North America. From the mid-17th century through the early 19th century it was at the center of a complex web of trade that transformed the culture, ethnicity and economy of the West Indies and also had a profound impact on the economic development of eastern North America. Caribbean salt flowed north to the cod fisheries of New England and Newfoundland's Grand Banks where it was used in prodigious quantities to preserve the cod harvest. Cod was both the single largest, new source of animal protein in the 17th and 18th centuries as well as the least expensive. It was widely used to feed slaves on Caribbean sugar plantations. That's why salt cod still figures prominently in the national cuisine of the West Indies even through the nearest cod fishery is more than a thousand miles away. In turn, molasses, a byproduct of sugar refining flowed north where it was fermented and distilled into rum. After Barbados, New England was the largest producer of rum in the world annually producing more than 1.2 million gallons. The first commercial rum distillery in the world was built by Dutch merchants on Staten Island in 1664. Rum was widely traded: to Newfoundland fisherman for salt cod, to Native Americans for fur pelts and to West African slavers to feed the prodigious demands for slaves on the West Indies sugar plantations. Advertisement Barbados's rich soil and flat terrain made it the center of the West Indies sugar boom, simultaneously the largest producer of sugar and rum in the world. Rum production started as early as 1637. The Mount Gay Distillery dates back to 1703 and is today the oldest continuously functioning rum distillery in the world. Now owned by the French spirits company Remy Cointreau, it is also at the center of a rum revival. During the height of the sugar boom in the 18th century, Barbados rum was considered the finest rum in the world. George Washington insisted that Barbados rum be served at his inauguration. That was technically illegal as the Continental Congress had banned British imports, including rum from Britain's Caribbean colonies. Washington didn't feel New England rum was of sufficient quality for a presidential inauguration. He got his barrel of Barbados rum. Nor was this the first time that Barbados rum had lubricated George Washington's political career. When Washington first ran for the Virginia Legislature, the House of Burgess, he thought his status as a 23 year old war hero of the French and Indian war would be sufficient to get him elected-it wasn't, he lost. When he ran again in 1758, he supplied his potential voters with 28 gallons of the finest Barbados rum, another 50 gallons of rum punch, 46 gallons of beer and 2 gallons of cider. That amounted to a half gallon of booze for every eligible voter. He won in a landslide. The Mount Gay distillery was originally called the Mount Gilboa Plantation/Distillery. John Sober purchased the operation in 1747 from William Sandiford and appointed a trusted friend, John Gay Alleyne, to manage it. Under Alleyne the distillery became known for the quality of its rum and was extremely successful. Advertisement Alleyne was also a respected community leader who served in the Barbados Parliament for 40 years, including two stints as Speaker of the Barbados House of Assembly, and, notwithstanding his role as a sugar grower and distiller, was also a vocal opponent of slavery. On his death in 1801, the distillery was renamed Mt Gay, after his middle name. There was already a Mt. Alleyne named after him, so the distillery opted to use his middle name instead. Pot still with retort at the Mt Gay distillery. For the last half century Barbados rum production has relied primarily on molasses imported from Guyana and to a lesser extent the Dominican Republic. Local production was insufficient for the rum industry's needs. What molasses was produced locally was simply blended with imported stocks. Mt Gay has now embarked on a significant expansion that will see it produce its own molasses from its own sugar cane fields and release specific Barbadian molasses bottlings of rum. It's not clear, at this point, how far this experiment in "rum terroir" will go. According to the distillery in time this project may include rum produced from specific sites in Barbados and possibly even specific varieties of sugar cane. In addition, taking a page from Scotch whisky producers, Barbados rum producers, including Mt Gay, have been experimenting with exotic cask finishes maturing their rums for one or more years in casks that previously held other liquids, typically sweet and fortified wines like port. The Foursquare Rum Distillery has already released a Port Cask finished rum. Mt Gay has its own version currently maturing which is expected to be released in the next year or two. Caribbean rums vary in style from the highly aromatic, at times pungent, Jamaican-style rums to the very light Cuban-style rums designed for cocktails. Barbados rums fall in the middle, generally lighter in color and body than Jamaican rums, drier, and with the characteristic, but less pronounced, aroma profile of molasses based rums. Overall, Barbados' golden colored rums tend to be subtler, nuanced and more aromatically complex than their Caribbean neighbors. Advertisement Fermentation at Mt Gay is a relatively quick two to three days. Molasses is mixed with water and then boiled to sterilize it. The ratio of molasses to water varies depending on the sugar content of the molasses but generally is between 2 to 4 parts water to 1 part molasses. The wooden fermenters are open topped and utilize a proprietary strain of yeast. The distillery does not use temperature controlled fermenters. This is typical among Barbados distillers. The persistent trade winds, especially at the north end of Barbados where the Mt. Gay distillery is located can be relied on for cooling the fermenting molasses and dissipating the heat generated. Distillation is in a combination of pot stills and column stills. The same wash will be fed to both types of stills in proportion to the distillery's blending needs. Mt Gay's rums are typically a blend of pot and column distilled rums with higher end expressions receiving a greater proportion of pot still rums in their blend. One unusual feature of Mt Gay's distillation is the use of a retort. Retorts are pot like container that receive the vapor from the still. They are "charged", i.e. filled with more wash so that the vapor from the still passes through the wash further extracting aromatic compounds from the wash. The practice is also found in Bourbon country. There, these retorts are referred to as "thumpers" for the distinctive noise they make when they are being operated. Maturation typically takes place in refilled 200 liter American bourbon casks. Mt Gay also utilizes the more heavily charred Tennessee whisky barrels for maturing a portion of its rum. It's not clear however where rum aged in these barrels is segregated and used in blending, whether it is used disproportionately in the Black Barrel bottlings or simply mixed in with the bourbon barrel matured rum. Advertisement The distillery has a total of 4 warehouses holding thousands of barrels of maturing spirit. The barrels are palletized and typically stacked 5 to 6 layers high. The warehouses are positioned to take advantage of the prevailing wind for ventilation. Given Barbados's location in the tropics, seasonal variations in temperature and humidity, the two factors that most affect the maturation of spirit, are minimal. Typically in the warm Caribbean, spirit ages up to three times faster than comparable spirit in cooler climates like Scotland or Cognac. The rum is typically matured at around 68% alcohol by volume (ABV) and reduced to 43% ABV at bottling. Unlike some other Caribbean producers, Barbados rum distillers are not allowed to add any sugar to their rum. The only allowed additions are caramel for color and water to dilute to bottling strength. The result is the distinctive dryness that is typical of Barbados rums. Casks of rum maturing in one of Mt Gay's warehouses The Barbados Rum Committee is the rum industry trade association in Barbados. There are only four rum producers on the island so the organization is somewhat informal. The Committee in turn belongs to the West Indies Rum & Spirits Producers' Association (WISPRA). The association acts as a regional wide trade promotion organization. It also the Authentic Caribbean Rum (ACR) marque "as a symbol of authenticity, provenance and quality". Currently there are three different ACR tiers. The basic tier certifies that the rum has been produced from either sugar cane juice or molasses within the ACR designated Caribbean region and that it meets accepted industry standards of quality. The second tier "Matured Authentic Caribbean Rum certifies that the rum has "been 100% matured for a minimum of one year". The gold and black "deluxe" classification is used on rums that have been "100% matured for a minimum of five years". Historically, most rums did not carry an age statement, although this has started to change as the industry has started to focus on more upscale bottlings. Advertisement Currently, Mt Gay's top tier of rums includes Mt Gay XO (Extra Old), Mt Gay Black Barrel and its top ranked specialty bottling 1703. A lower priced tier includes Mt Gay Silver Eclipse, Mt Gay Eclipse Black, Mount Gay Eclipse and Mount Gay Special Reserve. Mt Gay XO, 43% ABV, consists of a blend of double pot distilled and column still rums that have been aged from eight to fifteen years; with the average weighted heavily towards pot still rums. The appearance is a rich, dark amber. The nose shows the expected butterscotch aromas but drier with hints of tropical fruit and old leather; typical of the lighter style of aged Barbados rums. The nose grows more complex as the rum opens up exhibiting more tropical spice, especially cinnamon notes and distinctive aromas of ripe banana. On the palate it is rich and weighty, with very slight sweet notes tempered by a woody, tea leaf dryness, and tropical fruit elements of ripe banana and hints of mango as well as baked green fruit notes of apple and pear. The finish is long, smooth, with pepper and spice notes and an unusual, for rum, hint of buttery croissant. It ends on a refreshing slightly bitter note. This is an excellent after dinner sipping rum but over ice or with a touch of soda will also make an excellent aperitif. Rating: Appearance 9/10, Nose: 27/30, Palate 27/30, Finish 27/30. Overall Rating: 90/100 Mt Gay's rum expressions Mt. Gay Black Barrel, 43% ABV, is a small batch blend, first released in 2014, that undergoes finishing in much more deeply charred Bourbon oak barrels. It's not clear if Tennessee Whiskey barrels are also used in the Black barrel blend. Like the XO it consists of a blend of pot still and column still rums. The distillery does not specify the age range of the blend components. The appearance is a light amber color. Advertisement The nose of the Black Barrel is slightly sweeter, and a bit woodier than the XO with slight hints of smoke. Initially it exhibits floral notes followed by pronounced creamy vanilla notes and over ripe/cooked fruit flavors. The palate is spicy, with creamy vanilla, pepper and distinctive ripe banana notes followed by hints of licorice. The finish is long, dry, with peppery and spicy notes that linger. Like the XO it is a good sipping rum, especially if you like dryer bourbons but over ice or with a bit of soda it too will make an excellent aperitif. Rating: Appearance 9/10, Nose 28/30, Palate 27/30, Finish 28/30. Overall Rating 92/100 Mt Gay 1703 is made up of handpicked old casks of double distilled pot still rums and single column still rums. Named after the year the distillery was founded it is blended by Mt. Gay's master distiller Allen Smith from rums ranging from 10 to 30 years old. The color is a rich, golden amber. The nose is dry with rich notes of old lacquered wood, saddle leather, sweet tropical spices, honey and hints of butterscotch and licorice. The palate is equally dry with pronounced notes of cinnamon and nutmeg followed by mocha and hints of bittersweet chocolate. The finish is smooth, long and complex with notes of old lacquered wood, dried fruit, candied citrus, and Christmas pudding. Definitely a rum to be savored in a brandy snifter. Rating: Appearance 10/10, Nose 29/30, Palate 29/30, Finish 29/30. Overall Rating: 97/100 The court decided to postpone the trial in order to listen to the testimonies of more witnesses A Cairo misdemeanor court postponed for the third time on Saturday the trial of Egypt's Journalists Syndicate Chairman Yehia Kalash and two other board members on charges of harbouring fugitives. The court decided to postpone the session to 9 July in order to complete listening to the witnesses as two State Security policemen were scheduled to give their testimonies on Saturday along with the syndicates security staff and board member Hatem Zakaria. The first three sessions took place on 4, 18 and 25 June. Kalash, union Secretary-General Gamal Abdel-Reheem and undersecretary Khaled El-Balshy were referred to court last month for harbouring journalists Mahmoud El-Sakka and Amr Badr who were staging a sit-in in the syndicate to protest warrants issued for their arrest. El-Sakka and Badr, who were arrested inside the syndicate, were among many arrested ahead of the 25 April protests against the Egyptian-Saudi Red Sea island maritime border agreement. Search Keywords: Short link: British infantry advancing during the launch of the Somme Offensive, July 1, 1916 The Somme Offensive By 1916, British casualties on the Western Front had amounted to more than 400,000 men dead, wounded or missing. 20,000 new volunteer recruits were needed every month to replace the casualties. Troops from Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa had arrived to join the struggle. More than one million Empire and Dominion men had been deployed, and many were now enroute to the Western Front. Another major offensive was about to be launched. The assault that led to the Battle of the Somme had been planned as far back as late 1915. Originally it had been intended as a joint French-British operation. French General Joseph Joffre had wanted the battle to drain the German army of reserves while simultaneously making territorial gains, much as German General Erich von Falkenhayn had viewed the Battle of Verdun. In the end, it was Verdun that led to the Somme offensive being brought forward a month to July 1, 1916. That date is inscribed in the annals of warfare as the bloodiest day in the history of human conflict. The first day of the offensive, launched on an 18-mile front north of the Somme River, between Arras and Albert, accounted for casualties of 58,000 British troops, a third of them killed. Advertisement Map of the Somme battlefield The assault had been preceded, as was the norm, by an artillery bombardment of the German lines that began on June 24, and continued for eight days. Three thousand guns - half British, half French - dealt the heavy blows that were supposed to obliterate the forward German defenses. In theory, this bombardment would enable British troops to saunter across no-man's land meeting little resistance. The infantry attack was to be supported by a creeping barrage of artillery fire, aimed just ahead of the advancing troops and moving forward as the men advanced. Field Marshal Haig ordered General Sir Henry Rawlinson, whose Fourth Army would spearhead the assault, to consolidate after a limited advance, while to the north other forces would attempt a complete breakthrough of the German defenses. Haig, a cavalry man, was convinced that horse-borne forces would be able to deliver the coup de grace once the German lines had been breached, and open the way to the towns of Cambrai and Douai. The numerical odds were stacked in favor of the attacking British; they had 27 divisions consisting of 750,000 men, while the German defenders had 16 divisions of the 2nd Army on hand. What Haig's planning failed to take into account was that the artillery's shells - more than 12,000 tons of explosives - would prove unequal to the task of destroying the enemy's front line barbed wire or robustly built concrete bunkers. Many shells failed to explode. The German troops, safely dug into the chalk hills, simply took shelter in their bunkers until the bombardment stopped and then emerged unscathed to man their machine guns. Advertisement The assault on July 1, was announced with the detonation of a 40,000-pound mine. It had been laid, after seven months of tunneling by Royal Engineers, beneath German front lines on Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt. That massive explosion was followed ten minutes later, at 0730 hours, by the detonation of 16 further mines and the first wave of troops going over the top with bayonets fixed. Not surprisingly, given the amount of warning the Germans had been given by the bombardment and the failure of the artillery to break the defenses, those troops met with little success. Canadian artillery battalion during the Battle of the Somme They met, instead, deadly machine gun and rifle fire that killed them, wounded them or forced them back into their trenches. Many of the soldiers, weighed down by heavy supplies and expecting an easy passage to the German lines, took no more than a few steps before being struck down by the defenders. Further south French forces, whose offensive had been preceded by a much smaller bombardment, were more successful, but even they could do little more than consolidate their small gains rather than exploit them. Nevertheless, despite appalling losses, Haig persisted with his approach, believing as the battle raged on, that the Germans would eventually succumb to exhaustion and that victory was imminent. Small advances were sometimes made, but they were short-lived and never followed up. German commanders took the opportunity to transfer troops from Verdun, doubling the number of defenders, and reorganizing their lines. The British made use of tanks for the first time in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on September 15. A total of 15 divisions supported by "tanks" were deployed, but gained less than a half-mile of ground. The original number of 50 lumbering "land-ships" - "tank" was purely a cover name that has stuck - had been reduced to 24 by mechanical and other failures. While the tanks had the desired shock effect on German troops, they proved unreliable and difficult to control. Some infantry troops even took friendly fire from the tanks. British Mark 1 tank at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette The battles continued throughout October, at Morval, Thiepval Ridge, Transloy, Ancre Heights and Chaulnes among other locations and, as French forces started to gain ground at Verdun, Joffre urged Haig to carry on. It was essential, he reasoned, that the British should continue to occupy the Germans while French forces continued to push back German forces at Verdun. Advertisement So it went on until, on November 13, Britain launched what would turn out to be its final effort of the Battle of the Somme: the Battle of Ancre. The battle resulted in the capture of the field fortress of Beaumont Hamel. On November 18, hampered by snow, the Somme offensive ground to a halt. It had gained the British and French allies roughly seven miles of ground and cost around 420,000 British and 200,000 French casualties. On the German side, losses were estimated at half a million. It happens in every tragedy: something unspeakable happens, people speak up - sometimes competently and compassionately - and after a while, things move back to normal. Of course, it's never "normal" for the people most affected by the tragedy, but the rest of us seem to forget how much we care about this moment in time that mattered just a few months (weeks?) ago. What happened in Orlando will forever rock that city and the LGBT community, and this senseless act of hate has sparked the usual outrage on the ease of gun access, the ways Supreme Court victories don't solve the problem of intolerance, and the rare-but-encouraging support of Islamic communities in America (you mean, they aren't a monolith???). And just as expected, after a few weeks most of those voices have already moved on to the next injustice, the next slight, in this Culture of Outrage. Advertisement Something different is happening in Chicago, where I pastor. For the multitude of shootings (50 deaths is a couple of weeks during the summer), not many churches see themselves as connected to this epidemic, which was recently declared a concern of public health. It would be the same actors - meant in the most positive and faithful sense - at rallies and protests demanding stricter gun laws. The faces at these actions used to all look the same - black and brown - and it was clear that the prevailing narrative was winning: You only get involved when you are directly affected. But after Orlando, different churches are calling me, wanting to be involved - to do something: mostly-white churches and Open-and-Affirming congregations are mourning Orlando and asking how they've missed the deaths in their own backyard. It doesn't directly affect them, but they are hearing God's call to do something beyond the two-week statute of limitations on how long a good progressive Christian is supposed to care about something. In many ways these congregations are not only making a faithful response; they are making a Amos response. In this week's text, Amos 7, we find Amos continuing his declaration, "Woe to those who are at ease" (6:1) and the call for justice to "well up as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." (5:24). You read him - his words are so relevant you can almost hear them - remind us that he is not the prophet - not in the traditional sense. He's not performing this out of some perfunctory act of tradition. This isn't what he normally does, he's a shepherd, but in the words of Abraham Heschel in his classic The Prophets: Amos chooses to agree with God, and set his life and words in alignment. Amos has been compelled to speak, and his call to disrupt others also disrupts his own life. But as we read, we see that God is not satisfied with the wealth of generations or seeing the people eat and drink in the Land of Plenty. What satisfies God is mutual relationship, and anything else is an immediate path to exile. Advertisement This will challenge believers in prosperity and those that cling to privilege: when the king threatens Amos - STOP SAYING THAT! - those that value their position and comfort are quick to comply. Would we press harder if we thought of our words not as another voice in the fracas but as God's mandate to justice? The word of the Lord hits Amos as one who is otherwise apt to mind his own business. Those who are compelled to speak should never stop speaking. In this week's video we see a young man compelled to act to transgress the boundaries of difference, bringing together people across Milwaukee, WI, to understand and use privilege responsibly. His work is proof that Amos responses do change communities for the better. In the same way, Colossians 1:1-14 endows believers with all wisdom and understanding, but not for the purpose of their own fulfillment; it is so justice may be made real. Even privilege has a purpose. Sometimes we see our gifts as "escape routes" in a harsh world (Rome would count as "harsh" for Christian, as an understatement). Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat (Colossians Remixed) say that Paul is calling the empire-soaked people of Colossae to shape an alternative vision of the world they inhabit. Finally, Luke 10:25-37 is recognizable to most as the tale of The Good Samaritan. The connections to privilege, risk, and seeking deep engagement with the oppressed are begging for deeper reflection in our current context. You may even share Clarence Jordan's "targem" (Hebrew tirgem = translation) of the Good Samaritan, taken from The Cotton Patch Version of Luke & Acts. He uses the race relations in the Jim Crow South as a method to freshen up the story: Advertisement A man was headed to Atlanta from Albany and was robbed by gangsters. A white preacher came by...and stepped on the gas...a white Gospel song leader came by...and stepped on the gas...a black man came and was moved to tears by what he saw. He took the man - a white man! - to the hospital, emptied his pockets and promised to pay any outstanding bill. Which one of these is our neighbor? And the man replies, "Why, of course, the nig- I mean, er...well, er...the one who treated me kindly. In this world of competing narratives and desperate xenophobia, this week's text and video push us to cross some important boundaries. Bible Study Questions 1. What injustice is calling your/your community's name? 2. What might it mean to use your privilege with a purpose? 3. How would you translate the Good Samaritan story based on what is going on in your community? For Further Reading Heschel, Abraham. The Prophets. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, New York, 2001. Jordan, Clarence. The Cotton Patch Version of Luke & Acts. Association Press, New York, 1965. Passengers embrace each other as they wait outside Istanbul's Ataturk airport, early Wednesday, June 29, 2016 following their evacuation after a blast. Suspected Islamic State group extremists have hit the international terminal of Istanbul's Ataturk airport, killing dozens of people and wounding many others, Turkish officials said Tuesday. Turkish authorities have banned distribution of images relating to the Ataturk airport attack within Turkey. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel) TURKEY OUT ISTANBUL -- I had returned from a long stroll to my Istanbul flat last Tuesday, when news of an AK-47 rifle-carrying militant shooting randomly at innocent people at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport appeared on my smartphone. I will not describe the attack here, which claimed the lives of 44 people, many of whom were airport staff, and instead try to remember what I was thinking before the attack, during my stroll in this "City on the Seven Hills." The denomination comes from Byzantine Constantinople and the city of Rome, and it was about the future of this city that I reflected on that day. Plans to write a book on the "New Istanbul," a determination to visit the superbly artificial, distant new neighborhoods of this ever expanding city and a mental note to find a photographer to accompany me for the project: those were the hopeful ideas I gathered in my mind. Many a curious tourist had wandered in this city in the last millennia, and I wondered how it would be like for me to wander along the city's new outreaches. Those plans disappeared by 10:00 p.m, when like Istanbul locals and tourists, I was reminded that Istanbul was now a city ruled by terror. Advertisement For a long time Istanbul had been the capital of nostalgia, what our great Orhan Pamuk has named huzun: a city devoted to remembrance of things lost with the arrival of the 20th century and homogenization and nationalism, and all the other ills of modernity. Lately the city had been devoted also to invention of tradition and historical legacies: how we love to dream of an imagined harmony and perfect coexistence under Ottoman rule -- so useful to place political utopias into the past, rather than the future, so that we don't have to work to achieve them. A Jeremy Corbyn-supporting English teacher tells me how he plans to fly back to London because Istanbul, where he lived for the past three years, is simply too intense: he would rather experience Brexit and Little England than die in the old capital of Orthodox Christianity. Nowadays, Istanbul is the capital of anxiety and neurosis. Woody Allen would have a difficult time keeping his cool: most of my friends go to therapy and the seeming rise of anxiety disorders we witness in Turkey refuses to go away. A subway ride clouded by the ominous question about whether the city will allow you to reach your life goals, to make it to your next appointment, to arrive at the next station; an expert advising to widen security parameters so that they span around the airports (like Israel's Ben Gurion Airport); a Jeremy Corbyn-supporting English teacher telling me how he plans to fly back to London because Istanbul, where he lived for the past three years, is simply too intense: he would rather experience Brexit and Little England than die in the old capital of Orthodox Christianity. Advertisement Walking keeps away such anxious thoughts. It can give you a perfectly romantic view of the city, especially if you follow a nice route by the Bosphorus. "Constantinople is like the scenery in a theatre," Gerard de Nerval wrote when he visited the city in 1843. "It must be looked at from the front without going behind the scenes." Don't go behind the scenes (malls and museums), just keep on walking. Nerval also called Istanbul the "mysterious seal which unites Europe to Asia." There is, unfortunately, no way to walk between continents, since bridges are out of bounds for pedestrians. An undersea rail tunnel under the Bosphorus strait, called Marmaray, allows you to ride in between continents. It is there, when stuck in between continents and political systems, that I feel most uncomfortable these days. There are fears here of an attack to the ferry that shuttles between Europe and Anatolia. Istanbul as a bridge of cultures belonged to the noughties: the 2010s is the decade of ruptures. Cloudy sunset on the Bosphorus strait, Istanbul, Turkey. (Marji Lang/LightRocket via Getty Images) I begin my strolls from the margins of Gezi, a public park close to my apartment. It is an ideal space for introverts like me who can place their backs against an old tree and browse through a new hardback on the grass. People are reading Elif Shafak's new novel "Three Daughters of Eve" these days (the English edition has yet to be published), and the cosmopolitanism of this lover of the city seems increasingly out of place. Reign of the present moment, terror that is, hardly allows to meditate on the past, our habitual consolation. Looking at the Sea of Marmara in 1852, Theophile Gautier was reminded of the Thames between the Isle of Dogs and Greenwich. "The sky, very milky, very opaline, almost covered with transparent haze, still further increased the illusion," he wrote. These days, Istanbul certainly resembles the London of anarchist terror plots and the Greenwich bombing. For decadents like Arthur Symons who wanted to escape a citadel of modernity and fear, Istanbul offered some welcome relief. When he came to the city, Symons stayed in Kasimpasa, the neighborhood of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and described a sunset he viewed from his window: "Stamboul fades to a level mass of smoky purple, out of which a few minarets rise black against a grey sky with bands of orange fire." Istanbul as a bridge of cultures belonged to the noughties: the 2010s is the decade of ruptures. This is the romantic Istanbul that lived only in the Moleskine notebooks of cultured travelers weary of modernity. To that city of dreams we can not return. But it was a nice city and there was joy in imagining Istanbul becoming its previous, romantic self again in the noughties, when people hailed Istanbul as a model city for the Middle East. The Istanbul of my childhood, in the early 1990s, was an anxious, unstable place: fearful of Kurds and Islamists, city administrators took extreme security measures and built glass walls in between different mahalles, or neighborhoods. It was this fragmented Istanbul that changed in noughties, but in the months before the uprising in Gezi Park in 2013, Istanbul again became fixated on order and security. Walking along its hills in spring days once more became unsafe. You simply didn't have the time to reflect on Istanbul's past, or else a molotov cocktail or a bullet or a tear gas capsule could take away your romantic-looking eyes. Advertisement Since then, the streets and parks became increasingly dangerous places. For city wanderers like me, this is sad news. This destruction of the present connects me to Istanbul's past: the heart of the ancient city, decorated by the statues of Augustus, Helen, Hercules, saw a militant walk into a group of tourists and detonate his suicide vest in January. Back then I was reminded of all the travelers who walked past those monuments, trying to imagine if they could imagine bombs going off in the city they considered so mystical and romantic. The scene of a suicide bomb attack at Sultanahmet square in Istanbul, Turkey January 13, 2016. (REUTERS/Murad Sezer) During his visit to Constantinople in 1856, Herman Melville was very impressed by Istanbul's nature, and wrote about a "contest of beauty" between "Myrtle, Cyprus, Cedar--evergreens." When people ask why I insist on living in this dangerous city of terror and do not go to London or a less dangerous Turkish city in Anatolia, I think of Istanbul's steep hills, its conservative and hipster neighborhoods separated by invisible borders, and realize how I have always defined myself as an Istanbullu more than anything else. Dreamers and walkers like me will simply not leave this city, whatever may be in store for us. Earlier on WorldPost: Reportage on art therapy in the Emilie de Rodat retirement home in Rueil Malmaison, France. This retirement home houses people suffering from Alzheimer's disease and related dementia. The art therapy workshops are run by Mr Sari, a painter and art therapist. Image to be used only to illustrate art therapy or in a cultural relation context. (Photo by: BSIP/UIG via Getty Images) Most individuals who have a loved one with Alzheimer's dread the day when their loved one may no longer recognize them. Care partners may think that would be the most tragic situation possible. They consider it the disastrous end of their relationship. When a loved one doesn't recognize his or her caregiver, the caregiver can experience unending, searing pain. Ultimately, however, the situation hurts the caregiver, but may not bother the person living with Alzheimer's. That should be what matters most. Advertisement Someone with Alzheimer's can still feel a bond with his caregiver even if he doesn't know precisely who that person is. But some caregivers are so upset when their loved ones don't recognize them, they don't see any reason to keep visiting. They figure it doesn't matter. However, there are several reasons why continuing to visit does matter: 1.The person may recognize the caregiver but may not be able to express it It's always possible that the person with Alzheimer's does recognize the caregiver but cannot show it in ways that are easy to recognize. I had a personal experience that demonstrates this. Doris was one of the ladies I was assigned to visit at the memory care facility where I volunteer. Doris was so frail and her condition so advanced that the most I could do was hold Doris's hand and speak to her softly. Doris never responded. Then one day as I was holding her hand, Doris put her other hand on my arm and began caressing it. I had the distinct feeling that Doris remembered me. 2.The person may remember how often he is visited even if he no longer remembers his relationship with the caregiver Advertisement I was speaking at an Alzheimer's family support group recently. A man there said that he visited his wife, who had advanced-stage Alzheimer's, nearly every day, even though she didn't recognize him. He learned early on, however, that she knew when he'd missed a day. She'd always say, "You didn't come yesterday." 3.The person may enjoy being visited, even if he or she doesn't recognize the individual who's visiting I had another personal experience that led me to this conclusion. Ed, my soulmate of 30 years, had many visitors he didn't recognize. When these people were there he'd often hold hands with them--female or male--the whole time. And he'd have long, pleasant talks with them. It was perfectly obvious he was enjoying himself. One should pay attention and see if one's loved one is enjoying the visit. Again, that's what matters. Daniel Potts, MD, FAAN, my co-author for the book Finding Joy in Alzheimer's, is the course director for a college class that pairs students in an art therapy experience with persons who have Alzheimer's disease. The students develop relationships with and empathy for those with the condition. It can be difficult for the students at first, because some of their partners do not remember them from week to week. However, once the students realize that the value of the experience lies in the joy they can offer people in the present moment and the improved quality of life that can result, the experience becomes meaningful to them. 4.The caregiver may feel gratified that he's given his loved one pleasure Although the main focus of interactions should be the person with Alzheimer's, a caregiver might find there's an unexpected benefit for him or her, too. The person may initially feel hurt or frustrated that his loved one doesn't recognize him, but if that hurdle is surpassed and it's clear that the person with Alzheimer's enjoys the visit, the care partner will probably feel gratified that he is giving his loved one pleasure. Research has found that caregivers might remain in a good mood for some time after the visit. Advertisement It is difficult for people to accept the fact that their loved ones don't recognize them, and it may take a long time to reach such acceptance. Furthermore, some simply won't be able to achieve this, as hard as they may try, but if they can come to terms with the situation, their lives will most likely improve significantly. 5.The person may remain in a good mood long after the visit is over People with advanced Alzheimer's may continue to experience the emotional effects of happy or sad experiences for hours after an event has passed. This, in turn, might promote a positive or negative emotional tone, depending on the tone of the visit. For instance, if a person living with Alzheimer's is visited by someone who is cheerful and smiling, who sings familiar songs to them, and who is completely present with them in a compassionate interaction, the positive emotional tone of this visit may last for several hours. This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email. Francis Picabia , The Spanish Night, 1922. Enamel paint and oil on canvas, frame with buttons, 106 x 87 x 8,5 cm, with frame. Museum Ludwig, Koln Sammlung Ludwig 2016 ProLitteris, Zurich. While the art world flocked to Basel to seek out contemporary artistic expressions, over in Zurich, they have been looking to the past, and to the centenary of Dada. As part of ongoing celebrations in the city examining the importance and influence of the Dada movement , the Kunsthaus Zurich opened a Francis Picabia retrospective, the result of five years tracing the trajectory of the artist's work. It is not an easy task to make sense of Picabia's artist ic evolution--if anything his career was defined by the fact that he detested cohesion. The retrospective indeed takes its title from one of the artist's aphorisms, "Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction." Picabia was a nomad with a curious spirit, who was associated, over the years, with Impressionist, Cubist, Dadaist and Surrealist styles. Walking through any retrospective of his work, therefore, is a kind of visual puzzle--an insight into a mind that yearned constantly for experimentation, and that was as skilful at appropriation as invention. According to one anecdote, as a young man, Picabia forged paintings belonging to his Father, replacing the originals with his own copies so that he could flog them and pocket the cash. Francis Picabia, Effect of Sunlight on the Banks of the Loing, Moret, 1905. Oil on canvas, 73.2 x 92.4 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Gertrude Schemm Binder Collection, 1951 2016 ProLitteris, Zurich. Among the works and documentation on show at the Kunsthaus, selected by in-house curator Catherine Hug together with Anne Umland, curator at MoMA New York (which will host the Picabia retrospective in November), are examples from each period in Picabia's career, arranged in chronological order, from his first Impressionist style paintings of the late 1890s (when Picabia attended the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in his hometown, Paris, studying under Fernand Cormon) to his most widely known 'mechanomorphic' paintings that defined the Dada identity in Paris and Zurich at the time and demonstrate Picabia's aesthetic interest in industrial items. Looking at these wild jumps in his style, between figuration to abstraction, it's hard to believe they have been made by the same person: From his 1905 Effect of Sunlight on the Banks of the Loing, a fine example of Impressionism, to abstract watercolor works such as Glass (1922), and the introduction of toothpicks and buttons into collage works of the mid 1920s such as Drinking Straws and Toothpicks, just shy of two decades later. Francis Picabia, Glass, 1922. Watercolour on paper, 72.3 x 59.6 cm. Moderna Museet, Stockholm 2016 ProLitteris, Zurich. Francis Picabia, Drinking Straws and Toothpicks, 1923-1924. Oil and collage on canvas, 92 x 73 cm. Kunsthaus Zurich, Vereinigung Zurcher Kunstfreunde 2016 ProLitteris, Zurich. Picabia's distinguishing ability to move between styles and themes makes him equally hard to understand. Certainly, he was an anarchist and a radical thinker in his art and politics, who wasn't interested in adhering to the conventions of culture--nor to being commercial or popular (though he was both). In Zurich--as the place where Dada originated, a city of profound significance in the context Picabia's career, and a city upon which he also left an indelible mark--the thematic and technical diversity of his work is manifest. As curator Catherine Hug says, "What I love with Picabia's work, and also characterizes him, is its variety, Picabia's constant reinvention of himself, and of painting techniques as well as themes. In this realm, it is difficult to say which one is exemplary - you have to see the whole. However, i personally love the large orphic cubistic works - they are absolutely exceptional in their size and synergetic strength, no artist before him did push further abstraction on such a large scale. But to recapitulate: I certainly have one or several favorites in each of Picabia's artistic phases. Picabia's work has to be characterized as kaleidoscopic, multi-facetted, impossible to pin him up on one work." The most revelational series on display at the Kunsthaus is possibly the works of Transparences (usually considered to be the works he created between circa 1928 to 1931, following his monsters and collage work). They are, as CF Howard puts it, "one of his most inscrutable and misunderstood bodies of work" in part, because Picabia refused to explain them. Picabia returns to figuration after his denouncement of Dada (very publicly leaving the movement in 1921). He employed references to the formal aspects of Renaissance art, and to the iconography of classical and Christian painting--types of imagery he was exposed to in Barcelona, where he lived from 1917, having returned to Europe from New York. The juxtapositions in these works are startling and often confusing--instead of a single, prominent figure he layered images and superimposed them, forging new hierarchies and primal associations. Picabia reveled in obscuring straight readings, but technically, the works align more with the experimentations happening in film and photography at the time, and prefigure many of the dominant tendencies in photography even today, from double exposure to digital manipulation and disruptions. According to Hug, "They are ahead of their time, and they are not. In terms of their progressiveness, the multiple layering is very avant-garde. Picabia was inspired here by his personal experiences in filmmaking and especially the technique of cross fading. He also believed here that the viewer is independent and can, on his own, decode the artwork, deconstructing each layer on its own. It certainly refers also to a certain degree to James Joyce's method of the Stream-of-Consciousness and the strength of associative thinking. Rather conservative and retrograde though, are the figurative references taken from mythology and the bible. This is symptomatic of the "Rappel a l'ordre" (Jean Cocteau, 1926) atmosphere at that time." Francis Picabia, Jean Borlin and Edith von Bonsdorff in Relache, 1925. Gelatin silver print, 17.5 x 25 cm. Dansmuseet - Museum Rolf de Mare, Stockholm 2016 ProLitteris, Zurich. From classical art, to porn. Always subverting his own aesthetic, Picabia was always interested in kitsch and taste, being strongly opposed to the bourgeois ideals of 'good taste' and logic. In the early 1940s, he began to use soft porn magazines as references, painted on wooden boards in oil. Included in the exhibition is Woman with Idol, where all of Picabia's styles seem to intermesh--a woman in stockings and high heels appears to straddle a large sculptural figure, with giant, blocky feet. The painting bears its own unique vocabulary--from the realistic style of the woman to the more chunky, blocky treatment of the idol figure--all in an oppressive atmosphere, with the shutters in the background and its swarthy palette. Painted in France during the Second World War, the painting reads as a pointed critique of the seductive power of authority. Legend has it that some of these later works, regarded as erotic, were purchased by an Algerian merchant, who sold them on to brothels in North Africa. Francis Picabia, Woman with Idol, c. 1940-1943. Oil on board, 105.4 x 74.8 cm. Private collection 2016 ProLitteris, Zurich. Francis Picabia, Egoisme, 1947/48- c. 1950. Oil on wood in original wood frame, 186 x 126,1 x 7 cm, with frame. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam 2016 ProLitteris, Zurich. On the occasion of this retrospective in Zurich, a celebration of Picabia's major contributions to the shape of modern art, Hug reflects: "Picabia is not an unknown figure to art history, so my co-curator Anne Umland and myself did not write totally new art history. Art historians, curators and scholars such as Bill Camfield, Jean-Hubert Martin and Suzanne Page paved decades ago the way in order Picabia is visible. What is certainly new though is that we show all periods equally. Especially the orphic cubist phase has never been shown in such exhaustiveness in the larger context of Picabia's whole oeuvre." Picabia is now receiving the public attention that his artist friends, including Marcel Duchamp and Andre Breton, recognized early on. Perhaps it takes an avant-garde spirit to appreciate the radicalism of Picabia. While there are many who believe that America has become too sensitive, or that America is becoming too politically correct, there are those, like Paris, who believe that sensitivity, be it about race, religion, sexuality, or other concerns come from a place that is real. The 12, 346 members and growing daily, of the HelloRacist Facebook community not only agree, but continue to expose racism on a daily basis and to share as much encouragement as possible. Being able to interview the anonymous founder of HelloRacist, was an opportunity to understand why a platform like HelloRacist continues to be necessary today. Advertisement The tagline of Hello Racist is Expose a Racist, why do you feel this is necessary in today's time? In today's society, as a country, in the past 50-100 years, we have obviously come pretty far in terms of giving all races and people equal rights and respect. However, in reality, there are still so many people and segments of society who are still stuck in a place where, for whatever reason, be it hate, ignorance, how they were raised, where they live, etc., racism is still acceptable behavior. It's still systematically a part of some people's cultures, lives, and mindset. And when we are dealing with a problem where people are still engaging in racist behavior in a very open way that is widely understood and known to be wrong. The solution is that to change this behavior people need to be confronted with their actions, the reality of what they are doing and behavior they are engaging in, to make them fully understand and appreciate that what they are doing is wrong, and to make them stop. The confrontation is the lynch-pin to facilitate change when it can be achieved. Exposing racists is so important in today's time though not just to try and change people. But because there are still a surprising number of people who are racist who really shouldn't be because of who they are and what they do professionally. Who, if they are racist, they have the potential to ruin people's lives when they let their racial biases and prejudices creep in and affect their professional decisions and judgments in ways that are completely incomprehensible and illegal. And that really shouldn't happen in today's society. I'm speaking about people who serve society in roles as police officers, teachers, public officials, doctors, bankers, realtors, judges, CEO's, and others. It's very critical information to understand if people filling important roles in society are racist and are making decisions and judgments that affect people of all races. The site operates as a public service announcement in that regard. These types of people need to be outed and fired/removed. Advertisement Some people say that we live in a time where there seems to be too much sensitivity, anything can be misinterpreted, do you believe that your site can help to propel this cultural sensitivity? I don't know. Maybe. I think there is some truth to people's complaints that society can be a bit too sensitive about certain issues or too politically correct. Truth be told some people are overly sensitive to issues that have very little relevance to the majority society. However, in most cases, I feel like sensitivity, be it about race, religion, sexuality, or other concerns comes from a place that is real. I.e., people are truthfully offended and feel disrespected. It's just difficult to put yourself in someone else's shoes to really feel and understand where that is coming from. I think what makes things worse though is that most people when faced with sensitivity or criticism from others, they get defensive and/or "double down" and attempt to minimize or trivialize others concerns or their own conduct. When what they really should do is acknowledge the issue, try and understand the other person's perspective, and if it's appropriate just apologize or move on. We all have the prerogative to say and do things that can be construed as being insensitive and offensive if that is how we really feel. And we also have an equal right to be offended. However, my hope is that if and when are put in these situations we can be more "real" about these situations. I would hope that HelloRacist.com does that more so than just propel sensitivity. Through your website and facebook page, you have exposed a lot of direct racism, has there been a problem with some of these people challenging your platform? Not really. Most of the legal threats I get are hilarious. How does a platform like Hello Racist truly make a difference rather than just being a place for people to vent? Advertisement I think when some people are confronted and called out about their racism, it actually does change them. They become ashamed and embarrassed. But they learn not to do it again. People learn to be racist. And I like to believe that most people at heart don't really believe in racism or subscribe to it. They just are because that's what they learned to do and were never told not to or confronted by anyone to tell them that it's wrong. I think it also makes a difference because what we've also seen is that there are people who are truly racist to the core and will never change. And often they joined gangs and subscribe to very violent groups who I think are real threats to commit violent acts. So people learn and are warned about truly dangerous and racist individuals and can hopefully avoid them Why do you choose to remain anonymous? Junior United States Senator from Connecticut Chris Murphy addresses journalists in Budapest on January 31, 2014. The senator met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and representatives of the Hungarian opposition. AFP PHOTO / ATTILA KISBENEDEK (Photo credit should read ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP/Getty Images) Although Bernie or Elizabeth would be the best choices, driving excitement on the trail and grassroots fundraising, and with their abilities to cut Trump to shreds, Hillary would be smart to look seriously at Chris Murphy (D-CT) as an alternative if neither of those work out. First, despite being only 43, Murphy has years of government experience in state government, as a member of Congress, and now as a United States Senator. He is on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) and Foreign Relations Committees---perfect. Advertisement Second, he is very smart. Unlike Donald Trump who has to tell you he is smart, Murphy really is. Although he went to an elite college, he went to a state law school. A good mix. Third, he is 43. That's good. He will be the only young person on either ticket. Fourth, he has no baggage. He will be the only "Mr Clean" on either ticket. Sure, the Republicans will invent rumors, but compared to Trump himself or his VP list of Christy (R-NJ), Gingrich (R-GA), or Sessions (R-AL), Murphy will seem like a saint. On the negative side, Murphy does not come across as blue collar. But, his mother was an "English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teacher, so that , along with his stand on immigration, should resonate well in minority communities. His background is Irish and Polish--who could go wrong with that? His biggest negative is that he is thoughtful and soft-spoken, not given to histrionics. He interviews brilliantly, but he may not attract the crowds. He fought off an extremely well-funded, Trump-like candidate in Connecticut, Linda McMahon from the World Wrestling Association. Advertisement Other than Bernie, Elizabeth and the President, however, who really does attract crowds? ASSOCIATED PRESS Bangladeshi security personnel cordon off the area after a group of gunmen attacked a restaurant popular with foreigners in a diplomatic zone of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, July 1, 2016. A group of gunmen attacked the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area, taking hostages and exchanging gunfire with security forces, according to a restaurant staff member and local media reports. (AP Photo) Why not Je Suis Dhaka? Or to be more culturally accurate Aami Dhaka? The attacks claimed by Islamic State in a restaurant in the capital of Bangladesh have become yet another grisly milestone in that country's cavalcade of horrors gay activists, Hindu priests, atheist bloggers, publishers, and now restaurant patrons. Yet precisely because it is such a cavalcade of horrors, happening with deadly and deadening regularity, it will not evoke a Je Suis moment. The Eiffel Tower will probably not be lit up in the colours of Bangladesh. And Facebook will not offer us an Aami Dhaka filter for our profile pictures. It might allow users to mark themselves safe but that's about it. There is a pecking order of tragedy. Advertisement Perhaps it's just as well. The Je Suis slogan, once a stirring call for a moment of coming together in protest and solidarity, is well-meaning but has a long lost its meaning. We can argue about whether the Eiffel Tower is illuminated or not but that sheds no light on why the bombing or massacre happened. It's become just another pro forma way to react. Or not. It's more a cookie cutter response than a thoughtful gesture. It has led to no greater equity when it comes to empathy. Some tragedies matter more than others and no prizes for guessing which ones. It is no longer a trigger for solidarity but for hypocrisy alert. Is a gay bar in Orlando more worthy of international mourning than an airport in Istanbul? It just makes us even more acutely aware of which tragedies count for more colour coding them as it were. The fact that we even have to debate this shows how ridiculous it has all become, how far removed from the actual horror. Je Suis has been turned into a fashion accessory, the AIDS red ribbon for these troubled times, and it's a fashion accessory that is definitely not one size fits all. Dhaka is not Istanbul is not Paris. Advertisement There are reasons for why one tragedy gets a Je Suis moment and another does not and many of them very sound reasons. It's a rare occurrence in Paris. It's more like daily news in Syria. And it has happened with clockwork regularity in Bangladesh. The world at large has greater cultural connection to Paris or London or New York than to Dhaka. But as the victims at the Istanbul airport blast showed, this was a cosmopolitan city, where many cultures criss-crossed. Among the victims were not just Turks but citizens of Saudi Arabia, China, Uzbekistan, Ukraine to name just a few. The majority, however, were Muslims and The New York Times says "If the bombings are confirmed to be the work of the Islamic State, it will show once again that the group, which portrays itself as defending Islam and fighting Western powers, kills far more Muslims than non-Muslims on the battlefields of Iraq and Syria or in terrorist attacks in the region." Many will point to that fact to say that is the reason why the world at large will not say Je Suis Istanbul whether in French or Turkish. Je Suis has been turned into a fashion accessory, the AIDS red ribbon for these troubled times, and it's a fashion accessory that is definitely not one size fits all. On the other hand perhaps the cosmopolitan nature of Turkey was the reason why at least some landmarks around the world did light up in Turkish colours Berlin's Brandenburg Gate and Amsterdam's Royal Palace to name two. But will it happen the next time? Did it happen the time before when 30 people were killed in a bombing in Ankara in February or when 37 were killed in another bombing in March? Advertisement The point is it really does not matter what happens to the Eiffel tower. After the Charlie Hebdo massacre, 40 world leaders marched the streets of Paris. That was an expression of solidarity which will not be repeated for Lahore or Dhaka or Istanbul, no matter what colours light up the Eiffel Tower. Any gesture, however well-intentioned, loses its impact with repetition and that is exactly what has happened with Je Suis. It's become a trigger of whataboutery for some what about We can argue about whether the Eiffel Tower is illuminated or not but that sheds no light on why the bombing or massacre happened. Did it happen for the same reason in Orlando as in Dhaka as in Istanbul as in Brussels? Is it really the Islamic State or is it just happy to take "credit" for every act of mayhem? How are the local politics of Bangladesh playing into this narrative versus the local politics of Turkey? What does it mean that despite attack after attack, the government in Bangladesh seems to be more invested in claiming that this is the work of homegrown terrorists as opposed to an international operation like Islamic State as if that should make us all heave a sigh of relief? That stubborn denial in fact helps feed the likes of Donald Trump who want to ride the "Islamic terrorist bogeyman" to the White House. These are the discussions that would be meaningful not debates about changing filters and profile pictures. The hope was that in a more connected world the Je Suis moment would send a powerful message - a united nations of resolve and solidarity. But it's just become a template to photoshop a tragedy that in effect melds one massacre into another. And the dead whether in Dhaka or Orlando or Istanbul deserve better. Also On HuffPost India PTI Indrani Mukerjea's former driver Shyamvar Rai, one of the key accused in her daughter Sheena Bora's murder, turned approver in the case and submitted a detailed account of murder in his confessional statement. Shyamvar was the first to be arrested in the case in August 2015. In fact, his arrest in connection with an arms case took the lid off the murder. Advertisement In his confession, which was unsealed by the special CBI court on Friday following a Bombay High Court directive on Thursday, Shyamvar also gave gory details about the Sheena's murder. Madam asked me to drive towards Taj Lands End. She sat on the dead body's [Sheena's] face and said that she had got her 3BHK flat." In his statement, Shyamvar alleged that it was Indrani who came up with the murder plan along with ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna. He didn't suggest that Peter Mukerjea had a role to play. According to a report in Hindustan Times, Shyamvar said that Indrani had contacted him in March 2012 and had revealed her plans to 'eliminate' her two children Sheena and Mikhail with Shyamvar's help, because she 'trusted him'. Advertisement Indrani reportedly wanted to kill Sheena and Mikhail due to fights over property. She allegedly told Shyamvar that Sheena was in a relationship with her step-brother Rahul Mukerjea, Peters son from an earlier marriage. Shyamvar said in the statement: Indrani madam asked me to drive towards Taj Lands End. She sat on the dead body's [Sheena's] face and said that she had got her 3BHK flat." He added that after the murder, the three of them dispersed and later met at Indrani's house in Marlow building in south Mumbai. They had reportedly kept Sheena's body in a garbage bag in the house and had decided to kill Mikhail later. In his confession recorded last year by a magistrate, Shyamvar had alleged that Indrani gave him a parcel and three months' salary and asked him to leave soon after Sheena's murder in 2012. Advertisement "However, when I opened the parcel it contained a crude weapon (gun)," Shyamvar had said, according to PTI. According to the prosecution, 24-year-old Sheena was murdered on 24 April 2012 and her remains were found in a forest in Raigad. The crime, which came to light last year, is allegedly linked to certain financial dealings. The trio were arrested in August last year, while Peter Mukerjea was arrested in November. According to CBI, Peter was part of the murder conspiracy. While Peter and Khanna are lodged in the Central prison at Arthur Road, Indrani is in Byculla women's jail in the city. (With inputs from PTI) Also On HuffPost: Israeli air strikes hit four sites in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, causing damage but no injuries, officials said, after Palestinian fighters fired a rocket that struck a building in southern Israel. The four sites included a workshop, two locations for Hamas's armed wing and a military training site for Islamic Jihad group, the security official said on condition of anonymity. Two of the sites were in Gaza City while the other two were in Beit Lahia, in the north of the enclave, run by Islamist movement Hamas. All of the sites have been previously targeted by Israel, the official said. Israel's occupation military said in a statement it had "targeted four locations that were components of Hamas's operational infrastructure in the northern and central Gaza Strip" in response to the rocket. A rocket launched from the strip hit a building in the southern Israeli city of Sderot late Friday, damaging it but causing no injuries, the military said. Israeli media said the rocket had hit a kindergarten, but the military had not provided further details. Medics said they treated two people for shock. No group in Gaza claimed responsibility for firing the rocket, which came hours after Israel announced a lockdown on the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank and cuts in monthly tax payments to the Palestinian Authority in response to attacks. In one of several attacks in recent days, a 19-year-old Palestinian fatally stabbed a 13-year-old US-Israeli national in her home at the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba on the outskirts of Hebron. Friday's rocket is the 13th projectile fired from the Gaza Strip to have hit Israel since the start of 2016. Smaller, more radical Islamist groups have often been blamed, with Hamas forces either unwilling or unable to prevent the rocket fire. Israel holds Hamas responsible for all rocket attacks from Gaza. Israel have launched three deadly assaults on the Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip since 2008. On Friday, the Middle East diplomatic quartet said that the "lack of control of Gaza by the Palestinian Authority, and the dire humanitarian situation" were feeding "instability and ultimately impede efforts to achieve a negotiated solution". "Preventing the use of territory for attacks against Israel is a key commitment that is essential to long-term peace and security," said the group, which includes the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations. The report also said Israeli settlement building and confiscation of land in the West Bank were among factors "steadily eroding the viability of the two-state solution." Search Keywords: Short link: Robert Redelowski via Getty Images Shadow CHENNAI -- In a major breakthrough, a man suspected to have murdered a 24-year-old woman IT professional here was arrested tonight in Tirunelveli district, police said. After stalking her for months, he allegedly murdered S Swathi using a sickle here last week. Ram Kumar, an engineering graduate, was arrested in Tirunelveli. Kumar, a native of Shencottah near Tirunelveli, was staying in Choolaimedu area in the city where Swathi had resided for quite some time. Advertisement He was taken to a hospital for treatment after he allegedly attempted to commit suicide, police said. The motive of the killing is being investigated and other probe-related details in the case are being awaited, police said. Swathi, employed with software giant Infosys, was found dead with cut injuries on her face and neck around 6.30 AM on a platform in Nungambakkam railway station on 24 June. Police release enhanced picture of the suspect in the Swathi murder case. pic.twitter.com/r8HGfq7MxF TheNewsMinute (@thenewsminute) June 30, 2016 Also On HuffPost: Buhler JV and freshman football will not be defeated The Buhler JV squad capped its unbeaten season with a 34-22 victory at McPherson Monday night with help from members of the freshman team. A Tunisian was flown home for trial on Saturday after his arrest in Turkey for allegedly joining the Islamic State group, prosecutors said, days after his father was killed in an airport attack while searching for him. "Anouar Bayoudh arrived in Tunis at 00:30 am (2330 GMT Friday) with his girlfriend. They were taken to the investigation unit for terrorist crimes at the National Guard," prosecution spokesman Sofiene Sliti said. Bayoudh was to appear before a magistrate later on Saturday and both he and his girlfriend were to be charged with "joining a terrorist organisation and involvement in terrorist crimes", Sliti said. The 26-year-old has no idea that his father Fathi was buried on Friday after he was among the 44 people killed in a gun and bomb attack at Istanbul's Ataturk airport earlier this week, the spokesman added. The military doctor had been in Turkey looking for Anouar, after he and his wife learned late last year that their son had joined IS group in Iraq and then in Syria, like thousands of other young Tunisians. But Anouar had a change of heart after he realized the militants were "monsters", his mother has told AFP. The young man turned himself in to the rebel Free Syrian Army after realizing that he no longer wanted to be part of IS, and was detained in Turkey. His father was waiting for his wife at the Istanbul airport on Tuesday when the attackers struck, after months of back-and-forth to Turkey to try to find his son. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack, but authorities say evidence points to IS. Tunisia has also been the victim of attacks claimed by IS group, and it is thought that thousands of Tunisians have travelled to neighbouring Libya, Iraq or Syria to join IS or its Islamist rival Al-Qaeda. Search Keywords: Short link: Andy Slater, his father, Chuck Slater, and Everett Fennelly, all members of the Tyringham Volunteer Fire Company, keep the pancake production line going for the annual Fourth of July weekend pancake breakfast in 2012. The annual event is this Sunday, July 3, at the Tyringham pavilion. Berkshire Tidbits: Fire Company Breakfast, Farm Tours The Yoked Parish of Becket presents its free monthly pasta dinner this Friday. All are welcome. Parish minister, the Rev. Kevin Smail said that the meal includes a pasta dish, salad, Italian or garlic bread and an assortment of mostly homemade desserts and beverages. The purpose of the regular meals is to build community, he said. Becket resident Arlene Adler said she tries to attend the dinner whenever she can. She said it does make her feel connected with her neighbors. "And there is always a meat sauce and a vegetarian sauce. Some nice salad. It's always good. Homemade," she said." The free dinner will be at the parish house of the Becket Federated Church, 413-623-5217, 3381 Main St. across from the Becket Washington elementary school, just past the intersection with Route 8 in North Becket. Starting this week through Wednesday, Aug. 31, the meat department at Wild Oats Co-op Market, 320 Main St./Route 2 in Williamstown, 413-458-8060, is making grab and go barbecue dinners customers can pick up from their meat cooler. They are simple dinners for $9.95 each. There is a choice of a half rack of pork ribs, beef sirloin cooked medium rare to rare depending on who's cooking, salmon or a half chicken. The meats come with a generous helping of co-op made kale slaw. "We are the meat department, not the kitchen, so we are not able to add a lot of veggies or other sides or desserts," a staffer told me. Still, Wild Oats quality BBQ and slaw at the ready every day They should be out by lunchtime but call to make sure. You can also pre-order the dinners 24 hours ahead. Norm Beaman and Andy Slater grill sausages. It really feels like the start of summer. Or, an affirmation that it's Independence Day, again. The annual pancake breakfast at the pavilion in Tyringham, 100 Main Road, put on by the Tyringham Volunteer Fire Company every Fourth of July weekend Sunday morning from 7 to 10. This Sunday, July 3, the menu will be the usual, prepared by the Volunteer Firemen of Tyringham: orange juice, pancakes served with Tyringham maple syrup and sausages, coffee and tea. The volunteer fire company brings neighbors together, brings the whole tiny town of under 350 together. And the pancake breakfast brings even more people into town, easily 500 or more. "It's not just the food," said Tyringham resident and volunteer fireman Ron Goldberg. "It's the feeling between the men. It's that really, really good feeling that knits the community together." Get your tickets at the door. It's $8 for adults, $7 for seniors and children under 12. Over the summer, The Chef's Shop, 31 Railroad St. in Great Barrington, 413-528-013, email@thechefsshop.com, will be offering cooking classes by three chefs: Michael Ballon, chef and owner of Castle Street Cafe in Great Barrington, personal chef and local cooking teacher Marco Belli and chef Julie Gale of At the Table Cooking School in Hillsdale, N.Y. First up, on Friday, July 8, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., chef Marco Belli will be celebrating classic summer by grilling a rosemary-garlic marinated chicken and, then seasonal fruit. pineapple and mango, and pairing them with local ginger ice cream. Class size is limited to 12 students to encourage everyone to participate. After dinner is prepared, the class eats. There will be a wine selection courtesy of Domaney's Fine Wines of Great Barrington. Marco's class is $35 per person. Then, the next Thursday, July 14, at 6 p.m., Gale will teach a Thai-inspired summer menu starting with grilled chicken satay, making shrimp pad Thai for an entree and mango with sticky rice for dessert. Gale's class is $40. Payment for classes is required in advance with a 48-hour cancellation policy. The Chef's Shop offers students a 10 percent discount on purchases made on a class day and for a couple of days after. Berkshire Co-op Market, 413-528-9697, will be presenting an intimate afternoon farm tour with the staff of the 60-acre, certified organic MX Morningstar Farm, in Copake, N.Y., on Saturday, July 9, at 3 p.m. Owner and lead farmer Max Morningstar will lead everyone on a tour of the popular farm, which sustainably grows a variety of vegetables and fruits, to see its grounds and workings. He will serve a snack using farm grown and prepared ingredients. Call the Co-op for more information and to sign up for the tour. Directions to the farm can be found here. Israel should stop building settlements, denying Palestinian development and designating land for exclusive Israeli use that Palestinians seek for a future state, the Middle East peace "Quartet" recommended in a draft of an eagerly awaited report seen by Reuters. The draft report by the Quartet countries sponsoring the stalled peace process - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - said the Israeli policy "is steadily eroding the viability of the two state solution." "This raises legitimate questions about Israel's long term intentions which are compounded by the statements of some Israeli ministers that there should never be a Palestinian state," according to the draft report. The day before Israeli elections in March 2015, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there would never be a Palestinian state on his watch, only to reverse himself days later and recommit to the objective of a two-state solution. U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov briefed the U.N. Security Council on Thursday on the Quartet report, which he told reporters had been submitted to the Quartet members for final approval and was likely to be released on Friday. Diplomatic sources said the report carries significant political weight as it has the backing of close Israeli ally the United States, which has struggled to revive the peace talks amid tensions between Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama. Relations between the rightist Israeli leader and the Democratic president have yet to recover from their bitter feud over last year's U.S.-led international nuclear deal with Israel's foe Iran. The draft report said Israel had taken for its exclusive use some 70 percent of Area C, which makes up 60 percent of the occupied West Bank and includes the majority of agricultural lands, natural resources and land reserves. Land Handovers Stalled "The transfer of greater powers and responsibilities to Palestinian civil authority in Area C, contemplated by commitments in prior agreements, has effectively been stopped and in some ways reversed and should be resumed to advance the two state solution and prevent a one state reality from taking hold," the draft Quartet report said. The draft report said that at least 570,000 Israelis are living in the settlements, which most countries deem illegal. "Israel should cease the policy of settlement construction and expansion, designating land for exclusive Israeli use and denying Palestinian development," the draft report recommends. It said that only one permit for Palestinian housing construction in Area C was reportedly approved in 2014, while there did not appear to have been any approved in 2015. The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in a 1967 war. The last round of peace talks broke down in April 2014, and Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged in recent months. On Friday, a Palestinian woman tried to knife an Israeli police trooper in the West Bank city of Hebron and was shot dead, police said. Since October, Palestinian street attacks that have killed 33 Israelis and two visiting Americans. Israel has killed at least 201 Palestinians, 136 of whom it said were assailants. Others were killed during clashes and protests. "The Palestinian authority should act decisively and take all steps within its capacity to cease incitement to violence and strengthen ongoing efforts to combat terrorism, including by clearly condemning all acts of terrorism," the draft Quartet report said. Mladenov told the Security Council on Thursday the Quartet report outlines a "reasonable set of steps" that could be taken to put Israel and the Palestinians on the path to peace. He said the report concluded that continuing violence, terrorism and incitement; Israeli settlement expansion and a lack of control of Gaza by the Palestinian Authority "severely undermine hope for peace." The Palestinian Authority headed by President Mahmoud Abbas is based in the West Bank, while Islamist group Hamas has been in control of Gaza since 2007. Search Keywords: Short link: Yemen's government has expressed doubts over UN-backed efforts to end its conflict with Shia Houthi rebels who have seized control of large parts of the country. The government still has "fundamental differences" with the Houthis over "their rejection... of measures that are necessary to put an end to their plot", it said in a statement late on Friday. Yemen's warring parties are taking a two-week break from peace talks in Kuwait that have made little headway since they began on April 21. The government, supported by a Sunni coalition headed by Saudi Arabia, demands that the Iran-backed rebels withdraw from cities including the capital, Sanaa, and give back arms they have seized. It wants to re-establish its authority across the entire country and restart a political transition that was interrupted when the Houthis ousted President Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi and seized Sanaa in 2014. The rebels have conditioned their withdrawal on both sides agreeing on a new president to manage the transition. "Due to the stubbornness (of the rebels) and their procrastination, it was not possible to agree on any item on the agenda" of the Kuwait talks, the government delegation said. The negotiators will spend the next two weeks discussing their positions before reconvening on July 15, UN mediator Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said on Wednesday. He said they would then return to Kuwait "with practical recommendations on how to implement the necessary mechanisms that will enable them to sign a peace accord". Ould Cheikh Ahmed has urged both sides to make concessions to end the conflict, which has cost more than 6,400 lives since March 2015, when the Saudi-led coalition intervened to push back the Houthis. On Thursday, the UN envoy said the two sides had "established the main principles that will guide the next phase of Yemen talks". He has put forward a peace roadmap that would see the formation of a unity government and the withdrawal and disarmament of the rebels. He said the negotiators had welcomed his proposal but had not agreed a timetable or the steps needed to implement it. Yemen's Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher told the rebels and their allies, supporters of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, that they had no choice other than to make peace. "Peace will be imposed by all means, even by force," he said in a statement published by Yemen's government-controlled Saba news agency. "Everyone without exception will have to submit to the authority of the state." Search Keywords: Short link: IMF Reaches Staff Level Agreement with Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on an Arrangement Under the Extended Credit Facility 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. This mission will result in a Board discussion. This document is also available in Dari. An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission, led by Christoph Duenwald, held discussions with the Afghanistan authorities in May and June 2016, on IMF support for Afghanistans economic program. Following the discussions, Mr. Duenwald made the following statement: IMF staff and the Afghanistan authorities have reached staff-level agreement on an economic program to be supported by a three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement which the authorities have requested. Access under this arrangement is proposed to be set at 10 percent of Afghanistans quota in the Fund (SDR 32.4 million, or about US$45 million) in keeping with the current healthy international reserves position. The arrangement is subject to approval by the IMF Executive Board, which is scheduled to consider the authorities request on July 20, 2016. Economic conditions remain difficult. Real GDP growth was only 0.8 percent in 2015, and, while a small uptick to 2 percent is projected for 2016, this remains far below the level that is needed to ensure increased employment and improved living standards. Large fiscal and external deficits continue to be financed by donor aid. Downside risks, related to uncertain security conditions and potential shortfalls in external support, could lead to worse outcomes. The new ECF arrangement builds on the nine-month Staff Monitored Program1 that was successfully completed in April 2016, and aims to play a catalytic role for continued strong donor support. The program supported by the ECF arrangement would rest on two pillars: Structural reforms to facilitate private sector development. These will concentrate on areas where the Fund has a comparative advantage, to complement policies supported by Afghanistans other international partners. Initial measures will support the authorities anti-corruption efforts and fiscal reform agenda, including reforms to mobilize revenue and strengthen public financial management to enhance the efficiency of expenditure. Policies to preserve macroeconomic and financial stability. The ECF arrangement will aim to gradually reduce underlying fiscal and external imbalances to prepare for a time when donor aid declines. Bufferslow public debt and ample international reserveswill remain strong to absorb adverse shocks. The budget will increasingly favor development spending to support a recovery in growth, while financial sector policies will aim to strengthen vulnerable and weak banks and reform the state-owned commercial banks. Monetary policy will continue to be focused on maintaining price stability and a flexible exchange rate regime, while fostering confidence in the domestic currency in the context of high dollarization. The authorities program supported by the ECF arrangement is part of a broader multi-year development framework that sets Afghanistan on a path to self-reliance and will help tackle economic challenges and assist in improving conditions for sustainable growth. 1 A Staff Monitored Program is an informal agreement between country authorities and Fund staff to monitor the implementation of the authorities economic program. It does not entail financial assistance or endorsement by the IMF Executive Board. Imperial Valley News Center HSI Chicago seizes nearly 60 tons of honey illegally imported from China Chicago, Illinois - Special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) seized nearly 60 tons of illegally imported Chinese honey Wednesday that was destined for U.S. consumers. The smuggled honey was contained in 195 55-gallon drums that were falsely declared as originating from Vietnam to evade anti-dumping duties applicable to Chinese-origin honey. The honey likely originated from the same exporter in Vietnam as another 60 tons of honey that was seized by HSI Chicago in the Midwest in April. Wednesdays seizure was allegedly imported into the United States by a shell importer of record in New York, New York. Agents located the honey by combing through transportation shipping records to piece together its whereabouts. Prior to seizing the smuggled honey, HSI sent samples to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Laboratory for analysis, where it was determined that the honey had a greater than 99 percent probability match with honey from China. Similar to the April seizure, Wednesdays seizure was accompanied by altered reports from a private laboratory with analyses completely unrelated to the seized honey. The private laboratory fully cooperated with HSI and is considered a victim of identity theft. Food fraud is a growing epidemic across all types of products, said James M. Gibbons, special agent in charge for HSI Chicago. From seafood to vintage wines to honey, food products with any economic value are being intentionally adulterated, smuggled, or simply misrepresented by knowing participants to maximize profits. Protecting the American consumer from smuggled and potentially unsafe imported food is one of HSIs enforcement priorities. With assistance from CBP Chicago, HSI seized the illicit honey June 29 from a warehouse in suburban Chicago. The seized honey will be destroyed in its entirety following its successful forfeiture at the conclusion of the governments ongoing investigation. HSI has stepped up its efforts regarding commercial fraud investigations that focus on U.S. economic, and health and safety interests. These anti-dumping criminal schemes create a divergent market that negatively affects legitimate businesses. In the case of honey, the United States relies on legitimately imported foreign-origin honey to meet the demand in the foodservice and commercial baking sectors; but that honey must be lawfully sourced from reputable buyers and sellers. With the recent enactment of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (TFTEA), Congress recognized that industries and companies that circumvent U.S. law and regulation remain a risk to this nations economic security. Among its provisions, TFTEA requires ICE and CBP to collaborate to enhance trade enforcement, with specific emphasis on honey illegally imported into the United States in violation of U.S. customs and trade laws. In December 2001, the U.S. Commerce Department imposed anti-dumping duties after determining that Chinese-origin honey was being sold in the United States at less than fair-market value. The duties first imposed were as high as 221 percent of the declared value. Later these duties were assessed against the entered net weight, currently at $2.63 per net kilogram, in addition to a "honey assessment fee" of 1.5 per pound on all honey. In 2008, federal authorities in Chicago began investigating allegations of organizations circumventing anti-dumping duties through illegal imports, including transshipment and mislabeling, on the supply side of the honey industry. The second phase of the investigation involved the illegal buying, processing and trading of honey that illegally entered the U.S. on the demand side of the industry. In these multi-year investigations, HSI Chicago and the Department of Justice together convicted nine individuals (not including 10 remaining foreign fugitives) in a series of global schemes which evaded nearly $260 million in anti-dumping duties on honey from China, and which also involved honey containing antibiotics prohibited in food. Governor Brown Issues Proclamation Declaring Independence Day Sacramento, California - Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today issued a proclamation declaring July 4, 2016 as Independence Day in the State of California. PROCLAMATION On July 2nd, 1776, in the midst of the Revolutionary War, the Second Continental Congress approved a resolution of independence, drafted by delegate Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, which gave force of law to our separation from the colonial power of Great Britain. Two days later, this resolution was made public in the form of the Declaration of Independence, whose primary author was Thomas Jefferson. Each year since then, we have celebrated the fourth day of July as Independence Day, the birthday of the United States of America. The famous principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence are not only the foundation of our country's freedom: they have become a global standard for the liberty and autonomy of all peoples. As we participate in "Fourth of July" traditions from midday barbecues to evening pyrotechnics, I urge all Californians to remember the convictions of our forebears that led them to create a new nation, the courage of those who fought to make and keep us independent and the great work that lies ahead as we strive to fulfill the American dream. NOW THEREFORE I, EDMUND G. BROWN JR., Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim July 4, 2016, as Independence Day. IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 1st day of July 2016. ___________________________________ EDMUND G. BROWN JR. Governor of California ATTEST: __________________________________ ALEX PADILLA Secretary of State Fresno-area woman pleads guilty to laundering profits from synthetic drug sales Fresno, California - A Clovis woman has pleaded guilty to laundering proceeds from the sale of synthetic drugs, commonly known as spice, following a probe by federal and state investigators as part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). Natalie Middleton, 30, of Clovis, appeared in federal court Monday. According to court documents, Middleton purchased a Lake Tahoe time share with proceeds obtained from the sales of smokable synthetic cannabinoids. Middletons plea agreement states that, from January through March 2013, she was employed as a national sales representative for ZenBio LLC (ZenBio). ZenBio was a spice manufacturing and distribution business that started in Pensacola, Florida, in November 2012. It continued the operations of another spice company, known as Zencense IncenseWorks LLC, which processed the drug in warehouses in Stockton and Millbrae. The drugs were sold under the brand names Bizarro, Orgazmo, Headhunter, Defcon, Neutronium, Sonic Zero, Sonic Boom, Sonic Blast, Shockwave, Hampster, and Posh. ZenBio distributed these drugs during its approximate five-month lifespan. ZenBio generated in excess of $33 million from the sale of at least 24 tons of synthetic drugs. During the investigation of this case, law enforcement seized over $6 million in cash and assets derived from drug proceeds. The charges against Middleton are the result of a probe involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, and the Fresno County Sheriffs Office. The Food and Drug Administration also provided substantial assistance with the case. Court documents reveal that, prior to her position with ZenBio, Middleton worked as a manager at the Stuffed Pipe, a chain of smoke shops located in Fresno, Visalia, and Bakersfield. The Stuffed Pipe previously sold ZenBio and Zencense spice products. Spice refers to a smokable organic plant leaf that is laced with a synthetic cannabinoid, which is often a controlled substance or a controlled substance analogue. Public health and law enforcement agencies have seen the emergence of synthetic drug use. State and local public health departments note that synthetic cannabinoids cause serious adverse health effects, including agitation, anxiety, nausea, vomiting, tachycardia, elevated blood pressure, tremor, seizures, hallucinations, paranoid behavior, and even death. Middleton is scheduled for sentencing Oct. 11. She faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain from the crime. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. Last month, one of Middletons co-conspirators, Timothy New, 33, of Pensacola, Florida, pleaded guilty to the fraudulent interstate shipments of misbranded drugs. Two other co-defendants, Douglas Jason Way, 41, of Evanston, Illinois, and Timothy Ortiz, aka Michael Fitton, 45, of Waukegan, Illinois, have pleaded not guilty to various drug charges and are scheduled for a status conference Sept. 12. They face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $10 million fine. Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen A. Escobar is prosecuting the case. Mexican nationals indicted for running a counterfeit document ring Fresno, California - A federal grand jury returned an indictment Thursday charging six Mexican nationals for their role in a scheme to manufacture and sell counterfeit identity and immigration documents, following a probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The defendants - including Angelica Moreno-Velasquez, 31, Maria Victoria Perez-Vasquez, 30, Francisco Javier Hidalgo-Flores, 25, Lizet Amairani Ramirez-Zazueta, 26, and Veronica Rosales-Capitaine, 49, all of Fresno, and Fidel Vasquez-Velasquez, 22, of Madera - are charged with conspiracy; transferring false identification documents; possessing document-making implements; and fraud and misuse of alien registration receipt cards. According to court documents, Vasquez-Velasquez, Hidalgo-Flores and Rosales-Capitaine manufactured fraudulent identification documents, including Social Security cards and alien registration receipt cards, often called green cards. Vasquez-Velasquez, Hidalgo-Flores and Perez-Vasquez took orders, photographs, and biographical information from customers, then delivered the completed fraudulent identification documents to the buyers. The defendants charged anywhere from $80 to $150 for one set of documents. Moreno-Velasquez and Ramirez-Zazueta also delivered fraudulent identification documents to customers and other co-conspirators. HSI aggressively targets criminals who illegally create and distribute fake IDs, said Ryan L. Spradlin, special agent in charge of HSI San Francisco. This nefarious activity opens a dangerous path for those wishing to cause harm to our country and wreak havoc on the lives of innocent identity theft victims. The charge of transferring false identification documents or possessing document-making implements carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Additionally, Moreno-Velasquez, Perez-Vasquez, Hidalgo-Flores, Ramirez-Zazueta, and Vasquez-Velasquez face a possible penalty of up to 10 years in prison if convicted of fraud and misuse of alien registration receipt cards. Finally, all six defendants face an additional maximum penalty of five years in prison if convicted of the conspiracy charge. Assistant United States Attorney Christopher D. Baker is prosecuting the case. Fireworks Warnings Imperial County, California - Possession of any type of fireworks, including safe and sane fireworks, is not allowable in any unincorporated area of Imperial County. In the event a fire occurs due to the unsafe use of fireworks, the responsible persons are likely to be held liable for costs and damages. Safe and Sane fireworks are only allowed in the following cities, Brawley, Calexico, Calipatria, El Centro, Holtville, and Westmorland. Please call the fire department in these cities for more information. All fireworks are illegal elsewhere in the county. All fireworks that explode, shoot into the air or move along the ground are termed dangerous and are illegal anywhere in California. Independence Day is a time to celebrate our freedoms. Please, Be Prepared, Be Safe, and Be Responsible when using fireworks. According to the National Fire Protection Association, on a typical 4th of July, fireworks cause more fires in the U.S. than all other causes combined. While Safe and Sane fireworks are allowed in some Imperial County communities, the Imperial County Fire Department encourage residents to watch fireworks at community celebrations. NRCS making air quality incentives available to agricultural producers Sacramento, California - USDAs Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is making air quality funds available to help agricultural producers improve and maintain air quality within designated nonattainment areas of California. Funding for the National Air Quality Initiative (NAQI) is available through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). Producers interested in participating in this initiative are encouraged to get their applications in soon. EQIP applications are accepted year-round, but interested producers need to be ready by July 29, 2016 to be considered for this years funding. To be ready for EQIP funding consideration, interested applicants will need to: 1) submit the application form, 2) meet program eligibility requirements, 3) develop a conservation plan, and 4) approve their EQIP schedule of operations. The time needed to complete a conservation plan and process eligibility can vary, from a few weeks to more than a month, depending on the complexity of the farming operation. Weve had great success with this initiative in some of the high priority areas of the state, said Assistant State Conservationist Alan Forkey. We entered into 606 contracts with farmers who are voluntarily undertaking this workthe Agency invested $19 million and the farmers matched thatfor a total of $38 million in 2015 alone. This new funding offers an opportunity for producers who have not yet participated. NAQI can help agricultural producers implement conservation practices that reduce air pollution from agricultural sources. Financial assistance is targeted to counties that have been identified as having significant air quality resource concerns by being designated as nonattainment for Ozone or Particulate Matter. These areas experience air pollution levels that persistently exceed the National Ambient Air Quality Standards established by the Clean Air Act. For fiscal year 2016, interested owners or operators of land managed for agricultural production in the following counties may be eligible for the National Air Quality Initiative: Alameda, Butte, Calaveras, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Merced, Mono, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tulare, Ventura, Yolo, and Yuba. Typical conservation treatments for this initiative include replacing old, high-polluting off-road mobile farm equipment with newer, cleaner models and transitioning to cleaner irrigation pump engines and electric motors. More information is available in the program description on the NRCS website or by contacting the local USDA Service Center. NRCS has provided leadership in a partnership effort to help Americas private landowners and managers conserve their soil, water and other natural resources since 1935. Burundi's National Day Washington, DC - Secretary of State John Kerry: "On behalf of President Obama and the American people, I congratulate the people of Burundi on the 54th anniversary of your independence on July 1. "This years celebrations come in the midst of a yearlong crisis that has shown the resilience of both the Burundian people and the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement. The United States continues to stand with all Burundians committed to peace and prosperity in their country and in the region. I call on all people of Burundi to reach a peaceful resolution to the ongoing crisis through a mediated dialogue. "I wish all Burundians a peaceful and joyous celebration." The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah says it has killed the Islamic State (IS) group military commander for the Qaa border area in Lebanon, where a series of suicide bombings and other attacks killed five people earlier this week. Hezbollah's media outlet Al-Manar said the group, which shares security responsibilities with the Lebanese army in areas along the eastern border with Syria, killed a commander known as Abu Khatab in a rocket attack. The army did not release any comment. Hezbollah, which also participates in Lebanon's government, has blamed the Qaa attacks on IS group. Violence from neighboring Syria's civil war has spilled across the border in the past. IS group and al-Qaeda militants briefly seized the Lebanese border town of Arsal in 2014, before security forces pushed them back across the frontier. Search Keywords: Short link: U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Travel to Germany Washington, DC - U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Dr. Jonathan Pershing will travel July 3 6 to Berlin, Germany to participate in the Seventh Petersberg Climate Dialogue, a ministerial-level meeting convened by the German government focused on the international effort to address climate change. The meeting will focus on the next steps following the adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change, including implementation of the agreement, midcentury strategies for low greenhouse gas emissions development, and long-term strategies for climate resilient development. Discussions during the dialogue will also include how best to make finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate resilient development, and expectations for COP-22 in Marrakesh. Special Envoy Pershing will also hold several bilateral meetings on the margins of the Petersberg Dialogue, including with German government officials and with other Ministerial counterparts. During his meetings, he will discuss efforts to implement the Paris Agreement on climate change, and accelerate the adoption of clean energy and climate-resilient technologies. Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Independent Climate email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Greenhouse gas emissions have led to an increase in the size and temperature of the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool, the largest area of warm water in the world, scientists have warned. The pool stretches about 9,000 miles along the equator and 1,500 miles from north to south. It is defined as an area of ocean with an average temperature of more than 28 degrees Celsius but this can reach up to 30 degrees in places. As water warms, it expands and the region has experienced the worlds highest rates of sea-level rise in recent years. Five small islands in the South Pacific recently disappeared and six others were partially destroyed by the rising tide. And because the warmth of the water can drive moisture and hot air high into the atmosphere, it has a significant effect on the weather experienced by countries in the region, increasing the risk of severe cyclones. The size of the pool has been shown to oscillate in 20-year cycles, getting bigger and warmer then contracting and cooling. However the researchers, from South Korea, Australia, Canada and China, said overall it had warmed by 0.3C and increased in size by about a third over the last 60 years. While the temperature rise may sound small, the pools size means the amount of extra energy is vast. In a paper in the journal Science Advances, they wrote: The IPWP (Indo-Pacific Warm Pool) is Earths largest region of warm sea surface temperatures, has the highest rainfall, and is fundamental to global atmospheric circulation and hydrological cycle. The region has also experienced the worlds highest rates of sea-level rise in recent decades, indicating large increases in ocean heat content and leading to substantial impacts on small island states in the region. The researchers compared measurements of temperature with climate simulations and concluded that greenhouse gases were the dominant cause of the observed increases in IPWP intensity and size, whereas natural fluctuations associated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation have played a smaller yet significant role. Human-induced changes in the IPWP have important implications for understanding and projecting related changes in monsoonal rainfall, and frequency or intensity of tropical storms, which have profound socioeconomic consequences. Paris climate talks in pictures Show all 12 1 /12 Paris climate talks in pictures Paris climate talks in pictures A man is covered with a multi-coloured banner with the message, "Climate" as environmentalists attend a demonstration near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, during the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) that meets in Le Bourget, December 12, 2015 Reuters Paris climate talks in pictures French President Francois Hollande (C) and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (R) applaud after a statement at the COP21 Climate Conference in Le Bourget, north of Paris, on December 12, 2015. The years-long quest for a universal pact to avert catastrophic climate change neared the finish line today with conference host France announcing that the final draft had been completed in the early hours of the morning. Getty Paris climate talks in pictures US Secretary of State John Kerry (C) speaks with China's Special Representative on Climate Change Xie Zhenhua (R) and officials at the COP21 Climate Conference in Le Bourget, north of Paris, on December 12, 2015. The years-long quest for a universal pact to avert catastrophic climate change neared the finish line today with conference host France announcing that the final draft had been completed in the early hours of the morning. Getty Paris climate talks in pictures Delegates and members of NGO's read and work on copies of 'The adoption of the Paris agreement' is pictured after the announcement of the final draft by French Foreign Affairs minister Laurent Fabius at the COP21 Climate Conference in Le Bourget, north of Paris, on December 12, 2015. The years-long quest for a universal pact to avert catastrophic climate change neared the finish line with conference host France announcing that the final draft had been completed in the early hours of the morning Getty Paris climate talks in pictures UN climate chief Christiana Figueres (C) speaks with French President Francois Hollande (L), United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (2ndL) and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (R) after a statement at the COP21 Climate Conference in Le Bourget, north of Paris, on December 12, 2015. The years-long quest for a universal pact to avert catastrophic climate change neared the finish line today with conference host France announcing that the final draft had been completed in the early hours of the morning Getty Paris climate talks in pictures A Swiss Dominican priest poses with activists dressed as polar bears as activists gather for a demonstration to form a giant red line at the Avenue de la Grande armee boulevard in Paris on December 12, 2015, as a proposed 195-nation accord to curb emissions of the heat-trapping gases that threaten to wreak havoc on Earth's climate system is to be presented at the United Nations conference on climate change COP21 in Le Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris. Getty Paris climate talks in pictures Activists hold up a giant banner reading 'Climate justice' by association 'ourpowercampaign' during a demonstration near the Arc de Triomphe at the Avenue de la Grande armee boulevard in Paris on December 12, 2015, as a proposed 195-nation accord to curb emissions of the heat-trapping gases that threaten to wreak havoc on Earth's climate system is to be presented at the United Nations conference on climate change COP21 in Le Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris. Getty Paris climate talks in pictures Representatives of indigenous peoples demonstrate in Paris, France, as the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) continues at Le Bourget, December 12, 2015. Reuters Paris climate talks in pictures Environmentalists demonstrate near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, as the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) continues at Le Bourget, December 12, 2015. Reuters Paris climate talks in pictures Environmentalists demonstrate near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, as the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) continues at Le Bourget, December 12, 2015. Reuters Paris climate talks in pictures Activists form a giant red line during a demonstration on the Avenue de la Grande armee boulevard in Paris on December 12, 2015, as a proposed 195-nation accord to curb emissions of the heat-trapping gases that threaten to wreak havoc on Earth's climate system is to be presented at the United Nations conference on climate change COP21 in Le Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris ALAIN JOCARD/AFP/Getty Images Paris climate talks in pictures The slogan "No Plan B" is projected on the Eiffel Tower as part of the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) in Paris, France, December 11, 2015. Reuters Professor Seung-Ki Min, of Pohang University in South Korea, told The Independent that their research suggested only 12 to 18 per cent of the warming had occurred naturally with the rest caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Apart from the increase in sea levels, this extra energy will also increase the severity of major storms. We expect the intensification of tropical cyclones because you have a larger area of hot water and the increase in temperature means the energy source is more, Professor Min said. They also found that if the Indian Ocean section of the warm pool expands more than the Pacific part, this leads to an increase in rainfall in the western Indian Ocean. But if this is reversed, it tends to result in a decrease in rainfall over east Asia. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The rising cost of foreign holidays may not be the most important outcome of the Brexit vote but it will be one of the first to have a direct effect on British families. Sliding sterling means that everything from hotels to an ice-cream in a sunny square will cost more. In fact, research from comparethemarket.com shows that more than 10 per cent of Brits say they are now less likely to book a last-minute break in Europe this year as a direct result of the weakening pound. But there are still ways travellers can cut the cost of their holiday spending and enjoy a good value break. So if the idea of a staycation makes you shiver and the prospect of long-haul is exhausting, here are five ways to beat the Brexit holiday bill this summer. 1. Choose a good value destination There are some countries where the pound will still go much further, so if you havent yet booked then its worth looking at how far your money will go. Recommended Read more Italian beaches offer tourists their money back if it rains Travel money specialist FairFX analysed long-term exchange rates and found that Argentina is currently the worlds best value destination for Brits, with the pound still going 149 per cent further than it did three years ago. Thats the equivalent to an extra 300-worth of Argentine Pesos for every 500 exchanged. Russia and Zambia are both more than 70 per cent better value while, closer to home, Turkey offers 30 per cent more for the pound today than it did three years ago. 2. Shop around for your spending money If you pick up your currency at the airport the day you fly, you could end up paying far more and compounding the problem of a weak pound. Research from Travelsupermarket in the spring showed that buying 2,500 at the airport would cost 130 more than buying it online from the cheapest exchange. Even if you forget travel money until the night before, you can still pre-order it for collection at the airport and get a much better rate. Moneysavingexpert has a good comparison tool to help you find the best rates for travel money. 3. Ditch the hotel and get swapping Services such as AirBNB already make it possible for travellers to avoid hotels by simply staying in a spare room or renting someones home during their trip, and that is one way to cut the cost of European travel. However, another possibility is a home swap with someone who wants to visit the UK and pay almost nothing for accommodation at all. Debbie Wosskow, CEO of home-swap matchmaker Love Home Swap, says: Weve seen a sharp increase in interest in home swapping, as people explore different travel options for this summer. Recent research shows that 28 per cent of millennials in the UK have holidayed in a house or apartment in the past year, with around one in four over-35s opting for alternative accommodation options such as home swapping or holiday rentals. Will your degree make you a lot of money? Show all 16 1 /16 Will your degree make you a lot of money? Will your degree make you a lot of money? Medecine Women's salaries 45,400 Men's salaries: 55,300 Will your degree make you a lot of money? Economics Women's salaries 38,200 Men's salaries: 42,00 Will your degree make you a lot of money? Engineering and Technology Women's salaries 23,200 Men's salaries: 31,200 Will your degree make you a lot of money? Law Women's salaries 26,200 Men's salaries: 30,100 Will your degree make you a lot of money? Physical Science Women's salaries 24,800 Men's salaries: 29,800 Will your degree make you a lot of money? Education Women's salaries 24,400 Men's salaries: 29,600 Will your degree make you a lot of money? Architecture Women's salaries 22,500 Men's salaries: 28,600 Will your degree make you a lot of money? Maths and Computer Science Women's salaries 22,000 Men's salaries: 26,800 Will your degree make you a lot of money? Business Women's salaries 22,000 Men's salaries: 26,500 Will your degree make you a lot of money? History and Philosophy Women's salaries 23,200 Men's salaries: 26,500 Will your degree make you a lot of money? Social Science Women's salaries 20,500 Men's salaries: 26,200 Will your degree make you a lot of money? Biological science Women's salaries 23,800 Men's salaries: 25,200 Will your degree make you a lot of money? European languages and literature Women's salaries 26,400 Men's salaries: 25,000 Will your degree make you a lot of money? Linguistics and classics Women's salaries 23,200 Men's salaries: 24,100 Will your degree make you a lot of money? Mass Communication Women's salaries 18,100 Men's salaries: 19,300 Will your degree make you a lot of money? Creative arts Women's salaries 14,500 Men's salaries: 17,900 The companys data shows that the average family home swaps for 15 nights per trip, saving an average of 2,750 on accommodation costs, and 40 per cent of Love Home Swap members swap cars too, saving money on a rental. 4. Go all-inclusive If you book an all-inclusive break then you wont have to worry about the cost of spending on food and drink when youre abroad, which means you wont end up paying far more than you budgeted for if the pound takes a dive just before you travel. However, if you can book an all-inclusive break for next years holiday now then you will avoid any price hikes between now and your trip. 5. Get your EHIC Were still in the EU and that means that the European Health Insurance Card is still valid, entitling British travellers to receive free or state-subsidised medical care just like residents of the country that youre visiting. Its still vital to have travel insurance in place too to avoid a large bill, but most insurers require that you have a valid EHIC card, so dont assume you no longer need one or you risk invalidating your policy. If you fall ill abroad that could be one of the most expensive mistakes you make. Watch this space. While the next few months could see the price of European holidays rise for Brits, it looks as though travel could become even pricier once the UK leaves the European Union. The EUs single aviation area allows airlines to fly across Europe without paying extra charges, which is how the budget airlines have grown so fast in recent years if the UK cant agree to retain access to the flight area then cheap flights could be a thing of the past. Currently travel insurers know that their customers can get free or state-subsidised healthcare in any EU state by applying for an EHIC. When the UK exits the union it will probably struggle to renegotiate this shared healthcare agreement, meaning travellers will face higher travel insurance premiums. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Frances Prime Minister says the government is working on new initiatives to lure major international firms from London to Paris following the vote for a Brexit. Mr Valls said he did not want Britain to vote to leave the European Union but that it could be an opportunity for Paris. We know that groups based in the City are planning to leave for Dublin, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris, he told Le Parisien newspaper. How will Brexit impact UKs economy? We are working on initiatives that could help reinforce our attractiveness. I am thinking particularly of taxation or about the status of expatriates. So I say to major international companies: Welcome to Paris! Come and invest in France! There was widespread concern that large employers would relocate elsewhere following the EU referendum on 23 June but confidence was growing after HSBC became the latest firm to confirm it would be keeping its headquarters in London. But as many as one in five businesses surveyed by the Institute of Directors were considering moving some of their operations outside the UK, including Vodafone, as they hunt for a new London. The most likely beneficiaries of any exodus were expected to be Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Dublin. 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Show all 6 1 /6 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you More expensive foreign holidays The first practical effect of a vote to Leave is that the pound will be worth less abroad, meaning foreign holidays will cost us more nito100 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you No immediate change in immigration status The Prime Minister will have to address other immediate concerns. He is likely to reassure nationals of other EU countries living in the UK that their status is unchanged. That is what the Leave campaign has said, so, even after the Brexit negotiations are complete, those who are already in the UK would be allowed to stay Getty 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Higher inflation A lower pound means that imports would become more expensive. This is likely to mean the return of inflation a phenomenon with which many of us are unfamiliar because prices have been stable for so long, rising at no more than about 2 per cent a year. The effect may probably not be particularly noticeable in the first few months. At first price rises would be confined to imported goods food and clothes being the most obvious but inflation has a tendency to spread and to gain its own momentum AFP/Getty Images 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Interest rates might rise The trouble with inflation is that the Bank of England has a legal obligation to keep it as close to 2 per cent a year as possible. If a fall in the pound threatens to push prices up faster than this, the Bank will raise interest rates. This acts against inflation in three ways. First, it makes the pound more attractive, because deposits in pounds will earn higher interest. Second, it reduces demand by putting up the cost of borrowing, and especially by taking larger mortgage payments out of the economy. Third, it makes it more expensive for businesses to borrow to expand output Getty 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Did somebody say recession? Mr Carney, the Treasury and a range of international economists have warned about this. Many Leave voters appear not to have believed them, or to think that they are exaggerating small, long-term effects. But there is no doubt that the Leave vote is a negative shock to the economy. This is because it changes expectations about the economys future performance. Even though Britain is not actually be leaving the EU for at least two years, companies and investors will start to move money out of Britain, or to scale back plans for expansion, because they are less confident about what would happen after 2018 AFP/Getty Images 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you And we wouldnt even get our money back All this will be happening while the Prime Minister, whoever he or she is, is negotiating the terms of our future access to the EU single market. In the meantime, our trade with the EU would be unaffected, except that companies elsewhere in the EU may be less interested in buying from us or selling to us, expecting tariff barriers to go up in two years time. Whoever the Chancellor is, he or she may feel the need to bring in a new Budget Getty Images Intense debate continues over how and when Britain will leave the EU, with some leaders in Brussels calling for the Government to trigger Article 50 and start negotiations immediately. But both Michael Gove and Theresa May the two most prominent candidates to succeed David Cameron as Prime Minister both say they would not take the step until next year at the earliest as the terms of the UKs withdrawal continue to be decided. Thousands of European Union supporters were singing, dancing and marching through central London yesterday in a protest against Brexit. The March for Europe was attended by Remain voters, who argued that the four-per-cent margin of the Leave campaigns victory was not a mandate for Britain to leave the EU. Some were calling for MPs to block the legislation in Parliament, while others said the result of the referendum should be invalidated because of misinformation during the campaign Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} George Osborne has ditched his cherished plan to run an absolute budget surplus by 2019-20, as the storm clouds hanging over the British economy in the wake of the last weeks fateful referendum result closed in further. The economy is widely expected to slow down rapidly in the wake of last weeks vote for Brexit, and possibly slide into another recession, something that would undermine tax revenues and make it impossible for the Government to balance the books in four years time in the absence of further spending cuts or tax rises. This prompted the Chancellor yesterday to jettison the deficit reduction goal, which he had made his personal totem. The reversal puts greater pressure on the five candidates in the Conservative leadership race, the winner of which will have the job of negotiating Britain's exit from the EU. Yesterday, Andrea Leadsom emerged as the main pro-Brexit rival to Home Secretary Theresa May, following Justice Secretary Michael Gove's first speech since he dramatically announced his candidacy, at the expense of former Vote Leave ally Boris Johnson. Ms May continues to command the majority of support from Tory MPs, with almost 100 now backing her bid to replace David Cameron as Prime Minister. However, Ms Leadsom said the next party leader should be someone who supported the Leave campaign ahead of the referendum. Ms May campaigned to remain in the EU. Ms May said that she would not stick to Mr Osborne's controversial target, which was widely criticised by economists even before the referendum result for being economically incoherent and potentially damaging. Speaking at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, the Chancellor said:"As the governor of the Bank of England said yesterday, the referendum result is as expected likely to lead to a significant negative shock for the British economy." The favourites in the Tory leadership race Show all 5 1 /5 The favourites in the Tory leadership race The favourites in the Tory leadership race Theresa May The longest-serving Home Secretary in 100 years took a back seat in the referendum campaign. While backing Remain, she did not hit the campaign trail and delivered only a handful of speeches and interviews, and was critical of many aspects of the EU, particularly the European Convention on Human Rights. Hedging her bets allows her to now emerge as a unity candidate, and she is said to have been building up her back-room staff in preparation for a leadership bid. She has the significant advantage of having served in one of the great offices of state, in a steady and competent manner that has won her many admirers within party and the civil service. At a time of great instability, it may be that she is viewed as steady hand on the tiller. Mrs May does however, lack the star quality of a Boris Johnson and party members may doubt her ability to connect with ordinary voters PA The favourites in the Tory leadership race Michael Gove The Justice Secretary may be able to set himself up as the thinking Torys Brexit candidate. Made an enormous political and personal decision to back Leave, taking on his old friend David Cameron. He performed well during the TV debates, and will be an admired figure among Eurosceptic Conservatives. Along with Johnson, he will be hindered by the fact that he led a very divisive campaign, characterised by blue-on-blue action. MPs may also judge that he lacks Boris Johnsons wider appeal with the electorate. Possibly more likely that he will settle for being his new bosom buddy Boriss Chancellor Getty The favourites in the Tory leadership race Stephen Crabb Highly-rated Work and Pensions Secretary, raised on a council estate, so could reach out to non-traditional working class Tory voters Getty Images The favourites in the Tory leadership race Andrea Leadsom Minister of State for Energy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change is one of the most prominent figures in the Leave campaign, seen to have performed well in TV debates Rex Features The favourites in the Tory leadership race Liam Fox British Conservative MP and former Secretary of State for Defence, as sources said he will stand for the leadership of the Conservative Party AFP/Getty "How we respond will determine the impact on peoples jobs and on economic growth. The Bank of England can support demand. The government must provide fiscal credibility, so we will continue to be tough on the deficit but we must be realistic about achieving a surplus by the end of this decade." "That's exactly what our fiscal rules are designed for. In his March Budget Mr Osborne set out plans to run an absolute budget surplus of 10.4bn in 2019-20 as part of his updated fiscal mandate. To reach this he had enacted further sizeable cuts to public service spending and a host of stealth tax rises. The fiscal mandate allowed the budget surplus target to be suspended if the UK's year on year growth rate, as forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), fell below 1 per cent. The OBR is scheduled to deliver its next round of forecasts in October - and is widely expected to slash its forecasts in line with most other economic organisations. The Chancellor's words suggest that he expects the OBR's downgraded forecast to trigger the suspension of the rule. A large number of economists had criticised the design of the Chancellor's fiscal mandate, which requires the Government to run an absolute budget surplus in 2019-20 and every year thereafter, because it did not carve out an allowance for state capital infrastructure spending, which enhances the economy's long-term productivity. They argued that there was no economic justification for absolute budget surpluses (as opposed to surpluses on day-to-day or "current" government spending) and that the Chancellor's framework was liable to result in less capital infrastrucutre spending than the country needs. During the referendum campaign Mr Osborne came in for ferocious criticsm from all sides for arguing that a Leave vote would be followed by an instant austerity budget to repair the economic damage. Economists said such additional austerity would merely deepen any downturn, hitting tax revenues further and thus proving counterproductive in terms of repairing the public finances. Pro-Leave politicians said the Chancellor was attempting to scare the public into casting a Remain vote, and 57 Conservative MPs said they would vote down any such "punishment budget" if enacted. But the Chancellor retreated from this promise, in any case, on Monday when he said that there would be no new fiscal statement until the autumn when the new Prime Minister is in place. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Actress and comedian Caroline Aherne has died at the age of 52 after a battle with cancer. The star was best known for hit sitcom The Royle Family and the riotous chat show The Mrs Merton Show, which both won a string of awards. The Royle Family was born after she and friend Craig Cash, who played gormless Dave Best in the show, threw themselves into their work after a suicide attempt which she described as her lowest ebb. It is considered to be a classic British sitcom, despite the unusual format of a working class family sitting in a living room. Caroline Aherne: A life in pictures Show all 8 1 /8 Caroline Aherne: A life in pictures Caroline Aherne: A life in pictures Caroline Aherne: A life in pictures In character as Mrs Merton, the aging agony aunt Youtube/screengrab Caroline Aherne: A life in pictures The Royle Family was written Caroline Aherne, left, in character as Denise Royle Youtube/screengrab Caroline Aherne: A life in pictures 'Scorchio!' Caroline Aherne plays Chanel 9 weather girl Paula Fisch on The Fast Show Youtube/screengrab Caroline Aherne: A life in pictures Caroline Aherne (seated second right) with fellow cast members of The Fast Show (standing left to right) Simon Day, John Thomson and Mark Williams, (seated left to right) Paul Whitehouse, Arabella Weir and Charlie Higson. Sean Dempsey/PA Wire Caroline Aherne: A life in pictures Caroline Aherne attends the South Bank Awards Fiona Hanson/PA Wire Caroline Aherne: A life in pictures Caroline Aherne (centre) with fellow stars of The Royle Family Liz Smith (left) and Sue Johnston after they won the Comedy Award at the South Bank Awards, Fiona Hanson/PA Wire Caroline Aherne: A life in pictures Caroline Aherne with her BAFTA award for Best Talk Show for the Mrs Merton Christmas Show Fiona Hanson/PA Wire The BBC show was an instant classic and won a scoop of awards at the 1999 British Comedy Awards, receiving four trophies, including best actress for Aherne. Craig Cash also encouraged Aherne to develop the character of Mrs Merton. The project, which took the form of a mock chat show, morphed into a successful live programme. Recommended Read more David Walliams leads tributes to Caroline Aherne In addition, she wrote and appeared in classic comedy programme The Fast Show. Her most well known character was Paula Fisch, a meterologist who frequently greeted hot weather with cries of "Scorchio!". Aherne's death was announced by her publicist Neil Reading, who said she died on Saturday at her home in Timperley, Greater Manchester. The star had struggled with health problems throughout her life. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize who wrote about his experiences as a prisoner in three concentration camps, has died at the age of 87. The American Romanian-born Jewish writer, academic and political activist, died on Saturday in Connecticut. The laureate wrote a total of 57 books, most famously Night, based on his experience as a prisoner in Auschwitz, Buna and Buchenwald concentration camps. Following a private ceremony on Sunday at a synagogue in New York city, he was then buried at the Sharon Gardens cemetery in Valhalla Elie Wiesel was one of the great moral voices of our time, and in many ways, the conscience of the world. said Barack Obama, who led global tributes. He raised his voice, not just against antisemitism but against hatred, bigotry and intolerance in all its forms. In 1986, Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize for what the Norwegian Nobel Committee called his practical work in the cause of peace...atonement and human dignity to humanity. In response to Wiesels passing, World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder called the author a beacon of light and said the Jewish world owed him "an enormous debt of gratitude. Cameron visits Auschwitz Elie Wiesel was more than a revered writer, Mr Lauder told reporters. "He was also a teacher for many of us. He taught us about the horrors of Auschwitz. He taught us about Judaism, about Israel, and about not being silent in the face of injustice. Notable deaths in 2016 Show all 42 1 /42 Notable deaths in 2016 Notable deaths in 2016 Debbie Reynolds was an American actress, singer, businesswoman, film historian, and humanitarian. She died on December 28 in Los Angeles Rex Notable deaths in 2016 Actress Carrie Fisher died on December 27 aged 60 Rex Notable deaths in 2016 Comedian and Actor Ricky Harris died on December 26 aged 54 Rex Notable deaths in 2016 British singer George Michael died on 25 December aged 53 Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Rick Parfitt OBE was an English musician, best known for being a singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist in the rock band Status Quo. He died on December 24 in Marbella, Spain Rex Notable deaths in 2016 Lord Jenkin of Roding died at the age of 90 on the 21 December PA wire Notable deaths in 2016 Rabbi Lionel Blue died on the 19 December Rex Notable deaths in 2016 Zsa Zsa Gabor died on December 18 Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Leonard Cohen died on 7 November Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Grand secretary of the Orange Order Drew Nelson died on 10 October aged 60 after a short illness PA Notable deaths in 2016 Aaron Pryor, the relentless junior welterweight died Sunday, Oct. 9, at the age of 60 at his home in Cincinnati after a long battle with heart disease AP Notable deaths in 2016 Polish Director Andrzej Wajda died on October 9, aged 90 Reuters Notable deaths in 2016 Stylianos Pattakos has died following a stroke on 8th October. He was 103 years old. AP Notable deaths in 2016 Dickie Jeeps, was an English rugby union player who played for Northampton. He represented and captained both the England national rugby union team and the British Lions in the 1950s and 1960s. He died on 8th October. He was 84 Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Duke of Westminster Billionaire landowner the Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor has died on 9 August, aged 64 Rex Features Notable deaths in 2016 Christina Knudsen Sir Roger Moores stepdaughter Christina Knudsen has died from cancer on 25 July at teh age of 47 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Caroline Aherne The actress Caroline Aherne has died from cancer on 2 July at the age of 52 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Christina Grimmie Christina Grimmie, 22, who was an American singer and songwriter, known for her participation in the NBC singing competition The Voice, was signing autographs at a concert venue in Orlando on 10 June when an assailant shot her. Grimmie was transported to a local hospital where she died from her wounds on 11 June Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Kimbo Slice Former UFC and Bellator MMA fighter Kimbo Slice died after being admitted to hospital in Florida on 6 June, aged 42 Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Muhammad Ali The three-time former heavyweight world champion died after being admitted to hospital with a respiratory illness on 3 June, aged 74 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Sally Brampton Brampton who was the launch editor of the UK edition of Elle magazine has died on 10 May, aged 60 Grant Triplow/REX/Shutterstock Notable deaths in 2016 Billy Paul The soul singer Billy Paul, who was best known for his single Me and Mrs Jones, has died on 24 April, aged 81 Noel Vasquez/Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Prince Prince, the legendary musician, has been found dead at his Paisley Park recording studio on 21 April. He was 57 Notable deaths in 2016 Chyna WWE icon Joan Laurer dies aged 45 after being found at California home on 20 April Notable deaths in 2016 Victoria Wood The five-time Bafta-winning actress and comedian Victoria Wood has died on 20 April at her London home after a short illness with cancer. She was 62 Notable deaths in 2016 David Gest The entertainer and former husband of Liza Minnelli, David Gest has been found dead on 12 April in the Four Seasons hotel in Canary Warf, London. He was 62-years-old PA Notable deaths in 2016 Denise Robertson Denise Robertson, an agony aunt on This Morning for over 30 years, has died on 1 April, aged 83 Notable deaths in 2016 Zaha Hadid Dame Zaha Hadid, the prominent architect best known for designs such as the London Olympic Aquatic Centre and the Guangzhou Opera House, has died of a heart attack on 31 March, aged 65 2010 AFP Notable deaths in 2016 Ronnie Corbett British entertainer Ronnie Corbett has passed away on 31 March at the age of 85 2014 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Imre Kertesz Hungarian writer and Holocaust survivor Imre Kertesz, who won the 2002 Nobel Literature Prize, has died on 31 March, at the age of 86 REUTERS Notable deaths in 2016 Rob Ford Rob Ford, the former controversial mayor of Toronto, has died following a battle with a rare form of cancer. The 46-year-old passed away at the Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto on 22 March Notable deaths in 2016 Joey Feek Joey (left) passed away in March after a two-year cancer illness. She was part of country music duo, Joey + Rory, with her husband Rory (right) Jason Merritt/Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Umberto Eco Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco died 19 February 2016 aged 84 EPA Notable deaths in 2016 Harper Lee Harper Lee, the American novelist known for writing 'To Kill a Mockingbird', died February 19, 2016 aged 89 2005 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Vanity Vanity, pictured performing in 1983, died aged 57 REX Features Notable deaths in 2016 Dave Mirra The BMX legend's body found inside truck with gunshot wound after apparent suicide aged 41 Notable deaths in 2016 Harry Harpham The former miner became Sheffield Labour MP in May after many years as a local councillor. He died after succumbing to cancer, at the age of 61. Notable deaths in 2016 Dale Griffin The Mott the Hoople drummer died on January 17, aged 67 REX Notable deaths in 2016 Rene Angelil Celine Dion's husband and manager Rene Angelil has lost his battle with cancer on 14 January, aged 73 2011 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Alan Rickman Legendary actor Alan Rickman has died on 14 January at the age of 69 after battle with pancreatic cancer. He is largely regarded as one of the most beloved British actors of our generation with roles in Love Actually, Die Hard, Michael Collins, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and an illustrious stage career 2015 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Maurice White The Earth, Wind & Fire founder died aged 74. The nine-piece band sold more than 90 million albums worldwide and won six Grammy awards Notable deaths in 2016 Lawrence Phillips Former NFL star found dead in prison cell on 13 January in suspected suicide, aged 40 AFP/Getty Images Wiesels death was first reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which recalled that in 2006, Oprah Winfrey selected a new translation of Night by Wiesels wife, Marion, for her book club, helping to push the book to a top spot on the New York Times best-seller list. The book is now available in 30 languages. It said that Night would form the first part of Holocaust memoir trilogy that would include Dawn and Day. In 1955, Wiesel moved to New York to cover the United Nations as journalist. During his time in the city he was hit by a taxi, requiring a prolonged convalescence in the hospital. Following his recovery, Wiesel applied for permanent residency and in 1963 became a US citizen, the newspaper said. He met his wife, divorced Austrian Holocaust survivor Marion Rose, in New York. They married in Jerusalem in 1969 and she served as the English translator for Wiesels subsequent books. It also recalled how in 1978, US President Jimmy Carter appointed him as chairman of the Presidential Commission on the Holocaust - later renamed the US Holocaust Memorial Council - a role in which he served until 1986. It said that in that capacity, Wiesel became a major, driving force behind the establishment of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. His words - For the dead and the living, we must bear witness - are engraved in stone at the entrance to the museum. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Game of Thrones stars Lena Headey, Maisie Williams and Liam Cunningham have called on EU leaders to do more to help Syrian refugees as they visited people stranded in Greece. The actors visited refugee programmes just days after the show's dramatic series six finale and called for the EU to reconsider its March agreement with Turkey which forces migrants to apply for asylum in the safe third country before they are allowed to travel to the EU. Ms Headey, who plays Cersei Lannister, Ms Williams, who plays Arya Stark, and Mr Cunningham, who plays Davos Seaworth, toured International Rescue Committee (IRC) camps and met some of the 57,000 refugees affected by the deal. Ms Headey, who spoke to a young Syrian woman alone in Lesbos with three children, said: These smart, hard-working people want to go home. They want to return to their communities and to their neighbourhoods. They want their children to continue their education. They want to continue their university and they are stuck. They're stuck. And they're unbelievably sad, understandably. We can do better for them. We must do better for them. In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee children at the Moria camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees queuing for food at the Kara Tepe camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees' tents at the Kara Tepe camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees at the Oxy transit camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees waiting to board ferries to the Greek mainland in Mytilene, Lebos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees waiting to board ferries to the Greek mainland in Mytilene, Lebos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees waiting to board ferries to the Greek mainland in Mytilene, Lebos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos The graves of drowned refugees in Mytilene, Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos A building used to house unaccompanied children at the Moria camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees queuing to register at the Moria camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees at the Moria camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees arriving on smugglers' boats from Turkey in Lesbos Ms Williams met a young aspiring Syrian actor at Cherso in northern Greece, where she said: For me it is about the children ... children with so much potential, so many hopes and dreams. Where is the humanity that makes it acceptable for them to languish in refugee camps in Europe? Mr Cunningham heard about the fear felt by Afghan and Syrian fathers and said: This is not an earthquake, this is not a tidal wave. This is a man-made crisis 57,000 stranded in Greece. Refugee camps in Europe? Is this truly the standard EU leaders want to set as the way to respond to the global refugee crisis? The trio also appeared in a video on the IRC's Twitter page, in which Cunningham spoke about the beautiful people they had met on their trip. Ms Williams added: We now feel like it is our responsibility to take their stories and change the perception of these people. Ms Headey said the visit had been life changing and promised it would not be the last the public hears from them on the subject. Panos Navrozidis, country director of IRC Greece, said: The truth about this crisis is that there are options for the family members Lena, Maisie and Liam met in Greece. There is no reason why 57,000 people should be forced to put their lives on hold. PA Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry held a phone call on Saturday to discuss ways of resolving the conflict in Syria, Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement. "They discussed .... the possibility of a Russian-American cooperation in the fight against terrorist groups in Syria," the statement said. Search Keywords: Short link: Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Massive Attack has issued a warning to a Britain so polarised by the Brexit vote that it must not be swayed by populist bulls*** being propagated in the aftermath of the EU referendum. The effects of the seismic EU referendum continue to be felt across the country. As the Brexit fallout continues, reports of racist and xenophobic incidents are on the rise. Some are attempting to counter racism by wearing safety pins in support of immigrants living in the UK. British politics is becoming increasingly turbulent in the midst of a messy leadership contest and a string of promises being made by contenders setting out their stall. Michael Gove launched his leadership bid with a pledge to lower immigration and a promise to take back control of our borders while Theresa May asserted she would have no hestiation in delivering the outcome 52 per cent of voters chose with the unequivocal: "Brexit means Brexit." 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Show all 6 1 /6 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you More expensive foreign holidays The first practical effect of a vote to Leave is that the pound will be worth less abroad, meaning foreign holidays will cost us more nito100 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you No immediate change in immigration status The Prime Minister will have to address other immediate concerns. He is likely to reassure nationals of other EU countries living in the UK that their status is unchanged. That is what the Leave campaign has said, so, even after the Brexit negotiations are complete, those who are already in the UK would be allowed to stay Getty 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Higher inflation A lower pound means that imports would become more expensive. This is likely to mean the return of inflation a phenomenon with which many of us are unfamiliar because prices have been stable for so long, rising at no more than about 2 per cent a year. The effect may probably not be particularly noticeable in the first few months. At first price rises would be confined to imported goods food and clothes being the most obvious but inflation has a tendency to spread and to gain its own momentum AFP/Getty Images 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Interest rates might rise The trouble with inflation is that the Bank of England has a legal obligation to keep it as close to 2 per cent a year as possible. If a fall in the pound threatens to push prices up faster than this, the Bank will raise interest rates. This acts against inflation in three ways. First, it makes the pound more attractive, because deposits in pounds will earn higher interest. Second, it reduces demand by putting up the cost of borrowing, and especially by taking larger mortgage payments out of the economy. Third, it makes it more expensive for businesses to borrow to expand output Getty 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Did somebody say recession? Mr Carney, the Treasury and a range of international economists have warned about this. Many Leave voters appear not to have believed them, or to think that they are exaggerating small, long-term effects. But there is no doubt that the Leave vote is a negative shock to the economy. This is because it changes expectations about the economys future performance. Even though Britain is not actually be leaving the EU for at least two years, companies and investors will start to move money out of Britain, or to scale back plans for expansion, because they are less confident about what would happen after 2018 AFP/Getty Images 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you And we wouldnt even get our money back All this will be happening while the Prime Minister, whoever he or she is, is negotiating the terms of our future access to the EU single market. In the meantime, our trade with the EU would be unaffected, except that companies elsewhere in the EU may be less interested in buying from us or selling to us, expecting tariff barriers to go up in two years time. Whoever the Chancellor is, he or she may feel the need to bring in a new Budget Getty Images On Friday night, Massive Attack played their 1994 hit "Eurochild" for the first time in 20 years as a eulogy to Britains membership of the EU. Using their platform at the British Summertime Festival in Hyde Park, they delivered a rallying cry to Britain not to let bigots and racist tear it apart. Frontman Robert Del Naja made a powerful call for unity and tolerance, appearing in front of images of men and women with we are in this together and #wearerefugees written across them. We didn't expect to be singing this 20 years later as a requiem, he told the crowd. As sons of immigrants, we (Del Naja and fellow band member Grant Marshall) are both very disappointed with the situation. We can't allow ourselves to fall victim to the populist bulls*** going on at the moment. We can't let the bigots and racists back into this situation because this is bulls***. The turbulence triggered by the referendum has led to calls for calm from a number of figures including The Queen, who also acknowledged that staying calm and collected would be a difficult task in this increasingly challenging world when she opened the fifth session of Scottish Parliament on Saturday. In central London, thousands have gathered to march through the capital in a protest against Britains future outside of the EU. The march was organised by comedian Mark Thomas, who estimated up to 40,000 people could join the demonstration. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} In London, students will soon have the opportunity to be taught by Angelina Jolie, whose appointment as a professor at the London School of Economics was recently announced to great fanfare. Across the globe, students at the University of Texas will have the chance to subscribe to a film class taught by Matthew McConaughey. His appointment was confirmed in a post by the University on social media, who welcomed McConaughey alongside Gary Ross, the director of the Hunger Games. They will teach a filmmaking class to 30 students at the Moody College of Communication and explore the process behind their forthcoming film, Free State of Jones. Classes will be conducted through largely pre-recorded sessions, although he is expected to appear in some seminars. The University was ranked 11th in the top 25 schools for filmmaking by The Hollywood Reporter, and it is also one of the most affordable, with tuition costing $17,108 for an out-of-state undergrad compared to $44,169 for Stanford. The 24 best universities in the world Show all 24 1 /24 The 24 best universities in the world The 24 best universities in the world 24. University of Edinburgh, UK 80.3 Teaching: 68.6 Research: 77.2 Overall: 80.3 Founded in 1583, Edinburgh is the sixth-oldest university in the English-speaking world. Extremely notable alumni include Charles Darwin, Alexander Graham Bell, and Arthur Conan-Doyle The 24 best universities in the world 23. London School of Economics, UK 81.3 Teaching: 69.8 Research: 80.6 Overall: 81.3 Leaping 11 places from last year, LSE is one of the foremost universities in Europe for studying business, finance, and economics. This shows in its graduates: According to a 2014 study, LSE produced the most billionaires of any European university The 24 best universities in the world 22. Carnegie Mellon University, US 82.3 Teaching: 67.4 Research: 88.8 Overall: 82.3 My heart is in the work is CMU's motto, and it's accordingly known for many inventions and innovations in the fields of driverless cars, brain science, data, and more. It was also, curiously, the first university to create a smile in an email, in 1982 The 24 best universities in the world 21. University of Michigan, US 82.4 Teaching: 76.8 Research: 85.2 Overall: 82.4 One of the biggest research centres in the US, Michigan was attended by President Ford and Google cofounder Larry Page. Mysteriously, a large cube-shaped object sits on campus, balanced on one corner so students can spin it around despite its weight Getty The 24 best universities in the world 20. Duke University, US 82.7 Teaching: 76.0 Research: 78.0 Overall: 82.7 One of the wealthiest universities in the country, Duke is known for its sporting prowess as much as its academics, and its basketball squad is one of the best college teams in the US. President Richard Nixon graduated from here, as did future heads of Apple, JPMorgan, and PepsiCo The 24 best universities in the world 19. University of Toronto, Canada 83.9 Teaching: 75.9 Research: 89.3 Overall: 83.9 A university known for its research and innovation, Toronto has academic papers that are among the most cited in the world. It also has a wide array of extracurricular activities, with more than 800 student clubs, which probably explains why such a high proportion of its alumni begin startup companies The 24 best universities in the world 18. Cornell University, US 84.0 Teaching: 77.9 Research: 86.1 Overall: 84.0 A private Ivy League university with a mission to discover, preserve, and disseminate knowledge, Cornell boasts a glorious campus in upstate New York that allows students to hike around the Finger Lakes. It also has daily bell performances, a tradition dating back to 1868 The 24 best universities in the world 17. University of Pennsylvania, US 85.2 Teaching: 82.0 Research: 86.9 Overall: 85.2 Established before the US even became a sovereign nation, UPenn claims to be the oldest multifaculty university in the country. It also has the nation's oldest student union and first double-decker football stand. Noted alumni include President William Henry Harrison as well as modernist writers Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams The 24 best universities in the world 16. University of California at Los Angeles, US 85.8 Teaching: 80.8 Research: 88.6 Overall: 85.8 UCLA is known for its encouragement of community undergraduates usually begin with a year-long Cluster Course, a team-taught exploration of a demanding topic. It also has a great student-exchange program, with more than 2,400 students going abroad each year The 24 best universities in the world 15. Columbia University, US 86.1 Teaching: 85.9 Research: 82.2 Overall: 86.1 Notable alumni of Manhattan-based Columbia include Presidents Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt as well as a founding father Alexander Hamilton. It also enjoys a massive endowment value of $9.6 billion last year The 24 best universities in the world 14. University College London, UK 87.1 Teaching: 78.1 Research: 91.0 Overall: 87.1 Founded in 1826, UCL became the first English university to admit women on equal terms as men in 1878. UCL has one of the biggest postgraduate schemes in the country, at 52% of the entire student body The 24 best universities in the world 13. University of California at Berkeley, US 87.2 Teaching: 80.4 Research: 91.1 Overall: 87.2 Dropping five places from last year, Berkeley is still hugely prestigious, and its San Francisco setting makes it a real draw for students looking to study in a vibrant city. It also has a legacy for activism: Some of the best-known Vietnam War protests took place on its campus during the 1960s and 1970s The 24 best universities in the world 12. Yale University, US 87.4 Teaching: 86.5 Research: 87.8 Overall: 87.4 The third-oldest higher-education institution in the US, Yale takes its cue from Oxford and Cambridge by having residential colleges. Five American presidents have studied there: William Howard Taft, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Make that six if Hillary Clinton wins this year's election The 24 best universities in the world 11. Johns Hopkins University, US 87.6 Teaching: 77.6 Research: 90.4 Overall: 87.6 Johns Hopkins was an abolitionist, philanthropist, and entrepreneur, and he was also the first benefactor of the school, which was founded in 1876. Based in Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University's notable alumni include Woodrow Wilson, the 28th US president The 24 best universities in the world 10. University of Chicago, US 87.9 Teaching: 85.7 Research: 88.9 Overall: 87.9 A leading centre of science, the University of Chicago also has prestigious literary alumni, including Saul Bellow and Susan Sontag. It is also the university where film icon Indiana Jones studied The 24 best universities in the world Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich, Switzerland 88.3 Teaching: 77.0 Research: 95.0 Overall: 88.3 Jumping four places from 2015, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology is known for its groundbreaking research as well as teaching excellence in natural sciences and technology. Twenty-one Nobel laureates have studied or taught at the university, while about 80 patent applications a year come from there The 24 best universities in the world 8. Imperial College London, UK 89.1 Teaching: 83.3 Research: 88.5 Overall: 89.1 Up a place from last year, Imperial is known for its pursuit of science. Its Central London setting also makes it popular to foreign students 51% of its student body are from overseas. The university's motto is Scientia imperii decus et tutamen, which means Scientific knowledge, the crowning glory and the safeguard of the empire The 24 best universities in the world 7. Princeton University, US 90.1 Teaching: 85.1 Research: 91.9 Overall: 90.1 Princeton is devoted to teaching, offering residential accommodation to undergraduates across all four years of study, which means 98% of them live on campus. The beautiful surroundings are attractive to tourists too: 800,00 people visit the campus each year, bringing in a revenue of $2 billion The 24 best universities in the world 6. Harvard University, US 91.6 Teaching: 83.6 Research: 99.0 Overall: 91.6 Down four places from last year, Harvard is still one of the world's most prestigious institutions. It's the oldest university in the US, and it also has one of the largest endowments of any on this list, raising $1.5 billion in 2013 The 24 best universities in the world 5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US 92.0 Teaching: 89.4 Research: 88.6 Overall: 92.0 Eighty-five Nobel Laureates have studied at MIT, which was founded in 1861. The university likes to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship, and its living alumni have apparently started more than 30,000 active companies Getty The 24 best universities in the world 4. University of Cambridge, UK 92.8 Teaching: 88.2 Research: 96.7 Overall: 92.8 Up a place from last year, Cambridge isn't quite as old as Oxford University, but with an 800-year history it is still one of the longest-running universities in the world. It has more than 100 libraries, with over 15 million books among them The 24 best universities in the world 3. Stanford University, US 93.9 Teaching: 92.5 Research: 98.9 Overall: 93.9 One of the largest campuses in the US, Stanford benefits from being right next to San Francisco's Silicon Valley. President Herbert Hoover was part of Stanford's first class, in 1895, while the first American woman to enter space, Sally Ride, graduated from there in 1973 The 24 best universities in the world 2. University of Oxford, UK 94.2 Teaching: 86.5 Research: 98.9 Overall: 94.2 Oxford moves up one place from last year to become the best university outside the US. For an institution that was reportedly founded in 1096, that's a remarkable run. It also boasts 30 world leaders among its alumni, including 26 British prime ministers Getty The 24 best universities in the world 1. California Institute of Technology, US 95.2 Teaching: 95.6 Research: 97.6 Overall: 95.2 The best university in the world for the second year in a row according to the Times, Caltech is at the top in teaching, industry income, research, and citations in 2016. It is renowned for its science and engineering courses, but any degree here is sure to be a winner McConaughey graduated from the University in 1993, getting his break in the same year with the film Dazed and Confused. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Robin Hardy, the director of cult-Scottish film The Wicker Man, hailed by critics as the Citizen Kane of horror movies, has died at the age of 86. The 1973 film follows the unnerving story of a police officer as he investigates the disappearance of a missing girl on a remote Scottish island. The late Sir Christopher Lee starred as an eccentric Lord in the isolated community. Mr Lee, who died last year, said The Wicker Man was "the best-scripted film I ever took part in." Last year Mr Hardy said he wanted to make another Wicker Man film, the third in a series, in homage to Mr Lee. Entitled The Wrath of the Gods, Mr Hardy said the film would be "a final reflection on the themes that made The Wicker Man a classic, using some of the same enchanting Celtic landscapes as a backdrop." Christopher Lee: Career in pictures Show all 8 1 /8 Christopher Lee: Career in pictures Christopher Lee: Career in pictures Christopher Lee Taste The Blood Of Dracula, 1970 Rex Christopher Lee: Career in pictures Christopher Lee Season Of The Witch, 2010 Rex Christopher Lee: Career in pictures Christopher Lee The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring, 2001 Rex Christopher Lee: Career in pictures Christopher Lee I monster, 1970 Rex Christopher Lee: Career in pictures Christopher Lee Rasputin: The Mad Monk, 1966 Rex Christopher Lee: Career in pictures Christopher Lee The Mummy, 1959 Rex Christopher Lee: Career in pictures Christopher Lee Horror of Dracula, 1958 Rex Christopher Lee: Career in pictures Christopher Lee Curse of Frankenstein, 1957 Rex In a 2013 interview, the director spoke about how he did not only consider himself a filmmaker, but also a writer and an artist: Im somebody who doesnt like to be typecast. I have been writing novels relatively successfully, especially in the [United] States, and I have done a great deal of journalism and Im an artist. At least, I like to think so, he said. After learning of his death, the English director Edgar Wright, paid tribute to the late filmmaker's most famous work: "There would be no Hot Fuzz without it," he wrote. The Wicker Man was remade in 2006 and starred Nicholas Cage. Mr Hardy said that he had nothing against remakes in general, but he "didnt realise what a total mess they were going to make of it." Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A BBC journalist has revealed she was called a n****r as reports of race hate crimes spiked following the historic EU referendum vote for Brexit. Trish Adudu, host of the BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire breakfast show, told the BBC she walking to her car when she was verbally abused by a white man who was riding past on a bicycle. Ms Adudu, 47, said the cyclist also told her and an Asian man who was walking in the street to go home. It is the second incident in a week involving a BBC employee, after Radio Four reporter Sima Kotecha was called a "p**i" in her home town of Basingstoke. Born in Bristol to Ghanaian parents, Ms Adudu added: This type of vile abuse needs to stop and we need to work together to try and get rid of it. I would love for the other man who was there to come forward, because this is not just about me. If the guy on the bike could be so vile in such a short period of time, then what else could he go on to do? Who's next? Someone is going to get hurt. Police said they are now investigating the racially-motivated incident. Ms Adudu revealed she doesn't want the man to go to jail but would like to meet him to see where this hate comes from. She continued: I saw this Asian guy who couldn't have been more than 25 and a guy on a bike was shouting: 'Get out, haven't you seen the result?' He saw me looking on in horror as he came around the bend on his bike and he said: 'That goes for you as well n****r, why can't you all go home?' My initial instinct was he was a one-off idiot then I thought he was so angry that I am sure there would have been other victims that day. It made me think I have got to go to the police. I was born in Bristol and brought up in Coventry and I am proud to be British. I have never experienced anything like that before, it was just so vicious. I can't say if he would have shouted the same thing last Tuesday but it does seem linked to the vote. There aren't 17 million racists in Britain, I just think it (the Brexit vote) might have given a window to people like him. Ms Adudu posted a photograph of an "Out" sign on Twitter, with the words: "Just seen a guy verbally tell an Asian guy 2 go home! Then he turned to me and shouted that goes for you N*****! Nice." She added: "Police were brilliant and thorough and looking at the CCTV but urge pple (sic) to report incidents. I have never exp(erienced) that level of hate head on." Alastair Orencas, an inspector for West Midlands Police, said in a statement: There is absolutely no place for this type of sickening and deplorable behaviour on the streets of our city and we will be doing everything we can do identify the perpetrator. If anyone can tell us who this person is, or if anyone was in the area at the time and has information which they think may assist us, I would urge them to come forward. 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Show all 6 1 /6 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you More expensive foreign holidays The first practical effect of a vote to Leave is that the pound will be worth less abroad, meaning foreign holidays will cost us more nito100 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you No immediate change in immigration status The Prime Minister will have to address other immediate concerns. He is likely to reassure nationals of other EU countries living in the UK that their status is unchanged. That is what the Leave campaign has said, so, even after the Brexit negotiations are complete, those who are already in the UK would be allowed to stay Getty 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Higher inflation A lower pound means that imports would become more expensive. This is likely to mean the return of inflation a phenomenon with which many of us are unfamiliar because prices have been stable for so long, rising at no more than about 2 per cent a year. The effect may probably not be particularly noticeable in the first few months. At first price rises would be confined to imported goods food and clothes being the most obvious but inflation has a tendency to spread and to gain its own momentum AFP/Getty Images 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Interest rates might rise The trouble with inflation is that the Bank of England has a legal obligation to keep it as close to 2 per cent a year as possible. If a fall in the pound threatens to push prices up faster than this, the Bank will raise interest rates. This acts against inflation in three ways. First, it makes the pound more attractive, because deposits in pounds will earn higher interest. Second, it reduces demand by putting up the cost of borrowing, and especially by taking larger mortgage payments out of the economy. Third, it makes it more expensive for businesses to borrow to expand output Getty 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Did somebody say recession? Mr Carney, the Treasury and a range of international economists have warned about this. Many Leave voters appear not to have believed them, or to think that they are exaggerating small, long-term effects. But there is no doubt that the Leave vote is a negative shock to the economy. This is because it changes expectations about the economys future performance. Even though Britain is not actually be leaving the EU for at least two years, companies and investors will start to move money out of Britain, or to scale back plans for expansion, because they are less confident about what would happen after 2018 AFP/Getty Images 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you And we wouldnt even get our money back All this will be happening while the Prime Minister, whoever he or she is, is negotiating the terms of our future access to the EU single market. In the meantime, our trade with the EU would be unaffected, except that companies elsewhere in the EU may be less interested in buying from us or selling to us, expecting tariff barriers to go up in two years time. Whoever the Chancellor is, he or she may feel the need to bring in a new Budget Getty Images I would also appeal directly to this individual - if it was you who shouted these words, do the right thing and hand yourself in. This week the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) revealed the number of reported hate crimes has soared to five times the usual level following the Brexit vote. Anyone who thinks they may have experienced or witnessed hate crime is urged to report it by calling West Midlands Police on the 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A baby is in a critical condition in hospital after being shot in the head with an air rifle in Bristol. Police are appealing for information after the one-year-old boy was seriously injured in the citys Hartcliffe district. Officers were called to a home in Bishport Avenue at 4.10pm on Friday and have arrested a 24-year-old man and 23-year-old woman. A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset Constabulary said they were not related to the baby and were being questioned as police ascertain the events that led to this tragic incident. The child remains in a critical condition at Bristol Childrens Hospital with a serious head injury. Detective Inspector Jonathan Deane said: Were carrying out enquiries at the scene to establish what happened but clearly these are very tragic circumstances. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA 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 We have a trained liaison officer with the family of the child and they will be kept updated on the progress of our investigation. Were aware this will have an impact on the wider community and would encourage anyone with concerns to contact their local neighbourhood team. Air weapons are legal in the UK and owners do not need a certificate, although they still fall under firearm legislation. Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101, quoting reference 5216144112. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The British and the French remembered the dead of Somme today, the centenary of the first day of the battle with people gathering at war cemeteries, in churches and on the streets of villages, towns and cities. The offensive, which began on 1 July 1916, was supposed to end the bloody deadlock on the Western front. After a bombardment, with 1.6 million rounds fired, lasting a week, British, French and Commonwealth troops were sent to German positions with allied commanders promising a swift victory. By the end of that first day, the total of British and Commonwealth dead alone had reached 19,240. The slaughter was to last four and half months. The Germans lost 465,181, the British and Commonwealth forces 419,654 and the French 202,567. By the end the allies had advanced just 6.2 miles. What happened became symbolic of the human cost of the First World War, the search for accord and cooperation in Europe afterwards and the forming of the League of Nations. In a ceremony at Thiepval Memorial, near the battlefield, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Wellby, prayed for those who faced the terrible waste and devastation, those who fought against all the odds, who endured the clinging mud and squalor of the trenches. David Cameron read out the words of Corporal Jim Crow, of 110 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, who had remembered the moments of compassion and empathy amid the violence. The actor Charles Dance read Siegfried Sassoons poem Have You Forgotten Yet. Prince Charles gave a reading from The Old Front Line by John Masefield. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh attended a service at Westminster Abbey. The Queen laid flowers at the Grave of the Unknown Soldier. The Bishop of London, the Right Reverend Dr Richard Curtis, stressed the legacy of the dead was the belief that people must work towards reconciliation and cooperation to ensure that their children did not have to endure conflict. (Getty Images (Getty Images) Meanwhile, thousands of volunteers dressed up as soldiers in WW1 combat uniforms appeared across towns and cities in the UK, in a performance art event commissioning by 14-18 Now. They handed out cards to passersby, each one giving the name, rank and battalion of a solider who died in the attack, as well as their place of death and age. The work was created by artist Jeremy Deller and Rufus Norris, Artistic Director of the National Theatre. (Getty Images (Getty Images) The peace treaties after the First World War did not end global conflict. The terms of some of the treaties contributed, in fact, towards the conflagration of the Second World War. There have been conflicts in Europe, in the Balkans, in Georgia and in Ukraine since then. One of the stated aims of the European Union is to end strife in the continent. The Somme commemoration took place at a time of tension in Europe, the rise of extremist parties and just over a week after Britain voted to leave the European Union. Society, said the Bishop of London, must reject those who would stir up hatred and division. The intervening hundred years since the battle have also seen changes in Britains fortunes. In 1916 it was a pre-eminent power with a massive empire and a mighty military. More than 100,000 soldiers were on that one frontline, more than the entire size of the British army now. Britains economy has slipped from fifth in the world to sixth since Brexit. Additional reporting by Independent staff Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Tens of thousands of people have been marching through central London in protest against Britain leaving the European Union. Protesters flying EU flags and holding banners with slogans including Never going to give EU up and March for Europe gathered in reaction to a referendum result that has plunged Britain into political chaos. Though the UK voted narrowly by 52 per cent to 48 per cent to leave the EU, the capital, where the protest took place, strongly voted to remain but is set to be dragged out of the bloc by the rest of the country. Some of the Saturday morning crowd, many of whom were young adults, draped themselves in European flags while others painted their faces blue with yellow stars. Marchers gathered in Park Lane at 11am and marched towards Parliament Square, via Picadilly, Trafalgar Square and Whitehall. The protesters chanted What do we want?" "EU!" as they set off for Westminster political district, with others singing "Hey EU" to the tune of The Beatles Hey Jude. (Sky News / screengrab (Sky News / screengrab) Many banners featured Tory Cabinet minister Michael Gove, who is standing for the Conservative leadership having campaigned for Brexit. Others highlighted generational divides between Leave and Remain voters, with young people flying a "My generation will remain" banner and other placards suggesting "Our future has been stolen". A banner in Parliament Square at the March for Europe (Jon Stone) Organisers said 50,000 people turned out to the protest, while the Metropolitan Police estimated closer to 30,000 people. The closing rally at Parliament Square was completely full by 2.30pm, with reports of more protesters being unable to enter the square because it was at capacity. From the stage set up in Parliament Square, Labour peer Lord Cashman told the crowd: "No more lies, no more hate. We need to uphold the values of democracy and inclusiveness which are at the heart of the EU and this country. We must not let right-wing, narrow-minded nationalism nor xenophobia define us. We are better than that. I honestly believe the disinformation in this campaign has undermined our democracy. Decent British values are also the values of the European Union. "You cannot deny geography. The UK is in Europe. How can you take it out?" he said. A similar rally earlier this week in Trafalgar Square was cancelled due to heavy rain but tens of thousands of people turned up anyway. (PA WIRE) (PA) Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum last week after a long campaign fraught with ill feeling on both sides. Support in urban areas and among young people was significantly lower, however. The capital strongly backed Remain by 60 per cent to 40 per cent. The disparity between different parts of the country has promoted a four-million-signature petition calling for a second referendum and even a renewed push for Scotland to secede from the UK. (Reuters (Reuters) The events organiser, Kings College graduate Kieran MacDermott, wrote on the event's Facebook page: We can prevent Brexit by refusing to accept the referendum as the final say and take our finger off the self-destruct button. It is the responsibility of Parliament to consider our democracy more carefully and call for a vote before they all accept the UK's decline. Despite the vote, Britain will not immediately leave the European Union with widespread disagreement among policymakers about how Brexit should happen. Ukip leader Nigel Farage has said Article 50 should be invoked as quickly as possible, but former Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who also backed Leave, has said there should be no haste. Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Show all 12 1 /12 Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A woman poses with a home-made European Union flag as Remain supporters gather on Park Lane in London to show their support for the EU in the wake of Brexit PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Remain supporters demonstrate in Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Tens of thousands of people gathered to protest the result of the EU referendum PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A majority of people in the capital voted to remain in the European Union Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Protesters chanted: What do we want to do? Stay in the EU PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The march follows a similar rally in Trafalgar Square that was cancelled due to heavy rain but which tens of thousands of people turned up to anyway Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum by 52 per cent to 48 per cent Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London But support for the Leave campaign in urban areas and among young people was significantly lower Rex features Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Marchers gathered at Park Lane at 11am and marched towards Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Some protesters held up baguettes in a display of affection for our continental neighbours PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The disparity between different parts of the country has promoted a four million signature petition calling for a second referendum and even a renewed push for Scotland to cede from the UK PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The events organiser, Kings College graduate Kieran MacDermott, wrote: We can prevent Brexit by refusing to accept the referendum as the final say and take our finger off the self-destruct button" Reuters There is also disagreement, even amongst Leave campaigners, about what form Brexit should take. Whether Britain should remain in the European single market or control immigration is currently a matter of debate and was not settled at the binary referendum. There have also been sportadic calls from some politicians and campaigners for a second referendum to confirm any deal. EU officials and the leaders of other EU nations have called for Britain to move as quickly as possible towards a solution in order to minimise what is expected to be an economically difficult period of transition. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The Queen has called for quiet thinking and contemplation in her first public address since the EU referendum. During a speech at the opening of the fifth session of the Scottish Parliament, the monarch acknowledged an increasingly complex and demanding world in which events and developments can and do take place at remarkable speed. She recognised that retaining the ability to stay calm and collected can at times be hard, but insisted the importance of hope and optimism, adding that the new session of Scottish Parliament was bringing with it a real sense of renewal. One hallmark of leadership in such a fast-moving world is allowing sufficient room for quiet thinking and contemplation which can enable deeper cooler consideration of how challenges and opportunities can be best addressed, she added. While the Queen did not allude directly to the EU referendum result, her words have been widely viewed as an apolitical reference to Brexit and the political changes in Britain. In response to Her Majesty's speech, Ms Sturgeon said Scotland should play our part in a stronger Europe and a better world, during a highly political address to the Scottish parliament. The Brexit vote has ignited calls for a new referendum on Scottish independence after 62% of Scottish voters were in favour of remaining in the EU. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A minister has said security services will take all steps necessary to keep the public safe after Isis supporters threatened to attack Heathrow Airport over the weekend. A Twitter account threatened planes flying from the UKs largest airport to the US over the coming days, when Americans are celebrating Independence Day. There will be a device placed in either Heathrow, LAX or JFK airports, the message claimed, according to monitors at the Site Intelligence Group. JFK airport was among the airports threatened (Shutterstock) John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) are among the busiest in the US. Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, a transport minister, said security remains high with the UKs national threat level currently set at severe. We all need to be vigilant to the global threat of terrorism in the UK we keep all aspects of aviation security under constant review and work closely with our international partners to mitigate risks, he added. We will continue to take all steps necessary to keep the public safe, but for security reasons we do not comment in detail on specific measures or operational matters. Heathrow Airport declined to comment on the apparent threat, which had no confirmed link to the so-called Islamic State or its strongholds in Syria and Iraq. Officials in the US said they had no information to suggest any plot was underway and did not consider the claim to be an executable plan, while the FBI previously said it knew of no specific or credible threat over the Fourth of July weekend. Timeline: The emergence of Isis Show all 40 1 /40 Timeline: The emergence of Isis Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2000 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (pictured here) forms an al-Qaeda splinter group in Iraq, al-Qaeda in Iraq. Its brutality from the beginning alienates Iraqis and many al-Qaeda leaders. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2006 Al-Zarqawi is killed in a U.S. strike. Al-Zarqawis successor, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, announces the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2009 Still al-Qaeda-linked ISI claims responsibility for suicide bombings that killed 155 in Baghdad, as well as attacks in August and October killing 240, as President Obama announces troop withdrawal from Iraq in March. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2010 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi becomes head of ISI, at lowest ebb of Islamist militancy in Iraq, which sees last U.S. combat brigade depart. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2012 In Syria, protests (pictured here starting in Daree) have morphed into what president Assad labelled a real war with emergence of a coalition of forces opposed to Assads regime. Syria group Jabhat al-Nusra are among rebel groups who refuse to join, denouncing it as a conspiracy. Bombings targeting Shia areas, killing more than 500 people, spark fears of new sectarian conflict. Sunni Muslims stage protests across country against what they see as increasingly marginalisation by Shia-led government. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2013 Al-Baghdadi renames ISI as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or Isis, as the group absorbs Syrian al-Nusra, gaining a foothold in Syria. In response, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri (Bin Ladens successor) concerned about Isis expansion orders that Isis be dissolved and ISI operations should be confined to Iraq. This order is rejected by al-Baghdadi. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - January Isis fighters capture the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, giving them base to launch slew of attacks further south. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis declares itself the Caliphate, calling itself Islamic State (IS). The group captures Mosul, Iraqs second largest city; Tal Afar, just 93 miles from Syrian border; and the central Iraqi city of Tikrit. These advances sent shockwaves around the world. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Around the same time Isis releases a video calling for western Muslims to join the Caliphate and fight, prompting new evaluations of extremists groups social media understanding. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis take Baiji oil fields in Iraq - giving them access to huge amounts of possible revenue. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August James Foley is executed by the group as concerns grow for second American prisoner, fellow reporter Steven Sotloff. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August Obama authorises U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, helping to stall Isis along with action by Kurdish forces following the deaths of hundreds of Yazidi people on Mount Sinjar. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release video showing Steven Sotloffs murder prompting Western speculation his executioner is same man who killed Mr Foley. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Obama tells us that America will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release a video appearing to show David Haines, who was captured by militants in Syria in 2013, wearing an orange jumpsuit and kneeling in the desert while he reads a pre-prepared script. It later shows what appears to be the aid worker's body. Rex Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Peshmerga fighters scrabble to hold positions in the Diyala province (a gateway to Baghdad) as Isis fighters continue to advance on Iraqi capital. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Aid worker Alan Henning is killed. Self-imposed media blackout refuses to show images of him in final moments, instead focuses upon humanitarian care. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Isis raise their flag in Kobani, which had been strongly defended by Kurdish troops. The victory goes against hopeful western analysis Isis had overextended itself, while alienating much of the Muslim population through the murder of Henning. Victory causes fresh waves of Kurdish refugees arriving in Turkey. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - November American hostage, who embarced values of Islam, Peter Kassig and 14 Syrian soldiers are shown meeting the same fate as other captives. But intelligence agencies will be poring over the apparently significant discrepancies between this and previous films. Seramedig.org.uk Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis has released a video revealing the murder by burning to death of a Jordanian pilot held by the group since the end of December 2014. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have released videos which appear to show the beheading of Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February American aid worker, Kayla Mueller was the last American hostage known to be held by Isis. She died, according to her captors, in an airstrike by the Jordanian air force on the city of Raqqa in Syria, though US authorities disputed this. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have posted a gruesome video online in which they force 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian hostages to kneel on a beach in Libya before beheading them. Egypt vowed to avenge the beheading and launched air strikes on Isis positions. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February The British Isis militant suspected of appearing in videos showing the beheading of Western hostages has been named in reports as Mohammed Emwazi from London. Rex Features Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - March Isis triple suicide attack has killed more than 100 worshippers and hundreds of others were injured after the group members targeted two mosques in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Iraqi forces have claimed victory over Isis in battle for Tikrit and raised the flag in the city. EPA/STR Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan that killed at least 35 people queuing to collect their wages and injured 100 more. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis media arm released a 29-minute video purporting to show militants executing Ethiopian Christians captives. The footage bore the extremist groups al-Furqan media logo and showed the destruction of churches and desecration of religious symbols. A masked fighter made a statement threatening Christians who did not convert to Islam or pay a special tax. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis has been "incapacitated" by a spinal injuries sustained in a US air strike in Iraq. He is being treated in a hideout by two doctors from Isis stronghold of Mosul who are said to be "strong ideological supporters of the group". Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis has also claimed responsibility for killing 300 of Yazidi captives, including women, children and elderly people in Iraq AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis attack on Prophet Mohamed cartoon contest in Texas was its first action on US soil. Two gunmen were shot and killed after launching the attack at the exhibition. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi have been named as the attackers at the Curtis Culwell Centre arena in Garland. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isiss deputy leader, Abu Alaa Afri, a former physics teacher who was thought to have taken charge of the deadly terrorist group, has been killed in a US-led coalition airstrike. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May US special forces have killed a senior Isis leader named as Abu Sayyaf in an operation aiming to capture him and his wife in Syria. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Iran-backed militias are sent to Ramadi by the Iraqi government to fight Isis militants who completed their capture of the city. Government soldiers and civilians were reportedly massacred by extremists as they took control and the army fled. Charred bodies were left littering the city streets as troops clung on to trucks speeding away from the city. Ramadi is the latest government stronghold to fall to the so-called Islamic State, despite air strikes by a US-led international coalition aiming to stop its advance in Iraq and Syria. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis rounded up civilians trapped in Palmyra and forced them to watch 20 people being executed in the historic citys ancient amphitheatre. The Unesco World Heritage site was overrun by militants, threatening the future of 2,000 year-old monuments and ruins. Thousands of Palmyras residents fled but many are still living within the city walls, while the UN human rights office in Geneva said it had received reports of Syrian government forces preventing people from leaving until they retreated from the city. Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May A group of Isis-affiliated fighters have captured a key airport in central Libya. The militants took control of the al-Qardabiya airbase in Sirte after a local militia tasked with defending the facility withdrew from their positions. Affiliates of Isis, already control large parts of Sirte, the birthplace of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and a former stronghold of his supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June The US Air Force has destroyed an Isis stronghold after an extremist let slip their location on social media. According the Air Force Times, General Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, said that Airmen at Hulburt Field, Florida, used images shared by jihadists to track the location of their headquarters before destroying it in an airstrike. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Kurdish forces captured a key military base in a significant victory in Raqqa as well as town of Tell Abyad. YPG fighters, backed by US-led airstrikes and other rebels, consolidated their gains, when they seized the key town on the Syria-Turkey border. They are now just 30 miles to the north of Raqqa and have cut off a major supply route deep inside Isis-held territory. Ahmet Silk/Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has released gruesome footage claiming to show the murder of more than a dozen men by drowning, decapitation and using a rocket-propelled grenade as it seeks to boost morale among its fanatical supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has begun carrying out its threat to destroy structures in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, blowing up at least two monuments at the Unesco-protected site as Syrian government troops made advances on the Islamists positions. AFP Brian Levin, from the Centre for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, told the LA Times that such threats are fairly common as part of a propaganda effort to spread fear. This kind of chatter isnt unusual around 4 July and other big holidays, he said. You have to assess the ability to carry out the plan. Isis has issued numerous videos and propaganda statements threatening the UK and other Crusader nations in the US-led coalition bombing its strongholds. A video was posted online earlier this year showing two British supporters threatening Heathrow, Gatwick Airport and Downing Street following the Brussels attacks. At least 22 people were killed by Isis militants in a shooting attack on a restaurant in Bangladesh on Friday, while Tuesdays bombings at Istanbul airport were also blamed on the group. It has called for increased attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and analysts predicted that the group would attempt more terror plots abroad as it continues to suffer heavy losses in Syria, Iraq and Libya. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Its a busy time in UK politics; the nation is still getting to grips with the fallout from Brexit, both major parties are facing bitter leadership contests, and the union is looking more fragile than ever. Yet amid this turmoil, MPs carry on with the business of government, while Brexit threatens to act as a smokescreen, shielding other important topics from public scrutiny. One such matter is the move to privatise the Land Registry, which has been in state hands for hundreds of years. Established in 1925, the Land Registry is a record which holds and maintains the data for 24m property titles across England and Wales. It provides vital information about the ownership of 87% of land, which is worth a total of 4 trillion including 1 trillion in mortgages. In 2014/15 alone, the Land Registry cost almost 261m to run but it also generated 297m of revenue from fees for the use of its services, such as title searches. As such, its no longer seen just as a function of government, but as an important asset in a world where data and the ability to leverage data is very valuable. How will Brexit impact UKs economy? Short term thinking As MPs gather to discuss the issue, Labour MP David Lammy has warned that the government is looking to sell off the family silver to turn a short-term profit, to try and make their sums add up. And hes not entirely wrong. UK Chancellor George Osborne is looking to sell up to 5 billion of corporate and financial assets by March 2020, to help reduce the nations deficit. Despite the failure of previous attempts, the government has pressed ahead with consultations to move Land Registrys operations to the private sector from 2017. The consultation closed at the end of May, and the responses which have been made public were less than enthusiastic about the prospect. For one thing, private sector leaders and city lawyers have warned that any buyer would surely seek to retain exclusive rights to the Land Registry data for themselves, rather than continuing to make it accessible to all. On a more positive note, ideas about how to improve the service have also been put forward. Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Show all 12 1 /12 Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A woman poses with a home-made European Union flag as Remain supporters gather on Park Lane in London to show their support for the EU in the wake of Brexit PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Remain supporters demonstrate in Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Tens of thousands of people gathered to protest the result of the EU referendum PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A majority of people in the capital voted to remain in the European Union Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Protesters chanted: What do we want to do? Stay in the EU PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The march follows a similar rally in Trafalgar Square that was cancelled due to heavy rain but which tens of thousands of people turned up to anyway Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum by 52 per cent to 48 per cent Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London But support for the Leave campaign in urban areas and among young people was significantly lower Rex features Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Marchers gathered at Park Lane at 11am and marched towards Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Some protesters held up baguettes in a display of affection for our continental neighbours PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The disparity between different parts of the country has promoted a four million signature petition calling for a second referendum and even a renewed push for Scotland to cede from the UK PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The events organiser, Kings College graduate Kieran MacDermott, wrote: We can prevent Brexit by refusing to accept the referendum as the final say and take our finger off the self-destruct button" Reuters The Conveyancing Association, for instance, suggested a land registration tax (perhaps an unfortunate use of words, given the publics dislike of taxation) as a way of increasing the Land Registrys revenue. This would immediately double the Land Registrys income, which could also cover the recent shortfall from the halving of fees for electronic registrations. According to the trade association, such a tax would be a relatively small burden for the homebuyer in amongst the other costs and charges involved in the process. If it aint broke The feedback from the consultation makes a strong case against privatisation as does the petition signed by 250,000 members of the public, which was handed to Business Secretary Sajid Javid in May. Moreover, its unclear why the government feels it necessary to privatise the Land Registry in order to achieve efficiency. Those working at the Land Registry have significant experience and expertise in that field (excuse the pun). They have presided over a period of great change in the delivery of their service, and built a valuable, state-owned asset in the process. There is a great fear that privatisation will lead to redundancies among the Land Registrys 4,578 staff, who are based in 14 offices across England and Wales. Unsurprisingly, trade unions have come out against the proposals warning that job cuts will result from any purchase by a private enterprise. If as the government acknowledged in its consultation data can be a real driver of innovation and growth, then why not retain ownership of the operation and increase revenue for the good of the nation? Dodgy deals? As well as causing concerns for staff, 65 cross-party MPs have signed a letter warning that the sale would enable shady offshore entities to buy up property in the UK. Approximately 40,000 properties in London alone are registered in the names of offshore companies, whose ultimate ownership is unclear. Ministers are concerned that privatising the Land Registry would make it even harder to regulate property ownership in the UK. Then there is the question of data security; its not obvious that privatisation will lead to a better service, particularly given the recent trials and tribulations of G4S in the case of the prison service. The Land Registry contains publicly accessible information such as property prices. But it also holds private data such as mortgage account numbers. The question is, can we trust a commercial organisation with this sensitive data? Even if the prospective buyers security is up to scratch, theres still a risk that this data would be exploited to make larger profits. The government has said that it will still prescribe fees for the Land Registry; although this will keep costs down for users, it means that the only ways for a commercial organisation to increase its profits is through efficiencies (job cuts or branch closures), or by exploiting the data by other commercial means. Either way, its bad news for the public. At this stage, no final decisions have been made: the government still has a chance to listen to the concerns voiced by the general public and leading experts alike. Heres hoping its brave enough to recognise when it has made a mistake, and arrive at the right decision. This article was originally published in The Conversation Bangladeshi forces stormed an upscale Dhaka restaurant to end a hostage-taking by heavily armed militants early Saturday, killing six of the attackers and rescuing 13 captives including foreigners. The military said 20 of the hostages had been killed during the 10-hour standoff, and officials from Japan said seven of its citizens were unaccounted for. About 35 people were taken hostage, including about 20 foreigners, when gunmen stormed the popular Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area, a diplomatic zone, on Friday night during the Ramadan holy month. Two police officers were killed at the start of the attack. Bangladesh Brig. Gen. Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said six attackers were killed by the paramilitary troops who mounted the rescue operations. They also recovered explosive devices and sharp weapons from the scene. Chowdhury did not disclose the identities of the hostages. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, and she said security officials arrested one of the militants. "Because of the effort of the joint force, the terrorists could not flee," Hasina said in a nationally televised speech, vowing to fight militant attacks in the country and urged people to come forward. "Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such act," Hasina said. "They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism." A Japanese government spokesman said that a Japanese hostage was rescued with a gunshot wound but seven others are unaccounted for. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said that the eight were together at the restaurant during the attack. Masud said that two Sri Lankans also were rescued. Others included an Argentine and two Bangladeshis, local media reported. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors Islamist militant activity online. The Amaq news agency, affiliated with IS, also posted photos purportedly showing hostages' bodies. The authenticity of the images could not be confirmed. With the sound of gunfire and explosions, local TV stations reported that the rescue operation began at 7:40 a.m. It included army personnel with automatic weapons and at least seven armored vehicles and ambulances. The attackers did not respond to authorities' calls for negotiation, Masud said. The audacious attack came during Ramadan, when people in the mostly Muslim country fast during the day and eat after dark. On Friday evening, many people headed to the popular bakery and restaurant that serves Spanish food and is patronized by residents of Gulshan, an affluent neighborhood where most of the foreign embassies are located. The restaurant overlooks a lake and on pleasant evenings, diners often chose to eat outdoors. Kitchen staffer Sumon Reza, who escaped, said the attackers chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) as they assaulted around 9:20 p.m. Friday, initially opening fire with blanks. Rezaul Karim, the father of a Bangladeshi businessman who was rescued along with his family, said the attackers did not harm any hostage who could recite verses from the Islamic holy book, Quran. Karim said his son, Hasnat, had gone to the restaurant along with his wife and two children to celebrate the birthday of his elder daughter when the attack happened. "He told me, 'Please save us, please!' And he hung up," he said. Karim said his son told him that the attackers "did not hit people who could recite verses from the Quran. The others were tortured," he said. "The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Quran. Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night," Karim said. He said detectives were questioning his son and his family as part of the investigation. Police said the two officers died at a hospital after being wounded in the initial gunfire. Ten of 26 people who were wounded when the militants opened fire were in critical condition, and six were on life support, according to hospital staff. The injuries ranged from broken bones to gunshot wounds. Only one civilian was among the wounded. The attack marks an escalation in the militant violence that has hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation with increasing frequency in recent months. Most attacks have been by machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities. The government did not directly comment on the IS claim but has denied that the extremist group based in Syria and Iraq has a presence in Bangladesh, instead blaming the recent violence on its political enemies. In Washington, a White House official said President Barack Obama was briefed on the attack by his chief counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco. The president asked to be kept informed as the situation develops, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the president's meetings. State Department spokesman John Kirby says the U.S. is in contact with the Bangladesh government and has offered its assistance to bring those responsible to justice. The recent attacks in Bangladesh have raised fears that religious extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions of secularism and tolerance. About two dozen atheist writers, publishers, members of religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers have been slain since 2013. On Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death by at least three assailants in southwest Bangladesh. IS group and al-Qaeda affiliates have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks. Hasina's government has cracked down on domestic radical Islamists by making scores of arrests. It has accused local terrorists and opposition political parties especially the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilize the nation, which both parties deny. Search Keywords: Short link: Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A Cambridge academic walked naked into a faculty meeting of economists in an act of protest against the UK's vote to leave the European Union. Victoria Bateman, a fellow in economics at Cambridge University, arrived at the meeting on Wednesday with the words "Brexit leaves Britain naked" written across her stomach and breasts. Ms Bateman reportedly sat through the two-hour meeting, in which 30 other economists were discussing teaching material and courses at Cambridge University's Faculty of Economics, without anyone mentioning her lack of clothing. Nigel Knight, director of studies at Chruchill College and chair of the meeting, did however reportedly look at her and say: "I think we need some cups for the coffee." It is not the first time Ms Bateman has bared all in public. In 2014, she posed for a nude protrait by painter Anthony Connolly, which then went on public display at the Mall Galleries. Talking about her decision to pose nude in The Guardian, Ms Bateman said she had hoped to raise questions about the depiction of women and "challenge the blinkered association between the body and sex". Ms Bateman has researched the development of the UK economy, and openly opposed the UK leaving the EU before the referendum. In an article for Bloomberg, she previously wrote that the effect would be "sizeable" and that "many working families would be noticeably worse off". "If the predicted fiscal deficit were to be corrected through welfare cuts alone, it would result in low-income households receiving between 1,861 pounds and 5,542 pounds less a year (in 2014 equivalent figures) by 2020, depending upon their personal circumstances," she explained. "Even if the welfare budget were to bear only a quarter of the fiscal adjustment needed, it would still amount to a loss of some 1,146 pounds a year for a single working parent with one child." Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} In the past week, the Conservatives have managed to trump the most dramatic act in their recent history their act of regicide against Margaret Thatcher. The Tory victors in the EU referendum have not only killed another prime minister; they are now assassinating each other as they fight for control of the party. Despite David Camerons resignation, there were real hopes among Tory MPs that the bitter internal divisions seen in the referendum campaign could be avoided during the leadership election to choose his successor. After all, the Europe issue, which has been a fault line through the party since Thatchers fall in 1990, had finally been resolved. The word on many Tory lips this week was: We are all Brexiteers now. Of course, there is still tension between Remainers and Leavers. There are still separate groups: some rivals are not speaking to each other or they avoid eye contact. But prospects of healing the referendum wounds were greater under a narrow win for Leave than the same result for Remain, as bitter Outers would have prolonged the civil war until they got another referendum. However, the rosier scenario of uniting behind a Leave vote ended at 9.02am on Thursday when Michael Goves team sent out an email saying that he would run for the leadership because his fellow Vote Leave leader Boris Johnson was not up to the job. The front-runners campaign launch became an announcement that he was pulling out of the race, amid cries of betrayal and treachery aimed at Gove. The maxim that loyalty is the Tory partys secret weapon now looks like a throwback to the era when its leader emerged, like a puff of smoke from the Vatican, after secret talks among the partys grandees. The unexpected assassination of Boris Johnson will leave deep wounds. There will be sniping during the leadership contest between his erstwhile supporters, who have split different ways, and the Gove camp. A legacy of bitterness will last beyond the declaration of the new leader on 9 September. For the Conservative Party to come back together after that, the new leader will need a reconciliation reshuffle to bring defeated candidates and their supporters into the Cabinet. That will be easier said than done. Theresa May, the front-runner after Johnson fell at the first fence, and Gove have a long history of Cabinet battles and very different views on issues such as how to tackle Islamic extremism. So it is not certain that May and Gove would offer each other a Cabinet post if they won or that they would accept one from their rival if they lost. Then there is Boris Johnson. Would he serve to reunite the Tory tribe or keep his head down in the hope of reviving his leadership hopes after the 2020 general election? So the personality differences will not disappear overnight when the new PM takes over. However, all is not lost for the Tories. Despite all the infighting, there is a surprising amount of common ground across the party on policy. On Europe, there will be tensions when the new government has to confront the biggest question: the trade-off between access to the single market and control over EU migration. But on domestic policy, a consensus is already forming around extending Camerons One Nation project. The referendum exposed two Britains, and the anger of those at the bottom who have been left behind by globalisation. So the Tories are all talking about action not words on social mobility and a new popular capitalism including cracking down on abuses of market power, not least in financial services. The other ray of hope for the Tories is that Labour is in disarray too. Indeed, Labours schism is so great that it could split formally between Jeremy Corbyns socialist, trade union-backed party and a breakaway social democratic one that includes most Labour MPs. Whatever their current turmoil, the Tories will not split, and we should not underestimate their ability to mask the tensions inside the party in order to hang on to power. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The realignment of Britains left is something that has been much hoped for, long talked about, rarely attempted and never achieved. Could now be the moment? Certainly the Labour leadership crisis has posed one central question, from which so much flows: who owns Labour? Ever since its very formation as an uneasy coalition of intellectuals and trades unionists, the Labour Party has had been unable to answer this. Those who believe the party belongs to its members, with policy being decided democratically at conference and by the national executive, take the view that MPs, peers, MEPs, the Shadow Cabinet, the real Cabinet and the Prime Minister are variously the servants of the party, taking their guidance from the composite motions and sometimes self-contradictory compromises brokered at the annual beano by the seaside. If Labour MPs didnt like it, then they can get deselected. End of. That control was fought for long and hard for decades, in fact by Jeremy Corbyn and the left generally, from Stafford Cripps in the 1930s to Nye Bevan in the 1950s to Corbyns friend and mentor Tony Benn in the 1980s. Benn called it democratisation; Corbyn now terms it, with no hint of irony, a new kind of politics. It isnt. It is as old as the party itself. The alternative view is that the Parliamentary Labour Party is in a unique state of communion with the British electorate, and any attempt to trammel its prerogatives, or those of an elected prime minister, is incompatible with the Burkean principles of British democracy and the unwritten constitution. Parliament, essentially the House of Commons, is sovereign, not the Labour conference or the Labour membership. Not only that, but having the Labour Party run owned by its members risks tearing the party off the centre ground, with all the electoral peril that implies. Such a stance has, understandably, traditionally been the majority view of Labour parliamentarians and all Labour prime ministers. A leadership election between Angela Eagle, say, and Jeremy Corbyn, then, is essentially a battle for ownership of the party. If Eagle wins, then the party does have a chance of repositioning itself and aligning the party membership with the PLP. Just as when the moderate Denis Healey beat Tony Benn for the deputy leadership of the party and its soul in 1981 by the narrowest of margins, the crisis will be decided for now. However, if Eagle loses and Corbyn is confirmed as leader with the added trauma of potential mandatory reselections of rebel Labour MPs, and most of Labours more able national figures sidelined then the party will have split itself, even if it remains, formally, as one political and legal entity. The electoral consequences would be too gruesome to contemplate. In which circumstances the possibility of a formal Labour split and wider realignment once again comes into play. In the broad sweep of history, as the late Roy Jenkins used to tell it, this is really about reuniting the broadly progressive forces in British politics, which have been divided fatally since the division and collapse of the Liberal Party and the rise of Labour in the 1920s (Jenkins always took the long view). It is no coincidence that the Conservatives, acrimonious and nasty as they have been for much of their existence, have managed to dominate British politics in the intervening century simply by sticking together, even in the harshest adversity. We now see that the electoral successes of Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson and Tony Blair (remarkably the only leaders ever to win overall majorities for Labour) were not much more than aberrations. As Michael Heseltine often reminds us, the British Tory party is the most successful machine in the history of democratic politics anywhere. Usually on its own, sometimes in coalition, it remains the natural party of government. Today, one can easily perceive a moderate social democratic, liberally minded grouping comprising the moderate wing of the Labour Party and the great majority of its MPs, the Liberal Democrats, perhaps even a few Conservatives appalled by the rightward and Eurosceptic lurch of their party plus a wider penumbra of the politically unengaged and disaffected uniting behind an agenda of political, social and economic reform. If that all sounds familiar to an older generation, it should, because it was precisely the pattern of change attempted in the 1980s when Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Shirley Williams, Bill Rogers and much of the right wing of the Labour Party broke away to form the Social Democratic Party, and hitched themselves to the Liberals in the SDP-Liberal Alliance. They almost succeeded in turning their favourite cliche into reality by breaking the mould of British politics. These days the new party might be called the Progressive Party or the Progressives, maybe with Progressive Labour and Progressive Liberal Democrats as sub-brands, shorn of doctrinaire socialism, geared to listening to an electorate that feels it has been left behind. On the other side of the divide is a purer socialist-minded grouping, suspicious of Europe (apart from on workers rights), committed to the trade unions, the environment and putting the equality agenda ahead of traditional voter concerns about living standards. So that would be the Corbynites, most Labour activists, the big unions plus the Greens. The continuing Labour Party might also from a strong association with the Greens, and maybe the SNP and Plaid Cymru, adopting their separatist agenda in return for parliamentary support for so long as the UK exists. Jeremy Corbyn stays as leader of this crew. It almost happened before, after all, in the 1980s, with that SDP experiment. But almost is the important word here, because the lesson of history is that the first-past-the-post electoral system punishes split political movements harshly. In todays climate, that would mean Corbynite Labour and Progressive Labour splitting their vote and letting in Conservative or, more likely in many areas on the east coast and the North, Ukip. Not what they have in mind at all. What about the unions? The have often been key in determining Labours fortunes, but in an era of one-member-one-vote and the 3 supporters, their direct power has waned. At the moment their money and activism helps keep Corbyn and the in power. Yet it was not always thus. During the leaderships of Clement Attlee, Hugh Gaitskell and Neil Kinnock, the big unions helped keep the party loyal to its parliamentary leadership and, usually, kept the left in check. Theres one particular distant echo from history worth mentioning, perhaps. It was Ernie Bevin, leader of the Transport and General Workers Union, who evicted the last pacifist, incompetent Labour leader from office back in 1935. George Lansbury, a nice man, the Corbyn of his day, was popular with the activists, but seemed destined to keep Labour in the wilderness. Bevin, as boldly as Hilary Benn and the Shadow Cabinet today, openly revolted and pushed Lansbury out and replaced him with Attlee, who did rather better for the party. Lansbury is better remembered today for being the grandfather of Angela Miss Marple Lansbury. The last time a realignment of the centre-left was attempted was 20 years ago, when Paddy Ashdown and Tony Blair embarked on the project, a scheme to reunite the two wings of progressive politics, in which Roy Jenkins rather fancifully believed that these two children of his permissive, progressive society would unite to lock the Tories out of power for decades. Blair, whether genuinely convinced or not of the merits of a Lib-Lab coalition, had little need of the Lib Dems after gaining a Commons majority of 179 in the 1997 election, and he had no use for PR either. By contrast, Labour, even before its current crisis, needs all the help to sort itself out that it can get, and the country is crying out for a real opposition and an electoral system where every vote matters equally (just as in the referendum). If the centre-left wont provide it, then theres a man called Farage more than happy to oblige. And he is not progressive. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Michael Goves hopes of becoming Prime Minister have suffered a blow after a number of senior anti-EU MPs and the UKIP-linked campaign group Leave.EU swung behind Andrea Leadsoms campaign to be the Brexit candidate for Conservative leader. Launching his campaign on Friday, Mr Gove pledged a hard line on immigration, radical action on executive pay and increased NHS spending. But the Justice Secretary, who sensationally entered the race on Thursday after withdrawing his support from Boris Johnson, thwarting the his former allys Downing Street ambitions, now risks being outflanked from the right by Ms Leadsom, and is also facing recriminations from supporters of Mr Johnson, who has dropped out of the race. The favourites in the Tory leadership race Show all 5 1 /5 The favourites in the Tory leadership race The favourites in the Tory leadership race Theresa May The longest-serving Home Secretary in 100 years took a back seat in the referendum campaign. While backing Remain, she did not hit the campaign trail and delivered only a handful of speeches and interviews, and was critical of many aspects of the EU, particularly the European Convention on Human Rights. Hedging her bets allows her to now emerge as a unity candidate, and she is said to have been building up her back-room staff in preparation for a leadership bid. She has the significant advantage of having served in one of the great offices of state, in a steady and competent manner that has won her many admirers within party and the civil service. At a time of great instability, it may be that she is viewed as steady hand on the tiller. Mrs May does however, lack the star quality of a Boris Johnson and party members may doubt her ability to connect with ordinary voters PA The favourites in the Tory leadership race Michael Gove The Justice Secretary may be able to set himself up as the thinking Torys Brexit candidate. Made an enormous political and personal decision to back Leave, taking on his old friend David Cameron. He performed well during the TV debates, and will be an admired figure among Eurosceptic Conservatives. Along with Johnson, he will be hindered by the fact that he led a very divisive campaign, characterised by blue-on-blue action. MPs may also judge that he lacks Boris Johnsons wider appeal with the electorate. Possibly more likely that he will settle for being his new bosom buddy Boriss Chancellor Getty The favourites in the Tory leadership race Stephen Crabb Highly-rated Work and Pensions Secretary, raised on a council estate, so could reach out to non-traditional working class Tory voters Getty Images The favourites in the Tory leadership race Andrea Leadsom Minister of State for Energy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change is one of the most prominent figures in the Leave campaign, seen to have performed well in TV debates Rex Features The favourites in the Tory leadership race Liam Fox British Conservative MP and former Secretary of State for Defence, as sources said he will stand for the leadership of the Conservative Party AFP/Getty Theresa May remains the runaway favourite, having secured the support of nearly 100 MPs. Mr Gove, Ms Leadsom and Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb, have the confirmed support of around 20 each, while former Defence Secretary Liam Fox is lagging behind and is currently the most likely candidate to drop out after the first round of voting on Tuesday. It is likely that the candidate to challenge Mrs May in the final, two candidate ballot of Conservative members will be someone who backed Brexit. Ms Leadsoms credentials as the pure Brexit candidate were burnished yesterday after she won the backing of former Environment Secretary Owen Paterson and former Tory frontbencher Bernard Jenkin. Wycombe MP Steve Baker, who chairs the Eurosceptic group Conservatives for Britain, is also backing Ms Leadsom. Meanwhile Leave.EU, the campaign group led by UKIP-donor Arron Banks, said that the energy minister was the most popular candidate among their Conservative supporters. Declaring her bid, the Energy Minister, who was one of the leading Leave voices during the EU referendum debate, said: Let's make the most of the Brexit opportunities! In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, she said the next Tory leader must be someone who supported the Leave campaign ahead of the referendum. Ms May campaigned to remain in the EU. She said: I think its very difficult for somebody who doesnt agree with [Brexit], who is reluctantly following the wishes of the people. I think its quite hard for them to really see the opportunities. I genuinely believe that if we want to make a go of it then we need somebody who believes in it. Mrs May wanted Britain to remain in the EU, but kept a low profile during the referendum campaign, and has reached out to Brexit supporters by making it clear she would respect the referendum result and bring an end to freedom of movement from the EU. Her campaign was boosted on Friday by the support of two more Cabinet ministers Michael Fallon and Patrick McLoughlin. She is also backed by Cabinet Office Minister Matthew Hancock, a close ally of George Osborne, who has yet to back a candidate. But in a direct challenge to Mrs May yesterday, Mr Gove said that the next Prime Minister should be someone who backed Brexit. Gove on leadership bid The Justice Secretary faced a call to quit the race yesterday from Tory grandee Ken Clarke, who condemned the student union election tactics on show in his clash with Mr Johnson. The former Chancellor told the BBC that the Tories should elect a leader as quickly and sensibly as we possibly can for the sake of economic stability and that Goves tactics had undermined his hopes to unite the party. Preston North MP Ben Wallace, a Boris Johnson supporter, was less charitable, joking on Twitter that Mr Gove would face the same fate as Game of Thrones Theon Greyjoy a character who is brutally castrated. But in a defiant speech in Westminster on Friday, which stretched to more than hour, Mr Gove said he was driven by conviction to become Prime Minister, and committed himself to Vote Leaves campaign pledges to end freedom of movement and bring down immigration numbers. However, he failed to outline a model for Britains new relationship with the EU and the single market, and insisted that Article 50, the formal mechanism for withdrawing from the EU, need not be invoked this year. Claiming that last weeks Brexit vote would not hit national prosperity he promised 100m a week in extra spending for the NHS and a new wave of house-building. However, his optimistic projections suffered a blow as Chancellor George Osborne announced, while Mr Gove was speaking, that he was abandoning the Governments flagship target to be in financial surplus by 2020, warning that the referendum was expected to produce a significant economic shock for the country. However, Mr Gove insisted that the Brexit vote was an opportunity for reform. Calling on Britain to show radicalism and ambition, he said: The referendum showed in stark relief that there are two Britains: those who can reap the benefits of globalisation and those who are flotsam and jetsam in its powerful flows of global capital and free labour, he said. For millions, the dream of home ownership is receding and wages are stagnating. For millions of our fellow citizens this is not a brave new world but an uncertain new world. And for all Britains power and prosperity, for millions, far too many, this is still not a land of opportunity. This is still a country where your schooling, your postcode, your background matters far too much - and it is the passion of my life and the motivation of my leadership bid to change that for good." Committing to bring immigration numbers down and introduce an Australian-style points system, Mr Gove nevertheless declined to commit to the tens of thousands target that was in the Conservatives 2015 manifesto. He also railed against soaring executive salaries and tax avoidance, pledging to reform capitalism to give shareholders more control of how companies operate. Mr Gove ruled out a snap general election if he became Prime Minister and said that his former aide and Vote Leave campaign manager Dominic Cummings, who had been rumoured to be a source of division between Mr Gove and Mr Johnson, would not have a job in Downing Street if he became leader. The five leadership contenders now have until Tuesday to rally supporters, before facing a vote among the partys 329 MPs. The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated in the first round of voting, and the process repeated until only two remain, at which point the contest is opened up to a ballot among Conservative 125,000 members, with a winner announced on September 9. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The Conservative leadership contest should be cut short and one of the candidates given a coronation, a senior party figure has said. Anna Soubury, the business minister, said a period of uncertainty would be bad for the party and country at a time of instability. It would be best if the candidates among themselves could just back one person and then we can get on with it, she told LBC radio. May launches leadership bid This uncertainty for this to drag on till September is not great for our country. The Times newspaper cites an anonymous Conservative source as saying there will be strong pressure for MPs to start conceding if favourite Theresa May opens up an overwhelming lead in the race. Ms May, the Home Secretary, backed the Remain campaign, and is now in poll position in the contest after Boris Johnson and George Osborne declined to stand. Bookies make her clear favourite, at odds of around 1/2, with Andrea Leadsom now second favourite at 9/4 - and Michael Gove a distant 14/1. She is expected to do well in the first round of voting amongst MPs, which is due on Tuesday. There will then be subsequent rounds of voting until only two candidates remain, at which point the result will be put to the membership. However Ms May has publicly dismissed the suggestion of cutting short the contest, saying it was important to have an open contest. Business minister Anna Soubury made the call for the contest to be cut short (PA images) (PA) In an interview with the Daily Telegraph Ms Leadsom, another candidate, said the new PM should be a Leave supporter effectively ruling out Ms May. She argued that it would be very difficult for someone who backed Remain to lead the Tory party which only has a slim majority in Parliament four years out from a scheduled election. The favourites in the Tory leadership race Show all 5 1 /5 The favourites in the Tory leadership race The favourites in the Tory leadership race Theresa May The longest-serving Home Secretary in 100 years took a back seat in the referendum campaign. While backing Remain, she did not hit the campaign trail and delivered only a handful of speeches and interviews, and was critical of many aspects of the EU, particularly the European Convention on Human Rights. Hedging her bets allows her to now emerge as a unity candidate, and she is said to have been building up her back-room staff in preparation for a leadership bid. She has the significant advantage of having served in one of the great offices of state, in a steady and competent manner that has won her many admirers within party and the civil service. At a time of great instability, it may be that she is viewed as steady hand on the tiller. Mrs May does however, lack the star quality of a Boris Johnson and party members may doubt her ability to connect with ordinary voters PA The favourites in the Tory leadership race Michael Gove The Justice Secretary may be able to set himself up as the thinking Torys Brexit candidate. Made an enormous political and personal decision to back Leave, taking on his old friend David Cameron. He performed well during the TV debates, and will be an admired figure among Eurosceptic Conservatives. Along with Johnson, he will be hindered by the fact that he led a very divisive campaign, characterised by blue-on-blue action. MPs may also judge that he lacks Boris Johnsons wider appeal with the electorate. Possibly more likely that he will settle for being his new bosom buddy Boriss Chancellor Getty The favourites in the Tory leadership race Stephen Crabb Highly-rated Work and Pensions Secretary, raised on a council estate, so could reach out to non-traditional working class Tory voters Getty Images The favourites in the Tory leadership race Andrea Leadsom Minister of State for Energy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change is one of the most prominent figures in the Leave campaign, seen to have performed well in TV debates Rex Features The favourites in the Tory leadership race Liam Fox British Conservative MP and former Secretary of State for Defence, as sources said he will stand for the leadership of the Conservative Party AFP/Getty The Conservative membership is highly Eurosceptic and even if Ms May has a huge lead among Tory MPs at the last hurdle it is possible they could back a eurosceptic candidate if one makes it to the final two. Meanwhile former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith has backed Ms Leadsom, arguing that she is the right person to lead Brexit negotiations. I believe that Andrea's strong family background, business experience, compassion, commitment to social justice and dedication will make her a great prime minister for the UK, he said. The other candidates to replace David Cameron as party leader are Stephen Crabb, Mr Gove and Liam Fox. The election was called after Mr Cameron stepped down, saying it was not right for him to lead Brexit negotiations after having strongly backed Remain. If the contest runs its course it will be concluded by early September, before the party's annual conference, which will be held in Birmingham. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} An independent Scotland in Europe would become like Greece without the sun, a right-wing think-tank has warned. The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) issued a report saying independence for the nation would entail significant economic risk. Following the UK's vote to leave the European Union, Scotlands first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said a second referendum was highly likely. Despite the overall UK vote to leave the bloc, Scotland voted firmly to remain in the union, with 62 per cent of the turnout opting to remain. But the reports authors, Daniel Mahoney and Tim Knox, warned against Scotland splitting from the rest of the UK so it could stay in the EU, predicting difficult economic times ahead if it did. Scotlands high budget deficit, the plummeting expectations of revenue from gas and oil, and the nations reliance of the rest of the UK to buy its exports were given as reasons to stay part of the country. Although they credited Ms Sturgeons drive for independence with having some logic from a democratic standpoint, they warned the economic backdrop to the move was not encouraging for her. Two thirds of Scotlands exports are within the UK, while just 15 per cent goes to other EU countries. Brexit reactions in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Brexit reactions in pictures Brexit reactions in pictures Supporters of the Stronger In campaign look at their phones after hearing results in the EU referendum at London's Royal Festival Hall AP Brexit reactions in pictures Leave supporters cheer results at a Leave.eu party after polling stations closed in the Referendum on the European Union in London Reuters Brexit reactions in pictures Mr Cameron announces his resignation to supporters Getty Brexit reactions in pictures Donald Tusk proposes that the 27 remaining EU member states start a wider reflection on the future of our union Getty Brexit reactions in pictures Ukip leader Nigel Farage greets his supporters on College Green in Westminster, after Britain voted to leave the European Union PA Brexit reactions in pictures Supporters of the Stronger In Campaign react as referendum results are announced today Getty Brexit reactions in pictures Boris Johnson leaves his home today to discover a crowd of waiting journalists and police officers Getty Brexit reactions in pictures Leave EU supporters celebrate as they watch the British EU Referendum results being televised at Millbank Tower in London Rex Brexit reactions in pictures Supporters of the Stronger In Campaign react as results of the EU referendum are announced at the Royal Festival Hall Reuters Brexit reactions in pictures Supporters of the Stronger In campaign react after hearing results in the EU referendum at London's Royal Festival Hall PA The report concluded: Scotland trades over four times more with the rest of the UK compared to other EU countries. Why therefore would you break ties with the UK for the purpose of restoring ties with the rest of the EU via European Union membership? The think-tank has longstanding connections to the Conservative party and was founded by Margaret Thatcher. While the report acknowledged the circumstances of Scotland and Greece were not exactly the same, it noted a striking comparison. There is a precedent for a small, romantic country, surrounded by hundreds of islands, perched on the extremity of Europe, seeking membership of the Euro: Greece, the CPS wrote. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A number of MPs are seeking to impeach former prime minister Tony Blair using an ancient Parliamentary law. The move, which has cross-party support, could be launched in the aftermath of the Chilcot Inquiry report because of the Labour leaders alleged role in misleading Parliament over the Iraq War. MPs believe Mr Blair, who was in office between 1997 and 2007, should be prosecuted for breaching his constitutional duties and taking the country into a conflict that resulted in the deaths of 179 British troops. Blair hints he could reject the findings of the Chilcot inquiry Not used since 1806, when Tory minister Lord Melville was charged for misappropriating official funds, the law is seen in Westminster as an alternative form of punishment if, as believed, Mr Blair will escape serious criticism in the Chilcot Inquiry report. Triggering the process simply requires an MP to propose a motion, and support evidence as part of a document called the Article of Impeachment. If the impeachment attempt is approved by MPs, the defendant is delivered to Black Rod ahead of a trial. Recommended Read more Blair hints he could reject Chilcot Inquiry findings A simple majority is required to convict, at which point a sentence can be passed, which could, in theory, involve Mr Blair being sent to prison. Last year, current Labour leader Jeremy 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". He added: We went into a war that was catastrophic, that was illegal, that cost us a lot of money, that lost a lot of lives. The consequences are still played out with migrant deaths in the Mediterranean, refugees all over the region. It is believed the 2.6 million-word report, due to be published in July, will not make any judgements on the legality [of the Iraq War]or anything like that, that is not the purpose. Lord Goldsmith: Blair did not reflect legal advice on Iraq war Show all 3 1 /3 Lord Goldsmith: Blair did not reflect legal advice on Iraq war Lord Goldsmith: Blair did not reflect legal advice on Iraq war 536598.bin Getty Images Lord Goldsmith: Blair did not reflect legal advice on Iraq war 536763.bin AFP/GETTY IMAGES Lord Goldsmith: Blair did not reflect legal advice on Iraq war 536764.bin GETTY IMAGES Chilcot will instead focus on the decision making behind the conflict and whether any lessons can be learned. Launched by the US with strong UK backing, the war lead to the deaths of between 150,000 and 600,000 Iraqis over four years. Earlier this year, Alex Salmond, the former leader of the Scottish National Party, said the report will show that Mr Blair committed to the invasion of Iraq in private with President George Bush before 2003. He said: If, as I believe... Chilcot finds that there was a prior commitment from Blair to Bush at Crawford ranch [Bushs Texas home] in 2002, that would provide the reason for pursuing the matter further. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The world may be in flames. But Browser the cat will not be evicted from his home in a Texas library. The cat, who had spent six years living in the library in the town of White Settlement, was due to have been removed amid claims from council leaders that he was triggering allergies of library visitors. But amid outcry that swept from Texas to Malaysia and Germany, officials in the town near Forth Worth have reconsidered. On Friday afternoon, at an emergency meeting where the issue of Browsers future was the only item on the agenda, council members voted unanimously to reverse their earlier decision. Texas city council orders eviction of librarys cat Mayor Ron White told the meeting he received approximately 1,800 emails on the issue. He said they had come Germany, France, Malaysia and Canada, according to the Houston Chronicle. Many of the folks who came to the meeting were upset and wanted to speak, but didnt get a chance, Mr White said of the previous meeting where the decision to evict Browser was taken. The council members were adamant about speaking and getting the vote in. There was a motion and then a second one before anyone could speak. On Friday morning, one of the council members who voted to evict Browser, said they had acted after receiving complaints from people who had suffered reactions after entering the library. We had a few complaints our door was not knocked down with complaints but we had some complaints from people who had gone to the library not knowing there was a cat, council member Elzie Clements told The Independent. Lillian Blackburn, a retired teacher and president of the Friends of the White Settlement Public Library, had been among those demanding that the council change its decision. He has been with us for six years. He came because we had a problem like lots of libraries do with mice, she said. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The controversy over Hillary Clintons use of a private email server has taken another twist after the former secretary of state confirmed she had been questioned over the issue by FBI agents. In a statement, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate's spokesman said she had been questioned yesterday morning at the FBI headquarters in Washington. The interview apparently lasted three-and-a-half hours. Secretary Clinton gave a voluntary interview this morning about her email arrangements while she was Secretary. She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion, said a statement by spokesman Nick Merrill, released after the interview. Hillary Clinton campaigning with husband Bill in Brooklyn, New York, earlier this month (Rex) But of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview. The development came a day after the US Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced that she was rescuing herself from the investigation into the issue and would allow FBI officials to decide wether Ms Clinton had committed an offence. She was obliged to do this after it appeared she had a private meeting with former President Bill Clinton when their planes were parked on the tarmac earlier in the week at Phoenix International Airport. Republicans blast Hillary Clinton in Benghazi report The issue of Ms Clintons use of a private email account and a private email server, located at her home in upstate New York, has been a source of repeated controversy for the former Secretary of State. It emerged as the result of an investigation into Ms Clintons role in the Benghazi attack, a probe that ultimately cleared her of any culpability in the incident that left four Americans dead. Her opponents, including Donald Trump, have accused her of behaviour that could be illegal and the New York tycoon has repeatedly seized on the affair, labelling her crooked Hillary Michelle beats Hillary in 'most powerful woman' list Show all 3 1 /3 Michelle beats Hillary in 'most powerful woman' list Michelle beats Hillary in 'most powerful woman' list 468761.bin Getty Images Michelle beats Hillary in 'most powerful woman' list 468570.bin AP Michelle beats Hillary in 'most powerful woman' list 468571.bin AP/ EPA Most analysts believe that Ms Clinton has handled the issue poorly, as she dug in and became defiant. It took almost a year for her to apologise for having done so, despite polls suggesting that many voters have doubts about her honesty. A Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday found that voters deemed her rival Republican Mr Trump more honest and trustworthy than her, 45 per cent to 37 per cent. Ms Clinton, who said that predecessors such as Colin Powell also used a private email address, has always insisted that she did not use the server to send or receive classified information. The State Department has been forced to make public thousands of emails belonging to her, though a number that were deemed personal have been deleted. The FBIs main task is to decide whether or not she broke any rules in the way she handled the information she received. The issue has hung over Ms Clintons election campaign. Some supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders believe it is possible Ms Clinton could be charged ahead of the November election, something that could hand the nomination to the former mayor of Burlington. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} On Monday, Americans will gather to celebrate Independence Day, which marks an event of massive historical significance for the country. These are the origins America's biggest holiday. What is it? 4 July is the most significant national holiday in the United States. It celebrates the Declaration of Independence, adopted on 4 July, 1776. The Thirteen Colonies of America declared themselves to be states and no longer part of the British Empire, though the revolutionary war continued for some time after. Whats the story behind it? The original United States of America was made up of a collection of East Coast states known as the Thirteen Colonies. These were: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. These mainly agricultural colonies were run by the British - who had been present on the continent since 1587 - and exploited for their resources, in particular tobacco. While the relationship between the settlers and British was once amicable, tensions began to escalate over British laws and taxes, such as the Sugar Act, driven by British financial needs. There was also a growing sense of nationalism in the country. From 1765, some settlers began to demand no taxation without representation, calling for their voice to be heard in the British parliament. This tension sometimes erupted into fighting and acts of dissent, such as the Boston Tea Party in 1773. The event was a protest against the Tea Act, legislation which gave the British East India Company a monopoly on sales of tea in the Thirteen Colonies. Further ill feeling was caused by the Coercive Acts which became known as the Intolerable Acts to American Patriots which were implemented in response to the Boston Tea Party. The laws took power away from semi-autonomous Massachusetts. Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle Show all 33 1 /33 Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle Untitled-1.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle Untitled-1.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle google-doodle-26-june-2013_1.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle doodle.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle Untitled-1.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle google-doodle-10-june-2013.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle Untitled-1.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle google.jpg Google Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle Untitled-1.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle Google-Doodle-St-George.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle google-doodle_1.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle maria_sibylla_merians_366th_birthday_-1256008-hp.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle douglas-adams-google-doodle-110313_1.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle international-women's-day-g.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle google-doodle.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle googledoodle.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle google-doodle-star-trek.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle Untitled-1.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle Untitled-2.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle google-doodle-turing.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle google-doodle-rob-moog.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle Untitled-1.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle google-doodle-dickens.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle 627087.bin All rights reserved Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle Vasari.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle GeorgeGilbert.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle google-doodle-les-paul.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle google-doodle-pac-man.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle google-doodle-royal-wedding.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle google-doodle-jules-verne.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle google-doodle-van-gogh.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle google-doodle-da-vinci.jpg Google celebrates US Independence Day with an interactive doodle google-doodle-burning-man.jpg In response to these factors, Continental Congresses a meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies were convened. At the second meeting, in 1775, a war of independence against Britain was declared. The next year, the Declaration of Independence was signed by 56 representatives of thirteen self-styled states (previously the Thirteen Colonies). The signatories included future president Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. The conflict continued until the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the war in favour of an independent America. How has it been celebrated through history? Fireworks, speeches, parties, feasts and general celebrations have marked the day since the 18th century. In Bristol, Rhode Island, there was a salute of 13 gunshots in the morning and evening in 1777. The town has held the nation's longest running Independence Day celebration. In 1778, George Washington, then a general in the revolutionary army, issued his troops with a double rum ration. The first recorded music commemorating independence was the Pslam of Joy, written by Johann Friedrich Peter in Salem, North Carolina. Many towns and cities across the US have their own annual celebrations. How has the government marked it? Congress made the day an unpaid national holiday for federal workers in 1870, and in 1938 it became a paid holiday across the country. Government officials also take part in celebratory functions and make speeches. How do people celebrate it today? Firework displays and parties are the most well-known activities associated with Independence Day. All major cities have fireworks displays and there is also one given by the White House. As a national holiday, it also serves as an occasion for reunions and vacations. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The US has admitted killing up to 116 civilians with hundreds of drone strikes in countries where it is not officially at war, but the number is a fraction of that recorded by human rights organisations. James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), released figures showing that between 64 and 116 innocent civilians have died in 473 strikes between 2009 and the end of last year. Between 2,372 and 2,581 combatants were killed in the same period according the report, which excluded strikes in areas of active hostilities including Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The totals include those killed in Yemen, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia and other countries where terror groups deemed to be a threat to the US and its interests are active. U.S. drone strike kills AQAP leader in Yemen Recent announcements by US defence officials have revealed strikes on the Taliban in Pakistan, Isis in Libya and al-Shabaab in Somalia. The number is drastically lower than many of the estimates from non-governmental organisations that monitor drone strikes across the world. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) in London, which tracks attacks by US drones, estimates that a maximum of 633 civilian lives have been lost in Pakistan alone since 2009. One man believes he was being mistakenly targeted after surviving four drone strikes that killed his friends and relatives. In an exclusive interview with The Independent, Malik Jalal says he was put on Americas shadowy kill list because of his work with a committee that mediates between local tribes, government agencies and the Taliban in Waziristan. He visited the UK in February to campaign for his own safety but the British Government refused to raise the case with Washington. Under fire from afar: Harrowing exhibition reveals damage done by drones in Pakistan Show all 6 1 /6 Under fire from afar: Harrowing exhibition reveals damage done by drones in Pakistan Under fire from afar: Harrowing exhibition reveals damage done by drones in Pakistan 629349.bin NOOR BEHRAM Under fire from afar: Harrowing exhibition reveals damage done by drones in Pakistan 629348.bin NOOR BEHRAM Under fire from afar: Harrowing exhibition reveals damage done by drones in Pakistan 629347.bin NOOR BEHRAM Under fire from afar: Harrowing exhibition reveals damage done by drones in Pakistan 629346.bin NOOR BEHRAM Under fire from afar: Harrowing exhibition reveals damage done by drones in Pakistan 629345.bin NOOR BEHRAM Under fire from afar: Harrowing exhibition reveals damage done by drones in Pakistan 629344.bin NOOR BEHRAM A lawyer at human rights organisation Reprieve, Jennifer Gibson, said: For three years now, President Obama has been promising to shed light on the CIAs covert drone programme. Today, he had a golden opportunity to do just that. Instead, he chose to do the opposite. He published numbers that are hundreds lower than even the lowest estimates by independent organisations. The only thing those numbers tell us is that this administration simply doesnt know who it has killed. Other groups criticised the lack of a breakdown on incidents or the countries where they took place, or how American intelligence services select their targets in compliance with international law. The numbers reported by the White House simply don't add up, and we're disappointed by that, said Federico Borello, executive director of Centre for Civilians in Conflict in Washington. We're concerned that as more countries gain access to armed drone technology, it's more likely that drones will be used as a first response in conflicts and more likely civilians will pay the price. Pakistani protesters burn a US flag during a protest in Multan on April 22, 2011 against US drone attacks in Pakistani tribal areas (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images) The DNI report is the first of its kind and followed a directive issued by Barack Obama to issue as much information as possible about secretive counter-terror operations around the world. It acknowledged the difference between its figures and those from NGOs but said there were inherent limitations on determining the precise number of deaths, particularly when operating without the permission of authorities on the ground. The US Government may have reliable information that certain individuals are combatants, but are being counted as non-combatants by non-governmental organisations, a spokesperson said. The US Government uses post-strike methodologies that have been refined and honed over the years and that use information that is generally unavailable to NGOs. Seeking to enhance safeguards for civilian protection, the President signed an executive order on Friday that details US policies to limit civilian casualties and publish annual reports on strikes and casualties. But the directive is not necessarily binding on Mr Obamas successor, who could change the policy with an executive order of their own. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Another day, another controversy involving Donald Trump and his Twitter account. On Saturday, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate found himself fighting off allegations of poor taste and even anti-Semitism when he tweeted an image of Hillary Clinton along with a six-pointed Star of David, overlaid on piles of money. Crooked Hillary - makes history, said the tweet, which featured a red star. Below the image was a screenshot of a Fox News poll that asked voters how honest/trustworthy or corrupt they found Ms Clinton. Many critics, including political commentators, were quick to point out the shape of the Star of David, questioning Mr Trumps motive for tweeting such an image. Either Mr Trump or someone from his campaign, later tweeted a new image that featured the same text over a red circle instead of a star. The original tweet and image has since been deleted. 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 In a March speech to AIPAC, the largest pro-Israel lobby in the United States, Mr Trump proclaimed his love for Jewish people and Israel. I love the people in this room, Mr Trump told AIPAC attendees. I love Israel. Ive been with Israel so long in terms of - Ive received some of my greatest honors from Israel. My father before me. Incredible. My daughter Ivanka, is about to have a beautiful Jewish baby. In fact, it could be happening right now, which would be very nice as far as Im concerned. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Six Isis militants have been killed after massacring at least 22 people in an attack on a restaurant in Bangladesh. Police said at least 13 hostages had been freed from the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, where one suspected gunman was captured in a military operation. An Isis-affiliated propaganda agency released photos from inside the restaurant during the raid, appearing to showing the bodies of women and men on the floor in pools of blood. The group released a statement saying Islamic State commandos attacked the restaurant, describing it as frequented by foreigners. Bangladeshi army soldiers during a rescue operation near the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, Bangladesh (AFP/Getty Images) Bangladeshi police would not confirm the terrorists claim to have killed 24 victims and wounded 40, saying that two police officers had died, but a military official later said 20 mostly foreign hostages were also dead. The father of one of the survivors said his son was held hostage for 10 hours. Rezaul Karim told Bangladesh's Daily Star newspaper: The gunmen were doing a background check on religion by asking everyone to recite from the Quran. Those who could recite a verse or two were spared. The others were tortured. Army Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said most of the hostages were "killed mercilessly by sharp weapons" but local reports of beheadings were unconfirmed. The bodies of nine Italians were identified after the attack, foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni said. Seven Japanese people, five men and two women who worked as consultants for the countrys international development agency, were also killed. Bangladeshi security personnel stand guard near the restaurant after it was attacked by gunmen in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, 1 July, 2016 (AP) An Indian teenager was among the hostages murdered, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj said. She named the victim as Tarushi Jain, 19, and said she had attended the city's American School and studied at Berkeley university in the US. Two other victims were from at Emory University in Georgia. Abinta Kabir was a student from Miami who had been visiting her family and friends in Bangladesh. University president James Wagner said that Abinta's mother was in unspeakable pain upon receiving news of the death of her daughter. Faraaz Hossain, from Dhaka, graduated from the universitys Oxford College this year and was moving on to its Goizueta Business School. The Emory community mourns this tragic and senseless loss of two members of our university family, a spokesperson said. Our thoughts and prayers go out on behalf of Faraaz and Abinta and their families and friends for strength and peace at this unspeakably sad time. The White House said an American citizen was killed but did not confirm their identity. Philip Hammond said the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was investigating whether any British citizens were caught up in the "appalling act of violence" and sent his thoughts to the victims and their families. Security personnel keep watch, after gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan restaurant and took hostages, in the Gulshan area of Dhaka, Bangladesh July 2, 2016. (Reuters) Witnesses described up to nine militants shouting Allahu Akbar, meaning God is great as they burst into the Holey Artisan Bakery at 9.20pm local time on Friday (4.20pm BST). A police officer at the scene said that when security forces tried to enter the premises at the beginning of the siege they were met with a hail of bullets and grenades. Assailants exchanged sporadic gunfire with police outside for several hours as negotiators attempted to contact the militants before troops raided the building. Lori Ann Walsh Imdad, principal of the nearby American Standard School, told The Independent: Ive been hearing gunshots all night long and Ive seen people running. Gowher Rizvi, an adviser to Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said the crisis started when security guards in the Gulshan district of Dhaka noticed several gunmen outside a medical centre. People help an injured person after a group of gunmen attacked a restaurant popular with foreigners in Dhaka, Bangladesh (AP) When the guards approached, the gunmen ran into the Holey Artisan cafe, which was packed with people waiting for tables, he said. A cafe employee who escaped told local television that around 20 customers were in the restaurant at the time, most of them foreigners, and 15 to 20 staff. The Holey Artisan Bakery, popular with foreign officials and expatriates, sits in the affluent diplomatic quarter of Bangladeshs capital near the embassies of the US, Turkey, Germany and other nations. Bangladeshis Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, vowed to fight terrorism and urged people with information to come forward. Because of the effort of the joint force, the terrorists could not flee, she said. Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such act. They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism. The restaurant attack marked a major escalation in two years of increasingly frequent atrocities by Islamist militants in Bangladesh, sparking hundreds of arrests. In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Bangladesh attacks In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Hindu ashram worker Nityaranjan Pande, 62, was hacked to death in Pabna on 10 June 2016 AP In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Hindu priest Anando Gopal Ganguly, left, was murdered in Jhenidah in Bangladesh on 7 June 2016 EPA In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Mahmuda Khanam Mitu, wife of the Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, was murdered in Chittagong, Bangladesh on 5 June 2016 EPA In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh Students Union arranged a torch procession in protest over recent murders of free thinkers in Dhaka NurPhoto In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Murdered gay rights activist Xulhaz Mannan, who was editor at Bangladeshs only LGBT magazine Rex In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks A Bangladeshi policeman stands guard at the site of the murder of a law student, hacked to death by four assailants the night before, in Dhaka on April 7, 2016 AFP/Getty In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks People have protested against the murders around the world, seen here in Kolkata AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks A relative of dead Bangladeshi blogger Washiqur Rahman reacts after seeing his body at Dhaka Medical College in Dhaka on March 30 AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks People gather on the spot where Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy was killed in a street in Dhaka (EPA) EPA In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Bangladeshi social activists shout slogans during a protest against the killing Avijit Roy in Dhaka on February 27, 2015 AFP/Getty Images A string of machete attacks have been claimed by Isis, al-Qaeda and local groups, targeting secular writers, LGBT activists and religious minorities among others, with the latest victim being a Hindu priest hacked to death at a temple in Jhenaidah on Friday. Bangladeshi authorities have persistently denied Isis or al-Qaeda have a presence in the country, sparking warnings from counter-terror monitors including the Site Intelligence Group, which urged the government to face the truth. Security officials say two local militant groups, Ansar-al-Islam and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, are responsible for the violence. Isis announced its presence in the country late last year and analysts believe they are recruiting from pre-existing extremist groups who have been carrying out attacks since 2013. It has been increasingly advertising its alleged expansion into the country through official propaganda channels, with two large features on the subject in a recent issue of its English language magazine. Calling the faction its Bengal province, Isis has celebrated several machete attacks and vowed to continue targeting Shia and Ahmadi Muslims, crusaders, Hindus and missionaries. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A mosque in north Burma has been burned down by an out-of-control mob the second attack on a Muslim place of worship in the predominantly Buddhist nation in just over a week. Attackers armed with sticks, knives and other weapons demolished the prayer hall in the town of Hpakant on Friday. Security forces were unable to control the mob, which tore down the building and set it alight, according to state-owned newspaper the Global New Light of Myanmar. This is the second religious attack of its kind in recent days after a group of men demolished a mosque and a Muslim cemetery in a village in the central Bago region, north east of Yangon, on 23 June. According to the newspaper, the most recent attack was in reaction to a dispute between mosque leaders and local authorities, who had ordered the religious structure to be taken down to make way for the construction of a bridge. A deadline of 30 June was set for the mosques demolition, but when this was not met, local people reportedly descended on the mosque to take the matter into their own hands. The site of the destroyed mosque in Hpakant in north Burma (Myanmar News Agency) An investigation into the incident has been launched, but so far police have not been able to identify any of the attackers. News of the mosques destruction broke as the UN urged the Burmese government to crack down on religious violence in the country. "It is clear that tensions along religious lines remain pervasive across Myanmar society," said UN special human rights envoy Yanghee Lee in a statement on Friday. "Incidents of hate speech, incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence, and of religious intolerance continue to be a cause for concern." Sporadic but fierce violence against Muslims in Burma has occurred since rioting in 2012 forced more than 100,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority to flee their homes in the western Rakhine State. Discrimination against the Rohingya is widespread and the government refuses to recognize most as citizens, treating even long-term residents as illegal immigrants. In pictures: Burma migrants abandoned at sea Show all 8 1 /8 In pictures: Burma migrants abandoned at sea In pictures: Burma migrants abandoned at sea Myanmar migrants Rohingya migrants swim to collect food supplies dropped by a Thai army helicopter after they jumped from a boat (R) drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman sea In pictures: Burma migrants abandoned at sea Myanmar migrants Rohingya migrants pass food supplies dropped by a Thai army helicopter to others aboard a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman sea In pictures: Burma migrants abandoned at sea Myanmar migrants A Rohingya migrant eats food dropped by a Thai army helicopter after he jumped to collect the supplies at sea from a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman sea. A boat crammed with scores of Rohingya migrants, including many young children, was found drifting in Thai waters, with passengers saying several people had died over the last few days In pictures: Burma migrants abandoned at sea Myanmar migrants Rohingya migrants stand and sit on a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman sea In pictures: Burma migrants abandoned at sea Myanmar migrants Rohingya migrants stand and sit on a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman sea In pictures: Burma migrants abandoned at sea Myanmar migrants A Rohingya migrant eats food dropped by a Thai army helicopter after he jumped to collect supplies at sea from a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman sea In pictures: Burma migrants abandoned at sea Myanmar migrants Rohingya migrants bring back food supplies dropped by a Thai army helicopter after jumping to collect them at sea from a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman sea In pictures: Burma migrants abandoned at sea Myanmar migrants A Rohingya migrant woman holding a child cries as she stands on a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman sea Ms Lee expressed specific concern over attacks on religious properties, recommending the government take prompt action over the 23 June incident. It is vital that the government take prompt action, including by conducting thorough investigations and holding perpetrators to account, she said. I am therefore concerned by reports that the government will not pursue action in the most recent case due to fears of fueling greater tensions and provoking more conflict. This is precisely the wrong signal to send. Human rights groups have criticized Burmas leader Aung San Suu Kyi for failing to act decisively against the extremists encouraging the attacks. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The Isis fighters who massacred at least 22 people at a cafe in Bangladesh ordered hostages to recite verses from the Quran and tortured anyone who could not, it has emerged. The father of one of the survivors said his son was held hostage for 12 hours after being separated from the foreign victims. Rezaul Karim told Bangladesh's Daily Star newspaper: The gunmen were doing a background check on religion by asking everyone to recite from the Quran. Twenty hostages killed in Bangladesh cafe attack Those who could recite a verse or two were spared. The others were tortured. An Isis-affiliated propaganda agency released photos from inside the restaurant during the raid, appearing to showing the bodies of women and men on the floor in pools of blood by overturned tables and chairs. Mr Karim said that Bangladeshi nationals who were able to say selected passages of the Muslim holy book were treated well and given food. His son Hasnat was among 13 hostages freed after armed police and Bangladeshi troops raided the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe on Saturday morning. Army Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said most of the hostages were killed mercilessly by sharp weapons but local reports of beheadings were unconfirmed. Security personnel keep watch, after gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan restaurant and took hostages, in the Gulshan area of Dhaka, Bangladesh July 2, 2016. (Reuters) The so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, saying its commandos targeted the restaurant because it was frequented by Crusaders a term it uses to refer to foreigners mostly from the West. A statement from the group said it had identified and spared Muslims during the atrocity - a tactic previously used by al-Qaeda. Its propaganda agency published photos of the five militants who carried out the atrocity, all dressed in black with Arab-style headscarves, smiling with assault rifles in front of the Isis flag. Isis gave all the men war names ending al-Bengali, indicating that they were from Bangladesh. The eulogies, similar to those following the Paris attacks, suggested the terror group was involved in planning for the attack and training the gunmen. The claim conflicted with police accounts that at least seven attackers were involved, saying six gunmen had been killed and one captured. The reason for the discrepancy was unclear. Witnesses described up to nine militants shouting Allahu Akbar, meaning God is great as they burst into the Holey Artisan Bakery at 9.20pm local time on Friday (4.20pm BST). Police said that when security forces tried to enter the premises at the beginning of the siege they were met with a hail of bullets and grenades, killing two officers. Assailants exchanged sporadic gunfire with police outside for several hours as negotiators attempted to contact the militants before troops raided the building, finding the bodies of 20 hostages inside. A cafe employee who escaped told local television that around 20 customers were in the restaurant at the time, most of them foreigners, and 15 to 20 staff. The Holey Artisan Bakery, popular with foreign officials and expatriates, sits in the affluent diplomatic quarter of Bangladeshs capital near the embassies of the US, Turkey, Germany and other nations. The bodies of nine Italians were identified after the attack, foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni said. Seven Japanese people, five men and two women who worked as consultants for the countrys international development agency, were also killed. People help an injured person after a group of gunmen attacked a restaurant popular with foreigners in Dhaka, Bangladesh (AP) An Indian teenager was among the hostages murdered, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj said. She named the victim as Tarushi Jain, 19, and said she had attended the city's American School and studied at Berkeley university in the US. Two other victims were from at Emory University in Georgia. Abinta Kabir was a student from Miami who had been visiting her family and friends in Bangladesh. Faraaz Hossain, from Dhaka, graduated from the universitys Oxford College this year and was moving on to its Goizueta Business School. The Emory community mourns this tragic and senseless loss of two members of our university family, a spokesperson said. The US State Department confirmed that an American citizen had been senselessly murdered but did not give any further details. This is a despicable act of terrorism, and the United States stands with Bangladesh and the international community in our resolve to confront terrorism wherever it occurs, spokesperson John Kirby said. In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Bangladesh attacks In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Hindu ashram worker Nityaranjan Pande, 62, was hacked to death in Pabna on 10 June 2016 AP In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Hindu priest Anando Gopal Ganguly, left, was murdered in Jhenidah in Bangladesh on 7 June 2016 EPA In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Mahmuda Khanam Mitu, wife of the Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, was murdered in Chittagong, Bangladesh on 5 June 2016 EPA In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh Students Union arranged a torch procession in protest over recent murders of free thinkers in Dhaka NurPhoto In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Murdered gay rights activist Xulhaz Mannan, who was editor at Bangladeshs only LGBT magazine Rex In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks A Bangladeshi policeman stands guard at the site of the murder of a law student, hacked to death by four assailants the night before, in Dhaka on April 7, 2016 AFP/Getty In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks People have protested against the murders around the world, seen here in Kolkata AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks A relative of dead Bangladeshi blogger Washiqur Rahman reacts after seeing his body at Dhaka Medical College in Dhaka on March 30 AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks People gather on the spot where Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy was killed in a street in Dhaka (EPA) EPA In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Bangladeshi social activists shout slogans during a protest against the killing Avijit Roy in Dhaka on February 27, 2015 AFP/Getty Images Philip Hammond said the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was investigating whether any British citizens were caught up in the appalling act of violence and sent his thoughts to the victims and their families. The restaurant attack marked a major escalation in two years of increasingly frequent atrocities by Islamist militants in Bangladesh, sparking hundreds of arrests. A string of machete attacks have been claimed by Isis, al-Qaeda and local groups, targeting secular writers, LGBT activists and religious minorities among others, with the latest victim being a Hindu priest hacked to death at a temple in Jhenaidah on Friday. Bangladeshi authorities have persistently denied Isis or al-Qaeda have a presence in the country, sparking warnings from counter-terror monitors including the Site Intelligence Group, which urged the government to face the truth. Security officials say two local militant groups, Ansar-al-Islam and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, are responsible for the violence. Isis announced its presence in the country late last year and analysts believe they are recruiting from pre-existing extremist groups who have been carrying out attacks since 2013 For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The strongman president of the Philippines has told people to go ahead and kill drug addicts. Former lawyer Rodrigo Duterte was only sworn in at the end of June but has already incited the killing of large numbers of criminals, in particular drug traffickers. The controversial figure is known for his hardline stance on crime, with his favoured position to simply kill people he regards as lawbreakers. During his time as mayor of Davao city, once crime ridden but now peaceful, he gained a reputation for being involved in extra-judicial killings. Recommended Read more Philippines president vows to bring back executions and shoot to kill It appears his presidency could be marked by the same trait. Just after his inauguration, he told an audience in a Manila slum: If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful. Drug dealers are also in Mr Dutertes sights. In a separate engagement, he said: These sons of whores are destroying our children. I warn you, dont go into that, even if youre a policeman, because I will really kill you. Hundreds of drug addicts and pushers have recently surrendered to authorities, concerned they would be killed in an imminent crackdown, officials have told the media. In recent weeks, dozens of suspected drug dealers have been killed, either in reported gun battles with police or under mysterious circumstances. On 1 July, 10 drug dealers were killed separately in gunfights with police in Bulacan province, north of Manila, as the nationwide crackdown commenced, according to police. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty In another dramatic move against the illegal drug trade, Mr Duterte has urged communist rebels with whom he plans to engage in peace talks to kill drug traffickers. Referencing the extra judicial procedures some communist groups conduct, he said: Drugs have reached the hinterlands ... what if you use your kangaroo courts to kill them to speed up the solution to our problem? The new president has alarmed rights groups with his brash and foul mouthed rhetoric of killing but has maintained he will not become a dictator. He has told the police he is not afraid of being impeached by Congress while fighting crime, and assured officers he would protect them if they kill large numbers of people while cracking down on lawlessness. Rodrigo Duterte sworn in as president of Philippines "Do your duty," Mr Duterte told an audience of police officers. "If in the process you kill 1,000 persons because you were doing your duty ... I will protect you, and if they will try to impeach me, I will hurry up the process and we go out of the service together." The president was inaugurated on Thursday in austere rites at Manila's Malacanan presidential palace after winning power on a promise to eradicate crime and corruption in three to six months. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Soldiers in the Philippines have recovered a body believed to belong to Canadian hostage Robert Hall. Mr Hall was executed in June by the extremist group Abu Sayyaf, who have pledged allegiance to Isis. Locals led government troops to a hinterland near Kamuntayan village in Sulu province's Talipao town where the militants apparently buried Mr Hall's body after executing him on 13 June. Mr Hall's head was found separately from his body outside a Roman Catholic cathedral, regional military spokesman Major Filemon Tan said. Though forensic experts are yet to confirm the finding, Major Tan said it was very likely the body was that of Mr Hall, and cited intelligence reports and help from villagers. 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 Mr Hall was kidnapped along with fellow Canadian John Ridsdel, Norwegian Kjartan Sikkengstad and Filipina Marites Flor in September 2015 in a yacht-berthing resort on Samal Island, also in the south of the country. The group were taken by boat to Sulu, a predominantly Muslim and impoverished province 590 miles south of Manila. Mr Ridsdel was beheaded in April, Mr Sikkengstad remains a hostage and Ms Flor has been freed. A deadline for ransom - that was not met by the Canadian government - expired two weeks ago. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the killings and called on other nations not to pay ransoms if their citizens are abducted, to discourage the militants from carrying out more ransom kidnappings. The Abu Sayyaf group, which has more than 400 armed fighters and aims to create an independent Islamic territory in the Philippines, is blacklisted by the Filipino government and the United States as a terrorist group. There have been a number of kidnappings perpetrated by Abu Sayyaf and victims have included Western tourists, journalists, NGO employees and Malaysian and Indonesian workers. The group has also committed a number of bombing attacks, including one that caused the sinking of SuperFerry 14 in 2004, killing 116 people. It remains the worst ever terrorist attack at sea. Philippine troops have also been killed fighting the group, but a recent offensive has killed dozens of militants in Sulu. The group has been weakened by years of military setbacks, but they remain a national security threat. Associated Press contributed to this report For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Voters are opting against selecting one of the official candidates in Australia's federal election by instead casting their ballot for killed gorilla Harambe. Following the country's longest election campaign since 1984, a number of social media users suggested they were unwilling to choose either current prime minister Malcolm Turnbull or leader of the opposition Bill Shorten. They posted images online of ballot cards on which they appeared to have drawn an extra box alongside references to either Harambe, the ape who was fatally shot by zoo workers in May, or simply "the gorilla who died". There was an outpouring of grief worldwide when the popular primate was killed at Cincinatti Zoo in Ohio on after a young boy fell into his cage and the gorilla began dragging him around the enclosure. Harambe has since become a popular talking point among Australians on social media - with many tweeting about him and urging others to vote for the gorilla on their ballot in the 2016 federal election. Casey Briggs, a journalist in Australia, told The Independent: Harambe is beloved and so he's become a write-in candidate. It's a secret ballot, so I'm not sharing who I vote for. But I can say that not a day goes by when I don't reflect and despair on the ruthless and senseless killing of Harambe. When asked whether he considered the gorilla's death to be more important than the election, Mr Briggs said: Of course it is. Everyone loves Harambe. Who doesn't love Harambe?" An Australian Twitter user known as "Hedge" told The Independent the drive to vote for Harambe has grown out of anger at the Government for not doing anough to prevent the animal's death. He said: "I think we Aussies feel our government should have done more to save Harambe and now we're voting for his corpse." Nearly 15.5 million people were going to the polls on Saturday in Australia, where voting is compulsory. During the campaign, the government and the opposition Labor party have clashed over the economy, healthcare, immigration and same-sex marriage. Having seen five prime mininsterial changes in just over five years, Australian voters are widely perceived to be lacking enthusiasm for national politics. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Paris has launched its latest drive to reduce air pollution by introducing a ban against dirty vehicles built before 1997. The rule, which is expected to affect around 10 per cent of cars in the city, is set to be enforced against any car registered before 1 January 1997 within the citys streets from Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm. Classic cars, built more than 30 years ago, will be exempt. Restrictions will become tighter over the decade until 2020, when the only private vehicles allowed to drive in central Paris will be cars registered after 2011 and motorcycles registered after July 2015, according to French media reports. Air pollution, largely caused by fuel emissions, kills 48,000 people each year in France and around 3.7 million worldwide, according to Frances public health agency. A report from the French Senate last year estimated air pollution costs the country 100 billion (84 billion) each year. Drivers who ignore the ban will face fines of 35 (32), with the fine set to rise significantly from the end of 2016. Around half a million vehicle owners around Paris will be hit by the ban, according to a driver defence group 40 million dAutomobilistes, which is seeking financial compensation for the loss of value of the now-banned vehicles. Owners reportedly protested the move by parking their vehicles near the National Assembly and Champs Elysees. Earlier this year, Paris introduced a monthly ban on cars along the Champs-Elysees under new environmental plans. Anne Hidalgo, the city's mayor, said: "Every foreign tourist who comes to Paris naturally wants to visit the Champs-Elysees. But we want to bring Parisians back to this emblematic place which belongs to them. "When you walk on the avenue without the din of traffic, you rediscover perspective, the facades, the scenery." Flood warnings in Paris as the Seine rises Show all 10 1 / 10 Flood warnings in Paris as the Seine rises Flood warnings in Paris as the Seine rises The swelling banks of the river Seine have caused the Orsay Museum to close Getty Images / Xavier Laine Flood warnings in Paris as the Seine rises High waters next to Notre-Dame cathedral Getty Images Flood warnings in Paris as the Seine rises Houseboats moored near the Pont Alexandre III bridge following heavy rainfalls Getty Images Flood warnings in Paris as the Seine rises The rise in water has been twice as fast as the city's planning models predicted, based on statistics from 1910 REUTERS Flood warnings in Paris as the Seine rises Padlocks clipped by lovers in front of the 'Ile de la Cite' flooded by the River Seine in central Paris REUTERS Flood warnings in Paris as the Seine rises A man uses a footbridge as he leaves his houseboat moored near the Eiffel tower REUTERS Flood warnings in Paris as the Seine rises The waters of the Seine River flow out of its banks at the tip of the Ile Saint Louis REUTERS Flood warnings in Paris as the Seine rises People stand on the Pont de l'Alma as they look at the Zouave statue covered by the rising waters from the Seine River after days of rainy weather in Paris REUTERS Flood warnings in Paris as the Seine rises View of the flooded river-side of the River Seine near the Bir-Hakeim bridge in Paris REUTERS Flood warnings in Paris as the Seine rises The Eiffel tower in Paris, France, after days of almost non-stop rain caused flooding in the country REUTERS Norway is planning to ban petrol and diesel-fuelled cars from 2025 and several cities in Europe are testing various anti-pollution measures. Berlin was the first city to ban pollution-heavy older vehicles back in 2008. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A gunman has shot five people dead and wounded many more after opening fire in a cafe in Serbia. Police said the man was armed with an illegal weapon when he burst into the Makijato bar in Zitiste in the early hours of Saturday morning. Witnesses told Serbia's state broadcaster that the attacker saw his wife with a group of friends, left and returned with an assault rifle at around 1.40am (00.40am BST). He just pulled out a gun and started shooting, first into the air, said witness Svetozar Manojlovic. The crime scene after a shooting at Makijato bar in Zitiste (Reuters) It sounded like firecrackers at first. Then the guy next to me fell down and others started falling down. It was total chaos. Gordana Kozlovacki, the director of the hospital in the nearby town of Zrenjanin, said 22 people were treated after the shooting. Seven remained in a serious condition and at least three were believed to be children. Ljubomir Milinovic, who owns the cafe, said people did not immediately understand what was happening on a busy summer night. It was horrible, people were screaming and there was blood everywhere, he added. We immediately started rushing people to the hospital and ambulances soon arrived. Serbian interior minister, Nebojsa Stefanovic, said patrons managed to wrestle the weapon from the man's hands. 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 He told B92 television that the gunman had murdered his estranged wife and another woman before firing randomly, adding: Jealousy could be a motive. He was a quiet man; he had no criminal record. The suspect, identified by the initials ZS, was arrested immediately after the attack around 50 miles north of the capital Belgrade. Following the Balkans wars, Serbia and neighbouring countries have been awash with hundreds or thousands of illegal firearms. On Friday, Serbias national police started an amnesty for people to surrender the weapons running until November. In 2013, 13 people died in a shooting spree in a village near Belgrade, and last year six people were killed in a dispute over a wedding in northern Serbia. Five British teenagers were caught up in a gun battle in neighbouring Bulgaria last month. They were drinking at Sunny Beach in Burgas when shooting broke out between rival gangs, killing a bodyguard and leaving a notorious crime lord in a critical condition. Additional reporting by agencies An unknown number of Italians were among hostages who were killed after suspected Islamist militants attacked an upmarket cafe in the Bangladeshi capital on Friday night, a source at Italy's foreign ministry said on Saturday. The gunmen, shouting "Allahu Akbar", attacked the Dhaka cafe and killed 20 people inside before police stormed the building on Saturday and rescued 13 hostages, Bangladesh officials said. Seven Italians were in the cafe when the attack started, including several working in Bangladesh in the garment industry, Italian media have reported. Search Keywords: Short link: Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The FBI is being sued by survivors of the deadly attack on a church in Charleston who say that mistakes by investigators allowed alleged shooter Dylann Roof to purchase a gun. Nine people were killed in June 2015 as they attended a bible study at the Emanuel AME Church in the South Carolina city. Dylann Roof, 22, a white supremacist, has been charged with nine counts of murder over the shootings and he faces the death penalty if convicted. In a lawsuit filed by three people who survived the attack and the estates of five of those who died, the FBI is accused of being negligent when it carried out a background check of Mr Roof before he bought the gun last year. If the agency had done its job, Mr Roofs prior arrest for drugs would have shown up, and the bureau would have denied his request to purchase a handgun, the lawsuits allege. Lawyer Andy Savage said on Friday that his clients hoped the litigation would lead to improvements in gun safety. In this case, you had an unqualified purchaser that slipped through the cracks, Mr Savage told the Associated Press. And the result is what happened on June 17. USA: Church shooting survivor gives emotional statement to Dylann Roof in court Justice Department spokesman Patrick Rodenbush declined to comment on the pending litigation. The shootings by a young white man of nine black parishioners who had welcomed him to their church renewed debates about race relations in the US. In the aftermath of the attack, a racist online manifesto authored by Mr Roof was discovered, along with images of him posing with Confederate flags and at locations from the US Civil War. The shooting led to the removal of the battle flag long considered a symbol of enduring racism removed from government offices and universities. Law enforcement agencies have acknowledged since last summer that mistakes were made involving Mr Roofs April 2015 gun purchase. FBI Director James Comey has said the transaction should have been denied, and he promised a full review. Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon told the AP that a jail clerk entered incorrect information for Mr Roofs February 2015 drug arrest, and that while the mistake was noticed within days, it was not fixed in a state database. In pictures: Images attached to Dylann Storm Roof 'manifesto' Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Images attached to Dylann Storm Roof 'manifesto' In pictures: Images attached to Dylann Storm Roof 'manifesto' Dylann Storm Roof 'Manifesto' pictures Dylann Storm Roof poses with a gun In pictures: Images attached to Dylann Storm Roof 'manifesto' Dylann Storm Roof 'Manifesto' pictures Dylann Storm Roof spitting on the American flag In pictures: Images attached to Dylann Storm Roof 'manifesto' Dylann Storm Roof 'Manifesto' pictures Dylann Storm Roof poses with a confederate flag and a gun In pictures: Images attached to Dylann Storm Roof 'manifesto' Dylann Storm Roof 'Manifesto' pictures Dylann Storm Roof poses with a gun In pictures: Images attached to Dylann Storm Roof 'manifesto' Dylann Storm Roof 'Manifesto' pictures Dylann Storm Roof outside the 'Museum and Library of Confederate History' In pictures: Images attached to Dylann Storm Roof 'manifesto' Dylann Storm Roof 'Manifesto' pictures The number 1488 is often associated with neo-Nazi culture In pictures: Images attached to Dylann Storm Roof 'manifesto' Dylann Storm Roof 'Manifesto' pictures Dylann Storm Roof In pictures: Images attached to Dylann Storm Roof 'manifesto' Dylann Storm Roof 'Manifesto' pictures Dylann Storm Roof In pictures: Images attached to Dylann Storm Roof 'manifesto' Dylann Storm Roof 'Manifesto' pictures In pictures: Images attached to Dylann Storm Roof 'manifesto' Dylann Storm Roof 'Manifesto' pictures Dylann Storm Roof So when Mr Roof sought to buy the gun two months later, an FBI examiner spotted the arrest, but called the wrong agency to get his record. Without the necessary documents, the purchase had to go through. Congress has limited federal background checks to three days, although states can extend this window. South Carolina legislators filed a number of bills to increase the window after the shootings, but none have advanced. The Senate Judiciary chairman ultimately promised a hearing this summer, but it still has not been scheduled. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Intensive Syrian air strikes have killed at least 30 civilians in a Damascan suburb town northeast of the city a day after the reported execution of a Syrian air force pilot, a monitor and rebels said. They said the raids targeted a medical centre, a school and a residential area in Jayrud town, a heavily populated area that struck a local truce with the army that had spared it the heavy bombing on other rebel held areas. It had made it a sanctuary for thousands of civilians fleeing heavy battles nearby. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said scores were also injured in the aerial strikes as well as shelling from army posts in the area. A rebel spokesman said the strikes seemed to be in revenge for the killing of a Syrian air force pilot who parachuted down near the town after his plane crashed on Friday. "The strikes against civilians are in retaliation against the execution of the pilot by Nusra Front," said Said Seif al Qalamoni from the Free Syrian Army's (FSA) Shahid Ahmad Abdo brigade that operates in Jayrud alongside the al Qaeda's Nusra Front and other groups. Rebels in a joint operations room targeted a main army base in the region with Russian-made surface to surface missiles after the aerial strikes, al Qalamoni said. Syrian state media said the crash was due to a technical fault and the pilot had ejected, while the rebel group Jaish al-Islam said it had shot down the plane, but did not say how. Jaish al Islam said the pilot was arrested and was subsequently killed by a fighter from the Nusra Front while being held at a joint command centre. Palmyra recaptured by Syrian government forces Show all 10 1 /10 Palmyra recaptured by Syrian government forces Palmyra recaptured by Syrian government forces Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Graffiti on the ancient stones reads in Arabic Shooting without the permission of the chief is prohibited Getty Palmyra recaptured by Syrian government forces Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Damaged artefacts lay inside the museum of the historic city of Palmyra Reuters Palmyra recaptured by Syrian government forces Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Syrian pro-government forces rest by Palmyra Citadel as they take control of the city from the hands of Isis Getty Palmyra recaptured by Syrian government forces Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces The UNESCO world heritage site appears surprisingly intact after its recapture from the militant group Getty Palmyra recaptured by Syrian government forces Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Many had feared the ancient city would be destroyed following its capture by Isis in May Getty Palmyra recaptured by Syrian government forces Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Smoke billows from the Palmyra Citadel as Assads forces drive the Jihadist group from the city Getty Palmyra recaptured by Syrian government forces Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Palmyra is one of the most important cultural centers of the world Unesco says Getty Palmyra recaptured by Syrian government forces Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Pro-government forces play football in the streets following the recapture of the city Getty Palmyra recaptured by Syrian government forces Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces The extent of the destruction caused by Isis 10 month occupation of the city has yet to be fully realised Getty Palmyra recaptured by Syrian government forces Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces The City Council of Palmyra building in ruins Reuters The army had warned of a strong response after the execution of the pilot was reported shortly after he was shown on a rebel video circulated on social media giving details of his mission. Separately, Russian and Syrian planes intensified their bombing on Saturday of a strategic rebel-held area of Aleppo that is near the only route into opposition-held parts of the northern city. If the Malah area were to fall to the army and its allies they would succeed in laying siege to areas where over 400,000 people live under rebel control. Reuters Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Q I live under the flight path for Heathrow and would be affected by aircraft noise if a third runway is built. Presumably the whole basis of the Davies Commission is now fatally flawed, and as we wont be an EU hub we probably wont need to expand Heathrow? Name withheld A Sir Howard Davies Airports Commission reported a year ago, and concluded that a third runway at Heathrow was urgently needed. The final report also shortlisted two other credible options for expansion in south-east England: a second runway at Gatwick, and an extended northern runway at Heathrow the so-called Heathrow Hub. The unspoken assumption in the forecasts used was that the UK would remain a member of the European Union, with all the benefits that brings in terms of aviation notably the freedom to fly between any two points in the EU, and access to the United States. Now that we are to leave the EU, it is perfectly reasonable to question the validity of those forecasts. If, as some suggest, big business moves out of London and the economy is badly hit, Heathrow (and London City) could see a drop in demand by passengers. Leavers would say though, that any downturn would be temporary and that in fact trade and air transport will intensify once we are free of the shackles of Europe. Whichever side turns out to be right, it is still difficult to argue that London does not need extra capacity. The capital has the busiest single-runway airport (Gatwick) and two-runway airport (Heathrow) in the world, by some distance. While Gatwick has some room to grow, any slot that becomes available at Heathrow is hungrily snapped up. Furthermore, if the UK is going into recession, a privately-financed project creating jobs and bring in billions of pounds in investment may be all the more prized. So expect an announcement within about a month of the new Prime Minister taking over. Every day, our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a readers question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder Archbishop Eamon Martin commemorated the shared sacrifice with Protestants during a short memorial ceremony in the village of Guillemont Ireland's Archbishop Eamon Martin has said prayers on the spot where Irish troops died at the Somme as he urged Catholics to remember the First World War. The Irish primate commemorated the shared sacrifice with Protestants during a short memorial ceremony in the village of Guillemont at a stone Celtic cross commemorating the 16th Irish Division which fought a century ago. Thousands of soldiers from across Ireland died or were wounded at the Somme as part of the British Army. The first day, July 1 1916, was the bloodiest in British military history. Archbishop Martin said: "In remembering the horrors of the war a century ago it helps us to redouble our efforts towards building peace, healing and reconciliation. "I know that we have gone our separate ways in many ways over the last decades in Ireland and the more recent conflicts have tended to divide us and we don't realise the shared narrative that there is in the sacrifice of those men in the First World War. "So I am hoping that being here myself will give a signal to Catholics that it is okay for them to remember the First World War and I am hoping that it will also open up the Protestant community to realise that many Catholics died side by side with their ancestors here on these fields of France." The 16th Irish Division went into battle on September 3 at Guillemont. The area was badly shelled throughout 1916 and was full of broken trenches and shell holes and very difficult to attack over, chairman of the Somme Association Alan McFarland said. A total of 1,147 soldiers were lost out of the 2,400 who attacked. Private Thomas Hughes of Castleblayney in Co Monaghan was awarded the Victoria Cross after he was wounded and went back into battle and single-handedly took out a German machine gun position and captured four German soldiers. A few days later in a neighbouring village the Irish Division lost Professor Tom Kettle, an MP and noted poet who favoured Irish Home Rule. Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt and council delegations from Lisburn and Portadown were among those who gathered for the service. The Last Post and Reveille bugle calls were sounded and a piper played a lament before poppy wreaths were laid by the Somme Association, military figures and a series of local councils. The Royal Irish Regiment (RIR) provided a ceremonial guard of honour. Mr Nesbitt said the service commemorated men from Londonderry, the mainly Catholic Falls Road in Belfast and all over the island of Ireland. "It reminds me as we struggle to create a shared future that we actually have the example of a shared past, of service and sacrifice. "Of sacrifice in almost unimaginable numbers, not just the 36th Ulster Division, not just the Protestants and unionists from the north-east of Ireland but from all over the island who came here and fought and died together." George Osborne buried his cherished plan to run an absolute budget surplus by 2020 yesterday, as the storm clouds hanging over the British economy in the wake of the last week's fateful referendum result closed in further. In an ominous sign for Ireland, the British economy is widely expected to slow down rapidly in the wake of last week's vote for Brexit, and possibly slide into another recession, something that would undermine tax revenues and make it impossible for the government to balance the books in four years' time in the absence of further spending cuts or tax rises. This prompted Mr Osborne to jettison the deficit reduction goal, which he had made his personal totem. Read more: UK consumers drew down record debts in month before poll "The referendum result is as expected likely to lead to a significant negative shock for the British economy," the chancellor said in a speech to the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce. "How we respond will determine the impact on people's jobs and on economic growth. The Bank of England can support demand. The government must provide fiscal credibility, so we will continue to be tough on the deficit but we must be realistic about achieving a surplus by the end of this decade". The chancellor's climb-down came as signs grew that businesses are forestalling investment and shifting some operations out of the UK, just as was warned by the Remain camp in the referendum campaign. Easyjet said it is looking into relocating its headquarters out of Luton in order to diminish the risk the budget airline might not be able, in future, to operate flights across the Continent. That followed a similar announcement earlier in the week from Vodafone. A new poll by the Institute of Directors suggests one in five firms are now considering moving some of their operations outside Britain. Official figures this week showed that business investment has been falling for the past two quarters and this is strongly expected to worsen still further given the uncertainty created by the referendum vote. The chancellor's move on the surplus came as little surprise. The bookies' favourite for the Tory leadership race, Theresa May, had already announced earlier this week she would not stick to the controversial surplus target if elected. And the Office for Budget Responsibility had already said in March there was a significant chance it would not be hit. Read more: Markets stage Brexit bounce, but analysts warn of further slumps During the referendum campaign Mr Osborne came in for ferocious criticism for arguing that a Leave vote would be followed by an instant austerity budget to repair the economic damage. Economists said such additional austerity would merely deepen any downturn, hitting tax revenues further and thus proving counterproductive in terms of repairing the public finances. Pro-Leave politicians said the Mr Osborne was attempting to scare the public into casting a Remain vote, and 57 Conservative MPs said they would vote down any such "punishment budget" if enacted. But Mr Osborne retreated from this promise, in any case, on Monday when he said that there would be no new fiscal statement until the autumn. Meanwhile, the head of the EU's executive vented frustration yesterday at calls for deep reforms to reinvent the EU after Brexit, saying there were no proposals on what exact changes were needed to safeguard European integration. The comments by Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the European Commission, highlight the vulnerable spot the EU has found itself in after the shock British vote. "Everyone is saying 'We need more reforms'. Nobody is saying what kind of reforms we would need in addition to those which are under way, including some initiatives we have taken in the field of the social dimension of the internal market." Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers speaking in Belfast in the wake of Brexit. Photo: PA It was the day after the night before and ostensibly little had changed. On the A1/N1 Belfast road crossing the Border last Friday, there was little sign you were travelling across the new frontier between the European Union and the United Kingdom. It's a route that I know well, as I cross the Border several times a week by car or on the train. I am one of an estimated 25,000 people whose primary residence is in Northern Ireland but work in the Republic. Similarly, thousands of people from the Republic work in Northern Ireland, with many of them travelling from Co Donegal to Derry. These workers have benefited from one of the four cornerstones of the single market: free movement of people. It's hardly surprising then that Border constituencies in the North voted heavily in favour of remaining in the EU. So what now? The general impression after the shock at the Brexit vote had subsided was uncertainty. If anyone had a plan in London, Brussels, Dublin or Belfast, they certainly haven't revealed it. The only immediate and tangible impact for cross-border workers is that sterling's value has dipped but currency fluctuations are nothing new. The rest is up in the air but it is unlikely that customs posts and visas will return. This would surely be impractical and a retrograde step both north and south. A simple example would be the main route from Donegal to Dublin, which cuts across the Border twice through Co Fermanagh. Uncertainty, though, is corrosive. For Northern Ireland, which has been unstable to greater and lesser degrees for most of its existence, uncertainty looms over its relationship with its largest trading partner and neighbour, the Republic. The uncertainty comes at a time when a stable, devolved administration had finally seemed to have been put in place following a rapprochement between the DUP and Sinn Fein. Some unionists who were rejoicing at the result of the vote may live to regret this if the UK is destabilised by a surge in Scottish and potentially English nationalism. Furthermore, a clear majority in Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU but will now be forced against their will to leave. Another impact could be on foreign direct investment, which Stormont had hoped to target with a cut in corporation tax. The North may be a less attractive destination now that it will potentially no longer have direct access to a single market of 500 million people. However, as Britain grapples with its relationship with Europe and internal fissures exposed by the referendum vote, it seems ironic that the political debate in Northern Ireland, too often shrill, has been relatively calm compared with the rest of the UK. In the meantime, life will go on and possibly not much will change in the short term apart from a surge in people from Northern Ireland, including unionists, applying for Irish (EU) passports. Thousands of people will continue to cross the border to work. But lingering in the background will be the uncertainty over what lies ahead. Brexit is having an immediate impact on the career plans of some post-graduate students and academics in Ireland Britain's planned exit from the European Union has triggered a rethink among some who have a career or doctorate degree study offer for a British university. The Irish Federation of University Teachers' general secretary Mike Jennings said his office had received a number of calls this week from "worried" PhD students and lecturers due to make a move. The UK has traditionally been an attractive option for post-graduate students from Ireland or those interested in pursing an academic career, because of the scale of opportunity and the prestigious reputations of some of its universities. Mr Jennings said some of the callers to whom he spoke were at the point of giving in their notice and were now concerned about the risk of taking up a position in the UK. Among the concerns of callers is the potential threat to research funding for British universities if they are operating outside the EU framework. The UK benefits directly from about 1bn (about 1.2bn) annually in European research funding, about 14pc of all UK income from research grants and contracts. Israel's Minister of Internal Security on Saturday accused Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, of not doing enough to prevent incitement against Israel and said the social network was "sabotaging" Israeli police work. Israel has in the past said Facebook is used to encourage attacks and the government is drafting legislation to enable it to order Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social media to remove online postings it deems incite terrorism. But the comments made by Gilad Erdan, a cabinet minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition that oversees law enforcement, were particularly biting. He said Zuckerman was responsible for Facebook policy and called on "the citizens of Israel to flood him in every possible place with the demand to monitor the platform he established and from which he earns billions". A spokesman for Facebook in Israel said the company was not commenting on the minister's assertions. During an interview on Channel 2 television, Erdan said, "Facebook today, which brought an amazing, positive revolution to the world, sadly, we see this since the rise of Daesh (Islamic State) and the wave of terror, it has simply become a monster." "Facebook today sabotages, it should be known, sabotages the work of the Israeli police, because when the Israeli police approach them, and it is regarding a resident of Judea and Samaria, Facebook does not cooperate," he said, referring to the area of the West Bank. "It also sets a very high bar for removing inciteful content and posts," Erdan said. Since the start of the wave of violence last October, Israeli occupation forces have killed at least 214 Palestinians. Meanwhile, stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks by frustrated and unarmed Palestinians have killed 34 Israelis. The current wave of protests by Palestinians and repression by Israeli occupation forces started in late July when toddler Ali Dawabsha was burned to death and three other Palestinians were severely injured after their house in the occupied West Bank was set on fire by Israeli settlers. Settlement-building, racial discrimination, confiscation of identity cards, long queues at checkpoints, as well as daily clashes and the desecration of Al-Aqsa mosque, describe Palestinians' daily suffering. The anger of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem has increased in the last three years after the Israeli authorities allowed increasing numbers of Jewish settlers to storm the Al-Aqsa mosque. *The story was edited by Ahram Online. Search Keywords: Short link: Ryanair splurged 150m buying its own shares over the past week as its stock slumped following the Brexit vote. Chief executive Michael O'Leary said yesterday that the carrier would be willing to exploit any "persistent weakness" in its share price to buy even more. Shares in Ryanair jumped almost 5pc at one point yesterday. "The airline's board authorised the repurchase of 150m worth of its own shares at an average price of just under 11.85 in the immediate aftermath of the UK Brexit vote last week," said Mr O'Leary. "We believe repurchases at these levels will enhance shareholder returns." Ryanair's shares were one of the hardest hit in Ireland following the UK's decision to leave the European Union. They were trading at 11.30 on Thursday evening compared to 13.68 before the referendum result. A profit warning by EasyJet also put pressure on Ryanair's shares. Following the share buyback in the past week, the carrier has now completed an 885m share buyback programme, buying just over 65m shares at an average price of just under 13.48 each. But the airline has now reached the 5pc buyback limit secured under a resolution at its annual general meeting last year. It said it will hold an extraordinary general meeting on July 27 to seek shareholder approval to engage in further buybacks. "It is sensible to request approval from shareholders to allow the board consider further share buybacks over the next 15 months should they deem it in the best interests of shareholders to do so," said Mr O'Leary. He added that the airline does not intend to engage in a formal buyback programme this year, however. But that won't prevent it from engaging in ad hoc repurchases. Ryanair said that while it had no plan to engage in a distinct buyback programme during the remainder of 2016, "the board should have the flexibility and the discretion to do so, if there is further market volatility such as that witnessed over the past week in the aftermath of the UK referendum vote". Mr O'Leary has previously said that Ryanair would reduce its investment in the UK if it decided to leave the EU. The airline's chief marketing officer, Kenny Jacobs, told the Irish Independent last week that the carrier's reduced investment would most likely be first manifested next summer, when extra capacity might be deployed elsewhere in the EU. Ryanair has spent about 4.2bn on special dividends and share buybacks over the past eight years. That included money it returned to shareholders last year following the sale of its near 30pc stake in Aer Lingus. Meanwhile, EasyJet is on the hunt for a possible new HQ within the European Union following the referendum result. It's speculated that it could even size up Dublin as an option. This year's European Union bank stress tests should not automatically trigger cuts to dividends and bonuses if they reveal capital shortfalls, the bloc's banking watchdog said yesterday. The announcement aims to help restore investor confidence in Europe's banking sector, where valuations lag those in the United States, partly due to uncertainty over capital requirements. The European Banking Authority (EBA) is coordinating a stress test of 51 lenders from across the 28-country bloc with the results due on July 29. For the first time, there will be no pass or fail mark. The EBA sought yesterday to clear up confusion over how the tests' findings will feed into broader reviews of bank capital by supervisors such as the European Central Bank. The ECB supervises the euro zone's top lenders - including all of the main Irish banks - and is looking at whether banks need extra capital under a supervisory review and evaluation process (SERP). It considers how much extra capital a bank should hold on top of its mandatory minimum requirements, and helps to formulate "capital guidance" for each bank. The EBA said yesterday that this capital guidance should be set above the combined level of mandatory minimums and add-ons. However, capital guidance does not constitute any form of binding capital requirements, and therefore is not expected to trigger automatic restrictions on dividends, for example. Instead, it will be up to the supervisor to decide if dividends should be suspended. (Reuters) Archbishop Eamon Martin (centre) speaks during a short memorial ceremony in the village of Guillemont, France, at a stone Celtic cross commemorating the 16th Irish Division which fought a century ago in the battle of the Somme. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire Ireland's Archbishop Eamon Martin has said prayers on the spot where Irish troops died at the Somme as he urged Catholics to remember the First World War. The Irish primate commemorated the shared sacrifice with Protestants during a short memorial ceremony in the village of Guillemont at a stone Celtic cross commemorating the 16th Irish Division which fought a century ago. Thousands of soldiers from across Ireland died or were wounded at the Somme as part of the British Army. The first day, July 1 1916, was the bloodiest in British military history. Archbishop Martin said: "In remembering the horrors of the war a century ago it helps us to redouble our efforts towards building peace, healing and reconciliation. "I know that we have gone our separate ways in many ways over the last decades in Ireland and the more recent conflicts have tended to divide us and we don't realise the shared narrative that there is in the sacrifice of those men in the First World War. "So I am hoping that being here myself will give a signal to Catholics that it is okay for them to remember the First World War and I am hoping that it will also open up the Protestant community to realise that many Catholics died side by side with their ancestors here on these fields of France." The 16th Irish Division went into battle on September 3 at Guillemont. The area was badly shelled throughout 1916 and was full of broken trenches and shell holes and very difficult to attack over, chairman of the Somme Association Alan McFarland said. A total of 1,147 soldiers were lost out of the 2,400 who attacked. Private Thomas Hughes of Castleblayney in Co Monaghan was awarded the Victoria Cross after he was wounded and went back into battle and single-handedly took out a German machine gun position and captured four German soldiers. A few days later in a neighbouring village the Irish Division lost Professor Tom Kettle, an MP and noted poet who favoured Irish Home Rule. Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt and council delegations from Lisburn and Portadown were among those who gathered for the service. The Last Post and Reveille bugle calls were sounded and a piper played a lament before poppy wreaths were laid by the Somme Association, military figures and a series of local councils. The Royal Irish Regiment (RIR) provided a ceremonial guard of honour. Mr Nesbitt said the service commemorated men from Londonderry, the mainly Catholic Falls Road in Belfast and all over the island of Ireland. "It reminds me as we struggle to create a shared future that we actually have the example of a shared past, of service and sacrifice. "Of sacrifice in almost unimaginable numbers, not just the 36th Ulster Division, not just the Protestants and unionists from the north-east of Ireland but from all over the island who came here and fought and died together." Celia Larkin last night moved to distance herself from the board of a Console UK charity after it emerged she was named as a trustee of the organisation, in court. A 'Celia Larkin' was named as a trustee of a UK charity called 'Console Suicide Prevention Ltd' which had links to the Irish charity. This prompted the former partner of Bertie Ahern, Celia Larkin, to clarify the situation. Ms Larkin said that she agreed to become a member of the board of Console UK, but she never attended any board meeting nor was invited to do so. The High Court heard yesterday that further investigations into Console have brought to light transactions between its sister organisation in the UK. Freezing orders obtained by the interim CEO of Console in Ireland, David Hall, should be notified to the English bank which handled the transactions, Keith Farry, counsel for Console, said. Mr Farry said since the orders were obtained against Paul Kelly and his wife Patricia Dowling, preventing them accessing its accounts, links with the UK charity which is called 'Console Suicide Prevention Ltd' had come to light. It followed further investigations by Mr Hall, who was appointed by the other Console directors and who brought the court proceedings to ensure the charity's services are maintained and to secure its assets. The trustees of the UK body were Mr Kelly and his wife, their son Tim Kelly, and the name of a fourth trustee allegedly appointed on May 7, 2015, was a 'Celia Larkin', Mr Farry said. Last night Celia Larkin told RTE News that in May 2015, she was invited to become a member of the board of Console UK and she agreed to become a board member. In October 2015, Ms Larkin said she attended the formal launch of Console UK at Westminster. Shortly afterwards, the friend who had invited her to become a board member resigned from the organisation. Ms Larkin said that in January 2016 she resigned from the board of Console UK and wrote to the Companies Registration Office informing them of this. She said that at no stage did she attend a board meeting or did she receive any invitation to do so. Information had also emerged about three linked properties around the country as well as about a Paypal account, the court heard. Solicitors for Console have had difficulty contacting the director Paul Kelly and his wife Patricia and in serving notices of proceedings personally, despite making phone calls and sending text messages and emails the court was told. Mr Farry said he called to the Kelly address at Alexandra Manor, Clane, Co Kildare, and found the property had electric gates and there was no response when he rang. The postbox was overflowing with letters and it appeared nobody had been there for some time. The Charities Regulator appointed five new board members to assume control of the scandal-ridden organisation. Among them is David Hall, who described accounts filed by the charity last year as "horrific". "I've never spent seven days like I've spent these seven days," he added. Also, in light of the revelations about the charity, the People of the Year awards have made contact with Paul Kelly asking him to return the honour he received from them in 2014. A spokesperson for the awards said the move was made to protect their integrity. Gardai at the scene of the shooting on Bridgefoot Street, in Dublin; Inset: Victim David Douglas Drug dealer David 'Daithi' Douglas (55) was shot dead in a ruthless double-cross by gangland thugs in Dublin yesterday. The father of one was approached by a lone male gunman and shot in the head and chest on Bridgefoot Street, in the Liberties area of Dublin's south inner city, shortly after 4pm. Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close A car which was found burnt out at Spitalfields, in the Liberties. Picture: Arthur Carron Burned out car near the scene of Dublin shooting The scene of a gun attack on Bridgefoot Street, Dublin this evening... Picture, Collins Dublin. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A car which was found burnt out at Spitalfields, in the Liberties. Picture: Arthur Carron Douglas, from Killala Road, Cabra, was shot up to six times outside the entrance to the Shoestown shop. It is believed Douglas was targeted as he walked to his wife Yumei's shop, Shoestown, after attending a family funeral earlier in the day. He was taken to St James's Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Gardai are investigating whether the murder is linked to the bitter feud between the Kinahan cartel and the Hutch mob. Read more: Criminal killed in gangland style shooting in Dublin named Read more: Former Dublin zookeeper turned drug dealer is victim of latest shooting It has since emerged that the chief suspects for organising the shooting had assured him recently that they were no longer in dispute with him. Sources revealed last night that Douglas, who was loosely associated with the Hutch gang, received a phone call from one of these criminals, a hitman for the Kinahan cartel, stating the gangsters "no longer had an issue" with him. Douglas, the father of a teenage daughter, had previously survived an assassination attempt near his Cabra home last November and the suspects for this botched hit are also being investigated over yesterday's murder. He became a target for the Kinahan cartel after he was wrongly blamed for being involved in an attempted murder on cartel associate Liam Roe outside Dublin's Red Cow Hotel on November 6. However, detailed garda investigations later revealed Douglas was not at the Red Cow on that night. After he survived the assassination attempt, his wife Yumei said her husband was a "strong man". "I don't care about whatever his history is, but he's on the good way now," she said at the time. Superintendent Patrick McMenamin, of Kevin Street Garda Station, said they were looking for two individuals as part of the murder investigation - the shooter and a getaway driver. A Mercedes Benz CLA 161-D car, which is believed to have been used in the killing, was discovered burnt out a short distance away at Spitalfields, close to Carman's Hall, Dublin 8. A handgun was discovered at the scene of the crime. Locals in the Liberties said that the shooting was just one metre away from the door of a children's recreation and homework club named Busy Bees. A local man said: "I heard a shot but I thought it was just banging from a local building site. But then I heard a lot of screeching of car brakes." A 38-year-old man standing at the garda cordon said he had family members living nearby. He said: "When I was young, if anyone had a dispute, they'd sort it out with a fist fight but now it's solved with the barrel of a gun." Murdered drug dealer David 'Daithi' Douglas was previously targeted by a ruthless Cabra gang who tried to kill him last November. A Hutch associate, Douglas (55) was lucky to survive after he was shot several times on the evening of November 8, 2015, just 100 yards from his Cabra home while walking his dog. Expand Close A car which was found burnt out at Spitalfields, in the Liberties. Picture: Arthur Carron / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A car which was found burnt out at Spitalfields, in the Liberties. Picture: Arthur Carron The father of one spent a number of weeks in the hospital after the botched hit at Killala Road. In 2010, Douglas was sentenced to 10 years in prison with five suspended in connection with the seizure of 562,000 worth of cocaine in April 2008. These drugs were understood to have been trafficked here by the Kinahan cartel. Detectives from the Garda National Drugs Unit arrested Douglas and three other men on April 13, 2008, after a tip-off. A black holdall bag containing 8kg of cocaine was recovered by gardai. Douglas was previously very close to aviation broker John Kinsella (46), who was jailed in 2009 for trying to smuggle 7m worth of drugs through Weston Airport. Before being involved in gangland crime, Douglas was a member of the Provisional IRA. He was convicted in 1983 of shooting with intent to kill a garda during a robbery and he was sentenced to 12 years in the Special Criminal Court for this offence. Sources say that Douglas was later kicked out of the organisation because of his involvement with drugs. After last year's attempted murder, it emerged that Douglas was a former zookeeper at Dublin Zoo. Junes MasterCard Caixin BBD New Economy Index reading came in at 30.8, indicating that the New Economy accounted for 30.8 percent of overall economic input activities in June. This months reading observed a 70 basis point increase from May and marked the third highest mark for the NEI since August of 2015 (Chart 1). Primary Inputs: Capital Investment Drives NEI NEI included labor, capital and technology inputs that account for 40 percent, 35 percent and 25 percent weight respectively. Among the primary inputs, the uptick in the June NEI reading came mainly from a capital investment rebound, as both technology investment and labor input index fell slightly (Chart 2). The labor input first went above 30 in March but since then has seen a continual slide from the high of 31.4 in March to this months 29.0 reading. The capital input has seen relatively more fluctuation in the last few months, falling markedly from 36.5 in March to 26.6 in April. The last two months have seen a rebound to Junes 32.2. The technology input has receded from Aprils record high of 33.5 to 31.7 this month, which remains the third highest reading. Percentage changes in labor, capital, and technology this month were -0.7, 3.2, and -0.5 percentage points respectively. After accounting for the weightings, the sum of changes resulted in the 0.7 percentage point increase in NEI (Chart 3). Looking at the sub sectors, the New IT industry contributed the most to NEI growth, 10.6 percentage points, followed by 4.9 percentage points in Advanced Materials, and 4.3 percentage points in New Energy (Chart 4). New Economy Employment Chinas average monthly entry-level salary advertised in the New Economy fell to RMB 8,336. This number has seen relatively high volatility since February 2016 (Chart 5). As the New Economy figure is mainly a composite of advertised entry-level salaries from job listing websites such as 51job.com and zhaopin.com, we have also analyzed job listings from publicly listed companies as a frame of reference. Compared to listed companies, New Economy sector entry-level wages have risen faster, with the trend becoming more apparent in 2016. Hiring in New Economy sectors accounted for 27.8 percent of total hiring in June, a very slight decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the previous month. Total compensation in New Economy sectors also fell slightly from 31.5 percent to 30.1 percent. Meanwhile, New Economy sector entry salary premium declined relative to the overall economy salaries, now at just 8 percent more than economy-wide counterparts (Chart 6). From August 2015 to June 2016, New Economy labor demand increased steadily from 5.4 million to 11.5 million (Chart 7), although there were short-term drawdowns after Chinese New Year and also in April and May. The New Economys share of total demand for labor increased slightly, rising from 26.8 percent in August 2015 to 27.6 percent in April 2016, but down slightly to 27.2 percent in June. Urban Population Flows Starting this month, the NEI has begun to track changes in urban population flows using domestic air travel traffic between Chinas largest 205 airports as a proxy for net population movement between Chinas urban centers. The tracking methodology has been adjusted for international travel that would otherwise skew flow results. This months results show that in June 128 out of the 205 airports in our tracking basket saw a net population increase, while 77 airports saw net outflows. The cities of Beijing, Wuhan, and Guangzhou had observed the largest net population inflows closely followed by Jinan, Changsha, and Nanjing (Chart 8). New Economy City Rankings For total new economy input, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Hangzhou, and Chengdu placed in the top five. Guangzhou has notably seen a recession of new economy activity in the past two months and declined in rankings (Chart 9). Rankings are based on a moving average of the percentile rank of sub-indicators for the city in the past 6 months. For the city NEI rankings, or effectively the ratio of new economy input to total economic input in each city, Shanghai topped the list with roughly a third of the citys economic input from new economy sectors. Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Fuzhou rounded out the top five, all with more than 30 percent input from the new economy. Members of the ASTI Noelle Moran and Denise Hughes during a protest outside the Dail yesterday. Photo: Collins The threat of a crippling campaign of garda industrial action is looming larger after the Government refused to row back on a pay freeze that is set to hit over 6,700 members of the force. Thousands of gardai and teachers yesterday became subject to a two-year pay pause under emergency legislation for failing to sign up to the Lansdowne Road Agreement. It means they will not receive their annual or long-service increments, which are due to members at differing dates. The Garda Representative Association (GRA) has demanded an exemption to the freeze until a crucial report on their terms and conditions is unveiled, or it will begin an "industrial campaign" that could lead to severe disruption. Read more: Garda sergeants and inspectors will avoid pay freeze after announcing they will re-ballot their members on Lansdowne Road agreement And last night it rejected a fresh attempt by the Department of Justice to heal the rift, by offering a compromise on its demand that members work an extra 30 hours a year. A copy of a Department of Justice proposal document put to the garda body, seen by the Irish Independent, reveals an offer to allow the Garda Commissioner decide what the hours are used for. It also offers the same bargaining rights as other unions, and the return of a rent allowance worth over 4,000 for new entrants by November. And in a letter sent in the past few days, Government sources said the department indicated the hours could be used for purposes such as training or briefing sessions. Meanwhile, Education Minister Richard Bruton said he was hoping for "constructive dialogue" in a forthcoming meeting with the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI). This follows its rejection of the Lansdowne Road Agreement and a directive to members to stop working the 33 Croke Park productivity hours in September. The ASTI , which staged a protest outside the Dail yesterday, said its main focus in those talks would be the abolition of lower pay scales that apply to new teachers. If the dispute is not settled, it has the potential to close schools in September. Read more: ASTI accepts invitation to talks with Education Minister Richard Bruton in dispute over Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA) on pay and productivity While recognising the threat of industrial action, Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe has insisted the door remains open for talks with the unions. "But that has to be done within the framework of the Lansdowne Road Agreement in respect of the 280,000 other public servants who have signed up," Mr Donohoe told the Irish Independent. The partner of a missing Dublin man has appealed to the public to help locate his silver Toyota Carolla car, which would prove a crucial clue in locating him. Patrick Wright (39) was last seen leaving the McDonalds Restaurant, outside Blanchardstown shopping centre and beside Leisureplex, on Monday at around 10.30am. He failed to return to his home in Portmarnock County Dublin. His partner Deirdre told independent.ie: The car is what were really looking for now. The phone was pinged off the Dunshaughlin garda station on Tuesday at 11.30pm and again at 2.20pm, but theres a 25-kilometre radius around for that mast. His phone went dead around 4pm on Tuesday. Weve put out fliers, weve been on radio stations, a heliocopter has been out, and were working with volunteer group in Finglas to search for him. Nothing has come up. Weve rang bus stations, weve checked the ferrys If someone sees something, were just so anxious now. Patrick is described as being 5'5" in height, of slight build with grey receding hair. When last seen he was wearing a grey jumper with wine sleeves, 'Stihl' work wear trousers and black coloured 'Stihl' boots. He may be driving a silver coloured Toyota Carolla hatchback, registration number 04WD2519. A garda spokesperson said: "Investigating Gardai are concerned for Patricks welfare and are appealing to anyone with information to contact them at Coolock Garda Station on 01 6664200, The Garda Confidential Line, 1800 666111 or any Garda Station." Newly elected Kate O'Connell spoke emotionally last week on why she felt the Eighth Amendment needed to be appealed. Photo: Tom Burke The challenge that presents itself when broaching the subject of the Eighth Amendment is one of almighty proportions. On one end of the spectrum, there are people with sincerely held views that life begins at conception and that any interference with that is fundamentally wrong. On the other, there are people who cannot fathom how the State, or anyone else, should have any involvement whatsoever in their reproductive rights and freedoms. Varying opinions then inhabit a space somewhere between those two points of view. The very existence of the Eighth Amendment means that, on a medical and legal level, a foetus, no matter at what stage of its development, is as protected by the law as the woman who carries it. The consequences of the law as it stands have left women and men in hugely distressing situations. My voice is just one of the many calling for a change. Expand Close Kate OConnell with her son Pierce. Photo: Damien Eagers / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kate OConnell with her son Pierce. Photo: Damien Eagers My son Pierce, now aged five, was diagnosed with a profound physical defect at 20 weeks gestation. We felt we had to know more about his condition and whether he also had a genetic abnormality. Were that the case, it would be unlikely he would make it to term. If he somehow made it to term, due to the severity of his condition, it was extremely unlikely he would ever survive for any length of time. We wanted a baby so much. I cried all the time, and then cried about what harm my crying might be doing the pregnancy. It was an impossible situation. I became convinced that there was no hope and that we should accept our situation and try to move on. I researched the best places to go for a procedure in the UK and tried to think of what excuses I could make when I returned to work. I looked very pregnant at 20 weeks. I wanted to close this awful chapter and start a new one, and I hoped that our next attempt might yield a happier ending. Finding out he had no genetic abnormality changed the plan. We decided to take our odds and keep going, but I've never forgotten that dreadful, week-long wait. There are many reasons I entered politics, not least to try and make Ireland a better place for women - and for medical practitioners. We hypocritically "allow" our distressed women to leave our State. We "allow" them to seek information on services abroad and we "allow" them to seek aftercare without prosecution when they return. But we are them. They are our neighbours, our cousins, our teachers, nurses, doctors, dentists, accountants, and sisters. They are our people, our citizens, the daughters of Ireland. If they came to you and confided in you, would you turn away from them or would you help them? You know someone who has made that journey, whether you realise it or not. By keeping the Eighth Amendment in the Constitution, we are all complicit in the suffering of desperate women and men. They will end their pregnancies anyway - but where that happens is up to you. Be kind to your daughters. Let them stay at home. Kate O'Connell is a Fine Gael TD A young child is in a serious condition in hospital after falling from the balcony of a Limerick hotel. It's understood the toddler fell from the sixth floor of The Strand Hotel shortly before 2pm on Saturday. The little boy who is from Limerick and believed to be around three years old was rushed to University Hospital Limerick and gardai described his condition as serious. It is understood that he has since been moved to Temple Street Children's Hospital in Dublin. A hotel representative said their thoughts and prayers are with the injured boy's family. The spokesperson confirmed the incident took place at lunchtime and said the hotel is working closely with the gardai and local authorities to establish how the accident occurred. Well known hairdresser Niall Colgan, who runs a salon underneath the Strand Hotel in Limerick , took to Facebook to say it had been a very upsetting afternoon in OCallaghan Strand on Saturday. He praised a client of his for coming to the childs aid while waiting on an ambulance. She is a well-known and respected doctor who may have been instrumental in those few minutes, he wrote. Niall also paid tribute his staff for their conduct, although we are all in deep shock. More to follow British experts said the extraordinary world first by Oxford University could help patients around the world whose fertility is compromised by chemotherapy A two-year-old girl has become the youngest ever patient to have eggs grown in the hope it could allow her to one day become a mother. British experts said the extraordinary world first by Oxford University could help patients around the world whose fertility is compromised by chemotherapy The findings, to be presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology annual meeting in Helsinki, come from a study of young cancer patients. Scientists were able to retrieve ovarian tissue from toddlers and children and then, crucially, to identify immature eggs, which were incubated and matured overnight, until they could viably be frozen. Fertility doctors last night hailed the advances as an extremely exciting and a step towards the holy grail of fertility preservation. The study included girls as young as two years old. Scientists were able to first harvest ovarian tissue, which itself could be transplanted decades later, to assist fertility. But they were also able to retrieve, grow and freeze immature eggs from the tissue in most of the cases involving children. Researchers said this finding was extremely exciting because it meant patients could have fertility treatment with their own eggs, decades later. Ovarian transplants have also been a recent source of hope for such patients, experts said, but there had been some caution as to whether cancer cells could survive such processes. Prof Tim Child, from Oxford University, said: Cancer treatment can be very successful but the drugs can completely damage the ovaries. This gives hope to young girls who could otherwise be sterilised by chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Its extremely exciting because it's two simultaneous approaches showing effect, he said. While the process was able to identify the most mature of the immature eggs, which were then incubated overnight, to assist their survival, he said he was hopeful that in future, scientists would be able to expand the technique to retrieve thousands more specimens. That would be the holy grail of fertility preservation, because the possibilities are limitless, he said. Scientists cautioned that the proof of the success of the new technique would not be known until the children became adults, and began to plan a family. But they said they were extremely hopeful. Prof Stuart Lavery, consultant gynaecologist from Hammersmith Hospital, described the findings as quite extraordinary but said it would be decades before the success of such techniques was proven. "It is really amazing what the Oxford team have done, he said. He said the breakthrough offered even greater promise than ovarian transplants, which have recently been shown promise in fertility treatment. Last year Belgian doctors announced the first baby born after a woman underwent an ovarian transplant as a teenager. And earlier this year, a British woman became the firsr to be implanted with an ovary frozen when she was a child. The UK case involved a woman of 23 who had her ovary removed and frozen at the age of just eight. Prof Lavery said that growing eggs from the tissue might be shown to offer greater advantages in such cases. In the future the idea is to put those little pieces of ovary back into the person themselves but the worry has always been could there be some cancer cells, he said. "What this study shows is that they were able to actually grow and isolate some eggs from that tissue - so the idea is could you use those eggs in future without having to transplant the ovary back. Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Sigur Ros have made seven acclaimed albums since 1997 and soundtracked countless documentaries and dramas whenever a musical director requires ethereal music that incorporates classical, minimal and post-rock sensibilities. Now their fan base has swelled from an Irish debut in the Temple Bar Music Centre in 2000 to the great outdoors. They perform an intro from the back of the stage, briefly suggesting this could be some kind of aloof soundsystem gig, but such fears prove unfounded as frontman Jonsi Birgisson and company take to the front of the stage and perform a pristine 12-song set. Birgisson is noted for playing his guitar with a bow and singing in a unique falsetto. He does both beautifully. During 'Festival', he holds a note for a staggeringly long period of time. Sigur Ros have that rare gift of being able to deliver intimate and warm shows in big open spaces. They weave a magical web of sound incorporating keyboards, top pianos, glockenspiel and guitars. Long may their Icelandic genius enchant and entertain us. - Eamon Sweeney Funk: Earth, Wind & Fire, 3Arena, Dublin Earth, Wind & Fire belong in the premier league of funk alongside fellow pioneers Parliament, Funkadelic and the recently deceased purple genius Prince. Bandleader Maurice White also died this year, although he hasn't been a touring member in recent years as he was battling Parkinson's disease. Clad in their signature red and black colour scheme, the 12-man band dramatically freeze like statues before breaking into an infectious dance routine. The 1979 disco hit 'Boogie Wonderland' immediately hits the sweet spot and the whole auditorium dances and sings along. Earth, Wind & Fire let the music do all the talking. The soulful funk of the 1975 chart-topper 'Sing a Song' is another brilliant moment. The musicianship and showmanship is superb, topped off with incredible singing by Philip Bailey, who possesses a staggering four-octave and falsetto range. - Eamon Sweeney Theatre: The Wake, Abbey Theatre, Dublin Vera comes home to small town west of Ireland unannounced. She has been left the family hotel by her mother, and her brother and sisters are scheming to gain possession of it. Meanwhile her beloved grandmother has died, and her siblings didn't bother to let her know. She shacks up with her teenage flame, a drifter called Finbar, and causes scandal in the town. Prudent and avaricious, the rest of the O'Toole family view Vera, who they know works as a prostitute in the USA, as a transgressor. Set in the 1990s, it is pre-Celtic Tiger, but the money grubbing and small town empire building are getting into their stride. Joined by her brother-in-law Henry, Vera and Finbar break into the hotel, and the trio establish jurisdiction for a booze-fuelled party, lights blazing across the main street. But Vera and her anarchic bunch are no match for the establishment. They lack the ruthlessness of self-interest. They have no plan. While there are plenty of flashes of brilliance in the writing, this play lacks the discipline and focus of Tom Murphy's best work. Instead of some deep mutual interrogations, we get songs. Brian Doherty is both funny and deeply moving as the damaged Finbar. Henry, the semi-Anglo lawyer with a touch of dandy, is a terrifically complex character, given vivid life by Frank McCusker. - Katy Hayes Already battling to come to terms with Brexit, now the Government faces 'Grexit'. The decision by 11,600 gardai to depart from the safe haven of public service agreements is bad timing for the Justice Minister and Garda Commissioner. The teachers, from the Government's perspective, are also on the wrong side of the fence. At least it has breathing space until September before there is likely to be a showdown. But the garda row could have an immediate effect on running the force, which is already under siege, not just from the terrifying gangland threat but the Policing Authority and other critics in the wake of whistleblower allegations. The last thing the commissioner needs as she tries to win back the public is a serious threat from the rank and file. The Garda Representative Association says it is not its intention to disrupt the public, but any form of action, even if it is just non-co-operation, could tie the organisation up in knots. At first glance, it is hard to understand why any public servant wouldn't jump at the chance to back the Lansdowne Road deal. For years, deals with the Government meant cuts and pay freezes. But here was the first goal in the endgame of getting back 2bn in cuts to pay and pensions. It means an increase in pay worth roughly 2,000 for many over the next two years. By signing up, State employees avoid penalties, including an automatic two-year freeze of their annual and long-service increments. But like a lot of things, the devil is in the detail. Gardai and teachers are objecting to working extra hours. But the gardai have a second big gripe relating to an independent review of their pay and conditions that should have reported two years ago. The GRA is using its increased industrial relations leverage to see if it can get a better deal. Key issues are the right to strike and some sort of timetable for the full restoration of pay, or at least an improvement on the entry pay points for new recruits, which are 10pc lower than their colleagues. It says the review - a commitment of the Haddington Road deal, which ended on Thursday - should be brought to a conclusion. It has a good point. With this strategy, it is ensuring that long-running issues it has been trying to move for decades onto the government agenda may finally land there. Brendan Keenan: 'Better laws and foreign money needed to overcome worrying homes shortage' There is a district in Belfast known as the Holy Land. Not because of its religiosity, but because the streets - Jerusalem Street, Damascus Street and so on - are called after places in that region. Once, there were others; Little Crimea, India, and so on. Seemingly, houses were built so quickly for the city's huge expansion in the 19th century that it was too much trouble to think up original names. They eventually gave up altogether, so far as names were concerned. The Shankill area got First Street, Second Street etc, all the way up to Tenth. In an effort to increase transparency on the structural changes underway in Chinas economy, the MasterCard Caixin BBD China New Economy Index (NEI) was established. The subject of a year of research, the NEI was first publically released on March 2, 2016 and will be issued the 2nd of every month at 10:00am China Standard Time. The NEI uses big data analysis to track changes in contribution to overall economic activity in Chinas New Economy including 1) Energy Conservation & Environmental Protection, 2) New IT & Information Services, 3) Biotech, 4) Advanced Equipment Manufacturing, 5) Renewable Energy, 6) Advanced Materials, 7) New Energy Vehicles, 8) High-tech Services/Research and Development, and 9) Financial & Legal Services. In addition to providing a high level view of ongoing structural changes in the balance between the Old Economy and New Economy, the NEI dives deeper into the capital, labor and technological inputs driving change across the New Economy and within new economy sectors and industries. The NEI aims to provide deeper insight into the changing characteristics of Chinas economy to improve transparency and forecasting accuracy. The NEI and its sub-indices are thus an important set of indicators that can be used to follow emerging patterns and understand the pace of structural transition as the path for the New Economy gradually unfolds. Read Junes MasterCard Caixin BBD China New Economy Index reading For further information please contact: MasterCard Mr. Wu Huanyu, Vice President of Public Relations Tel+86-10-8519-9304 EmailHuanyu_wu@mastercard.com Caixin Insight Group Dr. Minggao Shen, CEO & Chief Economist Ma Ling, Public Relations Tel+86-10-8104-8016 Tel+86-10-8590-5204 Emailsminggaoshen@caixin.com Emaillingma@caixin.com BBD Chenqin, Chief Economist Tel+86-28-65290823 Emailchenqin@bbdservice.com The MasterCard Caixin BBD China New Economy Index is the fruit of a research partnership between Caixin Insight Group and BBD, in collaboration with the National Development School, Peking University. The subject of a year of research, the NEI was first publically released on March 2, 2016 and will be issued the 2nd of every month at 10:00am China Standard Time. About Caixin Caixin Media is China's leading media group dedicated to providing financial and business news through periodicals, online content, mobile applications, conferences, books and TV/video programs. Caixin Media aims to blaze a trail that helps traditional media prosper in the new media age through integrated multimedia platforms. Caixin Insight Group is a high-end financial data and analysis platform. For more information, please visit www.caixin.com. About MasterCard MasterCard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry. We operate the worlds fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. MasterCards products and solutions make everyday commerce activities such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Follow us on Twitter @MasterCardAP and @MasterCardNews, join the discussion on the Beyond the Transaction Blog and subscribe for the latest news on the Engagement Bureau. About BBD (Business Big Data) BBD is a leading Big Data and quantitative business analytics firm specializing in the analysis of the high-growth industries emerging in Mainland China. Through dynamic data tracking, credit analysis, risk pricing and economic index construction, BBD provides its clients with a wide range of services at both the macro and micro level. Of the ill winds that have gathered in the wake of the UK's week-old decision to leave the EU, none has quite blown as ominously as in France. The British vote to quit the bloc has emboldened the country's far right like never before, and calls for a similar referendum in France are gaining momentum. Marine Le Pen, leader of the increasingly popular National Front, has given a string of interviews posed against a party banner reading, 'Brexit - and now France', a slogan that she also uses on her Twitter profile. Again and again she crows to media that the UK referendum result signals what she calls "the beginning of the end of the European Union". Le Pen's National Front has gone from near pariah status back in the days when her father Jean-Marie founded the party, to garnering around 29pc of the vote in the first round of last year's regional elections. Now Le Pen has the presidency in her sights. With troubled France - still in a jittery state of emergency after last year's terrorist attacks - already bracing itself for what promises to be one of the country's most bitter and bruising presidential elections next May, it is clear that the relationship with Europe will be a key theme for all candidates. Already there are signs that many in France have grown disillusioned - perhaps fatally so - with the EU. Not only has recent polling suggested a majority would like to have a referendum on France's continuing EU membership, many tend to blame the bloc for the country's woes - much as it was scapegoated in the UK referendum. Recent research by the Pew Centre found that 61pc of French people hold unfavourable views of the EU, with only 38pc viewing it more positively. Two-thirds of respondents said they wanted the French government to focus on the country's own challenges; a slightly lower number said France should pursue its own national interests and forget co-operation within the EU. With France's economy still suffering the after-effects of the 2008 financial crisis - something that hit the towns and villages of the country's interior just as devastatingly as it did Middle England - the Pew survey found that 66pc believe the EU has failed them economically. Youth employment in France has soared and it is those aged 18-30 who form the largest demographic voting for the National Front. They are also believed to be the most likely to be in favour of France leaving the EU - along with the over 50s - a sharp contrast to their youthful peers in the UK who largely voted to Remain on June 23. Bruno Le Maire, of the centre-right Les Republicains - the party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy - is the only mainstream political figure to have called for a referendum on France's relationship with the EU. In a piece he wrote for 'Le Monde' newspaper in May, Le Maire claimed that "Europe does not make us dream any more" and argued that France needed to "heal the wounds" of the referendum of 2005, in which over 50pc of voters rejected the forerunner of the Lisbon Treaty. With the National Front boosted by the UK vote and determined to make political capital from it, others from France's political mainstream may be tempted to play populist on the issue. And it's not just France. The UK referendum has also prompted calls for referendums on EU membership elsewhere. Geert Wilders, leader of the Netherlands' anti-immigrant Party for Freedom, has been jubilant over the British vote, urging a "Nexit" to follow. He posted on Twitter: "Now it's our turn. It's time for a Dutch referendum" and added this hashtag: #ByeByeEU. In Germany, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, whose support base has grown amid concerns over refugee flows, made similar calls. However, recent polling found that while the majority of AfD members wanted Germany to leave the EU, 79pc of all Germans polled said they wanted to remain within the bloc. Italy's anti-establishment Five-Star Movement, which was founded by a well-known comedian, is clamouring for a referendum on whether to stay in the eurozone following a surge in support that resulted in one of its members becoming mayor of Rome. In Denmark and Sweden, politicians of various hues have also emerged to cast doubt on the European project. While the populist mood - and with it a distinct Eurosceptic undertow - sweeping Europe has been clear for some time, many failed to read the signs of what it eventually produced in the UK: a vote to say goodbye to the EU. Other pro-EU politicians across the continent ignore the lessons of Brexit at their peril. One hundred years ago yesterday, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, death claimed over 2,000 Ulstermen from the 36th (Ulster) Division, as they advanced across no man's land to capture a German concrete bunker. Soon, the survivors were forced to retreat back across that quagmire killing zone of barbed wire and mutilated corpses in which 60,000 men had died or were maimed in one horrific day. The 36th Division had a further 3,500 men injured during that suicidal advance and bewildered retreat on July 1, 1916: the carnage which affected every village within Ulster caused the date to become enshrined in Unionist mythology as a symbol of Protestant resistance. Death similarly stalked the Southern-born Irishmen of the 16th (Irish) Division, who made their Somme push in early September, 1916. A random hit killed the Irish poet and nationalist MP, Thomas Kettle, whose body was never recovered. Kettle was one of 1,167 southern Irishmen from the 16th Division who died during their push at the Somme. Unlike their Ulster counterparts, their deaths formed part of no national mythology. Kettle's intellect had made him a close friend of James Joyce and of the pacifist, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, who abhorred the violence of the Easter Rising but whose brutal execution during it propelled him - by ironic default - into our pantheon of martyrs. Four days before his death, Kettle bestowed upon his infant daughter, Betty, a deeply moving poem: 'So here, while the mad guns curse overhead, And tired men sigh with mud for couch and floor, Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead, Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor, But for a dream, born in a herdsmen shed, And for the secret Scripture of the poor.' Kettle possessed a cosmopolitan European prospective on how Ireland needed to evolve a new European identity, but when he wrote this poem for his daughter, he was ensnared in the Somme mud, anticipating the inevitability of his own death. He knew the Easter Rising in Dublin had altered everything. While his fellow poet and fellow nationalist, Thomas MacDonagh, would be remembered as a patriot, Kettle knew that (despite his equal passion for Irish independence) his name would be accompanied by whispers of having died as a traitor in the wrong uniform. This is the tragedy of Irish poets of that war, be it Kettle at the Somme or Francis Ledwidge at Ypres, whose face has been condemned to the limbo of being forever young. Like thousands of fellow Irishmen, Ledwidge and Kettle were condemned to another kind of limbo. Rupert Brooke's death in World War One immortalised him at home. This is true of the Canadian, John McCrea, whose poem, 'In Flanders Fields', features on their $10 bill. Their posthumous reputations are simple, with no legacy of divided loyalties. The Britain to which poets like Siegfried Sassoon returned might come to nurse ambivalent feelings towards how 'great' that war was, but they were never viewed as traitors. In contrast, the Southern Irish experience of the Somme was blotted out of our national collective memory, with the Irish who fought there herded into two simplistic camps. The Ulster 36th Division were seen as Protestant freedom fighters, with the inconvenient truth that large numbers of Ulster Catholics fought and died there being ignored in the North. In the South, our Somme dead were seen as pro-British traitors or gullible fools. Indeed, the Irish poet Michael O'Loughlin only recently discovered that his great grandfather died at the Somme: a killing field into which Irishmen were herded for a complex variety of reasons. One was simple economics. So many Dublin trade unionists lost their jobs after the 1913 Lock-out in Dublin and enlisted to feed their families that three cheers were raised for Jim Larkin in the trenches. Hugo Hamilton sums up our collective national amnesia, about the emotional wounds left by battles like the Somme, in the title of his memoir, 'The Sailor in the Wardrobe'. It refers to a photograph of his father's father in British World War I naval uniform which Hamilton's father (who hated everything British) kept locked in a wardrobe, unable to throw it out, while desperate to pretend it didn't exist. Unlike the majority of Southern Irish victims of the Somme, Kettle's circle of friends ensured that he was remembered and - although it was controversial - a small monument to him was eventually unveiled, with no official ceremony, in St Stephen's Green in Dublin. But many of the Somme's Irish victims suffered the same fate as O'Loughlin's great grandfather in being blotted out of history. The current 1916 commemorations have been fascinatingly varied, with forgotten figures (like the dead children whose lives Joe Duffy superbly recreated) finally allowed to be part of the varied narrative of our history. It is time to also recognise that the Somme was a national catastrophe. On this day, a century ago, and in the months that followed, villages across Ireland went into a state of shock each time that most unwelcome of sights appeared: a telegram boy holding an envelope. Before women even opened those envelopes, they knew that their husbands and sons were about to be rendered into the past tense with a curt, standard expression of regret. Dermot Bolger is Writer in Residence at the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks July 1 marks the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Battle of the Somme and, as a matter of diplomatic and commemorative progress, members of the Irish Government can be found this week at the Somme representing the Irish State on the sacred battlefields of the Great War. Meanwhile, members of the same Government are standing idly by as the listed buildings on the Irish nation's sacred battlefield of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin's Moore Street fall into wrack and ruin due to water damage and other structural faults. One of their number, Arts and the Gaeltacht Minister Heather Humphreys is set to appeal an Irish High Court ruling to preserve one of the Irish nation's most sacred battlefields. Surely this a disgrace and a shambolic way to treat those Irish people, many of them relatives and descendants of the brave men and women of the 1916 Rising, who want this area restored, preserved as a historical legacy for our future generations. Our Government cannot have it both ways - the Somme battlefield is as sacred to the history of Europe and island of Ireland as Moore Street is to the Irish Republic. The Somme was an imperialistic and militaristic catastrophe - 20,000 killed on day one, with one million killed, maimed, missing or wounded on all sides in five months. The number of men from Ireland killed there has never really been properly accounted for. What happened at the Somme destroyed peoples, generations, nations, empires and a continent and ended the other European political fiasco of imperialism. What happened in Moore Street, the GPO, Sackville Street and Dublin at Easter 1916 was the catalyst that built a nation. The stupidity or ignorance of successive Irish governments is that they have randomly commemorated things which they don't fully appreciate in a politically expedient way without a properly fully understanding of what it is they are commemorating. The battlefields and places that sprung forth the Irish Republic and nation state are equally as sacred as the Somme battlefields of the Great War, where so many Irish men died fighting for the other failed European political experiment of our history - imperialism. With all the 1916/2016 commemorative activities, many of the battlefield sites of the 1916 Rising still are void of proper commemorative plaques or visible signposts of recognition. This Government - a new type of coalition in our fledgling State - could carry out some very momentous acts of commemorative remembrance in this significant anniversary year by beginning a proper process to mark and signpost all the sacred sites of 1916 and the War of Independence with the same commemorative respect as is afforded to the fallen of the Great War across Europe . Paul Horan (asst professor) Trinity College Dublin World keeps turning post-Brexit What is it about 'liberal' commentators who rightly champion and insist on - among other things - freedom of speech and universal suffrage: that is, until there is a change in society which challenges, no matter how minute their way of thinking or their way of life? Since the Brexit outcome, commentators have contested the age of the voters and the social background of the voters. Throughout the Brexit campaign, all the main political parties in the United Kingdom - from the Conservatives to Sinn Fein - recommended a Remain vote, as did most of the UK business community and the trade unions. In addition, the UK electorate was urged by the Commonwealth countries and a host of foreign leaders from Barack Obama to Enda Kenny to remain in the European Union. Regardless of all this 'sound advice', UK citizens used their democratic right and voted to leave the EU. More than 33 million people (72pc of the electorate) voted. Of these, I suspect millions over the age of 50 voted to Remain, as did millions of people under the age 50 vote to Leave. The same would apply to working-class and middle-class voters, people with white skin and dark skin, and even the aristocracy. Also, I suspect there was a mix of reasons as to why people voted the way they did, irrespective of their age, class or ethnic background. What a great display of democracy in action. Instead of looking for reasons or ways to re-run the ballot - and in the process, undermine democracy - we should admire British democracy regardless of the outcome. And by the way, Britain will survive, Ireland will survive and the Earth will continue to orbit the sun. Des Hughes, Donaghmede, Dublin 13 Don't rain on our parade I woke up yesterday, July 1, wondering what country I was in a few weeks ago. Summer? Brian Mc Devitt, Glenties, Co Donegal. UK always had a foot outside EU The many commentators who ascribe the outcome of the UK referendum to various forms of disaffection are missing the point. Both sides of the Brexit debate in Britain were resolutely opposed to the idea of European integration. Whatever about regions like Scotland and Northern Ireland, the position of the UK as a state has been hostile to the primary objectives of the EU since the Thatcher era, and British interventions in the EU since then have frequently been disruptive. Following Jacque Delors' presidency of the European Commission in the 1980s, the UK pressed successfully for a weakening of the Commission, the supra-national institution at the heart of the EU. In the 1990s, UK governments championed enlargement because they placed a brake on EU 'deepening', or closer integration. The UK's decision not to join the eurozone, once considered as temporary, has long been accepted as permanent, and there are clearly conflicting interests between sterling, a major currency, and the single European currency. In response to the 2008 crisis, an unbridgeable gulf opened up between London and Brussels regarding banking regulation. In short, the differences between the EU and the UK cannot be fixed by the exercise of good will; they are irreconcilable. For that reason, the separation of the UK from the European Union is in the interests of both. Brexit will not guarantee that the EU moves back from its attachment to free-market ideology, but it does open up the possibility of a more united Union and a return to the Christian democratic ideal of 'social Europe'. Ireland's national interest now clearly requires a consolidation of the euro currency through further political integration of the eurozone, pursued as a matter of urgency. Other priorities must be: preventing the British eurosceptics from using their victory to destabilise the EU; and avoiding any moves that would prolong the mood of dislocation and uncertainty. Dave Alvey Irish Political Review Group, Lower Dargle Road, Bray, Co Wicklow Sinn Fein TD Gerry Adams has met with local Arts groups in Dundalk to discuss resourcing to the sector. The meeting was attended by Paul Hayes, managing director, An Tain; Brid McBride, theatre critic; Laurence McKeown, playwright; Patricia Duffy, Dundalk School of Music and Colette McGahon, Irish Youth Opera. Speaking afterwards, Mr Gerry Adams said; 'The people whom I met are all linked to the National Campaign for the Arts and they approached my office to elicit my support for their campaign. 'I am fully supportive of their calls to dedicate a Minister to the Arts and for an increase in funding to the sector. 'I raised the issue of the Arts with the Taoiseach in the Dail on 9th June and I told him during that exchange that the Arts are a powerful economic driver. 'Visitors to this country do not come to see factories or the signs of industry, they come for our heritage, our culture and our arts. 'Therefore it is entirely legitimate that this area should be adequately resourced and the Taoiseach's decision not to nominate a dedicated Arts Minister is scandalous and should be reversed. 'I will continue to lobby the government for appropriate resources for this sector and for County Louth,' the Dail deputy added. Local food and craft brewing will be showcased at this year's Irish maritime festival, which takes place at Drogheda Port on 9 and 10 July next. The award-winning festival, now it its 4th year, will feature a fabulous artisan food and craft beer zone, showcasing produce from across the north-east. 'I'm thrilled to see so many producers from across the region taking part. There are gorgeous ingredients for me to work with throughout the weekend,' said TV chef Tara Walker, who runs the East Coast Cookery School in Termonfeckin, and will be hosting free cookery demonstrations. She also spoke of the maritime chef of the year competition, which takes place over the weekend. 'Chefs taking part are using only local produce. The competition will be fierce as they battle it out for the title by creating a 'surf and turf' dish, with a twist.' Heats will take place on Saturday and Sunday with the winner being announced on Sunday evening. The artisan food and craft beer zone, hosted by Glanbia, gives visitors the chance to meet local producers such as the Rooneys from Derrycamma rapeseed oil and Geoff Fitzpatrick from Jack Cody's. The craft beer zone is a new feature of the festival, explains co-ordinator Bronagh Conlon. 'Brewing and distilling in the Drogheda area is growing fast. Jack Cody's range of craft beers and Dan Kelly's Ciders will be joined by Cockagee from Slane, the Boyne Brewhouse and Listoke Distillery. 'On Friday night, we have a very special event, a relaxed evening of tasting craft beers, pairing them with tasty food and chilling out with live music.' For more details see www.Facebook.com/IrishMaritimeFestival 'Supporting local producers is so important. We know from experience that visitors love to meet them, taste their products and get to know them. 'The festival is a great opportunity to connect local people to local produce,' she continued. In addition to the artisan food and craft beer zone, the event features a host of favourites such as ice-cream, crepes and burgers. 'With the festival going from strength to strength each year, it's a wonderful opportunity to show off our local food,' Bronagh concluded. The Irish maritime festival is hosted by Louth county council and Drogheda port company, in association with Maxol. It is also supported by Virgin Media and Failte Ireland. Pupils from Dulargy NS collect their 4 Star GROW award from Chairman of the Louth County Council Cllr. Peter Savage at the School Environment GROW Awards 2016 held in the Crowne Plaza Louth primary schools celebrated in style at the 'GROW' Awards held in Dundalk last week. An acronym for 'Green, Renewable, Organic and Waste Minimisation', the competition serves to reward local schools for all that they are doing to make their environment cleaner, greener and more sustainable. 'These schools are the pride of the county and we are gathered here today to celebrate them and their achievements', said Aisling Sheridan of Louth County Council. 'With the pupils of today becoming the adults of tomorrow, this work is vital in ensuring that we conserve and protect our environment for the generations to come'. Cllr. Mark Dearey, Chairman of Dundalk Municipal District committee, presented the award for 'School of the Year' for his area to Muchgrange N.S, saying: 'An all round great performer in terms of sustainability and environmental awareness, this is a school which continues to improve year on year in leaps and bounds, so are well deserved winners of this award.' Cllr. Oliver Tully, the newly elected Mayor of the Borough District of Drogheda was also on hand to present the 'School of the Year' award to his local area. The winner this year was Scoil Naomh Feichin, Termonfeckin. With a work programme that continues to develop year on year, this was the school which impressed the judges significantly in the south end of the county. In mid Louth, the 'School of the Year' award for the Ardee Municipal District area went to Monastery NS, Ardee, for their work on a number of innovative projects, which explore all aspects of sustainability and environmental awareness. The award for the 'Best Special Project' went to Presentation School, Ballymakenny, Drogheda for their comprehensive research into the life cycle of the Honey Bee, its importance to our surroundings and the worrying decline in the bee population. A very topical and well researched project, the girls of Presentation School, Drogheda, were the worthy winners of this award. Ms Edel Lennon of Collon NS and Mr. John Farrell of Monksland NS were awarded 'Teacher of Year for 2016'. Both of these exceptional role models have gone above and beyond the call of duty to deliver outstanding results, motivating and enthusing their young pupils and delivering excellent environmental programmes in both of their schools. It's not just the teachers but the pupils who were awarded at the ceremony with 16 students receiving 'Highly Commended' awards in the Junior Environmentalist of the Year competition. But it was two exceptional pupils who won the overall award on the day with Ciaran Murphy of St. Finian's N.S., Dillonstown and Olamide Adegoke of Aston Village ETNS receiving the impressive accolade of Junior Environmentalist of the Year for 2016. With almost 40 schools from around the county participating in the competition, it was Scoil Mhuire na Trocaire, Ardee who scooped the top prize, being awarded the coveted five star standard for two years in a row. St. Peter's N.S., Dromiskin won the overall winner in the Eco Tribes competition, which they carried out in partnership with their local Tidy Towns group. Vice President of the United States Joe Biden on a visit to Carlinford Heritage Centre, where he gave a speech to local representatives on the second last day of his trip to Ireland Louth County Council bestowed the 'Freedom of Louth' on US Vice President Joe Biden during his only public engagement along the Cooley Peninsula. The centrepiece of his visit to Louth was a presentation ceremony in Carlingford Heritage centre, where council Cathaoirleach Paul Bell presented the Vice President with the honorary freedom of the county. In memory of his trip to the Cooley peninsula, he was awarded a wooden replica of the Tain Bull crafted by local furniture maker Joe Lawler. Joe, a third generation wood craftsman, carefully designed the gift from timber from a 400 year old walnut tree which has been growing at the Battle of the Boyne centre at Oldbridge since the battle that changed the course of Irish and European history. Joe said he was 'honoured and delighted' when asked to design the replica for the Vice President. The designer was first made famous for his creation of chairs used by President Bill Clinton during his historic visit to Dundalk in 2000. 'It's been a honour to make a gift for one of Carlingford's most famous sons. The fact that his ancestors came from Cooley, the presentation of the bull was very apt as it is such an historical and mythical symbol of the area.' He added: 'The fallen tree that the wood was taken from was on the site of the Battle of the Boyne on the day of the battle in early July 1690, and wood from the same tree manufactured the Freedom of Drogheda box for President Michael D. Huggins. 'Two great men, two great nations, now possess a small bit of history. If only the wood could talk!' The Vice President was also awarded a special memento of his trip to north Louth, specially designed by bespoke jeweller Garret Mallon. 'I was delighted to have been commissioned to make a pair of cufflinks for Vice President Biden to commemorate his visit to the Wee County yesterday,' said Garrett. Mr. Biden was presented with the handmade sterling silver cufflinks with an engraved gold Saint Brigid's cross. 'And I was lucky enough to hear his address in Carlingford Heritage Centre,' said the designer Speaking after the ceremony, Patricia Morrisey, from Carlingford Heritage centre said that it was an incredible event for all. 'It has certainly been an honour to show the history of the area to one of Cooley Peninsula's most famous sons. He told me that it means a great deal for him to visit Ireland.' The Vice President said he was 'delighted' to visit the heritage centre, a restored medieval church located in the centre of the village, which had been restored in 1804. Mr. Biden had been welcomed to the centre with the familiar sounds of the Cross Border Orchestra, led by violinist Patricia Treacy, and director Sharon Treacy Dunne, who had previously performed for him at his residence in Washington D.C as part of the St. Patrick's Day celebrations this year. It was during their visit that the Vice President spoke of his plans to visit Louth. A Dundalk Garda sergeant's leg was broken during a terrifying early morning incident in a taxi outside the station during which a realistic-looking pistol was pointed, and the trigger pulled, at him and his colleague. Details of the attack on the officers, which happened in the early hours of April 17 last year, were revealed for the first time at Dundalk District Court last week. And it was also revealed that the defendant had been released from a psychiatric unit in Louth just a week before the 'outrageous' incident. Dean McGinley, (34), 6 Assumption Place, Dundalk pleaded guilty to a number of charges arising out of the attack including assault causing harm to Sgt. Charley McNulty, resisting Garda Hugh Jordan who was trying to arrest him and possession of a realistic imitation firearm. Judge Flann Brennan was told how McGinley, whom reports said suffers from bi-polar disorder, had got into a taxi with a couple he didn't know around 5am and had refused to get out. The taxi driver brought the mini bus to the station where Sgt. McNulty and Gda. Jordan told McGinley to get out. The defendant replied: 'You and who's army are getting me out of here?' The two Gardai got into the mini bus but McGinley produced a realistic-looking pistol from his pocket and pointed it at them, pulling the trigger a number of times. Gardai later said they believed the weapon was real and Gda. Jordan tried to disarm McGinley. There was a struggle and the gun hit the roof of the vehicle, breaking up as it turned out to be plastic. The two officers continued trying to restrain the defendant, and Sgt. McNulty squirted pepper spray at McGinley but 'it had little effect'. The defendant 'charged at Gda. Jordan with clenched fists' while pointing the rest of the gun and shouting: 'I will 'f**king kill you'. Once more, the pair tried to restrain him, but McGinley turned and charged at Sgt. McNulty 'with considerable force' and 'stamped on his foot' resulting in a serious leg break for the officer. McGinley fell on top of Sgt. McNulty and Gda. Jordan managed to get the handcuffs on him and arrest him before the defendant was taken to the Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda where he was treated for minor injuries. Solicitor Dermot Monahan said his client, who has two previous convictions, for public order, had been released from St Bridget's Hospital in Ardee just a week before the attack on Gardai, even though, the solicitor alleged, McGinley's mother had 'pleaded with them' to allow him to remain. Mr Monahan said McGinley is 'now in a stable condition at the moment' and the defendant 'deeply regrets the injuries to the sergeant'. The solicitor added: 'He has no memory of this incident. He had been released from the hospital even though his mother pleaded with them not to'. He also pointed out the gun was 'a toy one', though Mr Monahan added: 'Producing any type of weapon to the Gardai is wrong, especially considering the terrible events that have happened to Gardai in this district'. He said McGinley was unwell at the time of this incident, though that 'doesn't take away from what he did'. A forensic psychiatrist had diagnosed the defendant as having bi-polar disorder but McGinley is now taking his medication and will be on it 'in the long term'. McGinley is, Mr Monahan said, 'a very different man from the one who did this'. He asked the court to 'take into account that he was suffering from an illness'. But Judge Brennan said that 'lots of people have bi-polar disorder' and added: 'I also see (from the report) that he was taking drugs, benzodiazepine. They were not forced down his throat. 'He's going to go to jail if I don't find an overwhelming reason not to. This was an outrageous offence. I don't accept for a minute that he has a mental illness of any sort. 'I don't want to minimise bipolar but I don't see it as any excuse for what he did'. He adjourned the case to September 28 for a probation and community service report'. The judge added: 'If he puts a foot wrong, he can forget about any possibility of not going to jail, however slim it is'. A Dundalk doctor who completed a PhD on cancer treatments in three years instead of the usual four has been recognised for his outstanding achievements by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RSCI). The college's June conferring ceremonies came to a conclusion recently with 40 candidates graduating with Higher Degrees at a conferring ceremony which took place in the College Hall at St. Stephen's Green. From the School of Postgraduate Studies, there were seven Master of Science (MSc) by research candidates, seven Doctor of Medicine (MD) graduates, 12 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) graduates and five Master of Surgery (MCh) graduates. The candidates carried out cutting-edge research in areas including tissue engineering; cardiovascular and coronary diseases; pressure ulcers; Alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency; vitamin D deficiency in athletes and health services research. Among these was Dr Tadgh McGivern, from Dundalk, who was named Class of 2016 valedictorian, the student who has the highest grades in a graduating class and who gives a speech at graduation ceremonies. He completed the impressive feat of achieving a PhD in three years, where four is usually the norm. His PhD, on the topic of cancer treatments, was entitled: 'Multifunctional copper drug candidates as a potential anti-cancer agents'. Their research will contribute to our understanding of a range of diseases including stroke, epilepsy, psychiatry, diabetes and breast and colorectal cancers. Professor Cathal Kelly, CEO/Registrar, RCSI said: 'I would like to congratulate every one of the 40 graduates who got their postgraduate higher degrees. Their work and dedication contributes so much to RCSI being a centre of excellence in world-class research and innovation. I wish them all the best in their future careers'. The Dundalk-based GP who was found guilty by the Medical Council of two counts of professional misconduct earlier this year has been allowed to continue to practice at his surgery in the Ramparts, with conditions attached to his registration. Dr Seamus Cassidy was found guilty in March by the Medical Council of two counts of professional misconduct found and allegations relating to 'a conviction outside the state for an offence that if done or made in the state would constitute an offence triable on indictment' and following submission of its report, the Medical Council decided to attach conditions to the Dr Cassidy's registration. He was convicted in Newry Crown Court in 2014 of conspiring with others to attempt to alter the 1.9 million will of Forkhill publican Kitty Haughey between December 2004 and 2007 and to fake a sale of property. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years. Dr Cassidy told the Medical Council inquiry, held in Dublin in March, that he had been placed under threat by a man who is no longer at liberty and said the duress to witness the will 'signature' was made by a patient, ' Mr A'. He said the threat increased and extended to his family and was 'in the context of the geo-political area'. He told the inquiry the threat was 'credible and real' and Mr A was no longer at liberty. He said no harm came to his family but Mr A had previously enforced such threats. 'I was trapped and I made the wrong choice', Dr Cassidy said. During the inquiry, when asked how he felt about his participation in the matters relating to his conviction in the North, he replied: 'I can only say shame, first of all to my family, to my profession. 'It's not very nice at this stage in your life to accept that you did something hugely irresponsible'. Dr Cassidy told the inquiry that 'in 2004 and before that, he did have a problem with alcohol. 'I drank too much and too regular,' he said, and added he now had the problem under control, and has had no lapses. The conditions on his registration include that he complete an alcohol awareness programme acceptable to the Medical Council; that he complete a programme in Medical Ethics acceptable to the Medical Council; that he undertake, with immediate effect, the bringing of his obligations up to date; that he meet with, on a regular basis for two years, a nominated person acceptable to the Medical Council to discuss your progress in compliance with the above and such person be free to provide reports to the Council if deemed necessary; that all cost arising from these conditions will be discharged by him and that the conditions attached to the retention of his name on the register remain in place for the minimum period of two years. Dr Cassidy was suspended from practicing medicine in the North from 2010 until February of this year following the allegation about Ms Haughey's will and the conclusion of the subsequent court case last year. Suspicions were raised when Ms Haughey's will was changed two weeks before her death. The south Armagh publican was widowed and had no heirs when was found dead in the living quarters of her bar. Her body was exhumed and a post-mortem examination confirmed death due to natural causes. Last year Dr Cassidy, also known as James, pleaded guilty to the will conspiracy. It was also alleged that Dr Cassidy failed to notify the council on his application for registration that he had been convicted in a court of law. Dr Cassidy told the inquiry he failed to declare to the council in May 2009 that he was convicted of drunken driving in the North of Ireland. He told the Medical Council inquiry he was ashamed and remorseful. He was embarrassed for his family and his profession, he said. He was ashamed that he purported to witness the signature of a will but he was under extreme pressure and duress. The 64-year-old GP runs a private-patient only practice, with staff, at the Ramparts and was previously part of the surgery run by the late Dr Mary Grehan. Funding for the arts in Louth needs to be addressed, according to Fianna Fail TD, Declan Breathnach who called on the government to ensure greater investment. Commenting on the issue, Deputy Breathnach said, 'Louth like the rest of the country has had funding for the arts reduced by 50%. Over two thousand people attend weekly arts events in Louth - this clearly underscores the importance of such events in our area. The economic rewards of directly investing in the arts was also clear, added the Louth TD. In 2015, the arts Council provided 300,000 of funding to the Arts community in Louth, however this is almost half of what was previously received. 'For every 1 that Louth County Council invests in the arts sector, it creates another 4.70 in return. This money is directly fed back into the local area.' 'My party and I are committed to protecting and supporting the arts community,' he added. 'Furthermore, Fianna Fail used its Dail time last week to highlight the importance of the arts sector in Ireland. The Private Members motion, which was debated across the house, focuses on the main issues facing the arts community. He added that culture and arts are vital to the fabric of Irish life. 'We have a rich arts history in Ireland, from Yeats and Kavanagh to Roddy Doyle and organisations such as Comhaltas.' Louth too is steeped in culture and the arts, and a range of artistic endeavours have put the wee county on the map. 'We must do all that is necessary to nurture and maintain this rich history, it is essential that the government increase investment in the sector,' said the Louth TD. Louth County Council Chairman Paul Bell has formally invited An Taoiseach Enda Kenny to visit Louth in the aftermath of the UK voting to leave the EU for the purpose of meeting with the elected members of Louth County Council and Officials as well as Oireachtas members, representatives of the business community, the trade union movement and the farming community. The newly elected chairman said: 'As soon as the Brexit result was announced, the chairman of Louth County Council Economic and Enterprise SPC Mark Deary engaged with me on this most serious development which has the potential to negatively impact on the future of our society and local economy. ;Following this engagement I determined that a formal invitation be issued to An Taoiseach with immediate effect. 'The democratic decision of the citizens of the United Kingdom is exit the EU is to be respected. However it is clear that a degree of uncertainty is manifesting itself within the British political system which is making it somewhat difficult to understand what focus if any the UK authorities have if any on addressing the concerns of its closest EU neighbour. T 'Therefore it is essential that government work with our council on the development of a corporate response to all the identified challenges'. Meanwhile, Cllr. Dearey, who was recently elected as the chairperson of the Dundalk Municipal District Committee, said the town had been left 'shocked and stunned' by the Brexit decision. The Green Party councillor said: 'While we are deeply disappointed and for now, disorientated, by the outcome of the referendum, we must work to find our bearings and ensure that our relationship with the UK and Northern Ireland continues to our mutual benefit. 'The new arrangements that will follow a formal British exit will be very different but must be made work to minimise the impact on our country and the border counties in particular. 'We welcome the Taoiseach's clarity round Ireland's future participation in the Union and agree that 'reflection and debate' are essential. But without reform and a new covenant between the people of the Union and its institutions we risk further disintegration'. On matters affecting Dundalk and North Louth, Cllr Dearey said: 'Counties like Louth will be at the sharp end of this result. There is an immediate need for clarity from government on the contingencies to deal with the difficulties that will arise for cross border workers, for the community and voluntary sector which has matured with a significant cross border dimension, for local and national trading arrangements and for shared responsibilities in river basin management, certain health services, the single energy market and of course the Good Friday institutions. 'More extreme currency fluctuations are likely and are very damaging to trade and investment and at a time when border towns are beginning to attract innovative investor interest. It is imperative that the Department of Enterprise and the Department of Finance work to counter such impacts however they can. 'As Chair of the Dundalk Municipal Council I will invite An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, to the area to discuss these matters'. And the Department of Health has moved to reassure people living in the border area that there will be no immediate change to arrangements following the British decision. In a statement to the Argus, the department said: 'It is important to be clear that the UK has not yet left the EU. Until it formally withdraws, the UK remains a full member, with all of its existing rights and obligations. 'We would like to assure people that there will be no immediate changes in the area of health as a consequence of the UK's decision. Cross-border services and health co-operation will not be affected in the immediate term. Arrangements are in place, building on an already completed initial risk assessment plan, to consider any longer-term implications. Ensuring minimum disruption in health and that essential services are maintained will be our key priority'. Bray-based Spirit Radio is spreading its wings, with the Christian radio station now broadcasting in Carlow. The people of Carlow are now listening to the station's mix of music, news and talk programming on 90.5 FM. The station, which was founded five years ago, draws 540,000 listeners a week and is proving to be a surprising competitor of some of the larger national radio stations. According to Amarach Research, Spirit Radio is a hit with 25 to 34 year olds. Largely music driven, the Spirit programming is upbeat, positive and contemporary. The station aims to appeal to people from a broad range of backgrounds who are looking to reflect on some of the deeper questions of life. Programmes include The Breakfast Show with Mark and Rebecca, the Morning Chat Show with Wendy Grace, and a mix of national and international news. 'The station is continuing to grow its listenership and we are really excited about the future,' said CEO Rob Clarke. The St Fergals graduation class make a donation to the Make A Wish Foundation and the Greystones Cancer Support: (from left) Conor Fullerton, Joseph Kelly, Principal Tom Sargent, Matthew ONeill, Christine Hamilton, Joe Carroll, Nikki Phang and Josh McGlone Sixth class pupils at St Fergal's carried out a very generous act as they came to the end of their primary school careers. The pupils decided to donate some of their confirmation money to charity. The children did research on a number of causes and decided to support the Make A Wish Foundation and Greystones Cancer Support. The pupils donated 125 each to the two organisations. They made their confirmation back in March and handed over the cheques at their school last week. Make A Wish Ireland grants the wishes of children aged between three and 17 years who are living with life-threatening medical conditions. Their purpose is to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. Greystones Cancer Support offers guidance, encouragement and support to cancer patients, their families and their friends. Their services include support groups, a range of therapies, and activities. The centre is located on La Touche Place in Greysotnes, and they can be contacted on (01) 2871601 or info@greystonescancersupport.com. Support for farm incomes in Budget 2017 is paramount for farming families, in the wake of Brexit, says the IFA. Speaking after the referendum that decided that Britain will leave the EU, IFA president Joe Healy has called for Budget support for next year, given the market uncertainty that has emerged in recent days. He outlined that 2016 is already proving to be an extremely difficult year for farm incomes. 'With low product prices across many sectors, the fall in the value of sterling against the euro is a further blow for exporting sectors. For Irish agriculture and the agri-food sector, with 40% of our agri-food exports going to the UK, and a shared land border, the implications of the decisions to leave will be significant. It is critical that steps are taken by Governments and institutions within Ireland, the UK and the EU to provide the reassurances that will minimise uncertainty and stabilise exchange rates". He outlined that a viable farming and agri-food sector is critical to the strength of the overall Irish economy. 'It contributes to employment across the country, and underpins our agri-food exports, which have grown in value by over 60 per cent since 2009. The risks from the Brexit outcome to this sector are great, and Government must focus its actions over the coming months on ensuring that these risks are minimised,' he said. A house linked to a man accused of attacking an elderly woman was set on fire last Friday night. The fire was at 6 Hazelwood, Fassaroe, Bray, the address given in court for Jamie O'Brien, who remains in custody. His mother Helena O'Brien (41) and other family members had left the property in recent months and sought to be re-housed by Wicklow County Council. O'Brien (22) stands accused of the false imprisonment and serious assault of Eva Sutton (90), which allegedly occurred at her Dublin Road home on September 10, 2015. Detective Inspector Frank Keenaghan of Bray Garda Station said that there was criminal damage to the house initially, in the 24 hours leading up to the fire. He said that some windows were broken and items daubed on the walls. Det Insp Keenaghan said that gardai are not aware of any threats made to the family. 'Nobody from the house has come forward and said that they felt under threat. They did look to be rehoused,' he said. Helena O'Brien appeared in Bray District Court on a public order matter on Thursday, June 22. A barrister indicated to the court that Mrs O'Brien intended to move home in a number of weeks. The fire occurred on Friday night at around 9.30 p.m. Nobody was in the local authority property at the time. Det Insp Keenaghan said that the gardai made the council aware of the incident. He said that gardai are actively investigating the matter. Their investigations include going through CCTV footage of people buying quantities of petrol at filling stations. He said that they have interviewed a number of witnesses and are appealing for anyone with information to come forward. He said that quite a considerable amount of work must be done in order to make the house habitable. The house had been sealed off on foot of the criminal damage and because it was vacated. Two crews of Bray Fire Service were dispatched to Fassaroe on Friday night. There was extensive damage throughout the property. They got the fire under control fairly quickly and were there for approximately 90 minutes, ensuring that the scene was secure. Pat Fitzgerald, Cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council, and CEO Bryan Doyle raise the rainbow flag at county buildings on Thursday The rainbow flag was raised at County Buildings on Thursday as Wicklow County Council joined in a national pride initiative. The local council was one of many around the country to raise a rainbow/pride flag for the 'Having Pride in Local Government' initiative. The Rainbow Flag was raised by the Cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council, Cllr Pat Fitzgerald and the Chief Executive, Bryan Doyle, to coincide with the first LGBTQ Pride Festival of the year which takes place in Dublin this week. A wreath in memory of the victims of the Orlando shooting was laid at the ceremony by the Cathaoirleach and Dave Thomas of the Wicklow Pride Festival. Before laying the wreath the Cathaoirleach said 'Today we reach out to the members of the LGBT community and show support and solidarity in remembering the victims of the Orlando tragedy and their families and friends of the deceased and injured.' The nationwide flag raising ceremony has the support of the committee of Dublin Pride and the Chairperson and Board of GLEN - Gay and Lesbian Equality Network. The Wicklow event was attended by council members and officials and representatives of the LGBT community in Wicklow. Wicklow Fianna Fail TD Pat Casey has labelled Brexit as a national, UK and European crisis and has called on the Taoiseach and the Government to work closely with all the opposition to tackle the fallout. Deputy Casey, pictured, outlined the urgent need for stability and called for a considered approach. 'This is the most dangerous economic and political crisis of the last 50 years. Calm and careful analysis is now essential,' he said. 'No one can exactly predict the range of economic effects that this will have Ireland but all are agreed that it's not good in the short term. Tourism and agriculture are just two planks of the Wicklow and East Carlow economy that will be affected immediately by Brexit,' he added. He stressed the point that this is not the time for 'narrow, political gamesmanship' and said that 'Parliamentary and political unity' is needed. 'As a businessman and employer I know the immediate risks to our tourism industry. UK tourists are this morning going to find traveling to Ireland more expensive while US tourists are going to find travelling to the UK cheaper than Ireland. There is also a troubling confirmation of the disconnect that exists out there amongst large groups of people and the political, civil service and media establishment. This needs to be listened to and a stimulus package put in place to give people hope in the future of our economic future within the EU,' he said. 'I will work with all my colleagues in Leinster House to ensure that we can steer Ireland through this crisis,' he added. The tourism and hotel industries will remain 'in limbo' with uncertainty following Britain's decision to leave the EU. 'It's very early to say what will happen at the moment, to define what type of effect it's going to have on the tourism industry' said a spokesman for Wicklow Tourism. He said that the UK is Ireland's largest source of tourism visitors. 'In terms of travel it's very early to decide,' he said, however the effect of decreasing Sterling is immediately visible. 'I was in the Woodenbridge the other day and they had British visitors staying overnight. By the time they checked out, their price had increased overnight.' He said that all we can do is brace and see what's going to happen. 'Hopefully the effect will be manageable.' He said that there is some anger out there as Ireland has been recovering well. Brian McNamara, Chairman of the Wicklow branch of the Irish Hotels Federation and general manager of the Glenview Hotel, said that their future bookings from the UK remain very strong for the next number of months. While the exchange rate has been affected, he noted a small recovery in the pound yesterday, but he added that it's still too early to say what the long-term consequences of Brexit might be. 'We don't know what the arrangements will be between ourselves and the UK,' said Mr McNamara. 'There is so much uncertainty.' That is likely to remain the case, he said, until further decisions are made in the United Kingdom, including a possible snap election. 'Until there is a new Government in play we're in limbo really.' Mr McNamara said that it is vital that the Irish Government maintain a 9 per cent VAT rate for tourism. What Brexit has left in its wake is "uncertainty" on Irish shores - that was the view point of Willie John O'Flynn, a director at Mallow Chamber of Commerce. Mr O'Flynn told The Corkman that since the UK referendum has absolutely left uncertainty in the short term. He said it was up to businesses to grapple with the situation and to put their strategic plans in place. He said: "There is without question uncertainly for businesses who deal daily with the UK and coupled with the weak sterling, it may well mean that projects that were to go forward could be put on hold." The Brexit move will also, he believes affect importing and exporting. "If the UK economy slows down, then it would have a knock on effect on businesses in the Mallow region and area. This is particularly so for businesses who deal daily with the UK," he said. The Annual Mass on the slopes of Mushera Mountain took place at St. John's Well celebrated by Canon John Fitzgerald assisted by Fr. James McSweeney and Fr. Con Kiely. The occasion was marked by the presence of the Millstreet Parish Choir and Millstreet Pipe Band. Crowds from across Duhallow, Muskerry and further afield convened at the picturesque location that salutes the popular feast day of St. John's Day and mid summer. The annual staging has become tradition with patrons from the adjoining parishes from Kerry, North and Mid Cork in attendance. Those present viewed the ongoing work undertaken by both Coillte and the St John's Well Committee over recent years, the huge project allows patrons a wonderful panoramic view of the Duhallow barony. The Well is situated in a quite and peaceful location for prayer and reflection in addition to being a focal point for visitors thanks to its setting. St. John's Well is readily accessible for the public-its updating beginning in the 1950's on the placing of a picture of St. John at the Grotto. The first Mass was celebrated on Mid Summers Day Day in 1974 and eight years later, the Stations of the Cross were officially blessed. Similar to other Holy Wells, St. John's holds a tradition and reputation for curing ailments. Following the Mass, many moved on to the nearby platform stage for dancing into darkness to celebrate one of the great days of Irish summer. There will be a taste of Neverland at the Oldbridge Estate in July as the Battle of the Boyne site hosts and outdoor performance of Peter Pan. J M Barrie's timeless classic is brought to life by the Chapterhouse Theatre Company in a brand new adaptation by award winning writer Laura Turner, with original music and songs, and beautifully designed costumes. This year marks Chapterhouse Theatre Company's 17th year of touring UK and Ireland, bringing to life some of literature's best loved classics in magical outdoor performances that are great fun for all the family. The performance tells the unforgettable story of Peter Pan the boy who wouldn't grow up. The Production of Peter Pan at the Battle of the Boyne Estate, Oldbridge will take place on Sunday, July 3rd at 6.30pm. Tickets cost 17 for an adult, 12 for a child or 48 for a family of two adults and two children. There is a 10% discount for parties of ten or more and the gates open at 5.30pm. To book tickets or for further information contact the Droichead Arts Centre. The performance is presented by special arrangement with Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity and Samuel French Ltd Those in attendance are asked to bring their own rugs or low back seating and everyone is welcome to bring along a picnic. A Round Tower 5k is set to bring a huge number of runners, walkers and joggers onto the roads of Monasterboice on July 24th. As part of the fund raising efforts at the Rainbow Challenge on the day, Albion Rovers are hosting the 5K run/ fun run and the proceeds raised will go towards the campaign. Entry Fee is 20 and each entrant will receive a goodie bag on the day. Some very special guests are to take part in the run and entries are encouraged online as soon as possible at https://register.primoevents.com/ps/event/TheRainbowChallenge2016. The day will have a number of different facets and will raise funds for the new all-weather project at the club and the Rainbow Club, the junior branch of the Irish Wheelchair Association. 'We are also hosting a Skills School on the day with Irish International & Liverpool legend Ronnie Whelan and friends. This skills school will be open to adults and children alike and is a great opportunity to hear from one of the best players Ireland has ever produced,' a spokesperson stated. There will be 4 hourly slots available and places are strictly limited to ensure everyone who takes part gets the maximum out of this unique experience. There will also be spot prizes of Ireland tickets up for grabs. The cost per person is 10 and this is open to everyone. Link to register : https://register.primoevents.com/ps/event/TheRainbowChallenge2016 The Rainbow Challenge will also feature a Junior Assault Course for all age groups from Under 8 to Under 15 inclusive. The cost is 40 per team of 4. Each age group will have 10 teams and the winning team from each age group will receive 6 tickets to an Ireland match at the Aviva (4 children and 2 adults) so everyone has a great chance of winning. As well as the above events, there will also be something for every member of the family to enjoy on the day :- Live music including Sean Tester, Ronan McQuillan (from the Enemies) and many more, Children's fun play areas and bouncy castles, slides etc. Arts and crafts displays and stalls, Cooking demonstrations from top local chefs plus Food and refreshments. All are welcome. Further details are available on www.facebook.com/Rainbow-Charity-Challenge-275873916098693/, website: http://www.therainbowchallenge.com/ or via emai rainbowchallenge2016@gmail.com Louth Co Council bestowed an Honorary Freedom of the County upon the visiting Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, who visited Carlingford last weekend. At a ceremony in the Heritage Centre, in the town, An Cathaoirleach, Paul Bell, presented the Vice President with the honour. Commenting after the ceremony, newly-elected Cathaoirleach Bell welcomed the Vice President by saying: "I want to welcome the Vice President of the United States Joe Biden to Carlingford, Co Louth, one of the most historic places in Ireland, a place that is steeped in history and literature since pre-Christian times." He quoted poet Arthur O'Shaughnessy: "We are the music-makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams, Yet we are the movers and shakers, Of the world for ever, it seems." In Mr Vice President we have a true "mover and a shaker", the second most important man in Washington, a man who are proud to call "one of our own." A security guard who was intoxicated and urinated at a shop window before verbally abusing gardai has avoided a conviction after he made a charitable donation. James McGuinness (46) was in Drogheda on the evening to play a darts tournament with his team and started to drink alcohol while also watching the Ireland V Belgium Euro match. The father-of-four had no recollection of the evening as he doesn't normally drink, Drogheda District Court heard. McGuinness, of Ashlawn Park in Ballybrack, Dublin pleaded guilty to being intoxicated and using threatening and abusive behaviour on Saturday, June 18th at West Street, Drogheda. 'He got completely intoxicated and has no recollection of the evening,' defence barrister Ronan O'Carroll told Drogheda District Court. Mr O'Carroll said the defendant, who works as a security guard, works extensively with members of An Garda Siochana and is 'deeply embarrassed' by his actions on the night. Inspector Brendan Cadden said while McGuinness was urinating on the shop window, members of the public were present. 'He then verbally abused gardai calling them names,' said Inspector Cadden. Mr O'Carroll pleaded leniency with Judge William Hamill asking him would he consider a charitable donation as a 'conviction would jeprodise' the defendant's job as he will lose his security licence. An offer of 200 was made but after Judge Hamill was informed that McGuinness had been given the benefit of an Adult Caution eight years ago, Judge Hamill doubled the donation to 400. Judge Hamill made it clear to the defendant that if he ever appears before the court again, the court will be made aware he has been given another chance. Maria Flynn began her first season of growing speciality potato the 'Purple Violetta' in June of last year, with her first harvest completed by the end the following September. The potato proved to be a huge success and she has since developed her own business of the speciality vegetable, called Ballymakenny Farm Heritage Potatoes. Speaking to the Drogheda Independent, Maria who is the wife of a potato farmer, got the idea of growing the 'Purple Violetta' potato, having spoken to a chef who provided speciality vegetables to hotels and restaurants. Maria found the Purple Violetta to be particularly of interest to her, not only because it was unusual, but also because of the anti-oxidents that are within the vegetable which means it is very good for you. To grow potatoes, you must plant seeds and Maria sourced the seeds for the Purple Violetta from Skea Organics in Scotland. Once she had her seeds planted, she started her own self-promotion through social media networking site Twitter. She tweeted about them while they were growing and soon gained the interest of different chefs. The first chef who started following her account on Twitter was Keith Boyle of Waterford who owns a restaurant called 'The Bay Bistro'. Keith had only recently opened this bistro when Maria started growing her potatoes and Keith was very interested from the start. He became one of the first chefs to use the vegetable, along with Michael Hunter, another chef. Maria also said that the Purple Violetta was on the menu for the Restaurant Assocation of Ireland Food Awards which were held in Dublin in May, where Keith won the award for best newcomer in the whole of Ireland. This is fitting as it proves how successful both of them have become and Keith has been a huge support to Maria since the very beginning. The Purple Violetta is mainly produced for restaurants but it is also being sold in Eddie Tuite Butchers in the Bull Ring, Drogheda. Scholars Townhouse Hotel and Tankardstown House are both great supporters of the vegetable, to whom Maria is very grateful also. Maria is also growing two other varieties of white heritage potatoes on the farm, Harlequin and Pink Fir Apple, with plans are to grow another variety of speciality potato called the 'Red Emmalie' this season, in the hope that it does as well as the Purple Violetta did last year. The 'Clodagh' is a brand new type of speciality potato which has never been on the Irish market before. It was developed by Eddie Craig of Belfast and took him 10 years to finalise. Maria will be the first person to grow the type of potato on her farm and she says she is very proud to do so for him. This potato also will have a wider market than the others and will be available for shops. Anyone who would like more information about purchasing the potatoes can contact Maria herself by phone: +353 863767334 or by email: mariaflynn70@gmail.com The EU will decide on whether or not there will be border controls between the Republic and Northern Ireland, and Declan Breathnach TD also says there will have to be some check on movement of goods between the two jurisdictions, otherwise a 'smugglers' haven' will be created. He was speaking in the wake of Britain's decision to leave the EU last week. 'Once there is a difference in prices, there is an increase in smuggling,' added Fianna Fail's spokesperson on north-south bodies & cross-border co-operation. 'Any fluctuations in the value of Sterling, unless there is a firm arrangement between the UK and Ireland on taxation, will see a huge movement of people from the south, buying cheaper in the north.' He doesn't believe the M1 will be made redundant by border controls backing up traffic in both directions. 'I can't see it on the motorway, but it is foolish to think it couldn't be.' As a consequence of the Brexit, people living in the Republic of Ireland and working in the north, are earning at least 10% less wages, he continued. 'We need to be focussed on the key issues of trade, and workers, north and south; and it is incumbent immediately on Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers to sit down to minimise the impact and to make sure the island can prosper, rather than be hindered.' He says he correctly predicted the outcome of the referendum, from what he picked up while canvassing with the SDLP in Northern Ireland, even though the six counties voted to remain in Europe. 'I don't believe the people realise what they have done,' he said of those in Britain and the north who voted to leave the EU. However, he can't see a repeat of what happened in this country with past referenda when two votes were taken until the 'right' result was achieved. Neither, does he believe would an Irish leader take the same course of action as David Cameron in stepping down after losing a such a vote. 'It wouldn't happen here. Not at all.' The Louth TD was taken by the prime minister's speech last Friday morning. 'He firmly believes it (to leave the EU) was the wrong decision.' Regardless, that decision has been made, and Breathnach says Sinn Fein calls for a border poll 'would muddy the waters at this stage, and putting that in the mix will not solve the problem (of the Brexit). 'The bottom line is I don't think Ireland, north and south, can afford a united Ireland, unless there is a huge injection of money from the EU or Britain.' Fine Gael TD Fergus O'Dowd has this week called upon the government to secure a Local Enterprise office for the region. 'In wake of the Brexit result we must focus on protecting our Irish interests at home and abroad in context of this fall out. Drogheda with its proximity to Dublin Airport can be a gateway City to both Europe and the UK,' he stated. Local Enterprise Offices provide funding for projects primarily in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sector in a bid to promote strong exports. The LEOs also help entrepreneurs to access the full range of state supports available to them from Revenue, the Department of Social Protection and the Credit Review Office. ' We need a purpose built LEO to serve the area of South Louth and East Meath to ensure that we can showcase ourselves as best we can and in turn helping entrepreneurs establish themselves with the full help and guidance of our government on our doorstep.' Senator Ged Nash says the Brexit is bad news for Irish SME's. We had a record year for exports last year because of the policies I promoted in government and the innovation in Irish business. While Irish exporters have been diversifying their markets with help from Enterprise Ireland, the U.K. is such an important trading partner,' he states. "Almost 90% of all Irish jobs are with our SME sector and there will be, even in the short term and before the full extent of new arrangements are worked, problems associated with the signing of contracts between Irish and British firms. "Currency uncertainty and fluctuation is bad news for Irish jobs and while there may be a short term benefit in terms of FDI into Ireland as against the UK, it's our indigenous exporting economy and jobs that will suffer. "The inevitable return of border controls and massive leakage of shoppers to the North is a massive concern. "The government needs to show a steady hand in dealing with the EU in relation to Brexit. They should ensure that the temptation that some EU states may have to 'teach Britain a lesson' is avoided and that the negotiated exit is done in such a way as to protect Ireland's national interest and our social, economic and cultural ties with Britain and in particular the sensitivities around our border with Northern Ireland." Enniscorthy Youth Reach is hoping that the people of Wexford will lend their support in a national competition. The group have submitted their film project 'Earth Addiction' into the awards and are calling for public support via online viewing to win one of the top awards in the X-Hale Youth Awards. X-HALE is an initiative of the Irish Cancer Society which aims to empower young people to tackle smoking in their communities and raise awareness about the dangers of smoking among their peers. The X-HALE Youth Awards national showcase event in the Light House Cinema in July will be the finale of months of hard work by youth groups nationwide in preparing short films and projects to encourage young people to be smoke free. Ahead of the national event which will see the entries judged by an independent judging panel, Enniscorthy Youth Group have the opportunity to win the public vote via online viewing on You Tube. The X-HALE Youth Awards 2016 entries are now live at www.cancer.ie/xhale2016 and can be viewed up to June 29. The entry with the most views will win the Online Award as well as a 'Go Pro' camera for their group. Sarah Chadwick, Cancer Prevention Officer at the Irish Cancer Society said: 'We are so proud of everything that the young people from Enniscorthy Youth Reach have achieved. They have educated themselves about smoking, learned new skills and worked together to create a piece of work that will inform and inspire other young people across Ireland and beyond. They are leading the way in the movement towards a tobacco free society and improving the health of their local communities. We commend their commitment to establishing Ireland's first smoke free generation. We are asking the public to get behind their local group or favourite entry by watching and sharing the X-HALE 2016 playlist.' This is the sixth year of the X-HALE Youth Awards and smoking rates among young people continue to decline. A major fundraising drive is under way at St Senan's Parish to clear debts of over 70,000. The debt which arose a 1million programme of structural repairs dates back to 2000 and has been steadily reduced over the years. However as this is the 150th anniversary of the church administrator Fr John Byrne has been making a concerted effort to bring the outstanding debt under more manageable proportions with a view to eliminating it all together. He had initiated a series of fund raising ventures over the past number of months and thanks to the generous response of parishioners the debt was reduced and now stands at just over 70,000. Last week the fundraising drive received a major boost last week when Enniscorthy Credit Union presented a cheque for 5,000 to Fr. Byrne, saying the cheque reflected the Credit Union's commitment to the community it serves. The presentation was made by Pat O'Shea, Chairman of the Credit Union's Board of Directors, who expressed the hope the money would help Fr. Byrne in his efforts to clear the outstanding debt and in promoting celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the church. Mr. O'Shea outlined the role of the Credit Union in the community life of Enniscorthy and spoke of how pleased he was at being able, through the Credit Union, to support such a worthy cause. St. Senan's Parish Church, he added, has played, and continues to play, a most important role in the spiritual and community life of Enniscorthy. He said that the Enniscorthy Credit Union was delighted to be in a position to assist with its fund raising efforts. Expressing his deep appreciation, Fr. Byrne said the cheque represented the biggest single contribution his fund raising initiative had received. He thanked the Board of Directors and the members of the Credit Union for their generosity before assuring Mr. O'Shea the Credit Union's contribution would be remembered as a clear example of wonderful support for a worthy project in a time of need. He wished the Credit Union continued success in the year's ahead before saying that this was not the first time for the Credit Union to offer financial support to St. Senan's Parish Church. He said that some years ago the Credit Union also donated a substantial sum for the upgrading of the Church organ. Founded in 1866 by the late Richard Devereux of Wexford, St. Senan's Parish Church is known as the 'Little Chapel'. Author Felicity Hayes-McCoy has delved into her family history in Enniscorthy in previous books but with her latest release, she has decided to turn over a new leaf. 'The Library at the Edge of the World' is the Dublin-born author's latest offering and her first attempt at writing a novel. Since its release at the beginning of June, Felicity says she has received a 'wonderful' response from readers both at home in Ireland and in the UK. 'It has been promoted as a feel-good summer reading book. Others are saying that it is "perfect for fans of Maeve Binchy" which is so amazing,' she said. 'I'm so delighted that it is going well.' 'The Library at the Edge of the World' tells the story of Hanna Casey, a local librarian who has returned to the West Coast of Ireland after life didn't go too smoothly for her in the UK. It deals with a woman's search to regain independence by reintegrating into a community, which is spurred on when she and the locals discover that their beloved library is under threat. The new novel is littered with various influences from Felicity's own life. Having been born in Dublin and spent much of her childhood between her ancestral homes of Enniscorthy and Galway, Felicity grew accustomed to living in a small community where everyone knows their neighbours. She later decided to move to England, where she carved a name for herself as an actress and later as a writer in London's bustling arts scene. However, the urge to return home won over in the end and she eventually decided to return to Ireland and set up again in Dingle. Through her experiences in both London and rural Ireland, Felicity was inspired to write a book that gives 'a strong sense of two different places'. The book is a much lighter creation than Felicity's previous book 'A Woven Silence' which was based loosely her families involvement in the 1916 Rising. 'It was prompted by the fact that my granny's cousin Marion Stokes flew the Irish flag in Enniscorthy after the Rising,' she explained. 'It is not Marion's story, but the story of so many women. It is about how my and my mother's generation of women did not inherit the same aspirations for women that are enshrined in the Proclamation.' Despite Marion's key involvement in the Rising in Enniscorthy, Felicity said she never spoke to her about it. 'Marion lived until she was 87 and I knew her well but she never talked about it,' she explained. 'This was a generation of women who would not talk. I think it is one of the reasons for the level of inequality in Ireland today.' 'I always knew deep down that she had been involved in the Athenaeum. But these were things people didn't want to talk about. We went through it without the knowledge and exploration that we have going on now.' Felicity will make her own return to Enniscorthy on June 30 when she launches her latest book in the library at 7 p.m. Over thirty Cub Scouts from Malahide Sea Scouts Tonnta Pack took to the wilds of Wicklow to test their camping skills on Reachra Scout County's inaugural 'Maurice O'Toole Bear Necessities Cub Challenge'. The event took place in Scouting Ireland's Campsite at Lough Dan near Roundwood in County Wicklow. The Cub Scouts tried their hand at many of the usual Scout skills including backwoods cooking, pioneering, the assault course as well as water activities. Many other ancillary Activities were great fun as well as tree climbing and a monster campfire on the Saturday evening. The cubs had a fabulous weekend and as the sun shone brightly all day Saturday this was the perfect recipe for the youthful expenditure of energy. Speaking at the event Cub Scout Leader Anna Hickey said: 'Lough Dan is the most beautiful and natural of wildernesses and it is an ideal place for cubs to have unique outdoor fun in total safety. 'They are also totally removed from all the trappings of modern life such as television, computers and mobile phones and revert to their imagination to devise what devilment they might get up to, and devilment they do.' The pack have been extremely busy in recent weeks with a programme of sailing and kayaking and a large number of cubs embarking on their Chief Scouts award. The county camp doubled as the pack's annual camp this year and everybody will take a break in the next couple of weeks to recharge their batteries sand return in the autumn to their brightly refurbished scout den in the centre of the village. A Swords man has expressed his anger after a man convicted of manslaughter had his hip replaced within days of being jailed, while his mothers hip operation was cancelled. Michael, who does not want to be identified, said his mother, who is in her 60s, had her operation scheduled to take place on Monday, June 20. But, Michael said on Friday, June 17, his mother was informed that Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital, where her operation was due to take place, was overbooked and her operation was cancelled. Dave Mahon, who was convicted of the manslaughter of his step-son Dean Fitzpatrick, was sentenced to seven years in jail on June 13. He was brought from Mountjoy Prison to Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital for the hip operation a few days later. Michael said his mother has been on the waiting list for nearly two years and three days prior to her scheduled operation it gets cancelled. When she received the call to say they were overbooked and would have to move her out by a month, she had to turn this July date down as her daughter is getting married at the end of July. You would think a killer that was just sitting in prison might have been able to be moved to July, rather than bump off someone who has been waiting two years and is in constant pain. Michael said: I obviously dont know how serious Mahons hip issue is. I only know my mother is having a hard time sitting down and is in pain when standing up. As she is somebody who hasnt killed anybody, Id hope that our society would put some value on that. It appears not. This is just so frustrating and annoying. Wheres the justice there? I am getting fed up of our systems that seem to squeeze the hell out of anybody who works honestly and seems to prioritise the criminals in our society. He said his mother now has to wait for the hospital to get back to her with a new date, which may be in August or on a date later than this. Mahon, of Ongar Village in Clonsilla, went on trial for murdering 23-year-old Dean on May 26, 2013, at Northern Cross on Dublins Malahide Road. He was acquitted of murder but found guilty of the manslaughter of Dean, who is the son of his partner Audrey Fitzpatrick. Fingal County Council has been called on to outline the potential impact the earth-shattering Brexit vote to leave the EU will have on the region. The demand was made by Swords-based Labour councillor Duncan Smith who has asked for the chief executive to give a report at the council's next full meeting on July 11. Cllr Smith said: ' With our proximity to the Northern Ireland border, the importance of Dublin Airport to the region and our willingness to promote a strong tourism strategy for Fingal, it is certain that the decision of the British people to leave the EU will impact, at least indirectly, on Fingal. He said he was interested to hear the views of the Chief Executive at the next meeting and if any discussions have taken place between Local Authorities and central Government on this very important moment in the European movement. Meanwhile, the business community has reacted to news of the UK's plans to leave the UK. Fingal Dublin Chamber of Commerce President, Guy Thompson said: 'This result has the potential to create great uncertainty for businesses and clearly there are issues that will have to be carefully addressed by the Government for the continued growth of Ireland's economy. 'The UK is Ireland's largest single trading partner in Europe and Ireland must be careful to continue to work closely with the UK as a key partner while working to develop more markets in Europe for Irish companies to expand their business. 'In Fingal we must continue to ensure that the Region is attractive to investors and has the necessary infrastructure to sustain and grow the number of jobs for our young well educated workforce.' said Guy. 'Fingal is regarded as an attractive place for people to work, live and enjoy a high quality of life and must be promoted as the prime location within the Greater Dublin Region for companies to invest and build their businesses into the future.' International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), which owns Aer Lingus, believes that the vote to leave the European Union will not have a long term material impact on its business. In the short term, however, in the run up to the UK referendum during June, IAG experienced a weaker than expected trading environment. Following the outcome of the referendum, and given current market volatility, while IAG continues to expect a significant increase in operating profit this year, it no longer expects to generate an absolute operating profit increase similar to 2015. In a statement, IAG said it would update the market in due course. The citizens of Fingal are taking an active part in shaping their county's future with news that a some 900 submissions have been received from members of the public on the formation of the Fingal County Development Plan which sets the agenda for the region over the next six years. Approximately 900 submissions in relation to the Draft Fingal Development Plan 2017-2023 were received by Fingal County Council before the April 29 deadline, the chief executive of Fingal County Council, Paul Reid, told members of Fingal County Council at their monthly meeting. In his monthly report to councillors, Mr Reid, said the preparation of the Chief Executive's Report for the Draft Fingal Development Plan has commenced and will be presented to Councillors on July 22. Mr Reid added that there were seven Public Information Drop-in Sessions at locations throughout the county during the consultation period which were well attended and facilitated a useful exchange between citizens and Council Planning officials. The chief executive also reported that the council's director of service for housing and community, Margaret Geraghty, appeared before the Oireachtas Housing and Homeless Committee on June 2 along with housing directors and senior staff from the other Dublin authorities and senior officials from the Department of Environment and Local Government. The meeting provided the Committee with a range of data on housing and aided a broad discussion on the serious issues facing the Council in the area of housing provision. He told Councillors that, under the Social Housing Strategy 2020, Fingal County Council was given 81 million and set a target of delivering 1,376 units in the period from 2015 to 2017. To date the Council has delivered 522 units, with a further 668 either approved or agreed, and is on course to exceed its target by the end of 2017. 'We are confident we will have the funding commitment from Government to actually deliver that number and we will be well above and beyond the target we were originally given,' said Mr Reid. Mr Reid also informed Councillors that Fingal's Community Development Office will shortly launch the first of a suite of resource books for best practice in Community Development. The Residents Association Handbook is an aid to the work of the community development worker. A mother has avoided a jail term after she admitted harassing a former family friend for two months over some 'mild school banter' between the women's young daughters. In September 2015 Aisling McCann (34) began making anonymous silent phone calls to the victim from a blocked number. Over the next two months she harassed the victim by sending anonymous emails insulting her daughter and telling her to keep away from her children. She would also order food online and have it delivered to the woman's home and ordered taxis to pick her up at her home. McCann of Oaklands Park, Swords, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to nine charges of harassment on various dates between September 11 and November 22, 2015. Garda Sergeant Gerry Holland told Tom Neville BL, prosecuting, that all the harassment grew out of some very mild school banter that was taken out of proportion by McCann at a stressful time in her life. Judge Melanie Greally noted that McCann was going through a particularly difficult and vulnerable stage in her life. Instead of confiding in family members she was trying to manage her stress by drinking alcohol. Judge Greally said she was suspending a 12 month prison sentence after taking into consideration the woman's lack of any other convictions and her very early plea of guilty. When gardai went to McCann's house in December last (2015) the accused owned up to all the acts of harassment. Sgt Holland told the court she was completely remorseful at that time. He said there was no logic to her behaviour, which he described as completely irrational. He said the harassment stopped immediately after gardai confronted her. The victim had declined to make a victim impact statement and was just relieved it had stopped. Before it was traced to McCann the harassment caused the victim fear and anxiety and was very distressing to her and her family, the court heard. Sgt Holland said that the former family friendship was now severed and unrecoverable. Patrick Jackson BL, defending, said his client came from a very decent and honest family. He said the McCann family wished to thank the garda sergeant for his sensitivity in dealing with the matter. He told the court that the two women's daughter had been friends and that McCann's daughter told her mother about some 'very innocent innocuous comment'. Counsel said McCann was drinking at the time and was under stress because her family home was in negative equity and her daughter was starting secondary school. Sgt Holland said she had made the calls and sent the emails from her own smart phone and it was easy for gardai to trace them back to her. In imposing sentence Judge Greally said McCann was a responsible and supportive parent who was going through a difficult period in her life. The Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Darragh Butler, raised the Rainbow flag at County Hall, Swords, as part of the 'Having Pride in Local Government' initiative and to mark the LGBTQ Pride Festival in Dublin at the weekend. Chief Executive of Fingal County Council, Paul Reid, laid a wreath as a mark of respect to the 49 victims of the Orlando shooting on June 12. he event was attended by councillors, Fingal County Council staff and members of the public and was part of a series of nationwide ceremonies where Local Authorities raised the Rainbow Flag at County Buildings. |The Mayor said he welcomed the support of the Committee of Dublin Pride and the Chairperson and Board of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network for the initiative and added that the Dublin Pride festival has become a celebration of diversity in modern Ireland. 'The Rainbow Flag is a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride and LGBTQ social movements. The colours reflect the diversity of the LGBTQ communities and I am delighted, in my first week as Mayor of Fingal, to raise the Rainbow Flag here at the County Hall,' said Cllr Butler. Two Moldovan men have appeared before Dublin Circuit Court on charges relating to the seizure of 30,800 cigarettes, worth 16,000, at Dublin airport. The men, aged 26 and 27, each pleaded guilty to an offence under section 119 of the Finance Act 2001, evasion of excise duty with intent to defraud the State. Revenue officers found the smuggled 'Marlboro Gold' cigarettes in the men's checked-in baggage, when they arrived in Dublin on June 18. Judge Smith sentenced each man to six months imprisonment, suspended on condition that they leave the country within 24 hours, and fined them 2,500 each. The smuggled cigarettes have a retail value in excess of 16,000 Dog poo might one day be DNA tested to identify the culprit, Gorey Municipal District councillors were told at their monthly meeting last week. Responding to a suggestion by Cllr Malcolm Byrne that the new Council environment warden could tackle the problem of dog fouling, Gerry Forde told him that there is a new system in America where dog poo is DNA tested. He explained that when people register their dog, a DNA sample is taken, so the culprit can be traced. Cllr Byrne was perfectly happy for the Council to look at doing that. A Tralee native is lighting up the German stage in the lead role in the classic Bizet opera Carmen at present in the latest episode of an already stellar career in classical music. Paula Murrihy, from Oakpark Demesne - a daughter of John and Eileen Murrihy - is the toast of the opera-loving circles of Deutschland at present, winning rave reviews for her performance as Carmen in the latest production from Oper Frankfurt. Apart from the demand on the vocal chords, the performance is also incredibly physically taxing, involving an eye-catching set of giant steps, and a turn for Paula trussed completely up in rope. Not that audiences noticed any of the strain on this opera pro, as Paula's incredible voice carried gloriously across the aisles, even while bound in rope. The former Siamsa Tire member has been with the Oper Frankfurt ensemble since 2009, rising to prominence in recent years to win leading roles in their productions. The mezzo-soprano was widely celebrated for her interpretation of the title role in Antonio Cesti's L'Orontea; as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier (which she also performed at the Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam as well as the Stuttgart Opera) and as Polissena in Handel's Radamisto. On her 2014 performance as Dido with Oper Frankfurt, Simon Williams of Opera News had this to write: "Hers was a Dido of supernal serenity, disrupted by volatile outbursts of emotion and desire, held together by a gloriously pellucid voice that riveted our ears to Purcell's tragic melodies and rendered Dido's death memorable." High praise indeed and just one of a plethora of rave reviews Paula has garnered over the course of her career to date. Deutschlandradio Kultur described her performance as Carmen as 'fantastich!', adding: "Murrihy brings to the role a flexible, versatile voice - sometimes big, particularly strong, soft and supple...Murrihy sings this Carmen like a song, a fine embodiment of the role, on one long breath, word perfect." Hopefully she's braced for even more attention as the Kerry woman is now set to make her debut next March on a stage revered within the opera world: New York's famous Metropolitan Opera. Paula was meanwhile delighted to host her mother and father just last week at Oper Frankfurt in a proud moment for all the family. It's sticky, unsightly and God help you if you get some on the seat of your britches. But the perennial scourge that is chewed chewing gum litter is now firmly in the sights of the local council, the Killarney Tidy Towns Committee and the Chamber as they launch a new campaign to combat the nasty gunk. "Bin it Your Way" is the message from the Killarney Munical District together with Killarney Tidy Towns Committee and Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce, launching their campaign to raise awareness of the correct disposal of chewing gum. Should you find your gum too long in the gob, don't simply attach it to the underside of a bench or any other surface - just put it in a bin. The campaign, encouraging the public to dispose of their used gum responsibly, was launched this week as the first-round judging in the Tidy Towns gets underway. Breda Dyland (Manager) of the Kerry Cancer Support Group received a cheque from Carol Hannon and other members of social group, Women 2000 Killorglin on Tuesday, CYMS Hall, Killorglin The Kerry Cancer Support Group (KCSG) welcomed a fine donation on Wednesday, June 22, by Killorglin social group Woman 2000, who raised the proceeds at a coffee morning and cake sale in May. A cheque of 1,500 was presented to Breda Dyland, Manager of KCSG, by Carol Hannon and other members of the group. Ms Dyland extended her thanks on behalf of KCSG, both to the organisers of the event, and those who supported Woman 2000's May 10 event at the CYMS Hall in Killorglin: "Every donation means so much to us, but as well as that their event provided us with great exposure. We're working hard to put our services in the limelight, and having been in Killorglin on the day I can say they did a great job promoting us." The donation was in aid of KCSG's Kerry-Cork Health Link Bus, a bus that travels every day (with the exception of public holidays) to Cork University Hospital, and occasionally other hospitals in Cork. Ms Dyland said the bus service is a central part of what they do: "It services both Kerry and parts of Cork. We started out with a 14-seater minibus, but we had to upgrade such was the demand for the service. Thanks to very generous funding over the years we were able to do that." "The bus isn't just handy for those who need to travel down to Cork, it's also a better way for the patients to travel. If you're making the trip alone, it can make a tough experience even lonelier. But these patients lift each other's spirits when they're together." "Some people in CUH have said they'd prescribe the bus to more patients if they could! We have our own little corner in the hospital that's been christened 'The Kerry Corner'." For information on KCSG call (066) 719 5560. The effects of rural isolation have been heavily documented, but it was the lack of concrete action in combatting those problems that led to the creation of Rural Men's Group, according to South Kerry Development Partnership's Paddy Casey: "People were saying that the isolation needed to be tackled, but very little was actually being done. So we took matters into our own hands." "We had a pre-cursor to today's group operating in South Kerry between 2006 and 2008, and many studies were coming out at the time that gave a better idea of the scale of the problem and what needed to be done." "The GAA then set up a social initiative in 2009 on the back of some of that research, and they piloted it in Kerry. That led up to the birth of what we have here today." Since then, Rural Men's Group has been a binding force in south Kerry, uniting people who had previously been threatened by problems that plague rural Ireland. Mr Casey told us about some of the activities that make the group so enjoyable: "When we started out it was dominated by trips to matches, and we were immediately successful. There was great demand." "Since then, we've kept up the matches, but we go sightseeing too. We also make off musical events, we play cards, go to rambling sessions, and we've visited all corners of the country! We try to fit in five or six major outings every year." On June 22, they went on one of those days out, and brought the judges for this year's Pride of Place Awards with them. Joseph McCrohan is heavily involved with Rural Men's Group, and he told us all about their daytrip around South Kerry: "It started off that morning in the Ring of Kerry Hotel, there was a massive turnout, and the judges got to see what we do." "We went to the met station in Cahersiveen, we took the car ferry out to Valentia, had a lovely lunch together, and the judges were clearly impressed by our comradery." Currently under the chair of Kevin Griffin, the group is now served by clear structure, and Mr Casey was confident that their future is promising: "We were described some years ago by Weeshie Fogarty as 'the best team to travel to Croke Park'. It's a great honour to be recognised by the Pride of Place Awards, and by Kerry County Council. We must be getting stronger!" "Our next trip will be to the Willie Clancy Festival, and I'd encourage folk to come along and get involved with Rural Men's Group." Brosna is getting ready for a major celebration this coming Friday, July 1 - of its native son Bartholomew O'Connor, a close of friend of Michael Collins who played a crucial role in the Easter Rising and the war of independence. Bartholomew 'Batt' O'Connor later went on to serve as a TD for Dublin until his death in 1935. Now, in the year of the Rising Centenary, his home place is to pay tribute to his record in a major way in what's likely to prove a poignant commemoration. Starting with a Mass of Remembrance at the St Moling and St Carthage Church in Brosna at 7.30pm complete with honour guard from the RDF Barracks in Tralee, it will witness the dipping of the flags at consecration; before a full military parade into the square for the raising of the flags at 8pm. A wreath-laying ceremony, lowering of flag's and a minute's silence will take place then before the reading of the Proclamation of the Republic. The launch of the new book on the man's life and times will take place locally afterwards, entitled Bartholomew O'Connor: His Life and Fight for Irish Freedom. Born in Brosna in 1870, O'Connor was with Con Collins prior to his arrest in 1916; later becoming a close personal friend of Michael Collins while incarcerated with him in the infamous Frongoch Prison Camp. Fr Donals final resting place in the military cemetery in Bozincourt marked by the distinction of his own burial plot, separate to the mass graves Imagine, if you can, the scene: Bombs more lethal than had ever before been fired exploding all around; soldiers getting ripped apart by machine gun bullets and shrapnel no sooner than going 'over the top' and the whole acrid stench of a terrifying new method of waging war thick in the air. This was the start of the Battle of the Somme - 100 years ago this week - when the Allied High Command unleashed hell on Earth against the German army; firing more than 1,700,000 shells in an opening week-long artillery bombardment in the hope of breaking the German defence and taking the Somme Valley. In the midst of all this carnage was the figure of a young Kerry priest, bravely making his way through the terrifying chaos to minister to the dying and the wounded in a duty he considered sacred, a duty that was just about the only bit of comfort to be had for many in the deathscape. Even though he was just 26 years old Killarney native Fr Donal O'Sullivan had already made quite a mark on the world. A son of Dan and Hannah O'Sullivan of High Street in the famous tourist town, he had been ordained in Maynooth just two years earlier, before returning home to work in his alma mater of St Brendan's Seminary as 'professor', as listed in his biography in the Royal Army Chaplains Department Seventh Brigade records. Incredibly, he was not the only one of Hannah and Dan's offspring caught up in the World War. His older brother Dr J Ivo O'Sullivan had been in service as a medic with the Fifth Connaught Rangers for two years by the time the Somme assault was launched, described in dispatches as a Lieutenant with the Royal Army Medical Corps; and the eventual recipient of a Military Cross for his bravery in the field. Dr O'Sullivan's deeds partly inspired his younger brother to enlist, as did the urging of the Bishop of Kerry at the time - who appealed for a chaplain to accompany the many Catholic men from south Kerry, in particular, then joining the British Army. Fr O'Sullivan would display every bit as much bravery as his brother did in action. "He was well respected by his men and quite fearless and would give the sacraments to the wounded and dying," the annals of the Royal Army Chaplains Department chronicle. But while Dr O'Sullivan would go on to a life beyond the conflict, returning to Kerry where he would later pioneer ground-breaking methods in containing disease, Fr O'Sullivan would not see the end of the opening week of the Somme. On July 5, 1916, five days into the notorious battle he was cut down by shrapnel while ministering to a wounded English soldier. Of all the Somme stories that resonant in this county, his is perhaps the most extraordinary - for the bravery of his sacrifice and for what would come later. "We could tell 100 stories about what happened in the war, but when we focus on one story it really brings all the pain, suffering and grim consequences to light and there's no story better than Fr O'Sullivan's," historian Maurice O'Keeffe - of Irish Life and Lore - told The Kerryman. Fr Donal and Dr J Ivo's stories stand out among all the Kerry-related WW1 research Maurice has compiled over the years. Thanks to interviews he conducted with Fr Donal's nephew Billy and Dr J Ivo's son, also named Ivo - both of whom still reside in Killarney - he's gleaned a very deep understanding of their lives and times. "It is extraordinary to think that two brothers from Kerry were caught up in the conflict as they were. Dr J Ivo getting wounded in Gallipoli, earning the military cross and being invalided home before returning to the front line in France and his brother Fr Donal going off with the men of the Royal Irish Rifles in the Somme." It was at Bozincourt in the Valley of the Somme where Fr Donal met his death. In further evidence of his bravery, the records of the Royal Army Chaplain show how it was a fate he might have escaped but for his own determination to be with his men: "At first he was denied by his Commanding Officer permission to accompany the assaulting wave, but eventually his CO relented and he was allowed to be with his troops for the assault. Four days later, on the fifth of July, Fr O'Sullivan was killed by a German shell-fire. They like Fr O'Sullivan went into battle with greater courage, but like Fr O'Sullivan half were fated not to return." Extraordinary turn of events And it was his final act of mercy that gave rise to one of the most extraordinary parts of the whole story as Maurice O'Keeffe recounts. "Incredibly, the English soldier to whom Fr O'Sullivan was tending when he was killed survived the War and, having saved up enough money afterwards, made the trip to Killarney in 1918 along with Fr O'Sullivan's suitcase which he had kept. He presented it to his mother Hannah and was able to tell her about the circumstances in which her son had been killed." For many years afterwards the O'Sullivan family kept the suitcase exactly as a memento in exactly the same state it had been when presented to them in 1918: closed. It wasn't until decades later that his nephew Billy first peeked inside. "What he found was incredible. There was Fr O'Sullivan's rosary beads still encrusted with the mud from the trenches of Somme as well as chalices for the Mass and the diary he kept of his time on the front!" The diaries are among the most valuable of all firsthand evidence relating to the War, but with a difficult, shorthand script required very careful translation, something Fr O'Sullivan's nephew Billy has been doing these past years. "One fascinating entry Billy uncovered from July 1 shows that the soldiers were only then being shown how to fix bayonets to their rifles and use them." Historian Noel Grimes has also taken a keen interest in the life of the KIllarney cleric, obtaining the loan of one of the chalices from the O'Sullivan family for a special Mass in St Mary's Cathedral commemorating the outbreak of the First World War two years ago. Fr O'Sullivan would enjoy a distinction even in death, historian Tom Dillon told The Kerryman. Mr Dillon has twice been to the cleric's grave at the Bozincourt Communal Cemetery in France. "Fr Donal is buried in his own private plot in Bozincourt, which is pretty unusual as I know of only three instances of this recorded, and I presume it was because he was a chaplain. The plot is located right inside the gateway to the cemetery, just opposite the Calvary Cross." Maurice O'Keeffe pointed to another distinction for the Killarney man -it is believed that he may have been the youngest chaplain to have been killed in the war. St Brendan's College is honouring its former teacher with a special commemoration this Tuesday - the very anniversary of Fr Donal O'Sullivan's death of July 5. Following the 7.30pm Mass, two lectures will be given in the college; a memorial lecture Catholic Chaplains in World War 1 will be given by Canon Gerard Casey, Mallow PP. Fr Tomas O Luanaigh will meanwhile deliver a lecture entitled 'Kerry Clergy in the National Movement'. Organised by Coiste Cumann na Sagart Chiarrai on its own centenary nationally, the commemoration will undoubtedly shed even more light on the life and times of the man as well as the greater political circumstances of the time that robbed him of his life at such a young age. "We offer all a naoi gcead mile failte to our gathering in St Brendan's and hope you can join with us on a historic anniversary," Coiste Cumann na Sagart member Fr Tomas O Luanaigh said. They're called Imagining Iveragh and while many across the county may not know exactly what they're about, the group has wowed Pride of Place judges after being nominated as one of three Kerry entrants in this year's national competition - and deservedly so. In November 2015, members of the Canadian George Brown College travelled to South Kerry to do research as part of their Interstitial Zones project, and their success has earned a nomination for a Pride of Place award. They focus on Kerry's potential as a destination, its culture and heritage, its innovation, and the county's science and ecology, before creating implementable ideas aimed towards economic development and job creation in the region. During their time in the region, they identified a need to raise the voice of other, lesser known attractions, making them accessible and promoting them through collaborative efforts in the area. They also identified fertile ground for research in its maritime and mountainous influences, and varied terrains, with potential noted for a research and visitor centre in the area. One of the college's team proposed a range of options to explore the area's relatively untapped archaeological potential, and encouraged the promotion of farming education and new agricultural business and technology in the region. Those working with the group expressed delight at being nominated for a Pride of Place Award, and are hopeful that their work will reap benefits for an area of Kerry with immense potential. Members of Castleisland Races Committee and the Humphrey Murphy Memorial 5K and 10K pictured at their recent announcement of details of their annual meeting and associated events The annual Humphrey Murphy Memorial Fun Run takes place on the later date of Thursday, July 7 this year along with Castleisland Races on Saturday, July 9 as they have both been drawn in to add substance to the Castleisland Summerfest. The Summerfest is the latest attempt to return the town to the glory days of summer-time fun in Castleisland. A collection of long established events - like those mentioned - have been added to the mix with this in mind. "Due to demand, the committee, under the chairmanship of Charlie Farrelly, has added a 10k road run to the usual Humphrey Murphy Memorial 5K. The 10k runners will be first off from the starting point near Clonough Bridge on the Limerick Road," according to Castleisland Race Committee PRO Pat Hartnett. The route will continue towards town and around the Tullig / Black Road circuit on its way. The runners will then turn left at Garvey's SuperValu, right at Aldi and on up through Barrack Street, left at JK O'Connor's and on to the Killarney Road / Eugene Leonard Roundabout, right for Tralee Road Roundabout, back in Tralee Road with the finish in front of the Ivy Leaf Art Centre. A few minutes after the start of the 10k race, the 5k group will begin the Tullig circuit and they will also take the left at Garvey's and right at Aldi up Barrack Street and around the Back-of-the-Forge up to the finish also at the Ivy Leaf Art Centre. There will be prizes for the first and second ladies and gents and souvenir medals for all participants. All proceeds from this run will go to Glebe Lodge Residential Care facility on the Brosna Road. Registration time is 6.30pm at Limerick Road with the slightly staggered start for both groups is on and close to 7pm. Entry fees 10 each with a 20 family fee. On Friday, July 8, there will be a children's puppet show at 6pm at the Ivy Leaf Art Centre and this is followed by the Castleisland Desmonds GAA Club organised Brawl in the Hall at Castleisland Community Centre at 8pm. On Saturday, July 9. the Castleisland race meeting now in its 157th year - will get under way at 1.30pm on the Powell's Road lands of Maurice Brosnan. There is a 10 race card with over 5,000 in prizemoney. Main sponsor this year is Mortimer Reidy and Patrick O'Leary of ROL Construction and the feature race will be the two-mile, Island Derby sponsored by the London based ROL construction company. On Sunday from 12noon, the Vintage Car and Tractor Rally / Family Fun Day / Car Boot Sale will take place on the grounds of Castleisland Co-Op Mart and details of this are being finalised at present. Local charities to benefit this year will be the newly formed Castleisland Graveyard Committee. Contributions will also be made to St. Ita's and St. Joseph's School, Tralee and Castleisland Social Club Christmas Party. "All of the above organisations have tickets for sale at 5 each and these tickets will entitle the holder entry to the races on July 9. On the day the entry will be 7. Castleisland Graveyard Committee members have embarked on a clean-up of local graveyards and this will benefit everyone in the locality. Castleisland Races Committee is delighted to be in position to help this very worthy cause. The races committee wishes to acknowledge the generosity of its sponsors and anyone who helped in any way," said Mr. Hartnett. The men in black from the American Secret Service were thick on the ground outside Murphy's shop in Dublin last Thursday as United States Vice President Joe Biden made a diversion on his trip to the capital to enjoy a dollop of Dingle's finest ice cream. The Vice President called into Murphy's Wicklow Street outlet at lunch time, during his visit to Dublin where he also met President Higgins. Vice President Biden, who was accompanied by his family, enjoyed the creamy taste of Murphy's vanilla and chocolate ice cream. Biden is noted for his discerning taste in ice cream. After a recent rally in Portland he surprised staff and customers with an unannounced stop at the city's Salt and Straw ice cream shop, explaining afterwards that, "it's the best ice cream in town and I'm an ice cream guy". Ventry will be upgraded to high speed broadband within the next year providing speeds of uo to 1000Mb/s, Eir bosses announced in Dingle on Monday when they assembled in An Diseart to meet the people and outline the continuing programme for the rollout of fibre broadband in Kerry. However, the meeting heard that some other parishes in West Kerry will have to wait until 2020 before they get up to speed. The public event in An Diseart, which seemed to be attended by the entire top rank of Eir, gave people an opportunity to meet with the company's policymakers and to see how the technology works. At a panel discussion chaired by Carolan Lennon, Managing Director Eir Wholesale, Fionnan O hOgain, of Udaras na Gaeltachta, welcomed the arrival of high speed broadband, adding that a recent survey conducted by Udaras na Gaeltachta found that 50 per cent of business owners were lacking proper broadband services and this greatly inhibited their growth. He also appealed to Eir to reconsider their decision to cease providing bills and services in Irish, explaining the importance of the language to the assembled management team. Panel member Kieran Murphy of Murphy's Ice Cream said he felt that "people do not fully understand the impact of this new technology" while expressing confidence that high speed broadband will allow Murphy's to pursue their goal of "defining what luxury ice cream is for the world". The third panel member, Philip King, founder of Other Voices, welcomed wholeheartedly the installation of high speed broadband in Dingle and recounted how the festival has previously been forced to drive to Tralee to transfer music video over the Internet to the Guardian website, because the local service was so poor. Both Philip and Kieran, while they welcome tourism on the peninsula, agreed that it is not a suitable industry on which to base the economic future of the area. "Give bright people the tools and they will do the rest" said Kieran regarding the installation of fibre broadband. "It will be a credible advantage to Ireland when we find an accommodation between STEM (Science technology and Mathematics) and the Arts" said Philip. O'Neills pub in Camp is the setting for the Ciorcal Comhra It lost its Gaeltacht status 90 years ago, and is situated some 15 miles from the boundary of Kerry's most vibrant Irish speaking area, but gaelic green sprouts are breaking through the soil in the small west Kerry village of Camp once again. Mike O'Neill's pub is the home of Ciorcal Comhra, an initiative that draws Irish speakers together to use the language regularly. The first gathering of patrons was organised some six months ago by Brid Herlihy of Lios Poil, the most easterly village in the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht. But far from being dominated by speakers from the language's traditional Kerry home, Ciocal Comhra is frequented in the main by natives of Camp, and a few others from east of the village. "It's been up and running since winter now, and takes place on the first Thursday of every month", Ciorcal Comhra regular Mary Ui Mhorain tells The Kerryman. "Brid loves the language, and it was her who got the whole thing running. We've a few regular attendees, and a few others who participate from time to time, so we've built up a following from the earliest days and we're looking to make the gatherings more structured." Mary, originally from Causeway, explains what she means: "Up to this point, it's been a matter of some people showing up and talking about any old thing. But we're now hoping to arrange a topic ahead of every Ciorcal Comhra, and introducing a membership system." Mary's confidence in Ciorcal Comhra is indicative of her faith in the language, and the initial stability of the initiative, coupled with positive statistics, suggest that her place might not be delusional. It's something of a myth that Irish has been in decline for many centuries. The recorded number of Irish speakers has increased with almost every census since 1961, and Kerry is no outlier to the national trends. Almost half of Kerry people claimed to have some proficiency in Irish when filling out their census forms in 2011, an increase in eleven points from what was recorded in 1961. Mary expresses not one ounce of surprise when presented with this information. "You can definitely see a softening in attitudes towards Irish." "I work in University Hospital Kerry, and I always use my Irish with patients who are speakers themselves." "The other nurses and doctors mightn't have Irish, but they always love to hear it being spoken, and they tell me that they wish they had a few words themselves. They wouldn't have been saying that even a few years ago." She also points to the growing popularity of gaelscoileanna as evidence of an upturn: "They've become very popular, a lot of them are packed out, and the more of them that appear, the more people that have Irish growing up." Bridget O'Connor, also of Camp, attends the Ciorcal Comhra regularly, and she reinforces Mary's claim that the language is viewed with much more positivity now. "It's a lovely event, sitting at the fireside in O'Neill's, using a language that we all love but mightn't get to use as often as we would like." "Nearly all of the people attending are from outside of Corca Dhuibhne, and we've a few with a real gra for the language coming from Tralee and joining us for a few drinks. It really is great craic." Not all of the situations Irish finds itself in today are as positive or idyllic as the images painted by Bridget, however. Almost all of the Gaeltacht regions around the country have been wilting consistently in terms of the numbers of Irish speakers they have. Kerry's Corca Dhuibhne and Uibh Rathach regions have not been immune to that curious disease. The percentage of Irish speakers in those two areas has dropped by a dozen points over the course of these last fifty years, and detailed studies such as NUI Galway's Staidear Cuimsitheach Teangeolaioch ar Usaid na Gaeilge have emphatically denied that any upturn is imminent within the Gaeltachts. Again, Mary doesn't seem overly surprised, but refuses to be downbeat over these negative statistics: "Fishing isn't the industry that it used to be, and a lot of Gaeltachts would have depended quite heavily on it. Many have had to go abroad looking for work, and with the lack of industry in Gaeltachts, it's no surprise that they've been hit very badly." "Even those who haven't gone abroad have had to move to towns or cities for employment. "I also think there's less emphasis on Irish now when putting in for state jobs." Whatever the reasons for the decline of the language in Gaeltacht regions, Mary, Bridget and the rest of the regulars at Ciorcal Comhra will be unperturbed, and they hope that the stability of their new initiative is maintained. Grave fears over the future of a Killarney primary school are being raised by parents and local politicians this week amid concern the Department of Education might move to close it due to dwindling enrolments. Two Mile National School on the outskirts of Killarney has witnessed a decline in pupil numbers in recent years. A two-teacher school up until its closure for the summer on Wednesday, it was to continue as a one-teacher school under Principal Tim McKenna from September next. That's based on last September's enrolment figure of 17 pupils - just one shy of the figure required to secure two teachers under Department of Education teacher/pupil ratio rules. The Kerryman was told by parents this week that there are fears many of the current pupils enrolled and still of primary age come September will not be returning to Two Mile National School as the school contracts further, however. As of the start of this week the school was being served by two other teachers apart from Mr McKenna, but both of retired from their positions at the close of the term on Wednesday. New Cathaoirleach of the Killarney Area Municipal Authority and former pupil of Two Mile NS Brendan Cronin told The Kerryman this week that he is deeply fearful for the future of a primary that enjoys a special place in the heart of tis community. "I have huge concerns for the future of Two Mile National School," Cllr Cronin, also a former Board of Management member of the school, said. "As someone with very strong links to the school, having been one of three generations of my own family to have attended as a pupil I am calling on the Department of Education not to take any drastic steps over its future. "I'm saddened by the current situation we're in. As we know enrolment numbers in a national school are critical as they form the basis of teacher provision for the following year. "There has been a steady decline in numbers at Two Mile and it appears now that the situation might be critical for the new school term. I'm concerned as I know how the Department looks at things. If they see a situation in decline they will only look at figures, and not at the impact of the decision on the broader community." The Kerryman contacted the Department of Education and the St Brendan's Trust, which owns the school property, on the matter, but neither body had replied by the time of press. "I will be appealing to the Department to assist the board in whatever way possible to prevent the school's decline and to keep Two Mile in place," Cllr Cronin added. Grave fears over the future of a Killarney primary school are being raised by parents and local politicians this week amid concern the Department of Education might move to close it due to dwindling enrolments. Two Mile National School on the outskirts of Killarney has witnessed a decline in pupil numbers in recent years. A two-teacher school up until its closure for the summer on Wednesday, it was to continue as a one-teacher school under Principal Tim McKenna from September next. That's based on last September's enrolment figure of 17 pupils - just one shy of the figure required to secure two teachers under Department of Education teacher/pupil ratio rules. The Kerryman was told by parents this week that there are fears many of the current pupils enrolled and still of primary age come September will not be returning to Two Mile National School as the school contracts further, however. As of the start of this week the school was being served by two other teachers apart from Mr McKenna, but both retired from their positions at the close of the term on Wednesday. New Cathaoirleach of the Killarney Area Municipal Authority and former pupil of Two Mile NS Brendan Cronin told The Kerryman this week that he is deeply fearful for the future of the school which enjoys a special place in the heart of the local community. "I have huge concerns for the future of Two Mile National School," Cllr Cronin, also a former Board of Management member of the school, said. "As someone with very strong links to the school, having been one of three generations of my own family to have attended as a pupil I am calling on the Department of Education not to take any drastic steps over its future. "I'm saddened by the current situation we're in. As we know enrolment numbers in a national school are critical as they form the basis of teacher provision for the following year. "There has been a steady decline in numbers at Two Mile and it appears now that the situation might be critical for the new school term. I'm concerned as I know how the Department looks at things. If they see a situation in decline they will only look at figures, and not at the impact of the decision on the broader community." The Kerryman contacted the Department of Education and the St Brendan's Trust, which owns the school property, on the matter, but neither body had replied by the time of press. "I will be appealing to the Department to assist the board in whatever way possible to prevent the school's decline and to keep Two Mile in place," Cllr Cronin added. "Stephen was a very empathetic boy. It's long been an aim of mine to have something positive there in his name. He needn't just be remembered as the victim of a horrendous incident." Lotte Lyne is familiar a pain that every parent dreads. It's just over seven years since her son, Stephen, was murdered yards from his home on Killarney's Ross Road. He had been the subject of a false rumour, which resulted in the most dreadful consequences. He was just 17. But Lotte's clear that today's discussion is not so much about the past as it is about the future. Just weeks ago, The Stephen Lyne Foundation was born. Its goal is 'to change our community, child by child.' Its first move towards reaching that target will be the introduction of the award-winning Roots of Empathy programme in three Killarney primary schools for the 2016/17 academic year: "Roots of Empathy, an anti-bullying project, was started in Canada twenty years ago by Mary Gordon, and it's been tremendously successful", Lotte says. "After Stephen died, I did lots of research, as I wanted to do something positive in his name. This impressed me most." Roots of Empathy has long gone global, and has been rolled out by Barnardo's in 65 Irish schools. Soon, with thanks to The Stephen Lyne Foundation, it'll debut in the Kingdom: "It'll be piloted in Killarney soon, with third class pupils at St Oliver's, Holy Cross Mercy, and Presentation Monastery. They'll be the first students in Kerry to engage with the programme." Roots of Empathy is unique: a baby is brought to the classroom for each lesson during the year, the students observe the emotions expressed by the baby, and discuss what has triggered those expressions. "By doing this, students are encouraged to talk about feelings. They take notice of what upsets and delights, and they then become more emotionally aware. The baby teaches them." "The programme has had proven success. Sometimes, more 'troublesome' students engage best of all. It can change a bully, rather than push them away. It's all-inclusive." The foundation will need to raise funds for the programme, however. Some 20,000 is required, and a Coffee Morning at The Brehon on July 6 from 10am to 12noon will go some way to easing that pressure: "Tickets are available at The Brehon, and O'Donoghue's Pharmacy, Main St Killarney. They cost 10, though you can also pay in on the day." "We also have a gofundme page, and further information is available at www.stephenlynefoundation.org. I must say that people have already been very generous, and I'm very thankful!" Lotte has both eyes fixed on what's ahead. She says that the foundation wants all 18 primary schools in Killarney to be engaging with Roots of Empathy by 2018, before it spreads around Kerry: "I think many factors have made today's world more aggressive, less empathetic. Children learn what they live. No child is born evil, and Roots of Empathy is tackling desensitisation, and restoring empathy." "It'll play an important role, and I'm proud that Stephen's name will be associated with it." Lotte can be contacted at (086) 352 7606. The link to the gofundmepage is https://www.gofundme.com/2afetgs. It's the economy stupid. Back in 1992 this simple phrase - promoted originally as an internal slogan to keep Democratic campaign staff on message - became the cornerstone of Bill Clinton's successful bid to oust George Bush and take the US presidency. Since then the Clinton campaign's snappy and highly effective mantra has been adopted by politicians across the globe and it has provided the foundation for countless successful political campaigns. Sadly for Europe it seems the Remain camp in the Brexit campaign mislaid their copy of the Clinton electoral handbook. Rather than focusing on the effects of Brexit on the British economy and particularly on voters' wallets - effects which are becoming quickly and painfully apparent to the UK electorate - the Remain campaign allowed themselves to get caught up in a pernicious propaganda war centred on immigration. Efforts to steer the campaign towards economic issues were lacklustre and utterly failed to capture the public's imagination, a gross failing on the part of the Remain camp given the Leave side's woeful grasp of economic issues. The division between Remain's leading advocates the Conservative and Labour parties - especially the dismal relationship between outgoing Prime Minister David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn - also didn't help matters. Instead of a simple and cogent warning about the dangers of Brexit the Remain campaign offered the British electorate garbled, confused and mixed messages. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage and his ilk on the Leave side were allowed to hammer home their crude anti-immigration mantra. It was a simple message that preyed on public ignorance and fear and which represents the very worst in modern politics. That Remain allowed it to gain enough traction to win the referendum is a travesty. It is also a disaster for the UK and Europe. Brave and courageous decisions will need to be taken now and political parties across the continent will need to put common good ahead of their own electoral interests. Whatever happens, the coming months and years will see a massive change in Europe as the EU and the UK negotiate how to disentangle their existing arrangement and forge a workable new one. In this context Ireland finds itself in an unfortunate predicament. As an EU member - and one that relies on the good graces of the EU more than most - Ireland cannot afford to alienate itself from other members in order to ingratiate ourselves with our soon-to-be non-EU neighbours. To avoid a domino effect of countries abandoning the EU the union must take a tough stance with the UK. A sweetheart deal that would allow Britain keep the benefits of membership while not being part of the Union will not be on offer. In the coming talks between the EU and the UK, Ireland must support our fellow members and fight for the future of the Union. However, as one it is of Ireland's most important trading partners and given the myriad of issues surrounding the North we also cannot afford to alienate the UK. Enda Kenny and his government - who are in a remarkably weak political position - face a most difficult task in navigating this tricky European tightrope. Lets hope they have a head for heights. Hook Head in Wexford was one of the four stunning locations to take centre stage in the brand new TV ad Hook Head is being showcased in all its glory in the television advert for Ireland's Ancient East. The ad which was first aired last week the story of a little boy who can't get to sleep. His dad begins to tell him stories from a big, orange book and they are transported to the beautiful landscapes of Ireland's Ancient East, witnessing the brutal Viking raids in the spectacular Dunmore Caves in Kilkenny and the tragic history of Spike Island in Cobh. Next they visit the world's oldest lighthouse on Hook Head before discovering the origins of the mysterious dolmens in the stunning Cavan Burren. Finally, the little boy discovers where his dad's stories really come from. The music is an exclusive edit of 'That Day' by Villagers, recorded live at RAK for the album 'Where have you been all my life?' Hook Head in Wexford was one of the four stunning locations to take centre stage in the brand new TV ad, alongside Dunmore Caves Co. Kilkenny, Cavan Burren Park, Co. Cavan and Spike Island in Co. Cork. Other top Wexford attractions which are being heralded by the A to Z campaign include Ballyhack Castle, Forth and Bargy and Duncannon Fort. You can also view the ad on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2gWiRU2vx or www.irelandsancienteast.com. The shock decision by Britain to leave the EU will have an knock-on effect for the haulage industry in Ireland particularly if borders are reinstated. Wexford woman Verona Murphy, President of the Irish Road Haulage Association, said that while she does anticipate changes she said she is optimistic about the future. 'The most immediate thing I anticipate is that with the fluctuations in currency there may be a drop-off in exports. However, I think that will settle down. But if borders are reinstated drivers are going to lose two hours' driving time, which will mean that the Irish product will be late getting to market. 'There are opportunities now for the Europort in Rosslare for a larger French ferry. This would be a direct route to the EU and it is something that should be researched. It is badly needed. 'We need to focus now on the most direct route to market and if transport in the UK is not viable then we will have to look to mainland Europe.' Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan will be one of the guests of honour at this year's Kennedy Summer School. Taking place in New Ross from September 8 until September 10 the summer school is billed as a 'Festival of Irish and American, History, Politics and Culture'. With close to 40 guest speakers participating over three days on a wide range of different topics ensuring there should be something for everyone. The organisers are busy putting the finishing touches to the line up but said that the US Presidential Election will obviously feature prominently. 'We're currently busy gathering leading contributors from the U.S. and Ireland for what we are describing as the strongest panel on U.S. politics ever assembled in Ireland. This panel will include numerous special sessions on the anticipated Trump V Hillary battle.' On the evening of September 8 the 'Kennedy Summer School' will be opened by the American Ambassador, Kevin O'Malley. The guest of honour and keynote speaker for the Summer School will be the former Governor of Maryland and Democratic Presidential Contender, Martin O'Malley. The Garda Commissioner, Noirin O'Sullivan will be interviewed for this year's Kennedy Summer School Interview. The organisers are also assembling an impressive panel on the impact of the 2016 Irish election, and on whether there is really anything new about Ireland's new politics. The Dunganstown Tea Party is also returning this year and will feature a number celebrity chefs and other special guests. Other Irish guests include; Ann Doyle, Charlie Bird, Larry Donnelly, Colm O'Gorman, Tony Bates and many more. Log onto kennedysummerschool.ie for further details and tickets. All hands were on deck at the recent Helen Blake replica project launch in the Talbot Hotel, where a large crowd arrived to register their interest. The project was established to honour the nine lifeboatmen who lost their lives while trying to save sailors off the Wexford coast in 1914. It is the brainchild of David and Keith Power, who are descendants of one of the crew members. Deputy Norwegian Ambassador Solve Steinhovden, who attended the centenary ceremony in 2014, made his return to Wexford to open the launch. He said it was a privilege to be invited and given an opportunity to meet the community who are committed to honouring the bravery of the crews who went to rescue the crew of the Norwegian schooner Mexico. Dr Yvonne Byrne then outlined the details of the project and spoke about how it could benefit the local community. As the construction is to be carried out as part of a TUS training programme, she explained how the project could offer employment to 18-25 year olds who will receive training in both carpentry and boat-building skills. In addition to this, it is also expected that the replica will become a tourist attraction in the county. A video from Naval Architect Theo Rye was played to the audience, in which he spoke passionately about the Helen Blake project. Wexford County Council Chairperson Tony Dempsey then paid tribute to the Fethard community saying that this project highlights the willingness of local people to get involved in events in their local community. Mark Brennan concluded the evening by speaking about the crowdfunding element of the project and pointing guests towards the site Indiegogo should they like to donate. Once funds have been gathered for wood, the construction can begin under the supervision of local shipwright John Colfer, who counts the Dunbrody as one of his previous projects. The work is expected to take approximately 18 months to complete. Online logistics firm Scurri, which is based in the Bullring in Wexford, may be forced to open a UK base to service customers there in light of the Brexit vote. CEO Rory O'Connor said that a lot of the company's clients are UK-based and while they are currently able to service them remotely from Ireland, they may have to open an office in England in light of the Brexit vote. 'At the moment nobody knows what's happening and there are talks about a second referendum. A lot of people are holding tight and seeing what's going to happen. Nothing will happen for two years. 'For us the main thing is servicing our clients. We will have to look at opening a presence there to support them although we are currently able to do this remotely. It depends what happens over the next while. At the moment its business as usual. 'But it would be an additional base. We won't be pulling out of Wexford or Ireland. We also have EU clients and being in Wexford is beneficial as its in the EU. It's very unclear what's going to happen. If they make customs more difficult it will mean more paperwork. We make delivery simple for customers and if there are new regulations it may lead to increased charges and administration costs. 'We will definitely need to have a couple of people in the UK and that will mean increased overheads. But as a company we are growing steadily and we plan to continue to grow. E-commerce will remain between the two countries even if they do tighten up legislation.' The RNLI held its Annual Presentation of Awards at the Guinness Storehouse last week at which the charity presented 56 individual awards to volunteers from across the country, five of them from County Wexford. Those honoured were presented with awards for their significant contribution to the RNLI in Ireland and years of dedicated and committed service to the charity. Many were fundraising volunteers, recognised for years of service to the charity, while others were lifeboat crew who collected their long-service badges after many years on the lifeboats. Guest of honour at the ceremony was outgoing RNLI Chairman Charles Hunter-Pearse who presented the awards. Mr Hunter-Pearse will step down later this year after a successful term as Chairman of the Institution. He said to everyone receiving an award, whether their service has been at sea or ashore, 'please wear it with pride. It is the mark of someone very special, selflessly dedicated to the lives of others.' 'Every day, all around our coastline, people come together to do something incredible for someone they've probably never met. Lifeboat crews put to sea not knowing what situation they will face. It also takes determination to raise funds. It's a determination that sees people raise astonishing sums to keep our service running, and that is no small feat, it requires endless talent, imagination and energy.' David Delamer, Chairperson of the RNLI Council, in Ireland, formally opened the proceeded and who welcomed the volunteers and their families to the ceremony. The citations were read by Emma Gibson RNLI Area Manager and Owen Medland RNLI Divisional Operations Manager for Ireland central. those from Wexford who were honoured: * Trevor Campbell, from New Ross RNLI Branch, who received a Gold Badge. Trevor is a committed and diligent treasurer who works with the chairman of this small branch to raise the profile of the RNLI and to raise income. He helps organise flag days and Mayday collections in the New Ross area. The branch is also involved in assisting with the appeal of the new D Class in Fethard-on-Sea and they work closely to support them and their fundraising activities. * John Dimond from New Ross RNLI Branch received a Gold Badge. John volunteers as Secretary and Chair of the New Ross branch and is an enthusiastic and committed volunteer. He has been a long serving fundraiser for the RNLI in the area. Although a small RNLI branch John engages with the community to raise awareness and is the longest serving member in the branch. * Anne McMorris from Kilmore Quay RNLI Station Branch received a Bar to Gold Badge. Anne has been a diligent Station Treasurer at Kilmore Quay for 25 years. Anne also took on the Chairperson of the Station Management team in 2008 and has also been an dedicated RNLI fundraiser in the area too. She also delivers 'meals on wheels' to the elderly in her limited spare time. * Dr Reggie Spelman, from Kilmore Quay RNLI Station Branch received a Bar to Gold Badge. As a GP in a rural practice in Wexford, Dr Reggie Spelman has kindly provided medical support and advice to the Kilmore Quay lifeboat station for over 34 years as the Honorary Lifeboat Medical Adviser for which the marine community are extremely grateful. * Florence Jenkins, from Wexford RNLI, Fundraising Branch received a Bar to Gold Badge. Florence is an outstanding volunteer who has over thirty-five years fundraising for Wexford Lifeboat and is at present the Chairperson in the branch. Her dedication is incredible and she is heavily involved in Mayday, flag days, working in the lifeboat shop and lifeboat coffee mornings. Her work ethic is second to none and nothing is too much to take on. She raises the profile of the RNLI in Wexford town. No matter where his career in politics takes him Cllr Michael Sheehan said the year he has just spent as Cathaoirleach of New Ross Municipal District will be a political highlight. Reflecting on those that have gone before him as chairman Cllr Sheehan said that a quick look around the council chamber in the Tholsel showed all the names of past chairmen and chairwomen of the district, all of whom had made an invaluable difference and contribution to New Ross and its environs. He said that he had thoroughly enjoyed his year as Cathaoirleach saying it had brought many highs. 'It's been a great year. I enjoyed it immensely.' He thanked Director of Services Eamon Hore for the work he had done on the new Barrack Lane Park saying it was 'a fantastic amenity, not just for New Ross but for the entire county. The key now will be how much respect people show it in terms of litter prevention and dog fouling. 'The area has been preserved for generations to come and it really belongs to the people.' He thanked district manager Sinead Casey saying it had been 'an absolute privilege to work with you. 'You show an amazing amount of professional and talent in your dedication to the town.' Cllr Sheehan also thanked the council staff and engineers Abraham Dunne and Dan McCarthy for all their hard work over the year. He went on to thank his follow councillors for their contributions and input over the 12 months noting they had been all able to get through the business of the meetings very efficiently although he joked that now he was back sitting around the table the meetings might just take a tad longer! Reflecting on the future for New Ross Cllr Sheehan said that they would know within months if natural gas could be brought to New Ross and said that there had already been a commitment to bring broadband to the town. 'Overall our infrastructure is slowly but surely growing. What has been put into place will serve us well and with the planned regeneration of North Street and Hill Street this can only improve things. There is still a huge amount to be done in terms of derelict houses, dog fouling and housing but I have a heart full of hope.' District manager Ms Casey congratulated Cllr Sheehan on a 'very successful year' and said that in his travels overseas to London and Savannah he had promoted New Ross and the district very effectively. She also said he had shown great support and initiative to the council when presented with various projects. Cllr Martin Murphy congratulated him on his performance over the year and said 'speaking is your forte and I wish you well in your ambitions' saying Cllr Sheehan had 'had a couple of goes at the Seanad and Dail'. Cllr Anthony Connick said he had been a very fair chairman while Cllr Willie Fitzharris also congratulated him on a very successful year. 'New Ross is very close to your heart', said Cllr Michael Whelan 'and you worked very hard.' Cllr John Fleming said Cllr Sheehan had shown 'great attention to detail' and said he had been a great speaker. Cllr Larry O'Brien said it had been a very good year for the area under his stewardship saying a lot had happened in the town and district. Cllr Oisin O'Connell joked Cllr Sheehan should be aiming not for the Dail or the Seanad but for the White House prompting Cllr O'Brien to wonder if 'somebody here knew something about another election?' Atlantis Seafoods got along swimmingly at the inaugural Irish Free From Food Awards, reeling in three prizes for their Dunnes Stores branded products. After putting forward four of their products for the awards, the seafood distributor picked up a gold, silver and bronze award at the ceremony in the Mansion House. It was their haddock goujons that struck gold with the judges, while their smoked haddock scooped a silver award. A bronze award was also awarded to the company for their breaded hake. Commenting on the win, Sales and Marketing Assistant at Atlantis Sorcha McSweeney said it was a 'fantastic opportunity' for the company. 'We were delighted with the win,' she said. 'This is the first year that the awards have been on so it was great to win right across the board. We submitted four products and to receive three awards was brilliant.' Atlantis Seafoods are the exclusive producers of the Dunnes Stores breaded fresh fish range, all of which is gluten free. They produce the fish in their Wexford processing facility using fish landed daily in Kilmore Quay and distribute it to Dunnes Stores outlets nationwide. Members of the public got a taste of these award-winning products and many other Atlantis dishes at the Maritime Festival over the weekend where they proved to be a big winner once again. With the recent win now under their belt, Atlantis Seafoods hope to grow their Dunnes brand further, as well as establish a wider range of own brand products in the coming months. All of their own products are currently sold in their shop in Strandfield Business Park and other retail outlets. The FreeFrom Food Awards Ireland were founded by John Burke - a lifelong Coeliac and longtime judge of the FreeFrom Food Awards in the UK. They recognise, encourage and reward the achievements of producers who produce good quality free from products. This is the first year that they have taken place in Ireland. This isn't the first time that Atlantis have received an award for their seafood products. They already have a Gold Great Taste Award, a Blas na hEireann award and several Wexford Business Awards to their name. Earlier this year, they proved once again that they are top of the food chain when their seafood was used at the 1916 State Commemoration Dinner. John Kenny, a director at Atlantis, said the company didn't know in advance its produce was used for the State dinner. 'There were so many events happening in Dublin at the weekend and we supplied the wholesaler who provided them to the venues,' said John. 'We didn't know exactly where they were going, however, the prawns were definitely ours.' He said that in addition to prawns, Atlantis sent large quantities of smoked salmon, hake and other seafood to the capital in what had been a bumper weekend. A Swedish classical guitarist is coming to Dolly's Cottage in Strandhill this Thursday. Organiser Deirdre Correia said it's the first concert of its kind for the cottage and hosting events like this could become a regular occurrence. She said: "Roger Broberg contacted us asking if he could play here. His wife Lena and himself are regular visitors to Sligo. The recital is beginning at 7.30pm with a wine reception. There's a nominal fee of three euro. We're coinciding it with the launch of our own gallery shop, where people in Strandhill can showcase their crafts and arts." Deirdre said Roger is well regarded as a musician and has lots of contacts across Europe. "He said he loves the Irish traditions and culture and wanted to do a concert here. It will be a lovely, intimate acoustic session, a mixture of his own Swedish interpretations as well as Irish airs. Roger is kindly doing the event for free. We are looking into running a series of music recitals during the summer," Deirdre said. The cottage is open Thursdays to Sundays. Jason McGovern (19) a second year student in IT Sligo who died after an assault on New Years Eve in 2012 A Co Tyrone man has been acquitted of the manslaughter of a 19-year-old IT Sligo student who died after injuries sustained after a one punch assault. Jason McGovern, who was a second year student in Performing Arts at the college, was out socialising with a group of friends in Omagh on New Years Eve 2012. The Co Monaghan teenager was found dead in a friend's house hours after an assault outside a nightclub in the town. A postmortem revealed the young man had a fractured skull and died from resultant bleeding on the brain. Mark Donnelly, 23, of Greencastle, Co Tyrone, had pleaded not guilty during the manslaughter trial in Dungannon Crown Court. During an earlier trial, Donnelly maintained he was innocent who was wrongly identified by a flawed witness. He was last before the courts in June but the jury was unable to reach a verdict in the case. That was the second time a jury had failed to reach a verdict in the case. Another trial had to be aborted for legal reasons. Donnelly was acquitted after the prosecution offered no evidence last week. A prosecution lawyer told the court that they were offering no evidence on the manslaughter charge. The jury of seven men and five women were then instructed by the judge to find Mr Donnelly not guilty by direction. "This case was due to start today for a hearing which would have lasted a number of weeks," the court heard. "There have been developments in the case, and as a result of that, the prosecution are not offering any evidence on the charge before the court in relation to the defendant. "I am directing you to find the defendant not guilty." Donnelly was convicted on a separate charge of affray at a previous trial and will be sentenced in September. He is still to be sentenced on a charge of "having fought and made an affray" on the same night during which Mr McGovern's friend had his jaw fractured in John Street in Omagh. He was found guilty of that charge at a previous trial. The 23-year-old was released on continuing bail until he will be sentenced in September. Fellow classmates of Mr McGovern's in IT Sligo were left shocked by his death in the early hours of January 1, 2o13. Former Professor of IT Sligo Terri Scott said at the time Jason was a popular student whose death had saddened everyone in the college. The young man had been part of a group of friend's who travelled to Omagh for New Year's Eve celebrations before the assault occurred. Mr McGovern had complained of headaches before going to bed. Last Friday morning people woke to the news that Britain had voted to leave the EU. What next was the question on everyone's lips. Uncertainty, doubt, confusion and fear seemed to be the main feelings surrounding the tight referendum which saw the Leave campaign edging out by 52% to Remain's 48%. Around the streets of Sligo there was also added concerns as a border county, the repercussions for us could be even greater than those felt in other parts of the country. This certainly was the feeling of Paul Keyes, CEO of Sligo Chamber. He told The Sligo Champion: "This is going to have very negative consequences, we can see that developing already with the sterling which will obviously have effects in Sligo as we are so near the border. "The fact there will be significant changes, such as border controls in the next two years as we're told. It's very bad for our economy in terms of tourism and trading, Britain is our largest international partner and this is a very substantial setback. "At Chamber level throughout Chamber Ireland we're working with European Chambers to ensure that an agreement is reached with Britain that it's exit is done in the best interests of Britain and Ireland. "This will have a massive knock on effect on Sligo, in as much as Dublin conveys to Brussels the effect on the periphery, we in Sligo must convey to Dublin how this will affect us. It's another blow," Mr Keyes said. He added it's hard to see any positive effect, only uncertainty and massive fluctuations in currency. "The border is only forty miles up the road, this will affect us greatly because we're so close." Sligo County Council's Chief Executive Ciaran Hayes said it's too early to predict what the outcome of Brexit will be. He added: "In the immediate aftermath of the vote, it is too early to predict the likely consequences. "We will be examining both the positive and negative implications over the coming months across a wide range of issues and, depending on the outcome, will formulate our strategy and response to the challenges that present." Des Faul, President of Sligo Chamber, said: "I don't want a situation like we had with border checkpoints. "I was surprised that Britain voted to leave, shocked really. This was an anti-establishment and anti-government vote," he said. Mr Faul said being in the Northwest we can sometimes feel isolated and in our own bubble. "We export 45% to the UK, it's massive for Ireland. "It's a concern for the whole of Europe. It's an uncertain time. "There's 1m Britons living in Spain. Britain is saying they don't want immigrants yet they are constantly emigrating themselves. "Nobody knows really what's going to happen. It's going to be a couple of years before we know fully," he added. Noelle Cawley of Failte Ireland said this move means Ireland should work to maintain its strong presence as a tourism destination for Britons. "It's too early yet to predict what the long-term consequences will be in terms of tourism. "Visitors this year from the US and Europe to Ireland have continued to grow and British numbers have been performing well. In terms of the result of Brexit, it's about Ireland maintaining its strong position. It's about monitoring the devalued sterling and working on business strategies for the future," she added. Following Friday's results, Economists differ on whether or not Brexit is an overall good or bad thing for Agriculture. Some are saying that it will create opportunities as well as causing difficulties. However, there is general agreement that Irish agriculture will be hurt by the UK deciding to leave the EU. The short term consequences will be the impact of currency volatility while in the long term, there is a real risk from the UK doing trade deals with South America countries and the US without the EU acting as a modifying influence on their desire to sell agriculture products, particularly beef. Beef is the largest single category with 54% of Irish beef sales going to the UK, which could have a massive impact on farmers here as a result of Britain's exit from the EU. The UK's decision to withdraw from the EU has sent shockwaves through the Wicklow farming community with the local branch of the ICMSA warning that it will have serious implications for all sectors, including the agri-food sector. According to Wicklow ICMSA chairperson Shane O'Loughlin, a clear plan must be put in place to address the many issues that are likely to arise when the Brexit is finally negotiated with the EU. Following a meeting with the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, Mr O'Loughlin said that 'there is no room for any degree of complacency from here forwards, not in the context of 5 billion in food exports to the UK - 1.1 billion is beef and 1 billion is dairy produce'. He said that in the short term, the implications are likely to focus on exchange rate movements and both the Irish Government and the EU must understand that farmers cannot be expected to pay for any negative currency movements arising from the Brexit vote. 'Brexit will have practical implications at farm level, for processors in terms of trade to the UK and also transit of products to continental Europe. It becomes a national priority to ensure that as Brexit negotiations begin and develop that access to the UK market is retained on the basis of current conditions and that Ireland's dependence on the UK market is recognised and addressed.' Speaking as a farmer, I'd respectfully caution Minister Creed against getting the interests of 'the dairy sector' mixed up with those of 'dairy farmers'; the links further up the supply chain are doing very well out of the current price crisis while the farmers - have now gone a full year earning no income whatsoever from their herds.' Business is on the up at Avondale Business Park as Arklow Municipal District members were informed that there are 'green shoots' in terms of economic improvement. Lorraine Gallager of Wicklow County Council informed the members that Wicklow County Council recently incurred 1.3 million infrastructure costs and that there in some recovery evident in terms of job creation. Cathaoirleach Pat Kennedy said that he is aware of a company which is seeking two acres in the area and that he would be happy to set up a meeting. 'We need an inventive idea because Rathdrum is on its knees in terms of employment,' he said. He asked if the council is working with the IDA in relation to Avondale Business Park. Ms Gallagher confirmed that Wicklow County Council advises the IDA of all public and private site availability in the county. Members also received an update regarding Savills Cross Business Park, which is currently fully leased. Ms Gallagher said the council completd some painting work but that generally the park is the responsibility of the tenants. Caroline Aherne was one of TV's brightest comic talents, whose character Mrs Merton and northern sitcom The Royle Family became instant classics. The award winning TV writer and actress, who also narrated Channel 4's Gogglebox, was the co-creator of the acclaimed sitcom. The former star of the Mrs Merton Show, who beautifully mimicked a blue-rinse granny in the chat show which first aired on BBC Two in 1995, was voted best female performer at the British Comedy Awards the following year. The daughter of a railwayman and a school dinner lady, Aherne split with husband Peter Hook, guitarist with pop group New Order and house musician on the Mrs Merton Show, in April 1996. She had a relationship with TV colleague Matt Bowers, but they broke up before he died of cancer the following year, aged 28. The Royle Family was born after she and friend Craig Cash, who played gormless Dave Best in the show, threw themselves into their work after a suicide attempt, which she described as her lowest ebb. The creator of Cracker, Jimmy McGovern, said he was "gobsmacked" when he first saw a preview tape of his friend Aherne's new sit-com. "I hadn't been that impressed with a comedy since Fawlty Towers," he said. The Royle Family was the toast of 1999's British Comedy Awards, scooping four trophies including best actress for Aherne. Denise Royle, mother Barbara (Sue Johnston) and father Jim (Ricky Tomlinson) - catchphrase "my arse!" - quickly entered the British sit-com hall of fame. Its success quickly began to obscure exactly how daring the format had been at the beginning - 25 minutes of comedy based largely in one working class living room. Video of the Day The BBC show even had one episode based entirely around the Royles watching rival ITV's big hit, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? It was truly a bold move. Aherne was born to her Irish immigrant parents in London, and the family moved to Wythenshawe, Manchester, when she was two. She was diagnosed with a rare cancer of the retina, like her older brother Patrick before her, and the local Catholic church raised funds to send her to Lourdes in search of a miracle cure. For the rest of her life the actress was left with severely impaired sight in one eye. Very bright - nine straight As in O-levels from her convent school and an IQ of 176 - she studied drama at Liverpool Polytechnic then took a job as a BBC secretary in Manchester. She met Cash and fellow Royle Family collaborator Henry Normal in 1990 and they encouraged her to develop her repertoire of comedy characters, including Mrs Merton. Before long celebrities were queueing up to be insulted in Mrs Merton's unique way on primetime TV. In the guise of the squeaky-voiced pensioner with an elaborate coiffure, Aherne was able to ask Debbie McGee: "What was it that first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?" and "Were you breast-fed, Carol Thatcher?" Aherne, who also starred in BBC comedy sketch series The Fast Show, had struggled with health problems for a number of years. She was admitted to hospital in July 1998 after overdosing on sleeping pills at her home in Notting Hill, west London. And she was treated for alcohol dependency and depression at The Priory, the London psychiatric clinic for the rich and famous. Aherne then moved to Sydney in Australia, the setting for her 2002 sitcom Dossa And Joe. She starred in Royle Family specials in 2006 and 2010 before becoming the voice of Gogglebox in 2013. She suffered a bout of bladder cancer, and in 2014 she started treatment for lung cancer. "My brother and I were born with cancer of the eyes, the retina, my mum told us only special people get cancer. I must be very special because I have had it in my lungs and bladder as well," Aherne said at the time. Aherne gave a typically irreverent speech about her treatment and condition in Manchester in June that year at the launch of the Macmillan Cancer Improvement Partnership in the city. She later became the voice behind the Government's One You health campaign, aimed at tackling smoking and alcoholism. Mean Girls star Lindsay Lohan has said she would be happy to turn on the Christmas lights in Kettering after her "fierce and offensive" tweet about the town on the night of the EU referendum. The American actress, 29, tweeted strong support for Britain to remain in the EU and lashed out at Leave politicians appearing on the BBC's overnight referendum programme. She also angered some followers by singling out areas of the UK that voted for Leave for criticism, writing: "Sorry #Kettering but where are you?" Lohan has now said she would be happy to visit the Northamptonshire town after Commons Leader Chris Grayling, who campaigned for Leave, backed calls for her to turn on the festive lights. Tory backbencher Philip Hollobone had criticised Lohan for having "slagged off" parts of Britain which backed Brexit. Speaking in the Commons, he singled out her "fierce and offensive" tweet directed at his Kettering constituency and asked Mr Grayling to support his invitation for Lohan to visit. Tory frontbencher Mr Grayling joked in his reply: "As those of us who have children will know, over the years Lindsay Lohan - as a star of child and teen movies, a very entertaining actress at the time - hasn't necessarily fulfilled her professional potential and perhaps now we know the reason why. "Had she visited Kettering she might have seen her career turn around and I think the invitation that you have made to her today is one she should accept, she should visit the fine town of Kettering and find herself returned to stardom." Lohan replied on Twitter: "Direct message me about your offer. Would be happy to light the Christmas tree in #Kettering." A representative for Lohan has been contacted for comment. Mr Hollobone said: "She will get a fantastic reception if she comes. It sounds like she is a good sport. The local radio station are getting in touch with her because I don't tweet so we are hoping to hear back." Asked if he thought the residents of Kettering might still be offended by her comments, he added: "If she came she would make amends and all would be forgiven." The new ministry will oversee up to 70 social programmes spanning yoga, spirituality, meditation and the arts. India's notoriously oversized bureaucracy has found a new way to expand - a ministry of happiness, which is dedicated to "putting a smile on every face". The ministry will be created by the central state of Madhya Pradesh to "track our growth" in a manner based on Bhutan's concept of gross national happiness. "The state will be made responsible for happiness and tolerance of its citizens and will rope in psychologists to counsel people on how to be always happy," said Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the state's chief minister. Details of the initiative were formalised yesterday as Mr Chouhan, a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling BJP party, travelled to New Delhi to seek permission to expand his cabinet. The new ministry will oversee up to 70 social programmes spanning yoga, spirituality, meditation and the arts, as well as offering free religious pilgrimages for senior citizens. Mr Chouhan, a renowned yoga enthusiast, is expected to head up the new ministry personally. Madhya Pradesh is one of India's poorest and most agrarian states, and a severe drought has left it with the country's third-highest suicide rate among farmers. At least 27 schoolchildren have committed suicide in the state this year in cases attributed to exam stress. ( Daily Telegraph London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and his wife Lucy cast their votes at the Double Bay school in Sydney (AP) Australia's prime minister says he has "every confidence" that his ruling conservative party has won the national election. Malcolm Turnbull said early on Sunday morning that the results of the race were extremely close hours after polls closed. But Mr Turnbull said he was confident his Liberal Party-led coalition would be able to form a majority government. Parties need to hold at least 76 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives in order to form a government. As of late Saturday night, the Australian Electoral Commission said Mr Turnbull's party was leading in 71 seats, the centre-left Labour Party in 68 seats, and minor parties or independents in five seats. Counting was less clear in another six seats. AP California governor Jerry Brown signed six stringent gun-control measures that will require people to turn in high-capacity magazines and background checks for ammunition sales (AP) California's governor has signed six stringent gun-control measures that will order people to turn in high-capacity magazines and require mandatory background checks for ammunition sales. Jerry Brown's move comes as California Democrats seek to strengthen gun laws that are already among the strictest in the US. But he vetoed five other bills, including a requirement to report lost or stolen weapons to authorities and a limit of one gun purchase a person per month. The governor's action is consistent with his mixed record on gun control. Some of the enacted bills duplicate provisions of a November ballot measure by Democratic lieutenant governor Gavin Newsom. Some of the vetoed measures also appear in Mr Newsom's initiative. "My goal in signing these bills is to enhance public safety by tightening our existing laws in a responsible and focused manner, while protecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners," Mr Brown wrote in a one-sentence message to politicians. Gun control measures have long been popular with the Democrats who control the California senate and assembly. But they stepped up their push this year following the December shooting in San Bernardino by a couple who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. Advocates on both sides of the gun-control debate say California has some of the nation's strictest gun laws. It is one of six states to get the highest grade from the pro-gun control Law Centre to Prevent Gun Violence. The state's move to tighten them further comes amid years of gridlock at national level, which spawned a tense clash in Washington last week as Democrats camped out on the floor of the House of Representatives and shouted down Republicans. The bills angered Republicans and gun rights advocates who say Democrats are trampling on 2nd Amendment rights, creating new restrictions that will not cut off the flow of guns to people intent on using them for nefarious purposes. "On the eve of Independence Day, independence and freedom and liberty in California has been chopped down at the knees and kicked between the legs," said Sam Paredes, executive director of advocacy group Gun Owners of California. Lawsuits challenging the new laws were likely once they took effect next year, he said. Mr Brown's action will require people who own magazines that hold more than 10 rounds to give them up. It extends a 1999 law that made it illegal to buy a high-capacity magazine or to bring one into the state but allowed people who already owned them to keep them. In an attempt to slow gun users from rapidly reloading, the governor signed a bill outlawing new weapons that have a device known as a bullet button. Gun makers developed bullet buttons to get around California's assault weapons ban, which prohibited new rifles with magazines that can be detached without the aid of tools. A bullet button allows a shooter to quickly dislodge the magazine using the tip of a bullet or other small tool. People will be allowed to keep weapons they already own with bullet buttons, which are often referred to as "California compliant", but must register them. Mr Brown also endorsed a bill making another attempt to regulate ammunition sales after a law passed in 2009 was struck down by a Fresno County judge who said it was too vague. The new law will require ammunition sellers to be licensed and buyers to undergo background checks. Transactions will be recorded. He also opted to require a background check before a gun can be loaned to someone who is not a family member. AP "Strong gun laws work. What we're doing in California is a better job of keeping guns out of dangerous hands," said Amanda Wilcox, a spokeswoman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, whose daughter was killed by a shooter using a high-capacity magazine. The governor vetoed an effort to expand a six-month-old programme that allows courts to temporarily restrict gun ownership rights for people suspected of being dangerous and decided against restricting all firearm purchases to one per month, a limitation that already applies to handguns. Another bill he vetoed would have asked voters to strengthen penalties for stealing a gun, which voters will already be deciding through Mr Newsom's initiative. The ballot measure also will ask voters to require reporting of lost and stolen firearms - an idea Mr Brown rejected on Friday and has rejected at least twice before. "I continue to believe that responsible people report the loss or theft of a firearm and irresponsible people do not; it is not likely that this bill would change that," he said in a veto message. Mr Newsom's initiative has put a spotlight on the lieutenant governor as he campaigns for the governorship in 2018. He has been at loggerheads with senate president Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, a Los Angeles Democrat who tried unsuccessfully to persuade Mr Newsom to drop the ballot measures in favour of legislative action. Mr Brown's vetoes protected Mr Newsom's initiative from becoming moot. A spokesman for Mr Brown, Evan Westrup, said voters "will have a chance to go even further in November, if they choose". Presidential candidate Norbert Hofer (R) and head of the Austrian Freedom party Heinz-Christian Strache (L) react at the party headquarters in Vienna. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File Photo Europe was plunged into fresh crisis yesterday as Austria's courts ordered a re-run of the country's presidential election. The constitutional court ruled the election, in which a far-right candidate was narrowly defeated, would have to be held again because of irregularities in counting postal votes. The ruling means the far-right may seize the presidency of a European Union member state for the first time. Norbert Hofer, the gun-toting candidate of the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), lost the election in May by just 31,000 votes. He was defeated by Alexander Van der Bellen, a soft-spoken former economics professor endorsed by the country's Green Party. "Confidence in the rule of law is the foundation of a democracy," Mr Van der Bellen said. "I will stand in the rerun, and I intend to win it. I urge all citizens to exercise their right to vote. "This is no game. For me, it is about the unity of Austria." Supporters Mr Hofer's supporters will hope Friday's ruling means he can seize the presidency after all. "I am pleased the constitutional court has taken this very important decision objectively," Mr Hofer said. The decision will send shockwaves through EU governments already grappling with the consequences of Britain's vote to leave the bloc. Mr Hofer campaigned on an openly anti-immigrant platform and carried a Glock pistol on the election trail. While his party does not want Austria to follow Britain out of the EU, it is calling for radical reform of the bloc and has threatened to hold an "Auxit" referendum if it doesn't get its way. The FPO wants powers returned to national parliaments and an end to EU control over immigration policy - in other words, the most powerful far-right party in Europe's shopping list is much the same as the British Leave campaign's. The Austrian presidency is largely ceremonial, and would not give the FPO the power to force through its policies. But the party is leading in the polls ahead of general elections due in 2018, and Mr Hofer has said he will use the full powers of the presidency if elected - including the right to dismiss the government and call elections. Mr Hofer initially called on his supporters to accept the results of May's election, but the FPO later made a U-turn and filed the complaint over voting irregularities which led to Friday's ruling. Wolfgang Sobotka, the interior minister, said a date would be announced for the re-run of the election next week, after he had consulted with cabinet colleagues. The re-run is not expected to be held before September or October. The decision means Mr Van der Bellen cannot be sworn in as president when incumbent Heinz Fischer's term ends next week. Instead, the presidency will pass to an temporary acting triumvirate made up of the speaker of the Austrian parliament and his two deputies. Mr Hofer will be a member of this triumvirate, as the junior of the two deputy speakers. "The result was overturned because of technical errors, not vote manipulation," Christian Kern, the Austrian chancellor said, calling for calm. "The decision should not be a cause for emotion." He called for a short campaign and said he hoped turnout would be high, although he acknowledged there was a likelihood of voter fatigue. North Korea has become the 10th country to succeed in putting a satellite into orbit, comfortably pipping South Korea to the post. It follows the U.S., France, Japan, China, the U.K., India, Israel and Iran. Although the satellite aboard the rocket was a rudimentary device, there is no doubt that the Norths ballistic missile technology is now a force to reckon with. Exports believe South Korea is 7 to 10 years behind North Korea in rocket technology. The South failed twice to launch its own rocket, the Naro, and the third attempt has been postponed several times. Even if the South succeeds in launching the Naro next year, the technological gap will not narrow because Seoul has not yet mastered the technology for the first-stage booster and relies on Russia to supply crucial components. Out of 150,000 parts that go into the Naro, 120,000 are Russian-made and only around 30,000 homegrown. As of 2010, South Korea's GDP is 39 times bigger than North Koreas and its per-capita income 19 times greater. According to the national competitiveness ranking for 2012 by the Swiss business institute IMD, South Korea ranks No. 5 in terms of scientific competitiveness and No. 2 in the number of patent filings for every 100,000 people. In short, it dwarves North Korea in the area of business, commercial science and technology, but past and present governments in Seoul have taken their eye off the ball in rocket technology. The main stumbling block to South Korea's rocket development has been U.S. restrictions on the maximum range of the South's missiles. The restrictions, agreed decades ago and revised recently, have hindered the South in developing not only long-range missiles but space rockets. Even during the development of the Naro, U.S. officials visited the space center here several times to inspect whether any missile components were used to produce the second stage of the rocket. In retrospect, South Korea has missed significant chances several times to leap forward in rocket development. It succeeded in developing its own surface-to-air missile in 1978. But following the assassination of former president Park Chung-hee, his successor Chun Doo-hwan unilaterally relinquished missile development plans to strengthen ties with Washington. As a result, South Korean rocket scientists who had returned from abroad to participate in the missile development, all went their separate ways again. In 2002, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute developed its own liquid-fueled rocket technology but showed little will to improve its power. The South Korean government was only anxious to flaunt the rocket program to counter the North's missile development, and ended up turning to Russia and depending on foreign technology. Japan started developing its own rocket in 1954, the first one standing only 23 cm high and weighing just 200 g. It was aptly dubbed the "pencil rocket." But through countless failures Japan in 1970 became the fourth country to place its own satellite in orbit. The godfather of China's rocket program was Qian Xueshen, who returned to his home country from the U.S. in 1955. Former Chinese leaders Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao always went to Qian's home every Lunar New Year's Day to pay their respects for his contributions to his country and also visited him several times when he fell ill. Overseas-educated Chinese scientists returned to China in droves, and their contributions amid ample state support led to Beijing's strength in space technology. This shows how enlightened China's leaders are in terms of science and technology. But the South Korean budget for space development is W240 billion (US$1=W1,074) and only one department in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is in charge of managing it. It is embarrassing how backward the country is compared to North Korea in this area. The time has come to set new goals and lay out a new game plan for space development. Most importantly, the attitude of the country's leaders needs to change. Michael Gove's hopes of becoming UK Prime Minister have suffered a blow after a number of senior anti-EU MPs and the Ukip-linked campaign group Leave.eu swung behind Andrea Leadsom's campaign to be the 'Brexit candidate' for Conservative leader. Launching his campaign yesterday, Mr Gove pledged a hard line on immigration, "radical" action on executive pay and increased NHS spending. But the Justice Secretary, who sensationally entered the race on Thursday after withdrawing his support from Boris Johnson, thwarting his former ally's Downing Street ambitions, now risks being outflanked from the right by Ms Leadsom - and is also facing recriminations from supporters of Mr Johnson, who has dropped out of the race. Theresa May remains the runaway favourite, having secured the support of nearly 100 MPs. Mr Gove, Ms Leadsom and Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb have the confirmed support of around 20 each, while former Defence Secretary Liam Fox is lagging behind and is currently the most likely candidate to drop out after the first round of voting on Tuesday. Ms Leadsom's credentials as the 'pure Brexit' candidate were burnished yesterday after she won the backing of former Environment Secretary Owen Paterson and Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee chair Bernard Jenkin. Wycombe MP Steve Baker, who chairs the Eurosceptic group Conservatives for Britain, is also backing Ms Leadsom. Meanwhile, Leave.eu, the campaign group led by Ukip donor Arron Banks, said the energy minister was the most popular candidate among their Conservative supporters. Ms May wanted Britain to remain in the EU, but kept a low profile during the referendum campaign, and has reached out to Brexit supporters by making it clear she would respect the referendum result and bring an end to freedom of movement from the EU. Her campaign was boosted yesterday by the support of two more Cabinet ministers - Michael Fallon and Patrick McLoughlin. She is also backed by Cabinet Office Minister Matthew Hancock, a close ally of George Osborne, who has yet to back a candidate. But in a direct challenge to Ms May yesterday, Mr Gove said that the next prime minister should be someone who backed Brexit. Read more: May is Britain's Merkel - she should heed her lessons Read more: Michael Gove seeks Tory leadership - says Boris Johnson 'can't provide leadership' The Justice Secretary faced a call to quit the race yesterday from Tory grandee Ken Clarke, who condemned the "student union election" tactics on show in his clash with Mr Johnson. Preston North MP Ben Wallace, a Boris Johnson supporter, was less charitable, joking on Twitter that Mr Gove would face the same fate as Theon Greyjoy on 'Game of Thrones' - a character who is brutally castrated. But in a defiant speech yesterday, Mr Gove said he was driven by "conviction" to become Prime Minister, and committed himself to Vote Leave's campaign pledges to end freedom of movement and bring down immigration. However, he failed to outline a model for Britain's new relationship with the EU and the single market, and insisted Article 50, the formal mechanism for withdrawing from the EU, need not be invoked this year. Claiming the Brexit vote would not hit "national prosperity", he promised 100m a week in extra funds for the NHS and for house-building. However, his projections suffered a blow as Chancellor George Osborne announced, while Mr Gove was speaking, that he was abandoning the Government's target to be in financial surplus by 2020, warning the referendum was expected to produce "a significant economic shock" for the country. France's prime minister said Britain's vote to leave the European Union is a business opportunity for Paris. Manuel Valls said the government is working on enhancing the French capital's attractiveness, especially measures regarding taxes and expatriates' status. He spoke to the Le Parisien newspaper in an interview published on Saturday. Mr Valls told international companies: "Welcome in Paris! Come and invest in France!" Due to the British vote to leave the EU, some businesses based in London are considering leaving for other cities like Dublin, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris to benefit from the large EU common market. A security member is taken for medical treatment after the attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in a diplomatic zone of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka (AP) Hostages who failed an instruction to recite verses from the Koran were tortured and killed while those who passed the test were allowed to eat in the Bangladesh restaurant siege where at least 28 lost their lives. The 10-hour hostage crisis that gripped the diplomatic zone in the capital Dhaka ended on Saturday morning with the death toll including six of the attackers. The victims included 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, and two Bangladeshi police officers. The attack marks an escalation in militant violence that has hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation with increasing frequency in recent months, with the extremists demanding the secular government revert to Islamic rule. Most previous attacks have involved machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities. But Friday night's attack was different, more coordinated, with the attackers brandishing assault rifles as they shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) and stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area while dozens of foreigners and Bangladeshis were dining out during the Ramadan holy month. The gunmen, initially firing blanks, ordered restaurant workers to switch off the lights, and they draped black cloths over closed-circuit cameras, according to a survivor, who spoke with local TV channel ATN News. He and others, including kitchen staff, managed to escape by running to the rooftop or out the back door. But about 35 were trapped inside, their fate depending on whether they could prove themselves to be Muslims, according to the father of a Bangladeshi businessman who was rescued on Saturday morning along with his family. "The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Koran," the Islamic holy book, according to Rezaul Karim, describing what his son, Hasnat, had witnessed inside. "Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night." The others, he said, "were tortured". Detectives were questioning his son and his family along with other survivors as part of the investigation on Saturday, as scattered details of the siege emerged. Authorities were also interrogating one of the attackers captured by commandos in a dramatic morning rescue. It was not immediately clear whether the attackers had a specific goal, and Bangladesh authorities would not say if they had made any demands. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility, saying it targeted the citizens of "Crusader countries" in the attack, warning that citizens of such countries would not be safe "as long as their warplanes kill Muslims". The statement was circulated on Friday by IS supporters on the Telegram messaging service and resembled previous statements by IS. The Amaq news agency, affiliated with IS, also posted photos purportedly showing hostages' bodies, though the authenticity of the images could not be confirmed. The government did not directly comment on the IS claim but has denied in the past that the extremist group has a presence in Bangladesh. The government of prime minister Sheikh Hasina instead has accused her political enemies of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilise the nation - which the opposition denies. On Saturday, Amaq published photos of five smiling young men each holding what appear to be assault rifles and posing in front of a black IS flags whom the agency identified as the attackers, according to the Site Intelligence Service, which monitors jihadi online activity. They were identified by noms de guerre indicating they were all Bangladeshis. Amaq said the fighters used "knives, cleavers, assault rifles and hand grenades". Amaq said the attackers "verified" the hostages identities, sparing the Muslims and killing the foreigners. The 20 hostages killed included nine Italians, seven Japanese, three Bangladeshis and one Indian, government sources said, as details of the bloodshed began trickling from other capitals worldwide. The White House confirmed Saturday that a US citizen was among the hostages killed, but did not release any further identification. "All the hostages were killed last night. The terrorists used sharp weapons to kill them brutally," said Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury of the Army Headquarters in a news conference. Two Bangladeshi police officers also died from injuries sustained while exchanging gunfire with the attackers. A Roman Catholic priest in southern Italy, whose 33-year-old sister Simona Monti, a textile firm employee, was killed in the attack expressed hope that her death could contribute toward making a more just world. Father Luca Monti said he hopes "this experience of martyrdom for my family and the blood of my sister Simona can help contribute to building a more just and brotherly world". In New Delhi, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said she was "extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka." Emory University in Oxford, Georgia, said two of its students were killed in the attack: Abinta Kabir, of Miami, Florida, who was visiting family and friends in Bangladesh, and Faraaz Hossain, of Dhaka, who had completed his second year on the Oxford campus. Ten of 26 people who were wounded when the militants opened fire were in critical condition, and six were on life support, according to hospital staff. The injuries ranged from broken bones to gunshot wounds. Most of them were police officers, but one was a civilian. In the end, paramilitary troops managed to rescue 13 hostages, including one Argentinian, two Sri Lankans and two Bangladeshis, according to Lieutenant Colonel Tuhin Mohammad Masud, commander of the Rapid Action Battalion that conducted the rescue operations. Japan's government said one Japanese hostage was also rescued with a gunshot wound. "Because of the effort of the joint force, the terrorists could not flee," the prime minister Sheikh Hasina said in a nationally televised speech, vowing to fight militant attacks in the country and urged people to come forward. The audacious attack came during Ramadan, when devout Muslims fast during the day and eat after dark. Many left the city of more than 10 million people for a nine-day public holiday with families to celebrate Eid al Fitr festival with families. "Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such an act," the prime minister, said. "They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism." She announced two days of national mourning for the dead. The government has cracked down on domestic radical Islamists by making scores of arrests. It has blamed local terrorists and opposition political parties - especially the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami. But the attacks have continued, with about two dozen atheist writers, publishers, members of religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers slain since 2013. Earlier on Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death by at least three assailants in southwest Bangladesh. IS and and al-Qaida affiliates have claimed responsibility for many of those attacks. The escalating violence leading up to the unprecedented hostage crisis has raised fears that religious extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions of secularism and tolerance. That the attackers targeted a popular restaurant in the heart of the diplomatic quarter of Bangladesh's capital signalled a change in tactics. The restaurant overlooking a lake serves Spanish food and is patronised by residents of Gulshan, an affluent neighbourhood where most of the foreign embassies are located. AP Israel's military has announced it is curtailing the movement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in response to two deadly Palestinian attacks against civilians in just over 24 hours. An Israeli rabbi was shot dead in front of his children and his wife was badly injured yesterday, while an Israeli schoolgirl was stabbed to death in her bedroom on Thursday. Expand Close Iranians attend an annual pro-Palestinian rally marking Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Tehran. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Iranians attend an annual pro-Palestinian rally marking Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Tehran. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi) Both attacks took place near the Palestinian city of Hebron, and Israel's military said it was responding by stopping Palestinians from moving throughout the surrounding area. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) could not say how many Palestinians would be affected, but the measures are likely to impact the free movement of more than 300,000 people. "We have to stop these terrorist activities. They have to be foiled before they reach civilians," said Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner. "This isn't a normal situation and that's why we're taking these substantial steps." Israel said it was sending two additional infantry battalions into the Hebron area to enforce a new network of checkpoints. It will be the biggest operation it has carried out in the West Bank since 2014. Expand Close Relatives and friends attend the funeral of Israeli girl, Hallel Yaffa Ariel, 13, who was killed in a Palestinian stabbing attack in her home in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Relatives and friends attend the funeral of Israeli girl, Hallel Yaffa Ariel, 13, who was killed in a Palestinian stabbing attack in her home in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun It is not clear how long the closures will go on for. Hebron has been a flashpoint throughout the wave of violence that began in October and the IDF said around 80 attacks had been carried out in the area. Joshua Brown stands by his new Tesla electric car near his home in Canton, Ohio. (Krista Kitchen via AP) The first victim of a fatal crash in an autonomous car may have been distracted because he was watching a 'Harry Potter' movie at the time, it has been claimed. Joshua Brown (40), a former Navy Seal turned technology entrepreneur, was killed when his electric Tesla Model S saloon ploughed into a lorry while on autopilot mode in Florida. Expand Close A Tesla Model S involved in the fatal crash. REUTERS / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A Tesla Model S involved in the fatal crash. REUTERS His death was expected to have serious implications for the development of self-driving vehicle technology, which is being pursued by Google, Uber and other companies. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it was investigating 25,000 Tesla Model S cars equipped with autopilot. Tesla, founded by the billionaire Elon Musk in California, said it was the first fatal crash in more than 130 million miles travelled by its self-driving cars, compared with a death every 94 million miles for all other US vehicles. According to an accident report, the crash happened on a dry road in daylight 160km north-west of Orlando. Frank Baressi (62), the truck driver, claimed Mr Brown was "playing Harry Potter on the TV screen" at the time and "went so fast through my trailer I didn't see him". He said he had not seen the film on a screen but heard it still playing when he approached the wreck. Hosne Ara Karim, whose son and daughter-in-law were rescued from the restaurant that was attacked by heavily armed militants, wait for them in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (AP Photo) People help an unidentified injured person after a group of gunmen attacked a restaurant popular with foreigners in a diplomatic zone of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, Bangladesh. (AP Photo) A security personnel reacts near the Holey Artisan restaurant after gunmen attacked the upscale cafe, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. REUTERS/Mohammd Ponir Hossain The bodies of nine Italians have been identified after an attack on a restaurant in Bangladesh, the Italian foreign minister said. Paolo Gentiloni told reporters that there was another, unidentified body in the military morgue of Bangladesh but the nationality has not yet been determined. Italian news reports had said around 10 Italians were inside the restaurant in Dhaka when it was attacked by militants on Friday night. One of the victims of the attack had earlier been identified by Italian media as a 47-year-old manager from north-eastern Italy. Expand Close Bangladeshi security forces block the road after militants took hostages at a restaurant popular with foreigners in Dhaka, Bangladesh (AP Photo) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Bangladeshi security forces block the road after militants took hostages at a restaurant popular with foreigners in Dhaka, Bangladesh (AP Photo) Italian agency Ansa said the man, who was married and the father of three-year-old twin girls, was in Bangladesh for work. Ansa said word spread in the town of Feletto Umberto, near Udine, on Saturday that the man was among the 20 who died in the attack by extremists. Expand Close Security personnel are seen near the Holey Artisan restaurant hostage site, in Dhaka, Bangladesh REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Security personnel are seen near the Holey Artisan restaurant hostage site, in Dhaka, Bangladesh REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain Seven Japanese are also among the dead in the Bangladesh siege, five men and two women, a Japanese official said. These 5 players could be the Anderson-area football player of the year Actor Lee Byung-hun, star directors Park Chan-wook and Lee Chang-dong, and DreamWorks cinematographer Jhun Yong-duk were inducted into the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Wednesday. They join a growing roster of Korean filmmakers in the ranks of the Academy, which awards the Oscars. Last year directors Im Kwon-taek and Bong Joon-ho, actors Choi Min-sik and Song Kang-ho and animator Kim Sang-jin joined the illustrious ranks alongside Hollywood superstars. Candidates for membership are recommended by two members and screened by the Academy's board of governors, and members have voting rights in the Academy Awards. The Academy has about 6,000 members. Among the 683 new entrants this year, women accounted for 46 percent and non-white people for 41 percent. Among the stars who joined this year were Emma Watson, best known as Hermione in the Harry Potter series, John Boyega and Idris Elba. Two Korean Americans were also among new entrants, independent movie director Kim So-yong and Daniel Dae Kim, who appeared in the hit series "Lost." You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close NMDC tumbles ~18% following demerger NMDC Limiteds counter slumped as much as 18.5% in Thursdays afternoon session as the company completed the demerger of its steel business from the core mining business. After g... October 27, 2022 | 11:57 am IndusInd Bank, Kinetic Green roll out attractive financing scheme for EVs Kinetic Green Energy and Power Solutions Limited, India's premier producer of Electric Vehicles (EVs), has teamed up with IndusInd Bank to provide easy and reasonable financing for it... October 27, 2022 | 11:29 am Intellect Design Arena launches iESG for financial institutions IntellectAI, Intellect Design Arena's Suite of Artificial Intelligence products, announced the release of iESG, the newest addition to its portfolio of AI-powered solutions for instit... October 27, 2022 | 10:49 am A F Enterprises soars 5% on securing major order from MP State Agro Industries Corp A F Enterprises Limited stocks in the fast lane after the intimation to the stock exchanges regarding major order secured by the Company. As per the filing, the Company has bee... October 27, 2022 | 10:38 am Asian Granito suffers fire accident at corporate office Asian Granito India Ltd has informed that a fire incidence has occurred at Corporate Office of the company. As per the filing, the corporate office situated at 202, Devarc, opp. Isco... October 27, 2022 | 9:56 am indiatoday We had recently told you about how Irrfan Khan had spoken about the animal slaughter custom during Muharram and fasting during Ramzan. He had also spoken about how Muslims are not speaking out against terrorism, and naturally, he had received a lot of flak from Muslim clerics because of his comments. But now, Irrfan has responded, stating that the clerics don't scare him as he does not live in a country governed by religious contractors. Pretty valid point, Irrfan. He even tweeted about the matter, saying, "Please Bhaiyon, who are upset with my statement, either you are not ready to introspect or you are in a hurry to reach to a conclusion." Pls Bhaiyon, who r upset with my statement, either u r not ready to introspect or u r in a hurry 2 reach 2 a conclusion. irrfan (@irrfan_k) July 1, 2016 For me religion is abt personal introspection , it's a source for compassion, wisdom and moderation n not for stereotyping n fanaticism. irrfan (@irrfan_k) July 1, 2016 Clerics don't scare me !! Thank God I don't live in a country governed by religious contractors (thekedars ) #FREEDOM irrfan (@irrfan_k) July 1, 2016 During the promotion of his upcoming film Madaari in Jaipur recently, the actor had raised questions over sacrifice of animals during Bakrid. "People should understand the real meaning behind a particular ritual. Animals used to be the prime source of food when the ritual would have started and people sacrificed their food. Today, one buys two goats from market and kill them in the name of sacrifice; then how come it becomes a real sacrifice?" Muslim clerics took strong exception to his comments and asked the actor to focus on his work instead of making his own interpretation of religious customs. "Irrfan is an actor and he should focus on his work only. He has no religious knowledge and he should have contacted some cleric or learnt from them before raising any question regarding Qurbaani or Ramzan," Khalid Usmai, city qazi had said. He said Islam has no vague things and Irrfan should improve his knowledge. Another scholar Maulana Abdul Wahid Khatri, state secretary of Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Hind, also said the actor should concentrate on his career instead of speaking about the religion. A man from Florida has recently claimed that Apple stole his iPhone idea and is, therefore, looking for a remuneration that goes into billions of dollars. The Telegraph Thomas Ross filed the lawsuit in a federal court in Florida claiming that Apple "hijacked and exploited" a design he came up with back in 1992 for an "electronic reading device" that can be seen in the picture. Ross is demanding a mammoth $11 billion (Rs 74,177 crore approx) on top of $10 billion (Rs 67,435 crore approx) in restitution. It doesn't end there, he also wants at least 1.5 per cent of the gross Apple sales worldwide calling it a "reasonable royalty". Ross, who's fighting his own battle in the courtroom, outlined his idea in several diagrams. He apparently used the diagrams in a patent application that the US Patent and Trade Office declared abandoned in 1995 for failure of the payment of the required fees. iMore The paperwork submitted to the court has Ross accusing the tech giant of adopting a "dumpster diving" culture instead of coming up with their own ideas. He also mentioned that his abandoned patent application was picked up by Apple and incorporated it in the company's product line. The company also did not comply when he sent a cease-and-desist order, he added. The government of the United States has launched a probe into the Tesla Model S after it crashed and killed a driver in the autopilot mode. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it is opening a preliminary evaluation into the performance of the autopilot mode in 25,000 Tesla Model S cars. fastcompany.net Self-driving crash Tesla, addressing the crash in their blog post titled 'Tragic Loss', said that "the vehicle was on a divided highway with the Autopilot engaged when a tractor trailer drove across the highway perpendicular to the Model S. Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied. The high ride height of the trailer combined with its positioning across the road and the extremely rare circumstances of the impact caused the Model S to pass under the trailer, with the bottom of the trailer impacting the windshield of the Model S. Had the Model S impacted the front or rear of the trailer, even at high speed, its advanced crash safety system would likely have prevented serious injury as it has in numerous other similar incidents." The NHTSA has opened a preliminary investigation, which it said was the first step before it could seek to order a recall if they find the vehicles to be unsafe. ibtimes This is the first death reported in a Tesla vehicle in the semi-autonomous driving mode. The driver, identified as Joshua Brown was a fan of Tesla, and had also previously posted a video of the car avoiding a collision in the autopilot mode. The video was also tweeted by Elon Musk. Owner video of Autopilot steering to avoid collision with a truckhttps://t.co/FZUAXSjlR7 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 17, 2016 This was the first casualty in the autopilot mode Tesla offered sincere condolences but also mentioned that this was the first known fatality in over 209 million kilometres where Autopilot was activated. According to statistics among all vehicles in the US, there is a fatality every 151 million km. Worldwide, the fatality rate is much higher comparatively at every 94 million km. They also pointed out that the company disables the Autopilot mode by default when a car is sold as the feature is still in a public beta phase and requires an explicit acknowledgement by the driver. So when the driver does enable the Autopilot mode, the acknowledgement explains that Autopilot is an assist feature that requires you to keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times," and that "you need to maintain control and responsibility for your vehicle while using it. Additionally, every time that Autopilot is engaged, the car reminds the driver to Always keep your hands on the wheel. Be prepared to take over at any time. The system also makes frequent checks to ensure that the driver's hands remain on the wheel and provides visual and audible alerts if hands-on is not detected. It then gradually slows down the car until hands-on is detected again. Having said that, it still opens up a much larger debate over whether the self-driving technology can be deemed safe enough for people to start using it. howitworksdaily.com Here's Tesla's full statement - "A Tragic Loss We learned yesterday evening that NHTSA is opening a preliminary evaluation into the performance of Autopilot during a recent fatal crash that occurred in a Model S. This is the first known fatality in just over 130 million miles where Autopilot was activated. Among all vehicles in the US, there is a fatality every 94 million miles. Worldwide, there is a fatality approximately every 60 million miles. It is important to emphasize that the NHTSA action is simply a preliminary evaluation to determine whether the system worked according to expectations. Following our standard practice, Tesla informed NHTSA about the incident immediately after it occurred. What we know is that the vehicle was on a divided highway with Autopilot engaged when a tractor trailer drove across the highway perpendicular to the Model S. Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied. The high ride height of the trailer combined with its positioning across the road and the extremely rare circumstances of the impact caused the Model S to pass under the trailer, with the bottom of the trailer impacting the windshield of the Model S. Had the Model S impacted the front or rear of the trailer, even at high speed, its advanced crash safety system would likely have prevented serious injury as it has in numerous other similar incidents. It is important to note that Tesla disables Autopilot by default and requires explicit acknowledgement that the system is new technology and still in a public beta phase before it can be enabled. When drivers activate Autopilot, the acknowledgment box explains, among other things, that Autopilot is an assist feature that requires you to keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times," and that "you need to maintain control and responsibility for your vehicle while using it. Additionally, every time that Autopilot is engaged, the car reminds the driver to Always keep your hands on the wheel. Be prepared to take over at any time. The system also makes frequent checks to ensure that the driver's hands remain on the wheel and provides visual and audible alerts if hands-on is not detected. It then gradually slows down the car until hands-on is detected again. We do this to ensure that every time the feature is used, it is used as safely as possible. As more real-world miles accumulate and the software logic accounts for increasingly rare events, the probability of injury will keep decreasing. Autopilot is getting better all the time, but it is not perfect and still requires the driver to remain alert. Nonetheless, when used in conjunction with driver oversight, the data is unequivocal that Autopilot reduces driver workload and results in a statistically significant improvement in safety when compared to purely manual driving. The customer who died in this crash had a loving family and we are beyond saddened by their loss. He was a friend to Tesla and the broader EV community, a person who spent his life focused on innovation and the promise of technology and who believed strongly in Teslas mission. We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to his family and friends." motor1.com What do you feel about the Autopilot mode in Tesla and the concept of self-driving cars in general? Can we see it as a viable alternative to driving? Especially in a place like India? Have your say in the comments below! External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has just confirmed that an Indian citizen - 19-year-old girl Tarushi Jain, a pass out of American School Dhaka has been killed by the terrorists who laid siege to a restaurant in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka. Reuters The gunmen are believed to be linked to ISIS or Al-Qaida. I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka. Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 2, 2016 I have spoken to her father Shri Sanjeev Jain and conveyed our deepest condolences.The country is with them in this hour of grief. Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 2, 2016 Tarishi was 19 years old. She passed out from American School Dhaka. Presently, she was a student at Berkeley. https://t.co/oeTViJ8Xqa Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 2, 2016 We are arranging visa for the family. My officers are on the job. https://t.co/dwfPsoxutG Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 2, 2016 Bangladesh army had rescued 13 hostages, including one Japanese and two Sri Lankan nationals after they stormed the building Saturday morning after the gunmen took control of it the previous night. Reuters They also killed six of the attacker and captured one alive ending the nearly 12-hour-long siege. The restaurant in the high-security Gulshan diplomatic zone was a popular spot among foreign diplomats and tourists. We constantly keep hearing about the terrible conditions our Indian Army has to operate in and the lengths they have to go to on a regular basis to keep their country safe. We read about the unbelievable courage these guys show at the front, but most of the time, their stories go untold. It is truly a shame that senile politicians and Bollywood nobodies get more attention than our men of valour. Here are the stories of 3 unsung war heroes from Kargil we must tell people about. Legends. Mahavir Chakra (Posthumous) Lt Keishing Clifford Nongrum - 12 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry 30th June - 1st July 1999 sarejahanseacha.in The objective of the operation was to capture Point 4812 in the Batalik sector and Lt Keishing Clifford Nongrum was tasked with the climb and assault on an almost vertical cliff. When they finally reached the top of the cliff, his column encountered a fierce attack which was well entrenched in interconnected positions carved out of boulders, remaining immune to even artillery fire. For two hours, the enemy kept coming down with heavy and automatic fire. Lt Nongrum, not thinking about his own safety for one second, charged towards the enemy through the fire zone. From the first position, he started throwing grenades, which killed 6 enemy soldiers but not before being critically injured by a volley of bullets. Lt. Nongrum's act of unreal bravery caught the enemy by surprise. It also gave his troops enough time to close in and take control of the position. He single-handedly made sure that his troops took control of the position, and even though he was severely injured, he refused to be evacuated. He kept fighting like a champion till he succumbed to his injuries on the battlefield. For the unreal act of valour, he was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra posthumously. Vir Chakra (Posthumous) Captain Jintu Gogoi - 17 GARHWAL RIFLES 29th June - 30th June 1999 Harpreet/Twitter Operation Vijay was underway when Captain Jintu Gogoi was tasked with the eviction of enemy soldiers from ridge line Kala Pathar near LOC (line of control) in the general area of Jubar Hill complex in Batalik sub-sector. Capt Gogoi led his troops and reached the top by first light. All this while facing heavy fire from the enemy. He made sure that his platoon was out of the enemy's reach. He killed a couple of enemy soldiers but was also severely injured while performing his task and getting his troops to safety. He later succumbed to his injuries but showed incredible character and leadership qualities while carrying out this incredible act of bravery in a terrain that is almost impossible to survive in. He was posthumously awarded the Vir Chakra. Vir Chakra Naik Brij Mohan Singh - 9 PARA (Special Forces) 1st July 1999 twdi.com Naik Brij Mohan Singh was the commander of a 30-member team that was tasked with capturing "Sando Top" in Mashkoh Sub-Sector. They also had a secondary task to capture a cliff 5250 mts high and progress towards the Pakistani logistic base. Naik Brij Mohan Singh launched the assault on the near-vertical Sando Top and found a sweet spot for some foothold in the battle near the cliff. However, the march ahead was halted due to the enemy's constant shelling. Naik Singh led from the front and started assaulting the slopes of Sando Top where the enemy had taken control. The brave soul would lob grenades at them and then follow it up by physically charging at them. This left the enemy baffled, they didn't know what to do. As he went about reclaiming what the enemy had captured he got severely injured. However, not thinking about it one bit, he kept charging on and even killed two enemy soldiers with his bare hands. His act of raw courage not only helped to eliminate 5 enemy soldiers but also saved lives of his comrades. Always remember. Information about these brave soldiers has been sourced from this Facebook page. 1. Indian Girl Tarushi Jain Was Among Those Taken Hostage And Killed In Dhaka Siege External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has just confirmed that an Indian citizen - 19-year-old girl Tarushi Jain, a pass out of American School Dhaka has been killed by the terrorists who laid siege to a restaurant in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka. Bangladesh army had rescued 13 hostages, including one Japanese and two Sri Lankan nationals after they stormed the building Saturday morning after the gunmen took control of it the previous night. 2. Second Attack On Hindus In Bangladesh In Two Days, Temple Priest Critical After Being Stabbed A 48-year-old Hindu priest has been stabbed and critically injured by unidentified assailants in Bangladesh, a day after a Hindu priest and a Buddhist leader were brutally hacked to death by machete-wielding ISIS militants. Bhabasindhu Roy of the Sri Sri Radha Gobinda Temple in Satkhira district was attacked inside the temple compound as he slept, police said on Saturday. 3. Govt Goes Full Throttle On Rs 2,500 Flights, Operations To Start From 30 Airports Soon The government wants at least three subsidised flights a week at underserved airports as part of the regional connectivity scheme aimed at boosting air travel. This had been announced as a key element of the civil aviation policy unveiled by the government on June 15 as it looks to enable 350 million more Indians to fly every year. 4. Someone Wants Godfather Beer Banned, Because It Has The Word 'God' In Its Name The greatest thing about India is that for every sane person there is another who's pissed off/affronted/outraged at something or the other. We are angry at movies, songs, editorials and now even at beer! A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been moved in the Delhi High Court seeking to restrain manufacture, supply and sale of 'Godfather' beer in the national capital, saying it hurts religious sentiments. 5. Speeding BMW Allegedly Driven By Rajasthan MLA's Son Kills 3, Injures 5 Others A BMW car allegedly driven by an MLA's son, who was suspected to be in an inebriated state, hit an autorickshaw on Saturday killing three persons and then rammed into a PCR van in which four policemen were injured. Siddharth Maharia, son of Independent MLA Nandkishore Maharia, was driving the car at high speed at around 1.30 am in C-scheme area here, police claimed. He first hit an autorickshaw and then a PCR van, police said, adding under the impact of the crash, the three-wheeler fell about 200 feet away from the site. 6. Malaysian University Publishes A Paper Calling Hindus In India 'Unclean', Forced To Apologise India has expressed concern over the negative and incorrect picture conveyed about Hinduism and Sikhism after a leading Malaysian university published an educational module depicting Hindus in India as unclean following which the varsity has issued an apology. Slides of the module by the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) appeared online enraging the minority ethnic Indian community and some others in this Muslim-majority country. 7. Jamaica Just Came Up With The Idea Of Ganja ATMs For Tourists - All You'll Need Is A Marijuana Card Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) in Jamaica is exploring options for providing tourists legal methods to purchase marijuana. The CLA has proposed to have kiosks or dedicated desks in Jamaica's air and seaports, where visitors can pick up a licence to sample weed. The reason - to enhance the island experience of the tourist. The Indian railways will be claiming Rs 500 crore, half of the Nirbhaya fund, to install and maintain CCTV cameras at railway stations around the country. This comes after the government failed to utilise Rs 1,000 crore allotted to the Nirbhaya fund for women safety projects after the first two years of it being set up. Instead of not doing anything with the allocated money, the centre decided to use it for some other purpose. Getty Half the money for women safety for just cameras? 500 crore from the fund, which was ideally supposed to be used to fight crimes against women and promote gender equality among other things, will instead be used to install cameras? Oddity aside, even the numbers don't make any sense. We did the math, couldn't find the logic though. One night vision CCTV camera is available for purchase online for Rs 4,000 (approx). If we take that as a standard price for a camera (not accounting for the heavy discount that one must be getting for bulk orders), the railways could get themselves 12,50,000 cameras. There are roughly about 8000 railway stations in the country, which brings us to 156 CCTV cameras per railway station in the country. But the railways don't even plan to implement this nationwide! They only plan to equip 1,000 stations - which means 1250 cameras per station. irctc.co.in But there is a plan in place. According to the chairman of the railway board, AK Mittal, the Railways will only be spending Rs 50 lakh to install these CCTVs in each of these 1000 stations. "Detection of crime and prompt investigation in these cases are crucial. We approached the Finance Ministry for monetary assistance and Rs 500 crore has been granted from the Nirbhaya Fund to install CCTV cameras at railway stations," he said. A similar proposal was also made by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in his Budget speech for the current financial year. rediff It is facing a lot of criticism because, logic. Even though the idea of installing CCTV cameras across railway stations is a novel one, and should help bring the crime rate down and catch the culprits a lot quicker, it has drawn criticism from women activists. They believe installing CCTVs will not solve the larger problem. The railway officials say the CCTV cameras vary from 200-300 per station but busy stations like the ones in Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow and Kanpur would require anywhere between 300 to 350 cameras. The New Delhi Railway Station currently has only 150 CCTV cameras. Randy Olson/ National Geographic Since the creation of the fund, the money allotted to empower women and ensure their safety has been lying untouched. It's not like the crime rates have gone down either, so this move by the government tends to give out an impression that it's the will, not the resources that we need to keep our citizens safe. How else would you explain Rs 3,000 crore (since 2013) lying idle? Sixty-six years after adopting one of the worlds most liberal constitutions, India is being convulsed by a searing debate over a colonial-era provision in its penal code, Section 377, which criminalizes whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman, or animal. Though not widely used there were 578 arrests under Section 377 last year the law is a tool for the harassment, persecution, and blackmail of sexual minorities within India. It must be changed. Beyond forcing millions of gay men and women to live in fear and secrecy, Section 377 has undermined HIV-prevention efforts and contributed to depression and suicides. A 2014 study by the World Bank revealed that India suffers a loss of between 0.1% and 1.7% of GDP because of homophobia. BCCL The issue is not one of sex, but of freedom. By giving the state the authority to control what Indian adults do, consensually, in their bedrooms, Section 377 violates the constitutional rights to dignity, privacy, and equality enshrined in Articles 14, 15, and 21, respectively. As the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has observed, The criminalization of gay behavior goes not only against fundamental human rights, but it also works sharply against the enhancement of human freedoms in terms of which the progress of human civilization can be judged. The BJPs vote is incongruous on several levels, but most glaringly in its rejection of millennia of Indian practice in favor of a British colonial law (which the British themselves have outgrown). The Indian ethos toward sexual difference has historically been liberal, with neither mythology nor history revealing the persecution or prosecution of sexual heterodoxy. In fact, the Hindu epics are dotted with characters like Shikhandi in the Mahabharata, who was born female and became male; many Hindus venerate the half-man, half-woman Ardhanarishvara; and temple sculptures across India depict homosexual acts. Yet the BJP, the party of Hindu chauvinism, chooses to ignore this Hindu tradition. BCCL In its 2013 judgment, the Supreme Court said that legislators, not judges, must decide the fate of Section 377. Unfortunately, thanks to the prejudices of a few dozen vocal and motivated BJP members, parliament is not up to the task. Indeed, legislative recourse for the injustice of Section 377 may not be available as long as the BJP is in power. But there is still hope for relief through Indias judicial process. The Supreme Court has now agreed to undertake a curative review of its 2013 decision. Such a review could lead it to repeal Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. BCCL While I have been unsuccessful in my efforts to amend Section 377 through legislative channels, I remain committed to human rights, to keeping the government out of our bedrooms, and to defending Indian pluralism. As we await the Supreme Courts review, we can and must continue to seek justice for Indias minorities in the court of public opinion. To this end, I have circulated a petition, with the goal of highlighting for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party that public sentiment has moved beyond the nineteenth century. With 65,000 people having already signed, the message is clear. But, in terms of real change in this area, my hopes rest with the judiciary, rather than the government. After all, whereas change via legislation would require political courage a quality sorely lacking in the current Indian government the judiciary is not hampered by such considerations. BCCL The good news is that Indias Supreme Court has an exemplary record of interpreting statutes in a way that expands human rights in the country. The curative review raises hope that it will do so again, creating an India in which the law embodies constitutional values of privacy, equality, dignity, and non-discrimination for all citizens. The alternative allowing Indian law to continue to serve as an iron cage for some of our people would directly undermine the freedom of identity and expression that constitutes the backbone of Indian democracy. What is more, it would leave India out of step with much of the rest of the international community, a country embarrassed before the worlds other democracies. We must demand that our Supreme Court if not our lawmakers affirm a pluralist India that accommodates all identities within our country. The time for change was many years ago. But it is never too late to do the right thing. I hope that the Supreme Court is listening. In New Zealand's biggest drug bust ever, 35 kilos of cocaine was found in a 400-kilo, diamante-encrusted horse head sculpture that had been brought into the country from Mexico. The police have arrested three people, two of them hailing from Mexico and one US national. Two of them were caught at the Auckland international airport as they were trying to flee the country to Hawaii. The third person was arrested in Christchurch a day later, but the cops believe there are more arrests to be made. stuff.co.nz New Zealand is not really a country with an active drug culture. In fact, the average amount of class A drugs being seized in the country every year does not exceed 250 grams. And here was the New Zealand police department with 35 kilos of cocaine with an estimated street value of $14 million or Rs 94 crore approximately. stuff.co.nz The customs department first had suspicions in May when the 400-kilo diamante-encrusted horse head sculpture was first brought into the country from Mexico. Detectives believe that an organised crime group is behind this which is pretty obvious actually since an average Joe in all probabilities will not have 35 kilos of cocaine or a 400-kilo horse sculpture to his name (even though it's a gorgeous sculpture). tvnz.co.nz Cocaine is not a common drug in New Zealand but experts say there is a growing market for it as the drug is associated with people from higher societies and "socialites". The arrested people are yet to appear before the court. Popular Nigerian Writer Chimamanda Adichie and her husband Dr. Ivara Esegee have welcomed their first child. In a new interview with Financial Times, the writer revealed that she and her husband welcomed their daughter a while back but she decided to keep it private. According to her, This is the first time Im saying it publicly. I have a lovely little girl so I feel like I havent slept, but its also just really lovely and strange. I have some friends who probably dont know I was pregnant or that I had a baby. I just feel like we live in an age when women are supposed to perform pregnancy. We dont expect fathers to perform fatherhood. I went into hiding. I wanted it to be as personal as possible Source: Gist Hit An Oyo State lawmaker Mr. Gideon Aremu was on Friday night gunned down in front of his house at Alakia Area of Ibadan by unknown gunmen. According to report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr Aremu who at the time of his death was the Chairman Committee on Information and Security at the State House of Assembly was driving into his house after his wife had opened the gate for him when two men on motorcycles shot him several times. According to an eyewitness; The armed men waited several minutes afterwards to ensure he was dead and took away only his cell phone The Spokesman for the state police command, Mr. Adekunle Ajisebutu, who confirmed the lawmakers assassination said the Oyo State Commissioner of Police had directed police personnel to immediately begin thorough investigation into the killing. Unknown gunmen opened fire on a boat transporting Eni SpA workers in the oil-rich Niger River delta, killing at least two people, the company said. In an statement by the company on Saturday, The team was attacked on June 29 on the way to a well location for routine operations in the Nembe area, Three members of the team managed to escape. The bodies of the two that were missing were found two days later, the oil producer said. Security agencies are investigating the incident, according to the company. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, said Desmond Agu, the local commandant of the Civil Defence Force, whose agency had been part of the search party that recovered the bodies. A 52-year-old Nigerian evangelist based in South Africa, John Arinze, has been arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, for allegedly attempting to export N1.4bn worth of narcotics to South Africa. Arinze who hails from Ara village, Nise in Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State, reportedly concealed the drugs made of 92kgs methamphetamine and 73kgs ephedrine, inside two containers of foodstuff meant for export to South Africa at the Apapa Seaport in Lagos State. Other items in the container were said to include hair cream, bags of melon, kegs of palm oil, beans, biscuits and sardine. Sniffer dogs belonging to the agency reportedly detected the drugs during screening operation. This disclosure was made known by the NDLEA spokesperson, Mitchell Ofoyeju, on Friday. In a statement, the spokesperson said the suspect was under interrogation following an intense undercover operation by the agency. Ofoyeju added that the suspect had confessed to the crime. The statement reads, During examination of the containers marked MSKU 388274-1 and MSKU 424717-0; anti-narcotic officials detected 20kg of Methamphetamine and 50kg of Ephedrine inside the first container. Also, 72Kg of Methamphetamine and 23Kg of Ephedrine were detected in the second container. The total weight of the drugs is 165kg. Officers successfully traced the illicit consignment to a 52 year old man who claimed to be an evangelist by name John Vincent Arinze who was arrested in his hotel room in Lagos. A Mercedes Benz sport utility vehicle belonging to him was also impounded at the time of arrest. Arinze who had lived in South Africa for over a decade accepted ownership of the illicit shipment. The drugs were hidden inside packs of melon, concealed in foodstuff and cosmetics such as gaari (cassava flakes), noodles, food seasoning, yam powder, some alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, pepper, milk, herbal hair cream and cereals, the statement added. The Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Col. Muhammad Abdallah (retd.), commenting on the arrest, said the seizure would have a positive influence on the campaign against narcotic and psychotropic substances in the country. Abdallah was quoted as saying This is a product of careful planning and meticulous tracking of narcotic drugs movement. The consignments were closely monitored by our undercover agents and intercepted at Apapa Seaport, Lagos following the detection of narcotics by NDLEA sniffer dogs during screening operation. This will definitely have a positive influence on Nigerias drug control efforts. I am very happy with the success recorded in this operation. The Agency will remain painstaking and professional in the fight against illicit drug production, trafficking, abuse and prosecuting offenders. We hope to unmask the drug syndicate behind this shipment and make more arrests soon. The statement said the suspect would soon be charged to court. Confessing to the crime, the suspect reportedly told operatives in his statement that he made a big mistake by taking over the business of his late wife, who was into drug trafficking. I am an evangelist living in Durban South Africa. My late wife was into drug trafficking before she died few years ago. I made a mistake venturing into her business. It is my fault, he was quoted as saying. Source: Dailypost The Lagos State Police Command on Friday paraded a 34-year-old man, Mojeed Ogooluwa, who specialised in burglary and snatching of cars from motorists. Ogooluwa was arrested and detained after he and his syndicate robbed a civil servant, Mrs. Iyiola Shola, of her car, money, jewellery, mobile phone and laptop on March 8. However, police officers from the Ogun State Command, acting on a tip-off intercepted them on their way to Ilorin, where they wanted to sell the car. The police reportedly killed one of the members of the gang and recovered the car. Parading the suspect at the state police headquarters before newsmen, the state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, SP Dolapo Badmos, said two of the robbers had been arrested by the operatives of the Special Intelligence Response Team, SIRT, while investigations were on to arrest other members of the gang and bring them to book. They were arrested when a team of IRT operatives trailing a notorious gang of robbers that specialised in car snatching within Lagos and Ogun states, stormed the gangs hideout in Ketu Tipper Garage, the PPRO said. While the police is still on the trail of the fleeing members of the gang, Ogooluwa, who claimed he was sacked from his job as the Financial Secretary of the Tricycle Operators Association in Ketu, Lagos, said he did not think of something else than to take to robbery. The Oyo State indigene, who is married with two children, said hunger and frustration led him to joining a robbery gang who specialised in robbing people of their cars and other possessions. Confessing to the crime, Ogooluwa said he went into robbery because he couldnt pay his two childrens school fees after losing his job as an executive member of the Tricycle Operators Association in Ketu, Lagos and things became difficult for him. He said he used to earn around N40,000 while on the job. He told newsmen, I was an executive member of the Tricycle Operators Association in the Ikosi Isheri Unit, Ketu, Lagos and I held the post of a financial secretary. We are affiliated to the National Union of Road Transport workers and my job was to monitor the movement of tricycles around Ketu and to make sure there was free flow of traffic. I used to earn N5,000 weekly and by the end of the month, I earned another N20,000. But in January, 2016, I was relieved of the job and when it was time for me to pay my childrens school fees, I could not pay again. I became frustrated. I met one Agu and Mutiu at a smoking joint in the Ketu area of Lagos and they started talking about robbing cars from a house. I told them that I was a good driver and would work for them if they would accept me, he said, adding, We exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet by night. Ogooluwa added, We met at Ketu Bus stop that night and I saw four boys Agu, Lekan Tesax, Yahoo Foreign and Mutiu. They told me that the house where they wanted to snatch the car from was very close by and we went by foot. I didnt know the name of the street; it was Agu and Mutiu who took us to the house. Three of us had guns, but I didnt have any since I was new in the gang. Time was around 1am when we invaded the house through the fence and broke the door, two of us who had guns entered into the house while I waited outside. After a while, they came out, having collected the key of a Toyota Camry from the lady resident and we all drove out in it. On our way, we intercepted another car, a Toyota Corolla, on CMD Road, Shangisha area and we snatched it from its owner. From that point, we proceeded onto the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and we were heading towards Ilorin, Kwara State to sell the vehicles to our buyers there. On our way, we stopped to buy something to eat when the police attacked us. They shot at us and we all ran into the bush, but the bullet hit Mutiu on his abdomen and we abandoned him. The police followed us. That was when I was arrested, he said. Source: Dailypost Officials of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Friday sealed off four bakeries during an inspection exercise in Benin. The bakeries which are all located on Sapkonba Road includes Gods Will, Life is Good, Our Daily Bread and Stone bakeries. Three persons were also arrested for unwholesome practices during the exercise. The Coordinator of NAFDAC in Edo State Mr David West while speaking during the exercise said it was in line with the agencys mandate of safeguarding the health of Nigerians. He added that the exercise was geared towards achieving three objectives of registration of bakeries, good hygiene practice and non-use of prohibited dough ingredients. We have three teams carrying out this exercise in different locations in Benin today. From the inspection so far, we observed that most of the bakeries are not listed with NAFDAC and they operate under poor hygiene condition. We have given sanctions and made some arrest and they will be prosecuted, Mr West said. Factional National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has said through his deputy,Dr. Cairo Ojugboh that the crisis rocking the party may last till 2019. INFORMATION NIGERIA brings to you 6 things he said. He said there were signs that the courts might not be able to restore sanity to the former ruling party. He, therefore, called on state governors, leaders in the party and other stakeholders to find political solutions to the crisis in the party. He also said the reprieve granted his faction by Justice Okon Abang, that it must be the one to present candidates for the Edo and Ondo states elections coming up later in the year was proof that Sheriff was the authentic leader of the party. He also said that the earlier they behave well, the better for all of them and that the party wont rely on the governors for funds and all that anymore. He noted also that the corruption issue they are having is because governors were bringing money to run party. He then submitted by saying that the party do not need the governors money to run the party again. The Department of State Services (DSS) announced yesterday it had uncovered a plot to bomb Nigerias largest computer market, the Computer Village in Ikeja, Lagos. It named one Chidiebere Onwudiwe, a graduate of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering and local members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as the brains behind the plot. Onwudiwe is currently under arrest. The DSS said in a statement that the suspect was working with foreign and local members of IPOD to perfect the plot. It also claimed to have uncovered another plot to bomb worship centres and parks during the coming Eid el Fitri festivities. In a statement in Abuja last night, the DSS said its operatives had arrested two suspected members of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) linked to Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo) while making separate plans for the assassination of a Kaduna-based military officer and the bombing of oil and gas pipelines. It said: On 7th June, 2016, one Kabiru SHUAIBU, the ring-leader of a kidnap gang, comprising his accomplices namely: Haruna SALEH, Tukur SHUAIBU and Abdulmumuni ADAMUNA, were arrested by the Service along Murtala Muhhamad Bridge, along Lokoja-Abuja Highway, in Lokoja, Kogi State. The suspects were part of a criminal gang which has been terrorizing innocent citizens in the Northern region of the Federation. During their arrest, a locally-made pistol, seven cartridges, 14 mobile phones and N615,000 were recovered on them. On 8th June, 2016, one Reuben Akinbehinje aka Chairman, the ring-leader of a notorious kidnap syndicate, was arrested by this Service in Akure, Ondo State, along with five (5) other members of his gang namely; John Imoleayo Uche, Seun Lajuwon, Seun Iseoluwa Akintayo, Lateef Fayemi Hammed and Saheed Oyewo. The Akinbehinje gang has been the brain behind the kidnap of two Catholic nuns in the State and other criminalities such as armed robbery, hijack and diversion of fuel tankers and cult-related activities in Ondo, Oyo, Osun, Lagos and Kwara States. Similarly, on 12th June, 2016, this Service arrested one Ifeanyi Michael Onyike, a suspected kidnap kingpin at D-line, Port Harcourt in Rivers State. Onyike was involved in the kidnap of Ebere Chinda, wife to Igo Chinda, the Personal Assistant (PA) to the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi. Further to this tactical offensive, on 25h June, 2016, in one of the North-Western States, one Sani Abdullahi, and his three accomplices, namely Rufai Tukur Abdullahi, Najeeb Abubakar and Abdullahi Ahmed, were apprehended by this Service. The group has concluded arrangements to embark on serial kidnap of high-value targets in Katsina State, before their arrest. This gang has hitherto been terrorizing the North-Western States of Kano, Katsina, Kebbi and Zamfara. In a bid to stem the activities of vandals in the Niger Delta, this Service effected the arrest of Selky Kile TORUGHEDI, on 17th June, 2016, in Calabar, Cross River State. Toruchedi is an ex-militant and suspected member of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), and was arrested for planning to assassinate one MB.Yahaya a serving military officer. Toruchedi, who is a close associate of Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo), had already conducted surveillance at the residence of Yahaya in Kaduna, preparatory to his plot when he was intercepted. He is also fingered as a sponsor of pipeline vandalism in some States in the South-South region. Suspect is currently assisting the Service, with critical leads. In a related operation, this Service arrested one Christian Oluba aka Sensor, another suspected militant with the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA). Sensorwas arrested while perfecting plans to carry out explosive attacks on critical oil and gas pipelines, including critical storage points. Meanwhile, sequel to increasing threat posed to public peace by the activities of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), this Service arrested one Chidiebere Onwudiwe, a graduate of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering and known member of IPOB, on 22ndJune, 2016. Onwudiwe and his associates within and outside the country, were planning to carry out coordinated attacks against religious bodies/edifices, Police-Check Points and the computer village in Ikeja, Lagos State, with Improvised Explosive devices (IEDS). The suspect was apprehended while making logistics supplies for their nefarious plan. In another development, on 19th June, 2016, at Langtang North LGA in Plateau State, this Service in liaison with the military and Police, arrested one Nanpon Sambs (aka Yabam), an illegal arms dealer. SAMBS is a member of a notorious black market arms syndicate led by one Peter Nehemia (aka Adagyo) which operates in the State. A Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) launcher and circuit charger were recovered from a Toyota Highlander SUV belonging to the suspect. Source: The Nation For most wine-exporting countries Ireland is strictly of minor interest, but not for the wine makers of Chile given that around one in every four bottles consumed here is Chilean. Two of the better producers were in town recently Mario Pablo from Casa Silva and Marcelo Papa of Concha y Toro and both spoke enthusiastically about Chiles relationship with Ireland (well with its wine drinkers at least!). Chile has a strong hold here on the entry level market and all the producers are trying to encourage us to trade up to their better wines. Largely I would agree that spending a few extra euro to get to the Reserva level or higher will yield significant benefits in terms of flavour. The exception is Sauvignon Blanc where personally I tend to prefer the simple freshness of the entry level wines over the rather herbal and (over-ripe) asparagus flavoured fruit to be found at the top end. Casa Silva is betting on cooler coastal climates and on Carmenere for the future, and has recently identified some specific high-quality Carmenere clones their micro-climate Carmenere is one of Chiles great wines (sadly it is produced in tiny quantities and is not available here). Marques de Casa Conchas range here includes their dense ripe Chardonnay, their blackcurrant essence Cabernet plus a smoky Syrah (see below). These are the big brothers to the Casillero del Diablo range but still sell at a very fair price. The brand will soon include old vine Cinsault and Pais varietals in their range and heres hoping they make it here at some point. Recommendations this week include some Chilean reds but also some fragrant Albarinos from Rias Baixas which has organised a series of tastings this summer. I will be hosting a masterclass on the grape on July 13 at Green Man Wines in Terenure in Dublin. A similar tasting will be held by Elizabeth Fox of GMIT at the Twelve Hotel next Thursday, July 7. BEST VALUE UNDER 15 Thomas Schmitt Riesling Kabinett 2011, Mosel, Germany 12 Stockist: ODonovans I only get to mention the occasional Mosel Riesling on this page (thanks Karwigs!) so I was pleased to see this on offer in ODonovans. Be warned that this has sweetness as well as acidity and is probably best described as demi-sec with sweet apple confit fruits and a lemon oil character. Try well chilled with mature Durrus or Gubbeen. Casa Silva Cool Coast Pinot Noir 2012, Chile 14.95 Stockist: ODonovans, www.winesoftheworld.ie From a vineyard just 5km from the cool Pacific Ocean where temperatures are rarely above 23C in the day and 8C at night. Bright red fruit and classic earth tinged Pinot Noir aromas, darker fruit on the palate, dry but with a luscious edge. Serve a little cooler to bring out the freshness. Casa Silva Carmenere Reserva 2012, Chile 14.95 Stockist: ODonovans, www.winesoftheworld.ie As often with Carmenere this has rich black fruit aromas mixed with a herbal leafy note (familiar to anyone that has picked blackcurrants!). Fragrant black fruit on the palate with supple fruits and a lingering freshness that will make this a good outdoor wine. BEST VALUE OVER 15 Marques de Casa Concha Syrah 2012, Buin Maipo, Chile 12-16.95 Stockists: Tesco This is occasionally on special offer for around 12.95 so keep an eye out. Syrah grows very well in Chile and I expect we will see more of it once we start to buy it in larger numbers. Aromas of black fruit, vanilla and spice (oak) and warm mouth-filling flavours. Try with some roast summer lamb. Pazo Barrantes Albarino, Salnes Rias Baixas, Spain 22.95 Stockist: OBriens This is from the Salnes region of Rias Baixas, arguably the best of the five sub-regions with cooler temperatures and more sea influence. This is owned by Marques de Murrieta and is worth the extra few euro for its minerality and intensity mixed with honeysuckle aromas and weighty texture. Terras Gauda Albarino, O Rosal Rias Baixas, Spain 24.95 Stockists: Matsons, Mannings Ballylicky, Ardkeen Stores, Stacks Listowel, The Corkscrew, Jus de Vine, Donnybrook Fair, Mitchells From the sub-region of O Rosal near the river Minho which creates the border between Galicia and Portugal. Intense washed stone and white peach aromas, solid textured palate with a dry mineral finish. The technology will be used in the iNext, set to supplant the 7-Series sedan as BMWs flagship model, the company has said. The iNext will be a basis for fleets of fully autonomous vehicles to cruise highways and also be available as robo-taxis in cities, BMW said. The partnership is the next core building block to bring fully automated driving technology to the street, BMW chief executive officer Harald Krueger said. The biggest luxury carmaker setting a date for its self-driving debut will put pressure on rivals, including Tesla Motors and Mercedes-Benz, as manufacturers strive to fend off competition, not only within the industry but also from the likes of Uber Technologies and Google. Robo-taxis will make up 40% of automotive profits by 2030, more than selling vehicles to individuals, according to consulting company Roland Berger. BMWs partnership comes as a fatal accident in the US involving a Tesla sedan driving on the cars so-called Autopilot fuels the debate over whether self-driving cars are ready for the real world. US regulators are investigating the crash, which killed a 40-year-old Ohio man when his 2015 Model S drove under the trailer of an 18-wheeler. Tesla uses Mobileyes technology in its autopilot, which it started to introduce in October as a step toward autonomous cars. In the fatal crash, the company said, neither the system nor the driver saw the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky. The equipment in the Tesla that crashed is designed to prevent rear-end collisions, not avoid vehicles crossing laterally, the company said in a statement. Mobileye systems will be able to see and react to lateral traffic beginning in 2018, it said. Autopilot is one of a range of technologies meant to be stepping-stones toward completely autonomous vehicles. BMW already offers a self-parking feature, while Daimlers Mercedes E-Class can steer itself on the highway though the driver is supposed to keep his or her hands on the wheel. Enabling vehicles to navigate without human input through complex settings such as city centres requires them to see and understand situations more like humans do. BMWs deal with Intel and Mobileye brings together companies with expertise in cameras that can model the driving surroundings and computing capabilities to power artificial intelligence. A poll published on Thursday indicated a stunning shift in sentiment in Finland, the Nordic regions only euro member. The Iltalehti poll shows that 69% of Finns dont want a British style in-out vote. And if a referendum on the EU was held, 68% would vote to stay. Brexit seems to have had an impact on Finnish attitudes toward the EU, said Teija Tiilikainen. For Finland, the result is that voters are now seeking safety in the status quo. The poll, which carries a margin of error of 2.5 points, was conducted on June 28-29, just as Britain descended into political chaos and EU leaders met to discuss the fallout across the continent. Before the June referendum, Finlands electorate had been more evenly split. In a March poll by Helsingin Sanomat, 43% of voting Finns wanted a referendum, with only 56% of the electorate wanting to stay in. The development suggests that, far from unleashing a populist wave, Brexit appears to have given European citizens some pause. In Spain, voters last weekend shied away from anti-establishment parties such as Podemos and threw their weight behind caretaker prime minister Mariano Rajoy. With a 1,340km joint border with Russia, Finland has relied on its EU membership to shield it from an increasingly antagonistic neighbour. Though the countrys economic plight unemployment is more than 10% after three years of GDP contraction has led some to question euro membership, the majority of Finns have remained loyal to the single currency. Even the man behind the so-called Fixit push, former foreign minister Paavo Vayrynen, concedes his country is unlikely to re-introduce the markka anytime soon. The government, which is run by a self-made millionaire eager to reform the economy, has been unequivocal about its support for the EU. After the Brexit result was announced, prime minister Juha Sipila was quick to tweet that the EU project goes on. The latest purchasing managers index (PMI) from Investec Ireland shows the manufacturing sector reached a three-month high in June, driven by a slight increase in new business orders and a return to growth in new export orders. An overall reading of 53 points was measured, up from one of 51.5 in May. Anything above the neutral 50 point mark denotes an industry in growth mode. Most important of all is the North, from a political and economic perspective. The carefully crafted political edifice of Stormont is a horrible mess. But compared to a low-grade civil war it is Platos Republic. The core of the political settlement is that both sides accept each other as having multiple identities European, Irish, British or both. The war has stopped and the economy, if lopsided, is growing. All of this is threatened by the pique of the English electorate. Any border with the EU and a non-EU country needs to be strongly and vigorously defended. An area with freedom of movement of trade, money and people needs that. So the question is whether that will happen at Newry, and infuriate the nationalists, or at Larne, with the unionists infuriated. Having campaigned, for some inexplicable reason for Brexit, the DUP should logically seek a hard land border. This is not going to happen. But a UK which ran from the EU for fear of migrants will need a hard frontier, so it has to be at the point of exit of Northern Ireland. It gives the lie to the statement that the North is as British as Finchley. A Northern Ireland that remains in the residual UK will become poorer and more violent. There is not a chance that a hard right government will replace the quantum of EU funds. The poorer the state, the greater the risk that the embers of conflict will be reignited. So what is Enda to do? Secretly, the notion of a united Ireland terrifies many in the south. Economically, it would add to the mess we are still in. Keeping the lid on and reducing the heat via economic development is key in any negotiations around Brexit. The old ideas of a federal Ireland may need to be brushed down. In that event, it must be made clear to the EU that large structural funds are needed. The common travel area is perhaps the next most important issue. It is important not just because of travel try getting off this island without some sort of official ID but because of work. Leaving aside the border, there is not a single Irish family who has not had a significant experience of life in the UK labour market. The reality is that since independence the two islands have operated as part of the same labour market. This has been the saviour of Ireland. This more than anything has been why we have not had riots in the streets. Our disaffected and under-employed youth merely had to get on the boat or plane to the UK. They go to London and Manchester. There they were able to work and live in an environment that offered more opportunities. The pressures that would have built up on socioeconomic reform were lessened. Despite opportunities across the EU, any barriers to travel and to work in the UK would be a cultural shock, as well as an economic one. It cuts both ways of course. An open border would allow for migration of British people out of the UK to the EU. How can Enda negotiate a special deal when larger and more important countries are being poorly treated? There are nearly twice as many Poles in the UK as Irish. What message will it send if we align with the argument that the Irish are different? More to the point, what will our European partners want in return? The IDA has for decades been successful in attracting foreign direct investment. A part of the success has been down to the attractive tax package which we have been able to maintain. It is important to realise that the headline corporation tax rate is only a part of this. But Ireland has other lures: We are now the only English speaking nation in the EU, a good beachhead for same, with a well-educated and productive workforce. None of those attractions has quite the resonance internationally as a low tax rate. A number of European countries have made no secret of the fact that they see this tax system as predatory and want it gone. So we want to be in a EU which has a single market for goods and services and at the same time to be in a single market; we want free movement of peoples between Ireland and a country which has withdrawn from the EU because of free movement of people; and we want to maintain our perceived predatory tax regime for corporates which annoys so many. We want our cake and to eat it, and eat it again. We cant. Can we? Brian Lucey is professor of finance at the School of Business, Trinity College Dublin. It was the latest setback for Mr Osborne who was once considered a future British leader but who has not put himself forward to succeed prime minister David Cameron after the two men failed in their campaign to keep th UK in the EU. The government must provide fiscal credibility, so we will continue to be tough on the deficit, but we must be realistic about achieving a surplus by the end of this decade, Mr Osborne said in a speech yesterday. Even before the referendum, many economists had questioned the ability of Mr Osborne to deliver the surplus by the end of the decade because of the scale of the spending cuts or tax increases that would be required to hit it. Martin Beck, economist with EY ITEM Club, said Mr Osbornes announcement could help to counter the Brexit hit to confidence in the economy. This is a welcome step at a time of economic uncertainty. Achieving a surplus was always set to drag on activity over the next few years, he said. Bank of England governor Mark Carney said on Thursday that he expected the central bank would need to pump more monetary stimulus into the economy over the summer. Mr Osborne inherited a deficit of more than 10% of GDP when he became chancellor in 2010. Since then, the shortfall has fallen and was just under 4% of GDP in the 2015/16 financial year which ended in March. When Mr Osborne announced a new fiscal plan last year, including the 2020 surplus target, he included a clause relieving the government of the requirement to put the public finances in the black. One of the front-runners to succeed Mr Cameron as prime minister, home secretary Theresa May, had said she would not stick with the 2020 target. The opposition Labour Party has criticised the target. He should now lay out a programme of government investment and support for businesses, bringing forward shovel-ready projects particularly in those areas hardest hit by long-term economic decline, Labours spokesman on the economy, John McDonnell, said. Sterling has slipped again, as the Bank of England prepares to pump money into the UKs financial system after the shock Brexit vote a week ago. Any sharp fall for sterling, against the euro, hits small- and medium-sized exporters hard, because it hugely erodes their profit margins on exports across the Irish Sea. While many Irish stocks bounced back from the sell-off induced by the Brexit shock, the pressure remained on Irish exporters. Sterling fell against the euro yesterday, to 83.7 pence, dragging the currency 7% lower since June 23, the eve of the vote. The Iseq index of shares climbed for a third day, by 2%, but remains almost 10.5% below its June 23 level. Some of the big names on the Dublin exchange, which earn much of their income in the UK and are therefore vulnerable to a droop in the value of sterling, continued to reflect stress from the Brexit vote. Bank of Ireland traded yesterday at 18 cent, down a third from the 27 cent on referendum day, on June 23. The bank is now valued at 5.82bn, almost 50% less than this time last year. Shares in Ryanair, however, soared 5%, to 11.89, but have nosedived from 13.68 on the eve of the vote, and are down 21% this year. Analysts had said the airline, whose chief executive, Michael OLeary, had prominently campaigned on British media for a Remain vote, could face a potential hit, because it makes a large chunk of its sales in sterling. Ferry company, ICG, rose 4.6% to 4.40, but has lost almost 19% of its value this year. Meanwhile, the FTSE 100, along with other European stock markets, climbed by 1.2%, yesterday, and stands 4% above its eve-of-poll level. Anyone suggesting that markets would hold up well this week, let alone rally in the impressive way they had, would probably have been dismissed as just an attention-seeker, but, once again, going against the herd has proven to be the wisest choice, said Chris Beauchamp, senior market analyst at online trader, IG. Yet again, consensus opinion was proven to be incorrect. The chance to pick up choice shares on the cheap was evidently irresistible, he said. IG said stock markets would still be looking out for any Brexit fallout next week, but at least there will be some other events to focus on. Alan McQuaid, chief economist at Merrion Capital, said Irish indicators published last week, reflecting the economy here before the Brexit vote, showed good news. These indicators encompassed house prices, retail sales, and surveys of manufacturing. But in a sign that the Brexit vote could still reverberate across the EU, Czech president, Milos Zeman, yesterday called for a referendum on the countrys membership of the EU and NATO. He said he supported remaining in both blocs. The Czech Republic benefits as an EU member, because it receives more funds than it contributes, while NATO provides security guarantees in fighting international terrorism, Mr Zeman said on public Czech Radio. Still, he said he would do everything to initiate a referendum, so people can express themselves. The government rejected the presidents suggestion. Spain formed a working group to weigh up the consequences of Brexit and to co-ordinate its bid to host the EBA and other EU agencies now based in the UK, acting deputy prime minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said in a news conference yesterday in Madrid. The UKs decision last week to abandon the 28-nation bloc has led to a scramble by other countries to offer a home for agencies such as the EBA and the European Medicines Agency which are based in London. David Daithi Douglas, aged 53, was shot up to four times at close range on Bridgefoot St, in Dublins south inner city, at 4.15pm yesterday. Douglas, from Cabra in the north inner city and the father of a teenage daughter, was brought to nearby St Jamess Hospital but died a short time after. He had multiple convictions for serious crime, including attempted murder of a garda, armed robbery, and drug trafficking. He was standing at the door of a local shop, which sells childrens shoes and toys, when he was shot. The shop, Shoetown, is also next door to a youth project. Superintendent Patrick McMenamin of Kevin Street Garda Station they had so far established that at least two men, described as tall and thin, were involved, one as the gunman and the second as the driver of a getaway car. A handgun was recovered at the scene and the car was found burned out nearby. The Mercedes, registration 161 D 26702, was stolen on the Navan Road on June 23. Supt McMenamin asked anyone who saw the car in last week to contact them. Gardai are harvesting CCTV along Bridgefoot St, Thomas St, and Frances St. Supt McMenamin urged witnesses to come forward. He said it was too early to identify any motive and said all lines would be examined. He said the deceased did not work at the shop. Submissions made to Strasbourg by the Child Law Clinic and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission question the Governments narrow interpretation of the landmark European judgment which found the State was negligent in failing to protect Louise OKeeffe from abuse in national school. The liability of the Department of Education in day-school abuse cases was at the core of a High Court case last month where three men in their 50s and 60s, claiming sexual abuse during the 1960s, were told they cannot sue the State for damages. The court ruled that the men couldnt take a case as they had previously signed an agreement to discontinue legal proceedings in return for the State agreeing to waive costs. Dr Conor OMahony, deputy director of the Child Law Clinic, believes they should be entitled to compensation through the day school redress scheme: The High Court did not, unfortunately, have any wriggle room in last months case because of precedent. The Child Law Clinic, which provided support to Ms OKeeffes legal team in her action before the European Court of Human Rights, and the IHREC sent individual submissions to the committee of ministers of the Council of Europe expressing concerns about the action plan put in place by the Government following the judgment. According to Dr OMahony, a violation was found in the OKeeffe case because of the complete absence of any measures, namely a child protection framework, to protect children against the risk of sexual abuse. Yet the States interpretation of the European Court of Human Rights Grand Chamber judgment is that the violation of Article 3 only arises in cases when it can be proved by the victim that a prior complaint of abuse was made to the school and not acted upon. It is only in these more limited circumstances that the State Claims Agency is willing to make out-of-court settlements of around 80,000 to adults who suffered sexual abuse at school. Approximately 100 people had been pursuing legal actions against the Department of Education for abuse at day schools. Only seven or eight of them have so far been able to prove the existence of a prior complaint. Protestors said that the failure to give job security to childcare workers was putting Government promises of two years free pre-school care in jeopardy. Marion Quinn, chairwoman of the National Association of Childhood Professionals, said childcare workers would this week sign on for social welfare payments, not knowing if their jobs would exist in September: There are about 4,000 people signing on this week, because the Government gives them a 38-week contract to deliver high-quality care to young children throughout the year. Eleanor OConnell, ACPs Cork branch chairwoman, has worked at Greenmount Community playgroup for the past 17 years: As of today, I am out-of-contract. Our contracts expired yesterday and weve already promised nearly 40 children places for September, in our play group, and we dont even know if we have jobs. They have promised up to two years free pre-school, from September this year, but they still didnt get the first year right they never consulted with us, people actually working in the sector. There is no guarantee that we will have jobs to go to in September. Thats the reality, she added. Ms Quinn said Ms OConnells case is typical of childcare professionals, many of whom have qualifications equivalent to primary school teaching. The services Eleanor is managing are literally across the hall from teachers who also have a level-eight qualification, working with children of a similar age to her. When you look at the infant classes, theyre closed for the summer as well, but their terms and conditions are protected, she said. Ms Quinn stopped working in childcare and now lectures in Cork Institute of Technology. You couldnt get a mortgage, you were signing on every summer. You couldnt get a loan for a car without your parents acting as guarantors. I had to leave. I couldnt afford to continue living like that. Im saying to my students why would you be doing it? she said. Haulier John Needham, aged 31, who served 11 months in prison in France for an almost identical offence in 2011, was receiving 500 for transporting what he believed were pills. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the farm was in financial trouble and Needham wanted to help his father out. He was described by his lawyers as easily led and particularly naive. A Garda surveillance operation caught Needham as he unloaded boxes from a truck at an industrial park. Garda recovered cannabis resin valued at 580,000 and 400,000 Zopiclone sedative tablets valued at 800,000 on the black market. He did not own the drugs which he was transporting. Needham, of Carna, Suncroft, Co Kildare, pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis at a location in Finglas in July 2015. He also pleaded guilty to supplying a prescription-only medicinal product otherwise than in accordance with marketing authorisation. Judge Melanie Greally said it was almost inconceivable that someone who had been sanctioned in the past for a similar offence could become engaged in it again for 500. She said he appeared to have learned little or nothing from his incarceration in France. She said he had a respectable upbringing with decent rural roots and had a good career in haulage. She noted he had engaged in a fulsome way with gardai and that he regretted getting involved. Judge Greally said he had performed a crucial role in bringing a significant amount of drugs into this country. She imposed an eight-year sentence. Amid escalating demands for a free vote for Independent ministers, several Fine Gael members of Cabinet have confirmed it is Mr Kenny who is most opposed to allowing such a scenario when the Dail votes on the issue next Thursday. Personally, I would have no problem with a free vote for the Independents, but that certainly is not Endas preference, said one senior minister. The news comes as the stand off between the Coalition enters its second weekend and amid claims that the Independent Alliance rejected a briefing from medical experts as to why the pending bill was deficient. It is understood that the crux of the issue is whether Cabinet ministers in this case Transport Minister Shane Ross and Super Junior Minister Finian McGrath can vote against advice given by the Attorney General Marie Whelan. It has emerged, however, that the need for a free vote does not apply to Fine Gael members as the party have agreed to support Health Minister Simon Harriss stand to oppose Independent TD Mick Wallaces bill, which will be voted on in the Dail on Thursday. But the Independent Alliance were standing firm in demanding a free vote from their Coalition partners. Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Junior Health Minister John Halligan said he is not for backing down and the alliance are standing united on the issue: I am not backing down and we are all for one and one for all. There should be a free vote. This is not in the Programme for Government and it clearly is a matter of conscience. Mr Halligan gave a trenchent speech in the Dail on Thursday night in which he said the legal opinion of the Attorney General was irrelevant, the time to act for the women of Ireland has come. It was made clear last night, Mr Halligans speech was delivered on behalf of other Independent Alliance members, not just himself. No participant in the Dail debate on the bill on Thursday argued against changing the current and highly restrictive abortion laws. Meanwhile, Fine Gael TD Kate OConnell on Thursday gave an emotional account of feeling abandoned and so let down by Ireland when she was faced with the possibility of a fatal foetal abnormality diagnosis. The Dublin Bay South TD said she and her husband received very little information... from the medical profession. Despite her experience she said the Wallace Bill was bad legislation which would never lead to a repeal of the Eighth Amendment. I would not like to see this still on the table at the end of 2017, I think we need to sort it out but in a compassionate way, she said. Europol said EU agencies freeze an estimated 2.4 billion worth of criminal assets on average each year, out of a total value of illicit crime markets of 110bn. The report, published by Europol Criminal Assets Bureau, said that while around 2.4bn (2.2% of the estimated total) was provisionally seized annually, some 1.2bn (1.1%) was ultimately confiscated. The figures are based on estimates between 2010 and 2014. This report, the first of its kind, shows that the amount of money currently being recovered in the EU is only a small proportion of the estimated criminal proceeds: 98.9% of estimated criminal profits are not confiscated and remain at the disposal of criminals, said Europol in a statement. It said cross-border co- operation between law enforcement agencies and Europol to trace and identify criminal assets had significantly improved in recent years. It said over 1,000 asset recovery investigations had been carried out within the EU in 2015. Despite this increase and more effective cooperation, the final results in terms of confiscations are still modest, clearly showing that more work needs to be done, said Europol. It said measures should include: Strengthening financial investigations at national level, particularly in relation to organised crime activities. Increased investment in resources and training. Collection of statistical information and court decisions The report said this area was an increasingly crucial issue for governments and EU institutions. The Criminal Assets Bureau in Ireland, set up in 1996, was the model for such agencies across the EU. The Europol report cited figures compiled by the EU-funded Project OCP (Organised Crime Portfolio) which estimated that illicit markets generated about 110bn in the union. The OCP report said there were no estimates regarding the share of proceeds that are laundered in the legal economy. The OCP report estimated that illicit markets in Ireland generated some 1.7bn in revenue annually. This includes values for the following markets: Heroin (623m); cocaine (90m); cannabis (47m); ecstasy (30m); illicit tobacco trade (277m); counterfeiting (456m). The report cited Europol figures which suggested there were 40 Irish criminal gangs, including nine primary gangs based in Spain, Britain, and the Netherlands. Gardai told the OCP that Irish gangs had links with Russian-speaking gangs, often based in Spain, as well as Chinese and Eastern European outfits. It said Ireland was not only a destination for drugs but a strategic transit country for drugs destined for the UK and other countries in Europe. The OCP report said Irelands remote west coast provided strategic access for sea shipments. The report said the high value placed on the heroin market in Ireland ranging from 498m to 830m, with a best estimate of 623m was owing to the high price of heroin in the country. It said that while most of the Irish gangs involved are based in Ireland and the UK, foreign groups were increasingly engaged in heroin trafficking. Its easy just to say its a narcissistic act. The reality is much more complicated, says researcher Mary McGill, who is currently doing a four-year PhD on the selfie phenomenon in NUI Galway. Ms McGills groundbreaking research was the subject of a TED talk, Young Women, Narcissism and the Selfie Phenomenon earlier this year, that subsequently went viral. There has been a lot of research done on womens involvement with and representation in film, television, advertising and so on, but very little about the selfie given how new it is. Whatever about the interest in women and the taking of selfies, we rarely ask young women themselves why theyre so interested in this. Its just lazily labelled as narcissistic but its not examined on a deeper level, with a broader question, Ms McGill told the Irish Examiner. In the first year of her research, she carried out a literature review in order to see what other studies, similar to what she was doing, already existed. There is a quite a lot of study coming from psychology and communications in relation to the selfie but little taking a specifically feminist cultural approach, which is what I am using, she says. The researcher, in deciding to pursue academic research into the phenomenon, felt that the selfie had something far more important to teach us about society rather than just allowing us to label young women as self-absorbed. I want to challenge preconceived notions about why women take selfies and provide a deeper, more nuanced understanding than we currently have. I want to do this because I believe the selfie has something important to teach us about contemporary femininities and what it means to be a young woman today. At the moment the mainstream consensus is often how silly young women, in particular, are to be taking selfies. Although they are certainly not the only demographic taking selfies, young women seem to get disproportionate attention for doing so, she says. From her research so far, she has observed how selfies are often taken in intimate places like a persons bedroom or bathroom and shot at the mirror in those rooms. She believes that far from being a sole act of narcissism and self-obsession, the selfie helps young women understand what it means to be feminine in todays world. When Im studying the selfie, I see it like the new mirror. What does that new mirror allow us to see at this point? It holds up a mirror and captures the kinds of concerns and desires that our young women are grappling with. We try to capture things we cant hold on to. The selfie also reflects things about being female in the world today and also the skills associated with femininity. When I look at the selfie I see young women trying capture that accomplishment and then being rewarded and approved for it, explains Ms McGill. Integral to her research is to remove judgement from the conversation around selfies. Instead, she is looking at where this new social behaviour is coming from. In Simone de Beauvoirs book The Second Sex (1949) theres an entire chapter on narcissism and women. It relates very much to the feminism and the selfie today. So its not to say women are simply narcissistic, more that women are socialised to behave in feminine ways, which have always focused on the body and appearance. Before making judgements, it is always important to consider where our behaviour comes from and to look at social and historical factors, she says. Before embarking on her PhD at NUI Galway, where she also teaches at the School of Sociology and Political Science, she did a degree in media studies. She then went on to work in the media but doing a PhD was an itch I always knew Id scratch, Ms McGill says. Key to her research will be the lived experience, centring on the voices of young women who engage with the phenomenon. She will begin interviewing young women in the next academic year. The man, aged 69, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victims, pleaded guilty on the morning of his trial at the Central Criminal Court to three charges of sexual abuse on dates between January and May 1991, while the boys were five and 14 years old. The youngest victim, now 30 years old, said the man lived in a camper van next to his parents home. He said he was a friend of his parents and said they trusted him so I trusted him. In his victim impact statement he said that the man would entice him into the van with treats, and would perform tricks for the children. This victim was aged five when the man began abusing him by masturbating him and performing oral sex on him. This went on for a few months until the victim realised it was wrong, so he stopped going to his van. The victim was always alone with the man during the assaults. The second man, now aged 40 and a father of four, said the man sexually abused him after asking the then-14-year-old to steer his van home from the pub because he was too drunk to drive. He operated the pedals while the teenager sat on his lap at the steering wheel. The man ripped open his trousers and molested him, causing the boy to take his hands off the wheel, which led to him crashing the van. Both victims spoke about how the man was very much a trusted man of the community. People felt he was so trustworthy they would allow their children alone with him without question, the older man said in his statement. I had looked on him as part of my family. I lost many friendships because we told others what he was like, the man continued. Mr Justice Tony Hunt said yesterday that the maximum sentence for the offence at the time was five years but he would use his discretion to impose consecutive terms. He added that he had to sentence on the applicable law and not as a result of my own view on the matter before he sentenced the man to consecutive terms totalling four years, having taken into account the mans pleas of guilty. He said the abuse of the first and youngest victim was at the upper end of the scale, noting that the man had gulled him into his confidence by doing tricks and providing sweets. He said it was also very advanced sexual conduct for an adult to subject a young child to and noted the obvious, profound, and prolonged damage his actions caused the victim. Mr Justice Hunt said that although the sexual assault of the second victim was as serious an offence, the abuse itself was of a somewhat lesser nature and the boy was older. David Moat, of Cousane, Dunmanway, Co Cork, was found guilty of four separate charges, including driving a vehicle with no tax, while uninsured and while disqualified, near his home on July 14 last year. He appeared before Bandon District Court yesterday for sentencing, the case having been heard before Clonakilty District Court on June 21, when he was also convicted of threatening and insulting two of his neighbours, also on July 14 last year. Convicting Moat, aged 67, in Clonakilty on June 21 Judge James McNulty noted that it was claimed that Moat used a wheelchair at all times. I have to tell you I have encountered this man in the square in Bantry, walking, in the last three months, Judge McNulty said on June 21. I encountered Mr Moat walking towards me on the pavement, he said, adding that the defendant had seemed to be agile and nimble. Moat countered by claiming: You could have mistaken that for my brother. Yesterday, Moats solicitor, Plunkett Taaffe, also explained the sighting, saying: It is a brother of his who has been in the vicinity. The court heard that members of Moats family would have produced a photograph of Mr Moats brother, but they had attended the wrong courthouse. Judge McNulty said that he had a good recollection of that chance encounter in Bantry. He added that even if he was to accept that it was Mr Moats brother that he saw who turned on his heels when he saw me and crossed the street to avoid me, no evidence of mobility issues had been heard in court on June 21 about the events of last July 14. Moats neighbours, Sally Back and her partner, Michael Ball, had both given evidence that on July 14 last year Ms Back had been leaving her home to go to work at around 7.40am when she found a 4x4 vehicle blocking the road. She claimed that Moat, who is originally from England, was in the car and that he said he had just driven it from a dealers, that the vehicle had broken down, and that because it was newly purchased, he did not need tax or insurance for it. The court had heard that the exchange between Moat and Ms Back became heated and abusive. Mr Ball claimed Moat said: You are going to fucking get it, you wont know when but its coming. Garda Liam Galvin had given evidence that the vehicle in question had been registered to a man in Co Offaly and that when the garda had visited Moats home last December seeking a statement, the defendant was highly abusive, saying: Fuck off, its not my car. I cant drive a car because I cant fucking walk. The garda said Moat claimed that his neighbours are trying to stitch me up again and told the garda to fuck off out of my house. Moat had denied that the 4x4 was his. He said he had not driven it and when he came across it that morning he believed it may have been bought by his housemate as a non-runner. He said he had only sat in the passenger seat while his wife got his son so as to move it. He told the court on June 21 that he was fed up with you lot, referring to the gardai. Moat had 59 previous convictions, including seven for uninsured driving, and he has also been the subject of a number of driving disqualifications. Yesterday, Judge McNulty reactivated a five-month jail term for assault which had been handed to Moat last year, but which had been suspended. He also gave him three six-month sentences, two of which are to be served together. The judge also suspended a three-month jail term, for his conviction of being abusive to his neighbours, on condition that he keep the peace regarding Ms Back and Mr Ball. US authorities, yesterday, dismissed an application, by Norwegian Air UK, for a foreign-air carrier permit to conduct scheduled and charter flights to the US, from Londons Gatwick Airport. The airline is hoping to access more US airports under the EU-US Open Skies Agreement, so as to use its long-haul fleet more effectively, and offer lower fares. UPDATE: Norwegian Air says US authorities continue to review the permit application for its UK operation. So technically, it's still pending Eoin English (@EoinBearla) July 1, 2016 But against the backdrop of stiff opposition from labour unions on both sides of the Atlantic, the US Department of Transportation (DoT) dismissed the application. It said it would not be in the public interest to grant it. The decision mirrors the obstacles faced by the airlines Irish subsidiary, Norwegian Air International (NAI), which plans to operate Cork flights to Boston and New York. The DoT announced tentative approval, for NAIs permit, in April, but a final decision is still awaited. In its ruling on Norwegians British subsidiary, the DoT said the airlines opponents raised significant issues and that these overlapped issues in NAIs pending permit application: The department has already characterised those issues as novel and complex in the NAI context, and it reaches the same conclusion as to the present proceeding. "In these circumstances, the department does not find that granting of a temporary exemption to Norwegian UK is appropriate or in the public interest. "Accordingly, the department is dismissing Norwegian UKs request for an exemption, while it continues to review the permit application. Norwegians opponents welcomed the ruling and said they hoped it was a sign that the DoT would also deny NAIs application. However, a spokesperson for Norwegian stressed that while the British permit application had been dismissed, the US authorities continued to review it: Norwegian UK is a recognised British airline, with a large UK base and the support of the UK government. "Given Norwegian UKs clear and legitimate right to a foreign-carrier permit, we therefore remain confident we will receive final approval. US ruling denying permit to Norwegian's UK op. Application still pending tho. Wait for #Cork-US flights goes on pic.twitter.com/aRKjjCXd1p Eoin English (@EoinBearla) July 1, 2016 A spokesman for Cork Airport said they would continue to work with Norwegian, the Irish government, and the EU authorities, to secure a licence for Norwegians Irish subsidiary: This will finally allow the commencement of the long-overdue Cork to Boston route, and, in due course, Cork to New York. "The continuing delay in the US is simply unacceptable and contrary to the internationally-binding Open Skies treaty. We call on the US authorities to grant this licence without further delay. Newly-recruited gardai will face a loss of about 46,000 over the duration of their career due to the pay freeze, the president of the union representing rank and file members of the force claims. Ciaran ONeill of the Garda Representative Association, made his comments on the day the Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA) came into effect. As the GRA and Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) are not signed up to LRA, 30,000 gardai and teachers face the prospect of losing out on pay increases. The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors agreed to reballot its members on LRA after it secured a guarantee that the issue of pay would form part of a garda organisation review, due to be completed within six months. However, Ciaran ONeill said that was not grounds for his members to reconsider their position on LRA. He said the review had been promised under the previous Haddington Road Agreement and should have been completed by 2014. Two years later, it still hasnt happened, he said. So they are saying look, we are going to give you what you have already asked for providing you sign up to a new agreement. We are looking for an independent mechanism to deal with garda pay. We would like to see what results we have before we would actually sign up to something else. It is like buying a car and being promised four wheels. But when you get it the car only has three wheels and they tell you that, in order to get the fourth you have to buy a new car. He said freezing of pay under the financial emergency legislation FEMPI was a big issue for his members. Morale is at an all-time low. Our members are extremely angry. Lansdowne Road does not show any signs for pay recovery. The Government say its a pathway into it, but all we can see at the end of the path is fog because there is no clear vision as to when members are going to get their pay restored. He gave an indication of what the pay freeze means in real terms: A recruit coming out of the garda college in Templemore. He is facing a loss over his career of about 46,000 because of the pay freeze. Government sources have indicated that gardai suffering financial losses could be given retrospective payments but only if they sign up to the new agreement down the line. It is understood the Government is willing to look at restoring any lost payments for rank-and-file members if they back LRA. Retrospective payments would have to be considered if the GRA agreed to a deal on that basis, sources said. It is also understood that GRA members were offered softer extra working hours, such as briefings or training days, instead of shifts as part of negotiations to get them on board with LRA. Despite negotiations with the GRA breaking down, the union has agreed to go back and discuss fresh concessions with their district groups and then have an executive meeting in due course. GRA members under the new deal would get rent allowance of more than 4,000 a year returned and increased increments bringing new recruits from 23,750 up to more than 28,000 by next year. Government officials estimate that over 460 new recruits will be affected by any penalties. It is also understood that the now estimated six-month review could be completed sooner if necessary. However, it will be up to its chairperson to recommend any pay increases for gardai, which ultimately could then be passed onto the new public sector pay commission for consideration. Rehab Group, who run the People of the Year Awards, want the gong back in order to protect the standing and integrity of the awards. It was given to the Console CEO in 2014 for challenging the perceptions of suicide and having the resolve to create the first dedicated suicide prevention and support services in Ireland. The value and esteem of the awards is based on the high regard that the people of Ireland have for the award recipients and the fact that each of the winners is nominated by members of the public, a spokesman said. This award was made to Mr Kelly personally and this request is no reflection on the work of Console, its volunteers or its fundraisers. The body said that the adjudication panel selected Mr Kellyon the basis of the nomination received and the information available at the time. Meanwhile, new interim Console CEO, David Hall, has joined Advocacy Director with the Wheel, Ivan Cooper in demanding that Part 4 of the Charities Act 2009 is made law as soon as possible. Interim Console CEO, David Hall The Irish Examiner revealed earlier this week that this section of the bill, which gives the Charities Regulatory Authority statutory powers of investigation, hasnt been enacted. Speaking on RTE Radio, Ivan Cooper confirmed that 300 complaints were made to the Regulator about 130 charities in the past year. But there is no justification for saying that Console is the tip of the iceberg. .....We understand the Charities Regulator has been dealing with up to 12,500 organisations over the two years since its inception so in that time they've had complaints about 130 charities ...which is less than 1 per cent , he said. As Part 4 of the Charities Act is not been activated, the Regulator conducts a risk assessment process around complaints and if concerns remain, it informs the appropriate body eg the Gardai or the Office of Corporate Enforcement. The regulator does require pro active investigative powers, said Mr Cooper. Meanwhile, Fionnbarr Walsh, the father of suicide awareness campaigner Donal Walsh, has said he was shocked and disappointed at the revelations that Console boss, Paul Kelly, his wife and son had spent almost 500,000 on foreign trips to Australia and the Far East, designer clothes and dining out between 2012 and 2014. They earned a similar figure in salaries and expenses over the same period. Donal Walsh After his son, Donal died from cancer in 2013, Fionnbarr and his wife raised up to 30,000 to develop Donal Walsh counselling rooms for teenagers at Console centres across the country. But he warned the public not to throw out the baby with the bathwater on this one and to still support the charitys work. Its still a good organisation, dealing with people who have difficulties and families bereaved by suicide, he said. Paul Donohoe claimed that in November 2013 he bought several items, including a mop, on the top floor of Dunnes Stores on Henry Street, Dublin. Donohoe told barrister Shane English, counsel for Dunnes Stores, that he asked the cashier to put a store sticker, as a proof of purchase, around the mop which was too big to be put in a Dunnes paper bag. He said he then picked up grocery items in the basement area of the store and started to scan them at a self-scan checkout. He had left his previous purchase and a plastic carrier bag on the floor while he was scanning the grocery items. He claimed that a Dunnes employee approached him and told him make sure you scan the mop. He said he explained to her that he had already purchased the mop and he then proceeded to buy his grocery items. The court heard that when he was about to leave, he was stopped by the same employee who told him you never paid for the mop. Donohoe, of Canon Lillis Avenue, Dublin, said he felt he was being accused of stealing. He had been upset and concerned that other customers were looking at him. He sued the store for defamation. Dunnes Stores, which had entered a full defence to Donohoes claim, denied the incident happened in that manner. It claimed the employee had been concerned that someone had forgotten their items, as they were a metre away from Mr Donohoe, and were concerned the plastic carrier bag on the floor constituted a tripping hazard. Mr English, who appeared with Nathaniel Lacy & Partners solicitors, said Mr Donohoe became irritated when the employee approached him and asked if the items lying on the floor belonged to him. Donohoe had answered yes, I paid for those upstairs, I have a receipt for that and approached the employee with his receipt. Judge Karen Fergus, dismissed the claim, as she was satisfied Donohoe had overreacted to the employees legitimate enquiry. The award was made in recognition of the travel industry veterans contribution to strengthening relationships between Ireland and Spain over four decades of work in the tourism industry. Mr Dawson was presented with the medal yesterday at a ceremony hosted by the Spanish embassy in Thomas Prior Hall, Ballsbridge, Dublin. Spain benefits from visits by more than 1.7m Irish visitors a year and the country is now becoming a year-round destination for Irish people due to its cultural attractions and sporting events. Mr Dawson said he was honoured to receive the medal, highlighting the fact that Spain and Ireland have been hugely important partners in tourism for many years. I consider it a pleasure to foster this important relationship and I am appreciative and humbled to be acknowledged in this way, he said. I was delighted to accept the award on behalf of the Irish travel industry and on behalf of my family who have been so supportive. Throughout my career in tourism with Joe Walsh Tours, Aer Lingus Holidays, and Dawson Travel, Spain was always to the forefront. I have had great relationships over the years with various industry partners and friends in Spain; I have done business there all my life, and I have a great time for all the people I have dealt with over the years. The director of the Spanish Tourism Office in Dublin, Gonzalo Ceballos, praised Mr Dawson. Pat is extremely deserving of this honour and I am delighted that his tremendous work in building trade relations between Ireland and Spain has been recognised by King Felipe VI. This award is a symbol of Spains appreciation of Pat, he said The Order of Civil Merit was established by King Alfonso XIII in 1926 to reward the civic virtues of civil servants as well as the extraordinary services to the Nation of Spanish and foreign subjects. In what became the bloodiest day in British military history, almost 20,000 men were killed in the first 24 hours of engagement with the German enemy. A century on, as persistent rain fell over the now silent fields, royalty, political and religious leaders from Britain, France, and Ireland gathered to commemorate those who lost their lives. The commemoration took place at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, outside Picardy in Northern France. President Michael D Higgins laid a wreath in the name of the Irish people at the Cross of Sacrifice, as did members of the British royal family and European political leaders. President and Sabina Higgins join VIPs from France, Germany and the U.K. at Thiepval. Photo by @GarethJFuller /PA pic.twitter.com/eHf3lzfaWu President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) July 1, 2016 President Higgins travelled with his wife Sabina and the Minister for Regional Development, Rural Affairs, Arts and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys. The Irish contingent was greeted in France by UK prime minister David Cameron and French prime minister Manuel Valls. Almost 500 Irish citizens were also invited to attend the memorial in France alongside the President. The commemoration was a joint UK-French event, with the President attending to remember the Irish soldiers who volunteered for the British army in the First World War. The Somme is often seen by Britain as the wars most brutal battle, with more than 1m lives lost between both sides. The memorial cemetery was built to honour 72,195 UK and South African soldiers whose bodies were never recovered following the battle. French president Francois Hollande led the dignitaries and heads of states from around Europe in remembering the soldiers who died during the 141-day battle. Members of the British royal family attending the event included Prince Charles and Camilla, Prince William and his wife the Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince Harry. Prince Charles wrote ahead of the event that the centenary was a day to honour the men who served from across Britain and Ireland, the Commonwealth and from France. President Higgins and representatives from Northern Ireland visited the Ulster Tower of the Thiepval Cemetery, paying respects to the men of the 36th Ulster Division who died on the fields on the Somme. Irelands four main churches were represented and called for christians of all traditions to pray for peace in the challenging times ahead of Ireland and Europe. The archbishops of the Catholic Church and Church of Ireland stood side by side with the heads of the Presbyterian and Methodist Church of Ireland. High School track star Calvin Golden Jet Joyner (Kevin Hart) is voted Most Likely to Succeed as Central Intelligence (12A) opens in 1996. Twenty years later, as his class reunion looms, Calvins life as an accountant is hugely disappointing, and his failures are thrown into sharp relief when he is contacted by Bob Stone (Dwayne Johnson), formerly the schools laughing stock but now a lean, mean fighting machine who works for the CIA. Thats bad enough, but soon Calvin is on the run from the CIA as Bob drags him into a conspiracy to undermine the national security of the USA. Its a conventional set-up for an old-fashioned buddy-buddy movie, although the story is almost irrelevant here: Central Intelligence is essentially a vehicle for Hart and Johnson to riff off one another, and director Rawson Marshall Thurber wisely keeps things moving swiftly from one ridiculous scenario to another. Kevin Hart hasnt always hit the mark with his motor-mouth shtick, but hes in fine form here as an Everyman who finds himself in way out of his depth. Dwayne Johnson, however, steals every scene hes in from the moment he opens his jacket to reveal more pecs than God intended rippling beneath a T-shirt emblazoned with a rainbow unicorn. Johnson has been sending up his muscle-bound persona for some years now, but hes particularly self-deprecating here, a protean blend of childishly wide-eyed naivete and chillingly ruthless secret agent. It runs out of steam in the latter stages as the story grows unnecessarily complicated, but even so Central Intelligence has enough charm to make it worth your while. Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy (Joanna Lumley) were already aging disgracefully when the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous debuted in the early 1990s, and the intervening age has neither withered their appetite for the finer things in life nor provided much in the way of wisdom or restraint. Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (15A) opens with Edina and Patsy still clubbing, shopping and drinking to excess much to the dismay of Edinas long-suffering daughter Saffron (Julia Sawalha) until a media frenzy erupts when Edina is accused of drowning a famous model at a fashion label launch on the Thames. On the run from the paparazzi, and forced into exile in the South of France, the penniless but unbowed duo plot and scheme to bend the movers and shaker of the French Riviera to their indomitable will. Written by Jennifer Saunders and directed by Mandie Fletcher, Absolutely Fabulous is something of a nostalgia-fest, as Edina and Patsy continue to wallow in the conspicuous consumption the sitcom satirised in the 1990s, even if their ongoing pursuit of youth, beauty and credibility-by-association is now more poignant than laugh-out-loud funny. That said, theres plenty of good gags to be had here, quite a few of them courtesy of the outrageously uninhibited Lumley, who has a ball living up to Patsys grotesque caricature; meanwhile, Saunders gets good comedy mileage from cramming in a bewildering number of unlikely celebrity cameos, including Graham Norton, Kate Moss, Jon Hamm, Jerry Hall and Jeremy Paxman. The storyline is as preposterous as its characters, of course, but the most important thing is that its all done happily for Ab Fab fans in the worst possible taste. The prehistoric motley crew of Manny the Mammoth (voiced by Ray Romano), Diego the Sabre-Toothed Tiger (Dennis Leary) and Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) reunite in Ice Age: Collision Course (G), which opens with Manny forgetting about his and Ellies (Queen Latifah) anniversary. Thankfully, an impending meteor strike distracts Ellie, although with mammals on the verge of extinction if the 300-mile-wide meteor crashes into Earth, Mannys reprieve may be very short-lived. Can the gang band together and find a way of diverting the ultimate disaster? The fifth in the series has Ice Age veterans Mike Thurmeier and Galen T Chu at the helm, and there are times when the movie feels like a greatest hits compilation: Manny bickers and moans, Sid cracks jokes and falls hopelessly in love, Buck (Simon Pegg) rushes around buckling his swash, and Scrat the sabre-toothed squirrel pursues his elusive acorn into space. But while this instalment offers very little thats new, the Ice Age franchise has its own amiable charm, not the least of which is the soap opera-style family developments now grown up, baby mammoth Peaches (Keke Palmer) is getting married to Julian (Adam Devine), a fact that causes Manny as much grief as his imminent extinction. Adults may feel that theyve seen it all before, but the pacing is more frantic and the comedy more slapstick than previously, which will please younger viewers no end. Paul Flynn The Tannery, Dungarvan, Co Waterford Paul Flynn with his Baked Hake recipe. What was the first dish you ever cooked? My mates and I used to have two Honda 50s and wed go to the disco in Kill, hunting women, always unsuccessfully, and then wed come back to my house and Id cook a fryup with poached eggs and the lads were always mesmerised. My first pro dish was gratin dauphinoise. What was your most memorable meal? It happened quite recently, for my 50th birthday. In Lake Garda. We had [wife] Maires sister and her husband and their kids who live in Dubai and our kids as well. It was a total family afternoon boozy lunch. Chicken cheap or free-range or organic? Free range when possible. Does the global food crisis concern you. Why. Is there anything we can do about it? Im afraid I have my head in my own particular oven when it comes that. I admire people who can think larger but Im always just trying to stop my own onions from burning. Thats a metaphor by the way. How do you eat well on a low income? Easily, and I dont say that flippantly. Cooking at home is the most important thing and the thing Im most passionate about. Youre in control, you know exactly whats going into your own food, it doesnt have to be a chore and you can always do it cheaper and I feel very, very strongly about that. Is there such a thing as an Irish cuisine? Its an evolving thing. Because of our historical circumstances, maybe food was about necessary sustenance rather than something we enthused about. There is now a pride in our food, a lot of people embrace it more, whereas before it was just eating dinner. What is your favourite Irish dish? It has to be bacon and cabbage. I know its a cliche. I rarely cook it at home as theres so many pots and pans involved. At home, I try to cook simply. I sneak into a great restaurant in Dungarvan called The Shamrock for my fix of bacon and cabbage. Its the busiest restaurant in Dungarvan, always packed, doing mixed grills, steaks, jelly and ice cream, all that kind of thing. What is your favourite Irish ingredient? A big toss up, either turnip or cabbage. Youre catching me at time when Im sick of turnip after a winter of cooking them at end of summer, I embrace the turnip like a demon. Seasonality has a big part to play in preferences. What is your favourite Irish restaurant (or world restaurant, if you like)? Its really hard to do that, so many places blow me away. Campagne [in Kilkenny]. What Garrett is doing there shows his dedication. Its classical cooking. I despair sometimes at fads in food. Whats wrong with making beautiful simple food? When I taste Garretts food well, its like what Jack Nicholson says to Helen Hunt in As Good As It Gets: You make me want to be a better man. Well, Garrets food makes me want to be a better chef. Theres lots of people doing lovely things and its invigorating. Ross [Lewis, Chapter One] is there and Mickael Viljanen [The Greenhouse] is remarkable. About three months ago, I ducked in for lunch. Holy shit! I was like a Roman emperor. Hes nuclear-powered! Whats your favourite comfort food? Pasta, without a doubt. Quite often we might have nothing in the fridge, only for we have two small children we should be reported! and Id make a big bowl of pasta with oil or butter, chilli, Parmesan. Its probably about a euro a head, not even that the most expensive thing is the Parmesan. Which five guests would you invite to your ideal dinner party, excluding family or friends? One man I have an enduring love affair with is Rick Stein. Hes the main reason I moved back to Dungarvan. I had visions of sand between my toes, a little dog. Hes the man I most enjoy on TV. David Attenborough. [Chef] April Bloomfield what mostly impressed me about her was her humility. And theres a lesson in that for every big-balled chefs out there! David Bowie I was heartbroken when he died. Robert Fisk I really admire him though maybe he could drag the whole thing down with the realism. Amy Schumer, shed stop it all getting too serious. Shed start to talk filthy and the Irishman inside me would be getting all coy. What would you choose as your final meal? Battered sausage and coleslaw, from Genoas [Dungarvan]. Hot and crispy paired with cool coleslaw from the fridge, funnily enough, that ticks all the boxes for everything we were taught in college about pairing textures in dishes. Baked hake with vine tomatoes, rocket and fennel salad This is the simplest way of cooking fish I know. The creme fraiche keeps the fish moist and gives the dish a lovely creamy finish, that works really well with the roasted tomatoes. The rocket and fennel salad provides a delicious healthy crunch. I like to serve this dish with some simple boiled new potatoes. Serves 2 1 packet of hake fillets (250g) 8 cherry vine tomatoes (240g), snipped on the vine and left into 2 bunches 2 heaped teaspoons of creme fraiche (75g) A little olive oil, salt and pepper Set your oven to 200D. Drizzle a little olive oil onto a roasting tray. Put your fish on the oil and brush the creme fraiche thickly and evenly over the top of the fish, then put your tomatoes beside the hake. Drizzle a little more oil over the fish and the tomatoes. Season then bake in the hot oven for 12 minutes. Serve with the rocket and fennel salad. Rocket, fennel and lemon salad Fresh, crisp and sensational, perfect on its own or with some smoked salmon or Parma ham with a little torn mozzarella or grated Parmesan on top. (A little fresh red chilli works fantastically if you like a bit of delicious heat.) 1 packet of rocket washed (85g) 1 bulb of fennel (260g) quartered lengthways and finely sliced Juice of 1/2 lemon 1 tsp sugar 50ml of olive oil Salt and pepper Bring the sugar and lemon juice up to the boil, set to one side then whisk in the olive oil. When cool, use to dress the fennel and rocket just before you serve it with a little seasoning. Ali Honour Alis Kitchen, Cork Ali at her new restaurant on Paul St, Cork. What was the first dish you ever cooked? I was about 10! It was a one-pot wonder from a Keith Floyd book of Moroccan chicken with rice, chickpeas, preserved lemon, peppers and spices. Id always been big on flavours from an early age. What was your most memorable meal? A very simple BBQ fish platter on a beach in Indonesia! With cold beers and Del boy cocktails in coconut shells, listening to the sea and watching the waves. Chicken cheap or free-range or organic? Free range and Irish its important to know traceability and environment. Does the global food crisis concern you. Why. Is there anything we can do about it? Yes. Of course it does. We can support our country by buying Irish and local where possible. We can cut down food wastage and support small independent producers. How do you eat well on a low income? Plan your meals and shop for what you need. Cook simple wholesome dishes at home, plenty of fruit, vegetables, grains and pulses. Get cheaper cuts of meat from butcher. Start home baking. Is there such a thing as an Irish cuisine? Theres a solid tradition of wonderful dishes that are part of our history, bacon and cabbage, brack, champ and brown bread to name but a few. Irish cuisine is changing and emerging through the high quality of local and nationwide produce and producers we have to hand. What is your favourite Irish dish? An all-year-round Irish cheeseboard. We have so many amazing cheese producers to be proud of right now. What is your favourite Irish ingredient? At the moment Wexford strawberries. Strawberries have been a favourite all my life. I have memories of picking and eating them all in one go. What is your favourite Irish restaurant (or world restaurant, if you like)? One of most memorable meals to date in recent years has been Forest Avenue [in Dublin] but there really are so many and still so many to try. Whats your favourite comfort food? I love eggs. Poached and served on hot buttered real bread is always a winner. Which five guests would you invite to a dinner party, excluding family or friends? Stephen Fry for laughs and wisdom. Keith Floyd to talk with about wine, food, travel and bow ties. John McEnroe to give me pointers on my backhand and to hear his Wimbledon stories. Frank Sinatra to sing and talk about the Rat pack. Sean Connery from the 60s for obvious reasons and hes my favourite 007. What would you choose as your final meal? Id keep it simple. Really good wine, really good bread, cheese, pickles and charcuterie. Plenty of bubbles and a large stiff G&T before I nodded off. Cinnabun french toast, strawberries & vanilla mascarpone This is a great indulgent brekkie. 4 cinnamon buns (cut in half) or 8 slices of brioche 3 eggs 125ml cream 2oz butter 250g mascarpone 1 vanilla pod (scrap bean and keep pod for sugar or custard) 2tbs icing sugar Strawberries (As many as you like!!! In my case lots and from Wexford), Elderflower or maple syrup to serve, toasted almonds or hazelnuts. METHOD In a large bowl whisk together eggs, sugar and cream. Melt half the butter in a frying pan on medium heat. Dip bun/brioche into mix and fry half the slices for 1-2 mins on each side. Set aside on baking tray and repeat with second batch. Place tray in oven at 180C cook for six minutes till golden and slightly souffled. While baking, place mascarpone, sugar and scrapped vanilla bean into bowl and beat together. To assemble, place one slice of bun/brioche onto plate, add a spoonful of mascarpone mix and then as many gorgeous strawbs as you like. Top with other half of bun/brioche, more cream and more strawberries. Drizzle with syrup and sprinkle with your choice of nuts. Pour cup of coffee, put the tunes on, go sit in the sunshine and enjoy your taste of summer. Martin Shanahan Fishy Fishy Martin Shanahan of Fishy Fishy restaurant, Kinsale, Cork, with his favourite summer dish. What was the first dish you ever cooked? Scrambled eggs and I burnt em! I was about nine years old. What was your most memorable meal? Too many to say just one but, last year, on my way to Mayo, I stayed the night at the Wild Honey Inn and the next morning for breakfast I had Omelette Arnold Bennett. Chicken cheap or free-range or organic? Free-range, and again I think the difference in price between free-range and organic doesnt justify organic. Does the global food crisis concern you why and is there anything we can do about it? Where I am in my industry and with my love of fish, the quotas getting cut all the time. We seem to have a hell of lot fish in the ocean but the concern with the Irish fishermen is their quotas are filled very fast. A lot of boats now are turning to fishing prawns and freezing at sea. Are we going to end up an island only of prawn boats and no white fish boats? Our neighbours in Europe have no problem with quotas but were tied up more often than were going out. How do you eat well on a low income? Lots of little ways all added together. You have to forage, you have to grow your own. You have to talk to your parents and grandparents because they all did. Growing up in a family of 12, including my father, mum, grandfather and grandmother and eight kids, funnily enough, my mum and gran could always give us three courses, every day, soup, main course, rice pudding and my mum would have far less to spend in a week than what Id have in a day. People need to go back growing, foraging in season and purchasing wiser, not turning our nose up at the simpler things in life, mackerel, herring, slow cooking cheaper meat cuts. Is there such a thing as an Irish cuisine? Big time, yeah, in the last 10 or 15 years, theres been a huge resurgence, thanks to restaurateurs and the general public realising, as great a night can be had in a restaurant as in a pub. Before that, it was going to the pub, getting langers, great night, cant remember how I got home. Now, great night, lovely conversation, lovely food. Theres some great chefs who realise they are educators, we all have to feed our knowledge on to the next generation. And we have the best seafood in the world because we have the cleanest, unpolluted waters. We probably have the best beef because the climate is perfect for it. Wonderful dairy, cream and butter. To have a great cuisine, you have to a customer base that appreciates whats been done, and who have developed their palate by travelling abroad. What is your favourite Irish dish? I love everything in season. At the moment I love fresh crab, gorgeous right now. What is your favourite Irish ingredient? Butter, real butter. We use Bandon butter. Any recipe from any Irish chef, if it doesnt include butter, theres something wrong! What is your favourite Irish restaurant (or world restaurant, if you like)? Id put down far too many to pick one! Im a coward [laughing]. Whats your favourite comfort food? I love fish and chips, a nice bit of haddock in batter, no skin no bone, homemade chips. You know what, you cant bate it. Which five guests would you invite to your ideal dinner party, excluding family or friends? Donald Trump, Id love to sit down and figure him out, is he full of shite or is he genuine. Rick Stein, not to cook but to sit down, I find him very interesting and with great stories to tell. To keep us all polite Id like to have Katherine Jenkins, she could sing every now and then, I met her last year and shes a real lady, came to dinner in Fishy and sang in Musgrave Park the following evening. She gave every one of our staff free tickets for the concert. Aidan OBrien, I love horses, and Id like to find out how he gets inside their heads to win a race. And then he could do Donald as well, look inside his head and ask what hes up to! Mario Rosenstock, wed definitely laugh and he could be a man or a woman so he could add Miriam OCallaghan or Francis Brennan to the guestlist, he could end up being a table of 20 himself! What would you choose as your final meal? Very simple, pan fried John Dory, new potatoes, a bit of grilled asparagus, hollandaise sauce and a drizzle of truffle oil. Id probably drink as much Fishy Fishy sauvignon blanc as I could. Christy Hurleys Crab CrumbleServes 4 1lb fresh white crab meat 250ml cream 80g butter 1 lemon salt and pepper 4 tbsp of chopped parsley 100g white breadcrumbs 50ml olive oil For the lemon butter sauce you will need 250ml of cream, 80g of real butter, the juice of one lemon. Salt and white pepper. Heat the cream to just boiling point. Whisk in the butter in cubes. Add the lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 2 minutes. Avoid boiling because the sauce may curdle. Mix the chopped parsley, breadcrumbs and olive oil in a bowl. This will give us the crumble topping. To assemble the dish, divide the crab meat into 4 bowls, cover with lemon butter sauce, top with parsley breadcrumbs. Place in pre-heated oven for 8 - 10 minutes until the breadcrumb mix has browned and the crab meat is heated through. A great dinner party starter. Jess Murphy Kai restaurant, Galway Chef Jess Murphy with a whipped brandade with charred tomato jam. What was the first dish you ever cooked? Professionally, probably squid: salt and pepper squid, vodka and tomato type Bloody Mary dressing with pickled carrot. It was in a restaurant in Hawkes Bay, Al Fresco. What was your most memorable meal? There are so many but recent ones include eating Kobe burgers in downtown Kobe [Japan] . Chicken cheap or free-range or organic? I get all my free range chickens from Ronan Byrne, The Friendly Farmer who has 16 to buy an organic chicken in the real world? How do you eat well on a low income? I come from two divorced parents and I was brought up by my mum and she used to make things like sweetcorn fritters, crumb chicken. Shed buy the cheapest meat and make spag bol or lasagne. Use the power of google to teach yourself. Is there such a thing as an Irish cuisine? I have no idea, what I do is Galway food in Kai. Kai is Irish food. What is your favourite Irish dish? Lamb chops, Im easy, it could be lamb, hogget or mutton. What is your favourite Irish ingredient? Turnip tops and courgette flowers. Id never come across turnip tops until I came to Kai. What is your favourite Irish restaurant (or world restaurant, if you like)? The Farmgate, in Cork. I had apple sponge and was blown away. Whats your favourite comfort food? Toasted cheese sandwiches Jaffles in Australia. Which five guests would you invite to your ideal dinner party, excluding family or friends? Ru Paul would be hilarious. Grace Jones. I love her. Julia Childs. No brainer Edward Lee, from Kentucky, hes one of my fave chefs.. What would you choose as your final meal? Toasted cheese sandwich of Smoked Gubbeen and Tropea Onion with homemade tomato ketchup. Then probably a milk shake of Berthas Revenge gin, vanilla ice cream and coffee. Salted gunner, cod or wrasse brandade with burnt tomato relish Brandade 300g salted fish, gunner, cod or wrasse 400ml raw milk 300g any old variety potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes 1 bay leaf 4 cloves of roasted garlic 200ml olive oil 10g capers, rinsed and chopped handful of fresh parsley and chives lemon Burnt tomato relish 6 tomatoes, halved 50ml olive oil 1 onion, finely chopped handful of woody herbs, like thyme or rosemary 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 chilli, finely chopped 1 tbsp tomato puree 50g caster sugar 50ml malt vinegar First, the salted fish needs rehydrating, which can take up to two days, with water changes twice or so a day. Ask your fishmonger for instructions. Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Put the tomatoes in a roasting tray, drizzle with half the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Add the 4 cloves of garlic for the brandade dish. After 10 minutes remove the roasted garlic and set aside. Place in the oven for 20 minutes or until the tomatoes start to blacken. In a saucepan, heat the remaining oil, add the onion, herbs, garlic and chilli. Cook gently until soft and the onion turns translucent. Add the blackened tomatoes and tomato puree and cook for 10 minutes. Finally add the sugar and malt vinegar, reduce the heat and gently simmer until the mixture has thickened, 40-50 minutes. Remove from the heat and pass the mixture through a mouli or a colander and allow to cool. To make the brandade, remove the salted fish from the fresh water, dry, and remove any fine bones. Place in a saucepan and add the raw milk, potatoes and bay leaf. Simmer until the potatoes are cooked, approximately 20 minutes. Strain the fish and potatoes into a mixing bowl and add the roasted garlic. Beat slowly with an electric beater, mixer or by hand. Slowly add the oil and mix until combined. Add the capers, herbs and the lemon juice. Place in the fridge until ready to use. Serve with the burnt tomato relish, on sourdough, rye crackers, with salad or as part of a cold cuts board. I will refrain from cliched jokes about the lack of sunshine in an Irish summer because there are still warmer days and long evenings and the barbecue still gets used. Yes, we suffer a little with showers and unseasonably cooler days but the late arrival of nightfall always seems to improve our moods, especially if there is a glass of fizz nearby or a smoky red to match barbecue meats. All the wines suggested here have flavour no watery Pinot Grigios or bland Merlots. Sherry Cocktails Cocktails are very much back in vogue and would need a whole feature of their own so Im just going to remind you of the versatility of Fino Sherry. While I love Fino chilled on its own, it is a bit of an acquired taste so try a 1:2 mix of Fino and Tonic with ice and a slice of lemon or try mixing with a good white lemonade and some mint leaves or with a splash of Grand Marnier and a dash of bitters or with some sweet Vermouth on ice. Box Champagne Soup (Punch) is an old cocktail but credit for this excellent version goes to chef Patrick Clement of Pallas Foods Ive recommended Aldis Champagne but this will also work with Cava (not Prosecco as the fizz is too light). 1 Ladle Cointreau (or Grand Marnier) 1 Ladle Simple Syrup Ladle Lemon-Lime Juice 1 Bottle Veuve Monsigny Champagne (Aldi) To make simple syrup, heat 250g of sugar with 250ml of water until dissolved. This will keep for months in a sealed bottle. To make the punch add the Cointreau and Simple Syrup to a large round bottomed bowl, next add the lime and lemon juice and mix well. Tilt the bowl and gently pour in the Champagne. Make a figure of eight with the ladle to mix gently. This is quite addictive so consume with moderation! Fizz Sparkling wine and summertime no further explanation required. McGuigan Frizzante, Extra Dry, Australia - 12-14 (Tesco, SuperValu, Independents) Most frizzante wines (e.g. Prosecco) have large ungainly bubbles but somehow McGuigan have managed to produce an inexpensive sparkler with its fizz elegantly streaming in tiny neat lines. Light and dry with creamy lemon and apple flavours and a pleasing freshness. Devaux Cuvee Rose Champagne (Bradleys, 1601, Florries Tramore, Green Man Wines) Champagne suits every season but for me summertime is particularly suited to Rose Champagne. Devaux is a grower run co-op and a Rose specialist. This has a lovely fine mousse, aromas of rose petals and red currants, a creamy soft attack on the palate and a crisp lemon peel dry finish. White Ive gone with aromatic whites (rather than light simple Sauvignons or Pinot Grigios) as these will match food better, especially picnics and barbecues. Torres Vina Esmerelda, Penedes, Spain - 13.99 (JJ ODriscoll, Bradleys, OBriens, Dunnes Stores; Ardkeen Stores) A blend of Moscatel de Alejandria with a little Gewurztraminer, this is a wine I always feel that tastes best outside, especially with some spicy grilled fish. Aromatic with lychees and apricots, a ripe pear infused palate but with just enough acidity for antipasto or seafood. Pazo Torrequintans Albarino, Spain - 12.65 (Tesco) Albarino is excellent with spicy food as well as seafood and this is a good inexpensive example with white peaches, lemon verbena and a fresh finish. Mount Crawford Riesling, Eden Valley, Australia 12 (ODonovans) Im guessing this is a bin-end as it is a bargain price. Dry mineral, stony and apple flavoured with fine clean acidity. Rose Rose is still the quintessential summer wine and sales have been increasing one in three wines sold in France is now Rose. While most wine retailers have a selection of Roses, my advice is to head for OBriens who have a buy one, get one half-price deal all summer. They have around eight fine examples and below are three of my favourites. Chateau de Sours Rose, Bordeaux, France 16.95 Merlot based and is a little richer than the other examples but still a very light pink colour with raspberry and cherry aromas and a refreshing dried red fruit character on the finish. Chateau Riotor, Cotes de Provence, France 16.95 From the rose capital of the world with vineyards in sight of St Tropez strawberry mousse aromas with elegance, depth and some lingering red-currants on the finish. LOstal Cazes Rose, Pays dOc, France 14.95 From the owners of Ch. Lynch Bages this has raspberries and wild strawberry aromas and a floral edge, berries on the palate and a dry finish. Red Reds for summer drinking depend on context a lightly chilled Beaujolais will refresh on a warm day but equally a full-bodied powerful Malbec is likely to be needed to counter the dry chilli rub on the pork ribs. Dont be afraid to lightly chill red wines to make them more refreshing. Chateau Chatelard Fleurie Cuvee les Vieux Granits, Beaujolais, France 20.30 (Karwigs) Strawberry and blackberry aromas, supple and fruity and with a lovely mouth-feel and just a hint of structure. Serve on the cool side around 14C or cooler De Martino Legado Syrah Reserva, Chile 14 (ODonovans) Soft fruity mature Chilean Syrah with a taut earthy edge and a little kick of slightly underripe blackcurrant. Llama Old Vine Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina 17.50 (Karwigs) Richly flavoured with dark cherries and characterful rich blackberry fruit with sweet vanilla hints and a touch of tar. Taoiseach Enda Kenny is now a familiar, grinning face around Brussels. He has attended EU Council summits since 2011 and many of his counterparts have come and gone. At 65, he is also among the eldest heads of State around the EU family table. He counts Germanys Angela Merkel as a close ally, and retaining power after this years general election awarded him extra clout. As Romanian MEP, Siegfried Muresan, this week gushed: Enda Kenny is now one of the most experienced and successful prime ministers in the EU; his voice matters. He is someone who, with all of his experience and credibility, will achieve a lot for his country in Brussels in the upcoming years. Mr Muresan also said: Winning the parliamentary election is a lesson for the rest of Europe on how to reform a country, safeguard its finances and the future of the young generation, and still preserve the support of the people. Another senior EU official said: When he talks on the issue [Brexit], he may well find that he will be listened to, and when he makes any requests, they may well be listened to, as well. Germanys Angela Merkel While we at home would struggle to fathom how our gaff-prone, lame-duck Taoiseach would be awarded such recognition and praise from his international counterparts, we must take advantage of this. It is now time for Mr Kenny to claim back the loyalty points he has earned in Europe and protect Irelands interests. Since the 2008 economic crash, the country has been a poster-child in Europe for accepting the harsh austerity measures doled out to us by the Troika. We have put up and shut up and come out the other side. Now, faced with another potential crisis, which could impact negatively on the 1.2bn of goods and services traded between Ireland and Britain every week, the 600,000 Irish-born immigrants in the UK, and the 499km border with the North, Mr Kenny has to take advantage of his standing in the EU. Ireland can no longer sit still and do what it is told. It must lead the way to protect its national interests. But, over the past eight days, the Irish government has called for calm, a word repeated by Mr Kenny in Brussels this week, as he said the next leader of the Conservative Party would have to be given time to decide the direction of Brexit negotiations. While the outcome of the referendum was not what European nations had been anticipating, there was prolonged silence from the Irish government on Friday morning. It was four hours before Mr Kenny, the head of Britains closest neighbour and the only nation to share a land border with the UK, addressed the media. Last Friday afternoon, the Government published its contingency plan, but this was less-than-reassuring. Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny speaks during a press conference in Dublin, the day after Britain voted to leave the European Union Vague measures included a commitment from the Department of Finance to review the macroeconomic outlook, which was presented in the Summer Economic Statement to take account of the outcome of the referendum result. An on the delicate border issue, the contingency plan stated that, given that the UK has not left the European Union at this point, there is no impact to ongoing close cooperation on cross-border/UK-Irish security and policing. It added that options will be developed in relation to cross-border movement of goods and services. While we have no control over the outcome of the convoluted leadership plot that continues to thicken in Britain, our government can begin to plan for Ireland. Mr Kenny needs to fight hard to gain a pivotal position in both the exit negotiations with Britain and the discussions on mapping out a future for the EU. Part of his popularity in Europe comes from his long-standing and unwavering support of the European project. But Enda now needs to go back to parish politics and put Ireland first. As one senior official close to EU commission president, Jean Claude Juncker, said: There is no agreement until everyone agrees and Enda Kenny should remember that. Fine Gael MEP, Brian Hayes, added that given our long-standing and unique relationship with Britain, the Irish government would be well-placed to act as a bridge between the UK and Europe in negotiations, and in doing so could hammer out the best deal for Ireland, too. Given the hard line that EU leaders have taken since the vote, this conduit role could be the ideal position for Ireland to take. Yesterday, EU Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, again ruled out any concessions on free movement, without Britain accepting the four key pillars of the European Union one of which is the freedom of movement of people. If you want to have access, like other member states, to the internal market, you have to accept all the conditions of the four freedoms that underline the single market. Numerous MEPS and EU officials have reiterated the same point that Britain will not be allowed to cherry pick the terms and conditions of its exit. Jean-Claude Juncker: Taking a hard line since the Brexit vote. Given that immigration swayed significant numbers of British voters into the leave camp, accepting free movement of people, in exchange for entry to the single market, will be a difficult sell. But for the hundreds of thousands of Irish living and working in Britain, this freedom is essential. At the first EU Council meeting of leaders since the Brexit vote, Mr Kenny took the opportunity to raise the case for Scotland, which, despite voting to remain, now faces eviction. While Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, praised the intervention, Mr Kenny was branded an interfering, trouble-making messenger boy by UKIP. And when he returned to Ireland, he was forced to explain himself. I reject completely that I didnt put Ireland first, Mr Kenny said, in response to Sinn Feins finance spokesman, Pearse Doherty, at the Oireachtas Finance Committee, on Thursday. Standing up on behalf of the voiceless Scottish may be admirable, but it does Ireland which will also have much to lobby for in the Brexit negotiations no favours. And the time for calling in favours has come. Tuesdays attacks at Istanbuls main airport, which appears to be the work of Islamic State, are the latest reminder that the world should not downplay the groups rudimentary, yet effective, tactics. Since the wave of Islamic State suicide bombings in May killing 522 people inside Baghdad, and 148 people inside Syria officials have downplayed the strategy as defensive. Brett McGurk, the US Special Presidential Envoy in the fight against Islamic State, said the group returned to suicide bombing as the area under its control shrank. The strategy of focusing primarily on the big picture recapture of territory seems to push the suicide bombings to the side. Its their last card, stated an Iraqi spokesperson in response to the attacks. The reality is just the opposite. A day after the June 26 liberation of Fallujah, car bombs exploded in eastern and southern Baghdad. Two other suicide bombers were killed outside the city. An improvised explosive device exploded in southwest Baghdad a day earlier. Officials should know better than to underestimate the power of small weapons to shape large events. After US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld labelled Iraqi insurgents as dead enders in 2003, they began taking a deadly toll of American forces via suicide bombs. It was the 2006 bombing of the Shiite al-Askari Golden Mosque that kicked the Iraqi civil war into high gear. It was improvised explosive devices and car bombs that kept American forces on the defensive through 2011. To believe suicide bombings represent a weakening of Islamic State is a near-total misunderstanding of the hybrid nature of the group; Islamic State melds elements of a conventional army and an insurgency. To win one must defeat both versions. Islamic State differs from a traditional insurgency in that it seeks to hold territory. This separates it from al Qaeda, and most other radical groups, and falsely leads the coalition to believe that retaking strategic cities like Fallujah from Islamic State is akin to defeating it, as if it is World War Two again and we are watching blue arrows move across the map toward Berlin. Envoy McGurk, following Fallujah, even held a press conference announcing Islamic State has now lost 47 percent of its territory. However, simultaneously with holding and losing territory, Islamic State uses terror and violence to achieve political ends. Islamic State has no aircraft and no significant long-range weapons, making it a very weak conventional army when facing down the combined forces of the United States, Iran and Iraq in set-piece battles. It can, however, use suicide bombs to strike into the very heart of Shiite Baghdad (and Syria, Jordan, Yemen, and Turkey as Tuesdays bombing reminds us), acting as a strong transnational insurgency. Why does such strength matter in the face of large-scale losses such as Fallujah? Violence in the heart of Iraqi Shiite neighbourhoods empowers hardliners to seek revenge. Core Sunni support for Islamic State grows out of the need for protection from a Shiite-dominated military, which seeks to marginalise if not destroy the Sunnis. Reports of Shiite atrocities leaking out of the ruins of Sunni Fallujah are thus significant. Fallujah was largely destroyed in order to save it, generating some 85,000 displaced persons, mirroring what happened in Ramadi. Those actions remind many Sunnis of why they supported Islamic State (and al Qaeda before them) in the first place. Suicide strikes reduce the confidence of the people in their governments ability to protect them. In Iraq, that sends Shiite militias into the streets, and raises questions about the value of civil institutions like the Iraqi National Police. Victories such as the retaking of Ramadi and Fallujah, and a promised assault on Mosul, mean little to people living at risk inside the nations capital. American commanders have already had to talk the Iraqi government out of pulling troops from the field to defend Baghdad, even as roughly half of all Iraqi security forces are already deployed there. This almost guarantees more American soldiers will be needed to take up the slack. Anything that pulls more American troops into Iraq fits well with the anti-American Islamic State narrative. Few Iraqis are left who imagine the United States can be an honest broker in their country. A US State Department report found that one-third of all Iraqis believe the Americans are actually supporting Islamic State, while 40% are convinced that the United States is trying to destabilize Iraq for its own purposes. In a country like Turkey, suicide bombings play out in a more complex political environment. Turkey has effectively supported Islamic State with porous borders for transit in and out of Syria, and has facilitated the flow of oil out of Syria and Iraq that ultimately benefits the group. At the same time, however, Turkey opened its territory to American aircraft conducting bombing runs against Islamic State. Attacks in Turkey may be in response to pressure on the nation to shift its strategy more in line with Western demands. Russia (no friend of Islamic State) and Turkey have also recently improved relations; the attack in Istanbul may have been a warning shot reminding Turkey not to get too close. The suicide bombings in Turkey and elsewhere are not desperate or defensive moves. They are not inconsequential, even if their actual numbers decline. They are carefull strategy, the well-thought out application of violence by Islamic State. We downplay them at great risk. ON Thursday afternoon in the Dail, Fianna Fails Dara Calleary made a devastating speech on Irelands relationship with Europe in the wake of Brexit. He let fly at what he thinks of our so-called friends on the continent and how they view us. I firmly believe the European institutions walked away from us in our time of need. The commission, in its dealings with us and particularly in its dealings with Greece, in the way it rammed home an austerity programme which did not stand for anything in terms of cuts but re-engineered society, was wrong and removed from the principles of the European Union and its establishment, principles that hold today, he said. The European Union cannot be allowed to exempt itself from criticism. I was struck all week in watching the response of the commission and the parliament to see that they were blaming Britain, politicians and everybody else, but they need to look at themselves, too, particularly in their engagement with this process in the coming weeks and months, he added. We have to look into our own hearts and ask if there was a referendum on our membership of the European Union in the morning, how it would go. We cannot give a guarantee as we used to, he said candidly. A former junior finance minister in the Brian Cowen government during 2008 and 2011, Calleary saw first-hand how rough the treatment from the great and good in Europe can be. He was present in key meetings on behalf of the then minister Brian Lenihan in 2010 when Europe, and in particular the ECB, bounced Ireland into the Troika bailout. Fianna Fails Dara Calleary has said the EU institutions walked away from us in our time of need and called on the EU to reflect on itself and return to its founding principles Callearys prescient comments cut to the core of where Ireland stands in a post-Brexit Europe. His Mayo constituency rival is none other than Enda Kenny, our Taoiseach. Kennys party Fine Gael is a long standing member of the European Peoples Party grouping in Europe. The EPP is the centre-right, pro-European political party which gathers over 70 national parties from 40 countries, is how it describes itself. Most in Fine Gael have for decades signed up to a near- blind loyalty to the European project, sometimes bordering on devotion. Kenny, now 65-years-old, has spent his entire political career speaking in favour of the European juggernaut and even with their shoddy treatment of Ireland since 2008, his loyalty remains intact. Undoubtedly, Ireland is a better country today for being in Europe since 1973. We are more outward looking, we are more progressive. We, thankfully, have shaken off the repressed victimhood that engulfed this country, largely thanks to the dominance of the Church. Rights for women and children have improved significantly and Europe has also provided a welcome counter balance to the previously toxic relationship between Dublin and London, which existed for most of the Northern Troubles. But Callearys points are justifiable in the context of Europe moving to become more than the original trading union envisaged in the wake of World War II. A fully integrated political and financial union is not a concept that many Irish people are fully comfortable with. Hence, the initial rejections of treaties Nice and Lisbon. Also, the treatment of Ireland by Europe, as referred to by Calleary during the financial crash, did more damage to public confidence in our relationship with Europe than anything else. Firstly, a refusal or inability by Europe to stand with Ireland on the night of September 29, 2008, meant it was the Irish Government and the Irish Government alone who had to contain the crisis. Whatever the right or wrongs of the 440 billion bank Guarantee, Ireland had to act by itself. But it did so with one arm tied behind its back. While refusing to make available any European funds to save the Irish banks that night, Brian Lenihan had been warned a week before by Jean-Claude Trichet of the European Central Bank that no European bank could be allowed to fail. You must save your banks at all costs, Lenihan said was the Trichet order. Brian Lenihan So the Irish taxpayer footed a bill of 64bn because of that. Fast forward to 2010, several attempts by the Irish government to limit its losses by burning bank bondholders were blocked by the ECB and Europe. As reckless and inept as the Cowen government was, the most blatant hammering of little Ireland by our European friends was the bouncing of Ireland into the Troika bailout in November 2010. A G7 meeting, pronouncements from Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, and briefings from anonymous ECB sources ultimately influenced the democratically elected Government of a sovereign nation into doing something it did not want to. The big boys wanted Ireland contained by way of a Troika programme and we got eaten alive. Again, after Enda Kenny had become Taoiseach in March 2011, and a new bailout of the banks was announced, Finance Minister Michael Noonan was minutes away from announcing a major burning of bondholders. Initial agreement from the ECB and the IMF to proceed was withdrawn at the last minute and Noonan was forced to relent and amend his Dail speech on the fly. An economic bomb would go off in Dublin, was the warning from Trichet. The net result, a higher bailout cost which you, I and every taxpayer will be paying for a very long time. Foreign ministers from the EUs founding six - Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, France and the Netherlands - meet to talk about Brexit in Berlin, last Saturday. Now, in the wake of the Brexit result and a week of tumult on the markets and in political circles, focus is now shifting to what happens to us once Britain leaves. Kenny was before the Oireachtas Finance Committee on Thursday and Brexit was top of the agenda. At the committee, Kenny appeared to contradict previous comments by his chief whip, Regina Doherty, and MEP Brian Hayes, that Ireland would leave the EU, were we to lose control of our corporation tax rates. Asked by Pearse Doherty if he agreed with his party colleagues, Kenny was clear: Certainly not. We will not leave the European Union, he said. He added that tax policies remained in the control of national governments. Hayes said such a move would be a red-line issue for Ireland. That is the absolute red-line issue. Any attempt made to cajole us [on corporation tax], as far as Im concerned, were out the door, Hayes said. So, while Mr Kenny is insisting that remaining in the EU is the best course for Ireland, Hayes and Calleary are correct to cast doubt on that. Make no mistake, if they feel it is in their interest, France and Germany will not think twice and squash us like a bug, just like they did in 2008 and in 2010. And with our closest neighbour now gone from the table, we stand more isolated than ever before. In a Europe that has become increasingly a club for the big boys, Irelands fate is now far less certain than before. As the old saying goes, there may be trouble ahead. It comes amid calls for the Government to set up an all-party Oireachtas committee to examine Brexit and the EU reforms now needed. Fianna Fail TD Marc MacSharry said: Ireland stands to be affected from the fallout of a Brexit more than many other countries, and the fact that we share a land border with the United Kingdom puts our border counties at risk. In a clear attempt to draw contrasts with his main rival, home secretary Theresa May who on Thursday portrayed herself as an unshowy politician who would get the job done Mr Gove said that the challenges facing Britain required not just a cool head, but a heart burning with the desire for change... not business as usual but a bold vision. He said that after last weeks referendum vote for Brexit, the new prime minister must be someone who fought on the Leave side effectively ruling out Ms May, who was part of the Remain campaign, even though her contributions to it were notably low-key. Speaking at a campaign launch a day after his dramatic declaration of his candidacy forced Boris Johnson out of the race to succeed David Cameron, Mr Gove said he stood by all the promises made by Vote Leave in the referendum contest. I will ensure we honour the instructions the British people have given us, said the justice secretary. I argued for specific changes in the referendum campaign; I believe in them; I will deliver them. The promise to leave the European Union, end the supremacy of EU law, and take back control of our democracy. With my leadership, it will be delivered. The promise to take back control of our borders. I will end free movement, introduce an Australian-style points-based system for immigration, and bring numbers down. With my leadership, it will be delivered. The promise to use the money we currently send to Brussels and invest it instead on the priorities of the British people principally in the NHS and to cut VAT on domestic fuel. With my leadership, it will be delivered. Despite controversy over Vote Leaves claims branded misleading by the UKs statistics watchdog that Britain handed 350 million (417m) a week to Brussels, much of which could be spent on the NHS, Mr Gove said he stood by the pledge to put 100m a week more into the NHS. Mr Goves launch came as he faced calls to pull out of the Conservative leadership race from allies of Mr Johnson, as well as indications that he is being far outstripped by Ms May in the race to secure the backing of fellow MPs. Rival contender Liam Fox said the feuding between the two men was a distraction and that the country needed Brexit for grown-ups in the wake of last weeks referendum vote to leave the EU. Veteran former chancellor Ken Clarke told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: I do think Michael Gove would do us all a favour if he were to stand down now. Mr Goves announcement, shortly after being appointed Mr Johnsons campaign manager, that he realised the former London mayor did not have the necessary qualities to be prime minister, was more suitable to the election of a student union than it is to be prime minister of this country at a time of pretty grave potential crisis, said Mr Clarke. Dr Fox, the former defence secretary who campaigned for Leave, said Mr Gove and Mr Johnson appeared to be preoccupied with the student politics of their Oxford University days. We are now 10 weeks away from having a new prime minister; were in the process of electing a prime minister who will actually take us out of the European Union, and yet we seem to be permanently distracted by what can only be described as the politics of the Oxford Union in recent days, he told the Today programme. I think it was a distraction. We need Brexit for grown-ups and we need to be talking about the big issues. But Mr Gove insisted that standing for the leadership was the right thing to do. I never thought Id ever be in this position, he said. I did not want it, indeed I did almost everything not to be a candidate for the leadership of this party. I was so very reluctant because I know my limitations. Whatever charisma is I dont have it, whatever glamour may be, I dont think anyone could ever associate me with it. But at every step in my political life Ive asked myself one question. What is the right thing to do? What does your heart tell you? In what seemed a swipe at Ms May, who was widely suspected to secretly back Brexit despite being on the Remain team, Mr Gove said that in the referendum campaign I did not duck for cover, I did not hedge or hesitate to say what I believed. I made clear I believed in change, I believed in leaving the European Union. Johnson targeted by hecklers Boris Johnson has been targeted by hecklers after his dramatic decision to pull out of the Tory leadership race. The Brexit campaigner was challenged as he left his London home by a man who accused him of being an absolute disgrace. Mr Johnson, who then travelled to Devon, was accused of being a massive child as he arrived in Tiverton. Beginning his journey in London, he was challenged by a man who asked: What have you done to this country? Mr Johnson replied: It seems absolutely fine to me. Nonsense. The former London mayor was told: You abandoned a sinking ship. Unleashed intolerance, inequality. Shocking behaviour. The New York billionaire is considering former house speaker Newt Gingrich and New Jersey governor Chris Christie, among what he previously described as a short list of possible running mates. Their inclusion was confirmed by people with direct knowledge of the vetting process. Mr Trump begins the vetting process with less than three weeks before the start of the Republican National Convention, when he said he would publicly unveil his pick. Mr Gingrich and Mr Christie emerged as prominent allies of Mr Trump in recent months, even as the presumptive nominee faced deep and sustained scepticism from many Republican leaders. Mr Trumps relationship with other would-be running mates was badly strained in the bruising Republican primary season, leaving him with a small pool of willing and qualified candidates. Mr Trump earlier this week acknowledged Mr Christie was under consideration. Im certainly looking at him and I always will. Whether its for that or something else,he told conservative radio host Howie Carr. He later described Indiana governor Mike Pence as somebody we respect a lot. Mr Pence told Indiana reporters he has not spoken with Mr Trump in several weeks and referred questions to the Trump campaign, which declined to comment further on the vice presidential search. While formal vetting did not begin until this week, Mr Trump said last month he had narrowed his vice presidential list to a very good list of five or six people. His vice presidential pick could be crucial to easing the concerns of Republicans who worry about his lack of political experience, as well as his temperament to be commander in chief. Tapping a political insider would also be a way for Mr Trump to signal a willingness to work with the party establishment he has thoroughly bashed even after emerging as the presumptive nominee. More than 1 million people were killed, wounded or went missing in the Battle of the Somme in northern France, pitting English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and French troops against German ones from July 1 to November 18, 1916. Britain once again held a moment of silence to mark 100 years since the bloodiest day of British military history. But the main focus for the international commemoration was in northern France. The main ceremony started with the sound of cannon shots shortly after noon at the monumental Memorial of Thiepvalwith the participation of 600 British and French children. Each of them laid a flower crown on the 600 British and French graves of the cemetery. Many descendants of soldiers, often wearing poppy and cornflower pins the British and French symbols to remember those who died attended the event. The Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery fire a gun during a service to mark the 100th anniversary of the battle Guests and dignitaries, including French President Francois Hollande, Cameron and Britains Prince Charles read texts describing the horrific scenes and the devastated landscapes of the front line in 1916, and French, British and Irish songs inspired by the war were sung. The Memorial of Thiepval, built in 1932 by the British government, is dedicated to the 73,367 British and South African soldiers missing in the Somme area during World War I. Thousands of petals of poppies and cornflowers were released from the top of the monument in complete silence. Despite the British vote to leave the EU and their opposite political views, the socialist Hollande and the conservative Cameron seized the occasion to stress their World War I alliance and show their attachment to the ideas underpinning European unity. In many ways, there is a link between the current events were discussing and what happened 100 years ago. Its the importance of keeping peace and security and stability on our continent, Cameron told members of parliament on Wednesday. Were going to be standing together and remembering the sacrifices all those years ago. David Cameron, Francois Hollande and the Duke andDuchess of Cambridge. Others at Fridays event included Prince Charles wife Camilla, his sons Prince William and Prince Harry and Williams wife Kate, President Michael D Higgins and former German President Horst Koehler. History connects us, Hollande said Wednesday at a tense EU summit focused on how to cope with Britains departure. France and the United Kingdom are very close, connected by a tunnel, with a very significant presence of French people in the United Kingdom and of British people in France. The Duchess of Cambridge meets British and French school children by war graves during the Somme centenary. In cities around Britain, commuters and shoppers were met by the eerie sight of WWI soldiers in uniforms. Young men in vintage uniforms mingled silently on high streets, in cafes, and in railway stations across the country during the morning rush hour. Some sang wartime songs, others handed out simple cards, each bearing the name of a soldier killed on the first day of the battle, and the social media hashtag #wearehere. Later, Charles and Camilla paid tribute to Northern Irish and Canadian soldiers in in Thiepval and in the village of Beaumont-Hamel. President Michael D Higgins, Sir Tim Laurence, former German president Horst Kohler, and British prime minister David Cameron, lay wreaths at the Thiepval memorial Last month, Hollande and German chancellor Angela Merkel commemorated the centenary of the Battle of Verdun, the longest battle of World War I. The leaders praised their countries friendship, risen from the ashes of two world wars and strengthened through EU cooperation. He appealed to the partys MPs to calm down and settle Labours differences through a democratic process. Answering questions following a speech in London he said Mr Corbyn is staying as the leader of the Labour Party and if there was a contest he could win. He said it was really disappointing that frontbenchers had quit at a time when the country needed stability. Mr McDonnell said: The internal difficulties within both parties will be resolved, hopefully by democratic means, and on that basis, amicably, the Labour Party will come back together. If there is to be a leadership challenge to Jeremy Corbyn, lets bring that forward, use the democratic process and then our party members will decide who is the leader and the future direction of our party. He continued: At the moment, Jeremy is leader of the Labour Party, elected with the largest mandate any political leader had from his political party only nine months ago. If there is to be a challenge to Jeremy Corbyn, in terms of a leadership contest, that will emerge I suspect over the next few days. If that is the case, my message to all Labour MPs now is just calm down, lets do our job. It isnt just our party members who need us to do our job, it is the country that need us to do our job. Former shadow business secretary Angela Eagle is expected to mount a challenge to Mr Corbyn, with ex-shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith also reported to be considering a bid. In the last week around 60,000 people have joined Labour with the prospect of taking part in a leadership election. But as both factions in the party have used social media campaigns to encourage supporters to sign up, it is not clear whether the boost in membership would benefit Mr Corbyn, who was swept into the leaders office on the back of a grassroots movement last year. Mr McDonnell said people were flooding in to the party since Mr Corbyns victory. He said Mr Corbyn was staying and said that if there was a challenge he would automatically be on the ballot paper an assertion disputed by some of those opposed to the leader. I think he will win, but you can never predict these things, its a democratic election he said. This is going to create some additional difficulties for Ireland, in a political sense, around the table of the European Council and various ministries, said Phil Hogan, the EUs agriculture chief. Ireland has traditionally relied on the UK to help fight its corner in Europe, particularly on tax, banking and single market rules. We are in a new situation and we have to develop new linkages and develop new networks now, in order to deal with the deficit in political strength that we had by working closely with the United Kingdom, he told the Irish Examiner yesterday. Ireland will have to rely increasingly on alliances with the Netherlands and Denmark, but may have to look further east as Brexit rewrites the EUs balance of power. The more countries on Irelands side the better, as EU rules require not only a majority of member states but a majority of the EUs population to pass. Ireland has always had a very strong relationship with the northern European countries and with France in relation to agriculture, and I think that that those connections will continue, Mr Hogan said. He was speaking to the Irish Examiner from Slovakia, which took over the EUs rotating six-month presidency yesterday, a week after the UK referendum result. One week on, Britain has still not said when or whether it will officially notify its EU partners of its intention to leave, which it must do under Article 50 of the EU treaty. Mr Hogan said the delay was not helpful and was prolonging uncertainty and instability. The fact that there is a reluctance on the part of the British government to trigger a negotiation to give effect to the outcome of the referendum is not helpful from the point of view of all the other 27 EU member states, Mr Hogan said. The sooner we get the Article 50 mechanism triggered, the sooner we will have certainty and stability restored, and then financial markets and investment opportunities will begin to assert themselves again, he said. Infighting in Britains ruling Conservative party and opposition Labour is fuelling speculation of a general election or a referendum rerun. These are all fluid political issues in the European context, Mr Hogan said. We are waiting for the UK government to decide when they will trigger the Article 50 mechanism to allow negotiations to commence with the EU, and and there is no sign of it happening soon. Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has barred EU commissioners and officials from negotiating with their UK counterparts until Britain files EU divorce papers. Theres going to be no negotiation without notification, and thats the edict that has been agreed by the Commission, Mr Hogan said. Brecknock Township police say 23-year-old Brian Douglas Hunter had cooked the noodles about 11:30pm on Thursday and became angry when his 20-year-old friend refused to eat them. Hunter punched the other man in the right eye 10 to 15 times. The victim had bruises, swelling, and a one-inch cut under his eye. Towering moment FRANCE: The Eiffel Tower is a must-see for visitors to Paris, but for one British family, this week, it also became their home for a night. Michelle Stevenson won an overnight stay at the famed landmark, in a contest organised by vacation rental website, HomeAway. Participants had been asked: What would you do if the HomeAway Eiffel Tower apartment was all yours for a night? The mother of two autistic sons was among four winners treated to a night in the ephemeral luxury apartment, on the structures first floor, with sweeping views of the French capital and a tour through passages closed to the public. It was for them, really, because theyre fascinated by the Eiffel Tower, the structure and the lights, Stevenson said, referring to her sons. Being autistic, I think the lights is just the big wow factor for them... Its just something that theyll never do again. Animal instinct AUSTRALIA: Todays Australian election is too close to call for many, but Davey the quokka has predicted that prime minister, Malcolm Turnbulls Liberal party-led coalition will beat Bill Shortens Labour opposition. The small, four-year-old, native Australian marsupial made the prediction at Wild Life Sydney Zoo, after being left to choose between two jars of his favourite eucalyptus leaves, one labelled Turnbull and the other Shorten. Davey, the size of a domestic cat, initially moved towards Shortens jar, before changing his mind and eating the leaves in prime minister Turnbulls pot. Australia is set for a cliffhanger election, with Turnbull warning of economic chaos if his gamble on an early poll backfires and leaves him without the outright majority he needs to enact major reforms. No horse sense USA: New York City police have arrested an 80-year-old man who gained national fame by riding his horse around the country and saying he was a cowboy who wanted to help hungry children. Police say Tod Doc Mishler was taken into custody on Thursday, three days after riding his horse across the Outerbridge Crossing, which links New Jersey with Staten Island. A police spokeswoman said charges were pending. Animal advocates say Mishler has abused the horses who took him on what he calls his God-sent mission. They say he did not feed them properly, exhausted them, and gave them painful saddle sores. The two horses he brought to New York were seized for examinations. Cereal efforts USA: Kelloggs is opening a cafe in New York, in a bid to reinvent cereals soggy image. The company, based in Battle Creek, Michigan, said bowls will cost $6.50 to $7.50 and will combine cereals like Special K and Frosted Flakes with ingredients like pistachios and lemon zest. Kelloggs have suffered declining cereal sales in the US, with people reaching for a growing array of breakfast options. To boost sales, it is also trying to market cereal as a night-time treat and on-the-go snack. The cereal cafe will open on July 4. A Chechen extremist masterminded the triple suicide bombing at an airport in Istanbul that killed at least 44 people, a US congressman said. Michael McCaul, chairman of the house committee on homeland security, told CNN that Akhmed Chatayev directed Tuesday nights attack at Ataturk Airport, one of the worlds busiest, which also wounded more than 230. Turkish and Swedish media have also identified Chatayev as the organiser, although Turkish officials have not confirmed his involvement. Sabah newspaper, which is close to the government, said police had launched a manhunt to catch him. Mr McCaul said it is unclear where Chatayev is, but he is known to have served as a top lieutenant in the Islamic State (IS) groups war ministry. Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, the IS group is suspected, and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated IS was most probably behind it. The group has boasted of having cells in Turkey, among other countries. They have no connection to Islam. Their place is in hell, Mr Erdogan said. Authorities said the three suicide bombers in the attack which echoed the carnage earlier this year at the Brussels airport were from Russia and the Central Asian nations of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. They did not provide further details on their identities. Thirteen people suspected of possible links to the attack were detained in raids in three Istanbul neighbourhoods on Thursday, officials said. Haber Turk newspaper said 11 more suspects all of them foreign nationals were detained in a separate raid on a house in Istanbul early yesterday. A government official in Istanbul could not immediately confirm the report. The IS group, which has used Turkey to establish itself in neighbouring Syria and Iraq, has repeatedly threatened Turkey in its propaganda, and Nato member Turkey has blamed IS for several major bombings in the past year in both Ankara and Istanbul. Turkeys interior minister said the explosives used were a mix of RDX, TNT and PETN that were manufactured, which chemist and explosives expert at University of Rhode Island, Jimmie Oxley, described as being military-grade, raising the question of how the attackers obtained the bombs. Swedish authorities said Chatayev was convicted of weapons smuggling in 2008. The 35-year-old was sentenced to 16 months for smuggling an automatic weapon and two handguns with munition and silencers into Sweden in on March 3, 2008. Court documents obtained by The Associated Press show Chatayev had arrived by ferry boat from Germany. He and two others in the car said they were heading to Norway to go fishing and meet friends. The documents show he denied knowing about the guns hidden in a spare wheel in the boot. A local paper said he was freed from prison in January 2009. Burma Human Rights Situation Still Dire: UN Envoy UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee notes continued difficulties resolving problems of religious discrimination, gender equality issues and human rights. RANGOON Rights abuses are ongoing in Burma despite the election of the countrys first democratically-elected government in half a century, according to UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Burma Yanghee Lee. Lee ended her 12-day visit to Burma with a press conference in Rangoon, where she said there was no difference between the human rights conditions now and under the previous quasi-civilian government. The home ministry and the Special Branch of the police are the same people from the past government, said the South Korean Envoy. That is why things have not changedOld habits die hard. Lee was not just critiquing the situation based on secondhand accounts. She encountered police interference herself. I also continue to receive reports of monitoring and surveillance of civil society actors and human rights defenders, she said in her statement released at the press conference. During this visit, I unfortunately was informed that my interlocutors were photographed by security officials, and were questioned prior to and following our meetings. She was particularly concerned with the situation in Arakan State, where the Muslim Rohingya minority remains marginalized and deprived of many rights. The recent establishment of the Central Committee on Implementation of Peace, Stability and Development of Rakhine [Arakan] State signals the priority given by the government to addressing the complex challenges facing both communities, her statement said. Nevertheless, my visit to Rakhine State unfortunately confirmed that the situation on the ground has yet to significantly change. The conditions in the IDP [internally displaced persons] camps I visited remain poor with concerns about overcrowding, the deterioration of temporary shelters and housing, and the lack of proper sanitation facilities, she said, adding, While there is rightful emphasis on ensuring development and humanitarian assistance to all communities, ending institutionalized discrimination against the Muslim communities in Rakhine State must also be an urgent priority. The continuing restrictions on the freedom of movement of the Rohingya and Kaman communities cannot be justified on any grounds of security or maintaining stability. But her concern for issues in Arakan State extended beyond just the Muslim communities. Also of concern is the continuing detention and reported torture of individuals with suspected ties to ethnic armed groups under Section 17 (1) of the Unlawful Associations Act, she said. In particular, there has been a sharp increase in cases in Rakhine [Arakan], where reportedly some arrests have been made with little supporting evidence. Lee also commented on the peace process, noting especially the role women could play. The previous government made a commitment to ensure at least 30 percent representation of women at all levels of the peace dialogue, she said. This commitment should be met as a minimum. A gender perspective must also be incorporated into all areas of the dialogue. Lee has been a controversial figure, particularly among small but vocal Burmas far-right nationalist groups. Last year, the monk Wirathu, a leader of the Buddhist nationalist group Ma Ba Tha, called her a bitch and a whore. Burma Isolated and Lacking Labor Rights, Housemaids Toil in Silence Thousands of girls from poor families across Myanmar work as maids for wealthier households, and often face grueling working hours and abuse. RANGOON Khin Htar Kyu was in her late teens when she left her village in Irrawaddy Divisions Wakema Township with her younger sister to find work in Rangoon to help her indebted family. Upon arrival, she took the first job she was offered and began to work as a live-in housemaid for a family in Sanchaung Township. Four years have passed and the 23-year-old has rarely had a day off since. She usually works from 4am to 10pmcooking, cleaning and taking care of the young children. For this grueling work, she earns US$85 per month and free meals and lodging. Sometimes, I want to take one day off during the week but I cant, Khin Htar Kyu said, adding that she even cares for her employers baby in the middle of the night. I was happier as a farmer; I had a lot of quiet and freedom. I didnt need to care about anything except my crops, she said wistfully. Across Myanmar, there are tens of thousands of girls like Khin Htar Kyu who leave their poor families to become domestic workers for wealthier households. They usually receive little pay and lack labor rights protections, according to women and child rights activists, who say the maids are often youngor underageand vulnerable to various forms of abuse by their employer. Naw Aye Aye Hlaing, program manager with Rangoon-based NGO Women Can Do It, said workers usually dont complain about their situations because they are isolated in their employers homes and lack the support to report abuses. Myanmar has no special support group to help housemaids as they are seen as unimportant workers, she said, adding that more must be done to ensure proper treatment of workers. Housemaids should be set reasonable tasks [and] employers should be responsible for creating a safe working environment, said Naw Aye Aye Hlaing, whose organization promotes womens education and involvement in politics. Vulnerable and Unprotected Aung Myo Min, executive director at the NGO Equality Myanmar, said many maids are children from poor families who cannot care for them. They are placed with wealthier households and provide free labor in return for a roof over their heads. Some of these children have a lower status than domestic workers they just get a meal and shelter, not money, for their work, he said, adding that such issues also relate to Myanmars longstanding problems with ensuring child rights and preventing child labor. Maung Maung Soe, a lawyer in Rangoon, told Myanmar Now that maids are often poorly fed, lack proper sleeping quarters and are regularly beaten. Yet, court cases against abusive employers are very rare as maids lack legal avenues to complain. They have little legal protection as there are no [labor] laws to protect housemaids against employers. But if they are accused of stealing money from their employer they can easily be prosecuted, said Maung Maung Soe, who has provided legal aid to abused workers. Files at Rangoon Regional Police Headquarters obtained by Myanmar Now show authorities recorded only eight cases of criminal abuse of maids by employers in the whole country between 2011-15, four of which were in Rangoon. An employer was sentenced in only one case. Kyi Hla Myint, a man from Rangoons Bahan Township, received three years in prison with hard labor in February 2014 for beating a 14-year-old girl, burning her hands with cooking oil and locking her in a room without food. In 2013, a 14-year-old housemaid managed to file a complaint with police over beatings on her head, back, arms and chest, caused by members of a family in North Dagon Township who employed her for four years. Three of them are now facing criminal prosecution at the township court. The victims uncle, Myo Oo, said his niece will never work as a housemaid again. She has trauma from that job, he said, adding that he hoped the perpetrators would face serious criminal punishment. Legal Protection Needed Rights activists said the cases are merely the tip of the iceberg as many abuses go unreported because victims lack the strength or knowledge to stand up to their employers, or because the issues are quietly settled by employers. Only if housemaids have major injuries on their bodies can they have enough proof for a police complaint. Otherwise, it is very difficult for them, said Maung Maung Soe. Aung Myo Min, of Equality Myanmar, said the government should draw up legal protections for domestic workers and inform them of their rights. Housemaids need to know how and where they can file complaints against abuses by employers, he said. Nyunt Win, deputy director-general at the Factories and General Labor Laws Inspection Department, told Myanmar Now that the Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population has held discussions with civil society organizations over drafting a law that would set a minimum age for domestic workers and provide basic labor rights, such as working hours and holidays. He acknowledged the workers situation was currently poorly regulated. There are many controversial issues regarding housemaids, including working hours and off-days, Nyunt Win said, before adding that maids should not refuse to prepare meals or wash clothes at the time when their employers come home. Myanmar Now contacted several National League for Democracy (NLD) lawmakers, but none had knowledge of the draft law to protect domestic workers. Improving Recruitment Bringing poor girls from rural areas to work as housemaids in wealthier households in cities and towns is a longstanding practice in impoverished Myanmar. The process often involves relatives or neighbors of the girls who connect them with wealthier families, but these days most maids are placed with an employer by recruitment agencies or unregistered brokers. One informal broker in Rangoon named Moe Moe said she had helped ten families find a housemaid in recent years, earning about $30 in commission per worker. She said she ensures that both maid and employer are suitable and trustworthy. I will have to face any follow-up problems, so I avoid strangers in this business, Moe Moe said. Khin Swe Win said her family in Rangoons South Okkalapa Township had found a maid through her relatives. Most housemaid brokers do not take responsibility for their work, so I relied on close family members, she said. The Rangoon Karen Baptist Womens Association has created an organization called Protection for Women in Household Services that tries to ensure that girls are employed by families who treat them well. Naw Phaw Wah, the director of the organization, said her staff has helped about 100 maids find safe jobs and has carried out regular visits to check on their working situation. The employers are warned once if housemaids are found to be treated badly. If they neglect our suggestions the organization withdraws its housemaid, she said. Khin Htar Kyu said she desperately wanted to quit work as a maid, but she needed to send cash to her family and help them save up to $1,000 to regain control of their farm in Wakema Township, which they pawned to a wealthy neighbor. I cannot foresee the day when our family can get back their land and I can go back to the village, she said. This story first appeared on Myanmar Now. Business The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (July 2, 2016) Money laundering improvements; US eases reporting rules; Construction industry to soar; Bangkok Airways wants more routes; World Bank pushes diverse economy Watchdog Says Burma Has Improved Anti-Money Laundering Measures The intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on money laundering has removed Burma from its lists of countries with compliance issues, hailing the governments progress toward clamping down on illicit funds. The groupwhich is housed in the OECDs Paris headquarters and is led by developed countrieskeeps track of high-risk jurisdictions for money laundering and terrorism financing, and highlights those countries it says are not making sufficient efforts to tackle the problems. Until this year, FATF listed Burma as a jurisdiction that had not made sufficient progress in implementing a plan to tackle money laundering. In a country where some are believed to have made vast profits from corruption and drug trafficking, the task force over several years repeatedly reminded the Burmese government that it needed to do more to make sure it wasnt allowing funds to be laundered or to go toward terrorism. In February, Burma was upgraded to a list of countries with only strategic deficiencies, with the FATF crediting the governments moves to enhance financial transparency and establish a functioning Financial Intelligence Unit to investigate suspicious financial activity. The organization said it would conduct a visit to confirm the progress. On June 24, in a statement following a plenary meeting in South Korea, the FATF said Burma, as well as Papua New Guinea, was being removed completely from the lists. It congratulated the countries for the significant progress made in addressing the strategic AML/CFT [anti-money laundering/combating terrorism financing] deficiencies earlier identified by the FATF and included in their respective action plans. Both countries will no longer be subject to the FATFs monitoring under its on-going global AML/CFT compliance process, the statement said. Both countries will work with the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering as they continue to further strengthen their AML/CFT regime. Moving off the list could help to reassure overseas financial institutions, particularly in the US, on dealing with transactions involving Burma. US Eases Reporting Requirement for Investors American companies making an investment in Burma worth less that $5 million will no longer have to file reports with the US Embassy in Rangoon on what policies they have in place to protect human rights in the country. Since the US government began loosening its sanctions regime to recognize democratic reforms, some firms have been required to file reports under State Department rules. From 2013, companies or individuals making an investment of more than $500,000 in most sectors, or any investor in the oil and gas sector, were required to file reports. Companies already filing the reports include major investors like Coca-Cola, toothpaste company Colgate, Palmolive and Ball Corporation, which makes cans for drinks. Some even filed extensive reports beyond the legal requirements. Notably, Gap Inc., which although it only sources from external suppliers that own factories in Burma, has filed two reports on responsible sourcing, including the disclosure that it discovered that its suppliers had used child labor in the past. Smaller firms or investment vehicles have also filed reports, some of which included the bare minimum to comply with the law. Following the transfer of power to a National League for Democracy-led government in late March, the US government has further relaxed sanctions against Burma. In May, restrictions on dealing with financial institutions in the country were eased, and a rule allowing trade through Rangoons biggest port and airport, which are operated by a sanctioned company, was extended indefinitely. The Embassy websites page on reporting requirements was updated late last month to raise the threshold for the reporting requirement tenfold to $5 million. Human rights and environmental campaigners have opposed the move, which they say was the result of lobbying by the US Chamber of Commerce and the American Chamber of Commerce Myanmar. In a blog post June 24, Earth Rights International lawyer Zamira Djabarova said the decision, effectively weakening the rule, had been taken without any companies publicly opposing the reporting rule. While unpublished comments were likely to have been submitted, some large investors, including Coca-Cola and Gap, had spoken up in support of the requirement, Djabarova wrote. Analysts Predict Construction Industry Growth More Than 10% The construction industry in Burma is forecast to grow by an annual average of more than 10 percent in coming years, according to a report from analysts, who predict the sector will be worth $13.5 billion by 2020. Business information company Timetrics Construction Intelligence Center said in a press release that a new report on the industry found that construction in Burma was worth $8.2 billion in 2015. It said, growth will be supported by the countrys improving economic conditions, but will mainly depend on government investments in residential, energy and utilities, and public infrastructure projects, as well as a rise in foreign investments. A breakdown of the current state of the industry said about half of the sector in terms of value was in residential construction. The analysts also forecast infrastructure construction on roads, bridges, airports and ports, will grow steadily. The governmentpresumably with the help of donorsset to pour a total of $26.8 billion into a transport masterplan up to 2030, it said. Consequently, infrastructure construction is expected to reach US$4.2 billion in 2020, the press release said. Bangkok Airways Wants to Fly to Bagan, Myeik The boutique carrier Bangkok Airways is hoping to fly directly from Thai airports to the temple-tourism destination of Bagan and the archipelago gateway of Myeik, according to an industry publication. aviationpros.com said in a report this week the carrier, based out of Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi Airport, was applying to Burmas Department of Civil Aviation for permission for two new flights. One would connect the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai with Nyaung U, close to Bagan, in Mandalay Division, and the other would link Bangkok and Myeik, also known as Mergui, in Tenasserim. Burmas smaller airports are generally only served by domestic airlines, but both destinations are expected to grow as the number of tourists visiting Burma increases. Some of the hundreds of islands off Myeik, most of which remain untouched, are currently undergoing development as tourist sites. Bangkok Airways hopes to secure regulatory approval from Myanmar civil aviation authorities for the two routes, a process that may take up to eight months, the report said. But the carrier is not in a rush to launch the two new Myanmar routes, expecting to put them on its flight roster during the winter season, starting at the end of October, it added. Bangkok Airways already flies between Bangkok and airports in Rangoon, Mandalay and Naypyidaw, and connects Chiang Mai to Rangoon and Mandalay. World Bank Study Recommends Diversification A study conducted by the World Bank at the behest of Burmas Ministry of Commerce has recommended that the government focus on light manufacturing, services and agribusiness to make the country less reliant on extractive industries. A press release this week on the official launch of the Myanmar Diagnostic Trade Integration Study made recommendations on how to ensure inclusive growth as Burmas economy develops. It urged officials to continue with reforms to make it cheaper for private businesses to trade, and encouraged soft infrastructure reforms. Recommendations from the study include improving access to finance, addressing skills shortages and simplifying the system of trade tariffs. The government should encourage trade growth in the service sector by reducing administrative and regulatory barriers and consolidate coordinating mandate for services trade negotiation into one agency, the recommendations said. The press release said a key driver of inclusive growth would be diversifying into sectors with high potential such as light manufacturing, services and sustainable agribusiness to rebalance the economy away from its overdependence on natural resources. Dateline Irrawaddy: If the Fourth Estate is Strong, Authorities Dare Not Play Unfairly The Irrawaddy speaks to Myanmar Press Council member Saya Kyi Min and lawyer Robert San Aung about a lawsuit brought against 7 Day newspaper by the military. Kyaw Zwa Moe: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! The Burma Army recently filed a lawsuit against 7 Day newspaper over a news story. But, the army dropped the lawsuit this morning after negotiations. Well discuss how the Myanmar Press Council (MPC) can intervene and protect media agencies against such lawsuits. Saya Kyi Min, member of the MPC and writer, and lawyer U Robert San Aung will join me for the discussion. Im Irrawaddy editor Kyaw Zwa Moe. Saya U Kyi Min, the military filed a lawsuit against 7 Day newspaper for a story called Thura U Shwe Mann urges DSA [Defense Services Academy] graduates to cooperate with the current government. But, we learned that it dropped the lawsuit, which is good news. We heard that the military did not inform the Myanmar Press Council of its plan to sue 7 Day. Even if they have a sound reason to sue, how should they have proceeded under the current guidelines? Kyi Min: The Press Council Act states that in the case of a dispute, the suffering side may file a complaint to the council. It does not say filing a complaint is a must. So, the suffering side can either file a complaint or not. It is free to directly file a lawsuit to the court. KZM: It is up to the suffering party? KM: Yes. The act was designed to prevent us from becoming the main monitoring mechanism. If the act makes it necessary to file complaints to the press council for any dispute, then all complaints will be filed with us. Then, we will have to mediate every case. So, the law states complaints may be filed with us. In the case of the armys lawsuit against 7 Day, the army did not file complaint with us; they sued 7 Day directly. KZM: The army filed the case under Section 131 of Chapter 7 Offences relating to Army, Navy and Air Force of Burmas Penal Code [which punishes anyone who abets mutiny or attempts to seduce an officer from his allegiance or duty]. Does the charge fit or is it a heavy charge for this story? Robert San Aung: As far as I understand, it is not that 7 Day wrote the story in a misleading manner. I doubt that the charge under Article 131 of Penal Code is appropriate. Today, at a time when the Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing himself is taking a leading role in building national reconciliation and friendship between the military and the people, we cant say prosecuting a newspaper or journal related to people is appropriate. My suggestion is that if there are difficulties or disputes, they should be settled through the MPC first so that the problem will not get worse. If not, the problem may be aggravated by outside factors. In the current case, some Facebook users wrote this and that on social media, which adds fuel to the flames. This is neither good to the military nor to 7 Day. I would suggest that the best option is to take action in coordination with the MPC. Under Article 3 of the Myanmar Press Council Act, the press council can mediate settlement. This morning, we heard that the army settled the lawsuit against 7 Day. I saw the report on the Standard Daily. I would say today is an auspicious day. KZM: Anyway, it is good that the army dropped the lawsuit. But I am afraid that the lawsuit comes as a warning to all other media. This is the first case of the military prosecuting a media outlet under the new government led by President U Htin Kyaw and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. There were similar cases under the previous government. These lawsuits have impacts. In your view as a member of the press council, what should be the procedure be to file a lawsuit? Is it fair to say that the military suing 7 Day is a threat to the media? KM: Our council is here to facilitate peoples right to be informed and to prevent obstacles against that. It is also supposed to protect the freedom of expression of journalists on the condition that they report ethically, that what theyre reporting is true and that the reporting will not harm state interests. We have to intervene if a reporter who follows these guidelines is prosecuted. However, under the Myanmar Press Council Act we are not supposed to intervene unless concerned parties file complaints with us and seek our intervention. Previously, our council was an interim council and now it has become a permanent one. We have settled about 190 casesbetween the government and journals, private publications and private publications, and journals and people. We could settle most of the cases through negotiations. Some of them were not satisfied and in that case they could initiate legal proceedings. We can only engage within our limited mandate. To answer your question, we want a peaceful settlement. If media personnel are not ethical in their reporting, it is their fault. We assume that we need to intervene if authorities or people are too sensitive about a truth and file unnecessary lawsuits. KZM: As far as we are concerned, we dont think the news is wrong. How can we resolve it when lawsuits are filed against media outlets that publish the truth? KM: We held a meeting Monday and immediately stated our position. We released the statement Monday evening and we were happy to hear the good news this morning. We are proud of ourselves. We seldom issue statements, especially on issues related to the military because they are too sensitive. Under the circumstances, we issued a rare statement with carefully chosen words and extra caution. Therefore, I was happy to hear the good news this morning. The entire press council is happy. KZM: U Robert San Aung, what do you think of this case from a legal aspect? 7 Day was sued for publishing a story based on what Thura U Shwe Mann said. Other media outlets also reported it. Isnt Thura U Shwe Mann, who said those words, directly responsible? Should the lawsuit be targeted at the person who made the statement or the reporter? RSA: Thura U Shwe Manns case is not the first case like this. There was a previous example in which lawyer U Myint Aung from Mandalay got his license revoked permanently for quoting the phrase, No one is above the law, in a case related to a high-profile person. In the current case, Thura U Shwe Mann is mainly responsible. He is more knowledgeable about military affairs and he should take the lead in solving the problem. 7 Day exercised the right to know enshrined in Article 3 (e) of the press council act. In that case, 7 Day should be considered a witness or abettor. The main offender is Thura U Shwe Mann and 7 Day just quoted him in its reporting. It bears no responsibility unless it includes its opinion of the speech in the story. I want Thura U Shwe Mann to take responsibility because only when there is amity between the military and the people can internal peace and the 21st Century Panglong Conference be realized. At this time, anything that harms the military or the people should be avoided. KZM: It is fair to say that Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing is fairly friendly toward the media, unlike his seniors. He always grants interviews to foreign news agencies. Many people like his interviews. Given that, why did the military take it so seriously and decide to prosecute rather than negotiate? RSA: The commander-in-chief of defense services did not seem to know the particulars of the situation. It seems that the lower level [of the army] misunderstood it and took preventive measures out of their own concern. We are encouraged to see Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing speaking very politely when he engages with the people. Regarding the armys prosecution of 7 Day, I believe that the army chief did not know about it. We dont know why the army decided to suemaybe there were complicated underlying factors. KZM: You mean it was one of their political moves. RSA: Yes, it could be. It would be better if reporters mentioned sources below their stories in brackets. The most important thing is that I would like to urge journals not to sue each other because it may harm unity and lead to division. Third parties may not hesitate to touch them if they think there is no unity among journals. Therefore, I would like to request that journals dont sue each other. KZM: The right to know is very important for people, especially in democracies where people need to know all that they should know. We accept that publications that make false reports should be prosecuted. But, there are cases in which governments or private companies file wrongful lawsuits against journals. Saya U Kyi Min, what is your suggestion to both sides to reduce these types of cases in the future? KM: As I occasionally give lectures at journalism institutes, I give lectures on how to be objective and truthful without crossing a line. When I entered the field of journalism in 1969, my master Atauktaw Hla Aung asked me to read by heart everything related to Section 500 on my second day as a journalist. I had to learn how to avoid crossing the line in my reporting under different circumstances. Media personnel need to have broad legal knowledge and they should report cleverly and present complete and truthful investigations. If they can do that, they have nothing to worry about in front of a fair trial, should that exist. KZM: What about the authorities? KM: If the fourth estate is strong, authorities dare not play unfairly because the fourth estate serves the people. But I stress the condition of: if there is a fair judicial system. KZM: I doubt that fair courts will emerge overnight in our country. RSA: There are hardly any. KZM: Thank you for your contributions. Microsoft is continuing their successful 2-in-1 line with the Surface Pro 4. Not only does the hybrid device come with some killer specs, but Microsoft has also bundled it up with a free Xbox One. The deal could save buyers at least $300, depending on the specific type of the Surface Pro 4 they purchase. The deal is good only until August 14, 2016. As Tech Guro Daily notes, it is only good for incoming students residing in the United States. Other than this, the discount of $300 is only applicable if the Xbox is bought as well. The buyer cannot simply choose to deduct the amount from the Surface Pro 4. Tech Times adds that the whole package actually includes the Surface Pro 4, an Xbox One Console, a second Xbox One Controller, 2 free games and a $50 Microsoft voucher.The Surface Pro 4 has a 12.3 inch display and a resolution of 2736 x 1824 pixels. Like most hybrids, the screen is detachable from the keyboard, thus making it a tablet. It runs on Windows 10, and comes in a variety of storage options, ranging from 126GB to 1TB. For $659, buyers can get the minimum storage of 128GB; for $1,059, buyers will get the 256GB version; $1,459 for the 512GB and $2,459 for 1TB. The Xbox One set will come with "Gears of War: Ultimate Edition" bundle, "Tom Clancy's The Division" bundle, "Rainbow Six Siege" bundle, "Special Edition Quantum Break" bundle, an Xbox One Spring bundle and "The LEGO Movie Videogame" bundle. Game titles that consumers can choose from, alongside the Xbox One sets, are limited to "The Crew and Assassin's Creed Unity" and "Just Dance 2016." Microsoft reiterates that the deal is only available for "K-12, higher education students, parents purchasing on behalf of students, education institution employees, faculty, staff, school board and PTA/PTO executives for K-12 and higher education institutions." Apple's iPhone 7 should be coming soon, just like Samsung's Galaxy Note 7. The next flagships of these two tech giants are about to come face to face and have significantly upgraded from the current ones found on the market. Whether it be new color options for the handheld devices, or making their own unique innovations. According to Mac World, the iPhone 7 is expected to launch this September. The standard will be 4.7 inches and the Plus variation will be 5.5 inches. It is expected to be thinner than all other iPhone generations, which is why rumors that Apple is ditching the 3.5mm headphone jack are very strong at this point. Apple is reportedly letting go of its 16 GB internal storage offering and is likely to make the 32 GB option its new minimum. Other rumors, which are definitely possible at this point include an edge to edge screen, wireless charging and better water proofing. However, the publication goes on to completely deny the possibility of a 3D screen and spring-out gaming joystick in the home button. On the other hand, Techno Buffalo shares that Samsung has indeed decided to skip over the Note 6 name. The upcoming release will definitely be called the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, in order to align it with the rest of the company's phone series. The Note 7 will be coming in 3 color options. Those are Black Onyx, Silver Titanium and Blue Coral. The publication goes on to share the the Note 7 will come with an iris scanner and IP68 water protection. Its rear camera will be 12 megapixels and the front camera will be 5 megapixels. The screen is expected to be 5.7 inches with QHD SAMOLED display. As for storage, the device will come wiht 64GB of internal storage, which can be extended through a microSD. Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 specifications leaked online suggest that the graphics card is faster than the Radeon RX 480. According to Videocardz, GeForce GTX 1060 features 1280 CUDA cores, a 192-bit memory interface and a GPU boost clock speed somewhere around 1700 MHz. The video card will come in VRAM variants of 3 GB and 6 GB GDDR5 memory. The specs give the card a maximum compute performance of 4.4 TFLOPs. Nvidia has rated its GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card at only120W TDP. This is less than the Radeon RX 480 at 150W. However, in terms of performance, the GTX 1060 will be faster than Radeon RX 480, according to leaked specs. The leaked info suggests that the GeForce GTX 1060 performs better than the Radeon RX 480 in both virtual reality (VR) and standard gaming. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 will also be 1.4x more power efficient than its competitor, the RX 480. In terms of design, it seems that this is really the new Founders design, proving that the previously leaked picture was quite accurate. The Pascal-based GeForce GTX 1060 is assumed to be Nvidia's RX 480-killer in the mainstream market. According to Forbes, tech experts expect that Nvidia will launch the baseline GTX 1060 for $249 or less and aggressively compete with AMD at the sub-$250 price point. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 will launch in July. If the rumors are true, fans will not have to wait for long, as the launch date is speculated to be on July 7 at a special event hosted by Nvidia at the Therapy Nightclub, in Melbourne, Australia. Nvidia is expected to publicly announce the card at this event, possibley via a livestream, since press has already been briefed on the flagship GeForce GTX 1060. The upcoming GTX 1060 graphics card will go on sale a week later, on July 14. A security researcher was able to easily nullify Android's full disk encryption that is utilized by millions of devices. According to Techspot, the implementation of full disk encryption on Google's Android mobile operating system has been an important step forward in terms of security and personal privacy. However, the security measure is not fail proof, as security researcher Gal Beniamini discovered. Neowin explains that in order to encrypt files, alongside a user's PIN, password or pattern, Android uses a strong 2048-bit RSA key. Brute force attacks are nearly impossible, due to the key's strength. However, by utilizing Android kernel flaws, plus flaws in select Qualcomm security measures, an attacker could obtain the key and circumvent full disk encryption. All an attacker would need in order to gain access to your data at that point is the user's password. That may not be too difficult to achieve, given the poor password practices of most users. Fortunately, Beniamini is not a hacker and the security researcher has been working with both Google and Qualcomm to fix some of the flaws. A Qualcomm representative said in a statement to Engadget that the two security vulnerabilities discussed by Beniamini were also discovered internally. Partners and customers have already been given access to patches. A spokesperson for Google declared that the company appreciates the researcher's findings and he was paid for his discovery through their Vulnerability Rewards Program. Earlier this year, Google also rolled out patches for the Android's full disk encryption vulnerability issues. The full disk encryption is used by any phone running on Android 5.0 or later versions. Apple's recent fight with the FBI involved the same security feature. Even if a few of the full disk encryption flaws have already been addressed, some of the issues may not be patchable. In this case, in order to avoid security flaws, Android users may instead need new hardware. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Discover 2016 from 7-9 June was more than a gathering of the clan it was a chance to see what this new lean, mean and highly focused company is doing in its four pillars transform, enable, empower, and protect. Alan Hyde, vice-president and general manager of the Enterprise Group of HPE South Pacific, and Tony Smith, general manager of its server and converged systems, held a media briefing to cover the highlights announced at the recent Discover 2016 conference. Read on - it is a very different HPE. There are a few pertinent facts before I cover the releases. First, HPE was the result of a demerger on 1 November 2015 a scant seven months ago of HP into HP Inc. (printers, notebooks, workstations hardware) and HPE as the enterprise services division (servers, networking, professional services, cloud). Second, in May 2016 it announced the sale of its enterprise services division to competitor Computer Sciences Corporation a deal expected to be complete by March 2017 that affects approximately 100,000 HPE employees. If ever a company has had to move fast and focus on its strategy for the future, it is HPE. The preamble simply shows that HPE has been disrupted more than its clients this past year, but it has focused on its business and has a clear strategy. Customers, more than ever, have to bridge two worlds. First, its the issues behind cloud adoption be that public, private or hybrid versus traditional on-premise systems and software. Then it is about agility, disruption, Ops driven IT, DevOps, process automation, OPEX, and new Internet-enabled mobile experiences. Simply put, complex, hard to maintain, legacy systems will not cut it in the new paradigm. Hyde said that this disruption yes, a buzzword had seen about 40% of enterprises adopt cloud of some form, but HPE sees the future as a scalable hybrid system that uses a seamless mix of on-premise, public, and private clouds all controlled as if they were the one infrastructure. There is a risk of making it a more complex environment that it needs to be we aim to address that with a simplified, unified architecture, he said. Hyde took us through the three steps of transformation to the Cloud to provide the foundations for 100% of the apps and workloads. ANNOUNCEMENTS All-Flash Data Centre Paul Shaw, HPE's general manager of storage, has been vocal in the promotion and defence of Flash in the data centre. He has penned two recent articles for iTWire that make good background reading. Essentially he believes that Flash has come of age offering performance, affordability, and enterprise-grade resilience better than spinning disks in many ways. HPEs 3PAR Flash products take considerably less rack space (up to 286TB/U), use lots less power, run cooler and are now Docker-ready as well as Open Stack compliant. They support Oracle, SAP HANA, Hadoop, 3PARFile Persona with File Lock as well as NTFS. Composable data fabric To the layman this means the entire physical compute, storage and network fabric resources are treated as services and called by using APIs. iTWire has an article on it here. It is all about software-defined everything (networking, storage, you name it) removing control from embedded hardware (hardware abstraction) to a software level. It means that the entire system can overcome physical boundaries and deliver "fluid IT". HPE have introduced (as an evolving part of the solution) OneVew 3.0. It is a single pane of glass approach to infrastructure automation with software intelligence. It streamlines provisioning and lifecycle management across compute, storage and fabric and enables IT staff can control resources programmatically through a unified API. Docker HPE has a strategic alliance with Docker that covers HPE being able to sell Docker, deliver fully configured systems and support it end-to-end. iTWire has an announcement article here. It seems Container computing is the next black. Helion Cloud Helion is HPEs brand for cloud and covers hardware and software from on-premise to data centres. iTWire has an article on it here. Internet of Things HPE is taking IoT seriously releasing its new Edgeline IoT devices. Edgeline is designed to take IoT computing to the edge not in the cloud. They are placed next to the sensor in a truck, on a machine, etc. They have the power and smarts to handle the huge amounts of data IoT can generate and to do data aggregation, pre-processing, closed loop analytics, apply machine learning and deep analysis on the spot. The advantage of this is that mission critical IoT devices are not reliant on the cloud to do their job and the use of valuable data bandwidth and cloud storage is reduced. Comments Hats off to HPE for working so quickly to get its strategy clear and its product range started under what must have been testing times. The overarching message I got was that HPE is now a pure-play infrastructure provider it is not shackled by professional services or distracted from its core purpose. By divesting services to CSC, it is now able to work with a huge range of solution providers and provide the platform on which they can build. A new Australian survey shows that corporate users are avoiding VPNs despite being requested to use them for secure access to corporate networks and data. It found that 25% of Australian companies (surveyed) have at least 50% of their workforce accessing corporate content via the unsecured Internet instead of through a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN). More than 70% have at least 25% of employees accessing enterprise business applications and documents from a mobile device. This is despite the fact that 84% of organisations have deployed a VPN for remote access to their network and business application access. Thats according to a survey of chief security officers (CSO) staged at last months AusCERT conference by Zscaler, the industrys first Security as a Service platform. Zscalers survey found that access to a VPN was a major cause for concern for 36% of them as this also provided employees with unfettered access to the entire corporate network. Scott Robertson, vice-president Asia Pacific and Japan, Zscaler, said, The world of IT security has undergone tremendous transformation, sparked by the consumerisation of the enterprise, the adoption of cloud computing, the ubiquity of mobile and BYOD devices and the evolution of threats, which are more serious today than they have ever been before. Mobile devices, and the advantages they offer have changed the way business is conducted. However, smartphones and tablets have also have brought a new class of security threats and attack vectors. The varied mobile platforms and devices, along with the exponential growth of mobile apps can quickly become a security and compliance nightmare for enterprises to manage. The survey also revealed that: 33% of CSOs had seen the number of mobile device users increase by between 25-50% over the last 12 months. 60% are using their mobile devices to access business applications more than 25% of the time. 54% of CSOs have up to 25% of business applications in the cloud 20% of CSOs have between 25-50% of applications in the cloud 28% of CSOs will have more than half of their applications in the cloud in the next 12 months This survey suggests that in todays enterprise everywhere business, users can instantly download un-vetted apps from the cloud, opening them up to a variety of brand new threat vectors. The issue puts IT in the awkward position of balancing personal privacy with corporate security across platforms that you not only dont own but may not even be aware of. To make matters worse, these platforms constantly change, opening vulnerabilities that you may be completely unaware of. Every time mobile devices connect to the Internet, they may be exfiltrating data, connecting to a botnet, or downloading malware from the cloud along with what they think they are getting, Robertson said. While no-one seriously thinks we can turn back the clock on mobile device and mobile app usage, new and more effective security measures are required. Security industry offerings that tried to graft existing PC era security technology onto mobile devices, as well as mobile device management (MDM) solutions, have proven inadequate to secure properly mobile devices and the networks they are accessing. True mobile security requires the ability to understand and classify mobile applications through traffic patterns, identify threats in real time and enable quick corrective action." Open source veteran Dirk Hohndel has joined cloud infrastructure and business mobility vendor VMware as its vice-president and chief open source officer. Prior to this, Hohndel was with Intel for nearly 15 years as the processor maker's chief Linux and open source technologist. He has been a familiar figure at Linux conferences around the world. At VMware he will lead the company's free and open source efforts and strategy. Hopefully, he will be able to talk VMware into ending its court case with Linux developer Christoph Hellwig who has alleged that the company violated the GNU General Public Licence under which the Linux kernel is distributed. In 2011 the Software Freedom Conservancy, a New York-based non-profit, discovered that VMware had failed to provide or offer any source code for the version of BusyBox included in VMware's ESXi products. In early 2012, the Conservancy began talks with VMware to seek compliance on all GPL components in the ESXi project but nothing of substance happened. Hohndel worked as chief technology officer of SUSE Linux and was an UNIX architect for Deutsche Bank before his stint at Intel. He has been an active developer and contributor to Linux and open source since the early 1990s and was one of the early kernel developers. Hohndel, a close friend of Linux creator Linus Torvalds, is an excellent speaker and is known for his ability to give talks without slides and other devices. It can be tempting to embellish qualifiations or achivements when applying for a job. According to recruitment site Monster at least 30% of people significantly lie on their CV, creating a nightmare for recruiters to verify details. It also creates a web of deceit that can come back to bite the candidate later. Tim Griffiths, chief technology officer and co-founder with Lee-Martin Seymour, led a team of developers, user interface designers, data scientists, and coders to create Xref, one of the most comprehensive, yet simple, Internet-based reference checking systems. The five-year-old company was conceived over a red or three by two "experts" in HR, recruitment, and business who could apply their thought processes to "there must be a better way to check references than hopping on the blower and asking a stack of questions". That it has been listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in five years is testament to the strength of its "good idea" and its strong sales track record as it gained 365 clients including Westpac, Qantas and many government departments. The original question was 'Why with all this tech are recruiters still manually checking references?' I had to agree in my 40 years in business I have been a referee for a lot of staff, and I was asked the same questions essentially What are their strengths, weaknesses, would you employ them again? In all, not very comprehensive or accurate. Griffiths said there was no rigour and no cross checking of what one referee said over another usually because reference checking was seen a repetitive, monotonous task best left to juniors and interns. Our reference checks and data analytics help identify fraudulent or inconsistent candidates it becomes trusted data, he said. Why an IPO? We did an IPO via a reverse takeover for two reasons. First, it added a level of governance that our larger clients expected, and second it has helped take us global with offices recently opened in London and Toronto and the platform live in Singapore and New Zealand, he said. We also felt that an IPO would be better than going to angels or venture capitalists that did not understand our HR focus. The remainder of the interview is paraphrased. We discussed the process it seemed too simple. Xref is totally Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud based. It has been written in in Python because it's highly scalable and it's known as a tool of data scientists. We went cloud from the start to enable global use and when all you have initially is sweat equity cloud can be remarkably economical. But using the cloud has also allowed us to integrate via APIs into many workflow programs like Oracle Taleo, and HR management programs. It has allowed mobile device use too. We can continuously and quickly innovate and add new smarts without having to support a traditional software development approach. What is the Xref process? It all starts when a candidate applies for a job. The prospective employer sends them a Xref request, and they fill in a customised template (that can be general, profession, qualification, or client specific). The candidate nominates some referee emails and the platform then fact-checks with the referees. You would be amazed how many inconsistencies it can reveal that require more investigation. How far can you probe? There will always be questions you cannot ask ageist, sexist, religious, racist, and so on. That is the bailiwick of the recruiter to determine the best fit. Xref protects its users with a governance framework but you have lots of scope to drill down and use the system to create a profile that is perhaps more accurate than the CV suggests. You can even specify mandatory qualifications or things like the maximum career gaps to explain away those periods off the radar. What does it cost? It is not just for large enterprises. Each candidate Xref process costs about $50 that is all from start to finish. By that, I mean data governance, insightful analytics, fraud minimisation, progress updates, scoring, custom forms and reports. The secret sauce is our use of analytics. We have a Bondi dentist who uses it to check for dental assistants, and it saves him time. If it can do that for one, imagine the time savings for larger enterprises. What is more is that you see immediate value regarding reduction in staff time to check references and to help avoid dodgy ones. Why move internationally? We chose AWS Cloud for that reason but it has been our clients who have driven us to open offices internationally and we will continue to do so. Once we open in a market, a whole new set of clients come to us. Australia has always been cash-positive, and the IPO allows us to expand. It has also opened our eyes, We have more than we thought we had, best describes both our and our clients reaction when they see our offering. We are experiencing 100%+ growth year-on-year. In conclusion Just as FinTech has disrupted the finance sector, this HRTech will disrupt the HR sector. It is as good as it sounds! Huawei, OPPO, VIVO, Lenovo, and Xiaomi are the top five Chinese brands by volume of units some are growing at unprecedented rates at the expense of traditional brands like Apple and Samsung. Huawei has seen a 10.2% year-on-year (YoY) growth and will produce 119 million smartphones in 2016. But that pales into relative insignificance when you look at number two OPPO with a 59.2% growth to 78M handsets and its sibling VIVO with a 40.4% growth to 66M handsets. Combined, OPPO/VIVO will produce 144M! Lenovo, however, suffered a 15.7% drop to 59.01M and Xiaomi a 13.2% drop to 59M units. That left a plethora of smaller makers about 300 taking the remainder (213.63M) handsets to see China sell 594.640M in 2016. These are certainly telephone numbers 594,640,000 and growing fast and they are all Android! That is according to Trendforce, a company that is surprising many research companies with its uncanny accuracy and estimating ability. While statistics can tell many stories, it points to smaller companies like LEco with a 300% growth (base unknown) and of the opportunities for "home grown" as Apples gloss disappears from Chinas 1.4 billion people. Apple held 11% of the Chinese market in Q1 and Samsung 9% and, while Samsung is expected to retain market share, Apple is not. Smartphone "imports" to China fell to 104.9M down 5% Y-o-Y. Interestingly, however, Bloomberg has predicted a massive shakeout in the smaller players with as many as 150 of them disappearing as market saturation is reached. It will be a case of the "big get bigger". Trendforce says the sales of Huaweis newest flagship, P9, were not as robust as expected during the first half of 2016, even though it features a Leica-certified dual camera. Conversely, OPPO and VIVO have been well-received by consumers because of their sleek surface designs and fast-charging capability. The production volumes of both OPPO and VIVO smartphones are expected to keep rising through the year. OPPO is also driven by an international market push for example, it has opened in Australia where it is now one of the top-selling brands via JB Hi-Fi and Optus. Trendforce also commented on Taiwanese manufacturers. ASUS has made significant strides since it entered the market three years ago with high cost-performance offerings. It is the Taiwanese leader, and its production volume for 2016 is projected to hit 21.5M, up 34% from the 2015 figure of 16M. HTC has dramatically shifted its product development focus to VR headsets. HTCs latest flagship is only expected to sell 1M units in 2016. To survive it has released a mass-market version and taken on additional smartphone production for Nexus phones from Google. However, its overall production will amount to only 13M units, down 27% from last years 18M. Analysis indicates that a smartphone maker of this ilk must achieve minimum production of 40 million units to remain viable. This Week in Review A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more. SHARE By , The Dane County Sheriff's Department is searching for a jail inmate it says left for an appointment on Friday and did not return. Corey Barksdale, 26, of Delavan, went to the 8 a.m. appointment at an undisclosed location, then didn't come back as scheduled at about 1 p.m., sheriff's officials said. Deputies said Barksdale might have been seen near an urgent care clinic by the East Towne Mall, several miles northeast of downtown Madison. Barksdale is serving a seven-month jail sentence following a guilty plea in March to an armed robbery charge. He has two pending felony cases out of Dane County, which include felony charges of theft and burglary. Anybody with knowledge of Barksdale's whereabouts is asked to call 911. SHARE Charles Murray, co-author, "The Bell Curve." By of the The Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation helped propel the career of conservative scholar Charles Murray, who famously argued in a 1994 book that genetic differences between white and black people were a partial cause for differences in IQ. Now Murray, 73, is getting another prize from the Bradley Foundation a $250,000 check. Michael Grebe, president and CEO of the Bradley Foundation, said the $850 million nonprofit group honored Murray with the money to "recognize distinguished conservatives that we feel have made outstanding achievements that are consistent with our mission." The foundation gives Bradley Prizes the conservative equivalent of genius grants to up to four individuals annually. Recipients of the awards can spend the $250,000 as they want. Murray, who is the W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, received the honor on June 15 in a black-tie gala at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Grebe said the prize is given not for a single achievement but for the entire body of work that a recipient has produced so far in his or her career. But few of the other Bradley award winners provoke the kind of ire among critics that Murray does. "It's a sad day when a foundation feels it has to give a grant to a man whose main accomplishment is furthering racist research," said Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Asked about the foundation giving an award to someone who has been widely derided for his research, Murray said the allegations were already "hashed out" in 1994. "They were bull(expletive) then, they are bull(expletive) now," he said. "'The Bell Curve' did not say what the critics said it said. 'The Bell Curve' did not say at any point that blacks are genetically inferior to whites." The book, co-authored by Richard Herrnstein, who died before its publication, argued that the documented 15-point IQ difference was partially attributable to genetic differences, and as such, social programs aimed at improving achievement through environmental factors are doomed to fail. "The Bell Curve" also argued that the U.S. was experiencing a decline in average intelligence because people with lower IQs were having more children than those with higher IQs. The criticism of the book didn't faze the Bradley Foundation, whose former president, Michael Joyce, called Murray "one of the foremost thinkers of our time" and praised him for taking on a "taboo subject." The foundation has been instrumental in Murray's research. From 1986 to 1989, Murray received $90,000 annually from the foundation when he was the Bradley Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. By 1991, he was receiving $113,000 a year as the Bradley Fellow at AEI. That number rose to $163,000 in 1994. Both Murray and Grebe said Murray hasn't received any funding from the foundation since the mid-1990s, when it stopped contributing to his fellowship at the American Enterprise Institute. Before working at AEI, Murray worked at the conservative Manhattan Institute, where he also held a fellowship funded by the foundation. Robert Galvan (right), instructor at the Shorewood School of Rock, rehearses with students (left to right) Nick Ruffo, 15, of Racine, Jack Mackowski, 12, of Shorewood, and Langdon Oldenburg, 12, Fox Point. The group and others from the school will perform at Summerfest on July 5. Credit: Michael Sears SHARE By , Jack Mackowski isn't old enough to drive himself to Summerfest, but that won't stop him from living his dream drumming on stage. Jack, 12, and his group are all part of the School of Rock, which opened in Shorewood three years ago and has an enrollment of about 120 students. On Tuesday, four groups from the Shorewood school will perform from noon to 2 p.m. on the Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard stage during Summerfest on Children's Fest Day. "We are a slice of Milwaukee music. For them to be able to go and perform at Summerfest and be part of the rest of the community is validating," said Todd Richards, Shorewood School of Rock general manager. "Even though they are 12, they can go and get on stage and rock the drums just as soulfully as anyone else." One group is performing songs from Pearl Jam, another the Foo Fighters, the third a variety of old-style rock such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard, and the fourth will perform a compilation of rock songs. "They get the full experience of a big show," Richards said. The school operates as an extracurricular activity. Children enroll in the school and come in twice a week, once for a three-hour rehearsal and a second time for a 45-minute private lesson. Rock 101, the basic course, cuts those times in half for younger students. The school performs concerts all year long and will be performing at the Shorewood Fourth of July parade and Bastille Days. The teaching concept originated at the Paul Green School of Rock Music in Philadelphia, which was the basis of the 2005 documentary "Rock School," and an inspiration for the 2003 comedy film "School of Rock" with Jack Black. There are more than 100 School of Rock locations in the United States and several international locations. "We teach kids how to rock on stage," Richards said. "We are not holding them back because of their age." Richards said some children who enroll in the school are lacking confidence either in themselves or in their musical talent. Ella Coplan, 12, found her confidence at the School of Rock. She is a vocalist and performed last year at Summerfest. Singing was something she did on her own time. Coplan said her experience has given her confidence in herself. "You can come in and express yourself in a fun way." Coplan said. "Last summer was my first performance and it was nerve-wracking, but it got easier after the first song." Coplan trained with Tom Riddle, an instructor at the school and former vocalist with the band Lithic who toured with Korn and Marilyn Manson. Riddle takes time with each of his students, going through one section of a song at a time. He started performing at age 14 and said music changed his life. "Every sadness in my life has been contrasted by music," Riddle said. His goal is to bring the same joy that music brought him to the kids he teaches. Some of his favorite moments are after he shows a students new music and they come in later wearing Queen or David Bowie T-shirts. "People need to realize that just because they are kids doesn't mean they aren't capable of doing a high level of rock or art," Richards said. "People are surprised by how good they are." Students from the national School of Rock touring group are performing at Summerfest on July 9 and 10 at the BMO Harris Pavilion and the Harley-Davidson Roadhouse. SHARE By , The Wisconsin Department of Justice is investigating the death of a 57-year-old Washington County man killed by a Jackson police officer Friday evening. Jackson police said the man, whose identity wasn't released, was killed after officers responded to a 911 call at a single-family residence. No officers were injured. A police press release didn't specify what prompted officers to use deadly force or how the man was killed. No address was given for the encounter. The Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation will review the incident. State law requires an outside agency to investigate fatal incidents involving law enforcement. Reince Priebus (right), chairman of the Republican National Committee, talks with GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump. Credit: Chip Somodevilla By of the Washington, D.C. As the head of a party turned upside down by its nominating fight, Reince Priebus says Republicans need "more than ever" to have a unifying convention this month. "Given the drama that we've had...I think now, more than ever, the role of the convention to assist in the unification of the party is going to be extremely important," Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in an interview with the Journal Sentinel. No convention in the past few decades has generated the kind of uncertainty this one has, thanks to an unconventional and polarizing nominee, lingering resistance to Donald Trump within the party, the decision of some party figures to stay home, the decision of some corporate sponsors to stay away and the possibility of unruly protests in the streets. Priebus declined to talk in detail about the convention program and planning, which is still being finalized at this late date. But he discounted forecasts of physical or political upheaval in Cleveland. "There is not going to be any chaos at the convention. I mean we have incredible security," said Priebus, the Wisconsin lawyer who previously chaired the state GOP. On the political side, "the delegates aren't interested in chaos. Having arguments over platform and rules is not chaos. It's what parties do." Priebus said the party was making progress toward unity, but "the more bruises that people take in during the primary process, the longer it takes to heal." Asked about the continued refusal of some in the GOP to back Trump, the party chairman said, "I think any time Republicans take a position against a presumptive nominee, they're simply aiding and abetting the opponent." That is a different view than the one voiced by his friend and fellow Wisconsinite, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Janesville, who has endorsed Trump but has also declined to criticize GOP colleagues in the House who have refused to do so. "I wouldn't tell a person to do something that they believe violates their conscience," Ryan told the Journal Sentinel in an interview last month. "I'm not going to hold an individual person's decision against them." Unity has been especially elusive in the RNC chair's home state, where Trump attacked Wisconsin's GOP governor onetime presidential rival Gov. Scott Walker and suffered what was arguably his single worst defeat in the state's April primary. GOP officials who refuse to back Trump include U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble of Sherwood and Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke of Kaukauna. Former state party chair Mike Grebe, who chaired Walker's recent campaigns, said Friday he gave up his delegate seat at the convention "because I do not want to be part of a process which results in the nomination of Donald Trump." Former Gov. Scott McCallum said he gave up his slot as an alternate at the convention because he couldn't cheer for Trump. Priebus was interviewed before Grebe and McCallum made those statements. But asked about anti-Trump Republicans, he said they were effectively helping Democrats in this election. "It's going to take some people longer than others" to support the GOP nominee, he said. "I'm fine with that as long as in the end they come together and realize that another four years of (President Barack) Obama through Hillary Clinton is not a good future for our country." Priebus said the goals of the four-day convention that starts July 18 are to "unify the party, tell the story of Donald Trump, and make sure that we take action that strengthens the party for years to come." The program will resemble in many ways those in the past, he said, but with an "infusion" of Trump's own approach and vision of what a party convention should look like. "It's going to be probably a happy medium between the two...the traditions of what people expect, and also some of things that Donald Trump wants to see happen," he said. Despite the fact that most polls show Trump trailing Clinton, Priebus said he was not worried about Trump's standing at this point in the race, and that "we're exactly where we need to be." Referring to a recent rocky phase in the race when Trump lost ground to Clinton, Priebus said, "I think that Donald Trump would agree...a couple of weeks ago, those few weeks were not the best few weeks. But in spite of all that, you look at these polls being within the margin of error." Most national surveys have Clinton leading by anywhere from low single digits to low double digits. "Analyzing the outcome of November in June is a fool's errand," said Priebus. "I wouldn't be doing this job if I wasn't optimistic. I am optimistic. I think Hillary Clinton's going to lose and the Republicans are going to win." Brooks guilty on all 76 counts in Waukesha Christmas Parade rampage A jury has convicted Darrell Brooks Jr. of killing six people and injuring dozens of others by driving through the 2021 Christmas parade. Reddit Email 0 Shares By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | Bangladesh has been plagued by extremist violence for years, but the violence and hostage-taking in Dhaka on Friday and on Saturday morning was a whole new level of disruption. Why Bangladesh? Here are some reasons: 1. Bangladesh is a multicultural state, where some 9 percent of the population is Hindu. The birthdays of Buddha and Krishna are official holidays. Radical Sunni Muslims, like the US Ku Klux Klan, are about a single ethnicity being exalted above all the others in a society. 2. Among the Muslim majority, large numbers of the Muslims are Sufi mystics. Bangladeshi Sufism had tended to be tolerant and universalist. Many Hindus frequent shrines of Sufi saints. Radical Sunni Muslims want to destroy Sufism and to herd Muslims into the hard line protestant Salafi trend. 3. Large numbers of Bangladeshis are secular-minded. There is a significant Communist Party and the secular nationalist Awami League controls the national government. Indeed, it could be argued that of all South Asian countries, Bangladesh has the most secular government now that the fundamentalist BJP is ruling India. 4. Bangladeshi nationalism is grounded in national identity rather than fundamentalist religion. Bangladesh was forged in the crucible of 1971, when Bengali Muslims there signaled that they were disillusioned with the Pakistan project and would seek their own Bengali nationalism rather than subsume it under a South Asian Muslim identity. Radical Muslims hate ethnic nationalism and want to make fundamentalist Muslim universalism the keystone of identity. 5. The Bangladeshi government has been prosecuting Muslim fundamentalists who have committed violent crimes in the past, even executing two former leaders of the fundamentalist Jamaat-i islami. Hard line fundamentalists think they are above the law and insist that violence committed in the name of religion is licit. The radicals are thus haunting the Federal government. Bangladesh shows that a Muslim society can evolve toward Sufism or secularism rather than Salafi puritanism, and as such the country stands as a rebuke to the fundamentalists and hard liners. They know only the language of violence in attempting to provoke social change, and have deployed it in Dhaka. It will not make them more popular. Related video added by Juan Cole: NDTV: Dhaka restaurant attack: 5 bodies found, 18 hostages rescued Reddit Email 0 Shares TeleSur | Human rights organizations argue the U.S. government has grossly underestimated the number of civilian deaths caused by drones. The United States government accepted responsibility Friday for inadvertently killing up to 116 civilians in strikes in countries where America is not at war, a major disclosure likely to inflame debate about targeted killings and use of drones. President Barack Obamas goal for the release of the numbers, which are higher than any previously acknowledged by the U.S. government but vastly below estimates from intelligence and rights groups, is to create greater transparency about what the U.S. military and CIA are doing to fight militants plotting against the United States. But the figures, which covered strikes from the day Obama took office in January 2009 through Dec. 31, 2015, were below even the most conservative estimates by non-governmental organizations that spent years tallying U.S. strikes in countries such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. The numbers reported by the White House today simply dont add up and were disappointed by that, said Federico Borello, executive director for the Center for Civilians in Conflict. Since taking office, President Barack Obama has dramatically escalated the U.S.s reliance on unmanned drones, launching deadly strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. In Pakistan alone, at least 1,927 people have been killed by drones since 2009, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, with at least 249 of the dead civilians. According to human rights organization Reprieve, the death toll for civilians could be over 1,000. In a report, released in anticipation of the official figures, the organization argues the U.S. government secretly redefines who can be targeted and what it means to be a civilian, with many drone operators not always certain of who they were killing. Every previous (rare) public, on-record statement made by the Obama administration on the program has been shown to be false or deeply misleading, the report read. It has to be asked what bare numbers will mean if they omit even basic details such as the names of those killed and the areas, even the countries, they live in. Critics of the targeted killing program question whether the strikes create more militants than they kill. They cite the spread of jihadist organizations and militant attacks throughout the world as evidence that targeted killings may be exacerbating the problem. Were still faced with the basic question: Is the number of bad guys who are taken out of commission by drone strikes greater or less than the number of people who are inspired to turn to violent acts, said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA specialist on the Middle East and now a professor of security studies at Georgetown University. Pakistani lawyer Mirza Shahzad Akbar, who says he represents a hundred families of civilians killed by drones, questioned the validity of the data even before their release by the Director of National Intelligence. He said Washington needed to better explain its criteria for declaring someone a civilian, something that can be difficult to do from a camera on a drone. President Obama is worried about his legacy as a president who ordered extra-judicial killings of thousands which resulted in a high number of civilian deaths, Akbar told Reuters. As a constitutional lawyer himself, he knows whats wrong with that. - Related video added by Juan Cole: RT: Obama admin says up to 116 civilians killed by US drone strikes JURIST Guest Columnist Jessica Henry of Montclair State University discusses the recent additions to Louisianas hate crime legislation Last month, Louisiana passed a Blue Lives Matter amendment to its hate crime statute. Under the newly-amended law, it is now a hate crime in Louisiana to target someones person or property for a crime because of actual or perceived employment as a law enforcement officer or firefighter. The definition of law enforcement officer under the amended law is expansive and includes active or retired law enforcement officers, peace officers, wildlife enforcement agents, correctional officers and parole and probation officers. According to state Republican Senator Lance Harris, who sponsored the bill, additional measures were needed to protect state officers in Louisiana. Citing police shootings in New York and Texas, the Louisiana senator explained: if youre going to have an extensive hate crime statute then we need to protect those that are out there protecting us on a daily basis. In signing the bill, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards echoed these sentiments: The men and women who put their lives on the line every day, often under very dangerous circumstances are true heroes and they deserve every protection that we can give them. They serve and protect our communities and our families. The overarching message is that hate crimes will not be tolerated in Louisiana. Police officers serve an incredibly important function: they protect our communities, resolve conflicts and prevent and solve crime. Policing is a challenging and difficult job. But Louisianas leap from the premise that law enforcement officers have an important job to the conclusion that law enforcement officers need hate crime protections is largely unsupported. First, Louisianaand another 36 statesalready have laws that increase penalties for police assaults. In Louisiana, for instance, battery involving an officer has greater penalties than a typical battery. In states that retain the death penalty, killing a police officer can be an aggravating factor that elevates the crime to a capital case. As these laws demonstrate, attacks against officers are in many instances already punished more severely than other kinds of crimes. Second, attacks against police officers, particularly lethal ones, against police officers are at their lowest rates in decades. Nationally, fatal shootings of officers have decreased from an average of 127 in the 1970s to around 57 per year between 2000 and 2009. In 2015, 42 officers were fatally shot compared with 49 in 2014. In Louisiana, in 2015, there were nine officer fatalities and no officer fatalities so far this year. While even one officer shot and killed in the line of duty is tragic, there is no empirical evidence that lethal attacks, specifically targeting law enforcement officers, are on the rise. Third, Louisianas hate crime law already contained language that seemingly applied to crimes against police officers because of their occupation. Prior to the amendment, Louisiana law already provided enhanced punishments to people who select the victimbecause of actual or perceived membership or service in, or employment with, an organization. In other words, Louisianas hate crime law included crimes committed because of actual or perceived employment with an organization, which would likely cover crimes targeted against law enforcement. So why the hate crime amendment? The first hate crime laws were enacted in the mid-1980s. Now nearly every state and the federal government has some form of hate crime law. These laws, in varying degrees, distinguish ordinary crime from those crimes motivated by specifically designated prejudices. Hate crime laws typically provide enhanced penalties for crimes motivated, in whole or in part, by bias or prejudice based on a victims actual or perceived group affiliation. Some jurisdictionsincluding the federal governmenthave designated a hate crime as a separate substantive offense. Most hate crime statutes protect against groups that have historically been targets of bigotry; hate crime statutes across all states most commonly prohibit crimes based on race, religion and ethnicity. Hate crime laws are popular because they send a largely symbolic governmental message that crimes motivated by certain types of bigotry will not be tolerated. As one scholar explained, hate crime laws are largely perceived as expressing: Strong social condemnation of bias crimes[C]ondemnation of hate crimes implies a general affirmation of the societal value of the groups targeted by hate crimes and a recognition of their rightful place in society. Hate crimes legislation is seen as reinforcing the communitys commitment to equality among all citizens. And therein lies the rub. If hate crime laws send a message of equality and inclusion, then hate crime laws also can send messages of intolerance and exclusion. Take, for instance, the Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990 (HCSA), which requires law enforcement agencies to collect hate crimes data and report their finding to the FBI. The HCSA mandated the collection of data about hate crimes motivated by bias based on sexual orientation. But conservative senators balked at the inclusion of sexual orientation. And the only way that the HCSA was passed was with the inclusion of compromise language, insisted upon by conservative senators, including Senator Jesse Helms, which stated that nothing in this Act shall be construed . . . to promote or encourage homosexuality. In other words, the HSCA, designed to capture the scope of hate crime in the United States, was accompanied by a governmental message of bigotry toward members of the LGBT community. This message of inclusion and exclusion continues today. Some states passed hate crime laws that include race, ethnicity and religion, but explicitly do not include sexual orientation or gender identity. And lets be clear, members of the LGBTQ community are targets of hate crimes. If the recent Orlando massacre at a gay club did not already prove that terrible truism, then just take a look at the FBI hate crime data, which shows that LGBT people are twice as likely to be targeted as African-Americans, and are targeted more frequently than Jews. When a state passes a hate crime law but omits sexual orientation and gender identity from its hate crime protections, a governmental message is arguably being communicated and it is not one of equality and tolerance for all. The Anti-Defamation League, which helped originate the first hate crime laws and has authored model legislation that was adopted by states throughout the country, took a position against the Blue Lives Matter amendment. The ADL argued that hate crime laws should not include professional groups because that is not an immutable characteristic. That, too, is up for some debate, as certain states have included the category of being homeless (not immutable) or political affiliation (also not immutable) within its hate crime law parameters. Proponents of hate crime laws have expressed concern that the inclusion of characteristics such as employment dilutes the force and purpose of hate crime laws which, at least at their inception, were envisioned as protecting people who are targeted simply for being who they are. The decision to include a group within a hate crime law can send a message that is more divisive than protective. Louisianas decision to pass hate crime protections for a wide-range of law enforcement personnel seems unnecessary and superfluous given other existing state laws, and given the lack of evidence that officers are, indeed, frequent targets of hate crimes. Yet, in a state with a Republican congress and a Democratic governor who do not often agree, this bill sailed through the legislative process to passage. Other states and the federal government are considering the passage of similar legislation. They would be wise to think carefully before doing so. After serving as a public defender for nearly a decade, Professor Henry joined the Montclair State University faculty, where she is an Associate Professor in the Department of Justice Studies. Professor Henry was awarded the 2015 University Distinguished Teacher Award in recognition of her excellence in teaching. Professor Henry has appeared as a frequent commentator on national television, radio, and in print media, and is a frequent blogger with the Huffington Post and the Wrongful Convictions blog. Her areas of research include wrongful convictions, hate crimes, the death penalty and life without parole, and she teaches a wide range of classes, including a course on Hate Crimes. Suggested citation: Jessica Henry, Blue Lives Matter Has No Place in Hate Crime Laws, JURIST Forum, June 29, 2016, http://jurist.org/forum/2016/07/jessica-henry-hate-crimes.php. This article was prepared for publication by Alix Ware, an assistant Editor for JURIST Commentary. Please direct any questions or comments to her at commentary@jurist.org Secretary of Defense Ash Carter [official website] on Thursday announced [press release] a new policy [materials] that allows transgender individuals to serve openly in the military, effective immediately. The announcement [speech], promised [JURIST report] last week, lifted the ban that not only prevented transgender persons from serving in the military but also made a transgender identity grounds for discharge. The policy shift came after a Rand study was conducted to determine the cost and benefits of the ban. The Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] will begin to update the military policies and regulations within the year to reflect the change. Furthermore, the policy will allow for medical benefits and care to aid in the transition process and address any associated health issues that were previously not covered due to the ban: Starting today: Otherwise qualified servicemembers can no longer be involuntarily separated, discharged, or denied reenlistment or continuation of service just for being transgender. Then, no later than 90 days from today: The Department will complete and issue both a commanders guidebook for leading currently-serving transgender servicemembers, and medical guidance to doctors for providing transition-related care if required to currently-serving transgender servicemembers. Our military treatment facilities will begin providing transgender servicemembers with all medically necessary care based on that medical guidance. Also starting on that date, servicemembers will be able to initiate the process to officially change their gender in our personnel management systems. The full policy has an implementation date of July 1, 2017. Legal issues facing transgender individuals have been at the forefront recently. Last week a judge ordered [JURIST report] a Virginia school board to allow transgender students to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity. Last month a judge from Multnomah County Circuit Court in Oregon ruled [JURIST report] that an individuals gender could be legally changed from female to non-binary. Also in June a US magistrate judge issued [JURIST report] an order requiring California prions to provide transgender inmates who identify as female access to female-oriented items to which inmates have access in womens correctional facilities. The UN Human Rights Council [official website] called [press release] on the African Union (AU) [official website] Friday to respond to a report [text, PDF] that detailed gross human rights violations in Eritrea. The report found that systemic and widespread gross violations in the detention facilities and military camps may even amounts to crimes against humanity. The council had previously called [press release] on the AU for assistance in providing accountability mechanisms for judicial reasons. The resolution [text, PDF] included the following: [The Human Rights Council] Strongly encourages the African Union to follow up on the report and recommendations of the commission of inquiry on human rights in Eritrea by establishing an investigation, supported by the international community, with a view to examining and bringing to justice those responsible for violations and abuses of human rights identified by the commission of inquiry, including any that may amount to a crime against humanity. The call was welcomed [Al Jazeera report] by activists, human rights groups and Eritreans who see the resolution as a necessary first step in addressing the issues. Eritrea denies all allegations that it has committed crimes against humanity. Eritrea has faced much criticism from the international community for continued abuses of human rights. In 2013 the UN called for an end to human rights abuses in Eritrea and appealed to the international community to increase scrutiny [JURIST reports] of the nation. The UN also pleaded aid [JURIST report] for Eritrean refugees, as denial of asylum would most likely condemn them to death, based on the countrys shoot to kill order [report, PDF] for anyone attempting to leave the country illegally. In late 2013 a report from Dutch and Swedish researchers discovered that officers of the Eritrean military were kidnapping children [JURIST report] and smuggling them into Sudan. In March 2015 another UN commission released a report [JURIST report] that found that the various human rights abuses found in Eritrea included torture, a large number of detentions, and paltry wages insufficient for an adequate standard of living. Boca Raton, FL, USA, 07/01/2016 /SubmitPressRelease123/ Talcum powder was marketed to Black women raising their risk for ovarian cancer, says a recent study by former skeptic, reports Joe Osborne talcum powder lawyer Regular use of the powder by African-American women is associated with a greater chance of suffering ovarian cancer regardless of where the women used it, according to a study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention in May, reports talcum powder lawyer Joe Osborne. Those who used it in their genital area had more than a 40% increased risk of ovarian cancer. Those who used it elsewhere had an increased risk of more than 30%. Principal investigator Joellen Schildkraut told Reuters Health that African-American women have been the target of marketing for use of body powder and are more likely to use it. Schildkraut is an epidemiologist at the University of Virginia and had been a self-described skeptic of a connection between genital talc use and ovarian cancer but has since changed her mind. The new study along with other research has convinced her to advise women not to use talcum powder. As you look across all these studies, I would say, why use it? Its an avoidable risk for ovarian cancer, Schildkraut told Reuters. About 20,000 American women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer, about 14,500 dying from it each year, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers talked to 584 black women with ovarian cancer and 745 black women without it. Nearly 63% of those with the cancer and nearly 53% percent of the healthy control group dusted themselves with talcum powder. Dr. Nicolas Wentzensen, head of clinical epidemiology for the National Cancer Institute, told Reuters African-American women are often underrepresented in epidemiological studies and this one is well-conducted and confirms previous studies documenting a higher risk of ovarian cancer from talc use. Wentzensen stated, The study discovered stronger associations between ovarian cancer and talc use and than previous research. A December paper published in the journal Epidemiology found a 33% higher risk of ovarian cancer in women who said they routinely applied talc to their crotches, sanitary napkins, tampon and underwear. African-American women are reported to have much higher use of feminine hygiene products, including genital powder. A study in Los Angeles in 2015 found 44% of African-American women stated they used talcum powder, compared to 30% of white women and 29% of Hispanic women. This may be the result of marketing efforts in the 1990s by a major baby powder manufacturer which outlined a plan to hike sales of its powder by targeting black and Hispanic women. That information is part of a company memo published after they were part of lawsuits leading to recent multimillion-dollar verdicts against the powder manufacturer. This most recently study adds to the evidence of the dangers of talcum powder use. Dr. Daniel W. Cramer, the head of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Epidemiology Center at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, first reported a connection between genital talc use and ovarian cancer in 1982. Since then hes called for warning labels. Gynecologic Oncology recently published an editorial by cancer genetics expert Dr. Steven Narod of Womens College Research Institute in Toronto who wrote, In the interests of public health, I believe we should caution women against using genital talcum powder(its) disingenuous to state that there is no evidence that talc is associated with ovarian cancer. If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and used talcum powder in the past, contact a talcum powder lawyer at Osborne & Associates today so we can talk about your situation, whether you may have a talcum powder lawsuit and could be entitled to compensation for your injuries and your best options to protect your legal rights. source: http://www.oa-lawfirm.com/talcum-powder-lawyer-reveals-cancer-causing-talc-marketed-african-american-women/ Newsroom powered by Online Press Release Distribution SubmitMyPressRelease.com Like Us on Facebook It's only fair to share... Pinterest Linkedin email Print A wall was built overnight less than 10m from an elderly couple's doorstep and a trench has been dug beyond the wall, which was their road for the past 32 years. KEARNEY - A Kearney man admitted being involved in the April in-home robbery of a Kearney couple after initially lying to police about his involvement. Jeff Marcellus, 35, pleaded guilty Thursday in Buffalo County District Court to being an accessory to a felony and to felony possession of methamphetamine. Marcellus admitted volunteering false information to police knowing the robbery had been committed. Judge John Icenogle ordered Marcellus to undergo a presentence investigation, including a substance abuse evaluation, to be conducted by the state probation department. Sentencing was set for October. Marcellus faces up to five years in prison and a fine for each charge. Melanie Young, a deputy Buffalo County Attorney, described this robbery scenario: On April 10 Marcellus told Greg Redler of Kearney a man living in the 1800 block of Fourth Avenue owed him money. Redler said he would collect the debt, and Marcellus gave Heather Anderson, also of Kearney, directions to the house. At the house, Redler threatened the male victim and took money from him at gunpoint. Marcellus entered the house a short time later. Marcellus, Redler and Anderson then left the scene. Marcellus, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, handcuffed and shackled, looked down at the defense table and shook his head as Young recounted the robbery. Police arrested Marcellus outside his home shortly after the incident. Anderson was apprehended later that day. After the robbery, Redler went to his then-girlfriend's apartment at Prairie View Apartments at 301 E. Eighth St. and barricaded himself inside. Following a 2-hour standoff with police, he surrendered. Redler and Anderson were scheduled to be sentenced today in district court for their involvement in the robbery. Redler was convicted of the robbery and being a felon in possession of a firearm, and Anderson was convicted for being an accessory to a felony for driving the get-away vehicle. e-mail to: Japan International Cooperation Agency President Shinichi Kitaoka arrives for a press conference following the incident at Bangladesh restaurant in Tokyo, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Shinichi Kitaoka said one Japanese hostage has been hospitalized, and the fate of seven others remains unknown. They were outside consultants working for Japan's development agency on an infrastructure project. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara) If you live in a place, it is easy to become complacent about its character and what makes it so appealing, so welcoming. If you live in a place, it is easy to become complacent about its character and what makes it so appealing, so welcoming. Just standing on the bridge in Graignamanagh is therapeutic. The tidal River Barrow below you making its way to meet up with its two sisters moves slowly but as many local people know, and will never forget, is a callous killer too. On the lower side of the bridge, the Barrow stretches before you towards New Ross and you can see Tinnahinch Castle and beside it the lock that forms part of the Barrow Navigational and in the background, is beautiful Brandon Hill. On the other side of the bridge as you look upstream, is the quaint quay, dominated by the Waterside Restaurant and guest house, (an example of what can be achieved in tourism) with barges tied up alongside it. Devils eyebrow Above it is the boat house, then the swimming area and the Devils Eyebrow while enchanting Graignamanagh wood in full foliage, entices you with leaves waving at you, as if to say come on. On the opposite side of the river is the tow path to Clashganny where once stood the Tinnahinch hotel which catered for the huge amount of river traffic. Looking down on all this is historic Mount Brandon House on the Carlow side. The bridge has been blown up and has linked two baronies and two counties for hundreds of years and in 1959 two tanks went over it to test its stability. (Thanks to Colm Walsh for that nugget of information.) And it had a twin in Clarecastle, Co Clare over the River Fergus And to this day there is a question mark over who actually built it. The romantics feel it is the work of George Semple while Kilkenny Co Council, backed up by a number of records say it is the work of Semples disciple, George Smith who also built the current Greens Bridge in Kilkenny city. The answer may lie in the long since demolished bridge at Clarecastle which was built by another Semple based on a George Semple design and it seems that while Smith may have actually built the bridge in Graig, he seems to have used the design of his mentor, Semple and it is recorded that he spent a lot of time in Semples library going overt his designs. So they may both, in some respect, be responsible. However, local historian and chairman of Graignamanagh Historical Society, Owen Doyle tells a story that has passed down through the generations. We were always told that George Semples signature is knitted into the fabric of the bridge in one of the key stones that forms the arches underneath, he said with the authority of a retired college lecturer . However no one has seen it and it might be a good project for the summer to find George Semples name under the bridge and put an end to the confusion that reigns And a reward of E50 awaits the person who does find it. Poem Incidentally, a poem from over 200 years ago, indicates that it was built by Semple. The anonymous ditty, written after 1800 and included in the lae John Joyces wonderful book, Graiguenamanagh - A Town And its People, also gives an idea of the grandeur of the bridge as well as its importance: There is a bridge that Semple built When Ireland was a nation Its strong and good, no winter flood Can shake its old foundations. But if youre near when boats appear Some fine old fashioned oaths youll hear The haulers here, now how to swear With great imagination However, the bridge in Graignamanagh is above all else a beautiful piece of engineering. Experts agree that it is one of the most aesthetically pleasing in Ireland and has stood the test of time. And in 1959 the Irish army drove over the bridge with two tanks to test its stability. It is also the part of the final journey for those from Graignamanagh and Tinnahinch who die. Their corteges make their way over the bridge to St Michaels cemetery close to the Barrow And from the centre of the bridge, the castle and lock at Tinnahinch take precedence. History The original bridge was in situ around 1540 at Graignamanagh - wooden - it didnt last very long. Tinnahinch Castle which languishes on the left, downstream from the bridge is in a shocking condition and there is nothing to tell you of its rich history or the fact that when it was built after 1620 by James Butler (Mountgarrett branch of the family) he brought all the local Gaelic chieftains into the castle to a banquet on the top floor. Butler had water poured over them from cisterns overhead and with their heavy clothing on them, the warriors were unable to get their swords out of their scabbards and they all perished. Spell The monks in Duiske Abbey were horrified and put a spell on the town that some people claim still survives, it has to do with rain and deluges on big days like the annual regatta and other events. And tellingly, after that the Mad Butlers of the castle came to a bad end after a sex scandal and the murder of a young boy by the Mad Butler after his mother asked Butler to speak to her son because she felt he had become unruly. Mad Butler, after he hanged the boy, handed his body back to the mother. He was murdered after that. Anyway the castle was built to defend a ford and there was a bridge here in 1656 and we know this from the Down Survey map of that year. The remains of this wooden bridge were discovered when work started on the Tinnahinch lock as part of the Barrow Navigation. And indications are that it led from Duiske Abbey through Brandondale and the park to connect the old Coolroe-Aclrae road. The boats now travel up and down the river through the last arch on the Carlow side of the river and this is the exact opposite of when the Barrow Navigational was at its height. Traces of the old lock, below Bank House across from the Tinnahinch are still there and you can make out an old harbour. There were also two dry docks there and these are now ,alas, filled in. What a joy it would be if they were returned to their former glory as part of the much needed remedial works needed to tame the Duiske River which flows into the Barrow just below the bridge. (Big Phil take note). On the east side of the bridge is the site of the old Navigation hotel and writing in the 1830s, Samuel Lewis said there were 40 to 50 boats moored at this point each capable of carrying 40 tonnes and this point was asserted by local man, Billy Hoare. Seven splendid arches There was a ford at the bridge site and in 1764, the present bridge at Graignamanagh was built by George Semple or George Smith in a Palladian style, similar to the bridges at Castlecomer and Inistioge, although the seven arch bridge at Graig is probably the best example of this style. We now know that the ornate designs on both sides of the bridge were inspired by Duiske Abbey and the shapes on the opposite page clearly identify this, like the he oggee headed niches and the various ocili between the outer arches. In his seminal book, Graignamanagh - A Town And Its People the remarkable John Joyce suggests that the elaborate decorations on the bridge walls and arches were done in anticipation of the arrival, on the Barrow, of the large passage boats which later brought Castlecomer coal, which was loaded on the Barrow at Leighlinbridge, through Graignamanagh. details The seven arch spans on the bridge increase from 194 to 3110 in mid-stream. The walls are limestone and there is some suggestion that the outer walls of the Duiske Abbey complex were used to complete the bridge. Disgrace The old bank building and the Anchor Bar at the Graignamanagh side of the bridge have been let in a disgraceful condition. They are falling down and they give a shocking impression of the town and while there are other abandoned properties, if the facade was cleaned up and painted it would do much to enhance what is a fabulous place to visit. Kilkenny County Council should insist that something is done with it. F.J. MURRAY This is in complete contract with F.J. Murrays pub directly across the road and on the corner of the quay. Built in the 1800s it is really well maintained with most of the historic fabric inside and out retained. The shop front is of a high artistic design, displaying high quality craftsmanship in an exotic, almost Moorish theme. And it would be unfair to mention Graig without talking about another gem, Mick Doyles pub across from the abbey where you can buy your groceries, drink a pint, get ammunition for your shotgun and buy a pick axe and nails - all at the same time And you might even meet celebrity chef, Edward Hayden in there. Billy Hoare, remembers the good times when the town thrived thanks to the river traffic and recalls locals with their ass and carts waiting for the boats to dock and bringing tea chests up Main Street. It was the biggest inland trading port in Ireland serving the port of New Ross and provided a livelihood for hundreds of people, he explained. Colm Walsh, a great local historian and champion of Duiske Abbey explained along with Owen Doyle that on Friday, the 13th of June during the 1798 rebellion the arch closest to the Carlow side was blown up by the Crown Forces. They explained that the rebel forces were coming from Co Wexford under Fr Murphy and marching on the town. The rebels were forced to cross the river at Goresbridge. It is said by people in the town, to this day, that some of the stones from the bridge were blown 200 yards upstream into Barrow Lane such was the amount of gunpowder used in the blast. Wildlife Fish - Water quality in our rivers improves every year and numbers are returning and the Barrow at Graignamanagh is no different. The River Barrow is renowned as a coarse and game angling river for bream, roach, dace, hybrids, rudd, perch and pike (for which the Irish river records are held) brown trout, salmon and white trout. The river has easy access points and a towpath which run on both sides. Eels are particularly abundant here and every cast from the quay seems to land a lamprey whether it be the Brook, sea or river lamprey variety. There seems to be a heron resident downstream of the bridge at the confluence with the Duiske River coming down from Brandon Hill. Otters, stoats and other mammals are present as are Daubetons Bats and a good number of owls, unlike the other bridges in the area while the kingfisher nests close to the bridge and can be seen darting at the waters edge, particularly at the Tinnahinch side. Thanks Thank you to my old friend, Billy Hoare for his information as a member of an old river family and for his many kindnesses and to Owen Doyle and Colm Walsh for their knowledge and great memories. Thanks to the late John Joyce for his wonderful records of life in Graig and Tinnahinch. Thanks also to Helen Breen-Allen and Deirde Joyce at Graignamanagh library for facilitating me and for their forgiveness. Appreciation too for Mel Meaney of the Duiske Inn for feeding me with such succulent fair Thanks to Tinnahinchs finest: Kay, Cathy and Ann Butler for posing for Pat Moore. Thanks to Edward Hayden for all his help. SHARE By Kitsap Sun Staff SEATTLE A Kitsap County man has been sentenced to seven years in prison for his involvement in a drug trafficking network. Brian Christensen, 40, of Port Orchard, was among 22 defendants charged in connection with an operation to distribute heroin and methamphetamine, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. Investigators seized more than 29 pounds of meth, 18 pounds of heroin six pounds of cocaine, $178,000 cash and 16 firearms during the investigation. Search warrants were served in several Western Washington cities, including Port Orchard. Christensen was arrested last August. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and illegally possessing a firearms in February in U.S. District Court in Seattle, according to court documents. He was sentenced May 26. Eleven other defendants have been sentenced in the case, according to the Department of Justice. SHARE Barney Tishman, Bremerton Consider meat alternatives this Fourth What ever happened to the good old days when our worst worries on the Fourth of July were traffic jams and wayward fireworks? A well-warranted worry, according to the Department of Agriculture's Meat & Poultry Hotline, is food poisoning by nasty E. coli and Salmonella bugs hiding in hot dogs and hamburgers at millions of backyard barbecues. The Hotline's advice is to grill them longer and hotter. Of course, they avoid mentioning that the high-temperature grilling that kills the bugs also happens to form cancer-causing compounds. Fortunately, some forward-thinking U.S. food manufacturers have solved these issues by creating an amazing assortment of healthy and delicious veggie burgers and soy dogs. No nasty pathogens or cancer-causing compounds in these tasty plant-based foods. They don't even carry cholesterol, saturated fats, antibiotics, or pesticides. And, they are conveniently waiting for us at almost every supermarket. This Fourth of July offers a great opportunity to declare our independence from the meat industry and to share wholesome veggie burgers and soy dogs with our family and friends. SHARE Roth Hafer, Bainbridge Island Ignoring climate effects is disastrous A letter writer responded to a submission of mine by stating I had made an "error" in implying climate change is a new phenomenon, saying the current pattern been the case for "several thousand years." I submit the "error" lies in "idiopathic witlessness" to even suggest such a thing. Of course the earth has gone thru ages of cooling and warming, as was mentioned with the reference to the Wurms glaciation, which ended about 26,000 years ago with a subsequent warm period. The letter writer extolled the "remarkable overall relative climate stability, neither pronounced further heating or cooling, which cannot be explained by changing CO2 levels or other human activity but has clearly favored human development." This is cherry picking the "talking points" of climate-change deniers. The Arctic ice cap is now melting faster than the prior record rate of 2012; CO2 as measured at Mauna Loa now exceeds 400 ppm; record drought is now affecting parts of the mid East and Africa, affecting large numbers of people dealing with civil strife and mass migration; and sea level rise contributed to record levels of nuisance flooding in U.S. coastal cities, according to NOAA. I submit that either mitigation of the noted effects or adaptation to those effects will be expensive and ignoring them, as the climate change deniers would have us believe, will be disastrous. The question is, how long will the current so called "stable period" last? SHARE Last week the Supreme Court of the United States voted that President Obama exceeded his authority when he granted exemptions from the immigration laws passed by Congress. But the Supreme Court also exceeded its own authority by granting the University of Texas an exemption from the Constitution's requirement of "equal protection of the laws," by voting that racial preferences for student admissions were legal. Supreme Court decisions in affirmative action cases are the longest running fraud since the 1896 decision upholding racial segregation laws in the Jim Crow South, on grounds that "separate but equal" facilities were consistent with the Constitution. Everybody knew that those facilities were separate but by no means equal. Nevertheless, this charade lasted until 1954. The Supreme Court's affirmative action cases have now lasted since 1974 when, in the case of "DeFunis v. Odegaard," the Court voted 5 to 4 that this particular case was moot, which spared the justices from having to vote on its merits. While the 1896 "separate but equal" decision lasted 58 years, the Supreme Court's affirmative action cases have now had 42 years of evasion, sophistry and fraud, with no end in sight. One sign of the erosion of principles over the years is that even one of the Court's most liberal judicial activists, Justice William O. Douglas, could not stomach affirmative action in 1974, and voted to condemn it, rather than declare the issue moot. But now, in 2016, the supposedly conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy voted to uphold the University of Texas' racial preferences. Perhaps the atmosphere inside the Washington Beltway wears down opposition to affirmative action, much as water can eventually wear down rock and create the Grand Canyon. We have heard much this year about the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of the great Justice Antonin Scalia and rightly so. But there are two vacancies on the Supreme Court. The other vacancy is Anthony Kennedy. The human tragedy, amid all the legal evasions and frauds is that, while many laws and policies sacrifice some people for the sake of other people, affirmative action manages to harm blacks, whites, Asians and others, even if in different ways. Students who are kept out of a college because other students are admitted instead, under racial quotas, obviously lose opportunities they would otherwise have had. But minority students admitted to institutions whose academic standards they do not meet are all too often needlessly turned into failures, even when they have the prerequisites for success in some other institution whose normal standards they do meet. When black students who scored at the 90th percentile in math were admitted to M.I.T., where the other students scored at the 99th percentile, a significant number of black students failed to graduate there, even though they could have graduated with honors at most other academic institutions. We do not have so many students with that kind of ability that we can afford to sacrifice them on the altar to political correctness. Such negative consequences of mismatching minority students with institutions, for the sake of racial body count, have been documented in a number of studies, most notably "Mismatch," a book by Richard Sander and Stuart Taylor, Jr., whose subtitle is: "How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It's Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won't Admit It." When racial preferences in student admissions in the University of California system were banned, the number of black and Hispanic students in the system declined slightly, but the number actually graduating rose substantially. So did the number graduating with degrees in tough subjects like math, science and engineering. But hard facts carry no such weight among politicians as magic words like "diversity" -- a word repeated endlessly, without one speck of evidence to back up its sweeping claims of benefits. It too is part of the Supreme Court fraud, going back to a 1978 decision that seemingly banned racial quotas unless the word "diversity" was used instead of "quotas." Seeming to ban racial preferences, while letting them continue under another name, was clever politically. But the last thing we need in Washington are nine more politicians, wearing judicial robes. Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com. The writer purchased this soup tureen at a yard sale. We have this soup tureen that we purchased at a local yard sale many years ago. We were never able to track the mark, which is an "N" with something that looks like a crown made from dashes over the letter. Not long ago, someone told us it was used by Capodimonte could you authenticate this and tell us the value? Yard, garage and estate sales can be wonderful places to find art, antiques and collectibles at a good price. But they can also be good places to find items that only look like they are old and potentially valuable. "Capodimonte" means "top of the mountain" in Italian and it was a soft paste or artificial porcelain factory founded about 1740 near Naples, Italy, by King Charles III. Charles became King of Spain in 1769, and he virtually dismantled Capodimonte to take it with him. He took the best workman, the molds and even the clay to start a new enterprise near Madrid. The wares made here were meant to be used only by royalty and the original factory back in Naples languished until 1771, when King Ferdinand of Naples got it going again. Finally in 1821 the original Capodimonte factory closed forever. But later in the 19th century, the molds and such were sold to the Ginori Factory in Doccia near Florence in Northern Italy. This Ginori factory had been founded in 1735, merged with a Milan maker and became Richard-Ginori. It reportedly went out of business in 2013, but was subsequently acquired by Gucci. Even though this piece has the crowned "N" mark, it was not made by Capodimonte, nor was it made by Ginori, or Richard-Ginori or any of the several 19th and early 20th century European factories which used this easily copied mark. Instead it was made by an anonymous company working much later. Many of the early products made with this "crowned N" mark are collectible in their own right, and in the mid-20th century, some European and Japanese manufacturers began using the mark on wares that featured raised little putti (winged Cupid-like figures) parading around doing stuff. These were made in vast quantities and can be found on the market in large numbers, and some of the more unusual items can be relatively valuable. But in the late 20th century, the mark was resuscitated once again. It might be found on any number of very modern ceramic objects most of which were sold in department stores and gift shops during my memory. Unfortunately, the soup tureen belonging to R. and S.B. is from this late 20th century vintage and has nothing whatsoever to do with the real and original Capodimonte. But the mark is there, and this allows collectors to label it with the "Capodimonte" name, which has become much overused. This piece may be as much as 25 to 40 years old. Because it is a decorative but useful item, it should be valued in the vicinity of $100. Submit questions to Joe Rosson, c/o News Sentinel, 2332 News Sentinel Dr., Knoxville, TN 37921, or to rossoncrane@yahoo.com. Questions will only be answered in this weekly column. A bus traveling south on Woodville Highway was hit by a semi-truck traveling west on Coastal Highway in Wakulla Saturday morning, leaving 5 people dead and 25 more hospitalized. (Photo: Joe Rondone, Tallahassee Democrat) SHARE By Sean Rossman and Karl Etters, USA TODAY NETWORK, The Tallahassee Democrat TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Five people, including at least one child, are confirmed dead after a bus collided with a semi truck in Wakulla County, Fla. Four people died on scene and another died at a local hospital, said Wakulla County Sheriff Charlie Creel. The sheriff said 25 more people were taken to the hospital. At least one of the injured was airlifted from the scene. The former school bus, which was filled with children and adults, was traveling southbound on Woodville Highway at about 5 a.m. when it ran a flashing red light at the intersection with U.S. Highway 98. The bus then collided with a westbound semi truck. Creel said three of the dead were on the bus and another was the driver of the semi. FHP identified 56-year-old Elie Dupiche of Belle Glade as the driver of the 1979 Blue Bird bus. Gordon A. Sheets, a 55-year-old from Copiague, New York, was the driver of the 2005 Freightliner semi truck. Sheets had one passenger, 21-year-old Rafael Nieves of Sound Beach, New York. Dupiche is currently in critical condition at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare. Sheets died as a result of his injuries. Nieves was left uninjured. Wakulla County Sheriff Charlie Creel estimated that between 7 and 10 of the passengers were still in serious condition. Jones said the Bixler Emergency and Trauma Center is working with the American Red Cross to align patients with their families. Creel is calling it the worst accident he's ever seen in the county. Florida Highway Patrol Capt. Jeffrey Bissainthe said there were 30 to 35 people on the bus, which was from Georgia. Bissainthe said he was unaware of where the bus was headed. Following the crash, several people on the bus ran away from the scene. The semi truck disintegrated in the crash, which knocked down a power line, and all that remains is the engine block. Bloody medical gear, pillows, coolers packed with food and drinks and clothing litter the road as fire officials try to extinguish any remaining fires within the two vehicles. The bus caught fire, Creel said, and the entire inside is burned. Some of the injured were taken to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and Capital Regional Medical Center. "Wakulla County Sheriff's deputies are heroes," Creel said. "They saved a lot more people. Saintervil Amilcar of Bainbridge, Georgia, drove to the scene after hearing of the wreck this morning. He said his aunt was on the bus. He doesn't know if she's dead or alive. Amilcar said the bus was filled with Haitian migrant workers, who were on their way from Bainbridge to Belle Glade, where they were going to work for two weeks. After they worked in Belle Glade, they were going to head north to find more work. He said another bus of workers was expected to leave Bainbridge for Belle Glade this morning. Creel said earlier that passengers found on scene were unable to speak English. SHARE By News Sentinel Staff KINGSTON This defendant's freedom from prison was short-lived. Rockwood resident Alex Shane Watts, 35, with a long list of criminal convictions, had his placement on community corrections an intensive form of supervision yanked this week by a judge because he was accused of a crime spree less than a week after his May 2 plea agreement. Criminal Court Judge Jeff Wicks after a hearing revoked Watts' community corrections participation and sentenced him to serve 17 years in prison. Watts pleaded guilty in May to felony vandalism, theft and burglary, among other charges. His pleas involved 13 felony convictions. Yet within the week, Watts was back in trouble, authorities said, arrested twice in a three-day span for charges ranging from drugs to theft to vandalism. "If you amass 13 felony convictions and continue to perpetuate crimes on the citizens of Roane County, you've earned a significant prison sentence," Assistant District Attorney General Lauren Bennett said in a news release. District Attorney General Russell Johnson said his office tries to fashion plea agreements where defendants are put in a situation where they can make restitution payments to their victims. "If defendants are in prison they can't pay restitution," he said. "Unfortunately for Alex Watts, he did not take advantage of the opportunity, so 17 years in prison is the result." SHARE By MJ Slaby of the Knoxville News Sentinel Friday marked the first day that full-time employees of colleges could carry concealed handguns on campus, but only a small percentage of employees have indicated they will do so, according to several law enforcement agencies. The new law, which became official without Gov. Bill Haslam's signature in May, allows full-time employees who are not taking classes on campus to carry a concealed firearm if they have the necessary permit. Officials at local higher education institutions said communication was key to preparing for the change. As of this week, a small fraction of the 27,000 eligible employees at the Tennessee Board of Regents and University of Tennessee college systems had chosen to take advantage of the new law, according to multiple agencies. UT opened its registration process on June 20 in advance of the law. As of Friday, 79 employees registered, according to the university. The UT police are also offering optional classes for registrants to attend. The first class was Friday and six attended, according to UT. Area schools in the TBR system which include the Tennessee College of Applied Technology Knoxville and three community colleges spent the past week distributing policy information to employees and some waited until Friday to open the notification process. Community college officials said they've fielded questions from both those interested in carrying a handgun and those worried about the new law. The law had wide support in the General Assembly, but strong opposition from campus law enforcement and higher education. Although the law has strict confidentially requirements, employees need to alert campus law enforcement, or in cases where a campus doesn't have a department, local police. Regardless, the goal of police is to promote a safe environment, said Roane State Chief of Police Thomas Stufano. "We are here for the protection of everyone," he said. Stufano said he had at least one person registered before Friday, but wasn't expecting a huge response. At TCAT, employees are asked to contact the Knoxville police directly if they are interested in registering since the campus doesn't have a police department, said Kasey Vatter, assistant director of TCAT Knoxville. She said TCAT students and staff are currently on break so it's difficult to tell if there will be an outpouring of questions about the law later. But she said TCAT leaders have worked to get the word out about the new law and to make sure everyone was ahead of the coming change. The campus is at an advantage because Knoxville police officers are secondary employees and are on the campus whenever classes are happening, she said. Vatter said having Knoxville officers on campus allows for strong communication and familiarity between police and the campus. And while Roane State and Walters State already had campus police, Pellissippi recently added a police department. Fred Breiner, the Pellissippi police chief, said the department means increased safety on campus and more training for officers. And training for police will be important for adjusting to the new law, Stufano added. He said police will need a new methodology for responding to calls. He said it used to be that in the majority of cases, the person with a gun was the "bad guy," but now having a gun doesn't mean that person is the threat. Carrying a gun on campus means accepting a lot of liability, Stufano added. And he said he'd like to see more training for those with permits, similar to how police have ongoing training because in times of crisis, it's the training that people use to react. "Firearm skills are perishable skills even for police officers," he said. By Don Jacobs of the Knoxville News Sentinel Lt. Robert Hembree and Lt. Tony Willis faced a culture "of hostility and an uncomfortable work environment" as they began looking into how moonlighting was handled at the Knoxville Police Department. At one point, Hembree later told investigators, Lt. Doug Stiles came into Hembree's office "and physically threatened me, angry over all this discussion about extra jobs." Stiles eventually "was willing to listen," Hembree said, but "I felt like he really was not concerned about the issues that I was reporting." Hembree and Willis began their informal investigation in September 2013. Eventually their efforts led to a formal internal affairs investigation and new moonlighting policies at the police department. But initially, the lieutenants didn't want to approach Police Chief David Rausch because they had heard rumors that led them to believe he was at the root of the problem. "The individuals engaged in the behavior had his (Rausch's) support," Hembree later explained. "He's the architect of the structure of the extra jobs." So Willis and Hembree worked on their own. They quizzed officers about police dogs being taken out of state, about the dismissal of an old alcohol citation that cleared the way for a beer permit, and about officers working extra jobs while on the city payroll. They surreptitiously collected emails to and from Rausch and Stiles. They interviewed officers who surrendered $5 to supervisors for every hour they worked security details at nightclubs. After nearly a year, they took their findings to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Knoxville, then to a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent who consulted with the Knox County District Attorney General's Office. None saw evidence of criminal conduct upon which they could act. They considered requesting an internal affairs probe but rejected the idea after meeting with Capt. Kenny Miller, then commander of the unit. Hembree said he and Willis feared for their careers if they engaged internal affairs. In September 2014, the lieutenants shared their file and their concerns with Knoxville Deputy Law Director Ron Mills. "We spent some time then trying to figure out if this was a policy issue, a possible criminal situation or what," Mills said. He and Law Director Charles Swanson asked for time to investigate, and they began examining KPD's moonlighting policy. Eventually, Swanson talked with Rausch about the allegations that police dogs had been used on a private job to search a circus train. In late January 2015, Rausch approved an oral reprimand for Stiles for letting the dog teams operate out of state. There is no record the allegations were investigated. Stiles admitted the policy infraction when asked, according to now-retired Deputy Chief Nate Allen. The following week the lawyers met again with Hembree and Willis. "Obviously, they were unhappy, and I knew they would be unhappy," Swanson said. "They thought more should be done, and I understood that." On March 4, 2015, Hembree and Willis took their concerns to Mayor Madeline Rogero. A full-blown internal investigation began the following month. "It was absolutely clear to me that you don't take a dog out of state," Rogero said, "just like you don't take a dump truck home for the night." Rogero also made it clear that Willis and Hembree's careers should not suffer. "I personally had that conversation with Chief Rausch," she said. "They had a right to bring these issues forward." Still, Rausch was incensed when he was interviewed by his Internal Affairs Unit on July 17, 2015. "I pride myself on what I do," the chief later told the News Sentinel. "I may not be the best husband or the best dad, but I'm a great police officer. To say I did it wrong, that hurt me." After responding to questions during the 48-minute internal affairs interview, Rausch delivered an attack on the "baseless, senseless and wrongful complaint" that left his reputation "challenged and sullied." The chief noted he has taught ethics in law enforcement and valued highly his reputation in the community and the profession. "I can absolutely look anyone in the eye and say I'm not unethical, I am not immoral and I'm not corrupt," he told the investigator. He questioned the motives of Hembree and Willis for conducting "an illegal investigation." "This is a conspiracy theory at its worst," he said. By then, though, Hembree was dead, at the age of 42. "I think my first thought was that the stress had finally gotten to him," said Lt. Eve Thomas, who had taken over the Internal Affairs Unit and was conducting the investigation. She was partially right. "Hypertensive cardiovascular disease is considered the significant condition contributing to his death," stated the final autopsy report. But Hembree's use of prescribed and over-the-counter fat-burning products apparently contributed to his death. "His medical history was significant for medication-controlled hypertension and chronic prescription phentermine use for weight control," a report from the Knox County Regional Forensic Center said. Phentermine is a habit-forming drug used cautiously for short periods on people with high blood pressure caused by obesity. Its use can impair judgment and alertness and cause problems sleeping. Hembree had a phentermine blood concentration of 720 ng/mL when he died, according to the report. Fatal doses of phentermine have been reported at 1,500 ng/mL, the report noted. On June 29, 2015, the 170-pound former Army Ranger had engaged on his day off in a strenuous workout before waxing his car. "He was in the driveway in the sun and suddenly felt an overwhelming sickness," stated the autopsy report. Hembree called his wife, Mihaela, at work and asked her to come home. At 4 p.m., she found her husband of seven years overheated with labored breathing. An ambulance took Hembree to the hospital, where his body temperature was recorded at 108 degrees Fahrenheit before he collapsed about 7 p.m. Attempts by medical personnel failed to resuscitate him. Phentermine wasn't the only weight-control product uncovered during the medical examiner's probe of Hembree's death. "The subsequent scene investigation revealed a cabinet full of numerous nutritional supplements and metabolic products including over the counter metabolism-enhancing drugs," the autopsy report stated. Investigators found in the glove box of Hembree's police cruiser a substance advertised for sale as a "fat-burner and energy booster," according to the autopsy. "Based on the initial investigation, complete autopsy and ancillary studies, the main cause of death of Robert Hembree is heat stroke due to combined environmental and exertional hyperthermia," the report concluded, with high blood pressure a contributing factor. "The terminal excessive hyperthermia episode might have been aggravated by phentermine and multiple fat-burning interactions. "The manner of death is accident." Mihaela Hembree declined an interview about her husband's death. She issued a three-paragraph statement: "My husband, Lt. Robert Hembree, strived for excellence in performance and delivery of service to his team and our local community. His attitude and desire to serve others was proved through his leadership skills and mentoring of others. "Robert upheld the highest ethical ideals in both his professional and private life." Willis also turned down an interview. Hembree's death came about six months before Rogero and Rausch announced changes in the Police Department's extra-job policies that address many of the concerns Hembree and Willis raised. "I appreciate that Lt. Hembree and Lt. Willis brought this to our attention," Rogero said. "Change is not always easy." Rausch met with Willis in December 2015 after he and Rogero released the investigative findings and unveiled the new policy. "I told him I understood why he did it the way he did it, why he didn't come to me," Rausch said. "In his mind, he thought I was corrupt and I got that. I wish he had brought his grievances to me." Rausch acknowledged the investigation had valid points. "We're constantly looking at improving," he said. "This has made us better. There were feelings that were hurt, but again, we're family and dustups happen. "We get past it and move forward just like any other family." Moonlighting Blues: A News Sentinel investigation Sunday: A Knoxville Police Department internal probe of outside jobs led to policy changes but raised some questions left unanswered. KPD moonlighting investigation left questions unanswered KPD officers inquiry first went nowhere, until it went to the mayor Chief David Rausch often allowed policies he set to bend Circus job got officers in trouble; Rausch says mistake made Moonlighting Investigation Timeline Photos: Moonlighting Blues Monday: The Knoxville Police Departments revised policy on moonlighting falls short of national best practices, experts say. Experts question parts of KPDs new moonlighting policy Knoxville Police assigns one officer to handle extra jobs Knoxville Police outside-employment policies Tuesday: Police officers moonlighting jobs generate millions in extra annual income. Off-duty paychecks huge in first 4 months of 2016 for KPD officers Former KPD chief Phil Keith saw risks, rewards in moonlighting Officers worked at Pilot HQ during federal probe Some extra jobs worked by officers Wednesday: Many state policies ignore best practices. Many state policies ignore best practices; KCSO has few rules Extra-job policies vary according to agencies Officers outside work linked to fatigue Fatigued officers By Don Jacobs of the Knoxville News Sentinel The email from David Rausch was clear and to the point: "Some of you still owe me $$ for November. Just put it in an envelope and drop it by my office with your name on it, so I know to scratch your name off the list." Rausch was a deputy chief when he sent that email to Knoxville Police Department officers in 2009. He wasn't acting in his official capacity, though. He was working as a "scheduler" for moonlighting officers, a role for which he received a slice of their off-duty pay. The incident was cited in an internal investigation of KPD moonlighting practices that concluded late last year and resulted in minor discipline for four officers. Early this year, Rausch, now police chief, introduced a new "secondary employment" policy to address problems uncovered in the investigation. Since then, the News Sentinel has examined the 970-page investigative file as well as the broader issue of officers doing off-the-clock work. Among the newspaper's findings detailed in a series this week: * Police moonlighting is a multimillion-dollar enterprise locally. In the first four months of this year, Knoxville officers earned nearly $650,000 working more than 4,000 assignments outside their normal jobs. * Although the new KPD policy prohibits the sort of job-brokering that Rausch was doing, it ignores other best-practice safeguards recommended by national police authorities. * Other agencies, though, have policies much sketchier than KPD's. The Knox County Sheriff's Office, for instance, relies on a few general orders from the sheriff that leave most issues unaddressed. * Finally, the KPD investigation left significant issues unresolved, including allegations of inflated billing and double-dipping by officers. The investigation began after two lieutenants Tony Willis and Robert Hembree took their concerns to the city law department in September 2014. Capt. Eve Thomas, who had just taken command of the Internal Affairs Unit, assigned herself to the investigation eventually ordered by Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero. "I had never been in internal affairs before," she said. "I had never been an investigator before. So my first case was to investigate my chief." Thomas had 23 years of experience with the Police Department. She had been in charge of East District patrol when, a few months earlier, Rausch suggested she and Capt. Kenny Miller switch roles. Miller, who had been in charge of the Internal Affairs Unit for years, would oversee the patrol district that included South Knoxville and areas of the city east of Interstate 275. Rausch believed the shift would broaden the experience of both captains, Thomas said. The idea arose after she had unsuccessfully interviewed for a deputy chief's position. The command change had been in the works for months before it was announced, she said. To prepare her for the new command, the department sent her to training courses in Florida and Chicago. Rogero said she was assured by the two lieutenants who prompted the investigation that they thought Thomas to be fair. The mayor also asked Thomas "if she was comfortable with doing" an investigation that included the police chief. "I think the law department had my back on that," Thomas said. "I wasn't afraid to ask him anything." Thomas said she never considered relinquishing the probe to one of the veteran internal investigators under her command. "I felt it was my responsibility," she said. She did, however, consult her investigators for suggestions on how to proceed on the probe. "I learn best on the fly," she said, "so it's all good." Thomas interviewed six police officers, five sergeants, five lieutenants, one captain, the chief and two business operators in the course of the probe. She also reviewed 200 emails collected by Willis and Hembree. She twice asked Rausch for deadline extensions to finish the task. Ultimately, she cleared Rausch of any wrongdoing, but she sustained the allegations against three officers and a lieutenant who had taken police dogs out of state to do private work for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. A review of the investigation, however, shows it failed to dig to the bottom of some critical issues that arose. One was a January 2015 moonlighting bill that attempted to stick the Knoxville Utilities Board with inflated charges. A KUB supervisor contacted Lt. Cheri Matlock, who oversaw KPD's personnel unit, to ask where to submit payment for five days of work done by KPD officers. Matlock was unaware of the traffic control work done Jan. 1-5, which involved 13 officers. The two-page invoice on Police Department letterhead itemized $11,675 in charges. Matlock noted the officer who submitted the bill, Sgt. Brian Evans, had charged KUB a scheduling fee of $875 on top of his $900 for working 30 hours. Evans charged a scheduling fee of $175 per day. To Matlock, the fee "was extremely excessive." "I took that invoice over to the chief because I was pretty upset about it," Matlock said. Rausch responded with "something to the effect, 'well he knows better than that, I need to contact him,' and kind of left it at that,'" Matlock said. "It went out of my hands from there." Evans also had included an $1,800 fee to be paid to "Knoxville Police Department" for the use of five police cruisers. He based the charge on $6 per hour for each 12-hour shift over five days and itemized the charge as "use of city vehicle." The Police Department, however, does not charge private employers for the use of police cruisers while officers are moonlighting. Evans reported in late 2014 he was scheduling more than 79 officers doing outside work at three venues. He said he was unaware the large scheduling fee and charges for vehicles were not permitted. "I'd done it on a previous job and to my knowledge there was nothing in the general order that prohibited that if that was agreed upon," Evans told internal affairs. He did not volunteer who he previously billed and Thomas did not inquire about the amount or the employer. Thomas chalked up the inflated billing by Evans as another failure of the moonlighting policy. "The policy had so many holes and loose ends to it," she told the News Sentinel. Evans said he submitted an amended invoice to KUB, as instructed by Rausch. That invoice was not included in the internal affairs file, and Evans did not elaborate how he had changed it. Because Rausch had the authority to handle the outsized bill, Thomas did not investigate the matter further. Four months after submitting the bill, Evans was selected by Rausch as one of eight newly promoted lieutenants. The chief stated Evans deserved the promotion because of "proven leadership abilities and his dedication to education." On Nov. 29, 2015, the promotion was official. Another loose end left dangling by the Internal Affairs Unit involved double-dipping, or earning money for moonlighting jobs while also on the city payroll. Evans, in one case, was found to be listed as "working" on KPD payroll sheets on a day he told Thomas he was moonlighting at the Bonnaroo music festival in 2013. Thomas also found a day Evans was working out of town as a security consultant while also shown as working on the city payroll. Other examples of the practice arose when Thomas investigated the officers who took drug-sniffing dogs out of state to work for the circus. The officers took four trips with their canine partners in 2012 and 2013. Records show Officer Richard Wallace was listed as on-duty with KPD one of the days he was in Oklahoma City. Officer Darrell Sexton was paid by the city for a day he was in San Antonio, Texas. Lt. Doug Stiles was listed as working for the city for two days he was in Anaheim, Calif. Thomas noted Stiles had accumulated compensatory time that could have accounted for the conflict on the California trip. But she didn't pursue any of the conflicts in the payroll records because, she said, the Police Department's moonlighting policy didn't address the situation. The files show Stiles also used sick leave in May and June 2015 when he billed for two, eight-hour days on another moonlighting job. Officers are not allowed to take sick leave to do "extra duty" employment. But Thomas determined Stiles was not doing actual "extra duty" work himself but was paid a day's wage each month for scheduling other officers. He earned $280 a day from the job. The issue was not pursued further, Thomas said, because KPD policy did not address scheduling extra jobs while on sick leave. The Internal Affairs investigator also opted not to conduct at least one key interview in a complaint alleging Rausch had used his position in the Police Department to help smooth a legal problem for an Old City nightclub operator. For several years, Rausch and Stiles had collected fees for scheduling officers to work security at Duane Carleo's clubs in the Old City. In a 2013 email, Rausch who was by then chief reminded Stiles that Carleo "is our guy." In August 2010, Carleo applied for a beer permit for a new club. When Sgt. Tracy Hunter ran a background check, she found a 2002 conviction for serving alcohol after hours at a club on Cumberland Avenue. That disqualified him from getting a beer permit for 10 years. Hunter, who oversaw the inspections office that monitors beer license holders for compliance, told internal affairs that Carleo "was pretty upset about it" because the conviction hadn't surfaced during earlier background checks. Hunter explained City Court sometimes finds overlooked citations. Rausch came by Hunter's office after speaking with Carleo and asked about his application. Hunter told Internal Affairs the chief told her Carleo "is a good guy." Hunter said she told Rausch she had to disclose the citation. The chief, Hunter said, assured her she was "doing the right thing." After that conversation, Hunter saw Rausch in his office with City Court Judge John Rosson. Hunter learned Rosson on Sept. 3, 2010 11 days after Carleo's initial application for a beer permit had dismissed the 2002 conviction. Rausch told internal affairs that as deputy chief over patrol he regularly met with Rosson to address any issues arising with officers and court cases. He said he never discussed Carleo's case with the judge. "To try to connect secluded events and to make it look like some kind of conspiracy is absolutely absurd," he told Thomas. Thomas didn't interview Rosson as part of her investigation. She said Hunter's sworn statement didn't expose anything nefarious. Court records show the citation dismissal occurred in open court with attorneys from Carleo and the city in attendance. Records note the city law department took no position on the dismissal request. "I didn't think there was anything there," Thomas said. Rosson told the News Sentinel he followed the law in dismissing and expunging the citation. The judge said he did not speak to Rausch about the Carleo citation. Rosson said he remembers Carleo's attorney arguing "this guy was trying to have a job" but was stymied by the old citation. "You should know I've dismissed other cases, also," Rosson said. "I'd done it before, and I've done it since." Thomas said other than pressing Stiles about his proclaimed confusion about the agency's moonlighting policy, she thought her probe addressed the major allegations in the complaint. "I think she did a very thorough job," Rausch said of Thomas' investigation. Moonlighting Blues: A News Sentinel investigation Sunday: A Knoxville Police Department internal probe of outside jobs led to policy changes but raised some questions left unanswered. KPD moonlighting investigation left questions unanswered KPD officers inquiry first went nowhere, until it went to the mayor Chief David Rausch often allowed policies he set to bend Circus job got officers in trouble; Rausch says mistake made Moonlighting Investigation Timeline Photos: Moonlighting Blues Monday: The Knoxville Police Departments revised policy on moonlighting falls short of national best practices, experts say. Experts question parts of KPDs new moonlighting policy Knoxville Police assigns one officer to handle extra jobs Knoxville Police outside-employment policies Tuesday: Police officers moonlighting jobs generate millions in extra annual income. Off-duty paychecks huge in first 4 months of 2016 for KPD officers Former KPD chief Phil Keith saw risks, rewards in moonlighting Officers worked at Pilot HQ during federal probe Some extra jobs worked by officers Wednesday: Many state policies ignore best practices. Many state policies ignore best practices; KCSO has few rules Extra-job policies vary according to agencies Officers outside work linked to fatigue Fatigued officers March 25, 2011: David Rausch named police chief September 2013-14: Lts. Robert Hembree and Tony Willis become concerned about moonlighting practices and launch independent probe. August 2014: Hembree and Willis take findings to U.S. Attorney's Office. They later approach the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent in charge of East Tennessee, who consults with the Knox County District Attorney General's Office. September 2014: The lieutenants share concerns with Knoxville Deputy Law Director Ron Mills. He and city Law Director Charles Swanson review the Police Department's moonlighting policies. Sept. 5, 2014: Rausch orders all officers who schedule moonlighting jobs to register with the Police Department's personnel unit. Jan. 26, 2015: Rausch orally reprimands Lt. Doug Stiles for letting a police dog be used out of state. Feb. 20, 2015: Hembree and Willis meet with Mills and Swanson and express frustration over limited response to their concerns. March 4, 2015: Hembree and Willis meet with Mayor Madeline Rogero. April 1, 2015: Rausch appoints Capt. Eve Thomas to head Internal Affairs Unit. April 10, 2015: Rogero tells law department to request a full internal probe of the allegations. Thomas assigned to investigation. June 29, 2015: Hembree dies. Aug. 14, 2015: Thomas completes investigation, finding no wrongdoing by Rausch. Dec. 8, 2015: Rogero and Rausch announce results of investigation and discipline against four officers involved with taking dogs out of state. Jan. 10, 2016: New moonlighting policies put into effect. Feb. 26, 2016: Knox County District Attorney General's Office concludes that "no further action is warranted because no criminal laws were violated." Moonlighting Blues: A News Sentinel investigation Sunday: A Knoxville Police Department internal probe of outside jobs led to policy changes but raised some questions left unanswered. KPD moonlighting investigation left questions unanswered KPD officers inquiry first went nowhere, until it went to the mayor Chief David Rausch often allowed policies he set to bend Circus job got officers in trouble; Rausch says mistake made Moonlighting Investigation Timeline Photos: Moonlighting Blues Monday: The Knoxville Police Departments revised policy on moonlighting falls short of national best practices, experts say. Experts question parts of KPDs new moonlighting policy Knoxville Police assigns one officer to handle extra jobs Knoxville Police outside-employment policies Tuesday: Police officers moonlighting jobs generate millions in extra annual income. Off-duty paychecks huge in first 4 months of 2016 for KPD officers Former KPD chief Phil Keith saw risks, rewards in moonlighting Officers worked at Pilot HQ during federal probe Some extra jobs worked by officers Wednesday: Many state policies ignore best practices. Many state policies ignore best practices; KCSO has few rules Extra-job policies vary according to agencies Officers outside work linked to fatigue Fatigued officers By John Shearer of the Knoxville News Sentinel SEVIERVILLE The crowd of about 75 to 100 people who gathered Saturday around the Sevier County Courthouse in support of the Second Amendment tried to find space under shaded trees to avoid the midday sun. But they left no doubt they are willing to stand out in the open to call attention to and support Americans' constitutional right to bear arms. "The Second Amendment is coming under heavy attack, and it's time for people to stand up and realize that," said Steve Osborn of the Sevier County Patriots LLC and Sevier County Tea Party, which sponsored the event. Osborn said he organized the event, which included speeches by U.S. Rep. Phil Roe and other gun-rights officials and supporters, after hearing about a California case in which two people were denied gun carry permits. He thought the July Fourth weekend and the second day of the month, the same as the amendment was a perfect time to encourage attendees to contact the Tennessee General Assembly to help turn around such trends. "It's going to be that body who stands up to the federal government and says, 'No more,' " he said. Keynote speaker Roe, who represents the First District in Northeast Tennessee, traveled to Sevierville after taking part in a parade in Jonesborough, Tenn., and arrived just as the two-hour rally was nearing its end. But he offered words of support, saying the recent shootings by radical Islamic extremists including in Orlando, Fla., last month have placed blame in the wrong place. "They were blaming the gun for the shooting, not ideology," he said. He encouraged those on hand to vote for Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, saying Trump will support the Second Amendment. "We have to support him," he said. "We know what will happen if Hillary Clinton is elected." A table at the event offered Trump merchandise, as well as T-shirts skewering Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, that read "Hillary Clinton for Prison." Confederate battle flags and "Don't Tread on Me" flags also dotted the gathering, and several attendees were carrying handguns on their waists. Raffle tickets were being sold for a rifle, a hunting knife kit and a shooting range gift certificate. No protesters attended the event. Among the other speakers were Knox County gun-rights advocate Liston Matthews, state Senate District 2 candidate Scott Williams, state District 12 Rep. Dale Carr, R-Sevierville, and state House Majority Whip Tim Hill, R-Blountville. Carr said he is often asked what will happen if guns are taken away from people. "We will protect ourselves as we see the need," he said. News Sentinel senior writer Frank Munger on his last day at the News Sentinel on Thursday, June 30, 2016. (JACK LAIL / NEWS SENTINEL) Frank Munger retired last week. Sadly, that means his work no longer will appear in the News Sentinel. Unlike some of his retired colleagues, he had no interest in continuing to write for the paper on a freelance basis. Frank never does anything halfway. When I first arrived at the News Sentinel in 2001, I was dazzled by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and delighted to know we had a reporter who had been covering it for two decades. I quickly hustled Frank out to a restaurant to pitch the idea of him doing a sweeping, multiday series on everything that was going on at the scientific complex. Most reporters love to do "projects," as we call them. They get time away from the grind of their daily beats, and they can produce work that often wins prizes. Frank acquiesced after all, I was his new boss and the result was an outstanding series. But he hated the idea. He understood, far better than I did, that an "in-depth" series could only have pretensions of thoroughness. Covering the DOE beat at Oak Ridge required a much greater commitment, namely a reporter's career. A few years later, however, Frank leapt at the idea of launching a blog. Here was the perfect tool for his reporting style, allowing him to attack the news of the day the way he approached life, with voracious curiosity and frenetic bursts of energy. With the blog, Atomic City Underground, Frank became one of the newspaper's most technically cutting-edge reporters, and his audience became global. He monitored his online traffic scrupulously, noting hot-spots of interest as they sprang up: in Russia and Iran as well as in Palo Alto, Calif., and Los Alamos, N.M. But though he embraced the new technology of news, he was strictly old school in his journalism: developing sources by being 100 percent trustworthy, showing absolutely no favoritism, relentlessly questioning, and holding the powerful strictly accountable while remaining meticulously fair and accurate. Frank held himself to the highest ethical standards. Our code calls for never accepting gifts from the people we cover. Frank wouldn't take a cup a coffee if an urn was provided at an event he was covering. We will be filling Frank's position, but we can't replace him. No one has his depth of knowledge, and I mean no one. Within the dwindling field of reporters covering Department of Energy activities, Frank was the dean. He is a loss to American, as well as East Tennessee, journalism. I want to include a personal note, too, in this farewell. Frank sat just outside my office, and I spoke to him nearly every day, often several times a day. The topics were as eclectic as his swirling thoughts. Sometimes he would berate me over changes at the newspaper that he feared diminished our work. Other times he would share his take on what he considered outrageous or ironic in the world. Often he would just vent. Frank has always been a churning intellectual volcano, and the steam has to go somewhere. I loved those conversations, and I loved having him in the newsroom. I'll miss him as a colleague but look forward to keeping him as a friend. SHARE I confess to being very concerned about our upcoming presidential election. No, I'm scared witless! I have been a registered voter for 50 years and I have never seen such a person as Donald Trump amass such a public following. I'm truly having a hard time believing that I live in this historically great democratic republic, this United States of America, instead of some third-world country. This man is a narcissist and an egomaniac. He knows nothing and cares nothing about the Constitution. He is a bully cruel, bombastic, ruthless, rude, intimidating, insolent. He contradicts himself constantly and denies statements he made. He reminds me of a spoiled brat throwing a temper tantrum. I can understand people who have suffered the most in our society the jobless, under-employed, under-educated, powerless, angry and scared believing this braggart is somehow going to make everything all right for them because it's for sure the people they have elected over the last 16 years have not. But what they don't understand is that it isn't the president who will bring about economic freedom, it's the people in the halls of Congress, in state assemblies and in city and county government places where voter turnout is pathetically poor who have the most control over the lives of the average U.S. citizen. What I cannot understand is how educated, economically healthy Republicans can make the choice to support their party's candidate over their personal responsibility to the greater good. This is partisan politics at its very worst. Partisanship created this circus and Trump is now the ringmaster. I'm sure the thinking is that if Trump is elected, the Republican Party will control Congress. I don't think Trump can be controlled. Our choice this election year is to vote for a dangerous narcissist or, heaven forbid, a Democrat who is also a woman who is also a Clinton. The fact that this woman has served as first lady, a senator from New York and the secretary of state in addition to having spent a lifetime dedicated to public service seems to matter not at all to party partisans. She is neither perfect nor the ideal candidate. But for heaven's sake, this woman is light years ahead of Trump in knowing how to effectively and safely command our ship of state. It's called the art of compromise, something that must be played out on the world stage as well as on our own home turf. Based on everything Trump has said so far, one either plays ball by his rules or he takes his ball and goes home. Children, not world leaders, do that. And the consequences on the world stage with someone of that mindset are absolutely frightening. Regardless of who wins this presidential election, Congress will still be in Republican control, so why are they so worried about another Democrat in the White House? It will simply be another four years of an obstructionist Congress. Even die-hard Republicans have to believe in their heart of hearts that Hillary Clinton is a far saner choice than the narcissist who is making a laughingstock of this great country. When North Korea endorses Trump, that says everything. I have crossed party lines my entire voting life. I don't understand rabid allegiance to any one political party, especially when someone like Trump is the candidate of choice. Lucille Griffo is a retired nonprofit executive who lives in Knoxville. SHARE A look at recent events in the news that pleased us ... Reading programs: A pair of reading programs launched this summer, a welcome response to one of Knox County's most pressing educational needs. "Shakespeare in Shades" is the pilot program for students entering Northwest and Vine Magnet middle schools aims to help improve reading skills and ease the transition to middle school. The Great Schools Partnership worked with Knox County Schools as well as the University of Tennessee and the Clarence Brown Theatre to create the summer program that served about 30 students. Students spent four hours a day on reading with adults who take a one-on-one approach. The Knoxville Police Department is launching a new program to help local children improve their reading skills, Chief David Rausch and Tennessee first lady Crissy Haslam announced Wednesday. In "If You Can Read, You Can Be," officers will meet with children regularly "to read age-appropriate, high-interest books to build literacy skills and relationships," according to a news release. New commander: There was a changing of the guard Thursday at Knoxville's Army recruiting company. After a two-year tour, Capt. Jeffrey Neal relinquished command of the company to Capt. Andrew P. Deel in a tradition-rich ceremony at the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial at World's Fair Park. Deel takes over a territory that includes 22 counties, 68 high schools and Army recruiting offices in Knoxville, Maryville, Oak Ridge, Cookeville and Crossville. Deel comes to Knoxville from Fort Carson, Colo., where his last assignment was commanding Forward Support Co. H of the 704th Brigade Support Battalion. Planning failures: The Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited the Blount County Sheriff's Office and the Alcoa Police Department on violations in the aftermath of a fiery train derailment that pumped toxic fumes into the air a year ago and forced roughly 5,000 people from their homes, according to state documents. Both agencies were cited for failure to have a written hazard communication program for hazardous materials and for not training employees on potential hazards. The BCSO was also cited for not having a written emergency response plan that identified the tasks and duties of patrol officers during releases of hazardous chemicals. Both agencies indicated to the state they have since complied with the regulations. By Choi Sung-jin Korea opened its legal services market fully to the European Union Friday, causing debates about the effects such a move will have on domestic lawyers and law firms. The nation has liberalized its legal services on a phased basis, and the third and last phase of opening the market this month allows European lawyers and law firms to set up joint-venture law firms with their Korean partners, hire Korean lawyers and provide counsel about Korean law, in what the domestic profession is calling full-scale liberalization. Most domestic law firms seem to regard the effects that the third-stage market opening will have on their work as insignificant but there are also calls for making thorough preparations for it. "We don't think the third-phase opening will have a major impact," said a lawyer from a large law firm. "Among the EU, what really matters are the British law firms. Despite the unexpected factor of Brexit,' there will be little change because two years are left before the United Kingdom leaves the EU. And Korea and the U.K. may sign a bilateral free trade agreement during that time." Nevertheless, the lawyer, who wanted to be known by just his initial of K, said he is not too concerned. "To set up a joint-venture law firm here, they will need to hire a large number of Korean lawyers, at least 50 of them, which will encumber the foreign law firms with considerable burdens," he said. "Even then, competition with domestic law firms will not be easy." To impart counsel on Korean law, for instance, foreign lawyers should not only be knowledgeable about tax laws and fair trade acts but must also have a comprehensive understanding of the legal system here, including civil laws, K said, adding that joint-venture law firms will find it hard to beat domestic firms, what with their accumulated experience and know-how in this regard. "Small and midsize law firms, not large ones, may consider the third-phase market opening as a breakthrough," he said. "It is a separate matter, however, whether they will be able to satisfy foreign clients. Nor will there be much synergy in such joint ventures." Another lawyer also said the domestic law firms have been preparing for the market opening. "I doubt there will be any huge effects abruptly," he said. "There are already many ethnic Koreans in foreign law firms advancing to Korea, and the third-stage market opening will have little more effect than increasing their numbers further." Some are far more cautious than others, though. "The domestic law firms are too complacent," said Ha Chang-woo, president of the Korean Bar Association. "In Europe, the U.S. and the U.K. law firms have merged a number of French and German law firms, leaving not so many large indigenous law firms standing," Ha said. "What happened in Europe after it opened its legal market such as the massive recruitment of domestic lawyers using enormous financial power, and the dumping of legal fees can occur in Korea, too." The domestic law firms need to take this situation seriously and prepare for it, the KBA head said. "First, they should sharpen their competitiveness and then develop markets in foreign countries," Ha said. He called for maintaining competitiveness in areas where domestic law firms have advantages over foreigners, and making thorough preparations in other fields, such as ordinary commercial suits, into which foreign firms are likely to infiltrate. "The foreign law firms may likely make rapid inroads in even general litigation by hiring talented lawyers at Korean law firms," Ha said. In a statement released later in the day, the KBA also said, "We will use the occasion to positively cope with full market opening, strengthen the competitiveness of the domestic players, strictly supervise foreign legal services providers and internationalize lawyers and law firms." / Korea Times file By Jane Han DALLAS More and more young men and women of Korea find life in their motherland so painfully tough that they literally call it hell, some even plotting to pick up and leave for another country. But what happens when you really take off? The Korea Times talked to 10 men and women from different walks of life who've immigrated to the U.S. within the past decade and here's what they had to say about the reality of departing "Hell Joseon, a viral term that embodies young people's sense of hopelessness in Korea. "I'll be honest," said Kim Ga-young, 38, who left Korea for Atlanta two years ago after leaving her job in the customer service industry. "I don't have to put up with nonsense brought on by all kinds of snobby people. But I'm facing a whole new set of problems here, too." Language and cultural barriers are the biggest trouble for her. "I had never been overseas past Japan. The U.S. and the Western world is completely new to me, so it's definitely going to take some time to find my place here," says Kim, who works part-time at a Korean-owned beauty supply store. Park Jung-hyun, 55, who made the big move almost 10 years ago, is happy to say that most of the language and cultural barriers are a thing of the past now. "The first three years was difficult and sad," she says, "but once I understood the true American life, I realized that I don't have to be ashamed about not speaking the language and knowing the culture. In a way, many of us are foreigners here." Park, who owns and runs a coin laundry shop in Los Angeles with her husband, finds her new life satisfying, both financially and emotionally. "My husband and I both worked long hours back in Korea," she said, "and we still work long hours now, but interestingly, there's a much better work-life balance here." Many Koreans who live in the U.S. generally have access to more family time throughout the week and during the weekend, but for some, family time isn't the only thing they want. "There's a saying that Korea is a fun hell and the U.S. is a boring heaven," says Kim, 41, a hairdresser in Dallas, who didn't want to be fully named. "I miss being able to just walk out late at night, meeting up with old friends and getting a drink without the hassle of driving on the freeway for 30 minutes to get somewhere." Kim Ji-hyun, 32, an accountant in Dallas, agrees that although her stress level is lower here, something about life is mundane. By Park Si-soo A pastor was charged with espionage for North Korea, said South Korea's spy agency on Friday. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) told the National Assembly's intelligence committee that it had arrested a male pastor on espionage charges in May for sending information on domestic affairs to Pyongyang. The NIS revealed video footage of the suspect's arrest at a PC cafe located in northern Seoul to the committee to show the legitimacy of the apprehension. The suspect allegedly sent reports on South Korea's key affairs to North Korea. The committee did not provide further details. The NIS added it has also arrested another man in Ansan, south of Seoul, on similar charges recently. North Korean coal is now up for sale on Chinese online malls, the U.S.-based Voice of America (VOA) reported Saturday, implying a possible violation of the United Nation's sanctions slapped on the communist country. According to the report, a handful of Chinese firms are selling anthracites and briquettes imported from North Korea through online shopping malls, including No. 1 player Alibaba. As of July 1, the price tag on North Korean anthracites stood at $200 per ton, the report added. Last year, such resources took up 40 percent of North Korea's combined export volume, with 97 percent of the product heading to China. In June, China submitted an action plan on how to implement its sanctions against North Korea in tandem with the ongoing global efforts to punish Pyongyang for conducting its nuclear and missile tests earlier this year. (Yonhap) Uganda has told North Korea that it won't renew its military contracts with the communist nation, a government source said Thursday, carrying out its pledge to sever their military ties. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni made the pledge during a summit meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye last month in what was seen as a diplomatic victory for Seoul. South Korea hopes that deepening the North's isolation from the international community will force the regime in Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program. "The two countries' contracts on security, military and police cooperation expire at the end of this month," the source said on the condition of anonymity. "My understanding is that the Ugandan government has informed the North that it doesn't plan to renew them." North Korea and Uganda have had active military exchanges since they signed a military cooperation agreement in 1987, shortly after Museveni took power. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has vowed to join South Korea and the international community in pressing North Korea to cease its military provocations, Seoul's defense ministry said Wednesday. The announcement followed a meeting between the South Korean vice defense minister and the Cambodian leader. "Prime Minister Hun Sen confirmed again the Cambodian government's proactive support for the direction of (the South Korean) government's policies in regard to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats," the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement. He also reasserted "continuing participation in the international community's efforts against North Korea, including the faithful implementation of the United Nations Security Council's resolutions." The prime minister also said Cambodia plans to reconfigure its ties with North Korea in light of the international efforts, the ministry noted. The Cambodian leader's meeting with Vice Defense Minister Hwang In-moo was held in the Southeast Asian country late Tuesday. A 12-member delegation led by Hwang is currently on a two-nation visit to Cambodia and Laos, aimed at shoring up bilateral defense relations with the countries traditionally close to North Korea. Kim Jong-un appears to be taking a nap during North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly. / Yonhap By Lee Han-soo North Korea's supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, was caught dozing in the Supreme People's Assembly on Wednesday. Kim had just been appointed chairman of a newly created state body called the Commission on State Affairs, solidifying his one-man rule. But Kim's attention faltered and a camera filming the event caught him still for five seconds with his eyes closed. Although the picture quickly turned to an audience member, the footage seems to have mistakenly been edited into the recorded broadcast aired on Korean Central Television. Kim's nap is controversial because South Korea's National Intelligence Service reported that Kim had executed Hong Yong-chol, a senior North Korean military official, for taking a nap at a military rally the leader attended. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un participates in the Supreme People's Assembly. / Yonhap News Agency Meanwhile, Kim has tightened his grip on power through assembly, during which he was elected as the ruling Workers' Party of Korea's chairman, replacing his previous title of the party's first secretary. Wearing a Mao-style suit, Kim attended the parliamentary meeting where the communist country revised its Constitution and renamed the National Defense Commission (NDC) as the commission on state affairs, according to the state media. Previously, Kim was the first chairman of the NDC. The NDC served as a powerful state organization under the Kim Jong-il regime which also advocated a military first, or "songun," policy. Workers' Party of Korea members hold a voting ticket to appoint Kim Chairman of the Commission on State Affairs. / Yonhap News Agency "With the new state title, the North's current leader will likely cement one-man rule at a similar level to the absolute power enjoyed by his late father and grandfather," said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute. The assembly usually convenes in April, attended by hundreds of deputies, to finalize the country's budget spending and overhaul Cabinet organs. But the North held a smaller meeting in late March ahead of the party congress. Military officials celebrate Kim being appointed Chairman of the Commission on State Affairs. / Yonhap News Agency The parliamentary meeting comes as the U.N. Security Council slapped tougher sanctions on North Korea in March for its fourth nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch in the following month. South Korea's unification ministry on Thursday said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has completed the process of taking absolute control over the country through the latest parliamentary gathering. On Wednesday, the Supreme People's Assembly, the country's rubber-stamp parliament, selected the North's leader as the chairman of the newly created state apparatus called the State Affairs Commission, a move aimed at further reasserting his one-man rule. The new commission replaced the National Defense Commission (NDC), the main state organization under the regime of Kim Jong-il, who advocated a military first, or "songun," policy. Kim Jong-il is the incumbent leader's late father. "The North's leader completed the power structure change in the way he wanted," the ministry handling inter-Korean affairs said. "In terms of the concentration of power, the new apparatus appears not to be far different from the NDC." The assembly was held as a follow-up to the congress by the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) in May, where the North's leader was elected to the post of party chairman. North Korea has been reinforcing the ideological education for its workers dispatched to China to prevent defections, a U.S.-based media report said Thursday. An ethnic Korean source in China told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that many North Korean workers employed in China came back to their job sites in the Chinese border city of Dandong after receiving indoctrination for about three days in North Korea's border city of Sinuiju. According to the source, many North Korean residents are employed at Chinese businesses using the North Korea-China visa waiver accords, under which North Koreans are able to stay in China for 30 days without a visa. In the past, North Korean workers in China went to Sinuiju when their visa-free period terminated and came back to Dandong after staying one or two days in the North, the source said. "But recently, they returned to their workplaces in China after staying about three days in their country," the source told RFA. "The reason for their prolonged stay in Sinuiju is that they got reeducation conducted by the North Korean public security authorities before they returned to China," the source claimed. When North Korean workers arrive in border cities like Sinuiju they are sent to a special camp totally cut off from the outside world to receive ideological education. Another source who declined to be identified said that Chinese employers have many complaints about their North Korean workers who are absent from work for several days. "Nevertheless, Chinese firms using North Korean workers have no choice other than to wait until they return because of the cheap labor cost," the source said. The insider said the ideological education is a measure to prevent a stream of defections of North Korean laborers overseas, like the recent case of North Koreans working at state-owned restaurants defecting en masse to South Korea on two separate occasions. A group of 13 North Koreans defected from a Pyongyang-run restaurant in China and came to South Korea in early April in what has become a steady stream of people leaving the isolated country. North Korea has consistently claimed South Korea abducted the workers and demanded that they be returned to their loved ones at once. Pyongyang also threatened to take strong actions against the South if its demands are not met. (Yonhap) By Park Si-soo Namibia has cut ties with two North Korean companies to comply with U.N. sanctions on the North's nuclear and missile projects. The two companies the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID) and Mansudae Overseas Project are considered as North Korea's "primary arms dealer," as described in the United Nations sanctions list, according to the Southern Africa country's foreign ministry. According to the Associated Press, Namibia's deputy prime minister, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, went to Pyongyang to convey the news to North Korea's foreign minister. North Korea has not yet made reaction to this. Namibia said its "warm diplomatic relations" with North Korea will remain. President Park Geun-hye on Friday conferred a letter of credence to Lee Joon-gyu, a veteran diplomat, for his official appointment as South Korea's ambassador to Japan, her office Cheong Wa Dae said. Lee, who served as Seoul's top envoy to India between 2012-2015, is expected to take office as early as next week. He has recently garnered formal approval -- known as "agrement" -- for his appointment from the Tokyo government, according to a source. In May, Lee was tapped to replace Yoo Heung-soo, a former four-term lawmaker who offered to resign in April. Lee entered diplomatic service in 1978 after graduating from the department of law, Seoul National University. He has served in various domestic and overseas posts, including those in the United Nations, Malaysia, Japan, China and New Zealand. The most crucial task facing Lee is to make progress in implementing last year's landmark agreement between Seoul and Tokyo to settle the issue of the latter's wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women, observers said. Under the deal reached on Dec. 28, Tokyo expressed a formal apology and contrition for its colonial-era atrocities and agreed to provide 1 billion yen (US$8.9 million) for a foundation to be established by Seoul to support the victims, euphemistically called "comfort women." The bilateral efforts to enforce the deal have yet to make substantial progress as some of the victims and their supporters have opposed the deal, claiming that it was struck without sufficient prior consultations with them. Meanwhile, Park received credentials from new East Timorese Ambassador to South Korea Adalgisa Maria Soares Ximenes at Cheong Wa Dae. (Yonhap) The head of Lotte Foundation and daughter of the Lotte group founder was summoned by prosecutors Friday over allegations she received bribes from the former chief of a local cosmetics brand who is at the center of a lobbying scandal that is rocking the country's legal sector. Shin Young-ja appeared before the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office to face questioning over suspicions she received some 1 billion won ($870,000) to 2 billion won in kickbacks from Jung Woon-ho, former chief of Nature Republic, from 2012 to 2015 in return for favorable placement in Lotte's duty-free shops. "I will tell everything to prosecutors," the 74-year-old told reporters before entering the office, adding an apology. Shin is among several suspects, including former and current state prosecutors and judges, who have been put under investigation over allegations of unlawfully peddling their influence for Jung in return for money. The 74-year-old is also suspected of receiving similar bribes from other companies. Prosecutors said they will grill the foundation chief over whether she actually received the kickbacks and whether she gave business favors to the firms in return. The daughter of Shin Kyuk-ho is the first to be summoned among the owner's family members who have been mired in a corruption scandal. Prosecutors have been widening their probe into Lotte, the country's fifth-largest conglomerate, over slush funds allegations. (Yonhap) By Andrew Salmon A despised political class. Corrupt, unaccountable big business. Savage competition, killer stress. A deepening wealth divide, an unfair society. Falling youth opportunities, rising youth suicide ratesit's a dark picture. Not for nothing do many young Koreans call their nation "Hell Joseon." But is 21st century Korea really so grim? Perhaps not. Well within living memory, this nation was a hell not figuratively but literally. It was a fine spring morning. The hillsides were abloom with azaleas, the air was invigorating and the sky blue as two young men, both in their early 20s, posed for photos inside a Confucian shrine, where they had just attended a church service. The shrine stands some 30 miles north of Seoul, just south of the Imjin River. The date: Sunday, 22nd April, 1951. The young men were Phil Curtis and Terry Waters. Both were lieutenants in the British Army's Gloucestershire Regiment. The picture is a haunting one. During the service, both men had taken the Eucharist. It would be their Viaticum, for the Viaticum "provisions for a journey" is the Eucharist given to a dying man. But neither man knew, then, of the mighty force massing just a few miles north of the little shrine. The greatest communist offensive of the Korean War indeed, the greatest communist offensive launched anywhere in the world since 1945 was launched that night. A third of a million bayonets were unleashed, with their key breakthrough point being the Imjin sector held by Curtis, Waters and their comrades. After dark, the 600 Glosters were assaulted by over 8,000 Chinese. Curtis and Waters position, "Castle Site" was engulfed in the "human wave." Flares lit a terrifying battlescape: Bursting explosions, laser-like like tracers, flickering muzzle flashes, the shadowy rushes of crowds of enemy. The noise was equally chaotic: Thundering artillery, clattering gunfire, shouted commands, screaming wounded. This, truly, was "Hell Joseon." The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary Read more PRESS RELEASE Canada Joins Obamas War on Russia July 1, 2016 (EIRNS)Just one day after President Obama went before the Canadian parliament to beg Canada to join his war on Russia, Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan announced that Canada has, indeed, agreed to provide troops for NATOs military buildup in the Baltic states. "As part of NATO we were giving assurance to member states there, but now this has evolved to deterrence," Sajjan said. The details of the Canadian deployment will be announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the NATO summit in Warsaw, next week. Sources told CBC News, however, that the deployment would involve hundreds of troops and that it will "happen in short order." Sajjan said while Canada strongly opposed what had happened in Crimea and Ukraine, it wanted to "send an equally strong message that we are open for dialogue, that we want to be able to reduce the tension." The Canadian move is not welcome in Moscow. "We believe that NATO build-up on Russias doorstep, which is reminiscent of Cold War saber-rattling, is a complete waste of money and resources, diverting them from the real existential threat of international terrorism," Russian Ambassador to Canada Kirill Kalinin told CBC News in an e-mail. PRESS RELEASE Putin: If Finland Joins NATO, Russia Will Have To Respond; Russian, Finnish Leaders Talk of Dialogue, Trust July 1, 2016 (EIRNS)The decision whether or not to join NATO is Finlands choice, Russian President Vladimir Putin said today after meeting with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, in Nanntali, Finland, but if Finland does join, Russia must respond. "Do you think we will continue to act in the same manner [if Finland joins NATO]? We have withdrawn our troops to a distance of 1,500 kilometers ]from the border]. Do you think they will stay there?" Putin said, reported TASS. "Anyway, we will respect any choice of the Finnish people," he said. "Its up to the Finnish people to decide how to defend their independence and ensure their safety. Of course, we value Finlands neutral status and respect it, but it is not up to us to address this issue." Putin reported that Niinisto "came up with proposals today at least on the first steps aimed at enhancing confidence and preventing conflicts. I have already said that I agree with this. We will try to begin the dialogue with NATO at the summit in Brussels." According to the Finnish YLE broadcaster, one of those proposals is that all aircraft operating over the Baltic Sea should have their transponders turned on so that their flights can be monitored. "We are well aware that there is a feeling of fear of Russia in the Baltic countries. On the other hand, NATO is seen as a great threat in Russia. For this kind of spiral not to continue, the key word is trust," he said. Putin said that he agreed with that proposal and would be issuing instructions to put it on the agenda for the next NATO-Russia Council meeting, which may be held in Brussels sometime after the NATO Warsaw summit. Putin also noted that NATO keeps moving troops closer to Russia, but calls the movements of Russian troops on Russian soil aggressive. "We believe this is absolutely unfair and does not correspond to reality," he said. PRESS RELEASE Leader of Istanbul Terror Was Wanted by Russia, Protected in Europe July 1, 2016 (EIRNS)As widely reported, the suicide bombing attack on Istanbuls airport June 28, was carried out by a Chechen-led cell of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or Daesh. These are precisely the networks, for which the investigation and exposure of their Anglo-Saudi links in the 1990s, brought Lyndon LaRouche and Russian President Vladimir Putin into indirect cooperation. It is now revealed that the leader and planner of the attack, Ahmed Chatayev, who has yet to be captured, was, according to Russian media network RT, given asylum in the European Union; a request by the Russian government for his extradition was refused. He is one of the most wanted terrorists by the Russian Federation. When Chatayev joined the ISIL in 2015, he was assigned a leading role in training terrorists who would launch attacks in both Russia and Western Europe, according to the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee Andrey Przhezdomsky. Chatayev commands a unit consisting "primarily of immigrants from the North Caucasus," Russias Kommersant newspaper reported earlier this year. Chatayev joined Islamist secessionist militants that fought against Russia in the Second Chechen War in 1999-2000, where he lost an arm. Later, he was considered to be a representative of Dokka Umarov, once terrorist "number 1" in Russia. He was on Russias wanted list since 2003 for sponsoring terrorism, recruiting extremists and membership in a terrorist group. But in the same year, he received asylum in Austria, claiming he lost his arm while being severely tortured in Russian prison. In 2008, he was detained with some other Chechens in the Swedish town of Trelleborg, after police found Kalashnikov assault rifles, explosives and ammunition in his car, for which he spent more than a year in Swedish prison. Then in 2010 he was arrested in Ukraine with his mobile phone files containing instructions in demolition techniques, and photos of people killed in a blast. Russias request for his extradition was blocked when the European Court for Human Rights ordered Ukraine not to hand him over to Russia; Amnesty International also urged Ukrainian authorities to halt extradition. A year later, he was detained while trying to cross the border between Turkey and Bulgaria but he again avoided extradition to Russia thanks to the interference of human rights organizations, according to Kommersant. Between 2012 and 2015, Chatayev reportedly lived in Georgia, where he also joined some terrorist groups and served a prison sentence on terrorism-related charges. In February 2015, he left Georgia for Syria, where he joined Daesh and assumed a high position in the organizations hierarchy. It was only 2015 that the U.S. Justice Department put him on its terrorist list. Police have positively identified two of the three suicide bombers as Rakim Bulgarov and Vadim Osmanov and holding Russian passports. The death toll in the airport bombing attack has increased to 44, with another 239 wounded. The Guardian speculates that the bombings aftermath "may hasten Turkish-Russian rapprochement." Since the 1990s Turkey, and especially Istanbul, had become a base for thousands of Chechens and other militants operating against Russia. In fact injured Chechen fighters had received medical treatment in Turkey. Noting that it was Putin who suppressed the Chechen rebels, and that these later joined Daesh in Syria and Iraq, the Guardian writes that 2,000 people of Russian originmost of them Chechensare now fighting in Syria with the jihadis. PRESS RELEASE U.S. and Russia Negotiating Closer Military Cooperation vs. Islamic State and Nusra Front July 1, 2016 (EIRNS)Washington sources have confirmed some essential features of a report today in the Washington Post by Josh Rogin, claiming that the Obama White House has submitted a proposal to Russia for closer cooperation in the fight against the Islamic State and the Nusra Front in Syria. According to the sources who spoke to EIR, the White House has approved a proposal and transmitted it to Russian officials, to expand the "deconfliction" agreements to some joint bombing operations against Nusra and ISIS sites. The White House plan, backed strongly by Secretary of State John Kerry, but equally strongly opposed by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, is actually an outgrowth of a long-standing Russian proposal for joint air strikes, which has been a subject of talks between Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov for months. The US proposal is far more modest than the original Russian plan, but does provide for more coordinated targeting of the hardcore terrorist infrastructure. It is conditional on Russia pressuring the Assad government to halt attacks on U.S.-backed rebel groups that are distinct from the hardcore jihadist factions, and on the U.S. pressuring those groups to leave areas of Syria where Nusra is in control or operating. For the agreement to be put into force, if accepted by Putin, it would require greater intelligence sharing and other forms of coordination. According to one source, the proposed limited upgrading of U.S.-Russian tactical cooperation in Syria is tied to plans by the United Nations Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura to resume diplomatic efforts in the coming days. Americans are expected to travel in record numbers this summer, thanks to low gasoline prices and declining air fares. But if you fly abroad, expect a long wait at U.S. airports when you return, especially if you fly back to California. A new study by Milecards.com, a website that compares and evaluates loyalty reward programs, found that California has five of the 10 airports with the nations longest wait times at passport checkpoints. And summer wait times are the longest, the study found. Advertisement That may not be surprising given that international travel has been on the rise and airports are more crowded than ever. The Department of Commerce said international visitation to the U.S. grew 0.4% to a record 75.3 million visitors last year, and the agency forecast a 2.6% increase this year to 77.3 million visitors. The average wait time at passport checkpoints nationwide for June was 20 minutes, up 3% from last June, according to Milecards, which crunched data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. For the last 12 months, Sacramento International Airport had the longest passport wait times, with an average wait of 33 minutes. Just over half of all international passengers waiting at Sacramento International Airport waited more than 30 minutes, the study found. Among the other California airports with the longest average wait times over the last 12 months were Oakland (27 minutes), Fresno (27), Ontario (26), San Francisco (24) and Los Angeles (22). hugo.martin@latimes.com To read more about the travel and tourism industries, follow @hugomartin on Twitter ALSO Pro-ISIS group threatens LAX attack; security on alert, but officials question credibility of threat San Bernardino County could soon reclaim control of Ontario International Airport Group sues over decision to allow Islamic center near John Wayne Airport Three of the nations biggest airlines Delta, American and United have been pressing the U.S. government to freeze new flights from three Middle Eastern carriers that they say compete unfairly in the U.S. by accepting subsidies from their government-backed owners. But the U.S. Department of State has decided against adopting restrictions on Etihad, Emirates and Qatar Airways. Instead, the Obama administration will talk through the issue this summer with government officials in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The decision, which hasnt been confirmed publicly, was first reported by Politico. Already, opponents of restrictions on the Middle Eastern carriers are applauding the federal agency for refusing to impose restrictions on the foreign carriers. Advertisement Foreign-based carriers fly to the U.S. under an aviation policy known as Open Skies, which tries to remove government interference on passenger and cargo flights. The U.S. Travel Assn., a trade group for the nations travel industry, said in a statement that the decision by the State Department is good for the economy, good for American jobs and good for travelers both here and abroad. The three Middle Eastern carriers combined to carry 1.5 million travelers in the first three months of the year, or 3% of all international travelers in and out of the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. But Delta, American and United and their allies also are calling the decision to hold face-to-face discussions a victory. We have confidence our government is on the right path to address the harm caused by these massive subsidies, said Jill Zuckman, spokeswoman for the airlines and their allies, called Partnership for Open & Fair Skies. hugo.martin@latimes.com To read more about the travel and tourism industries, follow @hugomartin on Twitter. ALSO Airlines project higher profits for 2016 but still get outdone by Starbucks United Airlines hopes slim seats and exclusive lounges will help generate $3 billion Pro-ISIS group threatens LAX attack; security on alert, but officials question credibility of threat The lawyer who failed to persuade a Los Angeles jury in June that Led Zeppelin stole the introduction of Stairway to Heaven from an earlier song by L.A. rock band Spirit has been suspended from practicing law. He was cited for serious misconduct and violating rules of professional conduct during a previous case. Francis Malofiy was suspended for three months and one day after a federal appeals court this week upheld last years suspension by a panel of U.S. district judges in Pennsylvania. The disciplinary action arose from a case in which Malofiy unsuccessfully represented songwriter Dan Marino, claiming Marino was denied credit for co-writing the song Bad Girl, which Usher recorded and included on his album Confessions. Advertisement The suspension was ordered because the panel found that Malofiy obtained an affidavit from a witness in that case without disclosing that he was an adversary of the witness. The court also said that it chose to suspend Malofiy because he refused to accept responsibility for his actions and continued to misrepresent facts during an investigation of the accusations. The Report concluded, after full consideration, that neither a reprimand [n]or private discipline is a sufficient sanction in light of the serious misconduct in this case, court documents state. During that trial, U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond admonished Malofiy several times and wrote a memorandum stating, It is difficult to convey the poisonous atmosphere created by Malofiys continual belligerence to opposing counsel. Diamond noted that 17 of 20 defendants had asked for sanctions against Malofiy for his behavior. These are extraordinary measures that you almost never see in court, Bruce L. Castor Jr., an attorney for one of the defendants in the Usher case, told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2014. Ive almost never seen one, much less all of them. See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour Malofiy appealed the Pennsylvania courts suspension order, but it was upheld Thursday by a three-member appeals panel. In addition to the suspension, Malofiy was ordered to pay court costs. Malofiy also was admonished numerous times during the seven-day Led Zeppelin-Spirit trial. One report tallied more than 100 objections that were sustained by Judge R. Gary Klausner over multiple days of testimony. The suspension could derail, or at least postpone, any plan Maloify might have to appeal the decision in the Led Zeppelin case, because California courts require lawyers not residing in the state to be in good standing in another state. randy.lewis@latimes.com Follow @RandyLewis2 on Twitter. For Classic Rock coverage, join us on Facebook. ALSO Small festivals and disco tiki parties: Where to find mind-bending music on Fourth of July weekend Zappa family drama: A look at where Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva are today The Smells August benefit show will include secret headliners that might be too big for the venue In the end, of course, it was all about the show. Another weekend, another installment of A Prairie Home Companion recorded and in the books. Except this weekend, Garrison Keillor ended his long run as host of the public radio staple, which began in 1974 and continued with his voice at the center, with a few interruptions, for more than 40 years. Keillor announced his retirement last year, and his final episode as host was recorded Friday night at a packed Hollywood Bowl, of all places. (The touring schedule was booked before his decision, hence the somewhat random location for his last broadcast, but another farewell show is scheduled for Minnesota in September.) Advertisement See more of our top Entertainment stories on Facebook Though a sense of an ending was inescapable from the start This is my big show, Keillor allowed after the traditional opening number, Tishomingo Blues there would be no all-encompassing parting statement, no surprise tributes from Prairie Homes long roster of regulars and guest stars. However, Keillor told the audience that a recording of President Obama offering his best wishes would be played during the broadcast, which airs locally on Pasadena public radio outlet KPCC. That sort of victory-lap showboating simply wouldnt do for Keillor or Prairie Home, two institutions that wear their stoic Midwestern roots proudly, if more than a little self-effacingly. After a local-tilted monologue that hit all the usual Los Angeles notes (our fitness, our cars, our overt friendliness) backed by the sound effects of Fred Newman whose array of mouth whooshes, gargles and splatters are far more fun to watch than hear on the radio Keillor explained his position as an outsider, that his home was more prone to observation than interaction. You came here to see the show. I came here to see you, he explained. Yet Prairie Homes standing as a Midwestern outlier is misleading. While Keillors raspy voice, with its sibilant S sounds, can be grating for some, his shows can, for a couple of hours, transform an audience of even so-called coastal elites into a small-town community with an intimacy only radio and its podcast descendants can achieve. And for all the shows old-timey touchstones that evoke an imagined white-bread Americana that, in an election year, is typically associated with conservative values, Keillor has, through the years, reclaimed such ideals as a home for pragmatic, progressive thought. Speaking of Obama on Friday, Keillor said, Im going to miss him more than I miss myself, and his few nods toward Hillary Clintons campaign garnered applause. Though the shows structure was business-as-usual, with its wryly worded ad breaks and musical cues, notes of farewell were everywhere. A Lives of the Cowboys sketch found its main characters, Dusty and Lefty, reminiscing about Dustys radio program (You never smiled, cracked longtime Prairie Home actor Tim Russell, a nod to Keillors rumpled, dryly serious appearance. But its radio, he countered.) The cast also tweaked the attention Keillors final show has received, repeatedly asking the host how it feels (building, of course, to a Bob Dylan impression from Russell). It feels like something ends and something else is going to happen, Keillor replied with mock-impatience. But the clearest consideration of an ending could be heard in the music. Structured primarily around duets between Keillor and a roundtable of folk and pop vocalists that included Aoife ODonovan, Sarah Jarosz and Nickel Creeks Sara Watkins (whose bandmate, Chris Thile, takes over for Keillor as host of Prairie Home in October), the song choices constituted something of a farewell address. You could hear the march of time as Keillor bent to match his airy voice with Jarosz on the yearning It Gets Lonely in a Small Town by songwriter Greg Brown, and there was a grim whiff of finality to Keillors opening of Iris DeMents My Life with its early lines, My life, its only a season, a passing September no one will recall that built to revealing the comfort in joy that was shared. (Keillor has had health problems of late, including a seizure last month.) A later pairing of Keillor with ODonovan on Van Morrisons The Beauty of the Days Gone By was similarly pointed but allowed for a note of nostalgia, a feeling Keillor told The Times he resisted going into Fridays show. A beautifully sepia-toned duet between ODonovan and Watkins on Nick Drakes wistful Which Will marked another highlight. Radio has the permanency of a sandcastle, Keillor said midway through his final News from Lake Wobegon dispatch, which, after some ruminations on the march of time, set aside grander statements or sentimentality and dissolved into a run of favorite limericks. Long live the jokes, he said. And who cares who thought them up. Keillor may admire that kind of timeless anonymity, but his point of view and presence will cast a long shadow over A Prairie Home Companion as it continues. Perhaps even longer as time goes on. Follow me on Twitter @chrisbarton. ALSO Finding Dory still making box-office sparks; The BFG fizzles out Zappa family drama: A look at where Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva are today Lawyer in Led Zeppelin-Spirit trial suspended for serious misconduct in earlier case Elie Wiesel, the Nazi concentration camp survivor, Nobel Peace Prize winner and author whose seminal work Night is regarded as one of the most powerful achievements in Holocaust literature, has died, Israels Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial said. He was 87. Based on his experiences and those of other Holocaust survivors, Wiesel wrote dozens of semi-autobiographical books, memoirs and plays. His message of peace, atonement and human dignity earned him the Nobel prize in 1986. For a decade, he was silent about the horrors he witnessed after being transported by train to Auschwitz with his parents and three sisters when he was 15. Advertisement After a year, he was liberated at the end of World War II with other prisoners from the German camp Buchenwald and soon learned that his mother and younger sister had been killed in the gas chambers. He already had seen his captive father die a brutal death. First penned in Yiddish, the harrowing yet unsentimental account based on Wiesels year in the death camps was published in French in 1958 and eventually printed in more than 30 languages. President Obama issued a statement Saturday, calling Wiesel a dear friend and recounting their visit together in 2009 to Buchenwald, where more than 50,000 people were killed during the Nazi regime. Elie Wiesel was one of the great moral voices of our time, and in many ways, the conscience of the world, Obama said. Elie was not just the worlds most prominent Holocaust survivor, he was a living memorial. After we walked together among the barbed wire and guard towers of Buchenwald where he was held as a teenager and where his father perished, Elie spoke words Ive never forgotten Memory has become a sacred duty of all people of goodwill. Upholding that sacred duty was the purpose of Elies life. In a statement released Saturday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel and the Jewish people mourned the passing of Wiesel. Through his unforgettable books, moving words and personal example, Elie personified the triumph of the human spirit over the most unimaginable evil, Netanyahu said. The first version of Night originally called And the World Remained Silent ran 800 pages, but it had been drastically shortened by the time it debuted in the U.S. in 1960 to positive reviews and lukewarm sales. Elie Wiesel opened the eyes of the world to the Holocaust with his penetrating books. Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center The Nation called it the single most powerful literary relic of the Holocaust, and The New York Times said it was a slim volume of terrifying power. It also was recognized as one of the first books to raise a haunting question for people of faith: Where was God at Auschwitz? Wiesel later theorized that the public wasnt ready for such a graphic account of the Holocaust. The Diary of Anne Frank had sold well when it was published in the U.S. in 1952, but the diary of the Jewish teenagers life in hiding from the Nazis did not extend to the concentration camp where she died. Rabbi Steve Leder, who serves at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, first encountered Wiesels writing as a 12-year-old boy at his familys home in Minnesota. Serving as a witness, Leder said, was at the foundation of Wiesels very being. I remember reading Night in my little bedroom in the basement in the middle of the winter, and just being utterly astounded by the reality and the horror of the Holocaust from the perspective of a teenager, Leder said. Because he was a teenager when he was at Auschwitz. It resonated very, very deeply and profoundly with me. The news of Wiesels death hit hard for Los Angeles physician Gary Schiller, who served six years as chairman of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. Schiller, the son of a concentration camp survivor, said he responded by taking Wiesels Night and The Fifth Son off the shelf and showing them to his 10- and 12-year-old sons. Schiller said told his sons of Wiesels tremendous influence and the importance of firsthand accounts of the Holocaust. It will be very difficult to give them the same degree of insight without people like Wiesel, or their grandfather, to tell them very directly what they experienced, he said. Through his words and his work, Wiesel spent his life preparing future generations for the day when there would no longer be a living witness to the Holocaust, Leder said. That places a tremendous responsibility on the next generation to continue to tell the story, he said. When Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann went on trial in 1961, it brought the Holocaust renewed attention in mainstream America and heightened the visibility of Wiesel and other survivors who were writing their stories. Wiesels books were largely well-reviewed, but over time, some critics questioned his role as a self-appointed witness to history. In 1985, Wiesel received one of the highest U.S. civilian honors, the Congressional Gold Medal. The controversy caused by his acceptance speech inadvertently brought greater attention to Night, he later said. The speech urged President Reagan to forgo a trip to West Germany that included Bitburg Military Cemetery, where many Nazi SS soldiers who deported Jews and ran concentration camps are buried. That place is not your place, Mr. President, Wiesel said. Your place is with the victims of the SS. The issue here is not politics, but good and evil. And we must never confuse them. Reagan went to Bitburg but added a stop at a concentration camp. By the 1990s, Night was a standard high school and college text, selling an estimated 400,000 copies a year. When Oprah Winfrey selected an updated version of the book for her television book club in 2006, it became a bestseller but reignited a debate over whether it was a novelized memoir. Wiesel maintained that it was a true account. Using his personal story as both a testimonial and departure point for his writing, he earned a reputation as the leading spiritual archivist of the Nazi persecution of the Jews. He never put to rest a question that had haunted him since the war: Why did those who knew about the Nazis effort to exterminate the Jews not do more to prevent it? The free world, including Jewish leaders in America and Palestine, had known since 1942, but we knew nothing, he wrote in his 1995 memoir, All Rivers Run to the Sea. Why didnt they warn us? Wiesel has taken the Jew as his metaphor and as his reality in order to unite a moral and aesthetic vision in terms of all men. The Washington Post, 1968 Small in stature with a melancholy nature, he explored the themes of guilt, psychic trauma, endurance and the necessity to remain hopeful about the future despite the worst injustices. Questions about justice, human dignity and ethnic hatred that Wiesel repeatedly returned to soon were recognized as issues common to every race, ethnicity and culture. Wiesel has taken the Jew as his metaphor and as his reality in order to unite a moral and aesthetic vision in terms of all men, the Washington Post said in 1968. When Wiesel received the Nobel Peace Prize, the committee called him a messenger to mankind who had come to speak for all oppressed people and races, emerging as a spiritual leader and guide in an age when violence, repression and racism continue to characterize the world. On a humanitarian trip to a Cambodian refugee camp in 1980, Wiesel explained his empathy for the oppressed: I came here because nobody came when I was there. One thing that is worse for the victim than hunger, fear, torture, even humiliation, is the feeling of abandonment, that nobody cares, the feeling that you dont count. Eliezer Wiesel was born Sept. 30, 1928, in Sighet in what is now Romania, a remote farming community where his father, Shlomo Wiesel, was a grocer. Many relatives of his mother, Sarah, were rabbis, and he was raised an Orthodox Jew in the Hasidic tradition. He had planned a career writing about religion and the great eternal subjects: love and happiness. Instead, near the beginning of Night, he describes the cattle car packed with Jews that took his family to Auschwitz: On the third night, while we slept, some of us sitting one against the other and some standing, a piercing cry split the silence: Fire! I can see a fire! ... There was a moments panic. Who was it who had cried out? It was Madame Schachter. She continued to scream, breathless, her voice broken by sobs. Jews, listen to me! I can see a fire! There are huge flames! Its a furnace! Our terror was about to burst the sides of the train. ... It was as though madness were taking possession of us all. ... Some of the young men forced her to sit down, tied her up, and put a gag in her mouth. Within hours of arriving in Poland at Auschwitz, Wiesel and his father were transferred to Buna in Germany, where they spent most of their imprisonment. Logically, I shouldnt have survived, Wiesel wrote in his 1995 memoir. Sickly, timid, fearful, and lacking all resourcefulness, I never did anything to stay alive. In January 1945, Wiesel and his father were forced to undergo a 10-day death march with other prisoners from Buna to Buchenwald in Germany. Upon arriving, his father died of dysentery, starvation and exhaustion. Our terror was about to burst the sides of the train. ... It was as though madness were taking possession of us all. Elie Wiesel in Night Three months later, the Nazis fled the camp as Allied Forces were about to break through the gates. Among 400 children taken to a Normandy youth home, Wiesel soon was reunited with his two older sisters, Hilda and Batya. It was a miracle, he told UPI in 1987. Hilda had seen his picture with a newspaper article about child survivors. From 1948 to 1951, Wiesel studied literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris. Fluent in French, he worked as a journalist in France for Yiddish and French publications, which led to an interview with novelist Francois Mauriac, who encouraged him to write about his experiences and helped him find a French publisher. Wiesel turned to novel writing to explore the psychological turmoil of Holocaust survivors. In Dawn (1961), he wrote of a young death-camp survivor who joins Palestines freedom fighters and is horrified when he realizes that he has become a killer. Wiesel had been a freedom fighter but never saw combat. In The Accident (1961), a journalist and death-camp survivor struggles with the idea that he may have attempted suicide when he was struck by car. Wiesel said he had wondered these same thoughts after being seriously injured in 1956 by a New York City taxi. A series of articles about the life of Jews in communist Russia soon followed. Collected into a 1966 book, The Jews of Silence, they established Wiesel as a leading voice against anti-Semitism. At 40, Wiesel married Marion Erster Rose in 1969. A Vienna native, she was a survivor of death camps and had a daughter, Jennifer, from a previous marriage. The couple had one son, Shlomo Elisha, and two grandchildren. His wife was also his translator, turning most of his books from their original French the language in which he usually wrote to English. They included 2012s Open Heart, a reflection on his heart surgery and life in the face of death. Wiesel joined the faculty of City University of New York in 1972 and taught Jewish studies. Four years later, he moved to the humanities department at Boston University, commuting from his home in Manhattan. He had been a U.S. citizen since 1963. In 1978, President Carter appointed him to a commission that eventually created the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. Elie Wiesel: Embracing memory and madness Wiesel realized his childhood goal to write about religion beginning in the 1970s and co-authored several books with religious and world leaders, including A Journey of Faith (1990) with New York Cardinal John OConnor and Memoir in Two Voices (1996) with former French President Francois Mitterrand. The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity established with his Nobel Prize money announced in 2008 that it had lost more than $15 million through investments with Wall Street financier Bernard L. Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme defrauded thousands of individuals and charities of billions. Wiesel and his wife lost their life savings. This was a personal tragedy where we discovered all of a sudden what we had done in 40 years my books, my lectures, everything was gone, Wiesel said in a public discussion of the Madoff case. He called Madoff a sociopath and scoundrel but told the AP, with a wry grin: Ive seen worse. Times staff writer David Zahniser in Los Angeles and Josh Mitnick, a special correspondent in Tel Aviv, contributed to this report. Rourke and Nelson are former Times staff writers. ALSO Elie Wiesel, historys witness Holocaust survivors gather to mark 1945 liberation from Auschwitz From the archives: Elie Wiesel on Anne Frank Elie Wiesel a beacon for human rights UPDATES: 6:20 p.m.: This post has been updated with comments from President Obama and others. 4:00 p.m.: This story has been updated with statements from Israeli dignitaries and others. For some Malibu surfers, hitting the waves means first crossing the parking lot at privately operated Paradise Cove, a restaurant that faces the public beach and pier. But, according to some, that can be a problem. In June, the California Coastal Commission once again began investigating complaints from beachgoers that the operator of Paradise Cove has been charging a $20 daily beach membership fee to access the shore. Large red signs leading up to the beach detailed the access fee, marketed as a daily beach club membership, according to documents reviewed by the Los Angeles Times. Advertisement People should know they have the right to walk down to the beach and enjoy the coast. Andrew Willis, Coastal Commission enforcement supervisor The case highlights the difficulty of managing access along the coast, said Andrew Willis, a Coastal Commission enforcement supervisor. Public trails to the beach have been blocked throughout Southern California, he said, in coastal communities such as Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach and San Clemente. Its just part of the statewide issue of restrictions on coastal access, Willis said. People think of gates and fences, but there are other ways to chip away at access fake garages, access fees, no parking signs. In a June 16 letter to Kissel Co., which operates as Paradise Cove Land Co., the Coastal Commission threatened to impose hefty fines of up to $11,250 per day for blocking public access. The company has since complied with the commissions request. Weve had a number of these cases and this has been a really effective tool, Willis said of the fine. See the most-read stories this hour A couple who parked their car on Pacific Coast Highway walk toward Paradise Cove hoping to avoid paying the $35 daily parking fee in Malibu. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times ) The recent run-in is not the first time the commission has had problems with Paradise Cove. During a visit to the site in 2014, commission staff members located several signs banning surfing and surfboards, and found that the pier, located on public tidelands, was closed off behind a locked gate. The commission sent a letter to the company, contending that it was violating the state Coastal Act and the terms of its state lease for the Paradise Cove pier. And as they did with the June violation, the commission threatened hefty daily fines. A sign is posted on the Paradise Cove Pier that instructs visitors on what areas of their property is open to the public at Paradise Cove. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times ) The owner agreed to stop charging a walk-in fee, remove all signs banning surfing and unlock a gate to the beachs pier shortly after. Under the agreement, the company was allowed to continue charging a parking fee. At the time, surfers who tried to carry their boards across the sand were regularly turned away even though the surf break is in public waters. Kissel holds a 10-year lease on the pier that expires in 2019. Steven F. Dahlberg, president of Paradise Cove Land Co., did not respond to a request for comment. Paradise Coves website has since been updated and no longer mentions any membership fees. Instead, the company notes that the public is welcome to walk from the Pacific Coast Highway to the pier free of charge. People should know they have the right to walk down to the beach and enjoy the coast, Willis said. sarah.parvini@latimes.com For more local and breaking news follow me on Twitter: @sarahparvini ALSO A new Malibu stairway is opening up public access to the beach Wally the whale is towed out to sea a day after washing ashore Surfer gangs beach fort must be torn down or get a permit, state says, but city slow to act The coyotecide happened on a cool June morning on Fernwood Avenue. Mike Parson was putting on his shoes to go for a walk with his dog in their Silver Lake neighborhood, just a few miles from Griffith Park, when he heard a loud thump. For the record: A previous version of this article referred to the Department of Animal Services as the Department of Animal Regulation. Derek Brown is the assistant general manager at the Department of Animal Services. Minutes later, he saw a coyote lying in the street in front of his parked truck. The coyote appeared to be dead, but it didnt look as if a car hit it. Advertisement Instead, a mystery sniper took the coyote out. Los Angeles Police Sgt. John Gutierrez said there were no suspects and it was unclear why the coyote was shot. He said he was sure it was not shot by a Los Angeles Police Department officer or another city employee or official. Gutierrez said the departments Animal Cruelty Task Force is looking into the shooting. The Department of Animal Services is also investigating. Despite all the questions, some neighbors believed the killing was just the latest example of residents frustration with coyotes in Silver Lake. The neighborhood social network Nextdoor has blown up with tips for managing increasingly bold coyotes, and residents said that coyote sightings in the middle of the street or on front lawns are common. If you spent a night here, youd see one, said Vanessa Knutsen, who lives a few houses down from where the shooting happened. Just a month ago, Knutsen was coming back from walking her dog, Shaolin, when she saw two coyotes on a triangle of grass opposite her house. I scooped up Shao and ran back down to the main street, Knutsen said. Coyotes are native to Southern California, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has been documenting human-coyote conflicts over three decades. But in a report presented to the L.A. City Council this week, the Department of Animal Services said its agency, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and National Park Service had reached a consensus that the coyote population has not grown. The fish and wildlife department estimates the statewide population to be between 250,000 and 750,000. I dont want to say its completely lost its fear of people. But its definitely more bold than the general coyote. Justin Brown, biologist with the National Park Service Theyre not coming from anywhere, theyre just here, said Niamh Quinn, an advisor at the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources who specializes in managing human-wildlife conflict. Theyre now established in urban communities and theyre reproducing successfully. Justin Brown, a biologist with the National Park Service, said: I dont want to say its completely lost its fear of people. But its definitely more bold than the general coyote. Derek Brown, assistant general manager at the Department of Animal Services, said his agency and others have received a higher volume of calls about coyotes in the last year, but he attributed that to social media, noting that many calls are about the same coyote. Dispatchers at private animal control companies also said they receive frequent calls about coyotes. Citing data from the L.A. County Department of Public Health, the Daily Breeze reported that coyote attacks on humans increased to 15 in 2015, up from two in 2011. When Quinn recently aggregated and analyzed data from coyote reports across nine counties in Southern California, she found that 32% of the reports involved human-coyote conflict, including bites and attacks, compared with 11 or 13% in other cities. On Armstrong Avenue, close to the Silver Lake Reservoir, residents described uncomfortable close encounters. Weve had them on our front lawn, 10 feet from the front of the house, said Miele Adler, who owns a large dog and three cats. Weve had a bunch of cats taken. Adler said she has stopped letting her cats go outdoors, and she also worries about her children, including a toddler and a 5-week-old baby. The kids, obviously thats a concern, she said. If they can take a dog thats my dogs size, easily they could get taken. Adlers husband, Zoroan Danilovic, described a small pack of coyotes that loiters across the street from their house in the early mornings when he takes their dog out. He said he bangs on empty tomato cans to ward them off. I love coyotes, he said, but I love my dog more. Some residents assumed the coyotes increasingly aggressive behavior was the result of food and water shortages in the nearby hills, but experts said its simpler than that. The coyote is going to try to expend the least amount of energy to get the maximum amount of food, Quinn said. Why would you stay in a more rural area where you have to go catch a rabbit when you can stick your head in a garbage can and get the same nourishment? Brown, the biologist from the National Park Service, also suggested that the recent uptick in reported coyote sightings could be the result of a couple that mated and gave birth to at least three pups under a house in Silver Lake. These animals are very protective when it comes to offspring, he said, adding that dogs might be seen as competition or a risk to coyote pups. Despite a fear of the coyotes, no one in the Silver Lake neighborhood endorsed the idea of shooting them. Its very disconcerting, Steven Rowland said. Are they coyote vigilantes or something? Danielle Vega, who has lived in Silver Lake her entire life, said she was saddened to hear that a coyote had been shot. Theyre part of the neighborhood, she said. They may be dangerous. But this is their territory. We have to be respectful of them. Uli Boege agreed. His dog was bitten by a coyote a few months ago during a walk at the top of Fernwood Avenue. It was neglect on my side, Boege said, adding that he takes extra care now when he walks his dog and doesnt let him run outside in the early morning or at night, when coyotes are most likely to roam. Boege, who is originally from Germany, said coyotes are part of the attraction of California. Im glad we still live in a semi-wilderness. If you cannot get adjusted to it, leave, he said. In its report to the City Council, the Department of Animal Services gave similar advice, albeit in milder terms. The best approach to responsible coyote management or control is ongoing education on how to co-exist with indigenous wildlife, the report stated. That would almost certainly preclude shooting at the coyotes and especially in a neighborhood. nina.agrawal@latimes.com Twitter: @AgrawalNina ALSO Bay Area shelter admits it mistakenly euthanized adoptable pit bull named Barbie Lawyer in Led Zeppelin-Spirit trial suspended for serious misconduct in earlier case Pro-ISIS group threatens LAX attack; security on alert, but officials question credibility of threat A pro-Islamic State groups Twitter account was used to make threats against Los Angeles International Airport and two other world airports. But law enforcement sources said they have no specific intelligence that deems the threat credible. The account identified and publicized by the SITE Intelligence Group warns of threatened attacks on planes flying from (Londons) Heathrow (Airport) to the US during the July 4 holiday weekend and warned that there will be a device placed in either Heathrow, LAX or JFK Airports. SITE is a nongovernmental intelligence organization that tracked terrorism intelligence for nearly two decades. Advertisement See the most-read stories this hour >> Federal sources familiar with the intelligence said that while a threat may have been made, they do not consider it an executable plan and no information exists to suggest that such an operation is under way. With 1.2 million travelers expected to pass through LAX this weekend in the wake of the Istanbul airport attack that claimed 44 lives and now another act of terror in Bangladesh, airport security is at all-time high, with the usual cadre of LAX police, federal agencies and LAPD getting assistance from the L.A. County sheriffs tactical weapons team. Highly visible police officers and tactical vehicles were on hand Friday as passengers and vehicles entered the terminal areas. On Thursday, the FBI nationally said the bureau knew of no known specific or credible threat to US during the Fourth of July weekend. Brian Levin, a counter-terrorism expert and professor at Cal State San Bernardinos Center on Hate and Extremism, caution that such threats are fairly common around large travel holidays and following other attacks. This kind of chatter isnt unusual around July 4th and other big holidays, he said. You have to assess the ability to carry out the plan. Levin said the Tweets often are designed to influence Americans behavior and score a propaganda victory with nothing more than a piece of social media with an injection of fear. Airports are already at a heightened state of alert, so they arent really going to do anything more different, he added. richard.winton@latimes.com Twitter: @lacrimes ALSO Bay Area shelter admits it mistakenly euthanized adoptable pit bull named Barbie Gang member mistakenly kills one of his own who was wearing wrong colors, police say Former seminary student gets nearly 16 years in prison for seeking Mexican infants, toddlers for sex A Beverly Hills plastic surgeon who was accused and acquitted of unlawfully videotaping partly nude patients lost his medical license Friday after state officials said he was a threat to public safety. In 2013, a criminal court jury acquitted Lance Everett Wyatt of six misdemeanor counts, including unlawful videotaping two patients who were partly undressed and sexual battery on a patient. Despite those acquittals, the Medical Board of California on June 2 moved to revoke Wyatts license, citing intentional and inexcusable breach of [two of] his female patients trust by surreptitiously video recording them partially nude without their consent. Advertisement The board accused Wyatt of gross negligence, repeated negligent acts, unprofessional conduct, and sexual misconduct saying in its decision that Wyatt chose to deny all wrongdoing and characterize himself as the victim, with no real concern for the actual victims. Wyatts request that the board reconsider its decision was denied Friday. Wyatt was arrested in August 2012 after a joint investigation by Los Angeles police and the medical board. Christine Valine, a public information analyst for the board, said pursuing accusations at the conclusion of a criminal trial is standard practice. Wyatt said he has filed an appeal in Superior Court to overturn the boards decision. If the medical board truly considered him a threat to his patients safety, it would have suspended him or restricted his activities well before revoking his license, he said It seems as though the decision is rather harsh and rather late, Wyatt said. The Medical Board wants me to admit to crimes I did not do and that I was acquitted for. ALSO Mystery shooter kills coyote in Silver Lake Crews race to remove Wally the dead whale before long holiday weekend Woman fatally stabbed niece and friend in Rancho Santa Fe and then killed herself, officials say Elie Wiesel, who survived the Nazi Holocaust to become the voice of its victims and a champion of dignity for all people, was named winner of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize today. The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised the naturalized American author as a spiritual leader in an age of violence and hatred. Wiesels commitment, which originated in the sufferings of the Jewish people, has been widened to embrace all repressed peoples and races, its citation said. Advertisement Wiesel, 58, lost his parents and younger sister in Nazi death camps during World War II. He has chronicled the suffering of the Jews under Hitler and their problems in the Soviet Union today. Not Going to Change I have devoted my life to a certain cause, the cause of memory, the cause of remembrance, and now I feel that maybe I will have a better opportunity to say the same words--Im not going to change now--for more people, Wiesel said in New York, where he lives. I owe something to the dead. . . . That was their obsession, to be remembered. Anyone who does not remember betrays them again. In 1944, Wiesel was among 15,000 Jews deported by Germans and Hungarian fascists from his native town of Sighet in what is now Romania. It was one of the last great deportations in Hitlers extermination of an estimated 6 million Jews. At Auschwitz The youths mother and younger sister died in the Auschwitz concentration camp and his father died in Buchenwald. He was separated from two older sisters at Auschwitz and did not learn that they survived until after the war. Until the mid-'50s, I refused to talk. I was scared to talk. I kept totally silent, he said at a 1984 memorial service in Sighet. Then I said that we survivors have the duty to talk, and thus writing has become an obsession. But Im afraid I dont say everything that should be told. Wiesel settled in France, where he studied literature, philosophy and psychology at the Sorbonne from 1948 to 1951. Reported on U.N. He also worked as a journalist, traveling to Israel to cover the foundation of the Jewish state for the French newspaper LArche. He was Paris correspondent for the Tel Aviv newspaper Yedioth Ahronot in 1952, and in 1956 reported for it on the United Nations. Remaining in the United States, he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1956. The first of his nearly two dozen books, published in Yiddish in Buenos Aires that year, was called And the World Has Remained Silent. A condensed version appeared in French as La Nuit and was published later in the United States as Night. His book The Jews of Silence; a Personal Report on Soviet Jewry, appeared in 1966. Wife Also a Survivor In 1969, he married Marion Erster Rose, also a Holocaust survivor, and they have a son and daughter. He teaches a course in the literature of anguish at Boston University. President Reagan presented Wiesel with the Congressional Gold Medal of Achievement on April 19, 1985, recognizing his leadership as chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Hillary Clinton submitted to more than three hours of questioning at FBI headquarters Saturday morning about her email arrangements while she served as secretary of State, according to an aide, a sign that the probe is reaching a conclusion. The interview marks the first time that Clinton now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has responded in person to the law enforcement officials who are investigating her use of a personal email account and server for official government communications. Secretary Clinton gave a voluntary interview this morning about her email arrangements while she was secretary, said her spokesman, Nick Merrill, who added: Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview. Advertisement The ongoing probe is focusing on whether Clinton or her aides or others in any way mishandled classified information in connection with the personal email account and server. Former federal officials have said that an interview of Clinton would likely come at the end of the investigation, after emails and other background material were collected. Her interview on Saturday further highlights the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the federal inquiry. It is unfolding amid what is already a fiercely fought presidential campaign and on the heels of a controversy touched off this week by a private meeting on the tarmac of the Phoenix airport, between Atty. Gen. Loretta E. Lynch and Clintons spouse, former President Bill Clinton. Lynch, obviously chastened by the outcry over what she and her aides have described as an impromptu, 30-minute social visit with the former president, said Friday, I certainly wouldnt do it again. Commenting during an appearance at the Aspen Institute in Colorado, Lynch said that she and Bill Clinton did not discuss the ongoing investigation. Though Lynch said she would defer to career prosecutors and FBI agents regarding whether any criminal charges are ultimately brought in the case, she stopped short of pledging to fully recuse herself from such decisions. Lynch, 57, has served as attorney general since April of last year; in 1999, then-President Clinton had appointed her U.S. attorney for the eastern district of New York, based in Brooklyn. Clintons use of a private server has called into question her honesty and trustworthiness, with voters giving her low marks in polls on both counts. As the presidential race moves into the general election phase, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has pounced on her perceived weakness, dubbing Clinton Crooked Hillary and repeatedly insisting that she should be indicted, though he cites no evidence that would ensure such an outcome. The email arrangements came to light, indirectly, as a result of probes by congressional Republicans into the fatal attacks in September 2012 in Benghazi, Libya. Two U.S. officials, including the ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, and two American contractors, were killed. Extensive inquiries into what happened in Benghazi including a House panels marathon questioning of Clinton have yielded no evidence of wrongdoing on her part regarding U.S. operations there before or in response to the attack. However, the congressional inquiries did reveal the then-secretary of States use of the personal email account and server which , it turned out, handled emails containing some information that appears to be classified. Clinton, personally and through her aides, has said that she at no point mishandled information that was known at the time to be classified. What was known, or reasonably should have been known, about any classified information that flowed through Clintons personal account is a crucial distinction for federal investigators to make as they decide whether any of the conduct rises to the level of a chargeable, criminal offense. An FBI spokesman, Mike Kortan, declined to comment on the investigation. A longtime friend of the Clintons who described himself as close to Hillary Clintons presidential run said that while her conduct with the emails was a mistake, it did not reflect a conscious breach of law. The key issue is whether she looked at a document marked classified and put it on [her personal] server, said the friend, who spoke on a condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for Clinton. The absence of the labeling of an email is crucial. The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, reacted differently to Clintons FBI interview, calling her handling of the emails reckless or worse. Others have lost their security clearances, their jobs, or even gone to jail for doing far less, Priebus said in a statement. Clinton needs to be held to the same standard as everyone else. High-profile terrorism and the extensive government-led efforts to find those responsible for planning or carrying out attacks has generated increasing volumes of information deemed to be classified. This trend has posed greater challenges for how federal officials can discuss or otherwise communicate about those events while avoiding improper disclosures. David H. Petraeus, the retired Army general and former CIA director, came under FBI investigation as a result of having shared classified information with a woman who was his biographer and paramour. Last year, FBI officials sought to charge Petraeus with a felony for allegedly making a false statement during the investigation. But Lynchs predecessor as attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., decided ultimately to accept Petraeus plea of guilty to one misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information. Staff writer Del Quentin Wilber contributed to this report. david.willman@latimes.com ALSO How Tim Kaine went from wild card vice presidential pick to shortlist favorite for Hillary Clinton Lynch to accept recommendation of FBI, career prosecutors in Clinton email probe Trump was once so involved in trying to block an Indian casino that he secretly approved attack ads UPDATES: 1:50 p.m.: This article was updated with comment from the Republican National Committee. 1:16 p.m.: This article was updated with details and background on the Benghazi attacks and the investigation into Clintons email server. 10:40 a.m.: This article was updated with background on former President Clintons informal meeting with the attorney general. This article was originally published at 10:23 a.m. Tom Cotton says hes not being vetted to be Donald Trumps running mate Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press) Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican up-and-comer whose name has frequently been bandied about as a potential running mate for Donald Trump, played down his prospects to be on the GOP presidential ticket on Saturday. Im not being vetted. And I have no reason to believe I would be the nominee, Cotton told reporters after addressing a convention of conservative activists in Denver. Im very happy and honored to be able to serve the people of Arkansas in the Senate and to have the time to be a good husband and a good father to my 14-month-old son, he added. Cotton demurred on whether hed want the post, saying he was not going to speculate about hypotheticals. Intrigue over Trumps vice presidential pick has escalated as the GOP national convention draws near. On Friday, the New York Times reported that Trump may announce his choice as early as next week. Cotton, in his address to the Western Conservative Summit, laced into presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, calling her unfit to be commander-in-chief and making frequent digs at Clintons controversial decision to use a private email server while secretary of State. While his speech detailed arguments on why not to vote for Clinton, it included no affirmative case for or even mention of Trump. After the remarks, Cotton was pressed about whether an anti-Clinton case was sufficient to unite the fractured Republican Party, or if there must also be a pro-Trump argument. Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee. Its his responsibility and opportunity to not just unite our party but also to expand our party, Cotton said. Clearly based on the last couple of election results we need to do both of those things. He closed by noting there are months to go before the general election in November. I am confident that the country will be better off, safer and more prosperous with a Republican president and a Republican Congress, he said. Good morning. It is Saturday, July 2. Heres what you dont want to miss this weekend: TOP STORIES Total gridlock: Have you noticed how bad the traffic has gotten in downtown Los Angeles? Commuters say its the worst in memory. Officials blame a strong economy, new residents, construction and frequent lane closures for filming. Los Angeles Times Allegations of fraud: The L.A. Department of Water and Power believes PricewaterhouseCoopers charged the utility for lavish trips to Las Vegas that included prostitutes, steak dinners and bottle service. DWP is suing the firm over the rollout of a new computer system that failed and left the utility unable to properly bill thousands of customers. An attorney for PricewaterhouseCoopers said the allegation is a crude attempt to disparage PwC. Los Angeles Times Advertisement Housing market: Los Angeles luxury housing market is starting to slow down. Take the case of casino magnate Steve Wynn, who paid $16.25 million for a Bel-Air mansion two years ago and now is unloading it at a loss. The number of sales of $10 million or more in L.A. County has dipped in three of the last five quarters for which data is available, even as inventory has steadily grown. Los Angeles Times Murder scene: A woman stabbed her niece and friend before killing herself inside a Rancho Santa Fe house, according to police. Sayeh Amini allegedly was distraught over the death of her brother. On Monday, according to police, she killed her 15-year-old niece and a friend before taking her own life. Aminis husband allegedly tried to have her committed two weeks ago because of her suicidal thoughts. Los Angeles Times Gross discovery: Just in time for the holiday weekend, a dead humpback whale washed up on the shore of Dockweiler State Beach. Lifeguards plan to tow Wally the Whale out into the ocean and let nature take its course. Its starting to smell and decompose pretty rapidly, said Los Angeles County Lifeguard Capt. Ken Haskett. Los Angeles Times Fire season: California could learn a few tricks from the South when it comes to managing wildfires, particularly the prescribed burn. By clearing younger, faster-growing vegetation from the patches of forest floor every few years, prescribed fire protects the health of older trees by lowering competition for nutrients. CityLab Tracking Zika: Most of California has not experienced the mosquito that carries the Zika virus. A new map from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows when the mosquito was last found in each of the states 58 counties. Zika has not spread in the United States as it has in South and Central America in part thanks to the use of window screens and air conditioners. KQED THIS WEEKS MOST POPULAR STORIES IN ESSENTIAL CALIFORNIA 1. If youve got champagne tastes on a beer budget, then this home may be for you. Its in the desirable Beverly Glen neighborhood and its listed for just $499,000. The catch: It is 264 square feet. Curbed LA 2. Raymond Lee Jennings swore his innocence when he was sentenced to prison for killing a college student. Now prosecutors say he was right. Heres how the case against him unraveled. Los Angeles Times 3. At last weekends Politicon, Sarah Palins toughest critic was a 10-year-old boy. He wanted to know how she could endorse a person like Donald Trump. Los Angeles Times 4. These milkshakes are the perfect way to stay cool this Fourth of July. LA Weekly 5. Things took a violent turn when protesters showed up to a neo-Nazi rally in Sacramento. Los Angeles Times ICYMI, HERE ARE THIS WEEKS GREAT READS Silicon Valley Confidential: How Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook destroyed Google Plus and maybe have won the battle of the technology (and social media) giants. Vanity Fair A students journey: The first car he slept in, when he was 6, was his mothers white Cadillac, parked in South Los Angeles. Angel Macias, legs crossed, dozed upright in the back seat. His older brother, Armando, sat next to him, often against him, because he needed to stretch his legs to sleep. Their mother snoozed up front, in the drivers seat. Here, we explore his remarkable academic success against great odds. Los Angeles Times Social ill: More than 70 news organizations came together this week to report on one topic: homelessness. The SF Homeless Project will explore possible solutions that might ease, if not end, the suffering of so many thousands of people living on our streets, and improve the quality of life for all residents. Here are those stories. San Francisco Chronicle and California Sunday Magazine Creative thinking: An architect known for doing more with less is now trying to create water from air. The New Yorker Understanding history: In the film The Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep gives a speech about the interconnectedness of the fashion industry. Now some writers have come to believe the speech perfectly sums up the concept of cultural appropriation. Mic LOOKING AHEAD Monday: Enjoy the day off its the Fourth of July. If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.) Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Alice Walton or Shelby Grad. For California voters, last weeks news out of Sacramento was grim, or at least daunting: There will be 17 or more state measures on the Nov. 8 ballot, including a referendum and 14 initiatives that qualified through the signature-gathering process. The Legislature is referring two measures to voters and may add more after it returns from summer recess. But thats just the state portion of the ballot. Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority is seeking a sales tax increase. The county Board of Supervisors may decide Tuesday whether to ask for a parcel tax for parks and open space, and perhaps a charter amendment to grant subpoena power to a sheriff oversight commission. The Los Angeles City Council wants approval of a housing bond to address homelessness. Only a portion of the November measures seek approval for bonds or new taxes, but they raise vexing questions. For example, if the Legislature decides in August to go forward with a parks bond, would that reduce the need for the county parks tax? If the county adds taxes for homeless services, does that make the city homeless bond less necessary or more useful? Advertisement The last time so many revenue measures were put to L.A. voters all at once was in 2008, the year Barack Obama was elected president. The Great Recession had begun and the state budget was in crisis, but much of the California electorate was either still in denial or looking forward to better economic times. Obamas candidacy had energized new, optimistic voters. Politicians and pollsters saw a rare window of time to win approval of bonds and taxes. That November, voters said yes to high-speed rail bonds, yes to veteran home-loan bonds, yes to childrens hospital bonds, yes to a Los Angeles Unified School District bond, yes to an L.A. Community College District bond and yes to a Metro sales tax. They came very close to saying yes to a parcel tax for city youth and gang services but the measure fell just short of the needed two-thirds. Then the window closed. California found itself with a $41.6-billion budget shortfall, and the Legislature brokered a deal with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to set a special May 2009 election seeking a variety of bailouts, including temporary increases in sales and income taxes. Voters were no longer in so agreeable a mood and said no to everything. So how have those 2008 bonds and taxes worked out? It depends on your point of view. High-speed rail is either a boondoggle or a visionary (although struggling) bet on the future. The veteran bonds have been repurposed to shift money into more urgently needed rental housing and services. A portion of the LAUSD bond was spent on the controversial iPads for students program. The Community College District bond funded a construction program mired in fraud, waste and mismanagement. Voters cannot simply say no to every bond or tax in the belief that government will mismanage the revenue. Still, voters cannot simply say no to every bond or tax in the belief that government will mismanage the revenue. The infrastructure that makes good health, public safety and commerce possible, the programs that raise living standards and support a decent quality of life, even democracy, justice and liberty they all cost money and all require an investment. Consider for example the costs to society of homelessness, in terms of not just the misery of those on the street, but also property values, the economy and the demands on the police, fire, health and sanitation services that the rest us pay for and rely on. Paying to fix that problem could well save money in the long run. But the voters who say yes or no and the taxpayers who pay have every right to demand high standards from government, which in turn has a duty to learn from past mistakes and bring forward increasingly more responsible, and supportable, tax and bond measures. Attributes of such measures include independent oversight of funds to ensure they are spent the way voters intended. But oversight must be real and not simply rote. The community college bond had an oversight panel that failed to stop poor spending and management practices. It falls to backers of any new bond to explain how their oversight is different and will be more effective. Bonds have limited lifespans but a new tax can go on forever unless its enacted with a sunset clause that ends the levy after a period of years and allows the next generation of voters to decide whether to renew it. Sunsets focus politicians and administrators on getting the job done within a set period; yet they may not be appropriate for taxes that are intended to pay for ongoing programs and maintenance. Voters should expect the backers of any new tax to either include a sunset or justify its absence. They also should expect their elected leaders to clearly explain why government needs more money to do what voters want it to do. Requests for new revenue should fall in line with clearly articulated and understood priorities. A voters only choice is to say yes or no to each proposed tax or bond measure, but in reality, deciding each one independently of the others is a little like going to the store without a grocery list or a budget and deciding to pull each item off the shelf without comparing them. Ballot measures are too often drawn up in response to polls that simply want to know whether voters will buy any given product. Voters should be savvy shoppers and demand that politicians explain why each item is needed, why its needed now, and how the purchase fits into a larger picture of wants, needs and costs. Bond and tax backers should expect to present benchmarks and evaluations. For example, how many parks will be built, and by when? How many people will be served, and how? What corrective action will be built into the measure in case performance falls short? Especially with local measures, voters should be wary of programs shaped out of public view and then presented as take-it-or-leave-it propositions. If officials expect votes, they should also expect to shape their requests with ample public outreach and input. Los Angeles, the region, the state they all have many needs and require lots of money. Voters should be unwilling to waste it, but ready to pay for cost-effective infrastructure, programs and services that will improve life. Backers of bonds and taxes are asking for money. They have an obligation to give voters something worthy of support. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook The Internet exploded several weeks ago when Brock Turner, the Stanford rape case assailant, received only a six-month jail sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman; the typical sentence for a first-time offender is two years in prison. This week, public outrage surrounding the case was reignited by court documents that showed Judge Aaron Persky had previously sentenced Raul Ramirez, a Salvadorian immigrant, to three years in prison for a similar crime. Ramirez, unlike Turner, had shown genuine remorse and pleaded guilty, factors that should have reduced his sentence. Two years is not a life-destroying sentence, Michele Dauber said, referring to Turners case. All the poor and black and brown people are not enjoying jail either. Twenty-two is plenty young to get out and start over. Dauber is a Stanford law professor who was instrumental in revising the schools sexual assault policy. She is also a longtime family friend of the victim in this highly-publicized assault. Alongside campaign manager John Shallman, Dauber is now leading the charge for voters to remove Persky from the bench to recall him in response to this ruling. But even if Daubers team is successful in gathering the necessary signatures, the Persky recall wouldnt be voted on until November 2017. Percy was just re-elected in an uncontested election; his current term runs through 2022. Advertisement Daubers team decided to pursue a recall rather than an investigation by the states Commission on Judicial Performance. Itd be unlikely to win such a case, as the commission examines judges for corruption, ethical lapses or incapacity. Many lawyers who disagree with the sentence have noted that it was still within the law. A straightforward appeal could yield a harsher sentence for Turner, but would not remove Persky from the bench. Because recalls are so expensive and labor intensive to run often requiring tens of thousands of signatures within the relevant county, a media plan, and a team of organizers they are uncommon. Electing Women Silicon Valley, a PAC that is working to elect women to the U.S. Senate, has stepped in as the new efforts main funder. For now, Santa Clara County prosecutors have blocked Persky from hearing an upcoming sex-crimes case. He is one of only three judges that handles sexual assault cases in the county, and could potentially review Stanford student cases in the future. Judge Persky made a lenient ruling on the basis that [Turner] was young, previously high-achieving and intoxicated, Dauber told the Times. Every sexual assailant at Stanford University is young, they are all intoxicated, and they are all high-achieving, because thats how you get into Stanford. The Times editorial board hasnt questioned whether the crime was horrific or the sentence was too lenient; it was, and it is. Probation should be granted only if it serves the best interests of justice, and it is extremely hard to conclude that the best interests of justice were served by this ruling. On this point, Daubers team and The Times editorial board strongly agree. Where we differ with Daubers team is on the best procedure for addressing a poor ruling from the bench. Were generally skeptical of challenges to sitting judges on the basis of their opinions: we believe that it interferes with the independence of the judiciary and can pave the way for politically motivated recalls of competent judges. We need to examine a judges full record, not just one or two cases, to get a better sense of his or her discernment. These issues are incredibly complex. Daubers argument hasnt yet persuaded us, but it has given us more to think about. Things are always changing: this is the force of news. Things could be very different: this is the force of opinion writing. Also happening this week: The Times editorial board wrote about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decision to diversify its membership, the waste of time and money that was the latest congressional report on Benghazi, the loophole that stops the U.S. from deporting some of those whove been convicted of serious crimes, L.A.s housing crisis, and the counterproductive efforts of those whove been violently counterprotesting hate groups. Our op-ed contributors wrote about why hyper-patriotism is un-American, Trump and the Brexiteers, breaking up the major tech companies, and more. We listened to the On Being podcast featuring writer (and occasional Times op-ed contributor) Rebecca Solnit. So much of what were burdened by is bad stories [by] people who have amnesia, who dont remember that the present was constructed by certain forces to serve certain elements, and can be deconstructed in that things could be very different, that they have been very different, that things are always changing, she said. Things are always changing: this is the force of news. Things could be very different: this is the force of opinion writing. On Thursday afternoon, these forces came together when the Pentagon lifted its ban on openly transgender service members. A policy that needed to change was deconstructed, and things did become, suddenly, very different. Its a good story. To the editor: How are we to understand terrorists who search for Paradise in the slaughtering of unarmed people, terrorists who exalt the violence of their own deaths? (Re How the attack in Turkey unfolded, June 30) Is there no future dream of marriage, education or career in their imaginings and yearnings? Do they never think of the blessing of having their own family and children? Indeed, how can people become so glamored by a cause that they go forth in all their crusader armor and manage to slaughter innocent civilians, while leaving all possibility of a normal life behind. Advertisement Jacqueline Kerr, Los Feliz :: To the editor: This week, three people opened fire and subsequently blew themselves up at Turkeys Ataturk Airport. Many were killed and hundreds injured. It appears that ISIS is responsible for this attack. My thoughts and sincerest prayers are with all individuals affected by this terrible and senseless atrocity. These acts show the perversity of terrorists in that they were committed in a majority Muslim country during the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan is a time when Muslims are exhorted to avoid arguing with one another, let alone mass murder innocents in the name of a vile, twisted ideology. This shows Islam is not at war with the West the majority of victims of terrorism and radical violence committed in the name of Islam are Muslims themselves. All of us, Muslim or non-Muslim, Western or not, must stand up and condemn this evil, twisted ideology. Madeel Abdullah, Newtown Square, Penn. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Rep. John Garamendi wanted to feel the dirt in his hands as a piece of his Basque heritage was planted on U.S. Capitol grounds Friday. After pitching a ceremonial shovelful of dirt over the roots of an oak sapling, Garamendi knelt, grasped a handful of dirt and sifted clumped soil through his fingers. Soon the two dozen spectators joined him, covering the roots of the 4-foot tree. Several of his granddaughters helped Papa scoop up the dirt. The Basque people are connected to the earth, to their place, Garamendi said. Its where the roots are the earth, the ground, the soil. The assembled crowd broke into the Basque anthem when they finished planting the tree, and Garamendi paused an interview to listen. See the most-read stories this hour The sapling is a descendant of Gernikako Arbola, or the Guernica tree, under which Spains King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella swore an oath in 1476 pledging to maintain the Basques ancient privileges of autonomy. While the Basque Country is still considered part of Spain and France, the tree and its descendants have been a symbol of Basque independence since. A descendant of the original tree was one of the few things to survive carpet bombing by German and Italian forces in April 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. Pablo Picassos Guernica painting represents the bombing. Garamendis voice broke as he spoke of family who died in the bombing. This is a very, very special moment for all of us, he said of the planting. Unai Rementeria, premier of the Basque Historical Territory of Bizkaia, said Basque leaders still swear an oath under the most recent iteration of the historic tree. He made a similar oath Friday under the trees newest generation, which came from a descendant of the Guernica tree planted at the Basque Museum and Cultural Center in Boise, Idaho. An oak tree will take root here, he said. "Starting today, this is a sacred place in Washington. https://twitter.com/sarahdwire/status/748901626837106689 Garamendis grandparents immigrated to the United States a few years apart in the early 1900s. Neither intended to look back, but his grandfather eventually returned to the Basque Country with Garamendis father in the 1960s. It started a revolving door, he said. The family has been there forever. On a recent trip across the Atlantic, a man approached Garamendi with the congressmans genealogy, which dates back to the 1500s. Garamendi and his family have visited relatives and celebrated milestones in the Basque Country for decades now. He is also known for his Basque barbecue campaign fundraiser held each year at his Touch the Earth Ranch near the Sierra foothills town of Paloma. https://twitter.com/sarahdwire/status/748917764891500544 The tree planting came during the two-week Smithsonian Folklife Festival, held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Garamendi spoke at the opening ceremony and has been a fixture at the exhibits at the event. He was planning to return with his three youngest granddaughters and other family members after the tree planting. As soon as this is over well walk down, go through it, eat, watch, learn all of it, Garamendi said. On Friday, the Gauden Bat dancers from Chino demonstrated several dance styles from the Basque Country as the midday sun beat down on the National Mall. Four other California Basque diaspora groups are also participating in the festival. Nearby, demonstrators gave a lesson on how to speak Euskara, the native Basque language, sheep bleated from a pen and artisans showed off their stonework, iron wares and pottery. Festival director Sabrina Lynn Motley said it takes years to plan each festival, in part because the Smithsonian studies a culture's traditions, folk art, music and food. Motley, a Pasadena native, said she was pleased that the festival highlights a diaspora community thats a vibrant part of western America. This is her third year with the festival. ------------ FOR THE RECORD 12:23 p.m: An earlier version of this article said that this was Motleys first year with the festival. It is her third year. ------------ I wanted people to know that California that I know, which is diverse in ways that people can't even imagine, she said by phone. SIGN UP for the free Essential Politics newsletter When she lived in San Francisco, Motley would visit the Basque community center for the food, dance and sports, she said. We have incredible Basque communities in Northern California and really across California," Motley said. They were all just incredible partners. The last U.S. Census data collection of ethnicity in 2000 put Californias Basque population at 20,868 people, the largest concentration in the country. Festival organizers asked Garamendi and other Basque-Americans to help connect with government leaders, craftsmen and businesses across the Atlantic. It grew from there, Garamendi said. And it grew, and it grew and it grew. Motley traveled with Garamendi to Euskal Herria, the Basque Country, while planning the festival. Hes learned so much more about his own roots through this process, through the festival, Motley said. I'm happy that he learned as we learned. That makes this work all the more special. sarah.wire@latimes.com Follow @sarahdwire on Twitter Read more about the 55 members of California's delegation at latimes.com/politics ALSO This California Democrat will be the only woman on the field when Congress plays baseball on Thursday Why one lifelong hunter is leading the charge for stricter gun control Updates on California politics The Starlight Bowl will host its annual Fourth of July festivities featuring two bands and a fireworks display. The band Stone Soul plays classic soul and Motown. This summer, the band is once again the featured band for the Parks Make Life Better concert tour to support Californias Parks and Recreation Society, performing free concerts at local parks to raise awareness about the value of public parks. Weve had them before. Theyre awesome, so we brought them back, said Vickie Cusumano, with the citys parks and recreation department. Follow us on Twitter to stay up to date with your community >> The other band will be the Kings of 88, which performs hits by the legends of piano-rock including Elton John, Billy Joel, Billy Preston, Little Richard, Stevie Wonder and Bruce Hornsby. The event usually sells out at the 4,200-seat venue, Cusumano said. Also, Ivan Cregger, a World War II veteran and Burbank resident for 59 years, will be honored before the concert. In 1942, at the age of 21, Cregger enlisted in the U.S. Army and was deployed to Africa. Other deployments included Egypt, Libya, England and Italy. His recognition will be followed by a flyover featuring a vintage plane from the Palm Springs Air Museum. The Starlight Bowl is located at 1249 Lockheed View Drive, Burbank. Parking will start at 4:30 p.m., with gate opening at 5:30 p.m.. The concert will begin at 6:30 p.m. For more information, visit starlightbowl.com. -- Mark Kellam, mark.kellam@latimes.com Twitter: @LAMarkKellam Within moments, the routine shoplifting call turned into chaos. On a Friday before the Fourth of July holiday weekend six years ago, Burbank Police Sgt. Derek Green, a patrol officer at the time, responded to the Kmart store in Burbank, where loss-prevention officers had detained a man suspected of stealing. Green choked up in front of a jury in a Pasadena courtroom this week when describing the harrowing moments before and after getting shot by the handcuffed man whod grabbed his partners gun. It was complete chaos, Green testified on Wednesday. Its something you train for, something you prepare for, something you think about, but when it actually happens, its beyond comprehension. Follow us on Twitter to stay up to date with your community >> Jamie Warren Willard, whose trial began this week, faces up to life in state prison if convicted of the charges, which include two counts of attempted murder of a peace officer, two counts of assault on a peace officer with a semiautomatic firearm, one count of second-degree commercial burglary, one count of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of battery. Willards public defender Mark Carrillo said outside of court Wednesday that his client denied the charges, but did not elaborate further. While detained on that hot July day, Willard went from being calm and cooperative to acting boisterous and uncooperative, Green testified. At one point, Willard started to cry. He told police he couldnt go to jail. After double-cuffing Willards hands and walking him out of the store with his partner, Alex Gutierrez, Green opened his patrol car door to set his belongings on the passenger seat and turn on the ignition to run the air conditioner. From there, he noticed a verbal exchange that turned physical. Thats when he heard his partner yell. He has my gun! He has my gun! When he saw his partners pistol in Willards hand, Green drew his own and approached, pointing his gun at Willard. He shouted for help on his radio while trying to get a clear shot, which was difficult because his partner and Willard were entangled. During the scuffle, Willard managed to point the gun at Green. With 5 feet between them, the pair made eye contact before Green saw a muzzle flash and smoke, and immediately felt a sensation not pain in his left hand. The radio hed been holding was gone, along with the watch that had been strapped to his wrist. Wounded, he returned fire toward Willard, firing eight rounds toward the mans lower extremities so he wouldnt hit his partner. Thats when he saw the gun Willard was holding fly through the air. He rushed to the radio in his patrol car and put out a broadcast, 29 minutes after arriving at the store: Shots fired, officer down at K-Mart. Within a couple of seconds, another unit arrived on scene. Green subsequently underwent four surgeries to reconstruct his hand. Trial testimony is slated to continue next week. -- Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com Twitter: @atchek MORE CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY Morale low, lack of improvement felt within Burbank Police Department, survey shows Glendale police link Compton gang members, woman to home burglaries in Glendale and Burbank Man dies after exchanging gunfire with Burbank police, then shooting himself Just a few days before the youngsters would perform in The Nutcracker before an audience at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, their concentration and intensity were evident. The children, students of the centers American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School, were under pressure to memorize the choreography in a short time, learn dance techniques and endure long rehearsal days. This weekend, their efforts will be seen in the centers full-scale production of Tchaikovskys classic, which has become as American as leaving the milk and cookies out for Santa. The Nutcracker, created by artist-in-residence Alexei Ratmansky, will be giving 14 performances through Dec. 20. The ballet will feature a holiday extravaganza of sets and costumes from Richard Hudson, best known for his work for The Lion King, which won him the Tony Award for Best Scenic Design. And so starts a Southern California tradition. This will be the West Coast premiere of American Ballet Theatres newest Nutcracker and the inaugural production at the Segerstrom Center. The center plans to present the ballet each holiday season. And helping mark that new tradition will be students enrolled in the centers dance school. Joining the students, who hail from all over Orange County, are professional dancers like Stella Abrera, who at age 37 became the first Filipino American to be promoted to principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre. Performing onstage with company dancers at such a well-known venue is a dream come true, said student dancers Joshua Binowitz and Jasmine Gilbert. Joshua, a 13-year-old Ladera Ranch resident, has been dancing for almost 10 years. He plays the brotherly role of Fritz. Im very excited that I get to learn from the professionals and watch them dance, said Joshua, who noted that the benefit of being enrolled at the school is getting to audition for such high-level productions. (Gillespie School students may also try out for a separate spring performance.) I have learned how to act as a dancer, and Im looking forward to showing my best. Jasmine, 12, of Anaheim Hills, said that at the school, she has learned dance techniques and lessons such as making sure the audience can see her face. The Nutcracker is one of her favorite productions. I like how it takes place during Christmas because it is one of my favorite holidays, Jasmine said. I also love the music because it varies in tempo and style. Joshua and Jasmine are among a cast of more than 100 performers 51 of whom are children ranging in age from 9 to 15 in the production. Its an achievement, the students said, to be sharing the stage with celebrated ABT artists like Abrera, who has the highest rank in the elite ballet company. Abrera, who is based in New York City, received much attention in August for being the first Filipino American principal dancer at ABT, while her friend Misty Copeland is noted for becoming its first black principal dancer. At age 5, Abrera started taking lessons after her older sister noticed the girls interest in dance. She joined the ABT as a member of the corps del ballet in 1996 and was promoted to soloist in 2001. Abrera has performed with ABT at Segerstrom quite regularly, calling the center like a second or third home. Weve been doing Nutcracker every year since we were children, and it definitely makes it feel like the holidays when we perform, Abrera said. I hope the students have a great time performing onstage. Its a wonderful thing for young dancers to be in a professional ballet environment. Rehearsing for The Nutcracker requires practice for seven hours a day, five to six days a week, she said. She usually goes through five to seven pairs of slippers a week. The children were rehearsing two to eight hours per week depending on their role. This week, now that the show has started, they added more hours. Hearing sounds from Tchaikovskys score away from the theater can be a bit of challenge for Abrera and fellow ballet dancers, who might be inclined to do a plie in a shopping center, for example, she said. It can be trying when you hear Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy while shopping at Walgreens or anywhere else, Abrera said with a laugh. We love what we do. * IF YOU GO What: American Ballet Theatres The Nutcracker When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays until Dec. 20 Where: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa Cost: Tickets start at $29 Information: (714) 556-2787 or visit scfta.org Two housing projects proposed for Newport Center are raising the question of whether the developments should trigger a vote of the people in Newport Beach. The proposals are Museum House, which would consist of 100 condominiums in a 25-story tower on the current site of the Orange County Museum of Art, and 150 Newport Center, which would include 49 units in a seven-story complex in the area surrounding Fashion Island. According to the citys interpretation, neither project is large enough on its own to trigger a public vote under the citys Greenlight Initiative. The growth-control measure, passed by voters in 2000, requires a special election for projects that, individually or in combination with previously approved proposals, would add more than 40,000 square feet of building space, 100 peak-hour car trips or 100 homes above what is allowed in a particular area by the citys general plan in a 10-year period. Newport Center has 100 units left for development before a Greenlight vote is necessary, according to city calculations. With two projects vying for those remaining units, it could come down to which one receives City Council approval first. If 150 Newport Center, with its 49 units, is approved, only 51 units would be left for Museum House. If Museum House continued to pursue 100 units, it would have to be placed on the ballot for a vote of the people, according to the Greenlight rules. In another scenario, if Museum House is granted 100 units, the 150 Newport Center project could be up for a Greenlight vote. Newport Beach Community Development Director Kim Brandt told residents Thursday at a packed Planning Commission meeting about the Museum House project that it would be speculative at this point to make any conclusions about Greenlight. Were not ready to make definitive statements, Brandt said. There are a lot of variables in play. However, activist Susan Skinner believes that both projects require a Greenlight vote, based on her calculation that only 21 residential units are left for development in Newport Center. The city agreed years ago to convert entitlements for 79 unbuilt hotel rooms into dwelling units that are now being developed by the Irvine Co. as part of its Villas Fashion Island apartment project. Skinner argues that those 79 units should count against the 10-year Greenlight quota for Newport Center. * Museum House The 295-foot Museum House is proposed to replace the Orange County Museum of Art on a 2-acre site at 850 San Clemente Drive. The plan by Related California Urban Housing LLC, which includes a two-level subterranean garage along with its 100 luxury condos, has drawn criticism from nearby residents over the projects size and questions about its compatibility with Newport Center. City staff has cautioned residents against jumping to conclusions about specific projects before they have been vetted through environmental impact reports and traffic studies. I dont need to wait for an [environmental impact report] to understand the general impact of a project of this size, resident Sherry Bower said at Thursdays Planning Commission study session. Its pretty straightforward. The project is too big, its too tall. What do we want Newport Beach to look like in the future? Do we want it to look like Long Beach or do we want it to look like Carmel or Santa Barbara? Project advocates Thursday donned stickers that read Museum House supporter. Many who spoke during the public comment period were board members of the art museum, whose Newport Center building would be demolished to make way for Museum House. OCMA has called the San Clemente Drive property home since 1977. But recently OCMA announced that it plans to move to a new building in Costa Mesa near the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Youre going to allow the museum to move to a place where it can grow, said Darrel Anderson, a Big Canyon resident and former OCMA board member. We just cant do it [in Newport Center] anymore. To approve Museum House, the City Council would have to OK a general plan amendment to change the land-use category from private institutional to multi-unit residential, with a maximum development of 100 units, according to city documents. City staff anticipates that Museum House could go before the Planning Commission for official consideration by late summer or early fall, with City Council review by the fall. But staff emphasized Thursday that those estimates are tentative. * 150 Newport Center The 150 Newport Center development, which in its early days was referred to as Newport Center Villas, is proposed to replace the Beacon Bay Auto Wash and adjacent gas station on Newport Center Drive near Anacapa Drive. The proposal by Newport Center Anacapa Associates would include 10 townhomes on the first two levels, 35 condominiums on Levels 3 through 6 and four penthouses on Level 7. All the townhomes are designed to be three bedrooms; the condos would be two or three bedrooms, said Tod Ridgeway, a developer and former Newport Beach mayor. A map shows the locations of the two proposed developments and other already-approved housing projects. (Steve Greenberg / Daily Pilot) Ron Soderling, who also is working on the project, said the company hopes to attract empty nesters whose current single-family homes in Newport are too large for them without children in the house. We have designed what will be the highest-quality building of its type from Century City to the Mexico border, Soderling said. Newport Center is the heart of Newport Beach. There are plenty of people who want to be there in the best location. City documents state that 150 Newport Center could go before the Planning Commission by July, followed by the City Council in late July or August. Soderling said that since his project is further along in the citys process than Museum House, hes optimistic it will be heard by the council first. Theyre proposing a very difficult project, he said of Museum House. I dont spend too much time thinking about it because itll never be built. * Building a walkable Newport Center The Newport Center area is bustling with upscale restaurants and the high-end Fashion Island shopping mall at its heart. Office towers and, more recently, various residential projects have made a home along Newport Center Drive, which circles around Fashion Island. The Irvine Co.'s The Colony, at 5100 Colony Plaza, offers upscale apartment living. The developer also is building Villas Fashion Island, which will consist of 524 luxury apartments and resort-style amenities such as an indoor-outdoor yoga studio, housekeeping service and a fitness center with an adjacent cafe on a 16-acre parcel directly behind the proposed Museum House. Irvine Co. spokesman Bill Lobdell said that with no draft environmental impact report or staff analysis completed for Museum House, its too early for the company to give a substantive opinion of the project. Having said that, we are completing a residential project adjacent to the proposed Museum House that respects the general plans 65-foot height limit for that area, he said. We would expect the Museum House to do the same. The general plan, which provides a blueprint for development in specific zones of the city, provides for additional retail opportunities at Fashion Island and hotel rooms and housing units in Newport Center, with emphasis on improving the areas walkability while concentrating buildings along Newport Center Drive. The document provides opportunities for residential buildings that would enhance the areas pedestrian character. Throughout Orange County as well as in Newport Beach, communities are looking to create hubs of mixed-use development where people can live, dine, shop and work, Ridgeway said. Its a suburban setting, but the walkability from these units to all the services in Newport Center is really a benefit, he said. State Assemblyman Matthew Harper (R-Huntington Beach) has been honored as the 2016 Legislator of the Year by the Southern California chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors Inc. Harper, a former Huntington Beach mayor whose 74th Assembly District includes Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Irvine, Huntington Beach, Laguna Woods and Laguna Beach, was honored as a legislator who stands up against special-interest deals that are bad for taxpayers and bad for free enterprise, according to a news release. The industry group credited Harper for speaking out against the California high-speed rail project, which the association says unfairly favors unions, and for his criticism of publicly funded labor institutes. Im thankful to the Associated Builders and Contractors organization for ... recognizing my work in fighting for laws that allow for construction jobs to be opened to all qualified workers, Harper said in a statement. Im proud to work with them to advocate for private businesses to compete in the construction world without crippling government over-regulation. Mesa Water District to hold community chats The Mesa Water District is presenting a series of community chats to informally meet with ratepayers and discuss ongoing water issues, including the California drought. The events will be on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings, July 6 through Aug. 10. Next Wednesdays chat will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Mesa Verde United Methodist Church, 1701 Baker St., Costa Mesa. For a complete list of events, call (949) 631-1201, email event@mesawater.org or visit mesawater.org. Summer camp offers classes in music, acting The Irvine Public Schools Foundation will present the Young Americans Summer Camp from Tuesday to July 9, offering children classes and workshops in vocal performance, dancing, audition skills, acting and songwriting. The camp at Northwood High School in Irvine will prepare the students to perform in a one-hour variety show for a live audience. This is the first collaboration between the foundation and Young Americans, a nonprofit that focuses on music, dance and cultural interaction. The camp is part of the 2016 Summer Enrichment Academy, which is open to kindergartners through eighth-graders from any school district. For more information, visit ipsf.net. Share Our Selves expands with mobile health unit Share Our Selves, a Costa Mesa-based nonprofit, has expanded its medical and dental service program for low-income people with a new mobile health vehicle, according to a news release. While SOS has done a tremendous job of providing medical and dental services out of its six fixed clinic locations, the mobile unit will give SOS the capability to put those services on wheels, delivering care to the community where it is most needed, the organization said in a statement. The group was aided in the effort by a grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. Working Wardrobes receives Bank of America grant Working Wardrobes, an Irvine-based nonprofit, recently received a $15,000 workforce development grant from Bank of America, according to a news release. The grant will help fund the VetNet program, which helps veterans with job training and placement, housing referrals and other services. This is the seventh consecutive year Working Wardrobes has received the grant. Girl Scouts honor Irvine and Newport residents The Girl Scouts of Orange County recently gathered at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim to honor several people for their service to the Scouts. Honorees from Irvine were Nancy Moses, Amanda Babiar, Karen Pione, Rachel Morrel, Anica Westfall, Melissa Cortes, Autumn Heep, Becky Milton, Sloan Petrillo, Mei Ramos, Putri Pascualy and Girl Scouts Rana Andary of Troop 887, Hana Lee and Lauren Marino of Troop 1015, Priya Mistry of Troop 788 and Kristine Yada of Troop 881. Newport Beach honorees were Sharon Shaffer and Girl Scout Emily Anastos of Troop 871. When Costa Mesa City Council members meet next week, they wont only discuss changing the system for future council elections theyll weigh asking voters to alter the makeup of the council itself. A series of community meetings and work by city-retained consultants have resulted in four proposed maps to split Costa Mesa into voting districts. Two of the proposals council members will consider Tuesday evening would divvy up the city into five districts. Residents in each ward would elect a council member. Another would do the same thing, but increase the number of council members from five to seven. The last would have six council members, but also add to the mix a directly elected mayor who would be chosen by voters citywide. (The mayor is currently selected by a majority vote of the council.) No matter what plan council members eventually endorse, its the voters who will have the final say. The question of whether to change election systems and whether to accept the councils chosen plan will be put to a vote Nov. 8. Join the conversation on Facebook >> If approved by voters, the first election held using districts would be November 2018. Council members are currently elected citywide. The city held four community meetings in June for residents to give their thoughts on how the maps should be drawn. That input combined with general rules governing the creation of voting-area maps district boundaries should make sense geographically and population has to be as evenly distributed between them as possible, for instance resulted in the four plans that will go to the council Tuesday. Though the proposals differ, there are some similarities. The two five-district maps, for instance, would keep the Eastside together in one voting area, something that was brought up as an important feature during community meetings. The two other proposals would also largely keep the Eastside intact. David Ely, a consultant with city-retained Compass Demographics, said another major consideration is whether its possible to create a district mainly in the Wetside in which the majority of eligible voters are Latino. All four proposed maps do so, carving out a jagged slice south of the Fairview Developmental Center largely east of Placentia Avenue and north of 17th Street as one voting district. Council members agreed to kickstart the election system switch in April to avoid a lawsuit threatened by Kevin Shenkman, an attorney with the Malibu-based law firm Shenkman & Hughes. Shenkman alleged Costa Mesas current election system violates the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 by diminishing the power of Latinos who made up about 36% of the citys population in the 2010 Census to influence the outcome of council elections. There are no Latinos on the council. To avoid a lawsuit, council members agreed to put the question of whether to switch to a by-district election system up for a vote this fall. Council members will review each of the plans at their next meeting, which begins at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday in City Hall, 77 Fair Drive. The public hearing is expected to begin as early as 7 p.m., according to information from the city. An informational open house for residents to review the proposed maps is scheduled that same day, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., in the first floor conference room in City Hall. Another public hearing is expected to be held July 12, during which time council members will officially pick the map to go on the ballot. -- Luke Money, lucas.money@latimes.com Twitter: @LukeMMoney On June 9, Californias End of Life Option Act went into effect, allowing terminally ill patients with a prognosis of six months or less to request a doctors prescription for lethal medications intended to end their lives. The End of Life Act itself is hardly the easy way out. One of the most rigorous in the nation, Californias law requires two doctors to confirm a patients diagnosis, prognosis and ability to make medical decisions. The patient must then make multiple requests for the prescription, both orally and in writing in front of witnesses, and has to have the physical ability to self-administer the aid-in-dying drugs. Regardless of ones personal beliefs on this law, I am hopeful that it will ultimately serve an important role in beginning a critical conversation about death, dying and what it means to retain autonomy over the final days of our lives. One conversation, in particular, that must begin is the discussion about a persons end-of-life wishes. Many patients facing terminal illness quietly make decisions about which life-sustaining treatment they would tolerate, and which they wish to forgo, but they dont always communicate those decisions to their doctors or their loved ones. I hope this new law motivates doctors and patients to work together to create both an Advance Directive and a Physician Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST). An Advance Directive is a legal document that tells your doctor and your loved ones what kind of care you would like to have if you become unable to make medical decisions. A POLST provides a framework for patients and their doctors to discuss and develop plans that reflect a persons wishes regarding life-sustaining treatment. As medical director of the CARES palliative care program at Hoag Memorial Presbyterian Hospital, I know that palliative care is not designed to hasten death, nor does it prolong suffering. We help relieve pain, attend to psychosocial issues, address spiritual matters and allow patients to safeguard what is important to them. We are an extra layer of support for providers, patients and families. For years, palliative medicine has been silently succeeding in assisting people to live fully and die a natural death with dignity. Now the entire country is turning its attention to palliative care. I believe this is a reflection of the fact that people arent accustomed to talking about death. Everyone wants a way to face the inevitable with dignity and without pain, but our society lacks the vocabulary to begin this discussion. I hope this renewed attention to end-of-life care helps remove the taboos associated with death. I know firsthand the pain families suffer when terminal patients leave no care instructions. It is imperative that we as a society continue to educate ourselves about end-of-life care and have important conversations with family and physicians. By making your wishes known in an advance directive you are providing a road map for your love ones to follow and it keeps you in charge when it comes to decisions about your medical treatment. This road map is the biggest gift you can give to yourself, family and friends. -- Dr. VINCENT NGUYEN is program director, Hoag CARES/Palliative Care Program. Our Sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God save the King! Perhaps these words are not immediately recognizable to the majority of Americans, but they hold great historical relevance for this country. What you have just read is from the text of the Riot Act, a law enacted in 1715 as a response to growing tumult in the British Empire. The statement above was to be read to any gathering of 12 or more people deemed by the authorities to be unlawfully, riotously and tumultuously assembled, and those who did not disperse could be held guilty of a felony punishable by death. Of course, we have evolved since then, and death is generally no longer considered a reasonable penalty for the crime of failing to disperse. But in comparing the text of the Riot Act, passed nearly 300 years ago by a monarchical government, with Newport Beachs Loud and Unruly Gathering Ordinance (LUGO) and the Fourth of July/"Safety Enhancement Zone laws passed some years ago, one finds uncanny similarities. In both sets of laws, officers have basically full discretion to punish a small group of people for whatever they see fit. These officers need only proclaim to the gathering that they are being unruly, whatever the officer considers that to mean, and that the gathering must disperse quickly or face consequences whether it be a 100-person disturbance or an eight-person book club. Is this the sort of law that we wish to see more of? Outdated appeals to authority, laws which require us to maintain the goodwill of our lords and ladies, lest we be punished, based on a wholly subjective set of criteria, for daring to exercise any amount of the freedom we supposedly hold dear? It is important to consider that the Riot Act was one of many laws passed by an oppressive English crown, which helped to cause the American Revolution, and its quite ironic that our city would pass similar laws that seem targeted directly at Independence Day revelers who wish to commemorate our rebellion against exactly this sort of law. There are already adequate laws on the books to deal with public nuisances. It is already illegal to be loud, drunk or unruly in public, and there are already laws against creating a noisy disturbance in your own home. There is absolutely no need for this additional law, which restricts the ability of people to have gatherings in their own homes, especially not if that law also gives police the discretion to punish these gatherings based on a nebulous set of wholly subjective criteria. These laws should never have been passed in the first place, but it is now time for the City Council to make right and repeal these laws. Jamie Dow Newport Beach .. Newport-Mesa needs term limits I have been a decades-long resident of Newport Beach with kids educated at Mariners, Newport Elementary, Ensign and Harbor High. I think it is high time for the school district trustees to adhere to immediate term limits. Interestingly, no current trustees have children in the school system, nor have had in many years, and some of the trustees have served for upwards of 36 years! Do you think these folks are really in touch with todays education realities? I think it is important that at least some trustees have children in the district to be proper stewards. I note that this issue could come before the July 12 meeting, whether it does or not could be a matter of politics! Pete Rabbitt Newport Beach Seeroon Yeretzians Four Seasons, a work of Armenian motifs and patterns, will open at the Roslin Art Gallery in Glendale on July 12. The pieces were created during a three-year period beginning in 2003 and depict spring, summer, autumn and winter in the style of ancient Armenian ornamental art. The 4-by-4-foot oil paintings reflect the motifs of medieval miniature art and architecture. In a statement, Yeretzian called her Four Seasons an homage to my super-talented, ancient forefathers, the Armenian illuminators, whom by virtue of their genius, skill and repetition, stroke by stroke by stroke, forged an identity of artistic beauty enclosed in memory. MORE: Read more about the latest in local arts and entertainment >> The artist was born in a refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1951, and is the author of three books: her self-titled art book, Seeroon Yeretzian, a book of poetry, Word Weaving & Black Seat Confessions, and Seeroon Darer: Armenian Ornate Initials. An official opening reception is at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 14, and will include a performance by the Vishup Ensemble. The exhibit closes July 26 with a 7 p.m. event with the Verdugo Quartet performing Antonio Vivaldis The Four Seasons. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. through 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Admission is free. Roslin Art Gallery is at 415 E. Broadway in Glendale. More information at (818) 241-0611. The Music of Americana In celebration of the long Fourth of July weekend, a concert of wide-ranging Americana will be performed on Saturday at La Canada Presbyterian Church. The concert will include songs from the 1969 musical 1776" and other patriotic music. The free concert will star Tyler Wright as future president John Adams and Rebecca Sjowall will play his wife Abigail Adams in scenes from the Tony-winning play, joined by the churchs Chancel Choir and Orchestra. The musical recreates the arguments at the Continental Congress behind the creation of the Declaration of Independence. The concert will also be a tribute to American soldiers who died in war, and include the spirituals Mansions of the Lord and Youll Never Walk Alone, plus an Armed Forces Medley. Conducting the choir and orchestra will be Jack Lantz, a former Army captain. The musical performances will be accompanied by a multimedia show depicting scenes of Americana and U.S. history. There will also be music by John Philip Sousa, George M. Cohan and John Williams. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. La Canada Presbyterian Church is at 626 Foothill Blvd. More information at lacanadapc.org and (818) 790-6708. Expressive Passion Paintings by Bonnie Lambert will be celebrated in Twilight Passion, an exhibition opening July 8 at the Creative Arts Center Gallery in Burbank. The expressionist works depict various neighborhoods and cityscapes in Southern California. Lamberts paintings have previously been shown locally at the Pasadena Museum of California History and Forest Lawn Museum. At the Creative Arts Center, the opening reception is from 7 to 9 p.m., and the show will stay up through July 28. The Creative Arts Center Gallery is at 1100 W. Clark Ave., in Burbank. Hours are Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Fridays, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. More information at (818) 238-5397. Marquee staff David Viar will remain at the helm of Glendale Community College for another three years, following a vote by the colleges board of trustees to extend his contract. When college Trustee Ann Ransford voted recently on Viars contract extension, she said she was approving the contract with great pleasure. Meanwhile, fellow Trustee Armine Hacopian jokingly said to Viar, Youre chained to this college. For his part, Viar said he is proud to remain as the colleges superintendent/president, a role he was first hired for in 2013, having moved to Glendale from Sacramento, where he was president of American River College. I really am very honored to be serving Glendale Community College because our faculty and staff are focused on student success and meeting the needs of our community, he said when reached by phone on Friday. Follow us on Twitter to stay up to date with your community >> I am pleased to see the work being done on a variety of student success initiatives and the efforts to assure that all students are given an opportunity to succeed, he added. As part of his new contract, Viar will earn $270,324 a year through June 30, 2019. One of Viars key upcoming responsibilities appears to be emerging as college officials are considering asking Glendale voters to approve a general-obligation bond this November, and Viar said he is prepared to communicate the need for a bond. The trustees have not yet approved a formal resolution to back a bond plan or decided on the amount of money they would seek, but they are expected to make those decisions within the next couple of months. In a pamphlet mailed to residents this week, Viar stated how a bond could support the campus with technology upgrades and improvements to structures that were built over more than years ago. He also encouraged local residents to call or email him with questions or input. In addition to a possible bond passage, Viar said hes looking forward to drafting a new strategic plan for the college early next year to examine where we need to improve to stay at the top of the colleges in the greater Los Angeles region, he said. In addition, Viar said he aims for the college to serve as many people in the community as we can, with a diverse group of faculty and staff who reflect the students served by the college. Thats what we do, he said. Serve people, get them educated and moved on. In the meantime, Viar said he is happy to call Glendale home with his wife, Jane. We realize how special this community is, and were very pleased to be a part of it, he said. -- Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com Twitter: @kellymcorrigan MORE EDUCATION Glendale school officials weigh measures that could help fund local facilities, education College View School hosts its 10th annual car wash to raise money for field trips Glendale Unifieds pilot program for students with autism gets high marks We have just returned from spending two weeks in the breathtaking Burren area of northwest County Clare in Ireland. Most amazing of all was the beautiful rental home where we stayed in Ballyvaughan. From a back door, the property extended down to the Atlantic Ocean. The place was magnificently appointed throughout, with five bedrooms en suite. The weekly tab is perhaps on par with what it would cost for one couple to have a room in any three- or four-star hotel. Sycamore House, Burren Holidays, 011-353-65-682-7126, www.burrenholidays.com Marianne and Denis Garvey Santa Ana The well-dressed young men entered the trendy restaurant armed with guns, crude bombs and blades. When the 10-hour siege was over, 28 people were dead including at least one American and Bangladeshs attempts to underplay the threat posed by Islamist radicals lay in tatters. The hostage crisis and ensuing commando raid on a popular Dhaka eatery that ended early Saturday made it clear that Bangladesh has become a key battleground for militants inspired by the likes of Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attack. For the record: An earlier version of this article said that nine Japanese and seven Italians were among those killed in the standoff. The dead included seven Japanese and nine Italians. Army commandos rescued at least 13 people after the standoff. Advertisement One Bangladeshi witness said the attackers told him: You people dont have to be afraid; we came here to kill the non-Muslims. Most of the victims at the Holey Artisan Bakery in the upscale Gulshan neighborhood were foreigners, although the restaurant was packed with both expatriates and Bangladeshis eating dinner during the Ramadan holy month. Among those killed were nine Italians, seven Japanese, at least two Bangladeshis and an Indian. One of the Bangladeshis was also an American citizen. Two police officers were fatally shot by assailants at the start of the raid Friday night. Six assailants were killed in a gun battle with Bangladeshi security forces that began several hours later, prompting questions over the speed of the government response. One attacker was in government custody. A statement by Islamic State on Friday night said the attack targeted citizens of crusader nations. The Amaq News Agency, which is affiliated with the militant group, on Saturday released photos of the purported assailants, whom it described as Bangladeshis. The five men were shown smiling in front of an Islamic State flag and said to have been armed with knives, cleavers, assault rifles and hand grenades. Analysts said it was not immediately clear whether Islamic State had directed the attack. Over the last year, Islamic State and its rival, Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, claim to have carried out more than two dozen targeted killings in Bangladesh, mostly of foreigners, secular writers and religious minorities. Bangladeshs government has been sharply criticized for downplaying the assassinations, blaming them on rival Islamist political parties and making thousands of arrests that officials acknowledged were unconnected to the crimes. Prime Minister Sheik Hasina Wajed, in a televised address late Saturday, urged her fellow Bangladeshis to have faith in the government, and declared two days of national mourning. We dont want terrorism in Bangladesh, Hasina said. Referring to the killers, she said, I dont understand their beliefs what type of Muslims they are. The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Koran. Those who recited were spared. Rezaul Karim, describing what his son, Hasnat, had witnessed The State Department confirmed that a U.S. citizen was among those killed and said it supports Prime Minister Hasina in her commitment to combat violent extremism in Bangladesh. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dispatched a task force to Bangladesh to assist in the investigation. Japanese authorities have reportedly been concerned about the investigation into the killing of a Japanese citizen in Bangladesh in late 2015, which remains unsolved. Witnesses told news agencies that the armed men stormed into the restaurant and fired weapons into the air before going after individual patrons. The restaurants Argentine chef told a television station that he fled through a back door and escaped by jumping off the roof of the building. Residents in the Gulshan neighborhood, which houses diplomatic missions, hotels and upscale apartments along rutted, dimly lit streets, reported hearing explosions. A Bangladeshi military official, Brig. Gen. Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury, said militants used sharp weapons to kill the 20 hostages soon after they entered. A restaurant worker identified only as Alam told the Dhaka Tribune that he hid in a back office after the attack began. When the gunmen found him and several other employees, including a Japanese man, they directed the Bangladeshis to the main dining area but kept the Japanese man captive. Moments later, the witness said he heard a gunshot. Many of the other victims were reportedly killed execution-style. The hostages were given a test, according to the father of a Bangladeshi businessman who was rescued Saturday morning along with his family. The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Koran, Rezaul Karim told the Associated Press, describing what his son, Hasnat, had witnessed inside the restaurant. Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night. The others, he said, were tortured. More than 10 hours passed between the start of the raid and when Bangladeshs rapid-reaction army commandos entered the building. There was total pandemonium. Law enforcement had no clue what was going on, said one security analyst with knowledge of the situation, who requested anonymity to speak candidly. The use of knives and cleavers mirrored the sharp instruments used to hack to death dozens of individuals in targeted killings over the last two years. But this was by far the most complex attack Islamist militants had carried out in Bangladesh. A country of 160 million people, mainly Muslims, Bangladesh until recent years was held up as an example of economic development, having raised standards of living and improved public health thanks to a large garment manufacturing industry and international aid. But a prolonged political crisis has seen Hasinas government clamp down on rival parties, including Islamists, imprisoning many top leaders and executing others for crimes related to the countrys 1971 war of liberation from Pakistan. The U.S. and United Nations have described the special tribunal leading to the convictions as deeply flawed. Analysts say the clampdown has helped encourage domestic extremists who are inspired by the brazen attacks of Islamic State. Dhaka pre-Holey and post-Holey are going to be two different cities, the security analyst said. There has to be a realization that we are a high-threat environment now. Khan is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Bengali reported from Londonderry, Northern Ireland. ALSO As Bangladesh launches crackdown on killings, 62-year-old Hindu man becomes the latest victim Bangladesh may be the next proving ground for global jihadist groups Bangladeshs Al Qaeda branch claims killing of gay rights activist and friend Islamist militants suspected in slaying of professor in Bangladesh UPDATES: 4:38 p.m.: This article has been updated throughout with staff reporting This article was originally published at 11:39 a.m. Taiwans navy misfired a supersonic anti-ship missile Friday, killing the captain of a fishing boat, in the second anger-provoking incident in a week for Taiwans defenses and further irritating military rival China. Personnel aboard a navy corvette fired a Hsiung Feng III missile around 8.15 a.m. local time into the Taiwan Strait from near the southern city of Kaohsiung. It flew north about 40 nautical miles north and hit a Taiwanese fishing boat 25 minutes later. The captain was killed, and two Southeast Asian crew members were injured. The incident comes a week after three marines in Taiwan hanged a dog and videotaped its struggle at the end of a chain before throwing its body into the sea. The animal cruelty outraged thousands of netizens in Taiwan, prompting apologies from the marines involved and pledges from the military to prosecute them. Advertisement Fridays missile misfire, which drew a public apology from the Ministry of National Defense, alarmed China at a time when relations are at their most strained in more than eight years. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan despite seven decades of self-rule on the island and has threatened to take it by force, if needed. Taiwans 300,000 active military personnel regard China as their chief rival, and most of their drills and tests are designed to resist an attack from Chinese. Although the missile did not approach China, Beijings Taiwan policy chief, Zhang Zhijun, was quoted in Taiwanese media demanding an explanation for an incident he said would severely affect relations. China is 99 miles from Taiwan, across the strait at its narrowest point. Military spokesmen called the missile incident a breach of standard operating procedures likely caused by human error. However, the navy acknowledged a simulated target was in the direction where the missile flew. The governments China policymaking body said it had informed China of the launch. The government is dedicated to safeguarding peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits, and that hasnt changed, the agency said in a statement. We believe in facing this kind of incident, its obviously important to have communication with China to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and miscalculations. China will continue to fret but likely wont retaliate, analysts in Taiwan say. Certainly China will be on alert and pay greater attention, said Andrew Yang, secretary general with the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies think tank in Taiwan. But he said that given earlier tensions, its unlikely the two sides will establish a hotline to use in case of military accidents. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has irked China since she took office May 20 by not agreeing to Chinas conditions for dialogue that had taken relations to all-time highs over the past eight years. Tsai disputes Beijings precondition that both sides belong to a single China. Last month, apparently in response, China said it had called off even informal exchanges with Taiwan. Jennings is a special correspondent. MORE WORLD NEWS U.S.-backed rebels launched their first attack against Islamic State. They lost. Meet Boris Johnson, the man who could be Britains next prime minister Japanese porn industry says its very sorry that actress was coerced to have sex on camera Tens of thousands of people, some waving French baguettes and chanting, Hell no, we wont go, took to the streets of London on Saturday to express their anger at Britains referendum decision to leave the European Union. Holding banners aloft that both expressed their love for Europe (Cant live without EU) and contempt for the political leaders who led the Leave campaign (The lying cockwombles), the protesters marched two miles through the capital to Parliament Square. Yet more signs expressed dismay (Our future has been stolen), solidarity (Bridges not walls) or humor (No Brex please, were British). Demonstrators sang songs, stopped traffic and encouraged passing cars to honk their horns in support. Some decorated their faces like the EU flag blue with gold stars. In a salute to the continent, some signs used the French word for cheese, saying Fromage not Farage, a reference to the British Independence Party Leader Nigel Farage who is staunchly anti-EU. Advertisement Brexit opponents show their solidarity with Europe during a protest in London on Saturday. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times ) But it was unclear what effect their protest would have beyond being cathartic for those on the losing side since more than 46.5 million people cast ballots in the June 23 referendum, and 51.9% voted to leave, compared with 48.1% who voted to remain. Its very disappointing, said Jade Braithwaite, 21. The referendum was a vote about the future, and the young people of Britain feel we are being forced into a future that we deliberately voted against. We are worried that the values we were raised with as young Britons, values of unity and progression, are being thrown out by this referendum. London voted heavily to remain in the EU as did 75% of voters ages 18 to 24. By contrast, 61% of voters over 65 favored the so-called Brexit. But the crowd at Saturdays rally did not reflect those voting patterns. There were students, families, retirees and many who said they never normally attended protests but felt compelled to march. Im usually very much on the sidelines. Im certainly not a banner waver, said Sue Carpenter, 50, a filmmaker from London. But I woke up the morning after the referendum first of all feeling completely dismayed. Then I met all my European friends who said they didnt feel they were welcome. These are people who have lived in this country a long time. I thought this is really bad. Signs were out in force during Saturdays protest in London against Brexit. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times ) This was the first major protest since the referendum result sent shock waves through the financial markets. Those marching said they hoped to sway political leaders who do not legally have to enforce the referendum result, and vowed to keep protesting in coming weeks and months. Aside from the protests on the ground, a petition calling for a second referendum has also amassed more than 4 million signatures, making it the largest in British history. While it may force a debate in Parliament, and some voters have spoken of their regret or Bremorse for voting to leave, there is little sign a second referendum will actually happen. And Daniel Hannan, a Conservative member of the European Parliament, tweeted a warning that the pro-Brexit side would not be silenced easily. A gentle reminder, Remain friends, that more people voted to leave the EU than have voted for anything else, ever, he wrote. When Britain will invoke Article 50 to formally begin withdrawal from the EU is yet unknown, given that both the Conservative and Labor parties have been left in disarray. Prime Minister David Cameron immediately announced his resignation after the vote and the lead Brexit campaigner, Boris Johnson, said he would not stand for the leadership after his former campaign ally, Michael Gove, withdrew his support and put his own name forward instead. See more of our top stories on Facebook Meanwhile Labor lawmakers passed a vote of no confidence in their leader, Jeremy Corbyn, following what they saw as his lackluster campaigning for the Remain side. The blatant political backstabbing at a time the country needs stability and leadership was another reason why many of the people said they felt it was so important to take to the streets Saturday. We are an international laughingstock. This lot are a bunch of jokers, said Leonie Greene, 43, gesturing toward the Houses of Parliament. She noted that only a day before, ceremonies had taken place to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme in World War I, which left more than 1 million men dead or wounded. It was a stark reminder of the importance of European unity. Theyre making a mockery of how important these issues are, she added. Theyre making a mockery of this country. Boyle is a special correspondent. ALSO For thousands of Brits, France is home. But what happens after Brexit? In Britain, anxiety about immigration started long before the Brexit vote Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson withdraws from race to become Britains prime minister A suicide truck bomb in downtown Baghdad killed 115 people and wounded nearly 200 others who were out shopping and celebrating early Sunday ahead of the holiday marking the end of Ramadan, security and medical officials said. The attack, claimed by Islamic State, was the deadliest in months in the Iraqi capital, and came despite a series of recent gains against the extremists, including the capture of Fallujah, which was believed to have been a source of such attacks. Elsewhere in Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off in the mostly Shiite Shaab neighborhood, killing five people and wounding 16, another police officer said. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of Islamic State militants. Advertisement The larger attack happened shortly after midnight in a crowded shopping area in the central Karada district, killing at least 115 people and wounding 187, according to a police official. The dead included at least 15 children, 10 women and six policemen. At least twelve other people were still missing and feared dead. Karada is a major commercial area lined with clothing and jewelry stores, restaurants and cafes, and was packed with shoppers ahead of Wednesdays Eid holiday marking the end of Ramadan. Most of the victims were inside a multi-story shopping and amusement mall, where dozens burned to death or suffocated, police said. It was the deadliest attack in Iraq since July 2015 and among the worst single bombings in more than a decade of war and insurgency. It was like an earthquake, said Karim Sami, a 35-year-old street vendor. I wrapped up my goods and was heading home when I saw a fireball with a thunderous bombing, the father of three said. I was so scared to go back and started to make phone calls to my friends, but none answered. He said that one of his friends was killed, another was wounded and one was still missing. As with many previous attacks, Islamic State swiftly claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement posted online, saying it had targeted Shiite Muslims. The Associated Press could not verify the authenticity of the statement, but it was posted on a militant website commonly used by the extremists. Firefighters and civilians could be seen carrying the dead away, their bodies wrapped in blankets and sheets. Smoke billowed from the shopping center, which was surrounded by the twisted and burned wreckage of cars and market stalls. A group of women were sitting on the pavement, crying for their loved ones. The Sunni extremists frequently target the countrys Shiite majority and Shiite-led security forces, viewing them as apostates deserving of death. Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures from both attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters. The attacks came just a little over a week after Iraqi forces declared Fallujah fully liberated, marking a major victory against Islamic State. The city, less than an hours drive from Baghdad, had been the first Iraqi urban center to fall to Islamic State, in January 2014, and was its last major stronghold in the vast, Sunni Anbar province. On Sunday, the Joint Military Operation Command announced that government forces retook seven villages south of the Islamic State-held city of Mosul as part of a small-scale operation started in March aimed at clearing areas outside the city to cut supply lines and enable more troops to be deployed ahead of a major operation. Mosul, Iraqs second-largest city, fell to Islamic State when the militants swept across northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014. It is the largest city in the groups self-styled caliphate. Hours after the Baghdad bombing, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi and lawmakers visited the blast site. Video footage uploaded to social media showed an angry crowd, with people calling Abadi a thief and shouting at his convoy. Eyewitnesses said the crowd pelted Abadis car with rocks, shoes and jerry cans. The prime minister had received a rare boost after the Fallujah campaign following months of anti-government protests over political gridlock, official corruption and poor public services. He faced renewed criticism in Karada on Sunday over lax security in the capital, where security forces at checkpoints still use bomb-detecting wands that were shown to be useless years ago. We are in a state of war, and these places are targeted. The security cant focus on the war (against Islamic State) and forget Baghdad, Sami, the street vendor, said. The U.N. envoy for Iraq, Jan Kubis, described the Karada attack as a cowardly and heinous act of unparalleled proportions and urged the Iraqi government to redouble its security efforts to protect Iraqis during the Eid celebrations. Islamic State militants who have suffered defeats at the battlefront are seeking to avenge their losses by targeting vulnerable civilians, Kubis added. The White House also condemned the bombings. These attacks only strengthen our resolve to support Iraqi security forces as they continue to take back territory from ISIL, just as we continue to intensify our efforts to root out ISILs terrorist network and leaders, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement, using an acronym for Islamic State. At the height of the extremist groups power in 2014,Islamic State rendered nearly a third of Iraq out of government control. Now, the militants are estimated to control 14% of Iraqi territory, according to the prime ministers office. ALSO Twin suicide bombings kill 30 in Kabul At least 41 killed in suicide attack at Istanbul airport, officials say 14 Nepalese guards killed in suicide blast in Afghanistan UPDATES: 10:34 a.m.: Updated with new details throughout. 9:15 a.m.: This article was updated with the increased death toll. 5:51 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from the the United Nations special envoy to Iraq. 5:18 a.m.: This article was updated with higher death tolls and quotes from eyewitnesses. 1:22 a.m. July 3: This article was updated with higher death tolls and Prime Minister Haider Abadis visit. 7:07 p.m. July 2: This article was updated with new death tolls and other details throughout. This article was originally posted at 4:14 p.m. July 2. Fathi Bayoudh battled for months to save his only son from Islamic State, whose ranks he had joined as a volunteer in Iraq and Syria. This week, Bayoudh, a respected Tunisian doctor and military officer, thought the nightmare was finally drawing to a close. Authorities in Turkey, the country bordering Islamic States territory in Syria, had 27-year-old Anouar Bayoudh in custody. His parents were on their way to see him for the first time in nearly a year. Advertisement It was not to be. Bayoudh was waiting to pick up his wife at Istanbuls Ataturk airport Tuesday night when three suicide bombers stormed the airport and unleashed a hail of gunfire and explosions. He was one of 44 people killed in an attack Turkish officials say was unleashed by the very militants who had lured away his son. Hundreds of men turned out Friday to escort the ambulance that carried Bayoudh, 65, to his final resting place in Ksour Essef, a small town about a three-hour drive from the capital, Tunis. Mostly, they walked in silence. But the occasional cry of Allahu Akbar God is great grew into a resounding chorus as they entered the sparse, mud-baked graveyard. The death of Bayoudh, chief of pediatrics at the military hospital in Tunis, was felt deeply in this small North African nation, where the flight of young people into the ranks of Islamic State has become a national tragedy. Across Tunisia, families like the Bayoudhs, who were raised in a tradition of religious moderation and coexistence, are grappling with the incomprehensible loss of their children to an organization fundamentally opposed to the principles that have defined their lives. Tunisia, the birthplace of the pro-democracy movements that swept the Middle East and North Africa in 2011, is considered a rare bright spot amid the mostly grim landscape that has emerged in the post Arab Spring era. Unlike elsewhere in the region, secular and Islamist leaders here have worked together to advance political transformation, a quest that earned four civil society groups a Nobel Peace Prize last year. Still, poverty and joblessness remain widespread, and many young people have grown embittered by unfulfilled promises. As many as 6,000 Tunisians have joined Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq in recent years, according to a report issued last year by the Soufan Group, a New York-based security consultancy. While many often assume that it is among the poorest and most marginalized that Islamic State recruiters stalk their prey, the call to violent jihad cuts across all social classes, said Mohamed Iqbel Ben Rejeb, president of the Rescue Association for Tunisians Trapped Abroad, a group that mediates between affected families and the Tunisian authorities. Anouar Bayoudh, the only child of a comfortable, middle class family, was no exception. According to the young mans mother, Saida Bayoudh, he did not grow up particularly religious. He didnt even pray regularly, she told the French news agency Agence France-Presse, as she received mourners Thursday at the family home in a well-to-do suburb of Tunis. But he was a good person, polite and respectful. Saida Bayoudh speaks to reporters outside her home in Ksour Essef, Tunisia, days after her husband, Fathi, was killed in the attacks on the Istanbul airport. Fathi Bayoudh was in Turkey hoping to see his son, who had joined Islamic State. (Simon Speakman Cordall / For The Times ) Opinions differ about how Anouar Bayoudh became radicalized. An aunt said that a number of young men were brainwashed at a neighborhood mosque. Other family members claimed that the young man fell in with a militant woman and grew progressively more angry and aggressive in the months before he left Tunisia. He used to spend time with my daughters, laughing and joking, but that stopped, Toumi Abedallah, a cousin of Anouars father, said at Fridays funeral. When I met him, his morality had changed. He had started staying away from people, he had started hating them. What seems clear is that he was a young man adrift. He studied medicine for a time and also attended aviation school. Then, after a period of unemployment, he embarked on a business administration course. It would have come as no surprise when he told his parents last fall that he was going to Switzerland for two weeks for a management internship. His mother is now convinced that the offer was a ruse fabricated by Islamic State to ensnare her son. At first, the couple received daily calls from Geneva, but later Anouar stopped answering the phone, Saida Bayoudh told reporters Friday outside the family home in Ksour Essef. Worried, they consulted the Tunisian Embassy in Switzerland and learned that Anouar had left at the beginning of November for Turkey, apparently in the company of the militant woman hed met in Tunisia. A little more than a month later, he called his parents to say that he and his fiancee were with Islamic State in Iraq, where he had been assigned to an infirmary to tend to the wounded. They were devastated. For months, Fathi Bayoudh pleaded with his son to come home. Eventually, the tone of Anouars messages started to change. He told his parents that Islamic State was a scam, and he was afraid of these monsters. In February, they learned that he had crossed the border into Syria and was in the Islamic States self-declared capital, Raqqa. Still, the calls kept coming. Anouar told his parents that Islamic State commanders were recruiting everyone to go to the frontline and begged his father to help him, to save him, to get him out of there, his mother said. The couple reached out to everyone they could think of: government officials in Tunisia and Turkey, even Interpol. Finally, contacts in Syria managed to help Anouar and his fiancee escape Raqqa and surrender to the Free Syrian Army, an anti-government group that is also opposed to Islamic State. They were detained for about two months, during which Fathi Bayoudh made frequent trips to Turkey to try to negotiate their return to Tunisia. On Monday, his mother said, he finally received word that their son was in Turkish custody near the countrys border with Syria. He was overjoyed and urged his wife to come quickly to Istanbul. She thought they would come home together. Instead, she made the journey alone with her husbands flag-draped coffin. My husband did the impossible to save his son, she said, looking drawn and pale. On Thursday, there came word that the Turkish authorities had agreed to a request to extradite Anouar and his fiancee to Tunisia. They are expected back within a week, the state-run Tunis Afrique Presse news agency reported. Friends and colleagues celebrated the news on Twitter and Facebook, sharing remembrances of the stern but kindly doctor and posting snapshots of him on humanitarian missions at home and abroad. You were always the loving father and you never let go, Ali Gannoun, a university professor in Montpellier, France, wrote in a post that was shared more than 7,000 times on Facebook. For many months, you never stopped fighting to get back your son from the murderous mercenaries who indoctrinated him, it said. Rest in peace Fethi, you succeeded! Special correspondent Cordall reported from Ksour Essef and Times staff writer Zavis from Los Angeles. alexandra.zavis@latimes.com Twitter: @alexzavis ALSO U.S. congressman: Chechen extremist behind Istanbul attack U.S.-backed rebels launched their first attack against Islamic State. They lost Two officers killed as attackers storm Bangladesh restaurant and take hostages On Friday afternoon, Madelyn Dundon found herself back on the Bethlehem Catholic theater's stage. It's not a place the 18-year-old alum expected to return to so soon. But it seemed a fitting place to celebrate her casting as the lead role in the indie film "Getting Grace," which is being made in the Lehigh Valley this summer. The film is the project of another BECA alum and Bethlehem native Daniel Roebuck. The actor and producer is making his directorial debut with the movie, set to begin filming July 12. "I'm insanely honored and humbled to be given this part," Dundon said. Roebuck's cast five local children in the movie along with four local women. And Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts recent grad Ana Railoa has been tapped to paint a signature piece that plays a role in the film. The movie tells the story of a 16-year-old girl dying from cancer, who visits a funeral home to learn what will happen to her after she dies and ends up teaching the funeral director, played by Roebuck, how to live. Dundon will play Grace, who is modeled off of Roebuck's own daughter. "Grace is a very unique soul," said Dundon, who has been nominated for five Freddy Awards and won two. She's agreed to cut off her long, beautiful hair and shave her head for the role, Roebuck said. "It doesn't seem really important (in light of the opportunity)," she said. Ironically, Roebuck directed Dundon's father in a one-act play when he was 13. Dundon asked her dad to put in a good word when news of the local casting call went out. The movie was originally set in Michigan but Roebuck pushed for it to be filmed locally. He's promised residents will recognize many local haunts, like St. Luke's Hospital and Herron Funeral Home. "This is going to be a love letter to the Lehigh Valley," Roebuck said. During the casting, Roebuck's been blown away by the talented kids he's encountered. "I wanted to know who they were," Roebuck said. Charter Arts junior Jacob Williams, who plays Doug, a teen sick with cancer, said he was napping in study hall when his teacher Diane Wagner, who is playing a mother in the film, woke him to come meet Roebuck. He went into a casting call and found out he got the part yesterday, Jacob said. Jacob has little acting experience, besides a few school plays -- he's studying guitar at Charter Arts -- but he brings something to the role, Roebuck said. Lincoln Elementary School student Wyatt Root, 11, who will play Vincent, got the acting bug in 2012 attending the Civic Theater school and he's starred in many school plays. Alexa Mcfillin, 12, of Allentown, said she has very little acting experience but she could relate to the casting call for a girl that is short for her age. "I'm very excited to discover a new part of Audrey," Alexa said. Roebuck said he's never seen such a young child who takes direction like Alexa. Moravian Academy student Colin Moore, 9, of Bethlehem, noted that before he began his audition he made Roebuck laugh. "I guess I'm really funny," Colin said, causing the crowd to laugh with him. "Colin is, what we call in the business, a natural," Roebuck quipped. Four-year-old Preston Jude Edwards has an impressive acting resume already for such a small person. He will be playing Roebuck's nephew and Roebuck predicts he is going to steal any scene he's in. Filming for the movie is expected to last almost a month. Locals can sign up to be extras on the movie's website or find out how to donate to the film's IndieGoGo campaign. Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and on Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. The man suspected in 10 previous southeastern Pennsylvania bank robberies struck again Saturday, according to the FBI. In his first heist in almost exactly a year, the Straw Hat Bandit at 10:10 a.m. robbed a PNC Bank branch in North Wales at gunpoint, ordering customers to the floor and running away with an undisclosed amount of cash, the FBI said in a news release. The Montgomery County borough is about 30 miles south of Allentown. Help #FBI I.D. armed serial bank robber who struck again today. W/M 50+, 6'-6'2". FBI/215-418-4000 $10K PNC #reward pic.twitter.com/0brbfMYVDL FBI Philadelphia (@FBIPhiladelphia) July 2, 2016 The robber concealed his face with a tan hat and makeshift fabric mask with eyeholes cut out. He is described as a white male in his 50s or older, between 6 feet and 6 feet 2 inches tall with a muscular or stocky build. He wore a dark suit jacket over a light-colored dress shirt and navy tie, dark pants and shoes and white rubber gloves. Named for a previous disguise, the Straw Hat Bandit is believed to be responsible for a series of bank holdups dating back to 2012 in Montgomery and Bucks counties, the most recent before Saturday being July 3, 2015, in Dresher, Pennsylvania, the FBI said. The suspect is considered armed and dangerous. PNC Bank is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the bandit's capture and conviction, and a reward from law enforcement may also be offered, the FBI said. Anyone with information about Saturday's holdup is asked to call the FBI at 215-418-4000 or the Montgomery Township Police Department at 215-362-2301. Tipsters can remain anonymous. Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Downtown Easton Gift Card program announced Kim Kmetz, left, manager of the Easton Main Street Initiative, looks on as Amy Boccadoro, assistant manager for Easton Main Street, explains the Downtown Easton Gift Card during a news conference at Pearly Bakers Alehouse. (Express-Times Photo | BILL ADAMS) TROPHIES Congratulations to , which was recognized this week as the best performing Main Street program in 2015 in Pennsylvania. The nationally accredited Main Street Initiative, a subsidiary of the Greater Easton Development Partnership, helps to organize and promote many downtown events and activities, and keep the streetscape clean and attractive. It was selected as the best among 40 Main Street programs in the state by the Pennsylvania Downtown Center. Lehigh University professor played a role in the recent discovery of Kepler-1647b -- a large planet that orbits two suns, many light years from Earth. The Jupiter-sized orb is in the "habitable zone" in which liquid water may exist, leading astronomers to believe that its moons could support life. Because it is in a binary solar system, it has drawn comparisons to Tatooine, the fictional home of Star Wars protagonist Luke Skywalker. The discovery was notable for the crowd-sourcing approach Pepper and fellow scientists employed, involving 40 professionals, several universities and a crew of amateur astronomers from four continents. "People who are excited about science and really enthusiastic about science ... they usually don't have a chance to contribute to cutting-edge discoveries," Pepper said. TURKEYS have hit upon a local connection, telling people they're in line for a $2 million donation from Senior District Judge James Stocklas of Bethlehem, who bought a winning Powerball ticket worth $191 million while he was vacationing in Florida in March. Bethlehem Police Chief Chief Mark DiLuzio said the offer is a fake, one of many phishing attempts that try to lure unwary people into responding. Anyone who sees such a come-on should resist the urge to click on any link or attachments, and refrain from opening the email if possible. Residents of Raritan Township learned this week that the has been paying health insurance coverage for one of the authority's five part-time commissioners. The Township Committee demanded that the authority terminate the health benefits, which cost $20,000 a year for a job that pays $2,100 and entails about five hours of work a week. Committeeman Lou Reiner said ratepayers shouldn't be billed for a commissioner's "Cadillac benefits package." Two years, $7 million, 800 pages. This week the issued its report on the 2012 attack on the American diplomatic compound in Libya. No surprise -- the redundant effort uncovered almost nothing that hadn't been aired before. The committee conducted numerous interviews and went back over the work of investigations by Congress and the Obama administration. Certainly the Benghazi attack and U.S. military response was worth probing, and previous investigations yielded valuable insights and criticisms. Two dissenting members of the committee issued their own findings, but Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., avoided any mention of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in his press conference about the report. This series of investigations -- the latest of which stands as a partisan attempt to discredit Clinton -- has now run longer than investigations into the 9/11 attacks, the Kennedy assassination and the Japanese strike at Pearl Harbor. TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie late Thursday declared a state of emergency and ordered state officials to plan a shutdown of all ongoing work paid for by the nearly broke Transportation Trust Fund. Christie's order came at the end of a day where the state Senate refused to take action on his offer to raise the gasoline tax by 23 cents a gallon in exchange for a 1-cent reduction in the sales tax. He is instructing the Department of Transportation and NJ Transit leaders to submit plans by the end of the day Saturday for an "immediate and orderly shutdown of all ongoing work." All state and municipal roadwork supported by the trust fund will halt according to those plans and can only resume if deemed essential for "the protection of the health, safety and welfare" of the public. In his executive order, Christie placed blame on the Senate and slammed its leadership for refusing to go along with his proposal in favor of their own, which would raise the gas tax by the same amount but reduce different taxes. The Assembly approved Christie's plan in the early morning hours Tuesday after he and Speaker Vincent Prieto struck a compromise. "The Senate's inaction ignored the benefits the package would bring to the overburdened taxpayers of New Jersey," Christie said in a statement. "The Senate's inaction also ignored New Jersey's necessary transportation infrastructure improvements, as well as the hundreds of private-sector workers who came to Trenton today with their jobs hanging in the balance." The transportation commissioner estimated in April the trust fund, which pays for road, bridge and rail projects across the state, would have about $85 million left at the end of June, enough to keep construction going through early August. Christie's order would prioritize that remaining money for essential projects, though federally funded projects could continue. It is necessary, he said, "to take action before the funds are depleted and carefully ration the existing funds of the (Transportation Trust Fund Authority) to obtain the greatest effect out of those remaining dollars." Christie released the order after 11 p.m. Thursday. Legislative leaders could not be reached for comment. The state Senate adjourned Thursday afternoon without taking action on the governor's tax plan. Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said only a few lawmakers in either party would go along with it. Sweeney met with Christie in the early evening but emerged declaring the two houses miles apart. Christie offered his version in response to the Senate plan, until Monday afternoon considered the leading proposal to generate funding for the trust fund, because he didn't think the tax cuts went far enough. That proposal would have eliminated the estate tax, created a tax deduction for charitable giving, expanded a tax credit for the working poor and raised the retirement income tax exclusion. Wanting a more broad-based cut, Christie introduced the sales tax into the conversation, pushing aside the Senate version and proposing to reduce the sales tax from 7 percent to 6 percent by 2018 and raise the retirement income tax threshold. Senators balked at that tax cut, which would cost the state up to $2 billion in revenue annually within years. Sweeney said his members were "vehemently" against it. The Senate's own proposal is estimated to cost the state $870 million a year once fully implemented. While the trust fund's authorization expired Thursday, lawmakers stressed they had at least a month until the money runs out and said negotiations would pick up again in mid-July. Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Tim Farron led a noisy Liberal Democrat contingent at the March for Europe in London today. From Facebook: Unfortunately the BBC couldnt fit him on their list of speakers at the event, but speak he did. He was clear that the UK needed to stay in the EU for our childrens futures. .@timfarron speaking passionately in Parliament Square to the #marchforeurope UK in EU for our children's future. pic.twitter.com/UwQ7s1S0BS Lindsay Northover (@LPNorthover) July 2, 2016 Interesting choice of sign behind his head: Lib Dem MP Tim Farron at #marchforeurope (I'm more impressed by the sign behind his head) pic.twitter.com/PwAXHGsaVu Georgina Rannard (@lapicescongoma) July 2, 2016 And talking of our childrens futures, the party is campaigning to save Erasmus, the programme under which young people across Europe can study in other EU countries. Add your name here. Tim said: Exchange programmes like Erasmus work to erode the culturally rooted mistrust that sets nations against nation. Erasmus stands as an avenue of hope for future cooperation. This is why the Liberal Democrats are launching this campaign to protect students rights to access it even if we leave Europe. Tens of thousands of students starting university in September will be hoping for the chance to take part in this scheme, and we call on the government to confirm that they will be able to do so, Brexit or not. Earlier this week, Erasmus, the EHIC card and the European Arrest Warrant were the focus of Willie Rennies questions to Nicola Sturgeon in the Scottish Parliament. Watch here from about 27:20. He also launched a pretty devastating attack on the Tories who could not have the cheek to claim that they are defenders of the union. * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings This is just to follow up my earlier post to talk about why we marched today. These are my personal views. Since the referendum, there has been an increase in racial abuse directed at people in this country. One of the things I was marching for was to stay loud and clear that immigrants are welcome in this country. Secondly, I was marching for the 48% of people who voted remain, to say that we stand with you, we believe the UKs future lies in positive co-operation with our European partners. I was marching to say clearly that we believe that whatever settlement is worked through, visa vis our relations with the rest of Europe, we need to have those principles of co-operation and tolerance at the centre of our thinking. I was certainly not marching against the 52% of people who voted in the referendum, by the way. Indeed, I was marching for them. Surely they want everyone in the country to be involved in informing the debate which is now ongoing about our future. It seems a very positive way forward to me. Do I not support democracy? I have said earlier: We had a very long referendum campaign with an extremely thorough thrashing out of every conceivable angle of debate. It was on the telly, radio and social media at breakfast, lunch and supper time for months. Everybody had a chance to have their say. The turnout was massive. The result was clear. We are a union the United Kingdom so the majority prevails. End of. The people have spoken. Trust the people. I hope that is clear. I stand by that. But as we approach the thousands of decisions which will need to be taken, it is right that democracy continues beyond a simple referendum, and continues to inform our elected representatives through all forms of activities, including marches. We need to bear in mind that parliament is sovereign thats what many people voted leave for to maintain the sovereignity of our parliament. So it is right that our representatives now consider all the many issues, and the march today was to help inform that process. What about the cost of policing the march? Well, I am sure that if leave had lost by a narrow margin, they would be screaming from the roof tops about it. Democracy does not end at the ballot box. If tens of thousands of people feel strongly enough to give up their Saturdays to march for Europe, then it is right that policing is provided, as it is for a hundred and one other causes day-in-day-out throughout the year. * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings. Our place to talk an independent website for supporters of the Liberal Democrat party in the UK. The most-read independent website by and for Lib Dem supporters. Not paid for by trade unions or millionaires. LIKE many British people in the aftermath of my countrys decision to leave the European Union (EU), I was horrified by the reckless choice the electorate made. In the run up to the referendum on Britains continued membership of the now 27-member bloc, I had decided, in the event of Britain voting to leave, I would seek Irish citizenship. My main reason for doing this was to ensure I remained a European citizen, and thus enjoy the benefits it brings: freedom of travel and the ability to work in any EU country should I wish, being the main two. But what I have seen in Britain before and after the vote has made me deeply uneasy about my homeland and made me even more determined to take out dual citizenship. It upsets me that up to 17 million people were prepared to buy into the nasty, parochial, small-minded narrative put forward by the Leave campaign. And the way some communities of non-nationals in Britain have been treated in the aftermath of the vote has alarmed me. Having lived in Limerick for eight years, I would not imagine Irish people, if faced with the same choice, would buy into such irrational, xenophobic jingoism, and decide to say goodbye to their European neighbours. That said, I genuinely never expected to be making this choice. Despite a tight race up to the end, I imagined any undecided voters may decide to stick with the EU, rather than face into what is panning out to be a very uncertain future in Britain. Surely, we would not pull the plug on a relationship with so many benefits for our island? Sadly, this is exactly what happened, with the devastating result being confirmed just before five oclock on Friday morning. While I will always be proud to be British and will never renounce my UK citizenship I also feel very privileged to be European. Here in Limerick, I have friends from Poland, Latvia, France and many other nations, relationships which would have never been allowed to blossom were it not for the European Union. More importantly, freedom of movement in the EU made it easier for me to come and work for the Limerick Leader back in 2008. Thanks to the EU, I am free to live here without red tape and bureaucracy. I have also been fortunate enough to travel around the continent, availing of cheap fares no doubt made easier because of the single market, and open skies. But overall, I believe in an ever changing world, groups of nations need to stand together. I believe in the broad principles of the European Union. Another source of disappointment to me is the campaigning of the Remain side. They relied far too heavily on the now infamous Project Fear, and too little celebration of what Europe has done for communities. Electorates around the world do not like to be threatened and I believe many people voted to leave because of this. This week, I have started the process of taking out dual citizenship. Unlike many people of Irish descent living in Britain who can procure an Irish passport with a simple form, the path I am going down with no immediate Irish relatives is a lot more complicated, and could take over six months. I am lucky though: the option to retain a European passport is not open to many of my compatriots who voted to stay. Jul 2, 2016, 7 AM An 1862 cover to Shanghai franked with stamps of the 1861 issue sold for $35,800 at the May 30 Gaertner sale in New York City. The only sound off-cover example of the Baton Rouge, La., Confederate postmasters provisional stamp was sold May 30 by the Christoph Gaertner auction firm of Germany. The stamp garnered $108,000 at the sale at World Stamp Show-NY 2016. Also offered at the Gaertner auction was this provisional stamp from Goliad, Texas, which sold for $27,000. The Gaertner auction in New York City included examples of the 1845-47 St. Louis Bears postmasters provisional stamps. This pen-canceled 20 stamp sold for $32,400. By Matthew Healey, New York Correspondent They came, they saw, they raised their paddles. For the tens of thousands of visitors attending World Stamp Show-NY 2016, a remarkable string of auctions by five different firms over six days brought excitement and opportunity during late May and early June. Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries kicked off the action on Sunday, May 29, with a pair of big-name sales: the William H. Gross collection of Hawaii, and the second part of the Steven Walske collection of trans-Atlantic mail between the United States and France. Christoph Gaertner, of Germany, picked up the gavel on Monday, May 30, with a day-long session devoted to worldwide rarities that included an impressive selection of U.S. and Confederate postmasters provisionals. Siegel resumed on Tuesday, May 31, with a record-breaking sale of the highest-graded example of the iconic American airmail rarity, the Inverted Jenny, followed by other U.S. rarities. Wednesday, June 1, saw Schuyler Rumsey celebrate his firms 20th anniversary with a sale of U.S. and worldwide rarities, including U.S. Official issues collected by Robert L. Markovits, while Thursday saw the Daniel F. Kelleher firms offering of the Alfred J. Capurro collection of worldwide, mostly mint stamps. H.R. Harmer, a member of the Global Philatelic Network, wrapped things up on Friday, June 3, with the award-winning Erivan Haub collection of U.S. and Confederate postmasters provisionals, among many other items. Linn's Stamp News is breaking them all down in a multi-part U.S. Auction Roundup series: Robert A. Siegel, Part I, May 29 | Robert A. Siegel, Part II, May 31 | Schuyler Rumsey, June 1 | H.R. Harmer, July 3 Among the highlights of Gaertners daylong sale were some rare Confederate postmasters provisionals. Not long after Southern states began seceding from the United States at the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, the North declared that all U.S. stamps remaining in Southern post offices would be invalid for postage. As it took the Confederate government a while to produce its first national stamp issue, local postmasters stepped in and produced their own. The great majority were crudely made by repurposing postmarks and other available handstamps, but a few were somewhat fancier, printed in local type shops using movable type and typographic ornaments. Connect with Linns Stamp News: Sign up for our newsletter Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Baton Rouge, La., fell into the latter category, with charming 2, 5 and 10 designs in a square format. The 10 (Scott 11X4) is known from only three examples one on cover and two off with only one of the off-cover stamps, the one offered by Gaertner, being sound. It sold for 97,600, including the 22 percent buyers premium added by Gaertner to all lots, or about $108,000. (Amazingly, the sole on-cover example was offered in another sale later in the week.) A 10 provisional stamp from Goliad, Texas, on a small piece with town postmark alongside, also one of just three known, sold for $27,000. The Confederacy was not the only entity to see provisional stamps issued by postmasters. Less than 20 years earlier, after Congress had authorized new, reduced national postage rates but before the government in Washington had issued any stamps, postmasters in numerous cities and towns across the United States had taken similar interim steps. St. Louis was once such place. Three stamps featuring a quaint rendition of Missouris heraldry, with a pair of bears holding a shield, were issued from 1845-47. A 20 St. Louis Bears stamp on gray-lilac paper (Scott 11X6), canceled with a pair of pen strokes and described as a most attractive and fine copy, sold for $32,400, while a similarly used 5 (11X4) with copious margins brought $28,350. Among postal history, an 1862 cover to Shanghai stood out for its high franking. The letter was paid with a 90, 12 and two 3 stamps of the 1861 issue (Scott 72, 69, 65), totaling $1.08 for a letter weighing between and ounces sent via American packet ship to England. A red datestamp reading N. York Am. Pkt. Paid/Jun 21 shows when it left the United States. It passed through London on the Fourth of July, then proceeded via Marseilles and on to Hong Kong, reaching Shanghai on Aug. 24. Covers bearing Scott 72 are scarce; covers to China with Scott 72 even more so. The one in the Gaertner sale sold for $35,800. After you finish the U.S. Auction Roundup, check out our International Auction Roundup: Christoph Gaertners WSS-NY 2016 auction totals $5.74 million Possibly the rarest classic imperforate stamp of British North America highlights Schuyler Rumsey WSS-NY 2016 sale Kellehers WSS-NY 2016 sale topped by high-denomination World War I-era overprint H.R. Harmer sells first piece of mail from the first German expedition to Antarctica Jul 1, 2016, 4 PM The May 29 Robert A. Siegel auction of the Steven Walske collection of trans-Atlantic mail included an 1853 cover from Paris to Massachusetts franked with a strip of six of the 1849 1-franc Ceres stamp, which sold for $34,500. Mailed in 1857 from Hawaii to Persia (present-day Iran), this cover franked with a single Hawaii 5 provisional stamp and a United States 10 stamp sold for $138,000. An 1850 cover franked with a tete-beche pair of the French 1-franc Ceres stamp sold for $63,250 during the sale of the Walske collection. On this piece of Hawaii postal history from the William H. Gross collection, five examples of the provisional manuscript 5 surcharge on the 13 King Kamehameha III issue of 1857 pay the quintuple rate for a letter weighing between 2 ounces and 2 ounces An unusual pale shade of the 1-franc Ceres stamp was used in a strip of three to frank this 1849 cover to the United States. Called the highlight of Walskes collection, it sold in the Siegel auction for $97,750. The May 29 Robert A. Siegel auction of the William H. Gross collection of Hawaii included this prestamp cover mailed in 1820 that sold for $29,900 at the sale held at World Stamp Show-NY 2016. This unused 5 Missionary stamp with a small n in Cents was offered in the May 29 Siegel auction. The only sound example of the 5 known, it sold for $46,000. By Matthew Healey, New York Correspondent They came, they saw, they raised their paddles. For the tens of thousands of visitors attending World Stamp Show-NY 2016, a remarkable string of auctions by five different firms over six days brought excitement and opportunity during late May and early June. Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries kicked off the action on Sunday, May 29, with a pair of big-name sales: the William H. Gross collection of Hawaii, and the second part of the Steven Walske collection of trans-Atlantic mail between the United States and France. Christoph Gaertner, of Germany, picked up the gavel on Monday, May 30, with a day-long session devoted to worldwide rarities that included an impressive selection of U.S. and Confederate postmasters provisionals. Siegel resumed on Tuesday, May 31, with a record-breaking sale of the highest-graded example of the iconic American airmail rarity, the Inverted Jenny, followed by other U.S. rarities. Wednesday, June 1, saw Schuyler Rumsey celebrate his firms 20th anniversary with a sale of U.S. and worldwide rarities, including U.S. Official issues collected by Robert L. Markovits, while Thursday saw the Daniel F. Kelleher firms offering of the Alfred J. Capurro collection of worldwide, mostly mint stamps. H.R. Harmer, a member of the Global Philatelic Network, wrapped things up on Friday, June 3, with the award-winning Erivan Haub collection of U.S. and Confederate postmasters provisionals, among many other items. Linn's Stamp News is breaking them all down in a multi-part U.S. Auction Roundup series: Christoph Gaertner, May 30 | Robert A. Siegel, Part II, May 31 | Schuyler Rumsey, June 1 | H.R. Harmer, July 3 The sale of the Gross collection of Hawaii was previously reported in the June 2 daily edition of Linns Stamp News prepared and distributed to attendees while World Stamp Show-NY 2016 was still going on. It included rarities from the earliest Missionary issues of 1851 up to rare provisional-government overprint errors of 1893. As with all seven previous auctions of Grosss worldwide stamp collection and the recent private-treaty sale of his Swiss collection, proceeds went to charity in this case, the Hawaii Foodbank and the Smithsonians National Postal Museum, among others. The sale was arranged and conducted for Siegel by the team of Charles Shreve and Tracy L. Carey, who have worked with Gross for two decades to build and then disperse his stamp holdings. Connect with Linns Stamp News: Sign up for our newsletter Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter The sale began with prestamp postal history, including an 1820 cover that was said to have been the first letter to arrive back in the United States from missionaries in what were then called the Sandwich Islands. A modest starting bid of $13,000 was quickly run up to double that amount, with Carey hammering it down for $26,000, plus the 15 percent buyers premium Siegel adds to all lots, for a total of $29,900. Hawaiis first stamps of 1851, known as the Missionaries, were well represented in the Gross collection by both unused and on-cover examples. An unused 5 Missionary (Scott 2), with a small n in Cents and the only sound 5 out of a total dozen known, sold for $46,000. Three covers bearing this stamp went for prices ranging from $51,750 to $97,750. The absolute highlight of the sale was the storied 1857 cover bearing a remarkable five examples of a provisional 5 manuscript surcharge on the 13 King Kamehameha III issue (Scott 7), along with four U.S. 10 stamps of 1855 (14, 15) and a 12 of 1851 (17). The mixed franking paid the quintuple rate for postage from the islands to California and thence to Massachusetts, plus a 2 ship captains fee. After spirited bidding, it sold for $253,000. Another cover with a single Hawaii 5 provisional and U.S. 10 stamp, mailed in 1857 to a missionary in the extraordinary destination of Oroomiah, Persia (today Urmi, Iran) sold for $138,000. With every item selling and winning bids well distributed among more than two dozen buyers, the total hammer was $1,576,575, or just over $1,813,000 with the buyers premiums. The room was packed with French speakers for the Walske sale, including three generations of the well-known Behr family of Parisian stamp dealers and auctioneers, whose paddle went up frequently as Siegel president Scott Trepel called the sale. The Walske collection documented every rate and route combination taken by the mails between the United States and France from 1840 to the advent of the Universal Postal Union in 1875. This time span covered a wide range of complex and hard-to-decipher frankings and markings, and the result was a testament to Walskes philatelic scholarship. Highlights included a magnificent 1853 cover sent from Paris to Groton, Mass., via New York, franked with a strip of six of the 1-franc value from Frances first issue, the Ceres design of 1849, in a special shade of cherry-red known as cerise (variety of Scott 9). Completing the franking was a pair of 25-centime President Louis Napoleon stamps (11). Early stamps of many countries were essentially handmade, and Frances were no exception. The colors of ink used could vary considerably, and specialist collectors, after extensive study, can often assign particular shades of color to particular printings and periods of use. The cerise shade of the 1fr has only been recorded as having been used in Paris during August 1853. Adding to the covers interest is the fact that it left France as a quintuple-rate letter, but on reaching the U.S. was assessed for American postage at a quadruple rate, owing to the different systems of weights and measures in each country. This is indicated by the large 20 stamped on the cover, meaning 20 was due: Letters could not be fully prepaid by their senders at that time, so each country collected its share of the postage. Steven keeps saying this is his favorite cover, and after looking at it for so long, its become my favorite too, announced Trepel, before gaveling it for $30,000, or $34,500 with premium. Among classic stamps of France, the collecting of tete-beche pairs has been popular since the 19th century. Tete-beche, which means head-to-tail in French, refers to pairs in which one stamp is upside-down in relation to the other. In the case of the Ceres issue, this occurred accidentally when one impression in a printing plate had to be repaired, and would be carelessly replaced inverted. Sometimes, inverted pairs wound up on cover, and these are highly desirable. An 1850 cover with a tete-beche pair of the 1fr dark carmine (Scott 9a), sent to New York on the steamer Arctic (which later sank with the loss of hundreds of lives), sold for $63,250. The high realization of the sale went to a letter carried via Liverpool to Philadelphia and franked with a strip of three of the scarce dull vermilion shade of the 1fr Ceres (variety of Scott 8). This pale shade was only in use briefly during 1849, and there was only a four-month window when this stamp could be used to prepay letters overseas. Just five covers sent outside France survive with this shade, and only one to the United States. Additionally, it is the second-largest multiple of this shade known on cover. Called the highlight of the Walske collection, it sold for $97,750. After you finish the U.S. Auction Roundup, check out our International Auction Roundup: Christoph Gaertners WSS-NY 2016 auction totals $5.74 million Possibly the rarest classic imperforate stamp of British North America highlights Schuyler Rumsey WSS-NY 2016 sale Kellehers WSS-NY 2016 sale topped by high-denomination World War I-era overprint H.R. Harmer sells first piece of mail from the first German expedition to Antarctica Jul 1, 2016, 11 PM A New York cityscape by photographer Andre Kertesz is featured on this 37 stamp from 2002. By Michael Baadke Andre Kertesz was born July 2, 1894, in Budapest, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The award-winning photographer was honored on a 37 United States stamp (Scott 3649r) issued June 13, 2002, in the Masters of American Photography set. The black-and-white picture on the stamp shows an urban scene of New York. This brief profile is printed on the liner paper behind the self-adhesive stamp: By combining simple, personal observation with compassionate interest in the human condition, Hungarian-born Andre Kertesz (1894-1985) made carefully balanced yet spontaneous photographs infused with the appealing brightness and wit he found in the urban experience. The dramatic play between pattern and deep space in the New York cityscape reveals Kerteszs mastery of complex composition. Kertesz moved to Paris in 1925, but left Europe for the United States in 1936. His photographs appeared in Harpers Bazaar, Look, Vogue and other magazines, but when World War II began, Kertesz was registered as an enemy alien because Hungary was among the Axis powers, and that limited his opportunities as a photographer for several years. He became an American citizen in 1944, and after the war his photographs were chosen for an exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. Recognition for Kertesz came slowly, but today he is considered one of the leading innovative photojournalists of the 20th century. May 4, 2021, 3 AM Cheryl R. Ganz is the 2016 recipient of the Luff award for exceptional contributions to philately. The American Philatelic Society has announced the recipients of this years prestigious John N. Luff awards. The 2016 recipients are Cheryl R. Ganz, Robert Dalton Harris and Diane DeBlois, and Dennis Gilson. Three awards are presented annually to recognize exceptional contributions to philately (Ganz), distinguished philatelic research (Harris and DeBlois), and outstanding service to the APS (Gilson). Connect with Linns Stamp News: Sign up for our newsletter Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter The Luff awards were established in 1940 in memory of John N. Luff (1860-1938), the former APS president and Scott catalog editor who was considered the most prominent American philatelist of his era. The awards are given for meritorious contributions by living philatelists and are given annually at Stampshow. This years award presentation will take place August 4 at the APS/APRL Tiffany Dinner 2016. Ticket details are available online at stamps.org/ss-function-tickets. Ganz is the 2016 recipient of the Luff award for exceptional contributions to philately. A 40-year member of the APS, Ganz is a Smithsonian Institution curator emerita following her retirement as chief curator of philately at the Smithsonians National Postal Museum and as lead curator of the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery, the worlds largest postage stamp gallery. She currently serves as vice-chair on the United States Postal Services Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee, which selects subjects and approves designs for U.S. postage stamps. She has served the APS as a literature judge and on its ethics committee, and has served as a board member of the annual Napex show held in Virginia. Ganz has held many positions over the years in Chicagoland philately and aerophilately. She was president of the Chicago Air Mail Society (1984-1985) as well as a board member (1982-1991). She was literature chair for Ameripex 86, editor of the Chicago Philatelic Society News-Bulletin (1983-1990), board member of the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors (1986-1990), board member of the Chicago Philatelic Society (1988-91), former literature judge of the APS, literature exhibits chair of Chicagopex, awards committee chair for the American Air Mail Society (1988-1992), president of the American Air Mail Society (1992-1993), and editor of The Zeppelin Collector. From 1994 to 1997, she was a board member of the Federation Internationale des Societes Aerophilateliques (International Federation of Aerophilatelic Societies). Her exhibits, research, writing, and speaking engagements often focus on her specialty of zeppelin posts and memorabilia, especially from U.S. airships, the 1933 Graf Zeppelin Chicago flight, and the Hindenburg. She was the first exhibitor to win a World Series of Philately grand award for a display division exhibit. She edited The Zeppelin Collector for 37 years and has been a contributor to the Michel Zeppelin specialized catalog. The APS announcement said, Her lifelong philatelic outreach at local, national, and international levels engages a vast spectrum of collectors from specialists to new audiences. Ganz has given talks, seminars, and presentations at many philatelic venues, including the Collectors Club of New York, the Royal Philatelic Society London, and the Blount Postal History Symposia. The announcement also said, [Ganz] has served as a role model for women in the hobby. Cheryl is a charismatic promoter of the hobby using both the written and spoken word. Ganz earned a PhD in U.S. history from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her books include The 1933 Chicago Worlds Fair: A Century of Progress and Every Stamp Tells a Story: The National Philatelic Collection. Her national exhibit publications include Delivering Hope: FDR & Stamps of the Great Depression; Fire & Ice: Hindenburg and Titanic; and Favorite Finds; Pacific Exchange: China & U.S. Mail. Her more than 100 articles have appeared in the Jack Knight Air Log, German Postal Specialist, COMPEX Directory, The Chronicle of the U.S. Classic Postal Issues, American Philatelist, Washington City Despatch, Collectors Club Philatelist, Airpost Journal, Tell, Netherlands Philately, The Philatelic Exhibitor, New Jersey Postal History, and other publications. Previous philatelic awards include the Alfred F. Lichtenstein memorial award for distinguished service to philately, Mortimer L. Neinken Medal, Carlrichard Bruhl Medal, Wisconsin Philatelic Hall of Fame, AAMS Aerophilatelic Research award, Lee Medal, Nicolas Carter National Service award, Distinguished Philatelist award, Elizabeth C. Pope Lifetime Achievement award, FISA gold medal, Canadian Aerophilatelic Society award, AAMS Presidents award, Earl & Fred Wellman literature award, Gus Lancaster award, George W. Angers award, Chris Hunt award, Newberry award for service to Chicagoland philately, and U.S. Philatelic Classics Society Distinguished Philatelist. Harris and DeBlois are the 2016 Luff award winners for distinguished philatelic research. Harris joined the American Philatelic Society in 1966 while in graduate school, and started a stamp club in State College, Pa. His first philatelic research article on the first postal card was published in Stamps. He became a full-time dealer in postal history and ephemera in 1973. When DeBlois joined Harris in 1979, as a writer and editor in other fields, she helped him restart P.S. A Quarterly Journal of Postal History, the house organ of aGatherin. She took over as editor with Volume II in 1980. Her first major research article was on the Collins Overland Telegraph. This research journal continued for more than 60 issues, to 1993. In 2000, DeBlois and Harris became editors of the Postal History Journal, for which they won the American Philatelic Congress Diane D. Boehret awards in 2004 and 2014. The couple, separately and together, have written on a broad range of subjects for other philatelic and collecting periodicals, and both have been inducted in the Philatelic Writers Hall of Fame. As a team, DeBlois and Harris have engaged in long-term postal history research projects and expanded the field. The first catalog of aGatherin, Ephemera, was published in 1975. They particularly focus on sourcing postal history from government reports. They have taught six different courses on postal history at the American Philatelic Societys Summer Seminar. They have made joint presentations at the Postal History Symposia, co-sponsored by the American Philatelic Research Library and the Smithsonians National Postal Museum. They co-wrote the follow-up papers, which include: The Gold Mine of Official Register Data (2006); 1845 Cultural Nexus in Transportation and Communication (2007); Morse Code V for Victory: Morale through the Mail in WWII (2008); The Sunday Mail Controversy Paves the Way for Postal Reform (2009); Hermes: Message and Messenger (2010); Its in the Bag The Shape of Turn-of-the-Century Mail (2011); Balancing the Books: Newspapers & the Postal Business of the Confederacy (2012); and Newspapers in the Mail: Strategic Postal Unification of the British American Colonies (2016). DeBlois and Harris presented Modeling Postal History with Postal Numbers for the Second International Symposium on Analytical Methods in Philately, held in Chicago. Joint papers on postal history issues outside of the stamp hobby include: Early Network Theory & Practice in U.S. Postal Rates at the Business History Conference, Le Creusot, France; The Pre-Victorian Internet: Economic, Physical Measures & Principles of the United States Postal System in the 19th Century (2006) at the International Economic History Congress, Helsinki, Finland; and Special Post Offices; Local Economies & the Postal Network of the United States to 1860 (2012) at the World Economic History Congress, Stellenbosch, South Africa. From 1999 to 2010, DeBlois served as director of the Ephemera Society of America, for which she has also served as annual conference chair since 2005. From 2007 to 2012, Harris and DeBlois served on the research sub-committee of the museums Advisory Council They share the Ephemera Society of Americas highest award, the Rickards award, for their continuing efforts at promoting understanding of the historical and cross-disciplinary importance of objects through well-researched, readily accessible, writings. Harris also received the American Philatelic Congress C. Corwith Wagner award (1995), and with DeBlois, the 2008 Jere Hess Barr Award. Dennis Gilson is the 2016 Luff award winner for outstanding service to the APS. Gilson started collecting worldwide and United States stamps when he was about 10 years old. He stopped collecting after high school and then returned to the hobby at age 30. He has been a member of the American Philatelic Society since January 1977 and also is a member of the American First Day Cover Society; the American Topical Association; the United States Stamp Society; and is treasurer of his local stamp club, the Mount Nittany Philatelic Society. After successful military and post-military careers, Gilson moved to State College in July 2000 to become the project manager for the Match Factory renovation project. After completing phases 1 and 2 of the Match Factory project and overseeing the move of the APS and the American Philatelic Research Library to Bellefonte, Pa., in May 2004, Gilson retired in January 2005 and became a volunteer for the APS and APRL. Since 2001, he has been a member of the American Philatelic Expertizing Service (APEX) Expert Committee. His area of expertise is primarily the U.S. Washington-Franklin issues of 1908-1922. He recently completed a nearly two-year project to enable more than 54,000 APEX certificates to be placed in the APEX certificate archive on the APS website. The certificates are those with digital images and were from late 2003 until the new APEX programming software became operational in mid-2014. All new certificates since that time are automatically added to the archive. Since 2005, Gilson has taught the four-day APS Summer Seminar course on the Washington-Franklins seven times. He also has presented the course in San Francisco at Westpex in 2008, Washington, D.C., at Napex in 2010, and in Minneapolis at the Minnesota Stamp Expo in 2011. He currently spends three days a week at the American Philatelic Center. Much of that time is spent providing philatelic and scanning support to the Internet Sales Unit. He proofreads the monthly American Philatelist and provides support to other departments as needed. In addition to expertizing, teaching, and other volunteer tasks, Gilson participates in an online stamp forum and has represented the APS at many stamp shows throughout the country. He received a Century award plaque for sponsoring more than 100 new APS members. The Luff awards will be presented to the recipients during the Tiffany dinner at 7 p.m. Aug. 4 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, Portland, Ore. Read more about the American Philatelic Society: American Philatelic Society show Aug. 4-7 in Portland APS wants to know whats important and relevant to its members Zais elected APS president; new officers and board Check out our latest E-Edition Accessible anytime and anywhere on your desktop, tablet and smart phone devices. The Lodi News e-Edition is enhanced with the latest digital tools, including RSS feeds, social networking and much more. Check out our latest E-edition! On Thursday, June 16 last, six deserving recipients were presented with awards by outgoing Cathaoirleach of Longford County Council, Cllr Gerry Warnock. Pointing out that his experience as Cathaoirleach had been a humbling and educational one, Cllr Warnock was quick to compliment the groups and individuals gathered. There are a lot of bad things, theres no doubt about it, we cannot hide that, but that is totally, totally put to bed by the amount of positive activity thats going on around the county, Cllr Warnock told the crowded council chamber. And the people sitting in this room looking up at me crowing away now are the embodiment of that positivity. Ballymahon/Forgney Community Games, the recipients of the 2015 Community Games Cup and the Leinster Cup, were the first to receive their award, with Cllr Warnock lauding their work in promoting positive health, Committee Chairperson Shirley Maloney gratefully accepted the award and paid tribute to those who keep the group running. Its down to our hard-working volunteers and the children, the participants, and all the hard work they put into it as well. Brendan Doyle was the second recipient on the night and although well known for his sporting prowess, it was for his selfless work in the community that he was praised, having set up the Royal Canal Run. I love what I do, admitted Brendan, who later honoured his late mother with his award. Im very lucky to have a family that are so involved in sport because its all they see me doing as well and theyre very much behind me on everything I do. The Edgeworthstown Development Association, who were presented with a top prize at the Pride of Place awards last year, were again honoured in the Council Chamber, with Matt Farrell accepting the award on behalf of the group. Thanking the council as well as the Association's committee, Matt alluded to some of the great strides forward that Edgeworthstown has taken over the past few years. He emphasised that they were still facing many challenges, but facing them head-on together with a host of vibrant local groups. Siobhan Leijen was the next to accept an award on behalf of counselling and psychotherapy support service, Good2Talk. Since it opened on April 10, 2015, Good2Talk has helped more than 152 clients and have provided the equivalent of 57 working weeks of therapy. I just want to say very briefly that I accept this award on the back of all the many volunteers who have worked so closely with Good2Talk over the last 14/15 months, Siobhan smiled. We couldnt have opened the centre without these volunteers. Though he couldnt attend the event due to prior band commitments, 17-year-old Kian Johnston and the other members of Kildare-based band Dissension Rising were the next honourees. While on tour in America, Kian and his bandmates were staying at a friends house in Atlanta City when they were awoken by the smell of smoke. They sprung into action, and succeeded in getting everyone safely out of the house. Accepting the award, Kians aunt Trisha Hughes said; Hed like to say what an honour it is to receive this award. As he said on Shannonside he thought it was just a small act of human instinct to - just when he smelled the smoke - wake up the lads, full stop. And he didnt realise until he got home the severity of the thing. Accepting the award of behalf of Lus na Greine in Granard, Chairperson Bernadine Farrelly said: Firstly, I am honoured to be the chairperson of Lus na Greine Family Resource Centre in Granard and secondly I am privileged to receive this fabulous award for Lus na Greine from the Cathaoirleach Gerry here and the members of Longford County Council. Id like to thank the Cathaoirleach and the County Council for nominating us and for bringing further awareness of the great things that the centre does in the community, Bernadine continued. Admitting that the centre has been hit by several financial cuts, she added that she was looking forward to continued support from the council, before congratulating the other five award recipients. Id like to wish you all success in future and keep up the good work and thank you for your time. Volunteers from Abbott Diagnostic in Longford visited St Michaels National School recently to talk about heart health. The global healthcare company has reached out to educate and inspire more than 1,000 students nationwide to keep their hearts healthy, as part of its partnership with the Irish Heart Foundations Happy Heart Appeal. The Longford volunteers addressed sixty primary school students, detailing how they can support their heart health through lifestyle choices, such as increased aerobic activity and healthy food options. In addition to working with local schools, Abbott provided CPR training to approximately 125 employees at 11 sites around the country, and employees were offered health checks to examine key health indicators. Abbott also provided funding to support the 2016 Happy Heart Appeal. Speaking about Abbotts support, John Kilcoyne, director, Abbott said: Helping people to live fuller, healthier lives is at the core of what we do at Abbott, both globally and here in Ireland. We do this through the products we make, and the impact our employees have in the communities in which we operate. For the past 50 years the Irish Heart Foundation has been providing services to help people live longer, healthier lives. We are proud to partner with them this year to support that goal in local communities through the Happy Heart Appeal. 19-Year-Old Babysitter Arrested for DWI After Driving with Four Children in Car Family & Parenting, Local News, Crime, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: July 01 2016 Suffolk County Police today arrested a 19-year-old babysitter after a Good Samaritan called police to report the woman was intoxicated with four children in her car. Mount Sinai, NY - July 1, 2016 - Suffolk County Police today arrested a 19-year-old babysitter after a Good Samaritan called police to report the woman was intoxicated with four children in her car. A Good Samaritan called police at approximately 2 p.m. after she observed an intoxicated woman unable to locate her vehicle in the parking lot of Cedar Beach located on Harbor Beach Road in Mount Sinai. The woman, Sabrina Macri, had four boys, ages ranging from 4 to 11-years-old, in her care. Once she located her vehicle, a black 2015 Honda Civic, Macri attempted to drive away. The Good Samaritan used her own vehicle to block in the Honda until police arrived. Macri, 19, of Sound Beach, was charged with Driving While Intoxicated, Aggravated Driving While Intoxicated; With a Child Passenger 15 Years Old or Younger (Leandras Law), Four Counts Endangering the Welfare of a Child and 2 Counts Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance 7th Degree. Macri will be held overnight at the Fourth Precinct and is scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on July 1. A criminal charge is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. Looking to stay up to date about all of the news stories and local headlines that are important to Long Islanders? We've rounded up the top coverage for all of the important topics from multiple sources around Long Island, so you can be sure you've got the most recent update on the top stories for Long Island. Have an idea for a news story? Email us at news@longisland.com Columnists Press Releases The Islamic State says it separated non-Muslims from Muslims and killed the former in yesterdays assault on a bakery in Bangladeshs capital Dhaka. This tactic, which was first used by al Qaeda, had not been used by the Islamic State in the past. At least 22 people, including nine Italians, seven Japanese, and two police officers were killed in the attack and the ensuing raid to end the siege. The Islamic State initially claimed credit for yesterdays attack as it was underway, noting that its commandos attacked the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, killed 20 people, and was holding hostages. In a follow-up statement today that was released on Islamic States Amaq News Agency, the group said the assault team separated Muslims from non-Muslims during the attack . The Islamic State fighters detained patrons of the restaurant to verify their identities and released the Muslims, and killed 22 foreigners in addition to two officers from the Bangladeshi police, who fell during the clashes, and also, nearly 50 people were wounded, Amaq stated, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. Additionally, Amaq noted that the cafe is popular with foreign visitors. Amaq also said that its fighters carried out the attack using knives, cleavers, assault rifles, and hand grenades, and released gory photographs purporting to show the bodies of some of their victims laying in pools of blood, according to SITE. The images could not be verified. These details were confirmed in press reports on the Dhaka attack. The Islamic State fighters reportedly shouted Allahu Akbar, or God is greatest, during the initial assault, divided Muslim customers from non-Muslims, and then brutally executed the non-Muslims, some with knives and machetes. Also, the Islamic State fighters repelled the initial police assault to free the hostages with a barrage of assault rifle fire and hand grenades, killing two policemen and wounding several more, according to Reuters. The tactic of dividing Muslims from non-Muslims and then executing the latter was pioneered by al Qaeda in order to deflect criticism that the group wantonly kills Muslims. Shabaab, al Qaedas branch in East Africa, divided Muslims from non-Muslims during the siege of the upscale Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya in September 2013, that killed 67 people, including 19 foreigners. Shabaab mirrored this tactic in several other attacks, including the assault on Garissa University College in Kenya in April 2015. We sorted people out and released the Muslims, Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters after the attack. If it is confirmed that the Islamic States loyalists repeated this practice in Dhaka, then they likely borrowed this tactic from al Qaeda. Officials in Bangladesh have often sought to downplay the growth of jihadism in their country, but both the Islamic State and al Qaeda have established a foothold. A wing of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has targeted accused blasphemers and others repeatedly in individual attacks. Ayman al Zawahiri announced the creation of AQIS in September 2014, saying that it was the result of two years of recruiting and negotiating with existing jihadi groups. It is possible that the Islamic State has grown inside Bangladesh by poaching from this extremist base. Abu Bakr al Baghdadis campaign has also grown worldwide by wooing local jihadist organizations into its camp. Correction: The word latter was changed to former in the first sentence. Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal. Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal. Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here. 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. According to Article 123(2) of the European Patent Convention (EPC) a European patent application may not be amended to include subject-matter that extends beyond the content of the application as originally filed. Contravention of this provision is a ground for opposition after grant, and/or national revocation. The guiding principle for all amendments is that they should be directly and unambiguously derivable for a person skilled in the art from the application as originally filed. While literal support is not required, the boundaries for what a skilled person can understand from an application will depend of the circumstances of the case. In this article we highlight some EPO decisions relating to claim amendments involving limitations to elucidate which amendments are considered to comply with the requirements of Article 123(2). The Article 123(2) and (3) trap The importance of correct claim amendment may be illustrated by the so-called Article 123(2) and (3) trap. In such a situation the claim(s) of a granted patent contain(s) a limiting claim feature lacking basis in the application as filed, which is contrary to Article 123(2). The problem cannot be overcome by removal of the limiting claim feature since this would extend the scope of protection conferred by the patent, thereby contravening Article 123(3). Thus, unless the limiting claim feature can be replaced by a properly supported claim amendment, the patent owner will inevitably fall into the Article 123(2) and (3) trap and the patent will be revoked. Frequently, the applicant for or the owner of a European patent has to limit the claims in view of prior art. Although claim amendments involving limitations may often be based on intended fallback positions present in the patent application, there are also circumstances where claim limitation is not straightforward. For instance, claim limitation may have to be based on a part of the patent description not explicitly drafted as a fallback position and/or a disclaimer removing subject-matter may have to be introduced. EBA decisions The principles for assessing an amendment for its compliance with Article 123(2) have been established in decisions G 3/89 and G 11/91 of the Enlarged Board of Appeal. These principles were later confirmed in decision G 2/10 relating to disclaimers. In particular, G 2/10 establishes that the subject-matter remaining after claim amendment must be directly and unambiguously derivable from the application as filed. In other words, the skilled person must not be presented with new information that cannot be derived clearly and unambiguously from the application as filed. Although G 2/10 discusses claim amendments relating to the introduction of disclosed disclaimers, that is disclaimers having a basis in the application as filed, subsequent decisions have found it to be applicable also to undisclosed disclaimers. According to decisions G 1/03 and G 2/03 the introduction of undisclosed disclaimers may be allowable in order to: restore novelty by delimiting a claim against state of the art under Article 54(3) and (4) EPC; restore novelty by delimiting a claim against an accidental anticipation under Article 54(2) EPC (an anticipation is accidental if it is so unrelated to and remote from the claimed invention that the person skilled in the art would never have taken it into consideration when making the invention); and disclaim subject-matter which, under Articles 52 to 57 EPC, is excluded from patentability for non-technical reasons. Further, G1/03 and G2/03 state that: A disclaimer should not remove more than is necessary either to restore novelty or to disclaim subject-matter excluded from patentability for non-technical reasons. A disclaimer that is or becomes relevant for the assessment of inventive step or sufficiency of disclosure adds subject-matter contrary to Article 123(2) EPC. A claim containing a disclaimer must meet the requirements of clarity and conciseness of Article 84 EPC. However, in addition to the requirements of G1/03 and G2/03 it has been found that the requirements of G2/10 must also be fulfilled. Decisions T 748/09 and T 1870/08 both relate to claims amended by introduction of an undisclosed disclaimer and illustrate different outcomes upon application of the teaching of G2/10. In T 748/09 claim 2 of the main request included a proviso with the wording "with the proviso that a metal alloy consisting essentially of 50 98.9 % Nb, 0.5 5 % Zr and 0.6 49.5 % Ta is excluded". The proviso was introduced because of a so-called Article 54(3) document, namely a European patent application filed before and published after the effective filing date of the patent in the present case. However, the Board found that the introduction of the disclaimer resulted in confronting the skilled person with new information he could not derive clearly and unambiguously from the application as filed. For instance, the upper limit of less than 50% niobium was not disclosed anywhere in the application as filed. Accordingly, the amendment was found unallowable. However, in T 1870/08 also relating to a claim amendment involving an undisclosed disclaimer due to an Article 54(3) document, the Board came to the conclusion that the subject-matter was indeed directly and unambiguously derivable from the application as filed and thus allowable. This case concerned a superconducting wire comprising an oxide superconductor oxide in a sheath member, and with a sheath member material selected from Au, Ag or an alloy thereof. The disclaimer specified that when the sheath material was Ag or an alloy thereof, the oxide superconductor was not of the K2NiF4 type. The Board found that it was clear from the application that the oxide superconductor may have a perovskite type of crystal structure, and that this comprises structures which are not of the K2NiF4 type. Further, the application disclosed that the sheath member contained a material selected from the group of Ag, Au, Pt, Pd and their alloys. Thus, the subject-matter of the amended claim was disclosed in the originally filed application and the amendment complied with the requirements of Article 123(2). Claim limitation language Commonly, patent claims use the claim language "comprising". Decisions T 287/11 and T 2017/07 show that the allowability of claim limitations in such cases very much depends on the facts of the case. In T 287/11 claim 1 of the granted patent read: "An aerosol hair styling composition comprising(a) from 5% to 90% by weight of a water-soluble polyalkylene glycol [...](b) ...(c) ... " In opposition appeal proceedings the claim was amended to read: "An aerosol hair styling composition comprising(a) from 5% to 90% by weight of a water-soluble polyalkylene glycol [...](b) ...(c) ... wherein the water-soluble polyalkylene glycol conforms to the formula A(OCH2CH(R))n-OA [...]" This amendment, which at first sight appears to be a limitation, was found to be an extension of the claim scope. This is because the range of "5% to 90% by weight" after amendment relates to the compounds of specific formula A(OCH2CH(R))n-OA. Due to the claim language "comprising" the composition of the claim may contain water-soluble polyalkylene glycols other than the compound of formula A(OCH2CH(R))n-OA, resulting in a total amount of water-soluble polyalkylene glycols outside the range of the granted claim. In the end, the patent owner was able to resolve the problem by adding to the claim that the total amount of water-soluble polyalkylene glycol should be in the range of 5% to 90% by weight. T 2017/07 concerns a similar case where granted claim 1 was amended during opposition proceedings by addition of "the alkylene carbonate being propylene carbonate" to read: "A hair dye composition which comprises (a) an acid dye and (b) alkylene carbonate having 3-5 carbon atoms, [...] wherein the content of the alkylene carbonate is 0.5-50 % by weight, the alkylene carbonate being propylene carbonate" In this case, the Board stated that the composition of the amended claim may comprise, in addition to an acid dye and propylene carbonate, components including other alkylene carbonates having three to five carbon atoms, that is ethylene carbonate and/or butylene carbonate, in any amount, with the consequence that the granted upper limit of 50% by weight of alkylene carbonate having three to five carbon atoms may be exceeded. The amended claim encompasses compositions having a content of more than 50% by weight of alkylene carbonate having three to five carbon atoms, which embodiment was excluded from the compositions of the granted claim. Thus, the scope of the amended claim was broader than that of the granted claim, thereby contravening Article 123(3). The owner tried to remedy the problem of added subject-matter by replacing "comprising" with "consisting of". As basis for the amendment, the owner referred to a paragraph in the description stating that component (b) included polypropylene carbonate, the propylene carbonate being particularly preferred. Further, the owner referred to some of the examples in which propylene carbonate was used. However, the Board found that this way of isolating a special feature from a particular embodiment and generalising it in the claim was not allowable. The case mentioned above is an example of a so-called intermediate generalisation, sometimes called an intermediate limitation, wherein a claim is limited by addition of a feature isolated from a specific embodiment. Extracting a feature from an embodiment and using it for claim limitation may only be allowed if there is no structural and functional relationship between the extracted feature and the remaining features of the embodiment. This illustrates the strict interpretation of Article 123(2), and shows that for a feature to constitute sufficient basis there must be a direct and unambiguous disclosure of the feature, as well as a clear teaching that a selection or combination with this feature may be made. The fact that the term "comprising" may not always be replaced by "consisting of" or "consisting essentially of" is discussed in decision T 759/10. In this case, the patent owner had amended claim 1 by replacing "the texturizing agent comprises" by "the texturizing agent consisting essentially of", which had no explicit basis in the application as filed. The owner argued that the term "comprising" encompassed three alternatives, namely (1) "comprising", (2) "consisting of" and (3) "consisting essentially of", and that each of these alternatives would immediately come to the skilled persons mind when reading the term "comprising". The Board did not agree, and stated that each term has a different technical meaning, namely (1) that any further component can be present ("comprises"), (2) no further component can be present ("consists of") and (3) specific further components can be present, namely those not materially affecting the essential characteristics of the texturizing agent ("consists essentially of"). The Board went on to say that the skilled person is not at liberty to choose whichever of the three terms he wishes when reading the term "comprises". Thus, from this decision it is clear that the facts of the case will determine if such an amendment will be considered directly and unambiguously derivable from the application as filed and thus be allowable. A special case concerns alloys, where the claim language "comprising" is frequently used while also specifying that an element is used as balance so that the composition components add up to 100%. In such a case, replacement of "comprising" with "consisting of" appears to be allowable, as indicated in decision T107/14. The reason for this is that the claim is in fact directed to closed compositions due to the presence of a balance element. Advice for patent applicants To summarise, due to the strict application of the rules for claim amendments in Europe, it is advisable to take the above teachings into account when drafting patent applications intended to be filed in Europe. Even though the guiding principle is that the amendment should be directly and unambiguously derivable from the application as originally filed, it can be helpful if literal support is provided. Therefore, we recommend including in the application text alternative claim language so that for instance "comprising" may be exchanged for "consisting of" or "consisting essentially of", and also an explicit basis for embodiments such as ranges or a specific combination of features for which the applicant may wish to obtain patent protection. Charlotta Vink Authorised Patent Attorney (SE), European Patent Attorney Charlotta Vink is a European patent attorney. She joined Valea in 2011 and has worked in IP since 2001. She specialises in patent matters within general mechanical engineering and has specific knowledge within the areas of wood material technology and building technology. She has worked extensively within the fields of vehicle engineering and medical technology. Charlotta advises clients on strategic patenting issues, and deals with matters relating to all aspects of patent prosecution and enforcement, including pre-patenting investigations, patent drafting and prosecution, oppositions, licensing, infringement, validity and freedom-to-operate issues. She also works with business-related issues. Furthermore, Charlotta is a tutor with the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) at the University of Strasbourg, where she teaches European and international patent law matters at EQE preparatory seminars. Additionally, she has been appointed as a technical expert in patent matters before the Swedish courts of first and second instance in Stockholm since 2007. Dhaka : After 11 hours of gunfire, about six gunman's were killed and 13 hostages were rescued from the restaurant. A police officer, on condition of anonymity, said two of the rescued persons were foreigners. The military-led rescue operation was launched jointly by a navy commando squad, paramilitary BGB, elite anti-crime RAB along with special police units. Islamic State terrorists tonight stormed a crowded restaurant in Dhakas high-security Gulshan diplomatic area and took hostage at least 20 people including foreigners, triggering a fierce gunbattle with Bangladesh security forces in which two cops were killed and 30 injured . At least nine terrorists shouting "Allahu Akbar" barged into the Holey Artisan Bakery, frequented by diplomats and expatriates, and opened indiscriminate fire at around 9:20 PM (local time). Islamic State group claimed resposibility for the attack through its Amaq news agency nearly four hours after the hostage crisis unfolded. Several foreigners, including Italians and Japanese, were feared to have been taken hostage along with locals inside the restaurant, said police .The officer in-charge of nearby Banani police station, Salahuddin Ahmed, was among the two policemen killed in the gunbattle. The other officer killed in the attack was Additional Commissioner of Police Rabiul, identified only by his first name At least 30 people and policemen have been injured in the firefight. Security personnel were seen warding off people crowding the cordon. A kitchen staff of the restaurant, who managed to escape, said several armed men entered the restaurant around 8:45 PM and took the chief chef hostage, according to media reports. The Muslim-majority Bangladesh has been fighting a wave of deadly attacks on religious minorities and secular bloggers by suspected Islamist militants. Earlier today, a Hindu priest and a Buddhist leader were brutally hacked to death by machete-wielding Islamic State militants while another Hindu man survived a bid on his life .On June 7, a 65-year-old Hindu priest was killed by three bike-borne assailants in western Bangladesh . The ISIS and al-Qaeda in Indian Sub-Continent have claimed responsibility for most of the attacks even though the government has denied their presence in the country. Interview with Niyi Yusuf, Managing Partner at Verraki Partners and former Country MD of Accenture Nigeria What are the trends in Nigerias consultancy sector at the moment? The consulting environment in Nigeria can be broadly categorised in 3 or 4 areas. There is the management consulting aspect. There is technology consulting and there is the outsourcing consulting or operations consulting. In the last 4 or 5 years the growth in the consulting industry has been about 22%, largely driven by technology. Many Nigerian companies and the government are now implementing technology systems. Basic ERP for the back office and HR, Finance, Supply Chain or the CRM applications for the front office and that has driven growth. A number of companies are also looking at management services to outsource their back office, be it IT, Finance or even HR to enable predictable service and that is also driving growth for consulting companies. What you can also look at is the origin of the companies. Some companies are like Accenture global companies that are present in Nigeria. We are also starting to see a number of local companies owned by Nigerian entrepreneurs, either entrepreneurs that are alumni of the bigger consulting firms or Nigerians that have returned from abroad. Its a fair mix and a competitive environment. What are the ratio of the international and the local companies in the sector? I dont have any verified facts but from a market share point of view the bigger consulting firms are still dominant. In terms of the number of consulting firms that there are, you will have more local companies but they are smaller in terms of revenue and clients. For most consulting companies, including Accenture; what we deal with is intellectual property and that is a key function of our people. We have a very rigorous process of selecting and recruiting people to work in Accenture. We know that Accenture has been in the market since 1989. Tell us about the history of the company. The history of Accenture is synonymous with the entrance of Arthur Andersen into Nigeria. Accenture was the consulting firm of Arthur Anderson and was established in Nigeria in 1978 and the consulting firm was up and running in 1989. We moved from being the consulting Division of Arthur Anderson to being an independent arm called Andersen Consulting and then in 2001 we became Accenture. The major industries that we provide services for are the financial services, banking and insurance, telecommunications, manufacturing consumer goods as well as within the energy sector like oil, gas and utilities. We also provide services to government and health sector. For those industries we basically provide 3 services; Consulting, Technology and Operations which is outsourcing. Technology will include Security, Systems Integration as well as Digital mobile and cloud computing. What is the companys reputation like in Nigeria? What are your strengths? How do you differentiate yourself? To large extent we leverage on the global reputation and global brand of Accenture. What you will experience in Accenture Nigeria it is very similar to what you would experience in any other Accenture office worldwide. What differentiates us in Nigeria is the fact that we are the only firm that can do end to end consulting. From understanding what issues the client has, coming up with a corporate strategy, transforming HR and transforming the processes and putting in place the technology systems and then maintaining those systems. Only Accenture can do that in Nigeria. Many of our competitors provide some of those services but none of them provide all of the services. What you will then find is that when companies are looking for a consulting company that has the ability to help with all their requests and the reputation to provide it, they will come to Accenture. A good example of that is the creation of the leading payment switch, Interswitch, in Nigeria, that was done by Accenture and I was a member of that project in 2001. We helped the banking industry to create Interswitch which is an online payment platform and that has now led to the revolution that we have seen in terms of payments. The leading credit bureau in the banking industry was also a creation of Accenture. We brought 8 banks together to create the credit bureau agency. Any contract that is more than half a million dollars in the oil and gas industry is processed using the procurement system that was envision, developed and is still being maintained by Accenture. When clients possess a complement of complex problems that requires an end-to-end solution from processes to technology to people to strategy to operations and maintenance, they will generally come to Accenture. Today, a platform that was created by Accenture processes about 325 million e-payment transactions every year. 23 million bank customers use our system and they are still managed by Accenture to assess credit in the bank industry in Nigeria. That is what differentiates us and our abilities will continue to differentiate us from our competitors. You mentioned Accenture stands behind the creation of the credit bureau in Nigeria. Is there any similar project that you are working on at the moment? Right now we are working with the banking industry and the central bank to create what we call a shared services platform in 2 or 3 areas. One is the communications network. Today each bank has multiple communication networks to its different branches and to the central bank or some other third parties. We are working with the banking industry to create what is being called NFSN (Nigeria Financial Services Network). It will connect all of the commercial banks with the central bank and with other key operators. That will potentially reduce communication costs. We are also looking at getting the banks to migrate to data centres. Those data centres are Tier 3 compliant and that will increase service availability and business continuity. We are also working on electricity power. Today each branch of a bank will have 2 generators providing electricity. We are working with the banks to think about how they can consolidate and collaborate to provide cheaper and more efficient electricity to branches within the same vicinity. These are some of our on-going projects that will change the banking industry. Could you tell us more about the human resources in Accenture? Tell us about your staff. For most consulting companies, including Accenture; what we deal with is intellectual property and that is a key function of our people. We have a very rigorous process of selecting and recruiting people to work in Accenture. We take the best of the best from both local and foreign universities. Recently we have had more staff coming from foreign universities than locally. We put them through a fairly rigorous process of screening, aptitude tests, interviews and at the end they go into a one year graduate training program which is how we prepare them to be ready for the consulting world and to face clients. For those that successfully graduate from the program they join Accenture consulting. The life of an Accenture consultant is an interesting life. A consultant is someone who is at ease with complexity and is willing to take on the biggest problems Nigeria is facing. Consultants are also someone who is willing to talk or chat with clients and be challenged and also challenge clients. We take them through working with clients and working on some of the bigger problems that Nigeria is facing and that give everybody a sense of satisfaction. The same sense of satisfaction I have today, when somebody gets a loan and that loan is processed through a system that Accenture has created or put into place. Our staff are local but on projects if and when we need, we work with other Accenture consultants from other Accenture offices. We are all Consultants working to international standards. How about corruption and other major challenges associated with Nigeria? People are concerned about corruption, about bureaucracy, red tape and lack of infrastructure and indeed, those are challenges that are present in Nigeria. Accenture has been here since 1989 and we do face those challenges but we understand the lay of the land. We are also local. We have been able to work around those. One of the things we have done as part of our salary structure is that compensation for staff includes giving them laptops, giving them internet access and paying for it as well as paying for generators that will provide power. That has help to put our staff in the position where they are productive. Despite the challenges companies like Accenture have found the way to navigate the system and to be successful. We are global, but act local. FAIR USE POLICY This material (including media content) may not be published, broadcasted, rewritten, or redistributed. However, linking directly to the page (including the source, i.e. Marcopolis.net) is permitted and encouraged. An international team of researchers led by Susan Solomon at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has identified the first fingerprints of healing of the Antarctic ozone layer, published this week (30 June 2016) in the journal Science. The team found that the September ozone hole has shrunk by more than 4 million square kilometers about half the area of the contiguous United States since 2000, when ozone depletion was at its peak. The team also showed for the first time that this recovery has slowed somewhat at times, due to the effects of volcanic eruptions from year to year. Overall, however, the ozone hole appears to be on a healing path. The authors used fingerprints of the ozone changes with season and altitude to attribute the ozones recovery to the continuing decline of atmospheric chlorine originating from chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). These chemical compounds were once emitted by dry cleaning processes, old refrigerators, and aerosols such as hairspray. In 1987, virtually every country in the world signed on to the Montreal Protocol in a concerted effort to ban the use of CFCs and repair the ozone hole. The discovery by British Antarctic Survey (BAS) of the Antarctic ozone hole provided an early warning of the dangerous thinning of the ozone layer worldwide, and spurred international efforts to curb the production of CFCs. The provisions of the Montreal Protocol of 1987 on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer have been revised and strengthened and are being followed by virtually all UN Member states. MARAD released an Energy Efficiency White Paper. The Maritime Administration (MARAD) has announced the availability of the Energy Efficiency White Paper that provides marine vessel owners and operators information on how to evaluate potential investments in efficiency measures and technologies. The white paper outlines the latest energy efficiency measures currently available for marine vessels, including how the technology works, potential fuel savings, applicability to various vessels types, and lifecycle costs. If implemented, these types of energy efficiency measures may also assist owners of vessels undergoing a major conversion to comply with the Energy Efficiency for Ships Regulations contained in Chapter 4 of MARPOL Annex VI. The white paper was developed through the Ship Operations Cooperative Program (SOCP) with funding from MARADs Maritime Environmental and Technical Assistance Program. The white paper can be found at http://www.marad.dot.gov/wp-content/uploads/pdf/SOCP-Marine-Vessel-Energy-Efficiency-FinalReport.pdf Contact: Kim Strong, 202.366.5807 MARAD Releases Report on Improved Battery Compartment Design for Hybrid Tugs The Maritime Administration (MARAD) has announced the availability of a report evaluating the design and construction of new battery components, as well as the risks and benefits of battery use in the power plant of a hybrid tugboat. The assessment, which was conducted after a battery-related fire aboard a hybrid tug, looks at the benefits and risks associated with the reinstallation of batteries as part of the vessels hybrid power system. The assessment showed that a refined design with explosion protection, structural separation from occupied spaces, specialized battery controls, and shutdown protocols improved the risk profile for the hybrid power system. The assessment also demonstrated that without the battery array, the hybrid system would not achieve the tugs full performance requirements nor the emissions and fuel consumption reductions made possible by hybrid technology. The report was developed through a partnership with Foss Maritime Company with funding from MARADs Maritime Environmental and Technical Assistance (META) Program. MARADs META program is designed to assist maritime stakeholders in addressing key environmental issues facing the industry. The report can be found at http://www.marad.dot.gov/wp-content/uploads/pdf/Hybrid-Battery-Refit-Final-Report-with-pics.pdf Contact: Kim Strong 202.366.5807 Qatargas, the Worlds Premier LNG Company, today announced a flexible Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with RWE Supply Trading (RWEST), a leading European electricity and gas company. Qatargas will deliver up to 1.1 million tonnes of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) per annum to RWEST in North West Europe for seven and a half years. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar Petroleum President and Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Qatargas Board of Directors, said: Qatargas is committed to providing reliable, clean energy to consumers all over the world. This new milestone underscores our commitment to building new partnerships with leading global companies. We hope Qatargas LNG will contribute to enhance Europes energy supplies and energy security. Commenting on the newly signed deal, Khalid Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Chief Executive Officer, Qatargas, added: Qatargas is delighted to announce a seven and a half year deal with RWEST, a global utility leader. I am particularly pleased to welcome another European partner to our expanding client portfolio, thereby reinforcing Qatargas position as the leading supplier of safe and reliable LNG to Europe, and indeed the whole world. On signing the deal, RWESTs Chief Executive Officer, Markus Krebber stated that RWE is a leading global energy company and among the leading energy traders and gas supply companies in Europe. Our company has a strong commitment in building significant partnerships with major global energy companies and with the Middle East being one of our key regions for development, the partnership with Qatargas is of particular significance for us. Andree Stracke, Chief Commercial Officer at RWEST added We are pleased to welcome Qatargas as an important new partner for RWE and this agreement enhances the diversity of RWEs European gas portfolio. This agreement is the result of several years of close co-operation between Qatargas and RWEST which has culminated in a contract which provides flexibility for both companies. The LNG will be supplied from Qatargas 3, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum, ConocoPhillips and Mitsui & Co. Ltd. Qatargas chartered Q-Flex LNG vessels will deliver the LNG to RWEST in North West Europe. RWE is one of Europes leading electricity and gas companies, serving over 16 million electricity and 7 million gas customers. The Great Eastern Shipping Company took delivery of a new building Kamsarmax dry bulk carrier Jag Ajay. Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange regarding a Press Release dated June 30, 2016 titled: G E Shipping takes delivery of a new building Kamsarmax Dry Bulk Carrier "Jag Ajay". The vessel was ordered by GE Shipping in December 2013 and has been built at Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., P.R. China. With the inclusion of this vessel, the company's current fleet stands at 33 vessels, comprising 23 tankers (7 crude carriers, 14 product tankers, 2 LPG carrier) and 10 dry bulk carriers (5 Kamsarmax, 5 Supramax) with an average age of 9.97 years aggregating 2.48 mn dwt. Great Eastern Shipping Company is Indias largest private sector shipping company. The companys major businesses include shipping and offshore. The tanker fleet has grown over the past twelve months by another 203 units amounting to 21.9 million dwt, says Gibson's Mid-Year Review of Weekly Tanker Market Report. This follows a period of very limited fleet growth (across all but the MR sector) following a period of reasonable demolition activity at firmer lightweight prices prior to 2015. Of course the strength of the tanker market during the low oil price regime has meant that owners have had little need to even think about scrapping as bunker prices headed south improving their margins still further. Eco-ships no longer held any significant advantage as legislation on environmental issues continued to keep its distance resulting in demolition numbers falling to a mere 34 tankers (2.5 million dwt) over the past twelve months. Of the 366 tanker orders placed last year, 218 were contracted in the 2nd half of the year, although many were placed to circumvent the higher costs associated with the new Tier III regulations which came into force 1st January in the US. Newbuilding prices themselves had been slowly falling since June 2014 but had a small resurgence over the 4th quarter 2015. However, the appetite for new orders across all the tanker sectors has evaporated this year despite renewed falls in pricing and the mounting pressure on shipbuilders to fill their forward orderbook. Finance too appears to have ended its love affair with the shipping industry, mostly driven by the disastrous state of affairs in the dry cargo market, but also the high tanker orderbook and the spate of deliveries scheduled for 2016/17. In the 1st half of this year 14 million tonnes dwt has already been delivered compared to the 17 million in the whole of 2015. Despite the strong earnings across most tanker sectors over the past two years, second-hand values have also come under downwards pressure since the turn of this year as freight rates began to decline. Looking at the political scene, this time last year we were talking about the return of Iran to the tanker market and in particular more crude being available for shipment. Despite the lifting of sanctions in January, Iran continues to find it difficult to get significant traction into the market, but it will only be a matter of time as the difficulties associated with trading with the nation subside. Iraqi production continues to rise, however there is a feeling that this may have peaked. So much has happened over the past twelve months which is difficult to precis into a single page. What is clear is that the 2nd half of the year will remain challenging particularly with such a heavy delivery profile scheduled. Earnings across most sectors started the year quite strongly although crude began to slump recently, while the products sector has experienced a tough six months. Of course the health of the tanker market remains very much in the hands of the producers and the decisions that they make regarding future production, However, we still need to keep a watchful eye on the orderbook and hope that new orders remain in check. Aarhus Service Holding A/S has sold its 40% share in APM Terminals-Aarhus A/S to its JV Partner since the 2010 merger of adjoining facilities in Denmarks largest port; container volumes have steadily increased over the past four years. Aarhus, Denmark APM Terminals has reached an agreement with joint venture partner Aarhus Service Holding for the purchase of the remaining 40% of the existing APM Terminals-Aarhus A/S facility, strategically-located on the Jutland Peninsula, in Denmarks busiest port. The current business entity and ownership structure was created in August 2010, when APM Terminals Aarhus and Cargo Service A/S (subsidiary to Aarhus Service Holding A/S) combined their adjacent facilities in a 60/40 joint venture now operating as APM Terminals-Aarhus A/S, in which APM Terminals is the majority shareholder. The transaction will give APM Terminals full ownership of the facility. The purchase price was not disclosed. Joe Nicklaus Nielsen, Vice President and Head of Port Investments for APM Terminals said This acquisition reflects our confidence in the Danish market and our goal to expand our Scandinavia profile. The Port of Aarhus is close to the industrial center of Western Denmark, and is Denmarks second-largest city by population. With a depth of 15 meters, four super post-Panamax cranes and three post-Panamax cranes, APM Terminals-Aarhus A/S is able to accommodate Ultra-Large Container Ships (ULCS) and feeder vessels alike. Wim Lagaay, Chairman of the APM Terminals-Aarhus A/S board and Head of APM Terminals Europe and USA Portfolio said We see growth opportunities and are looking to extend the reach of APM Terminals-Aarhus to inland markets. We already have high port productivity, fast trucker turn times, strong management, an expanded rail network, container repair services onsite and now it is time to further promote trade for all our customers in Denmark. Sren Halsted, chairman of Aarhus Service Holding A/S, adds: After a successful co-ownership of APM Terminals Aarhus, it is pleasing for us to sell our shares to our business partner. This is the last part in the divestment of our port activities, and the sale marks the end to the Lehmann familys involvement in the Danish transport industry an involvement dating back to 1900. The last majority owner of Aarhus Service Holding A/S is lawyer and businessman Andreas Lehmann who lives in London. C.P. Dyvig & Co. A/S is co-investor in Aarhus Service Holding A/S. Container throughput at Aarhus has grown consistently over the past four years by an aggregate total of 11% from 399,000 TEUs in 2012, to 442,000 TEUs in 2015, while many other European gateway ports have seen traffic stagnate or decline. Italian Banks & Moving The Risk During Crisis Europe is changing by the hour and the day at this point. In this analysis, I'm going to take a quick look at critical events that have happened in Italy in the last day or so, and how they relate to my recent Video Guide To Bail-Ins series. I will be using three current Bloomberg articles that came out in the space of about 7 hours as references. Italy did a bail-in of four banks at the end of 2015, which inflicted bail-in losses on many individual savers, using the process explained in Video #2 of the series, "Comparison Of Bail-Outs vs Bail-Ins For Banks", linked below. This was extremely unpopular in Italy, but those are the new rules, as agreed to by the EU and the G20 - including the United States, Canada and Australia. Here is a link and quote from Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articls/2016-06-29/italy-s-longshot-bid-for-bank-bailout-last-chance-to-stop-crisis "An Italian banking bailout would evoke the darkest days of 2008 and 2009, when governments on both sides of the Atlantic were forced to save their financial systems with public funds. It would also be a blow to the EUs efforts to protect taxpayers from the vagaries of the financial world. In 2013, lawmakers approved rules that took full effect this year requiring bondholders and shareholders to absorb losses in failing lenders in the event of a rescue, a process dubbed a 'bail-in.'" So, the Italian bank problem did not go away, but has gotten worse, due to long term economic stagnation and now Brexit. The legal requirement in the EU is for bail-ins. Handling much larger losses without bankrupting government finances are the exact reason for bail-ins. Yet, Italy moved the opposite direction and was seeking a bail-out, over the vigorous objections of Germany. What is happening here? If it were just Italy, then it is Italian depositors vs Italian taxpayers. Italy takes the hit either way, and the need for bail-in could be existential for the Italian government. Italy is already heavily indebted, and guaranteeing securities for the banks would just increase the problems. But Italy is not by itself, it is part of the EU. So Italy went to the European Union, to ask for permission to bail-out its troubled banks, with government guarantees that are backed by the EU. So, while the Italian government guarantees remain part of the loop, everyone else in Europe is on the line for the Italian bail-out. This is against the rules, and is why the Germans are upset. Because if this sets the precedent, then Germany is back in line for essentially guaranteeing the European banking system, in a way that mandatory bail-ins was supposed to change. Italian depositors were supposed to take the risk for Italian banks, Danish depositors for Danish banks and so forth. So Italy went to the European Commission seeking approval for a 40 billion euro liquidity guarantee. And what they got back, was permission for a 150 billion euro guarantee. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-30/eu-approved-167-billion-liquidity-guarantees-for-italy-banks "Italy was given the go-ahead by the European Commission to supply as much as 150 billion euros ($166 billion) in government liquidity guarantees for its struggling banks until the end of the year, according to an EU official. Liquidity support for solvent banks is a precautionary measure requested by Italy, the EU said in an e-mailed statement. The guarantees of senior debt allow lenders to maintain access to financing, often at a better price." So Italy not only got a remarkably quick waiver to break the rules, but it got almost four times the amount that it was publicly stating that it was requesting! Why did that happen? Well, let's go to the IMF Twitter feed. and look for the tweet below on June 30th. https://twitter.com/IMFNews "Decisive policy action will make a difference should higher #Brexit uncertainty threaten to weaken global economy" The key word here is "decisive". By acting immediately and at a multiple of the requested amount, the EU sent a strong message that it was setting all rules aside, and would do whatever was necessary, to maintain the solvency of the European banking system. Of course, it is also attempting to move the problematic Italian banking system completely out of the headlines during the coming weeks and months, and making sure it doesn't reappear if the Italians go through their first 40 billion euros and come back for another 40 billion. As covered in my analysis from earlier this week, "Brexit & The Precipice": "Now, none of this means that going over the precipice is inevitable. We are still on the edge at this point, not over it. ... For now, what we have is another and particularly dangerous round of battle between market forces and the forces of financial containment and government enforced artificial stability." The actions of the EU confirm that they are keenly aware, as is the IMF, that the precipice is indeed in sight. And little bits of that edge are starting to crumble away, much like an erosion slope during a heavy rainstorm. So what they are doing is pro-actively taking fast and hard actions, trying to win the battle as soon as possible, because that is cheapest place for doing so. But yet, it also needs to be recognized, that this is a high-risk choice. What the EU is doing is frantically resurrecting the play book from 2008, in an attempt to keep a Brexit contagion from taking down the system. But as covered in Video #3 of the Bail-In series, linked below, the firewalls from 2008 likely can't be used again, or at least not to anywhere near the same degree. And in the act of attempting to use them, the EU is multiplying the damages if it fails. The problem with gambling on early containment is that they have also increased the pressure on the EU and the European Central Bank, which increases the degree of the losses in the event the event of a catastrophic failure of the firewalls, and increases the likelihood that insured depositors in the EU - and possibly other nations - will at some point need to be bailed-in as well. There is some very high information value here, if we contrast talk and actions. The talk from the EU is that they do not expect the Italian bank guarantees to be used. The action is that the EU and G20 spent 7 years, from 2009 to 2016, developing and all agreeing to a method for transferring risks from governments to savers and investors via bail-ins, so that the system would survive the next crisis. And one week from the start of the Brexit crisis - they threw that entire elaborate system and rulebook right out the window. That would seem to indicate deep fear and even borderline panic, not calm. The quote below from Jesper Berg, director general of Denmarks Financial Supervisory Authority, is well worth studying, for savers in the United States as well as Europeans and others. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-30/eu-s-bank-resolution-plan-questioned-as-denmark-joins-doubters The one really important lesson is that we have a gigantic communication problem to make people aware that the risks are now in their private pockets, not their pocket as a taxpayer. That message cannot be under-communicated. The battle is on right now, on multiple fronts in Europe. And the risks lead to a place that most of the population simply does not understand. What you have just read is an "eye-opener" about one aspect of the often hidden redistributions of wealth that go on all around us, every day. A personal retirement "eye-opener" linked here shows how the government's actions to reduce interest payments on the national debt can reduce retirement investment wealth accumulation by 95% over thirty years, and how the government is reducing standards of living for those already retired by almost 50%. Much has been written about a $150,000+ advantage to waiting until age 70 before collecting Social Security. However, as explored in the analysis linked here, once we "raise our game" a bit, and use a more sophisticated type of analysis than some of the simplistic Social Security decision aids in wide circulation all of that advantage can vanish. National debts have been reduced many times in many nations and each time the lives of the citizens have changed. The "eye-opener" linked here reviews four traditional methods that can each change your daily life, and explores how governments use your personal savings to pay down their debts in a manner which is invisible to almost all voters. If you find these "eye-openers" to be interesting and useful, there is an entire free book of them available here, including many that are only in the book. The advantage to the book is that the tutorials can build on each other, so that in combination we can find ways of defending ourselves, and even learn how to position ourselves to benefit from the hidden redistributions of wealth. Daniel R. Amerman, CFA Website: http://danielamerman.com/ E-mail: mail@the-great-retirement-experiment.com Daniel R. Amerman, Chartered Financial Analyst with MBA and BSBA degrees in finance, is a former investment banker who developed sophisticated new financial products for institutional investors (in the 1980s), and was the author of McGraw-Hill's lead reference book on mortgage derivatives in the mid-1990s. An outspoken critic of the conventional wisdom about long-term investing and retirement planning, Mr. Amerman has spent more than a decade creating a radically different set of individual investor solutions designed to prosper in an environment of economic turmoil, broken government promises, repressive government taxation and collapsing conventional retirement portfolios 2016 Copyright Dan Amerman - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: This article contains the ideas and opinions of the author. It is a conceptual exploration of financial and general economic principles. As with any financial discussion of the future, there cannot be any absolute certainty. What this article does not contain is specific investment, legal, tax or any other form of professional advice. If specific advice is needed, it should be sought from an appropriate professional. Any liability, responsibility or warranty for the results of the application of principles contained in the article, website, readings, videos, DVDs, books and related materials, either directly or indirectly, are expressly disclaimed by the author. 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Kerry Suggests Maybe No Brexit Addressing the right-wing Aspen Institute on Wednesday, Kerry said Brexit (d)idnt change a thing. This is a very complicated divorce. David Cameron is loathe to invoke Lisbon Treaty Article 50, legally required to begin a lengthy Brexit process. He feels powerless to negotiate what he doesnt want. (A)nd I think this is a fair conclusion - to go out and start negotiating a thing that he doesnt believe in and has no idea how he would do it. (N)or do most of the people who voted for it, Kerry referring to Leave campaigners like former London mayor Boris Johnson, the frontrunner to replace Cameron until announcing he's pulling out, perhaps pressured by Remain interests. Asked how Brexit could be walked back, Kerry said I think there are a number of ways. He declined to enumerate, stopping short of explaining the popular vote was non-binding. Parliament alone has final say up or down. Most MPs will support what powerful interests want. Clearly they oppose Brexit, making it highly unlikely. Did Kerry inadvertently explain whats ahead, despite leaders like Germanys Angela Merkel saying (t)he referendum is a realityI can see no way that this can be reversed She along with other EU leaders met in Brussels, Cameron included in day one discussions, not day two, creating the impression (or perhaps illusion) of a new 27-nation bloc without Britain. Talks focused on curb(ing) a rising tide of populism driven in large part by hostility toward Brussels, according to The New York Times - talking tough, hardening their position, European Council President Donald Tusk saying there can be no single market a la carte. Those wanting access to our single market must play by its rules, obeying its four freedoms, including movement of capital, people, goods and services. French President Francois Hollande warned London no longer would be able to clear euro-denominated trades, important for its financial industry. Consensus was no talks with Britain until it invokes Article 50. Some there want the referendum ignored. Parliament can simply vote it down, said prominent lawyer Geoffrey Robertson. Our democracy does not allow, much less require, decision-making by referendum. Democracy has never meant the tyranny of the simple majority, much less the tyranny of the mob. According to Robertson and others like him, rule by privileged few alone matters, not popular sentiment. Important decisions shouldnt be left to ordinary people. EU leaders, together with Washingtons dominating influence, will chart a course to prevent Brexit. A consensus statement was deceptive posturing, saying it creates a new situation for the European Unionmany people express(ing) dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs. They expect us to do better when it comes to providing security, jobs and growth, as well as hope for a better future. Theyll chart it like always, serving special interests exclusively. Western democracy serves the privileged few alone, not the popular will. By Stephen Lendman http://sjlendman.blogspot.com His new book as editor and contributor is titled Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III. http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html He lives in Chicago and can be reached in Chicago at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday through Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national topics. All programs are archived for easy listening. 2016 Copyright Stephen Lendman - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors. 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Sanitized US Drone Report Masks Killing on an Industrial Scale US administration and congressional news releases reflecting badly on official policies most often occur at low news consumption periods. Late Friday, the Obama administration chose the start of the July 4 holiday weekend to release its sanitized drone report, an exercise in deception - when few people were paying attention. Its not worth the paper its written on, fabricated to conceal revealing that drones used for military purposes are instruments of state terror. Independent studies show the vast majority of casualties are non-high value targets and noncombatant civilian men, women and children - indiscriminately slaughtered, US imperial victims. When Obama says drone strikes are targeted and focused, hes willfully lying to deceive the public to believe a policy of mass murder makes us safe. The report only covered US drone strikes outside active conflict zones in Pakistan, Yemen (where its raging), Libya (here, too) and Somalia, excluding Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria - further destroying its credibility. Claiming 64 - 116 civilians alone were killed from 2009 through 2015 is willful falsification. Some independent studies estimate thousands of civilian deaths. In a 2013 speech, Obama claimed no drone strikes are authorized without near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured - then admitting noncombatant casualties occur. The Reprieve human rights group calls Americas killer drones programmethe death penalty without trial, most often claiming noncombatant civilians. Ahead of late Fridays release, it published its own report, titled The Truth About US Drone Strikes, presenting evidence showing previous administration statements on its policy were proved to be false. In June 2011, CIA director John Brennan willfully lied, saying there hasnt been a single collateral death from drones. Numerous independent studies prove otherwise. Drone operators dont know who theyre killing despite administration claims otherwise. According to Reprieve, What little the Obama Administration has previously said on the record about the drone program has been shown by the facts on the ground, and even the US Governments own internal documents, to be false. Any claim of low numbers of civilian casualties will therefore have to be read against the more rigorous work of organizations such as the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), which estimates a low of 492 civilian casualties across Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, and a high of potentially 1138. But more importantly, it has to be asked what bare numbers will mean if they omit even basic details such as the names of those killed and the areas, even the countries, they live in. Equally, the numbers without the definitions to back up how the Administration is defining its targets is useless, especially given reports the Obama Administration has shifted the goalposts on what counts as a civilian to such an extent that any estimate may be far removed from reality. In US drone operations, reports suggest all military aged males and potentially even women and children are considered enemies killed in action unless they can posthumously and conclusively prove their innocence. Reprieve estimates more than 4,000 people in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia alone were killed by US drone strikes, most noncombatants - caus(ing) people to live in constant fear of the skies overhead. Americas killer drone program is (its) dangerous new face of counter-terrorism, said Reprieve - its ruthless policy of indiscriminate mass murder, part of its lawless hegemonic agenda, making the world safe for monied interests. All drone strikes are illegal, flagrantly violating international, constitutional and US statute laws. Obama saying (e)very time I think about those kids being killed it makes me cry belies his viciousness. He heads a Murder, Inc. administration, acting as judge, jury and executioner, mocking due process and habeas rights. As US commander-in-chief, he bears full responsibility for indiscriminate mass murder. He can order it stopped any time with a stroke of his pen. Instead, he prioritizes killing on an industrial scale, drones one of many tools claiming millions of casualties, victims of imperial barbarity. By Stephen Lendman http://sjlendman.blogspot.com His new book as editor and contributor is titled Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III. http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html He lives in Chicago and can be reached in Chicago at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday through Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national topics. All programs are archived for easy listening. 2016 Copyright Stephen Lendman - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors. 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. The Stock Market is Reading it Wrong! The European markets, the British pound, and Euro had rallied for six days prior to its meeting based on political polls. These polls were showing that the vote was too close to call. The market incorrectly interpreted this as meaning that the Remain side would prevail. The British pound hit a new a year-to-date high last Thursday, June 23rd, 2016, the day of the election. Banks had done especially well in the rally, some being up by almost double digits during their best days. After the Brexit vote, they experienced a massive selloff. I prepared my readers in advance of BREXIT Right now, everything is still rebalancing from the Brexit vote. The mass media will talk about how it will affect the Eurozone and its impact on the world for the remainder of this week. The experts will blame BREXIT for this decline, but that is only the symptom. I sent a trade alert to my subscribers on June 8th, 2016 to enter the long position of gold, using the most liquid and most traded ETF, GLD, and on Black Friday our position was up 5%. Another flash alert was sent out on June 9th, 2016 to enter the long position of U.S. twenty year bonds, using the most liquid and most traded ETF for U.S. Bonds, TLT, and our position is deep in profits also. Most hedge funds and money managers experienced heavy losses because they tend to be much more heavily weighted in equities. As small traders and investors we can be much nimbler and are not forced to hold various positions in equities like most funds. Knowing that we have an added edge and if you follow my lead ETF alerts my strategies can help keep you on the right side of all the markets. Over the next 3 to 5 years, I will present very unique opportunities to not only protect your wealth, but to grow your trading account handsomely using my Cycle Analysis and my Predictive Analytics Models The SPX could not break out of its resistance zone. It has not been able to get through for over a year and a half and this is typical of a long-term topping pattern. This week stocks have rallied huge. Why? It could be for many reasons like: end of month window dressing by the institutions, pre-holiday rally, the market was oversold earlier in the week so a bounce should be expected. A new Sell Signal is on the rise for stocks. If this is the outcome, then it should continue to sell off down to 1830 level over the next 30 days. This should look very similar to the sell off that occurred back in August 2015. The selling pressure drove the SPX to previous support. In this area, it is a reasonable location for support to now show up. The SPX has not broken out of the established channel over the last few months. On the weekly chart of the SPX there is also channel starting at 2000 up to 2100. Momentum oscillators on the weekly chart suggest the beginning of the channel rollover. The Only Chart You Needed to See: The Bullish Percent Index (BPI) is a breadth indicator based on the number of stocks on Point & Figure buy/sell signals within an index. The index is either on a P&F buy or sell signal, there is no ambiguity when it comes to this chart reading. This makes The Bullish Percent Index (BPI) fluctuates between 0% and 100%. Bear Alert: BPI is above 70% and then declines below 70%. Concluding Thoughts: Expect greater volatility because of uncertainty regarding the bearish sentiment along with lower prices starting early next week. Get My ETF Trade Alerts Here: www.TheGoldAndOilGuy.com Chris Vermeulen Join my email list FREE and get my next article which I will show you about a major opportunity in bonds and a rate spike www.GoldAndOilGuy.com Chris Vermeulen is Founder of the popular trading site TheGoldAndOilGuy.com. There he shares his highly successful, low-risk trading method. For 7 years Chris has been a leader in teaching others to skillfully trade in gold, oil, and silver in both bull and bear markets. Subscribers to his service depend on Chris' uniquely consistent investment opportunities that carry exceptionally low risk and high return. Disclaimer: Nothing in this report should be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any securities mentioned. Technical Traders Ltd., its owners and the author of this report are not registered broker-dealers or financial advisors. Before investing in any securities, you should consult with your financial advisor and a registered broker-dealer. Never make an investment based solely on what you read in an online or printed report, including this report, especially if the investment involves a small, thinly-traded company that isnt well known. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report has been paid by Cardiff Energy Corp. In addition, the author owns shares of Cardiff Energy Corp. and would also benefit from volume and price appreciation of its stock. The information provided here within should not be construed as a financial analysis but rather as an advertisement. The authors views and opinions regarding the companies featured in reports are his own views and are based on information that he has researched independently and has received, which the author assumes to be reliable. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content of this report, nor its fitness for any particular purpose. Lastly, the author does not guarantee that any of the companies mentioned in the reports will perform as expected, and any comparisons made to other companies may not be valid or come into effect. Chris Vermeulen Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Comments Trader_MC 02 Jul 16, 20:32 Hindsight? Hmmmm, charts dated 24th June posted on 2nd July? Hindsight comes to mind ;) Local schools have much higher than average numbers of student suspensions, and some concerned citizens are looking to reduce that. During the 2011-12 school year, the most recent for which figures were available, one out of six Henry County middle and high school students, and 29 percent of Martinsville middle and high school students, were suspended. Six hundred eighty-four students were suspended from county schools for disorderly and disruptive behavior and 220 from Martinsville schools. Dr. Makunda Abdul-Mbacke, who presented those figures, said they were from the Virginia Department of Education (VDE). The local physician and Wendy Kellam, a local human resources recruiter, hosted the public meeting recently at New College Institute. A little more than a dozen people attended. Abdul-Mbacke said the pair probably would host another meeting on the topic near the start of the school year. She finds herself an unlikely leader of this potential change. Its not an issue that I sought out, she said, but it has come to her attention. Her son, a student at Magna Vista High School, told her about the case of a friend who was suspended. Then, she said, she heard many concerns from her patients who were discouraged with their childrens experiences in school. She and Kellam gave a PowerPoint presentation with statistics and information from organizations including the National Education Assocation, the VDE, the American Pediatric Association and the American Psychological Association. Numbers tell the story Virginia has one of the most punitive definitions of long-term suspension: 10 school days to 365 calendar days, Abdul-Mbacke said. In contrast, Washington D.C. allows suspension between 11 and 90 days. In North Carolina, it cant be any longer than one school year; in West Virginia, no longer than one semester. In Virginia, 16 out of every 1,000 student are referred to police. That amount is 30 out of 1,000 for Magna Vista High School, 38 out of 1,000 for Bassett High School and 170 of 1,000 for Martinsville High School, she said. Those figures come from the U.S. Department of Education for Civil Rights in the 2011-12 school year. Those numbers are five to six times higher than the national average, she said. Most of school suspensions are for minor, non-violent offenses, she said. They include classroom disturbances, defiance of authority and cell phone use. Studies by the National Education Association show that expulsion does not lead to an increase in school safety or a decrease in misbehavior, she said. Schools with high suspension rates also have bad school environments, low test scores and low graduation rates, she said. Statistics show that suspension leads to academic failure, dropping out of school, mental health problems and prison. Virginia students still do not have the right to education during suspension or expulsion, she said. Each high school graduate saves the state of Virginia $500,000 in what otherwise would be welfare and/or costs in prison, she said. Nearly all Virginia universities and colleges ask about suspension and expulsion on applications, she said. It is on your permanent transcript. Were talking about (suspension for) things like refusing to put down a cell phone. Not putting down away a cell phone is not something youd want ruining their future. She listed five proven programs used in some school systems that help reduce school suspensions, as recommended by the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia: My Teaching Partner; Social and Emotional Learning; Threat Assessment; Restorative Justice; and Multi-Tiered System of Support. I hope as a community we agree that there is a discipline problem and we must address it, she said, adding that the solution would involve both families and schools. After her presentation, the audience talked. Comments and ideas Henry County School Board member Curtis Millner, the only school board member present, said that the issue is not something new. Weve been working on it for the past several years. Suspension was discussed at the Virginia School Board Association meeting two years ago, he said. However, more people need to become involved if any changes will be made: The problem that I see (is that) not enough people are interested or going to put forth the effort. School board members are not going (to the association meetings), so theyre not coming back advocating for the children. Ways to improve student discipline would be to have not only minority teachers but also male teachers and new ideas submitted by you, the public, on what we can do, Millner said. Thats why were here, Abdul-Mbacke said. We have to start the discussion with whoever comes. Millner said students and their families dont usually take advantage of the appeals process. A student has the right to appeal a suspension to the school board. Even if the suspension occurs before an opportunity to meet with the school board, the suspension could be removed from the students permanent record should the school board overturn it. However, very few parents follow through on the appeals process, Millner said. Several people, Millner included, said there is very little parent participation in processes and events such as meetings of the school board or PTAs. Others talked about the difficulty of enticing parents to show up to other types of events which benefit children. India Brown said that at a recent session of the Strengthening Our Families class at Maplewood Apartments, at which free snacks were served, there were tons of kids but only two parents. Matthew Brown of Piedmont Community Services said they serve good meals at their programs, yet we have to beg people to come. Kids want to be there and they want to do better, India Brown said. Even if parents dont care, we still have to invest in kids. Programs of mentors for at-risk children were discussed at length. Eli Salgado said I dont see that much interaction between Hispanic parents and teachers and administrators, and what interaction there is sometimes depends upon the child to translate. The Rev. Thurman Echols said that when he was growing up, we had some of those problems, but somehow the faculty and the teachers took care of it. He suggested that having more black teachers might help. If you put a child on the street doing nothing, that child is headed for trouble, he added. Mary Farris suggested listen to the children and find out whats going on. Henry County Sheriff Lane Perry said that two or three years ago the sheriffs office started a program to text in information anonymously to report drugs, bulling, theft, but we get absolutely nothing (in terms of reports). Weve got some serious issues stuff going on in the schools, and the children just endure it. SUNDAY'S WORD is futz (fuhts). Example: Not wanting to communicate with her visiting family members, she futzed around in the kitchen all afternoon. FRIDAY'S WORD was ineffable (in-ef-uh-buhl). It means: too great or extreme to be expressed in words. Patrick Henry Community College wants to help people get prepared for high-demand jobs. Theyre partnering up July 14 with the Virginia Workforce Center to host an information session about short-term training for those jobs and what kind of skills would be needed. The training was designed through working with Radial, a local technology company. The company is looking for paid interns, with the possibility of more through a guaranteed interview. The July 14 session gives people a chance to meet with Radial representatives and to enroll in the training which starts August 1. The July 14 session starts at 10:30 a.m. in the Virginia Workforce Center, over at 233 Commonwealth Blvd W in Martinsville. Looking for a little fun on stage plus audience appreciation of your talents? The Spencer-Penn Centre will hold a variety show in August, and youre invited, whether your talent is singing, dancing, magic tricks, tricks with pets, yodeling the possibilities are endless. Auditions for the show will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the center. For more information, call the center at 957-5757. Reunion coming up The Williams family will get together July 10 for their reunion. It will be held at the Hughes Picnic Shelter in Stuarts Trot Valley. Lunch will be at 1 p.m. and everyone is asked to bring a covered dish. Dance at Cascade Center There will be a variety dance over at the Cascade Community Center July 16, the second one of the month. This coming Saturday is the first dance, also at the center. Both times, it starts at 5:30 p.m. with concessions, then music from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Music will be provided by 57 Express. What goes into owning a business franchise? What do you need to research first and what goes into buying one? Thats what will be talked about at a seminar July 14 from noon to 2 p.m. at the New College Institutes Baldwin Building. Thats over at 191 Fayette Street in Martinsville. The seminar will look at questions like how much you would need to invest when buying a franchise and how to find the right fit. If youve got a business in mind to buy, will the local area support what you want to do? Franchise consultant Terri Brewster will answer questions and help anybody interested in owning a franchise. The workshop is free to anybody, but youve got to register by July 11 if you want in. You can do that either by calling (276)-403-5940 or by visiting YesMartinsville.com/Events. TRIVIA QUESTION: Why was the current American flag created and who designed it? TRIVIA ANSWER: In the first season of Sesame Street, Oscar the Grouch wasnt the green, trashcan-living furball we remember. Instead, he was a different color. For that first year, Oscar was orange, but for whatever reason, Jim Henson thought that needed to be changed. So starting in the second season of the show, Oscar popped up with green fur. The excuse given to the young viewers was that he had gone on vacation to Swamp Mushy Muddy and his fur turned green overnight as a result. The year was 2008. I was eating dinner with my friends Bradley and Justin, and we were discussing The Great Recession and its effect on Henry County. It was a rough time for the national economy, and nowhere was that pain more keenly felt than in Henry County. The three of us began discussing what could be done. And then one of us I cant remember now who it was hit on a brilliant idea. People go to Scotland in the hope of seeing the Loch Ness Monster. People go to Point Pleasant, West Virginia to seek the Mothman. Rhinelander, Wisconsin attracts tens of thousands of people to its annual Hodag Country Festival, named after the fearsome Hodag monster, which supposedly only eats white bulldogs. What if Henry County had its own monster? A cryptozoological marvel all to ourselves? Tourists would come from miles around to catch a glimpse! We began brainstorming. The monster should be unusual, but relatable. Weird, but kind of cute. Monstrous, but not dangerous. It should be a giant worm, Justin said matter-of-factly, and the debate was settled. We had a plan in place before our check arrived. After work the next day, I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics and bought several large tubs of modeling clay and some paint. That evening, I proceeded to craft the Henry County Giant Worm. It was about two and a half feet long, with two stubby little arms ending in claw hands, a single eyeball on a stalk, and a gaping mouth full of flat, white teeth (I also bought a box of peppermint Chiclets). Im no great artist, but after a few coats of green paint, the worm looked pretty sharp, if I say so myself. Once the Henry County Giant Worm dried, I recruited a friend and we carried it to an isolated creek. I snapped a few photographs of the worm in repose, making sure that like any great monster photo they were a little too blurry to tell exactly what you were looking at. Once I had my pictures, I took the next, most important step: I sent a letter and a photo to the Martinsville Bulletin. I used an alias in the letter, writing it from the perspective of a man travelling through Henry County on business. According to the letter, I was leaving Garfields Chicken in a Basket when I heard a strange noise coming from the Smith River, like someone quietly singing out of tune. Intrigued, I crossed the road, hopped the guard rail, and strolled down to the riverbank. There I saw it: The Henry County Giant Worm. It charged me. I was panicked, but the worm did not hurt me. It did, however, steal my shoes and wriggle away. (That was going to be an important part of the Henry County Giant Worm mythology, by the way: It steals peoples shoes out of jealousy, due to its lack of feet.) I had it all planned out. After the letter ran, I was going to let a few local folks in on the secret and ask them to send the Bulletin letters saying that they had also seen the giant worm. I was even going to ask the late Virginia Museum of Natural History entomologist Dr. Richard Hoffman if he would send a letter theorizing on the worms anatomy, considering his internationally-recognized expertise on millipede biology. Once the Henry County Giant Worm became famous, I was certain that a tourism industry would develop naturally. I had plans to offer guided Worm Hunts, and also to sell Giant Worm merchandise. My favorite idea: A T-shirt showing the worm driving a race car around the Martinsville Speedway, with a caption reading Dale Wormhardt. Alas, it was not to be. My letter to the editor never ran in the Bulletin, most likely because it was written under an obvious alias, and it was also stupid and patently insane. While the Henry County Giant Worm was a hoax, it was a well-intentioned one. And after spending so much time with the giant worm, it began to feel almost real, like an imaginary friend Id somehow willed into existence. Of course, Im not saying that the Henry County Giant Worm is real. But if youre ever leaving Garfields and hear off-key singing, keep your wits about you and your shoelaces tight. Ben Williams writes for the Martinsville Bulletin. He can be reached at benjamin.williams@martinsvillebulletin.com. the-purge-election-year.jpg Publicity artwork for the horror film "The Purge: Election Year." (Universal Pictures photo) "The Purge: Election Year" - One and one-half stars. Rated R. Contains bloody violence, terror and strong language. 110 minutes. By ALAN ZILBERMAN The Washington Post "The Purge: Election Year" is less tense than a political argument on Facebook, and about as much fun. Each sequel in the franchise is a reinvention: "The Purge: Anarchy" (2014) went beyond the 2013 home-invasion thriller to write a parable about class bitterness. "Election Year" turns its focus on hypocrisy, looking at how elites and insurgents jostle for power. Violent yet also cynical, this action film never develops a sense of danger. In his third outing as writer-director, James DeMonaco explores a United States that solves its problems with an annual "Purge," a 12-hour period during which all crime - including murder - is legal. This time, there is a popular U.S. senator, Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), whose presidential campaign includes a promise to end the event. Her message inspires Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo), the hero of "Anarchy," who volunteers as her head of security, while her political opponent (David Aaron Baker) conspires to murder her during this year's Purge. Charlie and Leo survive the siege of her Capitol Hill rowhouse, taking shelter in a deli owned by Joe (Mykelti Williamson). Together the three fight off deranged teenagers, amoral Purge zealots and a neo-Nazi militia. Temporary lawlessness should inspire genuine despair, or at least a gleeful sense of mayhem. Instead, "Election Year" is a toothless affair, one where Grillo and the others are only going through the motions of survival. DeMonaco's challenge here is that the Purge has become part of the fabric of American life; when the characters in the movie experience no sense of shock, neither do we. There are few clever details in the production design, the sort of world-building that helps define a cinematic dystopia. What's worse is the action itself. Even DeMonaco seems bored by the sieges, escapes and gun battles. Silly one-liners are the only saving grace, and that's because such acting veterans as Williamson know how to sell them. The villains in "Election Year" are monsters, or radicals who believe the ends justify the means. That points to one stupidly obvious message: The Purge is a bad idea. DeMonaco lacks the curiosity to explore how we got there, or what it means. BEVERLY A Univeristy of Vermont student was indicted by a grand jury Monday on charges of manslaughter and vehicular homicide while under the influence of alcohol and while driving negligently, in connection with the April car crash near Endicott College that killed his best friend. Joseph Castano, 20, of Williston, Vermont, was visiting his friend Craig Sampson, 19, at the Endicott campus April 23, when the two went out drinking. When they returned to the college, police allege that Castano was speeding in his BMW and failed to make a tight corner onto the campus. The car went out of control and struck a utility pole. Sampson was killed instantly. The Salem News reported that police said Castano had a blood alcohol level of .22, or nearly three times the legal limit. Castano had been arraigned in Salem District Court on similar charges earlier. Catano will now be tried in superior court. A manslaughter conviction carries the potential of a 20 years prison sentence. GREAT BARRINGTON Another former staff member of the now closed Eagleton School has been indicted by a Berkshire grand jury, according to the Berkshire Eagle. Christopher D. Welch, 24, of Watervliet, New York, is the latest in a long string of former staff members accused of abusing students at the now defunct clinic for boys with behavioral disabilities. Welch's indictment brings the grand total of former employees implicated in a wide-ranging abuse scandal to 16, according to the paper. Welch, who has been accused of assaulting a student in April of 2014, pleaded not guilty to charges of caretaker abuse on a disabled person and assault and battery on a disabled person in Berkshire Superior Court on Friday, according to the paper. Abuse allegations against former staff members have run a fairly wide gamut, including arm fractures, regular "eye-poking" sessions, and even throwing a student off a porch. The school was forced to close in April afters its license to operate was revoked, and after a January raid by a number of different agencies broke the scandal to the wider public. Welch is scheduled to reappear in court for pretrial hearings on Sept. 29. KILLINGLY, CT Two men from Worcester, Massachusetts have been charged for a home invasion in Killingly, Connecticut, according to the Hartford Courant. Nekson Allah-Digui, 18, and Peter Daylue, 19, both of Worcester, have been charged with home invasion, breach of peace and threatening, and carrying and sale of dangerous weapons, according to the paper. Police say that both men had been at a residence on Fieldstone Rd early on Friday, and were asked to leave after a fight had occurred. However, the two men then returned in the evening to seek "retribution" for the fight that had occurred. When the men returned to the house, they were reportedly armed with a machete and a BB gun. State Police reportedly discovered the men near the house where the incident was reported at approximately 7 p.m., on Friday. Both Daylue and Allah-Digui are currently being held at police barracks in Killingly on $25,000 bond, and are set to appear in court in Danielson on Tuesday. A handful of Missoula startups gained the ear of a global venture capitalist on Friday, one whos traveling the country in an Airstream trailer pitching advice to rural entrepreneurs while searching for the next promising investment. Paul Singh, who has invested in some 1,700 companies in 50 countries, sat with the founders of several local startups over morning coffee before holding open office at The Loft in downtown Missoula. By Martin Kidston Full Story: http://www.missoulacurrent.com/business/2016/07/startup-investor-lands-missoula-looking-next-big-thing/ You can subscribe to Pauls excellent blog here: http://www.resultsjunkies.com/ Is Pauls Tech Tour coming to your community? https://nvite.com/community/rjtechtour Would you like him to come to your community? https://docs.google.com/a/resultsjunkies.com/forms/d/1EJSeTDTLN_SmPEQ1olljl6Oi-OrMoFgvQTVtgopbaiA/viewform This will make your day, I promise. Eva, a 10-year-old, applied to our summer fellowship program amidst mostly computer science Phds and seasoned urban designers. A summary of her pitch: "The streets of Paris are sad. I want to build a robot that will make them happy again. Ive already starting learning how to code on Thymio robots, but I have trouble making it work. I want to join the program so the mentors can help me." Here is my reply to her. Dear Eva, The answer is yes. You have been selected as one of Paris first-ever Summer Innovation Fellows among an impressive pool of candidates from all across the world: accomplished urban designers, data scientists and hardware specialists. I love your project and agree that more should be donethrough robotics or otherwiseto improve Paris streets and make them smile again. I am writing to you personally because your application inspired me. There was nothing on the website that said the program was open to 10 year olds butas you must have noticednothing that said that it was not. Youve openly told us that you had trouble making the robot work on your own and needed help. That was a brave thing to admit, and ultimately what convinced us to take on your project. Humility and the willingness to learn in order to go beyond our current limitations are at the heart and soul of innovation. It is my hope that your work on robotics will encourage more young girls all over the worldnot just to code, but to be as brave as you, in asking for help and actively looking for different ways to learn and grow. More good news: I wrote to Thymio, the robotics company whose tech you use and asked if they could designate a specialist to personally help you. They have decided that that person will be their President himself. They will also be providing you their latest robot. Welcome aboard our spaceship, Eva. Were very much looking forward to meeting you in person. All the best from Paris, Kat Borlongan Founding Partner, Five by Five http://www.fivebyfive.io PS Please ask your dad to call me Call it the Great Texas Air Rush. Weeks after American Airlines landed its first flight from Dallas/Fort Worth in Bozeman, officials in Missoula and Billings received word Thursday theyll receive $600,000 and $750,000, respectively, in federal grant money to court nonstop air service of their own to and from the Lone Star State. KIM BRIGGEMAN [email protected] Full Story: http://missoulian.com/news/local/missoula-awarded-air-service-grant-for-texas-flights/article_aadfe9ef-9aea-54a0-812c-7c6f80f80058.html #football S. Korea to open final training camp at home before World Cup South Korea on Friday will open their last training camp at home prior to the upcoming FIFA World Cup, with players on the bubble looking to capitalize on dwindling opportunities t... #BTS BTS, BLACKPINK, Jungkook nominated for People's Choice Awards South Korean boy group BTS, its member Jungkook and girl group BLACKPINK will compete for this year's People's Choice Awards, a U.S. awards show for recognizing people in entertain... Climate Smart Glacier Country, the City of Whitefish and Whitefish School District seek to hire a motivated, dedicated Energy Corps member to help steer the community toward local community solutions. Energy Corps is an AmeriCorps service program administered through the Butte-based National Center for Appropriate Technology. Applications will be accepted through August 15, 2016 or until a suitable candidate can be identified. Full Story: http://glacierclimateaction.org/coolest-job-in-montana-now-available-whitefish-seeks-energy-corps-member/ Governor Steve Bullock today announced the certification and funding of the statewide Native American Development Corporation (NADC) in Billings with $420,000 to help native owned businesses grow, expand, and create more jobs on reservations and in Native communities. "Access to capital is a critical tool for business success and economic growth," said Governor Bullock. "Im pleased to partner with NADC help open up additional financing for Native American owners to expand their businesses and create more jobs on reservations and in Native communities across the state." Author: Daniel Iverson Full Story: http://commerce.mt.gov/News/PressReleases/ArtMID/19685/ArticleID/4379/Governor-Bullock-Announces-Statewide-Organization-to-Help-Native-American-Businesses-Grow-Expand-and-Create-Jobs *** 2016 NADC Economic Development And Procurement Conference , 8/2-4, Billings, MT http://www.matr.net/events.phtml?showdetail=6039 *** Governor Bullock Announces Grants to Grow and Expand 26 Native American Businesses http://www.matr.net/article-72325.html Advertisement "This observation is important," he added, "because more than two-thirds of breast cancers contain both estrogen and progesterone receptors."Previous studies from many labs, including a group at Cambridge University, showed that when exposed to the primary female sex hormone, estradiol, the estrogen receptor activates genes that encourage tumor cells to grow and divide. "In this setting, the cancer cells grow faster," Greene said. "They divide faster and they live longer, which helps the breast cancer progress to a more advanced state.""Our study, as well as that of the Cambridge group, showed that when progesterone or a progestin is added, it changes the landscape in the nucleus," Greene said. "It opens up a whole new set of binding sites for the estrogen receptor that now work in conjunction with the progesterone receptor." This combination inhibits cellular proliferation, cell survival and pathways involved in metastasis."Our data further suggest that, despite the historical bias toward the effects of estrogen on the estrogen receptor, it's the progesterone receptor that dominantly controls estrogen receptor activity when both receptors are present and activated."In theirpaper, Greene, lead author Hari Singhal, now a postdoctoral scholar at Harvard University, and colleagues took a step further. Building on the well-established use of tamoxifen, an estrogen antagonist, to treat women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers, they decided to inhibit the activities of both receptors with antagonists to see if there would be an added benefit of combining two receptor-selective drugs. Using a well-established ER+/PR+ human breast cancer model (T47D) implanted in immune-compromised mice, they tested their theory in four groups of mice.One group received a placebo. A second group received tamoxifen. The third group was treated with a progesterone receptor antagonist, an experimental drug known as CDB4124 (Telapristone). The fourth group was treated with tamoxifen plus CDB4124 to simultaneously block both the estrogen and progesterone receptors.Tumor cells in the placebo-treated mice grew rapidly, to about 200 percent their original size in seven weeks. Tamoxifen, the estrogen antagonist, prevented the tumors from growing but did not cause them to shrink. CDB4124, the progestin antagonist, initially caused the tumors to regress, but after 35 days, the tumors began growing again; by seven weeks they were about 50 percent larger than their original size.Significantly, the combination of tamoxifen and CDB4124 caused tumors to shrink. "Virtually full regression was observed in a subset of mice," Singhal said. By day 60, the average tumor volume in mice treated with tamoxifen plus CDB4124 was 70% lower than the original tumors."These findings," the authors note, "emphasize the clinical value of assessing both progesterone receptor and estrogen receptor expression in breast cancer samples. Not only is the progesterone receptor an essential modulator of estrogen-receptor-regulated genes, but it also significantly contributes to the prognostic value of estrogen receptors in ER+/PR+ breast cancers." In addition, it might serve as an important combinatorial target in these breast cancers.Source: Newswise Advertisement Everyone getting in the pool should take a shower beforehand. Anyone who has had stomach problems in the previous 24 hours should not get in the pool. Parents should be certain that toddlers haven't soiled their diapers - even plastic swim diapers - or their swimsuits. The CDC recommends that parents check children every 30 to 60 minutes and do any diaper changing away from poolside, taking care to wash their hands afterward. And if an accident does happen, if it's in a public pool, let the management know so they can take steps to clean the water and make it safe for everyone again. "The most common problems people get while swimming is intestinal infections, either bacterial or viral," he said, adding that the most common bacterial cause of illness contracted while swimming is Shigella and the most common viral cause is Norovirus.Both can make you feel pretty terrible, Schaffner said, running down a litany of misery: "Diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, sometimes fever." Because the symptoms take hold several hours after infection has occurred, people often don't suspect that being in the water has led to the illness, he said.Fortunately, a few simple precautions can reduce the risk for everyone.First, Schaffner said, before you or your children get in a pool, take a look at it. A poorly maintained pool can lead not only to intestinal problems, but also other unpleasantness, such as a skin infection caused by Pseudomonas bacteria. "Does it have clear and clean water? If not, you should reconsider getting in," he said.Schaffner also said that from an infection point of view at least, urine in the pool is not a real issue because it is sterile, dilutes quickly and really doesn't pose a health risk to other swimmers.And Schaffner adds one more important medical prescription. "None of this should dampen anyone's enthusiasm for the pool," he said. "With a few simple precautions, playing in the water can be safe and fun for everybody."Source: Newswise Advertisement The results showed 'substantial shortcomings' of the online information about liposuction. Only about 30% of sites had 'high scores' on the EQIP, earning at least 18 out of 36 possible points. The median score was 16 out of 36 possible points, with a range of eight to 29 points.Nearly two-thirds of the websites were developed by plastic surgeons and practices and practices offering liposuction services. But the quality of the information provided was low - more than three-fourths of websites developed by plastic surgeons had low scores for quality of information.In contrast, other types of websites - including those developed by professional societies (such as ASPS), portals, patient groups, health departments, and academic centers - scored higher for quality of information about liposuction.But few of the websites provided information on complications associated with liposuction. Surprisingly, most sites developed by plastic surgeons did not mention any of the potential risks. While liposuction is generally a very safe procedure, the overall complication rate has been reported as high as one in every ten patients. The estimated mortality rate is one out of 5,000 procedures.Information on risks is especially important given the large numbers of patients undergoing liposuction. According to American Society of Plastic Surgeons' statistics, more than 222,000 cosmetic liposuction procedures were performed in 2015, up 5% from the previous year."According to our results, the overall quality of information on liposuction for patients is very poor," Dr. Palma and colleagues write. While the low quality of plastic surgeons' websites is particularly disappointing, they note that even the highest-scoring websites have significant limitations."Better quality of patient information is needed especially in terms of the surgical procedure, qualitative and quantitative benefits and risks for the patient, how complications are handled, and what precautions patients can take," Dr. Palma and coauthors conclude. They also suggest that website developers use the EQIP tool to ensure the good quality of the information presented.Source: Eurekalert Please complete this form and we'll send you a personalised information that is requested You may use this for your own reference or forward it to your friends. Please use the information prudently. If you are not a medical doctor please remember to consult your healthcare provider as this information is not a substitute for professional advice. Advertisement "We are hoping to provide some answers and insights into the relationship between Zika virus and the mosquito," Higgs said.The Biosecurity Research Institute has had Zika virus isolates for several years, but has started conducting collaborative research because of the recent outbreak. University scientists have been growing samples of the virus and antibodies and providing them to collaborators for further research into vaccines and diagnostics."Countries are spending resources to control the spread of mosquitoes, we want to make sure we are controlling the right mosquitoes in the right way," Higgs said. "This research can help us target the particular species of mosquitoes that we know are carriers of Zika virus."The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified two mosquito species that transmit Zika virus:, or yellow fever mosquito, and, or Asian tiger mosquito. Both mosquitoes are widely distributed in the U.S. and are present in Kansas. These two mosquito species live close to people and can breed in houses, said Higgs, who also has studied chikungunya, a mosquito-borne virus that has a similar transmission cycle to that of Zika virus.At the Biosecurity Research Institute, Higgs and university scientists are gathering details about how Zika virus interacts with different mosquitoes. Researchers are studying how long after a mosquito feeds on a blood meal that it can transmit Zika virus. The amount of time is unknown for Zika virus, but with other viruses it can range from five days to two weeks. Similarly, the research can show how much virus a person needs to have in their blood in order to infect a mosquito. If mosquitoes feed on a relatively low level, they may not become infected.Only one in five people infected with Zika virus show symptoms, Higgs said, but it is possible that even people without symptoms may have enough virus in the blood to infect mosquitoes."As we learn how much virus is in human blood, knowing how much virus needs to be in the blood in order to infect a mosquito will tell us at what point after infection a person can infect another mosquito and for how long," Higgs said. "It is important to know these details because it can help us develop better controlling measures."But there are still many unanswered questions relating to Zika virus, Higgs said. It is still unknown exactly what human cells are affected by the virus, if livestock are affected by the virus, what other transmission mechanisms are possible and when a vaccine may be available.The Biosecurity Research Institute can help answer some of those questions and is equipped to handle any vaccine studies as well as diagnostic studies, Higgs said."This research is important to prepare us long-term for the next virus that comes," Higgs said. "We can't predict what that will be, but there will be something else that will be introduced and we need effective surveillance programs to help control them. We need the fundamental research and applied research that we can get here at the Biosecurity Research Institute."Higgs and collaborators have published their research in theSource: Eurekalert Alcohol content in blood is measured either as a percentage by mass or by mass per volume or a combination. For example, BAC of 0.20% can mean 2 grams of alcohol per 1000 grams of an individual's blood Or it can mean 0.2 grams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. Advertisement Permissible Blood Alcohol Limits while driving light motor vehicle (e.g. passenger car) Blood Alcohol Limits Countries 0.08% Mexico, Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. 0.05% Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Republic of Macedonia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Turkey. 30 mg/dL India 25 mg/dl Spain 20 mg/dL Norway, Sweden, Russia, Estonia and Poland For Pilots: The Federal Aviation Regulations governing U.S. pilots prohibits operation of an aircraft within eight hours of consumption or while having as little as 0.04 percent of alcohol by weight in the blood. Similar laws apply to most of the countries. Common Carriers such as buses: In the United States operators of carriers such as buses are restricted to a 0.01% limit. Hershey snubs initial bid from Mondelez Updated: 2016-07-02 10:00 (Agencies) Indian workers stand in front of a signboard during the opening of the Mondelez International facility in Sri City in India. [Photo/Agencies] Hershey Co snubbed a preliminary takeover offer from Mondelez International Inc for $107 a share in cash and stock, turning down a deal that would have created the world's largest candy company. The offer, which would have valued the company at about $23 billion, was rejected unanimously, according to a statement on Thursday. Hershey's stock pared its earlier gains after the company released the remarks, though the shares remain near an all-time high - a sign investors are still holding out hope for a deal. "The company's board of directors, after receiving input from the company's management and its outside financial and legal advisers, carefully evaluated the indication of interest," Hershey, which is controlled by a family trust, said in the statement. The board and management "are committed to enhancing value for all stockholders in accordance with the company's strategic plan". The move deals a blow to Mondelez Chief Executive Officer Irene Rosenfeld, who is seeking to balance out the Oreo maker's overseas-focused business. Hershey generated almost 90 percent of its revenue in North America last year, with the majority of that coming from selling chocolate in the United States. The combination also would have vaulted Mondelez past Mars Inc as the world's biggest confectioner, according to Euromonitor International. Britain likely to pursue China FTA Updated: 2016-07-02 06:56 By Zhong Nan(China Daily Europe) Sooner or later, Britain, if it wants to remain competitive, will follow in Switzerland's and Norway's footsteps to enter into free trade talks with China after withdrawing from the European Union, experts say. Wealthy non-EU member Switzerland signed a free trade agreement with China in 2014, and Norway is in talks with China to reach a similar deal. Ma Yu, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing, says Britain is a favorite European investment destination for Chinese companies and has strong business and diplomatic ties with China. "Under such circumstances, it shouldn't take long to complete China-UK FTA talks if both sides want it to be done within a short period," he says. However, He Wenwei, director of the research center for European and American studies at the China Association of International Trade, says that because the UK used to have a strong voice in Brussels, "its withdrawal from the EU will raise China's time and resource costs in negotiating the China-EU FTA and a comprehensive EU-China investment agreement with the EU". Trade of goods between China and the EU was $564.85 billion last year, while trade between China and Britain reached $78.54 billion, according to the General Administration of Customs. (China Daily European Weekly 07/02/2016 page9) HARBOR BEACH A $100,000 federal planning grant awarded to Harbor Beach Community Hospital could increase local residents access to mental health services. Our goal is at the end of the (grant) year that there will be an increase in services, said Trish VanNorman, Harbor Beach Community Hospital Grants Project director. Although the grant does not directly fund services, it will allow for planning and implementing more services to Huron County, which is a Mental Health Provider Shortage Area, VanNorman said. Many Harbor Beach residents must travel 30 to 60 miles for mental health treatment, according to a press release from the hospital. The mental health provider ratio for Huron County is 1280 people to 1 mental health provider, the release said. This ratio is much higher than the state average of 450 to 1 or to other neighboring counties of Sanilac (670:1) and Tuscola (430:1), according to the hospital. Providers include psychiatrists, psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, counselors, marriage and family therapists and advanced practice nurses specializing in mental health care. There is still a major gap in services for those that are between 20 and 65, the release stated. In order to address the gap, the hospital has partnered with Huron Behavioral Health, Professional Counseling Services and LIST Psychological Services. The project will focus on mental health needs, and how the hospital might be able to partner with different parties to offer better services, said Jill Wehner, chief operating officer of the hospital. Health plan coverage of mental health services is limited, Wehner said, and the grant will investigate how we might be able to attract more providers given those obstacles. The project will be known as the Harbor Beach Mental Health Adult Access Team. Project partners have agreed to work together on this planning project in order to successfully design a continuum of care across disciplines and levels of need (prevention, early intervention, and treatment), the release said. Several models will be explored to determine the best way to increase access to mental health services for adults in our service area. The grant, which began May 31, was awarded by the federal Office of Rural Health Policy. The project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Despite Flipping in Surf 4 Times in a Year, Marines Say New ACV Is the Future of Amphibious Warfare Some Marine veterans familiar with the vehicle and its operations have worried about the reliability of the ACV. The Pentagon said Friday coalition airstrikes killed two major ISIS operatives in Mosul, including a "deputy minister of war" suspected of organizing mustard gas attacks and masterminding the terror group's takeover of the northwestern Iraqi city in 2014. The precision airstrikes on June 25 killed Basim Muhammad Ahmad Sultan al-Bajari, the deputy minister of war for ISIS, and Hatim Talib al-Hamduni, another military commander in Mosul, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. "These deaths are the latest in coalition efforts to systematically eliminate ISIL's cabinet wherever they hide, disrupting their ability to plot external terror attacks and hold onto the territory they use to claim legitimacy," Cook said, using another acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. "Al-Bajari was an experienced terrorist, a former member of al-Qaida who brought his military skills into ISIL's terrorist network. He oversaw ISIL's June 2014 offensive to capture Mosul" as the Iraqi Security Forces fled and abandoned their equipment, "and has also led the ISIL Jaysh al-Dabiq battalion known for using vehicle-borne IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), suicide bombers and mustard gas in its attacks, Cook said. Hatim Talib al-Hamduni was an ISIL military commander in Mosul and the head of military police for the self-proclaimed Nineweh state in the area surrounding Mosul. The Mosul strikes were an additional sign of progress in the effort to inflict a lasting defeat on ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Cook said. He noted that in recent days the coalition "has freed Fallujah from ISIL's grip; launched devastating strikes against ISIL forces fleeing that city; completed the encirclement of Manbij, a key node in the flow of foreign fighters between Syria and Turkey; and started to clear key terrain south of Mosul of ISIL forces." However, top military and intelligence officials, including CIA Director John Brennan, have also warned in recent days that ISIS was a resilient organization that will remain a significant threat to the U.S. and the West beyond its battlefield defeat. Brennan told the Senate Armed Services Committee that ISIS will retain the ability to counterattack in Iraq and Syria while inspiring or directing terror attacks worldwide. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Related Video: The White House cautiously expressed concern this week that the fallout from Brexit could lead to Scotland's independence from the United Kingdom and shutter a Trident nuclear submarine base that plays a key role in NATO deterrence against Russia. When asked about the fate of Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde at Faslane on Scotland's west coast, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said he could only hope that Scotland, where nationalists have long argued for closing the sub base, would choose to remain in the U.K. At a press briefing Wednesday, Earnest noted that Scotland voted in a 2014 referendum against independence. "We made clear at the time that, again, that was a decision for voters in Scotland to make," he said. "But the United States' view has been and continues to be that a united U.K. is in the best interest of the United States. It makes them a stronger partner. It makes them more effective in contributing to the NATO alliance that's the bedrock of our national security," Earnest said. However, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was already drawing up plans for a second independence referendum following the U.K.'s vote last week to leave the European Union, the so-called "Brexit." "The significant and material change in circumstances" following Brexit, which was opposed by 62 percent of voters in Scotland, made another independence vote inevitable, Sturgeon said. "It is, therefore, a statement of the obvious that a second referendum must be on the table, and it is on the table," she said. Currently, Britain's four nuclear Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarines armed with Trident missiles -- HMS Vanguard, Victorious, Vengeance, and Vigilant -- are based at Faslane on the River Clyde, and all of its nuclear warheads are stored at Coulport about eight miles away. There are no alternative sites for Faslane and Coulport in England, according to George Washington University analyst Hugh Gusterson, and building alternative sites and coming up with replacements for the aging Trident subs would cost upwards of $20 billion and take possibly 20 years. Writing in the Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists, Gusterson said that a "British parliamentary report in 2012, written in response to increasing concerns that Scotland might secede from the United Kingdom, concluded a suitable base to replace Faslane and Coulport would be "highly problematic, very expensive, and fraught with political difficulties." On a visit to Faslane and a tour of HMS Vigilant in January, British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon touted Britain's nuclear deterrent as a mainstay of NATO. "It has never been more needed than now," Fallon said. "We needed it in the Cold War and we need it even more now in a more unpredictable and more dangerous world." Fallon scoffed at the suggestion of Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn that Britain should scrap the Tridents and send the subs out on patrol without nuclear weapons. "That's like making imitation rifles -- those would be pointless patrols," he said. "If you are going to have a deterrent, you have to be prepared to use it." But whether Britain maintained the deterrent hinged on the fallout from Brexit. At a forum on Brexit this week, Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass gave a gloomy forecast. "Actually, at the risk of sounding melodramatic, I do believe that this is the beginning of the end of the United Kingdom. To me it's a question of when and not if Scotland has a second referendum, and this time it will almost certainly pass, based on the argument that it is more important to be in Europe than in the U.K." Haass said that the question of Scotland and "whether it will go off on its own as an independent country would raise fundamental issues, for example, about the ability of the use of ports for our nuclear -- for submarines carrying nuclear weapons. So I think it raises lots of defense-related issues." --Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Related Video: Europeans face a huge challenge Updated: 2016-07-02 06:56 By Fu Jing(China Daily Europe) The majority of Britons voting to leave the European Union was like a political earthquake. As to the level of damage it will cause, it will be no less than the upheaval brought about by Europe's financial and sovereign debt crisis in 2008-09, which continues. The EU prevented the exit of Greece, but has failed to keep Britain within its fold. The vote to leave shows that Britain has refused to accept the terms the EU set for it in February, that Britain would be treated as a special member of the bloc, which comprises 28 countries and 500 million people. For the special status, a compromise was worked out to let Britain permanently stay out of the eurozone and Schengen Agreement. That would have allowed Britain to follow its own regulations while other EU members worked toward a "closer union". But Britain wanted to keep its global competitive position as a financial center and was unwilling to concede its financial and economic sovereignty to Brussels, which has binding monetary and financial institutional arrangements in the 19 eurozone countries to deal with the sovereign debt crisis. The EU set up a financial firewall and banking union, which triggered disagreements to a certain extent with the UK, whose pound is a global currency. The referendum result, however, rejected this principle of "one union, two systems" that differentiated Britain from other EU members. To deal with the situation created by the vote, the bloc leaders met on June 28 and 29. The EU leaders and institutions will now work overtime to cope with the biggest challenge since the bloc started taking shape after World War II. European Council President Donald Tusk, European Parliament President Martin Schulz, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte will consult to decide how to deal with the outcome. At the meeting, British Prime Minister David Cameron apprised the European Council of Britain's exit from the bloc. The exit procedure, however, could take about two years to complete. As far as the vote is concerned, it will be multifaceted. First, it may have a domino effect on other EU members and prompt them to negotiate special terms by warning that they, too, could exit the union. Some politicians in the Netherlands seem eager to do that, and the political trend in the EU is one of right-wing and populist forces gaining strength. Second, the vote is likely to change the political landscape in Britain, and its consequences will affect the country's economic and social development. Third, how the blow to EU's solidarity and confidence will affect the global financial market and economic growth remains to be seen, but given the experience of the sovereign debt crisis of the past few years, the interactions among politicians, the market, the media and the public could be vicious. In a nutshell, the vote will lead to instability - at least in the short term - in the EU, so the international community should prepare to take measures to cope. Brexit will indeed have an impact on the EU, but we should not forget that Britain always had its own currency and immigration rules. At present, however, the international community should have confidence in the EU, and at the same time encourage it to carry out the much-needed reforms, because such a great peace project should not be allowed to fail. The author is deputy chief of China Daily European Bureau. Contact the writer at fujing@chinadaily.com.cn (China Daily European Weekly 07/02/2016 page10) Specialist insight Updated: 2016-07-02 06:58 (China Daily Europe) Eventually, the case will be sorted out because the related parties know more about the evidence of China's longtime sovereignty over the South China Sea. I'm delighted that China has started to communicate effectively with the rest of the world to gain their understanding. More confidence- and trust-building efforts should be delivered in the Asian community, and each of us has a long way to go, and we must save energy, put the dispute aside and focus on development. Sreenivasa Rao Pemmaraju, chief legal adviser to India's Foreign Ministry The arbitration, raised by the Philippines but refused by China, has brought a lot of difficulties and anxiety, which is not good for any of the parties. We (the United States) should be more responsible in talking to our ally. Abraham Sofaer, senior fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University China could offer mountains of documents, records and evidence of historical heritage to prove that, since ancient times, Chinese people discovered and used the South China Sea islands and reefs. Despite the Philippines and Vietnam having occupied some islands of the South China Sea, China has refrained from raising disputes. But in recent years, since the US returned to the region, the Philippines has begun to claim sovereignty over the islands, which are owned by China, and this is the very nature of the dispute. Hu Dekun, dean of Wuhan University's China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies I'm happy that top law experts worldwide have reached a consensus that the arbitration is questionable, since this legal body has no jurisdiction in a sovereignty dispute under the framework of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which authorized the establishment of the arbitral tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Against such a background, any verdict is invalid, and China is doing right in accordance with the spirit of international law. Sienho Yee, chief expert at Wuhan University's China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies In the arbitration of the Philippines' claim against China, the absence of a disputing party is caused by the lack of the vital element of consent, which is the basis of the tribunal's jurisdiction. This absence is due to a formally declared and widely publicized lack of the consent that the International Court of Justice has declared to be the very basis of the court's jurisdiction in contentious cases. M.C.W. Pinto, arbitrator in a number of cases and former secretary-general of the Iran-US Claims Tribunal China has enough legitimate rights under international law to refuse to accept the arbitration, which was unilaterally initiated by the Philippines. So, any verdict from the tribunal is invalid, and the Philippines should come to the negotiation table with China to solve the dispute, and the US should stop helping escalate tensions in the region right now. Liu Huawen, assistant director at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of International Law (China Daily European Weekly 07/02/2016 page15) Experts issue call for Manila to negotiate Updated: 2016-07-02 06:58 By Fu Jing(China Daily Europe) Experts in international law from around the world have urged the Philippines to return to the negotiating table with China to solve the South China Sea issue in a reasoned and peaceful manner. They spoke after a seminar found that any verdict delivered by an arbitration tribunal based in The Hague will have no legal validity because China and the Philippines have not reached any agreement to authorize it to intervene in the dispute. The tribunal under the auspices of the Permanent Court of Arbitration is thought to be close to issuing a ruling on arbitration launched unilaterally by Manila. The tribunal has been established under appendix 7 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The experts, some of whom helped draft the convention, discussed the case at a seminar on South China Sea Arbitration and International Rule of Law. It was organized by Leiden University's Grotius Center for International Legal Studies and Wuhan University's Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies. The experts say the court has no jurisdiction over a sovereignty dispute under the framework of the convention. "China has taken the right stance of nonparticipation and non-acceptance in the dispute arbitration, which has been stirred up mainly due to the geopolitical strategy of another power in the region," says Abdul Koroma, former judge of the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations based in The Hague. Koroma, a former Sierra Leone ambassador to the UN and the European Union, says the court had not obtained agreement from the parties concerned to conduct the arbitration, which is a required precondition under United Nations law. He says only the Philippines has filed the arbitration case, meaning that it is one-sided and that the authority required to accord with international law is lacking. At the seminar, many experts voiced opposition to the United States, which is not directly involved in the South China Sea issue, supporting the Philippines in the region to achieve Washington's foreign policy goal of realizing a strategic Asia-Pacific pivot by containing China. Tom Zwart, a professor at Utrecht University's School of Law in the Netherlands, says, "the US should not get involved, because it is not a direct stakeholder in this issue. I suggest that this is an issue for the countries in the region to seek a solution through negotiation." He says he does not mean to take sides in the dispute, but he insists the US should not use the rule of international law to serve its own foreign policy interests by boosting its strategic presence in the region. "Instead, I believe the best way is to go back to the negotiating table in an Asian way," says Zwart, a former senior counsel for the Dutch deputy prime minister. Historically, he says, China and other countries in the region have been able to resolve their differences in a way that is mutually agreeable, and will be able to do so in the future. "Regarding the complexity of this dispute," he says, "with so many parties and interests involved, you could not deal with it within the framework of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea because the treaty does not offer procedures to solve the problem. So China and its neighbors must sit down to discuss the solutions by themselves." fujing@chinadaily.com.cn (China Daily European Weekly 07/02/2016 page15) A female presenter of TV3, Bridget Otoo has indicated that she does not have qualms with colleague and co-host of New Day, Moon Sangmoor. Yesterday, the vibrant TV3 news anchor Bridget Otoo, attention was drawn to a palpably false publication by Ghana's top blogger Ameyaw Debrah, saying Bridget has been taken off TV3s morning show, New Day, due to disciplinary issues. The unsubstantiated claims in the publications were malicious, deliberately orchestrated and calculated to hurt Bridget and her professional image. It is a gross disrespect to the ethics of journalism and truthful reporting. Bridget is someone, who is down-to-earth to everyone; she can smile or laugh 24/7. She loves what she does and makes sure it in a professional way. Those who know her know she cannot do anything like that. But its so sad some people want to see hardworking and vibrant Bridget Otoo to be sacked from the TV3 network. Bridget has not been suspended from TV3. Read her statement: In the last 24 to 36 hours, my attention was drawn to a palpably false publication by Ameyaw Debrah on his portal http://www.ameyawdebrah.com and sister portal http://www.pulseghana.com claiming I have been suspended from TV3 for unprofessional conduct. The false story was published on other news portals including http://www.peacefmonline.com and http://www.yen.gh.com . The unsubstantiated claims in the publications were malicious, deliberately orchestrated and calculated to hurt my person and professional image. It is a gross disrespect to the ethics of journalism and truthful reporting. I contacted Ameyaw Debrah personally to express my displeasure about the false publication and asked him to publish a retraction and apology. Although he admitted he was wrong and claim he was carried away by the rumours and apologised to me privately, he has since refused to retract the story and publish the apology on his platform. I am surprised he cares about how damaging the retraction of the story will be to his reputation, but does not care about hurting my reputation. I consider this kind of unrepentant conduct by Ameyaw Debrah grossly unprofessional. For the records, I am not on suspension from TV3. There is no disciplinary action against me. I have not shown disrespect to any guests or visitors to TV3. I have not fought with any of my colleagues at TV3. Those who know me, know I cannot do anything like that. As a consummate professional, I have excellent personal and professional relationships with all my colleagues, including Moonn Sangmor. As the busy election period approaches, journalists will not be able to go on leave. So I decided to take my accumulated leave ahead of the hurly-burly period of the political campaign coverage. That cannot be equated to suspension. I feel offended by the publications and I have instructed my lawyers to take the necessary actions to cure the mischief against me. Signed- Bridget Otoo Author: Nana Kesse | www.nanakesse24.com The most sensational kidnapping in Nigeria's recent history saw 276 schoolgirls snatched from their classroom in the remote northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014 by Boko Haram jihadists. By Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP/File) 06.07.2016 LISTEN Freetown (AFP) - A Sierra Leonean diplomat who was kidnapped in northern Nigeria has been freed, officials of both countries said Tuesday. Alfred Nelson-Williams, Freetown's defence attache and deputy head of the country's mission in Abuja, was abducted last Friday while travelling to the northern city of Kaduna for a military passing-out parade. "The diplomat has been reunited with the Sierra Leonean High Commissioner (ambassador) and his family," Nigeria's federal police spokesman Don Awunah said. "We were able to locate where he was kept at about 1500 hours (1400 GMT). He is in sound health." News of Nelson-Williams' release was also confirmed by Sierra Leone's Deputy Information Minister Cornelius Deveaux, who declined to give further details, adding only that it "was as a result of quiet diplomacy." Sierra Leone had sent a special envoy to Abuja to act as an intermediary and open a line of communication between the kidnappers and the high commission, presidential spokesman Abdulai Baytraytay said on Monday. President Ernest Bai Koroma was in "round-the-clock contact" with his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari, he added. Sierra Leonean government spokesman Ajibu Jalloh, speaking on national radio, said "Nelson-Williams was released together with his official Nigerian driver, Usaine Fulani, adding that "we still have not got all the facts". He assured that the freed diplomat was "looking good and in high spirit for a man who has gone through a tough ordeal." No ransom money was paid, he added. Nelson-Williams's abduction was the first of a Sierra Leone diplomat anywhere in the world since the country gained independence in 1961, foreign ministry sources in Freetown said. Kidnapping for ransom has long been a problem in Nigeria's oil-rich south, where wealthy locals and expatriate workers have been seized, only to be released after payment several days later. But the phenomenon has now spread to the north of the country, with criminal gangs made up of suspected former cattle rustlers who have pushed into kidnapping after a military crackdown on the theft of herds. In April a Nigerian army colonel, who was kidnapped from Kaduna and later found dead. Kidnappings have increased since the middle of last year and more than 200 people are believed to have been abducted since January, a senior police source in the region told AFP in May. But that is believed to be only a fraction of the true figure, as many abductions go unreported. The Ghana Bar Association is calling on the Inspector General of Police to as a matter of urgency arrest some two radio panelists who threatened the lives of judges in the country. The two, Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn who were speaking on Accra based radio station, Montie FM on June 29, 2016 allegedly threatened to unleash mayhem on Supreme Court and High Courts judges in the country claiming that they know their residence. However, a statement signed by President of the GBA, Benson Nutsukpui, said they are shocked by the threats since the language used by the said panelists was particularly clear and graphic, and showed a clear intent to put the fear of harm or death in our judges. GBA also argued that those words were also meant to incite hatred among the public against the judges. We hereby call on the Inspector General of Police to cause the investigations of those matters, arrest of the gentlemen, charge them with the relevant offences and put them before court. GBA further called on the Attorney General to ensure that these gentlemen are prosecuted with all the force that she can muster and do her utmost to secure convictions of them. It also called on the National Media Commission to investigate the matter and sanction Montie FM and its owners. Below is the full statement: GHANA BAR ASSOCIATION'S STATEMENT ON THREATS TO JUDGES MADE ON MUNTIE 100.1 FM ON 29TH JUNE 2016 The Ghana Bar Association has listened with shock and horror, sound recordings from a talk show programme ostensibly held on Accra-based Muntie 100.1 FM radio, during which some panelists, Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn made threats of harm or of death to Supreme Court and High Court judges. The language used by the said panelists was particularly clear and graphic, and showed a clear intent to put the fear of harm or death in our judges. Those words were also meant to incite hatred among the public against the judges. Further, the words used were in blatant contempt of the Supreme Court as they sought to scandalise the Court or otherwise lower its authority. The GBA is shocked that the owners and proprietors of the said radio station do not appear to have taken any steps to sanction the panelists in the face of such unacceptable conduct and language. The Ghana Bar Association condemns the threats on the lives judges in no uncertain terms. These threats are even more painful to the legal profession because they were ostensibly made on 29th June 2016, the eve of Martyrs Day, a day when the profession remembers the three High Court Judges and retired military officer who were kidnapped from their homes and murdered by agents of the state. It was therefore sickening and horrifying to hear these gentlemen referring to the murders of our Martyrs with excitement, drawing parallels to it claiming that they could also identify the homes of our judges today for the purpose of visiting them with violence, and saying things such as when we finish them, then it will be over they have to go. We will see them off to return to where they came from. Such gruesome glorification of the bloody and dastardly acts of yesteryears, and current threat to our judiciary cannot be tolerated or allowed under our present democratic dispensation. The constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and expression, which includes freedom of the press and other media, are not absolute. Citizens are expected not to use that freedom to endanger Ghana, encourage disrespect for our nationhood, or incite hatred against members of the community. We hereby call on the Inspector-General of Police to cause the investigation of those matters, arrest of the gentlemen, charge them with the relevant offences and put them before court. We call on the Attorney-General to ensure that these gentlemen are prosecuted with all the force that she can muster and do her utmost to secure convictions of them. We call on the National Media Commission to investigate this matter and impose sanctions that are permitted by law on the radio station and its owners. We also call on all well-meaning Ghanaians to condemn these gentlemen, their words and conduct, and the radio station to show that there is no room for such conduct and that Ghana will never allow those dark days to return. The Bar wishes finally to reiterate its position as encapsulated in the National President's speech at the 34th Remembrance service held in memory of the Martyred Judges on 30th June 2016, assaults to the rule of law have not and should never manifest themselves in the horrific circumstances we have just reminded ourselves of. DATED AT ACCRA THIS 1ST DAY OF JULY 2016 (Sgd) Benson Nutsukpui National President Ghana Bar Association By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana Follow @AlloteyGodwin Lead Counsel for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2012 election petition case wants the Supreme Court to appoint an independent investigator to verify the list presented by the Electoral Commission (EC) as the number of people who registered to vote with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card. Philip Addison is basing his proposal to the Supreme Court on what he says is ECs continuous demonstration of lack of credibility since 2014 when the Court tasked it to delete names of NHIS card registrants from the electoral roll. The only way that we can be verified and be satisfied is for an independent investigator to be appointed to check the register. After all during the [2012] election petition such an independent investigator was appointed to go into the vote of the Supreme Court, and if that can be done, why not the EC? Mr Addison told Joy News Favour Nunoo. The EC on Thursday presented a little over 56,000 names for deletion from the voters' register after the Court ruled that the NHIS card which they used as proof of citizenship was unconstitutional. Youth Organizer of the People's National Convention (PNC), Abu Ramadan and Evans Nimako, brought a suit in 2014 against the Commission for registering voters with NHIS card and won. On May 5, 2016 the Supreme Court asked the Electoral Commission to remove from the current voters register names of all persons who registered and voted in the 2012 elections, with the NHIS card as a proof of identity. Mr Ramadan and Mr Nimako, among other reliefs, wanted the current register declared inappropriate for the November 2016 polls. But the EC after studying the ruling said its understanding does not suggest the use of any new process to delete the names of those who registered with NHIS cards since there are already laid down procedures for expunging ineligible names. The ECs explanation, however, angered Mr. Ramadan who felt the Commission was disrespecting the explicit orders of the court. On Thursday when the EC presented 56,739 names, lawyers for Abu Ramadan who brought the case condemned the EC for submitting a list they describe as fictitious and conjured. They made the accusations after going through the list submitted for one hour. One of the lawyers for the plaintiff, Mr Frank Davies, observed after going through the list that, there are no NHIS numbers from 18-55 names of the voters list presented for Afigya Kwabre constituency. Also in Asokwa in the Asante Akim Central constituency in the Ashanti Region, Mr Davies said he found it strange that only one person is supposed to have registered using the NHIS card. He claimed that they know persons who registered with the NHIS card in Asokwa. If you say a majority, if you say millions and you come to court and you give us less than a 100,000, you have not done justice to the [issue]," Abu Ramadan told Joy News on Thursday. Speaking on the matter to Joy News recently, Mr Addison said the EC cannot be trusted the list they have presented. Whatever means they used to determine [56,000 NHIS card registrants] they should provide it for the independent investigator. If [the investigator] confirms that it is 56,000 we will all go to sleep. But we cannot accept what the EC brings out. They have never been truthful, unfortunately. They have no credibility, absolutely none, Mr Addison, who is also the aspiring NPP Klottey Korle constituency Member of Parliament, said. He said the ECs previous pronouncements on the number of NHIS card registrants make the list they have presented more difficult to believe. During the 2012 election petition, the Supreme Court appointed audit firm, KPMG to audit pink sheet exhibits provided to the court by NPP petitioners. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | George Nyavor | [email protected] A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) communication team has dismissed allegations he made threatening statements against judges on an Accra-based radio station. Godwin Ako Gunn's name was mentioned in a statement released Saturday by the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) in which it condemned the utterances of Mr Gunn and Alistair Tairo Nelson. According to the GBA, it "listened with shock and horror, sound recordings from a talk show program ostensibly held on Accra-based Muntie 100.1 FM radio, during which some panelists, Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn made threats of harm or of death to Supreme Court and High Court judges." "The language used by the said panelists was particularly clear and graphic and showed a clear intent to put the fear of harm or death in our judges. Those words were also meant to incite hatred among the public against the judges," the statement signed by the National President of the Association, Benson Nutsukpui added. The Association reiterated its position captured in Mr Nutsukpui at the 34th Remembrance service held in memory of the martyred judges on 30th June 2016, assaults to the rule of law have not and should never manifest themselves in the horrific circumstances we have just reminded ourselves of. However, in a statement released Saturday, Godwin Gunn said, "My attention has been drawn to a widely circulated statement issued by the Ghana Bar Association in which a call has been made for my arrest and prosecution. The basis for the call is that I made comments threatening to kill Supreme court judges on a political discussion programme on Montie FM on Wednesday, 29th June,2016. "For the avoidance of doubt,I wish to place it on record that I did not participate in any political discussion programme on Muntie FM,on the said date.Neither have I ever made comments threatening judges with death or any harm of any sort. The claim by the GBA is therefore false and the call for my arrest completely untenable . I therefore demand a retraction of the GBA statement and an apology for the harm done to my reputation." However, a co-panelist on the programme on the Accra-based radio station, Alistair Tairo Nelson, says he is sorry for making comments he made against the judges, some of which he says have been distorted. He said, "On Wednesday 29th June I participated in a programme on Montie FM. During my contribution, I made statements that in context, content (though conditional) and timing, are regrettable. "Notwithstanding the many distortions that have accompanied the numerous public comments, I wish to apologise unreservedly to the listening public, including those who have called to caution and advise, and also to all members of the bench who have been offended by my contribution on the programme . I also wish to apologise to the management of Montie FM for the unfortunate development. Thank you." Read GBA's full statement below: GHANA BAR ASSOCIATIONS STATEMENT ON THREATS TO JUDGES MADE ON MUNTIE 100.1 FM ON 29TH JUNE 2016 The Ghana Bar Association has listened with shock and horror, sound recordings from a talk show programme ostensibly held on Accra-based Muntie 100.1 FM radio, during which some panelists, Alistair Nelson, and Godwin Ako Gunn made threats of harm or of death to Supreme Court and High Court judges. The language used by the said panelists was particularly clear and graphic and showed a clear intent to put the fear of harm or death in our judges. Those words were also meant to incite hatred among the public against the judges. Further, the words used were in blatant contempt of the Supreme Court as they sought to scandalise the Court or otherwise lower its authority. The GBA is shocked that the owners and proprietors of the said radio station do not appear to have taken any steps to sanction the panelists in the face of such unacceptable conduct and language. The Ghana Bar Association condemns the threats on the lives judges in no uncertain terms. These threats are even more painful to the legal profession because they were ostensibly made on 29th June 2016, the eve of Martyrs Day, a day when the profession remembers the three High Court Judges and retired military officer who were kidnapped from their homes and murdered by agents of the state. It was therefore sickening and horrifying to hear these gentlemen referring to the murders of our Martyrs with excitement, drawing parallels to it claiming that they could also identify the homes of our judges today for the purpose of visiting them with violence, and saying things such as "when we finish them, then it will be over... they have to go. We will see them off to return to where they came from." Such gruesome glorification of the bloody and dastardly acts of yesteryears, and current threat to our judiciary cannot be tolerated or allowed under our present democratic dispensation. The constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and expression, which includes freedom of the press and other media, are not absolute. Citizens are expected not to use that freedom to endanger Ghana, encourage disrespect for our nationhood, or incite hatred against members of the community. We hereby call on the Inspector-General of Police to cause the investigation of those matters, arrest of the gentlemen, charge them with the relevant offences and put them before court. We call on the Attorney-General to ensure that these gentlemen are prosecuted with all the force that she can muster and do her utmost to secure convictions of them. We call on the National Media Commission to investigate this matter and impose sanctions that are permitted by law on the radio station and its owners. We also call on all well-meaning Ghanaians to condemn these gentlemen, their words and conduct, and the radio station to show that there is no room for such conduct and that Ghana will never allow those dark days to return. The Bar wishes finally to reiterate its position as encapsulated in the National Presidents speech at the 34th Remembrance service held in memory of the Martyred Judges on 30th June 2016, assaults to the rule of law have not and should never manifest themselves in the horrific circumstances we have just reminded ourselves of. DATED AT ACCRA THIS 1ST DAY OF JULY 2016 (Sgd) Benson Nutsukpui National President Ghana Bar Association Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Abubakar Ibrahim | Email: [email protected] Freetown (AFP) - Nigerian security officials are questioning the driver of Sierra Leone's kidnapped deputy high commissioner, an official in Freetown said Saturday. The envoy, Alfred Nelson-Williams, was snatched on Friday as he was travelling by road from the Nigerian capital of Abuja north to the city of Kaduna. "We've been informed by the Nigerian authorities that the driver of the kidnapped deputy high commissioner is being questioned by security officials," Sierra Leone Deputy Information and Communication Minister Cornelius Deveaux told reporters Saturday. Kidnappings are common in Nigeria, where the rich and powerful drive bulletproof cars and even hire military and police chaperones as protection from highway bandits. The envoy was kidnapped "on his way to Kaduna from Abuja to attend the passing out ceremony of military officers at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Jaji outside Kaduna," Kaduna state security official Yusuf Yakubu Soja told AFP Friday. Neither he nor police could confirm whether the kidnappers had demanded a ransom. Foreign ministry sources in Freetown told AFP that "this is the first time that a Sierra Leone diplomat has been kidnapped anywhere on posting since independence in 1961". A source in the kidnapped diplomat's family said Saturday, "the news hit us with a bang but we are hopeful that all will be well and that God will give him divine protection". The most sensational kidnapping in Nigeria's recent history saw 276 schoolgirls snatched from their classroom in the remote northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014 by Boko Haram jihadists. The government of former president Goodluck Jonathan was criticised for its slow response in acknowledging the kidnapping and for its inability to find and recover the girls. Late last month, popular musician Ado Dahiru Daukaka was also kidnapped in Nigeria's northeast Adamawa state and then freed days later. But in the oil-producing delta region in the south, where wealthy Nigerians and expatriate workers are usually the target, abductions are often for financial gain. This week, two Indian workers were kidnapped on their way to work in central Benue state. The pair have yet to be released. Last week, three Australians, a New Zealander and a South African were kidnapped along with two Nigerians near the capital of Cross River state in the country's south. They were released four days later, but officials did not say whether the kidnappers received any ransom. Over-reliance of local poultry farmers especially in the Ashanti Region to import day old chicks could, at least, reduce in the coming days. This follows the installation of a new hatchery at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). A majority of chicks in Ghanas poultry industry are imported because farmers often complain the local breeds are of low quality. Available statistics show poultry farmers in Ghana import more than five million day old chicks every year since 2014 to meet the shortfall in local production. The existing six hatcheries available in Ghana have been underperforming; producing between 20 to 40 percent of installed capacity. But thanks to KNUST, local farmers have the option to buy quality day old chicks at their doorsteps. The five thousand capacity hatchery and research centre is expected to address the trend of importing. Poultry Embryology and Chick Quality specialist at KNUST, Dr. Jacob Alhassan Hamidu reminisces the era of producing low-quality day old chicks could soon be over. We want that to stop. We will conduct proper research and we are going to be troubleshooting, he said. According to Dr Hamidu, farmers will be furnished with research outcomes to improve chick quality in order to compete globally. We will educate farmers on what exactly is going on in their hatcheries and how they can troubleshoot and optimise for quality chicks, he assured. Besides, imported day-old chicks cost about two or three times the local ones so the centre is convinced there will be no need to buy from the international market if they are cheaper and quality here. About Gh200,000 has been invested to revamped hatchery to meet modern standards. The incubation centre is also expected to help farmers optimise their incubation techniques to cut down on the importation. Meanwhile, outgoing vice chancellor of KNUST, Professor William Otoo Ellis implored the college to maximize the full potential of the hatchery. By Amadu Kamil Sanah, GNA Accra, July 02, GNA - Progress In Education (PIE Ghana), a Non-Governmental Organisation, has donated stationery, teaching modules, Science and Laboratory equipment to 34 Senior High Schools across the country. The equipment, which include computers, printers, and projector screens, is to augment the Government's efforts to reach out to deprived schools across the country. Addressing the ceremony, the Reverend Daniel Ogbarmey-Tetteh, the Executive Director of Data Bank, said Science and Technology were life changing subjects and must be supported by all educational stakeholders to be taught and learned successfully to impact on society. Rev Ogbarmey-Tetteh said students must be encouraged to use modern techniques of solving problems, and this could be done with computers and Internet facilities. Parents and teachers, he said, should, also work with the students to relate to Science in a practical way. He also advised the Government to support NGOs who solicited funds and equipment to support the educational Sector with tax incentives. The Chairperson of the ceremony, Dr Mrs Sylvia Boye, a former head of the West African Examination Council, urged the students to share their passions with level-headed and open-minded people related to their courses for better advice and future gains. PIE Ghana is headquartered in Houston, USA, and has since 2000 supported schools with educational materials, especially Science-related ones. GNA you are here: July Fourth is traditionally a day to celebrate not only America's founding but also the exceptional nature of our great country. Coming this year in the middle of one of the nastiest presidential campaigns in recent memory, it would certainly be refreshing to hear from candidates on American exceptionalism, but somehow I doubt that either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump is up to the task. They should take a lesson from one of our greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, who, even before he became president, understood that we are a unique people, unlike any other in human history. We think of the 2016 campaign as one of the most contentious ever, but the 1858 campaign for U.S. senator from Illinois makes the current presidential campaign look like a schoolyard tug of war. At the time, senators were elected not in a popular vote as they are today but by the legislatures of their respective states. Nonetheless, Stephen Douglas, the incumbent Democratic senator, and Republican Abraham Lincoln, a former one-term representative from Illinois, appealed directly to the people in the course of the campaign through a series of debates, which became known as the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Lincoln lost his bid to become senator when the Republican Party failed to gain control of the Illinois Legislature, but the debates formed the basis of Lincoln's national reputation and set the stage for the 1860 presidential race, which was the most consequential in our nation's history. The issue of slavery was very much the focal point of the debates in 1858. The immediate issue was not the abolition of slavery or the emancipation of slaves something that would come later and take the Civil War to accomplish but whether slavery could be expanded into the new western territories of Nebraska and Kansas. Over and over again, through the course of the debates, Lincoln returned to what he saw as America's founding principles, the adherence to which binds Americans more strongly than any ties of blood or soil. Before the formal debates between Lincoln and Douglas began in August, both men gave speeches to respective audiences shortly after the Independence Day holiday. In Lincoln's speech in Chicago, he noted that the Fourth of July celebrations popular at the time had become almost a form of hero worship. "We run our memory back over the pages of history for about 82 years and we discover ... a race of men living in that day whom we claim as our fathers and grandfathers," he said. "But after we have done all this, we have not yet reached the whole," he added. And it is what Lincoln said next that should be repeated for today's voters: "There is something else connected with it. We have, besides these men descended by blood from our ancestors among us perhaps half our people who are not descendants at all of these men. They are men who have come from Europe German, Irish, French and Scandinavian men that have come from Europe themselves or whose ancestors have come hither and settled here, finding themselves our equals in all things." In Lincoln's view, what made Americans American was that they could find these words written in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal." Americans read that, "and then they feel that that moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to (the Founding Fathers), that it is the father of all moral principle in them and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that declaration, and so they are." Unfortunately, we are in danger of losing that principled definition of what it means to be American. The left encourages immigrants to hold on to their past, not adopting a new American identity but retaining their native language and allegiances. The right frets that today's immigrants cannot or will not become Americans as previous waves did. Neither is right. A much smaller portion of America's population now than in Lincoln's day can claim to be descended from that first group of Americans who broke with King George III. Nor do most immigrants come from Europe now. But all of us, no matter where our ancestors came from or how recently they came, are still bound by the principles of our founding. It is adherence to that American creed that we should celebrate this July Fourth and we should insist that those who want to lead us pledge allegiance to it. Linda Chavez is the author of "An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal." To find out more about Linda Chavez, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com. Not everyone attending Red, White and Bluegrass music camp is a newbie. Some are accomplished musicians who want to learn what the instructors know. This time around, those instructors are the members of Flatt Lonesome, along with some awesome (theres that word again) friends. Keaton McMillon, who is glad to have Paul Harrigill contribute to his banjo picking, is a camper for the third year. The 15-year-old from Lenoir said he knew banjo basics when he first signed up for camp. RWB made a difference. This is one of the best camps Ive been to, Keaton said. Ive made a lot of friends and learned a lot. Hes learned so much that he won first place in the banjo-picking competition at last years Happy Valley Bluegrass Festival. Thats the shindig that has the whole-hearted support of The Kruger Brothers and attracts a swarm of top-notch professional and on-their-way amateurs every year. Keaton is proud to be Happy Valleys banjo Player of the Year. He really likes Harrigill. This is the second time hes attended camp with Flatt Lonesome. Presley Barker is only 11. His talent is also well-recognized. Hes from Trap Hill and agrees with Keatons assessment of RWB music camp. Yeah, its fun, he said of his second time around. Then he starts talking. Presley finished second at Wayne Hendersons guitar festival competition. Thats no mean feat. For the uninitiated, Henderson is a celebrated guitar-maker (he did one for Eric Clapton, and one for Doc Watson, among many other music giants) and a whiz of a player. His annual gathering at Grayson Highlands, Virginia, lures a lot of guitar fans and players. Presley said Henderson, Doc, Bryan Sutton, Tony Rice and Steve Lewis are among his favorite guitarists. So, did he learn anything at camp? Oh yeah. I learned fill-in licks for backup, he said. Well, its good to have something meaningful to contribute when youre not playing the lead. The favorites he mentioned mastered the art of playing together, something Presley obviously understands. The object of all the campers, no matter who they are, is to improve. Some are simply further along than others. Bluegrass camp is a place where everyone is on the same page when it comes to getting better. Kinsey Greene has been part of five camps. Before her first camp, she couldnt sleep. The bassist aged out, but she couldnt let go. Shes an instructor this year. I feel like since May Ive been in a whirlwind, she said. I went to Auburn, Alabama, for Bluegrass on the Plains. It was a birthday present. Thats where she received a stunning birthday gift. I got to sing on stage with Rhonda Vincent! Want to see a photo? Its right there on Kinseys cellphone, only a few clicks away. I just love her, always have, she said. And yes, she was surprised. Now a high school graduate, Kinsey soon will be off to East Tennessee State University where she will major in nursing with a Bluegrass minor. ETSU is the first college to offer formal studies in Bluegrass music and a degree in Bluegrass and is still the leader in that respect. Its not that far away from her home in Boone. Im excited, Kinsey said. Its a new chapter in my life. A new chapter that includes Bluegrass, a part of her nurtured by her experiences in RWB summer camp. I love it, Kinsey said. Its meant a lot. MBS RECAP: Bonds Stay Green Ahead of 3-Day Weekend Strong overnight pop in Treasuries, ECB headlines cited Record low 30yr bond yield and near-record low in 10yr yield Bonds lost ground after Europe ran out of steam Bonds lost more ground after ISM data, but held on to modest gains All in all, today managed to be fairly interesting, considering its status as a "half-day before a 3-day weekend." The overnight trade was driven by some important headlines out of Europe. These dealt with the recent rumors that the ECB was considering changing its rules for how much sovereign debt it could buy from any given country. Under the current system, bond buying is based on the level of contribution that a country has made into the ECB. In other words, it's proportionate and fair. The rumor was that the ECB would consider buying more bonds of certain countries that needed more stimulus in order to benefit the broader Eurozone. This was good news for the likes of Italy, Portugal and Spain, and bad news for Germany. When the overnight wires came out refuting the rumors, German yields dropped quickly and brought Treasuries along for the ride. The ride stopped at all-time lows for 30yr bonds and essentially all-time lows for 10yr yields as well (1.382 vs 1.381 in 2012). From there, it was merely a matter of holding on to gains while data and pre-weekend trading chipped away at them. Data actually appeared to make a dent, with ISM Manufacturing coming in at 53.2 vs 51.4 forecast. This ALMOST brought bonds back to 'unchanged' levels. Consider the preceding statements just one more time: bonds rallied to all-time lows and stronger ISM (a historically big market mover) took us from "very green" to just "slightly green." Moral of the story: bonds are where they are for reasons that transcend domestic economic data, even though data can continue to add or removed pressure in the short-term and over smaller ranges. MBS Pricing Snapshot Pricing shown below is delayed, please note the timestamp at the bottom. Pricing shown below is delayed, please note the timestamp at the bottom. Real time pricing is available via MBS Live. MBS FNMA 3.0 103-29 : +0-01 Treasuries 10 YR 1.4560 : -0.0360 Pricing as of 7/1/16 3:50PMEST Today's Reprice Alerts and Updates A recap of Alerts and Updates provided to MBS Live subscribers 10:40AM : ALERT ISSUED: Some Negative Reprice Risk Already, But Not Widespread MBS Live Chat Highlights Live Discussion on the A recap of featured comments from theon the MBS Live Dashboard Matthew Graham : "emotion>logic" Sung Kim : "so why do people think the rates they are seeing are not what they should be seeing?" Matthew Graham : "FWIW, G-fee change alone has added roughly 0.08% to RATE" Matthew Graham : "pretty easy to do an analysis. Fannie publishes g-fees on its 10q each quarter. We would look a the difference between Q1 2016 and Q3 2012, and then the difference in MBS trading levels, and see how things stack up. You might be surprised at how aggressive rates actually are right now. MBS were almost 2 points higher the last time 3.375% was the most prevalent top tier c30 quote, and that was before TRID did whatever it did to operational costs." Sung Kim : "to be fair, we don't know what current levels should be do we? has anyone done an analysis? please keep in mind, as i un-PC like alluded to last night, a lot of servicers paid up big for MSRs last year and they dont want to get burned again" Hugh W. Page : "Amazing to see the 10 yr yield 1/2 what it started at the beginning of the year." Steve Chizmadia : "And I'd be more than content hanging around these levels as long as secondary would improve their pricing to reflect current levels" Speaker is totally wrong in his ... A man and power lines are reflected in a Telstra poster adorning a public telephone in Sydney, Australia, August 13, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray SYDNEY (Reuters) - Businesses in one of Australia's biggest states suffered an internet outage for more than six hours, thanks to a faulty network device, the country's No. 1 telecoms company, Telstra Corp Ltd, said on Friday. The outage, Telstra's seventh this year, will pile pressure on the former state monopoly, beset by smaller rivals that are consolidating in a bid to chip away at its lengthy market dominance. In an email, a Telstra spokesman said a "device in the network behaving in a way that wasn't expected" caused Thursday's outage that hit about a fifth of the firm's business customers in Victoria, a state of nearly 6 million people. He gave no details of the malfunctioning device, but said the issue was resolved by late on Thursday. The same day, Telstra announced plans to spend A$250 million ($187 million) to upgrade its mobile network. Media said the affected customers included top department store operator Myer Holdings Ltd, top health insurer Medibank Private Ltd and Qantas Airways Ltd's discount carrier Jetstar, but Telstra declined to confirm this. The company had apologized to all the customers affected, the spokesman said, adding, "We will continue to talk to them about the steps we are taking to improve network resiliency." ($1=A$1.3367) (Reporting by Byron Kaye; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) Shares of beverage can maker Ball Corporation BLL gained over 1% yesterday after it closed the long-awaited acquisition of Rexam PLC REXMY for approximately $6.1 billion of cash and equity, along with the assumption of approximately $2.4 billion of net debt. Post-acquisition, Ball Corp. is now the largest manufacturer of beverage cans in the world. In early 2015, Ball Corporation had confirmed its offer to obtain Rexam. However, the acquisition of Rexam the London-based metal beverage can maker with 55 plants in more than 20 countries producing cans for The Coca-Cola Company KO, Pepsico, Inc. PEP and Anheuser-Busch InBev SA. was not an easy deal. BALL CORP Price BALL CORP Price | BALL CORP Quote After the announcement, Ball Corp. had faced numerous hurdles from its shareholders and regulatory bodies on the concern that the acquisition will impede effective competition in the consumer packaging market. In order to address these concerns, Ball Corp. submitted commitments to divest some of its assets and agreed to sell twelve plants in Europe and two in Brazil. The company also completed the required sale of the divestment business including eight aluminum-can plants and related assets in the U.S., to Ardagh Group for $3.1 billion. Further, it agreed to shut down Rexam's London headquarters which is expected to close by the end of this year. Ball Corporation's combined global metal beverage business will operate 75 metal-beverage manufacturing facilities and joint ventures, as well as various support locations, in North and Central America, Europe and Russia, South America, Asia and the Middle East. The company will now employ around 18,700 people across five continents with pro forma net 2015 sales of approximately $11 billion. Its global headquarters will remain in Broomfield, Colorado, supplying approximately 100 billion innovative, high-quality metal beverage containers. Ball Corporation expects to immediately begin integration of the new business into its global metal beverage operations. It also expects to gain synergies in excess of $300 million by the end of the third year of combined operations. The companys leverage has increased in the range of 4.5 times net debt to comparable EBITDA following the deal-related cash outflows, reflecting the mid-year seasonal peak of borrowings, as well as the impact of the acquisition, synergies and net divestiture proceeds. However, the company expects that execution on synergies and strong free cash flow will allow it to deleverage rapidly with targeted leverage to be in the range of 3.0 times in 2018. The buyout will create long-term value for Ball Corporations shareholders. It also ensures to make the beverage cans economically, environmentally and socially sustainable in the beverage supply chain. In addition, Ball Corp. will maintain its focus on Drive for 10 vision, EVA philosophy, balance-sheet management, free cash flow generation and capital allocation practices. In line with this, the company initiated a 90-day review of the newly acquired business, including costs, capital, supply logistics and balance-sheet management among others. This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company, will announce second-quarter earnings on August 4, 2016, and will provide an update on its progress at that time. 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 COCA COLA CO (KO): Free Stock Analysis Report PEPSICO INC (PEP): Free Stock Analysis Report BALL CORP (BLL): Free Stock Analysis Report REXAM PLC-ADR (REXMY): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Tweedy tire Owner Don Smyth at the front desk View Photos Jamestown, CA As Mother Lode mainstay for nearly a half-century prepares to bid its goodbye, its owner shares a nostalgic look back. Motorists traveling through Jamestown almost cannot help but notice Tweedy Tires landmark sign above Highway 108. Owner Don Smyth, now 86, looks back on nearly a lifetime of memories during which he raised three sons and a daughter with his wife Patricia, who passed away back in 1981. Most of his family, which includes numerous grandchildren and great-grandkids, reside in the Chico area. It was where the Smyths settled before Don was drawn to Sonora by a business opportunity that panned out well. Explaining, Smyth confides, The history of Tweedy Tire is actually tied into JS West. In 1940 they built its first satellite branch in Sonora, right where they are today. In addition to their propane and feedthey brought with them from Modesto a General Tire franchise in 1940. In 1957, they sold it to an employee of theirs named Joe Tweedy. In 1967, he wanted to retire and I was aware of that since I worked for General Tire at the time I lived and worked in Chico. I contacted Joe, we made a deal, and I bought the shop. Industry Fleets Helped Business Grow Retaining the name Tweedy Tire, Smyth says his operation was virtually the only tire dealer back in those days, describing business as very good for many years. There were a lot of logging trucks that you dont see today. We had all the fleets and did a very big businesshad lot of consignments, he notes. Adding that the former asbestos plant in Copperopolis, quite active from the 1960s into the 1980s was a huge account, he says, We outgrew ourselves, so I knew I needed a larger place. So Smyth singled out and purchased the property off Highway 108 in Jamestown. I designed the building to accommodate a truck shop as well as a passenger car auto repair business, and opened for business in October 1989, he states. He adds with quiet pride, We worked on everything, passenger cars, motor homes, logging and other big trucks and are still capable to this day. Anyway, here it isIve owned and operated Tweedy Tire for 49 years and just to the point where I want to retire. Smyths oldest son Steve runs the family operation up in Chico, sharing, They do quite well we are retaining thatanything we dont get rid of here will go up there. Notices, now being sent out to all Tweedy Tire customers, are aimed at squaring up the shops accounts receivable, Smyth says, as well as selling off some tires at bargain basement prices to help reduce inventory. A Naturalized Sonoran Originally hailing from the Bronx area of New York City, Smyths gentle voice holds barely a trace of that boroughs infamous accent. Sonora was a very good town to do business in, at least when I came here and a quaint town, of course I like it and I am going to remain here, he says. I have seen a lot of changes, big changesand saw a lot of logging trucksincrease through my early years, although now they are practically extinct. Asked about what makes him feel good, looking back on so many years of serving the Mother Lode, Smyth replies,I am very proud of the fact that I can look out of the window of my office to the waiting room and see that we always had at least 50 percent women [customers]. It is because they trust us and like the crew, and I assured them that is the way it was intended to be. Thoughtfully, he continues, parsing no words, Women by nature, and for good reason, are kind of wary about mechanics around here they are treated honestly and fairly. As his shop prepares to wind down in the coming month, Smyth states that he and his family are hoping to find a good tenant in the automotive business who will make good use of the facility. He also plans to spend some well-deserved downtime at his cabin in the hills above Quincy on Bucks Lake. In closing, he says, I just want to thank our many customers. We have had a lot of themwe have done business with their grandchildren down here [in Jamestown]. Sonora is a great little town I like it immensely. Tuolumne County voters View Photos Sacramento, CA Voters will find a barrage of propositions to vote for this fall ranging from gun restrictions to adult film requirements. In total there are 17 measures on Novembers ballot. That is the most since March of 2000 when there were 20 and more could be added when lawmakers return from summer recess Aug. 1. Arguments for and against are due July 12 in order to be included in the voter information guide. The Secretary of States office released its list of assigned proposition numbers Friday and provided the complete list below: Proposition 51 School Bonds. Funding for K-12 School and Community College Facilities. Initiative Statutory Amendment. Authorizes $9 billion in general obligation bonds: $3 billion for new construction and $3 billion for modernization of K-12 public school facilities; $1 billion for charter schools and vocational education facilities; and $2 billion for California Community Colleges facilities. Bars amendment to existing authority to levy developer fees to fund school facilities, until new construction bond proceeds are spent or December 31, 2020, whichever is earlier. Bars amendment to existing State Allocation Board process for allocating school construction funding, as to these bonds. Appropriates money from the General Fund to pay off bonds. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: State General Fund costs of $17.6 billion to pay off principal ($9 billion) and interest ($8.6 billion) on bonds over a period of 35 years. Annual payments would average $500 million. Annual payments would be relatively low in the initial and final few years and somewhat higher in the intervening years. (15-0005.) Proposition 52 State Fees on Hospitals. Federal Medi-Cal Matching Funds. Initiative Statutory and Constitutional Amendment. Increases required vote to two-thirds for the Legislature to amend a certain existing law that imposes fees on hospitals (for purpose of obtaining federal Medi-Cal matching funds) and that directs those fees and federal matching funds to hospital-provided Medi-Cal health care services, to uncompensated care provided by hospitals to uninsured patients, and to childrens health coverage. Eliminates laws ending date. Declares that laws fee proceeds shall not be considered revenues for purposes of applying state spending limit or determining required education funding. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: State savings from increased revenues that offset state costs for childrens health coverage of around $500 million beginning in 2016-17 (half-year savings) to over $1 billion annually by 2019-20, likely growing between 5 percent to 10 percent annually thereafter. Increased revenues to support state and local public hospitals of around $90 million beginning in 2016-17 (half-year) to $250 million annually by 2019-20, likely growing between 5 percent to 10 percent annually thereafter. (13-0022.) Proposition 53 Revenue Bonds. Statewide Voter Approval. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. Requires statewide voter approval before any revenue bonds can be issued or sold by the state for projects that are financed, owned, operated, or managed by the state or any joint agency created by or including the state, if the bond amount exceeds $2 billion. Prohibits dividing projects into multiple separate projects to avoid statewide voter approval requirement. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: The fiscal effect on state and local governments is unknown and would vary by project. It would depend on (1) the outcome of projects brought before voters, (2) the extent to which the state relied on alternative approaches to the projects or alternative financing methods for affected projects, and (3) whether those methods have higher or lower costs than revenue bonds. (15-0003.) Proposition 54 Legislature. Legislation and Proceedings. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute. Prohibits Legislature from passing any bill unless it has been in print and published on the Internet for at least 72 hours before the vote, except in cases of public emergency. Requires the Legislature to make audiovisual recordings of all its proceedings, except closed session proceedings, and post them on the Internet. Authorizes any person to record legislative proceedings by audio or video means, except closed session proceedings. Allows recordings of legislative proceedings to be used for any legitimate purpose, without payment of any fee to the State. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Increased costs to state government of potentially $1 million to $2 million initially and about $1 million annually for making additional legislative proceedings available in audiovisual form on the Internet. (15-0083.) Proposition 55 Tax Extension to Fund Education and Healthcare. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. Extends by twelve years the temporary personal income tax increases enacted in 2012 on earnings over $250,000 (for single filers; over $500,000 for joint filers; over $340,000 for heads of household). Allocates these tax revenues 89% to K-12 schools and 11% to California Community Colleges. Allocates up to $2 billion per year in certain years for healthcare programs. Bars use of education revenues for administrative costs, but provides local school governing boards discretion to decide, in open meetings and subject to annual audit, how revenues are to be spent. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Increased state revenues annually from 2019 through 2030likely in the $5 billion to $11 billion range initiallywith amounts varying based on stock market and economic trends. Increased revenues would be allocated under constitutional formulas to schools and community colleges, budget reserves and debt payments, and health programs, with remaining funds available for these or other state purposes. (15-0115.) Proposition 56 Cigarette Tax to Fund Healthcare, Tobacco Use Prevention, Research, and Law Enforcement. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute.Increases cigarette tax by $2.00 per pack, with equivalent increase on other tobacco products and electronic cigarettes containing nicotine. Allocates revenues primarily to increase funding for existing healthcare programs; also for tobacco use prevention/control programs, tobacco-related disease research and law enforcement, University of California physician training, dental disease prevention programs, and administration. Excludes these revenues from Proposition 98 funding requirements. If tax causes decreased tobacco consumption, transfers tax revenues to offset decreases to existing tobacco-funded programs and sales tax revenues. Requires biennial audit. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Net increase in excise tax revenues in the range of $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion annually by 2017-18, with revenues decreasing slightly in subsequent years. The majority of funds would be used for payments to health care providers. The remaining funds would be used for a variety of specified purposes, including tobacco-related prevention and cessation programs, law enforcement programs, medical research on tobacco-related diseases, and early childhood development programs. (15-0081.) Proposition 57 Criminal Sentences. Juvenile Criminal Proceedings and Sentencing. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute. Allows parole consideration for persons convicted of nonviolent felonies upon completion of full prison term for primary offense, as defined. Authorizes Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to award sentence credits for rehabilitation, good behavior, or educational achievements. Requires Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to adopt regulations to implement new parole and sentence credit provisions and certify they enhance public safety. Provides juvenile court judges shall make determination, upon prosecutor motion, whether juveniles age 14 and older should be prosecuted and sentenced as adults. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Net state savings that could range from the tens of millions of dollars to the low hundreds of millions of dollars annually primarily due to a reduction in the prison population from additional paroles granted and credits earned. Net county costs that could range from the millions to tens of millions of dollars annually, declining to a few million dollars after initial implementation of the measure. (15-0121.) Proposition 58 SB 1174 (Chapter 753, Statutes of 2014), Lara. English language education. SB 1174, Lara. English language education. (1) Existing law, as added by Proposition 227, a measure approved by the voters at the June 2, 1998, statewide primary election, requires, among other things, that all children in California public schools be taught English by being taught in English. Proposition 227 specifies that English learner pupils, as defined, be educated through sheltered English immersion, as defined, during a temporary transition period not normally intended to exceed one year. Proposition 227 further provides that its requirements relating to sheltered English immersion instruction may be waived with the prior written consent of a pupils parent or legal guardian, as specified. Proposition 227 also encourages family members and others to provide personal English language tutoring to English learner pupils. This bill would amend and repeal various provisions of Proposition 227. The bill would, among other things, delete the sheltered English immersion requirement and waiver provisions, and would instead provide that school districts and county offices of education shall, at a minimum, provide English learners with a structured English immersion program, as specified. The bill would authorize parents or legal guardians of pupils enrolled in the school to choose a language acquisition program that best suits their child, as provided. (2) Existing law requires, on or before July 1, 2014, the governing board of each school district and each county board of education to adopt a local control and accountability plan and requires the governing board of each school district and each county board of education to update its plan on or before July 1 of each year. As part of the process for developing the local control and accountability plan, existing law requires the superintendent of the school district or the county superintendent of schools to both present the plan or annual update to the plan to a parent advisory committee and an English learner parent advisory committee for review and comment, and to respond, in writing, to comments received from the committees. Existing law also requires the superintendent of the school district and the county superintendent of schools to notify members of the public of the opportunity to submit written comments regarding the specific actions and expenditures proposed to be included in the local control and accountability plan or annual update to the plan. This bill would, as part of the parent and community engagement process required for the development of a local control and accountability plan, require school districts and county offices of education to solicit input on, and provide to pupils, effective and appropriate instructional methods, including, but not limited to, establishing language acquisition programs, as defined. (3) Proposition 227 also specifies that a pupils parent or legal guardian has standing to sue for enforcement of its provisions and, if successful, to receive normal and customary attorneys fees and actual damages, but not punitive or consequential damages. Proposition 227 further provides that school board members, other elected officials, and public school teachers or administrators who willfully and repeatedly refuse to implement its provisions may be held personally liable for fees and actual damages by a pupils parent or legal guardian. This bill would delete those provisions. (4) Proposition 227 provides that its provisions may be amended by a statute to further its purpose passed by a 2/3 vote of each house of the Legislature and signed by the Governor. This bill would delete the requirement that the amendment further the purpose of Proposition 227, and would revise the vote threshold to a majority vote in each house of the Legislature. (5) This bill would make these provisions operative on July 1, 2017. (6) The California Constitution authorizes the Legislature to amend or repeal an initiative statute by another statute that becomes effective when approved by the electors. This bill would provide that it would become effective only upon approval of the voters, and would require the Secretary of State to submit this measure to the voters for approval at the November 2016 statewide general election. Proposition 59 Adult Films. Condoms. Health Requirements. Initiative Statute. Requires performers in adult films to use condoms during filming of sexual intercourse. Requires producers of adult films to pay for performer vaccinations, testing, and medical examinations related to sexually transmitted infections. Requires producers to obtain state health license at beginning of filming and to post condom requirement at film sites. Imposes liability on producers for violations, on certain distributors, on performers if they have a financial interest in the violating film, and on talent agents who knowingly refer performers to noncomplying producers. Permits state, performers, or any state resident to enforce violations. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Potentially reduced state and local tax revenue of millions or tens of millions of dollars per year. Likely state costs of a few million dollars annually to administer the law. Possible ongoing net costs or savings for state and local health and human services programs. (15-0004.) Proposition 60 State Prescription Drug Purchases. Pricing Standards. Initiative Statute. Prohibits state agencies from paying more for a prescription drug than the lowest price paid for the same drug by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Applies to any program where the state is the ultimate payer for a drug, even if the state does not purchase the drug directly. Exempts certain purchases of prescription drugs funded through Medi-Cal. Fiscal impact: It is the opinion of the Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance that the measure, if adopted, may result in a substantial net change in state or local finances. (15-0009.) Proposition 61 Death Penalty. Initiative Statute. Repeals death penalty as maximum punishment for persons found guilty of murder and replaces it with life imprisonment without possibility of parole. Applies retroactively to persons already sentenced to death. States that persons found guilty of murder and sentenced to life without possibility of parole must work while in prison as prescribed by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Increases to 60% the portion of wages earned by persons sentenced to life without the possibility of parole that may be applied to any victim restitution fines or orders against them. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Net reduction in state and local government costs of potentially around $150 million annually within a few years due to the elimination of the death penalty. (15-0066.) Proposition 62 Firearms. Ammunition Sales. Initiative Statute. Prohibits possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines, and requires their disposal by sale to dealer, destruction, or removal from state. Requires most individuals to pass background check and obtain Department of Justice authorization to purchase ammunition. Requires most ammunition sales be made through licensed ammunition vendors and reported to Department of Justice. Requires lost or stolen firearms and ammunition be reported to law enforcement. Prohibits persons convicted of stealing a firearm from possessing firearms. Establishes new procedures for enforcing laws prohibiting firearm possession by felons and violent criminals. Requires Department of Justice to provide information about prohibited persons to federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Increased state costs in the tens of millions of dollars annually related to regulating ammunition sales, likely offset by various regulatory fees authorized by the measure. Increase in court and law enforcement costs, not likely to exceed the tens of millions of dollars annually, related to removing firearms from prohibited persons as part of court sentencing proceedings. These costs could be offset to some extent by fees authorized by the measure. Potential increase in state and local correctional costs, not likely to exceed the low millions of dollars annually, related to new and increased penalties. (15-0098.) Proposition 63 Marijuana Legalization. Initiative Statute. Legalizes marijuana and hemp under state law. Designates state agencies to license and regulate marijuana industry. Imposes state excise tax on retail sales of marijuana equal to 15% of sales price, and state cultivation taxes on marijuana of $9.25 per ounce of flowers and $2.75 per ounce of leaves. Exempts medical marijuana from some taxation. Establishes packaging, labeling, advertising, and marketing standards and restrictions for marijuana products. Allows local regulation and taxation of marijuana. Prohibits marketing and advertising marijuana to minors. Authorizes resentencing and destruction of records for prior marijuana convictions. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Net reduced costs ranging from tens of millions of dollars to potentially exceeding $100 million annually to state and local governments related to enforcing certain marijuana-related offenses, handling the related criminal cases in the court system, and incarcerating and supervising certain marijuana offenders. Net additional state and local tax revenues potentially ranging from the high hundreds of millions of dollars to over $1 billion annually related to the production and sale of marijuana. Most of these funds would be required to be spent for specific purposes such as substance use disorder education, prevention, and treatment. (15-0103.) Proposition 64 Carry-Out Bags. Charges. Initiative Statute. Redirects money collected by grocery and certain other retail stores through sale of carry-out bags, whenever any state law bans free distribution of a particular kind of carry-out bag and mandates the sale of any other kind of carry-out bag. Requires stores to deposit bag sale proceeds into a special fund administered by the Wildlife Conservation Board to support specified categories of environmental projects. Provides for Board to develop regulations implementing law. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: If voters uphold the states current carryout bag law, redirected revenues from retailers to the state, potentially in the several tens of millions of dollars annually. Revenues would be used for grants for certain environmental and natural resources purposes. If voters reject the states current carryout bag law, likely minor fiscal effects. (15-0074.) Proposition 65 Death Penalty. Procedures. Initiative Statute. Changes procedures governing state court appeals and petitions challenging death penalty convictions and sentences. Designates superior court for initial petitions and limits successive petitions. Imposes time limits on state court death penalty review. Requires appointed attorneys who take noncapital appeals to accept death penalty appeals. Exempts prison officials from existing regulation process for developing execution methods. Authorizes death row inmate transfers among California state prisons. States death row inmates must work and pay victim restitution. States other voter approved measures related to death penalty are null and void if this measure receives more affirmative votes. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Increased state costs that could be in the tens of millions of dollars annually for several years related to direct appeals and habeas corpus proceedings, with the fiscal impact on such costs being unknown in the longer run. Potential state correctional savings that could be in the tens of millions of dollars annually. (15-0096.) Proposition 66 Referendum to Overturn Ban on Single-Use Plastic Bags. If signed by the required number of registered voters and timely filed with the Secretary of State, this petition will place on the statewide ballot a challenge to a state law previously approved by the Legislature and the Governor. The challenged law must then be approved by a majority of voters at the next statewide election to go into effect. The law prohibits grocery and certain other retail stores from providing single-use bags but permits sale of recycled paper bags and reusable bags. (14-0011.) Proposition 67 SB 254 (Chapter 20, Statutes of 2016), Allen. Campaign finance: voter instruction. SB 254, Allen. Campaign finance: voter instruction. This bill would call a special election to be consolidated with the November 8, 2016, statewide general election. The bill would require the Secretary of State to submit to the voters at the November 8, 2016, consolidated election a voter instruction asking whether Californias elected officials should use all of their constitutional authority, including proposing and ratifying one or more amendments to the United States Constitution, to overturn Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) 558 U.S. 310, and other applicable judicial precedents, as specified. The bill would require the Secretary of State to communicate the results of this election to the Congress of the United States. The bill would require the Secretary of State, if prohibited by court order from submitting the voter instruction to the voters at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, as specified, to submit the voter instruction to the voters at the next occurring election. This bill would declare that it is to take effe Hillary Clinton was interviewed by the FBI about her use of a private email server as secretary of state, her campaign said Saturday, as federal investigators neared the end of the probe that has hung over her White House bid. Hillary Clinton was interviewed by the FBI Saturday afternoon Investigators questioned her about her use of a private email server Clinton is the presumptive Democratic nominee for president Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, gave a voluntary interview for 3 1/2 hours on Saturday morning at FBI Headquarters in Washington, her campaign said. "She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion," Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said. "Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview." Spokespeople for the FBI and the Justice Department declined to comment Saturday. The interview was expected and it does not suggest that she or anyone else is likely to face prosecution. Some legal experts view criminal prosecution as exceedingly unlikely. The interview may indicate that the Justice Department's yearlong probe is drawing to a close. But the ongoing investigation represents a major risk for Democrats as Clinton is merely four weeks away from being formally nominated as the party's presidential candidate. Donald Trump, the Republican Party's presumptive nominee, has seized on the email issue and repeatedly said the probe undermines Clinton's fitness for office. Trump has called his opponent "Crooked Hillary" and said she cannot be trusted in the White House. The former first lady and New York senator has argued that she is more trustworthy than Trump on handling the issues that matter to most Americans: foreign policy, national security and running the economy. But the email investigation has lingered throughout her campaign, and Trump has asserted that Clinton will receive leniency from a Democratic administration. The investigation also poses an unwelcome distraction just as Clinton has vanquished her primary rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, holds a huge fundraising advantage over Trump and polls show her well-placed to become America's first female president even as many voters question her trustworthiness. The questioning came a day after Attorney General Loretta Lynch said that she intended to accept the findings and recommendations of career prosecutors who have spent months investigating the case. Lynch came under scrutiny for an impromptu meeting with Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, on Lynch's plane in Phoenix. Critics said the meeting between Lynch and the ex-president was inappropriate given the investigation even though Lynch and a Clinton spokesman said it was social in nature. Trump, reacting to the meeting between Lynch and the former president on Friday, said in Colorado: "He opened up a Pandora's Box. And it shows what's going on. And it shows what's happening with our laws and with our government." While she was President Barack Obama's secretary of state, Clinton exclusively used a private email server for her government and personal emails, rather than the State Department's email system. The Associated Press revealed the existence of the server in March 2015. Clinton has said relying on a private server was a mistake but that other secretaries of state had also used a personal email address. The FBI is investigating the potential mishandling of sensitive information. The matter was referred for investigation last July by the inspectors general for the State Department and intelligence community following the discovery of emails that they said contained classified information. The State Department's inspector general, the agency's internal watchdog, said in a blistering audit in May that Clinton and her team ignored clear warnings from State Department officials that her email setup violated federal standards and could leave sensitive material vulnerable to hackers. Clinton declined to talk to the inspector general, but the audit reported that Clinton feared "the personal being accessible" if she used a government email account. Agents have already interviewed top Clinton aides including her former State Department chief of staff Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, a longtime aide who is currently the vice chairwoman of Clinton's campaign. The staffer who set up the server, Bryan Pagliano, was granted limited immunity from prosecution by the Justice Department last fall in exchange for his cooperation. The FBI as a matter of course seeks to interview individuals central to an investigation before concluding its work. The emails were routed through a server located in the basement of Clinton's New York home during her tenure as the nation's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013. Dozens of the emails sent or received by Clinton through her private server were later determined to contain classified material. Clinton has repeatedly said that none of the emails were marked classified at the time they were sent or received. As part of the probe, she has turned over the hard drive from her email server to the FBI. The FBI interview comes as Clinton is set to embark on a major week of her presidential campaign. She will join Obama for their first joint campaign appearance on Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Clinton will follow it up with an event on Wednesday in Atlantic City, New Jersey, aimed at undercutting Trump's business practices. On Friday, Clinton will campaign for the first time with Vice President Joe Biden in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Clinton is considering potential vice presidential choices and preparing to formally receive the Democratic nomination on July 28 at the party's convention in Philadelphia. SYDNEY/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - BHP Billiton and Vale SA said on Friday they would appeal a Brazilian court's decision to reinstate a $6 billion public civil claim from Brazilian authorities over last year's Samarco iron ore mine disaster. Samarco, along with BHP and 50-50 joint-venture partner Vale, had agreed in March to settle that claim with staggered payments over a 15-year period, with the total amount dictated by the clean-up and repairs. Brazil's government expected the cost of the work to reach 20 billion reais ($6.23 billion), though the mining companies expected the total cost to be significantly less. The deal was ratified in May, but federal prosecutors appealed the decision, describing it as insufficient and little more than a "letter of intent." Brazil's Superior Court responded to the appeal by issuing an interim order suspending its ratification, BHP and Vale said. That decision reinstates the government's original 20 billion real civil claim for clean-up costs and damages against Samarco, Vale and BHP. It also has the potential to reenergize a separate $44 billion lawsuit filed by federal prosecutors. "BHP Billiton Brasil intends to appeal the decision of the Superior Court of Justice," BHP said in a statement. Vale said in a separate statement it would demonstrate to the court that the settlement agreed with the government represented the best way to repair and clean up the damage from the disaster. In the meantime, Samarco will continue to support the long-term recovery of the communities and environment affected by the dam failure, BHP and Vale said. A burst tailings dam at the mine on Nov. 5 unleashed a mud flow that killed 19 people, left hundreds homeless and polluted a major river. The government called it the country's worst environmental disaster. The mine has been closed since. Environmental authorities say it will only be allowed to reopen when it can prove mud is no longer leaking into the surrounding area and that the mine can be run safely. ($1 = 3.2127 Brazilian reais) (Reporting by James Regan, Ian Chua and Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Diane Craft) An 18-year-old UC Berkeley student was one of the hostages killed in the deadly attack at a popular restaurant in Bangladesh, authorities in India and university officials said Saturday. The officials said Tarishi Jain, a native of India, was killed after armed militants took dozens of people hostage Friday at Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Government forces later stormed the restaurant, killed six of the attackers and rescued the surviving captives. I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed (Tarishi), an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka, Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj said on Twitter. I have spoken to her father, Shri Sanjeev Jain, and conveyed our deepest condolences. Studying economics The university also confirmed Jains death in a statement Saturday signed by Chancellor Nicholas Dirks. A memorial vigil to honor Jain and others slain in the attack will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday on Berkeleys Sproul Plaza. Jain had started an internship working on e-commerce growth at Eastern Bank Limited in Dhaka through UC Berkeleys Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies. Her father, the university said, is a textile merchant in Dhaka and was outside the bakery waiting for hours for news about his daughter. A sophomore planning to major in economics, Jain had graduated from the American International School in Dhaka before attending Berkeley. We are all very devastated to hear the news about Tarishi Jain. She was a smart and ambitious young woman with a big heart. Our deepest condolences to her family, friends, and the entire Berkeley community, said Sanchita Saxena, head of the Institute for South Asia Studies and director of the Center for Bangladesh Studies. Rebecca Dharmapalan, a 20-year-old student at Berkeley, met Jain in a South Asian studies class in the fall of 2015. Dharmapalan described Jain as a kind, bright student who was driven to go back to Bangladesh and help improve conditions in the country. She was just ready to take action and make change, she said. Whats hitting me hard is that she wanted to see so much happen there. ... She was so passionate about creating change there. That was really my impression of her she wanted to do change, she wanted to do everything she could for the people, she said. Really well loved Dharmapalan was in London when she learned of Jains death in Dhaka. It just doesnt make any sense, she said. Another student, Chanakya Varma, 18, described Jain as a charming and popular classmate. Im absolutely devastated, and Im still coming to terms with it, said Varma. She was really well loved. Varma recalled the time he showed up at Jains birthday party, looked around the dorm room and saw people from all walks of life at Berkeley musicians, athletes, computer science and engineering majors, everyone. She connected with every person in that room. Seven other Berkeley students were also working on internships in Bangladesh. The university has been in contact with them to assist them in staying safe and determining whether they leave the area, the statement said. Hamed Aleaziz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @haleaziz This article was first published on NerdWallet.com. When deciding whether to purchase life insurance, most consumers focus on whole life insurance vs. term life insurance. Whole life insurance is a policy that lasts as long as a policyholder is alive. Term life insurance lasts for a prearranged period of time, such as 10 or 20 years, and is often used to insure against a parents untimely death during specific stages of a familys life. There is another subset of life insurance, however, that covers specific areas of need. One prominent type is mortgage life insurance, which would pay off a mortgage upon the policyholders death. This is touted as a way to cover a specific, big-ticket item for a lesser cost than traditional, more comprehensive plans. However, critics note that mortgage life insurance policies are not a great deal for consumers because, unlike traditional plans, they decrease in value the longer theyre held because they only cover the outstanding mortgage debt at a given time. We asked Paxton Kelso, a financial advisor and a member of NerdWallets Ask an Advisor network, about whether mortgage life insurance is a good idea for consumers. Are specific types of life insurance a good idea? Im not a fan of restrictions placed on how my loved ones could spend a life insurance benefit. If these kinds of features are added as part of my employers life insurance package and they are free or super-cheap, great. But I would rather own pure life insurance that my family could use as they saw fit instead of being hemmed in by having to use the benefit for a specific purpose. Paying off a mortgage is a good thing to do, but Id rather have a policy that allows my loved ones to have multiple decision options. For example, I or my spouse may not wish to pay off the house depending on the familys situation or if the real estate market is not favorable to completing the mortgage. We might wish to use the death benefit for other things. Perhaps there is a time when mortgage insurance makes sense I just have not yet seen it. It could depend on cost and on other goals and objectives for the client. What should consumers keep in mind when deciding on insurance? Start with goals and objectives. To use myself as an example: If something happens to me, I want college funded for my kids. I want them to know that their dad wanted them to focus on studies and career opportunities. I also want my wife to have total flexibility. I want her to have the option to pay off the house if it makes sense to do so. But if she decides it would be best to not work for 15 to 20 years (our kids are 7 and 4), she needs a buffer toward retirement. This kind of approach would not be possible with a life insurance policy that restricts options. Any additional tips for getting the right policy? Your financial advisor or agent should be able and willing to discuss pros and cons of all scenarios. Ask specific questions to confirm that you are getting transparency from them regarding your situation. Paxton Kelso is a wealth management advisor and director of insurance operations at Talis Advisors in Plano, Texas. The article Why Mortgage Life Insurance Isnt Ideal for Most People originally appeared on NerdWallet. State Sen. Kathy Marchione, R-Halfmoon, announced late Thursday a number of actions the state plans to take to address the water contamination crisis that has ravaged Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh in Rensselaer County. In a lengthy statement, Marchione said the actions came out of a two-hour meeting with state representatives, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo's State Operations Director Jim Malatras, and local elected officials that took place Thursday. Those actions include securing a new water filtration system for the Berlin Central School District, an agreement that the state will pay for six months of water for Petersburgh residents, and an agreement that the state will provide $46,000 (and later seek reimbursement from Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics) to pay for a Hoosick water system feasibility study to expand the Hoosick Falls municipal water system. Marchione said that future bio-monitoring and blood testing for residents in the village of Hoosick Falls, the town of Hoosick and the town of Petersburgh were discussed, though the statement did not indicate that an agreement was reached. "These real results are not the end of this effort, but represent important progress," Marchione said in a statement. "Our collaborative effort continues to focus on the health, safety and well-being of our constituents in the village of Hoosick Falls, the town of Hoosick and the town of Petersburgh." The meeting and announced actions come amid ongoing tensions between residents in that rural area of Rensselaer County and officials. Residents landed a Capitol meeting with Malatras on June 15 where they vented outrage about what they see as a slow response from public officials to the PFOA contamination of their water supply. Some residents and politicians have continued calls for legislative hearings on the crisis, though legislative leaders of both houses have shied away from scheduling them. Erik Trautmann / Hearst Connecticut Media Weir Farm National Historic site will no longer sell senior interagency passes at its site located on the Ridgefield/Wilton border. The passes, which are sold to U.S. citizens age 62 or older, grant access to a variety of National Parks and historic sites across the country. But Weir Farm will no longer sell the $10 pass starting July 31. Albany Gov. Andrew Cuomo over the past month has appointed new leaders and members of the state Workers Compensation Board, putting in a veteran lawyer and board member as chairman and vice chair while adding six new members to fill open and expired terms. The board hears appeals from Workers Compensation administrative judges. Board member Kenneth Munnelly, who previously served as its chief counsel, has become chairman, with Freida Foster going from board member to vice chair. The chairman's job pays $120,800 with the vice-chair earning $101,600. Board members are paid $90,800. Munnelly previously worked in the Assembly and was a first deputy attorney general under former Attorney General Oliver Koppell. He has also served as a Bethlehem town justice and maintained a private practice. Foster has served as a trustee at the City University of New York and served as assistant to the governor for African American Affairs in the Pataki Administration. She also is the widow of the late Terence Tolbert, a well-known political operative on the state and national levels. The new board appointees are Mark Stasko, Margaret Barberis, and Fred Ausili, as well as Ursula Levelt, Steven Crain, and Clarissa Rodriguez. The first three have backgrounds in business while the others come from labor organizations or have looked out for the interests of workers. Stasko has worked in risk management for Onondaga County while Ausili had been an executive with UPS. Barberis works in health and safety for a packaging firm and has worked for Price Chopper. Levelt comes from the Transit Workers union. Crain serves as a lawyer for the Civil Service Employees Association. Rodriquez is an attorney. Those who have left the board in recent weeks include former Chairman Robert Beloten, Conrad Lower, Richard Bell and Candice Finnegan who were all serving in expired terms. Beloten, who was a Workers Compensation judge before his appointment to the board, is returning to a judgeship. Those who follow such issues are generally pleased with the new appointees, who were approved by the state Senate at the end of the legislative session last month. They credit Cuomo with shifting away from the patronage-driven appointments that have dogged the board in the past, and with naming a fair mix of board members from the labor and management sides. "It was a fairly well-balanced appointment process," said Peter Walsh, an Albany-area lawyer who represents businesses. "We are looking forward to the new chair and commissioners joining them to preserve the rights of injured workers," said Robert Grey, a Long Island lawyer who represents claimants. The appointments were made in the wake of failed attempts to reform or streamline the workers compensation system as part of the most recent budget negotiation in March. While the system was reformed almost a decade ago with larger payments and what was supposed to be a faster resolution process, the cost of workers compensation has continued to rise steadily. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518-454-5758 @RickKarlinTU Two years after Port Arthur City Council rejected their proposal, executives behind a proposed $1.2 billion ZeoGas methanol plant have lined up a deal to buy land outside city limits and are requesting local tax breaks. ZeoGas' second go at a Southeast Texas plant has put another billion-dollar-plus project in the pipeline as cheap natural gas continues boosting industrial development in the area. The project is similar to the $1.7 billion Natgasoline plant under construction south of Beaumont, according to details in ZeoGas' request for a 100 percent, 10-year property tax abatement, which the company filed with Jefferson County this week. ZeoGas has a tentative deal to purchase 400 acres at GT OmniPort, the industrial park south of Texas 73 on Taylor Bayou near Port Arthur, according to the application. County commissioners on July 11 will consider creating a "reinvestment zone" at the site, said Fred Jackson, assistant to the county judge. While that would not alone guarantee tax abatements, it is the first step in the process, Jackson said. The project would create 100 full-time jobs at an average salary of $70,000 per year, the application states. ZeoGas initially backed out of Port Arthur in 2014 after Council denied the company a tax abatement. Port Arthur EDC Director Floyd Batiste said Port Arthur residents were concerned that the plant, then proposed for land near U.S. 96 and Texas 73, was too close to homes. Jeri Wechsler, senior vice president and general counsel for ZeoGas, said the company expects the OmniPort location to go over better with residents. "Obviously this location in Port Arthur is where we would really like to be," Wechsler said. "We think this location is superior for us from a business perspective, and we don't think there's going to be concerns from the neighbors." The land is near the Valero and Motiva refineries and is the site of a former chemical plant. Nine companies received some level of tax abatement in 2015 as $4.7 million in potential Jefferson County revenue was waived, according to the appraisal district. Since 1986, Jefferson County has waived $99.2 million in potential revenue through abatements, which are designed to encourage capital investment and job creation. At a minimum, the ZeoGas plant would convert natural gas into 1.8 million tons of methanol per year. Executives haven't decided whether to build out the second phase of the project, which would convert methanol to gasoline; that phase would add about $300 million to the company's capital investment, according to the abatement application. Methanol is a product in household materials including carpeting, paint and insulation, as well as wood adhesive used in home construction. Natgasoline first announced its $1.7 billion natural gas-to-methanol plant outside Beaumont in 2013 and is expected to start producing 1.75 million tons of methanol by next year. OCI also aspires to eventually convert methanol to gasoline. Natgasoline received a 100-percent, 10-year waiver of property taxes stemming from improvements made to the land. That plant will ultimately require more than 200 full-time workers, the company previously said. Formed in 2012, ZeoGas licensed methanol production technology from Air Liquide and methanol-to-gasoline technology from ExxonMobil, according to its application. GT OmniPort opened in 2012. In addition to 1,100 acres that have been shopped to industrial developers, the park is at the juncture of truck, train and ship thoroughfares. In late 2014, Chicago-based Emerald Biofuels signed a lease with GT OmniPort to build a $315 million renewable diesel refinery at the industrial park, becoming its first tenant. The project, partially funded with federal money, has not yet begun construction. ZeoGas hopes to break ground within the next two years, though that is also contingent upon reaching commercial agreements with buyers, Wechsler said. EBesson@BeaumontEnterprise.comTwitter.com/EricBesson_news New York Men sporting shaved heads and robes who impersonate Buddhist monks and aggressively panhandle for donations are once again proliferating in New York City and countries around the world, the authorities aid. Reports of the fake monks spiked two years ago, then waned. But now they are back in force from Times Square to the High Line, the public park built on an old elevated rail line on Manhattan's West Side. The panhandling is not limited to New York City, however. Reports of the men have surfaced in San Francisco, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India and Nepal, officials said. Their tactics follow a familiar script: Hold out a beaded bracelet or gold-colored medallion featuring a Buddhist saying to a passer-by, get the person to take it, then ask for a donation. Those who offer too little money or nothing at all have the items snatched back and risk being shouted at, The Associated Press reported. On June 20, the High Line put up three posters and signs in its bathrooms and elevators warning visitors not to give to the impersonators after administrators received complaints. Aggressive panhandling is prohibited in New York. The signs appear to have been effective, said Robert Hammond, executive director and co-founder of Friends of the High Line. The signs did not scare away the beggars but they did educate visitors, who became less inclined to give, leading to reduced donations to the impersonators, he said. "What we decided to do is put that information out there and let people decide," Hammond said in an interview on Wednesday. NEWTOWN - A Newtown middle school teacher accused of carrying a loaded .45-caliber pistol in a holster inside the school has resigned. Newtown School Superintendent Joseph Erardi confirmed Saturday to the Associated Press that Jason Adams resigned at the end of the school year. The eighth-grade science teacher at Newtown Middle School was arrested on April 6 after police say he was seen with the pistol and detained by school security. Adams, who has a valid pistol permit, was arrested a Newtown Middle School employee told security personnel that Adams appeared to have a weapon concealed under his clothing. When police arrived, they found him with a .45 caliber Colt Defender pistol and eight bullets. Officials said students were never in any danger and that Adams weapon was not drawn or used at any point. Connecticut state law prohibits possession of firearms on school grounds. Adams faces a felony charge of possession of a weapon on school grounds. Adams was placed on administrative leave. He didn't immediately return a message Saturday seeking comment. Newtown Middle School is less than 2 miles from the site of the December 2012 shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed 20 first-graders and six educators. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Skater C.J. Lichenstein likes that the City of Orange wants to build a skate park in his hometown. He just doesn't love the proposed location. "That'd probably be one of the worst places they could put it," said Lichenstein, 28, when he learned the proposed $130,000 skate park would be built at Sunset Park on 16th Street. Lichenstein said that area has an unsafe reputation. Sandy Wilson, city grants planner, said Sunset Park was selected because it's in a low-income area, which means the project could be paid for with federal grants. "This is in a low-income area, or a CDBG strategy area. So this is an improvement we are making to this park for the citizens," she said. "We also want to get the public's input on it through a public hearing, and then once everything's approved, we'll go forward and pick out exactly what is the best thing for the money we can get." Kelvin Knauf, director of planning and community development, said the city would like to have a park similar to Beaumont's "Beautiful Mountain Skate Plaza," which was built in 2013 at the city's downtown Event Centre. Beaumont is the only city in Southeast Texas that offers a place for skaters to gather. "There was just public recognition that kids in Orange don't have a place to go to like some other cities," Knauf said. "I think people just came to the conclusion that building a skate park is something that the community really needs." On Tuesday, the Orange City Council gave the green light for Knauf and his team to submit a funding request to the U.S. Department of Housing and Development in Houston for the park. A public hearing on the proposed park will happen in a couple of weeks, Knauf said. Rob Dominguez, 24, who was skating with Lichenstein and a few other friends at Beaumont's skate park earlier this week, said he would use the Orange skate park "almost every day." "It would bring out a lot of the young kids who couldn't get here," said Dominguez, who lives in Orange. Pal Ruben Garcia, 23, said he wishes the city would consider building the skate park at Lions City Park on Main Avenue. "That would be perfect," said Lichenstein. Lions Park would not qualify for the federal Community Development Block Grant that Sunset Park is eligible to receive, according to officials. Design plans have not yet been finalized, but Wilson said the city would like for the park to have the standard quarter pipes, half pipes and steps found at most skate parks. Officials are also considering whether to use steel construction or concrete. Pictures of proposed designs have circulated on social media this week. "The pic we saw on Facebook was really kind of perfect," said Dominguez. "We can't be greedy and be like, we want a bowl or something. For the money they're spending, that would be perfect." Wilson said she'd like to have the project approved for funding by August, or December at the latest. "We're just hoping it benefits the city," said Wilson. BKubena@BeaumontEnterprise.comTwitter.com/BKubenaDShapiro@BeaumontEnterprise.comTwitter.com/DannyShapiro13 Albany A National Guard soldier's ongoing campaign to return lost Purple Heart medals to veterans or their families is taking him back to northern New York where his effort began five years ago. Capt. Zachariah Fike, founder of Vermont-based Purple Hearts Reunited, is presenting the recovered Purple Hearts of two World War I soldiers during a Friday morning ceremony at the Jefferson County Historical Society in Watertown. Army Cpl. Ernest Wright of Watertown, who died in 1956, received the Purple Heart for wounds suffered in France in 1918. The historical society is getting his medal since no living relatives could be found, Fike said. Pvt. William Withington of nearby Adams died in combat in France the same year. His great-niece, Nancy Withington Del Borgo of Adams Center, will receive his medal. Wright's Purple Heart was mailed to Fike soon after he returned his first recovered medal in August 2011. Fike said he purchased Withington's medal on eBay. Fike, the son of a career soldier formerly stationed at Fort Drum, near Watertown, graduated from a local high school. He started his organization in 2011 as a one-man operation after returning a lost Purple Heart to the family of a Watertown soldier killed during World War II. "It's great to come back home," said Fike, who lives in Vermont and serves in the Army National Guard. "We've accomplished so much since then." Since that first returned medal, the organization has returned nearly 300 Purple Hearts to veterans or their families across the country, while another 700 medals are in hand and waiting to be returned, Fike said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The Harris County Sheriff's Office on Friday blasted prosecutors for charging two deputies with official oppression for allegedly conducting an illegal roadside body cavity search of a woman during a traffic stop. In an unusually public fight, Sheriff Ron Hickman accused the Harris County District Attorney's Office of indicting the two deputies based on news coverage, not evidence. "The indictments came as a surprise to the Harris County Sheriff's Office after a lengthy internal affairs investigation cleared the deputies of wrongdoing," according to a news release from the sheriff's office. The law enforcement agency also criticized a statement from the DA's office. "As stated in a district attorney's office press release, the presentation to the grand jury was not based on a review of evidence, but rather, 'based upon a local news report about the incident.'" Hickman took the DA's office to task for dismissing charges against 22-year-old Charnesia Corley and instead charging deputies Ronaldine Pierre, 33, and William Strong, 36, on the class A misdemeanor of official oppression. "Rumor, innuendo and sensationalism do not correlate to the facts surrounding Corley's arrest," according to the release. Officials with the Harris County District Attorney's Office called the sheriff's response "disappointing on many levels." "First, the suggestion that the grand jury had not reviewed the evidence is spurious and uninformed," according to a release from the DA's office late Friday. "Although this office cannot disclose the substance of the grand jury's secret proceedings, we can disclose that the grand jury did fully and fairly review all of the available evidence over several sessions." At odds with the sheriff's assertion that the deputies did nothing wrong, prosecutors said they "found that the search was offensive and shocking" and resulted in charges being dismissed against the woman who was searched. Corley has filed a federal lawsuit against the county for the incident, which began with a traffic stop about 10:30 p.m. on June 20, 2015. In her lawsuit, Corley and her attorney Sam Cammack say deputies stopped her after she allegedly rolled through a stop sign and did not use a turn signal. She was directed to stop in the parking lot of a nearby gas station on Ella Boulevard. The deputies searched her car after saying they could smell marijuana and but did not find anything, according to the lawsuit. A female officer told Corley, who was handcuffed, to lower her pants. The deputy then used a flashlight to illuminate her exposed genital area to conduct a "visual strip search," according to the plaintiff's complaint. Next, the deputies decided to do a manual body cavity search while still in the parking lot, according to her lawsuit. When Corley protested, the deputies forcibly threw her to the ground, pinned her down with her legs spread apart, threatened to break her legs, and without consent penetrated her vagina in a purported search for marijuana, the complaint states. The deputies said they found a small amount of marijuana. They charged her with drug possession and resisting arrest for allegedly pushing a deputy with her hip and kicking a deputy with her foot. The incident was caught on video, but without sound because the officers turned off their microphones. The two officers have been put on civilian duty and continue to work for the sheriff's office pending the outcome of their cases. The charges against Corley were dropped after prosecutors reviewed her case. She and her attorney have said there was no marijuana, which the sheriff's office disputed on Friday. With their press release, they attached a lab report that a partially burnt cigar with less than .02 ounces of marijuana was found. Corley is accusing the sheriff's office of violating her Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure, because the deputies did not have a warrant and did not take her to a police station to perform the search. She is seeking unspecified damages in her suit against Harris County. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The residents of a small North Texas town packed into city hall Friday to hear the fate of a beloved feline that's caught international attention. The White Settlement City Council unanimously voted 3-0 to keep Browser the cat inside the White Settlement Library after being inundated with emails and media attention from across the globe. RELATED: Cat fired from Texas library gains international attention Mayor Ron White said he received approximately 1,800 emails by Friday before the meeting from all over the world including Germany, France, Malaysia and Canada. "Many of the folks who came to the meeting were upset and wanted to speak, but didn't get a chance," White said. "The council members were adamant about speaking and getting the vote in. There was a motion and then a second one before anyone could speak." Browser put White Settlement on the global stage after it was reported that he was going to get kicked out of the library. Originally brought in in 2010 to patrol for mice at the library, White and others said Browser has become a beloved figure in the city. SEE ALSO: Cat suspected of flooding animal shelter by turning on water Lillian Blackburn, president of the Friends of the Library of White Settlement board, said she's glad Browser will stay, but was disappointed by the way the council handled the meeting. She said City Councilman Elzie Clements handed out a paper before the meeting with wording she didn't agree with. According to Blackburn, Clements claimed the town had been "made a mockery of" and blamed the attention on a "small group of political activists." Blackburn said she's disappointed with Clements' demeanor. RELATED: Events to support cat sanctuary "I wanted to tell them, 'I hope that this is an opportunity for the council to understand we appreciate them, but please, when there's an issue that involves everyone, can we please talk about it before a vote and see if there's a solution?" Blackburn said Clements alleged people with allergies could not enter the library, spurring the vote to have the cat removed. Blackburn told Chron.com Wednesday that all of Browser's food and veterinary bills are paid for by donations and fundraisers. Should patrons have an issue with allergies, Blackburn said library staff will relocate Browser to keep people from itching and sneezing. Former City Councilman Alan Price said City Hall was packed with concerned people and interested media. "They voted the cat back in and it was a full house," Price said. "They had tons of news media there from all different stations. Everyone wanted to hear the verdict." It appears for now, Browser is safe and will maintain his job as the library's top mouser. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Bearing signs, high hopes and prayers, more than 40 people marched along East Houston Street as part of the No More Violence rally Friday evening. The group, which chanted no more violence as they slowly but determinedly made their way west from the Walters intersection with a police cruiser escort in tow was called to action by local organizer Darrell Boyce, 38. This isnt just for the East Side, Boyce noted. This is for all San Antonio. We need to think about all the senseless murders, violence and crime that happens all over the city, and we need to act as a community to stop it. While the rally came on the heels of a pair of June shootings in San Antonio that left a 5-year-old girl dead on the East Side and a 7-year-old girl on the West Side, Boyce said the march wasnt necessarily in response to a particular event. Theres no one reason why were here today, Boyce said. Were just here to offer prayers, to urge people ... who are thinking about (committing) violent crimes to stop the senseless violence. Rodney Dow, 47, is a retired policeman from Louisiana who lives in Denver Heights. Quietly marching near the end of the pack, Dow said he hoped people heard the groups message. We talk a lot today about whats wrong with government, whats wrong with police but not what we can do as communities to make our neighbors safer, Dow said. We need to love our neighbors, to love our family and friends, but we need to reach out to the ... young men and women that other people have forgotten. Those are the people who are hurting themselves and other people, Dow added. They need to hear us, they need to know that we are serious about this. SAN ANTONIO A man was struck and killed by a train Saturday after he fell asleep on a set of train tracks on the Northeast Side. Emergency personnel responded at about 4 a.m. Saturday to the 9400 block of Interstate 35 North behind the Days Inn. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate One of three suspects charged last year in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day shootings that left two men dead on the East Side pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of murder. Edwin Joseph, now 26, and the two other suspects had been charged with capital murder after their arrests in the wake of the shootings that killed Royal Wylie Willrich, 30, and Vontay Jamar Price, 22. A plea deal filed with state District Judge Kevin OConnell caps Josephs sentence at 25 years for each count of murder, to be served concurrently, according to court documents. In addition to the two people who were killed, seven others were injured. Authorities at the time of their arrests said Joseph, Adrian Perkins, 24, and Jacquay Howard, 21, were known gang members who opened fire in a crowd at a car wash at North New Braunfels Avenue and Gibbs about 10 p.m. Jan. 19, 2015, hours after the citys annual MLK Day march. A sentencing date has not been set for Edwin Joseph, said Jennifer Rodriguez, the Bexar County District Attorneys Office spokeswoman. Perkins and Howard are still awaiting trial. The San Antonio Police Department identified them as suspects after reviewing video surveillance footage from the shooting, in which an AK-47, a .40-caliber handgun and a .380-caliber handgun had been used. Joseph admitted to a detective weeks later that he had been at the scene, but said he did not know why they started shooting into the crowd, according to the investigators interview summary filed in court. He admitted only shooting once, into the air, the document states. Joseph told the detective he drove through the car wash with Perkins and Howard, who Joseph said pointed out members of a rival gang and told him where to park. Perkins, Joseph and Howard waited about 15 to 20 minutes before they came around a fence and started shooting, Joseph said, according to court records. Howard also was interviewed by a detective and admitted he went straight toward Vontay and Royal because they were the first two people he saw, according to a summary of that interview filed with the court. He admitted firing four or five shots, saying they were in self-defense, according to the summary. SAN ANTONIO A man was arrested Saturday morning for fatally stabbing another man in the heart following an argument on the far Northwest Side, according to the Bexar County Sheriffs Office. Stephen Grandy, 19, was arrested and charged with murder, the BCSO said in a news release Saturday. The United Kingdom is leaving the European Union. Although this may sound like a bureaucratic factoid from the other side of the ocean, it isnt. This historic event will have serious and negative consequences for the global economy, the politics of Britain and Europe, and the geopolitical interests of the United States. Here in Texas, we are isolated from none of these effects. The U.K. is now set to Brexit the EU, a long and arduous process of legal decoupling that could take years. The effects of the vote are much more immediate. First, the U.K.s impending departure from the largest economic bloc in the world has rattled markets. The British pound lost 10 percent of its value within hours of the vote, and global stock markets were down 5 to 10 percent on the news. U.S. markets fell as well, underlining one of the economic lessons of the 2008 financial crisis: All major crises have global implications. The uncertainty is likely to continue, which means Texas families investments and pension plans will probably be affected. Second, the vote has laid bare huge tensions within the U.K. itself. Scotland, which narrowly decided against splitting from the U.K. and becoming an independent country in 2014, voted overwhelmingly for the United Kingdom to stay in the EU. It is certain to demand another vote for independence, given the new realities. Similarly, Northern Irelands Sinn Fein party has called for a vote to unify with Ireland. The breakup of the United Kingdom is no longer a fanciful prospect. The political landscape in the U.K. is also at risk of major shifts. The U.K. Independence Party, whose major platform had been to advocate for leaving the EU, has achieved its purpose. It will now have to retool itself with a different message, most likely doubling down on its more caustic anti-immigrant stance. Prime Minister David Cameron is going to be replaced, but not with one of the most high-profile agitators for Brexit former London Mayor Boris Johnson, called the British Donald Trump, and not only for his uncontrollable hair. Johnson withdrew himself from consideration on Thursday. None of these developments suggests a robust, reliable U.K. on the world stage. This could be a major problem for the U.S. America has looked to the U.K. as its most natural partner across the Atlantic. This special relationship, however, could erode if the U.K. loses its influence in Europe and turns isolationist and inward-looking. A British government without global ambitions is unlikely to be as loyal a supporter of U.S. foreign policy as it has been in the past decades. Keep in mind that after the U.S., the U.K. sustained the highest number of casualties in Afghanistan. Finally, the impending Brexit will weaken Europes influence in the world. At worst, the unprecedented exit of a major member state from the EU could spark a series of similar moves across the continent. Far-right parties in France and the Netherlands have already called for this. The U.S. should be wary of any steps that could lead to the disintegration of the EU itself, jeopardizing the peace that has reigned in Europe for so long. If nothing else, the EU has meant that no American forces have had to engage in major war on the continent in decades. But even in the best scenario, in which a Brexit is quickly and relatively painlessly managed, the process will take at least two years. Europe will be focusing all its energy on the legal details of the U.K.s future relationship with the EU. It will have no capacity to deal with the truly important problems it faces: the continuing violence in Ukraine, the civil war in Syria, or the mass movement of migrants and refugees across the Mediterranean. And whenever the EU fails to deal with important geopolitical questions such as those, it is America that has to step in. When Europe is strong and willing to shoulder its burden, it can be a great asset to U.S. interests. When Europe turns inward and dithers, it leaves these problems to America to resolve. The Brexit vote is bound to weaken the EU as a whole and we will all be worse off for it. Lorinc Redei is a lecturer and graduate adviser at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focus is on the European Union. Almost as soon as the massacre at the Orlando, Fla., nightclub Pulse ended, Democrats took up their push to forbid people on the terrorism watch list from purchasing guns. The timing, in the wake of the awful shock of the Orlando attack, was right, and the talking points wrote themselves. The polling was, of course, very good. The only problem was that the Orlando killer wasnt on the watch list when he bought his weapons (although he had been on the list in 2013 and 2014 before the FBI removed him). Democrats nonetheless maintained that the watch-list legislation was an urgent necessity. Few policy proposals are as routinely irrelevant as so-called commonsense gun-control measures and seemingly, the less relevant they are, the more passionately their advocates support them. The three proposals that the left always calls for prohibitions of purchases by people on the watch list; ending the alleged gun-show loophole; universal background checks usually have nothing to do with the shootings they are meant to stop. They are a trinity of non sequiturs. Consider the Orlando and San Bernardino killers. They werent on the terrorism watch list when they bought their guns; they didnt go to gun shows to get them; and they all passed background checks. Democrats could have passed their preferred legislation on all these matters long ago, and it wouldnt have discomfited these monsters in the least. When asked about this by ABC journalist Jonathan Karl on This Week With George Stephanopoulos, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the Democrat who took to the Senate floor to filibuster for gun control, brushed it off. We cant, he explained, get into the trap in which we are forced to defend our proposals simply because it didnt stop the last tragedy. The question of effectiveness shouldnt be considered a trap but rather a basic measuring stick of legislation. Its hard to think of any other area where a political party is so thunderously self-righteous while not caring whether its proposals would materially change anything or not. In light of the fact that Omar Mateen had once been on the terrorist watch list, Democrats widened the net of their proposed legislation to catch not just people who are on the list, but those who have been investigated during the past five years. This implicit nod toward relevance makes the central flaw in the bill worse: It would deny people a constitutional right based on mere suspicion, with no real opportunity for due process. (It should be possible to reach a compromise that includes some reasonable measure of due process, although none seems in the offing for now.) Everyone understands and feels the impulse to do something after the horror of Orlando and we should do all we can to crush ISIS and thwart its sick propaganda and recruitment campaigns but gun control simply isnt a good tool for fighting terrorism. What the Democrats really want is symbolic victories against gun ownership and the gun culture, which they loathe. Their instinct was to make Orlando as much about the NRA, and as little about ISIS, as possible. It is telling that one of the more sweeping gun-control measures of the past 30 years, the since-lapsed assault-weapons ban, had to do less with the functionality of the prohibited guns than their cosmetic features. It was a victory for show (and had little or no effect on gun violence). Since their current gun-control agenda isnt going to make a practical difference, Democrats might as well try to shift the terrain of the debate by working to make proposals for a wide-ranging gun ban and confiscation more mainstream. The politics would be (deservedly) treacherous, and any such measures would run afoul of the Second Amendment, but at least the stakes would match the Democrats passionate intensity. The risk, though, is too much for them. Which means they will almost certainly continue their irrelevant crusade. comments.lowry@nationalreview.com The bright midmorning light bounces off the Guadalupe River as Shahram Ebadfardzadeh, 49, kneels beside it, praying. Dressed in loose white pants and a tunic with a white turban covering his gray hair, he asks the rushing water to witness todays baptism. Agarwood incense sends its bitter, heady smoke into the air, as half a dozen families, also dressed in white, begin to gather. Todays group includes a young couple, just married, a grandmother and her 5-year-old granddaughter, and a few teenaged boys, who huddle together laughing. Ebadfardzadeh greets people and helps them adjust their clothing, making sure everything is done according to tradition. The details are important. Ebadfardzadeh is Mandaean, a member of a religious minority from the border area between Iraq and Iran, and his community has been practicing this ceremony the same way for thousands of years. They believe that Jesus was baptized exactly like this. Well, almost exactly. Next to the baptism site, a white Ford pickup pulls up, and a family in bikinis and swim trunks piles out, eyeing the ceremony curiously. Ebadfardzadeh shrugs. They want to enjoy the river, too, he says quietly. Ebadfardzadeh left Iran for San Antonio with his family five years ago to join the sizable Mandaean community already settled there. He and his wife and four children joined the 19.5 million people who are driven out of their homes every year by conflict, persecution, natural disasters and other causes. In recent months, headlines have alerted the world to the latest refugee crisis, as millions of Syrians flee the violence in their country. But the issue of refugees, and the question of who will take them in, is a long-running story that has been quietly playing out for decades. And cities such as San Antonio have been the testing grounds for how to address this crisis. At first glance, Texas may not seem like the first choice for refugee resettlement. In the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, Gov. Greg Abbott recently said his state wont accept Syrian refugees and that President Barack Obamas policy of accepting them irresponsibly exposes our fellow Americans to unacceptable peril. But despite this decision, Texas still accepts more refugees than any other state in the U.S., resettling more than 7,000 refugees in 2014. And a federal judge has told Texas that it has no standing to stop refugee resettlement in any case. San Antonio alone accepts around 750 refugees a year. The city is unique among refugee resettlement cities because it accepts large numbers from the same community: More than 1,200 Mandaeans now live in San Antonio, the largest concentration in the United States and one of the largest in the world. When we came, we didnt have that many friends, says Hana Berenji, 28, who moved with her family from Iran to Texas 11 years ago when the Mandaean community was much smaller. Back then, Hana and her family of six packed into a two-bedroom apartment, fighting to pay the rent while learning the intricacies of a new culture. But now, Berenji is a caseworker at Catholic Charities in San Antonio. She often goes with a group of 30 other Mandeaeans in San Antonio to greet new refugees at the airport. It is often an emotional experience. Its because were trying to tell them this is home, says Berenji at her office in San Antonio, as tears run down her face. Its been a long time since the Mandaean community has been able to say that. Because their beliefs dont fall under any of the major world religions, they have struggled to find governmental protection. Mandaeans are an ancient community that follows its own set of prophets, including Adam and John the Baptist. They believe in no violence at all, even fighting, and are largely vegetarian. Because they dont believe in altering the body, many dont cut their hair. They have their own language, which is closely related to Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. And they dont accept converts. To be Mandaean, you must be born into the religion. Because of their minority status, Mandaeans living in Iran find it difficult to go to university or find jobs. And in Iraq, they have been victims of the escalating violence. In the 1990s, more than 60,000 Mandaeans lived in Iraq. But by 2007, that number had dwindled to just 5,000. They fled to Australia, Sweden and, in the last 10 years, to San Antonio. We had the capacity, says Paula Walker, director of refugee services for Catholic Charities in San Antonio, explaining why so many Mandaeans have been resettled in the city. She is on the tail end of an elaborate and often unseen process of support that begins well before a refugee arrives in Texas. The U.S. government and resettlement workers prefer that refugees stay in their home countries or as close as possible. The U.S. and other nations often assist by sending aid to refugee camps where many refugees hope that things at home will return to normal and they can return. They dont want to be looked at as refugees, Walker says. But many people stay for five or more years in the harsh conditions of a refugee camp before they can apply for asylum in another nation. If asylum is finally granted, Walker and her team at Catholic Charities move into action. Their goal is to get refugees self-sufficient, with a home and a job, within four to six months after arrival. This means that Catholic Charities must do outreach with local landlords and businesses, making sure that theyre open to renting to and hiring people who are new to the country. The staff at Catholic Charities in San Antonio often goes back again and again, trying to make sure that people are receptive to the idea of refugees. Most people dont know that we have refugees in San Antonio, says Lopita Nath, who teaches history and migration studies at the University of the Incarnate Word. She adds that the city has particular advantages, one being that the population is 63 percent Latino. Its more open, more liberal. And theres a large Latino population, so refugees dont have to cope with a white dominant situation. In other cities, some refugees have been essentially ghettoized, with many locals afraid to enter neighborhoods where refugees live, she says. In San Antonio, the refugee population is more accepted, she and others say. San Antonio has been a cultural crossroads, says Councilman Ron Nirenberg, who has been monitoring refugee issues. A lot of people like to say San Antonio is what America would like to be 20 years from now in terms of demographic makeup. The Northwest neighborhood in Nirenbergs district near Medical Center Drive is where a large majority of recent refugees now live because they have access to low-income housing as well as public transportation. The area is now home not only to Mandaeans but also Afghans, Burmese, Congolese, Eritrean, Ethiopians, Somalis and many others. Its the most diverse part of San Antonio in just about every way you can categorize people, from religion to politics to socioeconomics, Nirenberg says. San Antonio, in many ways, has proven to be a successful experiment one that draws in work done by non-profits and the city. And it has had tangible results in the lives of people such as Hana Berenji. She became the first person in her family to graduate from college when she received her bachelors degree in chemistry from the University of Texas in Austin. She can barely tell the story through her tears. My dad always wanted to go to college, but he never had the opportunity, she says. Neither did my mom. And they had the dream for all four of us. They wanted us to go to college. But challenges still remain for many refugees. Shahram Ebadfarzadeh was trained as a civil engineer but is now working at Walmart. You need connections to get jobs, he says. And although there are hundreds of Mandaeans in San Antonio, few people know of their existence. Those who do notice them often assume theyre Muslim, a dangerous thing in the current political climate. Al Auxier, the sheriff of Kendall County, where the Mandaeans perform their baptisms, said he has seen some outrageous comments posted about the group on social media, although nothing he considers a direct threat. Ebadfarzadeh remembers an earlier baptism in the Guadalupe River, when a man who had obviously been drinking came over to them and started cursing. He accused the Mandaeans of killing his best friend in Afghanistan. Ebadfardzadeh talked him down, and the man apologized and left. He adds that when he or his family members go to the hospital, they are asked which religion they belong to. When they reply Mandaean, they are marked other. We are not others, we are Mandaean, and older than all the religions in your computer system, he says. You asked me about a word, Mandaean. But it is not a word, it is a world. Cate Malek is a freelance journalist and a masters student of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. There has been discussion at City Hall about cutting $1.3 million from the community safety net. We hope Mayor Ivy Taylor and the rest of City Council think long and hard about what it might mean to trim funding to nonprofit agencies that fall under the community safety net category. Per the citys website, these are agencies that serve at-risk youth, domestic violence and child abuse survivors, and seniors. The issue has come up because city staff, following a survey of council priorities, has proposed redirecting the funds toward workforce development. Its unclear if the majority of council members support this direction, despite the survey, but Taylor has said she is interested in using these limited city funds to address poverty, which she views as a root cause of so many crises. At a June 8 meeting, she discussed possible changes. I agree that nonprofits do a lot of work in very critical areas helping families that are at risk. But if, as was noted, we keep making the same investment year after year, but what do we get, more need? Then to me, that says we should rethink how we make the investment, she said. And I think all of us have read studies and have seen indications that poverty is a key driver for many of the needs that we serve through the first three categories. So I think we can make a difference in those categories by addressing poverty, which I see as us doing through education and workforce development We dont necessarily disagree with the mayor in these broad strokes, but we also think there is more to this discussion. Yes, poverty can be one of the contributors, but not the only one. Domestic violence strikes across economic lines, though access to services can differ among groups. But when domestic violence and sexual abuse occur, the need is for immediate and ongoing help. Its unclear why shifting those funds to workforce development would be a better use of precious public dollars in this regard. In an interview, Taylor told us that people have jumped to conclusions about agency funding. Council has roughly two months to determine agency funding, she said. She also said she never mentioned cuts to any specific agencies, especially those that serve battered women and children or rape survivors. If we cant even talk about how we can be more strategic, that certainly puts us in a bad position, knowing we will never have enough money to serve all the worthy agencies and all the important causes in our city, she told us. And later: I was thinking about root causes versus crisis situations. But city documents from that June presentation also spell out clearly what services would be cut by this funding shift. Under the headline Budget Impact, a slide says: Impact to Early Childhood & Safety Net eliminates or reduces services for: Domestic Violence Adults and Children with Disabilities Haven for Hope Support Services Volunteer Income Tax Assistance San Antonio has incredibly high rates of domestic violence and child abuse. In recent years, there have been more than 1,000 rapes reported annually here, and, of course, we dont know how many arent reported. In 2014, the San Antonio Police Department responded to 45,000 domestic violence calls. Marta Pelaez, president and CEO of Family Violence Prevention Services Inc., told us that Bexar County, per capita, has the second highest rate of domestic violence in the state. Her agencys Battered Women and Childrens Shelter is the busiest in Texas in terms of daily census. Investing in workforce development is important, particularly as it relates to poverty. We dont fault the mayor for thinking about how to best address root causes of abuse and violence. But doing so at the expense of people in immediate crisis and those agencies serving them be it domestic violence and rape survivors, at-risk youth or senior services would be deeply regrettable. There is an inescapable conclusion to draw from the 5-3 Supreme Court ruling on Monday that struck down two provisions of Texas restrictive abortion laws. The premise on which the Legislature sold this law was a fraud. And the reaction to the ruling by our leaders reveals yet another truth. They are still trying to perpetuate that fraud. They still say that concern for womens health is what prompted these laws. Fraud too harsh a word? Justice Stephen Breyer, as a matter of jurisprudence, avoids such a word, but the path to it is in his majority opinion. In passing these two provisions, contained in 2013s House Bill 2, Texas legislators said they were to protect womens health. One required clinics to upgrade to ambulatory surgical centers, essentially mini-hospitals. This is expensive, prohibitively so for the clinics that closed. Another required that abortion doctors get admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. None of them, the court observed, was medically necessary since abortion is safer than other medical procedures that are allowed outside these mini-hospitals. We conclude that neither of these provisions offers medical benefits sufficient to justify the burdens upon access that each imposes. Each places a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking a previability abortion, each constitutes an undue burden on abortion access, and each violates the federal Constitution, Breyer wrote. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg skirted against the outer fringes of the word, fraud, in her concurring opinion. She wrote, It is beyond rational belief that H.B. 2 could genuinely protect the health of women, and certain that the law would simply make it more difficult for them to obtain abortions. Certain. So, another conclusion emerges: The goal was to close clinics. And that the law did damage done, with half of the states estimated 41 closing. And had the court upheld the law, that would have been halved again, with the clinics concentrated in the states urban centers. Avoiding undue burden a standard set by a previous abortion ruling required that legislators balance the need for such laws with the effect. And, in Texas, the high court found the effect unmistakably draconian and, I would add, entirely predictable. Low-income women in particular, with no clinics nearby, were effectively barred from abortion because they dont have the transportation or means for prolonged stays where the only remaining clinics exist. But, of course, even before this Supreme Court ruling, certain leaders let the cat out of the bag. The ideal world is one without abortion. Until then, we will continue to pass laws to ensure abortions are as rare as possible under existing law, Gov. Rick Perry said in 2013. The court just told Perry that HB 2 cannot coexist with existing law. And then-Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, once the bill passed, was even more blunt. He tweeted a map of expected clinic closures and added, We fought to pass (the bill) through the Senate last night, and this is why! But if that word fraud is too harsh, we can use a few others that might be more palatable. Spin. Politics as usual. Subterfuge. Nah; fraud best describes what the Legislature did, though other words come to mind. And the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, in upholding the Texas law, essentially said that the Legislature could make it up as it went along and the court would defer to that august body. I get it. Barry Goldwater famously said that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And if you truly believe abortion to be murder, you might coin another saying: Fraud in the defense of life (which begins at conception) is no vice. But if this is your thinking, what the court just told you and Texas is that as long as abortion is constitutionally protected, you cant impose undue burden and expect it to pass judicial review. And that review means no fraud will be allowed to accomplish blatant end-runs around this protection. What the court did here is what the Legislature, our top statewide elected officials and the 5th Circuit willfully refused to do: Look at the facts. The court avoided the f word, fraud, but make no mistake. Texas leaders, youve been called out and exposed. o.ricardo.pimentel@express-news.net Twitter: @oricardopimente A 55-year-old construction worker died after being struck with a backhoe-type piece of equipment while he was working on the West Haven-New Haven line. About the West Haven Construction Accident The incident took place on Tuesday, June 21 when the construction worker was struck by a pay loader and, according to the West Haven Patch, fell into a truck that contained hot asphalt. The New Haven Register notes that the victim was a long-time employee of West Haven-based Pereira & Sons Construction. The Allington Fire District and West Haven Police arrived at the construction site near 2 Boston Post Road at approximately midday. Police report that the victim suffered severe injuries and was transported to an area hospital where he later died. As a result of the incident, the area was closed for several hours while police conducted an investigation. According to the Register, the citys officials will be carrying out an independent investigation. The victims identity has not yet been formally released, pending notification of his family. Construction Accident Statistics The following information is provided by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration: Fatal work injuries involving contractors accounted for 17 percent of all fatal work injuries in 2014. The leading causes of construction worker deaths are known as the Fatal Four: falls, electrocutions, struck by object and caught-in/between. oFalls - 359 out of 899 total deaths in construction deaths in CY 2014 (39.9%) oElectrocutions 74 (8.2%) oStruck by Object 73 (8.1%) oCaught-in/between 12 (1.3%) The Fatal Four were responsible for well over half (57.6%) of the construction worker deaths in 2014. Contact an Experienced Workplace Accident Attorney Thomas J. Henry Injury Attorneys fight to protect the rights of workplace injury victims. If you or someone you love has been injured or killed on the job, contact Thomas J. Henry Injury Attorneys. The goal of our offices is to not only protect your rights, but to send a message so the same tragedy does not happen again. We represent clients/victims all over the country. Editors Note: This content is made possible by Thomas J. Henry. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of The San Antonio Express-News' or mySanAntonio.com's editorial staff. Learn more about our advertising products at www.hearstmediasanantonio.com. SHARE After seeing a growing demand, Machoule, a native of Port-au-Prince and a Lely High School graduate, taught himself the complicated and often poorly replicated process of refurbishing valuable LCD screens. David Albers/Naples Daily News (2) Refurbtech technician Henderson Cius, left, and CEO Wendel Machoule, center, complete an order of refurbished iPhone LCD screens for client Andy Gillani, right, in the workshop of the Golden Gate business on Friday. A collection of LCD screen await new frames, polarizing filters and glass after having broken glass removed at Refurbtech, a Golden Gate cellphone and tablet part refurbishing business and repair shop. (David Albers/Staff) David Albers/NAPLES DAILY NEWS Refurbtech technician Henderson Cius tests the functionality of an LCD screen he was refurbishing April 7 in the business's workshop in Golden Gate. Related Photos PHOTOS: Lely graduate builds business fixing smart phones By David Albers of the Naples Daily News Where some people see cracked glass, Wendel Machoule sees opportunity. After building an online business refurbishing smartphone LCD screens, local entrepreneur Machoule, 30, recently opened a storefront in Golden Gate offering complete cellphone and tablet repair. After two months, he already is looking to expand. While smartphone repair shops are popping up everywhere, Machoule's business model is based on his mastery of refurbishing the valuable LCD screens. Machoule, a native of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, who immigrated to the U.S. at 14, started tinkering with electronics while a student at Lely High School in East Naples, repairing and reselling broken Xboxes. He worked part time repairing flip phones and Blackberries while studying quality control at an aeronautics college in Oklahoma. Nearly a decade later, Machoule's friend approached him about repairing a cellphone he had run over with his car. His friend already had ordered the wrong parts online for the nearly ruined phone. "He didn't have anything to lose," Machoule said. While researching parts online, Machoule noticed he could buy shattered phone screens in bulk. "I was wondering what was being done with them. So I researched it and found that people were repairing them," Machoule said. What he found was that with the explosion of smartphone sales and their subsequent need for repair, one of the most expensive parts, the LCD screen, could be salvaged. The LCD screens function under a layer of glass, a polarizing filter and a frame. A shattered screen from a dropped phone usually means only the glass layer has cracked while the valuable LCD still functions. It is why many smartphones with cracked screens still can function. The demand for cellphone repair has spawned an explosion of repair shops in storefronts and malls across the country. Even franchise opportunities, such as with iCracked, offer certification for repair "iTechs" and a supply chain of parts. What Machoule had stumbled upon is the growing demand for parts, specifically the original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, parts. "I saw that people were sending them to China to be refurbished and resold again," Machoule said. With the release of each new model of smartphone comes a demand for the OEM parts to subsequently repair the broken phones. The price of these parts fluctuates with demand as the original manufacturer works to make parts and other manufacturers step in to create aftermarket parts. Machoule said he always has been business-minded and that he realized there was a market for refurbishing LCD screens because of the demand for replacements among the repair shops springing up everywhere. "With so many broken phones, people were buying them left and right," he said. "If I can fix a phone that was run over by a car, I thought that I can do something with this." Machoule bought broken screens online and researched the process. He purchased manufacturing machinery from China and translated instructions using Google Translate. "I had a lot of mistakes until I figured it out." Machoule said he got the process down working out of his garage and building a business through Craigslist and eBay buying broken LCD screens, refurbishing and reselling them. "I put my services on eBay to repair LCDs or entire phones. Then I started getting a lot of orders. I stopped needing to buy the broken ones," he said. In a nutshell, the process uses heat and a thin wire to remove the frame, broken glass and polarizing filter from the LCD. The remaining glue is removed with a solvent. A device is connected to the LCD to boot up several images to test whether it's working. Lastly, new glass, a polarizing filter and a phone model-specific frame is fused onto the LCD, using machinery to seal it and remove air bubbles with vacuum pressure. Over the course of almost two years, Machoule grew his online business and expanded into other cellphone repairs. In April, Machoule and three partners John Eddy Cius, Henderson Cius and Marc Fertil opened a Refurbtech store in Golden Gate. Cius was the friend who originally ran over his phone. The shop offers complete repairs to phones and tablets of almost any brand. "If we get one really beat up, we can make it look like it came from Apple," Machoule said. Machoule said the cost of repair fluctuates with the phone model and damage but that an average repair would be about $80 for the most common repairs of cracked screens or battery replacement. Water damage or a cracked motherboard can cost more, depending on the parts needed. As both a repair shop and a parts refurbishing company, Machoule said he can double his profits, as opposed to simply replacing parts like most repair shops. Other repair shops are using his refurbishing services to improve their profit margins, as well. Andy Gillani owns four repair shops between Naples and Tampa and uses Refurbtech to refurbish his LCD screens. Gillani said he could buy aftermarket parts from China but that the quality isn't the same as having Refurbtech refurbishing the OEM part. "He just changes the glass, so everything stays original. When you buy aftermarket parts, the Chinese LCD is made by LG, not by Apple. That makes a difference," Gillani said. Gillani said there is a noticeable difference when you use the OEM parts. "You can see the difference in the display. The quality is much better," he said. Dario Rubio owns a cellphone repair shop in Fort Myers. He has iCracked technician certification where he can buy parts, but he said he can greatly improve his bottom line by using refurbished parts from Refurbtech. He said he also can turn around repairs much faster by using parts refurbished locally, as opposed to national or international refurbishing companies. "You have to send a message and wait a week for someone to answer, and then it is another week for someone to replace the screen for you. We can just come here and tell him you need to get it done, and that's it," Rubio said. Both repair shop owners said quality is often an issue with parts refurbishing. "There are a lot of people that are doing it, but it is difficult to get a good refurbish. (Refurbtech) does a good job. Everybody cannot do the same thing. I know 10 people (doing it), and out of 10 people, only three do a good job," Gillani said. Gillani said Refurbtech is also quick. "He has good help, so he is never on backlog. He keeps everything on time," he said. Two months since opening Refurbtech's storefront, Machoule said business is so good he already is planning to expand to more locations elsewhere in the Naples area alongside the shops to which he is supplying parts. "There is so much business out there. There is enough for everyone." Thai Udon Cafe recently opened its second location. The North Naples restaurant now has new space on Fifth Avenue South in Naples. (Tim Aten/Daily News staff) Tim Aten In The Know SHARE A second location for Cafe Luna opens this week in the former space of Capers Kitchen and Sam Snead's Tavern in Naples Walk, the shopping center on the southeast corner of Vanderbilt Beach and Airport-Pulling roads in North Naples. (Tim Aten/Daily News staff) The second location of New York Pizza & Pasta is now targeted to open in July in Cameron Commons, the retail center on Immokalee Road just east of Collier Boulevard. (Tim Aten/Daily News staff) Tim Aten/Daily News staff The second location of Thai Udon Cafe is now open on Fifth Avenue South in downtown Naples. Adam Satinsky and Khwan Sawai, seated, with staff members at their new Thai Udon Cafe on Fifth Avenue South in downtown Naples. (Tim Aten/Daily News staff) A few more area restaurants are doubling up this year, adding second locations. After operating for four years in North Naples, Thai Udon Cafe opened its second location on Fifth Avenue South last week, while Cafe Luna closed its original Fifth Avenue space post-season and is opening a second location this week in North Naples. Other local restaurants scoring with plans to add a second to their base include Brooks Gourmet Burgers & Dogs, Tacos & Tequila Cantina and New York Pizza & Pasta. THAI UDON CAFE The local husband-and-wife team who married Thai and Japanese cuisines at their Thai Udon Cafe have come a long way since it opened three years ago. The first restaurant created by Khwan Sawai and Adam Satinsky in Magnolia Square at Goodlette-Frank and Pine Ridge roads is simpler and more humble and homey. "We like that first, kind of hidden gem. It's a very central location even though it's a little hidden," Satinsky said. But now they have come out of hiding and stepped out onto Fifth Avenue South with a bright new offering, even adding a sushi bar and other new items to the menu. "We want to definitely give it more of a sense of a Fifth Avenue vibe, a little more swanky feeling than the North Naples location. I think it's going to achieve that," said Satinsky, who still has a "day job" as principal cellist for the Naples Philharmonic. "The color scheme is quite different. It's a totally different look, he said. "We were kind of going for more brightness." After acquainting diners at the first restaurant with her unique cooking, Sawai has expanded upon the base she created, Satinski said. "She wants to highlight what she knows and loves about her country's food. The soups are very regional and traditional dishes," he said. "Some of the dishes she created are possibly unique to her restaurant and nowhere else." Popular entrees include Three Friends Cashew Nut with sauteed shrimp, chicken, pork, vegetables and cashews with chili sauce; and seafood and soft shell crab curry sauteed with eggplant, long beans and bell pepper with green curry sauce. New menu items include an appetizer sampler featuring a fried spring roll, dumplings and crab rangoon. A soft shell crab salad has sliced tomato, onion, celery, cucumber and chili with seasoned crab and lime dressing. A new grilled sea bass with sauteed vegetables is drizzled with homemade ginger sauce. The grand opening celebration of the new restaurant is this Saturday, giving patrons an opportunity to sample some of the cuisine. Thai Udon Cafe, 409 Fifth Ave. S., is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays; and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. For information, call 239-331-2079, or go to thaiudoncafe.com. CAFE LUNA Cafe Luna is targeted to open its new second location this Thursday in the Publix-anchored Naples Walk shopping center on the southeast corner of Airport-Pulling and Vanderbilt Beach roads in North Naples. The large space previously was home to Capers Kitchen for three seasons and Sam Snead's Tavern for more than 12 years. "We brightened it up: New bar top, new bar stools, new carpeting," said co-owner Ed Barsamian. "That's a great shopping center. We are really looking forward to getting open." Expect the same menu as Cafe Luna's new location in Liberty Plaza on U.S. 41 in Naples and its longtime original that was forced to close post-season this spring because of a redevelopment project on Fifth Avenue South. Of course, Barsamian still offers "A Veally Good Deal," a dinner special for two with a bottle of wine for $29.99. "We introduced a new thing on the weekend, a really rare deal: two 12-ounce cuts of prime rib served with mashed potatoes and a bottle of California cabernet for $49.99," he said. "That's in addition to A Veally Good Deal." TACOS & TEQUILA A second location for Tacos & Tequila Cantina is nearly complete in The Pavilion shopping center in North Naples. The new restaurant is targeted to open as early as July 4. "We're really, really, really close," said owner Kelly Musico, who opened the first T & T three years ago off of Davis Boulevard in East Naples. The new location next to Paradise Wine is 1,500 square feet larger than the first. "The retail is three times the size, and this one has probably 10 more bar seats," Musico said. "It's the same exact layout, just a little bit bigger." The menu of taco varieties also is the same and an overhead door can be raised to give the restaurant an open-air feel. NEW YORK PIZZA New York Pizza & Pasta is busy building out its second location in Cameron Commons shopping center on the north side of Immokalee Road just east of Collier Boulevard. The new location is now targeted to open in July, following the success of its longtime original pizzeria in Riverchase Plaza on Immokalee Road at the U.S. 41 intersection. "I think we are going to do extremely well over there," said General Manager James Olsen. "I think it will be a very popular spot." Eighteen TVs will ring the interior, which will look similar to the recently renovated original restaurant. The new one won't have a separate room for the bar, though, which will serve wine and beer. Expect dine-in, takeout and delivery of the same authentic homemade recipes of "real-deal" Italian cuisine from meatballs to New York slices and thick Sicilian pizza squares. BROOKS BURGERS Brooks Gourmet Burgers & Dogs announced plans last week to build on the acclaimed reputation of its first location on U.S. 41 in Naples. Brooks will move into the The Pavilion shopping center space vacated by Kitchen 845 at the end of season. A breezeway separates the unit from Skillets between anchors Paragon Pavilion theaters and LA Fitness. Click here for full story on Brooks Burgers 2. CHAIN REACTION Restaurant chains are seeing double, too. Fuzzy's Taco Shop is opening its second location in Southwest Florida this summer in the SuperTarget center off Immokalee Road in North Naples. Its first are location opened this spring, serving Tex-Mex and Margaritas in south Fort Myers. BurgerFi will give its lone area location on U.S. 41 in East Naples some company when it opens its second Collier County spot this summer in the new Creekside Corners retail center at Goodlette-Frank and Immokalee Road in North Naples. Chipotle Mexican Grill has a second Naples-area location coming this fall to Naples Plaza in the former longtime location of Empire China off U.S. 41. A third is even under construction in Restaurant Row, making progress daily along Collier Boulevard near its U.S. 41 East intersection. THREE-WAY A couple of local restaurants are even rounding third this summer. Komoon Thai Sushi Ceviche will join the new BurgerFi in the same center this summer in North Naples. It's Komoon's second Collier location, but it has another off Bonita Beach Road in Bonita Springs. The original operates in Mission Square off Pine Ridge Road. Napoli on the Bay also is set to open its third spot this summer in Sugden Park Plaza on U.S. 41 East in East Naples. The longtime, family-owned local pizzeria made a name for itself near the City Dock in Crayton Cove and opened a second last year in Hitching Post Plaza, also on U.S. 41 East. For the latest in local restaurants coming and going, see Tim Aten's "In the Know" columns archived at naplesnews.com/intheknow, and on Facebook at facebook.com/timaten.intheknow. SHARE Crape myrtle is a versatile plant. It can be in tree or shrub form and comes in many colors. mike malloy By Mike Malloy I'd like to introduce you to one of southern Florida's most magnificent landscape plants crape myrtle. Originally grown in Japan, China and parts of Southeast Asia, it's the supermodel of the plant world. It's beautiful and a real head-turner, of course, but crape myrtle is versatile, too. You can have it in either shrub or tree form and in myriad colors, including purple, white, pink, red, or a combination of colors. Even the bark on this plant is attractive! The lovely crape myrtle blooms all summer long and into the fall, with long-lasting, crepe-like textured flowers that form large clusters of 1 to 2-inch flowers at the tip of each branch. The blooms on the crape myrtle are so large and profuse, its branches appear to be weeping toward the ground. The crape myrtle is deciduous. Still stunning in Florida landscapes during the winter months, its bark takes on a striking exfoliated appearance that ranges from tan, white to coffee brown. And for us Northerners who miss fall color, crape myrtle amazes during the autumn months in hues of red, burgundy, yellow and orange. It's almost like being back in New England almost. Amazingly, this "supermodel" is not high maintenance. Crape myrtle thrives in full sun and high humidity, and is drought-tolerant. And it's not the least bit finicky. It even flourishes in poor soil, which makes it perfect for southern Florida landscapes. My personal favorite is the raspberry-colored cultivar, which is drop-dead gorgeous. To maintain your crape myrtle's pretty appearance, you'll want to prune it in winter or early spring. Trim off all suckers and branches up to about 4 feet. Proper pruning will expose its beautiful bark and improve air circulation, which is very important for maintaining a healthy appearance. Never chop your crape myrtle down to a stump. This will ruin its natural shape and weaken its branches. Strong branches are vital during the summer months, because they support the massive flower clusters growing on the tips of the limbs. I recommend using hand pruners and trimming 2 to 3 feet off the top of your crape myrtle. During flowering season, you can promote a second light flush of flowers by deadheading old blooms. If you're looking for a large evergreen specimen, choose the Queen crape myrtle (lagerstroemia speciosa), known as one of the most spectacular flowering trees in the world! Originating in tropical India, this majestic tree blooms in June and July. The Queen crape myrtle's leaves will turn red before falling in the winter, but soon recovers. It's fittingly named Queen crape myrtle because it produces massive profusions of pinkish blooms on foot-long panicles, and can reach 40 feet in height. Of course, you can maintain a smaller height by regular trimming. The Queen crape myrtle is not just beautiful on the outside, it's strong on the inside, too. The weather here in South Florida can get downright ugly at times. Queen crape myrtle is able to withstand high winds better than most trees due to its hard wood. Several gorgeous Queen crape myrtles can be admired right now in the medians on most of our major roads. Remember, help save the monarch butterfly, plant milkweed and keep butterflying. Email Mike Malloy with your plant questions at mikesbflys@yahoo.com or check out the Facebook page Naples Butterfly. Malloy sells host and nectar plants for butterflies, as well as tropical plants, at the Third Street South farmers market every Saturday morning. A gopher tortoise covered in paint was reported to FWC. The tortoise's entire carapace and parts of her head and legs were covered in paint. Photo courtesy of Greg Willette SHARE A gopher tortoise is released in a safe location after spending several days at the von Arx Wildlife Hospital to remove paint from her head, legs and shell. Photo courtesy of Greg Willette After several washings to remove paint from her shell, a gopher tortoise is ready for release. Photo courtesy of Greg Willette By Joanna Fitzgerald A swallow-tailed kite and a gopher tortoise were among the 85 animals admitted to the von Arx Wildlife Hospital at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida this past week. Other admissions include five chimney swifts, a gray kingbird, a downy woodpecker and a Florida soft-shell turtle. The young swallow-tailed kite was found on the ground in a remote area east of Collier Boulevard. When hospital staff received the call, we were informed that the kite already was contained in a metal dog cage and was thought to have an injured wing because it was unable to fly. The finder was no longer at the location with the kite but said a friend was going to call us to see how best to coordinate transporting the kite to the hospital. As time passed with no follow-up call from the kite's "rescuers," staff called the woman but only reached her voice mail. Several hours passed, when we finally did receive a call back, the people said they were unable to bring the kite to the hospital. Our options were limited at that point since it was after 5 o'clock and many volunteer critter couriers were unavailable. After numerous phone calls we reached one of our volunteer critter couriers who was willing to make the drive to pick up the kite and bring it to the hospital. All said, by the time the bird arrived at the hospital almost ten hours had passed from when it was first contained. Once admitted a physical exam was performed which showed the kite had an injury to its right wing. Staff administered pain medication, an anti-inflammatory and electrolytes. The kite is currently rehabilitating in the bird room at the wildlife hospital. Daily treatments include pain medications, Chinese herbal supplements, laser therapy and supportive care. The most frustrating part of this case, and several other cases this week, was the delay in time between when an animal was found to be in need of assistance and when it arrived at the hospital. It is always best that an animal receive professional medical attention as quickly as possible. Although we do not have a pickup service, we have options, such as calling volunteers, to see if we can find help for wildlife in need. Ultimately the fastest way for an injured, sick or orphaned animal to get the professional attention it needs is for the rescuer to immediately bring the animal to the hospital. VANDALS PAINT TORTOISE A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) biologist responded to a call involving a gopher tortoise that had its shell covered in red paint. This case is disturbing because it is particularly difficult to witness blatant animal abuse. Along with her shell being covered in paint, the tortoise also had paint on her head and legs, the only part to be thankful for was that she didn't get paint in her eyes. Sadly this isn't the first tortoise we have encountered that has been painted. We have had success removing paint using a nontoxic soy based product. The challenge is the product must sit for 20 minutes before being wiped off. It took several days before the paint was removed from the tortoise's shell because she was active and could only take limited amounts of handling before becoming stressed and agitated. The tortoise's high activity level required she be sedated to remove the paint from head and legs. Four days after arriving at the hospital the tortoise was cleaned and her behavior showed she was more than ready for release. The FWC biologist released her in an area shown to have a healthy gopher tortoise population. If you see or hear of a situation involving animal abuse speak up and contact law enforcement. Be an advocate for the animal. People may think of this as a prank or a silly act of mischief but it isn't, a living creature should never be subjected to this type of abuse. Recent Releases Three mottled ducks, seven eastern cottontails, three blue jays, five northern mockingbirds, a snail kite, a barred owl, a royal tern, a laughing gull, five raccoons, five mourning doves, two common grackles, two double-crested cormorants, a Florida snapping turtle, a brown pelican, and a peninsula cooter were released this past week. Under Construction Our outdoor wildlife viewing area is temporarily closed to the public while our new outdoor animal recovery enclosures and guest education areas are constructed. Visitors to the Conservancy can continue to experience the nursery viewing window and wildlife rehabilitation exhibits throughout the Nature Center. Thank you for your understanding and patience while we improve our patients' recovery areas. Opportunities to Help Please visit the Conservancy website at conservancy.org to view all of the amazing volunteer opportunities at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. Volunteers are needed more than ever during our incredibly busy summer season. Your volunteer time, memberships and donations are vital in helping us continue our work to protect Southwest Florida's water, land, wildlife and future. Joanna Fitzgerald is director of the von Arx Wildlife Hospital at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. Call 239-262-2273 or see conservancy.org. By Alexi C. Cardona of the Naples Daily News Two more people have been arrested in Collier County in connection with a massive human trafficking operation that spanned South Florida, court records show. Ingrid Maradiaga, 36, of Golden Gate, was arrested June 24 on charges of human trafficking, according to Collier County Sheriff's Office arrest records. Miguel Blanco Aguilar, 59, of Tampa, was arrested Wednesday in Hillsborough County on a Collier County warrant and was transferred to the Naples Jail Center on Friday. In new documents filed with the Collier County Clerk of Courts, both were named as suspects in the human trafficking operation that was first publicized last March and netted 15 arrests, including several in Collier County. The Collier County Sheriff's Office found the first victim during a traffic stop in 2013. Detectives then identified six women, each of whom had been illegally smuggled into the country after being promised legal jobs and reunions with their families. But once they arrived in the U.S., the women, ranging in age from 25 to 35, were forced to work as sex slaves and often serviced 25 to 45 men a day, officials said. The human trafficking ring operated in Collier, Lee, Hendry, Polk and Miami-Dade counties. Detectives said the captors earned between $190,000 and $320,000 a year from the victims, who received only "a pittance" and were made to reimburse the captors for food, rent and gas money when they were driven to have sex with customers. The documents filed last week show that a Collier County warrant is still out for another man, Jose Leon Senteno, who was identified as a suspect last year. According to the affidavit, Maradiaga is the sister of another woman who was arrested in the human trafficking ring, Delia Maradiaga. Authorities suspected Maradiaga of helping her sister with an in-home brothel she ran. Maradiaga told authorities she drove women to houses and migrant camps to have sex with paying customers when her sister asked her to, according to the affidavit. Maradiaga reportedly told investigators she knew some of the women were being forced into prostitution by their boyfriends and that she felt bad for them. In a previous interview with the Naples Daily News, Maradiaga said she didn't see any sign of anyone being prostituted at her sister's home. "If she was guilty, I would accept it," Maradiaga said in the March 2015 interview. "But she is not." Aguilar, according to the affidavit, is an associate of a man who was also arrested last year during the sting, Victor Blanco Pantoja. Court documents state that a human trafficking victim identified Aguilar as someone who worked with Pantoja, her pimp. The woman told investigators that Aguilar collected money from men who visited brothels and acted as a lookout. The woman told officials that Aguilar kept all the money she made and would not let her stop working until she had sex with all the men that showed up at the brothel on any given day. The woman also said Aguilar carried a handgun in the waistband of his pants and that she feared for her safety. Water full of algae laps along the Sewell's Point shore on the St. Lucie River under an Ocean Boulevard bridge, Monday, June 27, 2016. The Martin County Commission decided at an emergency meeting Tuesday to ask state and federal authorities to declare a disaster where blue-green algae has closed beaches. County officials on Florida's Atlantic coast want the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to close the locks between Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie River. (Richard Graulich/The Palm Beach Post via AP) SHARE An aerial photo shows blue-green algae enveloping an area along the St. Lucie River in Stuart, Fla., Wednesday, June 29, 2016 Officials want federal action along the stretch of Florida's Atlantic coast where the governor has declared a state of emergency over algae blooms. The Martin County Commission is inviting the president to view deteriorating water conditions that local officials blame on freshwater being released from the lake, according to a statement released Wednesday. (Greg Lovett/The Palm Beach Post via AP) Boats docked at Central Marine in Stuart, Fla., are surrounded by blue green algae, Wednesday, June 29, 2016. Officials want federal action along the stretch of Florida's Atlantic coast where the governor has declared a state of emergency over algae blooms. The Martin County Commission is inviting the president to view deteriorating water conditions that local officials blame on freshwater being released from the lake, according to a statement released Wednesday. (Greg Lovett/The Palm Beach Post via AP) By Eric Staats of the Naples Daily News Lee County heads into the long July 4 weekend under an algae-driven state of emergency, but Southwest Florida has not seen the severity of toxic blooms afflicting the East Coast at least not yet. Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency Wednesday in St. Lucie and Martin counties, where beaches, the St. Lucie River and the Indian River Lagoon are coated with a stinking slime of blue-green algae because of algae-ridden water releases from Lake Okeechobee. Amid calls from Southwest Florida lawmakers, Scott added Lee County to the declaration Thursday. The same releases killing East Coast estuaries also are pulsing down the Caloosahatchee River, where algae blooms, one of them toxic, have been sampled along a stretch from Alva to the mouth of the river at San Carlos Bay. Lee County spokeswoman Betsy Clayton said none of the blooms is "significant." Related stories: Army Corps to reduce lake flows fueling Florida algae bloom Gov. Rick Scott adds Lee to emergency declaration after massive algal blooms on East Coast 'Guacamole-thick' algae causes crisis on Florida coastline "It's not as bad as the East Coast, but it's certainly a problem for anyone living on the water and wanting to recreate in the water," said Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation natural resource policy director Rae Ann Wessel. Monitors discovered a 33-square-mile swath of toxic algae in Lake Okeechobee in mid-May, likely spurred by warmer temperatures and excessive nutrients from agricultural and urban discharges. Lake releases, which are needed to lower lake levels so as not to risk breaching the lake's aging dike, already had been blamed for fouling downstream estuaries but now come with toxic algae, too. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began releases earlier this year as heavy rainfall raised lake levels. Wessel said Southwest Florida might have less of a problem with the discharges than the East Coast because the Caloosahatchee is larger than the St. Lucie River and can dilute the effect of the pollution. Lake releases to the Caloosahatchee also pass through a marsh, which could help filter the water, she said. Health threats from toxic blue-green algae range from fever-like symptoms and rashes to diarrhea and vomiting, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission experts say. Toxic blue-green algae can't survive in saltwater environments, such as the Gulf of Mexico, but billions of gallons of fresh water released from the lake are reducing salinities far enough downstream to give the blooms some room to grow. Collier County pollution monitors, though, dismissed reports this week of a toxic algae bloom about 30 miles offshore of Gordon Pass. "That stuff just ran for miles," said offshore fisherman Bill D'Antuono, also a clean water advocate for Waterkeeper Alliance, who said the algae smelled like "toxic, raw nastiness." "Nobody I know had ever seen anything like it before." After looking at a video of the bloom D'Antuono posted on Facebook, pollution monitors said the bloom was actually of a nontoxic blue-green algae that occurs offshore this time of year and is sometimes a precursor to red tide. Blue-green algae is only part of the problem with lake releases. The releases also chase away marine life, kill oyster beds, lower oxygen levels and darken water to the point that seagrasses can't get enough sunlight, Wessel said. Scott's emergency declaration directs the Department of Environmental Protection and the Conservation Commission to step up water sampling and directs the South Florida Water Management District to find places to store water from the lake rather than release it down the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers. Water managers said Friday that they have begun to hold more water north of the lake, are increasing discharges from the lake into a Palm Beach County canal from 250 cubic feet per second to 400 cubic feet per second and are speeding up the use of $48 million to pay private landowners to store water. The Corps of Engineers has cut its discharges down the rivers. The DEP's algae bloom website shows samplers have taken eight water samples from the Caloosahatchee in response to reports of algae blooms since mid-May, but they have detected toxins in just one. SHARE Larry "Stixxx" Tiller and his service dog Sandford at the Disabled Veterans of America office in Cape Coral, where Tiller volunteers, on Friday, July 1, 2016. Tiller got Sandford on Christmas Eve because of his PTSD from his time serving in Vietnam as a commander from February 1965 to October 1966. (Dorothy Edwards/Naples Daily News) Ray Dillman, left, and Marty Monkiewicz, right, take time to bond with their future PAWS assistance dogs Hope and Que, respectively, after a busy day of training at the PAWS facility Thursday, July 2, 2016 in Naples, Fla. "This is my beautiful day," Marty said. "When I train with her." Starting from eight weeks old PAWS Assistance Dogs of Naples works to train Golden Retrievers into loyal service and companion dogs for veterans as well as children with physical and developmental disabilities. (Luke Franke/Naples Daily News) Ray Dillman, left, and Marty Monkiewicz, right, walk with their future PAWS assistance dogs Hope and Que, respectively, during training at the PAWS facility Thursday, July 2, 2016 in Naples, Fla. Starting from eight weeks old PAWS Assistance Dogs of Naples works to train Golden Retrievers into loyal service and companion dogs for veterans as well as children with physical and developmental disabilities. (Luke Franke/Naples Daily News) Ray Dillman, a Vietnam veteran with the Army Infantry Airborne, snuggles up with his future PAWS Assistance Dog, Hope, moments after completing training for the day at the PAWS facility Thursday, July 2, 2016 in Naples, Fla. Starting from eight weeks old PAWS Assistance Dogs of Naples works to train Golden Retrievers into loyal service and companion dogs for veterans as well as children with physical and developmental disabilities. (Luke Franke/Naples Daily News) Related Photos Photos: PAWS training program By Kristine Gill of the Naples Daily News The three-hour drive from Port St. Lucie to Naples each Friday is the best part of Ray Dillman's week. He knows what awaits him at the end of the trip. Hope is nearly 2, with dark eyes and a sweet face. She's quiet and attentive and sometimes afraid of loud noises. Dillman can be, too. He doesn't like going out in public, and sometimes he still wakes up with night terrors. He didn't know what post-traumatic stress disorder was until years after he returned home from three tours of duty. But when Dillman's orange and green motorcycle, an American War Horse Texas Chopper, roared into the parking lot off Horseshoe Drive on Friday afternoon, Hope perked up. Outside, Dillman quieted the throttle, removed a leather vest, then walked stiffly down the sidewalk. Vietnam left him with shrapnel in both legs, not to mention scars on his hands and face from knife and bullet wounds. Dillman opened the door to the training center and spotted his dog just inside. "Hey pretty girl," he said, smiling down as Hope spun circles in her crate. --- Jeannie Bates had been training and showing dogs for 25 years when she agreed to provide service dogs for two local families. Soon, the calls were pouring in from parents of children with disabilities and friends of veterans who heard Bates could help. "I had no idea the need was so great," she said. In 2012, Bates started the Naples nonprofit PAWS Assistance Dogs. Funded with private donations and sponsorships from family foundations, the program has provided 15 service dogs to date. There are now 32 dogs in some stage of training, including four fluffy pups under 12 weeks old. Bates focuses on providing dogs to post 9/11 vets, who usually suffered severe injuries, and Vietnam vets, who often live with post-traumatic stress disorder. "The war definitely comes home with these guys," Bates said. It takes two years and about $35,000 to see each dog through the training program. By the end, they're able to provide emotional and physical support to their handlers, soothing them in times of need or opening doors and retrieving items. One dog can even stock the fridge with groceries. "We're looking for the Albert Einsteins of dogs," said Bates, who added that potential puppies are given temperament and IQ tests before they're accepted into the program. "They have to be really bright, willing to work with a human. Their problem-solving abilities have to be very keen." Bates oversees the organization, which includes one full-time trainer, two kennel handlers and more than 50 volunteers men and women who visit the dogs for daily training sessions, spend nights and weekends with them and take them out for community service projects that help socialize them. When they're about 16 months old, the dogs are paired with handlers whose needs they can meet and the two train together weekly for a few months before the dogs go home with them. For Dillman, that will happen sometime after Hope's birthday in September. --- On Friday, Dillman and fellow Vietnam veteran Marty Monkiewicz of Nokomis trained with their dogs. Monkiewicz was paired with Que, short for Cinque, who is Hope's sister from the same litter. Trainer Sally O'Neill had the men walk the dogs in circles, rewarding the animals with treats when they looked to their handlers for commands. She had them practice sitting, lying down and waiting while Dillman and Monkiewicz walked to the end of the leash. When they were finished, each dog got to slip out of her training vest for some bonding. Hope buried her face in Dillman's lap as he sat on the ground. She stuck her butt in the air and wagged her tail incessantly. Que looked as though she were on the verge of sleep, perfectly at ease lying against Monkiewicz, who stroked her feathery fur. "She loves to be petted as much as I love petting her," he said. Like Dillman, Monkiewicz didn't know what PTSD was until 15 years after he left the service. Monkiewicz was drafted after spending five years in the seminary, hoping to become a priest. The shift in ideals and the type of work was so drastic that Monkiewicz found himself tightly wound and on edge. He was reassigned to a records type job and stayed stateside, never seeing combat in the Army. But the experience jarred him. "I had depression, a lot of mental challenges, alcoholism," he said. "I didn't do well for my family or my ex-wife." Monkiewicz heard about the PAWS program through his brother, who urged him to apply. After just a few months of weekly sessions with Que, Monkiewicz already sees a difference in himself. His kids have noticed, too. He has plans to visit them for the first time in years this fall in Massachusetts. "To compare this with medication is a gross inaccuracy," said Monkiewicz, who keeps a photo of Que at his bedside. "It's a real life-changer that can help you come out of the cloud." --- Larry Tiller has seen firsthand how a service dog can change a life. His own dog, Sanford, arrived on a lonely Christmas Eve last year. Tiller, who lives in Cape Coral, hadn't even bothered to decorate. "Sometimes it was kind of sad here, and he makes all the difference, you know?" Like Monkiewicz and Dillman, Tiller divorced his wife after struggling with PTSD for years. And then he was on his own, reluctant to leave the house, not eager to socialize. He hired someone to buy his groceries for him because being out in public for too long made him anxious. And on top of it all, a motorcycle accident in 1996 forced him to use crutches and an electric scooter to get around. But with Sanford, things are different. "I take him around a couple blocks here in the neighborhood three times a day," Tiller said. " He trots to keep up with me on the scooter. I can tell when he's feeling good because he kind of pulls me and he kind of runs behind when he's tired." Sanford helps around the house too, picking up crutches if Tiller drops them and retrieving his reading glasses from across the room. He's there for the quiet moments, too. "He'll realize there's nothing going on," Tiller said. "And he'll come nudge my hand to get me to pet him and I'll pet him and it's all OK." --- Any time Dillman stopped petting Hope, she used the power of puppy dog eyes on him. A group of PAWS volunteers whispered their adorations as they watched the pair bond. "They want nothing to do with us anymore," O'Neill said, as she watched. "They know that's their person." But before Hope belonged to Dillman, a volunteer oversaw her training. Jan Napolitano trained with Hope daily, and took her home some nights. Hope bonded with Napolitano's cat Jake, and learned how to be comfortable out in public. Napolitano admits it will break her heart to watch Hope go after two years of companionship. "It's easier because there's such a strong bond and connection here," she said, looking at Dillman. Dillman, a firefighter and paramedic for 22 years, has since retired. If he's not at home or with family, he's usually on his motorcycle, hanging out with a group of veterans who ride together. Dillman hopes to have a custom paint job on his bike finished for the group's annual trip to Washington, D.C. around Memorial Day. He's having the War Horse painted red, white and blue with airbrushed photos of himself in uniform. And maybe somewhere down the line, he'll ride with Hope in a sidecar. "She just makes me feel better," he said. Candidate Georgia Hiller speaks against Clerk of Courts Dwight Brock, at rear. The Caxambas Republican Club hosted a Candidate Challenge Wednesday evening at the United Church, bringing together six contenders for three county and state government positions. Lance Shearer/Eagle Correspondent SHARE From left, District 4 candidates Erick Carter and Lee Dixon and District 2 candidates Stephanie Lucarelli and Louise Penta spar at the Collier County Public Library Headquarters on Wednesday, June 15, 2016. (Alexi Cardona/Staff) By Alexandra Glorioso, alexandra.glorioso@naplesnews.com; A new political committee entered Collier County's school board race in June, raising $35,500, while Collier Commissioner Georgia Hiller continues to lead local candidates in fundraising for her county clerk campaign, according to disclosure reports filed Friday. In state legislative races, Rep. Kathleen Passidomo is closing the fundraising gap with opponent Rep. Matt Hudson in their race for Sen. Garrett Richter's newly redrawn District 28 seat, which covers Collier, Hendry and Part of Lee County. The new PAC involved in Collier's school board race, Preserve Our Public Schools, was created to support school board candidates Erick Carter and Stephanie Lucarelli, according to the PAC's campaign finance reports. The PAC reported no expenditures in June. The use of a PAC in the local school board race is not typical, with PACs more commonly used in state level campaigns, said Dave Carpenter of the Collier County Supervisor of Elections office. The fundraising underscores the high interest in the school board race, he said. "Everybody feels this race is very important. It's drawing a lot of interest outside the county and I think we'll see it in the funding," Carpenter said. The PAC's three founding members, Sheilah Crowley, Karen Clegg and Florence C. Chandler, each report Naples addresses on the PAC's filing. Efforts to reach them Friday failed. Crowley, 73, and a member of the League of Women Voters, contributed $20,000 to the PAC and reported $2,500 in-kind contribution through legal services she paid for, disclosure reports show. She is the PAC's chairman. Clegg, 67 and a lawyer, contributed $10,000. She serves as the PACs treasurer. The PAC received $3,000 from Collier Tiger, a teacher union PAC created by the Collier County Education Association. Collier Tiger gave $1,000 each to Lucarelli and Carter in April. Stephen Clegg, who lists the same address in his donation as Karen Clegg on the Preserve Our Public Schools' filing, gave $500 to Lucarelli in May. Hiller remains the biggest fundraiser for local races. Hiller, who is challenging Clerk Dwight Brock in the Republican primary, has raised $83,950 in total and $10,250 in June. Brock has raised $50,115 total and $6,475 in June. Burt Saunders, R-Naples, has raised the second most at $72,226 with $8,450 coming in during June. Saunders is one of three candidates in the Commissioner District 3 primary, including part of Golden Gate Estates and north to Bonita Beach Road. The other candidates for this race are Ron Kezeske, R-Naples and Russell Tuff, R-Naples. Tuff raised $24,045 and Kezeske raised $10,840, disclosure reports show. Louise Penta from School Board District 2 has raised the third most amount of money in local races, bringing in $61,566 in total and $5,615 in June, according to her report. Lucarelli is the other District 2 candidate and she's raised $32,769 total and $8,485 in June. In School Board District 4, Carter is outpacing his opponent, Lee Dixon. Carter brought in $28,408 in total and $7,002 in June, whereas Dixon has raised $21,176 total and $2,670 in June, disclosure reports show. County commissioner races have more candidates and less money. There are two other districts for these races: District 2, which spans from Pine Ridge Road in Naples to Bonita Beach Road in Lee County, and District 5, which runs along Collier Blvd and stretches east across I-75. District 2 candidates include James Calamari, R-Naples; James Carter, R-Naples; and Andy Solis, R-Naples. Carter has raised the most with $7,320 total, then Solis with $7,000 and Calamari with $5,285. The District 5 candidates are Randolph Cash, R-Naples; William McDaniel, R-Naples; and Douglas Rankin, R-Naples. From this group, McDaniel has raised the most, bringing in $27,960 in total. Over all, Cash has raised $11,250 and Rankin has raised $7,225. In the state Senate race, where PACs are common, Passidomo, R-Naples, and Matt Hudson, R-Naples, are competing for top fundraising positions depending on how one looks at their contribution records. If going strictly by campaign contributions, Passidomo is now leading, with $502,557 to date and $60,629 in June. Including money from the PAC supporting her, Working Together for Florida, she has $731,057 to promote her campaign. Hudson, on the other hand, has raised slightly less for his campaign, $471,777 total and $14,235 in June. Including money from the PAC supporting him, Making the Right Call for Florida, he has more money at his disposal: $1.3 million. The other state races include House races for District 106, which is Passidomo's former seat and runs from Naples to Marco Island, and District 80, which is Hudson's former seat and spans Collier and Hendry Counties. Byron Donalds, R-Naples and Joe Davidow, R-Naples are competing for Hudson's seat. Davidow's June reports aren't in yet but he's lagging behind Donalds with $42,222 raised so far compared to Donalds' $112,420. Lavigne Kirkpatrick, R-Naples and Bob Rommel, R-Naples are campaigning for Passidomo's seat. Rommel is leading the way with $124,958 total. To date, Kirkpatrick has raised $19,809. Wakulla County first responders work on the scene of an accident on Saturday, July 2, 2016 in Wakulla, Fla. The Florida Highway Patrol says a bus and tractor trailer collided on a highway in the Panhandle. Florida Highway Patrol Capt. Jeffrey Bissainthe says the bus was carrying between 30 and 35 passengers and was from Georgia. (Joe Rondone /Tallahassee Democrat via AP) SHARE Wakulla County first responders work on the scene of an accident on Saturday, July 2, 2016 in Wakulla, Fla. The Florida Highway Patrol says a bus and tractor trailer collided on a highway in the Panhandle. Florida Highway Patrol Capt. Jeffrey Bissainthe says the bus was carrying between 30 and 35 passengers and was from Georgia. (Joe Rondone /Tallahassee Democrat via AP) Wakulla County first responders work on the scene of an accident on Saturday, July 2, 2016 in Wakulla, Fla. The Florida Highway Patrol says a bus and tractor trailer collided on a highway in the Panhandle. Florida Highway Patrol Capt. Jeffrey Bissainthe says the bus was carrying between 30 and 35 passengers and was from Georgia. (Joe Rondone /Tallahassee Democrat via AP) By Karl Etters, USA TODAY NETWORK, Tallahassee Democrat Charred rubble, personal effects and bloody medical gear littered the side of Coastal Highway 98 in Wakulla after five people, including one child, died in an early-morning crash Saturday. The fire-gutted frame was all that remained of a refurbished school bus, carrying as many as 35 Haitian migrant workers and their families. The semi-truck that the bus hit was equally destroyed. The truck disintegrated on impact after the bus blew through the blinking red light that leads south to the city of St. Marks. Its engine block and shredded front tires still sat on the side of the road in a puddle of muddy water as emergency officials tried to piece together what happened. Small trinkets, coolers once packed with food and drinks, pillows and a watermelon lay in the grass near the burning bus. On a sign post nearby was a smudged, bloody palm print. Florida Highway Patrol investigators say the southbound bus did not stop for the light, hit the truck that was heading west, and then slammed into a power pole around 5 a.m. Skid marks just feet from the intersection indicate the semi-truck may have only braked seconds before impact. Live electrical wires were knocked to the ground as fire began to engulf both vehicles, making it hard for emergency responders to access the passengers or start spraying water to extinguish the flames. Arriving Wakulla County Sheriffs deputies pulled two deceased people from the bus as the wires arced and continued to pull injured passengers from the burning vehicle. FHP identified 56-year-old Elie Dupiche of Belle Glade as the driver of the 1979 Blue Bird bus. Gordon A. Sheets, a 55-year-old from Copiague, New York, was the driver of the 2005 Freightliner semi truck. Sheets had one passenger, 21-year-old Rafael Nieves of Sound Beach, New York. Dupiche is currently in critical condition at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare. Sheets died as a result of his injuries. Nieves was left uninjured. Wakulla Sheriff Charlie Creel said four of the dead died on the scene and the other died at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare. TMH spokesman Warren Jones said 18 people were taken to the hospital. Twelve were taken to the Bixler Emergency and Trauma Center on the hospital's main grounds at Magnolia Drive and Miccosukee Road. He said the patients taken there are the most seriously injured. Four other patients were taken to TMH's Emergency Center Northeast. By Saturday evening, 12 patients remained three in critical condition, three in serious condition and six in fair condition and were being held overnight. Jones said the hospital is working with the American Red Cross to align patients with their families. A Red Cross welcome center for the injured was set up in Tallahassee. The Haitian migrant farm workers from , were headed south to Belle Glade for a few weeks of work before returning north. The bus left around 4 a.m., said Saintervil Amilcar, who rushed to the small coastal community from Bainbridge when he heard of the crash. His aunt was on the bus, but Saturday morning he was unsure whether she had died or not. Some people said my auntie died. I dont know, he said as smoke continued to pour from the repainted school bus and firefighters battled the remaining small blazes. Amilcar is a farm worker who said another bus was supposed to accompany the one involved in the crash. He said they may have been lost but earlier had a bad feeling about the route they were taking. I told them dont go through Tallahassee, Amilcar said as he paced near the wreckage. If you go there youre going to have problems. But they didnt listen and I dont know if theyre lost but look at what happened. God talked to me. Creel, who worked as an FHP trooper for years, said the crash was one of the worst hed seen in his career and certainly the worst in Wakulla County. He praised the quick action of first responders a dozen different agencies and organizations assisted who saved lives with their expedient work. If not for them and the troopers and firefighters, we would have more fatalities than we had, Creel said not far from a WCSO mobile command post. Wakulla County Sheriffs deputies are heroes. Ive never seen anything of this magnitude in Wakulla County. Wakulla operates four ambulances, each able to carry one patient on a stretcher. Leon County EMS helped rush passengers to the Tallahassee hospitals, and one person was airlifted from the scene. There are rumble strips leading up to the flashing light, which has a red signal for motorists heading north and south and a yellow signal for those traveling east and west. The manager of the Exxon gas station at the intersection said she has seen several car wrecks there and just as many people run the red light in her 10 years there. She, too, said this was the worst wreck at the intersection she had seen. A morning attendant ran out to help but stopped because of the fire and live wires. The station closed for the day. The crash cut the coastal town of St. Marks off during the busy Fourth of July weekend. Traffic heading east and west on Highway 98 was diverted around the Woodville Highway intersection. There was no open route to the coast to the south. FHP Capt. Jeffrey Bissainthe said several people fled the scene of the crash and have not been located. Traffic homicide investigators remained on the scene throughout the day taking measurements and reviewing video footage from a bank and Exxon gas station at the intersection. Although he said the bus running the light caused the collision, it was still unclear what led to the bus missing the blinking red signal. Were not sure what caused this traffic crash, Bissainthe said. But you need to keep your hands on the wheel, eyes on the road and your mind on driving, so dont drive distracted and pay attention, especially during this holiday weekend. Whenever you have a fatality, especially involving a child, its bad. The amount of people thats involved in this crash, its very bad. To contact the Red Cross in Tallahassee to check on family members call (850) 878-6080. Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter. FILE - In this Sept. 14, 2009, file photo, women are concealed from view by Planned Parenthood volunteers as they enter the Planned Parenthood of Collier County in Naples, Fla. (David Albers/Staff) SHARE By Arek Sarkissian of the Naples Daily News TALLAHASSEE A federal judge temporarily blocked key parts of a state abortion law that strips money from Planned Parenthood clinics across Florida, drawing outrage from Republican state lawmakers on Friday who believe the move was unconstitutional. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle issued a preliminary injunction late Thursday on parts of a law that would have taken effect only hours later. Planned Parenthood clinics across Florida had filed a challenge of the law passed earlier this year by the Legislature claiming three of its provisions were unconstitutional. "The state's only beef is that the plaintiffs provide abortions," Hinkle wrote in the injunction. The state senator who sponsored the law said Hinkle violated the constitutional rights of the Legislature to oversee the spending of public money. Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, said Hinkle's injunction also trumped the responsibilities of regulating industry. "Under our Constitution, it is the people's elected representatives, not appointed federal judges, who are tasked with making decisions about what entities should be receiving limited taxpayer dollars," Stargel wrote in a statement. "The people of Florida have consistently elected legislative and executive leaders who oppose the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortion and today's ruling is yet another example of the pro-abortion rights movement using the courtroom to fight battles it cannot win at the ballot box." Hinkle said an attorney for Planned Parenthood Federation of America provided enough proof during a Wednesday hearing to consider the possibility that the clinics were unfairly targeted by state lawmakers. The judge's ruling on the temporary injunction requires less proof than what is required at trial on the merits of the case. The law, which was signed by Gov. Rick Scott on March 25, eliminates access to federal funding for health care services such as birth control, screening for cancer and education on sexually transmitted diseases. It also requires the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration to inspect 50 percent of files generated by patients who underwent abortions. Another provision changed the time frame the state uses to define the first trimester of a pregnancy. "The defunding provision goes further and refuses to fund services that are wholly unrelated to abortions," Hinkle wrote. The law threatens to close a clinic in Immokalee run by Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, the organization has said. The organization's president, of Barbara A. Zdravecky, said the Legislature should stay out of decisions women make for good health. "Women don't turn to politicians for advice about mammograms, prenatal care, or cancer treatments," Zdravecky said. "Politicians should not be involved in a woman's personal medical decisions about her pregnancy." State House Health and Human Services Committee Chair Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, said Hinkle's injunction was more proof of judges writing laws over lawmakers. He also said the Florida Department of Health could still arguably end contracts with Planned Parenthood if the state agency can perform the services at a cheaper price. "There's nothing in the constitution that says the Department of Health can't take back money if it can perform the service at a cheaper price," said Brodeur, who was the House sponsor for the bill. Brodeur said other parts of the bill, including the requirement for hospital privileges, took effect Friday. A provision in the law still requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital that is within "reasonable proximity" to the abortion clinic. Planned Parenthood has asked the Legislature to repeal the law during next year's legislative session. The request is part of a national campaign by Planned Parenthood that is also targeting seven other states, which was bolstered by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Monday that overturned parts of a 2013 Texas abortion law. The ruling found unconstitutional a provision requiring a Texas abortion doctor to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of an abortion clinic. Laura Goodhue, executive director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, said the high court ruling endorsed the interests of women across the country who want access to abortion. "The U.S. Supreme Court made clear that politicians cannot pass laws to block access to safe and legal abortion," Goodhue said. "A woman's ability to access abortion must be a right not just in theory, but in reality." SHARE Beth Povlow, Marco Island Upcoming forums Thank you to all who attended our June 15 School Board candidate forum at the Collier Library Headquarters in Naples. In our continuing belief and desire that voters should be well-informed, the Coalition for Quality Public Education will be hosting two more forums for different geographic areas in Collier County. Marco Island on Tuesday, July 12, at 6 p.m. at the Jewish Congregation of Marco Island, 991 Winterberry Drive. Golden Gate on Monday, July 25, at 7 p.m. at the Golden Gate Community Center, 4701 Golden Gate Parkway. Popular morning radio host David Elliott will be our moderator for a 90-minute question-and-answer format. Some of the issues are: federal funding, local control vs. staying with state of Florida regulations, censorship, technology. Please join us! By Sybille de La Hamaide and Leigh Thomas PARIS (Reuters) - Former French Socialist Prime Minister Michel Rocard, who two years ago urged Britons to leave the European Union before they destroyed it, died on Saturday at the age of 85, nine days after Britain voted to follow his advice. Rocard, a Socialist who served as prime minister under President Francois Mitterrand from 1988 to 1991, became an ardent European federalist, spending 15 years in the European Parliament until he resigned in 2009. In 2014 he wrote a bitter criticism of Britain's role in the EU bloc - an article that resonates strongly after Britons voted 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the EU in a referendum on June 23. "Get out of Europe before you wreck it," Rocard wrote then in the headline of an opinion piece published by Britain's Guardian newspaper and France's Le Monde. "You do not like Europe," he told Britons, blaming them for Europe's failures and accusing them of selfishness and an obsession with trade over the project for political unity. "You never shared the true meaning of the project... always putting the national interest first - you reintroduced these ideas and made them contagious," he wrote. "A great figure of the Republic and the Left has just disappeared," President Francois Hollande said in a statement. Among Rocard's achievements were the creation of a minimum welfare benefit in France and reform of the financing of the welfare system. SHADOW OF MITTERRAND He lived a political life in the shadow of Mitterrand, the Socialist President of France from 1981 to 1995, but nevertheless helped lead France's Marxist-rooted Socialists toward market-friendly social democracy. Admired on the Left and the Right as one of the brightest politicians of his generation, Rocard was co-founder in 1960 of the Unified Socialist Party (PSU), a leftist group that played a role in the May 1968 student-worker uprising. He ran for president in 1969 but won just 3.6 percent of the vote. After that he gradually moved to the centre-left in the 1970s and joined the Socialist party in 1974 after Mitterrand reunited it. But he later fell out with his mentor, and their enmity dogged his long career. Mitterrand fired the popular premier after the Gulf War and kept a lid on his career after that. In later life, Rocard was a staunch supporter of Hollande who is struggling with record low poll ratings and a deeply divided party. "Francois Hollande has never run away from intelligent people who could overshadow him. That's the difference. That's the way to be governed," he told Reuters in an interview in February this year. (Additional reporting by Paul Taylor and Yves Clarisse; Writing by Andrew Callus; Editing by Richard Balmforth) Further studies being planned Red wine also has memory benefits (NaturalNews) If you were looking for an excuse to drink more champagne, we have some good news for you. Now you don't have to wait for New Year's Eve or your anniversary to break out the bubbly, as a study from a respected university shows that drinking champagne can help to prevent Alzheimer's disease and dementia Sign up now for the FREE online Alzheimer's and Dementia Summit .)The study was carried out at Reading University, where researchers discovered that a compound found in the grapes used to make champagne, such as Pinot noir and Pinot meunier, can prevent the onset of Alzheimer's and dementia The scientists believe that the spatial memory improvements noted after consuming champagne are brought about by smaller phenolic acids in the beverage such as gallic acid, tyrosol, caffeic acid, caftaric acid and protocatechuic acid.In the study, 24 rats were divided into three groups. Eight of the rats were given champagne, eight received a different bubbly alcoholic drink, and the remaining eight were given a carbonated soft drink in their feed. Over the course of six weeks, the researchers kept track of the rats' ability to work their way through a maze to find a treat. It turned out that the champagne drinkers performed significantly better on this task.When their brains were examined with a microscope, the champagne drinkers had higher amounts of the proteins that stimulate nerve-cell network formation involved in learning and memory. They had heightened amounts of dystrophin in the hippocampus regions of their brains, which is believed to protect against the loss of spatial memory and reasoning. Many of these compounds become depleted as people age, which decreases the efficiency of memory storage and leads to poorer memory.University of Reading Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences Professor Jeremy Spencer said: "These exciting results illustrate for the first time that the moderate consumption of champagne has the potential to influence cognitive functioning, such as memory."It might be tempting to discard these results because the study was carried out on rats and not humans, but it's important to keep in mind that lab rats are often used as models for human disease, so it's reasonable to believe a similar effect could be noted in humans. The researchers are hoping to carry out a similar study on humans in the future.Previous studies from the same university found that drinking two glasses of champagne per day could help your heart and circulation, and even decrease the risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease.Another recent study showed that the resveratrol in red wine can help prevent age-related memory declines. The study, which comes out of the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, points to the positive effects of red wine's resveratrol on the hippocampus.While no one in their right mind would advocate drinking excessive amounts of alcohol just for the health benefits, these studies do show that moderate consumption can affect your health in some very positive ways. If you want the benefits, but you're not a drinker, you can also get phenolic acid from organic fruits such as berries, apples, mangoes and citrus fruits.Drinking champagne is also often a part of celebration and relaxation for many people, and the benefits of enjoying life and destressing are also tremendous. Whether you're clinking glasses with a hall full of guests at a wedding while reminiscing over good times gone by, or pouring yourself a glass of bubbly to drink in the bathtub while your essential oil diffuser fills the room with the relaxing scent of lavender, now you can enjoy a glass of champagne without the guilt, and know that you just could be helping your brain! Particle pollution increases risk of early death The lung cancer link Protect your family (NaturalNews) As a kid, how many times did your parents tell you to go play outside and get some fresh air? Or maybe that's exactly what you said to your kids yesterday. While keeping them indoors in front of TV screens will definitely not improve their health and well-being, depending on where you live, exposing them to 'fresh' air could also harm them and you, for that matter.With a rapidly developing world, more toxic particles coming from wood stoves, vehicle exhausts, coal power plants, and other industrial sources, are expelled into the air we breathe.According to new research presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, more than 5.5 million people die prematurely every year as a result of household and outdoor air pollution. Most of the deaths occur in the rapidly developing economies of China and India.Particle pollution is associated with an increased risk of lung cancer, heart disease, asthma attacks and premature death. Given that everybody is exposed to some air pollution, and the number of deaths it causes, densely populated cities and countries are facing a huge challenge to protect their citizens."Air pollution is the fourth highest risk factor for death globally and by far the leading environmental risk factor for disease," said Michael Brauer, a professor at the University of British Columbia's School of Population and Public Health in Vancouver, Canada. "Reducing air pollution is an incredibly efficient way to improve the health of a population."In 2013, the World Health Organization's (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) brought together a panel of experts to review the link between outdoor air pollution and cancer. They concluded that there was enough evidence to say that solid dust-like particles, or particulate matter, with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) or less, in outdoor air can cause cancer "Classifying outdoor air pollution as carcinogenic to humans is an important step," said IARC Director Christopher Wild, Ph.D. "Given the scale of the exposure, it sends a strong signal that it is vital to implement efficient policies to reduce exposure to pollution worldwide."While smoking remains the number one risk factor for lung cancer , the growing air pollution is taking its toll too. Even though air pollution levels in the U.S. are well below those of China and India (thanks to the steps taken under the Clean Air Act), lower levels of small particle pollution have also been linked to lung cancer in the U.S."We know that fine particles can enter deep into the lungs and are linked to lung cancer, and even more research needs to be done on the precise way that these particles start the cancerous process within the lungs," said Norman Edelman, MD, senior scientific advisor to the American Lung Association."Anyone who lives where particle pollution levels are high is at risk. Some people face higher risk, including children, the elderly, people with lung and heart disease and diabetes, people with low incomes, and people who work or exercise outdoors," he added.While it is impossible for all of us to move to the countryside where the air quality tends to be better, there are a few things you can do to protect your family.Keep a close eye on the daily air quality index forecast, and limit outdoor activities as much as possible when levels are exceeding these limits. Avoid outdoor activities and exercising along heavily used streets and highways.Furthermore, you can take actions as an individual to reduce particle emission into the air. Use a bike instead of the car (if possible), do not burn wood or trash, and don't keep the engine of your vehicle running when you're not driving. You can also join the Lung Action Network to call on the members of Congress to protect the Clean Air Act. A Serbian policeman stands guards outside a cafe where a gunman killed five people in the northern village of Zitiste, on July 2, 2016 (AFP Photo/Alexa Stankovic) Belgrade (AFP) - A man shot dead five people, including his wife, and injured another 20 in a cafe in northern Serbia early Saturday, police said, with jealousy the suspected motive. The man "entered the cafe and opened fire with an automatic rifle, killing his wife and another woman, then he continued to shoot at other citizens in the cafe," a police statement said. It was the third mass shooting in recent years in Serbia, which has tried to shrink the large number of illegal weapons in circulation since the 1990s Balkan wars. "It was horrible. Some people were screaming and there was blood everywhere," cafe owner Ljubomir Milinovic told state-run news agency Tanjug. N1 television station quoted Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic as saying that the weapon was illegal and jealousy was believed to be the motive. The latest incident happened at about 1:40 am (2340 GMT Friday) in the town of Zitiste, around 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Belgrade. Police arrested the alleged shooter, born in 1978 and identified only by his initials Z.S., and opened a probe into the killings. Stefanovic said the attacker tried to flee the scene but was foiled by police. - Unlawful weapons - "We are all shocked that something like this could happen, since this was a very quiet man who had no police record," the minister said, according to Tanjug. N1 channel reported that the attacker argued with his wife in the cafe, left the building and returned with a Kalashnikov-type rifle. Two people were killed instantly in the shooting and three others died in hospital in the nearby city of Zrenjanin, according to N1. The other injured victims, some of them severely, were taken to various Serbian hospitals but were not in critical condition, reports said. Police have previously said there could be up to a million unregistered weapons in Serbia, including guns and grenades, left over from the 1990s conflicts. This latest shooting spree came a day after the interior ministry launched a new amnesty to encourage owners of illegal weapons to hand them in to their local police stations. Story continues A similar drive last year netted about 4,000 weapons. A stricter gun control law came into effect in March in Serbia, which is home to about seven million people. In another shooting spree last year, a 55-year-old man opened fire in a northern town in an apparent drunken rage over his son's wedding, killing six people including the bride and her parents. In 2013, a 60-year-old Serbian war veteran shot dead 13 people in the country's worst massacre in two decades as he rampaged through his tiny village about 50 kilometres south of Belgrade. The dead included his son and his mother as he went house-to-house, mainly shooting people as they slept peacefully. Individual shooting incidents are reported almost daily in Serbia, with domestic violence a common theme. After Saturday's attack, the government body for gender equality called for tougher gun control to prevent another incident where "in a burst of anger, someone decides to use an automatic rifle to kill his wife and her friends". 'CNN is apparently unaware...' Misdirection and lies about vaccines, Obamacare and more (NaturalNews) The mainstream media, as it is called , is becoming less and less trustworthy, as evidenced by its declining readership and viewership. One of the worst offenders of biased, politically lopsided and factually incorrect coverage isWhen reporting on everything from likely GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump, to GMOs and vaccines is wrong early and often.In a recent "fact check" segment of a Trump speech attacking his likely Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, host Tom Foreman tried to debunk several claims Trump had made, but purposely distorted what he had said, took things out of context and was just incorrect about other things.For example, asreported:Like him or hate him, there is nothing that Trump said that wasn't factually true. The Obama administration's own FBI director, James Comey, for instance, has said that there is no way to vet these people because the Syrian government and civil society is all but gone. The country is a mess, and very little of its normal governmental apparatuses are functioning not that Syria was an ally of the U.S. in the first place.Also, as for his statement that Clinton would admit hundreds of thousands of refugees from the world's terrorist hotspots, that, too, is correct. But Foreman attempted to claim that Trump meant Clinton would import themfrom, which iswhat he said. AsIn addition, like much of the rest of the corporate media, CNN plays the role of vaccine shill. In a September report published online, the network laid out "five myths" that it said were perpetuated during a just-aired Republican presidential debate:Vaccines cause autism: Apparently no one at CNN is aware that CDC scientist and whistleblower Dr. William Thompson has confessed that they do and his agency covered it up Vaccines "contain poisons" like mercury: They do, and testing has confirmed it Vaccines are big profit-makers for Big Pharma: Well, of course they are!And so on. ...It's the same tired thing we hear from the rest of the corporate media all of which rely, in part, on Big Pharma and Big Medicine for revenue.As for Obamacare, CNN has been a cheerleader all along. In August, CNN/Money published a short piece on the law which generally promoted it again while downplaying the very real costs involved in the form of dramatically increasing premiums and the loss of access for millions of Americans, both of which were things Obama promised wouldhappen.What's more, the law is dramatically over-budget, pushing up costs to taxpayers and raising the already sky-high national debt.No, when it comes to being a purveyor of truth, CNN fails miserably. If the network wasn't being played in most airports around the country, it might not have any viewers at all. Suspects in the viral "moose riding" video have been finally charged after a year. On a Facebook post, Conservation Officer Service revealed that their investigation showed that the two males from Fort St. John in British Columbia, Canada, have been charged with three offences under The Wildlife Act: harassing wildlife with the use of a boat, attempting to capture wildlife and hunting big game that is swimming. News Vancouver reported that the suspects are Bradley Crook and Jaysun Pinkerton. The two makes were tracked down after the body of water in the video was identified as Tuchodi Lake, approximately 120 kilometers southwest of Fort Nelson. On June 2015, a shirtless man wearing striped shorts was filmed riding on the back of a moose. The video showed the moose helplessly wading in the water as a man on a boat driven by another individual made their way closer to the animal. Several people can be heard laughing from the boat. The video which was posted on Youtube by Wolfcracker T received flak and was criticized by animal activists. Winnipeg Free Press said the two are set to make their first court appearance on August 8 in Fort Nelson. The largest members of the deer family, moose are considered as one of Canada's most treasured symbols. Because they are naturally tall and big, they feed on branches and twigs. Their primary predators are bears and wolves. According to National Wildlife Federation, a moose's typical lifespan is 10 to 12 years, but they can live more than 20 years in the wild. They usually inhabit forested areas with cold climate. Moose also enjoy streams and ponds, as they are great swimmers. National Geographic noted that they can stay completely under for the water for 30 seconds or more. Hunting and habitat degradation are major threats to moose, but the increase in temperature due to global warming is now affecting their population, most specifically those in Minnesota. Climate change is reportedly changing male reptiles into females, and this may lead to an all-male reptile population--and eventually extinction. Last year, it was reported by several media outlets that Central bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps) are undergoing instant sex reversal because of the unusual high temperature that they are experiencing within their habitat. According to the study published in the journal Nature, the Australian species demonstrated transitioning from genotypic to temperature-dependent sex determination. After studying 131 wild-caught bearded dragons in Queensland province, the researchers found that 11 of them were female who are able to produce offspring but had the ZZ chromosomes of a genetic male. "Most mechanistic models of transitions invoke a role for sex reversal. Sex reversal has not yet been demonstrated in nature for any amniote, although it occurs in fish and rarely in amphibians," the study said. Some reptiles use temperature as means to determine sex. Daily Mail said Central bearded dragons had their gender based on chromosomes, until the recent study found out otherwise. As explained by ABC News, male bearded dragons usually have two Z chromosomes and females usually have a Z and a W chromosome. At lower temperatures, the female determines the sex of her offspring by passing on either a Z or a W chromosome. In addition to switching sex, the study also found out that the sex-reversed females were able to give birth and are actually more fertile than those who came out as normal females . The findings can lead to having an all-male reptile population, thus threatening the number of the species. "They're throwing away the equivalent of the Y, which we call the W, chromosome," co-author Arthur Georges, chief scientist for the Institute for Applied Ecology at the University of Canberra told The Associated Press. "If the climate warms not much more at all, the percentage of sex reversal will increase and the W chromosome will be lost from the population," he added. The San Francisco Fire Departments Training Academy is under fire from ex-recruits who say they were subjected to everything from hazing to outright racist abuse at the hands of instructors there, NBC Bay Area has learned. Last month, 48 recruits managed to complete a 20-week course at the fire departments training division, realizing their dream to join the ranks of the fire department. But for others, the training experience was a nightmare. Aziz Aineb of San Francisco became emotional as he recounted his experience there in 2014. "It makes me feel awful," he told NBC Bay Area. "Its like they label you with one brush." The Moroccan immigrant wanted to follow his brothers footsteps into the department. Two years ago, he was doing well, until he had trouble with a ladder thats when an instructor blurted out something that left Aineb stunned. "It slipped a little bit it and it made a thump, Aineb said of the ladder. "He looked at me and said: Dont treat my ladder like you treat your wife." Days later, the same instructor, Aineb says, ridiculed his Muslim faith during a routine drill. "When I started going I was facing the wrong direction and he yelled at me and said, 'What the f---? Are you facing Mecca?'" Assistant Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Columbini, who took over as chief of the departments Division of Training earlier this year, said he had not heard of Ainebs allegations. "Would I allow that type of comment?" Columbini said. "Absolutely not." Columbini says he had some concerns about the program when he took over. He said he and Chief Joanne Hayes-White agreed that the best way to deal with them was to bring in the state Fire Marshal to certify the departments training effort. In May, the department won that certification. Instructors now must sign a code of ethics that requires them to "support diversity" and bars them from hazing recruits. Columbini said the goal is to "be professional, treat people fairly. Treat everybody the same, like they would want to be treated." But another firefighter says he has the scars to show the abuse he suffered. Brian Sullivan says he was forced to drop out of the program in 2015 when he developed a severe heat rash and an abscess on his leg. He said he began to suffer after being forced to drill for hours in heavy canvas "turnouts." "It was like a really bad movie. it's like being in a prison camp," Sullivan said. The head of the citys Black Firefighters Union, Kevin Smith, says three dozen current and former recruits have come to him with their complaints over the last decade. It is because of "harassment-type behavior," he said, that has earned the academy program as the "division of terror instead of division of training." The abuse going on at The Tower, as it is called, is unacceptable, Smith says. "People have been yelled at, called names, they've been called words I would take offense to If I were called them, he said. "There's a level of abuse thats out of character with how we respond to people, especially adults that come into the fire department." Since NBC Bay Area began investigating the allegations, at least one instructor has been removed from the academy. Meanwhile, Aineb and four other former recruits are fighting back in court. One ex-recruit says, in a 2014 lawsuit claiming discrimination, that he was forced to go through drills even after he got doctor notes saying he should be put on light duty after throat surgery. Another said he was docked for having poor grooming despite having told the department of his painful skin condition triggered by close shaving. But that lawsuit is not the first time the academy has been taken to court. Firefighter Larry Jacobs managed to finish the program after getting injured during training. While he was injured, he alleged in his lawsuit, his instructors called him a "house boy" and made him scrub toilets and kitchen floors with a toothbrush. He says the academy also ordered him to eat apart from other recruits. The city agreed to pay Jacobs $175,000 to settle his suit in 2014. Jacobs lawyer, Murlene Randle, has also taken up the cause of the five ex-recruits who are now suing the department. She says the only way to stop such hazing and abuse is for insiders to stand up. "If not for those brave souls -- some were white some were not -- who came forward and said this happened, nobody would have believed it," she said of those who backed up Jacobs lawsuit. "They would have thought he was insane." For his part, Aineb says he believes he was targeted for abuse because his brother spoke up for Jacobs in his lawsuit. "The people at the department of training they can pick who they want to be working or not," he says. "You go through so much test and it comes to them and they decided your career basically." Chief Joanne Hayes-White referred questions about the program to Columbini. He said he could not discuss what may or may not have occurred before he took charge. But, he says, the rigorous program is designed to ensure the most capable firefighters make it through. "Being a firefighter isnt for everybody," he said. "The Academy can show that at times. I think as a division of training we do an excellent job. Randle says that such abuse, in a city like San Francisco, is inexplicable. "These are the kind of things that are coming out of the San Francisco academy. San Francisco! The home of the free. The diverse city," she said. "The ones who embrace all. The ones who say they don't care who you are. But it seems they do care who you are. "Dont we want a fire department that's represents all of the city? Don't we want a fire department that's sensitive to all the neighborhoods? Why not?" California Gov. Jerry Brown signed six stringent gun-control measures Friday and vetoed five others. The new bills were introduced after 14 people were killed and 22 were injured in a terror attack in San Bernardino in December. Browns move, however, angered Bay Area gun owners, who are already threatening to sue. Joe Costello, who owns a Willow Glen gun store, said he spent the day fielding questions on the phone and in person about the new gun laws. He described the new laws as "bull packy," adding, "It's a joke." Costello said, over the years, new laws have been costing him business. And frankly, he doesnt think theyll make much difference. "My honest reaction, its a political move," said Costello, who has been selling guns since 1956. "It will not help stop terrorism, help stop crime." One of Costello's customers, Mike Herrmann, was OK with the new gun-control laws. "One of these days they're gong to say, 'You gotta give your guns up,'" said Hermann, who is a hunter. "I'm getting old. My kid will have to deal with that, not me." Meanwhile, business was booming at Peninsula gun shops like Jackson Arms and Coyote Point Armory. "I did buy more than I should have," said one shopper, who also doesn't believe the new laws will curb gun violence, but understands the need to tighten rules. "If it helps people sleep at night, fine." In a statement, Brown said his intent was to enhance public safety by tightening existing laws, while at the same time protecting the rights of law abiding gun owners. Brown signed the following six bills: Outlaw assault rifles with a feature, known as a bullet button, that circumvents California's assault weapon ban by allowing shooters to use a small tool to quickly change magazines. (SB880 and AB1135) Mandate background checks when a gun is loaned to someone other than a close relative of the owner. (AB1511) Boost penalties for filing false reports of stolen guns, a measure targeting straw purchasers who buy weapons on behalf of people prohibited from doing so. (AB1695) Create regulations for ammunition, including requirements that ammo sellers get a license, purchases be screened and transactions be recorded. (SB1235) Ban possession of magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds, requiring people who already own them to turn them in to authorities. (SB1446) He vetoed five others: Starting Friday, the minimum wage in San Francisco will increase from $12.25 to $13 an hour as part of a series of increases that will see the city's hourly wages climb to $15 by 2018, according to city officials. Mayor Ed Lee celebrated the increase, which comes ahead of the Fourth of July weekend, this morning during a new conference at his office. Calling the today's increase a milestone, Lee said the pay hike would help working families who are struggling in San Francisco. "We know that with our workforce, there's still an affordability gap. A lot of people are working two jobs to support their families. So we must celebrate these moments where we can get together to help them," Lee said. The increase is the second in a set of increases that will see the city's minimum wage rise to $15 by 2018. In May 2015, the city's wage increased from $11.05 to $12.25. "It's an honor to serve the city that supports some of the most aggressive and strongest labor protections in the U.S.," the city's Office of Labor Standards Enforcement Director Pat Mulligan said. "It's also particularly fitting that we're celebrating this announcement of an increase in minimum wage throughout San Francisco as we lead into the Fourth of July Independence Day weekend because for many workers, a modest increase or any increase in their earnings or wage earnings represents a very real and well defined independence of its own," Mulligan said. Carly Liu, a part-time In-Home Support Services domestic caregiver, said in a statement, "I am so happy the minimum wage is going up, so now low-wage workers can buy a little more food for dinner without worrying too much. Although the increase is not huge, it helps improve our quality of life in San Francisco." Also today, the city of Sunnyvale will see a minimum wage increase as well. The wage will increase from $10.30 to $11, according to city officials. The pay hike will also continue for Sunnyvale residents, until the minimum wage reaches $15, on Jan. 1, 2018, city officials said. Voters in San Francisco and Oakland overwhelmingly approved pay hikes during the Nov. 2014 elections. In San Francisco, proposition J won with 78 percent of the vote and in Oakland, Measure FF won with 82 percent. The two initiatives were each originally filed by a coalition of Service Employees International Union members, community-based organizations and other labor unions. At the beginning of the year, Oakland's minimum wage was raised from $12.25 to $12.55. Other Bay Area cities that have also taken measures to raise their hourly minimum wages to $15 by 2018 include Emeryville, Mountain View and Palo Alto. Earlier this year, Lee and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom joined a labor group in submitting voter signatures to the city's Department of Elections for The Fair Wage Act of 2016, a ballot initiative that would have raised the state's minimum wage to $11 in 2017 and with a dollar increase every year until it reaches $15 in 2021. However, in March, Governor Jerry Brown signed a new agreement that will raise the state's minimum wage to $15 for most employees in 2022 and for all employees in 2023. The state's minimum wage hit $10 per hour on Jan. 1. Under the new plan, it will rise to $10.50 next year for businesses with 26 or more employees and continue rising gradually until it reaches $15 per hour on Jan. 1, 2022. A veteran PG&E corrosion engineer told the jury in the federal trial Friday that he was "not terribly" concerned by his 2009 discovery of 33 unexplained leaks on the gas pipeline that later ruptured in San Bruno. Federal prosecutors say the company failed to account for those unexplained leaks when it vouched for Line 132 safe just one year before the Sept. 9, 2010 blast that left eight people dead. In his testimony, 31-year PG&E engineer David Aguiar acknowledged he could find records of only three leaks when he first evaluated the San Bruno line in 2003. But by 2009, his review showed the number had mushroomed to 36 leaks 33 of unknown causes. Aguiar testified that while the type of leaks was important to known to understand the pipelines health, leaks alone would not automatically cause him to rule out using the corrosion only method. In fact, PG&E twice used that method to vouch for the line before the explosion, missing flawed welds that were later blamed for the disaster. Margaret Tough, one of the PG&Es lawyers, asked whether unexplained leaks "concern you?" "Not terribly, no," Aguiar replied. He explained that sometimes even experts cant find tiny "pinhole" leaks during detailed evaluations. "These defects do not represent a rupture concern.The pipeline is telling us, Im going to leak, Im not going to rupture." Prosecutors told the judge they intend to challenge that finding with evidence of prior pin hole leak related pipeline accidents. Earlier, prosecutors pressed Aguiar about one of the small, unexplained leaks on the line that he himself said he reviewed upon learning it was to be inspected only for corrosion. In a repair done in 1988 -- near Crystal Springs Reservoir, south of San Bruno -- the company replaced 12 feet of pipe, Aguiar told prosecutors. It turned out that the repair was done of a faulty seam weld that caused a leak. PG&E has never produced the metallurgical evaluation of the pipe. Prosecutors pointed to the fact that, in 2003, Aguiar wrote a note on a map of the San Bruno line that indicated that the companys pipeline data spreadsheet lacked information about the cause of the leak in 1988. It was listed as one of the "unknown" leaks. Company records that PG&E gave to San Bruno investigators in 2011 indicated that that a defective seam weld was indeed to blame for the leak. Federal regulations preclude using corrosion only methods on gas lines with histories of seam weld failures or leaks. Without knowledge of the cause of the leak, PG&E twice inspected the line for corrosion before the blast. Prosecutors highlighted a 2008 exchange between Aguiar and a supervisor in the integrity management division triggered when Aguiar blamed weld failure for a 2006 leak that sprung just after PG&E used the corrosion method to declare a gas line safe. That supervisor, Bill Manegold, warned Aguiar to "watch" what he wrote as an inspection "process that walks right over active leaks and declares pipes safe is not a process I want to advertise too loudly." Aguiar said no one was "advertising" the method could detect weld flaws. "We are advertising that weve assessed the pipe and it is fit for service," Manegold shot back, adding that the leaks -- like the one found in 2006 on a girth weld "are not minor." A man accused of stabbing a 21-year-old repeatedly in a Santa Rosa theater earlier this week made his first court appearance Friday. Police are also investigating the 23-year-old suspects possible connection to a fatal stabbing, two days prior. Family members of both victims hugged at Sonoma County Superior Court Friday and Delonte Harts appearance in the room sparked a lot of mixed emotions. Hart is accused of stabbing Adam Lucero in the neck and chest while the recent college graduate watched movie at the Roxy Stadium 14 in Santa Rosa on Wednesday. The victims brother, Brandon Lucero, said Adam Lucero moved to the area after landing a job in San Francisco. On Friday, Adam Lucero's family said he has undergone a 6-hour surgery and is said to be in stable condition. Hes just a loving person and an amazing brother, Brandon Lucero said. Police are also investigating if Hart is connected to the murder of Cirak Tesfazgi, a homeless man stabbed 50 times while he slept near the same theater on Monday. Both stabbings were unprovoked and involved a similar knife, they said. Although Adam Lucero is expected to remain in intensive care for another 10 days and make a full recovery, Brandon Lucero said, There's not really a ton of happiness. It's kind of a neutral feeling. It's kind of like, OK, we can relax now. The same can't be said for Tesfazgi. While police look for a possible link, the victims cousin sees similarities between the two attacks. The randomness just makes me feel more confident that there's a connection because like I said, 'Who would want to kill him?' Johanna Hezchias said. Hart's charges include attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. He's due back in court July 8. GoFundMe accounts have been created for both Adam Lucero and Cirak Tesfazgi. As of Friday evening, 235 people have raised $17,585 of a $75,000 goal for Lucero, and 188 people have contributed $7,481 of $20,000, which are to be used for Tesfazgi's funeral expenses. Every year, Americans honor the country's independence on the Fourth of July by celebrating freedom with fireworks, barbecues and beach getaways. July Fourth has only been a federal holiday since 1941, but Americans have celebrated Independence Day since the 18th century. During the summer of 1776 some colonists held parades and fired canons to accompany reading of the newly signed Declaration of Independence. [NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More The following year Philadelphia hosted the first annual independence celebration on July 4. Here's what to know about the national holiday on the 240th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. $6.8 billion: The amount of money predicted to be spent celebrating the July 4 holiday this year, according to the National Retail Federation. $71.34: The average amount of money Americans are expected to spend on food per household, according to the National Retail Federation. 15,000: The numbers of fireworks displays held to celebrate July 4 each year, according to Wallethub. 40: The number of years Macy's has been putting on their fireworks display in New York City. It's the biggest display in the country. This year, the viewers will see fireworks from nine countries and they will change colors 17 times. $311.7 million: The value of fireworks imported from China in 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. 150 million: The approximate number of hot dogs consumed each July 4, according to Wallethub. 69: The record number of hot dogs eaten in 10 minutes at the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island. Joey Chestnut set that world record in 2013. 64: The percentage of Americans who will attend a July 4 barbecue or picnic, according to Wallethub. $3.1 million: The value of U.S. flags exported in 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. [NATL] Highlights From the 2016 Campaign Trail 43 million: The estimated number of Americans who will be traveling this holiday weekend, according to AAA. Most will be driving. $2.29: The average price for a gallon of regular gas this weekend, according to AAA. Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, the Romanian-born Holocaust survivor whose classic "Night" became a landmark testament to the Nazis' crimes and launched Wiesel's long career as one of the world's foremost witnesses and humanitarians, has died at age 87. His death was announced Saturday by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. No other details were immediately available. The short, sad-eyed Wiesel, his face an ongoing reminder of one man's endurance of a shattering past, summed up his mission in 1986 when accepting the Nobel Peace Prize: "Whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." For more than a half-century, he voiced his passionate beliefs to world leaders, celebrities and general audiences in the name of victims of violence and oppression. He wrote more than 40 books, but his most influential by far was "Night," a classic ranked with Anne Frank's diary as standard reading about the Holocaust. "Night" was his first book, and its journey to publication crossed both time and language. It began in the mid-1950s as an 800-page story in Yiddish, was trimmed to under 300 pages for an edition released in Argentina, cut again to under 200 pages for the French market and finally published in the United States, in 1960, at just over 100 pages. "'Night' is the most devastating account of the Holocaust that I have ever read," wrote Ruth Franklin, a literary critic and author of "A Thousand Darknesses," a study of Holocaust literature that was published in 2010. "There are no epiphanies in 'Night. There is no extraneous detail, no analysis, no speculation. There is only a story: Eliezer's account of what happened, spoken in his voice." Wiesel began working on "Night" just a decade after the end of World War II, when memories were too raw for many survivors to even try telling their stories. Frank's diary had been an accidental success, a book discovered after her death, and its entries end before Frank and her family was captured and deported. Wiesel's book was among the first popular accounts written by a witness to the very worst, and it documented what Frank could hardly have imagined. "Night" was so bleak that publishers doubted it would appeal to readers. In a 2002 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Wiesel recalled that the book attracted little notice at first. "The English translation came out in 1960, and the first printing was 3,000 copies. And it took three years to sell them. Now, I get 100 letters a month from children about the book. And there are many, many million copies in print." In one especially haunting passage, Wiesel sums up his feelings upon arrival in Auschwitz: "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. ... Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." "Night" was based directly on his experiences, but structured like a novel, leading to an ongoing debate over how to categorize it. Alfred Kazin was among the critics who expressed early doubts about the book's accuracy, doubts that Wiesel denounced as "a mortal sin in the historical sense." Wiesel's publisher called the book a memoir even as some reviewers called it fiction. An Amazon editorial review labeled the book "technically a novel," albeit so close to Wiesel's life that "it's generally and not inaccurately read as an autobiography." In 2006, a new translation returned "Night" to the best-seller lists after it was selected for Oprah Winfrey's book club. But the choice also revived questions about how to categorize the book. Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, both of which had listed "Night" as fiction, switched it to nonfiction. Wiesel, meanwhile, acknowledged in a new introduction that he had changed the narrator's age from "not quite 15" to Wiesel's real age at the time, 15. "Unfortunately, 'Night' is an imperfect ambassador for the infallibility of the memoir," Franklin wrote, "owing to the fact that it has been treated very often as a novel." Wiesel's prolific stream of speeches, essays and books, including two sequels to "Night" and more than 40 books overall of fiction and nonfiction, emerged from the helplessness of a teenager deported from Hungary, which had annexed his native Romanian town of Sighet, to Auschwitz. Tattooed with the number A-7713, he was freed in 1945 but only after his mother, father and one sister had all died in Nazi camps. Two other sisters survived. After the liberation of Buchenwald, in April 1945, Wiesel spent a few years in a French orphanage, then landed in Paris. He studied literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne, and then became a journalist, writing for the French newspaper L'Arche and Israel's Yediot Ahronot. French author Francois Mauriac, winner of the 1952 Nobel in literature, encouraged Wiesel to break his vowed silence about the concentration camps and start sharing his experiences. In 1956, Wiesel traveled on a journalistic assignment to New York to cover the United Nations. While there, he was struck by a car and confined to a wheelchair for a year. He became a lifetime New Yorker, continuing in journalism writing for the Yiddish-language newspaper, the Forward. His contact with the city's many Holocaust survivors shored up Wiesel's resolve to keep telling their stories. Wiesel became a U.S. citizen in 1963. Six years later, he married Marion Rose, a fellow Holocaust survivor who translated some of his books into English. They had a son, Shlomo. Based in New York, Wiesel commuted to Boston University for almost three decades, teaching philosophy, literature and Judaic studies and giving a popular lecture series in the fall. Wiesel also taught at Yale University and the City University of New York. In 1978, he was chosen by President Carter to head the President's Commission on the Holocaust, and plan an American memorial museum to Holocaust victims. Wiesel wrote in a report to the president that the museum must include denying the Nazis a posthumous victory, honoring the victims' last wishes to tell their stories. He said that although all the victims of the Holocaust were not Jewish, all Jews were victims. Wiesel advocated that the museum emphasize the annihilation of the Jews, while still remembering the others; today the exhibits and archives reflects that. Among his most memorable spoken words came in 1985, when he received a Congressional Gold Medal from President Ronald Reagan and asked the president not to make a planned trip to a cemetery in Germany that contained graves of Adolf Hitler's personal guards. "We have met four or five times, and each time I came away enriched, for I know of your commitment to humanity," Wiesel said, as Reagan looked on. "May I, Mr. President, if it's possible at all, implore you to do something else, to find a way, to find another way, another site. That place, Mr. President, is not your place. Your place is with the victims." Reagan visited the cemetery, in Bitburg, despite international protests. Wiesel also spoke at the dedication of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in 1993. His words are now carved in stone at its entrance: "For the dead and the living, we must bear witness." Wiesel defended Soviet Jews, Nicaragua's Miskito Indians, Cambodian refugees, the Kurds, victims of African famine and victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Wiesel was a longtime supporter of Israel although he was criticized at times for his closeness to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu. When Netanhayu gave a highly controversial address to Congress in 2015, denouncing President Obama's efforts to reach a nuclear treaty with Iran, Wiesel was among the guests of honor. "What were you doing there, Elie Wiesel?" Haaretz columnist Roger Alpher wrote at the time. "Netanyahu is my prime minister. You are not an Israeli citizen. You do not live here. The Iranian threat to destroy Israel does not apply to you. You are a Jew who lives in America. This is not your problem." The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, which he established in 1988, explored the problems of hatred and ethnic conflicts around the world. But like a number of other well-known charities in the Jewish community, the foundation fell victim to Bernard Madoff, the financier who was arrested in late 2008 and accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Wiesel said he ended up losing $15.2 million in foundation funds, plus his and his wife's own personal investments. At a panel discussion in February 2009, Wiesel admitted he bought into the Madoff mystique, "a myth that he created around him that everything was so special, so unique, that it had to be secret." He called Madoff "a crook, a thief, a scoundrel." Despite Wiesel's mission to remind the world of past mistakes, the greatest disappointment of his life was that "nothing changed," he said in an interview. "Human nature remained what it was. Society remained what it was. Too much indifference in the world, to the Other, his pain, and anguish, and hope." But personally, he never gave up as reflected in his novel "The Town Beyond the Wall." Wiesel's Jewish protagonist, Michael, returns to his native town in now-communist Hungary to find out why his neighbors had given him up to the Nazis. Suspected as a Western spy, he lands in prison along with a young man whose insanity has left him catatonic. The protagonist takes on the challenge of "awakening" the youth by any means, from talking to forcing his mouth open a task as wrenching as Wiesel's humanitarian missions. "The day when the boy suddenly began sketching arabesques in the air was one of the happiest of Michael's life. ... Now he talked more, as if wishing to store ideas and values in the boy for his moments of awakening. Michael compared himself to a farmer: months separated the planting from the harvest. For the moment, he was planting." Twenty people, including a U.S. citizen, were killed and 13 others were rescued in an attack by suspected Islamist militants at an upscale cafe in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, NBC News reported. Six of the attackers who stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery late Friday, shouting "Allahu Akbar," were also killed and one was arrested after the hourslong siege, Army Brigadier General Naim Asraf Chowdhury said at a news conference Saturday. Abinta Kabir, a sophomore at Emory University's Oxford, Georgia, campus, died in the attack, the school said in a statement. Kabir, who lived in Miami, was in Dhaka visiting family and friends. The State Department confirmed Saturday that an American citizen was among the dead but did not say whether it was Kabir. A graduate of Emory's Oxford College, Faraaz Hossain, from Dhaka, was also killed. Tarushi Jain, a 19-year-old Indian student attending the University of California, Berkeley, was also among the hostages killed. Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a stopgap budget compromise Thursday that gives the Illinois Lottery the legal authority to continue paying winners. Governor Rauner and the General Assembly are ensuring that the Illinois Lottery can continue its mission of supporting K-12 education, capital projects and select charitable causes throughout Illinois, Illinois Lottery Acting Director Tim McDevitt said in a statement. Profits from the lottery are deposited into the states Common School Fund, which supports the states K-12 education, or the states Capital Projects Fund, which finances road work. According to the Illinois lottery, 6.5 percent of the states K-12 education is funded by lottery revenue. That accounts for roughly $670 million annually. In December of last year, Rauner signed legislation that gave the Illinois lottery the legal authority to pay winners in absence of a budget. That authority expired Thursday, but because the stopgap was approved, all valid claims will continue to be honored. The temporary budget compromise signed by Rauner Thursday will ensure that schools open this fall and state services will continue through the end of the year. Rauner called the plan "an attempt at good faith compromise to set up the possibility for a grand bargain and claimed the state was at its lowest point Thursday. "I believe, and I firmly hope, that right now we've hit the bottom," Rauner said. "This is the low point in the evolution of Illinois and now we begin to move up. Growth, value for taxpayers, better schools and a political system that is responsive and actually making good decisions for the long-term health of the state." An E. coli outbreak at a restaurant in the South Side Bridgeport neighborhood has sickened at least 25 people, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health. Carbon Live Fire Mexican Grill at 300 W. 26th St. has closed voluntarily as part of the CDPHs investigation into the outbreak and is fully cooperating with health officials, according to a statement from the health department. At least 25 Chicago residents have been sickened and at least five have been hospitalized, according to the statement. The health department is continuing to investigate and interview patients to rule out other possible exposures. The restaurant has withdrawn from the Taste of Chicago so that it can turn its full attention to addressing the issues at its Bridgeport location, health department officials said Friday night. The owners have also voluntarily closed their second location at 810 N. Marshfield out of an abundance of caution. E. coli can be transmitted through consumption of contaminated food including undercooked beef, unpasteurized juice, raw milk and unwashed raw produce, according to the health department. One of the leading symptoms caused by Shiga toxin-producing E. coli is diarrhea, including bloody diarrhea. Anyone who recently ate at the restaurant and is suffering from symptoms is recommended to see their medical provider immediately. An Illinois man has been charged with hacking into more than 300 email and iCloud accounts, including several belonging to celebrities, authorities said Friday. Edward Majerczyk, 28, of Chicago, is accused in a phishing scheme that gave him illegal access to hundreds of Gmail and iCloud accounts, including at least 30 accounts that belong to celebrities, according to the Department of Justice. According to authorities, from Nov. 23, 2013 through August 2014, Majerczyk sent emails to victims that appeared to be from security accounts of internet service providers, directing them to a website that would collect their usernames and passwords. Through the scheme, Majerczyk was able to access the victims' personal information, including sensitive and private photographs and videos, officials said. The charge against Majerczyk stems from an investigation into the leaks of photographs of numerous female celebrities in September 2014 known as "Celebgate." Investigators, however, have not found evidence linking Majerczyk to the leaks. This defendant not only hacked into e-mail accounts he hacked into his victims private lives, causing embarrassment and lasting harm, Deirdre Fike, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBIs Los Angeles Field Office, said in a statement. As most of us use devices containing private information, cases like this remind us to protect our data. Members of society whose information is in demand can be even more vulnerable, and directly targeted. Authorities said Majerczyk agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information as part of a plea deal Friday, officials said. Though he was charged in Los Angeles, the case is being transferred to the Northern District of Illinois, where Majerczyk is expected to enter a guilty plea and be sentenced. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. Hacking of online accounts to steal personal information is not merely an intrusion of an individuals privacy but is a serious violation of federal law, United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker said in a statement. Defendants conduct was a profound intrusion into the privacy of his victims and created vulnerabilities at multiple online service providers. It was not immediately clear if Majerczyk had an attorney. On the same day Chicago police revealed the city's violence has reached an "unacceptable level," authorities are bracing for what could be another violent holiday weekend. According to the CPD, June saw 72 murders, 361 shootings and 447 shooting victims. That's compared to the 47 murders, 235 shootings and 290 shooting victims reported last year. On Thursday, a woman was killed and four others wounded in a single shooting on the city's South Side. Sixteen others were wounded in shootings across the city that day. "The day she was brought into this world was the day she was taken away," the victim's mother said. "By a soul-less Chicago individual. For no reason." Police attributed the spike in crime to "repeat offenders with ties to gangs" and said a number of shootings have been "committed with illegal guns." To combat crime, CPD is now adding more than 150 officers to the streets by hiring civilians to do office work. For the holiday weekend, the department is working with the FBI, Illinois State Police, the Cook County Sheriff's officed and the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications. Beginning Friday, thousands of uniformed and plainclothes CPD officers will be joined by FBI agents, state troopers and sheriff's deputies. "In addition to a heavy police presence on highways, and major thoroughfares, including Lake Shore Drive, extra police officers will be highly visible in neighborhoods throughout the city, and at city parks, along the lake, and at Navy Pier on the 4th," police said in a release. The department is also using targeted raids to clamp down on violent crime. On Wednesday, 27 people were arrested on drug charges in araid in the 19th District. "CPD sent a strong message that violence and gang activity will not be tolerated when it completed a raid this week striking at street gangs throughout Chicago," the department said. A group of Illinois lawmakers also announced legislation Friday aimed at holding repeat gun offenders accountable. The Violent Gun Offender Sentencing Act, which is still being drafted, would lay out presumptive guidelines for prosecuting repeat offenders." The bill, which is being introduced by state Rep. Michael Zalewski and state Sen. Antonio Munoz, would utilize existing sentencing guidelines and encourage prosecutors to give repeat offenders longer sentences. "What were trying to target here is repeat, violent offenders who are in possession of guns, state Sen. Kwame Raoul said. People who we know will do harm unless we incapacitate them for a significant period of time." Raoul explained that the legislation steered away from policies that have been tied to mass incarceration, like truth in sentencing and mandatory minimum sentencing. He claimed that those policies dont give offenders the incentive to do rehabilitative prison programs because there is little opportunity to be rewarded for good behavior. Raoul was joined by fellow lawmakers, as well as Father Michael Pfleger and a group of mothers who lost children to gun violence Friday. Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson thanked lawmakers for devising the legislation and condemned the citys violent criminals. These violent offenders are only emboldened to continue their behavior and drive the unacceptable violence occurring in some of our neighborhoods while they display a brazen disregard for human life, he said Friday. Johnson explained that 85 percent of 2016 shooting victims, both non-fatal and fatal, are on the department's Strategic Subject List, which includes potential offenders and victims. Lawmakers are rushing to the city to try to address the pervasive gun violence. Sen. Dick Durbin visited the Lawndale neighborhood to discuss violence prevention efforts ahead of 4th of July Weekend, visiting with CPD officials from the 11th district and stopping by a community organization for grade schoolers. Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Kirk met with local leaders, community organizers and law enforcement officials in Maywood Friday to discuss legislation and strategies to protect families from violence. Among the guests was Delphine Cherry, the co-president of the Chicagoland Chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Cherry is a Chicagoland mother who lost two children in separate shootings. "We are here today to make sure there is a silver lining to the deaths of Tyesha and Tyler and that kids in Chicago aren't dying because of Washington gridlock," Kirk said in a statement. "That is why I have worked with the Democrat Senator from New York, Kristen Gillibrand, to draft this legislation that would stop guns from being trafficed into Illinois." Kirk and Gillibrand introduced the Hadiya Pendleton and Nyasia Pryear-Yard Trafficing and Crime Prevention Act last year. The measure would make the trafficking of illegal guns a federal crime and would provide tools for law enforcement to get illegal weapons off the street. The CPD has taken more than 4,300 guns off the street this year, accounting for a 30 percent increase from last year. While the vast majority of Chicago is a safe and growing city, we know that communities that have historically struggled with violence continue to bear the burden of gang members committing crimes with illegal guns. We have made clear to these criminals that we know who they are and we are using every resource at our disposal to hold them accountable for their actions, Supt. Johnson said. Nevertheless, we cannot arrest our way out of this problem, and we have to work together to create better opportunities for at-risk individuals, and ensure that repeat offenders who consistently wreak havoc on neighborhoods know that there are penalties for their actions. Working with all Chicagoans, CPD will continue its efforts to keep our streets safe. A 25-year-old woman was killed in a crash while riding a Divvy bike in Chicago Friday in what is believed to be the nations first bikesharing death. The crash happened around 9 a.m. in the citys Avondale neighborhood, when a truck turning from Sacremento Avenue onto Belmont Avenue crushed the cyclist who was trying to go straight. The rider was identified as Virginia Murray, who lived in Chicagos Wicker Park neighborhood. The death marks the first bikesharing death in the U.S. Today marks a tragic milestone we wished would never come, the North American Bikeshare Association said in a statement. This is the first time that weve lost someone from our bikeshare community in the eight years that bikeshare has operated in the United States. Todays loss extends beyond Chicago and into the hearts and homes across the nation. The Chicago Department of Transportation said the death is the first-ever fatality in nearly 8 million rides taken on the Divvy system, which came to Chicago almost two years ago to the date. Divvy and the City of Chicago express our deepest condolences to the riders family and loved ones, CDOT said in a statement. According to the North American Bikeshare Association, 105 municipalities across the country now have bikesharing, with more than 70 million trips being taken since it began in 2008. An investigation into the crash remained ongoing Friday evening. MADRID, July 1 (Reuters) - Spain will compete with other countries in the European Union to host the headquarters of the EU's London-based bank regulator following Britain's decision to leave the bloc, its deputy prime minister said on Friday. The race to host the European Banking Authority is led by Paris and Frankfurt, the largest EU financial centres, but no decision has been reached and other countries have also put themselves forward in the scramble to give London's agencies a new home. Spain has set up a working group to drive Spain's bid for the EBA and for the London-based European Medicines Agency, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria told a news conference. Santamaria also said Spain would seek to lure international banks based in London which are looking to move their operations to remain inside the European Union. "We will focus intensely on measures that can help us to boost the competitiveness that Spain already has, such as its level of economic growth, so that financial institutions that need a secondary base in the EU move here," she said. An EBA spokeswoman said last Sunday that the European Union would have to decide on relocation and in the meantime the agency would continue to operate in London. Spain currently only hosts minor European agencies such as the EU Agency for Safety and Health at Work and the European Fisheries Control Agency. (Reporting by Angus Berwick; Editing by Sandra Maler) The Chicago Fire Department responded to a fire at a high-rise building in the city's North Side Lake View neighborhood Saturday afternoon, officials confirmed. The fire occurred around 2 p.m. in the 300 block of W Diversey Pkwy, authorities said. Smoke could be seen coming from a window approximately 15 stories high in a condominium building. No one was injured in the fire, which began in an apartment that was under construction, fire officials said. The fire was struck out around 2:20 p.m. and most people in the building sheltered in place, according to the Fire Department. Officials did not release the cause of the fire, and the investigation is ongoing. Hector Badillo Jr., 31, was shot in the neck and died outside his fathers automotive shop Friday night in Chicago's West Town neighborhood. Badillo was frequently at the shop on the weekends, playing cards and dominos with his father and other employees and working on cars, including his prized 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle, his family said. Although he installed audio equipment for a living, he was a talented mechanic. He was a good father, his future sister-in-law Melody Miranda said. He grew up in the shop. He hangs out with his father every week. They like to show off their cars. Badillo was outside the shop while his fiancee sat in her SUV across the street about 3:30 a.m. when someone walked out of an alley in the middle of the 700 block of North California and fired shots, according to Chicago Police and his family. Badillo was struck in the neck and fell to the ground. The shooter then ran back down the alley from where hed come. People who were standing outside The Continental, a 4 a.m. bar on the corner at California and Chicago avenues, heard the shots and rushed back inside telling others to call the police. A 44-year-old man was also struck when a bullet went through the door of his SUV and struck his left leg, police said. A friend who was inside the bar when the shooting happened said the man works at a nearby bar and was dropping off a co-worker at The Continental when he was caught in the shooting. He was taken to Stroger Hospital where he condition was stabilized, police said. A witness who was waiting outside the bar for an Uber said he heard gunfire and saw a man on the ground. He said he ran to the man and tried to help him. I just saw a guy laying there, he said, shaken and with blood on his arms and shirt. He just bled out. The Continental closed after staff learned two people were shot on the street. Customers stood on the corner near the bar and watched as police cars blocked the street. Badillo was the father of two daughters and a son, his family said. He got engaged to his fiancee last year. He was a good man, his future brother-in-law said. He took care of his kids. He took care of my sister. His fiancee sobbed as family members comforted her. My children need their father, she cried. He just needs to wake up. I dont know how this happened. How did this happen? A Connecticut man faces multiple charges after being arrested in connection with a heroin trafficking investigation in Maine. In a release, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency says that James Jamison, 33, of Waterbury, is accused of supplying heroin to individuals in Aroostook County for resale throughout Northern Maine. Agents tracked down Jamison in South Portland, Maine but when they tried to take him into custody he reportedly rammed the MDEA vehicle and fled the area in his vehicle. Three MDEA agents received minor injuries and were evaluated and released from Maine Medical Center. South Portland police tried to stop Jamison but he refused. The MDEA says police did not pursue, but Jamison was then involved in a multi-vehicle crash in Scarborough, Maine and fled on foot. Authorities eventually located Jamison at a nearby hotel and arrested him. Law enforcement also seized over two pounds of heroin, prepackaged into more than 10,000 individual bags for resale. The value of the heroin is estimated at around $450,000. Jamison is charged with reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, aggravated assault, eluding a police officer, driving to endanger, and leaving the scene of a personal injury crash. His bond is set at $100,000. The Aroostook County District Attorney is expected to bring charges of aggravated trafficking in Heroin charges. The Fort Fairfield Police Department and the Connecticut State Police Statewide Narcotics Task Force are assisting with the drug investigation and more arrests are possible. Anyone with information about this case is urged to contact the MDEA tip line at (800) 452 6457. A new Connecticut law effective Friday prohibits doctors from prescribing opioid pain medications for more than a week. "When someone comes in for wisdom teeth to be pulled out, or they have an acute shoulder injury, you know usually three to five days is all they need," said Dr. Katherine Grieco, the Medical Director at Cornell Scott Hill Health Corporations South Central Rehabilitation Center in New Haven. The new law is a policy step the state has taken to address an epidemic of opioid overdoses. Doctors said patients who become addicted to painkillers often turn to more potent drugs like heroin. "After a while you know the dealers can said you know I dont have any oxys or I can sell you heroin, which is much cheaper," said Ben Metcalf, the Program Director at the South Central Rehabilitation Center. The center provides treatment for addicts, some who have reached rock bottom. The behavior piece and medication piece, you put them together, and that will likely be the recipe of success, Grieco said. Police, community workers and federal lawmakers held a roundtable Friday morning in New haven to discuss searching for solutions to this drug crisis. Both of Connecticuts U.S. Senators said the federal government needs to allocate more funding. "You cant arrest your way out of this crisis, Sen. Chris Murphy said. "You can certainly come after the dealers that are handing out deadly fentanyl, but ultimately you need to stop people from getting on to the drug in the first place." The meeting took place one week after New Haven officials declared a public health emergency. Police said a batch of pure fentanyl circulated in the city caused 17 overdoses, three of them deadly, on the same day. "I think it highlighted the urgency with which we have to address this issue," Grieco said of the public health emergency. Authorities earlier this week arrested three men in connection with the rash of opioid overdoses in New Haven. Waterford police arrested a New York man as a fugitive from justice Saturday morning. Police say they responded to the Rite Aide at 75 Boston Post Road around 9:45 a.m. for reports of someone trying to use a fraudulent credit card. The caller reported that the same individual had been in Thursday evening. When police arrived they spoke to that individual, later identified as Jordan Potts, 22, of Brooklyn, New York. Police say Potts was argumentative and attempted to leave the store. When officers placed him in custody, he gave two false names. He was later identified by his fingerprints. Police say Potts may have been using fraudulent credit cards to purchase Visa gift cards, cash those gift cards in, and then wire transfer money to accounts in $500 increments. Police believe the total amount was around $7,500. Police seized $1,889 in cash and several gifts cards and fraudulent IDs. The investigation is ongoing. Potts had an active felony arrest warrant out of New York for burglary. Potts was charged with interfering with a police officer, third-degree identity theft, and fugitive from justice. He is currently held on a $500,000 bond for the fugitive from justice charge and a $50,000 bond on the original arrest. Police say more charges are expected. Two Massachusetts men were arrested after a home invasion in Killingly Saturday morning. Police responded to a residence on Fieldstone Road around 7 a.m. Police say the suspects, identified as Peter Daylue and Neksone Allah-digui, both 19 and of Worcester, forced their way into the home armed with a machete style knife and a BB gun with the appearance of a Walther .45 caliber pistol. Police believe the incident stemmed from an incident at a house party at the same address Friday night. The two reportedly attended the party but we asked to leave after an altercation with other party-goers. They then returned Saturday morning for retribution. Troopers located the suspects in a vehicle near the home and they were arrested. No one was injured during the incident. Both men are charged with home invasion, breach of peace, brandishing a facsimile of a firearm, carrying a dangerous weapon and second-degree threatening. They are currently being held on $25,000 bond and expected in Danielson court Tuesday. On June 2, 2015, the future face of the Rangers franchise made his presence known in just three swings. Joey Gallo had a night to remember, homering in his MLB debut. Gallo also had a single and a double while driving in four runs (the first Ranger to do that in an MLB debut game). The buzz was real, at least at that moment. But the road to the show has taken some interesting twists and turns for the Rangers 2012 first round pick. It seemed like Gallo would be penciled into the starting lineup from that night on, similar to what Nomar Mazara has done this season. It didnt work out that way. Gallo struggled after his debut. Just making contact was an issue as the strikeouts piled up. The league catches on to you after a while and when they see that you have a hole in your swing, they take full advantage of it. Gallo would end up back in the minors after the Rangers brought back Josh Hamilton. So working on making more contact and cutting down on the strikeouts, while avoid losing power became the assignment for Gallo. Its still a work in progress. Gallo continues to do his thing down in Triple-A Round Rock this season. He has 14 home runs and 34 RBI in 49 games. The batting average isnt the greatest at .259. Plus, theres still the issue of strikeouts. 60 strikeouts in 170 at-bats isnt the worst, but theres still room for improvement. There was yet another issue facing Gallo as far as the big league roster is concerned, finding a spot on the field. Gallo has been playing at third for the Express this season, but Adrian Beltre holds that down for the Rangers. Gallo played in left during his time in Arlington last season, but the current outfield situation is already crowded. First base could be another option, but Mitch Moreland has showed signs of coming back to life offensively. Ryan Rua has also been getting playing time there. Its a dilemma. So with this dilemma, does it make Gallo trade bait this month prior to the deadline? There was another player with the Rangers that had a similar story a few years ago who at now wears a Baltimore Orioles uniform. Chris Davis couldnt get things to click after a strong start with the Rangers. The Longview, Texas native made waves after hitting 17 home runs during his 2008 rookie year. He followed that with 21 homers the next year. But strikeouts and contact issues plagued Davis in his three-plus seasons in Arlington. Getting that deja vu feeling yet? The Rangers gave Davis every opportunity to overcome and shine, but it just didnt happen. They ended up sending him to the Orioles in 2011. Davis seemed to figure it out after that, hitting 178 home runs with the Orioles, including an MLB best 53 in 2013. Is this something thats in the back of managements mind when considering giving Gallo up? We are talking about a top prospect that can still turn into a superstar; you cant teach the power that Gallo has at the plate. The Rangers deemed him untouchable in the past when any trade rumors started swirling. Has that scenario changed, and would there be a deal or scenario worth the gamble? Gallo appeared in one game earlier this season with the Rangers, but the organization opted to send him back to Round Rock for more seasoning instead of sitting the bench in Arlington. As of right now, hes expected to be back in September when the call-ups are made. Once Gallo does return to Arlington, well get another chance to see if he can finally be the future face of the Rangers franchise. More than fifty Tarzan movies have appeared over the years, from the first silent film in 1918, to eleven Tarzan films starring Johnny Weissmuller in the 1930s and 40s. The latest, "The Legend Of Tarzan," plays like an old fashioned adventure, and is the first to use modern CGI technology to tell a familiar story. "The Legend Of Tarzan" is fun to watch AND filled with problems. Alexander Skarsgard plays the vine swinging superhero, rescued and raised by apes. After a stint in Britain as an aristocrat, Tarzan returns to the scene of his childhood with his wife, played-well by Margo Robbie, but also part of a deadly trap set by the bad guy, played by Christoph Waltz. Throw in a post Civil War watch dog historian played by Samuel L. Jackson and you have a movie that spends half of it's time exposing the evils of colonialism and slavery, and the other half celebrating man and nature. Rarely do the two blend together effectively, but the visuals are impressive. "The Legend Of Tarzan" is directed by, David Yates, he directed the final four Harry Potter movies, all of them much better. One minute his movie features extras that look like they have been lifting weights, and a tribal chief speaking perfect English. The next minute, it's beautiful look at a gifted man working seamlessly with his environment. Don't get me wrong, I liked watching this version of, "Tarzan," complete with a massive Lion King stampede, but it's far from perfect. It's a movie of moments, some of them aggressive, heavy-handed, and cliched, some of them tender and generous and still worth the price of a ticket. Their first meeting was brief and fairly frantic, but Nattie Hurta and Rahn Finley were like old friends Friday as they reunited for the first time since a life-saving moment. Nattie, a University of North Texas alumna, had returned to the school in mid-June to visit her daughter who works there and her grandkids, just days before her 77th birthday. While they were sitting down in the Bruce Hall cafeteria to eat lunch, Nattie said a bite of chicken and rice quickly shook her from her seat. All the sudden, it just felt like my throat had swelled up, said Hurta. Nattie was choking. Her daughter attempted the Heimlich Maneuver, but was unable to get the food dislodged. Luckily though, the dining manager on staff, Rahn Finley, was trained in the life-saving technique and rushed across the room seeing the commotion. I was just so thankful that it worked out the way it did, said Finley. Finleys attempt at the maneuver was successful and he got Nattie breathing again. The manager also called 911 and stayed with her until the ambulance arrived. Hurta said the day was a bit of a blur, but she remembers at that point several students coming to her table as well and checking on her while cleaning up the mess that was left behind from the commotion. "They didn't stop to think, they just did it, and I don't know who the kids were, but I appreciate it, she said. On Friday the two got to meet again, no longer strangers, with a big hug and an even bigger thank you. "I've wanted to say thank you so much, because if it wouldn't have been for you I wouldn't be here, Nattie said to Rahn. Natties daughter, who was also there for the reunion, couldnt help but tear up at the sight. He saved her life, she said. Dallas city leaders want to Grow South in areas where Dallas has room to grow. But a new development for affordable homes has drawn passionate opposition from neighbors who want more expensive, new homes. Were asking for quality housing in Southern Dallas, and we dont believe this is it, neighbor Raymond Crawford said. Around 20 new homes are planned for the six acre site at Blue Ridge Boulevard and Rio Grand Avenue in Southwest Dallas. Community activist Mike Davis, a former Dallas Plan Commission member, is a first-time developer on this project. Were trying to create a product that people can be proud of. Its a quality development, Davis said. Homes of at least 1,800 square feet are planned starting at $180,000 up to $300,000. Davis said his partner is an experienced builder, but Crawford attacked the builders record. I think Mike Davis has good intentions. I just dont think this has been handled properly, Crawford said. "I dont believe this is the right builder for this neighborhood. Dallas City Council Member Casey Thomas is caught in the middle of the dispute. Thomas wants affordable housing development in his part of the city, but does not want to hurt existing neighborhoods. Thomas has been the target of complaints by some neighborhood critics. There was lots of misinformation that was floating around, Thomas said. In a May 25 city council vote, the development received $1 million in bond money approved by voters for economic development in 2012. The money will help build streets and provide other support for the new development. But final plans for those streets and lots for the project have not yet been approved. Theres plenty of time to make your opinions heard, Thomas said. We want to make sure going forward, its a product thats going to be beneficial for the neighborhood, its going to be something good for Southern Dallas. Family members of a Dallas movie critic killed in a hit and run this Spring say their pain has not gone away; and they're speaking out again, hoping someone comes forward to police with new information. Gary Murray died in late April after a pickup truck driver hit him near the Angelika Theatre on Mockingbird Lane in Dallas. He was in the cross-walk trying to get across the street around 10:15 p.m. Dallas police admit they have very few clues to go on. Murrays family believes there are witnesses to the crime, who haven't told police everything they know. "Because it was a hit and run, there is no closure until we find the person who did this," said niece Macy Murray, who drove three hours from Houston to meet NBC 5 and share her pain. She's desperate for answers about who hit her uncle and left him in the crosswalk to die. "He had this child-like personality. He loved three things: he loved movies, he loved his family, he loved his friends. And we really do miss him so much," she said. Police reviewed surveillance cameras near the intersection and spoke with witnesses, but they couldn't get a license plate or even the color or model of pickup truck. Officers then re-interviewed some witnesses days later, but they didn't get any new clues. "Knowing that the holidays are coming up, with the Fourth of July this weekend and all those fun summer days, its not getting any easier," Murray said. "With anyone that has a family member that has been in a hit and run, or murdered, or anything; you want to find who did this to that person, and to go every day without knowing, its hard," she added. Murray was the second person killed crossing Mockingbird Station in a 15-month stretch. The city will soon start construction on a pedestrian bridge. Family members want the timeline bumped up to be completed by the end of this year. "Does a third person have to lose their life just for them to build a bridge? Cmon," Murray said, noting that the bridge was originally slated for construction in 2015. The Mockingbird Station pedestrian bridge may not be completed until next summer. Murray's family wants police--and the public--to keep fighting to give them closure. A North Texas man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole for aggravated sexual assault of a child, according to Collin County District Attorney, Greg Willis. "The jury's verdict punishes the perpetrator and protects other children," Willis said in a statement. Officials said Estrada knew the the victim and perpetrated the abuse during the child's caretaker's absence. The child disclosed the abuse the next day, and the child was taken to a nearby hospital for an exam. The exam results confirmed that the child had been abused. McKinney Police Detective Ursula Watson investigated the case alongside Detective Adrian Guzman. Guzman said Estrada admitted some of the details of his conduct, but denied others during their interview. The Collin County District Attorney's Office said the child testified at trial about the details of the assault and the acts committed against him by Estrada. The jury returned guilty verdicts and sentenced Estrada to 25 years in prison for aggravated sexual assault of a child under six and three years for indecency with a child. Who killed Leonardo Ortega? It's a question his family thought they had an answer to when two men were arrested for his June 14, 2015 murder. Ortega was working at a Subway restaurant in Dallas when he was fatally shot after police say he refused to comply with three armed robbers. "It was kind of a moment of happiness. Somebody who has done something so senseless, they're off the street," said Vanessa Ortega, Leonardo's sister. "Now they can't do that to anybody else, but that wasn't the case." A few months after the arrests, the investigation unraveled. The two men charged with Ortega's murder were set free. The lead detective was removed from the case. His killer remains on the loose. "It was like we had to start all over again. There is still someone out there sleeping just fine without being prosecuted," Vanessa Ortega said. The family said a new detective has been assigned to the case, but they have been unable to contact that person. Though she's frustrated that the case has gone cold, Vanessa refuses to be angry because Leonardo wouldn't want her to be. "I have a purpose to fulfill, as well as everybody else" she said. "Nobody should hold on to anger. That person who is still out there, their time will come." Former Vice President Al Gore's daughter and other activists have pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges following a protest at a natural gas pipeline in Boston. Karenna Gore, activist Tim DeChristopher and nine others were arraigned in Boston Municipal Court Friday morning on trespassing, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace charges. Twenty-three protesters were arrested Wednesday when they tried to block construction of Spectra Energy's West Roxbury Lateral pipeline. Twelve other protesters were arraigned Thursday. The court clerk's office says all were released and ordered to stay 100 yards away from the construction site. Their next court date is July 29. Gore said Friday that "time is of the essence" to change people's dependency on fossil fuels. Houston-based Spectra Energy Corp. says the pipeline will be a "reliable, affordable energy" source. Democrats are considering approving what is being called the most progressive platform in the party's history, though supporters of Bernie Sanders are still not satisfied with provisions on trade and some other issues. A draft of the platform, obtained by NBC News, was approved by a 15-member subcommittee and sent Friday to members of the full platform committee. The committee will have a chance to make changes before the platform is voted on at the Democratic National Convention later this month in Philadelphia. The draft platform states Americans should earn $15 per hour. It calls for abolishing the death penalty. The draft platform also calls for making community college free and easing student loan burdens. It calls for giving the District of Columbia statehood and banning assault weapons. However, some of the stickiest issues remain unresolved -- at least as Sanders supporters see it. A new state law, co-authored by a San Diego legislator, went into effect Friday, requiring parents to vaccinate their children before they can go to school. Students in all public and private K-12 schools in the state, licensed day cares, preschools and after school programs must get more than 10 federally recommended vaccines, or they will have to be home schooled, according to the law. Home schooled students and those in individualized education programs are exempt. Governor Brown signed the bill last year creating a universal vaccine mandate for all children in the state. The vaccine debate provoked strong feelings on both sides with some parents feeling it took away their right to figure out what is best for their children, while others didnt want their own kids getting sick by being exposed to unvaccinated children. Among the strictest vaccine laws in the country, the law goes too far in the opinion of thousands of parents who feel it makes medical exemptions too difficult to get. Heather Hawkes decided to move to Florida with her two girls after the California law was passed. My older daughter had a pre-existing medical condition, Hawkes explained. It was just infuriating to think that wed been working with a team of specialists and doctors to make a decision for her health and the state was coming in and acting like a medical provider and take that decision from us. She said shes getting a medical exemption in Florida. Doctor J. Howard of Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Center told NBC 7 medical reasons to avoid vaccinating children are very rare. Other doctors in the community have chosen, since they have an anti-vaccine stance, to accept off-the-wall things like a family history of asthma. We do not feel thats a valid reason. Birdey Elementary parent Shawn Vandriver was alarmed several years ago to find out his sons school had high rates of parents not vaccinating their children. He said he respected their choices, but did not want it to endanger his sons health. I would say that parents that choose not to vaccinate their children, they are making a choice. Theyre choosing to home school their children, Vandriver said. Parents can exempt their children from the law if they feel it goes against their familys personal beliefs, but they would have already needed to have filled out an exemption form and have gotten it approved by the end of last year. The bill is open-ended, which means the state could add more required vaccines in the future. You can click on this link to search middle school vaccine rates in San Diego County. A Boyle Heights community was still grieving Friday night over the death of a homeless man who was killed Sunday by a suspected drunk driver. Now, they are trying to find his biological family in Mexico. Church organizers remember Francisco Gaytan as a contributing member of their community whose life came to a sudden end when a suspected DUI driver struck Francisco Gaytan as he stood at a popular taco truck on the corner of 4th Street and Clarence. Ellie Hidalgo of Dolores Mission Church said she saw Francisco that night before he left to get food, but he never returned. "He lived in our shelter but he worked in construction. He had gotten home late that night, so he had missed the dinner that we serve to the homeless men and women," Hidalgo said. Neighbors and friends, some who didn't even know Gaytan, mourned and solemnly marched from the church to the crash site where they gathered to pray for the Mexico native. Now, the priority of Gaytan's friends is to find his family in Mexico and they were asking for anyone with information about him to come forward. "We have a meeting with the Consulate of Mexico on Tuesday to see if they can help us locate his family. We believe he's from the state of San Luis Potosi," said Maegan Ortiz at the Institute for Popular Education. "Francisco Gaytan, he has a family, and we're hoping to connect with that family," Ortiz said. With no official family to claim him yet, Gaytan's body remained at the Los Angeles County Morgue Friday night. According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department, 34-year-old Maribel Rosas who was suspected of DUI, is expected to appear in court July 18. It was not immediately clear if Rosas had an attorney. Movers lugged a historic house across a Boyle Heights street on Thursday morning, slowly rolling the gray-blue structure before a crowd of onlookers. On the Peabody Werden House's former lot, the non-profit East LA Community Corporation plans to build the Cielito Lindo Apartments, a mixed-use building with 50 affordable housing units. Built in 1895, the Peabody Werden House will now function as a site for community programing. It is being preserved near the corner of East 1st and North Soto streets. A section of 1st Street was closed to make room for its move. "It is fascinating to see how a home is lifted and moved right across the street," ELACC President Isela Gracian said. "We're here with community residents who were part of making this project a reality." The new units in the Cielito Lindo development will range from $450 to $1,100 in rent, the LA Times reported. LA historian Kim Cooper said it's rare to see old houses in Boyle Heights that haven't been lost or stuccoed over. When she found out the Peabody Werden building was set to be demolished, she and others shared photos of it online, and reached out to ELACC about saving it. Amelia Paz, a Boyle Heights resident, described the move as bittersweet to watch. She said she's glad to see the old house saved, but thinks of this transition as a signal of change for Boyle Heights, a battleground against gentrification. She's seen a nearby district go from practically empty to booming, with prices rising and the neighborhood's new popularity maxing out. "The house has been there for a really long time, and I know it's going to be restored. But it's the beginning of a new era," Paz said. "I hope we're all included in that era. But it's uncertain, you know. It really is uncertain." A 19-year-old University of California, Berkeley student has been identified as one of the 20 hostages killed in an attack at a cafe in Bangladesh's capital of Dhaka, officials said. Bangladeshi forces stormed the upscale Dhaka restaurant early Saturday to end a hostage-taking by heavily armed militants, killing six of the attackers and rescuing 13 captives, including foreigners. Twenty hostages were killed during the hourslong standoff, including Tarishi Jain, a student at UC Berkeley, Indian officials confirmed. "I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka," India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted, adding that she had spoken with the girl's father, Sanjeev Jain, who is a textile merchant. In a statement released Saturday, UC Berkeley officials said that Jain, a sophomore, began interning at Dhaka-based Eastern Bank Limited in early June. A graduate of the American International School in Dhaka, Jain planned to major in economics. About 40 people were taken hostage Friday night when gunmen stormed the popular Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area, a diplomatic zone, during the holy month of Ramadan. Four security personnel were killed at the start of the attack, according to NBC News. Bay Area resident Shaba Rashid, whose daughter goes to UC Berkeley and knew Jain, said that her brother owned the bakery where the attack occured. Although her family came out unscathed, they were emotionally devastated and shocked. "He spent the whole 13 hours of the standoff outside with police," she said. The hostages were given a test: recite verses from the Quran, or be punished, according to a witness. Those who passed were allowed to eat. Those who failed were tortured and slain. Paramilitary troops who mounted the rescue operations on Saturday morning also recovered explosive devices and sharp weapons from the scene, Brig. Gen. Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said. He did not identify the hostages. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the attack and said security officials arrested one of the militants. "Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such acts," Hasina said. "They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism." The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activity online. Tarishi's father waited "anxiously" outside the popular cafe, hoping for news about his daughter, according to UC Berkeley. We are all very devastated to hear the news about Tarishi Jain, said Sanchita Saxena, executive director of the university's Institute for South Asia Studies and director of the Center for Bangladesh Studies. "She was a smart and ambitious young woman with a big heart. Our deepest condolences to her family, friends, and the entire Berkeley community." Aditya Rout met Jain at the start of their freshman year at UC Berkeley. Jain had a leg injury and planned to take an Uber to class, and asked 18-year-old Rout if he wanted to ride with her. I thought that was really kind of her, the Cupertino teen said on FaceTime. That became a tradition. Wed always Uber to class together. Rout, who was struck by Jains easygoing and light-hearted nature, said it was really heartbreaking to lose his friend. He admitted, however, that terror attacks take on a whole new meaning when it impacts someone close to you. They can no longer be dismissed because its personal, Rout said. Emerald Wong, 20, who met Jain six months ago, echoed the sentiment. "I hear about terrorism every day on the news and Ive become almost numb to it," she said via Skype. "If my friend wasnt involved, I probably wouldnt have cared as much. People need to start caring about everyones lives." Jain was a member of EthiCAL Apparel, a UC Berkeley club that designs and prints clothes and offers its profits to entrepreneurs as micro-loans, alongside Wong. Having lived in Bangladesh for eight years, Jain told Wong that she had witnessed the effects of poverty and wanted to belong to an organization that served the underprivileged and to make a difference. "She was very sweet and one of the most genuine people Ive met at Cal," Wong recalled. "I was really looking forward to getting to know her better this year." Wong, who was on a beach in Barcelona, connected to WiFi to talk to some friends. Instead, she heard about Jain's death via a Facebook message. "I was shocked," she said, tearing up. "I immediately started crying. Ive been pretty numb ever since." A vigil will be held for Jain from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday at Sproul Plaza, the campus hub at UC Berkeley. Counselors are also being provided to students. Abinta Kabir, a rising sophomore at Emory University's Oxford, Georgia, campus, was also killed in the attack, NBC News reported. Kabir, who lived in Miami, was in Dhaka visiting family and friends. Her nationality was not immediately clear. A second Emory student also died, the school said. Faraaz Hossain, from Dhaka, graduated from Emory's Oxford College this year and was a rising junior at the university's business school. Japan's government said a Japanese hostage was rescued with a gunshot wound but seven others are unaccounted for. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said the eight were together at the restaurant during the attack. Two Sri Lankans also were rescued, said Lt. Col. Tuhin Mohammad Masud, commander of the Rapid Action Battalion that conducted the rescue operations. Others included an Argentine and two Bangladeshis, local media reported. satya jeff When Social Capital partner Chamath Palihapitiya woke up to the news that Microsoft bought LinkedIn for $26 billion, he was stunned. And it wasn't just because of the price tag. Palihapitiya told Business Insider: "One, that's immense courage by Microsoft to basically put themselves out there. "Two, that's a really courageous thing for Jeff [Weiner, LinkedIn's CEO] and Reid [Hoffman, LinkedIn's founder] to basically decide that they could do more for their employees by giving them a buffer and safe harbor of being a part of the Microsoft family." Palihapitiya had watched as LinkedIn's stock "collapsed on basically air" in February, falling 43.6% in one day and shaving off $11 billion from its market value. Its public investors showed "tremendous fickleness," in his opinion. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner ended up selling to Microsoft to give the company a chance to control its own destiny and avoid the outside craziness of the markets. While Palihapitiya was amazed by and supported the transaction, he also thought that LinkedIn would've been fine on its own. The collapse of the stock and subsequent acquisition "robbed a bunch of others, including me, of the opportunity to own what is just a fantastically useful, well-run, quasi-monopoly," Palihapitiya said. He added: "[Warren] Buffett tells you that these are the kinds of businesses you want to own forever. For me, I was disappointed that it was acquired only because it means I can't own it anymore, and I'm not a particularly enthusiastic Microsoft shareholder only because it doesn't meet my growth targets." NOW WATCH: The Secrets Behind Getting Your Profile Viewed On LinkedIn More From Business Insider Homicide detectives were investigating bones found underneath a Ladera Heights home, sheriff's officials said Friday. The discovery was made Thursday morning by a worker who was inspecting the foundation of the home in the 5900 block of Wooster Avenue, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department said. The homeowner told NBC4 the worker had handed him the bones after coming out from the crawl space. Not knowing if they were human or even real bones, he said he was in no rush to call police. His wife, who is a doctor, later called authorities to report the bones, which she said resembled a femur and a fibular. Cadaver-sniffing dogs were brought to the home to help sheriff's and coroner investigators. The remains are most likely human, according to the coroner. "What we do know is it appears these bones are several years old," sheriff's Lt. Steve Jauch said. "It is a possibility that those bones may have been here even before the house was built." The house was constructed in 1955, the homeowner said. Sheriffs investigators will contact every person who has ever lived in the home and look through old missing persons cases from the area. No further information was provided by the sheriff's department. The homeowner said about 10 people have had access to the crawl space while working on the home since he and his wife moved in a year and a half ago. Hillary Clinton gave a voluntary interview to the FBI Saturday morning as part of the investigation into her use of a private email server for official emails while serving as secretary of state, a campaign aide confirmed. "She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion," campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement. "Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview." The long-awaited interview on whether Clinton mishandled classifed information submitted on her private email system took place at the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., and lasted approximately three and half hours, a source told NBC News. Though the interview was not unexpected, it came as Attorney General Loretta Lynch faces criticism that the investigation is politically tainted after an encounter with former president Bill Clinton earlier this week on a tarmac at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport. Speaking at a summit in Aspen, Colorado, Friday, Lynch acknowledged the impromtu meeting with Bill Clinton "casts a shadow" over the public perception of the neutrality of the investigation. But, Lynch added, she will fully accept the recommendations of career prosecutors, investigators and FBI Director James Comey on whether to bring criminal charges in the investigation. "This case will be resolved by the team that has been working on it from the beginning,'' Lynch said. An Emory University student from Miami was among those taken hostage and killed by terrorists in an attack in Bangladesh Friday, the school said in a statement. Abinta Kabir was visiting her family and friends in Dhaka when heavily armed gunmen stormed an upscale cafe in the Bangladeshi capital. The seige at the Holey Artisan Bakery killed 20 people, many of them foreigners. Florida Gov. Rick Scott ordered flags in the state to fly at half-staff Sunday in honor on Kabir, calling her death a senseless act of terror." Kabir was a sophomore at Emory University's Oxford, Georgia, campus. Emory University President James Wagner said in a statement: "I was able to reach Abintas mother, who is in unspeakable pain. Please, as you are inclined, direct your kindest thoughts and sincerest prayers in her behalf and that of her family. " Another Emory student, Faraaz Hossain, was also killed in the attack. Hossain, who was from Dhaka, graduated from Emory's Oxford College this year. He was preparing to start at the university's business school in the fall. According NBC News, 20 people have been killed and 13 others were rescued in the attack by suspected Islamist militants. Some of the two dozen Cuban migrants who reached a Florida Keys lighthouse will be sent to Guantanamo Bay while others are being repatriated to Cuba as the fisherman who discovered a message in a bottle written by the migrants is speaking out for the first time. "The words that were written were 'please help me, S.O.S. 24 people onboard,'" Jason Harrelson said. Harrelson described Friday the unusual discovery on the open waters. The fisherman from Tampa found the handwritten note where the migrants claim mistreatment while on a Coast Guard cutter where they were detained. "I immediately contacted the Coast Guard, regardless of where you're from, you need help at that point, I would do it for anyone," he said. Coast Guard officials said the letter was determined to be authentic and said they are planning on launching an internal investigation. In another change of course, late Thursday the U.S. Attorney said they re-interviewed the so-called Lighthouse Cubans, and 20 of the 24 claim to have legitimate fears that they could face harm if they go back to Cuba. They've been sent to a camp in Guantanamo Bay where officials will now look for a third country to eventually sent them. "We are very happy that the 20 people will be given the chance to remain in freedom," said Ramon Saul Sanchez, with Movimiento Democracia. "Of course we would have liked the 24 to do so but apparently the other four might not have said the key words, even though they probably have the same fears and they might be repatriated. I don't know if at this time they're already getting back to Cuba." Family members in Miami reacted to the latest update on the fate of their loved ones Friday. "We're very happy because yesterday the government approved 20 of them to apply for political asylum so at least they're gonna have the right to live in freedom," said Fernando Alvarez, cousin of one of the migrants. While a federal judge ruled the lighthouse was not dry land, there are still some legal uncertainties and family members are holding out hope. "There is one thing that we are completely sure. We will keep fighting for all of them. It doesn't matter if he's in the group of the 20 or of the 4. We're gonna keep fighting," Alvarez said. A Fort Lauderdale man who police say impregnated an 11-year-old girl and fled to Haiti was back in custody in South Florida Friday, officials said. Raymond Vincent, 46, is facing charges of sexual battery on a child and lewd and lascivious conduct in the crime, Fort Lauderdale Police said. It's unknown if he's hired an attorney. According to police, detectives from the special victims unit responded to Broward Health Medical Center after the girl was taken there for stomach pain. While there it was discovered she was pregnant as a result of the sexual battery by Vincent, who fled to Haiti, police said. The U.S. Marshals Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force worked with Fort Lauderdale Police's Career Criminal Unit to track Vincent to Haiti, where he was taken into custody, officials said. The Haitian government "expelled" Vincent from the country and he was turned over to Fort Lauderdale Police. Vincent was arrested in Fort Lauderdale in 2012 after he was accused of molesting a young girl, but he was acquitted in that case in October 2013, Broward court records showed. Travelers can expect an increased security presence at Miami International Airport during the July 4 weekend. Driving into MIA Friday, Miami-Dade Police were pulling over cars at random for security sweeps. Armed officers were also patrolling outside TSA checkpoints, the same parts of the Istanbul airport in Turkey where bombs went off Tuesday killing dozens and injuring many more. "I think you have to have special security because it's July 4th. I'm safe, I feel very safe here," traveler Ariel Cribeiro said. Travelers said the terror attack in Istanbul won't change their plans. "We can't be afraid of that, I travel a lot and it's something in my life I'm not willing to give up because of certain occasions," said Cecilia Jayo, who was traveling to North Carolina. "It's on your mind, but we're going. It's not going to stop us." From Miami to LaGuardia Airport in New York City and across the country to Los Angeles, a show of force will be on display. Authorities say intelligence reports do not indicate a specific threat, and there's no suggestion of an imminent attack. Homeland Security officials are encouraging everyone to celebrate the holiday and remain vigilant. At MIA, passengers had nothing but high ratings for security in and out of the airport. "They screened us really well and I felt very safe," traveler Mike Young said. The New York Knicks have intensified their talks with Miami Heat free-agent Dwyane Wade, according to a report by ESPN. Wade has played his entire career in Miami, but there is a chance that his tenure with the Heat has come to an end. Wade is one of the most sought-after free-agents this off-season, and there are rumblings that he is not happy with Heat management. In New York, Wade would join his friend Carmelo Anthony on an improved roster. The Knicks have added Derrick Rose already this off-season, and appear to be on the verge of signing Joakim Noah as well. The Heat have come to an agreement with Hassan Whiteside on a long-term deal, and have a meeting scheduled with Kevin Durant as well. All this comes as Wade sits on the sidelines with little action from Miami. The veteran is allegedly upset that he is not more of a priority for Miami. While it remains possible that Wade ultimately returns to the Heat, they may have to meet his demands in order to make it happen. In past seasons, Wade has taken less money than he could have gotten elsewhere, and has shown a team-first attitude. Wade also gave the Heat extra flexibility by taking a one-year contract last year as a free-agent. Besides the Knicks, there is increasing interest from the Milwaukee Bucks as well for Wade's services. The Bucks would represent a homecoming for Wade who attended Marquette University which is located in Milwaukee. Wade has remained connected to Marquette and has visited the campus in recent years. The Heat would likely need to make a trade or two in order to squeeze Wade into the payroll, if he does not take a team-friendly deal. It remains to be seen if Wade would be open to that idea this time around. Authorities are searching for a man behind a series of strong arm robberies at Broward County Walgreens stores. The four robberies the suspect is believed to have committed took place in June at Walgreens stores in Lauderdale Lakes, Oakland Park, Tamarac and Plantation, Broward Sheriff's Office officials said. Officials said in each robbery the suspect walks up to the cashier as if to pay, then pushes the cashier out of the way once the register is opened. He quickly grabs handfuls of cash and runs out. The suspect was described as a black male, possibly in his late 30s. He's 5-foot-7 with a slim to medium build, has dark facial hair and dark shoulder-length dreadlocks. Anyone with information is asked to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS. A Madison, Wisconsin, police officer fatally shot a man after he emerged from a lake, broke into a home and advanced toward the officer with a pitchfork. Police Chief Mike Koval said the department received a call around 9 p.m. Thursday about a man who was chest-deep in Lake Monona, slapping the water and talking to himself. The man, still in the lake, reportedly threw a rock into the window of a home, the chief said. The homeowners also called police and fled after they heard the man breaking items in the basement. The first officer on the scene was waiting for backup when the man approached the doorway from inside the house with a four-pronged pitchfork, the chief said. He described the tool as something used to shovel seaweed. The officer ordered him to stop but the man kept "aggressing" toward the officer and the officer felt compelled to shoot him, Koval said. Police provided the man with first aid. He was taken to a hospital, where he died, Koval said. The state Department of Justice is investigating the shooting per a state law that requires an outside agency to investigate officer-involved deaths. The chief didn't identify the officer, how many shots were fired or where they struck the man. The Dane County Medical Examiner's Office identified the man as 41-year-old Michael William Schumacher, of Fitchburg. Koval described the man as white. The Medical Examiner's Office said in a statement that preliminary autopsy results confirm Schumacher died as a result of firearm-related trauma. Additional testing is being conducted, the statement said. Madison police came under intense scrutiny last year after a white officer fatally shot Tony Robinson, a 19-year-old black man, during an altercation in an apartment building stairwell. Dane County District Attorney Ishmael Ozanne ultimately cleared the officer of any criminal wrongdoing. Last week, the department took more criticism after two officers wrestled an 18-year-old black woman to the ground, kneed and punched her after she allegedly resisted arrest. She was accused of displaying a knife at a mall and threatening mall security staff. A bicyclist was struck and killed in Williamsburg early Saturday morning by a driver who sped away, according to police. Officers found Matthew Von Ohlen, 35, of Queens, lying on Grand Street around 2:30 a.m. with severe injuries. He was transported to Bellevue Hospital Center where he was pronounced dead, police said. Ohlen was riding east in the bicycle lane when he was hit by a black Chevy Camaro sedan with tinted windows, investigators said. The vehicle fled the scene and was seen traveling east on Grand Street, according to police. NYPD According to the New York City Department of Transportation's 2014 Bicycle Crash Data report, 1,511 bicyclists were injured in crashes involving vehicles. Six of those incidents were fatal. Cyclist Matt Marchese told NBC 4 New York that he has a friend who suffered a broken pelvis after being hit by a bus while riding in the bike lane. However, Marchese said, he will continue to use his bike. "It's New York City, you gotta get around," he said. A bicycle rider has died after he was struck by a hit-and-run driver in Brooklyn. New Yorkers will see heavy police presence across the city over the holiday weekend, many in helmets and vests and armed with long guns, officials say. A new critical response team, specially trained K9s that can detect explosives, radiation detection units will be deployed, along with choppers in the air and boats on the water, according to NYPD officials. Plainclothes and uniformed officers, including the 1,257 recruits who just graduated will all be out in force. They'll all be protecting the more than 3 million people who will flock toward the East River to enjoy the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks show, whether along the piers, in their neighborhoods, or on rooftops. "We will very significantly enhance police presence in the city not because of any threat directed against this event -- there are no specific threats that we are aware of at this time -- but the fact that we can put out an enhanced presence," said NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton at a news conference discussing security measures for the July 4th celebrations. "We would be able to respond if something occurred," he added, referring to potential teror threats, "but we are not anticipating that. But we are prepared for it." Bratton also warned residents that there will also be nearly 100 police teams canvassing the city specifically for anyone with illegal fireworks. "If you light them up, there's a good chance that you may even get locked up," he said. Police will also be conducting DWI patrols, with checkpoints in all boroughs and additional highway units looking for drunk drivers. "July 4th is about freedom, it's about inclusion, it's about society for everyone, every faith -- this is exactly what terrorists are trying to undermine," Mayor Bill de Blasio said at thew news conference. "July 4th will put those values on display so its very important for people to proudly express our values that day." Officials say a West Point cadet has died after trying to save a swimmer caught in a rip current off a Long Island beach. U.S. Military Academy spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Kasker on Friday confirmed Thomas Surdyke's death. The 18-year-old cadet from Festus, Missouri, had been on life support after the June 24 rescue attempt. Southampton officials said witnesses told them Surdyke saw someone struggling in the water, rushed to help and went under himself. Officials say the other swimmer survived. Surdyke was entering his second year at the military academy. He would have turned 19 on July Fourth. His grandfather, Gary Surdyke, described him as someone "with character, integrity and faith," NBC's St. Louis affiliate KSDK reported. A former Ohio seminary student who pleaded guilty to trying to adopt and buy baby girls in Mexico so he could sexually molest them was sentenced in San Diego Friday to more than 15 years behind bars. In April, Joel Alexander Wright, 23, admitted to seeking sex with infants he wanted to adopt from Tijuana. He will serve 188 months in federal custody, the office of U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy, of the Southern District, confirmed. At Wright's sentencing, U.S. District Judge Dana M. Sabraw also imposed the added condition of lifetime supervision. In his plea agreement, Wright admitted he had written numerous explicit emails in which he described, in graphic detail, his desire to sexually assault girls under the age of 4 in Mexico. There are no words to describe the horror that might have happened, had an innocent baby been placed in this mans arms, Duffy said in a statement in April. Wright, a former seminary student at Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, had plans of becoming a priest. At his sentencing, Judge Sabraw noted that in his role as a seminary student, Wright held himself out as someone kind, thoughtful and trustworthy, when all the while he plotted a heinous crime. "This defendant represents the darkest of demons," Duffy said Friday. "His attempted crime was unthinkable. I applaud our law enforcement partners for stopping Wright in his tracks, and for all their efforts to keep children safe from individuals who have a sexual interest in children both here in the United States and abroad. On Nov. 25, 2015, investigators said Wright began posting ads on Craigslist seeking a female tour guide in Mexico, according to his guilty plea. An Ohio student studying to be a priest traveled to San Diego Friday seeking sex with infants, according to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. NBC 7s Omari Fleming reports. When an unidentified witness replied to his ads, he told the witness he wanted to adopt/own a baby girl (under the age of 3) and have sexual intercourse with her, according to the plea agreement. According to court documents, Wright also communicated via email with an undercover agent. In an email with the investigator, Wright said he had purchased infant pain relief medication and a pretty outfit for a 1- or 2-year-old in anticipation of a would-be encounter with the child. Getty Images On Jan. 29, 2016, Wright flew into the San Diego International Airport. There, he called the undercover agent with whom he had been emailing and told him he had landed in San Diego. Wright thought the agent was going to help him get to Mexico and did not realize he had been communicating with someone in law enforcement. Wright had two cell phones and a duffel bag. Inside, the bag agents found baby clothes, sleep aids, bottles, toys, candy and lubricant, prosecutors said. Special agents with Homeland Security Investigations approached Wright outside the airports baggage claim area and arrested him on the spot. According to officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Wright had planned to travel from San Diego to Mexico to have sex with at least three babies. He pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted enticement of a minor. Wright will have to register as a lifetime sex offender. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys play Soviet spies in the FX series "The Americans," but Russell revealed a family secret Friday on NBC's "Today." The 40-year-old actress was promoting her new movie, "Free State of Jones," when Matt Lauer took a moment to congratulate her on the recent arrival of her baby. "You just had a baby about a month and a half ago," he said. "Am I correct in reading, Ms. Russell, that you have not yet revealed the gender of the baby or the baby's name?" She then told Lauer that she and Rhys welcomed a son named Sam. "He's so good," said the actress, who is also mom to son River, 9, and daughter, Willa, 4, from a previous marriage."[Sam] is big and fat and nice," Russell added. As for Rhys, a first-time dad, Russell told Lauer he's doing "so well." Earlier in the interview, Russell discussed director Gary Ross' "Free State of Jones." "It's based on a true, incredible story. It's just this epic, historic film," she said. "I think Matthew McConaughey is great in it." McConaughey plays a Mississippi farmer who leads an uprising against the Confederacy. "He's an epic character, and he's not just an altruistic, good guy," Russell said. "He has a lot of flaws and grit." Preparations for Saturday night's fireworks show began bright and early on a barge at the Navy Yard Saturday for a crew from Pyrotecnico. NBC10: Sara Smith Kevin Stead, of Pyrotecnico, gave NBC10 a tour of the barge while workers set up to prepare for a second show at the Delaware River Waterfront as part of Wawa Welcome America. NBC10: Sara Smith Stead said shells are set by size into tubes on the barge. The sizes determine the height of the firework to create a layered effect for the show. NBC10: Sara Smith "A few thousand" fireworks line the barge from end to end. NBC10: Sara Smith The charges are connected to a computer to sync with with music and to make sure that the right charges go off at the correct moment to make a cohesive and exciting display. NBC10: Sara Smith A little over 3 miles of wire are used to connect shells to the charges. NBC10: Sara Smith The best place to see this display? Penns Landing, of course. NBC10: Sara Smith The team from Pyrotecnico also sets off the fireworks on the Parkway on the 4th of July. Stead says backing up from the stage will give you the best view of that display. Hillary Clinton begins July with $44 million in cash to continue hammering Republican Donald Trump in the race for the White House. The presumptive Democratic nominee raised $40.5 million in June. Her campaign announced the numbers Friday. Clinton has spent far more than Trump building up voter contact operations and beginning to advertise ahead of the November election. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has not disclosed his June numbers. One Trump email solicitation claims he raised $11 million in a few days and set a goal of raising another $10 million by Thursday. In the last two weeks, Trump has attended fundraisers hosted by controversial Republican donors, according to NBC News. The hosts of the Denver and West Virginia event have been under investigation one for a campaign scandal, while the other was accused of pressuring employees to contribute to Republican candidates and his own PAC. Trump paid for most of his primary bid with personal loans and has been slow to begin fundraising. He landed just over $3 million from donors in May, compared to Clinton's more than $26 million. Millions of Americans are currently living with hip and knee replacements. While replacement surgery can be a good option, it is not without risk. There can be serious complications. Consumer Reports has advice to help you improve the odds of a successful outcome. Consumer Reports took a close look at hospitals in the San Diego area to see how well patients did following replacement surgery. It looked at hospitals infection rates, complication rates and readmission rates and found it really matters which hospital you go to. For example: Sharp Grossmont Hospital had zero infections for knee surgeries while Pomerado Hospitaljust 24 miles awaywas one of the hospitals that got Consumer Reports bottom rating, 268 percent worse than the national average. Consumer Reports reached out to Pomerado Hospital for a comment about its low rating, which is based on publicly available data from the State of California. A spokesperson said: We recognize the importance of preventing surgical site infections after knee replacement surgery and because we take this issue seriously, Pomerado Hospital uses stringent procedures to minimize the risk of infection." Since this report based on 2014 rates, a physician-led multidisciplinary team at Pomerado Hospital has worked together to reduce post-surgical infection rate after knee replacements to only 1% by the end of 2015, which is consistent with the national average. The work of this team has been recognized by being awarded designation as an Orthopedic Center of Excellence. Pomerado Hospitals Orthopedic Center of Excellence team continues their work with a goal of zero percent infection rate after these procedures and is in the top 1% nationally for its pain management program. Consumer Reports and the California Department of Insurance have created an online tool to help people check out hospitals. Just enter San Diego and youll see ratings on a scale of one to five. You can find the tool here. The website also has other helpful information. You can find out how much your surgery is likely to cost and look up hospital ratings for childbirth, as well as search doctor groups for their ratings for cancer screening, and treating diabetes and back pain. Scientists and doctors from UC San Diego and Brazil met at Rady Childrens Hospital in Kearny Mesa Friday to share the latest research on the Zika virus and efforts to develop a possible vaccine. Clinical work on related diseases in the same family as Zika has scientists hopeful. The good news is that we have related vaccines that are much closer to development. In fact there's a vaccine for a virus called Dangie virus that is starting to be used in certain parts of the world, and that's in the same family of viruses as Zika, Doctor Mark Sawyer, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, said. Symptoms of Zika are usually mild and last from two to seven days. They include fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise and headache. The disease can be dangerous for pregnant women, however. The mosquito-borne virus can spread through sex and has caused women in several countries to give birth to children with birth defects, including microcephaly and Guillain-Barre syndrome. The virus has also been detected within the U.S. Maryland health officials said 31 people in the state have been infected with the Zika virus. Health officials told The Baltimore Sun all the cases were travel-related, and no one has contracted Zika from being bitten by a mosquito in the state. However, if a mosquito bites an infected person and then bites someone else, the disease can spread. Health and Mental Hygiene Secretary Van Mitchell said in a statement the department is trying to prevent such occurrences. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also announced Friday that it's awarding the state $366,000 for Zika prevention. The virus can also be transmitted sexually, and it can cause serious birth defects if pregnant women become infected. Most people who contract it suffer only mild symptoms. An Alexandria, Virginia, man was shot and killed early Saturday morning. Police responded to the 1000 block of First Street around 3:30 a.m. Saturday and found a man who had been shot in the upper body. The victim, Saquan Hall, 23, of Alexandria, was taken to the hospital, where he died about three hours later. This is the fourth homicide in Alexandria this year, according to police. Neighbors said they heard multiple gunshots go off overnight. "I saw a guy got shot and people was hollering and crying and everything, but what touched my heart the most was the mother, when she came she said, 'Where's my son?' Because I'm a mother and I have children, my heart just goes out for the family. The mother and her family," one woman who lives nearby told News4. A small memorial made of balloons and flowers was placed near the murder scene. The Alexandria Police Department said it will hold a public meeting at Charles Recreation Center on Wednesday, July 6 at 6:30 p.m. to address community concerns about the homicide. A Frederick, Maryland woman has been sitting in jail more than 4,000 miles away in West Africa without any communication with her husband and two daughters for more than two months. Fanta Jawara was visiting her home country of Gambia in April when she was arrested during an anti-government demonstration. Jawara has been charged with unlawful assembly, rioting and inciting violence -- among many other charges. Last month, the U.S. State Department said Jawara participated in the protest and it is closely monitoring her detainment. But her family said she wasn't part of the demonstration and was walking to a bank nearby at the time of the protests. "They just haul anybody in sight. Threw them into trucks," said Momodou Darboe, Jawara's uncle. Her husband, Ebrima Jawara, said he and his daughters desperately want her to come home. "I miss her a lot. She's everything in our house," he said. Their 17-year-old daughter, Aminata Jawara, said she wants her mother to know, "We love her and we miss her and to stay strong." "We miss her and we hope she can come home soon," said 12-year-old Sarah Jawara. The family believes her detention is political as Jawara's uncle in Gambia is the leader of the opposition party. Several Maryland lawmakers, including senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin, have urged for her release, saying in part, "We are extremely concerned about her continued incarceration and call for her immediate release." Both the State Department and Ebrima Jawara said they're concerned about her treatment in the prison where she's being held by the government of President Yahya Jammeh. Fanta's husband is a grandson of Jammeh's predecessor, Dawda Jawara, who was ousted in a 1994 military coup. A Maryland man has been sentenced to seven years in prison for having sex with a 14-year-old girl in Virginia. The Commonwealth's Attorney's Office in Leesburg, Virginia, said in a news release that 27-year-old David Anthony Fusco of Clarksburg, Maryland, was sentenced Friday. He pleaded guilty in January to two felony charges of carnal knowledge. Prosecutors say in 2013, Fusco and the girl met on and online social network and communicated by Facebook, Kik and text messages. Authorities say in December 2013, Fusco traveled from Maryland to Leesburg and met the girl in a park. Prosecutors say Fusco and the girl engaged in sex acts in his car. Montgomery County, Maryland, firefighters are battling a house fire in Silver Spring, Maryland, Saturday morning and initial reports said people were trapped inside the burning building. Crews were called to the 2100 block of Norbeck Road sometime after 7 a.m. Spokesman Pete Piringer described the fire a heavy. An elderly woman escaped the fire but told rescuers her children were still inside. Fire officials were able to determine the children were her doll collection. Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the blaze. No additional injuries were reported. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has created a stir on social media by posting online an image of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton with what appears to be a Star of David on a background of dollar bills. Trump took Clinton's old Twitter avatar celebrating her status as the first presumptive female presidential nominee and added a background of dollar bills along with the words "Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!" written over a six-point star. The image posted Saturday quickly drew scrutiny online, raising accusations of anti-Semitism. Trump deleted the tweet later in the day and replaced it with a version that uses a circle in place of the star. A Trump campaign spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the Associated Press. A Hamden man who volunteers as a youth minister for a local church is being accused of having sexual relations with a minor, police said. Charges for Lionel McFadden include second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor. An investigation was launched by the Hamden Police Department Special Victims Unit and an arrest warrant for McFadden was issued. The 27-year-old turned himself into police on June 30. McFadden's bond was set at $20,000 and he is expected to appear in court on July 14. A Sanford, Maine, man stole and crashed a pick-up truck Friday, according to police in Berwick, Maine. Benjamin Harding, 39, allegedly stole a truck from Hannaford's in Sanford before slamming into trees on Long Swamp Road. Police found Harding after receiving reports of a reckless driver on Little River Road. Harding faces multiple charges including Operating Under the Influence, Operating After Habitual Offender Revocation, Driving to Endanger and Theft by Unauthorized Use of Property. He also faces charges in relation to stealing the truck. Spooky events, stomp grapes and the return of the Kings this weekend Its the spookiest time of the year, and there are a few events happening this weekend in Newport County to mark the occasion. Champaign, IL (61820) Today Partly cloudy skies in the morning will give way to cloudy skies during the afternoon. High 57F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Overcast. Low 39F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Army @adgpi rescue operations commenced this morning at first light in affected Uttarakhand villages. pic.twitter.com/ls4IPqYC2I DPR (@SpokespersonMoD) July 2, 2016 We are saddened by the news of the deaths.A compensation of rupees 2 lakh has been announced for the kin of the deceased," Rawat had said. Heavy rains were predicted in Uttarakhand on Saturday in the next 48 hours a day after 33 people were killed in a cloudburst in Chamoli and Pittoragarh districts even as all major rivers in the region swelled and crossed the danger level mark.3 NDRF teams conducted rescue operations in different parts of the state after it received around 100 mm rainfall in the last 48 hours.The met department has issued a warning of very heavy rainfall for the next three days as schools in 13 districts of Uttarakhand remained closed on Saturday.The death toll due to the tragedy may rise as the authorities fear that many could be trapped under the debris after their houses collapsed or were swept away due to the floods that followed the cloud burst.ITBP officials have revealed that at least 7 bodies have been pulled out from debris in Pittoragarh and a separate team has been deployed to conduct rescue operations in Nolda village, 35 kms from Mirthi in Pittoragarh district.The maximum damage was inflicted on Basted village where at least 30 people were feared to be trapped in the debris.More than 60 houses were flattened due to the cloud burst after incessant rains in the region. As many as 200 cattle have reportedly died in the villages.The Rishikesh highway however has been opened for traffic after the authorities cleared the area following land slides that stranded dozens of vehicles on both sides.Pic Courtesy: ANI TwitterEarlier, Chief Minister Harish Rawat had on Friday announced a compensation of 2 lakh rupees for the kin of the deceased.Large tracts of agriculture fields were destroyed in Suva village of the Dharchula area and three bridges linking the village have been washed away.Pic Courtesy: ANI TwitterThe Thal-Munsyari road was also cut-off and dozens of vehicles remained stranded on both sides.Home Minister Rajnath Singh too had expressed grief over the deaths and had promised to do the needful.Santosh Badoni, deputy director, state disaster management centre had said that it was getting difficult for the rescue team to communicate with the authorities in Pittoragarh.Pic Courtesy: ANI TwitterThe Yamunotri highway, near Kharadi, was also damaged leading to traffic being halted.Entry of heavy vehicles was halted on the Kedarnath highway after a landslide at Gangolgaon.In June 2013, nearly 6,000 people, including pilgrims and tourists, were killed by floods and landslides in the state, destroying hundreds of villages and towns in one of the country's worst natural disasters.(With inputs from IANS) Melbourne: Millions of Australians began voting on Saturday in national elections that pits Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull against Labour opposition leader Bill Shorten who is vying to become the country's fifth premier in three years, with opinion polls predicting a close race. Thousands of voters queued up to cast their votes at the polling stations that opened at 8:00 AM (local time). Over 15 million voters are expected to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of over 1,600 candidates, including five of Indian origin, contesting from over 55 political parities. The polls will elect all 226 members including 150 members for the lower house of the 45th Parliament after an eight week official campaign period following the double dissolution announced by Prime Minister Turnbull in April. In the 150 seat House of Representatives, Labour currently holds 55 seats, the coalition 90 and five seats are held by minor parties or independents. The main contest is between Turnbull and his conservative coalition against a Labour opposition led by Shorten. A Newspoll published in The Australian showed Turnbull's Liberal/National coalition 50.5 to 49.5% in front on a two party basis. The United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union appears to have benefited Turnbull. Australian Election Commission said it had 75,000 people working around the country in about 7000 polling stations. Meanwhile, four men were reportedly arrested overnight and later released for allegedly damaging polling booths in St Kilda area in Melbourne. Victoria police said a number of people had damaged signs and posters at polling booths in the area and elsewhere. In Sydney, 61-year-old Turnbull voted along with his wife Lucyat at the Double Bay Public School in his seat of Wentworth. He repeated his call for voters to choose the Coalition and avoid a hung parliament. "As I said there's never been a more exciting time to vote for a stable majority Coalition government, an economic plan that secures our future," he said. Shorten, 49, continued his last minute campaign in the key marginal seats of Reid, Lindsay and Macquariein western Sydney. He is expected to fly to Melbourne this afternoon to cast his vote in his electorate of Maribyrnong. Shorten said he was confident Labor could win. "Labor is very competitive," he said, adding "I know that some of the conservative political papers have run their drum beat and whatever happens, the Liberals will win. The fact of the matter is that Labor's agenda has been speaking to the daily lives and experiences of Australians." In May, Turnbull announced double dissolution of Parliament which led to two months of election campaign filled with slogans and promises. New Delhi: India's entry into the elite club of Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) may pose a challenge to China, strategists say. That is because it would open the door to legally sell or transfer its sophisticated missiles to others, particularly to countries in Asia. "MTCR would legitimise and speed up the process of selling missiles, especially the BrahMos to Vietnam which had already shown interest in buying it, and Hanoi would not hesitate in hitting a Chinese ship," Bharat Karnad, research professor at Centre for Policy Research and a national security expert said. He added that if India speeds up the process of sale of BrahMos to Vietnam, it could pose a threat to China's 'Fourth Fleet', or the 'Ghost Fleet', that is eyeing dominance in the Indian Ocean, India's backyard. The Chinese Navy has three fleet commands -- one each in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea. In late 2014, reports came about a fourth fleet that is being deployed in the Indian Ocean Region, a point of concern for India. "BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile. It doesn't give a chance to the ships to defend themselves. One shot means one kill," Karnad said, explaining why the BrahMos is the most sought after weapon. "India is a soft country. Vietnam has a stomach to fight, they are not risk averse as India. Chinese can't take risks with Vietnam, which will respond vigorously," Karnad said, adding "This will create a very difficult situation for Chinese. They will be worried." Vietnam and China are at loggerheads over the South China Sea, with Beijing laying claim to most of the mineral-rich sea. China has also protested over Vietnam and India entering into agreements on oil exploration cooperation in the sea. Raising of a Fourth Fleet was Beijing's response to the New Delhi-Hanoi cooperation. "A country is known by its enemy -- as we are by Pakistan, which is a minor threat. China doesn't consider us a threat as it does by the USA. The MTCR would change that perception in China regarding India," he said. India has become the 35th member of Missile Technology Control Regime. China has been trying to become a member of the regime for 12 years. The membership would help legitimise transactions of high-end missile and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology. India could also use this membership as an opportunity to block the entry of China and Pakistan into the club, experts suggested. Besides Vietnam, countries like the Philippines, South Korea, Algeria, Greece, Malaysia, Thailand, Egypt Singapore, Venezuela and Bulgaria have shown interest in buying the BrahMos, made through an India-Russia collaboration. Apart from missile technology, India can now also acquire an earlier denied technology for developing cryogenic engines -- crucial for space explorations, as well as for acquiring ballistic missile shield or protection system. Strategic affairs expert Uday Bhaskar said that while nuclear and missile technology is the core of strategic capability of any country, the Missile Technology Control Regime membership would help in setting up new perspectives for India. It may also help in procuring Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, drones including the MQ-1 Predator drones from the US. India officially joined Missile Technology Control Regime on June 27, days after it was denied entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), another elite club of 48 nations following strong Chinese opposition. "It is desirable for India to be part of both NSG and MTCR," Bhaskar said. But Karnad feels otherwise. "I don't understand why there was such a hue and cry for NSG, which is really not necessary. We have already crossed the weapons threshold and already have all those leverages required under the 2008 waiver," Karnad said, adding that the NSG might add further restrictions. India was given a unique waiver by then 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group in September 2008, lifting an embargo on civil nuclear trade imposed after India exploded its first nuclear device in 1974. Beijing then too had opposed the decision and agreed only after Washington intervened. Chennai: A man suspected to have murdered 24-year-old Infosys employee Swathi in Chennai was arrested on Friday night in Tirunelveli. Police said the accused, identified as Ram Kumar, slashed his throat and attempted to commit suicide soon after he was caught. He will be brought to Chennai on Saturday. Police said Kumar stalked Swathi for months before hacking her with a sickle at a railway platform in the state capital. The motive of the murder is being investigated and other probe-related details in the case are awaited. "He followed her a few times earlier. He planned for the murder, we got proof in various angles that's how we fixed the accused. He is the only one accused and did not have an accomplice," Chennai police chief TK Rajendran said. Kumar is an engineering graduate and a native of Shencottah near Tirunelveli. He was staying at the Choolaimedu area in the city where Swathi had resided for quite some time. Swathi, employed with software giant Infosys, was hacked to death around 6.30 AM on a platform in Nungambakkam railway station on June 24. The killer was seen on CCTV cameras running away from the scene as those around did nothing to stop him or shift her to hospital. Pls Bhaiyon, who r upset with my statement, either u r not ready to introspect or u r in a hurry 2 reach 2 a conclusion. irrfan (@irrfan_k) July 1, 2016 For me religion is abt personal introspection , it's a source for compassion, wisdom and moderation n not for stereotyping n fanaticism. irrfan (@irrfan_k) July 1, 2016 Clerics don't scare me !! Thank God I don't live in a country governed by religious contractors (thekedars ) #FREEDOM irrfan (@irrfan_k) July 1, 2016 : Irrfan's remark questioning sacrifice of animals during Eid-uz-Zoha has invited sharp reaction from Muslim clerics, who have asked the actor to focus on his work, but the star says he is not scared of them as he does not live in a country governed by religiouscontractors."Please Bhaiyon, who are upset with my statement, either you are not ready to introspect or you are in a hurry to reach to a conclusion," Irrfan tweeted."For me religion is about personal introspection , it's a source for compassion, wisdom and moderation and not for stereotyping and fanaticism. Clerics don't scare me !! Thank God I don't live in a country governed by religious contractors (thekedars ) #FREEDOM," the 49-year-old actorwrote.During the promotion of his upcoming film Madaari in Jaipur recently, the actor had raised questions over sacrifice of animals during Bakrid."People should understand the real meaning behind a particular ritual. Animals used to be the prime source of food when the ritual would have started and people sacrificed their food. Today, one buys two goats from market and kill them in the name of sacrifice; then how come it becomes a real sacrifice?"Muslim clerics took strong exception to his comments and asked the actor to focus on his work instead of making his own interpretation of religious customs."Irrfan is an actor and he should focus on his work only. He has no religious knowledge and he should have contacted some cleric or learnt from them before raising any question regarding Qurbaani or Ramzan," Khalid Usmani, city qazi, said.He said Islam has no vague things and Irrfan should improve his knowledge.Another scholar Maulana Abdul Wahid Khatri, state secretary of Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Hind, also said the actor should concentrate on his career instead of speaking about the religion. Sibi, Karunakaran, Sathyaraj, Rajendran, Bindu MadhaviDharani DharanHorror comedy is the new Sambar in Tamil cinema. Its present everywhere. Theres at least one horror comedy running in the theatres all year round. And, Sundar C. and Raghava Lawrence, have their own Aranmanais and Kanchanas that keep coming with the sole purpose of damaging our brain.Yes, some horror films are lovely and some comedies are a delight. When the two genres are combined, they make a great pair. But the makers have to dig a little deeper to make us feel awesome about watching them. Sadly, that happens only for a few movies, and that is the single most disadvantage of this genre.Jackson Durai stars father son duo Sathyaraj and Sibi along with the regular comedy guys Karunakaran, Rajendran, and Yogi Babu. Rajendrans entry scene resides at a level higher than Sibis introduction scene. Sibi, a police officer, is told to visit a village to verify the presence / absence of a ghost by Mahanadhi Shankar. Shankars voice, like Rajendrans, is a cue to make us giggle. The ghost of JD happens to be an Englishman who reads English newspapers.Sibi hops on his bike and goes to the village. Somehow, our makers make it a point to include romance in whatever they do. So, Sibi falls in love with Bindu Madhavi, in the haunted village. The actress is seen in about a dozen scenes in the movie. It isnt even a supporting role, its a cameo.Karunakaran doesnt play a sidekick here. Hes seen as an equal; still the heroine is made to choose Sibi, because Sibi is the hero.Karunakaran and Sibi stay at a haunted house for a week where all the drama unfolds. At the beginning, its just a series of gags. The film takes its time to drop the horror bomb on us. A flashback episode set before the Independence is brought on later. Demonte Colonys backstory was better. It connected the past and the present well. Jackson Durai fails to do that as all the ghosts are stupid. In wanting to be humorous and scary, the ghosts fail to understand their own goals.Sathyaraj as the leader of a rebel group looks convincing. His ghostly expressions made one chuckle. The way he yells Jackson in the climactic portion will crack you up. But one has to wait till the end for the big laughs, and thats not an asset for a horror comedy.The father and son share a scene in which Sibi says hes like a son to him, and thats probably the only scene that reminds us of their true relationship. Rajendran tries to be a Nagesh sometimes and a Senthil sometimes. It does work, though. Karunakarans one-liners need more polishing. They arent as effective as they should be.Jackson Durai begins as a comedy and also ends up as a comedy. Just that Dharani Dharans horror elements do not find a place in the film. Its a comedy without any horror.2.5/5 Mumbai: Refuting plagiarism charges against his short film Kriti, director Shirish Kunder has accused Nepali filmmaker Aneel Neupane of manipulating the flaw on the video sharing platform Vimeo to build his case. Neupane, a filmmaker from Nepal had recently written on his Facebook page that Kunders psychological-thriller starring Manoj Bajpayee was a copy of his short movie Bob and alleged that the Jaan-E-Mann director "practically stole the plot and made it into his film." Neupane wrote that his film was ready in October 2015 and he uploaded it on Vimeo "as a private video to share it with close friends" before releasing it on YouTube on May 12, this year. Kunder's film was released online on June 22 with much fan fare where actress Kangana Ranaut was the special guest. Kunder said anyone could replace an existing video on Vimeo with a new one and manipulate the date on which it was published, even being able to give an older date. "In July last year, we (Manoj and I) talked about the story idea (of Kriti). After finalising the dates and everything, we planned to shoot in February this year and then decided to release in June," Shirish told reporters. "In between, a guy who makes marriage videos, manipulates the flaw on Vimeo, shoots a film on handycam and uses the flaw to put in an old date to claim that the film was made much before ours and we stole," he added. Manoj said he was hurt by people's comments on social media regarding the accusation of Kriti being a copy. "In my long career no film has been accused of being a copy. It is so unfortunate that the entire idea came from a lunch party at Eid last year July. I told Shirish if he has any plans of making a short a film. He had a script but he said it was for a young character," Manoj said. "We were talking, he wasn't even making short films. He is known for full length feature films. It is hurtful for me because it was started from my side films) now people are saying we stole the film. We are being called names on twitter, people are abusing us on Facebook," he added. The Aligarh actor also said that he was feeling bad for Kunder who was "being victimised by an ambitious crook.You read his (Neupane's) bio, he makes marriage videos. Nobody is listening to us. He played the card of being poor and many people went towards him. I was feeling sad that over the years the credibility I have built was of no use," Manoj said. Recently, the makers of Kriti sent a legal notice to the filmmaker. Advocate Rizwan Siddiquee said Neupane was yet to reply to it. The 18-minute short film also stars Neha Sharma and Radhika Apte and the tells the story of a mentally ill person played by Manoj Bajpayee. Washington: The State Department is putting al-Qaida's branch in the Indian subcontinent on its list of foreign terrorist groups. Thursday's action bans Americans from engaging in transactions with the group or its leader, Asim Umar, and freezes any assets the group has within US jurisdiction. It also prohibits people from knowingly providing support to the group. Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri formed al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent in a video address in September 2014. The group claimed responsibility for the September 6, 2014, attack on a naval dockyard in Karachi, Pakistan, in which militants attempted to hijack a Pakistani Navy frigate. It also claimed responsibility for the 2015 killing of activists and writers in Bangladesh, including US citizen Avijit Roy, a local US embassy employee, and three Bangladeshi nationals. Urging all nations to adopt the CCIT by the next session, he said that India was disappointed that the resolution on Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy adopted by the Assembly failed to advance its early enactment. The failure to adopt the convention signals that the exponential rise in terrorist activities around the world has left us untouched [name]Akbaruddin [/name] As terrorists struck a massive blow in Bangladesh on Friday, India called for quick action to adopt the long-stalled Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) and expressed disappointment that the General Assembly failed to push for its early adoption.Speaking at the General Assembly while Islamic State terrorists were carrying out an attack in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave and taking hostages, India's Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin said, "The perpetrators of terrorist attacks as well as the States that support and sponsor or provide safe havens to terrorists or terrorist groups must be made accountable."Adopting it "would show that the international community is determined and pledges to take concrete actions on counter-terrorism by filling in the gaps that are there in the existing regime," he said.The resolution lacked a sense of urgency as it merely called upon "all States to make every effort to conclude a comprehensive convention on international terrorism."Akbaruddin later said that India's "disappointment was that we would have preferred stronger language" in the resolution about the CCIT, "basically setting a finite time frame for adoption of CCIT."The convention was originally proposed by India 20 years ago and its draft has been deadlocked since 2012 because of differences on defining terrorism and terrorists. Certain countries claim they are "liberation movements" and "freedom fighters" and try to exempt those that they favor."No belief, justification, political cause or argument can be used to justify the acts of terrorism," Akbaruddin said in his speech to the Assembly.He reiterated India's suggestion to create a counter-terrorism czar at the UN to oversee the fight against terror across the organisation and "convey a clear signal that counter terrorism has a significant place on the UN agenda.""Currently there are nearly 40 entities involved in different ways in the fight against terrorism," Akbaruddin said. "It would, therefore, be useful to have a senior official or an entity to coordinate the entire range of activities and bring more focus to such activities."In working towards an international framework to fight terrorism, he said that India has concluded more than 40 bilateral treaties on extradition and mutual legal assistance and has set up joint mechanisms to discuss counter-terrorism with more than 25 countries.The Assembly resolution urged nations "that have not done so to consider becoming parties in a timely manner to the existing international conventions and protocols against terrorism."Masud Bin Momen, the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh, noted that at that very moment a situation involving "armed assailants" was unfolding in his country. He called for making adequate funds available for implementing counter-terrorism initiatives.The Assembly resolution asked member nations "to prevent the abuse of non-governmental, non-profit and charitable organisations by and for terrorists,." It urged these organisations to prevent attempts by terrorists to take advantage of their status.The French under-secretary in charge of counter-terrorism, Catherine Calothy, also called for efficient coordination in UN's efforts and avoiding duplication. She added, "There can be no effectiveness without coordination."Russian diplomat Vladimir Andreev also denounced the attempts to legitimise some terrorists. He said, "Politically driven practices in dividing terrorists into the 'bad guys' and the 'not-so-bad guys' had seen the destabilization of the Middle East and North Africa." Washington: The hostages crisis in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter is the latest in a string of attacks that have sparked international alarm and prompted the United States and Bangladesh to promise more cooperation against violent extremism in the Muslim-majority nation. But the two governments still tiptoe around the divisive issue of whether transnational terror groups like the Islamic State group are involved in the mounting bloodshed, which has included a wave of killings of liberals, foreigners and religious minorities. The identities of the attackers in Dhaka on Friday were not known, but IS claimed its fighters carried out the assault, issuing a statement through its media arm, Amaq, that was reported by the monitoring group Search for International Terrorist Entities. IS and al-Qaida affiliates have claimed responsibility for many of the previous attacks, typically by smaller groups of machete-wielding assailants, that have claimed nearly two dozen lives since 2013. The frequency of attacks has increased in recent months. The violence has stoked fears over the rise of radicalism in the traditionally moderate country and cast a shadow over the achievements of its 160 million people in economic development and fighting poverty. Bangladesh's government has blamed domestic groups aligned with political opposition parties, and maintains that groups like Islamic State and al-Qaida have no presence in the country. Critics contend that stance in part reflects the country's deeply polarised politics and the government's increasingly authoritarian tendencies. The United States, a key aid donor and export market for Bangladesh, has voiced growing concern over the violence, particularly after a former United States Embassy employee and gay rights activist was killed in April. The killing was claimed by Ansar al-Islam, the Bangladesh division of al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent. Bangladesh's response to the violence was top of the agenda at annual high-level talks in Washington last week. The two sides shared the view that violent extremism is a global problem, and looked at ways they could improve cooperation through intelligence sharing and programs to combat radicalisation. But Marcia Bernicat, the United States ambassador to Bangladesh, said after the talks that they did not delve into what kind of reach that groups like Islamic State may have inside Bangladesh. She said Bangladeshi officials steadfastly deny that Islamic States or al-Qaida is in the country, but she thinks officials recognise the influence of those groups through social media is a danger that they have to address. "If I go home now and turn on my computer, ISIS can send me a message on my Facebook page, or an email to me, or I can find ISIS if I want to and communicate with someone. This is a new kind of threat. They don't need to be in your country to affect things in your country," Bernicat said, using an alternative abbreviation for the Islamic State group. Human rights activists have criticised Bangladeshi authorities' response to the killings, but the government has recently shown more resolve. Authorities rounded up nearly 200 suspected militants in a recent week-long crackdown coinciding with the holy month of Ramadan. Bangladeshi Foreign Secretary Mohammad Shahidul Haque said the Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently based in Bangladesh providing support in identifying people who are in danger of turning radical. He said Bangladeshi authorities have made arrests and initiated legal cases in dozens of terrorist and extremist attacks. "The government is providing whatever is possible within its limits and resources and will continue to do so. That is our commitment, coming from our prime minister," Haque said. But the question of who is behind the attacks remains a sensitive one. The government has accused local terrorists and opposition political parties - especially the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilise the nation, which both parties deny. But speaking after the talks in Washington, Haque said "The government is not blaming anyone. The government is trying to find out who is really involved in this." Analysts contend that the shrinking democratic space in Bangladesh could be creating conditions for more extremism and pre-occupying over-stretched law enforcers. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has tightened her control after easily winning 2014 elections that the opposition parties boycotted, alleging unfair conditions. Tarishi was 19 years old. She passed out from American School Dhaka. Presently, she was a student at Berkeley. https://t.co/oeTViJ8Xqa Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 2, 2016 It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these people? They don't have any religion. They (gunmen) defied the call of Ramadan's tarabi (special evening) prayers and went to kill people...The way they killed people is intolerable. They don't have any religion...terrorism is their religion [name]Sheikh Hasina[/name] An Indian girl is among the 20 people who were killed by heavily-armed terrorists at an upscale restaurant in the heart of Dhaka. Six gunmen were also killed and one was captured in a dawn raid on Friday.External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted the news of the demise of the girl.Twenty civilians, most being Italian or Japanese, were brutally hacked to death on Saturday by ISIS terrorists inside a restaurant popular in the high-security diplomatic zone. Bangladesh forces launched an assault killing six attackers and capturing one alive, ending Bangladesh's worst terror attack.Two senior police officers were also killed in the gunbattle that began on Friday night.Director of Military Operations Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said the terrorists slaughtered the hostages before the joint operation led by the armed forces began. Most of those killed were found with their throat slit, he added."Army Para commando Unit-1 led the operation and killed six terrorists within 13 minutes," Chowdhury told reporters.The mission condemned 'Operation Thunderbolt' was launched after the Prime Minister ordered the army to intervene to end the hostage crisis, he said.He said the bodies of the victims were recovered during a search in the Holey Artisan Bakery compound after the operation. The bodies were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital morgue for autopsy to confirm their identity.Gunshots and sounds of explosion rocked the area at 7:40 AM (local time) as security forces launched the final assault to end the siege.Minutes later, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced the end of siege and said security forces "successfully" wrapped up their operation, freeing 13 hostages after killing six terrorists and capturing one militant at the Spanish cafe."I thank Allah as we could destroy the terrorists and rescue the hostages," Hasina said, adding that "none of the terrorists could flee the scene, six of them were killed on the spot and one was captured alive."Hasina vowed to do everything to "uproot the militants and violent extremists" from Bangladesh. She said around 30 people were injured in the attack.Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack through its Amaq news agency, nearly four hours after the hostage crisis unfolded, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence group, which monitors jihadist activity online.It later issued a number of photographs of what it said were scenes from inside the restaurant. The pictures showed what appeared to be a number of bodies lying in pools of blood. Dhaka: Bangla police commandos are storming the restaurant in Dhaka's high-security Gulshan diplomatic area where Islamic State terrorists were holding at least 20 people, including an Indian, reports said Saturday morning. The move came after a few hours of calm following the midnight gunbattle with Bangladesh security forces in which two policemen were killed and 40 injured. CNN quoted eyewitnesses as saying that intense gunfire could be heard coming from the direction of Holey Artisan Bakery. A teenage Indian girl, was among the foreigners who were feared to have been taken hostage along with locals inside the restaurant. Her father was seen urging authorities to expedite negotiations for her safe release. Two persons -- an Argentine national and a Bangladeshi-- who had taken refuge in a nearby house when the the gunmen entered the restaurant, were rescued by police. Several foreigners, including Italians and Japanese, were feared to have been taken hostage along with locals inside the restaurant, they said. However, the total number of hostages still remains uncertain. Police also said they have detained two employees of the restaurant for questioning. At least nine terrorists shouting "Allahu Akbar" barged into the Holey Artisan Bakery, frequented by diplomats and expatriates, and opened indiscriminate fire at around 9:20 PM (local time) on Friday. Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack through its Amaq news agency, nearly four hours after the hostage crisis unfolded. Amaq also claimed that 20 people had been killed in the attack. The terror group posted photos on Saturday it claimed to be of foreigners killed in an attack on a cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where gunmen were holding hostages as police laid siege to the building, Amaq said. Security officials issued instructions to people in the neighbourhood to stay indoors. No one was allowed on the streets in the vicinity of the restaurant, a police official said on the condition of anonymity. Security forces, including Navy, Army and Air force personnel, were seen mobilising equipment in preparation for the operation. At least 13 hostages were rescued and 6 terrorists were gunned down after Bangla police commandos stormed the restaurant in Dhakas high-security Gulshan diplomatic area in a bid to rescue hostages held by Islamic State terrorists. The operation is over, said Brig. Gen. Mujibur Rahman to CNN, who was overseeing the troops in the rescue effort at Holey Artisan Bakery said after a 10-hour long siege. Hours earlier on Friday, two policemen were killed and 40 injured in a midnight gunbattle with the terrorists. The anti-terror operations were launched after talks of negotiation between security forces and the terrorists failed. Read all the Latest News , Breaking News , watch Top Videos and Live TV here. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus in the Marvel Universe ... and he's a mutant! No, really. Is starting the holiday season sooner and sooner every year Santa's Marvel mutant power? Hajj organiser ordered to pay costs for failed lawsuit Shukur Mohammed Shakeer sought to recover $250,000 from Rajans Travel Service, after he forked out the money to purchase additional airline tickets to travel to Saudi Arabia when his group encountered problems in London. However, his claim was dismissed and he was ordered to pay $46,500 in legal costs after he could not prove that the travel agency breached the contract they had entered into by way of misrepresentation. In a written ruling, Justice Ricky Rahim found that although there was evidence that a condition of the contract between Shakeer and the travel agency was that any travel arrangement to be made would be one which did not prevent entry into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Hajj leader failed to prove that the travel agency knew of any purported restrictions for travel into the Kingdom. In his ruling, the judge espoused the importance of the journey to Mecca, saying: The injunction to those of the Islamic faith to make the pilgrimage, being founded in Quranic admonition is so compelling to Muslims as to make it inconceivable that such persons would make arrangements for travel which leave their entry into the Kingdom in a state of uncertainty. It must be that this condition was the primary fundamental condition of the travel arrangement or else why travel at all, he said. He also added that it was common knowledge that the Hajj was of vital importance to Muslims and they considered the pilgrimage to be an obligation to God. Shakeer was represented by attorneys Michael Coppin and Farid Scoon while Michael Quamina appeared for Rajans Travel Service. Shakeer, in his claim, said he purchased 22 return airline tickets from TT to Mecca, Saudi Arabia in October 2009. He alleged that he was assured by Chandra Maharaj, of Ranjans Travel Service, that the route of TT to London to Doha, Qatar, then to Riyadh before finally landing at Jeddah in the Kingdom. Shakeer said he expressed reservations about the route and its permissibility, and after he was assured that it could be done, he purchased the tickets at a cost of $120,000. The group began its travel on November 19, 2009, but when they arrived at Heathrow Airport in London, and attempted to board the Qatar Airways flight to Doha, they were told that they could not. Shakeer said many of the pilgrims in his group began to cry uncontrollably and he was put in the position of having to explain that their lifelong ambition to make Hajj was in jeopardy. He said he was forced to purchase 22 additional return tickets for the pilgrims to travel from London directly to Jeddah, at a cost of $250,000. It was this sum that he sought to recover from Rajans Travel Service, for alleged breach of contract by innocent misrepresentation, negligent mis-statement and negligent misrepresentation. In their defence, the travel agency said there was no travel restriction in place and the act of preventing the pilgrims from boarding the aircraft in London to Riyadh was an act of Qatar Airways for which the travel agency was not responsible. Moving Tobagos fashion industry forward For fashion manager and CEO of Vice Versa fashion-company as well as the founder of Fashion Vanguard, Jamilia Alexander, the Tobago House of Assemblys (THA) foresight in partnering with the company has well set the Tobago fashion industry on its way to development and fruition. As the company and the THA readies itself for another visit to Fashion World Tokyo, the group has decided to merge pieces of music from Heartbeat Ensemble with Tobago movies, particularly of the Tobago Goat Race. The ingenious approach to marketing Tobago cultural products was borne as it sort to push the fashion industry forward. Alexander noted that there was great interest in Tobagos fashion at the 2015 trade show in Tokyo and so as a way to drive Tobagos creative sector, the concept of merging music and movies with articles of clothing sold by the designers was developed as the next phase in driving the growth of the Tobagos creative sector. Alexander said the industry hopes to sell approximately 800 pieces at the trade show later this year and with each piece sold an accompanying downloading link for a movie and music will be sold with it. She said, as she delivered the presentation at the launch, that Tobagos aesthetic was fresh and that it was linked, closely, to its cultures and communities. The Tobago fashion aesthetic also told a story, she added. The price for each film and music track would be worked into the overall cost for the article of clothing. For vice chairman of the Fashion Association of Trinidad and Tobago, Arnold Best the countrys fashion industry is an evolving thing but that the current global market was about fast fashionwhich means producing articles of clothing for a quick sales. Best, along with the secretary of the Division of Community Development and Culture, Dr Denise Tsoiafatt-Angus, were present at the launch of fashion vanguards project at the Gulf City mall, Lowlands, Tobago last week. Best noted that the fashion industry if well-developed could generate billions for the TT economy and create employment for many. Photographers, models and other side professions benefitted from the growth and further development of the fashion industry. In an interview, Best said the industry also needed to unite to create the necessary global impact. All entities need to come together and sit and come up with a proper plan, he said. The industry, he said, needed greater support and buy-in by Government and non-governmental agencies if it were to go forward, Best said the THA saw the wisdom in investing in the fashion industry and so did very well While there were many fashion designers in the country, there were issues of getting them to market. He said linkages had been created with Colombia to assist with mass production of the product and getting the pieces to market. At Tokyo 2015, Best, who also attended, said the vibes and the colours of the Caribbean brought the designers to the booth. This was the Caribbean fashion aesthetic, he added. To further the growth of the industry, he noted that it began in the nations schools. There also needed to be greater understanding of the fashion business. Tsoiafatt-Angus noted that this project was set to revolutionise Tobagos creative industry. She said it was set to take fashion from the runways to the corridors of fashion and create a collaborative link between film and music as well. I dont think any formula would work better, she said. The project, she said, as she delivered the feature address, has been two years in the making. The Tobago fashion industry is virtually untapped, she said. Tobagos fashion was recognised, as the wings upon which to carry film and music. Many of the islands designers, she said, had now been connected with production houses in Colombia. Tsoiafatt-Angus noted that Tobagos creative sector had a strong future and once hard work was applied the sector was set to really explode. Friends, pannists cheer Williams 85th birthday Williams revolutionised steelpan construction and tuning with the development of the spider web pan. At the age of 20 he was chosen to be a member of the now famous Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra (TAS PO) which toured Europe in the 50s. In 2008 he received the Order of Trinidad and Tobago an award which he wears proudly. Friends like Len Boogsie Sharpe, Kenneth Clarke the youngest member of Williams Pan AM North Stars Steel Orchestra, Fitzroy Henry of the Pan Tuners Guild and members of the Northern Region and Central Executive of Pan Trinbago were present enjoying the evening. Members of bp Renegades Youth Steel Orchestra also put in an appearance and were pleased to be in the company of this great man as they read information and saw the many awards and trophies he won during his career. Pannist and arranger Robert Tobitt provided music for the evening and was joined by Boogsie to perform a few songs. CLICO CRIMINALS In a long-awaited statement on the Report in Parliament, Rowley said, a number of adverse findings of criminal misconduct of a kleptocratic nature were found and recommendations made which would be for the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) to consider. Having perused the Report myself, I can advise the population that it contains very serious allegations of criminal misconduct on the part of a handful of privileged individuals who were associated with the Clico/CLF group of companies, the Prime Minister told MPs. It is my hope that its findings are quickly acted upon to the satisfaction of a long suffering people who have borne the agony of what got us here and whose fervent hope is that this experience does not further contribute to the cynicism which is associated with these things and that this effort does not gather dust on some obscure shelf. He twice sought the permission of the Speaker to extend his speaking time and eventually spoke for 20 minutes. Rowley also said, there was no adverse finding and/or comment, whatsoever with respect to Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, a former member of the Clico Investment Bank (CIB) board. Al-Rawi has withdrawn himself from the handling of the Report. The Prime Minister further undertook to study Sir Anthonys recommendations calling for amendment of laws relating to inquiries which stipulate a paltry $2,000 fine for non-attendance and in relation to regulation of the insurance industry. Opposition Leader Kamla Persad- Bissessar queried whether the Attorney General would also be excused from these matters, but Rowley said there was no suggestion Al-Rawi would be involved in the first place. Though he gave some details of the overall findings of the Report, Rowley said Government would not immediately publish the full document. He said the Cabinet, on June 23, sought legal advice from DPP Roger Gaspard SC on whether the document should be made public - whether fully or partially. The Report was received from Presidents House on the afternoon of June 22. Gaspard is on record as objecting to the proceedings of the inquiry, citing parallel action by law enforcement bodies and pre-trial publicity. Rowley said the Cabinet has asked the DPP to give the matter his urgent attention. Said Rowley, This country should rest comfortably in the knowledge that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, which I have the honour and responsibility to lead will do nothing to impede the flow of justice in this or any other matter and will do everything within its duty and authority to facilitate the holding to account any and all persons who may have been found to have questions to answer. Like every other citizen it is our expectation that as rights to fair treatment are protected, justice must also take its course, swiftly, under the probing of the long arm of the law. Though awaiting the DPPs advice, the Prime Minister summarised some of the Reports findings. The Report said: 1) a number of executives acted in conflict of interest positions; and 2) there was over-leveraging and unacceptable, inter-company transactions that seriously, negatively, affected Clico, CIB and British American Trinidad Limited (BAT). Further, CL Financial or CLF (Clicos parent company) paid high premium prices in acquiring various assets thereby resulting in overall prices being more than originally anticipated while CLFs auditors expressed disquiet in the course of 2008 at the rapidity with which the Group was acquiring new companies such as Green Island and Lascelles de Mercado (LdM). Inter-company balances ballooned, and auditors recommended there be no further acquisitions until the Group had consolidated its new holdings and paid down the unsecured part of its indebtedness to Clico. That recommendation, Sir Anthony said, was ignored in as much as CLF management proceeded to go ahead in what can be described as a reckless manner. Overall, the underlying causes of the collapse of all of the companies were, the defective business model of the CLF Group and the failure of senior management to act to change it and the methods of corporate governance in accordance with the requirements of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (CBTT) and the recommendations of their external auditors. The insurance companies were treated as the means of funding the investments made by or directed by CLF, Rowley said. He said Sir Anthony found that if, during the period from 2004 to 2008 Clico, BAT and CLF had made any real effort to act with urgency to rebalance the Groups business model in accordance with the requirements of CBTT and the recommendations of the external auditors, it is probable that the collapse would have been avoided. Rowley said the the legal costs at the inquiry have totaled $78 million as at May. He said Minister of Finance Colm Imbert will next week tell Parliament how much money has been spent to bail out Clico. Some have estimated that figure to be about $20 billion PTSC workers demand back pay We have been waiting eight months for our back pay. Since November 2105, we were supposed to get the arrears. They said they had no money. Then they told us December, Lammy said. In December, he said, Finance Minister Colm Imbert admitted on television that Government owed the PTSC workers, nurses and policemen their arrears. Having not been paid anything in December, he said, workers expected payment early in the year. The new year came and no arrears were paid. In March they told us June month end. June month end has passed and the management of the PTSC has told us nothing, he said. Workers were hearing in the news, he said, that police and nurses were informed that they were to be paid, but nothing is being said about the PTSC workers. The union, Lammy said, has been asking the management of the PTSC to give them an update on the status of their arrears, but to no avail. Workers morale is down at this time. If we dont get any satisfactory answers, he said, this protest will be the start of more to come. Thanks to FDA, Women Will Be Told of Their Breast Density (Newser) Tourists may be wary of hailing a speeding cab in Manhattan, but the Big Apple doesn't even fall in the top 20 "fastest" US cities, let alone the top 10, per an Auto Insurance Center examination of speeding deaths across the country. The center looked at more than 12,000 deadly car crashes and the average speed at which they happened, pulling out the states with the highest average speed (Georgia, at 70mph), states with the most speeding-related car accidents (Wyoming), and the roadways with the highest speeds clocked in fatal crashes (I-95 in South Carolina). California claims five of the top 10 fastest cities in the nation: Dallas, 68.13mph Corona, Calif., 65.07mph Oakland, Calif., 64.04mph Victorville, Calif., 62.71mph St. George, Utah, 62.15mph Davie, Fla., 61.53mph San Jose, Calif., 61.49mph Rocky Mount, NC, 61.14mph Kansas City, Mo., 59.50 Hesperia, Calif., 59.00 (In Florida, citizens pull over the cops for speeding.) (Newser) The Monuments Men are famous for rescuing art looted from Jewish families during World War IIbut it turns out that many pieces never made it back to their original owners. That's because when the famed group turned over the artwork to the Bavarian state after the war, the state sold some of it back to Nazi families on the cheap, according to new research, per the Art Newspaper. Anne Webber of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe says Bavaria's State Paintings Collections was given 10,600 items in 1949 that were to be returned to Jewish families but were instead offered to Germans, including prominent Nazis. Webber says she uncovered the scheme after tracing a painting stolen from a Jewish family during the war that ended up in the hands of Hitler's photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann. The Monuments Men seized it back and turned it over to the Bavarian statewhich sold it back to Hoffmann's daughter at a low price. "It seems that Bavaria thought restitution meant restitution to the Nazis rather than to their victims," the CLAE says, per the Times of Israel. Webber accuses German authorities of stonewalling the requests of Jewish families for restitution even as it lowered the bar on German requests. "It is particularly striking that the Hoffmann family was getting virtually everything back that it claimed with minimal proof of ownership and this went on for almost two decades." The investigation, done jointly with the Munich paper Suddeutsche Zeitung, also accuses state museums of keeping artwork in their own collections and tying to disguise the origins. The State Paintings Collections denies wrongdoing and says it's focused on finding "fair and just solutions" to Jewish claims. (Found: a hang-dug tunnel used to escape the Nazis.) (Newser) Just five prosecutors representing less than 0.2% of US counties are responsible for 14% of all people currently on death row and 5% of people sentenced to death in the past 40 years. That's according to a recently released report from Harvard Law School's Fair Punishment Project. The reportsubtitled "How overzealous personalities drive the death penalty"found the death penalty was more about prosecutors cultivating an "over-aggressive" and "reckless" style than the actual crimes, the Huffington Post reports. And, according to the Guardian, that leads to a "highly arbitrary" use of the death penalty. The five prosecutors, who have sentenced a total of 440 people to death, are Joe Britt in North Carolina, Bob Macy in Oklahoma, Lynne Abraham in Pennsylvania, Johnny Holmes in Texas, and Donnie Myers in South Carolina. Only Myers is still serving as a prosecutor. All five prosecutors seem to relish securing the death penalty. Myer has an electric chair paperweight. Macy, who got a 16-year-old sentenced to death, saw it as his "patriotic duty." Abraham says she's never doubted one of her death sentences, despite two of them later being exonerated. And that leads to another problem: the "illegal or unethical behavior" that seems to go hand-in-hand with a passion for the death penalty. Misconduct was found in a third of Macy's 54 death sentences, and three of them were exonerated. Britt was found to have committed misconduct in more than a third of his 38 death sentences and had two developmentally disabled teens exonerated. Myers was found to have a 46% misconduct rate, often for excluding jurors on the basis of race. He once referred to a black defendant as "King Kong" and a "beast of burden." Read the full report here. (Read more death penalty stories.) (Newser) Fred Rivera believed his best friend, Herman Johnson, died in his arms after a rocket hit them during a Vietnam War firefight in 1969. "Surviving comrades of that horrid day presented me a bracelet fashioned from the leather laces of Hermans boots," Rivera writes of what followed. "I have worn it every day since, without fail." But in reality, Johnson was airlifted out in a body bag, woke up in a "make-shift morgue" with a toe tag, recovered, and never saw Rivera again, believing him to also be dead. Nearly five decades later, an Iraq veteran went to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall to take a rubbing of Johnson's name so Rivera could hang it on his wall, next to Johnson's pictureonly to discover Johnson's name wasn't there. With the help of other veterans, Johnson was found, alive and living in Michigan, Courthouse News Service reports. But the good news wasn't over yet: Rivera, who wrote about the experience of having his best friend die in his arms in his novel, Raw Man, was dismayed to discover Johnson hadn't gotten a Purple Heart, the award given to those wounded or killed in service. He started a campaign to get him oneand was met with much resistance along the way, per CNS. His request was denied multiple times due to a lack of paperwork, even though Rivera went to much trouble to track down all the evidence he could. Finally, Rivera got a retired three-star general to advocate for Johnson, and the Army approved the Purple Heart request. During a ceremony at the Wall on July 10, Herman and Rivera will see each other for the first time in 47 years. Herman thinks he's just getting a combat pin, butassuming he avoids the news for the next weekhe'll be surprised with the Purple Heart. (This veteran got scammed, then lifted up.) (Newser) Calls for a boycott of Cinemark are gaining steam after it was revealed this week that the country's third-largest theater chain was seeking to recoup $700,000 in legal fees from the victims of the deadly Colorado movie theater shooting, the Guardian reports. Please boycott Cinemark," tweets Sandy Phillips, whose daughter was killed in the 2012 shooting. "Don't add to their $194 million profit while they come after Aurora victims who have lost everything. More than two-dozen victims and their families had sued Cinemark for not doing enough to prevent the shooting, such as hiring armed guards and installing alarms on emergency exits. A jury ruled against them in May. Colorado law allows for the winners of civil suits to seek compensation for legal fees, Deadline reports. But when news broke that Cinemark planned to do just that, it wasn't long before the hashtag #BoycottCinemark started trending. "Shameful!" tweets California Lieutenant Gov. Gavin Newsom, a staunch advocate for gun control. Cinemark's most recent quarterly revenue was more than $700 million. The people the theater chain is seeking money from include the families of two men who helped save others, the family of a young boy who was shot in the head, and a woman who held her own intestines in after being shot. A judge still needs to approve the $700,000 request. (Read more Aurora theater massacre stories.) (Newser) An American woman was arrested Wednesday in Spain for sending dozens of death threats to Stephen Hawking then trailing him to an astronomy festival in the Canary Islands, Gizmodo reports. According to El Pais, the unnamed 37-year-old woman lives in Norway and has no previous criminal record. Authorities were tipped off by one of her children, who found more than 100 tweets and emails she had sent to Hawking, threatening to kill him. When Hawking gave his first lecture this week at the Starmus Festival, he was flanked by two police officers. The woman was arrested nearby. The woman was staying at a hotel near where Hawking was staying. Authorities found evidence of religious extremism, including items contradicting Hawking's claim that God doesn't exist, in her room. They also found details of Hawking's home and office and plans for how to approach him. The BBC reports the woman was also in possession of a map of Hawking's festival itinerary. After her arrest, the woman told police she loves Hawking and would never try to hurt him. Authorities believe the woman has psychological issues. She was given a four-month suspended prison sentence for harassment and threats. In addition, she is not to come within 1,600 feet of Hawking or communicate with him on social media for eight months. Sources say Hawking never felt he was in danger. (Read more Stephen Hawking stories.) (Newser) After years of pressure, the White House has released details about the number of civilians accidentally killed by US drone strikesthough the information comes with plenty of asterisks. The official estimate is that between 64 and 116 civilians have been killed in such strikes since 2009, reports USA Today. Some of those asterisks: That range is much lower than estimates by independent groupstheir figures go from about 200 to more than 1,000and the White House doesn't specify when or where the fatalities occurred except to say they were in non-war zones. That means strikes in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria were not counted, but those in countries such as Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and LIbya were, reports the Washington Post. The US also says that it killed about 2,500 enemy militants in those same non-combat zones. As part of the releasemost coverage notes that the White House did this on a Friday before a holiday weekendPresident Obama made a significant policy change: He issued an executive order requiring that future presidents make this information public in an annual list, notes the New York Times. "This is a remarkable shift, even if youre skeptical of numbers this reports," writes Naureen Shah at the Guardian. But Shah also sees a downside: "The drone data could be completely misleadingand provide a veneer of legitimacy to unlawful killings." The reaction from Human Rights Watch: Unless details are provided on specific incidents, its not possible to determine if individuals killed were civilians, and thus whether the US is complying with its own policy and with international law." (Read more drones stories.) (Newser) Bangladeshi forces stormed an upscale Dhaka restaurant to end a hostage-taking by militants early Saturday, killing six of the attackers and rescuing 13 captives. However, the military said 20 other hostages had been killed during the 10-hour standoff, and officials from Japan said seven of its citizens were unaccounted for, reports AP. Most of the dead were killed by "sharp weapons," said authorities, per Reuters. About 35 people were taken hostage, including about 20 foreigners, when gunmen stormed the popular Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area, a diplomatic zone, on Friday night during the Ramadan holy month. Two police officers were killed at the start of the attack. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, and she said security officials arrested one of the militants. A Japanese government spokesman said that a Japanese hostage was rescued with a gunshot wound but seven others are unaccounted for. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said that the eight were together at the restaurant during the attack. Two Sri Lankans also were rescued. Others included an Argentine and two Bangladeshis, local media reported. On Friday evening, many people headed to the popular bakery and restaurant that serves Spanish food and is patronized by residents of Gulshan, an affluent neighborhood where most of the foreign embassies are located. The restaurant overlooks a lake and on pleasant evenings, diners often chose to eat outdoors. Rezaul Karim, the father of a Bangladeshi businessman who was rescued along with his family, said the attackers did not harm any hostage who could recite verses from the Quran. (Read more Bangladesh stories.) (Newser) A North Texas city council has voted to reinstate Browser the cat to his job as live-in mascot of the city's public library, reports AP. The council of the Fort Worth suburb of White Settlement voted 3-0 to let Browser stay at the library two weeks after voting 2-1 to give the tabby 30 days to check out. Mayor Ron White had said the move against Browser was a response to officials' denial of permission to an employee to bring a puppy to work at City Hall. But he says he was overwhelmed with more than 1,000 messages on social media, all in support of keeping Browser on the job. The vote was taken without hearing from Browser's supporters, who had jammed the council chamber. (Read more cat stories.) (Newser) Among the 20 hostages killed in the attack on a cafe in Bangladesh's capital of Dhaka were three students attending college in the US, CNN reports. Abinta Kabir of Miami was a sophomore at Georgia's Emory University. She was visiting friends and family in Dhaka. Faraaz Hossain is from Dhaka and was a junior at Emory University. According to the AP, he was going to start business school in the fall. "The Emory community mourns this tragic and senseless loss of two members of our university family," the university states. "Our thoughts and prayers go out on behalf of Faraaz and Abinta and their families and friends for strength and peace at this unspeakably sad time." Nineteen-year-old Tarushi Jain was also killed in the attack. She was an Indian citizen attending UC Berkeley and had gone to high school at the American International School of Dhaka, NBC News reports. ISIS is claiming responsibility for the incident in which six people stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery, killing 20 hostages during a 10-hour standoff that ended Saturday morning. Some of the victims were reportedly beheaded. (Read more Bangladesh stories.) (Newser) Florida authorities say they've arrested a suspect in the early Saturday beating of a man outside a Florida mosque that Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen had attended, the AP reports. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said racial slurs were made by the attacker as he beat a Muslim man, though authorities say they have no immediate indication of any racially motivated comments. St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara says deputies were called to the Fort Pierce Islamic Center around 4am by a caller who said someone was attempting to burglarize a vehicle. Deputies found a man bleeding from the mouth who said he was approached by a man who "asked him what he was doing and then punched him several times in the face and head." Taylor Anthony Mazzanti, 25, was arrested and has been charged with felony battery. CAIR, issued a statement earlier that a white truck stopped at the mosque early Saturday and that a man had made slurs, saying "You Muslims need to get back to your country." Mateen's father is a member of the mosque, and Mateen sometimes attended. Authorities are continuing to investigate the incident to figure out a motive for the crime, racial or not. CAIR identified a witness to the incident who authorities had yet to interview. The witness says the victim had locked his keys in his car and was struggling to get in when a man started punching him in the face and "saying all kinds of foul language." (Read more Omar Mateen stories.) The Daily News-Miner encourages residents to make themselves heard through the Opinion pages. Readers' letters and columns also appear online at newsminer.com. Contact the editor with questions at letters@newsminer.com or call 459-7574. New Delhi : Flyers may have to shell out slightly more for tickets to fund the governments ambitious regional connectivity scheme that was rolled out today under which airfares will be capped at Rs 2,500 for one-hour flights on unserved and under-served routes. The RCS, which was mooted in the new civil aviation policy as part of governments plan to serve smaller cities, has been put up for stakeholders consultations including state governments, airlines and airport operators. It will target 90 airports. The stakeholders have been given three weeks time to submit their comments and suggestions on the draft scheme, which is expected to be finalised by August. Also as part of the proposed scheme, a new category of airlines, scheduled commuter airlines, is being created where a new operator may be allowed to start operations with just one plane. Under the proposed scheme, the government would be providing Viability Gap Funding (VGF) -- which would be financed through Regional Connectivity Fund (RCF). Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju while unveiling the draft policy said RCF would be created for funding RCS through levy on certain flights. In this regard, the government would be charging a levy in the form of per domestic departure from the airlines on certain routes, a move which is expected to push the airfares marginally higher. The Ministry would contribute 80 per cent of the VGF, while respective state governments would chip in with the remaining 20 per cent to the fund which will have a corpus of Rs 500 crore each year. When asked how much levy is likely to be charged, Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey said, We are giving final touches to that aspect (levy amount), that will be announced very soon. Raju said the fare for a one-hour flight of about 500 km on a fixed-wing aircraft or on a 30-minute helicopter ride has been fixed at Rs 2,500. He added that fares for other route lengths or durations will be priced proportionately (though not linearly). The states are interested in connectivity ... Their feedback will also be taken into account. The central government cannot bypass the states. We will take them into confidence and work along with them to make this (RCS) happen, Raju said. The proposed scheme would be applicable for air services connecting unserved and under-served routes ranging from 200 to 800 km, while there would be no lower limit for hilly, remote, island and security sensitive regions. There are 31 airports inactive as of now. So, inactive airports will become low hanging fruits in different states, said Raju. There are 394 unserved and 16 under-served airports in the country. The scheme is demand driven. Wherever the state governments and airlines are coming forward for making them functional, we would be very happy to revive those airports, Choubey said. Choubey added that there are about 30 such airports which can be used for operations in no time without incurring any extra cost on their revival. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi : A week after Infosys software engineer S Swathi hacked to death at the Nungambakkam railway station in Chennai, the police late on Friday has arrested her suspected killer from Tirunelveli in southern Tamil Nadu. The accused Ramkumar, a 22-year-old engineering graduate from Meenakshipuram in Tirunelveli, slit his throat with a sharp object when the police surrounded him. The accused sustained 60 per cent injury and was rushed to the Government Hospital in Tenkasi where he was given first aid. Doctors said the injury was not serious. On last Friday, Swathi was waiting at platform number 2 of the railway station to board a train to work, when the suspect hacked her to death from behind. The arrest ended Chennais biggest manhunt in recent years that began exactly a week ago. Police indicated that the accused had stayed for a few months in Choolaimedu, Chennai, where Swathi lived with her parents. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi : State Bank of India said the corporate branches of its five associate banks will fold up into the parent bank as part of network rationalisation after their merger. To a large extent, they will fold up into the corporate branches of the parent. As much as 60-70 per cent of the larger value accounts are common and you need only one relationship manager for that, SBI Managing Director B Sriram told reporters. He termed the corporate branches of the associate banks as low-hanging fruit, as a more elaborate plan will have to be prepared for the retail branch rationalisation. SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya reiterated that the merger will take place this fiscal. The SBI Group has five associatesState Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Hyderabad. She also said the merger of Bharatiya Mahila Bank will also be completed this year. There is no particular bias per se between the unlisted and listed associates, and all the mergers will happen together or in quick succession, she said. All mergers will be done at the same time. It may not be absolutely on the same day, that may not be feasible. But it will be done in a very short space and all of them will happen almost one after another, Bhattacharya said. Earlier, speaking at an event to mark the 61st foundation day of SBI, Bhattacharya said the lender is stepping into a very important year which will see its size grow by a third due to the merger, which will catapult it into the elite club of the worlds top 50 banks. SBIs merger with associate banks, which is being opposed by the unions, will create a banking behemoth with an asset base of Rs 37 trillion or over USD 555 billion. Kerala Legislative Assembly has passed a resolution condemning the merger plan, saying the State Bank of Travancore is core to the states identity, which will be lost with the merger. Bhattacharya, whose name is being touted as a possible successor to RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, said none of the SBI officials are irreplaceable. We work very much as a team and therefore anything and everything can be done without any of us, none of us are really irreplaceable, she said. She had said yesterday that SBI has very good line-up of people and work will go on no matter who will be there. Reports also said Bhattacharya may get an extension in view of the ongoing merger process. However, she refused to comment about her possible candidacy for the post of RBI Governor. Let the social media speculate whatever it wants to, she said. SBIs top echelon has the chairperson and four managing directorsVG Kannan, B Sriram, PK Gupta and Rajnish Kumar. Kannan will retire by the end of this month. Meanwhile, Sriram said the bank will be relying largely on the retail segment to achieve a credit growth of 12-14 per cent this fiscal. The bank plans to grow its retail book by 20 per cent (as in the previous fiscal), large corporates by 14-15 per cent, and push up the credit growth in the SME, agri and mid-corporate segments to double-digits, Sriram added. New Delhi : The Karnataka Examination Authority had published its seat allotment results of KCET first round on July 1, 2016. The aspirants those who had registered themselves and filled in their options can now check their first round seat allotment results at @ kea.kar.nic.in. The exam was conducted the KCET examination on May 4th and May 5th. Around 1.75 lakh students had appeared for the exam and 41,350 aspirants are eligible for admissions of medical and dental courses. 1,395 for architecture and 1.27 lakh were eligible for admissions to engineering. Process To Check Karnataka CET 2016 First Round Seat Allotment Result Go to the official website of Karnataka Examination Authority Then click on the link displaying First Round Allotment Results on the page Enter the required details like your CET number in the provided fields After filling required details click on submit button Check your first round seat allotment Take a printout of that page for further reference. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Thane: The city police, which recently busted a multi-crore drug racket, is probing some Bollywood and television actors for their alleged involvement in the case. Former film actress Mamta Kulkarni has already been named as a prime accused in the case linked to international drug lord and her partner Vicky Goswami. According to a senior Thane police official, they are probing the leads received about the involvement of a Bollywood personality, who acted in films in the 80s and 90s, besides a TV actress and some small-time actors in the case after their names cropped up during investigations. These people, who are under the scanner, allegedly attended meetings in Mumbai hotels, where Goswami discussed the mode of drug supply. Also, some of them are in close contact with kingpin Goswami, the official said without taking any names. Earlier, Thane Police had told media persons that one of the arrested persons in the case had in a statement under section 164 of CrPC given details of the modus operandi and about the crucial meetings held in Kenya and Dubai regarding the ephedrine sale. In all, there were 17 accused in the case, of whom seven were still at large. The remaining 10 have been arrested and are now in judicial custody. The arrests were made when police seized around 18.5 tonne of ephedrine, worth approximately Rs 2,000 crore, after raiding the premises of Avon Lifesciences Ltd in Maharashtras Solapur district in April. According to police, ephedrine, which is a controlled drug, was allegedly being diverted from the Solapur unit of Avon Lifesciences and sent abroad after processing. The ephedrine power is used for sniffing and is also used to produce popular party drug methamphetamine. The accused currently in jail are: Sagar Suresh Powle, Mayur Suresh Sukhdhare, Rajendra Jagdambaprasad Dimri, Dhaneshwar Rajaram Swami, Puneet Ramesh Shringi, Manoj Tejraj Jain, Hardipsingh Indersingh Gill, Narendra Dhirajlal Kacha, Babasaheb Shankar Dhotre and Jai Mulji Mukhi. Those on the run include Kishore Rathod, said to be the son of a former politician, and an accused identified only as Dr Abdullah, who is based abroad, as well as two of his associates, police said. The entire drug racket first came to light when Thane Police arrested a Nigerian national in a drug case on April 12. His interrogation led police to Solapur, where they conducted raids in the premises of Avon Lifesciences on April 14. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. We value your privacy. Focus Taiwan (CNA) uses tracking technologies to provide better reading experiences, but it also respects readers' privacy. Click here to find out more about Focus Taiwan's privacy policy. When you close this window, it means you agree with this policy. Jalandhar: Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal alleged that Pakistan and Afghanistan were trafficking drugs into Punjab and infiltrators were taking advantage of the low standard of security along the international borders (IB) in the state. The menace of drug problem in Punjab is not as it is being portrayed. It is a conspiracy to defame the state, he said during an event here. The batch of drugs seized by Punjab Police comes from the other side of the border. It is due to the shortage of personnel deployed to protect the border that such batches (of drugs) are able to infiltrate. These drugs are not for the state but are distributed in the entire country, he claimed. He said, The kind of force required to counter such infiltrations is not deployed along the IB in the state. The standard of force deployed in J-K is much higher than in Punjab. This is the reason such infiltrations succeed in Punjab but fail in J-K, Sukhbir said. Speaking about the lax in border security, he said two infiltrators were killed by Punjab Police in Fazilka district but the border security did not even know about it. Asked if he meant to say that the Border Security Force (BSF) was not working properly, the deputy chief minister said, I am not naming anyone specific. I only want to point out that the security force along the international border in Punjab is not up to the desired standard. He said since the drugs coming from Pakistan and Afghanistan is being seized by Punjab Police, it is perceived that the menace is prevalent in Punjab. This (perception) is only to defame the youths of the state, he claimed. Sukhbir also hit out at the media over the drug issue, saying any drug-related incident in the state is blown out of proportion. On the infiltrations, he said the Centre has been apprised about the shortage of CCTV cameras, scanning machine and other equipment along the IB which often results in breach of security. He also said reforms in state police are in the offing. and policing and research departments would be separated, while a legal officer would be appointed in each police station. Earlier in the day, Sukhbir launched the Rural Rapid System enabling beat police service in Jalandhar. He said with the launch, Punjab has become the first state in the country with such facility even in rural areas. Police would respond to Dial 100 in villages also. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Washington: Condemning the terrorist attack in Bangladesh as despicable, the United States today offered to assist Bangladeshi authorities in bringing to justice those responsible for the death of 20 people, including foreigners, at a restaurant in Dhakas high-security diplomatic zone. We remain in contact with Bangladeshi authorities and have offered any assistance necessary, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said. The heinous attack resulted in the death of an American citizen, Bangladeshi law enforcement personnel and citizens of several other nations, Earnest said. This is a despicable act of terrorism, and the US stands with Bangladesh and the international community in our resolve to confront terrorism wherever it occurs, he said. State Department spokesman John Kirby said: We remain in close contact with the Government of Bangladesh and have offered our assistance in their efforts to bring to justice those responsible for these attacks. The US has not disclosed the name of the American killed in the attack. Out of respect for the family, we have no further comment. At this time, we are not aware of any other US citizens among those held hostage, State Department said. The spokesman said the threat that terrorist ideologies pose to the world does not require physical presence in a country. He said the US is troubled by recent attacks on secular bloggers, activists and minorities in Bangladesh. He, however, added that these attacks do not represent the views of the overwhelming majority of Bangladeshis. These attacks are being carried out by those who seek to stifle those who disagree with them, the spokesperson said. Bangladesh has a proud tradition of being a pluralistic society that values diversity and welcomes the free exchange of ideas. These are the values that the violent extremists are ultimately attacking, the official said. The US is working with members of civil society and the media to support their efforts to counter the violent, hateful ideologies and to reinforce the great majority of Bangladeshi society that values diversity, freedom to peacefully practice religion, freedom of expression, and rule of law, he said. The official said that counter-terrorism assistance to Bangladesh is designed to improve the governments ability to address terrorism threats from domestic and transnational terrorist organisations by building capacity to impede the efforts of these groups to plan and conduct attacks. We support the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), of which Bangladesh is a pilot country. This funding supports grassroots projects to strengthen communities resilience to violent extremism, he said. US is also working with Bangladeshi police on community policing projects, with madrassa students to increase the economic opportunities for vulnerable youth, and with community leaders on conflict mitigation, he added. 20 foreigners, including an Indian girl, were hacked to death by suspected ISIS militants inside the cafe in the worst terror attack in Bangladesh yesterday. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Kayla Soule will finish in September the massage therapy program at Ridley-Lowell Business and Technical Institutes Danbury campus. She will then immediately start classes in esthetics, the institutes newest program. As soon as it starts I want to be there, the 18-year-old East Canaan resident said. Itll be worth it. It opens up so much more. Ridley-Lowell officials said they added an esthetics curriculum to keep up with demand for professionals in the skin care industry. It is a 600-hour program and includes classes in structure and function of skin, hair removal, facials, chemistry, and physiology, among others. The program also includes 84 hours of makeup study and application training. Students will use products and receive instruction from professionals from Dermalogica and Muse Beauty Pro. Classes start in September. There arent many esthetics programs in the area that are accredited. That will give students an extra stamp of approval in the job market, said Lauren Weymouth, vice president of business development at Ridley-Lowell. There are an enormous number of spas and wellness centers in this area. Theres a high starting salary for those in this field. Its a viable career path. Weymouth said the curriculum will prepare students for the esthetics license testing in New York and Rhode Island. Connecticut currently does not have a certification for estheticians. The U.S. Department of Labor predicts the demand for skincare professionals will grow 12 percent by 2024, well above the average growth for all occupations. The reasons for such growth, according to the department, include the growing number of salons and spas, as well as the desire for reducing the effects of aging. It projects there will be 61,600 skincare specialists by 2024, up from 55,000 in 2014. A lot of Baby Boomers are concerned with anti-aging, Weymouth said. Facials once seemed like a luxury item, but they are becoming more of a regular phenomenon. Ridley-Lowell started an esthetics program at its Poughkeepsie, N.Y., location three years ago and Weymouth said the students are landing well-paid jobs at hotels, spas and salons. Ridley-Lowell added the program at the New London location this spring. Soule is excited about the makeup training aspect of the esthetics program. Knowing how to apply makeup opens doors in the theater and wedding industries, she said. She is hoping to have certificates in massage therapy and esthetics within the year. Everyone is so focused on four-year colleges. To me it just seemed so bleak in terms of time and expense, Soule said. This school is a big inspiration. In addition to the technical skills needed to break into an industry, Ridley-Lowell gives students the business acumen, confidence and experience needed to thrive in their new roles, according to Paula King, director of the Danbury campus. To see them at the completion ceremony compared to the time they started is amazing. Theyve crossed into being professionals, King said. Our alumni are out there working and serving the community well. For more information about the esthetics program, call (203) 797-0551. cbosak@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3338 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate DANBURY - The two candidates vying to represent the city northwest neighborhoods in the state House of Representatives each embody core elements of Danburys culture. The incumbent, two-term Democrat David Arconti Jr., comes from a family of public servants and exemplifies the citys service-minded spirit. It is very important because it shows people you are doing it for the right reasons, said Arconti, 29, whose role models include his great-uncle and former mayor Gino Arconti, and his Uncle Tom Arconti, a 10-year City Council member. It shows you arent doing it as a career move, or for some kind of gain. The GOP challenger, a combat veteran named Veasna Roeun, comes from a family of poor Cambodian immigrants and exemplifies Danburys multi-cultural heritage. Having had the opportunity to grow up in Danbury, which is very diverse, allows me to adjust my attitude when I come into contact with people from other walks of life, said Roeun, 37, a former veterans employment representative for the state Department of Labor. I havent met anyone who doesnt believe in democracy and freedom of speech and everything that makes us great. But the candidates in the race to represent the 109th Assembly District are staking their campaigns on the part they can play in the Hartford culture, which critics have characterized as unresponsive to Danburys needs. We have a budget deficit because the negotiations with the governor have been done unilaterally, Roeun said, referring to the state legislatures Democratic majority and the $300 million state budget deficit for the new fiscal year. We need to get our voice heard at the table so we can negotiate the budget. Arconti said the Democratic majority overcame a fiscal crisis in the spring session by taking a $900 million deficit and reducing spending to a responsible level. What we started to do was put the budget on a sustainable path, Arconti said. (The Connecticut Business and Industry Association) is very supportive of what we were able to do on the spending side, and as a member of the majority, I could continue working towards that. At the same time, Arconti said, he and members of the citys state delegation secured increased state funds for the $50 million expansion of Danbury High School, already the states largest high school. Im proud that instead of the high school being reimbursed 63 percent of the cost we were able to get 80 percent reimbursement, Arconti said. Roeun said one area he would explore in an effort to get Danbury more state school aid is the board that oversees the Education Department and the state college system. We need to take a closer look at the Board of Regents because it is an extra layer of cost that I see as an issue, Roeun said. We have to be responsible how we handle expenses when it comes to education funding. Another issue Arconti said will be important for Danbury in the fall is a proposal to install tolls at Connecticut borders, including Danburys border with New York. People are adamantly against it, and we have defeated it in the past, Arconti said. But I do expect it to come back next year. The race for the part-time representatives position - a two-year term that pays $28,000 per year - is expected to heat up later this summer. The challenger admits he has more work to do than his opponent to get his name before voters. But Roeun said Arconti has to overcome a perception that the citys legislators have not done enough to advocate for the Hat City in Hartford. Earlier this year, City Hall and the Board of Education teamed up to hire a lobbyist to help the city find more state aid. Arconti said Danburys decision reflected its growth as a political power in Connecticut and was not a reflection on him or his colleagues. It is not uncommon for the bigger cities to have a contract lobbyist, he said. And having that extra presence there year round can be beneficial to the city. Roeun disagreed. The bottom line is Danbury brings in a good amount of revenue for the state that we are not getting back, he said. The fact we have to hire a lobbyist is indicative that our legislators are not doing their job. rryser@newstimes.com; 203-731-3342 To activate the text-to-speech service, please first agree to the privacy policy below. Los Angeles, July 1 (CNA) On the last stopover in the U.S. during her first overseas visit since taking office, President Tsai Ing-wen () spoke with several U.S. elected officials and appealed to them to support Taiwan's bid to join a key free trade group and to help ensure its security. OTTAWA, July 1, 2016 /CNW/ - On behalf of the Honourable Kent Hehr, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence, Karen McCrimmon, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence, attended today's commemorative ceremony in Ottawa. The event, hosted by the Government of Canada in partnership with the Canadian War Museum, marked the 100th anniversaries of the Battles of the Somme and Beaumont-Hamel. Representatives from the Royal Newfoundland Regiment Advisory Council and Canadian Veterans' organizations; Canadian youth; Parliamentarians; members of the diplomatic corps; and other special guests also paid tribute during the wreath-laying ceremony. The First World War's Battle of the Somme began in northern France on July 1, 1916, when waves of Allied soldiers began climbing out of their trenches to advance toward the German lines through a hail of enemy fire. The brave members of the Newfoundland Regiment who went into action near Beaumont-Hamel that day were hit especially hard with only 68, of the some 800 men who had taken part, being able to answer the roll call the next morning. The Canadian War Museum is commemorating this sombre centenary with a photographic exhibition. Under the name Traces of the First World War Newfoundland and Labrador, it examines the impact and legacy of a world-changing conflict for what is now Canada's easternmost province. A special display of historical photos, titled 1 July 1916: The Somme and Beaumont-Hamel, will hang next to Traces of the First World War Newfoundland and Labrador until July 20, 2016. Quick Facts July 1, 2016 , marks the 100 th anniversaries of the beginning of the Battles of the Somme and Beaumont -Hamel. , marks the 100 anniversaries of the beginning of the Battles of the and -Hamel. The Battle of the Somme would grind on for more than four and a half months, and the Canadian Corps would see action there in the late summer and fall. Sadly, more than 24,000 Canadian soldiers became casualties before the fighting finally came to an end in November. would grind on for more than four and a half months, and the Canadian Corps would see action there in the late summer and fall. Sadly, more than 24,000 Canadian soldiers became casualties before the fighting finally came to an end in November. The Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial site in France commemorates all Newfoundlanders who fought in the Great War, particularly those who have no known grave. Quotes "Let us join together to keep the memory alive of our heroes who sacrificed so much during the Battles of the Somme and Beaumont-Hamel 100 years ago. The great sacrifice that was made by soldiers at Beaumont-Hamel serves as a reminder of the determination and valour shown by the Newfoundland Regiment who gave so much to protect our freedom. We will remember them." Karen McCrimmon, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence "Commemorative events, such as the 100th Anniversaries of the Battles of the Somme and Beaumont-Hamel, ensure that the bravery and dedication of our Canadian heroes will never be forgotten. While the outcome of these battles was tragic for thousands of brave Canadians and Newfoundlanders, the courage and accomplishments of these soldiers on the battlefield helped solidify the reputation of the Canadian Corps and set high standards for today's members of the Canadian Armed Forces." Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of National Defence Associated Links For more information on the Battles of the Somme and Beaumont -Hamel, including the schedule of events, visit the Veterans Affairs Canada website at veterans.gc.ca. Share your thoughts at facebook.com/CanadaRemembers. SOURCE Veterans Affairs Canada For further information: Contacts: Sarah McMaster, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Veterans Affairs, 613-996-4649; Media Relations, Veterans Affairs Canada, 613-992-7468 Abia state Governor-Elect, Dr. Uche Ogah has described as an affront on the rule of law, the refusal of the states Chief Judge, Theresa U... Abia state Governor-Elect, Dr. Uche Ogah has described as an affront on the rule of law, the refusal of the states Chief Judge, Theresa Uzoukwu to swear him in as the duly-elected governor of the state.Describing the action as capable of undermining the peace and stability of the state, Ogah contended that the stay of execution of the valid order of the Federal High court procured by the embattled governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu is only a black-market injunction that has no force of law.Ogah who spoke to journalists in Abuja through his Special Adviser on Public Communications, Monday Onyekachi Ubani, said there is a clear difference between a pre-election matter on which the Federal High court premised its ruling and the post-election trial of electoral matters by tribunals on the issue of the stay of execution or arrest of judgement.I am not ignorant of the black market injunction allegedly obtained by Dr Ikpeazu at Osisioma Ngwa High court restraining the Chief Judge of Abia state from swearing in Dr Ogah. That interim order was premised on Section 143 of the Electoral Act which is only applicable to judgements obtained in Election Tribunals, but not in pre-election matters.It is a laughable ruling not worth the paper it was written. For Gods sake, a High Court in Abia is a court of coordinate jurisdiction with a Federal High Court and so any order given by such court to contradict an earlier order of the same court is ipso facto null and void. It is only a higher court that has the legal capacity to reverse the earlier order or judgement.In a pre-election matter the enforceability of a court judgement is immediate as the losing side in the legal argument, in this case, Dr Ikpeazu, was never adjudged to have been qualified to contest the election in the first place while in a post-election matter the mandate enjoyed by an incumbent subsists until the tribunal or appellate courts rule otherwise.Failure or delay to swear Dr Ogah in as the duly elected Governor of Abia state is an unqualified affront to the rule of law and constitutional governance in a true democracy, and an act that is capable of undermining the peace and stability of the state. Dr Ikpeazu has been duly removed as Abia state Governor and not amount of legal shenanigans and illegal public holidays will derail the law of the land taking full effect.Dr Ogah will be sworn-in in due course so as to avoid the dangerous power vacuum that currently exists in Abia state, and for him to begin the urgent task of empowering Abians with his laudable developmental programmes already lined up.According to him, the consequential declaration of a Federal High Court that he be immediately sworn-in as the Governor of the state is a testimony to the majesty of the rule of law upon which constitutional governance is founded and relied on in Nigeria. He stated that the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC acted within its powers as a law-abiding institution in issuing Dr Ogah a certificate of return so as to avoid an unpalatable leadership vacuum in the state.Ubani stressed that the court having found that the information Dr Ikpeazu supplied about his tax payments were all false, ruled that he was not qualified to have participated in the primary election of PDP in Dec 2014, that all the votes he gathered at the said primaries were invalid and of no effect, in fact wasted.Since a general election has been held and the PDP won, Dr Ikpeazu was asked to vacate his seat while the certificate of return should be issued to Dr Ogah who came second during the primary election. He was ordered to be sworn in by the Chief Judge of Abia state immediately.Note the word used by the presiding judge was immediately. Enrollment order was procured by Dr Uche Ogah and INEC was served and they obeyed the extant judgement of the Federal High court by issuing Dr Ogah with the certificate of return. He described Dr Ogah as a man of peace who has already stretched out his hand of fellowship to his predecessor to join him in the task of building the state.His Excellency is a man of peace and he has extended a positive arm of peace not just to his predecessor alone, but to all his predecessors supporters because as members of the same political party, it is in the interest of the party and the good people of the state that they close ranks and work together for a smooth transfer of power and the unhampered running of the new administration.He urged Abians to maintain the peace while efforts are geared towards resolving the issue at stake. Supporters of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State and those of his rival for the governorship, Dr. Uchechukwu Ogah have taken their ba... Supporters of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State and those of his rival for the governorship, Dr. Uchechukwu Ogah have taken their battle to the court of public opinion while legal fireworks continue in the court rooms.Although the two gladiators are members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),the state executive committee of the party has thrown its weight behind the governor and vowed yesterday to resist any attempt to remove him from office for Ogah.Chairman of the party in the state, Chief Johnson Onuigbo, rising from an emergency meeting of the party in Umuahia denounced moves to oust Ikpeazu as a rape of democracy.Democracy,according to him, is under threat in the state, as those who do not believe in the rule of law are determined to scuttle democracy which many people struggled for and lost their lives in the process.He said while there is nothing wrong in an aggrieved person going to court to seek redress,there should also be nothing wrong in another person exercising his right of appeal at a higher level.He said Ikpeazu cannot vacate office until the court decides on his appeal.He alleged that the situation in Abia was being instigated from outside the state.He said:Abia is not safe as there is a rumour that the Government House will be invaded by the military which is backed by the Presidency.We do not want to believe that, as President Mohammadu Buhari is a man of integrity, but we want the world to know what is happening.As a party we will resist any move by anyone to undermine the peace in the state and as a government that believes in the rule of law we have obtained an injunction stopping the swearing in of Ogar.If the people involved ignore the court injunction, there will be anarchy.As we are in a democracy, impunity should not be condoned, we are in a war in Abia state.We are ready for them.We are ready to die.If they do it,they are inviting anarchy and confusion in the state.We are in a democracy so we want the world to hear and know that we are being short changed in Abia.Ogahs spokesperson Emma Iheanacho writing on his Facebook wall yesterday said: The Governor- Elect of Abia State, His Excellency, Dr. Uche Ogah, has thumbed up INEC for obeying the order of the Federal High Court, Abuja in issuing certificate of returns to him in Abuja yesterday (Thursday).Speaking to Abia Breeze of Destiny, who paid him solidarity visit, he said that INECs issuance of certificate of return to him in Abuja yesterday demonstrated show of transparency and non partisan in the line of duty. He urged all other parties and agencies in the electoral process to emulate INEC to ensure that our democracy succeeds.|Dr. Ogah also commended the verdict of the Federal High Court in Abuja that gave the landmark judgement. He praised the courage of Justice Okon Abang in delivering the judgement without fear or favor because there were incontrovertible evidences against Dr. Ikpeazu.Dr. Ogah assured the people that as he had earlier told Abians, his call to serve Abia State as governor is a divine mandate to make Abia a model state in Nigeria and, he will not disappoint God.In another post, Iheanacho said: The Governor-Elect of Abia State, His Excellency, Dr. Uche Ogah, has commended Abians for their resilience and steadfastness all through the period of the struggle, and urged them to go about their normal duties irrespective of the pronouncement by Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu.He told them that Dr. Ikpeazu does not have any legal and constitutional authority to declare public holidays in Abia State except for mischief, having had his certificate of return withdrawn by INEC. The Governor- Elect said that his administration will work closely with late Chief Ojo Maduekwes family and others to honor the deceased, who is a great son of Abia StateDr. Ogah described late Chief Ojo Maduekwe as a great patriot who deserves a befitting funeral.And speaking to The Nation by phone,Iheanacho said : there are high expectations among the people to see Dr.Uche Ogah assume office.He has been receiving congratulatory messages and hordes of visitors,individuals and groups from all walks of life.In fact,as I am talking to you now people are trooping in to rejoice with him.The people of Abia are happy with the development and cant wait to see him assume office.Information Commissioner Bonnie Iwuoha dismissed Iheanachos claims as false.He said Abians had been protesting in their hundreds to show their displeasure for Ogah.He said:Abians from the 17 local government areas of the state yesterday (Thursday) came out in their numbers to protest against any attempt to foist Ogah on them.The people pledged their support for Ikpeazu who enjoined them to be calm. The people vowed to resist any plan to swear in someone who did not contest any elections but wants to take over the governance of the state. As I am talking to you now, I am in the Government House and I can assure you that every where is calm.The President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Gary Enwo Igariwey said the group was studying the development and would not immediately make comment because the matter is still in court.Residents of Aba, Abia State expressed mixed feelings over the political development.Some of them feared that the state was heading towards anarchy if nothing urgent was done to arrest the situation.Sylvanus Okorie said: politicians in this state should be careful in their actions to avoid causing anarchy. The right thing should be done. Our concern is for the court especially a higher court to tell us who is the authentic governor of the state.The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Abia State chapter described the development as a family affair which the PDP should handle without problem if indeed it is one family.The state chairman of APGA,the Rev. Augustine Ehiemere warned that the situation should not be allowed to degenerate into a crisis that would threaten peoples lives and property.Since Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu and his legal team said they have appealed against the judgment which is the right thing to do, it will be greatly unfair should his supporters resort to self help through violence moreover when the ban on protest was still in force, he said.He asked the gladiators to immediately cease all anti democratic actions that are capable of plunging Abia State into state of anarchy.APGA threatened it would be compelled to approach the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in Abia to prevent a breakdown of law and order if its advice was not heeded.A legal practitioner and executive Director Coalition of Lawyers Against Corruption in Nigeria (COLACN), Barr. Olusegun Bamgbose said: if we look at the legal implication we will be able to find a solution to the pressing problem because the two different individual are laying claims to the governor of Abia state.From the legal point of view, once an order is made it must be obeyed except it is set aside by a higher court. In this case there is an order in place and that order stands till a higher order sets it aside. If not for the public holidays declared by the state on Friday and Monday including the one the declared by the federal government, we should have been able to get a clearer picture as from Monday and Tuesday. But as it stands now, we have to wait till Thursday and Friday before we can look at what the court will do. I am sure that the both parties will be working seriously against next week Thursday. Nigerians consume more than 5 million metric tons of rice every year, with a significant portion of its consumption needs sourced from imp... Nigerians consume more than 5 million metric tons of rice every year, with a significant portion of its consumption needs sourced from imports. Rotimi Williams WMB -4.95%, an ambitious 35 year-old Nigerian entrepreneur and rice farmer, is on a quest to change that.Williams, a former Journalist, is the owner of Kereksuk Rice Farm, the 2nd largest commercial rice farm in Nigeria by land size. His farm, which is situated in Nasarawa state in northern Nigeria, currently sits on 45,000 hectares and employs more than 600 indigenes of Nasarawa.I recently caught up with the budding entrepreneur in Lagos, and had a brief chat with him where he recounted his journey and mused on how Nigeria can attain self-sufficiency in rice production in the near future.Whats your educational and professional background?I attended Kings College in Lagos. After attending secondary school at Kings College I proceeded to obtain my first degree at University of Aberdeen where I graduated with a degree in Economics. I also obtained a Masters Degree in Economics from the same institution. My quest for more knowledge led me to enroll for yet another Masters Degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London where I gained an MSc. in Finance and Development Studies.Upon graduation, I landed a role as an analyst at the European Economics and Financial Centre in London. Afterwards, Euromoney Magazine- employed me where I covered the African space.I would say that this is where my journey truly started.Given your background as a journalist, what informed your decision to venture into rice farming?While at Euromoney, I had the opportunity to travel around a few African countries. These trips exposed me to countries like Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia and Ghana. A common thread amongst the aforementioned nations is agriculture. Agriculture is at the very core of these countries and this got me thinking. After a few more trips, I decided to move back to Nigeria and sink my teeth into the agricultural space. Nigeria remains the largest economy in Africa from both a GDP perspective and also the strength of the size of our population.Upon my arrival back in Nigeria, I got a job at a premier Bank where I was promised to sit on the agriculture desk my hope was that I would gain enough knowledge of the Nigerian agricultural industry and develop myself from there.Unfortunately, the agricultural desk at the Bank never quite achieved its set goals. I pushed hard for the Bank to adopt policies and gain inroads into the agricultural industry but my attempts were somewhat frustrated. I sincerely feel that the bank wasnt quite ready to launch fully into the agricultural space.As my frustration grew, I decided to quit banking and planned to go it alone into agriculture. Frankly, my decision led to a challenging sojourn as attempts to raise funding with my partner proved difficult. We started a Structured Trade and Commodity Finance company. After a while I started consulting for small agriculture companies seeking to raise capital both locally and internationally.You currently own the second (2nd) largest rice farm in Nigeria with 45,000 hectares in Nasarawa, Nigeria. Whats the story behind your acquisition of such vast land, and what are some of the challenges youve encountered in farming in the volatile northern region?Two years had past and we still had no funds, so I made an offer to the farm owner, that with a 50-50 split, I would develop the farm with both personal funds and external funding. He agreed and thats how I became part owner of 17,296 hectares of farmland. Knowing that agriculture would become the integral area of focus in Nigeria, I was bullish and ramped up the land to 55,000 hectares. I later parted with my partner as a result of unaligned views and strategy. I maintained 45,000 hectares for myself and today we have started producing, with our quality paddy being sold to major milling companies in Nigeria. However, I must add the following, I often have people ask how I learned abut farming, as everyone thinks you need a special degree in agriculture to be a farmer, but I always tell them the truth, I learnt it all on Google GOOGL +1.11%. I downloaded every article I could find on rice production, consumed it and then practiced it in the fields.Frankly, my experience working alongside indigenes of Nasarawa state has been exceptional. I have learnt over the years that if you approach people with respect even more so while one seeks to set up a business venture. Having a healthy sense of community makes all the difference in attaining ones set objectives. I lean heavily on the wisdom and cultural approach of the indigenes to carry out farming on such a scale here in Nasarawa.Forbes The All Progressives Congress (APC), in Oyo State has called for thorough investigation into the murder of a member of the Oyo State House... The All Progressives Congress (APC), in Oyo State has called for thorough investigation into the murder of a member of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Mr Gideon Aremu (Oorelope-LP).This is contained in a statement issued by the partys Director of Publicity and Strategy, Mr Olawale Sadare and made available on Saturday. The statement described the death of Aremu, who was the Chairman, state House of Assembly Committee on Information, Public Relations and Security, as brutal and disturbing. We received the news of the killing of Hon. Gideon Aremu with utter disbelief and rude shock.This is in view of the fact that such nasty development and political violence have become history in the state since 2011 when the current administration took the mantle of leadership of Oyo State, it said. The statement described the deceased as an energetic, diligent and easy-going politician.It expressed regret over the incident and condoled with the entire people of the state over the loss of the politician. We pray God to grant Aremu eternal rest and give his immediate and political family the fortitude to bear the loss, it said.The party called for thorough investigation into the matter by all relevant security agencies with a view to bringing the culprits to justice. More importantly, we call on the police and other relevant security agencies to conduct thorough investigations into the matter with a view to unmasking the culprits and bringing them to justice as soon as possible, it stated.NAN reports that Aremu was reportedly shot to death in his residence at Alaakia area of Ibadan on Friday night. The Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has declared that despite inheriting an ailing economy as well as other daunting challe... The Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has declared that despite inheriting an ailing economy as well as other daunting challenges, the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has so far demonstrated the resolve to make Nigeria a thing of pride to all Nigerians.He held that, the fact that the Buhari administration is prosecuting those who criminally collected money meant for the purchase of arms for the Armed Forces provides evidence that the government means business in terms tackling corruption.According to a statement issued yesterday by his media aide, Salihu Tanko Yakasai, the governor stated this during a Ramadan Iftar organized by the state government for members of the elders committee of the APC and other executive officials of the state branch of the party, at Africa House, Government House, Kano.We are also aware that the government has in the past one year devoted serious attention to security issue as a result of which the atrocities of Boko Haram have been greatly curtailed in the Northern states of Borno, Adamawa, Yobe and even parts of Gombe state, he said.Ganduje therefore called on Nigerians to rally round the All Progressives Congress, APC-led administration and pray for it so that Buhari can efficiently drive the agenda for a purposeful change in the scheme of things in the country.Turning to politicians in the state, he assured that plans are on to restore the dignity of party leaders at all levels, assuring that they would be carried along in all activities at all times and not just during electioneering alone.In this regard, he announced that a retreat for the state APC elders and executive committee members would be conducted soon in Kaduna, where the stakeholders would brainstorm on the roles expected of them in advancing the cause of the party in a continuously changing political terrain. Ex-militants, under the aegis Bakassi Freedom Fighters, yesterday went to the Government House in Calabar to protest the non payment of ... Ex-militants, under the aegis Bakassi Freedom Fighters, yesterday went to the Government House in Calabar to protest the non payment of their allowances.According to sources, the spokesman for the ex-militants, Clarkson Dauerighe who, said the government had reneged on the agreement it reached with them.The former fighters demanded that something be done urgently to address the issue.The State Security Adviser to the governor, Mr. Jude Ngaji, told newsmen that the ex-militants came to drop a message for them to take to Abuja. The economic hardship faced by Nigerians heightened over the last couple of weeks, as the prices of some petroleum products, such as Lique... The economic hardship faced by Nigerians heightened over the last couple of weeks, as the prices of some petroleum products, such as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), also known as cooking gas; kerosene and Automotive gasoline Oil (AGO) also known as diesel, recorded significant increase, forcing Nigerians to spend a huge chunk of their earnings on the essential commodities.In spite of several complaints and cries, the Federal Government and its agencies in charge of the sector, had refused to provide any explanation for the rise in the prices of the commodity, especially in the face of the Central Bank of Nigerias new foreign exchange policy which had helped narrow down the official and the parallel markets exchange rates.However, only kerosene and sometimes, diesel, are imported into the country, while LPG is produced locally and to a large extent, not traded in foreign currency. The price of diesel rose from about N130 per litre, a price it had been selling for about three years, to over N200 this week, while the price of cooking gas and kerosene, two important commodities used by almost every home in Nigeria, rose from about N2,500 for a 12.5 kilogramme cylinder and N83 per litre to N4,000 and N230 per litre respectively.The hike had jerked up the price paid by households and businesses on the commodities, taking a toll on their savings and income. While nothing had been said to be responsible for the increase in the prices of kerosene and diesel, the Nigerian Association of LPG Marketers (NALPGAM) had accused the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company PPMC, a subsidiary of the NNPC and NAVGAS, a major LPG marketer, of conspiring to hike the price of LPG artificially. The marketers accused the PPMC of diverting LPG vessels belonging to the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) to NAVGAS terminal, instead of allowing it to discharge at PPMC jetty for all the marketers to receive supply.NALPGAM said, Gas is supposed to be readily available in all the major terminals in Lagos but today, only one company has gas because some people have hijacked the NLNG domestic supply scheme. They increased the price from N2.4 million per 20 metric tonnes (MT) to N2.6 million. It was later increased to N3 million and N3.5 million. To worsen the issue, Nigerians had been left at the mercy of marketers of these commodities who fix prices arbitrarily and without recourse to the economic situation in the country.Also, the major agency in charge of petroleum products pricing, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, had since May 2016, when the new price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, was announced, stopped updating the pricing template for kerosene, diesel and other petroleum products. Also various text messages and calls made to the spokesperson of the PPPRA, Mr. Lanre Oladele, over the hike in the prices of the commodities, were ignored. The NNPC also failed to respond to enquiries regarding the issue.The PPPRA had in January announced the hike in the prices of kerosene to N83 per litre, from N50 per litre, without giving any reasons for the hike. The hike came at a time when the prices of crude oil in the international market dropped to significant lows, with other countries cutting down the prices of the commodities. The rising price of major commodities in the country over the last couple of months have put Nigerians in dire straits, especially as nothing has been heard of discussions of increment in wages.Some people who spoke to Saturday Vanguard are worried over the hikes and the Federal Governments seeming insensibility to the plight of Nigerians. Specifically, Mr. Kayode Oluwole, who said he bought cooking gas at N3,500 for a 12.5 kilogramme cylinder, from N3,000 previously, lamented the hike, saying it is negatively affecting his finances. Also, another aggrieved customer, who chose not to be named, called on the Federal Government to come out with reasonable explanations for the hike and take urgent steps to address the situation and call the marketers to order before its gets out of hand. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday admitted that it actually received a notice of appeal from Governor Okezie... The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday admitted that it actually received a notice of appeal from Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State in respect of the judgement of a Federal High Court in Abuja ordering the electoral body to issue a certificate of return to Mr.Sampson Ogah as the next governor of the state.The court had upheld Ogahs claim that Ikpeazu submitted fraudulent tax documents when he filed papers to run for governorship ticket on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in December 2014.The commission first said on Thursday that it decided to issue the certificate of return to Ogah because it received no notice of appeal from the governor who responded immediately that the Commission did indeed receive the notice and injunction.The two documents were said to have been signed for by Saleh N. Ibrahim, Senior Clerical Officer at the Legal Services Department of the Commissions Headquarters, Abuja, who stamped the Notice of Appeal and Injunction with the Commissions official stamp by 12.50pm on Wednesday, June 29, 2016.Clarifying INECs position on the issue yesterday,the commissions spokesman Nick Dazang, said Ikpeazus failure to provide a stay-of-execution order left the commission with no choice than to issue the certificate of return to Mr. Ogah.He said since Mr. Ikpeazus notice was not deemed sufficient, it had to, as a matter of policy, execute the judgment of the high court.I discovered that INEC received Mr. Ikpeazus notice. However, it did not contain a motion or order of stay of execution. In the circumstance, and in deference to the previous court order, INEC as a responsible regulatory (body) has no recourse than to issue Mr. Ogah the certificate of return, online publication Premium Times quoted Dazang as saying.He added: By law, a certificate of return is supposed to be issued within one week. Also, the commission has decided as a matter of policy to obey all subsisting court orders. That means if the court were to issue a contradictory order, INEC has no option than to obey.Abia State Attorney-General, Umeh Kalu, said late on Thursday that the governors legal team included the notice of stay of execution order with the appeal notice delivered to INEC.He said:Its unfortunate that INEC said that it was not served. But the truth is that they were served. I have a proof to that.It is now clear that the Commission had no reason or cause to proceed with their dangerous action of issuing a Certificate of Return to Dr. Uche Ogah when it was clearly in receipt of a Notice of Appeal and Stay of Execution expressly forbidding them from taking any further action on the Judgment of Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court pending the determination of the Appeal in the case.It is rather surprising that the Commission could lend itself to be used for an act capable of destabilizing a State in Nigeria with the attendant consequences for anarchy and breakdown of law and order.Ogah was Mr. Ikpeazus main challenger in the PDP governorship primaries conducted in December 2014.He had approached the court to nullify Mr. Ikpeazus candidacy on the basis of the tax default.Ikpeazu says he remains governor as he has gone on appeal. Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state hosted members of the Christian Association of Nigerian CAN, Kaduna state chapter, to a dinner t... Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state hosted members of the Christian Association of Nigerian CAN, Kaduna state chapter, to a dinner to break his Ramadan fast yesterday July 1st.Several religious leaders, including members of CAN has lambasted the governor for the infamous religious law in the state that mandates preachers to get authorization from the government before ministering in Kaduna state.This meeting between El-Rufai and CAN can be seen as an attempt to clarify the issues and tension surrounding religion (Christianity) in the state.See photos Liverpool forward Mario Balotelli says he still expects to win the Ballon d'Or despite admitting he has been below par in recent years.The Italy international returned to Liverpool for pre-season on Saturday after spending a disappointing season on loan at former club AC Milan.Balotelli signed for Liverpool two years ago in a 16million deal, but failed to make an impression after just four goals in 28 appearances.Speaking to Corriere della Sera, the 25-year-old insisted that his poor form is merely a blip on the way to him being crowned the best player in the world."In my view there weren't enough [expectations put on me], as I can do so much more than what I said. But it takes time," said Balotelli."On the scale of 0 to 10, I stopped at five, but I'll get to 10 eventually. I want to get there. I will win the Ballon d'Or."I do realise that I've spent two years of my career when I could've been getting closer to 10 and instead stayed at five."I know, the Ballon d'Or might seem laughable and I might not have done everything to be the best, but the important thing is I realised it's not too late."In two years Balotelli has managed just seven goals in all competitions, but was in excellent form when he arrived at Liverpool originally after 18 goals in the 2013/14 season. The Sierra Leonean Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Maj.-Gen. Alfred Nelson (retd.) has been kidnapped along Abuja-Kaduna Expressway... The Sierra Leonean Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Maj.-Gen. Alfred Nelson (retd.) has been kidnapped along Abuja-Kaduna Expressway in the Federal Capital Territory.Nelson was abducted with his driver on Thursday on his way to Kaduna to attend a function at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College in the state.Efforts to reach the envoy on his GSM phone since Thursday by the Sierra Leonian embassy officials have proved abortive.Unconfirmed reports said the kidnappers had demanded N44m ransom before they would release the envoy and his driver.Sierra Leonean embassy officials could not be reached for comment as they did not respond to calls and SMS. Several calls to the Head of Chancery, Joe Nyuma, were not responded to as of the time of filing this report.Our correspondent learnt that a Note Verbale (official diplomatic correspondence) had been sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to inform the Federal Government about the incident.The abduction had also been reported to the police.The Force Public Relations Officer, Don Awunah, confirmed to our correspondent on Friday that Nelson was abducted somewhere in Abuja along the road to Kaduna.He however said he had been unable to reach the FCT Commissioner of Police for a full briefing on the incident.Awunah said, I learnt the diplomat was abducted at a location along the Abuja-Kaduna in the FCT, but I dont have the full details yet. Give me some minutes to reach the FCT Commissioner or the IG, I would get back to you.The Director, Public Affairs Communication, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Clement Aduku, said he heard about the incident from a journalist, but said he had no official briefing on the abduction.He also could not confirm if the ministry had received the Note Verbale from the Sierra Leonean high commission.A retired Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, likened the abduction to an attack on Sierra Leone. He described the incident as very bad and unfortunate.Tsav said, The abduction of the diplomat is akin to an attack on Sierra Leone. This is very bad and our security agencies must deploy all necessary intelligence units and ensure that they rescue the envoy alive; this is not good for Nigeria at all. Also, a security analyst, Ben Okezie, said all the police and military intelligence departments should be activated to rescue the Sierra Leonean envoy alive.He said the abduction would give Nigeria a very bad reputation in the international scene.Okezie added that the incident would also scare away investors from the country.He asked security agencies to establish the motive for the abduction and determine if it was political or economic. Muhammadu Buhari is a tribalistic president, according to several southern groups. Pan Yoruba and Ibo groups, without mincing words, have ... Muhammadu Buhari is a tribalistic president, according to several southern groups. Pan Yoruba and Ibo groups, without mincing words, have condemned President Buhari for appointing northerners as heads of major security agencies in the country.As it stands, 14 of Nigeria's 17 security heads are notherners. They were all appointed by President Buhari.The Secretary General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dr. Joe Nwosu, said the appointments doesn't reflect the federal character as embellished in the countrys Constitution.We have been crying out loud since the first appointments of the ministers were made when out of the 36 ministers, 24 were chosen from the North. Now that other Nigerians are complaining, it means we are not alone. As a tribe, we have had a long history of marginalisation from governance in Nigeria.The President said the appointments were made on merit, so are we now saying that only the Northerners have merit? Where is the federal character which we talk about in Nigeria?According to the spokesperson for the Ijaw National Congress, Mr. Victor Borubo, Buhari is "tribalistic" with his appointments and is not "interested" in Nigeria's diversity.He said, Personally, it is an issue that has troubled me greatly and the President has not shown any sensitivity to it the issue of the Constitution that people from all the states of the federation should be appointed in such positions.But the President is not showing interest in diversity and this has led to the loss of confidence in his administration. I think this is why different agitation groups are springing up across the country.The National Publicity Secretary of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, said the mostly Northern composition of the leadership of the countrys security agencies was very dangerous and could lead to the heating up of the polity.The Ijaw Youth Council, Afenifere and other groups held the same opinion. The embattled National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, has expressed fears that the leadership ... The embattled National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, has expressed fears that the leadership crisis that currently engulfs the party could drag till the 2019 general elections.He has therefore called on the partys caretaker committee chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, and the governors elected on the partys platform to join hands with him in bringing an end to the crisis.Speaking in Abuja through his National Deputy Chairman, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, the chairman said the various court cases instituted by the various groups could rob the party of the opportunity to present a common front for the 2019 general elections.He described the partys governors as the most vulnerable should the crisis continue, stressing that they could lose the opportunity of re-election if the crisis persists.Ojougboh said: I appeal to governors and elders of the party to join hands with me in moving the party forward. We need to find political solution to this crisis because the pending court cases could drag till 2019.We should be able to sit together and look at the problem dispassionately. The Port Harcourt convention was illegal, so the caretaker committee is null and void.Sheriff is ready and willing to make peace, but we must be ready to obey the rule of law and respect internal democracy. He is ready to hand over any day, but he is not prepared to be stampeded out of office.The party chief noted that the crisis in the PDP is all about the 2019 presidential ticket, which he said has set different groups and interests against one another.Insisting that the courts cannot solve the partys crisis, Ojougboh said Sheriff was ready to organise a proper convention to elect a new set of national officers to run the affairs of the party.He called on the governors and the party elders to formally dissolve the caretaker committee to enable the PDP make progress.The PDP under Sheriff will not rely on government or governors to fund its activities because members will be made to pay their dues and a system of accountability will ensure the judicious use of the funds, the party chief added.Ojougboh described the awaited July 4 judgment by a court in Port Harcourt as a mere academic exercise, declaring that the June 30 ruling by another Abuja court had rendered the pending Port Harcourt ruling ineffectual. No fewer than two people have reportedly died at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Kwara State, since members of the J... No fewer than two people have reportedly died at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Kwara State, since members of the Joint Health Sector Unions commenced their warning strike.It was gathered on Friday that an official in UITHs Accounts Department identified simply as Haruna and a woman whose family asked not to be named, had died at the hospital.Haruna was said to have been on admission before the strike but reportedly died after nurses, who were retained by the union closed for the day. The source said though the doctors tried their best, they could not do much to save him.The women, it was gathered, had been on admission since about two months but could not get enough attention from the striking health workers.The Chairman, JOHESU, UITH Chapter, Mr. Olutunde Oluwumi, during a media briefing in Ilorin, the capital, accused the Federal Government of not being sincere and serious with the negotiation between them and JOHESU.He said it was regrettable that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, reportedly described JOHESU as an illegal body, adding that all the affiliate unions of JOHESU as well as the organisation itself were duly registered.According to him, JOHESU comprised Senior Staff Association, Non-Academic Staff Union; Medical and Health Workers Union; National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, and Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals.He stated that the warning strike though painful, became necessary when the unions were asked to make fresh submission during its meeting with the Federal Government on June 21, 2016.Oluwumi said some of the contentious local issues included non-payment of promotion arrears from 2009 till date; non-payment of skilling arrears for three years and removal of teaching allowance despite its alleged collection from the government.He added that other issues pertained to the non-payment of uniform allowance to nurses and alleged refusal to conduct 2016 promotion to avoid accumulation of arrears. Armed men suspected to be sea pirates have killed three workers of Nigerian Agip Oil Company in Bayelsa State. The incident, it was lea... Armed men suspected to be sea pirates have killed three workers of Nigerian Agip Oil Company in Bayelsa State.The incident, it was learnt, occurred on Wednesday at a work station in the creeks of Nembe around Obama flow station operated by Eni Oil, a parent company of Agip.A security source, who craved anonymity, said the victims were two engineers and a driver.The source said the three workers were ambushed and killed along the creeks while carrying out repair work on Agip pipelines that were destroyed some weeks ago.He said, The sea pirates, who operate in the area, ambushed the oil workers in an area notorious for gunmen operating freely.When contacted, the Commandant, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Bayelsa State Command, Mr. Desmond Agu, confirmed the attack, saying it took place on June 29.He said security operatives who combed the area had recovered two dead bodies and their corpses taken to Port Harcourt, Rivers State.Agu said, The search team made up of civil defence, Navy, Army, gunboat crew and others left Obama station at 0915 hours on Thursday in search of the bodies of the killed Agip personnel.At about 1100 hours, the dead bodies of the two were discovered in Oguama River close to Oguama community in Bayelsa. They were taken to Ogbia jetty for onward movement to Port Harcourt. Gideon Aremu, lawmaker representing Orelope in Iseyin/Itesiwaju constituency in the Oyo state house of assembly, has been killed. The Leader of Nigeria's House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila in an interview with Premium Times was quizzed on why the country&... The Leader of Nigeria's House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila in an interview with Premium Times was quizzed on why the country's lawmakers find it difficult to disclose the exact amount they earn as salary and allowances:Here's his response:Let me say this, every human being whether you are legislator, engineer or student the first reaction (to request to know what one earns) is psychological. It is a lot of privacy. People dont like to disclose them for whatever reason. Whether it is because of your child, dependants or spouse, people just dont want to disclose it no matter how little or big what you earn is.Let us pack that to one side. Two, people dont differentiate between salary and allowance. There is a big difference. And that is why under most tax laws, allowance is not taxed. You dont tax allowance because it is not yours; it is for a specific purpose. When people were comparing earnings of Nigerian and American lawmakers, they were comparing apple and orange. They are comparing an American lawmakers salary with Nigerian lawmakers salary and allowance. Even respected magazines like the Economist are saying Nigerian lawmakers are the highest paid in the world. Of course you will be the highest paid if you are comparing somebodys salary with another persons salary and allowance.Now, I challenge you and I challenge anybody to get on the internet and Google-search American Senators allowances, not salary. I have done the research. We are talking about a minimum of $5 million for an American Senator per annum. Whats my salary as legislator? My salary is under N1m. But you are comparing somebodys salary alone with my own salary and allowance which is meant for another thing. Now, if you want to compare orange and orange or apple and apple, you compare what I earn as salary and that of Americas lawmaker, then, you know whether I am the highest paid or not. Dont forget an American lawmaker does not pay for school fees or rents for his constituents. He does not buy Okada (motorcycles) or pay for naming ceremonies. Of course, I am not bothered. But you compare what demand is made on American Senator and his Nigerian counterpart. HACKENSACK -- A leader in a burglary ring that hit 31 homes across North Jersey has been arrested after he and three other people were indicted in connection with the crimes, authorities said. Kyle Jackson, 45, is the third person arrested in relation to the burglaries in Bergen, Passaic and Union Counties between November 2015 and January 2016, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office announced Friday. Jackson was arrested Thursday night in Hasbrouck Heights, according to a charge information form from the prosecutor's office. The arrest comes after an eight-month investigation into the series of burglaries, which had similarities: Cash, jewelry, laptops and televisions were stolen from the homes, and the suspects usually took pillowcases from the houses to carry the stolen items, acting Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir Grewal said. Jackson, of Passaic, supervised and financed the burglary ring, provided the burglary tools and vehicles, sold the stolen property and shared the proceeds with his co-conspirators, Grewal said. Co-conspirators Artur Kotwica, 23, of Passaic, and Shaun Wilder, 28, of Old Bridge, were arrested in January after they burglarized homes in Maywood, Fair Lawn and Hackensack, Grewal said. A fourth defendant, Riad Malki, 45, of Garfield, has not yet been arraigned. Malki is accused of purchasing the stolen items and remains at large, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office told The Record on Friday. Authorities said they had identified Kotwica as a person of interest in the course of their investigation and identified Wilder as a co-conspirator after they physically surveilled Kotwica. Police detectives arrested the pair Jan. 4, after they burglarized homes in Fair Lawn, Maywood and Hackensack, Grewal said. An indictment against the four men, unsealed Wednesday, contains 39 charges: 31 counts of third-degree residential burglary, one count of second-degree racketeering, one count of second-degree conspiracy, one count of second-degree theft, one count of second-degree fencing-dealing in stolen property, and charges related to the theft of a handgun in one of the burglaries. Kotwica, Wilder and Jackson are being held in the Bergen County Jail. Jackson's bail is set at $500,000. Kotwica's bail is set at $350,000, and Wilder's is set at $100,000. Marisa Iati may be reached at miati@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Marisa_Iati. Find NJ.com on Facebook. VINELAND -- Police arrested one of the men who allegedly robbed a bank in June, police said. Dante Davis (submitted photo) Dante C. Davis, 31, of Pittsgrove Township, was charged with the robbery but the second alleged bank robber has not yet been identified. A reward is being offered for information leading to additional arrests for the bank robbery. Authorities were dispatched on June 1 to a BB&T Bank on South Lincoln Avenue for a robbery in progress. Before police arrived, the two suspected fled the scene in a blue SUV. The two bank robbers were armed with guns and fled south on Lincoln Avenue. During the investigation, authorities identified Davis as one of the suspected robbers. Police arrested Davis on Thursday. Davis was held in the Cumberland County Jail on $200,000 bail. Anyone with information about the bank robbery is asked to contact Vineland Police Department by calling 856-691-4111 ex: 4180. Crime Stoppers is offering a $1,000 reward for the arrest and prosecution of any additional suspects. Don E. Woods may be reached at dwoods@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @donewoods1. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Motel 6 in Greenwich Township Motel 6 in Greenwich Township WOODBURY -- a North Carolina man has been indicted on arson charges stemming from a fire at the Greenwich Township Motel 6, which he allegedly set to avoid arrest. Wayne Cunningham was staying in the motel in November of last year. When police knocked on the door to conduct a well-being check, the 32-year-old allegedly barricaded the door, set the bed sheets on fire and jumped out of a first floor window, according to complaints signed against him. All of the other motel rooms had to be evacuated until the fire was placed under control. Cunningham is facing charges of arson, criminal mischief, resisting arrest and obstructing the administration of law. Rebecca Forand may be reached at rforand@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @RebeccaForand.Find NJ.com on Facebook. MalikScott.jpg Malik Scott appears in court in Jersey City today, July 1, 2016, on charges he possessed heroin while in custody at the Hudson County jail in Kearny. JERSEY CITY - A 40-year-old Jersey City felon with a long record has been charged with possessing heroin while in custody at the Hudson County jail in Kearny on June 20. Malik Scott, of the 100 block of Matin Luther King Drive, is alleged to have had the suspected heroin wrapped in tinfoil, Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor John Wojtal when Scott appeared in court yesterday. He is charged with possession within 1,000 feet of New Jersey Department of Education facility located in the jail, the criminal complaint says, adding that the suspected heroin was confiscated by a corrections officer during a strip search performed after receiving a tip that Scott might be in possession of drugs. Scott has convictions for a weapons offense, criminal mischief, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of shoplifting and four counts of drug possession within 1,000 feet of school property, a court official said when he made his first court appearance on the charges yesterday afternoon in Central Judicial Processing court in Jersey City via video link from the jail. His bail was set at $35,000 with a ten percent cash option at the the hearing. Those familiar with The Real Housewives of New Jersey and New York may be tickled to meet the newest group of sassy housewives on the block. Housewives of Secaucus, a Suburban Travesty is a new parody theater piece mixing elements of shows like The Jersey Shore, Mob Wives and of course The Real Housewives, if it were based in Secaucus. The show follows five women in Secaucus as they desperately try to "Free Nookie". Nookie is the sixth member of their group and was arrested while partying with friends and her infant child at a bar. Nookie's five friends decide to host a fundraiser talent show that encourages audience participation in order to raise enough money to free their jailed friend. "Housewives of Secaucus, A Suburban Travesty" is listed in a casting call as "an irreverent satire of everything you love to hate about reality shows." The show was written for and is produced by LaughOutLoud Productions, a theatre group based in Highland Mills, NY that produces comedy shows. The reason why president of the theater company Nancy Levine and Sean Patterson, author of the play, chose Secaucus as the setting for their NJ-based comedy show is the name. "No disrespect," Patterson added, "but it is a funny sounding name." The two stated that with many of the actors being from New Jersey originally, they hope to portray a personalized, local experience for New Jerseyans who may attend. Levine, who produces the show and stars in it as Anita Martini, a housewife who cannot resist a drink and flirting with any man who passes by, stated that the show is all about "Big Hair, big mouths and big drama," and sure to be a good time. Levine recommends that audience members be at least age 17 because some of the humor is inappropriate for children. "A show like this is not meant to be taken seriously, so come in and have a good time," Patterson said. The name Secaucus is a derivation of the Algonquian words for "black" (sukit) and "snake" (achgook), according to the New Jersey Public Library Commission's "The Origin of New Jersey Place Names." Housewives of Secaucus will play throughout the summer at venues in both New Jersey and New York City. Here is a list of the show's future performances: Rhino Studio Theater 237, Pompton Lakes - July 16 at 7:30 p.m. Broadway Comedy Club, 318 W 53 St., NYC - August 25 at 10 p.m. Players Theater, 115 MacDougal St, NYC - Sept. 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17 at 8 p.m. Players Theater, 115 MacDougal St., NYC - Sept. 11 and 18 at 2 p.m. Lips Drag Queen Show Palace, 227 E 56 St., NYC - Sept 12 at 7 p.m. The house on Ed Yates Road north of Pearl River where authorities said Aimee E. Kirst, 33, was shot to death. 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. Community Its now easier than ever to connect and chat with others in your local area. You can connect with your community by asking general questions, give area updates and recommendations and even let your community know about local events that are taking place. Ivy Tech Community College and NIPSCO have announced a partnership to bring courses in natural gas technology to students at Ivy Tech's Gary campus. The natural gas technology classes will begin this fall and will present not only educational experiences, but also future employment opportunities. About 50 people attended an information session on the classes on Wednesday at the Genesis Center in Gary, which explained the classs requirements, admissions, the course schedule and financial aid. Michael Jones, Ivy Tech statewide chairman and program chairman for energy technology, said 34 credit hours are required to potentially receive a technical certificate in natural gas technology. Jones said the certificate is not officially offered yet, as they are currently in discussion with the Commission on Higher Education for the certifications approval. He added that most of the courses are offered at night, so one can earn a degree and work at the same time. Jones hopes these courses can be the next step toward students dream careers. This will give the graduates an excellent chance to be hired by NIPSCO, Jones said. In the past, Gary students havent been able to get into NIPSCO because of a lack of the program being offered there. NIPSCO first partnered with Ivy Tech in 2012, when they collaboratively launched the energy technology program on the Valparaiso campus. Karl Stanley, NIPSCO's vice president of commercial operations, said the new course at Ivy Techs Gary campus will prepare students to work safely and productively in service and operations at NIPSCO in roles such as gas service technicians, equipment operators, and pipe mechanics. The partnership was created in an effort to help develop the region workforce, and prepare for present and future energy industry employment needs, Stanley said. We hope it creates a pathway for students to consider future career opportunities in the natural gas field. Jones said the classes will be taught by current and retired NIPSCO employees, which could help students network within the company. He said the need for programs such as these is dramatic, especially for the Gary campus where he would like to see more access for students to training opportunities such as this. The need for training in the natural gas technology and welding areas continue to grow as regionally and nationally utilities continue to upgrade and expand our infrastructure, Stanley said. If interested in learning more about these courses, contact Jones at (219) 464-8514 ext. 3120 or LeeAntwann McCline at (219) 981-1111 ext. 2267. During his lifetime, Andy Brennan volunteered his time and energy to many organizations throughout the Calumet Region. Brennan, of Schererville, who died recently at age 79, was instrumental in the success and growth of TradeWinds Services, according to colleagues. In 1999, Brennan retired as president of Viking Engineering Co., then in Hammond, and stepped in as interim executive director of TradeWinds during its financial crisis. For six months, he logged more than 40 hours a week without compensation. In an article published in The Times in 2001, Brennan said, I retired from Viking in 1999 and then went to TradeWinds for six months to do a little house cleaning. That was a new type of job for me to have. They have very special people doing that work, but business is business. Jeff Strack, CEO of Strack & Van Til LLC, said he had just been appointed to the TradeWinds board of directors when Brennan stepped in as interim executive director in 1999. Andy guided TradeWinds through some turbulent times. He was instrumental in moving the organization forward, to make the organization viable, Strack said of Brennan. Jon Gold, executive director of TradeWinds for the past 17 years, said Brennan began serving on the TradeWinds board of directors in the 1990s. After volunteering as interim executive director, Brennan passed the baton to Gold. Without Andy stepping up there is a good chance that TradeWinds would not be in existence today, Gold said. Brennan was honored as a lifetime TradeWinds board member, one of 14 individuals to receive this honorary status, Gold said. A plaque commemorating Brennans great volunteer service to TradeWinds hangs on the wall of the board room, Gold added. The agency that became TradeWinds was established in the 1940s to provide speech and occupational therapy services for children. Volunteers built the original rehabilitation center at 5901 W. Seventh Ave. in Gary. The name TradeWinds resulted from a contest in 1966 won by Brunswick Elementary student Greg Corwin, who said the nonprofit agency propels people with special needs to a better quality of life just as the TradeWinds propel sailors on the seas. A group of business leaders, later officially named Pirates, continues to contribute to TradeWinds with more than $3.6 million in ongoing support. In 2014, TradeWinds Services moved into a new home, the former AmeriClean building at 3198 E. 83rd Place in Hobart. GARY Police believe a report of shots fired Friday in the city's Midtown neighborhood is connected to a car crash near Interstate 80/94. Gary police responded about 4:10 p.m. Friday to a car crash in the area of Grant Street near Interstate 80/94, according to a Gary Police Department news release. In the car, they found a 29-year-old man from Gary suffering from a gunshot wound. During that time, Gary police also received a call for shots fired in the 3500 block of Tyler Street. The driver was transported to a local hospital for treatment. Anyone with information on either incident is urged to contact Detective Sgt. Jon Basaldua at (219) 881-1210 or The Crime Tip Line at 866-CRIME-GP. HAMMOND A 32-year-old Merrillville man indicted in April on cocaine charges pleaded guilty Thursday, U.S. District Court records show. Leonel Portes Jr. has agreed to plead guilty to one count of possessing with the intent to deliver 500 grams or more of cocaine, according to court records. Leonel Portes Sr., a 62-year-old Highland man, entered a guilty plea on the same day, admitting to one count of possessing with the intent to deliver 500 grams or more of cocaine. Portes Jr. and Portes Sr.s sentencing dates are set for 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Oct. 14, respectively. Both face five to 40 years in prison at sentencing. They are two of five men charged in the case. The alleged cocaine sales occurred in 2015 in the Northern District of Indiana, but an indictment did not include any specific locations. Humberto Morales, 69, of Gary, pleaded guilty June 6 and is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 29. Mauricio Portes, 48, of East Chicago; and Javonte Vaulx, 24, of Lake Station, have pleaded not guilty. CHESTERTON A South Bend man was arrested Tuesday accused of stealing his own car. John Schrader, 31, was charged with theft and criminal trespass. According to police, Schraders 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier had been impounded by Porter County sheriffs police and was being held at Joes Towing on Waverly Road. Porter County Sheriffs Department spokesperson Sgt. Jamie Erow said he was stopped for a traffic citation at 3:15 a.m. on June 14. At that time, the car was impounded for having false and fictitious plates with holds for proof of valid registration, proof of ownership and proof of insurance. Chesterton police said just after 3 p.m. Tuesday, Schrader entered the business, walked behind the counter to a non-public area, grabbed the cars keys and drove off in the Cavalier. Police spotted the vehicle and pulled over Schrader as he began to enter eastbound Interstate 94 from Ind. 49. The car was re-impounded by Joes Towing and Schrader was taken to Porter County Jail. HAMMOND Helping raise $40,000 to fund programs at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northwest Indiana can be as easy as rounding up when you check out at any of the Strack & VanTil, Ultra Fresh Foods and Town and Country stores this month. Kids who participate in summer programs at the Boys & Girls Clubs of NWI Hammond Club at 5840 Calumet Ave. helped launch the Check Out Challenge Friday afternoon with representatives from Strack & VanTil LLC and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northwest Indiana. This Check Out Challenge will run throughout July. Customers just tell their cashier they would like to round up their bill to the nearest dollar, said Chris Bengston, chief operating officer of the Highland-based Strack & Van Til which employs 6,000 at 37 stores in Northwest Indiana and the greater Chicago area. Calling raising $40,000 a lofty goal, Bengston said the money will benefit Boys & Girls Clubs in Lake and Porter counties. We are set to exceed $1 million in this campaign we started a year ago, he said, about the campaign that includes The Times Media Co. as a partner and raises funds for different nonprofits throughout the year. Boys & Girls Clubs serve kids in the community. Whats important is that the money raised stays right here in the community, said CEO Jeff Strack as he watched children interact with Predrag PJ Jones, club director. Hi, Miss Anne, the youngsters shouted, greeting Anne Flannery, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northwest Indiana, who talked with groups of children before the campaigns launch. One of those youngsters Brizil Stewart, 9, of South Holland, told Flannery her summer activities include reading a chapter book called How To Prepare for Surgeries. I just wanted to be a surgeon since I was 3 years old, said Stewart, a student at New Beginners Learning Academy in South Holland. You enjoy our STEM Science, Technology, Engineering and Math program, dont you? Flannery asked Stewart, who nodded vigorously before joining her friends. During the summer children experience a lot of losses academically, Flannery said. This campaign allows us to focus on brain gain instead of brain drain, and on good nutrition. STUART, Fla. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is calling on President Barack Obama to declare a state of emergency to help businesses harmed by the massive algae bloom fouling some of Floridas southern rivers and beaches. Rubio on Friday toured a portion of the St. Lucie River where a smelly muck is fouling an area promoted as Floridas Treasure Coast. During a news conference later, he called the impact on tourism, home values and small buisnesses catastrophic, saying he couldnt think of a precedent anywhere else in the country. I hope the president will have an emergency declaration, because that will open up the full portfolio of aid that the federal government can provide local businesses and communities that are being impacted by this, Rubio said. Rubios Democratic colleague, Sen. Bill Nelson, toured the area Thursday. Both senators have joined Martin County commissioners in calling for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop the flow of water between the river and Lake Okeechobee. Residents and business owners blame the algae on pollutants streaming from the lake. After touring the St. Lucie River as it passes through downtown Stuart, Nelson said the problems can be traced to Floridas history of diverting water to the ocean. We need to repair 75 years of diking and draining, but that takes time, he said. He called on Floridas Legislature to spend money approved by state voters for environmental projects such as purchasing land around Lake Okeechobee for water storage instead of diverting the funds to pay for administrative costs. The Army Corps has started reducing the flow of water from Lake Okeechobee. The Corps Jacksonville District began the reductions Friday, targeting the Caloosahatchee Estuary and the St. Lucie Estuary, a news release said. The action comes after Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency over the problem, and as politicians and residents are blaming the federal government. Multiple Florida lawmakers have asked federal authorities that oversee Lake Okeechobee to immediately stop freshwater releases that coastal communities blame for algae blooms and other environmental damage. I would describe them as guacamole-thick. And it stinks, said Gabriella Ferraro, spokeswoman for Martin County. The blue-green algae is the latest contaminant featured in yearslong arguments over water flowing from Lake Okeechobee, which is critical to South Floridas water supply and flood control systems. At Central Marine boat docks in Stuart, pea-green and brown algae coated the water Thursday and smelled strongly like cow manure. Blooms that started last week in the St. Lucie River continue to spread, threatening Atlantic beaches expecting crowds of families for the holiday weekend. Sarah Chaney, a receptionist at Central Marine, said boaters and fisherman are cancelling reservations after seeing reports of the algae, which she called horrible and disgusting. When Scott declared a state emergency for the area Wednesday, he blamed the federal government for neglecting repairs to the lakes aging dike thats considered one of the countrys most at-risk for imminent failure. On Thursday, he amended the emergency declaration, adding Lee and Palm Beach counties to Wednesdays emergency declaration for Martin and St. Lucie counties. Palm Beach County is located directly south of the existing emergency area, while Lee County is located on Floridas Gulf coast. ___ Kay reported from Miami. Indiana is in line for $19 million in funding if Congress approves President Barack Obamas request for $1.1 billion to fight the opioid epidemic. In 2014, 450 Hoosiers died from an overdose of opioids, a class of drugs that includes heroin and prescription painkillers such as Oxycontin and fentanyl. The president has made addressing the opioid epidemic a key priority for his administration, Michael Botticelli, director of National Drug Control Policy, said in a conference call with reporters Friday. He recognizes that a substance abuse disease isnt something to be ashamed of; its a disease. He also recognizes we cant arrest our way out of this problem. The opioid epidemic takes the lives of an estimated 78 Americans every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Locally, the death rate from drug overdoses in Lake County has been on the rise over the past few years, mainly driven by heroin use, while Porter County has an even higher per-capita rate. But when addicts want to seek help, there often are not a lot of places for them to turn. Indiana has one of the largest shortages of substance abuse specialists of any state, according to the Pew Research Center. Jodie Hicks, a parent of a heroin addict, said during the conference call the nearest methadone clinic to her home in Lafayette is in Indianapolis. She recently took her son back and forth there every day for 10 months, and once she couldnt any longer, he got back on heroin. With no other disease would we expect someone to drive 65 miles to get treatment, Botticelli said. In addition, Hicks said the treatment facilities in her community either have long waiting lists or dont accept her sons Medicaid insurance. When an addict decides theyre ready, you cant wait, she said. I hope this funding can be passed before more lives are lost. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg shared a story during the call of parents in a nearby community who woke up one day to find both their teenage sons dead from drug overdoses. This is a public health emergency, and its something we clearly have to do a better job getting out ahead of, he said. One thing we know weve got to do, is break the silence. And talk wont be enough to address the problem. We need resources. (President Obama) recognizes that a substance abuse disease isnt something to be ashamed of; its a disease. He also recognizes we cant arrest our way out of this problem. Michael Botticelli, director of National Drug Control Policy DHAKA, Bangladesh Heavily armed militants struck at the heart of Bangladesh's diplomatic zone on Friday night, taking dozens of hostages at a restaurant popular with foreigners. Two police officers were killed and at least 26 people wounded in a gun battle as security forces cordoned off the area and sought to end the standoff. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadis activity online. At least 35 people, including about 20 foreigners, were still trapped inside the restaurant, said kitchen staffer Sumon Reza, who was among more than 10 people who managed to run to the rooftop and escape. The attack marks an escalation in the growing drumbeat of militant violence to hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation in the past three years, but with increasing frequency in recent months. Most attacks have been by machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities. Bangladesh did not immediately respond to the claim of responsibility by IS, but in the past have denied that the extremist group has a presence in the country. The U.S. State Department said it had seen the IS claim, but could not confirm its authenticity. More than eight hours after the hostage crisis began, a standoff had developed with little sign of any resolution. The attackers "have not responded to authorities' calls for negotiation," said a member of the elite anti-crime force, Rapid Action Battalion, identifying himself as Lt. Col. Masood, during an interview with the Indian TV channel Times Now. He said authorities were planning to launch a coordinated response at dawn, and that the security cordon would prevent any of the attackers from escaping. Authorities also ordered internet services to be blocked across the country, according to internet service provider Aamra. Police said the two officers died at a hospital after being wounded in the gunfire with as many as nine attackers, who also hurled bombs. Ten of the 26 wounded were listed in critical condition, six of whom were on life support, according to hospital staff, who said the injuries ranged from broken bones to gunshot wounds. Only one civilian was among the wounded. Reza said the attackers chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) as they launched the attack around 9:20 p.m. Friday, initially opening fire with blanks. A huge contingent of security forces cordoned off the area around the bakery. Resident Lutful Amin told The Associated Press he heard several explosions, the last of which went off around 10:45 p.m. The head of the Rapid Action Battalion told reporters Friday night that they were working to save the lives of the people trapped inside the restaurant. The hostages included an unknown number of foreigners. Their nationalities were not immediately clear. On Saturday, Japan's top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said at a hastily called news conference in Tokyo that the government is trying to confirm that Japanese were among the hostages. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters that saving lives is the top priority. "Some derailed youths have entered the restaurant and launched the attack," Benazir Ahmed said. "We have talked to some of the people who fled the restaurant after the attack. We want to resolve this peacefully. We are trying to talk to the attackers, we want to listen to them about what they want." "Our first priority is to save the lives of the people trapped inside," Ahmed said. He would not say how many people were being held hostage. Among the hostages was a businessman and his wife and two children, according to his uncle Anwarul Karim. "My nephew Hasnat Karim called me and said he was inside with his family. He told me, 'Please save us, please!' And he hung up," he said. "We do not know what is going on there." In Washington, a White House official said President Barack Obama was briefed on the attack by his chief counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco. The president asked to be kept informed as the situation develops, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the president's meetings. State Department spokesman John Kirby says the U.S. is in contact with the Bangladesh government and has offered its assistance to bring those responsible to justice. He said all official American personnel are accounted for with no injuries reported, and the department is working with local authorities to determine if any U.S. citizens and locally-employed staff were affected. The spree of recent attacks in Bangladesh have raised fears that religious extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions of secularism and tolerance. About two dozen atheist writers, publishers, members of religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers have been slain since 2013. On Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death by at least three assailants in southwest Bangladesh. IS and and al-Qaida affiliates have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government has cracked down on domestic radical Islamists. It has accused local terrorists and opposition political parties especially the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilize the nation, which both parties deny. ___ Associated Press writers Katy Daigle in New Delhi, Matthew Pennington in Washington and Ken Moritsugu in Tokyo contributed to this report. ''HE has the look of Lazarus about him,'' wrote Francois Mauriac of his friend Elie Wiesel, and Mr. Wiesel, a survivor of two Nazi concentration camps, has indeed returned from the dead with a story to tell, a story he has spent his adult life recounting. Like all writers, he is a witness, attempting to preserve history with his words. And yet in his case, the event was so horrific, the consequences so enormous that the author of ''The Testament,'' a novel that Summit Books will publish this month, says he is caught in a ''dialectical conflict'' between the need to recount and the futility of all explanation. ''On one hand, we must testify,'' he says. ''If I survived, it must be for some reason: I must do something with my life. It is too serious to play games with anymore because in my place someone else could have been saved. And so I speak for that person. On the other hand, I know I cannot. The war, my experience, transcends language - it is impossible to transmit. I know one thing no one else will know except those others who have been there. When we left that war, when we left that world, we did not talk about it - it is too personal, too intimate. But it is always present. I know whatever I do, whatever I write, is always against the background of that event.'' At heart, in fact, all Mr. Wiesel's stories are ''pilgrimages to the past,'' examinations of the uses to which memory may be put. The guilt survivors felt on being chosen to go on living, their responsibility to the dead, and their anger at a God who could let such a thing happen - these concerns are all chronicled in Mr. Wiesel's spare, unforgiving prose. There are no answers in his work, only questions. Grounded in His Own Life And whether the protagonist relives the horrors of the camps (''Night''), returns to his homeland in Hungary (''Beyond the Wall''), or journeys to Israel (''A Beggar in Jerusalem''), his story is always grounded in the facts of Mr. Wiesel's own life. For the author, after all, writing not only serves as a kind of expiation, but also as ''a protest to God,'' a means of trying to understand something that defies both reason and imagination. It is an existential act, he says, an act of defiance, made in the face of the void. Master of the Universe, let us make up. It is time. How long can we go on being angry? More than 50 years have passed since the nightmare was lifted. Many things, good and less good, have since happened to those who survived it. They learned to build on ruins. Family life was re-created. Children were born, friendships struck. They learned to have faith in their surroundings, even in their fellow men and women. Gratitude has replaced bitterness in their hearts. No one is as capable of thankfulness as they are. Thankful to anyone willing to hear their tales and become their ally in the battle against apathy and forgetfulness. For them every moment is grace. Oh, they do not forgive the killers and their accomplices, nor should they. Nor should you, Master of the Universe. But they no longer look at every passer-by with suspicion. Nor do they see a dagger in every hand. Does this mean that the wounds in their soul have healed? They will never heal. As long as a spark of the flames of Auschwitz and Treblinka glows in their memory, so long will my joy be incomplete. What about my faith in you, Master of the Universe? I now realize I never lost it, not even over there, during the darkest hours of my life. I don't know why I kept on whispering my daily prayers, and those one reserves for the Sabbath, and for the holidays, but I did recite them, often with my father and, on Rosh ha-Shanah eve, with hundreds of inmates at Auschwitz. Was it because the prayers remained a link to the vanished world of my childhood? Dave Heath, a photographer whose images expressing his sense of urban isolation and a yearning for personal connection won a fervent group of admirers despite his many years of public obscurity, died on Monday, his 85th birthday, in Toronto. Cara Heitmann, a friend of more than 25 years and executor of his will, said he had fallen at his home in Toronto and died in a hospital there. Although his lustrous black-and-white prints owed a lot to the bleaching techniques of W. Eugene Smith, and though his poetic images of people glimpsed in streets and public parks sounded some of the same broken chords as those struck by his friend Robert Frank in his book The Americans, Mr. Heath was in many ways a school of one. His photographs, notably collected in his signature work, the 1965 book A Dialogue With Solitude, reflected his own troubled experience. what a brave little c*nt.A shocking video shows a 16-year-old launching an apparently unprovoked attack on a 12-year-old boy while wearing brass knuckles in what could be another example of the infamous knockout game.The 23 second clip shows Faulkner County teen Kane Millsaps flipping off the camera before brutally striking the 12-year-old in the face.Millsaps, who claimed he was provoked, pleaded not guilty to battery, a felony, and possessing an instrument of crime. He is being charged as an adult over the incident, which took place on May 31st in Conway, Arkansas.Millsaps said he attacked the victim because he was running his mouth saying he was an MMA [Mixed Martial Arts] Fighter and he could beat him up, however, the witness who recorded the incident told investigators that the victim did not even see Millsaps coming and did not know he was going to be hit.The victim, who was knocked unconscious, reportedly had his cheek punctured, suffered a bruise on his eye, a cut on his neck and numerous broken teeth.When he woke up he thought he had gravel in his mouth but it was pieces of his teeth, according to the affidavit.Millsaps is set to appear in court on August 2nd. He told police, he found the brass knuckles at his apartment complex and after the incident he threw them in the dumpster.For years, the media has played down the racial aspect of black-on-white violent crime by calling it the knockout game.If the roles were reversed, with the victim being black and the assailant white, this would probably be a nationwide news story and a Black Lives Matter cause celebre.Some commentators have asserted that the attacks represent a disturbing trend of violent criminals feeling emboldened to attack white people in the belief that it is somehow justified in the aftermath of the Ferguson riots. DETROIT As the co-founder and chief executive of Tesla Motors, the technology billionaire Elon Musk has consistently portrayed his companys electric cars as cleaner, safer and more innovative than models made by other automakers. His confidence in Teslas technology has seemed boundless, particularly when the company announced last year that it would equip its flagship Model S sedans with a self-driving feature called Autopilot that was still in its testing phase. The technology was so out in front of federal highway regulations that there were no rules against it. But with the revelation this week that a Model S driver in Florida was killed in May while operating his car in self-driving mode, Mr. Musks determination to push limits has hit its most formidable roadblock. The question now is how much longer Mr. Musk and Tesla can continue to defy auto industry convention in trying to stay so far ahead of the competition. A major point of contention is the Autopilot feature and the decision to make it available to car owners while it was in beta test mode a term typically applied to software that a company releases on an experimental basis. A day after two high-ranking officials announced that they were leaving his administration, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Friday that the turnover was normal and not indicative of any overarching problem at City Hall. The departures of the two officials Emily Lloyd, the commissioner of the Environmental Protection Department, and Nilda Mesa, the director of the Office of Sustainability brought to five the members who have recently left or announced plans to leave Mr. de Blasios team. Ms. Lloyd had been on medical leave for the past month, the mayors office said in a statement. Its normal, Mr. de Blasio said. We have a lot of talent on our team. We have a very deep bench. Everything is continuing to work. In the last two months, the mayors press secretary, Karen Hinton, and his social media director, Scott Kleinberg, have left; each suggested that interference from higher-ups made their jobs difficult. The mayors chief legal counsel, Maya Wiley, announced this week that she would resign this month to become the chairwoman of the citys independent oversight agency for the Police Department. One of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos most highly promoted economic development initiatives has produced just 408 new jobs across New York State in the past two years, even as the state has spent tens of millions of dollars promoting it, according to a delayed report released on Friday afternoon. Mr. Cuomos strategy for rejuvenating upstate New York has always centered on creating jobs by luring big companies from out of state, cutting business taxes and pouring billions in state subsidies into nanotechnology projects from Buffalo to Albany, an initiative that has caught the attention of federal prosecutors, who are examining how contracts for such projects were distributed. With the Start-Up New York program, the focus of Fridays report, the state has promised to create more than 4,100 new jobs by the end of 2020 by eliminating the tax burden for new or expanding businesses. A nationwide ad campaign put the pitch plainly: Move here, expand here or start a new business here and pay no taxes for 10 years. For his part, Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, said it would supercharge the state economy. But hard numbers on the programs performance have been hard to come by. Not until Friday three months after the Start-Up New York report was supposed to be released, and the day before the start of the July 4 holiday weekend did the results from 2015 emerge, with the quiet uploading of a 16-page document to the website of the Empire State Development Corporation, the state agency that administers the program. First, what they do know: If you are a woman who is pregnant, you really shouldnt be going south, was Dr. Varmas blunt recommendation. While Zika generally causes no symptoms or only mild illness in most healthy adults, it can do great harm to a developing fetus, sometimes causing microcephaly, a condition in which babies have unusually small heads and damage to the brain. So while most individuals do not have much to worry about, the virus strikes at the heart of what keeps humankind going: our ability to reproduce. As a species, that is a dangerous thing, Dr. Varma said. The city and federal health authorities currently recommend that any woman who is pregnant, or planning on becoming pregnant, and who has spent time in one of the countries where the virus is endemic be tested. Because some 80 percent of the people who contract the virus show no symptoms, it is critical that doctors consider detailed travel histories of pregnant women and their partners to determine if they might be at risk. The virus can also be transmitted through sexual contact. There are about five million arrivals from countries that are now infected with Zika at New York City airports every year, so even though there has been no mosquito-borne transmission here, the threat posed by the virus is very real. Zika tests are far from perfect, according to Mr. Lipkin. There are two methods of discovering the virus in the body: Doctors can look for its genetic markers, or look for the antibodies the body creates to do battle with the virus. The first test can be performed when the viral load in the body is high, roughly within the first 12 days of infection. The other, however, cannot be done until about two weeks after infection, after allowing time for the host to build up antibodies. Most people who have no symptoms and have shown a negative on all the tests can be relatively sure they are in the clear. The United Nations took a bold step this week toward recognizing that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people fighting for equality are pursuing fundamental human rights. Members of the United Nations Human Rights Council narrowly approved a resolution on Thursday to establish a new watchdog for discrimination and violence against L.G.B.T. people. The initiative was championed by Latin American nations, which were backed by European countries. After a protracted debate, they overcame opposition from African and predominantly Muslim countries that sought to block and water down the measure. This is a big deal, said Charles Radcliffe, the chief of global issues at the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Ten years ago, you hardly heard the words gay or trans at the U.N. The independent monitor will travel to investigate and report on systemic violence and discrimination against L.G.B.T. people. He or she will operate much like United Nations special rapporteurs who monitor issues like violence against women, freedom of religion and the use of torture. Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump is shaping up as a test of modern campaigning, particularly in battleground states like North Carolina. Mrs. Clinton, who will campaign with President Obama in North Carolina next week, has approached these states with a traditional mix of advertising, rallies and grass-roots outreach. Mr. Trump, who is largely depending on rallies, Twitter and free media promotion, has no money for ads, about one-tenth the staff of the Clinton campaign and, so far, only sketchy plans to address either problem. But, while Mrs. Clinton holds a double-digit lead in some national polls, in others she leads by low single digits. And though Mr. Trumps numbers have fallen, Mrs. Clintons have not risen by a corresponding amount. Some voters appear to be taking a look at Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate. Mr. Trump will not remain tapped-out and off the air for long. He has been courting big Republican donors and has started an email fund-raising campaign. This week, the National Rifle Association began running ads tying Mrs. Clinton to the tragedy in Benghazi. MINNESOTAS Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is one of Americas most popular wild destinations. Water is its lifeblood. Over 1,200 miles of streams wend their way through 1.1 million acres thick with fir, pine and spruce and stippled by lakes left behind by glaciers. Moose, bears, wolves, loons, ospreys, eagles and northern pike make their home there and in the surrounding Superior National Forest. All of this is now threatened by a proposal for a huge mine to extract copper, nickel and other metals from sulfide ores. The mine would lie within the national forest along the South Kawishiwi River, which flows directly into the Boundary Waters Wilderness. The prospect of any major industrial activity in the watershed of such a place would be deeply troubling. But this kind of heavy-metal mining is in a destructive class all its own. Enormous amounts of unusable waste rock containing sulfides are left behind on the surface. A byproduct of this kind of mining is sulfuric acid, which often finds its way into nearby waterways. Similar mines around the country have already poisoned lakes and thousands of miles of streams. The consequence of acid mine drainage polluting the pristine Boundary Waters would be catastrophic. It is a risk we simply cant take. The United States has promised Jordan at least $3 billion in military and economic aid through 2017, partly to help it cope with about 650,000 Syrian refugees. The C.I.A. helped Jordan establish its intelligence service the General Intelligence Directorate, or G.I.D. during the reign of King Hussein, who died in 1999. Although the agency is respected in Washington as a professional and competent force, two of its recent leaders have gone to prison for embezzlement, money laundering and bank fraud. This latest case suggests there is corruption throughout the organization. Instead of delivering the weapons to the American-backed rebels, the Jordanian officers involved in the recent swindle sold Kalashnikov rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades to several large arms bazaars that have long stocked the arsenals of criminal gangs, tribes and other groups. Then the officers bought themselves S.U.V.s, iPhones and other luxuries. Although word of the theft reached the Jordanian government last year, the operation was not shut down until a few months ago, after American and Saudi complaints. G.I.D. investigators arrested several dozen officers involved in the scheme, and the officers were fired. But they were eventually freed and permitted to keep their pensions and profits from the theft. The revelations obviously shred the credibility of the Jordanian government and its intelligence service when it comes to fighting corruption. Yet they are also an indictment of the C.I.A., which for three years has been responsible for training thousands of rebels considered moderates to use Kalashnikovs, mortars, guided antitank missiles and other weapons. President Obama at first resisted giving the rebels lethal weapons because of the risk that they would fall into the wrong hands. But in 2013, he authorized the covert program and charged the C.I.A. with vetting the rebels and controlling the flow of arms. The C.I.A. has failed in its oversight of the weapons. INTERNATIONAL An article on June 3 about torrential rains and flooding in central and northeastern France misstated the level the Seine reached in Paris on the evening of June 2. It rose to 18 feet, not 18 feet above its typical level. The article also misstated the level the Seine reached during a catastrophic flood in 1910. It rose to 26 feet, not 26 feet above its regular level. An article on June 2 about a military advancement toward the Islamic State stronghold of Surt, Libya, by fighters aligned with the countrys United Nations-backed government misstated part of a comment by Frederic Wehrey, a Libya specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who visited the country recently. Referring to rival militias in Libya, he said, Only a year ago, these two groups were battling for control of the so-called oil crescent, and lobbing not lobbying rockets and shells at one another. A reporting credit on June 2 with an article about the Syrian governments easing of some limits on humanitarian aid convoys in rebel-held areas misspelled, in some editions, the surname of a contributor from Beirut, Lebanon. She is Anne Barnard, not Bernard. NEW YORK An article on June 16 about a deadly 1980 attack on gay men at the Ramrod Bar in Greenwich Village, using information from Times news articles from that period, misspelled the surname and misstated the age of one of the victims. He was Vernon Kroening, not Koenig, and he was 32, not 21. (His surname was also misspelled in a picture caption with a collection of photographs on May 11.) The article, also using the earlier news reports, misidentified the intersection where the attacker initially opened fire. It is Washington and Charles Streets, not Washington and 10th Streets. A corrective article is on Page A15. The jury was confronted with difficult questions of credibility: whether to believe the defendants or the alleged victims account of what happened in the park as to whether the encounter was consensual, Justice Stevens wrote. The conflict was not only between the testimony of participants in the event, but also that of three police officers. We know now that those officers unquestionably committed perjury. They testified falsely that each of the defendants had signed only one statement, rather than two. He continued: If the jury accepted the perjured police testimony as true, it necessarily would have concluded that the defendants were lying when they testified to the contrary. The conclusion that the defendants lied about a matter debated at length throughout the trial undoubtedly affected the jurors resolution of the conflicting testimony about the incident itself. However, rejecting Mr. Morriss appeals, state judges concluded that the perjured testimony was irrelevant because the defendants had failed to prove that it mattered whether they signed one statement or two. In a foreword to Mr. Morriss book, Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr., chief counsel of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, wrote, What Morris had to show was that the perjury coming as it did from officers of the state rendered the trial so unfair that the guilty verdicts could not stand. After repeated setbacks in the state courts, a federal court ruled in 1958 that the defendants had not received a fair trial because of the perjury and voided the verdicts. State prosecutors declined to retry them. Irving Nathaniel Morris was born in Trenton on Dec. 18, 1925, the son of Abraham Morris and the former Katherine Kramer, both of whom ran a clothing store. The family moved to Wilmington, Del., when he was 2 years old. He was married to the former Doris Richter for 58 years, until her death, and is survived by their daughters, Deborah Zakheim and Karen Morris; his son, David; and nine grandchildren. roops(CNN)A Taiwanese warship mistakenly launched a supersonic "aircraft carrier killer" missile toward China Friday, hitting a fishing boat and killing the boat's captain in an incident China called "a serious matter."A spokesman for Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense apologized on behalf of the military."The Ministry of National Defense sincerely apologizes for the incident that caused the death of the captain (of the boat) and injured other crew members," Maj. Gen. Chen Chung-Chi said in a news conference. The ministry has also asked the Navy to provide assistance and compensation to the family of the victims.The deceased captain has been identified as Huang Wen-Chung, the defense ministry confirmed, according to Taiwan Focus, the English-language service of state-run Central News Agency.Chung-Chi said the missile, the "Hsiung Feng III," ripped through the fishing boat but did not explode.An investigation into the incident has begun, Chung-Chi added.China's top official in Taiwan, Zhang Zhijun, said Friday that Taiwan must provide a "responsible explanation" for the launch of the missile, calling it a "serious matter."Relations between Taiwan -- officially the Republic of China -- and the People's Republic of China have been increasingly tense since the landslide election of Tsai Ing-wen, whose party has traditionally leaned in favor of formal independence from China. Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was to meet with Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana on Saturday, according to people briefed on the meeting, adding to speculation that the conservative governor is among the finalists to be Mr. Trumps running mate. Mr. Pence, who supported Senator Ted Cruz of Texas in Indianas Republican primary, is a first-term governor with strong credentials as a social conservative that could help Mr. Trump placate that wing of the party. He was at the center of a contentious national debate last year over religious freedom laws that critics said would allow businesses to discriminate against gay and lesbian couples. Mr. Pence has stressed recently that he has not had contact with Mr. Trumps campaign for several weeks, although one person briefed on the process said that the campaign had started vetting him in recent days. Asked about the meeting, Mr. Trumps new communications director, Jason Miller, would only say, Mr. Trump is meeting with a number of Republican leaders in the run-up to the convention in Cleveland, and he has a good relationship with Governor Pence. WASHINGTON Britains vote to leave the European Union comes as the 28-nation bloc is grappling with more than its usual economic issues. The union is also in the midst of deep ideological divisions over the major diplomatic and security issues of the day. The body has traditionally been an afterthought in such matters, with individual states or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a strictly military alliance, taking the lead. But that is slowly changing. Britains departure, analysts say, could shift internal debate on not just individual issues but the very nature of the unions role in diplomacy and security. As France and Germany fill the leadership void, they will have an opportunity to pursue a shared goal that Britain has blocked: expanding the European Unions integration to include military policy. This ambition, which some union officials are already pushing forward, would expand the blocs ability to act as a unified diplomatic body, and allow it to put muscle behind its increasingly prominent role in the world. It would give Europe a greater ability to confront security challenges, particularly the threat that many Eastern European members perceive from Russia. WASHINGTON The White House on Friday told members of Congress that it had offered to substantially sweeten a decade-long military aid package for Israel, the latest turn in months of fitful negotiations that have proceeded despite deep divisions over the Iran nuclear deal. Under the proposed terms, the United States would insist that the Israelis use the tens of billions of dollars they receive under the deal to buy United States-made goods and services, rather than spend a sizable portion in their own country as they are permitted to do now. The administration laid out details of the package in a lengthy letter to senators who had written to the White House in April urging the completion of a new aid deal. In the thick of the debate last year over the Iran deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel refused to negotiate with President Obama over a so-called memorandum of understanding for a military aid package to replace one that expires in 2018. Someone asked me, arent you worried people are going to say it looks like you? Mr. OShea said. At the beginning I was thinking, I dont want it to be like me but then, I dont know anything else. And F.H.P. Francois-Henri Pinault, the chief executive of the Kering group, which acquired Brioni in 2012 was like, if theres not you in it, dont turn up to work. Mr. OShea is the first to admit that he is not a trained designer. The only sketch he has ever made was of a pair of sunglasses on a napkin on an airplane. And while many pundits wrote approvingly of his appointment, for some hand-wringing about its implications began immediately. OShea is, however, a man, Alexander Fury wrote in The Independent. A highly visible man. Who wears suits. Which, oddly, seem to be the few concrete reasons for his appointment. At Brioni, OShea will be afforded access to some of the finest craftsmen in the industry. Its a pity that their skills wont be challenged. That misses the point, according to Brioni executives. The creative director role, as we knew it in the past, changed, Mr. Flore said. The market changed, the consumer changed, and necessarily we changed. I dont think trained designer or not designer is necessarily relevant any longer in our industry, at least for Brioni. Trained or not, Mr. OShea is experienced in the selling side of fashion. On either side of his sabbatical, he worked in fashion sales and retail, eventually landing at the German e-commerce site MyTheresa and working his way up to become its global fashion director. By the time he left, MyTheresa (and its bricks-and-mortar sister store in Munich, Theresa) had been acquired by the Neiman Marcus Group and the companies revenues were approximately $130 million annually. As a retailer, Mr. OShea gained an appreciation for those designers and brands who committed to an aesthetic, however strong or divergent from the crowd. Q. Old movie houses dont die; theyre repurposed as drugstores, clinics, even houses of worship. Yet the marquees remain, although these canopies no longer serve their original purpose. Why? A. They serve as great advertising for many businesses and institutions besides movies. Consider three examples in Queens. In Rego Park, the former Trylon Theater (above in 2005) is now the Ohr Natan Bukharian Community Center, and the former movie marquee now has signs for the center in English and Russian. The Brandon Cinemas, on Austin Street in Forest Hills, was closed and replaced with a pediatric care center, as the marquee says. The website Forgotten New York shows the 1928 Elmwood Theater, on Hoffman Drive in Elmhurst, which closed as a theater in 2002 but was bought by the Rock Church, whose name was added to the exterior sign. Scott Bringuet, project coordinator and design manager for the Ace Sign Company of Springfield, Ill., said that leaving up old marquees was common. Many times the spaces are occupied by businesses or office spaces while the marquee remains as the identification for the building, said Mr. Bringuet, whose company made the huge Times Square sign in Roman numerals for Super Bowl XLVIII. We fabricate many new signs with a retro marquee look, Mr. Bringuet said in an email, adding, This provides that nostalgic quality that customers appreciate and old-sign guys cannot get enough of! Greensburg, Pa. THIS faded mining town east of Pittsburgh seems right out of The Deer Hunter, one of many blue-collar, gun-loving communities that dot western Pennsylvania. For Donald J. Trump, such largely white, working-class towns are crucial to his hopes in the presidential campaign and thats one reason he campaigned in this region on Tuesday. By rolling up large enough margins in former industrial strongholds like Greensburg not just in Pennsylvania, but also in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin he might offset expected losses in cities like Philadelphia, Detroit and Cleveland, enabling him to capture those pivotal states. Mr. Trumps Make America Great Again message resonates with many of this regions workers, whose wages and hopes have been tugged downward by the abandoned steel mills and coal mines. Take Dennis Haines, 57, thrown out of work in January when the printing plant where he worked for 30 years closed. Mr. Haines, a member of the machinists union, said: Its either you stick with the establishment or you go for change. People want change. A guy like Donald Trump, hes pushing for change. Not long ago, when the mines and mills were booming and unions were much stronger, organized labors power helped keep the region solidly Democratic. But no longer. For one thing, union membership is down in Pennsylvania, declining by 100,000 since 2008, to 747,000. The blue-collar counties of western Pennsylvania have largely swung Republican as unions have grown weaker and evangelical churches stronger. Despite overwhelmingly endorsing Hillary Clinton, labor unions face a big challenge with frustrated workers like Mr. Haines. The Supreme Court ensured that millions of working people would get fairer treatment when it decided last week not to consider Home Care Association of America v. Weil. That case was the last attempt by home care employers (mostly for-profit agencies) to avoid paying home care workers (mainly women of color) the minimum wage and overtime pay. By declining to hear the case, the court has confirmed that there is no legal rationale for denying basic labor protections to home care workers, who care for the elderly and disabled in the clients homes. The courts action also marks the end of a long and shameful era in labor law. In 1975, the Labor Department issued rules that labeled home care workers companions, akin to babysitters, a label that exempts employers from having to pay the minimum wage or overtime. The companionship label was wrong from the start, and it became increasingly intolerable as demand for home care increased and a vast for-profit industry developed to meet that demand. Yet the label stayed in place until 2015, when new rules by the Labor Department took effect to both fix the mislabeling and compel home care employers to follow the same labor laws as other employers. Far-right politicians in Britain, France and other European countries blame the European Union for all the real and perceived problems of their countries. Many of their arguments are wildly off base, but there is also good evidence that the union urgently needs reform. The complaints against the E.U. are somewhat different in each of its 28 member nations, but they reflect similar frustrations. Many Britons voted to leave the union because they wanted to restrict immigration from other European countries and to get rid of E.U. regulations. The Five Star Movement in Italy wants the country to leave the euro currency and return to the lira to revive a weak economy. And the French nationalist politician Marine Le Pen said in March that the E.U. was the death of our economy, our social welfare system and our identity. Ms. Le Pen and her ilk have found a receptive audience for their nativist and isolationist views because many people have lost faith that the E.U. and its officials can deliver the stability and prosperity that was the purpose of the European project. In recent years, the failure to find a unified response to the flow of refugees from Syria, Africa and elsewhere has further damaged the E.U.s reputation. Whether or not Britain ultimately leaves the union, it is now up to leaders like Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Francois Hollande of France and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy to reform the E.U. or watch its credibility and effectiveness drain away further. One of the most basic critiques of the union is that it is not democratic. This is an exaggeration, but it includes a kernel of truth. Of the E.U.s three main institutions, the most powerful is the European Council, which is made up of 28 national governments. Its decisions, which are subject to political compromise, rarely reflect the pure preferences of the people of any of its member nations. I DID something in Paris last Saturday night that Ive never done before. I went to a restaurant alone for dinner. I know, its lame that Ive always been afraid to go out to public places at night on my own. I tried to get beyond this phobia by going to the movies by myself one Saturday night in Washington, many years ago, after a breakup. But when the lights came up, my ex was sitting in front of me with a pretty date. That cured me of the desire to venture forth solo for another couple of decades. But I was in France for work for the week and stopped in Paris on the way home. I spent Friday night eating the minibar salt-and-vinegar potato chips, popcorn, nuts, chocolate and white wine. But by the second night, it seemed too sad to be cooped up in a dark room in the City of Light. So I worked up my nerve and made it as far as the hotel dining room. I was staying on the Left Bank at LHotel, where a depressed Oscar Wilde came to live in 1898, subsidized by the French government, after his release from Reading Gaol. He died there at 46, in a room off the lobby that is now a petite mirrored bar with glossies of famous drop-ins like Mick Jagger and Johnny Depp, and a cocktail called Born to be Wilde, made with Bacardi, basil, honey, lime juice and Tabasco. Legend has it that Wildes last words were: My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go. This species is racially diverse (within limits) and eager to assimilate the fun-seeming bits of foreign cultures food, a touch of exotic spirituality. But no less than Brexit-voting Cornish villagers, our global citizens think and act as members of a tribe. They have their own distinctive worldview (basically liberal Christianity without Christ), their own common educational experience, their own shared values and assumptions (social psychologists call these WEIRD for Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic), and of course their own outgroups (evangelicals, Little Englanders) to fear, pity and despise. And like any tribal cohort they seek comfort and familiarity: From London to Paris to New York, each Western global city (like each global university) is increasingly interchangeable, so that wherever the citizen of the world travels he already feels at home. Indeed elite tribalism is actively encouraged by the technologies of globalization, the ease of travel and communication. Distance and separation force encounter and immersion, which is why the age of empire made cosmopolitans as well as chauvinists sometimes out of the same people. (There is more genuine cosmopolitanism in Rudyard Kipling and T. E. Lawrence and Richard Francis Burton than in a hundred Davos sessions.) It is still possible to disappear into someone elses culture, to leave the global-citizen bubble behind. But in my experience the people who do are exceptional or eccentric or natural outsiders to begin with like a young writer I knew who had traveled Africa and Asia more or less on foot for years, not for a book but just because, or the daughter of evangelical missionaries who grew up in South Asia and lived in Washington, D.C., as a way station before moving her own family to the Middle East. They are not the people who ascend to power, who become the insiders against whom populists revolt. In my own case to speak as an insider for a moment my cosmopolitanism probably peaked when I was about 11 years old, when I was simultaneously attending tongues-speaking Pentecostalist worship services, playing Little League in a working-class neighborhood, eating alongside aging hippies in macrobiotic restaurants on weekends, all the while attending a liberal Episcopalian parochial school. (Its a long story.) JLM said: Especially the ones stupid enough to get on dope! Click to expand... I'd bet there's been dozens "after" smoking a joint! Click to expand... Thc is very effective at curtailing PTSD and neurological pain.curtailing PTSD STOPS MURDERS attributed to that condition.To not recognize this and utilize it because some folks don't have a clue is well, quite rankly stupid.SSRI drugs on the other hand CAUSE MURDERSNot utilizing THC, because of blind adherence to idiotic dogma is very problematic for suffering ex soldiers and spectrum disorder children also, among other people.People who would prevent it's use and/or frown on it for reasons best attributed to someone else's corporate propaganda, suffer from something far more detrimental to society as a whole:DELUSIONA very large section of the population suffers from medical conditions that benefit subtly from the use of THC (and related compounds), and use it under the guise of "RECREATIONAL USE" because the delusional idiots who oppose it for nonsensical, inaccurate reasons, don't have better solutions. IF they didn't feel need to use it to have fun, they wouldn't use it recreationaly at all.THC being restricted is also the excuse for not utilizing hemp, which is real freaking stupid...super stupid, and the real reason it's illegal in the first place.It is good however, for elitist corporations that don't want you to have the FREEDOM to choose for yourself though...COMPETITION IS A SINYou uselessful idiots are standing in the way of relief for people much more deserving of a say in this matter then you, just to further corporate profits from things immeasurably far more detrimental, so kindly shut the fikk up please, you are are torturing children and troops, among other things, both of which many of you OH!noeknows pretend to champion, while you CHEER shooting them out of cannonscongratulations on the recognition of your natural lobotomiesya bastidsBACK THAT UP WITH SOME INTELLIGENT DISCOURSE PLEASEor risk looking like total dum dumBTWI'll take you up that betwhen you don't or can't win a betthat's the definition of LOSERso link us up some eh?here I'll even help you get startedMarijuana and Mass MurderRoger Morgan blames weed for everything that's wrong with society today. For decades, Saudi Arabia has recklessly financed and promoted a harsh and intolerant Wahhabi version of Islam around the world in a way that is, quite predictably, producing terrorists. And theres no better example of this Saudi recklessness than in the Balkans. Kosovo and Albania have been models of religious moderation and tolerance, and as the Clinton statue attests, Kosovars revere the United States and Britain for averting a possible genocide by Serbs in 1999 (there are also many Kosovar teenagers named Tony Blair!). Yet Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries poured money into the new nation over the last 17 years and nurtured religious extremism in a land where originally there was little. The upshot is that, according to the Kosovo government, 300 Kosovars have traveled to fight in Syria or Iraq, mostly to join the Islamic State. As my colleague Carlotta Gall noted in a pathbreaking article about radicalization here, Saudi money has transformed a once-tolerant Islamic society into a pipeline for jihadists. In a sign of the times, the government last year had to turn off the water supply in the capital temporarily amid fears of an Islamic State-inspired plot to poison the citys water. Saudi Arabia is destroying Islam, Zuhdi Hajzeri, an imam at a 430-year-old mosque here in the city of Peja, told me sadly. Hajzeri is a moderate in the traditional, tolerant style of Kosovo he is the latest in a long line of imams in his family and said that as a result he had received more death threats from extremists than he can count. Every bit of evidence about Elizabeth Warren is that shell go indie when she feels she needs to, said Doug Schoen, a pollster and strategist who has advised Bill Clinton and Mike Bloomberg, referring to Warrens carefully maintained identity as someone who doesnt back down. If Clinton ran with her and won, The day that Warren says, I cannot support this trade deal that Clinton has decided to endorse, the administration is over. But the most compelling reason that Clinton can pick whom she pleases is the ineffably large, epically polarizing presence of Trump. Any wavering voters who might be lured his way will be making a decision about him whether hes a protest vote with too high a price, whether a real leader can bloom where a peevish child still stomps and preens and not about the appeal of Clintons No. 2. The Trump card overwhelms it, said Doug Sosnik, a Democratic strategist who worked in Bill Clintons White House, adding that if either candidates vice-presidential pick matters at all, its Trumps. He might be able to reassure people that theres an adult on site. Not that he has many options, and thats another facet of these veepstakes that makes them different from any other. In elections past, strivers in both parties deflected questions about the vice presidency with a coyness designed to make clear that, yes, theyd run a lawn mower over beloved relatives if those haplessly positioned kinfolk stood in the way of the assignment. In this election, young Republican stars and seasoned party veterans alike have dispensed with any coyness to stress that theyd rather do yard work than stand beside the gaudy topiary that is Trump. Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley, John Kasich, Scott Walker and more said, No, thanks, before Trump could even say, Please. And its not just that they reject positions Trump has taken, flinch at words he has spoken and worry that hes more taint than gilt. They also fear how exposed theyd be. NORMALLY, before a candidate and his or her aides choose a running mate, They develop an operation to defend and support the vice-presidential nominee, said Dan Senor, an adviser to Mitt Romneys 2012 presidential campaign who helped do precisely that for Paul Ryan. The minute that nominee is announced, there are 800 reporters breathing down your throat and the other side is going to war to shred the running mates reputation. Texas emphasis on protecting women once made sense as part of a much larger anti-abortion campaign. In the 1990s, pro-lifers recognized that the movement had an image problem. While Americans saw abortion opponents as morally principled, polls showed that the public also sometimes viewed them as cold, indifferent or even extremist in their attitudes toward women. But the tactic at play in Hellerstedt put women first. As a movement pamphlet put it: Once average citizens realize that women are being hurt by abortion, they will begin to question why we allow abortion at all. So where do abortion opponents go from here? Pro-lifers have to decide if a legal strategy focused on women is one they want to stick with and if the political party to which they have tied their fortunes still deserves their support. In the past decade, the movements success has mostly concealed activists sometimes clashing views about strategy. Now, with a major legal setback, the movement risks fracturing again. Finding a perfect historical comparison is hard, but the best understood pro-life setback came in 1973, when the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade. That case invalidated the vast majority of criminal abortion laws in the nation and left the states little room to regulate abortion early in pregnancy. After Roe, pro-lifers concentrated more than ever on arguing for the rights of the unborn, but movement members disagreed about strategy. Some gave up on litigation, and focused on amending the Constitution, believing that the court had deliberately disregarded the rights of the unborn. Dr. William Colliton, a veteran movement member, spoke for many who believed that the Supreme Court had already evaded the scientific answer to the question, When does life begin? so pressing on that point was futile. Others responded that the problem was ignorance. If the American public was educated about what is really done to that living being, the child in the womb, they will reject abortion on demand, argued Americans United for Life. New Haven THE first time I saw the picture was a couple of weeks after it was taken, in May 2012, when a college friend shared a photo she had taken of that mornings print edition of The New York Post. Not Worth the Debt blared the characteristically reserved headline of the story. There was Tareah, frozen in a well-deserved whoop. There was Mai, a statue of joy. Gavin was behind her, raising to half-mast a triumphant fist that would never reach the sky. And, oh, yes, over on your right, those were my tonsils. There I was, my mouth a naive, gaping hoop of poor financial planning and, below my face, a caption: Hope your dad paid. I hadnt realized Id been shot in that mid-cheer moment, but it didnt bother me when I found out. The article raised valid questions about the grim loan calculus that prospective lawyers face, but law school had been worth the debt. Im almost certain of it. One kept a paperweight model of an electric chair on his desk. Another boasted about being named the deadliest prosecutor in America by the Guinness Book of World Records and mocked defendants with intellectual disabilities. A third was dragged from the courtroom when jurors who acquitted six defendants he had charged with shooting police officers said he approached them and reached for his gun. These men are members of a very small club: five prosecutors who together are responsible for about one of every seven death-row inmates nationwide. Even as most states have moved away from capital punishment, the practice continues to be used in a tiny fraction of counties, and under the leadership of specific prosecutors, according to a new report by the Fair Punishment Project at Harvard Law School. The prosecutors are Joe Freeman Britt in North Carolina, Robert Macy in Oklahoma, Donnie Myers in South Carolina, Lynne Abraham in Philadelphia and Johnny Holmes in Texas. Of these five, only Mr. Myers remains in office. But during their tenures, each either secured dozens of death sentences personally or led offices that won hundreds. And each, in his or her way, embodies the vindictive, idiosyncratic nature of state-sanctioned killing. Just before the spacecraft Juno finishes a five-year trip to Jupiter on Monday, NASA has decided to extend the missions of nine older robotic explorers that have lived beyond original expectations. The agency announced the decision on Friday, saying the nine are still producing bounties of observations for scientists. Most of the extensions were expected. The New Horizons spacecraft, which flew past Pluto last year, had already been steered toward a new target, known as 2014 MU69, one of the small icy objects in the ring of debris beyond Neptune. But one of NASAs decisions, about the Dawn spacecraft orbiting Ceres, the dwarf planet in the asteroid belt, was somewhat of a surprise as well as a disappointment to some working on the mission. Each Saturday, Farhad Manjoo and Mike Isaac, technology reporters at The New York Times, review the weeks news, offering analysis and maybe a joke or two about the most important developments in the tech industry. Farhad: Hows it going, Mike? Im very excited because the 4th of July is my favorite holiday. Its summer, youre outside, you grill stuff how can anything beat that? (Thanksgiving comes a close second, IMHO.) So, how are you celebrating Americas birthday? Mike: Gas station burrito, sitting in my car. Farhad: Oh, so the same as every year. Anyway, speaking of fireworks, this was a surprisingly busy week in tech news. Lets start with Zenefits, the beleaguered human resources start-up, which did something almost unheard-of it gave up more of its equity to existing investors as a way to compensate them for its recently terrible behavior. In 2015, several large investors poured $500 million into Zenefits, which was then growing faster than you at an all-you-can-eat buffet. But last year it emerged that Zenefits was actually a garbage fire of unruly and potentially illegal behavior. Its founder, Parker Conrad, was pushed out, and the new chief executive, David Sacks, has since been trying to save the sinking ship. While relatives and supporters of Adnan Syed celebrated a Maryland judges decision to grant him a new trial in the 1999 murder of his former girlfriend Hae Min Lee, members of Ms. Lees family on Friday expressed disappointment in the decision and said they remained convinced of his guilt. We do not speak as often or as loudly as those who support Adnan Syed, but we care just as much about this case, the family said in a statement released by the office of the Maryland attorney general. We continue to grieve. We continue to believe justice was done when Mr. Syed was convicted of killing Hae. While we continue to put our faith in the courts and hope the decision will be reversed, we are very disappointed by the judges decision, the statement continued. The family expressed gratitude to prosecutors for standing by the true victims and for giving Hae Min Lee a voice. Mr. Syed, whose case was chronicled in the first season of the hit podcast Serial, was granted a retrial on Thursday by Judge Martin P. Welch of the Baltimore City Circuit Court. It was a major victory for an inmate who has maintained his innocence for almost two decades. He has served 16 years of a life sentence after being convicted in 2000 of first-degree murder and kidnapping. HYDER, Alaska If libertarians had an earthly paradise, it would probably be here in Hyder, Alaska. Separated from American governments and bureaucracies by immense wilderness, Hyder has no property taxes or police, and citizens can carry firearms openly. Yet the village, wedged between two Canadian borders, has long relied on neighboring Stewart, British Columbia, for groceries, electricity and other services. So July 4 might be called Interdependence Day here. Thats when Canadians cross an unguarded United States border into Hyder and continue the Canada Day party that begins on July 1 and that the Yankees heartily join. In Hyder, the celebration includes a pet parade (people dress em up and walk em down the street) and an ugly vehicle contest (they have to run, and thats about it). There is also a competition known as the Bush Woman Classic, in which women and a few men in drag must chop wood, flip a pancake, catch a fish (in a bucket), shoot a water gun at a man in a bear costume and then apply lipstick on the way to the finish line. The spirit of international cooperation between Hyder and Stewart goes back to the early 1900s, when the two communities were founded as mining towns on the shores of a fjord abundant with salmon, seals and halibut. While they may be in separate countries, daily life has bound them ever closer through marriages, blizzards and bears that fail to respect international boundaries. President Obama even alluded to the bond when the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, visited the White House in March. Then, almost as quickly as it began, the controversy subsided. And several weeks later, Mr. Trump decided not to seek the Republican nomination. Though he continued to do well in polls, he seemed to be more focused on his reality television pursuits. Now, Mr. Trump almost assiduously refuses to discuss the topic, which, according to several people close to him, was always more about political performance art than ideology. I dont talk about that anymore, Mr. Trump told the MSNBC host Chris Matthews after a Republican debate last year. Raising questions about the presidents birth certificate and even threatening to send a team of investigators to Hawaii had served its purpose, raising Mr. Trumps political profile and, whether he knew it or not at the time, providing him with the rudimentary foundation upon which he built his 2016 campaign. He even skirted close to birther innuendo after the massacre in Orlando, Fla., last month, calling into Fox & Friends to insinuate that Mr. Obama might sympathize with Islamic extremists. He doesnt get it or he gets it better than anybody understands, Mr. Trump said. But for all of his fascination with the presidents birth certificate, Mr. Trump apparently never dispatched investigators or made much of an effort to find the documents. Dr. Alvin Onaka, the Hawaii state registrar who handled queries about Mr. Obama, said recently through a spokeswoman that he had no evidence or recollection of Mr. Trump or any of his representatives ever requesting the records from the Hawaii State Department of Health. Your outcome is so miserable, ignorant and foolish when your striving is to transgress on the majesty of God. Of course, the blasphemers and atheists cannot harm God with any bit; but such acts will be against you. How dare you speak badly about your Creator, the All-Mighty over you, Who manipulates your life in the World and in the Next Life? And all this is only to please your leaders of the atheism and blasphemy! When your leaders will disown you in the Next Life, and you will regret when the regret will not avail you anything. Quran 3: 176, which means: [God addressed His noble messenger, Mohammed, and said:] { [Mohammed,] let not these grieve you, who rush headlong into unbelief a : Not the least harm [with their disbelief] will they do to [the religion of] God b : God's plan is that He will not give them any portion in the Next Life [: in Paradise] ; and they will have a painful chastisement [after their death.] } ........................................................... a And they don't think about the consequence. b But they will only harm themselves . In fact, He does not intend to give them any share in Paradise, because they are wrong-doers, and the wrong-doer will have no place in Paradise. The interpretation is by Mohammed-Ali Hassan Al-Hilly. The F.B.I. interviewed Hillary Clinton on Saturday morning for its investigation into whether she or her aides broke the law by corresponding through a private email server set up for her use as secretary of state, a controversy that has dogged her presidential campaign and provided fodder for her political rivals. The voluntary interview, which took place over three and a half hours at the F.B.I. headquarters in Washington, largely focused on the Justice Departments central question: Did the actions of Mrs. Clinton or her staff rise to the level of criminal mishandling of classified information? It could take weeks or longer to reach a decision, but news that Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic Partys presumptive nominee, had been questioned in the J. Edgar Hoover Building three weeks before her partys convention quickly reverberated. The Republican National Committee called the step unprecedented, while Mrs. Clintons expected opponent in the race for the White House, Donald J. Trump, wasted little time before weighing in. WASHINGTON Hillary Clinton, courting young voters and the broader Democratic base, has promised to one-up President Obama on climate change, vowing to produce a third of the nations electricity from renewable sources by 2027, three years faster than Mr. Obama, while spending billions of dollars to transform the energy economy. A half-billion solar panels will be installed by 2020, she has promised, seven times the number today, and $60 billion will go to states and cities to develop more climate-friendly infrastructure, such as public transportation and energy-efficient buildings. She would put the United States on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent from 2005 levels by 2050. And, she says, she could achieve all that without new legislation from Congress. But Mrs. Clinton has avoided mention of the one policy that economists widely see as the most effective way to tackle climate change and one that would need Congresss assent: putting a price or tax on carbon dioxide emissions. Its possible, theoretically, to do all this without a price on carbon, said David Victor, the director of the Laboratory on International Law and Regulation at the University of California, San Diego. But, he added, its hard to see how. Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, came under fire on Saturday for posting on Twitter an image of the Star of David shape next to a picture of Hillary Clinton and calling his opponent the most corrupt candidate ever! Image The tweet that was deleted from Donald J. Trumps Twitter account. While the six-pointed star is used in other contexts, including as a symbol of many Sheriffs Departments, it has deep meaning in Judaism and the image was overlaid atop a pile of money. It appeared to play into the stereotype of Jews being obsessed with finances. After being derided on social media, Mr. Trump deleted the post and replaced it with one that had a circle instead of the star shape. Thats who they were particularly looking for, he said. But in the end, three Bangladeshis were listed among the dead, including Ishrat Akhond, a human resource specialist who also worked at art galleries and spent her spare time volunteering for nonprofits. JCI Bangladesh, a group focused on global peace and a former employer of Ms. Akhonds, said in a Facebook post on Saturday that she had been killed. A passionate and lovely human being, a friend, Shakhawat Khan, wrote on Facebook. She used to start her status with the following words, I am happy because. Nine Italians, whose identities were confirmed by Italian authorities on Saturday, were also among the dead. They were among about 200 Italians living in Dhaka, said Tullio Ferri, an Italian who lives there and a friend of eight of the nine victims. Its a small community,, Mr. Ferri said. We are all very close. Were more like a family. He said that all of the Italians worked in the apparel industry. Some were producers, some direct clients, and others worked as agents for Italian importers. YANGON, Myanmar A mob burned down a mosque in northern Myanmar in the second such attack in just over a week, a newspaper reported Saturday. The state-owned Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said security forces in Hpakant in Kachin State had been unable to control the attackers as they set fire to the mosque on Friday. The attackers were armed with sticks, knives and other weapons, the newspaper said. It said the mosques leaders had failed to meet a June 30 deadline set by the local authorities to tear down the structure to make way for construction of a bridge. On June 23, a mob demolished a mosque and a Muslim cemetery in a village in Bago Region, about 36 miles northeast of Yangon, reportedly as a consequence of a personal dispute. SYDNEY, Australia Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of Australia and his conservative Liberal National coalition could lose more than 10 seats in Parliament, according to early election returns on Saturday, which might leave it unable to form a majority government. Neither Mr. Turnbull nor the opposition Labor leader, Bill Shorten, had conceded defeat late Saturday, with about 70 percent of the votes counted in the elections to select Australias 150-member House of Representatives. The party or coalition that wins a majority of the seats in the House forms a government. A sharp reduction in the 90 seats Mr. Turnbulls government held before the election could damage his leadership prospects. Mr. Turnbulls decision to call an early election and run a long campaign now seems to have been a poor gamble. Australias election campaigns typically run about four weeks. This one was about two months. According to official projections late Saturday from the Australian Electoral Commission, the governing coalition, which includes the Liberal and National Parties, was on track to win at least 68 seats, and the Australian Labor Party at least 70. Australias third major party, the Greens, had won one seat, and independent candidates had won four seats. Im British. Im European. Im American. Im that transnational child often in the news these days. I was born in Washington in the late 1980s, grew up in Brussels, moved to London and then returned to the United States, where I lived in New York City; Providence, R.I.; and San Francisco. My parents are English. My first language was French. I went to a Belgian school and the European School in Brussels, where my classmates almost always spoke at least three languages. My childhood was defined by endless car journeys across Europe. And as an adult, I have enjoyed the benefits of cheap deals on low-cost European airlines. Most of my friends have gone to school and worked in at least two European countries. I am part of the Erasmus generation. My friends and my roots are everywhere and only now do I realize how much I took that for granted. Image Francesca Barber Credit... Earl Wilson/The New York Times The shocking outcome of the British referendum a vote to leave the European Union has challenged the very foundation of my understanding of who I am and what my place in the world is. I feel disheartened and disconnected from my European home. Now Im trying to make sense of what happened, and to understand the motivation of the more than 17 million people who voted to close the door and turn back on everything I thought the union stood for. PARIS You could say theirs is the Generation of Three Es. There is Erasmus, the European Union program that organizes and subsidizes student exchanges among universities across its 28 countries and elsewhere. There is easyJet, the budget airline that lets them hop between European cities as simply and cheaply as it can be to trek across town. And there is the euro, the currency used in most of the member countries. Young adults are now grappling with what Britains vote to exit the European Union means for their profoundly European way of life. For them, it is perfectly normal to grow up in one country, study in another, work in a third, share a flat with people who have different passports and partner up without regard to nationality. It means that we are not going to be sisters and brothers of a big project, said Antoine Guery, 24, a Frenchman whose resume and network of friends provide a crash course in European geography. PARIS French technicians have successfully downloaded the cockpit voice recordings from the EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea in May, investigators said Saturday, raising hopes that the information the recordings contain will soon put an end to the intense speculation about what caused the disaster. The recordings, along with the contents of the jets flight data recorder that were salvaged in a laboratory near Paris this past week, will be returned to Cairo for further analysis, an Egyptian-led crash investigation committee said in a statement. The initial information obtained from the flight data recorder is consistent with automated alerts sent by the doomed plane, an Airbus A320, to a maintenance base on the ground indicating smoke in a lavatory as well as in an area near the cockpit where its flight control computer systems were housed. In addition, deepwater salvage teams have retrieved charred pieces of metal from the planes front section that investigators said indicated a high-temperature fire. EgyptAir Flight 804 disappeared abruptly from radar at 37,000 feet and then plunged into the sea on May 19 on a flight from Paris to Cairo, killing all 66 passengers and crew members on board. The Egyptian authorities initially suspected terrorism as a likely cause, although no group has claimed responsibility. BELGRADE, Serbia A man who the police said was driven by jealousy opened fire with an assault gun in a crowded cafe in northern Serbia early Saturday, killing five people including his ex-wife and wounding more than 20 before he was arrested. The attack occurred at 1:40 a.m. local time in Zitiste, a village close to the town of Zrenjanin, about 30 miles northwest of Belgrade, Serbias capital. A police statement said a man identified only as Z. S. had targeted his ex-wife and another woman before randomly shooting at other occupants of the Makijato cafe. The two women and three men were killed, and the wounded included minors, the authorities said. This was the third mass shooting in Serbia in recent years. Last year, a man killed six people with a hunting rifle in northern Serbia, while in 2013 a Balkan War veteran killed 13 people in a central Serbian village. An outbreak of the Zika virus in the continental United States could begin any day now. But while there is plenty of discussion about mosquito bites, some researchers are beginning to worry more about the other known transmission route: sex. Intimate contact may account for more Zika infections than previously suspected, these experts say. The evidence is still emerging, and recent findings are hotly disputed. All experts agree that mosquitoes are the epidemics main driver. But two reports now suggest that women in Latin America are much more likely to be infected than men, although both are presumed to be equally exposed to mosquitoes. The gender difference appears at the age at which sexual activity begins, and then fades among older adults. How It Compares Google does not intend to make its own cars but to partner with carmakers, and recently announced plans to adapt 100 Chrysler minivans for autonomous driving. Googles cars primarily use a laser system known as Lidar (light detection and ranging), a spinning range-finding unit on top of the car that creates a detailed map of the cars surroundings as it moves.Lidar is also used on many of the experimental autonomous vehicles being developed by Nissan, BMW, Apple and others, but not by Tesla. Some experts speculate that a Lidar-driven car might have avoided this fatal crash. Its the most important work Jake Janz ever has completed. For two years, the Newport Beach artist immersed himself in creating the larger-than-life statue, sometimes through the night until the sun rose, making sure every detail was just right. He had to get it right: For the lifeguards who worked beside Ben Carlson every day; for the guards everywhere who spend their days saving lives; for the countless swimmers Carlson plucked from dangerous waters; for the community, who came together after Carlsons death. Most of all, Janz did it for his family. Janzs wife, Stephanie, lost her big brother, and their two young children lost their uncle, when Carlson died two years ago this week. GONE The swell was big enough to kill. It was Fourth of July weekend 2014 and Newport was packed. Lifeguards tirelessly swam and saved, and swam and saved some more, keeping people from being sucked into the ocean by rip currents and thrashed by waves that in some spots topped 15 feet. Carlson, a 32-year-old lifeguard, was aboard the yellow boat Seawatch and spent his day searching for people in trouble and jumping into the ocean to save them. The day was a challenge, but nothing that Carlson, a big-wave surfer and lifeguard since he was a teenager, couldnt handle. It was toward the end of the day when a pair of swimmers were swept into a current near Tower 15. Carlson, like he had all day, quickly jumped in the water to save them. No one knows exactly what happened next. Carlson suffered a concussion underwater, an injury he would have survived if hed been on dry land. But in 15-foot, raging surf, it was lethal. It was after 5 p.m. when lifeguards recovered Carlsons body. He was the first guard in Newports 100-year history to die in the line of duty. GROUP EFFORT When news spread, everyone everyone wanted to honor him. Lifeguards sent condolences from around the world. The paddle-out for Carlson, just off Newport Pier near where hed surfed and worked and died drew 2,500 in the water and another 5,000 on the beach. The lifeguard building was renamed the Benjamin M. Carlson Lifeguard Headquarters. And a foundation, the Ben Carlson Memorial & Scholarship Foundation, was created by fellow lifeguards, friends and family. It was formed to raise awareness about ocean safety, to help underserved children and to raise money for college scholarships. Then came the idea for a statue, an image of Carlson that would stand tall, looking out toward Newports waters forever. Janz, a trained artist who studied at the Otis College of Art and Design, volunteered to help find an artist to create the sculpture. But the cost some artists wanted $250,000 for the work was a roadblock. So Janz stepped up. I think, in life, there are certain times youre called to do something, he said. With the help of other artists, he learned 3D imaging. When the foam molding came back, he spent hours sculpting every detail. I pulled more all-nighters in the past two years than I did all of college, he said. Everywhere he sought help, people were willing to give it. He reached out to Lifescapes International and BrightView Landscapes, which helped bring the area around the statue to life, donating about $100,000 worth of work. Some money raised through the foundation was spent transforming the foam casting into stainless steel. That transformation was done by Advanced Digital Manufacturing. Surfwear brand Hurley offered to develop boardshorts at no cost to raise funds for the foundation, using a photo taken at Carlsons memorial by local photographer Tom Cozad, who shot the paddle-out from the sky. Without people giving, this wouldnt have happened, Janz said. Its not for anyones vanity, he added. No one is getting anything out of it, other than doing something special for somebody who absolutely deserved it, for the greatest act you can do. MEANING Janz is nervous about the unveiling, planned for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. I have mixed feelings. Im so emotionally involved, its so personal, he said. Does it portray strength and bravery and all the things I want it to be? Does it convey Ben the way I would have wanted? The sculpture will stand 9 feet tall; 11 feet when on the pedestal. Theres exaggeration in this sculpture. Its big, its muscular, but its brave and its strong, he said. It will be a warning of the strength of the ocean and a reminder of ocean water safety and precaution. Janz jokes that his wife, Carlsons sister, is his greatest critic. Like the rest of the Carlson family, she has yet to see the piece. But she knows firsthand what went into creating the memorial. I watched as Jake poured his heart out. He worked with such diligence, day in and day out, for almost two years to give this most meaningful gift to our family and our community, Stephanie Janz said. I am in awe of him, his talents and his heart. For the Carlson family, and for his friends and the community who stepped up to keep his legacy alive, the memorial area will be a place they can go to remember their loved one. For those who never knew Carlson, the memorial will tell his story, just below where his steel statue will be looking out toward the ocean he monitored in life. Our family believes we will see Ben again someday. But, until then, having this statue that we can all come visit and remember him by lifts our spirits and means the world to us, she said. Stephanie Janz was grateful to those involved in making the statue a reality. What a light you have all been to our family during our darkest time, she said. Thank you for letting Ben forever stand in the city that he loved so much and remain in our hearts a hero. Contact the writer: lconnelly@ocregister.com DANA POINT Jim Millers Coffee Importers is a popular eatery and gathering spot at the core of the marina. But lately, theres a new attraction sea lions huddling on boat docks nearby. While thats entertaining for harbor visitors, merchants, boaters and harbor personnel worry that the sea lions might be making themselves a bit too cozy. On Friday, OC Parks put out four red, white and blue life-size dancing inflatables, with waving arms and shaking hips, along the Orange County Harbor Patrol dock in an effort to deter the sea lions from making themselves at home and possibly causing costly damage to docks and boats. Orange, red and green versions of the hot-air-powered inflatables known as air dancers and typically seen at car dealerships will be added next week on adjacent docks. Ive been here for 37 years and have never seen them this close to my place, Miller said Friday of the sea lions. Once they get comfortable, its an invitation for them to stay. Just like up in San Francisco where they had to close the docks down to get them to leave. Dana Point Marina Co., which manages Dana Point Harbors East Basin slips and docks for the county, launched the pilot program after a dramatic increase in sea lion activity over the past 18 months, said Lisa Smith, who is overseeing the program for OC Parks. Sea lions have always gathered at the harbor, but an increasing number of clusters are popping up, Smith said. In the past 18 months, well find groups of five or seven bunched up on the dock, she said. We have concerns with the structure, and they can be aggressive. Some have chased dogs. Smith said harbor officials have tried several options, such as erecting barriers along some of the docks, but the sea lions simply move to another part of the dock. Harbor officials looked into the inflatable air dancers as sea lion deterrents after Dana Point Marina Co. employees read about a similar program with positive results at the Moss Landing Harbor District in Northern California. There, the unusual movement of the air dancers startled the sea lions, prompting them to move to other areas with fewer people, Smith said. Each air dancer cost $150. Six are planned for different areas of the harbor. The power for the inflatables comes from outlets on harbor docks. The air dancers will be up all summer and, if it goes well, theyll stick around longer, Smith said. In Newport Beach, where rowdy sea lions have frustrated boaters by jumping into their vessels and lounging on them, city officials said they were not aware of any programs using air dancers. Mark Vukojevic, Newport Beachs city engineer, said boater education programs recommend ways to make vessels less attractive to sea lions. Automatic sprinklers, bright-colored netting and cement-filled bucket barriers are suggested. In past years, the city hired a contractor to spray water at sea lions in the evenings to keep them at bay. In 2008, two hefty sea lions sank a wooden boat. Sgt. Steve Marble with the Orange County Sheriffs Department Harbor Patrol, said there are fewer sea lions in Newport Beach this summer. Maybe the sharks scared them off, he said. In the past three years, thousands of sea lions have stranded themselves because of an increased inability to find food near the Channel Islands breeding grounds. Marine mammal rescue centers from San Diego to San Francisco last year took in more than 4,400 sea lions. The Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach this year has rescued more than 300. Keith Matassa, executive director of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, has been tracking sea lions in Dana Point Harbor that have been released from his and other centers. He said he thinks the inflatables are a good, nonlethal way to keep sea lions off boats and docks. Roger Beard, president of the Dana Point Boaters Association, is glad the preventive action is being taken. Beard said he has seen the marine mammals get more ambitious and bold. Theyll heavily damage the stern of a boat if they climb in, he said. Theyre big and theyre heavy. You cant dock a boat if theres a sea lion on it. But Beard said he is waiting to see how effective the inflatables will be in scaring them off. I think once we have the experience, well have opinion based on facts, he said. Contact the writer: 714-796-2254 or eritchie@ocregister.com or on Twitter:@lagunaini LOS ANGELES Crews at Dockweiler State Beach near Los Angeles International Airport worked throughout the day Friday to remove a 45-foot-long dead female humpback whale that washed ashore late Thursday. The adult whale, at first thought to be a male, was finally towed out to sea during high tide at 7:40 p.m. Her cause of death is still being investigated, as there were no visible signs of trauma. An afternoon attempt to bulldoze the body far enough into the surf to tow out to sea failed. Los Angeles County lifeguard and Beaches and Harbors workers had to wait for the tide to come in to help pull her out. On the beach, researchers examined her and took samples to learn more about her life and death. The humpback, weighing roughly 35 to 40 tons, had healed entanglement scars from becoming caught in fishing line earlier in its life, said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, research associate for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. We did take measurements, tissue samples, blubber samples, muscle samples, fecal samples, she said. She had no obvious wounds or cuts and was very, very fresh. Perhaps she died early (Thursday). Schulman-Janiger said the whale appeared to be about 15 years old and was regularly spotted last summer from Dana Point to Newport Beach, where she was likely following a food source. Local researchers documented those sightings on happywhale.com. The whale was identified Friday morning as a female but, when the carcass bloated with decomposition, a protrusion emerged near the genital slit and researchers decided the whale was male. After further examination, they determined it was a female whose internal organs had pushed out. Onlookers at the beach were told to stay 200 feet from the animal, whose rorqual pleats were visible as it laid on its back. The hundreds of thin throat grooves are designed to expand to scoop up huge gulps of shrimp-like krill and small fish. Humpbacks can eat more than a ton of food a day, according to the American Cetacean Society. This is the second dead humpback to come ashore near Los Angeles in the past two weeks. The first, a female possibly struck by a ship, was brought into the Port of Los Angeles on the bow of a ship on June 14. National Marine Fisheries Service officials are still investigating the cause of that 48-foot whales death. Contact the writer: Contact the writer: sandy.mazza@langnews.com @sandymazza on Twitter The visitors from Arizona, all three generations of them, have a favorite ritual during their annual Fourth of July beach front getaway. They like to watch. All the drunk people; its really quite funny, said Shannon Pulk, a mother of three who for nearly 20 years has been coming with her family to the same Newport Beach rental home for Independence Day. If history is a guide, theyre about to have a lot of viewing options. Beach towns in Orange County are Ground Zero for Fourth of July partying, with hundreds of thousands of people flocking to the coast for quality time with family and friends, fireworks over the ocean and partying. Police in the most popular beach cities will monitor revelers for even small signs of trouble. Lifeguards will carefully watch the water, as warm weather and strong surf could spell trouble for the influx of beachgoers, who will take up prime real estate on the sand. Travelers especially people renting near the sand will pack houses for parties. Two areas in particular, Huntington Beach and the coastal neighborhoods of Newport Beach both known for previous July 4 unrest will be patrolled by police checking out the streets and the sand to keep party people in control. The cities have taken to social media and other means of communication, like text alerts, to issue live updates and warnings. Since 2010, Newport Beach has been trying to dispel its reputation as the rowdy go-to place for Fourth of July. The city holds a family-friendly parade during early morning hours in West Newport, and it has opened up streets previously shut down to traffic to help prevent large groups from forming. And the changes seem to be working. Last year, Independence weekend arrests in the city were down to 94, verses 120 in 2014. Were absolutely certain part of it is the multi-year plan to really stop what people see as a party atmosphere in the area, said Newport Beach spokeswoman Jennifer Manzella. This weekend the city will have about 200 police officers on patrol, including 75 from outside agencies. Some will be using anti-riot techniques, such as riding on horseback through the streets. The strong police presence will be in effect all weekend, leading up to the Monday. The holiday also means triple-sized fines in Newport Beachs Safety Enhancement Zone, a stretch of West Newport that encompasses the area between the Pacific Ocean to the south, 32nd Street and Newport Boulevard to the east and Pacific Coast Highway to the north and 54th Street to the west. Citations for carrying an open container, igniting fireworks (yes, thats illegal in Newport Beach and other beach cities) and public urination (illegal everywhere) will cost more than usual. And dont even think about parking illegally. Or throwing water balloons at other revelers. Also, if you want to have a party on your roof (or the roof youre renting) consider yourself warned: Newport Beach building inspectors will be cruising the neighborhoods this weekend, looking for violations such as rooftop parties. Commerce, however, will be tolerated. Pulks daughters Lily, 9 Olivia 6 and Hattie, 4 hope to make a holiday profit, setting up a lemonade stand for thirsty between party people. Last year, they made $150. Up the coast, in Huntington, fines are not increased for the holiday. But the city has a long-standing zero-tolerance response to crowd-related violations, like drinking in public. Thats a response to Fourth of July riots that became a Huntington Beach staple in the mid 1990s. Late on the night of July 4, 1994, mobs in Huntington Beach began throwing rocks, bottles, beer cans, water balloons and bottle rockets at each other and, later, at authorities. Some police and fire officials arrived in a 2,500-gallon water truck, initially warning people to leave and then dispersing those who remained by turning four high-pressure hoses on the crowd. About 100 officers were needed to to control the melee. A year later, hundreds of people started tossing skyrockets and firecrackers at trees and cars, and a crowd formed to dance around a burning sofa. Trash bins and lawn chairs were burned through the night. One man was shot and killed. To cut that Fourth of July tradition off before it entered year three, the city enacted a zero-tolerance policy in 1996, issuing citations for everything from drinking a beer in your front lawn to tossing water balloons. That year, there were nearly 550 arrests. But arrests fell to 111 in 1997 and 50 in 1999. Last years arrests in Huntington Beach totaled 86, about two thirds for either DUI or other alcohol-related crimes. Though Huntington Beach Police spokesperson Jennifer Marlatt noted that people should never drink and drive, she noted its particularly dangerous on a weekend when pedestrians and bicyclists are clogging the streets. She said police are using social media to put out the message that people should stick to the safe and sane fireworks or enjoy the professional show at the beach. She also said anybody visiting the coast should expect a crowd, with busy streets and clogged parking lots. Have patience, she said. Last year, police fielded nearly 600 complaints about illegal fireworks. This year, city police are asking anybody calling in such a complaint to know the specific location just hearing the firework isnt enough. Lifeguards up and down the coast also are prepping for a potentially dangerous mix: warm weather, strong surf and rip currents. Add in some holiday booze and the combination can be lethal. Things just happen (on Fourth of July weekend) that are different than a lot of other days, said Newport Lifeguard Chief Rob Williams. Theres a lot more intoxicated people disturbing the peace and a bit of arguments, Williams added. If theres surf thats when we do get really busy. So, with all the tourists pushing their towns into a holiday play land, whats a local supposed to do? Joe Tallman, a 70-year-old homeowner in Newport Beach, spent part of Thursday holding a parking spot for a relative who would be visiting for the wild weekend. Tallman said his six-bedroom will be filled with about 30 friends and family a holiday bash. Its crazy, he said. But theres enough fun to make it worth it. Contact the writer: lconnelly@ocregister.com SACRAMENTO Gov. Jerry Brown signed six stringent gun-control measures Friday that will require people to turn in high-capacity magazines and mandate background checks for ammunition sales, as California Democrats seek to strengthen gun laws that are already among the strictest in the nation. Brown vetoed five other bills, including requirement to register homemade firearms and report lost or stolen weapons to authorities. The Democratic governors action is consistent with his mixed record on gun control. Some of the enacted bills duplicate provisions of a November ballot measure by Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. Some of the vetoed measures also appear in Newsoms initiative. My goal in signing these bills is to enhance public safety by tightening our existing laws in a responsible and focused manner, while protecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners, Brown wrote in a one-sentence message to lawmakers. Gun control measures have long been popular with the Democratic lawmakers who control the California Senate and Assembly. But they stepped up their push this year following the December shooting in San Bernardino by a couple who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. The bills angered Republicans and gun-rights advocates who say Democrats are trampling on 2nd Amendment rights, creating new restrictions that wont cut off the flow of guns to people intent on using them for nefarious purposes. On the eve of Independence Day, independence and freedom and liberty in California has been chopped down at the knees and kicked between the legs, Sam Paredes, executive director of the advocacy group Gun Owners of California. Lawsuits challenging the new laws are likely once they take effect next year, Paredes said. Browns action will require people who own magazines that hold more than 10 rounds to give them up. It extends a 1999 law that made it illegal to buy a high-capacity magazine or to bring one into the state but allowed people who already owned them to keep them. In another attempt to slow reloading, the governor signed a bill outlawing new weapons that have a device known as a bullet button. Gun makers developed bullet buttons to get around a Californias assault weapons ban, which prohibited new rifles with magazines that can be detached without the aid of tools. A bullet buttons allows a shooter to quickly dislodge the magazine using the tip of a bullet or other small tool. People will be allowed to keep weapons they already own with bullet buttons, which are often referred to as California compliant. Brown also endorsed a bill making another attempt at regulating ammunition sales after a law passed in 2009 was struck down by a Fresno County judge who said it was too vague. The new bill will require ammo sellers to be licensed and buyers to undergo background checks. Transactions will be recorded. He also opted to require a background check before a gun can be loaned to someone who isnt a family member. Strong gun laws work What were doing in California is a better job of keeping guns out of dangerous hands, said Amanda Wilcox, a spokeswoman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, whose daughter was killed by a shooter using a high-capacity magazine. The governor vetoed a measure that would have expanded a six-month-old program that allows courts to temporarily restrict gun ownership rights for people suspected of being dangerous. He also decided against restricting all firearm purchases to one per month, a limitation that currently applies only to handguns One bill he vetoed would have asked voters to strengthen penalties for stealing a gun, because he said voters will already be deciding it through Newsoms initiative. Newsoms ballot measure also will ask voters to require reporting of lost and stolen firearms an idea Brown rejected Friday and has rejected at least twice before. I continue to believe that responsible people report the loss or theft of a firearm and irresponsible people do not; it is not likely that this bill would change that, he wrote in a veto message. Newsoms initiative has put a spotlight on the lieutenant governor as he campaigns for governor in the 2018 election. Hes been at loggerheads with Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, a Los Angeles Democrat, who tried unsuccessfully to convince Newsom to drop the ballot measures in favor of legislative action. Browns vetoes protected Newsoms initiative from becoming moot. The governor took swift action today and voters will have a chance to go even further in November, if they choose, with the lieutenant governors initiative, said Evan Westrup, a spokesman for Brown. Gov. Jerry Brown signed a half dozen gun-control measures into law Friday, adding sharp teeth to a set of California laws already considered the nations toughest. His signature drew praise from liberal leaders who sought tighter restrictions in the wake of the Dec. 2 San Bernardino terrorist attack and other mass shootings with assault-style weapons, and criticism from conservatives who complained Sacramento was eroding Second Amendment rights. And the move triggered alarm among gun owners, causing a spike in purchases of ammunition and firearms at Riversides Bullseye Sport although not as much as it would have had Friday not been the start of a holiday weekend, said Vince Torres, the store owner. Weve had the knee-jerk reaction, Torres said. And weve had to tell them, Theyre not going to take our guns away. Slow down. However, magazines may be taken away. Among the bills Brown approved was Senate Bill 1446, which bans possession of magazines with the capacity to hold more than 10 rounds and requires people who already have them to turn them in to authorities. Among other things, the legislation also outlaws assault rifles that have something called a bullet button, which enables gun operators to quickly change magazines, and mandates background checks when guns are loaned to someone other than a close relative. Background checks also will be mandatory for ammunition purchases. SAVE LIVES Senate President Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, author of one of the signed bills, said he was pleased with the governors action, though Brown did veto a few other proposed gun laws. Taken together, these bills will save lives and make our communities, our families and our children safer, de Leon said in an email. Where Republicans in Congress have turned a deaf ear, we have answered the cries of the mothers, fathers, family members and friends who have lost loved ones to gun violence. Rev. Jon S. Harris, president of Riversides Eastside Reconciliation Coalition, termed the signing a move forward. Here again is an example of California seeing the correct side of history and not being reactionary but proactive, Harris said in a phone interview. He compared the new gun laws to those signed last spring that set a course for raising Californias minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next several years. With Sandy Hook, San Bernardino, Orlando we cannot continue to be thinking old paradigms, he said. We need courageous leadership among our political servants to secure our citizens best interests. ANOTHER SAN BERNARDINO On the other hand, Assemblyman Jay Obernolte, R-Hesperia, strongly criticized the package of new laws, which he said clearly infringe on the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment. These new laws will not address the underlying problems of why gun violence occurs and they will do nothing to prevent another terrorist attack like the one that occurred in my county on Dec. 2, Obernolte said. Torres had a similar thought about what the package will do. Is it going to prevent another San Bernardino or Orlando? Hell no, Torres said. I guarantee you that it will not. What the package will do, though, some said, is put law-abiding citizens potentially in trouble with the law. We all want to see a decrease in gun violence, said Sen. Jeff Stone, R-Temecula. But criminalizing gun ownership instead of prosecuting criminals who use guns to commit crime is not the answer. San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said he anticipates that many gun owners will balk at turning in their high-capacity magazines in response to one of the new laws. So, do we just criminalize a bunch of people who wouldnt normally be considered criminals? he asked. TRAFFIC-LIGHT LAWS But Harris said some unpopular restrictions are going to be necessary if the nation and California are going to begin to reverse the disturbing trend of mass shootings. It is obvious we need some traffic-light laws in gun possession, Harris said. Were not saying, Dont drive the vehicle. But when the light is red, you cant go. In any event, law enforcement agencies across Southern California are preparing to enforce the new laws, no matter what officials might think of them. We respect the legislation that has been passed, said Lt. Mark Stichter, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriffs Department. We will uphold those laws and enforce them. Our job is to enforce laws. Our job is not to create laws. TICKET FOR GUN THEFT Also on Friday, Brown vetoed legislation co-authored by an Inland assemblywoman that would have made all firearm thefts a felony. AB1176, co-authored by Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, was intended to reverse a change made by Proposition 47, which made theft of a gun valued at $950 or less a misdemeanor. Burguan said that veto is frustrating to many law enforcement officers because of the impact the proposition has had on enforcement. Handguns are traditionally worth about $400 or $600, Burguan said. We are literally catching people with stolen guns and all we can give them is a ticket for it. Its maddening. Because voters approved Proposition 47, AB1176 would have had to go on the ballot for final approval. In his veto message, Brown wrote: While I appreciate the authors intent in striving to enhance public safety, I feel that this objective is better attained by having the measure appear before voters only once. Melendez, vice chairwoman of the Assemblys public safety committee, said: Apparently, Gov. Brown believes stealing a gun isnt a serious threat to public safety. The Associated Press and staff writer Jeff Horseman contributed to this report. Contact the writer: 951-368-9699 or ddowney@pressenterprise.com LOS ANGELES California Assemblyman Roger Hernandez, D-West Covina, has been ordered to keep away from his ex-wife for three years amid allegations that he abused her during their brief marriage. A judge on Friday issued a domestic violence restraining order against the West Covina Democrat. He must stay 100 yards from Susan Rubio except when they attend public events. Shes a Baldwin Park city councilwoman. The judge also finalized the couples divorce. They were married in 2013. Rubio sought the order in April but testified Hernandez had choked, punched and threatened her more than a dozen times during their relationship. Hernandez denied the allegations but the judge who granted the order on Friday said Rubios claims were credible. After the ruling, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon announced he will remove Hernandez from committee assignments. SACRAMENTO California Gov. Jerry Brown has approved spending $2 billion to build permanent housing for homeless people with mental illnesses. The Democratic governor announced signing AB1618 on Friday. The measure allows the state to sell bonds for homeless shelters and repay the debt with money from a 2004 voter-approved tax on millionaires. It requires counties to provide supportive services for people housed with state aid. Legislative analysts expect the measure to fund at least 14,000 units. Federal housing officials estimate more than 29,000 homeless Californians were living with serious mental illness in 2015. Senate Democrats proposed the idea, saying it will improve the quality of life for people living in despair. It easily cleared the Assembly and Senate last month. The Orlando Magic have agreed to sign former Clipper forward Jeff Green to a one-year, $15-deal according to multiple reports. The Clippers acquired Green for Lance Stephenson and a future first-round pick at the trade deadline last season. He played in 27 regular season games, averaging 10.9 points per game. He averaged 10.2 points in the playoffs. The old saying a picture is worth a thousand words is fairly accurate when viewing one of the three patriotic-themed murals designed by Winslow-native Dave Earnest. Around seven or eight years ago, Earnest completed the murals which are located at Expressway Sinclair Gas Station, Selectel Wireless and the old Lanahan Gym after approaching the Avenue of Flag organization stating that he wanted to construct the murals as a patriotic tribute. The Avenue of Flags, which runs down Military Avenue multiple times annually, serves as an ever-present reminder of the sacrifices so many veterans gave to protect the country they love. All the flags that fly are casket flags, something strictly unique to Fremont. But after experiencing several years of wear and tear thanks to the weather, two of the murals started deteriorating, said Chris Bristol, president of Envision Creative Solutions and manger of the Fremont Opera House. In summer 2015, Bristol completely redid the Selectel Mural, and recently started the endeavor of refurbishing the mural located at the Expressway Sinclair Gas Station, 1800 E. Military Ave. He (Earnest) has since moved to Grand Island, and so as the murals have started showing some wear over the years, theyve had me work on them. Currently, Bristol is about 15 hours into the 35-hour-long project, which consists of revamping a sprawling American flag design. Bristol said that he plans on adding bits of Nebraska culture to the mural as well. I plan on adding some pieces of Nebraska landscape, he said. Theres going to be a windmill and farmstead feel to the west corner, and on the east side Im going to do something with a grain elevator. By incorporating the designs, Bristol hopes to bring about a patriotic feel while also symbolizing aspects of Nebraska culture. While Bristol works primarily with creating banners, vinyl graphics, advertising designs and constructing websites, painting has always been one of his biggest passions. Graduating from Midland with a bachelors degree in fine arts, Bristol said that graphics were always his focus in terms of what he wanted to do with his career, however, he spent a great deal of time painting during his time at Midland. Ive been painting for 30-plus years, he said. I focuses a lot in college on painting and I dont get much of a chance to really apply that these days because of my work in graphic arts. So some of the real appeal with a project like this is to be able to merge the graphic arts with the fine arts and be able to do a full-scale piece like a mural. Bristol hopes that when people drive by the murals that they will feel a sense of patriotic pride. I just want people to have a sense of pride in our country and in our community, he said. Obviously with the Avenue of Flags I think its something that the community is pretty proud of, and these murals take that one step further as a nice companion to that. For out of town people it gives them a sense of what we Fremonters are all about. And for those in town, I hope it gives them a sense of pride about country and community. RAMALLAH, West Bank A Palestinian gunman ambushed a family traveling in a car in the West Bank on Friday, killing an Israeli man and wounding his wife and two teenage children in an assault that prompted the military to send hundreds of troops to the area the largest operation in the territory in two years. The army also imposed a closure on the Hebron district, a flashpoint area where many of the recent attacks have stemmed from. Additionally, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will reduce the amount of tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians each month, saying that some of the money was being given to families of attackers. The tough Israeli action followed a deadly spike in Palestinian violence, with several attacks in two days. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said the Hebron closure will limit movement except for humanitarian cases. Over 80 Palestinian attacks have originated or taken place in Hebron area since the current wave of violence erupted in September, he said. Hebron is the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank and home to about 170,000 Palestinians. About 850 Israeli settlers also live in heavily-guarded enclaves there. Much of the animosity in the biblical city is over a holy site known to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs and to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque. Lerner said an initial investigation shows the Palestinian car overtook the Israeli vehicle and opened fire before fleeing the scene. He said it was not immediately known how many gunmen carried out the attack. He said at least 20 shots were fired. Hundreds of soldiers deployed will act as a physical barrier on the ground, Lerner said, describing it as the militarys most substantial steps taken in the West Bank since 2014, when thousands of troops entered the West Bank to find three Israeli teenagers who were abducted and killed by Palestinian gunmen. Lerner did not elaborate on how long the closure would be in place. Hebron Mayor Dawod Zatari said the Israeli troops closed the southern entrance to the city, which connects it to other cities and villages. This measure is meant to collectively punish our people, he said. In Fridays shooting, an Israeli man was killed and his wife and two teenage children were wounded, Israels ambulance service said. The man was identified in Israeli media as Miki Mark, 48, the head of a Jewish seminary in the settlement of Otniel. Reports said he was a father of 10 and a cousin of Yossi Cohen, the head of Israels spy agency, Mossad. In another attack Friday, Israeli police said a Palestinian woman, later identified by Palestinian officials as 27-year-old Sarah Tarayreh, had attempted to stab an officer during a security check outside the Hebron shrine. She aroused suspicion at the checkpoint and was asked to go into a room to undergo a further security check by a female police officer, said Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri. At that point, the woman pulled out a knife and tried to stab a female officer before she was shot and killed, Samri said. Tarayreh was from the same town and the same clan as the Palestinian who stabbed a 13-year-old Israeli-American girl to death as she slept in her bedroom on Thursday, but was not a close relative, said the mayor of Bani Naim, Mahmoud Manasrah. Palestinian clans in the West Bank can have thousands of members. The killing of the 13 year-old-girl, carried out by a 17-year-old Palestinian high school dropout, was among the most brazen attacks so far in a nine-month wave of assaults, and it drew angry accusations and calls from Israeli leaders for the world to condemn the incident. On Thursday evening, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded a man and a woman in the Israeli city of Netanya. Over the past nine months, Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbings, shootings and attacks using cars against civilians and security forces that killed 34 Israelis and two American tourists. Israeli troops as well as some armed civilians have killed about 200 Palestinians during this period, most said by Israeli to be attackers. The Palestinians and Israeli rights groups have accused Israel of using excessive force at times by killing assailants who they say could have been subdued. In some cases, Palestinians were killed as they tried to flee the scene, or after they had already been stopped or wounded after carrying out an attack. Israel says the violence is fueled by a Palestinian campaign of lies and incitement, compounded on social media sites that glorify and encourage attacks. Palestinians say it stems from frustration at nearly five decades of Israeli rule in territory they claim for a state. Netanyahu on Friday visited the family of Hallel Yaffa Ariel, the girl stabbed to death Thursday. To see Hallels room, to see the blood stains next to her bed and the books and clothes of a small child, this is shocking, he said. In announcing the tax money withholdings, Netanyahu accused the Palestinian Authority, which runs the West Bank, of transferring funds to attackers by various laundering methods. The more severe the acts of terrorism, the greater the amount of funds, he said, adding that payment to terrorists and their families constitutes incentive for murder. The Palestinian ministry of prisoner affairs said the salaries are paid to every Palestinian prisoner and freed prisoners who spent more than five years in Israeli jails. The money goes to the families as social welfare, we cannot leave any family without help, said Issa Qaraqe, the minister for prisoner affairs. Amani Sarahneh, spokeswoman of the Palestinian prisoners club, said the Palestinian government pays about $11 million per month to prisoners and freed prisoners. Also Friday, a report by, the Quartet of Mideast negotiators the U.N., U.S., European Union and Russia said Israels settlement expansion is eroding the viability of a Palestinian state and raises legitimate questions about its commitment to a two-state solution. The report criticizes the glorification of Palestinians who commit terrorist attacks and calls on the Palestinians to act decisively to stop incitement to violence and to clearly condemn all acts of terrorism. Late Friday night Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a rocket into Israel that hit a kindergarten in the border town of Sderot damaging the building but causing no injuries, the military said. FALLUJAH, Iraq Clumps of hair from hastily shaven beards littered floors and filled wastebaskets in houses in the Iraqi city of Fallujahs western neighborhood, a dense block of low-rise homes that were the Islamic State militants last stand before they largely fled, melting into the sprawling Anbar desert in the face of advancing Iraqi ground forces. Iraqi officers said they bombed convoys of fleeing militants this week, destroying dozens of vehicles and purportedly killing scores of Islamic State fighters. But the way Islamic State abandoned the long-held urban stronghold also underscores the groups ability to adapt and regroup, long after defeat on the battlefield. In the citys Julan neighborhood, Iraqi Cpl. Sahar Najim kicked through the refuse of facial hair with his boot, saying that he has seen similar scenes in other cities and towns retaken from Islamic State. As the militants realize they are losing, they quickly shave off their beards to disguise themselves and escape among fleeing civilians, he said. Losing Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, was a huge blow to the Sunni militant group, depriving it of bomb-making facilities, a safe haven for training recruits and sources of income through taxing the local population. To the east, in the citys industrial neighborhood, dozens of car repair shops had been converted into car bomb factories. A garage still advertising Toyota car repairs was stocked with plastic jugs filled with chemicals. Iraqi forces declared Fallujah fully liberated on Sunday, after government troops routed the remaining Islamic State fighters from the citys north and west under the close cover of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes. The battle, which began May 22, was the latest in a string of territorial defeats for Islamic State in Iraq over the past year. At the height of the groups power, in 2014, Islamic State rendered nearly a third of the country out of government control, having blitzed across large swaths of the north and west and capturing Iraqs second-largest city of Mosul. Now, its estimated to control only 14 percent of Iraqi territory, according to the office of Iraqs prime minister. More than 500 Islamic State fighters managed to flee Fallujah throughout the five-week offensive, an Iraqi officer told The Associated Press on Thursday. Earlier this year, more than 1,000 Islamic State fighters were estimated to have fled the operation that retook Ramadi, the Anbar provincial capital. Coalition officials initially estimated that only 500-700 Islamic State fighters were inside Fallujah, but once the operation began, Iraqi officers said it quickly became evident there were many more. Iraqi Lt. Gen. Abdul Wahab al-Saadi gave an estimate of around 3,000. In the face of battlefield losses, Islamic State has in the past resorted to large-scale bombings in Baghdad and other Iraqi towns, far from the front-line fighting. In May, after Islamic State lost the strategically important town of Hit in Anbar province, a wave of bombings in and around Baghdad killed more than 200 in a single week. After declaring Fallujah Islamic State-free, coalition and Iraqi planes attacked a series of convoys of suspected Islamic State fighters and their families outside the city. Two convoys were hit by Iraqi and coalition airstrikes, and a third convoy, outside Ramadi, the provincial capital, was also targeted. In total, more than 200 vehicles were estimated to have been destroyed and hundreds of suspected Islamic State fighters were thought to have been killed in the span of three days this week, according to an Iraqi officer who took part in calling in the airstrikes. Both Iraqi officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss operational details. Islamic State has made no statements on its Fallujah losses and the numbers could not independently be verified. There are concerns that the militants who got away will regroup. Of course we are concerned, coalition spokesman U.S. Army Col. Christopher Garver said about Islamic State fighters who managed to escape and the Islamic States ability to morph back into an insurgency. But we have to defeat them first on the battlefield. Some Iraqi officials say the haphazard method in which Islamic State fled in convoys traversing open desert where the militants were exposed to airstrikes indicates the extremists are in their last throws and nearing total defeat. But mobilizing of hundreds of fighters, just days after the declared fall of Fallujah shows Islamic State still exercises a significant degree of command and control, according to Nathaniel Rabkin, managing editor of Inside Iraqi Politics, a political risk newsletter. IS are masters at going to ground and living to fight another day, Rabkin said, adding that while the Iraqi military has learned to recapture towns and cities from Islamic State, the extremists will continue to be a threat once they go underground. Hunting down Islamic State forces who have gone into hiding, Rabkin said, that is a more difficult challenge. SANTA ANA Calling the crime one of the most stupid, crazy and asinine hes seen, a judge on Friday sentenced a Santa Ana woman to 16 years in prison for attempting to kidnap her roommates 2-week-old baby. Prosecutors said Gladys Remigio was 17 years old when she enlisted help from two gang members to kidnap her roommates newborn daughter in November 2011. Remigio and the two men, armed with a replica gun, entered the home and ordered the mother into a bedroom, prosecutors said. Steven David Quirino and Robert Henry Rodriguez fled while Remigio tried to leave with the baby. The mother came out of the room and managed to get her newborn back, prosecutors said. According to news reports after the incident, Remigio allegedly tried to take the baby as part of a bizarre plot to pass it off as her own in order to keep her fiance, who thought she was eight months pregnant and working in New York City. She allegedly plotted to make the incident look like a robbery and kidnapping but her plan fell apart when the gang members stole items from the home and left her and the baby behind. Remigio, now 22, pleaded guilty in February to attempted kidnapping, criminal conspiracy, burglary and robbery, with enhancements for gang activity. Co-defendants Quirino and Rodriguez both pleaded guilty. Quirino was sentenced in 2014 to six years in prison, while Rodriguez was sentenced in 2012 to 16 years, according to court records. On Friday, Remigios defense attorney, Frederick McBride, argued for a lesser sentence, noting that she was 17 at the time of the crime and the victim quickly got back her baby. Remigio, he said, had a sad life and did not understand the consequences of her actions. Judge Robert Fitzgerald, however, noted the seriousness of the crime and sentenced her to the 16 years with credit for about five years of time served. Contact the writer: kpuente@ocregister.com Robert L. Dilenschneider This year on July 4, we celebrate the 240th anniversary of the birth of our nation with the signing of the Declaration of Independence.On July 4, 1776, approximately 2.5 million people lived in the 13 colonies of King George III. Today 321.2 million of us live in these United States.The Second Continental Congress appointed a committee of five to draft the Declaration of Independence Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston. Jefferson produced the first draft, which Franklin and Adams edited. It was submitted to the Continental Congress on June 28 and after further revisions and additions, finally adopted on July 4. Fifty-six members of the Congress signed it. John Hancock, President of the Congress, was the first signer. Benjamin Franklin, 70, of Pennsylvania, was the oldest signer. Edward Rutledge, 26, of South Carolina was the youngest.What kind of people were the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence?They were well-educated men of means. Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, and nine were farmers or large plantation owners.They signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well the penalty would be death if they were captured. Nevertheless, they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to the cause of Independence. And many paid a terrible price.Nine fought and died from wounds or hardships suffered during the Revolutionary War.Five were captured by the British, charged as traitors, and tortured before they died.Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., saw that British General Cornwallis had made the Nelson home his headquarters. He urged General Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.So please take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.America is a great country. You can say what you wish without being concerned about reprisal. You can go to the church of your choice. You have the opportunity to make something positive happen for yourself and those dear to you. And you do not have to be fearful about what you do regarding your future.No other place in the world has these same freedoms.That said, America is facing some tough challenges today, both from around the world and within our own borders.Domestically, our economy is still struggling, our healthcare system and schools need fixing, and our lack of direction needs serious consideration. Faith in our government is at a low point.Bipartisanship and reaching across the aisle are perceived by far too many as weaknesses instead of good government. Civility, at times, seems like a thing of the past.In the Middle East, after more than a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the region is more volatile and dangerous than ever. Terrorism knows no borders. The very freedoms we cherish are threatened every minute of every day. Just think back to the words of Ronald Reagan:Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didnt pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.So how we respond to these challenges will go a long way toward determining whether we can remain what he so famously called a shining city on a hill.We are still the beneficiaries of the stand taken on July 4, 1776. As we honor America and celebrate our freedoms, we should learn from the example set by our nations Founders.Each of us needs to look in the mirror and ask, Have I done enough to ensure the America we love will continue to progress and thrive?When President Reagan left office in 1989, he had this assessment for America:Shes still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.More than twenty-five years later, America is still a beacon to the world. It is up to each and every one of us to ensure she remains so for generations to come.So as you eat hot dogs and hamburgers and see some of the $247.1 million worth of fireworks (most imported from China) that will burst in the night sky, think about what President Reagan said and what our next President is going to have to do.Happy Fourth.Bob Dilenschneider* * * Robert L. Dilenschneider is chairman and founder of the Dilenschneider Group, Inc. No one was injured in a house fire on Friday afternoon at 847 W. Military Ave. Nor was anyone hurt after a forklift hit a gas line that feeds into a furnace at Jayhawk Boxes in Fremont. Capt. Tom Christensen of the Fremont Fire Department said nobody was home at the time of the fire on West Military Avenue. Firefighters got a call at about 1:45 p.m., for a fire alarm activation in a residence, said Lt. Tom Coffey. Upon arrival, we had smoke coming out of the house, Coffey said. The two-story house has a basement. We had heavy smoke on all three levels, Coffey said. We didnt find a lot of fire at first. We conducted a search of all three levels, making sure nobody was in the house. We were able to locate some fire downstairs in the basement utility room. Once we located it, we were able to knock the fire down pretty quickly. A water line melted in the utility room, leaking water. That kind of helped us out I think, keeping the fire knocked down. So thats why we didnt have a whole lot of fire, but we had a lot of smoke, Coffey said. The fire remains under investigation. Coffey gives a preliminary estimate of structure damage at approximately $75,000 and $50,000 in contents. After extinguishing the fire, the firefighters stopped to shed some heavy gear and clothing and drink cold water amid very warm afternoon temperatures. Firefighters later responded to a building fire call at Jayhawk Boxes in Fremont. When firefighters arrived, they were met by staffers who told them that a forklift had hit a gas line that feeds into a ceiling-hanging furnace. The furnace was knocked loose and the gas line ruptured, causing a spark that ignited the gas. They were able to contain the fire from the gas line with fire extinguishers, Coffey said. A maintenance man shut off the gas line, thus stopping the fire. The fire was out when firefighters arrived. Firefighters checked the attic for any extension of the fire. They didnt have a whole lot of damage other than the furnace and the gas line and the ceiling above it, Coffey said. It got pretty smoky in there. We spent an hour or so trying to ventilate the smoke out of the building. When I become anxious, there are two things I do to calm down: I count backward from 10, slowly in my head, or I stretch my shoulders out and tip my head up, looking at the sky. Both have served me well over the years, sometimes more than others. I learned them when I was in my early 20s and had a grand mal seizure a month before graduating from college. It was a definitive moment, one that resonated with a boom. It interrupted what I believed to be my narrative, filling me with an anxiety that I clung to for more than a decade. Every night when I went to sleep, I would remind myself, "Today, I didn't die." I tiptoed through my 20s frightened of my shadow. When I was 32, and eight months pregnant with my daughter, I had another seizure. I was in the middle of a manicure, getting my nails painted a pale shade of pink, when it hit. My cellphone, left in my car, was useless. It was raining hard, and I was due to meet my husband at the hospital later that evening for birthing class. I was thinking about work and what I needed to do the next day, as well as what I might wear. My options were growing more and more limited. I had gained close to 80 pounds, something my doctor expressed concern about. He had advised me to quit it with the fast food, which I had never eaten in my life but had craved daily since becoming pregnant. The nail technicians, terrified, called 911. Before I knew it, I was on a stretcher, being rushed to a nearby hospital. They contacted my husband, and he arrived shaken and white. My doctor followed and had me discharged, then sent me to the hospital where I was planning to give birth. Once I was treated and stabilized, I was put on bed rest and advised to be cautious for the remainder of my pregnancy, with weekly check-ins. My nails were a smeared mess, and I felt deeply frightened. I reminded myself again: "I didn't die." My life was about to change remarkably I was giving up a career that I loved and had worked hard at in order to stay home with my daughter. It was exciting, yet I felt uncertain. The fear came back, stronger than ever. How was I going to care for an infant? My shadow, once again, became my nemesis. I soldiered on, white-knuckled and anxious. While the seizures became part of my history, the deep-rooted anxiety gripped my daily life. Fear became my default. It was as if I didn't know better or couldn't remember anything different. I continued to count backward and gaze at the sky to self-soothe, the way my daughter traded one pacifier for another. As my daughter grew and daily life became busy with the minutiae of raising a child, my fear began to lessen. It became like a sweater that had once been snug but was losing its shape. I became pregnant again, three years later, and had a boy. Life grew bigger, fuller. There were play dates and classes, feverish late nights, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. I returned to work, feeling both fortified and overwhelmed. I didn't die. For years, I had avoided roller coasters after reading somewhere during a late-night Google session that they can cause seizures. Like many other things, I put them in the category of things that are unsafe, even though my doctors and husband had told me otherwise. I was careful, always so very careful. A few months ago, we took our children to Disneyland. I spent the day with my son on the boats, on "It's a Small World," on anything that was available to the under-48-inches-tall crowd. My daughter begged me to go on a roller coaster with her. I said no and told her I didn't like them. I didn't tell her why, because I had kept my seizures a secret. She pressed, and I caved and got on the ride with her. I was terrified. As we crept to the top of the hill with that unmistakable clicking sound, I shut my eyes and clenched the sides of the car. In an instant, we were gliding down the hill, taking turns on 45-degree angles and I opened my eyes. I was filled with an excitement that felt familiar, a long-lost friend I hadn't seen in years. I threw my arms up and howled with delight. I didn't die, or even think that I would. After it was all over, we rode again and again. *** Erin Zelle is a TV producer and writer living in Los Angeles, juggling career and family just like the rest of us. You can follow her on Twitter @ErinRZelle. GRAND ISLAND, Neb. Eddie didnt need to talk to know that people in Orlando, Florida, were hurting. He could feel it. Eddie the Comfort Dog and handler Don Moeller, who are based at Peace Lutheran Church in Grand Island, traveled with two other dogs to console people after the June 12 shooting at the Pulse nightclub. A man, who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, walked into the gay nightclub at about 2 a.m. June 12 and opened fire, killing 49 people and wounding 53. Orlando police killed the shooter. Authorities called the shooting the deadliest mass shooting in the United States in modern history. Moeller said he remembers getting a call June 12, requesting Eddies presence in Orlando. Moeller was sitting in church, shocked by the recent events, when he got the call. We stayed busy, Moeller said of his and Eddies time in Orlando. He said a pastor lined up many of Eddies visits, as the comfort dogs dont go anywhere unless theyre invited. The comfort dogs that accompanied Eddie from June 20 to June 27 were Zoey of Mequon, Wisconsin, and Cubby of Fort Collins, Colorado. The trained dogs are part of Lutheran Church Charities K-9 Comfort Dogs and are sent all over the country to help people mourning tragedy. While in Orlando, Moeller said, the dogs visited the memorials for the victims, as well as police officers and Pulse nightclub employees, among others. People gravitate toward him, Moeller said of Eddie. He said the comfort dog can sense when a person is hurting. By Eddie comforting mourners, it opens up doors for people to talk more comfortably about the way they hurt and their experiences. While visiting police officers, Moeller said, one told him something people may not think of. He said the officer told him about walking into the nightclub after the shooter was killed. Ringtones from victims and survivors cellphones echoed in the club. Family and friends were trying to contact their loved ones. He said it was deafening. Moeller said. The officer told him that now he cant listen to a ringtone without thinking of that harrowing night. Moeller said Eddie, Zoey and Cubby were able to visit some survivors from the shooting, including the owner and employees of Pulse. Accompanying Eddie, he heard their stories of that night and how many people in the club tried to play dead, careful not to make any movement for fear of losing their lives. Theres a lot of people hurting, he said of the aftermath of the shooting. Moeller said one Pulse employee particularly took to Eddie. The employee tightly embraced Eddie, especially upon reading Eddies name engraved on his vest. Eddie was the name of one of the employees friends who was killed in the shooting. All tears let loose, Moeller said of the employees visit with Eddie. Nanci Mamabo of Orlando, who describes herself as the Mama Bear of The Venue, a theatre and event venue in Orlando, met Eddie and his friends last week. Mamabo said the owner of The Venue used to work at Pulse. Employees, including Mamabo, helped organize a dinner for the Pulse owner and employees for which Eddie and his friends showed up. Mamabo said it was incredible to see the work the dogs were doing. To be so disciplined, yet so enamored with love and gentleness and calmness, Mamabo said. She said she can attest to the dogs sensing that people were hurting. Theyre looking into your heart, Mamabo said. They can just tell. She said because it was only the second week since the shooting, many people are still in shock. The dogs were nice to have there because they dont ask questions, theyre just there. Pak media article compares Islamabad's "messy" foreign policy with "dog's breakfast" Bengaluru oi-Shubham Ghosh Bengaluru, July 2: Reactions have not stopped emerging out of Pakistan ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi remarked during an interview with Times Now's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami asking "Who to talk to in Pakistan?" First it was the neighbouring country's Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz who put the blame on India saying the latter was obdurate in its take on dialogue with Pakistan. Then Pakistan's Foreign Office came out with a more balanced reaction saying the country's army was never against having normal relations with India. And now, a former editor of Pakistan's leading daily Dawn questioned Islamabad's foreign policy itself, equating it with a "dog's breakfast in all its messy manifestation". [Has PM Modi's one question rattled Pakistan?] In his article titled "Foreign policy or fiasco" published in the daily on Saturday, Abbas Nasir said Pakistan's foreign policy successes were outnumbered by failures which was evident from the fact that it was being surrounded by "estranged neighbours" on all sides excepting a "tiny window in the north accessed through some of the highest mountains in the world" (read China). [Why Pakistan is making less noise on India's entry in MTCR?] Tough tasks await PM Nawaz Sharif Nasir, who expressed hope that the return of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to the country after a gap of five weeks should end the paralysis that Pakistan found itself in. Sharif recently underwent an open heart surgery and was recuperating in the UK. The journalist said several pressing issues were awaiting Sharif and hoped a fitter premier would be able to take "tough decisions". Nasir said one of PM Sharif's main task will to be find a successor to army chief Gen Raheel Sharif, who is set to retire in around five months time and will not take up a new tenure. He said the permier will also be under pressure in the foreign policy domain as things are in a "shambles". Issues like cancellation of the F 16 deal with the US, lag in dialogue with India and the state of affairs in Pakistan's relations with other neighbours like Iran and Afghanistan to which India has reached out in the recent past need addressed so that foreign policy can be led in a fresh new direction, the article said. The writer also criticised Aziz in teh article, saying the otherwise "candid" man diverted from the task of bringing out the "real reason for the mess". Oneindia News Tamil Nadu lights up with festive spirit for Deepavali Mamata likely to visit Chennai for WB Governor's family function Swathy murder: Accused arrested after he tries to slash his own neck Chennai oi-Shubham Ghosh Thirunelveli, July 2: Ramkumar, accused of murdering Infosys techie Swathy, was arrested near Senkottai in Thirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu on Friday(July 1) night. The 24-year-old was arrested by a police team at his village Ponpozhi near Senkottai, though not before a drama. When the policemen surrounded him, Ramkumar slashed his neck in a bid to commit suicide and was admitted in the ICU at High Ground General Hospital in Palayamkottai in Nellai. The police said Ramkumar conceded to his crime. He was staying near Swathy's residence in Choolaimedu in Chennai for the last three months. Swathy was brutally hacked on the platform of Nungampakkam railway station on early morning of June 24. Ramkumar's friend was also involved in the murder, said police sources. Oneindia News When two Buffalo County teens were picked up by their father, they knew that he had no business being behind the wheel he was intoxicated. Under typical circumstances, they would have been forced to either remain silent, leave the vehicle or do the unthinkable and call the police on their father right in front of him. But in Buffalo County and Douglas County, people have the ability to use text messaging to interact with dispatchers. Through a text, the situation was communicated to dispatch and soon, the vehicle was pulled over before it reached the Kearney interstate, said Shelly Holzerland, Fremonts director of communications. There are probably a lot of others stories like that, she said during a Friday phone interview with the Tribune. With City Council approval Tuesday evening, Dodge County will soon be the third county in Nebraska with a text-to-911 option. Holzerland said that all the pieces are in place to have the system up and running within a few months, all that needs to happen is a few minor software updates and interaction with local cellphone providers, she said. If people can dial 911, they should always do so to minimize confusion, however, this is not always a viable option, especially for those with hearing and speaking impairments. Funded through the Nebraska Public Service Commission, anybody with an active cellphone data plan will be able to utilize the new service once its installed. As the project continues to develop, the public will continue receiving information, she said. The capability to send text messages to 911 is available from all wireless carriers, information in the Councils agenda says. The enhancement to emergency communications is a vital link for the deaf/hearing-impaired community. It is also crucial for citizens that find themselves in emergency situations where they are unable to talk on their cellphones. Because texting is solely a feature of wireless communicators, all expenses related to it are eligible for funding from the Wireless 911 Fund administered by the Nebraska Public Service Commission. One of the reasons people are always encouraged to dial 911 and speak to a dispatcher if possible is because the new service doesnt allow the dispatcher to see the location of the person who is calling. When a text comes in, the dispatcher doesnt respond with a text of their own, the message shows up on their computer monitor and they type a response back. One of the drawbacks is the location doesnt come with the text, Holzerland said. So we have to know where you are at if you send a text in. And while that is a drawback, the text-to-911 service ultimately will pay dividends with keeping the Dodge County community safe. Its very important to the community, and especially the hearing impaired community, she said. Before this they didnt have an easy way to contact us in case of an emergency. This allows people full access to emergency services wherever, and whenever they need them. Bangladesh, India's entry point for the IS Feature oi-Pallavi Sengupta The terror attack in Dhaka that is claimed by the ISIS has sent shockwaves across the world. The country is jarred by about 45 attacks since last September, out of which 10 are claimed by the ISIS. The terror organization seems to bend rules attacking Islamic countries like Turkey and Bangladesh, but the surprise gives rise to sanguinty when we understand that both these countries border a state that is of typical interest to the group. Lebanon, as it is knows, is the transit point for new entrants into the terror group. Of late, the once porous borders of the country have been sealed under international pressure. Moreover, the country has also been forced to join hands with US military to conduct air strikes in Syria, resulting in destabilizing the group and freeing the Iraqi oil hubs. Bangladesh, on the other hand, is already a den of terrorists targetting the Indian sub-continent that has joined the league of anti-ISIS missions (even if not directly). However, the seed of hatred has already been planted in the country with close to 25 youths reportedly joining the group and many more being brainwashed online. Indeed, India holds growing prospects for the group. But, there is a wall of the world's largest military forces in between that needs to be destabilised. The best way to do that is to create unrest in the weakest link at the border. [Read: Bangladesh is sliding: After look and act, India needs to have a Defend East policy] Attacks on Bangladesh Murder of several foreign visitors, murder of a police constable, the bombing of an Ahmadi Muslim mosque (which is a branch of Islam (considered the polytheist Qadani sect by the ISIS), the attack on a Shiite mosque, the shooting of a Sufi Muslim shrine chief and an attempt to murder a Christian pastor are some of the several attacks on the country. As A.N.M. Muniruzzaman of the Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies rightly points out, "these attacks as a full-spectrum assault on society, hitting sectarian, law enforcement, military, and foreigners." [Read: Bangladesh hostage crisis ends, militants killed ] The ground is already set for the ISIS here. Consider the activities of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which is tied to Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, which in turn is getting good notice in ISIS. People, especially foreigners have complained of a persistent fear that has confined them within homes, some even choosing to leave the country. Economy is played upon here, destabilising the country even more. Add to this the fact that the Shiite minority's fear of entering the mosque given the strategy of the IS to attack mosques. Socio-Political scenario suitable for ISIS The ISIS probably draws on the much-debated history of Bangladesh. The fact that the military here was more of a politcal entity ever since its inception rather than a part of the government's defence forces has not been out of the mind of the ISIS. The fact that the Bangladesh Army thrived on the cohesive forces of the Islamic fundamentalist groups is evident from its presence in the rural areas and the urban areas where the soldiers and the officer ranks are drawn from. The main targets are university students, an indirect attack to education. It is to be noted that ever since independence of the country, the Islamic constitution has brought little relief to the masses and the trend has continued. [Read: Dhaka strike: Bangladesh's political class needs to display more maturity in handling terror ] The snior heirarchy of the military here are psychologically inclined to the Pakistani forces, which is worrisome for India. Bangladesh also believes that the only way to keep India's might at bay was to use the weapon of Islamic fundamentalism, now that the political fixation of both China and Pakistan have changed. In other words, the political situation here has left Bangladesh susceptible to such havoc. All ISIS is doing is adding a little oil to the fire and divert the attention of the world to the internal problems rather than at the India-Bangladesh border, hence making it porous. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, July 2, 2016, 12:36 [IST] Dhaka strike: Bangladesh's political class needs to display more maturity in handling terror Feature oi-Vicky By Vicky The Islamic State (IS) claiming credit for the attack in Dhaka was on expected lines. The outfit makes it a point to quickly claim credit as this part of their propaganda and so called global outreach programme. Intelligence Bureau officials in India say that it could be the ISIS or a splinter group which could have carried out the strikes. [Dhaka: The writing was on the wall] The IS clearly wants the credit as it has been for sometime now trying to establish its foot print in Bangladesh. The government in Bangladesh however has constantly denied the presence of the outfit. A wake up call: The political class in Bangladesh has at times acted immature to the threats being posed by numerous terrorist outfits. The ruling party appeared to be more interested in pointing a finger at the BNP. [Kolkata put on high alert] Bangladesh has witnessed killings on a daily basis. Threats by global outfits such as the IS and the al-Qaeda have been issued on a regular basis, but there continues to be denial. Let us date back to an interview given by Bangladesh's Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu. To the rising threat of extremism, he was quick to point a finger at the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami. [What India's dossier to Bangladesh had said] The answer is very simple. The Producer is the BNP. The Director is JI. The small actors on the ground are ABT, JMB, he added. He further went on to state that claims by the ISIS were fictitious in nature. Bangladesh has been a problematic zone for a long time. There were outfits such as the Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami which thrived in Bangladesh. While the government has been cracking down on extremism, it also needs to understand the rising threat of the global outfits such as the al-Qaeda and the ISIS. These outfits have been relying on splinter groups to establish themselves. Moreover these outfits quickly claim credit for an attack and this becomes a problem as it as an inspiration for others across the world to carry out similar strikes. There have been a number of low grade attacks in Bangladesh. While these appeared to be one off incidents at first, it gradually became a trend to target bloggers and minorities. While the government claims that it has acted against over 2,700 extremists, the fact is that the country's internal security is in disarray. Oneindia News ISIS thrives on political and economic weakness, chooses targets strategically Feature oi-Pallavi Sengupta The back-to-back Dhaka and the Serbia terror attacks have formed a whirwind of questions in one's mind. Initially, it was Tripoli, Egypt, Libya and Lebanon that have witnessed the crisis created by the terror organization. Interestingly, the reach has been limited, to countries that are either financially or politically weak. The primary reason behind choosing very soft targets is to deter the Western assaults on their strongholds. Most of the victims in almost all the attacks are Westerners or European, further mounting pressure on the western front to stop their strikes on the country. Hence, the most populated areas like cafe, malls and supermarkets have a better prospect of sending the Jihad message effectively. Syria and Iraq Experts believe that ISIS thrives on political and religious upheavels. It insists on the building of an Islamic State, which has carved out of civil war in Syria and the tehnic diversity in Iraq. While striking them and propagating it in social media, they are showing themselves as heroes to the would-be recruits. Moreover, it hits back against the international air campaign targeting Islamic State in its Mesopotamian stronghold. [Read: Dhaka attack: 20 foreigners killed; 6 terrorists neutralised] The main goal of striking so-called soft targets is to intimidate and deter by projecting that economic interests, companies and eventually the public will pressure the (Obama) administration into forgoing its air campaigns in Iraq and Syria," terrorism scholar Walid Phares, author of "The Confrontation:Winning the War against Future Jihad said. He further added, "While another goal is to produce video propaganda for recruitment, there is also the side dividend of demanding protection money from companies, telling them, 'If you don't want this to happen to you, here's what it will cost.'" While it is difficult to attack Saudi Arabia, Canada and Australia are all linked in targetting positions of the Islamic State, Libya is in a no-man's land, fighting the forces against the Islamic State and the Islamic State itself. While the former has forced it to engage in strikes against the IS, the latter targets it for striking against it. Add to it, the internal crisis that the country faces. Sacrifice soft targets to achieve major goals The Islamic State knows that sacrificing places like Kobani, Libya, Afghanistan and Sinai would send out a strong message to the Western and European world that they should stay away from targetting the ISIS if they did not want similar fate. As per Ryan Mauro, national security analyst with the Washington-based think tank Clarion Project: [Read: After Dhaka, it's Serbia: Man opens fire in cafe, kills 5 including spouse ] "ISIS knows how to write the headlines and they know what the media is going to cover. Soft-target attacks in places like Libya, Sinai or Afghanistan are very important in order for them to say that they have momentum and that the loss of a place like Kobani doesn't make much of a difference." This would also leverage their position in the eyes of the new recruits, thus giving momentum to the never ending cycle of ISIS. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, July 2, 2016, 15:45 [IST] Terrorists at Dhaka planned not just an attack but a brutal one Feature oi-Vicky By Vicky Brutality was one of the main features of Saturday's attack in Dhaka. Most of the persons who were killed were found with their throats slit. Bangladesh officials announced after the incident that the terrorists had slaughtered the hostages and most of them were found with their throats slit. The use of knives has become a common feature in the killings at Bangladesh. Several instances in which bloggers and rationalists were killed involved knives. Today the ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack at Dhaka and at first many were surprised with the use of knives. While some analysts argued that the ISIS does not use knives, they must remember that terrorists today do not follow a fixed pattern. Knives for brutality Most terrorist groups use knives in their attacks to kill victims only to make the attack more brutal. The beheading videos that the ISIS puts up are more brutal because of the use of the knife. In today's attack the terrorists once again displayed a sick mentality. Most of the bodies found at the site were with their throats slit and this is an indicator that the terrorists displayed an extreme amount of hate. They wanted to convey their hatred to the hostages in the most brutal manner. Moreover it also sends down fear and panic when the attacks are this brutal. The terrorists appears to have done a thorough reconnaissance of the place before attacking. They were fully aware that the that restaurant housed several foreigners. Terrorists groups ideally look to target foreigners as it generates more publicity across the globe. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, July 2, 2016, 19:23 [IST] Bengaluru: Tale of two poor fathers fight against powerful private school lobby India oi-Oneindia By Maitreyee Boruah Bengaluru, July 2: The large-scale commercialization of school education is an open secret in India's IT hub Bengaluru. In recent times, the city has witnessed several protests staged by various parents' groups against the steep rise in fees announced by private schools for the academic session of 2016-2017. In one such instance two parents-Suresh Kumar (50) and Kempe Gowda (38)-were arrested by the police after they staged a protest in front of a private school in the city on June 15. The duo were arrested after the management of St. Antony's High School, Kurubarahalli lodged a police complaint stating that they harassed women staff. Refuting the allegation, Nagasimha G Rao, convenor, RTE Task Force, told OneIndia, "The school has levelled false charges against Kumar and Gowda. They staged the protest as children studying in the school under RTE Act quota are facing discrimination. These poor kids are yet to get their textbooks and uniforms." According to the Right to Education (RTE) Act, which came into force on April 1, 2010, all schools should set aside 25% of the seats for the children from the neighbourhood -- a euphemism for kids from underprivileged sections of society. Currently on bail, Kumar and Gowda spent two days at the Central Parappana Agrahara Central Jail in the city. They have been booked under IPC (Indian Penal Code) Sections 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace). Kumar, who is an auto driver, said, "My daughter is a student in the school. She is studying in Class III (Three). She has been admitted in the school under the RTE Act quota. Even last year she did not get her books and uniforms. This year also she has no textbooks till now. Thus a group of 40-odd parents, whose kids were denied their basic rights, protested in front of the school gate on June 15." Denying the charges levelled against him and his friend Gowda, Kumar said that the protest was led by poor mothers. "Several poor mothers and few fathers staged a protest. We never misbehaved with the women staff members of the school. All these charges were false. While we were protesting, the school management informed the police. Few police personnel reached the spot immediately. We spoke with the police and they asked us to leave the spot. In fact, later in the evening I was asked to come to the Rajarajeshwari Nagar Police Station. There I was arrested. Moreover, Gowda was not even part of the protest. He came to the police station after he learnt about my arrest. He was also arrested with me," added Kumar. Gowda said that his child studying in a different private school under the RTE Act quota was also facing discrimination. The activists and parents say that as per the RTE Act, schools should distribute textbooks, uniforms, shoes etc free of cost. Even the Karnataka RTE Act, Rule 7.2, clearly mentions that schools shall not discriminate "quota" children in any manner with respect to entitlements and facilities such as textbooks, uniforms, library and ICT facilities, co-curricular programmes and sports. Both Kumar and Gowda rued that their arrest had shocked their families a lot. "I am a poor man. I drive an auto rickshaw. I was earning Rs 300 a day earlier. My income has come done drastically now," said Kumar. Gowda too has a similar agony to narrate. "I work in a garage as a mechanic. I am yet to rejoin my work." The lawyers from Manthan Law are helping the duo to fight their case. In spite of repeated attempts, the school authorities of St. Anthony's School, Kurubarahalli refused to speak to this reporter. OneIndia News International Beer Day: Why and how you should celebrate this day? Fact check: Did a Budweiser employee really pee in the beer tanks? Study claims that even moderate drinking can lead to cognitive decline 'Godfather' beer hurts religious sentiments, says petition in Delhi high court India oi-PTI New Delhi, July 2: A PIL was on Friday moved in the Delhi High Court seeking to restrain manufacture, supply and sale of 'Godfather' beer in the national capital, saying that it hurt religious sentiments. The plea by a civic organisation has submitted that "sentiments and emotions" of the public at large of every religion would be affected as the word 'God' is used by everyone to refer to the "almighty power". It said the Delhi government should not allow sale of the beer at their authorised shops in the city. "The Godfather (beer) manufacturers are against humanity and the principle of natural justice as they are intentionally harassing and damaging religious emotions," the plea by Devinder Singh, president of Jan Chetna Manch, alleged. The petition filed through advocate A P Singh said the words "God" and "father" have significant importance in religion. "The Godfather manufacturer should extend their apology to the people through two national English and Hindi newspapers in order to protect the sentiments and emotions of public at large," the plea has urged. The petition is likely to come up for hearing next week. Godfather Strong beer is particularly popular in Northern India. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, July 2, 2016, 11:04 [IST] PM Modi likely to visit Arunachal on Oct 30 to inaugurate greenfield airport HC stays order to give info on PM Modi's degree to Kejriwal India oi-PTI Ahmedabad, Jul 2: The Gujarat High Court on Friday stayed the Central Information Commission's order asking the Gujarat University to provide information on the degree earned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. A division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi accepted the varsity's demand for stay. It also issued notices to Central Information Commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu, the union government and Kejriwal seeking their responses and posted further hearing to September 6. The university had approached a single judge bench of the High Court last week seeking to quash the CIC order. However, justice S H Vora only issued notices to the three respondents but did not stay the CIC order. The University then moved the division bench. Senior counsel Tushar Mehta, representing the GU, today argued before the division bench that the varsity was not a party to proceedings before the Information Commission and no hearing was given to it before passing the order, in violation of principles of natural justice. On April 29, CIC directed Delhi University and Gujarat University to provide information on degrees earned by Modi to the AAP leader. CIC's order came a day after Kejriwal wrote to Acharyulu saying he does not object to government records about him being made public and wondered why the Commission wanted to "hide" information on Modi's educational qualification. AAP had questioned Modi's BA and MA degrees, alleging discrepancies in certificates. In response, BJP president Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had released copies of the Prime Minister's degrees. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, July 2, 2016, 9:48 [IST] A dream, a call and some courage: How a 15-year-old stopped her marriage Mamata Banerjee condemns Dhaka terror attack India oi-IANS By Ians English Kolkata, July 2: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday condemned the deadly terror attack in Dhaka which at least 20 foreigners, including an Indian girl, were killed. Condolences to families of those who lost lives in Bangladesh. We are with you. We pray for peace and harmony in holy month of Ramadan. We condemn terror," Banerjee said in a tweet. An Indian girl, Tarushi Jain, was among the 20 hostages killed by Islamic State terrorists in the siege on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital. IANS Rajasthan: BMW allegedly driven by MLA's son kills three, injures five India oi-PTI Jaipur, Jul 2: A BMW car allegedly driven by an MLA's son, who was suspected to be in an inebriated state, today hit an autorickshaw here killing three persons and then rammed into a PCR van in which four policemen were injured. Siddharth Maharia, son of Independent MLA Nandkishore Maharia, was driving the car at high speed at around 1.30 AM in C-scheme area here, police claimed. He first hit an autorickshaw and then a PCR van, police said, adding under the impact of the crash, the three-wheeler fell about 200 feet away from the site. "Two of the passengers of the autorickshaw died on the spot and as many were injured. One Assistant Sub Inspector and three other policemen on duty were also injured. "The five injured were rushed to SMS hospital where another passenger of the autorickshaw succumbed to injuries," DCP South Manish Agarwal said. The ASI received head injury and is being treated while other policemen were given primary treatment, he said. Additional DCP Yogesh Goyal said the accused Siddharth was drunk, "as per the initial assessment", and a medical test was conducted to confirm it. "There were four persons in the car. Two managed to escape and two -- Siddharth and his relative Jayant -- were caught. They are at a police station and action against the driver will be taken after the registration of an FIR," he said. Meanwhile, Siddharth claimed that he was not driving the car. He also denied that he had consumed alcohol. One of the deceased was identified as Jethamal (40) and efforts are on to ascertain the identity of others, SHO Ashok Nagar police station, Bala Ram said. The autorickshaw was on its way from Chandpole to Mansarover when the mishap occurred. PTI Tarishi's kin in talks with MEA on travel to Dhaka India oi-PTI New Delhi, July 2: The relatives of Tarushi Jain, a 19-year-old Indian girl killed in the terror attack in Dhaka, are in talks with the Ministry of External Affairs to travel to the neighbouring country. A cousin of Tarishi, Shirish Jain, said, "We are in talks with the Ministry of External Affairs as all the near and dear ones want to reach Dhaka at the earliest. Indian girl Tarushi among those killed in Dhaka terror attack, confirms Sushma Swaraj No one else from her family, apart from Tarushi's parents, is in Dhaka. MEA has been helpful in arranging our visas." Tarishi's uncle, Rajeev Jain, described the fateful evening, "Tarishi stays in Bangladesh. She had gone to the cafe along with her friends and was taken hostage. After the operation she was found dead. She was 19 years old. She was studying in America and had come to Dhaka to spend her holidays with her parents." Tarishi, a student at UC Berkeley, was on vacation. Her father runs a garment business in Bangladesh for the last 15-20 years, according to officials here. In a series of tweets, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said,"I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka. "I have spoken to her father Sanjeev Jain and conveyed our deepest condolences. The country is with them in this hour of grief. "We are arranging visa for the family. My officers are on the job. We are coordinating with Tarishi's uncle Rakesh Jain," she said. Tarishi was among 20 foreigners who were hacked to death by ISIS militants in a terror attack at a restaurant in Dhaka's high-security diplomatic zone. PTI Prosecutions story may be attractive but should be backed by evidence The allies of the ISIS in the Sub-Continent India oi-Vicky New Delhi, July 2: The ISIS has been claiming for long that it has penetrated into Bangladesh. Many had questioned this claim and in Bangladesh, the leaders preferred to live in denial and blame the opposition for the rising number of extremist attacks. The fact is that the ISIS has been trying to make an entry into the sub-Continent with its eyes fixed on Afghanistan. While it had made baby steps, today's attack in Dhaka shows that the threat of the outfit is for real. Who supports the ISIS? In Bangladesh the ISIS made a slow start. Several splinter groups had been siding with the al-Qaeda including the ABT. However over the past few months the Ansar Ul Bangla Team(ABT) witnessed some infighting and several disgruntled elements decided to pledge support to the ISIS. The ABT and the ISIS began spreading a reign of fear among the people by issuing fatwas in a bid to set up an Islamic Calipahate. IS claims killing 24, hurting 40 in Dhaka's attack The ISIS saw an opportunity in Bangladesh and realized that it could set up a module in order to achieve its dream of setting up a Caliphate. Let us take a look at the ISIS' allies in this part of the world also. In Pakistan, the ISIS has the support of the Tehrik-e-Taliban, Tehreek-e-Khilafat and the Ismamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Dhaka terror attack: Security forces storm restaurant as negotiations fail In Afghanistan it garners support from the Heroes of Islam Brigade in Khorasan and the al-Tawheed Brigade in Khorasan. In India the ISIS has the support of the Ansar-ul-Tawhid or the erstwhile Indian Mujahideen. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, July 2, 2016, 9:27 [IST] Video: Why Chinas former president was escorted out from stage 26 killed in bus crash in China International oi-PTI Beijing, Jul 2: At least 26 people were killed when a bus veered out of an expressway and fell into a ditch due to flat tyre in north China's Tianjin City, local officials said. The accident occurred yesterday when the bus carrying 30 people broke the guardrail at the Baodi section of the Tianjin-Jixian expressway and fell into a ditch, a statement from the city's emergency response office said. The driver lost control of the vehicle due to the flat tyre, it said. The four survivors, including a ticket seller and two passengers, sustained slight injuries, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The bus was en route to Shenyang, capital city of northeast China's Liaoning Province, from Xingtai City of north China's Hebei Province. The bus was pulled out of the water and bodies of the victims were retrieved, the report said. PTI She is 21, he is 74! And they have sex almost every day love is evergreen, indeed! After Dhaka, it's Serbia: Man opens fire in cafe, kills 5 including spouse International oi-Shubham Ghosh Belgrade, July 2: Within a few hours of a terror strike in a restaurant Dhaka in Bangladesh where 26 people were killed in all, including six terrorists, five people were shot dead by a man in a cafe in northern Serbia early on Saturday (July 2). Informing about the incident, the police said the tragedy happened when a man entered the cafe and opened fire with an automatic rifle and the dead included two women, including his wife. The attacker continued to shoot at other citizens, leaving 20 injured, the police added. The incident happened in Zitiste town, located about 80 kilometres north of Belgrade. The attacker, known by the initials Z.S., was arrested and a probe was launced into the incident. Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, who visited the spot later, said a local TV channel that the weapon was illegal and suspected jealousy to be the motive behind the crime. In June, 49 people were killed in Orlando in the US after a 29-year-old man opened fire in a gay nightclub before getting neutralised. The incident raised questions over the notorious gun culture in the country although debates were also held on how to protect Americans from the fangs of terrorism since the killer was reported to be a Jihadi sympathiser. Oneindia News Bangladesh hostage crisis ends, militants killed International oi-PTI Dhaka, Jul 2: Bangladesh's worst hostage crisis ended today when heavily-armed commandos stormed a popular eatery here in the diplomatic enclave and killed ISIS militants who had been holding many people, including foreigners, captive for over 12 hours. Gunshots and sounds of explosion rocked the area at 7:40 AM (local time) as security forces launched an offensive to end the siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan diplomatic zone. Tuhin Mohammad Masud, a commander of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) which stormed the cafe, said there had been a number of casualties, including six hostage-takers. "We have gunned down six of the terrorists," Masud told reporters. A total of 18 people were rescued from the restaurant, a senior police official said. Among the rescued are Indian, Sri Lankan and Japanese nationals. Some of them are injured, said Mohammad Jashim, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police. An RAB official said at least five bodies were recovered during the raid, but did not confirm whether they were of hostages or gunmen. Dhaka terror attack: Security forces storm restaurant as negotiations fail The hostage crisis followed a Friday night gun-battle with police that left at least two senior officers dead and 40 people injured. Fire-fighters rushed to the scene after the raid this morning with extinguishers, probably to put out flames from explosions. A medical team also rushed to the scene with stretchers. According to unconfirmed reports, at least one foreigner has been shot during the raid inside the cafe. Army men in armoured personnel carriers (APCs) had moved in with commandos. Over 1,000 rounds of gunshots were fired and almost 100 blasts were heard in the first half an hour of the raid, media reports said. Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack through its Amaq news agency, nearly four hours after the hostage crisis unfolded, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence group, which monitors jihadist activity online. It later issued a number of photographs of what it said were scenes from inside the restaurant. The pictures showed what appeared to be a number of bodies lying in pools of blood. PTI Bangladesh: At least 69 dead in fire in apartment used as chemical warehouse in Dhaka Dhaka attack: 20 foreigners killed; 6 terrorists neutralised International oi-Shubham Ghosh Dhaka, July 2: Twenty foreigners were killed by the terrorists who stormed a restaurant in a diplomatic district in the Bangladeshi capital on Friday night (July 2) and taking its diners as the hostage---leading to a gun battle with the security forces. Two policemen were killed in the encounter before the forces neutralised all six attackers. Read more on Dhaka terror attack Sources in Bangladeshi Army said all the 20 hostages who were killed were foreigners and hailed mostly from Italy and Japan. [Bangladesh is sliding: After look and act, India needs a robust Defend East policy] Thirteen hostages including three foreigners, were, however rescued by commandos after they took control of the restaurant in Gulshan district. Two policemen were killed at the beginning of the seige as they took on the heavily armed militants. The rescue operation was launched more than 10 hours after the militants took seize of the hostages. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack which followed a series of gruesome murders of religious minorities and liberal thinkers in the country. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the attack, saying it happened at a time when the country is doing good on various socio-economic fronts. Oneindia News Dhaka: Attackers chanted "Allah Hu Akbar" while storming restaurant, says eyewitness International oi-Shubham Ghosh Dhaka, July 2: The gunmen who attacked a restaurant in an elite locality here on Friday night reportedly chanted "Allah Hu Akbar" before embarking on the mission, said local BD News. Read more on Dhaka terror attack 2016 According to Suman Reja, an official of the Holey Artisan Bakery who the news channel quoted as saying, eight to 10 youths entered the restaurant after triggering a series blasts. "They were chanting Allah Hu Akbar," he said. A gun battle started between the militants and the security personnel after they stormed the restaurant and five were killed in the encounter, including a few policemen. The militants also took a number of foreigners hostage during the operation which also saw the Bangladeshi Army personnel getting mobilised. Eighteen of them were rescued till the last reports came in. Oneindia News Dhaka terror attack: Security forces storm restaurant as negotiations fail International oi-Vicky Dhaka, July 2: The security forces at Dhaka have stormed the restaurant where militants have held up hostages. Bangladesh which is in a state of readiness says that it is just a matter of time before they overpower the militants who have held hostages. [5 killed in Dhaka terror strike] The decision to storm the area came after several attempts to negotiate failed. Sources informed OneIndia that the militants are on a suicide mission and this could be one the reasons why they were refusing to negotiate. [Kolkata put on high alert] As the security forces launched the operation, gun fire and explosions were heard at the spot. Authorities in Bangladesh say that currently 20 persons are being held hostage and the first priority would be to pull them out safe. [Dhaka strike: The writing was on the wall] Most of the hostages in the buildings are foreigners and it appears that this was a well planned operation. The restaurant a popular joint was targeted as it houses a large number of foreigners. Targeting foreigners always gives terrorist groups the large amount of publicity that they thrive on. Oneindia News Dhaka attack: The writing was on the wall International oi-Vicky Dhaka/New Delhi, July 2: The writing was on the wall. Bangladesh faced for the first time faced a hostage crisis by a terrorist group when eight men carrying fire arms, bombs and swords stormed the Holey Artisan bakery and engaged in a battle with security forces. [Bangladesh's political class should show more maturity in handling terror] The incident that occurred at a popular haunt for foreigners left two policemen dead. Bangladesh has been witnessing a spate of attacks on minorities and in the past few months terrorist groups have been issuing warnings. The ISIS has claimed responsibility for this attack. [Kolkata put on high alert] 'The idea is to liberate Bangladesh from disbelievers' An issue of the Dabiq magazine a mouth piece of the ISIS carried an interview of Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif who is the emir of the ISIS in Bangladesh. In the interview he speaks about the launch of a massive offensive against Bangladesh and India. [What India's dossier to Bangladesh had said] He says in the interview that the idea is to liberate India and Bangladesh from the disbelievers or the mushikirins. Hanif spelt out the plan that they have for the sub-continent. This man who is the head of the ISIS in this part of the world says that they are training fighters both in Bangladesh as well as Pakistan to launch a fidayeen or suicide attack on Indian soil. He also states that they would be taking the help of the local mujahideen or fighters in India. The intention is to rid the sub-continent of the mushikirins. The Hindus in India have been waging a war against Muslims and Islam. He says that the Hindus in India have been showing their animosity openly against the Muslims in India. There are Muslims in Bangladesh as well and while they too have an animosity against Islam, they do not show it openly. We will implement the rule of Sharia in India and Bangladesh. Until the law of Sharia is imposed we will not rest in peace. We will target Hindus in large numbers, the emir of the ISIS also goes on to state he had further said. The worry for India: The NIA which probed an ISIS module in India said that they had found a trail to Bangladesh. The NIA had learnt that the handler and some of this associates may have moved into Bangladesh. The module was in touch with a cartel in West Bengal in a bid to buy arms and ammunition, the investigators had found. There have been growing concerns about the rise of the ISIS in Bangladesh and we suspect that these members could have been in touch with some of them, NIA officials stated. Officials in India had repeatedly said that groups such as the ISIS and the al-Qaeda in the sub-continent would make their way into this part of the world through Bangladesh. There has been chatter by the operatives for long now which suggested that they were planning a major strike in Bangladesh. Oneindia News Mamata miffed for not being invited to be part of Bangaldesh PM's India visit Hasina criticises TV channels for live coverage during Dhaka attack International oi-PTI Dhaka, July 2: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday criticised Bangladeshi TV channels over live telecast of the government's preparations during the country's worst hostage crisis and threatened to revoke their licenses. "When we are taking preparations, channels were telecasting those live. Do they not think that the terrorists are watching this and devising their strategies accordingly? I request the television channel owners to please not do this," Hasina said while announcing the success of the operations carried out at Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan. What Dhaka attack teaches us: Appeasement doesn't work She criticised the television channels' role during conducting operations. "In the United States, when people were killed, neither CNN nor BBC showed anything to jeopardise the operation. But in our country, there is competition between the television channels. Some television channels do not want to listen. I can issue the licence and I can revoke it as well. This is not a childish game," the Prime Minister was quoted as saying by Dhaka Tribune. Hasina asked the television owners to telecast the bad side of militancy, "It is the responsibility of all". "People have to be resistant against this. We can not let this impede the development taking place in Bangladesh," Hasina said as she asked people to resist militancy. 20 foreigners, including an Indian girl, were hacked to death by suspected ISIS militants inside a cafe popular with expats in the diplomatic zone here in the worst terror attack in Bangladesh before commandos launched an assault, killing six attackers and capturing one alive. Director of Military Operations Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said the militants slaughtered 20 hostages before the joint operation led by the armed forces began. Indian girl Tarushi among those killed in Dhaka terror attack, confirms Sushma Swaraj Most of those killed were found with their throat slit, he added. Indian girl Tarushi, 18, who was taken hostage was killed by the attackers. Italian and Japanese nationals were among 19 others who were brutally murdered. Two senior police officers were also killed in the gunbattle that began last night. The mission codenamed 'Operation Thunderbolt' was launched after the Prime Minister ordered the army to intervene to end the hostage crisis, Chowdhury said. Hasina announced the end of siege and said security forces "successfully" wrapped up their operation, freeing 13 hostages after killing six terrorists and capturing one militant at the Spanish cafe. She said around 30 people were injured. Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack through its Amaq news agency, nearly four hours after the hostage crisis unfolded, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence group, which monitors jihadist activity online. PTI Maneka Gandhi urges Obama to skip 'Running of the Bulls' event International oi-PTI Washington, Jul 2: Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi has urged US President Barack Obama to skip the annual 'Running of the Bulls' spectacle during the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, when he travels to Spain later this month. "The 48 bulls used in the event are struck and terrorised as they slip, fall and injure themselves or human spectators on their way to a violent death in the bullring," Gandhi said in a letter. The letter dated June 26, was released by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) here yesterday. In the letter, the Union Minister pointed out that bullfighting is an archaic display that has lost favour among Spaniards and has been banned in many parts of Spain and other countries. "In your position of power, taking a stand for compassion for animals and against cruelty would have considerable influence," Gandhi wrote. "Won't you please skip this barbaric event and speak out against such cruelty? This would surely be celebrated by kind people all over the globe," she said. Gandhi said bullfighting is banned in many countries including India, Argentina, Canada, Cuba, Denmark, Italy and the United Kingdom. She said even several Spanish cities have banned the sport. The White House, though, has not confirmed if the US President would be travelling to Pamplona. "I suspect he probably is interested in that. I've not spoken to him about it. But I don't know whether or not the President's itinerary will allow for witnessing that rather interesting event," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters during a news conference last month when he was asked about it. PTI Sonia chose Manmohan Singh as he posed no threat to her, Rahul Gandhi: Obama Obama briefed on ISIS attack in Bangladesh International oi-PTI Washington, Jul 2: US President Barack Obama was today briefed by counter-terrorism officials on an ISIS terror attack at an upmarket restaurant in Bangladesh where several foreigners have been taken hostage, a White House official said. "Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco has briefed the President on the ongoing situation in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The President asked to be kept informed as the situation develop," the official said. The State Department Spokesman John Kirby said that the US embassy in Dhaka is monitoring the situation. IS claims killing 24, hurting 40 in Dhaka's attack "I can tell you as of now that they have accounted for 100 per cent of the American citizens working under the chief of mission authority," he told reporters. "They're also obviously in constant touch with authorities as they continue to work through this very fluid, very live situation right now," he said. PTI Pakistan condemns terror attack in B'desh International oi-PTI Islamabad, Jul 2: Pakistan today condemned the terror attack on a restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital that left at least two senior police officers dead and 40 people injured, terming it as "senseless terrorist attack". "Pakistan condemns the senseless terrorist attack in Dhaka that has led to the loss of precious lives and injuries to many innocent people," Foreign Office said in a statement. It said the government and the people of Pakistan extend their heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and the brotherly people and government of Bangladesh over the loss of innocent lives and wish the injured early recovery. "Pakistan stands in solidarity with the brotherly people of Bangladesh and is confident that the Government of Bangladesh will effectively counter this cowardly attack," it said. Pakistan also reiterated its condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. PTI Islamic State bomber detained in Russia for attempting attack in India was recruited through Telegram Why India should get access to Islamic State bomber detained in Russia Prosecutions story may be attractive but should be backed by evidence Pro-IS Twitter account warns of attack at US, Britain airports International oi-IANS By Ians English London, July 2: A pro-Islamic State (IS) Twitter account has threatened to attack Los Angeles International, John F Kennedy International and Heathrow airport as the US prepares to celebrate July 4 Independence Day weekend, the media reported on Saturday. The attacks will be carried out on planes "flying from Heathrow to the US" and warned that "there will be a device placed in either [sic] Heathrow, LAX or JFK airports," Telegraph reported, citing the Twitter account. The terror attack warning was revealed by the Site Intelligence Group, an organisation that tracks the online activity of terrorist groups. "We all need to be vigilant to the global threat of terrorism -- in Britain we keep all aspects of aviation security under constant review and work closely with our international partners to mitigate risks," Transport Minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon was quoted as saying. Security has already been beefed up across the US airports. Dhaka terror attack: Security forces storm restaurant as negotiations fail The threat comes in the wake of a deadly attack on Istanbul's Ataturk airport where three Islamic State suicide bombers killed 41 persons injured over 239 others. At least five persons were killed and 18 rescued as Bangladeshi forces on Saturday started an operation to free up to 40 hostages held by about eight to nine gunmen -- claimed to be affiliated to the IS militant group -- who attacked a restaurant in the diplomatic quarter of Dhaka late on Friday. IANS Bangladesh: At least 69 dead in fire in apartment used as chemical warehouse in Dhaka Shaykh Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif: Did he mastermind the Dhaka attack? International oi-Vicky Dhaka, July 2: If it is the ISIS that struck at Dhaka today then the man behind the same would be Shaykh Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif, the emir of the ISIS in Bangladesh. The ISIS which refers to Bangladesh as Bengal had a year ago announced Hanif as the emir or chief of the region. When he took over he had announced a plan not just for Bangladesh, but one for Pakistan and India as well. From what he spoke it appeared clear that he wanted to use Bangladesh as a launch pad to strike in India. What Dhaka attack teaches us: Appeasement doesn't work He further had pointed out that he would also create a base in Pakistan yet again to use it as a launch pad to strike in India. Going through all his speeches and interviews it becomes clear that the intention of the ISIS is creating panic in India. The India plan Hanif says that that Bangladesh has a strategic location and building a jihadi base there will facilitate IS to launch guerrilla attacks in India. We will set up a base in Bangladesh and launch a massive offensive against Bangladesh and India. He says that the idea is to liberate India and Bangladesh from the disbelievers or the mushikirins. He says that they are training fighters both in Bangladesh as well as Pakistan to launch a fidayeen or suicide attack on Indian soil. He also states that they would be taking the help of the local mujahideen or fighters in India. The intention is to rid the sub-continent of the mushikirins. The Hindus in India have been waging a war against Muslims and Islam. He says that the Hindus in India have been showing their animosity openly against the Muslims in India. There are Muslims in Bangladesh as well and while they too have an animosity against Islam, they do not show it openly. We will implement the rule of Sharia in India and Bangladesh. Until the law of Sharia is imposed we will not rest in peace. We will target Hindus in large numbers, the emir of the ISIS also goes on to state he had further said. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, July 2, 2016, 20:07 [IST] Even if not contesting 2020 polls, Hillary Clinton will not be entirely out of scene Hillary Clinton says Julian Assange must 'answer for what he has done' Will never succumb to fear and hate: Hillary International oi-PTI Washington, Jul 2: Praying for the safety of those taken hostage by terrorists in Dhaka, presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton today said people will never succumb to fear and hate. "Praying for the safety of the hostages in Bangladesh," Clinton tweeted. "To the terrorists: We will never succumb to fear and hate," she said. As Secretary of State, Clinton had visited Bangladesh in May 2012 and had a signed memorandum of understanding with her counterpart to create the US-Bangladesh Partnership Dialogue. The fifth edition of the annual dialogue was held in Washington DC last week. Suspected Islamic State terrorists last night stormed a restaurant in Dhaka's Gulshan diplomatic area and took hostage at least 20 people including foreigners, triggering a fierce gun battle with Bangladesh security forces in which two policemen were killed and 30 injured. PTI Dhaka terror attack: Kolkata put on high alert New Delhi oi-Vicky New Delhi/Kolkata, July 2: In the wake of the attack in Dhaka, Kolkata has been placed under high alert. Security has been stepped up in all strategic locations including the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata. Intelligence Bureau officials told OneIndia that this is a precautionary measure in the wake of the attacks at Dhaka. [Dhaka terror attack: The writing was on the wall] Security along the Indo-Bangladesh border too has been stepped up. Security agencies say that security has been stepped up to prevent any possible infiltrations along the border. [Bangladesh's political class needs to show more maturity in handling terror] Indian officials are also in touch with authorities in Bangladesh. We have offered assistance to the authorities, a top official in Delhi informed. Intelligence Bureau officials say that it is too early to call the attack. Although the ISIS has claimed responsibility it is still not possible to pin point which outfit could have carried out the attack. [What India's dossier to Bangladesh had said] Oneindia News Dhaka terror attack: What India's dossier to Bangladesh said New Delhi oi-Vicky New Delhi, July 2: India had recently prepared a dossier in which it had stated that terrorist groups working under different names had planned on establishing a Greater Bangladesh which merges Bangladesh with West Bengal. As a first step they intended setting up modules in West Bengal, Meghalaya and Assam in a bid to create several mini Bangladeshs' and then take the plan to next level. The dossier also pointed to the splinter groups within Bangladesh which are making the setting up of such modules a possibility within India. India had listed the names of several splinter groups which are working for the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh the militant wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami. The Ansarulla Bangla, Jamayatul Muslimeen, Hepajat Islam and the Tanzim Tamiruddin are the splinter groups which are offering support to the Jamaat and this needs to be checked by the Bangladesh government. The political situation: Further the dossier also states that these groups are taking advantage of the political situation in Bangladesh and this has added to the problem and made these terror groups strong. Also Bangladesh was told about the ISIS and the Al-Qaeda in the Sub Continent which calls for the establishment of a caliphate with the help of Bangladesh militant groups specifically. Bangladesh will also be told about the landing of the Rohingya Muslims on their soil in a bid to set up a stronger network. The dossier further spoke about the camps in Bandarban and also in Chittagong and said that these camps need to be neutralized in order to clip the wings of these terror groups. People are trained here and sent to West Bengal, Meghalaya and Assam and in turn they are setting up modules. While these camps need to be decimated it is also needs for strong cooperation along the border areas to stop the infilration, the dossier would also state. The socio-economic-political situation is also being taken advantage of while carrying out the infiltration and joint efforts between the two Intelligence agencies and also the Border forces would be the need of the hour to prevent any further influx. Terror groups are using socio-economic and political conditions to infiltrate their members into India. During the questioning of the several operatives it has come to light that the political instability and the need to set up an Islamic state is what has prompted these modules to become more aggressive. Oneindia News 2008-2022 One News Page Ltd. All rights reserved. One News is a registered trademark of One News Page Ltd. The parents of an American woman who disappeared in Afghanistan four years ago while pregnant and backpacking with her husband are appealing to the Taliban to release the couple and their two young children. James and Lyn Coleman believe the insurgent group is holding their daughter, Caitlan, her Canadian-born husband Joshua Boyle, and two sons, to whom she gave birth in captivity. "We desperately want to be with and hold our daughter and grandsons," said Coleman, sitting next to his veiled wife in a video released on July 1. Coleman addressed the new leader of the Afghan Taliban, Haibatullah Akhundzada, asking him "to show mercy" and release the family as Eid al-Fitr approaches, a festival that is traditionally a time of mercy and marks the end of the Ramadan fast. The Colemans last saw their daughter in July 2012, when she set off for Russia on a hiking trip with Boyle that took them through Central Asia and ultimately into war-torn Afghanistan. The Pennsylvanian couple said they got a letter from Caitlan in November proving that she and Joshua were still alive, and announcing that she had given birth to a second son. Based on reporting by AP and AFP Terra Daily 10 Mar 2022 Istanbul (AFP) March 9, 2022 More than 200 Thursday flights have been cancelled at Istanbul's two airports because of.. Rumble 04 Apr 2022 The Great Pyramid of Giza, also known as the Pyramid of Khufu, is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza.. euronews (in English) 15 Jul 2022 The two legal cases concern freedom of speech and remain unresolved after more than one year. Veuer 01 Jul 2022 Authorities say some of the archeological sites locations have already been scorched. Veuers Tony Spitz has the details. NPR 24 Oct 2022 The woman sustained non-life threatening injuries and is being treated at a hospital, according to officials. Wildlife officers.. Rumble 23 Oct 2022 The World Health Organisation said this week around 300 subvariants of Omicron were now circulating the globe, with all showing.. Fish Hunter King Slot Released by XIN Gaming Published July 2, 2016 by Mike P A brand new Asian slot game has been released to XIN Gaming casinos. Visit these sites to find Fish Hunter King and its majestic underwater visuals. XIN Gaming has made a new online slot game for summer 2016. While Fish Hunter King will be entirely new to western players, their counterparts in China will be familiar with Fish Hunter as a beloved arcade game. Moving forward, the global casino industry will now get to learn about this fishing franchise. Innovative Slot Design When making Fish Hunter King, XIN Gaming has set out to make an online slot with numerous ways of creating winning combinations of symbols. To that end, the slot has been crafted with five reels and four rows, which means 20 symbols can appear at once. Going across the reels, there are 50 paylines in total. For players, this is an innovative feature because slot games typically only have 15 symbols. What this means is that Fish Hunter King has more ways to win than the average slot game. In the industry, it is quite unusual to have a slot with four rows instead of only three. Some developers have done this before, but there are not many examples out there. Tranquil Underwater Visuals By visual design, XIN Gamings Fish Hunter King slot is a colourful experience. An array of different species appear as the various symbols, with each bringing a different colour scheme to the experience. The fish are then presented in front of a tranquil underwater scene, with multi-coloured coral displayed throughout. XIN Gaming chief executive Mathias Larsson believes the new slot game will find an in-built Asian audience because of its popularity in the China. Larsson has also spoken of how Fish Hunter King will show Chinese players that XIN Gaming is aware of what its players desire. At the launch, Larsson also stated his belief that his company is the only developer capable of releasing a game of this style. Reprinted from Consortium News In Campaign 2016, the American people have shown little stomach for more foreign wars. The Republican candidates who advocated neoconservative warmongering crashed and burned, losing to Donald Trump who sold himself to GOP voters as the anti-neocon, daring even to trash George W. Bush's Iraq War to an aghast field of Republican rivals. Sen. Bernie Sanders went even further, daring to mildly criticize Israel's repression of Palestinians, yet still ran a surprisingly strong race against the hawkish former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. And, if Libertarian and Green anti-imperial candidates are counted in general election polls along with Trump, the trio makes up a majority of voters (54 percent in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll). Only Hillary Clinton (who comes in at 39 percent) is carrying the neocon banner proudly in the general election, advocating a U.S. "regime change" invasion of Syria -- dressed up as "no-fly zones" and "safe zones" -- while she also cheers on more hostilities toward nuclear-armed Russia. In Russia, the neocons dream about their ultimate "regime change," dragging Vladimir Putin from the Kremlin and seeing him butchered much as happened to Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, their grisly deaths representing two of the "highlights" of neocon domination of U.S. foreign policy in recent decades. But very few of Clinton's backers seem to support her because they want more neocon-style imperialism abroad. They usually express their desire to see a woman president ("it's her turn") or praise her pragmatic approach to domestic issues ("she can get things done"). While some followers like the fact that she has traveled the world and has dealt with many leaders as First Lady, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State, that doesn't mean these Democrats like that she voted for the Iraq War, pushed President Obama into the Libyan disaster, and wants to escalate the costly and dangerous new Cold War with Russia. Indeed, if there were an effective peace movement in the United States -- along the lines of the 1960s civil rights movement -- many Clinton supporters might join the peace leaders in demanding face-to-face meetings with her and threaten to withhold their backing if she doesn't repudiate her neoconservative war policies. That no such peace movement exists reflects the failure of anti-war advocates to penetrate the world of practical politics the way that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. did in working with President Lyndon Johnson to end racial segregation. But that's not really the fault of peace advocates since they have been shut out of the mainstream media to a far greater degree than the civil rights movement was in the 1960s. Like the South's Segregationist Media To extend the comparison, it's as if today's New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC were behaving like the dominant white Southern newspapers of the 1960s, turning their collective backs toward those who favored racial integration. Martin Luther King Jr. meeting with President Lyndon Johnson at the White House in 1966. (Image by Photo: White House) Details DMCA Just like the white Southern press tried to pretend the civil rights movement wasn't happening, today's U.S. mainstream media ignores voices opposed to America's imperial wars, no matter how credentialed those citizens are. Consider, for instance, how the major media won't publish anything from the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, a group that reflects the views of such international figures as Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley and former CIA analyst Ray McGovern. Ironically, as much as U.S. officialdom and its mainstream media castigate RT and other Russian news outlets as "propaganda" fronts, RT and the like are playing the role that the Northern press did during the civil rights era by carrying important stories about U.S. peace protests while the NYT, WPost, CNN and MSNBC behave like the South's segregationist media did in the 1960s, dismissing or ignoring the dissent. [See, for instance, Consortiumnews.com's "When Silencing Dissent Isn't News."] If it weren't for today's biased and imbalanced U.S. media, there would be daily, front-page, prime-time, network news attention to the dangers of perpetual war and a critical examination of Hillary Clinton's role in wasting trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives. There would surely be a serious and thorough debate about the wisdom of Clinton's continued hunger for an expanded war in Syria. Yet, today's mainstream "debates" are limited to slight deviations between Official Washington's dominant neocons and their understudies, the "liberal interventionists," who only differ regarding which excuses to use in justifying an invasion of Syria. The Constitution does not guarantee or protect poverty! On this anniversary of our independence as a nation I have re-examined our founding documents, our basic laws, to determine where they provided for poverty. There are no such provisions. The United States Constitution says it was formed for a "more perfect union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity" It does not mention poverty. The United States Constitution grants Congress the power "to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States...." In order to carry out these duties it gave Congress specific powers: To borrow Money on the credit of the United States; To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; To establish uniform laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures. No mention was made of creating or promoting poverty, just that Congress could relieve it through regulating trade, monetary laws and bankruptcy. None of the amendments so far have preserved the rights to create poverty or protected it. Was it, perhaps, in the Articles of Confederation, our original Constitution? That provided for: "a firm league of friendship with each [state], for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever." I could find nothing in that document providing for the guarantee or support of poverty. Well maybe it is in the Declaration of Independence, because, unless you are super rich in the United States, you never know when circumstances will reduce you to poverty. The Declaration of Independence clearly states its purpose: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness." Do our basic documents say nothing about individual wealth and power? The Constitution says we are formed to insure domestic tranquility, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty. Poverty does none of these things and Congress is given the power to borrow money, regulate commerce, to coin money and provide bankruptcies to avoid these outcomes. But can't society just allow some to get rich and powerful at the expense of all the rest? Is not that enshrined in the Constitution and guaranteed as the American Way? Well, no. It never was. From the very beginning, from those Articles of Confederation presented in the Continental Congress on July 12, 1776, both the individual States and the United States were absolutely prohibited from creating or supporting any supper class, oligarchy, plutocracy (in the eighteenth century language, any nobility). That is one possible reason why George Washington would not accept a crown if offered, as Congress had no power to convey or create it. Jefferson could speak of the "rights of man", the great equality being promoted at the time. But Congress had to express it legally and so the absolute prohibitions on the power "to create Titles of Nobility" were included in Article VI of the Articles of Confederation, and later taken directly into the Constitution without debate in Article 1, Sections 9 and 10. As they are absolute prohibitions, not on Congress, but on the United States and States, they even apply to treaties. For the lawyers and historical sticklers among you, see The Cornerstone Brief and Secrets of the Forgotten American Revolution. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). "A lot of people have told me whether I win or lose, I'm already making a difference just by running," Misty Snow told her hometown paper after she was nominated for the US Senate. There's some truth in that. Snow is about as young as a Senate candidate can be -- at 30, she just meets the constitutional age requirement for serving in the chamber -- and almost a decade younger than any sitting senator. Snow is a passionate progressive who as a first-time candidate beat a somewhat older and quite a bit more conservative contender in a statewide primary. Snow is a Democrat running in a state that currently sends an all-Republican delegation to Congress. Snow is a "cashier at a grocery store[who was] raised in a lower-income family" taking on the political establishment with a grassroots campaign that built on the momentum of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders' run for the Democratic presidential nomination. And, Snow notes, "I just happen to be transgender." With her Utah Democratic primary win on Tuesday -- by a 59-41 margin -- Snow just happens to be the first transgender candidate ever nominated by a major party to run for the US Senate. Snow got in the race late because she thought Democrats needed to mount a bold progressive challenge to Republican Senator Mike Lee. But she ran a smart, energetic campaign that drew strong support not just from Salt Lake City -- a progressive city with a vibrant LGBTQ community -- but from communities across the state. Inspired by the Sanders campaign (which scored a 79-21 victory in the March 22 Utah caucuses) Snow ran a campaign that promised she would be "Standing Up for Democratic Values for All Americans" and she pledged to champion: a $15-an-hour minimum wage, with indexing to guarantee future increases that keep up with inflation a constitutional amendment to get big money out of politics bold responses to climate change a single-payer health-care system legalization of marijuana and criminal-justice reform civil rights and civil liberties While her campaign has focused on a broad spectrum of progressive proposals--which she explains on an impressively detailed website that features far more discussion of the issues than those of many Senate nominees -- Snow brings to politics an important perspective at a time when conservative activists and many Republicans are proposing to discriminate against trans people. Click Here to Read Whole Article In case you missed it the Obama administration announced late Friday afternoon-just prior to the 4th of July holiday weekend- the "airstrikes it has conducted outside of conventional war zones like Afghanistan have killed 64 to 116 civilian bystanders and 2500 members of terrorist groups." [1] "Bystanders"...that's the cavalier, callous word choice by New York Times writers Charlie Savage and Scott Shane describing innocents killed revealing the Times' editors complete disregard of who the administration kills. Presumably this is the administration's latest attempt at "transparency". The president even "issued an executive order making civilian protection a priority and requiring the government in the future to disclose the number of civilian deaths each year." I'm sure the survivors of "bystanders" killed in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia will now feel greatly relieved the practice of killing their loved ones will now be disclosed each year by the US. It's hard to find the correct words. Chutzpa, arrogance, hubris, embarrassment-all dissembling of course-"disclosing" the unlawful practice of ordering assassinations authorized by the president in places where the country isn't at war killing-what the Times refers to as-innocent "bystanders" in the process. Of course that's a war crime according to the Geneva Convention with US being an original signee. But the since the end of WWII the US became an entity all to itself basically ignoring international law whenever it suited its purposes. A country cloaked behind the Constitution and the rule of law yet betraying itself as an empire that acts with complete impunity knowing it will never be held to account for the crimes it commits. It's pretty simple really. When you're the victor in war you call the shots. Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan lost the war so the leaders-except Hirohito in Japan-were prosecuted and found guilty for the war crimes they committed. Now Germany and Japan are client states of the US all but surrendering their sovereignty following US diktat. One supposes this latest "disclosure" of extrajudicial killing of innocents by Obama is a feeble attempt to try to allay his guilt. Ah, sorry pal, that stain is permanent. Live with it. Then how about the majority of Americans when polled support these drone strikes that kill innocent "bystanders"? What about them? No Americans killed so it's okay? They certainly don't have a sense of guilt. But hey, it's the fourth of July holiday weekend. Go watch the fireworks. That's America. What a country. Betsy Ross Flag (13 Star Flag) (Image by cliff1066 ?) Details DMCA Exactly 240 years ago the United States Founding Fathers declared independence from the British Empire, and agreed to an arrangement of the thirteen colonies to become a federation. On July 4th, 1776, they signed the Declaration of Independence. Most of the reasons for the American Revolution were financial, with the heavy tax burden levied by King George of England likely at the top of the list. A close second was the gouging done by European corporations of the day, Notably the Dutch East India Trading Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. Their shenanigans were not so different from their modern progeny. Strikingly, along with building a democracy of sorts, our forefathers were attempting to limit corporate influence in this new nation as well. [From ReclaimingDemocracy.org] "After fighting a revolution to end this exploitation, our country's founders retained a healthy fear of corporate power and wisely limited corporations exclusively to a business role. Corporations were forbidden from attempting to influence elections, public policy, and other realms of civic society. Initially, the privilege of incorporation was granted selectively to enable activities that benefited the public, such as construction of roads or canals. Enabling shareholders to profit was seen as a means to that end. The states also imposed conditions (some of which remain on the books, though unused) like these*: Corporate charters (licenses to exist) were granted for a limited time and could be revoked promptly for violating laws. Corporations could engage only in activities necessary to fulfill their chartered purpose. Corporations could not own stock in other corporations nor own any property that was not essential to fulfilling their chartered purpose. Corporations were often terminated if they exceeded their authority or caused public harm. Owners and managers were responsible for criminal acts committed on the job. Corporations could not make any political or charitable contributions nor spend money to influence law-making. For 100 years after the American Revolution, legislators maintained tight control of the corporate chartering process. Because of widespread public opposition, early legislators granted very few corporate charters, and only after debate. Citizens governed corporations by detailing operating conditions not just in charters but also in state constitutions and state laws. Incorporated businesses were prohibited from taking any action that legislators did not specifically allow. States also limited corporate charters to a set number of years. Unless a legislature renewed an expiring charter, the corporation was dissolved and its assets were divided among shareholders." Sadly, since the 1800s corporations have grown and infiltrated our lives in every way, and not for the better. As much as the American Revolution was about self-governance, it was also about redefining the role of corporations. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Progressive Content Not Found Sometimes, authors delete their progressive content after publishing. To see if the progressive content was renamed or re-published, please click here. Mitzi Scott.Harry Rabinowitz.JPG Mitzi Scott and Harry Rabinowitz in Portland in 2005. (Brent Wojahn/2005) Every November, a conductor and composer who'd worked with orchestras around the world, leading them in recording dozens of feature film scores, left his 400-year-old home in a French village and came to Portland to stay until April. Here, Harry Rabinowitz and his wife, Mitzi Scott, a Portlander he'd met in France, enjoyed urban living, going to the Oregon Symphony and Portland Opera. He attended chamber music concerts and theater productions. He saw friends, friends he had all over town. Take the time he was in a McMenamins with his friend Dennis Brooks, a Portland trial consultant, and lamented that he didn't seem to have many good friends in town. A moment later, three women ranging in age from about 20 to 70 came bustling up to Rabinowitz and hugged and kissed him, Brooks recalled. "They were there for about five minutes gushing over Harry," Brooks said. Afterward, the conductor said to Brooks, "I guess I'm wrong." There was the time in 2008 when Robert McBride of All Classical Portland told an Oregonian reporter, at a Northwest Film Center retrospective of Rabinowitz's work, "I would move in with the guy if I could." Then there was Rabinowitz's 100th birthday party in March in Portland. The birthday greetings included one from Queen Elizabeth, who wrote, "I want you to be around to celebrate mine," said Tom Whittaker, a Portland architect who was among the guests. Rabinowitz died June 22 in France after a fall that caused significant blood loss. "Blood thinners for his heart compounded the loss of blood," his wife said by email. He died eight hours later. "The world is not nearly as interesting today," Brooks said. "He was a gem." Harry Rabinowitz was born March 26, 1916, in Johannesburg, South Africa. He began studying the piano at the age of 9 and soon displayed a knack for reading music, he said in a 2015 interview. In 1946, he went to England to study at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. By 1953, he was conducting the BBC Radio Orchestra. When he moved into film, he collaborated frequently with the British filmmaking team Merchant Ivory, several of whose scores he conducted. Rabinowitz became a part-time Portland resident after he and Scott met in the French village of Lacoste, where he was her landlord while she took a photography class. They married in 2001 and Scott, who'd been a political fundraiser and gubernatorial campaign manager, brought him into her circle of friends. They quickly became his friends, too. "I was madly in love with him, as was every other woman who ever met him," said Sally Landauer, who was his "opera date" in Portland. She and her husband, retired Oregonian editorial page editor Robert Landauer, had planned to travel to England in November for a London Symphony Orchestra concert, "Rabinowitz on Film," celebrating Rabinowitz's centennial and career. Sally Landauer recalled that at Rabinowitz's 100th birthday party, the 150 guests saluted the conductor's fondness for red and orange Keds by wearing "red Keds, orange Keds or anything we could find that looked like Keds. And people who couldn't find those wore red shoes." "It was just because everybody adores the man." Rabinowitz was cremated June 28 in France. Scott said she plans a "memorial or celebration of life for him later this year." The family suggests donations in his memory to Medecins sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders) or All Classical Portland. -- Amy Wang awang@oregonian.com 503-294-5914 @ORAmyW CRANE -- Mark Owens is just trying to break even. Alfalfa farming hasn't gotten any easier in recent years: The price of hay has fallen; weather has been less than ideal; Harney County's water supply is more limited than ever; and public resources are scarce, especially after a recent 41-day armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge drained county coffers. On top of all that, Owens has a new problem. He can no longer ship hay to Portland, now that the last remaining trans-Pacific carrier at the Terminal 6 container port has left town. Instead, he has to send the hay to Ellensburg, Wash., or Winters, Calif., cutting profits 10 to 15 percent, or $10 to $15 a ton. "It's huge. ... That 10 percent makes a big difference," Owens said. He wonders whether agriculture will be sustainable enough for his two children to pursue one day. Things gradually fell apart at the Port of Portland as a result of years of labor strife between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and terminal operator ICTSI Oregon. It came to a head early last year, when container shipping company Hanjin Shipping announced it would pull out of Portland. The Port's two other, smaller cargo carriers, Hapag-Lloyd and Westwood Shipping Lines, eventually made the same decision. Oregon's larger economy has for the most part weathered the loss of Portland's container terminal. For some farmers in the Willamette Valley, there's not even much of a difference in price to truck cargo to Seattle or Tacoma. But that's no consolation to farmers like Owens in remote parts of the state. He has had to diversify his business, entering into the barley and pest-control markets, to make up for the tighter margins on his alfalfa-based hay. "If you were strictly depending on shipping hay to the Port of Portland, you'd be in trouble," Owens said. Crane, Oregon Owens' hay operation, encompassing more than 12,000 acres of land in sparsely populated Harney County, generates about $2 million a year in revenue, he said. The margins are thin, however, and he has about $1 million invested in the business in equipment alone. Losing the Port of Portland hasn't required him to lay off any of his 11 employees, but Owens - who is also running for a spot on the Harney County Court this November - is trying to figure out how to cover the added costs. "I've got to be careful on my year-end spending," Owens said. Owens has been talking to state Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ontario) about his struggles, and Bentz has lobbied for a solution at the Port. The lawmaker is now weighing the prospect of a new rail hub that could more efficiently bring goods from Ontario to both the East and West coasts. It's not clear who would pay for it, though. "There's sure no doubt about the damage that they have done to us out here," Bentz said, lamenting the loss of the container terminal. And even if a shipping line comes back, the Port has an image problem after of years of slowdowns and labor troubles, Bentz added. "It has a reputation now of not getting anything done," Bentz said. Bill Wyatt, executive director at the Port of Portland, which leases the container terminal to ICTSI Oregon, said shipping companies like Hanjin "would love to come back." "But I know they won't come back until they see visible evidence that the labor situation has been resolved," Wyatt said. In the meantime, it's not just Harney County feeling the pinch. Duane Olson, sales and warehouse manager at Northwest Onion Co., near the unincorporated community of Brooks northeast of Salem, said the loss of the Port has "definitely changed how we market our product." He's feeling the effects of competition more acutely now that he has to truck his onions to the Puget Sound area or to California rather than Portland. "We have to pay so much more to get a product up to Seattle," Olson said. It sometimes cost as low as $300 per container to ship to Portland, while the expense to go to Seattle can be as much as $1,080 per container, he said. "The logistics and everything just makes it tougher for us," Olson said. "We had a pretty sweet deal with Portland." Other exporters have been less affected. Stu Follen of Portland-based SL Follen Co. ships hay and animal feed from Oregon to markets in Asia. Fluctuating shipping rates mean that for him, it's sometimes no more expensive to send products by rail to Seattle or Tacoma than it would have been to ship out of Portland. "It's not as bad as everybody thinks it is," Follen said. Still, he asked rhetorically, "has it cost people money?" "Of course," he answered. "Everybody." Commuters have been affected, as well, he added, because of the uptick in truck traffic. Follen acknowledged that the situation is worse in farther-flung areas such as Harney and Malheur counties. Out in one of those far-flung areas, Owens worries about his future in the hay industry. "I wonder if the successful run I've had is over with," he said. Harney County is certainly no stranger to economic uncertainty. Once boasting one of the highest per-capita incomes in Oregon, the community of about 7,100 fell on hard times beginning in the 1980s as the timber industry declined because of federal regulations that limited harvests. Unemployment rose to 17 percent during the recession in 2009. The population is shrinking, too. Such trends fueled the sentiment behind the anti-government occupation of the refuge. Many Harney County residents disagreed with occupation leader Ammon Bundy's tactics, but were glad he raised the issues surrounding federal land management in the rural West. Owens is not one of those people. "I believe we live in the best country in the world, and I'm not ready for a revolution," Owens said. Still, he said it would be nice if rural Oregonians could catch a break now and then. "Would I like to see more economic development in Harney County?" he asked. "Yes, I would." He hopes that if he's elected to represent the county, he can help young farmers achieve the same success he has had. But casting a shadow over those opportunities are environmental concerns, globalization - and now the situation at the Port of Portland. The Port would "be a great asset to us," Owens said. "If it were working properly." -- Luke Hammill lhammill@oregonian.com 503-294-4029 @lucashammill Researchers at Portland State University have analyzed the effects of a gross receipts tax like the one that will appear on November's ballot, Initiative Petition 28. The roughly $3 billion annual tax, they predict, would boost public sector job growth over a 10-year period more than it would depress private sector job growth. Prepare to hear plenty about this job-creation miracle from the tax's backers at Our Oregon, the union-funded group that paid for PSU's study. Oregonian editorials reflect the collective opinion of The Oregonian editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom. are Helen Jung, Erik Lukens, Steve Moss and Len Reed. To respond to this editorial: Post your comment below, submit a , or write a . If you have questions about the opinion section, contact Erik Lukens, editorial and commentary editor, at or 503-221-8142. The state's most credulous voters might be swayed by a couple of employment estimates taken from a single analysis funded by an interested party. But for the rest, a number of questions are likely to arise. Why do PSU's job numbers differ from those produced recently by the Legislative Revenue Office, a nonpartisan state agency? How would the tax affect me? And, crucially, is using the citizen initiative the best way to change the state's tax system? First, the basics. The measure would apply a 2.5 percent tax to Oregon sales in excess of $25 million, and it is aimed at C corporations, a category that includes roughly 1,000 businesses. Our Oregon and allied groups would like voters to think of these as faceless out-of-state behemoths that could absorb the hit or deduct the tax from their federal returns. Many, however, are based in Oregon (Powell's Books, for instance), and the tax would affect even businesses to which it didn't apply directly. How's that? To the extent that they could, companies that must pay the tax would pass costs to their customers, often smaller businesses, and these would adjust their own prices accordingly. Such "pyramiding" ultimately would raise prices for end consumers -- you. Both the state and PSU analyses agree that the tax would reduce employment growth in the private sector while boosting employment growth in government. However, the state agency estimates that the tax's negative effect on private sector employment over a five-year period (38,200 jobs) would exceed tax-related government job growth (17,177). PSU's study, by contrast, estimates that the government jobs the tax created over a decade (33,600) would outnumber the private sector jobs it eliminated (13,500). These differences are a result of different baseline assumptions. The state assumes that private-sector employment would grow at 6.6 percent during its five-year analysis window, a projection that is consistent with forecasts by the state Office of Economic Analysis. PSU, on the other hand, uses a forecast released in 2014 that shows growth of only 1 to 2 percent over the period, a rate PSU's report calls "tepid" and even "questionable." But that lower growth rate, the report notes, "presents a lower opportunity cost to policy change." If the economy is growing more slowly the tax hike might not nix as many potential jobs. Government growth assumptions differ as well. The state analysis assumes that public employment will grow at a steady clip even without new tax revenue, gaining about 18,000 jobs. PSU's model assumes that government employment will grow very little, gaining a paltry 1,000 jobs over five years. One thousand! PSU, thus, assumes that IP28 would have a relatively big effect on the public sector, even as it had a relatively small effect on the private sector. Whichever set of job assumptions you happen to find more compelling, PSU and the state agree broadly about the basic function of the tax, which both liken to a sales tax. It is, thus, regressive, placing "a greater burden on lower income households," PSU notes. The state's analysis, meanwhile, models the tax's effect on household income. It would reduce after-tax income by $372 per year in households making less than $21,000, for instance. The notion that giant, faceless, out-of-state corporations would shoulder the costs of Our Oregon's tax is simply fanciful. It would function as a hidden sales tax on every person in Oregon, rich or poor. A sales taxes isn't necessarily a bad thing. But it's best to propose such a tax honestly, and it should be offered to voters as part of a carefully thought-out package containing adjustments to other taxes. You know -- comprehensive tax reform. And that's a job for the Legislature. IP28 is the work of those who want only to pry open the tax floodgates. monmouth.JPG Students at Western Oregon University in Monmouth in 2002. (File photo) By David Sarasohn On a hot Willamette Valley morning last month, in the middle of the black robes and snapping cameras of graduation season, more than 800 brand new alumni collected bachelor's degrees at Western Oregon University in Monmouth. It wasn't the largest class among the state universities, and nobody occupied the stage in protest, but the occasion did have a distinction: A number of the graduates might not have made it at some other places. For years, Western Oregon has focused on first-generation and minority students, a logical focus for a regional state university drawing heavily on the mid-Willamette counties: Marion, Polk, Yamhill. It's also logical for a state where a third of the school population are now minorities, whose college prospects are important not only to them but to a state with an official goal of 40 percent of its adults having four-year degrees. The key here is not to get students to your campus; it's the considerably more difficult achievement of getting them across the stage on graduation day. As it showed this June, Western has some success in doing that; its most recent six-year graduation rate for Hispanic students was actually higher than its overall rate -- above 50 percent -- and perceptibly higher than comparable institutions. Considering how often first-generation college students depart with no degree but with a souvenir of debt, Western's record might merit some July Fourth fireworks. Western Oregon has worked to plug up the cracks that first-generation college students are too likely to fall through. As its new president, Rex Fuller, says, "We have made a priority of being a place where students can be successful." It's why Ben Cannon, executive director of the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission, calls Western "an underappreciated gem of Oregon higher education." To get to this point, Western has 500 students in its version of the Federal TRiO program, which provides support and counseling to students who might have difficulty navigating the system. In its Cesar Chavez program, the university brings middle school students to Western to, in Fuller's phrase, "test-drive the campus." At the other end of its school relationships, it works with several districts in a program to turn out bilingual teachers, a useful resource in 21st century Oregon -- and maybe 21st century anyplace. Western pursues other bold directions for a regional, patterns begun under the leadership of former president (and current trustee) John Minahan. It has 250 foreign students on campus; Fuller would like to see 500. And the university sends recruiters to China. Besides a revenue source, the foreign students broaden the feel of the campus. As Fuller says, "It changes what you see on the sidewalk." Western's TRiO efforts, says Cannon, are "the gold standard of what effective student support is." As for the university's outreach efforts, "I just can't stress enough the importance of deep community engagement. You can't rely on traditional channels alone to entice students to enroll." Still, Fuller argues, "We need to be more accessible," a goal vital to a university with an increasingly diverse local population base and to a system and a state that keeps saying its goal is a more credentialed population. Western's use of the TRiO program currently covers 500 of its students, but as many as 3,000 students, or most of the university's enrollment, might qualify. All of this effort, and all the potential for doing more, depends on Oregon's persistently whimsical strategies for funding its higher education system. Over the past decades, Oregon has steadily disinvested in its universities -- a national trend, but one trend where Oregon can claim to be a leader -- at the same time it's been trumpeting the importance of higher education to its future. To Fuller, this raises a major question, beyond the ones about the most effective approaches for attracting and graduating students. "What is the funding model going to be?" Fuller wonders, a question echoed down two generations of Oregon university presidents. "If we're going to provide access, we have to ask if this is going to work for us." The last legislative session provided a welcome boost for higher ed. But the budget outlook for the next one is tougher, and when Oregon budgets get tight, higher education is always the first notch to be taken in. "That historical phenomenon should be very concerning," Cannon agrees. "History would suggest that higher education would take a disproportionate brunt of reductions." This was Fuller's first Western Oregon graduation. What was striking about it, he said the next day, was "to see all the families there supporting their graduates." It would help to see the state supporting them, too. * David Sarasohn's column appears on the first and third Sundays of the month. He blogs at davidsarasohn.com. By Jeanne Roy and Jenny Dempsey Stein The recent Portland Public Schools' rediscovery of lead in water fountains and sinks, prompted by parent activism, highlights how delaying maintenance, lack of regular monitoring and institutional inertia often lead to higher costs and unintended health effects on vulnerable populations in the future. Parents in the Eco-School Network have raised funds and organized the replacement of old water fountains with new, state-of-the-art fountains and bottle fillers. Even with these new units, schools have waited for months to have dirty filters changed in a timely manner. The district's emergency action to protect students' health has its own negative impacts. One is high costs. Now taxpayers must pay for bottled water and repair of the plumbing. Another impact is elevation of the perception marketed by industry that bottled water is "better" than tap water. The message to students should be that water is a natural resource available to all humans -- not as a commodity to be purchased from corporations. One of the huge threats to humankind is privatization of sensitive water systems by transnational corporations. Water is treated as a commercial commodity and sold in small units in plastic bottles. A third impact is increased waste. Supplying Americans with single-use plastic bottles consumes more than 17 million barrels of oil -- enough to fuel 1 million cars for a year. That does not include the fuel used in shipping. Because students carry the water around, most of the bottles end up in the landfill or as litter after just one use. Actions by the district and by parents will alleviate this outcome. Portland Public Schools should adopt a resource conservation plan as well as an environmental health and safety plan. The Portland Eco-School Network has been meeting with school board members and facilities staff since spring 2015 with a goal of the district adopting and implementing a comprehensive resource conservation plan that would include improved environmental quality. We have asked for filtered water stations, improved maintenance protocols and training of custodians. The other actions can be taken by intentional parents: First, teach the child that water is nature's gift from the hydrological cycle that recycles water over and over again. Second, make a family decision to fill durable bottles with tap water to take with you when you leave home and will need water to drink. Please join us in our efforts to make a healthier and greener tomorrow for everyone -- and especially our children. * Jeanne Roy is co-founder of the Center for Earth Leadership and a sponsor of the Eco-School Network. Jenny Dempsey Stein is a parent volunteer for the Eco School Network. The man accused in the serious assault of an East Moline police sergeant had encountered the officer at the police department shortly before the attack. OSAGE For Darrel Harken, the death of his 20-year-old daughter, Grace, who was struck by a car while riding her bicycle near Osage, seems like it happened yesterday instead of nearly a year ago. I drive by the spot twice a day, said Darrel, who lives in rural Riceville and works in Osage. He was driving not far behind Grace on July 29, 2015, when the accident took place. Although he did not witness the crash, he came to the spot where she was lying by the side of the road shortly afterward. He slid in the gravel beside her. There was a lot of blood, he said. I was yelling her name, saying I loved her. Grace didnt respond. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The driver of the car, Courtney Lynn Johnson, 24, Osage, who, like Grace Harken, was traveling east on Highway 218, has admitted to texting while driving. Johnson has been charged with two traffic violations and probably will only receive fines and a six-month suspension of her drivers license when she is sentenced on July 15. Darrel Harken called the penalty ridiculous, noting a fine is what someone would receive for something like jaywalking. He said he realizes Johnson didnt mean to kill anyone, and Assistant Mitchell County Attorney Aaron Murphy has explained that under Iowa law all she could be charged with is simple misdemeanors. But Harken said he is afraid the penalty is not enough to prevent more deaths. It needs to be put in the hands of the Iowa Legislature, he said. Distracted driving fatalities doubled in Iowa from 2014 to 2015 The number of people killed or injured in accidents resulting from use of a phone or other d Assistant Iowa Attorney General Pete Grady said Iowa does not have a negligent homicide statute. If someone is to be charged with vehicular homicide or involuntary manslaughter, their behavior has to go beyond negligence, he said. Iowa law says only those who unintentionally cause the death or serious injury of another person by driving while intoxicated, driving a motor vehicle in a reckless manner with willful or wanton disregard for the safety of others, eluding or attempting to elude a pursuing law enforcement vehicle, or drag racing, can be charged with homicide or serious injury by vehicle. The Iowa Court of Appeals and Iowa Supreme Court have interpreted the law to mean a high standard of proof is needed for reckless behavior causing death, according to Grady. One ruling states recklessness can only be proved if a defendant commits a public offense in such a manner that it made it more likely than not the death of another would result and the defendant was aware of the risk. Its very troubling from a traffic safety point of view as well as a public safety point of view, Grady said. State Rep. Sharon Steckman, D-Mason City, said in her opinion someone who is texting while driving is engaging in reckless behavior, but Im not an attorney. In March the Mitchell County Attorneys Office filed three simple misdemeanor traffic citations against Johnson: texting while driving with an enhanced penalty for causing a fatality, driving too close to a bicyclist, and failure to maintain control. She pleaded guilty to the first two charges. Murphy contacted the Iowa Attorney Generals Office for advice before filing the charges. He was told his understanding was correct: the most Johnson could be charged with was traffic violations. Thats where we are at, Murphy said. I dont know if it is justice or not, but thats what the law is. As far as the penalty, I think arguably there could be a 30-day jail sentence, but arguably there could be no jail time available, he said. Ultimately the decision is up to the judge, according to Murphy. He said the accident is a tragedy for everyone, including the Harken family and Johnson and her family. Johnson could not be reached for comment. Darrel Harken said although he is angry that Grace had to go, he is not vengeful. He said the family has decided against filing a civil lawsuit against Johnson because its an unpredictable path. Darrels wife, Christine, said her daughter, who was attending Prairie Bible College in Alberta, Canada, lived a life of love and loved the life she had. She said Grace, the 2013 Miss Mitchell County Fair Queen, loved singing, going on mission trips and sharing her love of Jesus with others. Darrel said Graces college professors have told him she would seek out those on campus who were not being sought out and befriend them. Christine said Grace believed in forgiveness. Not forgiving wont bring Grace back, Darrel said. But we have deep sadness. We miss her, Christine said. Three Michigan colleges will provide nearly 1,500 prisoners with access to higher education through a federal pilot program that provides financial aid to inmates interested in pursuing a degree. Delta College, Jackson College and Mott Community College were among 67 higher education institutions nationwide selected to participate in the U.S. Department of Educations Second Chance Pell Pilot Program, which helps cover the cost of postsecondary education for state and federal prisoners. Most incarcerated individuals in Michigan will eventually be released once they have completed their sentence, so it is important that they re-enter society with the tools they need to be successful, law-abiding citizens, Gov. Rick Snyder said. Education can serve as a gateway to new careers that prevents them from returning to a life of crime and encourages more positive contributions to their community. The program aims to help prisoners gain the education and skills they need to secure jobs and successfully rejoin the community following release. Delta College will be able to offer grants to 15 inmates. A quality education is one of the most powerful tools for future success, MDOC Director Heidi Washington said. Providing inmates with access to higher education improves their chances for leading productive and stable lives in the community and enhances public safety by reducing the likelihood they will re-offend. Classes are available to prisoners at 18 state correctional facilities and Michigans only federal correctional facility, in Milan. Those who qualify will receive federal aid for educational expenses such as tuition, fees and books. Prisoners must be within five years of their earliest release date when enrolling in order to be eligible. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Perched close to eight lanes of hustling traffic near Ashman Circle at the center of Midland, Sleepy Hollow becomes a silent escape to those looking for the next adventure. Walk in the used bookstore and youre greeted by a quiet cove of paper and words, inked in some 52,000 books. The whiff of aged wood, a result of the lignin chemical breaking down in the pulp of the pages, wafts unmistakable to the noses of seasoned and new readers alike. Books are stacked to the ceiling on a couple dozen shelves. Its kind of like a sanctuary, owner Jo Henton said. Boy, I love books. Feeling them, smelling them, reading them. Its a sanctuary that Henton, 63, plans to close by the end of August. The 3,400-square-foot building occupied by Sleepy Hallow is for sale, and Henton is liquidating the inventory. Those with in-store credit are advised to use it before Monday, July 18. The plan is to sell trade books for 75 cents and hardcovers for about $2 apiece. Whatever is left over after that will go to charity, Henton said. Sleepy Hollow started 20 years ago in a house on Ashman Street, across from Kroger, according to its website. Henton has been the owner since 2008 with the help of part-timers. Its become an expensive hobby, she said. The truth is, its not making money. I think the economy has definitely made its mark; (digital) has definitely made its mark. Jo Henton and husband, Dan, a retired chemist, were married in 1982 in Midland. She moved from Colorado into gray, she said of Michigans climate. They have three children, but are empty nesters. Hentons background is in drafting, technical writing and publishing; she says she was the first person in Midland to have a desktop publishing business listed in the phone book. Her mother is full-blooded Mayan Indian. On a recent word day, as the small wall clock behind the cash register ticked toward noon, customers trickled in and out. One bought a cookbook. Another opted for sci-fi. One approached the counter to ask why the store is closing. Its time, Henton said simply. Dont say that, the customer said. Another customer inquires of the closing. She tries to think of another used bookstore in the area, but cannot. Maybe someone else will start something, Henton said. Someone younger, she later said, with a fire in their belly because the store has potential, but shes too tired to try it again. Im not going to pawn it off on somebody, she said. With a couple months to go before the planned closing, about a dozen bookshelves at Sleepy Hollow house titles ranging from High Pressure Boilers to Guide to Getting it On, and seemingly everything in between. There are a few H.H. Dow High School yearbooks (1979-1980 and 2002). On display at one shelfs end sits the more modern, Hatching Twitter. Popular genres, Henton said, have been romance, mysteries and general fiction. Paranormal romance just blew up with the Stephanie Meyer (Twilight) series, she said. And about that time, Christian fiction exploded. Linda Van Wormer browsed the store on Thursday. She recalls Henton being her right-hand person while teaching at Midland Academy. We had some good times together, Van Wormer said. I got some of my favorite books from here, said Cyndy Posenel, alongside Van Wormer. Many good books and thoughts. Henton, after hugging the two, warns, Youre going to make me cry. Me, too, Van Wormer said. Even after Sleepy Hollows final chapter, Henton plans to keep reading a lot. I may never die, I have so many books to read, she said, jokingly. The list could include textbooks: Henton says she plans to take classes as part of Saginaw Valley State Universitys graphic design transfer program. The world does not exist in outlines, she said. Art has always been in my background. She was quick to identify what will be missed most: the people. There have been some stinkers, I tell ya. But these people are readers. They are thinkers, and we have great conversations, she said. I didnt see the same people every day. I dont care how rich or poor they are, they are the salt of the earth. Sleepy Hollow is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; and closed Sunday. See more information at www.sleepyhollowbookshop.com or at the Sleepy Hollow Bookshop Facebook page. The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Friday, July 1 12:38 a.m. A motorist was arrested at Waldo Avenue and Eastman Avenue for drunken driving. Thursday, June 30 12:07 p.m. Deputies assisted the Department of Human Services with a well being check on a child after receiving information about drugs in the home. No drugs were found. A Lee Township man, 35, was arrested on a warrant at the scene. 6:19 p.m. Police investigated a case of retail fraud in the 900 block of Joe Mann Boulevard. 6:28 p.m. A deputy performed a well being check on a set of twin boys, age 2, in Porter Township. The boys were fine. 10:45 p.m. A Jasper Township man, 51, was arrested in Lee Township for driving without a license. He was cited for improper plate, no insurance and open alcohol. 10:45 p.m. A deputy assisted a citizen with the recovery of stolen property in Porter Township. Wednesday, June 29 1:40 a.m. Police were sent to a complaint of fireworks in the 2300 block of East Sugnet Road. 11:52 a.m. Officers responded to the 3800 block of Windmill Drive to investigate a case of fraud. 1:18 p.m. Property was stolen from the 100 block of Welch Drive. 5:26 p.m. Police investigated a case of retail fraud in the 900 block of Joe Mann Boulevard. A holiday weekend party planned for Pontoon Alley has brought concerns for area law enforcement and residents as well. The three-day party, advertised on a Facebook page entitled Pontoon Alley - 4th of July Weekend 2016, lists 225 people attending, as well as documents discussing how to get to the site. The party is to run from noon to dusk on July 2 through the 4th. The planner is Saginaw-based DJ Fade. According to news reports, DJ Fade was banned after a bash that left Torch Lake full of trash and human feces after a July 4 weekend of trespassing, illegal parking, noise and underage drinking last summer. I may have been banned from Torch Lake, but they cant stop me from taking the party someplace else! he wrote on the social networking site. Pontoon Alley, a sand bar in Wixom Lake, as well as part of the land surrounding it is located in Midland County. The remaining land is located in Gladwin County. The land, regardless of what county it is located in, is private property, leaving the only public access from the water. Its too early to say if this promotion will result in a noticeable increase in activity or the kind of illegal behaviors seen on Torch Lake, which does have a public access, the Wixom Lake Association Board wrote in a notice also posted on Facebook. Theres always a large number of people utilizing Pontoon Alley, said Midland County Sheriffs Capt. Mike Goodall, adding the party likely will draw more people to the area. The sheriffs office has been working closely with the Gladwin County Sheriffs Office and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to set plans for weekend enforcement. We have an action plan, Goodall said of the law enforcement presence as well as a contingency plan with MidMichigan Medical Center EMS in case of medical emergencies. There will be patrols for operating under the influence, as well as trespassing, parking violations and more, Goodall said, pointing out all those who attempt to enter Pontoon Alley from land would be trespassing on private property to do so. DJ Fade encourages party goers attending the Pontoon Alley festivities to be safe, drink responsibly and take care of their trash. Lets keep the lake beautiful and clean for years to come, he wrote, also warning attendees there is no public walk-on access to the site from land and not to trespass. LORIS, S.C., July 01, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Horry County State Bank (OTC:HCFB) is pleased to announce the addition of Jennifer W. Harris as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Ms. Harris will oversee all financial matters for the Bank. A photo accompanying this release is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6176e6ca-0daa-4c9b-aa0b-d4029ccb1032 Ms. Harris comes to Horry County State Bank with 18 years of experience in the financial services industry. Most recently, Ms. Harris served as VP Senior Accountant SEC Reporting of Park Sterling Bank in Charlotte, North Carolina, from September 2014 to May 2016. Prior to that, Ms. Harris served as SEC Financial Reporting Manager of Yadkin Bank in Statesville, North Carolina, from April 2009 to July 2014, when Yadkin Bank, and its holding company, Yadkin Financial Corporation, merged with VantageSouth Bancshares, Inc. and Piedmont Community Bank Holdings, Inc. Ms. Harris also has held various senior accounting roles at community banks across North Carolina. In addition to her community banking experience, Ms. Harris is a certified public accountant and began her career at a national public accounting firm, during which time which she specialized in auditing financial institutions. We are excited to have Jennifer join our team as Chief Financial Officer. Her financial expertise and banking background will be a great asset to the Companys accounting and finance department, said Jan H. Hollar, Chief Executive Officer at Horry County State Bank. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains, among other things, certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, without limitation, statements preceded by, followed by, or that include the words may, could, should, would, believe, anticipate, estimate, expect, intend, plan, projects, outlook or similar expressions. These statements are based upon the current belief and expectations of the Companys management team and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that are subject to change based on various factors (many of which are beyond the Companys control). Although the Company believes that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove to be inaccurate. Therefore, the Company can give no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized. The inclusion of this forward-looking information should not be construed as a representation by the Company or any person that the future events, plans, or expectations contemplated by the Company will be achieved. Additional factors that could cause other Companys results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the Companys reports (such as Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K) filed with the SEC and available at the SECs Internet site (http://www.sec.gov). All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements concerning the Company or any person acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by the cautionary statements above. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date the forward-looking statements are made. Six years ago, when our oldest daughter Heidi was about to begin high school, I wrote a column about preparing kids for their personal independence day. Some of the parenting goals I wrote about have been reached, and some are still being worked on as Heidi is becoming more and more independent. At the beginning of June, Heidi boarded a plane for Berlin to study abroad for six weeks. Its something shes looked forward to for years. She had never been out of the country but had no problem beginning her adventure alone. I remember my first trip to Europe almost 30 years ago. I didnt really have a desire to go overseas, but my friend Amy was teaching at a boarding school in Switzerland and my boyfriend (now husband) Marcus talked me into going to visit her. I remember how out of my comfort zone I felt boarding the plane alone in Chicago. I flew into Germany, traveled by train to Switzerland, and then rode by bus up into the Alps, where I finally met up with my friend. Amy had found me a place to stay that was a 20-minute snowy walk uphill from her school. As I walked uphill alone the first night, my comfort zone was shrinking. What if I slipped and fell on the side of the snowy road? No one would know. At least not until I didnt show up for supper the next evening. I didnt see anyone on my way or near where I was staying; we didnt have cellphones. I felt very alone. But as I walked, the breathtaking scenery captured my attention. The sky was full of sparkling stars, and the way the moonlight glistened on the snow-covered mountains was postcard perfect. As I marveled at the night sky, it occurred to me that the moon was the same moon I had seen a million times back home, even though it seemed to shine brighter. And it reminded me that the same God who is with me at home was watching over me in that foreign country. I wasnt alone, and that realization filled me with peace. I remembered that moment as my daughter shared her dream to travel abroad and again when she boarded the plane for Berlin. I know as she spreads her independent wings, God is with her. Always, and wherever she goes. Bank robbery Clinton police continue to search for a man who robbed a bank Friday afternoon. A dispatcher Saturday afternoon said there was no new information on the case. The man entered DeWitt Savings Bank, 302 W. Main St., about 3:50 p.m. and presented a handwritten note to a teller demanding money, police said in a news release. After a brief exchange, a bank employee complied with the demand, police said. No weapon was displayed during the robbery, and no one was injured. The suspect fled the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash to a nearby parked car and drove west at high speed through residential neighborhoods, police said. The suspect is described as a tall, slender black man in his middle to late 20s or early 30s who was wearing dark jeans, a dark long-sleeved shirt, mirrored aviator style sunglasses and a multicolored or camouflage bucket hat bearing a Chicago Bulls logo, police said. The suspect had a square postage-stamp-style tattoo on his right hand. The suspect vehicle is described as an older model white passenger car, possibly a Mercury Grand Marquis or Ford Crown Victoria, with a partial license plate of "V10," police said. Clinton police are being assisted in the investigation by the Dewitt County Sheriff's Department, Illinois State Police Zone 5 Investigations, Illinois State Police Crime Scene Services and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call the Clinton Police Department at 217-935-9441 or Clinton Area Crime Stoppers at 217-935-3333. BLOOMINGTON A Bloomington man was properly released without conditions last year after being held for more than 20 years as a sexually dangerous person, according to a ruling by the 4th District Appellate Court. John Guthrie, now 38, was charged in 1993 with sexually assaulting a minor girl, but he was never convicted because a judge agreed with the state in 1995 that Guthrie was a sexually dangerous person who required treatment in a state facility in lieu of prosecution. Over the next 20 years, Guthrie filed eight petitions seeking release. He was released for a short time in 2004, but was returned to the Department of Corrections after he violated the release terms by failing to follow sex offender rules and entering the pornography section of a video store. Doctors have disagreed and changed their opinion on Guthrie's condition and whether he should remain in state custody. In 2012, a psychiatrist said Guthrie was not sexually dangerous, but it was an opinion from state psychiatrist Dr. Melissa Weldon-Padera that led to Guthrie's release. In her January 2015 report, Weldon-Padera found that Guthrie no longer qualified for a diagnosis of pedophilic disorder based upon changes in the most recent version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders. Lacking such a diagnosis, the issue of whether Guthrie had recovered was moot, said the doctor. When asked, however, if she felt Guthrie posed a danger, the doctor said, "I wouldn't say it's a danger, but it's obviously sort of irresponsible." Defense lawyer Carey Luckman opposed the effort by the state to impose extensive conditions that Guthrie would have been forced to follow or face returning to state custody. He is required to register as a sex offender. Judge Rebecca Foley ruled Guthrie should be released without conditions, noting the doctor's opinion that he no longer fit the required diagnosis for considering conditions. In its ruling, the appellate court agreed with Foley and rejected arguments by the McLean County state's attorney's office that the law related to release of dangerous sex offenders allows for holding a person if they are considered "dangerous" as opposed to "sexually dangerous." Such an interpretation "would lead to absurd results" said the appellate court, with the potential for thieves and alcoholics to be kept in prison because of their potential to be viewed as dangerous. In his dissenting opinion, Justice Robert Steigmann held that the language of the law should be strictly followed by the court. "The majority may be right as to what the Legislature meant, but that is not what it wrote. Further, it strikes me as entirely reasonable for the Legislature to authorize conditional release, instead of outright discharge, for a defendant who might be 'dangerous' in any fashion, not just sexually dangerous," said Steigmann. State's Attorney Jason Chambers said Friday that he agreed with Steigmann's view "that we should follow what the Legislature actually wrote into law and not try to be activist and interpret it differently," noting the doctor's view that the release would be irresponsible. NEW YORK, July 01, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stull, Stull & Brody today announced that a case has been filed and it has commenced an investigation relating to the 401(k) defined contribution plan of Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS) (Disney or the Company). Among other things, Stull, Stull & Brody is investigating whether fiduciaries of Disneys 401(k) plan violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) by offering the Sequoia Fund as an investment option for Disneys employees and retirees investing in Disneys 401(k) plan. The Sequoia Fund, which was overconcentrated in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Incs stock, and may have been imprudent for retirement savings, has lost over 30% of its value in the past year. If you held the Sequoia Fund in an individual account under the Companys 401(k) plan during the last two years and have questions about your legal rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Michael Klein, Esq. at Stull, Stull & Brody by e-mail at DIS@ssbny.com, by calling toll-free 1-800-337-4983 x147, by fax to 1-212-490-2022, or by writing to Stull, Stull & Brody, 6 East 45th Street, New York, NY 10017. You can also visit our website at www.ssbny.com. You may retain Stull, Stull & Brody, or other counsel of your choice, to represent you. Stull, Stull & Brody has litigated many class actions for violations of securities laws in federal courts over the past 40 years and has obtained court approval of substantial settlements on numerous occasions. Stull, Stull & Brody maintains offices in New York and Beverly Hills. Attorney Advertising. Prior Results Do Not Guarantee A Similar Outcome. It is already a given fact that there has been a deepening gap between education and the workforce industry in the United States. In fact, the shift in the labor force appears to be dividing the population into more educated and less-schooled citizens. As the U.S. economy gradually recovers from the blows of the Great Recession, the burgeoning skills gap has become undeniably evident. The reason? The workforce industry prefers more educated and skilled population. "It's not just a factor of a more educated population, it's how the labor market is changing," Tamara Jayasundera, who authored a study conducted by Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce, told Bloomberg in an interview. "The labor market is demanding a more skilled workforce." Most Jobs Went To High-Skilled College Graduates Ever since the United States started its economic recovery in 2010, about 99 percent of the 11.6 million jobs were filled by more educated population while only 80,000 positions went to less-schooled workers. Due to these statistics, Jayasundera with coauthors Anthony Carnevale and Artem Gulish warned that the increasing skills gap suggests a "longer-term" shift in occupational patterns. They also emphasized that the workforce industry will now increasingly require more skilled workers, noting the need for more than just a high school diploma. With the pervasiveness of automation and other technological innovations, other job industries have eliminated the demand for clerical, administrative and other hands-on jobs. Why College Education Is Important In Today's Job Market With that said, the authors also highlighted the fact that college education does have an effect on the socioeconomic status of the United States. If in the past, individuals with no college education were able to work up to mid-level jobs with benefits and live a comfortable middle-class lifestyle, the authors said those opportunities are harder to achieve now. The Growing Challenge For Business Colleges And Universities Speaking of the significance of college education and the burgeoning skills gap, America's business majors are reportedly in need of a liberal-arts education. According to The Atlantic, business majors may secure entry-level jobs but they need more "technical skills" to progress in their careers. This reality is true in the shifting economic state of the United States, not to mention it also suggests a growing challenge in the education sector. That's why, undergraduate business majors will need an arduous liberal-arts education. Do you think college education is needed in today's labor market? Sound off below and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates. "Vikings" Season 4 midseason premieres to the new highlight of "Warcraft" lead Travis Fimmel as Ragnar Lothbrok and his sons. Although legendary in his own right, "Vikings" Season 4 will see Ragnar Lothbrok overshadowed by sons Bjorn Ironside, Ubbe (Jordan Patrick Smith), Hvitserk (Marco Isl) with (promising enemies) Sigurd Snake-In-The-Eye and Ivar The Boneless. As much as Ragnar Lothbrok with brother Rollo (Clive Standen) all the way to "Vikings" Season 4 midseason finale, the same may be mirrored among his own sons. "Vikings" Season 4 midseason may particularly reveal conflict between Sigurd Snake-In-The-Eye (David Lindstron) and Ivar The Boneless (Alex Hgh Andersen). IGN reports that Princess Aslaug (Alyssa Sutherland) in events leading to "Vikings" Season 4 midseason finale contributed to the conflict between Sigurd Snake-In-The-Eye and Ivar The Boneless. Ragnar Lothbrok taking Rollo on that final challenge with Bjorn Ironside (Alexander Ludwig) and Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) in Paris leaving Sigurd Snake-In-The-Eye behind will unveil bigger consequences as "Vikings" Season 4 continues. Ragnar Lothbrok has obvious affection for Ivar The Boneless above his other sons as apparent at "Vikings" Season 4 midseason finale. This will continue to play out in "Vikings Season 4." However, Ragnar Lothbrok and his actions in "Vikings Season 4" may only be the tip of the iceberg. In history, Sigurd Snake-In-The-Eye and Ivar The Boneless are the two Vikings who will later on be kings. Their renown as Vikings will surpass Ragnar Lothbrok. Bjorn Ironside, Ubbe and Hvitserk will all be great men in Vikings history but not as much as Sigurd Snake-In-The-Eye and Ivar The Boneless. History Extra cites "Vikings" series creator Michael Hirst in saying the name Ragnar Lothbrok is enough to open doors for his sons. However, as "Vikings" Season 4 midseason will reveal, Sigurd Snake-In-The-Eye and Ivar The Boneless seem to have little need for it. To be sure, Ragnar Lothrbrok will come to know in "Vikings" Season 4 that Sigurd Snake-In-The-Eye and Ivar The Boneless are almost as different as night and day. Whereas Sigurd Snake-In-The-Eye has a strong moral compass, Ivar The Boneless has a dangerous slyness that Ragnar Lothbrok will recognize. Ragnar Lothbrok will see if one among his sons will try to kill him as challenged in "Vikings" Season 4 midseason finale. History will air "Vikings" Season 4 midseason premiere on July 7. "Pitch Perfect 3" cast, plot and release date updates suggest that inevitable roadblocks are causing some problems in filming the new movie. As some sources claimed, this issue might even cause a delay if not addressed immediately. Actress Anna Kendrick has reportedly expressed her dismay in the impending delays, a Game N Guide report noted. The actress who plays the rebel Bella, Becca Mitchell, is rumored to drop her role in the upcoming installment, "Pitch Perfect 3" cast, plot and release date rumors hinted. The actress who is known for being very candid and frank in her social media posts, has also addressed criticisms about how she interacts toward her fans. The "Pitch Perfect 3" hopeful was very honest to say that some observations throw her off. "I could play Madame Bovary and I'd still end up being dry and cynical," Kendrick told The Edit. "There are times where someone will be like, 'Do that thing! You know, do your thing!' I get mildly annoyed by that. But on a greater scale, I'm lucky that's [my] reputation; when I'm snarky with people, they know that's just how I communicate." "I'd be terrible at being like Taylor Swift, the perfect Miss America version of interacting with fans and making sure they have a good experience," she added. "I mean, I don't want people to meet me and have it f--k up their day, but I'm glad I can say something weird to them and they know that's just me." Meanwhile, other "Pitch Perfect 3" cast, plot and release date rumors claim that original cast members Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow and Adam DeVine, as well as new Bella Hailee Steinfield will return to reprise their roles. Stay tuned for more "Pitch Perfect 3" updates here! A whole lot of Netflix original series have been getting generally positive reviews from fans and critics alike, but there are still a few that can be considered a cut above the rest. One of these shows is "Marco Polo," which has seemingly lived up to all the hype and more importantly to its unbelievable first season budget of approximately $90 million. Now 18 months after the shows debut, it is one of the most watched series on Netflix The Decider has released a list of five reasons why all TV series fans should give "Marco Polo" a chance. First, is because it can be considered as a pastime while waiting for the seventh season of the much-beloved "Game of Thrones." The storyline can be touted as being as complex and it deals with similar subject matter to the HBO series because it is centered on the Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, and his court. Fight fans are also in for a treat with this show. On the surface, "Marco Polo" may seem boring because of all the politics involved, but it makes up for that with intense martial arts sequences with Black Belt Magazine has commended the use of martial arts on the show to balance out the drama. The males on the show are easy on the eye as well. Girl power is also prominent on the show as women portray many of the central characters. The females in this show do not only hold much political sway, but they engage in the fight or two on occasion as well. The female characters serve as excellent complements to the too often hard hitting and brash males on "Marco Polo." There is room for growth on the show and what's great about it was that the second season was way better than the first according to most viewers. It would be interesting to see what creative direction the show runners of "Marco Polo" will take. Recent reports indicated that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are now heading for a divorce. News was also triggered by Pitts closeness to Marion Cotillard. As Brad Pitt is now busy filming his upcoming movie "Allied," rumors are circulating that two shared intimate moments together as they create their new film. Pitt and Cotillard's closeness started during a freak accident that happened as they were shooting on a small raft off Spain's Gran Canaria island. According to the National Enquired magazine, "Marion went under instantly, but gallant Brad - even though weighed down by a heavy suit - dove deep, and rescued his diva as the crew chanted, 'Vive le Americain!" Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have been plagued by divorce rumors for the last couple of months. Most rumors are saying that the reason why the two will be filling for divorce anytime soon is because of Brad Pitt's infidelity and Jolie's failing health. In one occasion, Brad Pitt was even seen hanging out with Biker Chicks and Angelina Jolie was nowhere in sight. However, the said event was a motorcycle show in California where Pitt also took the time to have his pictures taken by the attendees. Angelina Jolie on the other hand, is still having trouble with her health. Rumors are saying that because of Angie's health, which could have been attributed to her intense surgeries, that now, she has become really frail. Although Angie tries to be a good mom to her seven kids, Jolie is really having a hard time as she struggles from day to day. Brad Pitt showed support at the beginning of Angelina Jolie's health issues. These days, however, Pitt is getting tired of Jolie's situation that he is more likely to end their marriage anytime soon. What do you think of the rumors between Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt? Do you believe that they are heading that way? Share your thoughts below. This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact the Parsons Sun office at (620) 421-2000 if you have any questions BrazilianPhD wrote: Hi! I intend to apply for Marketing PhD programs in the US and I hope people here can help me with some doubts I have. First, a little about me. I'm a Brazilian male, 43 years old, trying to apply to top schools. My GRE scores are 165 Verbal / 161 Quant / 4 Analytical Writing. I seem to be better at GRE than GMAT. I've not taken the TOEFL yet, but my IELTS overall score is 8.0. I got a bachelor's in business administration from a university which is considered the best one in Latin America, with a GPA equivalent to 3.0 approximately. I also completed an MBA and a MS (in business), with GPA of about 3.8 in each one. I worked for about 20 years as analyst/supervisor/manager at several services companies in Brazil, from small ones to big ones. And then, about 5 years ago, I changed my career and started to teach. I'm currently teaching business classes at an important school in Brazil. My experience and academic background are more strongly related to Finance than Marketing, but some of the main challanges I had when working with Finance was to measure Marketing results and to allocate resources to Marketing in a corporate budget. How do I know if Marketing investments are getting adequate returns? How do I decide the amount of money I should provide for each Marketing activity? Those are the kind of questions I had when working for Financial and Marketing departments at a few companies and which directed my research when doing my masters. Concepts like customer profitability, customer lifetime value and customer equity are of great interest to me. So I want to apply for a Marketing PhD in the US, as I believe that's the best way to study and research about those subjects. So, here I my main concerns: 1 - Should I retake the GRE? The verbal score is excellent, at 95%. But the Quant is at 79%, which is much less than the 90% typical score expected for top PhD programs. I studied a lot for the GRE and I'm not sure if it is worth investing more time and money to maybe improve my score by a couple of points, or if I my GRE score is good enough so that I should start concentrating in other aspects of my application. 2 - My undergrad GPA of 3.0 is considered low for a PhD program. However, it is from the best university in my country, from an extremely demanding school where it would be virtually impossible to get an overall GPA score as high as 3.7, for example. I'm planning to explain that in my Statement of Purpose. Am I right if I do that? 3 - It has been very difficult to decide which schools should I apply to. I know a good fit is extremely important. But several schools do not state very much about the research subjects they are most interested in. And among those who do inform about their research priorites, almost all of them include measuring marketing results in a way or another. I also tried to research about schools' faculty, but that is also a lot of work. So, I'm now with a list of almost 30 schools with Marketing PhD programs in US, and hundreds of names of faculty members. This is really overwhelming. And I do not have money to pay the application fee to 30 schools. So, any help to narrow the list down is very welcome at this stage. Thanks to all in advance. Hello there!Very good to hear from you!Soooo, first of all, before we get into all of your questions, let me ask: why do you want to get a Phd in marketing? What are your goals?Additionally, since this will eventually help with your application: What research have you conducted? Have you ever taught? Do you have any publications?On to your questions:1. You should take the GRE if you think you can do better. A higher GRE score will ALWAYS help. It shouldn't come at the expense of other things though.2. Yes! You should of course explain all that. It will help3. The answer is: you need to do that research. There is no way around it. There are two or three very important things when researching a PhD program:1. Where do the graduates of the above program end up teaching?2. What the ranking/prestige of the Marketing program is.3. That there is someone on the faculty who can support your thesisSo you HAVE to find out about the professors and departments in all the schools. This is actually something you will be expected more or less to know. I mean imagine this is a market study - you wouldn't do one without first consulting all the information out there that is necessary. So it is a lot of work, but do get it done. Additionally if you do find people who are interested int he same fields as you, it makes it sooooo much easier to build a personal rapport with them.On a final note, I would HIGHLY recommend visiting the departments. PhD programs are very small, and if you visit and make meetings with professors and administrators, they WILL remember.So do that if you can.Best,Jon This service is a courtesy for our print subscribers to give them access to our online edition at no additional cost. If you haven't registered on the new site, you must do it now before you do anything else. Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Canadians are invading Apple Music's Beats 1 online streaming radio station during the month of July. Apple Beats 1 has held what it calls "takeovers" in the past from both Australia and Japan and now it's Canada's turn. Canada's host will be George Stroumboulopoulos, a very popular voice in the country's music scene thanks to his work at CBC Radio and MuchMusic." Starting on July 2, the Canadian takeover will take place for five consecutive Saturdays at 2 pm ET with a recognizable name at the controls. After Stroumboulopoulos's initial kickoff, Toronto personality Josie Dye will host on July 9 with artist from various Canadian record labels. Apple's Beats 1 has been successful due to Zane Lowe who earned his fame at BBC Radio 1. Zane stared in New Zealand and so working with DJ's from other Common Wealth countries like Australia and now Canada only made sense. Zane told the Financial Times that "We came to Canada from the point of view of us benefiting. It really wasn't a case of 'how can we help?' it was more like, 'How can you help us get this music across a global audience and make us, Beats 1, sound even more exciting." With Canadian artists Drake, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes putting Canada in the spotlight this year, there's never been a better time to tap into Canada's music scene. That being said, I hope that they don't throw some of the oldies under the bus, like Bruce Cockburn, Neil Young, Sarah McLachlan, Alanis Morrissette, Brian Adams, Avril Lavigne, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and others. Not everyone loves rap but then again, I'm not from this generation and music is ever changing. For more on this, see the full Financial Times report here. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism. More and more law enforcement agencies across the country are outfitting their officers with body-worn video cameras and report better policing and public behavior as a result. But Jim Bueermann, president of the Police Foundation, a Washington, D.C. organization that helps improve policing through research and training, said Theres more we dont know about the impact of body worn cameras than what we do know. Here are some of those questions and some answers: Privacy: One important aspect to this that I dont think many departments have grappled with, said Catherine Wagner, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Southern California, is that its really the capability of body cameras to be tools of surveillance. Very few departments have policies about this. She worries, for instance, about peaceful protesters being taped using facial-recognition software and lists made of those protesting. You can conceive of a world where body-worn cameras are more like automated license plate readers and are logging information as officers go about their business instead of being used to record discreet incidents, Wagner said. Public access: Some agencies consider the videos to be part of an investigation and therefore unavailable to the public. Others release them on approval of the police chief, while others consider them for release through the Public Records Act. Wagner said the ACLU believes that a person being videotaped should be able to view the tape. A lot of public support of body worn cameras is based on the belief that the public will get to see the footage. If only police get to see the footage and it never gets to the public, then thats not transparency and accountability, she said. Gary Schons, a lawyer at Riverside law firm Best Best & Krieger, discussed the issue of varying policies in a brief for the California District Attorneys Association: What has emerged is a realization that existing freedom of information and public record laws, most of which either require unfettered public access or afford police agencies complete discretion over permitting or denying public access, are inadequate to the task of balancing the competing interests raised by the question of public access to BWC data. As legislators wrestle with these policy issues, and courts sort through the public records statutes, law enforcement executives and prosecutors will be called on to improvise policies that adequately and fairly balance the competing interests at stake. Best practices: Bueermann, a former Redlands police chief, said there are 25-30 studies of body cameras under way. It indicates how the scientific community feels about this, and its a recognition of how little is known about the impact of these cameras, he said. There are some model policies supported by the National Associations of Chiefs of Police, Bueermann said, but there remain variations in policies as to when officers must turn on or off their cameras. In Beaumont and some other agencies, it is left to officers discretion. Beaumont Commander Greg Fagan said its difficult to expect an officer, in cases where he is under extreme stress, to always remember to flip the switch. Wagner, of the ACLU, is concerned about agencies that are using the cameras not in a pilot program and have not developed a policy such as when the cameras are to be turned on and off. Or when or if video would be released and when officers can review footage before they give a statement. Effect on officers: This is one of the big unknowns, Bueermann said. Do cameras change officers behavior? Does it change job satisfaction or discourage officers from being proactive? Do they believe they are being spied on by their supervisors? Is the video harmful to victims of crimes and others police interact with? Usefulness in court: The videos dont show key events that might take place before the cameras are turned on. Riverside-based defense attorney Virginia Blumenthal said there are also concerns about videos being altered but not in this area. Blumenthal said she expects body camera footage to help resolve cases without need of a trial. Whether there is probable cause for a stop, whether there was resisting arrest, whether there was undue violence of the accused. Many times those issues can be resolved by those dash cameras, and I can see how it can be resolved by the body cameras, she said. Cost: Fagan, the Beaumont commander, said some agencies are rethinking their camera plans in light of high video-storage costs. Once they get into it, (they discover) the costs are so astronomical that they are unable to afford it. Some storage systems place the videos on computers; cheaper systems store videos in the Cloud. Contact the writer: brokos@pressenterprise.com or 951-368-9569 A Corona cemetery was mistakenly classified as a nonprofit, resulting in years of uncollected property taxes, according to a Riverside County Grand Jury report. The 2015-2016 report, released this week, recommended that the city of Corona and the Riverside County Assessors office make changes to ensure that all businesses and groups are paying property taxes and business license fees. The civil grand jury is made up of 19 citizens empaneled by a judge every year to investigate public agencies inner workings and suggest improvements. In response to a complaint, the grand jury investigated the Corona Cemetery Association, better known as Sunnyslope Cemetery, and found that it had been classified by the assessors office as a cemetery special district. Cemetery special districts are exempt from property taxes because they arent operated for profit and are owned and operated by the federal, state or local governments. Sunnyslope has never been a cemetery special district, making it subject to property taxes unless it was granted nonprofit status, according to the report. Sunnyslope is a private nonprofit, but its nonprofit status was suspended by the California Franchise Tax Board in 2007, the grand jury stated. After the grand jury met with the assessors office to discuss its finding, the assessor informed the cemetery that it owes four years of property taxes unless it renews its nonprofit status, the report stated. The amount due was not listed in the report. A representative for Sunnyslope could not be reached for comment Friday, July 1. Assessor Peter Aldana said his office is preparing a formal response to the grand jury, due within 60 days, that will include changes being made to catch such mistakes. Aldana said it appears that the cemetery had been mistakenly classified as government-owned non-taxable property since 1978. His office has since reviewed the status of other cemeteries in the county and found that they were all classified correctly, he said. This was a really unique situation, Aldana said. The grand jury also found that the cemetery was not required by the city to pay for its annual business license renewal and its status had not reviewed by Corona city officials for at least a decade. Grand jury members met with City Manager Darrell Talbert to discuss the citys procedures for issuing business licenses. He told them he did not know if the city had a procedure in place to verify the nonprofit status of businesses, the report stated. Talbert could not be reached for comment. Contact the writer: 951-368-9558 or ighori@pressenterprise.com Perris is reaching out to active-duty military personnel for inclusion in the citys military banner program. The city has 48 light poles along D Street dedicated for banners honoring veterans and those presently serving in the military. The banners are rotated on a regular basis. At a City Council meeting last month, Management Analyst Michelle Ogawa said vets outnumbered active-duty servicemembers by more than three-to-one among those participants whose status could be verified. Michael McDermott, chief operating officer of the Community Economic Development Corporation, said there are two criteria for participants in the program: 1) if the person or an immediate family member is a resident of Perris, or 2) if the person attended high school in Perris, or earned their GED there. The city has 20 applications on file as of this week, said McDermott, and 92 vets and active-duty personnel have been honored in the program to date. For information, call 951-943-6100, ext. 264. Re: Scientists who endeavor to explain - personal collections [ #permalink Scientists who endeavor to explain the way scientific work was done in the laboratories of the seventeenth-century chemists, must address a fundamental inconsistency between the way such experiments were actually performed and the way the seventeenth-century rhetoric describing them A. Scientists who endeavor to explain the way scientific work was done in the laboratories of the seventeenth-century chemists, must address a fundamental inconsistency between the way such experiments were actually performed and the way the seventeenth-century rhetoric describing them - the verbs 'were..performed' is in the past tense, whereas 'describing' is in the present progressive tense; but the actions commanded by both these verbs took place in the past. Hence, both these verbs should have been indicated in the past tense verb form. B. Scientists who endeavor to explain how scientific work was done in the laboratories of the seventeenth-century chemists, and must address the fundamental inconsistency in the way such experiments were actually performed and the way the seventeenth-century rhetoric described them - there is a parallelism error here: Scientists who...., and must address... are not parallel clauses. C. Scientists endeavoring to explain how scientific work was done in the laboratories of the seventeenth-century chemists, and who must address a fundamental inconsistency distorting the actual manner of such experiments from the description by the seventeenth-century rhetoric. - has a parallelism error: Scientists endeavoring...., and who must... are not parallel clauses. D. Scientists endeavoring to explain how scientific work was done in the laboratories of the seventeenth-century chemists, must address a fundamental inconsistency of the actual manner of such experiments and the way the seventeenth-century rhetoric described it - the pronoun ''it'' has several possible antecedents (scientific work, inconsistency, rhetoric) E. Scientists who endeavor to explain how scientific work was done in the laboratories of the seventeenth-century chemists, must address a fundamental inconsistency between how such experiments were actually performed and how the same were described by the seventeenth-century rhetoric - has no error. Hence, (E) is the right answer choice. When a citrus grove was removed from a property on California Street in Loma Linda a few weeks ago, it revealed a large Victorian house. That house, built by the Curtis family in the late 1800s, soon will be moved to Heritage Park in Loma Linda to make way for a new housing development. Our goal is to preserve these really unique buildings, said Konrad Bolowich, Loma Linda assistant city manager. We only have a handful of them, and we want to make sure they get preserved. The house will join two other historic homes in the park, the Curtis-Fisk house formerly on Mission Road and the Cole house. The house will be rehabilitated and reused, Bolowich said. We refurbish them and put them back into some type of practical use in a park setting, he said. Orange County-based Stratus Development bought the property, on California between Orange and Citrus avenues, which was annexed to the city of Loma Linda about a year ago. Stratus plans to build 35 single-family homes. The house was not a registered historical landmark, said Andrew Wood, partner with Stratus Development, but its old and the company agreed to move it to the park, on Mission Road between Mountain View Avenue and California Street. Unfortunately, it has been in a state of disrepair for probably the past 40 years, Wood said. The house belonged to the son of Eli Curtis, who brought his family to Southern California in a covered wagon in the 1860s, local historian Tom Atchley said. The Curtis family bought 60 acres of land next to California Street, he said. The Curtis-Fisk house, which made an appearance in the movie Nixon, was built by the Curtis family and later sold to the Fisk family, Atchley said. Most people did not know the house on California Street was even there, Atchley said; it had been surrounded by citrus trees. When the orange grove was torn out, people went, Oh, my god theres a Victorian house back there, he said. The citrus trees were removed because the grove was past its production prime, Wood said. It was abandoned, Wood said. It was no longer being harvested because the trees were old. The property was part of unincorporated San Bernardino County but was within the citys sphere of influence and designated to be annexed into Loma Linda if development is proposed, Bolowich said. Since well be providing services water, sewer, fire and law enforcement typically when that happens we annex the property, Bolowich said. We also want the property tax to pay for those services. Bolowich said the development has been approved and is in the final stages of planning. Theyre actually really beautiful houses, he said. Stratus has done a couple of projects here in the Redlands, Loma Linda area in the past, Bolowich said. They may not be local but are well-versed in the area. Contact the writer: sandra.emerson@langnews.com Twitter: @TheFactsSandra Each year, Southern California adds the equivalent of a new Pasadena, a new Fullerton, a new Victorville or a new city of Orange to its population. Yet housing experts say the pace of house and apartment construction isnt keeping up with that growth, generating some of the highest rents and home prices in the nation. The solution is to build more homes, homebuilders long have preached. And to do that, the sermon goes, California needs to prune its thicket of regulations to make it easier to build. Now several others are joining the choir, including affordable-housing advocates, a San Francisco think tank, legislative analysts, economists and, most recently, Gov. Jerry Brown. In May, Brown unveiled a plan to fast-track construction of apartments and condos if the developments include affordable housing or homes for lower-income families with restricted rents or prices. RELATED: Why Southern Californians housing budgets are so crunched A database of housing-affordability statistics created by The Associated Press shows Southern Californias two main metropolitan regions Los Angeles/Orange counties and the Inland region consistently rank among the U.S. markets that most stretch household budgets. Among the 40 largest U.S. metro areas, L.A.-O.C. had the highest percentage of price-stressed owner households, according to census figures from 2014, the latest year available. The Inland region had the fourth-highest percentage. The Inland region also ranked second for rent-stressed households, and L.A.-O.C. ranked third. L.A.-O.C. also had the highest percentage of middle-age residents renting instead of owning their homes. Were just not getting enough supply to the marketplace, said Ben Metcalf, Browns appointee to head the state Housing and Community Development Department. What the governor basically said is its bad enough the state needs to take affirmative action. Not everyone is on board with the governors plan, however. Cities, environmentalists and neighborhood activists complain that under the governors plan, residents no longer have a voice in how some developments affect traffic, property values and their quality of life. It sidesteps environmental review, said Dan Carrigg, legislative affairs deputy director for the League of California Cities. If an adjoining property owner has an issue, theres no forum. RELATED: Price, availability are concerns Housing shortage The pace of homebuilding in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties is woefully below the projected need, two sets of data show. The Southern California Association of Governments projected the region will add 433,000 households from 2014 through 2021, or almost 62,000 households a year. In addition, the nonpartisan state Legislative Analysts Office said in a 2015 report the region needs to build roughly 100,000 units annually to keep housing costs in line with national price gains. But the region averaged fewer than 48,000 units a year from 2000 through 2015, according to building permit data from the California Homebuilding Foundation. As a result, low-income households are spending more of their earnings on housing, homeownership rates are lower, Californians are four times more likely to live in crowded conditions and commutes are 10 percent longer, the Legislative Analysts report said. CEQA and Proposition 13 The lack of housing supply can be narrowed to two main culprits, said Chris Thornberg, a former UCLA professor and founder of Beacon Economics: the California Environmental Quality Act and Prop. 13, the voter-backed measure that limits property tax hikes to 2 percent. Earlier this year, Beacon Economics teamed up with Next 10, a San Francisco think tank, producing a series of reports examining the impact of high housing costs on the state. One of the key conclusions: The solution to the housing shortage is streamlining the permitting processes and finding a way to reduce concerns about environmental protection policies. CEQA, which requires environmental impact reports for some projects, is used and abused by interest groups of all shapes and sizes to stop or delay developments, Thornberg said. And its certainly not restricted to environmental groups. Frivolous litigation is the real main problem, added Gordon Nichols, government affairs director for the Inland regions Baldy View Chapter of the Building Industry Association. If you can sue anyone at any time for anything, even though your project does comply with CEQA, youre opening up a can of worms. Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California, disagreed. The people who have wanted to get rid of CEQA have wanted to get rid of it forever. They are using this housing crisis now as a way to pummel CEQA, Phillips said. Im confident that CEQA is not the reason we have problems with housing. The Next 10 report also found that Prop. 13 biases local government against residential development. Local governments tend to favor commercial development because it generates more revenue through sales and hotel taxes with relatively little demand for municipal services, the report says. Housing generates less revenue because Prop. 13 restricts property taxes while new homes boost demand for roads and police and fire protection. Cities dont want housing, particularly workforce housing, Thornberg said. Thornbergs position on Prop.13? Toss it. Toss it. Gone, he said. And voters will support Prop. 13s repeal, he said, if you explain that its shifting revenue away from income and corporate taxes. Thats obviously utter nonsense, said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, a major Prop.13 proponent. Prop. 13 has never been a cause of the housing crisis. The argument presupposes theres a lack of revenue, and California cities have lots of revenue. By right development Experts say the most acute housing need is for low-income households. The nonprofit California Housing Partnership Corp. estimated that Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland region have a shortage of nearly 781,000 affordable housing units. But a state Legislative Analysts report issued in February found that it would cost in the low tens of billions of dollars to fund affordable housing needs entirely with increased public assistance, a solution that likely would be impractical. The solution, the report said, was to encourage additional private housing construction. Considerable evidence suggests that construction of market-rate housing reduces housing costs for low-income households, the report said. Gov. Brown seeks to spur homebuilding by giving developers by right approval to build if they comply with existing land use guidelines and zoning and have 20 percent of the units set aside as affordable housing. If the development is within half a mile of a major transit stop, 10 percent of its units must be set aside as affordable housing. Browns measure, which is pending before the Legislature, set off a firestorm of protest among cities and anti-development forces. We all agree theres a housing shortage, said Tony Cardenas, regional manager for the Orange County chapter of the League of California Cities. But the way the governor is going about it is stripping away local control and eliminating public transparency. Thats problematic. Carrigg, the leagues deputy legislative director, said that Browns plan assumes that all cities have updated their general plans. Conceptually, the argument is, hey, your plans are in place lets move it forward, Carrigg said. In reality, the plans arent as updated as they should be. On the ballot An initiative on the November ballot in Los Angeles called Build Better LA would require developers to provide affordable housing or pay a fee to support affordable housing in exchange for approving zoning or general plan changes. Initiative backer Alan Greenlee, executive director of the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing, said cities should get concessions in exchange for increasing a projects density or size. If were giving more value for land, we should not eliminate (affordable) housing. We should replace those units, Greenlee said. Economists, affordable housing advocates and even some environmentalists say also that more high-density housing is needed in existing urban areas preferably near public transit or within walking distance to jobs, shopping and entertainment. But construction of apartments and affordable housing consistently has been opposed by local residents fearing increased traffic and crime and decreased property values. Developers and some economists call them NIMBYs (not in my backyard), but the residents say theyre fighting to protect their quality of life. More than two-thirds of coastal California metros have policies aimed at limiting growth, the Legislative Analysts Office reported. At least four Southern California cities Costa Mesa, Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Redondo Beach now have slow-growth ballot initiatives in the works. People who have lived in their neighborhoods a number of years dont want to see change, said F. Noel Perry, the founder of Next 10, the San Francisco think tank. But ultimately, the issue isnt whether theres going to be change, Perry and Greenlee argue. The issue is how local governments deal with it. I think people who advocate for keeping the world the same are terribly misguided. The world is not the same, Greenlee said. We can either ignore (change) or we can get ahead of it. Staff writers Neil Nisperos, Kelcie Pegher and Megan Barnes contributed to this report. Contact the writer: 714-796-7734 or jcollins@ocregister.com A San Jacinto area man pleaded not guilty Friday, July 1, to a murder charge in connection with the 2013 shooting death of a man in a neighborhood next to San Jacinto High School. Michael Allan Diaz, 46, made his initial appearance at the Banning Justice Center where Judge Randall D. White scheduled a Tuesday, July 5, hearing. Diaz told the judge he intends to hire a private attorney, according to hearing minutes. He is accused of killing Jason Wasson, 38, of Perris, on Oct. 17, 2013. Wasson died at Hemet Valley Medical Center of his injuries. A woman called police that evening to report that the victim had been shot at her home in the 400 block of El Dorado Street. Diaz, whose middle name is sometimes spelled Allen in sheriffs booking and some court records, also faces an allegation of use of a firearm in commission of the crime. The criminal complaint filed by the Riverside County District Attorneys Office also accuses him of being a previously convicted felon in possession of a shotgun the date of the crime, illegal possession of another shotgun and a .40-caliber handgun, both on Aug. 20, 2014. He was convicted of burglary in July 2000, according to the complaint. Diaz was arrested June 24 in Hemet. Re: Evidence against legalizing marijuana overwhelming [Opinion, June 17]: John Berry reports that the papers Editorial Board recently implied that California teenagers would not be harmed if voters approved legalization of marijuana for recreational use. This assurance came purportedly from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. In November, California voters will have the opportunity to legalize the widespread use of marijuana in California. Not so fast, says Mr. Berry, regional chair of Citizens Against Legalizing Marijuana whose office is in Redlands. He cites the following data to refute the schools claim: In Colorado, cannabis poisoning has increased 148 percent, and 153 percent in children under five years old. Drug-related crimes jumped 12.5 percent in the Denver area, and homicides rose nearly 75 percent. In Washington, 77 percent of substance abuse disciplinary action taken in schools in 2014 involved marijuana. While it is established that the editorial position of the Press-Enterprise is that adults should not be deprived of the right to inject, inhale or ingest any substance they desire into their bodies, I congratulate it for its willingness to present some counter argument such as Mr. Berrys article on its opinion pages and in its letters section. Recently the paper invited readers to respond with their opinions on the subject of marijuana legislation. As yet, I have not seen any published reaction to that invitation. Ken Cable Canyon Lake My thinking has not changed and I am definitely against legalizing marijuana. The recent articles by John Berry lay out the reasons I disagree with making it legal. The Editorial Board implied that marijuana legalization would not harm Californias teens, but Berrys article presents the facts as they are happening in Colorado and Washington as evidence that California should not follow what they did. Betty Addink Riverside The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPECGH) has predicted a three per cent reduction in fuel prices at the pumps for the first pricing window of the month of July, 2016. A press release signed by the Executive Secretary of the chamber, Duncan Amoah, indicated that the reduction is due to expectations that world oil prices would fluctuate and subsequently fall and in the next few days. According to the release, the current pricing window opened with prices on the world market hovering around $49-$50.22/ barrel while the aggregate pricing on the international market, following the imminent exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, has largely been between $46-48/barrel. Though world markets today opened at around $50/barrel, it is believed the next couple of days will also see prices fluctuating lower coupled with stability in exchange rates locally, it added. The chamber further called on fuel dealers to be fair with the public in reducing the prices and insisted that government needed to reduce taxes on petroleum products. Below is the full statement: CHAMBER OF PETROLEUM CONSUMERS GHANA FUEL PRICES TO COME DOWN 3% AT THE PUMPS FOR FIRST WINDOW IN JULY. 30/06/2016 The first pricing window of the month of July is set to commence in a few hours under the national petroleum authority's deregulation pricing policy programme which mandates a bi weekly price adjustments by the various petroleum service providers in the country. It will be recalled that the last window which commenced the 15th of June saw prices maintained across most Bulk Oil Distribution Companies and Oil Marketing Companies whiles others reduced diesel by some 0.64 points. The current pricing window opened with prices on the world market hovering around $49-50.22/ barrel whiles the aggregate pricing on the international market following the shocking exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union has largely been between $46-48/barrel though world markets today opened at around $50/ barrel it is believed the next couple of days will also see prices fluctuating lower coupled with a stability in exchange rates locally. The chamber is by this release calling on all petroleum service providers to as matter of fairness ensure what is due the Ghanaian consumer by way of reductions in pump prices from the start of the next pricing window to give the Ghanaian value for money. We further reiterate our calls on government to also ensure something is done about the levels of taxes on petroleum products in the country as they remain rather high and continue to affect prices at the local pumps. A complete list of the best prices on the market as of today will be published shortly. Signed Duncan Amoah Executive Secretary Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPECGH) Source: Classfmonline 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. Featured Video Braimah Kamoko, alias Bukom Banku, who is alleged to have assaulted one Michael Abbey has finally been arrested by the police and presented to an Accra Magistrates court on Monday, June 27. The prosecutor, Chief Inspector Victor Dosoo, indicated to the court, presided over by Ms Arit Nsemoh, that the AGs advice was ready. Banku, who was brought on accused summons, is yet to be properly charged. He was handed over to the Accra Regional Police while his charge sheet is yet to be prepared. Briefing the court, the investigator for the case, Mr Jerry Sumiah, explained that his inability to carry out the first bench warrant issued for the arrest of Bukom Banku was because he was always accompanied by his followers, making it difficult to arrest him, without resorting to violent tactics. Arrest Mr Sumiah said Banku was arrested around the Lavender Hill close to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, upon a tip off that Banku was driving around that area. Bukom Banku had market women cheering when he walked along the streets to the Adjabeng Court 1 with an entourage on June 27, 2016. Background It will be recalled that the Adjabeng Magistrates Court on December 3, 2015, issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Bukom Banku for allegedly assaulting Abbey, a resident of Akoto Lantey, a suburb of Accra. According to the facts of the case, on October 1, 2015 at 2 a.m., while the complainant was asleep with his wife, Bukom Banku forcibly entered their home with a machete. He pulled the complainant out of the bed and dragged him out. Banku is alleged to have then used the machete to beat the complainant mercilessly. The commotion drew witnesses to the scene who pleaded with Bukom Banku to release the complainant. It was alleged that all the pleading from the witnesses fell on deaf ears, as Banku, who did not seem satisfied with the beatings he meted out to the complainant, further dragged him to a spot at Bukom and forced him to kneel down. He used the machete to assault the victim again. A report was made to the police but efforts to get Banku to report to the police for investigations were not successful. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The former head of Sierra Leone's army, Major-General Nelson Williams, has been kidnapped in Nigeria, reportedly in the northern Kaduna state. Maj-Gen Williams, Sierra Leone's Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, was believed to have been travelling there for a ceremony at a military base. Police say it is unclear where he was kidnapped and taken or if he was travelling in convoy. Kidnapping for ransom is common in some parts of the country. The BBC's Martin Patience in Lagos says the abduction of a senior diplomat will be hugely embarrassing for the Nigerian government. It is understood there has been a demand for a ransom, but it is not yet known who the kidnappers are. Sierra Leone's information minister said the Nigerian authorities had assured him they were doing all they could to rescue Maj-Gen Williams. Source: BBC 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. Featured Video There is an emerging convergence of thought in Ghana that industrialization is the way forward for the country to achieve economic transformation. Transformation is said to occur in the structure of an economy, when there are significant changes in the relative contribution of different sectors to the performance of the economy, often leading to long term growth and stability, a quantum leap in employment, income levels and standard of living of the citizenry. Currently services remain the largest sector of the Ghanaian economy, contributing 54.1% share of GDP, followed by industry with 26.9% and agriculture accounting for 19%. Although there is no standard prescription for the optimal structure required to be maintained for any economy, it is generally acknowledged both from development theory and the experience of the most advanced countries as well as emerging economies, that most developing countries transition from being dependent on agriculture and other primary commodities, to the secondary or industrial sector, before transitioning into the tertiary or services sector. Whilst there are many exceptions to this development trajectory for a variety of reasons, it would seem that in the case of Ghana, we have jumped prematurely from being an economy dependent on agriculture, to become an economy driven by the services sector (of course, fuelled by massive investments in financial and telecommunication services), and have thus skipped the important phase of industrialization. This is evident from the fact that Ghanas agriculture still remains relatively underdeveloped, and its industrial base is also significantly weak and uncompetitive. The obvious solution therefore, would be for Ghana to retrace its steps and focus more intensely on agriculture and in particular industry, alongside developing the services sector. However, countries do not industrialize by chance. Industrialization occurs as a result of careful planning and implementation of targeted policies, programmes and projects. It is against this background, that one should contextualize the recent pronouncement made by the flagbearer of the NPP, that an NPP Government when voted into office will promote the establishment of one factory in every district in Ghana. In my view, this is a positive policy recommendation which will help move Ghana forward. As would be expected, it has generated a spirited debate, with different political parties staking claims of ownership of the concept. For the avoidance of doubt, the one district one factory concept was first introduced by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Presidential Special Initiatives during the past NPP Administration, as part of an integrated programme for Accelerated Growth and Industrial Development. Originally designated as the Rural Enterprises Development Programme, and later rebranded as the District Industrialisation Programme {DIP}, it was designed as a comprehensive programme for rural industrialisation, involving the setting up of at least one medium sized factory in each of the administrative districts of Ghana. While previous attempts at rural economic revitalization have focused mainly on the provision of physical infrastructural facilities, the DIP focuses on the promotion of commercially viable business development initiatives, to generate sustainable and accelerated economic development for rural communities. The Programme is an attempt to deal with severe poverty and underdevelopment among rural communities, through the establishment of an institutional framework that will attract private sector participation in business development activities. It also seeks to promote citizen participation and new community-based public/private partnerships for rural development. There are five strategic objectives for the DIP namely, To create massive employment particularly for the youth in rural and peri-urban communities, and thereby improve income levels and standard of living, as well as reduce rural-urban migration. To add value to the natural resources of each district and exploit the economic potential of each district based on its comparative advantage. To ensure even and spatial spread of industries and thereby stimulate economic activity in different parts of the country. To enhance the production of local substitutes for imported goods and thereby conserve scarce foreign exchange. To promote exports and increase foreign exchange earnings. Programme Implementation Framework The framework for the implementation of the DIP revolves around four key activities: Selection of Projects Identification and profiling of potential priority projects for each District under a District Economic Development Plan that is developed with the active participation and involvement of the District Assembly and other stakeholders in the District. This Plan must flow from the Districts Medium Term Development Plan. Selection of one priority project to be designated as the District Enterprise Project (DEP), with the assistance and collaboration of potential private sector investors. Two or more districts may coordinate their efforts and collaborate to establish one Enterprise Project based on their specific circumstances, including but not limited to the existence of a common natural resource endowment. The selection of a District Enterprise Project could involve the revitalization of an existing government owned or private sponsored project, which is deemed to be potentially viable. Development of a Business Plan for the selected project or business venture. The cost of each project will only be determined on the basis of the Business Plan, but as medium sized projects, it is envisaged that on the average it would range between USD 1million and USD 5million. The equity contributions of both Government and the private sector will be used to leverage additional debt capital Incorporation of a private limited liability company under a public private partnership arrangement to establish and implement the project All projects are to be managed by the private sector with representation of Government, only at the level of the Board. A Technical Support Group (TSG) to be established at the Ministry of Trade and Industry will have overall responsibility for coordinating Government support for the implementation of the programme. Financing of Projects The financing of each project will be based on the shareholding structure agreed between the Government (represented by the District Assembly) and the strategic private sector investors (both domestic and foreign), which may include institutional investors such as banks and other financial institutions. Additional government contribution may be in the form of infrastructural support including dedicated energy supply, tax incentives, subsidies, and facilitation of access to land. Since it is envisaged that a significant number of projects may be agro industrial projects, government will provide specific incentives for the production and supply of quality, competitively priced, agricultural raw materials. This will include support to farmer based organizations in the form of extension services, provision of farm inputs, machinery and equipment, and access to credit. Performance Benchmarking and Reporting Requirements The performance of the DEPs will be tracked to: Evaluate the progress of the implementation of the Business Plan against the key performance indicators (KPIs) and make necessary mid-course corrections to help meet the goals. Identify specific problems for which the TSG at the Ministry of Trade and Industries and other government agencies can provide needed assistance. Measure the impact of the DEP on the socio-economic development of the community. Inter-Sectoral Facilitation To ensure successful implementation of the Programme, an Inter-Sectoral Facilitation Committee will be set up to facilitate and coordinate all the support interventions required from sector Ministries, Departments, and Agencies. District Oversight Committees All participating Districts will be required to set up a District Oversight Committee to oversee, and monitor the implementation of the DEP in the District. This Committee will liaise with the Technical Support Group at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, in the implementation of the programme. Conclusion The DIP is a well-structured programme that has the potential of transforming the industrial landscape of Ghana, and contribute significantly to the socio economic development agenda of the country. It is estimated that over 350,000 direct and indirect jobs would be created from all parts of the country, as a result of the implementation of the programme. At the end of the second term of the past NPP Administration, over 100 Business Plans had already being finalised. This provides a strong basis for the revival of the programme. Other details on programme implementation will be provided in due course. It is worth noting that the DIP is only one component of a comprehensive Five- Year Accelerated Industrial Development Plan to be implemented by the NPP if voted into office in the 2016 General Election. The Plan also includes among other things, the development of selected large scale anchor industries that will serve as growth poles for the Ghanaian economy, such as Iron and Steel, Petrochemical, Integrated Aluminium, Industrial Salt, Vehicle Assembly, and the Manufacturing of Machinery, Equipment and Machine Parts. The argument being advanced that the DIP is too ambitious, first does not take into consideration the fact that the private sector will respond to opportunities to invest, if the Government provides the right policy, regulatory and incentive framework for businesses to thrive; secondly financial institutions will finance projects that demonstrate clear potential for success based on bankable proposals; thirdly, public private partnerships provide an excellent opportunity for government to leverage private sector funding to finance development initiatives. Above all, putting people to work is a development imperative, and industrialisation is one of the most powerful tools to realise this goal. Let us not be haunted by the fear of failure, but rather be inspired by the challenge of success. Source: Alan Kyerematen 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. Featured Video PRESIDENT JOHN Dramani Mahama caused a stir as he stormed Kumasi on Tuesday with his effigy. The president was in the city to commence his Accounting to the People tour, which would last three days. To the surprise of the huge crowd that welcomed him at the Kumasi Airport, the president arrived with his statue. The nicely looking statue of President Mahama was being carried by Appiah Stadium on his head. Suspicion Political opponents of the NDC in the city who believe in superstition read meanings into the presidents statue. They suspected that the effigy was strategically brought to Kumasi to bring good omen to the president, ahead of the 2016 polls. Statue The statue looked just like President Mahama and it had the name of the president boldly written under it. Appiah Stadium, who is an ardent supporter of the president, moved around the city with the heavy effigy. The presidents effigy suddenly became the center of attraction as a sea of people followed Appiah to look at it. Appiah carried the effigy on his head to all the places that the president visited as he was praised by NDC supporters. Some of the charged NDC members were at a point seen taking photos of the presidents effigy. 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. Featured Video Gday, and welcome to PEDESTRIAN.TVs crib sheet for todays Federal Election. Maybe youre standing in line at your local primary school RN waiting to vote hell, maybe youre balancing your phone in one hand, and a dank democracy snag in the other so well try to keep this short and shiny. This is our take on the social issues at the forefront of this election, and how each of the major political players say theyll deal with their fellow humans / underlings. That includes you, so yall best be paying attention. Is this a comprehensive run-down? Nope. Will you leave this article with a bit more nous about the situation? Hopefully. So, heres how Liberal, Labor, the Greens and minor parties stack up on MARRIAGE EQUALITY Pleb has been our insult du jour, but to many, its full incarnation as plebiscite is somehow even more scathing. Essentially, the Coalition are trying to push through a national vote on whether same-sex marriage should be legalised. While that sounds fantastic and the polling numbers suggest itll pass quite easily, there are a few caveats. Mainly, itll be expensive. Reeeal bloody expensive. While its a big issue, many proponents believe since its almost a foregone conclusion, why waste the dosh? Thats the stance Labor and The Greens take on it. The former have pledged to pass same-sex marriage legislation within 100 days of taking office without waiting on a vote, and the latter have labelled the plebiscite a farce and a sham. They also want it to be a simple (and cheap) vote in parliament. Furthermore, Malcolm Turnbull intimated that regardless of the way Australia swings in the plebiscite, it wont even be binding for his pollies. While the bloke himself is pretty erudite and not at all shaken by the prospect of *shock horror* LGBT Australians, the perception is that hes beholden to the right-wing faction of his party. Are you a fan of sexual and reproductive liberties in all of their wonderful forms? Well, scope out The Sex Party. Theyre an accepting bunch, and they sure as hell want everyone to be able to love another without being told theyre naughty for doing so. TL;DR marriage equality is coming, one way or another but some parties seem to be putting multi-million dollar obstructions in the way. IMMIGRATION & OFFSHORE DETENTION Right, if you havent yet had your heart crushed by 2016, this ought to do it for you. Australias offshore detention system has been maligned for yonks, but the two major players are both actually pretty steadfast in keeping it going. The Liberal Party and their wind-up Immigration Minister Peter Dutton have told the nation time and time again that the crushing bureaucratic nightmares of detention on Manus Island and Nauru are preferable over the scourge of people smugglers. A vote for them is a vote for keeping asylum seekers in limbo in the Pacific. Stop the boats, and all that. The thing is, Labor dont differ from that viewpoint much either. Well still be siphoning arrivals into those islands under a Shorten government. Still, they do want an end to temporary protection visas that keep new arrivals in settlement purgatory, and theyve claimed they want to reinstate a 90 day rule to keep the processing system accountable. The Greens have pledged to immediately remove all children and their families from detention centres upon taking office, with the end goal of shutting the Manus Island and Nauru centres permanently. Furthermore, they want to instate a 30-day turnaround on all asylum claims to clear up the backlog and avoid, you know, likely human rights abuses. Utterly petrified of the thought of asylum seekers in general? Well, Rise Up Australia is the party for you. Their policy platform advocates a strict U-turn policy on all oceanic arrivals, along with generally beefing up our border protections. Oh, for the record, they saw it fit to mention 8 out of every 10 refugees and asylum seekers are Muslims in their policy statement. Make of that what you will. HEALTH If youve heard Bill Shorten speak in the last fortnight, youve heard him carp on about the Liberal Partys supposed plan to privatise Medicare. While such a scenario is god-fucking-awful and the thought of turning into America is legitimately terrifying, Malcolm Turnbull has repeatedly reiterated its simply not on the table. So, rest easy on that one. Maybe. Elsewhere, the Libs are promising a funding boost to hospitals, a continuation of the $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund, and an adherence to their no-nonsense No Jab, No Pay childcare policy so our tykes arent running around with bloody measles/polio/typhoid. Also, theyre stoked on medicinal cannabis and the financial benefits it could have. Elsewhere, Labor have labeled health their numero uno priority in this election. Hospitals and funding for primary care services obviously play a large role, but theyre also behind medicinal cannabis for seriously ill patients, theyve signaled their intention to implement programs to cut our nations suicide rate in half in a decade, and theyre looking at drug addiction as a health issue, not a strictly criminal one. Over on the left-hand side, the Greens want to tax sugary drinks, propose putting dying with dignity (read: euthanasia) laws to a conscience vote, and are dead-set on proliferating bulk-billing GPs and more local healthcare centres nationwide. While they dont support the legalisation of currently illicit drugs, they do reckon personal use shouldnt be criminalised. Really though, if health is the be-all and end-all to you, consider the Health Australia Party. Their scientifically-backed approach to the entire field serves as an example to the other parties of what can be achieved when logic and reason are applied to such a vital part of public life. Also, every word in the last two sentences has been a fucking lie, these guys are bananas, and you should definitely not fucking vote for them. Editorial objectivity be damned. Theyre NUTS. THE ARTS You may recall that a slew of Aussie art institutions just had their government funding slashed. Its had a serious impact on the industry, and the scene is still hurtin from the cuts. The Liberal Party dont actually make mention of the arts at all in their list of election policies, so, uh yeah. Jobs and growth. In contrast, Labor have actually come out with a pretty hefty list of pro-arts policies. They advocate nuking the Liberals maligned Catalyst fund the one that was responsible for those cuts. They claim theyll boost arts funding by $20 million a year for the next few years. They want to bolster Sounds Australia and the live music scene. God knows Albo is down for that. The Greens want to reinstate the full amount of funding wrenched from the Australia Council and bolster grants for small to medium-sized arts organisations, but the centrepiece of their policy is a proposed living wage through Centrelink for unemployed artists. Hey, crazier things have happened. INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIA The Liberal Partys main focus this election in the realm of Indigenous Australia is well, jobs and growth. They want to establish a $115 million Indigenous entrepreneurship fund to bolster business opportunities, and theyve signaled theyll commit another $10 million to preserving Indigenous languages. Elsewhere, theyve reminded us all of the nearly $5 billion penciled in for the future, that will go towards the Indigenous Advancement Strategy. Labor have flagged their commitment to Closing the Gap between Indigenous health and that of broader Australia, and theyve pinpointed several preventable illnesses heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease as areas for improvement. Funding remains a lil nebulous, though. Richard Di Natale and his posse support that movement too, and they are also onboard with compensating the members of the Stolen Generation, along with a continued focus on community-controlled housing and health resources in rural Australia. All three of the above parties support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander recognition in the Constitution, but theres still a lot of leeway in how such a change would come about. Another plebiscite, anyone? Photo: Stefan Postles / Lise Maree Williams / Anadolu Agency / Getty. State, local, and federal cops swarmed a Bronx heroin mill on Thursday afternoon, arresting nine people and seizing about a million baggies of heroin and $350,000 cash. "The volume of heroin packaged for sale in the three-bedroom house in the Bronx is staggering," Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said. "Investigators estimate that they seized more than a million user-ready glassines meant to flood our region with this deadly drug." The Harrison Avenue house that prosecutors say operated as a massive heroin mill. (Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor) New York Drug Enforcement Task Force agents and Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor investigators were staking out a row house on Harrison Avenue in University Heights at about 3:30 p.m. when they saw two men leaving the house carrying a gym bag and a plastic bag, according to the authorities. Officers stopped the pair up the street and found about $50,000 in the bags, they say. Cops arrested these men, and stopped a third who came out of the house. Other officers walked up to the back of the house and say that as they were about to knock on the door, several people ran out and tried to climb the fence and escape. Officers detained three of these men. Police claim that the back door of the house was left open and that cops went inside "to secure the residence," and found a large heroin mill operation inside, along with three people hiding in different parts of the house. The authorities say the officers waited for a search warrant before taking inventory of the dope-packaging operation in the basement. Cops seized about a million baggies of heroin weighing about 64 kilos, $300,000 cash, grinders, packaging material, and face masks. Some of the heroin was in suitcases, and some wrapped in packages organized by brand name, listed with stamps on the individual bags announcing names such as Red Bull, Priority Mail, 9 Plus, Speed Limit, and Sweet Dreams, according to an announcement. Prosecutors say one of the people caught up in the sweep was arrested at another Bronx heroin facility less than four months ago and was out on bail. The nine defendants range in age from 19 to 48. Each is facing first and third degree drug possession charges. The first-degree charge carries 15-25 years in prison, and the third-degree charge carries 0-25 years. The suspects are supposed to be arraigned today. Gday, and welcome to PEDESTRIAN.TVs crib sheet for todays Federal Election. Maybe youre standing in line at your local primary school RN waiting to vote hell, maybe youre balancing your phone in one hand, and a dank democracy snag in the other so well try to keep this short and shiny. This is our take on all matters relating to cash money, and how each of the major political players say theyll divvy up our nations dosh. That includes your money, too, so yall best be paying attention. Is this a comprehensive run-down? Nope. Will you leave this article with a bit more nous about the situation? Hopefully. So, heres how Liberal, Labor, the Greens and minor parties stack up on TAX Were hitting you with the heavy stuff first. Still, pretty bloody important to have a handle on, cos nations just arent that great at operating without drawing from citizens coffers. Unlike other elections in living memory, the GST isnt really that big of a deal this time around. Labor has vowed not to touch it, while insisting the Liberals are dying to jack it up. While that possibility was considered in Turnbull & Cos root and branch look at the taxation system, they passed on it in favour of other cost-saving measures. Earlier this year, the Greens labelled the GST regressive, and they announced theyd fight tooth and nail against any increases. Overall, other financial issues seem to be more pressing for everyone involved RN. Issues like business tax. The Liberals, traditionally seen as the serious economically-focussed party, have pledged to cut taxes for small businesses. Theyve also put forth their plan to up the income tax threshold for some high income earners to stop em copping a 37% tax rate. Of course, Duncan Storrars saga on Q&A was sparked by that decision. .@KellyODwyer says its all about balance & were making the right choices to grow the pie. #QandA https://t.co/I8fX9OHlAw ABC Q&A (@QandA) May 9, 2016 Labor have signaled theyll cut small business taxes to similar (but slightly higher) levels than the Liberals, but theyve shitcanned the Coalitions push to eventually bring every companys tax rate down to 25%. The Greens have stated they wont even be looking at cuts to income and company tax this election, instead focusing on reigning in large corporations and their tax avoidance schemes. If you bloody hate the fact the Feds take some of your moolah at all, have a gander at the Liberal Democrats take on the matter. Theyre allergic to tax in the exact same way firebrand Senator David Leyonhjelm isnt allergic to his cats. HOUSING & NEGATIVE GEARING Righto, heres the big one. One of the main sticking points this election for anyone who doesnt yet possess a property empire is the fact negative gearing lends such massive benefits to those who already do. Housing prices are quite high have you noticed? and many believe property investors taking advantage of those tax breaks have locked first-time buyers out of the market. We could hold forth on this one for the rest of this here article, but it plays out like this: The Liberals are reticent to fiddle with negative gearing nor Capital Gains Tax concessions. Its part of their belief that those benefits aid families trying to invest and provide a future for their families. Thats true, to an extent, seeing as the current system in the current housing market is super, super gr8 for investors already involved (if prices keep going up, that is). Labor want to ensure only new properties can be negatively geared, thereby encouraging an increase in housing stock and a decrease in prices as a result. Currently geared properties will be grandfathered, though. They claim reigning those concessions in will yield beaucoup bucks for the Government, too. The Greens go further, asserting theyll remove all negative gearing on non-commercial properties, while also grandfathering currently geared properties. Would going that far shuffle up Australias economy? Yeah. Do the Greens think thats a bad thing? Nah, not necessarily. EDUCATION Hoo boy. Education seemingly plays an integral role in each partys policy position, largely due to the changing nature of the Aussie economy. Basically, the resource boom is dunzo, and manufacturing here hasnt looked too flash for a while; as a result, the nations young guns are being urged to use their noggins to pursue gigs in science, technology, and related fields. The Liberals in particular are dead keen on STEM degrees, and theyre set on pumping cash into areas thatll promote the proliferation of clever young guns. However, theyve also been criticised heeeavily for contemplating the deregulation of university fees. Labor recognise that automation is going to royally fuck up a whole slew of traditional industries, so while theyre on board with keeping up a robust TAFE system, theyre also focussed on tech, ICT and entrepreneurial competency. Theyre promising 20,000 debt-free STEM degrees a year, for five years. Thats a pretty big deal. The Greens havent revealed anything quite as grandiose, instead offering to reduce HELP debts by 20% across the board and to reinstate scholarships for lower-income and otherwise disadvantaged scholars. THE NBN Well, now that were going to be part of a super-educated global economy, it sure would be swell if we had a first-rate internet system in place. Right? Right? Yeah, well. The Liberal Party are still committed to a National Broadband Network comprised of several technologies, including good ol (read: bad ol) copper. Top-notch fibre connections will be installed along a hodge-podge mix of other systems. Its not ideal it may even be rendered obsolete worryingly soon and even former Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull seems to recognise that fact. Bill Shortens gang have asserted theyll do what they can to to honour existing NBN contracts, but promise to eventually install fibre to the premises to an extra 2 million locales over the Coalitions plan many of them in rural areas. The Greens go further. They want to launch an inquiry into moving from proposed fibre to the node systems towards more future-proofed technologies, and are interested in retiring the Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) system Telstra agreed to upgrade at great cost. If you want to get reeeally deep into the internet and all of the goings-on related to it, scope out the Pirate Party. Theyre mostly about updating IP laws, but you better believe those same laws will come into play on our internet system. THE ENVIRONMENT It might seem a bit ridic to lump the environment in with economic issues, but the truth is all the money on Earth wont mean diddly if the Earth itself carks it. Of course, its here that the Greens tend to hold sway. The proliferation of clean, renewable energy sources continues to be a cornerstone of their policy platform. Same goes for their take on global warming, where they offer a slew of initiatives aimed at reducing our environmental impact. Labor want 50% of all energy provided by renewable sources in 15 years time, and they want to introduce another emissions trading scheme to limit how much damage us pesky humans can do to the environment. After the outright denialism of the Abbott government, the Liberals have somewhat softened their approach on the topic of climate change. Despite extensive coral bleaching, theyre presenting the protection of the Great Barrier Reef as a matter of utmost importance. Theyve also promoted their $1 billion Clean Energy Innovation Fund. Theyre still sticking with their awkward $2.5 billion scheme to pay companies not to pollute, though. Photo: ABC / Lisa Maree Williams / Stefan Postles / Getty. For a minute there, the nation indulged itself in some fantasy. What bloody if a former host of Australian Idol, in the space of a few short weeks, could amass the political capital to knock a former Prime Minister from his rusted-on perch on politics? That was the daydream many Australians from all sides of politics had when James Mathison announced his candidacy as an Independent in Tony Abbotts seat of Warringah. While the leadership of the entire nation is tonights main prize, this political microcosm in Sydneys northern beaches somehow represented a chance for Australia to finally do away with Abbotts looming presence. With over half of the votes counted, its pretty clear how the electorate will eventually decide: Tones rides again. Comfortably. As it stands, Abbott has a stonking 51.6% of the first preference vote, effectively stomping all of his would-be competitors. In contrast, Mathison is looking at a respectable-in-context 11.6% of first preferences, coming in just behind Greens and Labor. About one in ten people in Warringah wanted a former Aus Idol host to be their MP instead of former PM. #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/orjhYlXvc9 James Oaten (@james_oaten) July 2, 2016 Of course, it was always going to be a tall order for anyone to unseat Abbott, who has held the seat since 1994. Despite a 10% (!!!) swing against him for well, anyone who has existed in Australia in the past 18 months could tell you why, hes still looking imperious locally. Attempts today to jockey him into addressing Mathisons existence were kinda fruitless. Coming through on his promise to barrack for his ol mate, Osher Gunsberg posted this clip demonstrating either Abbotts a) total obliviousness to the independent or b) a sneaky burn aimed in Mathisons direction: #timesuptony @james_mathison #ausvotes A video posted by Osher Gunsberg (@osher_gunsberg) on Jul 1, 2016 at 4:52pm PDT Despite that, Mathison managed to get a whole slew of people interested in the seat and managed to nab thousands upon thousands of votes away from traditional parties in the process. You know what? Theres still time yet for another Shannon Noll role reversal to play out here. Maybe not today, but goddamn, someday. Source and photo: @Osher_Gunsberg / Instagram / ABC. If youre a fan of the weird tension only a federal election can bring, the electorate of Higgins in inner-south east Melbourne has probably been pinging like mad on your radar for the past fortnight. Well. Days after Twitter launched an investigation into the Victorian Liberal Party over a shady copyright claim in defense of candidate and assistant treasurer Kelly ODwyer, a suspected supporter of her crew has allegedly bitten a worker from the Greens camp. Yeah. Like, with his teeth. A real, adult human apparently aired his political grievances last night by launching his gnashers on a woman who had been pasting up posters in primo spots in the vicinity. A member of the local Greens branch who was accompanying the woman at the time said two men approached us in the car were talking about the heart of Liberaldom, here. I wound down the window and they got aggressive. We had been advised that if we felt threatened by people we should take their photo. My fellow Green took out her phone to do that and the guy reached across me and grabbed her and was trying to pull her phone away. In the altercation, her thumb was bitten, causing soreness and more than likely some grade A confusion. Presumably after questioning themselves if the past few minutes had actually bloody happened, the Greens duo hiked down to Prahran police station to make a statement. They say they found a slew of their posters torn down upon their return. FWIW, a spokesperson from ODwyers camp said the event simply never happened, but Victorian Police are investigating the incident. This bizarro happening makes a lil more sense when you realise the traditionally rusted-on Liberal seat is facing mounting pressure from the Greens. Expect some full-on Luis Suarez action if their man Jason Ball pulls off a miracle victory. Source: Sydney Morning Herald. Photo: Business Insider. Joining the ranks of those who would rather just keep their heads under the covers until the whole damn election season is over: Sophie Monk. Yesterday, Monk interviewed Bill Shorten live on KIIS FM, except the man in question wasnt actually Bill Shorten, but just a random individual in a suit, bearing little to no resemblance to the opposition leader. Sophie and Bill talked about some of the big issues, like housing affordability and same-sex marriage, and she seemed pretty keen on the idea when he suggested that she herself might run for political office. (In all seriousness, Im invited to most parties how do I get in this one? has just become our new mantra). Monk seemed pretty unimpressed when the truth came out, although to be honest, she should maybe consider running in the next election, as shes a more viable candidate than half the people on the NSW Senate ballot paper. Enjoy: Source: Facebook. Photo: KIIS 1065. "She's like, 'I don't need you,'" said Nadya Ali, an analyst for the Parks Department's Forestry, Horticulture, and Natural Resources team, narrating the thoughts of a female horseshoe crab. A smaller male had just given up depositing his sperm, and unlatched. As the lady horseshoe crab inched off of the sandy beach at Calvert Vaux Park in Gravesend, back into the Coney Island Creek, Ali turned to the male. "You're lucky," she said. "You shouldn't be going away, mister." Ali and I were standing in leaky wader boots, ankle-deep in the creek at 10:00 p.m. on a recent Wednesday. Nearby, on the path from the parking lot, two men were sharing a joint. All around us in the shallows, illuminated by our headlamps and the occasional bulb flash, dozens of brown, barnacled horseshoe crabssix inch-wide males outnumbering the larger nine inch-wide femaleswere swimming in circles, clumped together like Koi in an artificial pond. The neon-flashing Parachute Jump at Coney Island peeked over some trees to the south. "Hey little guy," said Ellen Hartig, the wetlands project manager, as she bent over to measure the width of one of the horseshoe crab's shells. She might as well have been talking to a puppy. Horseshoe crabs don't stinga common misconception. Instead their long spiny tails work as rudders, and as leverage to right themselves when they flip upside down. "Theyre very awkward in the shallow water," Hartig said, watching a male horseshoe crab struggle. "He's using a lot of energy to flip over." "They're also very awkward on the beach," she added. "If they get flipped and they can't turn over, they dry out. And then the gulls go after them. So it's really a very vulnerable time." Vulnerable, but necessary. Females lay hundreds of eggs at a time at this beach, which take two weeks to mature. Eggs that aren't eaten by shore birds hatch as tiny, soft horseshoe crabs with tiny, soft shells and are carried back out to sea by the tide. The underside of a male horseshoe crab (Scott Heins / Gothamist) During full and new moons in May and June, when tides are at their highest, Parks naturalists gather at Calvert Vauxoften with small groups of volunteersto count the horseshoe crabs on the slip of sandy beach and bore tiny holes into their carapaces (the shells that they are born with) in order to tag them. With the tags, scientists can monitor mortality rates, and migration patterns from beach to beach. "It's like an ear piercing," Hartig says. Matt Sclafani is a marine educator at the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Suffolk County, which has been in charge of the New York Horseshoe Crab Monitoring Network since 2005. He explains that until the early 2000s, horseshoe crabs were an unregulated species. Scientists from Maryland all the way up to Cape Cod in Massachusetts started to worry when they noticed a population dip among shore birds who eat horseshoe crab eggs to survive, like the Red Knot. Small and rust-collored, Red Knots have one of the longest yearly migrations of any bird species in the worldfrom the Arctic all the way to Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago off of the southern tip of South America. "The birds that depend [on the horseshoe crabs] are threatened," Hartig added. "There's just been so much habitat destruction that there's real concern that their numbers are down. They need the horseshoe crab eggs to bulk up." Humans rely on horseshoe crabs, too: horseshoe crab blood clots effectively around bacteria that can harm people, so pharmaceutical companies harvest it to conduct FDA test on new drugs, prosthetics and pacemakers. "We actually, as humans, get a real benefit from the horseshoe crabs," said Kim McKown of the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation in a recent mini-documentary about the horseshoe crab count. "If we were to let the species go extinct right now, it would really be a problem for us." Ali counts horseshoe crabs in Calvert Vaux Park (Scott Heins / Gothamist). On a good night at Calvert Vaux, hundreds of horseshoe crabs congregateon June 16th, the busiest night this season, Parks counted almost 400 in one go. (For comparison, peak spawn in the Delaware Bay runs into the thousands; the night I went to Calvert Vaux, we counted 77.) In addition to Coney Island Creek, Cornell monitors horseshoe crabs on the north and south shores of Long Island, and in Jamaica Bay. In Gravesend, Hartig said, the horseshoe crab population seems to be holding relatively steady. Fishermen harvest them to use as eel bait, but New York State sets quotas for how many can be harvested each season. Poaching hasn't been an issue. The biggest threat to New York City horseshoe crabs is the proliferation of bulkheadsespecially since Hurricane Sandy. Before the Parks department restored Calvert Vaux in 2012, horseshoe crabs weren't able to spawn there. "They would just hit the wall and swim around and that was it," Hartig recalled. City-wide, Calvert Vaux is the only sandy slip that's been restored specifically as a spawning ground for horseshoe crabs. "The things people do to protect their property are affecting the intertidal zone," Sclafani said. "If the crabs can't lay on the beach, they can't survive." But horseshoe crabs are notoriously resilient. Coney Island Creek is connected to a sewer overflow pipe that releases road water and, when it rains, sewage. The night we visited, one horseshoe crab swam along with a piece of toilet paper trailing from his shell. "They have been around on earth for 450 million years," Sclafani said. "They've survived many mass extinctions." Horseshoe crab spawning season is at its tail end, but the Parks Department will be back next year, during full and new moons in May and June. You can learn more about New York's horseshoe crab monitoring project here. National flag carrier Philippine Airlines forged a new partnership with Hawaiian Airlines to enable passengers travelling from the Philippines to connect to four new destinations in Hawaii. The partnership makes Hawaiian Airlines the first US code-share partner for Philippine Airlines.Under the new agreement, passengers will be able to connect on Philippine Airlines' five weekly flights from Manila to Honolulu to four other Hawaiian destinations including Kona Hilo , and Lihue "Philippine Airlines is proud to forge a code-share partnership with Hawaiian Airlines from Honolulu to the inter-island points of Lihue, Hilo, Kona, and Maui," said Philippine Airlines President Jaime Bautista. "From these points, passengers can visit other neighbouring island destinations including Kauai and Hawaii Island."The new agreement enables passengers to reserve a single-ticket for travel from the Philippines to any of the four new Hawaiian destinations. Baggage will be checked through in Manila to their final destination. In addition, any passengers on the inter-island code share flights will also be able to connect in Honolulu to Philippine Airlines' flights to Manila and to any of PAL's thirty domestic destinations in the Philippines.As we widen our route network, we aim to not only provide point to point travel, but to create passenger traffic beyond the main gateways," added Bautista. "All these are geared towards providing passenger convenience and satisfaction." National flag carrier Philippine Airlines has pushed ahead with its expansion plans at London's Heathrow Airport, increasing its non-stop services from four weekly flights to daily flights in spite of the outcome of the recent Brexit vote, which is expected to impact the carrier negatively. Copyright Photo: Angelo Agcamaran/PPSG According to PAL President Jaime Bautista, the decision to increase the service to daily flights was driven by the need to improve the carrier's product to enhance competitiveness against other carriers. The reason for adding flights, actually, we are not making money in London yet. But for us to be able to compete with the other carriers, we have to improve our product," said Bautista. "The four times a week is not really a good product." Philippine Airlines currently holds less than 30% market share of the traffic flying between London and Manila. Bautista remains optimistic that offering daily flights will entice passengers currently flying with other carriers to use Philippine Airlines instead. Meanwhile, the devaluation of the British pound after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union is expected to decrease the carrier's revenues on flights to London this year. Philippine Airlines estimates a loss of $4 million in revenues as a result of the currency fluctuation. "An eight percent devaluation of the British pound sterling would mean an eight percent reduction in our revenue in London because we are expecting to generate around $50 million from our UK operations this year," said Bautista. "With an eight percent devaluation, it's more or less a $4 million reduction in revenue for our London operations." Uncertainty in the United Kingdom led to the drop of the British pound as British nationals are forecasted to reconsider travelling overseas as a result of a weaker currency and less purchasing power. However, the drop in currency may encourage more Filipinos to travel to the United Kingdom as Britain becomes more affordable. Bautista added that it is too early to tell whether the on-going effects of Brexit would influence the national flag carrier's expansion plans in Europe. Philippine Airlines is still studying the possibility of launching non-stop flights to Amsterdam, Hamburg, Rome, and Paris as it accepts delivery of Airbus A350 aircraft in 2018. Bautista remains optimistic that the situation will stabilise. "I think this will normalize," Bautista added. In spite of losses expected on its only European route, Philippine Airlines expects to continue its profitability in 2016 after seeing impressive performance on new flights launched this year. In 2016, Philippine Airlines launched new service to Jeddah, Kuwait, Doha, Saipan, and new non-stop service from Los Angeles to Cebu. Most recently, the carrier launched new flights between Manila, Taipei, and Osaka. Philippine Airlines recently reported a net income of $132.73 million in 2015, which is 35 times higher than the $3.80 million achieved in 2014. As air passenger traffic continues to rise in country, Philippine Airlines believes that addressing congestion in the nation's airports needs to be the top priority of the Duterte administration. According to Philippine Airlines President Jaime Bautista, the next Philippine government needs to rehabilitate the nation's international airports and build aviation-related infrastructure. Currently, the Philippines has sixteen international airports, excluding domestic gateways. However, most of these are congested, stated Bautista. "For example, our Ninoy Aquino International Airport is congested," said Bautista. "We can only have 40 movements per hour. Sometimes, movements per hour exceed 40 so we can't grow the market. We hope we can have better airports and more aviation-related infrastructure." The Philippine Airlines Chief Executive added that cramped airports prevent local airlines from tapping into rising demand for flights. In addition, it may undermine the success of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Open Skies agreement. The agreement enables broader flight options within the region. Bautista is scheduled to meet President Duterte after he takes his oath at the end of June. "I have met Duterte, but we are not that close," said Bautista. "Improving airports will enable us to continue growing. The ASEAN Open Skies will be implemented and for us to enjoy its benefits, we should have the facilities that we need." When Bautista meets Duterte, he intends to highlight the need to improve Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, Davao Airport, and Clark Airport. The country's primary international gateway in Manila is plagued by capacity issues, where it currently serves more than 34 million passengers annually although it was only designed to handle 28 million. "We are taking delivery of more planes," said Bautista. "If there is no support infrastructure, our planes will just depart, our investments will be wasted. The government should develop further Clark Airport. It is ready, but it lacks infrastructure. The fueling facility should be improved. There should also be more support industries, like airline catering, ground handling, as well as maintenance and engineering." The Philippine Airlines Chief added that Davao also needs to be improved as PAL is considering developing it into a regional hub. "ASEAN Open Skies allows us to fly Davao-Singapore, Davao-Kuala Lumpur, Davao-Manado, Davao-Bali, Davao-Australia, Davao-Palau, and other small cities," said Bautista. "Davao in fact is one of our most profitable local destinations. The problem is, it is very difficult to add more flights." Cops shot and killed a pit bull after it bit a 9-year-old girl and several others in East Harlem yesterday. The incident occurred at around 5:45 p.m. yesterday at the Jefferson Houses on East 115th Street. The dog was apparently offleash, and latched onto the little girl. Her mother and a Good Samaritan attempted to help her, but were also bitten. "The dog was attacking him. The guy was trying to stop it from biting the little girl, but the little girl was getting attacked for a while, a witness told CBS 2 who witnessed the incident said. It was around eight minutes of screaming." Two officers showed up, one of whom fired at the dog and killed it. The girl and her mother suffered serious injuries and were taken to Harlem Hospital Center, but both are expected to survive. An officer was also treated at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center after suffering a minor bite wound. The little girl's grandmother witnessed the attack: "The grandma was on the floor screaming because she thought the dog killed her granddaughter, a neighbor told the Daily News. "It bit her on her ribs, her arms. It was bad. It was really bad. I hope the little girl is OK." Cops have not yet located the dog's owner. Earlier on Friday, at around 1:30 p.m. a 3-year-old girl was attacked by a pit bull at the Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst. She received 17 stitches and was vaccinated for rabies. Police say the dog belonged to a local panhandler, who left the scene with the animal after the attack. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print It has become apparent that no matter how many investigations of 2012s Benghazi attack including their own reveal no wrong doing by the Obama administration, or by Hillary Clinton personally, Republicans are going to insist on blaming them. Even though the Pentagon has already questioned whether the committees final report is based on fact, and even though the investigation has clearly revealed no new facts, even though Gowdy has previously admitted on Fox News that troops could not have gotten to Benghazi in time, House Republicans will not cease pretending they are actually doing something. Worse, that they are doing it for the American people. And now, in time for the Fourth of July, in the name of military personnel whom through their greed and incompetence, they let die by cutting security funding for American embassies. This time the chosen Republican conspirators are Select Committee on Benghazi Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC), Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), and Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN), and you can watch here as they pretend the select committees final report contains new information. Today, as we prepare to celebrate the Fourth of July, we can take pride in the fact that brave men and women, through their own ingenuity and determination, were able to achieve independence for our great nation. This same essential American spirit was on full display in Libya on the night of September 11, 2012, where brave men and womenserving at one of our highest threat foreign outposts in one of Americas least secure diplomatic facilitieshad to rely on their own ingenuity and determination and one another to survive. The Select Committee on Benghazi sought from the beginning to tell their story and provide the final, definitive accounting of that fateful night for their families and the American people. It is because of this investigation, we now know no American forces were ever going to Benghazi the night of the attacks. And the small group from Tripoli that did go, did so on their own initiative. Because of this investigation, we now know the full story of all the security agents and personnel who made it from Tripoli to Benghaziwho faced assaults, gunfights, ambushes, and ultimately a fatal mortar attack that left two heroic rescuers dead. And now we know were it not for the extraordinary efforts of a CIA security contractor, we would have lost two more Americans that night. The real story of Benghazi is truly a tale of two cities. In Benghazi, where our people were valiantly fighting for their lives, and Washington, DC, where administration officials sat on a teleconference and talked for two hours. Meanwhile, half a world away in Europe, forces that were ready to respond were forced to wait on the transport and to change into and out of uniform four times. The end result of this previously unknown teleconference was a list of action items, half of which had to do with an online video. It is sad and telling that instead of a singular focus on rescuing our people in harms way, key decision-makers in the administration were worried about a video and the appearance that our rescuers could be perceived as invaders because of the clothes they were wearing. By focusing with dogged determination on uncovering all relevant documents and talking to new eyewitnesses, the Select Committee is now able to tell you, the American people, about these important new facts that fundamentally change what we know about Benghazi. Because we want to do everything possible to ensure this never happens againand if it does, that we are better prepared to respond, the majority makes a series of recommendations for the Pentagon, State Department, intelligence community, and Congress. On behalf of a grateful nation, we honor the service and sacrifice made by Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, and Tyrone Woods, and all those who served in Benghazi. On this Independence Day weekend, we recognize them as true American heroes and patriots. And we thank them, and we thank their loved ones. May God bless our citizens and may God bless the United States of America. The nest of lies that is the select committee has already been revealed by Democrats on the committee in their own 339-page report. This weeks Republican address is simply an attempt to justify the millions of dollars wasted on an invented scandal in order to damage both the Obama administration and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Gowdy claimed, The seven of us believed that there were more questions to ask, that there were more answers to acquire, more witnesses to interview, more documents to access, all without managing to reveal that Republicans cut embassy security funding by $300 million. Youd think in 800 pages he could have found room for that little tidbit. Or that Clinton had warned them they were putting Americans at risk. That didnt make it into the report either. All this shows that no matter what they claim, Republicans on the committee are more interested in subverting than uncovering the truth about Benghazi. The fact is, Republican failures led to the death of four Americans on September 11, 2012. Pretending to act in the name of patriotism, House Republicans have instead used the Fourth of July to celebrate a partisan witch-hunt, thus dishonoring themselves and all the men and women in uniform they pretend to praise. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print In his most repulsive tweet yet, Donald Trump implied that Hillary Clintons fundraising comes from corrupt Jews. Trump tweeted: Crooked Hillary Makes History! pic.twitter.com/jaqDG7M6dS Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2016 This wasnt a tweet that the candidate retweeted from someone else, unlike much of the racist material that the candidate has endorsed on his Twitter account. The Trump campaign designed a graphic highlighting Hillary Clintons fundraising that placed a Star of David beside her. It is evident that the Trump campaign was implying that Clinton is raising her money from Jews. Trump is flat out appealing to bigots and racists. His campaign is not trying to hide whose support they are courting. Trump is going for the bigot vote. The bigots are his base. The media can call it populism, or nationalism, but what Trump is selling is bigotry. His vision is that American was better when white people were solely in power. Trump wants to ban Muslims, deport Mexicans, and use racial profiling. It is time for the press to be honest. Donald Trump is the reason why there has been an increase in anti-Semitic attacks on journalists on the Internet. Trump is the reason why the KKK feels inspired and thinks that American politics are turning in their direction. With the Clinton/Star of David tweet, Trump is upping the ante on his bigotry, which is why its time for the American people to stand together and loudly reject Donald Trump. Update: After this story was published, due to backlash the Trump campaign removed the Star of David and tweeted: Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print * The following is an opinion column by R Muse * Its almost certain that most Americans have heard, or at least comprehend the meaning of, the idiom, or saying, never look a gift horse in the mouth. Regardless that the original meaning was when someone gives you a valuable item like a horse, it would be bad form to look in its mouth to inspect its teeth, the meaning is fairly simple to understand: just be grateful that someone was generous enough to freely hand over a valuable item. Imagine that a wealthy individual walked up and offered to give an American a brand spanking new Mercedes without condition and a wad of cash for upkeep and maintenance. Most Americans would be thrilled. Now imagine a punk-ass Republican trying to prohibit the wealthy individual from transferring ownership of that Mercedes, and the wad of cash, all because that Republican didnt like the idea of any American owning a Mercedes. That scenario absolutely defies description. One cannot even call the storys Republican an ingrate because they were attempting to reject a gift intended for someone else. Gratitude, like generosity, is a foreign concept for Republicans. Their big thing is taking everything from Americans. Now, House Republicans led by Utah Mormon and greedy Republican Rob Bishop are waging a fierce battle to reject a monumental gift to the American people and obstruct any plan for a national monument or park, simply because it violates the Koch and Mormon law against public land owned by the U.S. government and by extension the American people. The National Park Service (NPS) is set to receive a donation of 87,500 acres of pristine land in the Maine Woods from a non-profit organization started by the Quimby family (founders of Burts Bees) which will be designated as a new national monument and eventually, a new national park. Now, if the idea of handing over, free and clear, nearly 90 thousand acres to the American people is too generous offends greedy Republicans, they must be insane over the Quimby family also giving $40 million dollars to care for, develop, and maintain the national monument and national park. Republicans have demonstrated that they have no comprehension of what it means for a wealthy American to want to give to, instead of take from, the American people. Instead of celebrating and being grateful about the Quimby familys overwhelming largesse, they are looking a gift horse in the mouth and shoving a hand grenade down the poor creatures gullet. The Mormon Republicans way of shoving a grenade down the gift horses gullet is blocking the transfer of the nearly 90-thousand acre gift as a national monument, block its designation as a national monument, and stop all the job creating tourism and commerce that goes along with it. This is all despite overwhelming public support to accept the gift and designate the land as a national monument and park. Utah Mormon Rob Bishop is chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources and was joined by vicious Maine Governor Paul LePage to reject transfer of the 87,500 acre land gift and obstruct its designation as a national monument. Republicans under Koch supervision insist that all public land be handed over to corporate privatization to be mined, logged or drilled for profits, not for the American peoples benefit. If the Quimby family wants to hand over the land to the Koch brothers to mine, log and drill for oil, Mormon Bishop, LePage, and House Republicans would probably name a post office after them. Instead, Maine Governor LePage lashed out at the gift-giving Quimby family like the ingrate Republican he has proven over and over to be. According to Mormon, Republican and Koch beliefs, the national parks, wilderness areas, national monuments and all public land belongs to corporations. Its why Bishop butting in to Maines business to reject a very substantial gift to the people reveals that he is nothing but a Koch puppet and a typically anti-government Mormon Republican. Bishop complains that a local Republican, some Maine malcontent, is right that if the land is a designated as national monument, then mining, logging and oil drilling corporations cannot ruin it and environmental laws will protect it from being despoiled and denuded. The land is protected now because it is privately held by the Quimby family non-profit, so there will be no change after the transfer and that is what Republicans cannot comport; they want change that entails corporate control and abolition of environmental protections. Rep. Bishops hatred that the American people enjoy public lands is, or should be, legendary. Bishop is closely aligned with those other Mormons, the Cliven Bundy Republicans, sitting in jail who contend the public by way of the government is forbidden from owning or using public land. Not only does the Utah Mormon go apoplectic over America owning public land, hes made it his raison detre to eliminate all of Americas public lands including the entirety of the National Parks system, national monuments, national forests, and wildlife refuges and any other publicly-held land turned over to private enterprise to rape and pillage at their pleasure. This is all in spite of overwhelmingly broad bipartisan public support for National, state and regional parks as well as protected wilderness areas and wildlife sanctuaries. Bishop is also working diligently to eliminate private property owners ability to willingly protect their land from corporate encroachment. This Mormon congressman intends to make it virtually impossible for the National Park Service or other U.S. land management agencies to purchase private lands within or next to existing public lands from private owners who want to sell their land. Now, if they would just offer to give it freely to the Koch brothers or the Mormon Church, then Bishop has no issue with what private property owners do, so long as they do what he, his Church and the Koch brothers want. What Rob Bishop wants more than anything is to eliminate the 100-plus year old Antiquities Act that allows presidents to designate public land as national parks, monuments, wilderness areas or wildlife sanctuaries. The Act has been used by no less than 16 presidents going back to Republican Theodore Roosevelt and it is the only reason why America has any national parks or protected areas. Remember, Bishops entire agenda is founded on, besides completely eliminating any publicly-held land and transferring it to corporate ownership, abolishing the wildly popular bipartisan Land & Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) which is hailed as Americas most successful parks program. Bishop also supports abolishing private property owners rights to undermine conservation efforts, and he regularly rejects the will of local inhabitants to put a permanent end to locally-controlled environmental and conservation efforts. Perhaps some Republicans are so stunned that a wealthy American freely handed over nearly 90-thousand acres and $40 million as a gift to the American people that whatever remaining normal persons cognitive process completely failed; no sane politician would publicly try to stop the transfer of a monumental gift to the American people. However, the simple fact that a Utah Mormon with no interest whatsoever in what happens in Maine is on a crusade to stop the land transfer and obstruct President Obama from doing what 16 other presidents have done over the past 100-plus years reveals that the Koch brothers and Utah Mormons are really the driving force in trying to steal a gift designated for all Americans. If anyone needed a reminder that there are no bounds Republicans recognize in their assault on the people, this latest atrocity should disabuse them of any confusion. Republicans are basically bad people on their best day and few people would dispute that contention. But this bad Republican Mormon, Rob Bishop, like the Cliven Bundy gang that took up arms against the government over its right to own land, needs to spend some serious time in slam where thieves belong. He is, effectively, attempting to rob the American people of a gift before it has been officially handed to the people and even though Mormonism is a strange religion, its likely that stealing, no matter when, what, or where is strictly forbidden. However, lying is forbidden and yet if it is done for the lord it is perfectly acceptable and holy, meaning robbery for the Kochs may be a religiously acceptable act. Image: Credo NEW YORK Some small business owners already working to make their companies more welcoming to LGBT employees say the massacre at a gay dance club in Orlando gives them an impetus to make more changes. "I've committed to myself and within our executive team to redouble our efforts to create a safer, kinder, more accepting workplace," says Frank Maylett, CEO of RizePoint, a company that makes software to help restaurant owners, hotel operators and retailers manage multiple locations. RizePoint already had taken steps such as providing health and other benefits to employees' domestic partners and removing gender references in its handbook so that "paternity" and "maternity" leaves now are "parental" leave. And when an employee last year planned to have sex reassignment surgery, managers including the then-CEO met with the staffer and offered support. Since the attacks, Salt Lake City-based RizePoint has reviewed its handbook and policies. "We've had numerous executive, company and personal opportunities to discuss and reinforce our company standards," Maylett says. ADVERTISEMENT At the Pulse nightclub in Orlando on June 12, a man with a semi-automatic weapon went on a bloody rampage. It was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, with 49 people killed and more than 50 wounded. Officials have said a goal of the investigation is determining why the gunman, an American who identified himself as an Islamic soldier, targeted the gay community. The attack has increased Tim Andrews' awareness of the need to provide acceptance and safety for all employees. "Everyone's thinking about it. People want to be in an environment where they really want to work," says Andrews, CEO of the Advertising Specialty Institute, which runs a trade group for companies in the promotional products industry. The Trevose, Pa.-based company recently wrote a statement of its values that includes the fact it embraces employees' diverse sexual orientations. "We just had hired a number of new people and asked, 'How do we make sure that everyone who's working here knows what we define as the right thing?'" Andrews says. Many business owners who want their companies to be inclusive for employees and customers of any nationality, race, religion or gender have become more mindful in recent years about explicitly being more welcoming to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and to those whose gender isn't male or female. Changes to laws and policies are part of that; for example, the end to the military's "don't ask, don't tell" standard and the growing acceptance of same-sex marriage that led to last year's Supreme Court ruling that gay people have the right to marry. The current debate over laws requiring people to use public restrooms that correspond to their sex at birth have provided more food for thought. The LGBT community also has made companies more aware, says Rob Wilson, CEO of Westmont, Ill.-based human resources provider Employco. "People are being more open about their sexuality," Wilson says. "Ten years ago, they might not have been." ADVERTISEMENT Companies also want LGBT job candidates to know they're welcome, says Midge Seltzer, president of Engage PEO, a human resources provider based in Hollywood, Fla. "Everyone's competing for the top talent. By adopting these policies, you're going to look like a more progressive company," Seltzer says. Inclusiveness also contributes to a more productive work atmosphere, she says. At the Chicago-based human resources software company Jellyvision, employees created a banner with messages of support for Orlando. The company's policy of acceptance made them feel it was OK to collaborate on the project, says Mary Beth Wynn, head of human resources. Jellyvision managers began thinking about inclusivity last year when they hired a transgender employee. They realized the frequently asked questions for prospective employees on the company's website didn't indicate that managers would be responsive to issues such as the fact some people don't use pronouns like "he" or "she" and instead use "they" or other wording. "It (the website) wasn't signaling how open and welcoming we are," Wynn says. The site was changed to include information addressing possible concerns of transgender job candidates. Another question was how or whether to communicate to Jellyvision staffers the way their new colleague wanted to be addressed. The company decided managers should ask new employees how they want it handled. INGUARD, an insurance broker and adviser in Wabash, Ind., is again looking at its policies following the Orlando shooting, says owner Parker Beauchamp. "We've got to be constantly thinking about how we can evolve and be more inclusive," Beauchamp says. ADVERTISEMENT The company revises its anti-discrimination policy each year and asks employees to sign a form stating they have read and understood its contents, Beauchamp says. He also has made changes at the company's building. Communal restrooms for males and females were made unisex during renovations two years ago. There also are private unisex restrooms. "People should be allowed to have a choice," Beauchamp says. Jobless rate Not adjusted, jobless rate in May in metropolitan areas in Minnesota: Duluth: 5.1 percent Mankato: 2.7 Minneapolis-St. Paul: 3.1 ADVERTISEMENT Rochester: 2.7 St. Cloud: 3.3 Minnesota: 3.3 United States: 4.5 Initial claims for unemployment insurance In 11-county southeast Minnesota region May 2016: 1,174 April 2016: 906 ADVERTISEMENT March 2016: 1,070 February 2016: 1,394 January 2016: 1,870 December 2015: 2,717 November 2015: 2,333 October 2015: 958 September 2015: 793 August 2015: 802 ADVERTISEMENT July 2015: 1,161 June 2015: 1,334 May 2015: 1,009 April 2015: 1,034 March 2015: 1,336 February 2015: 1,485 January 2015: 1,939 December 2014: 3,203 November 2014: 2,418 October 2014: 1,174 September 2014: 995 August 2014: 817 July 2014: 1,093 June 2014: 1,354 May 2014: 1,216 April 2014: 1,405 March 2014: 1,599 February 2014: 1,668 January 2014: 2,183 December 2013: 3,466 November 2013: 2,178 October 2013: 1,498 September 2013: 1,089 August 2013: 1,078 July 2013: 1,415 June 2013: 1,358 May 2013: 1,686 April 2013: 1,538 March 2013: 1,454 February 2013: 1,478 January 2013: 2,471 December 2012: 2,880 November 2012: 2,458 October 2012: 1,648 September 2012: 1,144 August 2012: 1,199 July 2012: 1,569 June 2012: 1,525 May 2012: 1,597 April 2012: 1,419 March 2012: 1,706 February 2012: 1,904 January 2012: 2,815 December 2011: 3,013 November 2011: 2,734 October 2011: 1,673 September 2011: 1,300 August 2011: 1,632 July 2011: 2,470 June 2011: 2,060 May 2011: 1,686 April 2011: 1,771 March 2011: 2,128 February 2011: 2,064 January 2011: 3,075 December 2010: 3,371 November 2010: 3,336 October 2010: 2,256 September 2010: 1,842 August 2010: 1,725 July 2010: 1,795 June 2010: 2,041 May 2010: 1,418 April 2010: 1,889 March 2010: 2,524 February 2010: 2,633 January 2010: 3,276 December 2009: 4,780 November 2009: 3,531 October 2009: 2,679 September 2009: 2,199 August 2009: 2,337 July 2009: 2,789 Source: Minnesota DEED Area employment Jobs in May and change from a year ago for Rochester metropolitan area (Olmsted, Dodge and Wabasha counties): Total Nonfarm, 118,121, 1.5% Total Private, 105,551, 1.4% Goods-Producing excl. Ag., 15,182, -0.5% Mining, Logging and Construction, 4,674, 3.7% Manufacturing, 10,508, -2.3% Trade, Transportation & Utilities, 18,385, 2.1% Wholesale Trade, 2,996, 5.7% Retail Trade, 12,637, 3% Transportation and Warehousing, 2,752, -5.6% Information, 2,015, 1.1% Financial Activities, 2,682, -0.4% Professional and Business Services, 5,877, -1.8% Educational and Health, 47,586, 4.2% Leisure and Hospitality, 10,117, -4.7% Government, 12,570, 1.9% Federal Government, 953, -1.9% State Government, 1,559, 4.7% Local Government, 10,058, 1.8% Source: Minnesota DEED Monthly housing data Residential sales in southeastern Minnesota in April, with change from a year ago. New listings: 778, up 0.4 percent Pending sales: 682, down 0.3 percent Sales: 663, down 6.5 percent Sales, year to date: 2,127, down 4.2 percent Median sales price: $165,500, up 4.1 percent Average days on market before sold: 69, down 14.8 percent Average days on market, year to date: 82, down 15.5 percent Source: Southeast Minnesota Association of Realtors Single-family home construction Permits issued in Rochester May 2016: 52 April 2016: 33 March 2016: 31 February 2016: 15 January 2016: 25 December 2015: 42 November 2015: 23 October 2015: 49 September 2015: 27 August 2015: 33 July 2015: 29 June 2015: 48 May 2015: 19 April 2015: 22 March 2015: 30 February 2015: 19 January 2015: 21 December 2014: 27 November 2014: 18 October 2014: 35 September 2014: 23 August 2014: 60 July 2014: 38 June 2014: 41 May 2014: 35 April 2014: 25 March 2014: 28 February 2014: 14 January 2014: 11 December 2013: 22 November 2013: 26 October 2013: 34 September 2013: 23 August 2013: 21 July 2013: 39 June 2013: 33 May 2013: 28 April 2013: 39 March 2013: 29 February 2013: 15 January 2013: 19 December 2012: 14 November 2012: 22 October 2012: 23 September 2012: 22 August 2012: 38 July 2012: 39 June 2012: 32 May 2012: 22 April 2012: 29 March 2012: 32 February 2012: 20 January 2012: 6 December 2011: 16 November 2011: 23 October 2011: 16 September 2011: 19 August 2011: 18 July 2011: 8 June 2011: 26 May 2011: 14 April 2011: 19 March 2011: 24 February 2011: 8 January 2011: 3 December 2010: 15 November 2010: 21 October 2010: 14 September 2010: 10 August 2010: 15 July 2010: 23 June 2010: 12 May 2010: 20 April 2010: 25 March 2010: 27 February 2010: 8 January 2010:13 Source: city of Rochester LOS ANGELES Funds that focus on companies that serve emerging markets have been mostly faring better after a rocky start to the year and a lackluster 2015, when worries about China's economic woes and volatile prices for oil and other commodities weighed on the category. But what are the prospects for gains this year? Kevin Carter, founder of the Emerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce exchange-traded fund, says he's betting on consumers in China, South America and elsewhere increasingly seeking to go online and buy goods and services on mobile phones. "The greatest growth story of our lifetime is this huge wave of consumers getting smartphones," Carter says. "And when they get that smartphone, it's the first time they're getting the internet." His ETF owns all of the publicly traded internet companies in the developing world, including some big names in China's internet and e-commerce space, such as Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent and JD.com, which recently struck a deal to take over Wal-Mart's China operations. ADVERTISEMENT This is a more targeted approach to investing in emerging markets than putting money in stock funds and ETFs with a broad swath of holdings in emerging markets. One benefit is it also steers clear of companies that are more susceptible to the volatility in commodity prices. Even so, Carter's ETF is down 5.6 percent this year, as of Thursday. In comparison, several of the largest emerging-market stock mutual funds and ETFs are up anywhere from 3.3 percent to 7 percent this year. Carter chalks that up to Alibaba and Baidu, two of the ETF's biggest holdings, being down this year. He remains emphatic about the prospects for growth for internet and e-commerce companies in emerging markets. Carter spoke with the AP about where emerging market stocks are headed. Answers have been edited for length and clarity. Q. Is this a good time to get into investing in emerging market funds? A. Many of the emerging markets are obviously quite dependent on natural resources and oil, in particular, and that's been a big problem. Emerging market indexes and ETFs that track them are both basically down for the five years ended in January. They (since) have had a little bounce. I feel like they've probably bottomed, for the most part. But I still think the fundamentals are going to remain challenging. I'm not confident they're going to go up a lot, but I think the worst of the going-down part might be over. ADVERTISEMENT I don't see a lot of reason to be optimistic about the growth of the companies that represent the universe of emerging markets for investors. Q. Why is taking a more focused approach to investing in emerging markets better than going with a broader index of emerging market stocks? A. The thing about emerging markets, the big story, is the growth of the consumer, the growth of the middle class. You have millions of people who are moving on up, and they want a pair of Nike's, and they want a washer and a dryer, and they want a smartphone. That's a big deal, and it's happening. And a lot of companies are benefiting from it. The real growth is in consumption, and that's going to continue. Q. Your ETF is focused on internet and e-commerce, but it's down this year. How do you feel about its prospects? A. I'm actually quite positive, and the reason is we launched the fund 18 months ago and it's down about 15 percent. Meanwhile, the fundamentals of the companies are 50 percent bigger than they were 18 months ago. It's a coiled spring for the internet names. They may have been a little pricey at the particular time we launched, but the fundamentals continue to power forward. You're paying 20 percent less for 50 percent more, so that's why I feel quite optimistic about the fund at today's prices. ADVERTISEMENT Q. A little more than half of your ETF is made up of Chinese companies. Do you see red flags for emerging market stocks given China's economic problems? A. A lot of people question China's growth. There's a great negative bias on China and everyone is skeptical of everything. But you look at the numbers for Nike or Apple or Starbucks, and it's pretty clear there's growth going on in consumption in China and the rest of the developing world. China is definitely going to have the most growth in terms of absolute dollars. In terms of rate of growth, year-over-year percentage, India and almost everything else should grow faster, with maybe the exception of South America. All over Asia, all over Africa and certainly in India you really have phenomenal growth rates for internet adoption, smartphone penetration and e-commerce. MINNEAPOLIS Shareholders of Valspar Corp. approved the sale of the paint-making firm to the larger Sherwin-Williams during a special shareholders meeting in downtown Minneapolis. The vote and meeting, run Wednesday by Valspar's General Counsel Rolf Engh, gave one of two approvals needed to finalize the deal, worth an estimated $11.3 billion. The deal still must be approved by federal regulators, who already have requested at least two rounds of additional information so they can evaluate antitrust concerns. Shareholders of Sherwin Williams do not need to vote on the deal. Cleveland-based Sherwin-Williams announced in March that it planned to pay $113 per share in cash for Valspar, which makes paints and industrial and package coatings. If the biggest deal in Sherwin-Williams' 150-year history closes in the first quarter of 2017, as expected, the combined company will boast $15.6 billion in annual revenue, $2.8 billion in profits and 58,000 employees and customers in more than 115 countries. The merged company is likely to be based in Cleveland, leaving employment in Minneapolis uncertain. ADVERTISEMENT Two years ago, Valspar finished a $40 million renovation of its 111-year-old headquarters in downtown Minneapolis. Valspar's four-building complex now houses a state-of-the-art research-and-development center, corporate offices and more than 400 employees, including 110 scientists. Valspar also has a floor in an office building downtown. In speaking with shareholders Wednesday morning, Engh said stockholders voting mostly by proxy had approved the merger between the two companies, as well as a change in control clause that will enrich top managers. According to a proxy filing issued last month, Valspar CEO Gary E. Hendrickson is expected to receive a severance of roughly $38.1 million in combined cash, equity and benefits. The bulk of Hendrickson's payment will be $30.3 million in stock options and restricted stock, along with $7.7 million in cash severance and about $91,000 in insurance and outplacement service costs. Hendrickson participated in Wednesday's special meeting by phone from Asia, where he was attending a previously scheduled event. There was no question-and answer session held during the meeting. Other top executives to benefit from the severance policy include chief financial officer James Muehlbauer, who is set to receive roughly $11.1 million in combined cash, equity and benefits. Engh, who is Valspar's executive vice president as well as its general counsel, is slated to receive $5 million in combined compensation. Howard Heckes, the president of Valspar's global coatings business, would receive $7.7 million, and Les Ireland, Valspar's president of consumer paints, would receive $5.5 million. I'm a fan of fireworks. I love to set them off and enjoy watching the shows on July 4. Nothing beats being in person, but if you're looking for ways to create virtual fireworks, I've found a couple of sites. Kids crafts Crayola has an easy, fun way to pick your rockets and explosions and sequence them for a show on your computer screen. It would be a fun activity for kids who are waiting or looking for a travel activity. You can pick various rockets and the sequence and length of show you want for it all. It might even be fun for an adult to mix and match. No worries about injuries, either! www.crayola.com/kids-playzone/fireworks-spectacular.aspx Kaboom ADVERTISEMENT I've noted this site before from the Wisconsin State Journal . It's a fun, pick your explosions sort of site that again provides the visual stimulation, but no risk of injury other than some sort of repetitive stress worry. Give it a try to see what you can create. tinyurl.com/jsljwgs Read the words I always find myself listening to the words or reading them myself, but do take a moment on your Fourth of July to soak up the Declaration of Independence. The words are good, strong and well-thought out. It always makes me ponder those authors who helped shape its famous declaration. The Library of Congress is my go-to spot for information, interpretation and visuals on the key documents. www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/DeclarInd.html?&loclr=rec004 Get me rewrite But you'll also find that all good things are not created in one swoop of effort. The Library of Congress has this good spot where you can see how this famous declaration came to be and how it was discussed, reworked and edited. It's a good reminder to us all on how to ponder our words and the meanings, and you can see how the Declaration of Independence was shaped into what we now know. www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/tr00.html?&loclr=rec004 ADVERTISEMENT Old-fashioned Fourth One place I listen to the Declaration of Independence is at the Historic Forestville Independence Day event. They'll recite it from the doorstep of the Meighen family home that's connected to their store. The actor playing Ignatius Donnelly will read it with great gusto. Father McTeague will offer his prayers and help lead songs. It's a good time and you'll enjoy some old-fashioned political speeches, a sing-along of patriotic songs and a chance to see how the Fourth might have been celebrated in 1899 at Forestville. Make a visit and you'll still get home in time for the fireworks. I love so much of it and even had a chance last year to participate in a pie-eating contest. Delicious! sites.mnhs.org/historic-sites/historic-forestville With 2016 at a midpoint, the year is turning into a record one for U.S. travel, according to a just-released national " Portrait of American Travelers " survey of intention to travel. According to MMGY Global , a marketing and research firm, a record number of vacations and new highs in vacation spending are being recorded among American travelers. According to the firm's research, two-thirds of the 125 million households in the U.S. are planning at least one leisure trip that requires accommodations in the next six months, and on average they will take about four trips this year. When the same households are surveyed for their business travel intentions, 35 percent say they will travel on business during the next six months, which survey officials said is the highest-ever recorded number. "The outlook is for robust leisure demand and remarkable growth for business travel," an official said. Also, according to the survey, there is even better news when travel spending is concerned. ADVERTISEMENT According to data, vacation spending has now fully recovered from the years of the Great Recession. In 2010, travelers reported having spent an average of $3,874 on vacations during the previous 12 months. However, travelers now reported spending an average of $5,048 on vacations, a 30 percent increase from 2010. State also expects good news There is also a positive outlook on the Minnesota travel scene, according to reports from the state tourism industry. A pre-summer survey of Minnesota lodging businesses revealed a positive outlook for summer travel statewide, continuing an upward trend over the past several years. Nearly half of the respondents expect summer revenue to be up and also predict increased occupancy compared to the summer of 2015. Only 16 percent expect occupancy and revenue to be down, according to Explore Minnesota , the state's tourism arm. Three-fourths of those surveyed reported that spring (April-May) occupancy and revenue were up or stable compared to last year. Additionally, Minnesota's leisure and hospitality industry gained more than 2,890 jobs from a year ago as of April. "These results show that Minnesota continues to be an attractive vacation destination for large numbers of travelers," said John Edman, director of Explore Minnesota. "Our successful marketing campaigns are leaving a lasting impression on both new and returning visitors to our state, and we expect that trend to continue this summer and beyond." The state survey was completed by 212 Minnesota lodging businesses, including hotels and motels, resorts, bed-and-breakfasts, campgrounds and vacation home rentals. Molly Riese held back tears Thursday as she told Judge Christina Stevens about her life since Feb. 6, 2015. "I spent a total of 30 days in the hospital and four months in a wheelchair," the 24-year-old said. "I had to give up my (apartment) and the life I was building and move back in with my parents. ... I am a nurse, a person who entered this career because my passion is to help other people, which I no longer have the privilege of doing. Without this, I feel like I have no purpose." Riese has had 10 surgeries since that night, when a car driven by James Morseth, 26, passed a van in a no-passing zone at Olmsted County roads 4 and 5, near Oxbow Park , and struck Riese's vehicle head-on. Morseth and his passenger, who both were injured, had no identification with them then gave false names to officials. The other man suffered a traumatic brain injury in the crash. Morseth recovered but left the hospital without speaking to authorities. ADVERTISEMENT Though a warrant was issued for his arrest, authorities were unable to find him for more than a year; he eventually was arrested in April on a Ramsey County warrant and brought to Olmsted County to face the charges from the crash. Morseth pleaded guilty later that month to two counts of felony criminal vehicular operation and one count of gross misdemeanor criminal vehicular operation. In exchange for the plea, misdemeanor counts of reckless driving and driving after suspension were dismissed at Thursday's sentencing. Stevens handed down concurrent terms of 28 and 33 months in prison and 365 days in jail, with credit for 92 days served. Restitution was reserved for six months; Riese has racked up more than $1 million in medical bills "and I am nowhere near done yet," she said. Morseth carried no insurance, leaving Riese responsible. "I so desperately want my life back," she told the judge. "This has affected every aspect of my life, even to this day. I continue to suffer physically, emotionally, mentally and financially from this. I hate being defined by this." Morseth was allowed to speak before he was sentenced, telling Stevens, "I wish that day never happened. I often think about that accident." He ran out of gas before the crash, he said; he was on the rural Byron road because he got wrong directions from someone at a convenience store. "I wish that lady'd never told me those directions," Morseth said. "I'd never been on that road before." ADVERTISEMENT He denied hiding from authorities, said his public defender, Julie Maxwell, and continues to maintain there was deer in the road that night, causing him to swerve into Riese's path. David and Mary Haukom were in the van that Morseth was passing the night of the crash; Riese's car spun into their vehicle, which ended up in the ditch. The Haukoms, who suffered minor injuries, were in court Thursday. "There was no deer," Mary Haukom said under her breath. "No, there was no deer." The judge questioned something else: Morseth's apparent lack of remorse. "Your attitude in court," Stevens said, "you're somewhat dismissive of her, like you were bothered by having to listen to" the victim impact statement. She didn't hear remorse at his plea hearing in April, either, Stevens said. The crash left Riese trapped in her crushed vehicle for nearly two hours as responders worked to rescue her. She was conscious for everything but the impact. Her left arm was badly broken and both femurs "everything from the waist down, basically," Riese said were among the 20 broken bones she sustained. ADVERTISEMENT She's no longer able to go hiking and rock climbing, she said Thursday, still goes to physical therapy twice a week "and (puts in) many more hours on my own, to try and regain as much strength as possible." Her medical team, however, has given her the "painful truth that I will never be 100 percent of what I was." With good behavior and credit for time served, Morseth will serve about 19 months, then be on supervised probation for the remainder of the term about 11 months. "It's not enough for the way he impacted my life forever," Riese said after the sentencing. She first called his allocution "almost funny" for its lack of emotion, then added "disgusting." She left Thursday afternoon for "a much-needed, dream vacation" to Alaska, including Denali National Park , "but unfortunately I won't be able to do what I want to do, like climb mountains," Riese said. "Not tomorrow, anyway." One boy is dead and another is in stable condition after an early morning fight in northwest Rochester. Police were dispatched about 12:35 a.m. today to the 4100 block of East Frontage Road Northwest, near U.S. Highway 52, for what was initially reported as an assault; the caller later said one person appeared to have been stabbed and was on the ground, unresponsive. When officers arrived, they found a 15-year-old male in "very, very critical condition," said Capt. John Sherwin. The teenager was taken to Mayo Clinic Hospital-Saint Marys Campus, where he was pronounced dead. The victim has been tentatively identified, Sherwin said, and family members have been contacted, but authorities won't release his name until this morning's autopsy is completed. The autopsy will determine cause of death, Sherwin said, but the boy appears to have been stabbed in the chest. While officers were at the hospital, a vehicle pulled into the emergency department with another 15-year-old male who had a stab wound to his neck, Sherwin said. That teenager was taken to surgery immediately, but investigators were able to speak to him later. ADVERTISEMENT The second victim was involved in the same fight that left the other 15-year-old dead, Sherwin confirmed, "but the exact circumstances are still being investigated." Though others were present at the scene, "it appears to be just the two combatants," he said. Investigators don't believe it was an arranged fight, but there was "some ongoing issue between the two individuals that broke out into a physical confrontation." Officials recovered "more than one item at the scene that could be used as a weapon," Sherwin said, adding that "there was evidence recovered that raises questions about the events." There is "certainly no additional suspect outstanding," he said, and no threat to the public, but he stopped short of referring to the second teenager as a suspect. "Our focus of this investigation is determining what led up to the dispute, who may have been the primary aggressor, if this is a matter of self-defense," Sherwin said. "We'll investigate through the weekend, then present our findings to the county attorney, who will determine what, if any, charges will be pressed." The second teen remains in the hospital in stable condition. "There's nobody in custody," Sherwin said, "and we don't anticipate anybody being arrested anytime soon. All things are on the table. Someone is deceased here; is it a homicide? A justifiable homicide? Until we get all of the information, and corroborate the physical evidence with the statements of witnesses at the scene," that decision won't be made. He said the others at the scene were between the ages of 13 and 16, and have all cooperated with police. ADVERTISEMENT Still, Sherwin said, "we have family members to talk to right now. We have the foundation of the case, the general idea of what occurred, but we need to fill in the blanks. Obviously, the deceased leaves one side out of it, so the witnesses are important." There are surveillance cameras at businesses in the area; what they may have captured of the incident is still unknown. STEWARTVILLE The Stewartville woman charged with manslaughter after a woman in her care died in deplorable conditions has entered a guilty plea. Shirley Ann Kraemer, 74, pleaded guilty Thursday in Olmsted County District Court to one count of felony criminal neglect of a vulnerable adult. In exchange for the plea, an identical charge and one count of second-degree manslaughter are expected to be dismissed at her sentencing, which is set for Aug. 17. She remains free on her own recognizance. The investigation began Nov. 6, when deputies and medical personnel were sent to Kraemer's home for a report of an adult female with an infection who was unable to stand unassisted. What they found was "a very disgusting scene; there's no other way to say it," said Olmsted County Sheriff Capt. Scott Behrns. ADVERTISEMENT According to the criminal complaint against Kraemer, the 76-year-old victim described only as a relative of the defendant was found in a bedroom that had "an overwhelming odor of urine, waste, decay and rotting flesh." Medical personnel noted the woman's flesh was heavily infected, with several open sores some so deep her hip bones and ribs were exposed. A portion of the woman's skin tore away from her body as responders moved her from the bed, the report says; though she was conscious, she was unable to speak, Behrns said. Kraemer told deputies the woman had begun to decline about 10 years ago, "when her feet swelled up and turned black," court documents say. Kraemer took the victim to local health facilities, where she ultimately was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. According to the complaint, Kraemer and the victim were "suspicious" of the facilities and didn't follow through with treatment. Since then, Kraemer said, she'd been caring for the woman, telling authorities when the victim's skin began to ooze "brown stuff," she'd scrape it off and wash the area. In the past two months, though, Kraemer said the woman's skin became infected, with sores that also oozed. The victim was in pain but didn't want to go to the hospital, Kraemer said, adding that she knew the woman should be treated. On Nov. 5, Kraemer said, the sores broke open. She called the ambulance the next day, telling authorities she felt bad for not calling earlier, the complaint says. Though Kraemer claimed she changed the bed sheets every two weeks and had given the victim a sponge bath several days earlier, "the care she rendered was inconsistent" with law enforcement's observations at the home. ADVERTISEMENT Medical staff found the woman to be suffering from "severe, profound physical neglect:" Her right pelvic bone was exposed by an open wound, as were about seven of her ribs. She had dead skin "on all of her extremities," the complaint says. Kraemer told doctors the woman hadn't eaten for two days, nor was she taking any medication at home. The woman died early Nov. 9. The preliminary autopsy report indicates she died as a result of septic shock, severe sepsis and infections of the skin, soft tissue and bone. A neighbor told law enforcement that Kraemer said she was "concerned for the victim's health," the criminal complaint says, but the two women didn't believe in modern medicine. He described them as "paranoid." The neglect charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both. ITHACA, N.Y. Rochester graduate Gulnar Mirza was honored by Cornell University as a 2016 Merrill Presidential Scholar. The scholarship is presented to graduating seniors who have demonstrated "outstanding scholastic achievement, strong leadership ability and potential for contributing to society," according to a press release from Cornell. Students are honored each spring and in turn recognize one high school and one Cornell facutly member who significantly contributed to their "college education and experience." Mirza honored Mayo High School's Vince Wagner and Jose Martinez in Cornell's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Mary Davenport settled into her new office at Rochester Community and Technical College on Friday. The administrator will hold RCTC's top spot as president, and is the third person to hold that title within the last year. The college has seen many changes in that time, from the resignation of President Leslie McClellon , whose year-and-a-half tenure was marked by controversy, to the interim presidential appointment of Joyce Helens, which lasted nearly six months . The search for a permanent president didn't turn up any candidates, and Davenport, who was appointed in May, will lead RCTC until a search is completed for a permanent president. She'll have two years to make her mark on the college. "I like the two-year interim, because it's enough time to have an impact," Davenport said. ADVERTISEMENT After a shakeup during McClellon's tenure, the college's leadership has gradually been putting the pieces back together the last few months. In April, the college's administrative structure was reverted to how it was set up prior to McClellon's time . And a couple of recent hires, such as the vice president of student affairs and a new RCTC Foundation executive director , mean the college's top leadership positions once again are staffed fully. Both will start in the next few weeks. Davenport will fall into an administration that is a balance of more experienced leaders and some new faces, something she looks forward to. "We'll have our full team together, and I am just so pleased because it's really strong," Davenport said. "Everything's in place." The next steps will be to focus on the college's strategic plan, its master academic plan and accreditation probably the biggest three challenges a college tackles. "I plan to do a lot of listening and consultation," she said. After her appointment, Minnesota State Chancellor Steven Rosenstone noted she had "demonstrated a commitment to open and honest communication." On Friday, she reiterated her dedication to shared governance and open communication, a major concern during McClellon's tenure. But she said day to day, all that means a lot of communication. "You can never communicate enough," she said. "Transparency is key." ADVERTISEMENT Davenport comes to RCTC from Riverland Community College, with locations in Austin, Albert Lea and Owatonna, she's been in higher education throughout the state for 28 years. After spending much of her tenure in administration for Minnesota State in St. Paul, formerly the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, she decided it was time to get back on campus, and in 2012 she took a job at Riverland as its vice president of academic and student affairs. "I really did miss being on a campus," she said. "So the timing was right for me to go back to campus because I love the students." Though she originally wanted to be a history teacher, her father advised her otherwise because "there were no jobs," at the time. He was her inspiration for going into education and she eventually settled into teaching in the family consumer science area. She has Ph.D. in education and human resources, and a counseling degree, which she picked up during her time at University of Wisconsin-Stout, because there wasn't much else to do in Menomonie at the time, she joked. "There weren't movie theaters, or things to do, so I just kept taking classes," she said. "But I really enjoyed learning, so might as well." She made the switch from teaching to administration after returning to the Midwest from a brief stint in Colorado. She took a job in Hibbing and "learned a lot" as one of the "early female administrators" in technical education on the Iron Range, during a time where there were many mining lawsuits. "I love teaching, but I like being an administrator too because then you can touch so many classrooms and teachers," Davenport said, and it gives you the opportunity to work on a "whole range of things." ADVERTISEMENT "I think it's rewarding to know how do you put all of these pieces of the college together and really focus on the students and the community." Welcome to the Fourth of July weekend, the 240th time that America has celebrated its independence. Your friends at the Post-Bulletin hope it's a spectacular and safe holiday for all. Here's a reminder that we won't publish a print edition on Monday, which allows most of our employees and carriers to celebrate with family and friends. We'll have coverage on Postbulletin.com through the weekend, of course, and the website will be open to all for unlimited use on Monday. P-B offices will be closed, but our news staff never sleeps. If you have news, call the newsroom anytime at 507-285-7700, or send email to news@postbulletin.com . Death notices and obituaries received by noon Monday will be posted by 5 p.m. that day. Enjoy the long weekend, and we encourage you to take time to remember what the fireworks are for -- to celebrate 240 years of independence and dedication to the proposition that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." Jay Furst ADVERTISEMENT Post-Bulletin managing editor The city of Rochester will close roads Monday for Salute to the Fourth events and activities near Silver Lake Park. Seventh Street Northeast will close from West Silver Lake Drive Northeast to the pedestrian crossing at East Silver Lake Drive Northeast, in front of the pool and skate park. The closure begins at 2 p.m. and lasts until the end of the Fourth of July fireworks celebration later that evening. Drivers and pedestrians are advised to use caution around the restricted roadway, a city news release said. MINNEAPOLIS A Minnesota woman charged with supporting east African militant group al-Shabab is helping the federal government's case against the ringleaders of a network of women who have sent thousands of dollars overseas to an organization the U.S. says is involved in terrorism. Amina Mohamud Esse pleaded guilty to the charge in November 2014, according to case records that were unsealed Thursday. Allegedly part of a group of women organized online, prosecutors said Esse had sent roughly $500 overseas to a woman in Kenya, knowing the funds would eventually make their way to al-Shabab. It adds another layer to the string of cases involving terrorism recruitment and support in Minnesota, home to the largest Somali population outside of the eastern Africa country. More than 20 young men have left the state since 2007 to join al-Shabab in Somalia, and roughly a dozen people have left in recent years to join militants in Syria. The U.S. designated al-Shabab as a terrorist group in 2008. In 2012, leaders of al-Shabab and al-Qaida announced they were merging. The U.S. District Court of Minnesota kept the proceedings in Esse's case private, as local District Attorney Andrew Luger's office worried that divulging the details of her charges and her cooperation with the federal government could imperil the case against some of the ringleaders of the online group, who were also arrested in 2014. ADVERTISEMENT "Al-Shabaab members and associates would obviously not accept or trust the defendant if they knew she had been charged and was cooperating with the FBI," a court filing said. But some of the records were unsealed this week as the trial against Muna Osman Jama and Hinda Osman Dhirane is set to begin in Virginia's U.S. District Court on July 11. Esse is listed in the government's scheduled witnesses for the trial against the two women, according to court records. Ben Petok, a spokesman of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota, declined to comment. Esse's attorney did not return a voicemail seeking comment. Jama and Dhirane were arrested in June 2014 and charged with 20 counts of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Jama herself allegedly sent more than $3,300 overseas meant to help al-Shabab. Three others overseas were also charged, including their alleged point of contact in Nairobi. According to the charges, Esse sent $500 overseas between December 2011 and April 2012 payments that were shepherded by Jama, who was then living in Virginia. Internet chat logs between Esse and Jama submitted by the federal government ahead of the trial show the pair of women discussing how to recruit more women to contribute money to their cause. In an April 2012 conversation, Esse expressed concern to Jama about being caught. "Sister, I told you, do not connect me to anyone till we get to know the person well. . . . Do you want me to get arrested?" Esse wrote. In exchange for her guilty plea and providing information against the other women, Esse was put on probation and banned from traveling outside of Minnesota, according to court records. She was also required to submit for a mental health evaluation. Twenty-five years ago, soldiers of the Rochester-based 79th Military Police Company went to war to help bring independence to another country. Robin Johnson, a member of the 79th at the time, was a 20-year-old college student when the call came. Now 45 and the mother of three college-age children, Johnson still can recall the nauseating gut-punch the news delivered: Her company was being deployed to the Middle East for what would be known as the Gulf War. Her family was with her when she got the word, and they all started crying. "To tell you the truth, I was very scared. Just the not knowing when we were going to be back," Johnson recalls. "But after it all started, I knew what I needed to do." The 79th became part of a vast military coalition assembled to liberate Kuwait and evict a cruel tyrant's armies. ADVERTISEMENT Talk to those soldiers today, and many will tell you they would do it again. In a heartbeat. They have no regrets, despite the mounting physical and psychological toll the war would exact on the lives of many of them through the years, long after they had left the battlefield. "I think one thing the general public doesn't understand is that unless you've gone to war, even with a war like the Persian Gulf that went fast, your troops are never the same," said Robert Schmidt, a retired Lake City police chief who was an operations sergeant in the reserve unit at the time. "You just a leave a piece of yourself in the desert," he added. Chemical fears Twenty-five years ago, Gulf War soldiers deployed to the Gulf region were haunted by the real possibility that chemical weapons would be used against them. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had used them in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war and on his own people. Opponents warned the Middle East would become a quagmire for U.S. forces. The 79th MP Company, a diverse unit made up of whites, blacks and Hispanics, landed in Saudi Arabia days before the war began. It was led by 1st Sgt. Norman Hecimovich, of Austin, a then-56-year-old, battle-hardened veteran who had fought in Korea and Vietnam. To the 79th soldiers, he was almost a father figure. At the other extreme was the company's youngest soldier, who had just turned 18. Nearly 30 of the solders were women, reflecting a deployment of women throughout the theater that would be the largest in U.S. history. The company had been deployed and served in regions all over the globe. But the vast majority of the 150 soldiers sent to the Persian Gulf in January 1991 had never served in a combat zone. They were weekend-warrior types, citizen soldiers who trained one weekend a month and for two weeks in the summer. ADVERTISEMENT "We did not have combat experience, but we were well-trained and worked together as a team," Hecimovich said. Schmidt was a 36-year-old Lake City police chief when the company was activated. One memory remains vivid in his memory. Right before the deployment, the mother of a young, female soldier came up to Schmidt and begged him to bring her daughter back alive. "It sticks me to this day," Schmidt said. "To look in that mother's eyes, to have her say that. That just makes everything set in." 'Video game war' The ensuing war proved to be one of the great lopsided conflicts in U.S. history. The war began with an air campaign in which TV viewers often had more information about the conflict than many of the soldiers on the ground did. It became known as the video game war: A bombardment of smart bombs and air strikes destroyed Iraqi command and control centers and sent the Iraqi army reeling. Then, the U.S.-led ground campaign commenced. "We started in Saudi Arabia and drove up to the border and sat there for a few days until the ground war hit," Mark Maass, a 79th soldier and mechanic, recalled. "I think it was the day after the ground war, then we crossed into Iraq." ADVERTISEMENT The 79th was spread across the front. Contrary to the conventional view of military police, which often are thought of as rear-echelon soldiers and gatekeepers, many 79th soldiers were on the front lines, attached to ground and armored units that sped across the desert. Their job was to conduct recon, to disarm and process prisoners of war and escort ammunition and fuel oil to the front lines. At times, Schmidt recalled, his company would be ahead of the front-line artillery units, shells streaking overhead and landing on the Iraqi tanks ahead. 'We fully expected to get gassed' All of the soldiers interviewed said their biggest fear was that the Iraqi army would use chemical weapons against them. "We fully expected to get gassed," Schmidt said. As they knifed through the desert, the chemical alarms on the vehicles rang almost continuously, indicating the presence of gas. "The alarms would go off, but then they'd always say, 'It was a false alarm, a false alarm,'" Maass said. "But now we hear 25 years later, it was real." A hundred hours after the ground campaign had begun, the war was over. "It was different. I've been in Vietnam. We would take an area, give it back, take an area and give it back," Hecimovich said. "In this one, we moved and continued to move. We moved right up to Basra, (Iraq), and we could have moved into Baghdad if they had let us." Given the lethality of today's warfare, the outcome was almost miraculous. Every one of the more than 150 79th MP soldiers to serve in the Gulf returned to the U.S. There had been some casualties, but not a single soldier from the MP company lost his or her life. An ongoing war for 1/3 Yet, the full extent of the toll wouldn't be revealed and fully calculated until years later. Today, 30 percent to 40 percent of those soldiers now suffer from some kind of ailment or sickness, from muscle pain and joint issues to autoimmune deficiencies and insomnia to breathing and heart issues, Schmidt estimates. It wasn't bombs, bullets or grenades that inflicted the damage but rather the toxic environment in which they operated. The toxic brew consisted of oil well fires that belched billows of black smoke across the Kuwait desert sky. Soldiers used credit cards to scrape the oil from windshields. They would pass through oily black clouds, the 110-degree desert temperature suddenly dropping 30 to 40 degrees. The sunlight was unable to penetrate the smoke. "You're continually inhaling that smoke. That's where we were," Schmidt said. "Burning garbage, depleted uranium in the desert, chemicals. There was such a toxic environment." In Khamisiya, Iraq, U.S. troops destroyed a munitions depot that created a blast that Hecimovich described as sounding like an "atomic bomb." "It went up. Holy man, it was kind of scary," he said. Members of the 79th MP Company were providing security at the site, a quarter-mile to a half-mile away. It later was acknowledged that Iraqi chemical weapons were destroyed there, releasing a plume of chemicals and smoke that drifted over troops, including those of the 79th. More than 700,000 troops were deployed in the Gulf War. The Department of Defense estimates "as many as 200,000 veterans" of that conflict might be affected. Treatment is difficult, and not all veterans show the same symptoms, with the same severity, nor respond to treatments in the same way. 'Would I be sick?' Five years after the war, Robin Johnson began to feel fatigue, her joints started to ache. She was diagnosed with depression and was put on antidepressants. She was still in the military at the time. She still had to pass her physical test. But the medications didn't take away the pain. In 2010, Johnson stopped working. Today, she suffers from multiple autoimmune deficiencies, has a neuromuscular disease that makes her muscles weak and tires easily. She is 100 percent disabled and collects Social Security. Johnson gives a long pause when asked if she regrets her service. "Some days, I do. When I'm feeling at at my worst, I wonder: If I hadn't done that, would I be sick," Johnson said. "It took me a long time to talk about serving over in the war. It took me a long time to just open up about the things that I did and served. "I don't have a regret," Johnson added. 'It took away some life' Schmidt returned to his job as Lake City police chief, but he was no longer the same man, he came to recognize. Things that used to give him pleasure no longer did. The war also caught up with him physically. On the first day of the ground war, Johnson fell into a bomb crater and injured his back. But it wasn't until five years later that he learned he had fractured a vertebra. Plagued by neck, shoulder and back injuries, Schmidt retired from the job he loved in 1996. "It took away some life," Schmidt said. "I think it ages a person. For me personally, being injured, I just didn't come back the same person. The job that I loved and I was good at it just didn't have the importance it had before." What would become known as the Gulf War would be won with dazzling speed and technological know-how. But the rush of historical events eventually would overtake and overshadow the conflict. There would be the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers, the 2003 Iraq war and the rise of terrorist groups in the Middle East that have staged and inspired attacks from San Bernardino, Calif., to Paris. The Gulf War would, in some ways, be relegated to a historical backwater. But for many, such as Schmidt, there are few regrets. "I was so proud of my people. They did such a good job," Schmidt said. If they called me tomorrow, I'd go in a heartbeat The British vote by a narrow majority to leave the European Union is not the end of the world but it does show us how we can get there. A major European power, a longtime defender of liberal democracy, pluralism and free markets, falls under the sway of a few cynical politicians who see a chance to exploit public fears of immigration to advance their careers. They create a stark binary choice on an incredibly complex issue, of which few people understand the full scope stay in or quit the EU. These politicians assume that the dog will never catch the car and they will have the best of all worlds opposing something unpopular but not having to deal with the implications of the public actually voting to get rid of it. But they so dumb down the debate with lies, fear-mongering and misdirection, and with only a simple majority required to win, that the leave-the-EU crowd carries the day by a small margin. Presto: the dog catches the car. And, of course, it has no idea now what to do with this car. There is no plan. There is just barking. Like I said, not the end of the world yet, but if a few more EU countries try this trick we'll have quite a little mess on our hands. Attention Donald Trump voters: This is what happens to a country that falls for hucksters who think that life can just imitate Twitter that there are simple answers to hard questions and that small men can rearrange big complex systems by just erecting a wall and everything will be peachy. But I digress. ADVERTISEMENT Because although withdrawing from the EU is not the right answer for Britain, the fact that this argument won, albeit with lies, tells you that people are feeling deeply anxious about something. It's the story of our time: the pace of change in technology, globalization and climate have started to outrun the ability of our political systems to build the social, educational, community, workplace and political innovations needed for some citizens to keep up. We have globalized trade and manufacturing, and we have introduced robots and artificial intelligent systems, far faster than we have designed the social safety nets, trade surge protectors and educational advancement options that would allow people caught in this transition to have the time, space and tools to thrive. It's left a lot of people dizzy and dislocated. At the same time, we have opened borders deliberately or experienced the influx of illegal migration from failing states at an unprecedented scale and this too has left some people feeling culturally unanchored, that they are losing their "home" in the deepest sense of that word. The physical reality of immigration, particularly in Europe, has run ahead of not only the host countries' ability to integrate people but also of the immigrants' ability to integrate themselves and both are necessary for social stability. And these rapid changes are taking place when our politics has never been more gridlocked and unable to respond with just common sense like governments borrowing money at near zero interest to invest in much-needed infrastructure that creates jobs and enables us to better exploit these technologies. "Political power in the West has been failing its own test of legitimacy and accountability since 2008 and in its desperation has chosen to erode it further by unforgivably abdicating responsibility through the use of a referendum on the EU," said Nader Mousavizadeh, who co-leads the London-based global consulting firm Macro Advisory Partners. But we need to understand that "the issue before us is 'integration' not 'immigration,'" Mousavizadeh added. The lived experience, in most cities in Europe today, is the fact that "a pluralistic, multiethnic society has grown up here, actually rather peacefully, and it has brought enormous benefits and prosperity. We need to change the focus of the problem and the solution from the physical reality of immigration to the political and economic challenge of integration." Schools, hospitals and public institutions generally will not rise to the challenge of the 21st century "if social integration is failing." Indeed, in my view, the countries that nurture pluralism the best will be the ones that thrive the most in the 21st century. They will have the most political stability, attract the most talent and be able to collaborate with the most people. But it's hard work. Yet in an age when technology is integrating us more tightly together and delivering tremendous flows of innovation, knowledge, connectivity and commerce, the future belongs to those who build webs not walls, who can integrate not separate, to get the most out of these flows. Britain leaving the EU is a lose-lose proposition. I hope the "Regrexit" campaign can reverse Brexit and that Americans will dump Trump. ADVERTISEMENT Never forget, after the destruction of World War II, the EU project "emerged as a force for peace, prosperity, democracy and freedom in the world," noted Eric Beinhocker, the executive director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking at Oxford. "This is one of humankind's great achievements. Rather than let it be destroyed we must use the shock of the Brexit vote to reimagine, reform, and rebuild a new Europe." Thomas Friedman, a Minnesota native, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Times. More details have come out about the terrorist attack on the Holey Artisan bakery and cafe in Dacca, Bangladesh. They are grim: Jihadist extremists hacked 20 people to death in a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka sparing only those who could recite from the Koran before they were gunned down by commandos. Army Brigadier General Naim Asraf Chowdhury said: Most of (the hostages) were killed mercilessly by sharp weapons last night. On Friday night, Bangladeshi resident Hasnat Karim said he brought his family to the cafe in order to celebrate his daughters birthday. Hasnat was too traumatised to say more than a few words about his ordeal, saying only that the hostage-takers did not misbehave with us. I.e., with us Muslims. [UPDATE: See note below.] But he detailed to his father Rezaul how the gunmen who were armed with automatic weapons, bombs and makeshift machetes had split the diners into two groups. Rezaul said: (The foreigners) were taken to the upper floor and the Bangladeshis were kept around a table. He said his son told him the terrorists did not hit people who could recite verses from the Koran. The others were tortured. He added: The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Koran. Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night. The terrorists were associated with ISIS. ISIS posted photos of the grinning terrorists on one of its web sites, and while the attack was in process the same ISIS web site posted grisly pictures of slaughtered victims, presumably uploaded by the terrorists themselves. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed responded with a cluelessness worthy of Barack Obama or John Kerry: It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these people? They dont have any religion. If they didnt have any religion, those 22 victimstwo police officers were also killed in a shootout with the terroristswould be alive today. Islam is a religion of peace. Oh, please. Stop killing in the name of the religion. Please stop tarnishing our noble religionI implore you to come back to the rightful path and uphold the pride of Islam. The cafe massacre shocked Bangladeshis in part because it was a departure from past Islamic terror attacks in that country: Bangladesh has seen an increased amount of Islamist terrorism in recent years with attacks on non-Muslims, bloggers, atheists, secular activists and even LGBT campaigners. But this is the first concerted attack on foreigners. ISIS characterized the victims as crusaders. ISIS posted pictures of five of the attackers online along with a statement: Let the people of the crusader countries know that there is no safety for them as long as their aircraft are killing Muslims. Most of the victims were Italians and Japanese, neither of whose countries have aircraft killing Muslims. Not yet, anyway. They might want to think about joining the air campaign against ISIS. NOTE: He might have meant us Bangladeshis. A reader points out that two of the three American students murdered have obviously Muslim names, Faraaz Hossein and Abinta Kabir. So possibly us meant Bangladeshis; on the other hand, the terrorists did kill two Bangladeshis, so that doesnt really work, either. Perhaps Hossein and Kabir were not able to recite from the Koran despite their Islamic-sounding names. Or perhaps some were killed because they resisted, or perhaps the terrorists were not perfectly systematic. Same day registration and other liberal reforms have made it easy for ineligible voters to cast ballots in many states. When law-abiding citizens point out that liberal policies enable voter fraud, the lefts response is always that 1) voter fraud hardly ever happens, so 2) you must be a racist. Typically subtle liberal argumentation. Here in Minnesota, a case is pending in our Supreme Court that challenges same day registration and various actions by our Democratic Secretary of State that have enabled illegal voting. I havent yet had time to evaluate the plaintiffs legal arguments, but the factual allegations are explosive: A new voter fraud case before the Minnesota Supreme Court claims 1,366 ineligible felons have cast at least 1,670 fraudulent votes in recent statewide elections, possibly tipping the outcome of close contests, including the 2008 U.S. Senate race. The lawyers representing plaintiffs in the case have done a great deal of digging, and have come up with names, dates and placesillegal votes that likely swung Minnesota elections toward Democratic candidates. The illegal votes that plaintiffs have been able to document are only a small fraction of the actual total: Court papers demonstrate how the incomplete list of ineligible voters provided to local election officials routinely allows felons, wards of the state, immigrants [who are not citizens] and other ineligible persons to register and vote. The 1,366 identified felons who have been permitted to vote is believed to be only a fraction of the true total, the 110 page court petition filed by MVA and former Rep. Kirk Stensrud states. Cooperation from the Secretary of State would have allowed for a more complete accounting of the number of ineligible persons who have been permitted to vote. Minnesotas Secretary of State, Steve Simon, has tried to frustrate investigation into illegal voting by refusing to turn over either to polling places or to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit the complete list, which the state maintains, of those who have lost their voting rights. It is hard to see any possible reason why this list should be a secret, other than the Democrats desire that convicted felons, who overwhelmingly vote their way, get away with voting illegally. This fact is particularly explosive: MVA found 941 ineligible felons who were allowed to vote in 2008 alone, exceeding the 312 vote margin separating DFL candidate Al Franken and GOP Sen. Norm Coleman after a grueling recount. This is stunning. It was Frankens razor-thin victory over incumbent Senator Norm Coleman that allowed the Democrats to ram Obamacare down the throats of the American people. If we assume that 80% of the 941 ineligible felons voted for Al Frankena conservative assumption, as nearly all convicted felons are Democratsthen Frankens victory is attributable to voter fraud. And the 941 ineligible votes are just a fraction of those that could have been identified if the Democratic Secretary of State had not stonewalled, refusing to turn over the full list of ineligible voters. This is a blockbuster story. I dont yet have an opinion on how the legal case will turn out. Plaintiffs allege that the Secretary of States implementation of same day registration violates the Minnesota Constitution, Minnesota statutes, and the principle of separation of powers. The Minnesota Supreme Court may or may not ultimately uphold those legal claims. But, if it is true that more than 1,600 fraudulent votes have been identified by voter name, date and poll location, the Lefts claim that voter fraud is essentially non-existent is blown sky-high. And Al Franken should be turned out of the Senate. Sahara Foundation has flagged off its extrapreneurship initiative with a competition designed to provide a hub for budding film makers to express their skills under the tutelage of ace Nigerian film producer and director, Kunle Afolayan. This competition is the first in a series of activities to mark the 20th anniversary of Sahara Group, a leading African energy conglomerate with operations across four continents. Tagged Grooming Film Extrapreneurs with Kunle Afolayan, the platform seeks to connect young film makers with stakeholders that can help hone their skills to enhance productivity, excellence and sustainability in their careers. The initiative is the maiden project under the Extrapreneurship Framework which is being driven by Sahara Foundation, the corporate responsibility vehicle of Sahara Group. The competition, which runs from July 1, 2016 to July 25, 2016, will require young film makers in Nigeria to channel their creativity into celebrating entrepreneurship in Nigeria by shooting a 15-minute documentary that captures entrepreneurs at work across the nation. The theme of the documentary is: My Nigeria, My PlatformNigeria through an entrepreneurs eyes. While the documentaries will help shape a positive narrative about Nigeria one that captures our enterprise and productivity as a people Sahara Foundation hopes that they would create a hub of shared creativity and thinking in the film industry that will promote and sustain growth. Speaking at the event, Managing Director, Sahara Group, Anthony Youdeowei, said the company believes the initiative would help birth success stories that will transform the economic landscape of Nigeria and Africa through the Arts. This project is an opportunity for Sahara to contribute to socio-economic growth in Nigeria where we have had the opportunity of growing the Sahara Brand for 20 years. At Sahara, we are passionate about Nigeria and believe that the initiative will help shape a narrative of Nigeria that captures our enterprise and productivity as a people, Mr. Youdeowei said. Also speaking on the project, Kunle Afolayan said he was delighted to collaborate with Sahara on the initiative, adding it has been my lifelong dream to play a role in moulding aspiring film makers and this project with Sahara is the ideal platform that might just produce the next big thing in Nigerias movie sector. The 15-minute documentaries are expected to highlight the stories of Nigerian entrepreneurs, with a focus on how their activities are providing sustainable solutions, creating employment and promoting socio-economic development in the nation. The documentaries will be screened by the multiple award-winning Kunle Afolayan and the overall winner will undergo a mentorship programme with the leading film producer and director for six (6) months. Describing the format of the competition, Mr. Afolayan indicated that we will be expecting entries from young film makers across Nigeria, which will be whittled down to a shortlist of 20, a number that is commemorative of Saharas 20th anniversary. These 20 entries will then go on to the final stage from where a winner will be selected. He also added that filmmakers interested in the project must not be more than 35 years old. At the end of the training period, I expect that the overall winner would have improved on overall film making capability, style of storytelling, subject matter interpretation, audio and visual quality, aesthetics as well as understanding of the perspective of a story. More important, the winner will also learn the commercial side of film making so that he or she is not just a good film maker, but also be a wealthy film maker. Kunle Afolayan gained international reputation after Irapada, his 2006 Nigerian supernatural thriller film, won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Film in an African Language. He has produced other award winning movies such as October 1, The Figurine, Phone Swap and The CEO. For more details on the project, please click here http://www.sahara-group.com/docs/extrapreneurship2016_rules.pdf The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative says it is currently partnering the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to tackle financial crimes in the countrys oil and gas sector. Crude oil sale, the major foreign exchange earner for Africas biggest economy, has remained plagued by lack of transparency and massive corruption resulting in huge losses in revenue by successive administrations. The Executive Secretary of NEITI, Waziri Adio, told the Senate recently that the country lost about $9 billion in 2013 alone due to sharp practices in the sector. They said we dont have teeth to bite, and right now weve gone to the EFCC to borrow the teeth, NEITIs Director of Communications, Ogbonnaya Orji, said on Thursday at a journalism training programme for oil and gas reporting in Lagos. The training, sponsored by the Natural Resources Governance Institute (NGRI) held at the School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, Lekki, with participants drawn from different media houses across Nigeria. The NEITI spokesperson said there were some aspects of the NEITIs 2013 audit reports that bordered on financial crimes. He said the transparency agency was currently trying to develop a memorandum of understanding with the EFCC to help investigate those aspects. NEITI does not have the power to investigate or prosecute, Mr. Orji said. We dont have that mandate. We have presented our reports to them (EFCC), and they are looking at the areas where there are infractions. He also spoke of NEITIs independence, saying the agency had been operating without any government interference. NEITI is not influenced in anyway by the government, despite receiving 90 per cent of its funding from the federal government. No administration has ever tried to suppress our independence. No government has tried to censor our reports. Yes, the government provides funding for us, but we have a mandate. If you follow our reports, youll know that we are independent of government, Mr. Orji said. He challenged journalists to find out if there was anything in NEITIs operations or reports suggesting the organization wasnt independent of the Nigerian government. NEITI, the director pointed out, was also working out a partnership with the NRGI and another civic organization in the country, BudgIT, to simplify its audit reports and make them easily understandable for the general public. On NEITIs impact, Mr. Orji said, Because of NEITI, (oil) companies are alert to the fact that there is a team that will always come to check their books. Before now, there were no such checks. The Leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, in this interview with PREMIUM TIMES Festus Owete, Mohammed Lere and Hassan Adebayo, speaks on his defeat in the race for Speaker, why Nigerians are not sympathetic to lawmakers, the huge salaries and allowances earned by the lawmakers and other issues. Excerpts: PT: I am sure not many Nigerians will say this 8th National Assembly Eight Assembly and especially the House of Representatives where you are Leader has impacted their lives and worked for the betterment of the country in the last one year. What is your take on this? Gbajabiamila: You may be right. Many Nigerians will not say so but unfortunately a lot of Nigerians do not understand the work of the legislature. When you talk about impact at the legislative arm of government, it is like even saying what impact the judiciary has on Nigerians. When you talk about impact, direct impact, the work of the legislature is not something you see; its not physical. Its not roads, its not the building of schools, it is not the things a man sees. It is different from a governor or somebody in the executive who can easily point to this and say this is my impact and this is what I have done. The impact of the work of the legislature, I think, is indirect. Its not direct. You make laws. I am sure you heard when I read out the number of bills sponsored at this 8th Assembly in one year. We have about 700 bills and they are bills that impact on Nigerians but they are not things you see. They are not direct impacts. They are not roads that you walk on. They are not schools that you go. As far as the House is concerned, there has been tremendous progress. The House has received several bills perhaps more than the 7th, 6th and 5th assemblies and we will continue to do that. Motions have been raised on the floor of the House on issues that have to do with corruption and the oil industry, issues of agriculture, and practically every face of national life. So, I will say the House has made a lot of impact but not things that you can touch. PT: You are expected to make good laws for the country. But in this area, you (lawmakers) seem to be lacking? Gbajabiamila: Honestly, I dont agree with you. Let me just tell you, just a week ago, I sponsored a students loan bill. Once that bill passes and becomes law, it becomes something that you can see as impactful as it addresses a situation where indigent students cannot pay for school fees. They have their admission letters and these are very smart kids but they cannot pay school fees due to no fault of theirs or maybe because of their situation in life. Then, they go around begging, prostituting and doing all sorts of things. But now you have a bill that establishes an education bank and gives students free loans more or less to pass through school without any interest and you dont have to pay back until two years after you start working. Can somebody tell you that you wont see that as an impact? But there is a process that will take you to the first reading, second reading, public hearing, third reading, concurrence, and then the presidents assent, and then it becomes law. I just mentioned that because it just happened last week. So, I really believe Nigerians should be patient and should not look at legislature like if something happens and the country catches cold, it is the fault of the legislature. No, we are doing our work and we are pursuing our mandate very faithfully. So I can tell you several bills that have impacted on Nigerians. Sometimes, legislature brings up bills and you hear commentaries like that one does not concern us or why dont you face this? As far as the legislature concerns national interest, they think legislature can only face one thing. Legislature is supposed to be able to multi-task. You cant tell me that the problem is health sector therefore I should not look at the other sector and thats what we do and Nigerians should be very patient and begin to follow and observe our proceedings and the bills. Maybe, it will come to the time when we will start publishing these bills on the pages of newspapers, so we can educate people as to what we do. PT: But will you say the crisis you had at the initial period affected your output in the last one year? Gbajabiamila: I dont think so. I think however long it lasted as soon as the crisis was over we bounced back fully. So, there is no crisis in the House anymore. Thats the issue. Like you said, it lasted for one or two months, which is to be expected in politics. But we have since put that behind us and it hasnt affected us. If it had affected us in the first two months, we sure have made up with the number of bills and motions that have been passed on the floor of the House. PT: Is there anything you think can be done to ensure improved compliance with the resolutions of the National Assembly? As National Assembly correspondent, I have seen good resolutions of the house but the level of compliance is low. Gbajabiamila: Firstly, there has to be a reorientation of the executive this time. Motions and resolutions, even in the American system that we copied, do not necessarily have the force of law, but I dont believe there will ever be a resolution passed by the US Congress, even though it does not have the force of law, that the President of the United States or any other executive will dare disobey because of repercussions. It will affect the US if he wants to contest elections because the constituents of the members of the Congress are monitoring those resolutions. And if the President does not obey those resolutions, that can have consequences for him and for his party during re-election. If you disobey resolutions of the Congress, you are disobeying constituents of the lawmakers that pass resolutions. Perhaps why resolutions dont have the force of law here is because the Constitution says the National Assembly shall make law through bills, although theres a section which provides that it can take over the state assemblies. Perhaps a constitutional backing should be provided so that a motion that passes by two- third majority of the Senate and House of Representatives should have a force of law and become binding. PT: Is this part of the constitution review? Gbajabiamila: Yes, thats what I am saying. It will be part of the amendment that we will do because there is no point passing resolutions everyday without compliance. Seventy per cent of the legislative work on that floor is through resolution. Perhaps, only 30 per cent is bills and you cannot make a law through a bill if it is something that needs to be addressed right there immediately. Then, thats why we have resolutions. Things come up every day on daily basis but bills can take a year or two. There are some things that need to be done right there and then. I will take you to the United States. If you disobey the resolution of the Congress, apart from political repercussion back, there are ways, instruments and manners the Congress can use to frustrate you to rein you in. They frustrate budgeting process. They can have financial instruments. They can do all manner of things. But if you do that in Nigeria, because the legislature is held in (and am sorry to say maybe deserved or not deserved) disdain, the Nigerian public will, in most cases, be on the side of the executive. But if you are here telling me that resolutions are not obeyed, those of you who can make it possible for us to rein the executive to obey our resolutions will fight with us if we do that. In America, you have heard of government shutdown by the congress. If you try to do something here they say you are looking for this. It is a loose situation; we are in a very difficult environment as legislators. PT: So was thats what happened during the 2016 budget process? Gbajabiamila: We realized the fact that when the National Assembly is engaged in a sort of battle or some kind of misunderstanding with the executive, we are always at the short end of the stick. Sometimes you just have to allow the executive to have their way because, again as I said, Nigerian public are not sympathetic to us. Even though, at the time and quite honestly, we are fighting their course, they believe you are fighting for yourself. I give you an instance. I will criss-cross the length and breadth of my constituency, campaigning and begging for votes, promising to bring this and that and if you send me to represent you when I get to Abuja I will attract the federal presence to the constituency. A lot of people think the only work of a legislator is to make laws. No! Apart from making laws, there is even a more important mandate that is to attract federal presence to your constituency and the only time you can attract federal presence to your constituency is during the budget cycle. I make promises and based on those promises I am elected. If I dont perform and ensure the promises are captured in the budget, in criminal code, it is called 419, obtaining by false pretence. Nobody knows a minister of health in my constituency. Who do they call? It is the legislator. So, if you tell me I cant include a dilapidated school in my constituency in the budget, then that constituency can never be represented in terms of federal presence because the minister does not know. I am the one that knows the problem in my constituency. Then, you have a Special Assistant to the minister or the minister taking projects to his constituency. But when we told Nigerians during the budget impasse, they said oh legislators they have padded the budget. It is not padding; rather, it is including what your constituencies have told you. In America, an advanced democracy, you hear of earmarks. Legislators dont go home with nothing. PT: But you have constituency projects which you execute? Gbajabiamila: First of all, what I just described the dilapidated schools, transformers, block of class rooms are the constituency projects. I have never executed constituency projects. I have never been given money to do constituency projects. You work to see what is put in your constituency. That is where experience counts. In any legislature, experience counts. What I can put in my constituency, the influence and the experience I am going to bring to bear, a new member may not be able to match. But he will get there to that point too. He will cultivate the relationship and garner experience over the years. Thats how it works. So, the issue of constituency projects the ministries have their contractors who registered with them. All that is required from you is to identify the area in your constituency, the projects you want, they put it in the budget and the ministry puts it in the budget. Some legislators may introduce a contractor to the ministry. Thats not bad. So far the work is done I dont have problem with that. PT: The National Assembly has not refused to give the details of its 2016 budgetary allocation even though they represent the people as you rightly said. Now, you dont defend your budget before any institution but MDAs come to you to defend their budgets. Yet, you have refused to give details of your budget since 2012. Why? Gbajabiamila: Well, my own opinion has always been that, because there is so much demand for transparency, let us publish this thing on the pages of newspaper. Not opening it is more damaging, reason being you hear a lot of speculations, you hear a lot of figures flying, outrageous figures! I always wonder if this was true and want to know if somebody was cheating me somewhere. I believe if you publish your account or budget breakdown, there will be a reasonable man out there that will say oh, my God weve been wrong all along. This is not even enough. How come they pay this as transport allowance for a man who flies to Lagos and back every week. Where does he get the balance? For a man who is representing Ikoyi, how come this is what they pay him for office allowance? This cannot even meet the cost of a room space, not to talk of an office space. In a lot of these things, members have to augment their allowances. Rent is paid across board for everybody. They dont consider whether you are from Ikoyi where rent is expensive or Ekiti where rent is relatively cheap. So thats why I say open this thing, let Nigerians see it and determine whether it is enough or outrageous. It is always good to be objective. I say this because I was one of those outside during that time of N2.5 million to renovate quarters during the first set of members that came to the National Assembly. I was one of those people that were crucifying them. But when I came in, I was shocked because that you are a lawmaker does not mean you should be sleeping on the floor. By the time you put your AC, TV, furniture, fridge, carpet and add all these things, it is way more than N2.5 million. But there we were shouting. PT: Ok. Why is it difficult for you guys, lawmakers, to disclose the exact amount you earn as salary and allowances? Every Nigerian is aware you earn more than what is specified by Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission. Gbajabiamila: Let me say this, every human being whether you are legislator, engineer or student the first reaction (to request to know what one earns) is psychological. It is a lot of privacy. People dont like to disclose them for whatever reason. Whether it is because of your child, dependants or spouse, people just dont want to disclose it no matter how little or big what you earn is. Let us pack that to one side. Two, people dont differentiate between salary and allowance. There is a big difference. And that is why under most tax laws, allowance is not taxed. You dont tax allowance because it is not yours; it is for a specific purpose. When people were comparing earnings of Nigerian and American lawmakers, they were comparing apple and orange. They are comparing an American lawmakers salary with Nigerian lawmakers salary and allowance. Even respected magazines like the Economist are saying Nigerian lawmakers are the highest paid in the world. Of course you will be the highest paid if you are comparing somebodys salary with another persons salary and allowance. Now, I challenge you and I challenge anybody to get on the internet and Google-search American Senators allowances, not salary. I have done the research. We are talking about a minimum of $5 million for an American Senator per annum. Whats my salary as legislator? My salary is under N1m. But you are comparing somebodys salary alone with my own salary and allowance which is meant for another thing. Now, if you want to compare orange and orange or apple and apple, you compare what I earn as salary and that of Americas lawmaker, then, you know whether I am the highest paid or not. Dont forget an American lawmaker does not pay for school fees or rents for his constituents. He does not buy Okada (motorcycles) or pay for naming ceremonies. Of course, I am not bothered. But you compare what demand is made on American Senator and his Nigerian counterpart. PT: Why is it that the average Nigerian despises the legislature? Gbajabiamila: Its because you are the closest to the people. You are from the people and they believe you are now earning too much money. Thats why I always say we should publish these things; so, that people will know what you earn. For instance, on transport alone, I spend not less than N100,000 to and from Lagos a week. Multiply that by four, thats N500,000 a month except you want to drive 12 hours to Lagos. PT: In a National Assembly where there are lawmakers who scarcely come for plenary sessions, sponsor motions and bills, do you really think Nigerian lawmakers deserve what they are earning, even what RMFAC specifies? Gbajabiamila: Two issues: one they dont come to work; and two, they dont sponsor motion or bill. If there is any such lawmaker who doesnt report for duty, I have problem with that. Having said that let me explain why some lawmakers dont attend plenary. The number of seats in the House chamber is almost thrice the number of lawmakers. So, the chamber will always look empty. Two, if you say somebody does not come for plenary, it does not mean he is somewhere sleeping. A lot of members are either in one committee meeting or actually being at the office doing research on a bill or motion you are interested in. Sometimes, you are even receiving constituents. Is that wrong or right? Again, I always like to make comparative analysis. I have been to the American Congress, not once. The US Congressmen, who you in Nigeria think deserve money they get dont just go to plenary. Plenary is for important vote. US Congressmen are there in their offices working. The only time they go to plenary is when there is an important vote. I have been there twice. When there is an issue that is important for them to vote on, when it is time to vote, they leave their offices and register for the vote because in the first place your constituents have to know which side you are. So, while plenary sessions are very important, there are reasons why people miss them. People do important work in their offices. On the sponsorship bill, it is not about number if you expect all members to sponsor bills. Go and do the research, in most advanced democracies, in one year or session, maybe 40-60 bills. Its not about quantity but quality of bills. In a year, in America, Germany or Britain, they pass maybe five bills, but meaningful ones. I have seen all sorts of bills, ridiculous bills on the floor of the House. And the reason why these members are doing this is because of the emphasis people outside are placing on the bills, so you have unnecessary bills. PT: Why is that the House does conclude investigations regarding its members? There is once example, allegation of bribery against Farouk Lawan. Gbajabiamila: A very difficult question to answer! You have to look at it case by case. In Farouk Lawans case, the investigation was overtaken by event. The matter is in court. The guy is facing criminal trial. Now, if you come out with an investigative report and he is found not guilty, it will be prejudicial to the court trial. If he is found guilty, it will affect him, himself, in getting fair trial in court. You can say it is in abeyance because of the court case. We concluded one, involving our member, yesterday. PT: You lost the position of Speaker of the House narrowly. At that point what was on your mind exactly? Gbajabiamila: There was feeling of disappointment. But immediately, I told myself Gods will had been done. I am a very firm believer in God. And you cant question God. Of course there was treachery. The expectation was high. We thought we had it. PT: Whats your take on party supremacy and independent legislature? Youre one of the advocates of independent legislature. Youre saying leadership should emerge by free will of the members yet you were one of those anointed by the party for last years contest. Is there no conflict there? Gbajabiamila: There is no conflict at all. In any democracy in the world you have to understand the party system. Independence of the legislature and the party supremacy are not conflictual. A party can have preference. If a party feels that a man or woman represents and push the ideals, policies and programmes of the party better than this man or woman, the party has the right to have its preference. There was no imposition. Because the party did not want imposition, it called for mock election. If there was imposition, there would be no mock election for members to exercise their free will. So, the party can guide you that this is what we believe best suit our party. But then, you have the right to go ahead to do whatever you want. But later you have to face the party later. You cannot say you dont need the party to guide you but when it is time for election you say you need the party. So, I think the independence of the legislature and party supremacy can work together. Even in America, there is always an establishment candidate. In the coming election, the establishment candidate of the Democrats won but that of the Republicans did not. PT: Are you satisfied with APC performance in the last one year? Are you aware Nigerians are suffering? Do you have any hope in 2019? Gbajabiamila: Am I satisfied? I am satisfied. Are people suffering? Yes. People are suffering a lot, not just suffering. But who is to blame? What is the reason for the suffering? For me, it is two things. One, APC Government met a near comatose destroyed economy. I dont care what anybody says. Completely destroyed! We are witnesses to mind-boggling amount said to have been stolen. We are talking in terms of billions, no more millions in Nigeria. We are talking in terms of dollars. Billions of dollars that was meant to fight Boko Haram which they were accusing APC of sponsoring going into private pockets and sending soldiers with bare hands and if they dont go you court martial them. The second reason is whats going on across the globe. Nigeria only makes money from petrol. Petrol price fell from $100 per barrel to $30. If you are a farmer and one year there is natural plight which destroys your crop, not by your mistake. Thats what happens in relation to the crude oil price. Your children are going to make an incredible adjustment. Buhari came and met $30 per barrel and manage it. Going by trend of the last administration, even that $30 they would steal it. Go to all oil producing countries, they had this hike (pms price) since December. People are suffering, It is terrible. It is called crude awakening. Opposition will say it is the fault of the president but the ruling party will say its what we met. Over 20 suspected Bakassi militants on Friday invaded the Cross River State Governors office in Calabar, apparently to express anger over alleged abandonment of the Bakassi returnees by the government. The group, PREMIUM TIMES learnt, arrived the states seat of power shortly after the Deputy Governor, Ivara Esu, reported for duties. A source, who pleaded not to be named because she is not authorized to speak on the matter, said the suspected militants invaded the Government House at about 10am and for several hours held Mr. Esu and the staff hostage. According to the source, the daredevil militants boldly told the people that they belonged to the Bakassi Volunteer Force. Its leader, who gave his name as Capon, boasted that his group were out to compel the government to release their monthly amnesty stipend, which has been withheld for several months. He noted that the decision to stage the blockade was unanimously taken by the group to draw global attention to the deplorable way the Bakassi indigenes had been treated by the present administration in the state and country. The Capon insisted that Bakassi people, who were displaced when Nigeria handed over their ancestral homes to the Republic of Cameroon, were being treated like slaves by government. He explained that the group had in the past made several efforts to dialogue with the government but said the governor showed no interest in dealing with the problem facing them. Our people are dying hopelessly on a daily basis due to minor ailments that could have easily been treated. We have made attempts to dialogue with the governor several times but he would not give us audience and that is why we are here to demand our little stipend, he said. We are from the Bakassi Volunteer Force, who have been neglected by government. Our people are dying yet the government is not doing anything. We decided to come out here today to let the entire world know what is happening so when we apply violence against the government nobody will blame us. Before the Bakassi Peninsula was handed over to Cameron, both the state and the federal governments benefitted from the proceeds of oil and other business activities from that place. After our homes were handed over, we are treated like strangers in our own land. If the federal government has rejected us, we wont allow our own state too to reject us. We will shut down the governors office if nothing is done in the next few days. When contacted, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Christian Ita, confirmed the invasion by the militants. He said the group was there to express their plight to government but did not disrupt administrative duty. He added that the state Security Adviser, Jude Ngaji, had addressed the aggrieved group while promising to contact the Amnesty office in Abuja. CLEEN Foundation has called on Nigerians to rally support for the ongoing anti-corruption crusade of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration. Wole Ojewale, a Senior Programme officer of the Foundation, made the call at a Town Hall meeting held at Hotel 17, Kaduna, last Wednesday. The theme of the meeting was Fostering citizens support for the war against corruption in Nigeria. Mr. Ojewale made the call against the recent rating of the Transparency International, which ranked the country as 136 among 168 corrupt countries worldwide. He warned that the rating called for urgent need to deploy all necessary measures to stem the tide of corruption in the country. Mr. Ojewale, who decried the attitude of some Nigerians to the anti-corruption crusade, said it has also been observed by a section of Nigerians that the current anti-corruption efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari would achieve very little unless it becomes a paramount agenda that can be pursued at the state and local government levels. This is because public opinion on the fight against corruption differs. For some Nigerians, it is indicative that it is an exclusive agenda of the sitting President that is driven only at the federal level, even though corruption exists at other levels (State and local government institutions and processes). Whereas, some have observed strongly that the war against corruption is selective and targets only politicians of the former administration amongst other assertions, he said. He mentioned joint account operation between states and local government areas, procurement, award of contracts, lack of transparency and monitoring in budgeting processes and implementation as areas where corruption ranks the most in government. He attributed the absence of data, reliable information and poor record keeping by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as a strong factor that had aided corruption at the lower levels of government. While harping on the need for citizens engagement for an open and transparent system of governance, Mr. Ojewale said citizens need to participate in these processes to demand accountability by claiming the space in the fight against corruption at the states and LGAs. He added that as a civil society organization at the forefront of justice sector reforms, CLEEN Foundation believes the essential legal instrument that could assist the citizens to check corruption within state institutions and processes at local level is the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. Mr. Ojewale said Kaduna presented a good starting point to promote the anti-corruption engagements given the goodwill from the state government as expressed in its readiness support efforts for an open society. Sherif Ndasule, Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Kaduna State chapter, in his keynote address at the meeting, said he did not share the sentiment of some Nigerians that the fight against corruption by President Muhammadu Buhari was a witch-hunt against the opposition. He said the Buhari administration has gone headlong in ensuring that this fight is executed to the last. Therefore, the efforts of the administration should be commended and encouraged. He also advised that the issue of corruption should be the concern of all Nigerians, hence, they should not allow any partisan consideration, capable of truncating the fight, to be drawn into it. Similar town hall meetings are planned for Lagos, Rivers and Benue States before the end of the year. The Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Boboye Oyeyemi, on Friday said the agency had concluded plans to commence enforcement of speed-limiting devices in commercial vehicles, including articulated trucks and lorries. Mr. Oyeyemi said a recent decision by the House of Representatives to lift a moratorium on the enforcement of the speed-limiting devices also helped the commission in its decision. The House had in June gave the FRSC the green light to commence enforcement of the devices in vehicles. The House also urged the FRSC to explore other speed-limiting technologies with a view to adopting them. Mr. Oyeyemi made the announcement when he briefed reporters in his office at the FRSC headquarters in Abuja on Friday morning. Following the submission of the committees report and its debate at the plenary of the house, the recommendation for the lifting of the suspension order was adopted and the house has accordingly lifted the suspension order on the enforcement of the device, he said. Consequently, the corps is coming up with a new date for the commencement of the enforcement on the compulsory use of the device as soon as consultation with relevant stakeholders is completed. Mr. Oyeyemi said adherence to the use of speed-limiting devices would help reduce crashes on Nigeria roads, adding that the measure had yielded significant positive results in countries where it had been adopted in recent years. Mr. Oyeyemi, however, said the agency was still working out the frameworks on the implementation of the devices on other passenger vehicles. As Nigerians travel around the country for the Ramadan holiday, Mr. Oyeyemi said he had deployed a total of 31,000 road safety officials on Nigerian roads, including about 15,000 special corps officers, as part of efforts to ensure an accident-free holiday journeys for all Nigerians. The patrol, tagged by the commission as Operation Ed-el-Fitri, would hold daily from July 3rd through 10th. Mr. Oyeyemi also expressed his gratitude to Nigerian motorists for their strict compliance with road safety regulations, saying the perennial campaign of his agency had started yielding results. An early summer stroll through Montanas woods and fields sounds idyllic, but listen carefully and you may hear the echoes of battles fought nearly three quarters of a century ago. Agricultures War on Weeds is a mere skirmish compared to the weeds that went to war for the Allies during World War II. Fields that have not been intensively cultivated in recent decades often still bristle with stiff, dried stalks of henbane. Milkweed pods, currently much valued as the nursery of Monarch butterflies, saved the lives of soldiers at sea, and can be found along roadsides and fencelines. Hemp -- despite its close kinship with marijuana, provided cordage and other textiles in a time of critical shortages. The occasional, surprising appearance of a bright blue flax plant which has escaped fields in which it is raised commercially, is a reminder of WWII troops parachuting out of stricken aircraft and townspeople fighting fires started by incendiary bombs. Even the much maligned dandelion, reputed to have been brought to America by the Pilgrims, had a role to play. Henbane and hemp were both considered war materials, and both were deliberately cultivated in parts of Montana. The history of henbane goes back to ancient times. The name is appropriate, as it is poisonous to poultry, but the more I learned about it, the more I suspected it should be renamed omnibane. Pliny the Elder (A Roman naturalist who died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD) called henbane offensive to the understanding. In Hamlet, Shakespeare refers to the henbane drug as a leprous distilment. The military issued it to troops before the D-Day invasion, believing it to relieve the symptoms of airsickness. It did, but in some cases, it relieved the symptoms by sending men to sleep so soundly that one soldier, recalling the invasion, told how his unit had to march off without him. Others told of symptoms verging on hallucinations, of mouths so dry they couldnt speak. After D-Day, these reports were investigated, confirmed and it was concluded that -- as it did relieve symptoms of airsickness -- it would be issued before all such invasions. According to a retired colonel with combat experience, airborne paratroopers were crowded into slow propeller driven planes. Air quality was less than lovely. As four or five succumbed to airsickness, air quality went from bad to worse. Pretty soon the whole planeload was airsick. The troops had nothing inside to provide energy -- either physical or mental, leaving a bunch of paratroopers unprepared for battle. Instead, take a chance on incapacitating one or two with henbane to be sure the rest are ready. Hemp received good reviews from the War Department. As a variety of marijuana, it had been outlawed, but was re-legalized during the war to meet the need for rope and sacking. One history of the war noted that -- although more than 350,000 acres of hemp were cultivated, there was no increase in the use of marijuana during that time period. This may be because hemp doesnt contain sufficient of the active ingredient of its pernicious cousin to make it sought after -- a disappointing discovery to some adventurous young Montanans a couple of decades after the war. An unnamed source told of a stealthy raid on the fields of North Dakota where it was reputed to grow wild. Returning with a trunkful, they carefully dried it and discovered to their chagrin that they might as well have returned with a trunkful of hay. The seedpods of the kapok tree, in Indonesia, had long provided fluffy strands that were used for life jackets. The war in the Pacific cut off this supply, but similar fluffy strands in milkweed pods provided the same buoyancy, being -- according to one source -- six times as buoyant as cork. Unfortunately, milkweed was not a cultivated crop in this country, so the collection of the pods from roadsides and fencerows became another wartime chore for children. The military needed two million pounds of the floss to fill a little over one million life jackets. Seeds of the milkweed plant were attached to the floss, which would be carried away by the wind. Some small children confused these seed parachutes with the manufacture of actual parachutes, but that credit properly goes to flax: Its tough fibers were used in making parachute harness and casing for fire hoses. As for the poor, despised dandelion, it liberated scarce coffee supplies for shipment overseas to the troops, by providing folks on the home front with a coffee-like drink from its dried and ground roots. Perhaps, like the 65,000 immigrants who served in the armed forces during WWII, it recalled its arrival on the Mayflower: It never forgot its roots. Lyndel Meikle lives in the Deer Lodge area. The Niger Delta Avengers on Saturday said the announcement by the State Security Services to the effect that some of its members were arrested was laughable. In a statement posted on its website, the Avengers, notorious for its wanton destruction of oil and gas installations across the oil-rich region, said the SSS should grant reporters access to suspects in its custody to substantiate its claims that those arrested were members of the militant group. The SSS had said in a statement it distributed on Friday that two members of the Avengers were arrested as a result of intensified surveillance the service recently put in place to forestall criminal activities across the country. The statement, signed by Tony Opuiyo, also said some members of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, as well as other criminal elements in different hideouts across the country, were also arrested in the operation which lasted throughout the month of June. Christian Sensor Oluba and Selky Torughedi were the two individuals with alleged ties to the Avengers who were apprehended while plotting to launch an attack on an oil installation, the SSS said. But in the statement signed by its spokesman, Mudoch Agbinibo, the Avengers faulted the Director General of the SSS, Lawal Daura, for trying to fool President Muhammadu Buhari by giving him a false sense of comfort over the situation in the region. Mr. Agbinibo said the individuals arrested were, in fact, SSS moles whom the department only arrested and labeled criminals after they demanded payment for the clandestine operations they had carried out for the country. The boys have the right to demand for their money from SSS, why not pay them instead of arresting and labeling them as Niger Delta Avengers members? Mr. Agbinibo said. If SSS are (sic) denying this, let them allow the suspects to speak to the press. We (Niger Delta Avengers) dont have any connection with these boys. We dare the SSS to allow the boys to tell the world their side of the story. Mr. Agbinibo admonished security outfits to desist from feeding Mr. Buhari a false narrative about activities across the region, saying the war against oil vandals would not be won if they remained economical with the truth. SSS and Nigerian Army cant win the Niger Delta war by feeding their President with false information about situation of things in the Region. Its all good because as it seems the SSS is now having internal crisis with most of their sleeper agents and its a sign that God is on our side, Mr. Agbinibo said. The Avengers also decried Mr. Dauras alleged indifference to the truth, saying the security chief should imbibe the teachings of his faith as a Muslim. This is to SSS Director Lawal Daura, this the holy month of Ramadan and as a Muslim you hold it to Allah and the Nigeria people to say the truth. Why not come out with the truth? Mr. Agbinibo, therefore, urged the authorities to sort out their matter with the informants, adding that Mr. Buhari should focus on more important issues in the Niger Delta. The Nigerian Army will never get us (Niger Delta Avengers), let them go and settle with their sleeper agents and stop deceiving the general public and their President. There are problem in the Niger Delta region such as underdevelopment, environmental degradation, lack of infrastructure and the issue of self-determination. These are the areas Mr. President should focus on, not arresting their allies and linking them to Niger Delta Avengers, the Avengers said. Thousands of demonstrators gathered in central London on Saturday to march in protest against last weeks vote to leave the European Union, a result that has plunged Britain into political chaos and which most people in the capital rejected. Most protestors were young adults, and many were draped in EU flags while others waved banners proclaiming slogans like Im with EU or simply Wrexit. They chanted what do we want to do? Stay in the EU, as they set off for the Westminster political district. I was genuinely stunned on the morning after the vote, said one marcher, Nathaniel Samson, 25, from Hertfordshire north of London. I feel deeply uncertain about my future, he added. Im on the march to voice my discontentment. I am accepting the result, but its to show that we wont accept it quietly. London voted 60 per cent in favour of remaining in the EU in last Thursdays referendum, with younger voters widely in favour of staying in the bloc, but 52 per cent of Britons overall cast ballots in favour of leaving. Rally organiser, Kings College graduate Kieran MacDermott, said: We can prevent Brexit by refusing to accept the referendum as the final say and take our finger off the self-destruct button. Parliament should have the final say on whether Britain should leave, he told the BBC. The vote to leave has prompted a battle within the ruling Conservative party to succeed Prime Minister David Cameron who said he would resign after the result. The main opposition Labour Party has also turned on itself, with most of its lawmakers in parliament having voted to withdraw support for party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, after what they saw as his lacklustre contribution to the referendum campaign. (Reuters/NAN) Gideon Aremu, Chairman, Oyo State House of Assembly Committee on Information and Security, has been shot to death by gunmen at his residence. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that Aremu (Orelope-Labour Party) was killed on Friday at about 9p.m. while driving into his house at Alakia area of Ibadan Reports say the wife of the deceased was opening the gate for him when two men riding motorcycles shot at Mr. Aremu several times. The armed men waited several minutes afterwards to ensure he was dead and took away just his cell phone a source said. The spokesman for the State Police Command, Adekunle Ajisebutu, confirmed the assassination of the lawmaker. Mr. Ajisebutu said the Commissioner of Police in the State had directed the commencement of thorough investigation into the killing. The Deputy Speaker of the House, Musah Abdul-Wasi, described the incident as a rude shock and a great loss to the entire state and the country. Mr. Abdul-Wasi said the deceased believed in securing a great future. It is regrettable he is not going to see that future, he was supposed to be conferred with PhD by the University of Ilorin next week. He has collected his gown and invited his colleagues and friends to the graduation, it is very sad, he said. (NAN) The Osun State Government on Saturday announced the schedule of the year 2016 Eid-el-Fitri free train ride between Lagos and Osogbo, the state capital. The train rides, the government said, will commence on Tuesday, July 5. The government is extending the welfarist gesture to residents despite facing severe financial hardship that has made it difficult to pay workers salaries. According to the government, the free train ride is in line with the Rauf Aregbesola administrations tradition of facilitating convenient movement of its citizen in and out of the state during festive seasons. A statement from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Cooperatives and Empowerment disclosed that the free train would start on Tuesday and end on Saturday. The statement said the free train would convey people from Lagos to Osogbo on Tuesday July 5 by11am. Similarly, the return journey from Osogbo to Lagos was fixed for Saturday, July 9 at 11am prompt. According to the statement, the provision of the free train ride is with a view to facilitating a hitch-free homecoming during the Muslim festival period. Similar arrangements apply during every eid el-Kabir, Christmas and Easter celebrations. This gesture is from the government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to the people, to provide the opportunity for indigenes and non-indigenes, who would like to visit the state during the festive period. The free train ride commences with the ascension to power of Aregbesola in 2010 and has been a regular gesture from his government to the people during Christian and Muslim festival periods since 2011. This government wants transportation comfort for its citizens, who hitherto normally encounter hardship and fare hikes during the festive periods, the statement noted. The Government therefore enjoined people from Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States to utilize the free train opportunity offered by the Aregbesola government to come home and celebrate the sallah with their relatives. Glacier, Teton, Pondera and the northern portion of Lewis and Clark counties have reached Drought Alert status. In a letter to county commissioners, Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney, who chairs the Governors Drought and Water Supply Advisory Committee, said the region has experienced two consecutive years of low snowpack, early runoff and minimal subsoil moisture. June precipitation in the four-county area was in the range of 25 to 50 percent of normal. With an early spring runoff due to a warmer than average April and low snowfall along the Rocky Mountain Front, Stephanie Micek with the Bureau of Reclamation said in late May that irrigation water from Gibson Dam on the Sun River could run out nearly a month early. The Drought Alert designation does not carry any official status with respect to state or federal disaster assistance programs. Rather, it is intended to give high visibility to the continuing impacts of drought in your county and the likelihood that conditions will further deteriorate in the absence of precipitation if the heat, sun and wind of summer continue in the coming weeks, Cooney wrote. The alert means the governors committee strongly encourages local officials to convene local drought committees, according to the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. At the upcoming meeting of the governors committee on July 14, committee members will assess the latest water supply, soil and climate conditions across the state. More counties could be added to Drought Alert status at that time, and some areas could be declared in Severe Drought. 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. NEW YORK, July 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC is deeply saddened by the death of Elie Wiesel. He was 87 years old. A Holocaust survivor, best-selling author, and professor, Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. "The world has lost a unique voice and moral conscience from the darkest chapter of human history, but Elie Wiesel's legacy, through the power of his many books, speeches and actions, shall live forever," said AJC CEO David Harris. "Wiesel's life was an inspiring, indeed towering, example of an individual's willpower to overcome the worst of human evil, keep alive the memory of six million murdered Jews, and stand guard throughout against the dangers of extremism, indifference and historical amnesia." "And who can ever forget how he spoke truth to power, when he appealed directly to President Ronald Reagan to reconsider his planned visit to the military cemetery in Bitburg, Germany, where Nazi officers were buried?" Harris added. AJC interacted regularly with Wiesel, a child survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, after he moved to the United States in 1956. He addressed a number of AJC audiences over the decades. In his seminal roles fighting to free Soviet Jews from the Kremlin's oppression, speaking out against genocides in Bosnia and Darfur, helping found the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, defending the miracle of Israel's rebirth and well-being, and confronting escalating anti-Semitism, AJC was an admirer and supporter. His earliest AJC encounter was with the late Abraham Karlikow, who served as an AJC staff member for 35 years, first in Europe after the war and, later, in the U.S. Karlikow helped thousands of refugees and Holocaust survivors, including Elie Wiesel, to rebuild their lives in Europe. In 2013, Karlikow's widow, Joanne, recalled when Wiesel approached her husband at a conference in France in the early 1990s. "Wiesel hugged Abe and told him how happy he was to see him again. Then Wiesel told me that when he was a refugee in 1949 and went to the AJC for help, Abe found him a job, a place to live, and they became friends. Wiesel also told me how he appreciated Abe's work to help so many Jews from around the world," she told the Forward. AJC honored Wiesel with the global Jewish advocacy organization's highest honor, the American Liberties Medallion, in 1972. "Elie Wiesel believed that being Jewish means not necessarily seeking to make the world more Jewish, but rather more human," said Harris, who knew Wiesel for years. "That is the goal animating our people, through good times and bad, from the very beginning of this extraordinary historical journey to the present day. Elie Wiesel powerfully helped advance that aim during his extraordinary life of courage, purpose and meaning. May his memory always be for a blessing and an inspiration!" SOURCE American Jewish Committee Related Links http://www.ajc.org LOS ANGELES, July 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The first of July came and went with relatively little fanfare. Nothing special on the news, traffic before the holiday is flowing as expected, and a whale carcass floated onto Dockweiler Beach- 'so sad' one onlooker pointed out. Thousands of dollars will undoubtedly go into figuring out the cause of the whale's death and prevention, but not a single media outlet asked: "How is Marlene Pinnock doing two years later?" July 1st may be of little significance to the masses, but for Marlene Pinnock it marks the second anniversary of her internationally viewed videotaped beating on the side of the 10 Freeway in Los Angeles. Marlene Pinnock is the great-grandmother viciously beaten on videotape by former C.H.P. officer Daniel L. Andrew. A recent twist to her story is how African-American Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey was re-elected unopposed after failing to prosecute Daniel Andrew for Marlene Pinnock's videotaped beating. D.A. Lacey did not even try fight for Marlene Pinnock. Win or lose- she could have at least tried. One can respect the advocate who tries and fails as oppose to a so-called advocate for the "People" who makes no attempt at all. So who really cares about Marlene Pinnock? Not Jackie Lacey, not Lacey friend/bankrupt Judge Otis Wright, not exploitive reporters Joe S., Jessica T., Kate M. or Richard W. (Follow on: Twitter @AttyCareeHarper for upcoming articles: "Who polices the media?" and "Should bankrupt federal judges be allowed to maintain lifetime appointments- An Invitation to Bribes"). It goes without saying that if an older White female was straddled and punched repeatedly by a Black officer on videotape there would have been a prosecution within days. If the passerby used deadly force on the Black cop viciously beating the White woman - he would likely walk after trial George Zimmerman style or never face prosecution in the first place. In a culture where it is all too commonplace that we eat dinner to the videotaped murder of Black folks (ie. Eric Garner and Tamir Rice) luke-warm bureaucrats like Jackie Lacey remain unscathed in what looks like a betrayal to the community courted during her first election: the Black community. She failed to do the right thing after the killing of young Kendrec McDade and now Marlene Pinnock, arguably the most notable cases in her tenure as District Attorney yet she was rewarded with re-election. Why? Were we all sleeping when she slipped back on the ballot for re-election unopposed, or have we all given up? D.A. Lacey's failure to even comment publicly on either case will likely not impede her anticipated run for the Attorney General spot currently occupied by Kamala Harris if Ms. Harris is elected to the Senate after a run-off election this November against formidable candidate U.S. Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez. Will we remain asleep through the November elections or will we hold our public officials accountable and make them state their opinions on excessive force? Marlene Pinnock continues to be treated at a local county facility after efforts to have her treated privately failed--hampered by Pinnock's estranged daughter, Maisha Allums. Ms. Pinnock's health is declining rapidly in the L.A. County facility. Ms. Pinnock's story may be viewed as old news, and it no longer "trends" on social media, but the Marlene Pinnock case still matters. And although she was a mere a footnote in the local Black Lives Matter activities and protests, she is an important chapter in the national discussion on excessive force. Let the federal government hear your concern about the Marlene Pinnock case and request they do what D.A. Lacey refused to do; charge Daniel Andrew for the violent felony on Marlene Pinnock: Lawrence Middleton, Chief Criminal Division The U.S. Attorney's Office Central District of California Criminal Division 312 N. Spring St. 12th Fl. Los Angeles, CA 90012 (213) 894-2400 About the author: Caree Harper - attorney in the following cases: Marlene Pinnock, Kendrec McDade, Clinton Alford, Michelle Cooks, Walter DeLeon, and she recently defended seven Black Lives Matter activists accused of blocking a Los Angeles freeway after the grand jury in Ferguson failed to indict White male police officer Darren Wilson, for shooting unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. Due to the jury trial work of lead counsel, Caree Harper, all charges were ultimately dismissed against all defendants. SOURCE Law Offices Caree Harper Related Links http://www.careeharper.com Readers were asked to vote for their favorite patriotic attractions from a pool of 20 nominees, including the Colonial Williamsburg, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Statue of Liberty, Boston's Freedom Trail, etc. over a four week period of voting. Nominees for all categories were chosen by a panel of relevant experts which include a combination of editors from USA TODAY; editors from 10Best.com; relevant expert contributors; and sources for both these media and other Gannett properties. Rules allowed the public the right to vote online for one nominee per category, per day. Voting closed on June 28, 2016. The winners are listed here: http://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-patriotic-attraction/ . The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, which opened in June 2012 and is owned and operated by Historic Tours of America, is situated over the same body of water where the Boston Tea Party took place on December 16, 1773. The museum tells the story of the events leading up to the Boston Tea Party and immediate aftermath that led to the start of the American Revolution. The museum provides a unique immersion experience in history by representing key events in from 1773 to 1775, through live actors, tea [crate] throwing off authentically resorted tea ships, high-tech interactive exhibits, and an award-winning multisensory film, Let it Begin Here. On display at the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum is the Robinson Half Chest, one of only two known surviving tea chests from the original Boston Tea Party (the second is owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution in Washington DC). The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum is open 7 days/week from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. (summer/spring) and from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. (fall/winter). Tours run every 30 minutes in the fall/winter and every 15 minutes in the spring/summer and last 1 hr. "We are humbled and honored to be awarded 'Best Patriotic Attraction' among such an esteemed group of nominees," says Shawn P. Ford, Executive Director of the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum. "Every day, the entire team at the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum is passionate about telling and teaching the story The Boston Tea Party, celebrating and recognizing its significance in American History. We could not be more proud to have received this recognition and thank everyone who voted for us. " Coming up in December 2016, The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum and the Old South Meeting House team-up to host the annual Boston Tea Party Reenactment which takes places every December 16 with hundreds of reenactors. This year will mark the 243rd anniversary of The Boston Tea Party. This annual reenactment, one of the largest moving theatrical reenactment performances in the United States, is an opportunity for the public to experience one of America's most iconic public protests, live, where reenactors bring to life the story of The Boston Tea Party and theatrically recreate the evening of Dec., 16, 1773. It begins with a fiery tea tax debate at Old South Meeting House, the actual historic hall where the colonists gathered to protest taxation without representation. Then, the public joins a lively procession to the waterfront, and watch as the Sons of Liberty destroy hundreds of pounds of actual [expired] tea direct from London's East India Company into Boston's historic harbor at the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum. The 243rd Boston Tea Party Anniversary & Annual Reenactment will be taking place this year on Fri., December 16, 2016. For more information go to: www.december16.org. ABOUT USA TODAY AND 10BEST.COM: USA TODAY is a multi-platform news and information media company. Founded in 1982, USA TODAY's mission is to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation. Through its unique visual storytelling, USA TODAY delivers high-quality and engaging content across print, digital, social and video platforms. An innovator of news and information, USA TODAY reflects the pulse of the nation and serves as the host of the American conversation today, tomorrow and for decades to follow. USA TODAY, the nation's number one newspaper in print circulation with an average of more than 1.6 million daily, and USATODAY.com, an award-winning newspaper website launched in 1995, reach a combined 6.6 million readers daily. USA TODAY is a leader in mobile applications with more than 16 million downloads on mobile devices. USA TODAY is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. 10Best.com provides users with original, unbiased, and experiential travel content of top attractions, things to see and do, and restaurants for top destinations in the U.S. and around the world. The core of the site's uniqueness is its team of local travel experts: a well-traveled and well-educated group who are not only experts in their fields - and their cities - but discriminating in their tastes. These local experts live in the city they write about so the content is constantly updated. ABOUT BOSTON TEA PARTY SHIPS & MUSEUM: The Boston Tea Party, "the single most important event leading up to the American Revolution," occurred the night of Dec. 16, 1773. With the grand opening in June 2012, the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, owned and operated by Historic Tours of America, is dedicated to accurately reliving and representing a key time in history (1773 to 1775). Through actors, tea throwing reenactments, high-tech interactive exhibits, authentic replica ships: the Beaver and the Eleanor and an award-winning multisensory film, Let it Begin Here. The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum is open 7 days/week from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. (Summer/Spring) and from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. (Fall/Winter). Tours run every 30 minutes in the fall/winter and every 15 minutes in the spring/summer and last 1 hr. Closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum was voted 'Best New Museum' by Yankee magazine in the '2012 Best of New England Issue' and 'Best of the New 2012' by Boston Globe Magazine. To learn more visit www.bostonteapartyship.com or call 1-855-(TEA)-1773. The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum is located at 306 Congress St. on the Congress St. Bridge, Boston, MA 02210. MEDIA CONTACT: Stephanie Loeber Loeber Communications Ph: 617-510-0577 E-mail: [email protected] Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160702/385857 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160702/385856LOGO SOURCE Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum Related Links http://www.bostonteapartyship.com NEW YORK, July 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- True freedom lies not in the strength of our armies but in our ability to celebrate our independence under the open skies with family and friends. A long weekend means as many plans and possibly even a small getaway. That necessarily does not mean staying away from sending your wishes on 4th of July. With our mobile website and app, sending greetings has never been so flexible. Be it inspirational wishes, or just to let your loved ones know they are missed on 4th of July, our range of cards cover every emotion. The happiness about being free, the joy of fireworks, the courage of our brave to keep us free or the pride in being an American, can all be beautifully expressed using the cards you find on our site. To make sharing convenient for our users during this busy weekend, we have the 123Greetings App available on the Apple App Store and Android Play Store. Simply pick a card, personalize it with a message and #ShareOnTheGo with your family and friends. Arvind Kajaria, Founder, 123Greetings.com says, "With changing times, the mode of communication has changed. From e-mail to Whatsapp messages, we have ensured to evolve with you. So even while we are celebrating an historical event, our means of sending 4th of July wishes, I must confess are modern." About 123Greetings: 123Greetings.com is the world's leading online destination for human expressions reaching 95 million visitors annually. Its offering of over 42,000 ecards across multiple languages covers a mix of 3,000 seasonal & everyday categories. Its presence is ubiquitous with its Mobile App, Mobile Website and Facebook App catering to users on mobile and social media respectively. Its Connect feature is a relationship management tool enabling users to actively manage their expressions to both personal and professional contacts. It also operates 123Greetings Studio, a unique platform for artists, to upload and monetize their own ecards. For details, visit 123greetings.com SOURCE 123Greetings Related Links http://123greetings.com ANAHEIM, Calif., July 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SafetyHeroes.org is pleased to present the 7th annual fundraiser benefitting the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund on Tuesday July 5, 2016 from 6 to 8 p.m. at City National Grove of Anaheim. The event will be hosted by Safetyheroes.org Founder, Mark J. Peacock of the Law Offices of Mark Peacock, and will raise proceeds in support of Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160701/385803 The annual fundraiser will welcome and celebrate hundreds of local law enforcement, fire and military personnel including both active and retired members from various LA and Orange County Police Departments, Redondo Beach Police, Huntington Beach Fire, Orange County Fire Authority, Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, Long Beach Police & K9 Units, Anaheim Fire, California Department of Corrections, U.S. Marines, Huntington Beach Fire and more. Guests will enjoy a GONZO inspired performance by activist and American rock legend, Ted Nugent. 100% of the proceeds raised will benefit The Semper Fi Fund. SafetyHeroes.org Founder, Mark Peacock comments, "Safety personnel do an incredible job for their communities, dedicating their working lives to make our own safer. We owe them our gratitude and support. Ted Nugent is always there to help - we love you Uncle Ted!" The Semper Fi Fund directs urgently needed resources to post 9-11 members of the Marine Corps, Army, Air Force and Coast Guard who serve in support of Marine forces. The non-profit provides relief for financial hardships that arise during hospitalization and recovery as well as assistance for those with perpetuating needs. The programs provide support in a variety of ways including service member and family support, specialized and adaptive equipment, housing and transportation, education and career transition assistance, therapeutic arts and Team Semper Fi. Those interested in attending the SafetyHeroes.org fundraiser on July 5 and learning more about the organization can contact [email protected] or call 949-660-7762. Media Contact: Mark Peacock Safetyheroes.org Email: [email protected] Tel: (949) 439-9395 Media Inquiries for Ted Nugent: Linda Peterson Email: [email protected] Tel: (517) 750-9060 Related Images image1.jpg image2.jpg This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com SOURCE SafetyHeroes.org Related Links http://www.safetyheroes.org BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, July 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Arcor S.A.I.C. (the "Purchaser"), Itau BBA USA Securities, Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Santander Investment Securities Inc. (together, the "Dealer Managers") today announced the tender results and settlement of the previously-announced offer by the Purchaser to purchase for cash from each registered holder (each, a "Holder" and, collectively, the "Holders") any and all of its outstanding 7.25% Fixed Rate Notes due 2017 (the "Notes") issued by the Purchaser under the indenture dated as of October 27, 2010, as supplemented by the supplemental indenture dated November 9, 2010 (the "Offer"). The Offer expired at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on July 1, 2016 (such date and time, the "Expiration Date"). The Purchaser has been advised that, as of the Expiration Date, U.S.$51,317,000 in aggregate principal amount of Notes, or approximately 25.66% of the Notes outstanding, have been validly tendered and not validly withdrawn pursuant to the Offer. Notes accepted for purchase will be paid in full by the Purchaser on July 7, 2016 (the "Settlement Date"). The Settlement Date in respect of Notes with respect to which a properly completed and duly executed notice of guaranteed delivery (the "Notice of Guaranteed Delivery") was delivered at or prior to the Expiration Date (to the extent that such Notes were not delivered prior to the Expiration Date) that were accepted by the Purchaser for purchase in the Offer will be July 7, 2016 (the "Guaranteed Delivery Settlement Date"). The Offer was made by the Purchaser pursuant to the offer to purchase dated June 22, 2016 (the "Offer to Purchase") and the related letter of transmittal (the "Letter of Transmittal") and Notice of Guaranteed Delivery (together with the Offer to Purchase and Letter of Transmittal, the "Offer Documents"). The principal purpose of the Offer was to acquire any and all of the outstanding Notes. The Purchaser intends to finance the purchase of the Notes with the proceeds of a concurrent issuance its U.S.$350,000,000 6.000% Notes due 2023. The table below summarizes certain payment terms for the Notes and the aggregate principal amount of Notes to remain outstanding: Description of Notes CUSIP / ISIN Nos. Principal Amount Repurchased Purchase Price* Principal Amount to Remain Outstanding 7.25% Fixed Rate Notes due 2017 CUSIP: 03965PAB7 / P04559AB9 ISIN: US03965PAB76 / USP04559AB98 U.S.$51,317,000 U.S.$1,018.13 U.S.$148,683,000 ________________ * Per U.S.$1,000 principal amount of Notes. In addition, Holders will receive accrued interest up to but excluding the Settlement Date. Holders who had validly tendered and not withdrawn their Notes at or before the Expiration Date are entitled to receive U.S.$1,018.13 per U.S.$1,000 principal amount of the Notes (the "Purchase Price"), on the Settlement Date . In addition, Holders whose Notes were purchased in the Offer will receive accrued and unpaid interest in respect of their purchased Notes from the last interest payment date to, but not including, the Settlement Date. For the avoidance of doubt, accrued interest will cease to accrue on the Settlement Date for all Notes accepted in the Offer, including those tendered by the guaranteed delivery procedures set forth in the Offer to Purchase. The obligation of the Purchaser to pay for Notes validly tendered pursuant to the Offer, or Notes with respect to which a properly completed and duly executed Notice of Guaranteed Delivery was delivered at or prior to the Expiration Date, is subject to, and conditioned upon, the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions as set forth in the Offer Documents, in the sole discretion of the Purchaser. The terms and conditions of the Offer are described in the Offer Documents previously distributed to the Holders. The Information and Tender Agent for the Offer is Global Bondholder Services Corporation. To contact the Information and Tender Agent, banks and brokers may call +1-212-430-3774, and others may call U.S. toll-free: 866-470-4200. Additional contact information is set forth below. By Mail, Hand or Overnight Courier: By Facsimile Transmission: 65 Broadway, Suite 404 (for eligible institutions only) New York, NY 10006 +1 212-430-3775/3779 USA Attention: Corporate Actions Attention: Corporate Actions Confirmation by Telephone E-mail: info[email protected] +1 212-430-3774 Any questions or requests for assistance or for additional copies of this notice or the Offer to Purchase may be directed to the Dealer Managers at their respective telephone numbers set forth below or, if by any Holder, to such Holder's broker, dealer, commercial bank, trust company or other nominee for assistance concerning the Offer. The Dealer Managers for the Offer are: Itau BBA USA Securities, Inc. 767 Fifth Avenue, 50th Floor New York, New York 10153 United States of America Attention: Liability Management Group U.S. Toll Free: +1-888-710-6749 Collect: +1-212-710-6749 J.P. Morgan Securities LLC 383 Madison Avenue New York, New York, 10179 U.S.A. Attention: Latin America Debt Capital Markets U.S. Toll Free: +1-866-846-2874 Collect: +1-212-834-7279 Santander Investment Securities Inc. 45 East 53rd Street 5th Floor New York, NY 10022 USA Attention: Liability Management U.S. Toll Free: +1-855-404-3636 Collect: +1-212-940-1442 E-mail: [email protected] This notice does not constitute or form part of any offer or invitation to purchase, or any solicitation of any offer to sell, the Notes or any other securities in the United States or any other country, nor shall it or any part of it, or the fact of its release, form the basis of, or be relied on or in connection with, any contract therefor. The Offer is made only by and pursuant to the terms of the Offer to Purchase and the related Letter of Transmittal and Notice of Guaranteed Delivery, and the information in this notice is qualified by reference to the Offer to Purchase and the related Letter of Transmittal and Notice of Guaranteed Delivery. None of the Purchaser, the Dealer Managers or the Information and Tender Agent has made any recommendations as to whether holders should tender their Notes pursuant to the Offer. Documents relating to the Offer, including the Offer to Purchase, the Letter of Transmittal and the Notice of Guaranteed Delivery, are also available at www.gbsc-usa.com/arcor. This notice to the market does not represent an offer to sell securities or a solicitation to buy securities in the United States or in any other country. This notice to the market is released for disclosure purposes only, in accordance with applicable legislation. It not does not constitute marketing material, and should not be interpreted as advertising an offer to sell or soliciting any offer to buy securities issued by the Purchaser. This notice to the market is not for distribution in or into or to any person located or resident in the United States, its territories and possessions, any state of the United States or the District of Columbia or in any jurisdiction where it is unlawful to release, publish or distribute this announcement. Forward-Looking Statements This notice includes and references "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may relate to, among other things, the Purchaser's business strategy, goals and expectations concerning its market position, future operations, margins and profitability. Although the Purchaser believes the assumptions upon which these forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, any of these assumptions could prove to be inaccurate and the forward-looking statements based on these assumptions could be incorrect. The matters discussed in these forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results and trends to differ materially from those made, projected, or implied in or by the forward-looking statements depending on a variety of uncertainties or other factors. The Purchaser undertakes no obligation to update any of its forward-looking statements. SOURCE Arcor S.A.I.C. Related Links http://www.arcor.com If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Agartala, June 27 : The Union Home Ministry and the state governments of the northeast region have expressed discontent over the slow progress of fencing work along the India-Bangladesh border, an official has said. "Various state governments and MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) have expressed dissatisfaction over the slow progress of works for erection of fencing along the India-Bangladesh border," a senior Tripura home department official said. "The MHA had sanctioned erection of barbed wire fencing along the 4,096-km India-Bangladesh border around 15 years back. So far, approximately 3,000 km has been fenced," he said. "To accelerate the work of fencing, the MHA had engaged five central government agencies and state PWDs (Public Works Departments). The performance of National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd. (NBCC) and National Projects Construction Corporation Limited (NPCC) is very poor in this regard," the official said on condition of anonymity. Union Home Ministry's Border Management Secretary Susheel Kumar, who is on a visit to Tripura and earlier visited Meghalaya, Assam and West Bengal, asked the NBCC and NPCC to speed up their work and to complete the fencing in Tripura by March 2017. The other central government agencies working for border fencing are the Engineering Projects (India) Ltd, Border Roads Organisation and the Central Public Works Department. "MHA has asked all the agencies to complete the border fencing works in the rescheduled timeframe," the Tripura official added. "As per international norms, the barbed wire fencing is being erected 150 yards from the zero line of the border. Where there are problems, the fencing is being erected at the Zero Line after consulting the Bangladesh government," he added. Tripura government officials told Union Secretary Kumar that pending land acquisition cases, protests by the local people and delay in getting forest clearance are some of the major hitches in completing the fencing in time. Kumar has said district magistrates and collectors have been asked to talk to the people in case of any negative public perception regarding the fencing. He also said the state government officials should amicably resolve the issue of shifting the population along the border. On Sunday, Kumar held a meeting with Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and discussed various border-related issues, besides interacting with the BSF troopers. (Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in) New Delhi, June 29 : The Supreme Court will examine to what extent courts can look into Muslim personal law, including triple talaq, if they violate the fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution. An apex court bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar said on Wednesday that it was an important issue concerning a large number of people and there were divergent views on the issue. "We have to hear all of them and take a call to what extent courts can interfere in the Muslim personal laws if courts find they are in violation of the fundamental rights," the bench said. Describing the matter as serious and directing the next hearing on September 6, the court asked the parties to frame the issues. The bench asked all the contesting parties, the central government included, to file their responses. The court order came as it was told that the central government had not filed its response. The bench headed by Chief Justice Thakur is hearing a PIL on the rights of Muslim women in the context of alleged arbitrary divorce by pronouncing triple talaq. A bench of Justice Anil R. Dave and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goal had on October 16, 2015 issued notice to Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi and the National Legal Service Authority as it directed the separate listing of a PIL addressing the question of the rights of Muslim women. Appearing for two petitioners, senior counsel Indira Jaisinh told the court that the personal laws should be subject to the regime of the fundamental rights. The question that the court should address is "Whether the personal laws are subject to the regime of fundamental rights", Jaisinh told the bench. Senior counsel Anand Grover backed the position taken by Jaisinh. Grover had appeared for interveners Zakia Soman and Noor Jahan. He said triple talaq had no sanction in Islam. Opposing the plea urging the court to examine the question of gender discrimination in Muslim personal law in the context of fundamental rights, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board said that most of the issues being agitated before the court have already been settled. The Board said the Muslim personal law were from the holy Quran and Ahadith of the Prophet and were not covered by Article 13 of the constitution. Thus it could not be tested on the touchstone of fundamental rights. The bench on Wednesday refused to restrain the AIMPLB from speaking on the subject and the media from reporting them. Appearing in person, advocate Farha Faiz had urged the court to restrain the AIMPLB from issuing "misleading statements" which were causing confusion and the media from carrying them. The bench said that for now it would not restrain any one. Farha Faiz runs an NGO Muslim Women's Quest for Equality and is national president of the Rashtrawadi Muslim Mahila Sangh, which is associated with the RSS. Assailing the AIMPLB, Farha Faiz wondered how a registered society could become the custodian of Muslim personal law. "They say that Supreme Court can't interfere in their matters even if they are wrong," she told the bench, asking if that was so, where then was need for a constitution and constitutional courts. New Delhi, June 29 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the CBI on a plea of retired passport official Lalitha Lakshmanan to quash criminal and corruption charges against her in underworld don Chhota Rajan's fake passport case. Justice I.S. Mehta hearing the plea of Lakshamanan sought the Central Bureau of Investigation's response by July 8. Lakshmanan, along with two other passport officers Jayashree Dattatray Rahate and Deepak Natvarlal Shah is facing trial on allegations of criminal conspiracy, cheating, impersonation and forgery of documents. The CBI in its chargesheet alleged that gangster Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje alias Chhota Rajan got a fake passport issued in the name of Mohan Kumar from Bengaluru in 1998-99 in connivance with Rahate, Shah and Lakshmanan. The three are out on bail while Rajan is in judicial custody. Lakshmanan, who worked in a regional passport office at Bengaluru, has sought the charges framed against her e quashed. On June 8, a trial court framed the charges against Chhota Rajan and others in the fake passport case. Lakshmanan, 62, in her plea through advocate Satyanarayan Vashishth said that June 8 order of the trial court was "illegal, incorrect, improper, bad in law and without jurisdiction". She also said the investigating agency did not obtain sanction for prosecution under the Passports Act and Criminal Procedure Code prior to initiation of the proceedings against her. The plea said that in the year 1998-1999 she was posted as an assistant at the Regional Passport office in Bangalore when the alleged passport was issued to Chhota Rajan. "There is lack of territorial jurisdiction for the trial court at Delhi to try the offences against her and others since the alleged passport was issued at Bangalore and nothing has happened in Delhi," the plea added. Rajan was allegedly involved in over 85 cases, ranging from murder to extortion, smuggling and drug trafficking. He has cases pending against him in Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and with the CBI. The don, held by the Indonesian police on October 25, 2015, was deported to India on November 6, 2015. Hyderabad, June 29 : The judges of subordinate courts and lawyers in Telangana continued their protest on Wednesday over the suspension of 11 judges by the Hyderabad High Court. More than 150 judges extended their mass leave till July 15 to protest suspension of 11 of their colleagues by the High Court. The High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad, which serves both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, suspended two judges on Monday and nine more on Tuesday for participating in a rally to protest allotment of Andhra-origin judges to subordinate courts in Telangana. The judges, who went on mass leave on Tuesday, decided to extend it indefinitely after the High Court suspended nine more of their colleagues. The lawyers in Telangana also continued their protest across the state. The high court turned into a fortress as police beefed up security to foil the 'Chalo High Court' agitation called by the lawyers' Joint Action Committee. Four lawyers were arrested when they tried to break through the security cordon to proceed towards the High Court building. The lawyers staged protests at various courts in Hyderabad and nine other districts. A scuffle broke out between the protesting lawyers and police at Sangareddy court in Medak district. The protesters were trying to lock the court premises. The High Court took action against the judges after they participated in a march to Raj Bhavan which was organised by the Telangana Judicial Officers' Association to protest the appointment of Andhra-origin judges. They also submitted their resignations to association President Ravinder Reddy, authorising him to forward the same to Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan, who is their appointing authority, after July 2 if the provisional list of allotment was not recalled by then. Meanwhile, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao called on the Governor. He is believed to have discussed the issue of the bifurcation of the High Court and the ongoing protest by judges and lawyers. Rao had sent a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday, urging him to expedite the process of bifurcation. The Chief Minister had also urged him to issue a notification to take up division and allocation of judicial officers and staff after the High Courts of the two states start functioning separately. Union Law Minister Sadananda Gowda is expected to meet the Chief Justice of India on Wednesday evening to discuss the issue. Earlier, leaders of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and opposition parties met Gowda urging him to expedite the process of bifurcation of the High Court. Mumbai, July 1 : Continuing the upward trend evinced all this week, healthy macro-economic data and positive global cues lifted the Indian equity markets higher on Friday. The key indices were seen trading with appreciable gains during the mid-afternoon trade session, with healthy buying witnessed in capital goods, health care and oil and gas stocks. The barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 27,064.33 points, traded at 27,202.27 points (at 2.10 p.m.) -- up 202.55 points or 0.75 per cent from the previous close at 26,999.72 points. It has so far touched a high of 27,243.36 points and a low of 27,061.40 points. The BSE market breadth was tilted in favour of the bulls -- with 1,580 advances and 997 declines. The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) edged up to 8,346.55 points -- up 58.80 points or 0.71 per cent. The benchmark indices on Thursday touched their highest intra-day levels in the last eight months. The barometer index surged by 259.33 points or 0.97 per cent, while the Nifty edged up by 83.75 points or 1.02 per cent. Initially on Friday, the key indices opened on a positive note, in sync with their Asian peers. The US and European markets also ended higher after a Bank of Europe announcement of rate cuts to protect the economy from the fallout of Brexit. Besides, healthy manufacturing activity data for last month lifted investors' spirits. The manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data released on Friday showed a rise of 51.7 per cent in June from May's 50.7 per cent. "The Indian markets continued to recover from last week's losses. Healthy PMI data for last month, released today, have also remained supportive of prices," Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, told IANS. United Nations, July 2 : As terrorists struck a massive blow in the region Friday, India called for quick action to adopt the long-stalled Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) and expressed disappointment that the General Assembly failed to push for its early adoption. Speaking at the General Assembly while Islamic State terrorists were carrying out an attack in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave and taking hostages, India's Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin said, " The perpetrators of terrorist attacks as well as the States that support and sponsor or provide safe havens to terrorists or terrorist groups must be made accountable." Urging all nations to adopt the CCIT by the next session, he said that India was disappointed that the resolution on Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy adopted by the Assembly failed to advance its early enactment. Adopting it "would show that the international community is determined and pledges to take concrete actions on counter-terrorism by filling in the gaps that are there in the existing regime," he said. The resolution lacked a sense of urgency as it merely called upon "all States to make every effort to conclude a comprehensive convention on international terrorism." Akbaruddin later explained to IANS that India's "disappointment was that we would have preferred stronger language" in the resolution about the CCIT, "basically setting a finite time frame for adoption of CCIT." The convention was originally proposed by India 20 years ago and its draft has been deadlocked since 2012 because of differences on defining terrorism and terrorists. Certain countries claim they are "liberation movements" and "freedom fighters" and try to exempt those that they favor. "No belief, justification, political cause or argument can be used to justify the acts of terrorism," Akbaruddin said in his speech to the Assembly. The failure to adopt the convention, Akbaruddin said, "signals that the exponential rise in terrorist activities around the world has left us untouched." He reiterated India's suggestion to create a counter-terrorism czar at the UN to oversee the fight against terror across the organisation and "convey a clear signal that counter terrorism has a significant place on the UN agenda." "Currently there are nearly 40 entities involved in different ways in the fight against terrorism," Akbaruddin said. "It would, therefore, be useful to have a senior official or an entity to coordinate the entire range of activities and bring more focus to such activities." In working towards an international framework to fight terrorism, he said that India has concluded more than 40 bilateral treaties on extradition and mutual legal assistance and has set up joint mechanisms to discuss counter-terrorism with more than 25 countries. The Assembly resolution urged nations "that have not done so to consider becoming parties in a timely manner to the existing international conventions and protocols against terrorism." , Masud Bin Momen, the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh, noted that at that very moment a situation involving "armed assailants" was unfolding in his country. He called for making adequate funds available for implementing counter-terrorism initiatives. The Assembly resolution asked member nations "to prevent the abuse of non-governmental, non-profit and charitable organisations by and for terrorists,." It urged these organisations to prevent attempts by terrorists to take advantage of their status. The French under-secretary in charge of counter-terrorism, Catherine Calothy, also called for efficient coordination in UN's efforts and avoiding duplication. She added, "There can be no effectiveness without coordination." Russian diplomat Vladimir Andreev also denounced the attempts to legitimise some terrorists. He said, "Politically driven practices in dividing terrorists into the 'bad guys' and the 'not-so-bad guys' had seen the destabilization of the Middle East and North Africa." (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in) Washington, July 2 : After its historic first-ever flyby of Pluto, NASA's New Horizons mission has received the green light to fly onward to an object deeper in the Kuiper Belt. The spacecraft's planned rendezvous with the ancient object named 2014 MU69 -- considered one of the early building blocks of the solar system -- is January 1, 2019. "The New Horizons mission to Pluto exceeded our expectations and even today the data from the spacecraft continue to surprise," said NASA's Director of Planetary Science Jim Green. "We're excited to continue onward into the dark depths of the outer solar system to a science target that wasn't even discovered when the spacecraft launched," he added. In addition to the extension of the New Horizons mission, NASA said the Dawn spacecraft should remain at the dwarf planet Ceres rather than changing course to the main belt asteroid Adeona. "The long-term monitoring of Ceres, particularly as it gets closer to perihelion -- the part of its orbit with the shortest distance to the sun -- has the potential to provide more significant science discoveries than a flyby of Adeona," Green noted in a statement. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN), the Opportunity and Curiosity Mars rovers, the Mars Odyssey orbiter, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), and NASA's support for the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission have also got extension. Srinagar, July 2 : Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday participated in the traditional Puja and 'Darshan' at the Amarnath Cave Shrine and paid obeisance at the Hazratbal Shrine in Srinagar. Rajnath Singh on Saturday morning flew in a helicopter to the Himalayan cave shrine of Amarnath in Anantnag district of South Kashmir. He was accompanied by Governor N.N. Vohra who is also the chairman of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) that manages the affairs of the annual yatra which started this year on Saturday. Rajnath Singh and Vohra participated in the special Puja inside the shrine to herald the beginning of this year's 48-day long yatra. Both of them prayed for peace and development in the country. "Feeling extremely blessed after visiting the Holy Cave at Amarnathji this morning (Saturday). Jai Baba Bholenath!," Rajnath Singh tweeted after visiting the shrine. Later, the home minister paid obeisance at the Hazratbal Shrine in Srinagar. State Director General of Police K. Rajendra Kumar accompanied Rajnath Singh during his visit to the Hazratbal Shrine situated on the banks of the Dal Lake in Srinagar city. Singh on Friday reviewed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir at a meeting which was attended by Vohra and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti besides other senior officials, central intelligence and security force agencies. He was briefed about the steps taken for ensuring security of the pilgrims during the yatra in which lakhs of people participate every year. "The meeting deliberated upon the strategic issues pertaining to situation in the state with particular reference to development projects," officials said. "During the meeting a range of issues pertaining to the state were discussed. Rajnath Singh assured of positive outcomes on the issues of opening of more LoC routes for trade, giving permission to foreigners to visit Ladakh including Nubra Valley, quick resolution of land related issues and increasing ex gratia payment to families of martyred police personnel," officials said. The minister also instructed the CRPF and the BSF to explore the possibility of conducting special recruitment drives in Jammu and Kashmir. Earlier, state government sources said all officials who are part of the unified headquarters will be present during the meeting. The unified headquarters is the apex security grid in the state formed to create synergy among various intelligence agencies and security forces engaged in anti-militancy operations. Rajnath Singh is scheduled to fly back to New Delhi in the afternoon. Dhaka, July 2 : Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday vowed to root out terrorism from the country after Islamic State terrorists laid siege to a Dhaka cafe that left six of the militants dead while 13 hostages were rescued. In an address to the nation after the end of the 12-hour-long overnight siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan area in the diplomatic zone, Hasina said her government would not allow any terrorist activity in Bangladesh. She also lauded the country's First Para Battalion, Army, Navy and Air Force for the "successful operation" against the Islamic State terrorists who attacked the cafe late on Friday. "I congratulate the forces for the successful operation against the terrorists," the Prime Minister said, adding, "We could save 13 lives, but lost a few. Six terrorists were neutralised and one was captured alive." She also said that no devout Muslim can kill innocent people. "In this holy month of Ramadan, how could they kill people," Hasina said. "What sort of Muslims are they," she asked. Dhaka, July 2 : Bangladeshi security forces on Saturday morning rescued some 13 hostages and gunned down six gunmen, ending a long drawn-out siege at a cafe in Dhaka that began Friday, officials said. The standoff between government forces and suspected Islamic State militants, which also left two policemen dead, began Friday evening after heavily armed gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in the high-security Gulshan diplomatic zone. "The operation is over," Brigadier General Mujibur Rahman declared, nearly 12 hours after the siege began and gunmen took some 20 people hostages. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that 13 hostages were rescued and condemned the "extremely heinous act". "What kind of Muslims are these people? They don`t have any religion," Hasina said in a televised address to the nation. "People must resist these terrorists. My government is determined to root out terrorism and militancy from Bangladesh." Officials said that the 13 rescued hostages included four foreigners. The identity of the rescued hostages was not immediately known. The fate of other captives was also unknown. Police declared them missing. But bdnews24.com citing an unnamed senior police officer said bodies of some foreigners have been found inside the restaurant amid fears that the gunmen may have slit their throats during the siege. However, this could not be confirmed independently. Officials said security forces were conducting mopping operation at the site and so far bodies of six gunmen have been found. "We have gunned down at least six terrorists and the main building is cleared but the operation is still going on," said Tuhin Mohammad Masud, a commander of the elite Rapid Action Battalion: Earlier, army men and navy commandos stormed the cafA to bring an end to the deadly siege in the morning after night long intermittent exchange of fire and explosions. Armoured vehicles moved in the Gulshan neighbourhood. At least two police officers were killed in earlier exchanges of fire and 30 police officers were injured. The Bangladeshi branch of the Islamic State claimed the attack through its mouthpiece, the Amaq news agency, saying 24 people "of different nationalities" were killed and 40 others were injured. Officials citing witnesses said the gunmen shouted 'Allahu Akbar' (God is great) when they stormed into the cafA and began firing blanks. This is for the first time that militants in Bangladesh have held foreigners hostage. But the deaths in the attack are the latest in a series of dozens of deadly attacks by Islamic State and Al Qaeda-linked militants targeting progressive academics, writers, activists and religious minorities in the majority Muslim country. The attack came just hours after a Hindu priest was killed in Bangladesh on Friday. The attack drew calls for Bangladesh government to act against terrorism firmly. Neighbouring India called for quick action to adopt the long-stalled Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) and expressed disappointment that the UN General Assembly failed to push for its early adoption. "The perpetrators of terrorist attacks as well as the states that support and sponsor or provide safe havens to terrorists or terrorist groups must be made accountable," India's Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin said, speaking at the General Assembly. London, July 2 : In its bid to erase all traces of ISIS (also Islamic State or IS), Facebook has asked a terror group namesake to send her proof of ID to continue using the social network. Isis Thomas, a resident of Bristol in Britain, was asked to change her name after logging on to the site on June 27, RT.com reported on Saturday. Isis is the Egyptian goddess of health, marriage and wisdom. Thomas assumed that the social networking giant was referring to her surname. "I was on Facebook as Isis Worcester, because when I first signed up years ago I didn't use my real name, which is Isis Thomas, because of where I worked at the time," she told a local newspaper. "I thought it was about the surname, so I just changed it to Isis Thomas. But that didn't work and I realised they had a problem with me being called Isis," she added. Facebook sent her a message saying "Isis is not allowed" as it "didn't comply with policy". Thomas was asked for her "proof of identity," which she duly sent. But she fears that satisfying the social network's criteria may take a little more. Besides innocent people, some companies too have faced problems in the past due to their names. The US-based $7.2 billion Isis Pharmaceuticals had to change its name to Ionis Pharmaceuticals in December 2015 due to its name having negative connotations. A 35 years old US bookstore was also reportedly vandalised due to it being called Isis Books & Gifts. New Delhi/Karachi, July 2 : A Dalit Hindu reporter working with Pakistan's state-run news agency says he has slipped into depression after facing discrimination from his Muslim boss. Sharing his ordeal with IANS over telephone from Karachi, Sahib Khan Oad, who works with the Associate Press of Pakistan (APP), said his agony began when his Bureau Chief -- and colleagues -- realised in May that he was not a Muslim but a Hindu, that too a Dalit. He said the situation in his office "drastically changed" after his religious identity became known. He alleged that Bureau Chief Parvez Aslam told him to use separate utensils for eating at his work place. Oad has now gone on indefinite leave on the advice of a doctor after suffering from depression. "I am a Khan but I am not a Muslim," Oad told IANS, speaking in Urdu. Oad said he was now being pressured by his boss to retract his statement. "He wants me to say that all such reports circulating in the media are lies," he said, adding that Aslam had even threatened him, saying: "If you can take extreme measures, so can we." APP Karachi Bureau Chief Aslam has termed the allegations against him as "misleading" and "baseless". He said there was "no discrimination against any minority member working at the APP on any basis, let alone religion". He denied Oad was mistaken for a Muslim earlier due to his surname "Khan". "As a matter of fact, all his (Oad's) colleagues were well aware that he was a Hindu by religion but there was no discrimination against him at any stage." He said his colleagues were under the impression that he was a Muslim since "my first and middle names sounded Islamic". It all unravelled, according to Oad, on May 29 when he introduced one of his sons, Raj Kumar, to his colleagues who were amazed and asked him if he was a Hindu. But Oad makes it clear that his other Muslim colleagues in the APP office in Karachi have nothing against him. Indeed, the larger journalistic fraternity in Karachi -- Pakistan's port city -- has offered him moral support but he alleged that his boss was reluctant to accommodate him. Asked why he uses "Khan" in his name, Oad said he and many Dalit Hindus in Dadu district of Sindh province did so to avoid being routinely discriminated against in day to day life. Sindh province is home to a majority of Pakistan's three million Hindus. In Pakistan, minorities often face threats from Muslim extremists, who are also known to abduct Hindu women. Oad was transferred to the Karachi bureau from Islamabad on April 11 this year. He said this was the first time he had faced discrimination in his five years as a journalist. Pakistan's national media has come out in support of the father of three. Sindh Minister of Culture Sharmila Farooqui assured him "every possible help and a probe into the incident". (Aadil Mir can be contacted at aadil.hussain@ians.in) DECATUR Being unable to reach things on high shelves is the sort of thing children can relate to easily. As part of Camp Connections' Innovators project, campers were given a task by representatives of Kroger: come up with a solution for cutomers who have that problem. Friday was the last day for the Decatur School District's summer camps. The regular school year will begin Aug. 17. People often have trouble reaching the highest shelves, especially when the item is pushed back, said Meriijha Branson, one of the camp counselors. The kids were divided into groups and instructed to work together to come up with a solution. Collaboration and teamwork are important skills in today's work world, Branson said. One group devised the Shelfie, which is a short, flat stepstool. One of the problems they had while designing it was that the PVC pipe used for the legs wasn't as strong as they wanted it to be. How did you solve your problem? asked Julie Fane, principal of French Academy, who was one of the panel members for their presentations on Friday. It was kind of hard to do something we weren't ready for, said Kennedi Jenkins, a member of that group. We worked together and figured it out. Another group created the Gripanator, which is something like an accordion-hinged grabber. We were going to put claws on it but we realized that wouldn't work like we thought it would, said Caidyn Glick. The finished product uses straight pegs instead of claws. The Handy Helper is a step that fastens to a shopping cart, allowing shoppers to wheel the cart up to the shelf and step up to reach items. Chloe Hayes and Jordan Coins said they tried and rejected several ideas that were too difficult to carry around the store. We didn't want to clog traffic, Jordan said. SMASH Jr. campers were given the task this summer of determining what problems faced their community and what they could do, even at their age, to address those problems. They decided to raise awareness and encourage change by making tiled murals. Two murals are finished and awaiting new homes. Topics range from helping homeless animals to keeping Decatur beautiful. They got the idea from the murals downtown. We're hoping to get these hung up at the Children's Museum (of Illinois) or somewhere in the community, said counselor Tara Russell. We want to get the positive message out. Jalaya Norman and Cheris Lewis chose bullying as their theme, and created a playground scene with a boy and a girl to represent bullied kids. We've both been bullied before, Cherish said. They're passionate, and they have wonderful ideas and wonderful solutions, Russell said. Dhaka, July 2 : Islamic State militants slaughtered at least 20 civilians, most of them foreigners, with sharp weapons before security forces on Saturday morning rescued 13 hostages and gunned down six gunmen, ending a long drawn-out overnight siege at a Bangladesh cafe popular with both locals as well as foreign visitors, officials said. "Most of the victims were killed brutally with sharp weapons," Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury, director of military operations, told reporters here, after the deadly standoff between government forces and suspected Islamic State militants ended. Officials were still trying to ascertain the nationalities of those killed. He said security forces after the "Operation Thunderbolt" recovered bodies of 20 victims lying on the blood splattered floor of the restaurant along with unexploded IEDs, sharp weapons and a communication device. Tuhin Mohammad Masud, a commander of the elite Rapid Action Battalion, said one of the gunmen, who was injured in the shootout, has been arrested. "We have gunned down at least six terrorists." The attack, which also left two policemen dead, began Friday evening after heavily armed gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery, a popular hangout for foreigners, in the high-security and affluent Gulshan diplomatic zone of the Bangladesh capital. The neighbourhood was considered safe with high walls security guard booths and gated driveways at many entry points of the enclave. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the "extremely heinous act" and said 13 hostages were rescued. "What kind of Muslims are these people? They don`t have any religion," Hasina said in a televised address to the nation. "People must resist these terrorists. My government is determined to root out terrorism and militancy from Bangladesh." Officials said that the 13 rescued hostages included many foreigners, including a Japanese and two Sri Lankans. At least eight Japanese citizens were among the hostages. Earlier, army men and navy commandos stormed the cafA to bring an end to the deadly siege in the morning after night-long intermittent exchange of fire and explosions. Armoured vehicles moved in the Gulshan neighbourhood. At least two police officers were killed in earlier exchanges of fire and 30 police officers were injured. The Bangladeshi branch of the Islamic State claimed the attack through its mouthpiece, the Amaq news agency, saying 24 people "of different nationalities" were killed and 40 others were injured. Witnesses narrated chaos as the gunmen shouted 'Allahu Akbar' (God is great) when they stormed into the cafA and began firing blanks. Cafe worker Sumon Reza said he escaped as the gunmen came in. The Daily Star reported that hostages were made to recite verses from the Quran and those who could were not harmed. "The others were tortured by the gunmen," said Rezaul Karim, father of one of the hostages Hasnat Karim, told the daily. Karim had gone to celebrate his 13-year-old daughter's birthday along with his wife and son Rayan, 8. The family was rescued early in the morning. This is for the first time that militants in Bangladesh have held foreigners hostage. But the deaths in the attack are the latest in a series of dozens of deadly attacks by Islamic State and Al Qaeda-linked militants targeting progressive academics, writers, activists and religious minorities in the majority Muslim country. The attack came just hours after a Hindu priest was killed in Bangladesh on Friday. The attack drew calls for Bangladesh government to act against terrorism firmly. Neighbouring India called for quick action to adopt the long-stalled Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) and expressed disappointment that the UN General Assembly failed to push for its early adoption. "The perpetrators of terrorist attacks as well as the states that support and sponsor or provide safe havens to terrorists or terrorist groups must be made accountable," India's Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin said, speaking at the General Assembly. Dhaka, July 2 : Unidentified assailants hacked a Hindu priest with sharp weapons on Saturday leaving him severely injured in Bangladesh's Satkhira district, a day after the killing of a Hindu priest in Jhenidah district and a Buddhist man in Bandarban. Bhabasindhu Bor, priest of the local Sree Sree Radha Govinda temple in Brahmarajpur village of Satkhira Sadar Upazila, is undergoing treatment at Satkhira Sadar Hospital in critical condition, the Daily Star quoted a police official as saying. At 3.30 a.m., seven to eight assailants knocked at the door of the priest's house. When the victim opened the door thinking it was the night guard, they stormed into the house and attacked him. Hearing the screams of the victim and his family members, neighbours rushed to the spot. The assailants entered the temple after they tied up two local security guards posted in the area, bdnews24.com reported. "The attackers left thinking Bhabashindu was dead. Locals, alerted by the two guards, rushed him to the hospital in critical condition," the police official said. The incident occurred while a popular cafe in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka was being attacked by seven Islamic State gunmen. New Delhi, July 2 : In order to improve the skill sets of Indian workers going abroad for employment, especially to Gulf countries, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship on Saturday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) here for implementation of the Pravasi Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PKVY). "PKVY is a skill development initiative of the Ministry of External Affairs in partnership with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and is aimed at training and certification of Indian workforce keen on overseas employment in select sectors and job roles, in line with international standards, to facilitate overseas employment opportunities," an External Affairs Ministry statement said. "The scheme will be implemented by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) through its training partners in consultation with the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship," it stated. The MoU is significant in view of the emphasis being laid by the government to improving the skills of Indian workers going abroad, especially in search of blue collar jobs in the Gulf. Around 7-8 lakh Indian workers go abroad every year for employment. Just last month, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Qatar, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship signed an MoU with the Gulf nation's National Qualifications Authority/Supreme Education Council in skill development and recognition of qualifications. The bilateral MoU aims to enhance cooperation between the two countries on skill development and mutual recognition of qualifications to facilitate mobility of skilled workers from India to Qatar. Now, as part of the collaboration between the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, potential emigrant workers may avail work-related skill training under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) or any other similar government skill development programme, which would take place at transnational standards "The Ministry of Skill Development through NSDC proposes to establish customised international skill centres to operationalise this initiative," the External Affairs Ministry statement said. "The Ministry of External Affairs' role would be to support Pre-Departure Orientation Training (PDOT), which will include language and soft skills training modules. Training offered will also be backed by an internationally recognised assessment and certification system." Saturday's MoU was signed by Dnyaneshwar M. Mulay, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, and Sunita Chibba, Senior Adviser in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in the presence of Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh and Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy. At the MoU signing ceremony, Sushma Swaraj emphasised that this collaborative effort between the two ministries would enhance overseas employment opportunities for Indian workers, boost the Skill India Mission and was an important step towards the realisation of Prime Minister Modi's vision of transforming India into the skill capital of the world. New Delhi : It has taken two years but, finally, Narendra Modi appears to have found his feet. In a recent interview, he demonstrated his grip on the situation by covering wide areas of national and international affairs. The earlier silences on crucial issues such as the rampages of saffron mobs and the snide attacks on selected targets by self-appointed saviours of the nation are no longer in evidence. Given his command performance of over 90 minutes (on TV), it is odd that he does not engage in more such interactions with media personnel either singly or collectively. Such an initiative will dispel the impression that he is wary of the press, probably because of his experience during and after the Gujarat riots. Along with wide-ranging press conferences, Modi can indulge in more humorous exchanges, shedding his present inhibitions born of the "fear", as he has admitted, of the media taking a word of his comments out of the context and blowing it out of proportion. His apprehension that humour can be "risky" is unwarranted. So is the belief in the media's mischievousness. Of all the leaders, he is better placed than anyone else to inject an element of wit and drollery in public life because of his own and his party's secure political position and his high personal ratings. Neither Sonia Gandhi nor Rahul Gandhi can afford to look at the funny side of things if only because there may not be any in their view. It is the same with the regional orders. Even the stability of their political positions does not make Mamata Banerjee or Jayalalitha or Nitish Kumar any less tense. In Modi's case, however, his body language during the interview underlined his confidence. The reason apparently is his success in pinpointing both his successes and difficulties. At home, Modi has had no hesitation in stating that only one party has been stalling parliamentary debate. In foreign affairs, he is happy about the warmth of the relations with the US and concerned about the hurdles posed by the multiple centres of authority in Pakistan. China is a problem, but it has been told that the government will not hesitate to take care of India's interests. That should make it less adventurous in the border areas. That the prime minister referred to the positive editorials in American newspapers after his visit to the US emphasized the disadvantages of keeping Indian journalists, except one, at arm's length which, according to a saffronite, has set off a "fratricidal war" in the media. Such an interpretation, which maliciously distorts the competitive nature of journalism, is the adverse fallout of being selective -- which doesn't suit a prime minister. Interestingly, Modi's criticisms were all veiled. He did not name the Congress for its obstructionism, nor Subramanian Swamy for his publicity-seeking stunts. But the snubs have hit their mark, especially where Swamy is concerned. The prime minister's advice to the media not to make "heroes" of the hotheads was also well directed since there has been a tendency in the Third Estate to single out relatively minor incidents of saffron excesses to slam the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Sangh parivar. Notwithstanding the confidence which the prime minister displayed, his assurances on development in the context of the Uttar Pradesh elections are more likely to be believed if the BJP visibly dissociates itself from the Hindutva extremists by showing that it doesn't consider them to be "heroes". Since Uttar Pradesh is the biggest prize to be won before the next general elections, it will prove the veracity of Modi's assertion vis-a-vis the unstable ground reality in the state. If, as Modi believes, the new generation only believes in development, the BJP should have no hesitation in shunning the militants in its ranks. In that case, the party should be able to repeat its outstanding feat of 2014 when it won 73 of the state's 80 parliamentary seats. But, as of now, the signs are not wholly reassuring. Even then, it is to Modi's credit that he has been able to turn the focus on his party's policies to development from the militant Hindutva of the 1990s. The next step is to further illumine the present-day "bright spot" of the Indian economy amid the encircling gloom of the international economic scene, as the World Bank group president, Jim Yong Kim, has said. In this field, the test lies in ensuring the parliamentary passage of the goods and services legislation, which now has a greater chance because of the increasing support to the government by the regional parties. Its passage cannot but create an atmosphere of buoyancy. Once this hurdle is crossed, it is only the fraught relations with China and Pakistan which will be a matter of worry. In other respects, the country's forward march is obvious as in satellite technology and military preparedness. (Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com) New Delhi, July 2 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he spoke to his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina on Saturday and condemned the "despicable attack" in Dhaka. "My thoughts are with the bereaved families. I pray that those who are injured recover quickly," the Prime Minister said in a series of tweets. "The attack in Dhaka has pained us beyond words. I spoke to PM Sheikh Hasina & strongly condemned the despicable attack," he said in another tweet. Modi asserted that India "stands firmly with our sisters and brothers of Bangladesh" in this hour of grief. An Indian girl, Tarushi Jain, was among the 20 hostages killed by Islamic State terrorists in the siege on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had earlier revealed in a tweet. Dhaka, July 2 : Heavily armed militants chanting "Allahu Akbar" asked their hostages at a popular eatery here to recite Quranic verses to know who among them were Muslims. Others were hacked to death, according to one of the many eyewitness accounts of the gory Bangladesh carnage that has shocked the world. The Daily Star citing a father of a hostage said the militants who stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery, a popular hangout for foreigners in the high-security and affluent Gulshan diplomatic zone of the Bangladesh capital, performed a religion identity check on their captives and asked them to recite the Quran. Those who recited verses from the holy Muslim book were spared, the daily said. "The others were tortured by the gunmen," said Rezaul Karim, father of one of the hostages Hasnat Karim. Hasnat had gone to celebrate his 13-year-old daughter's birthday along with his wife Sharmin Parvin and son Rayan, 8. The family was rescued early in the morning. Rezaul quoting his son said the gunmen did not behave "rough with the Bangladesh nationals" and provided dinner to all of them. He said the gunmen killed all the foreign nationals dining in the eatery by 11 Friday night. By the end, five gunmen sustained bullet injuries and "probably died". Hasnat's mother told Bangladesh News 24 that Parvin, her daughter-in-law, was treated well "as she was wearing a hijab (veil)". Some of the other witnesses said they saw militants, one of them armed with a sword and the others carrying "small firearms with big magazines" raiding the restaurant. The men shouted 'Allahu Akbar' (God is great) on their way in and started firing at the dozens of guests inside -- several of them foreigners, the restaurant's supervisor Sumon Reza, who managed to escape, was quoted as saying by Bangladesh News 24. The restaurant has 50 staff but only 20 were present at the time of the attack. A kitchen staff of the bakery, who managed to escape, said the chief chef was among the hostages. "They set off several crude bombs triggering panic." Gruesome pictures emerged on social media showing the inside of the bakery, splattered with blood and broken furniture. Kochi, July 02 : Communist Party of India (CPI) District Secretary P Raju has threatened legal action against Ernakulam District Collector M G Rajamanickam over the latters charge that the CPI leader asked him to extend undue favours to Harrisons Malayalam Limited, which is engaged in a land dispute with the government. Coming down on the Collector, the CPI leader challenged him to prove the charges against him. Saying that he would quit politics should the Collector prove his allegation, Mr. Raju added that he would take legal action against Rajamanickam. Significantly, the Collectors allegation against the CPI leader comes close on the heels of the CPI Ernakulam unit accusing the Collector of being corrupt and the District Administration of being inactive. P Raju had the other day charged Rajamanickam with indulging in large-scale corruption in the land deal involving a company in which controversial godman Santhosh Madhavan is a partner and in the Bhoomigeetham programme. The CPI leader had demanded the suspension of the Collector and a detailed probe into their charges. Rome, July 2 : Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Saturday condemned the terror attack at a cafe in Dhaka as he confirmed that Italians were among the 20 killed by Islamic State gunmen. Renzi said he would not disclose any more details until the families of the dead are notified, itv news reported. "Facing the tragedy of radical Islam, Italy is united and will not back-track in the face of the madness of those who want to destroy the life we live everyday," Renzi is quoted as telling a news conference in Rome. According to reports, eight Italians were among those killed in the Holey Artisan cafe in the Bangladeshi capital. Islamic State (IS) militants slaughtered at least 20 foreigners, including an Indian girl, with sharp weapons before security forces rescued 13 hostages and gunned down six terrorists on Saturday morning, ending a long drawn-out overnight siege. Agartala, July 2 : With Tripura remaining cut-off from the rest of the country for more than a month, efforts are on to transport foodgrains and fuel to the northeastern state through Bangladesh, a minister said here on Saturday. "The Food Corporation of India and Indian Oil Corporation have taken steps to transport foodgrains, petrol and diesel through Bangladesh. For this, the Guwahati-Dawki-Dharmanagar route and Bangladesh's Ashuganj river port would be used," Tripura Revenue and PWD Minister Badal Chowdhury told IANS. For over a month supply of essential commodities has been hit after the National Highway (NH-8) was badly damaged due to rain and water-logging. Following the Tripura government's appeal and the central government's intervention, IOC and FCI were prompted to take steps to transport foodgrains, petrol and diesel for Tripura through Bangladesh. In 2015, the Bangladesh government had allowed FCI to transport 35,000 tonnes of rice in different phases to Tripura through Bangladesh, using the Ashuganj river port and Bangladesh highways. Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on Friday held an emergency meeting with PWD Minister Chowdhury, officials of IOC, FCI, railways, PWD and transport departments. Chowdhury said: "If the central and Assam governments would have taken steps earlier to repair the NH-8, then Tripura would not have suffered. The Centre should be much more responsible for easing the sufferings of the northeastern states which are affected due to lack of proper surface connectivity." Chowdhury said top officials of the National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation, and PWD departments of Tripura and Assam on Saturday visited the troubled areas. Tripura PWD minister also talked to his Assam counterpart, Parimal Suklabaidya, and sought his personal intervention to overcome the crisis. Meanwhile, in a tweet, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said he has instructed officials to work on a war-footing to restore the NH-8 to improve connectivity with Tripura. Following the shortages caused by the disruption of both rail and road traffic, prices of essential commodities have increased in Tripura. An official of the food and civil supplies department said almost all the 60 petrol pumps in the state are dry for the past several weeks. Over 1,000 tankers carrying fuel from Guwahati are stuck in Assam's Karimganj district, adjoining northern Tripura. Petrol is being sold at Rs 200-250 per litre here. Tripura and other northeastern state are dependent on the highways for supply of essentials from across India. Tripura is badly affected because the 585-km NH-8 -- its only connection with the rest of India through Assam and Meghalaya -- was severely damaged at Lowerpoah in Assam and Churaibari adjoining southern Assam. About a 20-km stretch of the NH-8 has turned into a marshy field after heavy downpour, water-logging and unfavourable soil condition. The situation worsened as the train services between Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and southern Assam and the rest of India were cancelled for about two months due to the damage to railway tracks in mountainous Dima Hasao district in Assam. "We are trying to restore the train services within a week. Our workers and engineers are working round-the-clock to restore rail services," Northeast Frontier Railways Chief Administrative Officer Ajit Pandit told IANS. Bhubaneswar, July 2 : Normal life was paralysed on Saturday in eight KBK districts of Odisha by a dawn-to-dusk shutdown called by the Congress party to push for "proper implementation" of the Forest Rights Act 2006. The party also protested against the arrest of former Nabarangapur MP Pradeep Majhi and his associates. Shops and business establishments remained closed in eight undivided KBK districts: Kalahandi, Bolangir, Koraput, Sonepur, Nuapada, Nabarangpur, Malkangiri and Rayagada. The Congress workers blocked roads by burning tyres and picketed many places, bringing traffic to a halt. "The state government is taking credit by distributing land pattas to more than three lakh tribals. But in reality, the government has not executed the Forest Rights Act properly," Congress leader and former Kalahandi MP Bhakta Das said. The state government has betrayed the tribal people by giving only pattas while there was no identification of land, he said. Das said the state government sent the Congress demonstrators to jail to suppress their voice. Former Nabarangpur MP Pradeep Majhi and 18 other Congress workers were arrested on June 25 for allegedly ransacking a range office of the forest department during a demonstration demanding land pattas for tribals. They were released on conditional bail on Saturday. Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee President Prasad Harichandan claimed that the shutdown was successful. He said people spontaneously participated in the movement to show their support for the cause. Rabi Narayan Nanda, a leader of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), said the Congress party is shedding crocodile tears. He said the shutdown call given by the opposition party has had no effect in KBK districts as the tribals are always with the government led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. DECATUR Public schools can breathe a little easier now in Illinois. On Thursday, the General Assembly approved a stopgap budget that will fund education and other essentials such as road construction and human services at least through the end of the calendar year. The good news for schools is that they will receive their full foundation grant amount, instead of the prorated amount they've been receiving for the past several years. Decatur schools will receive $2.8 million in additional funds, for a total of $45.3 million, said Todd Covault, chief operational officer for Decatur schools. The district qualified for the additional funds due to a high level of poverty. We do know now that we can function through the school year, he said. This is great news for the district. A list came out a couple of days ago (from the state board) and we were 70th on the list from the bottom out of 850 districts. "We need to build up our cash reserves. We don't have plans to bring back programs and hire staff, but we don't need to make any additional cuts. Gov. Bruce Rauner, while upbeat about the agreement, said reform negotiations must continue. We faced a crisis when the (General Assembly) super-majority left in May with no budget, Rauner said in a news conference on Thursday to announce the stopgap spending agreement. We were obviously going to be in dire circumstances come July 1 (the first day of the new fiscal year). We faced the grave risk of schools not opening in August and September, and that would be an unacceptable failure. Rauner said the Democrat legislators did not want to take votes on a balanced budget and proposed reforms prior to the November election, but after that, budget talks will have to get serious. We're ending the days we've had for years in Illinois of unbalanced budgets, borrowing and not paying our bills, Rauner said. We have to build a bridge to get to that outcome. In this compromise, the schools can open on time, and the vast majority will receive more money. Our schools deserve more money from the state. The state must have fundamental reforms, he said, because the political system has not been responsive to taxpayers and homeowners. I believe we've hit the bottom, he said. This is the low point in the evolution of Illinois and now we can begin to go up, making good decisions for the long term health of the state. Though Illinois State Board of Education Superintendent Tony Smith lauded the funding of schools for the full year, he said there is still work to be done. While the passage of this budget is an important step to ensure our students receive the critical supports and resources they need, we still have more work ahead of us to provide equitable opportunities and access for all children, he said. Proposed reforms would change the school funding formula to get more money to poorer districts, led by state Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill. It's a move that some districts have objected to because they say they would lose money. Chicago Public Schools, in particular, have resisted changes that their legislators have said would take money from the district, but the stopgap budget, Rauner said, does not include a bailout that the district requested. Hyderabad, July 2 : MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday charged the BJP with trying to impose a 'Hindu rashtra' on the country in the name of the Uniform Civil Code. Talking to reporters, he said that the Bharatiya Janata Party was trying to implement the RSS agenda as it had failed to fulfill poll promises. The Hyderabad MP was reacting to the BJP-led government seeking Law Commission's views on implementation of uniform civil code. "After failing to provide 1.5 crore jobs, deregulate gas and kerosene and reviving economy, the BJP is trying to implement RSS main agenda of imposing Hindu rashtra," he alleged. He wondered if government can do away with Article 371 which has given cultural rights and protection to Mizoram and Nagaland. "Hindu undivided family get tax rebates. Can you remove them?" he asked. The MP said the government should try for total prohibition which is one of the 16 directive principles of the Constitution, contending that alcohol is cause of many evils in society and is also leading to deaths in road accidents. Owaisi also defended his announcement that he will provide legal aid to five youth arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and accused the media of blowing this out of proportion. "If I don't give the legal help, court will appoint a lawyer for them. In our democracy every accused gets legal aid and that is how we do justice in our country," he said and pointed out that legal aid was given even to Mumbai attack convict Ajmal Kasab. He said NIA had made some charges but the families of the arrested youth told him they are innocent. "The court will decide whether they are guilty or not and everyone has to accept the court verdict," he said. The MP reiterated that media by trying to sensationalize the case was targeting old city where Hindus and Muslims were living peacefully. "Targeting one particular community and branding south of Hyderabad will prove counter productive," he said. Owaisi reiterated that he was the first to condemn Islamic State and continue to do so. "IS are terrorists and there are no two opinions about it. All Islamic scholars have condemned them," he said. He also reiterated that if those arrested were acquitted by a court of law, the NIA officers who arrested them should be suspended. He said in many cases Muslim youth were acquitted by courts but they lost many precious years, citing the cases of the Akshardham attack and the Malegaon andf Makkah Masjid blast cases. "Who is responsible for their losing those precious years.Just because he is a Muslim, it doesn't mean he has no right to respect to life," he said. New Delhi, July 2 : With widespread resentment against the "meagre" pay hike announced in the 7th Pay Commission, as many as 33 lakh central government employees are threatening to go on strike from July 11. "They have fixed the minimum wage at a meagre Rs 18,000 in the 7th Pay Commission. In the last Pay Commission, the basic pay was Rs 7,000. They multiplied it by 2.57 (fitment formula) and came to Rs 18,000. We are demanding 3.68 fitment formula," Shivgopal Mishra, General Secretary, All India Railway Men Federation and Convenor of National Joint Council of Action (NJCA), told IANS. NJCA is a front formed by six government staff unions, including Confederation of Central Government Employees (CCGE), All India Defence Employee Federation and National Coordination Committee of Pensioners Association, to oppose the hikes given by the 7th Pay Commission. "As many as 33 lakh government employees, excluding the defence personnel, will go on strike if we do not get some kind of assurance from the government to reconsider the decision. The major contention is on the minimum wage, which we are demanding to be Rs 26,000," K.K.N. Kutty, President of CCGE and general secretary of national coordination committee of pensioners association, told IANS. "We had a meeting with a group of ministers, including the Home Minister (Rajnath Singh), Finance Minister (Arun Jaitley) and Railway Minister (Suresh Prabhu) on the evening of June 30. They said it will be considered and will be referred to some committee," said Mishra. "We are waiting to hear back on this from the government by July 4 evening or July 5. In our meeting, it was only a verbal commitment. If the government gives us specific details like which committee will review, etc. then we will defer the strike. We have a meeting on July 5 to decide on the strike," Kutty said. "We had met the government on June 9, and suggested various improvements in the 7th Pay Commission's recommendations. But the government has not given any heed to whatever improvements we had proposed. They have given same hike as suggested by 7th Pay Commission," C. Srikumar, General Secretary, All India Defence Employees Federation, told IANS. Srikumar contends that the prices of essential commodities considered by the Seventh Pay Commission itself were faulty, which has resulted in the meagre rise. "Price considered of essential commodities by pay commission is not right. They have taken dal price at Rs 97. Where do you get dal for Rs 97?" he said. The NJCA is also demanding for the withdrawal of the new national pension scheme (NPS), which came into effect from October 2004. "A lady employee, who got the job after her husband's death, retired after 12 years of service. She comes under the new NPS scheme as she joined service after 2004. She gets Rs 960 pension per month," Srikumar said. However while the fate of the strike is still unknown, a central government junior staffer on the condition of anonymity told IANS: "I don't think much will come out of the strike. The only thing the government might do is increase the allowances slightly, that's it." The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent body of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, has also expressed its "dissatisfaction" at the 7th Pay Commission's recommendations. "A huge gap has been created between the minimum and the maximum wage after the government approved the Seventh Pay Commission Report's recommendation," BMS general secretary Virjesh Upadhyay told IANS earlier. However, BMS is not expected to go on strike as it is not a part of the NJCA. The Union Cabinet has decided to constitute three separate committees, including one to look into the anomalies likely to arise out of enforcement of the commission's report. "The two separate committees constituted includes for suggesting measures for streamlining the implementation of National Pension System (NPS) and to look into anomalies likely to arise out of implementation of the Commission's Report," said an official statement earlier. The cabinet approved the Seventh Pay Commission's recommendations for central government employees on July 29, which will impact some 47 lakh central government employees and 53 lakh pensioners. New Delhi/Kolkata, July 2 : The Border Security Force (BSF) on Saturday intensified vigil along the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal in the wake of the terror attack in Dhaka after the government sounded a high alert in bordering states. Official sources said in Delhi that the Union Home Ministry has directed the Border Security Force (BSF) and other agencies to keep strict vigil along the international borders. "Adequate security measures need to be taken in border areas of West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya," an informed source said. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was briefed by senior officials in the ministry and security agencies on the situation in Bangladesh. Meanwhile, the BSF intensified vigil across the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal. "The vigil across the frontier has been intensified. An alert has been sounded and we are doing the needful," said a BSF officer in Kolkata. In coordination with the police, the BSF troopers are also conducting search operations in villages near the Bangladesh border. Security has also been beefed up in the state's major installations, including airports and railway stations. Reports received so far said personnel of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka were safe, sources said. Bangladesh has lately seen an increase in militant Islamist violence. Home to about 150 million Muslims, Bangladesh has for long been able to ward off Islamic radicalism and the Sheikh Hasina government in particular has been widely considered to be committed to secularism. However, Islamic fundamentalism of the Wahabi and Talibani variety has of late "plagued" a section of the Bangladeshi society as manifested in attacks on secular writers, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians, say Indian intelligence agencies. "Apparently it all moved according to a set pattern," an informed source told IANS. Official sources said the Tripura and Assam governments have reported to the central government in the recent past the activities of a few Bangladesh-based Islamic organisations which "could have also aligned to the ISIS" mainly in terms of getting funds and identifying "raw recruits". The government has advised the media to exercise self-restraint in reporting on the situation in Bangladesh as "sensationalising" things would not help fight terrorism. "We have always considered Bangladesh a friendly country, and the administration and the security forces there would do its best to fight terrorism," the source added. Bangladeshi security forces on Saturday morning rescued 13 hostages and gunned down six terrorists, ending the siege at a cafe in Dhaka that began on Friday, officials said. Twenty hostages were also killed in the terror attack. Bangladeshis living in Kolkata as well as eminent personalities in the state have condemned the attack. New Delhi, July 2 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend a commemorative event to mark the 300th martyrdom anniversary of Sikh military commander Baba Banda Singh Bahadur here on Sunday. "The Prime Minister will release a book and souvenir on Baba Banda Singh Bahadurji on the occasion," an official statement said on Saturday. The event will be attended by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The Prime Minister will also address the gathering. A recently released commemorative coin on Baba Banda Singh Bahadur will be presented to the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister of Punjab. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had on Tuesday released a commemorative silver coin to mark the 300th martyrdom day of Banda Singh Bahadur. Banda Singh Bahadur established his rule to protect the honour and traditions of his people by defeating the Mughals in 1710. Later in 1716, at the age of 46 he was captured and executed by the Mughals in Delhi. Edinburgh, July 2 : Queen Elizabeth II on Saturday urged Britain's political leaders to calm down in the wake of the chaos triggered by the Brexit vote and allow "room for quiet thinking and contemplation" before they decide their next move. The monarch used her address at the opening of the fifth session of the Scottish Parliament to convey the advice, the Telegraph reported. Referring to the political and economic turmoil that has enveloped the country since, she said that Britons "live and work in an increasingly complex and demanding world" with events and developments occurring at "remarkable speed". The Queen admitted that the ability to "stay calm and collected" in such circumstances can be "hard" but argued that a major hallmark of leadership is the ability to take a step back. She argued this would allow "sufficient room for quiet thinking and contemplation" and a "deeper consideration of how challenges and opportunities can be best addressed". In response to the Queen, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon delivered a highly political speech to the parliament in which she said Scotland "should play our part in a stronger Europe and a better world". Referring to the referendum result, the First Minister also pledged to "take forward the will of our people" and praised the contribution of foreign migrants, including European students, to Scotland. Cairo, July 2 : The memory of the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of EgyptAir flight MS804, which crashed into the Mediterranean in May, "was not damaged", investigators said on Saturday. "Extensive examinations on the electronic board components of the CVR of the A320 showed that none of the memory chips of the electronic board was damaged," Xinhua news agency quoted an official as saying. However, some other supportive components associated with communication to and from the memory chips have to be removed or replaced with new ones, the officials added. "Advanced high technology will be used to extract the recordings of these units," the official said adding that if the results of the tests were satisfactory; it will enable the reading of the CVR memory unit. The investigation committee members will return from France to Cairo soon with the fixed boards to continue reading and analysing the data. EgyptAir flight MS804 spiralled down into the Mediterranean on May 19 on its way from Paris to Cairo, killing all 66 people on board. Sydney, July 2 : Australian Labor Party leader Bill Shorten is enjoying a slight lead over the Liberal-National coalition of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, with nearly 70 per cent of votes counted in general elections held in Australia on Saturday. With 69.64 per cent of votes counted, Labor has so far won 66 seats, while the ruling coalition has 63 out of the 150 federal parliamentary seats, Efe news reported. To form a government alone, the winner needs at least 76 seats, according to the Australian Electoral Commission. "At this point, the results are not clear. We see a turn that might not be enough to defeat the government, but we also see the Labor Party won seats," said analyst Antony Green, as cited by state-owned broadcaster ABC. Labor candidate Linda Burney has also become the first indigenous woman to win a seat in the lower house, according to Channel 7 television. A total of 57 political and independent formations are presented in these elections, with more than 994 candidates for the House and 661 candidates for the 76-seat Senate. The Senate, which is being completely renewed after being dissolved on May 9 this year, is key to support the next government. Lucknow, July 2 : TheBJP on Saturday demanded a probe into the allegations levelled by former Bahujan Samaj Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya of party supremo Mayawati of siphoning off huge amounts of ill-gotten money into 'benaami' companies. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman Harish Chandra Srivastava told reporters here that the allegations levelled very very serious in nature and should be probed by agencies concerned. "Swami Prasad Maurya till not long ago was a close confidante of Mayawati and hence should be taken into all seriousness," he added. Maurya on Friday had alleged at a convention of his supporters on Friday that Mayawati had invested Rs 2,000 crore plus in such companies and it was likely that she would, like Kingfisher owner Vijay Mallya, flee the country and settle abroad. Dhaka, July 2 : There were around 20-22 guests, including foreigners, at the popular Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in Gulshan area when a group of gunmen shouting "Allahu Akbar" raided the cafe at 8.45 p.m. Police moved in soon. But they pulled back after two officers - Assistant Commissioner Rabiul Islam of the Detective Branch, and Banani police Officer-in-Charge Salahuddin - were killed in the first exchange of fire. After that, the law enforcement agencies sealed off the area. After waiting through the night, following directives from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, armed forces joined the Rapid Action Battalion and police in the morning to launch the assault, codenamed 'Operation Thunderbolt', along with the other security agencies. Around 7.40 a.m., security forces stormed the cafA in the Gulshan diplomatic zone and several hostages were freed minutes after the offensive began, a witness told bdnews24.com. Heavy firing and explosions continued for at least an hour after the operation had begun to free the hostages. A witness who saw the assault from an adjacent building said armymen in two armoured personnel carriers (APCs) tore down the wall of the cafA and the commandos entered the cafe through the breach. More than 1,000 rounds were fired and nearly 1,000 explosions were reported in the 30 minutes of the raid. A resident at a building, just 50 yards from the scene, reported spotting snipers on the roof of another building, firing from their guns. At a media call later in the afternoon, Bangladesh Army's Brig Gen Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said that 'Operation Thunderbolt' ended around 8.30 a.m. He said they had found 20 bodies of foreign nationals, but did not disclose their identities. He said all of them were killed late Friday night with sharp weapons. Brigadier Chowdhury, director of military operations in the Bangladesh Army, said that 13 people, including a Japanese and two Sri Lankans, were rescued from the restaurant. The commandos took less than 15 minutes to complete the operation. Within 12 to 13 minutes our men were able to take out the terrorists and took total control, he said. Chowdhury said that there were seven attackers, one of whom was captured alive, and the rest killed during the assault. Fire-fighters also rushed to the spot with extinguishers and hosepipes, though no fire could be spotted. A medical team was also seen rushing to the scene with stretchers. After a while, a loud bang rocked the area, but the security personnel in the cafA were indifferent to it, suggesting these were controlled explosions of the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) recovered from the scene. Around the same time, members of different forces who had taken position in various buildings in the area before and during the raid came out and were seen embracing each other. Blood was seen in front of the gate of the cafA's main building when security officials were leaving it. A police official was shot at that spot Friday night. Around 9.40 a.m., another loud bang was heard as the bomb disposal unit continued to explode the seized bombs in a controlled environment. After the operation ended, several youths, who appeared to be handcuffed, were seen lying in the garage of a high-rise building beside the cafA. But they could not be identified. Since 8.15 a.m., hostages, including women and children, were seen rushing out of the eatery one after another. They were taken to hospitals in ambulances. After the operation, IGP A.K.M. Shahidul Hoque said that 18 people were rescued alive. But he left without answering how many died. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said later in the morning that 13 hostages had been rescued alive. She added that one of the seven gunmen was captured alive and the rest were killed during the operation. Calling the incident a 'militant attack', Hasina said, "We have rescued 13 people alive, but some have been killed. Some of the injured have been admitted to CMH (Combined Military Hospital). Mumbai, July 2 : At least three persons were killed and three others injured in a blast in the Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers Ltd factory here on Saturday, officials said. A RCF spokesperson said that the blast at the factory in Chembur area of northeast Mumbai occurred around 4.30 p.m. in boiler No. 2 which had been shut down for inspection and maintenance. The blast killed three contract workers working on the boiler and three others were injured. The injured have been rushed to a local hospital for treatment. The RCF - a public sector 'Mini Ratna' unit - has ordered a probe to ascertain the cause of the explosion. The spokesperson added that two other adjacent boilers have not suffered any damage and all other plants at the Trombay factory are fully safe and operating. Top police, company and rescue officials are at the site to supervise the relief and rescue operations. ATLANTA Fred Bentley Sr. held history in his hand, a cannon shell, the same sort that killed a Confederate general who had the misfortune to catch the eye of Union Gen. William T. Sherman. Both gentlemen were near Marietta on a June day 152 years ago. According to all accounts, the man credited with burning Atlanta saw a trio of Confederate officers atop nearby Pine Mountain. He ordered his artillerymen to dispatch them. Moments later, cannons boomed. Two escaped, but a shell found Major Gen. Leonidas Polk, hitting him in the chest. An obelisk marks the spot where he fell. It stands in Bentleys front yard, where the Marietta lawyer hosts a ceremony each June 14 to note the generals demise. Historians wish there were more people like Bentley, a lover of all things historic. He is a private landowner who has preserved a historic Civil War site. Georgia is dotted with an estimated 380 Civil War sites. They range from anonymous little places where soldiers slept to battlefields where they died. A 1998 survey estimated that about 350 are in private hands, meaning they usually arent protected from development. Only Virginia and Tennessee have more sites, historians say. Just how vulnerable these sites can be is underscored by the debate over whether to rezone 24 acres encompassing a historically significant site near Dallas. After months of discussion, the Cobb County Planning Commission in May voted not to rezone part of the Mud Creek Line. A series of entrenchments, the line stretched west of Marietta and was one of several that Confederate forces used as Union soldiers pressed toward Atlanta in spring and summer 1864. A developer had applied to the county to rezone the site to build a shopping center, plus senior citizen housing. The vote represents a victory for Civil War enthusiasts such as Charles Crawford, who probably knows more about the war in Georgia than the generals who plotted that 1861-65 conflict. It hardly means he and other like-minded preservationists can relax. The rebounding economy, Crawford thinks, will put other areas in peril as developers renew building across the metro area and elsewhere. I wish I had a bottomless checkbook to buy the sites, said Crawford, president of the Georgia Battlefields Association. The nonprofit works with other organizations to preserve or reduce damage to historic sites. He periodically visits landowners in the metro area with significant sites. Sometimes, with property owners blessings, he brings small tours. A lot of people are aware that theyve got something historically significant, he said. The spread of the internet has made it easier for people to track the history of their property. Longtime neighbors often are willing to fill in any gaps of knowledge, too. But knowing about a tracts past is no guarantee it will be saved. The issue of building or preserving history goes to the heart of a philosophical question: What is more important, landowner rights or the need for Americans to know their past? Its a query the Civil War Trust confronts regularly. The nonprofit organization, based in Washington, for years has watched historically significant sites vanish under bulldozer blade and truck tire. The trust concentrates mainly on the preservation of battlefields, said Jim Campi, the organizations policy and communications director. It also watches while other sites get paved over or dug up, he said. If you look beyond battlefields, he said, you get into other properties. Such as a rolling wood where soldiers once camped, now a tract where a developer envisions a collection of homes. Or the faint outline of a trench where soldiers once crouched, now in the middle of a proposed shopping center. You see that all over the place, Campi said. Just how extensive the war was in the metro area became clear two years ago when the Atlanta History Center unveiled War In Our Backyards. A Civil War interactive program, it displayed how the war was fought, and where. The war was fought across the metro area, noted David Crass, director of the state Department of Natural Resources Historic Preservation Division. The agency, he said, usually doesnt get involved with privately held Civil War land unless a property owner requests it. A lot of owners are darn good stewards of these resources if theyre aware of them, he said. Some landowners appreciate the past and try to preserve it, said Crawford. A resident of Dallas, west of Atlanta, has a tract where part of the Battle of Dallas took place. He has pledged never to sell it, Crawford said. But that man now is in his 80s. Will his family carry out the old mans wishes? Crawford also recalled a metro landowner who feared that three Civil War sites on his property might impede his development plans. He bulldozed them, said Crawford. He didnt want to be told what do with them. New York, July 2 : India's rapidly growing pharmaceutical market is expected to grow to $55 billion by 2020 and emerge as the sixth largest globally by size, said Indian Ambassador to the US Arun Singh. Formally inaugurating the 34th annual convention of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) here Friday, he outlined the rapid growth of the health sector in India, particularly in pharmaceuticals. He said that the Indian sector had a competitive edge over others because its productions costs were significantly lower than that of the US and almost half that of Europe. "Branded generics dominate the pharmaceuticals market, constituting nearly 70 to 80 per cent of the market," Singh said. "India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally with the Indian generics accounting for 20 per cent of global exports in terms of volume." Praising the work of Indian doctors in the US who are estimated to number about 80,000, the envoy said: "You have excelled in your fields of medicine, and thus make significant contributions through hard work, commitment and dedication to your profession and the people you are committed to serve." Speaking at a business session at the convention, New York Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin, said Indian doctors are known around the world for their compassion, passion for patient care, research, and leadership. "Indian-Americans constitute about one per cent of the country's population, but you account for nine per cent of the American doctors and physicians, serving one out of seven patients being treated across the nation," Zeldin said. He called Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the US Congress last month inspiring and asserted that Modi's leadership was steering the world's largest democracy to new heights. At the inauguration, Prasad Srinivasan, a Republican Connecticut state legislator, gave the 1,500 fellow doctors at the convention tips on aspiring to public offices, saying they should work with dedication on public causes and stay focused on their mission and profession. "We have the choice to be at the table or on the table," said Prasad, who is serving his third term as a State Representative. "Given our heritage, we the Indian Americans belong at the table. Get actively involved in the affairs of the local community and that's the path to larger role in the nation." AAPI President Seema Jain said the profession must prepare for the challenges faced by profession on the cusp of monumental changes and her organisation was helping ready them for it. "The Future is now," she said. "Its time to step up to a new era of innovation through a new age of digital health care that transcends biological and chemical medicine into the future. As physicians we must be equipped to tackle the next generation's unique set of challenges and opportunities in health care." Kolkata, July 2 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday condemned the deadly terror attack in Dhaka which at least 20 foreigners, including an Indian girl, were killed. Condolences to families of those who lost lives in Bangladesh. We are with you. We pray for peace and harmony in holy month of Ramadan. We condemn terror," Banerjee said in a tweet. "Terrorism has no boundaries. Terrorism has no religion. So let us fight and defeat the inhuman terrorists together, so that humanity wins," she said in another tweet. An Indian girl, Tarushi Jain, was among the 20 hostages killed by Islamic State terrorists in the siege on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital. New Delhi, July 2 : A case of sexual harassment was registered against former Chief Secretary Omesh Saigal on Saturday after a complaint of a 52-year-old woman was forwarded to the Delhi Police by the Delhi Commission for Women. Saigal has termed the charge "false". "We have registered a case against Omesh Saigal under Section 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code," Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), Nupur Prasad told IANS. She said that the alleged incident took place on June 18, when the women went for swimming in pool of the Panchshila club, of which Saigal is also president, in south Delhi. In her complaint, she mentioned that the accused blocked her way while she was swimming. The complainant, who approached the DCW on June 23, claimed that he had on earlier occasions also deliberately blocked her way while swimming which led her into arguments with him. DCW chief Swati Maliwal took strong note of the suspension of complainant and her husband's club membership. "Instead of forwarding the complaint to the Local Complaints Committee under the Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Work Place Act, 2013, the complaint was heard by a sub-committee set up by the management committee of the club. Also, subsequently, in blatant disregard of the act, the club membership of the complainant and her husband was suspended," the DCW said in a notice to the club. Saigal meanwhile told IANS: "Charges against me are absolutely false." "I have also filed a defamation case against the woman in Saket court and a notice was served to her on June 22," he added. New Delhi, July 2 : President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday condemned the deadly terror attack in Dhaka which at least 20 foreigners, including an Indian girl, were killed. "It was with sorrow that I received the news of the terrorist attack that took place in a cafe in Dhaka yesterday (Friday). Although I was greatly relieved to hear, a short while ago, that a number of hostages have been rescued due to the successful efforts of your Government's security forces. I am deeply saddened at the loss of life and injuries caused to innocent civilians in this dastardly attack," Mukherjee said in a message to his Bangladeshi counterpart Abdul Hamid. "India condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We believe that there can be no justification for such senseless acts of violence," he added. Mukherjee stressed that the people of India stand by the people of Bangladesh at this difficult hour and share their grief. "We pray for the victims and their families and for the full and speedy recovery of those who have been injured," he said. An Indian girl, Tarushi Jain, was among the 20 hostages killed by Islamic State terrorists in the siege on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital. Dhaka/New Delhi, July 2 : Islamic State terrorists slaughtered 20 civilians, mostly foreigners, including an Indian, during an overnight siege at an upscale cafe in the Bangladesh capital before security forces rescued 13 hostages and killed six gunmen on Saturday morning, ending the nation's worst hostage crisis, being termed as Bangladesh's '7/16'. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called a two-day state mourning for the victims, who included nine Italians, seven Japanese, three Bangladeshis and an Indian teenager, at the Holey Artisan cafA in the diplomatic area of Gulshan in Dhaka. One of the gunmen, injured in the shootout, was captured, while 13 hostages were rescued at the end of the 12-hour siege. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have condemned the attack. Modi called up Sheikh Hasina and condemned the "despicable attack" and said that India "stands firmly with our sisters and brothers of Bangladesh" in this hour of grief. Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed the killing of 19-year-old Tarishi Jain of Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh. "Tarishi was 19 years old. She passed out from American School Dhaka. Presently, she was a student at Berkeley," Sushma posted. In Dhaka, Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury, director of military operations, told reporters that "most of the victims were killed brutally with sharp weapons". The attack began at 8.45 p.m. when around 20-22 guests were at the Holey Artisan Bakery downstairs and the O'Kitchen Restaurant upstairs, a cafe popular with foreigners. The gunmen, shouting "Allahu Akbar" raided the cafe and took hostages, and slaughtered those who were unable to recite the Quran, said rescued hostages. Two policemen were also killed in the initial hours of the rescue mission. Later, the area was sealed off, and following directives from Prime Minister Hasina, the armed forces along with the Rapid Action Battalion and police launched an assault, codenamed 'Operation Thunderbolt', in the morning. The siege ended at 8.30 a.m. Prime Minister Hasina, condemning the "extremely heinous act", vowed to root out terrorism from the country, which has seen a spate of deadly attacks by Islamic State and Al Qaeda-linked militants on progressive academics, writers, activists and religious minorities in the Muslim majority country. "We'll establish Bangladesh as a peaceful stateANo conspiracy can hinder our advancement," she said in a nationally televised address. "What kind of Muslims are these people? They don`t have any religion. People must resist these terrorists. My government is determined to root out terrorism and militancy from Bangladesh," she said. Officials said the 13 rescued hostages included a Japanese and two Sri Lankans. The Bangladeshi branch of the Islamic State claimed the attack through its mouthpiece, the Amaq news agency, saying 24 people "of different nationalities" were killed and 40 others were injured. The Daily Star reported that hostages were made to recite verses from the Quran and those who could were not harmed. "The others were tortured by the gunmen," Rezaul Karim, father of one of the hostages Hasnat Karim, told the daily. Karim had gone to celebrate his 13-year-old daughter's birthday along with his wife and son Rayan, 8. The family was rescued early in the morning. The attack came as a Hindu priest was killed in Bangladesh on Friday, while another Hindu priest was grievously injured in a murderous attack on Saturday. Neighbouring India called for quick action to adopt the long-stalled Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) and expressed disappointment that the UN General Assembly failed to push for its early adoption. "The perpetrators of terrorist attacks as well as the states that support and sponsor or provide safe havens to terrorists or terrorist groups must be made accountable," India's Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin said, speaking at the General Assembly. The attack has also been condemned by other countries, including Pakistan and Malaysia, while the European Union has also voiced condemnation. New Delhi, July 2 : Pakistani filmmaker Sabiha Sumar, best known for directing films like "Khamosh Pani", "Good Morning Karachia and "Chotay Shah", feels the evolution of the digital media has brought the people of India and Pakistan closer. Sumar, whose film "Chotay Shah" was the opening film of the 7th Jagran Film Festival along with Ketan Mehta's "Toba Tek Singh", feels India's Bollywood has a "huge impact" on the entire sub-continent and many Pakistanis have learned Hindi language by seeing Bollywood films. While speaking at a panel discussion, titled "Cinema Beyond Borders", on Saturday, she said: "Internet has brought India and Pakistan together. Even when I went to college at the Cambridge University, I met students of my age from India. They were just like us. "I remember going to one of my friends home and she started playing Begum Akhtar's song and I was like 'You also listen to her songs'. I feel with internet, now the connectivity is even stronger." About the demand of Indian films across the border, Sumar said: "Bollywood has definitely had a huge impact on the entire subcontinent. Even many people have learned Hindi by watching Bollywood films. When I went a village in Sindh, people there talk about Govinda. Even when I go to Thar Desert, people there say that we see everything on our phones only." She said that "Indians and Pakistanis connect with each other through music and stories as they are an important part of our culture". "I don't think a nation can survive or thrive without storytelling." Apart from Sumar, the panel also included Indian filmmakers Sudhir Mishra and Bejoy Nambiar, and veteran Pakistani actor-director Khalid Ahmed. Asked why Pakistani cinema didn't get chance to evolve, Ahmed said: "It's difficult to tell this. I think it was because of two factors. Firstly the tradition of Bollywood films has been going on since the pre-Partition era and it continues to do so. "When the film industry was setup in Lahore, it was a new beginning. A lot of people from here went there and started a new thing. Also talent, expertise and technology were always there in Mumbai which was not available on that side of the border. Even the market is small there." The five-day Delhi leg of the Jagran Film Festival, which is taking place here at the Siri Fort Auditorium, will next showcase films like "Aligarh", "Airlift", "Natsamrat", "Talvar" and "Sarbjit" among others. After its Delhi leg, which will conclude on July 5, the festival will travel to different cities like Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varansi, Agra, Meerut, Dehradun, Hisar, Ludhiana, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Raipur, Indore, and Bhopal. The final leg of the festival will take place in Mumbai. New Delhi, July 3 : National Award winning filmmaker Sudhir Mishra feels if India and Pakistan want to improve their relationship both politically and culturally, then it is important that people from both sides should address various issues that they have with each other. Mishra, best known for his films like "Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi", "Dharavi"Aand "Chameli", was here on Saturday to attend the 7th Jagran Film Festival. During a panel discussion, which was aimed at how cinema can help people of India and Pakistan bridge the cultural gap between them, he said: "Even we people remain a bit confused about what impact does cinema has on people. Often people belonging to the industry say that we can never have a negative impact on the society. "But it's important to have these conversations between the two nations - India and Pakistan - and to share stories through cinema with each other. The way of storytelling is same on both the sides." Mishra said that he is never seen as a foreigner when he travels to Pakistan. "I can speak Urdu, so when I go to a shop in Karachi, the shopkeeper doesn't get to know whether I'm from their country or from India. There are a lot of tensions between the two nations that we don't even try to address. "Indian and Pakistani stories are very much similar, especially in the north Indian context. So I feel this exchange of stories between the two sides is very important. And this should not stop," he said. Apart from Mishra, the panel also included director Bejoy Nambiar, veteran Pakistani actor-director Khalid Ahmed and Pakistani director Sabiha Sumar. Asked why there isn't enough exchange of film ideas between India and Pakistan, Nambiar said: "I think the very impact that the shows on Zindagi channel had and how it resonated with the Indian audience - that itself showcases that there is so much scope for this exchange to happen. "Our (Indian and Pakistani) stories resonate well with each other. I am sure with the help of internet; we will definitely get to see more of Pakistani cinema in coming years. The "Shaitan" fame director also pointed out that the Pakistani TV industry has evolved as their writers feel more empowered. He said in India, TV writers don't get enough limelight. "From the little conversations that I have had with Pakistani directors, what I have seen is that they have really empowered their writers in the television dramas. If you ask them names they will all know who has written what. Whereas in India we don't know who has written this show and who has directed it," Nambiar said. "Television in India works on a concept note and broad idea of how this story is going to progress. In India, producers decide -- based on TRPs -- how many episodes a show is going to have. In Pakistan the writers decide the same," he added. The five-day Delhi leg of the Jagran Film Festival, which started here at the Siri Fort Auditorium on Sunday, will next showcase films like "Aligarh", "Airlift", "Natsamrat", "Talvar" and "Sarbjit" among others. After its Delhi leg, which will conclude on July 5, the festival will travel to different cities like Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varansi, Agra, Meerut, Dehradun, Hisar, Ludhiana, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Raipur, Indore, and Bhopal. The final leg of the festival will take place in Mumbai. Dhaka, July 3 : All the attackers in the assault on a cafe in Dhaka in which Islamic State terrorists slaughtered 20 civilians, mostly foreigners, including an Indian, were Bangladeshi citizens and five of them were wanted by police. Police Inspector General Shahidul Hoque told CNN that police had tried to arrest these five militants previously. Authorities also released the nationalities of the 20 hostages who were found dead inside the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe after Bangladeshi troops stormed the cafe early Saturday morning, ending an overnight siege. According to the country's Joint Force Command, nine of the victims were Italian, seven were Japanese, one was from India, two were Bangladeshi and one was a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin. Eleven of the victims were male and nine were female. Two police officers were also killed in a gunfire exchange earlier in the standoff, authorities said. Security forces rescued 13 hostages and killed six gunmen on Saturday morning, ending the nation's worst hostage crisis, being termed as Bangladesh's '7/16'. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called a two-day state mourning for the victims, who included nine Italians, seven Japanese, three Bangladeshis and an Indian teenager, at the Holey Artisan cafA in the diplomatic area of Gulshan in Dhaka. One of the gunmen, injured in the shootout, was captured, while 13 hostages were rescued at the end of the 12-hour siege. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have condemned the attack. Modi called up Sheikh Hasina and condemned the "despicable attack" and said that India "stands firmly with our sisters and brothers of Bangladesh" in this hour of grief. Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed the killing of 19-year-old Tarishi Jain of Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh. "Tarishi was 19 years old. She passed out from American School Dhaka. Presently, she was a student at Berkeley," Sushma posted. In Dhaka, Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury, director of military operations, told reporters that "most of the victims were killed brutally with sharp weapons". The attack began at 8.45 p.m. when around 20-22 guests were at the Holey Artisan Bakery downstairs and the O'Kitchen Restaurant upstairs, a cafe popular with foreigners. The gunmen, shouting "Allahu Akbar" raided the cafe and took hostages, and slaughtered those who were unable to recite the Quran, said rescued hostages. Later, the area was sealed off, and following directives from Prime Minister Hasina, the armed forces along with the Rapid Action Battalion and police launched an assault, codenamed 'Operation Thunderbolt', in the morning. The siege ended at 8.30 a.m. Prime Minister Hasina, condemning the "extremely heinous act", vowed to root out terrorism from the country, which has seen a spate of deadly attacks by Islamic State and Al Qaeda-linked militants on progressive academics, writers, activists and religious minorities in the Muslim majority country. "We'll establish Bangladesh as a peaceful stateANo conspiracy can hinder our advancement," she said in a nationally televised address. "What kind of Muslims are these people? They don`t have any religion. People must resist these terrorists. My government is determined to root out terrorism and militancy from Bangladesh," she said. Officials said the 13 rescued hostages included a Japanese and two Sri Lankans. The Bangladeshi branch of the Islamic State claimed the attack through its mouthpiece, the Amaq news agency, saying 24 people "of different nationalities" were killed and 40 others were injured. The Daily Star reported that hostages were made to recite verses from the Quran and those who could were not harmed. The attack has also been condemned by other countries, including Pakistan and Malaysia, while the European Union has also voiced condemnation. For kids, summer should mean fun, but for the 22 million children in the U.S. who depend on free or reduced-price meals offered in school, it can mean worrying about not getting enough to eat. To help with that, C&S Wholesale Grocers has donated paper goods to support summer meals programs for kids since 2011. While the company originally sought to donate food, it quickly became apparent that summer meals programs, the types of food served, and the reimbursement processes are structured, complex, and differ from place to place. For those reasons, C&S decided to fill a niche by donating products for which the programs are not typically reimbursedthe paper goods needed to serve meals, including plates, napkins, cups, bowls, and bags. By receiving a donation of paper goods, the summer meals programs can allocate resources to reach more kids and offer additional enrichment activities. For the past six years, the company has provided donated paper products to an estimated 797 summer meal sites, reaching 47,000 children from low-income families. In all, more than 7,800 cases of items have been donated, helping to make approximately 1.8 million meals possible. This year, C&S expanded support to summer meals sites where the company has a presence and partnered with the following nonprofit organizations in 11 states: California Second Harvest Food Bank of San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties Connecticut Foodshare Florida Feeding America Tampa Bay, Feeding Northeast Florida, Feeding South Florida,Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida Hawaii Hawaii Food Bank Indiana Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana Louisiana Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans Pennsylvania Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania Massachusetts Food Bank of Western Massachusetts New Hampshire The Community Kitchen, ConVal School District S. Carolina Harvest Hope Food Bank, Lowcountry Food Bank Vermont Vermont Food Bank Additionally, C&S provided support to four national nonprofit organizationsFeeding America, Share Our Strength/No Kid Hungry, FoodCorps, and First Bookwith the aim of making families aware of summer meals programs across the United States and providing the kids with top-quality educational materials and books to keep them coming back. For more information: http://community.cswg.com/en/core-initiatives/eliminating-hunger/summer-meals About C&S Wholesale Grocers C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc., based in Keene, NH, is the largest wholesale grocery supply company in the U.S.and the industry leader in supply chain innovation. Founded in 1918 as a supplier to independent grocery stores, C&S now services customers of all sizes, supplying approximately 6,500 independent supermarkets, chain stores, military bases, and institutions with over 170,000 different products. C&S community involvement programs support initiatives to fight hunger and to promote the health and enrichment of communities that are homes to the company's employees and facilities. To learn more, visit http://community.cswg.com. Theres different varieties of recovery programs, and we work with them and gain more insight into what their program should be for them. Those who may be looking for help in overcoming addiction, or know someone who is struggling with a drug or alcohol problem, can find some direction in a recent video produced by Serenity Recovery, a holistic treatment for substance abuse located in Central Michigan. This video focuses on how a person can not only get clean and sober but also how to maintain long-term sobriety after they have detoxed and gotten past the withdrawal stage. The video, which can be viewed on the Serenity Recovery YouTube channel, has clips from interviews with patients at the treatment center as well as a professional viewpoint given by Sarah Russel, the lead counselor at the rehabilitation facility. Once they have moved through their detox process and have begun to stabilize, theyre ready to select a program that would be appropriate for them, Russell explains. Some people feel that the traditional 12-Step program is the best fit for them. If they needed more practice with their communication, theyre able to take our Communications Course that takes a lot of traditional therapeutic concepts and turns it into a more modern approach of practicing and applying. Theres different varieties of recovery programs, and we work with them and gain more insight into what their program should be for them. Serenity Rehab Patient Testimonial Gabe L. is a Serenity patient that took a different path than the traditional 12-Step program. Among the many options that are offered at the treatment center, a 12- Step program rooted in the spirituality of the indigenous Native American people is one of the more popular alternative treatment methods. You kind of get a feel for what is really going to work for you, Gabe says. Its not just Do this. Thats it. Thats all we have to offer. I had heard of the traditional 12-Steps, but I had never heard of Native before. It really touched me because I had lost a lot of faith. Working through those steps has kind of got me in tune with everything around me. The substance abuse treatment program at Serenity Recovery is designed to be adaptable to the needs of any person that comes to their facility in need of help in overcoming their addiction issues. With a wide variety of core program options and supplemental groups to choose from, they help their patients find the path to recovery that will be best suited to their individual needs. The program is based on results rather than any timeframe, giving their patients the opportunity to explore those options to find what will really work for them, and to work through it at their own pace. Blog: http://www.serenityrehab.org/blog/video/examining-personal-recovery-get-stay-clean-sober/ Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuTt-bzyE5g New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Sunny, along with a few afternoon clouds. High 82F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms in the evening, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Low near 65F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. British author Saunders launches a new Victorian mystery series with The Secrets of Wishtide, which explores the public and private faces of 1850 London. Youve noted that you have loved Victorian fiction since childhood; why do you think the fiction of that era resonated so strongly with you? I was lucky enough to grow up in a house that was overflowing with books of every kind, from Portnoys Complaint to Winnie-the-Pooh. Both my parents were addictive readers, andmost importantthey never tried to control what their children read. (Krafft-Ebbing! What were they thinking? But it improved my Latin.) The 19th century was the golden age of fiction; I roamed at will among perilous stacks of vast Victorian novels, and even the bad ones (anything by Bulwer-Lytton) made me feel I was looking into another world. A great Victorian novel should make you cry buckets. Towards the end of his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens discovered that he could do pathos as well as comedy, and he never looked back. I cant read him in public anymore. Youve said that you were inspired by David Copperfield. Dickenss David Copperfield has been my favorite novel since I was a teenager. Without giving too much away, Mrs. Rodds first case was inspired by a certain strand of plot in that book that has increasingly annoyed me over the years. I want to climb right inside the story and interfere. Mrs. Rodd is a 52-year-old widow with no moneyquite a modern situation. Where did she come from? I invented Laetitia Rodd when I was 52, divorced and penniless, so I had no trouble identifying with her situation. All these years later, the lone middle-aged female is still fighting for her place in the worldbut we have it easy compared with Mrs. Rodd, who takes up private investigating because its the only alternative to being a governess. Was Mrs. Rodd inspired by any particular person or character? My splendid heroine was designed so that she wouldnt look out of place if she strolled into the pages of Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Yonge, or George Eliot. She is too sensible for the Brontes. Mrs. Rodds friend and landlady, Mary Bentley, offers a working-class perspective on the story. Where did you find her? Mrs. Bentley was a real person: wife of the Hampstead postman, mother of a string of red-haired boys, and the landlady of the poet John Keats, many years before my story begins. Ive always liked reading about her in biographies of the poet; she was kind to the Keats brothers, even when they complained about the noise. From her days in the antiVietnam War movement to her role in founding PENs Women Writers Committee and beyond, Meredith Tax has written, organized, and battled to make womens rights central to any effort for social justice. Now 73, the veteran activist and author still dissents from orthodoxy wherever she finds it. She deplores the rise in the U.S. of what she calls corporate feminism, narrowly focused on opportunities for middle-class white women. In 2010, when her friend Gita Sahgal was fired from Amnesty Internationals Gender Unit for questioning Amnestys alliance with a Muslim group linked to terrorism, Tax joined Sahgal in founding the Centre for Secular Space to oppose fundamentalism and promote universality in human rights. Taxs new book, A Road Unforeseen: Women Fight the Islamic State, to be published by Bellevue Literary Press in August, finds hope for this lifelong struggle in an unlikely place: the Rojava region of northern Syria, where, in the midst of civil war, the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) established three self-governing cantons based on principles of direct democracy and gender equality. Women constitute at least 40% of all local governing bodies in Rojava, Tax writes, and separate all-female councils determine policy on issues of particular concern to women, including honor killings and forced marriages. These political developments are remarkable enough, but what first attracted Taxs attention was the PYDs autonomous Womens Protection Units (YPJ), which helped defend the city of Kobane from ISIS in 2014. Although the Rojava cantons have successfully resisted ISIS while maintaining a democratic alternative to the Assad regime, Tax saw little press coverage of the region or its female soldiers. [They] did not fit into any acceptable Western narrative, she comments in A Road Unforeseen. They were feminists, socialists, if not indeed anarchists or communists. The information she found was mostly on anarchist websites, and the more she learned, the more she felt she must make Americans aware of this promising social experiment. Both as a writer and an activist, I have been concerned with how women actually gain equality, Tax says. Ive seen so many revolutions that promised women equality and didnt come throughand were not doing so well in the U.S. either. We may have more women in Congress, but we dont have universal day care, or secure abortion rights, or secure contraception rights. Here were people who had a different answer. Taxs article The Revolution in Rojava appeared in Dissent in April 2015. When Bellevue publisher and editorial director Erika Goldman suggested Tax write a book on the subject, Tax says, My first thought was, how can I? I cant go there. She adds: I have psoriatic arthritis, which makes travel very difficult, and theres a war on. I consulted someone who had arranged a tour for academics and a Kurdish feminist living in Canada, and they both said, Dont even think about it now. Wait a few years and then write the book. But I thought, unless Rojava gets more support than theyre getting now, they might not survive. Nobody knows whats going on; I have to do it now. Tax decided that going to Rojava would not be necessary to write the book. What difference would it make if I went there for a week or so? she asks. Id see whatever they wanted to show me. I wouldnt have the language capacity to ask probing questions, and anyway, Im not an investigative reporter. I want to write about the big historical sweep of the issues. Tax has lost none of her edge since she wrote a seminal work of the feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s, Woman and Her Mind, a 1970 pamphlet that sold an astonishing 50,000 copies. I come out of the radical part of the womens liberation movement, she says. We would talk all night in these little groups and tear out our hair and try to imagine how anything could ever change. Its so different from these ladiesI always think of them as blonds in red blazers, which is perhaps unjust: theyre not all blonds. She flashes a wicked grin. I call it corporate feminism because they act like theyre running corporations. You dont build movements with a bunch of organizations competing for the same funding streams. Tax investigated a different kind of feminism in The Rising of the Women: Feminist Solidarity and Class Conflict, 18801917, which profiled women striving to unite feminist and working-class concerns within the labor movement and the socialist parties. She researched and wrote the book while struggling to support herself as a single mother in the 1970s. Dropped by her original publisher when she missed her deadline, Tax couldnt interest any other mainstream houses in the completed manuscript. They all said, Oh, the womens movement is over; were not going to need another womens book. This was in 1976, 77, 78! she recalls. I finally got a small publisher, Monthly Review Press, and was able to revise it because I got an advance for my first novel, Rivington Street, that was big enough to live on while I did both. The story of how William Morrow came to pay $50,000 for Taxs first novel, published in 1982, should gladden any impecunious book critics heart. I was reviewing for Kirkus Reviews, $25 a book, she says. I specialized in Regency romances and bodice rippers, because I could read them so fast. I kept thinking, God, these are so awful. I could do better with my hands tied behind me! A friend in my womens group knew this agent, Harriet Wasserman, and she said if I wrote a proposal she would show it to her. I didnt even know how to write a proposal, but Harriet took my 25-page plot summary for a historical novel and sold it for $50,000! I couldnt believe it. Making fictional use of her research for The Rising of the Women, in Rivington Street and its sequel, Union Square, Tax chronicled the lives of Jewish women on the Lower East Side in the early decades of the 20th century. The novels pointed toward a writing career Tax never wholly abandoned, even as she devoted most of her time to global feminist issues. I love fiction, she says. I have a completed novel in my desk right now, about Occupy, and I have this big biblical epic in mind, but I have no agent. Wasserman closed her agency and disappeared in the wake of a missing-royalties scandal in 2007, and, Tax says, I never found anybody I could work with as well. She adds, I would like to have written more books, but Id also like to have three lives at the same time. Or maybe just two: Its very hard to go back and forth between writing and activism, Tax says. Writing is very wonderful and exciting while youre doing it, but its very solitary, and the feedback is deferred. I really love doing political work, because you can see the results so fast, and youre not doing it alone. But both take the same energy and the same part of your mind. Alaska is such a funny, interesting place, says Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock, author of The Smell of Other Peoples Houses (Random/Lamb, Feb.), when describing her home state and the setting for her debut novel. Some details [in the book] speak so loudly to Alaskans. People in Alaska ask how it makes sense to those outside. Yet the YA novel, which is structured as a series of stories in which the characters ultimately intersect, has reached far and wide: The best feedback I got was from a kid in a detention center in Bellingham [Wash.], Hitchcock says. One letter read, Youve done a great job, we think you should keep writing, but I have just one problem with your book. Dont you think [the ending] was a bit convenient? In reference to the ending, when two characters serendipitously cross paths, Hitchcock can only laugh. Its actually a little annoying, youre always bumping into everyone here, she says. I get on the plane in Seattle and the flight attendant will say, Didnt you date my brother? So I wrote to [the kid] and said, Youre such a great reader, and I hope youll keep reading. These characters needed each other at that time, and I hope someday that happens for you, too. The Smell of Other Peoples Houses appeared when the author was 51 years old. Previously, she had a long public radio career in her hometown of Fairbanks, Alaska, though writing fiction was an unattainable dream. I was producing a show called Independent Native News, and when it lost its funding, I was in a position to switch gears. She got an M.F.A. from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., a low-residency program that allowed her to work on radio stories while writing. Houses was her creative thesis. Hitchcock is a self-described introvert and cites social media as a means of leveling the playing field for authors seeking to break into publishing. By following YA agents on Twitter, she was able to spend time seeking the agent she felt shed fit with best, and eventually queried Molly Ker Hawn at the Bent Agency. [We] really did have the same sensibility on books, the author says. Hitchcock queried Hawn about a novel in verse. Hawn declined the book, but said shed like to see anything else Hitchcock had written, so the author sent her a book of related short stories, which eventually became Houses. Wendy Lamb acquired the book for her Random House imprint based on just the first five chapters, and it was simultaneously acquired in the U.K. by Alice Swan at Faber and Faber. So, in another unusual move for a first-time author, Hitchcock revised her novel with notes from two editors. The book changed significantly during the editorial process, Hitchcock says. It was much darker, it was a murder mystery. And she was encouraged to add an element of hope. I tend to write pretty dark, she says. I think when people ask what makes it a YA book, [the answer is that] it has to come from the first person, not a flashback, and it has to have an element of hope. Hitchcock has tried to stay out of the loop on the books reception following its release. I really think that the book is now out in the world, and it should just be about the readers responses to it, she says. As a journalist, youre never part of the story. I try to keep it that way. Its lovely and wonderful to hear about something in the book that resonated with [readers]. Currently, Hitchcock is at work on another novel, though its not yet under contract. Rather than just have five chapters, I really want to have a finished manuscript next time, she says. Though Ive been traveling so much, its slowing me down. Following the publication of Houses, Hitchcock went on tour throughout Alaska, the American West, and to London, where she was on BBC Radio several times. I felt more in my element, though [I prefer] to be on the other side of the mike, she jokes. This fall she will participate in the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Publication hasnt changed Hitchcocks life too significantly, however. If Im surprised by anything, she says, its at how many people have read my book. The day I feared since David Cameron stepped out the door of 10 Downing Street in May 2015 to declare victory for the Conservative Party came to pass in the early hours of June 24, when news spread that voters opted to take Britain out of the European Union, of which it had been a grouchy member for more than 40 years. No man is an island, John Donne wrote in his Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. Around the world the dominoes have fallen. Between the announcement of the results on Friday and the following Monday, $2 trillion were wiped off global stock markets. How much worse will it become? Nobody knows. Its now clear the British government made no contingency plans, and those who led the Leave campaign have not the foggiest idea how to proceed. No doubt, there are a few people in the book world who voted to leave, but I dont know who they are. We are a broad-minded bunch, generally speaking. Books make us so. When we land in Beijing, Bologna, Frankfurt, Guadalajara, or Sharjah, we feel part of an international community. So what does Brexit mean for publishing? At the most basic level, uncertainty is always bad for business. Small British publishersalways conscious of cutting their clothwill be cautious indeed. The multinational houses that dominate the industry will be modeling various scenarios. I hear that one has already put new projects and contracts on hold. And as with the 2008 recession, some will use Brexit as an excuse to rationalize, to put out to grass older and wiser, but more expensive, heads and hire younger, cheaper staff. (How must indebted British postgraduate students feel, their futures blighted?) On both the high street and Amazon, sales of books (and much besides) in the U.K. will slump. Brexit will mean an increase in the cost of living. Inevitably, all that means at least a short-term cut in discretionary spending, as there was in 2008. Clearly that will have impact on British booksellers and publishers; lists will be trimmedperhaps slashedin response. Publisher turnover will be further imperiled by the loss of European sales. After skirmishes a few years ago, it was broadly agreed that U.K. publishers should be able to acquire exclusive English-language rights for the entire E.U. market. But with Britain out of the E.U., Europeincluding Irelandbecomes an open market, a battleground where the cheapest edition wins out. Academic and educational publishers will be able to continue to seek world English rights and possibly continue to obtain a full assignment of copyright, but trade publishers will not. Moreover, U.K. trade publishers need Europe to give them scale; after all, their U.S. counterparts already have Latin America and sometimes Canada. The realignment will reduce the income of British authors for whom Europe is currently part of the home market so far as royalties are concerned. The situation could become desperate ifor whenScotland gains independence in order to remain in the E.U. Then there are E.U. copyright laws, which emanate in Brussels and are broadly harmonized across the union. There is currently a move to revisit the whole E.U. copyright regime, but that wont be a priority now: Brussels has more urgent questions with which to grapple. Ultimately, U.K. copyright law will be rewritten. Recent years have seen increased interest in translated fiction in Britain. However, much of the money that makes translations viable (remember, most translations come from small indies) originates in Brussels. The Ariane Project, for example, was set up in 1997 to offer assistance to European publishers for translation and to encourage cross-border cooperation and partnerships, as well as training to improve the skills of professionals working towards the knowledge and dissemination of European literature, important in those countries where publishing is not a mature industry. And the plus side of Brexit? In the short term, advances and royalty checks arriving in dollars and euros will be worth so much more. Authors should make hay while the sun shines, but U.K. publishers will be counting the extra cost of print and shipping. Me, Ive applied for the Irish passport Ive always been entitled to on account of my one Irish grandparent. Liz Thomson is a journalist, broadcaster, and author who has spent 30 years chronicling the international book trade. Her current project, the Village Trip, is a series of live events celebrating the history of N.Y.C.s Greenwich Village. Instagram Star Lands at Abrams In a world English rights acquisition, Abramss Samantha Weiner bought a book of cartoons by Emmet Truxes. The author is behind the popular Instagram account @brooklyncartoons, a feed that the publisher described as the millennial answer to the New Yorkers domination of pithy pictorial humor. Truxess images, Abrams elaborated, gently mock our social media addictions, dating woes, and all-too-relatable milestones and struggles. Sanford J. Greenburger agent Stephanie Delman represented Truxes. Kang Gets Beautiful at Lake Union YA author Lydia Kang (Control) sold her debut adult novel, A Beautiful Poison, to Jodi Warshaw at Amazon Publishings Lake Union Press imprint. Warshaw took world rights, in a two-book deal, from Eric Myers at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. The novel is set in 1918 New York and follows three estranged friends who are each trying to solve a murder in their own life. They are doing so, Myers said, against the backdrop of World War I and the spread of the global flu epidemic. Morris Dances to Penguin Press Dancer and choreographer Mark Morris sold a currently untitled memoir, at auction, to Christopher Richards at Penguin Press. Morris is writing the book with novelist Wesley Stace (The Sound of His Own Voice), and, according to Penguin, it will be a love letter to dance, music, and to the New York arts scene. Morris, who has an eponymous dance company, will detail his rise to become one of the leading figures of the modern dance movement, along with his creative process. Claudia Ballard at William Morris Endeavor brokered the deal for U.S., Canadian, and open-market rights. Berkley Nabs Two Debuts In the first of two deals for novels by first-time authors at Berkley, Cindy Hwang took North American rights, for six figures, to Anne Corletts The Space Between Stars. Hwang preempted the book from its U.K. publisher, Pan Macmillan. The dystopian novel is set in a world where humans have colonized other planets and a pandemic has wiped out huge swaths of the civilization. Against this backdrop, the publisher explained, the heroine begins a journey to return home to Earth in hopes of finding her estranged boyfriend. Berkley is comparing the book, which is slated for June 2017, to Emily St. Johns Station Eleven and Michael Farbers The Book of Strange New Things. In the second acquisition, Kate Seaver nabbed North American rights, in a two-book deal at auction, to Flying at Night by Rebecca L. Brown. The novel, which Jane Rotrosen agent Christina Hogrebe sold, is told from multiple points of viewthat of a nine-year-old autistic boy, his narcissistic mother, and his father (whos recently suffered a heart attack). The book, which is set for early 2018, explores, Berkley said, universal questions about the nature of family, isolation, and somehow finding your way home again. Sibling Revelry Lee Goldbergs many crime novels include several based on the TV series Diagnosis: Murder and Monk; as a TV writer, he was twice nominated for an Edgar Award. His younger brother, Tod, is the author of several novels including Gangsterland, which was a finalist for the Hammett Prize, and Living Dead Girl, an L.A. Times Book Prize finalist. This week, the Goldberg brothers both have books on our Hardcover Fiction list. The Pursuit by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg debuts at #5; its the pairs fifth Fox and OHare novel. And The House of Secrets by Brad Meltzer and Tod Goldberg, the authors first collaboration, debuted on our list two weeks ago; its at #15 this week. (See all of this week's bestselling books.) Movie Watch Tim Burtons film adaptation of Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs doesnt open until September 30, but this week, after the June 20 release of the second official trailer, the 2013 trade paperback edition is the #7 book in the country overall. With more than 17K print units sold, this is the dark YA fantasy novels best week since March, when the first trailer was released. At #10 in the country overall, the 2007 trade paper edition of The BFG by Roald Dahl had its best week since publication. Sales have been building in the run-up to the wide theatrical release of the Steven Spielbergdirected film adaptation July 1. A tie-in edition pubbed five weeks ago and is at #4 in Childrens Frontlist Fiction; it too had its best week yet. And lest you worry that Jojo has lost her mojo, three weeks after the film version of Moyess Me Before You opened, the two tie-ins and conventional trade paperback are, respectively, #1, #4, and #8 in the country overall. Hearts and Minds The battle for America is being fought not only in the polls but also in bookstores. Case in point: this weeks Hardcover Nonfiction list. Heres a look at three titles, all debuting this week, that highlight aspects of the nations ideological divide. #6 The Intimidation Game Author: Kimberley Strassel, Wall Street Journal columnist and member of the newspapers editorial board. Subtitle: How the Left Is Silencing Free Speech Our review says: According to Strassel, the Democratic Party and liberals are increasingly focused on silencing political opposition. Strassel collects disturbing stories of right-of-center nonprofits, donors, and trade associations targeted for political reasons. #8 White Trash Author: Nancy Isenberg, professor of history at Louisiana State University Subtitle: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America Our starred review says: Isenberg (Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr) tackles a topic rarely addressed by mainstream American writing on race and class as she skillfully demonstrates that class defines how real people live. #22 Flyover Nation Author: Dana Loesch, conservative talk radio and TV host Subtitle: You Cant Run a Country Youve Never Been To Our review says: According to Loesch, in terms of political affiliation and cultural differences, America comprises two separate nations: the liberal elites of the East and West Coast, and the conservative flyover nation that encompasses the rest of the continental states. Air Apparent An anonymous author self-published Diary of an Oxygen Thief almost a decade ago, and in the years since, the book has enjoyed sporadic underground success. This year, Oxygen Thief became a regular on the charts, including our iBooks bestseller list. Gallery acquired the book in May, and this week, it appears at #22 on our Trade Paperback list. Though the author remains anonymous, hes gotten a bit more vocal: look for our interview with him in the July 11 issue. Top 10 Overall Rank Title Author Imprint Units 1 Me Before You (mass market movie tie-in) Jojo Moyes Penguin 23,565 2 Bay of Sighs Nora Roberts Berkley 23,162 3 End of Watch Stephen King Scribner 22,097 4 Me Before You (trade paper movie tie-in) Jojo Moyes Penguin 20,878 5 Bill OReillys Legends and Lies: The Patriots David Fisher Holt 20,058 6 Alexander Hamilton Ron Chernow Penguin 19,090 7 Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children Ransom Riggs Quirk 17,368 8 Me Before You Jojo Moyes Penguin 17,046 9 Heres to Us Elin Hilderbrand Little, Brown 15,866 10 The BFG Roald Dahl Puffin 15,511 All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted. When digital literary magazine the Offing was launched last year as a channel of the Los Angeles Review of Books, the literary nonprofit reviews journal, it was received with excitement from the writing and publishing communities. The outlet dedicated itself to actively seeking new writers and supporting work by and about marginalized groups, including the LGBTQ community, people of color, and the disabled. Run by an all-volunteer staff yet committed to paying its authors, it was attached to a respected brand and boasted an advisory board that included Richard Nash and Molly Ringwald. A little over a year later, the mission remains the same, even as its circumstances have changed. In May, the Offing published an essay by its former Dead Letter Office editor, Casey Rocheteau, called Literary Juneteenth (or Why I Left the Offing). The piece detailed Rocheteaus falling out with the magazine after then-editor-in-chief Darcy Cosper sent a tweet that Rocheteau viewed as disrespectful. Cosper approved the pieces publication, but she resigned before it ran; the Offings new editor-in-chief, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, made that clear in her editorial debut, an introduction to Rocheteaus piece. I know that Casey has obviously created a lot of discussion, and quite a spike on our server, Prescod-Weinstein said. Thats exactly what we were hoping for. There were a few people who said: This is risky. Why are you publishing an essay that is self-critical? Her answer: Accountability is very important. This is part of what I would call doing The Workcapital T, capital W. Prescod-Weinsteins appointment heralds a change for the Offing, one she will develop this summer (during a submission hiatus) and implement on September 1. Prescod-Weinsteins leadership is the beginning of those changes. A self-described Black Jewish queer agender/cissex female of working-class and immigrant origin, she wrote in her preface to Rocheteaus piece that she understands in a deeply personal way why it is important for Casey Rocheteaus voice to be heard at this moment. As such, her place at the top of a diverse masthead at a magazine dedicated to diversity seems to put the Offings proverbial money where its mouth is. I think that we are showing that you dont have to compromise on quality in order to get diversity, Prescod-Weinstein, an avowed Offing fangirl, said. I think that is garbage, and I think were proof that that is garbage. The magazines numbers support its editor-in-chiefs confidence. The Offing averaged 1,000 hits per day during the spring, or 30,000 per month, but after the publication of Literary Juneteenth on May 18, readership rocketed to 2,300 visitors per day, and the site was visited 70,000 times during the month of May. The role of editor-in-chief is not the only line on the masthead to have changedoutgoing executive managing editor Zach Mann will be replaced by Andrea Garcia-Vargas, previously the senior managing editor, and Mahogany Browne, editor of the Offings Micro section since the fall of 2015, was named executive editor earlier this year. Browne said that if all the changes work as planned, by the magazines second anniversary next year the Offing will beat the forefront of cutting edge literary work and the first portal you turn to when you get onto the Internet. But to get there, the magazine, newly independent of the Los Angeles Review of Books, must shore up its infrastructure, meaning a summer of fund-raising is in order. The outlet pays its writers already but would like to pay them more, and compensating its editors is another goal. The fund-raising is going to be huge this summer, Garcia-Vargas said. Its the big thing were focusing on. Garcia-Vargas, who was brought aboard recently and considers Prescod-Weinstein a friend, holds a day job as an audience-development coordinator at Discovery Communications in San Francisco, and she plans to use her connections in the tech industry to help with the push for funds. After that, she hopes to boost the Offings Web traffic by amping up its social media efforts and helping to give the site a face-lift. Im very interested in trying to make sure that the website on mobile is looking way, way, way better, she said. On the editorial side, a science sectiontentatively titled Doppler Affectis in the works, courtesy of Prescod-Weinstein, a cosmologist with a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Waterloo. I want to return to the idea that the basic sciences are in the liberal arts, she said. But most important, still, is what Prescod-Weinstein calls The Work of maintaining a space for voices of all backgrounds, backed by an editorial board that champions the diversityand courageof budding writers. I am a very holistic intersectional thinker, which serves me very well as a theoretical physicist, Prescod-Weinstein said. Those two things are inseparable. If we want to talk about pushing the literary form forward, and we want to do it in a way thats truly broad, then we have to talk about racism. We have to talk about sexism. We have to talk about attitudes against transgender people. [If we dont,] we are just missing out on beautiful work. This article has been updated for clarity. With another successful event concluded, the American Booksellers Associations Childrens Institute, a smaller, kids-focused edition of Winter Institute, has earned a place on booksellers and publishers spring calendars. Held this year from June 21 to June 23 in Orlando, Fla., the fourth Childrens Institute (CI 4) drew 228 booksellers from 39 states, Canada, and Australia and 56 authors. In her closing keynote, Julia Alvarez, author of the upcoming picture book Where Do They Go? (Triangle Square, Sept.), called it a very heartening conference. The enthusiasm was fueled, at least in part, by the number of booksellers in attendance who have new stores, including DeAndra Beard, who opened Beyond Barcodes Bookstore in Kokomo, Ind., earlier this year, and Deserea Russell, founder of the online childrens bookstore and book fair company, Imaginations, who plans to open a physical store in Columbia, Md. A few booksellers, such as Sally Sue Lavigne, recently purchased existing stores, in her case South Carolinas only childrens bookstore, the Storybook Shoppe in Bluffton. Sandy Loomis, who plans to open Enchanted Passage, a childrens bookstore in Sudbury, Mass., was one of several attendees who are about to open stores. Former ABA staffer Kristen Gilligan, the new owner of the Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver with her husband Len Vlahos, was enjoying her return to bookselling. She was drawn to this years institute, she said, for the education and networking opportunities. Because of what Im doing with schools and outreach for the store, I need to absorb every single moment, she noted. Childrens Institute is ideal for making and reestablishing connections around the country, Anna-Lise Sandstrum, national accounts manager at Chronicle Books, said. Sandstrum said that she was pleased to hear firsthand about whats happening in childrens bookstores and to thank indie booksellers for their business. Mark von Bargen, senior director of trade sales for childrens books at Macmillan, said he especially valued the multiple childrens programs offered at Childrens Institute, which had 10 education sessions, three keynotes, and three featured talks. Allison Verost, v-p of marketing and publicity for Macmillan Childrens Publishing Group, added that the timing was fantastic. The June date meant that many booksellers were already familiar with titles presented at the rep picks session. Last year the institute was held in April. The meeting had a number of mood shifts throughout the 45 hours. ABA CEO Oren Teicher noted in his opening remarks, As we begin this celebration, we are all reminded that there are people in Orlando tonight who are not celebrating and likely wont be able to celebrate for a long time to come. On behalf of all of you, we want to remember them these next few days and dedicate ourselves to reject violence and hateand to join together as Americans to build a society where acceptance and understanding are the norm. Kate DiCamillo opened the first full day with an emotional keynote titled Owning the Power of Stories, Harnessing the Power of Connection, about learning to connect with readers. Kristen McLean, director of new business development at Nielsen Book, shared sales data for books for children ages five to eight, which she said accounts for the lions share of childrens units and dollars, almost 40% for each. Her research showed that even though avid-reader parents are important for book sales for this age group, buying 39% of the units and 55% of dollars, social-omnivore parents are not far behind. McLean urged booksellers to market to them. But based on another set of numbers from the ABA, many booksellers are already finding the best ways to market childrens books. Teicher said that the ABA has seen growth in bookseller sales for the first half of 2016. And for those who arent experiencing that growth, he said, Were committed to work with you. The best days of childrens bookselling are ahead of us. A Henry County jury on Friday found a Los Angeles man not guilty of three felony charges associated with 66 pounds of cocainewith a street value of more than $900,000found in the semi-trailer he was driving April 12 on Interstate 80. Kevin E. Carias-Rivera, 37, was charged in Henry County Circuit Court on April 13 with Class X felony controlled substance trafficking, Class X felony possession with intent to deliver and Class 1 felony possession of cocaine. State Trooper Andrew Fratzke testified he followed Mr. Carias-Rivera in a construction zone and pulled him over eastbound near the Annawan exit in order to conduct a motor carrier inspection. He said the presence of a padlock on the back of the trailer instead of a seal raised his suspicions as well as the down time in Mr. Carias-Rivera's log book directly before and after picking up his load of mango nectar in the city of Industry, Calif., headed for New Jersey. He said truckers have been known to falsify logs to hide distances when they cover more miles than they should, but in other cases they falsify logs to hide down time if they're moving narcotics. He said Mr. Carias-Rivera's log book was off, but he easily could have reached Illinois from Los Angeles in the three days he'd been driving. Trooper Fratzke noted the seal verifies the load hasn't been tampered with, and if the seal is broken, the company receiving the load can refuse it. The unused seal was found intact in a compartment under the radio in the cab. Mr. Carias-Rivera had consented to a search, during which the trooper found the cocaine at the front of the trailer in two duffel bags. He later found a second log book showing slightly different departure times from California and also that Mr. Carias-Rivera had slept at Mesquite, Nev., when the first log showed him at Springfield, Utah, on April 10. Taking the stand, Mr. Carias-Rivera during his testimony noted what the trooper said about the importance of a seal. Us that deliver to companies often know they could care less about the seal. That's why we don't ever put it on, he said. The majority don't care about the seal. I have a collection of seals. Defense attorney Bruce Carmen stressed to jurors there was no proof his client possessed the cocaine knowingly. He suggested someone who knew they needed to avoid detection would avoid driving very fast and also ensure their equipment was in accordance with standards and laws. Jury member Simon Possin said the jury had been looking for more investigation or proof of Mr. Carias-Rivera's involvement from things the defense attorney brought up such as bank records and checking criminal history of others involved such as the trucking company. He said the jury even wondered why there was no video footage from the juice company from which the mango nectar came. Mr. Possin said jurors didn't care about discrepancies in a log book, because Mr. Carias-Rivera admitted to falsifying it on the stand and appeared honest then. Ultimately what it came down to was we really didn't think they'd met their burden of proof, no matter what we felt about it personally, he said. The jury deliberated about an hour and a half. ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL -- First Army held a Military Spouse Appreciation Ceremony June 21 to show gratitude to the wives and husbands who love and support their soldier and civilians spouses stationed at First Army headquarters. Its a lot easier to leave than to stay behind, First Army Commanding General Lt. Gen. Michael Tucker, told the First Army staffers. You go to the field, you go (on travel) and when you come home, they are always there. You thank them for keeping the home fires burning because they are always there. Military Spouse Day was established in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan to honor the contributions made by military spouses, said Denise Hudson, First Army Family Programs Manager. (First Armys) ceremony recognized the personal sacrifices of both military and civilian spouses who support First Army's mission. During the ceremony, more than 20 spouses were personally thanked and acknowledged by Lt. Gen. Tucker and his wife, Teresa Tucker, for their love and keeping their commitment to support the soldiers and civilians of First Army. ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL -- On this Fourth of July weekend, soldiers -- both active and retired -- stationed at Rock Island Arsenal reflected on what the commemorative holiday, service and sacrifice mean to them. Maj. Gen. Kevin O Connell, U.S. Army Sustainment Command commanding general, shared well wishes in observance of the holiday in a letter sent to ASC personnel. Independence Day is better known as the Fourth of July, in honor of the date on which we declared ourselves a free nation founded on the principles of individual rights and liberty, he said. Our nation's independence was earned on the battlefield and is today defended by Americans in uniform who carry on the difficult and dangerous work begun by the Continental Army. Recently-promoted Lt. Col. Jeff Milne, ASC Field Support Operations said, I appreciate the opportunities provided by serving in the military towards the common good of not only my family but also for my country and the role we play in helping to stabilize the world. Lt. Col. Milne, who recently returned from a deployment to Jordan, said he feels very humbled by the small role hes played in the greater global good. Its important for me to understand how significant what Im working on contributes to something bigger, he said. Our ability to apply our skills and resources to not only military operations but also humanitarian missions [allows] our allies to look for us for support when disaster happens. Sgt. 1st Class James Borchardt, ASC, recalled Fourth of July in Mosul, Iraq, during Operation Iraqi Freedom I, explaining anecdotally the pride felt by bringing stability to a disaster in a war-torn region of the world. When deployed during OIF I, my unit was mortared in Mosul during the early morning hours of the 4th of July, Sgt. Borchardt said. I remember running for cover in the bunkers and hearing the sound of the Quick Response Force that consisted of AH-64D, Apache Helicopters overhead. "Later that afternoon, we continued on with our softball tournament," he said. "I remember having this sense of pride and new appreciation of what service members accomplished before me during previous conflicts and wars." Sgt. Borchardt said that sacrifice is necessary to keep the oppressed free of tyranny, quoting John 15:13. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. MIDDLETOWN, Iowa -- The Iowa Economic Development Authority, the Greater Burlington Partnership and American Ordnance LLC, in partnership with Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, hosted a site certification announcement ceremony June 14. The ceremony marked the state of Iowas establishment of site certification for 152 acres of developable land at Yard L on the IAAAP, owned by the U.S. Army. The partnership creates a Commerce Center of Southeast Iowa, Phase One, where commercial companies can potentially establish businesses and create jobs for the local community. Efforts to certify the property for commercial use were promoted by Col. Joseph Chan, Project Director, Joint Services and the Joint Munitions Command Armament Retooling and Manufacturing Support program members. The ARMS program is authorized by Congressional legislation, to encourage the commercial and government use of unused property at select Government-Owned, Contractor-Operated locations, in order to compensate for reduced production volumes and facility closures that would otherwise have an adverse impact on local communities. Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad made the announcement and noted that of the 12 sites currently certified in the state of Iowa, this new property is the only site on a federally-owned installation. The IAAAP has been a key member of the southeast Iowa community for the past 75 years, said Lt. Col. Aaron Wolfe, IAAAP commander, during his opening comments. New opportunities made possible by ARMS can be a great benefit to the Burlington area and the Department of Defense. The Iowa Army Ammunition Plant is a subordinate installation of the Joint Munitions Command, headquartered in Rock Island. In November 1940, 19,000 acres were acquired by the government in the Middletown area. Construction of the Iowa Ordnance Plant began in January 1941, and the first item rolled off the production line in September of 1942. The size of the IAAAP workforce has varied, from a World War II peak of 13,000 employees, to its current workforce of approximately 700 employees. In 1963, the plant was renamed the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, and in 1998, American Ordnance, LLC, became the operating contractor. American Ordnance performs load, assemble and pack operations at the Middletown facility. For the past 18 years, weve been delivering munitions and explosives, said John McGuiness, president, American Ordnance. These efforts potentially create jobs and reduces the costs for the ammunition provided to the Warfighters. JMC produces small-, medium- and large-caliber ammunition items for the Department of Defense. JMC is the sustainment and logistics integrator for life-cycle management of ammunition and provides a global presence of technical support to U.S. combat units wherever they are stationed or deployed. 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. Today --Two Rivers United Methodist Church, 1820 5th Ave., Rock Island: noon, free meal, every Saturday. Tuesday, July 5 --Lifetree Cafe: 6 p.m., Coffee Hound, 3537 Archer Drive, East Moline: "The Art of Loss: How Tragedy Can Transform Your Perspective." Wednesday, July 6 --St. Paul Lutheran Church, 2136 Brady St., Davenport: 6:30 p.m., midsummer mental health movie; free, popcorn included; four-week series; July 6, "Debt of Honor;" July 13, "Still Alice;" July 20, "Good Will Hunting;" July 27, "Inside Out;" ann@stpaulqc.org or 563-326-3547. Sunday, July 10 --Moline Seventh-Day Adventist Church, 3521 53rd St., Moline: 3 p.m., free, vegetarian dinner/cooking show; health message; celebrity chef Mark Anthony. Thursdays, July 14, 21, 28 --Lamrim Kadampa Buddhist Center, 502 W. 3rd St., Davenport: 6:30-7:30 p.m., "Meditation Essentials Series;" learn essential techniques about breathing meditation, methods such as "preliminary practices," "setting intention," meditation break practice;" no experience needed; $10 per class; 563-322-1600, or visit MeditateInIowa.org. Monday, July 18-Friday, July 22 --Northcrest Calvary Baptist Church, 3004 56th St., Moline: 6-8:30 p.m.; "Submerged: Finding Truth From Below the Surface" vacation Bible school; 309-762-6578 or 309-721-8186. Friday, July 29-Sunday, July 31 --Northside Baptist Church, 4601 N. Division St., Davenport: 6-8 p.m. "Superheroes of Faith" vacation Bible school, for kids in kindergarten through sixth grade; drama, music, snacks, games and prizes; bonfire Sunday night; preregister at 563-549-3150,or by email danahuss@gmail.com, online at northside-quadcities.com, or at the door. Miscellaneous --Churches United of the Quad City Area recently received a $625 grant from The Iowa Scottish Rite Masonic Foundation in support of Winnies Place emergency center for women and children. --The Community Foundation of the Great River Bend recently awarded $90,000 to nine local organizations. It will award $120,000 worth of more Nonprofit Capacity Building Grants this fall. Letters of interest are accepted through Sept. 1. Submit letters to cfgrb.org/npcapacitybuildinggrants. Grants included: Arrowhead Youth and Family Services, $15,000; Community Action of Eastern Iowa, $8,920; Community Health Care Inc. $3,425; German American Heritage Center, $8,200; Gildas Club Quad Cities, $9,711; Hope at the BRICK House Inc., $10,658; ILLOWA Sheet Metal Workers Local 91 Joint Apprentice Training Center, $6,200; Safer Foundation, $13,050; Trinity Health Foundation, $14,000. GENESEO -- Quilts made for children attending the summer Royal Family Kids Camp are intended to help blanket them in God's love. Camp directors the Rev. Lee Bezotte and his wife, the Rev. Wendy Bezotte, will give 22 children quilts made by the "Quilting Girls," who meet weekly at Geneseo Evangelical Free Church. Kay Burrus spearheaded efforts to form the quilting group, which began with seven women four years ago. There now are 14 members who meet weekly at the church and recently decided to designate one week each month to donation sewing. We were looking for something local, and Royal Family Kids Camp came up at our discussion, Mrs. Burrus said. We knew that Royal Family Kids Camp of Henry County receives quilts and then we found out that the Rock Island County camp started just three years ago. "We were able to make 33 quilts in three short months, she said. Each quilt has a label that reads Made especially for where campers can put their names. They also will take the quilts with them at the end of camp week. We want the kids to have something made specifically for them, Mrs. Burrus said. We want to continue making quilts for the Royal Family Kids and, in July, we will begin to sew for next years group. The one-week residential summer camp helps abused, abandoned and neglected children in the Rock Island County area. The campers are in situations that Mrs. Burrus said she knows all too well and is close to my heart. "I have two great-grandchildren who were in the foster-care system, she said. They live in Texas and I stayed with them for two months. It just broke my heart when I learned what the girls were going through and had gone through. Children should never have to live through stuff like that. "The girls are doing relatively well now and live with my daughter in Texas, she said. Mrs. Burrus said when she learned of the Rock Island County camp, she thought it was the perfect home for the quilts. "We want the children to know they are very special and that someone cared enough about them to make something specifically for them, she said. Rev. Wendy Bezotte, who traveled to the Geneseo church to receive the quilts, said she and her husband chose to become involved with Royal Family Kids Camp 4 years ago when they were preparing to plant Mercy Vineyard Church in Moline. She said they believe the camp "echoes the heart of God -- to create life-changing moments for children of abuse. Volunteers who help at the camp represent other area churches. "We see this as a community effort, she said. There are many wonderful people in the Quad City area who contribute in different ways. The quilts made by Kay Burrus and her group are such a huge blessing to the children and we are so grateful for the hard work and passion they put into them. Rev. Wendy Bezotte said the camp includes swimming, boating and fishing, as well as a tea party for the girls, a tailgate party for the boys and a birthday party for all of the kids. She said the goal is to help the kids have a blast and know they matter. "By treating them royally, we want to help them learn their value and to give them hope," she said. See It in Action Previously recorded videos may contain expired pricing, exclusivity claims, or promotional offers. We're sorry. This item is not available at this time. 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! Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale Buy real estate. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale in US and Canada. Search Real Estate Property details: Here's another opportunity for someone looking for land in Northern California, and this is one of the standard size lots, and only 90 minutes from the San Francisco Bay Area and adjacent to the Napa Valley and beautiful wine country. You will be bidding on this residential lot that has lots of trees on the front half of the lot, is approximately 5,400 square feet in size, and located just over a mile from Clear Lake, the largest natural lake entirely in the state. The property is located in the... Price: $ 1,350 Seller State of Residence: California Property Address: 2871 Sherman St. State/Province: California City: Nice Type: Homesite, Lot Zoning: Residential Zip/Postal Code: 95464 Location: 928**, Orange, California You will be redirected to eBay Nearby 95464 Before taking a walk from Riverside Park to the Columbia County Courthouse on Thursday, Misty gobbled a cheeseburger, but turned up her graying muzzle at an offer of French fries. Everybody at the park on Thursday morning about 60 people, and about a dozen dogs wanted to show affection to Misty, a Labrador retriever mix who, less than six months ago, was found in the woods beaten and bleeding in a zipped-up gym bag. Several people (and at least one dog) wore shirts with slogans like For the love of Misty and Stop animal abuse. Others carried signs, some bearing Mistys image. Heidi Shields of Fall River organized the March for Misty, which happened just before the scheduled preliminary hearing for Mistys former owner, Terri Lynn Benson of Pardeeville. At the marchs conclusion, several human participants went into the Branch 3 courtroom for the hearing, after Shields cautioned that they werent allowed to carry any signs into the courtroom or bring in any dogs. Mistys foster owner, Brenda Vesely of Rio, gave Misty one last pat on the head before entering the courthouse, and declared, Shes loving life every single day. Youd never know, by looking at Misty, that this is the same dog found, emaciated and bleeding, by four teens who were hunting at the French Creek Wildlife Area in the town of Fort Winnebago the same dog who was brought to the Columbia County Humane Society with 19 stapled head wounds (allegedly from hammer blows) and a huge tumor on her chest. Vesely said Misty has gained 18 pounds in foster care, and at her most recent veterinary checkup, she weighed in at 62 pounds and change. Misty eats steaks, chicken, hamburgers, cheeseburgers and high-protein food for senior dogs, she said. There also are no visible scars on Mistys head, and the tumor cant be seen at all. At age 16, Misty is 112 years old in dog years (multiplying her age by 7). But on Thursday, she comported herself like a puppy sniffing every hand that reached out to her, going from person to person to be petted. For Brad Palmer of Portage, meeting Misty was a moving experience. I felt like I was meeting Elvis, he said. I was fighting back tears. That experience was nothing new to Faye Riedner of Waunakee. During a recent vacation in Ocala, Florida, Riedner recalls bursting into tears after reading an update about Misty on social media. Some Floridians asked why she was crying, and she said it was because of Misty to which the Floridians responded, Are you talking about that dog from Wisconsin? Multiple march participants said theyd heard that Misty has an international following, too, including in Ukraine. Many said that they, too, had adopted rescued dogs and cats including Dorothy Russell of Portage, who brought along her 11-year-old Pomeranian-poodle mix, Maximilian. One of the Misty supporters participating in the march was Kaden Branton, 8, of rural Rio, who in March sold pottery that had been hand-made by her grandfather, Thomas Bud Skupniewitz of Lake Mills, and gave the full $427 in proceeds to the Columbia County Humane Society for Mistys care. Several participants also praised the skills of Portage veterinarian Dr. Michael Cooper, who treated Mistys wounds and operated on her tumor. We owe him a lot, Vesely said. SHARE By The Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) A Pennsylvania attorney who's defended high-profile clients including Amanda Knox and Robert Durst found himself on the other side of the courtroom, testifying against a man charged with picking a wad of cash from his pocket. Theodore Simon testified Thursday at the preliminary hearing for 27-year-old Rico Clark, Philly.com (http://bit.ly/28QuDUh ) reported. Clark, of Norristown, was ordered to stand trial on charges he reached into Simon's coat on June 8 and stole the cash while the attorney was at a newsstand. "I can't recall this ever happening to me, so I was kind of surprised," Simon testified. Simon, 65, was waiting for clothing alterations so he could pack for a trip to attend Muhammad Ali's funeral in Louisville, Kentucky, when a security guard in his office building showed him that USA Today had printed an edition commemorating Ali. That's when Simon went to the newsstand and bought four copies, he testified. Before he could take the newspapers and the change for his $20, Simon testified he felt "pressure" in his jacket pocket and grabbed Clark's hand which was holding Simon's bankroll, bound with a rubber band. Simon gave chase, and a couple of bicycle officers helped Simon catch the man. Clark's attorney got Simon to acknowledge that he wasn't hurt and that he got his money back. Simon, a former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said he's found that his new courtroom role is uncomfortable. "I'm a defense attorney. I can't help feeling bad for this guy," he said. In this June 24, 2016 photo, Tourists visit the Agua Clara locks during the last test of the newly expanded Panama Canal, in Agua Clara, Panama. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) SHARE By JUAN ZAMORANO, Associated Press PANAMA CITY (AP) Dozens of spectators gawk from an observation deck as a bulk freighter carrying grains from the United States to China inches its way closer. Forty-ton locomotives known as mules latch onto the massive vessel with cables and guide it inside the Miraflores locks, employing a mechanical precision that keeps it from banging into the concrete walls despite the tight fit. The ship's crossing through the Panama Canal is nearly complete as the 700-ton steel doors swing shut. While most of their bulk is hidden underneath the water, they're as tall as an eight-story building and the same ones that have been doing the job for over a century. As a major Latin American hub of finance, commerce and transportation, the Panamanian capital is a growing destination for business travelers. For anyone looking to duck out of a convention center for a few hours, fill a gap between meetings or even if you've just got a long layover at the airport, a visit to Panama City's No. 1 attraction and its newly expanded locks makes for the perfect side excursion. Shipping geeks in particular will delight at this engineering marvel that revolutionized global maritime trade when it opened for business on Aug. 15, 1914, but it also appeals to a broader audience with nearly 3,000 people visiting each day during the January-April high season. The Miraflores Visitor Center offers several stories of space with an up-close view of the machinations of the canal, where ships pass through about 35-40 times a day. With each crossing, an enthusiastic guide informed visitors on a recent sticky, tropical morning, the locks fill with about 26 million gallons (100 million liters) of fresh water that then spill into the Pacific Ocean. "I'm impressed by the magnitude of this operation," said Vicky Londono, a Colombian traveler who flew into the airport that day with her husband and hopped in a cab to see the canal before continuing to their final destination, Madrid. The Canal Authority threw a big bash on Monday to formally inaugurate its new Cocoli locks, which doubled the waterway's capacity and can accommodate huge New Panamax-class vessels that carry up to three times as much cargo as those previously able to fit. There will be no separate viewing platform at Cocoli for at least two years, but for now you can see some of the action at a distance from Miraflores. Tip: Bring binoculars. "This is spectacular," said Tom Matz, a retired lawyer from New York, as a sky-blue liquid petroleum gas ship emerged from Cocoli bound for the Atlantic. "The past, present and future of the canal, all right here." Getting to the canal is a snap, with a host of travel agencies and hotel tours competing for your business. For $30 or so, depending on your willingness to haggle, taxi drivers will take you from the city center and pick you up a couple of hours later. Plan on $60 or more if you're starting from the airport, as well as a 30- to 45-minute cab ride there possibly longer due to Panama City's chronic traffic congestion. If no ship is passing through right when you arrive, while away the time in the facility's theater and museum for comprehensive exhibits on the canal and its construction which claimed the lives of more than 25,000 workers, most of them from Caribbean islands, and mostly from tropical diseases such as malaria and yellow fever. A simulator lets you play captain and virtually maneuver a ship through the locks. There's also a snack bar, and a pricier restaurant upstairs that stays open into the evening. ___ If You Go ... PANAMA CANAL: Miraflores Visitor Center, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Adults (non-Panamanians), $15. Busiest time for crossings: 9-11 a.m. Schedules for ship crossings: http://visitcanaldepanama.com/en/ . Additional viewing platforms located at old and new Atlantic locks near the northern city of Colon, about an hour away by car. GUIDED TOURS: These well-established travel agencies offer canal visits: Pesantez Tours, http://www.pesantez-tours.com/ Viajes Arco Iris, http://www.arcoirispanama.com.pa/ City Sightseeing Panama, http://www.city-sightseeing.com/tours/panama/panama-city.htm RESTAURANT: Atlantic & Pacific Co.: http://www.atlanticpacificrestaurant.com/ SHARE By Joseph Szydlowski, joseph.szydlowski@redding.com A man accused of kidnapping and abusing two women entered a not guilty plea in Shasta County Superior Court on Friday afternoon. Stevie Lee Boston, 20, kept two women against their will, raped them and had them swindle johns, a Redding police report says. Boston faces charges of false imprisonment, assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, rape, forced oral sex and domestic violence. "This is quite a list," judge Richard Scheuler said of the criminal complaint, which has a total of 15 counts. Sacramento police arrested Boston on Thursday and found the second woman safe, Redding officers said. They said they first began investigating after receiving a call from Hinkle's Market June 21. Upon arriving, they spoke with a Redding woman who said she had escaped Boston during a fight, the police report states. She and Boston had connected in March, the report states. Though nice at first, he allegedly became abusive and brought the second victim here, the report says. She told them Boston had her and another woman lure johns, whom they subsequently robbed, in Sacramento, Red Bluff, Chico, Redding and Stockton, according to the report. He also allegedly physically and sexually abused them and held them against their will in a Redding apartment, the report says. During a fight, she ran away and a friend called police, the report says. Responding officers said they saw bruises on her. Boston had already left, they said. Officers tracked a cellphone to a Sacramento home, which a SWAT team raided. There, police allegedly found the second woman and Boston. His bail is $1 million. Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight Mike Schroeder, owner of TCF Ammunition, inspects a loading machine Friday at the Redding shop. Schroeder says he expects demand to increase up until the new law requiring background checks for ammunition purchases takes effect next year. He thinks it will drop off afterward. The business sells remanufactured ammunition to the wholesale market, law enforcement for training and to competition shooters. SHARE Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight John Bastiani, owner of Bastiani Arms, left, talks to Wayne Allen of Redding about the new gun laws just signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, Thursday at the gun shop. By Sean Longoria, sean.longoria@redding.com California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a half-dozen gun bills Friday, riling the rural and more conservative segments of the North State, who turned to familiar narratives about gun right infringements and government overreach. The bills, sent to Brown's desk a day earlier, will create a regulatory framework for ammunition purchases that could lead to mandatory background checks, redefine "assault weapons" at the state level to include more types of guns, limit lending of guns to family members only and restrict gun magazines to 10 rounds or fewer. The new laws take effect next year. "My goal in signing these bills is to enhance public safety by tightening our existing laws in a responsible and focused manner, while protecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners," Brown said in a statement from his office. Reaction from local elected officials was immediate. Assemblyman Brian Dahle, R-Bieber, said late Thursday the ammunition limits would drive up the cost and availability for hunters in rural areas. Redefining a rifle without a fixed magazine will also require hunters to register guns rarely used in criminal activity. "We all want to reduce gun violence," Dahle said. "But these votes treat ordinary hunting rifles as 'military-style weapons.' They are not, but too many legislators are voting out of fear and ignorance." Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko said the bills will add additional costs to law-abiding citizens and create additional burdens for law enforcement. "Overall, I think they will do little if anything to prevent the criminal element from acquiring guns," he said. Bosenko did favor a bill that would have sent to voters a change to Proposition 47 the voter-approved initiative to reclassify some felonies as misdemeanors that's pointed to locally as contributing to crime increases to make gun theft a felony. Brown, however, vetoed that bill. "That was a bill that could have made a difference in crime but yet it was vetoed," he said. Patrick Jones, of the Redding gun shop Jones Fort, estimated ammunition accounts for about a quarter of his business. "It's going to change a lot of things," Jones said. "I just don't see people getting that permit and registering that ammo with the state of California every time they buy." Instead, more people will likely drive out of state to buy ammunition without the same limits as in California, he said. For Mike Schroeder, who has run wholesale ammunition business The Cartridge Family since 2014, sales could surge before the ammunition law takes effect but then slow down drastically. "I know not one single client of mine is going to register or do a background check," Schroeder said. Schroeder said he will likely halt retail sales once the law takes effect in favor of wholesale and bulk business. The law will likely halt ammunition sales at gun shows and possibly force people to buy bullets illegally, he said. "These laws, they're just horrible, every one of them," Schroeder said. Jones characterized the bills including most of those vetoed by Brown as government overreach. "They're attacking the wrong people and we know it," he said. "They're fooling the public that these measures will somehow stop criminal behavior." The vetoes included bills that would have made stealing a gun grand theft, expanding the definition of a "firearm" to include homemade guns, limit any gun purchases to one per month, expand the range of those who could seek gun violence restraining orders and require tighter reporting deadlines for victims of gun theft. Gun control measures have long been popular with the Democratic lawmakers who control the California Senate and Assembly. But they stepped up their push this year after the December shooting in San Bernardino by a couple who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, the Associated Press reported. Advocates on both sides of the gun-control debate say California has some of the nation's strictest gun laws. It is one of six states to get the highest grade from the pro-gun control Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, according to the AP. Signed into law Senate Bill 1235: Requires background checks on ammunition purchases and creates a statewide tracking system for ammunition purchases. The bill depends on voters passing a similar initiative in November, though absent that approval the bill would ban ammunition purchases for those barred from buying guns. Senate Bill 880 and Assembly Bill 1135: Redefines assault weapon to include semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines. Assembly Bill 1511: Limits gun loaning without a licensed firearms dealer to spouses or other family members. Assembly Bill 1695: Prohibits anyone who files a false gun-theft report to police from owning a gun for 10 years after conviction. Senate Bill 1446: Imposes fines beginning July 2017 for anyone who owns a gun magazine that can hold more than 10 bullets. Vetoed Assembly Bill 1176: Would place on the November ballot an amendment to Proposition 47 to make stealing a gun felony grand theft. Prop. 47 made all thefts below $950 misdemeanors. This bill proposes to add an initiative that is nearly identical to one which will already appear on the November 2016 ballot, Brown said. While appreciate the authors intent in striving to enhance public safety, I feel that the objective is better attained by having the measure appear before voters only once. Assembly Bill 1673: Expands the definition of firearm to include homemade weapons that function the same way as a gun. This bill seeks to stem the growing tide of untraceable homemade firearms on our streets, Brown said. While I appreciate the authors intent, the actual wording of this bill is unduly vague and could have far-reaching and unintended consequences. Assembly Bill 1674: Extends state law limiting handgun purchases to one per month to every type of gun. While well-intentioned, I believe this bill would have the effect of burdening lawful citizens who wish to sell certain firearms that they no longer need, Brown said. Assembly Bill 2607: Expands the list of people who can petition for a gun violence restraining orders from immediate family members of the target of the order to employers, coworkers and mental health workers or school workers whove had contact with the person in the last six months. In 2014, I signed Assembly Bill 1014 which allowed immediate family members of law enforcement to petition for a gun violence restraining order, Brown said. That law took effect on Jan. 1, 2016, so at this point it would be premature to enact a futher expansion. Senate Bill 894: Requires the victim of gun thefts to report the crime to law enforcement within five days. I continue to believe that responsible people report the loss or theft of a firearm and irresponsible do not, Brown said. It is not likely that this bill would change that. No action Assembly Bill 857: Requires a serial number or other official mark before assembling a gun beginning July 2018. SHARE Courtesy photo Whiskeytown National Recreation Area rangers said a man and woman are suspected of burglarizing a vehicle. Courtesy photo Whiskeytown National Recreation Area rangers say a man and woman are suspected of burglarizing a vehicle. Suspects wanted in vehicle theft Rangers at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area are asking for the public's help in identifying two people who they say stole items from a vehicle June 22. According to their investigations, rangers said a man and a woman suspected in the theft were spotted together on surveillance cameras making fraudulent transactions at Redding and Anderson businesses. They were seen driving a dark green, four-door Honda Accord EX with a sunroof. Anyone with information is asked to call the investigating officer at 530-242-3416. Callers can remain anonymous. The National Park Service advises park visitors to lock their vehicles, not to leave any valuables behind and to call 911 or 530-242-3431 to report any suspicious activity. Backups reported on Interstate 5 Traffic was backed up near the Lakehead bridge project and near Weed on Interstate 5 on Friday afternoon as drivers hit the road for the Fourth of July weekend. The California Department of Transportation said drivers should expect up to hourlong delays getting past bridge construction near Lakehead this weekend. The interstate is reduced to one lane in each direction. Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol also reported that traffic was backed up in both directions near Weed. That backup was caused by a disabled semitrailer near Mount Shasta that obscured the lanes and made it difficult for drivers to merge around it. Crews fight fires in Tehama County Fire crews battling a forest fire in southwest Tehama County gained more containment on the blaze Friday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The Colyear Fire was 65 percent contained and had burned 464 acres, Cal Fire said. The fire started at 1:29 p.m. Thursday off Colyear Springs Road, about 7 miles west of Red Bank in Red Bluff. Fire investigators are working to determine what caused the blaze. Meanwhile, fire crews on Friday extinguished several fires along southbound Interstate 5 in Red Bluff. A vegetation fire started along Flores Avenue at 1:48 p.m., and there were reports of another fire farther south near Gyle Road as of 2 p.m. Siskiyou wildfire remains active The Pony Fire continues to burn in the Klamath National Forest, west of Highway 96 and about 15 miles southwest of Happy Camp. The blaze started early June 7 during a lightning storm within an area that burned in the 2001 Swillup Fire. Flames are burning dry brush and timber, along with heavy dead and down snags, Forest Service officials said. As of Friday morning, the fire remained at 2,858 acres and 70 percent contained, with 162 personnel assigned. Grass fire burns in north Redding Firefighters contained a blaze to about 1 acre in north Redding on Friday evening. Crews contained the blaze quickly after arriving to find it in a field near the south end of Masonic Avenue, Redding Fire Department Capt. Erick Mattson said. The fire burned about an acre of grass and some woodland after it was reported about 6:40 p.m. The fire didn't cause any damage or injuries, Mattson said. Fire Prevention Officer Craig Wittner said he suspects the fire either was caused by someone smoking or was an arson. He ruled out natural causes, and it did not begin in a homeless camp, he said. Police: Woman left tot in hot vehicle Police said they arrested a Red Bluff woman after she left her 1-year-old in her vehicle outside an Anderson business for up to 20 minutes Friday. Although temperatures climbed to 120 degrees within five minutes, the baby is all right, Anderson police said. They say Felicia Gaskins, 23, had left the child in a car seat in the vehicle in the 5000 block of Rhonda Road while she went into a business. About 3:25 p.m., officers said they went there after someone called about the child, saying the infant had been in the vehicle for 15 to 20 minutes. They arrived to find the child being held by Gaskins, who allegedly admitted to forgetting the child in the vehicle. Onlookers told officers the air conditioning and engine allegedly were turned off. Paramedics evaluated the child, who was in good health, officers said. They placed a thermometer in the car seat and found that within five minutes, temperatures had reached 120 degrees, officers said. Police said that they arrested Gaskins on suspicion of felony child endangerment and that she was taken to Shasta County Jail. The child was placed in protective custody, officers said. A Neenah, Wis., man was convicted Friday of sexually assaulting an unconscious high school student two years ago in his La Crosse apartment. A jury of five men and seven women found Benjamin Wendler, 32, guilty of second-degree sexual assault after deliberating for about two hours at the conclusion of a 1-day trial in La Crosse County Circuit Court. According to a criminal complaint, on May 3, 2014, Wendler took the 18-year-old and a friend to a party in La Crescent, Minn., where she drank until she got sick. Friends told police they later helped her into bed at Wendlers State Street apartment because she was unable to walk. The woman said she woke up to find Wendler sexually assaulting her. Wendlers attorney argued the sex was consensual and that the womans testimony was inconsistent with what she told police. Assistant District Attorney Noel Lawrence said the victim would not have gone through the ordeal of a trial if she were lying. This is not about whether she gave consent. This is about whether she was even capable of giving consent, Lawrence said. He had sex with her unconscious body. Wendler was charged in July 2014 with the same offense stemming from a 2013 encounter with an intoxicated college student, but prosecutors dismissed that case after a judge ruled it could not be tried at the same time. Wendler, who faces a sentence of up to 40 years, remains free on bond. He is scheduled to be sentenced in late September. Jim Schultz/Record Searchlight Plans to move the Dobrowksy house from downtown to near the Henderson Open Space fell through when The McConnell Foundation found it would be too expensive to do so. The house is slated for demolition as part of the new courthouse project. SHARE By Jenny Espino of the Redding Record Searchlight The McConnell Foundation has withdrawn from its plans to acquire and relocate the Dobrowsky house, the downtown Craftsman built in the 1920s that is now on land slated to become home of the long-planned Shasta County Courthouse. McConnell announced its decision Friday after its board reviewed budget estimates showing the cost to lift and move the house, repair it and bring it up to code growing to three times more than initially believed. "Virtually no one thing led to the demise of the project, but it was way too much," said Shannon Phillips, McConnell vice president of operations. "It didn't make any sense (to pursue the project) with other competing needs in the community." The block bound by Yuba, Oregon, Butte and Court streets and on which the house sits is owned by the state Judicial Council. The council had asked the philanthropy to let it know by Thursday what it had determined. That call was made Friday by Lee Salter, McConnell director and chief executive officer. Phillips declined to say what the estimated amount would have been but said it was significant and likely would have grown even more. The Judicial Council did not immediately respond to an email late Friday afternoon, and calls to its offices in San Francisco were not answered. Melissa Fowler-Bradley, Shasta County court executive officer, said what happens next is unknown. Whether groundbreaking of the courthouse will go through as scheduled in 2017 is unclear. Much of it rests on the council's Court Facilities Advisory Committee meeting on Aug. 4. "It is not our call to make. It is Judicial Council land. So they are in the driver's seat," Fowler-Bradley said. She talked about the worn-out house being vacant and possibly attracting people seeking shelter. "I do worry about the situation there," she said. During their tour of the house in March 2015, foundation officials said they were told the relocation cost alone could be at least $60,000, maybe more if it were moved to a location away from the downtown. Nonetheless, McConnell proceeded and submitted its letter of interest. It was the only proposal received by the council. McConnell, in partnership with staff at Redding City Hall, then settled on moving the house north of the Henderson Open Space. The facility would be repurposed for use by the nonprofit Shasta Land Trust. Because it would be on land that Dignity Health wants to buy for its wellness campus, plans were being negotiated between the hospital system and the city to make way for the house's relocation. Those now are moot. To put the foundation's challenges into perspective, Phillips noted the house would have to be split into four sections to lift it and truck it. The walls would have had to be taken apart to do a new electrical system, compromising the integrity of the structure. It would be less to build a replica than to restore the house, Phillips said. "It is a disappointment from the standpoint that we went into this trying to save a piece of history and downtown architecture and turn it into a useful facility for a nonprofit organization," she said. Bob Blankenship, the retired Redding police chief and a McConnell board director, in the statement issued by the foundation noted the efforts undertaken to make the project happen. McConnell worked with a house moving company, contractor, architect, structural and electrical engineers, city building and planning officials. "It is hard to let the house go," he said. "As stewards of the Foundation resources, we ask ourselves, is this the highest and best use of these Foundation resources? In this case, we have to say we think it isn't." SHARE Richard Williams The Fourth of July is marked by Americans all across the country celebrating our nation's independence with firework displays and backyard barbecues. And yet, in the 240 years since we declared our independence from Great Britain, we have slowly built up a government bureaucracy that limits the very freedom we celebrate each year. As Thomas Jefferson once wrote, reminding Americans to be just as wary of our own government as we were of the British crown, from which we gave up so much to be separate: "When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated." The absence of self-governance was precisely what ignited a revolution in the American colonies. It wasn't the taxation of tea that caused colonial outrage; it was the fact that the favored British company, the East India Company, got a tax break. Americans feel disconnected from the decisions made within the confines of the Washington beltway. Most people (three out of four) express this fragmentation by responding negatively to the question of whether the government is on "the right track." Jefferson, while not anticipating the specific rise of hundreds of bureaucracies populated by hundreds of thousands of administrative officials, got it right when he presaged the powerlessness of trying to check such a huge nonelected bureaucratic entity. It's important to note that these agencies were originally created with an important purpose solving problems. But as we've gotten away from evidence-based rule-making, these bureaucracies have exploded, making it impossible for Americans to keep up. Agencies pass 3,000-4,000 new rules every year, far more than any one person could comprehend. The agencies have become so robust that they operate almost entirely outside the control of the president and Congress. And the last major agency we got rid of was way back in 1978, the Civil Aeronautics Board, while President Jimmy Carter was in office. The last time Congress passed serious legislation to allow the public to gain more control over the bureaucracies was 70 years ago. It's called the Administrative Procedure Act. It was supposed to make agencies seek comment from the public and then listen to their concerns about proposed regulations. There is a long history of agencies passing regulations that help some businesses at the expense of consumers, workers and competitors. Sometimes it's the larger firms employing regulatory attorneys that can interact with the bureaucracy and get them to pass regulations that hurt smaller competitors. Other times it's the consumer and environmental advocates who rotate in and out of the bureaucracies and have excess influence in convincing the agencies to pass regulations that they're passionate about. But those regulations too often either don't help to solve problems or have unintended consequences that they simply don't care about. The courts can help oversee agencies, though they're burdened by a past decision that says when ordinary people challenge how an agency has interpreted a law written by Congress, the courts must "defer to the agencies." The checks and balances set forth in our Constitution have long been neutralized by bureaucracies, and they now threaten the fundamental liberties that we fought so hard to obtain. They don't produce any real products (like tea) that we can toss overboard in protest, and we don't have a popular vote to get rid of them. What we do have is an elected Legislature which after 70 years of relenting to bureaucratic buildup needs to take back its powers to check these agencies, restore our liberties and rid us of the red tape. Richard Williams (rwilliams@mercatus.gmu.edu) is the director of the regulatory studies program with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. SHARE Given how dysfunctional Congress is, we expect partisan battles to sometimes block important legislation. Still, the current standoff over $1.1 billion to fight the Zika virus is absurd and dangerous. Lawmakers ought to be ashamed if they have any shame left that they're holding hostage essential funding for what is a real public health emergency. Zika, mainly spread by tropical mosquitoes, can cause horrific birth defects. There are already more than 800 cases in the mainland U.S., including 300 pregnant women. And prime mosquito season is fast approaching. Yet on Tuesday, the Senate deadlocked on a bill that includes $476 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ramp up mosquito control and $230 million for the National Institutes of Health to develop a vaccine. Though there have been no confirmed cases of transmission by mosquitoes here, Zika is already an epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean. On Tuesday, health officials in Florida, which is the hardest-hit state so far, announced the first case of microcephaly a baby born with an unusually small head to a mother who contracted the virus in Haiti. It's not like this crisis sneaked up on Congress. President Barack Obama asked in February to provide $1.9 billion for anti-Zika efforts. More than four months later, Congress still hasn't come through. In May, different versions were passed by the Senate and House, which included only $622 million. At the insistence of the House, the current bill would divert money from other health programs. That's bad enough. The hang-up revolves around unrelated provisions negotiated by Republicans who control the House and Senate. Democrats object to what they call "poison pills" one that they say would restrict funding for Planned Parenthood to provide birth control to women in Puerto Rico threatened by Zika, another that would temporarily lift restrictions on pesticide spraying, and yet another that would block a ban on displaying the Confederate flag at military cemeteries. All these issues should be dealt with separately, if at all. Funding for military and veterans' facilities is also being held up by this stalemate. Senate GOP leaders are holding out hope for another vote next week and a resolution before Congress leaves for a seven-week recess. But since it's an election year, nothing is certain. If lawmakers don't act soon, any widespread outbreak that leads to deformed babies will be on them. They don't want that on their conscience, do they? The Sacramento Bee National auditor says a significant part of NPAs was due to fraud and may never be recovered In a rare public appearance on Friday, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), Shashi Kant Sharma, added a new dimension to the ongoing debate on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the banking system in general. Delivering the keynote address at a conference on Financial and Corporate Frauds, organised by industry body Assocham in New Delhi, Sharma said there was a need to consider CAG audit for financial regulators like the RBI. He also said a significant portion of what is being recognised as bad loans of commercial banks was the result of fraud, the bulk of which may have been transferred abroad and may never get recovered. Though a proposal on audit of RBI was floated in the past, CAGs observations assume significance as they have come at a time when the banking sector is under severe stress and the government is in the process of selecting a new governor. Sharma, who completed three years as the national auditor in May, referred to the way advanced markets such the US and the UK have dealt with the issue. The examples (of US & UK) cite the moves being made to bring forth more accountability and transparency on the financial sector regulators. In India, the CAG doesnt audit the RBI, whose auditors are appointed by the central government under the provisions of the RBI Act. In the light of the growing incidents of financial frauds, this is a thought for consideration. Our audits should look into the risks and vulnerabilities facing our financial sector as well as the ability and effectiveness of regulators to mitigate such risks, he said. The emerging international trend of oversight of the regulators, in order to provide a higher level of assurance, is an interesting development that must be watched to inform our own system of oversight and assurance, said Sharma. Industry reacted cautiously to the idea. Devamalya Dey, group president - audit & management governance, YES Bank, said, It is a thought-provoking idea. It will be debated and discussed over a period of time, how we should go about it. The 12th CAG of the country explained how advanced financial systems such as the US and the UK are moving towards closer scrutiny of non-monetary policy functions of their central banks. In the US the GAO (Government Accountability Office) (counterpart of CAG in India) didnt audit the Fed till 1978; post-78 it was allowed to review the Feds regulatory duties in the payment system, but was still prohibited from reviewing the deliberations, decisions and actions on monetary policy. But soon after 2009, the year of the financial crisis, the US Congress allowed the GAO to audit loans made by the fed to individual companies, the CAG said. After 2012, it was further allowed to review Feds internal controls, policy on collateral, use of contractors and other activities, whilst still keeping the monetary policy outside its ambit. Presently, he said, there was an ongoing debate of allowing the GAO to conduct a full-scale audit of the Feds activities and regulatory structure. In the UK, the Bank of England has historically been outside the ambit of the auditing institution, the NAO (National Audit Office). However, a recent law mandates that the Bank of England should consult the Comptroller while appointing its auditors. This provides the Comptroller access to documents related to audit of the bank. The new law also authorises the comptroller and auditor general to carry out examinations into the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which the bank has used its resources in discharging its functions. They stormed in shouting Allahu Akbar. Sumon Reza, supervisor at the O Kitchen Restaurant, who escaped the gunmen after they stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery located in Gulshan 2, an upmarket neighbourhood that is home to many shops, embassies and restaurant in Dhaka, recounts the horror of the attack. Reza told reporters that the attackers were armed with firearms and bombs as they entered the restaurant and took customers and staffers hostage at gunpoint. Lori Ann Walsh Imdad was in her apartment when she heard the gunshots. It seemed like they never stopped. And when she looked out of her window she saw people running for their lives. Imad, the principal of the American Standard School in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, found herself witness to the latest incident of terror. Speaking to The Independent, she said, Ive been hearing gunshots all night long. And Ive seen people running. Image: An injured Bangladeshi policeman being assisted after a grenade attack at a restaurant nearby in the early hours of July 2 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photograph: Mahmud Hossain Opu/Getty Images A 19-year-old Indian girl holidaying in Dhaka was among 20 foreigners who were hacked to death by ISIS terrorists in a terror attack at a restaurant in Bangladesh capital's high-security diplomatic zone. The girl, Tarishi Jain, a student at UC Berkeley, was on vacation in Dhaka. Her father runs a garment business in Bangladesh for the last 15-20 years, according to officials in New Delhi. Another Indian, a doctor by profession, had a narrow escape, as he spoke fluent Bengali and the terrorists mistook him for a Bangladeshi, they said. In a series of tweets, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said,"I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarishi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka. "I have spoken to her father Sanjeev Jain (below, centre) and conveyed our deepest condolences. The country is with them in this hour of grief. "We are arranging visa for the family. My officers are on the job," she said. Twenty foreigners, including eight Italians, were brutally murdered by the terrorists inside the restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic zone before commandos launched an assault on Saturday, killing six attackers and capturing one alive, ending Bangladesh's worst terror attack. Director of Military Operations Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said the militants slaughtered 20 hostages before the joint operation led by the armed forces began. Most of those killed were found with their throat slit, he added. He said the bodies of the victims were recovered during a search in the Holey Artisan Bakery compound after the operation. The bodies were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital morgue for autopsy to confirm their identity. Photographs Courtesy: Facebook 'If Islamic State were to get entrenched in Bangladesh and Myanmar it will have disastrous implications for India as both countries border India's northeast, a restive and volatile region,' says Rajeev Sharma. India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has been busy since around 9 pm on Friday when the news broke out about armed terrorists taking hostages at a cafe in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave. Doval has been in touch with the top brass in the Bangladesh security establishment as well as security managers in India. What makes Doval uneasy is the fact that the dreaded Islamic State or Daesh has claimed responsibility for Bangladesh's first-ever hostage crisis. The Dhaka terror attack is a rude jolt for Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who has been in denial mode for well over a year on the issue of Islamic State's presence in her country. Her ostrich-like act of refusing to see the glaring reality has brought her face to face with a security threat that may be the beginning of worse things to come. Islamic State is known to first dig in its heels and then unleash a wave of terror attacks. Ask Turkey. Ask European capitals like Brussels and Paris. What worries Doval and the Narendra Modi government is that for long Islamic State has made noises of increasing its footprints in two continuous neighbours -- Bangladesh and Myanmar. The Bangladesh threat has just been implemented. The Indian security establishment cannot be dismissive of the IS threat in its neighbourhood, even more so after IS recently appointed an 'Amir' of 'Khalifa's soldiers in Bengal'. This 'Amir' -- Shayakh Abu Ibrahim Al Hanif -- has made it clear in speeches and interviews that his gaze is directed at the whole of Bengal, which includes the Indian state of West Bengal. Islamic State has long eyed Myanmar which has a sizeable Muslim population. Though official estimates of the Muslim population in Myanmar have been put at just four percent of the country's total population of 51 million, the figure may be many times more. A decade-old International Religious Freedom report from the United States pegged the number of Muslims in Myanmar anywhere between 14 and 20 per cent. If Islamic State were to get entrenched in Bangladesh and Myanmar it will inevitably have disastrous implications for India as both countries border India's northeast, a restive and volatile region. Any uptick in Islamic State's terror activities in Bangladesh and Myanmar will have a pincer-like impact on India. Bangladesh's first-ever hostage crisis shows that the IS drumbeat is getting louder. The IS drumbeat may become more deafening in the near future if Sheikh Hasina's government does not take effective counter measures in double quick time. Doval's immediate task would be to ensure that IS thugs do not travel across to neighbouring West Bengal. The Modi government will have to work closely with the state governments in West Bengal and northeastern states to avert this possibility. About 50 Indians have thus far joined IS. This number may seem minuscule in a country of 1.25 billion people, but India needs to deal with the IS threat pro-actively. Neither Bangladesh nor India can be complacent about the Islamic State threat. Both nations will ignore or downplay the IS threat at its peril. IMAGE: Bangladesh soldiers take positions near the Holey Artisan restaurant after Islamist terrorists attacked the upscale cafe in Dhaka, July 2, 2016. Photograph: Mahmud Hossain//Reuters Rajeev Sharma, an independent journalist and strategic analyst, tweets @Kishkindha A BMW car allegedly driven by the son of a Rajasthan Member of Legislative Assembly, suspected to be in an inebriated state, hit an autorickshaw in Jaipur killing three persons before ramming it into a PCR van in which four on-duty policemen were injured in the wee hours of Saturday. Siddharth Maharia, son of Independent MLA Nandkishore Maharia, was driving the car at high speed around 1.30 am in C-scheme area of the city, and was arrested under section 304 of IPC (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder), police said. The car first hit the autorickshaw and then the PCR van, police said, adding the impact of the crash was such that the three-wheeler fell about 200 feet away from the site. "Two of the passengers of the autorickshaw died on the spot and as many were injured. One Assistant Sub Inspector and three other policemen on duty were also injured," they said. "The five injured were rushed to SMS hospital where another passenger of the autorickshaw succumbed to injuries," Jaipur Deputy Commissioner of Police, South, Manish Agarwal said. The ASI received head injury and is being treated, while other policemen were given primary treatment, he said. The DCP said the accused was placed under arrest. Additional DCP Yogesh Goyal said "as per the initial assessment", the accused was drunk and a medical test was conducted to confirm it. "There were four persons in the car. Two managed to escape and two - Siddharth and his relative Jayant - were caught. They are at a police station and action against the driver will be taken after the registration of an FIR," he added. Meanwhile, Siddharth claimed that he was not driving the car. He also denied consuming alcohol. Two of the deceased were identified as Jethamal and Kailash, both aged around 40 years, and efforts were on to ascertain the identity of the third deceased, SHO, Ashok Nagar police station, Bala Ram said. The autorickshaw was on its way from Chandpole to Mansarover when the incident occurred. Image: The BMW belongs to the son of independent legislator Nand Kishor, who is an MLA from Sikar, Fatehpur District. Photograph: ANI/Twitter After an RSS affiliate withdrew the invitation to Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi for an iftar, senior Sangh leader Indresh Kumar on Saturday told Pakistan to worry about calls for freedom emerging within that country and stop interfering in Kashmir. He also hoped that a day will come when better sense would prevail upon Pakistan and it would stop spreading hatred, animosity and violence and embrace peace and brotherhood. Kumar was speaking at the iftar party hosted by RSS affiliate Muslim Rashtriya Manch, which revoked its invite to Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit after his "insensitive" remarks on the Pampore encounter in Kashmir in which 8 CRPF jawans lost their lives. Indresh Kumar mentors the outfit. The RSS leader said he hoped a day will come when Muslim women of India and the world would be free from the 'gunah' (crime) of 'talaq' (divorce), apparently referring to the ongoing debate over triple talaq. He said, according to the holy Quran, it is not acceptable to God. "That is why Muslim Rrashtriya Manch said there should be no hatred or animosity. I will pray let better sense prevail on all countries who spread hatred, animosity and violence, let them prosper and help others also prosper. I told some people from Pakistan who came to see me a few months ago why you cannot hold a dialogue on how you are helping the smaller countries around you and what schemes you have to help your poor and downtrodden people. In Pakistan there are calls for freedom from Pakhtuns, Baloch, Sindh, Baltistan, Gilgit, Muzaffarbad....There are seven freedom movements which want to break away from you," he said. The RSS leader said, "India never tried to cheat like you did on Kashmir. The day will come when it (Pakistan) will improve. Let peace and brotherhood prevail in the world. India should be strong and the world should be free from violence and riots." The MRM had invited diplomats of around 61 countries, including Islamic nations. Diplomats and representatives of Syria, Kyrgyzstan, Iran and Montenegro, besides some other countries, apart from vice chancellors of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and Jamia Millia Islamia were also present. Union Ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Jammu and Kashmir Ministers Abdul Gani Koli and Lal Singh were also present, besides a large number of people from the Muslim community. "Quran Sharif says 'talaq' is not acceptable to Allah and you are debating on how to carry out this 'gunah' (crime). You should also debate on how the women of India and the world should be free of this," Indresh Kumar said. The RSS leader said, "I was asked why you have not invited Pakistan, but I said I will ask Muslim Rashtriya Manch." Talking about the condition of Muslim women in Pakistan, he said if a woman from the community gave testimony in a court case before partition, she was considered as one witness. "Today in Pakistan, when two women give their testimony, it is counted as one," he said. "That is why I tell them whatever you have got after India's partition, why don't you enjoy it peacefully. Why you can't be a better neighbour. "It is like we will not prosper and not allow anyone else to prosper, we will neither smile and not let anyone laugh, too. This will not work," he said. He added the purpose of holding iftar was to promote the spirit of peace, brotherhood and non-violence and make the world riots and violence-free. "If the heart, mind and soul turns impure, they are full of hatred, they cannot be cleaned up by anything. It is not possible to clean them up. External dirt can be cleaned but not internal. The basic need is goodwill and harmony. Education without human values, professionalism without patriotism gives makes bad people," he said. On the controversy over remarks of AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi and clerics of Deoband that chanting 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' amounted to idol worship, he said, "I told them now the second treatment is needed to remove fundamentalism from your mind." "One who is not loyal to one's mother or motherland, cannot be loyal to anyone in the world," he said. He lamented that terror organisations were using pious words from Islam and giving their religion a bad name by killing innocent people. The iftar party at Parliament House annexe was apparently organised to shed the 'anti-Muslim' tag of RSS. Representative Image Those who could recite a verse from the Quran were spared, others were tortured, said a rescued hostage of the Dhaka restaurant attack where at least two lawmen were killed. The others were tortured by the gunmen, Rezaul Karim, father of Hasnat Karim who was held hostage inside Holey Artisan Bakery in the diplomatic zone for over 10 hours was quoted as saying to The Daily Star. Hasnat Karim, his wife and two daughters were at the restaurant in the diplomatic area to celebrate one of their daughters birthday. Unfortunately, the happy and momentous occasion soon turned into their worst nightmare when the gunmen, allegedly from the Islamic State, stormed the eatery and took them hostage. After their rescue was secured following severe gunfire for almost 12 hours, the traumatised family was happy to be out and safe. They (gunmen) did not behave rough with the Bangladesh nationals, Reazul said quoting his victim son Hasnat. Rather they provided night meals for all Bangladeshis. Hasnat was also quoted as saying the gunmen were doing background checks on the hostages by asking them their religions and asking them to recite a verse from the Quran. The family was later rushed for interrogation and were assured safety. Image: Rapid Action Battalion members walk as police stormed the Holey Artisan restaurant after gunmen attacked it and took hostages early on Saturday in Dhaka. Photograph: Reuters TV In their early teens, James Noyd and Conrad Rauwolf got high on alcohol, marijuana and cough syrup. Soon the teenagers, who didnt know each other, added oxycodone and other prescription drugs before taking up heroin and landing in jail. When their parents tried to get them treatment for addiction, they ran into barriers, including limited insurance coverage, which remain key challenges in combating Wisconsins opioid abuse epidemic despite significant legislation in recent years. Noyds parents paid more than $17,000 for residential treatment not covered by their insurance so Noyd, 20, of Madison, could get it. Since his latest treatment this spring, he has remained sober. Rauwolfs parents paid $68,000 for nearly a year of residential treatment because insurance wouldnt cover it, borrowing from equity in their home and dipping into their retirement accounts. Rauwolf, of DeForest, relapsed and passed out from a heroin overdose in June 2015. His parents sought more treatment, but they said insurance wouldnt approve it and they had little money left. In July 2015, he overdosed on heroin again. This time, he died, at 22. This is a disease; it doesnt matter how they got there, said Mary Rauwolf, Conrads mother. As human beings, what are we going to do to make sure they get the medical treatment they deserve? Since 2014, Wisconsin legislators have adopted, and Gov. Scott Walker has signed, 17 bills to curb the states opioid abuse epidemic, which includes addiction to heroin and prescription painkillers such as oxycodone and fentanyl. The measures have expanded access to the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, granted legal immunity to people who report overdoses in others and required doctors who prescribe opioids to use a statewide database that tracks how often patients get medication. Some of the bills known collectively as the Heroin, Opioid Prevention and Education agenda, or HOPE have expanded the availability of treatment for opioid addiction. But none has focused on systemic barriers to treatment, such as limited insurance coverage, few options for detox and what some say is inadequate access to medications used to treat addiction. Addressing such barriers will come next, said Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, who has spearheaded the HOPE agenda after his daughter, Cassie, overdosed on heroin and spent time in jail. Nygren said the next bills could boost insurance coverage for treatment, expand options for detox, support sober living facilities and help the states two medical schools encourage more doctors to specialize in addiction. But some of the bills might not get through the Legislature as easily as the previous ones because they could involve requirements for businesses, Nygren said. These barriers to treatment the insurance coverage, those types of things are probably the most complicated things we face, he said. Theyre going to take more time. Meanwhile, Wisconsin could get $13 million over two years to expand treatment for opioid addiction as part of a $1.1 billion plan proposed by President Barack Obama if Congress approves it. The need to address the opioid abuse epidemic continues to be urgent, with drug overdose deaths more than doubling in Wisconsin from 2004 to 2014. In 2014, the state had 843 drug overdose deaths; 622 of them were from opioids, including 266 from heroin, according to the state Department of Health Services. Dane County had 29 fatal heroin overdoses in 2015, up from 26 in 2014 but down from 40 in 2013. Hank Weiss, an epidemiologist at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, said the states opioid epidemic likely will get worse in coming years. Wisconsin remains very much in the midst of a major public health crisis, Weiss said. Addiction red flags A significant barrier to treatment for opioid addiction is a lack of access, especially in regular medical clinics, to medication-assisted treatment the drugs methadone, Suboxone or naltrexone said Dr. Aleksandra Zgierska, a family medicine doctor at UW Health. Doctors and health care organizations worry about attracting too many patients with addiction because they think the patients will be problematic, Zgierska said. Providers are not comfortable doing it, she said. It immediately raises red flags. Doctors should view addiction like other conditions they treat, Zgierska said. This is like using insulin for diabetes, she said. We routinely do Depo (Provera) shots for birth control. Methadone, which can reduce symptoms of withdrawal from opioids and cravings for them, is available only at licensed clinics. Wisconsin has 18 such clinics, none of them north of Eau Claire and Wausau. Suboxone which includes buprenorphine, which works similarly to methadone can be prescribed by any certified doctor. A federal directory lists 222 such doctors in the state. Certified doctors can prescribe Suboxone to no more than 100 patients. In March, the federal government proposed expanding the cap to 200 patients. Doctors who prescribe Suboxone are supposed to make sure patients get counseling and behavioral therapies, but that often doesnt happen, said Scott Stokes, director of prevention services at the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin. You dont have anybody to help you deal with the issues you are experiencing, Stokes said. Naltrexone, a pill, and a monthly injection equivalent known as Vivitrol, block opioid receptors in the brain so patients dont get high from opioids. They can be prescribed by any doctor. Vivitrol is more effective than naltrexone, experts say, but many insurers have fail-first policies requiring patients to try naltrexone and show it doesnt work before approving Vivitrol. The injection can cost $1,100 a month or more. Some insurers also require patients to try and fail outpatient therapy before approving more expensive residential treatment, said Dr. Mike Miller, medical director of the Herrington Recovery Center at Rogers Memorial Hospital in Oconomowoc. Addiction faces discrimination, Miller said. People are hesitant to invest in treatment of addiction. Limited insurance coverage When insurers approve residential treatment, they often cover no more than two weeks or have high deductibles, forcing many families to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket, said Kevin Florek, president and CEO of Tellurian, an addiction treatment center in Madison. A typical 30-day stay at Tellurian costs about $13,000, Florek said. Even at Hope Haven, a Catholic Charities addiction treatment center in Madison that costs $4,600 a month, some insurers wont pay for more than two weeks, said Fran Augustine, operations director. Thats a huge barrier, Augustine said. The first seven days youre here, youre in a fog. Skye Tikkanen, a counselor at Connections Counseling in Madison and drug poisoning prevention manager at Safe Communities Madison-Dane County, said many people struggle to get off opioids on their own because the health system doesnt consider detox treatment medically necessary. Detox for opioids is the missing piece across the state, said Tikkanen, who is in recovery from opioid addiction. Tikkanen said confusion over where to seek treatment, especially for addicts in withdrawal, is another hurdle. In Dane County and elsewhere, some insurers cover only certain addiction treatment providers, and some providers see only particular groups of people such as women or adults, she said. Through Safe Communities, Tikkanen is working on a guide to help people navigate the system. But Madison needs a substance abuse crisis center that addicts or families could contact for immediate help, she said. Imagine yourself as a person who has the worst flu of your life and anxiety like youve never felt before, and youre calling your insurance and calling these treatment programs and trying to link all this stuff together, she said. Dropped from treatment When Alyssa Hagenbaugh underwent residential treatment for her heroin addiction at a center for women in 2014, her mothers insurance covered it. But afterward, Hagenbaugh, who lived on and off in Madison, faced a different kind of barrier. Her outpatient treatment program included men, and she focused so much on one of them that she was kicked out, said her mother, Amy Campbell-Andrew. She was devastated, Campbell-Andrew said. Last December, Hagenbaugh entered residential treatment again. But it ended abruptly when Hagenbaugh was dropped from Campbell-Andrews insurance because Cambell-Andrew didnt fill out some paperwork quickly enough. On May 29 after Hagenbaughs sister, Michelle, of Madison, didnt hear from her despite texting and calling the previous two days police checked Hagenbaughs apartment in Madison. They found her dead, at 25, apparently from a heroin overdose, Campbell-Andrew said. Hagenbaugh struggled with depression and anxiety, and in recent years endured domestic violence, her mother said. She was medicating herself from physical and emotional abuse, she said. I wanted to get clean Noyd, who said he was bullied as a child, started doing drugs at 13 and turned to heroin two or three years later. It made me feel good, he said. More so, it made me stop feeling bad. During his first residential treatment, in 2013 at Rosecrance Health Network in Rockford, Illinois, he stayed 40 days. Insurance covered two weeks, leaving his parents, Pam and John Noyd, to pay nearly $7,700. Noyd relapsed. Beginning in January 2015, he was in and out of jail and received various types of treatments required by his parents or drug court. This spring, after starting Vivitrol shots and medications for bipolar disorder, he told his parents he wanted residential treatment so he could get sober. It was the first time treatment wasnt an ultimatum; he decided to go on his own. His parents got him into Tellurian April 19, but their insurance wouldnt cover any of it. You have good sober supports at home. You are motivated for treatment, United Healthcare wrote in a letter denying coverage for residential treatment but offering to cover intensive outpatient treatment. Im sober, but Ive never been able to keep him from using, Pam Noyd said. And, You are motivated for treatment, therefore were not going to give it to you? ... This is ridiculous. She plans to appeal. Regardless of the outcome, she said she is glad her son has remained sober since leaving Tellurian May 11, after a stay that cost $9,600. Life got really bad, James Noyd said. I wanted to get clean. A struggle for help Rauwolf, also diagnosed with bipolar disorder years after he started using drugs, struggled to fit in, especially at school, where he was a math whiz but had a hard time sitting still, his mother said. He would say, Mom, life is just really hard for me, Mary Rauwolf said. After six weeks at Rosecrance in 2009, which was covered by insurance, Rauwolf spent nearly a year at a treatment center in New Mexico, at a cost of $68,000, because Rosecrance staff said he needed more help. As a parent, thats what you do, Mary Rauwolf said. Conrad Rauwolf returned to Wisconsin bitter, for reasons his parents dont fully understand, and started using drugs again. In 2012, he was found guilty of vandalism after damaging cars and mailboxes with two other young men. In June 2015, after he got out of jail, his brother, Hunter Rauwolf, found Conrad in the bathroom, passed out from heroin. Mary and John Rauwolf tried to get their son more treatment. Conrad didnt qualify for treatment through drug court, they said. Their insurance, Unity Health Plan, wouldnt approve treatment because he was in the court system, they said. Unity spokeswoman Jennifer Dinehart said, If the services are determined to be medically necessary at the requested level of care then the payment for services are authorized. Other providers wouldnt take him because he had the wrong insurance or because he was using heroin, the Rauwolfs said. If he was having a heart attack, everybody would have been required to help me, Mary Rauwolf said. Instead, no one was helping me. On July 17, she found her son in his bedroom, dead from a heroin overdose. He was worthy, he was important, he was loved, he was smart, she said. There are a million reasons why he should have been helped. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday vowed to do everything to uproot the militants and violent extremists from Bangladesh after elite forces stormed a cafe and killed Islamic State militants who had taken dozens of hostage. It was a extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these people? They dont have any religion, she said in a televised speech, referring to the terrorists. They (gunmen) defied the call of Ramadans tarabi (special evening) prayers and went to kill people... The way they killed people is intolerable. They dont have any religion... terrorism is their religion, said Hasina, flanked by Army chief General Abu Belal Muhammad Shafiul Huq. The PM said her government will do everything to uproot the militants and violent extremists in the country as she asked people to resist these terrorists. Her strong remarks came after security forces successfully stormed the Spanish restaurant in Dhakas diplomatic zone in Gulshan area, freeing 13 of the hostages and killing six of the IS terrorists. I thank Allah as we could destroy the terrorists and rescue the hostages, Hasina said, adding that none of the terrorists could flee the scene, six of them were killed on the spot and one was captured alive. The PM, however, did not elaborate how many hostages were inside the restaurant. While the list of Madison-area credit unions has grown to include Alliant Credit Union, serving mainly Alliant Energy employees and their families, it shrank by two because of mergers over the past year. Educational Employees Credit Union, Janesville, became part of Summit Credit Union, Madison; while Municipal Credit Union, Beloit, combined with Parker Community Credit Union, Janesville. According to the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, in 2015, 12 Wisconsin credit union mergers took effect; so far in 2016, there have been five mergers, and CTK Credit Union in Milwaukee was shut down. Those numbers are not unusual, either for Wisconsin or nationwide. But viewed over time, they show a sharp reduction in the number of state-chartered credit unions: In 2010, there were 223; by the end of 2015, there were 150, down by one-third in just five years. Over the same period, though, Wisconsin credit union members rose from 2.19 million to 2.61 million and assets climbed from $20.7 billion to $28.8 billion, both records, DFI reports show. Credit union mergers are not a new trend; theyve been going on since the late 1960s or early 1970s, said George Hofheimer, chief knowledge officer at Filene Research Institute, a Madison nonprofit think tank. Quite simply, its just harder to comply with all the regulations at the smaller institutions, Hofheimer said. Similarly, demands from consumers are increasing every day, he said, for services such as 24-hour call centers, multi-purpose websites and mobile banking. All of these things cost lots of money. A report from the Illinois Credit Union League says credit unions across the U.S. have been merging at an average rate of one per business day since 2000. Reasons cited include declining profit margins; growing regulatory burdens; aging senior managers; limited staff; and competition. At WEA Credit Union in Madison, CEO Mark Schrimpf calls it a sad trend. Schrimpf said WEA Credit Union is financially healthy but might consider consolidation if the right opportunity would present itself. The cost of continually improving and offering new services is difficult for the smaller credit unions. A merger with a larger credit union that already has those services ... could be appealing, he said. A report by CUNA Mutual Group, Madison, shows in the 12 months that ended in April 2016, the number of credit unions nationwide dropped by 304, compared with 267 lost in the previous 12-month period. But mergers are not necessarily bad, said Filenes Hofheimer. Its actually good for consumers, going from a smaller institution thats struggling to keep up with these changes. ... The average consumer benefits from better rates, better products and better services, he said. Community leaders discuss future of mental health services in Morgan County A large crowd gathered at First Christian Church to learn about local efforts that are underway to manage growing mental health pressures facing the city and all of Morgan County. Now in their mid-80s Ok Dam and his wife, Norm Koeun, still remember that day 36 years ago when they arrived in Abilene, foreign in so many ways to their native Cambodia. Today, they speak little English but family members help them. Norm Koeun broke into a big smile when asked what her thoughts were in July 1980 when the family of eight were greeted at Abilene Regional Airport. 'This is my heaven,' Norm Koeun said, referring to the day of the arrival and today, as well. The family was brought to Abilene by First Central Presbyterian Church, through an arrangement with Church World Service. Fred and Carolyn White, members of First Central, presented the idea to the church, which agreed to sponsor the family. On July 9, First Central will host a celebration honoring the family, which now includes grandchildren. People with connections to the family, such as teachers, employers, friends and other Cambodians are invited to the celebration, which will be 4-9 p.m. in the church's fellowship hall. A traditional Cambodian meal will be served. The celebration also will feature traditional Cambodian music and dancing. 'Everybody is encouraged to wear traditional clothes,' Carolyn White said. Even if the Ok Dam family name isn't familiar to Abilenians, some of the businesses started by family members most certainly are. AM Donuts and Szechuan restaurant, two Abilene favorites, wouldn't be here if it weren't for members the Dam family. The family was brought to Abilene about a year after another group of Cambodians arrived. They were sponsored by the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, also through an arrangement with Church World Service. Cambodia was in the midst of a war after the communist Khmer Rouge took over the country in 1975. According to historical documents, at least 1.5 million Cambodians were executed. The story of the Ok Dam family escape is remarkable, involving middle of the night intrigue, surviving in the jungles of Cambodia and living in a refugee camp in Thailand before being resettled to Abilene. Jonathan Dam and Tida Dam, brother and sister, are grandchildren of Ok Dam and Norm Koeun. Their father, Sokhoun Dam, the oldest of the Dam children, was 21 when the family arrived in Abilene 36 years ago. Tida is a 2015 graduate of Abilene High School who attends Cisco College. Jonathan is an eighth-grader at Craig Middle School. Both are as American as apple pie, but they understand and appreciate the harrowing story of their grandparents' brave escape and journey to Abilene. 'I'm grateful they're here,' Tida said. In 2012, Jonathan and Tida went with their parents, Sokhoun and Setha Dam, to visit Cambodia, including the farm where the family lived when they escaped. 'I was amazed and proud,' Jonathan said. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, many churches and other organizations were sponsoring Cambodians in the United States. A church in Eastland brought a group in 1982, including a young woman who didn't know it but would become the bride of Sokhoun Dam. 'We met the day we got married,' said Setha Dam. Even though the marriage was arranged, it proved to be a match made in heaven, as Sokhoun and Setha have raised a happy family together. Now retired, Sokhoun worked 29 years for Mrs Baird's bakery before it closed and then started AM Donuts. Sokhoun recalled that he understood little English when he arrived in Abilene and wanted to return to Cambodia. But he soon acclimated, like other members of the family. The first year was tough. They were met at the airport in July 1980 by the Whites, who took the family to their new home, a house rented by the church. Carolyn White recalled that she and her husband spent time with the newly arrived Cambodians almost every day for a year. The family members spoke little or no English. 'We had to draw pictures,' White recalled. The other children in the family were several years younger than Sokhoun. One son, Kimhun Dam, now is a teacher at the Academy of Technology, Engineering, Math and Science, a high school that is part of the Abilene Independent School District. Before earning a degree from McMurry University in 2009, 'Mr. Dam,' as his students call him, and a partner started Szechuan restaurant. Dam, who graduated from Cooper High School in 1991, also took classes at Cisco College while running the restaurant. He sold out to his partner in 2006. In 2013, Kimhun Dam told the family story of escape from Cambodia during a Holocaust Remembrance ceremony at the Abilene Civic Center. He was 8 in 1976 when his father, Ok Dam, led 200 villagers out of Cambodia across the border into Thailand to escape the Khmer Rouge soldiers who were intent on killing all of them. Before the communist takeover, the Dam family had lived as a peaceable farm family in the Oddor Meanchey province in northwest Cambodia. The elder Dam was drafted into the Cambodian army in the early 1970s, which made him suspect in the eyes of the Khmer Rouge. Ok Dam secretly gathered a few people to plan an escape route and engineered a middle-of-the night escape out of their village. Even though he was only 8 at the time, Kimhun Dam remembers the event well. 'My dad woke me up and said, 'son, let's go, let's go,'' Dam said in his 2013 talk. The 200 villagers split into two groups. The Dam family led 100 people through the jungle, while the second group chose a public roadway. That was a mistake, Dam said, because the roadway was a minefield. Eight people were killed and 20 were injured when they stepped on the hidden land mines. The 100 villagers led by Ok Dam made it safely into Thailand, where they were accepted into a United Nations refugee camp. Four years later, they were in Abilene. Ok Dam worked as a groundskeeper at Hendrick Medical Center before retiring at age 65, about 20 years ago. His children all learned English and graduated from high school in Abilene. That remarkable story is being passed down from one generation to the next in the Dam family. And, it is so cherished that the younger generation the grandchildren of Ok Dam and Norm Koeun know it by heart and someday will pass it on to their children. 'I want to take my kids there someday,' said Tida Dam, daughter of Sokhoun and Setha Dam. 'I want to show them where my parents came from.' IF YOU GO WHAT: Cambodian celebration When: 4-9 p.m. July 9 Where: First Central Presbyterian Church, 400 Orange St. Details: The church is honoring Cambodian refugees brought here in 1980. Many of the refugees and their families still live in Abilene. Acquaintances, former teachers, employers, and others who have an association with the Cambodians areinvited. The celebration is free. Traditional Cambodian dress is encouraged. The celebration will include traditional Cambodian food, music, and dancing. More information: Call Carolyn White, 692-0284 PATRIOTIC CONCERT The Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 601 Meander St., has scheduled its annual neighborhood Patriotic Concert for 7 p.m. July 4 on the East Lawn of the church (weather permitting). Celebrate the 240th anniversary of our nation's birth at this one-hour program featuring a concert by the Abilene Community Band, presentation of the colors by the Boy Scouts of America, a dramatic reading of the famous poem from the Statue of Liberty honoring our nation's immigrants and much more. Attendees may join in by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and singing the Star Spangled Banner while they enjoy other favorites from our nation's rich musical heritage. Attendees are asked to wear comfortable clothes and bring a quilt, blanket or lawn chair on which to sit. There is no charge to attend. VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL First Christian Church, 1420 N. 3rd St., has set its Vacation Bible School from 6 to 8 p.m. July 17-19. Call 325-677-2186 for more details. Southwest Park Baptist Church, 2901 S. 20th St., will have its Vacation Bible School from 9 a.m. to noon July 18-22. Call 325-692-3296 for more information. CHRISTIAN WOMEN'S CONNECTION The next Abilene Christian Women's Connection is set for 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 14 at the Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway Blvd. Vickie Barry of San Antonio will be the featured speaker. A special feature will be vocals by Melody Rich, Associate Professor of Music at Hardin-Simmons University. Contact Sharlyn Garoutte at 325-370-6567 or AbileneCWC@aol.com to make reservations or for cancellations. Cost to attend is $16. MOTHER'S DAY OUT PROGRAM TO BEGIN Lytle South Baptist Church, 1125 E. Industrial Blvd., will start a Mother's Day Out Program for children ages 1- 4. The program will begin on Aug. 22 and follow the AISD school calendar. Sessions will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays. The Cost: $25 Registration Fee (due at enrollment) is $25. The full time monthly fee will be $120 or $65 for one day per week. Each additional Child will be $10 less per monthly fees (first child is full price). Information: email Cassie Sliger at sliger_cassie@yahoo.com or call the church office from 8:30 a.m. to noon 325-695-6533. UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FELLOWSHIP The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Abilene, 1541 Sayles Blvd., will present the last narrative of The Great Courses DVD series 'The Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries.' Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium at The American Museum of Natural History in New York City, delivers the final lecture titled 'Inexplicable Cosmology' at 11 a.m. Sunday. VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL INFORMATION WANTED Information about churches' Vacation Bible School for the summer can be included in this column. Please send information on the theme, time, date, church address, ages involved, and contact number, to woodwardj@reporternews.com or fax to 325-670-5242. Send news of your religious organization or group to Religion Editor, Abilene Reporter-News, P.O. Box 30, Abilene, Texas 79604; fax it to 325-670-5242; or email it to jan.woodward@reporternews.com. Deadline is noon Monday. Tammy Thayer grew up in a working-class family. Her father died when she was 10, so she never thought college would be an option. I had thought I would begin working right after high school and would marry and have kids, said Thayer, CEO of the Madison College Foundation, the nonprofit fundraising and scholarship arm of Madison Area Technical College. I was the first and only person in my family to graduate from college, and I paid my entire way through on my own. Life has thrown Thayer some surprises. She spent her junior year of college in Italy, living with a family and working as an au pair. Studying at the university for foreigners in Perugia for a year, she earned her MBA in Rome from Boston University with support from her employer, Hewitt Associates. She worked on pan-European consulting projects and was asked to move to Dubai to set up the first international conference company in the United Arab Emirates. Given my roots, the biggest surprise in my life was probably living abroad for 18 years 13 in Italy and five in Dubai and becoming bilingual in Italian and English. Q. What do you do as CEO of Madison College Foundation? What does your average day look like? A. In this job, there is no such thing as a typical day. One morning, I could be meeting with a board committee, the college president or other senior college leaders to discuss a strategic initiative that supports the college. The next day, I could be meeting with a donor to talk about supporting our campaign to raise more scholarship dollars for our students, helping a student understand the scholarship application process, assisting a team member with a project, or even stuffing envelopes for a mailing. I usually start my day very early, checking and responding to emails and putting together a brief plan for the top three things I need to get done that day. I have a small team, so I like to touch base with them at least briefly each day to see how everyone is doing. Leading the foundation is not a 9-to-5 job. I sometimes have evening and/or weekend functions, and I usually stay later than most staff because its quiet time for me to get things accomplished without any interruptions. Most definitely the best part of my job is interacting with the students and seeing them flourish. Thats what makes me get up in the morning. Ultimately, my daughters are a major motivation. I really want my girls, who are 18 and 20, to understand the importance of working hard and having a passion about the work they will do themselves one day. Q. How is MATC different today than it was when you attended the school? A. When I attended Madison College in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the liberal studies program with a clear plan to transfer to UW-Madison, things were very different. The Truax Campus had not yet been built. The main campus, where I took all my classes, was Downtown, and that space was definitely too small to meet the needs of the ever-growing number of college-bound students. Downtown was not a true campus with cutting-edge technologies like those we have today at Truax. And of course, there were no online courses being offered back then. In fact, the computer revolution was in its infancy. The student population has also changed significantly to not only include the traditional, local, degree-seeking, full-time 18- to 22-year-old students but returning adult learners, workers who need skill upgrades, career changers, dual credit high school students and community members of all ages interested in lifelong learning opportunities. Q. Some critics feel that Madison College has overbuilt, primarily at Truax. What would you say to that? A. The public voted for the much-needed expansion. In 2010 the community gave the college a vote of confidence by passing a $133.7 million referendum to fund the Smart Future Facilities Plan. With funding from the referendum, the college added new buildings at the Truax Campus focusing on Protective Services and Health Education and completed additions at the four regional campuses. A new Gateway entrance was added to the current Truax campus, as well as a new Ingenuity Center wing that focuses on manufacturing and technical trades. In our new space, we are serving students at a higher level because we now have world class state-of the art facilities to train the talent the workforce needs today. We could not have done this without these facilities. Q. Do you think the rebranding of Madison Area Technical College as Madison College has been worth it? A. I honestly dont know the answer to this question today. Time will tell. I can say that MATC is still MATC. By statute we are still MATC. The rebranding was done to differentiate our college from MATC Milwaukee. Folks who have been here for many years will continue to refer to us as MATC, while millennials and future generations will only know us as Madison College. Q. The foundation gives scholarships. What is a typical scholarship award and who tends to receive them? A. All students of all ages are eligible to apply for our scholarships. We award scholarships in most of our program areas, and these awards are given to students who meet specific criteria determined by donors and/or the foundation. The average award is $500 to $600, but there are also some larger awards. Establishing a scholarship or giving to an existing scholarship fund helps both individual students and the community, since nine out of 10 Madison College graduates will work in the state. Over 80 percent will remain in south-central Wisconsin. Q. What about you? What do you do in your spare time? A. I love to spend time with family and friends, especially when its over good food and wine. It is wonderful watching my daughters grow into strong, intelligent women and seeing our relationship evolve into a new level of mutual respect and support. I lived abroad for 18 years in Italy and Dubai, so I am very passionate about international travel and cherish the time I spend with close friends in Italy and elsewhere around the globe. I live on the lake (Waubesa), so I love going boating and spending time outdoors. I also like to read, listen to music and bike. I love my church, Door Creek Church, and my bible study where my faith gets strengthened daily. Q. What advice would you give to your 16-year-old self? A. I would probably give myself the same advice I have given my daughters. Trust God. Believe in yourself. Love others more than you love yourself. Be strong and confident and know that you can do anything you set your mind to. Dont be afraid to ask for help. Show respect to others. Nellie Doneva/Reporter-News People listen to some closing remarks by Youth President Deniece Brown at the Original West Texas Baptist Association conference. SHARE Nellie Doneva/Reporter-News Youth President Deniece Brown urges kids in the audience to not be a statistic. By Loretta Fulton, Special to the Reporter-News That loud explosion coming from the Civic Center Friday afternoon was an audience spontaneously erupting into huge applause, "Amens!" and shouts of encouragement. The occasion was the concluding program of the Original West Texas Baptist District Association and the Congress of Christian Education, which have been meeting all week at the Civic Center. Friday was "youth day" and youth reigned. All ages, from tots to high school students, took part is some kind of presentation. Some played roles in a skit on church etiquette, some participated in precision drills, and others did interpretive dance moves to Christian music. Before the drills began, Deniece Brown, outgoing president of the youth division of the conference and a member of Sunset Baptist Church in Grand Prairie, delivered a powerful speech to her peers. "Whatever you do, do it with pride," Brown urged the youths, who represented churches from as far away as El Paso and Amarillo. The two church conferences that met are made up of historically black Baptist congregations in West Texas cities. The convention, held each July, has been in Abilene for several years and will return again next year. Brown, a May high school graduate who has been accepted into the Navy, reminded the youngsters they will be thrown into a world, "that is already saying what we're going to be." But, she also reminded them that they don't have to let society define who they are. "It's up to you," Brown said, "what you become." Brown shared some alarming numbers. She said that although blacks make up only 13 percent of the total population in the United States, they lead in a number of disturbing categories such as dropouts, drug addictions and incarcerations. "Do not be a statistic," she urged repeatedly. One way to avoid becoming a statistic is to remember who you are, a Christian, Brown said. And, she reminded the youths not to forget their church upbringing when they enter the world as young adults. "Keeping Jesus with us is very, very important," Brown said. Before Brown's talk, a group of 14 to 18-year-olds performed a humorous, sometimes hilarious, skit about church etiquette. "We hope no one takes offense," said the emcee, Zipporah Williams of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in El Paso. "The names have been changed to save the innocent." It would have been hard to be offended at the good-natured parody of bad behavior in church. People shouldn't be gossiping or falling asleep, "even in the pulpit," Williams said. Then, she had a word of advice for the adults. Youngsters know they are being watched by adults, but that works both ways. "The youth are watching y'all as well," she said. One of the funniest lines was saved for the end of the skit when the "pastor" of the make-believe church, Reginald Dunlap of Sunset Baptist Church in Grand Prairie, offered a closing prayer. "Dear Lord," he intoned, head bowed, eyes closed. "Amen." By Timothy Chipp of the Abilene Reporter News The provost's office at Hardin-Simmons University recently honored outstanding faculty members for 2015-16. The recipients and their respective awards are: Larry Baker and Steven Rosscoe, Outstanding Service to the Profession; Melissa Milliorn and Corrie Reed, Outstanding Service to the Community; Rich Traylor and Candace Wicks, Outstanding Service to the University; and Mark Beasley and Coleman Patterson, Teaching Excellence. The university did not specify in which departments the faculty members serve. McMurry students to benefit from the sun Visitors to the Jay-Rollins Library at McMurry University will be able to charge up their electronics thanks to new solar-powered USB hubs installed on the support poles of four umbrellas on the patio. McMurry officials said they are hoping the new umbrellas, developed by Zon Technology, prove popular as students return to the campus in the fall. "McMurry and the library have worked hard to provide connectivity and technology for our students," said Terry Young, librarian at Jay-Rollins. "With tables, shade and solar-powered connectivity this is going to be a popular spot." Each umbrella supports three USB devices. LED displays let power-hungry users know when their device is fully charged. Popular camp wraps up at HPU Super Summer camp, the Baptist General Convention of Texas' weeklong leadership event for Christian students, wrapped up recently at Howard Payne University in Brownwood. The camp is designed for students who exhibit leadership attributes and desire to learn more about how to maximize effectiveness in sharing the Gospel and living a godly lifestyle. Hundreds of youths from Baptist churches across Texas came to the school to interact with HPU alumni, students, faculty and staff members. "It reminds me of how grateful we are as a university to have students and leaders on our campus who follow Christ and then step up to be leaders these teens can follow as well," said Debbie Childs, HPU's director of university events. "It's about relationships and I love that." The camp at HPU was the fifth of seven Super Summer sessions organized by the Baptist General Convention of Texas at Baptist universities across the state. "HPU has an amazing honor and privilege to host a week of Super Summer," said Gary Gramling, professor of Christian studies and director of HPU's Christian studies graduate programs. "This means that we have the opportunity as a university to be a part of what God is doing in the lives of these students. It's a joy to get to walk around campus and talk with students who are hearing God speak to them through his word and beginning to own their faith." SHARE Jimmy Leroy Bible BROWNWOOD Jimmy Leroy Bible, 74, passed away Wednesday, June 29, 2016. Graveside services will be 10:30 a.m., Saturday, July 2, 2016, at Nimrod Cemetery in Eastland County, directed by Kimbrough Funeral Home in Cisco. Frank Carpenter SWEETWATER Frank Carpenter, 60, passed away Tuesday, June 28, 2016. His wishes were cremation. A memorial service will be held at Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Abilene at a later date with full military honors. Online condolences may be expressed at www.mccoyfh.com. Lee Childers, Sr. DE LEON Lee Childers, Sr., 68, passed away Thursday, June 30, 2016. Funeral is at 1 p.m., Tuesday, July 5, 2016, at Church of Christ Hwy 6, De Leon. Interment is in the De Leon Cemetery. Visitation will be noon until service time Tuesday, July 5, 2016, at the church. Bennie Hart BRECKENRIDGE Bennie Hart, 96, passed away Thursday, June 30, 2016. Interment in Hart Cemetery will be held at 10 a.m., Wednesday, July 6, 2016. A funeral Mass will follow at St. Andrews Episcopal Church on Wednesday, July 8, 2016, at 1 p.m. The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Tuesday, July 7, 2016, from 6-7 p.m. Arrangements are under the direction of Melton-Kitchens Funeral Home. Mauricio Salinas SWEETWATER Mauricio Salinas, 54, passed away Thursday, June 30, 2016. Arrangements for cremation are with Abilene Funeral Home. Glenn Wiggins HAWLEY Glenn Wiggins, 71, passed away Friday, July 1, 2016. Arrangements for cremation are with Abilene Funeral Home. For decades now, Abilene's Christian Service Center has helped local schoolchildren with new clothes and supplies. A fire that ripped through most of the charity's property in April required the organization to relocate to the older Meals on Wheels building at 949 Mesquite Street. But the flames left one metal storage building intact at its original site, a fortunate circumstance. That, combined with community support, means that the organization's Operation Blue Jeans will be offered again this year, with appointments for families becoming available Wednesday. The clothing relief effort kicked off in 1967, according to a news release from the organization. 'A lady named Peg Smith, who was the director back then, she saw that people coming here, the kids, needed some new school clothes,' said Jim Clark, current director of the Christian Service Center. 'So that was her dream.' Smith went to the dorms at what was is now Abilene Christian University and 'got some students involved in doing fundraisers' to help make that dream a reality. The effort has grown through the years, Clark said, and also has forged a strong relationship with counselors in the Abilene Independent School District. In addition to clothing, Operation Blue Jeans distributes school supplies to counselors at each campus for students in need. 'It's best that we get the school supplies to (the counselors) because they know the kids who are in financial need,' Clark said. When the AISD began enforcing a standardized dress code for middle school students, the Christian Service Center's board voted to help those children as much as it could, he said. Elementary students receive one new pair of jeans and five pairs of new socks and underwear. Middle school students will receive two pairs of standardized school dress pants and two polo-style shirts. 'The parents are extremely grateful for the help,' Clark said. 'A lot of them are just living on the edge financially, and so this gives them a great break.' Until the organization opens its renovated facility in December, its goal is to help children exclusively, Clark said. 'We help kids from infants to middle school,' he said. Though the fire destroyed thousands of dollars of school supplies and clothing left over from previous years, community support in rebuilding Operation Blue Jeans has been 'amazing,' Clark said. 'So we're restocked and ready to go,' he said. 'It's been a blessing because of the support financially of this community.' Sizes available include children's sizes 5 through 18 to meet the needs for most students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Children also will also receive a string backpack and 'success kit' when they come in for clothing. For more information, or to make an appointment for assistance, call 325-673-7531. Appointments for Operation Blue Jeans will be available beginning at 9 a.m. Wednesday. The House Select Committee on Benghazi released its long-awaited findings Tuesday and concluded that ... well, it looks as though they're going to have to impanel another select committee to iron out the dueling conclusions reached by various members of the committee. The panel members spent two years and $7 million to come up with the last word on what happened in Libya in September 2012, when four Americans were killed. They had vowed to best the seven prior congressional investigations and the Obama administration's own probe. Instead, they ended their investigation this week with three more competing reports: one by committee Democrats, one by Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., and the committee's Republican majority, and one by a rump group of conservatives on the panel. There's still no smoking gun from Benghazi just a lot more smoke. Had Gowdy found evidence that the military could have saved the lives of the four Americans? 'I don't know,' Gowdy said. Had he proved that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acted on political motives? 'I don't have a background in the 'why,'' Gowdy demurred. Do his findings support the allegation on bumper stickers and T-shirts across the land claiming 'Clinton lied, people died'? 'You don't see that T-shirt on me, and you've never seen that bumper sticker on any of my vehicles,' Gowdy replied. Gowdy went out of his way not to mention Clinton in his opening statement at a news conference Tuesday. He said he would be 'shocked' if people concluded the report is about her. Unfortunately, at least two of the six committee Republicans sharing the stage with Gowdy had a dissenting view. Rep. Mike Pompeo of Kansas, who wrote a separate report with Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, proclaimed Clinton's actions during the Benghazi attacks 'morally reprehensible' and said relatives of the slain 'have every right to be disgusted' with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. NBC's Luke Russert asked Gowdy about that 'morally reprehensible' allegation. 'You read the report, you will not see any of those quotes,' the chairman replied. But Pompeo stepped to the microphone and said he 'absolutely' believes Clinton's behavior was morally reprehensible something he believes 'in my heart.' If having a legitimate probe was the goal, Gowdy was probably doomed from the start. He launched with a show of fairness. But Republicans, including Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, eventually confessed the panel's political aims. Democrats grew more antagonistic, and Gowdy, after promising his report was 'not going to come out in the middle of 2016,' released his report just before the political conventions. Gowdy apparently lost hard-liners on his own panel. Pompeo and Jordan, in their rival report, alleged that Clinton's State Department was 'seemingly more concerned with politics and Secretary Clinton's legacy than with protecting its people in Benghazi,' and they said the Obama administration was 'so focused on the next election that it lost sight of its duty to tell the American people the truth.' They faulted Clinton for a 'lapse in judgment that may well haunt our nation for years to come.' And they thought it 'plausible' to conclude that she forced Americans to stay in dangerous conditions because 'to leave Benghazi would have been viewed as her failure.' If Republicans leveled wild accusations, Democrats went the other way, issuing their own report categorically asserting that the Pentagon 'could not have done anything differently' to save those killed, that 'Secretary Clinton never personally denied any requests for additional security in Benghazi,' that intelligence assessments 'were not influenced by political considerations' and that officials 'did not make intentionally misleading statements.' Between the reckless accusations and the nothing-to-see-here defenses, there was one obvious truth: 'There does not appear to be a smoking gun,' CNN's Dana Bash informed her viewers before Gowdy entered the room. Nor even a warm slingshot. The few revelations the panel advertised as 'new' -- that no military assets had been deployed to Benghazi, that embassy security staff had been ordered to change uniforms, that Clinton had been planning a visit to Libya had mostly been uncovered in previous investigations. Gowdy, with slicked gray hair, lavender tie and fitted suit, offered what sounded like an excuse for the absence of a bombshell. 'It is always better to be the first committee to investigate, and it is always better to investigate as contemporaneously to an incident or to an event as can be done,' he said. 'Our committee did not have the luxury of either one of those.' Too bad they didn't think of this two years and $7 million ago. Follow Dana Milbank, a member of The Washington Post Writers Group, on Twitter, @Milbank. At least two people from Abilene will be in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday through July 9, for the annual meeting of the Baptist World Alliance. Meredith Stone and Rob Sellers both will present papers at the conference. Stone is instructor of Christian ministry and scripture and director of ministry guidance at Logsdon School of Theology on the campus of Hardin-Simmons University. Sellers just retired as a religion professor at Logsdon but will continue as an adjunct professor. The BWA, founded in 1905, holds an annual gathering and every five years hosts a congress in a major world city. The next congress, which will be attended by thousands of representatives, will be Rio de Janeiro in 2020. Stone will read a paper titled, 'Considering the Ethical Implications of Constructions of Biblical Authority.' Sellers will give a presentation to the Interfaith Relations Commission. Sellers has been involved for years with interfaith and international religious affairs. Stone is in her second year of a five-year commitment to the BWA. She gave a paper similar to the one she will present next week during a symposium in Jamaica two years ago. 'From that,' she said, 'someone nominated me.' Sellers is a veteran on the world's religion stage. Last October, he was selected as chairman-elect of the Parliament of the World's Religion, during its meeting in Salt Lake City. He also is active with the Abilene Interfaith Council. The conference in Vancouver will have more to offer than just academic presentations. Stone said that during a previous international meeting, she heard sermons from various parts of the world and people of other culturessinging lyrics in their native language. 'That was one of my favorite parts,' she said. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below This just in... At least two people have been killed and a dozen wounded after a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in eastern Afghanistan. The explosion occurred early on July 2 in the city of Jalalabad, near the volatile border with Pakistan. The spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar Province, Attaullah Khogyani, said the suicide attack targeted the residence of Haji Hayat, who leads an anti-Taliban militia group. Khogyani said Hayat has also led a campaign against Islamic State militants in Nangarhars Kot district. Hayat was not hurt in the attack. Kot has witnessed fierce clashes between Afghan security forces and pro-government militias fighting against IS extremists. The government is equipping hundreds of the province's residents with weapons and basic training to oppose the extremist groups. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Khogyani added that the injured had been taken to hospital for treatment. Based on reporting by ToloNews and Khaama Ukrainian troops are holding out against attacks near two towns in the eastern Donbas region, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reported on October 26, saying the front line has not significantly changed. Zelenskiy said the fiercest battles were taking place near Avdiyivka and Bakhmut. Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, Russian protests, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here. "This is where the craziness of the Russian command is most evident. Day after day, for months, they are driving people to their deaths there, concentrating the highest level of artillery strikes," he said in his nightly address. Russian forces have repeatedly tried to seize Bakhmut, which sits on a main road leading to the cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk. British intelligence has said Moscow may see the capture of Bakhmut as a prerequisite for advancing to the two cities -- the most significant Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Donetsk region. Russian-installed authorities in Shakhtarsk, east of the city of Donetsk, said Ukrainian shelling had set ablaze fuel tanks at the town's railway station. The reports could not be independently verified. Zelenskiy did not provide an update on the situation in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, which has been the scene of recent movements on both sides. "Generally, we are strengthening our positions all over the front line, reducing the invaders' capabilities, destroying their logistics, and preparing good news for Ukraine," he said. Russia, meanwhile, repeated the unfounded claim that Ukraine plans to set off a dirty bomb. This time it was Russian President Vladimir Putin who made the accusation, speaking in remarks carried by Russian TV. Putin said Ukraine plans to use a so-called dirty bomb as a provocation. It was the first time the Russian president made the unsubstantiated allegation, which his officials have been repeating since the weekend. Putin made the remarks as he monitored drills of Russias strategic nuclear forces. "Under the leadership of...Vladimir Putin, a training session was held with ground, sea, and air strategic deterrence forces during which practical launches of ballistic and cruise missiles took place," the Kremlin said in a statement. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin that the exercise simulated a massive nuclear strike retaliating for a nuclear attack on Russia. The United States said Russia provided advance notice of the annual drills, which are taking place as NATO carries out its own annual nuclear exercises. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called Russias unsubstantiated statements about the use of a dirty bomb "absurd." The NATO allies reject this blatantly false accusation, and Russia must not use false pretexts to escalate the war further, Stoltenberg told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Ukraine and its Western allies have denied the claims and contend that Russia might itself try to detonate a dirty bomb, a weapons that would use the explosion of a conventional warhead to spread radioactive, biological, or chemical materials over an area. Shoigu on October 26 called his counterparts from India and China to share Moscows concern about possible Ukrainian provocations involving a dirty bomb, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on October 26 that Russia would "vigorously" continue to make the case to the international community that it believed Ukraine intended to detonate a "dirty bomb" with radioactive contaminants. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the United States has communicated directly and very clearly to the Russians the consequences of such an attack. Blinken, speaking at an event sponsored by the U.S. news outlet Bloomberg, did not specify when the Russians were informed or who did it. Blinken repeated that the United States is "very closely" following Russias comments about the use of nuclear weapons but "does not see any reason to change its nuclear position." Russia's statement that Ukraine is considering the possibility of using a dirty bomb is "another fabrication and is the height of irresponsibility on the part of a nuclear state," Blinken said. He noted that Russia has a history of accusing others of doing something they themselves have done or are about to do. He also said the United States was in direct communication with the Russians about their attempts to use the false claim as a pretext for any escalation. Moscow over the weekend claimed Ukraine was preparing to use a so-called dirty bomb on its own territory, drawing immediate dismissal from the United States and other countries that have backed Ukraine. Kyiv and its allies suspect Russia might have made the claim to set up a "false flag" attack in which it would use a dirty bomb itself but would blame the attack on Ukraine and use it to justify the use of conventional nuclear weapons by Moscow. "Let me just say Russia would be making an incredibly serious mistake were it to use a tactical nuclear weapon." U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters on October 25 . "I cannot guarantee you that it is a false flag operation yet. We dont know. But it would be a serious mistake." Shoigu presented no evidence for the claim when he spoke on October 23 with his counterparts from several NATO countries, including Britain, France, and the United States, who dismissed the claim after the series of calls. WATCH: Speaking to Current Time in Riga on October 22, Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks said Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot change the course of war in Ukraine by dropping nuclear bombs. Moscow took its accusations against Ukraine to the UN Security Council on October 25, and the country's UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said afterward that Russia was "satisfied because we raised the awareness." Speaking to reporters, he added: "I don't mind people saying that Russia is crying wolf if this doesn't happen because this is a terrible, terrible disaster that threatens potentially the whole of the Earth." The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said earlier on October 25 that it was preparing to send inspectors to two Ukrainian sites in the coming days in reaction to Ukraine's request for an inspection following Russia's claims. Enerhoatom, Ukraines nuclear energy operator, issued a statement on October 24 voicing its concern that Russias statements may indicate that Russia is preparing an act of nuclear terrorism. Russian troops have occupied Ukraines Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, since March. It is still run by Ukrainian engineers though Russia claimed after its illegal annexation of the Zaporizhzhya region that it is on Russian territory. Enerhoatom said that Russian forces have carried out unauthorized, secret construction work over the last week at the plant in the area of the spent nuclear fuel storage facility. Russian officers controlling the area wont give access to Ukrainian staff or monitors from the IAEA that would allow them to see what they are doing, the operator said. Enerhoatom added that it assumes the Russians are preparing a terrorist act using nuclear materials and radioactive waste stored at the plant. With reporting by AFP, dpa, BBC, and Reuters A machine shop in Columbus is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor after a teenage employee was critically injured on the job. Both the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Wage and Hour Division have opened investigations after a 17-year-old employee at G.D. Roberts and Co. Inc. was pinned in a machine while cleaning scrap metal under a laser cutter. The worker suffered life-threatening injuries in the incident, which happened Monday. The company declined to provide more details, citing the investigation. We are cooperating with OSHA and investigators, said Michelle Fischer, office manager for G.D. Roberts. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family. OSHA rules require that machines are inoperable during service and maintenance, according to the Labor Department. Under child labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, a 17-year-old isnt allowed to operate certain power-driven machinery. The Labor Department said it believes the worker, who was employed as a general laborer, had been working at the machine shop for about a month. These types of preventable injuries occur far too often and are amongst the most frequently cited by OSHA, Ann Grevenkamp, OSHAs area director in Madison, said in a statement. OSHA will conduct a thorough investigation to determine if violations of machine safety procedures contributed to this tragic accident. G.D. Roberts, founded in 1870, provides manufacturing services including design, welding, finishing and powder-coating according to the companys website. The Columbus Journal contributed to this report. Ukrainians have increasingly woken up to the sound of suicide drones as Russia turns to Iranian-made imports to destroy civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. Now they may have another deadly Iranian weapon to worry about -- ballistic missiles. Cheap but effective, Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 "kamikaze" drones have already made a deadly impact in Ukraine. If U.S. intelligence assessments pan out, Russia will soon be able to supplement its use of Iranian suicide drones and its own cruise and ballistic missiles with powerful short-range Iranian Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar ballistic missiles. Coming as the Kremlin is reportedly struggling to maintain its depleted stockpile of aerial weapons as it ramps up strikes, the missiles would potentially boost Russia's ability to continue its costly air campaign. Jeremy Binnie, a Middle East defense specialist at the global intelligence company Janes, said having more missiles gives Russia the ability to sustain the bombardment against Ukraine." Going Ballistic The Fateh-110, which was unveiled in 2001 and has a stated range of 300 to 500 kilometers, was developed from a heavy artillery rocket dating from the 1980s. To increase the weapon's accuracy, the Fateh-110 was given a guidance system and movable fins that allow it to be steered as it approaches its target. The Zolfaghar, which debuted in 2016 and also has guidance capabilities, comes from the same family as the Fateh-110 but boasts a much longer range due to its use of a lighter carbon-fiber airframe and a smaller warhead. Binnie said the Zolfaghar's use against the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in eastern Syria confirmed that the missile was capable of reaching at least 650 kilometers, which he said is "a statement of how much the Iranian tactical missile program has really advanced over the years." Iran's claim that the Zolfaghar can travel even farther -- up to 700 kilometers -- would put the western Ukrainian city of Lviv within range of strikes launched from Russian territory, while the more powerful Fateh-110 could potentially hit the city from Belarus, which has served as a staging ground for Russian attacks. While there has been no indication that Russia plans to purchase launching systems from Iran, Binnie suggests that the Russian military could pair the missiles with existing equipment because the Iranian launchers were adapted from a Soviet-era system. "It might be possible for the Russians to quickly adapt some old equipment they have lying around into launch systems," Binnie said. The Iranian military, he added, fitted the Soviet system to trucks, allowing for mobility and concealment. "Those civilian trucks can be covered over to make it hard to spot that they're actually missile launchers," Binnie said. 'Lawnmowers' And 'Mopeds' Iranian military drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), have been homing in on targets across Ukraine since late August, according to the United States. The buzzing sound of the Iranian Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 drones, built with off-the-shelf components, have earned them derisive monikers such as "lawnmowers" and "mopeds." But the slow-moving, low-flying drones, which are maneuvered to crash into their target, have proven themselves capable of hitting their mark both in terms of military effectiveness and cost. It is capable of extracting or delivering attrition and damage when launched, but it costs little compared to other UAVs that Russia has in its own arsenal," said Samuel Bendett of the Virginia-based Center for Naval Analyses (CNA). Ukraine alleges Russia has ordered 2,400 of the Iranian suicide drones, and its military has claimed to have shot them down in great numbers, often using conventional anti-aircraft guns or even small-arms fire. But their ability to be launched in bunches of five -- often from the cover of civilian trucks -- improves their chances of reaching their target. "The Ukrainians are stopping most of these, but the whole point of these drones is that they fly in a large mass," Bendett said. "The air defense does not always catch all of them. All it takes is for several or even one to make it through." The estimated range of the Shahed-136 varies, but Iran says it is capable of traveling 2,500 kilometers. The slightly smaller and older Shahed-131, which has been used by Huthi rebels in Yemen to attack Saudi targets in the Arabian Peninsula, has been estimated to have a range of 900 kilometers, according to tests conducted by the Ukrainian military. Ukraine's Defense Ministry has published multiple images of downed Shahed-136 drones in recent weeks, and the Ukrainian National Guard on October 19 claimed to have shot down a Shahed-131. Ukraine has also claimed to have shot down a more advanced Iranian combat UAV, the Mojer-6 drone capable of carrying out both reconnaissance missions and aerial strikes within a range of 200 kilometers. There have also been reports of Russian interest in obtaining Irans Shahed-129 and Shahed-191 combat drones. "When launched from any territory that Russia controls or is allied with -- anywhere from the south, from the Donbas, from Belarus -- they're able to strike a lot of Ukrainian targets," Bendett said. In addition to the U.S. intelligence assessment that Russia will soon boost its arsenal with Iranian ballistic missiles, as first reported by The Washington Post on October 16, the White House on October 20 said that Iranians are now "directly engaged on the ground" in Moscows war against Ukraine after sending "a relatively small number" of personnel from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to assist Russian forces in using the Iranian drones. Iran has denied sending combat drones to Russia, and Moscow has rejected claims that it is using Iranian UAVs. Images of downed Iranian drones appear to show that they have been rebranded to look Russian-made, experts say, with the markings in Cyrillic naming them as the Geran-1 (the Shahed-131) and Geran-2 (the Shahed-136). Observers are widely skeptical of Russia's denials, noting that the drones are essentially identical right down to the font of the serial numbers. Even Russian Defense Ministry experts have unwittingly admitted that the suicide drones are Iranian. But the rebranding of the drones to make them appear to be Russian has opened the possibility that Moscow could, if it is not already doing so, seek to manufacture or assemble the Iranian drones on its own territory. Sustaining A Campaign The new aerial weaponry fits well with the Russian military's renewed focus on striking military and civilian targets far from the front lines in southern and eastern Ukraine. The air assault has ratcheted up following the October 8 appointment of Colonel General Sergei Surovikin, a former Aerospace Forces commander, to lead the Russian war effort. Just days after Surovikin's appointment, Russia launched the biggest air strikes since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine in February. Moscow said the drone and missile strikes, which targeted civilian areas and infrastructure in cities throughout Ukraine, were in response to a bomb blast that damaged a key bridge linking Russia to the occupied Crimean Peninsula. While the Kremlin has accused Ukraine's intelligence services of carrying out the "terrorist" attack on the Crimea Bridge, Ukraine has denied responsibility. Since the initial air assault in response to the bridge blast, Russia has continued to pound Ukrainian infrastructure, often targeting power plants in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said is a deliberate effort to wear down the Ukrainian people by denying them heat and electricity as winter approaches. "Civilian infrastructure is obviously the new layer in this war. The Ukrainian economy is now the target, the Ukrainian population is now the target," Bendett said. Hard To Stop The hypersonic speed and high trajectory of Iran's Fateh-110s and Zolfaghars, should they arrive, would be extremely difficult for Kyiv to counter without a network of high-tech and costly antimissile batteries it currently does not possess. Ukraine has repeatedly requested more advanced missile-defense systems from the West, and in the face of the threat of the delivery of Iranian ballistic missiles reportedly sent an official request to Israel this week for components of its "Iron Dome" system. While the United States has said that it is seeking to expedite the process of sending two U.S. air defense systems known as NASAMS, Washington has appeared reluctant to provide more advanced Patriot missile systems. Janes' defense expert Binnie is skeptical that the delivery of the Patriot system, which has proven to be successful in shooting down ballistic missiles, is realistic for Ukraine. "It's eye wateringly expensive and it's probably not really practical because each [missile] battery only covers one city," he said. "You would never get enough batteries to get the coverage you would want. You just wouldn't be able to find them, produce them, and train enough Ukrainians." A U.S.-led coalition air strike has killed Islamic State's deputy minister of war and a military commander in Mosul, the Pentagon said on July 1. "Their deaths, along with strikes against other ISIL leaders in the past month, have critically degraded ISIL's leadership experience in Mosul and removed two of their most senior military members in northern Iraq," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said, using another acronym for the so-called Islamic State. The strike near Mosul on June 25 killed Basim Muhammad Ahmad Sultan al-Bajari, the deputy minister of war, who oversaw the militant group's capture of Mosul in 2014, Cook said. Bajari was a former Al-Qaeda member. Cook said the other IS leader killed in the strike was Hatim Talib al-Hamduni, a military commander in Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city. Iraq's military last month claimed victory in a U.S.-backed offensive against IS forces in Fallujah. It is now setting its sights on an offensive to regain control of Mosul. Cook said that removing the two senior leaders will help Iraqi forces in their fight to retake Mosul. Based on reporting by AP and Reuters Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov says he will seek another term in office. Kadyrov, Chechnya's president and now republic head since 2007, had said earlier this year that he considered his mission to be complete. His term was due to expire in April. But Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed him interim leader until a September election. Russian news agencies quoted Kadyrov as announcing on July 2 that he has filed to run in the election. I have just submitted all the respective documents to the election commission. I have filed an application on the agreement to become a candidate," Kadyrov wrote on his Instagram page. Putin has relied on Kadyrov to stabilize Chechnya after two destructive wars, allowing him to rule the region like a personal fiefdom. Human rights activists blame him for serious abuses, including widespread use of kidnapping, torture, and extrajudicial murders. Based on reporting by AP, Interfax, and TASS Turkmenistans Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov made a rare and little publicized visit to three northwestern Afghan provinces at the end of June. Meredovs trip was the latest evidence that Turkmen authorities are having to adjust their policies toward their southern neighbor in light of the breakdown in security in northwestern Afghanistan. Weve been discussing events in northern Afghanistan in the Majlis podcast and in Qishloq Ovozi for many months. But Meredovs visit to Jowzjan, Faryab, and Balkh provinces was something unseen previously. The trip, and what it means to Turkmenistans posturing toward Afghanistan, bears a closer look. So RFE/RLs Turkmen Service, known locally as Azatlyk, assembled a Majlis panel to consider recent events in northwest Afghanistan and review how Turkmenistan has reacted and how Ashgabat might react in the future. Moderating the discussion was Azatlyk Director Muhammad Tahir. Gennady Rudkevich, assistant professor of political science at Georgia University and a specialist in Central Asian affairs, joined the talk. And in the studio in Prague, Amin Mudaqiq, the director of RFE/RLs Pakistani service, known as Radio Mashaal, participated. And I tossed in a few tidbits here and there, as well. Mudaqiq started the discussion by recounting the recent fighting in northwest Afghanistan. Mudaqiq said the return of Afghanistans vice president, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, to the region has once again brought a modicum of stability to parts of northwest Afghanistan. Two months ago, the Taliban had almost encircled the provincial capitals of Faryab and Jowzjan and Sari Pul, Mudaqiq explained. I have relatives, Ive been talking with them, they evacuated their families...because it was expected that the Taliban will overrun [their city] in hours. Mudaqiq said the situation changed after Dostum came back to northwest Afghanistan in the spring, the fourth time in less than a year that Dostum had returned to lead security operations against the militants. The Taliban has been driven from some districts. But Rudkevich pointed out that a pattern has emerged where we see Dostum coming in, Dostum clearing out the militants, Dostum leaving, the Taliban coming in. For Turkmenistan, one of the more alarming developments in northwest Afghanistan is the rise of a new group of Taliban, as Mudaqiq explained. To my surprise, [it is] the Turkmen commanders, Turkmen Taliban, who are the most resistant, the toughest fighters in this area, Mudaqiq said. These are the local Turkmen commanders, but they studied in Pakistan, they came [back] from Pakistan. And he added that these Turkmen fighters are a departure from previous Turkmen groups. Traditionally, the young Turkmen would obey their elders, but right now they dont obey their elders, Mudaqiq said. The elders are also not pushing so hard because they have their own grievances against Dostum. Mudaqiq also mentioned local Taliban, local militants who are not ideological Taliban but [who] joined the Taliban either for their own security or [because of] their economic problems. Mudaqiq described these people as essentially hired guns and said they are often accepted back onto the government side after making vague oaths of allegiance. During Dostums offensives in the northwest, there have been several instances of Taliban commanders making peace with Dostum and joining the government side. Rudkevich said this tactic might not pay off for long. If these local actors change sides so quickly and without punishment, apparently, then one day, whether its a month from now or a year from now or five years from now, we could have a situation where they decide that being on Dostums side, or being on the governments side, is not in their interest," he said. "And in that case, the fighting will end up in a very different direction than what it is right now. Part of the reason for Foreign Minister Meredovs trip to northwest Afghanistan was probably to get a first-hand look at these events so the Turkmen government can better assess the situation south of the border. His planned visit to a border town where Turkmenistan is building a retaining wall along the Amu-Darya River was abruptly canceled when unfortunately there was a mine blast, which hit his convoy, and he returned, Mudaqiq said. Officially, Meredov was there to discuss bilateral projects. He participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan railway in the town of Akina in Faryab Province and he discussed plans for Turkmenistan to export electricity to areas in northwest Afghanistan. Such discussions could just as easily, and more usually, have been held in Ashgabat or Kabul. Mudaqiq mentioned that Meredovs meetings with local officials were all conducted behind closed doors. Azatlyk already reported that the commander of the paramilitary Arbaky units and some local police officials were just in Ashgabat. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also made the first-ever visit by a Russian defense minister to Turkmenistan at the start of June. So it could be that Turkmenistan, which for some 20 years has prided itself on being a neutral country, is choosing a side in the Afghan conflict. But Mudaqiq drew attention to Turkmenistans projects in northwest Afghanistan and suggested that Turkmenistan does have a policy toward this region. This electricity, this railway project, these road projects do not benefit only the government. [They] benefit the whole population, which includes the Taliban, Mudaqiq said. Turkmenistan electricity in Faryab is distributed in villages, which are under the Taliban, so when the Taliban starts a disturbance against Turkmenistan, they will lose electricity as well. Mudaqiq said Turkmenistan might be seeking to make the Afghan provinces across the border dependent on Turkmenistan so that no matter who is in control in northwest Afghanistan that party will need to have friendly relations with Turkmenistan. It would be a better policy than simply trying to stay out of Afghan politics altogether, which has already proven to be impossible. Rudkevich said, [The Turkmen government} wants to have stable borders with Afghanistan, and it looks like theyve seen the situation degenerate to such an extent that theyre willing to make some sacrifices in the neutrality policy. But Rudkevich cautioned, I cant see them going much further without really jeopardizing the whole neutrality policy, which, again, has been what their whole identity is based on for the last 20 years. The panel agreed we are likely to see a very flexible policy from the Turkmen government toward neighboring areas in Afghanistan, but not a coherent strategy, as Ashgabat is in the position of having to react to Afghan events without being able to do much to influence the situation. The panel discussed these issues in greater detail and looked at other topics that are shaping the situation in northwest Afghanistan and forcing policymakers in Ashgabat to regularly make adjustments to Turkmenistans ties with its southern neighbor. Listen to or download the Majlis podcast above or subscribe to Majlis on iTunes. Turkmenistans state media say President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has pardoned 612 prisoners, including 26 foreign citizens, ahead of festivities marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. State media reported on July 2 that Berdymukhammedov had signed the order of amnesty "to further strengthen the unity and solidarity of Turkmen society." State media did not reveal the nationalities of foreign prisoners released under the amnesty. Berdymukhammedov has issued such decrees several times a year, usually on the eve of state holidays. The former Soviet republic is one of the most closed and repressive countries in the world. On June 30, a number of prominent rights groups signed a letter addressed to Berdymukhammedov asking him to release Saparmamed Nepeskuliev, a correspondent of RFE/RL's Turkmen Service. The letter said Nepeskuliev was convicted on the "fabricated" charges of possessing illicit narcotics on August 31 and has not been in contact with relatives since September. In 2015, the government passed a law excluding prisoners convicted of drug trafficking from state amnesties. With reporting by AFP Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Madison-area credit unions are in the best financial shape theyve been in for years, according to data submitted to federal regulators, as UW Credit Union recovers from a Florida loan scam and an Iowa credit union opens its first branch in Madison. Not a single one received even a mediocre grade from BauerFinancial, an independent research firm in Coral Gables, Florida. Sixteen of the 22 local credit unions with at least $1.5 million in assets earned Bauers highest rating of five stars, or superior. The other six scored four stars, or excellent, based on data provided to the National Credit Union Administration. Thats an improvement from last year when Bauer graded two of the credit unions University of Wisconsin Credit Union, Shorewood Hills, and Blackhawk Community Credit Union, Janesville with three stars, or adequate, as a result of their financials as of Dec. 31, 2014. Both UW and Blackhawk have moved up to four stars this year while Fort Community Credit Union, Fort Atkinson, and WEA Credit Union, Madison, each rose from four stars to five. The general improvement in the economy has helped, said Mark Schrimpf, CEO of WEA Credit Union. When the Great Recession hit, our delinquency rate went up. One of the smaller credit unions in the Madison area, WEA Credit Union has 2,700 members, primarily teachers. Act 10, the 2011 legislation that sharply reduced collective bargaining rights for Wisconsins public employees, had a big impact on the credit unions members, Schrimpf said. Teachers had to kick in more for their benefits, so, in effect, their paychecks were smaller than they were accustomed, said Schrimpf. There was a general sense of hesitation a lot were not sure if they would be working in the coming year. Schrimpf said after the bill passed, people struggled for as long as they could and used up their savings, so it wasnt until January 2014 that the percentage of unpaid loans at WEA Credit Union peaked at 2.6 percent. Since then, things have improved. The credit unions loan delinquency rate was 0.99 percent at the end of May after dipping to an unusually low 0.32 percent as of March 31, Schrimpf said. WEA Credit Union has $26.5 million in assets mainly loans, investments and cash compared with $27.6 million last year. But the value of loans was $15.7 million, as of March 31, up from $13.8 million a year ago, and net income was nearly $25,000, up from nearly $16,000. I think teachers have started to become comfortable with their new reality and are once again starting to borrow, Schrimpf said. UW Credit Union also is making more loans now, with $1.37 billion worth as of March 31, up from $1.27 billion a year ago. But the main reason UW Credit Unions star rating improved is progress in its recovery from an alleged scam involving securities that were part of the U.S. Department of Agricultures guaranteed loan program. The loans, obtained through a now-closed Milwaukee investment adviser, Pennant Management, were part of a fund acquired from First Farmers Financial, of Florida. As of September 2014, the credit union held $53 million of loans in that fund, according to the UW Credit Unions 2015 financial statement. But the 26 loans in the fund, which totaled more than $179 million, were phony, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Northern Illinois in late 2014. The complaint said the borrowers do not exist. In December 2015, a five-count indictment was filed against Nikesh Patel, chairman and CEO of First Farmers, accusing him of creating fictitious businesses that purportedly borrowed money from First Farmers and forging USDA employees signatures on loan guarantees. Patel is accused of using money obtained through the fake loans to buy five hotels, three of them in Orlando, and personal luxury items, according to a December article in the Orlando Sentinel. A receiver was appointed to take possession of those assets and sell them. More than $100 million has been recovered so far, through sales of the hotels, cars and other property, according to the Sentinel article and the Orlando Business Journal. Several parties also have filed suit claiming damages in connection with the case, including Pennant. A subsidiary of Lisle, Illinois-based U.S. Fiduciary Services, Pennant closed when the alleged fraud came to light and seeks hundreds of millions in damages. UW Credit Union also sued. Because of the scam, UW Credit Union took a $35 million charge against its earnings in 2014 representing the loss it expected to absorb from the case. That charge resulted in a $15 million net loss for the year. By 2015, though, the credit union improved its estimate of the amount it will recover from the case by $6 million, and along with income from its operations, bounced back to net income of $31 million for 2015. As of Dec. 31, 2015, UW Credit Union had recovered $3.1 million of its losses in the case, the annual report said. We continue to work through the legal process for further recoveries, said Lisa Girdharry, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, in an email exchange. The fourth-largest credit union in Wisconsin, UW Credit Union has 213,000 members and continues to grow. Assets totaled $2.1 billion as of Dec. 31, 2015, up from $1.9 billion a year ago, with $1.4 billion of that in loans, only 0.77 percent of which are considered delinquent. Through the first five months of 2016, UW Credit Union has recorded more (new and refinanced) mortgages in Dane County than any other financial (institution), Girdharry said, citing figures from Knight Barry Title Co. UW Credit Union also expanded its presence in the Milwaukee area in 2015, with a new branch in Wauwatosa, its sixth Milwaukee-area branch and twenty-third location in Wisconsin. Summit Credit Union, Madison, also pushed further into the Milwaukee area with the opening of branches in Franklin, in February, and Muskego, in May. That gives Summit eight Milwaukee-area locations and 34 statewide. Summit is Wisconsins second-largest credit union, with $2.4 billion in assets, as of Dec. 31, 2015, and more than 153,000 members. Meanwhile, Alliant Credit Union, of Dubuque, expanded to Madison in late 2015 with a location in the Alliant Energy corporate headquarters, 4902 N. Biltmore Lane. Established in 1933, Alliant Credit Union has $116 million in assets and more than 10,000 members, mainly in Iowa, across diverse business sectors. Its Wisconsin location, though, is aimed primarily at serving employees of Alliant Energy and American Transmission Co. When another credit union vacated Alliant Energy corporate offices in Madison, we were thrilled to strengthen our bond with Alliant Energy and have a greater impact on the financial well-being of the Wisconsin employees, said president and CEO Mike Moroney. The Madison office has three full-time employees. Kilowatt Credit Union had served Alliant employees at its headquarters, but that outlet closed when Kilowatt merged into Heartland Credit Union, Madison, in 2013. More recently, Heartland told its members last week that it will close its branch at 555 W. Washington Ave. on July 30. The location also served as Heartlands corporate office from 1984 until 2005, when the headquarters moved to the Far East Side, at 5325 High Crossing Blvd. Technology is changing the way our members do business with us, CEO Sally Dischler told members in an email. She also said Heartland has bought the Third Lake Market building that houses Heartlands branch at 944 Williamson St. and that location, a mile and a half away, will serve Downtown patrons. It was a tough decision, said Robin Marohn, vice president of marketing and business development. But he said the Williamson Street branch is going gangbusters, so that was the one we decided to keep open. Marohn said all of the West Washington Avenue employees will be able to be transferred to other openings at Heartland. Police are searching for a 19-year-old woman they say seriously injured a man in a June 26 shooting in Highland Park. Kamaria M. Walker, 19, is charged with malicious wounding and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony after the shooting in the 2100 block of First Avenue, according to Richmond police. The victim, who was not identified in the news release, was taken to VCU Medical Center with a life-threatening gunshot wound, the release stated. Walker is believed to be driving a gold Toyota Corolla and is known to frequent The Flats apartment complex on the Northside of Richmond. Police said she is believed to be armed and dangerous and should not be approached. Three Florida men have been charged after a pursuit that ended in a crash in Caroline County on Thursday night, police said Friday. A Virginia State Police trooper monitoring traffic on Interstate 95 in Spotsylvania County clocked a northbound 2010 Mercedes going 85 mph. The trooper tried to pull over the Mercedes, but it sped away, according to state police. The Mercedes got off of at Exit 118, continued to U.S. 1 and headed south in excess of 100 mph, police said. The driver lost control, ran off the left side of the road, struck an embankment and overturned. Investigators found heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and prescription drugs in the car, state police said. The street value was about $80,000. Two handguns also were seized from the car. The driver - Jesus J. Isaguirre, 22, of Green Acres, Fla. - and two passengers - Fleurisson Lebrun, 23, of West Palm, Fla., and Noel Mendoza, 21, of Green Acres - were taken to Mary Washington Hospital with serious injuries. Day after day, month after month, the female figure stares dazedly, perpetually in the clutches of powerful, maniacal and hellish men a possible rape scene within clear sight of the Greater Richmond Convention Center. A few blocks away, at Eighth and Franklin streets, a deceased manlike creature lies on his back with weird growths mushrooming out of his body right on top of a Subway restaurant in the very heart of a city with a homicide problem. Its art, of course, part of the wildly successful and mostly popular muralizing of RVA. Thanks to the Richmond Street Art Festival, the Richmond Mural Project, and a host of independent projects and artists, Richmond has become a mural capital of the world on par with Philadelphia with hundreds of them, if you count them individually. It has been a boon for Richmond, says Richmond planning director and surprisingly hip cat Mark Olinger. Fans cant get enough of them. They should be on every building! one supporter told me when I started asking when is enough enough two years ago. Someone has to put their head in the hipster guillotine, and that would be me. First off, no one in the mainstream local media has written as much about street art and guerrilla (illegal) art as I have since it got busy here 30 or so years ago. Ive followed the innovators and the wild, wonderful arc of it. For the most part, Im a huge fan. Its renegade, colorful, different a collective freak flag flying over a city once famously labeled as a hotbed of social rest. But to me, too many of the newer, trendy ones dont seem very warm or inviting. Im not feeling much heart or warmth from this cool (if not cold) blend of graffiti, tattoo art and sci-fi, absolutely beautifully rendered for sure, but oh-so deliberately quirky and edgy and ambiguous. And sometimes, as we see above, deliberately unsettling. Art should move you. But public art shouldnt move you away. It should enhance our municipal feng shui, not diminish it. And call me a local, but I was hoping more of them would have a community theme or vibe. Like the absolutely amazing one by a Central American artist of a Civil War drummer boy fleeing for his life, drumsticks trailing, at the corner of Gilmer and Clay in the Carver neighborhood. Then, right across the street, theres a mural of Garfield flanked by characters from South Park. Its signed boldly by Jerkface. Ive also been wondering why one artist and a building owner can change the vibe of a block or even a neighborhood, when buildings, signage and just about everything else has to go through a permitting process. For example, how can one guy out of D.C. with a for-profit business change the face of Richmond with oh-so hip and trendy murals from distant (and yes, amazing) artists that rarely have anything to do with our community? Were just a canvas for their egos and a coffee table book? And by the way, your mural becomes everyone elses art, whether they like it or not. For years. Of course, the minute I brought this up, I became this art-hating, free speech-tromping fool. As muralist Bomb Proof told me on social media: You are most certainly an idiot ... and should shut the (expletive) up and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT other than run your mouth on and on about boo hoo poor me, I have to look at art I dont like. He challenged me to come up with my own art. Well, Ive built more than a few brick and block walls in this town. While theyre not art, they do say something. And why does it have to be the same stuff? Its like when your only tools are brushes and spray cans, every project looks like a mural. Other cities embrace water, light and wind installations, sculpture and plantings. Look, Im the last person to want to go back to the old days when murals were illegal. But there has to be some balance between outlawing it and the shut-up-and-take-it attitude of those like Bomb Proof. Even some of the backbone characters of the mural movement understand the question. Because its become so successful and prevalent, its certainly worth a discussion, said Jon Baliles, 1st District councilman, mayoral candidate and co-founder of the Richmond Street Art Festival. Id be happy to be a part of that. He notes theres a difference between community-based mural projects and those that just showcase the work of a famous muralist. Because art is so subjective, Baliles said, its difficult even thinking how to steer it. Id be happy to discuss or look at some guidelines, he added. I dont like the word control. I spent an hour brainstorming with artist Ed Trask on Thursday. Hes the other co-founder of the Street Art Festival and the guy who has been painting walls since the days when it was illegal. He has the same desire to keep it flowing, organic and free, but with the same vague discomfort with those who might take advantage of our open-wall policy. Other mural cities have guidelines and watchdogs. Philadelphia has had the visionary Todd Bressi to steer its Mural Arts Program. Richmond is currently remaking its public arts master plan, said Ellyn Parker, the citys public art coordinator. It comes up a lot, she said of our murals. People on both sides. You can send your views to her office or voice them during a series of public hearings in October. If anyone can or even needs to steer RVA murals, Parker can handle it. Shes a legend in San Francisco, where she was before she came here, and is one of the great recent hires for Richmond. Truly visionary folks like Bomb Proof would likely admire her. I dont have any answers. Only questions. Every time I see that dazed female figure being pawed over, Im asking why thats an artful message for one of the most visited locations in this historic city. Gov. Terry McAuliffe would not subject former Gov. Bob McDonnell to a retrial. It is time to move on, he explained on the Ask the Governor radio program broadcast in Northern Virginia. This man has paid the price. He has indeed. The Supreme Court vacated McDonnells convictions on corruption charges; it did not vindicate him. Its ruling, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, described the case as distasteful or worse; it referred to tawdry tales. The blemishes will tarnish McDonnells record for vast eternity. McDonnell once faced an unlimited political future. His reputation will not be easily restored. He never again will be elected to public office. McDonnell exercised bad judgment; he erred. It is not clear that his behavior qualified as criminal. McAuliffe is right. Jeff Bourne also is right. The chairman of the Richmond School Board has expressed his concern with meddling by board members. School boards set broad policy and hire superintendents to carry out their goals. Members have no business micromanaging the schools. Whether by coincidence or design their attendance at certain in-school meetings can intimidate the systems employees. Teachers and administrators should not be looking over their shoulders. Bourne recommends discretion and restraint. We agree with him. The timing proved just. On Monday, the United States will celebrate the Fourth of July, the annual commemoration of the Declaration of Independence. Last Tuesday, Virginia dedicated a historical marker on Broad Street between Sixth and Seventh to honor young people who challenged segregation. On Feb. 20, 1960, 200 students from Virginia Union University entered the Whites Only lunch counter at Thalhimers department store. Thirty-four students later were arrested. The demonstrators put into practice the ideals the Declaration expresses. All men are created equal, their sit-in said. The Richmond 34 joined a civil rights movement that was gaining momentum in the South and throughout the nation. Their brothers and sisters included the freedom riders and the marchers at Selma. Virginia played a crucial role in a great cause. The Brown v. Board of Education decision included a case from Prince Edward County. Barbara Johns, a 16-year-old, refused to accept unequal education in Farmville. Oliver Hill, Spottswood Robinson and others fought in the courts to make America live up to its principles. With its tradition of gentility, Virginia lacked the race-baiting demagogues associated with Mississippi and Alabama. The Byrd Organization was polite. It outlawed lynching. Yet it still denied human rights to African-Americans. Segregation prevailed. Blacks could not attend law school in a state that boasted some of the oldest and most storied colleges in the land. Virginia practiced compulsory sterilization and forbade interracial marriage. It massively resisted orders to desegregate its schools. Throughout Richmond, statues and street names honored the heroes of a Confederacy founded to perpetuate slavery. The plaque for the Richmond 34 helps to redress the imbalance. The good spirits prevailing at the unveiling ceremony suggest that Richmond has the capacity to build a memorial to slavery and its aftermath. A slavery site would promote not recrimination but truth and reconciliation. People of goodwill are eager to do the right thing. Speaking of Virginia Union: This week the school named Joseph Johnson its acting president. Johnson, a former VUU administrator, will fill in for Claude Perkins, who is taking a one-year sabbatical before retiring as president. Union not only fulfills an educational function; it also serves the greater community, as its mayoral debate suggested. Lombardy Street runs through the campus. VUU, Virginia Commonwealth University and the Maggie Walker Governors School form an academic corridor that also serves as a gateway linking the museums of Boulevard with the governmental and business institutions of downtown. We like the idea of a train station (with high-speed capacities) on Boulevard, too. Speaking of the academic corridor: VCU has established a presence in the arts. Its venues present performances; its schools in the arts have won national acclaim. VCUs Institute for Contemporary Art is rising at the intersection of Belvidere and Broad. It will occupy a building of architectural distinction. We enjoy watching its construction progress. Carl Gulbrandsen is so understated that even some people close to him didnt know he played in a band growing up in Viroqua or that his cousin is rocker Butch Vig of Garbage, Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins fame. Those were just two tidbits that emerged during a recent retirement event honoring Gulbrandsen, whose 16-year tenure as managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation officially drew to a close last week. Gulbrandsen was a vital figure in Wisconsins innovation economy and probably someone who was unknown to the average citizen on the street. Perhaps it was his small-town upbringing or his self-deprecating Norwegian heritage, but Gulbrandsen rarely put himself in the spotlight even when it was merited. His legacy, shared by others on WARFs team, is nonetheless worth noting as successor Erik Iverson takes the reins of one of Wisconsins most important innovation and economic development assets. Those accomplishments include advancing WARFs historic role as the independent manager of intellectual property produced at the UW-Madison, expanding that mission to University of Wisconsin campuses across Wisconsin, increasing WARFs role in the startup economy, shepherding discoveries such as human embryonic stem cell research, and orchestrating the construction of the Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery. Established in the 1920s around discoveries in Vitamin D therapies, WARF applies for patents on discoveries of UW-Madison faculty and staff and then licenses those patents to companies, large and small, that want to commercialize them. The foundation manages more than 1,700 patents, which speaks to the depth of campus research and development efforts. A percentage of the licensing revenue is shared with the inventors and the balance becomes part of WARFs $2.6 billion investment portfolio. The foundation provides annual grants ($92.5 million in fiscal year 2015-16) to campus and affiliated organizations, making it one of the larger pieces in the UW-Madison budget puzzle. In fact, WARF has returned about $2 billion in todays dollars to the campus over time, which is a major reason UW-Madison routinely ranks among the nations top five R&D universities. That $2.6 billion portfolio also makes WARF one of the larger gorillas at the dance when it comes to protecting intellectual property from infringement, most recently evidenced by a $234 million federal court judgment in favor of WARF and against Apple. Not without its critics over time, mainly because it has driven tough deals with license holders, WARF became more internally innovative during Gulbrandsens tenure. It created two spinoff organizations, the WiSys Technology Foundation and WiCell, to handle two distinct projects. WiSys was established to help faculty and staff on campuses outside Madison and UW-Milwaukee manage their discoveries, a process that has led to a doubling of disclosures in recent years on the states 11 non-doctoral campuses. WiCell was created at the dawn of human embryonic stem-cell research to nurture the discoveries of researcher Jamie Thomson and others, who pioneered that research in the late 1990s on the UW-Madison campus. Most work with stem cells today, on campus and globally, involves reverse-engineered cells produced from skin samples. At a time when there were attempts to shut down such research over moral and political objections, Gulbrandsen and WARF stood firmly behind what stem cells would mean to human health over time. Although WARFs charter was silent on contributing to the state and local economies, WARF became a player in the tech-based startup economy during Gulbrandsens time and earlier under his predecessor, Dick Leazer. It invested directly and indirectly in selected startups, in part because larger companies and many investors wouldnt take the initial risk. More recently, WARF has been a part of supporting campus-based efforts to spur entrepreneurism, such as the Discovery to Product initiative. The biggest physical manifestation of Gulbrandsens work is the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, which was built with a combination of private and public dollars, with much of the private support coming from WARF itself and philanthropists John and Tashia Morgridge. It is one of the largest centers for interdisciplinary research in the United States, if not the world. The House that Carl Built is becoming one of the UW-Madisons major lures for talent, as evidenced by some recent hires by its private side, the Morgridge Institute for Research. Unassuming but tough-minded, Gulbrandsen guided a Wisconsin asset that is unlike almost any other in the United States. As WARF moves into a new era, more people and state policymakers should know what it means to the Wisconsin economy. A devastating tomato leafminer, Tuta absoluta, wipes out 80 percent of Nigerias tomato crop. The BBC and Bloombergs international news operation devote hours of broadcast time and inches of news stories to explaining the pest. One place media coverage has gaping holes: the United States. This is unfortunate because worldwide, since 2006, the pest has wormed its way into Costa Rica, Egypt, France, Israel, Italy, India, Kenya, Libya, Russia, Spain and almost 50 other countries. Some scientists myself included believe that the leafminer that destroyed Nigerias crop will eventually show up in the United States. And when it comes to invasive pests like this tomato leafminer, awareness and preparedness are key. Virginia is one of the top five states most vital to fresh-market tomato production, along with the powerhouse producers, California and Florida. The threat this leafminer poses deserves more headlines than it commands so that monitoring, preparation and controls can be put in place. A Bloomberg story, for instance, quotes Richard Hopkins, head of pest behavior at the London-based University of Greenwichs Natural Resources Institute: Tuta (absoluta) has the potential to effectively eliminate tomato from the agricultural cycle. Eliminate tomatoes? The Virginia publics attention is crucial, along with that of scientists and policymakers. Awareness can lead to action. Fortunately, we can do more than just sit back and witness the devastation of our crops. (Or, like some of the affected countries, launch futile attempts to eradicate the pests through poison alone.) At the Virginia Tech-headquartered Integrated Pest Management Innovation Lab, we seek to curtail agricultural pest problems with an emphasis on natural as opposed to toxic chemical means. Our research-and-education protocol has produced some recent evidence of this approachs effectiveness. For example, in East Africa, farmers and scientists learned and adopted integrated-pest-management practices, which they then deployed against multiple problems impeding healthy tomato crops. As a result, tomato yields increased from 54 percent to 268 percent, depending on the tactic put in place. The East African countries not only experienced greater income, but they also learned a valuable lesson: Chemical pesticides can be harmful to human health and carry potential to kill the naturally existing antagonists of the very pests we are trying to eliminate. If you kill the predators that consume the pests, then the problem quickly spirals out of control. This is a lesson that the U.S. agricultural community could stand to fully embrace, given its reliance on toxic, synthetic pesticides. Our decade-long East African intervention wasnt focused on Tuta absoluta. However, last year, our Innovation Lab directly addressed the pest through workshops in Nepal and Bangladesh, two countries we had identified as vulnerable to the pests invasion. The spread of Tuta absoluta to both countries occurred in June again, with almost no media coverage making note of the event. Scientists in Nepal and Bangladesh who attended the 2015 workshops have told us that what they learned made a difference. They were able to quickly identify the leafminer and institute controls. This is a heartening development. No one wants to see another tomato crop failure on the scale of Nigerias. Whats happening in terms of U.S. government response? Based on our recommendations, and those of other scientists, the United States no longer allows imports from affected countries unless stems and leafy tops have been removed. And the federal government is helping states with monitoring through the use of pheromone traps. Another key element of the strategy is to help Costa Rica suppress the pest. Costa Rica is perilously close to home! We can minimize the spread of this devastating tomato leafminer. But first we must understand that its arrival is all but inevitable. The time to prepare is now. Chris Rickert | Wisconsin State Journal Urban affairs, investigations, consumer help ("SOS") Follow Chris Rickert | Wisconsin State Journal Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today Its sadly fitting that only a few hours after the creation of dueling online petitions on the Madison police, Madison police shot and killed another suspect. Reports suggest the suspect was like a lot of the suspects in recent high-profile incidents police have been accused of botching: intoxicated and/or emotionally unstable, combative and/or violent. For the liberal activists who hold sway over Madisons civic agenda, the personal or communal failings that bring people to the attention of police arent nearly as important as how police respond. For some indeterminate number of less-influential Madisonians, police can do no wrong. In the former category is the political party Progressive Dane, whose petition urges the City Council to file a complaint against Police Chief Mike Koval with the Police and Fire Commission. PD leaders declined to provide me with a specific breakdown of how they believe Koval has violated the various city rules it accuses him of violating. But its clear from the petition and a blog post PD co-chairwoman and petition creator Brenda Konkel authored that PD faults Koval for his harsh appraisal of a $400,000 study of police and his combative behavior during a June 7-8 council meeting. Also, as Konkel writes in her blog, for failing to acknowledge his white male privilege power. No doubt, Koval has disrespected the council of late. Of course, some council members have been happy to share a stage with and provide public venting time to activists who loudly and repeatedly call police murderers and racists. Its called karma, in other words. That Koval objected when black Ald. Samba Baldeh said he felt threatened with Koval sitting behind him with a gun during the heated council meeting is not, as PD suggests, proof that Koval lacks racial sensitivity. Its proof that Kovals political views on what constitutes racial insensitivity are very different from what Baldeh and lots of leftist Madison leaders believe is racial insensitivity. And politics, incidentally, is exactly why state law makes it hard for council members to file complaints against the police chief. Law enforcement is too important to be subject to the always-shifting winds of political sensibility. The pro-police petition is a pretty typical statement of police support, although it does make reference to a few of those personal or communal failings that make cops jobs difficult including gang activity. There are many more than that, though from increasing gun violence and long-standing racial disparities, to old intoxicants like liquor and newer ones like heroin and synthetic marijuana. Folks should be able to expect that in the vast majority of cases, cops will handle the fallout from these and other human failings with professionalism and a minimum of violence. But if you expect them to be perfect, you have to step up like by not engaging in or excusing bad behavior, or blaming cops for disturbing social trends that have been around a lot longer than current police and have little to do with current policing. Obituaries 10-21-22 Advisory: Obituary information will only be accepted if sent through a funeral home or cemetery. The Wave does not assume responsibility for any incorrect information that is printed in the obituary section John E. Hynes... Obituaries 10-7-22 Advisory: Obituary information will only be accepted if sent through a funeral home or cemetery. The Wave does not assume responsibility for any incorrect information that is printed in the obituary section John F. Keane... An inmate from Dane County Jail was declared absent without leave (AWOL) after not returning to the jail after a Friday morning appointment. Corey N. Barksdale, 26, of Delavan left the Public Safety Building around 8 a.m. and did not return to the jail at 12:50 p.m., according to the Dane County Sheriff's Office. Officials say they received information that he may have been seen near the UW Health Urgent Care Clinic in the area of East Towne Mall around noon Friday. Barksdale is serving a 7-month Huber sentence for Armed Robbery, officials said. Anyone with information regarding Barksdale is asked to call 911. With car sales at all time low, dealers are offering exciting discount offers to boost sales After almost 2 months of 0 sales, Ford India has restarted its sales and service operations across the country. It had launched some of its BS6 models towards the start of the year but before sales could pick up for those, the lockdown was announced. Due to the lockdown, most of the offers associated with the new models went underutilized. One such case is of the BS6 Endeavour. Ford had launched the BS6 emission norms compliant Endeavour back on 25th February. Pricing of the models was between INR 29.55 lakhs to 33.25 lakhs. It was scheduled for a price increase of around INR 70K, from April 30th. But that has not happened yet. In spite of no price increase, sales are hard to come by. In addition to the introductory price, a dealer network of Ford India is offering discount of Rs 60,000 on the new Endeavour facelift. This will certainly help to lure customers who were on the look out for a full-sized SUV before the lockdown. Speaking to the PPS Ford dealership in Pune, the official said that the discount of Rs 60,000 is valid on the on-road price of any Endeavour variant you chose to buy. The dealership hopes that this new discount offer will help them bring in more sales in these troubled times. PPS Ford network is present in Pune, Bangalore and Vishakhapatnam. At the moment, 420 touchpoints of Ford are operational in the country. These include 226 Service Centres and 194 showrooms, all of which are spread across 192 cities. To further assist its customer base, Ford also has a Dial-A-Ford helpline service apart from its digital store. Talking about the 2020 Endeavour, it gets a new 2 litre EcoBlue turbo-diesel motor. This same unit is sold in multiple international markets with a twin-turbo setup (207hp/500Nm). However for the Indian market, Ford has equipped it with a single turbo and the engine dishes out 170hp & 420Nm of peak torque. The engine comes mated to a 10-speed autobox as standard. Additionally, customers have an option to chose a 44 configuration, in case they want. Cosmetic updates are majorly limited to LED headlamps which help the SUV look like a 2020 model. Customers also get to experience Fords new FordPass connected car technology package, which wasnt available in the previous version. Major competitors of the Endeavour continue to be the likes of Toyota Fortuner and Mahindra Alturas G4. Other product which could disrupt its sales is the upcoming Gloster from MG. The Endeavour is a global product and is also sold with the Everest nameplate in select markets. Internationally, the SUV is also sold with a 2 litre petrol engine which churns out 244hp & 360Nm of max torque. As per reports, Ford has been readying a new 2.3 litre petrol motor which will be able to dish out 271hp & 455Nm of peak torque. However this development shouldnt affect us we dont think that Ford would want to introduce a petrol mill in a diesel heavy category in India. A man who prosecutors said fatally stabbed and struck a police drug informant in the head with a sledgehammer was found guilty Friday night of first-degree intentional homicide, ending a weeklong jury trial. Juan Aguilar-Vargas, 28, of Madison, was also found guilty of hiding a corpse, for helping take the body of Jacob Payne, 23, to Lake Mendota and submerge it with a weight near Governors Island on April 7, 2015. It was found there four days later by a canoeist. The jury of five women and seven men deliberated for about seven hours Friday before reaching their verdicts. Dane County Circuit Judge Ellen Berz will sentence Aguilar-Vargas to the mandatory life prison sentence at a later hearing but will have to decide whether he will ever be able to petition for release from prison on extended supervision. Under state law, the earliest that judges can allow those convicted of first-degree intentional homicide to first petition for release is 20 years. Judges can set longer periods before eligibility, or decide that a person will never be eligible. Aguilar-Vargas faces up to an additional 10 years of combined prison and extended supervision for hiding a corpse. Payne was killed in an auto shop on Acker Road in the town of Burke after he argued with another man, Rudy Ramirez-Milian. Court documents state that Payne was an informant for state and federal drug agents and was buying cocaine from Ramirez-Milian. Paynes work was not mentioned during the trial as a motive for the homicide. Witnesses said that Ramirez-Milian began stabbing Payne, but after taking Payne to the floor, he called to Aguilar-Vargas for help. Aguilar-Vargas then also stabbed Payne and hit him on the head with an eight-pound sledgehammer. Ramirez-Milian, 28, of Madison, pleaded guilty last week to second-degree intentional homicide and awaits sentencing in August. In his closing argument, Aguilar-Vargas lawyer, David Geier, said that the witnesses, Saul Garcia-Rosario and Erlin Vargas, were mistaken about what they saw, because they had been drinking and because their memories have become distorted over time. Aguilar-Vargas testified on Thursday that he watched as Ramirez-Milian attacked Payne, then took him to the floor and hit him with the sledgehammer. While on top of Payne, Ramirez-Milian called to Aguilar-Vargas for help, because Ramirez-Milian had cut his own hands badly as he stabbed Payne, Aguilar-Vargas said. But Garcia-Rosario and Vargas both testified that while Ramirez-Milian did call to Aguilar-Vargas, it was for help killing Payne. In his closing argument, Assistant District Attorney Robert Jambois said that it makes more sense that Aguilar-Vargas struck Payne with the sledgehammer because Ramirez-Milian, with his badly cut hands, would have been unable to grip it. Jambois said that everyone, including Aguilar-Vargas, testified that Ramirez-Milian didnt help clean up the auto shop or load Paynes body into the bed of a pickup truck because his hands were so badly injured. Geier maintained that the physical evidence at the scene, including blood spatter on one of the walls of the auto shop, better matched the version of events that Aguilar-Vargas told, and not those told by Garcia-Rosario or Vargas. Im not saying Saul is lying, Im not saying Erlin is lying, Geier said. Theyre mistaken. Jambois said that when Ramirez-Milian called out to Aguilar-Vargas for help, Aguilar-Vargas had a choice about who to help the man who could call for help or the man who could not. Instead, the evidence shows he grabbed a sledgehammer and he murdered Jacob Payne, Jambois said. Mayor Paul Soglin and Near East Side leaders offered drastically different responses Friday to the Marquette Neighborhoods third officer-involved shooting since late 2012. Michael William Schumacher, 41, of Fitchburg, died at a local hospital after being shot by a Madison police officer Thursday night outside a home in the 1300 block of Morrison Street, the Dane County Medical Examiners Office said. Few other new details emerged about the investigation Friday. But neighborhood concerns over whether calls to Madison police would result in fatalities were met by the mayors call for education on how people should behave when dealing with law enforcement. Resistance is not an option, Soglin said during a morning news conference. Thursdays officer-involved shooting comes less than two weeks after the high-profile arrest of 18-year-old Genele Laird, who was taken into custody by officers using physical force and a Taser after she resisted police following an incident at East Towne Mall. Soglin said both incidents highlight a growing problem with compliance to police orders, and added that a dialogue about behavior is necessary. There are things going on in terms of building that trust. But it is a two-way street, and theres got to be an understanding of this very basic principle, and thats our responsibility as residents of this community, Soglin said. While Soglin focused on behavior, Ald. Marsha Rummel and county Sup. John Hendrick said the latest officer-involved death, combined with the fatal police shootings of Paul Heenan and Tony Robinson in 2012 and 2015, respectively, has drastically eroded the neighborhoods trust in the Madison Police Departments ability to handle crises. I hear from people that theyre afraid to call police and not just in communities of color that may be afraid to call police but in this neighborhood because maybe theres an irrational fear that if I call police, somebody might die, Rummel said. Madison police procedures adhere to state guidelines that allow officers to use deadly force when there is danger of death or great bodily harm to the officer or another person. Rummel said state standards shouldnt be the bar for Madison, especially when it comes to dealing with mentally ill people. In a way, its the minimum. Do we use the minimum standard or do we try to develop community standards that may exceed the minimum standard? she said. Still few details Rummel and Hendrick gathered reporters just outside the scene of the shooting, where officials from the states Division of Criminal Investigation took over the investigation from Madison police and continued to comb the area around the home at 1303 Morrison St. using boats and drones throughout most of the day Friday. State law requires officer-involved deaths be investigated by an outside agency. DCI did not release any further information about the investigation Friday. Schumacher had no identification on him at the time of the shooting, making it difficult for police to determine who he was, Rummel said. Madison police on Friday declined to release the name of the officer involved in the shooting, saying the officers name would be released by DCI. Thursdays fatal shooting occurred shortly after 9 p.m., when a neighbor called 911 to report that a man was chest-deep in Lake Monona and acting oddly, seemingly talking to himself and slapping the water. Police said a witness observed the man break a window of a nearby home by throwing a rock. Residents also called 911 and fled the home after they heard the intruder smashing items inside the house. Madison Police Chief Mike Koval told reporters that the first officer on the scene was waiting for backup when the intruder approached the doorway from inside the house with a four-pronged pitchfork. The man ignored multiple orders from the officer to stop, prompting the the officer to shoot the intruder, whom Koval described as agressing. A blood stain could be seen just outside the front door Friday morning. Rummel and Hendrick identified one of the residents of the home as Michael Falk, who could not be reached Friday. Koval said other officers were present when the intruder was shot and that officers provided first aid before the man was taken to a hospital. James Bellucci, 36, was in his second-floor apartment, about half a block away, when he heard three shots in quick succession. With the holiday weekend approaching, he initially thought the shots were fireworks, but realized it was something more when his girlfriend told him about a news alert. Its sad, Bellucci said. Im kind of on both sides. I empathize with the people. Theres been some overuse of excessive violence against our fellow people and I share a little bit of that frustration with the general public. But if you identify yourself as a police officer, you give them every warning and they still come at you, do you get impaled by what theyre calling a pitchfork? Its hard to balance. State Journal reporters Hayley Hansen and Ed Treleven contributed to this report. By SA Commercial Prop News Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane snubbed an invitation to the unveiling of a multimillion-rand, Ndofaya Mall in Meadowlands, Soweto, on Monday. Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane snubbed an invitation to the unveiling of a multimillion-rand, Ndofaya Mall in Meadowlands, Soweto, on Monday. A Sowetan visit to Ndofaya Mall revealed that the shopping centre was incomplete. But her spokesman, Thebe Mohatle, denied this was the reason for her not honouring her invite. Its not about the fact that its not complete; the premier had other commitments, he said. Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau attended, despite the glaring construction work that still needed to be wrapped up. He told Sowetan he was there as per arrangement with the developers, who had asked that he officially unveil the mall, which opened to the public yesterday. While residents complained of being denied jobs, Tau said an agreement with the private developers Ndofaya Mall Investments, was that only 30% of the locals would be hired, and the rest would be outsiders. The development can only create a set number of jobs; it cant create jobs for every single person. Of course there are people not employed by the facility, but the facility is there. A partner in Ndofaya Mall Investments, Paul Gobetz, estimated the cost of the mall to be about R40-million. It would create jobs for 200 construction workers and 200 staffers inside the mall. Gobetz could not say when construction would be completed, citing nature as the reason for the delays. Tau would not comment on problems surrounding the development. These include a complaint to the Public Protector about the irregular employment of some individuals who are close to the ward 41 councillor Siphiwe Mbongo, who himself is alleged to have benefited financially. Another complaint is about the nature of Mbongos hiring and later firing of a community liason officer, whose job was to appoint local companies and keep the community abreast of developments. Mbongo could not be reached for comment yesterday. Disgruntled residents protested on Monday, and were led by the local members of the Economic Freedom Fighters, who hurled insults at officials feasting inside the mall. 50% of Indian mobile users wish to upgrade to new device in 5G era About 50 per cent of smartphone users in India plan to buy a new device within the first year as 5G ... After Carter Kofman left UW-Madison as a sophomore to get treatment for alcohol addiction, he returned sober and realized how much campus culture is saturated with alcohol and drug use. Most conversations, apart from class, are about alcohol or drugs, Kofman said. I cant be a part of those conversations. I just shut down and wait for the topic to change. Cody Fearing, another student in recovery from alcohol addiction, said the university is an abstinence-hostile environment. Through Live Free, a student organization formed at UW-Madison in 2014, Kofman and Fearing are supporting each other and others recovering from addiction to alcohol or drugs, including opioids. The group, which has held weekly recovery meetings and occasional workshops, will expand its activities in the coming school year, thanks to a $46,000 grant from the Student Services Finance Committee, which allocates student fees. Live Free will have meeting space in the Student Activity Center and five paid student staff, including Kofman and Fearing. The group plans to start meetings for family and friends of people in recovery, organize a film festival, bring in outside speakers and work with other campus groups to reduce the stigma of being in recovery. Caroline Miller, a founder of Live Free, said she welcomes the support the group is getting from students. But other campuses have paid university staff for such groups and dedicated housing for students in recovery, she said. That is a future goal, to move in that direction, she said. Miller, 34, got her undergraduate degree at UW-Madison in 2004 and a masters degree in social work at the university this year. In high school, she had inpatient treatment for addiction to alcohol and drugs, including opioids. In college, she struggled to remain sober. I was confronted with a culture of substance use and misuse, she said. I felt very alone. Kofman, 21, and Fearing, 23, live at Aarons House, a home for male students in recovery. It was opened in 2007 by the parents of Aaron Meyer, a recovering addict who died in a car crash at 18. Miller helped start Grace House, a similar home for female students in recovery. Kofman said that after he got sober and returned to campus in January 2015, the transition was difficult because he was immersed in the bar culture again. But finding Live Free and Aarons House turned things around, he said. It was awful when I didnt have a community of people, even a small group, he said. To the Afghani woman I met in the checkout at Walmart 13 years ago: I saw your name tag, and recognized it as a Muslim name. When I asked where you were from, you said Afghanistan." Then I froze. I was overwhelmed as I thought of what that meant. I tried to imagine what living in a war zone meant, what life was like growing up under the Taliban, and if you had lost or left behind loved ones. Most of all, I hoped you and your family felt safe and happy. But I said nothing. Even a simple Welcome to the U.S. would have made all the difference. Instead, overwhelmed, I stared at you, and then walked away. I regret letting the opportunity to be kind turn into a moment of unintentional cruelty. I write this 13 years later because now those words need to be heard. You should be welcomed to this country, respected for trying to make a better life for yourself, and admired for surviving situations that would break lesser people. I truly hope you and your family have found joy and acceptance here. -- Anthony Miranti Jr., Hortonville The former Vice President of the Land and Titles Court, Anae Pita II Anae, who defended the work of his colleagues yesterday, wants to clarify a point. Having being quoted in a story titled Ex-Vice President defends Judges published on the front page of yesterdays Samoa Observer, Anae said it is wrong for people to take his views as opposition to the call by the Prime Minister for an Inquiry. I do not object to the fact the Prime Minister is calling for special Parliamentary Inquiry, he said. There are complaints from people saying that I am against the call from the Prime Minister. That is not the case. The call from the Prime Minister is important as it looks into complaints (from the public), I support the call. But my views are merely the situation faced (by judges)its a sensitive issue and it needs to be looked into. Anae added that he will be meeting with the Commission on Monday to make his submission on the issue. In yesterdays edition, Anae shared his opinion on the reasons why many cases are delayed at the Land and Titles Court. With more than ten years of experience at the Courts, he said the problem was not entirely the Judges fault. You must remember that as Samoans, we have roots everywhere, said Anae. When a plaintiff lodges a complaint, there are about ten other respondents to the matter. The problem is that most of them live in New Zealand or Australia and when their cases are called, they make applications to adjourn because their leaders living overseas cannot make it to Samoa for the hearing. From the Land and Titles Courts perspective, Anae said everyone deserves a chance to present their cases. And thats why they try to find a compromise, regardless of how difficult it is. The Court doesnt know what to do when some respondents ask for the matter to be adjournedbecause the familys matai living overseas cannot make it. All we can do is adjourn the matter. The Judges also find it frustrating when there are so many respondents in a case and the majority of them write from New Zealand, Australia and the United States. So the Court always tries its best to call it on a day that works for everyone.But at some point, there is always someone who makes an application to adjourn because not everyone has the same motive. The special parliamentary committee is chaired by M.P. for Vaisigano No. 1, Lopaoo Natanielu Mua and Deputy Chair is the Deputy Speaker, Nafoitoa Talaimanu Keti. It has been a big week for the bigger better network in Samoa. Digicel Samoa introduced Long Term Evolution (L.T.E) broadband technology and on Thursday night, the company launched its 4G L.T.E network at the Sheraton Samoa Aggie Greys Hotel on Beach Road. Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, congratulated the company. I think this initiative by Digicel will go a long way to meet the expectations of our business communities, he said, adding that 4G would mean faster internet speed and more reliable services. But Tuilaepa took a journey down memory lane, especially in relation to the 4G Network. I can tell you that three years ago, I was very, very embarrassed, Tuilaepa said. I turned up to speak at another function by Digicel, and they told me that they already had the 4G. Then very shortly, they would also do the 7G. In those days, I did not know the truth until the Regulator issued a call to Digicel to stop the bullsh**s you dont have yet a 4G. So I was very, very reserved whether I should talk about the 4G tonight in case I face the same music that I faced a few years ago. That said, Tuilaepa wished Digicel all the best. Chief Executive Officer of Digicel, Rory Condon, said the evening was a milestone for the company. But he said it would not have happened without the support of the community and their beloved customers. To the government of Samoa, thank you for your support of our vision, Mr. Condon said. To our customers, thank you for your loyalty over the last nine great years. Finally to my team, without you guys we wouldnt be in position to do what were doing today, thanks to your tireless hard work and your professionalism and most of all your passion for what you do. Thank you all for coming tonight celebrate with us the Bigger Better Faster L.T.E Network! Residents at Falelauniu and nearby areas spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning battling toxic fumes from a fire at the Tafaigata Rubbish dump. Its not the first time the residents have had to deal with the issue. The fire is also not new as it had flared up earlier this year, lasting for a couple of weeks. So when the fumes permeated through the air on Wednesday night, the residents knew exactly where it came from. And on Thursday morning, they awoke to find smoke billowing from the rubbish dump, a sight they have seen before. Onotolu Falefala said his family struggled to sleep on Wednesday night. Whatever was burnt it sure smelled toxic, he said. We live in an open fale and the smoke was hard to inhale. It was like the fire was right next to our house. Further down at Nuu and Aele, it was just as bad. I couldnt recognise the colour of my house when I woke up on Thursday morning, said Petone Aumalia. I thought it was a Sunday morning with the smoke from the umu except the smell was horrible. According to residents, the fire started on Wednesday night at around 11. Mr. Falefala said they immediately contacted the Fire and Emergency Services Authority (F.E.S.A). But the response, he said, was less than satisfactory. The person said that we should contact M.N.R.E. M.N.R.E is the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the government body responsible for the Tafaigata Rubbish dump. Its disappointing because even if its the M.N.R.E who are responsible for this, they should still come to put the fire out. All we wanted for them to do was to come and put the fire out because if it spreads then all of us who are living close to the area will be affected. Asked for a comment, the F.E.S.A Commissioner Lelevaga Faafouina Mupo rejected the claim, saying they responded immediately. Yes we did get a call from residents who live near the area about the fire on Wednesday night around 11pm, he said. We did respond and we managed to put out the fire on that same night. But Lelevaga said the issue of rubbish is the responsibility of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. We responded anyway because we were thinking of the people living near the area, said Lelevaga. We prioritize what matters and so with this matter it was the safety of the people living in that area that we were thinking about. So we responded to it as soon as we received the call. Lelevaga went on to say that the Tafaigata Landfill is a big area and unless rubbish is reduced, it would eventually lead a fire. He was reluctant however to elaborate as he said this is something M.N.R.E has to find a solution for. As for us, we did our job, he said. Up until now we dont know who might have set the rubbish on fire but nobody knew until the fire went big and thats when the people started calling us. As of yesterday morning, the smoke was not as bad as it was the night before. Still, the residents in the area said the government has to make dealing with the issue a priority. We are inhaling these fumes, said one Vaitele-fou man who wished to remain anonymous. Im not an expert in matters of the environment but my human gut feeling tells me that these fumes are poisonous and hazardous. My children are also inhaling them and so are thousands of other people in the area. This is coming from plastics and other materials that are not supposed to be burnt. Does anyone care to find out why these fires keep on happening? Attempts to get a comment from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment yesterday were unsuccessful. The Police have issued a reminder to members of the public to be alert, think logically at all times and to avoid making decisions when they are angry. The warning comes as they investigate three unrelated deaths last week. One of them involved a young woman who jumped from a moving car and later died at the hospital. Police Media Officer, Maotaoali'i Kaioneta Kitiona, confirmed the incident saying a 25-year-old male has been charged as a result. He faces a charge of negligent driving causing death. Maota said the couple was travelling from Lefaga to Apia last Saturday when an incident happened and the 22-year-old jumped from the car at Aleisa. She was taken to the hospital but she died the next day due to the seriousness of injuries to her head. The second incident killed a 1-year-old boy at Falealili. Maotaoalii said a 45-year-old man has been charged with negligent driving causing death following the hit and run incident last Sunday. Elsewhere, a 59-year-old man has been charged for the death of his 83-year-old father after he lost control of their vehicle and crashed into an electric pole. According to a Police report, the deceased man and his son were rushing to attend a village fono in one of the villages. On their way, the man lost control of the vehicle and it veered off the road, killing the elderly man. Maotaoalii said the incidents call for members of the public to take extra care and exercise caution. We urge everyone, especially drivers to take care, he said. You have lives of people on your hands so please make sure you are aware about this. We also note that a lot of these things are happening because of anger. Please take it easy and dont make any rash decision when you are angry. All drivers will appear in the District Court on 07 July 2016. Joshua Brown, the first U.S. fatality in a wreck involving a car in self-driving mode, had an adventurous streak with a "need for speed" but also was a brilliant innovator and beloved neighbor, say those who knew the Navy veteran. Brown was "like a little kid" when he brought home his Tesla Model S sedan late last summer and always willing to take anyone for a ride, said Richard Tichenor, a neighbor. The 40-year-old single man lived in Canton where he ran a wireless technology company. He bought his modest home four years ago for $40,000 a little more than half the sticker price of a new Tesla Model S. Brown died May 7 in Williston, Florida, when his car's cameras didn't make a distinction between the white side of a turning tractor-trailer and the brightly lit sky while failing to automatically activate its brakes, according to statements by the government and the automaker. Terri Lyn Reed, a friend and insurance agent in northeastern Ohio who insured Brown's business, said he loved motorcycles and fast cars. "He had the need for speed," she said. "Kind of a daredevil, loved the excitement." Brown nicknamed the car "Tessy" and praised its "Autopilot" system. He posted videos online touting its capabilities, saying in April it avoided a crash when a truck swerved into his lane. "Hands down the best car I have ever owned," Brown said. His driving record, obtained by The Associated Press, showed he had eight speeding tickets in a six-year span. The most recent ticket, in 2011, was for driving 64 mph in a 35 mph zone. Stan Staneski III worked two years for Brown putting in wireless networks. His boss and friend liked to go fast, but "was always a very safe driver," said Staneski, of Denver, Pennsylvania. "I mean, I never once felt scared or threatened while riding with him," he said. A Navy SEAL for 11 years, Brown left the service in 2008. A lot of his innovations came out of what he learned in the military, Reed said, describing him as incredibly intelligent. Brown founded his wireless company in April 2010, a couple of months before he was caught going 80 mph in a 55 mph zone. He built the business installing Wi-Fi networks at campgrounds and cruise line terminals from the ground up. He told a customer his company would be bigger than cable giant Comcast Corp. "He wasn't in it for the money," Reed said. "He wanted to make things better for people." Sometimes he would travel on business in a motor home, and he loved the outdoors and camping. He'd share stories about his adventures and jumping out of airplanes in the military. Neighbors recalled how Brown would wake up early during winter storms and clean their street and driveways before city snowplows arrived. Friends said he never met a stranger. Next-door neighbor Krista Kitchen said Brown once took her and a friend for a ride in the car and then surprised her friend by turning over the wheel to him. "He was just flabbergasted, but that's just Josh," she said. Brown took meticulous care of the Tesla and enjoyed seeing what it could do. But he also wanted to know its limitations and make sure it was safe, she said. He was on vacation in Florida with his parents when he was killed, she said. Reed said she didn't know her friend had been driving a Tesla until she heard about the crash. But, she said, "It doesn't surprise me he was utilizing technology at its best." Some time not too long ago when the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F) warned Samoa about its rising debt, Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, did not hold back. His response is hard to forget. We have brains too, he snapped. We dont have to just swallow (whatever advice) is given. We have to use our brains and make a decision that best suits our situation. The Prime Ministers response was in relation to the I.M.Fs senior economist, Geoffrey Bannister, urging the government to curtail the accumulation of any more debt. The Samoan government has reacted appropriately to increase expenditure for recovery and reconstruction in the face of recent external shocks, including the global financial crisis, the tsunami and cyclone, Mr. Bannister said. However, public debt has risen rapidly in recent years, raising risks to sustainability and leaving little fiscal space to address future disasters. It is thus necessary to begin a process of gradual fiscal consolidation, once the recovery has taken hold. Fiscal consolidation by the way refers to strategies designed to minimise debt carried by a government or a business. In other words when you strip away all the jargon and the diplomatic speak - the I.M.F is basically telling Samoa to stop borrowing money it cannot afford to pay. Or thats what any decent person would think anyway. Now, today that debt is still rising. While we cannot be sure about the official figure, the number that has been tossed back and forth during political debates is $1.5billion and climbging. Some sources say its possibly more. Whatever it is, Tuilaepas administration obviously ignored the I.M.F warning, which is not surprising of course. At the time, the Prime Minister insisted that it is not the amount of a countrys debt we should be worried about. Rather, it is a countrys ability to service the debt. He then assured that Samoas debt service capacity is stable, saying the country is generating more than enough revenue to sustain the debt. The warning from Mr. Bannister was not the first time the I.M.F has warned Samoa. In 2013, I.M.F. had also cautioned the government against resorting to further external loans. Prior to that, the World Bank predicted that Samoas debt to Gross Domestic Product (G.D.P) ratio would hit the 65 per cent mark. According to the World Bank, public debt to G.D.P. ratio has increased from 34 per cent in 2007-2008 to 62 per cent in 2012-2013, shifting from moderate to high risk of debt distress. Ladies and gentlemen, these are very troubling indicators. We cannot help but wonder how on earth this country, which is struggling enough as it is, will be able to dig ourselves out of this hole. To be fair to the government though, it is trying. And they certainly deserve our support for creating innovative revenue-generating activities to attract foreign investors. We say this because foreign investment, implemented properly using appropriate and culturally sensitive policies, can help boost the economy through the creation of employment opportunities. This in turn brings countless other benefits for the people of the country. Think about the inflow of new capital, technology and direct contribution to Samoas export earnings to offset the balance of payment deficit and so forth. But everything comes at a price. The Citizenship Investment Act is a hefty price for our people to pay. Introduced by the government and passed by Parliament recently, the law aims to regulate citizenship by investment to foreigners who satisfy the requirements. In the words of Prime Minister Tuilaepa, its a candy to lure investors to Samoa. Really? Since when did our citizenships become a candy? You see, when we talk about citizenship, we are talking about the heart of Samoa. We are talking about our birthrights, our God-given inheritance. These treasures are sacred, they are not candies. Whatever fancy language the government uses to justify this ridiculous idea, its hard to ignore the thought that being a Samoan can now be bought. How did we get to this point? Where did we go wrong? We think we have an idea. Having graduated from the least developed country status recently, the government is finding the going extremely tough with all those fiscal and policy challenges. Coupled with a high budget deficit, low employment and next to none exports, what do you do? And thats not all. Desperate to address the governments debt to GDP ratio, which is threatening the 65per cent mark, the government is under immense pressure to identify new ways to generate revenue. So what do they do? Well, need we say more? Folks, this law is not an innovative revenue-generating activity. This is an act of desperation by a government that has been turning a blind eye to corrupt practises, mismanagement and abuse of public money and resources, allowing it to run amok for so long that it is now coming back to haunt them in a major way. Now lets take go back to those famous words of the Prime Minister. We have brains too, he said. We dont doubt this for one moment because we know the government is full of extremely intelligent and well-qualified individuals. As Prime Minister Tuilaepa would proudly boast, they are all big lauia. Fantastic. But the facts are there for all to see and they are glaringly alarming. Our land is under threat from policies driven by desperation, our prized possessions such as matai titles are losing their meaning because they are being given to any Tom, Dick and Harry who comes to Samoa dangling money, and now our citizenships can be bought. Does this reflect the wise utilisation of such great brains leading Samoa today? We all have different answers. But on this Sunday, we want you to think about the future of this country. We want you to think about your children, my children and the Samoa they would inherit from us. We want to bless them and leave them with a legacy they can be proud of. We do not want our children, their children and their childrens children to grow up to beg with an insurmountable foreign debt over their heads, where they will find themselves second-class citizens in their own country. That is a future we do not want. We know Tuilaepa is a clever man. But perhaps its time he accepts advice and start to listen. Have a restful Sunday Samoa, God bless! Dear Editor, Talofa lava. Faatulou atu foi i le silafaga tupu a Samoa i le Samoa Observer. I refer to the article Ex-Vice President of the Land and Titles Court defends Judges Afioga Misa Anae P. Anae. I think Misa Anae does not want the Judges scrutinized by the Commission of Inquiry because he is afraid their failure might be exposed. I am one of those deeply affected by these power hungry decisions. When the hearing started and after the faatu aao/faatu lima a Judge immediately announced that our petition ua faaleaogaina and ended the hearing. The decision has been appealed and awaiting mention. E lagona e tino matagi otherwise, there would not be an appeal. O le faaiuga lea e le tusa ai ma le Vaega 63 (2) o le Tulafono o Fanua ma Suafa 1981(2) In arriving at the final decision every Samoan Judge and Assessor hearing the petition shall have an equal voice E lei fofoga ina/faafofoga foi i le talosaga, e lei faia se suesuega ae ua announce mai le faaiuga. I applaud the Prime Ministers move to look into the Judges work and/or corruption? that has affected our people in mass. Faafetai tele, Vaa F Aga APIA I LE VAIMAUGA Dear Editor, Re: Actions speak louder than words If Deacon Leaupepe was inspired by Jesus Christ then he should understand that Jesus Christ in his days did more than just praying and giving out advice. Jesus Christ gave up everything he had for the poor and he put his life on the line for the oppressed. Its a far cry from the comfortable and pleasant lifestyles of the faifeaus of today. If huge amounts of money go through the Church every week eg, through various schemes like alofa and taulaga, shouldnt there be an expectation of a balanced and symbiotic relationship between the Church and the people? In my humble opinion, if the Church is in the community and they take so much money from the community, then the people should expect more from the Church in terms of charity work, or be the voice of the weak to denounce Corruption in government and advocate Justice. Its not enough to say that the Church is playing its role which is preaching and reminding people about what God wants. Well Deacon, God always want Justice and you have seen everything like O.P.C Report 2010 and (S.R.U) Audit Report 2012 and NCC have said nothing at all. Where is the advice for the people if the prison is overcrowded? Why are the prayers not working Deacon? So if nothing seemed to work if we can take into account the amount of lawlessness in the land and the fearless of some government officials to break the law and abuse public monies. My question then is what are you going to do next to compensate for the Churchs failure in the community? Are you going to just keep praying and take money from the community or is there a plan B in the pipeline? Here is one other thing to consider Mr. Deacon, if the children spend some evenings at aoga faifeau and Sunday afternoons at aoga aso Sa. Then you just cant turn around and blame the parents for ill disciplined children when the Church takes up a good part of the childrens daily or weekly routine. Youre not totally innocent. Perhaps you can cut down on bingos and housie so that parents can actually have quality time with their children. How about autalavou and all these other Church meetings of various Church groups, which intrude into quality family time for parents and the children. These are some of the things that actually contributed to the diminishing value of family time and its all because of the Church. If you think Deacon Leaupepe that theres value for the children participating in Church activities and for parents or families to play bingo or housie some evenings, then perhaps you should consider the effect of what the Church is doing to the traditional family unit and acknowledge the role of the Church in the community and stop pointing the finger at the parents...be honest with yourself. Le Mafa P A member of the public who was arrested at gunpoint at the Fugalei market last year is taking legal action against the Ministry of Police. Suitupe Misa has filed a $1million lawsuit against the first defendant, the Minister of Police, Sala Fata Pinati, second defendant the Commissioner of Police, Fuiavailiili Egon Keil and the Ministry of Police as the third defendant. The Attorney General is being sued on behalf of the Minister and the Ministry of Police. The Commissioner was contacted through his secretary for a comment on Friday. She said the Commissioner will be informed and will return a call if he wishes to comment. She did not return the call as of yesterday. According to a document obtained by the Sunday Samoan, Mr. Misa is suing the Minister of Police for a breach of statutory duty. In the statement of claim, the plaintiff argues that the first defendant breached his duty under section 13 (3) of the Police Powers Act. In particular, Sala is accused of failing to consider any exceptional circumstances to establish whether or not a police officer(s) ought to be armed when the police arrested the plaintiff. The second cause of action against the Commissioner is an alleged abuse of process. The second defendant received information from the first defendant that a person by the name of Suitupe apparently made threats to kill the first and second defendants, and other senior government officials (alleged threat), says the statement of claim. The first defendant had also informed the second defendant of a witness who may verify the alleged threat. The second defendant however failed to verify the reliability of the alleged threat through direct enquiry with the witness referred to. The second defendant could have easily found out the truth regarding the alleged threat if he had made reasonable enquiries with the witness. The second defendant used and relied on the apparent validity of the Ministers approval by ordering certain police officers including Officer Iosefa to be armed and to arrest the plaintiff upon confirmation of the plaintiffs presence at the market. Fuiavailiili is accused of using the legal process in order to accomplish an ulterior purpose of oppression against the plaintiff. Mr. Misa claims that the Commissioner abused the process to effect an improper purpose. The third cause of action is against the third defendant or the Ministry of Police for unlawful arrest and unlawful detention. Accordingly the plaintiffs detention was unlawful, said the statement of claim. That the plaintiffs unlawful arrest and unlawful detention deprived the plaintiff of his personal liberty, and the third defendant therefore breached the plaintiffs right to liberty under Article 6 of the Constitution. Lastly, the fourth cause of action is against the Ministry of police for unlawful search. The statement of claim pointed out that the circumstances under which the relevant police officers carried out the said searches did not justify an immediate search or a search without a warrant. The plaintiff was not committing any offence at the time of the searches, the statement of claim stated. There was no reasonable ground to believe that the plaintiff was in possession of any narcotics or any other drugs or any dangerous weapon. That the police officers who searched the plaintiffs poloka and taxi did not identify themselves to the plaintiff or Catherine or any other person operating the nearby poloka in the market, nor was any reference made to an authority used by the said police officers to carry out a search without a warrant. Furthermore the statement highlighted that as a result of the first defendants breach of stator duty, the second defendants abuse of process, the third defendants unlawful arrest and unlawful detention of the plaintiff and the third defendants unlawful search of the plaintiff, Mr. Misa ha susffered damages. In particular, the plaintiff has suffered injury to liberty, injury to feelings, dignity and mental suffering, disgrace and humiliation. Mr. Misa also claims he had suffered temporary confusion and shame experienced, temporary loss of physical comfort for a period of 2 to 3hours from the time of the unlawful arrest until released at the Main police station. In addition the plaintiff is also seeking damages for distress, anger, anxiety and uncertainty associated with his unlawful detention. The plaintiff seeks against the first, second and third defendants jointly and severally global award in the sum of $1,050,370.00 tala. General damages in the sum of $300,000tala, aggravated and punitive damages in the sum of $750,000tala special damages of $370tala. The matter will be called again in the Supreme Court on 8 August 2016. Peter Wilson has done it again. Last night, he celebrated his second S.I.F.A Samoa Open win at the Royal Samoa Country Club in Fagalii. While Wilson rejoiced in claiming the top prize, Richard Backwell celebrated winning the S.I.F.A Samoa Senior Open. Backwell now claims the unprecedented title of winning three consecutive Senior Opens. Wilson finished the tournament at 13 under-par however did not have it all his own way, struggling to find momentum with only two birdies in his first seventeen holes. Playing the final hole and with the knowledge that a birdie was required to claim the title, Wilson calmly pitched to within three feet of the hole and tapped in the birdie putt for victory. I knew what I had to do and kept telling myself Ive done it before, he said. This win is really special for me; Ive won over 40 times but this is the first one my father has witnessed. I love playing in Samoa and I hope to be back next year. The low round of the day came from New South Welshman Nathan Park who fired an eight under par round of 64 to finish in outright second at 12 under par. The result came much easier for Backwell in the S.I.F.A Samoa Senior Open, recording a wire to wire victory after rounds of 69, 69 and 66 to finish at twelve under par and a massive ten shots clear of his nearest Senior competitor. Its an awesome feeling winning three consecutive Senior Opens, Backwell said. The growth of the tournament in the past three years is fantastic and each year it seems to get better. Local Professional Malesi Maifea (-4) was the best of the local professionals finishing tied 11th in the Open whilst the low amateur score was Pulou Faaliga who finished the tournament in a tie for ninth (-5). Bluesky Samoa could soon be majority owned by a Fijian government backed company, Amalgamated Telecom Holdings (A.T.H.). This follows a decision by Amper, the Spain-based company that runs Bluesky in the Pacific, to enter into an agreement to sell its South Pacific business to A.T.H. According to reports, the transaction is expected to be closed in the next three months. It was not possible to obtain comments from the Management of Bluesky at press time. An email sent to Bluesky Pacific Chief Executive Officer (C.E.O.), Aoee Adolfo Montenegro on Friday was not responded to. Similarly, Bluesky Samoas Country Manager, Alex Abraham, did not respond to questions sent to his email. Amper owns 75 per cent of Bluesky Samoa. The other 25 per cent is owned by the government through the Unit Trust of Samoa (U.T.O.S.). U.T.O.S. also owns 26 per cent in Bluesky Pacific Holdings Limited. Contacted for a comment, U.T.O.S. Chief Executive Officer, Sau Justina Sau, confirmed that they are aware of the reports. At this time, we cannot provide any comments on this matter, said Sau. Except to say that were only made aware when the Bluesky Pacific C.E.O emailed us the Google Alert yesterday (Thursday). The C.E.O. did not elaborate. But the deal was revealed in a Market Announcement document, dated 30th June, 2016, from the Fijian owned company Amalgamated Telecom Holdings. According to the announcement, Amper S.A. has countersigned A.T.Hs non binding Letter of Intent to acquire all of Ampers equity interests businesses in the South Pacific. A.T.Hs offer is based on an Enterprise Value to E.B.I.T.D.A multiple of 6x subject to the outcome of confirmatory due diligence, the usual adjustments for liabilities and requisite regulator approvals, licences and authorizations, stated the document. The parties anticipate this deal to be finalised in approximately three months, subject to all necessary regulatory approvals and consents being secured. Earlier last year, Bluesky Group expanded its network in Cook Island taking onboard the Telecom Cook Islands as its newest operation. The Cook Islands government maintained its 40percent ownership in Telecom Cook Islands. Bluesky Communications was established in American Samoa in 1999 and expanded its operations to Samoa in 2011 with a successful bid in the privatization of SamoaTel. Bluesky acquired Pacific Island Cable in 2009 and is a provider of cable television services to Samoa and American Samoa through Moana TV. Blueskys affiliate company, American Samoa Hawaii Cable LLC, brought submarine optic fibre cable connectivity in the country in 2009. The group was acquired by eLandia Group in 2006 and now forms part of Amper Group. About A.T.H. The A.T.H Group of Companies comprises A.T.H, Telecom Fiji Limited, Vodafone Fiji Limited, FINTEL, Fiji Directories Limited, A.T.H Kiribati Limited and Datec (Fiji) Limited. A.T.H is a public company listed on the South Pacific Stock Exchange and is Fijis principal telecommunications holding company, through its investments and provision of direct services in a broad range of telecommunications and related services, throughout the Fiji market. The Fiji National Provident Fund is the largest shareholder in A.T.H. Chile's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has recently captured spectacular infrared images of Jupiter, with its Large Telescope Imager and Spectrometer for mid-Infrared (VISIR) instrument. The detailed photos taken with the ground based telescope reportedly revealed infrared radiation spilling out through the cloud tops of Jupiter, making the planet look like it was on fire. According to a report, it is not an easy task taking such high resolution images of Jupiter from ground. The photos were taken by a procedure called lucky imaging and, out of the thousands of frames captured by VISIR, the images least affected by the blurry impact of our planet's atmosphere were combined to create the final image that we can see. The idea behind capturing the new images was to make high resolution maps of the gas giant's complex atmosphere. The process saw the use of various telescopes based in Chile and Hawaii, coupled with contributions made by amateur astronomers all over the globe. "Together with the new results from Juno, the VISIR dataset in particular will allow researchers to characterize Jupiter's global thermal structure, cloud cover and distribution of gaseous species," said Glenn Orton, lead scientist of the ground based campaign which will also further the cause of the Juno probe, by setting the stage for what the spacecraft will witness in the coming days. In addition, scientists feel that observation made at different wavelengths across the infrared spectrum pieces together a three dimensional picture, which shows how material and energy are reached upwards via the atmosphere. Incidentally, the Juno mission has reached the last leg of its journey to Jupiter and is quite close to the gaseous planet. In fact it is the only spacecraft to get this close to Jupiter, and as per a NASA, Juno will be arriving at the planet on July 4, coinciding with American Independence Day. KINGSTREE, S.C. Browns Bar-B-Q was packed Friday morning as farmers gathered to learn from officials about how to apply for S.C. farm aid. The meeting was the first of 19 that will be held over the next few weeks as the agricultural sector looks to rebound following last falls historic flooding, which wiped out an estimated $400 million in crops. Farmers who incurred a 40 percent loss of agricultural commodities are eligible for grants up to $100,000 under a $40 million aid package passed by the legislature in late May. Rep. Roger Kirby, a Democrat from District 61, co-sponsored the legislation and said he came to the meeting as my whole district is ag. This is an important thing for a lot of my constituents. Kirby was glad the first meeting was held in what he called the heart of the farm belt in the Pee Dee. The intent is not to make every farmer whole. We wanted to help as many as we could with limited resources, he said. Its more intended to help small family farms that are on the brink of disaster. While taking a mid-meeting break, Cliff Barron said probably about 70 percent of his row crops were destroyed by the October flooding. Cultivating about 1,000 acres in Johnsonville, the 36-year-old farmer focuses on corn, beans and wheat. Drought conditions last year had already taken a severe toll on his corn before the historic deluge. All our hopes were on the beans and next thing you know, we got 27 inches of rain in three days, he said. It was frustrating we had good crops in the field. Once he gets all his documentation squared away, hell apply for aid. Things look better this year, said Barron, whos farmed for 15 years. A good-looking corn crop beans looking pretty average. Things look up a little bit. Bill Wallace isnt sure hell apply until he plugs his numbers into the formula that determines his actual losses vs. expected revenue. Im borderline, said the 61-year-old, who farms about 140 acres of corn and soybeans near Turbeville. He knows several farmers with heavy losses who had to quit. He hasnt had to borrow money to purchase equipment and has been able to finance seed purchases, whereas fertilizer and chemicals have to paid for up front. Its just hard. Its a struggle and will take awhile to bounce back, he said. Sometimes you want to throw your hands up and walk away. Still, he knows farmers like himself have to keep on going. Right now theres a bumper crop of corn, he said, but my fields are still wet and we cant plant beans. Weve put down some but not much. Hugh Weathers showed up at the well-known barbecue restaurant toward the end of the meeting. I want to hear whats on our farmers minds, said Weathers, the states secretary of agriculture. Im going to go to as many meetings as I can. Though the entire program has been launched fairly quickly the legislature overrode Gov. Nikki Haleys veto on May 24 -- Weathers hopes for as little bureaucracy as possible. This whole thing took about 45 days, he said, referring to the agriculture department planning for implementation of the aid. In another 45 days we hope to be writing checks but it depends on meetings like this. For more information about S.C. Farm Aid, check out https://agriculture.sc.gov/. DARLINGTON, S.C. For a decade, 79-year-old Cora Smith has used a ramp to move in and out of her home on Hickory Street. I had a lot of surgeries on my legs and I had one of those riding chairs, Smith said. It (the ramp) had been there a long time. She no longer uses a motorized scooter to get around but still uses her 10-year-old ramp, which had become rotted and unstable. On Thursday morning, Smiths decaying ramp got a much-needed upgrade courtesy of the Blue Saints of Darlington, an organization formed by members of the Darlington Police Department. Four off-duty officers, including Police Chief Danny Watson, began working on Smiths new ramp Thursday morning. Supplies and wood were donated, some by the officers themselves. In the last few weeks, the Blue Saints have built both walking ramps and hand rails for Darlington residents who need them. On Thursday alone, the group of off-duty officers built two structures including Smiths new ramp, all free. Im excited, Smith said. It means a lot to me. The idea to form the Blue Saints of Darlington came from a group of Darlington police officers looking to help out in the community during their time off. Watson didnt hesitate to see the idea through. If somebody comes to me with a good idea and I think I can make it work, Im going to put it in action, Watson said. And thats what weve done. It just goes to show you how truly good that the folks that work here are. Lt. Kimberly Nelson said the word about the Blue Saints and the work they do is beginning to spread, which in turn has created a high demand for their services. Nelson said so far, the group is planning to do at least 12 more projects for Darlington residents in need. And the list is growing, Nelson said. The more people are hearing about it, the more people are contacting the chief and hes putting them on the list. We might cant get to everybody, but were going to try our best to do as much as we can. Along with the free construction work, the Darlington Police Department has also been collecting box fans to donate to residents with little or no air conditioning. In conjunction with the Darlington County Council on Aging, the department has been collecting as many box fans as possible to help distribute throughout the county. The goal was to collect 250 fans by the end of June. As of 4:40 p.m. on June 30, 314 fans had been donated. Watson said he plans to continue doing projects such as these in the future. For every bad thing that somebody throws at us were going to try and throw back 10 good things, Watson said. The most important thing that any organization can do, law enforcement or whatever, is to be a part of making the community that you work in a better place. In the mid-to-late 1980s, the stocks of red drum in many states around the Southeast had been depleted to the point of near-collapse, thanks to years of indiscriminate netting and liberal recreational limits. Most states gave game fish status to red drum and made commercial harvest of them including with the use of nets, which is illegal. Although commercial harvest is still legal in North Carolina, recreational limits were lowered in all Southeastern states to conservative levels. For several years after the turn of the century, the stocks of red drum numbers rebounded nicely and anglers were able to enjoy a vibrant fishery of the popular, hard-fighting species in South Carolinas estuary waters and across the Southeast. All the while, there has been a movement of humans to most all coastal areas in the Southeast. Simply put, moving to the coast and living the beach lifestyle has become the in thing to do in the last few decades. With a burgeoning coastal population has come a sharp increase in the number of fishermen, and in turn more fishing pressure, especially on easily accessible estuary species such as red drum, along with spotted seatrout, flounder and black drum. Red drum, also known in South Carolina as spottails or redfish, are likely the most highly sought after fish that inhabits estuaries and near-shore waters in not only South Carolina, but throughout the Southeast. Despite the conservative measures to help stabilize and hopefully boost the populations of red drum, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) is looking into data that isnt very encouraging regarding the stock of the species in the Southeast. At the ASMFCs May meeting in Alexandria, Va., the council was presented with an stock assessment of red drum in the Northern (North Carolina and states further north) and Southern (South Carolina and those further south) stocks. The initial results from (the stock assessment) are basically that the stock is not in as good a shape as we had hoped, said Mel Bell of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Marine Resources Division. It could be that the stock is overfished and overfishing is occurring. The council will take another look at red drum stocks during its fall meeting in October. The council pushed (the red drum issue) back to the science folks and (told them), Get back to us at the next meeting in the fall, said Bell. If nothing else changes and (red drum are) overfished and overfishing is occurring, then something is going to have to change in the management plan. If the ASMFC eventually decides to implement new management measures a lower bag limit is among the possibilities all of the 15 states represented in the council, including South and North Carolina, would have to abide by the new changes, though few red drum are found north of Chesapeake Bay. What is bothersome to Bell is that the majority of red drum are released, as all states have a slot limit to abide by. In South Carolina, the slot limit is 15-23 inches with a daily bag limit of three fish per angler. Over 80 percent of the fish caught are released live and in the charter sector some years they are releasing 90 percent (of the fish caught in South Carolina waters), said Bell. Yet, S.C. DNR studies do not reflect a positive pattern in the agencys annual stock data for red drum. Our data indicates we really havent had a real strong year class since 2009, said Bell. Were seeing positive numbers of one-year-olds (10- to 12-inch fish) but theyre not making it to two-year-olds. Youd expect to start seeing some strong year classes but were not seeing the numbers wed like to see. That suggests were not seeing good recruitment into the fishery. That could be some environmental things but it could be from fishing pressure. Bell pointed out that approximately 478,000 people have some sort of saltwater fishing license for South Carolina waters. If everybody that had a license of some type that allows them to fish here, there would be that many people out there on the water, said Bell. That's a lot of people. Theres just a heckuva lot more fishermen now than there were 20-30 years ago. Samworth Boat Ramp Public access to the boat landing at Samworth Wildlife Management Area on the Pee Dee River between Conway and Georgetown is closed temporarily for construction of a new boat ramp. The state Department of Natural Resources Office of Engineering, which is overseeing the construction project, estimates that work on the new ramp will be completed by Aug. 1, weather permitting. For help locating an alternate landing, boaters can consult the list of boat ramps on the DNR website. Visit www.dnr.sc.gov and click on the Boat Ramps link on the left side of the page. While many visitors to South Carolina focus on its part in the Civil War, they might be surprised to realize that without the Palmetto States leading role in American independence, our nation might not have been formed at all. Not only was South Carolina home to the first major patriot victory on June 28, 1776, at the Battle of Sullivans Island, but South Carolina had more battles and skirmishes during the Revolutionary War -- some 254 engagements -- than any other state. From a tactical standpoint, all of those conflicts had a draining effect on the patriots foes, the British. They were forced to battle on two fronts -- the South and the North -- which extended supply lines and sapped strength. Between 1776 and 1778, the British sought to crush the revolution at its heart, which was in the northern colonies, Francis Marion University history professor Scott Kaufman explained. When that failed, the British turned to the South. There were more loyalists in the South, and the British hoped that they could gradually gain supporters as they marched through the southern colonies northward, and eventually crush the revolution that way. At first, it seemed to work. Savannah fell in 1779. The following March, the British laid siege to Charleston, which fell with an army of 5,500 troops in May. But the British unleashed a bloody campaign of plunder and retribution. Colonial leaders like Francis Marion in the northeast of the state, Andrew Pickens in the Savannah River valley and Thomas Sumter in the Midlands soon incubated modern guerilla warfare -- hence all of those battles and skirmishes. The so-called partisan war that raged in the backcountry -- really a brutal, savage guerilla war -- between South Carolinians on different sides has some current significance, noted historian Lacy Ford, who is dean of graduate studies at the University of South Carolina. South Carolina was once home to clannish, near tribal infighting, with leading backcountry families choosing sides, much like in Afghanistan and Iraq of the past 20 years. Kaufman pointed to Marions role in particular: He made it harder for the British to engage in their southern strategy during the Revolution. He also made it more difficult for the British to reinforce their positions elsewhere. If all of this wasnt enough, then came the Battle of Kings Mountain in October 1780, which historians of the period now recognize ... as one of the turning points of the Revolution, noted Jack Bass and Scott Poole in their history of the state. Patriot backwoodsmen threatened by the British routed a loyalist force of 1,100 in Cherokee County. That, in turn, diverted a large British force that was heading north to take on George Washingtons Continental Army. Three months later at the Battle of Cowpens, also in Cherokee County, the tide of the war turned as the British lost nearly 1,000 men and supplies. As Bass and Poole wrote, the loss forced the British commander, Lord Cornwallis, to pursue the patriot forces into the interior, a move that began the course of events that led 20 months later to the ruin of Cornwallis at Yorktown and the end of the war. Throughout 1781, aided by a new Continental army in the state led by Nathanael Greene, the fighting continued at Hobkirks Hill, Ninety Six and Eutaw Springs. By September 1782, British ships landed in still-occupied Charleston and started pulling out troops and 4,200 loyalists who wanted to leave the state. By December, occupiers finished withdrawing and after 30 months of bloody fighting and brutal occupation, South Carolinians were once again in control of their own affairs ... The war may have begun and ended in Charleston, but it was won in the forests and swamps of the back country, historian Walter Edgar wrote in The South Carolina Encyclopedia . So as you celebrate July 4 and see the states navy flag, realize its white palmetto tree is more than a pretty icon. Its a symbol of the spongy palmetto logs at a fort on Sullivans Island that helped to repulse British cannons just days before the drafting of the Declaration of Independence in what was the first of many South Carolina victories in the American Revolution. Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. Send email to feedback@statehousereport.com. NEW YORK - Five Republicans have emerged as the most likely to be announced at the Republican National Convention later this month as Donald Trump's running mate on the November ballot - and none of them are from Illinois, but one is from neighboring Indiana. The top five, the Washington Post says, are: #5. U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama; #4. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin; and #3 - Indiana Governor Mike Pence. The Indiana governor is headed to New York City this weekend to meet with Trump and is being formally vetted, according to NBC News. Pence is a bit of a late arrival to the veepstakes as his name has only emerged publicly this week. He does make a lot of sense for Trump, however. Pence is someone with strong ties to social conservatives, a voting bloc Trump continues to struggle to attract, and has spent time not only in Congress but also as a member of GOP leadership. Pence is also telegenic and a gifted communicator who hails from the part of the country the upper Midwest that Trump badly needs to make competitive. And the top two VP candidates this weekend appear to be: EUROPE Cyprus Expected Council Action In July, the Council is expected to renew the mandate of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for another six months, ahead of its expiry on 31 July. Elizabeth Spehar, the new Special Representative and head of the mission, will brief the Council on the latest UNFICYP report, which is due in early July. Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide is expected to brief on the progress in the negotiations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Key Recent Developments The current round of unification talks in Cyprus, which started officially on 15 May 2015, has continued steadily in 2016 despite some minor interruptions. When it last discussed the issue in January, the Council adopted resolution 2263, which extended UNFICYPs mandate and acknowledged the positive momentum and atmosphere in the unification talks in Cyprus. The talks have now entered a more intensive phase, during which Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci committed to increase the frequency of their meetings with the aim of reaching a solution this year. On 30 March, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced a change in the leadership of UNFICYP, appointing Elizabeth Spehar (Canada) to the post of Special Representative and the head of the mission. She formally assumed her duties on 13 June, succeeding Lisa Buttenheim, who had occupied the post since 2010. Marking the anniversary of the ongoing round of talks on 15 May, the two leaders issued a joint statement in which they expressed satisfaction with the progress made so far, while stressing their determination to work on resolving outstanding issues with an aim of reaching a comprehensive settlement agreement within 2016. During 23 and 24 May, Anastasiades attended the UN Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, but he cut his visit short on 23 May, following what he perceived to be a breach of diplomatic protocol when Akinci was invited to one of the receptions for the heads of state. As a result, Anastasiades announced that he would suspend the ongoing unification talks. In a phone conversation with Anastasiades on 27 May, Ban reiterated that the UN policy towards Cyprus remains unchanged. The Republic of Cyprus is a member of the UN, and the bi-communal dialogue on the Cyprus issue which takes place under UN auspices is, he said, based on relevant UN Security Council resolutions. Following the phone call, Anastasiades announced that he would resume negotiations with Akinci. In an effort to promote confidence-building measures, the Technical Committee on Education organised an event in a buffer zone on 2 June aimed at bringing together students and educators from both communities. Both Cypriot leaders attended the event and used the opportunity to meet informally. On 7 June, Eide met separately with Anastasiades and Akinci. In addressing the media following the meetings, Eide said that the leaders would work on creating a joint catalogue that would list issues where achievements have been made and those that require more work. According to Eide, this would enable both Cypriot leaders to have a more structured approach towards negotiations. Following the suspension of talks in May, the formal negotiations between the Cypriot leaders resumed on 8 June. During the meeting, both Anastasiades and Akinci agreed to increase the intensity of the negotiations and resolve outstanding issues in a more structured manner. The current intense phase of negotiations, during which the leaders agreed to hold two meetings per week, commenced on 17 June. Though no specific details about the talks have been made public, both Cypriot leaders have expressed their optimism regarding the possibility of reaching a solution. Both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have offered technical assistance to Cyprus and have been working on possible solutions to secure sustainable public finances and a unified economy in light of the prospects for the islands reunification. Key Issues In addition to the UNFICYP mandate renewal, the primary issue for the Council is how to help support the current momentum in negotiations and facilitate progress in the unification talks between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders. A looming issue for the Council is the possibility of reconfiguring and downsizing the mission. Options The most probable option for the Council is to renew UNFICYPs mandate in its current configuration for another six months. Another option for the Council would be to recognise the current positive trend in negotiations while adding a sense of urgency to the issue by insisting that the ongoing process cannot be open-ended, considering that UNFICYP has been present on the island for more than 50 years. If concrete progress is made in the negotiations, the Council could issue a statement welcoming the positive development. Council Dynamics Cyprus still remains an issue of low-intensity on the Councils agenda, followed closely by few Council membersmost notably France, Russia and the UK. Recently, it seems that the US has become more engaged in seeking a solution to the Cyprus question, as the island continues to gain strategic importance due to its potential hydrocarbon resources and its location vis a vis the ongoing fight against terrorism in the Middle East. Despite Council-wide support for the continued negotiations, some divergences persist regarding the timeframe and conditions related to the unification talks. Some Council members, in particular the UK, seem frustrated by the longevity of the process. These members seem to think it would be beneficial to impose some sort of pressure on both sides to stimulate the negotiations. Conversely, Russia strictly opposes any conditions or a timeframe for negotiation process imposed by external actors. This is also the Greek Cypriot position. Although the most recent UNFICYP renewal resolution received unanimous support from Council members, Russia and Egypt voiced their dissatisfaction with the inability of the penholder (the UK) to address their proposed changes to the draft. Given the current positive political environment surrounding the negotiations, it is likely that negotiations for the UNFICYP draft resolution will not be contentious. The prevailing view is that the Council should renew UNFICYPs mandate without raising any issues that could negatively affect the ongoing negotiations on the island. UN Documents The Council extended UNFICYPs mandate for six months. This was a vote on resolution 2263. This was a press statement welcoming the resumption of the settlement talks. MIDDLE EAST Iran Expected Council Action In July, the Secretary-General is due to submit a report to the Security Council on the implementation of resolution 2231 adopted on 20 July 2015, which endorsed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Irans nuclear programme. Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman is expected to brief on the report. A briefing by the Councils 2231 facilitator, Ambassador Roman Oyarzun (Spain), is also due. In a 16 January presidential note, the Council requested the Secretary-General to report every six months on the resolutions implementation and appointed one of its members to serve as a facilitator for the tasks relating to the resolution, including briefing the other members of the Council every six months, in parallel with the Secretary-Generals report. Key Recent Developments On 16 January, the IAEA confirmed that Iran had taken the actions required under the JCPOA for the termination of all previous Council resolutions and the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions, thus marking the arrival of the JCPOAs implementation day. That same day, the 1737 Iran Sanctions Committee and its Panel of Experts were terminated, and the provisions in annex B of resolution 2231 came into effect. The new provisions provide for close monitoring of any nuclear-related transfers or activities involving Iran, and continued restrictions relating to Irans ballistic missile programme and conventional arms transfers. Most transfers of nuclear-related technology, technical assistance, financial services or investments are subject to advance approval by the Council through the so-called procurement channel specified in the JCPOA. Requests for approval are to be considered by the procurement working group of the Joint Commission, the mechanism established by the JCPOA parties to monitor its implementation. Decisions are made by the Council based on the working groups recommendations. Annex B also includes a clause calling on Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches. Ballistic missile-related transfers or activities involving Iran are subject to advance approval by the Council. With regard to conventional arms, states are called on to prevent the transfer of arms from Iran except as decided otherwise by the Security Council in advance on a case-by-case basis, while all transfers of arms to Iran are subject to advance approval by the Council. In addition, some asset freeze and travel ban listings remain in place. The new list, referred to as the 2231 list, includes the individuals and entities that were under sanctions prior to the adoption of resolution 2231, with the exception of 36 individuals and entities delisted on implementation day, as specified in annex B. Also, on 17 January, the Council removed Bank Sepah from the 2231 list, which now contains 23 individuals and 61 entities. On 1 March, Oyarzun, in his capacity as facilitator, held an open briefing for member states to explain the changes that came into effect on 16 January. At the time of writing, it seems the Council had only received one proposal under the procedures established by resolution 2231, and this was later withdrawn. In a 26 February report, the IAEA, which in resolution 2231 was assigned the task of undertaking the necessary verification and monitoring of Irans nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA, said that Irans stockpile of heavy water had briefly exceeded the agreed limit of 130 metric tonnes but confirmed that Iran had otherwise complied with all its commitments. The IAEAs most recent report, issued on 27 May, confirmed Irans continued compliance with the JCPOA. On 8 and 9 March, Iran conducted several ballistic missile launches. Iran said that the launches did not violate either the JCPOA or resolution 2231 since the missiles were conventional defensive instruments. In response, Council members held consultations on 14 March at the request of the US and were briefed by Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman. On 29 March, France, Germany, the UK and the US submitted a joint letter to the Council stating that the launches were inconsistent with resolution 2231 and calling for additional Council discussions on the matter. Subsequently, Council members met at expert level on 1 April to hear a briefing by US missile experts. They asserted that the missile systems used by Iran were inherently capable of delivering nuclear weapons due to their range and payload capacity and that the launches were therefore inconsistent with resolution 2231. On 28 March, the US Navy announced that it had confiscated a shipment of weapons which it believed was being transported from Iran to Houthi rebels in Yemen, and that it was at least the third time in two months that such a shipment had been stopped. The US reported the interception to the Secretary-General and to the 2140 Yemen Sanctions Committee in early June. Also, there were reports that the commander of the Iranian Quds forces, Qassem Souleimaini, who is on the 2231 travel ban list, visited Moscow in April. In other developments, Irans oil exports in June were reportedly almost back to their pre-sanctions level of 2.5 million barrels per day, and Federica Mogherini, the EUs High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said that trade between the EU and Iran had increased by 22 percent during the first four months of the year. On 19 June, Iran announced that it had reached an agreement with the US company Boeing to buy 100 airplanes, subject to the approval of US authorities. Iranian officials have nevertheless complained that the US is not living up to its sanctions-relief commitments and must do more to encourage banks to do business with Iran. Human Rights-Related Developments The special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, and the special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, released a joint statement on 8 June in which they said the current wave of incitement of hatred against the Bahai community reflected in speeches made by Iranian officials had exposed the authorities extreme intolerance for adherents of the religious minority group. Since mid-May, 169 religious, judiciary and political leaders have allegedly openly spoken or written against the Bahai community, and there are currently at least 72 Bahais in prison solely because of their religious beliefs and practices, the statement said. The experts called on Irans government to end state-sanctioned discrimination against the group. Key Issues A key issue for the Council is what kind of reporting the Secretary-General and the facilitator should provide, in particular with regard to the non-nuclear related restrictions contained in resolution 2231. A related question is the legal and technical interpretation of these restrictions. A further issue is whether there is a need for additional guidance to member states in light of the absence of any submissions under the procedures established by resolution 2231. Council members seem unsure as to whether this is because member states are still not clear about the new measures, whether states are carrying out transfers and other activities without seeking the Councils consent, or whether it is mainly due to Irans not taking steps that are necessary to facilitate such exchanges. Options One option for the Council would be to issue a press statement following the briefing in July to clarify the restrictions on Irans ballistic missile activities and remind all member states of what is allowed and what is not allowed under resolution 2231. Council Dynamics As was clear from the discussions on Irans missile launches in March, Council members disagree on the interpretation of the relevant provisions in resolution 2231, in particular with regard to the legal implications of the term calls on Iran not to undertake as opposed to the unambiguous phrase decides that Iran shall not undertake, used in resolution 1929. Furthermore, resolution 1929 prohibited any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, but resolution 2231 instead refers to missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons. It seems that China and Russia argue that the restrictions on ballistic missiles are not legally binding obligations and that a missile must be explicitly designed to deliver a nuclear weapon to fall within the terms of the resolution. It seems that these differences are also reflected in Council members views on what they expect from the Secretary-Generals report, and how much focus there should be on Irans compliance with the non-nuclear related restrictions. UN Documents This resolution was on the JCPOA. This resolution imposed a fourth round of sanctions against Iran. This was a letter transmitting the IAEAs 27 May report. This was a letter transmitting the IAEAs 26 February report. This was the IAEA report confirming that Iran had taken the steps required under the JCPOA for sanctions to be lifted. This was a press statement announcing the removal of an entity from the 2231 List. This was a note by the Council president on the tasks related to the implementation of resolution 2231. MIDDLE EAST Iraq Expected Council Action In July, Special Representative Jan Kubis will brief the Council on the Secretary-Generals report on the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI). UNAMIs mandate, which expires on 31 July, is likely to be renewed for a year. Key Recent Developments When Kubis briefed the Council on 6 May, he reported on Iraqs deepening political crisis and challenges to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadis reform efforts; the financial crisis resulting from corruption, plunging oil prices and the high cost of fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL); and projected increased humanitarian needs in the context of counter-ISIL operations. On 23 May, the campaign to retake Fallujah from ISIL was launched by Iraqi forces with the Shia militia Hashd al-Shaabior the popular mobilisation forces (PMF)that are nominally under the command and control of the government. The PMF operated mostly on the perimeter of Fallujah. The campaign was also supported by local Sunni fighters and airstrikes from the US-led anti-ISIL coalition. This is a notable shift from past practice as the US-led coalition has not previously participated in offensives that included the PMF, in deference to the US position that Iraqs use of Shia militias in Sunni areas stokes sectarian tension and deepens the distrust of the Shia-led government among Sunni leaders. The PMF has been accused of abusing Sunni men and boys fleeing Fallujah during security screenings. Allegations include disappearances, torture to elicit forced confessions, and summary executions. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has said that while screening civilians is legitimate when done in strict accordance with international human rights and international humanitarian law, it should not be conducted by paramilitary groups. Abadi has said the government will establish an investigative committee to look into all alleged abuses. The Fallujah campaign has also resulted in a humanitarian situation verging on disaster. Some 82,000 civilians have fled the city during the month-long offensive, according to OCHA. While the government secured a corridor for civilians to flee Fallujah, they have been barred from entering Baghdad to seek shelter and services, and outside of the capital there are insufficient camps and resources to respond effectively to the needs of the surge in internally displaced persons (IDPs). On 17 June, Abadi announced the recapture of Fallujah, but this military advance is unlikely to translate into political stability in light of continuing violence against Sunnis, disastrous conditions for IDPs, and insufficient re-stablisation of areas liberated from ISIL. UN officials have repeatedly flagged the concern about lagging re-stabilisation. UNAMI has said that for military advances against ISIS to hold, the government, in cooperation with the UN, would have to work quickly to restore the rule of law and basic services. This is particularly important in relation to the Sunni provinces, which have a strained relationship with the Shia-led government in Baghdad. On 21 June, Kubis briefed Council members under any other business via video-teleconference from Baghdad on the situation in and around Fallujah, particularly on the human rights situation and humanitarian needs. On 22 June, the US announced it would host a humanitarian pledging conference for Iraq on 20 July. The governments campaign to retake Fallujah was driven by Abadis need to consolidate his leadership by securing a significant victory prior to the resumption of parliament in July. Abadis attempt in April to put forward a reform cabinet of technocrats to counter corruption and curtail the power of political actors opposed to reform efforts continues to be stalled in parliament. The Fallujah victory seems unlikely to fundamentally shift that dynamic. On 7 June, however, Abadi fired the intelligence director and the heads of six state-owned banks, all of whom had been appointed by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki, who belongs to the same Shia Dawa party as Abadi. Malaki continues to pose a significant obstacle to Abadis reform efforts. Later this year, the government is expected to launch a campaign aimed at retaking Mosul. The PMF has insisted it will play a role in that offensive, despite objections from the US-led coalition and Iraqi government forces. Meanwhile, Sunni fighters have signalled their unwillingness to participate in the Mosul offensive alongside the government if Shia militias are involved, especially after the reports of abuses resulting from the militias participation in the Fallujah operation. UN officials anticipate that the humanitarian consequences of a campaign to dislodge ISIL from Mosul, which has a population of 2 million, could be significantly worse than the result of the Fallujah exodus. The UN Refugee Agency reported in late May that 4,200 Iraqis fled from Mosul to Syria amid reports that ISIL had increased executions of men and boys in Fallujah as the government fought to retake the city. In other developments, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Miroslav Jenca briefed Council members in consultations on 23 June under any other business on cross-border issues involving Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. The Turkish presence in the Bashiqa region near Mosul, which Turkey maintains to counter the activities of ISIL and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, was raised. It seems ongoing Turkish airstrikes against PKK targets in northern Iraq was not discussed. Human Rights-Related Developments A report on a May visit to Iraq by the Human Rights Councils special rapporteur on the human rights of IDPs concluded that intensified efforts by the Iraqi government are required to meet the humanitarian needs and protect the human rights of many of the millions of IDPs; that Iraq has neither a legal framework for addressing the rights and needs of those persons nor a comprehensive policy in line with international standards that is implemented in practice; and that its resources are diminishing, reducing its capacity to respond effectively to the displacement crisis (A/HRC/32/35/Add.1). The Commission of Inquiry on Syria released a report on 16 June that found that ISIL had committed, and continues to commit, the crime of genocide against the Yazidis. The Commission recommended that the Security Council refer the situation to justice, such as the ICC or an ad-hoc tribunal, and invite formal briefings by the Commission to the Security Council, including a further update on ISILs crimes against the Yazidis (A/HRC/32/CRP.2). Canada has sent two letters to the Security Council, asking it to establish a mechanism to investigate reports of violations of international law by ISIL in Iraq and Syria, determine whether these violations constitute acts of genocide or other serious international crimes and identify the perpetrators of such violations and take measures to ensure accountability, including a referral to the ICC (S/2016/499 and S/2016/545). Key Issues The key issue for the Council is promoting a genuinely inclusive government that is accountable to the Iraqi people. A related issue is determining how the Council and UNAMI can support Prime Minister Abadis reform process and encourage greater cooperation on financial, security and humanitarian issues between Abadis dominant Shia Dawa party and Kurdish and Sunni parliamentarians, and thereby build confidence in the central government and fortify Iraqs response to ISIL. Another issue is how to address the impact of the anti-ISIL military campaigns on the human rights, humanitarian and security situations in Iraq. Options Options seem limited since the security response to ISIL is happening outside the Councils purview. However, an option is to include in the resolution renewing UNAMI a call for the government to work towards enhanced security and humanitarian coordination with Kurdish and Sunni leaders, and for UNAMI to support the government in that effort. In the resolution, the Council could also condemn human rights violations by ISIL and by Iraqi security forces, including the PMF. The resolution could also call on the government to enhance its cooperation with UNAMI in areas that may require prioritisation in the mandate renewal, such as human rights, humanitarian response, rule of law, security sector reform, stabilisation activities in areas liberated from ISIL and best practices for child protection and gender policies. Options for the Council to address the pressing issue of accountability would be to refer the situation to the ICC or express support for the High Commissioners call from June 2015 for the Iraqi government to accede to the Rome Statute and, as an immediate step, to accept the ICCs jurisdiction with respect to the current situation. A narrower accountability option for the Council would be to consider Canadas request for the Council to establish a mechanism to investigate reports of ISILs violations of international law. Council Dynamics Council members support UNAMI and some subscribe to the view held by the US and Iraq, as well as by Kubis, that the missions mandate is sufficiently broad and flexible to fulfil its good offices role. Other Council members believe that UNAMI would benefit from a resolution that updates and prioritises its tasks since the mandate has not changed since resolution 1770 was adopted in 2007. Spain and the UK, as co-chairs of the 2242 Informal Expert Group on Women, Peace and Security, would like to see some of the gender priorities identified during the Groups 29 April meeting on Iraq incorporated into the mandate renewal, especially in relation to sexual violence in conflict. The Informal Expert Group on Protection of Civilians is also keen to strengthen language in the mandate regarding the issue of human rights violations in the context of IDP detention. Others believe that opening up the mandate to changes will give Russia a window to highlight the Turkish presence in Iraq, an issue the P3 would prefer not to address directly in an Iraq-related resolution. Regarding accountability, it seems there has been some limited P3 discussion of Canadas request, but with a very low appetite for an ICC referral that would include Iraq in any way. On the issue of accountability focused solely on ISIL violations, some Council members feel that such a selective approach would set a highly problematic precedent. The US is the penholder on Iraq issues in general, and the UK is the penholder on Iraq-Kuwait issues. UN DOCUMENTS ON IRAQ This resolution renewed UNAMI for a year. This was a briefing on the Secretary-Generals reports on UNAMI and on Iraq/Kuwait missing persons and property. This was the Secretary-Generals report on UNAMI. Israel/Palestine Expected Council Action In July, the Council will hold its quarterly open debate on the Middle East with a focus on the situation in Israel/Palestine and the absence of a path toward a political solution. An outcome is unlikely. Key Recent Developments On 3 June, France hosted senior diplomats from 29 countries, including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State John Kerry and representatives from the Arab League, the EU and key Arab states, at a one-day summit in Paris, to reaffirm their support for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to organise an international conference later this year with the parties present. Following the meeting, the participants issued a communique in which they reiterated that a negotiated two-state solution is the only way to achieve peace and expressed alarm that actions on the ground, including violence and ongoing settlement activity, are imperilling prospects for such a solution. Participants stressed that both sides must demonstrate a genuine commitment to the two-state solution and resolve all permanent-status issues through direct negotiations based on resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973). The communique also recalled relevant Security Council resolutions and highlighted the importance of implementing the Arab Peace Initiative, a proposal for an end to the ArabIsraeli conflict that was endorsed by the Arab League at the Beirut Summit in 2002. Participants discussed ways in which the international community could advance prospects for peace, including by providing meaningful incentives. They also highlighted the potential for regional peace and security as envisioned by the Arab Peace Initiative. Finally, the participants highlighted the key role of the Quartet, comprised of the UN, US, EU and Russia, and of regional stakeholders and welcomed Frances offer to coordinate an international conference before the end of the year. That day, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement describing the event as a missed opportunity and said that the international community was allowing the Palestinians to continue to evade direct bilateral negotiations. On 30 May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had expressed interest in resuming the peace process in the Middle East and proposed to make amendments to the Arab Peace Initiative. On 13 June, he told Likud ministers that the positive part of that initiative was the willingness of the Arab nations to achieve peace and normalisation with Israel. Its negative elements, he said, included the demands that Israel retreat to the 1967 borders, leave the Golan Heights and permit the return of Palestinian refugees. In a 4 June statement, Arab League head Nabil Al-Arabi rejected making any amendments to the initiative. Concerning the Paris meeting, Al-Arabi said on 6 June that Kerry was definitely not enthusiastic, and that he prevented the summit from issuing a communique with stronger recommendations outlining a timeframe for conducting any future peace talks and specifying the UN resolutions such talks would be based on. The summit was intended to follow the publication of a Middle East Quartet report that would review the situation on the ground, identify dangers to a two-state solution and provide recommendations on the way forward, however, at press time it had not yet been released. Early reports indicated that US might take a stronger stance on settlements in the report. Media reports have suggested that Israel has been lobbying the US to soften the tone of the Quartet report and prevent it from mentioning future possible steps by the Security Council. On 8 June, two Palestinians from the town of Yatta in the occupied West Bank opened fire on patrons at a Tel Aviv food and retail centre. Hamas praised what it referred to as a heroic attack but did not claim responsibility. In a press briefing on 10 June, a spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the attack, which killed four Israelis, and expressed concern at the response of the Israeli authorities, which includes measures that may amount to prohibited collective punishment and will only increase the sense of injustice and frustration felt by Palestinians in this very tense time. The response, according to the spokesperson, included cancelling all of the 83,000 permits granted to West Bank and Gaza residents to travel during Ramadan, suspending 204 work permits of individuals in the alleged attackers extended families and sealing off the entire town of Yatta by Israeli security forces. Israeli forces on 21 June opened fire on a car in the occupied West Bank, killing one Palestinian teenager and wounding four others, according to Palestinian officials. An initial probe by the Israeli Defense Forces found that the teenager was killed by mistake. The teenagers appeared to be innocent bystanders hit when the military tried to stop Palestinians who were throwing stones and firebombs. US National Security Adviser Susan Rice promised on 13 June that the new military aid agreement that is currently being negotiated between the US and Israel would constitute the single largest military assistance package with any country in American history. The new decade-long aid package, which is expected to provide Israel between $37.5 and $40 billion over the life of the pact, will be used to update Israels aircraft fleet and strengthen missile defences. On 27 June, Israel and Turkey struck a deal to restore diplomatic relations, ending a six-year rift over the Israels killing of ten Turkish activists on a Gaza-bound flotilla. According to the deal, Israel will pay $20 million in compensation and will allow Turkey to send aid to, and carry out infrastructure projects in, Gaza. Concerning the ICCs inquiry into possible war crimes in the 2014 Gaza conflict, Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a 2 June interview that Israel is holding talks with the court and information is being exchanged. Until this point, Israel has publicly declined to cooperate with the ICC on investigations related to its conflict with the Palestinians, arguing that the Palestinian Authority is not a sovereign state and has no right to formal relations with the international court. On 14 June, Israel won a General Assembly election to chair the UNs Sixth Committee, which oversees issues related to international law, marking the first time that the country will head one of the UNs six permanent committees. Committee heads are normally elected by consensus, but opponents of Israels candidacy called for a vote. Israel received 109 out of 175 valid votes cast in the 193-nation General Assembly. Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman agreed on 25 May to bring his far right Yisrael Beitenu party into Israels governing coalition. As part of the deal, Netanyahu named Lieberman the countrys defence minister, replacing Moshe Yaalon, a member of Netanyahus Likud party. Yaalon resigned from his post and from parliament in protest of Liebermans appointment days before it was made official. Yaalon, who warned that Israel was being taken over by dangerous and extreme elements, on 16 June announced his intention to run against Netanyahu in the next election. On 6 May, Council member Egypt, along with Angola, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela, organised an Arria-formula meeting on the protection of the Palestinian civilian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The meeting was open to all member states. Key Issues The overarching issue is determining what role the Council ought to play in encouraging the resumption of direct negotiations between the parties to achieve a two-state solution. A related issue is how to urge the parties to cease actions that hinder the resumption of negotiations, such as settlement-building, acts of violence and other provocative acts, and to agree to new bilateral talks. Options One option for the Council is to adopt a resolution outlining parameters and a timeline for a final status agreement. Another option would be to take a piecemeal approach and pursue an outcome on areas where agreement may be more likely among Council members, such as on settlements. Council and Wider Dynamics With US-led talks having failed over two years ago, P5 member France has pursued the organisation of an international conference aimed at restarting negotiations between the parties. Council member Egypt has also voiced its willingness to act as a broker between the parties. Egypt accepts Frances approach of involving international participation, which the Palestinian Authority favours, but Israel would prefer direct negotiations with the Palestinians, with Egypts role being to act as a broker between Israel and other Arab states. Several other members, including Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and Venezuela, have shown an interest in using the tools available to the Council to address various aspects of the conflict. It is generally accepted, however, that the fate of any Council outcome on Israel/Palestine lies ultimately with the US. Earlier this year, reports suggested that US President Barack Obama was exploring options for addressing the conflict, including possibly through the Council, before the end of his second term, but there has been no indication so far that the US will allow a Council outcome at this time. UN Documents This was the regular monthly meeting on the Middle East. MIDDLE EAST Lebanon Expected Council Action In July, Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag and a representative of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations will brief Council members in consultations on the Secretary-Generals report on the implementation of resolution 1701, which called for a cessation of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006. Key Recent Developments There have been no major incursions in the area of operations of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in recent months; however, the threat of confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah remains. Speaking ahead of the tenth anniversary of the outbreak of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous told reporters in New York on 5 June that with Hezbollah preoccupied by fighting on behalf of the Assad regime in Syria, there is unlikely to be conflict with Israel in the foreseeable future, adding that he believes the presence of UNIFIL serves as a deterrent for both Israel and Hezbollah. Israels Army Radio reported on 14 June that Israeli officials said the defence establishment similarly does not expect Hezbollah to initiate a new round of fighting, but they cautioned that any individual incident could escalate into open war. On 28 May, the pro-Hezbollah daily newspaper as-Safir reported that Hezbollah was preparing for its next conflict with Israel by digging terror-attack tunnels, tracking IDF movement and positioning its large arsenal of rockets along the northern border with Israel. According to the article, the tunnels include an electricity network and enough food to feed combatants for weeks. On 12 June, a bomb exploded outside Blom Bank, one of the countrys largest banks, located in a commercial area of Beirut. Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq announced shortly after the blast that the explosion had caused no casualties, though two people were later reported injured. Blom Bank has been criticised by some pro-Hezbollah politicians for taking a hard-line position concerning a US law that imposes sanctions for doing business with the militant group. Authorities say dozens of bank accounts connected to Hezbollah have been closed in recent weeks. On 13 May, Hezbollah announced the death of Mustafa Badreddine, its most senior military commander in Syrias war, who was reportedly killed in an explosion in Damascus. Hezbollahs Al-Mayadeen network initially reported that Badreddine was killed by an Israeli Air Force attack near Damascus airport. Later reports, however, did not mention Israeli involvement. For years, Badreddine masterminded military operations against Israel and he was more recently in charge of Hezbollahs operations in Syria. Badreddine was being prosecuted in absentia by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) for his alleged involvement in organising and carrying out the massive bomb blast in downtown Beirut in 2005 that killed Lebanons former prime minister, Rafik Hariri. The prosecution was not able to obtain Badreddines official death certificate from Lebanese authorities and did not have information as to when one might be issued. Prosecutors presented circumstantial evidence of his death to the three-judge trial chamber, which decided that Badreddine would continue to stand trial, pending the STLs receipt of further information from the government of Lebanon. However, on 22 June the court suspended the proceedings, pending a final decision on whether to terminate the case. The UNs Fifth Committee adopted a resolution on 19 May on UNIFILs budget. The resolution reiterated the request that Israel compensate the UN for the destruction of a UN compound in an 18 April 1996, attack in Qana, Lebanon. The compound, which was sheltering local residents, was shelled by Israeli forces, killing 106 people and wounding more than 100. The resolution called on Israel to pay $1,117,005 in compensation. A UN report issued in January said the UN Secretariat has transmitted 21 letters to the Permanent Mission of Israel on the subject, the most recent of which was dated 12 January 2016, to which no response has been received. On 24 May, which marked two years of a vacancy in the Lebanese presidency, members of the Council issued a press statement that underscored their deepest concern over the vacancy and expressed their intention to continue following related developments with a particular sense of urgency. Key Issues A central issue is that Hezbollah and other non-state actors continue to maintain weaponry that directly hinders the governments exercise of full authority over its territory, poses a threat to Lebanons sovereignty and stability, and contravenes its obligations under resolutions 1559 and 1701. Another issue is the inability of Lebanon to elect a president, which has paralysed the countrys parliament and threatens Lebanons stability because of its potential to aggravate sectarian tensions within the country. Options Considering that Council members issued a comprehensive press statement in March outlining the main issues on which they stand united in their support of Lebanon, and a press statement in May on the vacancy in the presidency, the most likely option is to merely receive the briefing and take no other action at this time. Council Dynamics The Council has been united in its position that UNIFIL contributes to stability between Israel and Lebanon, especially considering the current Syrian crisis. Council consensus includes support for Lebanons territorial integrity and security, condemnation of acts of terrorism on Lebanese territory and recognition of the crucial role of the Lebanese Armed Forces in responding to security challenges. France is the penholder on Lebanon. UN Documents on Lebanon This was a resolution extending the mandate of UNIFIL for one year. This resolution urged withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanon, disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias, extension of the Lebanese governments control over all Lebanese territory and free and fair presidential elections. This was a press statement that underscored their deepest concern over the vacancy and expressed their intention to continue following related developments with a particular sense of urgency. PEACEMAKING, PEACEKEEPING AND PEACEBUILDING Peacebuilding Expected Council Action In July, Japan, as Council president, is organising a ministerial-level open debate, presided over by Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, on peacebuilding in Africa with a focus on institution-building. A presidential statement may be adopted. Key Recent Developments On 27 April, the Council and General Assembly adopted substantively identical resolutions to conclude the review of the UN peacebuilding architecture (S/RES/2282 and A/RES/70/262). The resolutions were the most comprehensive ever adopted on peacebuilding at the UN, expanding the understanding of peacebuilding from being perceived as a post-conflict activity to a process occurring before, during and after conflict. This broader understanding was embodied in a definition in the resolutions of sustaining peace, described as activities aimed at preventing the outbreak, escalation, continuation and recurrence of conflict which should flow through all three pillars of the UNs engagement at all stages of conflict. The resolutions recognised peacebuilding as a responsibility of the entire UN system and placed new emphasis on conflict prevention. The resolutions further reaffirmed the Peacebuilding Commissions (PBC) mandate: to sustain international attention on conflict-affected countries; to promote a strategic and coherent approach to peacebuilding; to serve an advisory bridging role among the principal UN organs and entities; and to provide a forum for convening all relevant actors. The Council expressed its intention to regularly request and draw upon the PBCs specific, strategic and targeted advice in the formation, review and drawdown of peacekeeping operations and special political missions. Moreover, the resolutions encouraged the PBC to diversify its working methods in support of sustaining peace, which is expected to enable it to take on a role in conflict prevention and to consider more diverse country and regional issues. On the financing gap for peacebuilding activitieshighlighted by the Advisory Group of Experts, which prepared an initial report for the reviewthe General Assembly resolution included a decision, which the Council version took note of, to invite the Secretary-General to provide a report during its 72nd session that should contain options for funding peacebuilding through assessed and voluntary contributions. On 22 June, former PBC Chair Ambassador Olof Skoog (Sweden) briefed the Council on the PBCs annual report. Current PBC chair Ambassador Macharia Kamau (Kenya) also briefed, highlighting plans to build on key areas of the PBCs work from 2015, including the PBCs increased regional focus, and to implement the new resolutions. Ahead of the meeting, the Council revised the title of the agenda item under which it considers peacebuilding from post-conflict peacebuilding to peacebuilding and sustaining peace. An informal interactive dialogue with PBC country-configuration chairs and representatives of its agenda countries followed. Developments in the PBC Kamau undertook a mission to Guinea, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone from 8 to 17 June to promote Ebola recovery and PBC cooperation with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Previously, on 6 April, the PBC Organizational Committee discussed the subregional dimensions of peacebuilding in West Africa. Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support Oscar Fernandez-Taranco and representatives from the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the UN Development Programme briefed. Fernandez-Taranco highlighted his 9 to 18 March visit to Mali, Senegal, Cote dIvoire and Burkina Faso to follow up on support provided by the Peacebuilding Fund and explore opportunities to address transnational and cross-border peacebuilding challenges. Within the country-specific configurations, the Burundi configuration met on 20 June with Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic. The Central African Republic (CAR) configuration has focused on engaging the new government, which was elected earlier this year and concluded CARs political transition. The Guinea country-configuration last met on 2 May to discuss justice sector reforms, with Guineas justice minister participating via video teleconference. The country configuration for Guinea-Bissau remained engaged in the countrys political crisis. On 16 May, it issued a statement highlighting the pressing need to mobilise resources for the ECOWAS Mission in Guinea-Bissau, and on 9 June, it adopted a statement supporting the outcomes of a recent ECOWAS summit on the crisis. The Liberia configuration has focused on preparing for the drawdown of the UN Mission in Liberia to ensure a smooth transfer of responsibilities to the government and UN country team. A peacebuilding assessment mission travelled to Sierra Leone from 29 February to 8 March. Its report, which is being finalised, is expected to recommend continued engagement by the Sierra Leone configuration through the 2018 elections. The PBC held its third annual session on 23 June. It focused on transitions and how the PBC can enhance its advice to the Council and General Assembly during transitions from country teams to peacekeeping or special political missions; between types of peace operations; and from peace operations to country teams. Key Issues For the debate, member states will consider the challenges related to peacebuilding in Africa and identify lessons learned and best practices from African countries that have achieved peace, stability and strong economic growth. They will further consider how the international community can make its support for peacebuilding in Africa more effective and efficient. In this context, there will be a focus on institution-building, which can lay the foundations for conflict prevention as weak institutions are less capable of managing tensions in societies or can be sources of conflict. Options The Council may adopt a presidential statement, which, inter alia, could: recall resolution 2282 and the importance of recognising that peacebuilding and sustaining peace are responsibilities of the entire UN system that involve activities to prevent the outbreak, relapse or continuation of conflict; welcome the PBCs efforts to consider the regional dimensions of peacebuilding and sustaining peace in Africa and to enhance partnerships with African regional and sub-regional organisations; and recall the Secretary-Generals reports on peacebuilding in the aftermath of conflict, identifying institution-building as a core peacebuilding activity, and highlight the importance of strengthening, for example, electoral institutions and civic freedoms of press and expression; security sector and rule-of-law institutions; public administrations; and systems for dialogue and reconciliation. Council and Wider Dynamics The recently adopted resolutions on peacebuilding have been hailed as an opportunity to change the UNs approach to addressing international peace and security issues. During a 23 February Council open debate, member states expressed strong support for broadening the understanding of peacebuilding and the concept of sustaining peace, with its emphasis on conflict prevention. The new resolutions notwithstanding, it remains to be seen how the UN system and member states will apply the resolutions ideas. This includes whether the Council will seek and be able to derive more benefit from the PBC. The P5 have often perceived the PBC as seeking to intervene on the peace and security prerogatives of the Council and have been sceptical about the added value it has provided so far to the Councils work. The upcoming Council debate reflects Japans interest in peacebuilding, which it highlighted during its last Council presidency in April 2010. From 2011 to 2015, Japan was chair of the PBC Working Group on Lessons Learned. Organising a high-level debate on peacebuilding in Africa is further expected to contribute to the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) being held in August. The TICAD, held every three years, will for the first time take place outside Japan, in Nairobi. Egypt has assumed from Malaysia the role of convener of the Council-PBC stock-taking sessions, which are organised periodically to review relations between the two bodies. UN Documents on Peacebuilding This was a resolution adopted concurrently with a General Assembly resolution on the review of the UN peacebuilding architecture. This contained the report of the Advisory Group of Experts on the UN Peacebuilding Architecture review. This was a briefing on the PBC annual report. This was an open debate on the 2015 review of the UN peacebuilding architecture. WASHINGTON DC - Two weeks ago, G. Star Swain and her family visited D.C. and took a special trip to the Lincoln Memorial. In a day of viral videos and friends with smart phones, what happened next opened the way for the interim principal at Jefferson County Middle-High School to appear on major network morning shows this week. Tallahassee Florida's Family Worship & Praise Center Church Pastor Quincy Griffin says Swain lifts spirits every Sunday as the praise and worship leader at his church. "You will feel and know that you've been healed. You can tell that you have a sense of peace. People that come in depressed, people that come in sad, they leave free from whatever issues they were dealing with before, once they've heard her sing." A beautiful voice once echoed in the same location in 1939 - a very different time and a very different America. See HERE. An especially delightful interview with G. Star Swain is HERE. Share with us a #ProudAmerican this weekend - info@illinoisreview.com THE SECURITY COUNCIL Security Council Working Methods The adoption of a Note by the President of the Security Council on working methods on 19 July 2006 was the Councils first significant move to collect in one document the bodys accepted practices and make this document publicly available (S/2006/507). The effortspearheaded by Japan, which served on the Council in 2005-2006came in the wake of the 2005 World Summit, in the final document of which world leaders recommended that the Security Council continue to adapt its working methods so as to increase the involvement of States not members of the Council in its work, as appropriate, enhance its accountability to the membership and increase the transparency of its work. On 19 July, as one of the highlights of its presidency of the Council and to mark the tenth anniversary of the culmination of its first working methods initiative, Japan is organising an open debate on working methods. The 2005 World Summits seemingly innocuous recommendation to the Council was in fact highly charged politically. It was a manifestation of the growing impatience and frustration on the part of most UN members with the Security Councils opacity and the lack of clear rules about how it should function. In the period since the end of the Cold War, the Council had increasingly called upon the wider membership to implement its decisionsfor example, those related to sanctions or peacekeeping operationsbut had lagged behind in making those members privy to information about its thinking and decision-making processes. Embarking on a project that led to the elaboration of the more than 5,000-word presidential Notea document that in UN parlance became known as Note 507was the Security Councils somewhat reluctant response to this external pressure. In 2016, Japan is chairing for the third time the Councils Informal Working Group on Documentation and other Procedural Questions, the principal venue in which Council members have discussed working methods. By holding the open debate during its July presidency, Japan hopes to prompt member states to look at the implementation of the Councils previous agreed working methods, recognise useful and productive practices and identify gaps and shortcomings. Through the open debate, Japan hopes to obtain suggestions and recommendations for the process of updating Note 507. The Councils working methods have been evolving constantly, with changes necessitated by the fluctuating nature of the global peace and security environment, the evolving dynamics on the Council or the use of new technologies. When Japan chaired the Informal Working Group for the second time, in 2009-2010, it undertook the task of updating the original Note. The new document included areas not mentioned in 2006, such as the relationship with the Peacebuilding Commission and Security Council visiting missions. It also solidified some then-recent new practices in the relationship of the Security Council with troop- and police-contributing countries and highlighted areas of faulty implementation of previously agreed-to working methods understandings. Over the years, however, working methods continued to be a sensitive area, with the permanent members insisting on the Councils being the master of its own rules and resisting public discussion of the matter or yielding to ideas from outside. In this context, holding an open debate on working methods, which has been an annual event since 2010, was at one time extremely controversial. One such debate was held in 1994, but when an open debate was suggested in 2007, several of the permanent members opposed the initiative. In December 2007, Slovakia, Japans first successor as chair of the Informal Working Group, held an Arria-formula meeting on Enhancing and widening interaction and dialogue between the Security Council and other United Nations Member States, as part of the implementation of the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document. Later, on its last day on the Council, Slovakia sent a letter to the president of the Security Council summarising the Arria-formula meeting (S/2007/784). Working together, several elected members succeeded in organising the first open debate on working methods in more than a decade in August 2008, during the presidency of Belgium. The next such debate was held during Japans presidency in April 2010. During that meeting, several member states advocated holding such an open debate annually, and indeed from that point on the Council has discussed its working methods with the participation of the wider UN membership every year. These annual meetings have provided an opportunity for sometimes very robust critiques of the Council by member states not on the Council (and indeed the anticipation of criticism had been among the reasons several permanent members were initially unenthusiastic about holding these public discussions). Over the years, members came to appreciate the usefulness of frank discussions, and some recommendations initially made during these debates were acted upon. Among the recurring themes regularly raised in open debates during the past several years has been the process and the timing of appointing the chairs of Council subsidiary bodies. Elected Council members usually chair these bodies, but the appointments have always been done through a decision by permanent members with little or no consultation with individuals and missions concerned. A related matter, also frequently brought up in debates and other discussions, is the issue of penholders, i.e. member states considered as the lead on particular situations. Until approximately 2010, elected and permanent members alike took the lead on a country-specific Council agenda item, and the burden of producing drafts and chairing negotiations was shared among most of the 15 members. More recently, a system has emerged whereby the P3 (France, the UK and the US) have divided among themselves nearly all situations on the agenda into more or less permanent leadership arrangements. This system, while perhaps efficient in some respects, has been criticised as depriving the elected members of an opportunity to take initiative, reducing their input into the decision-making process and increasingly deepening the chasm between the permanent and elected Council members, thus negatively affecting overall Council dynamics. An additional sore point has been the fact that the chairs of the sanctions committees spend most of their time on the Council dealing with the country situations to which these sanctions apply, acquiring considerable country-specific expertise, but short of being sought to participate in the resolution-drafting processes (including on sanctions as such), in some cases they are not even consulted by the penholder. Both the selection of subsidiary bodies chairs and the issue of penholders featured prominently in the two most recent public debates on the topic of working methods: the October 2015 open debate on working methods organised by Spain and the February 2016 debate relating to sanctions organised by Venezuela. Both issues were addressed in the non-paper summarising the open debate prepared by Spain (S/2016/35). A Note by the president of the Security Council, issued following the February debate on sanctions, addressed various aspects of the selection and the work of the subsidiary bodies chairs (S/2016/170). While no outcome is expected in July, the debate will likely feed into the process of revising, consolidating and updating the Councils comprehensive document on its working methods, the task Japan is planning to undertake during the remainder of its chairmanship of the Informal Working Group. AFRICA Somalia Expected Council Action In July, the Council is expected to adopt a resolution reauthorising the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). The Council also expects to receive a briefing by the Chair of the 751/1907 Somalia-Eritrea Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Rafael Dario Ramirez Carreno (Venezuela). Key Recent Developments On 27 May, the Council adopted resolution 2289, which authorised a short technical rollover of AMISOM until 8 July. This rollover has allowed Council members time to assess the results of their 17-22 May Somalia-focused visiting mission to the Horn of Africa and the possible implications for the AMISOM mandate. On 27 June, Council members met for an informal interactive dialogue on AMISOM. Special Representative of the AU Commission Chairperson for Somalia (SRCC), Ambassador Francisco Madeira, Special Representative of the Secretary-General Michael Keating and Under-Secretary-General for Field Support Atul Khare briefed, and Council members had the opportunity to comment and ask questions. The meeting provided an opportunity for the SRCC to brief the Council on the review of AMISOMs Concept of Operations, which took place in Addis Ababa a week prior, and the AU Military Operations Coordination Committee, which met 22-23 June in Kampala. The meeting also provided another opportunity for the Council to have a direct dialogue with the AU on security issues ahead of the mandate renewal. The security situation in Somalia remains of serious concern, with Al-Shabaab continuing asymmetric and conventional attacks. On 1 June, militants detonated a car bomb at the gates of a popular hotel in Mogadishu, and gunmen then stormed the hotel, leaving at least 16 people dead, including two Somali members of parliament. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack. On 25 June, a suicide bomber detonated a vehicle loaded with explosives at a Mogadishu hotel, and gunmen stormed the building. Fifteen people, including one government minister, were killed in the hours-long attack. On 10 June, the group said that it had executed four people it accused of espionage, including one who was beheaded for allegedly giving information to the US that led to the killing of an Al-Shabaabs leader. On 5 June, gunmen suspected of belonging to Al-Shabaab shot and killed a female journalist working for a state-run radio station, Radio Mogadishu. Late last year, a female reporter who also worked for Radio Mogadishu was killed in a car blast, and the two men convicted of the killing were executed in April. On 23 June, Uganda, which provides AMISOMs largest military contingent, announced that it plans to withdraw its troops from the mission by December 2017. On 6 June, five AMISOM soldiers and ten Somalis were arrested for selling military equipment after being found with improvised detonators, fuel, sandbags and empty ammunition boxes, police said. AMISOM confirmed the arrests, saying it would not accept unprofessional conduct among its personnel. Somalia appears to be on track to hold elections in August as outlined by its electoral timetable. On 23 May, Council members issued a press statement that welcomed the electoral process set out in President Hassan Sheikh Mohamuds decree of 22 May, noting that this should enable the necessary technical preparation and implementation without further delay. President Mohamud paid a three-day visit to Kenya from 6 to 8 June to meet with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. They discussed the situation of refugees following the Kenyan governments May announcement that it would close its refugee camps. President Mohamud visited Dadaab Refugee Camp, which hosts more than 300,000 refugees, and addressed its inhabitants, assuring them that the government of Somalia is committed to receiving them back home to participate in state-building, peacebuilding and national reconciliation. He said that their repatriation would be orderly, humane and dignified as per the 2013 Tripartite Agreement between the UN refugee agency and the governments of Kenya and Somalia. President Mohamud expressed gratitude for the generosity and hospitality of Kenyans for hosting his people for the past quarter-century. During the visit, the two leaders issued a communique that called on the international community to support the repatriation process by providing adequate backing to Somalia to receive the returnees. Human Rights-Related Developments During its 32nd session in June, the Human Rights Council considered the report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review on Somalia. The report contains 227 recommendations, including one calling for core human rights instruments to be ratified and implemented. The review recommended that the implementation of the National Human Rights Roadmap and related Action Plan should be speeded up, that the Action Plan on ending the recruitment and use of children signed in 2012 should be fully implemented, and that senior political and military officials should be investigated and prosecuted for violations of international human rights law. Key Issues A key issue surrounding the re-authorisation of AMISOM is the need to prioritise the mandate to improve its implementation. In this regard, the importance of enhancing command and control and improving coordination within AMISOM remain issues of high importance, as does assessing how AMISOMs Concept of Operations could be refined to enable the mission to better respond to the threat posed by Al-Shabaab. Addressing the financial challenges facing AMISOM is a longstanding issue. On the sanctions front, a main challenge, according to the Secretary-Generals 9 May report, is that increased interest in Somalias rich maritime and mineral resources has not been matched by adequate efforts to manage and protect them. Another issue is whether the measures against Eritrea should be revised in light of its recent release of Djiboutian prisoners of war and the absence of any evidence of Eritrean support for Al-Shabaab, as reported by the Somalia-Eritrea Monitoring Group. Assessing the arms embargo on Somalia, which expires on 15 November, and determining whether to maintain the current partial embargo thereafter, revert to a full embargo or lift the sanctions entirely, as requested by Somalia, is a further issue. Another pressing issue is ensuring that Somalia adheres to the timeline for the current electoral process and conducts peaceful, transparent and inclusive elections in August. Likewise, progress must be made towards the constitutional review process and completion of the federal state formation, with support from UNSOM. Options The main option for the Council is to adopt a resolution renewing AMISOMs authorisation for one year. It is likely that there will be no major changes to the mandated tasks, but Council members may use the perspectives gained from their visit to Somalia in May and from their 27 June interactive dialogue on AMISOM to further refine the mandate. Council Dynamics At press time, discussions on AMISOMs renewal were underway. While it appeared that the main tasks of the mandate would remain the same, it seemed that the focus would be on prioritising the mandate, as requested by troop-contributing countries, to enhance the efficacy of AMISOMs implementation. The Council remains generally united on Somalia and in its support for AMISOM and the Somali National Army. As demonstrated during the Councils visit to Somalia and in its 23 May press statement, the Council is united in supporting Somalias electoral and state-building processes. On sanctions, the Council is divided between those members who believe it should consider lifting the measures against Eritrea, such as Angola, China, Russia and Venezuela, and those who remain concerned about Eritreas other activities in the region and seem to view cooperation with the Monitoring Group as a precondition for any changes in the sanctions regime. Venezuela has also called on the Council to heed Somalias appeal for the lifting of sanctions. The UK is the penholder on Somalia and Venezuela is the chair of the 751/1907 Somalia/Eritrea Sanctions Committee. UN Documents on Somalia This was a resolution authorising a short technical rollover of AMISOM until 8 July 2016. This was a resolution that extended the mandate of UNSOM until 30 March 2016 and reauthorised AMISOM through 30 May 2016. This was the report of the Secretary-General on Somalia. This was a press statement that condemned the 25 June terrorist attacks perpetrated by Al-Shabaab in Mogadishu. This was a press statement that condemned the 1 June terrorist attacks perpetrated by Al-Shabaab in Mogadishu. This was a press statement that welcomed the electoral process set out in the 22 May decree issued by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. This was the report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review on Somalia. AFRICA South Sudan Expected Council Action In July, the Council will hold a briefing, followed by consultations, on South Sudan. It is expected to renew the mandate of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) prior to the 31 July expiration. Key Recent Developments Some steps have been taken to fulfil the transitional government arrangements in South Sudan in accordance with the August 2015 peace agreement. Opposition leader Riek Machar was sworn in as First Vice President on 26 April. The South Sudan Transitional Government of National Unity was constituted on 28 April, when President Salva Kiir appointed 30 ministers and 8 deputy ministers. In keeping with the power-sharing arrangements delineated in the peace agreement, the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) was allotted 16 ministerial posts, while the SPLM/A in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) is represented by ten ministers and the other political parties and former detainees by two each. However, in spite of these developments, the political, security, humanitarian and economic situation in South Sudan remains extremely fragile. Kiir has continued to implement his October 2015 decree increasing the number of states in the country from ten to 28. This decision violates the August 2015 agreement, which is based on power-sharing ratios in ten states. In addition, it has aroused the ire of minority ethnic communities, who view the decision as an effort to confiscate some of their land and power for the benefit of the Dinka, Kiirs ethnic group. The parties have yet to concur on the terms of reference for a committeeexpected to consist of a diverse group of South Sudanese political actors and international representativesthat Kiir agreed to appoint on 1 June to generate recommendations for him about the number of states and their boundaries. While violence has subsided in the Greater Upper Nile region, fighting has been reported in areas that were not major theatres of conflict during the civil war, including in the Greater Bahr el-Ghazal and Equatoria regions. In April, fighting was reported between SPLA and SPLA-IO forces in Wau county, Western Bahr el-Ghazal, with both sides reportedly sustaining significant losses. There were also reports in mid-May of fighting near Diem Zubeir, Western Bahr el-Ghazal, between SPLA-IO affiliated forces and the Darfur-based Justice and Equality Movement, a rebel group that crossed the border from Sudan into South Sudan and supported South Sudanese government forces during the recent civil war. In Western Equatoria state, the South Sudan Peoples Patriotic Front, a rebel group that expressed its support for the opposition in late 2015, has reportedly engaged in skirmishes with the SPLM/A in recent months. On 15 June, unidentified armed men attacked and temporarily occupied the town of Raja, the administrative capital of the newly established Lol state, targeting government employees. An unspecified number of soldiers were killed in the attack, and the state governor, Rizik Zechariah Hassan, and several other officials were forced to evacuate. The monitoring and verification teams of the Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangement Monitoring Mechanism (CTSAMM) have faced access restrictions at the hands of the government. The restrictions on the CTSAMM, which UNMISS is mandated to participate in and support, were noted both in the 23 June statement of Festus Mogae, the chair of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission entrusted with overseeing implementation of the peace agreement, and in the Secretary-Generals 20 June UNMISS report. At press time, Council members expected to receive a briefing on 30 June under another other business from the Department of Peacekeeping Operations focusing on the situation in the newly formed Wau state. Thousands of people were displaced as a result of clashes in Wau on 24-25 June, apparently between Dinka and Fertit ethnic groups. Men in SPLA uniforms reportedly supported the Dinka fighters. The humanitarian situation in South Sudan remains dire. As noted in the recent Secretary-Generals report, A combination of fighting in previously stable areas of the country, mounting food insecurity, economic decline, and humanitarian funding gaps continue to make life unbearable for many civilians. There are currently 1.61 million internally displaced persons in South Sudan, and more than 721,000 South Sudanese have sought refuge in neighbouring countries since the civil war started in December 2013, including more than 115,000 from January to mid-May of this year. Some 170,000 civilians remain sheltered in six UNMISS protection of civilians (POC) sites across the country. The OCHA humanitarian appeal for 2016 is currently only 30 percent funded. Meanwhile, UNMISS and its partners continue to face operational restrictions and harassment. Between 1 April and 3 June, the period covered in the Secretary-Generals UNMISS report, the mission recorded 33 violations of the status-of-forces agreement. The August 2015 peace agreement called for the creation of a Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing, as well as a Hybrid Court for South Sudan, which is to be established by the AU Commission. On 7 June, The New York Times published an opinion piece, supposedly by President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar, which called for the international community to reconsider its backing for a hybrid court for South Sudan. The article argued that disciplinary justicewould destabilize efforts to unite our nation by keeping alive anger and hatred among the people of South Sudan. Instead, it emphasised the importance of truth and reconciliation. Shortly after the publication of the article, representatives of Machar said that he had not co-written the piece and that he did not concur with its substance. On 11 June, The Times said in an editors note that the presidents spokesman maintains that Mr. Machar had been consulted before the essay was written. Media reports have further indicated that the article was written in consultation with a US-based public relations firm. On 22 June, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Field Support Atul Khare, and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Stephen OBrien briefed Council members in consultations on the POC sites in South Sudan. Special Representative of the Secretary-General and UNMISS head Ellen Margrethe Lj was available via video-teleconference to answer questions. The discussion focused on three confidential documents that were submitted to Council members in June: a lessons-learned report on the POC sites, the initial findings of the special investigation ordered by the Secretary-General to ascertain responsibilities for the violence at the Malakal POC site on 17-18 February, and a document summarising the main recommendations of the Board of Inquiry report on the same incident. At the stakeout following the meeting, Ladsous said that a unit andindividual officers who had not performed adequately during the Malakal incident would be repatriated, although he did not specify the nationality of the peacekeepers. Human Rights-Related Developments On 14 June, the President of the Human Rights Council (HRC), Ambassador Choi Kyonglim, announced the appointment of Yasmin Sooka, Kenneth Scott and Godfrey Musila to serve as the three members of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, established in a 23 March HRC resolution (A/HRC/RES/31/20) for a period of one year, to monitor and report on the situation of human rights in South Sudan and make recommendations for its improvement. The Commission is scheduled to present a report to the HRC in March 2017. Key Issues The key issue for the Council continues to be how to ensure that the parties fulfil their obligations under the August 2015 peace deal. Since the signing of the agreement, its implementation has been slow, and questions remain regarding the parties commitment to peace. Another significant issue is how to ensure that UNMISS is better able to protect civilians. This has been a long-standing challenge for the mission, given the high rates of displacement and the massive human rights violations since the start of the civil war in December 2013. Furthermore, the recent investigations of the POC sites underscore the difficulties of providing security and keeping thousands of people safe at sites never intended, and therefore poorly equipped, for that purpose. The initial findings of the Board of Inquiry into the Malakal incident further emphasise lapses in the chain of command and lack of understanding of the rules of engagement, which are a problem for peacekeeping in South Sudan, as in other contexts. Also an important issue is the need for improved relations between the mission and the government. Violations of the status-of-forces agreement are an ongoing problem, inhibiting the ability of the mission and its partners to fulfil their responsibilities. Options The most likely option is for the Council to renew UNMISS for an additional six months, maintaining the core elements of the mandate: the protection of civilians; monitoring and verification of human rights violations; facilitation of humanitarian access; and support for implementation of the peace agreement. In doing so, the Council might consider: condemning ceasefire violations and restrictions on the freedom of movement of the CTSAMM monitoring and verification teams; emphasising the urgent need for the establishment of the cantonment sites envisioned in the peace agreement; and urging donors to provide financial support to transitional security, justice and governance processes and to the humanitarian appeal for South Sudan. The Council could also consider dispatching a visiting mission to South Sudan to meet with the leaders of the newly formed Transitional Government of National Unity, including Kiir and Machar, and to encourage them to work together to continue to implement the peace agreement. Another option would be to hold an informal interactive dialogue with the AU to discuss next steps with regard to the establishment of the hybrid court for South Sudan and other options for justice, accountability and reconciliation in the country. Council Dynamics While Council members are generally encouraged by the steps that have been taken by the parties to implement the peace agreement, there are concerns among several members that the peace process could unravel without the strong commitment of the parties to the agreement. How to calibrate the language on accountability could be a source of tension during the upcoming negotiations. The US and others have tended to emphasise the importance of accountability in South Sudan, including as represented by the hybrid court envisioned in the August 2015 peace agreement. Othersincluding Angola, Russia and Venezuelahave argued that under the peace agreement, issues pertaining to the court are the responsibility of the AU and not the UN. They were therefore uncomfortable with language in resolution 2252 indicating that the Council would assess efforts to establish the court. The US is the penholder on South Sudan. UN Documents on South Sudan This resolution increased the force structure of UNMISS to a ceiling of 13,000 troops and 2,001 police, while adding additional tasks to the mandate. This was an UNMISS report. This resolution established the Commission of Human Rights in South Sudan. Status Update Mali On 1 June, Council members issued a press statement condemning a terrorist attack against a MINUSMA camp in Gao during which a peacekeeper from China was killed (SC/12384). On 16 June, Special Representative Mahamat Saleh Annadif briefed the Council (S/PV.7719) on the Secretary-Generals latest MINUSMA report (S/2016/498). The meeting was followed by an informal interactive dialogue of Council members with Malian Prime Minister Modibo Keita. On 29 June, the Council adopted resolution 2295 renewing MINUSMAs mandate for a year. DPRK (North Korea) In a 1 June press statement (SC/12385), Council members condemned the DPRKs failed missile launches conducted on 27 and 28 April and 31 May which were in grave violation of relevant Council resolutions. They called on all member states to redouble their efforts to implement fully the measures against the DPRK, in particular those contained in resolution 2270, and report on these efforts to the Council as soon as possible, while also welcoming efforts to facilitate a peaceful and comprehensive solution through dialogue. The 1718 DPRK Sanctions Committee met on 15 June to discuss implementation of resolution 2270. On 22 June, at the request of the US and Japan, Council members held consultations and were briefed by Assistant-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Miroslav Jenca on the medium-range missile launches conducted by the DPRK on 21 June. In a 23 June press statement (SC/12418), members strongly condemned the launches and reiterated the main elements of the 1 June press statement. Women, Peace and Security On 2 June, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zainab Bangura briefed (S/PV.7704) the Council prior to its open debate on the annual report on conflict-related sexual violence (S/2016/361). France circulated a concept note ahead of the open debate (S/2016/496). On 15 June, the Council adopted a presidential statement on the role of women in conflict prevention and resolution in Africa (S/PRST/2016/9). EU-UN Cooperation On 6 June, Federica Mogherini, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, briefed the Council at its annual meeting on cooperation between the EU and the UN (S/PV.7705). Among issues discussed were the Middle East peace process, the situation in Syria, Libya, and the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukraine. Mogherini also updated the Council on EU-UN cooperation in various peacekeeping operations in Africa, on the Iranian nuclear issue and counter-terrorism. Yemen On 6 June, following publication of the annual report on Children and Armed Conflict (S/2016/360), the Secretary-General removed the Saudi Arabia-led coalition from the listing in Annex 1 of the report, where it had been included for the first time. The removal came after strong pressure from Saudi Arabia and other member states and is considered pending until the conclusion of a joint review of the reports findings with coalition members. On 21 June, Special Envoy Ismael Ould Cheikh Ahmed reported to the Council that he had presented to the parties in Kuwait a roadmap that provides for the implementation of resolution 2216 and the establishment of a national unity government, but that the sides were divided over the sequencing of the steps in the roadmap (S/PV.7721). Council members issued press elements urging the parties to show flexibility to secure an agreement. Libya On 6 June, Special Representative Martin Kobler briefed the Council on the latest UNSMIL report (S/2016/452) and recent political developments (S/PV.7706). The chair of the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Ramlan Ibrahim (Malaysia), briefed as well. On 13 June, the Council adopted resolution 2291 renewing the UNSMIL mandate until 15 December. During this period, the mission is expected to continue to support the establishment of the Government of National Accord. On 14 June, the Council adopted resolution 2292 providing a one year authorisation for member states, acting nationally or through regional organisations, to inspect, in the high seas off the coast of Libya, vessels bound to or from Libya which they have reasonable grounds to believe are violating the arms embargo. The resolution further authorises member states to seize and dispose of arms and ammunition found during the inspection of these vessels. International Criminal Tribunals On 8 June, the Council held its semi-annual debate on the ICTY and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals at which the respective presidents and prosecutors briefed (S/PV.7707). The meeting focused on the assessment reports of the ICTY (S/2016/454) and the Residual Mechanism (S/2016/453) as well as the Office of Internal Oversight Services evaluation report on the ICTY (S/2016/441). Counter-Terrorism On 8 June, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman briefed the Council on UN counter-terrorism efforts against ISIL (S/PV.7708) and presented the latest report by the Secretary-General on this issue (S/2016/501). On 13 June, Council members issued a press statement condemning a terrorist attack in Orlando, Florida, which targeted persons as a result of their sexual orientation (SC/12399). On 17 June, the 1267/1989/2253 ISIL/Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee was briefed by the Secretariat regarding administrative arrangements of the Office of the Ombudsperson and how these may be improved to ensure the independence and effectiveness of the Office as per resolution 2253. On 27 June, the 1373 Counter-Terrorism Committee met to discuss countering terrorism in South East Asia. Sudan (Darfur) On 9 June, the Council received a briefing by the ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on the Courts work on Darfur (S/PV.7710). Bensouda reiterated her concern regarding the Councils inaction with respect to Sudans non-compliance with the Court. On 14 June, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous briefed the Council (S/PV.7716) on the special report of the UN Secretary-General and the AU Commission Chairperson on UNAMID (S/2016/510). On 29 June, the Council adopted resolution 2296 renewing UNAMIDs mandate for one year. Peacekeeping On 10 June, the Council held a ministerial-level open debate on the protection of civilians in the context of peacekeeping operations. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, President Faustin-Archange Touadera of the Central African Republic, and ICRC President Peter Maurer briefed the Council (S/PV.7711). France prepared a concept note ahead of the debate (S/2016/503) and the annual report on protection of civilians was also viewed as relevant to the debate (S/2016/447). On 24 June, the Working Group on Peacekeeping Operations held a meeting on the potential for complementarity between counter-terrorism bodies and peacekeeping operations. Renata Dwan, chief of the Policy and Best Practices Service of the Departments of Peacekeeping Operations and Field Support, and Weixong Chen, Deputy Executive Director of CTED, briefed Council members. Guinea-Bissau On 14 June, Special Representative and head of UNIOGBIS, Modibo Toure, briefed the Council along with AU Special Representative Ovidio Pequeno on Guinea-Bissaus ongoing political crisis (S/PV.7714). Also addressing the Council were Ambassador Fode Seck (Senegal) on behalf of ECOWAS, Ambassador Joao Soares Da Gama (Guinea-Bissau), and Ambassador Maria Helena Pires (Timor-Leste) on behalf of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. The next day, Council members issued a press statement encouraging national actors to abide by the constitution and the rule of law, and commended security forces for their non-interference in the political crisis. The statement expressed support of the decisions taken at the 4 June ECOWAS summit and expressed members readiness to take necessary measures to respond if the situation worsened (SC/12405). UNRCCA (Central Asia) On 15 June, Special Representative Petko Draganov briefed Council members in consultations on the work of UNRCCA. In keeping with established Council practice, Russia proposed a press statement to welcome the briefing. Russia withdrew the text, however, after other Council members put forward amendments that it deemed unacceptable relating to the situation in Afghanistan and cooperation with regional organisations. It was the third consecutive time that Council members failed to reach agreement on a press statement on the UNRCCA. The last press statement was issued on 23 January 2015. UNOCA (Central Africa) On 15 June, Abdoulaye Bathily, Special Representative and head of UNOCA, briefed the Council (S/PV.7718) on the latest UNOCA report (S/2016/482). Ahmad Allam-Mi, the Secretary-General of ECOWAS, also addressed the Council. Non-Proliferation From 20 to 22 June, the 1540 Committee held formal open consultations on the comprehensive review of resolution 1540, which aims to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to non-state actors. 60 member states, some 20 international organisations, and 15 NGOs spoke at the meeting. The 1540 Committee is due to submit its report to the Council on the comprehensive review by 30 November this year. Afghanistan On 21 June, the Council held its quarterly debate on Afghanistan (S/PV.7722) which focused on the most recent UNAMA report (S/2016/532). Exiting Special Representative Nicholas Haysom briefed the Council for the last time. On the same day, Council members issued a press statement, condemning the 20 June terrorist attacks in Kabul and Badakhshan Province (SC/12413). The 1988 Afghanistan Sanctions Committee held informal consultations on 1 June to meet with a representative of the Collective Security Treaty Organization about counter-narcotic efforts. Colombia On 23 June, Council members welcomed the historic agreements reached in Havana between the Government of Colombia and the FARC-EP (SC/12419). Security Council Elections On 28 June, the General Assembly held elections for five non-permanent members to serve on the Security Council for the 2017-2018 term: Bolivia (GRULAC), Ethiopia (African group), Kazakhstan (Asia/Pacific group), and Sweden (WEOG) secured seats. After five inconclusive rounds of balloting, Italy and the Netherlands had proposed a split 2017-18 term. On 29 June, WEOG agreed that Italy is to serve in 2017 and the Netherlands in 2018. On 30 June, the General Assembly elected Italy for the remaining non-permanent seat allocated for the WEOG Regional Group. Golan Heights (UNDOF) On 29 June, the Council adopted resolution 2294 renewing UNDOF for six months after considering the Secretary-Generals latest report (S/2016/520) on the observer mission during 22 June consultations. Both the report and the resolution noted the UNs plan for the phased redeployment of UNDOF to vacated positions, security conditions permitting. MIDDLE EAST Syria Expected Council Action In July, Council members will receive their regular monthly briefings on the humanitarian and chemical weapons tracks regarding Syria. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura is also scheduled to brief on the intra-Syrian political process, which has been suspended since late April. The possibilities for the resumption of talks and the formation of a transitional government by 1 August are quickly dissipating, in light of escalating violence and steady government offensives around Aleppo, Idlib and the suburbs of Damascus. Key Recent Developments In a 3 June briefing to Council members, de Mistura reported that the chances of resuming talks during the month were remote. The chief negotiator of the Riyadh-based opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), resigned on 29 May, saying the international community had been unable to implement its own decisions regarding the cessation of hostilities, humanitarian access and the release of detainees. At press time, de Mistura was scheduled to brief Security Council members again on 29 June. On 21 June, de Mistura briefed the General Assembly, reporting that the government and the HNC had agreed during the March and April talks in Geneva on the need for a transition, but remained far apart on how to achieve it. The government proposed a national unity government but explicitly rejected the oppositions position calling for a transitional governing body with full executive powers (in line with the June 2012 Geneva Communique). Bashar al Assads presidency was not subject to negotiation, the government insisted. De Mistura has an intention to resume talks in July, but only if Russia and the US make sufficient progress on agreeing to a common vision of a political transition. On 17 June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the US proposal to include representatives of the opposition in the current government was absolutely acceptable. The US denied ever having made such a proposal, reiterating that its policy on the departure of Assad had not changed. In a 7 June broadcast on state television, Assad said that he would win back every inch of Syria, and highlighted the liberation of Aleppo as a major objective. On 22 June, Assad replaced the prime minister and requested that a new government be formed. Both of these developments signal that Assad hardening his position towards a military solution and moving away from any negotiations that would dilute his presidential powers. On 15 June, US Secretary of State John Kerry met Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on the sidelines of the Oslo Forum, where Kerry also said in public remarks that US patience is not infinite in reference to the governments Aleppo offensive, which is supported by Russian airstrikes and Iranian-backed foreign militias. Zarif reportedly indicated that Tehran might be amenable to finding ways to end the conflict. Separately, Iran has shown preliminary interest in a decentralised or federal structure of governance for Syria, which Assad hinted at in his 7 June speech when he said that Syrian unity is not bound to geographical borders. A Financial Times article reported that Iran may be signalling a certain degree of flexibility on Syria in return for relief from secondary sanctions and access to the US banking system. Nevertheless, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shia militia, Hezbollah, announced on 24 June that it was sending more fighters to Aleppo. On the humanitarian track, the 17 May statement of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) called for UN air bridges and air drops if the government continued to deny humanitarian access to besieged areas after 1 June. Council members were briefed by OCHA on 3 and 16 June to follow up on the status of the delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged areas in Syria and the UNs planning for air drops. On 14 June, the Security Council received a letter on behalf of 59 member states regarding humanitarian access, air drops, effective implementation of the cessation of hostilities and the need for all parties to work towards a genuine political transition. The letter was an initiative of Saudi Arabia and was co-sponsored by nine Council members (the P3, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal, Spain and Ukraine). Egypt, one of the humanitarian leads on Syria in the Council, did not co-sponsor the letter. In a 23 June Council briefing, OCHA head Stephen OBrien said that the UN had received approval to access 15 of the 18 besieged locations in Syria. However, the approvals were ad hoc, and some were partial in nature, i.e. there were restrictions on food or medicine as well as restrictions on the number of beneficiaries. He told the Council that the Syrian authorities limitations on where, to whom, when and how much aid could be delivered rendered assistance to some communities a non-starter. He added that in addition to these limitations, the Syrian authorities made every effort to delay and dismantle aid convoys as the UN and its partners tried to deliver assistance. OBrien reported that OCHAs July plan had been submitted to the government, and it needed to be approved in full and unconditionally. In the consultations that followed, it seems that OBrien said that despite increased aid deliveries to besieged areas, overall aid delivery remained quite low. Also on 23 June, the Department of Political Affairs briefed Council members in consultations under any other business on the situation on the Syrian/Turkish border. Russia requested this briefing, expressing concern about Turkish incursions into Syrian territory and seeking more information about the wall Turkey is building on the border with Syria. There was also interest in getting more information about the allegations that on 19 June Turkish guards killed 11 Syrian refugees trying to cross the border. Turkey said an investigation is underway. Turkey, which hosts 2.73 million registered Syrian refugees, has closed its borders to further refugee flows. On chemical weapons, Acting High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Kim Won-soo briefed Council members on 16 June. Virginia Gambathe head of the UN-OPCW Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), the body mandated to determine responsibility for the use of chemical weapons in Syriaalso briefed on the nine cases the JIM is investigating. Eight are related to allegations of the governments use of chemical weapons and one is an alleged use of chemical weapons by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Human Rights-Related Developments On 10 June, the special rapporteur on the right to health condemned the direct targeting of medical units, which amounts to war crimes and may constitute crimes against humanity. From the beginning of May alone, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights documented attacks on at least eight medical units in Syria, the majority targeting health facilities in opposition-held areas. The Commission of Inquiry on Syria released a report on 16 June, which found that ISIL had committed, and continues to commit, the crime of genocide against the Yazidis. ISIL is still holding more than 3,200 Yazidi women and children, mostly in Syria, while thousands of Yazidi men and boys are missing. The Commission recommended that the Security Council refer the situation to justice, possibly to the ICC or an ad hoc tribunal; consider engaging its Chapter VII powers, given the acknowledged threat ISIL poses to international peace and security; and include formal briefings by the Commission to the Security Council, including a further update on ISIL crimes against the Yazidis (A/HRC/32/CRP.2). In a related development, Canada sent two letters to the Security Council, asking it to establish a mechanism to investigate reports of violations of international law by ISIL in Iraq and Syria, determine whether these violations constitute acts of genocide or other serious international crimes, and identify the perpetrators of such violations and take measures to ensure accountability, including a referral to the ICC (S/2016/499 and S/2016/545). Key Issue With Syria entering the sixth year of a war that has exacted a death toll of 470,000 and displaced half of the Syrian population, including 4.8 million refugees, the essential issue for the Council is to exert effective leadership in supporting a cessation of hostilities and efforts to reach a political solution. Options The ISSG and resolutions 2254 and 2268 have identified roles for the Council in the event that talks in 2016 produce concrete results towards a national ceasefire and a parallel political process. In the near term, however, day-to-day oversight of resolutions 2254 and 2268 has been outsourced to the ISSG broadly, and Russia and the US in particular. So long as Russia and the US remain committed to this particular iteration of a political process, options are limited for other Council members to inject new thinking or energy to help resolve the situation. Council Dynamics Many Council members are of the view that the governments offensives, particularly around Aleppo and the suburbs of Damascus, confirm the regimes preference for prolonged armed conflict over a negotiated settlement. There is also broad recognition that if fighting in Syria cannot be controlled, it will be difficult for UN mediation between the government and the opposition to resume with any chance of success. Some Council members are concerned that even if Russia and the US agree on the contours of a political solution, any such deal will be so far removed from the spirit and intent of the June 2012 Geneva Communique that it will be destined to fail. Some are also of the view that Russian-US cooperation on Syria has reached its limits, resulting in familiar divisions recurring in the Security Council. On the humanitarian track, the increased access to besieged areas in June means that plans for air drops and air bridges will remain a contingency so long as land routes can be secured. For the UN and Council members, the cost, questionable efficacy, safety concerns and difficult logistics of air bridges and drops make it an option of last resort, though it remains on the table. Most outcomes on Syria are agreed between Russia and the US prior to adoption by the Council. Egypt, New Zealand and Spain lead on humanitarian issues. UN Documents on Syria Endorsed the cessation of hostilities and called for the resumption of political talks. This was the first resolution focused exclusively on a political solution to the Syrian crisis. It was adopted unanimously. This was a briefing on the humanitarian situation. This deplored the attack on a Jordanian border crossing post. This was a letter from Canada reiterating its request that the Security Council establish a mechanism to investigate reports of violations of international law by ISIL in Iraq and Syria. This was a letter from Belgium reporting to the Security Council that it was taking military action against ISIL in Syria, citing resolution 2249 and Article 51 of the UN Charterthe right of self-defence under Chapter VII. This was a letter from Norway reporting to the Security Council that it was taking military action against ISIL in Syria, citing resolution 2249 and Article 51 of the UN Charterthe right of self-defence under Chapter VII. This was a letter from Canada to the Security Council asking it to establish a mechanism to investigate reports of violations of international law by ISIL in Iraq and Syria. This was a letter from Denmark reporting to the Security Council that it was taking military action against ISIL in Syria, citing resolution 2249 and Article 51 of the UN Charterthe right of self-defence under Chapter VII. This was on the humanitarian situation. This was the JIMs second report. This was on chemical weapons. This was a report of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which found that ISIL had committed, and continues to commit, the crime of genocide against the Yazidis. AFRICA UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel Expected Council Action In July, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), will brief on the semi-annual UNOWAS report. This is the first briefing on UNOWAS since the Council decided to merge the Office of the Special Envoy for the Sahel (OSES) into the UN Office for West Africa (UNOWA). UNOWASs mandate expires on 31 December 2016. Key Recent Developments During the first half of 2016, the threat of terrorism to West Africa became an increasing concern. On 15 January, gunmen attacked the Splendid Hotel and Cappuccino Cafe in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, killing 30 people. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility. The incident followed an AQIM-claimed attack on the Radisson Blue hotel in Bamako, Mali, in November 2015. On 13 March, gunmen attacked hotels in the beach resort city of Grand Bassam, Cote dIvoire. Nineteen people were killed in Cote dIvoires first terrorist strikes, for which AQIM again claimed responsibility. Senegal has increased security measures amidst concerns that it is a likely potential target for terrorist groups. In the Lake Chad basin region, Boko Haram remains a threat, despite the losses it has incurred since 2015 in the face of increased military cooperation between Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger. The group has resorted to more attacks on soft targets, such as internally displaced persons camps, and has increased the use of suicide bombers, who are frequently women or girls. Boko Haram has still demonstrated its capacity to launch large-scale attacks. On 3 June, it attacked the town of Bosso, Niger, reportedly killing 32 soldiers and displacing 50,000 people. Amidst continued fighting, Chad sent 2,000 soldiers to Niger on 8 June. A major humanitarian crisis continues as a result of the insurgency, with 2.1 million Nigerians internally displaced and more than 600,000 displaced persons and refugees in Cameroon, Chad and Niger. On 14 May, the second Regional Security Summit was held in Abuja, bringing together regional countries and international partners, to evaluate efforts to defeat Boko Haram. Nigeria has experienced troubling violence elsewhere. This has included attacks by militant groups in the Niger Delta on oil infrastructure, which have reduced Nigerias oil output to its lowest levels in 20 years. On 20 March, Niger held a run-off presidential election. It took place peacefully despite tensions over opposition candidate Hama Amadous detention since November on charges of child-trafficking. The opposition boycotted the second round and President Mahamadou Issoufou was re-elected. In Guinea, local elections, which have been postponed for years and are a source of tension between the government and opposition, were not held during the first half of 2016 despite the 20 August 2015 agreement to do so. In The Gambia, the government violently suppressed demonstrations on 14 and 16 April, and concerns were raised that several of those arrested were later killed, including a leading opposition party member. The Secretary-General recommended merging OSES into UNOWA in a 14 January letter following a review of OSES. After a 25 January meeting in consultations under any other business on the proposal, the Council requested the Secretary-General to proceed with the merger, thus establishing UNOWAS. Chambas, previously head of UNOWA, continues to lead UNOWAS and is responsible for overseeing its work, including implementing the UN Integrated Sahel Strategy (UNISS), while Hiroute Guebre Sellassie, formerly the Special Envoy for the Sahel, was appointed Deputy Special Representative. A UNOWAS liaison office has been established in Nouakchott to ensure coordination of the UNISS with the Group of Five for the Sahel (G5 Sahel), comprising Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. On 8 March, the Council visited UNOWAS in Dakar. Chambas briefed members on regional developments and progress in the merger. On 25 April, the Council held an open debate on Gulf of Guinea piracy, adopting a presidential statement requesting updates on the issue in the Secretary-Generals UNOWAS and UN Office for Central Africa (UNOCA) reports. Chambas last briefed the Council at a 26 May meeting on the impact of climate change and desertification on peace and security in the Sahel. Key Issues A key issue is the spread of terrorism and radicalisation in the region. A related issue is the threat of Boko Haram and accompanying humanitarian crisis. UNOWASs good offices activities and upcoming elections in the region are further issues. Progress in the UNOWAS merger and in implementing the UN Integrated Strategy for the Sahel will be an important issue. Options The Council may issue a statement that, inter alia, could: express serious concern over the increasing threat of terrorism to the region and the continued threat posed by Boko Haram, while commending progress in combatting the group and stressing the need to address the humanitarian crisis and underlying causes of the conflict; welcome progress in the UNOWAS merger and signal that the Council looks forward to the results of the independent evaluation of the UNISS; and commend UNOWASs good-offices activities and its increasing cooperation with the AU and sub-regional organisations. Regarding the Boko Haram conflict, the Council could request the Secretary-General to explore the feasibility of creating a liaison office to increase support for and cooperation with Lake Chad basin countries. A statement could express support for establishing a UN trust fund for the Sahel to address administrative challenges faced by UN agencies and programmes in implementing joint and regional projects for the Sahel strategy. Council and Wider Dynamics Members perceive very positively the good offices activities of Chambas and UNOWAS, especially following its interventions in Burkina Faso, Guinea and Nigeria and efforts to address other election-related tensions in West Africa. Some view it as a model in conflict prevention that the Secretariat and Council want to replicate in the work of UNOCA and possibly by establishing new regional offices elsewhere. The decision to merge UNOWA and OSES has proved controversial. Members were in agreement on the merger, wanting to eliminate redundancies between the two offices. It was also felt that placing UNISS under the umbrella of the regional office could improve the strategys implementation, with some members having previously expressed the desire to see more concrete results. Moreover, the decision reflected some members preferences to set up such an arrangement in 2013 ahead of OSES relocation from Italy to Dakar. The G5 Sahel, however, opposed the merger and has sought to reverse the decision. Those countries feel the merger will diminish the Councils focus on and attention to the Sahel region and UNISS, as this will no longer be considered in a separate reporting cycle but instead included in UNOWAS reports covering a broader region. Chad, as a Council member from 2014 to 2015, pushed for relocating OSES from Dakar to Mauritania, and G5 Sahel opposition also seems linked to geopolitical concerns with Senegals hosting of the office. The merger also represents a change in the offices traditional focus of addressing political conflicts. With the merger, UNOWAS additionally provides political advocacy and strategic guidance for UN agencies and programmes, a function that underpins the UNISS. Senegal is the penholder on West Africa. UN Documents on West Africa and the Sahel This welcomed the upcoming high-level Regional Security Summit on Boko Haram. Thisencouraged regional states, regional organisations and international partners to make fully operational the Gulf of Guinea counter-piracy mechanisms as soon as possible. This presidential statement looked forward to considering the recommendations of the strategic review of the OSES and requested that it include recommendations on the location of OSES. This was on the activities of UNOWAS. This was a Council letter requesting the Secretary-General to proceed with the merger of OSES and UNOWA. This was a G5 Sahel letter opposing the merger. This was the Secretary-Generals proposal to merge UNOWA and OSES. The was a briefing on challenges in the Sahel, focusing on the impact of climate change and desertification to peace and security in the region. This was an open debate on piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. This was a briefing on the activities of UNOWA. Anyone who has ever looked out a plane window and yearned to know details about what exactly is on the ground below can finally get the answers. An app called Flyover Country created by University of Minnesota geologists is like a mashup between Google Maps and Atlas Obscura for plane trips, reports Outside Magazine. RELATED: Top 10 Google Map Adventures of 2015: Photos Minnesota geologists Amy Myrbo and Shane Loeffler received funding from the National Science Foundation to develop their free Flyover Country app as a way to make geological info more accessible and fun. The app is compatible with Apple and Android devices and works by analyzing a pre-determined flight path, caching relevant map data and points of interest to display them during the actual flight. Flyover Country takes the user's current GPS determined location, altitude, speed, and heading as well as info pulled in from Macrostrat.org's geological maps, paleo data from Neotomadb.org and Paleobiodb.org, core sample locations, offline base maps, and Wikipedia articles. The beauty of the app is that it can still work during a flight in airplane mode -- and without Wi-Fi. Outside Magazine's Michael Frank used the app on a flight between London and Frankfurt. The app isn't always perfect, he reported. For example the info won't match exactly if the pilot takes a different route, but overall he liked the interesting factoids. "I couldn't stop looking out the window," he wrote. "I read about the famous Koppenberg hill climb in Ardennes, Belgium, known for crushing cyclists in the Tour of Flanders because it's as steep as 22 percent and covered in greasy cobblestones." RELATED: Artificial Intelligence Designs Ultimate Road Trip Admittedly it's been a while since I chose a window seat, but one time on a night flight I got to peer out at thunderstorms flashing in the distance and the bright moon reflecting over every body of water we passed. I would have loved to find out what was actually down there. Although the app is designed for plane rides, it can also be used on road trips and hikes. Loeffler told Outside Magazine that he wants to add more data sources in the future, including info about rock climbing routes. Many factors make commercial air travel uncomfortable these days. If Flyover Country can bring back a bit of wonder and amazement, that's at least worth toasting with a tiny soda can. The Scottish people, as William Wallace once persuasively pointed out, rather value their freedom. In the aftermath of the historic Brexit vote, they may be forced to fight for it once again. In today's Seeker Daily dispatch, Laura Ling explores a critical aspect of the Brexit vote. Now the the United Kingdom has left the European Union, there's a very real possibility that Scotland will choose to leave the United Kingdom. While 52 percent of U.K. citizens voted for the Brexit, the results were mostly localized -- with one exception: Every single local authority area in Scotland voted to stay. The result was predictable, considering Scotland's own recent referendum on independence. A major part of the reason Scotland chose to stay was the assumption that it would continue to benefit from EU membership. So now Scottish leaders are calling for a second independence referendum for Scotland, with the intention of breaking off as a fully separate nation, then rejoining the EU. It's likely to be a lengthy and arduous process, however. The last Scotland referendum took more than five years to organize, and a new vote can't be set until the U.K. officially exits the EU, which may still be some time away. If a new independence vote does succeed, Scotland's official separation would take another couple of years. RELATED: Can the EU Survive Brexit? Then there's the fact that admission to the EU is not necessarily a given. The European Commission has made it clear that the EU won't even consider Scotland's application until it's fully and finally divorced from Great Britain. The Scotland would have to go through the usual EU application and lobbying process. Finally, a split with the U.K. would create some immediate military concerns for Scotland, which relies heavily on the U.K. for defense. Scotland would need to create its own army from the ground up, although the country has some historical experience with that. Nevertheless, the current consensus is that Scotland will almost certainly call for a second independence vote, if and when the U.K. officially pulls out of the EU. -- Glenn McDonald Learn More: NBC: Scotland Seeks Independence Again After U.K. 'Brexit' Vote The Guardian: Nicola Sturgeon: second Scottish independence poll highly likely Chronicle Live: What will happen if Scotland leaves the UK after the European Referendum? The Guardian: Will article 50 ever be triggered? Somalia's National Day Washington, DC - Secretary of State John Kerry: "On behalf of President Obama and the American people, I congratulate the people and government of Somalia on your 56th Independence Day on July 1. "The United States supports Somalia as it continues its progress towards building a stable, federal democracy. We remain confident that this years electoral process will be another step forward on Somalias path to democracy, security, and prosperity. "The United States was pleased to welcome the formal reopening of the Somali embassy in Washington, D.C. last November. We are equally pleased to be sending our first U.S. ambassador to Somalia in 25 years. "As I mentioned during my visit to Mogadishu last May, Somalis are a resilient people. On this day of celebration, I wish all Somalis peace and joy." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate PONDEROSA BASIN, Mariposa County When Ursula Rowe returned to her mountain home after a hip replacement a few months back, the landscape had changed. Dozens of towering pine trees had browned up and died on her once-verdant plot of land near Yosemite, and she had to cough up $25,000 to remove them. I couldnt see that house before, said Rowe, pointing from her deck across 50 lifeless stumps to the properties of neighbors also littered by downed pines and piles of split wood. I had to go out and buy blinds for my windows. Californias drought-driven epidemic of dead trees has ushered in a cascading crisis from the community of Ponderosa Basin in the central Sierra to towns closer to Lake Tahoe. As government agencies and private landowners race to clear trees that could supercharge wildfires, theyre ending up with a glut of wood that nobody knows what to do with. Turnouts along rural highways are becoming way stations for timber, and counties are opening makeshift stacking yards. Often, fallen trees are simply left on the forest floor, sometimes closing trails and campgrounds, or they remain sprawled across peoples yards. Signs for free firewood have become as ubiquitous in many mountain areas as the buzz of chain saws. A lot of these trees are sitting alongside the road because theres not a place for them to go, said Len Nielson, the lead forester in Mariposa County for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, as he made his rounds surveying tree-cutting efforts on a recent day. While Nielson and others acknowledge that allowing downed wood to pile up is anything but ideal during fire season, its better than leaving vast stands of dead trees that could feed an inferno. Fire officials hope to eventually move the debris, but areas like Mariposa County despite its lumberjack-themed tourist towns and shops with names like Lucky Logger no longer support a timber trade to process the wood. We dont have a logging industry anymore, Nielson said, motioning from his truck toward an old sawmill thats now just a lumber yard. Tree triage At least 66 million trees have died in California since 2010, more than a third within the past year, according to recent estimates by the U.S. Forest Service. The die-off is the result of five years of drought that has deprived forests of water and allowed bark beetles to take advantage of the trees weakened condition. Were finding these trees are extremely dry, and theyre deteriorating much faster, said Steve Brink, a vice president of the California Forestry Association. State and federal forestry officials, alongside local governments and Pacific Gas and Electric Co., have launched a massive effort to remove trees closest to roads and communities where the fire threat is greatest. A couple of hundred thousand trees have already come down in whats become a sprint to clear as much dry fuel as possible before the fire season peaks in late summer and early fall. Regardless of the mills or the market, we have to cut these trees or theyre a direct threat to life and property, said Ken Pimlott, director of Cal Fire. Debris loses value Already, the smell of smoke is wafting through many parts of the Sierra. The Erskine Fire has charred nearly 50,000 acres and leveled 200 structures near Lake Isabella in Kern County, while the Trailside Fire is threatening more homes in Placer and El Dorado counties. The largest stands of dead forest, most of which are ponderosa pine, are being cut down and trucked to some of the 25 mills that remain from Californias once-booming logging trade. Most of these facilities, though, are already inundated with salvaged wood from past wildfires. Michael Macor/The Chronicle Because much of the wood is rotted or stained blue from beetle infestation, most of its value is lost. It may become mulch or animal bedding. Power plants that use organic materials to generate electricity have also been receiving some of the lesser-value forest debris. But like the mills, theres not a lot of them, and they have only so much capacity. Heavy price The expense of getting rid of the wood, meanwhile, is paralyzing communities. For property owners with dead trees, the best-case scenario is that they have a stand with enough healthy timber to cover the cost of removal. Taking down a tree can run hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. I about fainted when I found out the price, said Rowe, who used a combination of savings and borrowing to pay her $25,000 bill. Heck, I could have gotten a new car. While many in Ponderosa Basin have paid to have their dead trees removed, one of Rowes next-door neighbors hasnt done anything about a handful of expired pines that remain perilously close to Rowes property. He said that within a week or so hell get someone in, she said. Groups like Mariposa Countys Fire Safe Council and Resource Conservation District have helped many residents who cant afford tree removal. PG&E has also downed thousands of trees near power lines. Cal Fire, the state Department of Transportation and county crews have helped clear private lands as well. But theres not enough money to do all the work thats needed. Michael Macor/The Chronicle The state has made $31.5 million available to counties under Gov. Jerry Browns declaration of an emergency last October caused by dying trees. Since the financing requires a 25 percent match, though, only so much has gotten done. When were talking about removing the number of hazardous trees that we have in our areas, were looking at millions of dollars, said Mariposa County Supervisor Rosemarie Smallcombe. Most counties dont have that much money lying around. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. In places like Ponderosa Basin, as much as 90 percent of trees are dead. The countys Office of Emergency Services estimates that 500,000 trees are a direct threat to people or property. Only about 23,000 have been removed. Until people come up here and drive around, its hard to wrap your head around this, said Don Florence, a planner in the Office of Emergency Services. You couldnt have a worse standing hazard. Residents are keenly aware of the danger. Bill Harsh of Ponderosa Basin was happy to see PG&E drop 25 dying pine trees in his yard, though he knows theres so much dead forest around the community that the removal efforts will only go so far. If we get a fire, they wont stop it now, he said. Were surrounded by dead trees. My goodness, weve never been surrounded by so many dead trees. As part of the governors emergency declaration, an unusual task force was created to figure out what to do with trees as they come down. We cant keep stacking logs in the woods, said Larry Swan, a woody biomass and utilization specialist for the U.S. Forest Service who is part of the new working group. We have to think about fires and the safety of our firemen and women. ... This becomes an impediment to suppression. Shipped out, burned up The governor has called for more bioenergy production, allowing additional woody debris to be disposed of at power plants. The task force is also looking into increasing wood exports already some trees are being hauled to Oakland for shipment to China as well as utilizing chips for dust abatement and soil enrichment at the giant Salton Sea in Southern California. About $6 million in mobile equipment, paid for under the emergency order, has been rolled out by Cal Fire to process trees that arent likely to go anywhere. Chippers, sawmills and 10 air curtain burners essentially wood incinerators are among the new gear. Even with these efforts, the volume of dead trees estimated by the Forest Service to be 14.1 billion board feet is 10 times the states annual timber harvest. Were using every tool in our tool chest, said Swan. This is not a year or two issue. We have to take a look at it five or seven years out, at least. Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander Pacific Gas and Electric Co. records in 2009 listed 33 past leaks with unknown causes on the same aging gas pipeline that exploded in San Bruno in 2010, a PG&E engineer told a federal court jury Friday. Called as a prosecution witness in PG&Es trial on charges of criminal violations of pipeline-safety laws, David Aguiar testified that his job was to examine pipelines for external evidence of corrosion a method that could not have detected internal welding defects that caused many leaks. A flawed seam weld, on a line that company records had listed as seamless, ruptured in September 2010 in San Bruno, causing an explosion and fire that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. A subsequent federal investigation led to 12 felony charges that PG&E had failed to inspect and test its lines and keep accurate records, and a 13th charge that it had obstructed investigators by trying to conceal an alleged policy of exceeding legal limits on gas pressure in its pipelines. Prosecutors contend PG&E sacrificed safety for profits by shunning high-pressure water testing of problematic gas lines in favor of cheaper detection methods, like the method used by Aguiar and his co-workers known as external corrosion direct assessment, or ECDA. He said he relies in part on the companys computer database, and in part on staff reports, to identify areas that need inspection, and then checks to see whether pipes show signs of corrosion. His account of PG&Es response to a leak on another pipeline in 2006 appeared to illustrate the inspection systems shortcomings. Aguiar, who has worked for PG&E since 1985, said he was asked to investigate the leak after it occurred, and concluded in a report in December 2008 that the cause was a weld failure that was unrelated to corrosion and could not have been spotted by ECDA. When he told a supervisor, the supervisor replied, in an email displayed to the jury, that an inspection process that walks right over active leaks was something I would not advertise too loudly. Aguiar replied by email that no one was advertising that ECDA could detect welding defects. The supervisor replied, in another message shown to the jury, We are advertising that weve assessed the pipe and its fit for service. Failed girth welds are not minor. Prosecutors say PG&E didnt reveal the gap in its inspections to federal regulators or the public. Aguiar also said a November 2009 survey by his ECDA team recounted the history of the pipeline that runs from Milpitas to San Francisco. He said it had suffered 36 previous leaks three from corrosion, the rest from unknown causes. That was the pipeline that ran through San Bruno, a fact that prosecutors and their witnesses arent allowed to mention, under orders from U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson. Asked by managers in 2009 about a recent leak in that pipeline in South San Francisco, Aguiar told them by email that this seems to be happening more frequently, most likely because of welding defects, but he would not describe it as a systemic problem. Aguiar also summarized PG&E records of a 1988 leak on the same pipeline that required the removal of 12 feet of defective pipeline. The records contain no information on the cause of the leak, the type of weld, the year it was installed or the date it was repaired, Aguiar said. The Chronicle has reported that other PG&E documents show the leak occurred in October 1988 near Crystal Springs Reservoir, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and was caused by a longitudinal weld defect, the same flaw responsible for the San Bruno explosion. Experts told The Chronicle that those records, which were not turned over to federal regulators before the explosion, should have required PG&E to conduct high-pressure water testing that might have prevented the disaster. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko Apple is in preliminary talks to buy Tidal, the music-streaming service largely owned by Jay Z, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the discussions. Both companies declined to comment. Meanwhile, Spotify is accusing Apple of blocking an update to its music streaming app to push customers toward Apples competing service, according to a person familiar with the dispute. Apple rejected the update after Spotify started encouraging customers to subscribe online rather than through the iOS mobile operating system, the person said, citing a letter that Spotify general counsel Horacio Gutierrez sent to counterpart Bruce Sewell on Sunday. BuzzFeed is reporting that Apple has countered by accusing Spotify of seeking preferential treatment. A Crystal clear huh? PepsiCo is bringing back Crystal Pepsi, a clear cola widely regarded as a flop after missing sales targets in the 1990s. It rolled out nationally in 1993 with a high-profile campaign that included Super Bowl ads featuring Van Halens Right Now, but was reformulated with a lemon flavor after the sales flop and renamed Crystal. PepsiCo says it will return to store shelves in the U.S. on Aug. 8. A Nougat from Google Google is naming its new Android software version Nougat, extending its tradition of nicknaming each overhaul after a sweet food. Earlier Android nicknames have included Marshmallow, Lollipop, KitKat, Ice Cream Sandwich and Gingerbread. Can Android Crystal Pepsi be far behind? The Daily Briefing is compiled from San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. See more items and links at www.sfgate.com. Twitter: @techbriefing If you missed it ... In a week when the worlds eyes were on Britain and Volkswagen had to pay through the nose, we also saw: Reports of Cormac McCarthys death have been greatly exaggerated, Mark Twain would have said if he wasnt, well, dead. A fake Twitter account tried to bump off McCarthy, but publisher Penguin Random House was having none of it. Cormac McCarthy is alive and well, the publisher tweeted, and still doesn't care about Twitter. Speaking of exaggerated deaths, take Luke Skywalker. The Hollywood Reporter said Star Wars actor Mark Hamill told an audience in London, I finish Episode VIII, and then I'm out of work. Social media and 24-hour news cycles being what they are, some fans fretted madly that Luke might go the way of Obi-Wan Kenobi, the characters from Lost and just about anybody who ever appeared in Game of Thrones. Hamill quickly went on Twitter to clarify: I meant out of work because #Ep8 is wrapping soon, OK? #DontOverThinkEVERYTHING #ParsingHamill #WaitForVIII. The Daily Briefing is compiled from San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. See more items and links at www.sfgate.com. Twitter: @techbriefing SEOUL Netflix plans to expand its Asian offerings to subscribers around the world by tapping more creators in the region, including Snowpiercer director Bong Joon-ho. CEO Reed Hastings said last week the streaming service company is looking at many projects throughout Asia, including original series by Asian creators, after its investment in the South Korean filmmakers new movie Okja. Hastings said more details will be announced later. Okja is Netflixs first investment in a Korean film project. The latest work by Bong, now being filmed at a remote village in eastern Korea, is slated for release next year on Netflix. Bong is one of the best known South Korean directors. His works Snowpiercer, Mother and The Host gave him critical acclaim and commercial success. Media reports in Asia said that Netflix invested $50 million, among the largest amounts in the South Korean movie industry. Netflixs growing focus on Asian content comes after its business in the region suffered some setbacks this year. In January, it began providing its service in 130 more countries as part of its efforts to boost international subscribers to offset slowing growth in the U.S. In the same month, the Indonesian state telecommunications company blocked the Internet video service because it lacked a permit to operate in the Southeast Asian country. In South Korea, Netflix struggled to add subscribers amid competition from existing streaming services and its dearth of local shows. Netflix officials said some original shows for Korean audiences are in the pipeline, and that it had spent the first few months learning the preferences of viewers there. The service is available in 190 countries to 81.5 million subscribers, but not in China, the biggest market for South Korean TV series and films. Netflix is aware that its absence in China may be a letdown for South Korean creators. China is an important market for Korean content and often generates more revenue than the Korean market, said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix. We continue to look at China as an opportunity, but its a very complicated one. While its service in China is not yet available, Netflix is spending more to deliver Korean drama series elsewhere in the world. The company bought rights to distribute The Descendants of the Sun in the U.S., Canada and Latin America this summer. The Korean drama series about a romance between a surgeon and an army officer in a war-torn country was a blockbuster hit this spring. Netflix officials believe that it is doing a much better job than Hollywood at promoting diversity. Im very proud that Netflix shows are among the most diverse shows in the world, said Sarandos. He highlighted Marco Polo, an epic drama set in Kublai Khans court in 13th century China, and the Aziz Ansari comedy series Masters of None. Theyve got enormous Asian casts, and the shows are being watched and loved from around the globe, he said. He also praised the original series Orange Is the New Black for showing faces, sizes of people you dont typically see on the televisions. In every one of our shows, weve got a very high level of diversity that we think accurately reflects the population, he said. So were absolutely doing well and pushing to do better in terms of diversity for the world. Last summer, flower delivery startup BloomThat was in an enviable position. The 2-year-old San Francisco company had raised more than $5 million in venture capital. It had earned a tech world pedigree after graduating from the prestigious incubator Y Combinator. And it had its roots firmly planted in the on-demand economy a business model popularized by Uber that was the hot new category in Silicon Valley. But to live up to its promise of delivering bouquets within one hour in three markets, BloomThat was hemorrhaging cash. After starting in New York last summer, it was burning through more than $500,000 a month. It was not good; we probably had around four to five months of runway left, said David Bladow, BloomThat co-founder and chief executive officer. Faced with the prospect of going bust, Bladow and his co-founders asked themselves: Do customers really need their service at the press of a button? Its a question being asked at a number of startups that promise instant gratification. As the on-demand business model strains companies finances and the tech downturn makes investor money harder to come by, companies are realizing that what works for Uber may not work for them. Some, like BloomThat, have changed course from a model that was, for a time, seen as the easiest way to land venture funding. Someone said, grow, grow, grow, and someone else parroted it, then everyone else parroted it, and we fell victim to the macro trend, Bladow said. Last year alone, venture capital firms invested more than $17 billion across 214 companies that had the on-demand business model, up from $7.3 billion the previous year. These investments represented nearly 13 percent of all venture funding that year, according to data gathered by CB Insights. Uber, the pioneer of the on-demand model, also continued to grow, giving venture firms a reason to keep throwing money at on-demand businesses. But offering rides is different from selling flowers. For Uber to offer on-demand service, all it needs is lots of drivers using their own cars to log onto the app and start driving. For BloomThat to deliver flowers in a one-hour window, it had to set up distribution centers stocked with fresh bouquets that were ready to be sent out at a moments notice. That takes real estate, supplies and staff before even getting into the logistics of one-hour delivery. Zirx, a venture-funded San Francisco startup that offered on-demand valet parking, found its initial business model undermined by similar costs. Costly spots The company was paying a premium to lease parking spots in cities that have notoriously few parking spots. The more popular the company got, the more it cost to secure additional spots. Customers, however, werent willing to pay the premium. Most consumers have a price point in mind for a service, said Sean Behr, CEO of Zirx. The consumer is unwilling to pay for the true nature of on-demand. And so the first signs of an on-demand exodus have started to show. Some, like Spoonrocket (on-demand meals), Homejoy (on-demand house cleaning) and Shuddle (Uber for kids), have gone out of business because they couldnt raise enough money. Sidecar, an Uber competitor, sold its assets to General Motors last year. And Zirx has dropped the on-demand component of its business entirely. A company needs to look into their own business and ask themselves what theyre best at, said Eurie Kim, a partner at Forerunner Ventures, which invested in BloomThat and supported the companys move away from on-demand delivery. When you do that, you realize there are probably two or three things your customer really loves about your business, and its not necessarily the delivery. For BloomThat, the company learned that customers thought on-demand delivery was nice, but it wasnt a deal breaker. People didnt mind ordering flowers and getting them in a later window, or even the next day. By extending the delivery window by an hour, the company was able to reduce the number of its drivers and distribution centers and cut costs by 25 percent. The company now offers on-demand delivery only in city centers, and nationwide next-day delivery. The latter accounts for 50 percent of its orders, and the company became profitable four months ago. When Behr looked at Zirxs model, he realized it would be a very difficult product to make money. So he, too, changed the companys course. This year, Zirx changed its business to offer a service where it moves vehicles for other companies, such as rental car services, mechanics and car dealers. Behr expects Zirx to be profitable by the end of the year. The idea that were an on-demand company that was part of the problem, said Matt Schwab, BloomThats co-founder and president. Were not an on-demand company. Were a company that builds products that has on-demand delivery. It seems trivial, but flipping the thinking changed the focus of the company. There are some industries where on-demand delivery is critical, said Ooshma Garg, founder of Gobble, a dinner kit company that delivered on-demand meals in 2012, before changing to a subscription model. But that only applies to two or three industries, not 100. We figured out that on-demand didnt work for us within three months of trying it, she said. During its on-demand period, the quality of Gobbles food and service suffered. Its target market, which was families, lived in the suburbs meaning it had to have delivery drivers stationed across the Bay Area with trunks full of food. Any meals that werent sold went to waste. It wasnt profitable. Gobble quickly changed direction to a subscription model. It is now 20 times larger and is no longer losing money. Its not just companies that are waking up to the fact that being on-demand doesnt guarantee success the investor tide has also turned. As the downturn leads to more cautious investment, on-demand businesses are among the hardest-hit; funding for such companies fell in the first quarter of this year to $1.3 billion, down from $7.3 billion six months ago. If you look in venture capital markets, the on-demand sector is definitely out of favor, said Ajay Chopra, a partner at Trinity Ventures who is an investor in both Gobble and Zirx. Its not lost on venture capitalists that the collective fear of missing out on investing in the next Uber is what drove many of the investments in on-demand businesses to begin with. Some fade away But as with any boom, there is a shakeout. Here, its been the realization that on-demand delivery isnt as new or groundbreaking as previously thought (e-commerce firms Webvan and Kozmo.com offered delivery in less than an hour in the late 90s before going out of business during the dot-com crash), and its not actually crucial to most companies. A lot will go out of business, sell or merge, Chopra said, adding that a lot of companies will adopt a different model. And while such a change may be an admission that a company didnt get it right the first time, thats just part of running a business, Chopra said. Its not easy. Gobble, Zirx and BloomThat all went through awkward transition periods. Gobble spent months educating its customers on the new business. Zirx had to cut the consumer side of its business entirely. BloomThats growth flatlined for five months while it figured out its new model. Its not the straightforward overnight success story that Silicon Valley likes to sell. But its far more sustainable and lucrative than the rush to win at on-demand. Weve come out of this fog, Bladow said. It allows me to sleep a lot better at night. Paul Newman raced only once in the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, but when he did, his team placed second. In 1979, Newman drove for Dick Barbour Racing in a Porsche 935 along with Barbour and Rolf Stommelen. The trio completed 299 laps. That car is now being offered for sale in the Pebble Beach Auctions Presented by Gooding & Company next month. The auction company estimates the 935's auction value between $4.5 - $5.5 million. More for you 2017 Ford GT '66 Heritage Edition honors Le Mans winning car 1966 Newman's interest in racing was born out of his training at Watkins Glen for the 1969 film "Winning," in which he starred opposite his wife, Joanne Woodward. Over the next four decades, the actor could be seen on the track from Daytona to Sebring to Lime Rock. CHECK CAR PRICES: The auction begins August 20 in California. What Gooding & Company says: Crime went up in California in 2015, with year-to-year jumps not only in murders, robberies and car thefts but also in hate crimes against Muslims and assaults against police officers, according to statistics released Friday by Attorney General Kamala Harris. The increases were in many cases significant killings across the state were up 10 percent, to 1,861, mirroring the rise in overall violent crime but they represented a relatively modest uptick amid a long decline. In 1993, near the end of the crack cocaine epidemic, nearly 4,100 people were killed in California. Still, it was a little riskier to walk down the street in California last year. An average citizen had a 1-in-21,000 chance of being slain, while in 2014 a Californian had a 1-in-23,000 chance of being slain. Property crimes went up 8 percent when compared with 2014, driven by a 13 percent surge in car boosting. But the 2014 number had been the lowest recorded in at least 45 years. Indeed, the numbers show the state as a whole is not experiencing San Franciscos epidemic of smash-and-grab car burglaries, which were up 31 percent in 2015 and have nearly tripled since 2010. The overall trend in California remains overwhelmingly positive, said Michael Romano, a civil rights lawyer and director of the Stanford Justice Advocacy Project. You never want to see crime go up, Romano said, but over the past five years, the trend has been very good. The annual statewide crunching of crime statistics which is sure to be a factor in debates over such topics as sentencing reform, gun control and police funding revealed just how tricky statistics can be. The attorney general reported that, amid the crime increase, felony arrests fell by 29 percent last year. But that was because many lesser felonies were reclassified as misdemeanors following the passage of Proposition 47 in late 2014 not because Californians suddenly changed their natures. Last years homicide victims in California tended to be men ages 18 to 29. A homicide victim was twice as likely to be Latino as white, the attorney generals office said. Guns were used in more than 70 percent of killings. While hate crime increased 10 percent, religious hate crime went up 50 percent. The number of reported anti-Islamic incidents increased from 18 to 40, while the number of anti-Semitic crimes ticked up from 80 to 97. For the seventh straight year, juvenile arrests were down. Last year there were 72,000 juvenile arrests, a decrease of 17 percent from 2014. Nearly 3 in 5 juvenile arrests were for misdemeanors. Misdemeanor drunken driving arrests decreased for the fifth year in a row, though it wasnt immediately clear how much of the fall was due to sober driving and how much was due to less policing. Last year, 130 people were killed by police officers. The Bay Area was not immune to the rise in violent crime. According to figures provided by local police, killings in San Francisco increased from 45 in 2014 to 52 last year, while killings in Oakland increased from 80 to 83. The per capita murder rate in Oakland remained the highest in the Bay Area, with Richmond and Vallejo close behind. The homicide rate increases in San Francisco and Oakland, however, were well behind those of Cleveland (90 percent), Nashville (83 percent), Milwaukee (73 percent) and Baltimore (59 percent). Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SALT LAKE CITY A Utah militia group leader accused of trying to blow up a federally owned cabin in rural Arizona also scouted mosques and U.S. military facilities as possible targets, an FBI agent testified on Wednesday. William Keebler, who authorities say has ties to Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, took video of an unidentified mosque and cased federal offices such as National Guard facilities before settling on the remote cabin, FBI agent Steve Daniels said. Keeblers militia had seven members, three of whom were undercover FBI agents, Daniels said. Undercover agents built the inert explosive device and placed it against a cabin door last week before handing Keebler the remote detonator, defense attorney Lynn Donaldson pointed out. Not liking a particular religion or minority group or action of the federal government is not illegal; its just not politically correct, said Donaldson. But prosecutors contend Keebler wanted to use explosives and was also willing to shoot people if anyone came after the group when he detonated the device. He had an AR-15-style gun, a handgun and lots of ammo, Daniels said. It doesnt get too much more serious than detonating a bomb, said prosecutor Andrew Choate. Wednesdays hearing came as U.S. Magistrate Judge Dustin Pead considers whether to keep Keebler in jail before his trial on one count of attempting to damage federal property with an explosive. Hes expected to decide after reviewing recordings at the request of the defense. The FBI started investigating Keebler after he took part in a 2014 armed standoff with federal officials at Bundys Nevada ranch over unpaid grazing fees, Daniels said. Keebler considered the grazing restrictions harassment, and wanted to blow up federal property to retaliate, charges state. The cabin the group eventually settled on is in the northern Arizona area of Mount Trumbull. Keebler was also an associate of Arizona rancher Robert LaVoy Finicum, who served as a spokesman for Bundys son, Ammon Bundy, and other ranchers involved in an armed standoff at an Oregon wildlife refuge earlier this year, prosecutors say. Finicum was shot and killed by authorities during a Jan. 26 traffic stop that led to Ammon Bundys arrest. Keebler raises chickens and rabbits on a farm in Stockton, Utah, about 40 west of Salt Lake City, and suffers from health problems, Donaldson said. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison. Summer is a fine time to escape the heat and retreat to climate-controlled casinos, which are luring players with all sorts of promotions. Here are some appealing contests and deals from Northern California casinos: Thunder Valley: In Lincoln, about 30 miles northeast of Sacramento, this casino is touting its $750,000 Xtreme Offroad Giveaway. At 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, seven players will be selected to win up to $10,000. Other prizes include Kawasaki dirt bikes, Yamaha WaveRunners and shopping sprees at Bass Pro Shops. The contests run through Aug. 27. Entrants must be present to win. Details at https://thundervalleyresort.com. Graton Resort & Casino: About 40 miles north of San Francisco in Rohnert Park, Graton Resort & Casino is hosting its Reach for Riches Giveaway, drawings in which the top prize is $25,000. Another 50 winners will get $250 each. On Sunday, July 10, Graton hosts a slot tournament with $15,000 worth in prizes; the top prize is $5,000. The tournament is open to premier, platinum and elite members of Gratons rewards program. In addition, Graton hosts other slot tourneys from 5-9 p.m. Thursdays through the end of July, said spokeswoman Lori Nelson. And theres this other quirky promo at Graton: Earn 1,000 rewards points between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. July 17, and the casino will give you a Betty Crocker Blaster blender. You get to keep the points. For details, visit www.gratonresortcasino.com. Cache Creek: This casino in Brooks off Highway 16, northeast of Lake Berryessa, is giving away two Jeeps each weekend through Sept. 5. Its called Quest for Jeeps and includes nine cash prizes as well. Drawings are 7 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The top winner, by random drawing each day, gets the Jeep, while others get cash prizes ranging from $1,000 to $2,500. Another Cache Creek promo is called Comeback Mondays, which runs through Oct. 3, with bonus points for Cache Club members who play on Mondays. Fore more information, go to www.cachecreek.com. Parkwest Casino Sonoma: The first thing one should know about the Parkwest Casino Sonoma is that its in Petaluma. It used to be called the 101 Casino. The new name is confusing to potential patrons who may think this small casino is in the town of Sonoma. Many of those who come to Parkwest do so for the dining promotions, such as its $9.99 prime rib that includes soup or salad, veggies and an ice cream dessert. There are daily specials for the same price, ranging from barbecued ribs to Southern fried chicken. Those at the gaming tables at 10 a.m. are eligible for a free breakfast. For details, go to http://parkwestcasinosonoma.com. Michael Shapiro (www.michaelshapiro.net) is author of A Sense of Place. Twitter: @shapirowrites SF Symphony Thousands of Japanese Americans spent the war years at the Topaz Internment Camp in central Utah, and one of them was the father of Mark Inouye, the San Francisco Symphonys brilliant and stylistically versatile principal trumpeter. The history of the camp, and the internment experience in general, holds a deeply personal importance to him. This weekend, Inouye will lend his skills to a benefit concert to raise funds for the Topaz Museum, dedicated to raising awareness of this shameful episode in the nations history. Joined by performers Keisuke Nakagoshi, In Sun Jang, Jeffrey Budin, Brad Buethe and Jeff Marrs, Inouye will present a program of both classical and jazz offerings, including the Horace Silver classic Song for My Father. NEW YORK Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, the Romanian-born Holocaust survivor whose classic Night became a landmark testament to the Nazis crimes and launched Mr. Wiesels long career as one of the worlds foremost witnesses and humanitarians, has died at age 87. His death was announced Saturday by Israels Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. No other details were immediately available. The short, sad-eyed Mr. Wiesel, his face a reminder of one mans endurance of a shattering past, summed up his mission in 1986 when accepting the Nobel Peace Prize: Whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. For more than a half-century, he voiced his passionate beliefs to world leaders, celebrities and general audiences in the name of victims of violence and oppression. He wrote more than 40 books, but his most influential by far was Night, a classic ranked with Anne Franks diary as standard reading about the Holocaust. Night was his first book, and its journey to publication crossed both time and language. It began in the mid-1950s as an 800-page story in Yiddish, was trimmed to under 300 pages for an edition released in Argentina, cut again to under 200 pages for the French market and finally published in the United States, in 1960, at just over 100 pages. 'Night is the most devastating account of the Holocaust that I have ever read, wrote Ruth Franklin, a literary critic and author of A Thousand Darknesses, a study of Holocaust literature that was published in 2010. There are no epiphanies in Night. There is no extraneous detail, no analysis, no speculation. There is only a story: Eliezers account of what happened, spoken in his voice. After World War II Mr. Wiesel began working on Night just a decade after the end of World War II, when memories were too raw for many survivors to even try telling their stories. Franks diary had been an accidental success, a book discovered after her death, and its entries end before Frank and her family was captured and deported. Wiesels book was among the first popular accounts written by a witness to the very worst, and it documented what Frank could hardly have imagined. In one especially haunting passage, Mr. Wiesel sums up his feelings upon arrival in Auschwitz: Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. ... Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never. Night was based directly on his experiences, but structured like a novel, leading to a debate over how to categorize it. Alfred Kazin was among the critics who expressed early doubts about the books accuracy, doubts that Mr. Wiesel denounced as a mortal sin in the historical sense. Mr. Wiesels publisher called the book a memoir, even as some reviewers called it fiction. An Amazon editorial review labeled the book technically a novel, albeit so close to Mr. Wiesels life that its generally and not inaccurately read as an autobiography. Mr. Wiesels prolific stream of speeches, essays and books, including two sequels to Night and more than 40 books overall of fiction and nonfiction, emerged from the helplessness of a teenager deported from Hungary, which had annexed his native Romanian town of Sighet, to Auschwitz. Tattooed with the number A-7713, he was freed in 1945 but only after his mother, father and one sister had all died in Nazi camps. Two other sisters survived. After the liberation of Buchenwald, in April 1945, Mr. Wiesel spent a few years in a French orphanage, then landed in Paris. He studied literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne, and then became a journalist, writing for the French newspaper LArche and Israels Yediot Ahronot. Encouraged to speak French author Francois Mauriac, winner of the 1952 Nobel Prize in literature, encouraged Mr. Wiesel to break his vowed silence about the concentration camps and start sharing his experiences. In 1956, Mr. Wiesel traveled on a journalistic assignment to New York to cover the United Nations. While there, he was struck by a car and confined to a wheelchair for a year. He became a lifetime New Yorker, continuing in journalism writing for the Yiddish-language newspaper, the Forward. His contact with the citys many Holocaust survivors shored up Mr. Wiesels resolve to keep telling their stories. Mr. Wiesel became a U.S. citizen in 1963. Six years later, he married Marion Rose, a fellow Holocaust survivor who translated some of his books into English. They had a son, Shlomo. From New York, Mr. Wiesel commuted to Boston University for almost three decades, teaching philosophy, literature and Judaic studies and giving a popular lecture series in the fall. Mr. Wiesel also taught at Yale University and City University of New York. In 1978, he was chosen by President Jimmy Carter to head the Presidents Commission on the Holocaust, and plan an American memorial museum to Holocaust victims. Wiesel wrote in a report to the president that the museum must include denying the Nazis a posthumous victory, honoring the victims last wishes to tell their stories. He said that although all the victims of the Holocaust were not Jewish, all Jews were victims. Mr. Wiesel advocated that the museum emphasize the annihilation of the Jews, while still remembering the others; today the exhibits and archives reflects that. Among his most memorable spoken words came in 1985, when he received a Congressional Gold Medal from President Ronald Reagan and asked the president not to make a planned trip to a cemetery in Germany that contained graves of Adolf Hitlers personal guards. We have met four or five times, and each time I came away enriched, for I know of your commitment to humanity, Mr. Wiesel said, as Reagan looked on. May I, Mr. President, if its possible at all, implore you to do something else, to find a way, to find another way, another site. That place, Mr. President, is not your place. Your place is with the victims. Reagan visited the cemetery, in Bitburg, despite international protests. Mr. Wiesel also spoke at the dedication of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in 1993. His words are now carved in stone at its entrance: For the dead and the living, we must bear witness. Mr. Wiesel defended Soviet Jews, Nicaraguas Miskito Indians, Cambodian refugees, the Kurds, victims of African famine and victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Support of Israel Mr. Wiesel was a longtime supporter of Israel although he was criticized at times for his closeness to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu. When Netanhayu gave a highly controversial address to Congress in 2015, denouncing President Obamas efforts to reach a nuclear treaty with Iran, Mr. Wiesel was among the guests of honor. The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, which he established in 1988, explored the problems of hatred and ethnic conflicts around the world. But like a number of other well-known charities in the Jewish community, the foundation fell victim to Bernard Madoff, the financier who was arrested in late 2008 and accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Mr. Wiesel said he ended up losing $15.2 million in foundation funds, plus his and his wifes own personal investments. Despite Mr. Wiesels mission to remind the world of past mistakes, the greatest disappointment of his life was that nothing changed, he said in an interview. Human nature remained what it was. Society remained what it was. Too much indifference in the world, to the Other, his pain, and anguish, and hope. Legal pot, death penalty on crowded ballot, July 1, Main News, A18 A list of ballot measures for the November general election that began on the Front Page included erroneous information about a plastic bag referendum. The measure will ask voters if they approve of a law, passed in 2014, that bans single-use bags. Bill Hutchinson / The Chronicle DUBLIN (BCN) Police seized more than 500 pounds of illegal fireworks Wednesday from two people who were selling them in Dublin through the internet, police said today. An undercover operation led first to 33-year-old Pinole resident Danielle Island who delivered about 80 pounds of fireworks to police. Then Sunnyvale man Daniel Kim, 28, delivered 60 pounds of fireworks to officers, according to police. Kim was questioned and officers learned that he had more fireworks at his home in Sunnyvale. Officers obtained a search warrant for the home and found about 400 pounds. The Alameda County Sheriff's Office Explosive Ordnance Disposal Squad will destroy the fireworks, police said. Dublin officers are taking a zero tolerance approach toward illegal fireworks and additional officers will be on patrol this weekend to keep residents safe. Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson sees a path to the White House. The former Republican governor of New Mexico can boast a running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who also is the former Republican governor of a blue state. When they were Republicans, they won in blue states not just once, but also when they ran for re-election. Theyve never been social-issue conservatives. Both support efforts to legalize marijuana for recreational use. With Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton their parties presumptive nominees Johnson branded Clinton and Trump the two most polarizing figures to ever run for the White House the Libertarian ticket has a shot in November. Before he spoke at the Lincoln Initiative Reboot Conference on Thursday, I sat down with Johnson and asked him what the chances are that he could win. They exist, he answered, and that is a game change. Johnson was the Libertarian nominee in 2012 and garnered 1.2 million votes, or just under 1 percent, of the vote. His name did not appear on any national polls. In 2016, that has changed. Johnson polled 10 percent support in two recent national polls included in the RealClearPolitics polling average, which computes his support at 7.9 percent. Third-party candidates need to exhibit 15 percent or more support in five national polls to win a seat at the national presidential debates. Johnson thinks his ticket will exceed that threshold. If the American people have a chance to hear what Johnson and Weld have to say, their smaller government approach could resonate with middle-of-the-road voters. Johnson urges people who are interested in his candidacy to take the www.isidewith.com quiz that asks voters their positions on domestic and national security issues, then matches them up with presidential candidates. I tried it and found I sided with Johnson on 94 percent of issues but Trump on 81 percent, and Clinton 67 percent of the time. Most Republican candidates give lip service to fiscal restraint, without offering specifics about which spending they would cut. When I interviewed him in 2011, Johnson boasted about his record number of vetoes and asserted that he could have cut a third of state government and no one would have noticed the difference. If he could wave a magic wand, Johnson told me Thursday, I would abolish the Department of Education. He also would abolish the Department of Housing and Urban Development, because local governments should choose what works for them. But he doesnt have a magic wand, so, if elected, hed have to work with the government as it exists. He said he will propose a 20 percent cut in spending. If Congress gives him legislation that cuts spending less than he asked, well, anything under 0 percent growth presents a drastic improvement over past practices. Clinton is vulnerable, Johnson believes, because, with her, Governments the solution to everything. Everythings free, so taxes are going to go up. The former governor of a border state, Johnson has been appalled at Trumps decision to compare undocumented immigrants with rapists and other criminals. Some Republicans will support Clinton because they prefer her hawkish foreign policy approach to Johnsons less martial stands. Johnson wants to break with the status quo. He supports letting U.S. troops finish their mission to destroy the Islamic State. (ISIS has attacked us, he explained.) But Johnson wants to get U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. He believes they should have been deployed to go after al Qaeda, but not the Taliban. If we dont pull out troops now, Johnson said, Washington will leave troops in Afghanistan for decades. I have my own fear a destabilized region that will breed havoc around the world. Its an honest disagreement, which is more than I can say about so much of 2016 politics. Somehow both parties have nominated candidates who dont really pass the smell test. Shame on Democrats for nominating a candidate likely to invite dozens of ethics investigations. Shame on Republican voters for picking the one candidate who could hand the White House to Clinton. Voters who are hungry for a positive alternative should pay attention. You can listen to Gary Johnson for a whole hour and not feel dirty afterward. Debra J. Saunders is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dsaunders@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DebraJSaunders Johnson as governor Vetoed 739 bills. Kept an open-door policy. Once a month, he gave everyone five minutes to call out waste, fraud, abuse and other issues. He promises to do the same as president. Aaron Epstein/The Marsh Sometimes one solo show just isnt enough for the story you want to tell. So you need three solo shows. Thats how good Don Reeds East 14th is, a story about growing up in Oakland in the 1970s, when his stepfather was a Jehovahs Witness and his father was a pimp. After debuting the show in 2009, Reed went on to make it the first installment of a trilogy about his early days, writing and performing The Kipling Hotel and Can You Dig It? Courtesy Marina Fukushima Dancer-choreographer Marina Fukushima enters into a most unusual partnership with her parents, metal artist Hiroki Fukushima and visual artist, ceramicist and teacher Michiko Fukushima, with this interdisciplinary dance work aptly titled Family Seasons. Melding Marinas dance with Michikos drawings and Hirokis sculpture, the piece examines family, work and evolving relationships, as well as the kinds of silences that can exist within families. For example, the silence that exists within deeper relationships between parents and children, and the silence that creates isolation, disconnection and difficult unsaid areas, says Marina Fukushima. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A picture is worth a thousand words, but one in particular stands out when discussing 25 Weswood Drive in San Rafael: Opportunity. Though the Japanese-style home placed among acres of woodland has been an afterthought for more than a decade, the unique construction is experiencing renewed interest. Pictures simply dont show how incredible this place is, said Brad James of North Beach Properties, who is listing the estate for $2.5 million. Currently configured as a two-bedroom, the roughly 5,000-square-foot home could easily accommodate a total of five. Despite being vacant for 11 years, the home retains many original details like shoji screens and interior woodwork. Natural materials like timber, stone and glass dominate the construction. A steep roofline tops a large living room revolving around a sunken sitting area. Sliding glass doors in the living room open to a leafy atrium. Readying the home and the grounds for the market spurred plenty of primping. James believes that the ability to personalize while incorporating the existing architecture is the homes biggest draw. Imagine a Mayan temple swallowed by the jungle, being rediscovered and brought back to life, he said. Theres more to be done to eventually bring this masterpiece back to its former glory. Historical research shows James isnt using hyperbole when discussing the homes background. Filmmaker George Lucas tried to purchase 25 Westwood Drive in the second half of the 1970s, only to be outbid by the current seller. The home dates to the early 1960s, when popular broadcast journalist, radio personality and television star Alex Dreier built the architectural showpiece he nicknamed Shangri-La for $130,000. It was once a shining star. Now its a tarnished gem, James said. But if someone is looking for a fulfilling project and a unique place to live, this is the place. Theres more to be done to eventually bring this masterpiece back to its former glory. Only private showings are allowed. Visit www.northbeachprop.com to learn more. An open house takes place Sunday, July 10 from 2 to 4 p.m. Listing agent: Brad James, North Beach Properties, (415) 314-8580, bjames@nbproperties.com. Details Address: 25 Westwood Drive, San Rafael. Price: $2.5 million. Features: Five wooded acres surround this roughly 5,000-square-foot Japanese-style home. Currently arranged as a two bedroom, the home could easily accommodate a total of five. A detached prayer house on the property awaits transformation into a guest cottage. The listing also includes two 3,000-gallon water tanks. Q: I need your help with an Avalon Waterways trip from Amsterdam to Brussels that I booked through Vacations to Go. A few days before we were supposed to leave, my husband was in a serious biking accident. He spent two days in the intensive care unit. My husband had two small brain bleeds. His cognition is now normal, but he has many physical problems, including broken ribs, a broken nose, multiple stitches in his face and a swollen knee. For the first time, we did not get travel insurance a lesson learned. We were going to Europe with friends to celebrate 50 years of friendship. They left this morning. I have been given the runaround, as one company blames the other for not helping. I am dealing with representatives from our travel agency and our tour operator, but Im being batted back and forth. American Airlines was kind enough to refund the frequent-flier miles we used for the trip, but it looks like Ill lose 80 percent of our trip. Avalon has offered to refund only $1,500 for a $6,700 trip. Id like to do the trip next year. Can you help me recover some of the money we spent on this trip? Mara Bronstone, Los Altos Hills A: Youre right, travel insurance could have helped you, but theres no guarantee. For example, some policies have named exclusions that specifically state that pre-existing medical conditions arent covered. If your husband had an illness that suddenly flared up, you might still be asking your tour operator for help and still looking at losing 80 percent of your vacation. The terms of your cruise were clear. If you cancel less than 30 days but more than one day before your trip, you forfeit 80 percent of what you paid. If youre within one day of traveling, you usually get nothing back. You can see the terms and conditions on the Avalon site, www.avalonwaterways.com/terms. As far as terms go, these are pretty good. Remember, the closer to departure you cancel, the more likely it is that the cabin you reserved will go unoccupied, so the tour operator loses money. Still, Avalon should have taken your circumstances into account. After all, when something goes wrong with one of its cruises, like low water levels, it reserves the right to either cancel the tour or transfer you to a bus, turning your riverboat tour into a bus tour. It expects passengers to understand. Why shouldnt it work the other way around? Several efforts to reach out to your travel agent ended in frustration. Vacations to Go repeatedly asked Avalon to waive some of its rules on your behalf, but it refused. You also sent a brief, polite email to the company, asking it to consider a one-time exception to its rule. (I publish a list of the executive contacts for Avalon on my consumer-advocacy site: http://elliott.org/company-contacts/avalon-waterways.) The company eventually agreed to offer you a 75 percent credit that is good for two years. Youre happy with that outcome. Next time, get the insurance. Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. Find travel tips at www.elliott.org. E-mail: chris@elliott.org Twitter: @elliottdotorg Theres nothing like an island break in the middle of your travels to really make you feel like youre on vacation. Some of my most vivid travel memories are recharging on an island, where time seems to slow down, and the only thing on the agenda is finding the perfect perch for watching the sunset. Denmarks Aero Island is one of my favorite island getaways. This sleepy, 6-by-22-mile isle near the German border is a peaceful and homey place, where baskets of strawberries sit for sale on the honor system in front of farmhouses. I enjoy biking into the idyllic countryside, past farms and windmills, struggling uphill to the islands 2,700-inch-high summit, then winding down past a fine 12th century church, a 6,000-year-old burial place and a little brewery. If I time it right, I arrive at the beach just past the main town of Aeroskobing before the sun sets. Along the beach is a row of Monopoly-size huts, each lovingly painted and carved, stained with generations of family fun, sunsets and memories of pickled herring on rye bread. Ill never forget picnicking with the mayor of Aeroskobing here, watching happy children splash in the water as the late summer sun sank heavy and red into ... whatever Danish sea was out there. As the shrimp and wieners sizzled on the hibachi, the mayor strummed his guitar and taught us Danish sea chanteys. To Denmarks north, Stockholm offers more spectacular island escapes. Part of an archipelago, Stockholm is surrounded by both the sea and a large lake, with an amazing playground of islands stretching 80 miles from its center. Of the thousands of islands, more than a hundred are served by ferries. Immersed in farmland One of the joys of a trip to Stockholms Archipelago is to grab a perch on the breezy sundeck with Swedes as they enjoy their island wonderland. A popular destination is Vaxholm, an hour away, with a well-preserved fortress just off its busy harbor front and a charming old town. For an even more remote destination, ride a couple of hours past Vaxholm to the island of Svartso, with 80 year-round residents. Renting a bike is a fine way to see the island. Within moments youre out in the countryside, immersed in pastoral farmland and pristine nature. At the end, stop at the excellent restaurant. I requested the house specialty and was overwhelmed with the bounty of the Baltic. While northern Europe has plenty to offer, the Mediterranean is what most people envision for island getaway. But be warned: Mediterranean islands can be unpleasantly crowded and expensive in summer. Countless islands sit off Croatias Dalmatian Coast, stretching north from Dubrovnik. Two good destinations are Hvar and Korcula, both with rugged limestone scenery, historic port towns, pebbly beaches and crystal-clear water. Hvar is glitzier, while Korcula is sleepier more salt of the earth. In either place, enjoy strolling the back streets, try to listen to some klapa Dalmatian folk music sung a cappella and savor island life over a cup of bijela kava (white coffee). Touristy Mykonos and Santorini are classic Greek island stops. But my favorite is Hydra, less than two hours by ferry from Athens, yet a world apart. One of the islands greatest attractions is the absence of cars and motorbikes. Instead, donkeys do the heavy hauling today just as they have through the centuries. Hydra is one of the prettiest towns in Greece. Its superb harbor is surrounded by an amphitheater of rocky hills, covered in a maze of narrow, cobbled streets, flanked by whitewashed homes. The clutter of red-tiled roofs looks like a sloppy pile of Triscuits tumbling down the hill to the harbor. The beauty of a Hydra day is that there is no need for an agenda. Your wake-up call is a chorus of tinny church bells, which sound like dinner triangles on a cowboy ranch. The bells also seem to call the barnyard awake: dogs, roosters, a million baby birds cry for breakfast, and old burros snort, clearing their sinuses. You can spend the day exploring the town and museums, hiking to nearby villages and beaches, or circling the island by boat. Toasting a perfect day But I do have one ritual: At days end, I walk 15 minutes along the coastal path to the rustic village of Kaminia, with its pocket-size harbor that shelters the communitys fishing boats. On the bluff just above is Kodylenias Taverna, where owner Dimitris takes his boat out early in the morning to buy the days best catch directly from the fishermen, before they come back to port. Here, with a glass of ouzo and some munchies, as the sun slowly sinks into the sea and boats become silhouettes, you can drink to the beauties of an island escape. Rick Steves (www.ricksteves.com) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email: rick@ricksteves.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The women in light cardigans and breezy bouffants slice fish from belly to jaw, gutting and cleaning, and I try not to flinch. The sound of live ones flopping on aluminum scales takes on a rhythm under the counterpoint of whooshing scooters and Algerian pop music. And, to a lesser extent, the snorts of the boar waddling down the quai, harnessed on a pink leash. It would be easy to assume that Marseille is like most other waterfront European cities. It took less than a couple of hours in Provences capital, however, to get over that. Better known for corrupt city officials, mobsters and prostitutes than for mainstream tourism, Marseilles gritty, sun-soaked skyline has appeared as the backdrop of movies such as The French Connection and Borsalino. The locals, the Marseillais, take joy in the offbeat imperfections of their city. People arent neutral about Marseille they either love it or they hate it. Usually people hate it because of its shabbiness of some areas, or the wind, says Valerie Bureau, the owner of Hotel Le Ryad. But I love it. It has not been spoiled yet by tourism ... she says. It is vibrant, it has an energy which is difficult to explain, but you feel it, and it feeds you. So it seemed natural to better understand this city through the places that feed you body and spirit its markets. More than two dozen are wedged into the cityscape, each offering a distinct view of a neighborhood, the local culture and history and, hopefully, a taste literally and figuratively of what makes Marseille different. Of what makes someone Marseillais. The old port The market-hopping journey began at the citys oldest landmark, Vieux Port, a harbor flanked by outdoor restaurants and two forts, where the banks are peppered with history: On the walkway, a weathered plaque reads that in 600 B.C., sailors founded Marseille, from where Western civilization was born. While that might be up for debate, it is certainly the oldest city in France and Europes third-largest port. Every morning, stalls crop up for the fish market or Marche aux Poissons. The fishing industry here stretches back to the fourth century, when it began exporting its prized salted fish, as well as coral and cork. Today Marseilles many chefs come buy fish for bouillabaisse, Marseilles famous fish stew. It seems that for every neo-Baroque church, of which there are many, there is another market around every corner. A short stroll from the port up La Canebiere (the boulevards name echoes the Provencal word for hemp, a tribute to the old maritime rope makers), is the Marche de Noailles. This is Marseilles own souk a labyrinth of halal food stalls slinking through Place du Marche, harkening to the continent a mere 550 nautical miles away and it greets me on a hot afternoon when the torrid sirocco North African winds sweep through the city in a dusty rage. Roughly 150,000 of Marseilles 850,000 residents originate from the Maghreb, Africas northwest, particularly from the former French colonies of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Personal tributes to these lands waft through the stalls: the smell of mahjouba, a rectangular crepe filled with sauteed tomato, red pepper and onion, and sweet-savory Moroccan pastillas. Turmeric, cumin and harissa are arranged in vibrant palettes. Nuts and fruits abound, like the sticky pink crescent of bee-covered watermelon one vendor offered as I walked by. Shop owners selling prayer mats and African textiles idle in the entry of their Moorish-tiled stores, chatting up pedestrians. The people of Marseille consider themselves to be Marseillais first, and French second, says Ines du Perron de Revel, the owner of Le Couvent, an 18th century monastery that she recently converted into a hotel. For the many people coming to Marseille from Frances former colonies, they are adopted by the city even if they are not French citizens. Even Louis XIV turned the forts guns toward Paris, not the sea, to defend its distinct identity. Beyond the stalls, Noailles curbside culture hums with a melodic mix of Arabic and French men in dashikis sipping demitasses of coffee in the bright Mediterranean sun, women in silk caftans and floral head wraps walking by mural-saturated walls, stepping over the pyramids of shoes at backstreet mosques. I bypass the hookah bars bumping French hip-hop, which has a strong history in Marseille, and instead stop to revive over a honey-soaked Tunisian pastry and mint tea at mainstay La Carthage. Flowers, crafts, books Further up the Canebiere, the bounty of Provences Eden-esque countrysides are hauled to the city and displayed at the pop-up flower market, Le Marche aux Fleurs des Allees de Meilhan. In the spring and early summer, peach blossoms, red poppies, peonies and wisteria burst from tin buckets. The crescendo arrives midsummer, when the regions iconic sunflowers and French lavender are at their peak. The seductive floral scents drifting through the air, its intangibility taunting me, I suddenly understand why countless people have come to Provence to try to capture its spectral beauty, either in a bottle or on a canvas. As the worlds top perfume-producing region, its history of bottling the lands aromas goes back centuries. And its long growing season, flowers and ample sunshine are as revered by the regions farmers as they are by the many painters Paul Cezanne, Renoir and van Gogh who have all famously striven to immortalize Provence. I breeze through a handful of other markets the afternoon craft market, Les Artisanales du Vieux-Port, with bricks of Marseilles famous soap, savon de Marseille, made from olive oil and herbs like lavender and verbena. The book market, Le Marche des Bouquinistes, offers a bric-a-brac of vintage books, some by local authors like James Baldwin, who spent the last 17 years of his life writing in a nearby cottage. On the citys fringe, a gritty weekend flea market, Le Marche aux Puces, sells an undefinable array of secondhand items and is a sort of study of the lives of the city and its compulsion to cling to its past. Dusk at the Mucem, Marseilles newish museum of Mediterranean cultures, housed in a modern steel-laced box, reveals the nonchalance of the Marseillais, of which I found myself growing envious: a DJ spins Euro-techno on the terrace while people drink wine in the grass, and, below, tweens strip off their tattered street clothes to jump into the clear rocky waters below. Across the street from the Mucem is a new generation of Marseille markets, Les Halles de la Major, a gourmet food hall packed with French Millennials. Here the Provencal cuisine feels distant from, but not entirely unrelated to the bouillabaisse the high-end organic produce, shellfish and meats and a tapas bar are organized with artful mise en place. A similar but smaller food hall, the Marche St.-Victor, also opened recently in a down-tempo quarter, packed between crooked sun-baked stucco town houses. A day trip After several days of picking over Marseilles markets, I decide to skip town with the cache of goods that Ive amassed. But when I tell my host my plan to take the train to Cassis for the day, she scoffs in the adoringly abrasive way Ive quickly come to love in the Marseillais, Psshhh! Why? Cassis is for the bourgeois. Instead she insists I take a bus to Calanques National Park, a series of cerulean inlets on the crust of France, in greater Marseille. So I do. But first I stop at a wine shop stocked almost exclusively with Cotes de Provence rose (this is a world where whites and reds are merely an afterthought). I see only a couple of people on the long and lonely trail. Its populated mostly by pine trees, more than a dozen varieties of orchids, the rare Bonellis eagle and falcons. After cresting a ridgeline, I see white cliffs dropping into turquoise water and old abandoned fishing huts corroding in the salt air. When I make it down the steep trail, I am greeted by a cove of locals, most of the real estate on their towels dedicated to bread and cheese likely from the same markets Ive been exploring while they stand in the water and swig from bottles of rose. I admire the van Gogh-esque shimmer on the sea, and the way the sun cues different shades of blue to emerge from varying depths. Off the shore, tourist-filled yachts occasionally float in, but they only reach the distant water, unable to come into the shallows the best part, only reachable by hiking. I tear off a chunk of bread and smear tapenade from Les Halles de la Major across it with a plastic knife. I lay out the oranges from Noailles, and I feel if only for the afternoon like a Marseillais. Jenna Scatena is a San Francisco freelance writer. Email: travel@sfchronicle.com. Twitter and Instagram: @jenna_scatena If you go Getting there Marseille Provence Airport is 17 miles northwest of Marseille. Direct flights run frequently from Paris to Marseille; take the train from the airport to Marseille St. Charles station. Where to stay Le Ryad: 16 Rue Senac de Meilhan, +33 (0) 4 91 47 74 54, www .leryad.fr. A boutique French hotel with a Moroccan twist; 11 elegant rooms, a hammam and a jasmine-infused interior courtyard offer refuge from the bustle of the city. Room rates starting at $68. Le Couvent Marseille: 6 Rue Vieille Fonderie, +33 6 26 26 41 94, www .fonderievieille.com. A former 18th century convent that has been reimagined as nine apartment-style rooms. Dynamic sculptures and high ceilings bring the design into present-day. Room rates starting at $136. Hotel la Residence du Vieux-Port: 18 Quai du Port, +33 (0) 4 91 91 91 22, www .hotel-residence-marseille.com. This harborside hotel pops with interior murals and funky, bright furniture. Most rooms have balconies overlooking Vieux Port and Notre Dame de la Garde. Room rates starting at $150. Where to eat Chez Michel: 6 Rue des Catalans, +33 4 91 52 30 63, www .restaurant-michel-13.fr. Chez Michel might be a little stiff for Marseilles relaxed charm, but thats to be expected at one of the best bouillabaisse restaurants in town. Come hungry, and bring friends. La Femina: 1 Rue du Musee, +33 4 91 54 03 56. The couscous on the menu at La Femina has remained faithful to the same recipe for 104 years. The multigenerational restaurant gives a true taste of Algerian-Marseille flavors in a cavernous space with kitsch y decor. Les Halles de la Major: 12 Quai de la Tourette, +33 4 91 45 80 10, www.leshallesdelamajor.com. This food-hall-style space is the best way to sample lots of local dishes in one seating. Farm-fresh vegetables, tapas and confections are offered inside or outside. More information Marseille Office of Tourism: www.marseille-tourisme.com DHAKA, Bangladesh The hostages were given a test: recite verses from the Quran, or be punished, according to a witness. Those who passed were allowed to eat. Those who failed were tortured and slain. The dramatic, 10-hour hostage crisis that gripped Bangladeshs diplomatic zone ended Saturday morning with at least 28 dead, including six of the attackers, as commandos raided the popular restaurant where heavily armed gunmen were holding dozens of foreigners and Bangladeshis prisoner while hurling bombs and engaging in a firefight with security forces. The victims included 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, and two Bangladeshi police officers. The attack marks an escalation in militant violence that has hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation with increasing frequency in recent months, with the extremists demanding the secular government revert to Islamic rule. Most previous attacks have involved machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities. But Friday nights attack was different, more coordinated, with the attackers brandishing assault rifles as they shouted Allahu Akbar (God is Great) and stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhakas Gulshan area while dozens of foreigners and Bangladeshis were dining out during the Ramadan holy month. The gunmen, ordered restaurant workers to switch off the lights, and they draped black cloths over closed-circuit cameras, according to a survivor, who spoke with ATN News. But about 35 were trapped inside, their fate depending on whether they could prove themselves to be Muslims, according to the father of a Bangladeshi businessman who was rescued Saturday along with his family. The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Quran, the Islamic holy book, according to Rezaul Karim, describing what his son, Hasnat, had witnessed inside. Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night. The others, he said, were tortured. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility, saying it targeted the citizens of Crusader countries in the attack, warning that citizens of such countries would not be safe as long as their warplanes kill Muslims. The Amaq news agency, affiliated with Islamic State, said the attackers verified the identities of the hostages, sparing the Muslims and killing the foreigners. The 20 hostages killed included nine Italians, seven Japanese, three Bangladeshis and one Indian, government sources said. A unidentified U.S. citizen was among the hostages killed. BENGALURU: The Chinese smart phone manufacturer Xiaomi will be releasing a new flagship follow-up, the Mi Note 2, as well as another variant of its Mi 5. Rumors and reports suggest that Xiaomi Mi Note 2 will come in three variants standard, high and top-end. While, there has been no word on the release date, Mi Note 2 might be launched in a few months. While the upcoming Mi Note 2 is still reported to be in the phablet form, with a 5.7-inch screen, there are rumors about Xiaomi planning of a curved edge display for the new flagship. Reports also suggests about a 2K definition display to be introduced in the upcoming version. Xiaomi Mi Note 2s top-end version might also come up with a dual camera setup at the back, Hi-Fi chip and super quick charging feature, proposes the report. The new Mi Note 2 might also come with 6GB RAM on-board. The base model Mi may be introduced featuring a Snapdragon 820 processor and 4GB of RAM. One of the rumors proposes that the Xiaomi Mi Note 2 will be a 256GB UFS 2.0 internal storage. This is said to be better than storage found in current flagships, which follows the eMMC standard. The UFS-type onboard storage has higher performance levels in terms of read-write speed. Reports also suggest about another flagship, Mi 5 progressing in the company labs that is expected to be launched later this year. The upcoming Mi 5 might come with a 6GB of RAM, as well as a 5.15-inch full HD display. It might also be introduced with an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor from Qualcomm, as well as a pressure-sensitive screen resembling the Apple 3D touch. The current Mi 5 version available in India comes with an 820 processor, 3GB RAM, 16 megapixel rear camera with 4-axis OIS and a five megapixel front camera for the selfies. It also features a 5.15-inch full HD display and a curved 3D glass back. Read Also: HP Launches World's Thinnest Laptop Can Sony's Latest Xperia XA Dual Bring Back Its Market Reputation? 20430189-mmmain.jpg The city has spent millions placing hundreds of mostly off-Island homeless families in four West Shore hotels while it struggled to serve thousands seeking shelter in the last year. (Staten Island Advance/Anthony DePrimo) After local backlash prompted the city to reexamine a controversial practice, the last homeless families have been relocated from the remaining Travis hotels used as short-term shelters. As the city struggled with a growing homelessness crisis, the number of people placed in the hotels by the Department of Homeless Services increased sharply last year, but had been significantly reduced in recent months. Only 12 families were living in just one mid-Island hotel by late May. Now, homeless adults and children have left all four hotels that were part of the program: the Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Comfort Inn on Wild Avenue in Travis, and the Ramada Inn in Willowbrook, which was cleared immediately after the February murder of a woman and her two children. According to the city, the change is part of a policy shift aimed at housing only Staten Islanders in temporary shelters on the borough. "It was clear from the beginning--when I first learned about homeless students being shuffled in and out of our local schools without the proper services they needed and about the homeless families that were essentially stranded in these suburban communities--that it was not appropriate to use these hotels as temporary shelters," said Minority Leader Steven Matteo (R-Mid-Island) in a statement expressing thanks to the de Blasio administration. Matteo and Borough President James Oddo had pressed the city for a commitment to address the practice. Human Resources Commissioner Steve Banks pledged in January that use of the hotels as shelters would end. "From the moment we first heard that homeless families were being housed in hotels in the community of Travis we protested to the administration. We are grateful that they kept their word, and that these hotels are not now being used in this way," said Oddo. "In a few days the eyes of the city will turn to the streets of Travis when the Fourth of July parade kicks off. Residents of Travis can now rest assured that the hotels in their community are not being used as de facto shelters." Staten Island has only four homeless shelters, including one that has 12 beds for single adults and another that can hold 46 families with children. Additionally, chronically homeless are offered a "Safe Haven" shelter with 30 beds as well as a drop-in center that provides services like meals and showers. Emergency shelter is also offered at several borough churches. Mayor Bill de Blasio hasn't ruled out opening a new homeless shelter on the borough. NWS NEELEY College of Staten Island graduate Julianne Neeley is the recipient of the prestigious Truman Capote Fellowship to study creative wrting at the University of Iowa. (Neeley family photograph) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- More than 1,000 miles separate Staten Island from Iowa City, home of the celebrated University of Iowa's Writer's Workshop, the holy grail of aspiring poets and novelists. That's where College of Staten Island graduate Julianne Neely is bound in just a few weeks. Neely, 23, was awarded a prestigious Truman Capote Fellowship to study literature and write poetry and fiction at UI, leading to a master's degree in fine arts. "That's been a dream of mine since high school," said Neely, an alumna of St. John Villa Academy, Arrochar. "I have always loved reading, and writing as a way to express myself. I feel it's something I can do well." Neely, a Richmond resident, credits her teachers at Villa -- where she was in the scholars' program and completed Advance Placement courses in literature -- for instilling her love of literature and creative writing. She credits her professors at CSI -- English Professor Cate Marvin in particular -- for nurturing and encouraging her talent. But her road to Iowa was not to be a straight path. She enrolled for a year at the University of Delaware before she transferred to CSI, where she majored in cinema studies with a minor in English. After earning her bachelor's degree from CSI in 2014, Neeley landed a job with the Children's Television Workshop, best known as the creators of "Sesame Street" -- where she worked until last month. Neely, however, kept in touch with her professors at CSI, who encouraged her to apply to graduate programs in creative writing. She applied to several colleges and universities, but was wait-listed, she explained. "But I hadn't applied to Iowa, and decided I would give it a shot," she recalled. She said that Cate Marvin, her adviser at CSI, told her about the Truman Capote Fellowship, "and encouraged me to apply." She had to win over her parents -- dad Michael Neely is director of the Staten Island CYO -- who were skeptical at first. "They were somewhat concerned I might just become another struggling writer, but ultimately they wanted me to do what I enjoy," Neely explained. "Now they're very proud and supportive of me." Neely said she hopes to one day see her work published as a novel, or collection of short stories or poems.For now, however, she plans "to keep reading and keep writing" while she's at UI. Among her favorite literary influences are T.S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath, Joyce Carol Oates, Franz Kafka, and, of course, Truman Capote. "When people tell you about working hard, if you're a writer, the only way to get better is to keep at it. That's what I want to do." 1876-16 SI ROB SQD 06-10-16 Photo The NYPD is asking for the public's help identifying three individuals, two males and one female, sought for questioning in connection with an attempted robbery in the confines of the 121st precinct. (Photo courtesy of DCPI) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The NYPD is asking for the public's help identifying three individuals, two males and one female, sought for questioning in connection with an attempted robbery in the confines of the 121st precinct. It was reported to police that on Friday, June 30 at 5:30 p.m., a 46-year-old female was approached by a male at the intersection of Travis Avenue and Denker Place while crossing the street, according to a statement from the NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information. He allegedly pushed the female victim to the ground and removed her purse, which contained an ID, debit card, wallet, and a total of $220 in cash. He and two others fled the scene in a black, four-door sedan in the direction of Kelly Boulevard, police said. The victim suffered bruises and swelling, but refused medical attention at the scene. Police released surveillance video of the three individuals sought for questioning in connection with the incident, taken from a nearby residence. Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS or for Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or texting their tips to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential. Sotomayor dissent.jpg Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor strongly disagreed with the court's decision in Utah v. Strieff. (Staten Island Advance photo ) Today's column discusses the U.S. Supreme Court's June 20 decision in Utah v. Strieff, a ruling that some predict will dramatically expand police stops and full searches of people. The 5-3 decision also featured a scathing dissent by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one section of which accused the majority of creating a "carceral state", and contained gratuitous, inflammatory racial appeals. Neither of her fellow dissenters, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan, joined that portion of Sotomayor's dissent. In another development last week, Shira Scheindlin, a former federal judge, praised Sotomayor's opinion in a commentary published by the New York Law Journal. It was Scheindlin, you'll recall, who, accusing the NYPD of racial bias in its stop-and-frisk policies, struck them down as unconstitutional in a controversial 2013 opinion. In last week's Law Journal commentary, she commended the Supreme Court's "three wise women" for dissenting in the Strieff case, and opined that the court would be better served if all of its justices were women. That's the mentality of the judge whose stop-and frisk-ruling stood with finality after newly-elected Mayor Bill de Blasio withdrew the city's promising appeal from it. The facts The essential facts in Utah v. Strieff are not in dispute. In December 2005, an anonymous caller informed the South Salt Lake City police's tip-line about "narcotics activity" at a certain residence. Over the course of a week, Detective Douglas Fackrell conducted intermittent surveillance of the home. On frequent occasions, he observed visitors arriving at the premises and leaving a few minutes later. That led him to believe that the occupants were dealing drugs. One of those visitors was Edward Strieff. Detaining him in the parking lot of a nearby convenience store, Officer Fackrell asked Strieff what he was doing at the house. He also asked him for identification. Strieff produced his Utah identification card. After Officer Fackrell relayed the information to a police dispatcher, he was informed that Strieff had an outstanding warrant for a traffic violation. Officer Fackrell then arrested Strieff on the warrant. After next searching him incidental to the arrest, the officer discovered a baggie of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. Prosecution prevails Strieff moved in court to suppress the evidence on the ground that it was obtained as a result of an unlawful investigatory stop. The prosecution conceded that Officer Fackrell lacked reasonable suspicion for the stop, but argued that the contraband should still be admitted into evidence because the existence of the valid arrest warrant attenuated the connection between the unlawful stop and its discovery. While the trial court agreed with the prosecution, the Utah Supreme Court ruled in favor or Strieff, holding that only "a voluntary act of defendant's free will (as in a confession or consent to search)" sufficiently breaks the connection between an illegal search and the discovery of evidence. In its June 20 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court finally resolved the issue with a ruling in favor of the prosecution. The majority opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, pointed out that the constitutional violation in this case was "at most negligent" in nature, and the product of "good faith mistakes." There was no indication, Thomas said, that the unlawful stop "was part of any systemic or recurrent police misconduct. To the contrary, all the evidence suggests that the stop was an isolated instance of negligence that occurred in connection with a bona fide investigation of a suspected drug house." All of which is factually correct. Kagan's dissent Justice Elena Kagan argued in dissent that the ruling will encourage police to stop people without just cause in the hope that there might be outstanding warrants for their arrest. (Approximately 7.8 million people in the United States have such warrants lodged against them, including 16,000 of the 21,000 residents of Ferguson, Missouri). Where such is the case, she continues, the court's ruling will allow police to search them and seize whatever evidence is thereby uncovered. Kagan, however, glosses over the fact that the majority relied upon Officer Fackrell's good-faith belief that he was acting appropriately when he stopped Strieff. That subjective good-faith is an essential part of the court's ruling and militates against the kind of wholesale police abuse that Kagan fears. Still, she makes at least an arguable case against the soundness of the decision. Sotomayor's rage Sotomayor's raging dissent, on the other hand, further solidifies her status as an honest-to-goodness radical. With an unmistakable bow to the Black Lives Matter movement, she condemned America's justice system as unjust to "those routinely targeted by police." They are, said Sotomayor, "the canaries in the coal mine, whose deaths, civil and literal, warn us that no one can breathe in this atmosphere." She even used her platform as a jurist - and what was supposed to be an opinion on the law - to openly embrace Michele Alexander's book "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness." This is the same Sonia Sotomayor whom Democrats extolled as a "moderate" during her confirmation hearings. The court's ruling in Utah v. Strieff is neither unreasonable nor the harbinger of impending police abuse of the Fourth Amendment's search-and-seizure clause. When all is said and done, it will likely be remembered more for Sotomayor's intemperate dissent than what the court actually held. [Daniel Leddy's column appears each Tuesday on the Advance Editorial Page. His e-mail address is column@danielleddylaw.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/LegalHotShots.] Hula group creates global connection When the pandemic ushered everyone indoors, Moorpark resident and longtime dancer Lisa Rauschenberger decided to get people back outsidesocially distanced, of course. She began to hold weekly hula lessons at... Hospital offers safe option to dispose of meds, narcotics Los Robles Health System is working to crush the opioid drug crisis by raising awareness about the dangers of opioid misuse and the importance of safe and proper disposal of... Rotary works to promote worldwide peace, goodwill The Rotary Club of Simi Sunrise recently invited administrators and principals from the Simi Valley Unified School District to attend a meeting and receive the book The Nonviolence Handbook: A... Free books and Halloween treats Big fun awaits kids at local little libraries Simi Valley has about 20 registered Little Free Libraries that offer free books for children, teens and adults. In addition to providing free books to the community, the Little Free... By clicking Agree, you consent to Slates Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and the use of technologies such as cookies by Slate and our partners to deliver relevant advertising on our iOS app to personalize content and perform site analytics. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information about our use of data, your rights, and how to withdraw consent. Agree Transport Workers Union ACT secretary Klaus Pinkus said 80 per cent of ACTION drivers voted for the latest timetable during a four-hour stop work meeting in the middle of Tuesday. Approval follows extended delays after ACTION realised a weekday timetable proposed to take effect last October could not go ahead as it had about 17 buses fewer than required to run the schedule . ACTION drivers will have more chances to take a bathroom break thanks to timetable changes agreed to this week. Credit:Karleen Minney The timetable includes a new all-day service linking Woden, Cooleman Court and Civic, and new direct peak services for Crace, Florey and Latham. A new weekday timetable for the ACTION network will begin next month after bus drivers overwhelmingly voted in favour of more flexible shift breaks. The majority agreed to give up a prescribed but problematic 10-minute break between the second and third hour of driving, provided for in the current enterprise agreement, for flexible breaks at the end of each run. "There may be three or four little breaks [a shift], there may be two, and one day you might get 10 minutes a break, the other you might get three or four minutes," he said. "It will improve it. There's a hell of a lot of frustration that it's taking so long to get to this place." Mr Pinkus said members imposed two conditions, which provided for a review of the operating timetable after one month and the need for TWU approval to implement any other shifts. A Transport Canberra and City Services spokesman said the break between the second and third hour had created substantial operating issues for ACTION, particularly during peak periods, and the new arrangements to take effect at the end of August were a win-win for passengers and drivers. Imagine being at a sporting event and biting down on your favourite player's face, or being able to design a sweet treat that resembles your favourite movie character. Crystal and Cheree Hunter are making it possible thanks to their start-up business Social Pops. Social Pops has used 3D printing technology to make custom chocolates. The duo is using 3D printing technology to create custom chocolate pops in any shape your heart desires. "The possibilities are endless," Crystal said. So, whoever leads the incoming Australian government needs to find a balance between, on the one hand, creating undue complacency by being too reassuring about our relative position, and, on the other, undermining business and consumer confidence by overstressing the fiscal repair task and the increased risk of a nasty shock from a world roiled by the emerging pressure to unwind or weaken globalisation, which until recently had been hegemonic. Despite what one might have concluded from the recent national political discussion, economic growth is not an end in itself. A justly (but not overly) regulated, well-informed and relatively unfettered economy is, history shows us, the best and fairest way to provide individuals and communities opportunities to prosper, and to grow the wealth to fund effective and efficient government. Economics is a crucial mechanism through which values and political philosophies implemented. Economic discussion should be humanised, and always framed in the context of equality of opportunity. Economic management needs to not only be fair, but seem to be fair otherwise inequality is fostered and people rebel and revolt. There is a growing recognition around the world that wealth inequality is increasing. Australia is much better placed to deal with that than are many other nations, because and again despite what you might gather from the political rhetoric we have relatively small government, in terms of the size of both taxing and spending as a proportion of the economy. So, although debt is mounting and requires returning the budget to deficit, we have relative flexibility on that measure, too. There is ample room to bring the budget into surplus without hurting people with big increases in tax or big cuts in spending. During his tilt at the US presidency in 1992, Bill Clinton's campaign guru urged him to focus on one key message: ''It's the economy, stupid". The candidate who has just had a successful tilt at Australia's top job might do well to adapt that to "It's not just the economy, stupid". Michael Short is The Sunday Age's opinion editor and The Age's chief editorialist. @shortmsgs A year ago on 10 July 2015 I opened my column with the words: "After another temporary fix of the Greek crisis, European politicians and bureaucrats will face two much greater challenges how to dismantle the euro and how to keep Britain from leaving the European Union altogether." I went on to say that whether the politicians and bureaucrats liked it or not, the euro's days were numbered and the Greek crisis had blown away, once and for all, the integrationists' dreams of one European government. "The momentum is all in the opposite direction." There is no joy in witnessing the disintegration of the European Union. The Brexit vote was driven by racism and fantasyland dreams. But the United Kingdom, free from the EU, will not be a utopia with no foreigners, a fair distribution of wealth and job security for all who live in the exit-voting regions of northern England, the Midlands and Wales. Nor will it bring joy to Northern Ireland. Grasping the upper house by the scruff of its surly neck in March, Turnbull forced it in a memorably post-modern legislative moment to change the way its 72 members are elected. This was a manoeuvre designed to stamp out the single-issue gibberers and banjo-strummers who have in recent years been helping themselves to the red leather ordinarily reserved for end-of-career unionists and crepuscular party hacks deemed too frightening to be placed before voters without the prophylactic interface of a yard-long Senate ballot paper. It is, as they say, too early to call, but the odds seem quite good at this stage that the magnificent Australian voting public has responded to this gambit by rootling about for an especially barmy selection of senators to inflict on the new government. Hinch? Hanson? Not one Jacqui Lambie but two? Not to mention a team of Xenophons (what is the relevant collective noun here, anyway? A fidget of Xenophons? An inquiry of Xenophons?) and the ever-obliging Greens. There is much to love about Australians, but surely our democratically expressed national sense of larrikinism, in which we duly elect one party in the lower house and then wielding our pencils in the Senate pick the exact people we know will inflict maximum misery on the government we just appointed, must be right up there. But the most curious thing about this campaign has been the transformation of the nation's 29th prime minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull. Turnbull is an exciting guy. As Attorney-General George Brandis sagely observed: "Malcolm has more hinterland than any previous Australian prime minister." He has had multiple careers, all of which seem to end either in a pile of hundred dollar bills or a fistfight with some plutocrat. He has prospected for gold in Siberia. He wrestled the Thatcher government on behalf of a spy and won. He once met a guy in a carpark and handed him secret documents that destroyed Kerry Packer's bid for Fairfax. The man's appetite for la grand geste is a matter of history. It's not a great moment to be a Saudi diplomat in Washington these days. The Republican presidential candidate thinks your country should pay for US military protection. The Democratic President is seeking warmer ties with your arch-enemy, Iran. And the US intelligence community is expected to soon declassify 28 pages of a 2003 Congressional report a former senator says implicates the kingdom in financing the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. This last point is particularly sensitive. The 28 pages were classified as part of the first congressional investigation into the 9/11 attacks, and they raise several questions about an alleged Saudi network in the US that aided two of the hijackers, according to press accounts and officials who have read them. Many of those questions surround a Saudi official named Fahad al-Thumairy, who was in contact with two of the hijackers when they came to San Diego in 2000. The FBI said Thumairy dissembled when being interviewed by agents. President Barack Obama and Saudi Arabia's King Salman meet at Erga Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, earlier this year. Credit:Carolyn Kaster Former Florida senator. Bob Graham, who was the Democratic chairman of the Senate intelligence committee when it investigated the attacks, has been promising in recent months that the 28 pages are explosive. Others have taken a different view. On April 27, the co-chairmen of the 9/11 commission, Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton, issued a lengthy statement saying the 28 pages represented raw and unvetted information. They reiterated the commission's conclusion that they found no evidence the Saudi government or senior Saudi officials individually funded al-Qaeda. CIA director John Brennan, a former station chief in Saudi Arabia, said as much this month. Nonetheless, the Saudis are nervous. Nail al-Jubeir, the director of information and congressional affairs at the kingdom's embassy, said on Wednesday that he was looking forward to the publication of the 28 pages and hoping for zero redactions. "We don't want a single word blacked out, this will just fuel the conspiracy theorists," he said. About six weeks ago, almost 1100 transport officials, ministers and policy wonks from 70 countries gathered in the German city of Leipzig for an annual conference run by the OECD. Among them was Uber's London-based regional manager, Jo Bertram a ride-sharing guru who has spent the past three years expanding the company to 15 British cities and towns, and has overseen its launch in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway. In the face of Uber's rapid rise, Bertram provided a valuable insight into the way it was transforming cities by giving people greater choice in the so-called sharing economy. Uber is getting on top, but the Victorian government is yet to regulate the revolutionary ride-sharing app. In Florida, for instance, the popular app recently joined forces with a transport authority to offer passengers $3 trips to and from their chosen train station. In San Francisco, it has partnered with a real estate agency to give residents $100-a-month subsidies in a bid to encourage the combined use of Uber and public transport. And in 40 cities around the world including London, Jakarta and Delhi there's now a car sharing service called UberPOOL, which allows passengers to split their costs by picking up strangers along the same route. "We really see Uber as a complement for public transport," Bertram told the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's International Transport Forum. "We want to work towards lower congestion and lower emission in our cities, making sure that transportation is accessible and affordable for everyone, making sure we serve under-served areas, and ultimately reducing the need for private car ownership." The question is so far outside his frame of reference that momentarily he is silent. And then: "Can you imagine this! You should not ask this question of a musician! I cannot answer this question." But alongside that passion he manages at the same time to be totally relaxed. In the Australian vernacular he could never be accused of being "up himself". Part of that chilled-out approach is expressed in an iconoclasm that has seen him performing songs by Nirvana, Pink Floyd and AC/DC alongside the works of Bach, Vivaldi and Corelli. He has famously performed at 3000m in the Italian Alps on a cello made from ice and collaborated with artists ranging from Philip Glass to Patti Smith. He is known for wandering around the concert stage while continuing to play, a quirk apparently left over from his student days when he saw no need to interrupt his practice to make coffee or answer the door. Sollima is a compact figure with a head of grey hair and an air of restless energy. His mobile face switches easily from an intense earnestness to laughter and back again. Now 53, he grew up in the Sicilian capital Palermo, surrounded by music. "My father used to be a pianist, a student of [Arturo] Michelangeli, my sisters and brother were all musicians," he says. "My grandma was a pianist, her brother was a composer and, going back there is one cellist. Then going further back there are guitar players in the 1800s. "I don't remember how I started to read music. It's like when you are bilingual." The house was full of pianos, he recalls, and naturally Sollima and his siblings were drawn to them and allowed to experiment by their father. "My father never forced us to study," he says. "He said, 'Here is the piano ...' We started very primitive like animals on the piano. We found the piano keys were the perfect width for tagliatelle pasta! We cut it there and my father came back and at first he said, 'My God, what did you do!' And then he said, 'No, it's good. Be creative!'" Only recently did Sollima's mother reveal to him there were concerns her young son might have developmental problems even be autistic. As a very young child he would listen in rapt attention while his father and a cellist friend Giovanni Perriera played together, bursting into tears only when the music stopped. And then at other times he would hum endlessly to himself. Concerned about the noises his mother took young Giovanni to the doctor. "My father was there at the doctor," he says. "My mother said, 'Listen! He's doing it again'."And my father said: 'Ah this is Brahms, Opus 99!'" They took him home. At the relatively late age of 10 years old he began lessons with Perriera cementing his lifelong love affair with the cello. As a youngster, he used to delight in hiding in the cello case. "Then I grew up and I was too big to do that but somehow I feel the same thing playing the cello," he says. "To me the cello is like 'home'. It's where you live inside. Still I feel like this. The player is 90 degrees to the floor and the cello is diagonal, the sound goes out but you also have a big sound that goes in your body. It makes a space full of sound." For Sollima performing is almost a mystical experience in which he draws on the "energy" of the audience, the performance space and the other musicians. He says that he "sees" through the sound. "Everyone should do this," he says. "When you play you need a vision of something. It can be human, it can be a tree, it can be abstract, it can be happiness ..." He is equally at home ripping out a thrilling improvised solo on Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall, backed by an ensemble of massed cellos, as he is playing the core repertoire of the Neapolitan Baroque. He even uses the same instrument for both modifying it himself as required. It's characteristic of Sollima's eclecticism that the series of Australian concerts with his friend Richard Tognetti and the ACO, attempts to capture five centuries of Italian music in a single program. Beginning with Monteverdi's 17th century Lamento Della Ninfa, the program hurtles forward via works from composers including Leo and Paganini to finish on one of Sollima's own compositions Fecit Neap 17. Yo Yo Ma perhaps came closest in pinning down Sollima's elusive brilliance when he said that he has "no fear". I ask Sollima whether his friend's assessment was fair. Bafta-winning British actress Caroline Aherne has died of cancer at the age of 52. The star was best known for her work in The Royle Family, The Mrs Merton Show and The Fast Show. Caroline Aherne as Denise in The Royle Family. "Caroline Aherne has sadly passed away, after a brave battle with cancer," Neil Reading, her publicist, said on Saturday. "The Bafta award-winning writer and comedy actor died earlier today at her home in Timperley, Greater Manchester. She was 52. The family ask for privacy at this very sad time." For Labor hard-heads moping about the party's relatively flat performance in Victoria, the universal question being asked on Saturday night was this: why did Daniel Andrews bring the CFA issue so dramatically to a head just weeks before the federal election? And what role did it ultimately play in influencing the federal result? With about half the vote counted, Labor had, by 9pm, secured a solid swing of 3.3 per cent to lead by a wafer-thin 50.7 in two-party-preferred terms. In Victoria, the swing to Labor was about 1.8 per cent, with the party in danger of losing the seat of Chisholm to the Liberal Party. The seat of Batman appeared too close to call with Labor incumbent David Feeney clinging on by the narrowest of margins against the Greens. Whereas other states, particularly NSW and Tasmania, produced solid gains for Labor, in Victoria there was almost no upside, with the Liberal Party easily retaining the seats of Corangamite, Deakin and La Trobe. Although Mr Hinch, 72, hasn't yet got the quota of votes needed to secure one of 12 Victorian senate positions, on Saturday night he took to Twitter to claim victory, having campaigned on a platform of tougher penalties for sex offenders and other criminals. Former 3AW radio host Derryn Hinch is on track to win a prized seat in the federal Senate after drawing a favourable first spot on the election ballot paper. Mr Hinch, often referred to as the Human Headline because of his tendency to become the subject of his own stories, has been to prison twice, and spent time in home detention for publicly detailing the criminal histories of convicted sex offenders. Before the election, he said throughout his media career he never expected to enter politics, but was confident he would be able to handle a six-year Senate term despite ongoing health battles. Derryn Hinch at Albert Park Primary School on election day. Credit:Scott Barbour "I've been chasing politicians and cornering them for 50 years," Mr Hinch told Nine News. "I'll rest when I'm dead." Mr Hinch campaigned as one of 116 Victorian Senate candidates under his Derryn Hinch's Justice Party banner. His prospects received a significant boost after drew the beneficial first spot on the ballot paper, ensuring he would mop up so-called donkey votes from people numbering the boxes down the line in order. Adelaide. Rebekha Sharkie has become the first member of the Nick Xenophon Team to take a seat in the lower house, taking Mayo from the one-time Liberal Party minister Jamie Briggs. Mr Briggs resigned from his ministry in December after a late night incident in a Hong Kong bar involving a public servant travelling in the same group. The race was particularly bitter as Ms Sharkie is a former staff member for Mr Briggs. The incident clearly resonated with some voters, one of who upbraided Mr Briggs in front of assembled media as he went to vote earlier in the day. Populist Nick Xenophon and right-wing firebrand Pauline Hanson are set to be the dominant voices on an unwieldy new Senate crossbench likely to stymie a re-elected Coalition's agenda. Senator Xenophon's team was on track to pick up at least another two upper house seats in his native South Australia, based on early counting. "Let's wait and see," said Senator Xenophon of the Senate count late on Saturday night. "I'm forever the cautious pessimist." Labor's Queensland branch appears to have posed as Medicare to send messages to voters' phones on election day, urging them not to vote for the Coalition, something Malcolm Turnbull said the police will "no doubt investigate". A number of people, including journalists, claimed on Saturday that they had been sent the same text message from a sender that appeared under the name 'Medicare'. "Mr Turnbull's plans to privatise Medicare will take us down the road of no return. Time is running out to Save Medicare," it said. Labor's Linda Burney has made the leap from state to federal politics, claiming the seat of Barton and becoming the first Indigenous woman to enter the house of representatives. Ms Burney paid tribute to the multicultural community of Barton, which was "back in the hands of Labor", and had created history. "There was some ugliness at the booth and the kitchen sink was thrown at us in the last few days," she told Sky News. Cabinet Secretary and key Malcolm Turnbull confidante Arthur Sinodinos has suggested another election could be necessary if the government has been denied a mandate and Labor frustrates its agenda. It came as the results of Saturday's federal election went down to the wire, with the Coalition struggling to reach a majority in the House of Representatives and the possibility emerging of a hung Parliament. "This is the trouble the country faces - in effect, at some stage, we will have to re-run this because no-one has a mandate for anything," Senator Sinodinos said. He made the comments following Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's election night address, in which the Labor leader said the government didn't have a mandate for its budget and Labor's alternative had been endorsed. As the underwhelming performance of the Coalition became clearer and clearer on Saturday night, the fingers of blame were being pointed with gusto in the Channel 7 studio at Malcolm Turnbull. An extraordinary barney broke out between Sydney shock jock Alan Jones, a supporter of Tony Abbott, and Queensland LNP Senator James McGrath, one of Mr Turnbull's principal numbers men in the September leadership coup. An irate Jones accused the senator of being panicked by negative polling and repeating the failed Labor experiment of changing the party's leader. The Australian Electoral Commission has apologised for unusually long waits at polling stations across the country on Saturday. Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers attributed the delays across the country's 7000 polling places to the most significant changes to voting in three decades. "This, in combination with record nominations in some seats, appears to have resulted in voters taking greater care and more time to cast their vote," he said. One more link before we wrap up this blog for Sunday. The Sydney Morning Herald political editor Peter Hartcher writes that the two major parties are lost in "all-consuming narcissism". "The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, is claiming that, regardless of the final outcome, the Coalition "have lost their mandate". "He's acknowledging the possibility that Malcolm Turnbull could be returned as prime minister, yet he argues that he'd have no mandate. "The election response of the Liberal Party is not much better. The Tony Abbott faction of the party is taking the result as its opportunity to open a civil war. "The conservatives have been repressing their anger since the removal of Abbott. They are determined to destroy Turnbull, even if he's returned as prime minister." Hartcher writes that far from ending a decade of dismal and unstable politics, this election just notches it up some more. Read the full piece here. Divisive Queensland politician Pauline Hanson is on the cusp of a return to parliament almost 20 years after she left. The One Nation leader rose to prominence in 1996 when she won the lower house seat of Oxley and is vying for one of the final Queensland Senate seats against other minor parties. Late on Saturday night, the party had attracted about 10 per cent of first preference votes. Andrew Bartlett, the Greens' Brisbane candidate Kirsten Lovejoy and Senator Larissa Waters voting at Brisbane Central State School. Credit:Cameron Atfield "(Voters) are saying now, 'what you said years ago is actually happening to our country' and, quite amazingly, I'm getting a lot of support from those from ethnic backgrounds, different cultural backgrounds. "I had a Fijian guy come up and give me the biggest hug and he said 'you know, we need more people like you in Parliament protecting our country'. "Even people of Chinese, of Asian background and I know you all think they're against me, but they're not because they have really embraced this country, they love this country, and they don't want to see it changed." That was a far cry from Ms Hanson's 1996 clarion call during her maiden speech in the House of Representatives almost 20 years ago. "I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians," she said on September 10 that year. "...They have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate. "Of course, I will be called racist but, if I can invite whom I want into my home, then I should have the right to have a say in who comes into my country." It was that sort of language that had her rivals for Queensland's 11th and 12th Senate spots worried. Shortly before voting at Brisbane Central State School, Greens Senator Larissa Waters said the party was confident Andrew Bartlett would join her in Parliament's upper house. "I hope that Queenslanders back the kind and progressive option, which is Andrew, rather than the divisive and hateful approach of Pauline Hanson's policies," she said. "I'm really confident that they will and it would just be wonderful for Queensland to have more than one Green representing them in Canberra." Another rival, Palmer United Party-cum-independent Senator Lazarus, said he hoped Ms Hanson would not be elected. "All she does is create a lot of divide and hate in the community with some of the comments she makes," he said. "I don't agree with a lot of the things she says. We do agree on a couple of things. "(But) I'm happy to work with anybody that's in the Senate." Ms Hanson received a lukewarm reaction from voters at Jamboree. While there was little enthusiasm, there was also no hostility towards the polarising political figure. "It does put us in a position then that the government does have to listen to us, but I don't intend to go in there as an obstructionist," she said. "I intend to actually look at all legislation, even if the Labor Party opposition was to put up anything I thought would be good for Australia or the Australian people, they'd get my support. "The same goes for the Greens, because I agree with the Greens on the issues of coal seam gas mining, that we need to have a look at that." It's the biggest night on the Australian political calendar but a Google search quirk is giving thousands of Australians the wrong information. Australian internet users searching for "Election 2016" are instead being shown results for the US presidential primaries. So instead of names like Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten popping up, users are seeing names like Hilary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. A Google search for 'Election 2016' throws up an unexpected result for Australians. Credit:Google Google trends on Saturday night showed "Election 2016" was the most popular search term relating to the federal election, but Google continues to prioritise US election updates in the top search results. A Google spokesman said: "We're aware of the issue and looking into it. We're confident that the problem will be solved shortly." Four men suspected of links to the Labor Party have been arrested after an alleged late-night vandalism spree at polling booths in the electorate of Melbourne Ports. Greens and Liberal posters and signs from Elwood to Port Melbourne were torn down in the electorate - which has been held by Labor for 110 years and by Michael Danby since 1998 - before the suspected vandals were arrested in St Kilda at 2.40am on Saturday. Liberal supporters called police when their campaign material was damaged at St Kilda Primary School in Brighton Road. Frankfurt's largest drug consumption room has just installed a purpose-built inhalation room as part of a multimillion-euro refit. Credit:Bert Bostelmann "Despite best efforts and strong intent, we have achieved virtually nothing," says Palmer. "We've aggravated harm rather than minimised it. We've demonised users; not provided the support we should. The reality is, people are going to take ice. It's time to take the risk and trial new options because, as evidence demonstrates elsewhere, it's working." Wodak says Europe's responses to managing drug addiction "are wins for communities, for police, for the people who use drugs and the clinicians who look after them". But when we meet in Switzerland, I ask Wodak whether most Australians might see a network of drug centres, facilitating ice use, as a bit too radical. "It isn't radical," says Wodak. "Radical is sticking with something that you clearly know does not work." Staff preparing tools for drug consumption for clients. Credit:Bert Bostelmann Wodak and Dr Robert Haemmig, a Swiss psychiatrist, have much in common. While both are too humble to say it, their achievements have changed the world. In 1986, in an act of civil disobedience, Haemmig pioneered the world's first legally sanctioned drug consumption centre in Bern. Dr Robert Haemmig and Dr Alex Wodak Credit:Eamonn Duff Wodak and his colleagues in Sydney's Kings Cross overcame a wave of political hostility, leading to the establishment of the first medically supervised injecting centre in the English-speaking world in 2001. Though 15 years apart, both facilities represented highly contentious responses to catastrophes involving heroin. As Haemmig accompanies us through the streets of Bern towards the centre where it all started, he describes the tragic scene of the mid-'80s. "Junkies were everywhere here," he recalls. "AIDS and overdoses were a big problem. People were dying like flies." In response to that crisis, he created "somewhere for drug users to go", a cafe-style shelter of the type which, ordinarily, they would be barred from. There were complimentary meals, clean needles, free condoms and a team of compassionate social workers and counsellors. It was never originally his intention to provide a space where users would take drugs, but it was not long after opening that two men came in, sat down, produced syringes and injected. Haemmig remembers a social worker turning to him and gasping in shock. A moment of indecision followed. "Before we had made a move, they'd already stood up and left," he says. Suddenly, Bern's heroin-dependent community had a welcoming alternative to the regular nooks and crannies. But as the trend escalated, so inevitably did tensions with police. "They demanded the room be shut, they threatened to arrest me all sorts of things," says Haemmig, who in turn erected a small drug consumption "tent" in a public park that was plagued by open drug use and public-order problems. It was located right outside parliament. "We stayed for one week," he says with only a hint of a smile. Through subsequent negotiations with police and lawmakers, the cafe shelter was given legal approval on the condition that users were over 18 and seeking suitable medical supervision for their addiction. "That was the start of injecting rooms," he says. While little research was conducted during the centre's earlier years, its impact was evident in three client surveys in 1990, 1995 and 2001, which charted significant declines in risky behaviour, particularly the practice of sharing used needles. Haemmig has gradually stepped back from the day-to-day running of the service, which has moved to a larger site where specialist doctors, nurses and counsellors form a team of around 70. Nowadays, it's a place where Bern's most marginalised can access showers, washing machines and a change of clothes donated by local retailers. The actual injecting room, where clients sit, prepare and administer their drugs, is a simple, sterile environment with stainless steel surfaces. Fresh spoons, needles and syringes are laid out alongside other essentials such as tissues and cotton pads. When, 12 years ago, it became evident that drug trends in Bern were shifting towards crack cocaine and addicts were migrating from injecting to inhaling, the centre introduced a fully enclosed inhalation room. This purpose-built facility enables clients to inhale the drug using crack pipes or, in the case of heroin, "chase the dragon" with aluminium foil and a straw. A powerful extractor fan sucks vapours outside the building via an elaborate duct system. "There were so many young people on the streets who were inhaling but they could not legally come in because they weren't injecting," explains the centre's team leader, Bubi Rufener. When Bern's politicians initially blocked the installation, the police stepped in, Rufener says. "They said, 'Yes, if an inhalation room was open, we would have less people on the street, which in turn would be a win for the local restaurants and everybody else who runs a business.' " When Wodak and Noffs tour the adjacent courtyard where buying and selling legally takes place, they are taken aback by the fact that police can peer in on everything from the windows across the street. Incredibly, even the angle of the yard's roof was designed so the view would not be obstructed. Rufener stresses that, whether buying or selling, the people who avail themselves of this unique system are predominantly homeless and comprise many of the city's most socially isolated citizens. "The police, the people of this town, we all share the same problems, so you have to find a way," he says. "This is not the solution. But it is part of the solution." In much the same way that Henry Ford could never have envisaged what the modern-day motor car would look like, Haemmig could never possibly have foreseen what his own creation would inspire. "Does it make you proud?" I ask him. "It was an important impulse," he says. "A lot of places followed our model. Frankfurt, in particular, was very important." In 1992, Frankfurt was on its knees. More than a thousand homeless heroin addicts were living in its central park. The business district had descended into an open drug scene. Junkies slumped in doorways and used needles littered the streets as AIDS and hepatitis spread through the injecting community. When the neighbouring banking sector began to twitch, Frankfurt had no choice but to call an emergency round table. Senior police, prosecutors and politicians joined stakeholders spanning the entire community. As part of that summit, an expert panel ventured to Switzerland, where they met Haemmig and toured his centre in Bern. There, the penny dropped. As Frederic Pietsch, who heads a specially trained police unit that targets drug dealing in central Frankfurt, tells Good Weekend: "The situation, for us, had become too hard to handle traditional policing was not enough." Frederic Pietsch, a Frankfurt police officer. Credit:Eamonn Duff During our visit to Frankfurt, Pietsch explains how, in the beginning, there were "natural" challenges. "The police way of thinking was not the same as the health institutions. But we came together bridges were built." In 1994, the city of Frankfurt released three industrial heritage buildings providing almost 4000 square metres of space. From this impressive location at Schielestrasse, Germany's first official safe injecting room was launched. Later, in 2000, the German parliament tweaked its narcotics act to pave a clearer legal path for further facilities. Today, there are 26 drug consumption rooms in Germany, including three more in Frankfurt, four in Hamburg and three in Berlin. "Police physically removed all the people from the park and brought them here to this centre," recalls Gabi Becker, whose role is to source and manage the 6 million ($9 million) required annually to operate the Frankfurt services. The Schielestrasse centre boasts overnight beds for between 80 and 100 drug users. There's a seminar space for those who want to reduce or stop their consumption. But most impressive is the training and work development opportunities that help clients to reintegrate socially. Take, for example, the on-site workshop where users learn carpentry and then run a service that restores and replaces Frankfurt's ageing park benches. Or the in-house laundry service that has dozens of clients across the city, including Frankfurt's own police headquarters, which gets its uniforms washed every Wednesday. "We have work placements where up to 80 people a day are out there doing something," says Becker. "The clients must give back. It's no good just coming here to take drugs safely. If we are creating and offering a whole bundle of possibilities for these people to change their lives, they have to take them." "But who funds this centre and all those opportunities?" asks Noffs. "It comes from a variety of places but 95 per cent is covered by the city of Frankfurt," replies Becker. "It is written into our law. Each German city has a legal duty to help the homeless." There's a silence as the travelling party digests all this. "I feel ashamed," says Wodak as he thinks of the Australian response. Amid a rising epidemic of crack cocaine which, like ice, is mostly smoked the centre took the "logical" next step in 2007 and introduced an inhalation room. "We just did it," says Becker, adding that since its installation, the centre has also been making a concerted effort to try and persuade heroin users to switch from injecting to inhaling. "And are people switching?" asks Wodak. "A few," she replies. "It's hard work, but we feel it would be worse not to try." Across town at Niddastrasse, Frankfurt's largest drug consumption room has just installed a purpose-built inhalation room as part of a multimillion-euro refit. Purchased in 1997, the six-storey property is located in the neighbourhood around Frankfurt's central railway station, where the majority of the city's homeless drug users reside. Aside from two floors offering drug consumption facilities, there are social workers and specialist counselling for women. There are also three additional storeys of newly refurbished apartments leased by refugees and homeless people who don't have drug issues. The rental income, for which German welfare agencies have budgeted well into the future, is funnelled straight back into the running costs of the consumption rooms. Its manager, Andreas Geremia, stresses to Good Weekend the importance of locating the centre close to its clients. "They opened a room in Cologne," he says. "They spent a lot of money. But it was 20 minutes to get to by train and only two people turned up each day. It is now closed. That was a big lesson." His facility recorded more than 90,000 visits last year. One regular user is Kai, a homeless 45-year-old from Frankfurt who has been heroin-dependent since the late '90s. I ask him why he chooses to shoot up in the consumption room daily. "It's a calm, quiet space," he replies. "There's a risk with hepatitis and AIDS on the streets but here you always have access to fresh needles. They teach you a cleaner way to fix. The crew [staff] know me here, they check on me and have helped me no end. They have corrected me [saved my life] seven or eight times after I overdosed." Heiko, 42, who has been using heroin for two decades, says: "When you live out there, day in, day out, you're just another unwanted junkie running around between the cafes and tourists. This place is a break from all that. It's safe. I can come in, sit and rest here for maybe two, three, four hours. I cannot tell you how much that means." Unlike the Bern model, where drug dealing is controlled on site, there is strictly no buying, selling or sharing within Frankfurt's facilities, with users only permitted to bring in "one consumption unit". But Kai and Heiko are two of 5500 people who are registered with police as "drug-dependent users", effectively meaning they have a get-out clause if they're picked up on the street with small amounts of drugs. As the police force's Frederic Pietsch points out, the system is not without its challenges. "Under German law, buying, possessing and selling drugs is illegal. But consuming is not. So it's a very thin line we have to walk." Fifteen years after it was regarded as a no-go zone, the city's main station area has been gentrified, with new hotels, restaurants and shops springing up weekly. But Pietsch admits that "not everybody is happy". "Those who lived here before tolerated the users but now, it's new people," he says. "They want to make money and they want their streets clean. When the users are in the consumption room, it's not a problem. But what do we do with them the rest of the time?" Before Frankfurt opened its first drug consumption room, drug overdose deaths in the city had spiked at an alarming 144 in a year. But Pietsche says the figure last year was 33. In 2014, it was just 23. The police officer also tells us that, to this day, there hasn't been a single drug overdose death at any of the Frankfurt consumption rooms. It's hard not to be moved by Pietsch's pride as he recites these figures to Wodak and Noffs. He then makes a startling personal admission. "When I started my career in policing, I was very hardline," he says. "But, confronted with the reality of all this, I changed my mind." Back in Sydney, Marianne Jauncey is preparing to welcome visitors from the NSW Premier's office for a tour of the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC). But for a fresh lick of paint, she will be presenting a facility frozen in time. Fifteen years after it began operating and despite a dozen independent evaluations charting its many benefits the MSIC remains the only service of its kind anywhere in the country. "It was genuinely pioneering," says Jauncey, the centre's medical director. "Clearly, it has been documented that a service like this saves lives. Why then is there a piece of legislation that specifically states there can only be one?" In 2001, the centre was the only clinical model of its kind in the English-speaking world. During the decade that followed, almost 605,000 medically supervised injections were recorded, including 3426 overdose events all safely managed through medical supervision. There were also more than 8500 referrals to other services, nearly half of which were related to drug treatment. According to a 2010 report, produced by accounting and consultancy firm KPMG for the state government, the MSIC had reached a "socially marginalised and vulnerable population group", many of whom had had no previous interaction with any form of support service. It was also cost effective, saving at least $658,000 a year compared to other "health outcomes". Despite these findings, which paved the way for the centre to become a permanent health service, successive state governments have repeatedly blocked calls for new rooms in other drug-affected regions such as Western Sydney and the NSW North Coast. It's the same story in Melbourne where, in 2011, the Victorian government knocked back a proposal by the Australian Medical Association and Yarra Council for a six-month pilot facility in Richmond. Had such a facility been given the green light, users could have accessed a centre not dissimilar to the MSIC but with enclosed areas that would allow them to inhale. In November, the MSIC faces the first of the five-yearly statutory reviews that were imposed after its trial period ended. In submissions to the NSW government, both Jauncey and Wodak have called on policymakers to extend the service to areas that desperately need it. "I am not advocating that we install one on every street corner," says Jauncey. "But if you can consider it from the perspective of someone you love, then you see it through a different lens. Your first priority is to always ensure they are safe. And the second is to make sure there is someone on hand to help." In his book, Noffs points out that Australia was one of "the first cabs off the rank" with the MSIC and the reward was a "significant reduction" in heroin use and related harm. With ice having replaced heroin as the most urgent drug problem in Australia, he asks, "Which politicians will put their fears aside and take the bold step of introducing a drug consumption room in their state or city?" Would you pay $700 for a hair dryer? It's a question British technology brand Dyson and major Australian retailers are sweating on as they prepare for the release of the company's Supersonic hair dryer. Promising a quicker dry, less heat damage to hair and better ergonomics, the dryer is the first major rethink of the appliance since the 1960s. It also has patented magnetic attachments for its nozzles and the motor in the handle, promising fewer sore wrists. Children with intrusive parents are self-critical, anxious and, in some cases, depressed, according to a study by the National University of Singapore. The findings were backed by Australian academics, including Mark Dadd, director of the Child Behaviour Research Clinic at the University of Sydney, who said children with intrusive parents were at the same risk in Australia. The Act for Kids chief executive said the survey highlighted a lack of knowledge that Australians have about child abuse and neglect. Credit:John Donegan The study was conducted from 2010 to 2014, and assessed 263 seven-year-olds from 10 schools. To find out if parents were intrusive, researchers gave each child a puzzle to complete within a time limit and told their parents they could help at any time. Victoria is again on measles alert after two new cases were confirmed on Saturday, taking to 34 the number of infections recorded in the state this year. News of the additional infections comes a day after a young Victorian woman who had been in Geelong, central Melbourne and bayside suburbs before boarding a Jetstar flight to Brisbane was diagnosed with the highly contagious disease. Her travel movements have also put Queensland health authorities on alert. On Saturday, Victorian health authorities expressed concern that the latest outbreak could mean multiple undetected cases could already exist within the community, adding to the potential for a "significant outbreak". After three days on an ice bender, Shannon Guterres started to hear the all too familiar voices in his head. By the time he arrived at his family's Lurnea home in Sydney's south west on July 18, 2015, these voices were telling him to "kill, kill, kill". Shannon Guterres locked his family in his back shed and set it on fire. The 24-year-old was sitting with his 61-year-old father and mother, brother and sister-in-law watching television in the back shed, which had been transformed into an extra living space, when he acted on these voices. Guterres, who last month was sentenced to two years behind bars, grabbed a bottle of methylated spirits and walked out of the shed and locked the door. Lennon Maher is only seven years old, but he is already working towards a better world. Last year, Lennon saw on the news that children in impoverished countries have to walk long distances to school, often in dangerous conditions. Lennon Maher is running in the City2Surf this year to raise funds to provide wheelchairs for disabled children in Sri Lanka. Credit:Wolter Peeters "It felt unfair that they have to walk and we can drive. I thought, why can't they ride?" he said. He discovered that many families have no access to transportation. "Maybe, subject to all the necessary controls, we can now do the same with ice," he said. Mr Carr said the existing centre had been a "demonstrable success" and saved many lives because his government had treated heroin dependency as a medical problem. As the NSW government reiterated on Saturday that it had "no plans" to open a drug-consumption room for ice users, one of its own addiction treatment specialists came out in support of the concept, announcing he is ready to help pilot Australia's first "ice room" in Sydney's west - where the drug is currently wreaking havoc. There are 26 inhalation centres dotted across Germany - with connected treatment services. Credit:Bert Bostelmann / gettyimages "I would personally jump at the chance of being involved in a facility like those abroad," said Dr Robert Graham, who has worked in NSW public hospital drug and alcohol services for 15 years and is currently based in western sydney. "Where there is a demonstrated public health need, I think you are duty bound to pursue what's in the best interests of the community. I want to see it done in an organised, rigorous, scientific way and I would prefer to see it done according to where it is needed most." he said, adding: "If it works in one place, why shouldn't it work in other areas where drug use is prevalent and social disadvantage goes hand in hand with that." Drug law reform campaigners Dr Alex Wodak and Matt Noffs are lobbying for the government to allow ice smoking rooms as a harm-reduction strategy similar to the medically supervised injecting centre (MSIC) at Kings Cross, but where clean pipes and smoking equipment would be available, as opposed to fresh needles. It's a contentious question. Why did the giant kangaroos and rhino-sized wombats that once roamed Australia die out? Scientists agree there are two contenders: climate change and humans. But they are fiercely divided over which caused the continent's megafauna to go extinct. Tom Rich, curator for palaeontology at Museum Victoria. Credit:Jason South Now, fresh results of a study at a renowned Victorian fossil site in the Macedon Ranges town of Lancefield 73 kilometres north of Melbourne has provided an answer. Lead author of the research Joe Dortch from the University of Western Australia said climate change appeared to be the culprit in the mass deaths of megafauna living in the Lancefield region 50,000 years ago. Artist Yves Klein was so happy with his discovery of a new ultra blue that he gave it his name and registered it as an invention with the French authorities two years before his death in 1960. But scientists at Oregon State University may put International Klein Blue in the shade with the accidental discovery of a new pigment that is going on sale. Professor Mas Subramanian and his team accidentally discovered a new blue pigment with applications for energy efficiency. Credit:Karl Massdam/Oregon State University It's a vivid "near perfect" blue they believe solves the problems of safety, toxicity and durability that have dogged the search for the best blue going back to ancient times. The unique heat-reflecting properties of "YInMn Blue" (named for its chemical components: Yrttrium, Indium, Manganese) also make it a candidate for keeping future cars and buildings cool, its discoverers say. A body has been found inside a car discovered in a creek in the state's north. Police and emergency services including the SES and CFA are investigating the circumstances leading to a car ending up in House Creek in Wodonga. A passerby discovered the overturned SUV floating in the creek about 8.30am Saturday morning. Emergency services entered the creek, just off Stock Route, and found a body inside the vehicle. Acting Senior Sergeant Kris Hamilton said police are unable to confirm the gender of the person or whether there are others inside until the car is retrieved. Alastair Weng shares the secrets to his academic success for less than the price of a coffee. The University of Melbourne science student is among thousands of young Australians who are converting their lecture and textbook notes into cash. Alastair Weng is one of many students selling their lecture notes online. Credit:Paul Jeffers Hundreds of students have paid $3 to access Mr Weng's neatly formatted biology and chemistry notes, which he uploads on a website called NoteXchange. "It's a little bit of pocket money on the side," the 19-year-old said. Bangladesh authorities are yet to say where all the people killed by the militants came from. An injured man receives help after an attack at a Dhaka restaurant. Credit:Getty Images The killing of foreigners will likely shatter the confidence of the expatriate community in Bangladesh, many of whom work for multinationals in the country's $26 billion garment industry that accounts for around 15 percent of the economy. Bangladesh is the world's second largest apparel exporter after China. Thirteen hostages were rescued, including one Japanese and two Sri Lankans, the army said. A relative tries to console Semin Rahman, covering face, whose son is missing after militants took hostages in a Dhaka cafe. Credit:AP 'Sharp weapons' Army spokesman Colonel Rashidul Hasan said most of the victims had been killed by "sharp weapons". Hasan said initially that it seemed all the victims were foreigners but now the army believed some locals were among the dead as well. An injured Bangladeshi policeman being assisted after the attack. Credit:Getty Images Islamic State, which has claimed a series of machete attacks on minority groups in Bangladesh over the past year, posted photos of bodies and blood smeared across floors that it said were dead foreigners killed in the assault. Police did not immediately confirm whether the pictures were from the site of the massacre. Gowher Rizvi, an adviser to Hasina, told Reuters security forces had tried to negotiate with the gunmen. Sporadic gunfire The hostage crisis began when security guards in the Gulshan district of Dhaka, popular with expatriates, noticed several gunmen outside a medical centre, Rizvi said. When the guards approached, the gunmen ran into a building housing the restaurant, packed with people waiting for tables, he said. Ali Arsalan, co-owner of the restaurant, said that his staff told him the attackers yelled "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) as they stormed the building that is split between a bakery and the O'Kitchen Restaurant. Police said the assailants exchanged sporadic gunfire with police outside for several hours after the gunmen attacked the restaurant around 9 pm on Friday. A police officer at the scene said that when security forces tried to enter the premises at the beginning of the siege they were met with a hail of bullets and grenades that killed at least two of them. Television footage showed a number of police being led away from the site with blood on their faces and clothes. A cafe employee who escaped told local television about 20 customers were in the restaurant at the time, most of them foreigners. Some 15 to 20 staff were working at the restaurant, the employee said. The rescued Japanese man was eating dinner with seven other Japanese, all of whom were consultants for Japan's foreign aid agency, the Japanese government spokesman said. He did not know what happened to the others. Spate of murders The hostage crisis marks an escalation from a recent spate of murders claimed by Islamic State and al-Qaeda on liberals, gays, foreigners and religious minorities. A Hindu priest was hacked to death on Friday at a temple in Jhinaidah district, 300 km southwest of Dhaka. Both Islamic State and al-Qaeda have claimed responsibility for many of the killings, although local authorities say no operational links exist between Bangladeshi militants and international jihadi networks. Bangladesh security officials say two local militant groups, Ansar-al-Islam and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, have been behind the spate of violence over the past 18 months. Ansar pledges allegiance to al Qaeda, while Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen claims it represents Islamic State. Turkish officials also were not able to confirm Chatayev's role. The Sabah newspaper, which is close to the government, said police had launched a manhunt for him. Three attackers carried out a gun-and-suicide bomb attack, killing dozens and wounding scores of others at Istanbul's Ataturk airport late on Tuesday. Credit:Haberturk/AP A US congressman, Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, told CNN on Friday that Akhmed Chatayev directed Tuesday night's attack at one of the world's busiest airports. Istanbul: Attention has now turned to whether a Chechen extremist known to be a top lieutenant in the Islamic State group was involved in the suicide attacks that killed 44 people at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport this week. Mr McCaul said Chatayev's whereabouts are unknown. The 35-year-old one-armed militant, who fought in Chechnya against Russian forces and their local allies in the early 2000s before fleeing to the West, was put on the US list of suspected terrorists in 2015. That same year, he resurfaced in an IS video as the commander of the group's Chechen battalion in Syria. People follow the ambulance carrying the coffin of the head of the pediatric service at the Tunis military hospital, Colonel Fathi Bayoudh, one of the victims killed in Tuesday's blasts at the Istanbul airport. Credit:AP Although no one has claimed responsibility for the airport attack, IS is suspected, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated Friday that IS was "most probably" behind it. The group has boasted of having cells in Turkey and other countries. "They have no connection to Islam. Their place is in hell," Mr Erdogan said, speaking in Istanbul following Friday prayers. "These people were innocent; they were children, women, elderly ... They embarked on a journey unaware, and came face to face with death." The CIA and White House declined to comment on Mr McCaul's assertion and officials said the investigation of the bombing is still ongoing. Mr McCaul could not be reached for further comment. Quintessential Holocaust Survivor lauded for his writings worldwide Mr. Wiesel first gained attention in 1960 with the English translation of "Night," his autobiographical account of the horrors he witnessed in the camps as a 15-year-old boy. He wrote of how he had been plagued by guilt for having survived while millions died, and tormented by doubts about a God who would allow such slaughter. Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel died Saturday at 87, of congestive heart failure. The Auschwitz survivor became an eloquent witness for the six million Jews and two million others slaughtered in World War II and who, more than anyone, seared the memory of the Holocaust on the world's conscience, died on Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87. When Ronald Reagan agreed to speak at an SS cemetery in Germany called Bitberg, Wiesel confronted him at a public event. "You are the President of the United States," said the man who had been liberated by US Soldiers 40 years before. "Your place is with the victims of the Nazis, not with the SS." By the time Wiesel finished, he had the US President in tears. "Mr. Wiesel was the author of several dozen books and was a charismatic lecturer and humanities professor. In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But he was defined not so much by the work he did as by the gaping void he filled. In the aftermath of the Germans' systematic massacre of Jews, no voice had emerged to drive home the enormity of what had happened and how it had changed mankind's conception of itself and of God. For almost two decades, both the traumatized survivors and American Jews, guilt-ridden that they had not done more to rescue their brethren, seemed frozen in silence." "But by the sheer force of his personality and his gift for the haunting phrase, Mr. Wiesel, who had been liberated from Buchenwald as a 16-year-old with the indelible tattoo A-7713 on his arm, gradually exhumed the Holocaust from the burial ground of the history books", said the New York Times. He was an American Romanian-born Jewish writer, professor, political activist, Holocaust survivor, and Nobel Laureate. He was the author of 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald concentration camps. Wiesel was also the Advisory Board chairman of the newspaper Algemeiner Journal. He was the Andrew Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Boston University, in Boston, Massachusetts. When Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, the Norwegian Nobel Committee called him a "messenger to mankind," stating that through his struggle to come to terms with "his own personal experience of total humiliation and of the utter contempt for humanity shown in Hitler's death camps", as well as his "practical work in the cause of peace", Wiesel had delivered a powerful message "of peace, atonement and human dignity" to humanity. Elie Wiesel was born in Sighet, now Romania in the Carpathian Mountains. His parents were Sarah Feig and Shlomo Wiesel. At home, Wiesel's family spoke Yiddish most of the time, but also German, Hungarian, and Romanian. Wiesel's mother, Sarah, was the daughter of Dodye Feig, a celebrated Vizhnitz Hasid and farmer from a nearby village. Dodye was active and trusted within the community. In the early years of his life, Dodye had spent a few months in jail for having helped Polish Jews who escaped and were hungry. Wiesel's father, Shlomo, instilled a strong sense of humanism in his son, encouraging him to learn Hebrew and to read literature, while his mother encouraged him to study the Torah. Wiesel has said that his father represented reason while his mother Sarah promoted faith. Wiesel had three siblings older sisters Beatrice and Hilda, and younger sister Tzipora. Beatrice and Hilda survived the war and were reunited with Wiesel at a French orphanage. They eventually emigrated to North America, with Beatrice moving to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Tzipora, Shlomo, and Sarah did not survive the Holocaust. Mr. Wiesel first gained attention in 1960 with the English translation of "Night," his autobiographical account of the horrors he witnessed in the camps as a 15-year-old boy. He wrote of how he had been plagued by guilt for having survived while millions died, and tormented by doubts about a God who would allow such slaughter. "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed," Mr. Wiesel wrote. "Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live long as God himself. Never." After 1960, Weisel wrote novels, books of essays and reportage, two plays and even two cantatas. While many of his books were nominally about topics like Soviet Jewry or Hasidic masters, they all dealt with profound questions resonating out of the Holocaust: What is the sense of living in a universe that tolerates unimaginable cruelty? How could the world have been mute? How can one go on believing? Mr. Wiesel asked the questions in spare prose and without raising his voice; he rarely offered answers. In early 2006, Wiesel traveled to Auschwitz with Oprah Winfrey, a visit which was broadcast as part of The Oprah Winfrey Show on May 24, 2006. Wiesel said that this would most likely be his last trip there. In September 2006, he appeared before the UN Security Council with actor George Clooney to call attention to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. On November 30, 2006, Wiesel received a knighthood in London in recognition of his work toward raising Holocaust education in the United Kingdom. During the early 2007 selection process for the Kadima candidate for President of Israel, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly offered Wiesel the nomination (and, as the ruling-party candidate and an apolitical figure, likely the presidency), but Wiesel "was not very interested." Shimon Peres was chosen as the Kadima candidate (and later President) instead. In 2007, Wiesel was awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's Lifetime Achievement Award. That same year, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity issued a letter condemning Armenian genocide denial, a letter that was signed by 53 Nobel laureates including Wiesel. Wiesel has repeatedly called Turkey's 90-year-old campaign to downplay its actions during the Armenian genocide a double killing. Famous photo from the day Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated. Weisel is the 7th from the left, second row from the bottom. Wiesel was a member of the International Advisory Board of NGO Monitor. Wiesel and his wife invested their life savings, and the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity invested nearly all of its assets (approximately $15.2 million USD) through Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme, an experience Wiesel later spoke about at a Conde Nast roundtable. Although an exact recovery percentage is not yet known, as of April 2013, 53% of victims' monies have been recovered and returned to them. In a New York Times article, Wiesel called Madoff a "thief, scoundrel, criminal." Wiesel accompanied Pres. and Mrs. Barack Obama when the two toured Buchenwald in 2012. In 2009, Wiesel criticized the Vatican for lifting the excommunication of controversial bishop Richard Williamson, a member of the Society of Saint Pius X. No evidence of Jaguar Breeding Populations in New Mexico or Arizona, after the Pleistocene Era The myth that jaguars populated the USA prior to 1900 was started with a paper written by a political activistt, and unfortunately accepted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service without due scientific diligence. I am writing to inform you that your recent article, "Amazon jaguar shot dead after Olympic torch ceremony" contains statements of "fact" that are totally inaccurate. The myth that jaguars populated the USA prior to 1900 was started with a paper written by a political activist, and unfortunately accepted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service without due scientific diligence. There is no documented evidence of any naturally occurring female jaguar in New Mexico since the Pleistocene. The article is here: http://www.smobserved.com/story/2016/06/22/news/amazon-jaguar-shot-dead-after-olympic-torch-ceremony/1507.html Errors are confronted below: Error 1. "Apart from a known and possibly breeding population in Arizona (southeast of Tucson) and the bootheel of New Mexico, the cat has largely been extirpated from the United States since the early 20th century." Correction: No "breeding population of jaguars" exists in Arizona or New Mexico-or ever did. (Your article contains perhaps the tallest tale ever printed on this subject.) There is no verifiable evidence there ever was a post-Pleistocene, naturally occurring population of jaguars in either state. (There are only speculative claims that there were, but three stories about female jaguars killed with cubs in Arizona are entirely unverifiable and therefore nothing more than unscientific urban legends. This is confirmed in the comments the Arizona Game and Fish Department submitted to the US Fish and Wildlife Service during the public comment period on the critical habitat designation. (See p. 4 here-- http://www.azgfd.gov/w_c/es/documents/130808.FWS.Jag.Critical.Habitat.Ltr.pdf ) Moreover, there is no documented evidence of any naturally occurring female jaguar in New Mexico since the Pleistocene--so it would be impossible for a breeding population of jaguars to have occurred in New Mexico in recorded history. The myth that jaguars populated the USA prior to 1900 was started with a paper written by a political activist, and unfortunately accepted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service without due scientific diligence. The writer plotted a histogram of the numbers of jaguars killed in Arizona and New Mexico since 1900. He did not present the actual data he plotted.) What the writer did not document is the fact that jaguars were observed no more frequently in Arizona or New Mexico prior to the exact year 1900 than they are seen today. Rather than showing an abrupt spike from zero to about 20 in jaguar numbers exactly in the year In 1900, the activist's histogram deceptively excludes records prior to 1900--which would show a spike from zero to 20+ records exactly in 1900. Exactly beginning in 1900, suddenly and dramatically, jaguars appeared in Arizona in significant numbers. Their numbers tapered off after trucking began to replace railroads for shipping cattle. Scientists prior to 1900 documented that scientists believed at that time that jaguars were either rare or absent from Arizona. The influx of jaguars occurred very suddenly, and shortly following establishment of a rail system with cattle pens and watering facilities at every depot from Phoenix all the way south to Guadalajara. Elliot Coues (1867) wrote in an article, "The Quadrupeds of Arizona," "Two other species of true long-tailed cats may possibly exist, particularly in the south- eastern portions. These are the Ocelot (F. pardalis Linn.), and the Jaguar (F. onzaliinn.). Within the limits of the United States, however, they have as yet only been found in the valley of the Rio Grande of Texas." John Duncan Quackenbos et al. (1887 Smithsonian team of biologists)wrote, "It is true that the Jaguar, the largest of American Cats, has been taken along our southern border, but it can be regarded only as a very rare straggler from the tropics." An article in the July 18, 1901 issue of the Arizona Silver Belt, p.2 states, "The jaguar is a beautifully spotted black and yellow creature and is exceedingly rare in Arizona, though quite plentiful in some portions of Mexico." C.M. Barber (1902) in recording his findings on the presence of jaguars in New Mexico stated: "The present paper is intended to record certain species of mammals not previously known to occur in New Mexico." Vernon Bailey (1931) wrote, "Distribution and habitat. - A few large spotted cats (pl. 16, A) have been found over southern New Mexico, where they seem to be native, although generally supposed to be wanderers from over the Mexican border." Sources: E. Coues, "The Quadripeds of Arizona" P. 285-286, The American Naturalist, Volume 1. University of Chicago Press, 1867 Quackenbos, J.D., Newberry, J.S., Hitchcock, C.H., Stevens, W. Le Conte, Gannett, H., Dall, W., Merriam, C.H., Britton, N.L., Kunz, G.F., Stoney, Lt. G.M .; Physical Geography Prepared on a New and Original Plan, Appleton's American Standard Geographies Based on the Principles of the Science of Education. D. Appleton and Co., NY. 1887 Barber, C.M. 1902. Notes on little-known New Mexican mammals and species apparently not recorded from the territory. Biological Society of Washington Proceedings. 15:191-193. Bailey V, 1931. Mammals of New Mexico. North American Fauna 53:283-285. Error 2. " The USFWS was ultimately ordered by the court to develop a jaguar recovery plan and designate critical habitat for the cats." This error on your part is understandable, because unfortunately this utter falsehood has been published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and is repeated often by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, even though they know it is utterly false. The court actually stated the following: there is no documented evidence of any naturally occurring female jaguar in New Mexico since the Pleistocene--so it would be impossible for a breeding population of jaguars to have occurred in New Mexico in recorded history. A young jaguar in a zoo in Belize. "IT IS ORDERED that Plaintiffs' Motions for Summary Judgment (Doc. Nos. 44& 45) are GRANTED in PART and DENIED in PART. The FWS determinations to not designate critical habitat or prepare a recovery plan are set aside, and this case is remanded to the FWS so that it may, consistent with this opinion, consider whether to designate critical habitat and prepare a recovery plan for the jaguar. The FWS shall make a determination as to critical habitat and recovery planning by January 8, 2010. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Federal Defendants' Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. No. 53) is DENIED. 15 The Court expresses no opinion or conclusion in this matter regarding the construction of vehicle or pedestrian impediments along the international border." Source: http://elr.info/litigation/39/20073/center-biological-diversity-v-kempthorne Best regards, Cindy Coping Franklin D. Roosevelt's flagship for trip to Tehran to meet Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin in 1943 Volunteer shows a visitor how to hold a hundred-pound bag of gunpowder . The USS Iowa boasts special quarters created for Franklin D. Roosevelt for his trip to Tehran to meet with Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin in 1943 Battleships, once thought to be the ultimate weapon, are now a relic of the past. For a chance to visit this past - and enjoy 360-degree breeze-swept views of Los Angeles Harbor, the USS Iowa at Berth 87, is a great place to go. A self-guided tour takes one in and out of sailors' quarters, mess halls and up and down ladders leading to almost all levels of the ship's significant superstructure and winding around the impressive armaments. It's easy to get distracted by views of yachts sailing in and out of the channel and the work of the giant cranes unloading ships from China. The USS Iowa, Battleship 61, was constructed beginning in 1939 and completed in 1942. She's the only battleship of her class to have served in the Atlantic during World War II. Her biggest claim to fame is possibly the special quarters created for Franklin D. Roosevelt for his trip to Tehran to meet with Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin in 1943. A bathtub - the only one in the entire navy - was installed in his quarters as well as an elevator to transport him between decks. Roosevelt had suffered polio and was paralyzed from the waist down. Upon her transfer to the Pacific Fleet in 1944, the Iowa participated in shelling of beachheads in the Marshall Islands and was present at the surrender of Japan in Tokyo Bay. After some service during the Korean War, the Iowa was mothballed until 1984, with Ronald Reagan sought to beef up the navy's fleet. Following a tragic accident in 1989 in which 47 sailors were killed by a mysterious explosion in her No. 2 gun turret, the Iowa was decommissioned for the final time. Alyssa Ganezer View of the famous 16-inch guns on the foredeck, USS Iowa Battleship, Long Beach. In other words, there's a lot to see here, especially if you're at all interested in World War II, the navy, or armaments. Parking is easy, right next to the ship in her permanent home. A ramp onto the ship shifts in steepness according to the tide, but they'll get you onboard if you're in a wheelchair, no matter the time of the month or day. Prices are discounted for military, seniors, and children. They're not cheap, but this tub receives no government money and relies entirely on admission and donations. Often, you run into a few of the tens of thousands of men who served aboard the USS Iowa during her more than 50 year tour of duty. Some of them are volunteer docents. Talking to them is in itself, worth the drive to Long Beach. For more information, visit http://www.pacificbattleship.com/ YWCA, police use 11 questions to protect domestic violence victims The idea: See if a victim is at high risk of being seriously injured or killed. And if they are, hook them up with a shelter or services. $1 million Powerball ticket sold in Cudahy A gas station in Cudahy became the second Wisconsin spot this month to sell a $1 million Powerball ticket, with the big jackpot still to come. Welcome to SwanseaOnline - your home for the best news, sports and what's on coverage of the city. Never miss a Swansea story with our daily newsletter Sign up to comment on our stories here Follow us on Facebook and Twitter | Swansea City news | Ospreys news | InYourArea The girl, Tarushi Jain, a student at UC Berkeley, was on vacation in Dhaka when the hostage crisis by ISIS took place. By PTI: An 18-year-old Indian girl holidaying in Dhaka was among 20 foreigners who were hacked to death by ISIS militants in a terror attack at a restaurant in Bangladesh capitals high-security diplomatic zone. The girl, Tarushi Jain, a student at UC Berkeley, was on vacation in Dhaka. Her father runs a garment business in Bangladesh for the last 15-20 years, according to officials here. advertisement Another Indian, a doctor by profession, had a narrow escape, as he spoke fluent Bengali and the terrorists mistook him for a Bangladeshi, they said. SUSHMA SWARAJ EXPRESSES GRIEF, ARRANGES VISA FOR FAMILY In a series of tweets, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said,"I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka. "I have spoken to her father Sanjeev Jain and conveyed our deepest condolences. The country is with them in this hour of grief. "We are arranging visa for the family. My officers are on the job," she said. THE ATTACK - HOW WAS IT CARRIED OUT? Twenty foreigners, including eight Italians, were brutally murdered by the militants inside the restaurant in Dhakas diplomatic zone before commandos launched an assault today, killing six attackers and capturing one alive, ending Bangladeshs worst terror attack. Director of Military Operations Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said the militants slaughtered 20 hostages before the joint operation led by the armed forces began. Most of those killed were found with their throat slit, he added. He said the bodies of the victims were recovered during a search in the Holey Artisan Bakery compound after the operation. The bodies were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital morgue for autopsy to confirm their identity. Also read:Prime Minster Modi condemns Dhaka attack, talks to Shaikh Hasina Dhaka attack: Those who could recite Quranic verses spared Obama briefed on ISIS attack in Bangladesh --- ENDS --- Madrid (Spain), July 2, 2016 (SPS) - Western Sahara : 40 years of resistance under construction is the title of a new book written by 14 Spanish experts of the Western Sahara conflict, including the Secretary General of the International Association of Jurists for Western Sahara. This new book presented Thursday, at the headquarters of the Zaragosa Bar in the presence of three of its authors namely Felipe Briones, Ana Camacho, journalist and researcher in African conflicts and Pepe Revert, lawyer and member of the Association of Jurists for Western Sahara said, Friday, Aragon daily, El Periodico. The book, published by "initiative" edition of the Aragonese Watchdog for Western Sahara, collects the testimonies of some people friends and in solidarity with the Sahrawi cause who laid, through this book, a retrospective and interdisciplinary look on the fortieth anniversary of the proclamation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), said the source. Furthermore, said the source, today, Western Sahara is one of the 17 non-autonomous territories listed in the article 73 of the United Nations charter. Each of these territories is run by a colonial power and from a legal point of view, Spain is considered as the administrator of Western Sahara. The conclusion, adds the source, is that Spain never protested against the crimes committed in this territory in accordance with the principle of territoriality, said Felipe Briones who criticized the Spanish leaders passivity to Moroccan occupation. (SPS) 062/090/700 By: WSPMC 30 June 2016 The Western Sahara Petroleum and Minerals Commission welcomes the decision of Norways Sovereign Wealth Fund to withdraw its investments in companies Cairn Energy of the UK and Kosmos Energy of the US for their involvement in the looting the wealth of through illegal and unethical investment operations in the occupied part of Western Sahara. According to a news release of the Commission, Western Sahara Petroleum and Minerals Commission honors the moral and courageous position that the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Norway taken to halt investment in the occupied territories of Western Sahara in accordance with international law and in line with the ethical standards of the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Norway. It calls on all foreign companies and private investors to disassociate themselves from involvement in investing in economic activities in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara. As the region has not been decolonized, international law prohibits any investment activities undertaken in collaboration with the occupying power, which does not have the legal or ethical authority to grant any licenses to carry out economic activities in the occupied territories. Accordingly, Dr. Ghali Zubeir, head of the Western Sahara Petroleum and Minerals Commission called on companies exploring or investing under the Moroccan occupation of the Sahrawi territories to rectify their status by signing of new contracts with the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic authorities as the sole legal authority to award such licenses. The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund already has withdrawn its investments from a number of companies engaged in the looting of Sahrawi natural resources such as the Kerr-McGee Corporation (USA) and the Irish San Leon Energy for the same reasons. (SPS) 062/090 http://www.hic-mena.org/news.php?id=pnBoaQ#.V3e0_dKLTIU This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate STAMFORD On the south side of Smith Street, Toni Lupinacci gestures to a filthy, rotting mattress propped against a tall stone wall. Several hundred feet from West Main Street, on the eastern edge of the West Side, the queen-size cushion resides on a shaded stretch of jagged sidewalk littered with broken glass. People make a home there. They just sleep on the mattresses at night, said Lupinacci, an owner of Pelliccis Ristorante, the swanky Italian eatery on Stillwater Avenue, a few blocks from the dumped mattress. For Lupinacci and two sisters who together own the restaurant and other family members who work there, the bed is a symbol of neglect by the city. We need help, said Michael Pellicci, whose father was an owner until his death in 2014. It doesnt take a lot for a police car to sit out here and have a presence. The restauranteurs were speaking out against the grad ual decline of the neighborhood where they grew up and established t heir family business which, at 69 years old, is the longest-standing restaurant in Stamford. More Information Spike in shootings Since the beginning of 2016, there have been 14 reported incidents of gun violence on the West Side, South End and Cove. Eleven of them happened on the West Side. Six people have been injured. 1. March 10: Shots fired at Dale Street and Ursula Place. 2. March 25: Person injured in shooting near the Connecticut Film Center. 3. March 29: Shots fired at Richmond Hill Avenue and Mission Street. 4. April 17: Shots fired at Myano Lane. 5. April 29: Shots fired at Atlantic Street and Walter Wheeler Way. 6. May 10: Person injured in shooting at Liberty Street and Stillwater Avenue. 7. May 28: Shooting at La Quinta Inn & Suites on Harvard Avenue that injured two people. 8. May 30: Shots fired at Ranson Street. 9. June 3: Shots fired at Hatch Field Park, West Main Street and Richmond Hill Avenue. 10. June 8: Shots fired at Corbo Terrace and Burr Street. 11. June 17: Shots fired near Perry and Taylor streets, and Fairfield Avenue. 12. June 19: Shots fired at Fairfield Young and Young Dixon Way. 13. June 19: Two people injured in a shooting after leaving Sweet Water on Greenwich Avenue. 14. June 25: Shots fired at Fairfield Avenue and West Main Street. See More Collapse Its gone downhill over the past 10 years, but the worst has been the past five or six years, Lupinacci said. Theres an almost obvious and intentional sense of neglect and disconnect. The West Side has been in the spotlight since a pattern of gun violence broke out there in March, resulting in 14 shootings some only reports of shots fired in this neighborhood and surrounding areas that have injured six people. Pelliccis, which backs up to Spruce Street and Carwin Park, is located at the epicenter of that violence. Police have said they believe much of the recent gunfire can be traced to feuding groups from Spruce Street and Connecticut Avenue. In May, a man was shot down the street from Pelliccis near Liberty Avenue. And gun violence is just one problem that plagues the neighborhood. Adding to its woes, Pelliccis owners believe the West Side gets short-changed by the city on litter cleanup, sidewalk maintenance and police patrol. Happy hour But many West Side residents and business owners are even more concerned about intoxicated loiterers on sidewalks and at neighborhood parks. Theyre obliterated on the sidewalk before noon, Pellicci said. Last Friday at around 3 p.m., a man with an unsteady gait approached diners on Pelliccis outdoor patio asking for money to buy booze. Pellicci swiftly kicked him out and the man continued down the road toward Smith Street. This was one of the better encounters. Pellicci said ambulances are called daily to Stillwater Avenue for drunk people who injure themselves. During one week in June, Pellicci said they showed up 16 times. We have schools all around here where children are getting let off from buses in the middle of all this, Lupinacci said. Its unacceptable. Earlier that day, Pellicci and his aunts walked the blocks around their business, calling attention to trouble spots. Pellicci greeted everyone he passed, knowing many by name. They made a beeline for Smith Liquor Store on the corner of Smith and Stephen streets, where several men drinking from brown paper bags were squatting on concrete. Its happy hour on the sidewalk every day, Lupinacci said. Bridge closure The police department used to maintain that, based on a prior understanding of a city ordinance, it could not enforce against people drinking and loitering in the streets. The police were under the impression that because of the way the ordinance was written that they couldnt enforce (against) drinking on city sidewalks, Mayor David Martin said. Theyre changing their practices and instructions to officers. The mayor disagreed with the assessment that the West Side gets poorer treatment than other areas. He pointed out the downtown has ambassadors trained in security and first aid, as well as events and extra services, because of a tax levied by the Downtown Special Service District. You can go to most areas of the city and people feel the same way that they should be getting more services, Martin said. Some of the complaints registered are perfectly legitimate, he said, and were trying to address them with the resources that we have available. Pelliccis owners also decried the permanent closure of the historic West Main Street Bridge that they believe cuts off the West Side from the downtown. Its a dead end to problems, Lupinacci said. Their theory is if they cut off everything on the West Side theyll keep everything bad here. For the most part, Pelliccis owners feel safe inside their 6,000-square-foot restaurant and their valet parking lot. Yet they take precautions. At night, I keep my car right next to the door, said Fran Caminiti, another owner, in addition to Michaels mother, Ann Pellicci. Caminiti recently ran into someone with whom she reminisced about the good old days, in the neighborhood and at Pelliccis. He was telling my grandchild how we kept kids off the street by giving them a broom, letting them clean and feeding them, she said. We need to take back the neighborhood. eskalka@scni.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate STAMFORD Liria Heidenreich entered unknown territory three years ago. She had extensive business experience, having earned an MBA and worked at Xerox. But when she decided to open the Style Bar hair salon on Towne Street in the South Ends Harbor Point development, she was a novice both in the industry and as an entrepreneur. Since then, she has grown Style Bar into a neighborhood institution serving women, men and children. The salon employs about a dozen and counts about 2,400 people in its client base. Still, Heidenreich has to closely watch her business condition. Tracking expenses and figuring out how to grow the salon represent constant concerns. This area is fabulous, she said. Its vibrant. Its close to the train station. The buildings are really beautiful. Its a great little area. I feel a lot of potential yet to come, but I need to get the word out there. Heidenreichs outlook epitomizes the predicament that many local small business owners face. They are passionate about their work, but they face a number of obstacles to securing long-term viability. Recent survey numbers also reveal a complicated picture. While some reports give the state failing grades for its support of small businesses, other data suggest a more promising future for emerging enterprises. Poor grades Results released last week by the job site Thumbtack of a survey of some 12,200 small business owners around the country gave the state an overall grade of F for its friendliness to small businesses. Connecticut received failing marks in several categories, including the ease of starting a business, the ease of hiring, tax regulations and licensing requirements. It also received an overall F in the previous years survey. Marks for Connecticuts major cities were not much better. The Bridgeport metropolitan area, which includes Stamford, received an overall grade of D. Its very disappointing, said Jack Condlin, president and CEO of the Stamford Chamber of Commerce. Its very disappointing how businesses are looking at Stamford and Fairfield County and how theyre rating and ranking us. At the other end of the scale, Tennessee, Texas and Utah each earned an A-plus in the survey for their small-business environments. A number of local business owners said that they are glad to be based in Stamford but that they face escalating operating costs. Rent payments, taxes and worker benefits constitute some of their greatest worries. Weve formed a lot of friendships here in Stamford, and we love what we do, said Maria DiMare, co-owner of the DiMare Pastry Shop on Largo Drive South in Springdale. The downside is the expenses keep rising. Its really hard these days for small business to stay in business because of all the taxes and health-insurance requirements. The citys services for local businesses include an online portal launched last year that explains how to start and grow a business and summarizes the permitting and licensing process. The portal also includes a gallery of several Stamford small businesses, including DiMare. But Heidenreich said city officials could still do more to raise the profile of startups like hers. It would be great if the city itself would say these are the businesses that are here, Heidenreich said. Everybody knows whats happening downtown or on High Ridge Road, but nobody really knows whats happening here. Were not very visible. A grain of salt Catherine Smith, the states commissioner of economic and community development, said she took the Thumbtack results with a very big grain of salt, pointing to the surveys small sample size. About 150 Connecticut small businesses participated, including about 50 from Fairfield County. Small business owners with no employees accounted for 60 percent of the surveys firms, followed by 31 percent for those with one to four workers and 5 percent for companies with five to nine on the staff. Im not saying we dont have to make things better for small businesses we have had a negative culture around the state, Smith said. There is a lot in the headlines about fiscal instability and balancing the budget and small businesses and large ones expect the state to do well at making sure fiscal stability is strong. In some categories, Connecticut rated well on the Thumbtack survey. It earned a B for its training and networking programs. And, contrasting with its other low grades on taxation, it received a B for its tax rates. Other indicators offer a more auspicious outlook for Nutmeg State small businesses. In the Kauffman Index, which measures entrepreneurial growth, Connecticut moved up in the past year from 17th to 13th among the 25 smallest states. And about 87 percent of business leaders said that they expect their workforce to remain steady or expand during the next three months, according to the CBIA /Farmington Bank first quarter Economic and Credit Availability Survey. Stamford, meanwhile, continues to attract small businesses that are expanding from other parts of the country. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy visited this week the new downtown offices of the New Jersey cybersecurity firm BlackStratus. A $5.5 million state grant supported BlackStratus expansion, with the firm now employing 23 at its West Broad Street offices. The downtown complex could accommodate as many as 80. Looking for improvement Small business owners and public officials agree that improving states economic climate needs to remain a top priority. The prospects for small enterprises has brightened with initiatives such as the Small Business Express Program, which has given state financial support to some 1,500 firms, Smith said. Im hopeful over time small businesses will not only hear about the good things that were doing but will feel them in their everyday interactions, Smith said. In Stamford, the online business portal marks the beginning of a new era of City Hall support, with more programs and websites set to roll out in the near future, said Thomas Madden, the citys economic development director. When you look at Connecticut, weve been very program-rich, but structurally poor on getting these programs for businesses out there, Madden said. Were going to be doing a lot more for businesses. Were working on making sure we have a process to get them the help they need. Despite the challenges she faces, Heidenreich said that she remains committed to the salon and to Harbor Point. She wants to revamp Style Bars website and expand its social media presence. She aspires to open additional salons in the area. I wanted to do something that was completely different, Heidenreich said. Its interesting and different enough to stretch the mind and spirit and imagination. Its exhilarating actually. pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott Overseen by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, Reconstruction of the U.S. Capitol had begun before the Civil War. Years earlier, Davis had balked when the army engineer, in charge of the Crawford project, suggested the dome be capped by a statute of Freedom Triumphant in War and Peace. The proposed statue would feature Lady Liberty with a liberty cap, worn by a freed slave. The symbolism was too much for the Mississippi slaveholder who would become president of the Confederacy in 1861. West Point-educated Davis wanted a warrior goddess, not Lady Liberty. Captain Montgomery Meigs, the Union architect in charge of the reconstruction, was ordered to tell Crawford the liberty caps history renders it inappropriate to a people who were born free and would not be enslaved. Crawfords new cap was composed of an Eagles head and a bold arrangement of feathers suggested by the costume of our Indian tribes. As president, Abraham Lincoln would insist the reconstruction of the Capitol continue. Not until Dec. 2, 1863 was Lady Liberty finally installed atop the Capitol Dome. But as historian David Hackett Fischer noted, the positioning of Lady Liberty was key. She faced to the South, providing a new meaning that nobody could have imagined in 1855. In 1864, as the presidential campaign against slavery intensified, Lincoln addressed the question of liberty in a Baltimore speech: We all declare for liberty, but in using the same word we do not mean the same thing. With some, the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other mens labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name liberty and tyranny. Clearly, Lincoln had been thinking for a long time about the issue: When the war began, three years ago, neither party, nor any man, expected it would last till now. Each looked for the end, in some way, long ere to-day. Neither did any anticipate that domestic slavery would be much affected by the war. But here we are; the war has not ended, and slavery has been much affected ... So true is it that man proposes, and God disposes. Characteristically, Lincoln chose a metaphor to explain the dilemma: The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheeps throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails to-day among us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. The speech in Baltimore was a rare event. Lincoln seldom traveled outside Washington to speak during the Civil War. Six years earlier at Edwardsville, in the midst of his hard-fought but losing Senate campaign in Illinois, Lincoln asked: What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength of our gallant and disciplined army. Lincoln answered his question: Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, every where. In January 1840, just short of his 31st birthday, Lincoln declared: Here, without contemplating consequences, before heaven and in the face of the world, I swear eternal fealty to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and my love. For more than a quarter century, liberty had been central to Lincolns thought and speech. On the question of liberty, as a principle, we are not what we have been, wrote Lincoln in 1855. When we were the political slaves of King George, and wanted to be free, we called the maxim that all men are created equal a self evident truth; but now when we have grown fat, and have lost all dread of being slaves ourselves, we have become so greedy to be masters that we call the same maxim a self evident lie. President Lincoln would aspire to the future of liberty everywhere, as well as its extension and preservation in America. It is not merely for to-day, Lincoln told an Ohio regiment passing through Washington on Aug. 22, 1865, but for all time to come that we should perpetuate for our childrens children this great and free government, which we have enjoyed all our lives. Lincoln understood that liberty in America could not be preserved, nor could it be extended, unless the Union was preserved. Slavery had no proper home in the America of the Declaration of Independence. I have always thought all men should be free; but if any should be slaves, it should be first those who desire it for themselves, and secondly, those who desire it for others, Lincoln told an Indiana regiment in March 1865. Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally. Thus, would President Lincoln sum up, in his December 1862 message to Congress, the vital stakes in the Civil War: We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best, hope of earth. Lewis E. Lehrman, co-founder of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, is author of Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point (Stackpole, 2008) and Lincoln `by littles. (TLI, 2013). By India Today Web Desk: A week after Infosys techie was hacked to death in broad daylight in Nungambakkam railway station in Chennai, another similar incident have shocked the residents of Adilabad district of Telangana on Saturday. Nineteen-year-old Sandhya, a resident of Bhainsa in Adilabad district, was brutally murdered by M Mahesh (22) for allegedly rejecting his marriage proposal. Police said that Mahesh an undergraduate stayed in the same neighbourhood. Sources said that Mahesh had been harassing the girl by stalking her and asking her to accept his marriage proposal for the past few months. VICTIM HARASSED FOR OVER A YEAR advertisement According to police sources, Sandhya had been resisting his advances for over a year. Mahesh attacked her on Saturday after known when she went out to buy groceries. Mahesh reportedly slit Sandhya's throat following which she died on the spot. He was caught by local people and handed over to the police. "Mahesh stabbed the girl in front of her house with a knife at around 2.30 pm and later slit her throat. She died on the spot," said Adilabad district superintendent of police Vikramjit Duggal. Duggal added that the girl's family had arranged her marriage with another man and that she was to get married soon. Bhainsa police has booked Mahesh under section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code. Police said further investigations into the incident are underway. Also read: Chennai Infosys murder: Swathi's killer arrested in Tirunelveli, tries to kill self --- ENDS --- ABVP and Bajrang Dal members also organized a 'hawan' puja and sprinkled 'gangjal' on the ground in Begusarai where Kanhaiya Kumar addressed a public meeting of Communist Party of India on Thursday. ABVP activists shouted slogans that the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union president, who has been charged with sedition , has made this ground impure by his presence. By Indo-Asian News Service: A group of ABVP and Bajrang Dal activists in Bihar's Begusarai district washed the statue of renowned poet Dinkar with 'gangajal' on Friday to protest against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, who garlanded and paid floral tributes there. ABVP and Bajrang Dal members also organized a 'hawan' puja and sprinkled 'gangjal' on the ground in Begusarai where Kanhaiya Kumar addressed a public meeting of Communist Party of India on Thursday. ALL FOR THE OF PURITY advertisement ABVP activists shouted slogans that the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union president, who has been charged with sedition , has made this ground impure by his presence. However,after a long time, there is a festive mood in Bihat village in Begusarai on Friday as a famous son of the soil is visiting his home for first time after arrested on the charge of sedition and later released on the bail. Kanhaiya's parents, other family members, relatives, neighbours and villagers have been celeberating Kanhaiya's visit to his native village. "It is time of celeberation not only for us but entire village as Kanhaiya has finally arrived after a long wait," said Kanhaiya's father Jaishankar Singh, who is in his early 60s and paralysed on one side of his body. Kanhaiya was welcomed by villagers when he arrived at his native village on Thursday night. Kanhaiya's mother Meena Devi is not hiding her happiness after her son is at home. "I am cooking some special desi-dishes for him," said Meena, an angaanwadi worker who earns Rs 3,000 a month. According to her, Kanhaiya will also attend a marriage of a family member during his two day stay in the village. TOUGH SECURITY In view of threat perception to Kanhaiya, tough security arrangements have been made in Bihat and around his home during his stay, district police official Ranjit Kumar Mishra said. In April, Kanhaiya visited Patna but did not visit his native village during two-day visit. Kanhaiya arrived in Patna on Wednesday and participated in 'Pratirodh march' here to support the ongoing agitation at college of arts and crafts here. Kanhaiya also addressed a public meeting of CPI in Begusarai on Thursday,where he was given rousing welcome. Kanhaiya, who was arrested on the charge of sedition in February in connection with an event on JNU campus against hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised, was released on bail in March. --- ENDS --- P olice in Essex have arrested a woman after photos of someone urinating on a war memorial emerged on the 100th anniversary of the bloodiest day in British military history. The 42-year-old was arrested by Essex Police on Saturday over the incident in Grays. The pictures were widely shared online on Friday as the nation marked the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, which claimed thousands of British lives. An Essex Police spokesman said: "Police were made aware of a photograph circulating on social media on July 1 which showed the offence taking place by the war memorial on Grays High Street. "A 42-year-old woman from Grays has been arrested this morning on suspicion of outraging public decency and is awaiting questioning in custody." P olice are investigating after a car ploughed into a shop and burst into flames in a terrifying crash in north London this morning. Nearly 60 firefighters raced to the blaze as smoke engulfed Station Road, Harrow, following the crash at about 3.30am. Police woke up residents to evacuate them from nearby properties as the fire brigade battled for hours to get the fire under control. There have been no reports of any injuries. In tweets, Harrow Borough Police said shortly after 6am: The fire is now out and everyone is safe, officers where first on scene and evacuated residents next to the fire. Fire at Harrow high street shop Station Road remains closed for the foreseeable whilst we work with @LondonFire to investigate the cause. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police later added officers believed a driver and a passenger were in the car and left the scene following the collision. Harrow borough councillor Georgia Weston said the affected shop front was an accountancy firm. A London Fire Brigade spokeswoman said: A car has crashed into a shop and caught fire on Station Road, Harrow in the early hours of this morning. The whole of the ground floor has been damaged by the blaze. The fire also damaged offices on the first floor of the block. Station Road is closed to the junction of Pinner Road and motorists are being asking to avoid the area if possible. There is pedestrian access to North Harrow underground station. The Brigade was called at 0336 and the fire was under control by 0616. Eight fire engines and 58 firefighters and officers from Northolt, Harrow, Stanmore and Wembley fire stations were at the scene. A man who stabbed his former partner while she slept, and only stopped her when her son jumped on his back, has been jailed for six yeard. Violent Darius Grzesiak, 33, launched the attack at a home in Elsden Road, Haringey at about 5am on April 8. He stabbed the woman several times in her chest and arms, and was only stopped when her screams woke her son, who was also asleep in the house at the time. The boy rushed into the room and jumped on Grzesiak's back in an attempt to stop the assault. Grzesiak then left the house, but returned at about 7am and was arrested by officers. The woman was taken to hospital by ambulance where she was treated before being discharged. Polish national Grzesiak, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to section 18 GBH wounding with intent at Wood Green Crown Court on Friday. DC Leon Ure of Haringey Community Safety Unit said: "Darius Grzesiak carried out a vicious and unprovoked attack on a defenceless woman as she slept in her bed. This was a cowardly assault and I am sure if it wasn't for the brave intervention of the victim's son, this attack could have had a more catastrophic conclusion. "I would like to praise the victim and her family for providing evidence against Grzesiak, as well as the investigating team for their thorough investigation. A dangerous man is now behind bars." A union leader has accused the Education Secretary of "deceiving the public" over funding cuts, and insisted teachers will be forced to strike. Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) will walk out of schools in England on Tuesday in a row over conditions. NUT acting general secretary Kevin Courtney said Nicky Morgan is "misleading the public about funding" and refusing to address "the real issues". "She says they are giving real terms protection to the school budget and she uses those words for the purpose of deceiving the public and the country," he added. "Head teachers up and down the country are making cuts as we speak - not replacing teachers, making support staff redundant. "And that means that class sizes are going up, arts and drama subjects are being lost and it means that children are getting less individual attention." The union said its demands were to increase funding to schools and education, guarantee terms and conditions in all types of schools, and to resume negotiations on teacher contracts to allow workload to be addressed. NUT members voted in favour of industrial action by more than 9 to 1. Ms Morgan accused the NUT of "playing politics with children's futures over the issue of pay and conditions". "I would urge you to reconsider this damaging industrial action," she said in a letter to Mr Courtney. She also said that "the underpinning basis for this strike seems to be teacher pay". However, Mr Courtney insisted that the rate of pay is not the issue. "It isn't at all about wages," he said. "Again, this is an attempt to mislead. It's not about a pay rise, it's not about the amount of the pay rise." The Education Department declined to respond to Mr Courtney's comments. U p to 30,000 people today joined an anti-Brexit rally in the heart of London calling the UK to stay in the EU. Protesters waved placards carrying slogans including We heart EU and We want Breturn as the huge crowds marched from Hyde Park to Parliament Square. Organisers of the March for Europe demo said the event was a rallying cry for those who did not wish to accept the referendum as the final say. Protester Mark Thomas, a comedian and satirist, said the march addressed anger, frustration and need to do something. Pro-EU protestors shout 'shame on you' at Downing Street He said: "We would accept the result of the referendum if it was fought on a level playing field. Anti-Brexit 'March for Europe' protest 1 /13 Anti-Brexit 'March for Europe' protest Organiser estimated up to 30,000 people attended the central London rally PA Thousands parade through the streets of the capital for the anti-Brexit march PA Pro-EU protesters painted their faces in the colours of the union's flag PA Demonstrators held placards expressing their support for the European Union PA Some placards were more imaginative than others PA Bob Geldof was among famous faces to address demonstrators at Parliament Square PA Lib Dem leader Tim Farron also addressed crowds during the rally Getty The route from Hyde Park to Westminster passed major London landmarks including Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square Getty/AFP Demonstrators attached an EU balloon to the statue of Winston Churchill outside Parliament PA Some demonstrators had digs at the politicians behind the UK's Leave campaign, including now Tory leadership hopeful Michael Gove PA "But it was full of misinformation and people need to do something with their frustration." Musician Jarvis Cocker recorded a special message for the tens of thousands who attended the event, which began at about 11am and continued into the afternoon. In the message filmed in a recording studio in Paris, the Pulp frontman held up a world map and said: "You cannot deny geography. The UK is in Europe. How can you take it out?" TV presenter Billie Piper also addressed the thronged crowds in Parliament Square, saying: We're all entitled to an opinion. We're all angry and we're all scared and, quite frankly, some of us are ashamed. #MarchforEurope protest begins at Park Lane "We have been eager to show the rest of the world that the decision does not speak for all of us. "The horrific violence and terrifying hate crime might have happened on British soil but those attitudes are not British. From the stage set up yards from the Houses of Parliament, Labour peer Michael Cashman told the crowd: "No more lies, no more hate. "We need to uphold the values of democracy and inclusiveness which are at the heart of the EU and this country. UK: Corbyn condemns rise in racist attacks since Brexit vote "We must not let right-wing, narrow-minded nationalism nor xenophobia define us. We are better than that. Protester William Dramard, 36, moved from France to Manchester to study 16 years ago. A home-made placard represented his French roots, his Finnish wife, their English bull mastiff dog and the European Union. The engineer, who travelled to London alone for the rally, said: "My family exists thanks to the EU. "One of the reasons my wife and I came here was because of freedom of movement. We met here and started our life together here. This is what we consider to be our home now." Mathilda Fell, 14, is marching with her parents. The aspiring human rights lawyer from London fears her dreams of studying at university in Belgium or Holland might be thwarted by an EU exit. She said: "I feel really let down that my voice, and the voice of young people, hasn't been heard in the referendum. It's my future that's going to be affected." Additional reporting by PA T he Queen today told political leaders in Scotland it was important to make "room for quiet thinking and contemplation" to deal with developments in a "fast-moving world". The monarch used her address at the opening of the fifth session of the Scottish Parliament just over a week after Scotland defied the UK and voted to stay in the EU - to refer to "increasingly complex and demanding" times. Last Thursday the UK voted by a 52-48 margin in favour of leaving the 28-member bloc, with Scotland joining London as two of the few regions to back Remain. The split result has made a second referendum on Scottish independence a real possibility. Royal visit: Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon greets the Queen as she arrives at Holyrood / AFP/Getty Images Today the Queen said: "Of course we all live and work in an increasingly complex and demanding world where events and developments can and do take place with remarkable speed, and retaining the ability to stay calm and collected can at times be hard. Nicola Sturgeon: 'Immigration has made Scotland stronger' "As this Parliament has successfully demonstrated over the years, one hallmark of leadership in such a fast-moving world is allowing sufficient room for quiet thinking and contemplation which can enable deeper consideration of how challenges and opportunities can be best addressed." Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also addressed politicians at Holyrood and used it to celebrate the country's diversity, highlighting the role of immigrants in Scotland past and present. Politicians listen as the Queen makes her speech to the Scottish Parliament / PA She also stressed Scotland's determination to "play our part in a stronger Europe". At the ceremony she said that while MSPs come from "a diverse variety of backgrounds all of us have been given the precious opportunity to contribute to building a better country and build it we will". Ms Sturgeon added: "To do so we must be bold and ambitious, we must show courage and determination. Our collective commitment to the people of Scotland today is that we will not shy away from any challenge we face, no matter how difficult or deep rooted." The First Minister continued: "So allow me to reflect on who we are in Scotland today. We are more than five million men and women, adults, young people and children, each with our own life story and family history, and our own hopes and dreams. "We are the grandchildren and the great grandchildren of the thousands who came from Ireland to work in our shipyards and in our factories "We are the 80,000 Polish people, the 8,000 Lithuanians, the 7,000 each from France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Latvia. We are among the many from countries beyond our shores that we are so privileged to have living here amongst us. Additional reporting by PA Kate Huson has bared it all for a racy photograph, which she posted on Instagram on Friday. By India Today Web Desk: Seems like Bride Wars actress Kate Hudson has started following in the footsteps of reality TV star Kim Kardashian West, as she has bared it all in a risque photograph that she posted on Instagram on Friday. She posed nude in the photograph because she is "pretty happy" that it is almost the weekend, reports femalefirst.co.uk. advertisement Also read: Hygiene to sex: This survey reveals the top 6 reasons behind women grooming their pubic hair Alongside the image, in which she can be seen posing with her back to the camera in dull lighting with one hand on her butt and the other in the air, Hudson used the hashtags "tbt", "PrettyHappy", "Love", "AlmostFriday" in the caption. The blonde beauty is proud of her body and has previously written a book about called "Pretty Happy: Healthy Ways to Love Your Body". The Almost Famous star, who is the daughter of Hollywood veteran Goldie Hawn and Bill Hudson, had earlier said that she was taught how to embrace her body by her mother. The picture has raked 70.4k shares so far and is going viral. You can see the picture here. (With inputs from IANS) --- ENDS --- T wenty hostages have been killed in a 10-hour stand-off between security forces and gunmen after they took a popular restaurant in the capital of Bangladesh. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery in the heart of Dhakas diplomatic district. At least six militants were also killed as commandos stormed the restaurant - which is popular with diplomats and foreigners. Some of the hostages are thought to be Italian and Japanese nationals. Thirteen were freed when security forces mounted their raid after the lengthy negotiations failed. Two police officers were shot when attackers initially stormed the restaurant and opened fire. Restaurant attack: Bangladeshi security personnel cordoned off the area as the hostage situation unfolded / AP Photo As many as nine gunmen targeted the eatery on Friday and exchanged gunfire with police officers while also throwing explosives. Gunfire and explosions could be heard as they swooped and battled the militants in a bid to end the siege. Lieutenant Colonel Tuhin Mohammad Masud said some militants were captured. He added: "We have gunned down at least six terrorists and the main building is cleared but the operation is still going on." Siege: An injured police officer is escorted by a colleague after suffering wounds from a crude bomb / EPA A UK Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are urgently seeking more information from the Bangladeshi authorities following a shooting in Dhaka and are monitoring the situation closely." The Islamic State's Amaq News Agency said the attack was carried out by "Islamic State commandos", according to the SITE Intelligence Group which monitors jihadist activity. A news agency affiliated with IS also posted images allegedly showing bodies of hostages lying in pools of blood inside the restaurant. Miles of corridors snake down the middle of each floor at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi. If you walk down these neon-lit corridors, you'll come across closed doors on each side, sporting nameplates of doctors and departments, occasional academic posters on bright beige walls and, of course, brusque signboards: "Medical representatives NOT welcome." On most weekdays, the sound of your footsteps will reverberate down these quiet and tidy walkways. These are the corridors of knowledge, the academic arena within which students learn from their teachers the ways of the human body-how it works, what makes it tick. Further down the corridors, an unsavoury smell hangs in the air: the stench of disease. The temple of knowledge loses its way into a teeming mass of humanity, spilling over from every side. This is the out-patient department, where every day, over 4,000 people-ill, unwell or injured-throng the passages, a Rs 10 coupon in hand, and besiege the doctors. They wait for hours on uncomfortable wooden benches till their turn comes. In their little chambers, the doctors toil away, perfectly aware that for most of their patients, they are the last resort of hope. Dr Amlesh Seth, surgeon of urology, smiles: "It's a great learning experience. Where else would students get to see such a wide range of patients and diseases?" advertisement What makes a university great? That's the question to ask in this season of rankings. Is it one that matches academic credentials with stunning surroundings? In a World Bank report on what makes the best of the best universities, education economist Jamil Salmi writes that a high concentration of talented teachers, researchers and students distinguish top universities from their competitors. But every ranking of universities, globally, suffers from a problem: who will measure the quality of teaching in technical fields and how will the impact be quantified? The annual college rankings by the US News & World Report ignores 'intangibles', such as 'faculty dedication to teaching'. The Times Higher Education rankings have tried to solve the issue by measuring reputational questions on teaching, teacher-student ratios and so on. Let us consider AIIMS: if about 9 per cent of nearly 6 lakh students who take the All India Pre-Medical/Pre-Dental Entrance Test (AIPMT, now NEET) exams get into a medical college, just 0.67 per cent of the 1 lakh students who take the AIIMS entrance exam every year are able to clear it. With manpower of over 10,000 people, including 826 faculty, over 700 scholars in various courses, 800-plus postgraduate trainees and fellows, it enjoys a very high student-teacher ratio of 1:1.2 overall. "The philosophy, ethics and patient management that our students get trained in cannot be found anywhere else," says Dr G.K. Rath, chief of the Dr B.R. Ambedkar Institute-Rotary Cancer Hospital at AIIMS. "In the last 10 years, the number of people applying for teaching posts here has gone up 10 times. Senior people from other hospitals take up junior posts, just to be in AIIMS." Another factor that sets top universities apart is their sizeable budget, reports the World Bank task force on higher education: elite institutions have higher funding for impressive facilities, good infrastructure, operational spending and research. "All these are vital part of the educational experience of students," says Dr M.C. Misra, Director, AIIMS. As the premier-most brand, AIIMS has the largest budget sanctioned by the Indian state: Rs 1,000 crore for planned allocation and Rs 1,043 crore for non-plan in 2016. "An encouraging move," says Misra. AIIMS has already started the process of hiring 100 faculty members and 1,000 nurses to further boost the institution, he points out. New projects are coming up: from expansion plans for the AIIMS?Emergency block and Trauma Centre to new OPD blocks and a mother and childcare unit. A significant focus area is research. About 1,100 annual publications is what AIIMS produces a year, ranking third in a review of the world's largest database of peer-reviewed literature in the world, reports Current Medicine Research and Practice, April 2016, right after Massachusetts General Hospital and Mayo Clinic in the US. advertisement World-class universities invariably thrive in an ecosystem that fosters creativity, competitiveness and critical thinking. Flagship universities in North America and Europe are known for successfully combining freedom, autonomy and leadership. Jawaharlal Nehru's dream institute, set up to foster a scientific culture in modern India in 1956 by an Act of Parliament, AIIMS has been an autonomous body under the Union ministry for health right from the beginning. It is not answerable to clunky bureaucracy and externally imposed standards. As a result, with its small student body of the brightest and most motivated young minds from around the country, the institution has been able to experiment with its unique model of curriculum and mode of learning: from modern, interactive, small-group teaching to problem-based learning, allowing students the lead time to spend more hours in anatomy classes, experiment with new teaching tools such as ultrascope, video-instruction systems, MRIs, CTs, X-Rays, ultrasonograms, e-learning and digital technology-breathing new life into the lecture theatre. advertisement But you will never understand what AIIMS means unless you are a patient there. Take Dr Seth, for instance. Even his daily surgeries tantamount to sessions with students. And even patients, if they are not on general anaesthesia, can follow what is going on. As Nirmal Joshi, 78, a patient with initial stage cancer in the urinary bladder, says, "I saw my entire procedure on the screen in front of me. What's more, with the doctor explaining to several of his students helping him in the OT, I understood the entire experience fully." It did not just distract him during the procedure, explains his wife, it also made him more positive during the healing process, post-surgeries. So is it the beauty of a strong leadership team, a well-thought-out curriculum, qualified academicians and meritorious students? "AIIMS certainly provides some of that, but what makes it great as an institution is its ability to take the hard road when the chips are down," says Dr Misra. "Here, the only thing we are interested in is making AIIMS a true place of learning." advertisement --- ENDS --- Home Minister directed officials to strengthen the security arrangement and intensify vigil across the state in a meeting. By Naseer Ganai: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh after landing in Srinagar on Friday held a detailed meeting with all security agencies and took stock of the security arrangements for the Amarnath Yatra, which will commence on Saturday. The Home Minister chaired the high-level meeting at Raj Bhavan. INTENSIFY VIGIL The meeting assumes significance following recent militant attack on paramilitary Centre Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Saturday at Pampore town of Pulwama district, about 24 km south of Srinagar city, killing eight CRPF men and wounding 20 others. advertisement During the meeting, the Home Minister directed officials to strengthen the security arrangement and intensify vigil across the state. The meeting was attended by the top officials of the Army, CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police. The Home Minister, according to the sources, was informed that there was no threat to the Yatra. The Home Minister expressed satisfaction over the performance of the state government as well as the Security Forces and complimented them for excellent ground coordination and synergy. MORE LOC ROUTES TO OPEN He also assured of positive outcomes on issues of opening of more LoC routes for trade and business, giving permission to foreigners to visit Ladakh including Nubra valley, quick resolution of land related issues, increasing ex gratia payment to families of killed J&K Police personnel at par with the Central Forces and restarting the police modernisation. The Home Minister has instructed the CRPF and BSF to explore the possibility of conducting special recruitment drives in Jammu and Kashmir. Also Read: Amarnath Yatra to commence from July 2 Mehbooba meets Army Chief, seeks minimum troops in civilian areas --- ENDS --- The investigation into the shooting death of a Mississippi man has been turned over to the Lancaster County Attorneys Office. The preliminary investigation into the death of Germichael K. Kennedy, 22, of Jonestown, Mississippi, indicated that Lincoln Police Sgt. Mario Robinson and Officer Josh Atkinson acted within their legal authority Sunday after determining that lethal force was necessary to protect themselves from death or serious injury, the Lancaster County Sheriffs Office said. Authorities and witnesses said Kennedy refused to drop a gun. Kennedy shot and killed Marlene Rashidi, 20, a sophomore at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, officials said. Dezarae L. Mann, 23, also was shot as the women sat in separate vehicles about 3 a.m. on Portia Street between Adams and Knox Streets. Mann remains hospitalized but is recovering, a Lincoln police spokeswoman said Friday. The Lancaster County Sheriffs Office, which conducted the preliminary investigation into Kennedys shooting, said work remains to be completed in the case, such as forensics analysis, toxicology reports, electronic evidence analysis, establishing a timeline and follow-up interviews. Lincoln Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister said Robinson and Atkinson have 22 and eight years of service, respectively, with the Lincoln Police Department. The officers remain on paid administrative leave, a department policy when officers discharge their service weapons. The chief said that both men continue to participate in the internal administrative investigation and in the investigation of Kennedys death. Police also are investigating any connections between Kennedy and the two women. They have said that Kennedy was acquainted with the friends whom Rashidi was with on Sunday but havent determined whether either woman knew him or each other. Countries & Areas Search for country or area A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi C Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote dIvoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia D Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana H Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan Jordan K Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan L Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique N Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway O Oman P Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Q Qatar R Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu U Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Y Yemen Z Zambia Zimbabwe Downtown STL Inc. and SafeTrek, a mobile platform company that recently relocated from San Diego to St. Louis, have partnered to ensure a higher level of safety for people living downtown. The SafeTrek mobile app was created in 2013 at the University of Missouri-Columbia in response to the high amount of crime reports, as well as to the slow response of 911 services in identifying the location of people making calls. Whenever they feel unsafe, SafeTrek users press on the blue button image on their smartphone and "hold it." Once they believe they're out of danger, they remove their finger and enter a four-digit PIN. But if they remove their finger and fail to enter the PIN, local law-enforcement is alerted. The SafeTrek app provides police with the location of the person in trouble, with a five-meter accuracy rate, at any time. Downtown St. Louis will offer a six-month free subscription to 4,000 downtown residents, available on a first-come, first-served basis. All residents will go through an address verification process. "Our mission is to support residents and businesses and keep downtown clean and safe," said Missy Kelly, president and chief executive officer of Downtown STL, Inc. "And we realized that people are sometimes reluctant to call 911. They don't know if the situation is important enough to call 911. SafeTrek gives people the ability to just press a button when they feel unsafe and concerned." The data collected in the background will be used to better assess the danger potential of specific areas in downtown. "When you're holding down the button, you are giving us data on places you feel uncomfortable with," said Zack Winkler, co-founder and CEO of SafeTrek. "We plan to leverage that data to figure out the impact. We want to see why people feel uneasy and make community safer. This way, we can be proactive by adding more street patrols at certain times of the day or cameras." SafeTrek relocated from California at the beginning of April and plans to expand its operations and add more features that will allow police to better identify and help potential victims. Editor's note: The free subscription being offered by Downtown STL is for a six-month period. An earlier version of this story was incorrect based on information provided by the organization. The victim has been admitted to the hospital and is said to be in a critical condition. By India Today Web Desk: A day after a Hindu priest was hacked to death at a temple, another priest was attacked today morning in Satkhira Sadar Upazila area of Bangladesh. The victim has been admitted to the hospital and is said to be in a critical condition. Bhabasindhu Bor, priest of local Sree Radha Govinda temple in Brahmarajpur village was attacked by a group of assailants. The accused immediately fled the scene. advertisement On Friday, a Hindu priest was killed in front of a temple in Jhinaidah district headquarter. While the police are yet to identify the motive behind the killing, no arrests have been made till now. "He was preparing morning prayers with flowers at the temple early in the morning when three young people came on a motor bike and killed him with machetes and fled," said Mahbubur Rahman, the chief of Jhenaidah district administration. "The nature of killing was similar with those of the local militants, but we cannot say more at the moment," Mahbubur told Reuters. TERRORISTS STORM RESTAURANT IN DHAKA Two Italian nationals and three police personnel reportedly died after gunmen opened fire in a popular cafe in Gulshan neighbourhood of Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, on Friday night. The gunmen have been identified as ISIS assailants, after the militant group took responsibility. 20 foreign nationals present at the Holey Artisan Bakery have been taken hostage by suspected militants. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a statement said that all diplomats are safe. Meanwhile, Bangladeshi police have stormed the restaurant to rescue those trapped. DHAKA ON ALERT All residents have been asked to stay indoors. Moreover, Rapid Action Battalion along with the Army and Navy have cordoned off the restaurant Live broadcast of the gunfight has been stopped by all channels on orders by the police. Also read: Armed ISIS gunmen attack restaurant in Dhaka, 5 including 3 cops killed in gunbattle Bangladesh police storm restaurant to rescue hostages, gunfight on --- ENDS --- The things you come across while checking duct work in an old building like the first bishop of St. Louis. Imagine how shocked they were, literally stumbling onto the remains of Bishop (Joseph) Rosati down here, said the Rev. Richard Quirk, a history-loving priest at what St. Louisans call the Old Cathedral. I mean we knew the remains were down here, but we thought it was in some small metal container, not this big enclosure, Quirk said. This is the part of Rosatis remains that visitors to the cathedrals museum dont see: the bulky rubber-coated coffin that hunkers down in a crawl space below the churchs main altar. It has been encased in brick and then covered with rubber-foam insulation mats and waterproof sealant. A modest plaque rests above it. Quirk said he is pleased that Rosatis remains are at the cathedral, and that it is fitting he is the only inhabitant of the citys oldest church. Were glad hes here, Quirk said. Rosati was the driving force behind the building of the Old Cathedral to replace a deteriorating brick church on the riverfront that Rosati called a barn, Quirk said. The Old Cathedral (officially Basilica of St. Louis, King) sits upon the only parcel of land in St. Louis that has never changed hands since Pierre Laclede established the village in 1765. But Quirk said the building is only the most visible evidence of Rosatis influence. Rosati oversaw the creation of what would become both DePaul Hospital and St. Louis University, and was instrumental in supporting the missionary work of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, Quirk said. Rosati was ordained in 1811 into the order known as the Vincentians. In 1816, he and a friend, Father Felix DeAndreis, were recruited for service in America by Louis William DuBourg, who was in Rome to be consecrated as Bishop of Louisiana, which included St. Louis. They returned with DuBourg, and Rosati helped found St. Mary of the Barrens Seminary in Perryville. The oldest building on the campus, a log cabin built in 1818, is known as Rosatis Sacristy. Quickly climbing the Vincentian ranks, Rosati was named as DuBourgs second-in-command in 1823. When St. Louis became a separate diocese in 1826, Rosati became its first bishop. In spite of that pioneering presence, Rosati was initially laid to rest in Europe, and the process of getting him back to the church he championed took more than 125 years and required a couple of stops along the way, Quirk said. After Rosati died in 1843 while in Europe, he was buried in Rome. He remained there until 1954, when Archbishop Joseph E. Ritter petitioned the Vincentians to release Rosatis body so it could be buried in the New Cathedral (officially the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis). At that time, Rosatis body lay next to that of Cardinal John J. Glennon. Since, the remains of archbishops Ritter, John Joseph Carberry and John L. May have been added at the New Cathedral. But Rosati did not get his absolute final rest until 1971, when again with little fanfare, his remains were moved, this time to the Old Cathedral. We have so much history in this area, and he had so much to do with it, Quirk said. We should be telling everyone about it. Against a grim backdrop of rising suicide rates among American women, new research has revealed a blinding shaft of light: One group of women practicing Catholics appears to have bucked the national trend toward despair and self-harm. Compared with women who never participated in religious services, women who attended any religious service once a week or more were five times less likely to commit suicide between 1996 and 2010, says a study published Wednesday by JAMA Psychiatry. Its not clear how widely the findings can be applied to a diverse population of American women. In a study population made up of nurses and dominated by women who identified themselves as either Catholic or Protestant, the suicide rate observed was about half that for U.S. women as a whole. Of 89,708 participants aged 30 to 55, 36 committed suicide at some point over the next 15 years. The womens church attendance was not the only factor; which church they attended mattered as well. Protestant women who worshipped weekly at church were far less likely to take their own lives than were women who seldom or never attended services. But these same Protestant women were still seven times more likely to die by their own hand than were their devout Catholic sisters. Among especially devout Catholic women those in the pews more than once a week suicides were a vanishing phenomenon. Among the 6,999 Catholic women who said they attended Mass more than once a week, there was not a single suicide. The suicide-prevention effect of religion was clearly not a simple matter of group identity: Self-identified Catholics who never attended Mass committed suicide nearly as often as did women who were not active worshippers. The authors suggested that attendance at religious services is a form of meaningful social participation that buffers women against loneliness and isolation both factors that are strongly implicated in depression and suicide. Religion and spirituality may be an underappreciated resource that psychiatrists and clinicians could explore with their patients, as appropriate, wrote a team of researchers led by Tyler J. VanderWeele of Harvards T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The new study comes just two months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention documented a steep rise in suicides in the United States between 1994 and 2014. Suicide rates climbed among men and women and in all age groups between 10 and 74. Although women remain much less likely than men to commit suicide, the CDC found that gap closing. Among women between 45 and 64 the ages at which women are most likely to kill themselves the rate of suicide in 2014 vaulted 80 percent over 1999s rates. The Catholic Church teaches that suicide is a mortal sin. It has long warned that those who killed themselves would go to hell, and denied those who killed themselves a Catholic burial. In recent decades, however, the churchs pronouncements have softened. Catholic teaching now asserts that a suicide victims responsibility can be diminished by grave psychological disturbances, anguish or grave fear of hardship, suffering or torture. And it cautions that families should not despair of the eternal salvation of a loved one who has taken his or her own life. Though stern prohibitions against suicide might have led to its underreporting by Catholic next-of-kin, the authors of the new research say that such misrepresentation would have had to be perpetrated on a massive scale to erase the stark difference they found between church-going women and Catholic church-goers in particular and their nonreligious peers. Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Irvine, said the new studys design and its findings strengthen a link between religious practice and mental health that was first explored by the sociologist Emile Durkheim in 1897. Kheriaty, who is co-author of The Catholic Guide to Depression, acknowledged the power of strong religious proscriptions against suicide. But, he said, religion may protect against despair as well. Religious convictions and practices can help people foster a sense of hope, even in the midst of major crises or adversities, said Kheriaty. Religious faith can help people find a sense of meaning and purpose even in suffering, he added. If patients are inclined to explore religion or spirituality, Kheriaty said, doctors can encourage patients to explore such activities confident that religious practices will likely not harm, and may indeed, help, their patients mental health. Ramadan, the month of fasting is the most blessed time in 1.6 billion Muslims lives. Each year Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. They are enjoined to do works of charity, spend more time praying and be a model Muslim. We seek mercy of our creator and strive to be merciful to our fellow human beings. Sadly the acts of terrorists during this holy month have overshadowed the meanings of this sacred month. The atrocities committed in Orlando and Istanbul is in stark difference to millions of Muslims resolve during this month. Fasting is not unique to Islam; it is practiced in Christianity, Judaism and other faiths in different ways. As Muslims follow the lunar calendar, each year the month starts 10-11 days earlier. When my children were teenagers, we used to observe Ramadan in winter. The days were shorter and usually fell during the winter break. Some of my childrens non-Muslim friends fasted with them. The excitement at the time of breaking fast used to be so palpable, the pride shown to their parents that they were able to complete it, displayed youthful innocence. Beth Damsgaard-Rodriguez, an Interfaith Consultant refreshed my memories when she called me a few weeks before Ramadan about a great event, Youth Iftar, held at the Islamic Foundation. Iftar is the meal that breaks the fast during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims are asked to fast during daylight hours. It is a time of food, community, prayer and fellowship. A one-of-a-kind opportunity for high school and college students of various faiths to join together in breaking the fast with Muslim youth. It also is an opportunity to learn about special times in other religions through informal conversations. The event attracted over 150 youths. It was a perfect example of diversity. People of different ethnic, religious backgrounds at the same table, respecting each other's faith and resolving to respect everyone. Lydia Roesler, Christian by faith from Fort Zumwalt School District was driven to attend the event to learn more about Islam. She had come across ignorant remarks by her school mates regarding Muslims and other groups and wanted to learn more about other faiths. Lydia felt the Iftar gave her a chance to learn, ask questions and observe the practices of Islam. She wants to continue to interact through interfaith activities and to volunteer. Adam Schenberg came to the Iftar with his friends Caleb Pultman and Jacob Berry. Adam, Jewish by faith from Parkway Central High School, has interacted with Muslim friends and wanted to experience the Iftar. He saw the similarities among the faiths and learned about the basics of Ramadan. Talking with Lydia and Adam about interfaith relationships, I was struck by maturity in their thought process. They see the need for interactions, understanding and standing together. Youths may not realize the long term implications of these interactions; they may have attended the event out of curiosity or to join friends for ethnic food. These interactions slowly and gradually break down ignorance and fear about others. Imperceptibly, these youths become ambassadors of peace. They will be parents one day and teach their children about acceptance, respect and rooting out prejudice. In the same month of this beautiful experience I have seen the barbaric acts committed by fanatics who profess to be Muslims in Orlando and Istanbul. Scores of people lost their lives and many were injured. Only a deranged person can twist the sanctity of Ramadan to unleash such carnage on innocent people. The perpetrators have killed people irrespective of their faiths. The terrorists have only one agenda: to terrorize. Unfortunately they also succeed in the process to flame ignorant views against Islam. Some use these atrocities to prove their view of Islam and justify the bias in recent political atmosphere. In three weeks of Ramadan, I have experienced the beautiful and dark side of humanity. The painful experience can break our resolve, but the most important thing to remember is that the majority can unite to win over the evil. Next week Ramadan will be over. Muslims will be celebrating Eid, but the challenges for the world to fight extremism will not be over. Rooting out terrorism is the responsibility of the governments. Our responsibility is to understand each other, respect each other and stand together for the betterment of humanity. Hayat sits on the public relations committee of Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis. She is a contributor to STLtoday.com/religion. Somewhere inside a squat, buff-colored complex behind tall fences on buff-colored earth in Littleton, Colo., a disgraced former Illinois governor has finally settled below the public radar. In the Federal Correctional Institution Englewood, a low-security lockup where the once-zany Rod Blagojevich reported for incarceration on March 15, 2012, he ticks off about 2,880 days remaining on his sentence for public corruption. No more antics. The glib talk, embarrassing late-night TV guest spots and demeaning supplication on Celebrity Apprentice are long gone. We have no need to continue feeling awkward for a guy who seemed to lack the sense to be humiliated. But Im not sure weve really seen the last of it. At some point on Monday, he surely heard word about the fate of another fallen governor, Bob McDonnell, of Virginia, whose bribery conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. We can safely presume that Blagojevich was ecstatic. And maybe he should be. His appeals have so far only chipped into a legal system that took a very dim view of a plan to sell his gubernatorial power to appoint a replacement U.S. senator. That the vacancy up for sale resulted when Sen. Barack Obama became president added spice to the scandal. There was more to the charges, of course, based in part on FBI bugging of the governors Chicago home. If a Senate seat auction was shameless, what do you say about shaking down a childrens hospital for political contributions? Recordings provided ample proof that Blagojevich, well-schooled in the sleazy ways of Chicago politics, was, well, entrepreneurial. He intended to monetize every nugget of his power. It was rather like the claims that convicted Gov. McDonnell in Virginia. Officials said he accepted gifts and favors in a trade for influence in setting up business meetings for a generous benefactor. A question raised by the defense in both governors cases was where the legal line should be drawn. When, exactly, does the give-and-take of political life become bribery? That question looms before an official even gets elected. What do campaign contributors want? The bigger the donation, of course, the bigger the suspicion that something important is being sought, if not bought. Federal law prohibits a public official from taking official action in exchange for money or gifts. The key is how to construe official action. Prosecutors and juries said two other past Illinois governors went over the line: For Otto Kerner, it was race track stock received for favors to a Chicago track owner. For George Ryan, it was vacations and gifts exchanged for steering state contracts to generous businessmen. Both went to prison. McDonnell was accused of holding an event at Virginias executive mansion to help a businessman, Jonnie Williams, who had provided more than $165,000 worth of gifts and loans. McDonnell also arranged a meeting between Williams and a high-ranking state official. The dealings may have been unseemly, the Supreme Court said Monday, but not illegal. And the justices said it with an unambiguous 8-0 vote. The decision criticized some prosecutors for a boundless interpretation of the bribery law. Legal eyes turned immediately to Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., whose trial is pending on charges that he took bribes from a Florida doctor. Lawyers for Menendez predictably insist that he was merely providing services within the scope of his office. The McDonnell decision, which many think will help Menendez, followed a judicial trend of tightening the rules for prosecution of corruption. In 2010, the Supreme Court narrowed application of a law providing penalties for officials who fail to provide honest services. In Blagojevichs own case, a federal appellate court last year threw out five of his 18 convictions. Those judges reasoned that while it was a crime to try to sell the Senate seat, it was only politics to get a presidential cabinet spot by offering the Senate seat to a top Obama adviser. Who knew? There are diverging opinions about whether the McDonnell decision could bolster another Blagojevich appeal. While it seems unlikely that he could win reversal of all the charges, Im sure the strategy is to whittle away enough convictions to shorten his stay out in Colorado. He already may see his term reduced in a hearing on Aug. 9, when he will be resentenced without the counts tossed out last year. I have to wonder what he will be like whenever he does get out. Contrite? Defiant? Still zany? Well need to check our local listings. "Just think if they didn't have the drill," parent Ebony King said. "I'm thinking that it could have went wild, like the Texas shooting, where so many kids were lost. Unimaginable what could have happened to our babies." EUREKA After graduating from Eureka High School in 1980, Leo Franklin Fritz joined his friends on the banks of the Meramec River a place they called Reid Raise for a bonfire. The 17-year-old swam, joked with friends, partook in some underage drinking. The law shows up, everybody takes off running out through the woods, and when I got to the top of the road, my (class) ring was gone, Fritz said. For 36 years, Fritz thought his ring was lost in the Meramec River. Until Thursday, when his phone was ringing off the hook with friends calling, claiming someone had found Fritzs long-lost class ring. Before I even seen the LFF on it, I told my wife, They found my ring, Fritz said. Meramec River? Its got to be mine. Then she said, Leo its got your initials on it. After years of telling his children and grandchildren about the ring hed lost, Fritz was reunited with his 1980 class ring on Friday at Eureka High School. While photographing an assignment along the Meramec River by the Route 66 Bridge, Post-Dispatch photographer J.B. Forbes found the ring half-buried in the mud. Within 24 hours, more than 300 people had shared the story of the lost ring from Rockwood School Districts Facebook page, trying to find the owner. The 1980 yearbook showed two possibilities: Fritz or Laura Frisella. Frisella, who had also been getting calls from former classmates, called Fritz to tell him about his ring. As soon as Kathie Adams, a secretary at the high school, verified his drivers license, Fritz had the ring on his finger, admiring it like it was brand new. I had eight brothers and sisters, and my mom and dad couldnt afford stuff like this, Fritz said. When I lost it, it was a big blow to us. I looked for this ring for months after that. Everybody down there looked for it. Every so often, hed look back down at his hand, letting out a wow. Fritz doesnt remember how much the ring cost, but he does remember how much he worked to pay for it. A summer of odd jobs, cutting grass and pulling weeds around town. When youve got eight brothers and sisters, this aint something that you need. Fritz even bought a metal detector to try to find the ring. Now that he has it back, hell never lose it again, he said. I wish my mom and dad was here to see it, Fritz said. Im sure theyre smiling down on me from heaven right now. Me and my wife were sitting there last night, both of us got tears running down our face. Three years ago, an electrical fire burned Fritzs home to the ground. Trying to get out of the house, he and his wife, Susan Fritz, were only able to grab one thing, his fathers small grandfather clock. Thats the only memory weve got of our childhood, he said. Now Ive got this. The couple rebuilt their home on the same land in Drake, Mo., outside of Owensville. The couple have four daughters and nine grandchildren, who can all tell the story of their papas lost ring. Im a river rat, Fritz said. Its where he grew up. He still fishes and hunts along the river, teaching his children and grandchildren to do the same. He plans to show his ring off to them over Fourth of July weekend. On Friday, Leo Franklin Fritz walked out of Eureka High School, the same building he attended 36 years ago, to his wife Susan, waiting at the car. Ive got something for you, he said, and slid the ring onto her finger. Americas Biggest Birthday Parade rode, rolled, floated, sang, danced and cavorted through downtown St. Louis once again on Saturday, to the joy of thousands lining Market Street on a cool Fourth of July weekend. As usual, the Veiled Prophet Parade was a human and mechanical menagerie of the funny and outlandish, mixed with the patriotic. Along went a pirate ship with a cannon firing confetti and pirates tossing candy to anyone who would shout Arrrgh! A crew from the Moolah Temple ran crazy patterns in little yellow minicars. Men in Black sprayed the crowd with water guns. A blow-up Uncle Sam, six stories high, was followed after a while by a four-story American eagle, and a six-story firefighter. A real bald eagle rode a keepers arm on the World Bird Sanctuarys float, along with an owl and a big green snake. A swing band played on the USO float, motivating dancers dressed in get-ups from the 1940s. That might have brought back memories for the aged veterans of the Battle of the Bulge who rode an old U.S. Army halftrack down Market. There were dancers and beauty queens, brass bands and jazz bands. Political peace was declared as Missouris Sen. Roy Blunt, a Republican, marched beside Mayor Francis Slay, a Democrat. People came from all over to watch. Lee Lin, a math scholar from Xian, China, was shooting videos to send home. Its wonderful and awesome, he said, and wilder than the more traditional parades in China. The Lowe family with 85 in town for a family reunion was out in force. They were waiting for Sgt. Charles Lowe to roll by on the St. Louis police float. Bill McMahon, dressed like Uncle Sam with glue-on white whiskers, was passing out little U.S. flags along the parade route. The architect from Town and Country says hes done it for about 50 years. The best part is meeting all the people, he said. The parade began under a cool, overcast sky and the crowd stood firm as a light rain fell in the parades second hour. It was the parades 134th year in St. Louis. It returned downtown after two years in Forest Park, the site of this years Fair St. Louis. Hats off to heroes was the theme of the parade, which the Veiled Prophet organization calls a tribute to Americans from all walks of life whose contributions make them heroes in their communities. Fair St. Louis, formerly the VP Fair, will run from Saturday through Monday in Forest Park. LUANDA, Angola Almost 80 years after the yellow fever vaccine was created in a New York laboratory, a massive outbreak of the disease has killed hundreds of people in Angola, where most were never immunized. Now, the virus is jumping across borders into other nations whose populations are also largely unvaccinated. More than 3,000 suspected cases are in Angola and 1,000 in neighboring Congo, making this the biggest urban epidemic in decades. More than 400 people have died. There are growing concerns that Chinese workers of whom there are thousands in Angola will carry the virus to Asia, where nearly all of the rural poor are also unvaccinated. The explosion of yellow fever has put severe strain on stockpiles of the vaccine. And the four major manufacturers that produce the vaccine cannot make enough to conduct the kind of campaign that would quickly halt the spread of the disease in other parts of the region. Scourge reborn Yellow fever was once a devastating scourge in the West in 1702, New York City lost 10 percent of its population to the virus. Thanks to the vaccine and mosquito eradication programs, the disease faded in the United States long ago. The fact that it is emerging again as an international threat reflects a lack of preparedness by local and global health institutions, and Africas transformation into a more urbanized and interconnected continent. Fourteen years after the end of a brutal civil war, Angola boasts road networks and airlines that allow more people to travel at a faster pace than ever before. Yellow fever which in recent decades has emerged again in remote, sparsely populated locations has taken advantage of the same infrastructure to spread. For years, the World Health Organization kept 6 million doses of the vaccine in case of a public health emergency. But, as is apparent, that was not nearly enough for a fast-moving epidemic that crosses porous borders. In Angola, even after a campaign that vaccinated 6 million people in Luanda, millions of people remain unvaccinated. If swaths of rural China had to be immunized, the demand for vaccines would skyrocket. The factories that make the vaccine are above the capacity of production. They dont produce more than 2.4 million doses per month. That hampers what we are doing. We need to vaccinate 25 million people in Angola, said Hernando Agudelo, the WHO representative in this former Portuguese colony. One jab Yellow fever is far less deadly than Ebola, or even malaria, and it is much easier to safeguard people from the disease. One jab of the vaccine serves as a decadelong inoculation. But each dose takes about 12 months to make hindering a nimble response to an expansive epidemic. It is tragic, because we have an intervention that makes the disease entirely preventable, said Ray Arthur, the director of the Global Disease Detection Operations Center at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Luanda, the Angolan capital, the disease haunts some of the citys most desperate communities. Outside of the central hospital one recent morning, a woman whose younger brother had just died of yellow fever wailed uncontrollably. A few miles away, at Hospital dos Cajueiros, several patients feverish and delirious said they were sure they had the illness. At the sprawling Camama cemetery, where a stream of mourners affix pictures of the dead to their cars, a man looked at the picture of a baby girl in a pink dress named Marisa Jose Almeda taped to a pickup truck. Febre amarela, he said, Portuguese for yellow fever. Small outbreaks of yellow fever are common in remote parts of Africa and Latin America. But urban epidemics are particularly frightening since the disease can spread rapidly in heavily populated areas where many residents are not vaccinated. In the past, yellow fever outbreaks happened in the forest in general. It happened in tropical areas where there are bushes and so on, Agudelo said. But, he added: The border between the rural areas and the urban areas is disappearing. Now, Angolans can get on a bus or a plane in the jungle and, within hours, land in the sprawling capital, where the mosquitoes that serve as carriers of the disease swarm, especially during the rainy months. They are even more ubiquitous this year, since an economic downturn and significant budget cuts led to a reduction in sanitation services and garbage collection. 3,000 and counting Since January, there have been more than 3,000 cases of yellow fever reported in Angola and probably many more unreported ones. About 350 people in the country have died of the disease. At first, the disease can look a lot like malaria: Symptoms include fever, muscle aches and nausea. But yellow fever often turns the skin sallow and causes victims to bleed from the nose, mouth and eyes. About 5 to 10 percent of people who contract the disease die, and most of those within 10 days. In 2006, the WHO and UNICEF had begun immunizing high-risk countries through the Yellow Fever Initiative, a program supported by governments, nonprofit groups and vaccine manufacturers. But because the supply of vaccines was limited and the capacity to conduct large public-health campaigns was weak in many sub-Saharan African countries, the scale of the initiative was restricted. Countries such as Nigeria and Sudan were prioritized, since they had more recorded outbreaks of the disease. Given the lack of resources, said William Perea, coordinator for the Control of Epidemic Diseases Unit at the WHO, you cannot vaccinate everywhere at the same time. You have to make some prioritization. During outbreaks in Africa in the 1990s and 2000s, the disease was mostly concentrated in small rural villages or forested communities. But after Angolas 27-year civil war ended in 2002, a development boom transformed Luanda and nearby areas. The country quickly became Africas second-biggest oil producer, creating an economic boost so big that it drew thousands of migrant workers from other nations. Just as the spread of Ebola in 2014-2015 highlighted the growing urbanization and the relative ease with which people can move between West African countries, cities and villages, yellow fever is underscoring the changes in this part of southwest Africa. Chasing the virus The first recorded cases here involved two Eritrean migrants who fell ill in the market town of Viana, on the outskirts of the capital. They had vaccination papers that later turned out to be fake. In some countries, it is cheaper or easier to buy fake vaccination papers than to pay for the shot. T he Angolan government responded by launching a major vaccination campaign in Luanda, the epicenter of the outbreak. But by the time it began, the disease had spread across the country. As we vaccinated one area, it moved to another area, said Amanda McClelland, an emergency health expert at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. One of the challenges with this response is that weve been chasing the virus with these immunization campaigns, said Arthur, the CDC expert. Now, Angolan and international health officials say they would like to vaccinate the countrys entire population. But the vaccine shortage complicates that plan. Earlier in June, the WHO said it could potentially reduce the vaccine dose to one-fifth of its normal strength, and that would still immunize people for at least 12 months. More research is needed to find out whether fractional doses would be effective in young children, who may have a weaker immune response to yellow fever vaccine, the WHO said in a statement. American Plague A yellow fever epidemic might seem anachronistic to people in the United States and Europe, where the disease no longer poses a threat. But some of the most devastating urban outbreaks of yellow fever have occurred in America. In the 18th century, the disease was called the American Plague. In 1793, it killed thousands in Philadelphia as the city panicked. In 1878, it killed 13,000 in the Mississippi Valley. It is impossible to estimate with any approach to accuracy the loss to the country occasioned by this epidemic, President Rutherford B. Hayes said in a speech to Congress after the 1878 outbreak. Those epidemics led to a range of public health reforms and, eventually, the creation of a vaccine. More than a century later, experts say there are lessons to glean from the Angolan outbreak. Given what happened in Angola, we need to concentrate a lot more on major urban areas, said Perea, the WHO expert. Many of these cities were connected very poorly to the global network. Now, they are extremely well connected. Ten years ago, you didnt have that. BUENOS AIRES, Argentina Pedro Sandoval stopped celebrating Mothers Day, Fathers Day and even his own birthday after he found out the truth: The mom and dad he knew growing up had stolen him from his biological parents, who were kidnapped, tortured and never heard from again during Argentinas 1976-1983 military dictatorship. Im still jealous of friends who can hug or get into arguments with their parents, said Sandoval, 38, alluding to the biological parents he never knew. But Im also thankful that I could at least hug my grandfather and grandmother. Four decades after the ruling military junta launched a systematic plan to steal babies born to political prisoners, Argentinas search for truth is increasingly focused on the 500 or so newborns whisked away and raised by surrogate families. Several hundred have yet to be accounted for. This spring a visiting U.S. President Barack Obama and Argentine President Mauricio Macri announced, on the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought the junta to power, that Washington would open up a trove of U.S. intelligence files from Argentinas Dirty War era, when an estimated 30,000 people were killed or forcibly disappeared by the regime. It may take a few years for the documents to be released, but the news gave families hope for word on the fate of other stolen babies. For the children who have already been found, coming to grips with the past is a painful process. Sandoval, known then as Alejandro Rei, never suspected anything was amiss growing up in a middle-class household on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. But in 2004, Victor Rei, a former border patrol officer and the man that Sandoval called his father, became the target of an investigation, and Sandovals life turned upside down. Sandoval said he felt both fury and crushing guilt after a childhood he describes as full of wonderful memories. And yet like others, he was torn over where his loyalties lay: At one point during the investigation Sandoval tried unsuccessfully to protect Rei by tainting DNA samples used to identify the older man. I made some mistakes, he said. It was part of a defense mechanism. Ultimately DNA matched Sandoval to Pedro Sandoval and Liliana Fontana, who were kidnapped by security forces in July 1977 when Liliana was two months pregnant. She gave birth to Pedro in captivity, and four months later he was taken away. His birth parents were never seen again. Its still tough and bizarre, Sandoval said. But I found it beautiful that at least for four months I was in her arms. He has since severed ties with the people who raised him and has become close to relatives of his biological parents. His wife is expecting their first baby. To date, 119 cases of stolen children have been resolved. Each discovery makes for banner headlines and prompts both personal and national soul-searching. These cases are moving because they are unique, painful and about suffering and trauma that doesnt stop, said Claudia Salatino, a psychologist who has treated some of the victims. Guillermo Perez Roisinblit, 38, was Guillermo Gomez for decades before he was contacted by his biological sister and the Grandmothers of the Playa de Mayo, a human rights group that formed in 1977 to search for the disappeared. They showed him a family picture; Perez was shocked by his resemblance to the man who would later be confirmed as his real father. It took me 21 years to find my grandson and 15 years to win his love, said Rosa de Roisinblit, 96, who is vice president of the Grandmothers. It was such a difficult process, Perez said, sitting next to her. Today both are plaintiffs in a trial that began last month against the former head of Argentinas air force for the 1978 abduction and disappearance of activists Patricia Roisinblit and Jose Manuel Perez Rojo. Patricia gave birth to Perez at the Naval Mechanics School, where thousands of leftist dissidents were jailed and tortured during the Dirty War. Francisco Gomez, the man who raised Perez, served time for stealing Perez when he was an infant and is now accused in the same trial involving the ex-air force chief, who is charged in the kidnapping of Perezs parents. Perez said he visited Gomez in prison in 2003, and Gomez blamed him for his confinement. When I get out, Perez recalled Gomez saying, Im going to put a bullet in your forehead, in your two grandmothers and in your sister. During the dictatorship, the Grandmothers marched weekly at Buenos Aires main square to demand the return of their loved ones. Since Argentinas return to democracy, they have lobbied the government to create a DNA database and dedicate judicial resources to the search. Theyre the closest to real heroes, Perez said. They fought against a dictatorship risking their own lives. ... And thats how I see my grandmother, as a hero. By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 2 (PTI) IT industry body Nasscom has said telecom regulator Trai should give complete flexibility to apps and websites for deciding on provisions for rewarding free data to customers. In its response to consultation paper of Trai on free data for telecom customers, the body also said operators should not have direct or indirect influence on the content that customers view on the Internet. advertisement It said the purpose of free data or concessions on data usage as reward is to encourage users to explore Internet. "When the reward is given by the platform and not by the individual website, it should not have any conditions attached that translate into discrimination between websites and apps or have any conditions as to which websites and apps may be accessed, either implicitly or explicitly, including stipulations regarding technology or content," Nasscom said. The body also said there should be no stipulations on how the data reward can be used by the customer, like restricting its use to specific websites. Nasscom in its suggestions invoked net-neutrality to keep intervention of telecom operators out of free data reward decision of websites or applications. "Net Neutrality is a universal concept (recently upheld by the US courts as well as other nations in the past) where TSPs (telecom service providers), as access providers, have no power to influence consumer choice relating to services, applications, content that a consumer accesses. Therefore, TSPs should not have any direct or indirect influence on the content that customers view on the Internet," Nasscom said. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) through its consultation paper on free data is exploring equivalent of toll free number for Internet space where customers can access websites without having to incur data charges. The regulator is looking at a framework, which should be compliant with the principles of net neutrality and it should be telecom network agnost. Telecom industry bodies, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI), have questioned the points in the consultation paper talking about telecom agnostic platform. The industry body has also questioned jurisdiction of Trai in case it wants to frame rules on free data without involving telecom operators. Various stakeholders have asked Trai to define net neutrality before framing rules for free data. Member of Parliament Rajeev Chandrasekhar in his comments said: "TRAI must define Net Neutrality urgently and this definition must focus on preventing gatekeeping/cabelisation by telcos. Free data must not be regulated through an ex-ante ban, but on a case-by-case basis. Regulation must not dampen competition or innovation on the web." PTI PRS BAL ABK --- ENDS --- Updated at 4 p.m. JERUSALEM Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, the Romanian-born Holocaust survivor whose classic "Night" became a landmark testament to the Nazis' crimes and launched Wiesel's long career as one of the world's foremost witnesses and humanitarians, has died at age 87. His death was announced Saturday by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. No other details were immediately available. The short, sad-eyed Wiesel, his face an ongoing reminder of one man's endurance of a shattering past, summed up his mission in 1986 when accepting the Nobel Peace Prize: "Whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." For more than a half-century, he voiced his passionate beliefs to world leaders, celebrities and general audiences in the name of victims of violence and oppression. He wrote more than 40 books, but his most influential by far was "Night," a classic ranked with Anne Frank's diary as standard reading about the Holocaust. "Night" was his first book, and its journey to publication crossed both time and language. It began in the mid-1950s as an 800-page story in Yiddish, was trimmed to under 300 pages for an edition released in Argentina, cut again to under 200 pages for the French market and finally published in the United States, in 1960, at just over 100 pages. "'Night' is the most devastating account of the Holocaust that I have ever read," wrote Ruth Franklin, a literary critic and author of "A Thousand Darknesses," a study of Holocaust literature that was published in 2010. "There are no epiphanies in 'Night. There is no extraneous detail, no analysis, no speculation. There is only a story: Eliezer's account of what happened, spoken in his voice." Wiesel began working on "Night" just a decade after the end of World War II, when memories were too raw for many survivors to even try telling their stories. Frank's diary had been an accidental success, a book discovered after her death, and its entries end before Frank and her family was captured and deported. Wiesel's book was among the first popular accounts written by a witness to the very worst, and it documented what Frank could hardly have imagined. "Night" was so bleak that publishers doubted it would appeal to readers. In a 2002 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Wiesel recalled that the book attracted little notice at first. "The English translation came out in 1960, and the first printing was 3,000 copies. And it took three years to sell them. Now, I get 100 letters a month from children about the book. And there are many, many million copies in print." In one especially haunting passage, Wiesel sums up his feelings upon arrival in Auschwitz: "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. ... Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." "Night" was based directly on his experiences, but structured like a novel, leading to an ongoing debate over how to categorize it. Alfred Kazin was among the critics who expressed early doubts about the book's accuracy, doubts that Wiesel denounced as "a mortal sin in the historical sense." Wiesel's publisher called the book a memoir even as some reviewers called it fiction. An Amazon editorial review labeled the book "technically a novel," albeit so close to Wiesel's life that "it's generally and not inaccurately read as an autobiography." In 2006, a new translation returned "Night" to the best-seller lists after it was selected for Oprah Winfrey's book club. But the choice also revived questions about how to categorize the book. Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, both of which had listed "Night" as fiction, switched it to nonfiction. Wiesel, meanwhile, acknowledged in a new introduction that he had changed the narrator's age from "not quite 15" to Wiesel's real age at the time, 15. "Unfortunately, 'Night' is an imperfect ambassador for the infallibility of the memoir," Franklin wrote, "owing to the fact that it has been treated very often as a novel." Wiesel's prolific stream of speeches, essays and books, including two sequels to "Night" and more than 40 books overall of fiction and nonfiction, emerged from the helplessness of a teenager deported from Hungary, which had annexed his native Romanian town of Sighet, to Auschwitz. Tattooed with the number A-7713, he was freed in 1945 but only after his mother, father and one sister had all died in Nazi camps. Two other sisters survived. After the liberation of Buchenwald, in April 1945, Wiesel spent a few years in a French orphanage, then landed in Paris. He studied literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne, and then became a journalist, writing for the French newspaper L'Arche and Israel's Yediot Ahronot. French author Francois Mauriac, winner of the 1952 Nobel in literature, encouraged Wiesel to break his vowed silence about the concentration camps and start sharing his experiences. In 1956, Wiesel traveled on a journalistic assignment to New York to cover the United Nations. While there, he was struck by a car and confined to a wheelchair for a year. He became a lifetime New Yorker, continuing in journalism writing for the Yiddish-language newspaper, the Forward. His contact with the city's many Holocaust survivors shored up Wiesel's resolve to keep telling their stories. Wiesel became a U.S. citizen in 1963. Six years later, he married Marion Rose, a fellow Holocaust survivor who translated some of his books into English. They had a son, Shlomo. Based in New York, Wiesel commuted to Boston University for almost three decades, teaching philosophy, literature and Judaic studies and giving a popular lecture series in the fall. Wiesel also taught at Yale University and the City University of New York. In 1978, he was chosen by President Carter to head the President's Commission on the Holocaust, and plan an American memorial museum to Holocaust victims. Wiesel wrote in a report to the president that the museum must include denying the Nazis a posthumous victory, honoring the victims' last wishes to tell their stories. He said that although all the victims of the Holocaust were not Jewish, all Jews were victims. Wiesel advocated that the museum emphasize the annihilation of the Jews, while still remembering the others; today the exhibits and archives reflects that. Among his most memorable spoken words came in 1985, when he received a Congressional Gold Medal from President Ronald Reagan and asked the president not to make a planned trip to a cemetery in Germany that contained graves of Adolf Hitler's personal guards. "We have met four or five times, and each time I came away enriched, for I know of your commitment to humanity," Wiesel said, as Reagan looked on. "May I, Mr. President, if it's possible at all, implore you to do something else, to find a way, to find another way, another site. That place, Mr. President, is not your place. Your place is with the victims." Reagan visited the cemetery, in Bitburg, despite international protests. Wiesel also spoke at the dedication of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in 1993. His words are now carved in stone at its entrance: "For the dead and the living, we must bear witness." Wiesel defended Soviet Jews, Nicaragua's Miskito Indians, Cambodian refugees, the Kurds, victims of African famine and victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Wiesel was a longtime supporter of Israel although he was criticized at times for his closeness to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu. When Netanhayu gave a highly controversial address to Congress in 2015, denouncing President Obama's efforts to reach a nuclear treaty with Iran, Wiesel was among the guests of honor. "What were you doing there, Elie Wiesel?" Haaretz columnist Roger Alpher wrote at the time. "Netanyahu is my prime minister. You are not an Israeli citizen. You do not live here. The Iranian threat to destroy Israel does not apply to you. You are a Jew who lives in America. This is not your problem." The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, which he established in 1988, explored the problems of hatred and ethnic conflicts around the world. But like a number of other well-known charities in the Jewish community, the foundation fell victim to Bernard Madoff, the financier who was arrested in late 2008 and accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Wiesel said he ended up losing $15.2 million in foundation funds, plus his and his wife's own personal investments. At a panel discussion in February 2009, Wiesel admitted he bought into the Madoff mystique, "a myth that he created around him that everything was so special, so unique, that it had to be secret." He called Madoff "a crook, a thief, a scoundrel." Despite Wiesel's mission to remind the world of past mistakes, the greatest disappointment of his life was that "nothing changed," he said in an interview. "Human nature remained what it was. Society remained what it was. Too much indifference in the world, to the Other, his pain, and anguish, and hope." But personally, he never gave up as reflected in his novel "The Town Beyond the Wall." Wiesel's Jewish protagonist, Michael, returns to his native town in now-communist Hungary to find out why his neighbors had given him up to the Nazis. Suspected as a Western spy, he lands in prison along with a young man whose insanity has left him catatonic. The protagonist takes on the challenge of "awakening" the youth by any means, from talking to forcing his mouth open a task as wrenching as Wiesel's humanitarian missions. "The day when the boy suddenly began sketching arabesques in the air was one of the happiest of Michael's life. ... Now he talked more, as if wishing to store ideas and values in the boy for his moments of awakening. Michael compared himself to a farmer: months separated the planting from the harvest. For the moment, he was planting." AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report. Updated at 1:02 p.m. DHAKA, Bangladesh The hostages were given a test: recite verses from the Quran, or be punished, according to a witness. Those who passed were allowed to eat. Those who failed were tortured and slain. The dramatic, 10-hour hostage crisis that gripped Bangladesh's diplomatic zone ended Saturday morning with at least 28 dead, including six of the attackers, as commandos raided the popular restaurant where heavily armed attackers were holding dozens of foreigners and Bangladeshis prisoner while hurling bombs and engaging in a gunbattle with security forces. The victims included 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, and two Bangladeshi police officers. The attack marks an escalation in militant violence that has hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation with increasing frequency in recent months, with the extremists demanding the secular government revert to Islamic rule. Most previous attacks have involved machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities. But Friday night's attack was different, more coordinated, with the attackers brandishing assault rifles as they shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) and stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area while dozens of foreigners and Bangladeshis were dining out during the Ramadan holy month. The gunmen, initially firing blanks, ordered restaurant workers to switch off the lights, and they draped black cloths over closed-circuit cameras, according to a survivor, who spoke with local TV channel ATN News. He and others, including kitchen staff, managed to escape by running to the rooftop or out the back door. But about 35 were trapped inside, their fate depending on whether they could prove themselves to be Muslims, according to the father of a Bangladeshi businessman who was rescued Saturday morning along with his family. "The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Quran," the Islamic holy book, according to Rezaul Karim, describing what his son, Hasnat, had witnessed inside. "Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night." The others, he said, "were tortured." Detectives were questioning his son and his family along with other survivors as part of the investigation on Saturday, as scattered details of the siege emerged. Authorities were also interrogating one of the attackers captured by commandos in dramatic morning rescue. It was not immediately clear whether the attackers had a specific goal, and Bangladesh authorities would not say if they had made any demands. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility, saying it targeted the citizens of "Crusader countries" in the attack, warning that citizens of such countries would not be safe "as long as their warplanes kill Muslims." The statement was circulated Friday by IS supporters on the Telegram messaging service and resembled previous statements by IS. It was not immediately clear if its leadership in Syria and Iraq was involved in planning the attack. The Amaq news agency, affiliated with IS, also posted photos purportedly showing hostages' bodies, though the authenticity of the images could not be confirmed. The government did not directly comment on the IS claim but has denied in the past that the extremist group has a presence in Bangladesh. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina instead has accused her political enemies of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilize the nation which the opposition denies. On Saturday, Amaq published photos of five smiling young men each holding what appear to be assault rifles and posing in front of a black IS flags whom the agency identified as the attackers, according to the SITE Intelligence Service, which monitors jihadi online activity. They were identified by noms de guerre indicating they were all Bangladeshis. Amaq said the fighters used "knives, cleavers, assault rifles and hand grenades." Amaq said the attackers "verified" the hostages identities, sparing the Muslims and killing the foreigners. The 20 hostages killed included nine Italians, seven Japanese, three Bangladeshis and one Indian, government sources said, as details of the bloodshed began trickling from other capitals worldwide. The White House confirmed Saturday that a U.S. citizen was among the hostages killed, but did not release any further identification. "All the hostages were killed last night. The terrorists used sharp weapons to kill them brutally," said Brig. Gen. Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury of the Army Headquarters in a news conference Saturday night. Two Bangladeshi police officers also died from injuries sustained while exchanging gunfire with the attackers Friday night. Italian President Sergio Mattarella cut short a visit to Latin America because of the massacre, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. Italy's soccer players plannedto wear black armbands in a sign of mourning during Saturday's European Championship quarterfinals match against Germany. A Roman Catholic priest in southern Italy, whose 33-year-old sister Simona Monti, a textile firm employee, was killed in the attack expressed hope that her death could contribute toward making a more just world. Rev. Luca Monti said he hopes "this experience of martyrdom for my family and the blood of my sister Simona can help contribute to building a more just and brotherly world." In New Delhi, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said she was "extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka." Eighteen-year-old Tarushi Jain had been on holiday from her studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She was in Dhaka visiting her father, who has run a garment business in the country for the past 15 or 20 years, according to Indian government sources, who were not authorized to speak with media and so requested anonymity. But another Indian citizen, a doctor who spoke Bengali and could pass himself as a Bangladeshi, was released unharmed, a government source said. A Bangladeshi woman Ishrat Akhond was also among the dead. She had been holding a dinner meeting with Italian businessmen when she was killed in the siege, according to three of her friends who did want to be named for fear of reprisal. One told the AP, "she was such a loving person, such a good friend." Others posted photographs and messages of disbelief and condolences on her Facebook page. Emory University in Oxford, Georgia, said two of its students were killed in the attack: Abinta Kabir, of Miami, Florida, who was visiting family and friends in Bangladesh, and Faraaz Hossain, of Dhaka, who had completed his second year on the Oxford campus and was headed to business school in the fall. Ten of 26 people who were wounded Friday night when the militants opened fire were in critical condition, and six were on life support, according to hospital staff. The injuries ranged from broken bones to gunshot wounds. Most of them were police officers, but one was a civilian. Hospital staff refused to provide any details of their condition on Saturday. In the end, paramilitary troops managed to rescue 13 hostages, including one Argentine, two Sri Lankans and two Bangladeshis, according to Lt. Col. Tuhin Mohammad Masud, commander of the Rapid Action Battalion that conducted the rescue operations. Japan's government said one Japanese hostage was also rescued with a gunshot wound. The commandos launched the morning rescue operation after the attackers did not respond to calls for negotiation, Masud said. As the troops, wearing flak jackets and helmets and armed with automatic weapons, moved in on the restaurant at 7:40 a.m., local TV stations reported the sound of gunfire and explosions. At least seven armored vehicles and ambulances stood by. The commandos killed six of the attackers and recovered explosive devices and sharp weapons from the scene, said Chowdhury of the Army Headquarters. "Because of the effort of the joint force, the terrorists could not flee," the prime minister said in a nationally televised speech, vowing to fight militant attacks in the country and urged people to come forward. The audacious attack came during Ramadan, when devout Muslims fast during the day and eat after dark. Many left the city of more than 10 million people for a nine-day public holiday with families to celebrate Eid al Fitr festival with families. "Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such an act," Hasina, the prime minister, said. "They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism." She announced two days of national mourning for the dead. The government has cracked down on domestic radical Islamists by making scores of arrests. It has blamed local terrorists and opposition political parties especially the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami. But the attacks have continued, with about two dozen atheist writers, publishers, members of religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers slain since 2013. Earlier on Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death by at least three assailants in southwest Bangladesh. IS and and al-Qaida affiliates have claimed responsibility for many of those attacks. The escalating violence leading up to the unprecedented hostage crisis has raised fears that religious extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions of secularism and tolerance. That the attackers targeted a popular restaurant in the heart of the diplomatic quarter of Bangladesh's capital signaled a change in tactics. The restaurant overlooking a lake serves Spanish food and is patronized by residents of Gulshan, an affluent neighborhood where most of the foreign embassies are located. In Washington, a White House official said President Barack Obama was briefed on the attack by his chief counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco. The president asked to be kept informed as the situation develops, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the president's meetings. State Department spokesman John Kirby says the U.S. had offered its assistance to bring those responsible to justice. Associated Press writers Katy Daigle and Nirmala George in New Delhi, Ken Moritsugu in Tokyo, Frances D'Emilio in Rome, Jonathan Landrum in Atlanta and Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report. The time has come. The Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs must stop dragging their feet. They must own up to the serious chemical and radioactive hazards that U.S. service members were exposed to in the line of duty. Its not as if the health damage from such exposure expires once the mission is over. As Arla Harrell can attest, a lifetime of suffering can follow an irresponsible sergeants or young lieutenants order to step forward and serve as a test dummy for a chemical munition. In Harrells case, it was a mustard gas test conducted at Missouris Camp Crowder in the 1940s. Despite the best efforts of Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., to get legislation passed to help make Harrell and other service members whole, the Veterans Administration is fighting her. Theres a troubling pattern here. For tens of thousands of Vietnam War veterans, not to mention scores who trained in Panama, Agent Orange is the culprit for enduring problems caused by highly toxic dioxin. The VA continues to drag its feet on Agent Orange exposure claims, veterans say. Thousands of veterans from the 1991 Persian Gulf War suffered debilitating health effects believed to result from chemical exposure in Kuwait and southern Iraq, and from reactions to untested vaccines administered to protect them from potential exposure to biological agents. The VA denied for years that Gulf War duty was the culprit. The New York Times reported on June 20 that the Air Force doesnt want to acknowledge responsibility for radiation exposure from cleanup of a 1966 crash in Spain of a B-52 bomber loaded with four nuclear bombs. The nuclear parts of the bombs didnt explode, but radioactive fallout spread across the crash site. Roughly 1,600 troops were ordered to the site but given minimal, if any, protective gear. Some had to use their bare hands to handle radioactive waste. The Air Force still wont admit, 50 years later, that anyone was harmed in the Spain cleanup or a similar one in 1968 after a bomber crash in Thule, Greenland. Private-sector employers must accept responsibility for dangers they expose their employees to. A mining executive went to prison this year for safety violations contributing to the deaths of 21 West Virginia miners in 2010. The long succession of stories about veterans sickened during military service, who are repeatedly denied VA health care, strongly suggests the government views them as disposable assets. Its as if officials prefer that the veterans would just die so their problems will go away. Meanwhile, veterans and their families are left to grapple with medical debts often in the tens of thousands of dollars. The VAs and Pentagons constant obfuscation, evasion and runarounds are no way to treat those who selflessly answered their nations call to duty. Americans owe it to our veterans to speak out. 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? Who doesnt love a great road trip? Well, perhaps the person stuck in the middle row of the back seat, but lets forget about him. Think instead of seeing the countryside, jamming with your tunes, spending time with friends and family, and best of all saving money. Each Saturday and Sunday well post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief verdict on a single cigar of buy, hold, or sell. This isnt my favorite cigar from RoMa Craft Tobacthat honor still belongs to the Intemperance BA XXI A.W.S. IVbut its damn close. The CroMagnon Cranium (6 x 54) is a heaping pile of rich, full-bodied flavor, yet it also brings ample complexity to the table via well-balanced notes of pepper, coffee, peanut, and chocolate over a base of hickory and leather. Construction is excellent. Something tells me Skip Martin knew what he was doing when he blended this Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrapper with a Cameroon binder and Nicaraguan filler tobaccos. At $8.50, the toro-sized Cranium is a steal. Verdict = Buy. Patrick A photo credit: Stogie Guys Arun Jaitley becomes the first minister this year to declare his assets and liabilities. By India Today Web Desk: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley becomes first minister for this year to declare his assets and liabilities. The asset includes properties in Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat and Punjab. Official data suggests that Jaitley's wealth declined by Rs 6.02 crore to Rs 60.99 crore against Rs 67.01 crore in 2014-15. According to the data posted on the Prime Minister of India website, Jaitley's personal assets including movable and immovable were at Rs 60.99 crore in 2015-16. advertisement JAITLEY, WIFE OWN SIX PROPERTIES IN FOUR STATES As per information on the website, Jaitley has two active bank accounts. The Finance Minister and his wife jointly owns six residential properties, three in Delhi and one each in Haryana, Gujarat and Punjab. Sangeeta Jaitley holds one bank account in HDFC Bank which has a balance of Rs 69.43 crore. As per the disclosure, the cash in hand stood at Rs 6.82 lakh and her PPF stood at Rs 13.80 lakh. Taking together cash in hand and PPF, the total of movable assets held by her stood at Rs 20.62 lakh at the end of March 2016. The details of liabilities of Sangeeta Jaitley showed that the total loans taken by her stood at Rs 9.71 crore. This include Rs 9.22 crore loan taken from Arun Jaitley and another Rs 49.25 lakh borrowed from daughter Sonali Jaitley. (With inputs from PTI) Also read: ED attaches Jagan Reddy's assets worth Rs 750 crore --- ENDS --- By PTI: From Natasha Chaku Melbourne, Jul 2 (PTI) Millions of Australians began voting today in national elections that pits Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull against Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten who is vying to become the countrys fifth premier in three years, with opinion polls predicting a close race. Thousands of voters queued up to cast their votes at the polling stations that opened at 8:00 AM (local time). advertisement Over 15 million voters are expected to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of over 1,600 candidates, including five of Indian-origin, contesting fromover 55 political parities. The polls will elect all 226 members including 150 members for the lower houseof the 45th Parliament after an eight-week official campaign period following thedouble dissolution announcedby Prime Minister Turnbull in April. In the 150-seat House of Representatives, Labor currently holds 55 seats, the coalition 90 and five seats are held by minor parties or independents. The main contest is between Turnbull and his conservative coalition against a Labor opposition led by Shorten. A Newspoll published in The Australian showed Turnbulls Liberal/National coalition 50.5 to 49.5 per cent in front on a two-party basis. The UKs decision to leave the European Union appears to have benefited Turnbull. Australian Election Commission said it had 75,000 people working around the country in about 7000 polling stations. Meanwhile, four men were reportedly arrested overnight and later released forallegedlydamaging polling booths in St Kilda area in Melbourne. Victoria police said a number of people had damaged signs and posters at polling booths in the area and elsewhere. In Sydney, 61-year-old Turnbull voted along with his wife Lucyat the Double Bay Public Schoolin his seat of Wentworth. Herepeated his call for voters to choose the Coalition and avoid a hung parliament. "As I said theres never been a more exciting time to vote for a stable majority Coalition government, an economic plan that secures our future," he said. Shorten, 49, continued his last minute campaign inthe key marginal seats of Reid, Lindsay and Macquariein western Sydney. He is expected tofly to Melbourne this afternoon to cast his vote in his electorate of Maribyrnong. Shorten said he was confident Labor could win. "Labor is very competitive," he said, adding"I know that some of the conservative political papers have run their drum beat and whatever happens, the Liberals will win. The fact of the matter is that Labors agenda has been speaking to the daily lives and experiences of Australians." advertisement In May,Turnbull announced double dissolution of Parliament which led to two months of election campaign filled with slogans and promises. PTI NC ZH --- ENDS --- Conrad Lewis A special event to commemorate a Claverdon paratrooper who died in Afghanistan in 2011 is set to attract motorcyclists from all over the country this month. Conrads Ride will take place on 23 July from Ragley Hall before finishing at the Old Leamingtonians Rugby Club in Leamington, for an evening of street food, arena displays and music. Money raised at the event will go to the 353 Trust started by the family of Conrad Lewis, who was the 353 soldier to lose his life in Afghanistan. The trust supports a number of charities including Troop Aid and Supporting our Paras. Organisers say the event has something for everyone, whether they have a motorcycle or not, and Afghanistan veterans Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson and Major Jen Warren who recently returned from the Invictus games with nine medals, will be there. The arena show will include a trial riding display from ex-champion Alun Wright and friends, a display of American and European custom trucks and a vintage motorcycle display. The headline musical act at the event will be Erica, who performed previously at Conrads Festival. Tony Lewis, Conrads father said: Its a day of three parts really, so people can come to whichever parts they want to or all of it if they like, last year we had 250 motorcyclists take part. Weve got the motorbike ride, the arena displays and weve got some fantastic music later on. Erica are a great group, I think theyre about to be discovered and Im hoping people will be able to say they saw them here. Tickets for the evening are 5 and overnight camping is available. Last month Extreme Gym in Stratford held a special pamper day to raise money for the 353 Trust, with local businesses throwing their support behind the day. The event raised 142.69 for the Trust and visitors were treated to makeovers, facials, nails and reiki treatments, whilst a raffle was also organised. Mr Lewis added: Any support we get is gratefully received, whether its from a new partner or local businesses, its really humbling because I know how hard it can be to raise money. For more information about Conrads Ride, visit www.353.org.uk. C&J Energy Services Ltd. (NYSE: CJES) today announced an agreement in principle with its secured lenders on the key aspects of a proposed restructuring transaction, subject to the negotiation of specific terms and definitive documentation. The agreement in principle contemplates a complete deleveraging transaction pursuant to which approximately $1.4 billion of the Company's outstanding debt will be converted to new common equity. Additionally, the agreement in principle also contemplates an infusion of new equity capital through a backstopped equity rights offering. The lenders have also agreed in principle to provide debtor-in-possession financing to bridge the Company through the proposed restructuring transaction. The Company will continue to negotiate with its lenders to finalize the definitive documentation, including entry into a Restructuring Support Agreement. The Company and its lending group have also entered into an extension of the forbearance with respect to the previously announced covenant breach, as well as with respect to the payment of interest and certain fees under the Company's credit facilities. As previously reported in connection with the release of its first quarter 2016 results, the Company obtained a temporary limited waiver agreement from its lending group with respect to its breach of the quarterly minimum cumulative consolidated Bank EBITDA covenant. Pursuant to the forbearance extension, the lenders have agreed to forbear from exercising default remedies or accelerating any indebtedness through July 17, 2016 as a result of the existing breach during the extended forbearance period. This extension of the forbearance provides the Company with additional flexibility to continue discussions with its creditors and other stakeholders. President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer Don Gawick commented, "We are pleased to have reached an agreement in principle with our secured lenders to restructure the Company's balance sheet, which will provide solid financial footing for the Company's future operational success as the commodity pricing environment begins to recover. We appreciate the continued support of our lenders as negotiations continue around the final outstanding terms. We fully believe the extension of the forbearance agreement will give us and our Board adequate time to finalize a deal that will completely de-lever our balance sheet. A strong balance sheet along with ample liquidity for future growth and investment will provide C&J with a defining strategic advantage over our peers, which we will leverage to aggressively pursue market-share gains in each of our core service lines." Additional information about the forbearance is contained in a Current Report on Form 8-K that the Company intends to file today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Indiana Governor Mike Pence addresses members of the National Rifle Association during their NRA-ILA Leadership Forum at their annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, May 20, 2016. REUTERS/John Sommers II By Emily Stephenson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump will meet this weekend with Indiana Governor Mike Pence, a Pence spokesman said on Friday, after a report the governor was being vetted as a potential running mate for the Republican presidential candidate. As the Republican candidate for vice president, Pence, a social conservative from a Midwestern state, could help the real estate mogul reassure wary Republicans. The governor, who faces a tight race for re-election to a second term in Indiana, has praised Trump in the past but did not back him in the Republican Party's nominating race. "Governor Pence has accepted an invitation to spend a little time with Mr. Trump this weekend," said Marc Lotter, deputy campaign manager of Pence's re-election effort. "This meeting is very consistent with meetings Mr. Trump is holding with many key party leaders." Earlier, MSNBC, citing unnamed sources, said Trump is considering Pence, 57, as a potential running mate. The network, which first reported the upcoming meeting, said it was part of the vetting process. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich are also under consideration to be Trump's running mate, sources told Reuters. "Trump is meeting with a number of Republican leaders in the run-up to the convention in Cleveland, and he has a good relationship with Gov. Pence," Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller said in an email. Republicans will hold their party convention July 18-21 in Cleveland to formally pick their nominee ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election. Trump, 70, a real estate mogul and former television reality star, was scheduled to speak at rally in Colorado on Friday. He has said he has narrowed down his potential running mates to five or six contenders, according to media reports. On Thursday, Pence told reporters he had not spoken with Trump since before Indiana's May 3 primary contest, MSNBC said. The governor had earlier pledged to back former Trump rival Ted Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas and Tea Party favorite. (Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Emily Stephenson in Washington and Ben Klayman in Detroit; Writing by Susan Heavey and Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Tom Brown) Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull speaks to the media during a news conference on the eve of Australia's federal elections in Sydney, July 1, 2016. AAP/Lukas Coch/via REUTERS By Jane Wardell and Jonathan Barrett SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia was headed for a hung parliament or a minority government with more than half the votes counted in a national poll on Saturday, potentially blocking Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's ability to enact key economic reforms. Official electoral data for the House of Representatives showed a 3.2 percent swing away from the Liberal-led coalition government as officials clocked off for the evening with almost 10 million votes counted. The tight vote is a major blow for Turnbull whose gamble on a risky double dissolution of parliament in a bid to oust intransigent independents in the upper house Senate blocking his agenda appears to have backfired. "Friends, we will not know the outcome of this election tonight, indeed, we may not know it for some days to come," a jubilant Bill Shorten, leader of the opposition Labor Party, told supporters in Melbourne just before midnight. "But there is one thing for sure - the Labor Party is back." Opinion polls heading into Saturday's vote had showed a potentially tight vote after the landslide victory that brought the coalition to power in 2013; but just how tight still caught many by surprise. Former prime minister Tony Abbott told Liberal Party followers it was a "difficult night" after he successfully retained his Sydney seat. On official projections issued as counting was wound up early Sunday morning, the coalition was expected to hold 68 seats, against the opposition Labor Party's 70 seats and five to independents and the Greens Party. A further seven seats were in the balance. With just six seats left to be determined in the House of Representatives, it was unclear if the coalition would win enough to form a government without an alliance with small parties and independents to get a majority. "It is a very, very close count," Turnbull told the party faithful at coalition headquarters in Sydney after Shorten spoke. "I can report that based on the advice I have from the party officials, we can have every confidence that we will form a coalition majority government in the next parliament." Still, there were early rumblings about Turnbull's future given the closeness of the vote. Turnbull had some of the highest poll ratings of an Australian leader on record shortly after he snatched the top job from Abbott last year. But that popularity soured as he appeared to bend his center-right values on issues like climate change and same sex marriage to the right-wing powerbrokers in his party. XENOPHON ON TRACK The vote in the 76-seat Senate was also looking troublesome for the coalition with the independent centrist Nick Xenophon Team on track to win several seats. Pauline Hanson's One Nation party is also on track to win several Senate positions, bringing the Far Right politician back into parliament after an almost 20-year absence. "I believe that we need maturity in the parliament to start passing legislation that is right for the people and our future generations," said Hanson, who campaigned on an anti-immigration, anti-Muslim platform. Turnbull had said a vote for the coalition was a vote for political stability, invoking the global economic and political fallout from Britain's decision to leave the European Union. Minor parties, possibly in a coalition with center-left Labor, he argued, could not be trusted to manage an economy hampered by a mining downturn and balance public finances after years of deficits. Xenophon, whose party won its first lower house seat, has vowed to block the coalition's cornerstone A$50 billion ($37 billion) corporate tax cuts if his party holds the balance of power in the Senate. "We've broken the duopoly," Xenophon said to cheers from supporters at a campaign event in Adelaide. "There's only been one of me in 226 seats; there'll be at least four of us and that'll be huge." There is no counting scheduled for Sunday, with counting for the Senate to resume on Monday and the House of Representatives on Tuesday. (Story refiles to remove extraneous words in paragraph seven.) (Additional reporting by Colin Packham and Tom Westbrook in SYDNEY, Melanie Burton in MELBOURNE and Matt Siegel in ADELAIDE; Editing by Nick Macfie, Susan Thomas and Mark Potter) U.S. Vice President Joe Biden delivers remarks at a conference of the Center for New American Security think tank in Washington U.S., June 20, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Barria WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, in a phone call with Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, expressed "strong concerns regarding recent negative developments in Bahrain," the White House said in a statement on Friday. Biden spoke to al-Khalifa on Thursday and "emphasized the importance of reducing ongoing tensions through dialogue and reconciliation with the opposition, and a commitment to reform," the statement said. (Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Eric Walsh) By Ahmad Sultan KABUL (Reuters) - At least two people were killed and 17 injured on Saturday when a suicide bomber attacked a local commander in eastern Afghanistan, officials said. The attacker targeted the vehicle of Haji Hayat Khan, a leader in a local movement opposing Islamic State militants in Nangarhar province, as he traveled in Jalalabad city, said Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor. Khan's body guards saw a suspicious man on a motorbike approaching, but when the man failed to heed their warnings to stop, the guards opened fire, hitting the rider, Khogyani said. The attacker was nevertheless able to detonate explosives, which killed at least two civilians, including a small boy, and wounded 17 others, he said. Khan and his escorts were unharmed by the blast. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Khan's home district in Nangarhar has recently been the scene of fighting between government forces and militants claiming allegiance to Islamic State. The province is also home to insurgents from the Taliban and Haqqani network, who take refuge along the rugged border with Pakistan. (Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin DUBAI (Reuters) - Executive pay, a source of controversy at shareholder meetings in the West, has become a political issue in Iran where revelations of high compensation packages at state-owned firms are being used to attack moderate President Hassan Rouhani. Over the last several weeks, local media have published the pay-slips of top managers at banks and other companies, showing their compensation to be dozens of times the average monthly income of an Iranian urban household, about $650. In a country that portrays the 1979 Islamic revolution as a revolt of the poor against exploitation and oppression, the revelations have triggered outrage. National newspapers and television are criticizing income inequality in the country, and people are denouncing executives' salaries on social media. Rouhani's conservative opponents are using the uproar to highlight the fact that living standards for ordinary Iranians have improved little since he took office in late 2013, with the official unemployment rate near 12 percent. The issue is sensitive for Rouhani because he justified a deal with world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear program partly on the grounds that it would aid the economy. International sanctions on Iran were lifted in January but economic benefits have been slow to come, partly because big foreign banks remain wary of the country. "The government says the Treasury is empty of funds...but it has enough money to pay astronomical salaries and huge bonuses," the YJC news agency quoted Hamid Rasaei, a former lawmaker who is a strong critic of the nuclear deal, as saying on Wednesday. In the worst case, the uproar over executive pay could make it harder for Rouhani to open the economy further to foreign investment and push reforms to foster the private sector, both declared goals of his administration. "The salary leaks were the result of political infighting that was launched by Rouhani's conservative rivals to undermine him before the upcoming election," said Saeed Laylaz, a Tehran-based economist, referring to presidential polls next year. The source of the leaks has not been identified, but the pay-slips were first published by news agencies close to the conservative establishment. However, Laylaz said stirring up resentment of income inequality was risky in Iran because it could develop into criticism of the entire political system. "Its consequences would not be limited to Rouhani - it would put the credibility of the whole Islamic Republic at risk." LEAKS The pay-slip leaks showed some senior managers at the government-owned Central Insurance Co (CIC) were paid up to 870 million rials ($28,339 at the official exchange rate) in March. The company said the pay-slips were for the last month of the Iranian calendar year and therefore were unusually large, including arrears, loans and bonuses. Nevertheless, CIC General Manager Mohammad Ebrahim Amin stepped down in May, denying any wrongdoing but saying he regretted the affair had prompted attacks on his company, Rouhani and the government. The uproar continued with the publication of a document showing one manager at state-owned Bank Tejarat received the equivalent of about $230,000 last November. The bank said the media had misrepresented the document because it showed not only salary payments but also pension amounts and other arrears. Then the salary of the managing director of the National Development Fund (NDF), Safdar Hosseini, was revealed to be $18,700 a month. The NDF is Iran's sovereign wealth fund and Hosseini was directly appointed by Rouhani. Hosseini said he had voluntarily reformed the NDF's salary system several months previously and paid back to the government a portion of his salary which he considered excessive. Iranian law states that the top salary in the government should not be more than seven times that of the lowest-paid government employee. However, the law is ambiguous when it comes to bonuses, benefits and other incentives. Rouhani blamed his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for giving the green light to high executive salaries, and criticized the judiciary for turning a blind eye to them. Although amounts revealed in the media were "legal", he said last week, they violated the "moral values of the government". Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is the most powerful man in Iran and believed to be more conservative than Rouhani, and more wary of opening the country to the rest of the world, last week criticized "astronomical salaries" which he said contradicted national values. A campaign has been launched on social media, the My Pay-slip Challenge, to persuade politicians and ordinary people to publish their pay-slips. Some senior Iranian officials, including the spokesman for the Revolutionary Guards, General Ramezan Sharif, have said they would like to join the campaign but cannot reveal personal information because of security concerns. Rouhani and Khamenei, who are believed to lead austere lifestyles and do not have high salaries, have not declared whether they will participate. (Editing by Andrew Torchia and Susan Thomas) TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Four ministers in Libya's U.N.-backed government resigned on Friday in a setback for its efforts to extend its influence and unify rival factions. The presidential council, the leadership body of the government, said it had accepted the resignations of the ministers of justice, reconciliation, finance, and economy and industry, but gave no reason for them. All four are from the eastern region, where hardliners have so far not accepted the U.N.-backed government, supposed to replace two rival administrations that have been operating in Tripoli and the east. Western powers hope the unity government can start to bring the main factions together to fight Islamic State, which has profited from the chaos to win control of some territory in the North African oil producer. (Reporting by Ahmed Elumami; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Kevin Liffey) (Reuters) - Hundreds of people were briefly evacuated from their homes in the Michigan town of Melvindale on Saturday morning after a car hit a natural gas main at a DTE Energy (NYSE: DTE) facility and caused an explosion and fire, police said. The evacuations were a precaution in case the fire affected natural gas pipelines or underground wires. No one was hurt except for the driver of the car, and residents were allowed to return home a few hours after the fire was put out, police said. Local television showed dramatic images of an intense blaze burning high into the sky and charred buildings at the facility belonging to DTE, a U.S. electric and gas company. "The explosion happened around 02:30 this morning. A vehicle hit a gas line, on the DTE property, and the male driver was transported to the hospital," police officer Amber Martinez said by telephone. Martinez said the evacuation in Melvindale, a town of about 10,000 inhabitants outside Detroit, was lifted at around 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT). Melvindale Police Chief Chad Hayse told reporters at a news conference that city and police officials went door to door in the neighborhood to evacuate residents. He said he had no information on the condition of the driver. Buildings at the DTE facility were damaged in the blaze, a DTE company representative and fire officials said at the news conference. (Reporting by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Helen Popper) Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan gestures during an interview with Reuters at the Defence Ministry in Bangkok, Thailand, February 18, 2016. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom BANGKOK (Reuters) - Military-ruled Thailand will buy three submarines worth around $1 billion from China, the defense minister said on Friday, a move that signals warming ties with the regional superpower as relations with the United States cool. Thailand's army seized power in a May 2014 coup following months of street protests, toppling the remnants of the civilian government led by Yingluck Shinawatra. Since then, the military government has sought to improve ties with China which has stepped into the vacuum left by Western governments that have kept the junta at arms length and called for a rapid return to democratic government. That has come as Beijing and Washington jostle for power and influence in Southeast Asia, where China's disputed maritime claims in the South China Sea have has caused tension in recent years. The purchase of 36 billion baht ($1.03 billion) worth of Chinese-made submarines next year was confirmed on Friday by Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, after the navy put the plan to the cabinet. Thailand has never had submarines and has tried, since the 1990s, to sign deals with several countries, including South Korea and Germany. Thailand put the deal with China on hold a year ago to review the cost and capabilities of the vessels. Warming ties with China have seen the two countries work toward a massive rail project and holding joint air force exercises. Thailand's defense spending is set to rise to around 214 billion baht ($6.10 billion) in 2017, up 16.6 percent from 2014. (Reporting by Patpicha Tanakasempipat; Editing by Simon Webb and Nick Macfie) At least 20 civilians and 2 police officers have been killed during the terror attack on Dhaka's Holey Artisan Bakery cafe. Armed forces rescued at least 14 hostages and killed 6 of the militants. Here are a few pictures from the scene. People help an unidentified injured person near the attack cafe in Dhaka. Source: AP By India Today Web Desk: Armed forces have just ended the rescue operations at the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, where a group of nine ISIS militants attacked and took several hostages last night. At least 20 civilians and two police officers have been reported dead. Officials say the troops have been able to free 13 hostages, including four foreigners. advertisement Six militants have been killed during the rescue mission. Explosions and gunfire were heard in the Gulshan area around the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe at around 9.20 local time last night. Italian, Indian and Japanese nationals are believed to be among the hostages. "Our commandos have stormed into the restaurant. Intense gun-fighting (is) on," Rapid Action Battalion force official Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan told Reuters after the rescue operation was launched on Saturday morning. Here are a few pictures from the scene: Locals from the around the cafe said they had heard gunshots after hundreds of soldiers approached the building. Source: Reuters The BBC reports that Bangladesh army and navy commandos were leading the rescue operation along with police and the paramilitary Border Guards Bangladesh. Source: Reuters The gunfire is said to have stopped after about an hour after the armed forces initiated the rescue mission. Source: AP At least two police officers were killed in earlier exchanges of fire late on Friday, and 30 police officers were injured. Source: AP An unidentified relative of a person taken hostage in the restaurant talks to journalists in Dhaka. Local media reported that five bodies were found inside. Source: AP The IS self-styled news agency Amaq issued a statement saying militants attacked a restaurant "frequented by foreigners" where more than 20 people "of different nationalities" had been killed. This report has not been confirmed. Source: AP Claiming responsibility, the Islamic State posted photos of what it said to be dead foreigners killed in the attack on the cafe. Source: AP Italian ambassador to Dhaka Mario Palma told the media that at least seven Italian nationals are believed to be in the cafe. "It is a suicide attack. They want to carry out a powerful and bloody operation and there is no room for negotiation," Palma said. Source: AP Meanwhile, a Japanese government spokesman said Tokyo was investigating reports to find out how many of their nationals were among the hostages. Source: AP Bangladesh has been witnessing a spate of terror attacks on individuals for some time now. advertisement Liberals, gay activists, foreigners, religious minorities, etc., have been at the receiving end of these attacks. Source: AP A Hindu priest was hacked to death at a temple in Jhinaidah district yesterday. Today morning, another priest was attacked in Satkhira Sadar Upazila area. Source: AP This hostage crisis at the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe reflects an escalation in terror activities in the country. Source: Reuters --- ENDS --- OPINION: Cancer sufferers will welcome Pharmac's deal over funding of Keytruda. Though the deal with the drug company is still only provisional, it seems likely that this extraordinary drug will soon be available for advanced melanoma sufferers. Melanoma kills many New Zealanders; Pharmac, which previously had been rather cool about the data on its performance, now seems to back Keytruda and has clearly got a "commercially favourable" deal with the drug's maker. Cynics will see this as a victory for medical lobbying and political interference in what should be purely scientific decisions. The National Government, after all, gave an extra $39m to Pharmac in the May Budget while continuing to claim that Pharmac would make the actual decisions over which drugs to back. READ MORE: * Govt signals Pharmac funding boost, but won't override Keytruda decision * Big Pharma: The price of life and the cost of silence * That was then, this is now; a tale of two drug debates * NZ funds pet projects but not life-saving drug treatment It seems fairly clear that the Government expected Pharmac to use some of the new money to back Keytruda. If this is so, the critics say, aren't the politicians rather than the experts deciding? And in that case what is the difference with the notorious Herceptin case, which National decided to back in a decision which it now supposedly disowns? This is probably being too cynical. Pharmac, after all, has made the final decision over Keytruda, and is supported by many experts. The decision is clearly defensible even if Government politicians had signalled their approval for it. Pharmac, of course, has been subject to heavy lobbying both by Government politicians and the Labour opposition over Keytruda for months now. The drug companies, likewise, are constantly busy and their marketing budgets are substantial. Andrew Little met drug companies for dinner before announcing his party's push for Keytruda. Lobbying over drugs is a simple fact of political life. And lobbying is never a pure or straightforward matter, whether it's about drugs, taxes, dams or welfare benefits. It is about power, money and "image". Some illnesses and some drugs will be more politically marketable than others. That is why the complex final decisions must be made by experts on the basis of evidence rather than political appeal. That is why the decision should rest with Pharmac, which has statutory independence from the Government. We shouldn't be too purist about this. No human being, however expert, is immune from lobbying and the strong emotions it raises. In the end Pharmac's decisions are complex judgment calls where risks and benefits are traded off. These cannot be called "objective" or purely scientific decisions; after all, experts within the field won't all agree. But still this decision is far better left to scientists and medical experts than a bunch of politicians. Scientists are human, but their primary allegiances are to facts and the truth. Politicians are not to be caricatured as mere power-seekers and self-promoters; but nobody could say their cause is simply the truth. Power is the central fact of their lives. Labour's case for a special fund for experimental drugs, similarly, has obvious dangers if it is run by politicians. What politician will end the funding for a drug which gives hope for desperate people but proves less promising than at first thought? If there is to be such a fund, it must be run by Pharmac. By PTI: Srinagar, Jul 2 (PTI) Amidst protests and walkout by the Opposition parties, Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council today passed an amendment to Panchayati Raj Act, allowing indirect election of Sarpanches by Panches instead of a direct election. The government moved a Bill to amend Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act, 1989 in the Upper House, which was opposed by the Congress and the National Conference legislators who termed the amendment as a step to ?discredit and dis-empower? the Panchayati Raj Institutes in the state. advertisement However, the state government defended the amendment, saying it was the procedure at highest level of governance at the state and central government. Congress MLC Ghulam Nabi Monga, who was elected to the Upper House on Panchayat quota, said the amendment was ?murder of democracy? at the grass-roots level. ?This will make way for horse-trading and also dilute power of panchayats. The powers of these institutions have been diluted and this amendment will further weaken them,? he said, adding the direct elections hold sarpanches accountable to people. The members from the opposition trooped into the Well of the House, protesting against the amendment. Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Abdul Haq Khan said such a system was in place till 1996 and the system never failed. ?The election of sarpanches by electorate has created a problem in the field as it has been found that in larger number of cases there is a rift between panches and sarpanches. ?Sarpanches get elected directly and there is lack of confidence from the panches on him and vice-versa which hampers the process of implementation of various schemes on the ground level and accordingly it has been felt to amend the provision of the Act,? the minister said as opposition members continued their protest. As Chairman of the Legislative Council Anayat Ali put the motion to vote and the Bill was passed by voice vote, the entire opposition staged a walkout from the House as a mark of protest. PTI SSB AKK --- ENDS --- A joint Customs and Police investigation has resulted in the largest seizure of cocaine in New Zealand, worth an estimated street value of $14 million. In early May, Customs officers focussed on a 400kg sculpture of a diamante-encrusted horse, which had been freighted into the country from Mexico. The role marae may play during and after disasters is being acknowledged in the launch of an emergency marae toolkit in Whakatane. Civil Defence Emergency Management staff from across the country assembled at Te Manuka Tutahi marae in Whakatane to launch the Marae Emergency Preparedness Planning Toolkit. By Adila Matra: It is Eid-al-Fitr and we have to thank the Persians. It is said that Biryani originated in Persia and the modern biryani was created in the Mughal royal kitchen, as a confluence of the native spicy rice dishes of India and the Persian pilaf (a rice-based dish). Over time, each region in the country modified biryani according to their tastes and the end result was a variety of the heavenly dish. This Eid, drop by any of these five places, each known for its unique way of cooking biryani. advertisement Also read: From Lucknow to Hyderabad: A chef's special recipes for India's favourite biryanis Biryani Paradise, Connaught Place If you are fan of Hyderabadi Biryani, this is your place. Apart from the Paradise Special Biryani, try the Hyderabadi Chicken Dum Biryani and the Andhra Chicken Fry. One full portion is enough for two. And it comes with bowls of raita and Mirchi Ka Salan (green chilli curry). There is also the option to order extra chicken or mutton with the Biryani. The saffron, coriander leaves, lemon and fried onions along with perfectly cooked rice is a real treat. Average price for two is Rs 700. So it is easy on the pocket too. Muradabadi Shahi Biryani, Nizamuddin The row of biryani stalls in Nizamuddin, with bright green and red LED lights offer hot biryani out of huge copper pots. This biryani albeit masala free, is delicious. The meat is cooked with spices and the same water is used to cook the rice that gives the biryani a distinct and special aroma. The tomato chutney that accompanies the rice is the star of the dish. It gives just the right amount of tanginess that the biryani needs. End the meal with Muradabadi special kheer topped with coconut gratings. One kilo chicken biryani costs around Rs 160. Dilpasand Biryani, Chitli Qabar, Old Delhi Let go of Kareem's this time and try something new in Chandni Chowk for Eid. In the Chitli Qabar chowk of Matia Mahal, turn into Gali Haveli Azam Khan. Ask someone for Toufeeq's Biryani and you will find a hole in the wall eatery that serves one of the best biryanis in the city. Also known as Dilpasand Biryani, the plate that arrives in front of you has meat that is so tender that it melts in your mouth, a dash of pickle orange-red flavour filled rice. One kilo of biryani costs Rs 120. Dilpasand Biryani of Old Delhi. Picture courtesy: Mail Today Kolkata Biryani House, CR Park If the advent of Eid brings back memories of the bustling bylanes around Kolkata's Nakhoda Masjid, then make your way to CR Park to dig into some Calcutta mutton biriyani. Much milder than its southern counterparts when it comes to the spices, this form of biriyani traces its origin back to the Nawabs of Awadh. Nea-rempty coiffeurs of exiled nawabs who settled in Bengal led the cooks to modify the recipe by adding potatoes, an ingredient that gives this dish its unique taste. Less greasy on your fingers, this biriyani stands apart due to the addition of attar and kewra and inclusion of potatoes, and sometimes even boiled eggs. Order some Calcutta-style mutton chaap (mutton ribs cooked in spicy gravy) and a bowl of sewaiya (sweet vermicelli) to make the most of your Eid dinner.' The starting price of biryanis here is Rs 150 and they only take home delivery orders. Mutton Biryani of Kolkata Biryani House, CR Park. Picture courtesy: Mail Today Mutton Biryani of Kolkata Biryani House, CR Park. Picture courtesy: Mail Today advertisement Again from the Awadhi kitchen, ITC Maratha's Dum Pukht serves one of the best biryanis. Some say it is the magic of Chef Imtiaz Qureshi who is the grand master chef of Dum Pukht restaurants of ITC hotels. The basmati rice and lamb, simmered with mace, ittar and kewra gives off a fragrance as soon as it leaves the kitchen. Dum Pukht's biryani has the perfect measure of spice without appearing greasy and heavy. The hint of lemon juice and curd is fascinating and this will be one of the best choices of Eidi lunch you will make. Cost for two at Dum Pukht is around Rs 5,000. --- ENDS --- "The situation is grave. Deaths are occurring due to drug abuse. It's time for the government to act," said Dr. Wani, associate professor, Psychiatry Disease Hospital. Police sources say drugs are being imported to J&K through Lakhanpur by the Punjab drug mafia. By Naseer Ganai: After Udta Punjab and Udta Haryana, it is now the turn of Udta Kashmir. Dr Arshid Hussain, consultant psychiatrist, in Psychiatric Disease Hospital Srinagar says, "There have been over 4,000 people in our OPD (out patient department) who are drug addicts. MISLED BY ONLINE INFORMATION They mostly take cannabis, available everywhere in Kashmir," says. He adds, earlier drug addicts would take medical opioids but now the trend has changed with 75 per cent drug addicts taking cannabis. He said youngsters are coming up with articles downloaded from Google about good affects of cannabis on mood. advertisement CANNABIS: THE DRUG Earlier drug abusers would take spasmoproxyvon tablets for pain relief and then they would gradually increase the dose. "Spasmoproxyvon is a cheap drug available in the open market but drug abusers get it at higher prices from the black market so they can purchase in bulk," says Dr Zaid Wani, associate professor at the Psychiatry Disease Hospital. He says there have been several instances where youngsters, studying in good schools of Srinagar, were found taking cannabis and medical opioids. "The situation is grave. Deaths are occurring due to drug abuse. It's time for the government to act," Dr Wani said. WHY NO DEBATE? Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday said in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly that law makers should have raised and debated the drug addiction issue in the House in the month-long session that concluded on Friday. POLICE SPY PUNJAB'S MAFIA ROLE "Drug addiction in Kashmir and Jammu is taking a dangerous shape. People are coming to me urging to do something about it," she had said. Police sources say drugs are being imported to J&K through Lakhanpur from Punjab by the Punjab drug mafia. Also Read: Udta Punjab Chitta Trail: How easily we bought drugs in Ludhiana India Today Expose: How aspirants take banned drugs to pass police fitness test in Haryana --- ENDS --- evidence photo.JPG This photograph shows some of the evidence seized Friday at 92 Abbott Lane in Ithaca, including 2 ounces of heroin, over 22 grams of crack cocaine, scales, packaging materials and $10,345 worth of cash. (Ithaca Police Department) Abdullah Yoda, left, and Mushad Yoda, right. ITHACA, N.Y. -- Two men wanted on federal racketeering charges were arrested Friday after police raided an Ithaca home and found more than $10,000 worth of drugs. The Ithaca Police SWAT Team responded to 92 Abbott Lane at 5:09 a.m. and executed a search warrant for the residence and two men wanted on federal charges: Abdullah Yoda and Mushad Yoda. The SWAT team was joined by the Tompkins County Drug Task Force and the U.S. Marshals Service. Abdullah and Mushad Yoda, both of the Bronx, were wanted for racketeering and drug-related charges, said the Ithaca Police Department. Officers searched the home and found over 2 ounces of heroin valued at about $10,000 and over 22 grams of crack cocaine worth about $3,000, police said. In addition, officers seized scales, packaging materials and $10,345 worth of cash. Police said four people were arrested during the search: Mushad Yoda, 31, was charged with racketeering conspiracy, narcotics trafficking conspiracy and use of firearms in furtherance of narcotics conspiracy. He was transported to New York City to face the federal charges. Abdullah Yoda, 20, was charged with racketeering conspiracy, narcotics trafficking conspiracy and use of firearms in furtherance of narcotics conspiracy. He was also taken to New York City to face federal charges. Julia E. Jon-Hope, 17, of New York City, was charged with two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a felony. Jon-Hope is in the Tompkins County Jail on $20,000 cash or a $40,000 bond. Police said she could face federal charges. Tiara L. Giles, 29, of 91 Abbott Lane, Ithaca, the home searched during the raid, was charged with two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. She is in jail on $10,000 cash or a $20,000 bond. Like Jon-Hope, Giles could be facing federal charges, police said. Mugshots were not immediately available for Giles and Jon-Hope, police said. Hours after raiding the Abbott Lane residence, police executed a separate search warrant at a second Ithaca home. Kimani House The SWAT team, city police investigators, sheriff's deputies and the Dryden Police Department responded to 209 S. Plain St. at 1:49 p.m. Friday. Officers had a search warrant for the residence and Kimani A. House. House ran away when officers spotted him, police said. He was arrested after a short foot chase, police said. Officers searched the South Plain Street residence and found heroin, a handgun, cash, scales and packaging materials, police said. House was charged with third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, all felonies. He was also charged with second-degree obstructing governmental administration, a misdemeanor. House is being held in jail without bail. It is not clear if the cases are related. North Side homicide 2.JPG The 600 block of North Salina Street is quiet Saturday morning in Syracuse hours after a 34-year-old man was shot to death. The shooting happened on the street near East Division Street near Transitions 658. (Samantha House) UPDATE: Police ID man shot to death on Syracuse's North Side SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A man was shot to death early Saturday morning on Syracuse's North Side. A shooting was reported just after 2 a.m. on the 600 block of North Salina Street. When police arrived, they found a large crowd and a wounded man who had been shot, said Sgt. Richard Helterline, a Syracuse Police Department spokesman. The shooting happened in the street near East Division Street and Transitions 658, Helterline said. The victim was rushed by American Medical Response Ambulance to Upstate University Hospital. The man, 34, died at the hospital, Helterline said. The man is Syracuse's 16th homicide victim of 2016. Police will release the victim's name after his family is notified, Helterline said. The 600 block of North Salina Street is quiet Saturday morning in Syracuse hours after a 34-year-old man was shot to death. "It is very early in this investigation, and additional information will be released as it becomes available," he said. "At this time, there is no suspect information." Police asked anyone with information about the homicide to call (315) 442-5222 or send anonymous tips through the SPD Tips app. By 8:30 a.m. Saturday, the 600 block of North Salina Street -- a city block filled with restaurants, shops and a bar -- was quiet. No visible signs of the fatal shooting remained. The shooting happened a block away from where Martell Derby, 26, was killed April 18. Derby died after being shot in the head on the 200 block of Ash Street. Do you know Nathan Chandler? Syracuse.com would like to speak to family or friends willing to share insights into his life. Reach reporter Ken Sturtz at ksturtz@syracuse.com. MEXICO, N.Y. -- Two Oswego County men have been charged in a string of theft cases across two counties, according to the New York State Police. On April 26 troopers were called to a larceny complaint on Minckler Road in the town of Mexico. A woman reported several items stolen from her home. State police said troopers and investigators began looking at Thomas J. Cocopoti III as a suspect in the theft and for violating an order of protection the woman had against him. Adam M. Hamilton While investigators were still working the Mexico case, troopers in Onondaga County responded June 5 to a larceny at the Runnings store on state Route 31 in Clay. Two men had entered the store, hid batteries in their clothes and then left without paying. A cashier and a customer tried to catch one of the men. The customer was dragged a short distance by the suspect vehicle as it fled the scene, state police said. The customer was not injured in the incident. While troopers in Onondaga County were trying to identify the larceny suspects, troopers in Oswego County were dealing with another larceny that occurred on June 3 at the Ace Hardware on state Route 3 in Volney. Two men had entered the store and taken boxes of sink faucets without paying, state police said. Troopers in Onondaga and Oswego counties eventually identified the suspects from the Clay and Volney thefts as Cocopoti and Adam M. Hamilton, state police said. Thomas J. Cocopoti III On June 12 troopers arrested Hamilton, 25, of 13 Lawrence St., Oswego. He was charged with petit larceny and first-degree falsifying business records. He was arraigned in Palermo Town Court and ordered held at the Oswego County jail in lieu of $2,500 bail or $5,000 bail bond. Troopers in Onondaga County arrested Hamtilon June 22, charging him with petit larceny and sixth-degree conspiracy. Investigators continued looking for Cocopoti, 24, of 65 W. 4th St., Fulton. On June 20 they got another larceny complaint in which Cocopoti was the suspect, this time in the village of Mexico. State police said a woman let Cocopoti take her vehicle for repairs and then did not bring it back for several days. On Wednesday troopers found Cocopoti in Fulton and arrested him. He was charged with petit larceny in the Ace Hardware case, petit larceny and second-degree criminal contempt in the town of Mexico case, and fourth-degree grand larceny in the village of Mexico case. He was arraigned in Volney Town Court and ordered held. On Thursday he was charged with petit larceny and sixth-degree conspiracy in the Clay case. Contact Ken Sturtz: 315-766-7833 | Email | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ North Side homicide 2.JPG The 600 block of North Salina Street is quiet Saturday morning in Syracuse hours Nathan Chandler, 34, of Syracuse, was shot to death. The homicide happened on the street near East Division Street and Transitions 658. (Samantha House) SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Police have released the name of a man shot to death early Saturday morning on Syracuse's North Side. Nathan Q. Chandler, of Syracuse, was found shot just after 2 a.m. on the street on the 600 block of North Salina Street, said Sgt. Richard Helterline, a spokesman for the Syracuse Police Department. Chandler was rushed to Upstate University Hospital, where he died. He was 34 years old. After callers reported the shooting to 911, city police, the Syracuse Fire Department and American Medical Response Ambulance responded to the scene. When officers arrived, they found a large crowd on the street and a wounded Chandler. The shooting appears to have happened in the street near East Division Street and Transitions 658, Helterline said. Chandler is the city's 15th homicide victim of the year. No suspect information is available. Police asked anyone with information about the fatal shooting to call (315) 442-5222 or submit tips anonymously through the SPD Tips App. Do you know Nathan Chandler? Syracuse.com would like to speak to family or friends willing to share insights into his life. Reach reporter Ken Sturtz at ksturtz@syracuse.com. HGR_InTheHeights_RachelPhilipson_4833.jpg The barrio ensemble of Hangar Theatre's "In the Heights." To the Right, Perry Young as Usnavi. (Rachel Philipson) We've been gripped by "Hamilton"-mania for a bit now, and that show's creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, has rightfully been elevated to god-like status in the theater world. But before "Hamilton," "In the Heights," Miranda's freshman effort now represented by a smile-inducing Hangar Theatre production, made Broadway mavens whisper (or shout. It is the theater, after all), "Watch this kid." Set on a 4th of July weekend, "In the Heights" celebrates Hispanic Americans. In its heart, it's a deeply patriotic show, celebrating America itself and foreshadowing Miranda's next great achievement in retelling the story of that early immigrant Alexander Hamilton. Conceived when Miranda was a college sophomore and polished to a sheen for a 2008 Broadway opening, "In the Heights" is a joyful valentine to a neighborhood. The score, a bracing mix of rapid-fire hip hop, salsa, pop and other Latin music, celebrates New York's Washington Heights with its exuberant blend of Dominican, Puerto Rican and Cuban cultures. The picture that "In the Heights" draws of Washington Heights is brightly colored and nearly cartoonish, but so affectionate that it could have been produced as an MGM movie musical in its glorious heyday. Following the rules of traditional musical comedy, the book by Quiara Alegria Hudes is sweet and slight. Although it pays lip service to real-life conflicts, "In the Heights" most successfully presents a series of engaging character sketches. The touchstone is Usnavi (Perry Young) a young man who runs the corner bodega which employs his jokester cousin Sonny (Nick Martinez). Usnavi pines for hairdresser Vanessa (Gerianne Perez), who longs to leave the barrio for a West Village apartment. There are hints of Romeo and Juliet (without the tragic dimension) in the story of Nina (Natalie Grace Ortega) and Benny (Austin Scott). She has lost her Stanford scholarship to because she had to work two jobs just to survive while at school. Benny, the only non-Hispanic person in the barrio, works for her father Kevin's (Danny Bolero) struggling car service. The heart of "In the Heights" is Abuela Claudia (Amy Jo Phillips), the neighborhood honorary grandma, who practically raised Usnavi after the deaths of his parents. A graffiti artist, a piragua vendor and a kinetic powerhouse of neighborhood types add to the salsa. The Hangar production sparkles and pops under Suzanne Agins' direction, and is stuffed with ingratiating performances. Young endows Usnavi with soulfulness. He finds an able foil in Martinez, who thoroughly inhabits the wisecracking Sonny. Phillips warms the stage with "Paciencia y Fe," which movingly explores Abuela's history and philosophy. Bolero and Celina Polanco do fine work as Nina's earnest parents. Perez lays out Vanessa's aspirations in "It Won't Be Long Now." Especially noteworthy is the spirited "Carnaval Del Barrio," fueled by Julio Agustin's firecracker choreography and led by Donnie Hammond as Vanessa's boss Daniela. The Details What: "In the Heights." Where: Hangar Theatre, 801 Taughannock Boulevard, Ithaca. When seen: July 1. Length of performance: 2 hours 30 minutes with intermission. Attendance: Capacity. Family guide: Some muttered vulgarities (mostly in Spanish) and implied sexual situations, but generally okay for mature middle school on. Information: (607)273-2787, www.hangartheatre.org. 2015-11-03-kt-motion.JPG Motion Intelligence Inc., of Syracuse, was one of two CNY companies to add jobs through the Start-Up NY program in 2015. Key members of the Motion Intelligence-Upstate Medical University initiative are, from left, Rich Uhlig, founder and CEO of Motion Intelligence; and from Upstate: Brian Rieger, PhD; Christopher Neville PhD, PT; and Frank Middleton, PhD. (Provided photo) SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Gov. Andrew Cuomo's signature economic development program, Start-Up NY, created just 408 new jobs in its first two years - including nine in Central New York - despite millions of dollars spent advertising the program. The latest job numbers were reported Friday afternoon before a long holiday weekend, a traditional time to release unflattering news. The Start-Up NY report was 90 days late. Empire State Development Corp., the state's economic development arm, was required to release the 2015 numbers by April 1. Businesses participating in the state's Start-Up NY program created 332 jobs in 2015 after creating 76 in 2014, according to the "Business Incentives Report" released today. Two Central New York companies are listed as creating jobs last year under Start-Up NY: Designer Hardwood Flooring CNY Inc., of 120 St. Paul St., Oswego, reported creating three jobs in 2015. The company's five-year hiring target is 19, over which time the company plans to invest $495,000, according to the report. Motion Intelligence Inc., of 505 Irving Ave., Syracuse, reported creating six jobs in 2015. The company expects to create nine jobs and invest $350,057 within five years, the report said. As of December 31, 2015, 159 companies were participating in the Start-Up program, state officials reported. Those companies have committed to creating over 4,100 jobs and investing more than $230 million in their first five years, the report said. Under Start-Up NY, colleges and universities have designated 5.1 million square feet of building space and 1,981 acres of land as tax-free. This has resulted in the creation of 441 tax-free areas throughout New York state, where qualifying businesses can take advantage of the program. Upstate SUNY colleges and universities are unlimited in the amount of campus space they can designate as tax-free. Start-Up NY companies enjoy 10 years free of income, business, corporate, sales and property taxes. Leslie Whatley, who has led Start-Up since it began in 2013, told The Associated Press she believes the program will deliver on Cuomo's promises of success. "We're on a great trajectory," Whatley said. "The first year was all about building the program. Now we're starting to see momentum." The Start-Up program has spent $175 million on advertisements to promote Start-Up and related economic development programs, the AP reported. Contact Tim Knauss anytime | email | Twitter | 315-470-3023 STARTUPNY Appendix ParticipatingBusinesses2015 by Tim Knauss By PTI: Shimla, Jul 2 (PTI) Himachal Pradesh CITU leaders today resorted to indefinite hunger strike before the state civil secretariat in support of agitating workers of Shongtong Karcham Hydropower project. "We are fighting for a justified cause and our main demands are proper implementation of labour and industrial laws, payment of minimum wages, deduction for provident fund and providing basic boarding andlodging facilities to workers," senior CPI (M) leader Rakesh Singha said. advertisement "Even the court has directed the deputy Commissioner Kinnaur to settle the matter but no result has come out and the companies engaged in the project are flouting all norms with impunity as the administrator has become a mute spectator," he alleged. Officers of provident fund department had visited the project site thrice but the company refused to give documents, he said, adding the number of affected workers is about 900. The project workers resorted to strike in March this year but in fact they were beingvictimised since September 14, 2013, Singha alleged, adding four of them were terminated in that year whenthey tried to organise the "oppressed workers". One of the four terminated workers, Somdev, a resident of village Khumji, had allegedly committed suicide by jumping from the bridge into the river near Powari as he had no means of livelihood, they said. However, three others were reinstated after intervention of the labour court. PTI PCL TIR RG TIR --- ENDS --- By PTI: Chennai, Jul 2 (PTI) The Madras High Court has directed Tamil Nadu government to consider creating trained full-time counsellors in schools as a long-time measure. The first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan, said closing a PIL: "The suggestion of the petitioner that each school should have a child counsellor, though desirable, possibly is not feasible at the moment because of lack of sufficient number of qualified persons." advertisement Petitioner E Ranganayaki, an advocate, prayed for a direction to the Union and state governments to have trained and professional full-time counsellors experienced in child psychology in schools. "We consider it appropriate to put to the Additional Advocate General P H Arvind Pandian that the creation of requisite trained personnel should be a long-term measure by creating sufficient seats in educational institutions for the subject, especially as there is potential of employability," the court said. If the petitioner had any grievance over the matter, she could approach the Tamil Nadu Commission for Protection of Child Rights as well, the court said. The petitioner underscored the need for such counsellors to address childrens needs. Among other things, she highlighted that sexual abuse could have serious short- and long-term problems for a child. "Many of these children have never told anyone about what happened to them," the petitioner submitted in her plea. She pointed out that children could learn about sexual abuse, adolescence, puberty and personal safety from such counsellors. PTI CORR VGN APR SAI ZMN SAI MAV --- ENDS --- Michael Opsincs is lead out of a Martin County courtroom on Aug. 16, 2013 after being convicted of vehicular homicide stemming from a 2010 car accident. It was determined Opsincs caused the death of 11-year-old Brianna Cooper on Sept. 29, 2010. He was sentenced to five years for reckless driving causing serious bodily injury and 15 years for vehicular homicide. Opsincs has since been granted a new trial. (FILE PHOTO) By Nicole Wiesenthal of TCPalm MARTIN COUNTY A Stuart man convicted of causing the death of an 11-year-old girl in a 2010 crash apologized Friday to her family. "I intend to make the best out of this situation," said Michael Opsincs, now 32, with tears rolling down his face, "because if I don't, it's like she died for no reason, and I can't let that happen." Circuit Court Judge Lawrence Mirman sentenced Opsincs on Friday afternoon in the Martin County Courthouse to 12 years in prison. He was credited 1,007 days, nearly three years, for time served. In February, a three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal reversed a 2013 trial court vehicular homicide conviction decision, and granted Opsincs a new trial in part because the 2013 court "abused its discretion in admitting irrelevant and unfairly prejudicial evidence, that shortly after the accident, appellant (Opsincs) said '(expletive) happens' when being confronted by witnesses at the scene," according to the unanimous opinion. He changed his plea of not guilty to no contest Friday, and the judge sentenced him. There won't be a new trial. He was found guilty of felony vehicular homicide, felony reckless driving causing serious bodily injury and seven counts of misdemeanor reckless driving causing damage or injury. Brianna Cooper was the only one of her five family members in the car at the time of the crash who didn't survive. While the family originally expressed anger at news of the retrial, Brianna Cooper's mother, father and grandfather spoke of their hope that Brianna Cooper's death would create positive change, especially within Opsincs' life. Opsincs wrote a letter to Brianna's family members expressing his remorse and saying he had changed for the better and grown closer to God. The letter prompted Brianna's family members to come up with a reduced sentence of 12 years for Opsincs, said Assistant State Attorney Nita Denton, who prosecuted the case with co-counsel Mike Linn. "My hope is once your sentence is up and you become a free man, you remember what you wrote," said Cindy Cooper, Brianna's mother. "I would like you to use this time a positive way so that you can lay the foundation for your son and your future." Opsincs was convicted in July 2013 in Brianna's death and sentenced the next month to 20 years in prison. He had been at the Wakulla Correctional Institution in Crawfordville since September 2013, and he's expected to return there, Denton said. "As long as the Coopers are at peace, then I'm at peace," Denton said. "Hopefully he meant what he said in the letter to the Coopers. Hopefully he will do what he said with his life and hopefully Brianna's life wasn't lost in vain, and something good will come of it." Assistant Public Defender Whitney Duteau declined to comment after the sentencing. On a rainy day in September 2010 at about 7 p.m., Opsincs ran a red light on eastbound Kanner Highway and struck the Honda driven by Todd Cooper, who was turning left onto westbound Kanner Highway. He had been driving Brianna, her 9-year-old brother and 3-year-old twin siblings home from a family dinner. The impact from the crash caused the back half of Cooper's car to break off and hit a third car and killed Brianna, while leaving Todd Cooper and his other children injured. Todd and his children recovered physically, but not mentally because his surviving children still ask about their sister every day, Cindy Cooper said. To honor the memory of their daughter, the Coopers created the Brianna Cooper Heavenly Smiles Foundation, which has a mission to provide financial, emotional and spiritual support to parents and families who were grieving the loss of a loved one. "I do believe things happen for a reason, but I'm still trying to figure it out," Cindy Cooper said. "I do know that in the past 5 years Brianna has helped more families than I can count today, and from reading your letter, she is helping you, too." Staff writer Laurie K. Blandford contributed to this report. Double red flags, indicating the ocean water is not safe for swimming, flew Monday, June 27, 2016 at Bathtub Beach on South Hutchinson Island in Stuart. The public beaches in Martin County and St. Lucie County south of the Florida Power & Light Co. power plant were closed for swimming over the weekend when algae blooms appeared in the water. By Monday morning, Jupiter Island beaches, including Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge and Hobe Sound Public Beach, were also closed. (LEAH VOSS/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS) SHARE By Lidia Dinkova of TCPalm MARTIN COUNTY Two corporate executives each wanted to purchase waterfront property here, one listed at $2.5 million and the other at $5 million. A married couple wanted to build a home in Port Salerno. And another married couple wanted to buy a $1.5 million home on MacArthur Boulevard, overlooking the Indian River Lagoon. The couple looking at Port Salerno and the executives pulled out of purchasing altogether, and the couple looking at MacArthur Boulevard is strongly reconsidering once they saw the algae that's spread across the St. Lucie River, the lagoon and parts of the ocean, according to brokers. As the environmental crisis continues, they said, deal after deal for waterfront property in Martin County has fallen through. "This is destroying our livelihood," said David Shinnebarger, a Realtor with Berkshire Hathaway Inc., who has reached out to President Barack Obama, Gov. Rick Scott and officials of the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers. Interest among buyers is waning. The Real Estate Company in Stuart usually would be getting about five inquiries a day for waterfront property, said Jim Weix, owner and broker. Now, he said, it gets about one. Buyers who were closing on waterfront homes walked away three of them losing their $20,000 to $60,000 security deposits for homes in Palm City and North River Shores, said Cristi Hernandez, broker and team leader at Keller Williams Treasure Coast. It would take some time to put a dollar figure on the real-estate impact. History, however, is one reference point. Between May 1 and Sept. 1, 2013, Martin County lost out on about $488 million in aggregate single-family home value because of poor water quality, likely because of algae, according to the Florida Realtors trade association. "The 2013 summer was the best year for real estate for the housing market (since the recession). The aggregate property value actually increased. But it could have increased by an estimated $488 million more (in Martin County) had it not been for the algae bloom," said Brad O'Connor, Florida Realtors chief economist. In 2013, more than 136 billion gallons of water was released from Lake Okeechobee, prompting algae blooms. The impact it had on real estate at the time is undeniable, said Bill Dean, president of the Realtor Association of Martin County. "We could be in for something worse than that" this year, he added. So far this year, 150 billion gallons has been discharged. Algae, some of it toxic, has bloomed in the St. Lucie River. Algae also has spread to the lagoon and parts of the Atlantic Ocean prompting beach closures in Martin County. And that's prompted the Fort Lauderdale couple looking to buy a weekend home on MacArthur Boulevard to reconsider, said Shinnebarger. "They don't want to buy property on waterfront if they can't go in the water," he said. Plenty more anecdotal evidence abounds. A couple that had a contract for a Port Salerno lot pulled out of the purchase. "His primary reason for moving to Stuart was because he and his wife like to kayak and, obviously, they weren't going to be kayaking on our river," said Weix. Not only is the algae discouraging buyers, it's making things tough for sellers. If the algae remains, they either won't be able to sell or they'll have to lower their prices, said Hernandez. The Realtor Association of Martin County on Jan. 12-13 met with state Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, and state representatives to urge them to prioritize water quality, Dean said. "I've talked to not only (members of) my company but other (to) Realtors in the association as well who have absolutely lost buyers because of the algae," said Dean, broker and owner of Century 21 IRP Realty. "And to deny it, you would have to have your head in the sand." The former diesel plant now has an American Icon Brewery sign. (COLLEEN WIXON/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS) SHARE By Colleen Wixon, colleen.wixon@tcpalm.com VERO BEACH Trial concluded Friday in the lawsuit over whether the city met its obligations to decontaminate the old diesel-plant property. Circuit Court Judge John Galluzzo is expected to rule within two months. The diesel plant's former tenant, B-B Redevelopment Team, sued the city for breach of contract, hoping to recoup the $1.7 million it said it spent renovating the property, just west of the railroad tracks and south of eastbound State Road 60. The company accused the city of misleading developers by not meeting its obligations for environmental remediation at the site. Vero Beach countersued for $80,000 in unpaid rent. Before a ruling comes from Galluzzo, each side has 30 days to file final briefs citing supportive case law, said City Manager John O'Connor. In opening arguments in the weeklong trial, attorney Eugene O'Neill, representing the city, argued the company went to court only after the economy tanked and B-B Redevelopment was unable to find a tenant for the building. O'Connor said the city's attorneys presented the facts well. "We feel there wasn't enough evidence to support (B-B Redevelopment's) claim," O'Connor said. B-B Redevelopment attorney Louis "Buck" Vocelle Jr. was unavailable for comment. The diesel plant, built in phases between 1926 and 1959, once was the city's main source of electric power. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. The dispute involves a 45-year lease signed in 2001 between the city and B-B Redevelopment Team LLC for the plant. In October, B-B Redevelopment Team agreed to vacate the building, giving ownership back to the city. The property since has been sold to Fort Lauderdale developer Michael Rechter. Rechter closed this week on the property, which now is surrounded by a fence and has a sign announcing it is the future home of American Icon Brewery. Rechter paid $500,000 for the property as is, with the city giving him a $150,000 credit in lieu of any further environmental remediation, O'Connor said. VERO BEACH DIESEL PLANT Built: Constructed in phases between 1926 and 1959 2001: B-B Redevelopment Team signed 45-year lease with the city 2014: B-B Redevelopment sued the city, claiming the city never completed the environmental remediation it promised 2015: B-B Redevelopment agrees to vacate the property 2016: Diesel plant sold to Fort Lauderdale developer Michael Rechter A bus traveling south on Woodville Highway as hit by a semi-truck traveling west on Coastal Highway in Wakulla on Saturday morning. (JOE RONDONE/TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT) SHARE By Sean Rossman and Karl Etters, Tallahassee Democrat | USA TODAY NETWORK Five people, including at least one child, are confirmed dead after a bus collided with a semi truck in Wakulla County. Four people died on scene and another died at a local hospital, said Wakulla County Sheriff Charlie Creel. The former school bus, which was filled with children and adults, was traveling southbound on Woodville Highway at about 5 a.m. when it ran a flashing red light at the intersection with U.S. Highway 98. The bus then collided with a westbound semi truck. Creel said three of the dead were on the bus and another was the driver of the semi. He's calling it the worst accident he's ever seen in the county. Florida Highway Patrol identified 56-year-old Elie Dupiche of Belle Glade as the driver of the 1979 Blue Bird bus. Gordon A. Sheets, a 55-year-old from Copiague, New York, was the driver of the 2005 Freightliner semi truck. Sheets had one passenger, 21-year-old Rafael Nieves of Sound Beach, New York. See photos from the crash scene Dupiche is in critical condition at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare. Sheets died as a result of his injuries. Nieves was left uninjured. Wakulla County Sheriff Charlie Creel said four of the dead died on scene and the other died at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare. He estimated that between 7 and 10 of the passengers were still in serious condition. TMH spokesman Warren Jones said 16 people were taken to the hospital. Twelve were taken to the Bixler Emergency and Trauma Center on the hospital's main grounds at Magnolia Drive and Miccosukee Road. He said the patients taken there are the most seriously injured. Four other patients were taken to TMH's Emergency Center Northeast, where they have or will be discharged soon. FHP Capt. Jeffrey Bissainthe said there were 30 to 35 people on the bus, which was from Georgia. Bissainthe said he was unaware of where the bus was headed. Following the crash, several people on the bus ran away from the scene. The semi truck disintegrated in the crash, which knocked down a power line, and all that remains is the engine block. Bloody medical gear, pillows, coolers packed with food and drinks and clothing litter the road as fire officials try to extinguish any remaining fires within the two vehicles. The bus caught fire, Creel said, and the entire inside is burned. Some of the injured were taken to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and Capital Regional Medical Center. "Wakulla County Sheriff's deputies are heroes," Creel said. "They saved a lot more people. Saintervil Amilcar of Bainbridge, Georgia, drove to the scene after hearing of the wreck this morning. He said his aunt was on the bus. He doesn't know if she's dead or alive. Amilcar said the bus was filled with Haitian migrant workers, who were on their way from Bainbridge to Belle Glade, where they were going to work for two weeks. After they worked in Belle Glade, they were going to head north to find more work. He said another bus of workers was expected to leave Bainbridge for Belle Glade this morning. Creel said earlier that passengers found on scene were unable to speak English. Go here to follow this developing story by the Tallahassee Democrat. According to the police, Kumar's wife told the police that he was upset with his family as they were forcing Kumar to get separated with her. By Mail Today Bureau: A 35-year-old senior officer posted with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) allegedly committed suicide on Thursday. It's said that he was not happy with his family as they refused to accept his kashmiri pandit wife as a family member. GOT MARRIED NINE YEARS AGO According to the police, the family of the deceased was not happy with him as he didn't marry within the community. Cops also claimed that deputy commandant-rank officer, identified as Rakesh Kumar, got married almost nine years ago during his posting in Jammu & Kashmir. Kumar used to live with his family, including his wife and a six-year-old son in Tilak Nagar, where he was recently posted with the fifth battalion of CRPF. advertisement HUNG HIMSELF FROM THE CEILING "The incident took place on Thursday morning when his wife got no response despite knocking on the door several times. She and the domestic help broke open the door, which was locked from inside and found Kumar hanging from the ceiling," a senior police official said. According to the police, Kumar's wife told the police that he was upset with his family as they were forcing Kumar to get separated with her. UPSET OVER FAMILY'S INDIFFERENCE "Kumar was posted in J&K in 2007 and got married to a local Kashmiri girl despite his family opposing it. No one from his family came to attend the wedding. Wife also said that when Kumar got transferred to Delhi, his family didn't come to meet them," the official added. "An inquest into the matter has been initiated under Section 174 of the CrPC. His body has been handed over to his family members. Police have also recorded their statement. The officer's wife told police her husband hailed from Ambala in Haryana," said police sources. Cops have not found any suicide note. Also Read: Ex-Armyman commits suicide outside Haryana Secretariat, says police repeatedly raped his minor daughter Rise in suicide rate among cops shakes Delhi police, top brass decides to give officials timely offs --- ENDS --- Want to pick who represents you in the state House of Representatives? More than half of Indian River County registered voters might not get to vote thanks to a young Clearwater man. James Christian Bailey, a Tennessee native and 2010 graduate of Florida State University, is a student support specialist at St. Petersburg College earning $14.35 an hour. He'll have a huge impact on who we can vote for. How someone like Bailey can impact our election is almost beyond comprehension. But it's Florida law. A write-in candidate, Bailey didn't have to pay a filing fee to run. His name won't appear on the Aug. 30 ballot. His entry, though, will turn a primary open to all voters into a Republican-only primary disenfranchising Democrats and independents, 53 percent of county voters. The winner will replace Rep. Debbie Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, who can't run again because of term limits. Bailey has no chance of defeating Dale Glading, Erin Grall, Greg MacKay or Lange Sykes in House District 54. Yet his filing sends a message to almost 55,000 county voters that, unless they change their party affiliation, they'll have no voice in selecting their state representative. It's political sleaze at its worst. "This kind of nonsense should be cut out," said Glading, who, like the other candidates denied any connection to Bailey. Glading, whose campaign focuses on family values, said he met with a political consultant early in his candidacy. The consultant, whom he declined to name, suggested getting someone to run as a write-in then remain in the shadows to close the primary. The strategy would help Glading's campaign by shutting out more liberal voters. "I flatly refused to consider it," Glading said, noting that he has been seeking Democrat votes, too. "It is unethical." But not unusual, especially in Florida House and Senate districts where one party has an edge. Of 120 House races this year, write-in candidates have closed 14 primaries, compared to only seven where all district voters will select candidates from one party. In the Senate, write-ins closed six of 40 races. In the Senate, there's only one race where all district voters will get to choose from a single-party slate of candidates. Coincidentally, one Tallahassee political consulting company, Front Line Strategies, represents candidates in six of the eight House GOP races closed by a write-in. Those include House District 52 in Brevard County, where moderate Republican Thad Altman, who serves Indian River County in the Senate, faces a challenge from Front Line client Brian Hodgers. Hodgers said he had nothing to do with the write-in candidate, adding Altman would be hurt the most by a closed primary. Front Line also represents Indian River County candidate Sykes, who paid the company almost $25,000 through May. "I have a lot of supporters, but this was not initiated by someone in my inner circle to my knowledge," Sykes said in an email to me, adding his consultant claimed no knowledge of Bailey's write-in candidacy. So who is responsible? Matt Mohler, a Front Line consultant and Florida State grad who founded the Young Republicans of Indian River County and has worked with All Aboard Florida, could not be reached for comment. Nor could Bailey, whose St. Petersburg College employment records list six jobs since his time at Florida State. One of those jobs for two months in 2010 was as research assistant at Front Line Strategies. Bailey's supervisor and one of his three references? Matt Mohler, listed as a company vice president. Interesting, huh? So were responses from our local state representative candidates to my question on whether they'd sponsor and/or support legislation that would stop write-in candidates closing primaries. Glading, Grall and MacKay said they would stop the ridiculous tactic. Sykes disagreed. "It seems that would exclude potential candidates from having access to the ballot," Sykes said. "If people wish to run, they should be permitted to do it." I might agree with Sykes if it didn't mean restricting citizens' access to the ballot box. I might agree so long as all candidates follow the same rules: getting petitions or paying a qualifying fee to get on the ballot. If you want to run, your name should be on the ballot. And you should live in your district. No matter what your party affiliation is, or isn't, Americans are tired of party insiders and political consultants manipulating our elections. The Trump and Sanders phenomena are examples of this sentiment. The good news is voters still control their choices. Every disenfranchised independent and Democrat can vote for Glading, Grall, MacKay or Sykes by registering before Aug. 1 as a Republican. You can change your affiliation back after the Aug. 30 primary. Don't let someone's political "deceit" Glading's word keep you from exercising your right to vote. SHARE By Editorial Board "She cut the seat belt." Remember those words. Jorge Rivero-Lopez, who rolled his pickup on Interstate 95 near Hobe Sound the afternoon of June 4, survived the accident because of the heroic assistance of other motorists and because he was buckled into his vehicle. TCPalm's story on the accident revealed several important details: Rivero-Lopez, 22, of Port St. Lucie, lost control of his pickup after the right rear tire blew out. Other motorists came to Rivero-Lopez's aid. These included off-duty Martin County firefighter-paramedic Derek Hartman and his girlfriend, Holly Federico, a Martin Health System emergency room nurse. Before they could assist the injured motorist, the helpers first needed to free Rivero-Lopez from his restraints. "With scissors Hartman handed (Federico), she cut the seat belt," the article said. Poll: Should Florida lawmakers mandate seat belt use for all passengers in a motor vehicle? We hear repeatedly that seat belts save lives. Then why do 1 out of 10 of us still not buckle up? The question resonates in the wake of a recent report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It found Florida ranked second in the nation in unrestrained passenger fatalities, with 510 in 2014. Only Texas had more: 973. Seat-belt usage increased in the Sunshine State from 81.7 percent in 2008 to 89.4 percent in 2015, according to the report. The national average is 88.5 percent. The good new is we're doing better. The bad news: There are still 10 percent of us who fail to use lifesaving restraints. One contributing factor may be Florida's incomplete seat-belt laws. State law requires the driver and passengers in the front seat and all passengers younger than 18 anywhere in the vehicle to buckle up. There is no requirement for passengers in the back seat who are 18 and older to wear seat belts. Not wearing your seat belt became a primary offense in Florida in June 2009. It should be noted the law played a key role in boosting the state's usage rate, which rose by 8 percent between 2008 and 2015. Requiring all passengers in the back seat to buckle up likely would have similar, positive results. State lawmakers should strengthen our seat belt laws by requiring ALL passengers to wear them. After Rivero-Lopez was stabilized by other motorists and emergency responders, he was transported by helicopter to St. Mary's Medical Center in critical condition. He survived the accident, according to Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Mark Wysocky. A seat belt helped save his life. This is something to keep in mind as you're traveling this Fourth of July weekend, one of the busiest, and deadliest, travel times of the year. Reports have uncovered an interesting line of coding in Google Map for Android's version 9.31 beta released just last week. The supposed new code gives users the ability to indicate multiple destination points on their smartphones, which was previously only limited to desktop platforms. On that same note, the new higher resolution images, replacing old graphics on desktop versions of Google Maps, as well as Google Earth, will probably not be making it to smartphones as these do require a hefty amount of space. Going back, Android Police discovered (or tinkered with) the app's beta version and came upon the unexpected, but highly anticipated, feature. It's a bit of a hassle to always have to input traveling points on the app every time you reach a destination, whereas a "true multiple waypoint" system would make traveling easier, making the app more efficient. "Multiple waypoints will allow you to set 'stops' along your route [which is] a very handy feature indeed," the report says. Google, on the other hand, has not released any official statement regarding the release of upcoming feature nor anything about its beta testing. It is safe to assume, though, that the feature will be officially launched at some point, since the company has added the code to beta versions of the app and Google is usually transparent about its major updates. Meanwhile, multiple sources have confirmed that the feature is "going live" on their devices and have been able to access an updated Google Maps' user interface for inputting destinations. It is unclear at this point if different forms of travel be it by foot, bike, or any form of vehicle will be calculated by the app, but at least the feature is getting activated on end-user phones (or stable version holders). The Google Play Store, however, lists that the app was last updated on June 27 while its "What's New" description reads, "see and suggest descriptions of places including features, atmosphere and amenities," with nothing about setting multiple destinations. This has led others to believe that perhaps the new feature will not be released in a new update, but rather be enabled on the server side. Basically, this means that an updated Google Maps on Android will not guarantee that an end-user will get the feature. In addition, there hasn't been any word or enough information from sources that suggest the feature will be coming to iOS devices. In the meantime, those interested in helping Google test experimental features for the app may visit the Google Maps' testing page for more information. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. If you're in Hawaii and want to experience more than the usual sightseeing the place can offer, you can head on over to the town of Kalapana to witness the actual lava flow oozing from the massive Kilauea volcano. Officials of the Hawaii County have decided to open a 3-mile stretch of the road leading to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to serve as a viewing area for tourists to see the lava flow coming out of the nearby Puu Oo volcanic cone. According to the Hawaii County Civil Defense, people are allowed to enter the emergency road from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. every day. However, they would have to leave their vehicles in the designated parking area and make the hike on the gravel-covered path in order to get to the lava flow viewing area. Security guards have been stationed at the end of Highway 130 to help make sure that all sightseers are safe during their visit. Local officials had to create a path through previous lava flows when new flows threatened to engulf the town of Pahoa back in 2014 and in 2015. The new emergency access road was built at a cost of $10 million, and is now connecting the Chain of Craters road located in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park with Highway 130. A Spectacle Of Molten Earth Jeff Sutton, a scientist from the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, explained that the lava from the volcano had advanced for about 1,500 feet on June 29, and has now made its way to the bottom of the cliff. He said that lava flow had been running down the side of the mountain at a rate of 300 feet every day until it was finally able to reach the cliff. Before that, the lava flow had only advanced at a slower pace. It picked up speed on June 28, and changed its composition into a rocky and faster-moving form as it continued to flow over the cliff's steep terrain. Sutton added that they expect the lava flow to come within 2 miles from the ocean and the emergency road by the time it reaches the bottom of the cliff. National park's spokeswoman Jessica Ferracane said sightseers can witness the glow from the lava flow from various lookouts designated along the park's Chain of Craters road. Park visitors are allowed to hike to where the lava flow is located. Ferracane, however, warned that they have to make the 11-mile round-trip walk over hardened lava, which could be quite the challenge for those who want to see the spectacle of molten earth. Sutton also pointed out that visitors should also be cautious about getting too close to the explosions of methane gas typically produced by lava flow. Photo: Sheila Sund | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Das Keyboard has unwrapped its latest mechanical keyboard innovation, dubbed the Das Keyboard 5Q, which features configurable RGB keys and a cloud connection. The Kickstarter campaign for the project, which will end on July 30, has received an overwhelmingly positive response from the internet community with about 1,360 backers pledging more than $90,000 in excess of the company's needed goal of $100,000. At the time of writing, a total of $198,290 have been pledged by interested backers and is steadily increasing. Funding options that backers can choose from range from a $1 pledge, where backers will receive updates on the 5Q's progress, to an $899 pledge, wherein the backer's name will be included in the keyboard's firmware and the "About" section of the Q software. In addition, pledges of the $899 option "will receive an early, hand-built, keyboard with beta software [in October] and one of the first production models [in December]." These backers will serve as the 5Q's beta testers whose feedback will be greatly considered by the company. They will also get instant access to the Q SDK programming tool to start writing custom scripts, across a number of programming languages, for the 5Q keyboard. Software The seemingly successful Kickstarter campaign may be attributed to the Das Keyboard 5Q's latest innovation technique to function not only as an input device, but as a sort of an output device as well. While it won't actually output a display like that of a monitor, the RGB keys can supposedly be configured according to the user's demands and intents. These LED-lighted keys can change colors depending on specific parameters the user sets for each individual key on the 5Q's dedicated software, Q. This contextual menu can be accessed by clicking the large round button on the upper-right hand side of the keyboard, which also serves as a knob to adjust a system's volume. Some of the uses of this feature include tuning the keys to display the status of a software build, monitoring a PC's current CPU load, getting notified whenever an important email arrives. It also functions as a "webmaster dashboard" to track a personal website's statistics. These customized scripts will be uploaded to the Q's cloud storage automatically and will be accessed by the keyboard directly. The cloud storage will also feature other downloadable content created by the Das Keyboard 5Q community, which users can utilize or reconfigure for their needs. "As the first cloud-connected keyboard in the world, we think people are going to be super hyped about getting their hands on the most advanced keyboard of the 21st century," Das Keyboard says. Hardware On the hardware side, the 5Q is built with Omron-manufactured mechanical switches, dubbed Gamma-Zulu, that can endure up to 100 million actuations. The company also claims that these switches "have a soft tactile feel comparable to the Cherry MX brown." "The Das Keyboard 5Q detects a keypress in 0.4 milliseconds and reports it to the computer in 1 millisecond," the company describes the keyboard's analog technology, Real-Time One (RTO), adding that "the Das Keyboard 5Q is up to 45 times faster" than the keyboard used today, which utilizes an "outdated polling system" that takes 20 to 45 milliseconds to respond. At launch, the Das Keyboard 5Q will retail for $249 and should start delivering final versions by January 2016. Its product announcement may be viewed below: 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The White Shark Cafe allows people to see the feeding patterns of the most famous predator in the sea. This spot, far within the Pacific Ocean, is an area where sharks dive to extreme depths, for reasons unknown to biologists. The marine animals gather together halfway between Hawaii and Mexico, where they undertake the tremendous dives. Although biologists speculate the reason is either feeding or mating, the real answer remains unclear. Monterey Bay Aquarium researchers are fitting white sharks with a unique camera, providing views of the dive as the massive fish race far beneath the ocean's surface. White sharks first evolved 11 million years before our time from close relatives that swam the oceans of the Earth 60 million years ago. Today, they are the largest predatory fish found on Earth. Researchers believe this new device will allow biologists to finally understand why the sharks are meeting at the White Shark Cafe and undertaking their epic journeys far underwater. After two to three months, the wandering fish travel away from the region. Unlike shark cams that have been utilized in the past, this new design would broadcast for months, instead of days. "It had to be small and easy to attach to a shark's dorsal fin. It had to stay on the shark for up to nine months, until the shark returned to the California coast from its offshore location. It had to survive dives as deep as 1,000 meters (3,300 feet), and bursts of acceleration to speeds up to 25 miles an hour," the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (Mbari) reports. During the summer of 2016, researchers will attach a prototype camera to an underwater robot. This autonomous underwater vehicle (UAV) will be directed on a deep sea dive, simulating a journey at the White Shark Cafe. Jaws, a thriller movie telling a tale of a ravenous white shark terrorizing the small town of Amity, was released in 1975. This film, adapted from a novel, gave white sharks a terrifying reputation among many people in the United States and beyond. However, 2010 saw the greatest number of annual unprovoked attacks on humans from sharks in a decade 79. Since 1907, however, 201 of 220 attacks by white sharks on humans have occurred when the victim was less than six feet beneath the surface of the water. The first-of-its-kind shark cam is currently undergoing testing, and is expected to be fully operational and deployed sometime in December 2016 or January of the following year. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Health authorities in South Korea confirm its sixth Zika infection case. The patient is a 28-year-old woman who recently traveled to the island of Dominica in the Caribbean. On July 1, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported that the female patient visited the Central American country in June 2014 and returned to South Korea on June 23 via the United States and Taiwan. On the night of June 30, the female patient tested positive for the Zika virus. She developed common symptoms linked to the mosquito-borne virus infection, which include muscle and joint pains, as well as rashes. South Korea's fifth Zika case was confirmed just 50 days ago. All of the cases we associated with travel. Among the earlier five cases, three traveled to the Philippines, one to Vietnam and one to Brazil. The KCDC noted that they are doing a full epidemiological investigation and has confirmed that the sixth Zika patient is not with child. The agency also advised pregnant women in South Korea to delay or avoid travel plans to Zika-infected countries and regions. KCDC recommended that women delay their plans to conceive following trips from Zika-affected areas for a minimum of two months. How Is Zika Transmitted? Zika is mainly transmitted through the bites of infected Aedes albopictus or Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The virus is not similar to cold, which means it does not spread through human contact. However, there were reports that Zika-infected men can transfer the virus through sexual activities. It is not clear if the same can be said among female patients. In one case, a lab researcher accidentally infects herself with the virus after getting pricked from a virus-infected needle. Cure For Zika In June, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the nod for utilization of the world's first Zika vaccine in a human clinical trial. The phase 1 trial is expected to start in the next few weeks. The goal is to analyze how well human participants can tolerate the vaccine. The researchers will also study the vaccine's level of safety. Currently, there is no cure for Zika infection. The best way to prevent getting infected to avoid the mosquito vectors at all costs. "People usually don't get sick enough to go to the hospital, and they very rarely die of Zika. For this reason, many people might not realize they have been infected," said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The common symptoms of Zika infection include conjunctivitis (red eyes), rash, fever, joint and / or muscle pains and headache. Photo: Sebastien Bertrand | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Tesla Model S' autopilot just registered its first victim in the United States, after an accident involving the autonomous vehicle happened on May 7. The Tesla car that Joshua Brown was driving ran full speed into a semi in Florida as the tractor-trailer took a left at an intersection causing the Model S to hit its side. Frank Baressi, the driver of the truck, told the media that the Tesla driver was watching Harry Potter right before the autonomous car collided into his vehicle. Baressi admitted that he only heard the movie and cannot vouch that Brown was watching it while the crash happened. Recent reports from Reuters confirm that a portable DVD player was in the crashed car. "There was a portable DVD player in the vehicle," Kim Montes, a sergeant of the Florida Highway Patrol, told the news agency. However, no details permeated whether or not the device was being used when the crash happened. The Florida police mentioned that no dashcam was present in the car when the accident took place. Tesla Motors stated that the unfortunate event happened due to the inability of the Model S to distinguish between the white paint of the tractor-trailer and the "brightly lit sky." In the statement, Tesla points out that using Autopilot "results in a statistically significant improvement in safety," when paired against standardized manual driving. To put things in perspective, the carmaker explains that this is the first known fatality in more than 130 million miles driven with the Autopilot on. According to Tesla, there is a fatality for every 94 million miles driven in the United States. Brown was somewhat of an internet celebrity, as earlier this year he posted a video of his Autopilot-enabled Tesla nearly getting into a car accident. The video quickly became viral. Despite the fact that the Autopilot system powering Tesla Model S features cutting edge technology, it remains a semi-autonomous mechanism. This means that driver engagement is encouraged and required, and Tesla Motors underlines that the Autopilot is still being tested and far from perfect. Tesla says that when the Autopilot is on, the car keeps reminding drivers to have their hands on the wheel at all times, thus, limiting unexpected and perilous situations. One of the direct consequences of the crash is that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) started to investigate 25,000 cars from the same line as with Brown's 2015 Model S. Wayne Cohen, a law professor at George Washington University is not surprised that a fatality occurred. "The question is whether a fatality will impact the regulatory landscape," Cohen asks. In Cohen's opinion, pairing a real person with the consequences of automated driving can have lasting repercussions on the future rules in the field. What is more, it is very likely that Tesla will see a lawsuit very soon as a result of the crash. One major factor in the eventual lawsuit is proving that Brown ignored Tesla's instructions about remaining in control of the vehicle and keeping his hands on the wheel. We will keep you posted on the ramifications that the 2015 Tesla Model S crash brings. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. BlackBerry phones are a staple of stability and continuity in the U.S. Senate, but that is about to change. Senate staffers recently received an email informing them that only 600 BlackBerry smartphones are left in the institution's stockpile, and there will be no refills. The memo explains that after the existing in-house stock gets exhausted, "new device procurements will be limited." Warranty exchanges will still apply, and existing devices will still be supported. Some did take the news with a bit of disgruntlement. Ben Marter, a Senate staffer who named the BlackBerry "the unsung workhorse of the Senate" is dismayed to see the reliable piece of equipment leave the stage. "[N]o phone receives and sends emails faster, and the keyboard ... is easy to use," Marter says. BlackBerry used to be the leader in the field of mobile devices, but rival devices from Apple or Samsung invested strongly in innovation, design and galloped until they surpassed the Canadian manufacturer. This caused BlackBerry's smartphone market shares to fall below 1 percent in 2015, causing it to sell about 500,000 units in its latest quarter. To put things in perspective, Apple reported sales of 51.2 million iPhones during the same period. The news comes in the wake of a BlackBerry announcement, stating that the manufacturer will pull the plug on the BlackBerry Classic line one of the most used models used on Capitol Hill. BlackBerry promised it will continue selling other BlackBerry OS 10 variants. In spite of losing significant ground in the consumer market, the Canadian OEM remains popular with government officials, mainly due to its reputation as a secure device and its full keyboard that makes it perfect for intensive messaging. At the beginning of 2015, President Barack Obama was still holding on to his BlackBerry. The President did note that, for security reasons, his phone was stripped off most of its capabilities. As messaging was one of the few features still in place, the keyboard of the BlackBerry caters best to his needs. However, Obama appeared in Jimmy Fallon's show recently and explained that his administration forced him to adopt a new handset, but refused to go into details. According to the letter sent to Senate staffers, employees can switch from BBOS to competing systems, such as Android or iOS, with the Samsung Galaxy S6 and 16 GB iPhone SE as main alternatives. To help Senate employees with their transition, Verizon has agreed to suspend eligibility upgrade requirements for those who choose the alternative phone variants. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Tesla driver killed in crash with Autopilot active, NHTSA to investigate In a shocking incident, a man was killed in a Tesla car with its Autopilot active. Neither he nor the Autopilot could see a oncoming tractor trailer resulting in a fatal accident. A Tesla Model S with the Autopilot system activated was involved in a fatal crash on May 7 in Williston, Florida, resulting in the death of the driver. This is believed to be the first death related to a vehicle with a semi-autonomous driving feature involved. The company disclosed the crash in a blog post yesterday and says it has informed the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the incident, which is now investigating. The accident occurred on a divided highway in central Florida when a tractor trailer drove across the highway perpendicular to the Model S. NHTSA will be carrying out an investigation to ensure that everything worked according to expectations. A post on Teslas blog describes what happened. Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied. The high ride height of the trailer combined with its positioning across the road and the extremely rare circumstances of the impact caused the Model S to pass under the trailer, with the bottom of the trailer impacting the windshield of the Model S. NHTSA issued a statement to The Verge, NHTSAs Office of Defects Investigation is opening a Preliminary Evaluation of the design and performance of automated driving systems in the Tesla Model S. NHTSA recently learned of a fatal highway crash involving a 2015 Tesla Model S, which, according to the manufacturer, was operating with the vehicles Autopilot automated driving systems activated. The incident, which occurred on May 7 in Williston, Florida, was reported to NHTSA by Tesla. NHTSA deployed its Special Crash Investigations Team to investigate the vehicle and crash scene, and is in communication with the Florida Highway Patrol. Preliminary reports indicate the vehicle crash occurred when a tractor-trailer made a left turn in front of the Tesla at an intersection on a non-controlled access highway. The driver of the Tesla died due to injuries sustained in the crash. NHTSAs Office of Defects Investigation will examine the design and performance of the automated driving systems in use at the time of the crash. During the Preliminary Evaluation, NHTSA will gather additional data regarding this incident and other information regarding the automated driving systems. The opening of the Preliminary Evaluation should not be construed as a finding that the Office of Defects Investigation believes there is either a presence or absence of a defect in the subject vehicles. The victim was identified as Joshua Brown, 40, of Canton, Ohio. He was a Navy veteran who owned a technology consulting firm. In a news release, Tesla on Thursday described him as a man who spent his life focused on innovation and the promise of technology and who believed strongly in Teslas mission. Mr. Brown had posted videos of himself riding in autopilot mode. The cars doing it all itself, he said in one, smiling as he took his hands from the steering wheel. In another, he had praised the system for saving his car from an accident. When Tesla is looking to expand its product lineup from expensive electric vehicles to more mainstream models, this death comes as a blow to the company at this time. On Thursday, the company refused to say whether the technology or the driver or either were at fault in the accident. While theres an on-going investigation, the accident is certain to raise some legit questions about self-driving vehicles and whether autonomous systems (and todays drivers) are ready for prime-time. By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) The Supreme Court today decided to hear next week a plea of former Union minister Kapil Sibals son Amit Sibal against a Delhi High Court order granting exemption from personal appearance to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and others in a defamation case. The Delhi High Court in its judgement had asked the trial court to consider the pleas of Kejriwal and others including deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Shazia Ilmi and advocate Prashant Bhishan seeking discharge from the defamation case. advertisement Sibal, who has challenged the High Court verdict before the apex court, today vehemently opposed the submission that there was a stay on the trial court proceedings in the case and it be allowed to continue. A bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and N V Ramana said that at present, it would not go into question as to whether there was a stay in the case or not, and posted the matter for hearing on July seven. Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Sibal, refuted the submission of senior advocate Jayant Bhushan that the recent apex court judgement, upholding the constitutional validity of 156-year-old penal laws on defamation had stayed the trial court proceedings for eight weeks in this case also. The stay of proceedings was granted by the apex court for allowing the accused to approach the High Court for quashing of defamation case, but in the present matter the High Court has already decided the petitions of Kejriwal and others, Luthra said. Earlier, the apex court had issued notices to Kejriwal and others on the plea of Sibal. The High Court had on January 16, 2014 refused to quash defamation proceedings against the AAP leaders and others but had told trial court to consider their discharge plea. Challenging the order, Amit Sibal said the High Court cannot confer the power to discharge on a Magistrate in a triable case instituted on a private complaint. Sibal had filed a defamation suit against Kejriwal and others for alleging that he had taken advantage of his fathers position to represent telecom companies and the trial court had issued summons to them on July 24, 2013. The AAP leaders had moved the High Court seeking quashing of proceedings in the trial court. PTI MNL SJK RKS ARC --- ENDS --- In the state of Miranda, the municipalities of Zamora and Sucre have been affected by the rains, said the authorities. | Read More The very earth of Delhi University (DU) is steeped in history and revolution. The elegant white pillars of the Vice Chancellor's office do not betray the presence of a former dungeon in its bowels, which housed Bhagat Singh and his comrades during the freedom struggle nor the carnage of the 1857 revolt, when a number of British families sought refuge within. But the whiff of activism still lingers in the air, channelled through its robust student politics and stubborn, but effective social outfits. Although DU has given the country some of its most influential political leaders, the university has proven itself to be so much more over 94 years of its existence. The journey that began with three affiliated colleges, two faculty and 750 students in 1922 has now grown to 85 colleges, 86 academic departments and over 132,435 students. Under its wing are St Stephen's college, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Hindu College, Miranda House and Shri Ram College for Commerce, all highly coveted for higher education. In 1973, a campus was created in south Delhi in an effort to keep up with the fast-paced growth of the DU family. advertisement With some of the highest undergraduate cut-offs in the country, getting into Delhi University and its colleges is every student's greatest ambition. "The university has grown and evolved since the time I studied there in 1971," says professor JP Khurana, director of DU's South campus. "The craze for admissions in the affiliated colleges has skyrocketed because the quality of students has grown better over the years. The cut-offs which hovered around 80 per cent in my time, even at the best colleges are now 96 per cent and above." Delhi University featured 66th in the globally regarded QS Asia rankings this year with only a handful of IITs preceding it. A thorough dedication to research and a large number of research publications has proved to be their ticket to success, attracting not only the best faculty from all over the world but also abundant grants and funding from the government. The department of science and technology was awarded over Rs 40 crore in 2013 as part of a Promotion of University Research and Scientific Excellence (PURSE) grant for having the highest H-index in the country. The H-index is a metric that measures the productivity and impact of an author's citations. To enhance the research environment, the university started a Cluster Innovation Centre about five years ago. It offers innovative degree programmes that include a B.Tech with a confluence of information technology and mathematical innovation, a BA Honours in humanities and social sciences and a unique Masters of education dual degree in collaboration with Jamia Millia Islamia designed on the basis of the Meta University concept. Through these new courses and a variety of other activities that support and mentor new innovations, the university hopes to aid students in solving real world problems. To help its large student body find safe lodging, it has tied up with NGOs to create an official network of paying guest accommodations in areas close to colleges. An online repository of research publications for students and faculty is being built, which will help them access the same even when not on campus. Among the university's initiatives towards modernising facilities is the digitisation of its online application process. From this year, students will be able to apply online, right up to fee payment and can take entrance tests at five new centres in cities other than Delhi. It might seem like a cliche, but the university has succeeded in creating a conducive atmosphere for its students; it reflects in the way they talk about their personal learning and leanings. "If you have no political background, but still have a hidden leadership gene in your body. It will blossom as soon as you enter the gates of Delhi University," says Shiva Tripathi a fourth year PhD student from the botany department. advertisement The beneficiaries of the education system at DU are not just students but also teachers. "Intellectual freedom and mutual respect for free thinkers from classroom level onwards makes it a delight to teach here," says Professor Kishore Kumar Das, department of English, who is also India's first visually challenged Fulbright Scholar. --- ENDS --- While most of the deceased have been identified as foreign nationals, one of them has been identified as a native of India. People help an unidentified injured person near the attack cafe in Dhaka. Source: AP By India Today Web Desk: Twenty people and six militants were killed in the gruesome attack at the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in Gulshan neighbourhood of Dhaka on Friday night. The incident has sent shockwaves across Bangladesh and its neighbouring countries after the terror outfit, ISIS claimed responsibility for the ruthless attacks. A day after the gruesome attack, ISIS has reportedly identified five of the attackers. The terror outfit has released photos of the attackers involved in the massacre. US based intelligence website, Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE), which is involved in tracking online activities of Jihadi organisation, published the photographs of the accused. Five terrorists involved in the Dhaka attack. (Photo: Indrajit Kundu) advertisement While most of the deceased have been identified as foreign nationals, one of them has been identified as a native of India. Witnesses to the ruthless attack claimed that the assailants used guns and sharp-edged weapons to attack the victims. Meanwhile, PM Narendra Modi has expressed his condolences." India stands firmly with our sisters and brothers of Bangladesh in this hour of grief," tweeted the PM. Here are the top 10 developments: The attack on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital left 26 people dead including six armed attackers, the Bangladesh army said on Saturday. Six gunmen were killed and one terrorist was captured alive in a raid on the cafe by commandos. Sources said 18 hostages were rescued. Deceased include Indian national, Tarishi Jain, who is a native of Uttar Pradesh. Condemning the attacks, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that she will not tolerate terrorism in Bangladesh. PM Hasina declared two days of mourning for the victims of the terrorist attack. Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the attack as 'despicable' and expressed his grief through a series of tweets. He said that Indians stand in solidarity with the victims and their family. Nine of the victims were Italian nationals, while seven Japanese were also killed. Injured included mainly police personnel who have been rushed to the United Hospital in Dhaka. ISIS, who claimed responsibility for the attack has warned of future attacks in India. ISIS said that after it sets up a base in Bangladesh, they have plans to launch attacks in eastern and western parts of India. ALSO READ : Security beefed up in Kolkata after B'desh terror attack Post Dhaka attack: Why an online magazine interview is giving India a headache --- ENDS --- Cultural authorities in Vietnam have revoked a new rule that bans models and winners of beauty contests from taking nude photos and publishing them online. The decision was made after many critics strongly opposed the rule, which was introduced a few weeks ago. Soon after the ban took effect, Vu Khanh, chairman of the Vietnam Association of Photographers, criticized it, saying that the ban will cause many difficulties to artists. Nudity is not encouraged in Vietnam, but it has never been banned, he said. An undated photo of EVN workers checking a utility post in the southern province of Vinh Long. Photo: Tu Uyen In an attempt to keep public debt in control, the Vietnamese government may stop guaranteeing state-owned enterprises' loans. The Ministry of Finance has said in its recent proposal that the government needs to stop guaranteeing such loans for new projects starting next year and increase its overseeing of loans assigned to existing ones. The goal is to reduce these government-backed loans to 15.6 percent of public debt by the end of 2020, it said. Figures showed SOEs borrowed nearly US$21 billion with the government's guarantee as of the end of last year, or 17.6 percent of public debt. In 2011-15, the government guaranteed $15.6 billion in loans for 35 projects of SOEs, a three-fold increase from 2007-10, according to the finance ministry. Electricity of Vietnam, oil giant PetroVietnam and national carrier Vietnam Airlines were among top borrowers backed by the government, it said. In another move, the ministry also sought to reduce government-guaranteed bonds issued by the Vietnam Development Bank and the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies over the next four years. The growth of the banks' outstanding bonds, estimated at around VND161.47 trillion at the end of last year, must be slowed down to 4-6 percent a year from 10 percent at the moment, according to the ministry. It is "a big risk" when the banks issue more bonds with a maturity of less than five years and then provide loans to projects with terms of seven to 10 years, it said. Latest figures released by the government in May showed Vietnam's public debt was equivalent to 62.2 percent of GDP. It will rise to 63.8 percent at the end of this year, and then 64.7 percent in 2018, or slightly lower than the threshold of 65 percent, according to the World Bank's projections. Vietnam's public debt is inching up closer to safety limits after its gross domestic product is revised down slightly in an unexpected move. Speaking at a meeting with the National Assembly's Standing Committee in Hanoi on Monday, Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh did not reveal the new GDP estimate, but confirmed that it is lower, after recalculation. With the GDP revision, Vietnam's public debt has now risen by 0.9 percentage point to 62.2 percent of GDP, while foreign debt is now equivalent to 43.1 percent of GDP, up 1.6 points. Regardless of the rises, both numbers are still within safety limits set by the National Assembly, 65 and 50 percent respectively. The government's debt, which does not include loans taken out by the central bank and state-owned enterprises, has exceeded the 50 percent threshold. It is now equivalent to 50.3 percent of GDP, compared to 48.9 percent earlier. Although the sustainability of public debt has long remained a concern, the government plans to seek the National Assembly's permission to issue VND200 trillion ($8.85 billion) worth of sovereign bonds in 2017-20. The loans are meant for funding public infrastructure projects in the next five years, as the state budget will be able to meet only 30 percent of the total cost projection, Vinh said at the meeting. Transport and agriculture infrastructure, including roads and irrigation systems, will be the focus of development, he said. At the end of last year, Vietnamese lawmakers approved the government's plans to issue VND60 trillion ($2.65 billion) worth of sovereign bonds at home and another $3 billion in overseas markets this year. A Ho Chi Minh City court Thursday ordered a man to pay VND 39.2 million (US$1,700) in damages to a former girlfriend for posting her nude photos on his Facebook page years after they broke up. The 42-year old defendant, a senior manager at a local property company, was also ordered to apologize to her in court. The 36-year old woman had demanded that he should publish an apology on three different newspapers three issues in succession, but this was rejected by the District 2 court. She told the court that after they separated in 2012 she had returned all the gifts he had given her. In May 2014 she accidentally discovered that he had posted nine nude photos of her on Facebook with captions describing how they had had sex. Then he posted 26 statuses that insulted her. She complained to the police, who ruled that his actions did not warrant criminal charges and fined him VND 7.2 million for offending another with digital products. The woman disagreed and filed a suit last year. The underground parking lot entrance of the apartment building where the body of a Filipino woman was found Friday evening. Photo: Duc Tien A Filipino woman fell to her death from the 8th floor of an apartment building in Ho Chi Minh City Friday evening, local police have said. The body of the woman, whose name was not revealed, was found at the entrance of the underground parking lot of the building in To Vinh Dien St., Thu Duc Dist. Some witnesses said they saw the woman climbing over a safety fence on the apartment balcony at 7.30 p.m. She apparently was trying to drag a little girl, later identified as her daughter, with her too, they said. A security guard tried to persuade her to climb back in, but she jumped and fell 20 meters to her death, the witnesses said. "If the boy hadn't managed to pull the little girl back she could have fallen to the ground with her mom," a witness claimed, referring to the woman's son. Some local media reports quoted authorities as saying that the woman arrived in Vietnam early last month and lived with her Filipino husband in the apartment. Authorities found the victim's passport and other ID documents which had been burnt in the apartment, the reports said. The police of HCMC are investigating further. The Tesla Model S version 7.0 software update containing Autopilot features is demonstrated during a Tesla event in Palo Alto, California, U.S., October 14, 2015. A sleeping driver and a terrified granny are among the many people who appear in popular YouTube videos using the Tesla Autopilot technology - and not always using the system as intended. It is an unwelcome social media image for the car company as it attends to a federal investigation into a fatal accident involving its Model S car operating in Autopilot mode in Florida in May. It was the first known fatality involving a Model S operating on Autopilot. Tesla and other manufacturers working on systems that allow cars to pilot themselves under certain conditions are seeking to improve road safety by reducing some of the burden on drivers. Tesla issues strict safety protocols for using its Autopilot and stresses that the technology is still in development. Not all users are heeding the warnings. One video, filmed by someone in another car, shows the driver of a Tesla sleeping at the wheel, while his vehicle inches along in gridlock traffic. The footage was uploaded in May and has already been viewed more than 2.3 million times.(bit.ly/1NM46bi) Another video, "Granny on Tesla's Autopilot Mode," shows a woman at the wheel of a Tesla shrieking in shock and alarm over the Autopilot feature, as someone in the passenger seat films her. "Oh, there's cars coming!" she yells. "Put me back for me controlling it! Oh, dear Jesus." Several YouTube users have reposted the footage across the video-sharing platform. (bit.ly/29hGBan) In another video, posted by the account DragTimes in October, a driver who filmed himself using Tesla's Autopilot feature reads a speeding ticket as the car continues on, explaining that he had been pulled over because the Autopiloted car was going 75 miles per hour (120 kph) in a 60 mph (95 kph) zone. (bit.ly/1Pxjfez) A DragTimes spokesman told Reuters he believed the technology has been "steadily improving" since the video was filmed. "The recent death is certainly sad and awakening for Tesla owners to be careful with this technology and only use it as recommended," he added. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Thursday it is investigating 25,000 Model S sedans that are equipped with the Autopilot system, after the death of 40-year-old Joshua Brown in Williston, Florida. Its probe will add to debate within the auto industry and in legal circles over the safety of systems that take partial control of steering and braking from drivers. In a statement on Thursday, Tesla noted its safety warnings. "When drivers activate Autopilot, the acknowledgment box explains, among other things, that Autopilot 'is an assist feature that requires you to keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times,' and that 'you need to maintain control and responsibility for your vehicle' while using it," Tesla said. YouTube is full of videos either showing or discussing Autopilot - a search of "Tesla Autopilot" on the site yields some 27,000 results. Many are not "screaming granny" videos, but the more whacky ones often get far more clicks than the straightforward videos. Security personnel are seen near the Holey Artisan restaurant hostage site, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 2, 2016. Suspected Islamic gunmen attacked an upscale cafe in the Bangladeshi capital popular with foreigners before police stormed the building on Saturday and rescued at least 13 hostages, officials said. Six gunmen were killed during the police operation and one was captured alive, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in a TV broadcast. She said 13 hostages were rescued, but that police were unable to save all of them. "The operation is over and the situation is under control," army spokesman Colonel Rashidul Hasan told Reuters. The attack marks a major escalation in a campaign by Islamic militants over the past 18 months that had targeted mostly individuals advocating a secular or liberal approach in mostly Muslim Bangladesh. The number and nationality of the hostages were unclear. Police said earlier the gunmen were holding about 20 hostages. One Japanese man was among those rescued and taken to a Dhaka hospital with a gunshot wound, a Japanese government spokesman said. Italy's ambassador to Bangladesh, Mario Palma, told Italian state TV seven Italians were among the hostages. Islamic State, which has claimed the attacks, posted photos of what it said were dead foreigners killed in the assault. Police said they believed about eight to nine gunmen had been holed up in the cafe, armed with assault rifles and grenades. Gowher Rizvi, an adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, told Reuters security forces had tried to negotiate with the gunmen. RELATED COVERAGE Bangladesh army says 26 killed in Dhaka cafe, most by sharp weapons 20 CUSTOMERS IN CAFE The hostage crisis began when security guards in the Gulshan district of Dhaka, popular with expatriates, noticed several gunmen outside a medical center, Rizvi said. When the guards approached, the gunmen ran into the Holey Artisan cafe, which was packed with people waiting for tables, he said. Police said the assailants exchanged sporadic gunfire with police outside for several hours after the gunmen attacked the restaurant around 9 p.m. on Friday. A police officer at the scene said that when security forces tried to enter the premises at the beginning of the siege they were met with a hail of bullets and grenades that killed at least two of them. Television footage showed a number of police being led away from the site with blood on their faces and clothes. Islamic State said 24 people had died. Bangladesh police denied that, saying the two police officers were killed and at least 20 people wounded. RELATED VIDEO Video Hostage escapes from Dhaka restaurant attack: police Video Australia condemns Bangladesh restaurant attack Video Seven Italian nationals thought to be among Bangladesh hostages A cafe employee who escaped told local television about 20 customers were in the restaurant at the time, most of them foreigners. Some 15 to 20 staff were working at the restaurant, the employee said. The rescued Japanese man was eating dinner with seven other Japanese, all of whom were consultants for Japan's foreign aid agency, the Japanese government spokesman said. He did not know what happened to the others. SPATE OF MURDERS The hostage crisis marks an escalation from a recent spate of murders claimed by Islamic State and al Qaeda on liberals, gays, foreigners and religious minorities, and could deal a major blow to the country's vital $25 billion garment sector. A Hindu priest was hacked to death on Friday at a temple in Jhinaidah district, 300 km (188 miles) southwest of Dhaka. Both Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for many of the killings, although local authorities say no operational links exist between Bangladeshi militants and international jihadi networks. Bangladesh security officials say two local militant groups, Ansar-al-Islam and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, have been behind the spate of violence over the past 18 months. Ansar pledges allegiance to al Qaeda, while Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen claims it represents Islamic State. "The bottom line is Bangladesh has plenty of local, often unaffiliated, militants and radicals happy to stage attacks in ISIS's name," said Michael Kugelman, South Asia associate at The Wilson Centre in Washington D.C., using an acronym commonly used for Islamic State. Islamic State had claimed more attacks in Bangladesh than in Pakistan or Afghanistan, he said. The restaurant assault also comes after Bangladesh hanged an Islamist party leader, Motiur Rahman Nizami, on May 11 for genocide and other crimes committed during a 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. That has drawn an angry reaction and some scattered violence from supporters. Nizami, 73, was a former legislator and minister during opposition leader Khaleda Zia's last term as prime minister. Foreign diplomats and human rights groups have warned that Bangladesh's ongoing war crime tribunals and the government's pressure on the Bangladesh Nationalist Party have created a backlash domestically, according to Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "They need to maintain legal political space for Jamaat and the BNP so that they don't drive people into the shadows and violence," Adams said in a telephone interview, cautioning that it's not known whether that dynamic and the bloodshed in Dhaka were related. German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen talks to Counter DAESH contingent members at Incirlik airbase in the southern city of Adana, Turkey, July 1, 2016. Germany is pressing Turkey to allow German lawmakers to visit 250 German soldiers stationed at Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday, after meeting her Turkish counterpart. Germany sent troops, six Tornado surveillance jets and a tanker aircraft to Incirlik late last year as part of the U.S-led fight against Islamic State militants. Germany is also working with Turkey in the Aegean Sea to stop illegal migrant flows. Von der Leyen met Turkish Defence Minister Fikri Isik on Friday in Ankara after visiting the base and said they would continue to try to resolve their disagreements on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Warsaw next week. Turkey's prime minister this week approved von der Leyen's visit, reversing an apparent effort to block the trip that angered German lawmakers and prompted some to suggest an end to German deployments to Turkey. Von der Leyen, who traveled to the base without media or parliamentarians, said she told Isik how important it was to give German lawmakers responsible for military matters access to their troops in Turkey. "We agreed to continue discussions about our many common interests, as well as difficult topics," von der Leyen said. Some German politicians called on the government to press their case more forcefully with Ankara. German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen addresses the Counter DAESH contingent at Incirlik airbase in the southern city of Adana, Turkey, July 1, 2016. Hans-Peter Bartels, the German military's ombudsman in parliament, told the German newspaper Passauer Neue Presse it was "absolutely unacceptable" that von der Leyen's deputy and German lawmakers were banned from visiting the base. Von der Leyen said she conveyed her condolences to Isik after suicide bombers killed 44 people in Istanbul this week. She pledged to continue to fight extremism. "We stand at Turkey's side," she said. Strained relations between Turkey and Germany took a turn for the worse in May after the German parliament passed a resolution declaring the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces was genocide. Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War One, but contests assertions that up to 1.5 million were killed and the killings constitute a genocide. It also says many Muslim Turks perished at the time. Police gather after gunmen attacked the Holey Artisan restaurant and took hostages early on Saturday, in Dhaka, Bangladesh in this still frame taken from live video July 2, 2016. Gunfighting at a besieged restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital ended on Saturday and between eight and ten hostages were rescued by commandos who were still inside the building, a police official said. Gunmen attacked the restaurant in the diplomatic area of Dhaka late on Friday and took about 20 hostages, including foreigners, before police stormed the building to free those stuck inside. The number of gunmen and hostages still in the restaurant was not clear, Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan, a deputy director at the Rapid Action Battalion force, told Reuters. The story of a working class high school graduate turned radical Sunni militant highlights Turkey's vulnerability as it tries to prevent IS from carrying out further attacks like this week's at Istanbul airport. while Muslims across the world are observing Ramzan, these militants were killing innocent people, Sheikh Hasina said . By India Today Web Desk: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today condemned the terrorist attack at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka and said that Bangladesh was determined to fight terror. Lauding the security forces for their combing operations to neutralise the terrorists, the prime minister said that all 6 gunmen were killed in the attack. "All security agencies did a great job. We have been able to save 13 people and 6 gunmen have been killed," Hasina said during a press meet. advertisement KILLING DURING RAMZAN Further criticising the terror group ISIS, Hasina said that while Muslims across the world are observing Ramzan, these militants were ruthlessly killing innocent people. "What kind of Muslims are these, who are killing other humans during Ramzan," she said. "We will not tolerate any terror activities on our soil," she added. The prime minister also thanked the media for their support after her appeal to refrain from live broadcasting. "I appeal to television channels to practice restraint during such situations," she said. DHAKA ATTACK As many as 20 persons were killed after armed assailant opened fire at an upscale cafe in Gulshan neighbourhood of Dhaka on Friday night. While six off the attackers have been killed, the Bangladeshi security personnel have captured one of the militants. The gunmen have been identified as ISIS assailants, after the militant group took responsibility. About 35 people including several foreign nationals were taken hostage by the armed assailants. ISIS WARNS OF ATTACK IN INDIA Meanwhile, terror group ISIS has warned of attacks in India. In an interview with the group's online magazine Dabiq in April, Shaykh Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif, 'Amir of Khilafah in Bengal' said that once the group manages to build its base in Bangladesh, it will launch raids in east and west of India. Also read: Another Hindu priest attacked in Bangladesh, condition critical Bangladesh police storm restaurant to rescue hostages, gunfight on --- ENDS --- A week after Britons voted themselves out of the European Union, many London-based bankers and their employers face two options if they are to secure their futures: lobby or leave. Some investment banks, anxious not to stir speculation of an exodus from the historic City of London and its modern counterpart at Canary Wharf, have given out "business as usual" messages since last week's shock referendum result. But beyond the soothing words the wider industry is hastily organizing a lobbying effort in the hope London can keep selling financial services across Europe, a right to which it has become accustomed but may lapse when Britain finally exits the 28-nation bloc. The alternative for banks and bankers, growing increasingly insecure in an information vacuum that has developed since the June 23 vote, is to get out. Headhunters report a level of anxious calls they haven't seen since the 2008 global crisis, with bankers asking about prospects in rival financial centers that remain in the EU, or those in Asia and the United States. Banks and other financial firms have rallied together, forming a group to devise a strategy for protecting the turf of an industry that is Britain's biggest exporter and accounts for more than 10 percent of its tax revenues. Even Britain's biggest lenders are relying on the group - led by Shriti Vadera, chairwoman of the UK arm of Spain's Banco Santander who is also a former business minister - for guidance in such uncertain times. "We are looking to them to have an intelligent response," Barclays chairman John McFarlane told an industry event on Thursday. "We neither know the shape or direction of things to come. It's far from certain what we might be able to secure from discussions with the EU." With the British government in disarray, European politicians are threatening to clip the wings of the London financial center that is home to more than 250 foreign banks and more than three-quarters of the EU's capital markets activity. French President Francois Hollande has backed calls for London, the world's biggest currency trading center, to lose its right to clear deals denominated in euros. Likewise, the right of banks based in Britain to operate across the EU under the bloc's financial "passporting" arrangement could also go if it loses access to the single European market. Distant September Britain has yet even to say when it will formally inform the EU of its intention to leave, a move that will start two years of divorce negotiations. Prime Minister David Cameron has said he will resign, but left the formal exit notification to his successor who is unlikely to be installed until September. Leading "Leave" campaigners have also yet to say precisely what they want, beyond stating their desire to control the right of EU citizens to work in Britain - something Brussels says is impossible if the country wants to stay in the single market. Keeping Britain in the single market would be better for economic growth and jobs across the bloc, bankers said. So while the financial sector is poised to lobby, it has little idea of whom it must present its case to on the British side. "We are ready to talk, but we don't know who we should be talking to," said a senior banking industry source involved in the discussions. "No-one has defined 'leave', so we don't know what it is that we're dealing with ... September feels a very long way off." Bankers said their message to European officials is that keeping Britain in the single market would be better for economic growth and jobs across the bloc. Fights over where banks do their business and forcing them into major overhauls of their operations would damage the broader financial system, they argue. Some dislike being told what to do, such as HSBC Chairman Douglas Flint, whose bank decided only earlier this year against moving its headquarters from London. "Politicians can't dictate where things are done," he told Thursday's TheCityUK annual conference. Sometimes the relationships needed for lobbying are only now being established. The benefits of passporting have meant that U.S. investment banks in particular have rarely discussed broad market access issues with European officials, meaning they are starting their charm offensive from scratch. Where to go next Rumors are swirling that banks and other financial firms, which together employ more than 2 million people across Britain, will move staff to the likes of Frankfurt, Paris or Dublin. Investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have moved quickly to quell speculation they are about to do so. People in UK M&A know they aren't getting paid bonuses this year ... But that's just one of their troubles." But some bankers, especially those involved in mergers and acquisitions, fear a repeat of the heavy job cuts, tumbling salaries and sky-high stress levels during the 2008-09 crisis. "People in UK M&A know they aren't getting paid bonuses this year ... But that's just one of their troubles," said THS Partners Portfolio Manager Xavier Van Hove. "They know banks are going to have to fire people so they are very conscious of that. And the Europeans among them are wondering where they go next." Stephane Rambosson, managing partner for the UK and head of financial services at headhunter DHR International, said he had taken more than a dozen calls from senior London-based investment, M&A and equity capital markets bankers in the past week. The questions they asked were all the same: how safe is my job? Where will I need to move my family? "The last time it happened was during the crisis, when people were equally concerned about job prospects and the direction of their careers," Rambosson said. "People know this is something they have to plan for but there's little for them to go on right now." Escape routes Some in the industry are contemplating leaving Europe altogether. "We are getting more resumes every day from London," said Matthew Hoyle, who runs a financial services headhunting firm in Hong Kong. "I don't think many people in London are very keen to move to Paris, Frankfurt ... English is a problem there and it's really very different from London." Uday Singh, a New York-based partner with consulting firm A.T. Kearney, said he believes London-based financial executives will give serious thought to moving to the United States. "The U.S. actually has a pretty permissive immigration regime where qualified company executives are concerned. It's a matter of a couple of months of visa processing and the job can certainly be done from here," he said. London's rivals are moving aggressively to capitalize on its limbo by wooing bankers . Leaders of British banking remain hopeful that the next government will negotiate continued access to the single market. For that reason, they say they are not yet ready to spend billions beefing up or launching subsidiaries in the EU. "We are all working on multiple scenarios. For many firms, it would be premature to activate all that pre-referendum planning," said Clare Woodman, global chief operating officer for institutional securities at Morgan Stanley. But others worry whether the industry - still tainted by the bank failures of 2008-09, 'fat cat' bonuses and a magnet for public scorn - can secure the backing it needs. "We won't gain much from trying to remind the electorate how important we are to them, we need to get other advocates for our industry," David Sproul, Chief Executive of Deloitte told the TheCityUK conference. Meanwhile, London's rivals are moving aggressively to capitalize on its limbo by wooing bankers. "Finance ministries are getting in touch. I won't say who we're talking to but, well, French-speaking, German-speaking, Spanish-speaking, Dutch-speaking, English-speaking countries are all interested," the senior banking source said. "It's very much on the lines of 'we are sorry you got divorced, would you like to go on a date?" A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone flies over Creech Air Force Base in Nevada during a training mission May 19, 2016. The U.S. government accepted responsibility on Friday for inadvertently killing up to 116 civilians in strikes in countries where America is not at war, a major disclosure likely to inflame debate about targeted killings and use of drones. President Barack Obama's goal for the release of the numbers, which are higher than any previously officially acknowledged but vastly below private estimates, is to create greater transparency about what the U.S. military and CIA are doing to fight militants plotting against the United States. But the figures, which covered strikes from the day Obama took office in January 2009 through Dec. 31, 2015, were below even the most conservative estimates by non-governmental organizations that spent years tallying U.S. strikes in countries such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. "The numbers reported by the White House today simply dont add up and we're disappointed by that," said Federico Borello, executive director for the Center for Civilians in Conflict. Drone advocates, including those within the U.S. military, argue the strikes are an essential part of reducing the ability of militant groups to plot attacks against the United States. They say the government goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. Critics of the targeted killing program question whether the strikes create more militants than they kill. They cite the spread of jihadist organizations and militant attacks throughout the world as evidence that targeted killings may be exacerbating the problem. "We're still faced with the basic question: Is the number of bad guys who are taken out of commission by drone strikes greater or less than the number of people who are inspired to turn to violent acts," said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA specialist on the Middle East and now a professor of security studies at Georgetown University. Pakistani lawyer Mirza Shahzad Akbar, who says he represents a hundred families of civilians killed by drones, questioned the validity of the data even before their release by the Director of National Intelligence. He said Washington needed to better explain its criteria for declaring someone a civilian, something that can be difficult to do from a camera on a drone. "President Obama is worried about his legacy as a president who ordered extra-judicial killings of thousands which resulted in a high number of civilian deaths," Akbar told Reuters. "As a constitutional lawyer himself, he knows what's wrong with that." Beyond the edges of U.S. wars Obama issued an executive order on Friday requiring annual disclosure of such strikes, which fall outside America's conventional wars. Such data do not include strikes in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, significantly lowering the number of casualties. In Afghanistan, for example, 42 people were killed and 37 wounded in a mistaken U.S. military strike on a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz last year. "Last month, a drone killed a relative of mine and a dozen of his camels and goats." A U.S. official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the total of 473 strikes disclosed by the Obama administration on Friday included strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Many of those are believed to have taken place in Pakistan, where NGOs also say a large number of civilians were killed. The New America think tank estimated up to 315 civilians have been killed in Pakistan in U.S. strikes since 2004 and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism believed the civilian death toll could be as high as 966. In Somalia, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates that up to 10 civilians were killed in up to 31 drone strikes since 2007. "Last month, a drone killed a relative of mine and a dozen of his camels and goats," local elder Mohamed Ismail from Wanlaweyn in southern Somalia told Reuters. Officials said the U.S. disclosure of the data was meant partly to accept responsibility for such deaths. "Anytime we inadvertently cause the death of a civilian, it's something that we deeply regret," a senior administration official said. Do drone strikes work? The question of whether drones spread militant extremism is unclear, many experts say. "Time and again, the assertion is made that the impact is negative. Then when you look hard at the data, it becomes clear that it isn't clear where these opinions came from," said Anthony Cordesman at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Asfandyar Mir, a researcher and doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago, said research showed that CIA drone strikes in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal agency corresponded with a reduction in insurgent violence and seriously disrupted the operations of the Pakistani Taliban, al Qaeda and the Haqqani network. Mir and Dylan Moore of Stanford University studied data collected by three U.S. universities showing that there were on average four to 11 fewer insurgent attacks per month in North Waziristan between 2008 and 2012, when CIA drone strikes surged, and 27 to 63 fewer casualties compared to 2007. U.S. airmen prepare a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone as it leaves on a mission at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan March 9, 2016 . In 2007, there were about 12 attacks per month that produced about 55 casualties per month in the mountainous district bordering Afghanistan, an extremist stronghold where nearly 80 percent of the CIA drone strikes in Pakistan took place. "The areas that were targeted by the drone strikes since 2008 have clearly been significantly less violent," Mir told Reuters, adding "They make it extremely difficult to organize." Extremist groups "are organizations at the end of the day. They are like any other bureaucracy. They need men, they need money, they need to invest in coordination. Drones made the access to all these things extremely difficult," he said. In Somalia, the acting governor of the Lower Shabelle region, Ali Nur, told Reuters that drones have killed several al Shabaab leaders while minimizing civilian casualties. But he suggested the strikes could do more harm than good. "They just infuriate Al Shabaab instead of eliminating it. They all attack a town, kill only one leader, stop operation and leave the town, allowing Al Shabaab to harass and massacre civilians and forcing them to join Al Shabaab." By PTI: From Youssra El-Sharakawy Cairo, Jul 2 (PTI) The memory chips of the cockpit voice recorder of the EgyptAir flight MS804 which crashed into the Mediterranean in May is not damaged and showed the possibility of retrieving the records which could possibly unravel the mystery of the crash, Egyptian investigators said today. The Egyptian committee participating in the examination in France said in a statement that: "The examinations were positive and showed the possibility of reading the records in the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR)." advertisement "None of the memory chips of the electronic board were damaged," they said adding that only some connecting components had to be replaced. "Test results were satisfactory as (they) enabled the reading of the recorders of the CVR memory unit," they said. The committee said the recordings will be retrieved with high and accurate technological ways. The statement also said the members of the committee will be back from France soon to continue their work here and read and analyse the recorders. On Wednesday, the investigators said data from one of the black boxes indicated that smoke was detected aboard the aircraft and showed signs of damage because of high temperature. They said that the recorded data highlighted that smoke was detected from lavatory and avionics bay, which confirms earlier reports about smoke signs. It also said the recovered debris from the planes front showed signs of high temperature damage. The Egyptair flight MS804 crashed in the Mediterranean on May 19 and was en route from Paris to Cairo. All 66 passengers and crew on board were killed. The wreckage was recovered from the Mediterranean Sea floor earlier this month. Egyptian officials have suspected terrorism, but no group has come forward to claim credit. Evidence from the wreckage will enable investigators to build a forensic picture of what occurred. The black boxes offer the best clues to determining why the plane went down. The black boxes were recovered by the crew of the John Lethbridge, a privately owned deep-sea survey and recovery vehicle contracted by Egypts government to aid in the search. PTI YES AJR KUN AJR --- ENDS --- Last time there was a double dissolution election, the white building on King George Terrace was where the elected performed their duties. At this year's double dissolution election, the tables were turned and Old Parliament House was the place where electors performed their civic duty. Old Parliament House was turned into a polling booth for election day for ACT and interstate voters. Credit:Jamila Toderas Several thousand Canberrans and interstate voters crammed into the building, now home to the Museum of Australian Democracy, to cast their ballots inside the old members' dining room. The power of Chinese companies has already come to play a major role in a civil war that has divided bitcoin followers over the last year and led to the departure of one of the top developers of the virtual currency. The dispute has hinged on technical matters as well as on bigger questions of what bitcoin should look like in 10 or 20 years. Network bottleneck The US companies whose executives journeyed to the Grand Hyatt - including venture-capital-funded start-ups like Coinbase and Circle - are fighting to make bitcoin bigger. They hope to expand the capacity of the bitcoin network so that it can process more transactions and compete with the PayPals and Visas of the world. The current size of the network goes back to the early days, when bitcoin's founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, limited the amount of data that could travel through the network, essentially capping it at about seven transactions a second. As bitcoin has grown more popular, those limits have caused severe congestion and led to lengthy transaction delays. The US delegation in China had a software proposal, known as bitcoin Classic, that would change all that. The Chinese companies, though, had the ultimate decision-making power over any changes in the software, and they did not agree with the American delegation. The Chinese had thrown in their lot with another group of long-time programmers who wanted to keep bitcoin smaller, in part to keep it more secure. The Americans hoped to persuade the Chinese to switch sides. In a hotel conference room, the US team of about a half-dozen people cycled through its PowerPoint slides, in English and Chinese, arguing for expansion of the network, most notably pointing to the long delays that have been plaguing the system as a result of the congestion. The Chinese representatives listened and conferred among themselves. The group took a break for a lunch of lamb and dumplings at a nearby mall. "We kept coming back and saying, 'For better or worse, you have this leadership in the industry, and everyone is looking to you to show some leadership,'" said Brian Armstrong, chief executive of Coinbase. Ultimately, Armstrong said, "We were unable to convince them." Some bitcoin advocates have complained that the Chinese companies have been motivated only by short-term profit, rather than the long-term success and ideals of the project. Bobby Lee, chief executive of the bitcoin company BTCC, which is based in Shanghai, bristled at that - and at the notion that the Chinese companies represent any sort of united front. He attended the April meeting and pointed out that the Chinese companies had disagreed among themselves on how urgent it was to make changes to the bitcoin software. He said the American companies failed to understand the power dynamics in the room that day. "It was almost like imperialistic Westerners coming to China and telling us what to do," Lee said in an interview last week. "There has been a history on this. The Chinese people have long memories." For the first few years, aside from its use as a payment method on the Silk Road, an online drug market that has since been shut down, bitcoin failed to gain much traction. It burst into the world's consciousness in 2013 when the price of the digital money began to spike, in no small part because Chinese investors began trading bitcoins in large numbers. Lee said the Chinese took quickly to bitcoin for several reasons. For one thing, the Chinese government had strictly limited other potential investment avenues, giving citizens a hunger for new assets. Also, Lee said, the Chinese loved the volatile price of bitcoin, which gave the fledgling currency network the feeling of online gambling, a very popular activity in China. There has been widespread speculation that Chinese people have used bitcoin to get money out of the country and evade capital controls, but Lee and other experts said the evidence suggests this is not a significant phenomenon. "No Chinese person is pushing for bitcoin because it's libertarian or because it's going to cause the downfall of governments," said Lee, who moved to China after growing up in Africa and the United States and studying at Stanford University. "This was an investment." The extent of the speculative activity in China in late 2013 pushed the price of a single bitcoin above $1,000. That surge - and the accompanying media spotlight - led China's government to intervene in December 2013 and cut off the flow of money between Chinese banks and bitcoin exchanges, popping what appeared to be a bitcoin bubble. The frenzy, though, awakened interest in another aspect of the currency: bitcoin mining. Peter Ng, a former investment manager, is one of the many people in China who moved from trading bitcoins to amassing computing power to mine them. First, he mined for himself. More recently he has created data centres across China where other people can pay to set up their own mining computers. He now has 28 such centres, all of them filled with endless racks of servers, tangled cords and fans cooling the machines. Ng, 36, said he had become an expert in finding cheap energy, often in places where a coal plant or hydroelectric dam was built to support some industrial project that never happened. The bitcoin mining machines in his facilities use about 38 megawatts of electricity, he said, enough to power a small city. Perhaps the most important player in the Chinese bitcoin world is Jihan Wu, 30, a former investment analyst who founded what is often described in China as the world's most valuable bitcoin company. That company, Bitmain, began to build computers in 2013 using chips specially designed to do mining computations. Bitmain, which has 250 employees, manufactures and sells bitcoin mining computers. It also operates a pool that other miners can join, called Antpool, and keeps a significant number of mining machines for itself, which it maintains in Iceland and the United States, as well as in China. The machines that Bitmain retains for itself account for 10 percent of the computing power on the global bitcoin network and are enough to produce new coins worth about $US230,000 each day, at the exchange rate last week. Wu and the other mining pool operators in China have often seemed somewhat surprised, and even unhappy, that their investments have given them decision-making power within the bitcoin network. "Miners are the hardware guys. Why are you asking us about software?" is the line that Ng said he often hears from miners. However the software debate goes, there are fears that China's government could decide, at some point, to pressure miners in the country to use their influence to alter the rules of the bitcoin network. The government's intervention in 2013 suggests that bitcoin is not too small to escape notice. Wu dismissed that concern. He also said that as more Americans buy his Bitmain machines and take advantage of cheap power in places like Washington state, mining will naturally become more decentralised. Already, he said, 30 to 40 per cent of new Bitmain machines are being shipped out of China. For now, though, China remains dominant. It's always tempting to think our elections blow chunks. Corrosive self-doubt and the national cringe reflex were especially strong this year when we had to compete with Brexit and the looming US ballot. You don't have a hope against class acts like The Donald and Farage. Satan's own giant sentient turnip in a hairpiece? A dangerous idiot sewn together from the facial expressions of the Monty Python cast doing a theatresports bit on reacting to their first sniff of bottled Belgian farts? No, not even Barnaby Joyce can compete with that. Promise of change, or simply same old same old as Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten played the 'funny' numbers game. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen A US election gone bad after the shock of Britain's Brexit vote could conceivably usher in the end of the actual world. The best our local campaigners could hope for was a hashtag that might trend for a couple of hours, powered by the nation's collective drollery #FakeTradie was that hashtag. Most Australians went to a polling booth on Saturday and made a simple declaration, to state their address and collect a ballot paper. But not everyone. A category on the electoral roll is reserved for people with no fixed address. The homeless are allowed a vote, too. People with secure housing barely need to give home a second thought beyond the usual chores of maintenance and paying the bills but for those without, where to sleep next can quickly become the only thing to think about. Melbourne has a growing number of homeless living rough on the streets; in this season of winter cold, the crumpled swags and meagre possessions in doorways or under bridges mark the obvious signs. Community workers are using the language of "crisis" to describe the scale of the problem. Salvation Army Major Brendan Nottle said he had never seen it so bad. The City of Melbourne recently recorded 247 people sleeping rough in city, almost double the number of two years ago. More groups of homeless people can also often be found in the suburbs of Melbourne's inner south and around Frankston. Not enough crisis accommodation is available to fill the need. The homeless are often an easy target of vilification, cast as lazy, welfare bludgers or addicts. Certainly, attitude or drug dependency can play a part in personal circumstance, and as the old saying goes, no one is owed a living. But the reasons for homelessness are complex, including mental health and plain bad luck. A wealthy society such as Australia can afford a compassionate approach. Much of the discussion is focusing on the economic fallout. But the wealthy will continue to do well, and the rest will just have to cope as best as they can, the standard outcome in our wonderful capitalist world. Bob Gunter, Red Hill PM helped cause the mess So, David Cameron is quitting because "why should I stay and clean up the shit"? Well, maybe because he helped cause it in the first place. Yet another petulant schoolboy who thinks he can just run away from any problems he has caused. David Jeffery, East Geelong The Forum Time to be wary We live in dangerous times. The success of Brexit, Donald Trump's rise and the resurgence of far-right European political parties evoke memories of the 1920s. Then, an isolationist USA co-existed with a Europe where incipient demagogues like Hitler and Mussolini posed as defenders of the economically depressed working classes. Just like the well-meaning but ineffectual Weimar Germany leaders, Barack Obama and David Cameron have failed dismally in empathising with those citizens who feel alienated by global economic and diplomatic forces. Cynical opportunists like Trump, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage predictably filled the vacuum with dangerously insular sovereign state stances. We saw in the late 1930s the tragic outcome of such attacks on "internationalism". Jon McMillan, Mount Eliza All talk, no action Two stories this past week tell us a lot about the state of politics in Australia and, indeed, many western democracies. McDonald's Australia cut its income tax bill by more than half, while its profit after income tax quadrupled. It apparently did so by routing payments via the low-tax nation of Singapore. Meanwhile the Liberal Party plans to help balance the budget by a further crackdown on welfare. While the major parties make noises about pursuing multinationals who avoid paying their fair share of tax, we have seen little action. Instead, deficit reduction measures are aimed at the disadvantaged and the middle class. The disillusionment of the masses is reflected in Brexit, the rise of Trump, the apathy towards our election and the unpopularity and short incumbencies of many Western governments in recent years. We have to do better, starting with our political donations system. Steve Fahey, Footscray Use of fear has a place Adam Gartrell discusses the use of the "fear card" in election campaigns (Comment, 26/6). If fear is regarded as an acceptable political tool, it is tragic that it was used to appeal to base values like greed and xenophobia. There is plenty to be frightened about, not least the increasingly dangerous and unstable societies being created by policies built largely on neo-liberal philosophy. Failure to tackle socio-economic inequality, at home and abroad, is morally indefensible. However, if compassion is not a persuasive catalyst for change then self interest might be. While Jobson Growth is the Holy Grail, empirical studies show a negative correlation between average rates of growth and several measures of inequality. Norman Huon, Port Melbourne Tough road for winner After eight weeks of nothing it was off to the polls. Neither party really promoted the virtues of their own policies (resorting to silly attacks on the other side). All I predict is that it will be a difficult time to govern. Given what was the trigger for the double-dissolution I am left to ponder, what was it all for? The only conclusion I can make is that the winner will be the loser in three years' time. Nick Avery, East Geelong I had to look elsewhere Election day. It was just another Saturday morning. Time to do the shopping. To shop at Coles or Woolies? Both were selling the same things in slightly different packaging. Aisles of pre-packaged fodder that we can mostly do without anyway. Cost continually increasing. Labels always changing. The things you need most just out of reach. Trolleys with wobbly wheels. And the ads tried to sell it all by shouting slogans. I decided to shop at the independent grocer. Wendy Savage, Black Rock China makes right call Pakistan and India insist they only want uranium to generate electricity, but who believes them? India's 1974 detonation of a nuclear weapon was enabled by breaking agreements and using uranium sourced for power generation. Since then India and Pakistan have acquired almost 100 nuclear warheads each. This is a volatile region, with numerous border disputes. America supported India joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group, as did Australia, a disgraceful move. Fortunately China blocked India's bid. Australia seemingly just wants to be "good" allies with the US and not put offside powerful mining companies. Dr Margaret Beavis, Health Professionals Promoting Peace Survivors need arbiter Judy Courtin's update on the Catholic Church's approach to victims of sexual abuse makes gloomy reading (Comment, 26/6). The Church shamefully continues to protect itself by refusing to supply a legal entity that can be sued. Equally shameful is the failure of state governments and institutions to implement another recommendation. The Royal Commission recommended that proceedings regarding compensation claims before they reach the litigation stage be conducted transparently, in a non-adversarial manner and be subject to independent oversight and verification. Our experience at Open Place, the support service for Forgotten Australians, is that "care" agencies (with one exception) and the state government are still conducting settlements behind closed doors; legal representatives and confidentiality clauses are required; and there is no independent body scrutinising the processes. For survivors, such proceedings are often traumatising, discriminatory and demeaning as lawyers from both sides bicker over the worth of the sufferings of childhood. The solution is simple: the state government must appoint an independent arbiter to ensure all settlements are transparent, fair and equitable. Simon Gardiner, manager, Open Place, Richmond Howard stoked arms race As well as capital grants to private schools, government recurrent grants are adding indirectly to the arms race ("Private schools locked in facilities arms race", 25/6). Private schools are obliged to spend recurrent grants on recurrent purposes, such as teaching and support staff. Under the Hawke government, private schools were penalised if they transferred excessive funds (generated from fees, private donations and so on) into capital facilities. This helped keep a lid on the "arms race". The Howard government, however, removed this "capital allowance" disincentive to stop private schools transferring excessive money into a capital fund. Schools are now able to divert private income into capital spending without the government cutting their recurrent grants. It would be hard to find any other democracy that uses taxpayer funds for such a purpose. There is evidence, based on international indicators, of a decline in students' achievement in our schools. This decline coincides with the advent of a policy of investing public funds to drive consumer choice and competition. Lyndsay Connors, Edgecliff, NSW Inequality is sickening It is not often that I feel ill when reading articles. But the one about the private school building boom got me. Listed were wonderful upgrades to our elite private schools. Carey Grammar gets an "audiovisual imaginarium" with sky deck and city views ($23million); PLC a $30million "auditorium" for drama and performance; and an "indoor motorised rowing tank" for Ballarat's Clarendon College. And so the list went on. Carey principal Phillip Grutzner made the telling observation that "facilities have a major impact on morale and learning". So true. Meanwhile the Auditor General's most recent report on our state school buildings found that structural deterioration was so bad that one-third of them were considered "dangerous". Tim Mahar, Fitzroy North AFL spectators are mugs Further to Rohan Connolly's article ("Are crowds as committed to a TV game?", 26/6) about the eventual slide towards a spectator-free zone at the footy, was the decision by an increasingly greedy and out-of-touch AFL (in partnership with media moguls), to ramp up the garish TV-oriented digital advertising to such an extent that fans attending matches now realise they are being treated like mugs. Graeme Dale, Mirboo North Sam past use-by date Gay Talese's book is published on July 12. Credit:Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times The Voyeur's Motel is largely based on journals kept by Foos, now 82, who built a hidden walkway above some of the rooms at his motel, the Manor House, in suburban Denver. The journals describe a variety of intimate encounters among his guests, who were unaware that Foos was watching them from above through specially fitted louvred vents. While the vast majority of events described in the book occurred in the 1970s, Talese does refer to incidents that allegedly occurred in the 1980s. Talese writes, for example, that Foos' second wife "sometimes joined him in the attic" to watch guests during the mid-1980s. But Foos didn't own the motel then, and said he had quit his Peeping Tom ways by the time he took the motel back in 1988. Talese does note in The Voyeur's Motel that he found some discrepancies in Foos' accounts. Foos' earliest journal entries, for example, were dated 1966. But the author subsequently learned from county property records that Foos didn't buy the Manor House Motel until 1969 three years after he said he started watching his guests from the catwalk. "I cannot vouch for every detail that he recounts in his manuscript," Talese writes in the book. But property records also show a series of sales and purchases of the motel from 1980 to 1988, none of which Talese said he knew about. In a series of interviews, he expressed surprise, disappointment and anger to learn about the transactions. He said he had not been aware of them until a reporter asked him about it on Wednesday. "The source of my book, Gerald Foos, is certifiably unreliable," said Talese. "He's a dishonourable man, totally dishonourable. ... I know that. ... I did the best I could on this book, but maybe it wasn't good enough." Foos vouches for his own veracity. "I can swear to this, and I can say this unequivocally and without recourse, that I have never purposely told a lie," he said. "Everything I said in that book is the truth." Some of the book's timeline of events has already been called into question, particularly an incident that Foos said he witnessed at the motel in 1977. While secreted in the attic, he said he saw a man strangle a woman to death in the room below. He said he later reported this to police, without revealing he was an eyewitness. But Talese was unable to find any official documentation of this crime, and in the book and New Yorker excerpt, he dismisses this discrepancy as a record-keeping error by authorities. The book makes only fleeting reference to a murder that did occur at the Manor House - the unsolved 1984 homicide of a man named James Craig Broughman, apparently by an intruder. The various sales of the motel in the 1980s came to light in April, after media organisations, including The Washington Post, asked about the 1984 murder and other police records on the Manor House. An Aurora homicide detective, Stephen Conner, conducted the property record search and found that Foos and his wife Donna sold the Manor House in October 1980 to Earl and Pamela Ballard, a local couple Gerald Foos knew. The Ballards, in turn, sold it in 1983 to Kyong LeFebre. Foos and his second wife re-acquired it from LeFebre in July 1988. The Fooses then sold it for the last time in 1995, the records indicate. Foos confirmed the general sequence of events in an interview. Conner, who spoke briefly with Foos in April, told the Post that Foos didn't have access to the Manor House in 1984 because he no longer owned it. "I have no doubt that Mr Foos may have been involved in some nefarious activity while he owned the Manor House. I just do not think it arose to the magnitude described by Mr Talese," the detective said in an email to the Post. Talese said it was his understanding that Foos and his family lived in the motel even after he sold it "to a Korean family" (in fact, the initial buyers, the Ballards, are not Korean), and after it was sold a second time to LeFebre. "He lived in the goddamn place," Talese said at one point. In fact, he did not, according to both Ballard and Foos. Still, Foos said in an interview that he had access to the annex, which he called his "sexual researcher's station", during the three years the Ballards owned the place. Ballard disputes this. After buying the motel in 1980, Ballard said he locked the annex and closed off the ceiling vents that Foos had installed to facilitate his voyeurism. Ballard, who knew Foos for years before buying the motel, confirmed that Foos had spied on guests for many years in the 1970s. "He was pretty open about that," Ballard said. "At least he was to me." During the 1970s, Ballard said, Foos sometimes invited Ballard as well as another man to join him in the annex to look in on guests. Ballard said he went multiple times, but added: "I never liked Gerald. He certainly was a pervert." For his part, Foos called Ballard "as big a voyeur as I was". Foos said he was locked out of the motel altogether when LeFebre took over ownership of the motel from Ballard in 1984. At that point, he said: "I decided to get out of the voyeurism business." Foos said he accepted a promissory note from Ballard when he sold the motel to him and Ballard passed it on to LeFebre. Foos reacquired the motel in 1988 by forgiving the note. He said he never mentioned any of these property transactions to Talese while he was researching the book because "I didn't think it would be interesting to people to see two voyeurs fighting over the same turf". Talese visited Foos at the Manor House just once, for three days in 1980, apparently a few months before the motel was sold to the Ballards. The Voyeur's Motel makes no reference to the motel's ownership until Foos tells Talese in a letter in late 1996 that he sold the lodging in August of that year to "Korean-born residents of Denver". This appears to be in error, too: County records indicate that the Fooses actually sold the motel in August of 1995 to a man named Bruno Previtali. Talese said he relied on Foos to describe a remarkable coincidence: That Foos' son, Mark, rented the same apartment later occupied by James Holmes, the gunman who killed 12 people in an Aurora movie theatre in 2012. He writes: "Bizarrely, [Foos] told me that he had once been inside the gunman's apartment: Foos' son had been an earlier tenant. 'After I moved my son to another neighbourhood,' he said, 'this guy apparently replaced him, although we don't ever recall running into this guy whose picture is now all over the news'." According to the Nexis database and police records, Holmes and Mark Foos lived in Aurora at approximately the same time, but occupied different buildings. Thus, Holmes couldn't "replace" Mark Foos, nor could Foos' son be "an earlier tenant". Morgan Entrekin, chief executive of Talese's publisher, Grove/Atlantic books, said the majority of events described in The Voyeur's Motel occurred before Foos sold the motel in 1980. But he said the company would consider appending an author's note or footnotes in subsequent printings to account for errors or missing information. David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, said in an email message that the portrait of the motel owner in the magazine was not in dispute. It's one of this city's best-loved live music venues, but while The Corner Hotel has occupied the same patch of turf in Richmond since the mid-1800s, it was only in 1995, when the pub was purchased by Tim Northeast and Matt Everitt, that it really came into its own. Prior to then, the venue had a colourful history - jazz concerts were played on the roof in the 1940s, and at one point in the early '90s, it was a reggae-themed pub. But as early as 1996, when Rich Moffat commenced his 18-year run as band booker, The Corner was attracting big international acts such as Ben Harper, The Tea Party, and Ash, and was already gaining a reputation as a prescient supporter of Australian talent. Photographer Ian Laidlaw and music and marketing co-ordinator Sally Mather at The Corner Hotel in Richmond. Credit:Eddie Jim "My favourite shows were the shows when bands are starting out, you'd have them and suddenly they'd become famous, like Dirty Three, The Avalanches, The Living End," says Moffat. "That's such a beautiful feeling as a band booker." Gas has long been touted as cleaner than coal and marketed as a "transition" fuel until the mass take-up of renewable energy becomes viable. But a growing chorus of voices from Australia and overseas is warning that any perceived benefits could easily be lost with just small leakages. Professor Peter Rayner from the University of Melbourne says it takes just 1-2 per cent of gas leakage for any advantage to be lost. Australia's coal seam gas industry claims its leakage is just 0.02 per cent but increased detection of leaks in the US triggering a flurry of studies suggest some big changes are in the winds. By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 1 (PTI) Equitas Holdings shares rose by nearly 4 per cent today after it received final licence from Reserve Bank to launch a Small Finance Bank (SFB) and it will commence operations in a few months with around 400 branches. The stock gained 3.60 per cent to settle at Rs 183.95 on BSE. During the day, it surged 7.85 per cent to Rs 191.50. advertisement On NSE, it rose 3.4 per cent to close at Rs 183.75. On the volume front, 9.58 lakh shares of the company were traded on BSE and over 49 lakh shares changed hands at NSE during the day. "The SFB, to be named Equitas Small Finance Bank (Equitas Bank), will start banking operations after receiving few other approvals from various departments of RBI and other agencies," the company said in a release. The company hopes to start operations in the next few months with a network of around 400 branches, which would be established through the year. "It is indeed a proud moment for everyone at Equitas to be a first Private Bank from Tamil Nadu and the city of Chennai," said P N Vasudevan, Managing Director, Equitas Holdings. Equitas Holdings lends to individuals, micro and small enterprises that are underserved by formal financing channels. PTI SUM PRB ABK --- ENDS --- This election has delivered a seismic shift in the nation's electoral landscape by effectively tearing up the conventional wisdom that managerial competence in a prime minister and cabinet should be enough, all other things being equal, to ensure a first-term government is re-elected. Even if election 2016 results in the return of the Turnbull government, nothing will be the same in Australian politics. Not after this. First Malcolm Turnbull's vacuous second term agenda has clearly failed to fire the imagination of voters. This much should have been predictable. Turnbull effectively vacated the field in terms of material promises for his second term, attempting instead to sell an economic growth mirage in a decade's time based on the vague sense that an ambitious and unfunded ten-year corporate tax plan would mean jobs and confidence, and wealth distribution. At best it was the replacement of material policy with something approximating "the vibe". At worst, it was simply unconvincing to ordinary people. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during a visit to Robotic Automation in Newington, Sydney with his wife Lucy and local member Craig Laundy on Friday 1 July 2016. Election 2016. Photo: Andrew Meares Credit:Andrew Meares Second, Turnbull's purpose in replacing Tony Abbott has been squandered through a surfeit of rank amateurism, political naivety, and surprising first-term hubris. Third, neither party can take any longer term comfort from the increasing tendency of Australians to unbolt themselves from lifelong party affiliations in search of value for their votes. In short, both of the old party constellations have major problems in their heartlands which is why senior figures within each are talking privately about what to do. This is because US companies get a credit for Australian company tax. If that is lower, they pay more in the US. The cut to smaller family and unlisted companies is illusory because individual shareholders get a credit on their income tax for any tax paid by the company they are shareholders in. If their company tax falls, their income tax goes up by an equivalent amount. The whole thing is a misconceived bonus for multinationals, virtually none of which will trickle down to middle-income earners in Australia. On income tax, the Coalition's proposed lifting of the threshold of the second top rate to $85,000 and the dropping of the 2 per cent surcharge for high-income earners are unconscionable without bracket-creep adjustments for people on middle and low incomes. Inequality rises and so does disaffection. Stability In the Coalition government's three years, there have been 18 ministerial changes; two leadership votes, one toppling the leader; three ministers under police investigations; a failed 2014 Budget and sundry ministerial travel rorting. And after the election Tony Abbott will be still hovering around. This does not augur well for stability. Labor's Bill Shorten was responsible for challenges against Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, but to be fair Labor seems to have learned its lesson. Hung parliaments do not necessarily result in instability. We had one prime ministerial change in each of the past three parliaments two were majority and one hung. The NBN It now seems that the Abbott-Turnbull ideological approach of opposing for the sake of opposing means that a visionary plan to link virtually every Australian home and business with fibre to premises has been swapped for an inferior system of fibre to the node and copper from the node to the home. Worse, the inferior system will cost more because the copper system will cost more in the long run to maintain than would be saved in fibre costs. The Labor scheme would have got more business support if Labor had promised to privatise the finished product in due course. Open government Both major parties have avoided a wholesale revamp of political donations, politicians' entitlements, politicians' interests, and publication of details of all meetings between lobbyists and politicians and bureaucrats. In these days of agile smart computing and internet, these things should be available within hours of them happening, not months as at present. All soft links between political parties, on one hand, and so-called "independent" think-tanks and political-interest groups, on the other, should be disclosed. Much more open freedom-of-information laws are needed. Whose information is it anyway? The crossbench in a hung parliament could force these changes as the price for support. Climate change and environment The major parties are doing as little as they can get away with. Both are beholden to supporters. This is an economic issue. You only have to see some coral bleaching with your own eyes to see the urgency of leading, not following, the rest of the world on emissions and of cleaning up agricultural and mining run-off. Refugees We have about 1500 refugees detained illegally on Manus Island and detained on Nauru with no serious attempt to resettle them. Labor and the Coalition say this is necessary to deter people smugglers. Punishing the innocent (with up to life imprisonment) to deter the guilty may be effective as the Nazis found when they shot innocent villagers to deter partisans but it is immoral. Immigration John Howard said that we have to be tough on refugees so the public continues to support the immigration program. He got it the wrong way around. We should dramatically reduce the immigration program (hundreds of thousands) so we can support more refugees from our region (a few thousand). The huge immigration program only profits wealthy business people, the construction industry and the property industry, to the detriment of the majority of people, homebuyers, the environment and agricultural land. The immigration program has stretched infrastructure, causing strain in education, health and transport. The day when Australia needed an immigration program has long passed, but both major parties continue with it and wonder why Australians are moving from them in Brexit-like proportions. The major parties are so beholden to their financial backers and the Murdoch press, that they cannot do anything but support high immigration. In effect, both Labor and the Coalition have lost control of Australia's borders. He was one of the "faceless men" who brought down Julia Gillard, but senior ALP powerbroker David Feeney seems to have clung to his inner-Melbourne seat of Batman. Mr Feeney was embroiled in controversy early in the campaign when Fairfax Media revealed he owned a house not declared on his parliamentary interests register - which he negatively geared. But the factional powerbroker seemed to have clung on by his fingernails after a huge swing to the Greens in the bitter Batman battle. Bill Shorten's future as leader of the Labor Party appeared all but certain as the party's better than expected performance pushed the election result towards a hung parliament on Saturday night. Mike Kelly, whose victory in the key NSW seat of Eden-Monaro typified Labor's success, was first out of the blocks to mount a case publicly for Mr Shorten to be retained no matter what the final result. "Bill provided the lightning rod, the leadership, the drive, the commitment, the will, the belief," he said. NSW Labor had claimed the bellwether seat of Eden-Monaro, with another iconic bellwether, Lindsay on a knife-edge in western Sydney last night. Former Labor minister Mike Kelly unseated Liberal MP Peter Hendy in Eden-Monaro, where council amalgamations had burnt as a major issue, and Mr Hendy was criticised for having a low profile as a local member. Mr Kelly said it was "an insult to take them for granted". It may - or may not - resonate in the polls but voters across Australia were largely astounded on Saturday morning when Opposition Leader Bill Shorten bit into a sausage sizzle...from the side. In an awkward moment that has generated significant amusement on social media, Mr Shorten showed he'd either rarely gone to Bunnings for breakfast on a weekend morning or just liked doing things a little differently to the rest of us. Mr Shorten was at Strathfield North Public School in western Sydney and soon regretted the decision to tackle the sausage sandwich, it appeared. The Opposition Leader later turned away from the cameras as he grappled with the snag. Former Labor speaker Anna Burke's Melbourne seat of Chisholm is at risk of falling to the Liberal Party for the first time since 1998. On Sunday the electorate remained with Labor ahead on a tiny two-party preferred vote of 50.02 per cent. Last night Liberal candidate Julia Banks said she felt exhausted but exhilarated after achieving a swing against Labor of around 1.6 per cent. . By PTI: (Attn.editors: The following press release comes to you under an arrangement with PRNewswire. PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same). Five Regret-proof Steals Worth Having From Myntras End of Reason Sale MUMBAI, July 1, 2016/PRNewswire/ -- Its never too late to revamp the wardrobe. What better time than Myntras End of Reason Sale on July 2nd and 3rd to stock up on a few fashion essentials that one can wear throughout the year. If not sure where to begin, this list by - Abhinaya.H, Myntra Fashion Stylist, will help give a head start to the online shopping [http://www.myntra.com ] sprint. Women: - Little black dress Its a no-brainer that a little black dress is a wardrobe essential for every girl. Whether buying your first LBD or looking to add another one to thecollection, now is the best time. From a shift dress to a fit and flare, and from ruffles to lace, the options are plenty. - Denim jacket The 90s favourite trend is back in the thick of things and how. Its definitely worth investing in one this season. Sport the denim-on-denim look or wear it over a maxi dress [http://www.myntra.com/maxi-dresses ], this is one versatile must-have. - A white shirt A white button-down shirt is a classic addition to ones wardrobe. Its time to stock up on a few pieces and play mix-and-match; pair it with a pencil skirt for office or a pair of blue jeans for a more casual outing. - Black pumps Someone rightly said, good shoes take you to good places. We would like to go a little further and say that a good black shoe takes you to different places. This is one classic footwear that will let one walk from boardroom to bar in style. - Silver jewellery A timeless piece of silver jewellery can instantly lift any outfit. This metallic hue offers both modern and ethnic vibes. Go the minimalist way with studs and rings or go all out with a chunky neckpiece, one is definitely going to be spoilt for choice. (MORE) PRN AKN AKN --- ENDS --- advertisement The Greens were trailing by the smallest of margins in their bid to win an historic second inner city seat, with the northern Melbourne seat of Batman sitting on a knife edge. Late on Saturday night, the result was too close to call in the seat that was once Labor's safest seat in the country. Serial Greens candidate Alex Bhathal was within a whisker of seizing Batman from Labor frontbencher David Feeney after a mammoth campaign effort and a big advertising spend. At the time of writing, it appeared likely the NXT would take at least three Senate seats, as well as Ms Sharkie's in the lower house. He said the NXT - which will soon be renamed - would use its presence in the upper house to pursue reforms, with an emphasis on support for manufacturing, reforms of gambling laws, the strengthening of whistleblower laws and the creation of a federal version of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption. About 9pm, the NXT had secured a swing of over 20 per cent, draining support from both major parties. The crowd at the NXT's election night party included former members of both the Labor and Liberal parties Stirling Griff, second on the NXT's senate ticket, said the party's internal polling showed about 20 per cent of people that once voted Labor in SA had moved to the NXT in the lower house and 15 per cent of Liberal voters. In the Senate, 27 per cent of former Labor voters had switched support and 18 per cent of Liberal voters. The Arctic P will host their first anniversary celebrations after they went public with their relationship, walking hand in hand throughout the Italian resort town of Portofino last June. Mariah Carey and James Packer go public with their relationship in Portofino last year. Credit:Photopix Indeed it is hard to believe that it was only a year ago they walked the cobble stone streets of the idyllic holiday destination of the rich and famous with a handful of paparazzi in hot pursuit. No doubt Mariah has packed her personal umbrella holder again for this trip, lest she melt in the hot Mediterranean sun. The couple have become international media darlings, their romance documented across the globe with Mariah offering plenty of fodder for the likes of PS to mull over, including her most recent Instagram lingerie posts and her red carpet appearance last weekend when she appeared to forget to wear any pants. No doubt her upcoming cruise wear will be equally enthralling. The Bachelor - senior's edition Neighbours around the harbourside mansions of Darling Point are dubbing it "The Bachelor Senior's Edition", with word that one particularly well-heeled widower is being courted by a couple of, ahem, rather seasoned and high-profile Sydney blondes. And it's not just his charm or good looks they are setting their sights on with some seriously spectacular harbour viewers afforded from his home. While PS will refrain from mentioning names for now we hear the ladies are already sizing up the joint for new drapes. If only there were cameras to capture the ladies in action, it would be a sure-fire ratings hit. Hollywood's new Aussie gold standard There has been a changing of the guard when it comes to Australia's leading ladies in Hollywood. A decade ago it was Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett who waved the flag highest, but in 2016 another pair of blondes have Tinsel Town at their feet enter stage left Elizabeth Debicki and Margot Robbie. Margot Robbie at the the 2016 Academy Awards. Credit:Todd Williamson/Getty Images Between them they have more than a dozen major-league productions scheduled over the next two years, from Hollywood blockbusters to critically-acclaimed television productions. And before long, they will have the pay cheques to match. Both aged 25, Debicki and Robbie's careers have many parallels, as do Kidman and Blanchett. Just as Kidman has had to learn to live with the pressures of extreme celebrity, so too has Robbie who regularly finds everything from her boyfriends to her frocks the subject of media scrutiny. Meanwhile, after cutting her teeth in theatre, Debicki has moulded herself as the actor's actor, just as her mentor Blanchett did all those years ago. For Debicki, who features in a stunning shoot in next week's Marie Claire, her big break came in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. In her first scene as Jordan Baker and surrounded by 400 extras she had to do the Charleston with Tobey Maguire, an experience she told the magazine was "completely surreal ... But I didn't know any different. I just went on with it. Ignorance is bliss." Elizabeth Debicki appears in next week's Marie Claire. Credit:Marie Claire Debicki is winning rave reviews in the gut-wrenching The Kettering Incident, and the espionage thriller The Night Manager, featuring Taylor Swift's new squeeze, Thor actor Tom Hiddleston. Next year marks the release of the top-secret Guardians Of The Galaxy sequel and she has also landed the starring role in a space drama called God Particle. Just as Kidman appeared in BMX Bandits when she started out, Robbie had already won fans of Neighbours over after playing Donna Freedman from 2008, but by 2011 she was on her way to Hollywood. Since landing her big break appearing opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in 2013's Wolf of Wall Street, Robbie's career has blossomed and she will soon be seen playing Jane opposite hunk Alexander Skarsgard in The Legend of Tarzan before her next big role as super villain Harley Quinn in the DC Comics blockbuster Suicide Squad. She is also confirmed to star in Marisa Lankester's memoir Dangerous Odds, has been cast in the thriller Terminal and will soon portray American figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya. Margot Robbie stars with Alexander Skarsgard in Singalong with Ray Martin There was a time when Ray Martin would have been anchoring Channel Nine's election coverage, lending his well-groomed gravitas to the conga line of talking heads queuing up to cut and dice the results as they came into the tally room. But not this time around. Instead, tonight, Ray will be nowhere near Laurie Oakes and Co because he will be starring under the bright lights on the stage of the Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL Club, alongside his old daytime television side-kick Geoff Harvey. And with the buy-one, get-one promo, the $45 tickets sound like a steal to witness what the Club says are "two legends of Australian TV". The pair will "reunite to celebrate their classic decades-long on-screen partnership, sharing stories, clips and more. Join them as they celebrate the music of one of the world's most beloved bands, the Beatles, featuring Johnny Spitz on vocals and Geoff Harvey on piano." Irresistible! The sound advice of a 60-year-old Deborah Thomas knows better than most about the portrayal of women in the media, having been one of the key people at the levers in the cut-throat world of magazine publishing for decades. But it was when she leapt from women's magazines to the male-dominated arena of corporate boardrooms and publicly-listed companies to become chief executive officer of theme park operator Ardent Leisure that she discovered just how unrelentingly toxic some of her more venal, self-appointed and unqualified male critics could be. Deborah Thomas shot by Steven Chee for Harper's Bazaar Australia. Credit:Steven Chee for Harper's Bazaar Australia In next week's Harper's Bazaar Australia, Thomas, the still-striking former model who recently celebrated her 60th birthday, and without a single Botox injection to show for it, is profiled in the annual Fabulous At Every Age feature, in which she gives a frank account of her more brutal experiences when she dared to enter the boys' club of big business. There has been a changing of the guard when it comes to Australia's leading ladies in Hollywood. A decade ago it was Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett who waved the flag highest, but in 2016 another pair of blondes have Tinsel Town at their feet enter stage left Elizabeth Debicki and Margot Robbie. Since landing her big break in the Wolf of Wall Street, Margot Robbie's career has blossomed. Credit:Hahn Lionel Between them they have more than a dozen major-league productions scheduled over the next two years, from Hollywood blockbusters to critically-acclaimed television productions. And before long, they will have the pay cheques to match. Both aged 25, Debicki and Robbie's careers have many parallels, as do Kidman and Blanchett. Elizabeth Debicki is winning rave reviews in the gut-wrenching The Kettering Incident, and the espionage thriller The Night Manager. Credit:Marie Claire Just as Kidman has had to learn to live with the pressures of extreme celebrity, so too has Robbie who regularly finds everything from her boyfriends to her frocks the subject of media scrutiny. Meanwhile, after cutting her teeth in theatre, Debicki has moulded herself as the actor's actor, just as her mentor Blanchett did all those years ago. For Debicki, who features in a stunning shoot in next week's Marie Claire, her big break came in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. In her first scene as Jordan Baker and surrounded by 400 extras she had to do the Charleston with Tobey Maguire, an experience she told the magazine was "completely surreal ... But I didn't know any different. I just went on with it. Ignorance is bliss." Debicki is winning rave reviews in the gut-wrenching The Kettering Incident, and the espionage thriller The Night Manager, featuring Taylor Swift's new squeeze, Thor actor Tom Hiddleston. Next year marks the release of the top-secret Guardians Of The Galaxy sequel and she has also landed the starring role in a space drama called God Particle. Just as Kidman appeared in BMX Bandits when she started out, Robbie had already won fans of Neighbours over after playing Donna Freedman from 2008, but by 2011 she was on her way to Hollywood. Baby boomers will not retire to conventional retirement villages" as their parents have, Queensland's Council for the Aged said on Friday. There are 5.5 million Australian "baby boomers", people born between 1946 and 1964. Baby boomers will reject conventional 'retirement villages' and changes are needed as population ages. The model of the "retirement village" is under threat by baby boomers, Mark Tucker-Evans, chief executive of Queensland Council for the Aged said on Friday. Mr Tucker-Evans, who is advising the Queensland Government's recently-launched aged housing options strategy, said planners must accept that changes were badly-needed. Energy-efficient LED street lights are so bright they could be a health hazard, according to new medical guidelines. Research released by The American Medical Association in June warns that the high amount of blue/white glare emitted by LED street lights is increasing night-time glare, ruining sleep patterns, disorienting wildlife and contributing to light pollution. LED street lighting in Brunswick. Credit:Wayne Taylor The night brightness created by the roll-out of LED street lighting in New York has proved controversial author Lionel Shriver described it as "mass civic vandalism" in The New York Times, and locals are petitioning mayor Bill de Blasio to halt plans to convert all the city's 250,000 plus streetlights to LED. But Victoria, too, is an enthusiastic adopter of energy efficient lighting. In 2014 the state's target of 232,000 lights was second only to New York's, and more than 60,000 had already been installed, according to Ironbark Sustainability, a consultancy working with councils to switch on energy efficient light. By India Today Web Desk: Shah Rukh Khan's better half, just got a glimpse of the teaser for Karan Johar's upcoming film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, and she was impressed. So much that she instagrammed a selfie of herself with the director saying "Just saw the teaser of Ae Dil hai Mushkil ...congratulations Karan very impressive and melodious@karanjohar" Just saw the teaser of Ae Dil hai Mushkil ...congratulations Karan very impressive and melodious@karanjohar A photo posted by Gauri Khan (@gaurikhan) on Jul 2, 2016 at 3:27am PDT advertisement The film has a stellar cast including Ranbir Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Fawad Khan and Anushka Sharma among others. The K3G director had previously described the upcoming film as 'an unconventional story about love, relationships, heartbreaks and how love completes you, defines you and yet leaves you wanting for more.' He also added how a film never had, in his entire career come to him so fast, so organically and so from within. The multi-starrer is all set to release on Oct 28. The first look of the film shall be unveiled in August. --- ENDS --- A draft Democratic Partys new platform was unveiled online on Friday afternoonand much of it looks like it was torn right out of a Bernie Sanders stump speech. The draft copywhich the self-identifying socialist senator from Vermont has repeatedly said he would fight to make more progressiveincluded multiple sections that read significantly more liberal than the 2012 platform. During the Democratic primary earlier this year, Sanders criticized presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton for favoring a $12 minimum wage. Sanders appears to have won that battle. Democrats believe that the current minimum wage is a starvation wage and must be increased to a living wage, the document reads, calling for a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour. (Starvation wage has been one of Sanders preferred terms since at least 2013.) The newly released platform also reflects Sanderss tone and talking points on institutional racism in the United States. Even the Black Lives Matter movement earned a shout-out. Democrats will fight to end institutional and systemic racism in our society, it reads. We will challenge and dismantle the structures that define lasting racial, economic, political, and social inequity We will push for a societal transformation to make it clear that black lives matter and there is no place for racism in our country. Thats not all. During the primary, Clinton and Sanders split on the issue of capital punishment, with Sanders emphatically advocating abolishment. I just don't want to see government be part of killing, that's all, he said at a Democratic debate in February. Today, the Democratic Partywhich four years ago was merely of the position that the death penalty must not be arbitrarygot on board. We will abolish the death penalty, which has proven to be a cruel and unusual form of punishment, the 2016 platform states. It has no place in the United States of America. There are several other sections that mirror the general positions of the Democratic Partys progressive wing, to which lefty stalwarts like Elizabeth Warren and Sanders belong. For instance, the Democrats now officially vow to opposeand seek to overturnfederal and state laws and policies that impede a womans access to abortion, including by repealing the Hyde Amendment, which blocks the use of certain federal funds to pay for abortion barring extreme circumstances such as rape and incest. The 2016 platform is markedly more pro-choice than the 2012 platform, which did not call for repealing the amendment. The latest platform also calls for (as Sanders has) reviving the GlassSteagall Act, which President Bill Clinton helped scrap. (Hillary Clinton opposed doing so as recently as November.) The new document also gives awkward reference to the two Democratic candidates heated disagreements on international trade agreements. On the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), there are a diversity of views in the party, it states. Many Democrats are on record stating that the agreement does not meet the standards set out in this platform; other Democrats have expressed support for the agreement. Of course, much of the 2016 Democratic platform reads as if it were directly dictated by Team Hillary. For instance, in the section on Israel and Palestine, the draft specifically censures the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS), which Clinton has full-throatedly condemned. The platform bears zero indication that Sanders succeeded in his Quixotic mission to move the Democratic Party to the left on Israel/Palestine. But with todays platform, Team Bernie can pat itself on the back and walk away with some small, but conspicuous, progressive victories. This is precisely what the struggle over the Democratic Party platform is about, Sanders said in a statement on Sunday. We need to create a Democratic Party which fights for working families and not wealthy campaign contributors. I am glad that we have won some very important provisions in the platform drafting process so far, but much more needs to be done. Alexa Corse contributed reporting. Hillary started out with a good week but then she had some trouble at the airport with her baggageand when I say her baggage I mean her husband, announced Bill Maher. The political satirist kicked off this weeks edition of HBOs Real Time with Bill Maher by addressing former president Bill Clintons eyebrow-raising airplane meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in Phoenix, Arizona. The two met on Monday night when Clinton left his plane and boarded Lynchs, where they claim to have engaged in a 30-minute chat that was purely social, but that Lynch later acknowledged could give [people] another reason to have questions and concerns about how the government conducts itself, and offered that, I certainly wouldnt do it again. You see, Lynch is overseeing the federal investigation of Hillary Clintons personal email server, and will be the final word on whether to indict (or not indict) the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. Shes said she will adhere to whatever recommendations her staff and the F.B.I. make regarding whether to indict Clinton, but the so-called airplane meeting still raised plenty of questions. OK, heres what happened: Attorney General Loretta Lynch was at the airport in Phoenix as part of a national tour to promote community policing, and Bill Clinton was at the airport because thats near where all the strip clubs are, joked Maher. Clinton saw the attorney generals plane across the tarmac, so he boarded her plane to talkas one does. We all jump off our planes onto the tarmac to say hello to friends on other planes, right? So now its a big scandal because Attorney General Lynch, of course, is the person deciding whether to indict Hillary Clinton for the ongoing email investigation, he continued. So, for all the planes to pop onto, this was the wrong one for Bill Clinton. Now, Bill says that the conversation with Attorney General Lynch was very innocent. It was just about grandkids, and the weather, and how neither will exist if Trump is elected. But hey! Very innocent. No, Attorney General Lynch, you do what you want! Im just here to talk about the grandkidswho will all be dead, if Hillary doesnt winbut do whatever you want! Following news of the meeting, House Republicans have called for Lynch to recuse herself from Clintons casea step she says she will not be takingwhile Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has said the meeting opened up a Pandoras box and pegged it as another example of how the special interests are controlling your government. Since Bill Clinton is acting as a powerful surrogate for his wife, traveling across the country to give speeches on her behalf, the sketchy meeting may inevitably lead those to question Lynchs rulingno matter the outcome. The fact that the meeting that I had is now casting a shadow over how people are going to view that work is something that I take seriously, and deeply and painfully, said Lynch. Maher, for his part, said that Lynch shouldve taken a page from one of the greatest movie presidents: Harrison Fords President James Marshall in Air Force One. How about saying, Im the attorney general, Im looking into your wife, Im about to indict heror not, Get off my plane. Like Harrison Ford: Get off my plane! said Maher. And to spend 30 minutes? Thats a long time to be talking about your grandchildren. LONDON A terrorist hostage situation involving foreigners is incredibly rare, if not unprecedented, in Bangladesh. Friday night an organized attack unfolded in the capital city Dhaka, involving six gunmen and the deaths of seven or more of the twenty hostages taken. According to families of the victims, the terrorists spared those who could recite the Quran but tortured those hostages who could not. Chillingly, by 11:00 p.m. the terrorists were said to be done with the foreigners in this way. While the dead from the Istanbul attack are still being buried, ISIS has claimed responsibility for this latest atrocity in Bangladesh. As has become habit, Bangladeshs government has cast doubt on this claim without offering another explanation. This is no less than ISIS promised. In a statement made prior to the beginning of the month of Ramadan, ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani incited his followers across the world to take advantage of the blessings of attacking in this holy month. Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, Turkey and of course Orlando in the U.S. Instead of marking these days by sacrificing food and other worldly desires, jihadists have stained the holy month in blood and the grisly sacrifice of humans. They call it the month of Jihad. This myth is largely based on the historic precedent of the battle of Badr, the Prophet Muhammads first great military victory against his polytheist enemy, which occurred in Ramadan. It matters not to them that Badr was an unplanned, defensive war. Whether the attack in Bangladesh was indeed ISIS matters only tactically. Before ISIS was ever conceived, jihadists from Hamas onwards have been declaring Ramadan a month of Jihad and escalating attacks. As with the murder of a 13 year old girl while she slept in her Israeli home, attacks in Ramadan have occurred before ISIS ever emerged, and will outlast ISIS as a group. What drives them is the global jihadist insurgency, for which ISIS is but the latest vanguard. Back to Bangladesh, regardless of whether this attack was directed by ISIS, its competitor al-Qaeda, or inspired by any other jihadist group, there is a way to place this operation in a global and local context. As Iraqi forces have defeated ISIS in their founding city and former stronghold of Fallujah, ISIS must prove to its followers everywhere that even though it is down, it is not out. The rise in attacks everywhere during Ramadan is one way of doing that, but so too will be continued high profile terrorist operations in the West. Expect more of those. Such international factors provide a sense of existential purpose to jihadists and their global insurgency. But it is always local factors that supply the fuel to keep that global furnace burning. Inside Bangladesh, Sheikha Hasinas Awami League government has had a long history with Islamists. The blood feud between Hasinas secular, autocratic Awami League and Bangladeshs equivalent of the Muslim Brotherhood, Jamat-e-Islam, goes back to the countrys war of Independence against Pakistan in 1971. So dangerous has this feud become, that in May this year Sheikha Hasinas government hanged the 73-year-old leader of Jamat-e-Islam, Motiur Rahman Nizami. He was convicted and punished for a list of crimes harking back to the war of Independence. These included genocide, rape and torture. Despite the outcry from human rights groups, Nizami has become the fifth opposition leader to be executed by Sheikha Hasina since December 2013. There obviously were crimes to answer here, but clearly there is also something of a convenient and bloody political purge underway by Sheikha Hasina. And though both al-Qaeda and ISIS hate Jamat-e-Islami and its Muslim Brotherhood inspiration in Egypt for being not Muslim enough, they hate the secularists who kill them far more. Besides, the killing of the leader of the countrys oldest Islamist group is too good an opportunity to pass up. It provides perfect justification for the jihadist notion that secularists are at war with Islam everywhere, which is why Muslims must fight back. Call jihadists anything, but bad at propaganda they are not. And it is exactly this fight back that has inspired a long line of low-intensity jihadist murders in Bangladesh. In 2013 an infamous hit list appeared naming 84 atheist bloggers. in other words secularists and freethinkers. By early 2016 more than 20 victims had been targeted in their homes and brutally hacked to death and in some cases beheaded, by extremists. The victims have included atheists, secularists, literary freethinkers, intellectuals and gay rights activists. In other words, anyone deemed not Muslim enough by jihadists. Despicably, instead of showing solidarity to the victims of what is undoubtedly political fallout from her own brutal political purge, Sheikha Hasina has indulged in victim-blaming by pandering to this not Muslim enough absurdity. In May she commented, I don't consider such writings as freethinking but filthy words. Why would anyone write such words? It's not at all acceptable if anyone writes against our prophet or other religions. It is against this backdrop that al-Qaeda and ISIS have both been claiming recent attacks in Bangladesh. In September 2014 al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the launch of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent. And ISIS magazine al-Dabiq has featured an article claiming the Revival of Jihad in the Bengal. Implausibly, Bangladeshi authorities deny that either exist in their country, but what they say matters little. Long gone are the days when terrorist atrocities required central coordination and direction. Now, all they need is inspiration. The heady mix of a sense of purpose provided by the global jihadist insurgency blends with the local context that can whip up a frenzy to the point where disgusting terrorist attacks can seem like heroic deeds of resistance. And while we fascinate ourselves with the tactically relevant but strategically futile question of whether any given latest terrorist atrocity is by al-Qaeda, ISIS or a self-starter jihadist, more jihadists are inspired to act by the mere occurrence of another successful attack. For roughly 90 years, Islamist ideologues have been building the appeal of theocracy among the Muslim grassroots. Theocracy, by definition, is an intolerant and violent political system. Caught between secular autocrats whose primary instinct is to kill their way out of any problem, and Islamist theocrats who offer nothing but medieval barbarism as an alternative, Muslim liberal democratic free thinkers have always been the political scapegoat for both sides. Yet far from making that the focus of our efforts to form a long term solution, our attention span only extends as far as the latest jihadist group to emerge bearing a fancy name and a penchant for spectacular murder. After a week of political chaos following the UKs shock referendum decision to leave the European Union, it fell to the Queen to provide a symbol of continuity, calm and national decorum. Away from the political Punch and Judy show of David Cameron, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, the Queen presented a dignified figure as she and her husband Prince Philip attended a memorial at Westminster Abbey on Thursday night marking the one hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of one of the bloodiest and most futile battles of World War I, the Battle of the Somme. 60,000 allied troops died in a few days at the Somme, and if that doesnt provide a sense of perspective when it comes to Europes present difficulties, then nothing will. No tear escaped her eye on this occasion, but, with her head bowed and brow furrowed, the Queen looked somber and moved as she paid tribute to the war dead. Brexit is not a trifling event, but the Queen does not believe that panic and fuss have ever helped a political crisis. And the Queen is one of those who believe that in the long run, British independence from Europe is simply the right way to go. As the Daily Beast revealed, the Queen had been a proponent of Brexit in private conversations, asking her dinner guests in the run up to the vote to give her three good reasons why Britain should have remained part of Europe. Brexit is a far from unwelcome political development in the UK as far as the Queen is concerned; earlier this week she told Northern Irelands First Minister Martin McGuinness that she was still alive although there had been a lot going on. She implied she was talking about her 90th birthday celebrations but she was undoubtedly seeking to also convey a message that post-Brexit, we should all keep calm and carry on. Although there was a brief panic that Scotland might seek to break away from the United Kingdom as the result of the vote, this possibility has existed more strongly in the mind of Nicola Sturgeon, the nationalist first minister of Scotland, and in media scare stories, than it has in reality. The Queen is being briefed that Scotland has no grounds to seek a new referendum on independence and senior European politicians are also telling the Scots to get over themselves: they voted to stay in the UK two years ago, and the referendum result changes not a thing. Donald Tusk, the president of the powerful European Council comprising the heads of member states, has refused an invitation for talks with Sturgeon. Tusk is paranoid about fueling separatist movements across the continent by being seen to give credence to Scottish nationalist maneuvering. Among the more Remain-friendly younger royals, William was accused of intervening in the debate when he told recipients of the inaugural Diplomatic Academy awards: In an increasingly turbulent world, our ability to unite in common action with other nations is essential. It is the bedrock of our security and prosperity and is central to your work. The Daily Beast understands that the young royalswho, like the Queen, attended the Somme memorial--are as dismayed as most other young, engaged and internationally-minded British people at the result of the EU vote (not least because William and Kates nanny is Spanish). The Queen and her husband, few will be surprised to hear, are pleased at the assertion of national sovereignty. The Queen has never appreciated EU involvement in the domestic life of the nation and is hopeful that the diminishment of the EU will put new wind in the sails of the Commonwealth, the loose grouping of former colonial nations of which the Queen is head. Some Australian politicians are already calling for the UK to restart an ambitious plan for Commonwealth free movement of people, starting with Australia, the UK, Canada and New Zealand, which had previously been blocked by the EU. With the promise of a resurgent commonwealth, who can blame the Queen for spying opportunity in Britains Brexit vote? Slushie cocktails are the Rodney Dangerfield of the cocktail world: endlessly amusing but they get no respect. While they may not get the attention of many craft bartenders or cocktail snobs they can be undeniably satisfying to drink on a miserably hot and humid day. (Under those circumstances Id rather be sipping a frosty and fruity concoction with an umbrella than some frou-frou drink that calls for four kinds of bitters and an absinthe rinse. Just saying.) In the UK, witness the ascendancy of the frose, a slushie with rose as its base. Londons Evening Standard noted that the concoction had emerged as the latest drink of choice for sun worshipping Instagrammers, with wine-lovers taking to their apps to show their appreciation for a bottle of frozen blush. Of course, in many parts of the US July 4th kicks off the hottest part of the summer and is the perfect excuse to pull out the blender or ice crusher. You can pick up some mixological credit by using a traditional mallet and canvas Lewis bag to crush your ice. Warning: You may break a sweat employing these old-timey methods. But they come in handy if youre at a place, say a remote beach or a lake in the middle of the woods, without reliable power to run a blender. If youre looking for something truly special, something that you wont find at every Independence Day barbecue try SushiSambas Avocado Batida. It calls for, you guessed it, avocado puree as well as cachaca and a chocolate spirit. It was dreamed up by the restaurant chains inventive lead bartender Richard Woods, who took top honors in Bombay Sapphires Worlds Most Imaginative Bartender Competition in the UK and Ireland. No, it doesnt taste like guacamole. The avocado gives it a rich and creamy texture like an adult soft serve ice cream. Your guests will have a hard time identifying whats in it but will certainly be asking for seconds. Avocado Batida Created by Richard Woods Ingredients: 1.5 oz Cachaca1.5oz Avocado puree.75 oz Monin orgeat syrup2 tsp Mozart Dry Chocolate Spirit Garnish:Handful of maize cancha or corn nuts Glass:Collins glass Directions: Peel and blend 8 avocados with 250 ml of water to make the puree, which lasts one day. Add all the ingredients to a Collins glass, fill with crush ice and swizzle (or stir vigorously). Garnish with a handful of maize cancha or corn nuts. Like an Independence Day fireworks show the classic Three Dots and A Dash, is a no-fail crowd pleaser. Our recipe comes from all-star San Francisco bartender Martin Cates new book Smugglers Cove, which is also the name of his excellent tiki bar. The drink, which will probably necessitate a liquor store run to find some of the ingredients, is definitely worth the extra work. Its a refreshing mix that calls for citrus juice, rum, rhum agricole from Martinique and a few other flavorful spirits. The drink was invented by one of the fathers of tiki Donn Beach and, according to Cate is Morse code for victory. Three Dots and A Dash Contributed by Martin Cate Ingredients: .5 oz Fresh lime juice.5 oz Fresh orange juice.5 oz SC Honey Syrup*.25 oz John D. Taylors Velvet Falernum.25 oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram1.5 oz Rhum agricole vieux (Duquesne Eleve Sous Bois or J.M Gold).5 oz Blended aged rum (Appleton Estate Reserve or Real McCoy 5 Year)1 dash Angostura bitters Glass:Pilsner Garnish:Three maraschino cherries and a pineapple chunk speared on a cocktail pick, or three maraschino cherries on a cocktail pick plus a pineapple frond. Directions: Add all the ingredients to a blender. Fill with 12 ounces of crushed ice, flash blend, and pour contents into a pilsner glass. Garnish with three maraschino cherries and a pineapple chunk speared on a cocktail pick, or three maraschino cherries on a cocktail pick plus a pineapple frond. SC Honey Syrup* Ingredients: 1.5 cups Honey1.5 cups Water Directions: Heat the honey in a saucepan over medium heat until runny and not viscousnearly to a boil but not quite. Add the water to the hot honey and whisk together. Immediately remove from the heat. Let cool. Store in a lidded bottle or other sealable container in the refrigerator. The syrup will keep, refrigerated, for several weeks. One icy drink that you can order even in the most serious of mixology bars is the traditional Cobbler. Its a simple formula that basically works with any spirit or wine. Our recipe comes from Frank Caiafas The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book and is so easy and delicious you should commit it to memory. And its perfect if you have to make a last-minute drink for your July 4th guests. Cobbler Contributed by Frank Caiafa Ingredients: 2.5 oz Any spirit4 oz Wine or sherry of choice.5 oz Simple syrup (one part sugar, one part water)2 Orange and lemon wheels Glass:Goblet Garnish: Citrus wheel and seasonal berries and fruit Directions: Add all the ingredients to a shaker and fill with ice. Shake and strain into a goblet filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a citrus wheel and seasonal berries and fruit. Hillary Clinton may not publically embrace it (much less employ it as a part of her media campaign), but The Purge: Election Year is most definitely in the bag for the Democratic nominee. With unabashed glee, James DeMonacos third entry in his horror series pivots its dystopian sci-fi narrative around a Clinton proxy: Senator Charlie Roan (Losts Elizabeth Mitchell), a bleeding-heart blonde presidential candidate fighting on the side of (and with the support of) disadvantaged African-Americans and Latinos against The Purge, the annual evening in which anythingincluding rape, murder, and any other mayhem a deviant mind can deviseis legal. That shes opposed in her quest by rival candidate Minister Edwidge Owen (Kyle Secor) and the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA)an evil cabal of wealthy white guys in league with the NRA and insurance companies, as well as mercenaries boasting white power, Confederate Flag, and swastika-style uniform patchesonly further underlines that, when it comes to this Nov. 8, The Purge is with Her. As such, DeMonacos newest franchise installment is a direct extension of 2014s The Purge: Anarchy, which itself expanded upon the idea that The Purge, created as a way for the crime-ridden country to rehabilitate itself by letting citizens purge their worst impulses during one government-sanctioned night of bloodshed, is a tool used by white elites to profit from murder and eliminate lower-class people who are a welfare-and-healthcare burden on the economy. Focused on a group of strangers who are stranded in L.A. during the chaos, and who come into contact with malevolent forces as well as a band of rebels (who hijack the airwaves to preach insurgency), Anarchy played like a hybrid of The Warriors and They Live, with the great Frank Grillos grieving ex-military hardass Leo Barnes functioning as a 21st century variation on Escape from New Yorks Snake Plissken. Barnes is back for Election Year, which takes place two years after Anarchy during the height of election season. Hes now Roans head of security, though that job is made virtually impossible by her demand that she endure The Purge in her less-than-fully-secure brownstone home (a decision made so she appears just like her constituents). Unsurprisingly, the NFFA bribe some traitors to infiltrate her abode with the intention of kidnapping her, albeit to no avail. Narrowly escaping capture, Barnes and Roan retreat to the fiery streets of Washington, D.C., where they soon team up with deli owner Joe Dixon (Mykelti Washington) and his shop boy Marcos (Joseph Julian Soria), as well as former Purge legend turned altruistic medic Laney Rucker (Betty Gabriel)all of whom are fervent Roan supporters. Although it remains infatuated with gruesome brutality and inventive Rob Zombie-style Halloween masks, DeMonacos latest is an action-oriented affair that barely classifies as an actual horror film, except that it paints a portrait of future-America as a nightmarish wasteland in which the haves wield so much power theyve managed to subvert the Ten Commandments and make wholesale slaughter legal. The best thing about The Purge franchise has always been the atmosphere of doom generated by DeMonacos slow-mo panoramas of homicidal costumed hordes strutting through metropolitan hellholes. Alas, Election keeps those moments to a relative minimum, all while amplifying the helter-skelter firefights and hand-to-hand skirmishes that the director continues to shoot in shaky-cam close-up. What Election really cares about, however, are its politics, which are foregrounded to such an extreme extent that actual terror is negated. DeMonacos film is, first and foremost, a liberal rallying cry that makes no bones about its allegiance. The Minister and his cohorts are conservative Christian crazies who stage ritualistic murders in cathedrals (and, upon purging, share looks full of barely suppressed homosexual desire), and George Washington is appropriated as a symbol of vicious villainy. Meanwhile, Joe (who has pictures of Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass hanging on his wall) is a noble, selfless entrepreneur preyed upon by predatory insurers, Marcos is a Mexican immigrant trying to achieve the American Dream through hard work, and even the Crips (!) are ultimately helpful friends to our heroes. Its true that, in the figures of Barnes and Roan, Election exhibits a white-savior complex. Yet in every other respect, its as left-leaning as big-studio projects come. DeMonaco tries to complicate his storys race and class dynamics by pitting Joe and Marcos against a gang of African-American females who, driving around in a car covered in Christmas lights and decked out in scary masks and stripper-style outfits, simply want to kill. Too bad the flip-side-of-the-coin gesture is a largely disingenuous one; Election is far less successful at (or interested in) muddying its waters by embracing contradictory ideas. Even when it comes to its most inspired world-building notionnamely, that foreigners have become jealous of Americans ability to purge, and are now traveling to our shores to partake in deviancy as veritable murder touriststhe film makes sure to paint these evil immigrants as white Europeans. South-of-the-border visitors, embodied by Marcos, remain inherently positive figures, lest DeMonacos overriding message become confused. This isnt to object to The Purge: Election Years specific politics; rather, its to balk at its simplistic monotony. Although it also eventually pulled its punches, Anarchy was a thornier effort more comfortable embracing hypocritical arguments. It was a fetid pulp stew that made you swallow all of its coherent and contradictory morsels whole. DeMonacos third film, on the other hand, is so determined to take a Democrat-ically inclined stance that it loses the paradoxical gnarliness demanded by its conceit. It operates as a one-note sermon about the virtues of the downtrodden and the wickedness of The Manand, consequently, squanders an opportunity to say something engaging about mankinds inherently multifaceted (if not outright twisted) nature. Moreover, The Purge: Election Year is a victim of bad timing. Thats because, no matter how ably it tries to tap into a contemporary air of on-the-brink-of-disaster despair, and regardless of the pointed allusion made by its posters tagline Keep America GreatElection went into production too early to take into account the true insanity of our present political reality. Which is to say, its lacking the very thing it most needs: a paradigm-upending proxy for the foreigner-insulting, torture-promoting, neo-Nazi-humoring demagogue whos turned the 2016 presidential election into an apocalypse-courting event: Donald Trump. The issue of UCC has always been dear to BJP and the Sangh Parivar and very few know that incidentally it was Ashwini Upadhyay, a spokesperson of the Delhi unit of the party and a Supreme Court lawyer who began it all. By Mail Today: Three decades after the Supreme Court recommended a Uniform Civil Code for the country while dealing with a controversial Muslim maintenance lawsuit famously known as the Shah Bano case, the debate on the controversial issue which keeps surfacing off and on has reignited in an unprecedented manner with the Law Commission for the first time being asked to examine its implementation. The issue has always been dear to BJP and the Sangh Parivar and very few know that incidentally it was Ashwini Upadhyay, a spokesperson of the Delhi unit of the party and a Supreme Court lawyer who began it all. advertisement It was Upadhyay's Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court in December 2015 which triggered several significant observations on the issue from a bench headed by none other than Chief Justice of India TS Thakur which the government has apparently latched on to. Though the PIL was dismissed, CJI Thakur told Upadhyay: "How can a mandamus [a court order] be issued on such an issue? Constitutional goal is one thing, and possibility of them being fulfilled is yet another thing. These are the things in realm of Parliament and the Supreme Court cannot do anything. You go the government" "Let people aggrieved in a community come to this court alleging discrimination. Has anybody come forward? What cannot be done directly, you are trying to do indirectly... We cannot ask Parliament to bring the common civil code. It is up to the law makers to discuss and take a decision", the CJI said. Upadhyay, boosted by the SC observations did not lose any time and he wrote a letter to Union Law Minister Sadananda Gowda urging him to take the opinion of the Law Commission on the issue. TRIPLE TALAQ, POLYGAMY Yes, there are already several aggrieved before the Supreme Court too and the debate over the code has come at a most opportune time . The exercise begun by Supreme Court five months ago to examine if practices like triple talaq and polygamy permitted by Islamic personal law resulted in gender discrimination within the community has led to several "affected" Muslim women coming forward and filing petitions in the apex court challenging the validity of such practices which draw its strength from Muslim personal laws Though the timing of government approaching the Law Commission with the issue is suspect and is widely believed that it is an attempt to trigger a political debate ahead of the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Modi government can always cite Supreme Court's several observations on the issue. One bench had even asked the government's stand on the issue and sought an affidavit. On October 13, 2015, the Supreme Court said there was "total confusion" in the country due to various personal laws governing religious practices and asked the Modi government to clarify if it was willing to implement the Code. The bench had posed the query while hearing a PIL challenging the legal provision that forces Christian couples to wait for at least two years for divorce whereas other religions like the Hindu Marriage Act and the Parsi Marriage and the Special Marriage Act, and Divorce Act prescribed only one year for it. advertisement CRY FOR SPECIAL BENCH Two weeks later, another bench of the court on its own orders registration of a PIL and urged then Chief Justice HL Dattu to set up a Special Bench to consider gender discrimination suffered by Muslim women owing to "arbitrary divorce and second marriage of their husbands during the currency of their first marriage". SC wanted an answer from Centre to the question as to whether "gender discrimination" suffered by Muslim women should not be considered a violation of the Fundamental Rights under Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution and international covenants. The Modi government has now asked the Law Commission to "examine" the issue of implementing the controversial UniformCivil Code "in detail and submit a report". The commission, at present headed by retired Supreme Court judge Balbir Singh Chauhan is expected to submit the report after holding wideranging discussions with all the stakeholders. Article 44 of the Indian Constitution sets implementation of the code as a duty of the state. UCC will set common personal laws for all citizens, irrespective of the religion, setting aside the current form of different set of personal laws for different communities. There are different personal laws for Hindus and Muslims which cover property, marriage and divorce, inheritance and succession. advertisement Also read: Uniform Civil Code soon? Modi government writes to Law Commission --- ENDS --- Sunday Unity Spiritual Center of the Brazos Valley, 4016 Stillmeadow Drive, Bryan, will have services at 10:30 a.m. Call 324-9857 or unityspiritualcenterbv.org. Trinity Baptist Church, 1070 N. Harvey Mitchell Parkway in Bryan, will host Awana Clubs for children ages 3-12 from 5 to 7 p.m. The meetings will consist of scripture memorization, games, a light meal and a short devotional. Club meetings will continue at 5 p.m. every Sunday during the school year. 571-1404. Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, 501 N. Houston Ave. in Bryan, will celebrate its 150th anniversary with services at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Former Presiding Elder J.W. Ford will deliver the 11 a.m. message and the Rev. Lawrence Hick will deliver the 3 p.m. message. All are welcome. 779-1943. Covenant Presbyterian Church, 220 Rock Prairie Road in College Station, will hold worship service at 10:30 a.m. Our guest speaker, the Rev. Amy Klinkovsky, will preach on "On Your Way." Classes for all ages meet at 9:15 a.m., followed by coffee and fellowship. 694-7700 or covenantpresbyterian.org. St. Francis Episcopal Church, 1101 Rock Prairie Road in College Station, will celebrate Holy Communion at 8 a.m. (Rite 1) and at 10:30 a.m. (Rite 2). A covered dish luncheon will follow the 10:30 a.m. service. In the alcove of the church, there is a display to learn more about the Dominican Republic Mission and ways to support the children there. Contact us for information about additional services and Bible classes during the week. 696-1491 or stfrancisbcs.org. First Christian Church, 900 S. Ennis St. in Bryan, will gather for worship at 10:45 a.m. Sunday school classes for all ages begin at 9:30 a.m. and a nursery is available. Youth groups meet at 3 p.m. 823-5451 or firstchristianbcs.org. Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church, 217 W. 26th St. in Downtown Bryan, will have services on its summer schedule at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Nursery care is available during both services. All are welcome. Standrewsbcs.org. 822-5176. Unitarian Universalist Church of the Brazos Valley, 305 Wellborn Road, will meet at 10:30 a.m. 696-5285. Faith United Church (UCC), 2901 Austin's Colony Parkway in Bryan will meet for 9:15 a.m. Sunday study, 10 a.m. fellowship, and 10:30 a.m. worship. Faithuccbryan.org. Mount Nebo Missionary Baptist Church, 3610 Plainsman Lane in Bryan, will have Sunday school classes for all ages at 9:15 a.m. and Morning Worship Service at 10:30 a.m. 846-4753. Monday First Baptist Church, 2300 Welsh Ave. in College Station, will host its weekly bible study on Mark, 1 Peter and 2 Peter at 7 p.m. 779-7700. First Baptist Church Bryan, 3100 Cambridge Drive in Bryan, will host its weekly Bible study fellowship session at 6:55 p.m. BSF is an international, interdenominational women's study group. This year's topic is the Book of John; there is also a children's program. Bsfinternational.org. Tuesday Eagle's Nest Praise and Worship Ministries will be opening a free prayer line from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. The prayer line number is 775-1513, and calls will be answered by a trained prayer ministry associate. The prayer line is coordinated by pastors Gary and Sheila Jones. Wednesday Faith United Church, 2901 Austin's Colony Parkway in Bryan, invites men of all ages to Wednesday morning coffee and guy talk at 10 a.m. All are welcome. Faithuccbryan.org. Upcoming Hillcrest Baptist Church, 4220 Boonville Road in Bryan, will conduct Cave Quest Vacation Bible School from July 10-14, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. each day. The school is open for all children who have completed kindergarten through fifth grade. It will feature Bible learning experiences that kids will see, hear, touch and even taste. 776-5731. I was told by Vice President and state BJP in-charge VInay Sahasrabuddhe and State BJP President Nandkumar Singh Chouhan that I had to resign. I said I would not, says Babulal Gaur on his resignation from the party. By Rahul Noronha: Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Babulal Gaur was the Home Minister of the state till June 30 when he along with PWD Minister Sartaj Singh became the first ministers to resign under the not-over-75-year-norm worked out by the BJP. Amidst a stream of supporters, ministers, leaders from across party lines who have been coming to meet him, the 10 term MLA spoke to India Today about the developments in the last 3 days. advertisement Q- Do you agree with the not over 75 year norms? A- I don't agree with it, simply because you cannot apply a norm with retrospective effect. This norm was worked out in June 2014 while I was already a minister, serving my 10th term as MLA having won by about 70,000 votes. If they wanted this, they should have not given me a ticket to contest. Q- Did you express your disapproval when you were asked to resign? A- Yes, I did. I spoke to General Secretary (Organization) Ram Lal and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. They said the party has decided on this norm. Q- What exactly happened the day you were asked to resign? Did you decide to not resign after you were informed of the party decision? A- I was told by Vice President and state BJP in charge VInay Sahasrabuddhe and State BJP President Nandkumar Singh Chouhan that I had to resign. I said I would not. They said that they were only messengers so I told them I will speak to the party leadership. After I spoke to leaders I decided to resign. Q- Do you think this resignation could have been handled better? A- Of course, yes. They could have called me and asked me to resign. They could have made the entire cabinet resign and not take people who they did not want in the cabinet anymore. Q- Did you see this (to be asked to resign) coming? A- No, not at all. I had no idea. Q- Cabinet formation is the prerogative of the CM. The CM had on more than one occasion announced that no one would be dropped from the cabinet. Do you think the CM's position has weakened in the central BJP leadership? A- No comments. Q- What are you future plans? Have you been promised a rehabilitation, or a post? A- No I have not been promised anything. Q- Will you contest the next elections? If the party does not give you a ticket will you contest independently? A- I don't think I will be given the ticket in the next elections. I will not contest as an independent against the party ever. Also read: Madhya Pradesh cabinet reshuffle: Home minister Babulal Gaur, PWD minister Sartaj Singh dropped on grounds of advanced age Babulal Gaur at it again? Caught on cam touching woman inappropriately advertisement Deaths of Vyapam scam accused were natural: MP Home Minister Babulal Gaur Babulal Gaur does it again, says consuming alcohol is a status symbol --- ENDS --- SHARE By Gleaner Staff Four different riverboats are scheduled to make stops in Henderson during the summer and fall months. The first visit will be Tuesday by the Queen of the Mississippi, which is scheduled to arrive around 6 a.m. and depart by noon. Keep in mind that the schedule is subject to change because of river and weather conditions. The rest of the schedule is: Thursday, July 14, American Queen Thursday, July 21, American Queen Monday, Aug. 29, French American Louisianne Monday Sept. 12, French American Louisianne Wednesday, Oct. 19, BB Steamboat. Riverboats schedules are subject to change based on weather and river height. Residents are not allowed to tour the boats but can visit the riverfront to view them. For information regarding the riverboats, call the Henderson County Tourist Commission at 270-826-3128. For the last several summers Savannah Bryan has sat in the pews of Westwood Baptist Church in Anniston, Alabama, listening to others share their stories about their time serving with World Changers, a nonprofit geared toward helping cities across North America alleviate substandard housing. This summer, Bryan will have her own story to share. Bryan, 14, is one of 140 students who worked in Henderson this week representing one of nine churches. It was her first time traveling with the organization. 'Hearing everyone else's presentations and what they learned was really inspiring to me,' Bryan said as she helped construct a wheelchair ramp at a home on 7th Street last week. 'This has been really fun so far.' The soon-to-be sophomore said she had just one goal in mind for the week share the gospel, at least once. 'I've never done that before,' Bryan said. 'I think it would help not only the other person, but me, too.' This was the group's 11th year in Henderson, and they worked on at least 15 different homes. The work in Henderson is part of a national effort. Each summer, thousands of volunteers usually made up of college, high school and middle school students travel across the country to repair homes of those who qualify. This summer, World Changers will visit more than 50 cities. Students also have to pay to serve on their respective mission trips, around $250 a person. 'I think that definitely shows their heart,' said Hannah Wells, missions and communication specialist for World Changers. 'If they're willing to put their money toward a cause like that, that shows how passionate they are about service.' In the last 11 years, the organization has made repairs to around 213 homes. Wells is from Henderson, North Carolina. As she watched students construct, clean and mingle, she said watching them grow spiritually was one of the most rewarding parts of working with the organization. 'To hear their stories from the beginning of the week and then at the end of the week, sometimes their perspective can completely change,' Wells said. 'It's completely amazing to see how God moves in their lives.' Daniel Lee's visit to Henderson was his fifth trip with World Changers. The Macon, Georgia, native said meeting new people was always a highlight for him. 'I always find myself thinking about all of the people I have met,' Lee said. 'It's hard to forget about all of the people and the impact they have had on you.' Lee said strangers quickly become close friends on these trips, and watching them grow and progress with their spirituality is an experience that can't be replaced. 'I always hope to grow more spiritually and try to spread the gospel,' Lee said. 'Overall I just hope to become a better person by the end of the week.' Wells said making a difference in communities such as Henderson has always been the main mission of the organization. 'The ultimate goal here is to show God's love through construction,' Wells said. 'We want to show this community that there are people who care about it and will continue to care about it.' Security concerns emerge after Columbus Junction school vandalism A student alleged to have vandalized Columbus' secondary school reportedly was inside the building for two hours, raising security concerns. Code-named Operation Chakravyuh, the project aims to plug any possible routes for terrorists to infiltrate into India be it land, air or sea. By Jitendra Bahadur Singh: India is planning to build impregnable defences along the borders with Pakistan in a project modelled after Israeli security mechanisms, according to highly-placed official sources. OPERATION CHAKRAVYUH Code-named Operation Chakravyuh, the project aims to plug any possible routes for terrorists to infiltrate into India, be it land, air or sea, top military and home-ministry sources told India Today TV. advertisement Under Operation Chakravyuh, a network of highly-sensitive censors, radars, cameras, optical fibre and automatic guns will be laid along the Pakistan border, which will be linked to a round-the-clock control room they said. RESEARCH UNDERWAY Authorities have already done preparatory work for installation of detection devices underground and undersea, according to the sources. Six types of censors will be used in the border-securing scheme. To start with, locations have been identified in Jammu and Kashmir and Gujarat to induct equipment at every few kilometres as part of an initial project starting this month, defence and BSF sources said. INITIAL PHASE IN J&K The BSF will spend between Rs 18 and Rs 20 crore in Jammu and Kashmir alone for the initial phase of the overall plan, according to official documents accessed by India Today TV. Devices are being procured from several companies for the first round of the project. Radars with 360-degree detection capabilities will alert control rooms about potential infiltrations. There will be active cameras and subsequently there will be automatic guns to shoot intruders down on the spot, officials explained. Similarly, large underground and undersea censors will beam scanned images of infiltrators back to the control room for swift response. Besides, airborne versatile micro-aerostat balloons fitted with highquality surveillance cameras along the borders will monitor the skies. All systems will be integrated together for coordinated action, sources said. Also Read: India turns to Israel for armed drones as Pak, China build fleets Govt okays purchase of Rs 40,000 cr Russian missiles to boost aerial defence --- ENDS --- Ive been working remotely for about a year now, and I love it. Related: This Business Thrives Working 4 Days a Week Without Bosses, Email or Meetings But, despite not having to commute or deal with the revolving door of corporate meetings, until recently, I still felt burned out. Running a new, fledgling agency isnt rocket science; but it isnt a walk in the park, either. My business partner and I were regularly pulling 60-to-80-plus-hour weeks of actual work, where I had been used to 40-to-50 hours of half-ass work. Some of you may think that thats nothing (a friend at Goldman Sachs works 80-to-100-plus hours regularly), but for me it was a big adjustment. And, despite doing well in our first year, well enough in fact to hire our first full-timer, I realized I needed a change. Having heard from friends about their jobs at Worst of All Design working three weeks per month, and at Treehouse, with its strict four-day, 32-hour work week, I was impressed. Then, I thought about how my partner and I could make a change. Finally, after overcoming my initial reservations (i.e., less income), I decided to give the four-day work week a try. Heres what Ive learned so far: 1. Im more productive, even though I work more hours each day. The first thing I noticed is that I tend to be more productive overall. Not every day, because that would be a lie. Im still new to this whole four-day thing, and it's actually made me less disciplined on Mondays because of the three-day weekends. But, man, I am laser-focused on Wednesdays and Thursdays now. I often work 10-to-12 hours those days, and willingly, just to get everything done on time. The last thing I want is to have to work on Fridays because I didnt finish everything I was supposed to. Im not the only one whos found that a shorter work week leads to bursts of productivity. According to tax services firm Ryan, which also implemented a four-day work week, turnover rates there dropped from 30 percent to 11 percent; revenue and profits nearly doubled; client-satisfaction scores reached an all-time high; and the firm received multiple best place to work awards. 2. Im more creative and come up with better business ideas. A nice side effect of having an extra day off each week is that you have more free time on your hands. At first, this was a bit daunting. Id gotten so used to overworking that I didnt even know what to do with all that time off. Soon, though, I rediscovered my hobbies and reconnected with old friends. One thing I immediately noticed was that on Friday nights, I became hyper-creative. Id stay up late and come up with all sorts of hair-brained services and terrible novel ideas. Fortunately, every once in a while, those ideas actually stuck (and were pretty good). When you have more time to do what you want, your brain makes more connections. That means going to different locations, on a different schedule, and having new and unexpected experiences. But the only way to have more of these opportunities is to have more time off from a regimented schedule. Related: 5 Ways to Take the Grind Out of Working 9-to-5 3. I spend more time with the people I care about. Ill admit that I wasnt very good at taking Friday off at first. Id wrap up everything I needed to do by Thursday night, then spend half of Friday telling my girlfriend that I was just checking emails. Were all guilty of working when we should be relaxing. Nearly 86 percent of American men and 67 percent of women have said on surveys that they work more than 40 hours each week. Compare those work times to those in Denmark, the happiest country in the world, which has a significantly shorter work week. Clearly, working when youre supposed to be relaxing doesnt make you happy. Theres also plenty of evidence that spending time with friends and family is good for you. Not only does it make you feel less lonely, it also provides a number of tangible benefits: Social adults are more successful. Being social boosts your immune system. Friends and family provide a reliable support network (we could all use more of that). 4. I dont make less than when I was working 80-hour weeks. Okay, now for the ugly, beautiful truth: Some weeks, I make less than I used to when I worked five-to-six days a week. That much should be obvious to anyone who can do math. But, the beauty of working less as you get more experience is that your experience brings in more business. Some weeks, I make just as much as I used to, if not more. Sure, you could always be making more money if you put your nose to the grindstone 80-plus hours each week, but burnout is a very real thing. Working over 50 hours a week results in a huge decrease in productivity. And the problem with 10-hour days, five-plus days a week, is that you can no longer see the boundary between work and life. You become a workaholic addicted to work for the sake of work. You have to decide whats important to you. Ive been trying this four-day experiment for three months now, and I dont think Im ever turning back. I feel more refreshed, energetic and optimistic than ever. And I dont feel like Im slacking, which is the best part. I feel like Im claiming whats rightfully mine. That being said, working four days a week isnt for everyone. Some of you may feel irresponsible because you have loans to pay off. Others may feel obligated to make more money to secure the future of their families. Only you know why you work as much as you do. Maybe you have an employer who refuses to let you work less than five full days each week. My advice? If you value your friends, family and personal time, find a new job that will treat you right. Its not as impossible as you think. Some 43 percent of companies already offer four-day work weeks. Related: Uniqlo Is Testing a Four-Day Work Week Maybe John Maynard Keynes prediction of a15-hour work week isnt as far off as we thought. Related: Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate NORWALK - Police have determined that a teenage girl, who said she was attacked by a man while jogging, made up the whole story. The girl, who was not identified, told police that a man jumped out from behind a tree, held the victim down, fondled her and scratched her with a compact-type mirror. She said she was able to break free and escape the assault. On Saturday, Lt. Terrence Blake, a Norwalk Police Department spokesperson, said the Special Victims Unit, assisted by the Detective Bureau, initiated an investigation into the incident and upon examining the evidence became concerned with the circumstances presented by the complainant. The investigation continued until this morning when it was determined that the complainant had fabricated the story. The community should be assured that there was never any threat or danger to residents in the area. The girls story said the attack happened near the Rowayton Woods Complex on Highland Avenue More News Norwalk police searching for man who attacked teen girl in woods The typically calm and quiet community plunged into a state of frenzy when police descended on the scene at about 10 a.m., including Connecticut State Police and K-9 units, in search for the suspect, who was described as a white male with a ruddy complexion, gray spiky hair tight on the sides and scruffy facial hair. The man, according to the girl, was believed to be in his 50s, wearing blue jean shorts, a yellow shirt and white sneakers. Police set up a perimeter in their search for the suspect. Train traffic was slowed as the search was conducted near the Metro-North Railroad tracks. As of press time, police were still searching for the suspect, who attacked the unsuspecting girl on a wooded trail that loops around a pond behind the complex. Blake officers conducted an exhaustive search of the area however, they were unable to locate the reported suspect. On Friday, police started to have some suspicion about the saying there are questions concerning the circumstances presented by the complainant adding, there does not appear to be any threat or danger to residents of the area. Roton Middle School, which runs a summer program for children, and Rowayton Elementary School were placed on lockdown as a precautionary measure. Brien McMahon High School was also put on lockdown. The lockdown was lifted around noon. Police did not say whether the girl would be facing any charges for fabricating the story. Most of them had been killed by 'sharp weapons', Army spokesman Colonel Rashidul Hasan said. initially it seemed all the victims were foreigners but now the army believes some locals were also among the dead as well. By Reuters: Islamist militants killed 20 people, including at least nine Italians and seven Japanese, inside an upmarket restaurant in Bangladesh's capital, before security forces stormed the building and ended a 12-hour standoff on Saturday.Islamic State said it was responsible for one of the most brazen attacks in the South Asian nation's history, but that claim has yet to be confirmed. It marks a major escalation in a campaign by militants over the past 18 months that had targeted mostly individuals advocating a secular or liberal lifestyle in majority-Muslim Bangladesh with 160 million people.The gunmen, who stormed the busy restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic area late on Friday night, ordered all Bangladeshis to stand up before they began killing foreigners, a source briefed on the police investigation said.Among the dead was the wife of an Italian businessman killed by a machete. She was found by her husband after he spent all night hiding behind a tree outside the cafe while the gunmen were inside, said Agnese Barolo, a friend who lives in Dhaka and spoke to him. advertisement Nine Italians were killed in the attack, the country's foreign minister said, and authorities were trying to confirm the fate of another person missing.Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said seven of its citizens had been confirmed dead in the attack, while one Indian, a 19 year-old female student, was killed in the assault, India's foreign minister said on Twitter.Emory University in Atlanta said in a statement that two of its students were among hostages who were killed. Abinta Kabir, from Miami, was an undergraduate at Emory's Oxford College, and Faraaz Hossain, who was from Dhaka, was a graduate student at the university's Goizueta Business School, Emory said. Bangladesh authorities are yet to say where all the people killed by the militants came from. The killing of foreigners will likely shatter the confidence of the expatriate community in Bangladesh, many of whom work for multinationals in the country's $26 billion garment industry that accounts for around 15 percent of the economy. Bangladesh is the world's second largest apparel exporter after China. Thirteen hostages were rescued, including one Japanese and two Sri Lankans, the army said. SHARP WEAPONS Army spokesman Colonel Rashidul Hasan said he could not yet confirm the nationalities of those who had died. Most of them had been killed by "sharp weapons", he said.Hasan said initially that it seemed all the victims were foreigners but now the army believed some locals were among the dead as well.Six gunmen were killed during the police operation and one was captured, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in a TV broadcast after more than 100 commandos concluded their operation to clear the cafe. Two police were killed in the initial assault. "It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these people? They don't have any religion," Hasina said. Declaring two days of national mourning, she said the country would stand up and fight the "terror threat" that has mushroomed in its backyard. Islamic State, which has claimed a series of machete attacks on minority groups in Bangladesh over the past year, posted photos of bodies and blood smeared across floors that it said were dead foreigners killed in the assault.Police did not confirm whether the pictures were from the site of the massacre. Gowher Rizvi, an adviser to Hasina, told Reuters, security forces had tried to negotiate with the gunmen. advertisement SPORADIC GUNFIRE The hostage crisis began when security guards in the Gulshan district of Dhaka, popular with expatriates, noticed several gunmen outside a medical centre, Rizvi said. When the guards approached, the gunmen ran into a building housing the restaurant, packed with people waiting for tables, he said. Ali Arsalan, co-owner of the restaurant, said his staff told him the attackers yelled "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) as they stormed the building, split between Holey Artisan Bakery and the O'Kitchen Restaurant. The restaurant was regarded as a tranquil place that was safe to visit in an increasingly dangerous city. Police said the assailants exchanged sporadic gunfire with police outside for several hours after the gunmen attacked the restaurant around 9 p.m. on Friday. A police officer at the scene said when security forces tried to enter the premises at the beginning of the siege they were met with a hail of bullets and grenades that killed two of them. A cafe employee who escaped told local television about 20 customers were in the restaurant at the time, most of them foreigners. Some 15 to 20 staff were working at the restaurant, the employee said. The rescued Japanese man was eating dinner with seven other Japanese, all of whom were consultants for Japan's foreign aid agency, a Japanese government spokesman said. The fate of the other seven remained unknown. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the Japanese aid workers "were giving their all for the development of Bangladesh". "We feel strong indignation at this inhumane, despicable act of terrorism, which has claimed many lives," he told reporters. SPATE OF MURDERS Bangladesh has seen a spate of murders in recent months claimed by Islamic State and al Qaeda on liberals, gays, foreigners and religious minorities. A Hindu priest was hacked to death on Friday at a temple in Jhinaidah district, 300 km (188 miles) southwest of Dhaka. Local authorities say no operational links exist between Bangladeshi militants and international jihadi networks. They say two local militant groups, Ansar-al-Islam and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, have been behind the violence over the past 18 months. Ansar pledges allegiance to Al Qaeda, while Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen claims it represents Islamic State. advertisement "The bottom line is Bangladesh has plenty of local, often unaffiliated, militants and radicals happy to stage attacks in ISIS's name," said Michael Kugelman, South Asia associate at The Wilson Centre in Washington D.C., using an acronym commonly used for Islamic State. Islamic State had claimed more attacks in Bangladesh than in Pakistan or Afghanistan, he said. The restaurant assault also comes after Bangladesh hanged an Islamist party leader, Motiur Rahman Nizami, on May 11 for genocide and other crimes committed during a 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. That has drawn an angry reaction and some scattered violence from supporters. Foreign diplomats and human rights groups have warned that Bangladesh's ongoing war crime tribunals and the government's pressure on the Bangladesh Nationalist Party have created a backlash domestically,? according to Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. advertisement --- ENDS --- AURORA Two pleas in abatement in the Hamilton County District Court murder-for-hire case were overruled on Thursday. Derrick Shirley of Bradshaw is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, a Class 2 felony, for conferring with Robert Honken of Aurora to kill Honkens wife. In filing for a plea in abatement, Shirleys attorney contested the Hamilton County Court finding on April 5 that sufficient probable cause existed to bind him over to district court. Shirley and Honken were arrested on Feb. 29. Honken is charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, each a Class 2 Felony. According to the arrest affidavit for Honken, a concerned citizen contacted police, telling them Sam asked the citizen to kill his wife. In a controlled call with police on Feb. 27, the citizen contacted Sam, who then told the citizen his real name was Robert. During the call, according to the affidavit, Honken said he wanted his wife out of the way and said he previously hired another person, Shirley, to do the job and paid him $400. Two days later, according to the affidavit, a State Patrol investigator posed as a hit man and met Honken to discuss killing Honkens wife. Honken paid the undercover investigator $500. The affidavit for Honken states Shirley said he obtained a weapon and canvassed Honkens wifes house to prepare to kill her. District Judge Rachel Daughertys written decision on Honkens plea in abatement states that Honken argues the alleged conspiracy was never carried out or failed. However, Daugherty overruled the plea in abatement, stating that although Honkens agreement with Shirley wasnt completed and they both ended it because they had second thoughts, Honken tried to hire someone to kill his wife about a month after that agreement. Daugherty referred to the deal Honken made with the undercover investigator. According to Daughertys written decision on Shirleys plea in abatement, Shirley argued that there was no evidence shown by the state of an actual agreement between him and Honken. However, Daugherty writes that the evidence presented was that there were several discussions outlining how the murder would happen, preparations, the purchase of a gun and the exchange of money. She overruled Shirleys plea in abatement, too. Honkens arraignment is set for 9 a.m. July 15, and Shirleys arraignment is set for 9 a.m. Aug. 4 in Hamilton County District Court. On behalf of Northwestern Mutual of Grand Island and Alexs Lemonade Stand, our team would like to give a big thank you to Ken Peterson, marketing manager, and all the helpful staff and shoppers/donors of Hy-Vee. Alexs Lemonade Stand was an overwhelming success this past Saturday. It was obvious with everyone who was able to make a donation, their level of concern and caring for all who have been impacted by cancer, especially our children and grandchildren. Our objective was community awareness, an opportunity to raise money through donations and to enjoy a cool cup of lemonade, on a hot Nebraska day. Mission accomplished! Childhood cancer is rare in Nebraska but, that said, children in Nebraska have a higher rate of cancer than those in the nation as a whole. Nationally, 43 children are diagnosed with childrens cancer every day 12 percent of those children will not survive. Cancer is the No. 1 cause of death by disease in children, yet it has received only a fraction of the research dollars that adult cancers receive. Although the cure rate is now nearly 90 percent up by 30 percent in the last 20 years it is not good enough. Our goal should be a 100 percent cure rate. According to Don Coulter, a medical doctor of pediatrics at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, 80 percent of children with cancer have a five-year average survival rate, so it is important to help those families through the disease process. Nebraska is one of three states with one focused location for treatment, with one group of nine doctors in Omaha. Thats a good thing in terms of expertise and team treatment of cases, Coulter said, but a challenge for families who live scattered throughout the state. More resources could help, such as education for pediatricians in rural areas, early intervention programs or assistance for families as they plow their way through their childrens chronic diseases. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Devina Heriyanto (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2, 2016 Poachers can no longer lurk safely in Indonesian waters. The long abandoned war against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing has been reinstated, fought battle by battle by President Joko Jokowi Widodo and Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti. Under the auspices of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, a decree was signed to establish a special anti-illegal fishing unit. The government has destroyed a total of 176 foreign illegal fishing vessels apprehended in areas throughout the archipelago between October 2014 and April 2016, including 63 from Vietnam, 43 from the Philippines, 21 from Thailand, two from Papua New Guinea, one from Belize and one from China. Despite complaints from neighboring countries, Indonesia has maintained its firm stance on IUU fishing and continues to enforce the law. Most of the ships, a total of 57 foreign vessels, were apprehended in Natuna waters. Some incidents made headlines particularly those involving conflict with Chinese fishing vessels. On the surface, what has occurred in Natuna waters in the Riau Archipelago is not dissimilar with other poaching incidents detected across the nation. However, to assume the issue is the same is a false assumption. A diplomatic spat in March led to an increased Navy presence in the area. On June 23, as a display of sovereignty, Jokowi orchestrated a meeting aboard a warship. What has happened in Natuna? What makes Natuna different? The Indonesian Navy spotted 10 to 12 foreign fishing boats in Indonesia's economic exclusive zone (ZEE) near Natuna on June 17. They were seen throwing nets and were thus suspected to have been illegally fishing in Indonesian waters. The Chinese fishing boats dispersed when the navy approached. Four warships proceeded to pursue the suspect boats. Making use of both radio communication and speakers, the navy instructed the crew onboard each of the boats to stop. The requests were ignored. The boats attempted to flee, picking up speed, leaving behind vessel Han Tan Cou 19038. After several hours, warning shots were fired into the sea and air. Han Tan Cou 19038 was intercepted and detained, the crew consisted of seven people; six male and one female. Upon capture, the crew destroyed the communication tools on board the vessel. This action is alleged to have been carried out by the crewman on purpose, but the reason has not been publicly discussed. Chinas foreign ministry protested the actions taken by the Indonesian Navy and disapproves of the capture of its citizens, calling it "excessive use of force". They claim that the incident took place in a traditional Chinese fishing ground and emphasize their opinion that the two countries have overlapping maritime claims over the area. Why is Natuna important? Economically, Natuna has abundant resources. Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said identified 16 oil and gas blocks in the area, five of which are already operating. Eleven are still in the exploration stage. One gas-rich block in Natuna is known as the East Natuna block, which has proven reserves of 46 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas, making it the largest gas reserve in Asia. Natuna islands. (-/-) Natuna is located just outside the bounds of Chinas nine-dash-line which makes sweeping claims over most of the South China Sea. Part of Indonesias exclusive economic zone overlaps with sections of Chinas nine-dash-line claim. EEZ means that Indonesia has an exclusive rights to the area, and these rights are have increasingly been violated by China. Why might China want Natuna? It is important to understand Natuna in the context of the growing dispute over the South China Sea. Natuna is located on the southern edge of South China Sea, 80% of which has been claimed historically -- by China. Chinas historical claim over the South China Sea is challenged by five governments with overlapping claims - Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei. The area has strategic importance as it is considered to be the second busiest sea trade route, and contains an abundance of natural resources, particularly oil. The area also boasts one third of the world's marine biodiversity. China does not publicly contest that Natuna rightfully belongs to Indonesia. However, China has argued that it has rights to fish in the area, claiming that Natuna waters are a traditional Chinese fishing ground. The Foreign Ministry's director for East Asia and the Pacific region Edy Yusuf stated that traditional fishing rights must be agreed upon though a treaty, based on UNCLOS. Currently, Indonesia only has a treaty with Malaysia over the narrow Malacca Strait. The fishing activity carried out by China in waters near Natuna is considered to be particularly suspicious because the fishermen were accompanied by the Chinese Coast Guard. Both the Government and the Indonesian Navy suspect the Chinese Coast Guard of conspiring to allow their countrymens fishing boats to fish in Indonesian waters. It is also suspected that they have an established standard operating procedure (SOP) for when the vessels are intercepted by Indonesian authorities, as evidenced in recent incidents. Chinese tactics involving fishing activities can also be seen in the nations attempt to establish further presence in the South China Sea, thus strengthening Chinas much-disputed claim. Chinas South China Sea claim is also based on their insistence that the area is a traditional Chinese fishing ground. China has recently accused Indonesia of using excessive force when dealing with poachers. Is this complaint reasonable? Not really, especially considering that there have been previous incidents involving China in Natuna waters. It is also worth noting Chinas response in dealing with foreign vessels in Chinese occupied territory in the South China Sea. Instances of Chinas illegal activity in Natuna waters are increasingly frequent. In March, an Indonesian Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry patrol ship intercepted an illegal Chinese fishing vessel and, having apprehended the vessel in question, the Indonesian patrol boat had attempted to tow the vessel to a nearby port. A vessel belonging to the Chinese coast guard intervened, allegedly ramming the Indonesian patrol boat in an effort to prevent Indonesian authorities from detaining the boat. While the Chinese Coast Guard managed to force the release of the Chinese vessel, Indonesian authorities detained its crew. The second incident occurred in May. This time, a Chinese vessel was caught by the Indonesian Navy fishing illegally near Natuna. The crew attempted to flee but Indonesian destroyer Oswald Siahaan-354 successfully blocked the Chinese coast guard from securing the vessel. The coast guard continued to shadow Oswald Siahaan-354, and only departed the scene when the Indonesian Navy called for backup. The navy is said to have fired warning shots. The captain of Gui Bei Yu 27088, the captured vessel, has admitted to having repeatedly entered Indonesian waters for poaching purposes and said that he was aware that the area was located within Indonesias EEZ. Chinese coast guards have also been known to use rifles and have fired warning shots in dealings with foreign vessels, mostly when confronting fishermen in the disputed South China Sea. What next? Ever since the first incident with China in March, Indonesia has vowed to strengthen security in Natuna. Learning from the first incident, in which Indonesia failed to capture the offending Chinese vessel, larger boats were deployed to Natuna. Indonesia has reaffirmed its zero tolerance policy with regard to poachers. Thieves are thieves. We dont care from which country they come. We will arrest them if we find them stealing fish in our waters, especially in our [EEZ], Susi stated. The government introduced a number of measures toward improving economic development and defense in Natuna. The government plan to speed up the development of fisheries in Natuna because Indonesian fishermen reportedly reap a mere 9 percent of the potential catch in Natuna waters, Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Rizal Ramli said, adding that rampant poaching was to blame. The government will allow local fishing vessels above 30 deadweight tonnage, registered outside Natuna, to operate in Natuna waters. According to Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, Indonesia will do whatever it takes to protect its sovereignty. The defense development plan includes plans to extend the Ranai airbase runway to better accommodate F-16 jet fighters and another plan to build port facilities for three frigates, according Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu. Meanwhile, Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo said the TNI would send five warships to protect Natuna. A CR 212 aircraft has also been deployed to the region, Gatot said. Indonesia is also preparing its official stance regarding the result of the Philippine vs. China case at the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration. China has been aggressively campaigning against the case brought to the UN tribunal by The Philippines. The ruling date has been decided and will fall on July 12, many predict that the ruling will be in favor of The Philippines however people are unwilling to predict Chinas post-ruling reaction. China has confirmed that it will refuse to acknowledge the result. Indonesia maintains its position as a non-claimant in the South China Sea dispute. Shaykh , Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif, 'Amir of Khilafah in Bengal, asserted that Bengal( IS calls Bangladesh as Bengal) has a strategic location and building a jihadi base there will facilitate ISIS to launch guerrilla attacks in India. Till now, six Indians have reportedly died fighting for ISIS in Syria. (Picture for representation.) By India Today Web Desk: Islamic State has made its intentions clear of launching terror attacks in India through its bases in Bangladesh and Pakistan. In an interview with the group's online magazine Dabiq in April, Shaykh Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif, 'Amir of Khilafah in Bengal' said that once the group manages to build bases in Bangladesh, it will launch raids in east and west of India. OF FEAR AND CHAOS advertisement Shaykh asserted that Bengal( IS calls Bangladesh as Bengal) has a strategic location and building a jihadi base there will facilitate ISIS to launch guerrilla attacks in India. Bengal is located on the eastern side of India, whereas Wilayat Khurasan is located on its western side. Thus, having a strong jihad base in Bengal will facilitate performing guerrilla attacks inside India simultaneously from both sides and facilitate creating a condition of tawahhush (fear and chaos) in India along with the help of the existing local mujahidin there," Hanif told Dabiq. Shaykh admitted that at present ISIS is weak, small and lack capabilities but their soldiers are sharpening their knives for the battle with their enemies. HINDUS WAGE WAR AGAINST ISLAM In the interview, Shaykh accused Hindus of India and Bangladesh of waging war against Islam and the Muslims. "The Hindus of both Bengal and India have always been waging war against Islam and the Muslims. The only difference is that the Hindus in India show their animosity towards Islam and the Muslims openly whereas the Hindus in Bengal do it in a more deceptive and covert manner due to them being a minority sect here," said Shaykh. He further urged the Muslims of India and Bengal to join and perform Jihad. "I advise you to join us and perform jihad with your wealth and your lives, as it is an obligation upon every capable Muslim," He said. INDIANS AGAINST INDIA Meanwhile, the National Investigation Agency that busted the Hyderabad module of ISIS says the arrested youths were in touch with a former Indian Mujahideen member who is now part of Islamic State. They were plotting terror strikes and communal clashes. These arrests make it evident that ISIS is trying to mislead Indian youths and use them against India. Investigations have also revealed the group was making efforts to establish a channel of procurement of explosives and weapons, identify locations to organise terror training camps, motivate new recruits to target police officers and foreigners in India apart from carrying out terrorist activities in parts of the country. advertisement Till now, six Indians have reportedly died fighting for ISIS in Syria. According to intelligence reports, 23 Indians travelled to Syria to join the terror group but two have managed to return. ALSO READ: What kind of Muslims kill during Ramzan, PM Sheikh Hasina on Dhaka attack Islamic State using Indians against India, hiring Muslim youth to carry out local attacks --- ENDS --- Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Putera Satria Sambijantoro (The Jakarta Post) Xian/Beijing Fri, July 1 2016 A brief moment: An elderly Chinese Muslim pauses in front of the Haidian Mosque in Beijing, as he prepares to deliver a sermon and lead Friday prayers. Many Muslims may live peacefully in China, but religion remains a sensitive issue in the country. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, July 1 2016 The Jakarta State Administrative High Court (PTTUN) upheld on Thursday a legal challenge filed by Retno Listyarti, the former principal of state-run SMA 3 senior high school, against her dismissal by Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama in 2015. The court upheld the verdict of the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN), which had stated the dismissal was illegal and ordered the city administration to restore Retno to her former position. We are grateful for the victory in the appeal court. We thank the judges for upholding the truth, Retno said as reported by kompas.com. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Batam Fri, July 1 2016 Singaporean Choo Chiau Huat, 50, the captain of a fishing vessel arrested in Indonesian waters, in April, demanded that the court acquit him of all charges, claiming that he had been operating a boat owned by a tour operator and not a fishing boat on the day of his arrest. Choo was arrested while allegedly taking seven Singaporean tourists and six Malaysia tourists out to fish in Bintan waters. The vessel was flying a Malabo flag, a city in Africa. The tourists were deported a few days after undergoing questioning by the Indonesian Navy. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Balikpapan Fri, July 1 2016 Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo said that his side was ready to rescue seven seamen taken hostage by militants in the Philippines, pending an agreement between both countries to enable the military to enter the waters of the neighboring country. Gatot told reporters at the Mulawarman Military Command (Kodam) in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, on Wednesday night that the cooperation with related institutions in the Philippines was needed to rescue the crew members taken hostage by militants of Abu Sayyaf and Al Habbsy, a separatist group in the southern region of the Philippines. Gatot said that constitutionally, the Philippines would not let a foreign military operate in its jurisdiction. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Haeril Halim and Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, July 1 2016 The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is set to expand the scope of its investigation into a recent bribery case implicating Democratic Party politician I Putu Sudiartana. The commission will summon officials from the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry after finding out that the bribe Putu allegedly received was related to infrastructure projects in West Sumatra. Putu, a member of House of Representatives Commission III overseeing legal affairs, allegedly acted as a broker to secure for a businessman 12 road construction projects worth Rp 300 billion (US$22 million) despite the fact he had no authority to deal with infrastructure issues at the House. The KPK is looking into the possibility that Putu, who represents Bali, not West Sumatra, in the House, collaborated with officials from the ministry and members of House Commission V overseeing infrastructure to discuss the budget for the projects. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, July 1 2016 Mining business: Several trucks cart away material at the Batu Hijau copper mine that is managed by PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NTT) in West Sumbawa regency, West Nusa Tenggara, in 2010. Oil and gas company PT Medco Energi Internasional announced on Thursday it would acquire PT Amman Mineral Internasional which owns an 82.2 percent stake in NNT for US$2.6 billion. (JP/R. Berto Wedhatama) Oil and gas firm PT Medco Energi Internasional (Medco Energi) has formally agreed to take over a controlling stake in the local arm of global mining giant Newmont Mining Corp., in a deal worth US$2.6 billion. On Thursday, Medco Energi announced it would acquire PT Amman Mineral Internasional (AMI), which owns an 82.2 percent stake in Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT), operator of the countrys second-largest copper and gold mine. AMI purchased its NTT shares from Newmont Mining Corp. and Sumitomo Corporation. The Medco Energi group joined forces with AP Investment to acquire AMIs shares with the support of three state-owned banks Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) and Bank Rayat Indonesia (BRI). Medco Energi president director Hilmi Panigoro said the acquisition would strengthen the companys position as a leading energy firm in Indonesia and demonstrate its commitment to national energy development. This transaction is immediately accretive for Medco Energi given NNTs world scale operation, he said in a press release obtained by The Jakarta Post. The acquisition is now awaiting approval from the government and Medco Energis stakeholders. Newmont decided to sell its local business following the countrys decision to ban raw ore shipments in January 2014 and to put a progressive tax on concentrates, a semi-processed ore that is shipped to smelters for processing into finished metal. The policy is part of the governments plan to add more value to the countrys mineral processing industries and push mining corporations to develop their own smelters. Medco Energi founder Arifin Panigoro claimed in April that President Joko Jokowi Widodo had agreed to an Indonesian consortium buying the controlling stake in NNT. However, months went by without any news of the acquisition. NNT currently holds a contract of work, signed in 1986, to operate the Batu Hijau mine in West Nusa Tenggara, the second-biggest copper and gold mine in Indonesia after Freeport McMorans Grasberg site. Newmont was also supposed to have divested a 7 percent stake to the government in 2011. However, the process met some obstacles and was halted. Separately, the government has confirmed that it is aware of Medco Energis plan to take over NNT. We have been informed [of the planned acquisition]. The next step for [Medco Energi] is to request the governments approval for the acquisition, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry mineral and coal director general Bambang Gatot Ariyono told the Post. -------------- to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dylan Amirio (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, July 1 2016 Indonesian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are taking advantage of the unique methods of engagement that online services offer them and potential customers. The owner of Jakarta-based desserts maker PUYO Desserts, Adrian Agus, owes much of his brands success to intensive online campaigns through various social media and messaging apps. By connecting directly with his customers through these platforms, Adrian has been able to find a quick way for his colorful home-made puddings to capture the public eye. Shortly after he started the business in 2013, Adrian found that social media greatly helped his marketing operations at little cost. In the beginning, PUYOs marketing campaigns mostly centered on Instagram where it slowly gained traction and attracted loyal followers. Social media campaigns have been very effective for the business. Right now, were holding a lot of competitions on Instagram, he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday, elaborating on the creative engagement that Instagram offers between customer and vendor. Gradually, PUYO has branched out to Twitter and LINE to help sell its products, with the use of these services operational tools such as LINEs LINE@ service, which enables the user to send mass messages to all customers that follow its LINE account. Japanese-based LINE Corporation itself describes the Line@ feature in its messaging app as the same as broadcast messaging. The company, however, says that the idea is more specifically aimed at nurturing businesses. Currently, PUYO has over 59,600 followers on its Instagram account and has evolved from being a home-based business in 2013 to having 22 outlets across Greater Jakarta. Meanwhile, the social apps behind these successes are increasingly aware of their role in the small business sector. Apps such as LINE, KakaoTalk, WeChat or WhatsApp have had their purposes extended beyond the simple text message, with some apps gradually rolling out new features that help small businesses thrive or become more efficient. LINE Indonesias head of marketing Galuh Chandrakirana explained that the rollouts of the companys newer features such as Line for PC, Line Group Call and Line Today would help small businesses in making their operations more mobile, as mobility is becoming more emphasized in todays business world, with SMEs able to benefit from these services through trimming their costs. Features such as Line for PC, which can be opened from desktops, are not geared necessarily for SMEs but it serves to help them cut communications costs. However, we do plan to roll out a feature which is specifically designed to help that sector in the next month or two, she elaborated. Currently, LINE has recorded over 1 million downloads in Indonesia comprising small businesses including online shops, offline retailers, specific communities and bloggers. Up to 40 percent of that figure is active businesses who utilize LINE in their practices. Indonesia has the highest number of SMEs in Southeast Asia, with over 50 million operating nationwide, however, only 1 percent of these are officially connected online. Last month, the government announced its cooperation with online SME promotion service Nurbaya Initiatives to explore new ways of encouraging SMEs to tap into the digital eras potential. Collaborating with state-owned postal company PT Pos Indonesia, Nurbaya is targeting to bring 2 million SMEs online within the next two years. The company will assign a facilitator to provide each participating SME with advice on online promotion, including the setting up of online stores and payment platforms. Nurbaya will also assign a relationship manager to every online shop, allowing clients to focus on production. By our collaboration with the postal service, SMEs will have help in terms of logistics and quality control, Nurbayas CEO Andy Sjarif said. -------------- To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Prima Wirayani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2, 2016 The government is using a stick and carrot strategy to lure and force taxpayers to report their unregistered wealth and assets to the tax office, while guaranteeing confidentiality and providing easy and comfortable services to those who are ready to make full disclosure to the government. President Joko Jokowi Widodo, who attended the official launch of the tax amnesty implementation on Friday, warned that he had complete data on dubious taxpayers and those who had assets parked offshore. The President said he would invite and urge them, whom he claimed were nearly all businesspeople, to join the amnesty program. This is a one-time chance. Those who want to use it, go ahead. Those who dont, be careful, Jokowi stated. Many businesspeople flocked to the tax office on Friday, but they were not there to apply for such a pardon because the required infrastructure was not ready. They were just invited for the launch. Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro also stated his office was still preparing three ministerial regulations to implement the Tax Amnesty Law and would launch them after Idul Fitri next week. The full implementation [of the Tax Amnesty Law] will take place after Lebaran, Bambang said, referring to the local term of Idul Fitri. The government initially plans to apply the law on July 1 until March 31 next year. The law will give a tax pardon to Indonesians whose assets have not been declared or registered to the tax authority by paying a penalty, with rates ranging from 2 to 10 percent, depending on the application period and whether they will repatriate their assets. If taxpayers decline to apply for the amnesty before it expires in March and the government later finds their undeclared assets, they will be required to pay 48 percent penalties plus normal corporation taxes of up to 25 percent and 30 percent income tax for individual taxpayers. The tax office has been carrying out preparations for months to ensure swift implementation. Special rooms will be designated at 341 tax offices across the country to handle tax amnesty applicants. Tax officials will be placed at Indonesian embassies in Singapore and London, as well as the Indonesian Consulate General in Hong Kong to give such services. Tax officials in charge and working in the rooms are not allowed to take their cell phones or any other devices inside that can be used to take pictures, as all taxpayer data must be kept discreet. The submission of tax amnesty applications and their supporting documents must be done offline, despite the form being available online, to minimize data cracking risks during the uploading process. An information and technology system and application with a separate security system, database and server aims at ensuring tax amnesty and regular tax data does not get mixed up, said tax office information and communication technology transformation director Iwan Djuniardi during a separate event on Thursday. The applicants data will be stored using barcodes for identification instead of the taxpayers names to ensure confidentiality and the data centers will be located in Makassar in South Sulawesi and Jambi. Officials access to the data will be limited. Stakeholders can easily check the tax amnesty progress in real time through the application, Iwan said. The tax office will also publish the tax amnesty report regularly to the public, said the offices spokesperson, Hestu Yoga Saksama, on Friday. Tycoon Aburizal Bakrie, who attended the Friday event, said nearly all businesspeople were interested in joining the program because in 2018, Indonesia would implement the Automatic Exchange of Information, which would shed light on dubious assets. This is extraordinarily brave of President Jokowi, who consistently tries to bring back assets, said the owner of Bakrie Group. Maspion Group president director Alim Markus told reporters he would join the amnesty and declare a plot of his land. He invited his colleagues to follow suit as the declared and repatriated assets could be used to fund their business expansions. ___________________________ To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News. For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin I Wayan Juniarta (The Jakarta Post) Sat, July 2 2016 CasCades at The viceroy bali offers sort of a political alliance of chefs, minus the messy intrigueand with a lot more taste. To call the feast as sumptuously delectable would be an understatement. First of all, I was seated next to Petty Elliott, a lovely lady whose grace and impeccable fashion taste was matched by a generosity in sharing her culinary insights. Petty, a renowned Indonesian chef and author based in Jakarta, has no restaurant, instead choosing to run cooking classes and private dining events while consulting for high-profile establishments. Earlier this year, Petty became the first Indonesian chef invited to the World Gourmet Summit, a premier celebration of gastronomy in Singapore. She is a patient teacher with infectious enthusiasm. It took her three hours to enlighten me, a journalist more conversant with the types of assault rifles than the differences between champagne and chardonnay, on the intricacies of fine dining and, more importantly, on the cultural importance of food. And that was precisely what the feast was all about: An intercultural culinary exploration. Held at CasCades restaurant at Viceroy Balia luxurious hideaway in Ubud featuring stunning villas and gorgeous natural landscapesthe evening was presented as Four Hands: A Michelin Dinner and featured the works of two distinguished chefs. The nights superstar was Shinobu Namae, the chef/owner of Tokyos two-Michelin-star LEffervescence. A disciple of Michel Bras and Heston Blumenthal, the soft-spoken Shinobu is one of the chefs leading Japans new wave of gastronomy and is among a few who are fanatic about using fresh, organic produce, all the time. Shinobus collaborator was CasCades resident chef, the charming Nic Vanderbeeken, who over 16 years has worked at several Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe before turning his eyes to Vietnam, and, later, Bali. Vanderbeekens fine-dining menu, which balances Indonesian and Asian flavors with sophisticated European dishes, has elevated CasCades into one of the islands most distinguished restaurants. The dishes born out of their collaboration were magnificent, evidenced by the adulatory chatter heard around the table throughout the evening. Yet, it was the collaboration itself, an ongoing initiative CasCades to give Indonesian food exposure by bringing in world-class chefs to team up with Indonesian peers, that elevated the event. The feast was prepared long before Chef Nics thrilling canapesone was a catch-of-the-day tartar on black rice kerupuk with sour tamarind gel and saucho pepper oilwere served to an eclectic group of guests, who included, among others, chef Will Goldfarb of Manhattans (and now Ubuds) Room 4 Dessert. He arrived notebook in hand, proclaiming that he was on sabbatical and was there to learn. One month earlier, chefs Nic, Petty and Shinobu travelled to a fish market in Jimbaran, an organic farm in central Bali, a chocolate factory in Petang and a local market in Ubud to gain first-hand experience on the local produce, available herbs and spices, and, most importantly, the cultural values and symbolism the Balinese attach to their culinary tradition. Friendships were forged and a mutual admiration of each others respective culinary traditions was established. This collaboration is an important initiative. It broadens our horizon and spurs interest toward our local food. I have a feeling that in two or three years, Indonesian food will go global. This kind of initiative is critical in making our food better known and appreciated by international chefs, Petty said. Her contemporary interpretations of Indonesian foods were presented at a fabulous dinner in May at the Viceroy. On the menu were comfort foods from her hometown of Manado, such as raw tuna ikan gohu and slow-cooked pork neck babi tinongraksak. My approach is to stay loyal to the taste and character of regional Indonesian cuisine while providing modern twists to align with current culinary trends, Petty said. The approach was shared by Nic and Shinobu. Their full-course, wine-pairing dinner was a tour-de-force of fusion gastronomy, with dishes that would make any Balinese feel both at home and at a distant land at the same time. On the menu were sea grapes, seaweed, long beans, scallop, sea urchin cream with yuzu-kosho and nori; a foie gras terrine (pinot de Bali, rujak salad, carambola, kluwek reduction, pickled green radish, ginger bread crumble and soil), and a grilled chicken in bamboo with sambal matah, urab, sweet potato infused with curry and vadouvan, jamu emulsion and dehydrated serundeng. The tastes were warmly familiar and yet intriguingly strange. My favorite was the canang sari, a Canadian lobster served with lacto-fermented finger cucumbers, watermelon, indigenous tomato, lemongrass oil and edible flowers. Gorgeous to behold, heavenly to taste; the dish was named after the most common Balinese Hindu offering of fresh flowers and leaves in a rectangular container of plaited coconut leaves. Petty recalled that during their visit to Ubud market, Shinobu was mesmerized by the sight of local women selling various kinds of colorful offerings, so he decided to create that special dish. Namae gave a brief introduction to the dish. His words not only captured the foods raison detre as well as the essence of the chefs intercultural gastronomy discourse. I want to show my respect to the local gods. My cooking is my offering to them. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Corry Elyda (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2 2016 In spite of the reverberations from a fake-vaccine scandal, business is as strong as ever at East Jakartas Pramuka Market, the largest pharmaceutical hub in the city. The market was recently singled out by Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) chairman Tengku Bahdar Johan Hamid as a source of fake vaccines. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 2 (PTI) Finance Minister Arun Jaitleys personal assets have declined by Rs 2.8 crore in the fiscal year ended March 2016, to Rs 69.13 crore mainly on account of drop in balance in his bank accounts. In his annual Declaration of Assets and Liabilities for 2015-16, Jaitley, who owns three residential properties in the national capital and one each in Haryana, Gujarat and Punjab, besides a 3,600 sq ft plot in Faridabad and 5,453 sq ft commercial property in Gurgaon, put value of his immovable properties at Rs 35.21 crore, unchanged from the previous fiscal. advertisement However, his balance in three HDFC and one SBI Bank accounts declined to Rs 1 crore from Rs 3.52 crore at the end of March 31, 2015. Deposits in other companies, including Enpro Oils Ltd and DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd were unchanged at Rs 17 crore. His cash in hand dropped to Rs 65.29 lakh from Rs 95.35 lakh in March 2015. This together with PPF and other investments totalled to Rs 11 crore, down from Rs 11.24 crore. He had showed an investment of Rs 21.70 lakh in his declaration for 2014-15 which was not there in the 2015-16 declaration. Jaitley, who is the first Cabinet minister to declare assets for 2015-16, said quantity of gold and silver holdings with him was unchanged but the value of precious jewellery with him increased to Rs 1.86 crore at the end of March 2016, from Rs 1.76 crore in March 2015 mainly due to appreciation in gold price. Taking into account the assets, including gold, silver, diamonds and bank and cash balance, held by his wife Sangeeta Jaitley, the total asset of the minister comes to Rs 69.13 crore at the end of March 2016. It was Rs 71.95 crore in March 2015. (MORE) PTI JD ANZ ABK --- ENDS --- Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Hilmar Farid and Casper Klynge (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2 2016 Are you aware of the transformative potential that arts and culture can have in supporting progress toward a peaceful, inclusive and prosperous society? Few of us realize it, but by providing spaces for dialogue, or non-violent means of expression, arts and culture have an important role to play. Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world spread across some 17,000 islands and home to more than 300 ethnic groups and 700 local languages. This makes for a rich cultural heritage, and the principle of unity in diversity is indeed also part of the countrys Constitution. But maintaining unity in diversity is an ongoing project: Tapping into Indonesias rich cultural heritage holds great potential for building bridges and reconciling different communities that may otherwise be divided by ethnicity, religion, politics or other factors. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2 2016 Major nickel producer PT Vale Indonesia appointed former Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) head Mahendra Siregar as its new independent commissioner on Friday, replacing Arief T. Surowidjojo. Pak Ariefs tenure has ended [in April 2016]. Hence, we have held a shareholders meeting, because the position is currently vacant, Vale chief financial officer Febriany Eddy said. Besides being an ex-BKPM head, Mahendra was also formerly deputy finance minister and commissioner of state-owned mining company PT Aneka Tambang (Antam). to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2, 2016 Recent expansion of a free-visa policy and aggressive promotion have proved a boon for Indonesias tourist industry, with foreign visitor arrivals in May once more exceeding 900,000, a monthly figure traditionally not reached until the latter months of the year. The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) announced on Friday that total foreign visitors had reached 915,200 in May, topping 900,000 for a third consecutive month. Of the total number, Australian visitors accounted for 101,857, while those from China amounted to 110,035. The figures increased on both monthly and yearly bases. The BPS attributed the positive development to the governments recent decision to introduce free 30-day visas for citizens of dozens of countries, including Australia, in March. Tourism Minister Arief Yahya has previously said the government expects to see the number of Australian visitors increase by around 20 percent this year as a result of the policy. Data from the Tourism Ministry show that most tourists from the neighboring country entered Indonesia through Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali between January and May, with 411,768 visitors. Ratna Suranti, deputy assistant to the international tourism marketing strategy division at the Tourism Ministry, said that many international events were held in May that had attracted visitors. They included [sports and recreation event] Bali Interhash 2016, which involved around 6,000 global participants and helped trigger the rise in foreign tourist arrivals there, she said. For some Australians, Bali is like a second home, one of their favorite places. And with the free-visa policy, it is easier for them to come, Ratna added. The ministrys efforts to promote Indonesia have also born fruit, as reflected in the higher number of Chinese visitors. The ministry has embarked on several promotional tours to secondary cities in China outside Beijing and Shanghai for the past few months to attract new tourists. At the same time, national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has also opened new routes to nine secondary cities in China, namely Chengdu, Chengzhou, Chong Qin, Harbin, Jinan, Kunming, Ningbo, Shenyang and Xian. In total, Garuda now plies 26 routes to China, including to Beijing and Guangzhou, from Jakarta and Bali, which is, as with Australians, Chinese tourists main point of arrival in the archipelago. Meanwhile, data from the BPS show that the total number of foreign visitors has reached 4.12 million so far this year. Most of them entered Indonesia through regular entry points, such as Ngurah Rai airport and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, and only a few entered the country overland. With the May result, the government has realized almost 40 percent of its full-year foreign visitor target. It has set 12 million as the target for 2016, an increase from 10 million visitors last year. Separately, Jajang Gunawijaya, a tourism observer from the University of Indonesia, called on the government to keep improving the quality of tourism services to ensure repeated visits in the future. The government should improve the service of public transportation, fix damaged roads or even upgrade the signal of BTS [base transceiver station] towers at popular tourist destinations. Jajang also proposed that the Tourism Ministry coordinate with the Communications and Information Ministry and the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry, adding that regional administration needed also to lend a hand to develop local travel agencies to welcome foreign tourists. (vps) ____________________________________ To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News. For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Sat, July 2 2016 Words Ika Krismantari Photos Jerry Adiguna Oscar Lawalata made a striking personal decision recently, when he decided to wave goodbye to his signature long straight hair and get a masculine cut with a slight curl on the edges. I did it [the cutting] in stages [] I ended up this short. I just want my hair to be healthier, so I cut it short and it turns out to be nice, Oscar said. Thanks to the new haircut, perhaps the comparisons with actress Dian Sastrowardoyo, who many argue is the designers doppelganger, will stop. Other than the haircut, everything else remains physically the same with Oscar. Wearing a gorgeous blue batik suit with khaki pants, the 38-year-old is still as lovely as ever, with his attractive gestures and so softly spoken that he utters his words in a whisper. His perspective on his craft has changed markedly, however. He sees himself looking for something bigger than fashion design: art. When I see fashion designers in general, I dont think I see myself fitting in that picture. Fashion designers normally deal with retailers and designs but not me [] I am an artist. His claim sounds valid from his exhibition earlier this year at the National Museum in Jakarta, where he showed his most recent collection in art installations. I like [art] exhibitions more [] fashion shows require big budgets and they end in only 15 to 20 minutes, but with an exhibition, it can last from morning until afternoon and allows people to absorb more, he said. Oscars distinctive approach to fashion design also displays his craftsmanship as an artist. I make a design in a way that people can still see the original fabric, he said. From his design and work, people can tell that promoting Indonesian traditional culture has always been high on Oscars agenda. His initiative behind the I Am Indonesian movement is more solid proof. Oscar launched the movement recently to encourage Indonesians from different professions and walks of life to promote and preserve their own culture. A thinker and well-organized individual, Oscar planned the launch for more than two years and the movement will be conducted in phases, with the initial target of women. Next year, we will target children, he said, adding that men and the young generation would be his next target. For some, Oscar has become an unofficial cultural ambassador for Indonesia in many foreign countries due to his frequent involvement in cultural events organized by Indonesian embassies abroad. Oscar said he enjoyed the role because he could also satisfy his wanderlust for travel. Recently, he went to Monaco to present Indonesian traditional cloths to the royal family in an event organized by the Indonesian Embassy in France. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2, 2016 The government has given an assurance that all security personnel will be on standby and alert to secure public places from any terror attacks during the Idul Fitri holiday. Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said his office had coordinated with all related stakeholders including the Transportation Ministry, Indonesian Military (TNI), as well as the National Police to safeguard crucial public facilities, particularly airports, where terror attacks could possibly occur. "We have prepared security for airports that face a potentially greater threat. TNI and National Police personnel will guard the airports both openly and behind the scenes," Luhut said on Friday. Idul Fitri will fall on July 6-7. So far, the government has yet to identify any imminent threat from terrorist groups including the Islamic State (IS) movement in the country, Luhut said, adding that the successful break up of terrorist networks in Indonesia, including the latest one in Surabaya, East Java, recently, had contributed to reducing the threat level. The National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) as well as the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) will continue to work to identify and tackle the threats, Luhut added. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2, 2016 The government has decided to speed up the process of establishing its National Cyber Agency. To boost Indonesia's cyber security, regulations are now scheduled to be in place by July, a minister said on Friday. The government continues to deliberate institutional details to be included in the regulation, including the cyber agency's position in regard to other government agencies, Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara said. The regulation is expected to be complete by July 11 in the form of a presidential decree or government regulation managed by Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry. "The agency is to have broad cyber issue-related sectors to handle," he added. The government has set several priority sectors; financial and banking, air transportation, as well as energy and mineral resources, Rudiantara said, adding that his office had deliberated on standardization that would protect business. While details remain unclear as to whether the agency is to be established under an existing agency or would be developed independently, it is clear that the agency is expected to coordinate defense against cyber-attacks and crime, as well as to protect State information and data. Cyber-attacks in Indonesia have grown at alarming rate in recent years, rising 33 percent in 2015, according to data provided by the Coordinating Ministry of Political, Legal and Security Affairs. The data suggests that 54.5 percent of the attacks were aimed at e-commerce-related websites. (rin) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2 2016 Ten houses on Jl. Menteng Atas, Setiabudi subdistrict, South Jakarta, were destroyed by fire on Friday, thought to be as a result of an electrical short circuit. The South Jakarta Fire and Rescue Agency, Setiabudi sector, head Prawito said the fire started at around 5 p.m. when residents were preparing to break their fast. The blaze spread rapidly to nine other houses nearby. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Bekasi Sat, July 2 2016 The Awal Bros Hospital in Bekasi, West Java, says it will appeal after the Bekasi District Court ordered the hospital to pay compensation to the family of a patient who died in the hospital. On Monday, the court found the hospital guilty of malpractice in the death of 14-month-old Falya Raafani Blegur in November last year. The hospital was ordered to pay Rp 205 million (US$15,580) in compensation to Falyas family. The judges decision and the verdict are legally baseless and are erroneous, the hospitals legal team told The Jakarta Post in a statement. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login TheJakartaPost Please Update your browser Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below. Just click on the icons to get to the download page. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2, 2016 Thousands of vehicles were recorded on the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road from Friday evening to Saturday morning as the mass exodus of people heading home for Idul Fitri neared its peak. Between 6 p.m. on Friday and 6 a.m. on Saturday, 117,800 vehicles passed the toll gate from Jakarta onto the Cikampek toll road, Jakarta-Cikampek toll gate chief Hervian said. The number increased from the same period last year, when 100,254 vehicles were recorded. Meanwhile, vehicles exiting the toll road heading to Jakarta were recorded at 74,810 vehicles. The Idul Fitri exodus surged on Friday, with the toll road authority seeing a 45 percent increase in vehicles from regular days. Cikampek is the main toll road for Jakarta residents heading to West, Central and East Java. (rin) By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 2 (PTI) Actress Kareena Kapoor Khan, who is expecting her first child in December, will begin the shooting of her next film "Veere Di Wedding" in August. Soon after the news of Kareenas pregnancy broke out today, speculations were rife whether she would complete the filming of "Veere Di Wedding", which stars Sonam Kapoor and is second home production of her sister Rhea Kapoor. advertisement Sonam, Kareena, Swara Bhaskar and newcomer Shikha Talsania are teaming for the chick flick, directed by "Khubsoorat" fame Shashanka Ghosh. The film celebrates the spirit of modern Indian woman where Sonam and Kareena will play best friends. "Bebo (Kareenas nick name) is a thorough professional and she will start shoot of the film in August. Much like the spirit of our film, which celebrates the modern girl, Kareena is going on with her work and life as usual. We are proud to have her (in the film)," Rhea, one of the producers of "Veere Di Wedding", said in a statement here. The "Aisha" producer said she is happy for Kareena and Saif, who are expecting their first child in December. "Ekta Kapoor (producer) and I with our families and companies are delighted and excited for Kareena and Saif. As producers of Veere Di Wedding we are thrilled to be part of their special journey," she said. There were also reports that the "Jab We Met" actress was also going to be part of Rohit Shettys "Golmaal 4". She was also offered Ajay Devgns "Baadshaho", but Kareena did not sign the film. Industry sources, however, said that Kareena has not been offered "Golmaal 4". "Golmaal 4 has not been offered to her yet as the work on the script is still going on. She will continue to shoot for Veere Di Wedding till October and will also do brand endorsements and shoots during this period," sources said. The 35-year-old actress was seen has had two big releases this year with R Balkis "Ki and Ka" opposite Arjun Kapoor and Abhishek Chaubeys drug-drama "Udta Punjab". PTI KKP ARS JCH BAS --- ENDS --- Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dewanti A. Wardhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2 2016 Almost 50 years after the border trade agreement between Indonesia and Malaysia was first ratified, the two countries are finally set to renew the agreement, adjusting it in accordance with changing times. The cross border trade agreement was ratified in 1970 and many things have changed since then. We want to modernize and update the agreement, Trade Minister Thomas Lembong told reporters in Jakarta recently. The Indonesia-Malaysia Border Trade Agreement (BTA) agreement regulates the kinds of goods that are allowed to be traded by both countries along the border area. It stipulates that those who own a Cross Border Identity Card (KILB) would not be burdened with import duties in cross border trade activities involving goods that are valued at less than 600 ringgit (US$150). to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2, 2016 Indonesia and the Philippines are forging ahead to finalize negotiations on overlapping maritime boundaries, the move comes following a meeting between the foreign ministers of both countries on Friday, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry. The neighboring countries signed a maritime border accord in 2014 on the overlapping exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Indonesian Celebes Sea and the Philippine Mindanao Sea. "[We] have both agreed on the need to accelerate the settlement of negotiations on the continental shelf boundaries of the two countries," Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said in a press statement following a meeting with her Philippines counterpart Perfecto Yasay in Manila on Friday. Retno is the first foreign dignitary to meet with the new Philippines foreign secretary. The meeting was a day after the inauguration of the new administration under President Rodrigo Duterte on June 30. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Douglas Broderick (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2 2016 War is tearing lives apart. Its destroying homes and schools, killing children and devastating entire countries. The need for professional and well-equipped peacekeeping forces and personnel is greater than ever before. Conflict has resulted in the highest number of displaced people since World War II, with 65 million people risking their lives, searching for places safer than home. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja (The Strait Times) Jakarta Sat, July 2, 2016 Property sector needs reform to attract investments, says minister. Indonesia plans to issue an emergency law - known as a perppu - to break an impasse of more than a decade in efforts to streamline unfriendly laws as the country aims to allow foreigners to purchase apartments in Indonesia. The government had in the past repeatedly tried to move forward and set regulations to allow foreigners to own apartments in South-east Asia's biggest economy. But they were never able to get these implemented because the basic stipulation under Indonesia's 1960 Agrarian Law is that foreigners just cannot own homes in the country, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan said. "But the era has changed now. The property sector needs a reform so we could attract foreign investment. Foreigners should be allowed to buy apartments - but not landed houses - even if they don't hold Kitas (Indonesia's residence permit)," Luhut told The Straits Times. "It is similar to that in Singapore," he added. Indonesia's Constitution gives the President the right to issue a rule in lieu of law (perppu) when he determines that an emergency in the country requires it. A perppu is immediately effective after the President signs it, and Parliament can either let it remain effective or end it within a year after the perppu is issued. Luhut said the perppu that covers a new rule allowing foreign investors to buy apartments is one of between four and five perppu that Indonesia plans to issue by August, to resolve other obstacles hindering the government reform programme. "This is a revolutionary step to address such problems," he said. A so-called debottlenecking working committee has been set up to identify problematic and protracted clauses in all laws. "We will comb all legislations that overlap with each other," Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, who heads the working committee, told The Straits Times. The perppu will supersede only the problematic clauses in each law and serve to bypass them, Luhut said. He added that one perppu could address problems in five to more than 10 existing laws, and about 80 per cent to 90 per cent of the existing laws can be harmonised. Issuing perppu is a normal practice that some foreign governments, such as the United States, also use, Luhut said, adding that the term used in the US is "presidential Act". In May, President Joko Widodo signed a perppu that allows courts to increase penalties for sex crimes, which include for the first time chemical castration and death sentence, after the media highlighted a growing number of attacks against children. Previously, the maximum sentence for a child sex offence was 15 years' jail. Indonesians have mostly welcomed the move. Amending existing laws through the normal process, by proposing Bills to Indonesian Parliament, can drag on for several years, and in some cases, proposed Bills were thrown out. Numerous government reform programs in Indonesia in the past decades have hit a snag due to conflicting laws that need amendment. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Achmad Izzul Waro (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2 2016 After increasing the number of buses in the Transjakarta fleet, Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama has asked the police to supervise bus lanes to keep them free of other vehicles. With the exceptions of ambulances, fire trucks and the President and Vice President, the firmness of the governor and the police should be appreciated as a step forward in the citys commitment to a better road-based mass transit system. With adequate infrastructure and funding as well as strong political commitments from the municipality and the police, people can hope for better Transjakarta rapid transit services. Indeed, on the first day of the initiative on June 13, the enforcement of keeping the lanes clear was widely praised by netizens who have become loyal users of Transjakarta as travel times reduced. But too often, promises evaporate along with the arrival of other, more popular issues. One of our weaknesses is in obeying the rules when no one is watching. However, with the higher volume of traffic and the heat and rain, it would be inhumane and ineffective to assign the task of keeping bus lanes empty to only the police. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2, 2016 Seven Indonesian sailors held hostages by militant groups in The Philippines are reported to have been divided into two groups and sent to locations on different islands in the southern Philippines, Defense Ministry Ryamizard Ryacudu said on Friday. "Three people have been taken to Lapac Island, while four remain in Panamao, Jolo Island. [The distance] is about 64 kilometers," Ryamizard said on Friday, discussing the location of the sailors kidnapped in Philippine waters on June 20. The main reason behind the transfer remains unknown, but the government suspects that the decision to separate the sailors may be related to financial interest. Recently-inaugurated President Rodrigo Duterte continues to allow Indonesia to assist Philippines military personnel, Ryamizard said. Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan acknowledged that the information on the transfer of three Indonesian sailors to Lavac Island was correct. He further explained that the government could not disclose any further information as it could be dangerous for the hostages. Indonesia respected the inter-country cooperation efforts to secure the hostages, he said, adding that the government was dependent on information provided by Philippines intelligence agencies. Meanwhile, Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo said that -- even though both countries had tracked the current location of the hostages -- the militants might keep moving, taking the sailors along with them. "TNI plan to keep updated on the status of the seven Indonesian sailors and the demands from their kidnappers," Gatot said. (rin) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Djoko Subinarto (The Jakarta Post) Cimahi Sat, July 2 2016 Muslims across Indonesia will be observing Idul Fitri, or Lebaran, marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadhan, most likely on July 5. As usual, millions of Indonesians rich and poor, men and women, young and old will cram into busses, ferries, trains and motorcycles, and pour out of the major cities to return to their hometowns, in a movement popularly known as mudik, to celebrate Lebaran with families, friends and relatives. The word mudik is derived from the word udik meaning rural areas. Many Indonesians living in major cities, either for work or study, come from rural areas. At least once a year, they return to their hometowns. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ina Parlina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2 2016 The fasting month, especially in scorching hot Jakarta, can be challenging for some, if not an excuse to slow down; but not at the State Palace, or any place else where President Joko Jokowi Widodo is present. Jokowi, known for his impromptu style of leadership, has not slowed down during the fasting month and continues asserting his work, work, work, work principle. It has been amid thirst and hunger that he has made some of his toughest decisions. The President took a short tour of five areas in Greater Jakarta on a hot day last week to inspect toll road projects that have been stalled for years. Most of the people attending the events appeared tired, but not the President. Jokowis pace did not slacken in the evening as he hosted an Islamic event at the Palace. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kentaro Nakajima (The Japan News) Tokyo Sat, July 2, 2016 If Kim Jong Un does turn his attention to the outside world, what kind of foreign policies will be devised by the man who declared North Korea a nuclear power again at its first party congress in 36 years? In July 2000, a Group of Eight summit meeting was held in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who arrived late, spoke to the other world leaders about a meeting he had with then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang two days before. According to Putin, Kim suddenly opened a window to look outside during their two-hour talk. It was at that moment that Putin urged him to engage with the international community. We, the Russian Federation, were born after the Soviet Union was dissolved. Why dont you go into the outside world? he said. At that time, six years had passed since the death of Kims father, Kim Il Sung. Kim Jong Il actively became involved in foreign policy after he met Putin. In June 2000, Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung held the first highest-level meeting between their nations. Then, in September 2002, Kim Jong Il admitted to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that his nation had abducted Japanese nationals. Koizumi was the first Japanese prime minister to visit North Korea. Considering it took six years for Kim Jong Il to consolidate power as leader and get involved in foreign affairs, it may be time for Chairman of the Workers Party of Korea Kim Jong Un to turn his eyes to the outside world. It has been 4 years since he inherited power from his late father in December 2011. If Kim Jong Un does turn his attention to the outside world, what kind of foreign policies will be devised by the man who declared North Korea a nuclear power again at its first party congress in 36 years? A South Korean expert on North Korea, who has influence over the South Korean governments policy toward the North, said Kim Jong Un could declare a moratorium on testing nuclear bombs. We have already successfully fielded nuclear weapons in our country; we do not need another test. Based on this logic, the expert predicted that Kim Jong Un could start inviting other nations to dialogue, including the United States. The expert said: If China, which has close relations with Pyongyang, changes from a policy of sanctions to a policy of dialogue, the effectiveness of sanctions could be weakened and the menace of the Norths nuclear bombs would remain. This would be the worst-case scenario for Japan and South Korea. Ri Su Yong, a deputy chairmen of the Workers Party of Korea and a close aide to Kim Jong Un, met Chinese President Xi Jinping on June 1. This was the first meeting between Xi and a member of the North Korean leadership in three years, and while it is still unclear how Ri responded to Xis request for the North to denuclearise, it is possible that they engaged in very deep conversation. The US presidential election will be held in November, and South Korea has a presidential election in December next year. The foundations of South Korean President Park Geun-hyes administration, which has a hard stance on North Korea, are becoming unstable. According to a former South Korean minister, North Korea will start utilising these external factors to shake up the international community in the near future. North Koreas leadership seems to be considering its next move and contemplating the uncertain global situation. Now is the most important time for countries including Japan, the United States and South Korea to cooperate in dealing with North Koreas moves. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2, 2016 `Thousands of travelers thronged Pulogadung Bus Station in East Jakarta on Saturday to return to their hometowns across Java for Idul Fitri celebrations as part of a mass exodus from the capital. Many people waited patiently for their buses to depart while sitting on the floor in the limited facilities of the dated bus station. Among them was Imelda Noviaputri, a Madurese woman heading to Bangkalan on her native island in East Java with her family. With her were boxes full of food and along with bags of clothes. Pulogadung had increased activities following the peak of the mass exodus that began on Friday evening. Separately, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Cmr. Awi Setiyono said toll roads had started to see vehicles lining up to enter toll gates. Heavy congestion was reported at gates including Cibubur in East Jakarta, Cengkareng in West Jakarta, Karang Tengah in Tangerang and Cikarut in Bekasi, according to police reports. The Jakarta Police have meanwhile put in place a contra-flow system on the Jakarta-Cikampek toll route from kilometer 52 to 61 since 08:45 a.m. as part of efforts to ease congestion on the toll road. (rin) By PTI: Colombo, Jul 2 (PTI) Sri Lanka today appointed a new Central Bank governor after protests by the opposition against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghes handpicked nominee for the post. "We welcome the appointment of a well respected professional," joint opposition leader Dinesh Gunawardena said. Indrajith Coomaraswamy, 66, was appointed by President Maithripala Sirisena after weeks of protests by civil society activists and the opposition against the incumbent Arjuna Mahendran. advertisement Mahendran, also a Tamil like his successor, was brought in from Singapore to head the central bank with the victory of Sirisena in January 2015. He was soon accused of conflict of interest as a firm linked to his son-in-law was involved in an alleged scam in the sale of Central Bank bonds. Mahendran was suspected of handing him inside information in bond sales. Wickremesinghe had defended his nominee against accusations and said he could not be removed without a proper investigation. Mahendran was under fire for bad management of the local economy and there were growing calls for his sacking. Coomaraswamy is a former national rugby captain who had served in the Central bank previously in addition to being attached to the Commonwealth Secretariat. PTI Corr KUN --- ENDS --- Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Anggi M. Lubis (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2 2016 As the new Philippine government assumes power, Indonesia has asked its neighboring country for determined measures to secure the release of seven Indonesian sailors abducted by the Abu Sayyaf group, and to guarantee safety in the Sulu waters, emphasizing that abductions cannot be tolerated. Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi traveled to Manila to meet her counterpart Perfecto Rivas Yasay Jr. on Friday, a day after the latter was sworn in for his position under the newly elected President Rodrigu Rody Roa Duterte, to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Sat, July 2 2016 Sweden aims to be one of the worlds first fossil fuel-free welfare nations by 2030. Having developed its fossil-free Sweden initiative, the Nordic country has begun to invite other countries to develop similar programs. The Jakarta Posts Imanuddin Razak was among a number of international journalists recently invited by the Swedish government to take a closer look at how the cycle of planning, implementation and evaluation is ensured and executed. Swedens spirit and commitment for environmental protection is not an overnight creation. The nation survived sociopolitical and economic hardship and managed to turn that hardship into opportunity. Its desire to become one of the worlds first fossil fuel-free welfare nations arose from a focus toward continuous improvement. Ever since the oil crisis of the early 1970s, Sweden has invested seriously in the search for alternative energy sources. In 1970, oil accounted for more than 75 percent of Swedish energy supplies; today, the figure is around 20 percent, mainly due to a decline in the use of oil for residential heating. Few countries consume more energy per capita than Sweden, however, Swedish carbon emissions are low compared to those of other countries. According to the latest statistics from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the average Swede releases 4.25 tons of carbon dioxide (CO) per year into the atmosphere, compared with the EU average of 6.91 tons and the US average of 16.15 tons. Sweden has found a way to reduce emissions as its economy grows. The reason for this low emission rate is that 83 percent of electricity production in Sweden comes from nuclear and hydroelectric power. Cogeneration from combined heat and power (CHP) plants account for 10 percent of the electricity output in Sweden, and these are mainly powered by biofuel. About 7 percent of the electricity comes from wind power. Although the results are a representation of the collective effort of the Swedish people, the role of the government in establishing the general principles and guidelines for its implementation cannot be neglected. It was decided that Sweden would be a fossil-free nation in the transport sector by 2030 and that a complete reduction of carbon footprint would be achieved by 2045. The capital city, Stockholm, announced that it plans to be a fossil fuel-free city by 2050. Swedish Minister of Infrastructure, Anna Johansson, explained the reasoning behind the Swedish governments environment protection policy, particularly in regards with the transport sector. Our strong belief is that continuing to lean on fossil fuel and fossil sources is not sustainable. We need to find other ways of filling our energy needs, Anna told visiting international journalists. We know that a lot of countries depend on oil for their transportation systems, but in order for the planet to survive, we need to make a change. It [abandoning fossil-fuel] is not a choice anymore. We have to do it for the sake of human life, she added. The minister reminded journalists of the statement made by Barack Obama on Jan. 28, 2014, during his State of the Union address. The shift to a cleaner energy economy wont happen overnight, and it will require tough choices along the way [] And when our childrens children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want us to be able to say yes, we did, Obama said. Sweden wants people to know that living without fossil fuel is not only necessary, but should be a sought after short-term goal. There seems to have been a recent increase in the number of small nations or islands setting their sights on becoming increasingly, or completely, powered by non-fossil fuel energy sources, particularly renewables such as solar, wind and hydroelectric power. This is welcome news in a world that despite recent attempts to tackle climate change by the US and China remains relatively paralyzed in its ability to make substantial changes to how it deals with climate change. Sweden appears to have taken this phenomenon seriously. The government announced in late 2015 that they would spend an extra US$546 million on renewable energy and climate change action, beginning with their budget for 2016. The ultimate aim is to become among the worlds first nations to end its dependence on fossil fuels. Solar energy, in particular, has seen an 800 percent budget increase. The Ecologist reports that Sweden is also closing its nuclear power plants, although this is mainly due to aging infrastructure. Nevertheless, no replacements have been planned. It should be pointed out that nuclear power plants are often lumped together with fossil fuel power plants as being just as harmful to the environment. However, in terms of climate change, nuclear power plants have a negligible carbon footprint and are thus considered to be more in line with renewables. Despite eschewing nuclear power, Sweden is on track to become a nation solely powered by sustainable, renewable energy sources, which is a remarkable feat. Two-thirds of the countrys electricity is generated from non-fossil fuel energy sources already, mainly through hydroelectric and nuclear power generation. It will be interesting to see how replacing their nuclear power plants with renewables will hamper or assist them on their path to becoming a fossil fuel-free nation. wIndonesia, with an abundance of wind and solar energy sources as well as potentials in biomass and other non-fossil fuel energies, should indeed be able to set its own policy on environmental preservation. While, in view of Indonesias different natural characteristics and sociopolitical conditions, it does not necessarily need to imitate what the Swedish government has been doing, we should at least be able to adopt the spirit and commitment established by the former. There is nothing wrong with being a copycat if it means that all nations join hands to save humanity. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2, 2016 Indofood CBP Sukses Makmur, the instant noodle unit of publicly listed food giant Indofood, is providing free rides for thousands of Indomie food stalls vendors across the capital to return to their hometowns for Idul Fitri. The company, widely known for instant noodle brand Indomie, dispatched 11,302 noodle stall owners on Saturday using 198 buses to several parts of Java as part of the company's social responsibility program. As well as in Jakarta, the company also provided free bus rides to several cites in Java such as Bandung in West Java, Semarang in Central Java and Malang in East Java from June 29 to July 2. "Idul Fitri is a special time, so we want all of the food stalls' owners, who are our loyal partners, to safely arrive in their hometowns," Indofood CBP director Taufik Wiraatmadja said during the dispatch of the travelers in Ancol, North Jakarta, on Saturday. Meanwhile, Wahyu Hidayat, an owner of an Indomie food stall, said he welcomed the service, adding that it was the 16th year he had returned to his hometown of Kuningan, West Java, facilitated by the company. (vny/rin) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Djemi Amnifu (The Jakarta Post) Kupang Sat, July 2 2016 East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Police have named three suspects in a human trafficking case pertaining to the suspicious death of Dolfina Abuk, an Indonesian migrant worker in Malaysia. The three were identified as JP and YM of Timor Tengah Utara (TTU) regency and AS of Kupang city. They had recruited Dolfina. We are developing the case to break up the human trafficking network in NTT, NTT Police chief Brig. Gen. E. Widyo Sunaryo told reporters in Kupang on Friday. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Sat, July 2 2016 Aceh might not seem the most Instagrammable destination in Indonesia. However, many people overlook that the province is famous for its dazzling and inspiring Islamic imagery and artas well as for its beautiful vistas and cultural attractions. Banda Aceh is likely to be your point of entry into the province, so lets start there. Apart from the citys famed Baiturrahman Mosque, Banda Aceh has a host of memorable places that youll want to show people back home, whether youre remembering the disaster that struck the province in 2004 at the Tsunami Museum or looking to visit nearly unheard of destinations, such as Taman Sari Gunongan. Lets have a closer look at some of these quaint places and then visit some secluded islands. Prepare to update your feed! Taman Sari Gunongan Looking like a giant birthday cake with white icing, Taman Sari Gunongan was previously a water park of sorts, where the sultans of Aceh would bathe, swim and relax. Unlike Taman Sari in Jogjakarta, which has become a famous tourist attraction, Taman Sari Gunongan in Banda Aceh is very quietalmost hidden behind the trees. We went there twice, in the afternoon and midday, and it was empty both times. Located in Sukaramai in Banda Aceh. There a romantic story behind this beautiful spot. It was built as an expression of love by Sultan Iskandar Muda of Aceh (1607-1636) for his queen, Putri Kamailah of Pahang, Malaysia. The queen used to spend her leisure time in this park whenever she missed her hometown. #tamansari #bandaaceh to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Deng Yanzi (China Daily) Beijing Sat, July 2, 2016 China-Philippines relations could improve in the coming year, said former Philippine president Fidel V Ramos. An improvement in relations between China and the Philippines is in sight through deeper people-to-people engagement, according to former Philippine president Fidel V Ramos, who has urged the leaders of the two countries to meet soon. China-Philippines relations could improve in the coming year, the 88-year-old told China Daily Asia Weekly, but the two countries must promote more interaction among young people in areas such as education, art and music. The new Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has proposed to open bilateral talks with China after the ongoing arbitration tribunal announces its ruling on the South China Sea dispute. Ramos noted that the two countries had always been in talks through various informal channels despite the recent turbulence in their diplomatic ties. For example, the business communities of both countries had been engaged in back-channel talks to ensure the continuation of trade activities, he noted. Ramos hopes that Duterte will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping soon, preferably in his first year as Philippine president. Their cabinet colleagues should also meet at an early date, in his view. He called for a bigger role for the Philippines under Chinas Belt and Road Initiative the strategic Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road trading networks that seek to connect China with Europe, Asia and Africa through closer trade, infrastructure and people-to-people cooperation. The Philippines is located between two of the most important oceanic trading routes in the world the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea. Hence, it should occupy an important place in the Maritime Silk Road, Ramos said. With regard to the new administration, Ramos believes it is essential for Duterte to build an inclusive economy, which can benefit and empower people in general. Ramos, who served as president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998, steered the country during an economic crisis. During his term in office, the annual GDP growth rate averaged 5 per cent. The country is now one of Asias fastest-growing economies and recorded a GDP growth rate of 6.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2016. However, as the Philippines continues to be plagued by striking socioeconomic inequality, Ramos is concerned about the yawning gap between the rich and poor in terms of income, housing, education, health and longevity. The Philippine Statistics Authoritys figures for 2015 showed that more than 12 million Filipinos, who account for 12 per cent of the total population, were living in extreme poverty and unable to afford three meals a day. The top 10 per cent of Filipinos controlled 76 per cent of the countrys wealth, indicating an alarming wealth gap in the country, according to a Credit Suisse report in 2014. In his latest book, 2030: One World, One Community, One Family, Ramos detailed 17 sustainable development goals for the world, advocating initiatives for ending poverty and hunger, to global partnerships for sustainable development. In his view, the Philippines should follow this development agenda in the coming years. If the Philippines can spread the benefits of growth, and continue to do so for six to 10 years, including throughout the six-year term of the new Duterte administration, the country can successfully improve peoples livelihood, Ramos added. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ni Nyoman Wira (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, July 2, 2016 Indonesia may lose prospective students due to the timing of its state university entrance test. Universities abroad started entrance tests in November and December 2015, while Indonesia began the selection process for state university in February 2016, Technology, Research and Higher Education Minister Muhammad Nasir told kompas.com in Jakarta on Tuesday. The minister added that many students are reluctant to participate in the state university entrance test (SNMPTN or SBMPTN) because they have already been accepted at universities abroad. (Read also: ITB and UI, state-owned universities with highest acceptance score) The entrance process for state university entrance is divided into stages. First, students are required to provide their final report for selection, known as SNMPTN. Second, students participate in a large-scale test, SBMPTN. Then, at the end of June, Independent Track starts. Meanwhile, universities abroad boast a simplified process and reportedly allow students to use a language certificate or TOEFL in addition to other required documents to aid the process. I hope the selection process can be conducted without any unnecessary limitations, the minister said. (kes) (lead article) Socialist Workers Party is your party Actively introducing the party to thousands Militant/Jacob Perasso The Socialist Workers Party is organizing to sell thousands of copies ofover the coming months, while campaigning among working people coast to coast. Communist Leagues around the world will do likewise. The new book by SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes (see adjacent review) is a key part of the program of the Socialist Workers Party. SWP candidates around the country will encourage everyone they meet to get, read and help distribute the book as a central part of their campaign. We will use the book to introduce working people and youth to the party while going door to door in towns small and large, on the picket lines of workers standing up to capitalist greed, at demonstrations to defend womens right to choose abortion, and at protests against deportations of immigrant workers. Growing numbers of workers, in the United States and beyond, are looking for answers to the economic crises, unending wars, attacks on political rights and other effects of world capitalism. The most important answer the working class needs is to see who we are: the creative, producing class that in the course of fighting for solidarity and against every form of exploitation and oppression will change ourselves and each other and open the road to overturn the dictatorship of capital we live under. I think workers sooner or later will come together and make a revolution. It will either be epic or it will be chaos, said Chantel Berard, a maintenance worker, when SWP campaigners knocked on her door in Winooski, Vermont, June 28. SWP supporter Dale Torberg responded that a revolution needs leadership. The Cuban Revolution was led by people who were few in the beginning but they had a clear program and perspective, he said. That is what the Socialist Workers Party is building in this country. Berard got a copy of Are They Rich, Because Theyre Smart?, a Militant subscription, and took a petition sheet to help put the SWP ticket of Alyson Kennedy for president and Osborne Hart for vice president on the ballot in Vermont. Two dozen other workers bought copies of the book in four days of campaigning in Vermont, including Mark Cherrier, a truck driver in Saint Albans. Cherrier said he was pleased to hear that the SWP is getting a good response in talking to working people across the United States, Its about time people started getting fed up, he said. Kelsey Brooks lives in South Burlington and works at a gas station. She asked to take some extra leaflets for the Socialist Workers Party campaign. I know a bunch of disgruntled co-workers who will want to support this, she said. This is just scratching the surface of whats possible. If campaigners act boldly, workers who are attracted to the partys revolutionary perspective will want to help get Are They Rich Because Theyre Smart? around as well. Defend womens right to abortion SWP presidential candidate Kennedy took part in the June 24-26 50th anniversary conference of the National Organization for Women in Washington, D.C. She joined hundreds of supporters of the right to choose abortion who celebrated outside the Supreme Court June 27, as the court issued a ruling overturning a Texas law aimed at drastically restricting womens access to abortion. Sabrina Larez, a student at Diablo Valley College in California who met Kennedy at the NOW conference, joined her at the rally sporting an SWP campaign button reading Its not who youre against, its what youre for. Larez described how her campus Womens Empowerment club had mobilized 30 students to counter a handful of anti-abortion protesters who showed up with big signs with the school administrations permission and in the name of science. That sounds like a good experience, Kennedy said. Countermobilizations have been an important part of how abortion was won and how it can be defended and give us confidence in ourselves. At the conference, Kennedy, accompanied by James Harris, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. president in 2012, campaigned and introduced the party to many of the almost 500 participants. The partys table in the exhibit room was a center for discussion on a broad range of questions from the vote in the United Kingdom to leave the European Union to the roots of the war in Syria. Several people commented on the eye-catching cover and title of Are They Rich Because Theyre Smart? Thirteen bought copies, including a student whose parents are farmworkers and a woman whose father was a United Auto Workers member and millwright in Detroit. Rose Garrity, a long-time activist in the fight against domestic violence, visited the table four times, picking up books each time. We are so brainwashed to identify with the wealthy ruling class, and what good has that done us? she said. Id like to get a copy of Is Socialist Revolution in the U.S. Possible? for everyone I know. You should come to a conference Im organizing in October. They call us stupid when we resist It seems we are always called stupid when we stand up for ourselves, Terri Binkerd told SWP campaigners who knocked on her door in Bountiful, Utah, June 28. At least workers in the U.K. did something about the crisis they face, she said. When Rose Engstrom showed her Are They Rich Because Theyre Smart? Binkerd commented, Im a teacher and I see that every day. Education is not about learning, its more about belittling. We need to start over with the whole thing. It cant stay this way. She asked them to come back in two days so she can get the book, a Militant subscription and continue the discussion. For the last 10 years Ive been an example of what youre talking about, said Chuck Lawrence in his front yard in Orem when campaigners raised how workers have been hit by capitalisms worldwide economic crisis. After being laid off from RR Donnelley, he finally found work at another printing company. His new job conditions were bad, So we got together and organized into the Teamsters union, he said. Im not voting, Lawrence said. I dont like any of them, Democrats or Republicans. Others at work think like this. We need to build a mass movement of millions of workers that fights to end the dictatorship of capital, SWP campaigner, Maggie Trowe responded. As we defend ourselves from the effects of the depression we will gain more confidence that we can organize society. The SWP candidates are campaigning to raise this. After more discussion, Lawrence subscribed to the Militant and bought Are They Rich Because Theyre Smart? and Is Socialist Revolution in the U.S. Possible? Im going to take these to work to read them, he said. In Utah, where the Socialist Workers Party has a long history of participating in working-class struggles, campaigners are also organizing to put the party on the ballot. Karen Stockert, a home health care worker who drove from Heber City to join the campaigning, remarked, We met workers at three different houses who remembered the struggle of miners at the Co-Op mine in Huntington that Alyson Kennedy was a part of. They were glad to hear she was the partys candidate. On the ballot in Minnesota On June 14, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon certified that Kennedy and Hart will appear on the November ballot. In May and June, SWP supporters campaigned door to door in every corner of the state, in big cities and small towns 48 in all. They introduced their party and its program to a broad cross section of workers, speaking with supporters of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders as well as many who did not support any of the capitalist politicians. In three weeks, 161 workers subscribed to the Militant, more than 2,400 signed to put the party on the ballot, and 42 books on the partys perspective and program were sold. Now is the opportunity to go back and continue the discussions, using Are They Rich Because Theyre Smart? Chris Hoeppner in Vermont, Jacquie Henderson in Utah, David Rosenfeld in Minnesota and Arlene Rubinstein in Washington, D.C. contributed to this article. Related articles: A book about the capacity of workers Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home (front page) US colonial exploitation of Puerto Rico has not changed UNITED NATIONS As working people in Puerto Rico are battered by a deepening crisis, and moves by Washington lay bare its denial of Puerto Rican sovereignty, supporters of independence took their fight to the U.N. Special Committee on Decolonization. Almost all of the nearly 60 people who addressed the annual hearing on the status of the island nation demanded freedom for long-time independence fighter Oscar Lopez, including those opposed to the independence movement. In 1950, Washington claimed that Puerto Rico was becoming a self-governing territory. But speaker after speaker at the June 20 hearing stated that, in fact, Puerto Rico has never ceased being a U.S. colony. Recent developments leave no room for the illusions, facades and deceits which have prevailed regarding the political status of Puerto Rico, said Olga Sanabria for the Committee for Puerto Rico at the United Nations. The continued imprisonment of Lopez, she added, symbolizes the brutal imperial domination the people of Puerto Rico have been subjected to for more than 118 years, as well as their resistance. (See box on page 6.) Lopez called from the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, and spoke with members of the U.N. committee during the hearing. The committee chair announced plans to visit him in prison later this year. His daughter Clarisa Lopez told the committee that her fathers love for equality, justice and independence for Puerto Rico are intact. Many of those testifying referred to two U.S. Supreme Court decisions that highlight the colonial status of Puerto Rico. On June 13 the court ruled that the islands government is barred from adopting its own bankruptcy laws. The week before the court held that the government of Puerto Rico is not sovereign and derives all its power from the U.S. Congress. Speakers also denounced a federal bill backed by the Democratic and Republican parties and President Barack Obama that would give control of the finances and budget of the islands colonial government to a seven-member board appointed by the U.S. president, to ensure that Puerto Ricos $70 billion public debt is paid on the backs of working people. The bondholders and hedge funds want to use the debt as a guillotine against the rights of our people, Pedro Irene Maymi, representing the CPT union federation, told the hearing. It is unpayable. Supporters of the two main colonial parties in Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla of the ruling Popular Democratic Party, which wants to keep the island as a U.S. commonwealth, and Ricardo Rossello, head of the New Progressive Party, which says it should become the 51st U.S. state denounced the recent U.S. moves at the hearing. Both parties have been fighting for the right of the Puerto Rican government to declare bankruptcy and are chafing at Washingtons arrogance. Their goal is little different from that of the fiscal control board, but they want to ensure a greater say in the restructuring of Puerto Ricos debt by the islands capitalist class. And both parties have been responsible for layoffs of more than 30,000 government workers, cuts in pensions, closing schools, hikes in taxes paid by working people and other measures undertaken to pay the burgeoning debt. The Supreme Court decisions and the bill before Congress creating a fiscal board have made it clear that nothing has changed in the U.S. colonial relation to Puerto Rico, said Iris Colon Dipini on behalf of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico. Our crisis is deeply rooted in Puerto Ricos exploitation as a colony. Who owes whom? Hector Pesquera, co-chair of the National Hostosiano Independence Movement, noted that after Washington invaded Puerto Rico in 1898 small farmers were forced to sell their land to U.S. agribusiness. Then they imposed U.S. citizenship on us to recruit our youth for the First World War. Since then we have been cannon fodder for the invading army, he said. In addition, the U.S. military caused billons of dollars of damage to the environment and health of the residents of the islands of Culebra and Vieques, using them as a bombing range for more than six decades until forced out by mass protests. Pesquera noted that U.S. companies take billions of dollars of profits out of Puerto Rico every year, while driving small stores and farmers out of business. So who owes whom? he said. Workers the hardest hit Workers have been the hardest hit, we are the ones who have been more harshly weighed down by the consequences of the crisis, said Irene Maymi. Hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters have lost their jobs, many have been forced to emigrate, principally to the United States, making up what is now the largest migration in our history. The fight for Puerto Ricos independence is also in the interests of the vast majority of the people of the United States, said Alyson Kennedy, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. president. The people of Puerto Rico and working people in the U.S. have common interests, a common enemy, a common struggle. The crisis in Puerto Rico is opening new opportunities, said Manuel Melendez Lavandero, speaking for A Call to Action on Puerto Rico, based in New York. Today there is a people that is beginning to look with curiosity at the possibility of an independent Puerto Rico. The U.N. Special Committee approved by consensus a resolution presented by Cuban Ambassador Humberto Rivero Rosario calling for the General Assembly to schedule a discussion on the status of Puerto Rico and for the committee to facilitate dialogue between Washington and Puerto Rico on self-determination and independence. The people of Puerto Rico continue to be unable to exercise their legitimate right to genuine self-determination, Rivero said. Despite U.S. economic, political and social domination, this sister nation has maintained its deep-rooted and unwavering vocation for independence, a cause always supported by revolutionary Cuba. The U.N. testimony capped a weekend of activity that began with a meeting to back the fight for independence of more than 200 at the 1199SEIU union hall in New York, organized by A Call to Action on Puerto Rico. Several of the speakers at the hearing joined a late afternoon protest outside the United Nations calling for freedom for Oscar Lopez as part of an international day of action. Related articles: Independence for Puerto Rico is in interest of workers in US Who is Oscar Lopez Rivera? Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home (front page) State Dept. rift shows US imperialisms Syria quandary A rift within the U.S. government became public in mid-June when an internal State Department dissent channel memo disagreeing with President Barack Obamas course in Syria was leaked to the press. Signed by 51 diplomats, the memo calls for using missiles and airstrikes against the Bashar al-Assad regime. The Obama administrations course has been to direct U.S. airstrikes against Islamic State, give limited aid to Kurdish forces in northern Syria who have been the most effective force against Islamic State and to rely on cooperation from Moscow to rein in the Assad regime. Obamas 2012 declaration of a red line in Syria if the regime used chemical weapons, turned out to be a bluff. Instead, viewing Assad as the lesser evil to Islamic State, Washington under Obama has collaborated with Moscow and Tehran, which back Assad, to try to bring some stability to the country. The memo says, A more muscular military posture under U.S. leadership would underpin and propel a new and reinvigorated diplomatic initiative and that Washington should take measures to ensure that the Syrian regimes warplanes are grounded. The release of the memo, the number of diplomats who have signed and its criticism of the course of the commander in chief of U.S. imperialism in the midst of a shooting war is unprecedented. Washingtons has more than 4,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq and 300 special forces in Syria. Secretary of State John Kerry, former CIA Director David Petraeus and former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton all argued for a similar approach presented in the memo. In an interview with CBS June 20, Vice President Joe Biden reiterated the administrations line that Assads rule is the lesser evil. Pointing to the ouster of Libyas President Muammar Gadhafi through military operations by U.S. and other imperialist powers that has led to chaos there, Biden drew the analogy to Syria. Hes gone. What happens? Doesnt the country disintegrate? Tell me what were going to do. The next day Kerry met with eight of the 51 dissenting diplomats. The New York Times description that the session was an unusual one, is accurate both for Kerrys personal views and that the meeting took place at all. Paraphrasing the conversation, the Times reported that Kerry told the diplomats, What would happen if American forces came into an accidental confrontation with the Russian Air Force, which has defended Mr. Assad? What if American pilots were shot down? The State Department split comes from the inability of U.S. imperialism to put in power an alternative to the Assad regime no matter what tactics are tried. The more than five-year-long civil war began after the Assad regime based on a narrow layer of capitalist families, mostly from the Alawite minority, a branch of Shiite Islam attacked massive protests demanding political rights and the end of his dictatorial rule. In the absence of any working-class leadership, Islamist and secular groups based among the Sunni Muslims who make up 75 percent of the country began competing for territory and fighting government forces. At the same time Kurdish fighters have taken advantage of the conflict to establish an autonomous region in the north. Nearly half a million people have been killed. More than half of Syrias 23 million people are displaced, with millions in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, and hundreds of thousands seeking refuge in Europe. According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, the Assad government has killed many times more civilians than has the reactionary Islamic State. As part of a Washington-Moscow brokered cease-fire agreed to in February that rapidly fell apart, the Assad government agreed to allow food deliveries to some areas besieged by Syrian government forces. Food was delivered for the first time in four years to Daraya, a rebel-held town outside of Damascus June 10, but the same day Syrian military aircraft bombed the town, hampering distribution of the aid. U.S. forces expand role in Afghanistan The Obama administration in early June approved a more aggressive use of U.S. troops and airstrikes in Afghanistan in battles against the Taliban, who now control more areas of the country than at any time since the 2001 U.S. invasion. There are about 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the majority of whom function as part of NATO operations there. The White House had previously announced plans to reduce its forces by nearly half this year, but is now reconsidering this, according to Reuters. In mid-June NATO decided not to go through with a troop reduction and closure of bases there. Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home By India Today Web Desk: Alright...alright...alright, Mr McConaughey is soon going to be teaching film students in University of Texas, Austin. The Dallas Buyers Club actor, happens to be an alumnus of the same institution and will be joining the faculty alongside his Free State of Jones director, Gary Ross. The actor attended the University of Texas at Austin College of Communication, in which he pursued a Bachelor's degree in Film-Television-Radio. he graduated in 1993, only to go on to star in Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused, which won him fame inside Hollywood. advertisement ALSO READ: Matthew McConaughey wants to return to True Detective. McConaughey will be teaching a class of 30 students, where he will be teaching by taking them behind the scenes on sets of Free State of Jones in recorded videos. He is expected to visit the campus intermittently. The 46-year old actor is currently shooting for Stephen King's The Dark Tower, where he plays baddie Walter Padick. The film is scheduled to hit the screens on Feb 17, 2017. --- ENDS --- (front page) Leave vote in UK puts nail in coffin of unified Europe illusion LONDON Millions of workers in the United Kingdom voted June 23 in their large majority to leave the European Union. The vote was another nail in the coffin of the myth of a united Europe. Some prominent politicians and sections of the bourgeois media in the U.K., the EU and the U.S. immediately slandered working people who had the audacity to vote to leave, saying they were noncosmopolitan, racist, stupid, uneducated, anti-immigrant lowlifes. They charged that older workers and retirees were destroying the future of the youth. But far from a rise in racist, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment, the vote showed workers determination to oppose being forced to pay for the capitalist economic crisis. The fear campaign for a Remain vote directed by the capitalist rulers and large sections of both the Conservative and Labour parties predicting doom in the event of an exit backfired. In the U.K. as a whole Leave won 52 percent of the vote with large majorities in England and Wales while Remain got 48 percent. In both Scotland and Northern Ireland, a majority voted for Remain. This is the first time a member state has voted to leave the European Union, a shifting alliance of rival states dominated by German imperialism. Real wages in the U.K. have fallen since 2010. The number of workers forced into so-called zero hour contracts, with no guaranteed level of work hours and income, has risen 15 percent in the past two years. None of the capitalist parties from Britain to continental Europe have any solution to the crisis. Some workers interviewed on TV and radio said that the vote represented two fingers to the establishment. Forklift operator Michael Wake, in the working-class town of Sunderland, England, told the New York Times the vote to leave was an opportunity to poke the eye of the London establishment. Ricky Dobson, a factory worker from Basildon in Essex, told the Militant he was angered by the threat by Chancellor George Osborne (the British equivalent of finance minister) to impose a punishment budget that included tax hikes on workers income if the vote to leave carried. Rulers blame working people The capitalist rulers in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States were taken by surprise by the result, blaming working people for the post-referendum plunge in stock market prices around the world. But stocks rapidly recovered. The volatility is nothing new given the wild speculation that marks the market in the midst of the world capitalist economic crisis. I dont have any money in the stock market, Ken Walker, a retired construction worker in Sunderland, said to the Times. So whats it to me? It cant get worse than whats been going on already, Maria Taylor, a florist in Sunderland, told the paper. The working class is completely hammered. Theyve sold us down the river. Workers who voted to Remain face the same conditions. Felicia Hypolite, a care worker from London, said she voted Remain because she thought the EU would help defend human rights. But the main issue in the U.K. is the low wages companies pay. The referendum changes nothing immediately in the U.K.s legal relations with other EU member states. The U.K. government will eventually open negotiations with the EU that will take years. Leave campaigner Conservative Boris Johnson raised the banner of British sovereignty seeking to convince workers that British bosses are better than foreign bosses. Another section of the Leave campaign, led by Nigel Farage, campaigned in opposition to the EUs free movement of labor, scapegoating mass immigration from EU member states and refugees entering the UK as the problem. United capitalist Europe impossible German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the vote as a blow to Europe and to the European unification process. The German rulers as well as rulers in France and elsewhere, promoted the EU as the beginning of a United States of Europe, an impossible dream under capitalism with each nation competing for markets with its rivals. Today, in the face of economic stagnation and the refugee crisis, far from moves to an ever closer union, borders are being reinforced across the continent. The German government, the strongest imperialist power in Europe, has used its domination of the EU and control of the euro to pillage the resources of weaker capitalist competitors from Greece to Spain. They also hoped to use the EU and the euro as a common currency to compete more effectively against their main rival, U.S. imperialism. In or out of the EU, workers in the U.K. will face a boss class that is determined to off-load the crisis onto their shoulders, as the competition, rivalries and tensions intensify between competing capitalist nations in Europe and around the world. Paul Davies is a worker at Ford Dagenham and a member of the Unite union and the Communist League. A teenager has become one of the UKs youngest ever airline pilots, putting most 19-year-olds' careers in the shadows. Luke Elsworth was offered a job with easyJet after taking one of the fastest possible routes to becoming qualified - and, thankfully, passing with flying colours (pun intented). He enrolled in the airlines pilot training programme at CTC Aviation in Southampton almost as soon as they would accept him just nine days after turning 18. Instead of going to university Luke enrolled in pilot training as soon as he was old enough (Tim Anderson/easyJet/PA) Elsworth completed the course which included six months on simulators and a stint flying light aircraft in Arizona, USA in 18 months and he was appointed as a first officer for easyJet in April. He holds a Multi-Crew Pilot Licence and is the youngest airline pilot in the UK, according to Civil Aviation Authority records. Asked whether he felt it was appropriate for someone of his age to fly passenger jets, Luke replied: I dont see why not. I really want to encourage more younger people to get into it. If youre good enough to be there, youve done the training and youre suited towards it then I dont think age really has an impact. Apparently he hasn't noticed any worried looks from passengers when they see him enter the cockpit - yet... It took 18 months for the teenager to qualify as a pilot for easyJet (Tim Anderson/easyJet/PA) Ive not had anything, he said. If there was a train driver that was 18 and hed been through all the training Id have complete trust in him. I wouldnt bat an eyelid. When questioned whether he would be able to cope with a mid-air emergency, Elsworth said: I would hope I would Theres no reason why I shouldnt be. Im comfortable flying the aircraft. Former British Airways pilot Eric Moody said he believes the age of a pilot has "got very little to do" with doing the job correctly, going on to say: Best of luck to the young lad, I hope he has a long and successful career. Its all down to competence. If hes good then its okay. Luke and his dad Captain Paul Elsworth (Tim Anderson/easyJet/PA) Elsworth, who grew up near Warrington, Cheshire, is now based at London Gatwick. He was adamant that despite his father, Paul, being an easyJet captain, he was never pressurised to join the profession. Id seen what it was like, he said. It was obviously something that was very exciting. It was always my choice. He described his first flight from Gatwick to Toulouse in the south of France as incredible, adding that he felt relaxed and comfortable in the environment - just as well, as manoeuvring what is essentially a large metal object with jet engines thousands of feet above the sky doesn't sound like a particularly comfortable environment in the first place. Pilots enjoy great views every day because its always sunny above the clouds, he added. He flies Airbus A319 and A320 planes and said every time he steps off an aircraft he turns around and feels excited to see the massive piece of machinery that youve just landed. Luke wants to encourage other young people to get into the industry (Tim Anderson/easyJet/PA) The 19-year-old insisted that he had no regrets about embarking on a career with such heavy responsibilities at such a young age. Maybe I sacrificed going to university, he said. On your days off you might not be going to the pub and drinking loads, but you can still go out and have fun. Its not as if youre constrained to being inside all day revising. You do get the opportunity to relax. I dont feel like Im missing out. He passed his driving test impressively just a few days after turning 17, and claimed he would have embarked on the pilot training course even earlier if he was allowed. His next step is to become a captain although despite his rapid progression that does not normally happen for at least eight years. Tentang Situs Slot Online Resmi MGS88 Nama Situs MGS88 Minimal Deposit Rp. 10.000,- (Sepuluh Ribu Rupiah) Proses Deposit 2 Menit Metode Deposit Bank Transfer, Pulsa, E-Wallet Judi Online Terbaik Slot Online, Judi Bola, Casino Online, Togel Online, Tembak Ikan Provider Slot Gacor Mudah Maxwin Pragmatic Play, PGSoft, MicroGaming, Habanero Slot Gacor Gampang Menang Gates of Olympus, Sweet Bonanza, Wild West Gold, Starlight Princess Win Rate 98% RTP Live Slot Gacor Tertinggi Hari Ini Terbaru Terlengkap Selamat datang di halaman RTP live dan informasi soal slot gacor hari ini dari situs MGS88 yang setiap hari selalu update. Berdasarkan RTP Live MGS88, Anda bisa mendapatkan informasi tentang slot online yang saat ini yang sedang Gacor atau onfire dengan persentase yang terbukti akurat, ini bisa menjadi rekomendasi anda sebelum memilih permainan slot online di situs MGS88. Cek RTP Slot sekarang juga bosku Klik Provider Slot Untuk Mengetahui RTP Slot Secara Real Time Selamat datang bagi kalian yang sedang mencari situs RTP Live terlengkap dan terkini hari ini. Sangat sesuai jika Anda mengunjungi website MGS88 RTP live untuk informasi tentang permainan slot yang lagi gacor dengan slot RTP yang terupdate. Persentase kemenangan yang kami berikan tentunya diambil dengan data yang sangat valid dan hanya untuk permainan slot yang tersedia di situs MGS88. RTP yang tersedia juga akan selalu diperbarui setiap hari berdasarkan level kemenangan yang diberikan kepada member kami. Memang sih untuk bermain slot itu tergantung hoki dari setiap pemain, Namun RTP live atau bocoran slot dari yang kami sediakan ini adalah data autentik dari banyaknya pemain yang telah bermain dan mencapai kemenangan tinggi. Sederhananya, kalau banyak pemain yang menang di dalam 1 permainan slot, karena itu permainan slot tersebut akan mempunyai persentase RTP yang sangat tinggi. Namun kami tegaskan sekali lagi, ini bukan sebuah paksaan kami situs MGS88 untuk anda bermain di game slot yang mana. Ini bisa dijadikan sebagai referensi atau tolok ukur, boleh dicoba kalau anda mempunyai feel yang kuat dalam memainkan permainan game slot. Anda dapat mengakses kapan saja dan di mana saja selama anda siap bermain. Jangan ragu untuk bertanya ya seputar pola putaran terhadap kami, sebab kami juga menyediakannya loh. Apa itu RTP Live? RTP Live ialah informasi mengenai persentase tertinggi saat ini dari hasil RTP Live dengan bocoran kemenangan pemain saat ini. RTP Live merupakan singkatan dari Return To Play atau bisa juga diartikan sebagai Return to Player. Karena itu, para pemain slot sekarang jika ingin mengetahui seberapa besar kemenangannya, bisa dengan memainkan permainan yang akan dimainkannya dan bisa untung dengan mudah dan tentunya maksimal. Apa itu RTP Slot? RTP Slot juga dikenal sebagai return to player atau pengembalian ke Pemain. RTP slot ialah persentase dari nilai pengembalian semua uang yang dipertaruhkan pemain dari waktu ke waktu. Dengan kata lain, RTP juga dianggap sebagai salah satu fitur slot yang mengembalikan uang pemain saat pemain kalah. Persentase digunakan untuk menghitung RTP dalam permainan slot. Misalnya, jika slot memiliki RTP 97%, itu berarti untuk setiap 100.000 koin yang hilang di slot, slot dapat mengembalikan 97.000. Jika Anda mengetahui RTP sebuah permainan slot, Anda dapat memutuskan permainan slot mana yang akan dimainkan tanpa kerugian besar. Apakah Angka Persentase RTP Slot Itu Penting? Biasanya pemain slot itu tidak memperhatikan RTP dalam permainan yang akan dimainkan, biasanya setelah anda mengisi saldo utama anda akan langsung buru-buru memainkannya. Yang terakhir 90-96% mempengaruhi jumlah kemenangan. Semakin tinggi jumlah RTP yang digunakan, semakin luas peluang untuk mendapatkan keuntungan. Akan namun itu segala tak secara 100% menjamin kemenangan kau dalam bermain, RTP itu cuma sebagai kalkulasi pengeluaran anda saja selama bermain slot.Dengan adanya RTP, kau dapat mengerjakan pengaturan atas uang yang akan kau pertaruhkan nanti pada ketika bermain.Untuk itu pada ketika kau bermain slot dan telah mengalami banyak kekalahan di satu permainan, direkomendasikan kau pindah ke permainan slot lainnya yang RTP nya lebih tinggi dari permainan yang tadi kau mainkan. Keuntungan Menggunakan Bocoran RTP Slot Hari Ini Situs MGS88 Akan dengan senang hati akan beberapa keuntungan yang didapatkan jika anda bermain slot dengan menggunakan RTP Live yang telah disediakan. Berikut Keuntungannya : Peluang Kemenangan Meningkat Tentu saja, saat bermain slot online, menang adalah hal yang paling penting. Di sinilah RTP berperan sebagai metode atau metode baru yang akan membantu Anda memilih permainan slot persentase tinggi. Mendapat variasi dalam Memainkan Game Slot Pastinya banyak pemain slot online yang hanya memainkan 3-5 permainan slot saja. Namun dengan RTP Live slot akan memberikan banyak game slot lain yang bisa anda coba. Tentunya semua permainan slot memiliki potensi kemenangan yang besar, jadi jangan hanya mengandalkan beberapa permainan saja. Menambah Pengalaman Dalam Bermain Slot Keuntungan terakhir adalah Anda tentu saja menambah pengalaman dan keahlian dalam permainan slot online. Dengan berbagai macam permainan slot yang dimainkan, Anda pasti mengetahui karakteristik dari setiap permainan slot yang Anda mainkan. Akibatnya, Anda pasti bisa dianggap sebagai pemain slot yang andal, yang pasti akan meningkatkan peluang Anda untuk menang besar menggunakan RTP. Daftar 8 Situs Dengan RTP Slot Live Tertinggi Hari Ini Ada banyak penyedia mesin slot online di internet. Tetapi tidak semuanya memiliki peluang tinggi atau RTP Live Slot yang sangat tinggi. Tapi jangan khawatir, berikut ini adalah situs slot gacor yang akan memberikan bocoran slot dengan RTP Live Tertinggi: RTP Live Slot Pragmatic Play (RTP Slot 97.85%) RTP Live Slot PG Soft (RTP Live 96.15%) RTP Live Slot Habanero (RTP Slot 95.89%) RTP Live Slot CQ9 (RTP Live 98.83%) RTP Live Slot Spade Gaming (RTP Live 94.99%) RTP Live Slot Micro Gaming (RTP Slot 95.39%) RTP Slot Live Top Trend Gaming (RTP Live 96.14%) RTP Slot Live JOKER123 (RTP Live 97.45%) Itulah Daftar 8 Provider Slot Gacor dengan RTP Live teratas diatas tentunya kami analisa terlebih dahulu. Anda bisa membuktikannya langsung dengan mengklik banner atau meprovider game slot yang sudah tersedia di atas. Saran kami yaitu Anda harus memainkan semua penyedia slot di atas untuk mencapai peluang kemenangan terbaik. Daftar Slot RTP Live Tertinggi Sering Kasih Jackpot Selain mempertimbangkan RTP Slot Gacor yang ada, sebenarnya ada banyak faktor penting untuk menang dalam permainan judi online. Sebab ada banyak game yang memiliki fitur dan mekanisme unik dan bisa membantu anda meraih Jackpot yang sangat besar. Berikut ini akan kami ulas daftar 5 game slot paling populer karena sering memberikan jackpot: RTP Live Gates of Olympus Gates of Olympus adalah game slot teraneh dan terbaik di Indonesia. Karena permainan mesin slot ini paling populer karena kakek Zeus dapat mengizinkan pengganda x500. Selain itu, fitur dan mekanik Gates of Olympus juga sangat menguntungkan untuk memenangkan Grand Jackpot. Secara teoritis, RTP slot langsung Gates of Olympus bernilai 96,50%, yang berarti peluang Anda untuk memenangkan MaxWin cukup tinggi. RTP live Sweet Bonanza Sweet Bonanza adalah permainan slot terpopuler kedua. Game slot bertema buah dan permen yang lezat ini sepertinya akan menarik banyak perhatian karena tergolong slot gacor yang mudah menang. Secara teoritis, slot Sweet Bonanza RTP bernilai 96,48%, yang berarti peluang Anda cukup tinggi untuk memenangkan jackpot. RTP Live Wild West Gold Wild West Gold adalah permainan slot bertema koboi yang juga populer di kalangan penggemar konspirasi. Permainan slot Wild West Gold sendiri kerap menawarkan kejutan jackpot bagi para pemainnya. Selain itu, nilai RTP Live Slot menunjukkan indeks tertinggi hari ini, yang berarti sangat layak dan sangat direkomendasikan. RTP Live Starlight Princess Slot Starlight Princess ini memiliki gaya dan fitur yang mirip dengan Gates of Olympus. Perbedaannya hanya pada desain dan karakter gamenya saja, karena memiliki fitur dan mekanik yang sama tentunya RTP slot teoritis pada game slot ini sama yaitu 96,50%. RTP Live Cash Elevator Mungkin sebagian dari Anda baru mengenal slot Cash Elevator. Namun dari data benchmark yang diungkap, ternyata banyak sekali yang menikmati permainan slot ini. Dengan fitur dan mekanisme unik seperti Lift up and down asli, slot ini juga memiliki slot RTP Live dasar 96,64% yang juga memiliki mekanisme yang sangat menguntungkan untuk memperlancar tingkat kemenangan besar. Bocoran Jam Main Slot Gacor Hari Ini Dalam bermain permainan slot online itu tidak bisa dilakukan dengan sembarangan yah. Jadi, Jika anda bermain pada waktu tertentu seperti yang akan kita bahas sesaat lagi, ada kemungkinan anda untuk mendapatkan kemenangan lebih tinggi. Jam RTP Slot Gacor merupakan bocoran jam main slot yang akan memberikan anda kapan waktu yang pas dalam bermain game slot. Tentu saja seluruh provider slot online memiliki jam tertentu dalam memberikan peluang kepada para pemainnya untuk mendapatkan kemenangan. Disini kami akan memberikan anda Bocoran Jam Slot Gacor yang Paling Akurat Hari ini: Jam Slot Gacor Pragmatic Play 02:30 WIB - Jam 05:25 WIB Jam Slot Gacor Habanero 14:26 WIB - Jam 17:38 WIB Jam Slot Gacor CQ9 00:45 WIB - Jam 05:53 WIB Jam Slot Gacor PG SOFT 14:25 WIB - Jam 17:35 WIB Jam Slot Gacor Joker123 17:41 WIB - Jam 20:42 WIB Jam Slot Gacor Microgaming 22:30 WIB - Jam 00:35 WIB MGS88: Situs Judi Slot Online Gacor Pay4D Resmi dan Terpercaya MGS88 adalah situs game slot online Gacor terbaru yang bermitra dengan Pay4D, Pay4D sendiri merupakan daftar situs game slot online terpercaya dengan berbagai macam permainan judi yang mudah dimenangkan seperti Game Bola, Casino Online, Slot Pay4D, Tembak Ikan dan Pay4D Online Permainan togel seperti Singapura, Hongkong, Sydney dan lain-lain. Tujuan utama kami adalah menjadi situs judi online Pay4D yang menyediakan layanan judi online terbaik di Indonesia. Kami juga salah satu situs resmi PAY4D di Indonesia yang pasti akan membayarkan semua kemenangan kepada semua member kami, karena kepercayaan dari semua member kami adalah prioritas utama kami sebagai mesin slot 4d Asia terbaik di Asia, khususnya di Indonesia. Dalam melakukan sistem transaksi sistem simpanan dapat dilakukan dengan mudah melalui mobile banking dan electronic banking berupa bank BCA, BSI, BRI, BNI, Cimb Niaga, Permata dan Mandiri. Selain itu, transaksi e-wallet juga tersedia melalui Dana, Gopay, LinkAja dan Ovo serta dapat digunakan untuk pulsa tanpa dipotong. Untuk mempermudah dan kenyamanan dalam melakukan registrasi atau melakukan setiap transaksi, MGS88 menyediakan layanan live chat dan Whatsapp terhubung langsung dengan customer service online 24 jam. Mengenal Istilah Dalam RTP SLOT Di slot RTP Live Anda akan melihat berbagai fitur yang mungkin tidak Anda pahami masing-masing. Namun jangan khawatir, disini sebagai situs slot gacor MGS88 kami akan memberikan penjelasan lengkap mengenai tentang istilah yang ada di RTP SLOT dibawah ini. By PTI: Srinagar, Jul 2 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today appealed to the employees of the state government to defer their demand for implementing the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations by at least two years in view of the states "very bad financial position". "I want to request our unions, our employees that the economic condition of our state is very bad," she said, adding the state government was facing numerous liabilities. advertisement "Around Rs 20,000 crore is missing from our provident fund. We cannot find it and while we were looking to fill the gaps, the Seventh Pay Commission awards have been announced," she said. "I request our employees that it is your state and you run it," the Chief Minister said, adding that the government was thinking about how to make 61,000 casual labourers permanent. If we have to give them employment, then I request the employees to defer their demand for implementing the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations for at least two years, she said speaking at the conclusion of the over month-long Budget Session in the Legislative Council. Mehbooba asked the employees for some time for the government to "sort out the financial mismanagement". "Let us first fight our problems and the financial mismanagement that has taken place. Till we are able to stand up on our legs, I request the leaders of our employees to give us some time. We have done it (implementing pay commission recommendations) in the past and we will do it," she said. The Chief Minister said the government was working towards addressing issues concerning the youth, particularly that of unemployment. "I understand the aspirations of the youth of Jammu and Kashmir. I have a vision for them and I want to assure them that my government, together with the Government of India, is working to address their issues, particularly that of unemployment, to the best of our collective abilities," she said, adding that this was "not a personal commitment but a pledge". The Chief Minister, apparently referring to the alleged suicide bid by an IAS officer, also asked officials, legislators and ministers to separate their personal life from public life. "Be it a legislator, minister or any officer, he should separate his personal life from his public life," she said, adding that this will not be tolerated in the future as it makes the whole system look bad. "I am not pointing towards an officer. I am talking generally because we get many complaints about legislators. I do not want to take names but this has happened and is wrong," said Mehbooba. "We should control our actions and should not do anything due to which our respect among the people is lowered," she added. PTI SSB MIJ RC SK SMN --- ENDS --- advertisement Deep Narayan Shah said that the Indo-Nepal relations have a history spanning thousands of years and no matter how much China may try, these blood relations between India and Nepal cannot be severed. By Siraj Qureshi: "The people of Nepal are displeased with the way China blocked India's way in joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and fully support Indian efforts to join this prestigious international group of countries." These were the sentiments of Nepal's Minister of State for Peace and Reconstruction Deep Narayan Shah, who was in Agra to attend an international conference of the 'Vaishy' community. INDO-NEPAL RELATIONS STRONG advertisement Shah said that the Indo-Nepal relations have a history spanning thousands of years and no matter how much China may try, these blood relations between India and Nepal cannot be severed. He said that India resides in the hearts of the Nepalis, with links from Janakpur to Ayodhya and Pashupati to Tirupati. He said that people in India think that Nepal is getting distant from India and closing in to China, but the reality is far different. In fact, the level of closeness between India and Nepal could not be achieved by China even it tries its best because Nepal is completely different from China culturally, while it has strong economic, cultural and filial ties to India. VAISHY COMMUNITY He said that 90 percent of the business in Nepal is in the hands of the 'Vaishy' community and out of 601 MPs, 125 belong to this community. This community holds the key to the dreams of financial prosperity of Nepal and only with India's support, could this be possible. S K Agarwal, a businessman linked with manufacturing industry from UAE said that the Vaishy community in the UAE is united, but in India they are divided. Only if the Vaishys in India became united, will they be able to freely conduct business here. He said that the Indian tax structure is very complex and needed a lot of simplification, with the abolition of income tax. ALSO READ: China opens new trade route to Nepal amid India tensions NSG entry: How China stonewalled India --- ENDS --- By PTI: London, Jul 2 (PTI) Eating a powdered food supplement based on a molecule produced by bacteria in the gut reduces cravings for high-calorie foods such as chocolate, cake and pizza and thus helps avoid weight gain, a new study has found. Scientists from Imperial College London (ICL) and the University of Glasgow in the UK asked 20 volunteers to consume a milkshake that either contained an ingredient called inulin-propionate ester or a type of fibre called inulin. advertisement Previous studies have shown bacteria in the gut release a compound called propionate when they digest the fibre inulin, which can signal to the brain to reduce appetite. However the inulin-propionate ester supplement releases much more propionate in the intestines than inulin alone. After drinking the milkshakes, the participants in the current study underwent a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, where they were shown pictures of various low or high calorie foods such as salad, fish and vegetables or chocolate, cake and pizza. Those who drank the milkshake containing inulin-propionate ester had less activity in areas of their brain linked to reward - but only when looking at the high calorie foods. These areas, called the caudate and the nucleus accumbens, found in the centre of the brain, have previously been linked to food cravings and the motivation to want a food. The volunteers also had to rate how appealing they found the foods. The results showed when they drank the milkshake with the inulin-propionate ester supplement they rated the high calorie foods as less appealing. In a second study, volunteers were given a bowl of pasta with tomato sauce, and asked to eat as much as they like. When participants drank the inulin-propionate ester, they ate 10 per cent less pasta than when they drank the milkshake that contained inulin alone. In a previous research, scientists found that overweight volunteers who added the inulin-propionate ester supplement to their food every day, gained less weight over six months compared to volunteers who added only inulin to their meals. "Our previous findings showed that people who ate this ingredient gained less weight - but we did not know why," said Professor Gary Frost, from the ICL. "This study is filling in a missing bit of the jigsaw - and shows that this supplement can decrease activity in brain areas associated with food reward at the same time as reducing the amount of food they eat," Frost said. He added that eating enough fibre to naturally produce similar amounts of propionate would be difficult. advertisement "The amount of inulin-propionate ester used in this study was 10g - which previous studies show increases propionate production by 2.5 times," Frost said. "To get the same increase from fibre alone, we would need to eat around 60g a day. At the moment, the UK average is 15g," he said. "If we add this to foods it could reduce the urge to consume high calorie foods," said Claire Byrne, a PhD researcher from ICL. PTI MHN MRJ --- ENDS --- Local resident hits the jackpot with B6 million lottery win PHUKET: A woman has won the first prize of the government lottery, a total of B6 million. By Eakkapop Thongtub Saturday 2 July 2016, 12:20PM The winning ticket was registered to Sasina Nukeaw. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub Sasina Nukeaw is 40-years-old and hails from Srisunthorn sub-district in Thalang. She registered her ticket with the Cherng Talay Police Station today (July 2). In Thailand, lottery tickets are drawn twice a month, which are the first day of the month and the 16th. Every ticket costs B80 and needs to purchased from agents, who receive the tickets from retailers. Sasina said she purchased her winning ticket from Ban Kien market in Thalang. Lottery tickets have six-digit numbers on them. Sasinas winning lottery number, released yesterday, is 082460. As she has two tickets, she can claim two prizes of B3 million, giving her a total of B6 million*. Upon winning, ticket owners usually report to their local police station to record ownership of the ticket, for verification in case it is stolen. Lt Phisit Nuphayan of Cherng Talay Police told The Phuket News that Ms Sasina did not say much, just recorded her winning ticket then left. Thailands lottery is hugely popular despite a low payout ratio 0f 60 per cent. The Thai Government Lottery Office prints out and sells tickets to wholesalers. You can find all the lottery results at www.thailotteryresults.com *Not B5mn as originally reported. The error is regretted, but we're even happier for Ms Sasina. Parks chief vows to up seized tiger care RATCHABURI: The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation says it will improve facilities for taking care of 146 tigers confiscated from the famous Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburis Sai Yok district. animals By Bangkok Post Saturday 2 July 2016, 12:11PM One of the 147 tigers seized from the Tiger Temple eats a raw chicken at Khao Prathap Chang Wildlife Breeding Centre in Ratchaburis Chom Bung district. Photo: Patipat Janthong The improvements aim to meet with standard animal welfare practices, said Adisorn Noochdamrong, the department's deputy chief, who yesterday (July 1) accompanied media on visits to two wildlife breeding centres in Ratchaburi looking after the 146 confiscated tigers. We will improve the living space for these tigers. We will enlarge each enclosure so each tiger will have a bigger space to exercise and relax, Mr Adisorn said. He said the department is waiting for an additional five-million baht to enlarge enclosures and build a two-kilometre double fence to ensure the safety of villagers living near the Khaozon Wildlife Breeding Centre in Chom Bueng district. The breeding centre is currently home to 62 of the confiscated tigers. Each animal lives in a 44-square metre enclosure split into two sections for sleeping and an open zone where they can exercise and bathe, MrAdisorn said, adding there is no large space for them to relax at the moment. The department took the media to visit Khaozon Wildlife Breeding Centre and Khao Pra Thap Chang Wildlife Breeding Centre which is home to the remaining 84 tigers. Last month, the department removed 147 tigers from the Tiger Temple which had been allowed to take care of the big cats for more than 10 years. One tiger sent to the Khao Pra Thap Chang centre later died due to a digestion problem. Three monks and two other people face illegal wildlife possession charges while forest officials found 40 tiger cub carcasses and amulets made from body parts during the removal. Natanon Panpeth, a vet at the Khaozon Wildlife Breeding Centre, said most of the tigers are healthy, but a few still have digestive problems. Winan Wirana, the breeding centre chief, said each tiger eats four kilogrammes of raw chicken per day. The centre needs around B300,000 per month for food. Saksan Eiamnoo, a forest official who has spent more than 10 years taking care of tigers, said the animals were wary at first but were slowly adjusting to the new surroundings. Tanya Erzinclioglu, a Tiger Temple volunteer who took care of the cats, said she was unhappy with the small living areas. It would be great if they had more space in the future, she said. Read original story here. Phuket condo owners warned 'holiday rentals' less than 30 days risks fines, jail time PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Land Office has issued a formal warning to owners, developers and managers of condominiums that renting out their properties on a daily basis is a breach of the Hotel Act that may incur a fine or even jail time. tourismlandpropertyeconomicscrime By The Phuket News Saturday 2 July 2016, 09:00AM Renting condos out for periods of less than 30 days, the prime length of stay for holidaymakers, may bring the owner a fine of up to B20,000 or even up to one year in jail. The notice, issued to all 234 registered condo projects in Phuket hence affecting all 26,071 legally registered condo units on the island was signed and issued by by Phuket Land Office Acting Chief Wisith Chokchai on June 9. The notice read: To managers/developers of condominiums, Today, there is a lot of news about condominium developers/owners renting out rooms or buildings that they have ownership of to foreigners or tourists on a daily basis (daily rental) rate that generate income as if they were a hotel (under the Hotel Act 2004). This type of operation is causes a public nuisance for renters in the same complex and creates unsafe places for tourists, which may lead to loss of life and property. It is inacceptable to operate an illegal hotel. The penalty for this is up to one year in jail or a fine of up to B20,000, or both. Mr Wisith told The Phuket News this week, We want to let developers and owners know that renting out condos on a daily basis is against the Hotel Act and that they must operate their condos in accordance with how their properties are registered in order to avoid legal action. This issue may not be easy to tackle because sometimes it is not the developer that provides daily rentals, but the individual condo owners. Regardless, it is for the condo managers and developers to remind owners about this law and tell them that if officials find out (about illegal renting of condos) the owners will face legal action, he said. The public warning follows Phuket Vice Governor Chokdee Amornwat on June 3 dispatching the Phuket Land Office a specific order to combat the problem of illegal condo rentals, Mr Wisith explained. We were ordered to enforce regulations regarding condominiums across Phuket owned or operated by Thais and foreigners and not allow any rentals on a daily basis because it is against the Hotel Act 2004, he said. The order came from Ministry of Interior and the Phuket Provincial Office in an effort to tackle illegal hotels (sic) on the island, he added. In a report sent to the provincial office, Mr Wisith explained, The Land Office is in charge of condo registration. Every condo built in Phuket must be registered as such with the Land Office. There are more than 200 condo units in the Phuket Town area that are registered with us which we have sent the notice out to. The Land Office in Thalang has also sent out notices to all the condo units registered their area, he wrote. All developers and the management operators of condominium projects in Phuket Town in Kathu have been warned that renting out rooms on daily basis is considered operating as a hotel. Mr Wisith explained to The Phuket News that the problem lies in that if a property is registered with the Land Department as a condo, then it cannot be registered as a hotel. And a condo must be operated as a condo, which can be rented out for periods of 30 days or longer but cannot be rented out on a daily basis, he said. Dr Kritsada Tonsakul, who heads the Phuket-based Southern Thailand chapter of the Thai Hotels Association, this week voiced his support for the crackdown. These places that rent out on a daily basis without a hotel registration are operating illegally and it is great that officials are starting tackling them now, he told The Phuket News on Wednesday (June 29). If we strictly enforce the Hotel Act and rid the island of all illegal hotel rooms, it will benefit not only the legal hotel businesses, but also greatly benefit Thailands, and Phukets, tourism industry as well. In December, Dr Kritsada led a delegation of tourism and hospitality leaders in filing a petition calling for the government to take action against an estimated 92,000 illegal hotel rooms in Phuket. At least 70 per cent of hotel rooms offered in Phuket are illegal. To make them all legal can take time and some of them simply cannot be registered as a hotel simply because structurally they are not hotels, so they must operate according to their registration, he said this week. If Phuket has only legal hotel rooms available to tourists, rental prices will compete better, maybe even on par with international rates as charged by hotels in other countries. Look at places like Singapore or Bali, their rates and reservations for hotels are increasing because their hotel rooms are legal they dont have to compete with illegal hotel rooms rates. Bhuritt Maswongssa, Bhuritt Maswongssa, President of the Phuket chapter of the Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT), strongly agreed, and even warned that a tourist-accommodation price war could have a dire effect on Phukets tourism industry on the whole. If officials who have the power to stop this from happening neglect their duty and allow illegal hotels to exist, then there will be a rental rates issue among the hotel businesses. Competition over rental rates will create a domino effect. Hotels have to cut costs, and this could easily result job losses, a fall in the quality of service and trust in Phuket hotel standards. This would be a disaster for our tourism industry, he said. Phuket has 2,090 hotels offering about 120,000 rooms. Our supply already exceeds demand, putting pressure on hotel prices. If this continues, we are already heading for a disaster, he added. Phuket property guru Bill Barnett, Managing Director of hospitality consultancy C9 Hotelworks, also condemned the practice of condos being rented out at daily rates. The current situation of real estate developers offering guaranteed returns in the absence of obtaining hotel licenses is a blatant abuse of Thailands Hotel Act. Government scrutiny in this sector is urgently needed as it undermines trading of legal hospitality operations and goes further into the issues of tax and tourist safety. However, while noting that the key issue driving government intervention is the current mandate to increase tax revenues, he added, That said, the Hotel Act needs to be updated to allow condominiums that do wish to obtain hotel license and villa estates or properties a clearer pathway,as there are a many who are willing to obtain the necessary documentation. Phuket Governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada, when announcing earlier this year that illegal hotels would be coming under scrutiny, said, There are so many businesses that provide rooms and board in Phuket operating illegally in contravention of the Hotel Act 2004. Businesses such as condominiums, apartments, flats, mansions, guesthouses, homes for rent, rooms for rent, commercial buildings most of which have been altered or developed into accommodation and rented on a daily basis are considered a hotel business and hence as illegal hotels. Illegal hotels are damaging legally registered hotel operators who have their hotel license. We are also concerned how these affect tourists safety, because we dont have enough security to cover all these places. Gov Chamroen added, We understand that some of these operators are unaware that their business operation contravenes the Hotel Act and they cannot register their business as hotels because they are not hotels A hotel business involves many laws, so solving this issue is not easy. The Ministry of Interior is working on this issue. I know the ministry is considering a proposal to allow other types of building to operate as hotel, which is now being considered by their policy committee. While we are waiting for the ministry to decide on this, we have to regulate hotel businesses in Phuket by allowing only the legal hotels to operate, and places that did not have a permit to operate as a hotel will have to wait until they are legally registered. People operating such illegal hotel businesses with the intention avoiding registering their business will be punished according to the law, he said. See also: Phuket Law: Is your house or condo an illegal hotel? (Click here.) By PTI: Bhubaneswar, Jul 2 (PTI) In its bid to bring all the eligible beneficiaries under the social security network in the state, the Odisha government today decided to extend the pension facility to another three lakh people. "My government has priority to ensure rights to live with dignity for elders, widows and persons with disabilities. My aim is to see smile on all faces. The new list of three lakh beneficiaries will be prepared by August 15," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters. advertisement Stating that the state government would spend Rs 115 crore from its own resources for extending the facility, Patnaik said 40 lakh people are now getting pension under different social security schemes. PTI AAM CR IKA --- ENDS --- New Delhi, Jun 30 (PTI) As the fight for market share took nationalist overtones, Indian ride-hailing startup Ola today hit out at its San Francisco-based rival Uber for fanning the nationalism debate to hide its identity of being a multinational with "serial violations of law". "It is a shame that our competition has to fan a debate of nationalism to hide their identity of being a multi- national, with serial violations of law as a business strategy, not just in India, but globally. This debate in our view is not about foreign vs local but who is respectful of the local laws and who is disrespectful," Ola COO Pranay Jivrajka wrote in a blogpost. While Ola last week was granted a licence to operate its cab aggregation service in Karnataka, Uber said its application was still languishing and officials had asked it to make a fresh application. Uber, however, continues to operate. "Over the past couple of days, there has been an irrelevant debate around organisations operating in the country being national or international. Isnt a company like Alibaba, run by a local entrepreneur like Jack Ma, Chinese, despite having a majority of its shareholding from international investors? Arent the cutting edge technology solutions, high value jobs and Internet ecosystem that Alibaba has built, invaluable assets for China?," Jivrajka wrote. This was apparently in response to a blogpost by Bhavik Rathod, Ubers general manager of South and West in India. "What makes Uber foreign? The fact that we are established in San Francisco but have a hyperlocal team solving problems that are locally relevant? Or that, just like our competitors, we received most of our funding from foreign investors?" Rathod wrote in a blog titled Lets keep Bangalore moving. Jivrajka wrote it is the onus of the business that brings in transformative technology, to work with the government and evolve the ecosystem further in a partnership mode. "It is only detrimental to the nations interests to take a confrontational approach. As a matter of principle, Ola has always taken an approach of working in partnership with the government," he added. Without naming Uber, he said, "When competition entered in India, they launched with a card on file payment system. This was in gross violation of RBI regulations, yet they continued this for more than a year, fully knowing the violation, and it took an ultimatum from the Governor of the RBI to make them fall in line." Ola, he said, chose not to do this and had to face significant business disadvantage of customers moving away. "Similarly, during the Delhi Diesel ban, Ola committed to 100 per cent CNG adoption of vehicles within the state proactively. On the other hand, even after the High Court Orders came into effect, competition chose to continue plying diesel vehicles with absolute disregard for the state and the court of law, until a contempt petition forced them to cease and desist," he said. Starting from one-BHK apartment in Mumbai, Ola has built its business on the strong foundation of creating value for society. "And reposing its faith in the institutions of the judiciary and government," he added. PTI ANZ MR --- ENDS --- advertisement The victim has been identified as Tarishi Jain, a student of University of California in Berkeley. As many as 20 persons were killed after armed assailant opened fire at an upscale cafe in Gulshan neighbourhood of Dhaka. By Indrajit Kundu: The Indian Embassy in Dhaka has confirmed the death of one Indian national who was killed in Friday's terror attack at the Holey Artisan bakery. The victim has been identified as Tarishi Jain, a student of University of California in Berkeley. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj took to micro-blogging site Twitter to express her condolences: I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka. Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 2, 2016 I have spoken to her father Shri Sanjeev Jain and conveyed our deepest condolences.The country is with them in this hour of grief.; Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 2, 2016 advertisement 19-year-old Tarishi had passed out from the American School in Dhaka. The victim's father Sanjeev Jain reportedly lives in Dhaka and Tarishi was visiting the city for her holidays. On Friday, she was at the cafe at Gulshan when unidentified terrorists attacked the cafe and took hostages. TERROR ATTACK As many as 20 persons were killed after armed assailant opened fire at an upscale cafe in Gulshan neighbourhood of Dhaka on Friday night. While six off the attackers have been killed, the Bangladeshi security personnel have captured one of the militants. The gunmen have been identified as ISIS assailants, after the militant group took responsibility. About 35 people including several foreign nationals were taken hostage by the armed assailants. ARMY ROPED IN To clear the cafe after a 12-hour siege, the army launched a massive operation, in which 6 terrorists were neutralised and one arrested. 13 hostages, including one Japanese and two Sri Lankans, were rescued, the army said. PM SHEIKH HASINA CONDEMNS ATTACK Meanwhile, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today condemned the terrorist attack and said that Bangladesh was determined to fight terror. Sheikh Hasina said that while Muslims across the world are observing Ramzan, militants were killing innocent people. "What kind of Muslims are these, who are killing other humans during Ramzan," the PM said. Also read: Dhaka attack: What kind of Muslims kill during Ramzan, asks Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina Dhaka attack: 1 Indian among 20 hostages killed, all victims foreigners --- ENDS --- This is second incident within a week when boulders hit moving vehicles.The stretch of National Highway between Parwanoo and Solan has become prone to landslides following the road widening work. By Manjeet Sehgal: One person was killed and four others were injured seriously when the vehicle in which they were traveling was hit by the falling boulders at National Highway 22 near Solan, Himachal Pradesh on Saturday morning, police sources told India Today. "Four Nangal, Punjab residents were travelling in a taxi bearing No PB0A-2820 when boulders hit the moving vehicle near Barog bypass.While Subhash,40, died on the spot his wife Surjit Kaur, daughter Shanvi, son Ishant and taxi driver Nawadi were injured seriously. They were brought to the Regional Hospital Solan for treatment but later referred to PGI Chandigarh as their condition deteriorated," Superintendent of Police, Solan Anjum Ara said. advertisement The size of the boulders can be estimated from the condition of the vehicle which was badly twisted by the huge boulders. This is second incident within a week when boulders hit moving vehicles.The stretch of National Highway between Parwanoo and Solan has become prone to landslides following the road widening work. WARNING ISSUED Following the weather forecast and torrential rain warning issued by the Met department, Himachal Pradesh government on Saturday issued an advisory to the Deputy Commissioners. "We have asked the Deputy Commissioners to identify the places prone to landslides.The Met Department has said heavy rainfall may occur at may places during the next 48 hours.Six districts have received torrential rains during the past 24 hours which has resulted in the increase of water level in the rivers. The Deputy commissioners will submit hourly report to the state government . They have also been asked to remove the hutments built on the river banks ," Chief Secretary P C Pharka said. As state's major rivers are in spate , the Kullu district administration on Saturday banned river rafting in the district between July 3 to September 15.The district administration has also issued an advisory to the tourists not to venture river banks for selfies as two people were drowned recently while clicking selfies. ALSO READ: Arunachal Pradesh landslide: 10 killed, 3 injured --- ENDS --- Sharing his ordeal, Sahib Khan Oad, who works with the Associate Press of Pakistan (APP), said his agony began when his Bureau Chief and colleagues found out that he was not a Muslim but a Hindu, that too a Dalit. By Indo-Asian News Service: A Dalit Hindu reporter working with Pakistan's state-run news agency says he has slipped into depression after facing discrimination from his Muslim boss. Sharing his ordeal with IANS over telephone from Karachi, Sahib Khan Oad, who works with the Associate Press of Pakistan (APP), said his agony began when his Bureau Chief and colleagues found out that he was not a Muslim but a Hindu, that too a Dalit. advertisement DRASTIC CHANGE IN SITUATIONS He said the situation in his office "drastically changed" after his religious identity became known. He alleged that Bureau Chief Parvez Aslam told him to use separate utensils for eating at his work place. Oad has now gone on indefinite leave on the advice of a doctor after suffering from depression. "I am a Khan but I am not a Muslim," Oad told IANS, speaking in Urdu. Oad said he was now being pressurised by his boss to retract his statement. "He wants me to say that all such reports circulating in the media are lies," he said, adding that Aslam had even threatened him, saying: "If you can take extreme measures, so can we." THE DENIAL APP Karachi Bureau Chief Aslam has termed the allegations against him as "misleading" and "baseless". He said there was "no discrimination against any minority member working at the APP on any basis, let alone religion". He denied Oad was mistaken for a Muslim earlier due to his surname "Khan". "As a matter of fact, all his (Oad's) colleagues were well aware that he was a Hindu by religion but there was no discrimination against him at any stage." He said his colleagues were under the impression that he was a Muslim since "my first and middle names sounded Islamic". It all unravelled, according to Oad, on May 29 when he introduced one of his sons, Raj Kumar, to his colleagues who were amazed and asked him if he was a Hindu. NOT ALL ARE SAME But Oad makes it clear that his other Muslim colleagues in the APP office in Karachi have nothing against him. Indeed, the larger journalistic fraternity in Karachi, Pakistan's port city has offered him moral support but he alleged that his boss was reluctant to accommodate him. Asked why he uses "Khan" in his name, Oad said he and many Dalit Hindus in Dadu district of Sindh province did so to avoid being routinely discriminated against in day to day life. Sindh province is home to a majority of Pakistan's three million Hindus. In Pakistan, minorities often face threats from Muslim extremists, who are also known to abduct Hindu women. Oad was transferred to the Karachi bureau from Islamabad on April 11 this year. He said this was the first time he had faced discrimination in his five years as a journalist. Pakistan's national media has come out in support of the father of three. Sindh Minister of Culture Sharmila Farooqui assured him "every possible help and a probe into the incident". --- ENDS --- But the tribe has a long way to go By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today congratulated DRDO and IAF on the successful test-firings of a medium-range surface-to-air missile (MRSAM), developed jointly with Israel. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) had yesterday carried out two successful test-firings of the new missile, with a strike range up to 70 km, from a defence base off Odisha coast. The missile for IAF was again test-fired today. advertisement Parrikar rejected report in a section of media that the second test had failed to accomplish the desired targets and said "it was perfect". He said that of the two different tests carried out yesterday, one was at a higher altitude and the other shorter altitude. "But the real and challenging test was today which was accomplished successfully. The MRSAM successfully hit a manoeuvring target, replicating a possible real life scenario," Parrikar said. PTI SAP SMN PAL SMN --- ENDS --- Islamic gunmen shouting "Allahu Akbar" attacked an upscale cafe in the Bangladeshi capital, killing 20 people inside, before police stormed the building on Saturday and rescued 13 hostages, officials said. The attack, claimed by Islamic State, marks a major escalation in a campaign by Islamic militants over the past 18 months that had targeted mostly individuals advocating a secular or liberal approach in mostly Muslim Bangladesh. Six gunmen were killed during the police operation and one was captured, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in a TV broadcast. "Most of (the hostages) were killed mercilessly by sharp weapons last night," before the siege began, Army Brigadier General Naim Asraf Chowdhury said. The army concluded an operation to clear the cafe after a 12-hour siege that began when gunmen stormed the restaurant on Friday night. Two police were killed in the initial assault. The 13 hostages that were rescued included one Japanese and two Sri Lankans, Chowdhury told a news conference. Police said earlier the gunmen were holding about 20 hostages. One Japanese man was among those rescued and taken to a Dhaka hospital with a gunshot wound, a Japanese government spokesman said. Seven Japanese were unaccounted for. Italy's ambassador to Bangladesh, Mario Palma, told Italian state TV seven Italians were among the hostages. Islamic State posted photos of what it said were dead foreigners killed in the assault, which could deal a major blow to the country's vital $25 billion garment sector. Police said they believed about eight to nine gunmen had been holed up in the cafe, armed with assault rifles and grenades. Gowher Rizvi, an adviser to Hasina, said security forces had tried to negotiate with the gunmen. Sporadic gunfire The hostage crisis began when security guards in the Gulshan district of Dhaka, popular with expatriates, noticed several gunmen outside a medical centre, Rizvi said. When the guards approached, the gunmen ran into the Holey Artisan cafe, which was packed with people waiting for tables, he said. Ali Arsalan, co-owner of the restaurant, said that his staff told him the attackers yelled "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) as they stormed the building Police said the assailants exchanged sporadic gunfire with police outside for several hours after the gunmen attacked the restaurant around 9pm on Friday. A police officer at the scene said that when security forces tried to enter the premises at the beginning of the siege they were met with a hail of bullets and grenades that killed at least two of them. Television footage showed a number of police being led away from the site with blood on their faces and clothes. A cafe employee who escaped told local television about 20 customers were in the restaurant at the time, most of them foreigners. Some 15 to 20 staff were working at the restaurant, the employee said. The rescued Japanese man was eating dinner with seven other Japanese, all of whom were consultants for Japan's foreign aid agency, the Japanese government spokesman said. He did not know what happened to the others. Spate of murders The hostage crisis marks an escalation from a recent spate of murders claimed by Islamic State and al Qaeda on liberals, gays, foreigners and religious minorities. A Hindu priest was hacked to death on Friday at a temple in Jhinaidah district, 300 km (188 miles) southwest of Dhaka. Both Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for many of the killings, although local authorities say no operational links exist between Bangladeshi militants and international jihadi networks. Bangladesh security officials say two local militant groups, Ansar-al-Islam and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, have been behind the spate of violence over the past 18 months. Ansar pledges allegiance to al Qaeda, while Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen claims it represents Islamic State. "The bottom line is Bangladesh has plenty of local, often unaffiliated, militants and radicals happy to stage attacks in ISIS's name," said Michael Kugelman, South Asia associate at The Wilson Centre in Washington D.C., using an acronym commonly used for Islamic State. Islamic State had claimed more attacks in Bangladesh than in Pakistan or Afghanistan, he said. The restaurant assault also comes after Bangladesh hanged an Islamist party leader, Motiur Rahman Nizami, on May 11 for genocide and other crimes committed during a 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. That has drawn an angry reaction and some scattered violence from supporters. Nizami, 73, was a former legislator and minister during opposition leader Khaleda Zia's last term as prime minister. Foreign diplomats and human rights groups have warned that Bangladesh's ongoing war crime tribunals and the government's pressure on the Bangladesh Nationalist Party have created a backlash domestically, according to Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "They need to maintain legal political space for Jamaat and the BNP so that they don't drive people into the shadows and violence," Adams said in a telephone interview, cautioning that it's not known whether that dynamic and the bloodshed in Dhaka were related. With the right policy responses Brexit could provide a significant boost to Britain The economic shock of Brexit has been significant. But with the right policy responses, it doesnt have to be disastrous. Some business investment decisions may have been postponed in the run up to the referendum but it is worth noting that as the vote approached the economy was gathering momentum. The latest survey of UK manufacturing (the Purchasing Managers Index) rose from 50.4 points in May to 52.1 in June, which in normal circumstances would be considered a healthy gain. The strongest reaction to Leave has been on the foreign exchange markets, where sterling has dropped 10 per cent. Clearly this comes at a bad time for British holidaymakers heading overseas. But we shouldnt underestimate the positive impact it will have on big UK-based multinationals, making our goods more competitive overseas and strengthening foreign currency earnings repatriated to Britain. It is among the reasons why the FTSE 100, dominated by big global companies, has bounced so quickly. Britains devaluation is an instant adjustment not available to the 19 countries in the eurozone facing fiscal, banking and similar shocks. Other help is also on the way. The Bank of England has been quick to step up to the plate with a coherent plan to make sure Britain avoids the kind of credit crunch which was so damaging in 2008-09. The Monetary Policy Committee will want to see some data before action, which may mean that the expected cut in the bank rate from 0.5 per cent to 0.25 per cent could be delayed until August, with other measures such as corporate bond buying held in reserve. Meanwhile, we have now had the most significant policy move from the Chancellor George Osborne since the referendum campaign when he warned of higher taxes and more austerity. Speaking in Manchester, Osborne noted that while the Government would continue to keep an eye on the deficit it might not be possible to achieve a budget surplus by the end of the decade. In other words, he is effectively taking his foot off the brakes and allowing a more expansionary budgetary policy for the time being. The credit rating agencies may have removed Britains AAA rating but that has done nothing to put people off UK corporate or government bonds. Lloyds comfortably sold 750million worth of bonds on the New York markets. And Santander UK has launched a 500 floating rate bond in London. The yield on ten-year gilts dropped to just 0.81 per cent. Investors would not be lending UK plc money for such low returns if they believed the nation was on a financial precipice. Chocolate wars When Cadbury chairman Sir Roger Carr cast around for a white knight in the autumn of 2009 as he sought to fend off the unwanted attentions of Irene Rosenfelds Kraft, the first port of call was the Hershey Trust with 8.1 per cent of the shares and 81 per cent of the votes in the totemic chocolate maker, Hershey. Both companies had a strong family ethos and for many years Hershey has manufactured key Cadbury products in the US. The Kraft boss freed the growth confectionary and cookie brands from the stodgy processed cheese group and re-floated it as Mondelez. Now Rosenfeld is at it again. Mondelez has swooped on Hershey with a 17.3billion takeover offer. Hershey will be a harder nut to crack than Cadbury. The shares in the Pennsylvania-based firm and theme park owner are closely held by the Hershey Trust and the company is seen in its home state as a local champion. Being part of a highly diversified, financially driven global group may not seem that attractive an idea. The initial rejection is simply on price with the proposed premium to Hershey shares, of around 10 per cent, seen as sub-octane. There would clearly be huge synergies if Hershey, home of M&M, Hersheys Kisses and Reeses Pieces could be brought together with Mondelez. The Cadbury legacy means the successor company is strong in growth markets including India and Australia, and would plainly give Hershey more heft on the global stage. Bringing together mass market chocolate producers from the worlds two highest consuming nations, the US and Britain could also produce great cost savings. Hershey should remember, however, that Mondelez is ruthless, its promises are not worth the paper they are written on and it has a habit of switching production (remember the Wispa bar) from higher-cost countries such as the UK to Poland. As always, the cheerleaders for big takeovers are urging Mondelez to up the bid to the level where the Hershey Trust may find it hard to resist the cash. If it concedes it could mean a betrayal of heritage and dilution of brands. Ask the fans of Cadbury Creme Eggs. Low flying As someone who lives under the flight path, I have a vested interest in the third runway at Heathrow never being built. But it is sheer folly that a year has passed since Sir Howard Davies airport commission made the case for the new runway. There could have been no better moment than now for the Government to signal its determination to show Britain is open to global business. Instead, it has kicked a decision into the long grass until October. G. M. writes: In 2013 I read an advert in our local paper offering pre-paid funerals. After meetings at the funeral parlour and our home, my wife and I paid 3,030 by cheque. Not long ago, I noticed that the funeral parlour was trading under a different name. I called in and was told the previous firm had gone into receivership and that contracts with it had been fraudulent. Who would have thought you might be duped by a funeral home? I contacted Action Fraud, but I do not expect to get any money back. Unexpected: Who would have thought you might be duped by a funeral home? The advertisement for pre-paid funeral plans was placed by Mayer Funeral Home Limited, based in Southend, Essex, and with branches elsewhere in the county. The business was set up in 2012 by Mary Mayer, who was said to be retired, with an address in Romford. Sales literature quotes her as saying: Our duty is to serve both the living and the dead and respect the wishes of those who have been left behind and those who have gone forth. Fine words, but sadly there is no trace of Mary Mayer, either in Southend or at the address she gave in company records. It is almost as though she never existed. The only boss anyone seems to have met at the funeral home is Mark Kerbey, 53, and in a way he does not exist either. As soon as I found his real name, I groaned because he is in my files already. He is really Richard Sage, a veteran swindler with a criminal record stretching back 30 years. Dying shame: Richard Sage is already serving time for fraud In the 1980s he ran a funeral firm that went bust. He was jailed for five years for fraud and when he left prison in 1989 he set up Belmont Air and Road Ambulance, which did a deal with St Thomas Hospital in London to look after Americans taken ill in Europe until they were well enough to go home. The hospital paid Sage for each patient he introduced and was then supposed to reclaim all its costs from an insurer in Michigan in the US. But the insurance company was a fake set up by Sage and St Thomas ended up about half a million pounds out of pocket. Sage was jailed for seven years. About ten years ago he set up as an undertaker in Manchester before moving on under a cloud to Burnley, Lancashire. His past apparently caught up with him again, even if his creditors did not, because he next surfaced in Essex four years ago, running the Mary Mayer Funeral Home. His advertisements for pre-paid funeral plans were reassuring: Your payment is made directly into Funeral Planning Trust, an independent fund established in 1995 specifically to provide for funeral costs. Money could only be withdrawn by Sage to pay funeral costs. Funeral Planning Trust, based in Norwich, is a genuine and reputable organisation. But its boss, Graham Williams, told me: No money from Mayer Funeral Home was ever paid into Funeral Planning Trust. Sage obtained some brochures from us, using the alias Mark Kerbey and posing as a genuine funeral director. I would have liked to get a comment from Sage on all of this and ask him about the cash he pocketed from his pre-payment scam. But this proved difficult as he is in prison not for cheating you, but for another fraud. He advertised jobs for young people who would learn the undertaking business and he charged applicants 400 a time in administration fees. But there were no jobs and in 2014 he was jailed for four-and-a-half years. So far, he has not faced charges over his pre-paid funeral scheme and I suppose that as long as he is behind bars there is no harm in waiting. But I hope that on the day he gets out, police are waiting to nick him and ask him where your money went. Essex Police told me: We are investigating three cases of fraud by false representation which took place between October 10, 2013 and November 25, 2014. Our enquiries are ongoing. Anyone who paid Sage and has not already given a statement to the police should do so now. India shares a porous border with Bangladesh where the Islamic State is trying to set up its base and recruit youths to launch guerilla attacks on India. By Jugal R Purohit: An old edition of an online magazine has found its way into the top offices of the country's anti-terror set-up. Its contents are being read and circulated. Named after a small town in northern Syria, located in close proximity to the city of Allepo, the magazine Dabiq - a known online propaganda tool of the Islamic State (IS) - has an interview which has attracted Indian attention. With the fog on what took place in Dhaka gradually lifting, the degree of scrutiny is only going to increase. advertisement Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, the 'Amir of Khilafah's soldiers in Bengal' in an interview to the magazine elaborated upon the group's plans. In unambiguous terms, he mentioned how Bangladesh would be used by the group to launch raids into India from the eastern periphery. This move would be timed with attacks launched from the 'Wilayat Khurasan located on India's western side'. "Thus having a strong jihad base in Bengal will facilitate performing guerilla attacks inside India simultaneously from both sides," it was mentioned. The eventual plan it was said was to launch conventional army raid to 'liberate the region' after first getting rid of the 'Pakistani and Afghani regimes'. The jihad in Bengal was also a 'stepping-stone for jihad in Burma'. Speaking to INDIA TODAY, a senior source said, "The reason we worry is because the space for expressing dissent is shrinking in Bangladesh. That the hardliners are facing action for the war crimes has also been woven as yet another sign of stifling the voice of the opposition. All of this is making the job of radicalising impressionable minds easier than it was." He added, "The IS could occupy a space vacated by failed governments and administrations of Iraq and Syria. Bangladesh has to be very careful especially in areas where its administration is weak." Terming the prospects as 'frightening', another source said, "We know that the IS in Bangladesh is attracting talent. And our borders with Bangladesh are porous. Now add to that the fact that IS has made its intention about India clear. Naturally the emerging picture is a very serious one." It was informed that top functionaries of the government have been alerted about the threat. Based on the data released by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) last year, there are reasons to worry. While there exists a sanction for fencing 3326.14 km of the Indo-Bangladesh border spread across five states, in reality 2827.922 km is what has been fenced. In terms of floodlighting the border to better enable detection of intruders, 3117 km was sanctioned but completion has been achieved in 2151.09 km. In terms of roads along the border between India and Bangladesh, while sanction has been granted to build 4379.07 km, what has been achieved is 3774.40 km. India isn't on the defence due to infrastructure alone. Retired Border Security Force Additional Director General (ADG) SK Sood claimed that the troops were on the 'defensive'. "Cattle trade is mushrooming and troops have clear orders to not use lethal arms against them. This has emboldened criminals and put us on the defensive. The shifting nature of population also makes it very difficult to track criminals," he said. advertisement In the interview, al-Hanif also he also lashed out at the hardline 'Jamaat-e-Islami' claiming that many of its supporters had deserted ranks to join the Islamic State. On the question of Rohingya muslims of Myanmar, he said they would be looked at only once the organisation strengthened itself in Bangladesh. Members of the Hindu community, as well as from political and social organisations have been described as enemies which need to be targeted. Interestingly, throughout the eight page write up, al-Hanif consistently lamented how the Islamic State presently was 'small' and 'lacked military strength'. - Writer is a senior special correspondent with India Today TV and tweets @JRPUR ALSO READ: ISIS plans to attack India through its bases in Bangladesh and Pakistan --- ENDS --- Global brewing giant SABMiller paid a whopping 120million to buy craft brewer Meantime last year, despite it making an annual profit of just 1.5million on sales of 17million in 2014, according to the most recent accounts filed. Reports at the time of the sale in May 2015 estimated the price at between 30 million and 50 million, but the true figure was revealed in SABMillers annual report, released last month. The windfall was shared by Meantime Brewery Company founder Alistair Hook, Nick Miller, who was chief executive at the time, and about 60 other shareholders. Glass half full: Alistair Hook was one of two main shareholders Rupert Ponsonby, a barley farmer and public relations consultant to the food and drink industry, was an early investor at the company, based in Greenwich, South-East London. He told The Mail on Sunday that it was splendiferous to have been able to share in Meantimes good fortune. It can be really hard for a bigger brewer to get into the craft beer market and particularly to acquire a company with such integrity as Meantime, he said. Alistair Hook has from the start been interested in using different hops and yeast in his beers and keeping the companys individuality, and the Meantime name, thanks to Greenwich Meantime, is a globally-recognised brand that could be huge in many different countries in the future. Meantime was founded by Hook in 1999 in his Greenwich flat with 500,000 borrowed from friends and family. He and Miller owned the two largest stakes. It is one of the top-performing modern craft breweries, with beer sales growing 58 per cent in 2014. French President Francois Hollande said he was hoping to snatch away the City's status as a hub for trades in euros French bankers have been locked out of crunch talks to protect the City amid fears they might feed intelligence back to Paris. Bosses at Societe Generale and BNP Paribas, which together have more than 10,000 UK staff, missed a key meeting on Tuesday as the industry prepared its response to the Brexit vote. It follows hostility from French President Francois Hollande, who said he was hoping to snatch away the City's status as a hub for trades in euros. And Societe boss Frederic Oudea has echoed that view, saying: 'I hope that Paris will be able to take advantage of this opportunity.' Insiders denied the French banks were shut out, saying there were represented at the meeting by the Association for Financial Markets in Europe. Paris is one of several cities praying for London's downfall. But Brexit supporters point out the British capital's might is based on its liberal regime, world-class services, quality of life and the English language. Launch: James Cadbury great-great-grandson of chocolatier John Cadbury The chocolate tradition is coming back to the Cadbury family, with the launch this week of a service that sends posh choccie bars by post. Love Cocoa, launched by James Cadbury great-great-grandson of chocolatier John Cadbury allows chocolate-lovers to order luxury bars for themselves or send them to someone as a gift. Customers can choose from six flavours: milk, dark, Earl Grey, mint, sea salt and honeycomb. It costs 13.95 for three bars, or 21.95 for six more than 3.50 a bar. Job cuts: Lloyds are closing 23 branches across Britain Lloyds is slashing 640 jobs and closing 23 branches across Britain as part of a drive to boost profits. The cutbacks are part of a long-term push to become more competitive under a plan to scrap 9,000 roles. This was announced in 2014 and the move is unrelated to the European Union referendum. Lloyds which is 9pc owned by taxpayers after a bailout at the height of the financial crisis has pledged to shutter 200 branches in total. The latest closures will take the number scrapped so far to 175. Bosses said there would be 115 jobs created during the changes, taking the net loss to 525. They said they hoped to avoid compulsory redundancies by asking for volunteers and not replacing workers on their way out anyway. Nine small business groups have agreed to join forces to help Britains tiniest firms and the self-employed following the shock Brexit result in the EU referendum. Business Secretary Sajid Javid chaired on Tuesday what the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills hailed as the first meeting of Britains business leaders since the referendum. The Confederation of British Industry, the Institute of Directors, the British Chambers of Commerce, the Federation of Small Businesses and manufacturers body EEF were all represented. Plea: Emma Jones called for more optimism But Enterprise Nation, the fast-growing small business network focused mainly on start-ups, was not invited, and fearing it might be full of just big business organisations, set up its own meeting on the same day. As a result, nine bodies agreed to coordinate their efforts in the interests of offering positive reassurance to small businesses. Emma Jones, who launched Enterprise Nation in 2005 after co-founding the private-sector funded StartUp Britain campaign, said: Its more important now than ever before for entrepreneurs to maintain optimism and look forwards, not backwards. The worst thing we can do is talk ourselves into a recession when formal negotiations leading to exit will take at least two years. Jones, who is also a Government business ambassador for the UK Trade & Investment department, added: We have come together to make sure small businesses can easily get hold of the information and advice they need during the current period of uncertainty. Mike Cherry, chairman of the FSB, which was represented at both meetings, said: The FSB will work with the Government and other partners to ensure the UKs 5.4 million smaller firms get the best deal for them. At the summit chaired by Sajid Javid I stressed the need for immediate action to ensure economic stability, to ensure small businesses can continue to trade. Smaller firms need simple access to the single market, the ability to hire the right people, continued EU funding for key schemes and clarity on the future regulatory framework. Meeting: Business Secretary Sajid Javid chaired on Tuesday what the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills hailed as the first meeting of Britains business leaders since the referendum When the negotiations start, the FSB will be a constructive partner and a strong voice, working with other entrepreneur groups and pushing for swift clarity on these crucial points. But John Longworth, who resigned as director-general of the BCC in March after speaking out in favour of Brexit, said: We do not need the single market. Weve got to make sure the ranks of the establishment dont cause us to believe we need the single market and then end up negotiating away all of our benefits from this Brexit just to get access to what is a mirage the supposed single market. Eighty-seven per cent of the UK economy is not associated with exports to the EU, and 90 per cent of the economy is services. The single market is really only in goods. If it becomes apparent the EU is not prepared to do a deal, we should just leave. As well as Enterprise Nation and the FSB, other bodies at Joness meeting included support body National Enterprise Network; Open to Export; contractor and freelancer group IPSE; The Entrepreneurs Network; the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales; the British Library Business & IP Centre; and tech start-up group The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec). Simon McVicker, director of policy and external affairs at IPSE, said: Now we are leaving the EU, IPSE believes the priorities should be new global trading arrangements, cutting regulation on small and microbusinesses and ensuring that Britain has the most flexible and attractive economy in the world. Speaking of the first of a series of meetings on Tuesday, Javid, who sided with the Remain camp in the referendum campaign and said the economy would shrink in the event of Brexit, said: The biggest issue raised was the need to secure continued access to the single market. My number one priority will be just that in the negotiations to come. Javid said he and his Ministerial team would be visiting businesses across the country, and added: This is not just about big business and not just about London. On Thursday he announced a new business engagement inter-Ministerial group. A departmental announcement said he would chair it and members would include the Energy Secretary, Environment Secretary and Culture Secretary among others. Small business Minister Anna Soubry was not mentioned in the announcement. At an anti-Brexit rally on Tuesday, she was reportedly close to tears as she spoke to protesters. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a series of tweets has condemned the recent Dhaka terror attack. By India Today Web Desk: Hours after the brutal terrorist attack on an upscale cafe in Dhaka that killed 20 people, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has condemned it saying that it was 'despicable'. The Prime Minister spoke to his Bangladeshi counterpart and expressed his grief. As many as 26 people, including 20 foreign nationals, assailants and a senior police officials were killed in the attack at the restaurant in the Dhaka's diplomatic zone on Friday night. The attack in Dhaka has pained us beyond words. I spoke to PM Sheikh Hasina & strongly condemned the despicable attack. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 2, 2016 advertisement In his tweet, the Prime Minister said that the attack in Dhaka has pained us beyond words. In his tweet he said that he met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and strongly condemned the despicable attack. India stands firmly with our sisters & brothers of Bangladesh in this hour of grief. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 2, 2016 He added that Indians stand in solidarity with the Bangladeshi citizens and that his thoughts are with the families affected by the crisis. He even prayed for the speedy recovery of those injured in the attack. My thoughts are with the bereaved families. I pray that those who are injured recover quickly. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 2, 2016 Earlier today, the Indian Embassy in Dhaka confirmed the death of one Indian national who was killed in Friday's terror attack at the Holey Artisan bakery.The victim has been identified as Tarishi Jain, a student of University of California in Berkeley. Also read: Dhaka attack: 1 Indian girl killed, Sushma Swaraj expresses grief --- ENDS --- By Mail Today: Having failed to utilise Rs 1,000 crore allocated for women's safety projects under the Nirbhaya fund for the first two years after it was set up, the Centre has found a new way to put the money to use. CCTVS GALORE Interestingly, half the amount, a whopping Rs 500 crore from the fund, which was essentially created to fight crimes against women and promote gender equality, will be spent on installing CCTV cameras at railway stations. The Nirbhaya Fund was announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the 2016-17 Budget. The Railways plans to equip 1,000 stations, witnessing high footfall, with CCTV cameras. advertisement For this purpose, Rs 500 crore from the fund has been sanctioned by the Finance Ministry. Railways will spend Rs 50 lakh on installing CCTVs in each of these stations, said Chairman, Railway Board, AK Mittal. "Detection of crime and prompt investigation in these cases are crucial. We approached the Finance Ministry for monetary assistance and Rs 500 crore has been granted from the Nirbhaya Fund to install CCTV cameras at railway stations," Mittal said. It is noteworthy that a proposal in this regard was also made by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in his Budget speech for the current financial year. SEVERE CRITICISM However, the use of fund money to install CCTV cameras has drawn criticism from women rights bodies and activists. They term it a blatant misuse of the Nirbhaya Fund, saying the mere installation of CCTV cameras will not serve the purpose. "This is a clear misuse of Nirbhaya Fund. Instead of splurging money on CCTV cameras for railways, the government should have used the money for the rehabilitation of rape victims and trafficked girls. More fasttrack courts, forensic laboratories and women and child welfare centres should be set up," said Swati Maliwal, Chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women. Maliwal lamented that the Centre had turned down Delhi government's demand of Rs 200 crore for installing CCTV cameras in DTC buses but it granted Rs 500 crore to the railways. A look into the crime data reported by the Indian Railways also reveals that crime against women is one of the lowest among all categories of offences. In 2014-15, only 97 cases of crime against women were reported by railways while cases like drug smuggling and baggage lifting were the maximum. More than 1,000 cases under these offences were reported during this period. According to railway officials, the number of CCTV cameras will vary from 200 to 300 at each of the stations. Busy stations like New Delhi, Old Delhi, Mumbai CST, Bhopal, Kanpur and Lucknow require 300 to 350 cameras to put the entire station premises under the CCTV surveillance. At present, the New Delhi railway station has approximately 150 CCTV cameras while the security agencies have forwarded a demand of additional 200 cameras at the stations. Ever since it was created in 2013, the Nirbhaya Fund has been lying unused even as crimes against women have been on the rise. In March this year, a parliamentary panel had rapped the Women and Child Development Ministry for letting fund lay idle. It pointed out that the fund had a total of Rs 3,000 crore as Rs 1,000 crore was allocated to it each year from 2013 to 2016. The fund remained unutilised in the first two years, despite proposals being received from various ministries. advertisement The panel, however, said the Ministry of Women and Child Development has not come up with a clear strategy to ensure its proper utilisation. Earlier, a tussle between the Union Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare during the UPA-II regime had resulted in the non-utilisation of the Nirbhaya Fund. The development comes at a time when railways is raising money from private entities for most of its infrastructure projects, including the redevelopment of 400 railway stations. The ministry is also roping in private agencies for augmenting its nonfare revenues by tapping its unused resources like advertisement. Also read: 500 CCTV cameras to be installed around Red Fort ahead of Independence Day --- ENDS --- By PTI: category if they meet criteria: DU New Delhi, Jul 2 (PTI) Delhi University has asked all colleges to not refuse admission to candidates from reserved categories in the unreserved category as long as the applicant meets the desired cutoff criteria. Dean of Students? Welfare (DSW) in a letter to all colleges said, "It is reiterated that no applicant, including OBC/SC/ST categories, shall be refused admissions in the Unreserved (UR) category as long as the applicant satisfies the cutoff criteria of the UR category, subject to the verification of the documents." advertisement The notice comes a day after some students alleged that they were refused admission in the unreserved category even though they were meeting the cutoff for unreserved category. DSW also asked colleges to allow students to get printout of their admission forms from the college. "This is to request you to please provide facility of printing of Admissions Forms in your college of those candidates, who were eligible to take admissions in your college," the university said. The letter also asked colleges to consider all the eligible candidates who report for admission during the time duration of 9 A.M - 1 P.M . "The colleges are supposed to consider all the eligible candidates who report for admission during the time duration of 9 AM - 1 P.M as the time for submission of online admission fee payment is up to 12 noon (3rd July,16)," said JM Khurana, Dean students Welfare in the letter. He also requested all the colleges to adopt a student-friendly approach for admission and to activate the grievance committees in their respective colleges. The Principals have been requested to consider all the candidates for admission whose marks have changed during re-evaluation. The colleges will be further required to update all the information on the University Portal after the admissions have been closed to avoid any confusion. PTI GJS ENM RG --- ENDS --- London, Jun 30 (PTI) The "worlds first robot lawyer" created by a British teenager has overturned a staggering 160,000 parking tickets in London and New York, saving those fined about three million pounds. The chat bot designed to help people dispute parking violations in just 30 seconds has negated 160,000 fines since its launch last year. DoNotPay is the brainchild of 19-year-old Joshua Browder, originally from London. Browder, who is currently in his second year at Stanford University, describes the chat bot as "the worlds first robot lawyer". advertisement The chat bot, which is free to use, took Browder three months to create between school and university. "It was a huge challenge," he was quoted as saying by The Telegraph. He watched hours of YouTube tutorials and spoke to machine learning experts to create the intelligent bot that could understand human messages. Browder initially designed the DoNotPay bot as a "pet project" for family and friends after being issued with 30 parking tickets. But after it gained traction in London he made it available across the UK and New York, with Seattle to follow soon. "Its really difficult as every city has different laws. The US parking authorities are less likely to dismiss tickets. In the UK theyre a lot more fair," he said. The bot asks a series of questions designed to work out if a ticket can be appealed, including whether there were clear parking restriction signs or if the driver was traveling to hospital urgently. After determining that an appeal is viable, it then walks the user through the steps of appeal. It is currently only available through the DoNotPay website, but Browder is in talks with Facebook to incorporate it in the Messenger app. Over 250,000 people have used the service so far, according to Browder. Of the 2.9 million pounds worth of tickets overturned, about 150,000 were in London. In the UK around 10 million parking tickets are issued a year, generating millions of pounds in revenue for local councils. DoNotPays service also has a selection of pictures of unclear or confusing road markings taken from Google Maps to help motorists with relevant claims. Browder plans to expand the artificial intelligence lawyer, which can also work out compensation for delayed flights, to help vulnerable groups navigate complicated legal systems, including people who are HIV positive and refugees in foreign countries. PTI ASK AKJ ASK --- ENDS --- By India Today Web Desk: Saif Ali Khan is back to work, after he injured his thumb on the sets of Akshat Verma's Kala Kanti. The shoot of the movie began in the first week of June only to be halted because of the freak accident which put the Nawab of Pataudi out of action for a few days. One minor surgery later, the Humshakals actor can resume his daily activities. advertisement ALSO SEE: Kareena Kapoor Khan expecting her first child with husband Saif Ali Khan Akshat Verma is known as the writer of Delhi Belly, and will be making his directorial debut with this film. The first time director was quoted, "We are shooting as we speak, Saif is back on the sets. We are still trying to figure out our schedule but things are on as planned." The film is being touted as a 'crime comedy' about three men from different backgrounds, whose paths cross on a fateful night and they all become complicit in a crime. It will also star Neil Bhoopalam and Deepak Dobriyal. Meanwhile, even Kunaal Roy Kapur has admitted to have been approached for the film, which he's still considering. Kunaal called the script 'quirky' much like Delhi Belly. --- ENDS --- Polls have closed on the Australian east coast on Saturday in general elections in which the ruling conservative coalition expected to lose ground as it seeks a second term after a divisive first three years in power. After years of political turmoil, leaders of the nation\s major parties are each promising to bring stability to a government that has long been mired in chaos. The election, which pits the conservative coalition government against the center-left Labor Party, caps off an extraordinarily volatile period in the nation\s politics. Australian political parties can change their leaders under certain conditions and have done so in recent years with unprecedented frequency. Should Labor win, its leader, Bill Shorten, will become Australia\s fifth prime minister in three years. The winner will likely be known late Saturday. West coast polls close two hours after the east coast. A Newspoll published in The Australian newspaper on Saturday showed the coalition leading by 50.5 percent to Labor\s 49.5 percent. The Newspoll was based on nationwide interviews with 4,135 voters conducted between Tuesday and Friday, and has a 3 percentage point margin of error. The so-called revolving-door prime ministership, coupled with global instability wrought by Britain\s recent vote to leave the European Union, prompted promises by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull that sticking with the status quo was the safer choice. "In an uncertain world, Labor offers only greater uncertainty," Turnbull warned in one of his final pitches to voters this week. "They have nothing to say about jobs, growth or our economic future." Labor, meanwhile, has sought throughout the eight-week campaign to cast Turnbull\s Liberal Party as deeply divided, with Shorten saying: "You cannot have stability without unity." Selling stability is a tough job for either party, both of which have been marred by infighting in recent years. Shorten played a key role in ousting two of the Labor Party\s own prime ministers in the space of three years, and Turnbull himself ousted Tony Abbott as prime minister in an internal party showdown less than a year ago. Up until 2007, conservative John Howard served as prime minister for nearly 12 years. Many Aussies who lined up at the polls on Saturday were weary of the constant change. Morag McCrone, who voted for Labor at a polling station in Sydney, acknowledged her choice could lead to yet another new prime minister, but couldn\t bring herself to vote for Turnbull\s party. "Internationally, it\s embarrassing," McCrone said of the endless stream of leadership changes. "It\s a bit like ancient Rome at times, really." Sydney resident Beau Reid, who also voted for Labor, agreed. "I\m getting a little bit sick of it," Reid said. "Not to say that John Howard was a great prime minister, but it was good to have someone who was at the helm for a period that wasn\t two (or) three years." Though the race is tight, polls suggest that Labor won\t be able to gain the 21 seats it needs to form a majority government in the 150-seat House of Representatives. Labor currently holds 55 seats, the conservative coalition has 90, and minor parties and independents have five. Polls have also shown that the public\s frustration with Labor and the coalition may prompt an unusually high number of votes for minor parties, such as the Greens. That raises the prospect that neither Labor nor the coalition will end up with enough seats to win an outright majority, resulting in a hung parliament. The government has focused much of its campaign on a promise to generate jobs and economic growth through tax cuts to big businesses. Economic growth is a key issue for many Australians, who have seen thousands of jobs vanish from the country\s once-booming resources sector amid China\s industrial slowdown. Labor has said it will keep the higher tax rates and use the revenue to better fund schools and hospitals. Same-sex marriage has also emerged as a campaign issue. Turnbull, who personally supports gay marriage despite his party\s opposition to it, has promised to hold a national poll known as a plebiscite this year that would ask voters whether the nation should allow same-sex marriage. But governments are not bound by the results of plebiscites, and some conservative lawmakers have said they would vote down a gay marriage bill even if most Australians supported marriage equality. Labor, which dubbed the plebiscite a waste of taxpayers\ money, promises that the first legislation the party will introduce to parliament will be a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. Source: Associated Press Times' Game of the Week Preview: Central Valley at Aliquippa Central Valley and Aliquippa are set to face off in arguably the biggest game of the year in the WPIAL. Check out the Times' Game of the Week preview. SHARE The first reports of gunfire that would result in America's deadliest shooting in the modern era were received by Orlando, Florida, police at 2:02 a.m. At 5:02 a.m., police stormed the nightclub that had been turned into a slaughterhouse, and at 5:15 a.m. came the call that the gunman was down. Key details about what happened during those three desperate hours remain unknown as authorities continue their investigation into the events of June 12. Some have raised questions about whether more could and should have been done to save lives. That makes the need for thorough investigation, rigorous analysis and transparency all the more important. In the weeks since 49 people were murdered and dozens more injured at Pulse, accounts from people who were inside the nightclub and anguished questions from victims' family members have raised the issue of whether police were right to delay storming the bathroom where the gunman had holed up with hostages. "I just feel that with so many cops to one person, it should have been a little quicker," Albert Murray, whose 18-year-old daughter was killed, told The Wall Street Journal. Orlando Police Chief John Mina has defended the actions, telling reporters last week it was a "misconception" that nothing was done for three hours: That time was used to rescue patrons, understand the building's layout, figure out where people were hiding, get resources in place and talk to the gunman. So, what had been an active shooter turned into a hostage situation, and the decision to storm the building came when the gunman raised the threat of explosives. Police logs released this week indicate that most of the shooting occurred in the first 16 minutes. That there was heroic work by first responders who saved lives goes without question. And, of course, responsibility for the carnage lies solely with the gunman, who was killed by police. But authorities are wrong to be so defensive about legitimate inquiries; to argue, as did U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida A. Lee Bentley III, that there must be no second-guessing of the police response. What exactly transpired during the critical three hours? Were any of those wounded or killed caught in police gunfire? Could any of the victims have been saved if police stormed the club sooner? Those are questions that need to be asked and answered. In that sense, the release of the detailed police logs was an encouraging sign that authorities realized the need to be more forthcoming. A thorough accounting is important not only for those whose lives were horribly changed June 12 but also because of lessons that might be drawn from the what-ifs of second-guessing. Just as the shooting at Columbine High School in 1999 prompted police to train differently to deal with mass shootings, so might Orlando provide insights that could help prevent or at lease minimize future horrors. The Washington Post SHARE When awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush in 2007, Dr. Oscar Biscet had a scheduling conflict, being in a Cuban prison. At the White House ceremony, Bush called him a "dangerous man ... in the same way that Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi were dangerous." He learned of his honor three years later. It was not until three years later in a dark cell that another prisoner told him what the citation read that day had said Recently, Biscet was allowed to travel to Dallas and finally receive the award from Bush's hands. Biscet explains this as part of the regime's effort to create "the impression of change." That impression was dimmed a bit by the humiliating searches he was subjected to at the airport on his departure. Knowing the police would rummage through his suitcase, Biscet left a surprise: a Cuban flag covering his belongings. It is the kind of in-your-face defiance displayed by many dissidents. Biscet is offended to the core that the country he loves is occupied by squalid autocrats who have run it into the ground. Political heroism is often expressed by the simple inability to stomach the next indignity. For this attitude, Biscet has spent 12 of his 54 years in Cuban jails. His first offense was exposing deception at the heart of Cuban health care, the regime's main source of revolutionary pride. In the early 1990s, Biscet (an internist and medical teacher) began documenting "the mix between politics and medicine" that kept child mortality rates in Cuba so low. The government pressured hospitals and doctors to pressure women with problem pregnancies to abort, to post better statistics. "If they know a baby may have congenital malformations," Biscet told me, "they are killed before birth, unless parents show very strong objections." He explains: "It is all about appearances." The largest question since President Obama's opening to the Cuban government: Are we seeing changes that are more than appearances? There is little doubt the regime is increasingly isolated, with its ally Venezuela in socialism-induced chaos and a more hostile government coming in Brazil. The Castro government seems interested in freeing up some economic space for small and medium-sized businesses (though not for professionals such as doctors and lawyers). But jobs in tourism are rewarded to regime favorites and cronies, including former military. According to a recent report by Oxford Analytica, the infusion of cash into limited regions and economic sectors is encouraging greater inequality and social tension. The government has responded by lowering the price of food and children's clothing. There is no indication that the regime is opening social or political space. In fact, the Communist Party is overcompensating in its revolutionary zeal, including an old-fashioned diatribe by Fidel Castro against Obama and American imperialism. Americans naturally view these events through the lens of their own interests and weigh the costs and benefits. Obama's March visit to Cuba was viewed by many (and by him) as a diplomatic breakthrough. Dissidents see things differently. "For us," Biscet's wife Elsa says, "the faces of the Castros on posters are like the faces of Hitler and Stalin. To see the president of a democratic government embrace these people was ... discouraging." People born into free societies have a difficult time imagining the experience of totalitarianism. In Cuba, the party ultimately controls every job. Biscet once took work at a steel factory. When his political history was discovered, he was fired. At the beginning of the regime, there were mass confiscations and killings. Then large-scale incarceration and forced exile for many Cuban patriots. Now, says Elsa, there are also "policemen in the mind." Everyone feels watched. "That fear is what now controls the population," says Oscar Biscet. "And it is a justified fear." Obama often talks about dictators and terrorists being on "the wrong side of history." This can be a source of confidence, or a form of abdication. When progress is seen as the result of a ticking clock or impersonal forces, it acts as a release from responsibility.History is generally moved in the right direction by individuals willing to sacrifice their lives and liberty for the liberty of others. Standing up for "dangerous" men and women is not a distraction. It is one of the great advantages of American foreign policy. We benefit from the advance of the democratic values that launched our nation by men very much like Dr. Oscar Biscet. Michael Gerson's email address is michaelgerson@washpost.com. He writes for The Washington Post Writers Group. SHARE The U.S. Supreme Court this week refused to hear a case involving religious freedom and the pharmacy profession. At stake: A Washington state law requiring pharmacies to carry and dispense all Federal Drug Administration-approved drugs including so-called morning after birth control pills that some pharmacists object to for religious reasons. The court's refusal to get involved means the law stands, all of which caused Justice Samuel Alito to dissent. "If this is a sign of how religious liberty claims will be treated in the years ahead, those who value religious freedom have cause for great concern," he said. Did the court make the right decision? JOEL MATHIS Let's get one thing straight: Religious freedom isn't a hall pass from the obligations of citizenship. If you don't want to be a pharmacist who dispenses birth control, perhaps you shouldn't be a pharmacist. Don't misunderstand: Religious freedom is important. In America, we observe it extensively. But like all rights, it has limits. I grew up among Mennonites, for example. An important tenet of the Mennonite faith is pacifism to the degree that many Mennonites are opposed to paying taxes to support America's defense establishment. They follow their consciences, in other words, and they follow the law but they make substantial sacrifices to their material well-being to do so. Freedom of religion is no guarantee against making hard or unpleasant choices. What does this have to do with the pharmacists and their religious freedom? Let's start with this truth: Not everybody is or can be a pharmacist. It takes years of study, education and mastery, after which the survivors undergo a licensing process to ensure they meet the standards to provide proper health care. Pharmacists may often work for private businesses, but they provide a highly regulated public service. This matters, because while some big cities have pharmacies on every other block in the right neighborhoods, it's also the case that in rural areas a pharmacist often has a virtual monopoly on serving his or her region. The state of Washington has thus decided that pharmacists can't pick or choose which parts of the job they'll do and which they won't. That doesn't mean conservative Christians can't exercise their conscience. It does mean, however, that they might have to get a different ob. BEN BOYCHUK Let's consider the many jobs traditional, pro-life Christians may no longer, in good conscience, be able to have under this increasingly illiberal regime. They'll no longer be able to be pharmacists, obviously. They certainly won't be obstetricians or gynecologists. They will not be wedding photographers, florists, caterers or bakers. Obscured by the outcome of this case is the little-known fact that pharmacies have the right to refer customers to another pharmacy for drugs they don't stock for almost any reason. Except one. Washington state regulators appear to have gone out of their way to rule out a religious exemption. As Justice Alito noted in his dissent, "there is much evidence that the impetus for the adoption of the regulations was hostility to pharmacists whose religious beliefs regarding abortion and contraception are out of step with prevailing opinion in the State." But never mind the evidence. The liberals on the Supreme Court will contort logic, eviscerate language and mangle precedent to ensure that a woman's right to any form of abortion remains free and unfettered. If anyone doubts it, simply read the court's ruling Monday to toss out a Texas law requiring abortion clinics to meet the same standards as any ambulatory care facility. Texas enacted the law following the 2013 murder conviction of Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist whose clinic resembled a charnel house. At least two women died under his "care." Yet Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the court, said that as bad as Gosnell was, "there is no reason to believe that an extra layer of regulation would have affected that behavior. " Do you suppose Breyer and his progressive colleagues would adopt that same logic in a gun control case? Of course not. But faced with a choice between the demands of modern sexual politics and public safety, or the old rights of religious freedom and conscience, sexual politics will win every time. Ben Boychuk (bboychuk@city-journal.org) is associate editor of the Manhattan Institute's City Journal. Joel Mathis (joelmmathis@gmail.com) is associate editor for Philadelphia Magazine. If latest reports are to be believed, Sara Khan will soon replace Maheck Chahal on the supernatural show, Kawach. By India Today Web Desk: With Kawach recently beating Divyanka Tripathi-starrer Yeh Hai Mohabbatein's TRP, one can easily tell how good the show is doing. The supernatural show that premiered on June 11, a week after Naagin's first season was over, has clinched the top spot in Indian television its first week itself. Also read: Vivek's Kawach beats Divyanka's Yeh Hai Mohabbatein, becomes No. 1 TV show advertisement But according to recent reports, Maheck Chahal, who plays the role of a demon spirit named Manjulika in the show, will soon be replaced by TV actress Sara Khan. Maheck recently suffered a ligament tear and chip fracture on her knee and the doctor has advised her to take complete bed rest for now. Due to the show's hectic shooting schedule, it was getting tougher for the Wanted actress to recover. As a result, the producers of the show has decided to rope in Sara Khan to play the role of Manjulika. Also watch: Mona Singh is scary as hell in this latest clip from Kawach But it seems like the actress is not aware of this. According to what Maheck told Bombay Times, "I'm not aware of this news. This show is important for me and I would have liked to continue. Of course, my health is priority. I want to meet the producer, Ekta Kapoor to update her personally about my status." --- ENDS --- ALBANY - U.S. Rep Paul Tonko and Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan gathered with members of Albany's LGBT community Monday to discuss some recent victories as well as challenges that lay ahead. "Everyone is grieving. We're grieving now," said Gabby Santos, director of LGBT health services at In Our Own Voices. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Rural areas in the Capital Region aren't attracting the millennial generation and don't have specific strategies to keep them, nor should they, according to Rocky Ferraro, executive director of the Capital District Planning Commission. "It's not such a change in paradigm between what existed before," Ferraro said. "Up until 10 years ago, people were leaving the cities and going to the suburbs. Now, people are moving back to the cities." In other words, to keep well-educated young adults here, give them what they want. The Capital Region's population must grow, and downtowns must be able to attract and retain young professionals, a critical group for its future, Capital 20.20: Advancing the Region Through Focused Investment, a report that answers information gathered by McKinsey & Company points out. "Cities that have been able to attract and retain a well-educated population have seen significantly greater growth in per capita income," the study said. The area's Regional Economic Development Council hired McKinsey last fall to compete for a share of the Upstate Revitalization Initiative. As a result, the Albany area received $98.1 million to fund 114 projects. Meanwhile, rural areas in Rensselaer and Saratoga counties have seen an uptick in age during the past decade, Ferraro said. For example, from 2010 to 2014 the median age of residents in the Town of Hoosick was 42, up from 39 in 2000. From 2010 to 2014 the median age for people living in Hadley was 45, compared to 37 in 2000. Rural areas are struggling to attract the next generation as baby boomers, a significant portion of the population, are aging, Ferraro said. "Job opportunities, access to internet, and not as much interest to commute," are some of the reasons millennials are not seeking rural living, Ferraro said. Rural areas in the Adirondacks are also struggling to keep young adults. Fred Monroe, executive director of the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board, said the Adirondacks could someday be dotted with mostly retirees, similar to the west coast of Florida. "We're losing population rapidly," Monroe said. "Every 10 years the average age goes up five years." Young adults are 94 percent more likely to live in urban neighborhoods versus other settings, the McKinsey study revealed. Nearly three-quarters of the 2,000 plus new households interested in moving to downtown Albany during the next 10 years are expected to be young singles and couples, the study showed. Rachelle McKnight is one of them. She took a job last month as a landscape designer at Weston & Sampson in Rensselaer, and knew she wanted to live within walking distance to parks, grocery stores, bars and restaurants. McKnight, 34, ultimately decided on living near Lark Street in downtown Albany. "I enjoy neighborhoods where I have frequent contact with the members of the community and enjoy dense urban architecture," McKnight, who moved from Syracuse, said. "I think this goes back to the fact that I don't want to get into a car every time I want to go out and do something." The renewed interest by the millennial generation, those ages 16-34, in urban settings such as Albany, Schenectady and Troy areas with 50 percent of residents living in poverty has had a positive impact, Ferraro says. "The positive thing is there's an investment in repurposing old buildings," Ferraro said. It's still too early to tell whether they will stay in the urban cities and raise their families. "We have to invest in urban schools if we're going to retain young professionals in urban settings," Ferraro says. In order to appeal to the millennial generation, some suburban communities in the Capital Region, such as Malta, have created a town center, Ferraro said. However, the risk in creating new urban environments, providing a mix of residential and retail is that "just by building it doesn't mean they will come," Ferraro said. The influx of young professionals in Malta, sparked by jobs at GlobalFoundries, has had an effect on other new businesses, apartments, and town houses, Town of Malta Supervisor Vince DeLucia said. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. "This demographic is looking for both city and suburban," Cathy Cooley, a Delmar real estate agent, said. "But, without a doubt, the walkability factor plays a large role in the decision-making process." If this age group has a family, then the suburbs have become their main choice. Being able to walk to restaurants and shops is an added bonus, Cooley said. "This is especially true of young buyers moving to the Capital Region from larger cities such as New York or Boston where the walk factor is easily attainable and something they are familiar with," Cooley said. "They do express that they wish there was more retail in the downtown areas for convenience." Fewer younger professionals prefer more space and a rural setting, "seeking peace and quiet," Cooley said. And this is most pronounced in places like the Adirondacks. In 2014, Cornell University's Adirondack Park Regional Assessment showed a population decline averaging 525 people per year in the 12 counties of the Adirondack Park through 2024. The number of young adults and children (younger than 30) is projected to decline at more than 680 individuals per year during the next decade. The difference between these two numbers "is the reliable in-migration of older people" that will continue at an average pace of more than 155 people per year, according to APRA. However, there still are those who look for land, Cooley said. "We are fortunate that we still have such affordable real estate for those seeking a more rural lifestyle." And many rural settings in the Capital Region are close to towns and cities, Cooley said. "A buyer can buy a fabulous home with acreage and will only be 10 minutes from Bethlehem's Town Center," she said. Still, young families with two working parents tend to seek out neighborhoods that are not too far from their jobs. "I find many young buyers are looking to replicate how they grew up," Cooley said. "(They) tend to move back to the towns they grew up in, looking for that similar lifestyle." Amazingly enough, all three major candidates for president of the United States hail, or hailed, from New York. Even more amazing is all three agreeing that Citizens United was a flawed U.S. Supreme Court decision. They agree, as do 80 percent of voters from all political stripes, that there is too much unlimited, unregulated, dark money in politics. In reading the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, not once did the words corporation, trade union or association appear. In spite of this, the Supreme Court gave all three of those legal concoctions the right of free speech a right solely belonging to "We the People." What you need to know about Colts starting quarterback Sam Ehlinger By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 2 (PTI) State Bank of India has inked agreements with the World Bank for a USD 625 million (around Rs 4,200 crore) facility to support grid connected rooftop solar programme in the country. This will help SBI in financing grid connected rooftop solar photovoltaic (GRPV) projects at very competitive rates, the countrys largest lender said in a statement today. advertisement "This in turn will catalyse the market and support the government to faster achieve its target to generate 40 GW of electricity from widespread installation of rooftop solar photo-voltaic panels," it said. The eligible beneficiaries under the facility would be developers, aggregators and end-users, who wish to set up solar PV projects mainly on commercial, industrial and institutional rooftops. Through this initiative, at least 400 MW solar capacity will be created across the country. The programme also aims at improving the investment climate for solar PV, and increase the ease of doing rooftop business through technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of key institutions, and support development of the overall solar rooftop PV market, the statement said. The agreements were signed by Karnam Sekar, Deputy Managing Director, SBI and Onno Ruhl, Country Director, World Bank India. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das were also present. SBI Capital Markets was the advisor for structuring and setting up the facility. PTI HV RSY ABK --- ENDS --- By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 2 (PTI) State Bank of India has inked agreements with the World Bank for a USD 625 million (around Rs 4,200 crore) facility to support grid connected rooftop solar programme in the country. This will help SBI in financing grid connected rooftop solar photovoltaic (GRPV) projects at very competitive rates, the countrys largest lender said in a statement today. advertisement "This in turn will catalyse the market and support the government to faster achieve its target to generate 40 GW of electricity from widespread installation of rooftop solar photo-voltaic panels," it said. The eligible beneficiaries under the facility would be developers, aggregators and end-users, who wish to set up solar PV projects mainly on commercial, industrial and institutional rooftops. Through this initiative, at least 400 MW solar capacity will be created across the country. The programme also aims at improving the investment climate for solar PV, and increase the ease of doing rooftop business through technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of key institutions, and support development of the overall solar rooftop PV market, the statement said. The agreements were signed by Karnam Sekar, Deputy Managing Director, SBI and Onno Ruhl, Country Director, World Bank India. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das were also present. SBI Capital Markets was the advisor for structuring and setting up the facility. PTI HV RSY ABK BAS --- ENDS --- WITHOUT QUESTION THE MOST DISGUSTING BIT OF KANSAS CITY RHETORIC THIS SUMMER BELONGS TO BAR OWNERS ACTING LIKE THEY'RE ON A SOCIAL JUSTICE CRUSADE IN THEIR FIGHT TO SELL OVERPRICED BOOZE TO THE COWTOWN BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE!!! While Kansas City is undergoing a bloody summer spate of crime, violence and murder . . . A few denizens of the "creative class" and their bar buddies are making a stink over the rights of bar owner speculators selling the last legal drug.Here's a more sympathetic view that mistakenly regards bar biz moving as anything but a minor inconvenience to this town's middle-class functional alcoholics.Please tip your waitresses and you decide . . . Liquor license restrictions driving bars out of Crossroads District Considering The Highly Unlikely Possibility That Kansas Will Turn To The Democratic Party For Answers Talking The Rock Chalk Public Education FAIL Teachable Moment!!! Kansas City Congressman Cleaver Fires Off Quotes Amid Great Gun Control Debate A chat with a Golden Ghetto Mayor starts thispolitical discussion show for the last remaining voters in the Kansas City metro.Still, these are the most informed and influential people among the declining electorate and professional class, providing a peek at their news & views . . ."Pundits and pollsters are predicting a Democratic (or a moderate Republican) resurgence in the Kansas Primary and general elections. What effect will the protracted controversies of the Brownback administration have on the conservative Republican reign in the Sunflower state? Do you see dramatic changes coming to the Kansas political scene?""In Kansas, there's discussion of a constitutional amendment to limit the court's authority in school finance issues. Even lawyers are divided over the merits of a totally independent judiciary versus greater judicial accountability. On which side of this question will we find you?"Republicans say the U.S. House "sit-in" was simply a stunt---a fund-raising ploy by House Democrats. Congressman Cleaver described the event this way: "The last 24-hours I've been more proud to have been a Democrat than I have in all of my previous public life." Is his pride justified?And then there's roasts and toasts that were mostly polite but still worth a look for a great anti-gun-control fact check.You decide . . . Put simply, Kansas City has always blasted through the 4th of July weekend with guns and illegal fireworks and this local tradition seems to be a symptom of a larger cultural problem impacting all of Kansas City from the Northland, to the urban core and even out South . . . Look around and Kansas City's love of illegal fireworks and celebratory gunfire defies demographics and might give hint that overall there's an underlying and maybe even somewhat justified disrespect for local authority. Like everything else in this town, our 4th of July tradition of illegal fireworks and gunfire is masked with politeness and patriotism but it's still about nothing less than brief snub to the status quo. Like it or not, Kansas City's long history of systemic corruption that goes hand in hand with crime has fostered a mistrust of the laws, elected officials and authorities who govern our local populace and this attitude is manifested not only in (mostly) harmless illicit July 4th celebration but also in our far more dangerous and tragic homicide count. The Kansas City Bottle Rocket Theory Of Government Corruption, Fireworks, Celebratory Gunfire And HomicideKansas City's homicide spike has now garnered national attention but it seems the local elected leadership is more focused on slate of development rather than the plight of neighborhoods.Earlier this year one of a litany of crime fighting effortsA spate of blight fighting efforts quickly followed, dilapidated homes were put on a dollar discount auction block and there was some effort at urban core cleanup as the Earnings Tax election approached . . . Sadly, none of it helped reduce the number of murders in Kansas City which now stands atAnd all this is prologue to 4th of July weekend that hasthat's making the news tonight.Leading up to this weekend there wasAnd all of this talk of guns, murder and fireworks inspired a moment of contemplation and clarity . . .Accordingly, here's another TKC theory that we're offering to avid readers tonight . . .The sound of July 4th weekend celebratory gunfire and illegal fireworks is a better indicator of a disregard for public safety and local law than urban core blight which is really more of an after effect of economic disinvestment. Moreover, it's easier to talk blight than do anything about a tradition of illicit celebration that has absolutely no regard for municipal codes or the well-being of neighbors.At the very least, our Kansas City bottle rocket theory offers a bit more of a historical context for the current spate of violence and murder than so much of the pseudoscience touted by so many Kansas City anti-crime groups.You decide . . . Bilateral agreements between Greece and China are to be signed after expanded talks and meetings with business and govenment officials Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will be accompanied by a number of cabinet ministers, government officials and business representatives on an official visit to China, in an effort to bolster bilateral relations and attract investments. The Greek delegation will arrive in China on Saturday morning, with PM Tsipras scheduled to give an interview to the State Chinese television network CCTV. On Sunday the PM will meet the president of the Wanda Group, followed by a visit to the Huawei technology park to meet the CEO. On Monday the Greek Prime Minister will be received by his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang in an official ceremony. Expanded talks will later take place between the two government delegations, followed by the signing of bilateral agreements and participating in a business forum. Late on Tuesday PM Tsipras will visit the Forbidden City of Beijing and the Monument to the People's Heroes on Tiananmen Square, before meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Greek delegation has arranged to meet with a various business representatives on Wednesday, including the presidents of COSCO, Alibaba, ZTE and FOSUN. A meeting has also been arranged with the Mayor of Shanghai Yang Xiong, before the Greek delegation leaves for Athens in the afternoon. On this trip the Prime Minister will be accompanied by government spokesperson Olga Gerovasili, the Minister of Economy Giorgos Stathakis, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Kotzias and his Deputy Minister Dimitris Mardas, the Minister of Culture Aristides Baltas, the Alt. Ministers of Education Sia Anagnostopoulou and Kostas Fotakis and others. Source: tovima.gr RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report The Bank of Cyprus continues to have plans to enlist itself on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) even amid the growing worries of the Brexit, the CEO John Patrick Hourican revealed to SigmaLive in an exclusive interview. The Bank of Cyprus continues to have plans to enlist itself on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) even amid the growing worries of the Brexit, the CEO John Patrick Hourican revealed to SigmaLive in an exclusive interview. Downgrades have abounded from ratings agencies with Standard & Poors and Fitch Ratings both announcing that the UKs economy would be rated as double A instead of the triple A or AA+ rating it had pre-Brexit. Fallout on a political level has also been immediate, with EU leaders calling for a quick divorce from the UK at an unofficial summit held earlier in the week. However, Hourican suggests that despite the uncertainty of a post-Brexit Europe, London will continue to remain an important financial centre in global terms. Look at the world and see how the large amounts of money invested in pensions is managed: its invested in New York, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and London... London will remain a very big, very important, financial centre for the world, Hourican explains. Exemplary global city In a report in 2013, the Brookings Institution think-tank, had said about the UK, The capital of the United Kingdom and one of the four largest metropolitan areas in Europe, London has become an exemplary global city over the past two decades. The city rates second for global firm presence, just behind New York, and it ranks third in information/communications technology development among large world cities, enabling near-seamless communication. Hourican, in the meantime, has had a different outlook on the UKs economy on the growing fears that led to a FTSE fall, after the Brexit. He has said, And while this will change somewhat with Brexit, it wont change to the extent that London will no longer be a centre for managing large amounts. The skills are there, the infrastructure is there, the money is already there, the history is there, the connections are there, and now they just need to find a better equilibrium to deal with the changes. Despite Hourican's assertions that London will continue to be a global financial capital, he cautions that change is always disquieting, and should be carefully monitored: We should all worry when there is change around us; when you have change in the geopolitics or geoeconomics you have to watch carefully and know whats going on. BoC still seeking its listing on the LSE Even with the Brexit, the Bank of Cyprus is still looking to join the London Stock Exchange, Hourican had mentioned. He said, The Bank hasnt changed it plans to list in the LSE. Hourican did add however that with the Brexit the bank would be closely monitoring the situation, and would take its time in considering when the process to list itself on the LSE would happen. In early April, the BoC had said in an official announcement: A premium listing on the LSE fulfills one of the Banks objectives of listing on a major European stock exchange. The listing and, subject to meeting the eligibility criteria, potential inclusion in the FTSE UK Index series will enhance the Groups visibility and share liquidity. However, with the Brexit, Hourican mentioned that the bank would need time to reflect and make sure that the choice of London, over other options, is still the right choice. He said they will Enlist on the LSE with a premium listing and at a time that is sensible for the bank. Business as usual More specifically on what the bank foresees following the Brexit, Hourican made reference to the bank running business as usual. He said that they continue to plan to grow their niche business with the BoC UK, as there are significant growth opportunities. With the Bank of Cyprus on the island, Hourican explained that they will continue to follow what the Cypriot economy does, as their job is to support the economy. Hourican has also said that the plan to enlist with the LSE will not be complicated following the Brexit, which had sparked concerns that new trade agreements would need to be made. The EU, which allows members to benefit from a free-trade area, would have to negotiate new deals with the UK following the Brexit, officials had previously said. First you exit then you negotiate, Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU Trade Commissioner has said following the referendum result. A third country After Brexit, the UK would become a third country in EU terms, she said - meaning trade would be carried out based on World Trade Organisation rules until a new deal was complete. A recent trade deal with Canada took seven years to negotiate with the EU leaders. Malmstrom added that another one to two years are needed to have all the EU member states pass the agreeement. In terms of the Bank of Cyprus though, Hourican said that there is no such complication in enlisting with the LSE. He said that the holding company, which will own the BoC UK and the BoC, is planned to be listed on the LSE and designed to access investor capital and find stability for their stocks. Whether you discover that in New York, Singapore, London, or Amsterdam is a matter of choice for the management, and where they believe the best conditions for its investors are, which is a decision we will make at the time, Hourican said. Pounds decline and the Bank of Cyprus However, following the sharp decline in the worth of the pound following the Brexit, Hourican was clear that lending opportunities to UK borrowers would need to be closely looked into. On the day after the referendum in the UK, the pound fell to its lowest level since 1985. Leave's victory has delivered one of the biggest market shocks of all time. The pound has collapsed to its lowest level in over 30 years, suffering its biggest one-day fall in living memory. It's fair to say we've never seen anything like it and the chances are markets will remain highly volatile over the coming hours and days, said Joe Rundle, head of trading at ETX Capital, a UK based financial company, on the day following the Brexit. Hourican mentioned that due to the decline in the sterling, they would need to make sure that a person whose earnings are in pounds is more of a risk. We will need to make sure that they will be able to pay us in euros if they borrow in euros. Our job is to support businesses in Cyprus, and therefore the Cypriot economy, which is currently doing very well today, he said. Furthermore, on the pounds decline, Hourican has mentioned that Cyprus needs to be mindful of the effects on its own market. The Eurozone becomes a less attractive place for sterling tourists, he said, adding that the island would become more expensive for them To combat the Brexits effect on the markets in Cyprus, Hourican has suggested: We have to plan for alternative tourists to come here, and we have to make sure that our exports from here to the UK are either more competitive, or we find new markets. So we have to get proactive in every sector, every company, in every line of business to try and find the advantage from the dislocation that is happening in Britain. Part two of Hourican's interview on foreclosures, NPLs, and ELA will be on SigmaLive on Sunday. Read more here. RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report Belgrade's interior minister Nebojsa Stefanovic told B92 TV that ZS killed his estranged wife and a another woman, before firing at others in the cafe with an assault rifle he illegally owned. Picture for representation only. (Map not to scale) By Reuters: Five people were killed and another 22 were wounded early on Saturday when a man entered a cafe in northern Serbia and opened fire with an assault rifle, police said. Police arrested the suspect, a man in his late 30s identified only as ZS, immediately after the shooting during a local festival in the village of Zitiste, around 80 kilometres north of Belgrade. advertisement Nebojsa Stefanovic, the interior minister, told Belgrade's B92 TV that ZS killed his estranged wife and a another woman, before firing at others in the cafe with an assault rifle he illegally owned. "Jealousy could be a motive," he said. "He was a quiet man; he had no criminal record." Gordana Kozlovacki, the director of the hospital in the nearby town of Zrenjanin, said 22 people were treated after the shooting. Seven remained in a serious condition. Serbia and most of the western Balkans are awash with hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons following wars and unrest in the 1990s. In a bid to reduce the number, Serbian police on Friday offered an amnesty over surrendering or registering illegal weapons until November. Saturday's killings follow a number of mass shootings in Serbia in recent years. Three years ago, 13 people died in a shooting spree in a village near Belgrade, and last year six people were killed in a dispute over a wedding in Serbia's north. ALSO READ: Armed ISIS gunmen attack restaurant in Dhaka, 5 including 3 cops killed in gunbattle --- ENDS --- The residential rental market continued to be under pressure during Q1 2016 as companies are trying to adjust to the market conditions and minimise expenses by reducing headcount and housing allowances, according to leading consultancy house PKF. Based on third-party reports, due to the slowing economic growth, demand for rented accommodation and particularly larger housing units has decreased, resulting in a 12.7 per cent y-o-y (year-on-year) decline in average residential rents during the first quarter, it stated. Over the last couple of years, a large supply of new quality apartments has penetrated the residential market in Muscat, which, however, was absorbed quickly due to a sustained growth in the expat population and increasing demand for smaller-sized units. As a result, vacancy rates across the villa segment increased, leading to a 14.1 per cent y-o-y decline in average monthly villa lease rates, said PKF. With regards to the residential sales market in Oman, the prevailing regional economic uncertainty and the decline in disposable household income levels have resulted in vendors decreasing property sales rates to entice demand from potential buyers. As a result, the number of sales contracts during Q1 increased slightly by 0.3 per cent to 20,963, when compared to the same quarter in 2015 according to the National Centre for Statistics and Information, it added. Despite the increase in transactional activity, the total traded value of property in the sultanate amounted to RO922.1 million ($2.38 billion) in Q1, representing a y-o-y decline of 30.3 per cent. The quarter also witnessed a 39.5 per cent fall in the number of properties issued for GCC nationals. Oman's integrated tourism complexes (ITC) and more specifically Al Mouj and Muscat Hills continued to register high occupancy rates, as ITC developments remain the only places in the country where non-GCC nationals are permitted to own a property. The first quarter of the year witnessed the launch of 'The Boulevard' project in Muscat Hills "a pedestrian-only 665-m-long street that boasts shopping, dining and leisure outlets, which is due for completion in 2018," stated the consultancy house. Along with the handover of Muscat Hills Phase Two villas and a number of additional upcoming projects, including the much-anticipated Intercontinental Hotel, it is expected that the master development will reinforce its attractiveness among residents and visitors and continue to command high sales rates, it added. On the retail sector, PKF said the demand for retail space across the shopping malls in Oman remained robust during Q1 2016, supported by the increase in the country's population, which at the end of March 2016 totalled 4,397,790 (5.8 per cent y-o-y growth). The growing consumer awareness as well as the increasing demand for international brands and improved shopping environment has prompted developers to invest in expanding Oman's retail sector, which currently has the lowest retail GLA (gross leasable area) per capita within the GCC region, standing at 0.09 per sq m. The first quarter of the year witnessed the official inauguration of Panorama Mall in Muscat, which added approximately 21,000 sq m of GLA to Oman's total retail space stock. The shopping centre is spread across three levels and houses close to 116 retail outlets. As of mid-February, 75 per cent of the retail space in the mall has been leased, while only half of the outlets have opened. As far as new project announcements are concerned, Majid Al Futtaim revealed a new RO5-million ($13 million) expansion plan for City Centre Qurum, which will see the addition of approximately 3,150 sq m of leasable area and bring the total GLA of the mall up to 26,500 sq m. The project is slated for completion by the end of this year. With regards to the upcoming retail supply in Oman, a number of new shopping centres are expected to open across the country including the 137,000 sq m Mall of Oman, which will house 350 new outlets and the country's first snow park (completion date: 2020), the 40,000 sq m City Centre Sohar as well as the 16,000 sq m My City Centre Sur to be completed by 2018 and 2017 respectively. Furthermore, the addition of 105,000 sq m of retail space at the Palm Mall in Al Khoudh and the 30,000-sq-m expansion of Muscat Grand Mall, both of which are slated for completion within the next 18 months, are expected to give a further impetus to the retail market in Oman. The rapid growth of the sector, however, may also result in a potential supply-demand imbalance, leading to an increasingly competitive market and increase vacancy rates across prime mall locations. Currently, demand indicators outstrip supply growth, resulting in stable occupancy rates across prime shopping malls.-TradeArabia News Service Spain will compete with other countries in the European Union to host the headquarters of the EU's London-based bank regulator following Britain's decision to leave the bloc, its deputy prime minister said. The race to host the European Banking Authority is led by Paris and Frankfurt, the largest EU financial centres, but no decision has been reached and other countries have also put themselves forward in the scramble to give London's agencies a new home. Spain has set up a working group to drive Spain's bid for the EBA and for the London-based European Medicines Agency, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria told a news conference. Santamaria also said Spain would seek to lure international banks based in London which are looking to move their operations to remain inside the European Union. "We will focus intensely on measures that can help us to boost the competitiveness that Spain already has, such as its level of economic growth, so that financial institutions that need a secondary base in the EU move here," she said. An EBA spokeswoman said last Sunday that the European Union would have to decide on relocation and in the meantime the agency would continue to operate in London. Spain currently only hosts minor European agencies such as the EU Agency for Safety and Health at Work and the European Fisheries Control Agency.-Reuters Once-rival leaders of Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) have agreed on a structure for the group that aims to put to rest squabbles over who has the right to export the country's oil, according to a statement. Oil industry leaders in Opec-member Libya have said they could quickly double production to over 700,000 bpd if conditions stabilized. Before a 2011 revolution, Libya was producing 1.6 million bpd. The rival oil officials agreed in principle to unify the oil sector in May, but the agreement on the structure and leadership of a joint group took weeks of meetings to iron out. Mustafa Sanalla, who led the Tripoli-based NOC, will remain chairman of the group, while the head of the eastern-backed NOC, Naji al-Maghrabi, will serve as a board member, according to a statement seen by Reuters. A UN-backed unity government that arrived in Tripoli in March is seeking to replace two rival governments that were set up in Tripoli and the east, and to unite Libya's many political and armed factions. A united oil sector would be a key support for the unity government. Libya relies heavily on oil exports as a source of income and hard currency. "This agreement will send a very strong signal to the Libyan people and to the international community that the Presidency Council is able to deliver consensus and reconciliation," Sanalla said in the statement. Al-Maghrabi said both men "made a strategic choice to put our divisions behind us" as there is "no other way forward". Oil production sank to around 200,000 bpd in May after a political dispute between the eastern and western factions blocked loadings at Marsa al Hariga for more than three weeks. A unified NOC structure could also smooth negotiations to reopen the El Sharara and El Feel fiels, which are closed due to disagreements with local groups. The two sides also agreed a budget for the remainder of the year, taking steps to "address any imbalances resulting from the period of division", they said. They also identified infrastructure rehabilitation as a big goal, particularly in the eastern city of Benghazi, "in preparation for the relocation of NOC's headquarters". NOC aims to hold meetings of its board of directors meetings in Benghazi "if security conditions permit". The joint NOC will also submit periodic reports to committees established by both the Presidential Council and the House of Representatives, which it recognised as the highest executive and legislative authorities within Libya.-Reuters A Bahraini woman died and three children sustained minor injuries when their car was hit by a bomb blast on Thursday in the village of East Eker, south of capital, Manama, drawing world wide condemnation. Shrapnel hit the car Fakhriya Muslim Ahmed Hassan, aged 42, was in, the police said, and security forces were investigating the scene of the attack, according to an Interior Ministry statement. "A terrorist act on Thursday claimed the life of a woman and injured three children who were with her in a car that was hit by shrapnel after a bomb exploded," the director general of Manama's police directorate was quoted as saying by BNA. The global condemnation was led by Saudi Arabia and the US, who in a strongly worded statement slammed the cowardly act, along with the other GCC states and Jordan. An official source from the Foreign Ministry reiterated the Saudi Arabia's unwavering stance in support of Bahrain and also expressed condolences to the victims family and wished the injured a speedy recovery. In a statement issued today, the US Embassy to Bahrain offered deepest condolences to the family of the victim and the people of Bahrain, wishing the injured children speedy recovery. The Council of Representatives too have strongly condemned the terror act, reported BNA. In a statement, the speaker of the Council of Representatives Ahmed bin Ibrahim Al Mulla stressed that the acts of sabotage carried out by terrorists would not impede the efforts of the security authorities to assume their duties of maintaining the security of the nation, the citizens and residents. Capital Governor Hisham bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa has strongly condemned the terror attack and asserted that the loyal Bahraini citizens were well aware of the plots staged against them to impede the human, civilisational and economic development witnessed by the kingdom during His Majesty King Hamads Reform Project, said the report. He pointed out that the terror blast will strengthen the Bahraini citizens cohesion and rallying behind the leadership in facing all forms of violence and sabotage. India's Iran oil imports rose about 39 per cent in June year on year, preliminary data obtained by Reuters shows. In the first half of 2016 India's Iran oil imports surged by about 58 per cent to about 342,000 bpd, the data showed, in comparison with 216,500 bpd in the same period last year. HPCL-Mittal Energy, majority owned by state refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp, halted oil imports from Iran in November 2012 under pressure from Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear ambitions. HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL), partly owned by steel tycoon Lakshmi N. Mittal, took a cargo from Tehran after a three-and-a-half year break. Last month HMEL took a million barrels of Iranian oil, according to preliminary tanker arrival data from trade sources and ship-tracking services on the Thomson Reuters terminal. Indian refiners took in about 381,500 barrels per day (bpd)of Iranian oil in June, the data showed. The June shipments were about 0.6 per cent higher from Iranian volumes in May, the data showed. In June last year India shipped in about 274,800 bpd oil from Iran. India's oil imports from Iran are set to surge to a seven-year high in the year that began April 1, with the nation's state-owned and private refiners together buying at least 400,000 bpd. In April-June, the first quarter of the current fiscal year, India's Iran oil purchases rose 25.6 per cent to 384,500 bpd from about 306,000 bpd in the same year ago period, the data showed. Private refiner, Essar Oil, was the top Indian client of Iran in June, importing about 180,600 bpd, followed by Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd with about 69,000 bpd, and Reliance Industries Ltd with about 64,000 bpd. Indian Oil Corp, the country's biggest refineer, imported about 32,000 bpd, the shipping and terminal data showed. Reuters Saudi Arabia wants to expand its investments in China's energy industry, its Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih said late on Friday, part of the world's top oil exporter's efforts to bo-ost cooperation with a top customer. Falih's comments were made in an emailed statement after discussions with China's Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli and other officials in Beijing during a G20 ministerial meeting. "Saudi Arabia is very keen to elevate their partnership in the energy sector to the highest level," he was quoted as saying in the statement. He said he hoped Saudi investments could increase to cover all Chinese provinces and that there was room to grow bilateral trade in both energy and other hydrocarbons products such as petrochemicals. Falih also said he wanted to see new investment projects carried out by Saudi and Chinese sovereign wealth funds, and added that the two countries shared interest in crude oil storage, mining, renewable energy and industrial development. Oil producers' battle for market share in Asia, and particularly in China, the world's No. 2 consumer, has heated up since the return of Iranian crude to the market after sanctions were lifted on Tehran this year. Both oil giant Saudi Aramco and petrochemicals conglomerate Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) have joint venture businesses in China and new projects under development. In January Aramco said it was also in advanced talks to invest in refineries in China. Sabic said in May it had agreed to build another petrochemical factory there.-Reuters About When it comes to booking the more-than-perfect Hawaii trip for your client, look no further than Blue Sky Tours. Since 1981, we have been crafting custom-designed vacation packages so you can deliver the best quality, value, and service to Hawaii, and have now expanded that same superior service to the South Pacific. In a recent interview, Shah Rukh Khan finally broke his silence on Suhana's viral bikini picture and said she is just sixteen and was on a beach with her brother. By India Today Web Desk: Shah Rukh Khan finally breaks his silence on Suhana's viral bikini picture Shah Rukh Khan's kids Suhana, Aryan and AbRam are the most famous star kids on the block. One of Suhana's picture with AbRam on a beach went viral and as a caring father Shah Rukh wanted that picture to be removed from social media. advertisement ALSO SEE: This photo of Shah Rukh Khan's daughter Suhana in bikini along with AbRam goes viral In the picture, Suhana was seen in a neon-patterned bikni, with lil AbRam by his side, in his tiny wee swimming trunks. In an interview to The Huffington Post, the Dilwale actor finally broke his silence and said she is just sixteen and was on a beach with her brother. He said, "She was in a bikini, she was on a beach, and she was with her little brother. You went ahead and wrote a headline, "SRK's daughter flaunts her body." Is it a little cheap? Maybe I felt it was. I reached out nicely and said, dude, your website is not going to run on my daughter's bikini body, can you please take it out? People saw where I was coming from. My daughter was a little awkward about it. She's 16, yaar. And the headlines some sites use are. wow. We're very liberal people and even had a laugh about it. But it's still awkward." The Raees actor added, "That is there. But when my daughter's pictures were splashed everywhere online and when I jumped to get it contained, I wasn't protecting her from the media - I was protecting her from me. It's my stardom that was the reason that picture made it to the news - it wouldn't have if she wasn't SRK's daughter. There could be someone running naked and that wouldn't be news." There were reports that Suhana will soon make her Bollywood debut. In an earlier interview, the Chennai Express actor had said, "My daughter wants to learn acting, but I don't know which institute in India I should send her to. We don't have any good acting school. One of my dream projects is to be able to create an institute where youngsters can come and learn professional acting, techniques of acting, different styles of acting." On the work front, Shah Rukh Khan will next be seen in Raees. --- ENDS --- New Delhi, Jun 30 (PTI) In an apparent departure from recommendation of the TSR Subramanian panel, the HRD Ministry in the draft education policy said the government "recognises and will encourage the positive role played by students unions" in furthering the interests of democracy. In its report submitted to the HRD Ministry, the TSR Subramanian panel had sought a "non-emotional examination of the issue of permitting chapters of national political parties, or caste or community based organisations within campuses of universities". advertisement The draft National Education Policy, put up by the HRD Ministry on its website, said, "Government recognises and will encourage the positive role played by students unions in furthering the interests of democracy and strengthening the democratic systems, governance and processes as well as debates, discussions and pluralism of thoughts." The draft, however, carries the Subramanian committees recomendation regarding examining the desirability of allowing students to continue on campuses for long period beyond normal schedules for courses. The draft says it been observed that most of the "disruptive activities and disharmony" on campuses are led by outsiders and students who remain enrolled for many more years than what is mandated. "A study will be conducted to prevent outsiders and those who have ceased to be students from playing an active role in students politics and disrupting the academic activities as well as to prevent them from staying in hostels and misuse facilities of the institute," it says. The Subramanian committees recommendation on considering the role of political party-related outfits on campuses led to a political slugfest. Criticising the suggestion, Congress leader Shobha Oza said it is "unfortunate" that an attempt is being made to take away the right of democracy from the students. "Many of the leaders in the country are ex-student leaders who have fought for student rights in their youth years," Oza said. She suggested that the government may have the rows in institutions like FTII and JNU in mind. CPI leader D Raja also criticised the recommendation saying that "we have given voting rights at the age of 18 and many of the students are voters." BJP leader Nalin Kohli, however, emphasised that the report of the committee has been submitted to the government which will be examined before the policy is finalised. (MORE) PTI ADS SMN SMN --- ENDS --- Dapper grandfather of two started trending online and has no idea why. This dapper grandpa became the new viral sensation. Picture courtesy:Twitter/Rue By India Today Web Desk: After the 80-year-old glam-mom, here's dapper grandpa! This 54-year-old grandad sent the internet into a frenzy after his images went viral this week. Irvin Randle, who is from Texas, told ABC, "I got a call from my daughter, Jessica, in California and she said, 'Dad, you have Twitter?'" "I said, 'I don't have Twitter,' and she said, 'Well you're trending on Twitter.' advertisement "I said, 'Well just send it to me because I don't know how to do it,'" he recalled. Also read: Teacher lets first-grade kids draw on her dress, and the result is fantastic Pictures of a well-dressed Randle started trending on Twitter after a stranger took notice of his good looks and sharp dressing sense. The person contacted the 54-year-old grandfather and asked if he could share photos of him on social media. Irvine said yes, and as a result we got #MrStealYourGrandma. Also read: This is how a woman turned her 80-year-old grandmom into a glam-mom With grey beard and a great dressing sense, Randle is an elementary school teacher who loves reading to small children. Irvine revealed that he has been a sharp dresser since junior high school when his mom would shout at him for the clothing items he wanted to buy. He has continued to follow fashion by reading GQ magazine and following trends on Instagram. Apart from dressing well, he also exercises and eats well to maintain his physique. --- ENDS --- Amritsar, June 2 The drug wing of the Health Department has seized 10 anti-snake vaccines from a chemist shop near Government Medical College here after a complaint regarding counterfeit medicines was received. Officials stated that the labels of the 10 seized injections were tampered with, but these were not of the same batch of injections which are in government supply. The labels are usually tampered with by chemists if the medicines are physicians samples or for government supply. However, as the batch number is same as that of the government supply, we are investigating the matter, said drug inspector Bableen Kaur. Earlier, the medical superintendent at the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, Dr Ram Sarup Sharma, had filed a complaint with the department on the basis of an objection from a patient. With government hospitals facing allegations that supplies for government hospitals are sold in the open market, the case seemed to belong to this category. However, with the hospital claiming that the medicines of the same batch number were not supplied to the hospital, it has created a suspicion as no chemist would tamper with the labels. TNS R Sedhuraman Legal Correspondent New Delhi, July 1 The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed two petitions by Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a case of alleged rape committed in 1999. A Bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and C Nagappan refused to entertain the two appeals, one seeking additional handwriting samples of the alleged rape victim and another for producing further evidence in the trial court at Panchkula. Arguing for Singh, senior counsel Jayant Bhushan contended that more handwriting samples of the victim were crucial for establishing the innocence of his client. The forensic laboratory had said the samples made available for testing were inadequate to come to a conclusion if the victim had written any letter to the accused, he said. The Bench, however, said the accused should not argue that the victims purported I love you statement implied I am available. Bhushan pleaded that his client, who was on bail in the case, should at least be allowed to produce experts in the trial court to repudiate the authenticity of the letter, which the victim had already denied during cross-examination. If it was a rape or consensual sex will be examined by the trial court by going into the evidence, the Bench remarked while dismissing the appeals against the high court rulings. Ishfaq Tantry Tribune News Service Srinagar, July 1 The Kashmiri separatists have threatened an agitation across the Valley after Eid if the government does not come clean on the proposed separate townships for Kashmiri Pandits, Sainik Colony and the industrial policy. Reading out a resolution from the pulpit of the grand mosque in the downtown to thousands of people, which has been agreed upon jointly by the hardline Hurriyat faction, headed by Syed Ali Geelani, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik and his faction of Hurriyat, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said people didnt trust the government over its past explanation on these controversial issues. Addressing a mammoth gathering during the Juma-tul-Vida prayers, as the day is also being observed as Youm-e-Quds to show solidarity with Palestine, Mirwaiz said Jammu and Kashmir was a Muslim majority region and the people of the state would not allow that its Muslim majority character be altered at any cost. Mirwaiz decries the BJPs warmongering and said Pakistan was also nuclear armed. Day by day, the situation in Kashmir is deteriorating. It is unfortunate that the people in power here are calling for bombing and waging a war against Pakistan. They want to destroy and destabilise whole of the subcontinent, Mirwaiz said in his address, with people responding by calls of shame, shame. It is not 1967 or 71. Today is 2016 and both the countries are nuclear armed and fully laced with lethal weapons. Only an idiot can think of a war in this scenario, Mirwaiz said, with an obvious reference to recent demand by the BJP in the J&K Assembly, which is the ally of ruling PDP, that Pakistan should be bombed. He said they (PDP-BJP) called themselves peoples representatives, but talked of waging war, whereas the All Parties Hurriyat Conference had always called for peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute. But , still they call us terrorists, fundamentalists, he said. The Hurriyat leader said because of the suppressive policies of the government, the educated youth of the Kashmir were being forced to take up guns in their hand as the political, economic and religious rights of the people here were being usurped by the government. Without naming the PDP and its leaders, Mirwaiz said these people used to talk about Kashmir resolution when they were out of power, but it had now been proved that they were after power and wanted to grab the chair. Mirwaiz said the government could not suppress the peoples urge for self-determination by using force. At the end of his speech, while reading a joint declaration, which was read to people in other parts of Kashmir today as well by the separatists, Mirwaiz said people would fight tooth and nail any proposal to set up separate townships for migrant Kashmiri Pandits, Sainik Colony or the new industrial policy allowing non-state subjects to set up factories in J&K. Tribune News Service Srinagar, July 2 A paramilitary trooper was injured in a militant attack in south Kashmirs Pulwama district. Police said a grenade was lobbed at a CRPF patrol party in Iqbalabad Tral at around 10.30 am. A CRPF jawan was injured in the blast, a police officer said. The condition of the injured is stated to be stable. Security forces cordoned off the area to carry out searches to nab the attackers. This was the second attack in Pulwan district since Friday evening. Three CRPF men were injured on late Friday when militants fired a grenade at a CRPF camp at Littar, Pulwama, 45 km from Srinagar. Jaipur, July 2 A BMW car allegedly driven by an MLAs son, who was suspected to be in an inebriated state, on Saturday hit an auto-rickshaw here killing three persons and then rammed into a PCR van in which four policemen were injured. Siddharth Maharia, son of Independent MLA Nandkishore Maharia, was driving the car at high speed at around 1.30 am in C-scheme area here, the police claimed. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook and Twitter @thetribunechd) He first hit an auto-rickshaw and then a PCR van, the police said, adding that under the impact of the crash, the three-wheeler fell about 200 feet away from the site. Two of the passengers of the auto-rickshaw died on the spot and as many were injured. One Assistant Sub-Inspector and three other policemen on duty were also injured. The five injured were rushed to SMS hospital, where another passenger of the auto-rickshaw succumbed to injuries, DCP South Manish Agarwal said. The ASI received head injury and is being treated, while other policemen were given primary treatment, he said. Additional DCP Yogesh Goyal said the accused Siddharth was drunk, as per the initial assessment, and a medical test was conducted to confirm it. There were four persons in the car. Two managed to escape and twoSiddharth and his relative Jayantwere caught. Siddharth has been arrested under Section 304 of IP for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, DCP (Traffic) H.A. Zaidi said. Meanwhile, Siddharth claimed that he was not driving the car. He also denied that he had consumed alcohol. One of the deceased was identified as Jethamal (40) and efforts are on to ascertain the identity of others, SHO Ashok Nagar police station, Bala Ram said. The auto-rickshaw was on its way from Chandpole to Mansarover when the mishap occurred. TNS/PTI KV Prasad Tribune News Service New Delhi, July 2 A 19-year-old Indian girl, Tarishi Jain, was among 20 foreigners, including 8 Italians, some Japanese and South Koreans, who were hacked to death by ISIS militants in a terror attack at a restaurant in Bangladesh capitals high-security diplomatic zone on Saturday. Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted that Tarishi was among the hostages killed in the Holey Artisan Bakery, a popular hangout for foreigners, in the high-security and affluent Gulshan diplomatic zone of the Bangladesh capital. Tarishi was 19 years old. She passed out from American School Dhaka. Presently, she was a student at Berkeley, Sushma posted. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook and Twitter @thetribunechd) Earlier, she wrote on Twitter: I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka. I have spoken to her father Shri Sanjeev Jain and conveyed our deepest condolences.The country is with them in this hour of grief, she wrote. Tarushi, was a studying at the University of California, Berkeley, and was in Dhaka on a vacation. Her father has been running a garment business in Bangladesh for the last 20 years, sources in the External Affairs Ministry here said. The Government of India is assisting members of the family residing in UP are travelling to Bangladesh. The sources said that one Indian doctor, who was among the hostage was, released as he spoke Bangla apparently taken to be from the host country. The 20 foreigners, who were taken hostage last night, were brutally murdered by the militants before elite commandoes launched the operation that resulted in killing six attackers and capturing one alive. The militants were suspected to be from ISIS. According to information available here, eight persons, including one Indian, were rescued in the morning, while three persons, including an Italian and a Japanese, managed to escape last night when the attack began. Shiv Kumar Tribune News Service Mumbai, July 2 After several rounds of acrimonious exchanges, Maharashtras ruling parties BJP and the Shiv Sena are holding talks over the expansion of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis Cabinet. The Shiv Sena, which has been going hammer and tongs at the BJP through its mouthpiece Saamna, is angling for including at least two more ministers in the Cabinet in addition to a berth in Prime Minister Narendra Modis Cabinet. Ten ministries held by Eknath Khadse, who quit following several allegations against him, are up for grabs. Sources say, the Shiv Sena has laid claims to several major portfolios. As part of efforts to calm down passions, both Fadnavis and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray came together at a tree plantation function on Friday where they jointly planted a sapling. Over the past few days, workers of both parties had taken to streets where they had threatened to burn publications belonging to the other side. Yash Goyal Dungarpur, July 2 Disturbed over her brothers death in a road mishap, a 28 year-old tribal woman immolated herself on her brothers burning pyre at Satirampura, 5 km from Dungarpur in Rajasthan, on Friday evening. Durga, who leaves behind husband and three children, lay on the burning pyre of his brother Velaram, 30, when the male members went to take bath in a pond near the cremation ground after completing the last rites. As the relatives and other villagers rushed back to the site after hearing her cries, the woman was burnt alive, SHO Sadar Thana Vinod Kumar said. They tried to douse the fire with water but she could not be saved, he said. A magistrate was called on the spot and doctors examined the charred body, which was later cremated by her husband, the SHO said. Velaram of Meena tribal caste died in a hit and run by a jeep near the railway station on Thursday night. The body was handed over to the family after post-mortem on Friday afternoon. Police have registered a case under Section 174 of the CrPC, the SHO said. Tribune News Service Jaipur, July 2 The body of the 18-month-old girl Neha, who fell into a 750-ft-deep borewell on Friday, was recovered by a joint team of rescuers at Binjarvaria village near Osian town in Jodhpur district in the wee hours of Saturday. Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who had spoken to the family on Friday, expressed sorrow at the tragedy. The army stationed at Jodhpur assisted in the rescue operations. Neha while playing had fallen into the open borewell which was kept pending for repairs for the past couple of days at one Sankhla familys agricultural field-cum-residence, on Friday morning. R Sedhuraman Legal Correspondent New Delhi, July 2 Chief Justice of India TS Thakur today called for greater efforts to put in place a set of international laws to deal with terrorism and disputes arising from global trade, divorce among NRIs and other nationals, climate change, inter-country rivers and other issues. The sweep of international laws has gone beyond what nations had comprehended, say 20 years ago, mainly due to rapid advancement of technology and shrinking resources, particularly water, CJI Thakur said in his inaugural address at a national seminar conducted here by the India chapter of the International Law Association (ILA). (Follow The Tribune on Facebook and Twitter @thetribunechd) Absence of international laws was hindering dispensation of justice to litigants, be it nations, business houses or individuals, he said. Supreme Court and high court judges, jurists and senior advocates took part in the day-long deliberations. The seminar was held in India as Justice Thakur, who heads ILAs India chapter, and other judges have decided against attending the ILA meet, being organised in South Africa next month, as courts would be in session then. To drive home the importance of international laws, he cited an example of rising matrimonial cases of NRIs mostly from Punjab, wherein husbands were getting court orders in their favour in countries of their residence when their wives were in India. Similarly, cyber crimes such as stealing from bank accounts and cross-country terrorism transcended political borders, underlining the need for harmonising the laws of various countries, he said. The CJI, however, acknowledged the problems in evolving international laws. In this context, he questioned the logic behind the insistence of developed nations such as the US, which had been polluting the atmosphere for over 200 years, that India and other emerging powers should reduce emissions. Expressing similar sentiments, Justice AK Sikri of the apex court said the global arms race and terrorism and exodus of people from strife-torn nations highlighted the need for expanding the scope of international laws. Washington, July 2 In a possible hate crime, the horse of a Sikh man in the US state of Tennessee has been shot dead from a close range. Devinder Sandhu said the horse, named Misty Blue, was apparently shot dead on Tuesday, according to local media reports. Sandhu is Sikh and wears a turban. He fears someone may have targeted him, but hopes that wasnt the case, a local news channel said, adding that the police ares investigating it as a possible hate crime. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook and Twitter @thetribunechd) So that we couldnt hide or blend into the crowd, so we could stand for our belief, which was protecting the innocent, 61-year-old Singh said. Misty Blue was born on our property and was our household pet. For 20 years the farm has been a place of delight and sanctuary for those who have visited. Since this happened its all been horrible, Susan Eslick, wife of Sandhu, was quoted as saying by The Tennessean. The Sikh community has condemned the incident. We condemn this barbaric action by a misguided individual who took this step of harming an innocent animal to scare the family and the community. We are shocked by this savagery, said Sikh Council on Religion and Educations Chairman Rajwant Singh. PTI Dehradun, July 2 Three more bodies were recovered on Saturday in Pithoragarh from under tonnes of debris left because of the cloudburst that hit the area yesterday, raising the toll in rain-related incidents in Uttarakhand to 15. While nine bodies were recovered from Pithoragarh district late last night, three more were pulled out from the debris this morning, Additional Secretary Disaster Management C. Ravishankar said. The number of bodies recovered in Chamoli so far is three, he said, adding six are still believed to be under the debris with receding chances of their survival. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook and Twitter @thetribunechd) A total of 12 persons died in Pithoragarh district in the wee hours of Friday as it was hit by six cloudbursts, and three died in Chamoli after torrential rain on Thursday evening triggered flashfloods, he said. Nine persons died in Bastadi, two in Naulada and one in Charma village of Pithoragarh, while three died in Chamolis Sirji (2) and Vaduk (1) villages, he said. Twenty-one persons are still missing from affected villages in the two districts (15 in Pithoragarh and six in Chamoli) and personnel of the NDRF, SDRF, ITBP, SSB are searching for them despite bad weather and unavailability of approach roads. However, the chances of their survival are very bleak as several hours have passed since they got buried under heaps of debris. Rescue operations today were constantly disrupted by intermittent rains in affected areas, he said. Four houses have been fully damaged in Pithoragarh district and 12 partially whereas rubble falling from hillsides has blocked the Rishikesh-Badrinath highway besides 33 other rural motor roads in Chamoli district, said Secretary Diasater Management Shjailesh Bagoli in a presentation to Chief Minister Harish Rawat who convened a meeting at his residence today to review the situation. PWD and GREF personnel are engaged in opening the blocked roads with the help of JCBs, he said. 160 families have been affected by rain-related incidents out of which 75 members have been kept in relief camps in Basatadi and Naulada villages. A total of 13 persons sustained injuries in the incidents out of which three said to be serious have been brought to Pithoragarh district hospital for treatment, he said. In its forecast for the next 48 hours, the MeT Department has predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places in Nainital, Udhamsingh Nagar, Champavat, Almora, Pauri, Haridwar, Dehradun, Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Bageshwar and Pithoragarh. With several rivers and rivulets in spate across the state, including Bhagirathi, Alaknanda, Mandakini and Nandakini, the district magistrates have been asked to evacuate people living in settlements near them to safer locations, Bagoli said. PTI Chandigarh, July 2 With the Assembly poll in Punjab due next year, AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will begin his three-day visit to the state tomorrow during which he will launch the partys youth manifesto and meet representatives of different sections of society. Arvind Kejriwal will first visit Amritsar tomorrow as part of his three-day visit to Punjab, an AAP leader said here on Saturday. After paying obeisance at the Golden Temple and Durgiana Temple, he will launch the partys youth manifesto in the evening, he said. It will be the partys first manifesto. The AAP will also launch manifestos on issues pertaining to farmers, Dalits, women and other sections of society. Partys youth manifesto, which has been prepared after holding dialogues with youth, teachers and other sections of society, will focus on major issues like education, employment, drug rehabilitation. On his second day of visit, Kejriwal will visit Gurdaspur, Jalandhar and Malerkotla, where he is expected to meet industry representatives among others, the leader said. On his last day of his visit, he will be going to Ludhiana and Khanna, where he will meet traders and industry people and listen to their concerns and issues, he said. After Delhi, the AAP is eying to win high-stakes 2017 Assembly poll in with party leaders exuding confidence that it would repeat the history of Delhis victory in Punjab. PTI Saba Naqvi I happened to be in Berlin, the capital of Germany, the strongest economy in Europe, when Britain opted out of the EU. More so than in Britain, one comprehends the imagination of the European project better from a country like Germany that has always been more deeply invested in the EU. The moral underpinnings of the EU project cannot be forgotten when one examines the history of war that Europe has inflicted on itself and indeed the world. In all the iconography and rebuilding that has gone into modern Germany, this is a nation that is apologetic about its past. In no other city in the world can we set foot on spaces that marked the coming of facism and communism as we can in Berlin. It was in his Berlin bunker that Hitler shot himself in 1945 and it was here that the cold war was lived cheek to jowl as the Berlin wall subsequently cut through neighbourhoods in the city. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook and Twitter @thetribunechd) Todays Berlin celebrates capitalism and what is left of the wall is one section visited by tourists and little pieces of concrete sold as mementoes. Germany is Europes biggest economic power. An old family friend, long time resident of East Berlin, who saw the wall go up and down, took us on a fascinating walk, pointing out what happened to the old buildings used by what was then known as the GDR. But the markers of the past are there. A huge statue of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels still stands when so much of history is being recast, because both were Germans. No one can escape the story of Jewish persecution in Europe, even preceding Hitler, at the remarkably designed Jewish museum in Berlin. Along the way I learnt that Karl Marx (1818 to 1883) too was of Jewish descent, although when he was a child his father converted to a Protestant denomination to escape anti Semitism (Marx had a comfortable middle class background). For the sheer horror of Hitlers extermination plan, the final solution, visit the Holocaust memorial and make a trip outside Berlin to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, a place one really does not want to take any pictures in. Theres Rosa Luxemburg Platz (and underground station) in Berlin too in memory of the Marxist theorist and revolutionary socialist whose body was eventually thrown into a canal in Berlin in 1919 when she was 47. I discovered that she too was of Jewish descent although again, like Marx, that was not the primary impulse driving her politics. One of the great Rosa quotes is this: Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters. The Jewish theme followed me to Prague, where I arrived after a four hour train journey through some beautiful landscape of a river, forests and pretty little towns including Dresden that too like Berlin that been flattened at the end of World war II. Prague, capital of the Czech republic, never had to suffer such destruction, and looks like something out of a fairytale. But it was in this town that Franz Kafka wrote his brooding but brilliant books, the central theme of which was man against a faceless system. In The Trial Joseph K is forced to defend himself in a court system for a crime that is never revealed to him or the readers. That is what we call a Kafkaesque reality. I would register that this writer too was of Jewish descent, but dead from tuberculosis at the age of 40 in 1924, Kafka would escape the holocaust. But his three sisters would eventually die in Nazi death camps. Kafkas famous works would mostly be published after his death. There are good reasons for Germany to continue to passionately advocate the European Union, that is a probably the most remarkable constitutional endeavor the world has seen. But post Brexit, there is a populist backlash brewing across Europe, one facet of which is anti-immigration. Another facet is just plain irritation with EU regulations and the image of Brussels. With declining birth rates and ageing populations, many European nations need immigrants. Germany is the only country to have openly stated so, but then history makes them confront an apology each day. In the national capital there is on display a documentation titled Topography of Terror, visited by a million people in 2015. It is a documentation of the central institutions of Nazi propaganda and terror, the SS, the Gestapo, the Reich security office. For all its beauty and picture perfect towns, there has always been in Europe strong impulses towards xenophobia, and persecuting and hating the others. For centuries they persecuted Jews but that residual hatred now remains with neo-Nazi right wing groups. In the modern age, its different. In the wake of Brexit, UK based Poles reported abuse and being referred to as vermin, so much so that the Polish government registered a complaint. There is a strange irony in the fact that Poland is one of the regimes that was strongly against taking in any Syrian refugees. Many people in Europe have to make up their minds about which immigrant they hate more than the other. Its getting as complicated as the many nationalities and languages of the continent. BD Kasniyal & Himanshu K Lall Tribune News Service Pithoragarh/Dehradun, July 1 Eight persons were killed in landslides triggered by a cloudburst in Uttarakhands Pithoragarh district and four in Chamoli this morning, even as roads and land stretches vanished and telecommunication services in the two districts got snapped. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook and Twitter @thetribunechd) At least 25 persons from seven villages in Pithoragarh were reportedly swept away and efforts were being made to trace them, said RS Rana, Pithoragarh District Disaster Management Officer. The cloudburst poured destruction on Singhali Pattharkot, Ogla and Thal villages. The residents are trapped under the sludge. The rescuers are trying to pull them out, Rana said. Three of the rescued persons were airlifted to the Pithoragarh district hospital. The cloudburst resulted in 100 mm of rainfall in 50 sq km area within hours. While four persons were killed in Chamoli district, two were swept away in Siron village. A five-year-old child was killed in Ghat block. With the Nandakini river in spate, residents of Ghat block were shifted to a safer place. The Centre rushed teams of the National Disaster Response Force to the state. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Chief Minister Harish Rawat and took stock of the situation. On Thursday, a warning was issued of heavy rain in Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar and Champawat districts over the next three days. Tribune News Service Mussoorie, July 2 Personnel of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Disaster Rescue Force, on the directions of the Uttarkashi District Magistrate, rescued a 50-year-old Nepalese labourer, Bhim Bahadur, who was stuck in the swollen Bhagirathi, near Dunda in Uttarkashi district last night. District Magistrate Dipendar Kumar Chaudhry also reached the place to oversee the rescue operation and was happy at the fruitful outcome, as disaster response force personnel managed to save the labourer after a struggle of nearly two hours. Bhim Bahadur had gone near the Bhagirathi to pick firewood when the water level in the river suddenly started rising due to heavy rains upstream. He was stuck at a small island like pocket for several hours. Bhim Bahadur has been admitted to the primary health centre at Dunda in Uttarkashi district. Uttarkashi SP Dadan Pal, Dunda SDM Vijay Nath Shukla, district disaster management officer Devendar Patwal and others were present on the occasion. By Press Trust of India: Terrorists who claim to support the Islamic State (IS) have used Twitter to threaten an attack on London's Heathrow airport, a media report said today. An alert from the SITE Intelligence Group yesterday warned that a "pro-Islamic State" account had issued threats against aircrafts "flying from Heathrow to the US" this weekend, which coincides with the American Independence Day holiday, 'The Times' reported. THE THREAT advertisement The alert warned of a potentially deadly device being placed at Heathrow, Los Angeles airport or JFK in New York.Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, UK transport minister, has urged the public to be "vigilant"."We all need to be vigilant to the threat of terrorism. In the UK we keep all aspects of aviation security under constant review and work closely with our international partners to mitigate risks. We will continue to take all steps necessary to keep the public safe but for security reasons we do not comment in detail on specific measures or operational matters," he said. Heathrow has also declined to comment. --- ENDS --- Riyadh, July 2 Eighteen pilgrims have been injured in a stampede near Islams holiest site, Saudi media reported on Saturday, as the kingdom continues to review safety after a deadly crush during last years hajj. The incident happened last night near the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the Al-Riyadh newspaper said, as Muslims gathered in large numbers to mark the Night of Destiny, one of the high points of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. All the injured were treated at the scene and none required admission to hospital, the newspaper cited a health official as saying. Every year, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims flock to Mecca to carry out the lesser umra pilgrimage during Ramadanespecially during its last 10 days. They include the Night of Destiny, when the angel Gabriel is believed to have given the Prophet Mohammed the verses of the Koran. The incident comes as Saudi authorities continue to unveil new safety measures for this years hajj in September. A crush at last years hajj killed more than 2,000 pilgrims in the worst disaster to ever strike the annual ritual. According to figures from foreign officials, at least 2,297 pilgrims died. Saudi Arabia issued a death toll of 769. Newspapers reported yesterday that, among new security measures, hajj pilgrims this year will have to wear an electronic safety bracelet to store their personal information, including address and medical records. The hajj and umra pilgrimages bring millions of Muslims to the holy places in Saudi Arabia every year. AFP Beijing, July 2 (PTI) At least 26 people were killed when a bus veered out of an expressway and fell into a ditch due to flat tyre in north Chinas Tianjin City, local officials said. The accident occurred on Friday when the bus carrying 30 people broke the guardrail at the Baodi section of the Tianjin-Jixian expressway and fell into a ditch, a statement from the citys emergency response office said. The driver lost control of the vehicle due to the flat tyre, it said. The four survivors, including a ticket seller and two passengers, sustained slight injuries, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The bus was en route to Shenyang, capital city of northeast Chinas Liaoning Province, from Xingtai City of north Chinas Hebei Province. The bus was pulled out of the water and bodies of the victims were retrieved, the report said. PTI Dhaka, July 2 Islamist militants killed 20 persons, including at least nine Italians and seven Japanese, inside an upmarket restaurant in Bangladeshs capital, before security forces stormed the building and ended a 12-hour standoff on Saturday. Islamic State (Daesh) said it was responsible for one of the most brazen attacks in the South Asian nations history, but that claim has yet to be confirmed. It marks a major escalation in a campaign by militants over the past 18 months that had targeted individuals advocating a secular or liberal lifestyle in the majority-Muslim Banglade-sh with 16 crore people. The gunmen, who stormed the busy restaurant in Dhakas diplomatic area late on Friday night, ordered all Bangladeshis to stand up before they began killing foreigners, a source briefed on the police investigation said. Among the dead was the wife of an Italian businessman killed by a machete. She was found by her husband after he spent all night hiding behind a tree outside the cafe while the gunmen were inside, said Agnese Barolo, a friend who lives in Dhaka and spoke to him. Nine Italians were killed in the attack, the countrys foreign minister said, and authorities were trying to confirm the fate of another person missing. Japans Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said seven of its citizens had been confirmed dead in the attack, while one Indian, a 19 year-old girl student, was killed in the assault. Emory University in Atlanta said two of its students were among hostages who were killed. Abinta Kabir, from Miami, was an undergraduate at Emorys Oxford College, and Faraaz Hossain, who was from Dhaka, was a graduate student at the universitys Goizueta Business School, Emory said. The killing of foreigners will likely shatter the confidence of the expatriate community in Bangladesh, many of whom work for multinationals in the countrys $26 billion garment industry that accounts for around 15 per cent of the economy. Bangladesh is the worlds second largest apparel exporter after China. Thirteen hostages were rescued, including one Japanese and two Sri Lankans, the army said. Army spokesman Colonel Rashidul Hasan said he could not yet confirm the nationalities of those who had died. Most of them had been killed by sharp weapons, he said. Hasan said initially that it seemed all the victims were foreigners but now the army believed some locals were among the dead as well. Six gunmen were killed during the police operation and one was captured, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in a TV broadcast after more than 100 commandos concluded their operation to clear the cafe. Two police were killed in the initial assault. Declaring two days of national mourning, she said the country would stand up and fight the terror threat that has mushroomed in its backyard. Islamic State, which has claimed a series of machete attacks on minority groups in Bangladesh over the past year, posted photos of bodies and blood smeared across floors that it said were dead foreigners. Gowher Rizvi, an adviser to Hasina, said security forces had tried to negotiate with the gunmen. The hostage crisis began when security guards in the Gulshan district of Dhaka, popular with expatriates, noticed several gunmen outside a medical centre, Rizvi said. When the guards approached, the gunmen ran into a building housing the restaurant, packed with people waiting for tables, he said. Ali Arsalan, co-owner of the restaurant, said his staff told him the attackers yelled Allahu Akbar (God is Great) as they stormed the building. Reuters Dhaka, July 2 A 48-year-old Hindu priest has been stabbed and critically injured by unidentified assailants in Bangladesh, a day after a Hindu priest and a Buddhist leader were brutally hacked to death by machete-wielding IS militants. Bhabasindhu Roy of the Sri Sri Radha Gobinda Temple in Satkhira district was attacked inside the temple compound as he slept, police said today. Seven to eight assailants knocked at the door of the priests house. When he opened the door thinking it was the night guard, they stormed into in the house and attacked him with sharp weapons in his chest and back. His condition is critical, police was quoted as saying by the Daily Star. The attackers managed to escape before anyone managed to reach the spot, police said quoting Samitra Bor, wife of the victim. The attack came just hours after gunmen stormed a restaurant in Dhakas high-security Gulshan diplomatic area and took 20 people hostage, including several foreigners. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant in which two policemen were killed and 30 injured. Yesterday, a Hindu priest and a Buddhist leader were brutally hacked to death by IS militants while another Hindu man survived a bid on his life in Bangladesh. PTI Dhaka, July 1 Terrorist group Islamic State (IS) has claimed the responsibility of the attack at a restaurant in the diplomatic quarter of the Bangladeshi capital late Friday in which a number of gunmen, said to be eight to nine, reportedly took at least 20 persons hostage. IS-affiliated wire Amaq Agency said the terror group was behind the attack. US President Barack Obama has been briefed on the hostage situation in Dhaka, White House officials said. The police have reportedly asked the media to stop live reporting of events unfolding while they attempt to negotiate with gunmen to release hostages. We are trying to talk to the attackers, we want to listen to them about what they want," Police said. Chief of the Rapid Action Battalion, Benjir Ahmed said "derailed youths" entered the restaurant and launched the attack. "One of the attackers was armed with a sword, the others carried guns," an employee of a nearby cafe told RT. Some witnesses said they heard shooting noise and bomb blasts. At least four police officials were injured earlier after police exchanged fire with the gunmen attacked the restaurant popular with foreigners. Security forces have not yet entered the premisis of the restaurant, known as the Holy Artisan Bakery but are planning a rescue operation shortly. "Bangladesh plans to start operation soon to rescue hostages from Dhaka restaurant, held by 8-9 gunmen," a police officer was quoted as saying. As Islamic State loses territory in Iraq and Syria and its finances get drained, it may be trying to build affiliates in countries such as Libya, Egypt and Bangladesh for jihadists to launch attacks locally and cheaply, Analysts believe. Since February last year, the Muslim-majority South Asian nation of 160 million has seen the killing of at least 26 people, including five secular bloggers, a publisher and two gay right campaigners. Al-Qaida has claimed some of the attacks, while Islamic State has claimed 17 killings since first taking responsibility for murders in Bangladesh in September last year, according to US-based monitoring service SITE. Agencies London voted 60 percent in favour of remaining in the EU in last Thursday's referendum, with younger voters widely in favour of staying in the bloc, but 52 percent of Britons overall cast ballots in favour of leaving. By Reuters: Thousands of demonstrators marched through central London on Saturday in a loud and colourful protest against last week's vote to leave the European Union, a result that has plunged Britain into political chaos and which most people in the capital rejected. Most protestors were young adults, and many were draped in EU flags while others waved banners bearing slogans like "I'm with EU" or simply "Wrexit." advertisement They chanted "what do we want to do? Stay in the EU," as they marched towards the Westminster political district to a soundtrack of songs like Rick Astley's 1987 hit "Never Gonna Give You Up" and Whitney Houston's "I Will always Love You." "I was genuinely stunned on the morning after the vote," said one protester Nathaniel Samson, 25, from Hertfordshire north of London. "I feel deeply uncertain about my future," he added. "I'm on the march to voice my discontentment. I am accepting the result, but it's to show that we won't accept it quietly." Another, Italian Pamela Zoni, 34, who has lived in Britain for 6 years said she was very upset by the result and having second thoughts about taking British citizenship. "I would like a second referendum," she said. "The first campaign was based on lies, and the margin was so tight: it was not a fair result." London voted 60 percent in favour of remaining in the EU in last Thursday's referendum, with younger voters widely in favour of staying in the bloc, but 52 percent of Britons overall cast ballots in favour of leaving. PARLIAMENT IN CHAOS Rally organiser, King's College graduate Kieran MacDermott, said: "We can prevent Brexit by refusing to accept the referendum as the final say and take our finger off the self-destruct button." Parliament should have the final say on whether Britain should leave, he told the BBC. The vote to leave has prompted a battle within the ruling Conservative party to succeed Prime Minister David Cameron who said he would resign after the result. The main opposition Labour Party has also turned on itself, with most of its lawmakers in parliament having voted to withdraw support for party leader Jeremy Corbyn after what they saw as his lacklustre contribution to the referendum campaign. --- ENDS --- By PTI: From Lalit K Jha Washington, Jul 2 (PTI) Two top ISIL commanders have been killed in the US airstrike in the Iraqi city of Mosul, the Pentagon has announced and hoped that this would help in liberating Mosul from the control of the dreaded terror group. "Coalition forces conducted an airstrike against two ISIL senior military commanders on June 25 near Mosul, resulting in their deaths," the Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said yesterday. advertisement "The precision strike killed Basim Muhammad Ahmad Sultan al-Bajari, ISILs deputy minister of war, and Hatim Talib al-Hamduni, an ISIL military commander in Mosul," Cook said. These deaths are the latest in coalition efforts to systemically eliminate ISILs cabinet wherever they hide, disrupting their ability to plot external terror attacks and hold onto the territory they use to claim legitimacy, he said in a statement. Cook said the international coalition fighting ISIL, working with local, capable, and motivated forces on the ground in Iraq and Syria, continues to make sustained progress in our campaign to deal ISIL a lasting defeat. "In recent days, the coalition has freed Fallujah from ISILs grip; launched devastating strikes against ISIL forces fleeing that city; completed the encirclement of Manbij, a key node in the flow of foreign fighters between Syria and Turkey; and started to clear key terrain south of Mosul of ISIL forces," he added. "In addition to making operationally significant strides in our campaign to defeat ISIL, we continue to look for - and seize - every opportunity to hasten it," Cook said. Al-Bajari was an experienced terrorist, a former member of al-Qaeda who brought his military skills into ISILs terrorist network. He oversaw ISILs June 2014 offensive to capture Mosul, and has also led the ISIL Jaysh al-Dabiq battalion known for using vehicle-borne IEDs, suicide bombers and mustard gas in its attacks. He used his military experience to consolidate ISILs control over Mosul, where they have engaged in dictatorial rule and sectarian murder and oppression since 2014. Hatim Talib al-Hamduni was an ISIL military commander in Mosul and the head of military police for self-proclaimed Ninawa state. "Their deaths, along with strikes against other ISIL leaders in the past month, have critically degraded ISILs leadership experience in Mosul and removed two of their most senior military members in Northern Iraq," Cook said. PTI LKJ AMS AKJ AMS --- ENDS --- OKLAHOMA CITY Supporters of a proposed 1-cent sales tax increase for education asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Friday to toss out a legal challenge. OCPA Impact, the lobbying arm of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, last month filed a legal challenge to State Question 779 seeking to ban the measure from the Nov. 8 ballot. The Oklahoma Supreme Court tossed out an earlier legal challenge by the group, which alleged the measure contained more than one subject in violation of the state constitution. Led by University of Oklahoma President David Boren, supporters gathered 301,512 signatures, more than the 123,725 required to get it on the ballot. If approved by voters, it would increase the sales tax by a cent to fund education, including $5,000 teacher pay raises. Critics say passage would result in the state having the highest sales tax in the nation. The most recent lawsuit challenges the legal sufficiency of the ballot title, or description on the ballot, and the gist, or the summary of the measure on each of the forms used to gather signatures. The organization alleges the gist fails to describe key aspects of the proposal, is inaccurate and contains wording that could be misleading or confusing. The legal challenge alleges similar faults in the ballot title. Supporters argue that a challenge to the gist should have been raised prior to the collection of signatures, according to the response brief. In addition, they argue that the gist is legally sufficient. There is nothing deceitful or misleading about the statement in the gist, and nothing more is required, according to the response brief. In addition, the allegations about the ballot title are without merit, according to the brief. Yes for 779 responded today with a brief filed that rebuts the latest delay tactic by a special interest lobbying group that wants to deny Oklahomans an opportunity to vote on a comprehensive solution to the education funding crisis and the severe teacher shortage, said Ward Curtin, campaign spokesman. We are confident in the work of our legal team and the validity of the petition. It is time to let the people vote. Dave Bond, OCPA Impact CEO, was asked to respond. Because the proponents used a gist that does not comply with the law, we are asking that the court strike this measure from the ballot, Bond said. The court has struck down initiative petitions at this stage of the process before, and we are asking them to do it again. Oklahomans across the state have made clear they want a teacher pay raise, but theyre not thrilled about the prospect of paying the highest sales taxes in the nation. The PNM is saluting one of its former Senators, Dr Lester Henry, for his contribution to nat How many educational institutes in this country can boast of former chief justices in its faculty? And not just chief justices from India, but those from other countries as well, who want to be part of the distinctive brand of legal studies that the university has created? Not many students in the country are fortunate to be part of classes conducted by such legal luminaries. Doesn't that make us the best?" asks Prof (Dr) R. Venkata Rao, vice-chancellor, National Law School of India University (NLSIU), the premier institute for legal education in the country. The proud VC doesn't stop there, rattling off figures to back his claims. "All the top 55 students of CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) every year choose NLSIU by default. We don't ask them to join us. I have known students who have left AIIMS, IIM Ahmedabad and IITs to join NLSIU. What motivated them to drop such promising plans in favour of us? I believe it's the impact NLSIU has made on legal education in the country and students want to study in the best university," declares Prof Rao, with more than a touch of pride. Heading the institute since 2009, he is partly responsible for consolidating its image as one of the most coveted places to study in. advertisement Since it was established in 1987, the NLSIU has single-handedly ushered in a paradigm shift in legal education in the country. Spread over 23 acres adjoining the Bangalore University and the Institute of Social & Economic Change (ISEC) in Nagarabhavi, Bengaluru, the NLSIU campus is an oasis of greenery, a calm escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. Law school students are easy to spot taking a breather at eateries and roadside outlets, which have sprung up over the last few years. NLSIU has become a landmark of sorts for Bengaluru now, something local residents take pride in. Many legal experts are of the opinion that the NLSIU is the pole star of legal education in the country. It has spawned a new generation of law schools that focus on interactive teaching. Following the success of the NLSIU model, the Union government proposed the setting up of several law schools in many states through a special Act. "Well, the preamble of the Bill clearly states that law schools will be modeled on the lines of NLSIU. What more can I say? This is our greatest recognition to date. It will not be an exaggeration to state that we have laid the foundation stone for a realistic legal education in this country where law cannot be studied in isolation any more," contends Prof Rao. The NLSIU offers an undergraduate course (BA LLB), postgraduate programmes (LLM), research degrees and distance education programmes. The BA LLB is the most popular course, admission to which students across the country vie for. International students are also admitted to the five-year programme, considered one of the most rigorous as students need to perform consistently through the year. There are multiple factors that combine to make NLSIU distinctive. "Reaching the top is, but maintaining that rank is a major challenge. The NLSIU continues to remain the premier law school in surveys conducted by leading media houses in the country. We literally push ourselves against the wall. Much of the credit goes to our education system and especially our teaching methodology, which has a profound impact on students in the long term," Prof Rao points out. Regular classes are conducted between 8.30 am and 1.30 pm, but the academic discourse continues for long afterwards. There are seminars and discussions lined up through the day on contemporary and evolving issues such as e-commerce, intellectual property, cyber laws, climate change, international law, mergers and acquisitions, competition law, and infrastructure projects. Slotted after class hours, these are conducted by external domain experts and faculty. Though these seminars are not part of the curriculum per se, students are encouraged to attend them to broaden their understanding. advertisement As part of the curriculum, students have to prepare and present research papers on a variety of subjects. Over five years, each student would have prepared at least 63 such reports. "For every report, the student will have to face viva-voce. By the end of five years, the student is equipped (with the tools of the trade) to take part in any kind of discussion. Students undergo rigorous and intense training in report-writing and discussion. In the process, their communication skills, which are so vital for them to succeed in this profession, are enhanced," adds Prof Rao. Another added advantage is that students are provided internship programmes in leading law firms, corporate houses, and even with high court and Supreme Court judges from the first year itself. Interestingly, even during their vacations, students opt for internship programmes. "We expose our students to every aspect of the legal profession and culture from day one. Students opt for internships by choice and not chance. Some of them use the opportunity to explore the social sector and hone their interests," notes Prof Rao, adding that the student profile has changed dramatically over the years, as they are more exploratory in nature. advertisement Students enjoy absolute freedom and liberty on the campus, and are encouraged to engage in discussions with faculty on a daily basis. "Classroom sessions should never be restricted to monologues. In our institute, the classroom sessions are vibrant...students argue with the faculty. We encourage them to question our wisdom. At the same time, the faculty is indirectly challenged by students to upgrade their knowledge. There's an atmosphere of healthy debate and the students thrive on it." "No educational institute can achieve the best in its field without giving absolute freedom of speech and expression to students," asserts Prof Rao. Controversial topics such as ban on beef, Bharat Mata ki Jai and the recent uproar over nationalism in JNU have become the focus of debates at NLSIU. Students have the option of exploring socially relevant issues through the medium of workshops or debates. Students recently conducted a study on queer issues on the campus. As many as 397 students participated in the survey and openly revealed their sexual orientation. It is a progressive campus that allows participatory talks on such divisive issues. The liberal underpinnings of the campus shone through when students earlier this year took objection to the remarks made by a faculty member on their classmate's choice of attire. "We put that issue to rest?," declares Prof Rao. There is no enforced dress code on campus and students can wear what they please (this includes attending class in pyjamas). "We believe in providing a comfortable atmosphere to students. They have come so far to study in a setup that focuses on excellence. So we have to make them feel comfortable," says Prof Rao, smiling. advertisement The students are empowered to make decisions in some routine aspects of the institute. The Student Bar Association (SBA) enjoys substantial autonomy to engage in a wide range of activities. It forms 12 ABCs (activity-based committees), each with a niche focus, be it festivals, debates and recruitment so that students can learn from the experience of managing events and working with a team by the time they step out of the institute. The law school has also maintained its pre-eminence by producing legal eagles who have conquered the toughest of moot court contests across the world, including the fiercely contested Jesuit Memorial Moot Court competition and the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court contest. Students of the college have also consistently been securing Rhodes scholarships every year. Though a majority of students get into the corporate sector or end up working with multinational companies, the trend seems to be changing in the last five years. "It is heartening that some of our students have been successful in the civil services examination. Some pass-outs typically pursue higher studies abroad while another lot prefers research. The strong foundation that the course provides can be built upon to branch out into any discipline. We take pride in a curriculum that allows that," says Professor Rao. The best part perhaps of being a student at NLSIU is that barring those enrolled in distance education programmes, all students stay on the campus and are always wired up for the next thing on their agenda. "This year's CLAT topper is from Bengaluru and he has joined NLSIU. But he will stay in our campus hostel and study here because we believe in providing holistic education and it is possible only when all the factors come together," says Prof Rao. --- ENDS --- Russian-backed militants launched 48 attacks on Ukrainian troops in eastern Ukraine over the past day. This is reported by the ATO headquarters press center. "Twenty-eight attacks were recorded in Donetsk direction. In particular, the terrorists fired from 122mm artillery systems and 120mm mortars near Luhanske [59km north-east of Donetsk]. The tensest situation was observed near Verkhniotoretske [22km north-east of Donetsk], Troitske [69km west of Luhansk], Avdiyivka [18km north of Donetsk], where militants applied 120mm mortars, grenade launchers and heavy machine guns, the report reads. As noted, 19 enemy attacks were recorded in Mariupol direction. Russian terrorists shelled Ukrainian troops near Krasnohorivka (29 km west of Donetsk) from 120mm mortars, banned under the Minsk agreements. Ukrainian servicemen also came under fire near Novotroitske (32km south of Donetsk) and Berezove (35km south-west of Donetsk). ol One Ukrainian serviceman was killed and two soldiers were wounded in ATO area in eastern Ukraine over the past day. Spokesman for the Presidential Administration on the ATO, Colonel Andriy Lysenko said this at a briefing in Kyiv, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. One Ukrainian serviceman was killed and two soldiers were wounded as a result of military operations over the past day. The Armed Forces of Ukraine sustained losses in Donetsk direction, Lysenko said. ol Parliamentary elections in Ukraine will lead to disaster. Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko said this on Friday during his visit to Kherson, his spokeswoman Larysa Sarhan posted on her Facebook page. "Our country is on a very dangerous edge. A few months ago, early presidential and parliamentary elections were a reality. I am deeply convinced, as a man and as a citizen, that early elections would lead to disaster in the country. If we get another domestic disturbance now, the country may burst," Lutsenko was quoted as saying. According to the Prosecutor General, the anti-corruption legislation in Ukraine is one of the toughest in Europe, but there is no practice though. Lutsenko said that people should be shown that the authorities were changing. Therefore, he said, "the first task is to restore at least a basic confidence in the judicial system." ol President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko had two phone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the past month. The presidents discussed the release of Ukrainian hostages. Ukrainian President said this in an interview with BTV Bulgarian TV channel. "I can say that we had two phone conversations over the past month and they were entirely devoted to release of hostages," he said. Poroshenko stressed that dozens of Ukrainians were currently arrested and held in Russian prisons merely because they had Ukrainian passports. In addition, Ukrainian President said that hundreds of Ukrainians were held now as hostages in basements in the occupied territories. "Naturally, we demand to comply with the Minsk agreements, including the part on immediate release of hostages," Poroshenko noted. ol By PTI: Hyderabad, Jul 1 (PTI) TRS Lok Sabha member Kalvakuntla Kavitha today blamed Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for "delay" in bifurcation of the High Court, and also said she sees "political conspiracy" in provisional allocation of judges between Telangana and AP. She said the central government has for the past two years been saying they have written to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu but the latter has conveyed that "we dont have a place for (establishing) separate High Court". advertisement The daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said the TRS government has offered to give space for Andhra Pradesh government to establish HC but "they are not agreeing for that". She recalled that TRS has been claiming during its 15-year agitation demanding statehood for Telangana that "there have been many instances where courts (in the undivided Andhra Pradesh) have unduly favoured Andhra people because courts are filled with Andhra judges." "Now, what we believe is since BJP and TDP are in alliance (both at the Centre and in Andhra Pradesh), they are basically trying to complicate the issue which is not so complicated. Its now completely Chandrababu Naidus action which is pending. He has to basically accept proposal given by either the Telangana government for a separate building or he has to show his own space," Kavitha told PTI. The Central government can then go ahead and convey it to the Chief Justice for him to notify to the President, who "will give a direction", she said. On provisional allocation of judges between her state and Andhra Pradesh, Kavitha said: "...Now, some judge sitting in some nook and corner of Andhra, opts for a position in Andhra, whats the point of getting Telangana? "So, strategically, what they are trying to do is...we have 335 judge posts in Telangana, out of which around 130 are vacant. So very strategically they are taking only 130 options from Andhra. So, all the 130 vacant positions in Telangana will be filled by Andhra judges." "There are 100 vacant positions in Andhra. Now, who will go there? Why dont the Andhra judges want to serve in Andhra ? Thats the question. Why do they opt to come to Telangana. We see a political conspiracy behind this. They want to control our (Telanganas) courts, they want to control our administration through indirect route because politically TDP (which is ruling in Andhra Pradesh) has lost existence in Telangana," she alleged. PTI RS DK IKA BAS --- ENDS --- By PTI: Bhuj, July 2 (PTI) The Border Security Force (BSF) has seized two Pakistani fishing boats from creek area at Haraminala along the Indo-Pak border even as fishermen aboard managed to escape, officials said. "During patrolling last evening, we seized two unclaimed boats belonging to Pakistani fishermen that had entered 400 metres into the Indian territory of the Indo-Pak maritime border in Kutch district," a BSF official said. advertisement Two small-sized wooden fishing boats were seized along with fishing nets, ice box and freshly caught fish, he said. "The fishermen on the boat, it appeared, managed to escape before the BSF patrolling team arrived at the spot. The place from where the boats were apprehended is situated some 13 kilometres from the border out-post," he said. Early in May, the BSF team had apprehended 18 Pakistani fishermen near Koteshwar in Kutch along with two boats while they were found fishing in Indian waters. PTI Corr KA PD DK RCJ BAS --- ENDS --- All top universities in Britain are being called upon by a campaign from local residents to ban students from bringing their cars to school. The residents near the University of Exeter are fed-up of the 'cluttered streets' due to the cars of the school's students. So, they called upon the leaders of the university hoping that they would enforce a ban. The campaign is not only limited to a campus ban. The residents want to ban the cars anywhere in the city. The campaign has been backed up by civic leaders. The local newspapers, the Express and Echo, launched the petition calling the University of Exeter to follow the lead of the universities in Nottingham and Cambridge. Both schools have already banned cars and improved road safety. They have also improved the relations between students and the local residents, the Telegraph reported. Nottingham and Cambridge banned students within 10 to 25 mile radius from owning a car, unless there is a medical need for the student. Cambridge University imposes fine to rule breakers. The fine amounts up to 175. The University of Exeter bans parking of student's vehicle inside the school campus but not bans students from bringing cars. This led to a situation where the cars are parked in the streets which caused the roadway to be cluttered. The school is among the top 10 of the best schools in Britain. The petition says that it should be strong enough, with its current rank, to impose a ban on the students. The ban would reduce the overall heaviness of traffic in Exeter. A university spokesman explained that they encourage the students to use other means of transport which is more sustainable. Furthermore he said that only 12 per cent of the students in the University of Exeter bring cars to school. Peter Holland, a local councilor, said that the students should not be offered any place unless they promise to leave their vehicles at home, Schools Improvement reported. The fishermen on the boat, it appeared, managed to escape before the BSF patrolling team arrived at the spot, a BSF official said. By Press Trust of India: The Border Security Force (BSF) has seized two Pakistani fishing boats from creek area at Haraminala along the Indo-Pak border even as fishermen aboard managed to escape, officials said. "During patrolling last evening, we seized two unclaimed boats belonging to Pakistani fishermen that had entered 400 metres into the Indian territory of the Indo-Pak maritime border in Kutch district," a BSF official said. advertisement Two small-sized wooden fishing boats were seized along with fishing nets, ice box and freshly caught fish, he said. FISHERMEN ON BOAT MANAGED TO ESCAPE "The fishermen on the boat, it appeared, managed to escape before the BSF patrolling team arrived at the spot. The place from where the boats were apprehended is situated some 13 kilometres from the border out-post," he said. Early in May, the BSF team had apprehended 18 Pakistani fishermen near Koteshwar in Kutch along with two boats while they were found fishing in Indian waters. ALSO READ: BSF shoots down 2 smugglers near Indo-Pak border in Punjab --- ENDS --- The next 48 hours are very crucial for several areas in Uttarakhand as the MeT department has predicted heavy rainfall in Nainital, Udhamsingh Nagar, Champavat, Almora, Pauri, Haridwar, Dehradun, Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Bageshwar and Pithoragarh. Pithoragarh: Army jawans search for survivors in the mud and debris of a destroyed house in landslide-hit, at Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand on Saturday. (PTI Photo) By India Today Web Desk: Incessant rains continue to pound several parts of Uttarakhand. Rescue workers recovered three more bodies from the debris today after the cloudburst on Friday. Death toll rises to 37. "While nine bodies were recovered from Pithoragarh district late last night, three more were pulled out from the debris this morning," said Additional Secretary Disaster Management C Ravishankar. advertisement The number of bodies recovered in Chamoli so far is three, he said, adding that six persons are still believed to be trapped under the debris with receding chances of their survival. He added that a total of 12 people died in Pithoragarh district on Friday night after six cloudbursts and three died in Chamoli following the torrential rains on Thursday evening that triggered flash floods. "Nine people died in Bastadi, two in Naulada and one in Charma village of Pithoragarh while three died in Chamoli's Sirji and Vaduk villages," he added. Top 8 developments: Best Ideas Twenty one people are still missing from 15 villages in Pithoragarh and six in Chamoli. Personnel from the NDRF, SDRF, ITBP, SSB are searching for them despite bad weather and unavailability of approach roads. Chances of their survival is very bleak as several hours have passed since they got buried under heaps of debris. Rescue operations are being constantly disrupted by intermittent rains in affected areas. Four houses have been fully damaged in Pithoragarh district and 12 partially. Rubble falling from hillsides has blocked Rishikesh-Badrinath highway besides 33 other rural motor roads in Chamoli district. PWD and GREF personnel work towards opening the blocked roads with the help of JCBs. 160 families have been affected by rain related incidents out of which 75 members have been kept in relief camps in Basatadi and Naulada villages. A total of 13 people sustained injuries in the incidents out of which three who suffered serious injuries have been brought to Pithoragarh district hospital for treatment. MeT department predicts heavy rainfall in Nainital, Udhamsingh Nagar, Champavat, Almora, Pauri, Haridwar, Dehradun, Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Bageshwar and Pithoragarh in the next 48 hours. With several rivers and rivulets in spate across the state including Bhagirathi, Alaknanda, Mandakini and Nandakini the district magistrates have been asked to evacuate people living in settlements near them to safer locations. Dog squads and additional medical teams on standby, ready to be inducted as soon as the weather permits says Army spokesperson. Officials said more than 100 mm of rain was recorded in just two hours, leading to flooding of most of the rivers in the hill state. Also read: Uttarakhand: 30 feared dead in cloudburst; Chamoli, Pithoragarh worst hit Heavy rains across India: Uttarakhand worst hit with 34 dead, IMD warns of next 72 hours PM expresses grief over deaths in Uttarakhand cloudburst --- ENDS --- By PTI: Kolkata, Jul 1 (PTI) The Tata-Singapore joint venture airline Vistara will soon extend its daily flight services from Kolkata, touching some new destinations. Instead of two daily flights between Kolkata and Delhi, Vistara would soon operate seven flights daily from the city touching three new destinations, the airline CEO P Yeoh told a press conference accompanied by West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra after meeting him at the state secretariat Nabanna. advertisement "Following this decision, Vistara will connect three new destinations of Guwahati, Port Blair and Bangalore with Kolkata, keeping intact its existing operation on the Kolkata- Delhi sector," Mitra said. If these services were found economically viable, the airline has assured to further enhance its operations by October this year, increasing its number of flights and destinations from Kolkata, the minister added. PTI AKB DKB SAI --- ENDS --- SHARE FILE PHOTO Marley Emch Hintz AGOURA HILLS Youth organization receives donation The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Conejo Valley recently received a donation from Bud Marley for a nine-year naming commitment for the organization's newest club, set to open in the fall at the Agoura Calabasas Community Center. The new club will serve the A.E. Wright Middle School population. Offering before- and after-school hours, it will provide homework assistance; performing arts, sports, fitness, recreation and art programs; and health and life skills classes. For the next nine years, the club will be referred to as the Jacqueline & Albert "Bud" Marley Boys & Girls Club. "This is such an honor to give back to the Agoura Hills community who embraced us when we first moved here in 1984," Bud Marley said in a news release. "We were welcomed into this city with open arms and providing funds to the Boys & Girls Clubs who contribute so much to our youth is a great way to say, 'Thank you.' " The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Conejo Valley are open before and after school, during lunch, on weekends, throughout the summer for the camp program and all day during school vacations, with tours of the clubs available upon request. Visit http://www.bgcconejo.org or call 818-706-0905 for more information about supervised youth programs or to donate, volunteer or register online. CAMARILLO CSUCI selected for ad awards CSU Channel Islands has been named among the top in the nation in the 2015 Collegiate Advertising Awards program. The awards recognize colleges and universities for excellence in communications, marketing, advertising and promotions of their schools. There were more than 900 entries this year representing a diverse range of schools. Participants competed against similar-sized organizations in their specific groups and categories. Judging criteria included creativity, layout and design, functionality, message effectiveness, production quality, and overall appeal. Only the top 16 percent of entries earned awards. CSUCI earned three silver awards: special video production for the 2015 holiday video greeting; annual report for the 2013-2014 foundation annual report; and student viewbook/printed for the 2014-2015 recruitment viewbook. Additionally, Higher Ed Marketing/Educational Advertising Awards provided a silver award in the category of publication/external for universities/colleges of similar size for the spring 2015 Channel magazine. Merit awards were provided for the 2015 holiday video greeting; recruitment viewbook/printed for the 2014-2015 recruitment viewbook; and the 2013-2014 foundation annual report. "We're extremely pleased with the recognition we've received for these projects," said Nancy Covarrubias Gill, CSUCI's director of communication and marketing. Outlet center adds to marketing staff After the recent hire of new Director of Marketing and Business Development Kassandra Bishop, Camarillo Premium Outlets announced the addition of a second member to the property's leadership team, Nichole Paliungas. Paliungas joins as the assistant director of marketing and business development. Most recently the marketing administrative assistant at Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, Paliungas has been with Simon Property Group since 2012. She brings almost a decade of experience in event management, strategic marketing and sponsorship and revenue generation. In her role at Camarillo Premium Outlets, Paliungas will work alongside Bishop to develop marketing strategies that support event programming, social media, advertising, guest services, tourism and public relations. Additionally, she will assist with revenue generation, marketing budgets and tenant and partner relationships. "It's a joy to continue my time with Simon Property Group at Camarillo Premium Outlets," Paliungas said. "I'm thrilled at the opportunity to connect with the local community, as well as guide the center's overall business development and marketing strategies." Paliungas holds a bachelor's degree of communications with an emphasis in public relations from CSU Fullerton. Camarillo Premium Outlets offers more than 160 outlet stores. Simon has 77 Premium Outlet Centers, including 63 in the United States, one in Puerto Rico, nine in Japan, two in Korea, one in Malaysia and one in Mexico. OXNARD Hotel hires director of catering efforts The Embassy Suites by Hilton Mandalay Beach hotel has named Tiffany Emch as director of catering. Born and raised in Ventura, Emch joins Embassy Suites after having worked as catering sales manager at the Bacara Resort & Spa in Goleta. During her tenure there, she earned the Pacific Hospitality Group's award for catering sales manager of the year in 2014 and had the honor of working on Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball. Before joining Bacara Resort, Emch worked in the wedding and events department at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa. Her hotel & catering experience also encompasses positions at the Bellagio and Treasure Island in Las Vegas. While in college earning a degree in theater arts at UC San Diego, Emch found her passion for the hotel industry at the Catamaran Hotel and later opened the Balboa Bay Club and Resort in Newport Beach, selling weddings and events. "I love working with teams of people who are eager to grow and change," Emch said in a news release. "This industry is constantly evolving to provide better products and services for our guests. I'm always looking for ways to do things better than they were done the day before and I'm excited to join this incredible team." With 250 two-room suites, the hotel is situated on Oxnard's Mandalay Beach. GopherHawk gains industry distinction Oxnard company GopherHawk recently received the Whole Package Silver Award distinction in the 2016 Packaging and Merchandising Awards program, presented by the North American Retail Hardware Association. GopherHawk and nearly 60 other U.S. and Canadian manufacturers submitted packaging and merchandising/point-of-purchase display materials to the awards committee to compete for recognition as the best in the industry. The association hosts the annual competition to inform independent retailers about trends and leading packaging and to celebrate the independent home improvement industry's best merchandising and packaging. The association invited three expert judges to contribute their experience and knowledge to review and critique each entry thoroughly for the awards, which are now in their seventh year. The judges' scores were tallied and winning packages and displays were selected for four award levels: Whole Package, Gold, Silver and Honorable Mention. GopherHawk made its debut in 2013 with a new approach to gopher trapping and is a subsidiary of Meissner Industrial Co., owned and operated by Paul Meissner Sr. THOUSAND OAKS Real estate agent earns designation Regina Carnicelli with Aviara Real Estate in the Westlake Village area has been awarded the seniors real estate specialist designation by the Seniors Real Estate Specialist Council of the National Association of Realtors. Carnicelli is one of more than 16,000 real estate professionals in North America who have earned the designation. All were required to complete a comprehensive course in understanding the needs, considerations and goals of real estate buyers and sellers age 55 and older. The council, founded in 2007, is the world's largest association of real estate professionals focusing specifically on representing senior clients in real estate transactions. VENTURA County treasurer awarded credential Ventura County Treasurer-Tax Collector Steven Hintz has been awarded the professional credential of certified public finance administrator by the Association of Public Treasurers of the United States and Canada. The credential is based on commitment to elevating the level of knowledge of public finance and the enrichment of performance within the treasury management profession. Honorees must be a principal officer in a governmental entity charged with the performance or supervision of investments, debt or treasury activities. The honoree must demonstrate extensive work experience coupled with relevant educational achievement. "As our treasurer-tax collector, Steven Hintz has worked diligently to safeguard the county's assets and resources," County Executive Officer Mike Powers said. "He has extended his office's business hours to better serve the taxpayers, increased online payment options and enhanced the security and accountability for the handling of cash. This new, prestigious certification is a further demonstration of his financial leadership and his commitment to the financial well-being of Ventura County." Hintz has served as the elected treasurer-tax collector since January 2011. He has filled the additional role of chief investment officer since December 2012, directly managing the $2.2 billion county investment pool while continuing to provide executive leadership for the agency. He is also a trustee of Ventura County's Board of Retirement, performing oversight of the $4 billion retirement fund. He was designated as a certified public funds investment manager in 2012 and is a member of the executive committee of the California Association of County Treasurers and Tax Collectors. VENTURA COUNTY Nonprofits to share $71,500 in grants Several Ventura County nonprofits will be among recipients of $71,500 in grants from Bank of America to 12 organizations in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties in an effort to increase educational and workforce development opportunities The organizations focus on connecting youths and adults, including the unemployed and underserved, to workforce opportunities and education and skills-building. Funding will help individuals living in low-income neighborhoods. "Investing in our workforce is one of the ways we are addressing issues fundamentally connected to economic mobility," said Diana Gleason, Ventura and Santa Barbara president of Bank of America. "We're proud to partner with nonprofit organizations like Women's Economic Ventures and Special Olympics of Southern California that are helping to build a more sustainable community." Organizations with a Ventura County footprint that are receiving grants include the American Heart Association, the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Clara Valley, California Lutheran University, the CSU Channel Islands Foundation, Concerned Resource & Environmental Workers, Goodwill Industries of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, the Ventura College Foundation, Women's Economic Ventures and Special Olympics of Southern California. The bank said the grants are part of its commitment to responsible growth as it works to improve the financial lives of local individuals and families. Staff reports CHUCK KIRMAN/THE STAR Anita Furtaw has run the Great Pacific Child Development Center at Patagonia almost since its inception. She is reading a book to Winter Hopper (left) and Vivian Seguel in the preschool playground library area. SHARE CHUCK KIRMAN/THE STAR Francesca Walcker plays in the preschool playground area of the Great Pacific Child Development Center at Patagonia. CHUCK KIRMAN/THE STAR Anita Furtraw has run the Great Pacific Child Development Center at Patagonia almost since its inception. She is reading a book to Francesca Walcker (from left), Vivian Seguel and Winter Hopper at the preschool playground library area. CHUCK KIRMAN/THE STAR Children play in the preschool playground area of the Great Pacific Child Development Center at Patagonia. CHUCK KIRMAN/THE STAR Anita Furtaw has run the Great Pacific Child Development Center at Patagonia almost since its inception. She is reading a book to Winter Hopper (left) and Vivian Seguel in the preschool playground library area. By Mike Nelson, Special to The Star When working parents Ryan and Meridith Thompson welcomed baby Joanna into their family last year, it took all of a few seconds to decide what kind of care they wanted for their first child or, about the time it takes today for Ryan to leave work and pick up his now 11-month-old daughter. Because, as materials innovation and development manager for Patagonia Inc., Ryan has access to on-site child care at the sprawling west Ventura corporate headquarters. So do the Patagonia employee-parents of 73 other children ages 8 weeks to 12 years who spend part or all of their parents' workdays involved in a variety of development opportunities from learning music and Spanish to outdoor playtime and discovery in the company's Great Pacific Child Development Center. But that is part of the mindset at this manufacturer and retailer of high-end outdoor apparel that employs 2,000 worldwide, about 600 in Ventura, and is as innovative in employee development as it is in product development. And it meshes perfectly with the mindset of Anita Furtaw, who has overseen the center almost from day one, and in July will retire after 31 years with the company. "This is my passion," the Thousand Oaks resident and lifelong child development specialist said while seated at a shaded picnic table alongside the play area where children play and scamper about under the watchful eyes of teacher-leaders. "And I am blessed to work with this company that has such strong ideas about child development, and truly values the importance of quality child care. To do this kind of work, you have to feel it in your bones; otherwise, it's hollow and kids can tell. These kids enjoy an environment in which they're surrounded by people who care." In three decades, Furtaw has witnessed 1,400 children of Patagonia employees including her own daughter and son, now adults participate in the program. Some of those young people have gone on to work for Patagonia, including the young man who was an infant when Furtraw started and now works in the company's Reno warehouse, which also has a childhood development center. And every one of the women who have given birth while employed at Patagonia has returned to work, said Dean Carter, vice president of human resources and special services. "That's directly related to having the GPCDC," he said. "New moms can come back to work, continue their careers, and still bond with their babies, nurse them if they want to. We believe that's one reason we have more women in leadership at Patagonia than most places do; they comprise over 50 percent of our management team, and over 50 percent of our board of directors." 'MALINDA'S BABY' A native of New Jersey who earned a bachelor's degree in child development from CSU Northridge and a master's in early childhood education from California Lutheran University, Furtaw spent 10 years working in child development programs before joining Patagonia in spring 1985, 15 months after Patagonia co-founders Yvon and Malinda Chouinard introduced the program. "This was Malinda's baby, something about which she felt very strongly," Furtaw said. But, said Carter, it was Furtaw who really developed the program from a more traditional baby-sitting program, with employees' children either underfoot or gathered in a room, to the broad-based learning program in place today. "Anita brought a level of experience, professionalism and innovation which, combined with her love of the outdoors, led to a program that is really educational and formational for these children," Carter said. "Now we have a staff of 26 teacher-leaders who, under Anita's direction, are able to help the kids, and their families, learn and grow in so many ways." The GPCDC operates within the nonstructured structure or structured nonstructure that Patagonia embraces throughout its operation, where shorts-and-T-shirt ensembles far outnumber coats and ties. Children, depending on their age range and parents' desires, may be attend all day, on alternate days or after school, and parents are free to come by as often as needed to look in on, or spend time with, their children. Ryan Thompson, for example, said that when Joanna first entered the program at age 3 months, "I would come down three or four times a day for 20 to 30 minutes at a time to be with her. Now that she's 11 months old, it's maybe two or three times a day for 15 to 20 minutes." The arrangement poses no problems with his work. "If I need additional time with her," Thompson said, "the company's been extremely supportive. And as far as my relationships with the rest of the Patagonia community, it's brought a new level of intimacy because they know me as a dad giving time to his daughter as well as an employee. "And I've learned new parenting skills from the teachers. Meridith, who works in downtown Ventura, and I wanted to make sure this was not just a baby-sitting service, and this is so much more than that. It's exceeded our expectations." The center benefits both families and Patagonia in other ways, Carter said. "You bring your best self to work when your child is around," he said. "You watch your language, your temper, the way you interact with others, because you know your kids are watching. Parents are more likely to model the behavior their kids are being taught, and that's good for everyone. "And as a business, we ask ourselves, 'What kind of company do we want to be in the future? What if we can employ the children of current employees?' Well, we have leaders all over Patagonia who were raised here in the GPCDC. They understand the culture." 'MAMA WILL BE PROUD' In addition to developing their motor skills and social interaction, employees' children are exposed to music, literature, nature and Spanish, how to work collaboratively in teams, and how to communicate feelings positive or otherwise through sign language. Furtaw told, with delight, of a young boy who "had an issue" with another but, knowing his mother could be watching from a second-floor office window, announced, "I'm not going to hit. I'm going to use my words, and my mama will be proud of me." "And that's part of the joy of this work," she said proudly, "seeing these children grow and develop really good skills, and watching these highly skilled and trained leaders and teachers work with them to guide them along. The most important thing we do here is to support the children by building their self-esteem, their confidence and their ability to take risks so that they learn not to be fearful as they grow older." Employees like Ryan Thompson look forward to continuing their relationship with the company as their children grow older. "Even after Joanna starts to school, she'll come here in the afternoons," said Thompson, a nine-year employee. "I see our family being part of the Patagonia community for a long time." Furtaw, on the other hand, is readying for her next adventure retirement in Montana, where she and her husband own a vacation home, although they will maintain a local residence, as well. "I feel like I have one more great adventure in me," she said. "So I'm focusing on the future. But I am so glad I took the chance, accepted the risk and lived the dream at Patagonia. And although I won't miss the drive from Thousand Oaks, I'll miss the teachers, my colleagues, these kids and Patagonia this unique community of like-minded people who are value-driven to do the right thing." Gazing at the children playing, she smiled again. "My idea of heaven," she said softly, "is to sit and watch kids all day long, to see talented teachers do their thing and help kids develop, right before my eyes. This program has made such a difference in people's lives the kids, the parents, the company and certainly to me." SHARE CAMARILLO Workplace safety to be discussed The Camarillo Chamber of Commerce will offer a business safety presentation during this week's Business at Breakfast. The presentation on what to do when there is an active shooter will be given by Jarrod Foote, senior deputy with the Ventura County Sheriff's Office. The breakfast will be from 8-9:30 a.m. Friday at Las Posas Country Club, 955 Fairway Drive. Cost is $25 for chamber members or $35 for nonmembers. Visit http://camarillochamber.org/events or call 484-4383 to register. SIMI VALLEY Council changes leaders, schedule The Simi Valley Community Council will meet throughout the summer in a departure from past practices. The change comes after the council installed its new board of directors for the 2016-17 fiscal year. The board members are: president, Jodi Regan, with the Simi Valley Public Library; vice president membership, Marie Bennett, with the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center Foundation; vice president programming, Pat Lewis with It's a New Day; secretary, Lisa Trent, with Simi Valley Friends of the Library; treasurer, Millie Gunn, community member; parliamentarian, Kathy Medley, with Girl Scouts of the California Central Coast; auditor, David Kennedy, with the Simi Valley Council on Aging; and past president, Steve Soyka, with United Handy Can. Rather than recessing for the summer, the council now will meet every month. "The important work of Simi's community groups does not stop during the summer, so neither should the organization which supports them," Regan said. The council's lunch meetings are held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the second Thursday of every month. The next meeting will be July 14 at Sutter's Mill, 3885 Cochran St. Guests are welcome. The cost of lunch is $18 per person. Cash or checks payable to Simi Valley Community Council will be taken at the door. Call Regan at the Simi Valley Public Library, 526-1735, ext. 5015, or email simivalleycommunitycouncil@gmail.com for reservations. Membership with the council is $20 per year (July through June) per organization, also payable through cash or check. Contact Marie Bennett for more information about membership: mbennettwcf@gmail.com. Visit the website at http://svcommunitycouncil.org for more information. VENTURA COUNTY Business training to be offered Women's Economic Ventures is holding free, one-hour informational sessions for its English self-employment training course. Orientations will cover class details and help individuals determine their readiness for the next self-employment training course beginning in August. Orientations will be offered from 6-7 p.m. Thursday in Ventura, 6-7 p.m. July 12 in Thousand Oaks and 6-7 p.m. July 13 in Oxnard. The exact locations will be given upon registration. Visit http://www.wevonline.org/orientations for details and to register. The self-employment training program teaches entrepreneurs the nuts and bolts of business and empowers them with the confidence necessary to overcome the inevitable challenges business owners face. Graduates emerge equipped with critical knowledge and tools to help them successfully launch or expand their businesses. To share news about your company or business-related organization, email business@vcstar.com. If there is an event involved, please email the information at least three weeks in advance of the event. DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Imam Junaid Ahmed (right) leads his congregation in the recitation of the Quran and prayer earlier this month during Ramadan at the Islamic Center of Ventura County in Oxnard. SHARE DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Mohammed Zafar, a visiting scholar from England, expounds on the virtues of teaching children to respect their elders and the sanctuary of the church during evening prayer at the Islamic Center of Ventura County in Oxnard. DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Mohammed Zafar, a visiting scholar from England, expounds on the virtues of teaching children to respect their elders and the sanctuary of the mosque during evening prayer at the Islamic Center of Ventura County in Oxnard. DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Members of the congregation follow in the recitation of the Quran and evening prayer at the Islamic Center of Ventura County in Oxnard. DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Members of the congregation follow in the recitation of the Quran and evening prayer at the Islamic Center of Ventura County in Oxnard. By Anne Kallas, Special to The Star In a small retail space in downtown Oxnard, dozens of Muslim faithful from near and far-flung places in Asia, Europe and the Middle East filled the Islamic Center of Ventura County. An enormous piece of patterned fabric separated the men from the women as they said their prayers into the night recently. It is the month of Ramadan in which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. While the Quran calls for prayer five times daily, prayer during Ramadan takes on an increased purpose. Jahmina Reza, of Oxnard, said Ramadan is a time to reach out to neighbors. "For me, I feel like I will do everything to make Allah happy. I will take care of my neighbors, friends and family," she said. "When I'm fasting, I think about people who are poor. We choose not to eat, but they can't choose." According to Iman Mohammed Zafar, interim Iman at the center, the dates of Ramadan aren't exact. It is determined by observation of the new crescent moon as it rises. This year Ramadan is expected to run approximately from June 5 to July 5. During that time healthy adult Muslims are expected to refrain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset, which is about 14 hours and 25 minutes a day this time of year. Fasting during Ramadan is considered one of the five pillars of Islam, Zafar said. During the monthlong observance, Muslim families living in the area come to break their daily fast together on the weekends explained congregant Sarah Islam, of Oxnard. She was dressed in the traditional women's hijab covering her hair, with flowing clothing covering her body and bare feet because shoes must be taken off in the mosque. Islam pointed out that the group of about 30 women who were praying in the back of the big room at the center came from all over the world to practice their faith. "We have people from Germany, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Iran all over," she said. "People think that we're bad and that we're not a religion of peace. But peace is what we all practice trying to help our neighbors." After sunset there is a prayer. Then the entire congregation first eats dates and drinks water to break their fast, before eating dinner, said Nihayah Altar of Ventura. Each family takes a turn providing the food for the shared meal, and she was in charge of the evening meal. Altar said the food is organic and halal, that is, permissible according to Islamic law. The evening's menu included soup, meat, rice, salad and harissa a cake made from semolina and soaked in a sweet syrup. "We sit together like family brothers and sisters in prayer," Altar said. Zafar said that during Ramadan, each person tries to be better. "We work on ourselves improving ourselves and creating and maintaining good relationships with the people around us and with God. There is always room for improvement," he said. Much of the worldwide discourse focused on Islam has been "misrepresented," Zafar said. "There are people with less education who are driven by their pre-assumptions," he said "They will find a word here and a word there and take one out of their pocket to justify them. There are also those who are power hungry who use religion to divide people. God himself has said Islam is about spreading peace. It's not about hurting people." During Ramadan, Zafar will recite the entire Quran from memory, a portion at a time, during the last portion of the evening prayer services called the Tarawih. Sarah Islam said there is a stalwart group of devoted women and men who come each night to the evening services, which start at sundown around 8:13 p.m., and stay well into the night to hear the revered words of the Quran. Others with families will stay through the Iman's sermon, before leaving to put their tired children to bed. The women said that even though they and their girls wear hajibs when out in public, they have always been accepted in Ventura County. There have been reports in the national press of Islamic women being accosted for wearing the headscarves that cover all of the hair. "I've actually had people come up to me in Costco and say, 'We are with you.'" And my co-workers say they support me," Islam said. After the new crescent moon is spotted rising over the mountains in early July, Ramadan will end with Eid al-Fitr, a muted celebration where the families will gather for another large potluck style dinner as they break the fast together for one final time this year. For information about Ramadan or Islam, call the Ventura County Islamic Center, 525 S. A St., Oxnard, at 486-8886 or go online to http://icovc.org. FILE PHOTO Crude oil flows down a Ventura hillside after a pipeline failed June 23. Nearly 30,000 gallons of crude oil leaked in the spill. SHARE By Jean Cowden Moore, jean.moore@vcstar.com A pipeline that leaked nearly 30,000 gallons of crude oil in Ventura has reopened, just eight days after an early-morning spill on June 23. The pipeline reopened Thursday night after the state fire marshal certified that it was safe, said Tim Gallagher, spokesman for the pipeline's owner, Crimson Pipeline. The certification came after the fire marshal's office inspected the pipeline this week, Gallagher said. But Mark Watkins, Ventura city manager, said he was frustrated that residents weren't notified before the pipeline reopened, especially after a meeting Thursday night when they questioned company, local and state officials about the spill. Residents should be told what caused the spill, how long the cleanup will take, and what Crimson is doing so it doesn't happen again, Watkins said. "It's very frustrating to find out they just put it back into service, and the community wasn't notified," he said. "We expect a higher level of communication in the future." Residents had not been informed of the reopening by 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The agencies involved planned to notify people by email and possibly by going door to door, starting Friday evening, Gallagher said. State regulations required that Crimson start putting crude oil back into the pipeline as soon as it was certified safe, Gallagher said. Before the fire marshal's office inspected the pipeline, workers cleared out any remaining crude oil, using liquid nitrogen, Gallagher said. Then they did the inspection. The inspection satisfied the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said spokeswoman Amy Norris. "If the fire marshal has certified that it's safe, then we're completely comfortable," Norris said. The spill, which started just northeast of Ventura High School, leaked crude oil into a nearby gorge but it did not reach the beach. The oil flowed for about half a mile down the Prince Barranca and Hall Canyon before it was stopped. The cause of the spill, which started at a valve in the pipeline, is still under investigation. The valve had been replaced the day before the incident. Crimson has had 10 spills in the past decade, causing about $5.9 million in property damage, according to the U.S. Transportation Department's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. SHARE By Mike Harris, mharris@vcstar.com The Simi Valley City Council this week greenlighted a movie studio back lot with sets on a 9.1-acre vacant parcel in the city's east end. But the council turned down producer Larry Levinson's request to approve administrative processing for a production building of up to 200,000 square feet to be eventually constructed on the parcel. At its meeting Monday night, the council directed Levinson's company, LLP Production Services, to have those plans considered by the city Planning Commission. Such a building on the undeveloped parcel at 6700 Smith Road "will stand out like a sore thumb," Mayor Bob Huber said. The parcel is adjacent to LLP's existing made-for-TV movie production facility at 6800 Smith Road. Levinson, a Los Angeles-based producer, makes family-oriented fare that appears on such cable TV channels as Hallmark, Lifetime and Pixel. Since the mid-1990s, he has released more than 200 titles, including "Texas Rangers" in 2001 and "Portrait of Love" in 2015. The Smith Road sites are surrounded by rugged, rocky hills near Corriganville Park, the former Corriganville Movie Ranch, where many Westerns, including "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin" and the "Lone Ranger," were filmed in the 1940s and 1950s. SHARE CHUCK KIRMAN/THE STAR Jessica Navarro at her arraignment in court on charges of killing her child, a 22-month-old boy. CHUCK KIRMAN/THE STAR Jessica Navarro at her arraignment in court on charges of killing her child, a 22-month-old boy. She is talking with Bartley Brown of the public defenders office. By Cheri Carlson and Marjorie Hernandez of the Ventura County Star The District Attorney's Office on Friday charged a Ventura woman in the death of her 22-month-old son. Jessica Navarro, 27, faces a felony charge of assault on a child causing death, according to the complaint filed in Ventura County Superior Court. On Friday, more than a dozen of Navarro's family members were in Courtroom 13, where she appeared before Judge Ryan Wright for arraignment. Her boyfriend, Guillermo Cortez, the father of the boy, sobbed as Navarro spoke to Wright from behind the bars of the inmate holding cell. Police said rescue crews found their son, Guillermo Cortez Jr., unresponsive inside a Ventura home. They had responded to a call that a baby had fallen from a crib. The child was taken to Ventura County Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Ventura police said detectives believe Navarro physically assaulted the boy. She was the only adult at home at the time of the incident, police said. She was arrested and booked into Ventura County Jail and remains there in lieu of $500,000 bail. When the child died, he was under supervision of the county's Child Protective Services, but had returned to his mother's home, said Jennie Pittman, senior manager for the county's Human Services Agency. According to the last court hearing, his case had shifted to family maintenance status, Pittman said. Children in family maintenance cases live in their own home and child welfare services are made available to their families, she said. The agency has not yet provided many details about why the child was under CPS supervision but said that an initial review of its files showed concerns about the boy's exposure to domestic violence. The county is required to notify California Department of Social Services when it is suspected that a child dies as a result of abuse or neglect. Ventura County officials did so Friday. Outside the courtroom, Navarro's aunt, Mary Fernandez, wiped tears from her eyes as she spoke about her niece. Fernandez called her niece a devoted mother and said the whole family is in shock because Navarro's children are her life. She said she was not aware of any prior instances of abuse. "She was struggling to have a permanent home, but that was her goal ... to have all her kids together and to have their own place," Fernandez said. "She would never hurt any of her kids," she said. The Ventura County Medical Examiners Office had not released the manner and cause of the childs death Friday. Navarro's arraignment was continued until July 27. If convicted on the felony charge, she could face a maximum sentence of 25 years to life, said Senior Deputy District Attorney Audry Nafziger. File photo SHARE By Staff Reports A person was assaulted after intervening in a fight between a father and son in Ventura on Friday, authorities said. Police said they were called to the 3500 block of East Main Street at 2:05 p.m. after being told of a fight involving three males. Arriving officers said they found one male at the scene with injuries from being hit numerous times with a pipe and metal chair. The injuries were not life-threatening and the victim was treated at the scene by paramedics before being released, police said. Police said he had been hit by both a father and son after intervening in a physical fight between the two. The father and son fled and later were found on Telephone Road near Main Street, police said. The two men, both named Brian Smith, were arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. The father, 43, and the son, 21, were taken to county jail. SHARE As a Ventura Unified School Board trustee for the last 17 years, I have seen the budget pendulum swing a few times. There were years of recession-fueled state budget cuts for education. In the most recent recession, the district lost over $25 million over four years. It is true that Ventura Unified School District is doing better financially than during the recession. We are in no way, however, dealing with adequate public school funding. California ranks 29th in the nation on per pupil spending, or $900 per student below the national average. In 2012 voters approved Measure Q a four-year, $59 parcel tax by a little more than the needed two-thirds majority. This measure brought in $2.6 million a year for four years. The School Board and administration hope to renew the parcel tax. It will go to Ventura voters in November. I would like to bring clarity as to why this measure should be renewed. Measure Q has helped to maintain and protect academic programs and class size reduction. It has funded art and music education and technology. Measure Q has helped retain highly qualified teachers. There is a need to renew the parcel tax to maintain these important programs. There are other new funding worries to consider for the future. The district anticipates escalating CalSTRS and CalPERS rates. Ventura Unified is looking at upcoming significant textbook and curriculum adoptions. There are facility expenses on the horizon such as air conditioning and a myriad other needs as our schools are aging quickly. Proposition 30 approval will result in a one-third reduction in the previous revenue stream to the state treasury due to the elimination of the .25 percent state sales tax. Therefore I believe the district is justified in asking our community to support a renewal of the parcel tax in November. This measure will not raise property taxes but will rather keep them as they are today. Another provision of the parcel tax is the requirement of a citizen's parcel tax oversight committee to provide oversight and accountability on the expenditures funded by the measure and to ensure that the funds are spent for the purposes approved by the voters. The Parcel Tax Oversight Committee is required to meet at least semi-annually. It has between seven and 11 members. A strong public education system is essential to the individual and collective well being of our community. The guarantee of access to a quality education should be the right accorded to every child in Ventura. VUSD's administration, School Board, teachers and staff do a good job at working together to create a school environment that fosters thoughtful solutions and shared responsibility. I hope the voters of Ventura will continue to trust our ability to create local policies that provide a strong, vital public school environment for all children. Please vote yes on renewing the parcel tax. Debbie Golden, of Ventura, is a Ventura Unified School District board member. By PTI: London, Jul 2 (PTI) A 27-year-old UK woman named Isis was denied access to her Facebook account and asked to send an identity proof by the social networking site as part of its stringent policy to erase all traces of ISIS terror outfit. Isis Thomas, a resident of Bristol in Britain, was asked to change her name after logging on to the site on June 27. advertisement "I just tried to log in and when I did, the password went through and this box came up asking me something about changing my name. I was on Facebook as Isis Worcester, because when I first signed up years ago I didnt use my real name, which is Isis Thomas, because of where I worked at the time," Isis said. "I thought it was about the surname, so I just changed it to Isis Thomas. But that didnt work and I realised they had a problem with me being called Isis," she said. Isiss mother had named her after the ancient Egyptian goddess worshipped as the ideal mother, wife and the patron of nature and magic. "They sent a message saying Isis wasnt allowed, it didnt comply with the policy. They asked me to send in proof of identity, which I did. That was on Monday and I havent been let on the site since," Isis was quoted as saying by The Sun. Facebook has recently launched a crackdown on ISIS extremists who had used the network for propaganda purposes. "Things have definitely changed for me and my name...It frustrates me that people still use Isis, especially when I see newspaper reports and theyve written it Isis instead of at least using capitals, like ISIS, because its an acronym," the Bristol University worker said. "I have no plans to change my name, though, I love it. I just want Facebook to realise its my real name," she said. "Its as though she has never existed. I have found Facebook impossible to contact and Im furious," said Sian, mother of Isis. PTI MRJ MRJ --- ENDS --- SHARE He can't do it, Republicans. It's time for you to admit that Donald Trump is incapable of even pretending to be an acceptable candidate for president. The question is which side of history you want to be on. Are you going to stand with him as the balloons drop on the last night of the convention, knowing he shares neither your views nor your values? Are you going to work your hearts out this fall to put an unstable bully in charge of our national defense? Is party unity so much more important to you than trifles such as responsibility, duty and honor? Leading Republicans should pay attention to what Sen. Mike Lee told a reporter for the conservative Newsmax website: "What I am saying is Donald Trump can still get a vote from a lot of conservatives like me, but I would like some assurances on where he stands. I would like some assurances that he is going to be a vigorous defender of the U.S. Constitution. That he is not going to be an autocrat. That he is not going to be an authoritarian. That he is not somebody who is going to abuse a document that I have sworn an oath to uphold and protect and defend." Lee, who has not endorsed Trump, specifically mentioned "the fact that he accused my best friend's father of conspiring to kill JFK" referring to Trump's scurrilous and unfounded charges about the father of Sen. Ted Cruz and also Trump's history of making "statements that some have identified correctly as religiously intolerant." My only question for Lee is why Trump might still get his vote. I realize that Hillary Clinton is a Democrat, but no one has suggested that she might shred the Constitution or that she is a religious bigot. I thought the oath to "protect and defend" meant putting country before party. To be sure, some leading Republicans are doing just that. Mitt Romney, the party's 2012 nominee, is one of the loudest and most consistent Never Trump voices. The Bush family, which incarnates the GOP's recent history, is boycotting the convention. My colleague George Will, a principled conservative if ever there was one, said last week he had left the Republican Party because of Trump. But most GOP luminaries are like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has obvious reservations about his party's presumptive nominee but supports him nonetheless. McConnell said this week that "people are looking for a level of seriousness that is typically conveyed by having a prepared text and Teleprompter and staying on message." In other words, McConnell hopes Trump can at least pretend to be serious and stable long enough to make it through the general election campaign. Asked Wednesday if he agreed, Romney said no. "I think Mr. Trump has demonstrated who he is by virtue of what he said in the process to this point," he explained. "What he says from this point forward may paper over that." I've had the same worry that Trump would appear to be more statesmanlike and fool voters into thinking he had changed. With every passing week, however, I become less concerned about this scenario. Trump is who he is. Every time Trump gives a prepared speech in which he manages to stay on message, drawing praise from the party establishment, he negates it by reverting to his old self. His address on foreign policy a couple of months ago, for example, was wrongheaded but basically mainstream. This week, however, he has been ranting about how the United States needs to use waterboarding and other torture techniques against suspected terrorists. And you're going to vote for this guy, Sen. John McCain? You, a former POW who was tortured by the North Vietnamese? You, the Senate's most outspoken opponent of the practice? McConnell said he hoped that Trump "is beginning to pivot and become what I would call a more serious and credible candidate for the highest office in the land." Asked whether this was happening, McConnell replied, "He's getting closer." But he's not, and McConnell surely knows it. So does House Speaker Paul Ryan, who will preside over the convention at which Trump is set to be nominated. So do many Republicans who, when I ask them about Trump, either sigh, shrug or run away. We are talking about the presidency of the United States, Republicans. You are about to nominate and support a man you know to be dangerously unworthy. Some loyalty. Eugene Robinson's email address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com. He writes for The Washington Post Writers Group. SHARE The first half of 2016 has been an exciting one for those of us working in the sUAS (small Unmanned Aircraft Systems) industry. Commonly known as drones, these devices are currently being used in such areas as search and rescue, firefighting, wildlife monitoring, aerial photography, precision agriculture and many other arenas. In fact, Intel is experimenting with choreographed light displays involving hundreds of sUAS that may one day provide a safer alternative to fireworks shows, especially in fire prone areas like Southern California. The year 2016 began with tight restrictions on commercial and educational sUAS use, but throughout 2016 the FAA has gradually loosened restrictions on these drones. The first news of more relaxed restrictions came out of an Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Conference in New Orleans on May 4. The FAA announced that it would now classify students as hobbyists, essentially allowing them to fly drones as part of their coursework. No longer would students need what's known as a Section 333 Exemption, an authorization that was complicated, lengthy and expensive, placing a heavy burden particularly on small businesses and educators. Section 333, among other things, required a licensed pilot to be on site during drone operation. Those operating drones for commercial use were still required to get a Section 333 until everything changed on June 21. That's when the FAA released the long Part 107 Rules, which greatly simplified the process for commercial use. Both policy changes spelled good news for CSU Channel Islands as this helps us better train future sUAS operators in this burgeoning industry. One case in point is our "Fundamentals of Remotely-Piloted Systems," which is taught through our Environmental Science and Resource Management Department. Although restrictions on students relaxed because of their new classification as drone "hobbyists," instructors fell under the rules governing commercial use. In other words, students could fly the drones, but instructors could not, except in the event of an emergency requiring the instructor to intervene in a student-controlled flight. With the new Part 107 rules, we have a reasonable set of guidelines to follow as we usher in a new era of growth in this industry. The new rules only require the sUAS pilot in command (the instructor) to hold a remote pilot airman certificate with a small UAS rating. That is far less costly and difficult to obtain than a private pilot's license. The rest of the Part 107 rules are technical, having to do with the specifics of the drone flight. The second half of 2016 and beyond should spell big things in terms of sUAS operation throughout the U.S. in business, education and beyond. Here at CSUCI, we will continue to expand our drone program. Already plans are being formed to include sUAS as part of hands-on classroom activities in a number of courses at CSUCI across several disciplines. Additionally, several research efforts are underway that involve using sUAS to enable or enhance scientific research. CSUCI has also recently approved the initiation of a new Mechatronics Engineering Program, which will allow students to learn about the design and control of sUAS. So as you celebrate this Fourth of July keep an eye to the sky and to the future when we may be celebrating by watching hundreds or thousands of small drones performing the show. Jason Isaacs is an assistant professor of Computer Science at CSU Channel Islands and is involved in sUAS instruction. SHARE To all Another holiday weekend arrives as these United States celebrate that moment 240 years ago when, in the course of human events, the Founding Fathers declared, "these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States." So Monday, somewhere between the Independence Day barbecue and the sparkling fireworks, give a little thought to 56 men, traitors all in the eyes of Great Britain, who spoke truth to power and changed forever the course of this nation. To Oxnard Significant opposition exists to a proposed replacement power plant on Mandalay State Beach. It is, however, one of those times when the voice of the people, as loud as it might be, could fall on deaf ears because in this matter the governed have only words, not the right of consent. No vote on the project will occur; the California Energy Commission has the sole authority to approve the project. Neither can the city of Oxnard enact measures to thwart the plant because the commission can override local resolutions and ordinances. So, choose your words carefully. To Port Hueneme It has been a long debated issue the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law. In discussions about an ordinance to create a tidier Port Hueneme, Tamah Figg, the city's current code compliance manager, said, to assuage fears successors would be less than fair in enforcing the ordinance, that "she can't imagine the city hiring anyone who would enforce the letter of the law." Perhaps such fears could be better alleviated if the letter of the law and the spirit of the law were one in the same thing. To callers The California Public Utilities Commission believes the 805 area code is getting too big for its britches. The solution? A new area code. As proposed, current customers would keep the 805 designation, but new customers might get a new area code. Would this mean someone with a business cell phone in the shirt pocket and a personal cell phone in the jacket pocket always be in two area codes? Oh, the headaches. To students Your last year in high school looks to be getting a little more serious. The California State University's Academic Senate has approved a resolution that requires entering freshmen to have taken four years of high school math. So it appears there will be no more slacking off in your senior year. Groan all you want, but in terms of education, it all adds up. To nature lovers Once again, the fragile nature of ecosystems that must exist next to civilization has been underscored by an oil spill. While the combined efforts of local, state and federal officials have quickly worked to suck up 30,000 gallons of oil that spilled into a dry gorge in Ventura last week, full cleanup will take months. The spill also underscores the need for oil companies to be rigorous in inspecting and maintaining their network of pipelines. To motorists An expected 43 million Americans are expected to be traveling, most by driving, this holiday weekend. That, of course, prompts the usual warnings, drive safe, don't speed, don't drink, don't text. But motorists also might want to take a tip or two from drivers in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard. Both cities were ranked in the top 10 for driver safety in California in the recent America's Best Drivers Report. Thousand Oaks came in No. 2 and Oxnard at No. 4. Happy motoring to all. To residents With six wildfires raging in California, one killing four people and destroying nearly 260 homes, constant reminders to be extra cautious in the wilderness are not excessive. The five-year drought has left much vegetation as nothing more than dry kindling. A downed power line, a smoldering campfire, or a cigarette carelessly tossed aside can quickly become raging infernos. SHARE Karen Quincy Loberg / Star staff 02-04-10 Camarillo studio: John Weigle, columnist for the Ventura County Star. By John Weigle, Special to The Star It doesn't seem possible, but the Ventura County Fair will be here in less than a month. (It starts Aug. 3 and ends Aug. 14). Stamp collectors and others who want to enter exhibits can find all the information they need when to deliver exhibits, judging rules and more at http://www.venturacountyfair.org/fair/entryguides. As it has been doing for more than 20 years, the Ventura County Philatelic Society will have a booth where volunteers will give away stamps and answer questions about stamp collecting. Barring unexpected illnesses or other problems, at least one member will be at the table every hour the fair is open. There will also be exhibits from adult and young collectors. It's always a thrill for the society members to see exhibits from young collectors because the society sponsors an annual Youth Stamp Fair to try to attract new collectors and then keep them collecting. Members of the Goebel Adult Community Center Stamp Club in Thousand Oaks plan to help young collectors from the east county prepare their exhibits. If you don't collect stamps, there are plenty of other things to see at the fair and the Gem and Minerals building, where the stamp exhibits are. Rock hounds, model builders, genealogists and collectors of almost anything you can think of have exhibits in the building. Artists, photographers, cooks, bakers, quilters, wood carvers and others display their work in other buildings on the fairgrounds at Seaside Park in Ventura. And youths and adults display livestock galore during the event. I hope to see you there. Unusual stamps If you'd like to see stamps that smell like chocolate, can be played as records, contain volcanic ash, are in unusual shapes and are made of unusual materials visit the website Dark Roasted Blend (http://bit.ly/29brtKP), which has a two-part series on such stamps. I doubt that anyone would win a major prize for an exhibit of such stamps at a big stamp show, but I bet it would attract lots of attention and maybe encourage viewers to start their own collection of such material. Stamp displays at Oxnard Library Society member Katherine Morris has become a regular stamp exhibitor at the main Oxnard Library at 251 South A St. Depending on the library's needs, her exhibits might be in the display cases near the youth area downstairs, in the display cases on the second floor and often both. The topics vary depending on the time of year and the library's requests. If you visit the library, be sure to check the cases for the latest exhibit. FOR COIN COLLECTORS The American Numismatic Association's World's Fair of Money is scheduled for Aug. 9-13 at the Anaheim Convention Center, 800 W. Katella Ave. The event will include ANA auctions by Stack's Bowers Galleries and Heritage Auctions, a museum showcase, including the 1804 dollar, 1690 Massachusetts 20-shilling note, ancient Syracusan Dekadracdhms, a Type 1 set of Liberty Head double eagles and rare California paper money. The U.S. Mint, Bureau of Engraving and Printing and mints from other countries will also have displays. Details and an admission discount coupon are available at https://www.money.org/worldsfairofmoney. County Stamp Clubs Goebel Adult Community Center Stamp Club, Goebel Adult Community Center, 1385 E. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks. The club meets the first and third Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m. For further information, call President Rick McHenry at 498-2085. Website: http://stamps.org/Goebel-Stamp-Club. Simi Valley Stamp Club, 1 p.m., first and third Monday of each month (except in January, February and September), at the Senior Citizens Center, 3900 Avenida Simi, Simi Valley. Information: Steve Thomas, phone 818-312-6898, email thomascwcc2000@aol.com or Allen Conrad, phone 818-489-7678, Email aconrad@socal.rr.com. Website: http://stamps.org/Simi-Valley. Ventura County Philatelic Society, Church of the Foothills, 6279 Foothill Road, Ventura, first and third Mondays of each month, doors open at 6:30 p.m., meetings start at 7:30 p.m. Website: http://www.vcphilatelic.com/index.html. USS Ronald Reagan Chapter No. 107 of the Universal Ship Cancellation Society meets on the third Wednesday of February, May, and September. The meeting location varies. For more information, call President Lee Zeller at 983-0683. E-mail: Leezeller@aol.com. Website: http://www.uscs.org. Shows and bourses This list is compiled from a number of sources. If you plan to travel a long distance, it's a good idea to check to be sure the event has not been canceled. Bourses are commercial events where dealers show their goods. Stamp shows are sponsored by a club or federation (group of clubs) and feature competitive exhibits in addition to the bourse. For more information about shows around the world, visit http://www.stampshows.com. To save space, details of monthly shows are printed once under the heading "Monthly show details," with references back to that from the date of the show. No more than three months of shows are listed. Monthly show details First Saturday: INTURPEX Stamp and Cover Expo, Arcadia Masonic Temple, 50 W. Duarte Road, Arcadia. Commercial. Free admission and parking. The Original Van Nuys Sunday Stampshow: Masonic Hall, 14750 Sherman Way, Van Nuys. Commercial. Free admission and parking. Stephen Pattillo, email: number1banana@hotmail.com. Web site: http://www.stampshowsteve.com. 5-Star Glendale Saturday Stampshow: YWCA Regency Room, 735 E. Lexington, Glendale. Commercial. Free admission and parking. (Pattillo, see above). Quality Sunday Stampshow: Anaheim Plaza Hotel, 1700 S. Harbor Blvd., Anaheim. Commercial. Free admission and parking. (Pattillo, see above). The shows (See above) Today (July 2): Inturpex: (see monthly shows for details) July 3: The original Van Nuys Sunday Stampshow July 23: Five Star Glendale Saturday Stampshow July 24: Quality Sunday Stampshow Aug. 6: Inturpex Aug. 14: The original Van Nuys Sunday Stampshow Aug. 27: Five Star Glendale Saturday Stampshow Aug. 28: Quality Sunday Stampshow Sept. 3: Inturpex Sept. 4: The original Van Nuys Sunday Stampshow Sept. 17: Five Star Glendale Saturday Stampshow Sept. 18: Quality Sunday Stampshow Coming U.S. issues Most U.S. issues can be obtained at any large post office or from the Stamp Fulfillment Services, Box 41936, Kansas City, Mo. 64141-6636. The center accepts credit card orders at 800-782-6724. Stamp Fulfillment Services accepts credit card orders by telephone (800-782-6724) or fax (816-545-1212). Unless otherwise noted, the stamps on the list are forever stamps. This list is compiled from several sources, including USPS announcements, Linn's Stamp News and the Virtual Stamp Club. It is subject to change at any time. To save space, no more than three months of issues are listed. July 6: Two Star Quilts coil stamps for presorted first-class mail, Washington, D.C. 20090 July 13: Jaime Escalante commemorative, Washington, D.C. July 15: Four Pickup Trucks commemoratives (1938 International Harvester D-2, 1948 Ford F-1, 1953 Chevrolet, 1965 Ford F-100), Syracuse, New York 13220. July 31: 89-cent Henry James stamp (Literary Arts series), Dulles, Virginia 20103. Aug. 2: 20 Pets stamps (puppies, betta fish, iguanas, hamsters, goldfish, kittens, rabbits, tortoises, guinea pigs, parrots, corn snakes, mice, hermit crabs, chinchillas, gerbils, geckos, cats, horses, parakeets and dogs, Las Vegas, Nevada. Summer: Four Star Trek commemoratives (insignia and starship, crewman in transporter, starship silhouette, starship in hand salute). Sept. 29: Four Jack-O'-Lanterns commemoratives, Anoka, Minnesota. John Weigle's email address is jweigle@cipcug.org. He is a longtime collector and member of the Ventura County Philatelic Society. On the Net: http://stamps.org http://www.virtualstampclub.com Tacos and Tequila (T&T) at Luxor Hotel and Casino will welcome Fall Las Vegas Restaurant Week Friday, August 22 to Thursday, August 28 with specialty lunch and dinner menus to benefit Three Square Food Bank. The first menu, available for lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., is priced at $20.14 and will feature three courses. Guests may start with their choice of T&Ts Homemade Guacamole, Chopped salad, Caesar salad or Tortilla Soup, as an appetizer. The main entree is a choice between a half Torta Sandwich with chicken, carnitas or carne asada; the Sonoran Hot Dog, a delicious hot dog wrapped in smoked bacon and topped with beans, pico de gallo, onions and jalapenos; the Matador Burger, topped with a three-cheese blend and finished with homemade guacamole; a Cheese Enchilada with a combination of Oaxaca, menonita and Gouda cheese topped with tomatillo cream sauce; or Chicken Enchiladas with shredded chicken, roasted tomato-guajillo sauce and tomatillo cream sauce. For dessert, T&T will offer its decadent Tres Leches Cake, Flan or the Morenita Chocolate Brownie. The second menu option, available all day for lunch or dinner, is priced at $30.14 and will also feature three courses. For starters, diners may choose from T&Ts tasty Quesadillas, Beef Flautas or Caesar salad. The main course includes the choice of T&Ts mouthwatering Combo Tacos; the Chicken Tamal with a shredded taco and beef enchiladas; the Pork Carnitas with a chicken tamal and a cheese enchilada; or the Veggie Quesadilla with chile relleno and roasted corn. For the final course, guests may indulge in the Tres Leches Cake; the Morenita Chocolate Brownie; or the Chocolate Quesadilla filled with Nutella hazelnut spread and sliced bananas. Actor and comedian Jason Alexander made a special appearance at Brad Garretts Comedy Club at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Alexander was introduced by Garrett and then entertained the crowd with his stand-up comedy (Photo credit: Bryan Steffy). Photo credit: Bryan Steffy. Photo credit: Bryan Steffy. Photo credit: Bryan Steffy. If youre not outraged and sickened, then youre not paying attention. The very fabric of our moral society is breaking down in front of us. Our children are in danger, our community businesses are being destroyed, and our minds are being warped and perverted into wells of addiction and turpitude. Yes, thats right. As of this morning wine is now for sale in grocery stores in Tennessee. And just as predicted by so many smart and powerful business people who we all know had the best interest of consumers at heart, society just about collapsed. But dont take my word for it. Listen to the horror unfold in the words of people who are experiencing it for themselves. Ive waited 30 years for this, Evelyn Helmhort told The Memphis Commercial Appeal. I was waiting for it. I didnt know they would have so many flavors. Its a big selection, Todd Franks told the Leaf-Chronicle. Its convenient at the grocery store said Angela Cook to a USA Today reporter. I will still shop at my favorite wine shop down the street, but I think its awesome, said Shawna Lee to the Tennessean. Its a great thing. Its about time, chimed in Monica Mays. These poor people. Your heart goes out to them, right? If you cant hear the sarcasm dripping off this post, then you are REALLY not paying attention. You couldnt be blamed. however, for failing to pay attention to the millions that the entrenched special interest groups of wine and spirits wholesalers and liquor stores have spent trying to convince legislators that everything I said at the beginning of this post was actually true. According to these folks, selling wine in grocery stores will result in an epidemic of teenage binge drinking and force thousands of small businesses (mom and pop liquor stores) to close. But props to the Tennessean legislature for finally doing right by consumers and offering them the basic right to shop for a bottle of wine at the same time as they shop for their groceries. I just hope that the rest of you legislators (you know who you are: Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia) pay attention to what happens in Tennessee. When nothing happens other than consumer satisfaction with the shopping experience increasing, can we all just be adults and admit once and for all that the lobbyists are just shoveling bullshit? I suppose that really is too much to ask. This is America after all. But hey, all you people in Tennessee? Congratulations. Welcome to the club of sanity. A view of high-rise buildings in Singapore's financial district. (Photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman) However, they noted that as economists trim their global growth and trade forecasts, Singapore - as a transshipment hub - is likely to see lower trade volumes. Singapore's exports to the UK amounted to S$1.6 billion in the first five months of this year, which puts UK as the Republics 22nd largest trading partner. Observers said trade relations with the EU could change, as the region loses a strong pro-free trade voice. Said Mr Simon Baptist, chief economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit: "In the global context, most countries in the EU are relatively pro-free trade, but of course there's a distribution within the EU and the UK are of the camp that was more pro-free trade and more pro-free market. "The UK was their largest economy and one of the strongest proponents. There are other sort of free trading economies - such as Denmark, the Netherlands, some of the Eastern European countries like Slovakia - but of course they're much smaller than the UK. If the UK ... exits the EU, it definitely will be the case that the pro-trade group will be a lot smaller and a lot weaker, and it will increase the importance of a country like France, which is less pro-free trade. And that's a problem for Germany, which has instincts on both sides and has been able to use the UK and France as a balancing point to maybe get the UK to do some of its dirty work and some of its hard negotiations. Now it will lose that ally. So the EU would move to being a bit less pro-free trade without the UK as a member." RENEGOTIATING FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS Going forward, the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) said the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement, which was agreed upon in 2012, could see further delays in ratification. As for bilateral arrangements with UK, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a recent statement that new trade agreements will have to be negotiated. Still, observers are optimistic that a better deal can be worked out. "If we do have to renegotiate our free trade arrangement with the UK, we have a very good template to start, and I think we can even do better, said Mr Ho Meng Kit, CEO of SBF. I'm certain we can do better. Am I apprehensive that the UK itself would turn inward and isolationist? I don't think so. And therefore, we can get a good deal with the UK, maybe even a better deal than we can get with the EU." As a whole, the bloc of 28 economies is now one of Singapore's top three trading partners. Trade with the region amounted to S$90.5 billion for the whole of 2015, more than 10 per cent of Singapores total world trade numbers. Tourists visit Ba Na Hills Mountain Resort in Da Nang City. The citys administration said in a statement yesterday the plan was proposed at a meeting with the party Central Economic Committee on Thursday. It said the tourism police would deal with tourism-related problems harassment, traffic, emergencies, support and security for tourists, especially foreign tourists. Vice chairman of the citys Peoples Committee Ho Ky Minh asked the central government to create a favorable policy on investment and finance for Da Nang to develop as an economic and tourism centre in the central region. Minh said the city had been seeking funds for the development of fishing ports, forest protection, food safety and tourism promotion. Director of the citys tourism department Ngo Quang Vinh said the central government should create a preferential mechanism for tourism investors as the industry was a major breadwinner for the city. The city also asked the central government to allow it and neighboring Hue City and Quang Nam Province to open representative offices abroad to promote tourism and grant visas on arrival to tourists. The city has also proposed a pilot project to launch a double-deck bus system to ease traffic congestion and serve tourists. Da Nang hosted 4.6 million tourists last year, of which 1.25 million were foreigners. The city has developed 521 resorts and hotels with 19,000 rooms. Tourist real estate remains a favorite investment magnet in this central city, attracting 25 foreign direct investment projects worth US$1.8 billion. The city has so far developed 16 tourist property projects consisting of 749 villas, of which 609 are for sale and 140 for lease. In India, the gaming PC market including laptops and desktops is growing by 30 per cent year-on-year and share of gaming desktops is less as compared to that of laptops. By Indo-Asian News Service: Taiwan-based technology major ASUS India said on Friday it is eyeing to capture 50 per cent share of the gaming laptops market in India by next year. "We have about 30 per cent market share of gaming laptops in India. With continued focus in the segment, we are aiming to achieve 50 per cent share of it by the next year. In gaming desktops segment, we are the major player," said company's Regional Head (South Asia) and Country Manager (System Business Group) Peter Chang. advertisement He said that the growth of the PC market has been flat as the smart phones are eating into it and the gaming segment of computers is the future. In India, the gaming PC market including laptops and desktops is growing by 30 per cent year-on-year and share of gaming desktops is less as compared to that of laptops. "In India, about 2,000-3,000 units of gaming laptops are sold in a month," Chang said. After opening its first-ever exclusive 'Republic of Gamers' store in the city, it will open its 2nd exclusive store in Bhubaneswar in the next week. "Our plan is to open five exclusive gaming shops including Kolkata and Bhubaneswar stores and 200 gaming-focused stores this year," said Chang. The company sells 20,000 laptops a month and two lakh units of smart phones monthly. "Our goal is to increase laptops' sales to 30,000 units a month and to double the figure from two lakhs to four lakhs for smart phones in one year time," he said. --- ENDS --- The decree will make sure less buyers get their fingers burnt Among the big projects to be launched is An Khanh New City Developments sale of its first phase this quarter. The mega $2 billion project is developed by South Koreas Posco E&C and Vietnams Vinaconex, located in Hanois Hoai Duc district, along the Thang Long Boulevard. Scheduled for completion in 2013, the city is expected to supply 6,440 apartments, equivalent to 392,319 square metres of accommodation, enough for 30,000 people. Even though Hoa Phat Group, the investor in a more than 1,000 apartment Mandarin Garden in Cau Giay districts Tran Duy Hung road, refused to release its launching time, real estate experts predicted the project would be soon launched. At the beginning of this month the CT7D, located in Le Van Luong street and invested by Nam Cuong Group and the FLC Landmark Tower of FLC Group will also be launched, with a total of 200 units and prices ranging from VND23 million ($1,200) to VND28 million ($1,470) per square metre. In Gia Lam district, over the Red River, the second lot of Rung Co Residentials belonging to the Eco Park is also being launched, with around 1,500 apartment units. In addition, Victoria Van Phu, Star City, Diamond Tower and Song Da City View will also add apartments to the mix. Real estate consultant CBRE Vietnam expected that there would be 3,000 units in Hanoi launched this quarter, compared to 1,950 units in the third quarter. There were more than 4,600 units launched in the second quarter. This decline, according to CBRE Vietnam, could be due to the Decree 71, effective on August 8, 2010 providing guidance on the Housing Law, which caps the proportion of units sold via capital contribution contracts at 20 per cent with the remaining 80 per cent sold on transaction floors. This decree, CBRE Vietnam said, had put a pressure on developers with low financial capabilities and enhanced market transparency. However, CBRE Vietnam executive director Richard Leech said new project launches would continue trending towards more affordable options. With the opening and improvement of major infrastructure routes, the capitals western and southern districts are attracting new residents with easier access for commuting into the core urban districts, Leech said. He said that the Decree 71 was expected to benefit the market by enhancing transparency, placing pressures on developers with low financial capabilities, lessening the threat of price bubbles and limiting speculative forces. Tran Nhu Trung, Savills Vietnam associate director, said the Decree 71 had showed off its advantages to clearly regulate five types of mobilising capital investment. However, Trung said the procedures to implement Decree 71 were still complicated and wasted customers time and energy. The more simple it [decree] regulates, the more it is practical in the real life, Trung said. Nguyen Thanh Phong, Chairman of the HCM City Peoples Committee, said, "The Comprehensive Economic Co-operation between the Mekong Delta and HCM City aims to create attractive investment opportunities for businesses in Viet Nams largest agricultural region. - VNS Photo Xuan Huong Speaking at a conference on investment, trade and tourism between the delta and the city in HCM City yesterday, Son Minh Thang, deputy head of the committee, said the delta plays a very important role in the countrys economy by producing a lot of agricultural products consumed domestically and abroad. It accounts for more than 50 per cent of the countrys rice output and 90 per cent of exports, besides 70 per cent of fruit and 60 per cent of aquatic produce, he said. But investment there, especially foreign, remains modest, he said. Nguyen Thanh Phong, Chairman of the HCM City Peoples Committee, said, "The Comprehensive Economic Co-operation between the Mekong Delta and HCM City aims to create attractive investment opportunities for businesses in Viet Nams largest agricultural region. Many solutions, especially in food production, agricultural and fisheries processing and fruits, have been deployed in past years, yielding positive economic effects for the region. Having long-term links between HCM City and the delta, which accounts for 18.5 per cent of GDP, is the right way to go, he said. Thang said, "Trade co-operation between the delta and HCM City has increased significantly, but remains modest compared to the potential. "In terms of tourism, there are not many tours combining HCM City and the delta. The conference offered a good chance for the two sides to introduce their potentials and strengths to promote trade, investment and tourism co-operation, he said. "Businesses have a chance to raise the difficulties and obstacles they face with respect to administrative and investment procedures and others when investing in the region, so that central and local authorities could take immediate measures to resolve them. Tran Huu Hiep, member of the steering committee, said since the deltas infrastructure and human resources are still underdeveloped compared with other regions in the country, transport infrastructure, irrigation and human resource training are among the promising sectors for investors. Thang called on the city and delta to promote consumption of agricultural products and share experiences in hi-tech agricultural production. They should join hands to develop tourism products and set up tours taking in both the city and delta, he said. Calling for investment At the conference, the 12 provinces and one city in the delta and HCM City listed 69 key projects requiring investment, mostly in sectors like transport infrastructure, ports, hi-tech agricuture parks, agro-fishery processing, shopping malls, luxury hotels, and tourism and amusement sites. Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, Kien Giang sought investment in maritime projects including ports, and An Giang and Long An in commercial and border gate economic zones. Among the projects for which Hau Giang Province is soliciting investments are a US$50 million fruit preservation and processing plant, a $50 million high-tech agricultural park, and a $150 million market for high-quality agricultural produce. HCM City sought investment in two sections measuring 9.11km in its metro line No2 from Ben Thanh to Tay Ninh, is monorail line No2 from Highway No50 to Binh Quoi, a 89.74ha hi-tech aquaculture park in Can Gio, and others. Incentives will be offered to investors depending on the location and nature of projects. Phong said, With clear and open policies and a motto of viewing businesses success as our own success, the city government is committed to continuing to create favourable conditions for domestic and foreign businesses to invest and do business in the city. Besides, the city authorities are committed to working with localities in the delta, ministries, and central agencies to improve the investment environment, create favourable conditions and support enterprises with manufacturing and trading, he said. Business executives at the conference said provinces and cities in the delta should reduce the number of industrial parks and focus instead on improving their quality to attract more investors. In addition, due to the muddy soil in the delta, investors have to spend more on infrastructure there and authorities in the region should reduce or even waive land rents, he said. On the sidelines of the conference, which was organised by the Investment and Trade Promotion Center in HCM City and the Southwest Steering Committee, the delta provinces and city displayed their specialties and provided information about themselves. Besides winning the highest accolade at this years International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) Awards in London, Isentia also won three gold medals for its insights research and a total of eight awards, as well as a Lifetime Fellowship for CEO John Croll. The awards were presented during the Gala Dinner at the Eighth International Summit on Measurement, the key global conference addressing innovation in communications evaluation. Isentia won the following categories: Communications Research and Measurement Company of the Year; Best Use of Social Media Measurement and Best Measurement of a Consumer Campaign. New Zealand-based Media Insights Consultant Alex Gyde won AMEC College Student of the Year. The company also won the Plain English Award for simplicity in campaign effectiveness measurement reporting. This award, for the second year running, and all our other awards, shows how driven our Isentia team are to provide world leading insight to our clients, working across social and traditional media to provide the whole picture. These insights form a crucial and fast growing part of our media intelligence services for our clients, said Isentia CEO John Croll. I congratulate the team across all of our 11 markets in the Asia-Pacific region. Isentia is Asia-Pacifics leading media intelligence company, providing over 5,000 clients with information, analysis, content and advice 24/7. Isentia has over 1,200 employees across 15 countries filtering information from over 250 million online conversations, 5,500 print, radio and television media outlets per month, along with creative content makers providing best practice digital marketing solutions. The conference will include five intensive lectures from five leading experts in geotechnical field in the world. The experts are Professor Bengt H. Fellenius from Canada, Professor Chang-Yu Ou from Taiwan, Professor Buddhima Indraratna from Australia, Professor Kazuya Yasuhara from Japan and Dr. Jamie Standing from the UK. These professors have gained a wealth of practical experience at home and overseas. Besides teaching and researching at universities, they have also taken part in many practical projects as well as specialised conferences around the world where they have great contribution to worldwide geotechnical and construction fields so far. At GEOTEC Hanoi this year, they will give five keynote lectures related to five conference themes as follows: Mistakes and delusion in piled foundation design, by Prof. Bengt H. Fellenius; Evaluation of different measures in reducing movements induced by deep excavation, by Prof. Chang-Yu Ou, Drains and Vacuum for Soft Soil Stabilisation Recent Advances in Experimental and Numerical Modelling, by Prof. Buddhima Indraratna, Geotechnical response to natural disasters in the context of climate change, by Prof. Kazuya Yasuhara and Ground and structural response to tunneling lessons learnt from three major projects in London, by Dr. Jamie Standing. With these noticeable keynote lecturers, GEOTEC Hanoi 2016 has once again confirmed its prestige as one of the worlds leading conferences on geotechnical field organised in Vietnam. Up to now, more than 20 exhibition booths have been registered by domestic and international companies and organisations. In addition, nearly 130 abstracts, belonging to five conference themes, have been submitted. The publishing department is going to issue the international standard code ISBN 978-604-82-1821-8 for the volume which collects all the accepted papers of the conference this year. This volume will contain materials useful not only for experts, engineers, contractors, and consulting firms in construction but also for lecturers of geotechnics, especially of foundation and sustainable building, at specific universities in Vietnam. An overall view of practical development of Geotechnical Science both at home and in the world will definitely encourage scientists, national and international companies to invest in research and in cutting-edge technologies in order to enhance their competitiveness. This will contribute to the sustainable development of the companies themselves, said the representative of the organisers of GEOTEC Hanoi 2016. The GEOTEC Hanoi 2016 is the third international conference organised by Fecon Corporation, the Vietnamese Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (VSSMGE) and the Japanese Geotechnical Society (JGS), patronised by the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA) and the Geo-Institute of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The first and second events were held in 2011 and 2013. The GEOTEC Hanoi 2016 will contribute to the sustainability of infrastructure development. The event expects 500 participants. There is also an exhibition with 50 stalls introducing the technical solutions and new technologies in design, manufacture and construction of projects of foundation, underground, transport infrastructure, irrigation infrastructure and industrial infrastructure. Photo by ASSOCIATED PRESS A woman grieves as family members, colleagues and friends of the victims of Tuesdays blasts gather for a memorial at the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul on Thursday. By HOUSTON PUBLIC MEDIA Dr. Bernard Rosenfeld, 74, has not been able to find a successor to lead his abortion practice in Houston. He says younger doctors dont want to deal with the politics and protesters. Two children were killed following a heavy bombardment by al-Shabab militants on the southwestern Somali town of Baidoa, witnesses and officials said Saturday. Ambulance worker Yahya Isak Hassan was among the first to arrive in the Hawlwadag neighborhood where most mortars landed. He told VOA that 11 rounds of mortars indiscriminately hit several areas, killing the two children, both of them girls ages four and five. Hassan said one of the girls died instantly when the mortar hit their home; the second child died in the hospital. She had shrapnel in her head and she died in the emergency room, he said. 19 others were wounded in the attack. Hassan said two of the wounded are in serious condition after they were hit by shrapnel. VOA reporter Mukhtar Atoosh said some of the mortars landed near military installations. He said some of the rounds were apparently aimed at military bases and the headquarters of the regional administration. The mortars were being fired from the outskirts of the town, officials told a VOA reporter. Baidoa is 245km southwest of Mogadishu and was once the seat of the Somali government. This is one of the most intense mortar attacks al-Shabab has launched on the town. The militant group often carries out attacks in Mogadishu targeting the Presidential Palace. But stray mortars often hit residential areas causing civilian casualties. Meanwhile, the office of the president of Somalia today announced the launch of new massive military operations against al-Shabab. The office did not specify when the operations might begin but said the government has decided to speed up preparations for a military offensive in Lower and Middle Jubba regions. The aim of the operation is to liberate al-Shabab from the towns of Jilib, Bulogudud and other locations along the Jubba River, the office of the president said. But just hours before the announcement, the al-Shabab militant group retook Rabdhure town in the Bakool region after Somali government forces and Ethiopian troops suddenly withdrew without giving an explanation as to the reason for their pull out. An ominous twist to a story of alleged police abuse continued Friday in Nairobi as the bodies of two missing men were found in a river in central Kenya. They belong to a Kenyan human rights attorney and his taxi driver. A third body belonging to the lawyer's client was found later. The three disappeared on June 23 following a court hearing in which Willie Kimani was defending his client against police charges after a traffic stop gone wrong. Kenya's inspector general of police announced Friday that three police officers would be arrested in connection with the disappearances of the men. "This is escalation beyond what anyone thought was possible," said Claire Wilkinson, Kenya's field office director for the International Justice Mission. Kimani, 32, was a human rights attorney working for IJM, the organization helping Josephat Mwenda, a 27-year-old motorcycle taxi driver who was shot in the arm by police in April 2015. Police say the shooting was accidental. Mwenda was hospitalized, then arrested on multiple charges, including drug-related counts. In December 2015, while his first case was underway with the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, or IPOA, Mwenda was arrested on numerous traffic offenses, Wilkinson says. In March 2016, police again picked up Mwenda when he was leaving court. He was questioned regarding a robbery, then released. A court hearing on road traffic charges was held June 23. IJM says that Kimani, Mwenda and Joseph Muiruri, their taxi driver, left court around 11:30 a.m. IJM lost contact with the trio shortly after noon. Around 4 or 4:30 p.m., a passer-by found a note outside an unofficial cell in an administrative police camp, asking whoever found it to call Mwenda's wife. We are in danger, the note said. Wilkinson says it was Kimani's handwriting. The bodies of Kimani, Mwenda, and Muiruri were found Friday. Muiruris brother was at the morgue Friday morning to identify his brothers body: "This is the ninth day we have been searching for them and today we are here after being told there are bodies that have been recovered, he said. We are here to confirm if it's them, and we have confirmed it's them. The only thing that is surprising us is the reason as to why these people had to be killed." Wilkinson stressed her faith in the honesty and integrity of the current investigation process. "We are confident that those who are responsible will be brought to justice, and we will not stop until that happens," she said. Heads of the mission in Kenya from the U.S., Canada, Britain and Australia, among others, issued the following statement Friday evening: "The individuals responsible for these crimes must face prosecution regardless of whether they are private citizens or members of the NPS. Holding police officers accountable for violations of human rights and other forms of misconduct is vital to end impunity in the police service and to establish safety and security for all Kenyans." Calls to the police chief Friday were not returned. Australia's conservative ruling coalition and opposition were running neck and neck in vote counting after elections Saturday, and neither side seemed to be able to form a majority government. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said very early Sunday morning that he had "every confidence" his ruling conservative party won the national election and that he would be able to form a coalition government. Speaking to supporters late Saturday night, opposition leader Bill Shorten sounded optimistic about his party's chances. He said Turnbull's conservative coalition government had failed to deliver the economic reform and steady leadership Australians want. Parties need to hold at least 76 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives in order to form a majority government. As of late Saturday night local time, the Australian Electoral Commission said the ruling conservative coalition was leading with 71 seats. The center-left Labor Party had 68 seats, and minor parties or independents had five seats. Results for another six seats were unclear. If neither group earns a majority of seats in the House, both Labor and the coalition will be forced to try to forge alliances with independent lawmakers to form a minority government. Since voting in Australia is compulsory, Australians went to the polls in large numbers Saturday in a close federal election shaken by a number of minor parties, including a candidate from the Greens and other independent parties. While climate change, immigration and education were key issues of the electoral campaign, the economy has been the determining factor. Britains decision to leave the European Union created great anxiety in Australia, and political leaders put economic security at the heart of their election campaigns. U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton met with FBI officials on Saturday about the use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, campaign spokesman said. The approximately three-and-a-half-hour interview took placed at FBI headquarters in Washington. "Secretary Clinton gave a voluntary interview this morning about her email arrangements while she was secretary. She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion, campaign spokesman Nick Merrill wrote in an email to the media. Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview," Merrill wrote. The meeting followed U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch's announcement of her intent to accept recommendations from career Justice Department employees and federal agents looking into Clinton's use of a private email server. FBI officials are expected to conclude their investigation soon. Legal experts have said they do not expect any criminal charges to be filed against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Speaking at a summit in Colorado on Friday, Lynch insisted that career agents and investigators with the Department of Justice are acting independently, and that their probe predates her tenure as attorney general. "I fully expect to accept their recommendations," said Lynch, who has the option of modifying any possible charges against Clinton. She later said she "will be" accepting the findings. Her remarks followed an impromptu meeting she had with the candidate's husband, former president Bill Clinton, days earlier that raised questions voiced by Republican lawmakers about if the email investigation had been compromised. Lynch has said the meeting has no bearing on how the matter is being reviewed. Hundreds of journalists in Iran have received an anonymous text message warning them not to have contact with "hostile" organizations outside the country. Iranian media say some 700 journalists and public figures received the text message Friday. The message said "all contact and collaboration with hostile elements based abroad, by mail or other methods of communication, is a crime and will be brought to justice." It also said the message would be the recipient's "last warning." Iran bans citizens from having any contact with Persian language media from overseas, including Voice of America's Persian service and the BBC Persian service. Iran has a recent history of arresting journalists accused of cooperating with foreign outlets. In April, four journalists arrested in November were sentenced to between five and 10 years in prison, convicted of colluding with foreign governments and threatening "national security." The Committee to Protect Journalists protested the sentences, categorizing three of the four as "reformist journalists." Sherif Mansour of the Committee to Protect Journalists said such convictions underline the need to "change the overbroad laws that lead to the harassment and jailing of the media." On June 20, 2016, the Iranian reformist newspaper Ghanoon announced that an Iranian criminal prosecutor had suspended its license after a complaint from Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. The newspaper's website said the paper had been accused of "publishing falsehood with the intent to cause disrupt in public opinion." In April, Iran jailed a female employee of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, which supports international journalists. Tehran accused Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who holds joint Iranian-British citizenship, of seeking to overthrow the Iranian government through her membership in "foreign companies and institutions." Police in Serbia say a man opened fire with an automatic weapon in a cafe early Saturday, killing his wife and four other people. At least 22 other people were wounded with seven in a serious condition, the director of a nearby hospital said. Police arrested the suspect, a man in his late 30s identified by the initials ZS, immediately after the shooting and opened an investigation into the killing. Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic told Belgrade's B92 TV that the man killed his estranged wife and another woman, before firing indiscriminately at others in the cafe with an illegally owned assault rifle. Stefanovic said jealousy could be a motive, as the suspect was known to be a quiet man with no criminal record. The incident happened during a local festival in the village of Zitiste, around 80 kilometers north of the capital, Belgrade. It was the third mass shooting in recent years in Serbia, which is trying to reduce hundreds of thousands of weapons in circulation since the 1990s Balkan wars. Three years ago, 13 people died in a shooting spree in a village near Belgrade, and last year six people were killed in a dispute over a wedding in northern Serbia. Saturdays mass shooting came one day after the interior ministry offered an amnesty to encourage owners of illegal weapons to surrender or register them. Prof. Tanter has seen these rallies as holding great political meaning, as the Iranian regime gives much attention to these rallies, often getting upset at the press coverage they receive, and often trying to block the latter media coverage in Iran. These mass rallies for a free Iran remind the theocratic regime that there is popular support for regime change, and that regime change is certainly possible from within. In the midst of the worsening economic and human rights conditions in Iran, the Iranian people at home and abroad are starting to see regime change as the only option to ensure a free and prosperous Iran. Accordingly, the July 9th rally in Paris is a landmark event, which has the backing of hundred of politicians, world leaders and parliamentarians, who seek an end to the injustice of the theocratic regime. Moreover, tens of thousands of people will attend this rally, which according to Prof. Tanter is a sure way to garner the attention of Iranians across the world, and the Iranian regime. In conducting interviews at previous free Iran rallies Prof. Tanter was impressed with the geographical diversity of the attendees, professional qualifications, and steadfast commitment to achieve a secular, democratic, and nonnuclear Iran. Thus, the July 9th rally in Paris should be no different, as this rally is not only a message to the Iranian people but to the Iranian regime as well, as it is a clear show of solidarity against oppression, abuse of power and injustice. To follow up further with the Free Iran rally on July 9th rally in Paris check out http://ncr-iran.org/en/news/iran-resistance/20526-iran-prospects-for-change-one-year-after-the-nuclear-agreement. Reaction to the White House report on civilian casualties in drones was mixed in Pakistan, the country that has suffered the highest number of strikes and casualties outside active conflict zones. Pakistans foreign office issued a press release reiterating its calls for an immediate cessation of drone strikes that violate the territorial integrity and sovereignty of [S]tates. Pakistan's government routinely denounces the strikes which are deeply unpopular among the public, but authorities are believed to privately consent to the operations targeting militants in the country's tribal regions. The U.S. report said between 64 to 116 civilians had been killed in strikes outside active combat zones from 2009 to 2015. It said the strikes killed between 2372 to 2581 combatants. Imran Khan, an opposition politician and one of the strongest critics of drone strikes, called Obamas figures far from the ground realities. He said local officials from Pakistans northern tribal areas, the scene of most of the U.S. drone attacks, had reported numbers which were quite the opposite, something like 2000 civilians versus only 100 militants. 'Extra judicial killings' Zohra Yousuf, the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said the White House numbers could be disputed, because others, like the Bureau of Investigative Journalism that has been tracking drone deaths for a while, have reported higher figures. She also called any civilian casualties regrettable and drone strikes a form of extra judicial killings. At the same time, she added, the reality was that most of those who died in these strikes were militants. Yousuf said that compared to aerial bombing, which results in much higher civilian casualties, the civilian deaths from drones were much lower. On the other end of the political spectrum, Abdul Ghaffar Aziz, the director for foreign affairs in Pakistans religio-political party Jamaat e Islami, called the U.S. report useless, adding that such reports had no credibility. The report says more than 2500 other targets were terrorists, but he asked who decided they were terrorists and that it was okay to kill them? Which world court gave them the right to go and kill in another country, without even taking the other government in confidence? he questioned. Afrasiab Khattak, a senior leader in Awami National Party, a Pashtun nationalist party that touts secularist credentials, called it a complicated issue. Obviously the drone strikes are violating our laws, he said. But the terrorists sitting on our soil are violating our laws too. Drone strikes were a much bigger issue in Pakistan a couple of years ago when they were occurring much more frequently. Over the last five years there have been far fewer, from 128 in 2010 to 13 last year and only three this year, according to data collected by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Political analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi said that despite complaints from human rights groups, the U.S. was likely to continue its drone program because it was an effective counter terrorism strategy. On one hand it reduced the number of U.S. casualties while on the other it kept the militants on their toes and unable to operate freely, even in their supposed safe havens. President Barack Obama and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will campaign together for the first time Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina. At a rally at the Charlotte Convention Center, Obama and Clinton "will discuss building on the progress we've made and their vision for an America that is stronger together," her campaign said in a statement. Obama, who formally endorsed Clinton's campaign early last month, said at the time he was "fired up" and ready to campaign for his former secretary of state. "Fired up" is a catchphrase from the president's own campaign eight years ago. In throwing his support behind the former first lady, Obama said, "I know how hard this job can be. That's why I know Hillary will be so good at it. In fact, I don't think there's ever been someone so qualified to hold this office. She's got the courage, the compassion and the heart to get the job done." The campaign hopes to use the president's appeal to motivate the party base to generate excitement for Clinton's campaign. Obama and Clinton had planned to hold their first campaign event in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on June 15. The event was postponed following the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, on June 12. The Democratic Party sees North Carolina, a state with a Republican governor and a Republican-majority Legislature, as a battleground in the November general election. North Carolina voted for Obama in the 2008 general election but voted for Obama's Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, in 2012, even though the Democratic Party held its national convention in Charlotte that year. Clinton's campaign has run more than $10 million worth of advertising in the state, The Charlotte Observer reported this week. Political news website Real Clear Politics said polling in the state showed Clinton leading presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump by slim margins in two recent surveys, while Trump led in a third by a similarly slim margin. Just over a year ago, the president and Clinton were in Charlotte for the funeral for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of nine black churchgoers who were slain in a racially motivated attack. Meanwhile, both parties are gearing up for their national conventions, scheduled for this month. The Republican convention will be held in Cleveland July 18-21. The Democrats will meet in Philadelphia July 25-28. The Republican Party has been struggling to fill its lineup of convention speakers, normally sought-after spots for party leaders and rising stars. Several prominent Republican Party members have said they will not attend this year's convention because of the billionaire businessman's outspoken rhetoric. The candidate has called for a ban on Muslims and building a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, among other things. Neither former President George W. Bush nor his brother, Jeb Bush, whom Trump beat in the presidential nominee selection contests this year, will attend the convention. The party's two previous presidential nominees former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Arizona Senator John McCain have also said they will not attend. However, on Saturday, Trump tweeted that the speaker slots at the Republican National Convention were "totally filled, with a long waiting list of those that want to speak." He tweeted the list of speakers would be released Wednesday. On Friday, while at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, Trump said several of his family members would speak. "My children are gonna be speaking at the convention," Trump said. "My children are all gonna be speaking. Ivanka, Tiffany, Don, Eric, they're gonna be speaking. My wife is gonna be speaking." A Trump aide, Armstrong Williams, also tweeted Friday that former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, who now supports Trump's campaign, would speak at the convention. A U.S.-led coalition airstrike killed two top Islamic State military commanders last week near Mosul, the Pentagon announced Friday. They include a deputy minister of war who led Islamic State's capture of the Iraqi city in 2014. "Removing these terrorist leaders from the battlefield shapes the environment for Iraqi forces to ultimately liberate Mosul with support from the international coalition," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said. Those killed were Islamic State deputy war minister Basim Muhammad Ahmad Sultan al-Bajari and military commander Hatim Talib al-Hamduni. After freeing the city of Fallujah from Islamic State, Iraqi forces are now turning their attention to Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city. Iraqi military leaders say they hope to liberate Mosul by the end of the year, but the Pentagon believes it may take longer. President Joseph Kabila is due to step down as head of state of the Democratic Republic of Congo in December but it is looking increasingly likely that this year's election will be delayed. Statements this week by the president and the lead opposition figure, now in exile, underscore the uncertainty of the central African nation's political future, and the potential flash points ahead. President Joseph Kabilas Independence Day speech was pre-recorded, as usual Kabila is a famously reluctant public speaker but his words were anything but timid. The defiant head of state summoned the Congolese people to resist what he called untimely and unlawful foreign interference. He repeatedly praised his security services. His comments are seen as a direct response to targeted sanctions imposed by the U.S. government on one of Kabilas most senior police chiefs on June 23. The U.S. government, as well as members of Congress, have accused the Kabila government of deliberately delaying elections that should take place in November and of cracking down on the opposition and civil society. Further sanctions may be forthcoming. This was supposed to be Kabilas final Independence Day as president. The nation's constitution limits him to two terms in office. But it is looking unlikely the polls will be held this year. The electoral commission says it needs more than a year to prepare the voter rolls. And the Constitutional Court ruled in May that Kabila can stay in power until the election is held. In his speech, the president insisted voter registration will start imminently and that nothing can stop the election from happening. But in recent weeks, senior officials close to Kabila have spoken publicly of holding a constitutional referendum first. If the people of Congo want more Kabila, they ask, why should they be denied? Hans Hoebeke is a senior Congo analyst at the International Crisis Group. The moment voter registration reaches its end, I am sure that this will become a concrete proposal," he said. "If they get away with prolonging the reign, if the people remain generally speaking quiet, then I think they are going to try it. Im not saying they are going to succeed, but I think they are going to try it. And there is recent precedent. The leaders of two of Congos neighbors, Congo-Brazzaville and Rwanda, have successfully removed term limits through referendums and won fresh terms in office in the past year. For more than a year, Kabila has invited the opposition to participate in a political dialogue. Edem Kodjo, a former Togolese prime minister, is facilitating the efforts on behalf of the African Union. Most influential opposition leaders remain publicly hostile to Kabilas offer. They dismiss the dialogue as a trap and have begun to ask for U.S. involvement on the facilitation panel. But qualified support can be found. Juvenal Munubo is a parliamentarian from one of the largest opposition parties. He told VOA that a dialogue acceptable to all sides is the countrys last chance and must provide clear answers to two essential questions: On what date shall the presidential election take place and who shall lead the DRC once Kabilas elected mandate expires December 20? For Munubo, if these questions can be answered, the main problems disappear and the election need not take place in 2016. More time could work in the oppositions favor. At present, there is no obvious opposition presidential candidate and the separate coalitions are still trying to form a united front. Moise Katumbi points to the size of the fight on their hands. As yet the only politician to declare his intention to contest the presidential election, Katumbi left the Democratic Republic of Congo in May. He was the subject of two sets of legal charges, one of them over the alleged hiring of foreign mercenaries. In June, he was sentenced in absentia to three years in prison. Returning home to campaign is currently out of the question. Katumbi issued his own Independence Day statement. He said Kabila must leave power this year. Katumbi condemned the charges against him as a crude means of preventing his candidature. The government brushed it off, calling Katumbi's statement a pathetic diatribe. Cambodian-born Jeremy Chea was transfixed by television reports of results from the United Kingdom's referendum on leaving the European Union. Chea, who lived in the U.K. for 29 years, said he regretted the so-called Brexit outcome, in which the country voted by a slim margin to leave the European bloc. His former home hadn't faced any major economic or security issues for some time, he said, but it would have a hard time in the future, as the EU might seek to punish it for leaving. "Now the EU is getting angry with England because its citizens will walk away," he lamented. "The important thing [is that the EU] will make it [expensive] for England to leave the EU. Why do they want Britain to get bad deals? It's because they don't want other countries to follow England?" Bilateral trade between Cambodia and Britain rose from over $930 million in 2014 to about $1 billion in 2015, an increase of 23 percent, according to the British Embassy. Chum Sounry, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said there would be no impact on Cambodia-U.K. relations. "This stage is the time that we have to keep track of how the situation develops," he said. "It's not the time for us now to do a clear evaluation." Treaties seen as key Chea, a former British police officer, said the new prime minister slated to replace David Cameron, who recently announced his resignation, will inevitably have a hard task ahead. "The important thing is that for the next two to three years, Britain will work to handle treaties such as a bilateral treaty with the United States, France and Spain," he said. "For example, if Britain worked well on this, that would be positive. Britain would be more prosperous if it could obtain good agreements. "But I think that the agreements would not be as good as before," he added. "This issue is the most important issue for the next two or three years. The important thing is that there must be a strong person who could fight for a better agreement." Disappointment predicted Principal factors believed to have driven almost 52 percent of voters to back leaving: the perceived impact of mass immigration; the apparent economic cost of being a part of the union; the perception that the country had sold off its sovereignty to Brussels. Chap Sotharith, a senior economic researcher at the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP), told VOA that British people will come to regret their decision, because companies will leave in favor of other financial centers, such as Dublin and Frankfurt. Stock prices plummeted rapidly after last week's announcement, and already there are signs that EU leaders have lost confidence in Britain, he said. The U.K. joined the EU's predecessor, the European Economic Community, in 1973 as the proverbial "sick man of Europe." It had since rebounded to become the second-largest economy on the continent after Germany. But since the Brexit result, it has already slipped into third place behind France. Sotharith said companies that exported from Cambodia to the U.K. would be affected. "If the U.K. imposes tax on our products, we would feel the effect if we have to trade with each other," he said. "We will need to negotiate a new trade deal between the countries." Security is tight across the United States as Americans get ready for the long Independence Day holiday coming after this week's terror attacks in Turkey and Bangladesh. Law enforcement officials say there are no specific threats against the U.S. over the holiday. But Central Intelligence Agency chief John Brennan warned after the triple suicide bombing at the Ankara airport that Islamic State may try the same thing in the U.S. Armed police officers, many accompanied by dogs, are patrolling airports and train and bus stations. There will also be increased security at large July Fourth gatherings in places such as Washington, New York and Chicago where hundreds of thousands gather to watch fireworks, listen to music and have picnics. More than 1,200 newly sworn-in police officers in New York City will be put to work right away, along with the city's newly formed Critical Response Command, a heavily armed counterterrorism force. The Department of Homeland Security is again reminding citizens to be alert, using its trademarked "if you see something, say something" slogan. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Friday called on al-Shabab militants to end what he called their suicidal mission and stop their brutal attacks. In a speech marking Somalias 56th anniversary of independence, the president urged the Islamist insurgents to think of the lives they disrupt. I want to send this Ramadan message to al-Shabab leaders and militias to abandon this suicidal mission, to stop killing the innocent, to stop terrorizing their parents and brothers, to avoid orphaning Somali children, he said. I urge them to cross over and come over to the governments side in order to live a normal life, and their rights will be protected. He said the Somali army, with the support of African Union troops, had achieved tangible success against al-Shabab although the group continues to carry out attacks, such as a hotel bombing that killed 15 people in Mogadishu last Saturday. He said the sun is setting on al-Shabab and that there is no doubt that the Somali people will be the eventual victors in this fight. Mohamud said the government was working to rebuild the national army, long an elusive goal for Somalias leaders. The African Union force, AMISOM, has provided protection for Somali governments for nearly a decade. Mohamud said that Somalia would hold elections this year and that the country would establish a new upper house of parliament. Its not a one person, one vote [system], but it will be superior to the election we had in 2012, he said. We need compromise, patience and cooperation. Somalia declared independence on July 1, 1960, when the Italian-colonized parts of the country became free and united with the British-colonized region in the north. The British part had become independent just five days earlier. The country is trying to emerge from more than two decades of conflict and chaos triggered by the fall of military ruler Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Thousands of European Union supporters marched through central London Saturday, protesting the Brexit referendum result. Many participants in the 3-kilometer March for Europe, which went from Hyde Park to Parliament Square, said they hoped Britains lawmakers would block any moves to leave the 28-nation bloc. Some 52 percent of Britons in the June 23 referendum voted for the country to leave the EU. Many people are calling for a second referendum, arguing that the "Leave" campaign lied to the people and made pledges and promises that were abandoned once their side won the referendum. Charlie Gardiner, a teacher from the southeast of the country, voiced the sentiment. "If we are the home of democracy, parliamentary democracy, well they've got to give us a general election, they can't just push this through saying 'the people have spoken,' because the people have been lied to," Gardiner said. Many others were angry at the lack of political leadership following the referendum result. Prime Minister David Cameron resigned and his Conservative Party was plunged into infighting over who will be the next leader. On the other side, the majority of Labour Party lawmakers have called on its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to resign. We have not got any leaders here, there is no politicians here, there is nobody leading us," Gardiner said. British lawmaker Andrea Leadsom emerged on Saturday as the top pro-Brexit candidate to succeed Cameron, supported by a former Conservative Party leader and several members of parliament. Leadsom, a junior minister, has slightly more support from conservative lawmakers than Michael Gove, the justice secretary and leading "Leave" campaigner, according to British media. A group of influential American senators and other top officials begun an official trip to Pakistan on Saturday by meeting with the country's military chief to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and efforts to strengthen Pakistan's border security. The congressional delegation includes Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican who is chairman of Senate Arms Services Committee; South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham; and Indiana Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly. After the group met with General Raheel Sharif, the army chief reiterated that "a stable Afghanistan is in Pakistans interest," and that the relationship between the two countries was a key to regional peace. Pakistan and the United States have long had uneasy relations. Ties have been strained recently over allegations that Pakistans counterterrorism operations focus only on militants linked to the anti-state Pakistani Taliban, and that Islamabad is not doing enough to uproot sanctuaries linked to Afghan militants, including the Haqqani Network terrorist group. The alleged lack of progress on preventing Afghan insurgents from using Pakistani soil also recently prompted the U.S. Congress to stop the Obama administration from subsidizing the purchase of eight F-16 fighter planes it had promised to Islamabad. Speaking prior to Saturdays visit by the U.S. lawmakers, Army spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa insisted that Islamabad was committed to cracking down on militant groups involved in the Afghan conflict. Pakistan is not at all sheltering anyone and Pakistan is not aiding anyone, is not allowing its soil to be used for attacks across the border, he said. Drone strike Relations have particularly deteriorated after the May 21 U.S. drone strike that killed leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Akthar Mansoor, in Pakistan. Officials in Islamabad remain critical of the drone attack, insisting it derailed the efforts Pakistan was making to arrange peace talks between the Islamist insurgency and the Afghan government. In a recent public talk in Washington, Richard Olson, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, again defended the Mansoor drone strike, dismissing criticism that it signaled waning U.S. interest in the peace process. This strike should make clear to all parties in the region that the United States is fully prepared to protect its interests," said Olson, who accompanied the U.S. lawmakers in Saturdays talks in Rawalpindi, where the military is headquartered. "Mullah Mansoor was an obstacle to peace, posed a continued threat to U.S. persons through his support for operations against U.S. forces, and was perpetuating a war without end, Olson said. A Zambian police official says the police force will carry out its mandate to enforce the law irrespective of the political party supporters involved in violence during the ongoing campaigns before the August 11 polls. Rae Hamonga, deputy spokesperson for the police, made his remarks after Zambians complained about the escalating violence allegedly carried out by supporters of the ruling Patriot Front party and partisans of the main opposition United Party for National Development (UPND). On March 29, religious leaders held a meeting with 19 political parties in Lusaka, with the main objective of curbing politically related violence as the groups intensify their campaigns in the upcoming presidential, legislative and local elections. A communique was issued following the meeting signed by all the parties, with the commitment to stop their supporters from engaging in violence. The parties and their leaders also committed to deal internally with all issues that often lead to violence. Subsequently, the church leaders held another meeting with all of the presidential candidates and their running mates as a follow up, to stress the need to ensure the election is not marred by violence. Civil society and religious groups said the violence continues despite efforts to curb them. Even though we are in the campaign period, we know that crime is still in our midst. As regards to issues relating to the political cadres clashing, this is also a wakeup call for the political leaders themselves to remind their cadres that Zambia is a multiparty state. And that being the case, that means each and every person is free to form a political party, said Hamonga. But some civil society groups said the police have yet to implement any measures to prevent or curb the ongoing violence despite repeated promises to do so. They said calling political leaders to ensure their supporters do not engage in violence appears not to have worked since there are reports of repeated clashes between opponents. Opposition groups have also accused the police of bias. They said the police often use violence to undermine their campaigns while activities of the ruling PF party are unhindered. The parties also accused the police of bias in enforcing the public order act, which requires political parties to inform the police before undertaking campaign events. The opposition parties say the police show favoritism to the ruling party. If anybody commits a crime now, what we have decided to do is to arrest them and we have doing those arrests So far we have arrested political cadres from both the ruling party and the opposition, said Hamonga. The public order act, when somebody wants to hold a public procession it allows the head of state, the vice president, the speaker of the national assembly and the deputy not to notify the police of their intentions to hold public processions or a meetingWhen we tell [opposition political parties] that the president enjoys the right not to notify the police because it is assumed that the head of state holds the interest for the whole nation. So there is no person who can stand in the way of the head of state. So that is where the opposition parties think the police [are] biased. Meanwhile, the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) condemned the police for raiding its offices in the capital, Lusaka, on Friday. Some staff and volunteers were detained and questioned following the raid. UPND Secretary General Stephen Katuka accused the police of doing the bidding of the ruling party to thwart the opposition campaigns. Local media quoted Katuka as saying It is unclear to us on what grounds this assault was conducted. This office is a regular party campaign center, coordinating some of our outreach efforts to new and existing members in Lusaka and beyond. What was the suspicion and where is the evidence to suggest that there was any legitimate reason for the offensive? There must be clear grounds for such an assault, or can we no longer call ourselves a functioning democracy. But, police spokesperson Hamonga rejects the accusation as unfounded. The police got a search warrant and they have seized some things... Our investigations are still going on and for fear of jeopardizing our investigation, I would not divulge muchBut watch out within a short period of time within the next two three days we would give a comment about this matter, said Hamonga. In a three year period there have been over two thousand four hundred executions in the county. Many of those that were killed were oppressing the regime and were political dissidents. Many supporting the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK). On the 10th of March there was a report issued by Ahmed Shaheed who is the UN special reporter for human rights in Iran. He mentioned that executions in Iran are at an all time high and in 2015 they had doubled from those that took place in 2010. Ten times the amount that took place since 2005! If those figures are not shocking enough, then read on. The trend continues, there were 21 hangings, in 2 days in the second week of May. Iran is also one of the largest electors of juveniles in the world. Many are being put to death because of their religious and ethnic values, and these executions have rapidly increased instead of being put on hold. Those put to death are cruelly punished, and in August of last year Mashhad had his right hand and left foot amputated as people watched on. Punishments in public in Iran are widespread and contrary to belief do not just take place in prisons. In 2014 25 Iranian women and girls that were looked on as being not correctly covered with their scarves, were cruelly attacked in acid attacks and there has been a crack down on those that write, blog, those that are activists and those that are artists- basically anyone that wants freedom of speech. As a result, Iran is the largest jailer of journalists in the Middle East. Human rights are deteriorating and fast. The country are involved with the Syrian war as a result of their republic guard being present in Syria, and on the 13th of may, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif praised Hezbollahs top military commander in Syria when he died in an explosion. I express my condolences on the martyrdom of the great holy fighter Mustafa Badreddine who was full of spirit and heroism in defending the righteous values of Islam and the combatant people of Lebanon, Zarif said in a message to Hezbollah leaders. It is important despite the dangers posed to Iranians that the 9th July Free Iran rally has support and it is set to draw in thousands of people from all warps of life. It is time to voice your opinion and it is time to overthrow the cruel atrocities that ate taking place in Iran. Perviz Khazaii is the former Ambassador of Iran in Sweden and Norway and the representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Nordic countries. Revived Zapu leader Dumiso Dabengwa says the vision of former Vice President Joshua Nkomo of a truly liberated Zimbabwe where citizens enjoy all their freedoms, a booming industry and massive production on land, can only be achieved if there is a complete mindset shift among the current Zanu PF leadership. Dabengwa said Father Zimbabwe, as the late vice president was affectionately known in political circles, sacrificed a lot including signing the Unity Accord just to save the killing of people in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces by the Korean-trained Fifth Brigade. Dabengwa, who revealed that he never approved the Unity Accord calling it a scandalous document, said Nkomo had people at heart and that forced him to sign the Unity Accord unconditionally. He said President Robert Mugabe put conditions for Nkomo to meet him. "Nkomo was unhappy about what was going on in Zimbabwe at that time, especially the crackdown on his party by President Mugabes government. He was respected in all parts of the country." Chinhoyi resident, Willie Nyambe, said Nkomo was more accommodative than Mr. Mugabe. Nyambe said Nkomo wanted total freedom for Zimbabweans regardless of tribe and colour. Another local resident, Adeline Huchu who grew up in Bulawayo, said Nkomo was not power hungry as all he wanted was to totally liberate Zimbabwe. Dabengwa, who received military training in Russia, prompting people to call him the Black Russian, said Nkomo had a clear vision on proper and practical indigenization and the utilization of land by all people. Sibongile Mgijima of Chikonohono in Chinhoyi, said Nkomo fought for genuine black empowerment and is well-remembered for his fight to have businessman, Strive Masiyiwa, get a mobile phone license. A former ZIPRA freedom fighter, Elvis Moyo, said Nkomos vision to see a food secure Zimbabwe was seen in his initiation of various projects, including the acquisition of properties that included companies and farms under Nitram Properties and the Development Trust of Zimbabwe. Moyo said Nkomo wanted former Zipra combatants and the generality of people to produce commodities on farms and then further process finished products for the local and international markets. Dabengwa said although Nkomo tried hard to make the government of the day see the light he was labeled a senile, bubbling old man. Fifteen inmates at Banket, Mashonaland West provinces semi-open prison, have graduated in tobacco production, a move which will ensure that they are successfully re-integrated into the Zimbabwean society. They joined 179 other inmates that have benefited from the program since its inception in 2008. The program was set up by the prison services in conjunction with the Tobacco Research Board. Speaking at the 9th graduation ceremony, Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Services deputy commissioner general, Moses Chihobvu, appealed to government to employ the set to be released soon Turning to the 16 inmates, Chihobvu said they must prove the society wrong if Zimbabweans will continue calling them criminals. Chihobvu said admission in prison doesnt signify the end of the world but can be a way to identify ones talent. One of the prisoners, Monica Chirenje, said she is happy with the tobacco farming knowledge impacted to her. Chirenje said she is now ready to face the world. An ex-convict, Mathias Mushambe, who was trained in tobacco production in 2013, said his tobacco farming knowledge spearheaded his acceptance in society. The only setback is that the government is not in a position to employ workers due to lack of funds. Public Service Commission commissioner Ambassador Mary Margeret Muchada said as a result, it is unlikely that they will even be employing ex-convicts in the near future. The 9th graduation ceremony was the first of its kind in Mashonaland West province. South African journalists took to the streets of Johannesburg and Cape Town Friday to protest what they say is an attempt at censorship by the nations public broadcaster. The South African Broadcasting Corporation has come under fire for a series of recent decisions and events, including edicts telling reporters not to cover violence and destruction of property during protests, and not to air criticism of the broadcaster. At least six SABC journalists have been recently suspended for either disobeying, disagreeing or liaising with the media without authorization. That last violation means journalists aired their grievances to other news organizations. Earlier this week, the broadcasters acting chief resigned, saying, in his public resignation letter, What is happening at the SABC is wrong and I can no longer be a part of it. The SABC has repeatedly denied it is trying to impose censorship. The broadcaster dominates the nations airwaves, with 19 radio stations and four TV channels. William Bird, director of Media Monitoring Africa, says the attempts at limiting the news remind him of the dark days of apartheid, when the government tightly controlled the media. Were seeing self-censorship on the increase, were seeing threats against journalists internally, were seeing management actively and openly saying that they dont want journalists to think, they want them to do what they tell them to do, he told VOA News. So its very, very worrying trends, especially as we approach local government elections. South Africa votes August 3, and it is clear that the ruling African National Congress party sees the SABC as a political battleground. The broadcaster has been previously accused of favoring the ruling party. Last year, the nations communications minister announced the broadcaster should be seen as a state-owned company and that she should have the right to appoint or suspend its leaders. That debate centered on the figure in the middle of this maelstrom, SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng. Motsoeneng, who earned criticism for proposing that all journalists be licensed and that SABC journalists wear uniforms, landed in hot water when the nations anti-corruption czar discovered that he had lied about having a matric certificate which is equivalent to an American high school diploma. Protesters are calling for Motsoeneng to resign. He did not answer calls from VOA seeking comment on Friday. Dhashen Moodley is the host of Midday Live on SAFM radio. On Friday, as protesters were gathering outside his office before his show started, he did what any journalist would do: he followed the news. After the show, he liaised with VOA News, and explained that he was just doing his job. There were concerns from my staff members, from my producers who work on my show that this would be a story that would bring us unwanted criticism from within the company, he said. But again, were journalists. And criticism come hell or high water we cover stories. It was, Moodley says, a no-brainer: Tell it like it is, so people can decide for themselves. Otherwise, he said, whats the point of journalism? At the end of the battle for Fallujah, a convoy of around 500 vehicles allowed Isis fighters to flee the city to Syria. The Pentagon refused to bomb the convoy because the vehicles belonged to civilians and they were probably transporting the wives and children of some jihadists. However, the Iraqi army decided to bomb it, destroying more than 200 vehicles and killing their occupants. Iraqi soldiers are convinced that the Pentagon had received instruction to let the CIA advisers, that were training the jihadists, escape. During that time and in subsequent years, he has participated in the annual Free Iran rallies organized by the Iranian Resistance each year, held on July 9th, this year, in Paris. This major gathering of Iranians and their international supporters, will include hundreds of senior political dignitaries, parliamentarians, human rights and womens rights activists, as well as religious leaders from the United States, Europe, and Islamic countries, all coming together for the cause of democracy and freedom in Iran. He gave this interview about the rally on July 2nd, to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI): We asked him why he thinks the rallies are important to Iranians inside the country. Stevenson: I have attended many of the great NCRI rallies in Paris and have been staggered at the massive crowds who attend every year. Last year there were in excess of 100,000 people, most of them from the worldwide Iranian diaspora. Almost every single one of these people will have extended families inside Iran, meaning that potential support for the Iranian opposition is colossal, numbering millions. This gives the lie to those who contend that the Opposition has little or no support inside the country. Of course people cannot openly declare their support for the PMOI/MEK inside Iran, as to do so will lead to immediate arrest, torture and execution. Nevertheless an active network of courageous PMOI members and supporters inside Iran and even inside government institutions continue to keep the West informed of the clandestine nuclear and military activities of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Qods Force, at huge personal risk to their own safety and security. We have much to thank them for in the West, not least that they were the first to alert us to the mullahs nuclear programme back in August 2002. We should be throwing our total support behind the Iranian opposition instead of doing dirty deals with the mullahs and their murderous regime. Question from ncr-iran.org: Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said in one of these grand gatherings that the combined number of participants at the U.S. Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention is less than the number of people who participate in the annual gatherings of the Iranian Resistance. How can an opposition movement have the strength to organize such a meeting? Rudy Giuliani is quite correct. He is one of many prominent and internationally renowned figures who address the annual NCRI gathering in Paris. Having attended many of these events, I never cease to be overwhelmed by the size of the crowd, who come from every corner of the globe to show their outrights support for the only viable opposition movement that promises to restore, peace, justice, democracy, human rights, womens rights, an end to the death penalty and the abolition of nuclear weapons, to this oppressed and beleaguered nation. The strength of this opposition movement is a clear indication that they are an alternative to the ruling mullahs and should be recognized as such by our governments. Question: How do you assess the Iranian situation one year after the nuclear deal? Do you think Tehran is weaker or stronger? Regarding the nuclear deal, while we condemn the concessions given to the regime and the lifting of most of the sanctions, we also recognize that this deal created a substantial internal crisis and fighting within the ruling clique, which has significantly weakened the regime. Of course we also welcome the fact that the regimes ability to make a nuclear bomb has really decreased. But it is important to remind the West that the lifting of sanctions and the release of frozen assets, despite the wishful thinking of the West, did not result in any benefits for the Iranian population. On the contrary, instead of the money being used for the welfare of the people, it has in fact been used to finance terrorism, supporting Bashar al-Assads on-going bloody civil war and other terrorist and sectarian military projects in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. Question: What practical measures can Western governments take to support the establishment of democracy in Iran? It is time we woke up to the fact that as long as the mullahs remain in power there will be no possibility of peace in the Middle East. Federica Mogherini, the EUs High representative for Foreign Affairs & Security should stop her business-as-usual approach to Tehran. She should be shouting in anger and condemnation at the human rights abuse that takes place in that country on a daily basis. The West should be entering into dialogue with the political coalition that is the NCRI, rather than pussyfooting around with the mullahs in Tehran. The NCRI under the inspiring leadership of Mrs Maryam Rajavi, offers the best possible hope for peace and stability in the region. A major force in the NCRI is the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), which believes in a democratic, tolerant Islam and has bravely stood up against fundamentalism and violence. The PMOIs vision of democracy, human rights, womens rights, abolition of the death penalty, abolition of nuclear weapons and non-interference in other countries is surely the only way forward for Iran and its beleaguered and oppressed population. The West should impose international sanctions for human rights violations. These actions could lead to breaking the atmosphere of fear and terror and ultimately to another uprising which could topple the mullahs fascist regime and restore democracy to Iran. Struan Stevenson was a Conservative MEP representing Scotland in the European Parliament from 1999 until his retirement in 2014. He chaired the Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (Caucus) in the European Parliament for over 10 years. He was President of the Parliaments Delegation for Relations with Iraq from 2009 to 2014. He is now President of the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA). Sharp increases in the tax appraisals of downtown Waco properties could mean a windfall for the main downtown development war chest. If McLennan County Appraisal Districts values hold, the Tax Increment Financing Zone No. 1 could receive a $4 million boost in tax revenue, an unprecedented increase of almost 50 percent. In theory, that means a huge injection of money to rebuild sidewalks and infrastructure and give incentives to innovative businesses, like Dichotomy Coffee and Spirits. Owner Brett Jameson won $85,000 in TIF funds three years ago to turn a tomb-like space at 508 Austin Ave. into an upscale coffeehouse and bar with a balcony. But in practice, Jameson said, the new tax valuations may put Dichotomy under. He is now challenging a McLennan County Appraisal District valuation that would raise his tax bill to $22,085, up $6,531 above last year. If these tax rates stay, I dont think Dichotomy could be profitable downtown, Jameson said. We would probably move outside the county. If I cant make money, Im not going to keep Dichotomy open. He said the valuation increases of his property and others downtown may boost TIF coffers, but the boost would come at a heavy price to the businesses that make downtown successful. Theyre going to have some really nice sidewalks with no businesses around them, he said. City Center Waco Executive Director Megan Henderson said she hears widespread concern that the huge change in property value could drive small businesses out or under. Henderson said the margins of startup businesses cant support the new values, especially in certain areas like Austin Avenue, where land values have quadrupled to $40 per square foot. Its already difficult to make a small business work, said Henderson, who also represents the downtown Public Improvement District board. We are really proud of the incremental growth downtown has seen. . . . Weve had a small increase in the number of people downtown, in the number of cups of coffee people are able to sell. But how many cups of coffee does it take to pay $1,000 a month in taxes? MCADs appraisals for the TIF zone increased from a certified value of $322.9 million last year to a preliminary value of $470.9 million this year. Thats more than $148 million of value added in one year, with less than a third of that coming from new construction. More than 300 property owners in the TIF Zone filed protests of their values, and the Appraisal Review Board is hearing the challenges before the rolls are certified July 25. Of the 86 TIF properties that the board has ruled on so far, property values have been reduced by an average of 11 percent. Chief Appraiser Drew Hahn said most cases are being settled with staff appraisers without having go to the review board, which is independent of MCAD. In the process, appraisers are getting more actual sales data from property owners, and most of the time its close to MCADs estimates. Hahn said he cant honor the request by downtown property owners on the PID board to limit increases to 10 percent, because the state law governing appraisal districts doesnt allow it. We cant come up with predetermined values, he said. Were required to come up with market values. . . . If you make a deal, other people are going to want the same deal. He said MCAD, which is governed by a board of all taxing entities in the county, has no financial motive to raise property tax values, and often it lowers values. Within the TIF Zone, 100 percent of the new tax revenue will go to the TIF fund. The TIF was set up by local taxing entities in 1983 as a mechanism to redevelop a blighted area of central Waco. The TIF Zone includes the Elm Avenue corridor, the Brazos River corridor from Cameron Park to Gurley Lane and downtown up to 11th Street between Interstate 35 and Waco Drive. All new school, city, college and county taxes generated in the zone beyond the 1982 property tax base of about $78 million goes into the TIF fund. In the past five years, tax revenues to the TIF Zone have increased from about $5.2 million in 2011-12 to $7.8 million this budget year. The fund has been used for public improvements including lighting, parking and sidewalks around new businesses, as well as zoo and school improvements. The board overseeing the TIF also pledged $35 million in staggered payments to McLane Stadium. City of Waco finance officials had projected that the funds tax revenues would grow to $9.8 million by 2022-23. Now, with up to $11.8 million possibly coming in this year, officials are having to rethink the possibilities. Fund infrastructure It gives us a lot more flexibility to fund infrastructure downtown, City Manager Dale Fisseler said. That kind of revenue could accelerate the rebuilding of the sidewalk and street network in downtown and East Waco, fund parking structures and replace outdated utility systems, Fisseler said. Millions of TIF dollars also could go into the proposed riverfront development in the area of the Waco Downtown Farmers Market, he said. But Fisseler said he shares property owners concerns that the value increases are too much, too quick. Theres a balance, because you really want to see folks come into downtown and make a profit, he said. You want to see the continued redevelopment of downtown. That does imply that as you make improvements, you expect to see land values increase. Henderson said shes convinced the current MCAD values dont get that balance right. Henderson said downtowns progress should result in steadily increasing property values, which in turn lead to more TIF money to help rebuild the center of Waco. What we want is the revenue that comes from accuracy, she said. Henderson said its critical to spend the new TIF money in a way that benefits the whole zone and all of Waco. She said a key purpose of the TIF funds is to replace poor infrastructure, including sidewalks and utilities, that are a barrier to development. The entire community has invested in the idea that we have to get downtown right, she said. Its the sun that all of us orbit around. Weve got to spend this money so the dead blocks with the closed eyes of empty buildings can be filled with activity. In 27 years operating Marilyns Gift Gallery on Elm Avenue, Marilyn Banks has seen the once-thriving street lose anchors such as Paul Quinn College and Kestners department store. Shes heard regular pronouncements that Elm Avenues rebound is right around the corner. Shes learned not to hold her breath. Ive gotten to be like someone from Missouri, she said. Youve got to show me. But shes starting to believe. New houses are going up just off Elm. Lula Janes Bakery is drawing regular crowds, and plans have been announced for a major restaurant and an arts hub nearby. From her window at 818 Elm Ave., Banks can see the bright colors of the East Waco Library, which is about to reopen after a $1.5 million expansion and remodel. Its a good feeling to look out of my store and see progress, she said. Decades after its heyday as East Wacos Main Street, advocates of Elm Avenue are envisioning its second act as a center of arts, culture and entrepreneurship. Megan Henderson, executive director of City Center Waco, said property owners and neighbors have long shared that vision. There has been a lot of interest in Elm for some time, Henderson said. We have fielded a lot of inquiries, but it takes a lot of inquiries before you ever get an announcement. . . . The only thing thats changed is that some of these things are starting to shake out. Sam Brown and Cathy Turner, who inherited a portfolio of Elm Avenue properties from their father, Doug Brown, have begun selling properties with the arts-and-culture vision in mind. They recently sold a building at 418 Elm Ave. to Cultural Arts of Waco director Doreen Ravenscroft for a nonprofit venture called ArtPlace. They also sold the land next door a few years ago to Nancy Grayson for Lula Janes Bakery, and they are about to close a deal to sell an old garage building in the 300 block for a restaurant called Milo Biscuit Co. All these things are happening within the vision of what weve said was going to happen on Elm cultural activities, food, music, with some residential mixed in, Sam Brown said. My sister and I are very glad we waited patiently for these things to happen. If all people wanted was for something to happen, we could have done that five years ago. If we want the right things to happen, that takes time. Councilman Wilbert Austin, who represents the area, said Graysons bakery was the turning point for Elm. Lula Janes did it all she kick-started it, Austin said. Its been nothing but success since she started it. She had a vision that she believed in. Grayson also is completing the first of several planned cottages at Dallas and Tyler streets, a block behind her bakery. The Southern-style cottages will offer compact living spaces on narrow lots but with quality finishes and detailing, including porches and transom windows for air flow. Grayson said the first cottage is not on the market yet, but she has already had offers. Meanwhile, Milo Biscuit Co. owner Corey McEntyre, a chef who already operates food trucks and stages farm-to-table dinners, is partnering on the restaurant venture with Blake Batson, owner of Common Grounds and Heritage Creamery. The restaurant would offer breakfast and lunch daily, with weekend brunches and special dinner events. McEntyre said Elm is the perfect place to pioneer a new restaurant concept for Waco. I think Elm Avenue has a ton of heart, McEntyre said. Thats where the city is needing to not just grow but revitalize, and we want to be part of that community. New projects Other projects in the works are visible to anyone driving through the Elm Avenue corridor: The East Waco Library, 901 Elm Ave., will reopen late this summer after a renovation that has expanded its space by 40 percent. Its wide open, bright and bold, Waco-McLennan County Library director Essy Day said. We are so excited to be part of (Elm Avenues) resurgence, because the library has so much to offer the community. Improvements include a new computer lab, a large meeting room with a kitchen, study rooms for tutoring, a dedicated teen space and a childrens area with comfy seating. Day said the library was expected to open by Saturday, but delays in getting shelves from a contractor have pushed back the opening by several weeks. Neighborworks, the housing nonprofit agency, is finishing the first four of 12 planned brick homes at Legacy Square, at the site of the old R.L. Smith School on Turner Street. The houses range in price from $97,000 to $130,000, and one already is under contract, said Karen Saucedo, chief financial officer at Neighborworks. Weve seen a lot of interest in the last couple of weeks in the other houses. . . . Theres so much investment opportunity, both commercial and residential, in that area. I think this neighborhood is seeing a spark. East Waco Park, next to Legacy Square on Hood Street, is up for at least $250,000 worth of improvements in the next year, including sidewalks, lighting, accessibility improvements, a water fountain, and curbs and gutters. Parks and recreation director John Williams said he expects the improvements at the park, along with the new subdivision next door, will increase the parks popularity. We hope it will help people want to come out and enjoy the park more, Williams said. With the new homes going in, youll have families with children, and you cant keep those children out of a park. Banks, the boutique owner on Elm, said all the public and private investments in Elm Avenue are a vote of confidence in the future of the area. Banks grew up in East Waco and established her gift and clothing shop in 1989, a time when the fortunes of Elm were already on the wane. A lot of people questioned my judgment moving down here, she said. But it was affordable and a place I could start out. Once the major route from Dallas to Waco, Elm had long since been bypassed by new highways, and its movie theaters, hotels and grocery stores had closed. By the late 80s, only a few small businesses and bars were left, along with the historically black Paul Quinn College. Quinn moved out of Waco in 1990, taking much of the customer base that had come to Marilyns for Greek T-shirts and collegiate paraphernalia. Banks diversified her offerings and hung on, developing a loyal clientele and waiting patiently for better times on Elm Avenue. She said she never expects Elm to be the general-purpose commercial corridor she knew as a child, but it can find a new niche. I want it to be known for the cultural aspect, she said. A Baylor University students mother sent a complaint to the U.S. Department of Justice, alleging the school did not properly provide accommodations for her daughters epilepsy. Ashton Warren, a 24-year-old Baylor journalism major, says she failed multiple courses because Baylors Office of Access and Learning Accommodation did not give her the attendance accommodations she needs while she has seizures. Im still here because of that, Warren said. Im a sixth-year senior. So if they had given me the accommodations I asked for a long time ago, I would have been out of here by 2014, fall of 2015 at the latest. The family retained the counsel of Round Rock-based Cirkiel & Associates, P.C., which has spoken with lawyers representing Baylor. Warrens mother, Angela Welch, said has not ruled out filing a lawsuit against the university. Before speaking with her attorney, Warren said she was unaware of what should be required of her and what should be required of Baylor. She felt she had failed to do her part as unexcused absences hampered her academic progress. For a while, I thought I was in the wrong, because they made me believe that, Warren said of the university. Maybe I didnt do my part, maybe Im the one that screwed up. But after talking to a lawyer I realized, OK, I do have a leg up on this because they havent been doing things correctly. For the longest time, I thought I was the problem. I messed up and didnt do something correct. I thought that for awhile, but thankfully, now I realize thats not all true. In September 2012 and January 2013, psychiatrist and neurologist Lawrence Ginsberg signed letters to Baylor, both citing significant disabilities that have impaired her level of functioning. Ashton Warren would benefit from any accommodations that the instructors and/or college can provide, Ginsberg wrote in both letters. Another neurologist, Allen Chu, wrote in a November 2015 letter, Ashton Warren is currently under my care since July 2007 for seizure disorder. This patient has always required, and still requires attendance accommodations for her absences when she has a seizure. Tiffany Hogue, chief of staff to the executive vice president and provost, wrote in a December letter that Warren first registered with OALA for the fall 2010 semester and requested two accommodations: alternate testing site when appropriate, and time and a half on all exams. Both were granted, Hogue said. You have not submitted any additional medical documentation in five years, and you have only met a handful of times with your OALA accommodation specialist, Hogue wrote. In the same letter, Hogue repeats the schools policy: Even if OALA and an instructor know that a student has a disability and is eligible for an accommodation, if the student doesnt request and provide letters to their faculty, then they will not receive any accommodations. Missed appointments Despite the OALAs policies about needing to meet with your accommodation specialist regularly and request accommodations in each class, you did not do this, Hogue wrote. You missed multiple appointments with your accommodation specialists, and you did not seek an attendance accommodation until this fall. This letter came a week after Hogue met with Warren and her parents. In a fact sheet on universities obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, the PACER Center states that not all institutions required to comply with the laws have fully integrated the laws provisions or adopted a welcoming attitude. PACER is an advocacy organization for children with disabilities. Students should not need to spend excessive time practicing their self-advocacy skills at the expense of acquiring an academic education, the document states. In a March letter, OALA Director Dae Vasek wrote that she wants Warren to reach her goal of an August graduation. OALA has worked with many other students with seizure disorders, most of whom have a distinct protocol that they wish to have followed when they have a seizure, Vasek wrote. You have not indicated that you have any such protocol that you want professors or staff to follow. Welch said she hopes her daughter will meet her goal of graduating in August but doesnt have confidence she will get the help she needs from the university. I dont know the answer to that question, as they are unpredictable and not always honest in what they tell us, Welch said. So until she walks across the stage to get her diploma, Im not convinced of anything. In a university statement, Baylor spokeswoman Tonya Lewis said Baylor does not speak about specific student cases and added the university is subject to and complies with federal law regarding the rights of students with disabilities. She also said Baylor has no information from the Department of Justice that a complaint has been filed. The OALA program is required to provide services and accommodations to meet the varying needs of students with disabilities at the University, in accordance with section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to its website. Lewis said policies exist for students with medical conditions characterized by intermittent flare-ups or which require ongoing treatment. Such students may receive an attendance accommodation, which varies the attendance requirements under Baylors campus-wide attendance policy, she said. The student is responsible for notifying instructors within 24 hours of missing a class that the reason they missed class was related to their disability. If the student does not provide prompt notice, the absence is not covered by the accommodation and can be treated as unexcused. 24-hour window Welch has claimed Warrens seizures make it impossible for her to notify professors of the reason of absence within the 24-hour window, and stress from the situation has worsened her condition. Warren signed a Family Educational Records Privacy Act authorization and release form, which authorized the release of her educational records to the Tribune-Herald. Welch gave the Tribune-Herald documents and emails to and from Baylor regarding the situation. In Warrens five courses she took this spring semester, she missed 45 total class periods. Welch also said Baylor has sent Warrens education record out for an independent review, but she does not know where and has not been updated. Vasek wrote Baylor decided to retain an independent medical expert to review your medical records and if necessary consult with Dr. Chu or your other treating physicians. Every American schoolchild knows the opening paragraph of the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In his book Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind, (one of Bill Gates five favorite books for the summer), Yuval Noah Harari argues that the Declaration of Independence would look starkly different if it were re-written to reflect secular science. According to Harari, if we stripped the foundations of the Christian faith from its wording, and replaced them with evolutionary science, it would read like this: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men evolved differently, that they are born with certain mutable characteristics, and that among them are life and the pursuit of pleasure. Endowed by creator Without God, we cannot be created. Instead we are reduced to the random result of evolution. Neither can we be endowed by our creator, since there is no creator to endow us with self-worth. We are left with an accidental existence unrelated to value. Therefore, no human being has any more inherent worth than the spider or the ape. And regarding liberty, There is no such thing in biology, Herari contends. Liberty is something that people invented and exists only in their imagination. From a biological viewpoint, it is meaningless to say that humans in democratic societies are free. Since science has not been able to define happiness, we will have to settle for the pursuit of pleasure. Rush to de-Christianize There appears to be a headlong rush to de-Christianize our society. Faith is being pushed from the streets of intellectual commerce and dismissed in the dark alleys of superstition. We may be well on the way to re-writing the Declaration of Independence into the secular terms Harari has proposed. Unless we recapture the faith of our fathers, our future may look like the forbidding landscape of science fiction movies with human beings consigned to violence and anarchy. Without faith, we could return to a survival of the fittest. Where would we be without the statements of Jesus? The very hairs of your head are numbered. Love one another as I have loved you. In that you have done it to the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me. Hitler, secular science Hitler followed secular science to its logical conclusion and implemented a policy of eugenics that eliminated the weak and infirm as life unworthy of life. More than 400,000 were sterilized against their will. Millions were extermiated. Marriage was strictly controlled to foster eugenic purity. Others, like Mother Theresa, Corrie Ten Boom, William Wilberforce and Abraham Lincoln, followed a faith that compelled them to care for the poorest of the poor, to set the captive free, to bind up the nations wounds. Jesus introduced Himself saying, The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lords favor (Luke 4:18-19). Only faith can give us the framework for human dignity and worth. Only faith can safeguard our freedom. AbbVie Inc. discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals in the worldwide. The company offers HUMIRA, a therapy administered as an injection for autoimmune and intestinal Behcet's diseases; SKYRIZI to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in adults; RINVOQ, a JAK inhibitor for the treatment of moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis in adult patients; IMBRUVICA to treat adult patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), and VENCLEXTA, a BCL-2 inhibitor used to treat adults with CLL or SLL; and MAVYRET to treat patients with chronic HCV genotype 1-6 infection. It also provides CREON, a pancreatic enzyme therapy for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency; Synthroid used in the treatment of hypothyroidism; Linzess/Constella to treat irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and chronic idiopathic constipation; Lupron for the palliative treatment of advanced prostate cancer, endometriosis and central precocious puberty, and patients with anemia caused by uterine fibroids; and Botox therapeutic. In addition, the company offers ORILISSA, a nonpeptide small molecule gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist for women with moderate to severe endometriosis pain; Duopa and Duodopa, a levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel to treat Parkinson's disease; Lumigan/Ganfort, a bimatoprost ophthalmic solution for the reduction of elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with open angle glaucoma (OAG) or ocular hypertension; Ubrelvy to treat migraine with or without aura in adults; Alphagan/ Combigan, an alpha-adrenergic receptor agonist for the reduction of IOP in patients with OAG; and Restasis, a calcineurin inhibitor immunosuppressant to increase tear production, as well as other eye care products. AbbVie Inc. has a research collaboration with Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois. Your Ultimate Investing Toolkit Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools: Portfolio Monitoring Top Stock Lists Premium Reports Stock Screeners Live News Feed Premium Support Free for your first month. SemGroup Corporation provides gathering, transportation, storage, distribution, marketing, and other midstream services for producers, refiners of petroleum products, and other market participants. The company operates in three segments: U.S. Liquids, U.S. Gas, and Canada. The U.S. Liquids segment operates crude oil pipelines, truck transportation, storage, terminals, and marketing businesses; stores, blends, and transports refinery products and refinery feedstock through pipeline, barge, rail, truck, and ship; and operates a residual fuel oil storage terminal in the U.S. Gulf Coast. This segment has 18.2 million barrels of storage capacity on the Houston Ship Channel; and 7.6 million barrels of storage capacity at the Cushing Interchange. It also operates a 460-mile crude oil gathering and transportation pipeline system in Kansas and northern Oklahoma; 75-mile crude oil gathering pipeline system that transports crude oil from production facilities in the DJ Basin to the pipeline owned by White Cliffs Pipeline, L.L.C.; 2 parallel 527-mile pipelines that transports crude oil from Platteville, Colorado to Cushing, Oklahoma; 3 pipelines with an aggregate of 106 miles of pipe; 30-lane crude oil truck unloading facility in Platteville, Colorado; and crude oil trucking fleet of approximately 245 transport trucks and 235 trailers. The U.S. Gas segment provides natural gas gathering, processing, and marketing services. It operates 842 miles of gathering lines in Oklahoma; and a 53-mile high pressure gathering pipeline located in the STACK play. The Canada segment owns and operates natural gas processing and gathering facilities with approximately 530 miles of natural gas gathering and transportation pipelines in Alberta, Canada. SemGroup Corporation was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Chef Jamie Oliver at one of his Australian restaurants in 2014. Credit:Katherine Griffiths But the sudden collapse this week of Sydney food and pub group Keystone, which runs the Australian franchise of Oliver's Jamie's Italian, has delivered a blow to Oliver's high-flying image. "I'm so proud of Jamie's Italian," the celebrity chef says, inviting patrons to try his fare. "Our amazing team is like a big family they'll look after you while you tuck into simple delicious food Great food, great value, beautiful surroundings." Keystone, which also owns a suite of popular Sydney pubs and popular lunch haunts, including Cargo Bar, Bungalow 8, Sugarmill and Kingsley's, fell into the arms of receivers this week when its international lenders, who are owed nearly $80 million, pulled the plug. All venues remain open for business while Ferrier Hodgson tries to sell the businesses, either standalone but more likely as a break up of disparate businesses around the country. Food and beverage group Keystone are selling their waterfront icon Cargo Bar. Immediately, mutterings on the impact of Sydney's lockout laws and expensive weekend penalty rates were whispered as contributing to the collapse. In reality, a far simpler story emerges overreach in the competitive world of food and beverage and too much debt. Sydney's pub and restaurant industry has witnessed endless boom and bust over the past decade. For every success story like the Hemmes family's Merivale, there's a front bar filled with despairing investors drowning their sorrows over what went wrong. Over recent months it has become apparent that 7-Eleven is the tip of the iceberg. Credit:Simon Bosch You can almost hear the lobbying machine going into overdrive. Proposed changes from both parties include more powers to the regulator, a 10-fold increase in penalties and more resources to the regulator. But the biggest change of all is to put franchisors in the firing line. Illustration: Cathy Wilcox. Until now, the Fair Work Ombudsman can only deal with individual injustice and go after franchisees. The regulator can only pursue franchisors as accessories to workplace law breaches only if it can be proved they are "knowingly concerned in or party to the contravention". This burden of proof makes the law virtually useless. Under proposed changes to the legislation, notably from the ALP, the burden of proof will be flipped on its head and head office will have to prove it could not have reasonably known workers were being ripped off. In other words, if there is systemic underpayment, the FWO can do something about it. There can be no middle ground on scrubbing out worker exploitation. The worker will also be able to go after the franchisor, who then has to go after the franchisee. Currently, workers are supposed to go after the franchisee, who have been known to threaten workers with loss of job or deportation if they pursue the matter. It is this flaw in the system that has allowed wage fraud to get out of control. It is a similar story for the supply chain, which, until now, has been able to hide behind the corporate veil. The decision by both parties to tackle worker exploitation has been a long time coming. But stories such as systemic underpayment of foreign students throughout the 7-Eleven franchise network has put the issue on the national agenda. Before the joint media investigation into 7-Eleven, wage fraud had been going on for decades and head office had turned a blind eye. In the words of the 7-Eleven whistleblower at the time the scandal was exposed: "Everyone at head office knows about it. No one likes it, but people want to keep their jobs so they stay quiet. I've heard it being joked about at senior levels at meetings." Nothing was done about it because the business model that operated for years was such that many franchisees wouldn't have had a business if they paid the correct wages. Workers coming forward and telling harrowing stories forced action. One worker in Brisbane was forced to rummage through bins for old sandwiches after not being paid for months. He got to breaking point and stood outside the store with a placard saying: "This store has not paid me for 3 months. Please Help." Head office was aware of the incident but left it with the franchisee to deal with. In the aftermath of the election, there should be an investigation into the franchising industry. 7-Eleven has underpaid workers, that is not in dispute. It set up an independent compensation scheme and appointed Fels to oversee it. Months later it changed its mind and decided to do the scheme in-house. It created a public backlash. It was seen as the company trying to shirk its commitment. The public won't rest until the problem is fixed. The reality is there isn't any legal compulsion for 7-Eleven to pay up. It is why the new government, whether it is Labor or the Coalition, will need to amend the legislation and not only put franchisors on the hook but also make it retrospective to ensure companies such as 7-Eleven do the right thing. If Malcolm Turnbull spent election day appearing the picture of an upbeat, confident prime minister on the cusp of an election victory - things were very different as vote count continued late into Saturday night. Mr Harbourside Mansion, as he was unkindly dubbed by Peta Credlin, spent his election eve at, yes there's no point pretending otherwise his water-adjoined digs in Sydney's east, probably in the knowledge that if things went his way he wouldn't be home on his high thread-count sheets much over the next three years. He was out early with wife Lucy, both clad in Liberal-Aegean hues and bearing sprightly manners. They voted at the Double Bay public school. Bill Clinton's lead strategist in the 1992 US presidential election, James Carvill, laid down in a few stark words the most fundamental political campaigning law when he stuck a note on Clinton's office wall. Malcolm Turnbull visiting Adelaide on Monday. Credit:Andrew Meares "The economy, stupid" remains the most quoted edict in that message. Campaigners everywhere have granted it the status of ageless wisdom ever since. And in the last week of the campaign, the economy or the economic argument had broken Turnbull's way, just as the campaign lurgy somewhere between a cold and the 'flu that had been Turnbull's penance for risking a winter election campaign was also finally leaving his system. Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull with granddaughter Isla at the Sunny Harbour Yum Cha restaurant in Hurstville, Sydney on Wednesday. Credit:Andrew Meares The political and economic chaos that was enveloping Britain and reaching across oceans after Britain voted to leave the European Union had granted Turnbull a new and resonant message just as he was officially launching his campaign the day before he flew to Adelaide. The weekend's other big bonus, so far as Turnbull and his colleagues were concerned, was that Bill Shorten's Labor team had finally delivered what Coalition strategists had been waiting and hoping for, but barely imagining would prove so cack-handed: an election costings document so politically fraught that Labor tried to slip out as if no one might notice. Turnbull had hitched the dread created by the Brexit vote to a central theme of his long speech in Sydney on Sunday when launching the Coalition's official election campaign. "Our clear economic plan is more essential than ever as we enter a period of uncertainty in global markets following the British vote to leave the European Union," he had cautioned, looking directly at the camera. "Great opportunities are accompanied by great challenges. The upheaval reminds us there are many things in the global economy over which we have no control. "Calm heads, steady hands, stable government and a strong economic plan are critical for Australia to withstand any repercussions." In those few sentences you could find the essential pitch that Turnbull had been seeking for weeks and which he would now use everywhere during the last days of the campaign. "Stability" would eclipse even the campaign-long mantra of "jobs and growth". Turnbull's strategy team had stripped away all the bells and whistles of the traditional campaign launch to ensure his message came through unadorned. No theme music, no stage dressing or teams of fresh young enthusiasts dancing with posters; none of the hoopla that had surrounded Shorten's lavish campaign launch the previous week. There was just Turnbull on a cut-price stage, a blue backdrop and his message: at a time when the world was gripped by great uncertainty, Australia required political stability. And, yes, his Coalition had an economic Plan. The word was granted a capital letter in the written version of his speech to emphasise the other part of his message: Labor and the Greens, he insisted, had no realistic plan and pretended the good times would just keep rolling "no matter how much you tax, how much you borrow, how much you spend", he insisted. And glory be, just a couple of hours later, the Labor Party, which had been playing merry hell with its virtually evidence-free Medicare scare campaign, offered up what Turnbull would happily characterise as certain evidence of economic profligacy. It was a day when all the major parties were vying for attention: the Greens' leader Richard Di Natale was launching his party's campaign in Melbourne and Shorten was indulging in a curious second campaign launch in Brisbane. Amid all this flurry, the Labor Party chose to release election policy costings revealing that a Labor government would take the budget into deeper deficit than the Coalition over the next four years: $16.5 billion deeper. Labor could argue that it was being honest and anyway, its policies would return the budget to balance at the same time as the Coalition ... but, in the heat of an election campaign, the Coalition would use the figures to claim Labor was utterly irresponsible. Turnbull had his James Carvill moment, the opportunity to use real economic figures to counter Labor's airy scare about the future of Medicare, and he wouldn't let it go. As soon as he'd finished his questioning of Adelaide's defence technologists on Monday, he fronted the media, launching into the mantra that he'd maintain and hone till election day. There was a choice, he maintained. "On the one hand, stability, economic leadership, a clear plan that will deliver, and is delivering now, as we just heard this morning [from the defence industry crowd]. On the other hand, the chaos of an alliance between Labor, Greens, Independents, Mr Xenophon that is a vote for uncertainty, a vote for more deficits, bigger deficits." Here, after a long dreary start to an election campaign, was a newly doubt-free Prime Minister. Turnbull is not, of course, a man who readily radiates self-doubt. But he had taken so many risks that fear of failure could be nothing but his secret companion. He had overthrown a first-term Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott. He had chosen to take Australia to a double-dissolution election on a thin pretext: the need for a construction industry policing body that had barely been mentioned once the election was called. His insistence on an early election meant the campaign had to sprawl over an energy-sapping two months, the longest in Australian history, and the first in winter since 1987. Frustrated by the very thing that had driven him to the earliest election he could engineer the difficulty of stamping his authority on a divided Coalition without having won his own national vote, and thus being forced to compromise on matters such as climate change, asylum seekers and gay marriage he had watched Labor catch and draw ahead of his government in public polling. For some weeks, commentators had judged that Shorten had out-campaigned Turnbull, although the Liberal team took heart that those polls had never shown Shorten catching Turnbull as preferred PM. Those close to Turnbull, however, had watched the secret fear creep upon him in the lead-up to big moments like his 75-minute grilling on the ABC's Q&A, the sweat beading on his brow. And they had seen him wrestle it down by his insistence on being armed with more and more information, demanding briefings on every possible question that might come his way. "Sucking everything out of the universe," one of his aides called it. Behind closed doors, phone calls flew, briefing papers were studied intently, even the names of every key stranger at the last event were practised in the minutes before Turnbull emerged into the light. The process began early each morning of the campaign when judgment upon key messages was delivered from focus groups operated overnight by one of his principal strategists, the pollster Mark Textor. Textor's perceived ability to discern public sentiment had long been key to Liberal campaigns. Abbott had distanced himself from Textor, but Turnbull brought him back to a team that had its DNA in the Howard years. The fastidious and tough Tony Nutt, as national campaign director, was central to everything. He even controlled the microphone from the back of the hall at Turnbull's campaign launch. Cabinet Secretary Arthur Sinodinos travelled with Turnbull and could be seen watching intently from the sidelines of just about every campaign event, a sort of political consigliere and sounding board. Here was a tag team that went way back: Nutt was John Howard's principal private secretary; Sinodinos was Howard's chief of staff. Advancing and ensuring every event ran smoothly was Vince Woolcott, who has worked campaigns right back to Malcolm Fraser and is married to columnist, author and fierce critic of the Abbott era, Niki Savva. And all through the long campaign, Turnbull's wife Lucy had been at his side: confidante, number one adviser and emotional buttress. Finally, last Monday morning, it all came together. Turnbull had looked ponderous for weeks. But now, as he flew from Adelaide to Brisbane, where he hosted another of his question and answer forums at a steel fabrication plant, to Sydney, where he mingled with Chinese-Australians at a yum cha restaurant, and on to Canberra to address the National Press Club, he appeared to grow physically lighter as his message sharpened. Loading Therese Rawsthorne's first year as creative director of sass & bide has been tumultuous, to say the least. Arriving after the sudden departure of head designer Anthony Cuthbertson in mid-2015, the company has also lost CEO Julie Otter, who quit in May after just 18 months (she is yet to be replaced). But Rawsthorne seems to have taken all this change, including a move from Melbourne to Sydney, in her stride. "It's an exciting time because it feels like it's a new beginning [for the brand]," she said. "It's about dipping into the essence of what the sass & bide girl is about and what the brand is about." He was first declared a hero, then hounded and humiliated and driven into hiding, in despair. But now Duncan Storrar, the man whose Q&A question defined the election campaign at its outset, has emerged to challenge the nation's leaders once more in the final hours declaring that the vilification he endured has spurred him to become a full-time public advocate for the poor and the voiceless. And he has revealed that the question that up-ended the campaign on its first full day was almost never asked. In an exclusive interview with Fairfax Media, Mr Storrar, 46, said the eight weeks since his Q&A appearance had been traumatic and forced him from his Geelong home and into seclusion. But on election eve, he wanted to end that isolation and let Australians know that his original act of notoriety the simple act of asking a politician a question was his right as a citizen. "I'm getting there, I'm doing better. I don't think I'll ever recover from it, but I am doing better," he said of his baptism by fire in the public arena, which included both the uplifting Australians donated more than $60,000 to a crowdfunding account set up by two Q&A viewers and the humiliating, when News Corp papers ran a series of stories detailing past criminal convictions. Detectives believed they have locked up down a gang-of-three behind a three-month crime spree which involved burglaries, stolen cars and even an attempt to steal a dog. The woman and two men were arrested when Joondalup detectives raided a property in Gnangara. Police have arrested three people after a three-month crime spree. The police had been investigating 18 crimes which were carried out between May and July, mostly in Perth's northern suburbs. Among the crimes linked with the gang are the theft of quadbikes from Wangara, Westminster, Wanneroo and Mariginup as well as an assault on two people at a property in Mariginup as the thieves were stealing a Toyota Hilux. A German tourist has died while trying to take a photo atop Machu Picchu. The tourist, identified by the BBC and Peruvian media as 51-year-old Oliver Park, died on Wednesday after slipping from a ledge and falling approximately 39 metres. A tourist under the shade of a red umbrella looks at Machu Picchu. He was posing for a mid-leap photo when he fell off Machu Picchu mountain, which overlooks the ancient Incan citadel of the same name. Peruvian officials said the tourist bypassed a security cordon and ventured into an off-limits area before tumbling to his death, El Comercio reported. Washington: It's still months until September, when Britain's next prime minister will be named, and November, when the United States will elect its next president. But the political turmoil that has erupted following Britain's vote to leave the European Union has put in place the possibility of a profoundly historic moment: By next January, women could lead the three largest Western economies. Yes, it's early, and yes, it's still totally speculative. But the possibility that women could lead the United States, Britain and Germany at the same time is also a very real one. Angela Merkel's term as chancellor of Germany is not up until the northern autumn of 2017, when the country will hold its next election. Hillary Clinton is poised to become the first female nominee of a major US political party, and she is currently leading in many polls against Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. 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. Dear Editor WeblogBahamas, RE: Tribune Business report June 30, 2016. Ease of doing business? And Registering Purchases of Property The Prime Minister and the Minister of State for Investments have given candid assessments of the (lack of) ease of doing business in the Bahamas and the lack of a (functioning) National Development Plan. They have committed to turn these situations around. These intentions are good. Integral to both those aspects of governance is the difficulty in completing land transactions in the Bahamas. The World Bank Group compiled data in June 2014 on the ease of Registering Property in 189 small to medium economies. The study examines the steps, time and cost involved in registering property assuming a standardized case of an entrepreneur who wants to purchase land and a building that is already registered and free of title dispute. The results of the 2014 survey showed that the Bahamas ranked 179 out of the 189 economies surveyed: behind countries such as Antigua and Barbuda (118) Barbados (144), Dominica (165), Grenada (128) Haiti (175), Jamaica (126), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (155), Trinidad and Tobago (159) and Suriname (178) to name a few. According to this survey, the average time to complete the property transaction in the Bahamas is 122 days, and the cost is 12.2 % of the value of the property. The 2015 survey shows that the Bahamas now ranks as no. 183 in ease of registering property transfers. Haiti also slipped a few places to no. 179. Barbados moved up the scale to no. 134, and Jamaica is now no. 122. In the interests of the Bahamian citizens, as well as Foreign Direct Investment, I urge the Government to consider best practices in other jurisdictions on land transfers and registration, and commit also to improving this aspect of our economic base. In 2011 we ranked 82 out of 189 in the Ease of Doing Business index. After 5 years of an overall decline to position 106, the Prime Ministers and Cabinet Ministers promises will be more credible when they offer specifics on how they will turn the tide. Yours etc, Leandra Esfakis ____________________________________________ Find out more on the Ease of Doing Business in The Bahamas here... By The Associated Press By The Associated Press Jul. 01, 2016 | 10:09 PM | LOUISVILLE, KY A judge in Louisville has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Gov. Matt Bevin's administration seeking to fine Planned Parenthood for performing abortions at its Louisville facility. Jefferson Circuit Judge Mitch Perry ruled on Thursday that Planned Parenthood had been given approval to perform abortions at its new facility from state regulators under Kentucky's former governor. WDRB-TV reports Perry ruled the facility was not violating any laws. The lawsuit was filed in February by the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services. It accused Planned Parenthood of illegally performing 23 abortions in December and January. It sought nearly $700,000 in fines from Planned Parenthood. The state could appeal the ruling. A spokeswoman for Bevin's office did not reply to a message seeking comment Friday. Advertisement By The Associated Press Jul. 02, 2016 | LONDON, KY By The Associated Press Jul. 02, 2016 | 03:37 PM | LONDON, KY A cardiologist in eastern Kentucky has been indicted for allegedly performing unnecessary heart procedures and billing the government for them. Dr. Anis Chalhoub has been charged by a federal grand jury for implanting pacemakers into patients without "sufficient need or justification." The medial fraud charges carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison if convicted. The indictment, returned in Laurel County on June 23, says the illegal conduct occurred between 2007 and 2011. Federal prosecutors say it is related to a scheme for which another cardiologist, Dr. Sandesh Patil, was sentenced to 2 years in prison in 2013. The Courier-Journal reports both doctors practiced at St. Joseph-London Hospital, which in 2014 paid $16.5 million to settle allegations of a false billing scheme at the facility. Chalhoub has argued that the treatments were appropriate. Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 02/07/2016 (2308 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. That old saying among farmers rain makes grain has never been truer than this year after timely rains arrived late in May, just in time to get this years crop off to a lush start. Some were even calling it the billion-dollar rains. But warm, humid weather like weve experienced in recent weeks also brings on the weeds and diseases that threaten to cut yields and crop quality. Like it or not, the majority of farmers rely heavily on crop-production products herbicides, fungicides and insecticides and spraying is an important part of their production cycle. Its not just the threat to the farmers incomes targeted by these operations. Crop diseases such as fusarium head blight leave behind mycotoxins in cereal crops that are a health threat to the humans and livestock that eat them. Keeping infected wheat out of the food and feed chain not only involves farmers at the field level, but grain handlers and federal quality inspectors. Despite decades of research, breeding genetic resistance into wheat varieties has been difficult to achieve. Farmers have turned to fungicides as their best defence. When it comes to spraying, its exceedingly complicated synchronizing weather with crop staging in order to apply the right products at the right time. Different diseases strike at different times. Leaf spot diseases, which also compromise yield and quality, strike earlier than fusarium, which causes the most damage when the plant is flowering. A lot of farmers, on the recommendation of manufacturers, have looked upon fungicide applications as good insurance against yield loss due to disease. As solutions go, its imperfect at best. New research released by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researchers suggests farmers are being a bit too zealous when it comes to applying fungicides to control fusarium head blight and leaf spot diseases in their cereal crops. Researchers Myriam Fernandez and Bill May studied the timing and frequency of applications of the commonly used triazole fungicides on durum wheat crops in southeast Saskatchewan between 2001 and 2006. They said their findings would apply to other types of wheat. They found the so-called insurance applications in the absence of disease pressure offered little protection and were less effective than applying the fungicides when disease was most likely to strike. It also raised the likelihood of the farmer having to buy two fungicide applications, which not only increases their cost, but raises the potential for quality losses. Their research showed while early and double fungicide applications resulted in yields ranging from four to 8.5 per cent higher, there was a negative effect on quality. The fungicides suppressed the fusarium and leaf spot, but there was a significant increase in other fungal diseases such as black point and red smudge that cause discoloration and downgrading. Black point increased by 47 per cent on crops treated with fungicide early and by 76 per cent on double applications compared to no fungicides being applied. None of the results support the recommendation that fungicides be applied to durum wheat crops on a preventive basis, to increase grain yields, their report says. Fernandez cautioned overuse of fungicides also hastens development of resistance, just as weeds have developed resistance to commonly used herbicides. These create a dilemma for farmers. Intensive cropping has increased disease pressures. If they dont use fungicides, studies show they could lose between $35 to $87 per acre, largely due to downgrading of their crop. If they do use them, they are spending about $20 an acre for product but risk having their crop downgraded due to other diseases. Dropping a grade reduces the value of wheat by $10 to $12 an acre. Fernandez and May suggest the industry needs to look beyond fungicides to cultural practices such as crop rotations and plant breeding for genetic resistance. In the end, there wont be one solution, but several that provide the best protection. Laura Rance is editor of the Manitoba Co-operator and editorial director for Farm Business Communications. She can be reached at laura@fbcpublishing.com or 204-792-4382. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 02/07/2016 (2308 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The identity of the victims of Fridays tragic plane crash have been released. Capt. Bradley Ashcroft and Capt. Zachary Cloutier-Gill, members of the Royal Canadian Air Force, died after their plane crashed south of Hwy. 15 near Deacons Corner Friday around 9:30 a.m., a Canadian Armed Forces news release said. Both were posted at 1 Canadian Air Division/Canadian NORAD Region headquarters in Winnipeg. The pair were not on duty at the time of the crash. Supplied: Transportation Safety Board of Canada A friend of Ashcrofts said the Shoal Lake resident would be missed. Brad was a very nice guy, he was very friendly and helpful, said said Matt Kaskiw in an email to the Free Press. It was just this year that he had just got his intermediate pilot licence. He was so excited when he got it, he was very anxious to start flying. Ashcroft had served in the Canadian Armed Forces for over nine years and was a member of the construction engineering branch. Cloutier-Gill served for nearly 12 years and was an air combat systems officer. Kaskiw said he and Ashcroft had known each other for 18 years through the Air Cadets, adding he knew Ashcroft had always wanted to be a pilot. He said Ashcroft had spent the last five years training in Kingston, Ont. He was well-liked in the town of Shoal Lake. He will be greatly missed from the town and from his family and friends, said Kaskiw. The plane was a four-person Piper Cherokee PA-28 that had belonged to the Manitoba chapter of the Recreational Aircraft Association. According to the Pipers website, the plane was donated to the RAA by Geraldine and Kenneth Pennington. Chapter president Jim Oke said the plane was donated approximately 18 months ago. The website said the plane was sitting outside for a few years before it was donated. Oke said the plane required a general cleanup, adding the it was polished, waxed and received replacement rubber hoses and a new radio. The aircraft has been operating regularly, said Oke. I flew it myself within the last two weeks, and we considered it reliable and functioning well. Records previously available on the airplanes website indicated Ashcroft had reserved the plane from 8 a.m. to noon. This is a sad day for the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian Armed Forces, Major-General Christian Drouin, commander of 1 Canadian Air Division and the Canadian NORAD Region, said in a release. We have lost two members of our military family who served their country well. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families, friends and loved ones, whom we are working to support in the wake of this tragedy. Speaking with reporters Friday, Oke said it was unlikely the crash was caused by the weather, considering the good flying conditions. One of the factors in an aircraft mishap is generally weather, and if the weather is a bright, sunny, calm day, its not generally a factor, Oke said. Beyond that, it would be simply speculation. The plane was flown by individuals who have their private or commercial pilots licence to help build up hours in the air. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is currently investigating and said new information may be available Monday. RCMP did not respond to a request for comment, and Ashcrofts family members were unavailable. Facebook photo Bradley Ashcroft died in Friday's plane crash near Deacon's Corner. with files from Aidan Geary alexandra.depape@freepress.mb.ca erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 01/07/2016 (2309 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. If you needed evidence of the mess that is the Manitoba New Democratic Party, you need look no further than the continuing presence of former MLA Steve Ashton in the halls of the Manitoba legislative building. Frequent visitors to the legislature can attest Ashton one of the longest-serving MLAs in history until he lost in shocking fashion in Aprils election has been omnipresent. An NDP caucus spokesman said Ashton is there to advise the caucus as it adjusts to life in opposition. At first blush, it makes some sense to bring Ashton back. He is an experienced legislator, a clever riding politician and a formidable debater. It is widely believed he is already doing the spadework for a return to politics that could very well include yet another run at the NDP leadership. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Files Former NDP MLA Steve Ashton at a news conference announcing the twinning of the Trans-Canada Highway in November 2014. However, that is not all Ashton brings to the table. The former cabinet minister and MLA for Thompson was also a central figure in a controversy that contributed heavily to the fall of the NDP. And that makes him an albatross hanging around the neck of the remaining NDP MLAs. Ashton tried to secure a $5-million, untendered contract to help First Nations purchase flood-fighting equipment from a company represented in Manitoba by a close personal and political friend. Premier Greg Selinger initially defended Ashton, prompting dissident cabinet ministers to challenge the premier to resign. The subsequent leadership battle helped set the table for Aprils electoral trouncing. Its hard to dispute the value of Ashtons keen political mind. However, that value is greatly diminished, if not completely erased, when you consider the damage he did to his own party. The decision to bring Ashton back was not the only rough spot for the NDP. There is also the messy decision to promote veteran MLA Flor Marcelino to serve as interim leader. Her performance in the legislature has been unremarkable bordering on awkward. Subsequent revelations she was providing herbal medicines to treat cancer from her legislative office also did not help. Narratives such as this are largely to blame for the current mood among Progressive Conservatives, which toggles somewhere between entirely pleased with themselves and too giddy for words. This jubilation is supported by the notion that, despite a few rocky moments of their own, the Tories are still in honeymoon mode. Last week, a Free Press-Probe Research poll showed Manitobans overwhelmingly approve of the Tory fiscal plan, in particular Finance Minister Cameron Friesens decision not to put a hard target on balancing the budget. Two-thirds of respondents approved of the slow-and-steady approach to eliminating the deficit; only 23 per cent expressed a desire to see the budget balanced sooner. The result is somewhat surprising because, to date, Friesen and Premier Brian Pallister have espoused more or less the same strategy Selinger offered before the election: avoid austerity and let the budget balance itself through economic growth. Pallister will argue the big difference is his commitment to hold the line on spending but, to date, that assertion is purely theoretical; we wont get any proof hes had some success until quarterly financial results arrive this fall. The poll results also show Pallister has not been damaged by a budget that was almost universally denounced as vague and uncertain. Perhaps because the budget was tabled mere weeks after taking power, or because the Tories have the benefit of not being the NDP, Pallisters personal popularity and that of his government have remained strong. If there is any reason for the Tories to be anxious, it is this: the benefit-of-the-doubt period is quickly coming to an end. By fall, Manitobans will be used to the idea of a PC government, and their expectations will most certainly rise. This is particularly true in the realm of spending controls. Pallister promised efficiencies and innovations to slow the rate of growth in spending. Although its too early to expect concrete measures, sources throughout the provincial civil service are hard-pressed to identify a formal program or spending review. In fact, in most departments, senior bureaucrats havent received any specific direction about how to slow their spending. Pallister has said the efficiencies will come from a thoughtful analysis of government programs, including an outside value-for-money audit. However, the contract for an auditor will not be awarded until this fall. That sets the table for a huge problem: the audit results will not be available in time to inform the next provincial budget. No one expected Pallister and Friesen to deliver innovative cost savings in the last budget; almost everyone will expect something in the next budget. For now, the Tories can be confident the NDP which will not select a new leader for more than a year will continue to stumble and bumble enough to prolong the honeymoon period. There are at least two impending scenarios that will bring that honeymoon to a crashing halt. First, the NDP is undoubtedly going to get better. And depending on who becomes the next leader, maybe a lot better. Second, by Labour Day, Manitobans will be paying less attention to past NDP mistakes and focus more on the actions of the new government. If Pallister is not more on top of his game by then, not even Steve Ashton will be able to save him. dan.lett@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @danlett Minnesotans this fall will be asked to vote on whether to remove state lawmakers authority to set their own salaries and transfer the power instead to an independent citizen board. If passed, it would be a dramatic change in how lawmaker pay is set. So how come no ones talking about it? So far, no organized campaign has emerged on either side. At least one critic believes the proposals wording Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to remove state lawmakers power to set their own salaries, and instead establish an independent, citizens-only council to prescribe salaries of lawmakers? could lead voters to unintentionally deliver a pay raise to lawmakers. Lawmakers drafted the language a few years ago after the latest recommendations to boost their pay went nowhere. Legislator pay has been such a sticky subject that there hasnt been a change to the base salary of $31,140 since 1999. Legislators do not want to be voting on our pay. It feels wrong, said state Sen. Kent Eken, DFL-Twin Valley, one of the amendments chief supporters. If you look at the constitutional amendment, it makes no comments whatsoever on what the pay should be. Its all about who should set it. And we are not the objective ones, so we should not be the ones setting it. Eken acknowledges that taking the decision-making out of lawmakers hands could make it easier for them to get a raise. Could it lead to a pay increase? he asked. Its possible. If the amendment passes, a 16-member salary council would be formed to decide legislator pay every two years. The governor and Minnesota Supreme Court chief justice would pick the members. Appointees would be split evenly between the two major parties. Legislators past and present and their spouses would be excluded, as would lobbyists, judges and state employees. Other states have similar setups. A notable example is California, which established its Citizen Compensation Commission following a 1990 referendum. In its first three years, the panel left lawmaker pay unchanged. More often than not since, there have been compensation increases. But there have been pay cuts when the state was in fiscal straits. Legislators there earn $100,000 a year, tops in the nation. Rank-and-file Minnesota legislators rank 19th in base pay among the 39 states that provide an annual salary, according to a survey this year by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Financial hardship is one reason five-term Rep. Kim Norton, DFL-Rochester, is giving up her seat in the Legislature. When Norton first ran, she figured shed scale back to part-time at her nonprofit job and it would all work out. But she left the job after her first session because she found it impossible to do both well. Norton got another outside job but resigned that post after yet another late-evening floor session caused her to miss a critical event. More recently, she said she had a tough time qualifying for better home mortgage terms because of her income and the lenders impression that her job was only temporary. You dont run for legislator to make money. That should never be and certainly in our state isnt one of the reasons people would ever run for office, she said. But you shouldnt be hurt financially when you are trying to serve your community as well. Sen. Torrey Westrom, R-Elbow Lake, opposed the bill that put the question on the fall ballot. He considers the wording to be deceptive. I think the concern is that voters will see it as a way to say no to pay raises or what they might perceive as pay raises for legislators, he said. But if they vote for the amendment, they will actually be voting to put this in a third-partys hands, making it probably easier for pay raises to go through. Lets start with two premises: (1) Wisconsins 111-year-old civil service system set up government employees to have more job protection and security than private-sector workers, and (2) it also served the necessary purpose of guarding against politicians feathering nests by filling all those jobs with partisan cronies. In the private sector an employer has a lot of leeway when it comes to hiring and firing in Wisconsin. In the case of an employees poor performance let alone gross misconduct or deliberate malfeasance a company can show the individual the door relatively fast. Thats as it should be, because companies live or die on the abilities and integrity their workers bring to the job site every day. Poor performance or disruptive behavior by the few can undermine the job security of the many. Employers must have the flexibility to make decisions. While we understand the public sector and the private sector are different in many ways the primary difference, of course, is the public sector does not have to succeed and earn its money; it takes what it wants in taxes that does not mean government management has no need for flexibility in the workplace. Taxpayers want government to be well run and frugal with a buck. To do so managers need to be able to prune deadwood from the payroll. In any organization, people are the difference makers. And in any organization there are top performers, average performers and below-average performers. The below-average performers should be challenged to raise their game or move on. And those who commit serious infractions in the workplace should be removed from the payroll expeditiously without the months of delays so typical in the public sector. If reforming work rules set down more than a century ago helps accomplish that goal, taxpayers should cheer. Granted, it would be easier to cheer if people could trust politicians to do the right thing. Civil service rules originally were put in place because scheming politicians, when they gained power, would throw out all their predecessors workers and replace them with their own cronies. Then, the next time power changed from one party to the other, the process would repeat. Government workers owed their livelihood to partisan allegiance rather than stellar performance. That kind of political corruption must be guarded against, and with proper safeguards that can be accomplished. The Walker administration is still writing rules for the reforms, which began to take effect Friday. Reading the fine print will be necessary. But the overall purpose is a good one. More flexibility for management should mean higher standards and improved performance from government. If that happens, taxpayers win. HORICON The dog days of summer have arrived, and a number of events at Horicon Marsh Education and Visitor Center in July will give visitors an opportunity to soak in the sunshine. Each July event is free of charge and does not require advance registration. And, dont forget to check out the education and visitor centers new Explorium at N6625 Highway 28. Head to Horicon in July for a number of fun-filled events for all ages. July 5, 1-2 p.m.Wetland Food Webs Participants will learn more about the diverse food web at Horicon Marsh, including predator and prey relationships and the role played by plants, animals and insects. This event is perfect for kids of all ages. July 7, 6:30-8 p.m.Martin Mania Martin Mania will explain why purple martins are dependent on man-made structures, and what humans can do to help. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources staff will explain the life cycle, biology and species status for these colorful birds and lead a tour to check out purple martin houses and monitor nesting progress. If conditions permit, licensed bird bander Dick Nikolai will capture, band and release purple martins for scientific study. July 12: 10-11 a.m.Meet Curly the Mammoth Head to Horicon July 12 and meet Horicons resident mammoth, Curly. Participants will learn more about giant beasts that once roamed the marsh, including what happened to the Ice Age creatures of the past, how were they used as game animals, and how hunting has evolved since the time of the glaciers. This event is perfect for kids of all ages. July 14, 10-11 a.m.Stories at the Marsh Join a DNR conservation educator for a Mammoth Madness themed storytelling and craft-making session at the Horicon Marsh Education and Visitor Center. This event is best for children ages 1 to 10. For more information contact Liz Herzmann at 387-7893 or via email at Elizabeth.Herzmann@wisconsin.gov. MADISONMost public schools in Wisconsin will get more state aid for next school year, but in Dodge County area, aid estimates are a mixed bag. The state Department of Public Instruction released new figures Friday showing that 61 percent of schools will see an increase. That is 260 out of 424 districts. Aid as budgeted will go up just over $108 million to about $4.6 billion. The numbers will be adjusted and on Oct. 15 districts will be told of their certified aid amounts for the year. Most schools will get more aid even though all districts will have aid cut 1.4 percent, or $64 million, to pay for students enrolled in independent charter schools. The aid estimates dont account for deductions individual districts will see to pay for students attending private voucher schools outside of Milwaukee. Columbus, Waupun and Randolph are estimated to see substantial increases in aid, while Cambria-Friesland and Hustisford will see substantial decreases. The estimated changes for local districts are listed below with the amount in parentheses an estimate of the total dollar change: Beaver Dam, .21 percent ($43,795) Cambria-Friesland, -6.13 percent (-$134,937) Columbus, 4.77 percent ($301,758) Dodgeland, -.79 percent (-$47,055) Fall River, 1 percent ($32,667) Horicon, 1.64 percent ($79,918) Hustisford, -6.71 percent (-112,237) Mayville, -1.37 percent (-$89,273) Randolph, 12.15 percent ($405,286) Waupun, 6.03 percent ($677,990) As I write this letter I want to clearly state that I am writing as a citizen and taxpayer of the township of Fox Lake and not as a supervisor on the town board of Fox Lake. There is a very important meeting coming up in the town of Fox Lake where a vote will be taken to retain local zoning authority. The meeting will be at 1 p.m. July 9, at the town hall on Highway F. It is a meeting where the electors of the town can vote (electors meaning those who vote at the town hall in Fox Lake in state and national elections). Those who normally cast absentee ballots through the Fox Lake town clerks office are qualified to vote at this meeting. Why the meeting? A petition was circulated asking for the meeting where the vote to keep or give all zoning back to Dodge County will be cast. Those asking for the meeting, by signing the petition, are saying that there is a duplication of zoning between Dodge County and Fox Lake Township on properties within 1,000 feet of a lake or 300 feet of a river. Nothing could be more untrue. Yes, a person does need a land use permit from both the county and the town, but those land use permits regulate different things. The county permit only regulates setback to water, height, impervious surface, vegetative buffers, filling, grade and dredging activities and minimum lot size. The town permit regulates side and rear yard setback, street setback and uses allowed by the town zoning code which is very detailed. The height of structures within 75 feet of the water is regulated by the county, but beyond that in the 1,000 feet from a lake and 300 feet from a river is regulated by the town. This means if you have a view of the lake from across the street, but are within the 1000 feet of the lake, it would be doubtful that a high-rise building would be permitted on the shore of the lake in front of you . The town zoning carefully watches the integrity of neighborhoods. Also Act 41 passed in July of 2015 created new language in the state statues, explicitly stating that towns can have their general zoning in the shoreland areas with the caveat that the town and the county will not regulate the same matter therein. It has also been stated by the group who circulated the petition that over $18,000 has been paid out since the town began using a professional zoning administrator. That amount has been $15,450 since July 2015 for creating the land use packet, issuing proper land use permits and answering inquiries made by the general public to him. It is interesting that the town lost $18,303.45 between 2013 when the zoning code was adopted and July 2015 in fees for land use permits that should have been given. Not only has the town lost money in the past because of the lack of a zoning administrator who knows what he is doing, but so have citizens. An example of this is two property owners were given building permits by the town building inspector, but wrong information. One built a structure too close to Highway 33 and the other built a structure too close to Dodge County Highway F. The fines levied on them by the county were substantial and could have been entirely avoided if the town had been working with a zoning administrator who would have given the property owners the correct information. Some farmland in the town of Fox Lake lies in shoreland areas. The Wisconsin Towns Association has said about Farmland Preservation Credits: If there is no town zoning authority, then there is no exclusive agricultural zoning so then no farmers in the shoreland areas should receive those credits for Farmland Preservation. State agencies confirm in writing that they would cease making those payments in the affected areas. The Town Board of Fox Lake had worked very hard to create farmland preservation areas in the town zoning. I urge the voters of Fox Lake Town to come forward and vote on July 9 at 1 p.m. in the town hall of Fox Lake and support the town in retaining its zoning authority. From the time that voters wanted town zoning authority until they got it took nine years. It is not a quick process and if it is given up, to get it back in the future will take redoing a comprehensive revision of the code at the county level. For the well-being and growth of the town of Fox Lake it is critical that local zoning authority be kept. If you come to vote at the meeting it might be good to know that a vote of YES will end town zoning and a vote of NO will keep it. It seems so interesting that those pushing for this change were in control when the zoning code was passed. I have to ask myself, Why does the previous elected clerk/treasurer (leader of the group) want this change? He signed it in 2013. For those circulating the petition I have to ask, What do you want? Why are you concerned that there be less control at the town level? And lastly, is there fear that something might be uncovered in the future that would point to mismanagement in the past of the town and its resources? Julie Flemming, Town of Fox Lake property owner Anger seems to have become the American currency. We are equal opportunity haters: we can hate up the economic ladder and down the economic ladder. We are angry with wealthy businessmen and we are angry with poor immigrants. And the media loves it. Angry stories about injustices sell much better than feel-good stories about human kindness. Anger is too often paired with blame. Then we are swept into the eternal cycle of retribution, and eye for an eye, the Im not going to let you get away with that! response. This is a classic American reaction; maybe it has grown out of our Wild West days when real men shot each other in the street or brawled with each other in bars. Anger is actually a very unproductive emotion. The ancient Greeks and Romans considered it unmanly, childish and weak. Only when it is channeled into positive change does it serve any good purpose. Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and leaders of their caliber took anger, their own and the communitys, and turned it into movements for change. Bernie Sanders, for all his arm waving and ranting, is trying to use anger as fuel for social change. The things he is angry about are what he would call social ills, injustices that could and should be corrected. He is not angry with any specific group of people, except possibly our ineffective Congress. Sanders is angry about the fact that 20 percent of American children live in poverty. He is angry that many people cannot afford either health care or college. The looming danger in this country is that the American people will vote out of anger this fall, and thereby wound our basic principles such as Liberty and justice for all. We can watch the result of a vote spurred by anger in Great Britain. Their vote to leave the European Union is already surprising them with its unfortunate consequences. I think that anger is generated by feelings of helplessness, and by fear. Often, what we fear, we hate. Many Americans, particularly middle class and poor people, feel helpless to make a good life for themselves and their children, and that stirs anger in them and anger looks for who to blame. If we will only let our anger transform into an attitude of Lets do something about this! instead of seeking to attach blame somewhere, we will make America stronger, more compassionate and with equal opportunities for all. I think Martin Luther King would say, Brothers and sisters lay your anger down. We have work to do! [July 01, 2016] IEEE-USA Disaster Relief Vehicle Assisting West Virginia Flood-Recovery Efforts WASHINGTON, July 1, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With areas of West Virginia ravaged by torrential rains and flooding, the IEEE-USA MOVE vehicle was called into action by the American Red Cross to aid struggling residents in the face of tragedy. The West Virginia flooding has left 26 people dead. Thousands are homeless and without power and other utility services. As many as 60 roads are closed. A number of houses torn from their foundations suffered ruptured natural gas lines. Many caught fire and exploded. "In a matter of minutes, raging flood waters displaced people and dramatically altered their lives. Even now, the water lines on the trees show the incredible depth of the historic flooding," MOVE program director Mary Ellen Randall said. "As IEEE volunteers we are honored to lend a hand to the recovery efforts." The MOVE truck is in the areas surrounding Charleston, W.Va. It is the vehicle's first disaster-relief deployment. Its three primary functions are: Keeping relief workers' cell phones charged Bringing much-needed technology assetsto the field Providing temporary technology infrastructure so people can connect and communicate "Because of the MOVE truck, the Red Cross can bridge the communication gap for folks in the middle of this disaster," said Barry Porter, regional chief executive officer of the Red Cross in Eastern North Carolina. "People can use the vehicle's Internet to connect family members, and its generator is able to charge cell phones and laptops. "IEEE is helping the Red Cross to alleviate some stressors for folks in an emergency situation." IEEE-USA volunteers were asked Saturday to bring MOVE to West Virginia. They arrived Sunday night and have been assisting other volunteers from around the country. The vehicle only travels to disaster areas at the request of the Red Cross. It made its public debut in early April. The MOVE Community Outreach initiative is funded by IEEE-USA and the IEEE Foundation. Donations to cover operating costs are welcome. https://ieeefoundation.org/move. For more on MOVE see http://ieeeusa.org/volunteers/outreach/ and www.facebook.com/ieeeusamove/. IEEE-USA serves the public good and promotes the careers and public policy interests of nearly 200,000 engineering, computing and technology professionals who are U.S. members of IEEE. Web: www.ieeeusa.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/ieeeusa Twitter: www.twitter.com/ieeeusa Benefits of IEEE membership: www.ieee.org/join Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160701/385748 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150814/258612LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ieee-usa-disaster-relief-vehicle-assisting-west-virginia-flood-recovery-efforts-300293396.html SOURCE IEEE-USA (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [July 01, 2016] Technavio Announces Top Seven Vendors in the Global Signal Generator Market from 2016 to 2020 Technavio has announced the top seven leading vendors in their recent global signal generator market report. This market study also lists four segments that are expected to impact the market during the forecast period. Competitive vendor landscape According to the report, the global signal generator market is characterized by the presence of well-diversified international, regional, and local vendors. The new local vendors in the market are facing intense competition from international vendors in terms of quality, durability, reliability, and technological innovations. The competitive environment in this market will intensify as international players are acquiring regional or local players. "Prominent vendors like Keysight Technologies, National Instruments, Agilent (News - Alert) Technologies, Anritsu, B&K Precision, Keithley Instruments, Rohde & Schwarz, and Tektronix are trying to endure the growing competition in the market by investing significantly to upgrade their technological capabilities to attract new customers," says Sunil Kumar Singh, lead semiconductor equipment analyst from Technavio. The report also states that despite the presence of some established players, end-users continue to lack a proper understanding regarding the signal generator's function and its use. As a result, the manufacturers need to impart proper training to end-users. Request sample report: http://goo.gl/koJ9NZ Top seven signal generator market vendors Keysight Technologies Keysight Technologies is one of the leading vendors offering a wide selection of signal generators from baseband to 67 GHz. The company offers frequency extension of up to 1.1 THz. The products also address the requirements for design and manufacture of radio transceivers and its components and applications with a range of low-frequency navigation signals for the radar and satellite systems. The products offer synthesized frequency accuracy and stability along with high-level accuracy and remote programmability. Rohde & Schwarz The baseband, microwave, and RF signal generators from Rohde & Schwarz perform exclusively in terms of signal quality, usability, and flexibility. The company's generators offer a wide range of frequency (up to 43.5 GHz), modulation bandwidth up to 2 GHz, and support all major communications and digital wireless standards. Test and measurement, broadcasting, secure communications, radio monitoring, and IT security are the five product segments of Rohde & Schwarz. The test and measurement segment focuses on designing, manufacturing, and marketing of a wide range of electronic test and measurement equipment. The company is one of the leading manufacturers of test and measuremnt equipment. It partners with key industries to undertake test and measurement tasks in radio communications. National Instruments (News - Alert) National Instruments' signal generators include versatile AWGs, RF vector signal generators, and function generators. The user can improve the prototyping and test systems with world-class performance and high system throughput by integrating the signal generators. The signal generators can generate simple sine and clock signals and complex modulated communications waveforms. Anritsu (News - Alert) Anritsu provides wireless and wired equipment solutions for RF, optical fiber test, and microwave and monitoring systems like protocol test solutions and complete RF production management and quality assurance systems for the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries. Its products include X-ray, checkweighers for food processing lines, inspection systems for eradicating metal fragments, stones, and other materials required in the food processing process. The company provides communications and information solutions such as river management procedures and bandwidth controllers for network consistency and remote monitoring systems for waterworks. It serves financial institutions and video providers. It also offers fiber optical and ultra-high-speed devices for communication. In addition, the company is involved in welfare services, real estate leasing, and logistics. The company's network of channel partners and distributors includes Absolute Analysis, Hutton, Metric Test, Primus Electronics, Talley, TestMart, and Toronics. It has R&D facilities in the US, Europe, and Japan. Tektronix (News - Alert) Tektronix's product portfolio includes power analyzers, digital multi-meters, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, bit error rate testers, protocol analyzers, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, RF power meters, frequency counters, and timers, DC power supplies, coherent optical solutions, video test, probes and accessories, and Keithley products. It also offers different technologies like a memory test, Ethernet, mobile high-definition link (MHL), peripheral component interconnect (PCI (News - Alert)) express, USB, thunderbolt, and display port. In the signal generator market, the company focuses on minimizing production costs by improving the production efficiency and reducing administrative expenses. It also focuses on three pillars: innovation, efficiency, and sustainability. Innovation refers to the continuous development of its existing products, refinement of its products, and improvement of its manufacturing processes and services to its customers. Tektronix has introduced TSG4100A series and entered crowd market for RF signal generators. The company has announced models with frequencies of 2 GHz, 4 GHz, and 6 GHz. Each model is available, as an analog generator, with upgrades that add digital modulation. Giga-tronics Giga-tronics, a signal generator manufacturer, has been solving the radar and electronic warfare issues. Apart from signal generators, the company also manufactures other test and measurement equipment like oscilloscope and broadband switching matrices. In November 2015, the company received an order of $1.4 million for advanced signal generators such as an arbitrary waveform generator. BK Precision BK Precision offers high-performance programmable generators, which are integrated for testing digital systems and circuits. These systems and circuits are based on transistor-transistor logic (TTL), complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS), or electro chemi-luminescence (ECL) technologies. The instrument from the organization generates clean and accurate pulses (up to six digits) and high resolution with a repetition rate up to 50 MHz. Browse Related Reports: Global Holter Monitors Market 2016-2020 Global Satellite Transponder Market 2016-2020 Global General Purpose Test Equipment Market 2015-2019 Do you need a report on a market in a specific geographical cluster or country but can't find what you're looking for? Don't worry, Technavio also takes client requests. Please contact [email protected] with your requirements and our analysts will be happy to create a customized report just for you. 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/20160701005022/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] China News on Women Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home page Two protesters against the French governments labour law, university student Manon Chelmy, 22, and high school student Jules, 18, both from Amiens, were tried on June 10 and then sentenced to 90 hours of community service after a protest at Amiens town hall. The public prosecutor had called for harsh five-year prison sentences for the two youth. This attempt failed, but they were not acquitted of the charges of wilful damage to public property and wilful violence against persons in a position of public authority. The judgment, as well as the sentence demanded by the public prosecutor, are part of a vast repressive offensive carried out by the Socialist Party (PS), to try to intimidate mass opposition among youth and workers to Labour Minister Myriam El Khomris law. Three quarters of the population oppose the law. In desperation, the PS wants to terrorise anyone trying to build a movement against its policies or attempting to defend themselves against the CRS riot police by threatening them with harsh sentences in the courts. Manon and Jules took part in a peaceful occupation of the council chamber in the Amiens town hall where over 100 opponents of the labour law held a debate for four hours. The authorities sent in a large contingent of CRS who cleared the chamber, using batons. Manon and Jules tried to defend themselves from the CRS assault by throwing desk microphones at them. There was not the slightest injury caused to the riot police.(See video ) On May 11, Manon and Jules were identified at another demonstration and were detained for 24 hours. From the beginning of March, when the mass student protests against the El Khomri law gathered pace, members of the domestic intelligence services (RG) had told Manon that she was beginning to get known because she was very active at the start of the movement. The police conducted searches at Manons and Jules homes. They paid special attention to political material they found, and took photos of their books. Manon is a member of the Stalinist youth organisation, the Young Communists (JC). Jules described himself at the trial as not belonging to any organisation but as a citizen who fights for his ideas. Ive been on many demos and occupations. Ive never got into a fight with the CRS. At the trial, Manon said in her defence, I tried to defend my comrades who were being subjected to police violence. They were armed and we were unarmed. They tear gassed the chamber. ... Nobody wanted three of us to end up in hospital. Her lawyer stressed that gas was sprayed and beating with batons carried out before any microphones were thrown. He added: If we allow this, it means that the police can beat people with impunity. In her summing-up, the public prosecutor insisted on qualifying the occupation as a mob and not a demonstration, so as to circumvent the constitutional right to demonstrate. Theyre like people who stay in the rain and are then surprised that theyve got wet, she added. The CRS did their job after the two warnings. There was no alternative to using their batons because they refused to go. Well documented political and historical differences separate the WSWS and Trotskyism from the Stalinist French Communist Party (PCF) and the JC. However, the WSWS opposes repression of these youth and a trumped-up legal procedure designed to terrorise mass opposition to the hated austerity policies of the government. Jules and Manon were not acquitted. They will have to face a civil trial in October and risk having to compensate the town hall for the damage caused by the CRS brutal intervention. The qualitative development of the PS intensified police and judicial offensive against the working class began with the imposition of the state of emergency by President Francois Hollande after the November 13, 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris and will be prolonged at least until the end of July. These events fully justify the WSWS analysis, which stressed that the imposition of the state of emergency was not principally directed against the Islamist terrorist networkswhich serve NATOs foreign policy in Syria in any casebut rather against popular opposition in France. The aim is to impose police state conditions. Indeed, the government immediately used it during the Paris Climate Conference in November-December 2015 to carry out hundreds of house searches and house arrests against people who had no criminal record. It did so again in May and June this year against protests against the El Khomri law, placing dozens of people under house arrest and banning them from participating in demonstrations. Thus, in Nantes, according to FSU teacher union sources, 18 people have been banned from demonstrations until the end of the state of emergency. In January this year, eight trade unionists who had been fighting the closure of the Goodyear tyre factory in Amiens in 2014, were condemned to nine months in prison for having boss-napped two management officials of the company for 30 hours without mistreating them. This is a familiar tactic in France during industrial disputes. Austrias Constitutional Court ruled Friday that the second round of Austrias presidential election was invalid and must be repeated. On May 22, Alexander Van der Bellen, the former chair of the Greens, defeated Norbert Hofer (Austrian Freedom Party, FPO) by just 30,863 votes. The candidates of the two governing parties, the Social Democrats (SPO) and Austrian Peoples Party (OVP), had been eliminated in the first round. Van der Bellens victory was secured only by the counting of the 740,000 mail-in votes. Hofer held a lead after the counting of the votes. The FPO subsequently challenged the result due to irregularities and the challenge has been sustained by the countrys highest court. Over the past week, 14 constitutional judges questioned 90 witnesses over five days and confirmed a number of formal mistakes. For example, the postal votes were already counted in a number of districts on Sunday, election day, even though this is only permitted to take place from 9 a.m. on Monday. In part, votes were counted without the presence of the entire electoral authority, which is a requirement. The Constitutional Court came to the conclusion that there had been irregularities in the conducting of the postal vote with a total of 77,926 postal ballots affected. By contrast, the court did not confirm any electoral manipulation or fraud. In many electoral districts, the FPO were themselves responsible for the irregularities. However, it was insignificant if manipulations actually occurred, the courts ruling stated, if the errors reach a scope capable of influencing the outcome of the election. Court president Gerhart Holzinger said that the ruling was aimed at strengthening trust in the rule of law and democracy. The decision did not make anyone a winner or a loser. Nonetheless, the FPO celebrated the ruling as a success. The right-wing extremist party will thus receive a second chance to gain control of the highest post in the Austrian state. Van der Bellens appointment to the post of president was originally planned for July 8. The three-person presidium of the National Council, which includes FPO candidate Hofer, will now take over official responsibilities of the president. Hofer has already declared that he will not relinquish this responsibility during the election campaign. Van der Bellen declared he respected the ruling of the Constitutional Court. He rejected speculation that he would not stand again for election, and declared he was sure of victory. Of course I will stand in the re-run of the election, and I intend to win it for a second time, he said. The run-off is set to be repeated either on September 25 or October 2. After the decision by British voters to support Brexit, the possibility that a far right opponent of the European Union could assume the post of president in Vienna will further contribute to the crisis and destabilisation of the EU. Bahrains interior ministry announced last week that the ruling Sunni monarchy had decided to strip top Shiite Muslim cleric Ayatollah Isa Qassim of his citizenship. It is part of a broader crackdown on all opposition and the Shia community in particular. The decision, which carries the imprimatur of Bahrains Saudi backers, has further inflamed sectarian tensions within the Gulf States and with Iran, which were already running high over the ongoing civil wars in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. The interior ministry claimed that Qassim had played a major role in creating an extremist sectarian environment and worked on dividing society and had abused his position to serve foreign interests [a reference to Iran] and promote... sectarianism and violence. It is also investigating a $10 million bank account registered in Qassims name, provoking outrage from senior clerics who oppose any attempts to interfere with the Shia practice of collecting a tax called khum. Following a change in the law in 2014, Bahrainis can be stripped of their citizenship for any actions deemed harmful to the kingdoms national interests, which in practice means the interests of the Khalifa royal family. Revocation of citizenship that would render a person stateless is illegal under international law. The ruling clique have also introduced a new law banning religious leaders from membership of political groups, making it clear that it is not just the Shia who are the target of the clampdown but Sunni as well. The move opens the way for Qassim, who was born in Bahrain in the 1940s, to be deported. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Bahraini authorities have stripped at least 250 people, mainly human rights defenders, political activists, journalists, academics and religious scholars, of their citizenship. The vast majority have been Shia. Many of those who have lost their citizenship became stateless and were subsequently deported. The clerics supporters took to the streets throughout the tiny island kingdom, with thousands shouting Down with [King] Hamada crime punishable by a prison sentenceand staged a sit-in outside his house. There were clashes in some villages between his supporters and the security forces, including the National Guard that had been widely deployed in anticipation of unrest. Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaking on state television, said, This is blatant foolishness and insanity. When he still could address the Bahraini people, Sheikh Isa Qassim... would advise against radical and armed actions. He added that it would provoke a rebellion by young Shiites, who make up the majority in the Sunni-ruled kingdom. The revocation of Qassims citizenship comes as the authorities brought forward court proceedings aimed at closing down the main Shiite opposition al-Wefaq Islamic Society, defying United States and UN calls for the ban to be dropped. Earlier this month, the court suspended all al-Wefaqs activities and froze its assets. The al-Wefaq bloc was the largest in parliament until its members withdrew in protest at the brutal suppression of the 2011 mass pro-democracy protests by Bahrainis across the religious divide. The demonstrations called for an end to the corrupt practices of the ruling family and sectarian discrimination, an equitable distribution of the countrys wealth and democratic elections. The Khalifa ruling family, unable to crush the protests with their own forces, called in military support from the Saudi monarchy, with which they have close family ties, and the Gulf Cooperation Council to shore up their rule. Riyadh will countenance no compromise with the Shia-based opposition or parliamentary elections that might lead to them gaining power, as happened in Iraq. Its key aim is to prevent the spread of unrest to Saudi Arabia, which is linked to Bahrain by a causeway, and the rest of the Gulf States, all of which face dissent from their own impoverished masses. To this end, it has employed a divide-and-rule policy whipping up sectarian tensions against the Shia, who form the majority in the oil producing regions. Since the 2011 demonstrations, there have been almost daily skirmishes between Shiite youths and security forces, as well as several bomb attacks. Sunnis have also formed their own political movements with their own demands for higher wages and political representation, leading the authorities to redraw the electoral boundaries in 2014 to the disadvantage of their candidates. Last month, the courts more than doubled a four-year prison sentence on al-Wefaqs leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, for inciting violence. Last week, the authorities re-arrested prominent rights campaigner Nabeel Rajab on two charges of criticising the government, while dozens of activists were banned from travelling overseas to attend the 32nd UN human rights session in Geneva. Rajab is one of Bahrains most well-known human rights known activists, having established Bahrains Centre for Human Rights. He has served several jail terms for his activities. Another activist, Zainab al-Khawaja, was forced to flee the country after being threatened with re-arrest and indefinite separation from her children. Just weeks earlier, she was released from prison following international condemnation of her incarceration for tearing up a picture of King Hamad. The stepped-up repression takes place amid the devastating impact of the slide in oil prices on government revenue and the pressure to increase public spending since the Arab uprisings of 2011. While Bahrain has little oil, its financial services-based economy has been badly hit by the political turbulence, leading to a budget deficit every year since 2011. In May, the international credit ratings agency Moodys downgraded Bahrains debt following a budget deficit equal to 13 percent of GDP that is expected to rise, generating a government debt of 100 percent of GDP in 2019, up from 44 percent in 2013. This is despite the removal of subsidies that has led to dramatic increases in the price of food, water and electricity. This has been combined with public sector job losses and increases in taxes that have hit poor Bahrainis across the sectarian divide. Poverty is set to increase with the introduction of Gulf-wide VAT, higher charges for government services and changes to pension benefits. The two other ratings agencies, Standard and Poors and Fitch, have also downgraded Bahrains debt, with the latter downgrading it to junk status this week. Bahrains interest payments this year could reach 27 percent of budgetary revenue, up from 16 percent in 2015. More than one-quarter of public spending goes on defence and security, much of which is purchased from the US, whose Naval Forces Central Command and Fifth Fleet are based in Bahrain, and Britain, which routinely turns a blind eye to human rights abuses. The head of Britains armed forces was in Bahrain the day after the kingdom revoked Qassims citizenship. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammonds last visit to Bahrain on May 30, when he welcomed Bahrains commitment to continuing reforms, took place the same day al-Wefaq leader Sheikh Ali Salmans prison sentence was increased. Two years ago, London agreed a deal with Manama to build a new naval base in the country, which according to a Freedom of Information request from the Bahrain Institute of Rights and Democracy, will largely be funded by Bahrain. Earlier this year, it was revealed that British naval commandos were training Bahraini security forces in sniping techniques. On 22 June, 1941, the German Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union without warning and initiated a war of annihilation that took the lives of 27 million Soviet citizens. In Germany, the 75th anniversary of this historic crime is taking place against the background of new preparations for war by NATO against Russia. In ongoing maneuvers, German tanks are once again rolling toward the Russian border. At the same time, the criminal character of the 1941 attack on the Soviet Union, called Operation Barbarossa by the Nazi regime, is being minimized. The German government has refused to organize any form of official commemoration of one of the greatest crimes in human history. President Joachim Gauck did not regard the anniversary of the attack as a reason to travel to Russia. Instead, he visited Romania and Bulgaria. In the hour-long debate held by the Bundestag (parliament) to mark the anniversary, superficial and empty professions of German guilt for the horrors of the Eastern campaign were overshadowed by aggressive rhetoric against Russia. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier accused Russia of breaking the Helsinki Final Act with its annexation of Crimea. He urged a strong German defence readiness and demanded that military capabilities be adapted to the changed security situation. Christian Democratic Union (CDU) parliamentary deputy Elisabeth Motschmann accused Russia of regarding war as a political instrument of foreign policy. Germany had to remain ready to defend itself by means of the Bundeswehr (German military) and NATO. Left Party deputy Gregor Gysi attacked Russia for the annexation of Crimea contrary to international law. Three-quarters of a century after German imperialism reduced the continent of Europe to ruins, Germanys ruling elite is reviving its militarist traditions. That it is using the anniversary of Operation Barbarossa for this purpose is cynical and criminal in the extreme. At the beginning of 2014, Steinmeier, Gauck and Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen announced the end of [German] military restraint . This return to military great power politics required that the monstrous crimes of German imperialism be glossed over. Hence the turn to historical falsification. For example, Green Party parliamentary deputy Marieluise Beck said at the beginning of her speech in the Bundestag that the Second World War was initiated not only by Germany, but also by the Soviet Unions invasion of Poland. Christian Social Union (CSU) deputy Alois Karl even called the Soviet Union an aggressor that had made common cause with the Nazi regime in the division of Central and Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. He quoted an elderly lady from Latvia, according to whom both aggressive regimes were responsible for the victims in her home country. Stalins crimes were used to downplay Germanys war guilt and the bestial nature of the war of annihilation. This was stated even more bluntly in an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung on 20 June. Nikolai Klimeniouk accused Steinmeier of referring to the Germans as perpetrators as if Nazi Germany had invaded the peaceful Soviet Union in an ahistorical space outside any context. Klimeniouk made the Soviet Union responsible for the civilian and military victims of the German attack. The high death toll of the USSR in the German-Soviet War was just as much due to the Soviet Union as the German aggressor, he wrote. The author directly combined this stunning historical falsification with a call to prepare for war against Russia, which he accused of continuing its Great Patriotic War up to the present day. Germany should not close its eyes to this military aggression or stand idly by and watch the abuse of a common traumatic history, Klimeniouk wrote. The falsification of history to justify the revival of German militarism could not be more brazen. To this end, Klimeniouk as well as a number of speakers in the Bundestag employed lies previously used only by far-right revanchist tendencies. After World War II, the Nazi myth that the German attack was mounted to forestall an imminent assault by the Soviet Union was maintained by right-wing circles in Germany. When historical research showed this argument to be completely baseless, Ernst Nolte provoked the so-called Historikerstreit (Historians Dispute) in 1986 with his claim that the war of annihilation had been an understandable response to the violence of the Bolsheviks. Nolte too has been thoroughly refuted. Those who now claim that the Soviet Union was an aggressor just like Nazi Germany build on these discredited myths. The Nazis racist war of extermination against the Soviet Union expressed the historic interests of German imperialism and international capitalism, which sought to destroy the Soviet Union and create Lebensraum in the East. Hitlers will to destruction, which he formulated in Mein Kampf in 1925, is meticulously documented. Stalins politics, unlike Hitlers, were not directed at imperialist conquest. Behind Stalins policies was the fear of the counterrevolutionary bureaucracy he headed that the Soviet proletariat might rise up against its rule. In the Great Terror of 1937-38, the Stalin regime had already liquidated the officer corps of the Red Army and the leaders of the 1917 October Revolution, severely weakening the Soviet Union. The bureaucracy no longer based the defence of the Soviet Union on the international working class, but rather on alliances with imperialist powers--first with France and England, and then, when these powers did not oppose Hitler at Munich, with Nazi Germany. Stalins 1939 pact with Hitler disoriented the international working class and facilitated Germanys long-planned attack on the Soviet Union. Despite this, after initial setbacks, the Red Army and the Soviet people mounted a heroic struggle. The counteroffensive of the Red Army that began in December of 1941 embodied the anti-fascist resistance of the Soviet masses and the international working class. The crushing blows delivered by the Red Army broke the back of the Wehrmacht and played the main role in Hitlers defeat. Knopp, Baberowski and Neitzel Today, to justify the Bundeswehrs present wars, this historical truth is under attack. Guido Knopp has taken up this task on public television. The right-wing historian and journalist, who studied under the revisionist historian Werner Maser, has long been known for his distortion of history on Germanys public channel number two (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen). On June 19, he focused his broadcast for the Phoenix news program on the theme: Operation Barbarossa--turning point in World War II? To this end, he invited two right-wing historians, Jorg Baberowski and Sonke Neitzel, as well as Kristiane Janeke. Baberowski is one of the leading representatives of German historical revisionism. In February 2014, he declared in an article in Der Spiegel: Nolte was wrongly treated. Historically speaking, he was right. In his own work, he implies that Stalin had considered an attack on Germany and that he and his generals had forced the Wehrmacht to adopt the methods of a war of annihilation. Neitzel also relativizes the crimes of German militarism. In January 2014, in the daily Die Welt, he claimed that Germany had pursued defensive objectives in the First World War. The discussion on the Phoenix program unfolded accordingly. At the very beginning, the host, Knopp, questioned whether the Eastern campaign had been planned as a war of extermination, something that had been generally deemed a historical and legal fact ever since the Nuremberg trials. Was it the implementation of Hitlers long-cherished plan of Lebensraum in the East, or was he reacting, first of all, to the war situation? asked Knopp. It was a bit of both, Neitzel said. There is always the question of whether we can really believe that Hitler had a plan. Knopp then went on to make the Soviet Union jointly culpable for the Nazis methods of destruction, saying, Barbarossa was conceived from the outset as a campaign of destruction, but as long as it lasted, this war was conducted brutally, yes, by both sides. A bloody spiral of violence. Had both sides mutually incited each other? Absolutely, replied Baberowski, and later added: The interesting thing is that the Bolsheviks--who had already shown this during the occupation of Poland--acted with very similar methods in the rear. Deporting imaginary enemies, collective stigmatization, weeding out entire groups of people from society. That was horrible in a different way, but it followed, so to speak, the same logic, the same principle. Baberowski went on to equate the actions of the Red Army with the planned racist extermination of European Jewry: To make this clear in an example: when the Wehrmacht conquered Rostov-on-Don in 1941, all the citys Jews were murdered. A little later, when the Red Army recaptured the city for a short time, all Germans and minorities suspected of collaborating with the Germans were killed. Not along social, but ethnic lines. Neitzel seized on this claim to argue that Soviet soldiers had served as a model for the Nazis in their extermination strategy. And partly, yes, even Goebbels said: We must learn from the Red Army The way the Red Army conducts war, there were perceptions, today we would speak of transfer history, how they do things, so radically, that is actually the way we have to do it. The participants in the programme inflated these outrageous historical falsifications to the point of asserting that one had to refute the myth that the Red Army liberated Eastern Europe and Germany. Was that liberation? asked Knopp. Mass rape, replacing one dictatorship with another. Not only in the Baltics, also in the GDR [East Germany]. Can one really objectively speak of liberation? Some claim, yes, the liberation began only on 9 November 1989 [the day East German officials opened the Berlin Wall]. We have decided for ourselves, in the self-representation of our state, that we want to see this as an act of liberation, Baberowski observed critically. The historian is the one who refutes the myth. We are not here to confirm a view of history by governments or societies. And then one would say: liberation, yes, for concentration camp inmates, yes. Not for Nazis, of which there were quite a few. There one would say, they were not liberated. Nor raped women. By citing cases of rape by Red Army soldiers, Baberowski sought to refute the myth that the Soviet army had liberated Europe from Nazi terror. This argument, and many others rolled out in the Phoenix broadcast, in the Bundestag and in the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, are the stock in trade of far-right circles. These same arguments are now being utilised to whitewash the crimes of German imperialism and prepare new wars. In a speech to business leaders Friday, John McDonnell, Labours shadow chancellor, called on the party to unite to prepare the basis for Britains exit from the European Union. His appeal for unity was an oblique reference to the right-wing putsch underway against party leader Jeremy Corbyn, in which most of the Labour shadow cabinet has resigned and the media has launched a ferocious campaign demanding that Corbyn stand down. Virtually every part of the party machinery is now in open revolt against Corbyn and the 60 percent of party members and supporters who elected him to head the party just nine months ago. Earlier this week, the parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) agreed a no-confidence motion by 172 to 40, and more than 60 shadow cabinet members have resigned in a bid to force Corbyn out. More than half of Labours 24 members of the Scottish Parliament have signed a statement calling on him to consider his position. A majority of Labours 20 members of the European Parliament have sent a letter demanding he stand down, and 540 Labour councillors have posted a letter on the LabourList web site rejecting his leadership. McDonnell made clear that neither he nor Corbyn would mount any real political challenge to this right-wing offensive. He specifically rejected any moves to deselect MPs involved in the putsch, saying that differences should be resolved by democratic means and amicably, so that the party could come back together. The main task facing Labour, he argued, was to draw up an economic blueprint to prepare for Britains exit from the EU. Referring to the 52 percent vote in favour of the Leave camp in the June 23 referendum, he indicated that Labour would not be part of parliamentary attempts (the majority of MPs were in favour of Remain) to veto a Brexit. The people have spoken and their decision must be respected, he said. Labour accepted that this meant freedom of movement of EU citizens to the UK would end, he acknowledged. Lets be absolutely clear on the immigration issue. If Britain leaves the European Union, the free movement of people, of labour, will then come to an end, he declared. Labour would try only to ensure that the rights of EU nationals currently working in the UKand UK nationals working in the EUwould continue after exit. The main plank of Labours red lines for a Brexit was ensuring access to the European single market, McDonnell said, adding that this was especially so in regard to maintaining the passporting status enjoyed by UK financial institutions, which enables unrestricted trade within the EU. While there is a need for fundamental reform for the City, neither should we just allow it to sink beneath the waves, he said, referring to Britains City of London banking centre. McDonnells pro-business pledges and pleas for Labours right wing to calm down for the sake of the party will achieve nothing. The right wing has been preparing to overturn Corbyns election since the day he won the party leadership contest, but it is the Brexit vote that provided the trigger for the current frontal attack. The claim is that despite his official support in the referendum for remaining in the European Union, Corbyn sabotaged the campaign for a Remain vote in line with his previous history of opposition to the EU. McDonnells indication that Labour will not try to prevent a Brexit will only further antagonise Corbyns opponents. The coup is being coordinated with the security services in Britain and the United States, which regard the Leave result as a threat to NATO and its military and geostrategic agenda, above all its aggressive drive against Russia. With all the frontrunners in the Conservative Party leadership contest committed to British withdrawal, having ruled out any prospect of a second referendum or an early general election, the highest echelons of the state have determined that a refashioned Labour Party is the best means of reversing the Leave vote. An early day motion presented to parliament by Labours Geraint Davies and Jonathan Edwards of Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales) calls for a second referendum on the terms agreed for a British exit from the EU. Writing in the Guardian, the house organ for the coup, Davies argued, Democracy is meant to reflect the settled view of the people after an informed choice. But many were not prepared for the shock result. Up to 1.1 million Leave voters regretted their decision, he said, citing a Survation opinion poll. As a result, the margin of victory in the referendum could be theoretically overturned by declared switchers in another vote. Davies accepted that the referendum could not be rerun, but insisted that people have the right to vote on the UK exit package negotiated with the EU and choose between accepting the UK exit package on offer or remaining in the EU. Writing in the Conservative Daily Telegraph Friday, former prime minister Tony Blair argued that Remain voters were disenfranchised, without a natural political home and, at least under Labours present leadership, alienated from either main political party. With the nation in peril, he wrote, the question was how to unite; how to protect and advance the UKs national interest; and specifically what is the right future relationship with Europe. The government had to delay invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which triggers negotiations on the UKs withdrawal from the EU, until there was agreement on Britains red lines and a detailed vision from the Leave leadership of what the new British economy they advocate really means. Blair continued, Above all, Britain should keep all our options open. This was not an argument for another referendum, he stated, but then added, Actually, the people do have a right to change their mind, but that is not for now. At this point, there appears to be little agreement within the right wing on how to effect their plans. Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson has called on MPs not to mount a challenge for leadership while he tries to get a negotiated settlement with Corbyns closest advisers that Corbyn stand down voluntarily, the Guardian reported Friday evening. Former shadow business secretary Angela Eagle has already delayed announcing her leadership bid out of concern that in the event of another contest, Corbyn might win again. A YouGov survey showed Corbyn retained the backing of a majority of Labour members, especially in comparison with any of his potential challengers. Eagle supported the Iraq war in 2003. She is just one of a number of Labour MPs expected to be criticised when the final report on the inquiry into the Iraq war, under Sir John Chilcot, is published next week. A further 60,000 new members have reportedly joined Labour in the last week, many of them thought to be pro-Corbyn, although the right wing is also attempting to mobilise support. Labours National Executive Committee is expected to rule soon on whether, in the event of a leadership contest, Corbyn should automatically go on the ballot. He does not have the support of the required number of MPs and MEPs to stand if it rules against. Whatever the specific manoeuvres chosen, what is underway is the preparation of the political mechanisms required by the bourgeoisie to enforce its interests against the working class. With senior Labour figures, including former shadow cabinet members Owen Smith (a potential leadership challenger) and Seema Malhotra, threatening a split if Corbyn is not removed, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron left open the possibility of forming a new party with Labours right wing. The referendum cut across party divisions, he said. I shared a platform with many people I wont embarrass by naming, he added, leading to the discovery that they shared more in common than just our belief that Britain should be in the European Union. Leading members of the Green Party have proposed cross-party talks with the Liberal Democrats, Labour and Plaid Cymru for an alliance of progressive parties directed against Tory plans for an ultra-right Brexit scenario. US Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced Friday that she will back whatever recommendations for prosecution the FBI makes based on its inquiry into Hillary Clintons use of a private e-mail server during her tenure as secretary of state. The investigation focuses on whether the Democratic Partys presumptive presidential nominee mishandled classified information. While the FBI makes recommendations on whether or not to prosecute, the final decision rests with the attorney general. It is uncommon, but not unprecedented, for the attorney general to overrule the recommendations of investigators. The timing of the announcement, made in the midst of the ongoing investigation, was aimed at dispelling the appearance of impropriety following Lynchs extraordinary private meeting on Monday with Hillarys husband, former president Bill Clinton, who talked with her for half an hour on her private plane as it sat parked on the tarmac of the airport in Phoenix, Arizona. An initial report on her decision, leaked to the New York Times by an anonymous Department of Justice (DoJ) official, declared that she would accept the determinations and findings of career prosecutors and lawyers as well as FBI investigators and director [James B.] Comey. Lynch confirmed the decision later in the morning during an on-stage interview with a Washington Post reporter at a conference in Aspen, Colorado. Lynch struck a remorseful pose over the optics of her meeting with Bill Clinton, the husband of the target of a Justice Department investigation. I certainly wouldnt do it again, she said. Because I think it has cast a shadow. The most important thing for me as attorney general is the integrity of this Department of Justice. And the fact that the meeting I had is now casting a shadow over how people will view that work is something that I take seriously and deeply and painfully. Lynch insists that her rendezvous with the former president was entirely coincidental and little more than a social call. However, the meeting has become a cause celebre among Republicans and the right-wing media, who suggested that Clinton met with Lynch to plea bargain on his wifes behalf and called on Lynch to recuse herself from the case in favor of a special prosecutor. However, given the fact that it was Bill Clinton who gave Lynch her first major appointment, as US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, the two competing narratives are not necessarily mutually exclusive: if Bill Clinton had intended to influence Lynchs decision in the case, a wink and a nod would have been all that was necessary. Lynchs announcement that she would accept the results of the FBI investigation does not come as a surprise. Given the politically inflammatory character of the case, especially in the aftermath of the meeting with Bill Clinton, for Lynch to move to overturn any recommendation that Clinton be prosecuted would only invite even more of a political firestorm. The case against Clinton for mishandling classified information is tenuous at best, as it would require demonstrating that Clinton knowingly provided classified information to unauthorized people, as former CIA Director David Petraeus did to his biographer and lover, Paula Broadwell, or that she demonstrated gross negligence by placing it on her private server. That being said, the declaration by Loretta Lynch that she will rubber-stamp an FBI decision has ominous, anti-democratic implications. The ostensible function of the attorney general, an appointee of the president, confirmed by the US Senate, is to provide civilian oversight over the federal police agencies, including acting as a check against runaway or vindictive prosecutions. Her withdrawal from that role only augments the unaccountable powers of the police. Lynchs decision effectively hands the FBI the ability to alter the outcome of a presidential election. On Friday evening, as this decision was being digested in Washington, NBC News reported that the FBI was going ahead with its long-planned interview of Hillary Clintonthe only significant witness in the case who has not yet testified under oathas early as this weekend. It is significant that in spite of the wall-to-wall coverage of the scandal, which has been ongoing for more than a year, there has been no focus, either in the media campaign or the federal investigation itself, upon the content of the e-mails, which document the criminal activities of American imperialism, including such actions as Clinton signing off on drone-missile assassination strikes in Pakistan. Rather, the main concern of the political establishment and the corporate media is that these communications took place through unofficial channels, where they could have been leaked to foreign governments, or far worse, to the American and world public. The Australian Labor Partys selection of Peter Khalil as its election candidate in the Melbourne electorate of Wills is another expression of Labors function as the most pro-US and pro-war parliamentary faction. The official election campaign has seen a blanket exclusion of any discussion of the escalating war danger in the Asia-Pacific, as US imperialism steps up its confrontation with China in the South China Sea and other flashpoints. Within military and foreign policy circles in both Canberra and Washington, however, it is understood that a change in government at the election could result in a more aggressive Australian stance. Labor Party defence spokesman Stephen Conroy has repeatedly denounced the Liberal-National government of Malcolm Turnbull for failing to authorise an Australian military deployment within Chinese-claimed territorial waters in the South China Sea. If elected on July 2, Khalil will be another voice within the Labor parliamentary caucus agitating for a confrontation with Beijing. Khalil has powerful allies within the Labor Party, including opposition leader Bill Shorten, who backed him in the inner-party pre-selection contest to replace retiring parliamentarian for Wills, Kelvin Thomson. Wills is regarded as one of Labors bell weather seats, and was formerly held by Prime Minister Bob Hawke. Khalil won pre-selection after being backed by the Australian Workers Union faction, and was endorsed by the Labor left in accordance with a stability pact between Labors rival factions in Victoria. Khalil is well known within Washington foreign policy, military, and diplomatic circles. In 2003, shortly after the US-led illegal invasion of Iraq, in which Australia joined the coalition of the willing, Khalil was working as an analyst within the Department of Defence in Canberra. He was deployed to Baghdad to work with the US occupation regime, serving for nine months as the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) director of national security policy. Khalil (of Egyptian Coptic background) used his knowledge of the Arabic language to assist the American occupiers. A brief biography later published by the Brookings Institution gives some sense of what Khalil did in this period: He was responsible for developing coalition strategy and policies for rebuilding the Iraqi security forces and institutions, facilitating the reintegration of militias, and establishing the national command authorities of the Iraqi interim government. Khalil regularly met with and briefed Ambassador Paul Bremer, the head of the CPA, as well as numerous coalition military commanders. He also served as the CPA security representative on the Iraqi Governing Councils National Security Committee, working closely with Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. His work involved travel across Iraq to consult and negotiate with the representatives of major Iraqi political parties, militia commanders, tribal sheikhs, religious leaders, and regional governors. In other words, Khalil worked to bolster the position of the US military authorities and their Iraqi stooges, while helping suppress Iraqi resistance to the occupation. After serving in Baghdad, Khalil continued to agitate for aggressive US operations aimed at establishing control over the devastated country. He was appointed a visiting scholar by the Brookings Institution in October 2004 and made multiple media appearances during his time in Washington, also testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. On November 8, 2004 he was interviewed on CNN just as the US military launched a renewed offensive against the Iraqi city of Fallujah. In April 2004, US forces had made a humiliating withdrawal from the city, after encountering fierce resistance from the local population. The November assault, dubbed Operation Phantom Fury, was a major war crime, with 10,000 US troops backed by fighter jets subjecting the citys people to a ruthless collective punishment. Much of Fallujah was levelled, and thousands of civilians were killed. In his CNN interview, Khalil provided an upbeat assessment of the situation, declaring that divisions among the insurgents represented some good news for the US troops going in. He added that reports of US Marines preparing for casualties in their own ranks was also good news because it indicated that they were prepared to be going through Fallujah, house by house, block by block, to flush out the insurgents, to flush out the terrorists. In December 2004, Khalil authored an op-ed piece for the New York Times, again denouncing those fighting the US-led occupation as comprising a relatively small number of Saddam Hussein loyalists, religious extremists and foreign terrorists. He argued for the formation of a special Iraqi-proxy force of 25,000 mobile counterterrorism units, light-infantry police battalions and SWAT teams that would operate at the pointy end of the spear. When he returned to Australia, Khalil was appointed as one of Labor leader Kevin Rudds advisers, shortly before Rudd was elected prime minister in 2007. A US diplomatic cable from April that year, later published by WikiLeaks, reported that Khalil assured embassy officials that Rudd, then opposition leader, was committed to a close relationship with the United States. The WikiLeaks cables also show that by 2009, after finishing his stint as a Rudd adviser, Khalil was a protected source of the US embassy in Canberra, that is, one of Washingtons many secret informants within the Labor Party. In September 2010, amid a debate within the Australian foreign establishment over how to respond to growing tensions between the US and China, Khalil weighed in to denounce any deviation from total support for Washington. In a statement co-authored with Michael Danby, a pro-Zionist Labor parliamentarian, and Carl Ungerer of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Khalil denounced as appeasement any attempt to recognise Beijings growing geostrategic influence in the region. The article, published in Murdochs Australian newspaper, declared that bowing to Beijing would be the modern equivalent of the Munich agreement. Describing China as a totalitarian power that seeks to extend hegemony over its neighbourhood as a means of protecting itself, Khalil and his co-authors demanded that Canberra stay loyal to our friends in the region [and] assist the US to maintain its role in the region. Anything else, he declared, amounted to appeasement, like the attempt by former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to placate Nazi Germany in the lead up to World War II. Khalil did not spell out the logical conclusion of his argumentthat in the name of stopping alleged Chinese expansionism, the US and its allies ought to prepare to launch World War III. Nevertheless, this is nevertheless what US imperialism is preparing to do, with the backing of the Australian Labor Party. Khalils record is a further warning of this. In the final analysis, his selection for parliament is a reflection of Labors long-standing role as the Australian ruling classs most determined and ruthless political instrument of militarism and war. To contact the SEP and get involved, visit our web site or Facebook page. Authorised by James Cogan, Shop 6, 212 South Terrace, Bankstown Plaza, Bankstown, NSW 2200. Asia South Korean airline pilots protest More than 100 Korean Air pilots rallied outside the carriers headquarters in Seoul on Tuesday in a dispute over a new work agreement. Some 1,900 members of the Korean Pilots Union (KPU) and the New Korean Air Pilots Union (NKAPU) have been maintaining work-to-rule action since voting for strike action in February. The unions want a 37 percent pay rise. The company has offered just 1.9 percent. Pilots want pay parity with their colleagues in other Asian airlines. According to the unions, 140 pilots left last year to join other companies in China and the Middle East where salaries are up to three times higher. Following Tuesdays demonstration Korean Air management formed a special disciplinary committee which demoted Lee Kyu-nam, the KPU leader, from a captain to a vice-captain over his role in the industrial campaign. The KPU said it will appeal the decision. More South Korean shipbuilding workers vote for strike Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) shipbuilding workers voted Tuesday to strike in protest against managements restructuring plan. About 92 percent of the 4,700 union members participating in the ballot voted for industrial action. The ballot followed votes for strike action early last month by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) and Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) workers. Union representatives affiliated with the Korean Metal Workers Union have yet to decide on a strike date. South Koreas top three shipbuildersDSME, HHI and SHIintend to sell off various business divisions to slash costs and reduce their workforces. SHI plans to cut about 1,500 jobs at the shipyard this year and sell non-core assets. DSME wants to slash wages by 20 percent, sell two of its five floating dry-docks and reduce its workforce to 10,000 positions. In early June South Korean President Park Geun-Hye called for bone-crushing overhauls of the three shipbuilding companies. Cambodian garment workers protest Over 400 workers from the Korean-owned Cambo TDG garment plant in Kampot protested outside the factory on Monday to demand the rehiring of 21 workers whose contracts had expired. A Cambodian Textile & Garment Workers Federation spokesman said most of them had been on three-month contracts, despite having worked at the company for more than two years. The union, which has accused the company of falsely claiming the workers were sacked because of a downturn in orders, has pointed out that the plant had already begun hiring replacements. One worker told the media that the 21 workers were sacked because they had helped other workers demand benefits from the company. India: Haryana power utility workers strike against privatisation Around 23,000 employees from Haryana state-run power utilities walked off the job for 48 hours on June 29 to demand an immediate end to the outsourcing of operation and maintenance jobs at 23 power sub-divisions. Workers ignored the governments invocation of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), which makes strike action illegal. Workers rejected government assurances that it would establish a three-member committee to negotiate with the workers representatives. The power workers said they would strike unless the government unconditionally accepted their demands. Bangladeshi jute mill workers demand wages Workers from nine state-owned jute mills in the Khulna-Jessore industrial belt have threatened to strike over several issues. These include non-payment of wages and festival bonuses and 20 percent dearness allowances if they were not paid before June 30. The jute workers also demanded allocation of funds for purchasing raw jute, the filling of all vacant positions and the establishment of a wages commission. Their action follows a ten-day strike by thousands of workers at the same state-owned mills in April. The strike ended after the government falsely promised to clear outstanding wage payments by April 25 and said that provident fund and gratuity arrears would be cleared by the cabinet. According to the union Oiykko Parishad, nearly 80,000 jute workers are living in abject poverty. Bangladeshi garment workers demand wages and festival allowance The Garments Sramik Odhikar Andolan, a combine of 12 garment workers rights bodies, on Tuesday appealed to the government and factory owners to pay delayed wages and a festival allowance before the Eid-ul-Fitre holiday. A workers representative said most of the garment factories did not pay wages and the festival allowance on the scheduled day fixed by the government. Workers complained that only 20 percent of factory owners have paid wages and bonuses on time. Sri Lankan immigration officers stop work Immigration and Emigration officers of Katunayake Bandaranaike International Air Port walked off the job on Tuesday to protest the instillation of an additional CCTV system in their working area without informing them. All international flights were delayed by the strike. The immigration workers resumed work after one hour on written assurances by management that the CCTV installation would be temporarily suspended. Sri Lankan indigenous health workers strike Following two-weeks of national demonstrations by workers and doctors at Auyfveda (indigenous) hospitals countrywide, workers and doctors at an Auyfveda (indigenous) hospital in Nawinna, on the outskirts of Colombo, walked off the job and protested outside the Health and Indigenous Medicine Department office on June 29. They were demanding the removal of a government-appointed chairman of the agency. Demonstrators climbed onto the office-buildings roof. Police escorted the chairman from the building. The walkout followed two-weeks of national demonstrations by Auyfveda (indigenous) hospital workers. The protests were in response to the departments false promise that special allowance arrears would be paid by early June. According to the All Ceylon Ayurveda Health Service Union, over 600 health workers, including doctors, are owed nearly 11,000 rupees ($US163) each. Union leaders had threatened to call an indefinite strike if the issue was not immediately resolved. Australia and the Pacific Western Australian coal miners strike over pay cut Seventy maintenance workers at the Griffin Coal mine in the Collie Basin in south-west Western Australia walked off the job for 24 hours on June 24 over a planned 43 percent pay cut. Their action follows a Fair Work Commission (FWC) ruling in favour of the companys move to scrap an existing enterprise agreement and force the maintenance workers onto the Black Coal Award, effective from July 10. The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) says that the maintenance workers would have their annual wages cut by $50,000, redundancies, basic entitlements and other allowances reduced and the abolition of various protective clauses. During 16 months of negotiations with the AMWU, Griffin Coal management demanded workers take a 26 percent pay cut and work an extra seven hours a week. The union has isolated the maintenance workers and is appealing the FWCs ruling, which is due to be heard on July 5. Melbourne brewery workers strike Fifty-four Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) maintenance workers held a 24-hour picket outside the Abbotsford plant in Melbourne to protest their dismissals. The 32 fitters and 22 electricians, who are members of the AMWU and the Electrical Trades Union respectively, were terminated on June 24 and replaced with contract labour on 65 percent lower base rate wages. While production has slowed to a trickle as the newly-recruited contract workers attempt to maintain and repair brewing, bottling and packaging machinery, the AMWU and ETU have isolated the sacked workers. A union spokesman said the company was offering the terminated mechanical fitters a $19.50 an hour base rate under a new non-union enterprise agreement. Some of workers had been employed at the plant for over 30 years. Twenty-two of 1,000 Leeds bus workers currently in a pay dispute at First Leeds have been suspended. The bus drivers and customer hosts struck for 24 hours on June 13 in pursuit of a pay increase of 36 pence per hour. First Leeds operates 63 of the Leeds bus routes. Although the details of the case have not been disclosed, either by the company or the Unite union, a worker told the World Socialist Web Site that the drivers had been disciplined for bringing the firm into disrepute, due to comments made on a private Facebook page. Bus workers said a Unite trade union branch secretary, who is one of the 22, was escorted off the premises by security. Workers are angry at the suspensions. A driver said, I thought we should have declared an immediate stoppage. We have to get behind the lads, otherwise management will see it as a sign of weakness. They are obviously thinking, We need to go for the jugular. Lets get the ring leader and show whos boss. If we dont make a stand they will think they can do what they want with us. In Leeds there are three pay rates, with drivers almost literally having to wait for dead mens shoeswhen someone on the top rate leaves and another can take his or her place. All over the UK, the Unite union is presiding over a situation whereby bus workers are paid myriad different rates for doing the same job, both between private companies and within those companies. London bus transport, for example, is in the hands of 17 different companies, which in some cases pay as many as five different rates. Hourly rates can vary from 9.75 to 15.26. Metroline London, owned by Comfort DelgGro, has three rates: a starter rate, W0 of 28,000, W1 of 30,000 and W2 of 33,000. Transfer from W1 to W2 is impossible and W2 will disappear in time. This is just one of the many complications in the pay structure in London. In January 2015, the anger among 27,000 bus workers across the whole of London was so great that Unite was forced to call a 24-hour strike to demand some kind of parity. It was the first all-London strike since privatisation 21 years ago. However, this was just a mechanism for allowing workers to let off steam. Nothing was achieved and the union dropped the issue. Similarly, Sadiq Khan, the new Labour Party mayor of London, whose father was a bus driver, made the resolution of differences in bus workers pay one of his campaign pledges. Nothing has been heard of it since his election. It suits the trade union bureaucracy to have a divided workforce, which is easier to control. The differences in pay and conditions that exist came about as a result of rotten concessions made over years. In contrast to the union bureaucracy, workers in Leeds are supportive of uniting with other bus workers. On the Leeds picket line, one worker said, If management can bring in managers from other areas to scab on our strike, why cant we unite with the workers in those areas in a common purpose? First runs bus services in many other cities, including Manchester, Bristol, Huddersfield, Halifax, Glasgow and Aberdeen. They also run one-fifth of the UKs passenger rail network, including Great Western Railways, Trans-Pennine Express, First Hull Trains, Train-Link in London and others. The company began with a management buyout of the Bristol Omnibus Company and expanded through purchases of formerly publicly owned bus and rail companies in England and Wales in the 1980s. Since then, they have invested in transport companies throughout North America. There have recently been a number of strikes of bus workers over wages and working conditions, including in London, Manchester, Huddersfield, Halifax, Bradford and currently in Leeds and Weymouth (employed by First Bus Dorset). Bus workers in Leeds need to take the dispute out of the hands of the union and set up a rank-and-file committee to organise their struggle. They must fight against the unions divide-and-rule policy by forging links with transport workers and others in a common struggle. That includes links across national boundaries, such as with bus workers in San Diego in the United States, who have been in recent struggle against their employer, First Transit. First Transit is part of the FirstGroup, which owns First Bus. The author also recommends: Leeds bus workers strike over pay [18 July 2016] San Diego transit strike called off after agreement announced [26 May 2016] Ahead of next weeks NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland, where the US-led alliance will further ratchet up pressure on Russia, Canadas Liberal government has unveiled plans to deploy up to a thousand troops to the Baltic. The Canadian Armed Forces battalion will be part of a NATO high-readiness, advanced deployment force of 4,000 soldiers. The United States, United Kingdom and Germany have already pledged to commit one battalion each to the force, which will operate in the three Baltic republics, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and in Poland. It is to complement NATOs larger Rapid Reaction Force of up to 40,000 soldiers, which is capable of deploying to the region in a matter of days. As part of NATO we were giving assurance to member states there, but now this has evolved to deterrence, said Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan in announcing the deployment Thursday. He also added that the 220 Canadian troops already in Poland would change their posture so as to be ready for potential attacks. Previously they had been engaged only in training exercises. The new Canadian deployment is open ended, i.e., effectively permanent. This is a clear violation of the pledge NATO made in order to secure Moscows acquiescence to its incorporation of the Baltic States and former Warsaw Pact members that NATO would not permanently deploy forces on Russia's borders. Ottawa and NATO are claiming that the advanced force will not violate that pledge, because every six months or so the forces comprising it will be rotated out and replaced with others. Sajjans announcement came just 24 hours after US President Barack Obama travelled to Canada and delivered a speech to parliament in which he urged Ottawa to play a greater role in NATO and spend more on its military. Referring explicitly to the need to stand united against Russian aggression, Obama declared to rapturous applause, As your ally and as your friend, let me say that well be more secure when every NATO member including Canada contributes its full share to our common security. The world, he continued, needs more Canada. NATO needs more Canada. The timing of the announcement appears to have resulted from US pressure to demonstrate NATO unity in the wake of last weeks referendum vote in favour of Britains withdrawal from the European Union, Brexit. Earlier in June, sources close to Justin Trudeaus Liberal government indicated that some in the cabinet were reluctant to commit troops to Eastern Europe because of long-standing plans to deploy a so-called peacekeeping mission to West Africa. Senior military officials reportedly reassured the government that it would be feasible to pursue both deployments. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reportedly called Sajjan directly to press for a positive decision. We are very grateful for the contributions from Canada, which we [have] already received, but we would welcome even more, Stoltenberg said in a CBC interview. Canadas military-security apparatus and ruling elite have also been pressing the Trudeau government to play a more prominent role in the US-led offensive against Russia. Last week, former Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney gave a bellicose speech in which he said Canada must join the NATO force, hike military spending to at least 2 percent of GNP per year, and otherwise prepare for war. Earlier in June, Canadas premier intelligence agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), issued a report in which it charged Russia is mobilizing for war with NATO. Canada has played a prominent and inflammatory role in the anti-Russian coalition in Eastern Europe from the outset of the build-up of military forces following the US- and German-sponsored, fascist-led coup in Kiev in February 2014. The Conservative government of Stephen Harper sent CF-18 fighter jets to exercise in Romania and participate in air patrols over the Baltic, deployed a frigate to the Black Sea, and sent soldiers to Poland. Harper also struck a bellicose tone towards Russia and was one of the closest allies of the far-right regime in Kiev, famously telling Russian President Vladimir Putin at a G-20 summit to get out of Ukraine! This hardline stance has persisted unabated since the coming to power of Justin Trudeau last October. Early on, Trudeau vowed to implement a free trade deal with Ukraine that Harper had struck and retained the deployment of Canadian troops and ships in Europe, including 200 soldiers in western Ukraine who are training Ukrainian Army and National Guard units in collaboration with the US. Earlier this year, after withdrawing CF-18 fighter jets from the air war in Syria and Iraq, the Trudeau government ordered four of them to Romania, which borders Ukraine to the south, to conduct exercises with the NATO members air force. Last week, Trudeau gave his full support to Washingtons false narrative about Russian aggression, claiming Moscow is fomenting conflict in Ukraine and describing its actions as illegitimate and irresponsible. We have real concerns, he told a press conference, about Russia and about its actions and we will be thoughtful and firm, as I have always been, on how we engage with Russia. Trudeau also made an appearance before the right-wing, ultra-nationalist Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), which collaborated closely with the Canadian state during the Cold War and has worked hand-in-glove with Liberal and Conservative governments over the past 20 years to harness independent Ukraine to western imperialism. To a standing ovation of UCC members and visiting Ukrainian politicians, Trudeau declared, Canada will continue to defend Ukraines sovereignty in response to Russias illegal annexation of Crimea as well as its support to insurgents in Eastern Ukraine. Paul Wells, writing in the Toronto Star, could not help opening his article on Trudeaus speech with the revealing remark, Some days its as though Stephen Harper never lost the election. UCC members have been heavily involved in directly supplying military equipment, including arms, to volunteer battalions in the Ukrainian civil war, many of which are dominated by extreme right-wing, and openly fascist, forces. Immediately after the NATO summit next week, Trudeau will travel to Kiev for two days of meetings with the Ukrainian government. Over the past 25 years, Canada has strengthened its longstanding military-security alliance with Washington and done so as US imperialism has increasingly resorted toward aggression and war to prop up its global hegemony. Since 1991 Canada has participated in all of the USs long series of wars, with the sole exception of its illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq, and even then, as Washington conceded, Canada provided more military support than many of the members of Bushs coalition of the willing. Currently, Canadian forces are deployed in the Mideast war, which is aimed at toppling the Assad regime in Damascus and shoring up US dominance over the worlds most important oil-exporting region. Canada is also deeply implicated in the Obama administrations Pivot to Asia, its economic and military-strategic offensive against China. The Trudeau governments decision to deploy troops to the Baltic States enjoys overwhelming support within the political and media establishment, which see it as a means of further strengthening the Canada-US alliance and more aggressively asserting the interests of Canadian imperialism on the world stage. The Liberals are currently conducting a defence policy review with the aim of corralling public opinion behind plans to make Canadas military a global policeman and vastly increase its weaponry and resources. These sentiments were summed up in an article by Stephen Saideman, the chair of the international affairs program at Carleton University, that appeared in the Globe and Mail just prior to the announcement of the new NATO deployment. Saideman urged the government to rapidly agree to lead the fourth battalion of the new NATO force, writing that it would put Canada on a par with the big heavy hitters in the alliance. By taking a leading role in the new high-readiness force, Canada would, argued Saideman, gain a much more visible role in Europe which would give Canada more heft within NATO discussions. This would be, in the parlance of these things, big bang for the buck. Over three-and-a-half months after promising in the coming weeks an assessment of the number of civilians slaughtered in illegal drone missile strikes carried out in countries outside of areas of active hostilities, the Obama administration on Friday released numbers that represent a fraction of those documented by various independent investigations. The report, drafted by the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), was accompanied by an executive order reaffirming that the US president has the unquestionable right to order the state murder of anyone in any part of the world, while claiming a commitment to promote best practices that reduce the likelihood of civilian casualties. The words best practices, drawn from the dry lexicon of corporate management, recur three times in the US presidents executive order, underscoring the way in which the methods of Murder Inc. have become routinized and institutionalized within the American capitalist state. It is to further this process that the White House released its phony numbers, along with the hypocritical order feigning commitment to reducing the number of civilians killed by the Hellfire missiles fired from thousands of miles away by CIA and Pentagon operatives viewing their victims over video screens. The new policy, according to a White House release, is designed to develop a sustainable legal and policy architecture to guide our counterterrorism activities going forward, and to institutionalize and enhance best practices regarding US counterterrorism operations and other US operations involving the use of force... In other words, with barely six months left in office, Barack Obama is determined to secure a core element of his loathsome political legacyturning the White House Oval Office into headquarters for drawing up kill lists and organizing targeted killings, i.e., political assassinations of foreign nationals and US citizens alike. The Obama White House has set into motion a drone expansion program that will increase the militarys capacity to launch assassination strikes by 50 percent, while keeping the covert CIA drone program in place. All of those who appear in a position to succeed him have endorsed drone killings. In the case of the presumptive Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, she signed off on them as Obamas secretary of state. As for the pretense of concern for the collateral damage inflicted by this campaignmen, women and children who are not deliberately targeted but nonetheless blown to piecesit is intended merely to provide a pseudo-humanitarian cover for cold-blooded murder. Even the New York Times, which has in the past defended Obamas drone assassinations, was compelled to note that the executive order and the casualty estimate from the DNI were released on the Friday afternoon of a long holiday weekend. This is a traditional time period for releases that the government hopes will escape close public scrutiny. In this case, it is for good reason. According to the estimate provided by the DNI, the number of civilians killed outside areas of active hostilities, i.e., excluding the wholesale slaughter in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, between Obamas inauguration in January 2009 and the end of 2015, amounted to a grand total of between 64 and 116. This compared in the US intelligence estimate to between 2,372 and 2,581 combatant deaths. This admission represents an incremental change from when the architect of the drone murder program, now CIA director, John Brennan, claimed in 2011 that over the previous year there had not been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities of the remote-control killing machine. At the time, Pakistan was counting its civilian victims in the hundreds, if not thousands, including 41 tribal leaders gathered in an open air, government-approved meeting in March of that year, who were ripped to pieces by four Hellfire missiles fired from multiple US drones. Nonetheless, the numbers now provided by the DNI are absurdly low. Among the most cited sources on the subject, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has provided a conservative estimate that as many as 1,138 civilians have been killed by American dronesthat is, tens times as many as are admitted by Washington. Even this figure is a serious underestimation of the real human toll of Obamas targeted killing program. A study done in 2014 by the human rights group Reprieve documented that in attempting to assassinate 41 individuals deemed by the White House to be terroristsa category that includes anyone resisting American occupation or opposing US policydrone strikes killed an estimated 1,147 people. Among those reacting to Thursdays press release was Letta Tayler, a Human Rights Watch researcher who documented through interviews with witnesses, relatives and officials the deaths of at least 57 civilians in US drone strikes in Yemen between 2009 and 2013. I find it difficult to believe that in examining just seven attacks I happened upon well over half of the civilian deaths that the US acknowledges, Tayler told the Washington Post . One explanation for the immense discrepancy between the US governments figures and those of virtually all other sources is that the Pentagon and the CIA have a policy of presumption of guilt for anyone killed by a drone missile. Males between the ages of 18 and 80 are automatically deemed combatants, and in many cases women and children are treated the same way. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper provided a simplerand chillingexplanation Friday for the disparity in casualty estimates: the higher totals were the result of the deliberate spread of misinformation by some actors, including terrorist organizations. The meaning is clear. Those questioning a global assassination program carried out in the name of a war on terror are themselves suspect of acting in league with terrorists and, logically, potential targets. The drone murder programthe signature policy of the presidency of Barack Obamasums up the criminality not only of the president himself, but also of those he serves, the parasitical financial oligarchy and the vast military-intelligence apparatus. In the defense of their interests, war abroad is inevitably joined with repression at home. The Obama administrations move to sanctify this assassination program as a permanent institution of the American state must serve as a serious warning to the working class. In the wake of a protracted student protest, the Papua New Guinea government has moved to suppress opposition among students. It has imposed curfews on two university campuses, threatened to call out the military and set up a Commission of Inquiry, purportedly to investigate recent violence at three campuses. The governments National Security Advisory Council (NSAC) recommended to the cabinet on Tuesday that night-time curfews be enforced at both the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) in Port Moresby and the University of Technology (Unitech) in Lae to help police restore order at the campuses. Chief Secretary Isaac Lupari said soldiers would be called in to support police if the need arose. The NSAC denounced recent incidents at Unitech as barbarity by mindless individuals. Lupari declared: The perpetrators of this violence have no respect for the lives of others or the rule of law. They will be brought to justice. This response is a warning of the punitive and witch-hunting agenda behind the governments inquiry. It was announced following the killing of an engineering student at Unitech by attackers last weekend, the burning of buildings and cars at UPNG and clashes at the University of Goroka. These events were triggered after police opened fire on peacefully protesting students at UPNG on June 8, wounding nearly 40 people. Prime Minister Peter ONeill said the inquiry was essential in helping to better understand what transpired in recent weeks, as well as preventing a repeat in the future. He claimed: We all need answers, right around the country, to understand the factors leading to the escalation of student protests and the acts of violence that we have seen in recent weeks. In fact, the terms of reference make clear that the inquiry will be used to absolve the government of responsibility and place full blame on the students. The commission will examine whether there was outside influence and students were incited to encourage unrest at the universities. Headed by a retired judge, Justice Warwick Andrew, it will look into the roles of the Student Representative Councils (SRCs), the university managements and the police. Confronted by a severe economic and social crisis, ONeills government has been determined to intimidate and suppress any opposition to its continued rule and policies. Driven by a precipitous economic collapse, because of the global mining export price crash, the government is implementing harsh austerity measures, including funding reductions of 40 percent across the health system. In the face of escalating state violence, students across PNG have waged a determined struggle for nearly two months. Although channeled behind parliamentary opposition accusations of government corruption, their protests have expressed popular opposition to the austerity measures, which are aimed against the working class, youth and the rural poor. Violent outbreaks that erupted last week between student groups revealed frustrations arising from the political dead-end being imposed by the SRC leaderships. Some students remain determined to maintain class boycotts, while others have reportedly been preparing to return to class. The divisions have exacerbated tensions between tribally-based factions that have lined up on opposing sides. Throughout the protests, the SRCs aligned themselves with the parliamentary opposition and made limited appeals for ONeills ouster over fraud allegations. With ONeill still entrenched in office, and the ruling elite intensifying its pressure to stamp out the protests, the SRCs collaborated with the university administrations to organise a return to classes. At UPNG, the SRC invoked a traditional Melanesian reconciliation process, led by church leaders, in an attempt to salvage the academic year. The reconciliation was cancelled after students clashed with campus security officers trying to enforce the return to class last week. Four security vehicles and a UPNG building were torched. Amid growing tensions, a first-year student was killed at Laes Unitech and buildings burned last Saturday in what authorities claimed was a targeted attack. Witnesses said a mob armed with bush knives entered the campus and killed Graham Romanong as he slept in his campus dormitory. Three students have been arrested and are being questioned by police. Many aspects of the incident remain unexplained. The attack took place despite the presence of large numbers of security personnel and police, ostensibly on the campus to maintain order and stop anyone from stirring up trouble as students returned to class. The offenders also managed to evade the police and escape. Lae police commander Anthony Wagambie said when the police arrived on the scene they were outnumbered and had to use teargas to disperse the crowd in the dark. The SRC had earlier signed an agreement committing students to an immediate resumption of classes, prompting outrage from those determined to continue the boycott. The killing, followed by the destruction of several buildings, has now forced Unitech to evacuate students and close the campus for three weeks. Radio New Zealand reported on Thursday that UPNG remains in disarray. A student leader, Henry Norrie-Maim, said the student body has been scattered by the police occupation of their campuses. According to Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio, hundreds of students have been heading back to their provinces or sought shelter off campus, fearing for their safety. The political establishment is concerned that the student protest movement will coalesce with struggles by workers over jobs, living standards and social conditions. A concerted campaign is under way to undercut public sympathy for the students, who are accused of being stirred up by outside agitators. As the WSWS has explained, the students need a fundamentally different political strategy to that pursued by the SRC leaderships. None of the immense social problems can be resolved simply by replacing ONeill with another ruling class representative. The social and democratic rights of young people and working people can be secured only by turning to a socialist and internationalist perspective, together with students and workers across the region and globally. Economic inequality leapt ahead in 2015 in the United States, with the average incomes of the top 1 percent rising twice as fast as the incomes of the remaining 99 percent of households, according to a study released Friday for the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. The top 1 percent had an average income of $1.4 million last year. By far, the largest growth in incomes came in an even narrower section of the super-rich, the top 0.1 percent of households. These one-in-a-thousand households saw their incomes rise by nearly 9 percent to an average of $6.75 million. The top 1 percent increased its share of total US household income from 21.4 percent to 22 percent. The top 10 percent collected more than half of all US household income, 50.5 percent, up from an even 50 percent in 2014. This was the highest figure for any year in US history, except for 2012. These figures are based on an analysis of tax data by Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who is well known for groundbreaking research into income and wealth inequality. The data from the Internal Revenue Service gives a more accurate picture of the growth of income inequality than US Census data, which exclude capital gains and other sources of non-wage income, which go almost entirely to the wealthy. The year 2015 was unusual compared to the rest of the period since the 2008 financial crash in that the wealthy did not monopolize all of the gains in real income. Average income for the bottom 99 percent rose by 3.9 percent to $48,768, the biggest annual increase since 1998, but only half the rate of increase enjoyed by the top 1 percent. This still left the bottom 99 percent of US families below the level of 2007. It is indeed the best growth year for the bottom 90 percent and bottom 99 percent since the late 1990s, Saez told the Associated Press. At the same time, top incomes grow even faster, leading to a further widening of inequality, which continues an alarming trend. The analysis by the Berkeley economist disproves claims by the Obama administration that the 2012 tax increase on the highest-income households, the result of a bipartisan deal with congressional Republicans, has had a significant impact on income inequality. Instead, the wealthy shifted income between years in order to avoid the impact of the higher tax rates. This suggests that the higher tax rates starting in 2013 will not, by themselves, affect much pre-tax income inequality in the medium-run, Saez wrote, adding, it seems unlikely that US income concentration will fall much in the coming years, absent more drastic policy changes. The Saez study gives the US side of a global phenomenonthe rapidly increasing economic inequality generated by the capitalist system on a world scale and exacerbated by the impact of the 2008 Wall Street crash. A second report issued this week, by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, examined social polarization within the United States from the standpoint of access to a college education. While 14 million new jobs have been created over the past 68 months (more than five-and-a-half years) of economic recovery, it is well known that the vast majority of these jobs are lower-paying and more precarious than the jobs they replaced. The Georgetown study found that these newly created jobs have been filled almost entirely by college-educated workers. Of the 11.6 million jobs created between January 2010 and January 2016, 11.5 million went to people with some form of college education. Some 75 percent of new jobs went to workers with a bachelors degree or better, and fully 99 percent went to workers with some college training. This left few or no new jobs available for those without a college education. The report argued that workers with a high school diploma or less hear about an economic recovery and wonder what people are talking about. Of the 7.2 million jobs lost in the recession, 5.6 million were jobs for workers with a high school diploma or less. The study found that high school-educated workers have recovered only about 1 percent of those lost jobs over the past six years, and have seen virtually no growth among well-paying jobs with benefits during that period. There are 5.5 million fewer jobs for workers with no more than a high school education than there were in December 2007. This continues a longer-term trend, with a decline of 13 percent since 1989, a loss of 7.3 million jobs, available to those with only a high school education. The number of jobs held by college-educated workers has doubled during the same period, with the result that In 2016, for the first time ever, workers with a bachelors degree or higher comprise a larger proportion of the workforce than those with a high school diploma or less. College graduates comprise 36 percent of the work force, while 30 percent of workers have some college education, and 34 percent have only a high school education or less. The Georgetown study demonstrates that, despite incessant claims that education is the road forward for working class youth to escape a life of economic deprivation, there is really no way out under capitalism. Those who have not gone to college face a future of long-term unemployment, with little prospect of the decent-paying jobs their parents and grandparents once held. Those who have gone to college are employed, for the most part, in dead-end jobs for which they are overqualified, and where the wages are too low to allow them to repay their college loans. This year, student loan debt reached another all-time record, at $1.35 trillion. These two reports underscore the objective, class basis for rising social discontent among working people and youth in the United States, discontent that finds only the most distorted expression within the political system, controlled by a two-party monopoly in which both parties represent the interests of the super-rich. In the Republican Party, billionaire Donald Trump appealed to the discontent, particularly of older and less-educated workers, offering them the poison of economic nationalism and anti-immigrant racism. In the Democratic Party, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders won support, particularly among young people, for his condemnation of the millionaires and billionaires and his call for college tuition to be free at all public universities. But Sanders is now fulfilling the basic political aim of his campaignto serve as a lightning rod for social discontent and channel it back behind the Democratic Party. He is folding up his campaign and shifting to support for Hillary Clinton, the candidate of Wall Street, the military-intelligence apparatus, and the bulk of the US political establishment. Over the past two weeks, Socialist Equality Party members and supporters, including the partys candidate for the seat of Wills in Melbourne, Will Fulgenzi, campaigned at the Coles-Toll warehouse in the northern suburb of Somerton as workers came off their shift. Many workers at the factory are first- or second-generation migrants from South and Southeast Asia or the Middle East. They gave a warm response to the SEP campaigners, who were opposing the Australian governments involvement in the criminal wars in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan and the US-led military build-up against China. In July 2012, the 600 workers at the plant, which is operated by the global logistics corporation Toll Holdings for the supermarket giant Coles, conducted a courageous two-week strike and 24-hour picket, demanding equality of wages and conditions with other Coles warehouse workers. Their struggle was ended by the treachery of the National Union of Workers (NUW), which isolated the strikers and wore them downallowing Coles to increase operations at other warehousesbefore ramming through a sell-out deal. Due to the physically taxing nature of the work, few employees can continue the job for more than one or two years, and many are in their early 20s. Fulgenzi, the SEPs candidate, addressed workers over a megaphone outside the factory gate as they came off shift last week . Were fighting to build a movement of the working class internationally against the danger of war, Fulgenzi said. Whoever wins the electionLabor, Liberal or Greensall of these parties are committed to the same agenda: continuing Australias involvement in the illegal US-led wars in the Middle East, aligning Australia with the US war drive against China, and attacking workers conditions here. Were the only party warning the working class about the danger of war. This is the great unmentionable in the elections. All the parties are silent about the military build-up against China, because they support it. The former Greens-backed Labor government placed Australia on the frontline of the war preparations, signing up a generation of youth for slaughter, and this has been continued by the Turnbull government. For 15 years, the US and its allies have carried out wars throughout the Middle East, destroying entire societies: in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Pakistan. Now as a result of this, we see a refugee catastrophe throughout Europe. All the imperialist governments internationally, like all the major parties here, are seeking to scapegoat migrants and asylum seekers for the crisis of capitalism. We oppose the whole reactionary system of border protection and mandatory detention of refugees that is aimed at dividing the working class along national lines. The big business parties insist there is no money for social programs, for decent jobs for the working class, but hundreds of billions are available for war! In every country, workers face attacks from the same global corporations like Toll, and the trade unions like the NUW here act as the industrial police force, as the bought-and-paid-for representatives of the corporations and the governments, to attack workers conditions. The working class needs our own party, the Socialist Equality Party. Many workers took copies of the SEPs election statement, and some stopped to speak to SEP campaigners about their concerns. The military spending here means theyre bringing war to Australia, thats the only possible reason, said Mohammad. Im from Pakistan. I lived there, I worked there. Ive worked in over 25 different countries. If its your partys policy to stand against war, it shouldnt just be for the election. It has to be your permanent stance. Ive read your election statement carefully, word for word, and followed who your candidates are. I like what your party is doing. I really appreciate it. You are right. Someone has to take a stand like you to raise awareness about this. Mohammad continued: I am a Muslim; this is not a Muslim war in the Middle East, its imposed on them. They [the major powers] are killing them. My understanding is that through one war, they have a lot of objectives, one of them is oil, the other is that in the Gulf countries, they want the Arab money, and so they create unrest there. After finishing the war in Iraq, now theyre turning to Russia and China. Thats the next target, I believe. It will be very dangerous and devastating. Its not like the Gulf. China and Russia are strong militarily. When powers come against one another, the results will be devastating for humanity. My family and I migrated to Australia for peace, he added. Wars not good for anyone, except maybe the industrialists. There are a few countries behind this, America and the UK and Australia. When I arrived in Australia two and a half years ago, I heard news that Australia was buying fighter jets. I said to my wife: There is something behind this, theyre preparing for some war. Like what they did in preparation for the war in the Gulf; it was pre-planned. Mohammad commented on his experiences with the trade unions internationally. Ive worked for over 20 years in different companies and different countries all over the world. Its always the same. The unions are a waste of your time and your money. They never protect our rights. The union works 50 percent for the worker and 50 percent for the capitalist. Well resolve your problems, they say, but at the same time, we have wine as we sit around to talk with the manager. He concluded, referring to the SEP campaign team: I really appreciate the younger generation and your party taking a stand. Gabriel, who has worked at the plant for several months, said it was the first time he had heard about plans for war with China. Thats just like what the media always does, he noted wryly. They show us what they want to show us. They dont show us any of the bombing of Iraq and Syria. They dont tell us how many ordinary people theyve killed. Gabriel continued: They said they were going to Iraq to defeat terrorism. But I have friends from Iraq. At least they had a country before the 2003 invasion. They could go and visit their families a lot. Now its destroyed. This is all just oil, and theyre trying to do the same thing to Syria. He commented on the promotion of anti-Muslim chauvinism in the media. A major news network made a post about the last terror attacks in Turkey on Facebook yesterday, and my friend commented on itthere was nothing rude in what he said, he just said that you cant associate this with Muslims. Within five minutes, his comment was deleted. Then, all these other comments, attacking Muslims, calling them filth, were allowed to sit there. Another worker who has been at the plant for five years said: Both the parties, Labor and Liberal, are the same. They always say things will change after the election. But then they take more and more from us. These cuts to Medicare, to childcare benefits, its really making life difficult. I have a child now, and supporting a child is tough. Ahmed, who has worked at the plant for several months, stopped in his car to speak to SEP campaigners. He saw the SEP election statements opposition to the drive to war. There are growing tensions between the superpowers, he said. Things are becoming really scary. There could be a war. Now there has been a Brexit. He immediately added, clarifying his earlier comment: You cannot blame any country for this. It is not the populations fault! The normal people are innocent. This is what the governments are doing behind the scenes. Theyre preparing for a war for their own interests, for big business. To contact the SEP and get involved, visit our web site or Facebook page. Authorised by James Cogan, Shop 6, 212 South Terrace, Bankstown Plaza, Bankstown, NSW 2200. The American Postal Workers Union (APWU) has announced that a contract for over 200,000 workers may be announced as early as mid-July. A final arbitration session of a committee including a union representative, a United States Postal Service (USPS) management representative and a third, neutral arbiter, Stephen B. Goldberg, took place on May 4. Hearings on the contract began in February. There is every reason to believe that the new agreement will be another multi-tier, takeaway contract. The USPS has proposed a third, lower pay tier for new workers and is seeking to accelerate the process of transforming the postal workforce into low-wage, casual labor. In a speech to the arbitration panel in February, APWU President Mark Dimondstein noted that management is seeking to expand rather than eliminate and reduce the non-career work force. In a warning to the USPS that such a move could lead to unrest by postal workers he noted that the two-tier wage structure in the auto industry was the key issue of the recent [October and November] negotiations of the UAW and the big three auto companies. It was the key demand of the rank-and-file autoworkersand had it not been satisfactorily addressed in bargaining, would have indeed led to strikes this past year. Dimondstein also warned that workers are disturbed that management has proposed the elimination of the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). These admonitions are motivated by a deep-seated fear within the APWU bureaucracy of a rebellion by the rank-and-file, which was, no doubt, a factor that lead the union to endorse the candidacy of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Postal workers, and indeed the whole US Postal Service, have been under constant assault for years. The 2010-2015 contract froze wages for the first two years and imposed a 30 percent cut in health care. The first two cost of living increases were cancelled, and the third and fourth were deferred. This contract created a second tier of workers, and cut the top pay by five to eight steps. In the old contract, full-time work was redefined as 30 hours a week, and the non-career workforce in the APWU was expanded to 30,000 workers. According to government figures that contract slashed postal clerks compensation by $4 billion. The USPS has received no federal funding since the 1980s and has shed more than 300,000 jobs since 1999, despite the formal prohibition of layoffs in union contracts. In 2015, 82 postal facilities were shut with the loss of 15,000 jobs. The Postal Service had previously shut down 143 processing facilities under a special five-year program, eliminated 3,800 delivery routes and reduced operating hours at 9,700 post offices over the past three years. Since 2007, 22,000 city delivery routes have been reduced or eliminated. The union, which has collaborated with the USPS in all of the attacks on its own members and the public more broadly, is now doing everything it can to implement a further round of cutbacks. It has said little or nothing about the actual content of the arbitration proceedings and has ruled out the possibility of a strike. The imposition of a likely concessionary contract on postal workers follows the ratification of a sellout agreement by Verizon workers, whose seven-week strike was isolated and betrayed by the Communications Workers of America. In his speech to the arbitration panel Dimondstein in February conceded that the vote for the 2010 contract was carried out in a rapid fashion with little time for digesting, debating and reflecting on the massive changes agreed to by the parties. Furthermore, the vote took place in a climate of uncertainty, confusion and fear. Workers should expect similar tactics by the union to force through this years arbitration settlement. The World Socialist Web Site spoke to a number of postal workers at the Morgan Processing Center in New York City. Daisy, with 30 years of service, told the WSWS, We didnt get anything in the last contract. Overall, things have changed so much here, and it starts with the way the union conducts itself with the workers. That support isnt there like it used to be. Once we had a union, but not anymore. We need better wages and health insurance. They want you to pay for most of your benefits now. We should get together. The working class here should get together like in Europe. Gary explained, The Post Office wants rollbacks in benefits. I read this in the notices on the Bulletin boards. For new employees, they want a new wage structure and worse pensions. They have two tiers of employees now, and I think they want a third with this contract. The starting and top wages are being lowered again for new employees. I disagree with two tiers of workers, but the union has been going along with it. They say it is what is being done nationally now, like with the autoworkers. We are not going along with this like last time. It is unfortunate you have to choose the lesser of two evils in the election. I am a Democrat. When one is going to take 20 percent away from you and the other is going to take 30 percent away from you, you choose the one taking 20 percent. Frances has 27 years service, and she quit the union nine years ago. She said, We didnt get a raise in the last contract. With this contract, the Post Office and the union tell us what they want when they want to tell us. I blame this mainly on the union. I left the union because they werent doing anything for me, and the union hasnt gotten any better since then. I think postal workers should all be together, with contracts should running together. We would be stronger. The National Postal Mail Handlers Union is the bargaining agent for 50,000 workers at the US Postal Service. Its contract expired May 20 and the union has agreed to extend negotiations indefinitely. Diana is a mail handler who transferred to the Morgan center after they closed the Bronx processing center in 2011. She commented, They are consolidating the workforce, and I think they are selling the building. If they do sell the building, we will all be excessed out again. They sold the processing center building in the Bronx, and they made us bid to go to the Manhattan facility or to Long Island. I had enough seniority to come here, which is a lot closer than Long Island. I dont know what is happening with the Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island processing centers that have been threatened with consolidation or closure. Another mail handler remarked, I was born and raised in New York City, and I dont want to have to move out. So I keep asking our shop stewards what is happening with our contract, and I get nothing. Mikie, also a Mail handler, recounted, They pushed our contract back so it wont be decided this year. Im not informed about what is in the contract. However, they should give us a raise and stop cutting our jobs. If they have jobs for overhead management, they shouldnt be downsizing us. They are replacing people with MHAs who are Mail Handler Assistants and PSEs who are clerks in the APWU. Both of these are another tier in our unions and temporary. They are like casuals with no rights. We should come together and merge our strength to fight this. I read with interest the daily menu of madness, creativity, humor, poignancy and banality printed in the Letters to the Editor section. Government conspiracies, unresponsive city employees, national calamities, socialism, guns yes and no, wasted tax's, attributes of politicians, charitable efforts and so on are testament to the challenges each of us face daily. It is Facebook without the cat pictures. An iceberg metaphor seems appropriate here. Are we letter writers the fringe of our extreme views or simply those whos egos and/or outrage compel us to take keyboard in hand? I suspect that beneath the surface lies a large mass of frozen (get it?) contempt, angst, and disinterest. A necessary recipe for the polarization (get it?) that we are now experiencing in this election year. We live in a nation where we kill inconvenient children and innocent prisoners. Where the Second Amendment is sacred but the First Amendment is a moving target, a community that makes heroes of warriors and derides peace seekers. American anti-intellectualism is celebrated and the hypocrisy of our education system is only eclipsed by the hypocrisy of the American version of Christianity. Hillary Clinton is giving me a chance to actually meet her. I simply need to LIKE her on Facebook. Trump will restore America to greatness. He doesnt need my money he only wants me to vanquish my intellect. Illinois is bankrupt, Social Security is welfare. More guns, less guns, more soldiers, less foreign aid. And the letters keep getting written, posted, pasted and You Tubed. We are faceless four Column inches of solutions, indictments, invitations, exhortations. I for one think the Editor needs to start publishing more cat pictures. John Leonard, Paris TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida regulators are being asked to approve a nearly 20 percent rate hike in insurance premiums paid by the state's business owners to cover their employees. The organization that submits rate filings on behalf of insurance companies filed the request Friday in response to a recent state Supreme Court decision. The high court in June struck down a law that limited payments to injured workers to two years. The National Council on Compensation Insurance is asking that regulators approve a 19.6 percent rate hike beginning on Oct. 1. NCCI was already asking for a 17.1 percent rate hike when the court ruling on payments came out. That earlier request was based on a separate Supreme Court decision that struck down a law that limited attorney fees in workers' compensation cases. The Office of Insurance Regulation will decide whether to approve or deny the rate hike. ORANGE PARK, Fla. (AP) - A family is suing a Florida hospital where staff reported finding maggots while examining a 76-year-old woman. The children of Dorothy Mooneyham of Orange Park seek over $15,000 damages from the Orange Park Medical Center. In the lawsuit filed Thursday in Clay County, Mooneyham's children say the hospital abused and neglected a vulnerable adult and intentionally inflicted emotional distress. The lawsuit says Mooneyham suffered complications from a November surgery and was admitted to intensive care. Medical records emailed to The Associated Press by Fred and Patti Mooneyham's attorney, Frank Ashton, show the unit's staff found maggots in her mouth and on her leg on separate occasions. Mooneyham died about a month after surgery. Hospital spokeswoman Carrie Turansky tells The Florida Times-Union (http://bit.ly/29h7QlI ) that the allegations are "outrageous and inaccurate." (Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) The city of Mesa faces paying more than twice its annual budget to settle a state Public Rec If you are sending a Letter To the Editor, please be sure to follow these rules: Letters have a firm 200-word limit and will be edited for grammar, clarity and accuracy. The person who signs the letter must be the author. Anonymous letters will not be considered. Letters must address the editor, not a third party. We will not print form letters, libelous letters, business promotions or personal disputes, poetry, open letters, letters espousing religious views without reference to a current issue, or letters considered in poor taste. Letters reflect the opinion of the writer. The Yakima Herald-Republic cannot verify the accuracy of all statements made in letters. Writers are limited to one published letter per calendar month. A new Palestinian animation video, released Friday almost at the same time as the deadly shooting attack on Highway 60 , shows MK Yehuda Glick being assassinated. The incitement video is especially notable since MK Glick, a known activist for Jews rights in regards to the Temple Mount, has already survived one assassination attempt in October 2014 , before he was a member of the Knesset. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The video shows a squad of Palestinian terrorists ambushing the MK while he drives his car in Otniel, Glick's (and the murdered Miki Mark's) residence, and killing him with gunfire. A song then plays in Hebrew, saying "Jews entering the Al-Aqsa mosque is forbidden forever. Those that violate this should come with burial shrouds because their fate will be like that of Yehuda Glick, except lethal this time." The incitement video X Glick was near the area of the terrorist shooting attack in the southern West Bank, in which his friend Miki Mark was killed, and Marks wife and two of their children were wounded. He said Friday that he arrived on the scene three minutes after the incident, when the military wasnt yet there. (At the same time) as me, two ambulances came one Arab and one Jewish, and what I saw was a turned-over car, and another one (on the side of the road). Within seconds, when the military came, I understood it was not an accident. Image from the incitement video. I lost a personal friend of over 25 years, a dear friend, Glick said of Mark, a director of a Yeshiva on Otniel. In a conversation held before the Sabbath, he said, We are now praying for the well-being of his wife, Chava. Chava Mark was seriously wounded in the attack, and is still hospitalized. The manhunt for the two terrorists responsible is still ongoing. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) struck four targets belonging to terrorist group Hamas in the northern and central Gaza Strip on Friday, responding to the firing of a rocket from the Strip earlier that night . The rocket hit a kindergarten in the town of Sderot, causing property damage but no injuries. No injuries resulting from the IAF strikes were reported. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The IDF will continue to operate forcefully against any party who perpetrates terrorism against the state of Israel and its residents, and for the preservation of calm in southern towns, an IDF Spokesperson said, The responsibility for the incident is exclusively on the terrorist organization Hamas, and it is the one who will bear responsibility for any actions taken inside the borders of the Gaza Strip. Hole created by te rocket fired from Gaza. (Photo: Roee Idan) No organization claimed responsibility for launching the rocket as of yet, but Hamas published a statement Friday according to which, Israel will pay a high price for its crimes and assassination policy. The assassination policy in question is likely a Hamas reference to the killing of terrorists who perpetrated West Bank attacks. The terrorists who murdered 48-year-old Miki Mark and wounded his wife Chava and two of their children are still on the run. IDF forces continue to look for them in Hebron, suspecting that the attackers fled to the area after the incident. The current closure places on the West Bank city is the largest since the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli teenagers in 2014 . However, the manhunt is mostly intelligence-based at the moment. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Chava Mark, the wife of Miki Mark, is still in serious, but stable, condition following the wounds she suffered at the attackers hands. The couples daughter Tehila is in moderate condition. Their son Pdaya was lightly wounded in the attack. Soldiers implementing the closure on the Hebron area. (Photo: EPA) Hundreds of soldiers from the Golani and Paratrooper infantry brigades and from the Home Front Commands Kedem battalion are implementing the closure. We have placed a closure on the entire city of Hebron and the village area, in order to disrupt movement and stop the series of attacks. We dont know where the terrorist squad fled and are now working to find (its members), said a high-ranking IDF official. Among others, blocks have been placed at the entrances to Halhul, Beit Ummar, and refugee camp Al-Arroub. About 700,000 Palestinians are affected by the closure, which is complete in some places, and partial in others. A total closure has been placed on the town of Bani Na'im, from which the terrorist who murdered 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel in Kiryat Arba on Thursday. The city of Yatta, from which several terrorists have emerged during the current wave of violence that started in October 2015 the latest of which were the two who perpetrated the deadly attack at Tel Avivs Sarona Market , was also tightly closed. The scene of the deadly Friday attack. (Photo: Reuters) "One of the reasons for the eruption of attacks is the end of Ramadan, which will conclude next Tuesday. These are days in which there are always more terror attacks, estimated a senior IDF official, Another reason is that successful attacks bring about more attacks, in the absence of condemnation by the Palestinian Authority. Islamist militants shouting "Allahu Akbar" attacked an upscale cafe in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, killing 20 foreigners inside, before police stormed the building on Saturday and rescued 13 hostages, officials said. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The attack, claimed by Islamic State, marks a major escalation in a campaign by militants over the past 18 months that had targeted mostly individuals advocating a secular or liberal lifestyle in mostly Muslim Bangladesh. Six gunmen were killed during the police operation and one was captured, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in a TV broadcast. All 20 victims were foreigners, the spokesman for the Bangladesh army said. Colonel Rashidul Hasan said he could not yet confirm the nationalities of those who had died, most of whom were killed by "sharp weapons". The Bangladeshi commandos who broke the siege. (Photo: Getty Images) Many people in the expatriate community in Bangladesh work in the country's $25 billion garment sector. The army concluded an operation to clear the cafe after a 12-hour siege that began when gunmen stormed the restaurant on Friday night. Two police were killed in the initial assault. The 13 hostages that were rescued included one Japanese person and two Sri Lankans, the army said. One Japanese man was among those rescued and taken to a Dhaka hospital with a gunshot wound, a Japanese government spokesman said. Seven Japanese were unaccounted for. An unknown number of Italians were among the hostages who were killed, a source at Italy's foreign ministry said on Saturday. Seven Italians were in the cafe when the attack started, including several working in the garment industry, Italian media have reported. Islamic State posted photos of what it said were dead foreigners killed in the assault. Gowher Rizvi, an adviser to Hasina, told Reuters security forces had tried to negotiate with the gunmen. Attacks by Islamist militants pose the biggest security threat for Germany and events like the shooting and bombing in Istanbul this week could happen in Germany, the head of the country's domestic intelligence agency (BfV) told a Saturday newspaper. Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul's main airport on Tuesday, the deadliest in a string of attacks in Turkey this year. FORT PIERCE, Fla. - An Islamic group says a Muslim man was beaten outside the Fort Pierce Islamic Center that Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen had attended. The Council on American-Islamic Relations released a statement saying a truck stopped at the mosque early Saturday morning and that a man made racial slurs, saying "You Muslims need to get back to your country." The statement said the man beat the victim, causing head trauma and knocking out a tooth. The victim wasn't identified. Idan Cohen, a 29-year-old Israeli, was killed in Las Vegas after a driverwho seems to have been inebriatedstruck him on Wednesday night and attempted to flee the scene. The police managed to arrest the driver, 25-year-old Whitney Greco, as she continued to strike another vehicle and damaged her car. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Cohen was a businessman who had lived in Las Vegas for the past few years. He was walking on the side of the road when Greco's car struck him; she dragged him under her car several hundred meters as she continued driving, attempting to flee. According to Las Vegas local media, Cohen was jogging on the shoulder as there were no sidewalks in that area. Cohen was pronounced dead on the scene. Greco appeared in court on Friday. Her lawyer argued that she should be released on bail, and the killed man's mother was outraged. Speaking to KSNV News3LV , Levana Cohen said, "She cannot be free. She (ran) away from there. She (left) my son there. She is an animal. She cannot be free." Idan Cohen Levana Cohen and Michal Yosef speaking to KSNV The local police reported that Greco failed on-site sobriety tests administered when she was apprehended. As such, prosecutors are waiting to file an indictment against her until her blood analysis comes back to see if she was indeed intoxicated, which would affect which charges would be brought against her. Cohen and Yosef In the interim, the judge set a $1 million bail. Said Yosef in the interview, "It's insane to think that this person (could) be free. She deserve(s) to spend her life in prison." Whitney Greco in court Ms. Cohen is in contact with the Israeli Consul in Los Angeles, Avner Saban, and with the local chevra kadisha (Jewish burial society). She normally resides in Israel, but she flew to Las Vegas to retrieve her son's body. She will return with him to Israel on Sunday for burial on Monday. Nevertheless, she intends to be present at all of Greco's court sessions. She said to KSNV, "I want (her to) feel a lot of pain." Chava Mark of the family who was shot at in a drive-by in south Har Hevron on Friday, remains in serious, though stable, condition, announced Prof. Avraham Rivkind, Head of Shock Trauma Unit at Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in Jerusalem, on Saturday night. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Chava's husband, Miki, was killed in the attack. Their 13-year-old daughter Tehila's condition has improved, and she is being transferred out of intensive care; their 15-year-old son, Pedaya, is expected to soon be discharged from the hospital. The Marks' flipped car (Photo: Reuters) Addressing the media, Rivkind said, "The daughter, who underwent surgery, has completely stabilized. The mother's condition continues to be serious but is completely stable. She's showing signs of waking, but she is currently sedated and on a ventilator." Avraham Rivkind updating the press (Photo: Daniel Elior) The surgeon explained that she was in the ICU and added, "There's still room to worry, but all in all, over the past 24 hours, she's improving." Miki and Chava Mark The sedated widow's late husband, Michael "Miki" Mark was the 48-year-old director of the hesder yeshiva in Otniel and the cousin of Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, who visited Chava and her family yesterday in Hadassah. The Marks have ten children, including the two who were wounded in the attack with them. Mossad chief Yossi Cohen visiting the hospital (Photo: Gil Yohanan) The family has already suffered loss previously at the hands of terrorism: Chava is the aunt of Yonadav Haim Hirshfeld, who, at 19 years old, was murdered in the 2008 Mercaz Harav yeshiva terrorist attack . In addition, the Marks' son, Shlomi, is married to the daughter of the late Eliyahu Ben Ami of Otniel, who was murdered in a shooting attack in 2000, not far from where the Marks were attacked on Friday. The IDF is assessing that the rocket fired on Friday night at 10:59 was fired by a Salafi organization and not by Hamasindeed, contrarily to the ruling organization's will. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The rocket struck and damaged a children's educational center in the city and caused one person to undergo a panic attack that required treatment, though nobody was physically hurt. In response to the rocket, the Air Force attacked overnight four Hamas targets in the north and center of the Gaza Strip. Damage at the educational center (Photo: Roee Idan) According to the IDF's assessment, the rocket is not connected with the terrorist attacks in the West Bank, but is rather connected with the end of the month of Ramadan. The educational center that was struck by the rocket was partially reinforced. It hosts, inter alia, enrichment activities, meetings with social workers and psychologists, child development activities, and pedagogical training. Coincidentally, a first-aid course for kindergarten teachers in the city was to begin on Sunday, though the damage now prevents this. Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan on Saturday accused Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, of not doing enough to prevent incitement against Israel and said the social network was "sabotaging" Israeli police work. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Israel has in the past said Facebook is used to encourage attacks and the government is drafting legislation to enable it to order Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social media to remove online postings it deems incite terrorism. Erdan said Zuckerberg was responsible for Facebook policy and called on "the citizens of Israel to flood him in every possible place with the demand to monitor the platform he established and from which he earns billions". A spokesman for Facebook in Israel said the company was not commenting on the minister's assertions. Gilad Erdan and Mark Zuckerberg During an interview on Channel 2 television, Erdan said, "Facebook today, which brought an amazing, positive revolution to the world, sadly, we see this since the rise of ISIS and the wave of terror, it has simply become a monster." "Facebook today sabotages, it should be known, sabotages the work of the Israeli police, because when the Israeli police approach them, and it is regarding a resident of Judea and Samaria, Facebook does not cooperate," he said. "It also sets a very high bar for removing inciteful content and posts," Erdan said. Since October, Palestinians have killed 34 Israelis and two visiting U.S. citizens in a wave of street attacks, mostly stabbings. Israeli forces have shot dead at least 201 Palestinians, 137 of whom Israel has said were assailants. Others were killed in clashes and protests. Palestinian leaders say assailants have acted out of desperation over the collapse of peace talks in 2014 and Israeli settlement expansion in occupied territory that Palestinians seek for an independent state. Most countries view the settlements as illegal. Israel disputes this. Israel says incitement in the Palestinian media and personal problems at home have been important factors that have spurred assailants, often teenagers, to launch attacks. The White House informed Congress on Friday that it wanted to increase the amount of money in the military aid package for Israel, the New York Times reported. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter According to the package's reported terms, Israel will be required to use the money that they receive in the deal (currently expected to be more than $30 billion) to purchase American-made products. Previously, Israel was permitted to spend some of that money domestically. What is the US military aid package? It's a decade-long memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two countries that lays out American military to Israel. The last MOU was signed on August 16, 2007 and took effect from 2009 to October 2018. A new MOU is to take effect from the 2019 fiscal year until 2028. Avigdor Lieberman in the F-35 (Photo: Yoav Zitun) The last package provided US foreign military financing (FMF) in the amount of $3.1 billion per annum$31 billion in total. This was an increase from the $24 billion per annum from the preceding decade. The FMF was intended for purchasing military equipment and weapons from the US, though about a quarter was permitted for Israeli-made purchases. Military aid from the US to Israel began in 1962. Before that, America had placed an arms embargo on Israel. In addition to the aid included in the MOU, the US has tended over the years to grant Israel special aid for various purposes, including further development of defense systems against missiles (Arrow 3 and David's Sling) and interceptors (Iron Dome), closing gaps in inventory after rounds of fighting, and developing technology to detect tunnels after Operation Protective Edge. This special aid amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Arrow 3 system (: , ) X Why didn't Israel sign before the Iran deal? Did we miss our opportunity? This is a central point that darkens the military-economic negotiations: the murky personal relationship between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama. Obama wants to sign the deal at any price before his term ends in January, leaving behind a legacy of taking care of Israel's security and that, during his administration, the military aid to Israel was higher than under any other president. This is in direct opposition to claims by Republicans and sources close to Netanyahu that he "threw Israel under the bus." Last year, during talks between Iran, the US and other leading powers, Netanyahu froze the negotiations on the military aid package and rejected pressure from Obama to hold talks with the guarantee that the US would display extra generosity and make it worth Israel's while. The PM claimed then that holding negotiations at the same time that the US was holding talks on a bad deal with Israel's biggest enemy would be granting an Israeli seal of approval to the deal that it so fervently opposed. A series of senior officials in Israelfrom the IDF and political establishments bothimplored Netanyahu, "Don't push away Obama's outstretched hand; Israel will pay a heavy price for it." They claimed that the PM had to accept the American offer and not wait until the Iran deal was signed, when the USA would no longer really need Israeli support. Gulf states understood then what Netanyahu did not, and they rushed to sign deals with Washington in which they received generous compensation in exchange for their silence on the nuclear issue. Netanyahu held steadfast in his refusal. Netanyahu and Obama (Photo: Reuters) And indeed, after the nuclear deal with Iran was signed , Israel was disappointed to discover that, while the US did offer to increase its aid, it was far from what the Jewish State had hoped for. Senior cabinet ministers say today behind closed doors that the military package could have been significantly larger if Netanyahu had accepted it before the Iranian nuclear deal was signed. Netanyahu is certain that this is false and that there's no difference between what Washington intended to give before the deal and now. What are the main disagreements that are holding up the MOU? While the Americans are prepared to increase the aid, they added some sticking points that Israel was just not ready to swallow. The first is the limitation of "off-shore procurement" (OSP)Israel spending a portion of the aid domestically. The existing agreement permits spending up to 26.3 percent of the military aidi.e., $815 millionconverting it into shekels and using it to purchase equipment and weapons systems in Israel. This is mainly used for systems that were developed in Israel and integrated with American weapons systems and also for Israeli maintenance of American arms. Such a clause would be devastating for Israel. It would likely lead to the termination of thousands of workers in defense industries. Those in the field have also warned that it would damage the development of future weapons in Israel, but the money was never intended for development, just for equipping and maintenance. However, there are those who indirectly admit that there may be some damage in the local industries' development capacities. The USA is also insisting that Israel cease purchasing fuel for military purposes with the FMF, so that the money will go directly for the purchase of US industry products. The IDF has alternative fuel sources, but the budgetary implication of this requirement is that some $400 millionin shekelswould need to be added to the defense budget. F-35 wing assembly line (Photo: Reuters) The two countries agreed for the first time that the new package will include the aid for anti-missile defense systems. Until now, this was separately allocated in talks between Congress and the White House. Over the past decade, Israel has received, on average, $400 million per annum for these systems. Over the past three years, which included Operation Protective Edge, the average was $600 million. The White House announced this month a dramatic opposition to Congress's demand to grant Israel $600 million for missile defense. Washington also insisted that it be included in the new agreement that Israel would not demand any special aid. That is, the end to asking friends in Congress to authorize an "extra." This is a very problematic demand from Israel's perspective. US Vice President Joe Biden hinted during his visit to Jerusalem last March that, if at the time of the agreement, new needs would come up, then the American government would know how to find the money to aid Israel, just as it had in the past with Iron Dome and dealing with the threat of tunnels. Generally, the negotiations taking place are on the amount of FMF and on the terms. Some compromise proposals are on the table, such as a one-time grant to Israel that would remove the need for any future extra additions, allowing partial OSP, and others. F-35 revealed last week X Does Netanyahu even want to sign with Obama administration? It depends on who's asking. In February, the PM said to his ministers that he's not even sure if we'll reach an agreement with the Obama administration, and that if Israel doesn't receive sufficient aid for its military needs, then it will postpone signing until the entrance of a new American president in January to obtain the best possible terms. This statement infuriated the Americans and was interpreted as unmitigated gall. To calm down the Israelis, good cop VP Joe Biden was sent the following month. Biden implored Netanyahu to sign the agreement by the end of the year and not to wait for the next administration. He explained that the US was dealing with large budgetary difficulties and that reaching a point where American public opinion was divided on providing aid to Israel was unacceptable. Nobody wants a situation where American citizens wonder why they're increasing aid to Israel and not transferring that money for domestic use, such as in health and education. Netanyahu apparently appreciated that he had overreached, and he immediately made it clear that Israel is committed to efforts to sign the MOU during Obama's term. The acting national security advisor, Yaakov Nagel, said that Israel wants to sign an agreement with the present administration, but not at any price. Nagel made it clear that we're in the final stretch before a signature, and just a few weeks or months remained, but he refused to commit himself. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman brought a large team with him to the US during his visit there the week before last, and he joined them for further talks in Washington. At their conclusion, Lieberman expressed optimism about the prospect of concluding the saga under Obama: "Both sides will make compromises, and I believe that we can sign the agreement by November." Still, the Americans fear that Netanyahu is playing them, perhaps some exercise intended to gain time and postpone the signature till the next administration. The Prime Minister's Office promised to the Americans that their intentions were pure, but suspicion is great. The burden of proof here is on the Israeli side. Biden and Netanyahu (Photo: Amos Ben Gershom, GPO) Should Israel wait for the next administration? Just as Netanyahu erred in thinking the US will continue to be just as generous as it was before signing the agreement with Iran, he could be wrong on this account as well. Most signs are indicating that a new president, whoever that may be, will not offer Israel more aid money. Trump may be trying to portray himself as pro-Israel, but he has made comments in the past against aiding foreign nations and even said Washington should demand these countries to pay for the military aid they're receiving, including Israel. It's safe to assume that Trump, a vocal separatist, would rather invest the money in the American economy instead. Even if Hillary Clinton gets elected, it is still not certain she would be able to offer a better deal, considering the insult of not signing the agreement during the Obama administration will still be fresh in the Democratic Party's minds. In any case, whichever president is sworn in, he or she will not necessarily have time to deal with the issue of Israel's military aid, and will likely have to focus on far more urgent matters. This causes concern in the Israeli defense establishment. It is not for nothing that both Lieberman and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon are advising Netanyahu to accept the current American proposal and sign the deal. What strategic implications will the agreement have on the IDF? The IDF's new multi-annual plan, "Gideon," may have already received the final approval from the government and will be implementing in the coming five years, but the defense establishment is also looking ahead. Recently, the IDF chief accepted the Air Force's recommendation to acquire 17 new F-35 fighter jets, bringing the IAF's total to 50 new fighter jets by the middle of the next decade. This is part of a long-term plan to acquire a total of 75 jets. The new acquisition still requires an approval from the political leadership, and this will depend on the results of the talks over the military aid deal. The future of other aircraft the IAF is set to receive will also depend on the military aid deal, such as the acquisition of the V-22 Osprey, an American multi-mission, tiltrotor military aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing, and short takeoff and landing capabilities. It can also carry large amounts of supplies and troops. Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had already announced the US administration's decision to supply Israel with this special aircraft some two years ago, but the number of these aircraft and the schedule for their arrival depends on the military aid agreement. Every clause in the new agreement will therefore affect the IDF's future force structure, including whether squadrons or field units will be closed ahead of the implementation of new measures. Across the centuries, Great Britain has given the world many things uniquely British the Puritans, Andrew Carnegie, The Beatles and, as we Americans again celebrate this Fourth of July, the United States. On June 23, it gave the world another significant gift: a big step into the dark abyss of a go-it-alone future in todays ever-globalizing world. Sure, most of the United Kingdoms citizens who voted late last month to the leave the European Union, in a vote dubbed "Brexit," had what they thought were good reasons to do so: an incoming tide of mostly poor, often-illegal immigrants; a costly, decidedly Europe-centered Common Agricultural Policy, or CAP; an ever-growing bureaucracy in Brussels; and a river of English money flowing out of the UK and only a trickle of EU funds flowing back in. Now, though, with the step taken, the Leaves have discovered an unpleasant truth: Their politicians didnt tell them the whole truth about leaving. In fact, much that was said was not true. For example: * The majority of the UKs record-setting, net 270,000 immigrants last year were EU citizens exercising their legal right to move freely within the 28-nation bloc; * Love it or hate it, CAP is crucial to UK farmers; from 2010 to 2013, the latest data available, 40 percent of all UK farm income came from Brussels; * EU bureaucracy is relatively tiny, about 33,000 civil servants, compared to the number of UK civil servants, 410,000, according the Wall Street Journal, and * The Leaves claim that the UK sends the EU 350m a week (about $465 million) is a lie, according The Guardian, a leading national newspaper in England. A more accurate figure is 136m (or $180 million), less than 40 percent of the amount claimed by Leave proponents. While the vote is not legally binding to Parliament (whose members favored staying in the EU by an almost 4-to-1 margin) UK politicians are dancing carefully as they discuss what to do next. Prime Minister David Cameron, who advocated for a Brexit vote during his 2015 re-election bid, was ambushed by its results; hes out come September. His opposite, the Labour Partys Jeremy Corbin, was soundly gobsmacked by colleagues in a no confidence vote June 28, and he looks to be history, too. So far, the only possible winner, according to one leading Leave advocate, might be British farmers who, claimed the politician, ought to receive the lions share of any former EU duties left after the nation strengthens its national health care system. Even if Parliament agrees a very, very long shot at best no one has any idea if the money will cover the farmers soon-to-go CAP payments or when it might flow. For two years at least, however, CAP will remain the key farm income scheme in the UK. Writing for the blog CAP Reform.eu, Irish ag economist Alan Matthews said he believes any EU-UK farm program changeover (something, he says, he will deeply regret) will be a long time coming. When it comes, however, the vote means that trade costs will rise because UK exports ... to the EU will no longer be considered internal trade. Even then, he suggests, UK farmers should strive to remain in EU programs like its European Food Safety Authority, the European Chemicals Agency and the European Emissions Trading Schemes to maintain as much mobility of goods, services, capital, and people as possible. Ultimately, however, its people not markets, not politics, not regulations who will be most affected by the dramatic Brexit choice. Nationwide it was a narrow victory for the Leaves; in the countryside, though, farmers voted more than 2 to 1 to go it alone. Possibly, explains economist Matthews, this was because UK farmers are in the older age group ... Well, the oldsters won, and what they won was something they already had yesterday and what they lost could be something far more fleeting, tomorrow. Nelnet has teamed up with a competitor to bid on a new federal student loan servicing contract. The Lincoln-based student financial services company disclosed in a securities filing last week that its Nelnet Servicing subsidiary has partnered in a joint venture with Great Lakes Educational Loan Services Inc. to bid on the federal contract, which seeks to create a single servicing solution for student loans. The joint venture, called GreatNet Solutions LLC, is equally owned by the two companies. Nelnet said in its filing that GreatNet was one of three companies that made it through phase one of the bidding process. The others are Navient and the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency. Nelnet, Great Lakes, Navient and PHEAA are the four private companies with current contracts to do the servicing of federal student loans. Those vendors' current contracts expire on June 16, 2019. It is not clear what the status of the contracts will be going forward. The U.S. Department of Education in April sought bids for the creation of a "single servicing solution" that would create a "common borrower experience" and establish "common servicing practices." The department also hopes to improve the experience of borrowers, improve oversight of services and increase cost efficiency. Now, students with federal loans work with the servicer that is designated for their loan, and new loans are doled out to the four companies based on how they perform on certain metrics, with better performers getting a higher percentage of loans to service. In a blog post on its website earlier this month, the department said the company chosen will be building a servicing platform that the department essentially will be buying the rights to. That company will not be the only one that gets to service federal student loans. "In the future, (the department) will be seeking additional vendors to provide direct customer service to borrowers," the blog post said. The department said it hopes to choose a company to build the system before the end of the year. Nelnet spokesman Ben Kiser said the company decided to partner with Great Lakes, "with the idea of bringing the nations top servicers together to transform student loan servicing for borrowers." In 2015, Nelnet had revenue of $133.2 million from its Department of Education contract, which made up more than half of its loan and guaranty servicing revenue and more than 10 percent of its overall revenue. Kiser declined to comment on how much the new contract could be worth to Nelnet nor how the company might be affected financially if its bid is not the one chosen. News Washington, DC - Secretary of State John Kerry: "On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I offer my warm congratulations to the Canadian people on the 149th anniversary of the founding of the Canadian Confederation on July 1. "We are proud to count ourselves among Canadas closest friends, partners, and allies. We are also very fortunate to call you our neighbor. "Our shared border is the envy of nations and is a daily reminder of the intimate economic, security, and people-to-people ties that bind us together and strengthen both our countries. "In March, the United States was honored to welcome Prime Minister Trudeau to Washington. We were also inspired by the North American Leaders Summit you hosted this week. "These visits reflect the many interests we share and the broad cooperation that exists between our nations. In particular, Im grateful for the work we do together to combat climate change, advance our shared clean energy agenda, counter the threat of violent extremism, promote international peace, and uphold democratic values. "As you celebrate with your families and friends, allow me to wish you Happy Canada Day!" News Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of Education officially launched the Federal Student Aid (FSA) Feedback System, an online portal that allows federal student aid customers to submit complaints, provide positive feedback, and report allegations of suspicious activity regarding their experience with federal student aid programs. The creation of the FSA Feedback System fulfills one of the primary objectives of the President's 2015 Student Aid Bill of Rightscontinuing the Obama Administration's work to help borrowers responsibly manage their federal student debt, improve federal student loan servicing, and protect taxpayers' investments in the student aid programs. Customers can access the system at http://www.StudentAid.gov/feedback. "The FSA Feedback System provides an easy way for students, parents, borrowers and others to file complaints about their experiences with federal aid programs, which we will use to improve the experience for current and future borrowers," said U.S. Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell. "We want to hear about what isn't working so that we can fix problems and improve outcomes for borrowers." In FY 2015, the Department provided nearly 12 million students at more than 6,100 schools federal student aid and oversaw a loan portfolio that included more than 40 million borrowers. Understanding feedback about the experiences of customers will allow the Department to improve the delivery and oversight of federal financial aid programs, while continuing to responsibly safeguard taxpayer interest. The system greatly enhances customers' ability to provide feedback and receive a timely and meaningful resolution. Customers can submit feedback about applying for and receiving federal loans, grants, and work study, as well as feedback about their experiences with federal loan servicers, collection agencies, and the Department itself. Complaints submitted through the Feedback System will be tracked from intake to resolution and will inform the continual improvement of our customers' experience, regardless of where they are in the student aid process. The system also accepts feedback about schools' administration of federal student aid programs, including possible misrepresentation of facts about a school or its recruitment and marketing practices. When appropriate, the Department will contact the school to directly address and resolve complaints submitted through the system. Customers can submit feedback about their own experiences or on behalf of others. Customers also have the option to include their contact information with their feedback, and by entering their FSA IDa user name and password that provides access to U.S. Department of Education student aid systems customers can track the status of their submission. Users can also submit feedback anonymously. Data collected through the system will be shared with partner agencies including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission's Consumer Sentinel Network, to resolve complaints beyond the scope of Department oversight, such as those involving private student loans. The Department aims to publish the first annual report for the Feedback System this fall on the FSA Data Center. The report will include data about usage and types of feedback submitted. In April, the U.S. Department of Education announced A New Vision for Serving Student Loan Borrowers. With the new servicing solution, we intend to leverage enhanced servicing oversight and enforcement capabilities, including the new FSA Feedback System announced today, to ensure accuracy and excellence in federal student loan borrower customer service, and to support a servicing solution that is consistent, accurate and actionable, accountable and transparent. To find answers to general questions, file a dispute with the Ombudsman, or learn how to directly contact their servicer, customers still should visit the Contact Us page on StudentAid.gov. News Albuquerque, New Mexico - Two New Mexico residents, who were charged with health care fraud, were arrested Tuesday. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated this case. Cory Werito, 32, of Farmington, and Rosita Toledo, 46, of Kirtland, are charged in a 10-count indictment filed June 15. Werito and Toledo were arrested June 28, and made their initial appearances in federal court in Farmington. They remain in custody pending their arraignment and detention hearings, which are set for June 30 in Albuquerque. The indictment includes nine health care fraud charges against Werito and Toledo, and one aggravated currency structuring charge against Werito. The health care fraud charges stem from the defendants role in creating and operating a medical transportation company, CW Transport, a Farmington company that provided non-emergency medical transportation to Arizona Medicaid recipients. Between 2011 and 2013, CW Transport allegedly collected more than $1.9 million in Medicaid reimbursements from an Arizona Medicaid agency by submitting more than 18,000 claims, the vast majority of which were wholly or substantially false and fraudulent. The aggravated currency structuring charge alleges that Werito conducted financial transactions involving the proceeds of the health care fraud in a manner that avoided the filing of Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs). Financial institutions are required to file CTRs on transactions involving more than $10,000 on any business day. CTRs are used by law enforcement authorities to uncover a broad range of illegal activities, including money laundering. According to the indictment, from August 2011 to July 2013, Werito conducted at least 200 cash withdrawals, each for several thousands of dollars but less than $10,000 and totaling at least $800,000, to avoid the filing of CTRs. The indictment includes forfeiture provisions seeking an order requiring Werito and Toledo to forfeit to the United States at least $1,959,405, which are the proceeds allegedly derived from the health care fraud. If convicted, Werito and Toledo face up to 10 years of imprisonment on each of the 10 counts of the indictment. Charges in indictments are merely accusations; defendants are presumed innocent unless found guilty in a court of law. The following agencies assisted with this investigation: FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, San Juan (New Mexico) County Sheriffs Office, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, and New Mexico Office of the Attorney General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Pena, District of New Mexico, is prosecuting this case. Arizona News Cochise County, Arizona - Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced a Cochise County Grand Jury indicted former Douglas Police Department Sergeant Theodore Kulkens for Theft. Kulkens, the former property and evidence section sergeant, is accused of stealing nearly $15,000 in cash that had been lawfully placed into the Douglas Police Departments property and evidence section. Kulkens was fired by the Douglas Police Department in September 2013 for unrelated reasons. In January 2015, the Douglas Police Department discovered that money that had been placed into secure property and an evidence safe was missing. Douglas Police Chief Kraig Fullen asked the Arizona Attorney Generals Office for outside assistance to investigate the loss. Agents from the Attorney Generals Special Investigations Section working closely with Detectives from the Douglas Police Department discovered Kulkens allegedly stole money from at least five different cases between 2007 and 2013. Kulkens is charged with a class three felony. All defendants are presumed innocent until convicted in a court of law. Assistant Attorney General Lindsay St. John is prosecuting this matter. Arizona News Tucson, Arizona - NASA has selected Paragon Space Development Corporation, a small business headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, to develop a system that will increase the rate of water recovery from the urine of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The contract is valued at $5.1 million for the delivery of one Brine Processor Assembly (BPA), and is sponsored by NASAs Advanced Exploration Systems Division. Work on the contract will be performed at Paragon Space Developments Tucson facilities. The technology, currently scheduled for flight in 2018, will undergo a test demonstration on the space station to verify it further closes the water loop, with a goal of achieving at least 94 percent recovery of water from urine. The Water Recovery System, currently used on station, captures and processes astronaut urine, but additional unrecovered water remains in the resulting effluent (brine). The BPA assembly will be used to reclaim more water from the brine. The reduction of costly resupply launches from Earth is essential to future human deep space missions, including NASAs Journey to Mars. By reusing in situ critical resources to the greatest extent possible, technologies such as BPA will aid in accomplishing this reduction. Through a series of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program awards initially funded in 2010, Paragon Space Development created the unique technology to recover water from brine. In 2014, a peer-review panel selected Paragons water recovery system in a competitive process. The SBIR program is a highly competitive program that encourages domestic small businesses to engage in federal research/research and development that also has the potential for commercialization. Including qualified small businesses in this arena stimulates high-tech innovation and builds upon the entrepreneurial spirit of American industry, as it also meets specific research and development needs. The International Space Station serves as the worlds leading laboratory, where researchers conduct cutting edge research and technology development that will enable human and robotic exploration of destinations beyond low-Earth orbit, including asteroids and Mars. Arizona News Phoenix, Arizona - Kristopher Andrew Jaramillo, 39, of Albuquerque, N. M., not a member of the Navajo Nation, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Steven P. Logan to 151 months imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release. Jaramillo had previously pleaded guilty to bank robbery. On October 26, 2015, Jaramillo entered the Wells Fargo Bank located on the Navajo Nation Reservation in Chinle, Ariz., and gave the bank teller a note demanding money and instructed her not to alert the police. The bank teller complied and gave Jaramillo over $1800 from her drawer. The investigation in this case was conducted by Navajo Nation Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation. The prosecution was handled by Kiyoko Patterson, Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, Phoenix. Border News Nogales, Arizona - Customs and Border Protection officers arrested a 14-year-old male from Nogales, Arizona, for an alleged attempt to smuggle nearly 2 pounds of heroin, worth an estimated $34,000, through the Port of Nogales on Monday. Officers at the Morley pedestrian crossing referred the teen for further inspection as he was attempting to re-enter the United States. Officers conducting the search, aided by a CBP narcotics-detection canine, found a single package of heroin taped around the teens thigh. Officers turned the suspect over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations after seizing the drugs. Latest News Washington, DC - On June 29 and 30, Special Envoy Donald Booth visited Khartoum and engaged with government officials on a range of issues, including the political negotiations to end the conflicts, the National Dialogue, and implementation of a cessation of hostilities. He also met with the leadership of the United Nations African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) on how to support its efforts to protect civilians and achieve a sustainable end to conflict in Darfur. The United States recognizes Foreign Minister Ghandours June 29 call for reconciliation in Sudan, his Governments stated commitment to rebuilding Darfur after more than a decade of war, and his remarks about the negative impact the conflict has had on the lives and living conditions of the Sudanese people. We welcome the announcement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 30 that all Sudanese forces have been instructed to cease offensive operations in Darfur, which follows the Government of Sudans recent declaration of a unilateral cessation of hostilities in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile. The United States also welcomes the Humanitarian Aid Commissions June 29 pledge to enhance cooperation and coordination with UN organizations and international NGOs. Implementation of these commitments would be an important step toward achieving peace in all of Sudan. We call on Sudan to ensure that humanitarian assistance is able to reach all populations in need throughout Sudan. There is no military solution to Sudans conflicts. As such, the United States also calls on all armed groups in and outside of Sudan to sign the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) roadmap and enter into peaceful political negotiations with the Government of Sudan. Latest News Promontory, Utah - A booster for the most powerful rocket in the world, NASAs Space Launch System (SLS), successfully fired up Tuesday for its second qualification ground test at Orbital ATK's test facilities in Promontory, Utah. This was the last full-scale test for the booster before SLSs first uncrewed test flight with NASAs Orion spacecraft in late 2018, a key milestone on the agencys Journey to Mars. This final qualification test of the booster system shows real progress in the development of the Space Launch System, said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Seeing this test today, and experiencing the sound and feel of approximately 3.6 million pounds of thrust, helps us appreciate the progress were making to advance human exploration and open new frontiers for science and technology missions in deep space. The booster was tested at a cold motor conditioning target of 40 degrees Fahrenheit the colder end of its accepted propellant temperature range. When ignited, temperatures inside the booster reached nearly 6,000 degrees. The two-minute, full-duration ground qualification test provided NASA with critical data on 82 qualification objectives that will support certification of the booster for flight. Engineers now will evaluate these data, captured by more than 530 instrumentation channels on the booster. When completed, two five-segment boosters and four RS-25 main engines will power SLS on deep space missions. The solid rocket boosters, built by NASA contractor Orbital ATK, operate in parallel with SLSs main engines for the first two minutes of flight. They will provide more than 75 percent of the thrust needed for the rocket and Orion spacecraft to escape Earths gravitational pull. "Today's test is the pinnacle of years of hard work by the NASA team, Orbital ATK and commercial partners across the country," said John Honeycutt, SLS Program manager at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. SLS hardware is currently in production for every part of the rocket. NASA also is making progress every day on Orion and the ground systems to support a launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. We're on track to launch SLS on its first flight test with Orion and pave the way for a human presence in deep space." The first full-scale booster qualification ground test was successfully completed in March 2015 and demonstrated acceptable performance of the booster design at 90 degrees Fahrenheit the highest end of the boosters accepted propellant temperature range. Testing at the thermal extremes experienced by the booster on the launch pad is important to understand the effect of temperature on how the propellant burns. The initial SLS configuration will have a minimum 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capability. The next planned upgrade of SLS will use a powerful exploration upper stage for more ambitious missions, with a 105-metric-ton (115-ton) lift capacity. In each configuration, SLS will continue to use the same core stage and four RS-25 engines. For more information about NASAs Journey to Mars, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/journeytomars Latest News Fort Worth, Texas - A Dallas-area elementary school teacher remains in federal custody Wednesday following his arrest last week on a federal complaint, filed June 24, which charges him with receiving child pornography. This arrest was announced by U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas. This case is being investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Following a probable cause and detention hearing Wednesday in federal court, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey L. Cureton ordered that Mark Stutheit, 59, remain in federal custody. Stutheit is a teacher at Reinhardt Elementary School in Dallas. According to the complaint filed in this case and testimony presented at the June 29 hearing, the investigation began last month when an undercover officer with the Queensland Police Service (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia), and a person later identified as Stutheit, exchanged emails about the sexual exploitation of children. On June 23, HSI special agents executed a search warrant at Stutheits residence in Saginaw, Texas. A forensic evaluation of evidence seized revealed numerous files containing child pornography on Stutheits computer and mobile devices. A federal complaint is a written statement of the essential facts of the offenses charged and must be made under oath before a magistrate judge. A defendant is entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. The maximum statutory penalty for the offense as charged is not less than five years or up to 20 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and a lifetime of supervised release. Anyone who may have been victimized in this case is asked to contact HSI at its toll-free number: 1-866-347-2423. Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Saleem, Northern District of Texas, is in charge of the prosecution. This investigation was conducted under HSIs Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators. Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 14,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children. In fiscal year 2015, nearly 2,400 individuals were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative and more than 1,000 victims identified or rescued. HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators. From outside the U.S. and Canada, callers should dial 802-872-6199. Hearing impaired users can call TTY 802-872-6196. Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST. Latest News Tucson, Arizona - U.S. Customs and Border Protection is reminding travelers planning trips across the border into the United States during the upcoming holidays to make sure they have proper documents and to anticipate heavy traffic. Border traffic increases significantly from June 30 through July 5 for the observance of Independence Day. All travelers are reminded of a few simple steps to cross the border more efficiently. Historically, we see more travelers entering the U.S. from Mexico during this week-long period than during any other week in the summer, said Tucson Director of Field Operations William Brooks. Travelers can help shorten the processing time at the ports of entry by having their travel documents available to present to the primary officer, and declaring everything they are bringing with them from Mexico. CBP encourages travelers to pre-plan trips. Obtain a valid, acceptable travel document, such as a passport, a U.S. passport card, a trusted traveler card (NEXUS, SENTRI, Global Entry or FAST/EXPRES), a permanent resident card, or an enhanced drivers license. Possession of these documents will expedite entry into the United States and make future border crossings more efficient. To avoid potential delays at the border, CBP is urging all foreign travelers requiring I-94 or I-94W (visa waiver) entry document processing to obtain the essential document early instead of waiting until the day of their travel. Travelers are encouraged to obtain the required document as much as a week in advance for faster and more convenient processing. All travelers requesting an I-94 or I-94W entry document may be required to establish financial solvency, proof of residency outside the United States and demonstrate that they have sufficiently strong ties to their country of origin, including a home abroad they do not intend to abandon. Check out the new CBP informational website at cbp.gov. The CBP site has been redesigned to help users quickly access the content they need and optimized for access by smart phones, improving access internationally. Beat the border rush Cross during off-peak times, such as before 8 a.m. or after 5 p.m. Most lines at the border start building in the morning and carry on into early afternoon. Monitor wait times on CBPs Border Wait Times app. Information is updated hourly and is useful in planning trips and identifying periods of light use/short waits. Keep travel documents handy Make sure each passenger has the correct travel document accessible and ready to give to the CBP officer. If you are a frequent international traveler and have not already become a member of a trusted traveler program, sign up now. For more information, please visit CBPs Trusted Traveler section. Know the contents of your vehicles and be prepared to declare all items Travelers are required to declare all items being imported into the United States from Mexico. If you are not sure about what to declare, do not hesitate to ask. Know what food products can be imported Many fruits, meats, dairy and poultry products are prohibited from being imported into the United States from Mexico. For more information, view cbp.gov Prohibited and Restricted Items. Firewood Only heat-treated firewood from Mexico is allowed into the United States. Personal importations of heat-treated firewood must be accompanied by either a treatment certificate or an attached commercial treatment label. Travelers attempting to bring untreated wood into the United States may be returned to Mexico to dispose of their wood there. To learn more about harmful pests associated with food products and firewood visit the United States Department of Agricultures Animal Plant Health Inspection Service website www.aphis.usda.gov/plant-health . Declare all firearms Specific requirements must be met to import or export firearms and ammunition to/from the United States. For more information on the importation or exportation of firearms and ammunition, visit the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; State Department; and Commerce Department websites. For more information on international traveling into the United States, visit CBPs Travel section. Yuma News Yuma, Arizona - Beginning in July 2016, the Yuma Main Library, in collaboration with Vanessa Castillo, will host a Summer Business Series at the Main Library. Aspiring entrepreneurs, small business owners, and students are invited to attend workshops focusing on business plans, marketing, and social media. Vanessa Castillo, local small business consultant and digital marketing expert, will launch the series with Business Plans 101 on Friday, July 15th, from 2:30-4:30 p.m. in Meeting Room A. Learn about the key components of a business plan and how to incorporate them into a formal document. Future Summer Business Series workshops include: Friday, August 12th 9:00-11:00 a.m. Marketing 101: a Guide to Winning Customers Friday, August 19th 9:30-11:30 a.m. Advanced Social Media Marketing There is no charge to attend; however, registration is required. Call (928) 373-6480 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to register. The Main Library is located at 2951 S 21st Drive. Two women sit side by side on the Judiciary Committee, both elected to the Nebraska Legislature in 2014, both in their 50s. Sens. Laura Ebke and Patty Pansing Brooks live 24.5 miles apart in the Lincoln-Crete area. Both are married; each has three kids. They are members of the same religious denomination: United Church of Christ. Both have doctorates from the University of Nebraska: Ebke's in political science, Pansing Brooks' in law. And each one says she believes in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the right to keep and bear arms. So how is it they would have such a long walk to reach common ground on the issue of guns? Ebke has introduced bills to make state gun laws pre-empt more restrictive city ordinances, and to allow security staff at private schools to carry concealed weapons. Pansing Brooks would consider introducing bills to tighten up who can get guns and what type of guns Nebraskans can own. "I think Patty and I recognize there are certain things we're not going to agree with each other on ... and we just accept it," said Ebke. She introduced a bill (LB298) last session that would have prevented cities and villages from having any ordinance stricter than state laws on concealed handguns. The bill advanced from the Judiciary Committee on a 6-0 vote, with Pansing Brooks abstaining. When it was debated by the full Legislature, she explained that when she abstained on the committee vote she thought the bill was about safe transport of guns from one location to another. "I think I was duped," she said during debate, "and I'm sorry about that because I would have stood up much more vociferously." After the committee vote, Pansing Brooks said, she realized the bill would have taken away Omaha's ability to require registration of handguns and Lincoln's prohibition on possession of firearms by those convicted in the past 10 years of certain crimes. Ebke failed to get 33 votes to end a filibuster on the bill, and it died at the end of the 2016 session, as did her bill on concealed weapons at private schools. But she's considering making another run at a pre-emption bill next session. "I know that that's going to be a tough one to move, but I think we need to talk about it as a constitutional issue," she said. Ebke said she understands that Omaha police might feel they have different needs than most Nebraska cities. "But we don't have different constitutional rights, depending on where we are in the state, or in the country," she said. No one would suggest that the city of Crete or Blair ought to be able to limit First Amendment rights, or that Kearney could dispense with the right to due process, she said. So why suggest the Second Amendment should be exempt in certain cities? Pansing Brooks was not focused as a lawmaker on changes to gun laws until last month, when the worst mass killing in recent history happened at a gay nightclub in Florida, and the U.S. Supreme Court made a couple of rulings on gun restriction cases that gave her hope for change. "It accelerated my belief that things can get done," she said. The Supreme Court upheld a 1996 federal law that bans a person convicted of domestic violence from having a gun. And it rejected challenges to bans in Connecticut and New York on some semi-automatic weapons and on magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. Now, Pansing Brooks decided, is the right time to stand up and make a difference. "I'm in favor of the Second Amendment. I think people get to hunt. I think people get to protect their homes. But they don't need guns that fire up to 40 rounds a minute to protect their homes." The state has got to have more reasonable restrictions on weapons, she said. The Orlando shootings, especially, hit close to home. She has a son who is gay, and she said it's what parents of gay children fear most. So she will take a stand. "And if it makes people angry at me, so be it. I feel it's the right thing to do. I didn't get voted into the Legislature to take easy stands on issues." Some people have argued they need guns to protect themselves from the government, Pansing Brooks said. But if it's progressed to the point that the government is taking over in some fascist manner, "then we've got a lot more problems than whether or not we can have a semi-automatic weapon." Ebke questioned how much people actually know about so-called assault rifles. They don't shoot anything differently than most handguns do, in terms of ammunition, she said. It's more how they look and feel: shorter and lighter, easier to handle than a hunting rifle. Most people would use the shorter, lighter guns for target shooting, Ebke said. Very few would even have access to fully automatic guns like the military uses, she said. Buyers must pay about $50,000 for special licensing. Besides, anyone can use handguns and hunting rifles for bad purposes, Ebke said. "The style is less relevant than the motivation of the people who have them." Pansing Brooks also doesn't understand why there is any hesitance to disallow purchase of guns to people on a terrorism watch list. But for Ebke, it's a constitutional conundrum. Before a person's constitutional rights are taken away, she said, there should be due process and a conviction. Maybe there's some place for enhanced scrutiny before a person on a watch list can buy a gun, she said. "But I don't think they should automatically be excluded." So what to do about guns? Reports show Americans might own 350 million to 360 million guns. And gun manufacturing is growing rapidly. "How do you recover those?" Ebke said. "I think that's asking for more trouble." Pansing Brooks believes it's not too late to do something. "If I don't take a stand, it's just the status quo, nothing changes," she said. Amelia Wesley Allen, 9, of Lincoln, passed away June 30, 2016. Born November 2, 2006, in St. Louis, Mo., to Steven E. and Jennifer L. (Gass) Allen. Member of Grace Chapel and a student at Rousseau Elementary. Amelia enjoyed taking walks, reading with friends and just loved nature and being outside. She is now walking hand in hand with her friend, King and Savior, Jesus. Family members include: parents, Steven and Jennifer; brothers, Miles and Rhodes; grandparents, Greg & Tammy Gass of Valentine, Rick & Carol Estudillo of Ord, Stan & Marge Allen of Grand Island; host of aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. Preceded in death by uncle Wesley Allen. Funeral service: 11 a.m. Tuesday, July 5, at Lincoln Berean Church. Pastor Ben Loos officiating. Visitation one hour prior to the service at the church. In lieu of flowers, please select a plant to be planted at Rousseau Elementary which will serve as a memorial to Amelia. Memorials to the family or to Rousseau Playground Fund. Condolences online at Roperandsons.com. By DN Singh It has become a usual feature of the wildlife wing of Orissa to get off their state of inertness once the damage is done. A similar kind of amateur action threw three lives off balance. But thanks to the intervention of media and judiciary, the damage was undone. Earlier, a speechless animal is within the concrete confines of a zoo, trying hard to recover from the trauma after the sudden shift of habitat. One was put behind bars for taking its care. And third: a three-year-old child was made victim of a senseless and knee-jerk decision. With least regard to the ground realities, the top brass in the Wildlife Department still frown at the jailed tribal, supposedly the villain of the entire episode. And the lonely inmate in the zoo, an eighteen-month year old sloth bear brought from Keonjhar portrays a tale of tragic separation, shock, trauma and of a shattered symbiotic bond. About 18 months back a tribal, Ram Singh Munda, from Ruplisila village in Keonjhar district, stumbled upon a bear cub battling with illness in a ditch inside the jungle, perhaps after being separated from its mother. Unable to locate the mother anywhere around, Ram brought it home. The sick bear cub slowly recovered from her illness and the love and care of the man breathed a new lease of life into the little soul. Within months the cub not only became a part of the family but a real darling of the household; more so, the sweetheart of Ram`s three-year-old motherless daughter. A bond that can be best described as an example of symbiosis. Named Rani, the cub grew in absolute freedom, moving around, playing with the daughter and other kids of the village and even sleeping near Ram or his daughter. As she grew, Ram grew a little worried about her safety and once even informed the forest authorities. However, despite his meager family income, Ram never allowed Rani to be treated differently from his own daughter. This exemplary bond between man and animal could not escape media attention. A few days back it hogged the headlines and after that the forest department of Keonjhar suddenly came out its state of stupor and acted in a very amateurish manner. Dubbing his action as a gross violation of the Wildlife Act 1972, they dragged Ram out of his house and put him behind the bars and literally lifted Rani out of her home and dumped her in a concrete enclosure at the Nandankaanan zoo. Two souls were shattered with shock. Ram was left to languish in jail and Rani was abandoned in the confines of the zoo in absolute trauma. Almost for three days, the bear refused to touch food and water. And this became a cause for the soaring worries of the zoo keepers and the safety of Rani is still under a question mark. Can she survive the sudden alienation from her habitat and the love of Ram and her daughter? "The forest officials have in a knee jerk reaction seized the sloth bear " says Biswajit Mohanty, an ardent wildlife activist adding that " they have, in their zeal, forgotten to keep the interest of the bear in mind- which might die of loneliness after being abruptly detached from its keeper." An eighteen-month-old fairy tale has hit the block of an absolutely mindless decision taken by the babus in the Forest Department of Orissa who, of course, enjoy the unenviable reputation of being incapable in such exigencies. When this reporter contacted the state`s Principal Chief Conservator of Wildlife about the department`s wisdom behind detaching Rani from Ram and imprisoning the latter, the officer`s reaction could startle any one. "The action taken in this case was taken by the officers who belong to the Territorial wing, so I can not comment much on that.` That comes from an officer who heads the wildlife wing. Ironically, in this whole episode, the PFA played a catalysts role behind the bear cub`s immediate release from Ram Singh`s clutches and was found baying for the tribal`s blood for violation of the Wildlife Act ` 72. But, interestingly, in a press release in Bhubaneswar, the PFA Secretary had urged the state government not to arrest Ram Singh as the latter had never made any commercial gain out of Rani nor had tortured her! And the worst that has happened is that, after Ram Singh`s arrest, back in his home, his three year old daughter has been left to her fate. The child is in total trauma and there is nobody to take care of her. A reality that has not struck the minds of either the forest or the district authorities. As an after thought the local authorities have decided to offer alms to the child in the shape of food, twice a day. Nothing could be more appalling than this; an innocent child who is already sinking in a brooding gloom of separation, her fate has been entrusted to a few officials. On Monday, the tribal was granted bail by the local court, as its attention was drawn to the child`s fate. Now that Ram is out on a bail from the court, philanthropy is in the air. The state that earlier appeared anything but just, now, thanks to media and the judiciary, has thought of supporting Ram`s daughter in her studies and food etc.. Even the local unit of PFA also has gone a step forward. It has not only volunteered to take total care of Rams daughter, but it has also suddenly found a hidden virtue in Ram Singhs behaviour and expressed its willingness to employ him. For them, it appears, Ram can be a real animal caretaker. Washington: In a possible hate crime, the horse of a Sikh man in the US State of Tennessee has been shot dead from a close range. Devinder Sandhu said the horse, named Misty Blue, was apparently shot dead on Tuesday, according to local media reports. "Sandhu is Sikh and wears a turban. He fears someone may have targeted him, but hopes that wasn't the case," a local news channel said, adding that the police is investigating it as a possible hate crime. "So that we couldn't hide or blend into the crowd, so we could stand for our beliefs which was protecting the innocent," 61-year-old Singh said. "Misty Blue was born on our property and was our household pet. For 20 years the farm has been a place of delight and sanctuary for those who have visited. Since this happened it's all be horrible," Susan Eslick, wife of Sandhu, was quoted as saying by The Tennessean. The Sikh community has condemned the incident. "We condemn this barbaric action by a misguided individual who took this step of harming an innocent animal to scare the family and the community. We are shocked by this savagery," said Sikh Council on Religion and Education's Chairman, Rajwant Singh. Washington: US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, seeking to tamp down a firestorm over meeting with former president Bill Clinton, said on Friday she will accept the recommendations of career prosecutors and the FBI director on whether to charge Hillary Clinton for mishandling e-mails. The United States` top law enforcement officer, however, stopped short of saying she would recuse herself from the investigation of the Democratic presidential candidate. "I will be informed of those findings, as opposed to never reading them or never seeing them, but I will be accepting their recommendations and their plan for going forward," Lynch said. She was responding to questions from a Washington Post journalist who was introducing a talk by Lynch at the Aspen Ideas Festival, a gathering of government, technology and other business leaders in Aspen, Colorado. Republicans, including presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, have said a political appointee like Lynch should not be involved in the email investigation and that the Monday night meeting with Bill Clinton shows Lynch is too close to the Clintons. With a regretful tone, Lynch said on Friday she would not privately meet with Bill Clinton again and that she understood how the meeting "casts a shadow" over the perception of the Justice Department`s probe into Hillary Clinton`s email use. The attorney general said she has received many questions about her role in the investigation and "whether someone who was a political appointee would be involved in deciding how to investigate." Republican lawmakers have called for an independent investigation of Hillary Clinton`s use of a private email server while secretary of state, saying the Obama administration`s Justice Department could not be free of bias. In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a daily news briefing that the investigation is being handled completely independently of the White House and President Barack Obama. Lynch was appointed by the Democratic president and sworn in on April 1, 2015, well after Hillary Clinton left Obama`s Cabinet in 2013. Career prosecutors are not appointed by a president and may serve through different administrations. The FBI director is appointed by the president but is not part of his Cabinet and is considered apolitical. Lynch said on Friday that she had already decided to accept whatever recommendations prosecutors presented her before her meeting with Bill Clinton. The private meeting with the former president took place on Lynch`s plane after she landed in Phoenix on Monday night. Bill Clinton was leaving the airport after a rally for his wife earlier that day. Lynch told reporters earlier this week that she did not discuss the email probe or other matters pending before the Justice Department with Bill Clinton, calling their meeting "primarily social." The FBI is investigating Hillary Clinton`s e-mail use and whether laws were broken as a result of a personal email server kept in her Chappaqua, New York, home while she was secretary of state, an issue that has overshadowed her campaign. She apologized last year for using the server, saying that while she did nothing wrong, she should have used two email accounts: one for State Department business and another for personal matters. Representatives for her campaign could not be reached immediately for comment on Friday. Trump on Thursday called Lynch`s meeting "a sneak" and questioned the judgment of both Bill Clinton and the attorney general. In a tweet on Friday, the wealthy businessman said the meeting showed the U.S. political system was "totally rigged" and that Hillary Clinton had bad judgment. "Bill`s meeting was probably initiated and demanded by Hillary!" Trump said on Twitter. The Justice Department, along with the White House, has said the probe should be free of political interference. Washington: Describing India as an "important Pacific power", the draft election manifesto of the Democratic Party has said it would continue to invest in long-term strategic relationship with the country and "press" Pakistan to deny terrorists sanctuaries on its soil. The Democratic Party Platform -- akin to election manifesto of political parties in India -- would be formally adopted at its convention in Philadelphia later this month wherein Hillary Clinton would be nominated as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee for the November general elections. A draft of the platform was released by the Democratic Party yesterday. Among its members include people from both Clinton and the rival Bernie Sanders' campaigns. Indian-American Neera Tanden, who is widely seen as a potential Cabinet member of the Clinton administration, is among its members. "Democrats will continue to invest in a long-term strategic partnership with India -- the world's largest democracy, a nation of great diversity, and an important Pacific power," the platform said, signalling that a Democratic administration would continue with the India policy of the Obama Administration. The platform said the US will work with its allies and partners to fortify regional institutions and norms as well as protect freedom of the seas in the South China Sea. "We will push back against North Korean aggression and press China to play by the rules. We will stand up to Beijing on unfair trade practices, currency manipulation, and cyber-attacks. And we will promote greater respect for human rights, including the rights of Tibetans," it said. The platform calls for a strong counter-terrorism measure. "Democrats will continue to push for an Afghan-led peace process and press Pakistan to deny all terrorists sanctuary on its soil," the platform said. Cautioning the countrymen that it would be a dangerous mistake for America to abandon its responsibilities, the draft said, "We cannot, as Donald Trump suggests, cede the mantle of leadership for global peace and security to others who will not have our best interests in mind." American leadership is essential to keeping the US safe and economy growing in the years ahead, said the draft platform. "From the Asia Pacific to the Indian Ocean, we will deepen our alliances in the region with Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand," it said. The platform supported Obama's decision to maintain a limited troop presence in Afghanistan and ensure that it never again serves as a haven for terrorists to plan and launch attacks on the US. Rejecting "Donald Trump's vilification of Muslims", the Democratic platform said it will repudiate vile tactics that would do the US harm Siwan (Bihar): A 200-year-old 'ashtadhatu' idol of Lord Rama was stolen from Khaki Pipra Mutt in Goriyakothi police station area here, police on Saturday. The 'ashtadhatu' (a combination of eight metals) idol, stolen late last night, was worth several lakhs of rupees, a police officer said. The thieves fled in a pickup van which was parked in the Mutt premises, he said, adding raids were being conducted to nab them. Chennai: In a major breakthrough, the Chennai Police on Friday night arrested a man suspected to have brutally murdered a 24-year-old woman IT professional here. Addressing a press conference, Chennai Police Commissioner TK Rajendran on Saturday said the 22-year-old accused, identified as P Ramkumar, used to stalk Infosys techie Swathi. "He was infatuated with Swathi and wanted to strike up a friendship with her, which was not successful. Hence he killed her." Rajendran confirmed that the suspect acted alone and he had no accomplice. Ramkumar was given first aid and then taken to the Government Hospital there for further treatment. "We will go by the doctor's advice on interrogating him there or bringing him to Chennai," Rajendran said. According to him, a special police team has gone to Tirunelveli to conduct further investigation. Rajendran said Ramkumar had come to Chennai in search of a job. The city Police Commissioner thanked the public and Swathi's parents for cooperating with the police in the investigations. According to a senior doctor in the Government Hospital, it will take seven days for Ramkumar's wound to heal. "After getting information from the investigation team we picked up Ramkumar, from his house on Friday night. On seeing us he tried to slit his throat with a blade. He was immediately taken to a hospital and is under treatment. He is fine and would recover," a police official in Tirunelveli told IANS over the phone. According to the official, Ramkumar, an unemployed engineering graduate, has two sisters. His father works in BSNL and mother is a housewife. "It seems the family is unaware of his alleged deed," the official told IANS. He said Ramkumar's neighbours were reluctant to speak about the youth after coming to know the reason behind the police action. "We have to check with the college authorities and others to know about him," the police said. Speaking to a television channel a neighbour said Ramkumar is a silent person. The engineering graduate allegedly murdered S Swathi using a sickle here last week after stalking her for months. Ramkumar, a native of Shencottah near Tirunelveli, was staying in Choolaimedu area in the city where Swathi had resided for quite some time. Swathi, employed with software giant Infosys, was found dead with cut injuries on her face and neck at around 6.30 am on a platform in Nungambakkam railway station on June 24. With the images in the closed circuit television (CCTV), the police conducted its manhunt. The attacker had also taken Swathi's mobile phone after killing her. The police tracked the phone signals and found the phone was in Choolaimedu area near Nungambakkam station, said a news report. The police were earlier told that a person resembling Ramkumar was staying in a mansion-building where bachelors stay. He vanished from the building since June 24. Vienna: Austria was preparing on Saturday for a re-run of May`s Presidential Election in a vote that gives Norbert Hofer another shot at becoming the EU`s first far-right president. Whether Hofer can beat independent ecologist Alexander Van der Bellen in September remains to be seen, particularly if after Britain`s Brexit vote Hofer takes the gamble of making a possible Austrian EU exit a big issue, experts said. The new vote follows a ruling by Austria`s highest court on Friday in which Van der Bellen`s narrow May 22 victory was declared null and void. Van der Bellen scraped home in the ballot with just 30,863 votes over Hofer of the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPOe) for the largely ceremonial but coveted presidency. Early results for Hofer, seen as a moderate face of the FPOe, had put him slightly ahead, but after postal votes were counted Van der Bellen was declared the winner, sparking relief among centrist parties in Austria and across Europe. The FPOe, which is topping opinion polls ahead of the next scheduled general election in 2018 on the back of concerns about immigration, launched a legal challenge on June 8 claiming "terrifying" irregularities. After dozens of witnesses detailed what Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka called widespread "sloppiness", the court found that postal votes in 14 areas were opened too early or by unauthorised persons, and so could potentially have been doctored.The ruling means that Van der Bellen`s planned inauguration set for July 8 has been scrapped, and sets in motion what is likely to be a hard-fought summer election battle of high drama. Van der Bellen voter Hermann, 36, waiting for a bus in central Vienna, said he thought Van der Bellen would clinch victory again -- but only just. "I don`t think people will vote differently. The two camps are so far apart that we will get a similar result," he told AFP. "I don`t think the result will be any different," agreed hairdresser Daniel Huber, 26. But experts said that voter turnout will be key, as well as which side has more money to invest in its campaign after the high costs of the May election depleted their coffers. "It will depend on which side is the more successful at mobilising its voters," David Pfarrhofer from the Market polling institute told AFP. His "gut feeling" is that some typical Van der Bellen voters -- younger, more educated, urban -- might not vote. Veteran expert Anton Pelinka said that Van der Bellen has a bigger task on his hands getting supporters out to vote than his gun enthusiast challenger, who walks with a cane since a 2003 paraglider accident. "Support for Van der Bellen was much more heterogeneous that for Hofer. Hofer can rely on voters from one party (the FPOe) but Van der Bellen needs a complex alliance of the centre-right and the left," Pelinka told AFP. In May, Hofer focused on issues like wanting more direct democracy rather than the record 90,000 asylum applications in Austria last year. But he still says Islam "has no place in Austria" and opposes gay marriage. Observers say that beneath the smooth image lurks a far-right idealogue who has already threatened to seize upon never-before-used presidential powers to fire the government if it fails to get tougher on migrants or boost the faltering economy. And this time, after British voters` shock decision on June 23 to leave the European Union, Hofer may decide to make a possible Austrian exit a vote-winner. After the Brexit vote, he came out in favour of a referendum if the EU fails to reform enough in the next year. Van der Bellen -- a wartime child refugee from the Soviet Union -- is staunchly in favour of Austria remaining in the bloc. Political expert Hubert Sickinger said that if Hofer makes an EU exit a big issue, Van der Bellen would likely profit. "A solid majority in Austria is against leaving the EU," he told AFP. London: Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain on Saturday addressed members of the Scottish parliament as she formally opened the chamber`s fifth session. The monarch spoke in the Holyrood Chamber as part of an opening ceremony that will also include music, poetry and speeches, the BBC reported. She said the opening of the new session marked a "time for hope and optimism" and a "real sense of renewal". She said Holyrood had "grown in maturity in skill" since being established in 1999. "Of course we all live in an increasingly complex and demanding world, where events and developments can, and do, take place at remarkable speed. "Retaining the ability to stay calm and collected can at times be hard." About 2,500 people are due to take part in the historic Riding Procession down the Royal Mile following the ceremony. The Queen was welcomed by Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Macintosh told the Queen that parliament "stands ready for the challenges that lie ahead of us" and that "every MSP in this chamber is proud to represent the people of Scotland." Referring to the fallout from the EU referendum result, The presiding officer added: "In these few short weeks, weeks of unprecedented political turbulence, I have already seen a real willingness to work cooperatively and collaboratively. "I have seen the emergence of a shared agenda to clarify the identity and role of the Scottish parliament and a shared recognition that it is more important than ever that the parliament finds its own voice -- a voice of hope, to echo Donald Dewar, a voice for the future." The fifth term of the Scottish parliament began after May`s Holyrood elections, and MSPs had their final session before the summer break on Thursday. Belgrade: A man shot dead five people, including his wife, and injured another 20 in a cafe in northern Serbia early Saturday, police said, with jealousy the suspected motive. The man "entered the cafe and opened fire with an automatic rifle, killing his wife and another woman, then he continued to shoot at other citizens in the cafe," a police statement said. Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic visited the scene and was quoted by N1 television channel as saying that the weapon was illegal and jealousy was believed to be the motive. It is the third mass shooting in recent years in Serbia, which has tried to shrink the number of illegal weapons in circulation since the 1990s Balkan wars. The latest incident happened at about 1:40 am (2340 GMT Friday) in the town of Zitiste, around 80 kilometres north of Belgrade. Police arrested the alleged shooter, born in 1978 and named only by his initials ZS, and opened a probe into the killings. Stefanovic said the attacker tried to flee the scene, but police stopped and arrested him. "We are all shocked that something like this could happen since this was a very quiet man who had no police record," he said according to the state-run Tanjug news agency. N1 channel reported that the attacker argued with his wife in the cafe, left the building and returned with a Kalashnikov-type rifle with which he opened fire. Two people were killed instantly, while three died after being taken to hospital in the nearby city of Zrenjanin, the channel's report said. The others wounded, some of them severely, were taken to various Serbian hospitals but were not in critical condition, reports said. Illegal gun ownership is widespread in Serbia and the rest of the former Yugoslavia. Police have previously said there could be several hundred thousand unregistered weapons in the country, including guns and grenades, remaining from the 1990s Balkan wars. The shooting spree came a day after the interior ministry launched a new drive to encourage owners of illegal weapons to hand them to their local police stations. Such people "will not be held accountable for unauthorised buying and holding of weapons," the police announcement said yesterday. Washington: President Barack Obama is backtracking on his warning that Britain would go to the "back of the queue" for a US trade deal, as he tries to contain the fallout of the UK's decision to leave the European Union. The shift in tone illustrates how Britain's vote has abruptly scrambled Obama's reality. Where the President had tried to encourage the UK not to rashly abandon the European bloc, he now must reassure Britain that its decision to do so won't mean its demise. His priority of locking in trade deals before leaving office now becomes a distant second, behind the more urgent task of restoring confidence in the financial markets and in Europe's future. "The Obama administration and a number of leaders in Europe as well is trying to calm the waters. At this point, there are more questions than answers," said Miriam Sapiro, Obama's former acting trade representative and now an adviser at the strategy firm Finsbury. Obama's attempt to show support for a struggling ally casts him in the role of forceful free-trade advocate at a time when all of the major presidential candidates running to replace him are vocally opposed. Yet current and former Obama administration officials are operating under the assumption that Democrat Hillary Clinton, if elected, would come around to supporting Obama's trade deals after finding ways to reconcile specific concerns she's raised about jobs, wages and national security. Before Britain's exit vote, or Brexit, Obama's administration was deep in negotiations toward a sweeping free trade deal with the 28-nation EU. Supporters of the Brexit had argued the UK wouldn't lose out on US commerce because it could easily broker a one-on-one deal with the US. So during a visit to London in April, Obama sought to correct the record, arguing that wouldn't "happen any time soon." Obama's warning reflected his broader belief that separate trade deals with individual countries are too laborious, given the countless regulations, laws and standards that must be aligned to create a free trade zone. Instead, Obama has sought to broker broad deals with universal requirements, so that any country that agrees to the conditions can join. His 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership with Asia, awaiting ratification in Congress, is a prime example of that multi-member approach. An Omaha man convicted of killing his girlfriend with a sword lost an appeal Friday before the Nebraska Supreme Court. The court agreed with the conviction of Christopher Edwards, rejecting his arguments that prosecutors used manufactured evidence planted by a former crime scene investigator who served prison time for evidence tampering in a different case. Edwards is serving 100 years to life in prison for the 2006 murder of 19-year-old Jessica O'Grady, whose body was never found. He has maintained his innocence and argued that David Kofoed, former commander of Douglas County's crime scene investigation unit, planted some of the evidence used to convict him. Kofoed was convicted in 2010 of tampering with evidence in a double slaying in which two men were wrongly charged and spent months in jail. Kofoed's conviction has prompted courts to review other cases in which he was involved. In 2012, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the Douglas County court should permit Edwards an evidentiary hearing on his claims that he was framed. A judge later rejected those claims, saying Edwards' attorneys provided no evidence of tampering at the scene of O'Grady's death. Investigators say O'Grady's blood soaked a mattress, streaked the ceiling and dotted a headboard, alarm clock, clothes basket and other items in Edwards' basement bedroom. The judge noted that even before Kofoed arrived at the scene, investigators had found O'Grady's blood in the bedroom, in Edwards' car trunk, on a sword blade and on the handle of pruning shears. The court also rejected Edwards' claim that his trial attorney, Steve Lefler, had a conflict of interest, because Lefler also served as Kofoed's defense attorney. Lefler has said he had no knowledge that Kofoed's integrity was in question until Kofoed asked for representation more than a year after Edwards' trial. Hyderabad: Condemning the acts of the extremist Islamic groups such as the ISIS in unequivocal terms, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday said 'generalising and blaming' the entire Muslim community, especially at times when several suspected terrorists have been arrested by the NIA, 'should not happen'. "I have condemned ISIS. In my speech I spoke against them for 20 minutes and you (media) do not want to carry that. I also condemn this generalisation and blaming the whole Muslim community. And also blaming whole of south of Hyderabad. In south Hyderabad people of all communities are living peacefully. I will continue to condemn ISIS, it is a terrorist organisation. This is everyone's stand in the community," he told media here. The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief had on Friday announced that his party would provide legal aid to five IS suspects arrested from Hyderabad earlier this week by the National Investigation agency. Backing his party's decision, Owaisi said that the legal system would anyway have offered legal help to the accused and urged the media not to blow the issue out of proportion and be a hindrance in the legal process. "You (media) are trying to make a big issue out of the help offered. If we do not give them legal help them court will give them legal help. This is democracy, this is how justice works," he said. Owaisi asserted his firm belief in the courts and the legal system, but hinted that NIA's actions have not been entirely consistent in such cases. "Look at the role of NIA in recent times. (Swamy) Aseemanand was given bail in Mecca Masjid case, then you shouldn't have appealed against the bail. What was your (NIA) role in Malegaon case, you said Pragya had played no role, but then court had to intervene. What we are saying is that let the court decide and you present the evidence. If court finds them guilty then yes, they are guilty," he said. According to reports, Owaisi had earlier decided to support the accused after the family members of the youth met AIMIM chief and claimed that they are innocent. The Hyderabad MP then said he had directed a lawyer to provide the legal help. On the other hand, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday received 12-day custody of the five accused, who were arrested from Hyderabad over suspicion of having terror links. The agency had detained 11 people for suspected terror links in raids conducted at several places in Hyderabad on June 29. Dehradun: At least 14 bodies have been recovered so far from the debris in villages which were buried in a cloudburst in Uttarakhand, police said on Saturday. As many as 39 people were feared dead on Friday in the incident that occurred in six villages of Chamoli and Pithoragarh districts, the police said. The maximum damage was inflicted on Basted village where at least 30 people were feared to be trapped in the debris. More than 60 houses were flattened due to the cloud burst after incessant rains in the region. As many as 200 cattle have reportedly died in the villages. Officials said more than 100 mm rains were recorded in just two hours, leading to flooding of most of the rivers in the hill state. A senior official of the disaster management team said the rescue operations were hampered due to inclement weather. Several teams of the State Disaster Response Force, paramilitary forces and Army rescue teams were stranded on the way to the disaster-struck areas. All means of communication in the area have also collapsed. New Delhi: Amid tight security, the 48-day long annual Amarnath yatra began on Saturday and will continue till August 18 through the two routes of Baltal and Pahalgam. Over 9,000 pilgrims set off from base camps in Ganderbal and Anantnag districts of Jammu and Kashmir to begin this year`s Amarnath Yatra. "Out of 7,500 pilgrims gathered at the Baltal base camp (Ganderbal), 4000 had crossed the Dumail gate to start the 14-kilometre long trek to the Cave Shrine early today," said a senior police officer here. By 10 am, the remaining 3,500 pilgrims crossed the gate towards the Cave Shrine. From Nunwan base camp (in Pahalgam in Anantnag), 1,600 yatris had crossed Chandanwari towards the Cave Shrine in the morning, the police officer said. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today participated in the traditional Puja and `Darshan` at the Amarnath Cave Shrine. Rajnath Singh this morning flew in a helicopter to the Himalayan cave shrine of Amarnath in Anantnag district of South Kashmir. He was accompanied by Governor NN Vohra who is also the chairman of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) that manages the affairs of the annual yatra which started this year on Saturday. Rajnath Singh and Vohra participated in the special Puja inside the shrine to herald the beginning of this year`s 48-day long yatra. Both of them prayed for peace and development in the country. Feeling extremely blessed after visiting the Holy Cave at Shri Amarnathji this morning. Jai Baba Bholenath! pic.twitter.com/jrRZoQdLqr Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) July 2, 2016 Sharing more pictures of my visit to Shri Amarnathji pic.twitter.com/3cLAXMudEu Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) July 2, 2016 It is believed that the Shiva Linga grows and shrinks with the phases of the moon reaching its height during the summer festival. Meanwhile, Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) has advised the pilgrims to carry sufficient woollen clothes, umbrella, raincoat, and waterproof shoes as the weather in the Yatra area is unpredictable. It has also advised the pilgrims to carry their identity cards and Yatra permit, and travel in a group. Prepaid SIM cards from other states would not work in Jammu and Kashmir and the Yatra route. Yatris can purchase pre-activated SIM cards at the base camps of Baltal and Nunwan, the SASB said. Also, the SASB has asked the pilgrims to not do anything during the entire Yatra which could cause pollution or disturb the environment. (With Agency inputs) United Nations: As terrorists struck a massive blow in the region Friday, India called for quick action to adopt the long-stalled Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) and expressed disappointment that the General Assembly failed to push for its early adoption. Speaking at the General Assembly while Islamic State terrorists were carrying out an attack in Dhaka`s diplomatic enclave and taking hostages, India`s Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin said, " The perpetrators of terrorist attacks as well as the States that support and sponsor or provide safe havens to terrorists or terrorist groups must be made accountable." Urging all nations to adopt the CCIT by the next session, he said that India was disappointed that the resolution on Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy adopted by the Assembly failed to advance its early enactment. Adopting it "would show that the international community is determined and pledges to take concrete actions on counter-terrorism by filling in the gaps that are there in the existing regime," he said. The resolution lacked a sense of urgency as it merely called upon "all States to make every effort to conclude a comprehensive convention on international terrorism." Akbaruddin later explained to IANS that India`s "disappointment was that we would have preferred stronger language" in the resolution about the CCIT, "basically setting a finite time frame for adoption of CCIT." The convention was originally proposed by India 20 years ago and its draft has been deadlocked since 2012 because of differences in defining terrorism and terrorists. Certain countries claim they are "liberation movements" and "freedom fighters" and try to exempt those that they favor. "No belief, justification, political cause or argument can be used to justify the acts of terrorism," Akbaruddin said in his speech to the Assembly. The failure to adopt the convention, Akbaruddin said, "signals that the exponential rise in terrorist activities around the world has left us untouched." He reiterated India`s suggestion to create a counter-terrorism czar at the UN to oversee the fight against terror across the organisation and "convey a clear signal that counter-terrorism has a significant place on the UN agenda." "Currently, there are nearly 40 entities involved in different ways in the fight against terrorism," Akbaruddin said. "It would, therefore, be useful to have a senior official or an entity to coordinate the entire range of activities and bring more focus to such activities." In working towards an international framework to fight terrorism, he said that India has concluded more than 40 bilateral treaties on extradition and mutual legal assistance and has set up joint mechanisms to discuss counter-terrorism with more than 25 countries. The Assembly resolution urged nations "that have not done so to consider becoming parties in a timely manner to the existing international conventions and protocols against terrorism." , Masud Bin Momen, the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh, noted that at that very moment a situation involving "armed assailants" was unfolding in his country. He called for making adequate funds available for implementing counter-terrorism initiatives. The Assembly resolution asked member nations "to prevent the abuse of non-governmental, non-profit and charitable organisations by and for terrorists." It urged these organisations to prevent attempts by terrorists to take advantage of their status. The French under-secretary in charge of counter-terrorism, Catherine Calothy, also called for efficient coordination in UN`s efforts and avoiding duplication. She added, "There can be no effectiveness without coordination." Russian diplomat Vladimir Andreev also denounced the attempts to legitimise some terrorists. He said, "Politically driven practices in dividing terrorists into the `bad guys` and the `not-so-bad guys` had seen the destabilization of the Middle East and North Africa." Kutch: The Border Security Force (BSF) has seized two Pakistani fishing boats from creek area at Haraminala along the Indo-Pak border even as fishermen aboard managed to escape, officials said. "During patrolling last evening, we seized two unclaimed boats belonging to Pakistani fishermen that had entered 400 metres into the Indian territory of the Indo-Pak maritime border in Kutch district," a BSF official said. Two small-sized wooden fishing boats were seized along with fishing nets, ice box and freshly caught fish, he said. "The fishermen on the boat, it appeared, managed to escape before the BSF patrolling team arrived at the spot. The place from where the boats were apprehended is situated some 13 kilometres from the border out-post," he said. Early in May, the BSF team had apprehended 18 Pakistani fishermen near Koteshwar in Kutch along with two boats while they were found fishing in Indian waters. Noida/Firozabad: Bereaved family members of 19-year-old Tarishi Jain, mourned her death after she was killed, as she was taken hostage by the gunmen in an upscale cafe Holey Artisan in Dhaka`s diplomatic zone last evening.Twenty people including Twenty people including Tarishi were killed with sharp weapons by the gunmen after taking the diners hostage. Sirish Jain, Tarishi`s cousin condemned the attack saying that it was a senseless act and said that he had received the news of the tragedy from the media. "You can understand that this is a rough time as we have lost our child. It`s a senseless act. What`s happening? Of course you hear such stories happening around the world but this menace is coming and hitting us directly and our family getting affected is something that one can never imaging in the wildest of their dreams," he told ANI. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed that 19-year-old Indian, Tarishi was killed during the attack."Tarishi was 19 years old. She passed out from American School Dhaka. Presently, she was a student at Berkeley," Swaraj tweeted. Jain said that that he along with other relatives are trying to reach Dhaka as early as possible. "We want to reach Dhaka at the earliest. There is no one over there except Tarishi`s mother and father. The External Affairs Ministry is quite helpful. They are arranging our visas. So we are trying to reach Dhaka as early as possible," Sirish said. Remembering Tarishi, he added that she went to study in America only last year for her bachelor`s degree and was home for her summer vacations when the tragedy struck. He further said that his family is in touch with the Ministry of External Affairs and they are supporting them in every possible way. Meanwhile, Tarishi`s family members in Firozabad city, who are still battling with the tragedy, have requested the Indian government to bring her body back to India. "We are trying to get information about her since we heard about attack as she had gone for dinner with her friends at that restaurant. The Government has spoken to Tarishi`s father in Dhaka," Annie Jain, Tarishi`s relative said.Tarishi`s relatives informed that her parents had settled in Dhaka for the past many years and her father has a small business there. Apart from Tarishi, other deceased include eight Italians, some Japanese, South Koreans and some Bangladeshi nations. The 12-hour-long hostage crisis at the cafe popular with foreigners ended after a two hour long assault by armed forces` commandos killing six gunmen this morning. One assailant has been held by the security forces.Following the hostage crises Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reiterated her vow to stop militancy and terrorism in the country and reassured the citizens that her government will do everything to curb militancy and violent extremism in the country. She is scheduled to address the nation this evening.Though it was reported that the Islamic State claimed responsibility on the attack, the US State Department has said it cannot yet be confirmed.The Islamic State has claimed a number of past attacks in Bangladesh through its media affiliates, but the government has consistently denied presence of the militant in the country. New Delhi/Dhaka: An Indian teenager was among 20 foreigners who were killed after being taken hostage by a group of attackers at an upmarket cafe in the Bangladeshi capital. Tarishi Jain, 19, was caught up in the horrific 11-hour siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery, a Western-style cafe popular with foreigners located in the diplomatic quarter of the capital. "I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarishi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka," External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj posted on Twitter. Swaraj said she had spoken to the girl's grief-stricken father and conveyed her condolences to him. "The country is with them in this hour of grief," she tweeted. Jain had finished her schooling from the American School in Dhaka and was pursuing her studies at the University of California, Berkeley, Swaraj added. Tarishi's father has been running a garment business in Bangladesh for last 15-20 years. The Bangladesh army said most of the slain civilians were either Italian or Japanese and that many had been hacked to death with sharpened weapons. Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly condemned the attack in a post on Twitter. "The attack in Dhaka has pained us beyond words. I spoke to (Bangladesh) PM Sheikh Hasina and strongly condemned the despicable attack," he tweeted. An Indian doctor was also taken hostage but was among the eight people rescued on Saturday morning. According to sources, Dr. Satyapal speaks fluent Bengali and came out as one of the Bangladeshis. The others rescued are all Bangladeshis. Besides the lone Indian, others who were killed included Italians, Japanese, South Koreans and Bangladeshis. Around three to four people are undergoing treatment in Dhaka, including two Sri Lankans, a Japanese and an Italian. The Bangladeshi staff of the bakery rescued in the morning have been segregated by police for interrogation. Three people escaped on Friday night, including an Italian and a Japanese when the attack started. The siege ended on Saturday morning, with the killing of six terrorists, and the capture of one gunman. Thirteen hostages were rescued. The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he spoke to his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina on Saturday and condemned the "despicable attack" in Dhaka. "My thoughts are with the bereaved families. I pray that those who are injured recover quickly," the Prime Minister said in a series of tweets. Modi asserted that India "stands firmly with our sisters and brothers of Bangladesh" in this hour of grief. Meanwhile, Bangladeshi PM Hasina has announced two days of national mourning for the brutal attack. (With agency inputs) New Delhi: India`s entry into the elite club of Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) may pose a challenge to China, strategists say. That`s because it would open the door to legally sell or transfer its sophisticated missiles to others, particularly to countries in Asia. "MTCR would legitimise and speed up the process of selling missiles, especially the BrahMos to Vietnam which had already shown interest in buying it, and Hanoi would not hesitate in hitting a Chinese ship," Bharat Karnad, research professor at Centre for Policy Research and a national security expert, told IANS. He added that if India speeds up the process of sale of BrahMos to Vietnam, it could pose a threat to China`s "Fourth Fleet, or the `Ghost Fleet`, that is eyeing dominance in the Indian Ocean, India`s backyard. The Chinese Navy has three fleet commands -- one each in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea. In late 2014, reports came about a fourth fleet that is being deployed in the Indian Ocean Region, a point of concern for India. "BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile. It doesn`t give a chance to the ships to defend themselves. One shot means one kill," Karnad said, explaining why the BrahMos is the most sought after weapon. "India is a soft country. Vietnam has a stomach to fight, they are not risk averse as India. Chinese can`t take risks with Vietnam, which will respond vigorously," Karnad said, adding "This will create a very difficult situation for Chinese. They will be worried." Vietnam and China are at loggerheads over the South China Sea, with Beijing laying claim to most of the mineral-rich sea. China has also protested over Vietnam and India entering into agreements on oil exploration cooperation in the sea. Raising of a Fourth Fleet was Beijing`s response to the New Delhi-Hanoi cooperation. "A country is known by its enemy -- as we are by Pakistan, which is a minor threat. China doesn`t consider us a threat as it does the USA. The MTCR would change that perception in China regarding India," he said. India has become the 35th member of MTCR. China has been trying to become a member of the regime for 12 years. The membership would help legitimise transactions of high-end missile and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology. India could also use this membership as an opportunity to block the entry of China and Pakistan into the club, experts suggested. Besides Vietnam, countries like the Philippines, South Korea, Algeria, Greece, Malaysia, Thailand, Egypt Singapore, Venezuela and Bulgaria have shown interest in buying the BrahMos, made through an India-Russia collaboration. Apart from missile technology, India can now also acquire an earlier denied technology for developing cryogenic engines -- crucial for space explorations, as well as for acquiring ballistic missile shield or protection system. Strategic affairs expert Uday Bhaskar said that while nuclear and missile technology is the core of strategic capability of any country, the MTCR membership would help in setting up new perspectives for India. It may also help in procuring UAVs, drones including the MQ-1 Predator drones from the US. India officially joined MTCR on June 27, days after it was denied entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), another elite club of 48 nations following strong Chinese opposition. "It is desirable for India to be part of both NSG and MTCR," Bhaskar told IANS. But Karnad feels otherwise. "I don`t understand why there was such a hue and cry for NSG, which is really not necessary. We have already crossed the weapons threshold and already have all those leverages required under the 2008 waiver," Karnad said, adding that the NSG might add further restrictions. India was given a unique waiver by then 45-member NSG in September 2008, lifting an embargo on civil nuclear trade imposed after India exploded its first nuclear device in 1974. Beijing then too had opposed the decision and agreed only after Washington intervened. Patna: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav has criticised the Centre`s move of asking the Law Commission to examine the implications of implementing the Uniform Civil Code across the country, saying it is just a tactic applied by the BJP to fool people. Speaking to the media, Yadav said that as the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections are around the corner, the saffron party was resorting to its old tactic of fooling around people with vague promises. "Every time the elections are round the corner, they start making such promises," Yadav said. "If they want to apply the Uniform Civil Code, they should first apply that in Jammu and Kashmir. They are in power over there," he added. The Bihar Deputy Chief Minister further said that the ruling dispensation at the Centre would not be able to do anything. "It is just their tactics to spread rumours among people as per their agenda. It is their ideology which is based on hypocrisy," he said. Union Law Minister Sadananda Gowda had yesterday said that he had repeatedly received questions about the issue of Uniform Civil Code in the Parliament, following which he has asked the Law Commission to give him a report in this regard. The code, if implemented, would mean a set of common civil laws for all citizens in place of the multitude of personal laws for different religious groups. Under the Directive Principles of the State Policy in the Constitution, Article 44 says: "The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a Uniform Civil Code throughout the territory of India." The Uniform Civil Code has been a controversial issue and it was the part of BJP`s poll manifesto. This move by the Centre assumes significance as the Supreme Court had recently said it would prefer to have a wider debate, in public as well as in court, before taking a decision on the constitutional validity of `triple talaq`.Meanwhile, the BJP has also called for an open debate over the code maintaining that it is a part of the Constitution. Ballia: Minister of State for External Affairs General VK Singh on Saturday stirred up a controversy by disapproving reports that China blocked India`s bid for entry in to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). Expressing surprise over such media reports, VK Singh said that the plenary meeting in Seoul did not discuss accession of any specific country. "NSG meet happens in closed quarters, so we don`t know what happened inside. So why speculate? The facts are only known to the people who are inside the room. We have been trying to become a part of NSG from 2008. We believe that our nation should be granted membership," Singh said on the sidelines of a function. However, on June 24, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup without naming Beijing said "procedural hurdles persistently raised by one country" stalled India's bid even as most others in the grouping supported New Delhi. Meanwhile, the NSG will meet yet again this year to discuss the process of inclusion of countries like India, who have not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). A special plenary session of the NSG can be called by the year end. According to sources, there is a possibility of India`s inclusion in the NSG, while New Delhi will continue to discuss the issue with China. The NSG had earlier failed to reach a consensus on New Delhi`s membership application after several members of the 48-member group insisted on adhering to NPT conditions for admission. (With Agency inputs) A tiny Nebraska village that sells millions of cans of beer each year near a South Dakota Native reservation is consuming a sizable chunk of the surrounding county's budget, according to county officials. Sheridan County Commissioner James Krotz raised the issue during a closed-door meeting earlier this year to address problems in Whiteclay, Nebraska, a ramshackle town on the border of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. His comments were disclosed Friday in documents obtained through an open-records request by activists who want to shutter Whiteclay's four beer stores. A second county commissioner provided The Associated Press with budget documents showing that roughly one-third of the county's $5.2 million general fund was spent on law enforcement, jailing inmates, and prosecuting and defending cases. Krotz said in minutes of the closed-door meeting on Feb. 1 that most of the costs are from Whiteclay. He did not return a phone call on Friday seeking further comment. The stores sold the equivalent of 3.5 million cans of beer last year despite having only a dozen residents, and critics blame them for widespread alcoholism and fetal alcohol syndrome within the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Local residents, officials and business owners have met at least half a dozen times at Gov. Pete Ricketts' urging to try to address panhandling and violence in the village, but they haven't reached an agreement. Activists say the expense to local taxpayers is yet another reason to close the stores instead of adding law enforcement. John Maisch, a former Oklahoma alcohol regulator who produced a documentary about Whiteclay, said the county should petition the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission to revoke or refuse to renew the beer stores' liquor licenses. "If Gov. Ricketts and his Whiteclay task force are sincere about addressing the fiscal impact and safety concerns caused by Whiteclay's four beer stores, then they should call for a voluntary moratorium on all beer sales in the unincorporated town for six months until comprehensive solutions can be proposed by the governor," Maisch said. Maisch argues that alcohol regulators are violating state law by allowing too many beer stores in one place without adequate law enforcement or sanitation. The 11-member task force includes Whiteclay business owners, elected officials, law enforcement and religious leaders. According to minutes Maisch obtained from the task force's February meeting, Ricketts urged members to try to keep their work confidential until they were ready to go public. He also implored them to trust and respect one another, and strive for "small victories" as they attempt to solve the problem. Two of the town's beer store owners voiced concerns related to youths in Whiteclay, according to the minutes. Stuart Kozal, who owns the Jumping Eagle beer store, said the younger crowd was more aggressive and causing more problems on the streets. Doug Sanford of D&S Pioneer Service said he had noticed early-morning and underage drinkers. In an interview, Sheridan County Attorney Jamie Simmons said her office doesn't track how many cases originate in Whiteclay, but the village requires a heavy law enforcement presence. Many of the cases are alcohol related, and more recently, she has seen an increase in methamphetamine use. "We have a very high caseload per capita," she said. Simmons, who sits on the task force, said she was optimistic that the group will eventually develop a plan to address some of the problems in the village. Despite the costs, Sheridan County Commissioner Jack Andersen said closing the beer stores wouldn't solve the problem and could lead to more drunken drivers in the county. Andersen said the county stationed an officer in Whiteclay several decades ago, but the town's heavy drinkers simply waited until he went off-duty. The officer lived in Whiteclay for a brief time, but his house kept getting vandalized. Andersen said he believes some panhandlers would use the town as a hangout even if the beer stores closed, because they've done so for decades and can still buy from bootleggers. And even though Whiteclay is small, he noted that the dry reservation has an estimated population of nearly 29,000. Srinagar: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday cautioned people of Jammu to be vigilant against elements "trying to communalise" the state's situation even as she hit out at separatists for their frequent strike calls in the Valley, saying it is affecting the economy. "While there is a problem of militancy in Kashmir, many elements in Jammu are trying to communalise the situation. I want to tell our people in Jammu that communal tension is as dangerous as militancy and it causes same damage as the militancy," she said during her conclusion remarks of the five-week-long budget session. Mehbooba urged people not give a chance to communal elements to vitiate the atmosphere. "We took a big decision to have this alliance (with BJP) because of the Hindu-Muslim brotherhood in Jammu since ages," she said. The Chief Minister said situation in the region was fragile and asked legislators, including Opposition, to play their part for creating a peaceful environment. "From last 20-25 years we have faced many challenges. The people sitting here in the legislature and their families have rendered sacrifices to tread this path. The prime responsibility that we have is to consolidate the peace," she said. Taking a dig at separatists, Mehbooba said their frequent strike calls on one issue or the other was affecting state's economy. "Every day, they call for a strike on one thing or the other. If by God's mercy no civilian is killed in retaliation by security forces when they are attacked, they then call strikes on Sainik Colony or Pandit Colony issues. It is affecting our economy," Mehbooba said, without naming the separatists. Jammu: The Centre and state governments are on the same page and are working in "full coordination" to ensure peace and development of Jammu and Kashmir, Union Minister of Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan said on Saturday. On the issue of talks with separatists, Paswan said they need to realise that Kashmir is an integral part of India and any demand they raise should be within the ambit of the Indian Constitution. "There is no confrontation between Centre and the state as seen in the past. It has decreased. Leadership at the Centre and state are in more coordination this time for working for the peace, progress and development of Jammu and Kashmir," Paswan said. "Earlier, there were differences between Centre and state. They were not working in coordination with each other but the governments at Centre and the state are (now) on one page and are in full coordination with each other," he added. On the issue of implementation of Food Security Act, Paswan said the state government has implemented Food Security Act and also Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Food Entitlement Scheme (MMSFES) in the state. "The state government has given additional quota of food to its people under MMSFES. We will provide them whatever extra food quantity they need under the scheme," he said. "Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) has also said that the only aim of the government is to ensure development of the state and the Prime Minister has open-heartedly helped Jammu and Kashmir when floods devastated it," he said. The minister further said that "whatever is in the interest of Kashmir, the central government will fully help and support it but as far as the international policy is concerned, the stand of India is clear that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India". "Kashmir is a head of India. It is the jewel of India but after the emergence of terrorism, the normal life was crippled, tourism was hit. It is returning back to its normalcy after decades-long militancy. "Entire country is with Jammu and Kashmir and separatists should now understand this... That Kashmir is integral part of India," he said. "I have met separatists, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, and told them that any demand that they raise, should be within the Constitution of India as the Government of India's stand is clear that J&K is an integral part of India," he added. "You (separatists) should come forward for talks but within the Constitution of India as Geelani himself was MLA in the state," Paswan said. Asked whether the Government of India will hold talks with separatists anytime, he said: "Government of India has cleared its stand that India is one and Jammu and Kashmir is its integral part and unless the separatists do not clear their stand, the talks are not possible." On the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, he said that state and central governments are on one page for ensuring peace and development in Jammu and Kashmir. "As the government has raised the demand shifting of FCI Godown from Srinagar city, we have told them to provide us separate land for setting up the godown at an alternative site," he said. On the issue of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, the minister said terrorism has no religion or caste and their only aim is to create terror by engineering attacks. India is creating a public opinion in the world against global terrorism, he said. Srinagar: Three trekkers from Israel were rescued on Saturday by the administration in Leh district of Jammu and Kashmir after the lack of oxygen incapacitated them. "Three foreign trekkers were stranded in Sku-Markha area due to lack of oxygen that caused high altitude sickness," an official of the district administration told IANS on phone from Leh town. "Rescue teams were rushed and after being rescued the stranded trekkers were admitted to a hospital in Leh for stabilization," the official said. Leh is part of Ladakh region of the state. Solapur: At least five women were killed on Saturday and another 11 persons injured when their vehicle rammed into a truck in this Maharashtra district, an official said. The accident occurred around 11.45 a.m. on the Jeur-Shelgaon road near Karmala when the victims were returning after a pilgrimage to the temple town of Pandharpur, said police official Shahir Ghuge. The vehicle carrying the pilgrims was thrown off the road when an oncoming truck rammed into it. Five women died on the spot, Ghuge said. While five of the injured have been taken to a hospital in Karmala, six others, whose condition is serious, have been rushed to Solapur for treatment. They were among several lakhs of pilgrims who arrive here each year for the annual Pandharpur Yatra or 'Waari'. The pilgrimage started on June 27 and will culminate with celebrations on July 15, the Ashadi Ekadasi. Zee Media Bureau New Delhi: Social media giant Facebook will soon roll out a new software that will automatically users posts into different languages. With this new move, the Mark Zuckerberg-owned Facebook has made it easy for the users to communicate with global audience. The software makes your published posts visible to people in their preferred languages. All you need to do is type up a post, click on a pull-down menu, and add up to 45 different language translations - ranging from French to Filipino to Lithuanian, tech website CNET reported. The so-called "multilingual composer" is being tested only among a small group of users for now. The social network said the feature is already being used by 5,000 Facebook Pages which are specifically for businesses and brands, but it will soon open for testing to the broader social network. (With IANS inputs) Itanagar: To revamp the education system in the state, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul has decided to stop sending teachers on deputation to other departments. He instructed to call back those teachers deputed as OSD and all other administrative posts to the education department in order to do away with the shortage of teachers in various schools across the state, an official communique said here today. Pul reiterated that the teacher's deputed to various departments should simultaneously teach in schools too. He also directed to revert out of turn promotion of teachers in the education department. The chief minister took the decision at a meeting with the representatives of All Arunachal Pradesh SSA Teachers Association at New Delhi yesterday, the communique added. Washington: Google Glass has a wide range of possible applications in plastic surgery, says a new study. As per the study, plastic surgeons who used used Glass for various cosmetic and reconstructive surgery procedures, in general, gave the device high ratings for comfort and overall satisfaction. "Despite some identified weaknesses, Google Glass is a unique technology with a promising plastic surgical application in the operating room," according to the new research by Jeremy Sinkin of Georgetown University Hospital and colleagues. Introduced in 2013, Glass is a hands-free, head-mounted computerised device that can present information to the wearer and enable recording and sharing of photos and video. The study was part of a Google testing programme that allowed Georgetown plastic surgeons to evaluate Glass for use in the operating room. After a brief introduction, nine resident and attending plastic surgeons used Glass for various cosmetic and reconstructive surgery procedures. These users were surveyed about their experience, including comfort level, ease of use, and the quality of images obtained using Glass. In general, the surgeons gave Glass high ratings for comfort and overall satisfaction. The ability to capture images and video using voice-activated control was rated "good"--average score about three on a five-point scale. Scores for the quality of photos and videos averaged nearly four out of five. Compared to voice control, the surgeons had more problems capturing pictures or videos using Glass's "wink" feature. They also reported difficulties with reviewing images during surgery. In a previous paper in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Christopher Davis and Lorne Rosenfield of Stanford University described the first plastic surgery procedure performed using Glass. While Glass is not currently available, it is currently undergoing a "comprehensive redesign," according to Davis and Rosenfield. One can expect redesigned frames, more flexible optical hardware, and an updated software platform open to all technology companies, they added. The findings appeared in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). (With IANS inputs) Dhaka: Unidentified attackers stabbed and critically wounded a Hindu priest in southwest Bangladesh Saturday, just a day after a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in an attack by suspected Islamist militants. Police said 48-year-old priest Bhabasindhu Roy of the Sri Sri Radha Gobinda Temple in Satkhira district was attacked inside the temple compound as he slept. "They stabbed him in his chest and back. His condition is critical and we`re trying to send him to a hospital in Dhaka," deputy chief of Satkhira police Atqul Haq told AFP. He said it bore the hallmarks of recent attacks on minorities by suspected Islamist militants. The attack came just hours after gunmen stormed a restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital and took dozens of people hostage including several foreigners. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack Friday night on the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant in Dhaka`s upmarket Gulshan diplomatic quarter in which two police officers were killed. On Friday a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in the western Bangladesh district of Jhenaidah. Three men on a motorcycle attacked Shyamananda Das as he walked along a road near the temple early in the morning, police said. Last month a Hindu priest, 70-year-old Ananda Gopal Ganguly, was hacked to death in the same district. Bangladesh is reeling from a wave of murders of secular and liberal activists and religious minorities that have left some 50 people dead in the last three years. Victims of the attacks by suspected Islamists have included secular bloggers, gay rights activists and followers of minority religions including Hindus, Christians and Muslim Sufis and Shiites. Since April, more than a dozen people have been hacked to death amid a sharp spike in the targeted killings. Most of the recent attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State organisation or the South Asian branch of Al-Qaeda. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina`s government, however, has blamed homegrown Islamists for the attacks. Experts say a government crackdown on opponents, including a ban on the largest Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami following a protracted political crisis, has pushed many towards extremism. Last month police arrested more than 11,000 people, including nearly 200 suspected militants, in an anti-Islamist drive criticised by the opposition and some rights groups, which said it was used as an excuse to clamp down on dissent. At least nine suspected Islamists were shot dead in what police said were gunfights. Some rights activists contradict that account and say they were extrajudicial killings. Washington: The US has said it cannot yet confirm the Islamic State terror group's claim owning responsibility for the hostage crisis in a restaurant in Dhaka's high-security diplomatic area. "We have seen ISIL (ISIS) claims of responsibility, but cannot yet confirm and are assessing the information available to us," State Department spokesman John Kirby said. According to US media reports, ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack at Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka last night. But according to CNN, senior US officials believe that the attack has been probably carried out by Al Qaeda in Indian Sub-continent, which was declared as a terrorist organisation by the US only a day earlier. "You can say we are aware of these reports but refer to Bangladeshi authorities," a senior administration official told PTI when asked about the news reports. Bangladeshi commandos early morning launched an operation to free at least 20 hostages, including several foreigners, from the restaurant in Dhaka's high-security Gulshan diplomatic area that was stormed by suspected Islamic State militants, in which two policemen were killed and 30 others injured. United States President Barrack Obama was also briefed by his top counter-terrorism official last night on the attack. "Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco has briefed the President on the ongoing situation in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The President asked to be kept informed as the situation develop," a senior White House official said. The State Department said it is monitoring the situation and has offered assistance to Bangladesh and all Americans at the US Embassy has been accounted for. "We are in ongoing contact with the Government of Bangladesh as the situation continues to unfold. We have offered our assistance in their efforts to bring to justice those responsible for these attacks and to combat terrorism and violent extremism," Kirby said. He said the US embassy in Dhaka has confirmed 100 percent accountability of all official American personnel with no injuries reported. "We are working with the local authorities to determine if any US citizens and locally employed staff were affected," he added. "On learning of the attack, our embassy issued a shelter-in-place order. This order was issued out of caution, but at no time was the embassy compound itself under immediate threat from this attack," Kirby said. "We join with the people of Bangladesh in expressing our outrage at this brutal act of terrorism and offer our condolences to the friends and families of the victims, including Bangladeshi law enforcement officials who have been killed or injured responding to the attack," he said. Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Nisha Desai Biswal said, "Praying for the safety of all impacted by the terror attack in Dhaka, including the law enforcement and security forces". Washington: Notwithstanding its successful flyby of Pluto, NASA's New Horizons mission is gearing up for a new mission, and this time it's the Kuiper Belt. The mission team has received the green light to fly onward to an object deeper in the Kuiper Belt. The spacecraft's planned rendezvous with the ancient icy object named 2014 MU69 - considered one of the early building blocks of the solar system - is January 1, 2019. "The New Horizons mission to Pluto exceeded our expectations and even today the data from the spacecraft continue to surprise," said NASA's Director of Planetary Science Jim Green. "We're excited to continue onward into the dark depths of the outer solar system to a science target that wasn't even discovered when the spacecraft launched," he added. In addition to the extension of the New Horizons mission, NASA said the Dawn spacecraft should remain at the dwarf planet Ceres rather than changing course to the main belt asteroid Adeona. "The long-term monitoring of Ceres, particularly as it gets closer to perihelion -- the part of its orbit with the shortest distance to the sun -- has the potential to provide more significant science discoveries than a flyby of Adeona," Green noted in a statement. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN), the Opportunity and Curiosity Mars rovers, the Mars Odyssey orbiter, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), and NASA's support for the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission have also got extension. Despite the fact that New Horizons has been given the go-ahead to explore the KBO, the probe's mission in full has also been extended to 2021. (With IANS inputs) New Delhi: NASA's solar-powered Juno spacecraft in on the way to reach its final destination - Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system. The spacecraft is arriving at the giant planet on the evening of July 4, 2016, after an almost five-year journey. As per the US space agency NASA, on the evening of July 4, at roughly 9 p.m. PDT (12 a.m. EDT, July 5), the spacecraft will complete a burn of its main engine, placing it in orbit around the king of planets. After the main engine burn, Juno will be in orbit around Jupiter. The spacecraft will spin down from 5 to 2 RPM, turn back toward the sun, and ultimately transmit telemetry via its high-gain antenna. As Juno gets close to Jupiter and ahead of its arrival at the giant planet, NASA has released a brilliant 360-degree video trailer to raise awareness of the event. NASA's narrated video explains about Jupiter, spacecraft and the mission which is which is hoped will solve some of the greatest mysteries about the giant planet. Once in Jupiters orbit, Juno will circle the Jovian world 37 times during 20 months, skimming to within 3,100 miles (5,000 km) above the cloud tops. This is the first time a spacecraft will orbit the poles of Jupiter, providing new answers to ongoing mysteries about the planets core, composition and magnetic fields. Chennai: The Madras High Court has directed Tamil Nadu government to examine the feasibility of introducing LKG and UKG sections in state-run schools and arrive at a decision, while complying with the guidelines of the Dr Muthukumaran Committee report, in four months. Disposing of a petition by Parents Union for Students Educational Rights (PUSER), Cuddalore district, the first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan said that "the question would be whether LKG and UKG classes are to be provided in Government Schools. "In our view, the aforesaid is a policy decision to be taken by the government which may examine the stand of the petitioner, whether it is feasible and desirable that government schools should have also LKG and UKG Classes." "A decision in this behalf should be taken one way or the other within a maximum period of four months by keeping in mind the recommendation of the Dr Muthukumaran Committee," it said. PUSER had sought a direction to the state government to implement pre-school education by introducing LKG and UKG classes in all government primary and elementary schools. The petitioner referred to Section 11 of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 and prayed that the government be directed to implement it as per the guidelines enumerated in Dr Muthukumaran Committee Report, 2006. PUSER contended that parents are keen to admit their wards in private schools, which have LKG classes, while the government schools lack the same. Earlier, when the matter came up before the bench, the Special Government Pleader (Education) T N Rajagopalan had submitted that anganwadi schools were available for the benefit of younger children. The Muthukumaran Committee was constituted by the DMK government in 2006 on implementation of the concept of uniform educational system. Beirut: Syrian government shelling of a rebel-held town killed 31 people, including two medics, on Saturday, as a two-year local truce broke down after suspected Al-Qaeda militants killed a captured regime pilot. The bombardment struck the town of Jayrud, 60 kilometres (35 miles) northeast of Damascus, where the army says Islamist rebels killed the pilot after he was forced to eject on Friday. In its statement about the incident, the military said the attack "will not go unpunished." The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday`s attack was the first bombardment of the town in at least two years. "Prominent figures in Jayrud have had a local truce with the regime for at least two years, and neither fired on each other," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. He said at least 31 people were killed, including two medics. It was not immediately clear how many of the rest were civilians. Activists in the town said the head of the local medical centre and several colleagues were killed. "There have been at least 45 air strikes today. The town`s medical centre was hit and its director Amjad al-Danaf was killed," activist Abu Malek al-Jayrudi told AFP via the Internet. He said the town is home to some 60,000 people and that the bombardment had not stopped since early Saturday. Rebel groups in Jayrud include the Saudi-backed Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam), the hardline Ahrar al-Sham, and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front. Jaish al-Islam spokesman Islam Alloush said on Friday that Al-Nusra Front had executed the air force pilot. Several government aircraft have been shot down by rebels or crashed because of technical faults since the civil war erupted five years ago. According to the Observatory, three Syrian officers were killed on Friday when their helicopter crashed in the south, near territory held by the Islamic State jihadist group. Abdel Rahman said government forces had managed to recover the bodies of the victims of the crash, the cause of which remained unclear. "We don`t know if it was a technical issue or not, but the bodies are with the regime," Abdel Rahman said. Dozens of local truces have been brokered between the myriad of armed groups fighting in Syria`s increasingly complex civil war. But a nationwide ceasefire between government forces and non-jihadist rebels brokered by Moscow and Washington in February has been repeatedly violated by both sides. US officials have accused Russia of not doing enough to rein in its ally President Bashar al-Assad. Moscow has countered that rebel groups that have failed to break ranks with Al-Qaeda and continue to fight alongside it are legitimate targets. The civil war, which began with peaceful protests in 2011, has killed more than 280,000 people and driven millions from their homes. Sydney: Australia appeared to be heading for a ok, hung Parliament or a minority government with half the votes counted in a national poll on Saturday, potentially blocking Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull`s ability to enact major economic reforms. Official electoral data halfway through the count for the House of Representatives showed a 3 percent swing away from the Liberal-led coalition government. On the current count, the coalition was projected to hold 69 seats, against the opposition Labor Party`s 70 seats and five to independents and the Greens Party. The coalition is expected to win several of the remaining 16 seats to be determined, but it is unclear if it will be enough to form a government without an alliance with small parties and independents to get a majority. The result was so close, Attorney-General George Brandis said it would not be called on Saturday evening with just a couple of hours before counting officials clock-off. There is no counting scheduled for Sunday, with counting for the Senate to resume on Monday and the House of Representatives on Tuesday. Former prime minister Tony Abbott, who retained his Sydney seat, told Liberal Party followers in his electorate it was a "difficult night". At the coalition headquarters in central Sydney, the mood was nervous and quiet as the crowd thinned. A Reuters reporter was prevented from taking a photo of a champagne-filled fridge. "It`s a nightmare, it`s a disaster," Rene Licarta, a Liberal Party member, told Reuters. "It looks like it might be a hung parliament, with the Greens and the independents running the show. It`s scary." Such a result would mean that Turnbull`s gamble of dissolving both houses of parliament in May to trigger the election has backfired, given that was a bid to oust intransigent independents in the upper house Senate who had blocked his agenda. Turnbull had called for Australians to vote for the coalition and political stability, invoking the global economic and political fallout from Britain`s vote to leave the European Union. Minor parties, possibly in a coalition with centre-left Labor, he argued, could not be trusted to manage an economy hampered by the first mining downturn in a century and balance public finances after years of deficits. With half the vote counted, Labor was benefiting from a 3.3 percent swing in its favour on a two-party basis, short of the 4 percent it needs to win government but potentially enough to leave the coalition with a minority government. At the Labor Party`s federal election headquarters at the Moonee Valley Racecourse in Melbourne, the mood was initially subdued but cheers began to ring out as Labor pulled ahead in key seats. The votes tallied on Saturday evening only gave limited results for the 76 seats of the upper house Senate, where independents including the centrist Nick Xenophon Team are expected to win several seats. Pauline Hanson`s One Nation party was polling strongly in Queensland according to an early Senate vote count, raising the prospect that the far right politician, who campaigned on anti-immigration, anti-Muslim agendas, will be back in the federal parliament after an almost 20 year absence. Xenophon has vowed to block the Coalition`s cornerstone A$50 billion ($37 billion) corporate tax cuts if his party holds the balance of power in the senate. Xenophon`s party had an early win stealing a House of Representatives seat for the electorate of Mayo from the coalition for the first time in its 115-year history and giving the party its first ever lower house position. Beijing: China on Saturday asked Taiwan to provide a "responsible explanation" a day after the Taiwanese navy mistakenly fired a missile that hit a fishing boat killing one person coinciding with the ruling Communist Party of China's 95th anniversary celebrations. A Taiwanese warship had accidentally fired a supersonic anti-ship missile towards mainland China. One fisherman was killed and three others injured after the missile, with a range of 300 kilometres, flew about 75 kilometres before plunging into waters off Penghu, a Taiwanese -administered island in the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan military authorities had apologised for the casualties caused by the "missile blunder", state-run Xinhua news agency reported. "The incident occurred and caused severe impact at a time when the mainland has repeatedly emphasised safeguarding peaceful development of cross-Strait relations based on the political foundation of the 1992 Consensus," Zhang, head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said. Zhang told media that "the Taiwan side should offer a responsible explanation of the matter". The missile launch caused ripples as China yesterday observed the 95th anniversary of the CPC with grand celebrations marked by a tough speech by President Xi Jinping during which he firmly ruled out independence for Taiwan. "We firmly oppose the 'Taiwan independence' secessionist activities," Xi said at the ceremony marking the 95th founding anniversary of the CPC. "More than 1.3 billion Chinese people and the whole Chinese nation will by no means tolerate secessionist activities by any person, at any time and in any form," he said. China claims Taiwan as part of the mainland and never recognised Taiwan's estrangement in 1949. Taiwan, which enjoys close ties with US has been carrying out military buildup to deter any threat from China. Relations between the two sides which showed significant improvement in recent years took a hit after election of Tsai Ing-wen as president who defeated Ma Ying-Jeou who had promoted normalisation of ties between the two sides in the recent poll. China has scaled down the normalisation process since then. For its part Taiwan quickly moved to clarify that the missile launch was a mistake and ordered investigation into how it was misfired into the Taiwan Strait. The Taiwan navy said seven officers including the petty officer who fired the missile and navy commander Huang Shu-kuang would be disciplined, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. Dhaka: The attackers involved in the Dhaka restaurant siege had asked their victims to recite from the Quran before deciding on whom to spare, a leading Bangladeshi daily said on its website on Saturday. Those who could recite a verse from the Quran were spared, others were tortured, the Daily Star quoted a rescued hostage as saying. At least 20 foreigners, including an Indian, were killed in the 10-hour siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery in the diplomatic enclave of the Bangladeshi capital. The siege ended after the Bangladeshi security forces gunned down six of the attackers and captured one of their associates. Those who could not recite from the Quran were tortured by the gunmen, said Rezaul Karim, father of Hasnat Karim who was held hostage for over 10 hours. Hasnat Karim, his wife Sharmin Karim and daughter Safa, 13, and Rayan, 8, had gone there to celebrate Safas birthday. They (gunmen) did not behave rough with the Bangladesh nationals. Rather they provided night meals for all Bangladeshis, the report quoted another hostage as saying. The gunmen were doing a background check on religion by asking everyone to recite from the Quran. Those who could recite a verse or two were spared. The others were tortured, he added. Riyadh: Eighteen pilgrims have been injured in a stampede near Islam`s holiest site, Saudi media reported on Saturday, as the kingdom continues to review safety after a deadly crush during last year`s hajj. The incident happened on Friday night near the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the Al-Riyadh newspaper said, as Muslims gathered in large numbers to mark the Night of Destiny, one of the high points of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. All the injured were treated at the scene and none required admission to hospital, the newspaper cited a health official as saying. Every year, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims flock to Mecca to carry out the lesser umra pilgrimage during Ramadan -- especially during its last 10 days. They include the Night of Destiny, when the angel Gabriel is believed to have given the Prophet Mohammed the verses of the Koran. The incident comes as Saudi authorities continue to unveil new safety measures for this year`s hajj in September. A crush at last year`s hajj killed more than 2,000 pilgrims in the worst disaster to ever strike the annual ritual. According to figures from foreign officials, at least 2,297 pilgrims died. Saudi Arabia issued a death toll of 769. Newspapers reported on Friday that, among new security measures, hajj pilgrims this year will have to wear an electronic safety bracelet to store their personal information, including address and medical records. The hajj and umra pilgrimages bring millions of Muslims to the holy places in Saudi Arabia every year. Gaza City: Israeli air strikes hit four sites in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, causing damage but no injuries, a Hamas official said, after Palestinian militants fired a rocket that struck a building in southern Israel. The four sites included a workshop, two locations for Hamas`s armed wing and a military training site for militant group Islamic Jihad, the security official said on condition of anonymity. Two of the sites were in Gaza City while the other two were in Beit Lahia, in the north of the enclave, run by the Islamist movement Hamas. All of the sites have been previously targeted by Israel, the official said. Israel`s military had not immediately responded to a request for comment. The strikes came after a rocket launched from the strip hit a building in southern Israel late Friday, causing no injuries. "A rocket was launched from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel and hit in the city of Sderot, causing damage to a building," a statement from the Israeli military said. "No injuries have been reported." Israeli media said the rocket had hit a kindergarten. Medics said they treated two people for shock. No group in Gaza claimed responsibility for firing the rocket, which came hours after Israel announced a lockdown on the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank and cuts in monthly tax payments to the Palestinian Authority. In one of the several attacks in recent days, a 19-year-old Palestinian fatally stabbed a 13-year-old US-Israeli national in her home at the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba on the outskirts of Hebron. Friday`s rocket is the 13th projectile fired from the Gaza Strip to have hit Israel since the start of 2016. Smaller, more radical Islamist groups have often been blamed, with Hamas forces either unwilling or unable to prevent the rocket fire. Israel holds Hamas responsible for all rocket attacks from Gaza. Palestinian militants in Gaza and Israel have fought three wars since 2008. On Friday, the Middle East diplomatic quartet said that the "lack of control of Gaza by the Palestinian Authority, and the dire humanitarian situation" were feeding "instability and ultimately impede efforts to achieve a negotiated solution". "Preventing the use of territory for attacks against Israel is a key commitment that is essential to long-term peace and security," said the group, which incudes the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations. Hebron: Israeli troops locked down the occupied West Bank`s most populous city Hebron and surrounding villages on Saturday after two Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks nearby. Troops locked gates and set up barriers blocking access routes to villages in the area and closed all exit roads from the city except for the northern one through the town of Halhul towards Jerusalem, an AFP correspondent reported. The army announced on Friday that it would close off the flashpoint city and deploy two additional battalions to the area. The measures were described as the "most substantial steps on the ground" since 2014, when Israeli forces carried out a huge search operation in the southern West Bank for three young hitchhikers abducted and later murdered by Palestinian militants. Hebron has been one of the main focuses of a wave of deadly unrest that has rocked Israel and the Palestinian territories since last October. At least 214 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese have been killed. The army has said that around 80 of the attacks on Israelis have been carried out by Palestinians from the Hebron area. Several hundred Jewish settlers live in a tightly guarded enclave in the heart of the city of more than 200,000 Palestinians, a persistent source of tensions. On Thursday, 19-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Nasser Tarayra broke into the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba on the outskirts of Hebron and killed 13-year-old Israeli-American Hallel Yaffa Ariel in her bedroom before being shot dead by a security guard. And on Friday, 48-year-old Michael Mark was killed after his car was fired on by a suspected Palestinian gunman south of Hebron. The army was conducting searches in the area on Saturday but there were no immediate reports of any arrests. An army spokesman said the closure was "intended to break the chain of lethal attacks." "The physical presence will also disrupt, prevent and foil additional attacks, inspired by the attackers of the last 48 hours," Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told AFP. On Friday, Sarah Tarayra, 27, was shot dead after drawing a knife on Israeli forces in Hebron. She was a relative of the Kiryat Arba attacker, and both were from Bani Naim, a village just outside Hebron. Lerner said the army had revoked the Israeli work permits of all residents of the village. The army said no decision had been taken on how long the closure would remain in place, but Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan said it should stay "for an extended period of time." There's a long tunnel connecting the Haidianhuangzhuang subway station in northwest Beijing with the Gate City Mall, and it's plastered with advertising displays. I was about halfway through it Wednesday when I noticed that every last one of the ads was for classes to prepare students for the ACT or SAT, the two main U.S. college entrance tests. EF English Schools has classrooms in the mall, so that's a partial explanation. But EF has 24 such outposts just in Beijing; in Shanghai there are 27, in Guangzhou, 17, and so on. I'm guessing there are a lot of subway corridors in China like the one I saw. A survey released this week by Bain and Kantar Worldpanel found that Chinese shoppers are increasingly turning to domestic brands and abandoning foreign ones. That's not happening with post-secondary education, though! The number of Chinese students at foreign universities rose from 417,351 in the 2005/2006 school year to 712,157 in 2012/2013 (the most recent year for which I could find data). The U.S. is by far the leading destination. China has been among the top senders of students to the U.S. for quite a while, but things have really taken off since 2007. This rapid rise in the number of Chinese students crossing the Pacific is the product partly of rising affluence in China and frustration with the relative inflexibility of the Chinese higher-education system. But it's also been driven by U.S. colleges and universities looking to counter a decline in the number of college-age kids in the U.S. and, in the case of state universities, big cutbacks in government aid, especially since the financial crisis of 2008. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that Americans couldn't have Christmas without China because we're so dependent on exports from this country for our tree ornaments, Christmas lights and such. I wasn't being entirely serious about that -- like the Whos in Whoville, I'm sure we could find a way to get by. But when it comes to American colleges and universities, I really don't know how many of them could survive without foreign students in general and Chinese students in particular. The flow of money from foreign students has become so big that it even has some impact on the overall economy. That's not to say the huge increase in the number of Chinese students in the U.S. has gone off without a hitch. Many Chinese students at U.S. universities are struggling to learn English and fit in. They're displacing local students at some cash-starved state universities, which is engendering understandable opposition. And back in China, the government has been trying to slow the exodus by investing in improving domestic higher education and reining in programs that prepare students for overseas study. All in all, one gets the feeling that, while all those Chinese students aren't going to suddenly go home, the big enrollment increases are probably over. Then again, one might have thought that three or four years ago, too -- and been totally wrong. Yangon division: A mob wielding weapons razed a Muslim prayer hall in northern Myanmar, state media reported on Saturday, the second attack on a mosque in just over a week as anti-Muslim sentiment swells in the Buddhist-majority nation. Myanmar has struggled to contain bouts of deadly religious bloodshed in recent years, with bristling sectarian tensions and rising Buddhist nationalism posing a steep challenge to the new government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. On Friday, villagers in Hpakant, a jade-mining town in northern Kachin state, ransacked a mosque "wielding sticks, knives and other weapons" before burning it down, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar. "The mob was unresponsive and entirely beyond control. The building was razed by the riotous crowd," the paper reported, adding that the rampage was sparked by a dispute over the mosque`s construction. No arrests have been made, it said. The riot coincided with the end of a 12-day visit by a United Nations rights investigator who warned that "tensions along religious lines remain pervasive across Myanmar society". In a press conference concluding her trip Friday, Yanghee Lee called on authorities to investigate the destruction of another mosque in central Bago late last month. "The government must demonstrate that instigating and committing violence against an ethnic or religious minority community has no place in Myanmar," she said. Religious intolerance has mushroomed across the country in recent years, threatening to unravel advances towards democracy since the former junta stepped down in 2011. Authorities have been reluctant to launch prosecutions out of fear of stoking further unrest. The worst religious violence struck western Rakhine State in 2012, leaving scores dead and pushing tens of thousands of the stateless Muslim Rohingya into destitute displacement camps. The state remains almost completely divided on religious grounds, with Muslim communities subject to a host of restrictions on their movements and access to basic services and employment. Lee urged the country`s new government to make ending "institutionalised discrimination against Muslim communities in the state... an urgent priority". Suu Kyi, the Noble peace prize winner who championed her country`s struggle against a repressive military regime, has dismayed rights groups by not taking swifter moves to carve out a solution for the Rohingya. Yangon: A mob wielding weapons razed a mosque in northern Myanmar, state media reported Saturday, the second attack of its kind in just over a week as anti-Muslim sentiment swells in the Buddhist majority nation. Myanmar has struggled to contain bouts of deadly religious bloodshed in recent years, with bristling sectarian tensions and rising Buddhist nationalism posing a steep challenge to the new government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. On Friday villagers in Hpakant, a jade-mining town in northern Kachin state, ransacked a mosque "wielding sticks, knives and other weapons" before burning it down, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar. "The mob was unresponsive and entirely beyond control. The building was razed by the riotous crowd," the paper reported, adding that the rampage was sparked by a dispute over the mosque`s construction. No arrests have been made, it said. A local NGO worker who visited the town Saturday told AFP security forces had been deployed to maintain order. "Police are now controlling the area and it is stable," said Dashi Naw Lawn, from the Kachin Network Development Foundation. The riot came eight days after a Buddhist mob destroyed a mosque in central Bago, forcing the Muslim community to seek refuge in a neighbouring town. Tensions are also rising in western Rakhine, a state scarred by deadly riots in 2012 that have left communities almost completely divided along religious lines. The region is home to the stateless Rohingya, a Muslim minority largely relegated to destitute displacement camps and subject to host of restrictions on their movements and access to basic services. Suu Kyi, a veteran democracy activist who championed her country`s struggle against repressive military rulers, has drawn criticism from rights groups for not taking swifter moves to carve out a solution for the ethnic minority. Her government recently ordered officials to refer to the group as "people who believe in Islam in Rakhine State" instead of Rohingya -- a term whose use has set off protests by hardliners who insist the group are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Yet the government`s broad phrase has failed to placate local Rakhine Buddhists, who demand the group be referred to only as "Bengalis" and say they are preparing to rally in protest at the order on Sunday. After a 12-day visit across the country, including troubled Rakhine, a UN rights investigator warned Friday that "tensions along religious lines remain pervasive across Myanmar society". Yanghee Lee urged the country`s new civilian government to make "ending institutionalised discrimination against the Muslim communities in Rakhine State...an urgent priority". Almaty: Reclusive Turkmenistan`s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has pardoned 612 prisoners including 26 foreign citizens ahead of festivities marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, state media reported Saturday. A state television report in the gas-rich country noted Berdymukhamedov had signed the order of amnesty "to further strengthen the unity and solidarity of Turkmen society." The report did not clarify the nationalities of foreign prisoners released under the amnesty but Turkmenistan`s prisons are known to hold citizens of neighbouring countries convicted of smuggling and trafficking offenses. Last year the government passed a law excluding prisoners convicted of drug trafficking from state amnesties. The ex-Soviet country, which rights groups regularly list as one of the world`s least free states, often carries out pardons ahead of major state holidays. On Thursday a number of prominent rights groups signed a letter addressed to Berdymukhamedov asking him to release a local journalist incarcerated for almost a year on narcotics charges. Saparmamed Nepeskuliev who worked for Radio Free Europe`s Turkmen service was convicted on the "fabricated" charges on August 31 and has not been in contact with relatives since September, the letter stated. The letter signed by RFE and groups including Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Watch also recalled the fate of another RFE contributor Ogulsapar Muradova who died in a Turkmen jail in 2006. Turkmenistan has the world`s fourth largest known reserves of natural gas and borders Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Hanoi: Vietnam has called for an international tribunal in The Hague to deliver a "fair and objective" ruling in an arbitration case lodged by the Philippines that challenges China`s expansive claims in the South China Sea. In a carefully worded statement two days after the court announced July 12 as the verdict date, Vietnam`s foreign ministry said it hoped the ruling would provide a basis for peacefully resolving rows. Vietnam is not a direct party to the case but stands to gain if the verdict favours Manila. Like the Philippines, it is also at odds with China, although it is wary not to push too far against a major trade partner. "Vietnam has always been observing the development of the case and wants the arbitration court to deliver a fair and objective decision, creating a basis to peacefully resolve disputes in the (South China Sea)," Vietnam`s foreign ministry spokesman, Le Hai Binh, said in a statement late on Friday. Though the wording was similar to those used by numerous countries, Vietnam`s statement stopped short of calling for the ruling to be respected. China has gone to great efforts to show the Permanent Court of Arbitration has no jurisdiction on the case, and Beijing will therefore not recognise it. China`s official Xinhua news agency called it a "law-abusing tribunal". The case seeks an interpretation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to which Beijing is a signatory. The South China Sea is one of the world`s most vital shipping lanes, with about $5 trillion of goods passing annually through waters contested in parts by six countries, several of which are undergoing military buildups. Riyadh: Yemen`s government has expressed doubts over UN-backed efforts to end its conflict with Shiite Huthi rebels who have seized control of large parts of the country. The government still has "fundamental differences" with the Huthis over "their rejection... of measures that are necessary to put an end to their plot", it said in a statement late on Friday. Yemen`s warring parties are taking a two-week break from peace talks in Kuwait that have made little headway since they began on April 21. The government, supported by a Sunni coalition headed by Saudi Arabia, demands that the Iran-backed rebels withdraw from cities including the capital, Sanaa, and give back arms they have seized. It wants to re-establish its authority across the entire country and restart a political transition that was interrupted when the Huthis ousted President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and seized Sanaa in 2014. The rebels have conditioned their withdrawal on both sides agreeing on a new president to manage the transition. "Due to the stubbornness (of the rebels) and their procrastination, it was not possible to agree on any item on the agenda" of the Kuwait talks, the government delegation said. The negotiators will spend the next two weeks discussing their positions before reconvening on July 15, UN mediator Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said on Wednesday. He said they would then return to Kuwait "with practical recommendations on how to implement the necessary mechanisms that will enable them to sign a peace accord". Ould Cheikh Ahmed has urged both sides to make concessions to end the conflict, which has cost more than 6,400 lives since March 2015, when the Saudi-led coalition intervened to push back the Huthis. On Thursday, the UN envoy said the two sides had "established the main principles that will guide the next phase of Yemen talks". He has put forward a peace roadmap that would see the formation of a unity government and the withdrawal and disarmament of the rebels. He said the negotiators had welcomed his proposal but had not agreed a timetable or the steps needed to implement it. Yemen`s Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher told the rebels and their allies, supporters of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, that they had no choice other than to make peace. "Peace will be imposed by all means, even by force," he said in a statement published by Yemen`s government-controlled Saba news agency. "Everyone without exception will have to submit to the authority of the state." bur/tm/par/srm YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. Slovakia assumes the six-month rotating presidency of the EU on Friday, as the bloc faces unprecedented pressure following UK decision to leave it, reports BBC. It is the first presidential stint for Slovakia, which joined the EU in 2004. Prime Minister Robert Fico has said the EU will have to "redefine" unsuccessful policies, particularly on immigration. Correspondents say the Slovak agenda, which also includes reforming the European Union's single market, will be eclipsed by the fallout from Brexit. Fico met European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in the Slovak capital Bratislava on Thursday. "The crucial decisions on the future of Europe cannot be defined by the decisions of one or two member states, or by the founding member states," Fico told reporters. Fico has challenged the EU during the recent migrant crisis, and refused to be part of a quota plan for distributing asylum seekers around member states. Immigration played a key role in last week's referendum in Britain. But neither Fico nor Juncker mentioned Brexit in their remarks. Photo by EPA DRESDEN, Germany About 2,000 Germans gathered in the market square in this elegant old town to denounce Chancellor Angela Merkel as a traitor and to cheer Britain on for deciding to leave the European Union. They were taking part in the regular Monday demonstrations of Pegida, the German acronym for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West. The Pegida crowd was waving the banners of Germany and the free state of Saxony along with signs saying Thank you, Brexit. I asked a group of middle-aged men in polo shirts, slacks, and sandals, all workers in a machinery plant, why they were there. One said firmly, We are against globalization in the world. There you have it, the essence of the populist appeal to Brexit voters and members of nationalist parties across Europe, not to mention the Donald Trump wing of the GOP. Globalization, the technology-driven destruction of borders, has changed the Western world so dramatically and so fast that many ordinary people are desperate to halt or reverse it. Populist leaders know just how to play on these fears and make promises to stem the global tide. The grungy Lutz Bachmann, Pegidas founder, who was just convicted in a German court of inciting racial hatred, played booming music as he led chants of Merkel must go and shouted for Germany to quit the EU and break with the United States. Then he focused on the main enemy: the roughly one million migrants and refugees whom Merkel allowed to enter Germany last year. Integrating the genuine refugees (and sending back the rest) will indeed be a challenge. From Bachmanns rant, youd never know the numbers entering Germany have dropped dramatically this year and that city officials and nongovernmental organizations are doing a good job of housing and helping about 5,000 who remain in Dresden. The fears of these demonstrators reflect similar emotions that I heard from voters in Britain and have heard from Trump supporters in the United States. These same worries are being whipped up by populists in France, the Netherlands, and elsewhere in Europe. In Germany, the AfD (Alternative fur Deutschland) party is trying to capitalize on these fears at the ballot box. The party has won seats in eight out of 16 state legislatures and is expected to win seats in the Bundestag in the next federal elections, in 2017. You have a certain feeling in the population that something is going on and they have no control over their lives anymore, so people become more nationalistic, said Georg Pazderski, the leader of Berlins AfD chapter, who will probably be elected to that citys legislature in September. However, the AfD envisions a Europe of nations, not a united Europe, which basically means the breakup of the EU. It appeals to those who dream of the past. (Among other things, the AfD also encourages women to stay home and raise kids.) Indeed, as he notes, the AfD appeals to those who fear for the future of the country and their kids. Yet its average voter, Pazderski says, is 40, is married, and has a good income and a good job. In other words, those who endorse AfD and Pegida the fearful voters are not losing jobs because of migration. Similarly, the depressed economic regions in England that voted heavily for Brexit did not lose jobs to migrants. (Their industry and coal mines were no longer profitable and shut down.) On the contrary, those struggling British regions often received heavy economic subsidies from the EU that they will now lose. So here we come to the nub. The appeal of populism is based on emotions more than facts, on fear of the future because the world seems out of control. Take back control was the motto of Britains Leave campaign. But the populist and nationalist parties that are fanning those fears cannot roll back globalization. The Leave campaign leaders are already walking back their promises to stop immigration and provide more money for the British health system. The populist pledge to take back control is a sham in Britain and elsewhere. But what makes it so scary is that, politically, it works. YEREVAN, JULY 2, ARMENPRESS. Bangladeshi troops have cleared a cafe in the capital Dhaka where suspected Islamist gunmen took at least 20 hostages, including foreigners, reports BBC. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said 13 hostages were freed and six attackers shot dead. One of the gunmen was arrested, she said. Some of those who were held at the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe were believed to be Italian and Japanese. The militant group Islamic State (IS) has said it carried out the attack. The 12-hour siege began as diners were gathering to break their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "It was an extremely heinous act," Sheikh Hasina said in a televised statement. "What kind of Muslims are these people? They don't have any religion. "My government is determined to root out terrorism and militancy from Bangladesh." Japan's Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said one Japanese citizen was shot and wounded in the attack, and that seven others were in the cafe. Japan's government has not yet been able to contact them, he said. Bangladesh's Daily Star newspaper said the gunmen tortured anyone who was unable to recite the Koran. They provided meals overnight for only the Bangladeshi captives, the Daily Star said. Sumon Reza, a supervisor at the cafe, was in the restaurant when the attack began but managed to flee to the roof. "The whole building was shaking when they set off explosives," he told media in Bangladesh. He later jumped off the roof and escaped. Explosions and heavy gunfire were heard earlier, as the army and navy commandos stormed the cafe. They were backed by police and paramilitary Border Guards Bangladesh, officials told the BBC. Armoured vehicles were also seen moving in the Gulshan neighborhood. The gunfire stopped after about an hour. The identity of the rescued hostages and the fate of other captives believed to have been in the cafe were not immediately known. At least two police officers were killed in exchanges of fire late on Friday, and 30 police officers were injured. The attack began when eight or nine armed men burst into the cafe in the diplomatic area of the city at about 21:20 (15:20 GMT) on Friday and opened fire. YEREVAN, JULY 2, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian young musicians will participate in the annual Folklife festival organized by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. During the festival, participants of various states present their ethnic culture and art. Within the cooperation framework of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Smithsonian Institution, and with the support of My Armenia project, one of the TUMO musical projects, the youth folk band TmbaTa members will depart for Washington. During some of the performances of the festival, TUMO members led by Arik Grigoryan, a member of Bambir folk rock ban, will join the Armenian Public Radio group comprised of Armenians of California. They perform original music combining rock and experimental music which is based on the Armenian folk music, Head of the Communications Department of TUMO Center for Creative Technologies Zara Budaghyan said in an interview with Armenpress. This is the regular work together with the Smithsonian Institution. We have also organized lectures for TUMO students during My Armenia project. During these lectures, the students presented photos, videos and articles representing the Armenian culture, as well as traditions and the Armenian cuisine. The group members are 30 teenagers who learn all phases of the music development. In their performances, the teenagers are trying to present the Armenian ethnic melodies in modern ways. The groups name has also been originally selected TmbaTa which has similarities with the sounds of the Armenian music. Smithsonian "Folklife" festival is a great cultural event which has thousands of visitors. It is organized every year since 1967 and always lasts 2 weeks in late June and the first weeks of July. The Armenian culture is presented by this movie in combination with TUMO music in the official website of the Smithsonian festival. YEREVAN, JULY 2, ARMENPRESS. A total of 41 people have been arrested in connection with the terrorist attack on Istanbul's Ataturk airport on June 28, reports ABC News. Seventeen people were arrested Friday in Gazientep, a Turkish city near the Syrian border, the city's governor announced. Several digital documents were seized when the suspects were detained, the governor's office said. Overnight, 11 people were arrested after a series of anti-terror raids. 13 others have arrested. Three of those arrested were foreign nationals, but their nationalities were not identified. It is unclear if the raids were directly linked to the attack. The death toll from the attack climbed to 44 Thursday. Turkish state media identified two of the three attackers as Rakim Bulgarov and Vadim Osmanov. The men hailed from Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The three men opened fire with guns at an airport security checkpoint Tuesday night before blowing themselves up, Turkish officials said. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has said that all signs point to the Islamic State group, while CIA director John Brennan said the attack "bears the hallmarks" of the terrorist group's "depravity." YEREVAN, JULY 2, ARMENPRESS. Tajikistan remains committed to its principled stance which says the Nagorno Karabakh conflict must be settled with peaceful means, Foreign Minister of Tajikistan Sirodjidin Aslov said to journalists after the meeting with Armenian FM Edward Nalbandian. During our meeting we have discussed the issue of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. I have expressed my sincere concern over the recent escalation in that conflict zone which resulted in human losses, Armenpress reports, he said. Aslov said Tajikistan always supports the peaceful settlement of all conflicts. We have principled stance over this issue. All conflicts, including also the Nagorno Karabakh conflict must be resolved with peaceful means, Aslov concluded. YEREVAN, JULY 2, ARMENPRESS. The European Union has formally extended economic sanctions against Russia until January 31, 2017, the EU Council announced in a statement on July 1, reports RT. The sanctions limit access to EU capital markets for a number of Russian financial institutions, as well as energy and defense firms. Restrictions on arms trading and certain types of oil production technology will also be extended. "On 1 July 2016, the Council prolonged the economic sanctions targeting specific sectors of the Russian economy until 31 January 2017," said the Council statement. Relations between Moscow and the West deteriorated during the 2014 Ukraine crisis. Washington and Brussels introduced several rounds of sanctions against Russian individuals, as well as the energy, banking and defense sectors. YEREVAN, JULY 2, ARMENPRESS. Defense Minister of Armenia Seyran Ohanyan on July 2 received newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Tajikistan to Armenia Imomuddin Sattorov, press service of the Defense Ministry informed Armenpress. The Defense Minister congratulated the Ambassador on his new position and wished him success on the development of the bilateral relations. The sides discussed issues related the Armenian-Tajik military-political cooperation, the regional and conflict settlement issues, as well as other issues of mutual interest. YEREVAN, JULY 2, ARMENPRESS. A consultation on draft of the new Tax Code was held in Government led by Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan, press service of the Armenian Government informed Armenpress. The representatives and heads of the agencies dealing with this issue took part in the consultation. The Prime Minister said numerous discussions were held on the draft Tax Code in different platforms and with different formats which will continue. In particular, Hovik Abrahamyan spoke about the active discussions on the new Tax Code held in the Parliament stating that all the proposals and issues must be analyzed in-detail and become a topic of discussion. Thereafter, various proposals and reviews were made, the sides exchanged their views over this issue. YEREVAN, JULY 2, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan received Foreign Minister of Tajikistan Sirodjidin Aslov on July 2, the Presidential administration informed Armenpress. President Sargsyan welcomed the guest and expressed hope his visit will contribute to the strengthening and deepening of the relations between Armenia and Tajikistan, the promotion of high-level mutual visits and the full use of the existing potential in different sectors for the benefit of two friendly states and people. On behalf of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan expressed willingness to develop the bilateral ties and the mutual cooperation stating that there is no obstacle for deepening the relations between Armenia and Tajikistan, the two states efficiently cooperate within the framework of the CSTO and other international platforms. Tajikistans Foreign Minister expressed gratitude for the reception and conveyed Serzh Sargsyan the warm greetings, wishes of the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon and his readiness to strengthen the bilateral interstate relations. FM Aslov also spoke with satisfaction about the Armenian-Tajik close cooperation within the framework of various organizations stating that the two states almost have the same stances over the international and regional issues. The Minister attached a great importance to the Armenian-Tajik inter-governmental commission on economic cooperation the works of which need to be intensified. The sides exchanged views on the regional, international issues, as well as they discussed the negotiation process over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement. The Armenian President presented in-detail Tajikistans FM the recent developments over the negotiation process. YEREVAN, JULY 2, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Tajikistan discussed the possibilities and ways of developing the bilateral cooperation during the meeting in Yerevan. An agreement has been reached to take practical steps for giving a new dynamic and content to the bilateral relations. This is the aim of the Tajikistans Foreign Ministers first official visit to Armenia, the accreditation of the first Ambassador of Tajikistan to Armenia, Armenpress reports, Armenian FM Edward Nalbandian said during the joint press conference with Tajikistans FM Sirodjidin Aslov. Edward Nalbandian added that they discussed the details of Tajikistans Presidents upcoming visit to Armenia in autumn, as well as the multilateral issues related to the Armenian-Tajik relations. The sides attached importance to the deepening of the cooperation at parliamentary level. Nalbandian considered positive the parliamentary cooperation in the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly and stated that Tajikistan supports the priorities of Armenias chairmanship in the CSTO. Edward Nalbandian also informed that the Armenian-Tajik 2016-2018 mutual cooperation program was signed at the meeting. The Armenian-Tajik intergovernmental commission operates since 2004, and today we have also discussed issues related to its activities. We expect to hold the regular session of the commission in the nearest future. We have exchanged views on promoting ways for the trade-economic cooperation between the two states, Nalbandian concluded. YEREVAN, JULY 2, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia, Chairman of the National Security Council Serzh Sargsyan convened the National Security Councils session on July 2, the Presidential administration informed Armenpress. The draft on the Provision of the biological security strategy and other issues were discussed. The Council members discussed and approved the draft which was presented by Healthcare Minister Armen Muradyan. Rep. Brad Ashford has the right idea on immigration reform. When the deadlocked U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling that blocked President Barack Obamas immigration plan, Ashford saw it as a challenge for Congress to get to work. We can no longer allow executive orders to take the place of legislation on such an important issue, Ashford said in a news release. Congress must do its job and fix our broken immigration system. Congress has been shirking its responsibility to fix Americas broken immigration system for years. Its true that Obamas plan took the wrong path to reform. It represented an expansion of presidential authority that jeopardized the balance of power in the federal government. The best that can be said about Obamas plan is that at least he tried to do something. (Its worth noting for Nebraskans who have not followed the complicated legalisms of the issue that the lawsuit did not challenge Obamas earlier and much more limited attempt at reform through executive order. The so-called dreamers brought to this country illegally as children still have a lawful presence in the United States, and the actions by the Legislature to allow them to have drivers licenses and professional licenses still stand.) The American system of government works when policy on controversial major issues is hammered out in Congress. These days major issues dont even reach the voting stage. The high courts 4-4 tie and the lack of any statement on the merits of the case spotlighted the refusal of Republican leaders in the Senate to even hold hearings on President Barack Obamas nominee. The U.S. Supreme Court could be forced to operate without its ninth justice for months or years. After the courts ruling, Obama tried to strike an optimistic tone. Congress is not going to be able to ignore America forever, he said. Its not a matter of if; its a matter of when. We get these spasms of politics around immigration and fear-mongering, and then our traditions and our history and our better impulses kick in. The trouble is Americans have been waiting for decades for action on immigration reform. Nothing has been done. The White House has changed hands. Control of Congress has changed hands. It seemingly doesnt make any difference which party holds the power. Republicans are celebrating the courts ruling as though it restored the constitutional balance of power. If they really mean what they say, now its time for them to follow through with some actual legislating. There will never be a real balance of power unless Congress does its job. Elizabeth Warren is on fire in this speech at a New America Open Markets conference on monopolies this week in DC; Senator Warren is pitiless, lucid and laser focused on the way that corruption creates monopolies, and monopolies suborn corruption. Seriously, it's the kind of speech you could play for someone who knows nothing about economics and they'd still get it, and be outraged by it, no matter whether they identify as "progressive," "conservative," or none of the above. Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream The first problem is that less competition means less consumer choice. When consumers can purchase similar products from multiple competitors, they force market players to constantly seek out new ways to reduce prices and increase the quality of goods and services to get their business. But when companies consume their rivals instead of competing with them, consumers can get stuck with few or no alternatives. Prices go up, and quality suffers. Consider Comcast, the nation's largest cable and internet service provider. Comcast has consolidated its position by buying up rivals. Today, over half of all cable and internet subscribers in America are Comcast customers. And last year was Comcast's best year in nearly a decade. But while big telecom giants have been consuming each other, consumers have been left out in the coldfacing little or no choice in service providers and paying through the nose for cable and internet service. Over a third of Americans who theoretically have access to high speed internet don't actually subscribe because the price tag is too high. And the data are clear: Americans pay much more for cable and internet than their counterparts in other advanced countries and, in return, we get worse service. The second reason the decline in competition should cause concern is that big guys can lock out smaller guys and newer guys. Take a look at the technology sectorspecifically, the battle between large platforms and small tech companies. Google, Apple, and Amazon provide platforms that lots of other companies depend on for survival. But Google, Apple, and Amazon also, in many cases, compete with those same small companies, so that the platform can become a tool to snuff out competition. Look at some examples. In 2012, FTC staff concluded that Google was using its dominant search engine to harm rivals of its Google Plus user review feature. Among other things, the staff produced evidence showing that Google promoted its own Google-branded content over its rivals even though those rivals would have otherwise had top billing through its organic search algorithm. The FTC commissioners ultimately sided against the conclusion of their staff, but the European Commission has moved forward with formal charges on similar allegations, and Europeans may soon enjoy better protections than U.S. consumers. Apple has received attention over similar issues. The latest example is its treatment of rival music-streaming companies. While Apple Music is easily accessible on the iPhone, Apple has placed conditions on its rivals that make it difficult for them to offer competitive streaming services. The FTC is investigating those issues and deciding whether to sue Apple for antitrust violations. Elie Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor, Nobel Peace Prize winner, a prolific author, and an outspoken activist for peace and human rights. He died Saturday, at 87 years old. Wiesel is widely known for his role in advocating for education about the Holocaust, and for helping post-World War II generations remember the Shoah with his memoir "Night," about his own experience as a teen in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Wiesel wrote more than 50 books. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States Congressional Gold Medal, the French Legion of Honor with the rank of Grand Cross, and his books won awards including Prix Medicis. In 1986, he received the Nobel Peace Prize. Until his death, he served as Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and University Professor at Boston University. A few of his most-loved quotes: We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. Elie Wiesel's Books: 'Night', 'Dawn', and 'Day', and 'A Beggar in Jerusalem' at Amazon. Images below: U.S. President Barack Obama during their historic visit together at Buchenwald. Obama first saw Wiesel when the author lectured at the college where Obama was a student, but the pair became friends in 2009 when Wiesel was invited to join the president on a visit to Buchenwald. Obama said to Wiesel at the end of his speech: "The last word has to be yours here," the author told Haaretz. Wiesel went on to make a speech in which he said to Obama: "Mr President, we have such high hopes for you, because you, with your moral vision of history, will be able and compelled to change this world into a better place You are our last hope." Earlier today, GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump tweeted an image of his opponent, Hillary Clinton, with the Star of David, aka The Jewish Star. We are going to need a lot of hope. A snip from the extensive Haaretz obituary: WEDNESDAY, June 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Aging men who are losing their sexual pep can receive a love-life boost from testosterone replacement therapy, according to results from the largest "low-T" clinical trial to date. Older men treated with testosterone gel experienced a moderate but significant improvement in their sex drive, sexual activity and erectile function compared to men given a placebo gel, said lead researcher Dr. Glenn Cunningham. He's a professor of endocrinology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. "We found that testosterone improved all three, which is pretty remarkable, particularly when you're dealing with an older age population," Cunningham said of the study, which was partially funded by the pharmaceutical industry. According to Dr. Brad Anawalt, older men who use testosterone therapy won't find themselves transformed into sexual dynamos. But they will experience a measurable improvement in their sex lives, he said. Anawalt, who reviewed the study's findings, is a professor of endocrinology with University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. "Men treated with testosterone reported an increase in orgasm of about one every week versus one every 10 days," Anawalt said. "That works out to one more orgasm per month compared to placebo. Significant? Up to the man." All men experience a natural decline in testosterone levels as they age. That causes a decrease in energy and sex drive in some, the study authors said. A low testosterone -- or "low-T" -- industry has flourished over the past 15 years, with aging baby boomer men looking to testosterone therapy as a potential "fountain of youth." The number of men beginning testosterone treatments has nearly quadrupled since 2000, the study authors noted. But some health experts have remained cautious and even skeptical, arguing that hormone therapy should be reserved for men suffering severe symptoms of low testosterone, such as impotence or muscle wasting. Dr. Landon Trost said the results of the new study show that aging men who experience normal declines in testosterone can benefit from replacement therapy. Trost is an assistant professor of urology and expert on male sexual dysfunction at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "The study would argue that normal is normal," Trost said. "Even if there's an age-related decline, that should be considered abnormal." Treatment with testosterone gel can cost between $200 and $400 a month, Trost said, while regular testosterone injections run less than $100 per month. Men also can have delayed-release testosterone pellets implanted, which costs about $1,000 every three to four months. This study is part of the Testosterone Trials, a series of seven clinical trials sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health to assess the effectiveness of hormone therapy in men 65 or older with symptoms related to low testosterone levels. Earlier results from the trials indicated that men might receive some sexual benefit from testosterone therapy, but wouldn't receive much of a boost in their vitality or physical function. For this trial, 470 men older than 65 were randomly assigned to use either a testosterone gel or a placebo gel for one year. All of the men had low testosterone levels due to aging, and low libido. They all also had a heterosexual partner willing to have sex with them at least twice a month. Pharmaceutical company AbbVie, which makes a testosterone gel called AndroGel, provided funding for the study, as well as the testosterone gel and placebo gel used in the study. Men using testosterone gel experienced a significant increase in their sexual activity, the researchers found. Questionnaires revealed improvement in 10 out of 12 measurements of sexual activity, including frequency of sex, masturbation, sexual daydreams, sexual anticipation, and nighttime erections. By comparison, men in the placebo group had similar questionnaire responses throughout the study. Despite these findings, testosterone therapy might not be good for every aging man, Cunningham cautioned. The goal of the Testosterone Trials was to figure out if hormone replacement therapy actually worked. Safety concerns weren't investigated. "I think you do have to recognize there is potential risk with testosterone in older men, and so you have to balance that," he said. Testosterone therapy could potentially increase a man's long-term risk of prostate cancer or heart disease, Cunningham said. The therapy also tends to thicken blood, resulting in an increased risk of stroke or heart attack. Men shouldn't receive testosterone therapy if they have prostate cancer or have had a heart attack or stroke within the past six months, he said. Prior studies on prostate cancer patients have shown that men are willing to trade some life for their libido, Trost noted. In those studies, men said they would be willing to give up 3 or 4 months of additional life to avoid prostate cancer treatments that would cost them their libido or erectile function. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has ordered a clinical trial examining the safety risks of testosterone-replacement therapies, and currently is reviewing the protocols for that trial, Cunningham said. "That trial will be conducted, but it will take probably five or six years," he said. "We're probably not going to have real good information regarding risk for another six or seven years." The clinical trial results were published online June 29 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. More information For more on testosterone therapy, visit the American Urological Association. By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An Illinois man accused of breaking into the Apple iCloud and Gmail accounts of celebrities to obtain their private photos and videos has agreed to plead guilty to a felony computer hacking charge, prosecutors said on Friday. Edward Majerczyk, 28, facing up to five years in prison, is the second man charged in a federal investigation into the leaks of nude photos of several Hollywood actresses, including Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence, in September 2014. According to a plea agreement signed by Majerczyk, he illegally accessed Apple iCloud and Google Gmail accounts belonging to more than 300 people, using an email "phishing" ploy to obtain their user names and passwords. Through this scheme, Majerczyk was able to access full iCloud backups belonging to numerous victims, including at least 30 celebrities, many of whom reside in the Los Angeles area, the plea agreement stated. "Many of these backups contained sensitive and private photographs and videos," it said. Under his deal with federal prosecutors, Majerczyk, a Chicago resident, will formally plead guilty in U.S. District Court in Illinois to a felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles. A 36-year-old Pennsylvania man, Ryan Collins, pleaded guilty in March to the same offence in a case stemming from the same investigation. Like Collins, federal authorities said they had found no evidence linking Majerczyk to actual public circulation of any of the photos to which he gained access. While no victims were named in court documents, the investigation began after Lawrence and other celebrities, including actresses Kirsten Dunst and Gabrielle Union and model Kate Upton, complained in interviews about having their private photos end up publicly disseminated online. It was not the first time celebrity nude photos obtained through by computer intrusions led to a criminal prosecution. A Florida man was sentenced in 2012 to 10 years in prison for hacking into email accounts of Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis and Christina Aguilera to leak private information and explicit photos. Pop star Taylor Swift said her Twitter and Instagram accounts were hacked in January 2015. More recently, a Bahamian man in New York pleaded guilty in May to charges of hacking into celebrities' email accounts to steal unreleased movies and television scripts. And a Filipino man was charged last month in New Jersey with running a scheme to hack into the bank and credit card accounts of celebrities. (Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Bernard Orr) 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 Visitors can pose with the plesiosaur and mingle with the mammoths in Morrill Hall for free on Thursday nights in July. The University of Nebraska State Museum at Morrill Hall, south of 14th and Vine streets, will offer visitors free admission from 4:30 to 8 p.m. every Thursday in July. Special events include "Science Cafe: Animal Rights," July 21, 6:30 to 8 p.m. This event is for adults 21 and older. Representatives of the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund in the University of Nebraska College of Law will explain how the law interacts with the protection of endangered species and wildlife conservation. The interactive presentation will address the Endangered Species Act as well as current legislation and lawsuits regarding wildlife protection. Tickets are required and can be purchased at http://museum.unl.edu/sciencecafe. Maria Kercher, a junior with a 4.0 GPA at Parkview Christian School in Lincoln, was a delegate of the Congress of Future Science and Technology Leaders that met June 29 - July 1 in Lowell, Massachusetts. The Congress is an honors-only program for high school students who are passionate about science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM). The purpose of this event is to honor, inspire, motivate and direct the top students in the country who aspire to be scientists and technologists, to stay true to their dream and, after the event, to provide a path, plan and resources to help them reach their goal. Kercher was nominated by the winner of the first Google Science Fair, Shree Bose - Academic Director of the National Academy of Future Scientists and Technologists - to represent Nebraska based on her academic achievement, leadership potential and passion for science and technology. She joined students from across the country and heard Nobel Laureates and National Medal of Science Winners talk about leading scientific research; was given advice from deans of the world's top tech universities; was inspired by fellow teen science prodigies; and learned about cutting-edge advances and the future of science and technology. KENOSHA On a swing through the area visiting small business owners, a federal official said she heard some familiar refrains. Uncertainty with regulations, questions about permit applications and government contracting concerns were among the issues raised during a stop in Kenosha, said Yolanda Swift, an ombudsman with the U.S. Small Business Administration. Swift attended a business development summit Tuesday at the Kemper Center, 6501 3rd Ave., and a business roundtable Wednesday. A big part of her mission was to raise awareness about the Small Business Administration and how it can help businesses. The issues raised in Kenosha, for example, are common problems the SBA has handled and is able to help others facing a similar situation, she said. Thats why we want to do this type of outreach across the country, Swift said. Swift believes the Racine-Kenosha area is well positioned for business growth given its location between the Chicago and Milwaukee markets. This area is a real rich, vital area, Swift said. It has tremendous potential for a number of different types of small businesses. Barca calls for changes Swifts position with the SBA was previously held by state Rep. Peter Barca, D-Kenosha. Barca said he was pleased the agency is doing outreach in the Racine-Kenosha area. He pointed to the SBA model as one the state should adopt, saying it is more responsive to small business owners and accountable to elected officials. It makes such a big difference, Barca said. Id like to see us replicate it almost precisely on the state level. The ultimate goal is to make it easier for businesses to comply with laws and regulations, Barca said. That could include simple clarifications or bigger changes in policy, he said. Theres all different ways you can resolve issues that will help other businesses that are similarly situated, Barca said. A spokesman for Gov. Scott Walker, however, said the state already does much of what Barca suggested. Spokesman Tom Evenson pointed to new measures such as the Office of Business Development, which he said gives businesses a voice in guiding government reforms; greater small business representation on the Small Business Regulatory Review Board; and a change in the states rule-making process requiring economic analysis. At every turn, Governor Walker has fought to give small businesses a greater voice and a stronger check on any regulations that might cost Wisconsin jobs, Evenson said. This area is a real rich, vital area. It has tremendous potential for a number of different types of small businesses. Yolanda Swift, U.S. Small Business Administration ombudsman MOUNT PLEASANT Police and fire investigators Saturday were trying to determine the cause of a house fire late Friday night in which a 49-year-old woman was found dead. Mount Pleasant police late Saturday afternoon identified the vicitm as Lori L. Liesner, a resident of the home. The cause of her death was still under investigation as of late Saturday afternoon, Sgt. Jason Vaccaro of the Mount Pleasant Police Department reported. Battalion Chief Steve Salvo of the South Shore Fire Department reported that Liesners body was found after firefighters arrived at the home at 6618 Durand Ave. at 11:08 p.m. Friday four minutes after being dispatched and found heavy fire and smoke visible from several windows. Firefighters located Liesners body within five minutes of entering the home to attack the fire, Salvo reported. Racine County Medical Examiner Mike Payne said Liesners parents, who live in Racine, were notified of the incident early Saturday morning. The Racine County Medical Examiners Office was called to the fire scene early; first responders had covered Liesners body with a sheet as it lay in the yard in front of the house. The house is located on the north side of Durand, a little more than a block east of the Walmart Super Center and west of Highway 31 near Stuart-McBride Park. Payne and neighbors said Liesner lived alone. Her body has been sent for an autopsy to determine the cause of death. According to South Shore Fire Department Battalion Chief John Radewan, the Racine County Fire Investigation Task Force was at the scene Saturday afternoon investigating the cause of the fire. Fire scene report Upon arriving on scene, Salvo reported a working fire with smoke and flames visible. The smell of smoke from the fire could be detected as far east as Ohio Street. Within the first 15 minutes of the fire, Salvo requested mutual aid to the scene. In between questions from police and fire officials, the owner of the home told The Journal Times that Liesner had been a tenant of the house for 15 years and worked at the nearby Menards. Neighbors said Liesner frequently was observed walking to and from work and to nearby stores. Adela Hernandez, 72, who lives just east of the fire scene, said she saw Liesner only from far away, but said she would wave and say hi and bye. Hernandez and her son, Alfredo Hernandez, 38, of Janesville, had just returned to the home Adela has rented for the past year. Alfredo said they noticed a burning smell, almost like burning rubber cable, he said. Then they saw a man walking in the yard of 6618 Durand who was shining a flashlight in the windows of the home. That man, apparently another neighbor, directed Alfredo to call 911 saying there was a fire in the residence. Alfredo, who works at the Ardagh glass plant in Burlington, said he could see flames inside the residence and observed firefighters pull Liesners body from the house. Salvo said the home, which the owner said dates to the 1940s, incurred heavy fire, heat and smoke damage and is likely unlivable. Early estimates peg damage at $70,000, Salvo said. The fire and police departments and Medical Examiners Office were assisting the county Fire Investigation Task Force with the investigation. Durand Avenue was closed for about three hours late Friday night and early Saturday morning between Oakes Road and Storybook Drive while fire crews worked the fire, packed up equipment and investigators began their work. South Shore firefighters received assistance at the scene from the Racine, Caledonia, Raymond and Somers fire departments and from the Racine Fire Bells. Kansasville, Somers and Oak Creek fire crews manned South Shores Sturtevant firehouse during the call. Mount Pleasant police received assistance with traffic control from the Racine County Sheriffs Office and the State Patrol. RACINE Plumb Gold Ltd., 322 Main St., has been a staple in the Downtown Racine community since its beginning in 1976. Austin Schultz, 30, has recently taken ownership of Plumb Gold, which specializes in custom and unique jewelry and celebrates its 40th year in business this year. Schultz grew up in Racine and has a deep passion for the local community. The Journal Times conducted an interview with Schultz regarding his new position and his fondness toward Racine. Tell us a bit about your background. I was born and raised in Racine. I graduated from Prairie in 2004 and then attended Miami University of Ohio where I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in metalsmithing and jewelry design. While at Miami, I spent a summer in India through an undergraduate research grant I received. I conducted a study of their vast jewelry industry and manufacturing techniques. I am currently in my final two courses through the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) to become a Graduate Gemologist. I just turned 30 last November! It is funny most of my family wandered from Racine at some point. I went to school out of state. My Mom moved to Cincinnati and then Arkansas with SC Johnson. My Dad moved to Japan with SCJ. My brother moved to Washington, D.C., to work with the U.S. Capitol Police. We all ended up moving back to the area. Tell us a bit about being the owner of Plumb Gold. I have worked with the company since 2002, when I was in high school. I came back full time in 2009. It was a personal goal to own my own business by the age of 30 and 12 days before my 30th birthday, I took ownership of Plumb Gold. I have essentially been running the business at all levels for a few years as the former owner became less and less involved. She decided to fully retire last year and it seemed a logical next step for me to purchase the business. The greatest compliment is that all the other staff stayed on to work for me. I am super hands-on and have really been enjoying calling the shots and overcoming the challenges of business ownership. I want to grow and shape the business into something that is uniquely mine but I will always remain loyal to our legacy of quality and design. What is your favorite part about Racine? There are so many kind, wonderful people in Racine. I so enjoy getting to know people. I think in bigger cities you dont get the sense of knowing your neighbor. Since taking over Plumb Gold, I have experienced an outpouring of support from other business owners, the Racine community, friends, and family. I am so grateful to have the community rallying behind me. How, in your opinion, can millennials help better the City of Racine? Get involved at all levels. Make your voice heard! Racine has a lot to offer and we have the opportunity to influence the community for the better! Nothing will change without positive action! Also give back. For instance, as part of our 40th anniversary celebrations, Plumb Gold will be giving 5 percent of proceeds from Julys sales to the Womens Resource Center of Racine. What is the secret behind your personal success? The secret to my personal success is my mom. She worked tirelessly and made many sacrifices as a single mom to provide for my brother and me. My mom just recently retired and volunteers much of her time to help the homeless and hungry in Racine. I couldnt imagine having a better example to live by. She instilled in me the values of hard work and compassion. Her selflessness inspires me to strive for success. Did you see yourself settling down in Racine? I think as a teenager in Racine, it is easy to find shortcomings and want to escape the small town feel. When you travel and experience different areas, you learn to appreciate the beauty and sense of community that Racine has. When I was growing up, the mantra was you werent successful unless you found a way to get out of Racine. In reality, there are wonderful opportunities here for people to succeed as long as they have the drive to better themselves. Do you plan to stay in Racine for a long time? Since I am a new business owner Yes! I hope to stay for a long, long time ... Racine is home! Would you recommend college graduates to settle in Racine? Yes of course! Housing is affordable and it is easy to get around. We are poised in a spectacular position between two major cities. I never feel like I am missing out by living in Racine. Graduates have tangible opportunities to succeed in Racine and shape the citys future. I welcome them to start businesses, grow their families, and enjoy all that Racine has to offer. How has the business changed over 40 years? There are obvious things like design trends and the physical changes to our store. But there are a number of things of a broader nature which have changed while I have been involved with the business. First, customers are far more engaged in learning about jewelry and gems. People are more informed and knowledgeable before they decide to make their purchase. Especially younger consumers. Something that ties into this is the internet. Far and above anything else, the internet has changed the jewelry industry drastically. While competing with online retailers continues to be a frustrating hurdle for small business owners like me to overcome, I think the trend is starting to swing back the other way. We see more and more people coming to us because we have a trusted reputation and they want a personal touch to go along with their shopping experience. That is just something they cant get online. Chris Cillizza Chris Cillizza is the managing editor of PostPolitics and he writes "The Fix," a politics blog for The Washington Post. He also covers the White House for the newspaper and website. Chris has appeared as a guest on NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, Fox News Channel and CNN to talk politics. He lives in Virginia with his wife and sons. OSHA Reminds Workers About Dangers of Fireworks The agency again reminds employers to protect workers from hazards while manufacturing, storing, transporting, displaying, and selling fireworks. OSHA is asking employers in the fireworks and pyrotechnics industry to make sure workers are protected from hazards this July 4th weekend, especially the workers who are in the business of manufacturing, storing, transporting, displaying, and selling fireworks. Two workers were killed and four were injured in an explosion at a fireworks manufacturing facility in Alabama last year during a fireworks mixing process, the agency noted. "Throughout the country, Americans will enjoy the excitement and splendor fireworks bring to the 4th of July holiday, but we must be aware of the dangers workers in the pyrotechnics industry face every day," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. "It is vital that employers take the required steps to ensure workers' safety and health." A 30-minute OSHA video on best safety practices for those manufacturing or selling fireworks is available here. NFPA's Fireworks report by Marty Ahrens, dated June 2016, shows that U.S. fire departments during 2009-2013 responded to an average of 18,500 fires per year caused by fireworks. They included 1,300 structure fires, 300 vehicle fires, and 16,900 outside and other fires. During 2014, U.S. hospital emergency rooms treated an estimated 10,500 people for fireworks-related injuries, and 51 percent of the injuries were to the extremities and 38 percent were head injuries -- the data come from the Consumer Product Safety Commission's 2014 Fireworks Annual Report by Yongling Tu and Demar Granados. Sparklers account for more than 25 percent of fireworks injuries treated in emergency rooms, according to NFPA, which also reports that more than one-quarter (28 percent) of fires started by fireworks in 2009-2013 were reported on July 4th. RACINE COUNTY A proposal to turn abandoned railroad right of way into a recreational trail stretching across a big chunk of the county continues to gather steam. Several Racine County municipalities last week pondered climbing aboard the effort, started by a group in Union Grove this spring. Under the plan, a biking and hiking trail would be created on a 13-mile stretch of Canadian Pacific rail right of way from Vandenboom Road in the Town of Dover east to Willow Road in Mount Pleasant. The trail also could eventually connect established bike trails on the west end of the county in Burlington to those along Lake Michigan in Racine. Last week the Yorkville Town Board voted to support the concept, while the Mount Pleasant Village Board heard a presentation on the proposal. The Sturtevant Village Board voted to back the effort at its June 22 meeting. The show of support comes after state legislators, state officials and local officials gathered twice last month to discuss financing, constructing and maintaining the trail. At the sessions, Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave said the county supports the plan and would maintain the trail once completed. He also urged all affected municipalities to officially support the project to show state officials that everyone was on board. That would improve the chances of getting state funding for the project, Delagrave told them. The Rails to Trails project in Racine County is a great example of intergovernmental collaboration and public-private investment in our community, Delagrave said. In order to get this project done, it will take the state, the county, the municipalities, the private sector and the public all working toward a common goal: A beautiful, multi-purpose trail system that will attract tourism and economic development. Im confident that this trail will be a valuable asset to not only Racine County but the whole southeastern Wisconsin region. Creating a trail from the old rail bed is estimated to cost about $40,000 per mile, proponents have said. They are asking municipalities to consider adding a line item to their annual budgets to help support the project. The Yorkville board at its June 27 meeting voted to consider setting money aside for the project in the next town budget. I think it would a great move to have something like this, said Yorkville town Supervisor Terrence McMahon. At a Mount Pleasant Village Board meeting June 27, Village Trustee Gary Feest said more details on cost and where the money will come from will need to be worked out. Everybody understands that grandiose ideas are grandiose, but they cost money, Feest said. An asset for the area Supporters of the project say the trail, which would pass through Kansasville, Union Grove, Yorkville, Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant, would increase the places to bike and hike, boost local economies, and bring a positive identity to communities. The local Rails to Trails effort grew from the Union Grove Community Development Authority and Leadership Union Grove, a civic leadership training organization. Both groups have been championing a trail through the village and beyond. The national Rails to Trails organization is working with the state Department of Natural Resources, Racine County, municipalities and others on the project. A beautiful, multi-purpose trail system that will attract tourism and economic development. Im confident that this trail will be a valuable asset to not only Racine County but the whole southeastern Wisconsin region. Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave A man shot dead five people, including his wife, and injured another 20 in a cafe in northern Serbia early Saturday, police said, with jealousy the suspected motive. The man "entered the cafe and opened fire with an automatic rifle, killing his wife and another woman, then he continued to shoot at other citizens in the cafe," a police statement said. It was the third mass shooting in recent years in Serbia, which has tried to shrink the large number of illegal weapons in circulation since the 1990s Balkan wars. "It was horrible. Some people were screaming and there was blood everywhere," cafe owner Ljubomir Milinovic told state-run news agency Tanjug. N1 television station quoted Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic as saying that the weapon was illegal and jealousy was believed to be the motive. The latest incident happened at about 1:40 am (2340 GMT Friday) in the town of Zitiste, around 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Belgrade. Police arrested the alleged shooter, born in 1978 and identified only by his initials Z.S., and opened a probe into the killings. Stefanovic said the attacker tried to flee the scene but was foiled by police. - Unlawful weapons - "We are all shocked that something like this could happen, since this was a very quiet man who had no police record," the minister said, according to Tanjug. N1 channel reported that the attacker argued with his wife in the cafe, left the building and returned with a Kalashnikov-type rifle. Two people were killed instantly in the shooting and three others died in hospital in the nearby city of Zrenjanin, according to N1. The other injured victims, some of them severely, were taken to various Serbian hospitals but were not in critical condition, reports said. Police have previously said there could be up to a million unregistered weapons in Serbia, including guns and grenades, left over from the 1990s conflicts. This latest shooting spree came a day after the interior ministry launched a new amnesty to encourage owners of illegal weapons to hand them in to their local police stations. A similar drive last year netted about 4,000 weapons. A stricter gun control law came into effect in March in Serbia, which is home to about seven million people. In another shooting spree last year, a 55-year-old man opened fire in a northern town in an apparent drunken rage over his son's wedding, killing six people including the bride and her parents. In 2013, a 60-year-old Serbian war veteran shot dead 13 people in the country's worst massacre in two decades as he rampaged through his tiny village about 50 kilometres south of Belgrade. The dead included his son and his mother as he went house-to-house, mainly shooting people as they slept peacefully. Individual shooting incidents are reported almost daily in Serbia, with domestic violence a common theme. After Saturday's attack, the government body for gender equality called for tougher gun control to prevent another incident where "in a burst of anger, someone decides to use an automatic rifle to kill his wife and her friends". Can Norway Access the EUs Internal Single Market? Yes. The main attraction of the Norwegian model for the U.K. is that it offers a way to access the EUs single internal market of 500 million consumers without becoming a full bloc member. Norway is in the single market as a result of its participation in what is known as the European Economic Area. The EEA agreement of 1994 ensures the free movement of goods, services, capital and people across the 28 states of the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. This is crucial for the Norwegian economy as more than 80% of its exports go to the EU, and more than 60% of imports come from countries in the bloc. But it means the country must accept the right of EU citizens to live and work within its borders without restriction, something that many who voted for the U.K. to leave are opposed to. What Freedoms Does Norway Have as an EU Outsider? Staying outside of the EU has allowed Norway to negotiate some opt-outs from the blocs common policies, in particular from directives on agriculture, fisheries and external trade. Fisheries especially are a cornerstone of the Norwegian economy, and resistance to handing any control of the industry to the EU was a big motivation for the 1994 vote to stay outside. How Much Say Does Norway Have on EU Policy? None, and this is often cited as the biggest drawback of the countrys deal with the EU. While membership of the EEA requires Oslo to enact the bulk of the laws emanating from Brussels, it has no input drafting those laws. In a warning to Britain before last weeks vote, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg bemoaned this part of her countrys situation. Basically we left part of our democracy to Europe, she told the British Broadcasting Corp. Would Moving to a Norwegian Model Be Cheaper for the U.K.? It seems so, but this isnt totally clear. Norway says it isnt possible to draw a direct comparison between what it pays and what member states pay, but when it lists its contributions to Europe, they soon add up. Norway has said it pays 388 million ($431 million) a year to fund EEA efforts to reduce social and economic disparities across the region. Story continues Its payments to a European research and innovation program total 447 million a year. The London-based think tank Open Europe put Norways per capita contribution to the EU at 107 a year compared with 139 for the U.K. How Would the Norway Model Affect Immigration? As a member of the EEA, Norway must allow the free movement of people across its borders as if it were an EU member. Norway is also part of Europes passport-free union known as Schengen. This means EU citizens are able to enter the Nordic country with greater ease than they can enter Britain, which isnt a Schengen member. Norways per capita immigration is higher than the U.Ks, suggesting that Oslos policy mix might not appeal to Britains Conservative government, which has committed itself to reducing the number of immigrants arriving at its borders. Still, some Leave supporters say Norway and other non-EU members of the EEA have more leeway to limit the free movement of people thanks to a special safeguard clause. The clause was invoked by Liechtenstein in the late 1990s, allowing the small country to restrict migration. What Do Norwegians Think of Their EU Deal? Opinion remains divided, but surveys suggest Norwegians arent about to go back on their decision to stay outside the EU. While Prime Minister Solberg has said she favors full membership, opinion polls suggest about 70% of Norwegians want to remain outside the EU. BERLIN (Reuters) - German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel has called for the number of EU Commissioners to be cut and for Brussels to reconsider how it allocates its budget, just over a week after Britons voted to leave the bloc. "A Europe in which 27 Commissioners want to prove themselves doesn't make sense," he told the newspaper Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung in an interview published on Saturday. "It would be good to downsize in this respect." British voters' decision in a June 23 referendum to quit the European Union has rocked global financial markets, thrown British politics into turmoil and raised concerns about the EU's future prospects. Gabriel said the EU must check whether it should still put around 40 percent of funds towards agriculture while much less money is pumped into research, innovation or education. He also said the EU should build up a joint European army. Gabriel, who is also vice chancellor, said a Brexit did not endanger the EU and even raised the possibility of Britain re-joining the EU in a few decades, especially given that young people voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU. A Brexit was not irreversible, he said at a European conference of his Social Democratic (SPD) party in Berlin on Saturday. "I'm sure that historically this is an episode rather than an epoch," he said. Gabriel urged the EU to be resolute in dealing with Britain to prevent "copycats" from adding to the bloc's troubles. He said the EU should invest more and do more to tackle unemployment. He criticised the EU for not planning to involve national parliaments in the ratification of CETA, a free trade deal between the EU and Canada: "You can't be more foolish than that - that destroys trust in European democracy." In a video podcast released on Saturday, Chancellor Angela Merkel said leaders of the 27 states that will be left after Brexit had identified areas where the bloc needed to become more effective such as competitiveness, jobs, growth, internal and external security, combating terrorism, protecting its external borders and improving what it offers young people. She gave no other details. In the newspaper interview, Gabriel accused Brussels of "petty" involvement in issues that could be better handled by municipalities or states. He said Britain should be fairly treated but added: "It would not be acceptable for the British government to now consult on quitting and on its future relations with the EU at the same time so it can ultimately pick the best of both sets of negotiations." Gabriel said the EU would certainly accept Scotland as a member in its own right if the country leaves the United Kingdom and wants to join the EU. (Reporting by Michelle Martin and Andreas Rinke; Editing by Tom Heneghan) By Gergely Szakacs BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Emboldened by Britain's shock vote to quit the EU, Hungary's leader Viktor Orban is forging ahead with his own referendum on migration, in what European diplomats see as a sign of battles to come with anti-Brussels populists across the continent. The 53-year-old Orban, in power since 2010, has clashed several times with the EU on issues ranging from independence of the courts and the central bank to his handling of the migrant crisis, which has included a fence on Hungary's southern border. His next clash pits him against an EU Commission plan to resettle refugees across member states based on quotas, which Orban sees as an act of out-of-touch Brussels bureaucrats usurping national authority. "We need to fight to prove to people that it is possible to form an EU migration policy that is in line with the Hungarian national interest," Orban said days after the Brexit vote. "This is going to be a long struggle for which I will need a strong mandate, which cannot be ensured without a referendum," said Orban, who is in favour of remaining in the EU but wants more powers for member states. Orban has enlisted allies, such as neighbouring Slovakia, which also opposes the quotas and this week joined a chorus of eastern EU states calling for the powers of the EU Commission to be reined in after Britain's vote to leave. "We have a big problem with the proposed reform of the Dublin system," Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said. "We think it's stupid, because this is exactly what will keep dividing Europe if (countries) will be asked to pay 250,000 euros ($277,000) for each migrant they refuse to take." Hungary's migrant referendum, due in the autumn, could coincide with Britain starting its EU exit negotiations. Critics describe the timing as opportunistic. "Eurosceptic parties across the continent are cherry-picking parts of the Brexit story to bolster their own domestic narrative," said Otilia Dhand, an analyst at Teneo Intelligence. "Orban has said that it is the 'failure of EU migrant policies' that nudged UK voters to vote Leave - downplaying the fact that we're talking two completely different migrant issues: Syrian refugees on the continent vs. Polish workers in the UK." The EU migrant relocation scheme was established last year after more than a million people entered the EU, most intending to settle in Germany and other rich northern countries. The EU is discussing a change to asylum rules that would require member states to accept a quota of refugees or pay a penalty for them to be housed elsewhere. Hungary was the main arrival point into the EU's border-free Schengen zone for migrants travelling by land, until Orban shut the frontier with the new fence last year, a popular move at home that was criticised by rights groups. He and other eastern European leaders say their comparatively poor countries should not forced to settle migrants lured to the bloc by more liberal policies of richer states. Germany, which argued for the resettlement, says the entire bloc must act to solve a common problem. "REBELLIOUS CURRENT" Orban has said the migration crisis could drive more countries out of the EU. His government will ask Hungarians: "Do you agree that the European Union should be able to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary without the consent of parliament?" On Thursday, Orban's chief of staff, Janos Lazar, went further, becoming the first senior government official to say he would be in favour of leaving the EU altogether, although he said that was only his personal opinion. Foreign diplomats say that despite such rhetoric, a "Huxit", or Hungarian exit from the EU, still seems unlikely. Hungary depends on EU funds, and Hungarians, a generation removed from Communist dictatorship, are still mostly keen on membership. "I ask the people around me: if you ever meet a Hungarian who would rather go back to Siberia from where the Hungarians are coming from, rather than stay in the EU, I will buy champagne for him and treat him to a special lunch," one diplomat said. "So far, no one showed up." But diplomats also see Orban's position as part of a "rebellious current" in Europe that has seen Dutch and French eurosceptic leaders calling for referendums on EU membership. The referendum tactic could poison debate. "This referendum is not good," said another diplomat. "You can handle the bad ideas with the right means, and this is maybe the most destructive means of all. This can have a damaging effect on Hungary. "Okay, maybe the EU is a little sick, maybe the EU has got a flu. But I am not going to cure the flu with chemotherapy. And this is what Orban seems to be trying with this criticism. And Brexit can strengthen politicians like him all around Europe." Charles Robertson, Global Chief Economist at Renaissance Capital, said Orban was successfully tapping the public mood. "The Brexit vote, swung to Leave by the immigration debate, is a powerful rejection of the status quo by the electorate," he said. "Orban captures that zeitgeist better than most." (This version of the story was corrected to amend the paragraph 12 reference to financial penalties for EU countries that do not take in refugees, making clear this is still a proposal and not yet final.) (Additional reporting by Tatiana Jancarikova in Bratislava; editing by Peter Graff) 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. WATERFORD The Waterford Police Department learned the power of good karma in the past couple weeks. The department this month collected the most pre-stuffed grocery bags of any participant in the Stuff the Squad campaign sponsored by Roundys grocery stores, the parent company of Pick n Save. Waterford police officers collected 450 bags of groceries, which were delivered to St. Thomas Food Pantry in the Village of Waterford and the Caldwell Food Pantry in the Town of Waterford. The Stuff the Squad campaign, launched by Roundys in 2015 at only 11 stores, expanded to 85 stores across southeastern Wisconsin this year. Those locations collected 8,733 grocery bags and raised $53,000. The average number of bags collected at those locations was about 100. But Waterford went well above that to claim the title as best baggers. Waterford Police Chief Tom Ditscheit brought his motorcycle trailer to transport the excessive amount of bags. My trailer can hold two motorcycles and we filled that up pretty good, he said. Ditscheit said the department also sold more than 100 bags that werent collected or counted in the total. Pre-stuffed bags were sold for $5 or $10 for a week prior to the collection date June 11. Ditscheit said that volunteers from his department, Pick n Save, and the community made the success of Waterfords Stuff the Squad campaign possible. We did really well on it, he added. This community is a very caring community. They want to take care of the people who live in it. Good deed paid back On June 14, the department flipped its role and was the recipient of kindness when it received a boat repair for no charge. The starter on Waterford police boat failed. The department called Mobile Marine Services, LLC in the Town of Burlington to diagnose and repair the problem, Ditscheit said in a press release. Mobile Marine Services went to Tichigan Lake, where the boat was docked, removed the starter, took it to Maxim Rebuilders in Burlington and then reinstalled it. When the invoice arrived, there was no charge and a note from Bill Pieters, owner of Mobile Marine Services, that read Thanks for all you do. Pieters said he did not charge them because it was the right thing to do. You have to take care of our police guys, EMTs, first responders, law enforcement and firefighters, Pieters said. YEREVAN, JULY 2, ARMENPRESS. NIGEC managing director has reported on the agreement reached with Armenia to bring about a threefold increase in Irans gas exports to the Caucasus region country, reports MEHR news agency. Following an earlier power deal between Iran and Armenia over increasing the electricity exchange volume, the two countries have reached a new accord for boosting exports of natural gas. Estimations reveal that electricity and gas exchanges between Iran and Armenia will climb threefold the current amount. Head of National Iranian Gas Exports Company (NIGEC) Alireza Kameli said Iran is now deploying one million cubic meters of natural gas to Armenia per day asserting on the basis of the preliminary agreement, the figure will hit three million cubic meters overall. The two sides are currently preparing the required infrastructure for boosting natural gas exchange, stressed the official adding the accord will soon become finalized and operational with more negotiations. Kameli pointed to the countrys gas production capacity reiterating at the present time, there exist no limitations for increasing gas exports to Armenia. Last summer, a contract was signed between the two countries for construction of the third 400-kV power transmission line worth more than 107 million Euros. The transmission line between Iran and Armenia is 275 kilometers long and the entire process of procurement of equipment, construction, installation and commissioning will be carried out by the Iranian side. It has been estimated that with construction of the new power network, electricity exchange volume between Iran and Armenia will rise from the current 300 to about 1000 megawatts. One unique advantage of the new transmission line, in addition to development of power ties between Iran and Armenia, would be the possibility to connect Irans power grid to Georgia and Russia providing grounds for power transit among various Caucasus region states. Real Estate News What is it like to live in Portsmouth, N.H.? Tom Holbrook loves the country life but wanted to raise his daughter in a place where culture would be at their fingertips. Nightlife in downtown Portsmouth. Cheryl Senter for The Boston Globe Tom Holbrook grew up in Maine and likes the countryside more than big cities. But as the owner of a bookstore, hes culturally attuned, and he wants to raise his daughter in a place with plenty to offer. For him, Portsmouth, a small coastal city of 21,000 and his home for 15 years, is near perfect. Portsmouth punches way above its weight level in terms of arts and culture, said Holbrook, 46, a cofounder of RiverRun Bookstore on Fleet Street and the father of 7-year-old Flannery. Besides such institutions as the fully restored Music Hall and the Strawbery Banke Museum, Portsmouth has amenities that include a well-maintained public pool and a state-of-the-art library with 3-D printers for patrons use. Were incredibly lucky weve got what we have, Holbrook said. Advertisement: He does, however, wish the city wasnt becoming so costly for the younger creative types who have made it thrive. His wife, Stephanie Hausman, a public defender, lived in the city when she attended the University of New Hampshire in Durham. No students can do that anymore, he said. As an active member of the community, he welcomes newcomers. I just hope the people who want to come here want to participate and support the local businesses that make the place unique, he said. BY THE NUMBERS 13 The number of Africans whose buried remains were discovered during infrastructure work downtown in 2003. The African Burying Ground, a cemetery for this port city in the 18th century, had been paved over and forgotten by many. The site, now home to a $1.2 million memorial park, could contain the remains of as many as 200 Africans, state officials said. 60,000 The estimated number of visitors the 3S Artspace is expected to see each year. The multipurpose complex has a performance space, an art gallery, and a restaurant. The nonprofit opened in 2015 and has already hosted well-known performers, including Sonic Youths Thurston Moore. 58 feet The height of the Double Geronimo extreme body slide at Water Country. In Dr. Von Darks Tunnel of Terror, you can watch your own horror mirrored in your friends face as you sit in a twin tube and take a 40-foot plunge in the dark. Spoiler alert: Theres a tornado funnel in there, too. Advertisement: PRO & CONS Pro Culture and history For a modest-sized community, Portsmouth boasts a wide variety of attractions. The decommissioned submarine USS Albacore, now a museum, is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Music Hall, built in 1878, was saved from demolition in 1987. The US Senate designated it an American Treasure in 2003. Con Development tensions In this historic city (incorporated in 1653), development projects often meet with opposition from preservation-minded residents. Some have launched court challenges against a project that would include a hotel, condos, and a 40,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market though the Historic District Commission has already approved the plan. People fish along the Piscataqua River. Keith Bedford/Globe staff Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse Keith Bedford/Globe staff People walk along Market Square Keith Bedford/Globe staff Shoppers along Market Street near Market Square in Portsmouth, NH. Keith Bedford/Globe staff African Burying Ground Memorial Park in Portsmouth, NH. Keith Bedford/Globe staff People look out onto the Piscataqua River in Portsmouth, NH. Keith Bedford/Globe staff Passersby walk through Market Square in Portsmouth, NH. Keith Bedford/Globe staff Passersby look in the window of the Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH. Keith Bedford/Globe staff The John Paul Jones in Portsmouth, NH. Keith Bedford/Globe staff The Albacore Museum in Portsmouth, NH. Keith Bedford/Globe staff Piscataqua Bridge in Portsmouth, NH. Keith Bedford/Globe staff A woman sits along a fountain in Prescott Park in Portsmouth, NH. Keith Bedford/Globe staff The Strawberry Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH. Keith Bedford/Globe staff James Sullivan can be reached at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @sullivanjames. RACINE The mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub, deadliest in modern American history, has sparked a significant response by those on either side of the gun debate, including a House floor sit-in led by Democrats. That action also includes the Wisconsin Anti Violence Effort, which on Friday afternoon presented a petition urging House Speaker Paul Ryan to vote on a bill to end gun violence. Members of the organization and a few concerned citizens dropped the bill off at Ryans Downtown Racine office, 216 Sixth St. Were asking for stronger gun laws and, in specific, were looking for things like background checks on all gun sales, WAVE Director Jeri Bonavia said. Research shows that this is an effective means of helping to prevent gun violence. A spokesperson for Ryan responded: We should better enforce the laws we have on the books now to keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals, but we must be clear-eyed about the underlying threat here: terrorism. Ryan, R-Wis., whose district includes all of Racine County, reportedly has said the House will vote on a gun bill next week aimed at keeping suspected terrorists from obtaining firearms. The bill includes several counter-terrorism provisions and is similar to a Senate proposal that failed to advance last month on a largely partisan vote, according to an Associated Press report. 1,500 sign on WAVEs petition had more than 1,500 signatures on it, according to WAVE representative Heidi Rose. Its presentation at Ryans office reflects a frustration from his constituents, Bonavia said. Our organization represents people from all across the state, including here in Paul Ryans district people who are interested in seeing our gun laws strengthened, she said. One of those interested constituents was the Rev. Glen Halbe, who showed up to witness the petition given to a Ryan staffer. I would like to see him (Ryan) introduce a bill ... that says if you cant fly in an airplane back and forth in this country or outside, you cant have a gun unless you appeal, Halbe said. It turns Congressman Ryans bill upside down. Were asking for stronger gun laws and, in specific, were looking for things like background checks on all gun sales. Research shows that this is an effective means of helping to prevent gun violence. WAVE Director Jeri Bonavia Costa Asia celebrated its 10th anniversary in China in Shanghai today by inviting industry partners and staff representatives to witness Costa Asia become the first international cruise company to reach this milestone. According to a prepared statement, the 2,000,000th passenger also attended the celebration as the guest of honor and was awarded a free ticket for a Costa vacation. Since its maiden China voyage in July 2006, Costa Asia has achieved a number of industry firsts, the cruise line said: It was the first large international cruise company authorized to operate and deploy home ports in China. Over the past decade, Costa Asia has maintained customer-first principles and focused on innovation and excellence to bring Chinese passengers the most creative and high-quality cruise products, all with the flavor of Italy at Sea. According to the China Cruise & Yacht Industry Association statistics, in 2015, Costa said, China generated more than 1.1 million cruise passengers, and Costa Asia was recognized with the most voyages and passengers, consolidating its leading position in China with a 38.31 percent market share. From its earlier deployment of the Costa Allegra (2006), Classica (2009) and Romantica (2010), to the more recent Costa Victoria The Ship of Fashion (2012), the Atlantica The Ship of Art (2013), the Serena Rome at Sea (2015) and the Fortuna Museum at Sea in April 2016, Costa Asia said it brings its Italy at Sea flavor to Chinese passengers, offering them an authentic European cruising experience. Over the past decade, we have invested in the China cruise market to bring passengers the flavor of Italy at Sea. We wish to express our gratitude to local communities for their consistent support. said Buhdy Bok, Costa Asia President. We would also like to thank all of our staff for their dedication and the invaluable contributions they have made to the company and its passengers, he added. Costa Asias fleet will welcome the arrival of the neoRomantica in 2017 and add two 4,200-passenger new-builds specifically designed for the China market, coming in 2019 and 2020. In addition, AIDA Cruises will join Costa Asia in 2017 by positioning a ship in China year-round for the first time, home-ported in Shanghai for the China market. Costa Asia stated further that it has shown its commitment to the China cruise industry by increasing the number of Chinese onboard staff and collaborating with local institutions to attract and train local talent for the best tailor-made cruising experience for Chinese passengers. Costa Asia has so far employed a total of 2,700 Chinese staff aboard its fleet. The cruise line plans to increase the number of Chinese staff aboard to 50 percent by 2020 and create more career opportunities. Photo: Costa Group Asia President Buhdy Bok (third from left), Chief Operations Officer of Carnival Asia (forth from left), industry partners and staff representatives attend the ceremony Credit union loan balances are growing, and so are the number of credit union members in the U.S. Thats according our Credit Union Trends Report for June 2016 (based on April 2016 data). The report offers an economic outlook credit unions and their leaders, and you can see the full details here. In the meantime, were sharing the highlights here: Highlights SALEM, Ohio The precipitation maps for Ohio and Pennsylvania over the month of June look a little like a patchwork quilt with some counties getting very little rain, and some experiencing flooding and ponding. The most recent major rain event, ending with the week of June 27, saw a range of about one-tenth of an inch, to more than 5 inches, according to data provided by Jim Noel, a hydrologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Noel called it a situation of have and have nots in the latest edition of Ohio States C.O.R.N Newsletter, and said dry conditions are likely to persist through the first week of July with heavier rains coming from scattered showers. Wide range That same range can be seen across Ohio and Pennsylvanias field crops, which range from good to excellent where theres been adequate moisture, and poor quality where theres been drought and flooding. So far, most Ohio farmers appear to be having a better wheat harvest than last year, when rains forced a late harvest and damaged the crop causing some wheat to sprout and resulting in steep docking fees at the mill. From the field In Morrow County, Robert Barker and his family started the wheat harvest the last week of June. He estimates they get to start harvesting wheat in June about one in five years, and so far, is happy with the yield and quality. He estimated the yield at 90-100 bushels per acre, but said other years, it can be as low as 50-60. Wheat is so dependant on the weather, he said. From fall until the next summer. Jeff Sayers, who farms in the same area as Barker, was harvesting some of his first wheat June 30. The moisture has been about 18-21 percent, a little higher than hed like, but he remembers last year, when some wheat was ruined and laid against the ground. Last year, we were fighting rain after rain, he said. We were fighting sprout in the heads and everything else. This year we havent had that yet, and hopefully we dont. Jeff and his father, Ed, farm about 900 acres, with 60 acres of wheat. He said they usually grow more wheat, but with all of last years troubles, they cut back. This years crop looks reassuring, and he figured early yield at 80 bushels or better. State yields Those yields are in line with findings from OSU wheat experts Pierce Paul and Laura Lindsey, who report that test weight per bushel is in the upper 50-pound range. Both researchers observed low levels of head scab and other diseases, and said that low disease severity typically means very good grain yield and quality. The early harvest will undoubtedly have some farmers considering planting a second crop referred to as double-cropping. Sayers said hes leaning more toward planting a cover crop instead, and Barker said theyll probably plant whatever soybean seed they have left over, but nothing more. Double cropping can be a beneficial, but risky venture depending on the second half of the growing season, and conditions in the fall. It is more common in southern Ohio counties, but not unusual further north. Other crops Meanwhile, as farmers focus on harvesting wheat and baling straw, corn and soybeans are progressing albeit in the same patchwork pattern. The Ohio corn crop generally saw a dry start to June, which some growers said was good, because it helped force the plants to develop deeper, wider roots in search of moisture. And when the moisture came, at the end of the month, it did so with vengeance and deadly floods in West Virginia. Peter Thomison, OSU field crop specialist, said in the CORN Newsletter, that some Ohio fields were flooded, with localized ponding that resulted in partial or complete immersion of corn plants. Thomison said the muddy residue left on the plants will likely reduce photosynthesis, but because most corn is far enough along, it should be able to sustain the damage. If the flooding only lasted a few hours, and temperatures were warm, he expects damage will be minimal. Recent rainfall has also helped the soybean crop, which, in some fields, had not received rain since it was planted. Amanda Price, a grain merchandiser with Town & Country Co-op, said soybeans have probably been the biggest concern, since they were planted later and are in need of moisture. Harvest continues Town & Country operates mills in Wayne, Ashland and Medina counties, and she said farmers are still in the early stages of wheat harvest, with good quality so far. Moisture has ranged from 14-24 percent, with a lot in the midteens. Test weights have been lower than expected, but Price said that will likely improve as the harvest continues. Ive been pleasantly surprised at how dry some of the areas have been, she said. Pennsylvania crop Rob Hodge, general manager of Ag Central, a grain mill in Mount Jackson, Pennsylvania, said farmers there are in the beginning stages of wheat harvest, but would continue through the July 4 weekend if weather permits. He said moisture has been in the upper teens. In general, hes been encouraging people to get their wheat off as soon as they can, before heavy rains come and cause moisture damage. He said the corn and soybeans in western Pennsylvania could use rain having missed two of the major rain events that were forecasted earlier in June. One of those rains hit the Salem-area, he said, but drifted toward Pittsburgh and missed his part of the state. National numbers Overall, farmers across the nation planted the lowest number of acres to wheat this past year since the 1970s, at just under 51 million acres, according to the U.S. Department of Agricultures Acreage Report, released June 30. But good growing and harvest conditions have the nations wheat crop on track to make up for the lower acreage, with a national yield average of 48.6 bushels per acre, an 8 percent increase over the five-year average. The report also estimates U.S. soybean planted area at a record high 83.7 million acres, up 1 percent from last year. Growers expect to harvest 83 million acres of soybeans nationally this year, which, if realized, will be a new record high. U.S. corn growers also benefited from excellent field conditions this spring, increasing their acreage from last year by 7 percent, to 94.1 million acres, making it the third highest corn planted acreage since 1944. Corn growers expect to harvest 86.6 million acres for grain, which would be the third highest acreage harvested for grain since 1933. Q: Lewis, it was one of those days when I guess it was all about the timing of the switch onto the slick tyre and then actually coming across the line it must have been extremely exciting, the final few minutes of that session? Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, it was a really fun session. It was one of those sessions that it starts off dry, goes wet, and quite incredibly here it dries up so quickly, its like driving through fog at some stages. I think it just added to the excitement of the while thing. Id never driven here in the rain before and being a new surface as well it was very, very slippery. It was drying up corner by corner and at the end it was about getting that last lap. The previous lap was a good lap as well but if I had finished that lap I would have been right behind Daniel Ricciardo, so I backed off, which was a big risk really. If I didn't finish my lap or there had been a yellow flag I wouldn't have been able to get pole, but it was the risk I took and fortunately it paid off, so very happy with it. Q: Well done. Turning to you, Nico, youre second but its a bittersweet feeling I imagine, knowing that youve got to go back five places on the grid after the accident this morning and the subsequent gearbox penalty. A shame really, because your preparations for the race up to that point had been pretty ideal. Tell us about your day and your prospects from here? Nico Rosberg: First of all, a really unbelievable job from everybody, even Lewis mechanics came on to my car to try to get it out in time, so that was a huge team effort. We got it out 11 minutes to go in Q1, so it was really tight and awesome, so that was great. And then a very exciting qualifying, going dry-wet-dry and it was unbelievable how quickly it dried in the end then to get back on to slick tyres. I think Lewis just did a good job there in the very end, so thats it. Second not first, but its OK. The five places will be quite costly well, very costly of course for tomorrow, unfortunately. Ill make the best of it anyways and try to get a good race from there. Next Previous Enlarge 1 / 4 Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 in the Press Conference at Formula One World Championship, Rd9, Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Spielberg, Austria, Saturday 2 July 2016. Sutton Images Nico Hulkenberg (GER) Force India F1 in the Press Conference at Formula One World Championship, Rd9, Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Spielberg, Austria, Saturday 2 July 2016. Sutton Images Nico Rosberg (GER) Mercedes AMG F1 in the Press Conference at Formula One World Championship, Rd9, Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Spielberg, Austria, Saturday 2 July 2016. Sutton Images (L to R): Nico Rosberg (GER) Mercedes AMG F1, pole sitter Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 and Nico Hulkenberg (GER) Force India F1 celebrate in parc ferme at Formula One World Championship, Rd9, Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Spielberg, Austria, Saturday 2 July 2016. Sutton Images Info Close Q: OK, thank you for that. Nico Hulkenberg, welcome back. Reminiscent, conditions-wise and the way you drove, of Brazil a few years ago, in the Williams days. You must be absolutely ecstatic and set yourself up now, moving up to the front row of the grid with Nico Rosbergs penalty, for a great day? Nico Hulkenberg: Yeah, no, absolutely, it reminded me a lot about Brazil and I was feeling really good in the car and it was just a flashback to back then. I was feeling really good and to be honest, I was expecting a little bit better, so when he said third I wasnt disappointed. A great effort from the team. Not an easy session to be out there at the right time, its all about timings. The car performed well, we put it together, so a very solid job and a very good starting position for tomorrow. Q: Very well done. Lewis, coming back to you, on a serious note we saw a couple more suspension failures during that qualifying session with Kvyat and Perez. Whats the feeling among the drivers, whats the conversation going to be this evening and whats the concern there? LH: I cant speak on behalf of all the drivers, but for me those yellow kerbs are quite dangerous. Weve now seen a couple of incidents already. I dont know how many more of those its going to take before a car ends up in the wall and perhaps someone gets hurt. Im sure Charlie and the FIA are looking at it but thats definitely an area we can improve. The idea is good, because they definitely dont want us running wide and using the outside of the circuit but perhaps another solution is going to be needed. Q: Lewis, one of the interesting talking points arising out of the second part of qualifying was the decision by Ferrari and Red Bull to go out and set their time on the supersoft tyre. You and Nico had both used the ultrasoft but then right at the end you went out and had a bit of a look on the supersoft just as some rain began to fall. So, your thoughts on why you went the way that you did in the first instance and what happened at the end there. LH: I just did what I was told! I think our strategists understand that that ultrasoft was the better tyre. We had the supersoft available I think they perhaps saw Im guessing Im assuming they saw that the Ferraris had gone out and they thought we might try to go out and see if we could do a time on it, even though we think there is a time delta between the two. Naturally a hard tyre often goes further so that doesnt seem like such a bad option. They have qualified on supersofts? Q: Yes theyll start on the supersofts and so will Red Bull LH: OK, thats not a bad thing. I think the ultrasoft is not a good tyre for the race. Its going to be a struggle to get a lot of laps out of it so the strategy will be interesting tomorrow. Obviously those guys are starting behind me so Im hoping I have a bit of an advantage at the start just from being on the softer tyre but yeah, in practice my tyre lasted for four laps, so I think for Nico it lasted maybe eight? He says five. So itll definitely be tricky but well do the best we can with it. Q: OK, the same question to you Nico. Your race, the first stint is going to be much more complicated because of where youre starting. So your thoughts on this situation going into the race tomorrow. And also, picking up on what I was asking Lewis before about the kerbs, is it just a case now of, for the rest of the weekend, staying off them or is there more to it than that? NR: For sure yeah, need to stay off them. I even stayed off them in qualifying now most of the time, except for when it really counted. Tyres is going to be tough tomorrow but the thing is we dont really know because the temperature is going to drop so much so who knows how the tyres are going to be? For sure in the hot it was really tough but maybe in the cold its going to be better. Next Previous Enlarge 1 / 4 Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes-Benz F1 W07 Hybrid at Formula One World Championship, Rd9, Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Spielberg, Austria, Saturday 2 July 2016. Sutton Images Nico Hulkenberg (GER) Force India VJM09 at Formula One World Championship, Rd9, Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Spielberg, Austria, Saturday 2 July 2016. Sutton Images Nico Rosberg (GER) Mercedes-Benz F1 W07 Hybrid at Formula One World Championship, Rd9, Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Spielberg, Austria, Saturday 2 July 2016. Sutton Images Nico Rosberg (GER) Mercedes AMG F1 and Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 in the Press Conference at Formula One World Championship, Rd9, Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Spielberg, Austria, Saturday 2 July 2016. Sutton Images Info Close Featuring FilmWorks United, the International Working Class Film & Video Festival San Jose Peace and Justice Center48 South 7th StreetSan Jose, CA 95112... and other locations in San JoseFriday, July 8 at 7 pm. San Jose Peace and Justice Center, 48 South 7th St. (Donation)Blue Elephants (14 min.) (2010) Directed by Moritz SiebertThis film documents the everyday lives of Indonesian and Nepali migrant workers who work for Malaysian contract manufacturers that produce goods for some of the worlds best-known brands.Driving for Hire (85 min.) (2015) Directed by John HanThis documentary delves into the contentious battle in California (and much of the rest of the world) between the taxi industry and ride-service firms Uber and Lyft. Cab driver and producer, John Han, will speak during Q and A.Thursday, July 14 at 7 pm. San Jose Peace and Justice Center, 48 South 7th St. (Donation)The Factory (132 min.) (2015, India) Directed by Rahul RoyThe Factory revisits one of the most contentious cases of industrial unrest in recent history: the face-off between workers and the management of the Maruti Suzuki automobile factory in Manesar, India.Friday, July 22 at 7 pm. San Jose Peace and Justice Center, 48 South 7th St. (Donation)Limpiadores (39 min.) (2015, UK) Directed by Fernando Gonzalez MitjansThe life and struggles of the invisible migrant workers who make sure offices and classrooms are clean and tidy before professors and students arrive for their morning classes at some of Londons most prestigious universities.Claiming Our Voice (21 min.) (2013, USA) Directed by Jennifer PritheevaAndolan is a theater group founded and led by immigrant women low-wage workers for collectively organizing against exploitative work conditions. This film enables the women to (literally) set the stage for how their stories will be told.Saturday, July 23 at 9 am 1:30 pm. Meet at the New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum, Casa Grande, 21350 Almaden Road, San Jose, CA 95120 ($15)New Almaden Quicksilver Mine Labor History TourWhere did the San Jose Mercury News get its name? From the New Almaden Quicksilver Mine south of San Jose which during its heyday was the richest and most productive mercury mine in the United States. By special arrangement with Santa Clara County Parks, the tour will emphasize economic and labor history, and will cover the considerable distances between sites by van. Advanced reservation required at laborfest [at] sanjosepeace.org Tuesday, July 26 at 8 pm. San Jose Improv, 62 South 2nd St. (Free / Promo code labor)LaborFest Comedy Night with Alycia CooperAlycia Cooper is a hilarious stand-up comic seen on Raising Hope and The Parkers. Must be 18 or older. 2 items minimum order required 21+ for drink order. Get free promo tickets from SJPJC or call for reservation: 408-280-7475.Friday, July 29 at 7 pm. San Jose Peace and Justice Center, 48 South 7th St. (Donation)Operation Bootstrap (60 min.) (1983, Puerto Rico) Directed by Pedro Angel Rivera & Susan ZeigThis film exposes the first free trade zone set up by the U.S. in Puerto Rico. It was advertised as helping the people of Puerto Rico, but, in fact, has ended up putting them in further poverty and deprivation.Info: http://www.laborfest.net 415-642-8066 sanjosepeace.org 408-297-2299 laborfest [at] laborfest.net [Photo: Falun Gong cult leader Li Hongzhi. This is a man who claims that he can fly, that extraterrestrials have invaded Earth (and are using race-mixing as a means to conquer us), that the French have discovered a 2-billion-year-old nuclear reactor of an ancient civilization that practiced the Falun Gong religion, and that the Chinese government is killing his followers for their organs.] CNN Claims on Chinese Organ Harvesting Are Not CredibleBy Steven ArgueA flurry of reports have erupted in the western corporate owned media that are claiming that a murderous holocaust is taking place in China to supply human organs for transplants. On June 25th CNN carried a story titled, Report: China still harvesting organs from prisoners at a massive scale. This was followed by many other mainstream media outlets making similar allegations. On June 28th, the Independent ran an article titled, China kills millions of innocent meditators for their organs, report finds, with a subtitle further declaring, Experts estimate between 60,000 and 100,000 prisoners of conscience are executed annually.The report these mainstream media stories are based on is called Bloody Harvest / The Slaughter, an Update which was written by supposed experts Ethan Guttmann, David Matas, and David Kilgour. That report claims, without any meaningful evidence, that the Chinese government has murdered 1.5 million prisoners of conscience to take their organs. The arguments presented by Guttmann, Matas, and Kilgour depend almost entirely on the discredited fabrications of the Falun Gong in combination with wild speculation and conjecture.A typical summary from the western corporate media on who the Falun Gong are can be found in the following quote from a National Review article:Falun Gong is a religion or spiritual philosophy or mindbody system. It has its roots in Buddhism and qigong (a relative of yoga). In other words, it is very Chinese unlike Marxism-Leninism (and Maoism). Its leading tenets are Truth, Compassion, Forbearance.It is interesting that a western backed religious and political movement in China can be declared more Chinese than Maoism which mobilized millions of Chinese workers and farmers in one of the most important social revolutions in world history. A revolution that, among other things, doubled life expectancy during Maos rule, brought major gains for womens rights, increased literacy from a small privileged minority to the vast majority of the people, abolished slavery, brought rapid development, and before Deng Xiaopings market reforms brought universal socialized medicine, full employment, and a fully collectivized planned socialist economy where production went almost solely towards meeting human needs rather than profit. Yes, it was a revolution that suffered from a lack of legitimate workers democracy under bureaucratic control and bureaucratic privilege as well as what was at times brutal repression, but it was also truly a popular social revolution, fully rooted in China, that brought massive gains to the great majority of the Chinese people.So what is the reality of this group for which the western media claims the pious virtues of truth, compassion, and forbearance. The Falun Gong are a religious and political cult that were established in 1992. They adopted the swastika as their symbol, supposedly as an ancient religious symbol, but also adopted a program that is extremely racist, sexist, homophobic, and anti-science. Their cult leader, Li Hongzhi, teaches that each human race was created by a different god and that people of mixed race have no god to look after them and cannot make it into paradise. Li Hongzhi teaches that the half-breed mongrel is the plot of extra-terrestrials who have invaded Earth and who are plotting to take over the planet as fewer people have gods to look after them due to race-mixing. Besides desiring a ban on mixed marriages to save us from extra-terrestrials, the Falun Gong would also like to see a ban on abortion while calling advocacy of womens liberation degenerate. Cult leader Li Hongzhi sees nothing wrong with ancient treatments of women that included foot binding and enslavement. Regarding homosexuality, Li Hongzhi teaches his followers, "Repulsive homosexual behavior meanwhile bespeaks of a filthy, deviant state of mind that lacks rationality. Li Hongzhi also claims that he can fly, that extraterrestrials have invaded Earth, that he has regular roundtable meetings with Jesus, Allah, and Buddha, that the French have discovered a 2-billion-year-old nuclear reactor of an ancient civilization that practiced the Falun Gong religion, and that the Chinese government is killing his followers for their organs.The Falun Gong were outlawed by the Chinese government in July 1999 after the Chinese government began to see their growing popularity as an increasing threat. This was seen both as a political threat to the Chinese government and a threat to Chinese science and modernization. Leading the Chinese Communist Partys ideological campaign against the Falun Gong has been theoretical physicist He Zuoxiu. He uses a combination of arguments from the natural sciences and Marxism-Leninism to discredit the Falun Gong. Interestingly enough, He Zuoxiu is also in opposition to Chinas market reforms, played a role in Chinas development of defensive nuclear weapons in the 1960s, and argues in favor of scientific medicine in opposition to traditional Chinese medicine. He Zuoxius ideological offensive was combined with the Chinese governments open repression against Falun Gong members. Despite the lies of CNN, however, none of the Chinese governments repression against the Falun Gong includes the death penalty. Instead, arrested Falun Gong cult members are treated like drug attics and subjected to reeducation. Whatever criticisms one may level against these policies, this reality diverges sharply from western media claims of 100,000 people being executed for Falun Gong beliefs a year and their organs being harvested for profit.Actual executions do occur in China and there has been a practice, at least in the past, of harvesting organs of the condemned to save the lives of people in need of organs. The Cornell Law School based research and advocacy group Death Penalty Worldwide estimated that there were 2,400 executions in China in 2014. Thats only 2.4% of the numbers claimed in the CNN article, and none were executed for being Falun Gong. The practice of harvesting organs from the condemned has saved lives, but a number of ethical questions tied to the practice have caused people to put pressure on China to end it. The Chinese government responded in 2014 with promises to phase out the practice of using organs from condemned prisoners and to take private interests out of the organ trade. While ethical questions can and should be raised both about the death penalty and harvesting organs of the condemned, practicing Falun Gong is in no way a capital offense. Therefore, none of this even remotely resembles the mass executions of hundreds of thousands of innocent meditators being claimed by the Falun Gong and their western propagandists in the mainstream media.The report Bloody Harvest / The Slaughter, an Update presents as credible the Falun Gong story of the so-called Sujiatun Concentration Camp. The Falun Gong claim that the Chinese government carried out organ harvesting of their members at the so-called Sujiatun Concentration Camp. This is based on the testimony of Annie, a Falun Gong member who, according to the Falun Gong controlled website Epoch Times, was a site where her husband was a cerebral surgeon who removed corneas from victims. She claimed that large numbers of organs were being removed from victims at the site and sold in Thailand. Besides the extremely questionable nature of this source, the story itself is riddled with problems. For starters, why would a cerebral surgeon be removing corneas? Multiple inspections have also found that the Sujiatun site in question is simply a public hospital and is actually too small and primitive to carry out the kinds of operations Annie describes. In fact, it was due to this Epoch Times report that U.S. government officials toured the hospital and found no wrong doing. Furthermore, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and the U.S. Consulate General in Shenyang carried out two separate investigations which were the basis of a report released by the U.S. State Department that says that they "found no evidence that the site is being used for any function other than as a normal public hospital." A supposed crematorium for the mass disposal of organ harvested bodies was exposed as a normal boiler room with no such capabilities.Most of the claims made by Guttmann, Mattas, and Kilgour come directly from Falun Gong and the rest is just wild speculation. The discredited story told by Annie in the Epoch Times remains the bedrock of the horror stories being told by Guttmann, Mattas, and Kilgour. Guttmann has also come up with his own interviews of Falun Gong members who are former prisoners. Yet, despite the wild implications that Guttmann reads into these interviews, they really dont reveal anything. All that comes to light is that medical examinations were allegedly conducted on Falun Gong members that werent fully understood. To extrapolate from this that these examinations, even if they did happen, were carried out for the purpose of potentially removing these peoples organs at some future date qualifies more as a stretch of the imagination than actual evidence.Further speculation exists in the report that can only be seen as transparent fabrication based purely on conjecture. For instance, the report delves into the number of transplants in China and tries to use this as proof. Yet, everything in their conjecture is flawed. Yes, the US performs about 25,000 transplants per year. If all things were otherwise equal one could extrapolate from this that China, with a population approximately four times the U.S., would yield 100,000 transplants. Yet, all things are not equal. Chinese access to medical care is more limited than the United States due to Chinese market reforms that eliminated free universal access to socialized health care. So the situation of Chinese patients is similar to that of patients in India. In India only 2% of the 300,000 patients who need kidney and liver transplants receive them for a total of about 6,000 transplants. This would be similar to Chinese access, while populations of 1.3 billion Indians and 1.4 billion Chinese makes the Chinese governments estimate of about 10,000 transplants a year sound about right. Not only does the report fabricate a number of 100,000 transplants out of thin air, they then use that number to speculate that the discrepancy is the result of massive organ theft from political prisoners with absolutely no real evidence to back up the accusation.The only new piece of evidence found in the report are supposed phone calls to hospitals where people posing as potential transplant patients asked for Falun Gong organs. Supposedly these people got answers in the affirmative. Yet, everything about this smacks of potential fraud like the rightwing stings on Planned Parenthood and ACORN in the United States where edited footage was used to create the results intended. In this case, however, we have no real way of knowing that any of the alleged conversations were actually with any actual hospital staff. To understand the motives of these three authors in potentially creating these fabrications we can consider the regurgitated Falun Gong lies they have asked us to swallow combined with their absurd conjecture. This should be evidence enough of how dishonest these people are. Yet, delving into their backgrounds also shows these three authors to be paid agents of pro-war and pro-imperialist operations that have all the ear-marks of being front groups of the U.S. and Canadian governments. Their libelous work demonizing China then falls into a wider strategy of the U.S. government using a combination of anti-Chinese propaganda, capitalist economic engagement, multiple attempts to undermine Chinese international trade and investment, and military encirclement of China all as a combined means of undermining, confining, and destroying the remaining gains of the 1949 Chinese Revolution.CNN simply identifies Bloody Harvest / The Slaughter, an Update author Ethan Guttmann as a journalist. Yet, among his other credentials, Guttmann is a member of a think tank called the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). The FDD actively campaigns in favor of the so-called War on Terror, for the overthrow of Syrias government, advocated and designed the sanctions against Iran, and supports Israel while opposing Palestinian rights. Besides working for the FDD, Guttmann is also an advisor for the CIA, a journalist for the far right Wall Street Journal, and the author of "The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem (2014) and "Losing the New China: A Story of American Commerce, Desire and Betrayal" (2004).Guttmanns 2004 book Losing China is supposedly based on the three years he lived in China, but questions have been raised by at least one China observer in contact with this author of his actual acquaintance with Chinese culture. Apparently the book shows extreme ignorance that caused my contact to question the authenticity of all of the books claims. Anyway, on face value, Guttmanns book is filled with disappointments. Disappointments of traveling to China to make money and being confronted with mutual corruption coming from U.S. corporations and officials of the Chinese Communist Party. Disappointment that the Chinese socialist system hasn't been fully dismantled with market reforms. Disappointment that the U.S. company Cisco Systems aided in the Chinese governments repression against the Falun Gong. Disappointments that the Chinese people, rather than developing an admiration for the United States as they carried out market reforms, actually had strong anti-American feelings and were extremely angry at the U.S. bombing of Belgrade in 1999. That bombing, besides killing a lot of innocent people, targeted Yugoslavias industry and was a critical component of the U.S. governments strategy used to eliminate Yugoslavias socialist economy. Chinese anger at the U.S. for such a crime was, in reality, justified. Likewise, unlike Guttmanns fictional stories of the mass slaughter of innocents in China for organs, the U.S. bombing campaign of Belgrade produced a plethora of well documented innocent casualties.Guttmanns 2014 book The Slaughter is actually mostly about the source of his allegations, the Falun Gong. Interestingly enough he describes Falun Gong "as a set of exercises with a spiritual and ethical foundation" and states that the "Falun Gong, simply put, is a Buddhist revival movement." Obviously he is presenting the Falun Gong in a distorted manner that ignores the insanity and politically extremist views of the group in order to try to make the Falun Gongs charges seem more credible and to make his audience more sympathetic. Once again, it is another act of obvious dishonesty.CNN lists Bloody Harvest / The Slaughter, an Update co-author David Kilgour as a former Canadian lawmaker. That he was. He was a mainstream MP representing both the Liberal and Conservative parties at different times. Despite supposedly campaigning for human rights in China, he publicly abstained when given the opportunity to vote in favor of the right to same-sex-marriage in Canada, citing his religious convictions as his reason for opposing same-sex-marriage. He is also the co-chair of Friends of a Democratic Iran, an organization that backed the economic sanctions against Iran that hurt the civilian population. In addition, he is a director of the Council for a Community of Democracies, a Washington D.C. based organization established by Madelyn Albright in 1999 that openly interferes in countries like Cuba and Belarus in opposition to socialism. Madilyn Albright famously declared the price worth it when asked about U.S. economic sanctions against Iraq killing over half-a-million children. Kilgour has followed in her footsteps with his support of sanctions against Iran. For such ilk who can calmly support the massive loss of innocent children in pursuit of U.S. imperialist goals, surely the loss of the truth in pursuit of the U.S. propaganda goal of demonizing China would be no big deal.Groups like the Council for a Community of Democracies and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies are more than a little bit reminiscent of the many front groups the CIA has set up to fight against democracy, socialism, and freedom the world over. All of the names and activities of the organizations are reminiscent of the National Endowment for Democracy which is openly a CIA front funded by the U.S. government. The third author of Bloody Harvest / The Slaughter, an Update is no other than David Matas, who since 1997 was the director of the International Centre for Human Rights & Democratic Development, an organization directly funded by the Canadian government that repeatedly pretended to be a nongovernmental organization.CNN simply identifies David Matas as a human rights lawyer without mention of him being a paid agent of the Canadian government. Yet, far from supporting human rights, David Matas opposed the appointment of Professor Christine Chinkin onto the investigative board that would eventually produce the Goldman Report on the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza in 2008-2009. His argument against her was that she was biased due to stating previously that Hamas missiles, as bad as they were, could not be seen as a justification for Israel carrying out war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people. No authentic human rights lawyer would have any problem with Chinkins opposition to collective punishment against an entire people for the crimes of a few as Matas does. In reality, Matas has zero credentials as a supposed human rights lawyer and CNN should have, if they were being honest, instead identified him as a paid agent of the Canadian government.While it is impossible to prove a negative, all evidence suggests that Falun Gong members, while being jailed for their outlawed beliefs and political activities, are not being executed for their organs. Instead, these accusations are being promoted by radically racist, sexist, and homophobic religious extremists with no connection to reality. Those accusations have since been amplified by pro-war and pro-imperialist scoundrels in the west who are, at least in part, on government pay-rolls. And now, after many attempts to elevate these unsubstantiated claims to credibility, supposed news organizations like CNN and The Independent have now bitten into these obvious fabrications hook-line-and-sinker. There is something extremely sinister in the western medias devaluation of the most ancient continuous civilization in the world into a bunch of organ thieving ghouls. China is a country that has advanced rapidly through social revolution. Despite market reforms, a quarter of the economy remains socially owned and this includes some of the most critical sectors. As a result, the Chinese people enjoy rapid economic development and a system that has been able to greatly reduce its carbon footprint in a rapid manner in the past few years. Likewise, it is a country with a high literacy rate and advanced science and culture due in the large part to their communist revolution.The western medias dishonest portrayal of the Chinese carrying out a genocide to steal organs is, in fact, all part of a wider western propaganda ploy. This subterfuge is meant to justify all potential U.S. sponsored counterrevolution in China as well as to make legitimate the continuous economic and military escalations of the U.S. government against China through military encirclement, the TPP, the economic blockades of Nepal and North Korea, arming Vietnam, undermining Chinese defense by challenging Chinese control of Chinese islands, arming Taiwan, and carrying out joint military maneuvers with U.S., Japanese, and South Korean forces that at times even violate Chinese territory.While the genocide claimed by the Falun Gong is a myth, there are of course still major ethical problems with executions anywhere they are carried out, including China. Just as the U.S. government has executed many innocent people, including the racist legal lynching of Troy Davis and the executions of political dissidents like Sacco and Vanzetti, the Haymarket martyrs, and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, likewise a controversy has erupted in China over the execution of an innocent man. Huugjilt, an 18-year-old man, was executed in 1996 for the murder of a woman. It was later found that a different person, a serial rapist and murderer who confessed, had actually committed the crime for which Huugjilt was executed. In response, post-execution, Huugjilt was exonerated, twenty-seven officials were found guilty and punished for their mistakes in Huugjilts case, and his parents were paid 2 million yuan ($320,000) in compensation. Still, no exoneration or compensation can free Huugjilt from the grave.It is the finality of execution that makes the death penalty barbaric and usually unjustified. This author does make exceptions of its use by the people as a tool of revolutionary insurrection or by revolutionary governments during extreme situations like answering a counterrevolutionary war. Situations where revolutionaries dont always have the resources or ability to take prisoners. Yet, the Peoples Republic of China is a relatively stable country with no real excuse for its continued use of the death penalty, not even against alleged rapists and murders. In such cases, sentences of life in prison are far more appropriate because they can be, at least in part, reversed when mistakes are made. Of course nobody can give back time served, but at least an exonerated prisoner who is not dead can be set free.Still, regarding these punishments, China is different from the United States in several ways. Unlike the United States where the legal system and death penalty was born as a weapon of terror for the preservation of white supremacy and slavery and continues to protect only the wealthy, the Chinese legal system was born out of the abolition of capitalism, landlordism, and imperialist control throughout China as well as out of the abolition of chattel and feudal slavery in the most backward regions like Tibet and Uyghuristan. Despite some pretty big backsliding with market reforms, this is a legal system unlike the United States. While in the U.S. wealthy banksters and other capitalists generally get away with massive white collar crimes that rob working class people and cause deaths, these kinds of crimes can get one executed in China. For instance, Zheng Xiaoyu was executed in 2007 for accepting bribes that allowed unsafe drugs to make it to the public that killed people. In the U.S., this is simply standard operating procedure with no real punishment. Class action suits are filed, companies pay out to the victims far less than they made from the drug, and corrupt government officials continue to maintain lucrative connections with the companies they supposedly regulate. There is no question that a deterrent is attached to such a penalty for white collar crimes in China, but the potential for mistakes and abuse causes this author to advocate the abolition of the death penalty everywhere, including China. While I do defend the remaining gains of the Chinese revolution from imperialist attack and internal capitalist counterrevolution, I also consider the use of the death penalty to largely be a barbaric practice that the world and China would generally be better off without.Yet, criticizing the Chinese and U.S. governments for the actual executions they carry out is far different than a recent statement by U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) who declared the Chinese government's "ghoulish and inhumane practice of robbing individuals of their freedom, throwing them in labor camps or prisons, and then executing them and harvesting their organs for transplants is beyond the pale of comprehension and must be opposed universally and ended unconditionally."Her allegations come directly from Matas and Guttmann who testified before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on June 23rd. Their testimony can be seen as another act of modern atrocity propaganda similar to Nayirah al-Sabah who gave false testimony before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus on October 10, 1990 claiming that Saddam Hussein was killing little premature babies in Kuwait by stealing their incubators. At the time, the story was even corroborated by Amnesty International, but it was later revealed that the whole thing was simply a lie concocted by the Kuwaiti monarchy used to convince the American people of the humanitarian need to go to war against Iraq.While the Falun Gong are in fact imprisoned for their beliefs, they are not in reality executed for them. Nor is the Chinese government simply cracking down on a meditators, they are in fact cracking down on a western backed counterrevolutionary movement of the extreme right. During the almost daily Falun Gong demonstrations in Beijing in 2000, the imperialist mouth piece the Wall Street Journal declared with excitement on April 20th, 2000 that the Falun Gong faithful have mustered what is arguably the most sustained challenge to authority in 50 years of Communist rule.Some have compared this Falun Gong religious revivalist movement to the Boxer rebellion of 1900. It is an interesting comparison. Both Li Hongzhi and the Boxers believe(d) in the magical power of qigong exercises. The Boxers actually believed qigong could make them bullet proof. Yet, while the Falun Gong are a tool of western imperialism, the Boxer Rebellion was against the imperialist powers that were partitioning China. As Lenin wrote: the European governments have already started the partition of China They have begun to rob China as ghouls rob corpses and when the seeming corpse attempted to resist, they flung themselves upon it like savage beasts, burning down whole villages, shooting, bayoneting and drowning in the Amur River unarmed inhabitants, their wives and their children. And all these Christian exploits are accompanied by howls against the Chinese barbarians who dared to raise their hands against the civilized Europeans.Today, western propaganda continues to portray the Chinese as the most brutal of barbarians with the lie that China has executed 1.5 million people for their organs. Likewise, they are using the far right religious movement that first raised this false accusation as a force to help drive capitalist counterrevolution in China itself. While the Democrats and Republicans alike demonize China, the Chinese won their independence from imperialism in 1949 and China today has the right to defend itself from all internal and external counterrevolutionary forces. As Mao Tse-tung asked of the 1900 Boxer Rebellion:Was it the Boxers, organized by the Chinese people that went to stage rebellion in the Imperialist countries of Europe and America and in Imperialist Japan and 'commit murder and arson'? Or was it the Imperialist countries that invaded our country to oppress and exploit the Chinese people .... This is a major question of right and wrong which must be argued out.It is a duty to combat the dishonest Sinophobia that dominates mainstream political discourse in the west while opposing all imperialist intervention against China.-Steven Argue for the Revolutionary TendencyThe Revolutionary TendencyImperialist Hands Off China! This is an article of Liberation News, subscribe free: Update 8.00pm: The man who died following a Dublin city centre shooting has been named locally as 53-year-old David Douglas from Cabra. Gardai have said that he was shot up to four times in the head and chest. The victim survived a murder attempt last year when he was shot three times near his home. Gardai have recovered a handgun at the scene of the shooting. The gunman is believed to have left the scene in a silver/grey coloured Mercedes Benz CLA, registration number 161D26702. This car was driven by a second male and was the subject of an unauthorised taking from the Navan Road area on Thursday June 23 2016. An incident room has been established at Kevin Street Garda Station and a Garda Family Liaison Officer has been appointed in this case. Superintendent Patrick McMenamin, Kevin Street is appealing for witnesses or anyone with information, particularly those who may have been in the Bridgefoot Street/Thomas Street/James Street area between 4pm and 4.30pm this afternoon or who may have observed the silver/grey Mercedes Benz CLA between June 23 2016 and this afternoon prior to its arrival in the Bridgefoot Street area and subsequent discovery at Spitalfields, to contact Gardai at Kevin Street Garda Station on 01 6669400, The Garda Confidential Line, 1800 666111 or any Garda Station. Update 7.30pm: Gardai in Dublin have launched a murder investigation following the fatal shooting of a man in Dublin city centre. Superintendent Patrick Ceriman, has given a description of two men they believe were involved in the attack. "We believe there were at least two people involved, tall and thin is the only description we have at this stage. We are currently talking to witnesses and trying to establish a more definite description." Earlier: A man in his 50s has been critically injured in a shooting in Dublin city centre. It happened at 4.10pm on Bridgefoot Street when a male pedestrian was approached by a gunman and shot a number of times. It is understood one gunman was involved. He initially fled on foot. The injured man has been taken to St James' Hospital. Dublin Fire Brigade is also attending a burned out car around the corner from the scene. Bridgefoot Street is currently closed and gardai in Kevin Street are appealing for witnesses to contact them on 01-6669400, or on the Garda confidential line 1800-666-111. Editors note: President Muhammadu Buhari has been criticised for his lopsided appointment that has seen persons from the northern part of the country. In this opinion by Azuka Onwuka, he points out that a one-sided appointment is likely to create a crack in the country and make on region stronger than the other. Northern dominance With last weeks appointment of Mr Ibrahim Idris as the Acting Inspector-General of Police, President Muhammadu Buhari further made the headship of virtually all the military-cum-defence agencies and related agencies which wear uniform a Northern affair. It show the following: Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, North; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, North; Acting Inspector General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris, North; Minister of Defence, Brig Gen (retd) Mansur Dan Ali, North; National Security Adviser, Major Gen (retd.) Babagana Munguno, North; Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr Ibrahim Magu, North; Director-General, Department of State Services, Mr Lawal Daura, North; Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Col Hameed Ali (retd.), North; Comptroller-General, Nigerian Immigration Service, Mr Kure Abeshi, North; Controller-General, Nigerian Prisons Service, Alhaji Jaafaru Ahmed, North; Commandant-General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Mr Abdullahi Muhammadu, North; Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps, Brig Gen Sule Kazaure, North; Comptroller-General of the Federal Fire Service , Mr Garba Anebi, North. READ ALSO: Buhari, Osinbajo meet service chiefs over security If it is recalled that the Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Damazzau (retd.), under whose ministry are Prisons Service, Immigration Service, Fire Service and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, is also from the North, then the Ministry of the Interior with its agencies is virtually controlled by the North in clear breach of the Federal Character policy enshrined in the constitution. Buhari Furthermore, even though it was not Buhari that did it, yet for the first time in the history of Nigeria, all the three arms of government are headed by Northerners: Executive, President Muhammadu Buhari; Legisture, Dr Bukola Saraki; and Judiciary, Justice Mahmud Mohammed. In addition, the two arms of the legislature are headed by Northerners: Dr Bukola Saraki, Senate President, and Mr Yakubu Dogara, Speaker, House of Representatives. Currently, the three levels of the law courts are headed by Northerners: The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is Justice Mahmud Mohammed (North); the President of the Court of Appeal is Justice Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa (North); while the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court is Justice Ibrahim Auta (North). It should be recalled that in 2015, Buhari appointed Alhaji Abubakar Malami as the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, also from the North. Furthermore, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, which supervises the conduct of national and state elections, is also a Northerner: Prof. Mahmood Yakubu. The unwritten code used to be that the President of the country would appoint someone from a different zone (different language, different religion) as the INEC Chairman to give a sense of balance and increase the believability in the independence of INEC. That was why many people raised their voices when Buhari appointed Yakubu, who is from Bauchi State, just one state away from Buharis Katsina State, as the INEC boss; for even though Bauchi is grouped under the North-East, it is not seen as being culturally and religiously different from Katsina. It is like a President from the South-East appointing an Igbo from Delta State or Rivers State as INEC Chairman because Delta and Rivers are technically in the South-South, or a President from the South-West appointing a Yoruba from Kwara and Kogi as INEC Chairman on the grounds that Kwara and Kogi are in the North. The dangerous trend The argument of those who support this dangerous precedent is that what matters is getting those who are qualified and who will get the required results. But that argument is baseless. Statistics show that the North does not come close to the South in education and manpower. Year after year, statistics from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board show that any pair of Imo State and Delta or Imo State and Ogun or Imo State and Anambra produces more candidates than the 19 states of the North. State-by-state performance statistics in senior secondary school examination from NECO and WASSCE also show that no Northern state usually appears among the top 10 states. Admission into Unity Schools follows the same trend. That is why the least cut-off marks are given to Northern states. However, competent hands can be found in abundance from all zones and states of Nigeria. President Muhammadu Buhari In addition, if it does not matter where office holders come from, why didnt Buhari choose popular politicians like Kwankwaso, Atiku Abubakar, Nasiru el-Rufai or Aminu Tambuwal, all fellow Northerners, as his running mate? He knew that if he had done that, he would have lost the election, no matter how qualified, clean and popular he and his running mate were. These two points testify to the fact that Buhari benefited from zoning and balancing of offices. Furthermore, our constitution states that federal appointments must reflect federal character. Buhari has only reflected that in the appointment of ministers. In other appointments, he has disregarded that aspect of our constitution that he swore to uphold. READ ALSO: President Buhari receives Traditional Rulers in Nigeria (photos) What does the future hold? The danger in this is that in future, a Southern President may decide to do something worse than what Buhari is currently doing. If any part complains, they will be given ample evidence of how it was done in the past by Buhari and many people rationalised it. In addition, a diverse country like Nigeria needs the President to take actions and make statements that show that he treats all parts of the country equally. Much of the tension and crisis in the country today can be attributed to the obvious unfairness that Buhari has displayed in his one year in office. A President with an all-inclusive orientation would have won over the majority of those who did not even vote for him within his six months in office. But Buharis actions show that he does not care. He seems to say: You can say whatever you like or do whatever you like, it will not stop me from carrying on the way I like. One of the points those who opposed Buharis presidential ambition raised against him was that given his antecedents, he would not be fair to all Nigerians based on ethnicity and religion. By his actions and utterances, he has not proved that view wrong. This does not augur well for the unity, peace and progress of the nation. Even some Northern groups and personalities like Alhaji Balarabe Musa, a former Kaduna State governor; Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, Chairman of the Northern Elders Forum; and Dr Junaid Mohammed, Convener of the Coalition of Northern Politicians, academics, professionals and businessmen, who see the bigger picture and the inherent danger in this trend, have raised their voices against this trend by Buhari. As the President of Nigeria, Buhari is like the father of the nation. A father who loves his home and wants the peace and progress of that home avoids actions and utterances that will show he favours some children and create a gulf among his children. This opinion first appeared in The Punch. This article expresses the authors opinion only. The views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Legit.ng or its editors. Your own opinion articles are welcome at info@naij.com drop an email telling us what you want to write about and why. More details in Legit.ngs step-by-step guide for guest contributors. Were ready to trade your news for our money: submit news and photo reports from your area using our Citizen Journalism App. Contact us if you have any feedback, suggestions, complaints or compliments. We are also available on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to Legit.ng Opinion page! READ ALSO: How to easily check your WASSCE 2016 results online Source: Legit.ng Nigeria is a country blessed with diverse culture and traditions. The Fulani people of Nigeria are an ethnic group that has a large number of nomads amongst them. The rearing of cattle is the main profession of most Fulanis in Nigeria. The Igbo people, on the other hand, are a major ethnic group in Nigeria. They occupy the eastern parts of Nigeria. For a while now, there have been controversies over the two ethnic groups in Nigeria. Choosing which ethnic group has the most beautiful girls often degenerates into a heated debate. Fulani girls are usually tall and fair skinned; they are pretty ladies who need little or no makeup to enhance their facial features. Although what comes to peoples minds when they hear the term Fulani is the picture of some girl with long hair braided with thread and a calabash on her head selling Fura and Nunu. That is a rather primitive thought; the Fulani people have upgraded from what we used to know them to be. There are educated people amongst them and their girls also participate in beauty contests. READ ALSO: 7 things Nigerian single ladies do when in need of boyfriends Igbo ladies are everywhere; we had to deflect a bit in order to put the Fulani people on the same level before the comparison starts. We would be showing you some pictures of some Igbo and Fulani ladies; at the end, we expect that you would let us know which ethnic group has the most beautiful sets of girls. Remember they belong to one Nigeria. Find below some of the pictures of the Fulani and Igbo ladies: 1. Who would you go for? 2. Who is the most pretty? 3. Be the judge 4. Beautiful... 5. A typical Fulani lady in their traditional attire READ ALSO: 7 top reasons why Nigerian ladies miss out being married 6. An igbo lady 7. Stunning 8. Hmmmmm 9. Lovely... 10. And lastly... Source: Legit.ng Iowa State University researchers have described with single-molecule precision how copper ions cause prion proteins to misfold and seed the misfolding and clumping of nearby prion proteins. The researchers also found the copper-induced misfolding and clumping is associated with inflammation and damage to nerve cells in brain tissue from a mouse model. Prions are abnormal, pathogenic agents that are transmissible and induce abnormal folding of a specific type of protein called prion proteins, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prion proteins are mostly found in the brain. The abnormal folding of prion proteins leads to brain damage and symptoms of neurodegenerative disease. A similar cycle of neuronal protein misfolding and clumping is observed in other neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. "Our study establishes a direct link, at the molecular level, between copper exposure and prion protein neurotoxicity," the researchers wrote in a summary of the paper. The findings were published today in the journal Science Advances. The corresponding author is Sanjeevi Sivasankar, an Iowa State University associate professor of physics and astronomy; the first author is Chi-Fu Yen, an Iowa State doctoral student in electrical and computer engineering. Co-authors are Anumantha Kanthasamy, an Iowa State Clarence Hartley Covault Distinguished Professor in Veterinary Medicine, chair of biomedical sciences and director of the Iowa Center for Advanced Neurotoxicology; and Dilshan Harischandra, an Iowa State doctoral student in biomedical sciences. Grants from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health supported the project, including one from the Virtual Consortium for Transdisciplinary Environmental Research. advertisement Although this study determined that copper-induced misfolding and clumping of prion proteins is associated with the degeneration of nerve tissues, Sivasankar cautioned that the study does not directly address the infectivity of prion diseases. "There are different strains of misfolded prion proteins and not all of them are pathogenic," Sivasankar said. "Although we do not show that the strains generated in our experiments are infectious, we do prove that copper ions trigger misfolding of prion proteins which causes toxicity in nerve cells." The Sivasankar and Kanthasamy research groups plan to perform additional studies to determine if the copper-induced misfolding causes disease. Integrating approaches Sivasankar also noted that a unique aspect of this project was the integration of biophysical and neurotoxicological research approaches. He said the combination has the potential to transform studies of the molecular basis for neurodegenerative diseases. The biophysical approaches Sivasankar's team developed for this study include: A fluorescence-based technique that identified misfolded prion proteins with single-molecule sensitivity and determined the role of metal ions in misfolding. The researchers used this technique to show that misfolding begins when copper ions bind to the unstructured tail of the prion protein. A single-molecule atomic force microscopy assay that measured the efficiency of prion protein clumping. The researchers used this technique to show that misfolded prion proteins stick together nearly 900 times more efficiently than properly folded proteins. advertisement The Kanthasamy and Sivasankar research groups worked together on a real-time, quaking-induced conversion assay to demonstrate that misfolded prion proteins serve as seeds that trigger the misfolding and clumping of nearby prion proteins. Kanthasamy's research group also used its expertise in neurotoxicology to show the copper-induced, misfolded prion proteins damage nerve cells in slices of brain tissue from mice. Taken together, the results identify the biophysical conditions and mechanisms for copper-induced prion protein misfolding, clumping and neurotoxicity, the researchers wrote. "This was a very comprehensive study," Sivasankar said. "We took it from single molecules all the way to tissues." And, although the study doesn't address the infectious nature of prion diseases, Kanthasamy said it is still important: "This study has major implications to our understanding the role of metals in protein misfolding diseases including prion, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases." Friday, 01 July 2016 22:57:12 (GMT+3) | Sao Paulo Samarco, a 50/50 JV between BHP Billiton and Vale, has suffered a legal setback as the nations Superior Court of Justice suspended the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal to ratify a BRL 20 billion deal signed by Samarco and state and federal governments. According to BHP Billiton, the setback is a result of an appeal by federal prosecutors, which appealed the ratification of the terms of the agreement. In response to the prosecutors claims, Brazil s Superior Court of Justice issued an interim order suspending the deal on June 30, adding to the woes of Samarco and co-owners BHP and Vale. BHP Billiton said it intends to appeal the decision. Vale said it will continue complying with the deal, supporting the recovery of the communities and the environment affected by the Fundao dam disaster and will take all the legal measures to confirm the implementation of the deal. Later on Friday in a filing at the nations securities exchange commission, CVM, Vale said the decision by the Superior Court only suspends the legal homologation or official confirmation of the deal, not the deal itself. As a result of the courts decision, the BRL 20 billion civil claim by the countrys authorities against the Samarco was reinstated. Samarco, as well as co-owners Vale and BHB Billiton, agreed in March to settle a claim with periodic payments over a 15-year period. Brazil 's government forecast the cost of the deal to reach BRL 20 billion ($6.23 billion), however, the two shareholders anticipated the total cost could be significantly less. The deal was then ratified in May. Media reports noted that the reinstatement of the BRL 20 billion lawsuit has the potential to give strength to a separate BRL 155 billion lawsuit filed by federal prosecutors. Bangladesh forces clear Dhaka cafe and rescue hostages Bangladeshi troops say they have cleared a cafe in the capital Dhaka, where gunmen on Friday took at least 20 hostages, including foreigners. If a lawsuit against a northern Ontario childrens aid society is to be believed, the retirement of the societys executive director was an unorthodox affair. When Ernest Beck vacated the residence provided by the Tikinagan society in Sioux Lookout last summer, he took with him all the furnishings owned by Tikinagan, including beds, washer and dryer, fridge . . . couch, television set, tables and all the dishes, the lawsuit claims. Tikinagan Child and Family Services then paid him $15,000 for the move, even though the director presented only the moving expense quote rather than an original receipt of what had actually been paid to the moving company, claims John Harrington, Tikinagans former director of finance. Harrington ascertained later that the retiring director had moved on his own (without the moving company), and had pocketed the full sum of $15,000, the suit claims. The lawsuit, filed with Ontario Superior Court in Kenora, claims the alleged incidents are part of a climate of corruption and unethical conduct at the agency, whose $53-million budget is funded by the Ontario government. Harrington is suing the agency for what he calls severance pay and other benefits. He was terminated for cause last year after allegations that he sexually harassed two women at a Christmas party. In his lawsuit, Harrington claims he flagged the furniture and moving issues with the incoming executive director, Thelma Morris, who he alleges ordered that the $15,000 be paid and new furniture bought for the societys residence. The suit claims Beck got Tikinagan to buy a new company truck for his use in spring 2015. He retired in August and insisted he would only pay $30,000 to purchase that truck from Tikinagan, though the book value of that truck at that time exceeded $45,000, the suit claims. The allegations have not been proven in court, and Tikinagan firmly denies them. The agency adds in its statement of defence that all allegations of improper conduct are irrelevant to any matter arising from termination of (Harringtons) employment in addition to being spurious and vexatious. Alternately, they are denied in their entirety. The agency, which serves 30 First Nations in a large area north of Thunder Bay, has applied to have 28 paragraphs struck. All of them alleged financial wrongdoing, mismanagement and discrimination against Harrington, who describes himself as the only non-aboriginal in Tikinagans senior management during his time there. The motion will be heard Aug. 4. In terms of the allegations of financial impropriety, those were raised for the first time after Mr. Harrington had been terminated, Tikinagans lawyer, Paul Edwards, said by phone from his Winnipeg office. They were investigated by the agency in detail all of them and were found to be without merit in their entirety after quite an exhaustive internal process. The investigation was conducted by the agencys board of directors,, Edwards said. The Ministry of Children and Youth Services, which funds and regulates Ontarios child protection system, was advised of the allegations but was not part of the boards investigation, Edwards added. He noted Tikinagans books are audited by an independent firm every year. The suits allegations include the failure of employees to pay income taxes and Morris being kept off the sunshine list despite a salary of more than $100,000. Harrington, 46, added in a phone interview that he does not have documents that back up his allegations. Tikinagan had 578 children in care in June 2015. It had a $571,000 deficit in 2015 and more than a $3-million deficit in 2014. The Star emailed a list of the allegations to Morris and left phone messages. Edwards, who spoke for the agency, said Morris would not speak to the Star. The Star was unable to contact Beck. An email listing the allegations was sent to the still active address he had at Tikinagan. A registered letter was also sent to what the Star believes is his home in Thunder Bay. The Ontario Association of Childrens Aid Societies did not provide a contact number or email for Beck. Harrington, an accountant, was hired in 2010 and promoted to chief financial officer within a year. In May 2015, he signed a new contract that would give him 18 months salary plus benefits if at some point he resigned with 10 days notice. The suit claims Harrington insisted on the generous terms because discrimination had made his job intolerable. It claims Morris told him a white person should not be director of finance. In November 2015, two women, one a Tikinagan employee, accused Harrington of having sexually harassed them at a Christmas party 11 months earlier. On Dec. 10, Harrington notified Tikinagan he would resign 10 days later. On Dec. 18, after a report into the harassment allegations by an independent investigator, Harrington was terminated for cause, according to Tikinagan. In its statement of defence, Tikinagan claims the investigator concluded the plaintiffs behaviour had been intimidating, humiliating and offensive and that his own manipulation delayed any complaints from being filed. Harrington calls that investigation fundamentally flawed and says the allegations were bogus or exaggerated. His lawsuit seeks $215,647, for 18 months salary and benefits he was to receive under the resignation provisions of his contract, plus damages for mental anguish. SHARE: OTTAWAThe growing popularity of programs that protect online privacy is creating a barrier for police and security agencies ability to intercept and use data, documents obtained by the Star suggest. Public Safety officials warned Minister Ralph Goodale in November that encryption the ability to mask communications so only the intended recipients can makes sense of the message is hindering their ability to use online communications in investigations. Canadians are increasingly using mobile phone networks, the Internet, and other electronic means to communicate and execute transactions with each other, the documents, heavily censored and stamped secret, read. This has led to a significant gap between the technologies available for criminal exploitation and our means to enforce Canadas laws and keep Canadians safe. Once a fringe set of complicated tools, encryption technology has become more and more mainstream, particularly after the disclosures of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Journalists use encrypted emails to protect sources, businesses use encryption to protect their customers transactions, and governments use encryption to try and protect sensitive information. Because a number of companies have moved to encryption by default, plenty of Canadians are using encrypted messaging without even knowing it. If youve sent a text on your iPhone, youve used encryption. Despite perfectly legal and appropriate uses, however, law enforcement has generally focused the encryption debate on the perceived advantages the technology gives to criminals to plot or cover their tracks. The Star requested an interview with Goodale to discuss these issues, but the minister was unavailable over the past two weeks. His office noted that the minister recently addressed the encryption debate in a speech at the University of Regina. We need a thoughtful discussion about the legal framework that applies to new technologies. On the issue of encryption, for example, is absolute privacy the only public good that needs to be safeguarded, or is there a point at which criminal or terrorist investigations should be properly and lawfully assisted? the ministers prepared remarks read. And if so, where? Officials also flagged a number of other issues to Goodale in the documents, including data retention. Canada does not have an overarching law that requires companies to retain data for a certain period, meaning evidence sought by police could already be gone by the time they get around to asking for it. The fact that many companies keep their data on foreign servers presents jurisdictional challenges. And a recent Supreme Court decision requiring police to obtain a warrant for users basic subscriber information things like address, Internet Protocol address, or phone numbers have led to police complaints about increased paperwork. The issues outlined above are multi-faceted and inherently complex, the documents note. While it is possible to consider each issue separately, any solution would need to look to all issues collectively. . . To date, some work has been done to develop and advance solutions to address the issues highlighted above, however certain solutions are much more advanced than others. Christopher Parsons, a researcher with Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, suggested that theres little the government can do to prevent encryption in an age where every iPhone or WhatsApp message provides a high level of security. I think that really where the government has to explain things is, (for one) how could it possibly compel third parties who operate outside of the country and have invested so much on privacy and security, what are they going to do? I guess they can try to block Apple and iMessage, but thats not going to work, Parsons said in an interview Friday. And, moreover, people are gaining an appreciation slowly what encryption means. So it means that if youre using (messaging client) WhatsApp, its actually pretty secure now to send your credit card information. . . You can send a password securely. These arent bad things. Parsons also questioned framing the encryption debate around criminals and terrorists, rather than ordinary folks trying to protect their privacy. The majority of communications that are conducted using encryption are going to be fully lawful. So that means that theres an immediate proportionality issue, Parsons said. When we start framing things as we need access to the content to catch the bad guys, it really depends on what were trying to do. . . Im inherently suspicious. SHARE: Toronto police are looking for more witnesses in their investigation to find armed suspects who killed two men at a Kensington Market after-hours club on Canada Day. Two to three armed male suspects are believed to have fled on foot, but police have not confirmed any descriptions and want to speak to anyone who left the scene before speaking to investigators. At least 30 people were in the club when multiple shots rang out in the space just above Thymeless bar at 355 College St., just west of Spadina Ave., police told the Star. Friends identified the victims as former pro skateboarder Justin Bokma, 42, and 41-year-old bartender LeFranc Frank Matthews, both of Toronto. Police confirmed the victims identities Saturday, and added that two men aged 34 and 45 made their own way to hospital after sustaining injuries from the shooting. The injuries are non-life-threatening. Bokma was pronounced dead at the scene. Friends call him a kind, funny, and charming guy was also well-known in Torontos skate boarding community. The second victim, Matthews, leaves behind two children; a former co-worker and friend described him as one of the funniest, most intelligent people I have ever known. Police said they are looking at surveillance video to confirm the direction in which the suspects fled, if a vehicle was involved, or how many guns were used. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-7400, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477). SHARE: Friday was a very special day for Rakan Almasri. Not only was he spending Canada Day with his family, but it was his first Canada Day ever in his new home. Now Canada is our home. Its in our heart. Almasri, who arrived in Canada in November 2015, was one of about 200 Syrian refugees who were invited to attend a Canada Day celebration outside the Baitul Islam Mosque in Vaughan on Friday afternoon. The event was organized by the local branch of international Islamic organization Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama, which has been assisting Syrian refugees with settling in and around Vaughan. Hundreds of worshippers who had just finished Friday prayers at the mosque flooded out of the building to the tents sent up in front, braving stormy-looking skies and fierce winds to watch a flag raising, a singing of O Canada by a childrens choir and listen to speeches from local politicians, including Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua and Ontarios Minister of Transportation, Steven Del Duca, as well as Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama national leader Lal Khan Malik. In his speech, Bevilacqua praised the local community and Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama for its leadership in helping bring Syrian refugees to Canada and getting them settled in their new home. You do things without much fanfare. . . You just get it done. What you do is what is right and what is just, Bevilacqua said. You are a community that is exceptional. Bevilacqua also noted that this July 1 held even greater meaning than usual. Not only did the day mark Canadas 149th birthday, but also 25 years since Vaughan was incorporated as a city and 50 years since Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama was established in Canada. Dr. Aslam Daud, the chairman of humanitarian aid organization Humanity First that helped bring dozens of Syrian refugees to Canada last year, said the day was the perfect reward for all the work Humanity First has done. Its a win for us and a win that weve been able to bring them to peace and safety, and now theyre going to be a part of Canadian culture and the Canadian fabric, Daud said. The day also held special meaning for the Muslim community in attendance. Fridays are considered the holiest day of the week for Muslims, and this was the last Friday in the holy month of Ramadan. For the refugees, who were all given Canadian flags and Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama 50-year-anniversary pins after the ceremony, it offered time to reflect and celebrate how far theyve come. Suha Kalbouneh and her husband, Mutaz Alkazak, fled their home in Damascus in 2013, staying in Ghana for three years before finally arriving in Canada in February. Kalbouneh said she was so happy to attend the Canada Day celebration, explaining that an event of its kind would be impossible to hold in Syria. Canada is very (free). You can do what you want and people all live together Muslim, non-Muslim, Christian they all laugh together, they are sitting together, Kalbouneh said. You see, Syria before the war, we were also like that, right? But after the war came it became so hard to live. Muslims killed each other. Every problem is now in Syria, but Alhamdulillah (praise be to God), here you can live without any problems. Alkazak, who is now working as an Arabic teacher, agreed. I find people here in Canada are very nice, very good people. You can find everything. . . This is good country, Alkazak said. Its very, very nice day. We all love Canada and I love Canada. For Eaman Almasri, Rakans daughter, the celebration helped solidify her new future in Canada. She admitted that, at first, the weather and language barrier were hard to deal with, but after studying English for two semesters in high school and the arrival of summer, she is happy and excited for whats to come. I feel a very good feeling, because Canada will be our new home. And as we loved home like Syria, we will be loving Canada also. Read more about: SHARE: Charlies Angels body-rub parlour was a one-stop love shop that neighboured my former arcade on the 1970s Yonge strip. According to a sign at their door, much happiness depended on the place, but that is like saying youve got The Best Burgers in Town, its ultimately up to your crowds discretion. When they ended up razing the place to build the new mall, that sign bled rust and irony in the shadow of the sex killing of a 12-year-old shoeshine boy, Emanuel Jaques. Related:Facts and photos from the real shoeshine boy murder case The day it happened was like a handful of others: regular workings. Piles of people up and down the street, in and out the shops. Some kids coming in to waste their parents money, others out earning their own. That kid Jaques was one of the latter. Never really knew him the way I did some of the brats who used to come in the arcade, sweating their reputations and rotten attitudes. Nah, that kid worked. Hell, most days he made me look bad sitting there doling out change. Guy I knew who used to work the corners by the blinking and seedy shops at Dundas Mansie was his name hed always be telling me what a sweetheart the kid was. How he could shine shoes so damn well any sergeant with sight would ship the kid right on through basic training based on that fact alone. He did more than shine shoes too. Lots of those shoeshine boys out there were from Europe and that area, eh? And apparently Jaques and his family booted it over here on a boat from Portugal so the kid knew what work ethic and dollar amounts meant to a good life. Hed always be out there plugging away doing whatever to replace that pretty penny his parents paid for their North American life. So when the guys at Charlies offered Jaques that 30 bucks, I understand why he jumped at the opportunity. Jumped right into the jaws of cruelty, unfortunately. Condemned to the darkness of a back room at Charlies, never to shine again, rather fade to ash beneath a pile of boards atop that same body-rub parlour. Ill tell ya, the days after, as the cops proceeded to investigate Jaquess death, were feverish. Sweating it out in the July sun while your guts are cold as steel in January. The masses that used to peer south on Yonge towards Dundas always looked like they felt something was horribly wrong. Maybe they just didnt like seeing guys like Mansie mingling out there with shoeshine boys, working the same streets, or maybe they knew something we all chose to fold up and ignore in order to simply keep working. See, back then the Sin Strip, as they liked to call it, was like a peacock on fire: flamboyant, raging, admittedly exhilarating. But when Jaques disappeared it set in that a life, or maybe even many lives, were on the line, so the spectacle flopped instead of flourished. But you know, what really gets me is those guys down there running the rub-and-tugs couldnt even be bothered to take one day off. I mean, I didnt even bump into Mansie for a week or two after and when I did the guy was broken and fearing for his life because the world was thinking each and every gay man was either named Betesh or Kribs or Woods or Gruener. They were used to getting hassled, boy, Ill tell you that. But it was never so bad. Thing is, nobody likes losing kids. Picturing a pair of brilliant eyes draining like misfired pinballs. We all lost big on a jackpot with Jaques. Its a shame, you know, I never even had shoes worthy of a shine job, especially not from Jaques. Imagine, to be able to peer into a mirror of black patent leather and see a picture of pure potential smiling back at ya? Its enough to make you wanna close up shop. dalton derkson is a poet from the Canadian prairies, currently residing in Toronto. He runs Hurtin Crue Press and writes poems for people. Recent publications include bywords.ca, (parenthetical) and numerous DIY chapbooks. Find him on Twitter @dirtyderk. More on thestar.com: The Slaughterhouse Eight: based on the true story of the Bandidos massacre Desserts and a deadly night: based on the true story of the Just Desserts Murder A case for Sherlock: based on the true story of a Parkdale mystery The case that went cold: based on the true story of Sharin Morningstar Keenans disappearance Bewitched or bewitching: based on the true story of Grace Marks Sex, money and betrayal: based on the true story of Mississauga killer Peter Demeter Beautiful Monster: Based on the true story of the Torso Murder SHARE: STEWARTSTOWN, PA.The family of an American woman reported missing in Afghanistan in 2012 with her Canadian husband said they got a letter from their daughter in the last year, and they pleaded for mercy from the couples captors. Caitlan Coleman and Joshua Boyle lost touch with their families while travelling in a mountainous region near the Afghan capital, Kabul. Her parents, Jim and Lyn Coleman, told online news service Circa News that they received a letter from her in November 2015. It will be four years this July 4 on Monday that Caitlans family last saw her and her husband. I pray to hear from you again, to hear how everybody is doing, the letter said. Addressing Caitlan Colemans younger sister Claire directly, the letter continued, Give my love to each member of the family, and share this letter with everyone. Claire, as silly as it sounds, I wish you were here with me. Mom, Id love to hear about all your cooking in delicious detail. Caitlan Coleman also wrote shed given birth to a second child in captivity. It was the first communication from her since her parents received two videos in 2013 in which the missing couple asked the U.S. government to free them from the Taliban. The couple set off in the summer of 2012 for a journey that took them to Russia, the central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and then to Afghanistan. The Colemans last heard from their son-in-law on Oct. 8, 2012, from an Internet cafe in what Josh described as an unsafe part of Afghanistan. Speaking to Circa News from their Pennsylvania home, Jim Coleman issued a direct plea to top Taliban commanders to let the couple go and to be kind and merciful as the holy month of Ramadan draws to a close. As a man, father and now grandfather, I am asking you to show mercy and release my daughter, her husband, and our beautiful grandchildren, Jim Coleman said. Please grant them an opportunity to continue their lives with us, and bring peace to their families. Lyn Coleman told Circa News: I really need to see my grandsons. I imagine them all the time, I imagine them and Caity all the time. . . Every day is so hard, every day is so hard to get through. Read more about: SHARE: DHAKA, BANGLADESH The hostages were given a test: recite verses from the Quran, or be punished, according to a witness. Those who passed were allowed to eat. Those who failed were slain. The dramatic, 10-hour hostage crisis that gripped Bangladeshs diplomatic zone ended Saturday morning with at least 28 dead, including six of the attackers, as commandos raided the popular restaurant where heavily armed attackers were holding dozens of foreigners and Bangladeshis prisoner while hurling bombs and engaging in a gun battle with security forces. The victims included 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, and two Bangladeshi police officers. The attack marks an escalation in militant violence that has hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation with increasing frequency in recent months, with the extremists demanding the secular government revert to Islamic rule. Most previous attacks have involved machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities. But Friday night's attack was different, more co-ordinated, with the attackers brandishing assault rifles as they shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) and stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area while dozens of foreigners and Bangladeshis were dining out during the Ramadan holy month. The gunmen, initially firing blanks, ordered restaurant workers to switch off the lights, and they draped black cloths over closed-circuit cameras, according to a survivor, who spoke with local TV channel ATN News. He and others, including kitchen staff, managed to escape by running to the rooftop or out the back door. But about 35 were trapped inside, their fate depending on whether they could prove themselves to be Muslims, according to the father of a Bangladeshi businessman who was rescued Saturday morning along with his family. "The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Quran," the Islamic holy book, according to Rezaul Karim, describing what his son, Hasnat, had witnessed inside. "Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night." The others, he said, "were tortured." Detectives were questioning his son and his family along with other survivors as part of the investigation on Saturday, as scattered details of the siege emerged. Authorities were also interrogating one of the attackers captured by commandos in dramatic morning rescue. It was not immediately clear whether the attackers had a specific goal, and Bangladesh authorities would not say if they had made any demands. Daesh, also known as ISIS or the Islamic State group, claimed responsibility, saying it targeted the citizens of "Crusader countries" in the attack, warning that citizens of such countries would not be safe "as long as their warplanes kill Muslims." The statement was circulated Friday by Daesh supporters on the Telegram messaging service and resembled previous statements by Daesh. It was not immediately clear if its leadership in Syria and Iraq was involved in planning the attack. The Amaq news agency, affiliated with Daesh, also posted photos purportedly showing hostages' bodies, though the authenticity of the images could not be confirmed. The government did not directly comment on the Daesh claim but has denied in the past that the extremist group has a presence in Bangladesh. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina instead has accused her political enemies of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilize the nation which the opposition denies. On Saturday, Amaq published photos of five smiling young men each holding what appear to be assault rifles and posing in front of a black Daesh flags whom the agency identified as the attackers, according to the SITE Intelligence Service, which monitors jihadi online activity. They were identified by noms de guerre indicating they were all Bangladeshis. Amaq said the fighters used "knives, cleavers, assault rifles and hand grenades." Amaq said the attackers "verified" the identities of the hostages, sparing the Muslims and killing the foreigners. The 20 hostages killed included nine Italians, seven Japanese, three Bangladeshis and one Indian, government sources said, as details of the bloodshed began trickling from other capitals worldwide. The White House confirmed Saturday that a U.S. citizen was among the hostages killed, but did not release any further identification. "All the hostages were killed last night. The terrorists used sharp weapons to kill them brutally," said Brig. Gen. Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury of the Army Headquarters in a news conference Saturday night. Two Bangladeshi police officers also died from injuries sustained while exchanging gunfire with the attackers Friday night. Italian President Sergio Mattarella cut short a visit to Latin America because of the massacre, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. Italy's soccer players wore black armbands in a sign of mourning during Saturday's European Championship quarter-finals match against Germany. A Roman Catholic priest in southern Italy, whose 33-year-old sister Simona Monti, a textile firm employee, was killed in the attack expressed hope that her death could contribute toward making a more just world. Rev. Luca Monti said he hopes "this experience of martyrdom for my family and the blood of my sister Simona can help contribute to building a more just and brotherly world." In New Delhi, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said she was "extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka." Eighteen-year-old Tarushi Jain had been on holiday from her studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She was in Dhaka visiting her father, who has run a garment business in the country for the past 15 or 20 years, according to Indian government sources, who were not authorized to speak with media and so requested anonymity. But another Indian citizen, a doctor who spoke Bengali and could pass himself as a Bangladeshi, was released unharmed, a government source said. A Bangladeshi woman Ishrat Akhond was also among the dead. She had been holding a dinner meeting with Italian businessmen when she was killed in the siege, according to three of her friends who did want to be named for fear of reprisal. One told the AP, "she was such a loving person, such a good friend." Others posted photographs and messages of disbelief and condolences on her Facebook page. Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, said two of its students were killed in the attack: Abinta Kabir, of Miami, Florida, a sophomore at the school's Oxford, Georgia, campus who was visiting family and friends in Bangladesh, and Faraaz Hossain, of Dhaka, a junior at the university's Goizueta Business School. Ten of 26 people who were wounded Friday night when the militants opened fire were in critical condition, and six were on life support, according to hospital staff. The injuries ranged from broken bones to gunshot wounds. Most of them were police officers, but one was a civilian. Hospital staff refused to provide any details of their condition on Saturday. Two foreign chefs working in the kitchen, Argentine Diego Rossini and Italian Jacopo Bioni, described to media in their countries how they made a dramatic escape during the initial attack by rushing to the rooftop terrace and then jumping down two stories onto a nearby building as the attackers chased them, firing their weapons and hurling grenades. "They were very well prepared with bombs, guns, machine-guns, it was horrible", Rossini said in an interview with Argentine TV newscast C5N. "I still can't believe this happened, it was like a movie, they pointed with their guns to me and I could hear shots passing by. I was very, very afraid, like never before in my whole life ... It was one of the worst moments of my life." Another Italian, businessman Gianni Boschetti, was dining with his wife but had just stepped into the restaurant garden to take a phone call when the attack began. Italian state TV said Boschetti threw himself into some bushes and escaped. His sister-in-law, Patrizia D'Antona, told Italian state TV that he "wandered all night" from hospital to hospital in hopes of finding his wife, 56-year-old Claudia Maria D'Antona. She was later identified as among the nine Italians found slain in the restaurant In the end, paramilitary troops managed to rescue 13 hostages, including one Argentine, two Sri Lankans and two Bangladeshis, according to Lt. Col. Tuhin Mohammad Masud, commander of the Rapid Action Battalion that conducted the rescue operations. Japan's government said one Japanese hostage was also rescued with a gunshot wound. The commandos launched the morning rescue operation after the attackers did not respond to calls for negotiation, Masud said. As the troops, wearing flak jackets and helmets and armed with automatic weapons, moved in on the restaurant at 7:40 a.m., local TV stations reported the sound of gunfire and explosions. At least seven armoured vehicles and ambulances stood by. The commandos killed six of the attackers and recovered explosive devices and sharp weapons from the scene, said Chowdhury of the Army Headquarters. "Because of the effort of the joint force, the terrorists could not flee," the prime minister said in a nationally televised speech, vowing to fight militant attacks in the country and urged people to come forward. The audacious attack came during Ramadan, when devout Muslims fast during the day and eat after dark. Many left the city of more than 10 million people for a nine-day public holiday with families to celebrate Eid al Fitr festival with families. "Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such an act," Hasina, the prime minister, said. "They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism." She announced two days of national mourning for the dead. SHARE: DALLASAfter a nine-month stay in Qatar, Ahmed Mohamed returned to Texas this week with a deeper appreciation for his religion and a thicker skin. Hes no longer surprised when people recognize him since his arrest at Irvings MacArthur High School in September, when a homemade clock he brought to school was mistaken for a bomb. It wasnt until family members in Africa reached out that he realized his arrest made news not only in Texas, but across the world. After photos of Ahmed in handcuffs went viral, a national uproar began about the treatment of Muslims in the U.S. and made him think about how he could use the incident to teach others. I want to help change Texas for a better state and I hope that not just for Texas, but the entire world, Ahmed said this week from Irving, where hes returned for the summer. People sometimes dont want to admit their mistakes, and sometimes the best thing to do is to help them change. The amount of support he received through social media surprised him, Ahmed said. He has received hateful comments as well, but he tries not to let negativity faze him. Online threats have made him nervous, and the rest of his family tries to stay out of the spotlight, he said. While hes in the U.S., he plans to take up invitations to visit well-known companies that followed in the wake of his arrest, even if he gets some negative attention along the way. He will get a chance to thank some social media giants in person later this summer when he visits Facebook and Twitter headquarters. He has an offer for an internship at Twitter. He said the first question he plans to ask is, How did you start? Seeing where theyre at now, they inspire me a lot because they always show how a small weekend project can turn into something big, Ahmed said. These days, Ahmed said if he sees a negative comment on social media he brushes it off. Its very difficult for me to read it, so I just ignore it and I just walk past it, Ahmed said. Sometimes it gets to me, but I just choose to not let it get to me. Ahmeds father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, said he was happy to see a wide spectrum of support with the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed. He said the negativity is just one of lifes tests for his son. You cant get honey without the sting of the bee, Mohamed said. That is why God changed everything to tell him that the road is open for you, so show us your invention. Show us because we know what you are going through. If he could change anything, Ahmed would have taken his clock to the White House when he met President Barack Obama in October, he said. It was amazing and when I met him he was a very kind guy, Ahmed said. It will be sad not to see him in office in a few months. Ahmed knows what he wants to accomplish next: finish school in Qatar, attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and double-major in physics and electrical engineering. The biggest difference in education between Irving and Qatar is the pace of learning, he said. In Qatar, each topic is covered in six weeks, such as biology first and then chemistry. Qatars education incorporates learning the Quran and the history of Islam, which Ahmed said he enjoyed. He also visited Mecca, Islams holiest city, in Saudi Arabia with his family. I felt good being able to learn my religion because it wasnt an opportunity I had here in the U.S., Ahmed said, citing costs and difficulty finding a private teacher. It was easier because your religion was basically embedded inside the country. He missed family and friends in Texas and also the diversity of America in the people and the landscapes, he said. Ahmed recalled road trips to Florida where hed see different types of geography, while Qatar is mostly desert. America is very diverse, and I see theres many cultures that are widespread around the nation, Ahmed said. Over there its a Muslim country. His travels have sparked an interest in helping the world through technology, such as helping people in hard-to-reach places get medicine and electricity. Theres a lot of trouble going on around the world right now, Ahmed said. They dont have the same amount of tools that we have, so their life span might be different. His next goal is to patent his inventions involving electricity and friction. I just want to invent, Ahmed said. I want to help the world a lot and it would be amazing to see my creations in action. SHARE: Dont be surprised if Brexit never happens. That astonishing thought became more than possible this week as Britains political battleground descended into treachery and farce. In a chaotic response to the slim referendum vote to pull Britain out of the European Union, Londons Palace of Westminster was littered with the victims of political backstabbing and intrigue. On top of the pile was Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London who led Britains campaign to leave the EU and was regarded as the front-runner to succeed Prime Minister David Cameron. He stunned the nation Thursday morning by announcing that, no, he wouldnt be running to become prime minister. Johnson, who studied classics at Oxford University and once argued that studying Greek and Latin would keep young people off the streets, became the centre of his own personal Greek drama. In an act of treachery, his close colleague, Michael Gove, withdrew his support of Johnson at the last minute, saying that he now felt Boris cannot provide the leadership. Gove announced he would run for the top job instead. This has set up an unpredictable race for Camerons job. Goves strongest opponent is Theresa May, the home secretary, who was a low-key supporter of the Remain side during the referendum campaign. As if this wasnt enough, Britains opposition Labour party is also in tatters. Its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, under attack for his lacklustre support of the pro-Europe side in the referendum, received an overwhelming vote of non-confidence from Labour MPs. The pressure on him to resign is building. So thats where politics stand in Merrie Olde England, barely a week after the historic referendum on Europe. The final vote by a narrow 52-48 margin was to leave the EU, but there is increasing doubt about when this will take effect. In the modern history of Britain, the events in this past week have been particularly momentous. But at weeks end, there are three scenarios that are beginning to take shape. First, there is no certainty that Brexit the U.K.s withdrawal from the EU will actually ever happen. Second, the idea of a 50-per-cent-plus-one referendum deciding such colossal issues in the life of a nation is increasingly being discredited. And third, it will likely take another election to even begin to restore the credibility of the Britains floundering and self-absorbed political and media elites. In spite of the shock of the referendum result, the countrys politicians have asserted that the vote is not reversible. But, in fact, it is. Referendums such as this one are advisory to the government; they are not binding. In order to leave the EU, the British government needs to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, and indications are that this wont happen before the end of this year. Then, and only then, do negotiations begin for a two-year period. And there is a history in the EU of second referendums. Voters in Denmark and Ireland, for example, initially rejected EU treaties before subsequently electing to adopt modified arrangements. The longer the wait, the more damage there will be to the U.K. economy, raising the real prospect of buyers remorse. The fact is that the Leave campaign led by Johnson and Gove consistently lied in a campaign that was a victory of demagoguery over democracy. But already, in terms of an economic backlash, there are signs that the biggest losers will be many of the working class people who voted to leave. In the days since the vote, there has also been more criticism about the referendum process. On an issue with such historic meaning in this case possibly the dissolution of both the United Kingdom and the European Union why would the government allow the margin of victory to be as tight as 50 per cent plus one? One of the campaign leaders implied that last May, when he said there should be a second referendum if the margin turned out to be as close as 52-48 which, in the end, it was. But this was Nigel Farage speaking, head of the racist UKIP party and a leader of the Leave campaign. He meant there should be a second referendum if the Remain side won by this margin. Farage doesnt think that anymore. If you need any more signs that Britains current body politic is terminally ill, that is it. Tony Burman, former head of CBC News and Al Jazeera English, teaches journalism at Ryerson University. Reach him @TonyBurman or at tony.burman@gmail.com . Read more about: SHARE: Re: Brexit a bold, perilous stab at de-globalization, June 27 Re: U.K. rejected one of mans greatest achievements, Opinion June 28 The outcome of the Brexit vote has displayed the true power of the new wave of nationalism that is sweeping across the Western world. Dissatisfaction with the idea of a global or regional community that, since the conclusion of World War II, saw nations working together to ensure not only mutual defence, but also economic and social benefits, has become a reality. The backlash against this ideology has been the new wave of nationalism that has risen in the last several decades and has been predominantly right-leaning. It is a knee-jerk reaction toward what they see as the end of the majority rule and power in their countries. This is why their focus is upon creating others, whether they are immigrants from Mexico or Europeans or Syrian refugees. These others are not like us and bring change that threatens status quo of power. While each nation (England, the U.S., France, Austria, Canada, just to name a few) has unique circumstances that will dictate how each react to the perceived threat of the other, they are all invoking a new nationalism to protect the majority rule that threatens to tear the decades of co-operation and peace apart. These nationalists seek to preserve the structure of a society that is shifting under their feet, and their socialist policies will appease many. However, the last time nationalism and socialism were put together, we were given a six years of war and a body count of over 60 million. Bryan McClure, Toronto Hitler wins! The British have withdrawn from Europe and now Germany is the undisputed fiscal, political and military power ruling the continent. I can hear the beguiling strains of Deutschland, Deutschland Uber Alles playing in the background already. But Angela Merkel looks terrible in a uniform, so its time for the National Democratic Party of Germany to come to the forefront. Lets see, President Donald Trump in the U.S., maybe the UK Independence Partys Nigel Farage in power in England, Scotland separating to join the EU, Marine Le Pen winning in France, fascists already in power in Poland, Vladimir Putin prowling his western front, licking his lips in anticipation of feasting on former satellite states. To borrow from Prince, lets party like its 1939. Nestor Repetski, Toronto The little guy has spoken. Loudly. Brits voted to leave the EU because the Big Guys wouldnt listen. High unemployment. A dearth of living wage jobs. Continued immigration while those already there could not be taken care of. Sound familiar? It should. We are living same here in Canada as a result of free trade. Free trade agreements are never negotiated to benefit average working Canadians. They are negotiated to enable Big Business to incur massive profit at the expense of honest average Canadians by outsourcing Canadian jobs to sweatshop countries overseas and selling their goods at obscene markup pricing to those they have put out of work. And I am not against immigration, but those already here and in need must be looked after before bringing more people in. That is not discriminatory. It is just good common sense. Canadians need to watch Britains exit from the EU closely. And if it is successful we need to send our politicians and Big Business leaders same message. Keep us happy. Make free trade work for the majority of Canadians or suffer the consequences. British leaders just did. Rick Lockman, Orillia Brexit a bold, perilous stab at de-globalization, June 27 There are times when a columnist captures the truth of a matter in a few articulately crafted words. Thomas Walkom has, to my mind, done so in this column. Walkom wrote: Global integration may serve that abstraction known as the economy. But it doesnt always help real, flesh-and-blood people. The well-documented and growing abyss between the seriously affluent and everyday people in societies around the world is tangible evidence of this. This division has been the result of deliberate decisions made by an economic and political elite who focus on an ideology of meeting their perceived needs of the economy, rather than serving the people of the world. The Brexit vote may be another bit of evidence that flesh-and-blood people are coming to the conclusion that the system is rigged against them, for the benefit of the 1 per cent. World-wide protests against free trade agreements may be another indicator that people are fed up with an economic system that is not sharing wealth in an equitable, or a just manner. Walkom has written about Brexit, but there may be broader implications to the wisdom that he captured in just one paragraph. Allan Baker, Scarborough In the words of German Chancellor Merkel, The idea of European Unity is the idea of European peace. Given Europes history, it is now imperative for the other 28 members of the EU to stick together for the sake of continental peace. Very often economic differences lead to war and, given the landscape and history of that small continent, it should draw our concern. Despite Prime Minister Trudeau assuring Canadians over the stability of Canadian markets, its important to note that, if history teaches us anything, a stable Europe is a stable world. Quite often we are forced to live by the sometimes poor decisions made by our politicians. Somewhere in this whole debacle I sense a right-wing element. Let us hope that Britain doesnt regret this vote because the idea of European peace is the idea of world peace. Bilal Malik, Vaughan Brexit is the expression of people discontented with how their standard of living has suffered over the past decade. Unfortunately, they have not targeted the real villain, which is big business. The past two decades, we have seen governments doing the bidding of business. They wrongly believed that low taxes engender economic growth and slashed corporate taxes to the point of depriving the state of much needed revenues to provide the services that support a decent standard of living for its citizens. Corporations pushed for free trade. We were told that with free trade, the country would be better off, except that it was true in the aggregate but false in reality to individuals. While the country benefits from free trade, the bulk of those gains went to the rich via business. The common folks who lost their good paying jobs were left to fend on their own. And government didnt have the revenue thanks to generous corporate tax cuts to support the casualties of free trade. And governments willingly gave up sovereign rights to please corporations. With free trade, our governments no longer have the right to regulate foreign corporations or favour local business. The deterioration of living standards for the 80 per cent can be traced back to the greed of business. When business wants to make ever-increasing profits, the 80 per cent ends up paying for it. It is a zero sum equation. Salmon Lee, Mississauga A common theme, running from Canadas Stephen Harper years, Torontos recent mayoralty and the Trump campaign to the EU plebiscite, is the cynical strategy of appealing to dissatisfied voters by offering a scapegoat. The Harperites told disgruntled middle-income earners to blame criminals and immigrants; in Toronto, motorists were invited to hate cyclists; for Trump, it is the poor vs Muslims and Mexicans; and British exiteers offered the fairy tale that unemployment is caused by bureaucrats in Brussels. In no case is there any attempt to determine the real cause of the malaise and certainly no intention to accept responsibility or to find and apply a solution. Paul Collier, Toronto I have always been fiercely proud of my English heritage. But not today, perhaps never again. The generation that happily reaped all of the benefits of their parents sacrifices in World War II have just denied a future to the generation that is to follow and placed the whole of Europe and, perhaps the world, on a course the negative consequences of which will be felt for a very long time. Shame on you. I grieve for the Britain of the past. Great no more. Valerie Costa, Richmond Hill When Brexiteers say they want immigration policy more akin to Canadas, they are not scapegoating immigrants. They are voting out of office the self-serving city folk who sold hundreds of thousands of blue-collar jobs and livelihoods down the drain so that they could enjoy a bit higher capital gain on their London flats. It is no surprise that most of the votes to remain in the EU came from large urban centres while the Brexiteers are concentrated in smaller towns. Any blame for what has happened should be fixed squarely on those who favoured globalization without any effort to compensate the people bearing most of the associated costs. Patrick Cowan, North York One would expect words of assurance from our leaders. And if Brexit was the only ongoing evidence of a world gone mad we might indeed be fine. However were overrun with moral, cultural, political, economic, religious and social corruption. And we barely notice as we become more and more electronically isolated from one another. We fail to notice the world is again becoming a jungle where not the strongest but the most wealthy and powerful rule. Hell, were almost immune to daily reports of rapes, knife attacks, terrorist attacks, racial attacks, gang murders, corrupt cops, corrupt politicians, child abuse, global warming, pollution, disappearing water, terrorist beheadings, abuse of aboriginals, abuse of elders, abuse of veterans and on and on and on. But hey, at least well survive Brexit. Randy Gostlin, Oshawa In Britain, most of the large corporations, politicians and the establishment were cheering for and expected the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union. Meanwhile, the people of the U.K. spoke and voted to leave the EU. In Canada in 2015, Canadians rejected the establishment politics of Stephen Harper and voted for extremely progressive Justin Trudeau. In 2015, it was widely expected Jeb Bush would be the 2016 Republican nominee for president of the United States. The presumptive nominee is right-wing populist Donald Trump. Also in 2015, Hillary Clinton was expected to be the shoo-in candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for president. She is the presumptive nominee but nearly lost the nomination to democratic socialist Bernie Sanders. The buzzwords for politics in 2016 are outsider and anti-establishment. When is the establishment going to get it many people are unhappy with the status quo? Ken Sisler, Newmarket U.K. rejected one of mans greatest achievements, Opinion June 28 Professor Joel Blit laments Brexit because the U.K.s exit weakened the EU, one of humankinds greatest accomplishments. And then he goes on to list some of the EU achievements, except one important thing: the mechanism for holding bureaucrats in Brussels accountable to the public. The EU will not be the first or the last greatest accomplishment of human endeavour to fail. The Bretton Woods System (lasting from 1944 to 1971) was also a great achievement but collapsed under its own contradictions. If the EU lasts as long as Bretton Woods without radical and immediate political reforms, it would be a miracle if it lasts another decade. Yet its hard to see where the give would come from. Is Germany ready to surrender powers to a European Parliament? France? Just look at how the EU botched up the Greek debt crisis. Scotland should be wary of boarding a sinking ship. Terence Yhip, Mississauga Professor Joel Blits commentary was tardy in that it missed one extremely important benefit to the new world order: the EU cannot fail as we the people will always be useful in cleaning up after expert boondoggles. John Oliver, Ennismore Joel Blits article on the affects of Brexit should be on the front page of every paper. It should be the headline news on all media. The EU is one is one of humankinds greatest accomplishments uniting people to work for the common good. How very sad that we are focusing only on the financial effects of Brexit. We should all be concerned as to why Vladimir Putin wants the EU to fail. Cathy Hampshire, Lefroy Is the creation of the EU truly one of humanitys greatest achievements? Nothing in this world has changed, people are still fighting and dying, the rich are getting richer and the world population is completely out of control. If we cant feed the global population today, theres little hope of feeding 9 billion in the near future. Global overpopulation has to be one of the our greatest concerns. Governments and world leaders have for centuries tried to force native peoples from newly conquered lands to live under one roof with little or no individual identity or culture, and they stripped them of who they are as a people. It didnt work then and it wont work now. What Joel Blit describes as an answer to growing international challenges is nothing short of a New World Order. There isnt a superpower, past or present that hasnt talked of a NWO, not to better humanity but to control and enslave it. To give up ones heritage, culture and sovereign state and embrace a NWO is nothing short of excepting the mark of the beast. God help us all. Wayne Fraser, Toronto Island Just imagine if Donald Trump ever becomes president of the United States. I can just see him revising the North America Free Trade Agreement to include the U.K. because of his own anti-immigrant slant, not to mention certain investments in that country. Hed probably call it the Four Amigos project. This membership could guarantee the U.K.s post-Brexit survival. And it may also quieten Scotlands thoughts of another separation referendum. Voila, two birds with one stone! Alan Pellettier, Scarborough As we watch the reaction to Brexit play out, we can only imagine the reaction to a Donald Trump win. JoAnn Lee Frank, Clearwater, FL Immediately after British Prime Minister David Camerons affirmation that Britains economy is not in jeopardy, Standard and Poors lowered Britains economic rating. Keep in mind this is the same rating agency that judged F-rated subprime mortgages into A-rated securities. The end result the recession of 2008. One must remember the folks at the rating agencies are remunerated by the fearful capitalist. Nicholas Kostiak, Tottenham Justin Trudeau might want to take note and learn from the British PMs experience. It was utter stupidity and irresponsible governing to pose a referendum to the people on such a complex issue instead of the peoples representatives doing what they were elected and paid to do. Trudeau might want to think twice about any referendum when it comes to changing our voting system here in Canada. Art Roberts, Milton As a British expat this referendum was a perfect illustration of what can happen when a nation is asked to show by a vote what its reaction is to a question about something that is little, if at all, understood. Answers are prompted more by emotion than by reason. The almost immediate response by a good proportion of the plebiscite in this case, and the very next day, was surprise, surprise can we have another referendum now that we can see the result of the first one? Perhaps we were wrong. Or they were. Ron Gibbens, Richmond Hill EU urges Britain to leave quickly after vote, June 25 I was disappointed that this article quoted parts of the victory speech by the UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, but failed to remark on one truly odious aspect. He said that they won without a single bullet being fired. But Labour party MP Jo Cox was shot dead by a far-right radical. To quote his speech and not mention this gives Farage an air of respectability he absolutely does not deserve. Ashok Argent-Katwala, Toronto As an ex-Brit (now Canadian of many years), it strikes me that the leave campaign did not accurately say what the full consequences would be for the country. The situation will snowball as the weeks go on. This not just a U.K. problem but one that has world consequences. Kathleen Slater. Ajax Now that the U.K. has voted to leave the EU, it is time to consider future opportunities. One scenario would be for the U.K., Canada, Australia, N.Z. and Singapore (UCANS?) to establish a free trade bloc. English is the/an official language in each of these countries and each has particular strengths to bring to such a partnership. With the right leadership and structure, such a globally spread trading block could flourish. Frederik Dean, Palmerston North, New Zealand The divorce of Great Britain from the European Union has to be one of the most painful, controversial and well-publicized divorces since that of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Kenneth L. Zimmerman, Huntington Beach, CA Will David Cameron go down in history as the Mikhail Gorbachev of EU and the U.K.? In fact, in preparing ground for the break up of two unions, Gorbachev II would be surpassing Gorbachev I whose policies of glasnost and perestroika inadvertently led to the dissolution of a single union the Soviet Union only 25 years ago in 1991. Ghazy Mujahid, Mississauga It wasnt long ago the mighty British empire covered a quarter of the worlds land surface. Now with the Briexit vote it has isolated itself from its European neighbours. And with Scotland, and possibly Northern Ireland, threatening to separate through yet another referendum, and Spain wanting Gibraltar back, the British Isles might well call itself the British Islet. Max Desouza, Toronto When a referendum is held on a matter that can affect future generations much more than the present ones, as this one was, it might make sense to give more weight to the voices of the younger generation. They are much better at coming up with a better dream for the future than the old fogies who want to reminisce about the good old days. Perhaps we should count the votes of anyone over 60 as half votes? Venkat Krishnan, Ajax Is Brexit the first casualty of an aging population? The bulging numbers of Baby Boomers now has more power and influence than ever before and it seems that the youth of the world are no longer the future. I wouldnt trade places with a Generation Z for all the tea in Britain. Julia Bowkun, Toronto As an ex-pat Scot who has lived in Canada since 1967, I would suggest that there may be a silver lining to the asinine Brexit vote, at least for the Scots. Vote to leave the U.K. in a referendum, negotiate to become the 28th member of the EU, and all those head offices of major corporations currently based in England and trading significantly with the EU will simply move their head offices to Scotland. Similarly, EU corporations wishing to deal with England will now have to do so through Scotland, or deal directly with Scotland. Voila! A boom for Scotland, and a centuries-delayed, one-in-the-eye for England! Maggie Laidlaw, Guelph The outcome of the Brexit vote defied pollsters and was most unexpected. Yet it may cause beneficial consequences for Ireland. Many banks and other firms now in London may seek to relocate to a country that is still in the European Union. For various reasons, some may be reluctant to move to France, Belgium, or Germany. Recall that in Northern Ireland, the remain option was supported by 56 per cent of voters. As an English-speaking, relatively safe country, Ireland may well attract many of the firms now in London. This might be enhanced if in future Northern Ireland were to leave England and unite with Ireland. The Celtic Tiger may well rise again. Charles S. Shaver, Ottawa Brexit sends political classes reeling, June 27 Sorry, Rosie DiManno, you cant have it both ways. If its alright for the U.K. to regain its independence from the European Union, then it should be alright for Scotland to regain its independence from the United Kingdom. DiManno hasnt a moral (or historical) leg to stand on to argue against the Scots right to retrieve their own country, as she did in her June 25 column. Whats sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Its that simple. Steven Spencer, Pickering The English have taken leave of their senses, and The New Yorker cartoon showing a line-up of derby-wearing John Cleese-type fellows kicking one another forward off a cliff says it best: Where was If it aint broke, dont Brexit? Has it really come down to which side has the most memorable sound bytes, or memes, with subtlety left by the wayside as too cumbersome to squeeze into 23 characters or less? Well, Boris Johnson (BoJo) is a real character, as is The Donald, and in the U.S. the battle of the blonde septuagenarians is on. No wonder there is an increasing demand for assisted dying. If the old keep slamming doors on the young, there will be many more ice floe invitations, providing there still is any ice. Ron Charach, Toronto I am a Canadian of British ancestry, and a senior citizen who would have voted for Britain to remain in the EU had I been qualified to do so. I deplore the results of the Brexit referendum, and have great concern for the aftershocks. Equally, I deplore the bandwagon that blames and shames the elderly for this result. To those who say if a 15-year-old cant vote, neither should a 75-year-old, may I remind them that not all 75-year-olds are in their dotage. Current scientific research on brain development shows that the brain is not fully developed, or always capable of making wise decisions, until a person is well into their twenties. If you are unhappy with the results, please dont point your collective finger at seniors. Please do study, think, and learn from the current situation so that you are better equipped to do your part to help move England forward in a meaningful and beneficial way. And remember: seniors are repositories of experience. Use that, dont abuse it. Dina E. Cox, Unionville When David Cameron lost the referendum, he had the courage and finesse to face the nation, take responsibility for the defeat and state that he would resign as the prime minister in October. But when Stephen Harper lost the federal election on Oct. 19, 2015, he did not have the decency to take public responsibility for the Conservative defeat nor could he publicly state that he would be resigning as the leader. Instead he will stealthily be resigning as an MP this summer. Good riddance, finally. Aquil Ali, Toronto I suppose the results of the Brexit referendum can be considered a warning of the dangers of democracy. I may, in fact, annoy 48 per cent of the population! Cest la vie. George Dunbar, Toronto If there is any silver lining here its that this event will reverberate across the polisphere and stand forever as a model of the kind of chance leaders must never take. They must never expose themselves and their countries to such historical blunders, caused by underestimating the total myopia of a whole layer of bitter, aging white racists. Bruce Nagy, Toronto The outcome of the referendum has underscored the disunity within the U.K. Scotland, Northern Ireland and Gibraltar voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU while England and Wales opted to leave. Scotland has now threatened another vote on independence. Northern Ireland is musing openly about joining Ireland. Spain is renewing efforts to lay one more claim on Gibraltar. Should this historic fragmentation happen, it would be the great paradox of Great Britains split from the EU. Luis Silva, Toronto Brexit became Broke-it and will probably evolve to become EU Brake-down, and then inevitably a Brakeup of the entire EU. If it aint broke dont fix it. Trouble was that it was broken and the countries supporting it were going broke. Douglas Cornish, Ottawa Brexit is a perfect example of a revolt against the EU corporatocracy. Lela Gary, Toronto No better reconciliation and change takes place until one spouse has their bags packed and coat on. Peter Keleghan, Toronto Quo vadis Britannia? (Where are you going? Britain?) Judy DeWitte, Kitchener The Brexit message to financial and political elite: Were coming for you. John Simke, Toronto SHARE: Pranaya SJB Rana is Features Editor for The Kathmandu Post. He was formerly Op-Ed Editor at the Post from 2012-2015. Rana is the author of a collection of short stories, City of Dreams: Stories, from Rupa Publications India. Summed up in a few words no photos was the news in the Toronto Star of a small but successful event in June, 1982: Homosexuals have a peaceful picnic. The celebration of Lesbian and Gay Pride Day at Grange Park had gone ahead despite protests from residents about noise and a negative influence on children. The actions of homosexual participants are confusing our children who are at a learning age of whats wrong and whats right, complained a letter to city council. Jump ahead more than 20 years and Pride celebrations were a vastly different story a front-page splash, in fact. The three-hour extravaganza that pranced and danced through downtown streets in 2005 drew a million witnesses to the exuberant participation of police, politicians and public figures of all stripes. This is what the occasion has become, the newspaper trumpeted. A fully integrated and utterly mainstream family event, appropriate for children ... When this Sundays magnificent march launches from Church and Bloor Sts. with the spectre of last months Orlando massacre still lingering, Pride Toronto vows it will be the biggest ever. We will not let fears get in the way of what we do, executive director Mathieu Chantelois told reporters after the June 12 mass shooting in a gay nightclub. We will dance in the streets and we will dance in the clubs. The July 3 parade will be dedicated to victims of the Florida attack in the climax to a full month of festivities including trans and dyke marches marking the 35th anniversary of Toronto Pride. And what a difference a few decades make. Although Canada decriminalized homosexual acts for consenting adults in 1969, the gay community was still marginalized and viewed with suspicion in the 70s and 80s. On Feb. 5, 1981, already-strained relations with police took an abrupt downturn when more than 250 men were arrested by cops using hammers and crowbars to break into private cubicles of four bathhouses. The raids in which men were rounded up draped only in towels triggered violent protests by thousands and comparisons to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. Police chief Jack Ackroyd defended his forces actions as justified, based on a six-month investigation into allegations of prostitution and indecent acts. But last month, current police chief Mark Saunders made a historic apology for the raids. Most of the charges were later dropped and the men came to be regarded as heroes of the revolution, according to George Hislop, one of the citys first gay activists. The events became a catalyst for a picnic and parade a few months later in what is considered to be the first official Pride celebration. But even as annual Pride day grew in strength and popularity, city politicians balked at giving it their blessing. Mayor Art Eggleton repeatedly refused to proclaim Lesbian and Gay Pride Day in the 1980s, saying sexual preference was none of the governments business. Then in late 1990, city council minus a still stubborn Eggleton took aim against gay bashing in a multi-faceted campaign and finally gave official recognition to the day. The Metro Toronto police services board later acknowledged the LGBT community was legitimately entitled to policing that was sensitive to their needs. Relationships today, however, continue to be challenging at times, Chantelois said recently. July 1, 1991 saw tens of thousands celebrate the first Pride day to be proclaimed by the city. But official recognition wasnt an automatic ticket into mainstream society. Same-sex parents or at least those willing to talk openly were still a novelty, according to a feature in the Stars Life section. They are a family, reporter Lindsay Scotton said of one lesbian couple with two kids. It may not be the kind of family Beaver Cleaver came home to, but its theirs, its strong, and theyre proud of it. Still, she said, they didnt want their real names used so that their children wont be teased. Nobody knew how many lesbian and gay parents were out there quietly challenging traditional notions of what families are, Scotton added. As societal acceptance increased, however, so did the yearly show of gaiety. In 1995, more than 500,000 spectators showed up for a three-hour spectacle that was called North Americas largest gay pride event ever. And Barbara Hall became the first Toronto mayor to join the parade. More history was made in 2005 when the citys top cop got on board, documented by columnist Rosie DiManno: So non-controversial has the parade become that Torontos new police chief Bill Blair was at the very head of the marching affair, walking alongside Mayor David Miller and other municipal politicians, just behind scout cars draped with the rainbow flag. Blair made a simple but powerful statement: I couldnt be any prouder than to be here today. Parades of the past used to be more about sex because of the anger that we felt, commented reveller Colin Irving that year. We were made out to be deviants and sex molesters. But the growing wave of acceptance changed all that. Take a look, Irving said. There are gay men pushing their babies in strollers. Those are families. Thats who we are. Weeks later, same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide. But several years later, the local LGBT community was publicly snubbed when the late Rob Ford turned his back on Pride celebrations to spend time at the family cottage. The mayoral marching tradition was reinstated by John Tory in 2015 and this year, for the first time in Pride history, a sitting prime minister will participate when Justin Trudeau joins the fun. Further proof the days of quiet little picnics are long gone. Story idea? Share your story suggestions at OnceUponACity@thestar.ca . To search more about this story or your story go to thestar.com/archives . To purchase or browse more photos go to starstore.ca/collections/once-upon-a-city , or visit us on Facebook at facebook.com/TorontoStarArchives or on Twitter: @StarHistoricPix. SHARE: The Australian dollar/New Zealand dollar currency pair (AUD/NZD) is setting up perfectly for a potential 500-pip bullish rally, technical analysis shows. (This means the Australian dollar will gain value vs. the New Zealand dollar.) The daily chart reveals an alternate bat pattern, or alt bat. This is a kind of harmonic pattern based on Fibonacci numbers. There are now 15 days of sideways price action right at the maximum extended Fibonacci levels of the alt bat pattern. This is great, because it shows that this support level is valid and that the Australian dollar is set to rally. Traders should be looking to buy right now. The alt bat is a harmonic pattern that takes a lot of experience to trade because it has a 0.382 B point, and that B point measurement can be a crab, bat or alt bat. You really have to learn how to read the structure of price action to trade this pattern. I have highlighted the area we are looking to buy at in the chart below. We will be looking to buy AUD/NZD once the currency pair breaks out above the high at 1.05500. Our stop-loss level will be below the 15-day range at 1.04000. Once you've made 100 pips of profit, you should move your stop-loss level to break even. The only profit-taking level for this pair is 1.10500. That's because the B point is so close to the C point, and you will have caught the meat of the move. If the pair hits 1.10500, there will be no need to risk the already big profit trying to get incremental gains. If you would like to learn all the harmonic patterns and advanced technical analysis for the foreign exchange market, check out PipsUniversity.com to study our 95-plus training videos and get direct access to all our daily market analysis and trade signals. This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks or currencies mentioned. Please do not take this as guaranteed profit. Anything can happen in the forex market, and you can lose money at any time. Trade at your own risk. NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Alphabet (GOOGL) are increasing 0.42% to $698.12 in midday trading Thursday as its Google unit has bought the whole 12-year power production from a not yet built Norwegian wind power farm to supply its European data centers with renewable energy, Reuters reports. Norway-based Zephyr and Norsk Vind Energi said the 160-megawatt capacity onshore Tellenes wind power farm is projected to be fully operational in late 2017. When completed, it would be the biggest wind power farm in the country, Reuters noted. "Google has been carbon-neutral since 2007 and we are committed to powering 100 percent of our operations with renewable energy sources," Marc Oman, EU energy lead for Google Global Infrastructure, told Reuters. "Today's announcement, Google's first wind power deal in Norway and the largest to date in Europe, is an important step towards that commitment," Oman added. The value of the deal is unclear. Separately, TheStreet Ratings Team has a "Buy" rating with a score of A- on the stock. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its compelling growth in net income, revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, solid stock price performance and reasonable valuation levels. Recently, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author. You can view the full analysis from the report here: GOOGL A cheetah chases a Thomson's gazelle, one of the predator-prey encounters featured in BBC's docuseries "The Hunt," narrated by naturalist David Attenborough. (Silverback Films 2015) Angel From Hell (CBS at 8 p.m.) CBS canceled this Jane Lynch comedy back in February, but the network briefly resurrects it Saturday night with back-to-back episodes that never aired. The American West (AMC at 10) This weeks installment recalls the Battle of the Little Bighorn and outlaw Jesse Jamess attempt to make a statement with an audacious bank robbery. DOcumentary What the Hell Is the Presidency For? LBJs Battle for Civil Rights (History at 7) This one-hour documentary, narrated by actor Anthony Mackie, examines Lyndon B. Johnsons contributions to civil rights. SUNDAY talk SHOWS Fox News Sunday (Fox at 9 a.m.) Reps. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.). State of the Union (CNN at 9) Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Gary Johnson, former New Mexico governor and presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party. White House Chronicle (WETA at 9) Insiders discuss transforming the electric power industry. Newsmakers (C-SPAN at 10) Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo (Fox at 10) Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). Government Matters (WJLA at 10:30) Learning Tree International chief executive Richard Spires. Meet the Press (NBC at 10:30) Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). Face the Nation (CBS at 10:30) Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.). SUNDAY LISTINGS Island Explorers (Travel Channel at 11 p.m.) An adventure-loving couple explores the Hawaiian Islands beyond the typical tourist trail, starting in Oahu. The Killing Games (Discovery at 9) This Shark Week special examines a new hunting strategy used by great white sharks targeting seals. Ray Donovan (Showtime at 9) Ray is forced to make an uncomfortable deal with Detective Muncie. Preacher (AMC at 9) Jesse learns more about the entity that has taken over his body. PREMIERES The Hunt (BBC America at 9) Prominent naturalist David Attenborough narrates this docu-series about the strategies employed by natures most successful predators and the prey whose survival depends on escaping them. DOcumentary The Unknown Flag Raiser of Iwo Jima (Smithsonian at 9) Gene Hackman narrates this one-hour documentary about the iconic World War II photo and one pictured Marine who was misidentified for more than 70 years. The Mekong River wanders through remote Yunnan Province in southwestern China, where Moet Hennessy is producing a luxury cabernet sauvignon. (Moet Hennessy) Not every wine needs a story, but heres one with a doozy to tell. Its called Ao Yun, its produced near Shangri-La in remote southwestern China, and its amazingly good. When its released in the United States in September, it will cost $300 a bottle. Maybe more. If you just spat out your morning coffee with a howl of laughter, no matter. This wine is not for everybody. Only 500 of the 2,300 cases produced will be allocated to the American market, and initially it will be available only through four retailers: Calvert Woodley in Washington, Sherry-Lehmann in New York, K&L Wine Merchants in San Francisco and Wallys Wine & Spirits in Los Angeles. The idea is to give collectors in the U.S. and Europe a chance to buy it before it becomes available in China, says Jean-Guillaume Prats, president of the wine division of Moet Hennessy, part of the LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton conglomerate of luxury brands. There is already great speculative demand for this wine in China. Sometimes wines allure is not so much its flavor or its alcohol as a sense of adventure a uniqueness that promises an experience only a few willing people can share. Ao Yun is that kind of wine. [5 wines to try this week] Back to that story: About a decade ago, Christophe Navarre, the chief executive of Moet Hennessy, decided to make red wine in China, Prats told me in a recent interview. Winemaking efforts in China, inspired by the huge potential domestic market, have centered on two regions, each with significant problems: Shandong peninsula in the east, where it rains a lot, and Ningxia in the north-central area, where vine trunks need to be buried after harvest to protect them from harsh winters. Navarre sent a vineyard specialist to China to find a suitable growing region with the proper climate. The answer was Yunnan province, which borders Tibet, Myanmar and Vietnam and where the Mekong River snakes through the mountains at more than 6,560 feet above sea level. Vines had been planted in the region by Jesuit missionaries in the 1840s, and, surprisingly, newer plantings of Bordeaux varieties were placed there in 2002. I still havent found the person who thought cabernet sauvignon would work in such a place, Prats said. But in 2013, Moet Hennessy used grapes from 47 acres planted at altitudes ranging from 7,875 feet to 8,530 feet to create its first vintage of Ao Yun, which translates as floating over the clouds. Specialists trained the local farmers in modern methods of viticulture, communicating in Mandarin, Tibetan and English. The company has built a winery there and began planting 27 acres of new vineyards in 2014. To get to the site, one flies to Shangri-La city, at an altitude of nearly 12,000 feet, and then drives more than four hours through the mountains. Prats explained how the geography shapes the wines character. The air is clean and dry, so there is no need for fungicides, herbicides or even pesticides. Mountain runoff allows vintners to apply just as much irrigation as the vines may need. Meili mountain, considered sacred by the local people, towers over the vineyards and blocks the sun: During the crucial ripening period, the vineyards are in sunlight for only about six hours a day. That slows photosynthesis and stretches the ripening well into November. Once the sun disappears behind the mountain, the temperature drops swiftly and dramatically. That preserves acidity in the grapes and toughens the skins, helping color development. Because of the altitude, the wine is exposed to less oxygen during fermentation, which Prats says will help it age. He recommends decanting it for several hours before drinking to add a little oxygen back to the wine. The first vintage wasnt easy. Fermentation tanks did not arrive at the new winery in time, and barrels only the next March, so the wine began its life in amphorae. All my career I have stressed modernity in winemaking, says Prats, who was formerly chief winemaker at Bordeauxs Cos dEstournel. Here we were making wine as it was done in Roman times. Yet when we first tasted it after fermentation, we realized we did not just make a Chinese wine: We had made a world-class wine. Prats previewed the wine in April for some Washington area collectors at a dinner co-sponsored by Calvert Woodley. I had a few people tell me that night they want a case, store president Michael Sands said, even though there was no firm arrival date or price. The 2013 Ao Yun, the wine to be released in September, is cabernet sauvignon blended with 10 percent cabernet franc. It is supple and energetic, carrying deep black-fruit flavors and a refreshing acidity that disguises its rather high (15 percent) alcohol by volume. I tasted my sample two hours after decanting over the next two days; it was ripe and lush, yet without the fatness and overripe flavors that afflict so many high-end New World cabernets. And it kept getting better a sign of a lively wine that should have a long life. It lived up to its name, and its story. A tugboat guides the massive Cosco Shipping Panama toward the new Panama Canal locks. The expanded canal, which originally opened in 1914, will be able to handle larger ships. (Moises Castillo/Associated Press) Fireworks exploded as a huge container ship made the first passage through the expanded Panama Canal this week, heralding a new era for one of the worlds great marvels of engineering. Global travel and trade were made far easier when the canal was completed in 1914. Instead of sailing all the way around South America, ships could shave thousands of miles off the journey between Asia and the Americas by traveling across narrow Panama. The nine-year, $5.25 billion expansion project opens the canal to large container ships, such as the Chinese-owned Cosco Shipping Panama, which entered the canal on the Atlantic side in the early morning of June 26. The 984-foot-long vessel completed its journey to the Pacific Ocean later that day, led by tugboats and cheered by dignitaries and thousands of excited onlookers. The project opened nearly two years late after construction delays, conflicts between workers and management, and unexpected costs. But officials were still in a celebratory mood as they declared the expanded canal open for business. This is an achievement that all of us Panamanians should be proud of, President Juan Carlos Varela said at the ceremony on the outskirts of Panama City. Today marks a historic moment for Panama, for our hemisphere and the world. A birds-eye view of the locks. ( Panama Canal Authority /European Pressphoto Agency) The century-old canal risked becoming obsolete without the expansion project, as many large ships were too bulky to travel its waterways. A new shipping lane allows passage for ships that carry as many as 14,000 truck-size containers, long steel boxes that can be filled with a wide range of items, such as cars and clothing. A series of locks sections of the canal that are separated by gates allow ships to be raised and lowered in the water as they pass from ocean to ocean. For journeys from the Atlantic to the Pacific, water is added to the locks so that vessels are raised 85 feet, allowing them to pass through a long lake before they descend to sea level on the Pacific side. Nations had dreamed of building a canal across Latin America for hundreds of years when the French began work on a Panamanian canal in the 1880s. Thousands died of accidents and disease, however, and it wasnt until the United States took over in the early 20th century that the canal was finally finished. Control of the canal was transferred from the United States to Panama in 1999. Since then, it has generated about $10 billion in income for the Central American nation. Some 35 to 40 vessels use the waterway each day, and the canal is estimated to handle about 6 percent of the worlds ocean trade. Panamanians at the ceremony expressed hope that the expansion will help the economy in a country where about 25 percent of the people live in poverty. I think the inauguration of the locks is excellent for the current generations and those to come, said Moises Gonzalez, a 40-year-old mechanic who worked on the construction of the locks for six years. Opportunities for us. We have to find a way for it to reach the people. Adapted from an online discussion. Dear Carolyn: Daughter, 25, with a masters degree and a minor in snark, seems to be dissolving into a life overseas (France) that is centered on guy-security. Her past relationships approximate serial monogamy a la one year with Charlie, two months off; six months with George, one month off; eight months with Freddie, one month off. And the most recent: 10 months with Andy-but-I-swear-were-just-friends-Dad. She takes small jobs to stay food/rent/beer-solvent, and she insists she wants to live permanently in Europe. My worry is that she isnt seeing the long view and that each new guy is an emotional crutch, helping her defer a future. Should I bug out? Should I ask her to defend her choices? Confounded Dad Confounded Dad: Bug out. Shes 25, self-supporting and hasnt asked your opinion. (Nick Galifianakis/The Washington Post) And what would you say that wouldnt just be some version of, Youre messing up your life, and I can see that better than you can? And what defensive person (see snark) ever heard the above from a parent and responded with, Youre right, thanks for being smarter about me than I am? Furthermore . . . With a little squinting, what I see is a young adult who is navigating foreign countries and living the heck out of her youth. How is that not awesome, even with some mistakes? Speaking only for me and only for the sake of argument, I was in a steady job at that age and engaged, and I didnt know myself well enough yet to be any darn good at either. Maybe some people even tried to wake me up. But it was my life, and it needed to run its course. So what matters isnt where she is but where it all takes her and, again, where she is (solvent, Europe, a Man for Each Season) isnt close to certain doom. Its merely a set of wide-open questions that are hers to answer at her leisure. Re: Worried: I assume shes not asking for handouts from you, and as long as shes taking care of herself and safe about it, let her live her life. I would have loved an opportunity to live in Europe when I was that age. Just love and support her, and only offer your opinion/advice when asked. Anonymous Anonymous: I agree, with the caveat that Dads reach is still limited if shes being unsafe. Self-supporting adults arent obliged to run their lives in a way that helps their parents sleep at night. It would be thoughtful of them, perhaps, but its not their job. Re: Worried: If Dad is unable or unwilling to be her safety net if/when Daughters adventures in Europe come to a close, he should just say so. I see many people trying to control others behavior because theyre afraid of having to pick up the pieces, when really they just need better boundaries to let their adult kids deal with the consequences of their choices. And, Daughter has a minor in snark? Buddy, she was home-schooled in that. Anonymous 2 Anonymous 2: Excellent point on the consequences, thanks. With afternoon temperatures in the mid- to high-80s on June 26, tourists took the opportunity to cool off in the National World War II Memorials Rainbow Pool. (Mary Hui/TWP) The summer sun is blazing down, and at the National World War II Memorial, shade is hard to come by. You stare at the inviting pool, the jets of cool water spurting from the memorials fountain beckon you forward. Do you dip your toes in or, better yet, wade in for relief from the heat? You could, but you would be violating National Park Service rules as signs at the memorial clearly state. And, in the minds of some, it is also tacky and disrespectful. Washington is a city of memorials somber places where we reflect on who we are and those who have perished fighting for the nations ideals. It is also a city full of tourists on Segways and hordes of school kids in matching uniforms. Every day, those two worlds collide. How, exactly, is one supposed to strike the delicate balance between relaxed vacationing and respectful, dignified reflection? On a recent Sunday afternoon, with the temperature in the high 80s, Eric Echevarria, 31, of Atlantic City, carried his toddler in his arms and waded several feet into the memorials Rainbow Pool. Multiple signs along the edge of the pool clearly read: Honor Your Veterans. No wading. Coins damage fountain, but he either did not see them or paid no heed. The memorials pool, Echevarria said, is a place to relax, cool off after a long day of walking. People will say what they say, he said, dismissing the idea that wading might be inappropriate or disrespectful. Its all about what the value [of the memorial] is or what the meaning is to you. Some say wading in the pool is disrespectful to the meaning of the National World War II Memorial. (Mary Hui/TWP) Nearby, Ashlee Montgomery, from Maryland, sat on the edge of the pool with her feet in the water as her 6-year-old son splashed around. Well, my thought is that I dont have a problem with it, because Im in it, Montgomery said. Its a place to come and spend time with family. Montgomery, who said that her grandfather fought in World War II, disputed the notion that wading in the water takes away from the memorials significance. She comes to learn about the war, she said, and her son asks her questions about the war. It pulls people in, she said. Still, there are many who are shocked by the scene of hundreds of tourists wading in the shadows of the memorials majestic stone slabs. To them, the contrast between the hallowed space of the memorial and the almost water-park ambiance is jarring. This is a memorial, this is not a pool, said Jasmine Daniel, 20, a senior at Howard University. Daniel, an interpretation intern with the National Mall and Memorial Parks, said there needs to be a discernment between reflection and recreation something she does not see right now. The issue of tourists behaving badly is, unfortunately, a challenge we see every summer, not just at the World War II Memorial but at memorials throughout the city, said Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles, a Park Service spokeswoman. We hope that members of the public will choose to respect these sacred places and the people they honor. But there is not much officials can do other than making an educational contact and encouraging people to heed the posted signs, Anzelmo-Sarles added. Veterans and their families have also taken umbrage at the carefree splashing, said Holly Rotondi, executive director of Friends of the National World War II Memorial. The memorial honors the 16 million who served in the U.S. armed forces and the more than 400,000 who died in World War II. Rotondi said she recently received a phone call from the son of a World War II veteran complaining about visitors dipping their feet in the water, saying it was very disrespectful to the generation who fought in and lived through the war. And two years ago, a photo of a man changing a childs diaper on the edge of the pool caused an uproar, she said. Rotondi said the issue is very controversial and highly emotional. I can certainly understand both sides, and I can certainly sympathize with both sides, but . . . theres a limit to what can be tolerated at a national memorial. It is easy to see why something seemingly as trivial as wading into a pool can engender so much disagreement when you look back at the history of the memorial, which was mired in controversy from its inception. From as early as 1995 until its official opening in 2004, the design and location of the memorial was the subject of a heated battle. Early opponents of the memorials design said it was too large and would block the sweeping vista between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. After its construction, critics such as Blake Gopnik, then the chief art critic at The Washington Post, slammed the memorial for being all stock celebration, not true commemoration, bland and backward-looking and with so little eloquence that it demands subtitles. But for Gopnik, it is the very failure of the memorial to evoke veterans greatness and courage that makes it acceptable, and perhaps even necessary, for visitors to wade into the pool. There is a slight, dare I say, fascist tone to the memorial, said Gopnik, now a critic-at-large for artnet News. It is the monument that is disrespectful to the legacy of the veterans, he said, and people wading into the pool are willfully fighting the spirit of that particular memorial, the faults of the memorial, the problems of the memorial. By fighting back, Gopnik said, people are turning the memorial into something about democracy something the veterans fought and sacrificed their lives for. I think its wonderful and respectful towards what veterans fought for . . . to turn [the memorial] into a place where they can go and frolic, almost like putting a pool in your back yard and telling neighbors to come and play, Gopnik said. Thats a good American thing. The very meaning and purpose of a memorial should also be considered carefully, said Julian Bonder, a professor of architecture at Roger Williams University who has researched the relationship involving memory, public space and memorials. Memorials are related to life. Even though they can be related to mourning, that mourning is about something absent, which is life, or people who gave their life, he said. Should one put their feet in a fountain when its a hundred degrees in Washington? . . . Im not advocating that people take a swim in those fountains, but I dont think its extremely disrespectful just to put your feet in the water, especially if those feet in the water makes the visitor feel alive, Bonder added. There is a strong connection between life and death at these memorials. Then there is the fact that the memorials inhabit a democratic, public space. The question of proper behavior at memorials is always based on the notion that democracy is uncertain, Bonder said. Memorials commemorate the people who fought for democratic ideals, and an important question to keep in mind, Bonder said, is, How do we honor those who gave their lives for us to enjoy our lives in freedom? The conundrum of how to behave at public spaces and memorials is not limited to the nations capital. At the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York, some have been offended by the sight of kids running around and tourists taking selfies. And earlier this year, a group called High on Life, a trio of young Canadian men who make travel videos for a living, was criticized after a photo emerged showing them clowning around at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. Back at the National World War II Memorial, James Panzetta, 90, reflected on the war. The veteran from Pennsylvania fought with the 10th Armored Division in Germany, and this was his first visit to the memorial. As Panzetta put it, he replaced the people killed at the Battle of the Bulge. Seeing people dipping their feet into the water and wading in the pool takes away from the memorial, he said, but most of these people dont even remember the war. For him, it is better that visitors come and wade than to stay away and forget. And if he had his say, what changes would he make to the rules at the memorial? I certainly wouldnt have a dog in it, Panzetta answered without missing a beat. He pointed at the pool. Sure enough, there was a woman letting her dog in the water. Beni-Jomsom road obstructed Transport service along the Beni-Jomsom road section, linking Mustang district with national highway, has been completed obstructed from Friday afternoon. The Maryland State House in Annapolis, shown in April 2014, was struck by lightning Friday night. A Ben Franklin lightning rod protected the countrys oldest statehouse. (Patrick Semansky/AP) If stormy weather postpones the traditional Washington fireworks display, it will not be the first time: It happened as long ago as 1941. In that year , the show went on, but the glories of the Fourth did not reveal themselves pyrotechnically until the day after they had been scheduled. On July 5, 1941, what was described in The Washington Post as a record crowd of 150,000 people heard and saw a display that was said to be the most ambitious yet undertaken. It seemed, the account said, as if the city were being bombarded by a thousand guns of all sizes. Few who read that might have guessed that in five months the country would be at war. In 1965, with July 4 landing on a Sunday, the show was scheduled for the 5th. But a flashing, booming storm fmeant no man made fireworks that day. More than mere rain, it is the possibility of such atmospheric hazards as lightning that appears to concern officials most. By coincidence, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) noted that it was a lightning rod, built according to the specifications of Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, that protected Marylands historic State House from the lightning that struck there Friday. Noting the approach of the Fourth, Hogan wrote on Facebook that the protection provided by Franklins device somehow feels fitting. Historians say the pointed 28-foot rod atop the state capitol was installed more than 200 years ago as a symbol of a young nations independence. Earlier, when the colonists chose the Franklin design for public buildings, it was seen as a challenge to the British monarchy, which favored the use of a blunt rod, according to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. An Alexandria man was shot and killed early Saturday morning, the citys fourth homicide this year. Alexandria police said they responded to a shooting in the 1000 block of First Street about 3:33 a.m. and found a man with trauma to the upper body. The man, later identified as Saquan Hall, 23, was transported to a local hospital where he died of his injuries, according to a news release from the police department. No arrest had been made and no suspect information was available, Alexandria police spokeswoman Crystal Nosal said. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Detective Bikeramjit Gill with the Alexandria Police Department at 702-746-6751. Antoine McCullough was an absolute jokester, said his cousin Jamiyal Palmore. He was probably the goofiest person in our family, Palmore said. Hell have everyone laughing. On Saturday, Palmore was coming to grips with the fact that the cousin who made it a point to make others happy was dead. McCullough, 30, was found unconscious about 12:10 a.m. Saturday in a residence in the 3500 block of 18th Street Southeast. He had been shot multiple times, police said. When authorities arrived McCullough was breathing, according to a spokeswoman from the police department. He was taken to an area hospital, where he died from his injuries, a news release said. McCullough was one of two District men to be fatally shot in the early morning hours. Police said found John Williams III, 35, abour 5:20 a.m. in the 200 block of 50th Street Northeast. Williams, of Northeast D.C., died at the scene, according to a news release. His family could not be reached for comment. Palmore said his cousin McCullough was a typical dude with dreams, someone who was trying to make a name for himself in his troubled Southeast D.C. neighborhood of Parkland. He said McCullough was a passionate Washington Redskins fan who loved his family. From McCulloughs sense of humor, Palmore said he learned to enjoy life, even through rough times. No matter how crazy his surroundings were.... he always kept a positive attitude, Palmore said. He might be in his feelings, but hes always cracking jokes. Police are continuing to investigate both homicides. A department spokesman said police did not have information on possible suspects. THE DISTRICT Two people fatally shot in separate incidents Police are investigating two separate homicides that occurred in the District early Saturday morning, one in Northeast and the other in Southeast. A department spokeswoman said police responded at 5:20 a.m. to a shooting in the 200 block of 50th Street NE, where they found an unconscious and unresponsive man suffering from a gunshot wound. The spokeswoman said the man died at the scene. Several hours earlier, about 12:10 a.m., police responded to a shooting at a residence in the 3500 block of 18th Street SE, where they found a man with a gunshot wound. The man was unconscious but still breathing, according to the spokeswoman, but he later died at a local hospital. Police identified the victim in the 50th Street NE shooting as John Williams III, 35, of Northeast. The man found in the 18th Street SE residence is Antoine McCullough, 30, of Southeast, police said. LaVendrick Smith VIRGINIA Alexandria man, 23, killed in shooting An Alexandria man was shot and killed early Saturday morning, the citys fourth homicide this year. Alexandria police said they responded to a shooting in the 1000 block of First Street about 3:33 a.m. and found a man with trauma to the upper body. The man, identified as Saquan Hall, 23, was transported to a local hospital, where he died of his injuries, according to a news release from the police department. Elise Schmelzer MARYLAND 1 killed, 1 injured in Laurel motel shooting A woman was killed and a man was injured in a double shooting at a Laurel motel early Saturday morning, authorities said. Howard County police are investigating the shooting, which occurred at the Turf Motel in Laurel, according to a news release. Police were called to the motel about 4:30 a.m. and found the two people with gunshot wounds. The woman, Amanda Diane Duer, 29, of La Plata,was taken to Laurel Regional Hospital, where she died, the police said. The man, who was shot in the leg, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to the news release. Police think the victims may have known the person who shot them, according to the news release. LaVendrick Smith 31 Zika infections reported in state The number of people in Maryland with the Zika virus has grown to 31, state health officials said Friday as they reminded people to take steps to avoid the disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also announced that it was awarding the state $366,427 as part of $25 million in funding for prevention efforts. All Maryland cases are travel-related; no one has contracted Zika from a mosquito-bite in the state. But if a mosquito bites one of the infected people and then bites someone else, the disease could spread.We want to guard against such occurrences here in Maryland, Health and Mental Hygiene Secretary Van T. Mitchell said.Health officials remind those who will be outdoors this weekend and throughout mosquito season to take precautions such as using mosquito repellant with DEET. Baltimore Sun Bay Bridge delays end by Saturday afternoon On a long weekend like this one, it takes a long time for everyone who wants to go to the beach to get there. Four-mile backups were reported Friday night at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and 10-mile backups about 9 a.m. Saturday. But by 2 p.m. they were down to about four miles again and, by 5 p.m. they were gone, officials said. Martin Weil A woman was killed and a man was injured in a double shooting at a Laurel, Md., motel early Saturday morning, authorities said. Howard County police are investigating the shooting, which occurred at the Turf Motel in Laurel, according to a news release. Police were called to the motel around 4:30 a.m., where they found the two people with gunshot wounds. The woman was taken to Laurel Regional Hospital, where she later died. The man, who was shot in the leg, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to the news release. Police think the victims may have known the person who shot them, but authorities have not identified a suspect, according to the news release. CIAA, Dr KC set to get House panel summons With the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority and Dr Govinda KC at loggerheads over the doctors demand for impeachment of CIAA Chief Commissioner Lokman Singh Karki, the Good Governance and Monitoring Committee of Parliament is set to summon both the parties for clarification. On this star-spangled holiday weekend, the western sky gives ample proof in the night that the planetary king Jupiter is still there. Just after sundown this evening, find Jupiter high in the west-southwestern heavens. You can easily see it with your naked eye, bright at -1.9 magnitude. Enjoy that view, since the large planet welcomes the NASA spacecraft Juno tomorrow night (July 4) in the midst of fireworks here. Jupiter loiters in the constellation Leo, near the back legs of its lion shape. It sets around midnight. By mid-July, the bright, gaseous giant will be about 25 degrees above the west-southwestern horizon at dusk, and by months end, the giant planet will be slightly lower in the same section of the sky, setting about 10:15 p.m. The young moon is under Jupiter on July 8, and on the following night, the moon leapfrogs Jupiter. Catch Junos arrival on NASA TV and on astronomy webcaster Slooh.com, as both will feature the spacecrafts orbit insertion maneuver and commentary starting at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time on July 4. Over the next 20 months, the craft will orbit the planets poles 37 times, all the while handling intense radiation and gathering data to understand the early solar system. Follow Juno on Twitter: @NASAJuno. While the world focuses on Juno and Jupiter, the lovely Venus sneaks back into the evening heavens after hiding in the suns brightness since April. Look close to the horizon in the west-northwestern sky, just after sunset in mid-to-late July. The effervescent Venus is -3.9 magnitude very bright but will be low and hanging out with best bud Mercury as the chums conjunct July 16. Mercury is zero magnitude bright later in July. When it gets darker after sunset, the reddish Mars, the ringed Saturn and the star Antares begin to emerge high in the south-southeast. They form a triangle. Mars, with its noticeable red tint, is to the right; Saturn is the white object on the left; and Antares, also with a red tint, blinks. Mars starts July at -1.4 magnitude very bright and gets dim as the month progresses. Saturn is about zero magnitude bright enough to see from light-polluted urban areas, while Antares is at first magnitude. Mars, Saturn and Antares can be seen in prime time as you face south around the 9- to-10 p.m. hour throughout July. The waxing gibbous moon races toward the trio July 13, getting closer July 14 and then skipping by Saturn on July 15. The moon becomes full July 19. A small meteor shower, the Delta Aquariids , peaks July 28, with about 20 shooting stars an hour, according to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Due to imperfect light conditions around the metro area, youll likely see fewer. Down-to-Earth Events: July 5 Simulations of Fermi Bubbles, a talk by Karen Yang, an Einstein Fellow, at the University of Marylands Observatory, College Park. 9 p.m. Telescope viewing afterward, weather permitting. astro.umd.edu/openhouse. July 9 Days after the smoke from the fireworks clears, see cosmic creations at Exploring the Sky, hosted by the National Park Service and the National Capital Astronomers. At Rock Creek Park, near the Nature Center in the field south of Military and Glover roads NW. 9 p.m. capitalastronomers.org. July 11 Stars Tonight, at the David M. Brown Planetarium, 1426 N. Quincy St., Arlington, adjacent to Washington-Lee High School. 7:30 p.m. $3 for children 12 and under and seniors 60 and over; $5 for adults. friendsoftheplanetarium.org. July 20 Astrophysicist Francesco Tombesi asks, Can Supermassive Black Holes Influence the Evolution of Entire Galaxies? at the University of Maryland Observatorys open house, College Park. 9 p.m. Star and planet viewing after the lecture, weather permitting. astro.umd.edu/openhouse. July 29 Paint the planet red, its Mars Day! Bring the kids and open your eyes and ears to learn about Earths rusty neighbor. The day features interactive exhibits and experts. National Air and Space Museum, National Mall. 10 a.m.3 p.m. airandspace.si.edu. July 31 There are red giant stars that guzzle planets whole. And Joleen Carlberg, a NASA postdoctoral fellow, wants to find them. Shell answer all of your questions in the Astronomy Chat Series. Phoebe Waterman Haas Observatory, National Air and Space Museum, National Mall. 11 a.m. airandspace.si.edu. Blaine Friedlander can be reached at PostSkyWatch@yahoo.com. During a 2012 public hearing on residency requirements for D.C. government workers, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), then chair of the D.C. Councils government operations committee, bluntly asserted: You want to run this city you have to live here. Shes not alone in that sentiment. D.C. officials have long contended that city residents should, as much as possible, constitute the D.C. governments workforce. They say that it makes sense to award jobs funded with D.C. tax dollars to qualified D.C. residents. This results in more tax revenue for the city and reduces the outflow of city salaries to the suburbs at the end of the workday. Hiring D.C. residents also helps take pressure off the D.C. budget because Congress prohibits the city from taxing the incomes of workers who live outside the nations capital. But besides fuss and fume about D.C. dollars circulating beyond city limits, what have the elected leaders done about it? The facts, please. To pin down information on the employment of D.C. residents vs. nonresidents within the D.C. government, I filed a freedom of information request with the Department of Human Resources (DHR), the citys personnel agency. Results received from the DHR suggest that city leaders have been all talk and little action. According to the DHR, nonresidents constitute a majority of the 35,302 employees in the various career, educational, excepted, executive, legal and management supervisory services of the D.C. government. Nonresidents hold that advantage despite a 10-point residency preference added to the employment scores of qualified District-resident applicants. Non-District residents dominated the D.C. government: 16,103 Marylanders, 3,579 Virginians and 429 residents of other jurisdictions vs. 15,191 D.C. residents, according to DHR data. Nonresidents also hold the majority of higher-paying jobs in the career service, based upon an examination of government pay-grade levels. For example, at Grade 11, where salaries range from $55,195 to $71,161, D.C. residents hold only 1,100 positions, while more than 1,500 are filled by non-D.C. residents. Likewise, at Grade 15, where salaries run from $98,697 to $139,288, non-D.C. residents hold 3,185 positions and D.C. residents 2,397. Similarly lopsided breakdowns are reflected in Grades 8 (starting salary $41,648) through 18 (starting salary $119,650). Arguably, D.C. government employment is a pathway to the middle class in Maryland, Virginia and points beyond. The DHR data also raise questions about the hiring system itself. The excepted and executive services represent the top tiers of the D.C. government. Most employees in the excepted service are on the mayors personal staff or serve in policy positions. These positions are filled noncompetitively. Executive service appointees, on the other hand, are agency heads who are subordinate to the mayor and serve at her pleasure. Excepted and executive service employees, however, have one thing in common: They are required, by city rules, to live in the District. They have 180 days from the date of their appointment to establish and provide proof of residency. According to 2016 data, 53 excepted service employees and 20 executive service employees live in Maryland, while 31 excepted service and five executive service employees live in Virginia. Responses for 2015 show similar results. The numbers cry out for explanation. So, too, the stark underrepresentation of D.C. residents in the governments broader workforce. What accounts for non-District residents filling most of the citys jobs? Are Marylanders, Virginians and other nonresidents getting hired because they are more qualified? Do D.C. residents lack the skills necessary to perform at higher levels of public service? How do those disparate resident vs. nonresident results reflect on us as a city our school system, training and job readiness? This week, I sought answers via email from Kevin Donahue, the deputy city administrator and deputy mayor who oversees the human resources department. Donahue replied: The DC Department of Human Resources (DCHR) and other District agencies have actively engaged District residents to not only increase District residents as employees, but to provide training and education in resume building and interviewing to support the Mayors initiative in creating pathways to the middle class. He added: Mayor Bowser launched the LEAP program in March 2015 to connect District residents to District government jobs. These are typically entry-level jobs, but there are some exceptions. For example, at [the Department of Public Works] more than 10 people are in training to be mechanics for District fleet vehicles. Donahue said that all of Bowsers executive and excepted service appointees live in the city or are still within the 180-day transition period. However, there are independent personnel authorities outside the mayors control, he noted, that also make excepted service appointments, and they can waive the residency requirement. Apparently those agencies are looking the other way. So, too, it would seem, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D), who did not respond to my request for comment on this dismal situation. So, in short, even if D.C. gained statehood tomorrow, nonresidents would still dominate this government of ours. How humbling is that? Read more from Colbert Kings archive. Mourners gather under a LGBT pride flag flying at half-staff for a candlelight vigil in remembrance for mass shooting victims in Orlando, in San Diego on June 12. (Mike Blake/Reuters) Much reporting on the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, including the June 14 front-page article Latino community hit hard, called it the deadliest mass shooting in American history. On April 12, 1864, at Fort Pillow, Tenn., hundreds of Union soldiers, many of them African Americans, surrendered to Confederate troops, only to be shot or bayoneted to death by them. It was called a massacre then, and I believe it was. This is not to demean victims of the horrific killings in Orlando, only to point out that the murder of gay people and black people are parts of American history that are shameful, to say the least. Cliff Harrison, Frederick Jim Yong Kim is president of the World Bank Group. The growing concern over the Zika virus highlights a frightening reality: The world remains ill-prepared for a fast-moving virus. In the United States, theres been much debate over releasing $1.1 billion in funding to tackle Zika, as more and more people are put at risk. Some have also called for allocating billions for a standing U.S. public health emergency fund to fight future outbreaks. These U.S.-led efforts are critically important. But as with Zika, Ebola, avian flu, swine flu and other pandemics that have affected the United States over the past decade, its likely that the next big one will start in a developing country. In those countries, weaker health systems and a lack of investment in preparedness leave all of us, no matter where we live, vulnerable to the spread of a deadly pandemic. Pandemics are a global security threat, and they demand a truly global response. This, in fact, is about to happen. The world will now be able to automatically send money, medical teams and lifesaving supplies to any of the 77 poorest countries to prevent a major outbreak from spreading and escalating. The newly created Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility will leverage money from wealthy countries, capital markets and the reinsurance industry, and use those funds if needed to mount a rapid early response to shut down an outbreak with pandemic potential and at a fraction of the cost of delayed action. This facility, which will be up and running later this year, will disburse money quickly through two routes. First, it will open up an entirely new insurance market: pandemic risk insurance. Poor countries will be covered against certain types of viruses expected to cause the majority of severe outbreaks, including Ebola. Once an outbreak meets predetermined criteria based on size, severity and speed, money will flow to the afflicted countries and international responders. Much like with other types of insurance, a small amount of money paid up front will provide countries with a much larger amount of support when its most needed. Second, in the event of emerging or more unpredictable types of outbreaks for which extensive data is not yet available, such as Zika, the facility can use cash to trigger a faster response. Either way, this means we no longer will rely on inevitably sluggish and lethally unpredictable political deliberations or pass-the-hat fundraising appeals, which usually come too little, too late. If this facility had existed in 2014 during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, we could have mobilized $100 million as early as July that year to accelerate the response. Instead, that level of funding did not begin to flow until three months later during which Ebola cases increased tenfold and eventually cost $10 billion and counting to U.S. and other taxpayers for emergency response, recovery efforts and economic losses to the affected countries. In addition to filling a critical financing gap, the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility will serve as a cornerstone in building a better global system to reduce future pandemic risks. The facility will complement the World Health Organizations new enhanced early-response efforts. It will require countries to develop strong response plans, and in so doing we hope it will also encourage greater global and national investments in preparedness including in more resilient national health systems and regional surveillance and detection networks. It will move us away from the much more costly and inefficient crisis-to-crisis management of pandemics toward a smarter, faster, better-coordinated and more effective response when needed. There is a high probability that the world will experience a severe outbreak in the next 10 to 15 years. Recent economic analysis suggests that the annualized global cost of a moderately severe to severe pandemic is roughly $570 billion, or 0.7 percent of global income with overall cost estimates of a single large pandemic as high as 5 percent of global gross domestic product, or $4 trillion. The world has well-developed global systems to respond quickly to other security risks, ranging from disasters to economic contagion. Yet pandemics the ultimate contagion have been one of the greatest unmanaged and uninsured global risks in the world. Until now. We cant change the speed of a hurricane or the magnitude of an earthquake, but we can change the trajectory of an outbreak. By having a global system at the ready to get money to the right place at the right time, we have the potential to save thousands even millions of lives and protect the global economy from trillions of dollars in losses. Terry Murrays assertion in the June 25 package of letters Democrats in the House take action on reforms that the National Rifle Association rightly recognizes that any gun restrictions will result in the banning of all guns is without merit. No state that has enacted some gun control laws has attempted, much less succeeded, in abolishing all guns. And his supportive reasoning that blood alcohol content standards for driving under the influence in Maryland have risen from 0.15 to 0.08 over the years has nothing to do with the gun issue or big government in general. If The Post was looking for an NRA supporter, perhaps it could have found one with at least a nodding acquaintanceship with logical thinking. Murray seemed to argue for more drunken driving as well as more guns. Thomas Korth, Silver Spring Dr KC is crazy! What is the CIAA? If you are an Amrikan then you might think it is some kind of a rehab programme for former CIA agents or an alumni association for the spooks. Our government tells us that it is the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority. But so far, our great warriors have only gone after low-level government employees. It even carries out sting operation against the small fishes while we have yet to hear about any sting operations against our netas and high-ranking civil servants. I guess it is easier to go after the flies with swatters than going after the tigers in mantri quarters or in their mansions. THE D.C. Council last month pulled back on plans to vote on a measure that would dictate how businesses in the city schedule their employees. We would like to think this was a sign of the council finally coming to its senses about what it demands of companies that try to operate in the city. But the fact that this cockamamie idea got as far as it did with its author promising hell be back for another try shows the troubling tendency of local lawmakers to get behind policies they think will burnish their progressive credentials with little regard for the real-world consequences. Council member Vincent B. Orange (D-At Large) sponsored the bill that would dictate the amount of advance notice major employers must give workers when scheduling shifts. It made it through committee, but Mr. Orange withdrew it from a scheduled vote; he said he needed to work with council members who had some questions and hoped to have it on the councils July 12 agenda. The measure, opposed by business interests on the sensible grounds it interferes with their ability to best run their operations, is patterned after a law, the only one of its kind in the country, enacted in San Francisco. What makes the measure so alarming is that it would be just one more obligation layered on those who do business in the District. The past three years have seen a burst of new laws requiring employers to pay higher salaries, provide new benefits and adhere to new regulations. They arrive at the same time the city is contemplating putting an additional tax on employers to give D.C. paid family leave; early proposals would provide for the most generous (i.e., expensive) leave program in the country. The thinking, one critic of the council told us, seems to be that if they have it in San Francisco, we should have it here. That, of course, ignores the reality that, unlike San Francisco, the District adjoins two states with whom it competes. The more the District stacks the deck against businesses, the more likely it is that companies and the taxes they pay and the jobs they provide will head to the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. At the very least, new companies contemplating a move to Washington will probably think long and hard about locating here for worry of what will next be demanded of them. Unfortunately, the council has given them good reason to pause. Moises Naim is a distinguished fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and served as Venezuelas minister of trade and industry from 1989 to 1990. Francisco Toro is the founder and editor in chief of the Caracas Chronicles news site. Today, Venezuela is the sick man of Latin America, buckling under chronic shortages of everything from food and toilet paper to medicine and freedom. Riots and looting have become commonplace, as hungry people vent their despair while the revolutionary elite lives in luxury, pausing now and then to order recruits to fire more tear gas into crowds desperate for food. Not long ago, the regime that Hugo Chavez founded was an object of fascination for progressives worldwide, attracting its share of another-world-is-possible solidarity activists. Today, as the country sinks deeper into the Western Hemispheres most intractable political and economic crisis, the time has come to ask some hard questions about how this regime so obviously thuggish in hindsight could have conned so many international observers for so long. Chavez was either admired as a progressive visionary who gave voice to the poor or dismissed as just another third-world buffoon. Reality was more complex than that: Chavez pioneered a new playbook for how to bask in global admiration even as he hollowed out democratic institutions on the sly. Step one was his deft manipulation of elections. Chavez realized early that, as long as he kept holding and winning elections, nobody outside Venezuela would ask too many questions about what he did with his power in the interim. And so he mastered the paradoxical art of destroying democracy one election at a time. Venezuelans have gone to the polls 19 times since 1999, and chavismo has won 17 of those votes. The regime has won by stacking the election authorities with malleable pro-government officials, by enmeshing its supporters in a web of lavishly petro-financed patronage and by intimidating and marginalizing its opponents. It worked for more than a decade until it didnt work anymore. After every election, another little piece of the constitution would be chipped away: Courts and oversight bodies were stacked high with supporters, checks and balances stripped, basic freedoms eroded. The key was the torrent of oil dollars that poured into the country during the long oil boom of 2003 to 2014, complemented by massive debt now estimated at $185 billion. (Argentina defaulted on a $100 billion debt.) An enormous import-led consumption boom created an illusion of harmony even as the economy crumbled just out of sight. When oil prices fell, the illusion ended, and the government fell back on Plan B: Allow elections to go on, but strip virtually all power from every institution it lost control of. When Caracas elected an opposition mayor, his powers were stripped out from under him, and he was eventually jailed. When voters mischievously gave the opposition a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, a newly packed Supreme Tribunal took to overturning its acts. The governments faith in democracy lasted exactly as long as its majority. Something similar happened with the media. The government learned early on that shutting down dissident media carried major political costs. So it turned to cronies to buy up critical outlets and rein in their journalists. As dozens of critical journalists whove been intimidated or forced out of their jobs can attest, media freedom in Venezuela today is a sham: The airwaves have been scrubbed clean of dissent. Under Fidel Castros tutelage, Chavez successfully cultivated a pro-poor, anti-American posture . Endless professions of concern for the poor followed furious denunciations of gringo imperialism. But this, too, was a charade. We now know that the fiery speeches professing unconditional love and support for the poor were a ruse to deflect attention from the wholesale looting of the state. In fact, more than $100 billion in oil profits stashed in a National Development Fund were simply never accounted for. The regimes actions reveal a deep, even cruel contempt for the poor. This year, the protests of the destitute have been met with open violence and repression while regime-connected politicians run their luxury yachts aground after drunken romps. While newborn babies die for lack of simple medicines at state hospitals, the stacked Supreme Tribunal censures the opposition-run parliament for asking for international humanitarian assistance. You would think that preying on the worlds largest oil reserves would be enough for even the most voracious of kleptocratic elites, but no. The regime is also deeply involved in drug trafficking. The DEA has put multiple high-ranking officials on its wanted lists. Late last year, a sting operation in Haiti recorded two of the first ladys nephews offering to sell hundreds of kilos of cocaine to buyers who turned out to be undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents. The two sit in a cell in New York, awaiting trial. Their aunt, the first lady, has responded by accusing the United States of kidnapping them. Youd think the international community would have run out of patience for these kinds of shenanigans long ago. Sadly, the Venezuelan crisis is also highlighting a cruel reality of the 21st century: The international community wrings its hands, but its professed solidarity is thin. Talk is cheap; the millions of innocent Venezuelans who fell victim to chavismos long con need more than declarations. For the newborns who have died from medicine shortages, its already too late. The least we can do to honor their memory is to say it loud and clear: Venezuelas democratic facade has crumbled altogether, and the predatory dictatorship it used to cover up is now plain for all to see. FOR SEVERAL years, the Obama administrations Syria policy has been stuck in a cycle of failure. Secretary of State John F. Kerry negotiates deals with Russia to end the fighting or create a new government in Damascus, while warning that if they are not respected by Russian President Vladimir Putin or Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the United States will consider other options, such as stepping up support for Syrian rebels. In every case, the Russian and Syrian regimes have betrayed their commitments, continuing to bomb civilian areas, employ chemical weapons and deny aid to besieged communities. And no wonder: Each time the U.S. response has been to return to the Russians, offering more concessions and pleading for another deal. And so it goes again. Senior U.S. officials have publicly confirmed that Syria and Russia have grossly violated a cessation of hostilities negotiated by Mr. Kerry in February. They have continued to attack Western-backed rebels, deliberately targeted hospitals and other civilian infrastructure, and blocked aid convoys to besieged towns where children are starving to death. Mr. Kerry warned that the consequence of such breaches would be a Plan B of stepped-up U.S. support for anti-Assad rebels. Instead, as The Posts Josh Rogin has reported, the administration delivered a new proposal to Moscow on Monday that offers Mr. Putin what he has been seeking for months: greater U.S.-Russian collaboration in targeting those anti-Assad rebels deemed to be terrorists. In exchange, Russia would again promise to restrain its own and the Assad regimes bombing of areas where Western-backed forces are located. As several experts on Syria told The Post, it is a deal whose only tangible result would likely be the reinforcement of the Assad regime whose relentless brutality has empowered the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. The U.S.-Russian collaboration would target an offshoot of al-Qaeda called Jabhat al-Nusra, whose forces are fighting the Assad regime in several areas, including the key city of Aleppo. In practice, the Jabhat al-Nusra forces are intermixed with other rebel units; many Syrian fighters joined the presumed terrorists for practical rather than ideological reasons. An assault on them could have the effect of allowing the Assad regime to achieve what it says is its foremost objective, the recapture of Aleppo, tipping the balance of the civil war in its favor. The anti-Assad rebels backed by the West could be decisively undermined, even if Russia and the Syrian regime respected the no-bombing zones which, given the history of past agreements, is a most unlikely prospect. Administration officials claim they have no alternative but to go along with Mr. Putin. The former Plan B, more support for rebels, would merely lead to more fighting with little result, they say. Its the same logic that President Obama has used to deflect proposals for U.S. action in support of anti-Assad forces since 2012 even as the country, and the region around it, spiraled deeper and deeper into bloodshed, chaos and humanitarian crisis. Mr. Obama appears fiercely determined to learn nothing from his tragic mistakes in Syria. The latest U.S. proposal, if accepted by Mr. Putin, would compound the damage. Deep down, Angela Merkel hopes that Britains exit from the European Union can be reversed, even though she knows this might be against all the odds. The German chancellor holds the key to whether Britain can retain a special relationship with the E.U. Her legacy as a European leader will depend in large part on how she manages it. For now, Merkel remains Europes undisputed leader. Her handling of the refugee and euro crises led to nasty backlashes against Germany and dented her reputation, but this emergency is different: Brexit affects every E.U. member and those wanting to join it. Britain has challenged Europes post-1945 architecture built on peace, democracy, free-market economies and solidarity. These are now all up for grabs as Euroskeptic and populist movements challenge these achievements. They believe individual countries can pursue their own social, political and economic agendas, as if such policies would make them fit to deal with globalization. As a result, Merkel, not the leaders of the E.U. institutions who are largely unknown by most Europeans, is the only leader who still has the authority to shape the outcome of the Brexit negotiations and rescue the European project from the Euroskeptics. It will be a stiff challenge: Not only is she alone at the top because of the euro and refugee crises. But also, in all her years in office, she has never given a major speech about what she really thinks about Europe and its future. In the aftermath of the Brexit vote, Merkel has already set the agenda. She neither seeks revenge against Britain nor seeks negotiations that would speed up Britains exit from the E.U. I would not fight now for a short time frame, she said. That distinguishes her from the European Commission, the E.Us executive, and the European Parliament, which want to wrap up the talks as quickly as possible once the next British prime minister triggers Article 50 of the E.U. treaty that sets in motion the procedures to leave the bloc. Nor does Merkel, regrettably, support a European convention a kind of Constitution for Europe that is long overdue. That would set out once and for all what the E.U. stands for. Instead, vintage Merkel, she wants to play for time. She needs to win over many countries, especially those not belonging to the eurozone, such as Poland. They dread the prospect of Britain leaving. They identify with Britains approach to economies based on competition, tight monetary policies and open economies. And many of them have tens of thousands of their citizens living in Britain whose futures are now in jeopardy. They want and need Britain to stay in the E.U. They also dread the idea that France and Germany might race ahead to establish a two-speed Europe that would consist of an inner core of eurozone countries, leaving non-users of the euro currency as second-class members. That means putting a much-needed fiscal and banking union in place to underpin the euro. But for now, further integration, despite its need, is off the table. Euroskeptic movements and leaders would make hay were it to proceed. Merkel also seeks to preserve the security and strategic role Britain has played. Take Russia: Merkel has been instrumental in keeping Europe united over sanctions against Russia. But now France, Italy and Merkels own coalition partners, the Social Democrats led by Sigmar Gabriel and foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, want the sanctions to be phased out. With London sidelined, Merkel loses a valuable ally when it comes to her policy toward Vladimir Putin. She must try to sway Poland, Europes sixth-largest country, led by a nationalist Euroskeptic government that has shifted its foreign policy away from Germany to Britain. Brexit means that Poland needs Germany more than ever before, especially when it comes to Russia. The second big strategic issue is the transatlantic relationship. Britain has had a long and special relationship with the United States. Yes, it has weakened, especially because of the U.S.-led war against Iraq and the U.S. shift toward Asia. Nevertheless, inside the E.U., Britain strengthened the Atlanticist faction. A British exit from the E.U. would be a blow to U.S. influence in Europe, said James Sherr, a senior associate fellow at Chatham House. It would also strengthen the latent anti-American sentiments in Germany. Again, Merkels weak flank is her own coalition. Steinmeier, desperate to regain the pacifist wing of his flagging Social Democratic Party, has accused NATO of saber-rattling after it held maneuvers in Poland and other countries in Eastern Europe ahead of the NATO summit in Warsaw. Steinmeiers comments tap into anti-NATO and anti-American sentiments inside a party desperately seeking anything that will improve its dismal standing in the polls. This anti-Americanism feeds into the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership talks that are a crucial pillar of the transatlantic relationship. Outgoing British prime minister David Cameron campaigned for TTIP because he believed it would strengthen the West and serve British and European trade interests. Merkel has been lukewarm, unwilling to take on her opponents. Brexit changes everything. If Merkel really wants to make a difference either by trying to keep Britain in or negotiate an elegant exit her legacy will be sealed only by declaring once and for all how she sees Europes future. That speech is long overdue. NO DOUBT its difficult to refuse a visit with a former president of the United States. Still, Attorney General Loretta Lynch should have found a polite way to excuse herself when Bill Clinton dropped by her airplane, parked next to his at a Phoenix airport Monday. Given that Ms. Lynch has ultimate responsibility for the federal investigation related to Hillary Clintons use of a private email server to conduct official business while secretary of state, even an impromptu chat between the attorney general and the candidates husband was bound to create questionable appearances even if its actual content was purely social, as Ms. Lynch maintains and as we believe. To her credit, Ms. Lynch acknowledged her misstep Friday in an interview with The Posts Jonathan Capehart at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. She described the cloud it created over the Justice Departments objectivity as inaccurate but nevertheless painful. Equally appropriately, she said she expected to follow the lead of career prosecutors at the department in deciding what, if any, legal consequences Ms. Clinton should face due to the transmission of classified information via the unsecured server. Our view of the matter, stated in previous editorials and supported by a fair reading of the law and publicly available evidence, is that Ms. Clinton committed a grave error in judgment, compounded by a willful violation of internal State Department rules designed to ensure records were properly preserved with maximum protection against cybersecurity risks. She has been less than clear and forthright about all of this in her public statements. However, her conduct does not seem to rise to the level of indictable crime, because she did not set up and use the server with the legally requisite criminal intent or even with gross negligence, as it has been defined in relevant case law. The main point now, however, is that the Justice Department needs to get on with telling the public what it has concluded about Ms. Clintons culpability. Ms. Lynchs faux pas is but a relatively minor example of the sort of political accidents that are still waiting to happen as long as this matter remains up in the air. Of far greater moment is the fact that Ms. Clinton is a candidate for president and, indeed, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee. She and, more importantly, the voters who would ultimately judge her deserve some clarity about her legal liability one way or the other. It appears that a direct interview with the former secretary is one of the last pieces that the Federal Bureau of Investigation needs to finish this puzzle. Both Ms. Clinton and the FBI should make it happen as soon as possible, and then the latter should publish its findings with all deliberate speed. The Prince George's County joint public safety honor guard presented the colors during the 12th inaugural ceremony of the Prince Georges county executive and the Prince Georges County Council at the County Administration Building on Dec. 1, 2014, in Upper Marlboro. (Mark Gail/For The Washington Post) Members of the Prince Georges Provider Council, a collaborative of 25 organizations with more than 1,500 employees and serving nearly 2,500 individuals with developmental disabilities in Prince Georges County, were dismayed to learn that the county failed to allocate funding in its fiscal 2017 budget to help their member agencies maintain services. In 2013, the county enacted legislation mandating a higher minimum wage than the state, and agencies are struggling to comply. This is the second year we have asked for help from elected officials in Prince Georges County. We serve the countys most vulnerable citizens, people who need committed and caring staff. Our staff members are not minimum-wage employees, but they are affected by the wage increase. They require extensive training and are directly responsible for the health and welfare of others. They are responsible for peoples lives. Unlike other nonprofits, we cannot make up deficits from higher wage expenditures by raising our prices. Our funding is set by the state, based on the Maryland minimum wage. We also cannot cut services; we have regulations and mandates outlining the services we must provide. We have no other option than to try to obtain the funding that is needed from Prince Georges County. In meetings with county representatives, we clearly communicated our unique fiscal position and the impact on people with disabilities and their families without supplementary funding, yet our efforts to gain much-needed support were unsuccessful. We find it difficult to believe that, despite our efforts and anticipated revenue from the new MGM casino, no additional funding was allocated to assist us. We believe county officials have a responsibility to protect their citizens with disabilities and the hard-working staff members who care for them every day. The Provider Council recently surveyed our member agencies, most of which face serious operating deficits, to determine the immediate ramifications of the lack of funding. The results of that survey are as follows: Several providers plan to downsize their facilities and/or group homes in the county and either relocate or close, resulting in not only a reduction of services but also the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars of commerce and investment in the county economy. Other providers plan to cut pay for tenured staff and to reduce administrative positions. Hiring freezes may be instituted, increasing stress and employee workloads. There will also be cuts to staff benefits such as insurance, educational assistance and employer-sponsored retirement plans. When providers were asked whether they would be able to support new applicants with disabilities seeking assistance, the overwhelming response was that there would be a palpable decrease in services for new individuals, including youths graduating from the school system. Agencies that will able to provide support to incoming individuals indicated that those services would be limited, specifically that they would be unable to accept new individuals with challenging behaviors and other intensive needs because of a lack of funding to hire and retain staff with the capacity to effectively serve people with higher needs. While some providers accepted transitioning youths into their programs this year, with services starting this month, several providers decided to wait on supplemental funding from the county before committing to serve transitioning youths. With no supplementary funding from the county, there are people with developmental disabilities who graduated from K-12 schools last month with no access to services. These reductions will have an immediate effect on family members, some of whom may have to leave jobs to take care of their adult children. Some providers who made early commitments to serve transitioning youths did so in good faith that county funding would be forthcoming. In the absence of that funding, 30 percent of those providers report that they may have to make the difficult decision to withdraw those commitments. Adding to the growing crisis, 40 percent of the providers responding to our survey said they would be unable to accept transitioning youths next year. The remaining 60 percent may consider accepting transitioning youths next year, but only if those individuals do not have extensive needs. Thats because of insufficient funding to ensure the highly qualified staff support for people with intensive behavioral or medical needs. The countys decision to deny additional funding for providers has started a landslide of pay, benefit, commerce and service cuts. We sincerely hope our elected leaders take a hard look at this situation. When the county fails its most vulnerable citizens, it fails all of its citizens. The writer is interim chairman of the Prince Georges Provider Council and chief executive of Compass Inc. I have been disappointed with some of the articles that have appeared on The Posts Religion page on Saturdays. I often find them to be critical, negative and controversial. But the June 25 essay Choosing a life of faith and community, about a couple leaving their upper-middle-class lives to become Amish, restored my confidence in the selections for that page. The essay was positive, inspirational and instructive and one that I hope was read by other subscribers. I thank Jeff Smith and Bill Moser for sharing this story. I look forward to reading more moving articles such as this on the Religion page. There are enough negative stories in The Post, and that page is the perfect place to provide inspiration. Suzie McKay, Silver Spring How can George F. Will get away with repeating the lie that President Obama said, If youve got a business, you didnt build that [Purdue has the president America needs, op-ed, June 16]? The full context was clear: You didnt get where you are on your own, you had a helping teacher, you have the public infrastructure (the object that referred to the roads and bridges cited in the previous sentence, not ones own business). The Post fact-checked that at the time. Columnists should be reminded not to repeat debunked lies. Lets call out lies wherever they appear in our discourse. Leslie Miles, Bethesda George F. Will, citing brief, out-of-context excerpts from President Obamas extensive remarks in 2012 and 2016 speeches, averred that Obama and other progressives fundamentally believe that an individuals success is what society did, with you contributing a bit as Will put it. Yet in the referenced 2012 speech, Obama also said: The point is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. And in the 2016 commencement remarks cited, Obama told Howard University graduates: Youve all worked hard to reach this day. . . . You volunteered, you interned. You held down one, two, maybe three jobs . . . [but] make no mistake, Class of 2016 youve got plenty of work to do. Throughout his life, in words and deeds, Obama has validated the vital importance of an individual giving his all. As he put it plainly to students in 2009: At the end of the day . . . none of it [supportive parents, teachers, schools] will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities . . . and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. . . . No ones written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. Indeed, in contrast with Wills disingenuous dissertation, Obama proved what he and like-minded Americans put forward: In the United States, individual responsibility and hard work exercised in a free, fair-dealing and civil society afford wide-open opportunities and amazing destinies. Daniel P. Sheerin, College Park Dan Balzs June 28 front-page The Take column, British revolt exposes crisis in democracies across the globe, had me worried that the sky was falling in democracies worldwide. Mr. Balz pointed out some problem areas in a few countries, including Belgium, Brazil and Spain, and discussed the British vote to leave the European Union, which we all know is a serious issue. I am a retired commissioned Foreign Service officer and have traveled and lived in many countries around the world, including communist, socialist and dictator-run governments. The countries that are in real trouble are those that suppress the voices of the people and democracy, such as Syria, Iraq, North Korea and Zimbabwe. Democracies are a messy business but can and do eventually serve the will of the people. As Winston Churchill is often quoted, Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all of the others. Mark A. Smith, Williamsburg, Va. Mark P. Schlefer is a retired maritime and shipping lawyer. On Independence Day, it will be 50 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act into law. Every member of his Cabinet had recommended a veto. The chief counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee told me that just before signing the bill, Johnson remarked: I may be making a mistake. But he signed anyway. I was part of a small group of Washington lawyers who drafted the bill and worked to get it enacted. We never set out to solve a national problem, but the obstacles we encountered show how closed the government was before FOIA. We often needed government documents to build a case but were rebuffed with the assertion that documents were internal to the agency and confidential. The issue I faced at the time arose from the Pacific Far East Line, a shipping client of mine. Some of its vessels served Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, where they loaded raw sugar, rubber and coconuts. The Pacific Far East Line wanted to stop at the Mariana Islands and asked me to file the tariff documentation with the Federal Maritime Commission. A few days after filing it, I got a call from the commissions staff advising me that the tariff was illegal. I asked who had made the determination and was told it was the general counsel, James Pimper. May I see a copy of his opinion? I asked. A day or two later the response came back: Mr. Pimper regards his opinion as confidential. Do you really mean his opinion of the law governing the tariff is confidential? Yes. How can you keep the law confidential? I believe the tariff complies with the commissions rules and am advising my client to proceed with the Marianas service. Mr. Pimper can file suit to stop the service, but he will have to disclose his reasons to the court. I then went to the practice and procedure committee of the American Bar Association to suggest drafting a bill to permit access to government documents. I was told that two lawyers on the committee were already working on such a bill and was invited to join them. Other lawyers had had problems with administrative agencies as outrageous as mine. We drafted the original version of the Freedom of Information Act. The committee chair took it to the American Bar Association convention in Chicago, where it won overwhelming approval. I had heard that Rep. John E. Moss (D-Calif.) had been trying for two years to dislodge documents from the administration, so I brought him the draft. I had planned just to leave it with him, but he asked me to sit. After reading it slowly and carefully, he looked up and said, Mr. Schlefer, Ill deliver the House. You deliver on the Senate. I had no idea how to deliver the Senate. However, I asked Bud Fensterwald Jr., chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee and a former roommate of a college friend, if the committee might hold a hearing on the bill. He approached the chairman, Sen. James Eastland, a conservative Democrat from Mississippi. Eastland agreed. As I recall, The Post and the New York Times both declined to support the bill openly because they feared it would compromise their sources, although important reporters at each paper thought it should be supported. The Wall Street Journal, which suspected corruption in the Small Business Administrations office in Richmond, wanted to obtain pertinent documents and supported the bill. The television networks said they would support it if an exception were made for financial information submitted to the government in confidence; we were not interested in getting such information and agreed. At the hearing, representatives of several government agencies voiced concern about internal agency memorandums. These were exactly the kind of documents we thought should be available Pimpers legal opinion holding the Pacific Far East Lines tariff illegal was such a memorandum so we could not agree to that exception. But during a recess, we thought of a compromise: We would exempt from FOIA those internal agency documents that courts would not order to be produced in litigation with an agency. The bill also included exceptions for some other material, notably classified documents, documents related to criminal investigations and personnel records. The presidents and vice presidents offices were excluded from the definition of a government agency, so the Freedom of Information Act did not apply to them. To his everlasting credit, Johnson signed the bill over the objection of his Cabinet. The fact that he picked the Fourth of July for signing it suggests that, despite his comment, he did not think he was making a mistake. The Freedom of Information Act has become a principal engine for opening government actions to public view. According to the group Freedominfo.org, 93 nations have passed freedom of information acts. The act has been the basis of well over a dozen major Supreme Court decisions, as well as important lower-court decisions. In just one example, the Electronic Frontier Foundation brought a FOIA case in 2011 that had a major effect on the secrecy of the court itself. It sought an 85-page ruling by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Judge John D. Bates, a judge on that court, ordered the release of the opinion, which held that the National Security Agency had been violating the Constitution for several years by collecting emails and other Internet communications of Americans. The opinion declared that part of the problem was a pattern of misrepresentations by agency officials in submissions to the secret court. As for the Pacific Far East Lines call in the Marianas, the Maritime Commission never brought an action to stop the service. Forest users involved in pangolin conservation Community forest users in Neelkantha Municipality of Dhading have launched an initiative to conserve endangered pangolins. If you walk around campus at Washington and Lee University, my alma mater, youll see everything youd expect from an elite liberal arts college in rural America: idyllic red brick buildings juxtaposed against a perfectly manicured green lawn, a mostly white student body exchanging laughs as they happily mingle on school grounds, a mix of old and nascent intellectuals debating the merits of cultural relativity in an interventionalist world. That is, until you stumble into Lee Chapel, the eponymous lecture hall, once a burial site, that honors the great Southern general and former school president, to find its walls bearing those pale stains that signal the fresh absence of a long-hanging piece of wall art. Though not literal, these stains represent the Confederate battle flags removed two years ago this week by the university after decades lining its most cherished building. Installed four score and six years ago (just one year off from the ultimate irony), the flags proudly flew until the universitys president, Kenneth Ruscio, ordered them to be taken down despite widespread resistance from alumni, students and other groups. This bold move preempted the wave of Confederate flag controversy that has since confronted hundreds of Southern institutions, many of which share Washington and Lees nominal affiliation with Robert E. Lee. But whether or not the flags are waving, Washington and Lee remains unwavering in its commitment to its latter namesake. Lee Chapel still hosts Lees corpse and the schools most important events. Lees famous honor system (that every student be a gentleman) still governs academic life. Campus newspapers still vehemently endorse his character. He is held in demigodly regard by former and current students alike, joining their Southern brethren in undying support for their sacred war hero. When you ask Lee loyalists the liberal-arts-educated ones, at least how they can support a man who fought to uphold slavery, nowadays youll likely hear an evolved position that insists upon relativity and nuance: You have to treat historical events in context, one fellow alumnus told me. Slavery was a widely accepted institution in the mid-1800s; it was just the way things were. Lees support for and participation in it was no less honorable than his contemporaries, or even our Founding Fathers. In a country whose race relations still bear the residue of its original sin, this stance has become a go-to talking point for Southern apologists clinging to their heritage by caveating its slave-owning roots. Its a convenient and even slightly empathetic perspective that rids them of the cognitive dissonance we so often experience with historical heroes made ethically questionable by the passing years. But it is through this discomfiting, cognitively dissonant lens that Ruscio has implored Lee loyalists to look back on their favorite Confederate general. Affection for and criticism of historical figures living in complicated times are not mutually exclusive positions, he reminded the Washington and Lee community in 2014. Lee was an imperfect individual living in imperfect times. Lee deserves, and his record can withstand, an honest appraisal by those who understand the complexities of history. In these words, Ruscio rejected the tone-deaf idol worship that has become the noisiest narrative for those defending Lee. Without asking them to jettison their reverence entirely, he insisted on viewing history not through rose-colored glasses but corrective lenses (as it were) to overcome our skewed vision toward and blind loyalty to a man just as human just as morally inconsistent as the rest of us. He requested that they treat slavery not as a justifiable blotch on Lees legacy, but as an untenable shortcoming among otherwise honorable contributions that should make their socially constructed pedestals wobble a bit. Two years since Ruscio removed the Confederate battle flags from Lee Chapel and left those figurative stains on its walls and its namesake, the country has taken important if symbolic steps to remove the far more visible stains left on American society by its most heinous atrocity. Yet in a time and playing field still unleveled by slavery and its apologists, we can no longer make excuses for those who perpetuated its institution, however gallant we know them to be. Yes, we should still brandish Lees accomplishments with the well-deserved, crowdsourced zeal were accustomed to; but qualifying his ties to slavery as a mere product of his time should fall on deaf American ears not least because the cries of our oppressed brothers and sisters of color still echo from disturbingly close range. Adam Lewis is a Brooklyn-based writer and 2010 graduate of Washington and Lee University. In her June 28 Metro column, Despite Supreme Court ruling, McDonnell guilty in publics eye, Petula Dvorak decried the ravenous way former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell (R) and his wife devoured the shiny things dangled before them by a Virginia businessman. The businessman did not snare a state research project, his product was not included in the state health plan, and he did not receive a state contract. All he received was the opportunity to make his pitch to state officials, hardly a crime. Mr. McDonnell never told a state employee to give the businessman what he wanted. We know that because, despite a Herculean effort, federal prosecutors didnt produce evidence of that at trial. While the governors (and his wifes) actions were shameful, at the time they were not illegal under Virginia law. The significance of the Supreme Courts unanimous decision is that there is a common-sense meaning for the term official act as used in the federal bribery law under which the governor and his wife were charged. The court correctly decided that there must be some substance to what the public official does or agrees to do in return for a bribe to support a conviction under the federal bribery law. The performance of mere courtesies for a constituent, such as arranging meetings with state officials, is insufficient. The Supreme Courts unanimous decision is a victory for the rule of law. It should be praised, not lampooned. Grady K. Carlson, Vienna THREE YEARS ago, Pope Francis charted a new course in compassion for the Roman Catholic Church when, in response to a question about gay priests, he asked, Who am I to judge? This week, I became we. The question is: If a person who has that condition, who has goodwill, and who looks for God, who are we to judge? Francis said in an airplane news conference Sunday. The popes choice to switch from the singular to the plural was promising in itself. But Francis went further. I think the church must not only apologize . . . to a gay person it offended, but we must apologize to the poor, to women who have been exploited, to children forced into labor, he said. Empathy for the oppressed has always been a hallmark of Franciss papacy. In this case, the pontiff has acknowledged that, at times, the church has been and can still be the oppressor whether by discriminating against gay people, treating women in its ranks as second-class citizens or preaching clerical celibacy while protecting child abusers in the priesthood. His comments show a long-overdue willingness on the part of the church to grapple with its troubled past and to try to do better in the present. Of course, doing better will require more than just words. At synods and other church gatherings, Francis has forced conversations on contested issues the Catholic Church had been dodging for decades from homosexuality to divorce to contraception. But he has not developed doctrine that would change the status quo. Even an initiative to try bishops who sheltered pedophile priests in a Vatican tribunal has stalled though Francis announced last month in an apostolic letter that those officials should be removed from office. The church has a long way to go, and Francis is responsible for getting it there. But already he has offered more to the gay community than has ever been offered before. Certainly, Francis has split sharply from his predecessor, who as a cardinal called homosexuality an intrinsic moral evil. And words alone can force at least some change: Pope John Paul II, for example, is credited with helping inspire the Polish people to shake off Soviet control. Franciss rhetoric could inspire Catholics around the world to change their own communities. In his closing address at the 2014 Synod of the Family, Francis urged church traditionalists to open themselves to a God of surprises. The surprises the pope has given us so far have been more than welcome. The June 24 news headline Asian development bank finds its niche may have been misleading. The article was about the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, founded under Chinese initiative, but the headline could have suggested to the readers that it was about the Asian Development Bank, which opened in 1966. I hope neither bank took offense. Ziauddin Choudhury, Potomac I was dismayed to see the lead headline on the June 16 front page: Trump hints at changes in gun laws. While I agree that any Republican talking about possible changes in gun laws is news, I believe the much bigger and more consequential story was that Senate Democrats were doing something rather historic with their filibuster, led by Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.), to force the Republican-led Senate to consider and vote on changes to gun laws. There should have been a headline about the courageous filibuster instead of burying that news in the middle of the article. It appears The Post is pandering to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and using his name for an attention-grabbing headline, despite his attacks on The Post and his constantly changing positions on a variety of issues. Yes, it is noteworthy that a leading Republican hinted at some sort of change, but Trump is in no position to change anything. It was much more newsworthy that elected officials with actual power were trying to do something positive and productive. Donald Caldwell, Silver Spring I enjoyed Alexandra Petris June 18 op-ed, How to cover Trump honestly and fairly: A style guide. But, on behalf of math nerds everywhere, I have to point out her error in defining the transitive property of Trump: Whenever Donald Trump loves something, it loves him back. Mathematicians call this the symmetric property, e.g., if x=y, then y=x. The transitive property always involves three elements, for example: if x=y and y=z, then x=z. So the transitive property of Trump would be: Trump loves women, and women love Hillary Clinton; therefore, Trump loves Hillary Clinton. I should also point out the reflexive property, which states x=x. The reflexive property of Trump? Trump loves Trump. I suggest this is the only property that holds true for Trump. Carol Applegate, Reston The usual thing when a political party nominates someone whom commentators dont particularly like is to explain why the nominee isnt so bad after all and in any case is a long sight better than the other partys candidate. (The same goes for politicians and voters.) The Posts commentators on the right Kathleen Parker, Michael Gerson, Charles Krauthammer and George F. Will have all recognized that these are not normal times and have refused to make the pivot. As a dyed-in-the-(humanely raised)-wool liberal, I have to say Ive been astounded by and grateful for their ability to stand on principle and oppose Donald Trump. If only our elected politicians had the same integrity. Robert Oerter, Hyattsville IN THE landmark $15 billion settlement Volkswagen struck with the federal government and the state of California on Tuesday, the massive automaker admitted no liability. But it is clear enough that the company brazenly defied the law, unfairly undercut its competitors, cynically betrayed its consumers and damaged the countrys air quality. It deserves to pay for tricking drivers and regulators into thinking its clean diesel vehicles met federal air pollution standards and it will. This is, on balance, a just result. But the Volkswagen affair is not over. The government still needs to decide how to spend the money the company will give it; on that score, officials have already made at least one mistake. Moreover, Volkswagen may still be on the hook for more penalties, which raises the possibility that the government will end up being excessively and counterproductively punitive. The bulk of Tuesdays settlement $10 billion will go to Volkswagen consumers who bought two-liter cars equipped with defeat devices, which allow them to appear to pass emissions tests when they should not. The company must fix or buy back at least 85 percent of the half-million offending vehicles in the United States, and it must compensate buyers for deceiving them about their cars capabilities. Volkswagen will also have to make good with the environment. Its rigged cars have been spewing dangerous nitrogen oxides into the air at well past legal limits ; the chemicals form dangerous smog and soot and are linked to a variety of health conditions. It will have to pay $2.7 billion to fund projects that reduce this sort of air pollution retrofits of old diesel freight engines, for example to make up for what it is responsible for emitting. So far, so good. Yet, on top of all that, the government also got the company to agree to pay $2 billion into a fund that will promote zero-emissions vehicles electric or fuel-cell cars, for example and the infrastructure environmentalists believe is crucial to making them more attractive to consumers. This is less defensible. The governments desire to drive money into clean energy is laudable, but there is no reason it needs to be earmarked for zero-emissions vehicles. The government already has significant power to progressively cut back carbon emissions from cars and trucks without specifying in detail the sorts of vehicles consumers must drive. There are, meanwhile, emissions-cutting investments that would likely offer more bang for the buck promoting various types of energy efficiency, for example. Volkswagen also faces the potential of more penalties, in part because this settlement covers most but not all of the crooked cars it sold. Tuesdays settlement equals nearly a fifth of the companys value. Just paying for this piece will probably require it to slash its research-and-development budget. More penalties to come might make the company incapable of investing in new models that could be cleaner and more efficient. The government has already sent a strong message. Going forward, the regulators and the courts must be careful not to hobble one of the worlds largest carmakers. Jonathan Zimmerman teaches education and history at New York University. His book Campus Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know will be published in August. Last month, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that universities can use race in making admissions decisions. In his majority opinion, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote that student body diversity at the modern university was central to its identity and educational mission. Hes right. But its also fair to question how well universities are fulfilling this mission, especially in light of the protests that swept U.S. campuses last year. Over the past 30 years, universities have become vastly more diverse. But students of color continue to denounce them as insensitive, inhospitable and hostile to nonwhites. What can we do about that? Most university administrations have responded to the diversity challenge in a predictable way: by hiring administrators. More than 100 institutions now employ chief diversity officers, who oversee an army of staffers at multicultural centers, counseling offices and so on. Hundreds of schools offer diversity training and other programming, aimed at changing the overall racial climate on campus. But theres no strong evidence that these costly efforts have changed anything. Examining nearly 200 studies of diversity training in the corporate and educational world conducted over the past 40 years, psychologist Katerina Bezrukova found no indication that they affected participants racial attitudes over the long term. And in his 2008 book, The Diversity Challenge, psychologist Jim Sidanius tracked 2,000 students at the richly diverse University of California at Los Angeles and was unable to discern any effect positive or negative from the universitys extensive multicultural programming. But Sidanius did find that students who lived with a member of another race showed significant gains in the comfort levels they exhibited around different groups. They were also more likely to make friends with people outside their own race. Likewise, recent research by Dartmouth College economist Bruce Sacerdote showed that interracial freshmen roommate pairs were more likely to interact with members of different races than were freshmen who roomed with someone of the same race. Unfortunately, more colleges are allowing freshmen to choose their own roommates. And, unsurprisingly, almost everyone who does that selects someone of the same race. Many schools are also offering single rooms to freshmen, who happily seize the opportunity if they can afford it to avoid the hassle of living with someone else. So Ive got a simple proposal: Instead of expending yet more resources on multicultural programming, lets generate multicultural roommate pairings. All freshmen roommates should be randomly assigned, as in the past. And we should bar or discourage freshmen from taking single rooms, so that theyre forced to live with another person. These days, theres a good chance that the other person will be someone of another race. The number of African American college students in the United States tripled between 1976 and 2012, when African Americans went from 10 percent to 15 percent of the undergraduate population. Hispanic representation rose even more sharply, from 4 percent in 1976 to 15 percent the same share as African Americans in 2012. The share of Asian students increased most dramatically of all, from just 2 percent in 1976 to 6 percent in 2012. To be sure, minorities remain underrepresented at selective public and private institutions. But thats all the more reason to randomize freshman roommates at these schools, where research has also indicated that minority students may benefit academically from cross-racial pairings. A study of Ohio State University freshmen found that African American students who came to college with high standardized test scores earned better grades if they had a white roommate than if they had a black one. As one black student suggested, blacks who lived with whites might be motivated to work harder to avoid confirming negative stereotypes about minority academic performance. Meanwhile, single rooms decrease the odds of students getting to know people different from themselves. They might do so on the Internet, of course, but only in a superficial way that allows either party to disappear whenever he or she feels like it. Living with someone forces you to engage in the messy, unpredictable work of interactions that students call FTF (face to face) or IRL (in real life.) And theyre the ones who should be doing that work. Diversity programming puts the onus of change on the administration, creating a rhythm of inflated expectations and dashed hopes. Examining student demand sheets at 51 colleges during last falls campus protests, the website FiveThirtyEight found that 35 of them asked institutions to require diversity training while 25 requested funds for multicultural centers. When these reforms come up short, as they inevitably will, students will condemn administrators as insufficiently committed to diversity. Then the students will ask for yet more administration, and the cycle will begin again. Its time to stop. Empowered by the Supreme Court, our universities should continue to recruit a diverse student body. Then they should pair different students in the same rooms, and let them teach each other. In real life, thats what people do. There was a lull just before the weekend rush at Hong Kong Supermarket, which, despite its name, is one of the largest Vietnamese markets in Greater Atlanta. Minh Gia Nguyen, a 37-year-old volunteer with a clipboard of blank voter registration forms in hand, snaked through the aisles in search of eligible voters. She spotted a middle-aged man mulling a selection of gai choy, or Chinese mustard greens. Have you registered to vote? she asked Thanh Ngo in Vietnamese. He hadnt and no one had ever pressed him like this to do so. Its your benefit as a citizen, Nguyen, a volunteer with a nonpartisan civic group, said. She rattled off a list of issues that resonate with Asian American voters in polls: health care, education, immigration. Do it for your family, for your childrens future. That day, after 20 years in the United States, Ngo added his name to Georgias voter rolls. Finding eligible voters and persuading them to register has always been part of the strategy of winning elections. Eight years ago, unprecedented voter registration among young people and African Americans helped sweep then-Sen. Barack Obama to his historic victory. But this year, there are new pockets of potential voters to register and a new reason to draw them out: Donald Trump. The presumptive Republican nominees controversial statements about Muslims, Mexicans and immigrants have alienated legions of nonwhite Americans. The challenge for Democrats is to find those Americans and make sure they are eligible to vote. Thats exactly what theyre doing in a strong push across the country. Asians remain the fastest-growing racial group in the United States, according to the Census Bureau. (Evan Vucci/AP) Its definitely affected me to a very real sense. Its personal because I come from a family of immigrants, said John Choi, a 28-year-old Korean American who grew up in Gwinnett County and has seen the Asian population balloon there in recent years. A former staffer on a gubernatorial campaign in Massachusetts, Choi is outspoken about politics among his friends but this year has made him more so. When I hear language and speeches and talks about policies that are anti-immigrant, it really does make me want to vote more, he said. I have been voting, and I have been pretty involved in the election process. But it makes me want to tell all my friends and family to also vote, to counter all the anti-immigration rhetoric. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton plans to announce a major voter-mobilization effort on Monday that will aim to add more than 3 million people to rolls by November to bolster her odds against Trump. Aides say Clinton plans to formally unveil the initiative during a speech at an NAACP gathering in Cincinnati and will then highlight her commitment by attending an event with volunteers who have been out signing up voters. [As GOP convenes, Clinton plans to launch major voter-mobilization drive] Asian Americans are likely to be a big part of that effort. They are the fastest-growing racial group in the United States, with political power that neither party has fully harnessed. Their growth and the emergence of immigration as a leading campaign issue have brought states such as Virginia, Florida, Nevada and Ohio into focus this year as fertile ground. They have also brought individual counties into focus among a much larger group of states, including several battleground states in the industrial Midwest and Georgia, where an expanding educated workforce and growing immigrant population are thought to have the potential, eventually, to flip this Republican state from red to blue. For nearly two decades, Asian Americans have been the fastest-growing minority in the United States. While their political participation has historically been low, communities like the Vietnamese Americans in Orange County, Calif., have become notable for their developing civic and political infrastructure. (Alice Li/The Washington Post) In all these places, thousands of U.S. citizens of Asian descent arent registered to vote. Many havent voted for a simple reason: They never thought to do so, and no one approached them about it before. They say they are unfamiliar with the American voting process and display tacit apathy. That makes them ripe for education and persuasion, and it explains why civic organizations across the country are working to engage them in politics, one voter at a time. In Gwinnett County, outside Atlanta, the Asian population has grown more recently than in states such as California, Virginia and New York. Here, the grass-roots effort is slow and painstaking, relying on volunteers like Nguyen, proficient in eligible voters language and able to explain registration deadlines as well as the intersection of policy and everyday life. The voter drive at Hong Kong Supermarket was led by Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAAJ), a nonpartisan civic group with an Atlanta chapter. It was part of an effort throughout June specifically targeting Vietnamese Americans; it included drives at two Vietnamese churches that registered 160 new voters. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders comprise at least 5 percent of the voting-age population in six states, and more than 10 percent in California and Hawaii, according to research conducted by Karthick Ramakrishnan, a political science professor at the University of California at Riverside. They also comprise at least 5 percent of the voting population in 73 counties, and more than 10 percent in 33 of them. Gwinnett County is home to one of the three highest populations of Asian Americans mainly South Asians, Koreans, Chinese and Vietnamese. That makes these Americans a potentially valuable slice of the electorate, able to make the difference in battleground states where margins of victory are slim. AAAJ is part of a coalition of Asian American/Pacific Islander organizations directing civic engagement and voter outreach this year. The effort is ongoing in at least 25 states, tapping into existing community, faith, legal-aid and health organizations and creating local branches of national civic organizations in key areas such as Gwinnett County. The goal is challenging. How do you empower a generation of immigrants who have found a fail-safe formula in working hard, keeping your head down and providing for your family? How do you accommodate the many languages, religions and cultural attitudes encompassed under the sweeping label Asian American? Culturally, theyre coming from countries where politics are crooked, or you just dont want to have an opinion. This is the struggle, said Christine Chen, executive director of APIAVote, a national nonpartisan organization that works to mobilize Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Were making inroads, but theres still a lot more work to be done. . . . We want to shift the culture, so that way its normal and its expected you participate. Asian Americans have not traditionally identified with a party, and 37 percent of registered Asian Americans still dont. There has, however, been a shift toward the Democratic Party among registered voters between 2012 and 2016, according to a national survey of registered Asian American voters released last month by a coalition of civic engagement groups. Anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric has particularly galvanized immigrant communities in Georgia, where three bills restricting immigrant rights were defeated this spring in the state legislature. We want to change the state, said Stephanie Cho, executive director of AAAJ-Atlanta. We want to [show] we are an important part of Georgia, not just for the brain drain . . . or the businesses that we bring, but also everything about us, our culture, who we are and what we bring to this region. Phi Nguyen, a second-generation Vietnamese American attorney in Atlanta, became a volunteer with AAAJ-Atlanta once she saw a lack of people who looked like her in civic engagement and politics throughout Atlanta. She helped lead a recent training for more than two dozen volunteers, where she drew laughs as she acted out scenarios they may face at a registration drive: disinterested or difficult voters or outright rejections. Yet they were regular responses shes come across over the past three years. A lot of Vietnamese people care more about whats happening in Vietnam than here. I understand that and appreciate that and respect that. But its hard to get more people to care about what happens here, said Nguyen, 31. But Im surprised by how many people weve been able to pull in, in a short amount of time, who really care and are motivated to keep working, and making this a long-term initiative. John Wagner contributed to this report. Gangster Manange, henchman arrested Police have arrested notorious gangster Rajiv Gurung alias Deepak Manange and his henchman Rajkumar Singh on extortion charges. A law limiting protections for LGBT people emerged largely unchanged after North Carolina lawmakers revisited it during their yearly legislative session. After days of closed-door meetings to discuss possible changes, the North Carolina General Assembly voted Friday to restore workers right to use state law to sue over employment discrimination. But the change wont enhance workplace protections on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, nor does it affect other provisions decried by gay rights advocates, business leaders and other high-profile critics. This was the lowest of the low hanging fruit. It does nothing to fix the core discrimination in that law, said state Rep. Grier Martin (D). The revision heads to the desk of Gov. Pat McCrory (R), who pushed for the change to the law that was enacted after a special session in March. McCrory spokesman Josh Ellis said by email late Friday that the governor is pleased the General Assembly has acted on his request. Critics, including the NBA, had urged legislators to revisit the law during their annual work session. There was no appetite among Republican lawmakers to undo a requirement that transgender people must use restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates in many public buildings. That provision of the law lies at the heart of two legal challenges and has raised some of the biggest objections from equality advocates. The law also excludes gender identity and sexual orientation from statewide antidiscrimination protections. Democrats complained during floor debate that the most onerous provisions of the law werent addressed. State Rep. Chris Sgro (D), who serves as executive director of Equality North Carolina, said: While this is important, it doesnt go nearly far enough. Senate leader Phil Berger (R) said the change on workplace lawsuits answered requests from McCrory and business leaders. But he reiterated his belief that the bathroom access provisions remaining in the law protect public safety. Pressure to change the law has come from business leaders, entertainers and the NBA, which has been weighing whether to keep the 2017 All-Star Game in Charlotte. Commissioner Adam Silver has said that progress was needed toward changing the law this summer to ensure the event stays in the city. On Friday, the legislature also approved giving McCrorys office $500,000 to defend the law in court, transferring the money from a disaster relief fund. The move drew jibes from gay rights advocates. Chu Tsering, 47, poses for a portrait among the mountains surrounding Chinas Xiaosumang township in late May while looking for prized caterpillar fungus with his family. (Giulia Marchi/For The Washington Post) High on the Tibetan plateau, on the sides of steep green valleys dotted with herds of grazing yaks, beneath forbidding snow-clad peaks, a line of adults and children crouch and crawl across the slopes. They are hunting not for game but for a tiny brown shoot poking just an inch or two above the ground amid the retreating snows, revealing a mushroom known as the caterpillar fungus. This is Himalayan Viagra, and it is so sought after in China for its medicinal and aphrodisiac qualities that it can sometimes fetch its weight in gold. Tibets annual gold rush is in full swing, schools out and 47-year-old Chu Tsering has brought two of his sons and one daughter on his motorbike to take part in the search. Chu, his weather-beaten face shielded from the sun by a cowboy hat and shades, owns more than 100 yaks. But he says 90 percent of his familys income stems from just two months of work combing the slopes. We couldnt survive without it, he says. The same is true for hundreds of thousands of Tibetan herders across a vast swath of the plateau for whom caterpillar fungus is their main source of income, their economic lifeline and their only link to Chinas growing prosperity. Yet that lifeline is beginning to fray. Climate change and overharvesting have made the caterpillar fungus harder to find, say experts and locals, while an economic slowdown and anti-corruption campaign in China have depressed prices. Critics say the Chinese government is not doing enough to ensure the harvest is sustainable or to protect that lifeline. 1 of 16 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Hunting for Himalayan viagra View Photos Yak herders search for prized caterpillar fungus in Chinas Tibetan plateau Caption Yak herders search for prized caterpillar fungus in Chinas Tibetan plateau QINGHAI PROVINCE, CHINA - MAY 31: Tibetan women in search of the Caterpillar Fungus on the mountains in the surroundings of Xiaosumang Township. (Photo by Giulia Marchi for The Washington Post) Giulia Marchi/For The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue. Many big Chinese universities have sent researchers, but they just want to know how to cultivate it artificially, to grow it in a lab. They completely ignore what it means for the Tibetan people, said Daniel Winkler, an ethno-mycologist who runs the website Mushroaming.com. How to ensure a sustainable harvest is still a big issue, and its not addressed. Its unforgivable how the Chinese government is letting people down. The caterpillar fungus is one of natures more unusual creations, produced when a fungus penetrates the larva of a ghost moth, growing inside and finally killing its host after it has burrowed beneath the ground. As the snows retreat, a small shoot grows out of the shell of the dead larva, poking its nose above the soil. It is known in Tibetan as yartsa gunbu summer grass, winter worm and to Western science as Cordyceps sinensis. The first known reference to its innumerable medicinal qualities comes in a 15th-century Tibetan text, which recommends grinding it into a powder and boiling with a sparrows chest and yaks milk. It sharpens the senses, the text promises, and serves best for the purpose of libido, increasing offspring and improving vitality. By the 17th and 18th centuries, it was being imported into China for medical use and is mentioned in a Jesuit priests account of medical treatment at the emperors court in 1736. Even during the chaos of Mao Zedongs Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, the harvest continued, although Tibetans had to surrender what they found to the Communist Party. But it was not until the 1990s, as Chinas economy opened up and disposable incomes rose, that popular demand for caterpillar fungus exploded and so did the price. The fungus is now recommended for kidney and lung ailments, to treat cancer and boost the immune system, with annual demand estimated at $11 billion. Today in a high-end shop in the north-central city of Xining, 700 pieces of Grade 1 Cordyceps weighing 500 grams (1.1 pounds) sell in a velvet-lined wooden box for 264,000 yuan ($40,000), although lower-grade specimens fetch a third of that price. It is marketed as god grass, and shop employees don white gloves as they bring sterilized samples out of glass cases. They explain how a unique combination of trace minerals, germ plasm, organic alpine soil and unique climatic conditions give it supernatural qualities. Caterpillar fungus in a shop in Xining. (Giulia Marchi/For The Washington Post) But fascination with Tibetan mysticism is only part of the story. In 2003, as panic spread about an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the fungus was marketed as a cure. Ground into powder, made into tablets, cooked with food or even steeped in alcohol, suddenly the fungus was everywhere, and stocks in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa ran out within days. Chinas gift culture, and the corruption that accompanies it, has also popularized the product. It is far healthier as a gift than alcohol or cigarettes, and more elegant than a bulky wad of cash. Gyegu in Yushu County is the Tibetan town at the center of the industry. When harvest time comes around in mid-May, schools are given two months vacation and children fan out over the grasslands with parents at their side. With their sharp eyes and shorter legs, they are far better at spotting the elusive root. Then they use a small hoe to carefully lever up a clod of earth and extract the orange caterpillar, still covered in mud and much more valuable when unbroken. But the hunt is not getting any easier, either because the mushroom is becoming scarcer or because there are simply more people looking. Chus son Niman Dorje, 13, is the best in the family. He says he used to be able to find 80 Cordyceps on a good day, but nowadays 50 is a very good haul. He says it is not fun at all. Id rather be at school. His dream is to emigrate to the United States one day. Niman Dorje, 13, poses for a portrait in the mountains around Xiaosumang township on May 31, 2016, while looking for caterpillar fungus with his family. (Giulia Marchi/For The Washington Post) In Yushus market, Tibetan women in shawls and floppy hats sit on low stools, gloves on their hands and masks on their faces as they brush the mud from harvested Cordyceps. A monk wanders through with a plastic bag of muddy fungus, while others count huge wads of cash, prayer beads swaying as they thumb red 100 yuan notes, worth about $15. A crowd gathers as a big deal is negotiated, 10 pounds of Cordyceps changing hands for $42,000: The wholesale price is much lower here than in high-end retail shops in the big cities, but this still represents a substantial cash transaction. The buyer is a man named Abo, 34. Prices have been falling for a couple of years, he says, but hes hoping that a smaller crop this year will push them back up. Last year, someone might have been able to find 100 pieces. Now they are only getting 10 or 20 because of the weather, he said. A view of Gyegu, in southern Qinghai province, perched at around 12,100 feet above sea level. Atop the hill is the Thrangu monastery, part of which was destroyed by a major earthquake in 2010 and now is rebuilt. (Giulia Marchi/For The Washington Post) Tibetan men sell Cordyceps at a market in Yushu. The fungus is used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat cancer, impotence and many other diseases. (Giulia Marchi/For The Washington Post) In February, a new threat emerged when Chinas Food and Drug Administration found that powders and tablets made from the fungus contained more than four times the safe limit for arsenic. But in Yushu, dealers insist their product is safe. Its because there are a lot of fakes out there, said one dealer. Consumers buy it and they find it isnt working, so that affects business. But does the fungus actually work? While no Western studies have proved its efficacy, ethno-mycologist Winkler points to East Asian studies and research at Britains University of Nottingham into the potential use of cordycepin, a chemical extracted from the Cordyceps, as a painkiller in the treatment of osteoarthritis and possibly cancer. Tibetans say the product is too expensive for them to consume, but the income it brings has transformed communities. People across the plateau have bought motorbikes and cars, solar panels, freezers and televisions. They also have financed their childrens education, stashed savings in the bank and even clubbed together to repair local roads. The fungus has brought economic empowerment and employment, including for women, says Emilia Roza Sulek, a socio-anthropologist who studied the impact of the fungus in southeastern Qinghai. But it also has brought tales of drunkenness and gambling, of environmental degradation and even violence. Hundreds of thousands of people trample the grasslands for the fungus, leaving trash in their wake, while neighboring communities, armed with knives or rocks, often have clashed for access to the best harvest grounds, sometimes fatally. In 2013, Tibets exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, appealed for calm, calling the quarrels a crisis. Near remote Xiaosumang, Sanding Dorje patrols the slopes, ever on the alert for an out-of-town license plate on an approaching motorbike. Some outsiders came last year and picked the fungus on a holy mountain, he said. But then a thunderstorm came, and they were forced to kneel and prostrate themselves, to atone for their sins. The family of Chu Tsering, 47, ride a motorbike on their way to harvest Cordyceps, near Xiaosumang township on May 31, 2016. (Giulia Marchi/For The Washington Post) Xu Yangjingjing contributed to this report. Read more In the Dalai Lamas home town, a moment of limbo] Chinas plan to liberate a cradle of Tibetan culture] Rapprochement with the Dalai Lama? No way, says China] Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world Gunmen stormed into a restaurant near multiple embassies in Dhaka for a siege that lasted 12 hours. Police killed six attackers and rescued 13 people, and at least one assailant was reported in custody. Gunmen stormed into a restaurant near multiple embassies in Dhaka for a siege that lasted 12 hours. Police killed six attackers and rescued 13 people, and at least one assailant was reported in custody. Gunmen stormed into a restaurant near multiple embassies in Dhaka for a siege that lasted 12 hours. Police killed six attackers and rescued 13 people, and at least one assailant was reported in custody. What the scene outside of a hostage situation in Bangladesh looked like What the scene outside of a hostage situation in Bangladesh looked like One was about to enter business school. Another brought an international outlook to the halls of Berkeley. And the last, while being a U.S. citizen, claimed Dhaka as home. All three died in Dhaka during Fridays brutal terrorist attack at a popular restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital. Officials at the University of California at Berkeley and Emory University in Atlanta confirmed Saturday that they had lost students in the attack. Abinta Kabir and Faraaz Hossain were enrolled as undergraduates at Emorys Oxford College, and Tarishi Jain was studying economics at the San Francisco-area school. Jain, the lone Indian citizen to die in the terrorist attack, had been under stress in recent months because of a foot injury, relatives said. It was not healing as quickly as the Berkeley student had expected, and the pain had returned. When I got a call at dawn today about her death in Bangladesh, my first thought was, Oh, poor girl, she could not even have run and saved herself, said Shirish Jain, 45, a cousin of Tarishis who lives in a New Delhi suburb. She has been in a lot of pain of late. Jains family had moved to Dhaka from Singapore less than a decade ago, and her father set up a flourishing garment manufacturing and export business. But they remained Indian citizens. Just months ago, her cousin recalled, Jain was regaling her relatives with stories of her Berkeley experiences during a family visit to India. She was a member of the International Students Association at the university. She was a vivacious girl. She had an international outlook and was ambitious, Shirish Jain said. The entire extended family got together for lunch when they came. I remember she was so cheerful and chirpy. Indians learned of Jains death when the minister for external affairs, Sushma Swaraj, tweeted Saturday: I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka. According to the Times of India website on Sunday, her uncle in the northern Indian town of Ferozabad said Jain had called her father from inside the restaurant in Dhaka during the attack. She said, Im hiding in the toilet with friends, I think we will be killed one by one, Rakesh Mohan Jain said. I am very afraid and not sure whether I will be able to come out alive. They are killing everyone here, she said, according to the report. Shirish Jain had read about the attack before going to sleep Friday. I immediately thought of my family in Dhaka, but I never imagined that my own family would be affected like this, she said. Our mind doesnt think like that, you know. We know there are terrorist attacks all over the world. But it has now come to our home. It has come too close. Faraaz Hossain was a native of Dhaka. Not much else is known other than that he had graduated from Oxford College and was a rising junior entering Emorys Goizueta Business School. The other Emory student, Abinta Kabir, 18, was from Miami, but on Facebook she described herself as being from Dhaka. She was a sophomore at Oxford College. Earlier postings depict her as a student at the American International School Dhaka and a member of the girls basketball team there. In April 2015, she posted a senior photo of herself, along with the words: Where did the time go? Other Facebook posts suggest that the three knew one another, which may have led to their presence at the restaurant in Dhaka. [] In an email posted on the Emory website, the schools president, James Wagner, wrote that he was able to reach Kabirs mother, who was in unspeakable pain. Please, as you are inclined, direct your kindest thoughts and sincerest prayers in her behalf and that of her family, Wagner wrote. As for our Emory family, we will be remembering Abinta in the fall, I am sure, as the family directs and is comfortable. Holley reported from Washington. A man walks past Mini cars decorated with the Union Jack outside a showroom in Beijing in June. Britains vote to leave the European Union has added new uncertainties to the world economy. (Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images) Democracy is dangerous, and the West is facing terminal decline. On the face of it, such triumphal views here portray Britains decision to leave the European Union as a propaganda coup and geostrategic triumph for China. So why isnt there much sign of celebrating in Beijing? It could be because China fears it is about to lose its best friend in the European Union, stoking worries about a whole host of ramifications. Chinas ambitions for freer trade with Europe just took a blow, while Chinese investments in the United Kingdom made with a view to accessing the single European market are beginning to look significantly less attractive. Politicians in the U.K. insist that they will move forward with the process to exit the E.U., but not everyone is happy about it. Here's what will make it a long and difficult ordeal. (Jason Aldag/The Washington Post) The U.K. leadership always said they would be the guys pushing for Chinas interests in the West and the European Union, said a Western diplomat in Beijing who was not authorized to be quoted by name in foreign media. This is quite bad news for China. There was, unsurprisingly, some crowing in the nationalist Global Times tabloid in the immediate aftermath of the vote. The Communist Party-owned newspaper could not resist a sneer at the idea of consulting people about how to run the country and at Britons, for showing a losing mind-set. [The chaos of Britains post-Brexit politics, explained] But there was a reason that Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Britain in October, spoke of a golden era in relations between the two countries and explicitly said that China wanted Britain to remain in the European Union. In recent years, London has often served as an advocate of Chinese trade and economic interests in Brussels, wrote Jan Gaspers, head of research at the European China Policy Unit at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin. Chinas other two major European partners, Germany and France, do not seem particularly inclined at the moment to assume a similar role. The presidents of the European Commission and European Council, Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk, respectively, are scheduled to be in Beijing on July 13 for an annual summit with China. Topping the Chinese governments agenda is its campaign to be granted market economy status by the E.U., a move that would make it harder to bring anti-dumping cases against China under World Trade Organization rules. Britain was the only country that expressed unconditional support for China, diplomats said. In fact, concerns are mounting throughout Europe about what critics say are Chinas unfair trading practices, especially the problems foreign firms face in accessing its markets, and the dumping of cheap steel and other raw materials in the West. [Brexit: The worlds losers are revolting] Europe already faces problems in the euro zone and over migration, and the existential crisis implied by Brexit is likely to divert E.U. attention from China, diplomats said. Britains exit is also likely to slow Europes already sluggish recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. Not that this need be a disaster, of course. Bloomberg Intelligence economists Tom Orlik and Fielding Chen pointed out that only 2.6 percent of Chinese exports head to Britain. David Dollar, a China expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, noted that the Chinese economy no longer depends so heavily on exports but increasingly relies on domestic consumption. Some Chinese investment in Britain is likely to be put on hold, but Chinese companies and citizens are still likely to invest in British real estate, infrastructure and brand names, according to Gaspers of the Mercator Institute. Chinese investment in Europe is booming, with as much flowing there in the first quarter of this year as during the whole of 2015. Dollar, who studies the Chinese economy at Brookings, argues that China is the big winner geostrategically. Europe is likely to be a less influential player on the world stage and will be absorbed with internal issues of negotiating the British exit, controlling immigration and keeping the periphery inside the eurozone, he wrote. The United States is also likely to be distracted by these European challenges. This gives China more scope to pursue its reclamation activities in the South China Sea and to play divide and conquer with European states on various issues. [China seeks to strengthen its hand on South China Sea claims] A multipolar world requires more powers, which are independent of the U.S., to participate in international governance. The E.U. is supposed to be one of them, the Global Times wrote. But the leverage of a divided Europe is bound to be limited. Gaspers outlines an even more worrying scenario. Chinas political elites are concerned that the outcome of the referendum could cause a domino effect that would see other member states leaving the E.U. as well, he said, leading to a shrinking of the single market for Chinese goods as well as exchange rate volatility. But where will Britain stand when the dust has settled? Prime Minister David Cameron shared a pint of beer with Chinas Xi to seal their golden relationship, but now he is on his way out. The future of Chinas biggest cheerleader in the British government, finance chief George Osborne, is uncertain. In the Chinese government, there is growing concern that a post-Brexit Britain, instead of leaning toward an emerging Asia, will rely even more on its special relationship with Washington to maintain some global influence, the Western diplomat said. For a Chinese leadership increasingly wary of the United States, that would not be seen as good news. Read more Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world Members of an Israeli family reunite at Ben Gurion International Airport after the Israeli raid on a hijacked Air France plane that had been flown to Entebbe, Uganda, in 1976. (Reuters) It was an audacious rescue mission, one that has taken on mythical proportions and is the subject of books and movies. On June 27, 1976, Palestinian and German terrorists hijacked an Air France flight making its way from Tel Aviv to Paris. The 248 passengers from several nations and a 12-member French crew were taken to the airport in Entebbe, Uganda. With the help of Idi Amin Dada, the East African countrys ruthless dictator, they were held in a rundown terminal until Israeli commandos raided the airport one night. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will participate in a ceremony at Entebbe to mark the 40th anniversary of the rescue mission. He will become the first Israeli prime minister to visit the country since the crisis and the first in sub-Saharan Africa in 30 years. The July 4, 1976, raid at Entebbe is remembered by many Israelis as one of the countrys greatest military feats, and it changed the way governments worldwide confront terrorism. Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Mordechai Gur gestures at a news conference in Tel Aviv on July 8, 1976, during which he gave details of the Entebbe airport raid. A map of the airport is shown behind Gur. (Nash/AP) Netanyahus brother Lt. Col. Yonatan Yoni Netanyahu, who led the assault team, was the only Israeli soldier killed there. Initially called Operation Thunderbolt, the mission was later renamed Operation Yonatan in his honor. [Israel-Palestinian peace initiatives are suddenly popping up everywhere] The operation inspired Netanyahus political career: After his brother died, he organized a conference on international terrorism in his honor. Israels ambassador to the United States at the time, Moshe Arens, was so impressed by the younger Netanyahu that he asked him to become involved with explaining Israels case to the world, known as hasbara in Hebrew. And that is how I got into politics, Netanyahu recently said in a live Facebook video chat. Over the past 40 years, soldiers who took part in the operation have debated its near-failures, luck and successes, and military historians have called into question some of its myths, including Yonatan Netanyahus legendary role. It was an impossible situation for the Israeli government, said British historian Saul David, whose book about the raid, Operation Thunderbolt, was published last year. But then suddenly, the world woke up to the news that the Israelis had succeeded in this impossible situation. The chances of this succeeding were very low, and it came very close to being a disaster, he said. In my story, Yoni is not the hero. Forty years ago, Israeli special forces carried out a daring rescue mission in Entebbe, Uganda. Days before, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the German Revolutionary Cells hijacked an Air France plane flying from Tel Aviv to Paris. The terrorists held the hostages at the Entebbe airport before the Israeli troops stormed the terminal. (The Washington Post) The story started when members of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the German Revolutionary Cells, a spinoff of the Baader-Meinhof Gang, a radical left-wing group, commandeered the plane. Within days of diverting the plane to Africa, the captors moved the Israeli passengers about 100 people to a smaller room. It was especially frightening for the older Israelis, many of whom had painful memories of World War II when the Nazis sent Europes Jews first to the ghettos and then to death camps. Families of those being held begged the Israeli government to save their loved ones. The hijackers demanded the release of dozens of Palestinian and pro-Palestinian prisoners, many in prison for murder. To some officials, a military operation so far away seemed impossible. But others said that giving in to the terrorists demands would make Israel appear weak and bring more attacks. On the fifth day, after most of the non-Israeli hostages were released, then-Defense Minister Shimon Peres and his generals decided to formulate a plan. The question was how to transport some 200 soldiers in secrecy 2,500 miles to the East African country? Would it be possible to fly C-130 Hercules cargo planes loaded with soldiers, equipment, vehicles and medical teams for more than seven hours? And how would they make it back to Israel with the hostages? It was a sophisticated and complex operation that we planned in less than 24 hours and carried out in less than 48 hours, said Amnon Biran, who at the time was a lieutenant colonel for the infantry and paratroopers command. Biran tells the story via a slide show of old newspaper clippings, grainy news reels and video footage. I thought our chances were about 60/40 and we would come back with at least 40 coffins, he said. The commandos faced even more obstacles as the first Hercules set off, including outdated maps of the terminal building and conflicting intelligence about the hostages exact location. Photos of the terminal, taken in secrecy by Israels Mossad, were received only at the last minute. The plan was to land the planes in darkness in Entebbe, and then to send a small team into the terminal to kill the terrorists. Other soldiers were tasked with securing the perimeters, neutralizing the control tower and commandeering the newer terminal. Later, they were ordered to destroy Amins small fleet of MiG fighter jets. A Boeing would circle above giving commands from the air, as a medical team waited in nearby Nairobi. The Israelis dressed as Ugandan soldiers and driving a black Mercedes decorated like one that would carry Amin or a senior Ugandan commander were supposed to bypass the Ugandan military guards at the entrance to the old terminal. But a Ugandan sentry called out advance! to the car, and Netanyahu was convinced he was suspicious and shot him. The shot, however, did not kill the Ugandan outright, and a follow-up team took him out with a round of gunfire, the sound of which alerted the terrorists that something was afoot. Less than a minute later, as the first group stormed the terminal, Netanyahu was hit by sniper fire. Most who were there say it came from Ugandan troops inside the control tower. Overall, the operation saved 101 hostages. Three of the hostages, however, were killed in crossfire at the airport. Furious about Israels actions on his territory, Amin ordered the death of Dora Bloch, an elderly passenger with dual Israeli and British citizenship who had been taken to a Ugandan hospital a day earlier. Forty years later, debates about Entebbe continue. But Omer Bar-Lev, who led one of the assault teams, said that every small detail can be argued about today. We know he shot the guard, but I dont think it ruined the surprise. Today, we know that the terrorists heard the shots and thought we were Ugandan soldiers. They told the hostages to lie down that actually helped us, said Bar-Lev, who today is a member of the Knesset. Still, he has some reservations. The plans kept changing, and there were a lot of unknowns, he said. Bar-Lev decided to warn his father, the minister for Industry and Trade at the time, and the Israeli cabinet that the Entebbe plan was far from perfect. It was like Swiss cheese, there were so many holes in it, Bar-Lev said. The pressure on me was so big, I was confused, so I took a car and started driving to my parents home. On the way, however, the car broke down and he had to turn back to base. He never warned his father, and the next day the cabinet gave final approval for the mission. The rest, Bar-Lev said, is history. The show goes on. After a brief hiatus, Johnny Depp is reuniting with his band for a string of U.S. tour dates starting tonight in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Dressed in black pants, a black vest and a short black and white shirt, Depp was all smiles while playing his electric guitar, even occasionally waving and having fun with the crowd. A photo posted by JOHNNY DEPP (@efdjdqc_ig) on Jul 1, 2016 at 5:45pm PDT The crowd erupted in screams when the 53-year-old actor told the audience, Thank you so much. Depp and the Hollywood Vampires, his classic rock band with Alice Cooper and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, toured Europe this spring, with stops in Italy, Portugal, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Romania. The busy tour schedule came in the midst of Depps ugly divorce from estranged wife Amber Heard, who levied domestic violence allegations against him in court filings. Depp spent his time between tours recuperating at his private island in the Bahamas, where sources say his friends and family, including his daughter Lily-Rose Depp, came to visit. A photo posted by JOHNNY DEPP (@efdjdqc_ig) on Jul 1, 2016 at 5:41pm PDT Since returning, a source close to Depp tells PEOPLE the actors doing great and looks and seems healthy. Earlier this week, he was spotted getting dinner at Ago Restaurant in West Hollywood with daughter Lily-Rose, 17, and son Jack, 14. The mood was light and guests seemed to enjoy. Johnny sat next to his kids. He looked very good. Tanned and healthy, says a restaurant source. Much healthier than a few months ago. He didnt drink any alcohol. Moving forward, another source says Depp is looking forward to the [American] tour now. He hasnt been speaking about his divorce. He just seems focused on hanging out with his kids before the tour. Reporting by DIANE HERBST Christy and Jason Sheats were longtime loves from Alabama, raising their two daughters in a suburb of Houston, Texas, on the day Christy decided to load a five-round, .38-caliber revolver and open fire on her family. She killed Madison, 17, and Taylor, 22, on June 24, as Jason watched in horror, authorities said. Police then shot Christy dead in the street, near her daughters' bodies outside their Katy home, after she refused to drop her weapon. How did the Sheats family get from there to here? Authorities know Jason had announced his desire for a divorce the day of the shooting, after years of a crumbling marriage, Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls told PEOPLE. Authorities know that, according to Jason, Christy had attempted suicide three times and had been treated at three mental health facilities in the last four years; and that she fought with Taylor and Jason the day of the shooting. And authorities know that Christy began to "spiral" after her grandfather's death in 2012, months before her mother died, and Jason believes she killed their children as a way to make him "suffer," according to what Jason told investigators. But there was no history of Christy being violently unstable, Nehls told PEOPLE. He said that, on that Friday, as the family gathered in their living room before Christy unexpectedly opened fire, Jason expected they would discuss the divorce. She pulled a gun instead. Unraveling of a Family: How a 'Beautiful' Marriage Turned Tragic When Texas Mom Killed Daughters| Crime & Courts, Personal Tragedy, Shootings, True Crime 'Her Parents Had a Really Beautiful Story' Christy and Jason met when they were younger. "And they just knew they were going to be together," Austin Crockett, Taylor's childhood friend, told PEOPLE. They apparently grew up not far apart from each other: Christy was a native of Decatur, Alabama, according to AL.com a 15-minute drive from Trinity, where Jason had lived and attended high school, according to one of his Facebook friends. "Her parents had a really beautiful story," Crockett told PEOPLE. "And they would always tell the story [of their meeting] and they were [Taylor's] heroes." 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. Christy was a devoted mom, too, according to one friend. "She loves her daughters," friend Catherine Knowles told PEOPLE soon after the shooting. "I have no idea what could possibly make a mother who loves her daughters as much as she did what could cause a person to snap?" "The part of Christy that I knew was a very kind, loving mother," Knowles said. "Within 20 seconds of meeting her, we were talking about her being a mom. That was her mission in life, that was her everything her two daughters." Story continues Unraveling of a Family: How a 'Beautiful' Marriage Turned Tragic When Texas Mom Killed Daughters| Crime & Courts, Personal Tragedy, Shootings, True Crime A 'Downward Spiral' By late June, authorities say the Sheats marriage had soured and Jason said he wanted a divorce. The same day as the shooting, his birthday, he told Christy, "This would be the last birthday that you are going to ruin," Sheriff Nehls told PEOPLE. Things turned sour in 2012, Jason told investigators, Nehls said. "He [Jason] believes she had a very difficult time dealing with the death of her grandfather," Nehls said. Christy's mother died two months later. In the four years since, Christy sought treatment at three mental health facilities, Jason told authorities. The family also started a pattern of service calls for authorities to their home, including three calls about Christy's suicide attempts, Nehls said. Jason told authorities Christy was taking several medications for depression and anxiety, but Nehls told PEOPLE he did not have any information about her medication regimen or how it might or might not have affected her stability. The day of the shooting, Christy had an argument with Taylor and wanted to ground her, to keep her from seeing her fiance, Nehls said. Jason disagreed with that decision. He and Christy discussed divorce that day, too, Nehls said. Within hours, both daughters and Christy were dead. Jason, a witness, pleaded with his wife not to shoot, according to 911 audio. "I promise you whatever you want," he can be heard saying on one call. Jason, who was "obviously in a lot of shock out at the scene, spoke at length with authorities a few days later, Nehls said. He has declined, through authorities, to speak publicly. On Wednesday, he resumed posting on Facebook, sharing a compilation of photos of his family: him and his daughters together, smiling. Christy was not included. With reporting by HARRIET SOKMENSUER and JEFF TRUESDELL Government steps up efforts to curb inflow of illicit money The government has stepped up efforts to curb possible inflow of illicit money into the ever-growing stock market. It's official: The Avalanches are a two-album band. The sample-happy Australians have released their very highly anticipated sophomore record, Wildflower, just 16 years after their cult-classic debut, Since I Left You. Actual high-school sophomores have been made in less time, but if you have access to Apple Music, the wait is over: You can stream Wildflower a week early. Its official: The Avalanches are a two-album band. The sample-happy Australians have released their very highly anticipated sophomore record, Wildflower, just 16 years after their cult-classic debut, Since I Left You. Actual high-school sophomores have been made in less time, but if you have access to Apple Music, the wait is over: You can stream Wildflower a week early. If you use another service, or if youre holding out for a physical copy, you have one more week to wait: Wildflower officially arrives July 8. Meanwhile, revisit first single Frankie Sinatra and Zane Lowes interview with the band here. Dhaka (AFP) - Bangladesh's prime minister implored Islamist extremists to stop killing in the name of religion Saturday after 20 hostages were slaughtered at the start of the Eid holiday in a restaurant packed with foreigners. Nine victims were Italian while Japan confirmed that seven of its nationals were killed. A US citizen and a 19-year-old Indian who was studying in California were also among the dead. As the Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the bloodbath in the capital Dhaka, survivors told of how the hostage-takers separated locals from foreigners before embarking on a killing spree. The siege, which began late Friday, was brought to an end nearly 11 hours later when elite commandos stormed the Western-style Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in the upmarket Gulshan neighbourhood, killing six hostage-takers. One of the assailants was captured alive and arrested, the army said. Security officials said most of the victims were slaughtered with sharpened machete-style weapons. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government has previously blamed a string of deadly attacks against religious minorities and foreigners on domestic opponents but the latest will heighten fears that IS's reach is spreading. "Islam is a religion of peace. Stop killing in the name of the religion," Hasina said in an impassioned televised address to the nation in which she declared two days of mourning. "Please stop tarnishing our noble religion... I implore you to come back to the rightful path and uphold the pride of Islam." The attack, by far the deadliest of a recent wave of killings claimed by IS or a local Al-Qaeda offshoot, was carried out in a neighbourhood which is home to the country's elite and houses many embassies. - Sharp weapons - Announcing the end of the siege, officials said 13 hostages had been rescued after members of a special force took control of the cafe. But while Hasina called the outcome a "success", the security forces later revealed that 20 of those taken captive were killed. Story continues "Most them had been brutally hacked to death with sharp weapons," an army spokesman, Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury, told reporters. An army spokesman said the dead hostages included nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian, one US citizen of Bangladeshi origin and two Bangladeshis. "Eleven were males and nine females," Colonel Rashidul Hasan told AFP. Italy's government confirmed that nine of its nationals had been killed and a 10th was unaccounted for. "The terrorists want to rip away the daily fabric of our lives," said Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. "Our duty is to reply with even greater force, by affirming our values, the values of freedom of which we are proud, and which are stronger than hatred or terror." In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a late night news conference that seven Japanese nationals were among the dead. US officials said one American citizen was among those killed, without identifying the victim. And the government in New Delhi confirmed that a 19-year-old Indian who was studying at the University of California, Berkeley, had died. "The attack in Dhaka has pained us beyond words," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is a close ally of Hasina, said on Twitter. Foreigners and Bangladeshis could be seen standing outside the Holey Artisan Bakery after the siege, awaiting news on their loved ones inside. Witnesses recounted how a massive gunfight erupted on Saturday morning as more than 100 commandos launched the rescue operation, nearly 11 hours after the siege began at around 9.30 pm. Eight hostages including a foreigner were rescued in the first few minutes of the operation. TV footage showed ambulances rushing some of those who had been freed to a military hospital. The father of one of the survivors was told by his son how the hostage-takers separated the locals from foreigners. "They (the foreigners) were taken to the upper floor and the Bangladeshis were kept around a table," Rezaul Karim told AFP. - Fierce firefight - The area around the restaurant was cordoned off after the militants launched their attack and then became involved in a fierce firefight. Police said two officers, including the head of the local police station, were killed in the initial stages. Around two dozen officers were injured. The attack triggered widespread condemnation, with Pope Francis condemning "such barbarous acts as against God and humanity". In Paris, where 130 people were killed in a coordinated jihadist assault last November, French President Francois Hollande fiercely condemned the bloodshed. "Islamist terrorism strikes everywhere in a blind, cowardly way," he said. "The international community must be united to fight it relentlessly." Britain meanwhile urged its nationals to steer clear of international hotels, supermarkets, restaurants and clubs. Earlier Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in western Bangladesh and a Hindu priest was stabbed early Saturday in the southwest. Last month authorities launched a crackdown on local jihadists, arresting more than 11,000 people but critics allege the arrests were arbitrary or designed to silence political opponents. Bangladesh's main Islamist party has been banned from contesting polls and most of its leaders have been arrested or else executed after recent trials over their role in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f132460%2f77dbbd6d58a24bb496a539b91a26d0af How much (and how little) we've changed in the last 100 years. A news story from The Tacoma Times in 1916 states, in big, bold letters, "Scientists Say U.S. is Facing 20 Perils." SEE ALSO: Striking color images capture the grit of 1940s rail workers While not all of these perils, including death and disease, are trivial. However, some of the proposed threats seem a little strange to be considered as possible causes of America's downfall. Image: The Tacoma Times Considering this was published a mere two years before the U.S. entered World War I, you would think war at least would be on the list. However, scientists seem a little more concerned about people not getting married and having babies than world war, disease and mental health. You'd be surprised at how similar these fears are to the ones of 2016. Assuming that these perils are numbered from most to least threatening (with one being the most dire and 20 being the least), here are these threats in ascending order of importance: 20. Increase in suicides total of 15,000 a year. In 2016, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention notes that 117 people die by suicide per day, adding up to more than 42,000 per year. However, scientists in 1916 found the next 19 items more dire. Bring that up next time someone argues that mental health isn't a problem in America. 19. Marked increase in diseased teeth and poor vision. The CDC claims that 47% of adults aged 30 years or older have gum disease in 2016. 18. Remarkable cancer mortality increase. Cancer was the sixth leading cause of death in 1916. In 2016, it is the second. The most deadly cancer in 2016 is gall bladder cancer, with a mortality rate of 97% within five years of diagnosis. 17. Excessive life waste from germ diseases. This includes diseases caused by bacteria and viruses. The flu vaccine was not invented until 1933. 16. Increase in death from organic diseases. An organic disease is "one caused by a physical or physiological change to some tissue or organ of the body." This includes infections. Luckily, sterilization in hospitals has improved in the last 100 years. Story continues 15. Increase in early breaking down of organs. The life expectancy in 1916 was 49 years old for men and 54 for women. Today, it's 76 for males and 81 for females. 14. Noticeably low resistance to disease. Before vaccines, pneumonia and the common flu were the second most likely causes of death in 1916. 13. Increasing obsity (obesity?), weak limbs, soft muscles. Today, more than two-thirds of Americans are classified as obese. 12. Hearty eating without exercise. Today, the average calorie intake is 2,640 calories for men and 1,785 calories per day for women. While this is within USDA recommendations, a majority of Americans are classified as overweight or obese, and the organization warns that Americans are eating more calories than needed. 11. Extraordinary increase in sedentary work. This is without the invention of the Internet. 10. High and increasing nervous tension. Today, 40% of American adults suffer from anxiety or some nervous disorder. 9. Economic waste from needless sickness and premature death, more than $2,000,000 a year. Lack of vaccines and poorer health standards may have contributed to this. 8. America leads all nations in murders. In 2015, Honduras had the highest murder rate in the world. 7. Enormous number of drug and alcohol victims. In 2013, 9.4% of Americans aged 13 or older had used illicit drugs. 6. Increasing idiocy and insanity. Health care is not only expensive, but almost inaccessible in 2016. A shortage of psychiatric professionals and the frequency of putting mentally ill individuals in prison rather than a hospital contributes to that. "Idiocy" may have been a less-PC (and frankly ill-informed and offensive) term for defining people with mental or intellectual disabilities (who were commonly put in mental institutions). Today, roughly 4.6 million people are identified as having an intellectual disability. 5. Large numbers of defectives in school. High school drop out rates have actually plummeted in 2015. We get one gold star as a society. 4. Excessive infant life waste. The United States has the highest first-day death rate in the world today. About 11,000 American newborns die per year. 3. Declining birth rate due to birth restriction by parents. In 2015, the U.S. birth rate rose 1% for the first time since 2007. However, the threat of overpopulation is still a complicated issue that could impact the world economy and environment. 2. Increase in divorces. Between 1916 and 1925, the divorce rate was between 10% and 15%. Today, statistics say 40% to 50% of marriages will end in divorce. And the number one threat facing America in 1916: 1. 17 million unmarried men and women. In 2014, the United States Census Bureau found that 107 million people aged 18 or older are unmarried and 53% of them were women. In addition, the Pew Research center found that four in 10 Americans believe marriage is obsolete. Sure. Disease, mental health and death are problems but apparently not as bad as people not entering into the institution of marriage. Beirut (AFP) - Heavy regime bombardment of a rebel-held Syrian town on Saturday killed more than 30 people including two medical staff, as a two-year local truce broke down. The raids attest to intensifying violence in Syria despite international efforts aimed at bolstering a nationwide ceasefire between government forces and non-jihadist rebels. Saturday's shelling hit the town of Jayrud, 60 kilometres (35 miles) northeast of Damascus, where the army said Islamist militants killed a regime pilot after he was forced to eject on Friday. In a statement, the military had pledged that the attack on its pilot "will not go unpunished". The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday's bombardment of Jayrud was the first there in at least two years. "Prominent figures in Jayrud have had a local truce with the regime for at least two years, and neither fired on each other," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. He said artillery fire and air strikes on the town killed at least 31 people including two medics. It was not immediately clear how many were civilians. Anti-regime groups in Jayrud include the Saudi-backed Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam), the hardline Ahrar al-Sham, and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front. Ahrar al-Sham said in an online statement on Saturday it was attacking nearby government positions "in response to warplanes shelling Jayrud". Activists in the town said the head of the local medical centre and several colleagues were killed. "There have been at least 45 air strikes today. The town's medical centre was hit and its director Amjad al-Danaf was killed," activist Abu Malek al-Jayrudi told AFP via the Internet. He said the town is home to some 60,000 people and that the bombardment had not stopped since early Saturday. - IS push from Manbij - Several government aircraft have been shot down by rebels or crashed because of technical faults since the civil war erupted five years ago. Story continues According to the Observatory, three Syrian officers were killed on Friday when their helicopter crashed in the south near territory held by the Islamic State jihadist group. Abdel Rahman said government forces had recovered the bodies but the cause of the crash remained unclear. Dozens of local truces have been brokered among the myriad of armed groups fighting in Syria's increasingly complex civil war. But a broader ceasefire between government forces and non-jihadist rebels brokered by Moscow and Washington in February has been repeatedly violated by both sides. US officials have accused Russia of not doing enough to rein in its ally President Bashar al-Assad, raising particular concern over attacks on Syria's divided second city, Aleppo. On Saturday, two women and a child were killed in regime shelling of the eastern rebel-held Sayf al-Dawla neighbourhood of Aleppo, the Britain-based Observatory said. It added that the toll in bombardment of another eastern district the previous day had risen to 17 dead including five children. Friday's attack hit a crowded market in the Tariq al-Bab district. More than 280,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict began in March 2011 with protests demanding Assad's ouster. Jihadist groups -- such as rivals IS and Al-Nusra -- have shot to prominence as some of the most powerful factions in the war. IS has faced growing pressure from an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters advancing on its bastion town of Manbij in the north. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces surrounded Manbij last month and were fighting street battles in the town's southern and western districts. But on the northern edges of the town, IS put up fierce resistance and pushed SDF fighters back four kilometres (more than two miles) on Saturday, the Observatory said. "They are trying to break the siege on Manbij by pushing from the north and east," Abdel Rahman told AFP. Dhaka (AFP) - Twenty foreigners were killed by their captors after being taken hostage at a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka and most of the victims were either Italian or Japanese, an army officer said on Saturday. "All 20 of the hostages who were killed were foreigners," Lieutenant Shahab Uddin told AFP. "Most of them were Italian or Japanese," he added without giving an exact breakdown of the toll. Officials had earlier said that six gunmen were killed when security forces stormed the cafe on Saturday morning while two police officers were slain in a firefight that erupted at the beginning of the siege on Friday night. Photo: AP Images. Update July 2, 2016, 8:40 a.m.: At least 20 hostages were killed in Friday's attack on a restaurant in Bangladesh's capital of Dhaka, The Guardian reports. Additionally, two police officers and the six gunmen who stormed the popular cafe are also dead following the hours-long standoff. Update July 2, 2016, 12:07 a.m.: Bangladeshi security forces stormed the restaurant Saturday morning, NBC News reports. Heavy explosions went off around 7:40 a.m. local time as the forces moved in, according to the Daily Star. All the gunmen were killed in the raid, local police told NBC News. The police reportedly told a spokesperson for the Japanese ambassador that 12 hostages were rescued, two of whom were Japanese nationals. Update July 1, 5:14 p.m.: The death toll in Friday's attack on a popular restaurant in the capital of Bangladesh has risen to include two police officers, according to The Guardian. At least 27 officers and one civilian have been reported injured. The Islamic State terrorist network has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a posting on its internal news outlet that it targeted a restaurant "frequented by foreigners," the BBC reports. This story was originally published on July 1, 2016 at 3:35 p.m. A group of gunmen attacked a restaurant in the diplomatic center of Bangladesh's capital city Friday, taking patrons inside hostage. The attack on Holey Artisan Bakery, a restaurant in Dhaka that is reportedly popular among diplomats and foreigners, happened at about 9:20 p.m. local time, The Guardian reported, citing local media. At least one policeman has been killed by gunfire as officials work to secure the release of hostages. "We want to resolve this peacefully. We are trying to talk to the attackers," police Chief Benazir Ahmed said, according to the BBC. "Our first priority is to save the lives of the people trapped inside." It is believed that some of the hostages are foreigners, The Associated Press reports. A spokesman for the U.S. State Department said all American citizens working under the diplomatic chief there have been accounted for. Story continues The identities of the gunmen and motive behind the attack are not yet known. But the South Asian nation, situated on the eastern edge of India, has seen a rise in violence in recent weeks, according to The AP . This is a developing story. Check back for updates. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here? Major Bombing In Baghdad Leaves Many Dead Donald Trump's Daughter Says He's A Feminist Thousands Join March For Europe In London Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f134368%2funspecified-7 A horseback rider charging from the morning mist is the star of this year's National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year selection. The stunning image, titled "Winter Horseman," was taken by Hong Kong photographer Anthony Lau on a recent trip to Mongolia. After an early hike, Lau and his friends were heading back to their hotel when they spotted a group of riders. "I knew I only had a couple of shots to get the best out of this encounter," Lau told National Geographic. "With a bit of luck, one of my final attempts managed to capture the moment when one of the riders charged out from the morning mist along with his horses. SEE ALSO: Stunning moving portraits show human side of Australian politicians Image: anthony lau, national geographic travel photographer of the year As the Grand Prize winner, Lau will receive a seven-day polar bear safari at the Churchill Wild-Seal River Heritage Lodge in Manitoba, Canada where he'll no doubt take even more incredible photos. A full gallery of this year's winning images is available on the National Geographic Travel website. The Daily Beast Photo illustration by Luis Rendon/GettyERIE, PennsylvaniaIn his highly anticipated debate against Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman was asked to square two conflicting statements: one saying hes never supported fracking, and another saying hes always supported fracking.Uh, I do support fracking, and, I dontI dontI support fracking, and I stand, and I do support fracking, Fetterman said.As he tried unsuccessfully to square the two opposing sentiments, a debate watch party Gunmen take hostages in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka Gunmen have stormed a popular cafe in the diplomatic area of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, taking a number of hostages, officials say. Credit: Paul Viant RF/Getty Images Every wedding is a unique event that's tailored to the couple's preferences. And while there is no exact formula for success, there are still things to keep in mind if you want your big day to be a memorable one for both you and your guests. We asked long-time wedding producer, Allison Aronne of F?te New York, to give us the lowdown on the five things all great weddings have in common. RELATED: Terms You Need to Know Before You Go Wedding Dress Shopping Credit: A F?te Event, Photographer: Brian Dorsey Studios 1. Authenticity "Weddings are a unique opportunity for couples to share the things they love with the most important people around them. So I think that ever detail from a couple's wedding needs to make sense to them and the authenticity of it needs to be a common thread throughout," says Aronne. So don't be afraid to put your own spin on your wedding (it is your wedding after all) even if it's not something you would normally see suggested in magazines or on Pinterest. And speaking of Pinterest, don't overdo it. It's a great place for inspiration but draw the line at that. "People fall into a little bit a hole where they are looking at images on Pinterest all day long," explains Aronne. To truly bring the authenticity factor up, look less on social media and more into your own life as a couple to draw inspiration from it--your lifestyle, your trips, and your hobbies are a good starting point. RELATED: Beautiful In-Season Wedding Flowers That Won't Break the Bank Credit: A F?te Event, Photographer: Brian Dorsey Studios 2. Decor "Many brides fall into this tunnel-vision trap that they think it's all about the flowers. The flowers are one factor of many," says Aronne. Having beautiful floral centerpieces on your wedding is great, but it's not the only way to set a celebratory mood. Nothing can transform your reception venue quite like lighting, for example. It has a romantic effect and can make the place feel magical. And there so many options to choose from: candles are great for indoor weddings, and lanterns would transform your outdoor celebration into a fairy tale. Story continues Credit: A F?te Event, Photographer: Konrad Brattke Your wedding should really appeal to all five senses so think about the presentation of your food as well. Of course, having tasty dishes is essential, but work with your caterer on the way they are presented. All elements from your wedding should complement each other. 3. Music. "From ceremony, to cocktails, to dinner and dancing, music is the soundtrack of your wedding. Make sure it's great and share music that touches you," explains Aronne. "It's about finding what you love and where you can inject it appropriately while still keeping your guests happy and entertained at the same time." A former client of hers was really into New Orleans jazz music, for example. But since it wasn't appropriate to have that kind of music play the whole night, Aronne hired a jazz band that showed up at the end of the reception and accompanied the guests to the after-party location. "It was super fun. And that's how they injected something they like into the wedding," she says. RELATED: I Planned My Own Wedding and This Is What Happened Credit: A F?te Event, Photographer: Maike Schulz 4. Service. "It's all about the hospitality. People usually complain that there are a lot of lines at weddings," explains Aronne. Service is not something couples often think about when planning a wedding but it is an important component of a great celebration. Talk to your caterer about it in advance. Waiting for ten minutes to get a drink at the bar can ruin the experience for some of your guests. Instead, have someone walk around and pass drinks for a few minutes at the beginning of your cocktail. 5. Keep your guests engaged. "Weddings can start off great, but if timing is too drawn out and nothing changes, things tend to lose steam," says Aronne. This is where having a well-planned wedding program comes into play. Talk to everyone who is giving a speech at your ceremony beforehand and ask him/her to keep it short. Work with your planner to create a program that is not going to bore your guests. "Sticking to that schedule and making sure you are injecting different surprises is really important to keep everyone engaged," says Aronne. A 60-year-old woman in England whose daughter died wants to use her daughter's eggs to get pregnant and give birth to her own grandchild. But would such a pregnancy come with risks? In general, older women are at higher risk for complications during pregnancy compared with younger women. But some studies suggest that women over 50 who become pregnant through in vitro fertilization (IVF) do just as well as younger women, as long as they are properly screened for health conditions before becoming pregnant. The British woman, known only as Mrs. M., says she wants to honor the wish of her late daughter, who died in 2011 of bowel cancer at age 28, but who had her eggs frozen before her death, according to The New York Times. Yesterday (June 30), Mrs. M. won an appeal in court for the right to take her daughter's frozen eggs to a clinic in New York, where she plans to have embryos created with donor sperm. The embryos could then be implanted so that Mrs. M. could carry her grandchild. If Mrs. M is able to go through with the plan, she wouldn't be the first person to carry her own grandchild. In 2011, a 61-year-old woman in Virginia gave birth to her own grandson, after carrying a pregnancy for her 35-year-old daughter and son-in-law, who had suffered stillbirths and a miscarriage, according to news reports. In a similar case, a 54-year-old woman in Texas gave birth to her own granddaughter earlier this year. Older women tend to have a higher rate of problems during pregnancy. A 2010 study from Israel found that women over 45 were three times more likely to develop gestational diabetes and high blood pressure during pregnancy, compared with younger women. Older women in the study also had a higher risk of preterm birth, and were much more likely to need a cesarean section, compared with younger women. [Blossoming Body: 8 Odd Changes That Happen During Pregnancy] In older women, a big concern is whether their heart and blood vessels can handle the extra blood volume that flows through a woman's body during pregnancy, Dr. David Cohen, an obstetrician and ethicist at the University of Chicago, told ABC News. (During pregnancy, a woman's blood doubles in volume.) Because blood vessels aren't as elastic in older women, the risk of developing high blood pressure is greater, Cohen said. Story continues Still, some older women are able to become pregnant and give birth safely. In a 2012 study, researchers analyzed the outcomes of more than 100 women ages 50 and older who became pregnant with donated eggs (using IVF) and gave birth. Before the IVF procedure, the women had undergone extensive health screening, including an ultrasound of the heart and a treadmill stress test. The researchers found that the older women in the study had rates of gestational diabetes and preterm labor that were similar to those of the younger women who also gave birth after IVF. The older women did have slightly higher rates of high blood pressure (23 percent compared to 14 percent), but this difference was not statistically significant, meaning it could have been due to chance. About 80 percent of the older women needed a C-section. Because the uterus changes very little with age, it should be able to nourish a growing fetus, even at older ages, Dr. Mark Sauer, chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Columbia University Medical Center, told Live Science in a 2012 interview. Still, it's important that older women be properly screened before they try to become pregnant, Sauer said. In the 2012 study, the older women who qualified for IVF tended to be healthy, and did not have other medical conditions. 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. Quite the happenin' party. Today marks the 95th anniversary of the formation of the Chinese Communist Party. A grand ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing is being held to mark the occasion. President Xi Jinpings speech, dubbed in English, is being livestreamed on YouTube (which is blocked in China) and on Xinhua, the state news agency. The speech is heavy on the partys guiding principles, how Marxism remains core to the partys identity. By departing from or abandoning Marxism, the party would lose its soul and direction, Xi said. We should open a new chapter for Marxism in the 21st century and allow it to shine brighter in modern China. The ceremony caps a week of celebrations: Xi and other elites attended a concert of revolutionary songs on Wednesday, while throughout China ceremonies featured Mao Zedongs daughter and variety show-style public performances (links in Chinese). The CCPs propaganda machine has made a special effort to reach outside of its borders in recent months, and this years celebrations are no exception. As part of an ongoing online push, the party released a series of videos that attempt to explain China, and the party. This is China, a four-minute, English-language, hip-hop music video by a group called CD Rev, may be the most jarring. In the clip, which the party paid for, the rappers praise the party for the countrys economic boom, while gently lamenting the problems of corruption and product safety. They also accuse foreigners of misrepresenting China in the media, and misunderstanding political issues like the countrys relations with Taiwan. Story continues You are probably also confused about the situation of Taiwan/as you dont know the relationships between it and the mainland/Actually, for normal citizens, we just want us united as one/because we think we are from one family, the same. Four new animated videos (available here, here, here, and here) attempt to explain how the party works. Its a noble effort, as the partys workings can seem opaque and impenetrable to outsiders. But they dont do much to demystify the organization. One, titled Where do I sign up? A guide to joining the CPC explains how to join the party. Over an acoustic guitar soundtrack reminiscent of a Kickstarter video, the narrator describes the seven-step process. Even with a breezy voice-over, the partys control over daily life is apparent. Step four, referred to as the activist period, requires applicants to hand in reports to the party on your studies and work, as well as attend CPC lectures and activities. Then theres an inspection, although its unclear what this entails. All those reports, lectures, and activities were important after all, the narrator says, before introducing the next stepa year-long probation. Another video, titled Can foreigners become CPC members, recounts all of the overseas nationals that have gone on to join the party. As an attempt to make the party look welcoming to foreigners, its a miserable failure. After all, there are just four examples. The first foreigner to join the party, according to the video, was Sidney Rittenberg, the journalist and linguist who joined the party in 1946. The last person mentioned is Holly Liu, who moved to China in 1957 and joined the party 29 years later. Missing from all of these videos, of course, is the infighting, factionalism, and corruption that have become synonymous with the CCP, as well as its harsh crackdown on human rights in China, or its history of tragically misguided policies that killed millions. But the videos do capture the other side of the partyits penchant for generating tone-deaf propaganda. What better way to ring in its 95th anniversary? Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief, our free daily newsletter with the worlds most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: By Alwyn Scott and Daniel Trotta NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gresham, Smith and Partners recently designed a screening area at Norfolk International Airport in Virginia with one major concern in mind: flexibility, so it can adapt to changing security threats. From box-cutters to explosives to automatic weapons, the dangers for airport security evolve. So the firm created a large, open space without support columns that can be easily reconfigured to bring in the next generation of screening machines. "We don't know what's coming next so we design for that," said Wilson Rayfield, executive vice president in charge of aviation at the architecture, design and consulting firm. In the face of airport threats such as Tuesday's deadly attack in Istanbul, designers are asked to come to the frontline of the security challenge and achieve the nearly impossible: improve security without slowing down travelers. The stakes are high. In Istanbul, three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people and wounded 238 in a gun and bomb attack. In Brussels on March 22, two Islamic State suicide bombers detonated suitcase bombs in the airport departure hall before a third struck a metro train in the city, killing 32 people in all. Sometimes, art and function coincide. Open spaces and high ceilings can reduce the impact of a concussive blast. Other times, designers are working to reduce congestion in non-secure areas and create more offsite checkpoints. They seek to channel passengers in ways that take advantage of high-tech sensors, cameras and facial recognition software that may help police stop assailants before they kill. "Aviation has a lot to learn from Las Vegas casinos," said Rayfield, referring to surveillance cameras and crowd control methods that he said allow three-fourths of visitors to be identified. A terminal renovation soon to begin at Denver International Airport will incorporate the latest innovations, such as creating more security checkpoints dispersed throughout the airport in order to reduce crowds. At Newark Liberty International Airport, another major hub, vehicles have already been moved further from the terminal to lessen the threat of a car bomb. In May, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issued a broad call for companies to devise new ways to address threats, improve passenger screening and deliver next-generation screening technology. Proposals are due later this month. ISRAEL AT FOREFRONT Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, security experts have revolutionized their craft, sometimes by moving screening checkpoints further away from terminals, one of many tactics employed by Israel, long seen as the vanguard nation in airport security. Ofer Lefler, a spokesman for Israel Airports Authority, said security was "100 percent" a consideration required of architects who designed Ben Gurion Airport's main terminal, though he declined to discuss specifics. The terminal, completed in 2004, is grand with high ceilings and an abundance of marble and Jerusalem stone. A magnificent sun roof, water fountain and atrium give way to corridors leading to the gates like spokes on a wheel. Beyond aesthetics, the design has a function, according to one Israeli aviation security consultant who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity as he was unauthorized to discuss measures at Ben Gurion Airport. Wide-open sight lines give security agents a clear view so that "potential terrorists can be tracked by guards, whether in person or through the closed-circuit TV system, from the moment they are arrive." From the parking area to the terminal, there are several access points with sliding glass doors made from a blast-proof material that would help limit casualties from shrapnel, the consultant said. Surveillance at Ben Gurion begins well before anyone reaches the parking area or terminal. Cars are stopped at a checkpoint, watched over by heavily armed guards and cameras that read license plates. People deemed suspicious are pulled over for further questioning and possibly searches. Largely surreptitious monitoring continues all the way to the terminal. But, experts say, such measures may be impractical at busier airports. Ben Gurion handled fewer than 16 million international passengers in 2015, compared to 75 million at London Heathrow. In the car-crazed United States, adding vehicle checkpoints to old airports would create even greater traffic jams where congestion is already colossal. "That stops a car or bus or a truck. But it doesn't stop people," said Matthew Horace, chief security officer at FJC Security Services in Floral Park, New York. Technology has proven to invaluable to move people quickly through the terminal, said Stanis Smith, executive vice president and airport sector leader for Stantec , a Canadian design firm that is a technical adviser to a major terminal renovation at New York's La Guardia airport. Passengers can now move twice as fast in places employing technology such as self-service check-in and baggage tagging, automated passport readers and electronic signs that can be tailored to the any particular flight. "Just as we saw ATMs take over in the banking sector, we're seeing the same thing in the airport world," Smith said. This includes the use of new body scanners, carry-on baggage scanning machines, and pre-airport checks to improve the flow of people and bags. "Aviation is going to remain a favorite target," said Thomas Sanderson, director of a Washington-based think tank at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "If someone wants to kill people, they will find a way. They just have to be right once. We have to be right all the time." (Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem,; Siva Govindasamy in Singapore, Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Dina Kyriakidou and Edward Tobin) Buenos Aires (AFP) - Argentina's President Mauricio Macri heads to Europe this weekend on a mission to strengthen trade ties with its powerful economy after 12 years of isolation under his leftist predecessors. The conservative leader of Latin America's third-biggest economy was due to leave for France Friday before visiting Belgium and Germany on a six-day tour. He is set to hold an informal meeting with French President Francois Hollande in Paris on Saturday afternoon, Macri's office said. Over the following days, he will travel to Brussels and meet with the president of the EU Council, Donald Tusk, among other officials. In Germany, he will have a working lunch with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday before leaving on Wednesday. Macri, 57, has said he wants to draw $20 billion of foreign investment to Argentina as he opens up the economy. He has been scrapping the protectionist policies of his predecessor Cristina Kirchner since taking office in December. However, his critics say his austere economic fiscal policies are hurting the poor. Macri wants to boost the South American trade bloc Mercosur's bonds with other countries in the region and eventually forge trade alliances with Europe and the rest of the world. Officials in Macri's office who asked not be named said the German leg of the trip would be "the most important in terms of concrete business meetings." He would meet with executives from companies such as Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen and Siemens, they said. "There has been total political change in Argentina," Macri told leaders at a meeting of the Pacific Alliance, which groups several other Latin American countries, on Thursday. "This change means we want to be part of the world scene," he said. "We want to be part of the solution to global problems." ILO official ends Nepal visit on optimistic note Tomoko Nishimoto, assistant director-general and regional director for Asia and the Pacific of International Labour Organisation (ILO), concluded her five-day visit to Kathmandu with a sense of praise and a great optimism for Nepal and its people on Friday. Having first stepped into Cody Rhodes professional playground some 11 months ago, Arrows Stephen Amell announced that the former WWE grappler will have a chance to return the favor, with a guest spot on the CW series. RELATEDArrow Casts Popular Alum Carly Pope as Coast City Reporter in Season 5 During a joint Wrestling Rivals appearance at the Heroes & Villains FanFest held Saturday at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, N.J., Amell told the crowd that Rhodes (born Cody Runnels, and who parted ways with the WWE in May) will guest-star in the third episode of Season 5. Details on the role were not immediately revealed, but Rhodes teased during the HVFF panel, You can probably expect Stephen and I to get into another fight. RELATEDArrow Season 5: Tyler Ritter Nabs Recurring Role The Amell/Rhodes rivalry escalated last August when the Arrow star, as a Monday Night RAW spectator, was goaded into an illegal skirmish with Stardust (watch video). Amell and Rhodes formally faced off weeks later in a SummerSlam tag team match, partnered with Neville and King Barrett, respectively with the good guys emerging victorious. (For his impressive effort in the ring, Amell earned a TVLine Performer of the Week honorable mention.) Arrow Season 5 will feature a variety of fresh faces, including Popular alum Carly Pope (as a Coast City reporter), Chicago P.D.s Josh Segarra (in the series-regular role of D.A. Adrian Chase aka Vigilante), Reapers Rick Gonzalez as the DC Comics character Wild Dog, The Walking Deads Chad L. Coleman as villain Tobias Church and The McCarthys Tyler Ritter as SCPD Detective Malone. Arrow returns Wednesday, Oct. 5 at 8.7c, now leading into the new drama Frequency. Related stories Supergirl Season 1 to Air on The CW Fall TV First Impression: Frequency TVLine Items: Days of Our Lives' Philip to Exit, Arrow Premiere Title and More By Jane Wardell and Jonathan Barrett SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia was headed for a hung parliament or a minority government with more than half the votes counted in a national poll on Saturday, potentially blocking Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's ability to enact key economic reforms. Official electoral data for the House of Representatives showed a 3.2 percent swing away from the Liberal-led coalition government as officials clocked off for the evening with almost 10 million votes counted. The tight vote is a major blow for Turnbull whose gamble on a risky double dissolution of parliament in a bid to oust intransigent independents in the upper house Senate blocking his agenda appears to have backfired. "Friends, we will not know the outcome of this election tonight, indeed, we may not know it for some days to come," a jubilant Bill Shorten, leader of the opposition Labor Party, told supporters in Melbourne just before midnight. "But there is one thing for sure - the Labor Party is back." Opinion polls heading into Saturday's vote had showed a potentially tight vote after the landslide victory that brought the coalition to power in 2013; but just how tight still caught many by surprise. Former prime minister Tony Abbott told Liberal Party followers it was a "difficult night" after he successfully retained his Sydney seat. On official projections issued as counting was wound up early Sunday morning, the coalition was expected to hold 68 seats, against the opposition Labor Party's 70 seats and five to independents and the Greens Party. A further seven seats were in the balance. With just six seats left to be determined in the House of Representatives, it was unclear if the coalition would win enough to form a government without an alliance with small parties and independents to get a majority. "It is a very, very close count," Turnbull told the party faithful at coalition headquarters in Sydney after Shorten spoke. "I can report that based on the advice I have from the party officials, we can have every confidence that we will form a coalition majority government in the next parliament." Still, there were early rumblings about Turnbull's future given the closeness of the vote. Turnbull had some of the highest poll ratings of an Australian leader on record shortly after he snatched the top job from Abbott last year. But that popularity soured as he appeared to bend his centre-right values on issues like climate change and same sex marriage to the right-wing powerbrokers in his party. XENOPHON ON TRACK The vote in the 76-seat Senate was also looking troublesome for the coalition with the independent centrist Nick Xenophon Team on track to win several seats. Pauline Hanson's One Nation party is also on track to win several Senate positions, bringing the Far Right politician back into parliament after an almost 20-year absence. "I believe that we need maturity in the parliament to start passing legislation that is right for the people and our future generations," said Hanson, who campaigned on an anti-immigration, anti-Muslim platform. Turnbull had said a vote for the coalition was a vote for political stability, invoking the global economic and political fallout from Britain's decision to leave the European Union. Minor parties, possibly in a coalition with centre-left Labor, he argued, could not be trusted to manage an economy hampered by a mining downturn and balance public finances after years of deficits. Xenophon, whose party won its first lower house seat, has vowed to block the coalition's cornerstone A$50 billion ($37 billion) corporate tax cuts if his party holds the balance of power in the Senate. "We've broken the duopoly," Xenophon said to cheers from supporters at a campaign event in Adelaide. "There's only been one of me in 226 seats; there'll be at least four of us and that'll be huge." There is no counting scheduled for Sunday, with counting for the Senate to resume on Monday and the House of Representatives on Tuesday. (Additional reporting by Colin Packham and Tom Westbrook in SYDNEY, Melanie Burton in MELBOURNE and Matt Siegel in ADELAIDE; Editing by Nick Macfie, Susan Thomas and Mark Potter) By Matt Siegel ADELAIDE, Australia (Reuters) - As Australians cast their ballots in a tight election on Saturday afternoon, senator Nick Xenophon worked up a sweat while preparing kebabs at a Greek restaurant in his hometown. "Nick, if you no get across the line tonight, I give you a job," owner Yianni Tsagariolis shouted in a thick Greek accent, drawing laughter from Xenophon supporters who had gathered at the restaurant. But with early results showing the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) party winning between three and five Senate seats, it became clear the restaurant's charcoal grill was the only reason for Australia's next political kingmaker to break into a sweat. Australians went to sleep without knowing who will be prime minister, but the eventual election winner -- whether the ruling conservative Liberal-National coalition or the opposition Labor Party -- will likely need to negotiate with NXT senators to pass key legislation. With almost 10 million votes counted on Saturday, the parties were in a near dead-lock. It is expected to take several days to determine a winner. Far-right politician Pauline Hanson also looks set to win a position in the upper house. NXT candidate Rebekha Sharkie, who won the party's only lower house seat, may even have a say over who becomes prime minister should the election lead to a hung parliament. Xenophon, a former suburban lawyer who has served in the Senate since 2008, built his position by exploiting widespread political fury sparked by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott's 2014 decision to buy a A$50 billion ($37.48 billion) fleet of 12 submarines from Japan. That decision shattered a promise Abbott had made to build the vessels in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, and Xenophon relentlessly pushed the government to open up the process and hold a tender. Speaking on election night, Xenophon said his party would be a voice for millions of centrist Australians who felt left out by the two major parties. "We've broken the duopoly," he said to cheers from supporters at a campaign event in Adelaide. "There's only been one of me in 226 seats; there'll be at least four of us and that'll be huge. That will be a base for us to build on ... that's why the majors are running scared." In the previous election cycle mining magnate Clive Palmer briefly played a similar role before infighting led to an implosion in the Palmer United Party. Two of its senators resigned from the party. Xenophon's party also lacks a unifying ideal beyond his personal brand, said Peter Chen, politics and media lecturer at the University of Sydney. "Xenophon himself is obviously an experienced and disciplined campaigner and parliamentarian but he has to be able to keep his troops in order and he's never been called on to do that before," Chen said. But a political source close to Xenophon, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak with the media, dismissed such concerns. "It's a good result from a team-management perspective," the source told Reuters. "In some sense if we'd won everything we could have done, it would have been a management nightmare. All of them understand the importance of unity." ($1 = 1.3342 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Matt Siegel; Editing by Jonathan Barrett and Helen Popper) Heavily armed Bangladeshi commandos stormed a Dhaka restaurant Saturday where suspected Islamist militants were holding dozens of people hostage, including foreigners, after a deadly firefight with police, officials said. "The operation has began. Commandos have stormed the restaurant," a security official said. An AFP photographer at the scene said he could hear a massive gunfight as security forces launched the rescue operation more than 10 hours after militants seized the hostages. Five Bangladeshi hostages were rescued in the first few minutes of the operation, the security official told AFP. "They are rescued unharmed," he said. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack Friday night on the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant in the capital's upmarket Gulshan diplomatic quarter in which two police officers were killed. Police said the gunmen burst into the restaurant shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greater) as people were having dinner at around 9:20 pm (1520 GMT) and set off explosives. Italy's ambassador Mario Palma told Italian state television seven Italians were among the hostages. Japan said some of its nationals may also have been among the captives. "There is no desire to negotiate," Palma said of the attackers. "It's a suicide mission." Some diners managed to escape including an Argentine chef and a Bangladeshi man who took refuge in an adjacent building, but police said there were still a number of people being held inside the restaurant hours after the assault. - 'Whole building was shaking' - Some managed to speak to relatives by phone, reporting there were up to 40 people trapped inside, around half of them foreigners, the private Ekattur TV station said. Another had told relatives he feared they would be killed if police tried to storm the restaurant to end the siege. "He is very nervous," the man's uncle, who had spoken to him by phone, told AFP. Story continues The White House said US President Barack Obama had been briefed on the attack, a rare occurrence in an area of Dhaka considered relatively safe. The restaurant's supervisor Sumon Reza who escaped by jumping from the roof told a local newspaper there were 20 foreigners being held hostage. "I was in the roof. The whole building was shaking when they set off explosives," he said. Bangladesh has been reeling from a wave of murders of religious minorities and secular activists by suspected Islamist militants. But those murders generally only involved a handful of assailants and the latest attack appears to have been on a much bigger scale and the first time that people were held hostage. - Popular with foreigners - The IS-linked Amaq news agency said the group was behind the attack and that "more than 20 people of different nationalities (were) killed". It later issued a number of photographs of what it said were scenes from inside the cafe. The pictures, which were not immediately possible to verify, showed what appeared to be a number of bodies lying in pools of blood. Heavily armed police and paramilitary guards had cordoned off the area around the restaurant after the gunfight broke out when the militants launched their attack. "Two police officers including the head of Banani police station were killed. It appeared they were hit by bullets and splinters from a grenade," deputy commissioner of Dhaka police Sheikh Nazmul Alam told AFP. "Up to 20 police officers were injured. Seven-eight people have come out of the restaurant. But there are some people inside." The attack took place near the Nordic Club, where expatriates gather, and the Qatari, Italian and Egyptian embassies, as Bangladesh observes the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. French ambassador Sophie Aubert said the restaurant was "very popular" with diplomats and other foreigners in Dhaka. The attack follows a series of killings targeting foreigners in Bangladesh that have been claimed by the Islamic State group. Earlier Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in western Bangladesh and a Hindu priest was stabbed and critically wounded early Saturday in the southwest of the country. Police also shot dead two Islamist students suspected in last month's murder of a Hindu priest and arrested a top Islamist militant who masterminded an attack on a Hindu lecturer last month. The government and police blame homegrown militants for the killings, which they say are part of a plot to destabilise the country. They have blamed the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its Islamist ally. Last month authorities launched a nationwide crackdown on local jihadist groups, arresting more than 11,000 people, under pressure to act on the spate of killings. But many rights groups allege the arrests were arbitrary or were a way to silence political opponents of the government. Experts say a government crackdown on opponents, including a ban on the country's largest Islamist party following a protracted political crisis, has pushed many towards extremism. By Ruma Paul and Promit Mukherjee DHAKA/MUMBAI (Reuters) - Some leaders of Bangladesh's $26 billion garment industry expect Western fashion retailers to review their ties with the world's second-largest garment exporter after Islamist militants killed more than a dozen foreigners in an attack on a Dhaka restaurant. Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest countries, relies on garments for around 80 percent of its exports and for about 4 million jobs, and ranks behind only China as a supplier of clothes to developed markets like Europe and the United States. "An incident like this will definitely impact us, in as much as our importers from places such as (the) U.S. and China will be wary to visit because of the security concerns," said Shahidul Haque Mukul, managing director of Ananta Garments. The industry had been recovering strongly from a major tragedy three years ago, when a factory building collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people, prompting safety checks that led to many factory closures and the loss of exports and jobs. It had also seemed little touched by a spate of recent murders on liberals, gays, foreigners and religious minorities in sporadic attacks claimed by Islamic State and al Qaeda. Between October and January, its exports surged 14 percent from a year earlier. But Friday's attack signalled a more chilling threat to foreigners. The militants targeted a building housing two upmarket eateries popular with foreigners, and several of those killed were Italian garment entrepreneurs. "Bangladesh has never seen such a horrific incident," said Mohammad Siddiqur Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. "It is a strong slap to our image. It will put pressure on our business, but we cannot say to what extent at the moment." A Bangladesh-based executive for a French-based garment buyer said he feared a deep slump in business in the coming days. But other industry figures said heightened security fears could be managed and that manufacturers could hold more meetings with Western customers outside Bangladesh, in Asian cities such as Singapore or Hong Kong, a trend that had begun some time ago. Story continues "Concerns on visiting our factories, holding meetings, etc, by foreign nationals will be there for a few months but I believe within six months, the intensity will thaw and things will be back to normal," said Abdullah Hil Rakib, head of exporter Brothers Fashion Ltd. The industry owes its resilience to some of the world's lowest wages, the right skills and the fact that China has become less competitive as a producer in recent years. The minimum monthly wage for garment workers in Bangladesh is $68, compared with about $280 in mainland China. (Additional reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Mumbai and Serajul Quadir in Bangladesh; Writing by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Mike Collett-White) By Sanjeev Miglani and Ruma Paul DHAKA/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Bangladesh, faced with the worst militant attack in its history, is probing deeper for possible ties between the men who murdered around 20 people in a restaurant and trans-national Islamist extremist groups, security officials said. Until Friday's attack in an upscale part of the capital Dhaka, the government had blamed two home-grown groups for mounting violence, but these were attacks on individuals, most of them with crude machetes and knives, and never a coordinated mass killing. So the storming of the restaurant, taking diners hostages, apparently singling out foreigners for death and then fighting a gunbattle to the finish marked a new level of sophistication and scale, anti-terrorism officials and security experts said. "We cannot say immediately which group is behind this. But they were terrorists who were trained well," said Brigadier General Naeem Ashfaq Choudhuri, director general of military operations for the Bangladesh army. One line of inquiry being pursued is whether the attackers received any guidance from Islamic State or al Qaeda in the run-up to the attack, an official in the police counter-terrorism wing said. Police were also looking into whether the Dhaka assault was part of, or inspired by a series of attacks elsewhere in the world including on Istanbul airport last month, he added. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Dhaka attack, and even while the siege was still on, the group published grisly pictures from inside the restaurant apparently sent by the assailants. The authenticity of the images has not been established, however. A U.S. government source said some U.S. government experts were now leaning toward the view that Islamic State was behind the attack, in which an American citizen was among the dead, along with at least nine Italians and seven Japanese. AL QAEDA VERSUS ISLAMIC STATE? Bangladesh, a pre-dominantly Muslim country of 160 million people, has long maintained that there are no foreign fighters on its soil, although some Western security experts have questioned that. Officials have said that all seven gunmen in Friday night's attack and overnight siege were local. It is not yet clear whether they belonged to either of the two main domestic militant movements blamed for a spate of attacks in recent months on bloggers, university teachers and members of religious minorities. Ansar-al-Islam, considered the better coordinated and more dangerous of the two until now, had pledged allegiance to al Qaeda, while Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen had claimed to represent Islamic State in Bangladesh. Security experts in Bangladesh, India and the United States said that even if there were no foreign fighters involved, whichever group mounted the restaurant assault appeared to have benefited from external support. "This attack was of a level of sophistication that suggests the involvement of a group well schooled in intricately choreographed terror operations, and ISIS and al Qaeda fit the bill," Michael Kugelman, a senior South Asia associate at the Wilson Center, said. Four pistols, an AK-22 semi-automatic assault rifle, four unexploded IEDs and several sharp weapons were recovered from the scene, Brigadier General Choudhuri said. The targeting of people in a restaurant appeared more in line with Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, which has focused its attacks on non-Muslims, whether a poor rickshaw-puller or a grocer. Ansar-al-Islam, in contrast, has laid down strict "targeting criteria" under which its fighters attack people carrying out "anti-Islamic" activities such as bloggers criticizing radical Islam or activists promoting gay rights. It has said it will not carry out random killings. Bangladesh counter-terrorism officials say Ansar follows the ideology and methods of al Qaeda, and has a fugitive former army major playing a key role that could make it more potent. But they and foreign experts also see the risk of an escalating rivalry between al Qaeda and Islamic State, or their local proxies, in Bangladesh. (Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in WASHINGTON and Serajul Quadir in DHAKA; Editing by Mike Collett-White) Bangladesh security forces including commandos Saturday stormed a restaurant in the capital where dozens of people including foreigners were being held hostage by suspected Islamist militants, a security official said. "The operation has began. Commandos have stormed the restaurant," the official said. An AFP photographer at the scene said he could hear a massive gunfight as security forces launched the operation more than 10 hours after the hostages were taken. Three U.S. college students were among the 20 hostages and 6 gunman killed in the 11-hour Bangladesh hostage siege that began on Friday night when a squad of ISIS gunmen attacked the upscale Holey Artisan Bakery in the nation's capital of Dhaka. The assault ended early Saturday when Bangladeshi troops stormed the scene killing the six attackers and rescuing 13 hostages. Georgia's Emory University said two of those killed were associated with the college's Oxford College campus. One, Abinta Kabir, was an undergraduate student from Miami, Florida. She was in Dhaka, visiting family and friends. Another, Dhaka native Faraaz Houssain, was a 2016 graduate of Oxford College and a student at Emory's Goizueta Business School. "The Emory community mourns this tragic and senseless loss of two members of our university family," the University said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers go out on behalf of Faraaz and Abinta and their families and friends for strength and peace at this unspeakably sad time." Bangladesh Siege: 3 U.S. Students Among 20 Hostages Killed in ISIS Attack| Crime & Courts, Shootings, True Crime University of California at Berkeley student Tarushi Jain has also been identified among the victims reports CNN. The 19-year-old Indian citizen was mourned by India's minister of external affairs Sushma Swara. Many of those killed were foreigners, according to The New York Times. It's the deadliest attack by ISIS militants in the South Asian nation, where their presence has been growing alarmingly in recent months. Bangladesh Siege: 3 U.S. Students Among 20 Hostages Killed in ISIS Attack| Crime & Courts, Shootings, True Crime Thirteen hostages were rescued, The Wall Street Journal reports. A seventh attacker was arrested. The identities and nationalities of the attackers have not yet been released. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the assault through its media branch, Amaq, the BBC reports, releasing photos from inside the restaurant. The initial strike on Friday night left 2 officers dead and at least 30 people wounded. Bangladesh Siege: 3 U.S. Students Among 20 Hostages Killed in ISIS Attack| Crime & Courts, Shootings, True Crime Italy's Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said at least nine of the dead were Italian nationals, reports CNN. They were: Adele Puglisi, Marco Tondat, Claudia Maria D'Antona, Nadia Benedetti, Vincenzo D'Allestro, Maria Rivoli, Cristian Rossi, Claudio Cappelli, and Simona Monti. One Japanese national and two Sri Lankans were among the hostages rescued, officials from both nations told the news network. Seven of the Japanese national's colleagues who were at the establishment are still missing. Bangladesh Siege: 3 U.S. Students Among 20 Hostages Killed in ISIS Attack| Crime & Courts, Shootings, True Crime According to a military spokesman, attackers used sharp weapons to "ferociously" attack the victims, the Times reports. "A kitchen worker who had escaped said the attackers were armed with pistols, swords and bombs," they say. Bangladesh's Daily Star newspaper reports the gunmen tortured those hostages who were unable to recite the Koran, and only provided meals overnight for captives who were Bangladeshi. Last rites of former Minister Manandhar performed Last rites of former Minister for Education and leader of the Federal Socialist Forum Nepal Dr Mangal Siddhi Manandhar were performed at the Pashupati Aryaghat Saturday as per the Buddhist rituals. Omaha (United States) (AFP) - US swimming's biggest names were in the spotlight on the penultimate day of the Olympic trials on Saturday, with Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky and Missy Franklin gunning for Rio Games berths. Madison Kennedy topped the heat times in the women's 50m free in 24.52sec. Connor Jaeger, Rio-bound as the winner of the 400m free, topped the 1,500m free heats in 14min 58.59sec in a curtain-raiser for an action-packed evening session. Phelps, whose 22 Olympic medals include a remarkable 18 gold, had work to do to punch his ticket in the 100m butterfly after posting just the sixth-fastest semi-final time on Friday. "Lane two or seven? First time in that lane so that should be fun," said Phelps, whose legs were aching after swimming the 100m fly semis less than half an hour after winning the 200m individual medley final. Such doubles were commonplace in Phelps's heyday -- a necessary challenge in the multiple medal campaigns of which his eight-gold performance at Beijing in 2008 was the zenith. With a milestone fifth trip to the Olympics secured by wins in the 200m fly as well as medley, Phelps will be trying to overcome his lowly seeding and give himself a chance at a fourth consecutive 100m fly Olympic gold. Ledecky, who booked 200m and 400m freestyle berths in Rio with victories this week, signaled her intentions in the 800m free heats with a time of 8:10.91 -- the third fastest time in history. "It felt really easy," said Ledecky, whose world record of 8:06.68 could be under threat on Saturday. "Bodes well for (Saturday)." Franklin is vying for a chance to defend the 200m backstroke title she won in London. The golden girl of 2012 has endured an up-and-down trials, earning an individual Rio berth with a runner-up finish in the 200m free but faltering with a seventh-placed finish in the 100m back -- one of two individual titles she lifted in London. The men's 50m free final is also on tap Saturday with 35-year-old Anthony Ervin topping the times with a sizzling semi-final swim of 21.55. Reigning Olympic 100m free gold medalist Nathan Adrian was second-quickest in 21.60. FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Britain's vote to leave the European Union should be no excuse to loosen EU budget rules, the head of Germany's central bank Jens Weidmann told a magazine, contradicting a proposals from his country's economy minister. "The Brexit vote is no reason to loosen budget rules," Weidmann said in an interview with Focus Magazine published on Saturday. German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel called for Europe's Stability and Growth Pact to be made more growth-friendly, in a letter he sent to employees at his ministry that was seen by Reuters on Friday. (Reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Balazs Koranyi) Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f133830%2fscreen_shot_2016-07-01_at_11.20.57_am UPDATE July 1, 2016, 2:45 p.m. EST: Kat Borlongan just reached out to Mashable and provided more information on this story that we added in. While most fifth graders are naturally focused on straight chillin', one is already on track to change the world. Ten-year-old roboticist Eva is the youngest person to receive Five by Five's Paris Summer Innovation Fellowship. SEE ALSO: Young comedian makes 'America's Got Talent' great again with Trump joke Kat Borlongan, a founding partner at Five by Five, shared a summary of Eva's application on Facebook. The streets of Paris are sad. I want to build a robot that will make them happy again. Ive already starting learning how to code on Thymio robots, but I have trouble making it work. I want to join the program so the mentors can help me. Eva, who lives in France just outside of Paris, has a blog where she shares some of her coding and 3D printing work, including this YouTube video of her robot drawing with chalk. According to the Fellowship's website, the program is "a two-week immersive program focused on empowering our next generation of city problem-solvers: data scientists, DIY urban designers and open street mappers." During the fellowship, Eva will be programming a robot to make the streets of Paris happy again. She aims to program several robots to spontaneously draw stars, hopscotch floor prints, intricate mazes and other shapes and figures to delight pedestrians, Borlongan wrote to Mashable. Once the robots are ready, we'll deploy them together in the streets of Paris and see what happens, Borlongan told Mashable. In the application, she mentioned the Champs Elysees, the banks of the Seine and the streets along the Canal Saint Martin. We'll do what I can to get her the permits she needs from the city of course," she wrote to Mashable. Borlongan also wrote an open letter to Eva on Facebook, discussing how much the 10-year-old's pitch inspired her. Story continues "There was nothing on the website that said the program was open to 10 year olds but as you must have noticed nothing that said that it was not," said Borlongan. She also mentioned that most of the other applicants were "PhDs and seasoned urban designers." "It is my hope that your work on robotics will encourage more young girls all over the world not just to code, but to be as brave as you, in asking for help and actively looking for different ways to learn and grow," she told Eva. Borlongan ended her open letter by telling Eva that she has been accepted to join other fellows in Paris for the program. Borlongan went on to reveal that after sending an enquiry to Thymio, the robotics company that Eva uses, they designated their president to be Eva's personal specialist this summer. Thymio will also be awarding Eva their latest robot. In addition, Borlongan told Mashable that Eva will get to work with a whole slew of experts in her field, including a Stanford professor of electrical engineering, the founder of Hardware Club, and the President of Maker Faire France. Borlongan also told Mashable that the 20 fellows final presentations will be on September 7th in Paris. We hope guests get to walk to the event via happy streets. Aix-en-Provence (France) (AFP) - Financial movers and shakers gathered in France on Saturday urged a clear and timely political response to lift the uncertainty caused by Britain's shock vote to leave the European Union. A raft of top business leaders and intellectuals have gathered in the southern French city of Aix-en-Provence for a three-day meeting to discuss how to react to the fallout from last week's "Brexit" vote. Participants swiftly agreed on at least one thing -- nobody is quite sure what is going to happen next, the underlying source of their worries. Britain has not yet begun the process of disengaging itself from the European Union, with arguments raging after the country was split 52 percent to 48 percent in the referendum. Renault-Nissan automaker giant head Carlos Ghosn said the loss of Britain in itself from the EU bloc was not so much the problem as that the uncertainties such a move would provoke. "Worried? Yes," said Ghosn. "Not because of Brexit but worried by the uncertainty that has engendered." For Ghosn, "companies, good or bad, are capable of adapting to everything. all kinds of situations." But with Britain's new status regarding the European Union not clear he said firms would have to live with uncertainty. "We are going to navigate as we go along," said Ghosn, not least regarding the post-Brexit future of Nissan's factory employing 8,000 in the north east of England. - 'Could cause damage' - Oil giant Total's CEO Patrick Pouyanne said for his part that Brexit would "not have a direct impact" as likely sterling weakness could bring down production costs for the group's North Sea operations. "On the other hand, Brexit will have European growth impacts on the macro-economic front and that could cause damage," Pouyanne said. "There is an element of more uncertainty, instability, in a world which is already facing up to a range of geopolitical difficulties, with Daesh (Islamic State), Ukraine, a swathe of financial crises and now Brexit." Story continues US ratings agency SP Global Ratings cut its rating for the EU by one notch last Thursday citing the uncertainty created by the Brexit vote. "The only message I would like to transmit is we have to act fast," said Pouyanne or risk allowing uncertainty to "destroy confidence" in the whole bloc. - Time to make decisions - Politicians indicated they understand that message and its urgency. "The first thing to do is lift the uncertainty as soon as possible so that economic actors are able to take decisions quickly, including decisions pertaining to investment and development," French Minister of Finance Michel Sapin said Friday. "Today," Sapin added, I feel economic actors are demanding political decisions -- perhaps a revamping of politics?" Paris is looking to use Brexit as a chance to bolster the attractiveness of France and Prime Minister Manuel Valls gave an interview to Saturday's Le Parisien in which he set out France's stall to that end. "We are working on means of reinforcing our attractiveness. I am thinking notably of tax policy or the status of expatriates. So I say to large international companies -- Welcome to Paris ! Come and invest in France," said Valls. "We are the number one financial market place in the eurozone in terms of direct and indirect employment with 1.2 million jobs," Muriel Penicaud, director general of Business France, a public body tasked with showing off France's plus points to the business world, told AFP. The group has just published a paper highlighting reasons to do business in Paris, insisting the capital offers "a robust stock market regulatory and financial system. Many faces of the divine Arun Gupto, a noted scholar and teacher of English literature, has taken onto himself to explore a pantheon of Hindu deities in his latest work, Goddesses of Kathmandu Valley: Grace, Rage, Knowledge Note: This article is courtesy of Iris.xyz By Dr. Sonu Varghese The world saw one of the most cataclysmic political events in decades on Thursday, June 23, 2016, with a majority of British voters choosing to leave the European Union (EU). The decision was a huge surprise, with oddsmakers and financial market traders expecting the opposite. Betting markets gave Remain an 88 percent chance to win. Instead, Leave won 52 percent to 48 percent. Final polling leading up to the referendum showed Remain with a slight edge, but there was always the possibility of Leave pulling out ahead given the margin of error 17 of 35 surveys in June showed Leave ahead, while only 15 had Remain in the Lead. Of course, most forecasters expected undecided voters to break heavily toward the Remain camp but this was always conjecture. Immediate Repercussions Financial markets started falling sharply as referendum results started trickling in and the odds of Britain leaving the EU rose. They continued to fall after official results were announced. The British pound really took it on the chin, falling more than 8% on Friday to its lowest level since 1985, and resumed its slide on Monday. Equity markets across the globe are hardly faring much better, with financials taking the biggest hit. The uncertainty over Brexit is especially hurting European banks, just as they were beginning to recover from the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent Eurozone related emergencies. Banks have to decide whether to remain in Britain or shift operations to continental Europe. Up until this point, most global banks have set up shop in the UK and done business in the EU by passporting into the rest of the 28-member bloc. London is also a major center for clearing and settling trades for EU securities. On Saturday, Frances central bank governor, Francois Villeroy De Galhau, was clear that London will lose its prized stature, saying: If tomorrow Britain is not part of the single market, the City cannot keep this European passport, and clearing houses cannot be located in London either. Story continues London has been a global financial center for more than a hundred years, but even more so over the last few decades with deregulation and globalization. That status is now under question. Trending on ETF Trends Millennials Are More Likely to Own ETFs Are Emerging Markets Bond ETFs Still a Good Idea? Shorts Running for the Exit on Big China ETF A Winning Dividend ETF Thats Up 14.4% in 2016 Supply Concerns Linger for Oil ETFs As we noted in our paper To Leave or not to Leave: Brexit and Implications, one possible path for Britain is to follow the Norway model: access the single market by becoming a member of the European Economic Area (EEA). This obviously comes at a price unfettered movement of European citizens across borders, accepting EU regulations and contributions to the blocs operating budget all of which Leave supporters explicitly campaigned against. The open door immigration policy was a prime motivator for most voters choosing to leave. At the same time, Britain will no longer have a say in creating EU laws. Another alarming aspect is that Britain apparently lacks the skills to go it alone on trade deals with the EU and the rest of the world. The European Commission has taken the lead in trade negotiations for the past four decades, leaving the country bereft of people equipped with the right technical knowledge. Negotiating trade deals takes such intense effort that even concluding them in five years is considered an achievement. Click here to read the full story on Iris.xyz. By Ahmad Sultan KABUL (Reuters) - At least two people were killed and 17 injured on Saturday when a suicide bomber attacked a local commander in eastern Afghanistan, officials said. The attacker targeted the vehicle of Haji Hayat Khan, a leader in a local movement opposing Islamic State militants in Nangarhar province, as he traveled in Jalalabad city, said Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor. Khan's body guards saw a suspicious man on a motorbike approaching, but when the man failed to heed their warnings to stop, the guards opened fire, hitting the rider, Khogyani said. The attacker was nevertheless able to detonate explosives, which killed at least two civilians, including a small boy, and wounded 17 others, he said. Khan and his escorts were unharmed by the blast. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Khan's home district in Nangarhar has recently been the scene of fighting between government forces and militants claiming allegiance to Islamic State. The province is also home to insurgents from the Taliban and Haqqani network, who take refuge along the rugged border with Pakistan. (Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) Freetown (AFP) - Nigerian security officials are questioning the driver of Sierra Leone's kidnapped deputy high commissioner, an official in Freetown said Saturday. The envoy, Alfred Nelson-Williams, was snatched on Friday as he was travelling by road from the Nigerian capital of Abuja north to the city of Kaduna. "We've been informed by the Nigerian authorities that the driver of the kidnapped deputy high commissioner is being questioned by security officials," Sierra Leone Deputy Information and Communication Minister Cornelius Deveaux told reporters Saturday. Kidnappings are common in Nigeria, where the rich and powerful drive bulletproof cars and even hire military and police chaperones as protection from highway bandits. The envoy was kidnapped "on his way to Kaduna from Abuja to attend the passing out ceremony of military officers at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Jaji outside Kaduna," Kaduna state security official Yusuf Yakubu Soja told AFP Friday. Neither he nor police could confirm whether the kidnappers had demanded a ransom. Foreign ministry sources in Freetown told AFP that "this is the first time that a Sierra Leone diplomat has been kidnapped anywhere on posting since independence in 1961". A source in the kidnapped diplomat's family said Saturday, "the news hit us with a bang but we are hopeful that all will be well and that God will give him divine protection". The most sensational kidnapping in Nigeria's recent history saw 276 schoolgirls snatched from their classroom in the remote northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014 by Boko Haram jihadists. The government of former president Goodluck Jonathan was criticised for its slow response in acknowledging the kidnapping and for its inability to find and recover the girls. Late last month, popular musician Ado Dahiru Daukaka was also kidnapped in Nigeria's northeast Adamawa state and then freed days later. Story continues But in the oil-producing delta region in the south, where wealthy Nigerians and expatriate workers are usually the target, abductions are often for financial gain. This week, two Indian workers were kidnapped on their way to work in central Benue state. The pair have yet to be released. Last week, three Australians, a New Zealander and a South African were kidnapped along with two Nigerians near the capital of Cross River state in the country's south. They were released four days later, but officials did not say whether the kidnappers received any ransom. British comedic writer and actress Caroline Aherne died at the age of 52. The creator of such shows as The Royle Family and The Mrs Merton Show suffered from lung cancer, and had previously been diagnosed with eye cancer and bladder cancer. Caroline Aherne has sadly passed away, after a brave battle with cancer, the actress publicist Neil Reading told BBC. The BAFTA award-winning writer and comedy actor died earlier today at her home in Timperley, Greater Manchester. She was 52. The family ask for privacy at this very sad time. Also Read: 'Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie' Review: Eddy and Patsy Make a Strong, Champagne-Swilling Comeback Aherne previously spoke out for cancer awareness, saying both she and her brother were born with cancer in their retinas. Aherne created the character Mrs. Merton for mock talk show The Mrs. Merton Show in 1994. The show, something of a precursor to the likes of Martin Shorts Jiminy Glick and Zach Galifianakis Between Two Ferns, the show featured real celebrities subjecting themselves to inappropriate questioning from the fake talk show host. Also Read: Emmy Quickie: 'Orphan Black' Star Tatiana Maslany Exclusive StudioWrap Portraits (Photos) In 1998, Aherne co-created, with Craig Cash, her most enduring and popular sitcom, The Royle Family, about a low-income family living in Manchester. She starred as the family daughter Denise. The show ran for 3 seasons, from 1998-2000, and in 2000 the show won the BAFTA award for Best Sitcom, and Aherne won the award for Best Comedy Performance. The show won Best Comedy again for a one-off special in 2007. After her death, former ITV chairman Lord Grade said, We have lost a most original talent. The Royle Family will live in the mind with the greatest situation comedies. Related stories from TheWrap: John Boyega, Nicholas Hoult, James McAvoy Join Netflix, BBC's 'Watership Down' 'Top Gear' Gets New Aftershow on BBC America 'Doctor Who': BBC Reveals New Companion for Peter Capaldi's Time Lord Sainte-Marie-du-Mont (France) (AFP) - Mark Cavendish claimed the Tour de France yellow jersey for the first time before paying tribute to members of the armed forces that have fallen in battle. Saturday's first stage of the Tour finished in Utah Beach, one of the D-Day landing sites during World War II 70 years ago. After collecting the yellow jersey following his victory in a sprint finish, Cavendish was part of a moving ceremony to remember the war dead. "I wanted to be involved with the armed forces in the UK and to finish here at Utah Beach was an incredible opportunity to remember and respect not just D-Day but those who've fought and died in all wars for our freedom in the western world," said the 31-year-old Briton, who won his 27th Tour stage. "I wanted to (dedicate) this victory and say thank you to those great men and women and friends back in the UK who served in the armed forces." Cavendish rolled back the years to deliver the perfect sprint finish at the end of the 188km stage, darting out from behind world champion Peter Sagan to streak clear to the line ahead of German Marcel Kittel in second. During the sprint, his speed peaked at 68kph (42mph). He said a change in direction the wind was coming from had forced him to alter his plans at the last moment. "I was waiting, I wanted to get run. Sagan kicked first where I originally wanted to go but had changed (my mind) with the headwind (rather than tailwind). "Fortunately Sagan left a gap on the right, I had to take that opportunity. "Kittel hit terminal velocity, maximum speed and I realised I had something in it. "I carried on to the line and hoped no-one would get a sling-shot past me. I saw line coming, it felt great!" - 'I don't care' - It was a rare victory for Cavendish over Kittel and another German, Andre Greipel, who was fourth behind Sagan in third. The two Germans had dominated Tour sprints over the last three years -- Kittel winning four stages in both 2013 and 2014 with Greipel matching that in his compatriot's absence last year. Story continues But Cavendish gave short shrift to suggestions he should be happy with such a rare triumph -- he'd won only three Tour stages over the last three years together. "I don't care what people talk about," he said irritably. "I have a job to do which is to win bike races. "Team Dimension Data came with the desire to win a bike race today, that's what we tried to do and fortunately that's what we did." Cavendish was more relaxed, though, when discussing the pleasure of taking daughter Delilah up onto the winner's podium with him. "She's my biggest critic, she bases my performances on what flowers I win. Obviously when you win the yellow jersey you get quite beautiful flowers. She's happy with that, I get some dad kudos points! "My whole family was there -- (wife) Peta, (son) little Frey, it was his first Tour stage outside the womb." Chance The Rapper has been a vocal fan of WhirlyBall for a while now, but after an incident last night, hes calling for a boycott of the Chicago amusement center. On Twitter, he alleges that during his last visit, he was mistreated by staff after getting into a dispute with venue security over their new dress code. Its very inaccessible if youre black or friends with black people, Chance writes. Read his tweets below via Pitchfork. Crazy how I was just treated at @whirlyball Been coming here for awhile, this new management doesn't know how to treat customers. Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) July 2, 2016 Don't go to @WhirlyBall it's very inaccessible if you're black or friends with black people, they've clearly outlined in their dress code Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) July 2, 2016 Don't bother trying to speak with the MGMT @WhirlyBall the new armed security will make sure you can't, per managements request. Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) July 2, 2016 I thought for a sec that just the 1825 w Webster @WhirlyBall in Chicago felt this way but it's on the website. Sad end to a family place. Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) July 2, 2016 Philip+Rivers+San+Diego+Chargers+v+Denver+-YmiO2BkT8Fl On June 29, the San Diego Chargers hopes for building a new stadium took a hit. San Diego Union-Tribunes Kevin Acee described what happened to the stadium efforts. The California State Supreme Court decided to temporarily block a lower court ruling that said tax increases like the Chargers downtown stadium initiative require approval from a simple majority instead of two-thirds of voters. The court said it will review the ruling at a time to be determined. Now, this simply means that if this stadium proposal makes it onto the city ballot in November, two-thirds of the city will have to vote yes towards it. Odds are, the plan is going to make the ballot and a vote will happen. The problem arises with getting enough votes. At this point, it would be a miracle if this propsal gets approved. The Chargers would have struggled to get even 50% of voters to come on board. With the rise to two-thirds majority vote, this proposal is probably going to be shot down. In a nutshell, this initiative revolves around getting a stadium in downtown San Diego. This plan has been one of the more popular ones because it involved increasing the citys hotel room tax by four percent. The Chargers owners are also big proponents to the downtown idea. This plan isnt a last resort. The team and city still have time to agree on something. However, this is a big loss. The downtown plan had a lot of support behind it and to see it dwindle is disappointing. The current home the of Chargers is Qualcomm Stadium is extremely outdated. If the Chargers can build a new venue, the team will certainly get multiple Super Bowls. The city is big enough to host it and the weather is amazing. Try after try, the Chargers have tried to get a new stadium built, its tough to point fingers and blame a side, but if the city and the Chargers owners want a stadium they need to decide quickly because other options could become enticing. The post The Chargers stadium struggle continues appeared first on Cover32. Mesmerising Khaptad (in pictures) Khaptad is a three days trip from Kathmandu. The ride from Kathmandu through Dhangadhi, Dadeldhura, Baitadi and Lamataula in Bajhang takes two days. Hello Kitty is heading to the high seas in a collaboration that will see the iconic, moon-faced character emblazoned on a trio of cruise ships for Chinese guests. Over the course of two years, fans will be able to set sail in the fantasy Hello Kitty world aboard the Costa Atlantica, Costa Serena or Costa Fortuna, all vessels based in China. Guests will sleep in Hello Kitty-themed cabins with walls, doors, dolls, sheets and pillows bearing her image. The partnership is set for two years and launches this summer. It's the latest travel-related expansion for the Japanese franchise. Hello Kitty -- which company Sanrio insists is not a cat, but a human -- is also emblazoned on jets for Eva Air in Taiwan. The Hello Kitty flight experience starts with stamped baggage tickets and passes, and extends to Hello Kitty-themed seats, soap, toilet paper, cups, and even sick bags. The Keio Plaza Hotels in Tokyo and Tama in Japan have turned two of its suites into themed rooms for ardent fans, posting every available surface with Hello Kitty paraphernalia. And Hello Kitty Chinese Cuisine in Kowloon, Hong Kong serves steamed buns dressed in pink bow ties, eyes, whiskers and button noses. In other travel collaborations, Hainan Airlines also announced that six of its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners will feature characters from the DreamWorks Animation film Kung Fu Panda, to help inaugurate their non-stop service between China and seven North American cities for three years. Life imitating art. Daniel Radcliffe played dead on the red carpet at the Moscow International Film Festival premiere of Swiss Army Man on Thursday, June 30. The actor wore a full navy blue suit and patterned dress shirt for the big night, but instead of posing for photos, he got into character and simply lay down on the ground looking pale and, well, dead. PHOTOS: Sundance Film Festival 2016: Parties and Premieres! In the film, which also stars Paul Dano as a suicidal man, Radcliffe, 26, plays a corpse that Dano rides across the ocean like a Jet Ski. But rather than being propelled by an engine, the corpse is mobilized by the Harry Potter alums farts. (No, were not kidding.) The film premiered to mixed reviews at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, with an eyewitness telling Us Weekly that the audience had no qualms about expressing their distaste. Many people walked out during the farting montage, the eyewitness told Us. At least 25 percent of the theater. PHOTOS: Harry Potter Stars: Then & Now The flick also featured a scene wherein Dano, 32, and Radcliffe have a long conversation about flatulence and pooping, and another in which Dano drinks water that shoots out of the corpses mouth. It plays like a student film gone awry, the source added. Swiss Army Man opens in theaters on Friday, July 1. LOS ANGELES (AP) - The reeking carcass of a dead humpback whale on Friday was towed back out to sea some 24 hours after washing up at a popular Los Angeles County beach. Authorities used boats pulling ropes attached to its tail to pull it off the sand during the evening high tide, taking the whale far out to sea and avoiding a foul stench and grim scene on the beach as Fourth of July weekend crowds began arriving. Authorities had earlier attempted the procedure at midday, with a bulldozer pushing, but it was unsuccessful because of the low tide. The huge whale washed onto Dockweiler Beach, a long stretch of sand near the west end of Los Angeles International Airport, just before 8 p.m. Thursday and holiday beachgoers began arriving in the morning. Lifeguards posted yellow caution tape to keep people away and biologists took samples to determine what caused the death of the humpback, an endangered species. Beachgoers watching from a distance covered their noses. Tail markings were compared with a photo database and found that the same whale had been spotted three times previously off Southern California between June and August of last year by whale watchers who gave it the nickname Wally, said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a whale research associate with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Read More: Naked Man Yells About Donald Trump, Jumps Off TKTS Booth in Times Square At the time of the prior sightings, the humpback was covered with whale lice, which usually means a whale is in poor physical condition, but it also was actively feeding and breaching, she said. Schulman-Janiger said she noticed healed entanglement scars on its tail indicating that in the past it had been snarled in some sort of fishing line. The carcass was in relatively good condition, which meant the whale could have died as recently as Thursday morning, she said. The whale was about 46 feet long and at least 15 years old, meaning it had reached maturity, said Justin Greenman, stranding coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service. Story continues Skin and blubber samples were taken for DNA testing along with fecal matter to be tested for biotoxins. The experts had hoped to more extensively open up the whale, but due to the holiday weekend authorities decided to get it off the beach as soon as possible, Greenman said. North Pacific humpbacks feed along the West Coast from California to Alaska during summer, according to the Marine Mammal Center, a Sausalito, Calif.-based ocean conservation organization. Although the species' numbers are extensively depleted, humpbacks have been seen with increasing frequency off California in recent years, the center's website said. Humpbacks, familiar to whale watchers for their habits of breaching and slapping the water, are filter feeders that consume up to 3,000 pounds of krill, plankton and tiny fish per day, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The whale that washed up is not the same one spotted earlier in the week off Southern California tangled in crab pot lines. That animal was identified as a blue whale. Efforts by a rescue crew in a small boat to cut away the line failed, and it disappeared. California has seen a number of whales on beaches this year. A humpback carcass that appeared off Santa Cruz in May had to be towed out to sea, while a massive gray whale that ended up on San Onofre State Beach in April had to be chopped up and hauled to a landfill. The same month, a distressed humpback was freed from crabbing gear in Monterey Bay. In March, a dead gray was removed from Torrey Pines State Beach. Read More: California Voters to Decide in November Whether to Legalize Recreational Marijuana July 1, 9:30 p.m. PT: Updated to include information about the whale's removal. Mexico teachers protest: Food airlifts to blockade-hit areas Officials say 108 tons of corn will be delivered by the end of the weekend. Dwight Howard Getty Image Dwight Howard is going home. According to Shams Charania of The Vertical, the three-time Defensive Player of the Year has agreed to a three-year, $70.5 million deal with the Atlanta Hawks. Related Links: Dwight Howard has reached agreement on a three-year, $70.5 million with the Atlanta Hawks, league sources tell The Vertical. Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 1, 2016 Howard, who grew up in Georgias capital and was drafted out of Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy, opted out of his contract with the Houston Rockets to become an unrestricted free agent for the second time in four years. Though many league analysts questioned his decision to leave just over $23 million on the table by forgoing the final year of his previous contract, this agreement ensures the 30 year old will be paid approximately that amount for the next three seasons. As for what Howards forthcoming acquisition means for Al Horford? It certainly doesnt suggest that the Hawks long-time interior stalwart will be back with the franchise that drafted him in 2007. Stay tuned. Dwyane Wade Getty Image Perhaps theres fire to the annual smoke of Dwyane Wade potentially leaving the Miami Heat after all. According to ESPNs Brian Windhorst, the future Hall of Famer his discussed contracts with the New York Knicks and Milwaukee Bucks less than 24 hours after free agency began. Maybe more troubling for Miami? Wade might schedule meetings with his new suitors, too. Dwyane Wade is in contract talks with the Knicks & Bucks and could schedule meetings next week, sources told ESPN. Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) July 1, 2016 The possibility of the three-time champion leaving the only team hes ever played for was raised earlier this week when it became apparent Pat Riley and company were more concerned with re-signing Hassan Whiteside and pitching Kevin Durant than negotiating a market-value deal with Wade. Not that you can fault the Heat, by the way; the 2015-16 season made clear that they wont legitimately contend for a title without adding a player like Durant, let alone retaining Whiteside. Nevertheless, Wade apparently feels as if his immense contributions to the organization should loom larger in contract talks than his potential impact going forward. The Los Angeles Lakers acquiesced to a similar line of thinking by Kobe Bryant, and it certainly bears mentioning that Wade has taken a pay cut on multiple occasions to afford Miami additional financial flexibility. Said a source close to Wade, "He wants to be compensated for his pay cuts" https://t.co/5u5yWzP20H Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) July 1, 2016 After Whiteside signed a max-level deal to remain in South Beach for the foreseeable future, Gabrielle Union, Wades wife, posted a cryptic tweet suggesting her husband hadnt heard from since the player-movement period began at the stroke of midnight July 1. When u waiting for a text/email/skywriting and nada thanks for being crystal clear Gabrielle Union (@itsgabrielleu) July 1, 2016 Will Wade actually leave Miami? That still seems an unlikely scenario. Considering his ties to Milwaukee as an alum of Marquette University and friendship with New Yorks Carmelo Anthony, though, it might be time for Riley to pick up the phone. Even if Wades threats arent serious, they might become so soon. Riyadh (AFP) - Eighteen pilgrims have been injured in a stampede near Islam's holiest site, Saudi media reported on Saturday, as the kingdom continues to review safety after a deadly crush during last year's hajj. The incident happened on Friday night near the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the Al-Riyadh newspaper said, as Muslims gathered in large numbers to mark the Night of Destiny, one of the high points of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. All the injured were treated at the scene and none required admission to hospital, the newspaper cited a health official as saying. Every year, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims flock to Mecca to carry out the lesser umra pilgrimage during Ramadan -- especially during its last 10 days. They include the Night of Destiny, when the angel Gabriel is believed to have given the Prophet Mohammed the verses of the Koran. The incident comes as Saudi authorities continue to unveil new safety measures for this year's hajj in September. A crush at last year's hajj killed more than 2,000 pilgrims in the worst disaster to ever strike the annual ritual. According to figures from foreign officials, at least 2,297 pilgrims died. Saudi Arabia issued a death toll of 769. Newspapers reported on Friday that, among new security measures, hajj pilgrims this year will have to wear an electronic safety bracelet to store their personal information, including address and medical records. The hajj and umra pilgrimages bring millions of Muslims to the holy places in Saudi Arabia every year. By Bill Trott (Reuters) - Activist and writer Elie Wiesel, the World War Two death camp survivor who won a Nobel Peace Prize for becoming the life-long voice of millions of Holocaust victims, died on Saturday. He was 87. Wiesel was a philosopher, speaker, playwright and professor who also campaigned for the tyrannized and forgotten around the world. He died at his home in New York City, the New York Times reported. The Romanian-born Wiesel lived by the credo expressed in "Night," his landmark story of the Holocaust - "to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time." In awarding the Peace Prize in 1986, the Nobel Committee praised him as a "messenger to mankind" and "one of the most important spiritual leaders and guides in an age when violence, repression and racism continue to characterize the world." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Wiesel as a ray of light, and said his extraordinary personality and unforgettable books demonstrated the triumph of the human spirit over the most unimaginable evil. "Out of the darkness of the Holocaust, Elie became a powerful force for light, truth and dignity," he said. Wiesel did not waver in his campaign never to let the world forget the Holocaust horror. While at the White House in 1985 to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, he even rebuked U.S. President Ronald Reagan for planning to lay a wreath at a German cemetery where some of Hitler's notorious Waffen SS troops were buried. "Don't go to Bitburg," Wiesel said. "That place is not your place. Your place is with the victims of the SS." Wiesel became close to U.S. President Barack Obama but the friendship did not deter him from criticizing U.S. policy on Israel. He spoke out in favor of Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and pushed the United States and other world powers to take a harder stance against Iran over its nuclear program. Wiesel attended the joint session of the U.S. Congress in 2015 when Netanyahu spoke on the dangers of Iran's program. U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described Wiesel as a voice for a generation of the Jewish people who saw and suffered horrors no people should endure. "His light in this world will be greatly missed," Cardin said in a statement. Wiesel and his foundation both were victims of the wide-ranging Ponzi scheme run by New York financier Bernie Madoff, with Wiesel and his wife losing their life's savings and the foundation losing $15.2 million. "'Psychopath' - it's too nice a word for him," he said of Madoff in 2009. Wiesel was a hollow-eyed 16-year-old when he emerged from the newly liberated Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945. He had been orphaned by the Nazis and their identification number, A-7713, was tattooed on his arm as a physical manifestation of his broken faith and the nightmares that would haunt him throughout his life. Wiesel and his family had first been taken by the Nazis from the village of Sighetu Marmatiei in the Transylvania region of Romania to Auschwitz, where his mother and one of his sisters died. Wiesel and his father, Shlomo, ended up in Buchenwald, where Shlomo died. In "Night" Wiesel wrote of his shame at lying silently in his bunk while his father was beaten nearby. After the war Wiesel made his way to France, studied at the Sorbonne and by 19 had become a journalist. He pondered suicide and never wrote of or discussed his Holocaust experience until 10 years after the war as a part of a vow to himself. He was 27 years old in 1955 when "Night" was published in Yiddish, and Wiesel would later rewrite it for a world audience. "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed ...," Wiesel wrote. "Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live." Asked by an interviewer in 2000 why he did not go insane, Wiesel said, "To this day that is a mystery to me." By 2008, "Night" had sold an estimated 10 million copies, according to the New York Times, including 3 million after talk-show hostess Oprah Winfrey made it a spotlight selection for her book club in 2006. In 1985 Wiesel helped break ground in Washington for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the following year was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In typical fashion, he dedicated the prize to all those who survived the Nazi horror, calling them "an example to humankind how not to succumb to despair." Wiesel, who became a U.S. citizen in 1963, was slight in stature but a compelling figure when he spoke. With a chiseled profile, burning eyes and a shock of gray hair, he could silence a crowd by merely standing up. He was often described as somber. An old friend, Chicago professor Irving Abrahamson, once said of him: "I've never seen Elie give a belly laugh. He'll chuckle, he'll smile, there'll be a twinkle in his eye. But never a laugh from within." A few years after winning the peace prize, he set up the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, which, in addition to Israeli and Jewish causes, campaigned for Miskito Indians in Nicaragua, Cambodian refugees, victims of South African apartheid and of famine and genocide in Africa. Wiesel wrote more than 50 books - novels, non-fiction, memoirs and many with a Holocaust theme - and held a long-running professorship at Boston University. In one of his later books, "Open Heart," he used his 2011 quintuple-bypass surgery as impetus for reflection on his life. "I have already been the beneficiary of so many miracles, which I know I owe to my ancestors," he wrote. "All I have achieved has been and continues to be dedicated to their murdered dreams - and hopes." He collected scores of awards and honors, including an honorary knighthood in Britain. Obama presented him the National Humanities Medal in 2009. Wiesel was attacked in a San Francisco hotel in 2007 by a 22-year-old Holocaust denier, but not injured. Wiesel and wife Marion married in 1969 and their son, Elisha, was born in 1972. (Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem; Editing by Diane Craft and Dan Grebler) NEW YORK (AP) - Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, the Romanian-born Holocaust survivor whose classic Night became a landmark testament to the Nazis' crimes and launched Wiesel's long career as one of the world's foremost witnesses and humanitarians, has died at age 87. His death was announced Saturday by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. No other details were immediately available. The short, sad-eyed Wiesel, his face an ongoing reminder of one man's endurance of a shattering past, summed up his mission in 1986 when accepting the Nobel Peace Prize: "Whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." For more than a half-century, he voiced his passionate beliefs to world leaders, celebrities and general audiences in the name of victims of violence and oppression. He wrote more than 40 books, but his most influential by far was Night, a classic ranked with Anne Frank's diary as standard reading about the Holocaust. Night was Wiesel's first book, and its journey to publication crossed both time and language. It began in the mid-1950s as an 800-page story in Yiddish, was trimmed to under 300 pages for an edition released in Argentina, cut again to under 200 pages for the French market and finally published in the U.S., in 1960, at just over 100 pages. READ MORE: Hollywood's Last 11 Survivors of the Holocaust "Night is the most devastating account of the Holocaust that I have ever read," wrote Ruth Franklin, a literary critic and author of A Thousand Darknesses, a study of Holocaust literature that was published in 2010. "There are no epiphanies in Night. There is no extraneous detail, no analysis, no speculation. There is only a story: Eliezer's account of what happened, spoken in his voice." Wiesel began working on Night just a decade after the end of World War II, when memories were too raw for many survivors to even try telling their stories. Frank's diary had been an accidental success, a book discovered after her death, and its entries end before Frank and her family was captured and deported. Wiesel's book was among the first popular accounts written by a witness to the very worst, and it documented what Frank could hardly have imagined. Story continues Night was so bleak that publishers doubted it would appeal to readers. In a 2002 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Wiesel recalled that the book attracted little notice at first. "The English translation came out in 1960, and the first printing was 3,000 copies. And it took three years to sell them," he said. "Now, I get 100 letters a month from children about the book. And there are many, many million copies in print." In one especially haunting passage, Wiesel sums up his feelings upon arrival in Auschwitz: "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. ... Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." Night was based directly on his experiences, but structured like a novel, leading to an ongoing debate over how to categorize it. Alfred Kazin was among the critics who expressed early doubts about the book's accuracy, doubts that Wiesel denounced as "a mortal sin in the historical sense." Wiesel's publisher called the book a memoir even as some reviewers called it fiction. An Amazon editorial review labeled the book "technically a novel," albeit so close to Wiesel's life that "it's generally - and not inaccurately - read as an autobiography." In 2006, a new translation returned Night to the best-seller lists after it was selected for Oprah Winfrey's book club. But the choice also revived questions about how to categorize the book. Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, both of which had listed Night as fiction, switched it to nonfiction. Wiesel, meanwhile, acknowledged in a new introduction that he had changed the narrator's age from "not quite 15" to Wiesel's real age at the time, 15. READ MORE: The Roman Polanski Interview: His Personal Holocaust Story (Podcast) "Unfortunately, Night is an imperfect ambassador for the infallibility of the memoir," Franklin wrote, "owing to the fact that it has been treated very often as a novel." Wiesel's prolific stream of speeches, essays and books, including two sequels to Night and more than 40 books overall of fiction and nonfiction, emerged from the helplessness of a teenager deported from Hungary, which had annexed his native Romanian town of Sighet, to Auschwitz. Tattooed with the number A-7713, he was freed in 1945 - but only after his mother, father and one sister had all died in Nazi camps. Two other sisters survived. After the liberation of Buchenwald in April 1945, Wiesel spent a few years in a French orphanage, then landed in Paris. He studied literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne, and then became a journalist, writing for the French newspaper L'Arche and Israel's Yediot Ahronot. French author Francois Mauriac, winner of the 1952 Nobel in literature, encouraged Wiesel to break his vowed silence about the concentration camps and start sharing his experiences. In 1956, Wiesel traveled on a journalistic assignment to New York to cover the United Nations. While there, he was struck by a car and confined to a wheelchair for a year. He became a lifetime New Yorker, continuing in journalism writing for the Yiddish-language newspaper the Forward. His contact with the city's many Holocaust survivors shored up Wiesel's resolve to keep telling their stories. Wiesel became a U.S. citizen in 1963. Six years later, he married Marion Rose, a fellow Holocaust survivor who translated some of his books into English. They had a son, Shlomo. Based in New York, Wiesel commuted to Boston University for almost three decades, teaching philosophy, literature and Judaic studies and giving a popular lecture series in the fall. He also taught at Yale University and the City University of New York. In 1978, Wiesel was chosen by President Jimmy Carter to head the President's Commission on the Holocaust and plan an American memorial museum to Holocaust victims. Wiesel wrote in a report to the president that the museum must include denying the Nazis a posthumous victory, honoring the victims' last wishes to tell their stories. He said that although all the victims of the Holocaust were not Jewish, all Jews were victims. Wiesel advocated that the museum emphasize the annihilation of the Jews, while still remembering the others; today the exhibits and archives reflects that. Among his most memorable spoken words came in 1985, when he received a Congressional Gold Medal from President Ronald Reagan and asked the president not to make a planned trip to a cemetery in Germany that contained graves of Adolf Hitler's personal guards. "We have met four or five times, and each time I came away enriched, for I know of your commitment to humanity," Wiesel said, as Reagan looked on. "May I, Mr. President, if it's possible at all, implore you to do something else, to find a way, to find another way, another site. That place, Mr. President, is not your place. Your place is with the victims." READ MORE: Hollywood's Last Holocaust Survivors: The Story Behind the Stories Reagan visited the cemetery, in Bitburg, despite international protests. Wiesel also spoke at the dedication of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in 1993. His words are now carved in stone at its entrance: "For the dead and the living, we must bear witness." Wiesel defended Soviet Jews, Nicaragua's Miskito Indians, Cambodian refugees, the Kurds, victims of African famine and victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Wiesel was a longtime supporter of Israel, although he was criticized at times for his closeness to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. When Netanyahu gave a highly controversial address to Congress in 2015, denouncing President Barack Obama's efforts to reach a nuclear treaty with Iran, Wiesel was among the guests of honor. "What were you doing there, Elie Wiesel?" Haaretz columnist Roger Alpher wrote at the time. "Netanyahu is my prime minister. You are not an Israeli citizen. You do not live here. The Iranian threat to destroy Israel does not apply to you. You are a Jew who lives in America. This is not your problem." The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, which he established in 1988, explored the problems of hatred and ethnic conflicts around the world. But like a number of other well-known charities in the Jewish community, the foundation fell victim to Bernard Madoff, the financier who was arrested in late 2008 and accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Wiesel said he ended up losing $15.2 million in foundation funds, plus his and his wife's own personal investments. At a panel discussion in February 2009, Wiesel admitted he bought into the Madoff mystique, "a myth that he created around him that everything was so special, so unique, that it had to be secret." He called Madoff "a crook, a thief, a scoundrel." See More: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2016 Despite Wiesel's mission to remind the world of past mistakes, the greatest disappointment of his life was that "nothing changed," he said in an interview. "Human nature remained what it was. Society remained what it was. Too much indifference in the world, to the Other, his pain, and anguish, and hope." But personally, he never gave up - as reflected in his novel The Town Beyond the Wall. Wiesel's Jewish protagonist, Michael, returns to his native town in now-communist Hungary to find out why his neighbors had given him up to the Nazis. Suspected as a Western spy, he lands in prison along with a young man whose insanity has left him catatonic. The protagonist takes on the challenge of "awakening" the youth by any means, from talking to forcing his mouth open - a task as wrenching as Wiesel's humanitarian missions: "The day when the boy suddenly began sketching arabesques in the air was one of the happiest of Michael's life. ... Now he talked more, as if wishing to store ideas and values in the boy for his moments of awakening. Michael compared himself to a farmer: months separated the planting from the harvest. For the moment, he was planting." *** Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti issued the following statement on the passing of Wiesel: "With the death of Elie Wiesel, we have lost one of the great witnesses to history. Few wrote as eloquently or as forcefully about the horrors of the Nazi holocaust, and, more than anyone, he embodied the moral imperative never to repeat similar horrors in future. He will be mourned here in Los Angeles as he will be everywhere - and his message will never be forgotten." BERLIN (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's lawyer said on Saturday he had filed a complaint in a bid to get a satirical poem mocking his client banned in its entirety after a court issued a preliminary ruling in May banning re-publication of parts. Comedian Jan Boehmermann recited a poem on television in March suggesting Erdogan engaged in bestiality and watched child pornography. Lawyer Michael-Hubertus von Sprenger said he had filed the complaint to a court in Hamburg and wanted to get a full injunction to replace the preliminary one as well as get sections that the court did not ban in May prohibited. When the court ruled in May to ban sections of the poem, it said this was based on the need to find a balance between preserving the right to artistic freedom and the personal rights of Erdogan. The six verses the court did not ban include references to Turkey's treatment of minorities. The court in Hamburg and a spokesman for Erdogan were not immediately available for comment. Separately, in the western city of Mainz, preliminary proceedings against Boehmermann are underway as he is suspected of insulting a foreign leader. The German government had given prosecutors the green light to pursue the case against Boehmermann - a move which brought Merkel strong criticism. German-Turkish ties have been strained - both by the case and by Turkey's outrage over a resolution passed by Germany's parliament declaring the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces to be a genocide. That comes at a time when Germany is banking on Turkey's help in stopping the flow of illegal migrants. (Reporting by Michelle Martin in Berlin; additional reporting by Ece Toksabay in Ankara; Editing by Richard Balmforth) Myanmar mob burns down mosque A mob has burned down a mosque in northern Myanmar in the second attack of its kind in just over a week. BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Union should make sure in negotiations with Britain that security in the bloc is not adversely affected by a Brexit, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio. Britain voted 52 to 48 percent on June 23 in favor of quitting the European Union. Asked in an interview due to be broadcast on Sunday whether a comment from German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble that 'in is in and out is out' would also apply to the bloc's internal security, de Maiziere said: "In principle yes but the exchange of information, which was an important component of our talks, also applies to Great Britain." He said Britain was, along with France, Germany's most important partner in combating terrorism. "And we should definitely ensure in negotiations that the exchange of information and security is not impaired by Britain quitting the EU," de Maiziere added. (Reporting by Michelle Martin; editing by Susan Thoma) Evan Fournier Getty Image Evan Fournier was thrust to the forefront of the Orlando Magics present upon the shocking trade that sent Victor Oladipo to the Oklahoma City Thunder. And after less than one full day of free agency, its clear the talented guard will be a fixture of the future for Frank Vogels team, too. Marc Spears of The Undefeated reports that Fournier has agreed to a five-year $85 million deal that will keep him in Orlando through the 202o-21 season. Related Links: Evan Fournier gets a five-year, $85 million contract extension to stay in Orlando, source told @TheUndefeated. Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpearsESPN) July 1, 2016 That the 23-year-old Frenchman will end up re-signing with the Magic is no surprise. GM Rob Hennigan made it clear Fournier was his teams top priority this summer in the immediate wake of Oladipos departure. Whats a bit vexing, though, is why the former Denver Nuggets guard opted against testing restricted free agency in hopes of driving up the price it would take for the Magic to retain him. But Fourniers financial loss if that exists in this salary-cap climate, of course is certainly Orlandos gain. Theres a chance he could have signed an offer sheet worth upwards of $20 million per season if hed taken meetings with opposing teams. Instead, the Magic are getting a sweet-shooting pick-and-roll playmaker for a full five years at a number at or below market value. Maybe Fournier simply knew he wanted to stay in Orlando? This marriage, basically, certainly seems a good one for both sides. Evan Turner Getty Image With all due respect to Timofey Mozgov, we may have a new frontrunner for the He got HOW much?? sweepstakes of 2016. Evan Turner has agreed to a four-year, $70 million deal to play with the Portland Trail Blazers, according to The Verticals Adrian Wojnarowski. To clarify on Turner to Blazers deal: Turner has agreed to a four-year, $70M free agent deal. Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) July 1, 2016 Looking to add more talent/depth on the wing this offseason, the Blazers were in the Chandler Parsons sweepstakes, but he opted to go with Memphis for a four-year max deal. Clearly, Neil Oshey and company had a backup plan ready to go though, as they got Turner inked within minutes of Parsons announcing his decision to play with the Grizz. Turner averaged 10.5 points on 43 percent shooting for the Celtics last season while playing 28 minutes per game. That certainly doesnt sound like someone worth $17.5 million per season, but the combination of the lack of quality wing players in free agency and the new $94 million cap means Turner gets to cash in while much better players who arent free agents this year will have to just accept the fact that Evan Turner is a richer man than they are. As a reminder, Steph Currys salary this upcoming season will be around $12.1 million. Evan Turner makes more than Steph Curry netw3rk (@netw3rk) July 1, 2016 Also, never forget. I been on the toilet all night, my butt crack feels like it has sun burn #pause. I'm so annoyed evan turner (@thekidet) June 19, 2012 (Via Adrian Wojnarowski) Note: This article is courtesy of Iris.xyz By Frank Holmes Defying sentiment polls leading up to last weeks historic Brexit referendum, British voters said thanks, but no thanks to excessive EU taxation and regulation, choosing to take back Britains sovereignty in financing, budgeting, immigration policy and other areas essential to a nations self-identity. It was a momentous victory for the leave camp, led by former London mayor Boris Johnson and U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, who invoked the 1990s sci-fi action film Independence Day by declaring June 23 our independence day from foreign rule. As Ive been saying the last couple of weeks, British citizens and businesses have grown fed up with an avalanche of failed socialist rules and regulations from Brussels, responsible for bringing growth and innovation to a grinding halt. Even if the referendum had gone the other way, it should still have served as a wake-up call to the European Unions unelected bureaucratic dictators. Euroscepticism and populist movements are gathering momentum in EU countries from Italy to France to Sweden, and the week before last, fiercely independent Switzerland, which voted against joining the EU in the 1990s, finally yanked its membership application for good. Trending on ETF Trends Shorts Running for the Exit on Big China ETF A Winning Dividend ETF Thats Up 14.4% in 2016 Peso Problems Could Plague the Mexico ETF Energy ETFs Poised to Pullback in Q3? Playing it Safe With Dow Jones ETFs American voters should be paying attention. Many have already pointed out the parallels between the Brexit movement and Donald Trumps populist campaign for president. This connection was not lost on Trump, who tweeted early Friday morning: They took their country back, just like we will take America back. Britains decision to leave exposes the fragility of trade right now and mounting apprehension toward globalization. The EU is mired in tepid growth, and the blame cannot be pinned on immigrants, as some have tried to do. Instead, Brussels policies are anti-growth. Moores Law says the number of transistors in a microchip doubles every two years. Thats just a fact. American entrepreneurs embrace and indeed push the limits of technological innovation, but Eurocrats, to a large extent, seem to be in open opposition to it. This is why many large, successful American tech firms such as Facebook and Google are treated with such hostility in Europe. The bureaucrats are so against growth and prosperity, it wouldnt surprise me if they tried to do away with Moores Law. Click here to read the full story on Iris.xyz. By Emily Flitter NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation interviewed Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for three and a half hours on Saturday as part of the probe into her use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state, her campaign said. The interview at FBI headquarters in Washington followed a week of intense public focus on the investigation and on Clinton's viability as a presidential candidate, with four months to go to the election. Her campaign has tried for months to downplay the controversy as a distraction. In an interview broadcast on MSNBC, Clinton said she was happy to do the FBI interview, which her spokesman earlier described as "voluntary." "I've been answering questions for over a year" regarding the private email server, Clinton said. It was not clear if the questioning of Clinton signaled an imminent conclusion to the investigation in a pivotal time for the presidential race. It does follow FBI interviews of several of Clinton's former staff members, as well as her top aide Huma Abedin. Clinton is expected to be formally nominated as the Democratic candidate for the Nov. 8 presidential election at the party's convention in less than four weeks. "Timing of FBI interview, between primaries and convention, probably good timing for @HillaryClinton," tweeted David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama who served as the chief strategist for his two presidential campaigns. "Best to get it behind her." Clinton is currently the front-runner for the White House with polls showing her leading presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. In a tweet on Saturday, Trump said it was "impossible for the FBI not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton. What she did was wrong!" He also criticized Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, for meeting privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch earlier this week, which Lynch later said she regretted, though she said they did not discuss the investigation. "What Bill did was stupid!" Trump tweeted. The FBI is investigating whether anyone in Clinton's operation broke the law as result of a personal email server kept in her Chappaqua, New York, home while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. One of the questions is whether they mishandled classified information on the server. Clinton and her staff have struggled to respond to accusations that her use of the server in violation of State Department protocol means she is untrustworthy. Trump has said the investigation should disqualify her from being president. "@HillaryClinton campaign statement says She "voluntarily" met w @FBI for 3.5 hours this morning - yeah, lots of people volunteer 2 do that," tweeted the Republican National Committee's communications director, Sean Spicer. WEEK OF TENSIONS FBI Director James Comey said in testimony to Congress in March he felt pressure to complete the investigation quickly. Adding to the uncertainty over Clinton is the FBI's refusal to say who is the target of its investigation. Republican lawmakers have called for an independent investigation, saying they do not trust the Justice Department to handle the inquiry with impartiality. Republicans, including Trump, intensified their criticism of the process on Thursday after news emerged of Lynch's meeting with Bill Clinton. Lynch said she would accept whatever recommendations the career prosecutors working on the case made about whether to prosecute Clinton. The FBI probe and the partisan fight over the server have added an extra layer of uncertainty to one of the most tumultuous presidential races in recent memory. Trump, a political novice once dismissed by the Republican establishment, will likely emerge this month as the party's nominee and has set his sights on Clinton, who he has labeled "Crooked Hillary." Clinton held a nine-point lead over Trump in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday. (Editing by Mary Milliken) NC president, senior leaders irked by Sujatas treatment Several Nepali Congress leaders are said to be irked by former deputy prime minister Sujata Koiralas treatment while inviting them to a function organised by the GP Foundation to mark the birth anniversary of the late Girija Prasad Koirala on Thursday, with many of them eventually boycotting the event. Amid the algae bloom plaguing Florida waters, one woman decided to give one miserable manatee a hand after the marine mammal drifted into her backyard canal. Read: 300 Manatees Huddle Together in Warm Florida Spring, Forcing it to Close Since the state of emergency has been declared in four South Florida counties due to the excessive algae bloom, residents in the area have been complaining of its toxic results. One of those residents was a stray manatee, who appeared to be lost through the muddy water and wound up in a canal behind Chris Mascia Palas' home in Stuart. "My family and I spotted a manatee struggling out behind our house in the canal," Mascia Palas wrote in a viral Facebook post. "It clearly was in search of fresh water." Mascia Palas told InsideEdition.com she was shocked to find that a manatee had found its way into their canal, since neither she nor her neighbors have ever seen one in the area. She and her husband decided to then give the animal a hand. "We went out and took our masks with us," she said. "We looked for a while and it looked like it was struggling to clear its airway." In an attempt to give the mammal a break from the algae, which experts say may excrete toxic discharges, she turned on her hose and sprayed the manatee with some fresh water. "As soon as [my husband] put the hose over the 'muck,' the manatee popped out of the water and started drinking water like never before," she told InsideEdition.com. "It was clear this mammal had not had water in a long time. You could see all the green algae coming out of its nose." But, since the post went viral, some criticized Mascia Palas for disturbing wildlife, and said she should have left the animal alone. Read: Fallen K9 Gets An Officer's Salute Fit For A Hero: 'He Served Valiantly and Courageously' "I would never for no good reason bother a beautiful manatee, invade its space, feed it, or anything of the sort," Mascia Palas responded in another Facebook post. Story continues Wildlife expert Dan Martinelli of the Treasure Coast Wildlife Hospital said: "I wouldn't encourage other people to go out of their way to do it, but I wouldn't see that it's causing particular harm." He explained that although the manatee was likely to have already been frequenting the waters out of human view, the algae bloom is expected to be harmful to people and wildlife in the coming days. Because the blue-green algae blocks oxygen from entering the water and also excretes toxins, Martinelli said he suspects fish and other marine life will be harmed. In addition, people in the area are complaining about headaches, and a smell of cow manure coming from the waters that people have been comparing to "guacamole," a spokesperson for Martin County said. According to Martinelli, algae is present in the waters all the time, but excess algae, known as algae bloom, can occur when fresh water is flushed into a salt water estuary during rainy season. Fresh water often contains a high level of phosphorus and nitrogen that become natural fertilizers to cause blue-green algae to grow at a rapid rate. Read: Two of a Kind! Florida Manatee Gives Birth To Rare Set of Twins As a result, beaches in South Florida have been closed after Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for Lee County, Palm Beach County, Martin County and St. Lucie County. The last major algae bloom in Florida happenned in 2013, Martinelli said Watch: Elderly Anglican Priest Tried to Shield His Wife From Flames as They Died in Massive Brush Fire Related Articles: Paris (AFP) - Former French Socialist prime minister Michel Rocard, hailed a "visionary statesman", died Saturday aged 85 his son Francis told AFP. Rocard served as prime minister for three years from mid-1988 under Francois Mitterrand, the two-term Socialist president who led the country from 1981 to 1995. Mitterrand appointed Rocard to succeed future centre right president Jacques Chirac after a period of unprecedented left-right "cohabitation". Rocard, noted for his pro-European stance, died in a Paris hospital, said his son Francis Rocard, an astrophysicist. President Francois Hollande paid tribute to a man he called "a great figure of the Republic and of the Left." - 'Visionary statesman' - Current Prime Minister Manuel Valls spoke of his "great sadness" at the loss of a "visionary statesman." Party grandees queued up to praise Rocard's role in re-shaping the French Left over the past five decades. Party first secretary, Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, indicated that "it is a part of ourselves which dies with Michel," but added: "We shall continue your battles." In describing Rocard as a "man of conviction," former party leader Martine Aubry said the PS and the French Left "has lost one of its great figures and many of us feel profound sadness." Minister of Finance Michel Sapin also paid tribute, saying that "Michel Rocard was able to reconcile the Left with the economy and establish a fruitful dialogue between the Left and business." Sapin described Rocard's passing as "an immense loss." - 'Agile mind' - On the political right, former president Nicolas Sarkozy, hailed Rocard's rejection of sectarianism and his "statesmanship" while former rightwing prime minister Alain Juppe recalled his "agile mind, historical perspective, his appetite for debate without concession but without sectarianism". Story continues Born on August 23, 1930 in the Parisian suburb of Courbevoie, Rocard attended the elite National School of Administration ENA, eventually carving out a high-flying political career in a revamped and modernised Socialist Party under Mitterrand. Rocard became leader of the then United Socialist Party in 1967 as the French Left battled for unity between traditionalists and modernisers and two years later stood for the presidency. But he obtained just 3.5 percent to exit in the first round beaten by two hard Left fellow candidates who also fell by the wayside as conservative Georges Pompidou triumphed two months after the resignation of Charles De Gaulle. Rocard served several terms as a lawmaker for the Yvelines region on the outskirts of Paris and 17 years as mayor of the town of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. In 1974, he joined Mitterrand's newly-founded Socialist Party (PS) and soon became a vocal critic of the traditional left. He decided not to stand in Mitterrand's way as the latter successfully won a second term in 1988, after which he was appointed premier. Rocard served in the post for three years before being "fired" as he saw it. While in the top government job, Rocard signed a landmark auto-determination agreement ending unrest in the French Pacific Ocean archipelago of New Caledonia. Overwhelmingly elected PS first secretary in 1993 the party slumped only a year later with Rocard at the head of its list to its worst ever election score -- 14.49 percent -- in European polls, barely ahead of a radical leftist group led by controversial former Marseille football club chairman Bernard Tapie. Rocard promptly dropped thereafter any idea of presenting himself as the "natural" PS candidate for the presidency but instead headed for the European Parliament where he served until 2009. After facing off on WWE a year ago, Stephen Amell and former wrestler Cody Stardust Rhodes will be reuniting, this time on Amells home turf, The CWs superhero drama Arrow. Amell announced that Rhoades will be guest-starring on an episode of Arrow when it returns for Season 5 in the fall, during a joint appearance at the Heroes & Villains FanFest Saturday. I step into this respectfully, humbly, and looking to do it justice for the fandom #HVFF @CW_Arrow, Rhodes tweeted Saturday, captioning a photo of an arrow. Also Read: 'Arrow' Adds 'Chicago PD' Alum Josh Segarra as Series Regular in Season 5 Theres no word yet on what character he may play. Rhodes will join fellow newcomers to the Arrowverse including Josh Segarra, whos joining as a new series regular, and Carly Popes, whose addition as a journalist from Coast City has stoked speculation about the introduction of Green Lantern in recent days. Rhodes induction into the Arrowverse follows fellow former WWE wrester, Adam The Edge Copeland, who appeared in Season 2 of The Flash as the villain Atom-Smasher. Also Read: 'Arrow' Season Finale Recap: Team Arrow Tries to Save Star City and the World Arrow returns for Season 5 on Wednesday, Oct. 6 at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. Related stories from TheWrap: Roman Reigns Violated WWE Health Policy, So Why Did He Fight Anyway? WWE Teams Up With Special Olympics for International Partnership (Video) Former WWE Champ CM Punk (Finally) Sets UFC Debut, Opponent PARIS (Reuters) - Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced plans to quit his role as head of France's Les Republicains party on Saturday, setting up a potential bid to become head of state for a second time. Supporters of Les Republicains and other right and centre-right parties will vote in November to decide who will be their candidate in the 2017 presidential election. The winner will face the far-right National Front's Marine Le Pen and a Socialist candidate, likely to be President Francois Hollande. Sarkozy would not be able to run in those presidential primaries if he remained head of the party. He would need to resign two weeks before the application deadline on Sept. 9. "This national council will be my last one as president of Les Republicains," he told a party meeting, calling for a fair contest and no acrimony between the potential nominees. "This primary will be a time of competition between some strong personalities, between people of significant talent," he said. "When the right goes into battle it has a front on the left and a front on the extreme right. That is why it is unacceptable that we should attack each other." For much of this year, centre-right rival Alain Juppe has outpaced Sarkozy in opinion polls, but the man who was president between 2007 and 2012 is making a comeback among party supporters, a recent survey showed, a sign the battle could be more open than many thought. (Reporting by Sophie Louet, writing by Sybille de La Hamaide; editing by Susan Thomas and Andrew Callus) PARIS (Reuters) - France is working on ways to make Paris a more attractive financial center to rival the City of London after Britain's vote to leave the European Union, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Saturday. "We know that groups based in the City are planning to leave for Dublin, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris. We are working on measures that could help strengthen our attractiveness. I think notably about taxation or the status of expatriates," Valls told Le Parisien daily in an interview. "To major international companies I say, 'Welcome to Paris! Come invest in France'!" Banks and other financial firms which together employ more than 2 million people across Britain have been looking at the possibility of having to relocate staff should UK-based firms lose their right to sell financial services across Europe when the UK leaves the EU. French President Francois Hollande had stressed last week the need to adapt regulations, including taxes, to attract London bankers. Separately the chief executive of the French Banking Federation, Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani, called on the government at a business conference in Aix-en-Provence on Saturday to be more active in trying to attract UK-based financial firms seeking to relocate. (Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris and Michel Rose in Aix-en-Provence; Editing by Greg Mahlich) Paris (AFP) - Yves Bonnefoy, France's most famous contemporary poet and celebrated translator of Shakespeare whose poems were translated into 30 languages, has died at the age of 93, officials confirmed Saturday. The prolific writer, essayist and poet, who composed more than 100 books over his long career, was often tipped as favourite to win the Nobel prize for literature. Famous in Italy, Germany and Switzerland but also throughout the English-speaking world, Bonnefoy also produced translations of the works of Yeats, Petrarch and his friend George Seferis, a celebrated Greek poet. He died on Friday, according to the College de France research and education institute where he was an honorary professor. Admirers from around the world took to Twitter to mourn Bonnefoy, known for his piercing gaze and mop of white hair, many of them quoting lines from his most famous works. President Francois Hollande paid tribute to "one of the greatest poets of the 20th century" and a "total artist, curious about the world and all its arts, generous with his time and his talent." Bonnefoy was born in 1923 in Tours, in central France, to a railway-worker father and a schoolteacher mother. In his early career, his work tended towards the surreal but he quickly turned away from this movement and his first classic -- the 1953 "Du mouvement et de l'immobilite de Douve" ("On the motion and immobility of Douve") -- went against the prevailing contemporary literary trends. His writing career extended well into his 80s and he picked up several literary awards along the way, including the 1987 Goncourt prize for poetry. He acquired legions of fans who admired his lack of attachment to a "concept." "What saddens me is to see that our education system does not give poetry the place it deserves," he told French radio in a recent interview. "Everything around us can serve as an inspiration for poetry," he said, which he saw as "a way of discovering the fundamental meaning of life." Garrison Keillor ended four decades of hosting A Prairie Home Companion with his trademark Midwestern reserve combined with frivolity at the Hollywood Bowl on Friday. Im from Minnesota, where were stoic, he explained to castmates Tim Russell, Sue Scott and Fred Newman when pressed to express his true feelings about departing the weekly show after 42 years on public radio. It feels like something ends and something else is about to happen, Keillor added. The 73-year-old Keillor, who has faced serious health problems in recent months, offered a decidedly bittersweet edge for the capacity crowd. He used his best-known segment, News From Lake Wobegon to bring up issues of mortality. The monologue covered gravesites, cremation and Father Emil of Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility Roman Catholic Church berating young women for going to Chicago and getting pregnant. Radio has the permanence of a sand castle, he observed. Keillor also explained his love for limericks, noting that when he first heard the notorious verse that begins, There was a young man from Nantucket at age 12, he could not stop laughing. And he noted that a boy of that age recently repeated back to him a similarly off-color limerick that hed heard from Keillor. They may not remember me but the jokes are immortal, he said before concluding with his traditional, Thats the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average. A crowd of 18,000 fans were enthralled by the performance, much of which was occupied by sometimes doleful musical duets with five of his favorite singing partners from previous shows Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, Aoife ODonovan, Heather Masse and Christine DiGiallonardo. The show opened with Stories We Could Tell and included Marching to Zion, Friendship, Let It Be Me, Every Time We Say Goodbye, Sweet Caroline, Brownie and Pete, Oklahoma, a parody of fellow Minnesotan Bob Dylans Dont Think Twice, Its All Right and a tribute to the names of his public school teachers including Anderson, Faust, Story and Hockstetter. Story continues The final show included the popular features The Lives of the Cowboys with Tim Russell as tough guy Dusty and Keillor as the sensitive Lefty along with ads for the fictional Catchup Advisory Board, Guys Shoes and Powdermilk Biscuits with its trademark claim that, They give shy people the strength to get out and do what must be done. Heavens, theyre tasty and expeditious! There was also a new bogus ad for Chuck Foss Facial Chiseling for older men in Hollywood and Keillor describing a circus act that hell perform with a chicken, a chimpanzee and a chihuahua. He eschewed the Guy Noir, Private Eye segment and the Bebop-A-Reebop Rhubarb Pie ad. Keillor offered material tailored for the local audience, including In Hollywood, the unemployment rate at any given moment is 65 percent. A Prairie Home Companion draws three million listeners in the U.S. Keillors final show airs Saturday night. Most of it will be taken from the Friday night show along with a segment taped earlier Friday when President Barack Obama called Keillor. Im going to miss him more than Im going to miss me, Keillor said during the show. The show concluded with Keillor singing snippets from Good Night Ladies, Good Night Irene, Happy Trails to You, the Doxology, Swing Low Sweet Chariot and Cant Help Falling in Love before ending with several choruses of Amen. Keillor will serve as executive producer on the new A Prairie Home Companion, which will be hosted by mandolin player Chris Thile in the fall. Keillor created the show in 1974. It is produced by Prairie Home Productions and distributed by American Public Media, mostly to public radio stations. Attendees at the final show received a printed note that began, Dear Friends, I come from serious taciturn people and grew up in a separatist religious sect that believed that every word and deed should be for the glory of God, and here I am winding up 42 years of talking my head off, much of it silliness, and portraying a private eye and a cowboy. Keillor also said he always believed that the show fell short. And now, as retirement nears, its a revelation to be accosted by people who want to say: Your show has meant a lot of me. Some of them have been tuned in for most of their lives. Its very sweet. Also confusing, since I was never a big fan of the show myself. I enjoyed doing the show it was the only social life I had but the show was never as good as I wanted it to be and thats just a fact. He revealed part of his plans in the missive. Im 73, in good shape for a writer, working on a memoir and a Lake Wobegon screenplay, writing a weekly column for the Washington Post, planning to take brisk walks and start reading books again and rediscover the pleasures of the weekend. Meanwhile, I am grateful beyond grateful for the people Ive met along the way, Richard Dworsky, Tim and Sue and Fred, the ladies Im singing with Sara and Sarah and Aoife and Heather and Suzanne Weil who was the first person to ever put me on stage. She is here tonight and it is all her fault, every bit of it. The fictional end of the show was portrayed in Robert Altmans final film, released in 2006 by New Line and starring Keillor as himself along with Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson, Lily Tomlin, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly and Lindsay Lohan. The film opened SXSW and took in $20 million at the U.S. box office. A gas line exploded in Melvindale, Michigan, in the early hours of Saturday, July 2, sparking a huge fire and prompting authorities to order the evacuation of homes in the area. According to local news channel WXYZ, the blast happened after a car hit a nearby power line. Social media users said the explosion could be heard several miles away in neighboring Dearborn, and that the blaze was visible up to 25 miles away. Credit: YouTube/Joel Holladay Nepal fares well in trafficking report Nepal has been placed in the second tier of the US Department of States annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, signifying Nepals satisfactory efforts to combat modern-day slavery. Paris (AFP) - A Gay Pride march in Paris Saturday has caused a row in France's hard Right National Front (FN), with some student supporters backing an event decried by a party vice-chairman. "More than ever necessary after the homophobic attack in Orlando, we wish a good (Gay Pride) to all," tweeted the association of FN students at the Paris Institute of Political Studies. The tweet, just as the march started in the capital, was met with consternation however from other FN supporters -- not least vice-president Louis Aliot, who took to Twitter to give an entirely different line. "The FN does not support the Gay Pride March, an exhibitionist and anti-FN symbol of militant communitarianism," Aliot said in a message retweeted by FN lawmaker Marion Marechal-Le Pen, niece of party FN president Marine Le Pen. Another party vice-president, Marie-Christine Arnautu, as well as the leader of the party's youth wing Gaetan Dussausaye, also disapproved of the pro-march message from the Sciences Po grouping. Dussausaye said it was "out of the question... to support the Gay Pride march". Arnautu also expressed astonishment while FN regional councillor Axel Loustau indicated that "hoisting aloft one's sexuality as a standard is as indecent and measly as homophobia." There was no immediate reaction from another party vice-president Florian Philippot -- outed two years ago by a French magazine, Closer, as gay. At the time, decrying an attack on his private life by the magazine, Philippot insisted that "the FN is not gay friendly, (but) it is not the opposite either. It is French friendly." Former FN leader Jean-Marie Le Pen once indicated he saw homosexuality as a "biological and social anomaly" although Marine Le Pen, his daughter, has sought to soften the party line in advocating, for instance, civil partnerships for same-sex couples. Thousands of people took to the streets for Saturday's march amid tight if discreet security three weeks after the attack on a Florida nightclub which killed 49 people. Story continues "Three weeks on from the LGBT-phobic and racist attack in Orlando, to march is an act of resistance. We must not give in to fear," insisted Amandine Miguel, spokesperson for organisers Inter-LGBT association. On Paris's Place de la Bastille, marchers stopped to observe a minute's silence in memory of the Florida victims. Some 1,000 police were on hand along the 4.6 kilometre (three mile) route, reduced by a third from the normal route eight months on from the Paris attacks. The march usually takes place one week earlier but was put back with France still hosting the group phase of Euro 2016. In Spain, meanwhile, Gay Pride marchers also took to the streets, chanting slogans such as "I am bisexual, bisexual, bisexual". One banner at the head of the march was emblazoned with the words "2016, year of visibility for bisexuality..." BERLIN (Reuters) - German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel has called for the number of EU Commissioners to be cut and for Brussels to reconsider how it allocates its budget, just over a week after Britons voted to leave the bloc. "A Europe in which 27 Commissioners want to prove themselves doesn't make sense," he told the newspaper Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung in an interview published on Saturday. "It would be good to downsize in this respect." British voters' decision in a June 23 referendum to quit the European Union has rocked global financial markets, thrown British politics into turmoil and raised concerns about the EU's future prospects. Gabriel said the EU must check whether it should still put around 40 percent of funds towards agriculture while much less money is pumped into research, innovation or education. He also said the EU should build up a joint European army. Gabriel, who is also vice chancellor, said a Brexit did not endanger the EU and even raised the possibility of Britain re-joining the EU in a few decades, especially given that young people voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU. A Brexit was not irreversible, he said at a European conference of his Social Democratic (SPD) party in Berlin on Saturday. "I'm sure that historically this is an episode rather than an epoch," he said. Gabriel urged the EU to be resolute in dealing with Britain to prevent "copycats" from adding to the bloc's troubles. He said the EU should invest more and do more to tackle unemployment. He criticised the EU for not planning to involve national parliaments in the ratification of CETA, a free trade deal between the EU and Canada: "You can't be more foolish than that - that destroys trust in European democracy." In a video podcast released on Saturday, Chancellor Angela Merkel said leaders of the 27 states that will be left after Brexit had identified areas where the bloc needed to become more effective such as competitiveness, jobs, growth, internal and external security, combating terrorism, protecting its external borders and improving what it offers young people. Story continues She gave no other details. In the newspaper interview, Gabriel accused Brussels of "petty" involvement in issues that could be better handled by municipalities or states. He said Britain should be fairly treated but added: "It would not be acceptable for the British government to now consult on quitting and on its future relations with the EU at the same time so it can ultimately pick the best of both sets of negotiations." Gabriel said the EU would certainly accept Scotland as a member in its own right if the country leaves the United Kingdom and wants to join the EU. (Reporting by Michelle Martin and Andreas Rinke; Editing by Tom Heneghan) BERLIN (Reuters) - Attacks by Islamist militants pose the biggest security threat for Germany and events like the shooting and bombing in Istanbul this week could happen in Germany, the head of the domestic intelligence agency (BfV) told a Saturday newspaper. Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul's main airport on Tuesday, the deadliest in a string of attacks in Turkey this year. "We can't rule out attacks like those in Istanbul also happening in our country," Hans-Georg Maassen told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He said military defeats for Islamic State were not demoralizing jihadists, and attacks in Europe were becoming ever more important for Islamic State to intimidate people and send the message to followers that "we're still here". A survey by pollster Emnid for Bild am Sonntag newspaper found that almost two-thirds (62 percent) of Germans expect an attack like those in Istanbul or Brussels to happen at a German airport while 33 percent did not. More than half (57 percent) of the 502 people polled called for tighter security in front of airport buildings in Germany because of the threat while 39 percent did not want that. (Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Richard Balmforth) ANKARA (Reuters) - Germany is pressing Turkey to allow German lawmakers to visit 250 German soldiers stationed at Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday, after meeting her Turkish counterpart. Germany sent troops, six Tornado surveillance jets and a tanker aircraft to Incirlik late last year as part of the U.S-led fight against Islamic State militants. Germany is also working with Turkey in the Aegean Sea to stop illegal migrant flows. Von der Leyen met Turkish Defence Minister Fikri Isik on Friday in Ankara after visiting the base and said they would continue to try to resolve their disagreements on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Warsaw next week. Turkey's prime minister this week approved von der Leyen's visit, reversing an apparent effort to block the trip that angered German lawmakers and prompted some to suggest an end to German deployments to Turkey. Von der Leyen, who traveled to the base without media or parliamentarians, said she told Isik how important it was to give German lawmakers responsible for military matters access to their troops in Turkey. "We agreed to continue discussions about our many common interests, as well as difficult topics," von der Leyen said. Some German politicians called on the government to press their case more forcefully with Ankara. Hans-Peter Bartels, the German military's ombudsman in parliament, told the German newspaper Passauer Neue Presse it was "absolutely unacceptable" that von der Leyen's deputy and German lawmakers were banned from visiting the base. Von der Leyen said she conveyed her condolences to Isik after suicide bombers killed 44 people in Istanbul this week. She pledged to continue to fight extremism. "We stand at Turkey's side," she said. Strained relations between Turkey and Germany took a turn for the worse in May after the German parliament passed a resolution declaring the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces was genocide. Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War One, but contests assertions that up to 1.5 million were killed and the killings constitute a genocide. It also says many Muslim Turks perished at the time. (Reporting by Sabine Siebold and Andrea Shalal; Writing by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Janet Lawrence) BISSAU (Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau has confirmed its first three cases of the Zika virus in a group of islands off the mainland and has set up an emergency committee to stop further transmission of the disease, the government said on Friday. Experts have feared the tiny nation could become a gateway for Zika's spread to mainland West Africa, after an outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus was first recorded in the African island chain of Cape Verde late last year. "The Health Minister has informed (the government) of three confirmed cases of Zika virus contamination located in the Bijagos Archipelago," read a government statement sent to reporters. Zika is spreading through the Caribbean and Latin America. Only about 20 percent of infected cases display symptoms, which are usually mild and include fever, joint pain and conjunctivitis. But the CDC says it can be spread from pregnant women to fetuses and has been linked to a birth defect called microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and sometimes brain damage. Guinea-Bissau's government said it was establishing a committee headed by Prime Minister Baciro Dja that would impose a series of measures aimed at containing the disease. The statement did not give the suspected origin of the three cases. The World Health Organisation confirmed in May that Cape Verde's Zika strain was the same one found in Brazil, where more than 1,400 cases of microcephaly have been recorded in babies whose mothers were infected with the virus during pregnancy. The Cape Verde islands are located nearly 600 km (370 miles) off Africa's western Atlantic coast, creating a geographical buffer with a West African region still reeling from the deadliest Ebola epidemic on record. However, Guinea-Bissau's Bijagos Archipelago begins just a short boat ride from the mainland. The maze of islands and waterways have helped make the chronically unstable, coup-prone nation a major transit point for South American cocaine heading to Europe. (Reporting by Alberto Dabo; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Tim Cocks, Larry King) Bissau (AFP) - Guinea-Bissau has recorded three cases of Zika, becoming the second country in West Africa where the dangerous viral disease has been detected, the government said on Saturday. "Three cases of contamination by Zika virus have been confirmed," a statement quoted Health Minister Domingos Malu as saying. The cases occurred in the Bijagos archipelago, a group of 88 islands of which 23 are inhabited, Malu told a cabinet meeting on Friday. The communique gave no further detail about the three cases, their location or how the disease may have arrived on the Bijagos. A hospital source told AFP that investigations were underway but the first case may have occurred early last month on Bubaque, one of the Bijagos islands. A former Portuguese colony of 1.6 million people, Guinea-Bissau suffers from chronic poverty and instability. Previously, the only other country in West Africa where Zika had been detected was Cape Verde, an archipelago in the Atlantic, where 7,500 cases have been recorded since October 2015. Saturday's statement said the authorities were taking steps to prevent further spread of the mosquito-borne virus. It announced that an anti-Zika commission had been set up, comprising several ministers under the authority of Prime Minister Baciro Dja. Zika is benign in most people but has been linked to microcephaly -- a shrinking of the brain and skull -- in babies, and to rare adult-onset neurological problems such as Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which can result in paralysis and death. In an outbreak that started last year, about 1.5 million people have been infected with Zika in Brazil, and more than 1,600 babies born with abnormally small heads and brains. On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. The landmark law was a turning point in American history, as it addressed discrimination and segregation on a national level. lbjontv Link : See the Civil Rights Act The acts opening paragraph started the end of a struggle over civil rights, federal power and the Constitution that began in the Civil Wars aftermath. To enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations, to authorize the Attorney General to institute suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs, to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, and for other purposes, the paragraph read. President Johnson, in a dramatic moment, addressed the nation about what appeared to be a turning point in American history. Link: Johnsons remarks | Video of Johnsons speech We believe that all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty. Yet millions are being deprived of those blessingsnot because of their own failures, but because of the color of their skin, Johnson said. The reasons are deeply imbedded in history and tradition and the nature of man. We can understandwithout rancor or hatredhow this all happened. But it cannot continue. Our Constitution, the foundation of our Republic, forbids it. The principles of our freedom forbid it. Morality forbids it. And the law I will sign tonight forbids it. Johnsons powerful remarks ended with a call for unity. Let us close the springs of racial poison. Let us pray for wise and understanding hearts. Let us lay aside irrelevant differences and make our Nation whole. Let us hasten that day when our unmeasured strength and our unbounded spirit will be free to do the great works ordained for this Nation by the just and wise God who is the Father of us all, he said. Story continues The Civil Rights Act had been before Congress, in several forms, since the late 1950s. A turning point happened in March 1964, when a group of Southern senators started a record-setting filibuster in March. No full-featured Civil Rights Act proposal had ever survived a filibuster attempt on the Senate floor. A year earlier, President John F. Kennedy told a nationwide audience that the act was a necessity. A prior bill, the Civil Rights Act of 1957, was important but it had a limited impact and it was difficult to enforce. It also had survived a 24-hour filibuster from Senator Strom Thurmond. As Senate Majority Leader, Lyndon Johnson has been involved heavily in the fight for the Civil Rights Act of 1957, and as President, he was committed to honoring his own values and Kennedys legacy in the fight for the much-more comprehensive 1964 act. Behind the scenes, two opposing leaders were working to find a way to get 67 votes to break the filibuster: the Democratic Senate whip, Hubert Humphrey and the Senate Minority Leader, Everett Dirksen of Illinois. On June 10, 1964,Dirksen made a powerful speech that served to bring more Republicans onto his side in the fight. He quoted the author Victor Hugo: Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come. The Senator then reminded his colleagues that the Republican Party stood for equality since its founding in the years before the Civil War. That same day, the Humphrey-Dirksen group got 71 votes to end the filibuster, four more than needed, as 27 Republicans had decided to support the Act. During the vote, the terminally ill Senator from California, Clair Engle, was brought to the floor in a wheelchair. Unable to speak because of a brain tumor, Engle pointed to his eye to signify his Yes vote. Recent Stories on Constitution Daily When is the real Independence Day: July 2 or July 4? William Howard Tafts truly historic double-double Just which state ratified the 26th Amendment? Nepal-India inter-governmental committee meeting: Talks end without major headway A three-day inter-governmental committee (IGC) meeting between Nepal and India concluded on Thursday without any substantial outcomes under a cloud of strained bilateral relations. Credit: Courtesy It may be hard to believe but even a glamorous screen siren like Margot Robbie has a bit of a nerdy past. On Tuesday's Jimmy Kimmel Live! the 25-year-old actress and longtime Harry Potter fan revealed that she was so obsessed with the series as a teen that she actually lied about her vision in order to get a pair of glasses like the main character. As luck would have it, one of her childhood friends sent host Jimmy Kimmel an endearingly hilarious throwback photo of the Legend of Tarzan star from her tween Potter fandom heyday. The image (below) shows 13-year-old Robbie wearing the glasses while holding Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth novel in the series, and a mug. "I'm drinking a cup of tea. I'm in bed. I'm clearly really enjoying myself reading Harry Potter. I have braces, which I had for two years," Robbie explained. Credit: Courtesy "I was really into slicking my hair back, god knows why, and I'm wearing glasses, which I didn't actually need," she said. "I have 20/20 vision, and I lied to get glasses so I could look like Harry Potter." "I went to the optometrist and was like, "No, I can't see that. Oh my eyes hurt!" My mom's like, "Do you really need glasses?" and I was like, "Yes I do!"' Watch Robbie talk about her Harry Potter glasses in the clip at top. Credit: RB/Bauergriffin.com Robbie, who wore a black pajama-like ensemble with gold peep toe heels, also talked about her upcoming 26th birthday on July 2 and how she will be celebrating with a Hawaii-themed party. "We're gonna go all out. Coconut bras and grass skirts for the boys," she told Kimmel. RELATED: Former Brunette Margot Robbie Is Now a Redhead Also a big fan of birthday parties, Robbie has had some epic celebrations--watch her describe them in the clip above. Before the summer recess, all eyes in the fashion world will turn to Paris, where a new set of haute couture collections will be unveiled July 3 to 7. While most of the creations on show will be out of reach for mere mortals, the shows offer a glimpse of what's in store on the red carpet at prestigious global events in the coming months. Here's a look at some of the unmissable shows in store at the French capital's upcoming haute couture week. The term "haute couture" is a protected status with its own regulatory commission deciding which fashion houses are eligible for the label. Fashion houses making the official lineup -- whether as permanent or guest members -- must follow a certain number of rules to be able to show off their designs. Garments must, for example, be unique creations made by hand in fashion houses' own studios. It's above all skills, expertise and creativity that are honored during haute couture fashion weeks, showcasing new and exclusive tailor-made creations that will only ever be worn by a handful of personalities. Newcomers Each season, haute couture's regulatory body -- the "Chambre syndicale de la haute couture" -- announces the names of the fashion houses invited to participate in the latest haute couture week as guest members. Some labels will therefore be presenting designs for the first time at this prestigious week of catwalk shows. One of this season's guests is Japanese designer Yuima Nakazato, who'll be unveiling a first haute couture collection July 3 at 2pm, kicking off the latest round of shows. The designer is notably known for crafting stage costumes for Fergie and Lady Gaga, with a style combining functionality with a futuristic vibe. J. Mendel and the Italian designer Francesco Scognamiglio will also be making their debuts on the Paris haute couture scene this July. It's worth keeping a close eye on their first steps in fashion's highest sphere. Story continues Vetements brings collaborations to couture The Vetements show will without a doubt be the most eagerly awaited event -- or at least the most buzz-worthy event -- at the upcoming haute couture week. The label, headed by designer Demna Gvasalia -- named creative director of Balenciaga at the end of 2015 -- will break the codes of haute couture by presenting pieces created in collaboration with no less than 18 iconic ready-to-wear and accessories brands. As well as extending beyond womenswear (men will take to the runway too), Vetements will show creations that reinterpret classic designs associated with its selected brands, including Dr. Martens, Eastpak, Brioni, Levi's, Reebok, Schott and Manolo Blahnik. This hotly anticipated show, scheduled July 3 at 6pm, straddles the worlds of ready-to-wear fashion and haute couture, bringing these high-street brands to the runway for the first time at haute couture week. A follow-up from Pierre Cardin Some shows will be particularly in the spotlight at the July haute couture week, for a variety of reasons. Dior, which will present its autumn/winter 2016 haute couture collection, will be the center of attention, as the label is expected to officially announce the arrival of Maria Grazia Chiuri as its new creative director at the end of the show. Although the news has already done the rounds online, the brand's haute couture event will be the perfect opportunity to make it official. The designer will be taking over from Raf Simons, who left the French fashion house back in October. Pierre Cardin is also likely to draw plenty of attention, with a couture collection presented outside of the official schedule. The show will be held July 9 at Chateau de Lacoste, a former residence of the Marquis de Sade in south-eastern France. On Thursday morning, the Iowa Supreme Court ensured that the state would stay in an increasingly tiny, exclusive club with Kentucky and Florida. Ruling against a former felon, 42-year-old Kelli Griffin, the court affirmed a district courts opinion that Iowans with past or current felony convictions are permanently barred from voting. In doing so, the court resisted a national trend toward easing or eliminating criminal disenfranchisement laws. Its an outlier from where the country is, said Myrna Perez, director of the Brennan Center for Justices Voting Rights and Elections Project. This kind of policy doesnt punish people in a more effective way; it doesnt make us safer; it just serves to shut out certain voices from our community. In the 43 decision, the Iowa Supreme Court affirmed that all felonies are considered infamous crimes under the states constitution, conviction for which eliminates an individuals right to vote. Chief Justice Mark Cady wrote that the court was constrained by the legal interpretation of infamy, which establishes the community standard expressed by our Legislature and is consistent with the basic standard we have used over the years. Griffins lawsuit had argued that infamous crimes should not include all felonies. She was convicted in 2008 of a felony cocaine delivery charge and received a suspended sentence of five years of probation. Nationally, nearly 6 million people are legally unable to vote because of their criminal record, according to The Sentencing Project. Restrictions on the voting rights of people with criminal records vary widely from state to state, but Kentucky, Florida, and Iowa are home to the most restrictive of such laws, barring any person with a felony conviction from voting for life. The only path to the ballot box for former felons in these states, where the restriction is enshrined in their respective constitutions, comes through a pardon by the governor. While those three states remain firmly lodged in opposition, others have moved away from punitive voting rights restrictions. This year, Maryland and Virginia passed legislation to restore voting rights for citizens with criminal records. In 2001 and 2007, respectively, Connecticut and Rhode Island expanded the right to vote to people on probation or parole. In Maine and Vermont, even people still in prison can vote, regardless of their offense. Theres increasing bipartisan consensus that people who have paid their debt to society should be able to vote, voting rights expert and investigative journalist Ari Berman told TakePart. In some states, that consensus is still the subject of ample resistance. In early June, after restoring voting rights for former felons, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe was hit by a lawsuit brought by Republican voters who argued that their lawful votes will be cancelled out, and their voting power will be diluted, by votes cast by individuals who are not eligible to vote. In November 2015, former Kentucky Gov. Steven Beshear signed an order to restore voting rights to the states former felonsbut within a month, incoming Gov. Matt Bevin issued an executive order undoing Beshears work. In Iowa, advocates for voting rights are promising to push back against the courts ruling. Well start working today on a constitutional amendment so that finally, the thousands of Iowans who have completed their sentences can once again be full members of society, the ACLU of Iowa said in a statement on Thursday. After serving her probation time, Griffin attempted to vote in the November 2013 election. She believed her voting rights had been restored and was charged with perjury. She was acquitted in 2014 and sued state officials with the ACLU of Iowa several months later. I want to be able to cast my vote regarding my childrens school, regarding my community, regarding things that are happening in my life, because they affect me, said Griffin in a statement Thursday provided to TakePart by the ACLU of Iowa. People like me want to be productive members of society, so we should be treated that way. Take the Pledge: Dont Be Silent: Take the Pledge to Be an Ally for Racial Justice Related stories on TakePart: 51 Years After Bloody Sunday, Voting Rights Are Still out of Reach Former Felons in Maryland Regain Voting Rights Maryland May Be Next to Join the Ranks of Motor Voter States Original article from TakePart Tehran (AFP) - The entire management of Iran's development fund was forced to resign on Saturday as part of a mounting scandal over lavish executive salaries, the ISNA news agency reported. Iran has been gripped by the scandal ever since the payslips of executives at several public companies were leaked two months ago, showing salaries more than 100 times that of their average workers. It has provided ammunition for hardline opponents of moderate President Hassan Rouhani less than a year before he faces re-election. Seyed Safdar Hosseini, a former reformist minister who was hand picked by Rouhani to head the development fund, had been particularly targeted by Iran's conservative media. His leaked payslip showed he was paid 580 million rials ($17,000) per month. Hosseini resigned along with the rest of the development fund's management, which oversees investment in infrastucture. Media reports said he had agreed to repay some $140,000 to the state. Hosseini was labour and economy minister under reformist president Mohammad Khatami, who was in power from 1997 to 2005, and his daughter was elected to parliament in this year's legislative elections. The news came just two days after Economy Minister Ali Tayebnia sacked the directors of four banks "for receiving unconventional salaries and loans". The conservative media have also accused Hossein Fereydoun, the president's brother and special advisor, of influencing the appointment of the head of Refah bank, who was among those fired on Thursday after it emerged he earned some $60,000 a month. Fereydoun has denied playing any role in the appointment. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei renewed calls on Saturday for the government to crack down on exorbitant salaries. The economy minister has set a salary cap of $5,500 a month for bank directors, local media reported, with wider regulations for public companies to follow. One reformist official, Abdollah Nasseri, claimed hardline opponents of the government have 3,000 payslips of top officials that they intend to use to discredit Rouhani ahead of the election in May. By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Islamic State militants on Saturday pushed back U.S.-backed forces trying to advance into their stronghold of Manbij for the first time since a major offensive to capture the city and cut off the militants' main strategic access route to Turkey, a monitoring group and Kurdish sources said. The Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), comprised of Kurdish and Arab fighters and backed by the air power of a U.S.-led coalition to fight Islamic State and aided by U.S. special forces, have been involved in the month-long Manbij operation aimed to seal off their last stretch of Syrian-Turkish frontier. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the militants had evicted SDF troops from a main district south of the city which has been the scene of heavy fighting after suicide bombers blew up an explosive-laden car. The militants also recaptured a village northwest of the city. An SDF spokesman, however, denied reports they had pulled back from positions inside the city and said the campaign to uproot the militants would continue until they "liberated Manbij". "I stress that we have not retreated any step and all our positions are under our control," Sharfan Darwish, spokesman for the SDF-allied Manbij Military Council, said in a statement. The U.S.-backed forces have been bogged down in fighting in the northern and southern outskirts of the city after rapid advances that began with the capture of dozens of villages around the city until they surrounded it from all sides. Progress in storming the city has been slow with the militants using snipers, planting mines and preventing civilians from leaving, hampering U.S. airpower's ability to bomb the city without causing large casualties, Kurdish sources said. Fighting was mainly focused near a major grain silo complex south of the city that had been hit by U.S.-led coalition jets. Manbij's loss would be a big blow to the militants as it is of strategic importance, serving as a conduit for transit of foreign jihadists and provisions coming from the Turkish border. Brett McGurk, U.S. President Barack Obama's special envoy in the fight against Islamic State, said on Tuesday once the operation in northern Syria is completed, it would create the conditions to move on the militant group's de facto capital of Raqqa. U.S. officials have anticipated a tough battle ahead. The Manbij operation marks the most ambitious advance by a group allied to Washington in Syria since the United States launched its military campaign against Islamic State two years ago. (Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Rodi Said in Kobani Syria; Editing by Marguerita Choy and James Dalgleish) Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Israeli air strikes hit four sites in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, causing damage but no injuries, officials said, after Palestinian militants fired a rocket that struck a building in southern Israel. The four sites included a workshop, two locations for Hamas's armed wing and a military training site for militant group Islamic Jihad, the security official said on condition of anonymity. Two of the sites were in Gaza City while the other two were in Beit Lahia, in the north of the enclave, run by Islamist movement Hamas. All of the sites have been previously targeted by Israel, the official said. Israel's military said in a statement it had "targeted four locations that were components of Hamas's operational infrastructure in the northern and central Gaza Strip" in response to the rocket. A rocket launched from the strip hit a building in the southern Israeli city of Sderot late Friday, damaging it but causing no injuries, the military said. Israeli media said the rocket had hit a kindergarten, but the military had not provided further details. Medics said they treated two people for shock. No group in Gaza claimed responsibility for firing the rocket, which came hours after Israel announced a lockdown on the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank and cuts in monthly tax payments to the Palestinian Authority in response to attacks. In one of several attacks in recent days, a 19-year-old Palestinian fatally stabbed a 13-year-old US-Israeli national in her home at the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba on the outskirts of Hebron. Friday's rocket is the 13th projectile fired from the Gaza Strip to have hit Israel since the start of 2016. Smaller, more radical Islamist groups have often been blamed, with Hamas forces either unwilling or unable to prevent the rocket fire. Israel holds Hamas responsible for all rocket attacks from Gaza. Palestinian militants in Gaza and Israel have fought three wars since 2008. Story continues On Friday, the Middle East diplomatic quartet said that the "lack of control of Gaza by the Palestinian Authority, and the dire humanitarian situation" were feeding "instability and ultimately impede efforts to achieve a negotiated solution". "Preventing the use of territory for attacks against Israel is a key committment that is essential to long-term peace and security," said the group, which incudes the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations. The report also said Israeli settlement building and confiscation of land in the West Bank were among factors "steadily eroding the viability of the two-state solution." (Corrects spelling of Zuckerberg in paragraph four) JERUSALEM, July 2 (Reuters) - Israel's Minister of Internal Security on Saturday accused Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, of not doing enough to prevent incitement against Israel and said the social network was "sabotaging" Israeli police work. Israel has in the past said Facebook is used to encourage attacks and the government is drafting legislation to enable it to order Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social media to remove online postings it deems incite terrorism. But the comments made by Gilad Erdan, a cabinet minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition that oversees law enforcement, were particularly biting. He said Zuckerberg was responsible for Facebook policy and called on "the citizens of Israel to flood him in every possible place with the demand to monitor the platform he established and from which he earns billions". A spokesman for Facebook in Israel said the company was not commenting on the minister's assertions. During an interview on Channel 2 television, Erdan said, "Facebook today, which brought an amazing, positive revolution to the world, sadly, we see this since the rise of Daesh (Islamic State) and the wave of terror, it has simply become a monster." "Facebook today sabotages, it should be known, sabotages the work of the Israeli police, because when the Israeli police approach them, and it is regarding a resident of Judea and Samaria, Facebook does not cooperate," he said, referring to the area of the West Bank. "It also sets a very high bar for removing inciteful content and posts," Erdan said. Since October, Palestinians have killed 34 Israelis and two visiting U.S. citizens in a wave of street attacks, mostly stabbings. Israeli forces have shot dead at least 201 Palestinians, 137 of whom Israel has said were assailants. Others were killed in clashes and protests. Palestinian leaders say assailants have acted out of desperation over the collapse of peace talks in 2014 and Israeli settlement expansion in occupied territory that Palestinians seek for an independent state. Most countries view the settlements as illegal. Israel disputes this. Story continues Israel says incitement in the Palestinian media and personal problems at home have been important factors that have spurred assailants, often teenagers, to launch attacks. Tensions over Jewish access to a contested Jerusalem holy site, revered by Muslims as Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and Jews as Temple Mount, have also fuelled the violence. (Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; editing by David Clarke) Nepal Oil Corp cuts aviation fuel price Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) on Friday slashed the price of aviation fuel sold to international and domestic carriers in line with the directives of the Parliamentary International Relations and Labour Committee. MILAN (Reuters) - An unknown number of Italians were among hostages who were killed after suspected Islamist militants attacked an upmarket cafe in the Bangladeshi capital on Friday night, a source at Italy's foreign ministry said on Saturday. The gunmen, shouting "Allahu Akbar", attacked the Dhaka cafe and killed 20 people inside before police stormed the building on Saturday and rescued 13 hostages, Bangladesh officials said. Seven Italians were in the cafe when the attack started, including several working in Bangladesh in the garment industry, Italian media have reported. (Reporting by Francesca Landini; Editing Mark Bendeich) ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi condemned on Saturday a deadly attack in the Bangladeshi capital where suspected Islamist gunmen stormed into a cafe and killed 20 foreigners inside, including some Italians. "Facing the tragedy of radical Islam, Italy is united and ... will not back-track in the face of the madness of those who want to destroy the life we live everyday," Renzi told a news conference in Rome. Renzi declined to give any details of the number of the Italians killed in Friday's night's attack, or the circumstances of their deaths. At least seven Italians had been held hostage inside the cafe, Italian officials say, though there are unconfirmed media reports that as many as 10 were held hostage. (Reporting by Francesca Landini; Editing by Mark Bendeich) The director of The Jungle Book is moving into an aquarium. Jon Favreau recently closed on a deal to buy Allan's Aquarium, which is moving to a new location after opening its doors on Lincoln Boulevard in Venice nearly half a century ago. Since its opening in 1967, Allan's, with its bright aqua blue and orange trim exterior, has become an unofficial Westside landmark and pet emporium servicing animal lovers in need of dog treats, gerbils, slithering reptiles and all walks of squawking birds and exotic fish. But it's about to receive a serious Hollywood makeover. Favreau purchased the 4,700-square-foot store and an adjacent residential home at the corner of Lincoln Boulevard and Brooks Avenue for $5.25 million, according to several sources. The actor-filmmaker has plans to move his production company, which is currently located on nearby Abbot Kinney Boulevard, into the retail space several blocks east on Lincoln. The commercial lot is 5,554 square feet and is separated from the 5,879-square-foot residential lot by an alleyway. Stephen Lampe, executive vp of RE/MAX Commercial and Investment Realty and the listing broker on the deal, declined to comment on the buyer, but did say there was ample interest in the property. "The seller wanted to work with someone who was going to preserve the structure rather than destroy it and build some large development, so it was a win-win for the neighborhood," he said. Read More: Los Angeles Real Estate: 3 Hot New Niche Markets With his new space, Favreau has now planted a permanent flag in Venice, which has welcomed a host of high-profile production companies over the past decade, including Robert Downey Jr.'s Team Downey, Chris Weitz's Depth of Field, Todd Garner's Broken Road Productions and Joel Silver's planned - yet now stalled - move into Venice's historic post offices near Windward Circle. Emails to Favreau's representatives seeking comment were not returned as of Friday evening. Story continues The deal also is further proof of an ongoing axis shift in the rapidly gentrifying beachside community. With a sale price of $5.25 million, the price per square foot of the deal pencils out to about $1,000, which now puts portions of the Lincoln corridor in league with Abbot Kinney, where rents go for anywhere between $1,200 to $1,500 per square foot. The artisanal shops sprouting up just south of California Avenue on Lincoln are further evidence. Amidst the used car lots, liquor stores and old-school hoagie shops, lines of well-groomed Venetians form outside the upscale restaurant Superba just across the street from a cluster of boutiques like Flynn Skye, Tradesman and the General Store. As for Allan's Aquarium, it will be moving to a new location at the corner of Pico Boulevard and Bundy Drive, and according to a store clerk, the new store should be open within several weeks. But they will be without the store's namesake. "They are moving," said Allan Saurin, the store's founder, as he gestured towards his employees. "I'm retiring. I'm 77 years old. It's time." Photo: Interior of Allan's Aquarium, courtesy of Peter Kiefer Echo Fox AD carry Keith at the NA LCS (Lolesports/Riot Games) Riot Games has long promised increased transparency when it comes to their penalty system, and now theyve delivered on at least some of that with a penalty tracker. Whats more, a pair of LCS players have received warnings for their recent behavior. Both Echo Fox AD carry Yuri Keith Jew and Phoenix1 mid laner Andrew Slooshi Pham were warned for account sharing on June 29, according to the document. Phoenix1 top lane substitute Brandon Brandini Chen was also banned for two matches due to extremely negative in-game behavior. While the penalty tracker doesnt have past infractions included, it seems that everything from June 2016 onward will be noted. The rulings are based on the previously released LCS penalty index, which details the minimum and maximum penalties for any infractions against the LCS rules. A first instance account sharing, the relevant ruling here, carries a minimum punishment of a warning (as evidenced here) and a maximum fine of $2000 and/or a 4-game suspension. Follow Taylor Cocke on Twitter @taylorcocke. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have booked Kendrick Lamar and Janelle Monae to play the official White House Independence Day barbecue, Politico reports. The event on the South Lawn honors military heroes and their families, and families of White House staff will also attend. Needless to say, its probably going to be cooler than wherever you may be watching fireworks this weekend. Lamars How Much A Dollar Cost was Barack Obamas favorite song of 2015, and the untitled unmastered. rapper met the President at the White House earlier this year. Monae is a longtime favorite of the first family, and recently contributed to This Is for My Girls, a promotional single for an education initiative Michelle Obama debuted at this years South by Southwest festival. Previous White House Fourth of July concerts have featured Foo Fighters, the Killers, Fun., Brandi Carlile, and Brad Paisley. If you know how to score guest list at the White House, let us know. Open to high-level exchanges with Nepal: India India has said it remains open to the idea of high-level visit exchanges between Nepal and India. By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Lidia Kelly AMMAN/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and the United States held fresh talks on Saturday on ways of cooperating to end the five-year conflict in Syria as intensive Syrian government air strikes killed at least 40 civilians in a town northeast of Damascus. Moscow and Washington are seeking ways of brokering an end to a conflict that has killed more than 400,000 people, according to the United Nations, and has sent a wave of refugees streaming toward Europe. In the latest diplomatic contact between the two powers, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke by phone on Saturday, Russia's foreign ministry said. "They discussed ... the possibility of Russian-American cooperation in the fight against terrorist groups in Syria," the statement said. The statement did not identify the groups more closely. Russia, which supports President Bashar al-Assad, is conducting airstrikes against various armed groups that are opposed to his rule including Nusra Front - an offshoot of al Qaeda - and Islamic State which the Americans also oppose. But Washington says Moscow is also targeting moderate rebel groups which are ideologically opposed to al Qaeda and which are supported by the United States. Fighting continued unabated in Syria with intensive strikes by the Syrian air force on Jayrud, northeast of Damascus, which killed 43 civilians a day after the reported execution of a Syrian air force pilot, a monitor and rebels said. They said the raids targeted a medical center, a school and a residential area in Jayrud, a heavily populated town that had been earlier spared heavy bombing after striking a local truce with the army. It had become in that time a sanctuary for thousands of civilians fleeing heavy battles nearby. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said scores were also injured in the aerial strikes as well as by shelling from army posts in the area. A rebel spokesman said the strikes seemed to be in revenge for the killing of the air force pilot who parachuted near the town after his plane crashed on Friday. "The strikes against civilians are in retaliation against the execution of the pilot by Nusra Front," said Said Seif al Qalamoni from the Free Syrian Army's (FSA) Shahid Ahmad Abdo brigade that operates in Jayrud alongside the al Qaeda's Nusra Front and other groups. Rebels targeted a main army base in the region with Russian-made surface to surface missiles after the aerial strikes, al Qalamoni said. Syrian state media said the crash was due to a technical fault and the pilot had ejected, while the rebel group Jaish al-Islam said it had shot down the plane, but did not say how. Jaish al Islam said the pilot was arrested and was subsequently killed by a fighter from the Nusra Front while being held at a joint command center. Separately, Russian and Syrian planes intensified bombing on Saturday of a strategic rebel-held area of Aleppo that is near the only route into opposition-held parts of the northern city. If the Malah area were to fall to the army and its allies they would succeed in laying siege to areas where over 400,000 people live under rebel control. In northern Syria, Islamic State fighters who are encircled in the town of Manbij launched a major offensive that pushed back U.S.-backed forces for the first from areas inside the city they had secured during a month-long campaign to capture the strategic city from the militants. [L8N19O0QG] In the western coastal province of Latakia, rebels who include al Nusra, consolidated gains in the strategic area just days after they retook Kansaba which overlooks much of the mountainous Jabal Akrad area close to the Turkish border [L8N19N2F7]. The Syrian government forces had captured Kansaba in February, part of a wider advance in Latakia's northern countryside at the time, that was only made possible after Moscow embarked on a major military campaign on the side of President Bashar al Assad last September. (Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Moscow and Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Marguerita Choy) As the UK voted for Brexit last week, Lindsay Lohan provided an unexpected but very welcome distraction, live-tweeting passionately as results came in from across the UK. During an over-excited moment, the Mean Girls actress and Remain campaign supporter tweeted, "Sorry #KETTERING, but where are you?" as it emerged that the Northamptonshire town had voted to leave the EU. Lohan later deleted this tweet. However, Kettering's Conservative MP, Philip Hollobone, saw fit to mention Lohan's tweet in the House of Commons on Thursday, describing it as "fierce and offensive." "On referendum night a week ago, the pro-Remain American actress, Lindsay Lohan, in a series of bizarre tweets, slagged off areas of this country that voted to leave the European Union," he told the House, Huffington Post reports. "At one point she directed a fierce and offensive tweet at Kettering, claiming that she had never heard of it and implying that no one knew where it was." Addressing Chris Grayling, the leader of the House, Hollobone added: "Would my right honourable friend support my invitation to Lindsay Lohan to come and switch on the Christmas lights in Kettering this Christmas?" Apparently poking fun at Lohan's recent lack of film roles, The Independent reports that Grayling replied, "Had she visited Kettering, she might have seen her career turn around. I think the invitation is one she should accept." In a surreal twist, Lohan has apparently taken this criticism on the chin and decided to accept the offer to turn on Kettering's Christmas lights. After hearing about their comments in the House of Commons, she invited Grayling and Hollobone to "DM" her on Twitter. @MPChrisGrayling and #philiphollobone Direct message me about your offer. Would be happy to light the Christmas tree in #Kettering Lindsay Lohan (@lindsaylohan) June 30, 2016 According to the BBC, Hollobone said in response: "Let's hope she means it. If she wants to come to Kettering and turn the lights on, she would be made very welcome." Story continues Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here? Adele Gives Heart-Warming Performance At Glastonbury How Glastonbury Responded To Brexit Lindsay Lohan Live-Tweeted As The UK Voted For Brexit Last Night Lisa Vanderpump's Pump restaurant in West Hollywood is being sued by a customer who claims his calamari dish was served with pieces of glass. John Santos filed a complaint on Thursday at the Superior Court of California where he alleges that on Dec. 14, 2014, he was eating calamari at the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star's restaurant when he felt a sharp pain in his mouth and realized he had ingested broken pieces of glass. WATCH: Lisa Vanderpump, 'Barely Famous' Stars React to Orlando Nightclub Shooting "While Mr. Santos was chewing the calamari, he felt jagged objects in his mouth. Mr. Santos proceeded to remove the object(s) from his mouth and noticed they were pieces of glass," according to court documents obtained by ET. "Mr. Santos felt pain in his mouth and began to bleed. Mr. Santos notified the server/manager of the incident and the manager proceeded take the plate of calamari to the kitchen. The server/manager informed Mr. Santos that calamari would no longer be served on that day." Santos says he has medical bills from Urgent Care to prove his injuries. He's claiming negligence and asking for compensatory damages. "Due to the injuries incurred from biting into shards of glass Mr. Santos was presented to urgent care to address his injuries," the claim reads. "As a result of the incident, Mr. Santos was damaged financially, will incur future medical costs and endured pain and suffering." WATCH: Lisa Vanderpump Says Lisa Rinna Should've Just Hit Her 'With a Baseball Bat on the Head' "Nothing like this has ever happened in the restaurant's history. It was two years ago when this customer made the allegation that he found glass in the food," a rep for Vanderpump and Pump said in a statement to ET. "Patrons come to Pump for its sumptuous food and eclectic atmosphere, which is why we were named one of the Top 100 Hot Spots Restaurants in America by OpenTable in 2015." Story continues ET caught up with Vanderpump in June during the L.A. Pride Parade in West Hollywood. Watch the video below to hear her emotional words following the mass shooting at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Related Articles Chris Pratt shared a bunch of hilarious behind-the-scene outtakes from his InStyle magazine photo shoot on Snapchat on Thursday. WATCH: Chris Pratt Goes on an Adorable Fishing Trip With His 3-Year-Old Son The 37-year-old actor had more than a little trouble recording the perfect Snapchat, but he didn't mind giving it multiple tries -- at first. "I'm not gonna do it," Pratt jokingly says to the camera, while pretending to be disappointed that he can't get his lines right. "I can't believe that you sent the last one out, it wasn't good." Pratt's Snapchat flubs were strewn together into one LOL-worthy video, that includes footage of him with a "lucky fan" (as in an actual electric fan). NEWS: Chris Pratt Invents New DietKind Of: 'It's Worth the Sacrifice' Pratt is currently promoting The Magnificent Seven, which co-stars Denzel Washington, Vincent D'Onofrio, Peter Sarsgaard, Ethan Hawk, and more. The Western-themed flick hits theaters on Sept. 23. Check out the trailer below. Related Articles School principal arrested for beating student Police have arrested a school principal on the charge of thrashing a student in Panchthar district. The man who hacked celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and leaked their personal photos is pleading guilty The man who hacked celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and leaked their personal photos is pleading guilty The mass celebrity phone hack of September 2014 and subsequent leak of personal and sensitive celebrity photos and videos known popularly as Celebgate was an unsettling thing to see unfold, particularly because it was largely female celebrities and their bodies targeted in the hack and leak. Now, it looks like justice will be served to the perpetrators. Illinois man Edward Majerczyk is pleading guilty to the crime of illegally accessing the iCloud and Gmail accounts of more than 300 people using an e-mail phishing scam, sending e-mails that appeared to be from the security accounts of Internet service providers, like appleprivacysecurity@icloud.com and appleprivacy@icloud.com that directed targeted individuals to a website and prompted them to give up their personal information. Majerczyk faces up to five years in prison, though with his plea deal, his sentence will likely be set somewhere in the range of six to twelve months. In March, Pennsylvania man Ryan Collins plead guilty to the same type of crime crime, breaking into the personal e-mail accounts of 100 people, including celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence, Kirsten Dunst, and Kate Upton. Collins has not yet been sentenced, but prosecutors recommended a sentence of 18 months. The two cases arent related, both men were acting independently, but both of the hackers were caught as a result of the same FBI investigation. Neither Collins nor Majerczyk seem connected to the leak of the photos, just the hacking of the accounts. Just because Im a public figure, just because Im an actress, does not mean that I asked for this, Jennifer Lawrence told Vanity Fair in 2014, just a few months after the mass leak. It does not mean that it comes with the territory. Its my body, and it should be my choice, and the fact that it is not my choice is absolutely disgusting. I cant believe that we even live in that kind of world. We couldnt agree more. It was upsetting to see these powerful women made so vulnerable, it was, as Lawrence also said in her Vanity Fair interview, absolutely a sex crime, and its reassuring to see the feds bring the perpetrators to justice and, with hope, set a precedent, ensuring this type of crime is less likely to happen in the future. The post The man who hacked celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and leaked their personal photos is pleading guilty appeared first on HelloGiggles. (Spoilers for the first two episodes of season 2 of Marco Polo are included in this post. And a disclaimer: As a dramatization of historical events, Marco Polo will of course not follow historical records to the letter. This fact check is for fun, not criticism.) As the second season of the Netflix original series Marco Polo opens, the Mongol Empire is dealing with the aftermath of its victory over the Chinese Song Dynasty at Xiangyang in the first season finale. The victory still pretty fresh, the Mongols are an occupying force in southern China and most of the locals arent too happy about it. But the Song Dynasty isnt over yet, even if its been defeated and its de factor leader, Jia Sidao, is dead at Xiangyang. The boy emperor Gong, or Zhao Xian, remains alive, and as season 2 begins, Marco Polo and Mei Lin are tasked with finding him. Also Read: 'Marco Polo': Who Is the Mythical Christian Warrior Prester John? They do just that, despite the best efforts of his protector, the mysterious warrior played by Michelle Yeoh. And they bring the young boy back to the court of Kublai Khan, the thought being that Zhao Xian will be held as a protected prisoner who will live out his days either in captivity or aiding the Mongols, similar to how the story of the Blue Princess Kokachin has gone since the show began. But Ahmad, who is planning to take out Kublai and seize control of the Mongol Empire for himself, convinces the Khan that he should kill the boy, with the reasoning that while he still lives, he will be a symbol for Song holdouts. And at the end of the second episode of season 2, Kublai does kill Zhao Xian by suffocating him. But was that how the story of Emperor Gong/Zhao Xian ended in the real world? Nope. Marco Polo took some major dramatic liberties with the story of Zhao Xian. Also Read: Who Are All These Characters on Netflix's 'Marco Polo'? (Photos) According to our histories, there are a bunch of key differences between the story of the Song as presented on Marco Polo and real life such as how Xiangyang had already fallen by the time Zhao Xian came to power at only four years of age in 1274. Story continues At that point, the Songs war with the Mongols was essentially already lost. Two years into Zhao Xians reign, in 1276, the Song were forced to surrender their capital, Linan, to the Mongols. And the Mongols didnt have to hunt Zhao Xian down Zhao Xian was purposely surrendered to the Mongols by his grandmother, the Empress Dowager Xie, at Linan. Also Read: 'Marco Polo' Fact Check: Did the Pope Really Send Crusaders Against Kublai Khan? From there, Zhao Xian really did become a protected prisoner of the Mongols Yuan Dynasty, and he was even given a title. After a few years, Zhao Xian was relocated to Tibet, where he became a monk at the Sakya monastery. In his 50s, Zhao Xian may have been ordered to commit suicide by Gegeen Khan, the then-Mongol emperor of China. (The Mongol Empire had been divided by that time). However he died, Zhao Xian wasnt murdered by Kublai Khan when he was a child, as depicted on Marco Polo. Related stories from TheWrap: 'Marco Polo' Fact Check: Did the Pope Really Send Crusaders Against Kublai Khan? Who Are All These Characters on Netflix's 'Marco Polo'? (Photos) 'Marco Polo': Who Is the Mythical Christian Warrior Prester John? Nikhil Puthran The countrys largest automaker Maruti Suzuki has signed an MoU with the Government of Andhra Pradesh to set up the Institute of Driving Training and Traffic Research (IDTR) in Andhra Pradesh. The new institute will be located in Venkatachalam Village in Darsi, Prakasham district. The upcoming institute is indeed the first of such institutes to be inaugurated in South India by Maruti Suzuki. Speaking about it, Mahesh Rajoria, assistant vice president (driving training), Maruti Suzuki India Limited said, The inception of Driving Training and Traffic Research Institutes was with an aim to upscale professional driver training and lay down the ground rules for safe driving. Maruti Suzuki has been working on this front for over a decade now. I am confident that our experience in this field of road safety will add immense value to this newest facility. Along with tribal development to promote road safety and driving, the company will also co-ordinate with government bodies to offer employment opportunities among the tribal youths. The institute will be spread in over 20 acres of government land which will be operated and managed by Maruti Suzuki. Alongside the institute building, the automaker will also build a hostel and training tracks. The company expects to complete the institute construction by 2018. 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 Hillary Clinton Hillary Clinton is expected to meet with FBI officials soon amid the agency's ongoing investigation into her State Department emails, ABC News reported Friday. The meeting over Clinton's use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state comes more than a year after Clinton first admitted that she conducted official government business via a personal email address, rather than using one issued by the government. Federal authorities began their investigation in August. The FBI has been looking into whether classified material was mishandled during Clinton's tenure at the State Department from 2009 to 2013. Clinton, who is weeks away from officially accepting the Democratic Party's nomination for president at the party's July convention, has maintained that using the private email server was not illegal. An inspector general's report released in May appeared to back up Clinton's claim but said she "did not comply" with State Department policies requiring her to surrender "all emails dealing with department business before leaving government service." Clinton has turned over tens of thousands of her work-related emails over the course of the investigation. About 30,000 more emails that were deemed "personal" were deleted. The report of the meeting comes amid renewed furor over the federal government's handling of the investigation. Attorney General Loretta Lynch has been roundly criticized for a meeting earlier this week with former President Bill Clinton aboard an airplane parked on an Arizona tarmac. On Friday, Lynch admitted the meeting had "cast a shadow" over the investigation and said she expected to accept the recommendation of the career FBI investigators working on the case. NOW WATCH: FORMER GREEK FINANCE MINISTER: Why Hillary Clinton is a 'dangerous person' More From Business Insider Michael Cimino, the multiple Oscar-winning director-producer of The Deer Hunter whose career later became an infamous cautionary tale after the failure of his 1980 Western epic Heavens Gate has died, according to reports from friends. He was 77. The news was made public by Theirry Fremaux, director of the Cannes Film Festival, who tweeted that he died peacefully, surrounded by his family and the two women who loved him. Michael Cimino est mort, en paix, entoure des siens et de ces deux femmes qui l'aimaient. Nous l'aimions aussi. pic.twitter.com/emPv4nj5cZ THIERRY FREMAUX (@THIERRYFREMAUX) July 2, 2016 Cimino gained fame in the 1970s as part of the wave of groundbreaking filmmakers dubbed New Hollywood who popularized the director as the driving creative force behind filmmaking and along the way created some of the most important films ever made. Ciminos primary contribution to this era was his second feature film, the 1978 war drama The Deer Hunter, a scathing look at the decline of Americas industrial working class and the severe cultural fallout of the Vietnam War. Starring Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, John Cazale (in his final role), Meryl Streep, and George Dzundza, the film made a tremendous impact on subsequent filmmaking and popular culture, not least of all for its iconic, highly controversial depiction of Russian roulette that has been alluded to and outright parodied in numerous subsequent works. It was a critical and financial success, earning $49 million on its $15 million budget, and went on to receive nine Oscar nominations, winning five of them including Best Director (Cimino), Best Supporting Actor (Walken), and Best Picture. Story continues Our work together is something I will always remember. He will be missed, said Robert De Niro about Cimino on Saturday. Following the success of The Deer Hunter, Cimino was given carte blanche by United Artists to make his next movie, the epic western Heavens Gate, based on Wyomings Johnson County war of the 1890s. Featuring a cast that included Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, Isabelle Huppert, Jeff Bridges, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Dourif, Joseph Cotten, Geoffrey Lewis, David Mansfield, Richard Masur, Terry OQuinn, Mickey Rourke, and the film debut of Willem Dafoe, the films production quickly derailed. Shooting fell behind schedule, Cimino became known for obsessive behavior on set, and by the end of production the budget had ballooned to $44 million. UA considered firing him from the film at one point and in post production, Cimino retaliated by locking studio executives out of the editing room and refusing to show them the film until he had decided on a final cut. His first print ran more than five hours long, though after resistance from the studio Cimino cut it down to 3 hours and 39 minutes. Released in 1980, the film was a disaster for United Artists. Panned by critics, it flopped hard, earning $3.5 million before disappearing from theaters, leading to the near-collapse of United Artists (it was ultimately sold off to MGM), and destroying Ciminos reputation. Heavens Gate subsequently became a symbol for the excesses of the New Hollywood era and helped bring it to an end. Already stung by several flops from Director-driven productions in the late 70s, Studios began to emphasize high concept blockbuster filmmaking and exert tighter controls on film budgets. The films failure also led to a sharp decline in the production of westerns, and Ciminos career never recovered from the blow. He directed just four other films Year of the Dragon, The Sicilian, Desperate Hours, and Sunchaser. Despite those setbacks, Heavens Gate was later reassessed by critics and Ciminos peers, and Cimino lived to see his reputation as one of the 70s most important filmmakers restored to a degree. Heavens Gate was re-released as a 216 minute directors cut in 2012 to great acclaim at the 69th Venice Film Festival, which also marked Ciminos last public appearance. On hand then to accept a lifetime achievement award as well as premiere his new directors cut, he reflected on his fame and infamy, saying at the time that Being infamous is not fun. It becomes a weird occupation in and of itself. MORE Related stories How Michael Cimino's 'The Deer Hunter' Pioneered The Modern Day Oscar Campaign - And Won Meryl Streep Musical Dramedy 'Ricki And The Flash' To Open Locarno Film Festival Venice: Michael Cimino Raises New 'Heaven's Gate', 'The Iceman' Cometh Michael Cimino, who won Oscars for director and best picture for the powerful 1978 Vietnam War drama The Deer Hunter, has died. He was 77. Thierry Fremaux, director of the Cannes Film Festival, announced the news on Twitter. No other details of his death were immediately available. Despite his achievement with The Deer Hunter, his next project, Heaven's Gate (1980), capsized United Artists with his profligate budget excesses. Subsequently, the words "Heaven's Gate" entered filmmaking lexicon as an out-of-control, overbudget production. A strong believer in location shooting, Cimino insisted that real places had a tremendous effect on actors' performances and the film's texture. It worked fine for his directorial debut in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), shot in Big Sky territory under the cost-conscious eye of producer/star Clint Eastwood (it was the first picture for the star's Malpaso production company). It also featured an inspired performance from co-star Jeff Bridges. Yet Heaven's Gate, a frontier epic about the settlement of the West that was shot mainly at a studio-constructed town in Glacier National Park in Montana, outraged executives at UA. Cimino's insistence on authenticity, in the end, deflated the production and sank the troubled studio. In addition, its running time of 219 minutes exasperated theater owners. Trying to cut its losses, UA pulled it from exhibition. The studio reissued a trimmed version in 1981, but that fared no better. The entire debacle was chronicled in Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven's Gate, the Film That Sank United Artists, a 1999 book written by former UA executive Steven Bach. (The film did play at Cannes.) Read More: Michael Cimino: The Full, Uncensored Hollywood Reporter Interview In a March 2015 interview with THR's Seth Abramovitch - perhaps the last one he ever did - Cimino described the audience reaction to The Deer Hunter when the film, which starred Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Cazale and collected five Oscars in all, opened in theaters. Story continues "We were sitting in the back row of the - I've forgotten the name of the theater in Westwood - and people were just driving up in cars, just a line of cars," he recalled. "And someone would run out and buy 12 tickets. Someone would run out and buy 20 tickets. And this kept going and going and going and going. "And then we had a screening and [his assistant] came running up to me and said, 'Michael, you've got to come quick, come quick to the lobby.' I said, 'What's wrong?' And she said, 'Come with me.' And the ladies room was filled with women who were weeping and wailing and just broke down crying. There were ex-vets who literally crawled up the aisle out of their seat. It was just an astounding, astounding reaction." Even the powerful eloquence of The Deer Hunter, which Cimino also wrote, was mired in controversy. Critics and historians complained that it misrepresented history. In particular, they pointed to a scene in which a sadistic North Vietnamese officer forces the captive U.S. soldiers to play Russian roulette. It was a contention that Cimino disputed strongly, insisting his story transcended literal history. After Heaven's Gate, Cimino's directing was sporadic, with his work including Year of the Dragon (1985), The Sicilian (1987), Desperate Hours (1990), The Sunchaser (1996) and a segment in To Each His Own Cinema (2007). Indicative of Cimino's precarious standing in Hollywood after Heaven's Gate, MGM/UA bowed to protesters who contended that Year of the Dragon was racist in its depiction of Chinese Americans. That prompted the studio to issue a disclaimer at the film's beginning. The controversy showed that a Cimino project was vulnerable to stringent scrutiny and hyper-reaction. Read More: 'Deer Hunter' Director's First Interview in 13 Years: Michael Cimino Touts Clint Eastwood for President, Blasts Rumors He's Becoming a Woman Years later, his director's cut for Heaven's Gate, which starred Kris Kristofferson and Walken, finally made it to the screen. He told Abramovitch he was happy with his work. "Yeah. And it just had, just overwhelming responses. It was at Venice and it was just a half-hour standing ovation, and New York Film Festival, same thing," he said. "And just packed, I mean the minute they announced it, it was sold out in 10 minutes. And then of course at the Lumiere Festival in France, the biggest film theater I know of in the world, 6,000 people, was filled from top to bottom. It was overwhelming. I got on the stage, I couldn't speak. It was just, I mean, 6,000 people giving you a standing ovation is quite an experience." Cimino was born Feb. 3, 1939, and grew up in New York City. While attending Yale University as a fine arts major, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve. Cimino got his masters from the University of New Haven in 1963, then moved to New York to study acting and ballet. He also worked for a small company that produced documentary and industrial films. By the late 1960s, Cimino had established a reputation as a skilled maker of TV commercials. But in 1971, he gave that up to go to Los Angeles to pursue moviemaking. He began script writing and received credit on Silent Running (1972), which he co-wrote with Deric Washburn and Steven Bochco. He next worked with John Milius on the screenplay for the Dirty Harry follow-up Magnum Force (1973), starring Eastwood. Cimino wrote and directed Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, an offbeat story about a Big Sky mining heist that won accolades. Based on that, Cimino received several studio offers, but he only wanted to do projects he was passionate about. Such was the case with a story he championed - about three steelworker friends who go off to fight in the Vietnam War. He convinced EMI to finance it, and shooting began on The Deer Hunter in 1977. See More: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2016 Michael Cimino, who won Oscars for director and best picture for the powerful 1978 Vietnam War drama The Deer Hunter, has died. He was 77. Thierry Fremaux, director of the Cannes Film Festival, announced the news on Twitter. No other details of his death were immediately available. Deer Hunter actor Robert De Niro sent The Hollywood Reporter a statement mourning the director: "Our work together is something I will always remember. He will be missed." Despite his achievement with The Deer Hunter, his next project, Heaven's Gate (1980), capsized United Artists with his profligate budget excesses. Subsequently, the words "Heaven's Gate" entered filmmaking lexicon as an out-of-control, overbudget production. A strong believer in location shooting, Cimino insisted that real places had a tremendous effect on actors' performances and the film's texture. It worked fine for his directorial debut in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), shot in Big Sky territory under the cost-conscious eye of producer/star Clint Eastwood. It also featured an inspired performance from co-star Jeff Bridges. Yet Heaven's Gate, a frontier epic about the settlement of the West that was shot mainly at a studio-constructed town in Glacier National Park in Montana, outraged executives at UA. Cimino's insistence on authenticity, in the end, deflated the production and sank the troubled studio. In addition, its running time of 219 minutes exasperated theater owners. Trying to cut its losses, UA pulled it from exhibition. The studio reissued a trimmed version in 1981, but that fared no better. The entire debacle was chronicled in Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven's Gate, the Film That Sank United Artists, a 1999 book written by former UA executive Steven Bach. (The film did play at Cannes.) Read More: Michael Cimino: The Full, Uncensored Hollywood Reporter Interview In a March 2015 interview with THR's Seth Abramovitch - perhaps the last one he ever did - Cimino described the audience reaction to The Deer Hunter when the film, which starred Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Cazale and collected five Oscars in all, opened in theaters. Story continues "We were sitting in the back row of the - I've forgotten the name of the theater in Westwood - and people were just driving up in cars, just a line of cars," he recalled. "And someone would run out and buy 12 tickets. Someone would run out and buy 20 tickets. And this kept going and going and going and going. "And then we had a screening and [his assistant] came running up to me and said, 'Michael, you've got to come quick, come quick to the lobby.' I said, 'What's wrong?' And she said, 'Come with me.' And the ladies room was filled with women who were weeping and wailing and just broke down crying. There were ex-vets who literally crawled up the aisle out of their seat. It was just an astounding, astounding reaction." Even the powerful eloquence of The Deer Hunter, which Cimino also wrote for another Oscar nomination, was mired in controversy. Critics and historians complained that it misrepresented history. In particular, they pointed to a scene in which a sadistic North Vietnamese officer forces the captive U.S. soldiers to play Russian roulette. It was a contention that Cimino disputed strongly, insisting his story transcended literal history. After Heaven's Gate, Cimino's directing was sporadic, with his work including Year of the Dragon (1985), The Sicilian (1987), Desperate Hours (1990), The Sunchaser (1996) and a segment in To Each His Own Cinema (2007). Indicative of Cimino's precarious standing in Hollywood after Heaven's Gate, MGM/UA bowed to protesters who contended that Year of the Dragon was racist in its depiction of Chinese Americans. That prompted the studio to issue a disclaimer at the film's beginning. The controversy showed that a Cimino project was vulnerable to stringent scrutiny and hyper-reaction. Read More: 'Deer Hunter' Director's First Interview in 13 Years: Michael Cimino Touts Clint Eastwood for President, Blasts Rumors He's Becoming a Woman Years later, his director's cut for Heaven's Gate, which starred Kris Kristofferson and Walken, finally made it to the screen. He told Abramovitch he was happy with his work. "Yeah. And it just had, just overwhelming responses. It was at Venice and it was just a half-hour standing ovation, and New York Film Festival, same thing," he said. "And just packed, I mean the minute they announced it, it was sold out in 10 minutes. And then of course at the Lumiere Festival in France, the biggest film theater I know of in the world, 6,000 people, was filled from top to bottom. It was overwhelming. I got on the stage, I couldn't speak. It was just, I mean, 6,000 people giving you a standing ovation is quite an experience." Cimino was born Feb. 3, 1939, and grew up in New York City. While attending Yale University as a fine arts major, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve. Cimino got his masters from the University of New Haven in 1963, then moved to New York to study acting and ballet. He also worked for a small company that produced documentary and industrial films. By the late 1960s, Cimino had established a reputation as a skilled maker of TV commercials. But in 1971, he gave that up to go to Los Angeles to pursue moviemaking. He began script writing and received credit on Silent Running (1972), which he co-wrote with Deric Washburn and Steven Bochco. He next worked with John Milius on the screenplay for the Dirty Harry follow-up Magnum Force (1973), starring Eastwood. Cimino wrote and directed Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, an offbeat story about a Big Sky mining heist that won accolades. Based on that, Cimino received several studio offers, but he only wanted to do projects he was passionate about. Such was the case with a story he championed - about three steelworker friends who go off to fight in the Vietnam War. He convinced EMI to finance it, and shooting began on The Deer Hunter in 1977. See More: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2016 Credit: PDN/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock A trip to Morocco merits a mini wardrobe overhaul, and First Lady Michelle Obama has added Proenza Schouler and now Altuzarra to her diplomatic style portfolio. On Tuesday in Marrakech, the political figure and her teenage daughters transitioned into their evening looks at a dinner with Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco (above, right of Obama). The cause for the stately affair of course took priority--the visit helped continue Obama's Let Girls Learn global tour--but her paisley print Altuzarra frock with pearl adornments took center stage as the 52-year-old Harvard Law School graduate posed with fellow female leaders. Gleaming in their own right, sisters Malia, 17, and Sasha, 15, got a taste of mom's important work and were also on hand at the dinner, each dressed in graphic, maroon-toned dresses that appropriately blended in with the country's traditional garb. Between a lavish display of fare we're sure was unforgettable, not to mention a gorgeous arrangement of florals, Obama and Princess Lalla presumably chatted about the Millennium Challenge Corporation's $100 million investment towards the education of young women in Morocco. Credit: Abdeljalil Bounhar/AP Images While Malia and Sasha watched nearby, Meryl Streep also took a seat at the table. The Oscar-winning star joined Obama and actress Freida Pinto earlier on Tuesday for a conversation with local girls about the power of education. "It was especially interesting to me to come to Morocco, because I'm aware that here in this country, there is a special push in order to enable girls beyond primary level education to go on to secondary school, to university. And I want to help that happen all over the world," Streep told girls in the crowd, according to an official statement from The White House. Credit: Abdeljalil Bounhar/AP Images PHOTOS: Michelle Obama's Best Looks Ever Obama shared similar empowering sentiments. "Those 62 million girls who are not being educated around the world impact my life in Washington, D.C., in the United States of America. Because if we aren't empowering and providing the skills and the resources to half of our population, then we're not realizing our full potential as a society, as mankind," she added. Twenty killed in Dhaka restaurant attack Bangladesh's government says 20 hostages were killed by suspected Islamists in a siege in cafe in the capital Dhaka. Michelle Obamas three-country Let Girls Learn tour has come to an end. But before heading home to Washington D.C. on Friday with teenage daughters Malia and Sasha, the First Lady wowed, once again, in a chic printed ensemble. Obama looked like a monochromatic muse in a black and white geometric patterned short sleeve dress from Preen By Thornton Bregazzi as she boarded Air Force One at Torrejon airbase in Madrid. Along with this design by London British fashion duo Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi, FLOTUS donned looks by Altuzarra, Delpozo and two outfits by Proenza Schouler throughout her travels to Liberia, Morocco and Spain. Meanwhile, Malia and Sasha showed their love for affordable retail pieces once again. Obamas youngest child, 15, was dressed in a paisley print dress from ASOS and the future Harvard student, 17, looked elegant in a LBD. Earlier in the day, the first daughters modeled pretty prints as Malia wearing an off-the-shoulder black top with a choker, ASOS floral midi skirt and low-heeled strappy sandals, and Sasha gave us all print envy in a red floral-print sleeveless dress. The purpose for the Obamas international trip was to promote the Let Girls Learn initiative, which aims to promote education for girls in countries where they may not have access to decent schooling. Story continues Related Video: Is Obama Ready for His Daughter to go Away to College? During her trip, the first lady met many prominent officials including Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco and Queen Letizia of Spain as well as actresses Meryl Streep and Freida Pinto for a panel discussion with local girls in Morocco. What do you think of the Obamas stylish send-off? Let us know in the comments below. Karen Mizoguchi LONDON (Reuters) - British lawmaker Andrea Leadsom emerged on Saturday as the top pro-Brexit candidate to succeed Prime Minister David Cameron, earning the support of a former Conservative Party leader and several members of parliament. Leadsom, a junior minister not well known to most voters, has attracted slightly more support from Conservative lawmakers than Michael Gove, the justice secretary and leading "Leave" campaigner, British media reported. Bookmaker William Hill said she was now second-favourite to succeed Cameron, behind interior minister Theresa May, who supported the "Remain" campaign. Leadsom's rise reflects the unpredictable state of British politics since last week's vote to leave the European Union. The result sparked pandemonium in Britain's two main political parties, with Cameron announcing his resignation and Labour opposition lawmakers disowning their own leader, Jeremy Corbyn. The referendum has also divided Britain, with Scotland, Northern Ireland and London voting against the majority of Britons to stay in the 28-nation club. Thousands of Londoners took to the streets on Saturday to protest against Brexit. May has the support of far more Conservative lawmakers than her rivals but the 53-year-old Leadsom, a former Barclays banker, has now received backing from former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith. Leadsom also featured heavily in Saturday's edition of the Daily Telegraph, a newspaper politically aligned with the right-wing Conservative party. "I think it's very difficult for someone (to become prime minister) who doesn't agree with (leaving the EU), who is reluctantly following the wishes of the people," Leadsom told the Telegraph. "I genuinely believe that if we want to make a go of it, then we need somebody who believes in it." Leadsom is expected to announce her plan for the leadership on Monday. Gove made his pitch for prime minister on Friday, but was scorned by colleagues for pulverising the chances of early front-runner and fellow Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson, whom Gove described as unfit for office. Former London mayor Johnson withdrew on Thursday. As of Friday, May had the backing of 96 Conservative MPs, the BBC said. Pensions minister Stephen Crabb had 22 backers, with Leadsom on 21, Gove on 18 and former defence minister Liam Fox on 10. Conservative lawmakers will whittle down the field to two candidates before ordinary members of the party vote on the winner. The opposition Labour party is in the midst of its own leadership drama, with leader Jeremy Corbyn refusing to step down after his own MPs passed a motion of no-confidence in his leadership. Labour lawmakers are trying to broker a deal for Corbyn to step down in exchange for his successor pledging to retain some of his key policies on tackling inequality and making the party more democratic, the BBC reported. Left-winger Corbyn, who is popular with the party's grass-roots membership, has said he will not betray the supporters who elected him. Corbyn spoke at an anti-racism rally in London on Saturday but did not talk about his future. (Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Tom Heneghan) SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - Murders in El Salvador plunged 51 percent in June compared with the same month last year, police said on Friday, attributing the drop to new government security measures even as gangs pointed to a recent truce to explain the decline. The country registered 331 homicides last month, around 11 per day compared with 677 in June 2015, Police Director Howard Cotto said on Friday. In April, the government launched new programs aimed at regaining control of prisons and areas occupied by gangs, which Cotto said have helped boost gang member detentions and weapons seizures. However, gang spokesmen said the decline in murders was thanks to a truce reached in March. Despite the slowdown in murders last month, homicides in the first six month of the year rose 6.5 percent, to 3,050, compared with the same period last year, according to official data. El Salvador's homicide rate last year was 103 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in the world. (Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Editing by Leslie Adler) MOSCOW (Reuters) - The NATO-Russia Council (NRC) will meet on July 13 to discuss air safety measures over the Baltic Sea and other issues, RIA news agency cited a statement by the Russian Defence Ministry as saying on Saturday. Permanent representatives will attend the meeting. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu also said that Russia is starting work on a set of measures to improve aviation safety over the Baltic Sea, including a measure that would require Russian military aircraft to fly with transponders, or devices used for identification, turned on. There have been a number of close encounters between Russian and Western aircraft over the Baltic Sea in recent months, and the former Soviet Baltic states have called on NATO to step up air defenses in the region. (Reporting by Lidia Kelly) A Navy lieutenant and pilot has been arrested after police say he filmed an underage girl through the peephole at the Old Navy in Virginia. Jake Baker was arrested and charged with unlawfully filming, videotaping or photographing a minor and with using a peephole or another method to view her without her consent. Lagos (AFP) - Nigerian oil militants on Saturday denied the government's claim that they were plotting to assassinate a military officer. In a press statement released Friday the Nigerian secret service said it arrested Selky Torughedi, a suspected member of the militant group the Niger Delta Avengers. It alleged Torughedi was "planning to assassinate" a military officer in Kaduna, a city some 200 kilometres from Nigeria's capital of Abuja. The secret service said it also arrested Christian Oluba "while perfecting plans to carry out explosive attacks on critical oil and gas pipelines." But Avengers spokesman Mudoch Agbinibo described the arrests as "laughable." Agbinibo said the men are "sleeper agents" for the Nigerian secret service. The Niger Delta Avengers are a new militant group who started attacking oil and gas infrastructure early this year in Nigeria's oil-rich but poor southern swamplands. Like previous militant groups before them, the Avengers are fighting for a greater share of the country's oil revenues and greater political autonomy. But the group has stressed it only targets oil infrastructure, not people. The sabotage has gored Nigeria's economy -- the central bank governor has said a recession is "imminent" -- and pushed up the global price of oil. Restoring peace to the Niger delta is one way to get the country's economy back on track. Last week Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari met with a delegation from the Niger delta and issued a press release pledging to "rebuild" the region. Previous militants had stopped waging war in the creeks after the introduction of a costly amnesty program in 2009. But with Nigeria facing an "imminent" recession, Buhari is hard-pressed to find the funds to continue the scheme and has indicated he is looking at winding it down. MILAN (Reuters) - Nine Italians were killed in Friday's attack by Islamist militants in the Bangladeshi capital, with another Italian still unaccounted for, Italy's foreign minister said on Saturday. The militants killed 20 people, most of them foreigners, inside an upmarket restaurant in Dhaka before security forces stormed the building and ended a 12-hour standoff on Saturday. "We have identified nine (Italians) killed, there is another person who is missing and could be hiding himself or could be among wounded people ... we are looking for him," Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told reporters. (Reporting by Francesca Landini; Editing by Mark Bendeich) LONDON (Reuters) - With minimum fuss Japan's Kei Nishikori brushed past Andrey Kuznetsov 7-5 6-3 7-5 on Saturday to advance to a fourth-round Wimbledon showdown with Marin Cilic. The fifth seed won 7-5 6-3 7-5 to the delight of a patient contingent of Japanese fans who had sat wrapped up against the drizzle on Court Three through a lengthy break between the second and third sets. Nishikori, 26, beat Kuznetsov in straight sets in the second round at the French Open and once again the swashbuckling Russian, 25, failed to find a way to counter the Japanese player's baseline aggression and solid defense. He broke Nishikori's service in the third set after a first rain delay to go 3-0 up but lost his own after a second shorter pause and, racking up the unforced errors, never got back on top. Nishikori next meets ninth seed Cilic who beat him in the 2014 U.S. Open final. Although Cilic dashed his hopes of a first Asian men's grand slam title, Nishikori has a 7-3 advantage over the tall Croatian in head-to-heads. (Reporting by Clare Lovell, editing by Ed Osmond) Newport (United Kingdom) (AFP) - Britain's Brexit vote has put Wales's EU funding in doubt, dealing a potentially heavy financial blow to one of Britain's poorest regions which relies on money from Brussels for farmers' subsidies and urban regeneration. "Wales are in a bit of trouble, we get a lot of money from the EU," said Anna Preece, shocked by the referendum vote to quit the European Union. Wales, like England, voted "Leave" in the June 23 referendum, in contrast to the United Kingdom's other two constituent parts, Scotland and Northern Ireland. On the streets of Newport, a small coastal city in southeast Wales close to the English border, 43-year-old charity worker Preece was visibly upset by the result in her country and Britain overall. The vote count is "quite shocking", said "Remain" voter Preece, in reference to the 52.5 percent of voters in Wales who supported Brexit. "I was really quite surprised it was so high, especially in the rural areas," she told AFP. In Newport, where attractive riverside apartments have replaced wharfs that once exported vast quantities of coal mined from the Welsh Valleys, the "Leave" vote stood at 56 percent. That was similar to the vote in Neath Port Talbot, home to the already at-risk Port Talbot steel plant owned by India's Tata. The highest "Leave" vote in Wales was 62 percent in Blaenau Gwent, home to Ebbw Vale, hit hard by the decline in Britain's steel industry. "Welsh voters almost certainly voted against their economic self-interest," said politics academic Brian Klaas at the London School of Economics. "The little town of Ebbw Vale... would likely have turned to bust without EU support," he added. "EU funding is key to the vitality of the Welsh economy and net migration is low, but Welsh voters still voted against immigration and against continuing financial support from Brussels." Story continues - 'It's all scaremongering' - A pre-referendum study by Cardiff University said that in 2014, Wales received an estimated 245 million ($326 million, 293 million euros) more from the European Union than it paid in. The overall net benefit to Wales was around 79 per head in 2014, the report said, amid fears that Wales could now lose funding for a new metro system serving Cardiff and nearby areas such as Newport. "It's all scaremongering," said Tracy Stokeswhiting when asked if she was worried about potential cuts, with the 53-year-old "Leave" voter insisting that it would be business as usual at her Newport clothes shop "La Belle Femme". "The European suppliers are not going to stop sending stock to the UK," she said, adding that many of her goods arrive from EU members France and Italy. European aircraft maker Airbus, which assembles wings in Broughton, north Wales, has meanwhile assured staff that the UK remains a vital part of its operations. - 'Stand up to the EU' - In Newport, Angelo Clifford said he voted "Leave" to show Europe "that we needed to tighten up on the amount of immigrants". The 62-year-old engineer believes money cut by the EU will be offset by funds Britain no longer has to send the other way. "The money we're saving from not being in it will benefit our infrastructure and also the NHS," he said from Newport city centre, which has undergone a facelift with the recent opening of a shopping mall and cinema. The "Leave" campaign argued that quitting the EU would reduce immigration and free up vast extra sums for Britain's cherished state-funded National Health Service -- the post-World War II creation of revered Welsh Labour MP Aneurin Bevan. Unlike Scotland, whose government is pushing for a fresh vote on independence after the referendum to try and stay in the EU, there is no widespread support in Wales for splitting off from the rest of Britain. This makes it all but certain it will end up out of the EU and many are hoping that whoever replaces David Cameron as prime minister will fight hard in Brexit negotiations. "The sooner they get a new prime minister in, with a bit of backbone to stand up to the EU, I think we'll be alright," said Clifford. Two Chinese companies keen to build rail network in Nepal At least two Chinese companies have shown interest to develop rail networks connecting China with Nepal, and one of them has submitted a feasibility report for a rail link between Kathmandu and Pokhara. NASA's New Horizons Pluto probe isn't done exploring the far outer solar system just yet. NASA has approved a mission extension for New Horizons, which performed the first-ever flyby of Pluto in July 2015. The spacecraft is now set for a Jan. 1, 2019 flyby of a small object called 2014 MU69, which lies about 1 billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto in the dark and frigid Kuiper Belt. "The New Horizons mission to Pluto exceeded our expectations, and even today the data from the spacecraft continue to surprise," Jim Green, NASAs Director of Planetary Science, said in a statement Friday (July 1). "Were excited to continue onward into the dark depths of the outer solar system to a science target that wasnt even discovered when the spacecraft launched." [Destination Pluto: NASA's New Horizons Mission in Pictures] Though 2014 MU69 and Pluto occupy roughly the same realm of space, they are very different objects. For example, Pluto is 1,474 miles (2,372 km) wide, whereas 2014 MU69 is thought to be just 13 to 25 miles (21 to 40 km) across. "This places [2014 MU69] in a key intermediate size regime to better understand planetary accretion," New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern wrote in a blog post in April, when the New Horizons team officially submitted the mission extension proposal. "And given its 4-plus-billion-year existence in cold storage so far from the sun, MU69 will be the most pristine object ever visited by any space mission." New Horizons should come within 1,900 miles (3,000 km) of 2014 MU69 during the 2019 flyby, Stern wrote about four times closer than the probe got to Pluto during last year's historic encounter. "If I do say so myself, the flyby of MU69 would be a landmark event, shattering all distance records for deep-space exploration, and yielding an impressive scientific bounty," added Stern, who's based at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. Story continues While New Horizons will keep zooming outward, NASA's Dawn spacecraft will stay put at the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt, agency officials announced today. Dawn's primary science mission just ended, and team members had proposed sending the probe on to study an asteroid in the belt called Adeona. But NASA nixed that idea. The long-term monitoring of Ceres, particularly as it gets closer to perihelion the part of its orbit with the shortest distance to the sun has the potential to provide more significant science discoveries than a flyby of Adeona," Green said in the same statement. A visit to Adeona would have marked the third cosmic body studied up-close by Dawn, which also orbited the protoplanet Vesta from July 2011 through September 2012. The spacecraft has enough fuel left to keep operating at Ceres through early 2017, mission team members have said. NASA has also approved mission extensions though fiscal year 2018 for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter; Mars Odyssey Orbiter; MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) orbiter; the Opportunity and Curiosity Mars rovers; and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, agency officials announced Friday. NASA has also greenlit further support for the European Space Agencys Mars Express orbiter mission. These decisions were based on a report by the 2016 Planetary Mission Senior Review Panel, NASA officials said. The extensions are all contingent on the availability of resources, which will be determined by budget processes. Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com. Editor's Recommendations Copyright 2016 SPACE.com, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. A diamond is forever is a phrase James Bond and brides all over the world know all too well. But a shiny diamond ring only became a virtual necessity during marriage proposals in the past few decades thanks to aggressive marketing by the company that at one point controlled nearly 90% of the entire diamond market De Beers. In 1938, when the Depression had really cut into the American economy, the company De Beers hired an advertising firm [N. W. Ayer & Son] to help reinvigorate the social custom of giving an engagement ring, said Rachelle Bergstein, author of Brilliance and Fire: A Biography of Diamonds. They hired an advertiser who created a set of print ads that made the diamond ring feel really timeless. They wanted the product to feel classic and almost as if something that the knights were giving their ladies back in the medieval times. And they accomplished it. Bergsteins book traces the history of diamonds in popular culture. It also looks at how many of todays esteemed jewelry houses were founded by salesmen whose tactics today would shock many of their tony customers. Pierre Cartiers aggressive sale of the storied Hope Diamond was, to be polite, flabbergasting. The Hope Diamond is probably the most famous gemstone in America, Bergstein said. It has a fascinating history because many people believe it is cursed. Whether or not that is true, Pierre Cartier, who got his hands on it at the turn of the century, used that story to his advantage to sell it to a young capricious socialite with a lot of money on her hands called Evalyn Walsh McLean. Cartier, according to Bergstein, embellished the tale of the Hope Diamond, spinning a yarn of how in the 17th century merchant Jean Baptiste Tavernier supposedly plucked the jewel from the statue of a Hindu god. It then found its way in the hands of French, British, and Ottoman royalty, causing a string of bad luck wherever it went, according to the tale. Cartier likely played up the rocks dark past to help convince the American heiress to acquire the gem. Story continues He leaked stories about the Hope to the press, Bergstein noted. The American public loves hearing about a stone that was so evil that it cursed the wealthy people who bought it. Theres something fantastic about the idea of a product that is attracting wealthy people and then ruining their lives. Of course, Cartier wasnt alone in aggressively selling diamonds to the world. Charles Lewis Tiffany, Harry Winston these men really understood the power of the press, Bergstein said. Tiffany, when he was starting Tiffany & Co. (TIF), was one of the first American jewelers to compete on a global stage. The heritage jewelers were all in England, they were in France; they had access to royalty and so they had access to really wonderful, grand stones. Charles Tiffany was a bit of an upstart so he was able to make sure that the press knew when he was buying big diamonds. And at the time of Tiffany & Co.s popularity, he was considered the King of Diamonds. Famed jeweler Harry Winston also made his relationship with the press a key part of his sales technique. He would get his hands on a very big diamond and he would make sure the press knew about it, Bergstein said. When a big diamond was being cut, for instance, he would invite the press to come to his offices and watch. They both really understood the media and I think were maybe ahead of their time in that way. Today, roughly $80 billion in finished diamonds are sold annually. And the industry is pinning a lot of its hopes on the rise of middle class diamond buyers in China and India. But the days of a few big players controlling the supply and demand for diamonds have come to an end. At one point, De Beers had immense power in southern Africa (Zambia and Zimbabwe were known as Northern and Southern Rhodesia, respectively, named for De Beers founder, Cecil Rhodes). The tarnish of conflict or blood diamonds tainted the industry and eroded the publics perception of diamonds, Bergstein notes in her book. And then theres the rise of lab grown diamonds that, unlike cubic zirconia, are chemically indistinguishable from natural diamonds. These factors took a toll on the once-dominant De Beers. Theres Rio Tinto (RIO) in Australia, theres Alrosa (ALRS.ME) in Russia, and so De Beers now probably controls about 30% of the worlds diamonds, Bergstein notes. After the conflict diamond crisis, they changed the direction of the their business so that they were no longer marketing stones that they hadnt mined themselves. We asked Jason Denby, the concierge of the Rosewood Hotel in Georgetown, to plan us a single, spectacular day in Washington, D.C. 1. Wake up at the Presidential Suite Begin your day by waking up in the Presidential Suite of the Rosewood, and then take a short walk down the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal to Baked & Wired to enjoy a handcrafted coffee or espresso and fresh-baked biscuit or quiche. Robert Reck--Rosewood 2. Handcrafted espresso at Baked & Wired Courtesy of Baked & Wired 3. Exclusive tour of the monuments A chauffeured Bentley will pick you up and take you on an exclusive private tour of the Capitol, the National Gallery of Art, and the National Archives. The Capitol Hill Noam Galai--Getty Images 4. Special lunch at Daikaya Enjoy a special lunch at Daikaya, followed by a trip to Washington, Va., for a private cooking class with acclaimed chef Patrick O'Connell at the Inn at Little Washington, followed by dinner at the chef's table in the kitchen. Courtesy of Daikaya 4. Private cooking class with chef O'Connell and dinner at the chefs table Kitchen Gordon Beall--The Inn 5. Stay at the Claiborne House You will retire to the Claiborne House at the Inn and wake up the next morning for your return to the capital. Claiborne House Gordon Beall--The Inn For more, click here to see the interactive story "What to See (and Eat) in Washington D.C." A version of this article appears in the July 1, 2016 issue of Fortune with the headline The $10,000 Day. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com (Photos: Netflix) Warning: This recap for the The Animals episode of Orange Is the New Black contains spoilers. If only If only Bayley had listened to Caputo. If only Humphrey hadnt forced Suzanne into that fight. If only Caputo had made sure his guards were well-trained. If only MCC saw the inmates as humans and not dollar signs, and werent willing to hire a staff of thugs to guard them. If only Soso and Poussey hadnt fought, maybe Poussey would have already been sitting at their regular cafeteria table with the rest of their friends, instead of in the food line with Suzanne. So many what ifs, any one of which could have changed the tragic ending of this episode: Poussey Washington, one of the most beloved Litchfield inmates since Season 1 of Orange Is the New Black, is dead. Because Litchfield was taken over by a private company that only sees the inmates as profits. The more bodies they jam into the building, the more money MCC makes. What happens to those inmates, especially when there are far too many of them crowded into a building, is far from at the top of MCCs list of concerns. The company only agreed to add on correctional officer staff when warden Caputo suggested they hire military vets, therefore earning them credits from the government. That those guards turned out to be disturbed individuals who have to be reminded over and over again that the inmates are humans and still dont get the message or believe it is of even less concern to MCC. Treatment has included making women stand on tables for hours without a bathroom break; preventing one of the prisons more, ahem, mature inmates from sleeping, while still making her perform work duties; putting a gun to an inmates head until she swallowed a live mouse; and forcing one mentally unstable inmate to beat another mentally unstable inmate nearly to death. That last act, which has left Suzanne in a catatonic state and her beating victim, Kukudio, in a state described by white supremacist leader Sankey as aint pretty, leads the inmates to band together even the ones, sorta, whose hatred of each other sparked a season-long race war to demand the sadistic guards bully of a leader, Desi Piscatella, resign. Story continues Hapakuka had suggested the idea of a peaceful protest, something that helped the inmates at her previous prison, in Honolulu, push their demands about job hiring. Continuing squabbling among the different prison cliques nearly derailed a plan to roll out a similar protest at Litchfield, but when Pisctella, who has been physically preventing Red from sleeping, shoves her so hard that she falls down in front of a cafeteria full of inmates, theyve all had enough. Blanca starts it by tossing off her kitchen staff hairnet and climbing back onto the table Stratman had made her stand on for a couple of days. Piper joins Blanca on the table. Then Taystee climbs on top of her table. Hapakuka does the same. So does Sankey. The protest builds, with everyone, even Poussey, who had earlier fought with protest-loving girlfriend Brook about a potential protest being a waste of time, climbs on a table with Suzanne. We are not going to move until you no longer work at this prison, Maria tells Piscatella. But this is the man who, just before pushing Red, had told the gathered inmates, It seems that, somewhere along the way, everyone around here forgot the only thing that matters: youre criminals, and you deserve nothing. In his twisted mind, the very fact that they dare to protest his staffs wicked ways proves they dont deserve anything, including protection from the seriously disturbed treatment from Stratman and Humphrey and fellow CO Dixon. Its at this point that Piscatella radios for all the guards to come to the cafeteria. Were not going to do anything other than stand here, Hapakuka tells Piscatella. You dont need more men, you just need to resign. But the rest of the guard staff arrives, and Piscatella simply tells them to start clearing. One by one they begin pulling the women off the tables. True chaos erupts when Suzanne, no longer completely catatonic, but very on edge after the fight with Kukudio, sees Humphrey walk into the cafeteria. I did a bad thing! I did a bad thing! she begins yelling, and she jumps off the table and begins banging on the fence wall of the cafeteria, and the trash can. Poussey, the closest member of Suzannes group to her, jumps off the table and tries to calm Suzanne down, as Piscatella yells for CO Bayley to get that fking animal out of here now. Bayley tries to subdue Suzanne. Poussey tries to help him control her. Bayley takes Poussey down to the ground and puts his knee on her back to contain her while he tries to fight off Suzanne, whos attacking him. The other guards are dragging other inmates off the tables. The cafeteria is in total chaos. Bayley still has his knee on Pousseys back. Shes not trying to resist, but she is trying to tell him she cant breath. He doesnt hear her. Hes still trying to fight off and then subdue the out of control Suzanne. McCullough tries to subdue Suzanne, too, but cant, and Suzanne goes back to attacking Bayley, whose knee is still on Pousseys back. McCullough calls out for Piscatella, who finally grabs Suzanne and takes her away from Bayley and Poussey and McCullough. Taystee, whos being dragged along the floor by another guard, spots Poussey, and notices she isnt moving. Bayleys knee is still on Pousseys back. CO Coates notices this, and runs to Bayley and drags him off Poussey. But its too late. Shes not moving, Suzanne has started screaming again, and Taystee runs over and throws herself on the ground beside her best friend, sobbing, and stroking Pousseys head and back and grabbing her sweatshirt. The guards hold back the rest of the stunned inmates, whove formed a semi-circle around the late Poussey Washington. Elsewhere in Litchfield (and beyond): In flashbacks, we get some history on guard Bayley, a nice local kid who graduated from high school and seemed committed to nothing more than hanging out with his similarly unambitious friends. Bayley got fired from the King Kone ice cream hut the same one Healy visited while MIA from the prison lockdown in People Persons for giving away ice cream to pretty girls every day, and he and his pals got revenge by egging his (now former) bosss house. They move on to toss eggs at other homes, lawn ornaments, and even a group of inmates doing cleanup work on a patch of public lawn. One of the inmates Bayleys friend hits, Freida, yells at them, You think thats funny? Im a fking human being! The words resonate with Bayley, who stops laughing along with his friends. At Litchfield, Bayley is horrified by Humphreys Fight Club-ish antics with Suzanne and Kukudio, and hes waiting by Caputos car to tell him about it when the warden arrives for work the next morning. Later, when an FBI visit drives home to Caputo just how poorly he has run certain aspects of the prison, he runs into Bayley and issues him a heartfelt bit of advice. Listen to me. This isnt for someone like you. This place crushes anything good. Its like a monster thats grown too big for its stubby little legs, and now its stumbling around, crushing whole cities. You cant survive it, Bayley, Caputo warns. Working here changes who you are. Im stuck here, youre young. Get outta here. Go travel. Go back to school. Go work in Home Depot. Anything but here. If only Caputo had shared this advice earlier. At least Soso and Poussey made up before Poussey died. They fought earlier in the day about the potential protest against Piscatella, but with Brook already standing on her table, Poussey jumps up on a table near where she was in the food line, looks over at Soso, and mouths Im sorry, baby to her. Sophias out of the SHU! She looks sick, and stunned, especially when she walks by her salon and sees the Burset has a dk sign outside. She also has a bandage on her wrist. Gloria is the only inmate who seems to notice Sophias back, and given Glorias involvement in Sophia going to the SHU in the first place, shes understandably dismissive of Glorias friendliness at first. Later, when Sophia stands meekly outside the salon, her stomping grounds, in need of a brush, Gloria marches inside, makes Marias crew leave, and sits Sophia down while she helps her freshen up her wig. Lollys doing time in Psych for the Aydin situation, but the FBI is still spending time at Litchfield for an investigation. And the agents seem particularly interested in Caputos hiring practices, especially since Aydin or the body thought to be a man named Aydin has four social security numbers attached to his name. What a nightmare, Caputo says. For you, especially, FBI guy responds. So, theres that on Caputos plate now. Healy sat in his office all night after helping get Lolly into the Psych ward. Then he checked himself into the Eastern Psychiatric Institute. Questions: We Got a Few Theres plenty of blame to go around, but who will become the main scapegoat for Pousseys death? Caputo is finally realizing just how bad hes been at his job, which seems to coincide with a desire to actually make the place better, more productive, for the inmates, and that internal clash sent him to former wardens executive assistant Natalie Figueroa for a listening ear. Did anything more than talking happen when he agreed to go inside wine-happy, lonely Figueroas house? What will the status of Piscatella and his guard staff be after Pousseys death? Piscatella had already intimidated Caputo into backing down when Caputo tried to suspend Humphrey for making Suzanne and Kukudio fight, but will he finally push back and make it stick now that an inmate has died? Judy gave Poussey her (allegedly) real phone number, and promised to help her get a job when she got out of prison. Do we believe Judy was sincere? Would she have remembered Poussey, or taken her call, or helped her land a job in the kitchen of some fancy restaurant? Will we ever see Sam Healy again? She Said, He Said We need to take care of that pus hole of a man. Sankey, trying to forge an alliance with enemies Poussey and Taystee, to get rid of CO Humphrey after he forced Suzanne and Kukudio to fight. If you were gonna rank our hate, you guys are here (holds hand in the air) and [Humphrey] is here (moves hand up higher). Sankey, still trying to sell that alliance with Poussey and Taystee. Stratmans an ahole, but Humps is dangerous. Sankey, ranking the relative scariness of Piscatellas COs. The enemy of my enemy aint my enemy, right? Taystee, trying to forge a temporary peace, or at least anti-Piscatella alliance, during a meeting of all the inmate groups leaders. A murder day. School kids get snow days off. When the inmates get the day off from prison construction work because of the ongoing investigation into Aydins death, Piper says its a murder day. Doomed to be together. Alex, telling Piper the two of them would have ended up together, in prison, even if they had taken different paths a decade earlier. We could be like old people who talk about articles, and eat soup, and hold hands on the slow stroll to the a doctor for colonoscopies. Piper, to Alex, who says shed just like for their lives to be easier for a bit. And yes, the couple appears to have officially recoupled, as per their makeup sex in Lollys time machine. An inmate is in Medical because an ape had a tantrum. Humphrey, responding to Caputos anger that an inmate, Kukudio, is in Medical because of a fight Humphrey instigated. We should start taking vitamins and, like, the swallow kind that smell weird. Not the gummy bears. One of Bayleys fellow recent high school graduate friends, in flashback, on what they should do now that theyre adults. Death is more permanent than getting fired. Reds suggestion for dealing with Piscatella. Like on Lost? TV drama fan Sankey, when Hapakuka tells a gathering of inmate leaders that shes representing the others, i.e. the inmates who dont belong to any certain clique. Husky hula doll. Maria, rudely addressing Hapakuka. What you gotta say about eight years of Obama, you racist Nazi ho? Taystee, after Sankey suggests people will listen best to a white leader. Molly burned through your serotonin. Give it a month, and everything will be rosy again. Judy to Yoga, whos remorseful about the night of drugs and three-way sex she shared with Judy and Luschek. I wish I didnt know that. Poussey, after Judy points to the exact spot where her wild night with Yoga and Luschek took place. You know, all that yoga she supposedly does she is not all that flexible. Couldnt get her foot behind her head. Judy, sharing yet more information Poussey didnt want to know about her night with Yoga and Luschek. I think hes the hottest Holmes since John. Morello, on her appreciation of Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes. And porn, apparently. Did you hear about last night? The white girl is all messed up and Crazy is even crazier. Taystees pithy version of the previous nights fight for Caputo. Pain is always there but suffering is a choice. Pennsatucky, finally making Boo understand why she forgave Coates, so she could move on with her life without allowing herself to feel bad all the time. One step closer to that apartment. Poussey to Soso, about the apartment they plan to share, after Judy promises to get Poussey a job when she gets released from Litchfield. I did closure things. Judy, referring to her night with Yoga and Luschek, while shes berating her $1,800-an-hour attorney for not getting her an early release like he said he would. Oh, my God, youre crazy. Poor Vinnie, realizing just how complicated his prison wife is when Morello accuses him of having an affair with her sister because she finds out Vinnie and Francine both like caramel. Think of me as your prison psoriasis. Red, to Healy, apologizing for constantly coming to him with favor requests. I guess I know what thats about. Coates to Boo, after she slaps him. She also warns him hell be dead if he does so much as hurt Pennsatuckys feelings ever again. I hate prison. Alex, after she finds out Angie and Leanne are sitting outside the time machine, with snacks, listening to her and Piper have sex. Prison wasnt built on humanity, inmate. Piscatella. Of course. I almost got a hand job from an inmate. And I was part of an illegal panty-smuggling scheme. Bayley to Coates, who laughs. They broke you, too, huh? Figueroa to Caputo, when she opens the door to find him on her doorstep. She also mentions to him that MCC plans to load a lot more inmates into Litchfield, especially once the new dorm is complete. Caputo had assumed the new dorm which his current inmates are building for free as part of construction education would help alleviate the current overcrowding situation at the prison. Were gonna start trying to have a baby. Morello, lying to her friends about her and Vinnie, and neglecting to mention that she accused him of cheating because of caramel. Behind Bars: Song playing across the end credits: The Pattern of Electricity by Corrina Repp. Orange Is the New Black Season 4 is streaming on Netflix. Warning: This interview contains spoilers for the second season of Outlander, including teases about the finale, which will air on July 9. Sorry Charlie, your days are likely numbered. Given that it appears history is going to unfold just as it did before with the bloody Battle of Culloden, the fall of the Jacobites and no return to a Stuart reign, were guessing that likely means Andrew Gower, the actor who plays the rebellious royal, is also not long for the world of Outlander. With Season 2 coming to a close next week, we tracked Gower down by phone in England where he is doing a play and was on his merry way to get a haircut to ask about all things Bonnie, from wigs and catchphrase drinking games to how he researched the role and his favorite scenes. How familiar were you with Outlander before you got the job? I was lucky enough to work with Stephen Walters in Morocco of all places last year. He had talked about this series he was in that had an amazing, dedicated following and a really interesting story. We stayed in touch, both of us being from Liverpool. When I came home, I weirdly had a meeting to play Bonnie Prince Charlie in my email account, and the rest was history. And Stephen and I were lucky enough to share a little moment together in Episode 10. It is very interesting how small the industry can be and how coincidental. Related: Outlander Costume Designer Terry Dresbach on Season 2s Remarkable Fashion Show How has life changed since becoming a part of a show with such a dedicated fanbase? Do people recognize you when you are in your modern-day look? Stephen had told me how loyal the following was, and I have been lucky enough to experience it firsthand now. It feels validating. I dont get recognized on the street. I would be worried if I did, given that I wear a wig at all times on the show and have quite a different wardrobe, and the facial expressions I pull even. The day I start getting recognized as Charlie, I will be worried. Theres been none of that. But virtually over Twitter, it has changed tremendously. I have so many more followers now. And all good, positive interactions. I am quite happy that I can still walk down the street every day in a pair of jogging bottoms and my woolly hat, and no one knows who I am. Thats nice. Story continues You play a historical figure, Bonnie Prince Charles Stuart. Did you do much research on him? A hell of a lot. The Frank McLynn biography became my bible basically up until recently when I lost it on a flight between Edinburgh and London. It was so important to read his letters and to know more about his relationship with his father and his time in Italy and Paris. When you are playing somebody who did exist and there is good source material on them, whether it is a biography or archives or experts, you would be stupid not to delve into them. But there is a point in the process where you leave the books alone, and instead, you focus on the script and creating your version. What was the most interesting or surprising thing you discovered? I have to be honest that before I took on the job, apart from the name and the basics, I had no real idea how he fit into history. I had no idea about the Jacobites or those battles. Growing up in Liverpool, we studied the British side of history, and we only would barely briefly touch on Scottish history. So everything was, for me, a big revelation. The fact that he was born in Italy was a lovely discovery. He was at war as a 15-year-old boy. That he used to dance in front of the groups of soldiers to entertain them. How would you describe him to people? He seems like he has daddy issues to me. Like he needs to please him by winning this rebellion. Totally a daddys boy. I think he is having an identity crisis. He doesnt know where he belongs or who he belongs with. He has aspirations to sit on the British throne and thinks the way to that is this war, but as far as who he is, I think he struggled with that. He is forever aligning himself to different people and beliefs to figure out any way to get into power. And he is very devout in that way, that he believes God wants him to be King. Related: All Hail Outlander Star Lionel Lingelser! And he also seems to be mostly kind and ambitious, at least tries to think long-term like with his theories about how the British should be treated. Being removed from British society and living in Europe, he doesnt understand the divide. There is a naivety to him, having been isolated in Italy for his whole childhood. When he arrives in the Highlands, there is a sort of childlike innocence on how British politics actually works, and he doesnt understand how much anger there is on the part of the Scots toward the British. He also seems, especially in the last few episodes, like he really has a desire to get in the fight and stand alongside his men. Even though when they finally decide to let him join in this episode, he gets lost and screws up their shot at a surprise birthday attack. He sure means well, but it doesnt always work out for him. I think he probably did have the desire to do his part, but he is far from a warrior. I have really liked that the details about the rebellion and the battles have been historically accurate things like the secret path, the conditions, the introduction of the generals but that the show has built their story inside of that framework and taken some artistic liberties for the sake of story. I have taken some license with Charles, and I do hope that people appreciate that we are trying to link the beginning of the series with the end of the series. Im wondering if his catchphrase Mark me is based on research, or was that just something that came from the book or from the writers minds? There is no mention of that particular phrase in my bible on Charlie. It has become such a part of the character. Quite interestingly, it was in a first draft and read-through for my first-ever appearance on Outlander. There was a speech in the brothel, and from that point I wanted to build on that. I kept adding a few more Mark mes because it felt like his way of demanding attention and saying, This is my moment. Pay attention. I took it also as a very military phrase, and he is a guy who is interested in that as in, Mark my gun or Mark my sword. In a way, for me in trying to play someone with a lack of identity, I wanted to give him a phrase that he routinely uses and that speaks to who he is. The scenes where I have not used it, I was a bit more raw and emotionally cut up. I have enjoyed the collaboration with the directors and writers on deciding when to throw one in or when to cut it out. It was a nice thing to add to the character. Did you ever count how many times you said it? I have not. But I heard it has become a drinking game. Im worried if people are drinking with every mark me. Im worried for their heads on a Sunday morning. Did you have a favorite scene of Season 2? Definitely the bedroom scene where I climb through the window and Ive just been bitten by the monkey. That was a direct adaptation from a scene in the book. That was a fun scene to film. The other scene I really loved is more a whole episode of scenes. I loved Episode 10, where I was wearing my tartan outfit and leading my Scottish men and looking out over the English. Working opposite Dougal [Graham McTavish] and the other Scots was fantastic. What took more getting used to the wig, the kilts, or the high-neck bows and ruffles? The wig. Definitely the wig. Although I do not have the knees for kilts either. If I do come back, I am going to have to work on the legs. [Sam Heughans] legs put mine to shame. Can you tease the finale? I am going to give you very short, mysterious clues wax, an unfinished battle, and more God. It is going to be a great, great episode. Not to be missed. Outlander airs on Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Starz. The finale, titled Dragonfly in Amber, will air on July 9. It is a an extended, 90-minute episode. Two students killed, 25 injured as wall caves in Two students were killed and at least 25 were injured after a retaining wall built next to a school in Taukhel, Godavari, caved in following heavy rains on Friday morning. A man accused of robbing a Baltimore County bank Friday afternoon was arrested after an hours-long standoff in Baltimore City. Police said the man robbed the M&T Bank branch in the 2800 block of Smith Avenue just north of the city border in Baltimore County. Police said the suspect, who was armed, robbed the bank and got away with cash. County police officers were joined by city police when the investigation led to the 3500 block of Garrison Avenue in Baltimore City, where the suspect was holed up in what neighbors told 11 News is his house. * Polish pension fund crucial to future of stock market * Company executives worry over rumoured changes * Fund holdings spread throughout the economy * Ruling party leader signals using assets for something new By Anna Koper and Jakub Iglewski WARSAW, July 2 (Reuters) - A growing number of Polish firms are preparing share buybacks because they fear the government plans to plunder stocks from privately run pension funds to plug holes in the state budget, company chiefs and fund managers say. The conservative government has said until now that it has no such plans but the leader of the governing Law and Justice (PiS) on Saturday signalled new plans for the assets held by the funds, known as OFEs. "There's a proposal which regards the question about what is to be done with the money parked in OFEs," Jaroslaw Kaczynski told a party convention. "The money, which as a matter of fact is losing its value and which could be a basis for new, important ventures, could build the power of our economic policy and support millions of Polish households. We need to do this, and such proposals are already here." Kaczynski gave no details, but the looming changes are a concern for companies in which pension funds hold big stakes. They fear a loss of control of dividends and finances and that a raid on the funds would increase the state role in the economy. A seizure of stocks from pension funds could also drain the Warsaw bourse of liquidity as the funds, largely owned by foreign players such as Nationale Nederlanden, Aviva, AXA and MetLife, invest taxpayers' savings heavily on the exchange. The concerns have prompted at least seven medium-sized companies to draw up plans to buy back their own shares or to seek ways to reduce dependence on OFEs, fund managers, company executives and investment bankers told Reuters. They said it was not clear exactly how the government might seize shares from pension funds but that 100 billion zlotys ($25.29 billion) worth of stocks could be at stake. Story continues One of the companies making preparations for a share buyback is Robyg, a residential developer whose shareholders have given the green light for a share buyback. "This is not a measure meant to distribute profits to our shareholders," Artur Ceglarz, chief financial officer of Robyg, told Reuters before Kazynski's comments. "It's meant to be defensive in the case of potential changes to the capital market and pension funds." The company, the second biggest by market capitalisation in its market in Poland, builds middle-tier housing, mostly in Warsaw. The OFE pension funds, which were created in 1999 as part of an overhaul of the retirement system and are intended to provide a savings plan to complement pensions paid out by the state, jointly hold 60 percent of Robyg's shares. Also planning a share buyback is Kruk, Poland's largest debt collector, 41 percent of whose shares are held by OFEs. Kruk fears any government move on the OFEs would start a process that could end in the funds in effect being shut down. "We treat a potential pension funds liquidation as an unlikely but very negative scenario for us. The share buyback programme is a tool for possible bad times," said Michal Zasepa, chief financial officer at Kruk. Other companies are making preparations quietly for reducing the amounts of shares OFEs hold in their ownership structures but are not discussing their plans in public, the fund managers and company executives say. BUDGET DEFICIT The government, which came to power in an election last October, faces a struggle to keep down the budget deficit, especially since launching a child subsidy programme in April which was part of its election platform. The government aims this year and next to keep the deficit just below 3.0 percent of gross domestic product, the maximum level under the European Union's fiscal deficit rules, but some investors doubt it will manage to do so. "The government promised to fill the gap with increased tax collection but we do not see a big improvement," said Piotr Poplawski, a senior economist at ING BSK who forecasts the deficit will reach 3.5 percent of GDP next year. Asked whether the government might try to plug gaps by seizing stocks from the OFEs, the ministry responsible for the pension system said last month that it was not working on merging funds or on nationalising them. Drawing funds from pension funds would not be unprecedented in the country of more than 38 million which shook off communist rule in 1989 and is now the EU's sixth-largest economy. The centrist coalition which lost power to PiS last year transferred 150 billion zlotys worth of treasury debt into the state pension system to prop up the budget in 2014. CONCERNS FOR WARSAW BOURSE The OFE funds hold up to 80 percent of shares in some companies and make up about 20 percent of the Warsaw bourse's value. Their future operations had already been called into question when the previous government took control of their bond holdings to offset public debt. Now almost 17 million savers have until the end of July to decide whether they want to stay in the OFE system or transfer assets to the state agency ZUS, a step set out under the 2014 reform. One way for the government to take control of shares held by OFEs might be to pool all remaining OFE holdings in one entity which could then be controlled by the state. Nominally, the money invested by OFEs belongs to the state. "Listed companies fear potential changes in the retirement system, which could result in OFE nationalisation," a manager at one pension fund said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "More and more companies are discussing and offering buybacks. Moreover, the biggest shareholders of some of them are thinking about other options, like public tender offers." Many foreign investors are concerned by the government's economic performance so far and by its declared aim of having a bigger say in the economy. Wariness is also growing over the possible impact on the Warsaw bourse of any move on pension funds. Investors' activity has already stalled since the previous government's seizure of bonds held by OFEs and the value of Warsaw's main WIG20 index has declined by one-fifth since then. Market turnover fell to 45 billion zlotys in the first quarter of 2016, the lowest in four years. "Under a dark scenario, if further changes to the retirement system were implemented, there would be a (further) decline in turnover and share prices," Sebastian Buczek, chief executive of Warsaw-based mutual fund Quercus TFI, said before Kazynski's latest remarks. ($1 = 3.9547 zlotys) (Additional reporting by Adrian Krajewski, Agnieszka Barteczko and Marcin Goclowski, Editing by Justyna Pawlak and Timothy Heritage) Credit: Pool/Samir Hussein/WireImage Prince Harry and Coldplay came together on Tuesday night to rock out for a good cause. The band headlined the first-ever concert in Harry's backyard (aka the East Lawn of London's Kensington Palace) to raise awareness and money for his charity Sentebale. The prince founded Sentebale--which supports young people affected by HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and means "forget me not" in Sesotho--in 2006 with Lesotho's Prince Seeiso after a gap year visit to the African country. Before introducing Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, Prince Harry delivered a moving message to the crowd of 3,000 people. "What we know is that HIV is a virus that thrives off silence and feeds on stigma," he said. "Every single one of us has a responsibility to educate ourselves. To do what we can to speak out and stamp out the silence and fear. We must follow the example of Lesotho and meet one of the great challenges of our generation with optimism, energy and openness." "That's what tonight is about. When people come together for a purpose we can achieve extraordinary things," he continued. Credit: Pool/Samir Hussein/WireImage RELATED: Gwyneth Paltrow's Kids Sing Onstage with Coldplay at Glastonbury Festival--Watch Her Video The fitting finale saw Prince Harry, Prince Seeiso, and a 12-strong choir from Lesotho, accompany Coldplay for their uplifting hit "Up & Up." Read Harry's full Sentebale Concert speech here. Prince William and Kate Middleton just celebrated this huge historical moment Prince William and Kate Middleton just celebrated this huge historical moment This week at the Thiepal Memorial in Northern France, Prince William and Duchess Catherine (aka Kate Middleton) attended a ceremony to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, which took place in 1916 during the First World War. The brutal battle lasted for over four months, and resulted in a death and injury toll of more than one million soldiers, many of them British, French, and German. The Battle of the Somme is remembered as one of the bloodiest moments of any war; on the first day alone, the British had more than 50,000 casualties. Remembering all those who fought and died at the Somme in 1916.The Queen placed a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Posted by The Royal Family on Friday, July 1, 2016 Along with William and Kate, the ceremony was also attended by Prince Harry, as well as the Prime Ministers of France and the UK. The ceremony took place near a large memorial inscribed with all the names of soldiers and servicemen who went missing during the battle, and included numerous performances from military bands and bagpipe players, as well as poetry and speeches. In front of ten thousand guests, Prince William made a speech acknowledging that this battle was among the saddest days in British military history. He also mentioned the failure of European governments to prevent the catastrophe of world war. Prince William in #Somme100 commemoration: "The sacrifice you made will never, ever be forgotten." pic.twitter.com/IOO7rMTcJA British Royals (@britishroyals) June 30, 2016 You can see some of the footage here, including some of Prince William and Kates tour of the Thiepal Memorial, which is utilized every year for a service commemorating this battle. Story continues July 1, 2016 Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry at the Commemoration of the Centenary of the Battle of the Somme at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Thiepval Memorial in Thiepval, France Prince William Arthur Philip Louis Windsor Duke of CambridgeCatherine, Duchess of Cambridge Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales Posted by Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge on Saturday, July 2, 2016 While this day in history remains a sad one for Britain, France, and many European nations, it is also a reminder of how far theyve come, and the strength they continue to possess. As for Prince William and Duchess Kate, well continue to follow the noble pursuits of their busy royal lives, as well as their fairytale romance. The post Prince William and Kate Middleton just celebrated this huge historical moment appeared first on HelloGiggles. Under the microscope In May, a three-member team that included a police official, a doctor and an educator visited Bihar, India with a mission in mind. They carried with them a heap of certificates of doctors registered with the Nepal Medical Council (NMC), the government body tasked with regulating medical education and doctors in the country. EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Britain's Queen Elizabeth told Scottish lawmakers on Saturday that staying calm in a fast-changing world can be difficult. Speaking as she formally opened the fifth session of Scotland's devolved parliament, she made no mention of last week's vote by Britain to leave the EU, a result which prompted dismay in Scotland and sparked calls for another independence referendum. "We all live and work in an increasingly complex and demanding world where events can and do take place at remarkable speed, and retaining the ability to stay calm and collected can be hard," said the 90-year-old monarch, whose role demands strict public impartiality in political matters. She added: "As this parliament has successfully demonstrated over the years, one hallmark of leadership in such a fast-moving world is allowing sufficient room for quiet contemplation and reflection which can enable deeper, cooler, consideration about how challenges and opportunities can be best addressed." The vote to leave the EU has led to a leadership battle in the ruling Conservative party since the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron. It has also plunged the main opposition Labour Party into crisis after most of the shadow cabinet resigned in protest at what they saw was their leader Jeremy Corbyn's lackluster performance during the referendum campaign. In Scotland, where the electorate voted 2 to 1 to remain in the EU, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has vowed to do everything she can to keep Scotland's EU links, and is not ruling out calling a second independence referendum. Scots rejected independence 55 to 45 percent in a 2014 referendum. (Reporting By Elisabeth O'Leary; editing by Stephen Addison) It is with a profound sense of humility that I accept the honor you have chosen to bestow upon me. I know: your choice transcends me. This both frightens and pleases me. It frightens me because I wonder: do I have the right to represent the multitudes who have perished? Do I have the right to accept this great honor on their behalf? I do not. That would be presumptuous. No one may speak for the dead, no one may interpret their mutilated dreams and visions. It pleases me because I may say that this honor belongs to all the survivors and their children, and through us, to the Jewish people with whose destiny I have always identified. I remember: it happened yesterday or eternities ago. A young Jewish boy discovered the kingdom of night. I remember his bewilderment, I remember his anguish. It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed. I remember: he asked his father: Can this be true? This is the twentieth century, not the Middle Ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent? And now the boy is turning to me: Tell me, he asks. What have you done with my future? What have you done with your life? And I tell him that I have tried. That I have tried to keep memory alive, that I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices. And then I explained to him how naive we were, that the world did know and remain silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must at that moment become the center of the universe. Of course, since I am a Jew profoundly rooted in my peoples memory and tradition, my first response is to Jewish fears, Jewish needs, Jewish crises. For I belong to a traumatized generation, one that experienced the abandonment and solitude of our people. It would be unnatural for me not to make Jewish priorities my own: Israel, Soviet Jewry, Jews in Arab lands But there are others as important to me. Apartheid is, in my view, as abhorrent as anti-Semitism. To me, Andrei Sakharovs isolation is as much of a disgrace as Josef Bieguns imprisonment. As is the denial of Solidarity and its leader Lech Walesas right to dissent. And Nelson Mandelas interminable imprisonment. There is so much injustice and suffering crying out for our attention: victims of hunger, of racism, and political persecution, writers and poets, prisoners in so many lands governed by the Left and by the Right. Human rights are being violated on every continent. More people are oppressed than free. And then, too, there are the Palestinians to whose plight I am sensitive but whose methods I deplore. Violence and terrorism are not the answer. Something must be done about their suffering, and soon. I trust Israel, for I have faith in the Jewish people. Let Israel be given a chance, let hatred and danger be removed from her horizons, and there will be peace in and around the Holy Land. Yes, I have faith. Faith in God and even in His creation. Without it no action would be possible. And action is the only remedy to indifference: the most insidious danger of all. Isnt this the meaning of Alfred Nobels legacy? Wasnt his fear of war a shield against war? There is much to be done, there is much that can be done. One person a Raoul Wallenberg, an Albert Schweitzer, one person of integrity, can make a difference, a difference of life and death. As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our lives will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs. This is what I say to the young Jewish boy wondering what I have done with his years. It is in his name that I speak to you and that I express to you my deepest gratitude. No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has emerged from the kingdom of night. We know that every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering; not to share them would mean to betray them. Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately. Thank you, Chairman Aarvik. Thank you, members of the Nobel Committee. Thank you, people of Norway, for declaring on this singular occasion that our survival has meaning for mankind. Theres no doubt the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in July 1776. But which date has the legitimate claim on Independence Day: July 2 or July 4? indhall1 If John Adams were alive today, he would tell you July 2nd. Other Founders would say July 4th, the day that is currently recognized as a federal holiday by our national government. And still other Founders would say, what Independence Day? since the holiday wasnt widely celebrated until many of the Founders had passed away. Here is the evidence, so you can decide which Independence Day is really Independence Day! Officially, the Continental Congress declared its freedom from Britain on July 2, 1776, when it approved a resolution and delegates from New York were given permission to make it a unanimous vote. John Adams thought July 2 would be marked as a national holiday for generations to come. The most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade with shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this continent to the other from this Time forward forever more, Adams said about what he envisioned as a July 2nd national holiday. After voting on independence on July 2, the Continental Congress needed to draft a document explaining the move to the public. It had been proposed in draft form by the Committee of Five (John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson) and it took two days for the Congress to agree on the edits. Once the Congress approved the actual Declaration on Independence document on July 4, it ordered that it be sent to a printer named John Dunlap. About 200 copies of the Dunlap Broadside were printed, with John Hancocks name printed at the bottom. Today, 26 copies remain. That is why the Declaration has the words, IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776, at its top, because that is the day the approved last version was signed in Philadelphia. Story continues On July 8, 1776, Colonel John Nixon of Philadelphia read a printed Declaration of Independence to the public for the first time on what is now called Independence Square. (Most of the members of the Continental Congress signed a version of the Declaration on August 2, 1776 in Philadelphia. The names of the signers were released publicly in early 1777. So that famous painting showing the signing of the Declaration on July 4, 1776 is a bit of an exaggeration.) The late historian Pauline Maier said in her 1997 book about the Declaration that no member of Congress recalled in early July 1777 that it was almost a year since they declared their freedom from the British. They finally remembered the event on July 3, 1777, and July 4th became the day that seemed to make sense for celebrating independence. Maier also said that the Declaration (and celebrating its signing) was stuck in an early feud between the Federalists (of John Adams) and the Republicans (of Thomas Jefferson). The Declaration and its anniversary day werent widely celebrated until the Federalists faded away from the political scene after 1812. In 1870, Independence Day was made an unpaid holiday for federal employees. In 1941, Congress made it a paid holiday for them. In the last letter he ever wrote, Thomas Jefferson spoke in 1826 of the importance of the day. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them, he said. Two days later, Jefferson and Adams both passed away on the Fourth of July. Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center. Recent Historical Stories on Constitution Daily William Howard Tafts truly historic double-double Just which state ratified the 26th Amendment? The history of legal challenges to the Pledge of Allegiance Americans will hit the road this Fourth of July weekend, spending time with family at the beach or chowing down on watermelon at backyard picnics. And theres one friendly American favorite that will be a fixture at our parties this weekend: the red Solo cup. The now-ubiquitous Solo cup has become synonymous with America, parties, hangouts at the beach, picnics, and beer, among other party-related shenanigans, according to a straw poll Yahoo Finance conducted in Times Square (see video above). The Solo Cup Company introduced the red plastic cup to the world in the 1970s. It got a makeover in 2004 when the cup added two grips. Then, in 2009, the company redesigned the cup to Solo Squared the cup that we know and love today which has a square base and four ergonomic grips ensuring a more comfortable and reliable hold. The country love song Toby Keith video Country artist Toby Keith released his single Red Solo Cup in October 2011, paying homage to the plastic receptacle. Here are the lyrics of a verse: Red solo cup, I fill you up, lets have a party, lets have a party. I love you red solo cup, I lift you up, proceed to party, proceed to party, Red solo cup, youre more than just plastic, more than amazing, youre more than fantastic. And believe me that Im not the least bit sarcastic, when I look at you and say: Red solo cup, youre not just a cup youre my friend, yea, thank you for being my friend. Keith couldnt have orchestrated better promotional timing for the Solo Cup Company, which was acquired by its top competitor, Dart Container Corporation, for $1 billion in May 2012. The song essentially became free and unexpected marketing for the cup. On the run-up to the acquisition, Toby Keith had come out with the song which was his own creative endeavor. That definitely gave us a marketing push we couldnt have planned, Jim Lammers, president of the Dart Corporation, told Yahoo Finance. Lammers said the company did not have any conversations with Keith or his team before the song came out. And though Lammers would not disclose whether the song made an impact on the cups sales, he says consumers have always associated the brand with happiness. Story continues Its a high-quality product that people can trust and its commonly used at parties, picnics and other celebrations where folks are in a social environment where theyre having fun with friends and family, he says. The more you have those experiences, the more you associate the cup with happy times. Moreover, Lammers said, the cups red color makes people think of passion and energy. The solo cup is an American phenomenon Solos parent company, Mason, Mich.-based Dart Container, manufactures all of its products in the US. Dart exports it only to select international locations including Canada, the UK, Australia, South America and Central America. Lammers says the Solo Cup is indeed an American phenomenon. Currently, the company sells the most red Solo cups in the month of December, though the summer barbeque season (between May and August) is the cups top-selling season. He says the company hasnt made any additional changes since acquiring Solo Cup Company. Theres no need to fix something thats not broken. The product has worked very well for us, but I wouldnt say that there will never be changes in the future, Lammers says. Similar to referring to any old tissue as Kleenex (a Kimberly-Clarks (KMB) brand), the Solo cup has become the colloquial way to refer to any red cup. But Lammers says copycats dont concern him. Theyre not really infringing on our design so its just a reality that there are some other people making somewhat similar products, he said, and they certainly have the right to do that. Here are a few of the brands that have imitated the red Solo cup: Walgreens (WBA) Nice! brand Heavy Duty Party Cups Reynolds Hefty brand Easy Grip Cups hefty Amscans Big Party Pack of Plastic Cups Screen Shot 2016-07-01 at 2.19.38 PM Read more: Mark Zuckerberg wont be able to choose the next Mark Zuckerberg How an entrepreneur is using We Work as his key into China Why this 36-year-old financier voted for Brexit Why the Brexit could mess up your travel plans Upgraded customs mgmt system at Sirsiya Dry Port The Sirsiya dry port in Birgunj is all set to go online with the Automated System for Customs Data (Asycuda World) from July 16, a new web-based customs management system that supports paperless cargo submission and processing through the use of electronic documents. Reese Witherspoon is having the most perfect summer vacation Reese Witherspoon is having the most perfect summer vacation Celebrity Instagrams are giving us life this week. First, we had Mindy Kaling take the perfect summer photo; then, Britney Spears posted some fantastically silly selfies. Now, were reveling in Reese Witherspoons picture-perfect summer vacation photos. Looking at her Instagram, its obvious that Witherspoon is enjoying a gorgeous family vacation in the Bahamas. The 40-year-old Oscar winner has been sharing tantalizing photos of the trip on Instagram, making us positively overwhelmed with envy. It all started with a beautiful sunset shot. #GoldenHour with my guys A photo posted by Reese Witherspoon (@reesewitherspoon) on Jun 26, 2016 at 4:47pm PDT Then, Witherspoon shared pictures of herself looking effortlessly chic in her printed vacation wear. Paradise found!! #PostcardsFromAfar #Bahamamama A photo posted by Reese Witherspoon (@reesewitherspoon) on Jun 27, 2016 at 10:29am PDT Island Vibes (#VacationDress courtesy of my ladies at @draperjames ) A photo posted by Reese Witherspoon (@reesewitherspoon) on Jun 27, 2016 at 4:12pm PDT Then another sunset shot that was so pretty that we didnt even mind that its Insta deja vu. A beautiful end to a day well spent #PostcardFromAfar #Sunset A photo posted by Reese Witherspoon (@reesewitherspoon) on Jun 28, 2016 at 5:38pm PDT Of course, these pictures are all gorgeous but theyre pretty typical. Thats when Witherspoon threw us a curveball by posing with a beach ball twice her size. Her caption tells us that she was shopping online really late and whatever was the impetus for the purchase, were nearly as delighted by it as she is. If ya cant tell, Im very happy about my late night online purchase!! #GiantBeachBall #VacationFun A photo posted by Reese Witherspoon (@reesewitherspoon) on Jun 30, 2016 at 9:11am PDT Witherspoon kept up the whimsical vibe with a fun flamingo pool floatie; the image seems to have been designed for a pool party shoot for Witherspoons fashion and accessories company, Draper James. Story continues Love this @draperjames & @katiejacobsnashville #July4th pool party #FloatiesGalore (: @amynicolephoto) A photo posted by Reese Witherspoon (@reesewitherspoon) on Jul 1, 2016 at 10:20am PDT Finally, she shared a lovely, verdant picture of a jungle walk featuring her youngest son, Tennessee James. Jungle walks with the little guy #PostcardsFromAfar #FamilyVacation A photo posted by Reese Witherspoon (@reesewitherspoon) on Jul 1, 2016 at 2:49pm PDT Whether Reese Witherspoon is snapping pictures of sunsets or posing with overlarge beach accessories, she seems to be having the family vacation of a lifetime. We just hope she graces us with a few more lovely island photos before its over! The post Reese Witherspoon is having the most perfect summer vacation appeared first on HelloGiggles. Almost four centuries after Dutch master Rembrandt painted a young married couple, their two portraits are back home in The Netherlands thanks to a unique joint 160-million euro purchase with France. Dating from 1634, the portraits show wealthy Dutchman Marten Soolmans, 21, and his new wife Oopjen Coppit, 23, both wearing black with white lace as they mark a year of marriage. "It's the first time that they are in public hands, and can be seen" by millions of people, the director of collections at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Taco Dibbits, told AFP. In a historic deal in January, France and the Netherlands agreed to jointly buy the two large Rembrandt tableaux for 160 million euros ($174 million) from the French branch of the Rothschild family -- one of world's the wealthiest and most influential art collectors. After several months on show in the Louvre in Paris, they were unveiled at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam on Friday ahead of an exhibition opening Saturday. The paintings have been in private hands for almost four centuries, and have belonged to the Rothschilds since 1877. Prior to going on show in the Louvre, they had only once been seen in public in 1956. Some nine million people have already flocked to the Louvre to see the couple -- dubbed by the Amsterdam museum as "the Kim Kardashian and the Kanye West of the Golden Age". The Rijksmuseum -- which is hanging the portraits next to Rembrandt's seminal work "The Night Watch" -- hopes millions more will come and marvel at the pictures until the exhibition closes on October 2. To celebrate the couple's return, entry to Saturday's opening day will be free. Towering more than two metres (six feet) height, they almost resemble "black and white photographs," said Dibbits, with Rembrandt creating a third dimension thanks to his use of light and shade. Marten is seen holding a leather glove in his left hand, while Oopjen's belly is already rounded, showing she is expecting their first child. Story continues Culture Minister Jet Bussemaker told AFP the negotiations with France had been "complicated and complex". But she said she was "very happy with the outcome. I think it's also important to show that, at a time where there is so much instability in the EU, two countries can come together and jointly own paintings". After the Amsterdam exhibition, the paintings will be renovated and then go back on show in the Dutch capital for five more years, before returning to the Louvre for the next five. Robin Hardy, English author and film director best known for helming the classic 1973 suspense horror film The Wicker Man died on July 1, friends confirmed. He was 86. The BBC first reported the news. A native of Surrey, Hardys career as a director was kicked off in Canada and the United States in the 1960s with episodes of the cultural omnibus television show Esso World Theater. From there, he staked out a career making commercials and educational films. Hardy made his feature directorial debut with The Wicker Man, coming aboard the project thanks to his friendship with screenwriter Anthony Shaffer the two had previously run the production company Hardy, Shaffer & Associates together. Channeling then-current anxieties about changing social mores, and taking advantage of increased freedom afforded to filmmakers with regard to content, the film follows the story of a devout Christian police officer (Edward Woodward) sent to investigate the disappearance of a young girl on a remote British island. There he discovers the inhabitants are a secret community of pagans who worship Celtic gods, engage in disturbing sexual rites and folk medication, and who practice human sacrifice whenever there is a poor harvest. The Wicker Man Troubled by production difficulties and uncertainties co-star Christopher Lee even appeared in the film for free in order to keep the budget under control The Wicker Man was released with little promotion only after severe cuts were made to the film, reducing its run time to 87 minutes. Lee himself was unhappy with the effect these cuts had on the narrative but still offered to pay for critics to see the film. Despite these problems, The Wicker Man was a moderate success in theaters and received significant praise from critics. By the mid 1970s it began to be regarded as one of the most important horror films ever made and by 1979, Hardy was able to secure release of a 99-minute restored version of the film into theaters, with an even longer version ending up on home video during the 1980s. Praised as one of the greatest British genre films of all time, The Wicker Man developed a very significant cult following and would eventually wield profound influence on subsequent generations of filmmakers. Among them was Cornetto Trilogy director Edgar Wright, who paid tribute to Hardy today on Twitter, saying that without The Wicker Man, his Hot Fuzz wouldnt exist. R.I.P Robin Hardy, director of hugely influential horror 'The Wicker Man'. There would be no 'Hot Fuzz' without it. pic.twitter.com/zALW0NrEfu edgarwright (@edgarwright) July 2, 2016 Director Ben Wheatley also drew inspiration from The Wicker Man for his controversial 2011 exploitation film Kill List, and most recently, Radioheads video for the bands Burn the Witch single was based directly on it. Metal legends Iron Maiden also wrote a song about the film for their 2000 release Brave New World. Later in life, Christopher Lee would cite the film as his personal favorite among the dozens in which he appeared. Hardy directed only two other films The Fantasist (1986) and a spiritual sequel to The Wicker Man, 2011s The Wicker Tree. He also wrote several novels, among them a novelization of The Wicker Man, a sequel of sorts to the film called Cowboys for Christ released in 2006, and his 1981 novel The Education of Don Juan. In the 1990s he founded the production company Hardy & Sons with his son, TV director Justin Hardy. Related stories ITV Dives Into 'Loch Ness'; Serial Killer Drama To Star Laura Fraser Trevor Noah: Donald Trump Anti-Semitic "Dog Whistle" Tweet Heard By Everyone 'Hamilton' Books Brandon Victor Dixon & Lexi Lawson Robin Hardy, the director of the cult British film The Wicker Man, has died, BBC reports. He was 86. Hardy died Friday, a family friend told the BBC. The University of Malta also announced the news in a Facebook post. Starring Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward and Diane Cilento, mystery film The Wicker Man told the story of a police sergeant who is sent to a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl that the townspeople claim never existed. The English helmer went on to make a follow-up film, The Wicker Tree, in 2011, that was based on his novel (he also wrote the screenplay). In 1986, Wicker wrote and directed another feature-length film, the thriller The Fantasist. In perhaps his final public appearance, Hardy came to the University of Malta in late May for a screening of The Wicker Man and spoke to students. "Both the Master Class and the presentation were simply captivating, and the audience was totally mesmerized by Mr. Hardy," said a statement on the school's Facebook page. "We will always treasure our memory of these unique moments." He is survived by his wife Victoria. See More: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2016 Robin Hardy, film director best known for The Wicker Man, has died. He was 86. He died on Friday, his wife, Victoria, confirmed in a Facebook post. The Wicker Man was Hardys feature film directorial debut, and one of only three that he would direct during his lifetime. The 1973 horror mystery tells the story of a police sergeant named Howie (Edward Woodward) who goes to the fictional island Summerisle to search for a missing girl. Christopher Lee and Diane Cilento also star. Hardy would go on to write and direct the follow-up, The Wicker Tree which was released in 2011. Before that, we also directed the 1986 thriller The Fantasist and wrote the screenplay for the 1989 mystery Forbidden Sun. In Varietys review of the 1973 film, the critic wrote, for sheer imagination and near-terror, [The Wicker Man] has seldom been equalled. In 2015, Hardy said he planned to make a third Wicker Man film as a tribute to its star, Lee. The University of Malta where the director had visited as recently as May, 2016 wrote in a Facebook post, We will always treasure our memory of these unique moments, and we thank you, Mr Hardy, for the wonderful gift you gave us. The tribute added, Robin Hardys Wicker Man will keep burning bright in the forests of our night. Its fire will endure. Related stories Congloms Firing Up New Cable Channels as Climate Improves Ben Affleck Is the New Batman Hollywood Reacts to Gandolfini News The first phase of a multi-million-euro makeover of Rome's Colosseum was completed Friday with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi pledging cash would be made available to spruce up other crumbling historic sites. In a project largely funded by fashion and shoewear group Tod's, the amphitheatre where gladiators once jousted with lions has been water-sprayed to remove centuries of encrusted dirt and grime. Works to strengthen the arched structures of the northern and southern facades and replace metal gates and barriers in the ground level arches have also been completed. Tod's, whose billionaire owner Diego Della Valle reportedly put up 25 million euros for the works, said it was proud to have been part of the restoration of "a true historical symbol of Italy." The Colosseum is the latest in a string of famous Italian monuments to have been renovated with funds from private donors, often from the luxury sector. Roman fashion house Fendi paid for a 16-month clean-up of the Trevi fountain which has been acclaimed by visitors. And upmarket jeweller Bulgari is behind the ongoing renovation of the Spanish steps, also located in the capital's historic centre. But across the country there are many historic sites which have fallen into disrepair due to a lack of funds, most notably the ancient archaelogical site of Pompeii. Renzi vowed that would not continue. "We have to stop the arguments over Italy's cultural heritage because it is not only the thing we can be most proud of and a major part of our identity, but it also has enormous potential," he said. "The time of complaining there is no money for culture is over. Public and private, the resources are there." Renzi's government has promised 18 million euros ($20 million) for a second phase of renovation of the Colosseum which will involve rebuilding the arena floor and make it capable of hosting concerts and other cultural events, including re-enactments of some of the kind of shows the ancient Romans enjoyed. Story continues The floor was removed by excavators in the late 19th century while the bits of the exterior structure that are missing were mostly removed for other construction projects in the city, including the underground. There are also plans for a new visitor centre and the renovation of the underground vaults where wild animals and prisoners destined for public execution were kept ahead of their appearances before the Roman crowds. Completed in 80 AD, the Colosseum was the biggest amphitheatre built during the Roman empire. It stands 48.5 metres (159 feet) high and was capable of hosting 80,000 spectators. It now welcomes over six million visitors a year. By Idrees Ali WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Russian warship carried out "unprofessional" maritime operations in close proximity to a U.S. Navy ship in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, a U.S. Defense official said on Friday. This is the second time the same Russian vessel has come within close proximity of a U.S. Navy ship this month. On June 17, the Yaroslav Mudryy came within 315 yards (288 meters) of the USS Gravely, an incident U.S. officials called "unsafe and unprofessional," but which the Russian Defense Ministry disputed. Recent months have seen a number of similar Cold War-style incidents at sea and in the air, with each country's military accusing the other of dangerous approaches in international waters and airspace. The U.S. Defense official, who was speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the most recent incident took place on June 30 when the Yaroslav Mudryy came unnecessarily close to the USS San Jacinto and maneuvered in it's wake. "The closing distance by Yaroslav Mudryy before the ship turned away from San Jacinto is considered a high risk maneuver, highly unprofessional, and contrary to international maritime regulations," the official said. The official added however, that the U.S. guided-missile cruiser was never threatened by the maneuvers. "Conducting aggressive, erratic maneuvers and moving unnecessarily close to another ship in open ocean is inconsistent with prudent seamanship," the official said. At the time of the incident, the San Jacinto was carrying out operations against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria with the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, the official said. In another incident in April, the U.S. military said Russian SU-24 bombers had simulated attack passes near the USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea, with one official describing them as one of the most aggressive interactions in recent memory. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said at the time that the behavior of the Russian pilots was provocative and dangerous, adding that "under the rules of engagement that could have been a shoot-down". (Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Andrew Hay) US air and drone strikes 'killed up to 116 civilians' US drone and air strikes have killed between 64 and 116 civilians outside war zones since 2009, the White House says. Nice (France) (AFP) - A Saudi-funded mosque in Nice opened its doors for the first time Saturday, after a 15-year tussle with the local town hall. The Nicois En-nour Institute mosque received authorisation to open early Saturday from the local prefect, substituting for town mayor Philippe Pradal, who recently took over from Christian Estrosi. Estrosi was implacably opposed to the construction of the mosque and in April had secured the green light to sue the French state in a bid to block its opening in the southern city. He had accused the building's owner, Saudi Arabia's Islamic Affairs Minister Sheikh Saleh bin Abdulaziz, of "advocating sharia" and wanting to "destroy all of the churches on the Arabian peninsula". Estrosi, mayor since 2008, said that the project which was initiated under his predecessor in 2002 was unauthorised. However the mosque's opening was described as "a real joy," by Ouassini Mebarek, lawyer and head of a local religious association. "But there is no smug triumphalism," he told AFP. "This is recognition of the law, and a right to freely practise one's religion in France in accordance with the values of French Republic". Ten Muslim faithful entered the mosque's basement, which can hold 880 worshippers, for evening prayers. "A Muslim prefers the house of god to his own home, provided it is beautiful," said Abdelaziz, one of the worshippers who came to pray with his son Mohamed. In the room reserved for women Amaria, a mother from neighbouring Moulins said: "Today we are happy. Happy and relieved to have found this place.... We are tired of hiding ourselves, we aren't mice!" The construction of the Mosque began in 2003 in a building in an office district. A severe drought in Paraguays western Chaco Boreal region threatens the lives of wildlife, including caimans, who depend on water from the Pilcomayo river. The first video, shot on June 11, shows caimans stranded in mud or swimming in fetid water at the base of the Pilcomayo. Two weeks later, the same user shot the other two videos showing the same area even drier, with most of the animals already dead. The videos were extensively shared on social media in Paraguay and brought attention to the natural disaster. AP reported that a massive flood that diverted the course of the Pilcomayo river into Argentina earlier this year was the cause of the drought. The government of Paraguay announced that it will investigate a detour in the river that could have caused the ambiental crisis. The Pilcomayo flows from the Andean foothills in Bolivia into Paraguay and flows along the Argentinian border. Paraguays environment ministry said in a Facebook post on Wednesday it had begun digging artesian wells and delivering water via tanker to help wildlife affected by the drought. Credit: Oscar Gonzalez Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Sierra Leone's deputy high commissioner has been snatched in Nigeria, government sources said Friday, the first kidnapping of a diplomat from the west African country in more than half a century. Alfred Nelson-Williams was taken as he was travelling by road from the Nigerian capital of Abuja north to attend a ceremony in Kaduna, a city some 200 kilometres (125 miles) away. Local security officials said they were still investigating how the kidnapping took place. "We want to establish whether he had security escorts with him and what happened to them," Kaduna state security official Yusuf Yakubu Soja told AFP. "He was kidnapped on his way to Kaduna from Abuja to attend the passing out ceremony of military officers at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Jaji outside Kaduna." Sierra Leone's information minister Mohamed Bangura said the government was working with Nigerian authorities to secure Nelson-Williams' release. Neither he nor police could confirm whether the kidnappers had demanded a ransom. Kidnappings are common in Nigeria, where the rich and powerful drive bulletproof cars and even hire military and police chaperones as protection from highway bandits. Foreign ministry sources in Freetown told AFP that "this is the first time that a Sierra Leone diplomat has been kidnapped anywhere on posting since independence in 1961". The most sensational kidnapping in Nigeria's recent history saw 276 schoolgirls snatched from their classroom in the remote northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014 by Boko Haram jihadists. The government of former president Goodluck Jonathan was criticised for its slow response to acknowledge the kidnapping and for its inability to find and recover the girls. Late last month, popular musician Ado Dahiru Daukaka was also kidnapped in Nigeria's northeast Adamawa state and then freed days later, after releasing a scathing anti-graft song. Story continues But in the oil-producing delta region in the south, where wealthy Nigerians and expatriate workers are usually the target, abductions are often for financial gain. This week, two Indian workers were kidnapped on their way to work in central Benue state. The pair have yet to be released. Last week, three Australians, a New Zealander and a South African were kidnapped along with two Nigerians near the capital of Cross River state in the country's south. They were released four days later, but officials did not say whether the kidnappers received any ransom. People helping an injured person after a group of gunmen attacked an eatery popular with foreigners in Dhaka on Friday (1 July). (Photo: Associated Press) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has issued a statement saying that Singapore strongly condemns the terrorist attack that took place on a cafe in Bangladeshs capital city of Dhaka on Friday (1 July). There can be no justifications for such heinous actions. We express our deepest condolences to the bereaved families and wish the injured a speedy recovery, said the statement issued on Saturday (2 July). The attack on a popular eatery in the Gulshan district of Dhaka led to a 12-hour siege and saw 26 people killed, including 20 foreigners and six armed attackers. Many of the victims were allegedly hacked to death. Security forces managed to rescue 13 people after they stormed the building. The MFA said that it has verified the safety of all registered Singaporeans in Dhaka and that there have been no reports of Singaporeans being hurt or directly affected by the incident. The ministry also advised Singaporeans in Bangladesh to stay vigilant, heed the instructions of the Bangladeshi authorities and contact their friends or family members to let them know of their status. In April, eight Bangladeshis members of the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Bangladesh group were detained under the Republics Internal Security Act for plotting to overthrow their nations government and bring it under the control of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Six of them have since been charged with financing terrorism. Singaporeans in Dhaka requiring consular assistance can contact the following: Consulate of the Republic of Singapore Bangladesh (Dhaka) Tel: + 880 (183) 333 2430 Email: singcon_dha@mfa.sg MFA Duty Office Tel: +65 6379 8800 / 8855 (24-hour hotline) Email: mfa_duty_officer@mfa.gov.sg By Amy Tennery (Reuters) - A sleeping driver and a terrified granny are among the many people who appear in popular YouTube videos using the Tesla Autopilot technology - and not always using the system as intended. It is an unwelcome social media image for the car company as it attends to a federal investigation into a fatal accident involving its Model S car operating in Autopilot mode in Florida in May. It was the first known fatality involving a Model S operating on Autopilot. Tesla and other manufacturers working on systems that allow cars to pilot themselves under certain conditions are seeking to improve road safety by reducing some of the burden on drivers. Tesla issues strict safety protocols for using its Autopilot and stresses that the technology is still in development. Not all users are heeding the warnings. One video, filmed by someone in another car, shows the driver of a Tesla sleeping at the wheel, while his vehicle inches along in gridlock traffic. The footage was uploaded in May and has already been viewed more than 2.3 million times.(http://bit.ly/1NM46bi) Another video, "Granny on Tesla's Autopilot Mode," shows a woman at the wheel of a Tesla shrieking in shock and alarm over the Autopilot feature, as someone in the passenger seat films her. "Oh, there's cars coming!" she yells. "Put me back for me controlling it! Oh, dear Jesus." Several YouTube users have reposted the footage across the video-sharing platform. (http://bit.ly/29hGBan) In another video, posted by the account DragTimes in October, a driver who filmed himself using Tesla's Autopilot feature reads a speeding ticket as the car continues on, explaining that he had been pulled over because the Autopiloted car was going 75 miles per hour (120 kph) in a 60 mph (95 kph) zone. (http://bit.ly/1Pxjfez) A DragTimes spokesman told Reuters he believed the technology has been "steadily improving" since the video was filmed. "The recent death is certainly sad and awakening for Tesla owners to be careful with this technology and only use it as recommended," he added. Story continues The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Thursday it is investigating 25,000 Model S sedans that are equipped with the Autopilot system, after the death of 40-year-old Joshua Brown in Williston, Florida. Its probe will add to debate within the auto industry and in legal circles over the safety of systems that take partial control of steering and braking from drivers. In a statement on Thursday, Tesla noted its safety warnings. "When drivers activate Autopilot, the acknowledgment box explains, among other things, that Autopilot 'is an assist feature that requires you to keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times,' and that 'you need to maintain control and responsibility for your vehicle' while using it," Tesla said. YouTube is full of videos either showing or discussing Autopilot - a search of "Tesla Autopilot" on the site yields some 27,000 results. Many are not "screaming granny" videos, but the more whacky ones often get far more clicks than the straightforward videos. (Reporting By Amy Tennery; Editing by Frances Kerry) Al Horford is seeking a max deal. (Getty Images) The Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards have emerged as the frontrunners to sign free-agent big man Al Horford, and a final decision is expected Saturday night, league sources told The Vertical. Horford could sign a four-year, $113 million maximum contract to leave the Atlanta Hawks. Horford, 30, pared down the teams on Saturday morning, league sources said. Horford met with four teams Friday in Atlanta, including the Celtics and Wizards, sources said. Horford, a four-time All-Star, could only return to the Hawks if he decided to take the teams most recent offer and the franchise made a series of moves to clear the necessary salary-cap space an option that has become increasingly remote, league sources said. Horford had been negotiating a five-year contract with Atlanta, but talks stalled and the Hawks moved quickly to sign free agent Dwight Howard and re-sign guard Kent Bazemore. The Hawks risk losing Horford as well as forward Paul Millsap, who is a free agent in 2017 for nothing. Millsap has been involved in trade talks in recent days, league sources told The Vertical. More NBA coverage from The Vertical: MADRID (Reuters) - Spain has recorded its first known case of the Zika virus being sexually transmitted, after a woman contracted it from her partner after he returned from a Latin American country, health authorities in Madrid said on Friday. The mosquito-borne Zika virus has been linked to thousands of cases of the microcephaly birth defect in countries such as Brazil, which has declared a public health emergency over the disease. The birth defect is marked by babies born with brain abnormalities and undersized heads. The woman's partner had been diagnosed with Zika shortly after returning from an unspecified country in Latin America in either late April or early May, a spokesman for Madrid's health authorities said. The woman, who is from Madrid, probably contracted it just after he returned, the spokesman said. Spanish media reported that the woman is not pregnant. Before the announcement of the new case, Spain had 158 known cases of Zika infections at last count, all of which resulted from traveling overseas. (Reporting by Angus Berwick, editing by Larry King) STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Spotify confirmed on Friday that it has complained to Apple Inc after the U.S. technology company rejected an updated app for the Swedish music streaming service on iPhones. The companies have gone head to head in the battle for music streaming customers since Apple Music was launched in more than 100 countries last year, and Spotify said the rejection of its revised app for iPhones was causing it "grave harm." The complaint was in the form of a letter sent by Spotify's lawyer to Apple this week, technology website Recode reported. The letter said Apple's rejection of the revised app raised "serious concerns" under competition law in the United States and Europe and the move was causing "grave harm to Spotify and its customers," Recode first reported on Thursday. "It continues a troubling pattern of behavior by Apple to exclude and diminish the competitiveness of Spotify on iOS and as a rival to Apple Music," Recode quoted Spotify general counsel Horacio Gutierrez as saying in the letter. "We cannot stand by as Apple uses the App Store approval process as a weapon to harm competitors," Gutierrez said. A Spotify spokeswoman confirmed the accuracy of the report. Apple did not respond to requests for comment. Launched a decade ago, Spotify is the world's biggest paid music streaming service with about 30 million paying users in 59 markets while Apple Music has some 13 million. According to Recode, privately owned Spotify said Apple turned down the app under "business model rules," and demanded the Swedish service use Apple's billing system if it wanted to "use the app to acquire new customers and sell subscriptions." Music streaming is a crowded business. Alphabet Inc's Google Music and YouTube units also compete with Spotify and Apple Music to attract users prepared to pay for music, as does Pandora Media Inc and rapper Jay Z's Tidal. Amazon.com Inc is also preparing a standalone streaming service, sources have told Reuters. (Reporting by Mia Shanley; editing by Alistair Scrutton and David Clarke) Sri Lanka's president on Saturday bowed to pressure from activists and replaced the country's controversial central bank chief, appointing a respected economist to the top job. President Maithripala Sirisena announced that Indrajit Coomaraswamy, 66, had been appointed as the new governor of the central bank, effective immediately. Coomaraswamy was previously a director of economic affairs at the Commonwealth Secretariat, an intergovernmental agency of Commonwealth countries in London. "After consulting all parties concerned, I appointed top economist Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy to lead the Central Bank of Sri Lanka," the president posted on Twitter. The announcement ended any prospect of outgoing governor Arjuna Mahendran being reappointed after his tenure ended on Thursday. He had indicated he was prepared to complete another term. Sirisena had come under intense pressure not to reappoint Mahendran, who had faced allegations of insider trading. A group of Sri Lankan academics and professionals had gone to court to demand action against Mahendran, a Singapore national of Sri Lankan origin. Activists had threatened to take to the streets unless the president replaced him. He was accused last year of leaking inside information to his son-in-law's firm, allegedly allowing it to make millions of dollars in profits from a central bank bond auction. Mahendran has consistently maintained his innocence. Sri Lanka's economy is under stress and last month began receiving the first tranche of a $1.5 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Stella McCartney has long distinguished herself in the luxury fashion space for building a proudly ethical company. "We are the worlds first and only vegetarian luxury brand," reads her brand's website, detailing its commitment to never dealing with leathers, skins, feathers, or fur in its popular collections. McCartney's eponymous label is transparent about its sourcing and manufacturing practices and its strong support of ethical trade. The designer isn't simply providing lip service about these causes: McCartney has been outspoken about the fashion industry's wastefulness, even in the high-end market, and why it's a major problem. She's got some staggering statistics to prove it: In a new video for environmental non-profit organisation Canopy, McCartney issues a call to action for tangible change. "Up to 100 million trees can be cut down a year solely for the use of fabric," Stella McCartney says as she narrates in the clip, which premiered at the U.N.'s Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York last week. This statistic which is expected to rise, according to Canopy refers to the making of semi-synthetic materials, such as rayon, which is made from cellulose that's extracted from wood pulp. Canopy first introduced a style-focused campaign in 2013, partnering with brands and retailers to develop and integrate forest-friendly practices into their businesses. Canopy looks specifically at fabric fibres, particularly those used in the rayon and viscose materials that are so prevalent in fast fashion. McCartney began working with the non-profit in 2014, the Guardian reported, and has been committed to finding alternatives to these environmentally damaging materials for her namesake brand by 2017. So far, Canopy has rallied some pretty powerful players in the global fashion industry 65 brands total to consider their footprints, including Arcadia Group (the parent company of Topshop and Topman), ASOS, H&M, Inditex (which owns Zara), and more. Story continues Despite many retailer-led initiatives to recycle old garments into new collections, the consumption rate in the fashion biz is staggering, thus producing a lot of environmental waste. There's also the reported human cost of this cycle, which many of the companies that have signed Canopy's pledge have allegedly participated in. Still, there's certainly interest in conscious fashion: Nowadays, billing a brand as sustainable, where you can trace every step of production, is a selling point for companies and consumers alike. (The rise of, and buzz surrounding, brands like Zady, Reformation, and Everlane in the U.S. certainly speaks to that.) As such, Canopy Style's call to action isn't solely for the makers it's also for those buying fashion. Consumers can make an impact by spending mindfully. In order to rally more support, the non-profit has made resources available to shoppers about brands with forest-friendly practices. Having McCartney and other notable players in the fashion industry as allies gives these issues a spotlight they might not have otherwise, according to Nicole Rycroft, founder and executive director of Canopy. "Having the support of iconic champions like [McCartney] and 65 leading brands has catalysed viscose producers responsible for 75% of global rayon supply to commit to safeguard endangered forests," Rycroft said in a statement. Hopefully, more designers will make like McCartney on the sustainability front, sooner rather than later. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here? 12 Princess Shoes To Step Out In This Summer 29 Perfect Looks To Copy This July Your New Instagram Stalk: Genevieve Garner * Campbell breaks 100 metres freestyle record * First individual Australian record since banned supersuit era (Adds quotes) July 2 (Reuters) - Australian swimmer Cate Campbell broke the women's 100 metres freestyle world record at the Brisbane Grand Prix on Saturday, sending an ominous warning to her rivals at next month's Rio Olympics. The 24-year-old clocked 52.06 seconds to better German swimmer Britta Steffen's previous record of 52.07 seconds set seven years ago during the now-banned synthetic swim-suit era. The London relay gold medallist beat her previous personal best of 52.33 seconds to claim the first individual world record by an Australian since the supersuit period. "It happened when I least expected it. I still can't believe it happened," Campbell was quoted as saying in the Australian Associated Press. "People have been asking me when am I going to break a world record for the last three years. "Now they will stop asking me the question." After a few testing years with injury and illness, the world number one has her eyes firmly set on the gold at the Aug. 5-21 Rio Games. "Anyone who goes to the Olympics and says they are not after gold are kidding themselves," she added. (Reporting by Nivedita Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty) By Steve Keating OMAHA, Nebraska, July 1 (Reuters) - Michael Phelps edged old foe Ryan Lochte in a pulsating 200 metres individual medley showdown at the U.S. Olympic trials on Friday, adding another thrilling chapter to the greatest rivalry in swimming. The race marked the last time Phelps and Lochte will go head-to-head in an American pool but the two swimming giants, who between them have amassed 33 Olympic medals, could clash one final time on the grandest stage of all, at the Rio Olympics in August. Phelps, who had already qualified for a fifth U.S. Olympic team, held off his hard charging rival to narrowly get to the wall first in one minute, 55.91 seconds, the second fastest swim in the event this year. But on this night the time did not matter as much as the result, the two swimmers who have pushed each to greatness looking up at the clock at the end, before turning their glances to each other and shaking hands. "Ryan and I always have great races with one another," said Phelps. "Him and I have been racing since 2004 and think when we race each other we bring each other to a different level. We take each other to that next step. "It's probably the last time people in the U.S. will see that, the two of us race each other. We've had a great history in the 200 IM, 400 IM, 200 free, kind of every race." While there were eight lanes occupied by swimmers all looking to punch their Rio Games tickets, for the soldout crowd at CenturyLink Center this was a match race of the highest order, a duel in the pool between two 31-year-olds who lined up beside each other. In lane five was Phelps, the winner of a record 22 Olympic medals who has made the gold medal in the 200 IM his personal property taking top spot on the podium at the last three Summer Games. In lane four, Lochte, the winner of 11-Olympic medals and runner-up to Phelps in the 200 IM at the 2004 Athens and 2012 London Games and the world champion and record holder in the event. Phelps, who turned 31 on Thursday, as usual went out fast and stayed in front leading after every split but as they turned for home a battling Lochte chased down his rival on the freestyle leg. Matching each other stroke-for-stroke the crowd of 14,000 now on its feet roaring, Phelps dug a little deeper getting home just .31 seconds ahead of his rival. "I knew going in that this was going to be a dog fight until the end," said Lochte. "I love racing against him. "It was kind of a little heartbreaking at the end because after we finished, we gave each other a hug and said good job, but we both knew that was probably the last time me and him were going to race each other on U.S. soil." (Editing by Andrew Both) BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Syrian warplane crashed northeast of Damascus on Friday and insurgents captured and killed its pilot, rebel and Syrian military sources said. Syrian state media said the crash was due to a technical fault and the pilot had ejected. The rebel group Jaish al-Islam said it had shot down the plane, but did not say how. The military source accused Jaish al-Islam of killing the pilot after he parachuted into an area controlled by the group. "This despicable crime carried out by what is called the terrorist Jaish al-Islam will not go unpunished," the source said. Jaish al-Islam said the pilot was killed by a fighter from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front while being held at a joint command center. Jaish al-Islam had earlier said he would be handed over to them because they had shot down his plane. Jaish al-Islam, which controls territory on the Syrian capital's eastern and northeastern outskirts, had earlier circulated a photo that it said showed the pilot. "We call on the Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham to issue a statement explaining what happened and also call on them to hand over the pilot's body," a Jaish al-Islam statement said. Ahrar al-Sham is another large insurgent group. Rebels shot down at least two warplanes earlier this year. The Syrian government said one of them had been downed by an anti-aircraft missile, but rebels said they had used anti-aircraft guns. Foreign-backed rebels have long demanded anti-aircraft missiles to help them fight off air raids by Syrian and Russian forces. Russia has been a major ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and arms supplier in the civil war, now in its sixth year. (Reporting by John Davison and Tom Perry; Editing by Janet Lawrence) Credit: TheImageDirect.com/BEESCOOP.COM Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston's whirlwind romance just keeps heating up! Hollywood's hottest new couple once again looked smitten with each other, this time among the scenic ruins of Rome. Earlier this week the duo toured the Roman Colosseum hand-in-hand, showing off their compatibility in matching Wayfarer sunglasses. The 26-year-old pop star radiated in a bright yellow sundress and polished off the look with a Louis Vuitton top-handle bag and cobalt blue flats. Her new beau, 35-year-old Hiddleston, looked handsome in a simple white collared shirt and navy slacks. The couple shared a passionate kiss while sightseeing in the picturesque Italian city. Credit: TheImageDirect.com/BEESCOOP.COM The couple continued their tour of the Eternal City with a breakfast outing near Piazza Navona in color-coordinated looks (below). The photos come just days after the duo met up with Swift's parents in Nashville, Tennessee, and later Hiddleston's mom in Suffolk, England. Credit: Agostino Fabio/Splash News RELATED: Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston Step Out in Coordinating Looks Between meeting the parents and their adorable PDA moments, it looks like these lovebirds are getting serious. A high school student from Washington DC has been offered internships and thanked by the Pentagon after hacking into the US Defense Department websites between classes. The Pentagon had asked over 1,400 people to attempt to hack into their high-tech system in order to expose any weaknesses in their security system. (Reuters) - A Tennessee woman was charged on Saturday in the stabbing deaths of her four children under the age of five, the Shelby County sheriff said. Shanynthia Gardner, 29, was charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder and Sheriff Bill Oldham said at a news conference that additional charges could be filed. The children, aged 4, 3 and 2 years old, and 6 months old, were found shortly after noon on Friday in an apartment in southeast Shelby County, just outside Memphis. A fifth child, a 7-year-old boy who was also Gardner's son, escaped uninjured, Oldham said. Shelby County Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer Earle Farrell said by telephone that the 7-year-old was in the custody of relatives. Gardner will probably not be arraigned before a judge until Tuesday, Farrell said, due to the July 4th holiday on Monday. The children's aunt works for the sheriff's office, Oldham said, bringing the tragedy especially close to home. "It's a tragic scene and it has shocked us to our core," Oldham said at an earlier news conference on Friday. He said the deaths were an "egregious act of evil and a tremendous loss." (Reporting by Fiona Ortiz in Chicago; Editing by Greg Mahlich and James Dalgleish) The statistics are as astounding as they are ignored: Americans are about as likely to be killed by their own furniture as by terrorists. Noncommunicable conditions like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes are responsible for vastly more American deaths than terrorism. Depending on how you count, gun violence in America kills hundreds or thousands of times more people than extremist attacks on U.S. soil. We spent over a trillion dollars and passed countless laws and devote entire agencies to preventing terrorist attacks on our soil, President Obama observed after a mass shooting in 2015, in lamenting the lack of government action to address the far deadlier problem of gun violence. It was a rare instance of a political leader seeking to place the terrorist threat in proper perspective. A very rare instance. When it comes to security issues, there are a bunch of things that ought to be said that cant be said in public, noted Foreign Policys David Rothkopf during a session on homeland security at the Aspen Ideas Festival, which is co-hosted by the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic. If a politician were to stand up and say, Terrorisms a problem, but its not such a huge problem, theyd be done. Every once in awhile, we ought to let facts guide what our fears are, Rothkopf said. When you look at polls of the top 10 fears of the American people, it tends to be things like public speaking, flying, things that will never kill anybody, when it really should be sugar. Are we focused on the right bad guys? Are we too guided by what dominates the headlines? Rothkopf asked Jane Holl Lute, the former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Recommended: A 'Second-Class' European in a Post-Brexit World I think were way, way too dominated by a national-security mindset, she responded. And I think we need to understand the difference between looking at these issues with a national-security mindset as opposed to a homeland-security mindset. National security is strategic, its centralized, its top-driven. Homeland security is transactional, its decentralized, its bottom-drivendriven by the states and localities of this country. Story continues Whats been our theory of the case for 12 or 15 years following 9/11? Lute asked. Our theory of the case is the bad guys are out there, trying to come here. How are we going to deal with that? Were going to find them and fix them, in a military sense, abroad. We have three tools: We have an intelligence tool, considerable. Our military, best in the world. And we have our security partnerships with NATO and with other countries bilaterally. Thats great, she continued. What if [the bad guys are] here? What if theyre already here? What terrorist strike can succeed in this country unless there is already a basis of support [for the terrorist group in question]? How good is our intelligence capability going to serve us? Is the military deployed domestically? The Brits? NATO? Not really. So we need to think about the questions that youre raising from the perspective of homeland security. When you look at the top fears of Americans, they tend to be things that will never kill anybody, when it really should be sugar. We know, in Europe, that theyre there, said Wolfgang Ischinger, a former German diplomat and the chairman of the Munich Security Conference. Its much easier for [terrorists] to come into our countries because its, for all practical purposes, not possible to completely control these many, many different borders. Its a little easier for the United States with only two neighbors and the open sea on both sides. Ischinger suggested creating an FBI-like organization for the European Union to help coordinate intelligence and homeland-security effortsto hunt a terrorist from Sicily to Norway and back. Such calls to reorient contemporary counterterrorism toward the homegrown terrorist threatto, in Lutes words, prioritize homeland security over national securityare a rejection of the logic that inspired Donald Trumps proposed ban on Muslim immigration to the United States. Theyre also more reflective of reality. Belgian and French citizens perpetrated the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels; American citizens were behind the carnage in San Bernardino and Orlando. U.S. citizens have been involved in 80 percent of the post-9/11 U.S. terrorism cases tracked by the New America Foundation. Recommended: The Lessons of the Somme Still, the question remains whether U.S. and European governments are excessively focused on the very real threat of terrorism, wherever it is originating from, and neglecting graver threats. Leadership, it seems to me, is sometimes about saying, This is what we should be focused on. This is where the real risk lies, Rothkopf said. There are some countries where there have been multiple terrorist attacks, where theyre able to manage them and digest it and handle it a little bit better. And it causes less terror as a consequence. It was a last attempt to steer the security conversation away from the vortex of terrorism. But the vortex prevailed. During the nearly hour-long session, the panelists rarely strayed from the topic. Sugar wasnt mentioned again. Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. Elon Musk Tesla is one of those companies that people love to love. The electric-car maker's story is one of innovation and genius, with a dose of erudite bravado coming from its intrepid CEO, Elon Musk. Musk has championed Tesla's technologies, including the driver-assist feature called Autopilot. It's essentially Tesla's public autonomous-driving experiment, and a glimpse into a future of self-driving cars. Much has been said about Autopilot's virtues its ability to keep the car in one lane, avoid collisions, and use cameras and radar to detect its surroundings but the technology is not perfect. Japanese automakers, by comparison, are unwilling to follow Tesla's aggressive strategy of getting such features into drivers' hands before they are 100% ready. Criticism of Tesla's moves resurfaced this week when it was revealed that a Model S driver died while operating his car with Autopilot activated. Since the news broke, Tesla's stock appeared poised to take a hit. Shares fell in after-hours trading on Thursday, the same day the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced its investigation of the incident. But, as NYU Stern professor and founder of the research firm, L2, Scott Galloway tells Business Insider, Tesla and its technologies have built up enough goodwill in the market to withstand the setback. "Self-driving technology has a lot of momentum," Galloway said, "short of a number of crashes like this, I think its going to be a blip on the radar." Tesla shares jumped to $216.50 on Friday, closing the week higher than it started. Elon Musk In this case, according to Galloway, Tesla did three things right: It acknowledged the problem in a blog post on its website Thursday. Had the top guy address the matter head-on. And it overcorrected; reiterating Autopilot's limitations, and reminding drivers to stay alert, even with the feature activated. Story continues "Who did this terribly? It was General Motors," Galloway said, referring to the company's handling of a massive ignition defect that led to the deaths of more than 100 people. GM was hit with a $900 million penalty as a result. In a broader sense, Galloway said Tesla benefits from the halo effect that comes with being a tech innovator. "They're seen as changing the world, so people are looking for excuses to love it, and excuses not to be disappointed by it." As far as the self-driving technology behind all of this goes, lawmakers don't appear to be shying away either. US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told Reuters earlier this year he planned to introduce guidelines this summer to clear the way for wider deployment of autonomous driving systems. This technology is coming," Foxx said. "Ready or not, its coming." NOW WATCH: This scientist thinks Elon Musk is wrong about the threat of artificial intelligence More From Business Insider By David Shepardson and Bernie Woodall (Reuters) - The fatal crash of a Tesla Motors Inc Model S in Autopilot mode has turned up pressure on auto industry executives and regulators to ensure that automated driving technology is deployed safely. The first such known accident, which occurred in Florida in May, has highlighted tensions surrounding efforts to turn over responsibility for braking, steering and driving judgments to machines. It may delay the U.S. government's plan to outline guidelines for self-driving cars this month. The cause of the Model S crash is still under investigation by federal and Florida state authorities, which are looking into whether the driver was distracted before his 2015 Model S went under a truck trailer. Shares of Tesla and Mobileye NV, the maker of the camera vision system used in the Model S, rose on Friday as analysts said the accident was likely a short-term setback. The stocks fell in after-hours trading on Thursday after an investigation of the crash was made known. Advocates of automating driving point to research that shows 90 per cent of accidents are caused by human mistakes. But machines can also make mistakes, or encounter situations they are not designed to handle. On Friday, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said U.S. traffic deaths rose by 7.7 percent to 35,200 in 2015 - the highest annual tally since 2008 and biggest single-year jump since 1966. Federal officials and industry executives say that toll could be cut by technology such as brakes that automatically engage when sensors detect an impending crash. In March, 20 automakers agreed with regulators to make automatic emergency braking standard on nearly all U.S. vehicles by 2022, a move that could prevent thousands of rear-end crashes annually. But automakers have issued numerous recalls for problems with such systems. Honda Motor Co recalled nearly 50,000 Acura SUVs and cars in June 2015 because the system can apply the brakes when it detects a vehicle accelerating and is driving along a metal fence or guardrail. Story continues U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told Reuters earlier this year he planned to propose regulatory guidelines by mid-July to clear the way for wider deployment of automated driving systems. This technology is coming," Foxx said. "Ready or not, its coming." On Wednesday, Foxx said the guidelines could take more time, and cautioned there are questions "that are probably unanswerable at this point." NHTSA said in a report in March that there are relatively few hurdles to fully autonomous vehicles being used on U.S. roads, as long as vehicle design "allows a human driver to operate the vehicle with a wheel and pedals." At a conference in Detroit last month, NHTSA chief Mark Rosekind said he would accept technology that was "two times" better than conventional vehicles at preventing collisions. Hours before the crash became public knowledge on Thursday, U.S. National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Christopher Hart said driverless cars will not be perfect. "There will be fatal crashes, that's for sure," Hart told the audience at the National Press Club in Washington, but added that will not derail the move toward driverless cars, even if the vehicles are not ready: "This train has left the station." Alphabet Inc's Google unit and other companies are racing to get self-driving cars on U.S. roads. Google has logged about 1.5 million miles of test driving, but has not said when it would offer its technology for sale. "We have a responsibility to get this out there as soon as we can and really as soon as we have data that says we're better than the current system of flawed human drivers," Google's self-driving car CEO John Krafcik said last month in Washington. Former NHTSA chief David Strickland, who is heading a self-driving coalition including Google and Ford Motor Co, told Reuters on Friday he does not "think this crash is going to change the arc for the entire industry ... and our pathway toward full self-driving." Automakers have wide latitude to install systems that intervene when drivers are not attentive - from lane-keeping systems to automatic emergency braking - and do not need prior approval from regulators, even if the systems are described as in "beta", or public testing mode. Former NHTSA chief Joan Claybrook said in an interview the agency needs to set performance standards for electronic systems like Autopilot. "It's the like Wild West. The regulatory system is not being used," Claybrook said. Tesla's Autopilot system "is explicitly denoted as a beta product," said Jason Corso, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Michigan. The accident is a "wake-up call that significant further study is needed to model the sensors and the underlying recognition technologies on which these systems rely," he said. Timothy Carone, a business professor at the University of Notre Dame, said there will be more of these types of eventsas more automated cars, planes, trains and weapons are put into use. Deaths will start to rise, but will then decline, he said, as "artificial intelligence, big data, and sensors for collecting data begin to mature and become capable of handling unusual situations that are difficult to simulate in test environments." (Reporting by Narottam Medhora in Bengaluru, Bernie Woodall in Detroit and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Bill Rigby and Jeffrey Benkoe) AMMAN (Reuters) - Intensive Syrian air strikes on Saturday killed at least 30 civilians in a Damascan suburb town northeast of the city a day after the reported execution of a Syrian air force pilot, a monitor and rebels said. They said the raids targeted a medical center, a school and a residential area in Jayrud town, a heavily populated area that struck a local truce with the army that had spared it the heavy bombing on other rebel held areas. It had made it a sanctuary for thousands of civilians fleeing heavy battles nearby. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said scores were also injured in the aerial strikes as well as shelling from army posts in the area. A rebel spokesman said the strikes seemed to be in revenge for the killing of a Syrian air force pilot who parachuted down near the town after his plane crashed on Friday. "The strikes against civilians are in retaliation against the execution of the pilot by Nusra Front," said Said Seif al Qalamoni from the Free Syrian Army's (FSA) Shahid Ahmad Abdo brigade that operates in Jayrud alongside the al Qaeda's Nusra Front and other groups. Rebels in a joint operations room targeted a main army base in the region with Russian-made surface to surface missiles after the aerial strikes, al Qalamoni said. Syrian state media said the crash was due to a technical fault and the pilot had ejected, while the rebel group Jaish al-Islam said it had shot down the plane, but did not say how. Jaish al Islam said the pilot was arrested and was subsequently killed by a fighter from the Nusra Front while being held at a joint command center. The army had warned of a strong response after the execution of the pilot was reported shortly after he was shown on a rebel video circulated on social media giving details of his mission. Separately, Russian and Syrian planes intensified their bombing on Saturday of a strategic rebel-held area of Aleppo that is near the only route into opposition-held parts of the northern city. If the Malah area were to fall to the army and its allies they would succeed in laying siege to areas where over 400,000 people live under rebel control. (Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Greg Mahlich) One of the world's leading collectors of Chinese art, Belgian billionaire Guy Ullens, is to give up his eponymous Beijing museum -- among the capital's top art centres -- and sell his private collection, the organisation said. Ullens, a baron, is a foodstuffs magnate and longstanding Chinese art collector whose companies have included Weight Watchers. His father and uncle were both diplomats at Belgium's embassy in the country, and he is a friend of dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. His non-profit Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), a mainstay of Beijing's trendy 798 art district, exhibits both Chinese and international artists and has had more than four million visitors since it was founded in 2007, according to its website. In a joint statement by the museum and the Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, Ullens said he will hand over UCCA to a new benefactor and sell off his own vast collection through private sales and auctions later this year. "I have been a patron of the arts in China for over 30 years and have found this a hugely interesting and fascinating experience," he said in the statement. "I'm now in my 80s and need to look at how to hand over the stewardship of the UCCA and my art collection to younger patrons of the arts." Rumours of Ullens' departure have swirled for years, but his PR company confirmed to AFP that the latest announcement, released Thursday, was the first time he had made a definitive public statement on the matter. The baron's private collection, estimated to include more than 1,000 pieces, has broken numerous auction records, the latest in 2013, when Zeng Fanzhi's painting "The Last Supper" sold for $23.3 million at Sotheby's -- a record price for an Asian contemporary artist. Chinese art prices have rocketed in recent years, fuelled by the country's economic boom and its growing numbers of super-rich. At the same time Communist authorities have stepped up cultural controls under President Xi Jinping, and some captions at UCCA's 2013 exhibition of American artist Taryn Simon's "A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters" were blacked out. DeForest (United States) (AFP) - Sheri Swokowski can pinpoint the exact moment when history started to change. It was a 2014 event for transgender rights in Washington. Her date was a colleague from the Pentagon. The next day, Swokowski, a retired Army colonel, headed to the US Department of Defense headquarters, an organization to which she dedicated 34 years of her life. A senior Pentagon official had invited her there to apply for a name change - so that her military records accurately reflected her identity as a transgender woman. "During my time in the military, being transgender was a justification for discharging you," Swokowski said Friday at her home in a small Wisconsin suburb, a day after the Pentagon announced the lifting of the ban against transgender service members. Swokowski was not out while in uniform. "I suppressed it deeply in order to be the best leader that I could," she said. "It was a very difficult thing to do at that time." Eventually, she got her name change, and in 2015 attended a White House reception as the highest-ranking former military person who is openly transgender. Swokowski recalls that it was three weeks after the reception that Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced a review of the military's transgender ban, saying in a statement that "transgender men and women in uniform have been with us, even as they often had to serve in silence alongside their fellow comrades in arms." Swokowski knew it was only a matter of time before the ban was lifted. Still, she was surprised by how quickly it happened. "It's really a historical event that has gone from start to finish in probably less than two years," she said. "There are so many more younger people in uniform that are going to come out, and I am elated for them." DHAKA (Reuters) - All 20 victims of an attack on an upmarket cafe in Dhaka were foreigners, the spokesman for the Bangladesh army said on Saturday. Colonel Rashidul Hasan said he could not yet confirm the nationalities of those who had died, most of whom were killed by sharp weapons. Gunmen launched an assault on the cafe packed with customers in the Bangladeshi capital late on Friday, before police stormed the building early on Saturday to free some hostages. Six gunmen were killed and a seventh captured. (Reporting by Ruma Paul; Writing by Tommy Wilkes; Editing by Nick Macfie) Two transgender women are changing history by running for Congress Two transgender women are changing history by running for Congress We live in thrilling times. Misty K. Snow just won the her Democratic primary in Utah, making her the first transgender nominee from a major party to run for a U.S. Senate seat. She wont be the only openly trans candidate in the congressional race either. This week fellow trans politician Misty Plowright (and fellow Misty, at that) secured the Democratic nomination for the 5th House District in Colorado. Snow and Plowright share more than a first name and the distinction of being pioneering trans politicians. Both women are new to politics, and grew up disenfranchised not just by the gender binary but the American class system as well. 30-year-old Snow, as young as a Senate candidate can be and still run, did not attend college, in part because of the steep cost, and currently works as a grocery store cashier. Note that this unlikely pedigree for a candidate did not stop Snow from beating her primary opponent by close to twenty percentage points. Meanwhile 33-year-old Plowright, another political newbie, in describing her background says I grew up dirt poor and worked hard for everything I have. Plowright served in the U.S. Army and currently works in IT. Plowright won 13,000 votes in her district, handily beating her primary opponent, who picked up 9,600 votes. The Mistys are making history, but theyre also standing on the shoulders of giants. In 2000, trans Republican Karen Kerin ran in Vermonts congressional primaries and lost to then-Republican Bernie Sanders. There have been precious few openly trans elected officials in U.S. government. Trans politicians of note include Joanne Conte, who in the early 1990s served as the first openly transgender city council member, Stacie Laughton, who served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, Massachusetts state legislator Althea Garrison, and Americas first openly trans mayor Stu Rasmussen, who served as the mayor of Silverton, Oregon from 2008 to 2015. Note that both Conte and Garrison were outed while they were in office, a disturbing trend that runs through too many transgender politicians stories. We are very excited for the Mistys and hope we see these incredible ladies make more history come the general election in November! The post Two transgender women are changing history by running for Congress appeared first on HelloGiggles. By Idrees Ali WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Russian warship carried out aggressive and erratic maneuvers close to a U.S. Navy ship in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the second such Cold War-style incident there in a matter of weeks, the U.S. military said on Saturday. The U.S. European Command said the Russian frigate, Yaroslav Mudry, came unnecessarily close to the guided-missile cruiser USS San Jacinto on June 30 and maneuvered in its wake. In a statement, EUCOM said the U.S. ship had not been threatened and it maintained course and speed. "But the closing distance by Yaroslav Mudry before the ship turned away from San Jacinto is considered a high risk maneuver, highly unprofessional, and contrary to international maritime regulations." Referring to the Yaroslav Mudry's close "aggressive, erratic maneuvers", EUCOM SAID: "These actions can unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries, and could result in dangerous miscalculations or accidents." There have been several similar incidents - reminiscent of Cold War confrontations between the rival superpowers - at sea and in the air in recent months, with the U.S. and Russian militaries accusing each other of dangerous approaches in international waters and airspace. U.S. officials said earlier this month that on June 17, the Yaroslav Mudry came within 315 yards (288 meters) of the USS Gravely. They termed that incident "unsafe and unprofessional." The Russian Defense Ministry disputed this. At the time of the incident, the San Jacinto was carrying out operations against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria with the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. In another incident in April, the U.S. military said Russian SU-24 bombers had simulated attack passes near the USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said at the time that the behavior of the Russian pilots was provocative and dangerous, adding that "under the rules of engagement that could have been a shoot-down". (Reporting by Idrees Ali and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Andrew Hay and Richard Balmforth) By Julia Edwards and Adam DeRose WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, seeking to tamp down a firestorm over meeting with former President Bill Clinton, said on Friday she will accept the recommendations of career prosecutors and the FBI director on whether to charge Hillary Clinton for mishandling emails. The United States' top law enforcement officer, however, stopped short of saying she would recuse herself from the investigation of the Democratic presidential candidate. "I will be informed of those findings, as opposed to never reading them or never seeing them, but I will be accepting their recommendations and their plan for going forward," Lynch said. She was responding to questions from a Washington Post journalist who was introducing a talk by Lynch at the Aspen Ideas Festival, a gathering of government, technology and other business leaders in Aspen, Colorado. Republicans, including presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, have said a political appointee like Lynch should not be involved in the email investigation and that the Monday night meeting with Bill Clinton shows Lynch is too close to the Clintons. With a regretful tone, Lynch said on Friday she would not privately meet with Bill Clinton again and that she understood how the meeting "casts a shadow" over the perception of the Justice Department's probe into Hillary Clinton's email use. The attorney general said she has received many questions about her role in the investigation and "whether someone who was a political appointee would be involved in deciding how to investigate." Republican lawmakers have called for an independent investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state, saying the Obama administration's Justice Department could not be free of bias. In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a daily news briefing that the investigation is being handled completely independently of the White House and President Barack Obama. Lynch was appointed by the Democratic president and sworn in on April 1, 2015, well after Hillary Clinton left Obama's Cabinet in 2013. Career prosecutors are not appointed by a president and may serve through different administrations. The FBI director is appointed by the president but is not part of his Cabinet and is considered apolitical. Lynch said on Friday that she had already decided to accept whatever recommendations prosecutors presented her before her meeting with Bill Clinton. The private meeting with the former president took place on Lynch's plane after she landed in Phoenix on Monday night. Bill Clinton was leaving the airport after a rally for his wife earlier that day. Lynch told reporters earlier this week that she did not discuss the email probe or other matters pending before the Justice Department with Bill Clinton, calling their meeting "primarily social." The FBI is investigating Hillary Clinton's email use and whether laws were broken as a result of a personal email server kept in her Chappaqua, New York, home while she was secretary of state, an issue that has overshadowed her campaign. She apologized last year for using the server, saying that while she did nothing wrong, she should have used two email accounts: one for State Department business and another for personal matters. Representatives for her campaign could not be reached immediately for comment on Friday. Trump on Thursday called Lynch's meeting "a sneak" and questioned the judgment of both Bill Clinton and the attorney general. In a tweet on Friday, the wealthy businessman said the meeting showed the U.S. political system was "totally rigged" and that Hillary Clinton had bad judgment. "Bill's meeting was probably initiated and demanded by Hillary!" Trump said on Twitter. The Justice Department, along with the White House, has said the probe should be free of political interference. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Friday it had accounted for all diplomatic staff at its mission in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka following an attack by gunmen on a restaurant in the city's diplomatic quarter, and had offered U.S. assistance to help bring those responsible to justice. Spokesman John Kirby, however, could not confirm whether private U.S. citizens were caught up in a "hostage situation." It was too early to say who was behind the attack or the motivation of the attackers, Kirby said. "We have accounted for all Americans working for the chief of mission authority" in Dhaka, Kirby told a press briefing. He said the situation was "very fluid, very live." In a statement later, he added: "We are working with the local authorities to determine if any U.S. citizens and locallyemployed staff were affected." "On learning of the attack our embassy issued a shelter-in-place order," he said, "This order was issued out of caution, but at no time was the embassy compound itself under immediate threat from this attack." Benjir Ahmed, the chief of Bangladesh's special police, said several foreigners were among a number of people taken hostage in the restaurant, which is located in a suburb frequented by foreigners and diplomats. Eight to nine gunmen attacked the restaurant in the Gulshan area of the capital. "We have offered our assistance in their efforts to bring to justice those responsible for these attacks and to combat terrorism and violent extremism," Kirby said. The attack comes a day after the State Department designated al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, known as AQIS, as a foreign terrorist organisation. The move would freeze any known assets the organisation, or its leader, Asum Umar, may have in the United States. The State Department said the organisation had claimed responsibility for the murders of activists and bloggers in Bangladesh, including Xulhaz Mannan, a gay rights activist employed by the U.S. embassy in Dhaka. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Toni Reinhold and Bernard Orr) By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday introduced a measure intended to prevent gun sales to people on government watch lists, only to draw demands from Democrats for stronger proposals and a warning of possible new protests. A week after Democrats ended a 25-hour sit-in on the House floor to call for gun legislation after the June 12 mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, said lawmakers will vote next week on a measure giving government authorities three days to convince a judge that someone on a terrorism watch list should not be allowed to obtain a firearm. "It is a responsible measure that confronts this threat while protecting the rights of law-abiding citizens," House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement. But in a Friday conference call, House Democrats reached "a clear consensus" to oppose the measure, calling it the handiwork of the National Rifle Association, an aide said. Similar legislation, backed by the NRA, was blocked by Democrats in the Senate last week. Democrats also called for two amendments: one to allow the U.S. attorney general to decide without court approval whether someone on a watch list could buy a gun and another to expand existing background checks to all commercial gun sales including those at guns shows. Democratic Representatives John Lewis of Georgia and John Larson of Connecticut, who led last week's sit-in, asked for a meeting with Ryan to request votes on the amendments, which consist of legislation originally sponsored by Republican Peter King of New York. Ryan agreed to meet with the Democrats next Tuesday, Republican and Democratic aides said. "If these amendments are not allowed, then members will have further discussions about possible actions to take in response to this refusal to allow a vote on commonsense gun legislation," said another House Democratic aide. AshLee Strong, a Ryan spokeswoman, said the House speaker "looks forward to meeting with Congressmen Lewis and Larson to discuss the important action the House will take to prevent terrorist attacks." The new Republican proposal, which would apply to anyone who has been suspected of violent extremism within the past five years, would require authorities to show probable cause that a would-be buyer "will commit an act of terrorism" or violates existing prohibitions on undocumented immigrants, fugitives, convicts and people with mental illness. The gun provisions were tucked into a bill aimed at stepping up efforts against terrorism, including what the legislation referred to as "radical Islamist terrorism." Some Republicans have criticized Democrats for avoiding such terms to describe events like the Orlando shooting, where a gunman pledging allegiance to Islamic State killed 49 people last month. Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said recently that President Barack Obama should resign for not having used "radical Islam" in a statement responding to the Orlando massacre, in which police identified the shooter as a U.S. citizen born in New York to Afghan immigrants. The NRA said it was reviewing the legislation, while the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said the legislation proposed by House Republicans was a publicity stunt. (Reporting by David Morgan; Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by James Dalgleish and Leslie Adler) BRASILIA, July 2 (Reuters) - Workers at Brazil's electricity holding Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA will launch a three-day strike on Monday to demand higher salaries and protest plans to privatize part of the company, unions said on Saturday. Eletrobras, as the state-controlled company is commonly known, said in a statement it would respect workers' right to strike but added they should reflect about the company's crisis after years of massive losses. A downsizing at Eletrobras is essential because the company's current financial situation is "unsustainable," Brazil's energy minister said last month. In recent years, Eletrobras has been forced by the government to take over money-losing distribution utilities in sparsely populated states. At the same time the government crimped its revenue by forcing Eletrobras to slash power rates. The government hopes asset sales will boost efficiency and cut operational losses, allowing it to boost cash for investments and to pay 40 billion reais ($12.3 billion) of debt. Eletrobras is among the 10 largest energy conglomerates in the world. It controls 15 subsidiaries in Brazil and has large stakes in the country's largest hydroelectric power plants, besides operating two nuclear reactors near Rio de Janeiro. (Reporting by Silvio Cascione; Editing by James Dalgleish) Washington (AFP) - An American citizen was among those killed in a deadly attack on a restaurant packed with foreigners in Bangladesh, US officials said Saturday, pledging support to the government in Dhaka. The White House and the State Department announced the death, but did not identify the US national. "We can confirm that a US citizen was also among those senselessly murdered in this attack," State Department spokesman John Kirby said. "Today, as always, we stand with the people of Bangladesh and in our shared efforts to combat terrorism and violent extremism." Heavily armed militants murdered 20 hostages in Bangladesh, hacking many of their victims to death, before six of the attackers were gunned down at the end of a siege Saturday. Most of the dead were from Italy and Japan. "We remain in contact with Bangladeshi authorities and have offered any assistance necessary," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. Emory University, located in the southern US state of Georgia, confirmed that two students had been killed in the carnage. Abinta Kabir, from Miami in the state of Florida, was in Bangladesh to visit family and friends, university president James Wagner said in statement. Kabir was due to begin her second year of study in the autumn. Faraaz Hossain, from Dhaka, was a student at Emory's business school. "The Emory community mourns this tragic and senseless loss of two members of our university family," Wagner said. "Our thoughts and prayers go out on behalf of Faraaz and Abinta and their families and friends for strength and peace at this unspeakably sad time." Also killed was 19-year-old Tarushi Jain, an Indian national who was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed. Swaraj said she had spoken to the girl's grief-stricken father and conveyed her condolences. "The country is with them in this hour of grief," she tweeted. Story continues Jain was a graduate of the American International School of Dhaka. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack on a Western-style cafe in the capital's diplomatic quarter. Survivors said the hostage-takers separated locals from the foreigners before embarking on a killing spree that was brought to an end 11 hours later in a fierce gun battle. HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam has called for an international tribunal in The Hague to deliver a "fair and objective" ruling in an arbitration case lodged by the Philippines that challenges China's expansive claims in the South China Sea. In a carefully worded statement two days after the court announced July 12 as the verdict date, Vietnam's foreign ministry said it hoped the ruling would provide a basis for peacefully resolving rows. Vietnam is not a direct party to the case but stands to gain if the verdict favors Manila. Like the Philippines, it is also at odds with China, although it is wary not to push too far against a major trade partner. "Vietnam has always been observing the development of the case and wants the arbitration court to deliver a fair and objective decision, creating a basis to peacefully resolve disputes in the (South China Sea)," Vietnam's foreign ministry spokesman, Le Hai Binh, said in a statement late on Friday. Though the wording was similar to those used by numerous countries, Vietnam's statement stopped short of calling for the ruling to be respected. China has gone to great efforts to show the Permanent Court of Arbitration has no jurisdiction on the case, and Beijing will therefore not recognize it. China's official Xinhua news agency called it a "law-abusing tribunal". The case seeks an interpretation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to which Beijing is a signatory. The South China Sea is one of the world's most vital shipping lanes, with about $5 trillion of goods passing annually through waters contested in parts by six countries, several of which are undergoing military buildups. (Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Martin Petty) OMAHA, Neb. Ryan Lochte was beaten by his nemesis. Again. After surging up alongside Michael Phelps with 25 meters left in the 200 individual medley their final showdown in America Phelps budged back ahead and won the marquee race of these Olympic trials by .31 seconds. It was the fourth straight time Phelps has gotten the better of Lochte in the 200 IM at the trials, and the combined margin of victory in the last three is .82 seconds. Its kind of crazy how our races turn out, Phelps said. They usually come down to the touch. And Phelps tends to touch first. That should entitle Lochte to hate him the way Ahab hated the white whale. But after reaching the wall and looking at the man he cant beat in an Olympic year, Lochtes prevailing emotion was not frustration or disappointment. It was something more noble, more profound and more personal. I looked up and saw that I got second, but I wasnt really thinking about that, Lochte said. I was kind of looking at him and thinking, Wow, our journey is coming to an end. Racing against each other for 13 years it was really sentimental. It was something that Im definitely going to cherish for the rest of my life. So will swimming fans who have witnessed the rivalry play out over and over. The races have been thrilling. The stakes supreme. The outcomes memorable. The margin separating them eternally miniscule. And after this last joust in American water, there is nothing left but a final act in Rio de Janeiro in August. Japanese sensation Kosuke Hagino still has the worlds fastest 200 IM time in 2016 and will have something to say about who wins Olympic gold but he will have to summon greatness to beat these aging giants. The times posted here Friday a 1:55.91 by Phelps and a 1:56.22 by Lochte wont win gold but cant be ignored. Hopefully the old-man strength will kick in, joked Phelps, who has been frustrated in his inability to match the sizzling times he posted last summer. Story continues Hopefully I think [Hagino and countryman Hiromasa Fujimori] will be scared, Lochte said. I mean, its no secret were going to be there until the end. ... The U.S. is not easy to beat, and were definitely going to prove that in Rio. Specifically, these two guys are not easy to beat. Even in their swimming dotage. If it werent for Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte might be the greatest American swimmer ever. But if it werent for Ryan Lochte, Michael Phelps might not be the greatest swimmer of all-time. There is a symbiotic relationship to their rivalry. We bring each other to a different level, we take each other to that next step, and [the 200 IM] especially, Phelps said. Michael Phelps, left, checks his time in front of Ryan Lochte after winning the 200 IM at the U.S. swim trials. (AP) For Phelps, this victory was part of a challenging day. He swam the 100 butterfly preliminaries Friday morning, and then 28 minutes after winning the 200 IM had to swim again in the 100 fly semis. As a freshly minted 31-year-old, that was taxing. Phelps said his lactate readings were high after the IM. Then they shot up much higher after the butterfly. Phelps used both railings walking down the steps after that latter race, feeling the effects. Yeah, that hurt, Phelps said. Two in 28 minutes used to be pretty easy, but that one wasnt easy. For Lochte, absolutely nothing about this week has been easy. Also 31 years old, Lochte looked brittle and vulnerable on the first day of trials competition he pulled a groin muscle during the prelims of the 400 IM and finished a beaten third in the final, failing to make the U.S. team in the event he won in 2012 at the London Olympics. After that, Lochte doggedly pulled out a spot on the American 800 freestyle relay Tuesday by finishing fourth in the 200 free. But the 11-time Olympic medalist remained just a relay swimmer until Friday night. He pulled out of his roster spot as an individual competitor against Phelps, and his happiness showed as he slapped hands with kids and waved at fans in CenturyLink Arena. After the 400 IM I thought I wasnt going to be able to finish the entire meet, Lochte said. But I try to keep a really positive mind. .... Ive trained so long and so hard that I wasnt just going to give up just because of my groin. I mean, I could have a broken leg and I would still go on the blocks and race. Saturday night it will be Phelps turn for a gut check, his time to summon something from an aching and aging body. His 100 fly semifinal time (51.83 seconds) leaves him more than half a second behind the top two finals qualifiers, Seth Stubblefield (51.26) and Tim Phillips (51.28), both of whom swam very well. To earn a fourth consecutive Olympic spot in that event, Phelps may well have to break the 51-second barrier something he did with ease last August in San Antonio but has not approached since then. What am I, in lane 2 or 7 or something? Phelps said. Thats new. So thatll be fun. He will have to produce some outside smoke, in swimming parlance. But thats Saturday. Friday night, Lochte and Phelps were where they always are in the 200 IM in the middle of the pool, the middle of the spotlight, and the middle of a withering duel to the wall. Michael Phelps got there first. Again. But Ryan Lochte lost with both class and appreciation for the long journey chasing the greatest to the wall. If your political tendencies disinclined you to favor the U.S. presidential candidacy of Donald Trump, you might be tempted to think that for all its initial implausibility, its in retrospect not that tough to explain: Trumps doubters simply underestimated a contempt for reality and depth of bigotry among Republican Party voters. Its an inversion of Trumps apparent view of himself, really: His haters couldnt comprehend how much true-believing Americans would love him for his authenticity, decisiveness, and straight-shooting demolition of nonsense. Speaking on Thursday at the Aspen Ideas festival, co-hosted by the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic, however, Arthur C. Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute argued for separating out the broad, complex forces behind the current rise of populism in the U.S. and the narrow, contingent reasons for Trumps success in picking off the GOP nomination. There are are a couple of black-swan events that happened here, Brooks said. One was that media are going bust, and they saw Donald Trump as bank. CNN gave Donald Trump an 80 percent market share of earned media. Eighty percent. They basically treated him like Anthony Bourdain, as a reality-show star on CNN. Responsible fourth estate? Its about money; its about not going out of business for another year. Thats what it comes down to, he says. The second was a field of 17 candidates on the Republican side. Without these black swans, Brooks suggests, Trumps candidacy would be as implausible now as conventional wisdom saw it to be a year ago. Recommended: How American Politics Went Insane But the populist anger it draws its power from would be there just the same. According to New Americas Anne Marie Slaughter, for all the Trump campaign has used xenophobia and other modes of bigotry to draw out support from radical elements of the Republican base, they are not the real catalysts of populist revolt on the American right today. The real catalysts are a set of deep disruptions in the American economya constellation of forces that also accounts for much of the Bernie Sanders phenomenon, as far as its gone. Story continues What we are seeing is anger at a disruption of our economy and, really, our social orderof the magnitude we saw when the agricultural age gave way to the industrial age, Slaughter says: When the industrial age completely upended the way people lived and worked, from small cottage-industry, farming villages to going to factories, in another place from your family, to workwhich is the same kind of profound upheaval were seeing now, we got Marxism. We got Marxism, and then we got World War I, and then we got World War IIthat upheaval was a direct outgrowth of the changes wrought by the industrial revolution. That is what we are seeing the beginnings of today. The digital revolution is completely upending how we work, what the sources of value are, how people can support their families, if they can at all, and creates tremendous fear and rage in the sense that you are at the mercy of forces you cannot control. But as fraught as these feelings are, theyre not political problems on their own terms. Recommended: Why I'm Still a Republicanand Will Fight to Reclaim My Party Theres nothing inherently wrong with anger in American politics, says Stephen L. Carter of Yale Law School. Its not inherently bad. If it were inherently bad, wed be in a lot of trouble, because anger has been a feature of our political system since George Washington decided not to run for a third term and retired, and we had to decide who was going to replace him. Unreasoning anger has been a feature of politics for a very long time. Brooks emphasizes that political anger isnt just chronic; its often fitting and politically vital. We shouldnt regret the presence of anger, necessarily, because anger, particularly justifiable anger, when were angry on behalf of people who have less power than we do, thats a good thing, Brooks says. Thats actually the mark of a good societythats the nature of a politics thats actually standing up for people who are powerless, people who are at the periphery of society. The problem is when anger is the salient characteristic of a political system. And that has a name: Its populism. And populism is driven by grievance; and grievance is the rocket fuel of an anger that becomes truly salient, that becomes truly central to the political system. If this is the right analytical framework, then, distinguishing between the prominence of anger and the dominance of populism, whats the right comparative or historical framework for putting the current populist moment in context? There is, after all, a lot of freaking out about the idea of a Hitler in America these days. Recommended: FBI Agents Interview Hillary Clinton in Email Probe Brooks cites a study out this year in the European Economic Review (Going to Extremes: Politics After Financial Crises, 1870-2014, by Manuel Funke, Moritz Schularick, and Christoph Trebesch) that looks at 20 advanced European economies across 154 years and more than 800 electionsand concludes that after a financial crisis (not a regular recession, but a full-blown financial crisis), the mean political impact has been a significant increase in support for right-wing populism: After a crisis, voters seem to be particularly attracted to the political rhetoric of the extreme right, which often attributes blame to minorities or foreigners, the authors write. On average, far-right parties increase their vote share by 30% after a financial crisis. But as Brooks points out, populism has a distinctive and long history in America, where its not necessarily just a right-wing phenomenon; it can be a left-wing phenomenon as well. Following a pair of financial crises in the 1890s, for example (one when the railroads went bust on account of overbuilding and unsound financing, the other after a silver panic), and the deep recessionary effects that accompanied them, William Jennings Bryan became the Democratic Partys presidential candidate in 1896thundering, You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!and for two further cycles. Brooks quotes H.L. Menckens obituary of Bryan: Imagine a gentleman, and you have imagined everything that he was not. Sound familiar? Brookss view is that American populism is neither a historical anomaly nor a historical pattern the U.S. has shown itself unable to cope with over time. Its essentially a recurring form of crisisand one that, following the medical analogy, the American republic never died from, in the way Germanys Weimar Republic did in 1933. Its always recovered. So how does it recover this time? According to Brooks, The answer is basically one thing, which is a moral consensus that comes from aspirational leadership. The tendency among those of us who are center-left or center-right, Brooks says, is to say that weve got to come together in the middle. Thats not true. I think that you can hold the views that you hold. If youre a big right-winger or a big left-winger, thats great. But what we need to remember is the moral consensus of the American experiment, which is not an unprecedented historical event. In my view, thats pushing opportunity to the people who need it the most. This is not, Brooks argues, a matter of an overarching political consensus; its a matter of a shared moral idiom. If the American public is not overwhelmed by outrage, and is capable of generating the political capital and political will for cooperative solutions and compromise, thats because theres a common understanding and common way of talking about moral priorities in political life. When the moral consensus collapses, and were not talking about pushing opportunity to the people who need it the most, but rather militating for my rights, what happens? he asks. Opposing viewpoints hit each other head-on and become an ideological holy war, and thats what we see. But if the restoration of such a moral consensus is the work of aspirational leadership, why couldnt Barack Obama pull that off? Many Americans see him as the apotheosis of an aspirational leader. Brooks might argue that Obamas style was more divisive than aspirational; but this would only point to a divergence of responses to Obama that illustrate the precise difficulty of relying on political leaders to bridge divides. Carter sees a more forbidding challenge here. Theres a problem with rebuilding this moral consensus, even with aspirational leadership, and the problem is not just that politics have changed but that weve changed as a people; weve changed in the sense of how we get along with each other. Americans, Carter thinks, have naturalized themselves to a bumper-sticker way of thinking and talking about political disagreement thats immune to moral consensus; and they have extended that way of thinking and talking across social media and virtually every other form of interaction. When I was a kid, my dad would never let us put bumper stickers on the family car, Carter recalls. My father hated bumper stickers. He said that theyre undemocratic. In fact, once he even said, theyre fascistic. Now, thats not my view, but what bothered him was that a bumper sticker is a slogan. Its a way of reducing a complex issue to an applause line. And that, he thought, was poisonous in our politics. Carters view is that you cant have consensus without comity, and comity is disappearing from the American social repertoire around political disagreementfrom barguments to high court. If you look at the Supreme Court, Carter says, this is not a court that tries to find consensus; its a court that tries to find five votes. No ones going in and doing the hard work anymore, as was the courts long tradition, of trying to fashion views that can actually command majorities. So, he says, Its not clear how were going to come together under aspirational leadership, because were going to have a lot of trouble finding shared aspirationsbecause weve spent so much time at each others throats. And thats not just Donald Trump; this is a trend thats been getting worse for some time. Slaughter, meanwhile, warns that fundamental changes in the structure of the global economy are a whole other order of barrier to moral consensus: Im all for pushing opportunity to those who need it most, she says. But were looking at an economy where we have no idea what those jobs are. What we know is that theres a bifurcation of great jobs with huge rewards and really bad jobs that do not even support a family. Or for another unsettling analysis, you could look to Lawrence Lessig, also speaking here in Aspen, who warns that the U.S. political system has developed into an unrepresentative democracy that reifies increasingly toxic forms of disenfranchisement and inequalitywhich, unless radically reformed, can only breed more disaffection and anger. Or you could look to Jonathan Rauch, who warns, in our current cover story, that without somehow reversing the long decline of the American political establishment, the U.S. political system will be incapable of reform, or for that matter of effective governance at all. Smoke-filled rooms, whatever their disadvantages, were good for brokering complex compromises in which nothing was settled until everything was settled, he writes. Without an effective political class, Rauch says, the U.S. political system will be incapable of alleviating populist anger and protecting itself against entrepreneurial cynics whod exploit it. The whole skein of reasons for anxiety about the new surge of populist anger in America is of course more extensive still. It may be unlikely that any of them imply the coming of an extreme form of political doom, like fascism. Yet the important consideration isnt what to fear, its what to know: Donald Trump may be defeated in November, but the anger and resentment behind him wont be. Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabweans protesting against restrictions on imports of basic goods from South Africa forced the closure on Friday of the border post between the two countries and set fire to a warehouse, a police spokesperson said. The Zimbabwean government said on June 17 it was suspending imports of products including bottled water, furniture, building materials, steel products, cereals, potato crisps and dairy products, most of which arrive via South Africa. National police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said protesters in Beitbridge, a border town 600 kilometres south of the capital Harare, had barricaded a road with rocks and burning tyres to prevent vehicles and people from crossing into South Africa. She said a warehouse owned by tax agency ZIMRA and used to hold illicit goods seized from people crossing the border, had been set alight by the protesters, and that the border post was still closed as at 9 p.m. local time (1900 GMT). More than 85 percent of working age Zimbabweans have no formal job and most people make a living by buying goods in South Africa to sell in Zimbabwe. "The extent of the damage is not known. If you have such demonstrations, other criminal elements also join in and it becomes (a) free-for-all," Charamba told Reuters. Residents and shop owners in Musina, a town on the South African side of the border, had earlier blocked vehicles and people crossing from Zimbabwe, saying Harare should lift the suspension on imports, said Loud Ramakgapola, a senior official with Beitbridge Town Council. Beitbridge is the busiest road border post in southern Africa and the place where goods flow between South Africa and countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Malawi as well as Zimbabwe. ZIMRA said in a statement that Zimbabweans should comply with the import ban and that the police were working to restore order after Friday's "minor" incident. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Catherine Evans) Han Solo is the Star Wars character who got many people hooked to the saga. Hes got some of the best lines in the original trilogy, but also in The Force Awakens, and we all hated seeing him die -- which further proves his huge influence on Star Wars movies. Kylo Ren needed to kill Han Solo though, so that we all take him seriously as a villain. With all that in mind, we have high expectations for the standalone Han Solo story thats going to hit theaters in 2018. And someone says the Han Solo movie might have the best Star Wars script ever. The only problem with that statement is that it comes from a person who has to say these sorts of things... DONT MISS: This is the iPhone 7 leak weve been waiting for Iain McCaig, a concept artist who worked on Star Wars 1, 2, 3 and 7, appeared at a conference in New Zealand, which is where he talked about Star Wars, among other things. [The Han Solo script is ] by far the best Star Wars script, and one of the best scripts period, that I have ever read. I laughed, I cried, I did all the things you should do when reading a good script. Youre in for a treat, McCaig apparently said. Thats a paraphrase from Star Wars News Nets source, but that sort of statement is still exciting. There are plenty of questions that come to mind. Did McCaig read all the screenplays for the upcoming Star Wars movies through 2020? Will Episode VIII and IX be less exciting than the Han Solo movie? Lawrance Kasdan wrote the script for the Han Solo movie before starting work on Episode VII, which is how McCaig may have gotten access to it. Its not unreasonable to assume that things may have changed since the draft he saw, but McCaigs opinion is still fascinating. He revealed that George Lucas pitched Disney a script for Star Wars VII, but it was rejected because it may have been prequel-related. He was not able to confirm or deny whether Lucas script had any influence on the Arndt/Kasdan/Abrams script, but he seemed to indicate the positive, according to the site. Story continues He also hinted that Rey is a Skywalker of sorts, suggesting he knows something about her backstory. That means he does have some knowledge of whats going on in the Star Wars universe and has seen stuff mere mortals dont have access to. All that being said, weve yet to find out any official details about the Han Solo movie, so we can only hope McCaigs hints pan out. Related stories 'Star Wars: Rogue One' director sets the record straight regarding reshoots Canceled Star Wars TV series would have explored Emperor Palpatine's origins Darth Vader officially confirmed for 'Star Wars: Rogue One' More from BGR: White-hot electric car startup Faraday Future jumps into Formula E racing This article was originally published on BGR.com STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Spotify confirmed on Friday that it has complained to Apple Inc after the U.S. technology company rejected an updated app for the Swedish music streaming service on iPhones. The companies have gone head to head in the battle for music streaming customers since Apple Music was launched in more than 100 countries last year, and Spotify said the rejection of its revised app for iPhones was causing it "grave harm." The complaint was in the form of a letter sent by Spotify's lawyer to Apple this week, technology website Recode reported. The letter said Apple's rejection of the revised app raised "serious concerns" under competition law in the United States and Europe and the move was causing "grave harm to Spotify and its customers," Recode first reported on Thursday. "It continues a troubling pattern of behavior by Apple to exclude and diminish the competitiveness of Spotify on iOS and as a rival to Apple Music," Recode quoted Spotify general counsel Horacio Gutierrez as saying in the letter. "We cannot stand by as Apple uses the App Store approval process as a weapon to harm competitors," Gutierrez said. A Spotify spokeswoman confirmed the accuracy of the report. Apple did not respond to requests for comment. Launched a decade ago, Spotify is the world's biggest paid music streaming service with about 30 million paying users in 59 markets while Apple Music has some 13 million. According to Recode, privately owned Spotify said Apple turned down the app under "business model rules," and demanded the Swedish service use Apple's billing system if it wanted to "use the app to acquire new customers and sell subscriptions." Music streaming is a crowded business. Alphabet Inc's Google Music and YouTube units also compete with Spotify and Apple Music to attract users prepared to pay for music, as does Pandora Media Inc and rapper Jay Z's Tidal. Amazon.com Inc is also preparing a standalone streaming service, sources have told Reuters. (Reporting by Mia Shanley; editing by Alistair Scrutton and David Clarke) Yes, its hard to to tell when one enters the city limits Yes, they will make the city more inviting Maybe ... does it really matter? No, the signs in place are fine No, it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars Vote View Results Forum for Democratic Changes Apollo Kantinti is dissatisfied with the High Court decision that kicked him out of parliament. Yesterday, High Court Judge Kaweesa Isabirye nullified Kantintis election as Member of Parliament representing Kyadondo East Constituency over non-compliance with electoral laws by the Electoral Commission. The Judge found guilty the Wakiso District Returning Officer Sarah Bukirwa of disenfranchising voters and failure to ensure safe custody of election materials, which substantially affected the outcome of the elections. However, Kantinti says the electoral offenses for which he is paying were committed by Electoral Commission and the District Returning Officer Sarah Bukirwa. He has vowed to appeal against the court ruling. Story By Ruth Anderah BUTLER An Eastside Junior-Senior High School teacher submitted his resignation Wednesday, DeKalb Eastern school district Superintendent Dr. Jeff Stephens has confirmed. David Stineburg, who taught social studies specifically geography and psychology classes had been a member of the DeKalb Eastern faculty for three years, Stephens said. He was at school Wednesday morning. He did not finish the school day, Stephens said Monday. The resignation came as Stineburgs own decision, and no reason for his resignation was given, Stephens added. Detective Adam Friedel of the DeKalb County Sheriffs Department said he was contacted by the schools resource officer at 2 p.m. Nov. 22 with an allegation from a female student who said Stineburg was dating another female student. An investigation report filed Wednesday said Stineburg admitted talking to the girl on the telephone once, when she called for directions to someones house. Stineburg said he exchanged around 50 text messages with her, describing them as bantering and joking around, but said he never said anything inappropriate to her. He also said he never saw the girl outside of school. In an interview with the detective, the girl denied having any relationship with Stineburg or contact with him outside of school, the report says. The police report said Stineburg admitted that he cared for the student and said he wanted to be there for her because she had a hard life. The report adds that after the interview with Friedel, Stineburg met with the superintendent and resigned. There was an investigation, but no criminal charges are being filed, Friedel said Monday, adding that no further law enforcement involvement is anticipated. Stephens said there were no issues with Stineburgs teaching performance. District officials plan to fill Stineburgs classroom assignment through a number of means. Substitute teachers may be used on a short-term basis. If someone can be found with the appropriate license, that person could be hired on a temporary contract through the remainder of the school year, Stephens explained. The school district will advertise the vacancy throughout its buildings and with colleges and universities. No Yes, a light case Yes, two or more light cases One serious case Two or more serious bouts Vote View Results LOS ANGELES (TNS) Garrison Keillor means it this time. On Friday at the Hollywood Bowl, he taped his last show as host of A Prairie Home Companion, the public-radio institution he created and has led, with relatively brief interruptions since 1974; Saturday, it was broadcast to the rest of the listening land. Keillor, 73, had left the series once before, when he married and moved to Denmark in the late 1980s, closing the shop entirely. But by 1993, after a detour through New York and The American Radio Company of the Air, he made his way back to Prairie and the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul; they have been in business ever since. A stroke in 2009 hardly broke his stride. (He suffered a seizure during Memorial Day weekend this year, his second this year). For a few months in 2011, as 70 appeared on his horizon, he seemed to be serious about leaving again, but he stayed the course. He kept on keeping on. A new host has been hired, mandolin player Chris Thile, 35, of Nickel Creek and the Punch Brothers, whose own history with the show runs back 20 years. Thile will begin his run in October. Keillor and his show have their fans a weekly audience of more than 3 million currently and their detractors, some of whom strive to separate their dislike of the creator from their liking of his creation. Some find his voice, which has acquired a late-period breathlessness alongside an oak-cask richness, like nails on a chalkboard. For some it is too white, too Midwestern, too old the median listener is 59, according to Nielsen. For some thats reason enough to dismiss it. I have had my own ups and downs with Prairie, but I have come to feel they were generally of my own making, a reflection of my own temper at the time rather than the quality of the thing itself, which is generally high. I was aware of the product before the show, of the stacked paperbacks and cassette tapes that somehow seemed to occupy every sight line in the bricks-and-mortar bookshops of yore. My reflexive first impulse, based on the packaging and the placement, was to distrust it as straightforward, cinnamon-scented sentimentality, like a year-round Christmas store. I was mistaken. The occasional old hymn notwithstanding, it is ironic and twisty and not a little devilish. Like his contemporary and fellow Minnesotan Bob Dylan, born a year earlier some three hours drive to the north, Keillor has a dark temperament lighted by a puckish humor and in his work mixes the spiritual and the sensual, the moral and the mortal. A Prairie Home Companion is on its surface very bright, punctuated with laughter and applause and the metallic flash of guitar and fiddle and piano strings good-time music, as much of it might generically be called. But it masks a kind of amused fatalism. Consider Beebopareebop Rhubarb Pie (Nothing gets the taste of shame and humiliation out of your mouth quite like Beebopareebop Rhubarb Pie) or the Ketchup Advisory Board, which promotes the condiment, with its natural mellowing agents as a kind of mood elevator, while Powdermilk Biscuits give shy persons the strength to get up and do what needs to be done. Populated with characters not from Keillors small-town youth but from the world of his parents, their siblings and their friends, Lake Wobegon the fictional subject of Keillors weekly monologue is on the face of it old-fashioned: a needlepoint sampler created in the year of Chinatown, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Kraftwerks Autobahn, and the Ramones first public appearance. But you would be wrong to regard it as nostalgia, even as age and the old days have inevitably run to the forefront of Keillors thoughts. Its Keillors Sherwood Andersons Winesburg, Ohio, or William Saroyans Ithaca, Calif., an ordinarily eccentric small town big enough to contain all lifes joys and sorrows and, despite its sheen of Protestant, passive-aggressive politeness, a multitude of sins. The challenge of humor, Keillor has said, is that somehow it must comprehend darkness and death. Fatality as well as fatalism is built into the series; people die, or almost die, and so remember to live. In Robert Altmans 2006 lovely, last film, A Prairie Home Companion, Death (played by Virginia Madsen) is a character, roaming the corridors and the stage of the Fitzgerald Theater as the series itself is about to expire. It is not meant tragically. Radio itself is old-fashioned, of course, and yet between Web-based podcasting, satellite radio and mobile apps it is very much of the moment. Storytelling, which is the job inside Keillors bigger job, and one at which he casually excels, is the engine that drives This American Life, Snap Judgment, StoryCorps and The Moth, which awarded him its 2007 Moth Award. Thank you for this, he said accepting it. I dont believe in awards; or didnt until very recently. A Prairie Home Companion has been a sort of ark between the old world and the new, the analog and the digital. It kept audio comedy alive into an age of video I bow down here to the flexible brilliance of company members Sue Scott and Tom Russell and to the sound-effects artistry of Fred Newman and Tom Keith, given a pride of place unmatched elsewhere. Under Thile, the show, which will keep its name and time slot, is expected to be more music than comedy. Some old hands may remain, but when Keillor leaves, the show will also lose its head writer its writer, basically and whatever of the original remains will be an echo of that voice. He will have moved on, along with Guy Noir the private eye and Lefty the cowboy and an artist named Bob. If you want any more news from Lake Wobegon, you will have to write it yourself. As Keillor said to the 1990 graduates at Anoka High School, his alma mater, Graduation is a graceful and sweet old ceremony. What it means is that its time to gather your stuff together and get out. My reflexive first impulse, based on the packaging and the placement, was to distrust it as straightforward, cinnamon-scented sentimentality, like a year-round Christmas store. I was mistaken. La Crosse County school districts could all receive more state aid for the 2016-17 school year, according to data released Friday. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction released state aid estimates for 2016-17 on Friday, showing 61 percent of school districts will see state aid increases. La Crosse County is projected to see $2.7 million of the $119.97 million in increased state aid next year. According to the DPI, general state aid totals $4.584 billion for the 2016-17 school year. Onalaska should be the big winner, with budget forecasts calling for nearly a million dollars more in state aid next year, a 7.26 percent increase. Other districts in the county should see between 1.61 percent and 3.11 percent increases in the amount of state aid they receive. Director of Finance and Business Services Kent Ellickson said Onalaskas bump in state aid is mostly the result of increased enrollment in relation to property values in the district. This in turn could mean the state takes on a larger share of the burden while given property owners a reprieve on their taxes. If you do the math, if we have more kids, then we have more aid, he said. The DPI is required by state law to publish estimates of general aid levels for school districts on July 1, the start of the new fiscal year. Final aid numbers arrive in October. Mayor Tim Kabat will lead a delegation Tuesday to La Crosses sister cities in Friedberg, Germany, and Epinal, France, to see whether city leaders can do some business match-making during its regular cultural exchange. Kabat, Vicki Markussen and Lisa Herr, the executive directors of the La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce and Seven Rivers Alliance, respectively, and others will spend a week and a half overseas, first in Friedberg and then Epinal to promote La Crosse and learn more about the two cultures. Along with the traditional cultural exchange, La Crosse representatives will tour several major manufacturing companies and meet with the business communities in the Friedberg and Epinal regions to learn about possible trade and foreign investment opportunities. For his first trip to La Crosses oldest sister cities, Kabat wanted to step up the focus on business and trade, I thought it was really important, especially with the focus on making sure were productive and making sure its a working trip, Kabat said. We have more and more of our La Crosse companies that are interested and do business overseas, so its interesting to see what opportunities there are out there. The trip will also be the first delegation to include a representative from the areas chamber of commerce. This is kind of dipping the toe in the water, if you will, to see how we can form more business relationships, Markussen said. The tours and discussions will show La Crosses representatives what companies are in the sister cities, giving the delegation an understanding of what they produce and where there might be synergies with a company in the Coulee Region with an interest in doing business globally. This is something we would not be able to form from a distance, Markussen said. It all begins with conversations and understanding, and thats really the main goal out of the trip that were taking. The sister city program was born out of trade opportunities, with Trane Co. leading the way with its French location 30 years ago. In France, Kabat and members of the La Crosse-Epinal Cultural Exchange Committee will mark the 30th anniversary of La Crosse and Epinals sister city relationship by presenting the city with an original painting by local artist Janet Mattison-Prise. The painting, titled Essence of La Crosse, showcases scenes from the area including rivers, bluffs and bridges. Members of the citys German International Relations Committee will take part in Friedbergs Altstadtfest, which takes place every three years, and share music and other art. We certainly get to go and celebrate having great sister city relationships and then get a little business done on the side, which is a double bonus, Markussen said. Markussen plans to update La Crosse on the delegations progress through updates at lacrossetribune.com next week. This is something we would not be able to form from a distance. It all begins with conversations and understanding, and thats really the main goal out of the trip that were taking. Vicki Markussenthe executive directors of the La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce MADISON A close ally of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and longtime Republican activist who this week retired as chairman of an influential conservative foundation told The AP on Friday that he withdrew as a delegate to the GOP national convention because of his distaste for Donald Trump. Michael Grebe was one of two at-large delegates the state Republican Party had previously announced would attend the convention this month in Cleveland. The party announced Friday that Grebe and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, who cited scheduling conflicts, were backing out. Kleefisch has said she will support whoever is the nominee. But Grebe, who just retired as chairman of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, made clear in a one-sentence comment to AP that he does not support the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. I decided not to go to Cleveland because I do not want to be part of a process that results in the nomination of Donald Trump, Grebe said in a brief telephone interview. Grebe said he notified the party of his decision about a month ago. He has attended six previous national conventions, starting in 1984 the last time Wisconsin voted for a Republican for president. Sue Lynch of La Crosse has been added as an alternate for the Wisconsin delegation. She shared her impression of Trump a few weeks ago with Politico. I have known politicians for over 35 years, and I have never had a more kindhearted one look me straight in the eye and talk to me about the United States of America, said Lynch, former president of the National Federation of Republican Women. She met Trump when Trump stopped at the La Crosse Center in April. I was overwhelmed by the kindness of that gentleman, she told Politico. Grebe is one of the most prominent Republicans in Wisconsin to publicly announce disapproval of Trump. Grebe served as Walkers campaign chairman in 2010 and in his failed presidential bid last year. He also is a former chairman of the Wisconsin GOP, a former counsel to the Republican National Committee, and was in charge of the national convention in 1996. He is also a former president of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents and was the Republican National Committee member from Wisconsin between 1984 and 2002. For the past 14 years, he has served as chairman of the powerful and influential Bradley Foundation based in Milwaukee. The $850 million conservative foundation has financially backed public policy experiments in Wisconsin such as welfare reform, public vouchers for private schools and curbs on collective bargaining and unions. House Speaker Paul Ryan, in a 2009 speech, described Grebe as my political godfather. Ryan has endorsed Trump, while being critical of some of his remarks and positions. Kleefisch and Grebe are being replaced by Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and longtime Republican activist Don Taylor. They will serve among the 18 at-large delegates who are bound to vote for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the first round of balloting because Cruz won Wisconsins April primary. Of Wisconsins 42 delegates, 36 are bound to vote for Cruz until he releases them or fails to get a third of the vote at the July 18-21 convention. Fitzgerald has been outspoken in urging Republicans to unite behind presumptive nominee Donald Trump. Kleefisch withdrew as a delegate about a month ago due to scheduling conflicts, said her campaign manager Charles Nichols. Four alternate delegates were also replaced. Those removed were Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, former Gov. Scott McCallum, former U.S. Rep. Mark Green and David Karst. Steineke has been one of the most outspoken critics of Trump in Wisconsin. He had announced earlier this spring that he would not attend the convention given that Trump was the presumptive nominee. They are being replaced by Van Mobley, a Trump supporter, Lynch, David Anderson and Jennie Frederick. I decided not to go to Cleveland because I do not want to be part of a process that results in the nomination of Donald Trump. Michael Grebe, former chairman of the conservative Bradley Foundation As Gov. Scott Walker continues to be floated as a potential last-minute challenger to presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, the governor insists he's focused on running for re-election in Wisconsin that is, if he decides to do so. Walker says he won't make a decision on another gubernatorial bid until after the state budget is completed next year. In the meantime, speculation has begun over which Democrats will run against him in 2018. Here's who's on the list so far: Tim Cullen: The former senator told WisPolitics this week he is considering a run, but is "a ways" from making a decision. The Janesville Democrat served two separate stints in the state Senate one from 1975 through 1987, and one from 2011 through 2014. He served as Senate majority leader for several years in the 1980s, and spent one year as head of the state Department of Health and Family Services under Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson. Cullen briefly considered running in the 2012 recall election against Walker, but opted not to, citing fundraising concerns. At the time, he described unions' attitude toward his campaign as "respectful indifference." Known as a moderate in the Legislature, Cullen worked with Republicans in an attempt to broker a deal after he and the 13 other Senate Democrats went to Illinois hoping to block a vote during the fight over Walker's Act 10 legislation. In a book published last fall, Cullen detailed that fight and his experiences in Wisconsin government. Sen. Kathleen Vinehout: The Alma Democrat told the Wisconsin State Journal last month that, after surveying delegates at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin convention, "they want me to run." Still, she said, she won't make a decision until early next year. Vinehout has served in the state Senate since 2007. She won 4 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary in the 2012 recall election, and briefly considered running in 2014. She decided not to run after injuring her arm in a car accident. Representing the western part of the state, Vinehout has appeal as a candidate not from the liberal strongholds of Madison and Milwaukee. But she could struggle to pull in endorsements and dollars from reproductive rights groups like Planned Parenthood, which rescinded its 2006 endorsement of her after she authored an amendment that would have allowed pharmacists to refuse to fill certain prescriptions, including contraceptives, based on their religious beliefs. Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling: In the Senate since 2011, Shilling was elected to lead her Democratic colleagues in 2014. The La Crosse Democrat served in the Assembly for 11 years before entering the Senate. Shilling was named one of the Washington Post's "40 Most Interesting Women in Politics" last year, sharing the ranks with politicians including Republican former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Her name has been floated by fellow Democrats for at least a year as a strong contender, but Shilling hasn't said much about it. Instead, she says, she's focused on the 2016 ballot. Rep. Dana Wachs: The Eau Claire Democrat was elected unopposed to the state Assembly in 2012. He faces a Republican challenger this year, and has said he's focused on that race. His name only recently emerged as a potential gubernatorial candidate, and that chatter picked up at the party's state convention. Dane County Executive Joe Parisi: Parisi's name is a familiar one in gubernatorial speculation, but he's often dismissed as a Madison liberal who may struggle to appeal to voters throughout the state. Parisi served in the state Assembly for six years before he was elected county executive. Asked about a gubernatorial bid in May, Parisi said he's "not ruling it out." But first, he's running for re-election in 2017. U.S. Rep. Ron Kind: Kind is another frequently mentioned name, having represented the state's 3rd Congressional District since 1997. The La Crosse lawyer is chairman of the New Democrat Coalition, a congressional organization that describes itself as the party's "pro-growth, fiscally responsible wing." Kevin Conroy: Conroy, CEO of Madison biotech company Exact Sciences, last considered a run for governor in 2009. He drew praise at the time from Democratic then-Gov. Jim Doyle. Conroy has since indicated he may still be interested in public office, and his name was frequently mentioned by Democrats looking at 2018. His company is still recovering from plummeting stock prices since the launch of its colon cancer screening test, but shares started climbing back up earlier this month. But this week, he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he is not considering running for governor, opting instead to focus on the company. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation will begin constructing a roundabout next month at the intersection of Highway 27 and Highway 33 in the town of Portland, just west of the village limits of Cashton. Project manager Brian Meyer said the DOT hopes the new roundabout reduces the number of crashes that have plagued the intersection for years. Statistics show that roundabouts reduce fatal crashes by 90 percent, reduce injury crashes 75 percent and reduce overall crashes 35 percent, when compared to other types of intersection control. Unlike other states that have adopted roundabout first policies, the state still evaluates design alternatives to determine whether a signal, roundabout or other control is best suited for the location based on safety, efficiency and estimated cost. Meyer said work on the Cashton roundabout is scheduled to begin in mid-July, with completion in November. The west side portion of the project will run from July 5 through Sept. 1. During this stage, Highway 27 will remain open to northbound and southbound traffic, along with eastbound Highway 33. Westbound Highway 33 already is closed from Cashton to La Crosse due to road construction projects near Hiighway 162 North and the city of La Crosse. The road will remain closed, except to local traffic, until those projects are complete. Highway 27, which is designated as part of the detour route for Highway 33 traffic, will remain as such until the Highway 33 projects are complete. The east side construction of the Cashton intersection roundabout will begin after the Labor Day weekend and run through Nov. 11. Drivers should expect delays during the entire road construction process. Three people have been arrested in connection with a string of burglaries in Monroe County. The Monroe County Sheriffs Office announced the arrests Friday. The three are also linked to burglaries in Juneau and Wood counties. The arrests came two weeks after the sheriffs office issued a notice warning about burglaries in the Tomah, Oakdale and Wyeville areas. The notice said some of the burglaries were committed in homes as residents were sleeping. A sheriffs office sergeant said the names of the suspects wont be released until paperwork is completed and filed. The investigation remains open and further arrests are possible, according to the sheriffs office. Although the suspects are in custody, the press releases said it is good practice to keep vehicles and homes locked to help deter these types of crimes. Assisting the sheriffs office were the Wood County Sheriffs Department, Tomah Police Department, Wisconsin State Patrol, Tomah Probation and Parole and Monroe County 9-1-1 Center. We present the short story "From the Cabby's Seat," by O. Henry. The story was originally adapted and recorded by the U.S. Department of State. The cabby has his own special place from which he looks at life. His view of people is simpler, perhaps, than the view of a man who does any other kind of work. From the high seat of his cab, he looks down upon everybody. People are not important to him unless they wish to go somewhere. Then they are only something to be carried from one place to another. You may be a president or you may be no one, but to a cabby you are only a fare only someone who rides in his cab for a price. You get into his cab, he shakes you a while, and he puts you down. Then the time for payment has arrived. If you pay him the lawful amount and no more, you can easily see what he thinks of you. He thinks youre less than nothing. If you discover suddenly that you have no money with you, you will wish you were dead. It is probably true that the cabbys view of life is formed by the shape of his cab. He sits up there on his seat, high as a god. The seat is small; no one shares it with him. While you are in his cab, your future is in his hands. You are helpless. The cab shakes you. You cant get out until he stops his horse. If you want to speak to him, you must talk through a little hole in the back of the cab. In a cab you no longer feel like a person. You may be someone very important. But in a cab youre no more than something in a box, being carried from one place to another. One night there were sounds of pleasure and joy in the big house beside McGarys Family Restaurant. The sounds seemed to come from the rooms of the Walsh family. A crowd of interested neighbors stood outside the door. Again and again a waiter came bringing food or drink from the restaurant. The neighbors stood aside every time to let him pass. Then they would move near the door again. And all the time they were talking about what was happening inside. Anyone who listened would have learned quickly and easily that Norah Walsh was being married. After some time had gone by, the happy people started coming out the door. They mixed at once with the neighbors who were standing there. Joyful cries and laughing voices rose in the night air. All this noise was born of the drinks from McGarys Restaurant. At the edge of the street stood Jerry ODonovans cab. No cleaner or more shining cab could be found. And Jerrys horse! I tell you he was fat with good food. Among the moving crowd Jerrys high hat could now and then be seen. His nose, too, could be seen; it was thick and red, for it had been beaten by fares who wanted to fight. And also now and then, his fine green coat appeared. It was easy to see that Jerry had had more than enough to drink. Everyone had noticed it. Out of the crowd on the street or perhaps from among the people walking past the house, came a young woman. She stopped beside the cab. Jerry saw her there. A fare! He made a sudden move, and three or four people near him fell down. He himself No! He caught himself in time and did not fall. Quickly he went up to his seat. When he was there, he was safe. All of McGarys drink could not throw him down from there. Step in, lady, said Jerry. The young woman stepped into the cab. The door closed. The crowd in the street jumped away. The horse started and the fine cab rolled down the street. The horse went fast at first, but after a little time he went more slowly. Then Jerry called down through the hole in the back of the cab. He tried to make his voice soft; he wished to please. Where will you be going to? Any place you wish, was the answer. The voice was happy. It sounded like music. Shes riding for pleasure, thought Jerry. And then he said: Take a trip in the park, lady. It will be cool and fine. Just as you wish, answered the fare, pleasantly. The cab turned toward Fifth Avenue, then went north on that perfect street. Jerry was moved up and down in his seat, and from one side to the other. McGarys drinks moved at the same time, and seemed to rise inside his head. He began to sing. Inside the cab the fare sat up straight on the seat. She looked to the right and to the left at the lights and the houses. It was dark inside the cab, and her eyes were shining like stars. When they came to Fifty-Ninth Street, Jerry was half asleep. But his horse went through the park gate. The horse knew where they were. The horse pulled the cab into the park every night. And the fare sat there, as if in a happy dream. She could smell the clean fresh smell of green leaves and flowers. And the wise animal pulling the cab moved as usual. He was at home here. Jerry too tried to do as he did every night. His voice was thick, but he asked the questions that cabbies always ask in the park. You want to stop at the Casino Restaurant, lady? Have something to eat? Listen to the music? Everyone stops. I think that would be nice, said the fare. They made a sudden stop at the door of the restaurant. The cab door opened. The fare stepped out. At once she seemed caught by the wonderful music. The lights and the colors were bright, almost blinding. Someone put a piece of paper into her hand. On it was a number 34. She looked around and saw her cab. It was 20 yards away, taking its place in a line with other waiting cabs. She was led inside, and soon she was seated at a table. She realized that she was expected to buy something. She had a little money. She counted it and found enough to buy something cold and fresh to drink. There she sat, drinking slowly and looking at every- thing around her. Life here had new color, a new shape. It did not seem real. It was like a beautiful dream. At 50 tables sat people who looked to her like kings and queens. She thought their clothes and jewels were wonderfully rich. And now and then one of these people would look at her. They saw a small woman in a simple dress. They saw a plain face. But on that face they saw an expression of love of life, and the queens wished that they could look the same. While she sat there, two hours passed. The kings and queens began to leave. Their cabs rolled away. The music ended. The waiters took everything off tables near hers. She was sitting there almost alone. Jerrys fare stood up and held out the numbered piece of paper. Is someone going to give me something for this? she asked. A waiter told her that it was for her cab. He said that she should go to the door and give it to the man there. This man took it and called the number. Only three cabs stood in line now. The driver of one of them went and found Jerry asleep inside his cab. Jerry spoke a few words in anger, and then went up to his seat. He turned the horse and the cab rolled to the door and stopped. His fare entered. The cab turned again, and went through the cool darkness of the park, following the street that would lead most quickly to the gate. At the gate, Jerry began suddenly to think. He was still half asleep, but there was a doubt in his mind. There were one or two things he had to ask about. He stopped his horse, and his voice came down through the hole in the back of the cab. I want to see four dollars before we go any farther. Have you got the money? Four dollars! laughed the fare, softly. No. Ive only got a few cents with me. Jerry made the horse run. The animals feet were very loud on the street. But above the noise of the horses feet, Jerrys voice could be heard. He was full of anger. He shouted at the stars in the sky. He shouted at other cabs as they passed. His words were so bad that another driver, hearing them, could not believe his ears. But Jerry knew what he could do about this fare without money. He knew where he was going. At the building with the green lights beside the door he pulled his horse to a stop. He opened the cab door and he jumped to the ground. Come on, you, he said, and his voice was hard. His fare came out with the dreaming smile still on her plain face. Jerry took her by the arm and led her inside. He was going to tell the cops what had happened. They would do something about it. A gray-haired cop looked across the table. He and the cabby were no strangers. Jerry began, in his loud, hard voice, Ive got a fare here that Jerry stopped. He put his hand, reddened by the weather, to his face. The drink from McGarys Restaurant no longer clouded his mind so darkly. A fare, sir, he continued, with a wide smile, that I want you to meet. Its my wife that I married at old man Walshs this evening. And a wild time we had, its true. Shake hands with him, Norah, and well go home. Before stepping into the cab again, Norah took a long deep breath. Ive had a very nice time, Jerry, said she said. Download activities to help you understand this story here. Now it's your turn to use the words in this story. Have you ever treated someone you care about badly without knowing you were behaving badly? How often do newly married people make mistakes? Let us know in the comments section or on our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story cabby n. a person who drives a cab view n. cab n. a vehicle that carries passengers to a place for an amount of money that is based on the distance traveled fare n. a passenger who pays to travel on a bus, train, boat, or airplane or in a cab park n. a piece of public land in or near a city that is kept free of houses and other buildings and can be used for pleasure and exercise jewel(s) n. a piece of jewelry such as a necklace or a bracelet that is made of valuable metal and precious stones usually plural cent(s) n. a unit of money that is equal to a smaller part of the basic unit of money in many countries cop(s) - n. a person whose job is to enforce laws, investigate crimes, and make arrests Jupiter, our solar systems largest planet, is about to show its secrets. On July 4, a NASA spacecraft will enter Jupiters orbit and start sending data back to Earth. It will be the first time scientists will be able to see what lies under the planets thick atmosphere and clouds. People around the world will be able to follow the mission online. To do so, download software called Eyes on the Solar System from the NASA website. Juno mission The mission is called Juno, after the spacecraft that will take the pictures. Its name tells the story of the mission. Juno was an ancient Roman goddess. In Roman mythology, Juno could see through clouds. Scientists say their Junos mission will be to look under Jupiters clouds to show its mysteries. Scientists hope to learn what is inside the planet, how it was formed, and other important information. NASA, Americas space agency, launched the Juno spacecraft five years ago from Florida. NASA announcer: And liftoff of the Atlas 5 with Juno on a trek to Jupiter, a planetary piece of the puzzle on the beginning of our solar system. Finally, on the evening of July 4, Juno will fire its main engine and go into orbit around Jupiter. For the next 20 months, the spacecraft will circle Jupiter around its poles 37 times and map the whole surface of the planet. Juno will also study the planets auroras. But Jupiter presents a hostile environment for the spacecraft. Juno project scientist Steve Levin explains. Jupiter is the biggest, baddest planet in the solar system, and it's got a bigger magnetic field, bigger aurora, bigger radiation belts, bigger gravity. Everything about it, really, is bigger. In fact, the radiation is so intense that scientists built a protective vault, or box, to keep the electronics of the spacecraft safe. ... which is basically a huge titanium box, and we've put all our most sensitive electronics inside the vault to help protect it against the damage that Jupiter would do (to) us. Jupiter NASA says it hopes the data from Juno will tell scientists more about the planet's beginnings, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere. This is a big job, partly because Jupiter is the largest and most massive planet in our solar system. It contains more than two times the amount of material of all the other bodies orbiting our sun combined, according to NASA. Most of the material left over after the sun was made went to Jupiter and formed what is called a gas giant. There is no solid surface, but scientists think there may be a solid center, about the size of Earth. Colorful cloud bands and spots make a pretty picture of the planet. Jupiter is especially known for the Great Red Spot, a spinning oval of clouds that is much wider than Earth. NASA says Jupiters spots and clouds come from the planets fast rotation it spins around completely in only 10 hours. NASA says the speed creates jet streams that turn the clouds into bands. Because there is no solid surface to slow them down, Jupiters spots and clouds can last a very long time. In addition, NASA says Jupiter has at least 62 moons. Together they form a kind of miniature solar system. Kevin Hussey is NASAs Visualization Technology Manager. He says that starting on Monday, you can tune in to see history in the making. On the night of July 4th, you're going to be able to witness this historic event, the Juno spacecraft being captured by Jupiter into orbit... And that event, scientists hope, may shine light on how our solar system was formed. Im Anne Ball. Mike OSullivan reported on this story for VOANews.com. Anne Ball adapted this story for Learning English. Kelly J. Kelly was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, and find us on our Facebook page. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story mythology n. the myths of a particular group or culture aurora n. streamers or arches of light appearing in the upper atmosphere of a planet's magnetic polar regions caused emission of light from atoms vault n. a room or place for safekeeping valuables magnetosphere n. an area of space surrounding an object in space that is dominated by the objects magnetic field rotation n. the act of moving around a central point jet stream n. a strong current of fast winds high above a planets surface Now the VOA Learning English program Words and Their Stories! The fourth of July is Independence Day in the United States. On that day, we celebrate the decision by early American leaders to declare independence from Britain. While people in both England and the U.S. speak English, the two types of English can be very different. First, there are differences in spelling. The British like the letter u and have kept it in many words. Americans have dropped it. Somewhere in our language history, we decided that labor, color and favorite were just fine without the u next to the o. But our differences go beyond spelling. Sometimes, we use different words entirely. Here, we live in apartments with elevators. Over there, they live in flats with lifts. We put diapers on our babies and push them in strollers. The British love their babies just as much as we do, but they use nappies and prams instead. We power our cars with gas. They use petrol. And, if we need to look in our cars dark trunk for something, we use a flashlight. They would use a torch to search their dark boot. Then there are idioms. Some British and American idioms have the same meaning, but use different words. For example, in the U.S. if you want to add your opinion to a conversation, you put in your two cents. In the U.K., they put in their tuppence (or two pence) worth. Makes sense. They have pence and we dont. Another example is the idiom about discussing the same issue again and again, especially if it cannot be resolved. We say, Dont beat a dead horse! The British, on the other hand, advise against flogging one. And, if you are keeping secrets in the United States, you have skeletons in the closet. In Great Britain, your skeletons would be hiding in a cupboard. But the real fun begins when we start exploring idioms and expressions that are unique to each country. Lets start with Bobs your uncle. To an American ear, that is a weird expression. And it has nothing to do with any relative you may or may not have named Bob. It is just a way to finish a set of simple instructions. What is the equivalent -- the different but equal saying -- in the U.S.? Americans might say, and there you have it! Or sometimes, more dramatic people will say, Ta-da! For example, imagine you are explaining to someone how to use your new fancy, coffee maker. You explain: First, you grind the beans. Then you put them in the side container and pour water in the main container. Push the button and ten minutes later -- ta-da! -- you have a pot of coffee! Sometimes over a fresh pot of coffee, you may want to have a long talk with a friend. You might even throw in a little gossip. We call that a chat, or if its a short conversation, chit-chat. The British would call it a chin-wag. If a British person says, Ive got the hump, we might think they are sick and need to see a doctor. But in fact, when Brits say they have a hump, it means they are mildly annoyed or upset. In the U.S., some informal ways to say we are upset are Im ticked off or Im miffed. Now, when Americans are really surprised by something, we can say we are at a loss for words. Or more informally, we simply say we are shocked or blown away. Across the Atlantic in the U.K., they are gobsmacked. In the U.S., we dont get smacked by gobs. Ever. Finally, a familiar word used by both countries but in different ways is cheers. We use the word over drinks when we are wishing someone good health or congratulating an accomplishment. The British use cheers to mean thank you. For that, we Americans say, Thank you! Now, we dont expect you to pick sides. Both American and British English have their strong points. But thanks for listening to Words and Their Stories, a program that teaches American English. Im Anna Matteo. Cheers! I mean, thanks. Anna Matteo wrote this for VOA Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor. ___________________________________________________________ Words in This Story apartment n. a usually rented room or set of rooms that is part of a building and is used as a place to live (British = flat) elevator n. a machine used for carrying people and things to different levels in a building (British = lift) diaper n. a piece of cloth or other material that is placed between a baby's legs and fastened around the waist to hold body waste (British = nappies) stroller n. a small carriage with four wheels that a baby or small child can ride in while someone pushes it (British = prams) trunk n. the enclosed space in the rear of an automobile for carrying articles (British = boot) flashlight n. a small electric light that can be carried in your hand and that runs on batteries (British = torch) flog v. to beat or whip (someone) severely smack v. to strike so as to produce a smack gob n. lump : a large amount skeleton n. the structure of bones that supports the body of a person or animal closet n. a usually small room that is used for storing things (such as clothing, towels, or dishes) (British = cupboard) fancy adj. pricey and fashionable grind v. to crush or break (something) into very small pieces by rubbing it against a rough surface or using a special machine gossip n. information about the behavior and personal lives of other people The flag-lowering honor has been extended more widely over time, including to celebrities and police dogs, leaving some questioning whether th LEXINGTON, Neb. Six new volunteers with the Dawson/Gosper County CASA program were officially sworn in as court appointed special advocates Wednesday afternoon at the Dawson County Courthouse. CASA volunteers, known as advocates, serve as the eyes and ears of the court to make sure children in the foster care system are having their needs met. Volunteers visit the youth they are assigned in their case to document what they see. The six new CASA volunteers sworn in were: Evelin Ortega, Asha Ahmed, Jean Holbrook, Tiffany Burkey, Myriam Palacios and Tom Andrews. Andrews said he has prior experience working with children because he is a former teacher and has mentoring a troubled youth in the past. One troubled youth he mentored, was able to be saved from the court system but not from the addictive hold of drug, he said. I was an agriculture teacher in Nebraska. I have an interest in helping kids, Andrews said. Andrews lives in Gosper County. Mary Gruber, a member of the board of directors for Dawson/Gosper County CASA, said the new volunteers began their training on May 28. Each volunteer was required to complete 30 hours of training, she said. Linda (program director) works really hard to get volunteers trained so we have 100 percent participation of volunteers with cases, Gruber said. Gruber said potential volunteers can now have the flexibility to take a certain number of training hours online and a certain number in a classroom setting. Doug German, also a member of Dawson/Gosper County CASAs board of directors, said it was always important to recruit new volunteers to be able to serve the growing list of youth cases. Its particularly important to recruit volunteers from various parts of the community. We have a 100 percent participation rate with volunteers to cases, which is rare in CASA programs, German said. German said the CASA board is very impressed with the work Linda Shaw, the program director, and Miriam Palacios, the outreach coordinator, do in training and recruiting volunteers. He said he was happy to see CASA staff and volunteers continue to do more outreach events in different communities and continue to inform the community about what CASA does. 1998s animated version of Tarzan was the best possible adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs for a variety of reasons. It had some of the most incredible animation for its time, it had an amazing soundtrack and thinking about it now renders the sweet 90s nostalgia. So a live action version of the Tarzan story, The Legend of Tarzan, has an uphill battle to satisfy both fans of the 90s film and newer audiences. Under David Yates direction, unfortunately the film fails to create much of an impression and ultimately comes across as a hollow CGI heavy bore Tarzans origin story is established in intercutting flashbacks where it is revealed that due to a shipwreck the baby Tarzan was raised by apes in the African jungle. The Legend of Tarzan in fact is set in the 1890s when Tarzan, whose real name is John Clayton (Alexander Skarsgard) is pulled back into civilization and is rechristened as the Earl of Greystroke. He lives along with his wife Jane (Margot Robbie) in England and the stories of Tarzans adventures have become pulp fiction. Heres when things start to fall off the rails the plot becomes convoluted as a civil war hero named George (Samuel Jackson) accompanies Clayton to Congo to investigate slavery and they both fall into some contrived trap set by the racist and villainous Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz). Theres a diamond trade conspiracy and Clayton must revert to becoming Tarzan to thwart Roms evil plans. The problem is the film and the story are far too serious, and the overtly convoluted conspiracy angle rests on a very flimsy story. Theres too much of unnecessary stuff happening and too little of the good stuff that you want from a Tarzan movie. The perfunctory nature of the villains scheme adds little to the excitement levels and it becomes a matter of sitting through the runtime just to see Tarzan emerge triumphant. You know the good guy is going to beat the bad guy, and with virtually no stakes or a real threat to the heros life its impossible to feel anything for the films characters. The other problem with The Legend of Tarzan is the ham-fisted attempts at addressing colour bias. Tarzan and Jane arrive at a tribe where the dark skinned residents greet the white skinned Tarzan like a brother, and the American Jane often thinks of herself as African. Theres no nuance whatsoever to be found here to establish any proper commentary on a real world problem. The conflict in Congo and Roms actions as shown in the movie are allegedly based on real life incidents but nothing in the film will give you any proper understanding of why Rom was committing those atrocities. The character is simply one step ahead of being a stereotypical mustache-twirling villain. Skarsgard, whose face is often in the shadows doesnt have many lines in the film and his extreme gym bod does most of the acting. Robbie is severely miscast as Jane she looks like a very modern woman placed in a period film. It looks like Warner and Disney are making the same kind of blockbuster movies and the latter is consistently making the better ones. Civil War was infinitely better than Batman v Superman. Last months The Jungle Book was a surprisingly engrossing movie, and this weeks The Legend of Tarzan once again feels like an inferior product. Considering their track record its safe to keep the expectations for Warners Jungle Book movie low. If youre looking for a more fun Tarzan movie, you should pop in the DVD of George of the Jungle starring Brendan Fraser. New Delhi: With regulators like the Reserve Bank out of its purview, CAG Shashi Kant Sharma today sought discussion on the need to audit financial sector regulators to check their effectiveness in dealing with frauds. "The developments in the USA and the UK echo demand for more accountability and transparency of the financial sector regulators, as the spate of scandals the world over has subjected the world to unprecedented stresses and turmoil, and there are demands for a higher level of assurance of the functioning of the financial sector regulator," he said. In India, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) does not audit RBI whose auditors are appointed by the central government under the provisions of the RBI Act, he said at an industry event here. "In the light of growing incidences of the financial frauds, it is a thought for consideration as to whether in future our audit should look into risk and vulnerability facing our financial sector and the ability and effectiveness of our regulators to mitigate such risks," Sharma said. He further said that the developments in the USA and the UK will suitably inform such a discourse. "Objective should be to achieve the desired level of assurance, with respect to the effectiveness and functioning of financial sector regulators," he added. Emphasising that risks and vulnerabilities from financial frauds are substantial, the CAG said there should be a comprehensive strategy to deal with them in order to safeguard the integrity of the financial system as well as the enormous public interest. In a country that is largely financially illiterate, the possibility of fraud is much higher and promoting financial literacy is a long term strategy for mitigating this risk, he said. At the same time, he said, the regulators have to work together to not only enhance their capacity to deal with financial frauds, but also to remove any regulatory arbitrage. "The emerging international trend of the oversight of the regulators, in order to provide a higher level of assurance, is an interesting development that must be watched to inform our own system of oversight and assurance," he added. Kozhikode: Kerala will provide financial and other help as well as a job to KP Aswathi, the Dalit girl who fell seriously ill after being allegedly ragged at a nursing college in Karnataka, a minister said on Saturday. "We have given her Rs two lakh. We will meet all her medical expenses and ensure she continues her studies in a nursing college here," Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes A.K. Balan told reporters in Kozhikode. "Once she passes, will give her a job too," said Balan after visiting Aswathi at a state-run hospital here. Aswathi, 19, and the four girls who allegedly ragged her hail from Kerala and were studying in Al Qamar College of Nursing at Gulbarga in Karnataka. The Karnataka Police has so far arrested three girls Lakshmi, Athira and Krishnapriya who have been accused of forcing Aswathi to drink a disinfectant on 9 May in their college hostel, resulting in damage to her internal organs. Another accused, Shilpa Jose, is absconding and her plea for anticipatory bail is posted for hearing on 8 July by the Kerala High Court. Meanwhile, the relatives of the arrested students have told the media that their children are innocent. They said Aswathi drank the liquid on her own to take her own life as a result of issues other than her relationship with the accused. The administration of the nursing college also reportedly said that ragging was not the cause of Aswathi's illness and that the accused actually who took her to a hospital in Karnataka and took care of her. Aswathi was admitted in the hospital in Kozhikode on 2 June. The FIR in the case was filed in Kozhikode on 22 June. The police in Kozhikode then sought Karnataka Police's help in acting on the FIR. A nine-member team of Karnataka Police officials took the victim's statement and has presented the report to a court in Gulbarga. In a fresh breakthrough seven days after the murder of the Chennai Infosys employee, S Swathi, police finally made an arrest late on Friday night. According to The Hindu, the accused, 22-year-old engineering graduate named Ramkumar, was arrested in Tirunelveli district in southern Tamil Nadu for murdering S Swathi at Nungambakkam station in Chennai on 24 June. The man tried to kill himself as the police were trying to arrest him. The update came two days after the Police, on Thursday, released a high resolution front view image of the killer, captured in a privately owned CCTV camera outside the station. He slit his throat with a sharp object and sustained 60 percent injuries, following which he was rushed to a local hospital and given first-aid. Later, he was shifted to the government hospital in Tirunelveli, where the doctors said that his injuries are not serious and he will be shifted to the ICU after "minor procedures," as reported by The Hindu . According to NDTV, the accused had for some time, lived near Swathi's house in Chennai and was infatuated with her. Speaking at a press briefing, the Chennai Police Commissioner said that the accused was stalking her since months. Swathi was aware of the fact but she chose to ignore him. Accused Ramkumar was stalking Swathi continuously, she didn't give in to it: Chennai Police Commissioner on techie murder ANI (@ANI_news) July 2, 2016 The Commissioner also said, that so far Ramkumar is the only accused in the case. To instil confidence police is taking all action in city. As of now there is only one accused: Chennai Police Commissioner on techie murder ANI (@ANI_news) July 2, 2016 S Swathi, a 24-year-old woman, was waiting at the platform number two of Nungambakkam station to board a local train to work like any other day. However, on 24 June, a young man approached her from behind and hacked her to death in front of thousands of horrified onlookers. The murder brought to the fore the lack of safety of women in the southern Indian state as a man committed murder in broad daylight and the lack of public empathy was highlighted. Swathi's body was "left like an exhibit," the Madras High Court commented, as the onlookers chose to click pictures while many boarded the next train to leave, according to the NDTV. Valsad, Gujarat: Nine persons were on Saturday airlifted after they got stranded on a rock in the middle of Damanganga river in the district as its water level rose suddenly due to rains in neighbouring Maharashtra. Police said an Indian Coast Guard (ICG) helicopter airlifted them after they remained stranded on the rock for several hours in the middle of the overflowing river near Bari Kachigam village at Umargam tehsil. "These persons were searching for the body of a boy from the same village who drowned in it a day ago. However, as the rains continued, the water level increased in the river even before they could come out, and were thus left stranded there," Valsad Superintendent of Police Prem Vir Singh said. "They climbed on a rock in the middle of the river and stayed there for hours before police arrived. When police called local fire department team, they said they will not be able to rescue them, upon which the ICG was asked to provide a helicopter to bring them out," Singh said. According to the officer, the rescue operation involving the helicopter went on for nearly an hour. PTI New Delhi: Alarmed by the terror attack in Dhaka in neighbouring Bangladesh, the government on Saturday sounded high alert in states bordering that country, including West Bengal, Tripura and Assam. Official sources said here that the Union home ministry has directed the Border Security Force (BSF) and other agencies to keep strict vigil along the international borders. "Adequate security measures need to be taken in border areas of West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya," an informed source said. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh got a briefing on the situation in Bangladesh from senior officials in the ministry and security agencies. Reports received so far said personnel of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka were safe, sources said. Bangladesh has lately seen an increase in militant Islamist violence. Home to about 150 million Muslims, Bangladesh has for long been able to ward off Islamic radicalism and the Sheikh Hasina government in particular has been widely considered to be committed to secularism. However, Islamic fundamentalism of the Wahabi and Talibani variety has of late "plagued" a section of the Bangladeshi society as manifested in attacks on secular writers, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians, say Indian intelligence agencies. "Apparently it all moved according to a set pattern," an informed source told IANS. Official sources said Tripura and Assam governments have reported to the Central government in recent past the activities of a few Bangladesh-based Islamic organisations which "could have also aligned to the ISIS" mainly in terms of getting funds and identifying "raw recruits". The government has advised the media to exercise self-restraint in reporting on the situation in Bangladesh as "sensationalising" things would not help fight terrorism. "We have always considered Bangladesh a friendly country and the administration and the security forces there would do its best to fight terrorism," the source said. United Nations: India has demanded in the UN that perpetrators of terror attacks and the nations that sponsor and provide safe havens to terrorists must be made accountable and it called for early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT). "Of all the threats that are global in nature and should concern us all, terrorism is amongst the most serious. It is one that impacts lives of innocent people across the world," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said at the fifth review of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy on Friday. Akbaruddin voiced India's firm conviction that no belief, justification, political cause or argument can be used to justify the acts of terrorism. "The perpetrators of terrorist attacks as well as the States that support and sponsor or provide safe havens to terrorists or terrorist groups must be made accountable," he said, adding that no single country can address the challenge of terrorism alone. "No country remains immune to this threat. Victims of such heinous attacks also do not belong only to a single country or ethnicity or faith," he said. The 193-member General Assembly continued its 5th review of Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and adopted a resolution to redouble efforts to work swiftly, collectively and effectively in rooting out the scourge. Akbaruddin said while India is in broad agreement with most of the resolution adopted, he expressed disappointment over the "unfinished agenda" of the Comprehensive Convention of Terrorism. "In our opinion this signals that the exponential rise in terrorist activities around the world has left us untouched," he said, urging all delegations to make "sincere efforts" to reach an agreement on concluding the Convention at the earliest and by the 71st session of the UNGA. "This would show that the international community is determined and pledges to take concrete actions on counter-terrorism by filling in the gaps that are there in the existing regime," he said. India has been pressing for early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), a long-pending legal framework which would make it binding for all countries to deny funds and safe haven to terror groups. With the objective of providing a comprehensive legal framework to combat terrorism, India took the initiative to pilot a draft CCIT in 1996 but the convention has not yet been adopted as nations have "entangled" themselves on the issue of definition of terrorism. Bangladesh's envoy to the UN Masud Bin Momen said during the UN meeting that "a situation was unfolding" in his country "involving armed assailants". Suspected Islamic State militants stormed a restaurant in Dhaka's high-security Gulshan diplomatic area last night and held many people hostage, including foreigners. He said institutional gaps in the UN system to address the underlying causes of terrorism must be addressed and corrected. He said Bangladesh's counter-terrorism efforts included working with educators, religious leaders and civil society to reach youth and other groups. Pointing out that currently there are nearly 40 entities under the UN involved in different ways in the fight against terrorism, Akbaruddin suggested it would be useful to have a senior official or an entity to coordinate the entire range of activities and bring more focus to such activities. "We feel that this would be useful to convey a clear signal that counter terrorism has a significant place on the UN agenda. It would show that we recognise the urgent and serious nature of the threat posed by terrorism and that we are ever more determined in our intention to take on this threat collectively," he said. Though the resolution 'The United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy Review', the Assembly affirmed the importance of integrated and balanced implementation of all four pillars of the Strategy: addressing conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism; preventing and combating terrorism; building the capacity of States and strengthening the role of the United Nations; and ensuring respect for human rights and compliance with the rule of law. Akbaruddin said it is essential to reflect the "determination of the international political will" through the counter-Terrorism forum at the United Nations to join hands to counter terrorism more effectively. He said while individual nations take measures to counter the threat of terrorism, at the forum of UNs counter-terrorism strategy the international community has been making efforts to see whether it can demonstrate a collective political will to stand up to the terrorists "whose networks are increasingly global in nature, not restrained by any boundaries." With the terror threat growing dramatically in the last couple of years, Akbaruddin said it has become ever-more necessary for the international community to show that it will be united in taking up this challenge. Referring to the "heinous attacks" in Turkey, Somalia, Afghanistan and Kenya over the last few days, he said they are stark reminders that the international community must increase its cooperation in tackling the scourge. The resolution urged all UN member states, as well as the world body, to unite against violent extremism and called upon nations to strengthen international, regional, subregional and bilateral cooperation in countering the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters, to engage with domestic financial institutions and share information on terrorist financing risks, and to adopt legal measures for the prohibition of incitement to commit terrorist acts. A BMW car allegedly driven by an MLA's son, who was suspected to be in an inebriated state, on Saturday hit an autorickshaw here killing three persons and then rammed into a PCR van in which four policemen were injured. Siddharth Maharia, son of Independent MLA Nandkishore Maharia, was driving the car at high speed at around 1.30 AM in C-scheme area in Jaipur, police claimed. He first hit an autorickshaw and then a PCR van, police said, adding under the impact of the crash, the three-wheeler fell about 200 feet away from the site. "Two of the passengers of the autorickshaw died on the spot and as many were injured. One Assistant Sub Inspector and three other policemen on duty were also injured. "The five injured were rushed to SMS hospital where another passenger of the autorickshaw succumbed to injuries," DCP South Manish Agarwal said. The ASI received head injury and is being treated while other policemen were given primary treatment, he said. Additional DCP Yogesh Goyal said the accused Siddharth was drunk, "as per the initial assessment", and a medical test was conducted to confirm it. "There were four persons in the car. Two managed to escape and two Siddharth and his relative Jayant were caught. They are at a police station and action against the driver will be taken after the registration of an FIR," he said. One of the deceased was identified as Jethamal (40) and efforts are on to ascertain the identity of others, SHO Ashok Nagar police station, Bala Ram said. The autorickshaw was on its way from Chandpole to Mansarover when the mishap occurred. MLA Nand Kishore Maharia told The Indian Express that Sidharth was at his uncle's house at the time of the accident and the car was driven by the driver. He claimed that the autorickshaw did not have radium plates and alleged that the accident was caused by the dark conditions. In an interview with ANI, Sidharth too laid the blame on the driver. Jaipur: Will get in touch with the families of the deceased, ready to help them: Sidharth (son of MLA Nand Kishor) pic.twitter.com/HXPZ34n28Y ANI (@ANI_news) July 2, 2016 Doctor gave me clean chit in the hospital. Driver was driving the car: Sidharth (son of MLA Nand Kishor) pic.twitter.com/SAO12c6fpd ANI (@ANI_news) July 2, 2016 Wherever a big car and youngsters are involved, there is doubt of alcohol consumption. Nothing like that: Sidharth (son of MLA Nand Kishor) ANI (@ANI_news) July 2, 2016 With inputs from PTI Dehradun: Accusing Chief Minister Harish Rawat of levelling unfounded allegations against the Centre, BJP on Saturday credited Narendra Modi government with responding to the rain havoc in Uttarakhand with urgency and rushing adequate NDRF teams to the state to control the situation. Thanking the Centre for acting immediately to address the crisis, Pradesh BJP President Ajay Bhatt said the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh came forward to extend a helping hand to Uttarakhand was "worthy of great praise". "The Centre spring into action immediately and rushed additional companies of NDRF to affected districts besides galvanising other central agencies to address the situation," Bhatt said. Four NDRF teams have been kept in reserve to deal with any emergencies. The Centre is in constant touch with the state and ready to lend a helping hand whenever required, he said. "Earlier, the BJP-led government at the Centre extended a helping hand to the state government when forest fires in state acquired the proportions of a crisis this year," he said. Criticising the Chief Minister and state unit of ruling Congress for hurling baseless allegations against BJP central leaders and running to them to seek their help in times of a crisis, he asked them not to forget political etiquette. We are often too critical of our country. We keep talking about the poverty, unemployment or population crisis in India but do not pay enough attention to the good things like India's diversity, unity and culture. In fact, former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam had asked Indian media to stop focusing on negative news and give their readers and viewers more positive reports. India may have its problems but an Israeli soldier who served in the Israel Defence Forces for three years will tell you how India helped him get rid of some very heavy burdens he had been carrying for a long time. In a poignant article in The Times of Israel, a tank commander who served in the 2014 Gaza war shows how life can change while constantly living in a conflict zone and facing battles all the time, something which most Indians do not have to deal with and also something we Indians often take for granted. "There is a weight that comes with living in this country (Israel), a weight that many of us carry, a lost friend or family member, or simply the everyday stress of not living in the safest of places," Israeli soldier Shalev Paller says in the article. Paller then describes India and its people in one of the most beautiful and accurate ways to describe a country as complex as ours. "When I first arrived in India, I was a sponge. I stood in the middle of a busy market in Old Delhi, took a deep breath, and soaked it all in: the smells, the faces, the colors, the sounds, all so new and strange and intense. An entire road filled with mountains of books. An alleyway too spicy to walk through. A family of six on a single motorbike. A bony old man, with legs of an ox, pulling a massive vegetable-filled cart. A woman with gray tired eyes sitting with her children in the middle of a market," Paller says in the article. He also recounts the time he spent with the owner of a chai shop and laundry service, known as Chacha, in Delhi. Walking with him through the markets, Paller describes, "was like accompanying the pope through the Vatican". Paller further writes that Chacha was able to recognise the huge burdens troubling Paller and said, "I see pain in you, my friend, you laugh with sadness. The next time I see you, I want you happy, yeah?" The timeless connection that an Israeli soldier formed with our country shows that we, the people of India, must also have that connection. Perhaps we have forgotten it, or maybe we just need to pay more attention to it. Washington: Holding 'walking meetings' at work instead of conventional seated ones just once a week may increase the physical activity levels of white-collar workers by 10 minutes, a new study has found. The study suggests a possible new health promotion approach to improving the health of millions of white-collar workers who spend most of their workdays sitting in chairs. "There are limited opportunities for physical activity at work. This walking meeting pilot study provides early evidence that white-collar workers find it feasible and acceptable to convert a traditional seated meeting into a walking meeting," said Alberto J Caban-Martinez, assistant professor at the University of Miami (UM) Miller School of Medicine. "Physical activity interventions such as the walking meeting protocol that encourage walking and raise levels of physical activity in the workplace are needed to counter the negative health effects of sedentary behaviour," Caban-Martinez said. Participants in the study, who were white-collar workers, wore accelerometers to measure physical activity levels during the workday over a three-week period. They also followed a "walking meeting protocol" that included guidance for leading meetings and taking notes while walking. The average combined moderate/vigorous physical activity reported by participants increased from 107 minutes in the first week to 114 minutes in the second week and to 117 minutes in week three of the study. "Having sedentary white-collar workers consider walking meetings feasible suggests that this intervention has the potential to positively influence the health of many individuals," said Hannah Kling, a graduate of UM's Department of Public Health Sciences. Previous studies have proven that engaging in moderate exercise, which includes brisk walking, for as little as 15 minutes per day can add up to three years of life expectancy. The study was published in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease. Hyderabad: MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday charged the BJP with trying to impose a 'Hindu rashtra' on the country in the name of the Uniform Civil Code. Talking to reporters, he said that the Bharatiya Janata Party was trying to implement the RSS agenda as it had failed to fulfill poll promises. The Hyderabad MP was reacting to the BJP-led government seeking Law Commission's views on implementation of uniform civil code. "After failing to provide 1.5 crore jobs, deregulate gas and kerosene and reviving economy, the BJP is trying to implement RSS' main agenda of imposing Hindu rashtra," he alleged. He wondered if the government can do away with Article 371 which has given cultural rights and protection to Mizoram and Nagaland. "Hindu undivided families get tax rebates. Can you remove them?" he asked. The MP said the government should try for total prohibition which is one of the 16 directive principles of the Constitution, contending that alcohol is a cause of many evils in society and is also leading to deaths in road accidents. Owaisi also defended his announcement that he will provide legal aid to five youth arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and accused the media of blowing this out of proportion. "If I don't give the legal help, court will appoint a lawyer for them. In our democracy, every accused gets legal aid and that is how we do justice in our country," he said and pointed out that legal aid was given even to Mumbai attack convict Ajmal Kasab. He said NIA had made some charges but the families of the arrested youth told him they are innocent. "The court will decide whether they are guilty or not, and everyone has to accept the court verdict," he said. The MP reiterated that media by trying to sensationalize the case and was targeting old city where Hindus and Muslims were living peacefully. Owaisi reiterated that he was the first to condemn Islamic State and continue to do so. "IS are terrorists and there are no two opinions about it. All Islamic scholars have condemned them," he said. He also reiterated that if those arrested were acquitted by a court of law, the NIA officers who arrested them should be suspended. He said in many cases Muslim youth were acquitted by courts but they lost many precious years, citing the cases of the Akshardham attack and the Malegaon and Makkah Masjid blast cases. "Who is responsible for their losing those precious years.Just because he is a Muslim, it doesn't mean he has no right to respect to life," he said. Dhaka: Twenty foreigners were brutally murdered with sharp weapons by Islamic State militants inside a restaurant popular with expatriates in the high-security diplomatic zone before elite commandos stormed the cafe today and killed them, ending Bangladesh's worst hostage crisis. Director of Military Operations Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said the militants slaughtered 20 hostages before the joint operation led by the armed forces began. Most of those killed were found with their throat slit, he added. "Army Para commando Unit-1 led the operation and killed six terrorists within 13 minutes," Chowdhury told reporters. The mission codenamed 'Operation Thunderbolt' was launched after the Prime Minister ordered the army to intervene to end the hostage crisis, he said. All 20 hostages killed were foreigners, with most being Italian or Japanese. Two senior police officers were also killed in the gunbattle that began last night. He said the bodies of the victims were recovered during a search in the Holey Artisan Bakery compound after the operation. The bodies were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital morgue for autopsy to confirm their identity. Gunshots and sounds of explosion rocked the area at 7:40 am (local time) as security forces launched the final offensive to end the siege. Soon after the offensive, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced the end of siege and said security forces "successfully" wrapped up their operation, freeing 13 hostages after killing six terrorists and capturing one militant at the Spanish restaurant. "I thank Allah as we could destroy the terrorists and rescue the hostages," Hasina said, adding that "none of the terrorists could flee the scene, six of them were killed on the spot and one was captured alive." Hasina vowed to do everything to "uproot the militants and violent extremists" from Bangladesh. "It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these people? They don't have any religion," she said in a televised speech, referring to the terrorists. "They (gunmen) defied the call of Ramadan's tarabi (special evening) prayers and went to kill people...The way they killed people is intolerable. They don't have any religion...terrorism is their religion," said Hasina, flanked by Army chief General Abu Belal Muhammad Shafiul Huq. Among those rescued were Indian, Sri Lankan and Japanese nationals, media reports said. Hasina said around 30 people were injured in the attack. Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack through its Amaq news agency, nearly four hours after the hostage crisis unfolded, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence group, which monitors jihadist activity online. It later issued a number of photographs of what it said were scenes from inside the restaurant. The pictures showed what appeared to be a number of bodies lying in pools of blood. Amaq claimed that 24 people had been killed in the attack carried out by what it described as "Islamic State commandos." Heavy firing and explosions continued at least for an hour after the operation began this morning. A resident of a building, just 50 yards from the scene, reported spotting snipers firing from their guns. Shots were also fired from armoured personnel carriers (APCs). Grenades were also apparently exploded. Later, the APCs broke through the walls and entered the restaurant premises. After hours of quiet at the Holey Artisan Bakery where terrorists were holding hostages, a fresh round of heavy gunfire rang out in the morning. "Our law enforcement agencies responded promptly soon after the terrorists raided the restaurant...as they were about to take action, two police officers were killed by the terrorists," Hasina said. She said the situation prompted the authorities to call out army commandos from cantonments in north-eastern Sylhet, suburban Savar and the Dhaka garrison overnight. "At around 4 in the morning, the operational plan was laid out and the security forces launched the assault," she said. Army men in armoured personnel carriers (APCs) had moved in with commandos. Over 1,000 rounds of gunshots were fired and almost 100 blasts were heard in the first half an hour of the raid, media reports said. Last night, terrorists shouting "Allahu Akbar" barged into the cafe, frequented by diplomats and expatriates, and opened indiscriminate fire at around 9:20 pm (local time). The military-led rescue operation today was launched jointly by a navy commando squad, paramilitary BGB, elite anti-crime RAB along with special police units. The deceased policemen have been identified as officer in-charge of nearby Banani police station, Salahuddin Ahmed and Additional Commissioner of Police Rabiul. An Argentine national and a local escaped after taking refuge in a nearby house when the gunmen entered the restaurant. Police said they have detained two employees of the eatery for questioning. The Muslim-majority Bangladesh has witnessed a wave of deadly attacks on religious minorities and secular bloggers by suspected Islamist militants. A 48-year-old Hindu priest was today stabbed and critically injured by unidentified assailants in Bangladesh's Satkhira district. Earlier yesterday, a Hindu priest and a Buddhist leader were brutally hacked to death by machete-wielding Islamic State militants while another Hindu man survived a bid on his life. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the Dhaka attack has "pained us beyond words" as he spoke to his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina, conveying that India stands firmly with the country in this hour of grief. "The attack in Dhaka has pained us beyond words," he tweeted about the terror strike at a restaurant popular with foreigners in which 24 people were killed during over 12-hour hostage situation. Modi said he spoke to Hasina and "strongly condemned the despicable attack". In a series of tweets, he said, "India stands firmly with our sisters & brothers of Bangladesh in this hour of grief.. My thoughts are with the bereaved families. I pray that those who are injured recover quickly." The attack in Dhaka has pained us beyond words. I spoke to PM Sheikh Hasina & strongly condemned the despicable attack. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 2, 2016 India stands firmly with our sisters & brothers of Bangladesh in this hour of grief. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 2, 2016 My thoughts are with the bereaved families. I pray that those who are injured recover quickly. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 2, 2016 The Islamic State terrorists struck at the restaurant located in high-security diplomatic area on Friday night and the hostage crisis ended on Saturday morning with army commandos storming the place and killing all the six attackers. Dhaka: Heavily armed militants chanting "Allahu Akbar" asked their hostages at a popular eatery here to recite Quranic verses to know who among them were Muslims. Others were hacked to death, according to one of the many eyewitness accounts of the gory Bangladesh carnage that has shocked the world. The Daily Star citing a father of a hostage said the militants who stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery, a popular hangout for foreigners in the high-security and affluent Gulshan diplomatic zone of the Bangladesh capital, performed a religion identity check on their captives and asked them to recite the Quran. Those who recited verses from the holy Muslim book were spared, the daily said. "The others were tortured by the gunmen," said Rezaul Karim, father of one of the hostages Hasnat Karim. Hasnat had gone to celebrate his 13-year-old daughter's birthday along with his wife Sharmin Parvin and son Rayan, 8. The family was rescued early in the morning. Rezaul quoting his son said the gunmen did not behave "rough with the Bangladesh nationals" and provided dinner to all of them. He said the gunmen killed all the foreign nationals dining in the eatery by 11 Friday night. By the end, five gunmen sustained bullet injuries and "probably died". Hasnat's mother told Bangladesh News 24 that Parvin, her daughter-in-law, was treated well "as she was wearing a hijab (veil)". Some of the other witnesses said they saw militants, one of them armed with a sword and the others carrying "small firearms with big magazines" raiding the restaurant. The men shouted 'Allahu Akbar' (God is great) on their way in and started firing at the dozens of guests inside several of them foreigners, the restaurant's supervisor Sumon Reza, who managed to escape, was quoted as saying by Bangladesh News 24. The restaurant has 50 staff but only 20 were present at the time of the attack. A kitchen staff of the bakery, who managed to escape, said the chief chef was among the hostages. "They set off several crude bombs triggering panic." Gruesome pictures emerged on social media showing the inside of the bakery, splattered with blood and broken furniture. BERLIN Attacks by Islamist militants pose the biggest security threat for Germany and events like the shooting and bombing in Istanbul this week could happen in Germany, the head of the country's domestic intelligence agency (BfV) told a Saturday newspaper. Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul's main airport on Tuesday, the deadliest in a string of attacks in Turkey this year. "We can't rule out attacks like those in Istanbul also happening in our country," Hans-Georg Maassen told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He said recent military defeats for Islamic State were not demoralising jihadists here, and attacks in Europe were becoming ever more important for Islamic State to intimidate people and send the message to followers that "we're still here". (Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Mark Potter) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Beijing: At least 19 people were killed and 12 remained missing in heavy rains and landslides in China, officials said on Saturday. At least eleven people were killed and a dozen remain missing after a massive landslide swept through a village in southwest China's Guizhou on Friday. A total of 30 people were buried by debris when intense rain triggered a mud-slide around 5.30 am on Saturday in Pianpo Village, Dafang County, in the city of Bijie. Seven people were pulled alive from the debris, while 11 were pronounced dead at the scene, according to the county government. More than 800 soldiers and rescuers are working with excavators to find the 12 people who remain missing. The landslide involved more than 95,00 cubic meters of mud flow. In another incident, eight people were killed today after a wall collapsed due to heavy rain in Wuhan City, capital of central China's Hubei Province. The accident occurred when a 15-meter section of the wall of a company in Jiangxia District toppled, local officials said. Eight people who walked near the wall, more than two meters high, were buried by the debris and found dead after being pull out by rescuers, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Rain and storms have wreaked havoc across south China since 27 June, leaving at least 34 people dead or missing nationwide, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The Yangtze river reported its first flood peak this year on Friday. Heavy rain swelled the Jushui river, a 170 km-long tributary of the Yangtze. Floods from swollen rivers forced more than 12,000 people to relocate overnight, the Hubei provincial disaster relief headquarters said. Nationwide, 133 counties in 11 provincial-level regions including the provinces of Hubei, Jiangsu and Zhejiang have reported floods, landslides or mud flows. Some 1,20,000 people have been displaced and 40,000 are in need of aid. More than 3,600 homes collapsed and 19,900 hectares of crops destroyed. Direct economic losses hit 3.14 billion yuan (about USD 471.6 million), the ministry said. The weather authority on Friday again forecast heavy rain and warned of severe floods in parts of Anhui, Hunan, Guizhou and Tibet. The National Meteorological Centre and the Ministry of Water Resources asked local authorities to monitor weather and take all necessary precautions. Yangon: A mob wielding weapons razed a mosque in northern Myanmar, state media reported Saturday, the second attack of its kind in just over a week as anti-Muslim sentiment swells in the Buddhist majority nation. Myanmar has struggled to contain bouts of deadly religious bloodshed in recent years, with bristling sectarian tensions and rising Buddhist nationalism posing a steep challenge to the new government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. On Friday villagers in Hpakant, a jade-mining town in northern Kachin state, ransacked a mosque "wielding sticks, knives and other weapons" before burning it down, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar. "The mob was unresponsive and entirely beyond control. The building was razed by the riotous crowd," the paper reported, adding that the rampage was sparked by a dispute over the mosque's construction. No arrests have been made, it said. A local NGO worker who visited the town Saturday told AFP security forces had been deployed to maintain order. "Police are now controlling the area and it is stable," said Dashi Naw Lawn, from the Kachin Network Development Foundation. The riot came eight days after a Buddhist mob destroyed a mosque in central Bago, forcing the Muslim community to seek refuge in a neighbouring town. Tensions are also rising in western Rakhine, a state scarred by deadly riots in 2012 that have left communities almost completely divided along religious lines. The region is home to the stateless Rohingya, a Muslim minority largely relegated to destitute displacement camps and subject to host of restrictions on their movements and access to basic services. Suu Kyi, a veteran democracy activist who championed her country's struggle against repressive military rulers, has drawn criticism from rights groups for not taking swifter moves to carve out a solution for the ethnic minority. Her government recently ordered officials to refer to the group as "people who believe in Islam in Rakhine State" instead of Rohingya a term whose use has set off protests by hardliners who insist the group are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Yet the government's broad phrase has failed to placate local Rakhine Buddhists, who demand the group be referred to only as "Bengalis" and say they are preparing to rally in protest at the order on Sunday. After a 12-day visit across the country, including troubled Rakhine, a UN rights investigator warned Friday that "tensions along religious lines remain pervasive across Myanmar society". Yanghee Lee urged the country's new civilian government to make "ending institutionalised discrimination against the Muslim communities in Rakhine State...an urgent priority". London: In its bid to erase all traces of ISIS (also Islamic State or IS), Facebook has asked a terror group namesake to send her proof of ID to continue using the social network. Isis Thomas, a resident of Bristol in Britain, was asked to change her name after logging on to the site on 27 June, RT.com reported on Saturday. Isis is the Egyptian goddess of health, marriage and wisdom. Thomas assumed that the social networking giant was referring to her surname. "I was on Facebook as Isis Worcester, because when I first signed up years ago I didn't use my real name, which is Isis Thomas, because of where I worked at the time," she told a local newspaper. "I thought it was about the surname, so I just changed it to Isis Thomas. But that didn't work and I realised they had a problem with me being called Isis," she added. Facebook sent her a message saying "Isis is not allowed" as it "didn't comply with policy". Thomas was asked for her "proof of identity," which she duly sent. But she fears that satisfying the social network's criteria may take a little more. Besides innocent people, some companies too have faced problems in the past due to their names. The US-based $7.2 billion Isis Pharmaceuticals had to change its name to Ionis Pharmaceuticals in December 2015 due to its name having negative connotations. A 35-year old US bookstore was also reportedly vandalised due to it being called Isis Books & Gifts. Washington: President Barack Obama is backtracking on his warning that Britain would go to the "back of the queue" for a US trade deal, as he tries to contain the fallout of the UK's decision to leave the European Union. The shift in tone illustrates how Britain's vote has abruptly scrambled Obama's reality. Where the president had tried to encourage the UK not to rashly abandon the European bloc, he now must reassure Britain that its decision to do so won't mean its demise. His priority of locking in trade deals before leaving office now becomes a distant second, behind the more urgent task of restoring confidence in the financial markets and in Europe's future. "The Obama administration and a number of leaders in Europe as well is trying to calm the waters. At this point, there are more questions than answers," said Miriam Sapiro, Obama's former acting trade representative and now an adviser at the strategy firm Finsbury. Obama's attempt to show support for a struggling ally casts him in the role of forceful free-trade advocate at a time when all of the major presidential candidates running to replace him are vocally opposed. Yet current and former Obama administration officials are operating under the assumption that Democrat Hillary Clinton, if elected, would come around to supporting Obama's trade deals after finding ways to reconcile specific concerns she's raised about jobs, wages and national security. Before Britain's exit vote, or Brexit, Obama's administration was deep in negotiations toward a sweeping free trade deal with the 28-nation EU. Supporters of the Brexit had argued the UK wouldn't lose out on US commerce because it could easily broker a one-on-one deal with the US. So during a visit to London in April, Obama sought to correct the record, arguing that wouldn't "happen any time soon." Obama's warning reflected his broader belief that separate trade deals with individual countries are too laborious, given the countless regulations, laws and standards that must be aligned to create a free trade zone. Instead, Obama has sought to broker broad deals with universal requirements, so that any country that agrees to the conditions can join. His 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership with Asia, awaiting ratification in Congress, is a prime example of that multi-member approach. New Delhi: Condemning the terror attack in Bangladesh capital in which 20 people were killed, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday pitched for "collective and decisive" action against those behind the strike. Expressing deepest condolences to the families of those killed, Sonia called for immediate collective and decisive action against those who are behind these attack in Dhaka. "Congress stands firmly with people of Bangladesh in these testing times," she said, adding that such attacks are "contradiction of all ethical and human values". "Strongly condemn the #Dhaka attack. My prayers are with the people of Dhaka and B'desh. This senseless violence must be fought strongly & unitedly," Rahul said in a tweet. Strongly condemn the #Dhaka attack. My prayers are with the ppl of Dhaka& B'desh.This senseless violence must be fought strongly & unitedly Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) July 2, 2016 Twenty foreigners, including an Indian girl, were hacked to death by suspected ISIS militants inside a cafe popular with expatriates in Dhaka's diplomatic zone in the worst terror attack in Bangladesh before commandos launched an assault today killing six attackers and capturing one alive. Dhaka: Unidentified attackers stabbed and critically wounded a Hindu priest in southwest Bangladesh Saturday, just a day after a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in an attack by suspected Islamist militants. Police said 48-year-old priest Bhabasindhu Roy of the Sri Sri Radha Gobinda Temple in Satkhira district was attacked inside the temple compound as he slept. "They stabbed him in his chest and back. His condition is critical and we're trying to send him to a hospital in Dhaka," deputy chief of Satkhira police Atqul Haq told AFP. He said it bore the hallmarks of recent attacks on minorities by suspected Islamist militants. The attack came just hours after gunmen stormed a restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital and took dozens of people hostage including several foreigners. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack Friday night on the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant in Dhaka's upmarket Gulshan diplomatic quarter in which two police officers were killed. On Friday a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in the western Bangladesh district of Jhenaidah. Three men on a motorcycle attacked Shyamananda Das as he walked along a road near the temple early in the morning, police said. Last month a Hindu priest, 70-year-old Ananda Gopal Ganguly, was hacked to death in the same district. Bangladesh is reeling from a wave of murders of secular and liberal activists and religious minorities that have left some 50 people dead in the last three years. Victims of the attacks by suspected Islamists have included secular bloggers, gay rights activists and followers of minority religions including Hindus, Christians and Muslim Sufis and Shiites. Since April, more than a dozen people have been hacked to death amid a sharp spike in the targeted killings. Most of the recent attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State organisation or the South Asian branch of Al-Qaeda. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government, however, has blamed homegrown Islamists for the attacks. Experts say a government crackdown on opponents, including a ban on the largest Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami following a protracted political crisis, has pushed many towards extremism. Last month police arrested more than 11,000 people, including nearly 200 suspected militants, in an anti-Islamist drive criticised by the opposition and some rights groups, which said it was used as an excuse to clamp down on dissent. At least nine suspected Islamists were shot dead in what police said were gunfights. Some rights activists contradict that account and say they were extrajudicial killings. For more information, follow our live updates on the Bangladesh Bakery attack. Three environmental activists were sentenced to 18 months in prison by a court in Koh Kong province Friday for threatening to destroy a sand dredging companys equipment during a field trip last year. The trio from the NGO Mother Nature San Mala, Try Sovikea, and Sim Samnang was then released, having already served more than 10 months in jail. The judge ruled that the remainder of their sentence would be suspended, but ordered them to pay about $25,000 to the plaintiffs and fines of about $500. In Kongchet, provincial coordinator for the rights group Licadho, told VOA that Min Makara, the presiding judge in the trial, released the activists on Friday afternoon. He added that the financial penalties would be a heavy burden for the men. The decision to fine so much money was an act of imposing a huge burden on poor people and volunteers working to help society and sacrifice their personal job and families to help society, he said. He added that the compensation the company demanded was excessive under the law. It did not comply with the law because the accused people should not have been detained for more than four months for a misdemeanor case," he said. "When they were jailed for four months, they should be sent for trial. Iv Tray, the deputy prosecutor, declined to comment, referring questions to Judge Min Makara, who also declined to comment. San Chandara, a Mother Nature representative, said the organization would take legal advice as to whether the large compensation claim could be withdrawn or decreased. We will discuss further with our lawyer who works on this case in terms of a civil lawsuit to the company that demanded compensation, he said. Try Kimly, 21, the younger sister of Sovikea, said there was no chance the family could afford his share of the payments. We think that, as we didnt damage anything, there is no need to pay, she said. The decision to detain three environmentalists came after Mother Nature launched a campaign in July last year to take direct action against sand-dredging companies Direct Access and International Rainbow Company. Activists and local community members are concerned that the activities of the companies are illegal and also that the unregulated sand dredging causes river bank erosion and a loss of biodiversity. The anti-sand dredging campaign came on the heels of a successful campaign to stop the construction of the Stung Cheay Areng hydropower dam. This report was produced in collaboration with VOA's Khmer Service. The terror attack at an upscale Dhaka restaurant that left more than 20 people dead was condemned Saturday by some Islamic scholars in Bangladesh, who said the targeting of non-Muslims is contrary to the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. In her speech to the nation Saturday evening, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also called the attackers "un-Islamic." Militants burst into the restaurant Friday evening yelling "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great") and firing rifles as they took the people inside hostage. Bangladeshi troops stormed the restaurant about 12 hours after the attack began, rescuing more than a dozen people. When the standoff was over, authorities found 20 people, mostly foreigners, hacked to death by the attackers. At least two police officers were also killed. Among those killed were nine Italians, seven Japanese and one American. Six of the attackers were killed and one was captured. It is believed many of those killed by the militants were slain a few hours after the siege began. Some of those who were rescued reported that the militants spared those who could recite a verse from the Quran. No 'scent of heaven' Leading cleric Maulana Fariduddin Masoud, chairman of Bangladesh Jamiatul Ulama (BJU), a national body of Islamic scholars, said the killing of the innocent people by the suspected Islamists was a barbaric act and the targeting of non-Muslims was antithetical to the teachings of Islam. "Someone who kills the non-Muslims who are living in Muslim-majority society will not even get the scent of heaven, let alone getting an entry to the heaven. Attacking non-Muslims is haram [forbidden] and impermissible in the eye of Islam," Masoud said. "Their blood, honor and wealth are as sacred as those of Muslims," the cleric told VOA on Saturday. Last month, Masoud issued a fatwa, signed by more than 100,000 Islamic scholars, legal experts and clerics, condemning terrorism and militancy, including violent attacks on non-Muslims. "According to Prophet Muhammad, such offense deserves harsh punishment," Masoud told VOA. The carnage at the restaurant took place during the Muslim holy night of Laylatul Qadr, or Night of Power, when Muslims are supposed to spend the whole night in worship of God, the Islamic scholar noted. "During this holy night, leaving out compulsory prayer, the barbarian gang went down to slaughter innocent people. By indulging in such ghastly crime, they have proved that they are not fighting for Islam, but they are enemies of Islam," Masoud said. The militants killed nine women and one child during the Dhaka attack. BJUs legal adviser, Mufti Junud Uddin Maktum, said that even during war, killing of those who are not involved in the war, including women, children and elderly people, is sternly prohibited in Islam. "As they launch such attacks targeting innocent people, they believe that they are on holy jihad. Its completely wrong. Jihad, which is one of the main orders of Islam, is striving for self-improvement and to establish peace, security and eternal welfare," Maktum told VOA. "What they are indulging in is nothing but terrorism, which is haram and illegal in Islam," he said. IS claims responsibility Five hours after the militants laid siege to the resturant, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. Early Saturday, the group posted photographs it claimed showed the bodies of foreigners killed by its operatives. Rita Katz, executive direcor of the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, said in a tweet Saturday that IS also published photos of five jihadists who took part in the assault. The Bangladesh government has not issued any statement on the IS claim of responsibility. The government has long said that no foreign terror group has any foothold in Bangladesh. Just two weeks ago, the national police chief said that the local hard-line Islamist groups Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) and Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were behind all targeted killings in the country. ABT pledges allegiance to al-Qaida, and JMB claims to be working for IS in Bangladesh. Hasina, in her nationally televised speech Saturday, said those who have gone astray are indulging in heinous terrorist activities should return to the right path. "Islam is a religion of peace. You should stop killing people in the name of Islam," the prime minister said. She also said she doubted the killers in the restaurant were Muslim. "In the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims offer prayer and remain in good thoughts and deeds. At such a time, they launched this ghastly attack and killed the people," she said. "I doubt if these people really followed Islam." The United States is poised to through on criticism of the recent crackdown on Cambodian opposition and civil society by linking its multimillion-dollar aid package for 2017 to improvements in human rights. The next fiscal years assistance package to Cambodia will amount to about $77.8 million, according to an appropriations bill approved last month. It will fund projects aimed at improving health care, de-mining and the Khmer Rouge tribunal, among other issues. Globally, the bill allocates $52 billion for projects and operations, including strengthening foreign relations, conducting counterterrorism operations, improving health and promoting democracy. The bill specifies that aid to Cambodia will be distributed only if Phnom Penh halts "violence and harassment against civil society in Cambodia, including political opposition. Additionally, the $1.5 million allotted to continuing the work of the Khmer Rouge tribunal will be issued only in support of Case 003, which Prime Minister Hun Sen has vowed will not take place. Hun Sen has repeatedly warned that pursuing more Khmer Rouge officials including the regimes navy commander, Meas Muth, who was implicated in the 1975 Mayaguez incident in which at least 38 U.S. servicemen died would lead to civil war. Meas Muth was one of two suspects named in Case 003. Methodist Church welcomes Rev. Elaine Steele TWIN FALLS Twin Falls United Methodist Church will welcome the Rev. Elaine Steele at the 9:30 a.m worship service Sunday. Bishop Grant Hagiya of the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church has appointed Steele to serve the churches of Magic Valley Ministries. She will also offer Holy Communion Sunday. First Sunday Food donations will be given to Wendell UNC for the Wendell Food Bank. The church is at 360 Shoshone St. E. and is handicapped accessible, with an elevator on the Fourth Ave. E. entrance. On Sunday, Steele will be in the pulpit at the Jerome United Methodist Church, 200 South Buchanan. It will be her first official Sunday at this church as part of the Magic Valley Ministries. Everyone is welcome. Coffee and fellowship time is at 11 a.m. and church service follows at 11:30. All of the six churches involved in Magic Valley Ministries will meet to celebrate Steeles ministry with a potluck dinner at 5 p.m. July 16 at the Buhl Eastman Park in Buhl. Please bring a dish to share, chairs and table service. Magic Valley Ministries includes the Twin Falls, Jerome, Wendell, Buhl, Filer and Hagerman United Methodist Churches. Magic Valley Ministries will host a family group camp at Camp Sawtooth north of Fairfield on Aug. 5, 6 and 7. The cost is $48. To register call 208-733-5872. Ascension accepting donation for school food pantries TWIN FALLS In July, Ascension Episcopal Church is gathering donations of nutritious, non-perishable food items to be donated to the Twin Falls School District food pantries. Please, no donations of instant noodles or cups-of-soup. Food at these school food pantries are distributed to families with particular needs for food. Services of Morning Prayer will be held at 8 and 10 a.m. Sunday. Stations for healing prayer will be available during both services. Ascension Cafe, the adult discussion group, will not be held this Sunday. Youth Sunday school is on summer break. A fellowship coffee hour will be held after the 10 a.m. worship service. Ascension Episcopal Church is handicapped accessible and at 371 Eastland Dr. N. in Twin Falls. For more information, go to episcopaltwinfalls.org . Center of Prayer & Worship Church plans Israel trip TWIN FALLS The tour will include biblical enrichment in places where our Lord Jesus walked. For more information, call 208-735-2249. Free concert at Free Will Baptist JEROME Jerome Free Will Baptist Church will be hosting a free concert at 7 p.m. July 9 featuring The Haining Family, a blend of front porch, family-style music. In 2002, four young siblings from Minnesota began playing music together at a local, acoustic jam. After adding their parents to the ensemble in 2004, the Haining family began performing at various events in their community. Their concert schedule quickly grew to include several mid-western states. The family relocated to Branson, Mo. in 2011. Today, the four siblings, now in their 20s, travel year around performing more than 100 concerts each year throughout the nation at numerous churches, festivals and theaters. The Jerome Free Will Baptist Church is at 810 South Cleveland St. Admission is free but a free will offering will be accepted. Why do we crave happiness? TWIN FALLS Its interesting how we all crave after happiness; how all of our choices seem to be tied by ropes or threads to our obtaining happiness. Its interesting also when we consider how we participate in that life-long quest. Do we get the level of happiness we want? What do you think? Please come prepared to discuss. Newcomers of all religious paths or none at all are always welcome. Magic Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship meets at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at the Vendor Blender and Event Center, 588 Addison Ave. W. We are handicapped accessible. Please park in the rear of the building. Child care is available. To submit information about church events and news. Contact Matt Gooch at mgooch@magicvalley.com. Deadline is 5 p.m. Wednesday for publication on the Saturday religion page. Please insert Church News in the email subject line. Happy 4th of July weekend! Thank God we live in America! This is the land that we love! As Idahoans we experience the best of beautiful America. We are celebrating our wonderful nation at Amazing Grace Fellowship with a patriotic concert with pianist Jerry Nelson, during both Sunday services at 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. We invite you to worship with us this weekend. America is a beautiful place to live, with waves of grain, mountain majesties and fruited plains from the Atlantic to the Pacific. .America, America God shed His grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!..... (Katharine Lee Bates) This holiday is a great time to thank God for people who serve our nation. We appreciate and value our military, our police officers, our firefighters, and all who put their lives on the line for our protection and safety. Within the last month I have begun to have an even deeper appreciation for our local firefighters, and the brotherhood of firefighters across the nation. Last weekend, a longtime retired LA firefighter and an Amazing Grace Fellowship attender for many years was laid to rest. Bob Lawrason was a military hero, a minister, a realtor, a son, a husband, a dad, a grandpa and a mentor to many. At age 91, he lived a long full life, and left a positive impact on many peoples lives. He was given military honors at his memorial, and his LA fire department brotherhood presented his family with an American flag, and a letter thanking him for his heroic service. He retired from firefighting many years ago, and he was still considered part of the brotherhood. The Magic Valley saw a beautiful representation of the firefighter brotherhood this last month, after Ryan Franklin, a local firefighter, was tragically killed. His memorial service was attended by firefighters, police officers, and other first responders from the Magic Valley and beyond, who showed their love and respect for their brother. His family has been showered with love and support from the brotherhood, and from our amazing Magic Valley community. I had the privilege of sitting near about 20 firefighters and their wives after Ryans memorial at a local restaurant, and was so blessed to hear how the firefighters were planning to continue their support of the Franklin family throughout the coming years. What an awesome demonstration of brotherly love. There are many scriptures about brotherly love in the Bible. They encourage us to love people, treat them with respect, and in reality, treat them like our own family. Proverbs 17:17 says, A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Matt 25:40 says, Truly I say to you, in as much as you have done it to one of the brothers, you have done it to me (Jesus). Hebrews 12:10 says, Be devoted to one another in brotherly love, honor one another above yourselves. I have learned so much from the example of brotherly love I have witnessed this last month through the firefighter brotherhood. The Twin Falls firefighters and the Modern Woodmen Financial Group are again showing brotherly love to the Franklin family from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. July 9 at Amazing Grace Fellowship. The firemen will be cooking breakfast for the hundreds who plan to attend and bless the Franklin family once again with matching funds from the Modern Woodmen. I know many of you will be there. Come have a great breakfast, and see some brotherly love in action. We can all learn from these amazing firefighters in our own community. I know that I want to love more like that. During all your 4th of July celebrations, enjoy your family, be safe and show some brotherly love. BUHL A few beers led to a hit and run crash in Buhl that caused a four-year-old boy to hit a dashboard, and nearly put his life in danger, police said. The driver, Michael Romero, 24, first lost control of his Ford Excursion and drove into a Hyundai Veracruz at Clear Lakes Road and Broadway Avenue South and fled the scene, court records said. Romero, who later told an officer he had a few beers, then took off northbound on Clear Lakes Road with his passengers, Rachel Breanna Mendoza-Gonzales and her four-year-old son, who was in the backseat and not wearing a seat belt, court records said. The driver of the Veracruz followed Romero in traffic, blowing through stop signs, to the parking lot of a Presbyterian Church. Romero hit a telephone pole, causing the boy to hit the front dash board, and Gonzales to be knocked unconscious. Romero told police he fled the first scene because he was scared, court records said. Mendoza-Gonzales told police she was drinking with Romero and a friend that day before he drove her and her son home, court records said. When asked why she let Romero drive, knowing hed been drinking, she said he told her he was OK to drive and that she didnt know he was that drunk, court records said. When questioned by police on why her son wasnt in a car seat, Mendoza-Gonzales said her son doesnt like it so she put him in the back seat with a seat belt on. After she was taken to the hospital, Mendoza-Gonzales was charged with injury to a child. Her son, who was treated at the hospital as well, was placed into the custody of Health and Welfare until his grandmother could pick him up. Romero was given a breathalyzer and found to have a BAC of 0.148/0.145. Romero, who had two prior convictions in the last ten years, was charged with a felony DUI, injury to child, driving without privileges and leaving the scene of an accident. He was also issued citations for failure to show proof of insurance, failure to restrain a child in a car safety seat and driving left of center. A preliminary hearing is set for July 8. Cassia County Librado A. Esparza Jr.; felony unlawful possession of weapon by convicted felon, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; felony theft by receiving, possessing or disposing of stolen property, guilty, $495.50 costs, two years determinate time, five years indeterminate time, 31 days credited, retained jurisdiction, penitentiary suspended; misdemeanor exhibition or use of deadly weapon, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor driving without privileges, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor drug paraphernalia use or possess with intent to use, dismissed on motion of prosecutor. Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy SHOSHONE The mother of a 3-year-old boy found wandering alone in Shoshone will be charged with marijuana possession and two counts of child endangerment, police said. The 3-year-old walked into a neighbor womans home about 10 a.m. Friday in the 200 block of West Fourth Street, Shoshone Police Sgt. Rene Rodriguez said. The woman immediately called police and reported finding the boy, whose age and identity she didnt know. Police canvassed the homes in the area and quickly sought the publics help to identify the boy and his family, posting information on social media and alerting the media. After knocking doors for nearly two hours in the neighborhood where the boy was found, officers found his mother, Pamela M. Lopez. Upon an inspection of the home by (the Department of Health and Welfare), which is mandated by Idaho statute, the childs mother was found to be in possession of marijuana, a controlled substance, Rodriguez said in a statement. Lopez was arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana and two counts of injury to a child as there were two children in her care, a 3-year-old and a 10-year-old, Rodriguez said. The children were released to their father, and Health and Welfare will continue to assist in implementing a comprehensive safety plan, Rodriguez said. Lopez is expected to be formally charged Tuesday in Lincoln County Magistrate Court. We have been pushovers for too long when it comes to trade, says Donald Trump. In a speech in Pennsylvania this week, he said: When subsidized foreign steel is dumped into our markets, threatening our factories, the politicians do nothing. For years, they watched on the sidelines as our jobs vanished and our communities were plunged into depression-level unemployment. He did, however, put in a kind word for the tariffs the Reagan administration imposed in the 1980s to protect U.S. semiconductor and motorcycle industries. Trumps history is wrong. Far from doing nothing, politicians have adopted measures to protect American steelmakers from foreign competition during the Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan and George W. Bush administrations. Our actual practice has been to work toward a world with lower trade barriers while also offering protection for specific industries, in response to import surges and political outcries. Trump would break from that history while ignoring one of its lessons: The protection we have offered has been expensive and achieved little. Trump would change our traditional policies in four ways. He promises to make more aggressive use of existing trade laws that authorize protection from imports. He says he will revisit trade agreements we have on the books. He would make only bilateral deals, not multilateral ones. And he does not view liberalizing trade overall as a goal. Its a different approach from the one taken by recent leaders from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama. Reagan imposed trade barriers on occasion but he also vetoed protectionist legislation, oversaw negotiations to lower trade barriers around the globe, and started the process of creating the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump reviles. Obama imposed tariffs to help the tire industry but also concluded some bilateral free-trade deals Trump thinks theyre bad ones and pushed for new multilateral ones like the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The most successful protectionist policy of recent decades is generally considered to be the rescue of Harley-Davidson. Tariffs in the 1980s seem to have given the company time to turn itself around (although just how important the tariffs were is still the subject of dispute). Automakers benefited from protectionism at that time, too, raising their prices and profits. But they didnt use the opportunity to reform. The semiconductor protectionism of the period was controversial because of its effects on industries that used semiconductors: They complained that for them protection meant shortages, higher costs, and lost sales and jobs. Unintended harm to American companies is a recurring problem with tariffs, even those meant to protect American jobs from competition that our government deems unfair. After Bush imposed steel tariffs, steel-consuming industries pointed out that they employed far more Americans than the steel industry itself, and argued that the net effect of the policy on jobs was negative. Anti-dumping laws, which put tariffs on foreign imports that are supposedly being sold at too low a price, usually target intermediate goods and therefore make the downstream American producers that use them less competitive. Daniel Ikenson, a trade-policy analyst at the Cato Institute, notes that the government, perversely, is forbidden by law from considering the impact of tariffs on these producers before levying the tariffs. Then theres the question of costs. Gary Hufbauer and Sean Lowry, a senior fellow and research associate, respectively, at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, calculated that Obamas tariffs on Chinese tires cost American consumers at least $900,000 for every job they saved for one year. Thats before taking account of job losses caused by lower spending by consumers on other products and by retaliatory Chinese tariffs. This very high cost per job, they point out, is consistent with research on other instances of trade protection. In an interview, Hufbauer notes that our efforts to protect industries from competition have typically not resulted in their revival and impose extremely high costs for any jobs they save. He cites the textile and maritime industries, both of which have been protected for decades, as examples of these disappointing results. Watching on the sidelines as jobs are lost does not sound like a very appealing policy. But it might have been better than what our government has actually done, and what Trump would have our government do more of. Russian tourists could return to Egypt in the foreseeable future as both countries work to secure safety of future Russian holidaymakers, Russian ambassador to Egypt said on Friday. Ambassador Sergei Kirpichenko speaking to Russian state-backed media Sputnik said that work on the resumption of Russian tourism to Egypt is underway. The announcement is good news for Egyptian authorities that have seen the countrys once buzzing tourism sector crashing after Russia suspended air links between the two countries following the downing of a Russian airliner in October in an act of terror claimed by the Islamic State group. Egypt has spent millions of dollars to improve security at it airports and revive the tourism sector, which is vital to Egyptian economy hit by political turmoil. The crash of the Russian passenger jet had dealt a severe blow to the sector with the number of tourist arrivals falling by 47 per cent as of March compared to the same period last year. Russian tourists are the largest contributors to the Egyptian tourism sector. The Democratic Republic of Congos opposition presidential candidate Moise Katumbi, on Thursday, called for timely elections as the country commemorates its 56th independence anniversary. In a statement posted on social media, the exiled opposition leader called for timely elections as the second term of the incumbent Joseph Kabila draws to an end later this year. Congo, Africas largest copper producer, is yet to have a democratic transfer of power. While presidential elections are scheduled this year, Kabila, who has been in office since 2001, has not yet said whether he will step down, in line with the constitution that limits the presidential term to two terms. Delays in the governments preparations mean the vote will probably be postponed, sparking criticism from countries such as the U.S. Moise Katumbi who is currently in London for medical treatment was recently sentenced in absentia to 36 months in prison. He was found guilty in a recent case of property miappropriation. The case was brought by a Greek national who claimed Katumbi forcibly took away his property. Katumbis lawyers denied their client had a hand in the issue. Congo has cut its economic growth forecast this year to 5.3 percent from 9 percent and trimmed planned government spending because of drops in the prices of copper, oil and other key exports. The U.S. last week imposed sanctions on a senior Congolese police officer for his role in election-related violence. In January 2015, as many as 40 people died in protests against Kabila extending his rule. Unrest could resume as the opposition plans further rallies. A coalition of 23 opposition political parties in Cote dIvoire, including president Gbagbos party, have rejected constitutional reforms announced by President Alassane Ouattara. President Alassane pledged during his campaign for re-election last year to scrap a nationality clause, which helped lead the worlds top cocoa grower and West Africas largest economy into prolonged crisis. Last month, he appointed 10-member experts panel, including Justice Minister Sansan Kambile along with legal experts and law professors, to draft the new national charter. According to Pascal Affi NGuessan, leader of the main opposition party, Ivorian Popular Front (FPI,) the move by the president is inappropriate, illegal and illegitimate. He argued that the current political environment does not favor the call by the President. Affi NGuessan told reporters on Thursday that the country has not yet fully emerged from the 2010-2011 post-election crisis. The trials continue, reconciliation is blocked, the country is still divided and Ivoirians are still in exile or in prison, the atmosphere is not conducive for a calm debate, he stressed. The current charter, ratified in 2000 in the wake of a military coup, states presidential candidates must prove both their parents are natural-born Ivorians. They must also have never claimed citizenship of another country. The United Nations Security Council extended the mandate of the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) till June 30 next year. The move follows a recent vote that saw the 15-member Council adopt a resolution, under which it decided to extend the mandate of the UN mission in the country. UN chief Ban Ki-moon and African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma are also reported to have made recommendations for the extension. The Sudanese government had previously asked for the withdrawal of the troops with claims of peace and stability in Darfur. However, over 20 Sudanese civil society groups and leaders have called for a renewal of UNAMIDs tenure in Sudan, according to a letter submitted to the AU Commission. The signatories of the letter fear UNAMIDs departure will exacerbate human rights violations and hide violations perpetrated by government forces from the international community. UNAMID was formed pursuant to a UN Security Council resolution in 2007, establishing a joint peacekeeping mission between the supranational bodies, making it the first hybrid peacekeeping mission in the world. The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when mainly non-Arab tribes took up arms against the Arab-led government based in the capital Khartoum, accusing it of discrimination. According to the United Nations, some 300,000 people were killed in Darfur, 4.4 million people need aid and more than 2.5 million have been displaced. 'Like' us on Facebook Follow us: Posted on: July 03, 2016 Guru Poornima Special Offering (Daily Episode) Part - 25 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 from June 9, 2016 shares 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 THE WORLD DOES NOT ATTACH ITSELF TO US; IT'S WE WHO CLING TO THE WORLD! Many people imagine that they are caught up in the coils of Samsara (worldly life) and are the victims of worldly existence. This is a ridiculous idea. It is not family life that binds you. It has no arms to clasp you. It is you who are endowed with hands, eyes and ears. It is you who are holding on to worldly life and suffering the consequences. This is the truth in the false and the unreality in the Real. This accounts for the fact that in the world today the false is deemed true and the truth is considered as untrue. - Divine Discourse, December 18, 1994. REFLECTIONS ON THE ABOVE Sai Ram. The above quote in essence is the answer that Swami gives to many people who say that they are too busy to do service. The one who gives the excuse may be rich or poor, young or old, educated or uneducated, but the standard argument often reduces to: Listen, I am of this world and very much in this world. Life is a game of intense competition and survival and takes up all the time available. I have so many things to do and so many responsibilities. Where is the time for spirituality and that kind of stuff? That is the ready-made argument that people give. In private conversations, depending on the maturity of the person concerned, Swami would sometimes gently edge that person to change or simply leave it at that, allowing the person to mature. Nevertheless, in public discourses, Bhagawan often took the subject head-on, and the remark you heard at start is typical of what He would say. After pointing out that it is we who cling to the world and not the other way around, Swami would usually illustrate His point with a simple example. Holding a kerchief in His hand and stretching it out, He would say: Here is the kerchief. Now who is holding whom? Is the kerchief holding Me or am I holding the kerchief? Obviously, it is the latter. If now I choose to let go, the kerchief drops from My hand, and I am not tied to it anymore. Now tell Me, if the kerchief was holding Me, would it have dropped so easily? Clearly not. It is I who was holding the kerchief, and it was I who let it go. The moment I let it go, it dropped. I have seen this demo of the dropping kerchief any number of times, but I dont think it ever made any impression on anyone, simply because few take the trouble to reflect deeply on the implications of what Swami is telling us. You may say, OK, mister wise-guy, now you tell us what Swami means? I shall certainly do this, and via several examples, starting with Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. Most people would know him mainly as Indias most dynamic President who made it almost a religion to be in constant touch with the young people of India and inspire them. I came to know him much earlier, way back in 1985, when I was on sabbatical from my lab and holding the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship to engage in academic study and research. I applied for this Fellowship because I was sick and tired of doing scientific administration for nearly fifteen years and wanted to get back to academia without management headaches; the Fellowship gave me that chance. At that time, my good friend Dr. V. S. Arunachalam who was then the Scientific Advisor to the Indian Defence Minister, told me that there was a project that Dr. Kalam was doing - I should mention here that by that time, Dr. Kalam had moved over from Space to Defence Research, was working on major projects and reporting to Dr. Arunachalam. He wanted some help from me specifically, and would I be willing to take some time off, go to Hyderabad, and do the needful? At first, I was reluctant since it meant giving up precious research time and go back to organisation, even if for only small spells. Nevertheless, it was a national call and so I said yes. Thats how I came to know Kalam and realised what a truly Spartan life he led. Cut now to the year 2002. I am here in Prasanthi, and Swami had decided that we must have Dr. Kalam as the Chief Guest for our Annual Convocation. Aware of the fact that I knew him, Swami sent me to Delhi to personally invite the President. All the official arrangements for the visit to Delhi were made and one fine morning, I was in the Presidents Office, sitting before him, with a table separating us. There were many books on the table, mostly relating to constitutional laws, Supreme Court Judgements, Parliament Rulings and that kind of thing. That did not surprise me in the least; what surprised me was that sitting on top of all those tomes was a book on the Ramayana written by C.Rajagopalachari, or Rajaji as he was known, a celebrated freedom fighter of the old guard and who in fact served as Indias Governor General after Lord Mountbatten stepped down after ushering in Independence and presiding over the transfer of power from the British Crown to India. Now anyone sitting where I was might not have noticed the Ramayana on the presidential table but I did, and it made a huge impact on me. Why? Because the Ramayana is all about giving up even a kingdom for the sake of Dharma. I was very happy, silently of course. Later, after our conversation was over, Dr. Kalam kindly said, Why dont you have lunch with me before going? I readily agreed, and when it was time for lunch, he said, Come, let me first show you where I live. This building was huge, and meant to be THE symbol of power of the mighty British Empire. It was truly palatial in size, with huge and stately rooms, close to about 500 or six hundred of them - I tell you, it was an awesome experience, to walk through and past room after room. Dr. Kalam looked at me, smiled and said, Now you would know what I mean by saying that for my morning walk I simply walk across this building from one end to the other! I am sure many of you must be wondering whether I have gone off the track, on to something that has nothing to do with the Sai Quote I am supposed to be discussing. Not at all. By way of reassuring you, let me first highlight the key points made by Swami. They are: It is you who are holding on to worldly life and suffering the consequences. This is the truth in the false and the unreality in the Real. This accounts for the fact that in the world today the false is deemed true and the truth is considered as untrue. So what do they mean, and what has my digression into the story of my meeting with Kalam got to do with it? Thats what we shall now consider. Take Dr. Kalam. As President, he lived in a grand palace built to glorify the British Empire; and yet he lived like a simple man, because that was always his style. I have known him earlier when he was Director of a Defence Lab in Hyderabad, and I too was holding a similar post. As Director, he was entitled to a bungalow with three bedrooms and all the rest, but he refused to occupy one saying, I am a bachelor, and one unit of the Guest House with just two rooms, one bedroom and one living room would do for me. When he went to Delhi on promotion and joined the ranks of top civil servants, he still refused a bungalow and lived in the DRDO Guest House there, occupying just two rooms. Was it any surprise that he did the same when he became the First Citizen? The point is that he did not allow the world to capture him with his trappings. I must here not forget to call attention to Harry Truman, who succeeded the famous President Roosevelt or FDR right in the middle of WW II, and then served one more term from 1948 to 1952. After stepping down and handing over to WW II hero Eisenhower, the office of the Presidency, Harry Truman simply got into his car along with his wife, and personally drove more than a thousand miles to his home town in the state of Missouri, stopping over in ordinary hotels on the way and mingling with ordinary people. He could have gone back home as a great hero, riding in an official plane, and so on, but he said no. Again, a classic case of refusing to be affected by the trappings of the world. Lets jump back to Swami and examine what the tale of these two presidents have to do with Swami. Both of them realized that what was real was the job of being President and NOT the perks that come along with it. And when the day came, they were able to walk away with great ease and comfort because no maya was holding them. This brings me directly to the key sentence of Gita Vahini which sort of summarises all this for all people. As best as I can remember it, this is what Swami says: You are born in this world and must therefore live in this world. Accept that. By doing so, you are NOT violating any commandment of the Lord. Destiny places you in a certain position; it may be as a soldier or as a president or whatever. Do your duty as you ought to. This means that while your actions must relate to the world, the motivations for the actions must be rooted in Eternal Values. It is the last sentence that holds the key. It is a command with deep and profound implications and it means the following: Follow Dharma always; never compromise on that. Dont get attached to the trappings of Office if you happen to hold a high one. Remember that at the end of the day, it is Sathya and Dharma alone that are eternal. Thus, when you are in this world, see Gods immanence in the world; that is the part that is real; ignore the trappings part, for that is unreal. Bearing the above in mind, it is most educative to examine the lives of Rama and Janaka. Both were kings. While Janaka was born to be a king, ruled as one and finally gave up his body as a king, he never allowed himself to become bound by the trappings of royalty; and, he always adhered to Dharma. What about Rama? He was born to be a king but walked away from ruler-ship when it came to upholding a promise. That promise was actually made by His father, but it did not matter. The father happened to be a king and a kings word must always be honoured, or else it would impair the rule of law. And so He went into exile. And by the way, if you have read the Ramayana you would know two important things. Firstly, just before He goes on exile, Rama gives away all His belongings as charity for He does not want to be bound by possessions while leading the life of a hermit in exile. Secondly, when Bharatha comes to persuade Rama to return, Rama not only stubbornly holds on to His vow but also ticks off Sage Jabali who tries to argue that world is the only reality. As Swami says, the world is a mixture of that which is Eternal and that which is transient. The physical aspects that we see are always changing and that is the part which is unreal. However, immanent in all things material and living is Pure Consciousness or Atma or Brahman or God, call it what you will, and that is Real. Thus the bottom line is: Go through life seeing God who is everywhere, in everything, and do this all the time. If you manage to do this, then your actions would be in this world, but based on values beyond this world. By the way, seeing the Omnipresence of God all the time is what Swami used to refer to as Constant Integrated Awareness, or CIA, if you want to remember it! And living life using CIA as the main compass is the central command of Gita Vahini. This was a rather long reflection, but then it also shows how compressed Swamis teachings can be. Bearing that in mind, dont you think we should spend more time reflecting on the Message of the Lord than on other things, most of which are trivial anyway? Think about it! Jai Sai Ram. Other Episodes Radio Sai Team Since the late '90s popularity of the Harry Potter series, the young adult genre has exploded. It seems like every week there is a new series beginning and consistently a new book in an already beloved series is released. Few Montana writers have successfully ventured into this now popular realm. Janet Fox, Billings area author and teacher, may be joining the ranks of the successful few. Her latest work and fourth young adult novel, The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, follows a well-worn theme of many post-Potter YA stories. Long before this young adult renaissance, the rule of writing for kids has been "First, get rid of the parents." In current times, one could possibly add, "Give the children something special, a power, be it magical or logical, preferably both." Fox has taken this advice and run with it. The result being a novel of magic and wonder that reads closer to a classic young adult/children's book than a new release. Katherine Bateson (Kat) is a familiar character type. It doesn't take a deep read to make comparisons to Nancy Drew and to the later Hermione Granger. She is defined by her logic, her reluctance to accept anything that defies said logic, and her admiration for her father, who repairs clocks and also works for the British intelligence agency, MI6. It is 1940 in London, and Kat is sent away to a school in Scotland along with her siblings and another young American boy. Escaping the Blitz is the pretense of the children's departure (also a historically accurate possibility), but there seems to be more afoot. The school they are being sent to is shrouded in a kind of mystery, it is in an old remote castle in Scotland and when the children arrive in town they are greeted by a strange foreboding stationmaster and escorted to the school from the train station by a man that they refer to only as, the giant. Before leaving London, Kat is pulled aside by her elderly great-aunt and given a family heirloom, a chatelaine. The piece of jewelry, worn about the waist in the 17th to 19th centuries, is supposed to represent a set of keys carried by the master of the castle. It is a beautiful piece of jewelry adorned with various charms hanging from chains. Real-life chatelaines do have a magical and powerful appearance to them. Without revealing any spoilers or secrets, chatelaines play a significant role within the novel. They structure the tale, each chapter marked with a charm and each charm holds meaning within the chapters and in relation to each of the children. Possibly a trick of the moon, but possibly something more, Kat notices her chatelaine sometimes has a mysterious blue glow to it, a glow that is not easily explained away with logic. Her great-aunt has warned her to keep it close and use it with care, although these warnings have been mostly ignored by the logical Kat. Soon after arriving at Rookskill Castle, the children begin to notice odd occurrences. Strange noises, confusing hallways, and quirky characters abound. The children begin to wonder if the lady of the castle is harboring a Nazi spy or if something magic is stirring (or both). Fox picks up another popular theme by working with the well-known Keep Calm and Carry On edict of World War II England. Kat continually reminds herself of this mantra while dealing with the chaos of the castle and her investigations into the mysterious happenings. This is an important lesson for Kat and for young adults to learn. Fox reminds the reader of the importance of this statement, outside of popular pop-culture reference. Keep Calm and Carry On reminds the character, and the reader, that sometimes emotion, fear, and erratic behavior is the downfall of an otherwise logical person, particularly those of the middle reader age group. Magic, logic, and the enduring curiosity and determination of youth make The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle an enjoyable read for adults and young adults alike. Although the genre has become a bit predictable, Janet Fox puts a new spin on old magic. It could be a little scary for younger readers, but a perfect fit for upper middle school and beyond, especially those young readers who crave a strong, young female lead. *** Mara Panich-Crouch is a bookseller at Fact and Fiction Books in Missoula. She received her bachelor's in English literature and creative writing from Purdue University and found her home in Missoula in 2002 while pursuing post-graduate studies at the University of Montana. She loves giving (and receiving) book recommendations of all genres. She is an avid painter, thrift-shopper and adventurer. Living Like Jesus will be the theme for the week as Faith Lutheran, 171 Lewis Lane south of Hamilton, hosts VBS the week of July 11-15. Four young adult counselors from Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp will lead youth in Bible-centered activities that include singing, games, crafts, team building exercises, and worship. Ages of three to entering sixth grade are welcome. Preschoolers are scheduled to meet from 9 to 11:30 a.m., with school-age children set to meet from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (lunch will be served). For more information, call 363-2964. One more Missoula student can now earn a high school diploma a feat that needed school board action because she's 20 years old. The Missoula County Public Schools board of trustees unanimously approved an exception to a board policy Tuesday night: waiving the district's age limit to allow a 20-year-old student to earn her high school diploma. Board policy states that the district wont admit a child who is 19 years old or older on or before Sept. 10 of the year they intend to enroll. That doesn't come directly from state law, but state school funding effectively forces school districts to enact an age limit. Montana is one of two states that doesn't provide funding for students in school after they turn 19. Maine is the other, though its limit is higher at 20 years old. Typically, school boards take up these exceptions when a student on an Individualized Education Program (IEP) graduates later than his or her cohort. And that's the impetus behind an ongoing push in the Montana Legislature. This spring, advocates for people with disabilities went to the School Funding Interim Commission, asking that the law be changed to give students with disabilities more time to wrap up their high school education. Last week, the Education and Local Government Interim Committee put the Office of Public Instruction's requested bills for the 2017 legislative session on hold. One is to amend the definition of "pupil" in order to include a child with a disability who is 19, 20 or 21 years old in a school district's enrollment count for funding. The second asks that 19-year-olds in general be included in a district's enrollment count to "provide resources and incentives to school districts to keep students in school until the student can meet graduation requirements." OPI chief of staff Madalyn Quinlan told the committee that the agency wanted to provide legislative staff the information they need to draft bills by the beginning of October "before the onslaught that happens after an election." Committee chair state Rep. Donald Jones, R-Billings, said the committee would consider the six bill proposals at its Sept. 8-9 meeting. *** Two similar efforts failed in the 2015 session. House Bill 451 would have allowed students with special needs to be included in the funding formula up to 21 years of age. State Rep. Christopher Pope, D-Bozeman, sponsored the bill. It died in committee. "This is not just extending some period of time, this is putting kids to work to earn their diplomas and then to live a productive life," Pope said on Wednesday. HB 451 would have allowed but not required school districts to admit students with special needs beyond the age of 18. It essentially would have allowed school districts' current discretionary process to continue but adding state funding if they admit the student. If this type of bill were to pass, it would also allow the state of Montana to receive federal dollars for job skills and workforce programs for people ages 19 to 21 with special needs. Currently, the state can't take advantage of that program in schools because of its age-limit funding law. If school districts want these programs, they must fund them locally. "Because we don't have certain initiatives in place at the state level, we're forgoing federal funding for special needs citizens," Pope said. "It's a travesty." SB 12 traveled to the House but died in committee. The bill was sponsored by Moe, asking that the definition of "pupil" be tweaked to allow state funding for school districts who enroll students 19 years old or older. "The main reason is that it's hard to think of one acquisition that a young person would get that would make more of a difference in the rest of their life than a high school diploma," Moe said of including all students age 19 to 21 in the bill, not just those with IEPs. "There's that stereotype of kids loafing around, wanting to take five years to graduate. I have never met a student that wanted to be in high school one day longer." Some students take longer to graduate due illnesses that took them out of school, staying home to take care of family, surviving abuse or addiction. "To me, investment is so important compared to letting them flounder without a high school diploma that I just can't believe we're not doing it," Moe said. "We're an outlier, and I just don't understand our recalcitrance on this particular issue." What killed HB 451 and SB 12 was concerns over cost. State Rep. Nancy Ballance, R-Hamilton, worried that the bill would require districts to educate students until they're 21, and that it would cost the state millions of dollars a year. According to OPI, there were 37 students between the ages of 19 and 21 with an IEP enrolled in Montana schools in the 2014-2015 school year. A fiscal note attached to HB 451 estimated that the state cost to provide funding for these students would have been $340,000 in the 2017 biennium "and that's if all school districts in the state of Montana were to participate on day one," Pope said. *** The MCPS student discussed Tuesday night did not have an IEP. She also wasn't a kindergarten late-entry, executive regional director Karen Allen pointed out. I knew them at Lewis and Clark, said Allen, who was Lewis and Clarks principal for nearly 20 years. Life just threw them some boulders. They have recovered and are prepared to graduate. The student was originally counted as a dropout. She will now be counted as a completer (the term used to describe a student who has finished the high school graduation requirements, but not with his or her cohort). "Obviously, we would love to get funding for all 19-year-olds," Thane said on Wednesday. "But if we have to take it one step at a time, I think those with IEPs would be the first step." Reimbursement wouldn't hurt, he said. "But the reality is, if we have space available in courses, it would not necessarily cost us that same amount to add a 19-year-old to the class roster," Thane said. "Maybe the only credit they're short is an English credit, and they do a credit recovery model. To add a student one period a day to that class so they can fulfill the requirement would not be as costly as full-time enrollment." It's a slightly different story for students with IEPs. "With students that have significant special needs, if it involves some kind of one-on-one support or other professional services PT, OT or speech associated with their IEP, it certainly could be more costly," he said. "But I think we have an obligation to help these students reach their full potential." HAMILTON In the 23 years hes been fighting wildfires, Derek Davenport has never seen anything quite like what unfolded on the first day of the Observation fire. When a single lightning strike started the fire southwest of Hamilton, the Bitterroot National Forest fire crews were gathered in Sula for a preparedness review. At about noon on June 24, they received a call that the Deer Mountain Lookout had spotted smoke near Observation Point. Any other day, Davenport, an assistant fire management officer for the U.S. Forest Service, would have sent one engine module a truck packing 300 gallons of water and between five to seven firefighters on a call like this one. Ninety-nine times out of 100, we would catch the fire with just that engine crew, he said. Since we were all there together, I told a 10-member hand crew to go, too, in order to make quick work of it. Davenport was hoping they could get back soon enough to finish the review. Initially, the fire crews were met with winds ranging between 15 to 20 mph. But that changed in a hurry. They started getting winds from 40 to 50 mph, he said. Thats very rare and uncommon.'' And difficult to fight. The firefighters couldnt get out in front of the blaze to stop its run. "The wind was pushing the fire into areas (where) they couldnt engage it,'' Davenport said. "It was literally burning almost on a cliff. The firefighters attempted to chase it from behind, but the fire kept moving. The crews called for more resources, including the helicopter staged at the Hamilton airport. But the pilot quickly realized he couldnt drop water due to the high winds. At that point, the lead firefighter on the scene determined the blaze was beyond initial attack capabilities. And Davenport hurried to the scene. The wind-driven fire had spread out like a mosaic, burning in dead and downed timber and also torching in treetops. It wasnt burning very much in the grass because that was still too green, he said. There was a lot of dead and downed timber, lots of big stuff. The fire was getting established in that. At that point, the fire was also torching in treetops. The wind kept throwing it and throwing it and throwing it further and further away, Davenport said. The steep terrain, coupled with the high winds, meant the fire was moving in two directions at once. The winds would push the fire 100 feet up the hillside, while burning debris would roll down the steep hillside at the same time. And heavy smoke made seeing parts of the blaze difficult. It was burning uphill as fast as it was going downhill,'' Davenport said. "I thought, 'This was crazy.' I had never seen anything like this in my life. On that first day, the firefighters and aviation resources had everything going against them. There were extremely high winds. Some of the terrain was so steep that firefighters couldnt even get close enough to fight the fire. And heavy smoke made it difficult to see some parts of the blaze. In all the trainings that we go through, you hear that you will never run into all these different elements at once, Davenport said. We had them all at one time. Davenport immediately called for more resources, including two 22-member Hot Shot crews and two more 10-person hand crews. He also asked for more helicopters. I knew the winds would be a lot less in the morning, Davenport said. My goal at that time was to pound the hell out of the perimeter all morning long and then come in and mop up the interior. I ordered the world, he said. I was spending lots of money, but I knew the whole Bitterroot was at risk. We were spending hundreds of thousands, if not millions, to try to catch this fire. But it wasn't enough. On Tuesday, the fire doubled in size and those living in 203 residences were warned to be ready to evacuate. Davenport said the index firefighters use to gauge the potential for unstable air, which contributes to the development of erratic fire behavior, was nearly as high as it gets. On the day the fire doubled in size and worried authorities enough to place 203 residences on evacuation notice, Davenport said the index firefighters use to measure the potential for unstable air to contribute to the development of erratic fire behavior was nearly as high as it gets. We had a Haines Index of five, he said. At a Haines Index of six, you know youre going to catch the fire that day. Four or five helicopters were supporting firefighters on the ground when suddenly the fire took off through a stand of dead, beetle-killed lodgepole pine. There was no warning, Davenport said. Once it got established in those fuels, it just ripped. We had firefighters in that area. We knew that we needed to get them out as soon as possible. The fire burned 325 acres in about a half hour. What saved us was an old clear cut, he said. The fire hit a unit that had been replanted and it just fell flat on its face. *** After that large run occurred, Davenport said the decision was made to bring in a Type 1 team, which took over management of the fire Friday. On Saturday, the fire was still only 10 percent contained, although weather conditions were improving. Looking back on that first day, Davenport said hes proud of the initial effort the firefighters made to put the fire out. I have told them that its not their fault, he said. If the most complex fire challenge were a 10, "this was a 9.5." "They were outgunned. You couldnt have brought a large enough army. No one could have known that in late June those large fuels would have burned like it was the middle of August, he said. My people are proud of what they do. Protecting peoples homes is important to them. It crushed their hearts when they lost it, he said. I know how hard they fought on that hill. I know the sweat and the pain they felt. "They gave it everything they had. On Friday an Oregon man was charged with felony assault after he resisted arrest and pulled a knife on a Butte police officer during an Thursday-night arrest. The man -- Joshua Postema, 39, of The Dalles, Oregon -- was sought by police in Wasco County, Oregon, on two counts of sodomy, incest, and sex abuse of children under the age of 16. The Wasco County Sheriffs Office notified Butte police that Postema -- a former Butte resident -- was possibly staying at a home on the 5100 block of Warren Avenue in the Mining City. After visiting the residence Thursday, police spoke with a man inside the home who said Postema had left in a van for Walmart on Harrison Avenue. While officers stayed at the residence and waited for Postema to return, another officer was sent to Walmart, where he located the van described by the homeowner at around 6:30 p.m. The van was empty, but the officer saw Postema leaving Walmart. According to police reports, the officer approached Postema and told him to stop, but Postema continued walking toward the van. After the officer reached Postema near the vehicle, the Oregon man pulled a knife from his pocket and tried to open the vans door. The officer then tackled the 39-year-old to the ground and arrested him but was cut by the knife in the process. Postema appeared in court Friday morning and was charged with a misdemeanor for resisting arrest and felony assault on a peace officer. He's now awaiting transfer to Oregon. Historian Evan Barrett, of Butte, will receive a special 2016 Heritage Guardian Award in September from the Montana Historical Society. Barrett joins honorees Alfred Wiseman of Choteau and Nancy Watts of Lewistown, recipients of the annual Heritage Keepers Awards. The MHS bases its selections on recipients outstanding contributions to Montana history and heritage. The Heritage Guardian Award is presented occasionally under special circumstances for a unique contribution the last presented was in 2011. Barretts unique contribution is his In the Crucible of Change: Montanas Dramatic Period of Progressive Change, 1965-1980 documentary video series, which delves deep into Montanas rich constitutional history. The Business and Community Outreach director at Highlands College, Barrett developed the series in 2013 from his Twentieth Century Montana People, Policies and Perspectives history class, featuring visiting guest speakers during the 2013 fall semester. Barrett was closely involved in major events in Montana from 1965 to 1980, a period University of Montana Professor Emeritus Harry Fritz has called the second most important time period in Montana history. Determined to preserve the history of this pivotal time while those who lived it were still alive, Barrett created the documentary series. Highlands College Dean John Garic said the series will remain important for future generations: To be able to have primary research thats what Evan has done this is from the mouths of the people that where there and the information he has gathered from his film will help generations to come to understand what that period was like. Barrett is on-screen host and writer and for good reason: he worked closely with many of the historical figures featured from 1965 to 1980. The history-makers that were part of this series was part of an amazing group of people, Barrett told The Montana Standard. Im really honored and humbled by it. Significant events ranging from the growth of the environmental movement, the death of the Anaconda Company, the crafting of a new state Constitution, the rise of feminism, and the reorganization of Montanas executive branch of government are among the chapters the series covers. The series has aired more than 1,000 times on PBS, cable channels across Montana, and is available via internet as transcripts and video. It features 43 hour-length discussions with more than 75 of the periods history makers. Barrett conducted first-hand interviews of major state political players, including Montana Congressman Pat Williams; former governors Ted Schwinden and Brian Schweitzer; 20-year state Senator Dorothy Eck; and Mae Nan Ellingson, a delegate to the historical 1972 Montana Constitutional Convention. Its a powerful group of people and voices, added Barrett. Gov. Steve Bullock allowed 875 bills to become law during his first term, but the 129 measures he vetoed highlight core differences with Republican legislators that have been the topic of repeated campaign attacks. The Legislature holds lawmaking authority, but the governors job, in part, is to drive the divided group toward solutions on key issues. Some, like infrastructure funding, are priorities for both parties that will pass or fail because of details, such as whether to use cash or go into debt. Other proposals, like lowering income tax, are sought by one party but denounced by the other. Whether Bullock wins reelection or loses to Republican Greg Gianforte will set the tone for 2017 lawmaking. Some bills vetoed by Bullock would likely become law if Gianforte is elected to lead the state while some measures passed by a coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans, such as Medicaid expansion and tightened campaign finance laws, could be more susceptible to repeal or revisions. The possibility has fueled speculative attacks by Democrats, who highlight contributions by Gianforte to organizations that lobbied against some of those measures. Likewise, Gianforte has repeatedly denounced many of Bullocks vetoes as failed leadership. He declined to name specific policies he knows he would veto if they reached his desk. At a simplistic level, Im going to sign the good bills and veto the bad bills, Gianforte said, saying he would have supported tax reductions, infrastructure funding, regulation tweaks to strengthen natural resource development, and bills to expand gun rights. Bullock has a different definition of good bill. A Lee State Bureau review of his vetoes shows where Bullock has drawn the line on favored Republican proposals. He has consistently vetoed bills to lower income taxes, citing the need for a balanced budget, and those that would loosen water regulations to encourage new development but potentially harm water quality. With 9 vetoes, Republican Senator Cary Smith of Billings has had more bills killed by Bullock than any other legislator, including proposals to expand monitoring for welfare fraud that the governor called redundant, a measure to define the scope of sex education in schools that Bullock said is a decision best left at the local level, a measure to limit the time window patients have to file malpractice lawsuits that would have set a different standard from other negligence suits, and bills to allow out-of-state insurance companies to sell policies in Montana which Bullock argued would be tough to monitor. Greg (Gianforte) would be certainly a governor more on the same lines of policy that I am, Smith said. Republican Sens. Roger Webb of Billings and Duane Ankney of Colstrip ranked second, having accrued five vetoes apiece for measures that ranged from barring state health officials, for privacy reasons, from collecting basic identifying information about home health workers aiding the elderly to adding a new definition of a natural stream that likely would have helped Arch Coal permit the proposed Otter Creek mine. Lucky me, Webb laughed. You cant write an article big enough. That man seriously is such a detriment to the people of Montana, and most of that stuff is common-sense stuff. Man, this things been looked at by 150 people. What gives one guy the right to say its not a good bill when 150 people said it was? Webb said he spoke with Gianforte about all his vetoed bills and received a favorable response. Ankney admitted that one of his vetoed measures, which would have provided $35 million to local governments in eastern Montana stretched thin by the Bakken boom, was one of several spending bills given to Bullock to test the governors commitment to a $300 million rainy day fund, which Republicans called excessive. That was a bad one, Ankney said. Because all indications were he was signing that bill, so I was really surprised. Rep. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, said that if Gianforte is elected, other proposals might surface that legislators have not brought forward with a Democrat in the governors office. Ive heard from other people, Why go through all the trouble of getting it through both chambers to put it on his desk if hes just going to veto it?' he said, unsure of what those proposals might be. Bullock said some bills that he vetoed, like the 2015 proposal to lower income tax rates, were likely pushed through the Legislature for political posturing. By the Legislatures own balance sheets, they were already upside down $500 million. But maybe that bill was chosen so they could say, That governor is vetoing tax cuts, he said. Maybe in 2013 they said, Well really show him. Well hold all these bills and put them on his desk the last day, so they left me no choice but to veto them or sign them even if it busts the budget because the ammendatory veto window had ran out. The number of gubernatorial vetoes spiked in recent years from a handful to several dozen each session. In 2009, Democrats controlled one chamber, and fellow party member Gov. Brian Schweitzer vetoed 11 bills. In 2011, when Republicans gained majorities in both the House and Senate, Schweitzer registered veto as a brand, burning the word into dozens of printed-out bills on the Capitol steps, a tally that would reach a 20-year high of 80 vetoes. Bullock, who inherited the same divided government, issued 73 vetoes in 2013 and 56 in 2015. If you have a governor from one party and both houses of the Legislature are controlled by the other party, its not surprising that the Legislature is going to pass some bills that the governor isnt going to like, University of Montana political scientist Robert Saldin said. The other thing is that our parties have become more polarized. The Republican party has become more conservative and the Democrats have become more liberal over time, so there are fewer of those people in the middle who can broker compromises than there were several decades ago. In a more general way, to me, the fact theres a lot of vetoes isnt necessarily a problem. Vetoes can be an important part of reaching a compromise, too, Saldin said. That can be part of the negotiation process of how governments function. I dont think weve gotten to the point where the governor refused to sign anything and we have a standoff. Bills do get passed. Most bills that fail to become law are killed by the Legislature. Committees kill them, the House or Senate votes against them, or the measures fail to move to the next chamber by transmittal deadlines. When Bullock had 56 vetoes in 2015, 677 bills died in the Legislative process and 454 became law. About a third of the passed bills were sponsored by Democrats, including some priority pieces of legislation that only passed because the governor helped broker a coalition with some moderate Republicans. I think Democrats will pick up seats, and I think the primary fight in the Republican party, the outcome of that helped him, Montana State University political scientist David Parker said, noting that moderate Republicans were not unseated by more conservative challengers that would be less likely to compromise with the governor. Theoretically, Gianforte going on should have more of his Legislative packages passed, but Bullocks always going to have more vetoes because the Legislature starts from a position where theres less agreement. Saldin agreed but said that even if Gianforte is elected, the bipartisan coalition might remain. It would put those moderate Republicans a little bit more in the drivers seat, he said. They could just as easily work with more conservative Republicans as they would the Democrats. At the Republican partys recent platform convention, Gianforte called for party unity, saying if elected he would work to bring GOP legislators together. But if a coalition-backed bill crosses his desk, he might be left in the position of deciding which faction of his party to support. If Gianforte is elected governor and Republicans maintain control of the Legislature, they will probably see eye-to-eye on economic issues and tax issues, Carroll College political scientist Jeremy Johnson said. On other topics, It depends on which line Republicans push. The Muscatine County Board of Supervisors met in regular session at 9:00 A.M. with Howard, Kelly, Sorensen, Sauer and Bonebrake present. Chairperson Sorensen presiding. On a motion by Kelly, second by Sauer, the agenda was approved as presented. Ayes: All. Dan Shea, CenturyLink, updated the Board on CenturyLink activities within Muscatine County to provide broadband services to rural America. Shea stated CenturyLink has submitted numerous utility permit applications for approval and they are under a tight time frame for getting this project done. County Engineer Keith White stated after a meeting with CenturyLink and the subcontractor, he has agreed to present four more permits for approval by the Board today, but he still has issues with CenturyLink's subcontractor causing damage to the roads and feels there should be third party inspection monitoring the project. Shea stated they will stand behind their contractor and cleanup or fix any issues, making every effort to work with the County Engineer. White stated if he goes out to a site and sees them working with no one watching, he will stop them. Sauer asked for confirmation that there is not an inspector on every job. Jeff Talbert, CenturyLink, stated the general contractor had inspectors on sight, but not all the time because they were also doing other activities. Talbert stated he plans to have a dedicated inspector working with up to four crews and the inspector will approve their setup before they begin the work. Shea stated the County Engineer will be notified immediately if CenturyLink is making any modifications to the plans. On a motion by Kelly, second by Sauer, claims dated June 20, 2016 were approved in the amount of $871,513.36. Ayes: All. A Public Hearing was called to order by Chairperson Sorensen at 9:31 A.M. on a proposed Wind Energy Conversion Systems ordinance. Planning and Zoning Administrator Eric Furnas discussed the proposed ordinance. Bonebrake stated he does not want to tell a resident they cannot build a residence due to the CSR rating, but a wind turbine could be built on the property. Furnas stated the Board could choose to use the same CSR rating determination as used for residences. West Liberty City Manager Lawrence McNaul explained that they are looking for alternative energy sources and he has done a lot of research. McNaul stated the farmer receives compensation for farmland taken out of service and farmers are farming within 20 feet of the base of the towers. Tom Swierczewski, Director of Development Services for Bluestem Energy Solutions, stated they focus on smaller wind projects. Swierczewski stated a general rule of thumb is to allow a acre per turbine which includes the service road. Swierczewski stated generally it takes approximately 100 acres of gross product size to install one turbine. No one spoke against the proposed ordinance. Furnas stated he is hearing from the Board that they would like to see siting criteria similar to the criteria used for rural residences added to the ordinance. On a motion by Kelly, second by Bonebrake, the public hearing was closed at 10:19 A.M. Roll call vote: Ayes: All. The Board tabled the ordinance to allow Furnas to make some revisions to the proposed ordinance. On a motion by Kelly, second by Sauer, the Board approved the following utility permits subject to CenturyLink meeting the County's requirements: CenturyLink - place fiber cable and pedestals from 215th Street to Hwy 22 on High Prairie Road with a short piece on Jewett Avenue; CenturyLink - place fiber, cable and pedestals on Mulberry Avenue between Bayfield Road and Saulsbury Road with a short run on Saulsbury Road; CenturyLink - place fiber, cable and pedestals on Bayfield Road between Mulberry Avenue and Neally Avenue; and CenturyLink - place fiber on Vail Avenue from New Era Road to Hwy 22. Ayes: Kelly, Sorensen, Sauer and Bonebrake. Nay: Howard. Discussion was held with County Engineer Keith White regarding bids received for L-(M16-5)-73-70, Pavement Markings at various locations throughout the County. White presented bids as follows: Vogel Traffic Services, Inc. - $77,338.68; DPLM, Inc. - $122,248.44; Iowa Plains Signing, Inc. - $126,924.70. On a motion by Howard, second by Bonebrake, the Board accepted a bid for the L-(M16-5)-73-70, Pavement Markings at various locations throughout the County with Vogel Traffic Services in the amount of $77,338.68. Ayes: All. County Engineer Keith White updated the Board on secondary road projects. On a motion by Kelly, second by Sauer, the Board disallowed 3 additional 2015 Business Property Tax Credit Applications on 5 parcels, as recommended by the County Auditor. Ayes: All. On a motion by Sauer, second by Howard, minutes of the June 13, 2016 regular meeting and June 14, 2016 special meeting were approved as written. Ayes: All. Correspondence: Sauer reported a contact regarding road conditions on Vail Avenue. Kelly reported an interview with a government class student. Howard reported a contact regarding Muscatine City Council's efforts to make changes to the appointment process for Boards and Commissions. Committee Reports: Howard attended a Milestones Area Agency on Aging meeting June 14th. Sorensen attended a Wilton Development Corporation meeting June 15th. Sorensen attended a RAGBRAI meeting June 17th. Sauer and Bonebrake attended a MAGIC meeting June 13th. Sauer attended a Riverbend Transit meeting June 15th. Sauer attended a Muscatine County Fair Board meeting June 16th. Howard attended a Fruitland City Council meeting June 14th. Zoning and Planning Administrator Eric Furnas stated he will be addressing Farm Bureau on the June 29th. Furnas also stated will speak to the Board next week regarding activity in the Zoning Office. On a motion by Kelly, second by Howard, the Board approved Resolution #06-20-16-01 Approving Preliminary Official Statement for General Obligation Urban Renewal Refunding Bonds, Series 2016B. Roll call vote: Ayes: All. On a motion by Howard, second by Kelly, the Chairperson was authorized to sign the Muscatine Health Support Foundation Grant Agreement, 16-3, Physio-Control Life Pack 1000 AEDs and Training Unit in the amount of $19,742.23. Ayes: All. On a motion by Sauer, second by Howard, the Board authorized the Chair to execute the FY16/17 Contract for Specialized Transportation Services with River Bend Transit in the amount of $7,000. Ayes: All. On a motion by Sauer, second by Bonebrake, a fireworks permit for Kevin Ellsworth was approved. Ayes: All On a motion by Kelly, second by Howard, the Board approved placement of the Planning and Zoning Administrator in Grade 16, Step 10 effective June 13, 2016. Ayes: All. The Board recessed at 11:12 A.M. and reconvened at 11:24 A.M. On a motion by Kelly, second by Bonebrake, the Board went into closed session at 11:24 A.M. pursuant to Chapter 21.5.1(i), Code of Iowa, for a performance evaluation. Roll call vote: Ayes: All. County Engineer Keith White had requested a closed session. On a motion by Kelly, second by Sauer, the Board returned to open session at 1:04 P.M. Roll call vote: Ayes: All. The meeting was adjourned at 1:04 P.M. ATTEST: Betty L. Wamback First Deputy Auditor Jeff Sorensen, Chairperson Board of Supervisors BISMARCK, North DakotaPatrick Dipple has been named to the spring 2016 president's honor roll at Bismarck State College. Students must maintain at least a 3.50 grade point on a 4.00 scale while enrolled in at least 12 semester hours of classes to qualify for the BSC president's honor roll. DES MOINES, Iowa Iowa state parks are ready to welcome thousands of visitors for the Fourth of July weekend. Statewide, it looks like we are going to have some of the best weather weve seen in years for this mid-summer holiday, says Todd Coffelt, DNR State Parks Bureau chief. Itll be perfect for just about any outdoor activity and a chance to make plenty of memories with family and friends. Although campsites on the reservation system have been filled for three months, last minute campers can take their chances with walk-in campsites. The recently reopened and newly renovated campground at Fairport State Recreation Area on the Mississippi in Muscatine County, along with the recently reopened campground at Lake Keomah State Park in Mahaska County, may have some walk-in sites available. Realistically, most available campsites will be taken by Thursday. Together, 19 of Iowas state parks have a more than 90 family cabins, multifamily cabins, camping cabins and yurts providing alternatives to a traditional tent or RV overnight stay. While it may be difficult to find an available cabin for this weekend, they can be reserved a year in advance for those who want to plan ahead for next year. Just a reminder to those planning to reserve a state park campsite for Labor Day weekend, the reservation window has been open for a couple weeks. Campsite options go quickly for this end-of-summer holiday. You dont have to stay overnight to enjoy our state parks, says Coffelt. We have a wide variety of things to do for our day-use visitors, too. Iowas state parks are on track to host more than 15 million day visits this year alone. Whatever the plan, whether its to stay overnight or drop in to fish, boat, hike or picnic, says Coffelt, we hope people will make Iowa state parks their destinations this Fourth of July weekend. For more information about Iowa State Parks, go to www.iowadnr.gov/parks. Here are a few reminders for those planning a trip to specific state parks this weekend. The beach at Pleasant Creek State Recreation Area in Linn County is closed until the shoreline restoration project is completed and the lake refills. Visitors to Lake Macbride State Park in Johnson County are reminded that the beach will close at 6 PM each day. Due to high use and limited parking at the beach area at Lake Macbride, visitors should expect a beach closure on weekends and holidays. Access to the beach may be closed for up to two hours. During these times, people in vehicles will be stopped at the park entrance and asked to return to the beach at a later time or asked to visit one of the other beaches in Johnson County such as Sandy Beach, Sugar Bottom, West Overlook or Kent Park. Boating is restricted on the lake at Union Grove State Park, in Tama County, during current dredging operations. For safety reasons, boating will be restricted to non-motorized crafts, such as canoes and kayaks. Lake Wapello State Park campground, in Davis County, is closed for renovation. Lake Manawa State Park campground, in Pottawattamie County, remains closed. Closure and alert information is posted on the DNR website at www.iowadnr.gov/parks and the parks reservation site at http://iowastateparks.reserveamerica.com. Current information is also available by calling individual park offices directly. Across the centuries, Great Britain has given the world many things uniquely Britishthe Puritans, Andrew Carnegie, The Beatles and, as we Americans again celebrate this Fourth of July, the United States. On June 23, it gave the world another significant gift: a big step into the dark abyss of a go-it-alone future in todays ever-globalizing world. Sure, most of the United Kingdoms (UK) citizens who voted late last month to the leave the European Union (EU), or Brexit, had what they thought were good reasons to do so: an incoming tide of mostly poor, often-illegal immigrants; a costly, decidedly Europe-centered Common Agricultural Policy, or CAP; an ever-growing bureaucracy in Brussels; and a river of English money flowing out of the UK and only a trickle of EU funds flowing back in. Now, though, with the step taken, the Leaves have discovered an unpleasant truth: their politicians didnt tell them the whole truth about leaving. In fact, much that was said was not true. For example: --The majority of the UKs record setting, net 270,000 immigrants last year were EU citizens exercising their legal right to move freely within the 28-nation bloc; --Love it or hate it, CAP is crucial to UK farmers; from 2010 to 2013, the latest data available, 40 percent of all UK farm income came from Brussels; --EU bureaucracy is relatively tiny, about 33,000 civil servants, compared to the number of UK civil servants, 410,000, according the Wall Street Journal, and --The Leaves claim that the UK sends the EU 350m a week (about $465 million) is a lie, according The Guardian, a leading national newspaper in England. A more accurate figure is 136m (or $180 million), less than 40% of the amount claimed by Leave proponents. While the vote is not legally binding to Parliament (whose members favored staying in the EU by an almost 4-to-1 margin) UK politicians are dancing carefully as they discuss what to do next. Prime Minister David Cameron, who advocated for a Brexit vote during his 2015 reelection bid, was ambushed by its results; hes out come September. His opposite, the Labour Partys Jeremy Corbin, was soundly gobsmacked by colleagues in a no confidence vote June 28 and he looks to be history, too. So far, the only possible winner, according to one leading Leave advocate, might be British farmers who, claimed the politician, ought to receive the lions share of any former EU duties left after the nation strengthens its national health care system. Even if Parliament agreesa very, very long shot at bestno one has any idea if the money will cover the farmers soon-to-go CAP payments or when it might flow. For two years at least, however, CAP will remain the key farm income scheme in the UK. Writing for the blog CAP Reform.eu, Irish ag economist Alan Matthews believes any EU-UK farm program changeover (something, he says, he will deeply regret) will be a long time coming. When it comes, however, the vote means that trade costs will rise because UK exports to the EU will no longer be considered internal trade. Even then, he suggests, UK farmers should strive to remain in EU programs like its European Food Safety Authority, the European Chemicals Agency, and the European Emissions Trading Schemes to maintain as much mobility of goods, services, capital, and people as possible. Ultimately, however, its peoplenot markets, not politics, not regulationswho will be most affected by the dramatic Brexit choice. Nationwide it was a narrow victory for the Leaves; in the countryside, though, farmers voted more than 2 to 1 to go it alone. Possibly, explains economist Matthews, this was because UK farmers are in the older age group Well, the oldsters won, and what they won was something they already hadyesterdayand what they lost could be something far more fleeting, tomorrow. 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 [] Lenovo is bringing the latest Lenovo and Motorola smartphones to South Africa before the end of 2016. This is according to Graham Braum, MD of Lenovo Africa. Braum told MyBroadband that Lenovo has migrated from focussing on only being the leader in PC market, to focussing on the smartphone market after the acquisition of Motorola. Lenovo has a very strong heritage of device innovation, and now is able to offer the various markets from wearables, PCs, to high-end server architecture, said Braum. He said Lenovo recently revealed the Moto Mods ecosystem with their new Moto Z family of smartphones. There are extremely exciting times ahead for Lenovo in the smartphone category and we are looking at bringing this technology to South Africa before the end of 2016. While he did not detail which phones South Africa would get, World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck revealed that the Moto Z, Moto Z Force, and the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro will be launched locally. We are looking at the different price points to find the sweet spot. The Moto is aimed at people who are looking for a premium smartphone but want something new or different, said Lenovos Oliver Ebel. More on Lenovo Lenovo launches Phab 2 Pro the first Google Tango smartphone Motorola unveils latest Android flagship smartphone Moto Z The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa has informed its stakeholders that its staff will embark on industrial action from 4 July 2016 until further notice. ICASA assured all stakeholders that operations will continue, and that they intend to resolve all staff issues on an expedited basis to ensure that business is back to normal as soon as possible. The authority apologized for any potential inconvenience that may be caused by the industrial action. More on ICASA Icasa cant reverse Hlaudi Motsoenengs protest decision: SABC lawyer Fire at ICASA offices these are the sections affected New ICASA councillors appointed An American Canyon woman was arrested on suspicion of having stolen property possibly related to identity thefts, according to American Canyon Police. Police serving a search warrant on Narciso Decastros residence the man was arrested Thursday morning after police said they found a loaded firearm in his vehicle found stolen property, including mail, credit cards and checks on Thursday afternoon, said Chief Tracey Stuart. Yanan Li, 31, who also lives in the home on the 100 block of Wetlands Edge in American Canyon, was home during the search. Methamphetamine was also found in the residence, Stuart said. Li was arrested and booked at the Napa County jail on suspicion of possession of stolen property and possession of a controlled substance. Stuart said that the identity theft piece of the investigation is ongoing. High school student Gabriel Filippini was in technology teacher Kurt OConnors study hall when he approached the teacher with an unusual question: Could they use the classroom 3-D printer to build his little brother a hand? Lucas was born without a left hand and through kindergarten was able to do nearly everything other little boys could, including zipping up his jacket, riding a bike, even gripping monkey bars using his palm. But in elementary school, Lucas encountered a problem he couldnt solve: He could not tie his shoelaces. So Gabriel, a rising junior at Loudoun Countys Park View High School in Sterling, Virginia, and his family had begun exploring getting Lucas a prosthetic hand. They signed up for a donated one from Enabling the Future, an organization that enlists volunteers to use 3-D printers to build hands. Lucas was on the list, but he was getting impatient. Gabriel, 16, wondered whether there was another way. When he spotted the 3-D printer in OConnors classroom, he decided to approach him with the idea of using Enabling the Futures free blueprints to build Lucas a hand. I told him we could give him a shot, OConnor said. His family members said they are perpetually in awe of how Lucas manages without one of his hands. But they were disheartened when he would complain that his classmates would ask him about it, and Lucas would occasionally ask when his palm would grow into a real hand. I wanted to see what he could do with two hands, Gabriel said. OConnor said he was privately skeptical about being able to build a hand for Lucas. OConnor is a hobby carpenter but was a novice on the 3-D printer and had mostly assigned students to build small puzzles, key chains and fins for model rockets, all far less sophisticated than a prosthetic hand. But he welcomed the challenge and was moved by Gabriels dedication to his little brother. Gabriel helped OConnor identify a blueprint and worked to scale the model to his brothers proportions. OConnor spent about 40 hours constructing the hand, meticulously printing out pieces and assembling them; the machine put in about 30 hours of printing as it fabricated the hands parts. OConnor had to scrap two partial models that were too big for Lucas, but he plans to save them so he can build Lucas additional hands as he grows. Maker Smith, a group that provides space and equipment for high-tech tinkerers and inventors, also helped OConnor with the project, donating an expensive, flexible material that forms the joints of the fingers. On Lucass sixth birthday two weeks ago, his mother, Romina Barrera surprised him with a trip to OConnors classroom, where he was fitted with the hand for the first time. He reached for his mothers cellphone, then grasped cups and small boxes before taking a tour of the high school and giving high fives. It was an emotional culmination of a long journey. I dont know if Ive ever been able to see that type of excitement or to experience something like that, OConnor said. It was pretty cool. The hand attaches to Lucas arm with Velcro. By bending his wrist, he can manipulate the fingers to pick things up. On his birthday, he began by picking up small boxes. He is slowly developing the muscles hell need to build dexterity, moving on to glasses of milk and stacks of paper. OConnor said he hopes to have his students work on prosthetic hands for Enabling the Future so that he can teach them engineering while also helping out other children like Lucas. It is precisely the kind of teaching the school district encourages, having students learn through projects while tackling real-world problems directly. Lucas said the real-world problem hed like to conquer is the one task that sets him apart from his classmates at Sterling Elementary: tying his shoelaces. The 2016 election is about class. "For the first time in a generation, the working class is front and center in an election cycle," one MarketWatch writer proclaimed. Commentators fret that Hillary Clinton has "lost" the working class and that Donald Trump has risen to prominence on the backs of "white trash." (Never mind that Trump voters are, on average, wealthier than Clinton's constituency.) Bernie Sanders even claimed he was a child of the working class. This demonstrates just how fuzzy this category is - though Sanders advocates for the working class, he has spent his career in politics, not manual or wage labor. There are lots of other misconceptions about class in America, too. Here, we debunk five. The working class is white and male. Trump is often credited with engaging the working class. He "won with the working class voters the GOP forgot," blared one Breitbart column. Meanwhile, "Hillary is losing white working Joes," proclaimed the Toronto Star. Even Sanders argued that Democrats had allowed Republicans "to capture the votes of the majority of working people in this country." Of course, that's true only if you ignore Asians, Latinos and African Americans. "Factor them into the population of 'working people,' " Slate's Jamelle Bouie writes, "and Democrats win that group, handily." This gets at something important: America has never housed some monolithic entity called the "working class." As early as 1791, Alexander Hamilton argued that those best suited for factory work were women and children, which became the norm in textile mills until child labor laws were passed in the 20th century. Chinese workers built the Transcontinental Railroad; immigrants labored in the Ohio steel industry; whites and blacks toiled side by side in 20th-century Louisiana sawmills. Today's working class is even more diverse. A recent study found that more than half of all Hispanics and African Americans identify as working class. Additionally, about 50 percent of women see themselves as working class. Another report predicted that people of color will make up the majority of the American working class by 2032. Most Americans don't notice class differences. When surveyed, the vast majority of Americans say they are either middle class or working class. Indeed, political scientist Charles Murray found that Americans have traditionally refused to call themselves rich or poor. This, he wrote in his book "Coming Apart," "reflected a national conceit that had prevailed from the beginning of the nation: America didn't have classes, or, to the extent that it did, Americans should act as if we didn't." The desire to erase class divisions goes all the way back to Benjamin Franklin, who believed that the North American continent would flatten classes into a "happy mediocrity." In truth, though, the United States has always been a stratified country. In Franklin's time, people were sorted into three classes: "better," "middling" and "meaner." The people at the bottom were seen as coarse, vulgar, unfinished - composed of baser materials. Thomas Jefferson described the upper echelon of the Virginia planter class as pure-blood aristocrats; those who married beneath their station produced children who were "half-breeds." In the 19th century, Alabama lawyer and author Daniel Hundley defined class in ancestral terms, laying out seven different options. At the top, he placed an inherited aristocracy, descendants of royal Cavalier blood. At the bottom was "white trash," heirs of the wretched poor dumped in the American colonies. Today, record inequality divides the rich and the poor. Our country's wealthy "1 percent" takes home 20 percent of all pretax income, double their 1980 share. For most middle-class and lower-income families, income has either stagnated or fallen. In short, Americans have not escaped class hierarchies, but reinvented them generation by generation. Class mobility is uniquely American. Since America's founding, its politicians have promised a society unbound by class. Jefferson once said that America had "no paupers." Facing down Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow, Vice President Richard Nixon claimed in 1959 that the United States was a "classless society." Even President Barack Obama described the idea that each generation should be wealthier than the one before as a "founding precept" of the American Dream. Indeed, Americans are more optimistic about their chances of getting ahead than people in other places. But in reality, it's harder to rise above your class in the United States than in just about any other developed country; economic mobility is much more possible in places like Japan, Germany and Australia. Socialist author Michael Harrington captured this devastating reality in his 1962 book "The Other America": The poor were poor, he wrote, because "they made the mistake of being born to the wrong parents." With talent and hard work, you can rise above your class. It's a tale as old as Horatio Alger: Anyone can make it in America, no matter their upbringing. As CNN put the notion, "Through hard work and perseverance, even the poorest people can make it to middle class or above." But actually, it's hard to rise above your income level. In cities such as Atlanta, New York and Washington, a child raised in a poor family has a less than 10 percent chance of becoming wealthy in his or her lifetime. It's not much better in other parts of the country. There are lots of reasons for this. Our education-funding system perpetuates inequality. Children in poor families more frequently attend poorer schools and receive fewer enrichment opportunities. As a result, they're less likely to attend college and earn a degree. Data shows that children from families with incomes of at least $120,000 score much better on the SATs than their peers from households earning $20,000 or less. Sociologists have also found that parents' wealth is one of the best predictors of a child's economic success. Rich families are more likely to own property and to pass wealth on to their offspring. In America, land ownership is one of the best ways to preserve wealth - and share it with the next generation. As the economist Joseph Stiglitz said in his book "The Great Divide": "America is no longer the land of opportunity that it (and others) like to think it is. . . . To a large extent, the American Dream is a myth." Class oppression isn't as signicant as racial oppression. This is a common trope. As Sanders said at a debate this spring: "When you're white, you don't know what it's like to be living in a ghetto. You don't know what it's like to be poor." Other commentators have said that black middle-class families are worse off than poor white ones. They're dead wrong. Americans have a long history of making life harder for the poor, no matter their race. Jim Crow's infamous poll tax divested poor whites as well as poor blacks of the right to vote. During the New Deal, Southern politicians (except Huey Long) refused to extend Social Security to farm laborers, discriminating against blacks and whites alike. Even our current tax policies penalize the poor. In 2009, the top 1 percent of earners paid 5.2 percent of their income in state and local taxes, while the poorest 20 percent paid 10.9 percent. Class power takes many forms. Its enduring force, its ability to project hatred toward the lower classes, was best summed up by two presidents 175 years apart. In 1790, then-Vice President John Adams argued that Americans not only scrambled to get ahead; they needed someone to disparage. "There must be one, indeed, who is the last and lowest of the human species," he wrote. Lyndon Johnson came to the same conclusion in explaining the racism of poor whites: "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." It was with great disappointment that I read in the Napa Valley Register that Kaiser has been relieved of the property tax obligation for its $200 million data facility in south Napa ("Kaiser tax exemption to cost Napa County," June 24). Not only that, but the county and the cities therein must pay Kaiser back $10 million in taxes it had already paid. It is just another case of a large corporation, Kaiser, and the associated "1 Percenters" having their way with the individual taxpayer. This goes right along with the Public Utility Commission (PUC) gift to Pacific Gas & Electric. PG&E did not perform preventive maintenance and now has a huge backlog of work. The PUC is allowing PG&E to pass on this cost to individual homeowners in the form of much higher monthly bills. Just what will Kaiser do with this large sum of money that has fallen into their corporate pocketbooks? Being that Kaiser is a not-for-profit company, they might be able to pay even higher salaries to their executives. With education, wealth and position comes responsibility. Add in humility and then you will have leaders who balance the needs of the individual, government and corporations. Today, for the most part, people in positions of authority are lacking in all of these areas. Because of this, I have no respect for corporations and very little respect for government. This is just another example of ongoing incidents of our government and corporations being out of control and not serving our communities or our nation. America is on a downward slope to chaos. People everywhere are tired of bearing the load to make a few rich. This is why the English voted to withdraw from the European Union. I believe that Americans must start a movement to reform our government and establish rules that make the pay of corporation management and workers pay relative to each other so that all of society benefits. Richard B. Cady Napa It is rewarding to know that the lodging industry's revenue for the past 12 months is up 12.7 percent per the June 18, 2016 article "Boom times for Napa County lodging." Affordable housing advocates hope this is a sign that industries that benefit from our economy and employ workers who need affordable housing will step up and contribute money to the city of Napa's Affordable Housing Trust Fund, since a large number of their employees struggle to find housing they can afford in Napa. Many live in substandard housing, are doubled up or commute from other counties. In 2013, the County of Napa, with input from cities, developers, realtors, affordable housing advocates, businesses and environmental advocates produced the Napa County Affordable Housing Multi-Year Action Plan to address the need and funding options for affordable housing: countyofnapa.org/ceo/AHTF. Although several of the recommendations from the report have been implemented by the county and city, such as increased impact fees, one of the major recommendations of the task force has not been addressed and would maximize financing resources to build affordable housing units. This recommendation was that industries that employ workers who need affordable housing come forward with a plan to create a funding mechanism that would guarantee revenues for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. The following organizations are hopeful that the tourism industry will be partners with the community in supporting affordable housing: Napa Valley Community Housing, Puertas Abiertas, Cope Family Center, UpValley Family Centers, Progressive Women of Napa Valley, American Canyon Family Resource Center, Democrats of Napa Valley. Sharon Macklin Napa